Another Revolution in Architecture's Theory of the House
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@home another revolution in architecture's theory of the house davilajackllR A dissertation submitted for the degree of Master of Architecture (History and Theory) at the University of New South Wales 1997 IIIBIPlct Emerging communication technologies are transforming domestic life in modern households all over the world-requiring a thorough rethink of architectural theories about the house. lt is becoming necessary to adapt the mass-housing philosophies of modernism to of housing types appropriate to the highly flexible, mobile and independent systems of living which are becoming possible for prosperous people in many countries. Architecture's changing understandings of future life in the home-and its potential responses-can be compared to a significant recent precedent: the gradual ascension of modernist house-design doctrines (the 'hygienic house', the 'machine for living in') during the eighty years after plumbing began to be installed in private dwellings in American and European cities (from around 1840). ii declanllll■ 1 hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowJedgment is made in the text. Signed iii aclmawledlllllldl For support in my studies 1eading up to this text, 1 am gratefu1 to Dr Peter Kohane, Professors Peter Droege, Leon van Schaik, Lawrence Nield, Neville Quarry, Peter Johnson, James Weirick, Jon Lang and Wi11iam J. Mitchen; Ors Ray Younnis, Michael Bounds, Bruce Judd, Paul-A1an Johnson and Phi11ip Goad; and Michael Ostwa1d and Ken Maher. 1 also thank Chris Johnson, my husband and co-student, who orchestrates and enhances adventures that expand my understanding of the world. Davina Jackson Sydney,December1996 iv table or ca■tents abstract ii declaration iii acknowledgments iv table of illustrations vi introduction 8 towards tomorrow's home 15 scanning the future 15 shattering the hearth 19 the city and the home 24 nomads@ home :I) the home as office 32 blurring the threshold 35 horizontal vs vertical 40 the unhomely home 40 time, space and techno-architecture 47 reconstructing the hut 53 architecture and the body 58 a place for the soul 6.5 conclusion 70 references 76 other reading 82 V 111111 of 1u11n11an1 between pages fig 1 Plumbing a Victorian house (Lupton and Miller, 1992, p. 9) 10-11 fig 2 United States bathroom advertised in 1910 (Lupton and Miller, 1992, p. 26) 10-11 fig 3 Cyber-cottage: a cartoon by Judy Horacek (from the artist, 1996) 15-16 fig 4 Cate in cyberspace (image from the Internet) 17-18 fig 5 Cesariano's depiction of the first fire (Rykwert, 1972, p. 104) 21-22 fig 6 Frank Uoyd Wright's hearth at Oak Park, Chicago, in 1898 (Norberg-Schulz, 1985, p. 95) 21-22 fig 7 Italian architect Marco Susani's concept for a telehome (Susani, 1994) 22-23 fig 8 Citizens of a new order illustrated by Edward Sorel (The New Yorker, December 16, 1996, cover 27-28 fig 9 A synthetic sense of being at home. ( The New Yorker, October 16, 1995, p. 28) 28-29 fig10 Front door of William Morris' Red House at Bexleyheath, England (Delorme, 1994, p. 19) 35-36 fig 11 Horst Kiechle's vision of a cancerous virus infecting a house designed by Peter Eisenman (Kiechle, 1996, p. 8) 40-41 fig 12 Cyber cities are inspired by physical environments (from the Internet) 43-44 fig 13 Peter Zellner's Track House for a future athlete (Jones-Evans, 1994, p. 52) 52-53 fig 14 Peter Zellner's Screen house for future artists (Jones-Evans, 1994, p. 50) 52-53 fig 15 Laugier's primitive hut, 1755. (Rykwert, 1972, p. 45) 54-55 fig 16 Michael Ostwald and John Moore's cyburbian version of the primitive hut (Ostwald and Moore, 1997, p. 75) 54-55 fig 17 Chalcolithic burial urns (Rykwert, 1972, p. 173) 54-55 fig 18 Syrian beehive houses: probable origin 6000 BC (Knevitt, 1994, p. 29) 55-56 fig 19 Remains of Scottish drystone houses: probable origin 1500-2000 BC (Knevitt, 1994, p. 33) 55-56 fig20 Artie igloo (Knevitt, 1994, p. 49) 55-56 fig21 Reconstructed hut of mammoth bones at Mezhirich, Ukraine (Knevitt, 1994, p. 21) 55-56 fig22 Filarete's first shelter (Rykwert, 1972, p. 117) 57-58 fig23 Recent advertisement for suburban housing in Sydney, Australia (Sunday Telegraph insert, March 23, 1997) 58-59 vi fig24 Cathedral of Notre Dame at Amiens, 1220-1236 (Flon, 1981, p. 218) 59-60 fig25 Living room of the Jacobs house, 1948, designed by Frank Uoyd Wright (Lind, 1992, p. 105) 60-61 fig26 Exercising the body at the interface of reality and virtuality (from the Internet) 62-63 fig27 A pair of New Orleans townhouses built in 1857, left, and how they appeared in 1993, right (Brand, 1994, cover) 69-70 fig28 Living room of the Larsson family home in Sweden in the late nineteenth century, by Carl Larsson (Norberg-Schulz, 1985, p. 90) 73-74 vii lntPlductton This paper explores some ideas about a realm of architectural theory-the house and home-that needs revision in response to technologies which have caused, and promise, significant changes to the living patterns and attitudes of many people around the world. This introduction provides a background on some developments relevant to the later examination of current ideas about houses of the future. 1t is generally known that over the last one hundred and fifty years, societies have been consuming (at varying rates and time-frames) increasingly sophisticated versions of power-assisted devices which have been, and are, transforming their cultures. These products have been delivered to middle class consumers in four waves since James Watt's 1763 invention of an economically feasible steam engine 1 led to factory-based systems of mass production. First, there was a plumbing modernisation and gas and electrical supply phase which began in the United States around 18402 and has since been facilitating gradual improvements in hygiene and human health around the world. The second wave of change has been a transport and travel revolution which began to have general impact with the provision of railways in the nