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The Bartlett School of Architecture, London, UK Adaptive Architecture Empathy and Ecology Michael Stacey The Bartlett School of Architecture, London, UK 1 William Hazlitt, An Essay on the The imagination, by means of which alone I can anticipate future Principles of Human Action, 1805, facsimile reprint (Gainsville, FL: objects, or be interested in them, must carry me out of myself into the Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, feelings of others by one and the same process by which I am thrown 1969), p. 3. 1 forward as it were into my future being.1 William Hazlitt argues in An Essay on the Principles of Human Action, 1805, that we share our futures, and this is a key feature of humanity, that the imagined future of others is as valid as one’s own imagined future. This is a vital skill of all designers, and particularly architects, transporting architec- tural discourse and practice beyond any notion of egocentric space. Image 1 A section through the Architecture has always been inventive and adaptable. Our current era dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, Duomo di Firenze, drawn by however, is unique in its technological potential combined with societal and Filippo Brunelleschi environmental challenges. The need to generate sustainability, developments WHITE PAPERS 2019 327 328 MICHAEL STACEY in design techniques, and technological advances are leading to the emer- gence of a new Adaptive Architecture. The built environment is becoming truly responsive in terms of physical, real-time changes acting under intelligent controls. Adaptive Architecture can be characterized by four key 2 Michael Stacey, Adaptive attributes: Dynamic, Transformable, Bio-inspired and Intelligence, to which Architecture, DVD, Building Centre, 2 2011 p.3. the key issue of inhabitation must be added. Adaptive Architecture has deep cultural roots. The Schröder House designed by Gerrit Rietveld in close collaboration with Mrs Schröder and completed in 1925, is an early demonstration of a transformable architecture. Paul Overy observes ‘the space-dividing elements – the first floor itself, the roof and four walls – shape the spatial structure of the house. Within the structure 3 3 Paul Overy, et al, The Rietveld there are five areas of transition form outside to inside and vice versa.’ Shröder House, Butterworth Architecture, UK edition, 1988, Above all the Schröder House is considered as a whole – a holistic work of p.121. architecture. Arguably what characterises late twentieth century and early twenty first century technology is the development of systems. However, there needs to be an equal emphasis on how well architecture performs and how performa- tive qualities can be enhanced by informed design. It is revealing to reflect on Rietveld’s definition of architecture: ‘art is the clearest form of reality. The 4 Helma van Rens (ed.), A Reflection painter teaches us to experience reality by defining colours, the sculptor by Art, 1979, cited in Paul Overy, et al, The Rietveld Shröder House, defining materials, and the architect by defining space. Although in the archi- Butterworth Architecture, UK edition tect’s case the material and construction are essential, the space, between 1988, p.120. and around the solid form is of primary importance.’4 In 1981 Mike Davies of Richard Rogers & Partners, whilst researching the façades of Lloyds of London, wrote this lyrical vision of a dynamic façade: Look up at a spectrum washed envelope whose surface is a map of its instantaneous performance, stealing energy from the air with an iridescent shrug, rippling its photogrids as a cloud runs across the sun; a wall which, as the night chill falls, fluffs up its feathers and turning white on the north face 5 Mike Davies, A Wall For All Seasons, and blue on the south, closes its eyes but not without remembering to pump RIBA Journal, Vol. 88 No.2, 1981, pp.55-57. a little glow down to the night porter, clear a view-patch for the lovers on the south side of level 22 and to turn to 12 per cent silver just after dawn.5 Image 2 Axonometric Drawing of It is pertinent to note that during the design and construction of Lloyds The First Floor of Schröder House by Gerrit Rietveld of London, 1976 – 1984, the client used fountain pens and almost no ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTUTRE 329 Image 3 Lloyd’s of London by Richard Rogers & Partners with 30 St Mary’s Axe by Foster and Partners in the background, photographed in 2018 computers at the start of the project and by the moving-in day, comput- ers were ubiquitous amongst the Re-insurers. Mark Goulthorpe’s Aegis HypoSurface can be seen as a physical embodiment of at least part of Mike Davies’ vision. Mark Goulthporpe argues as ‘architecture inevitably shifts from representative to calculated tropes. This offers extraordinary potential 6 Mark Goulthorpe, Die Plastik - dECOi Architects, Adaptive to fundamentally rethink our manner of designing, building and dwelling, and Architecture Conference Keynote, to fold in the temporal logics that computation offers.’6 Building Centre, March 3-5 2011. 330 MICHAEL STACEY Image 4 Digital Intimacy Humankind now has the techniques and technology to create responsive designed as a responsive learning environment for autistic students façades that reduce energy demands, enhance comfort and integrate energy by Stephen Townsend generation into contemporary architecture. Building envelopes no longer Image 5 Aegis HypoSurface simply resist energy flows. They are dynamically variable and can harvest designed by Mark Goulthorpe energy. Tim Macfarlane suggested that ‘with the range of glass types and 7 Tim Macfarlane, Design Space coatings are combined in a double or triple glazed unit, there are 10 to power (Lecture), University of Nottingham, 7 2013, recorded by the author. of 9 options and that no two buildings will carry the same specification.’ 8 Ibid. This is unlike the era of single float glass being in accordance with the 8 9 Archigram was launched as a Building Regulations of England and Wales when I studied architecture. stencil printed magazine in 1961 and lasted until 1976. The work of Archigram9 and Peter Cook started in an era known for the 10 H. Wilson, Labour’s Plan for ‘white heat of technology,’ to quote the future British Prime Minister Harold Science, Leader of the Labour 10 Party at the Annual Conference, Wilson in the autumn of 1963. This visionary work remains a timely prov- Scarborough, 1 October 1963, ocation to contemporary architecture. 11 Although we are still to experience http://nottspolitics.org/wp-content/ uploads/2013/06/Labours-Plan-for- Archigram’s Walking Cities, these pen on ink drawings present a future, the science.pdf (accessed April 2016). future of the 1960s, with such veracity that looking at them in a magazine or 11 Sir Peter Cook opened the first gallery one could not but help dreaming of a more flexible adaptive future for Adaptive Architecture Conference, at the Building Centre, London, architecture and humankind. on 3 March 2011. He addressed Adaptive Architecture with a body of work, which includes the inspirational In 2019 humankind benefits from millennia of cultural continuity yet faces teaching of over three generations of new challenges and opportunities. In organising the ARCADIA 2013 future architects and provocative built and unbuilt projects. Conference, co-chairs Beesley, Khan and Stacey ‘perceive the opening up ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTUTRE 331 of new intellectual territories, be this arising from technology or our native Image 6 Walking City by Archigram inventiveness. The discipline of architecture is ripe, fuelled by research. Image 7 Shearing Layers of Change from How Buildings Learn There are new modes of practice where the realms of research design and by Stewart Brand, 1994 development are seen as one. Where knowledge passes osmotically from practice to academia, from teacher to pupil and from the future architect to 12 the architect-academic. A co-working of the future. 12 Philip Beesley, Ohma Khan and Michael Stacey, Eds., Adaptive Architecture, ARCADIA 2013: Stewart Brands’ seven shearing layers of change, in How Buildings Learn, Adaptive Architecture, Riverside Press, 2013, p.1. published in 1994, are: Site, Structure, Skin, Services, Space, Plan and 13 Stuff. This was based on research by DEGW. This proactive but arguably 13 Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built, backwards looking hierarchy was challenged by many case studies in Viking Penguin, New York, 1994, p. the Adaptive Architecture conferences of 2011 and 2013, in particular 13, citing Frank Duffy, Measuring Building Performance, Facilities, within Dynamic Façades and Transformable Structures. Change can now 8(5), pp. 17–21. be integrated into the architecture and the structure need not be static. Brands’ book now appears strangely dated as he conceives change as something that happens to buildings after they are designed and not part of the design process. It also seems dated in the stated rate of destructive 14 Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn, Viking Penguin, 1994, New York, change, anticipating that a façade in North American construction will be 1994, p. 13, 14 totally replaced ‘every 20 years.’ Research undertaken by Michael Stacey 15 Michael Stacey, Aluminium Recyclability and Recycling: Towards Architects with KieranTimberlake revealed that the typical timescale for the Sustainable Cities, Cwningen Press, replacement and renewal of the curtain walling of a skyscraper in Manhattan is Llundain, 2015, p. 232. 15 over 50 years. Furthermore it is now possible to specify finishes that receive 16 Michael Stacey Ed.,
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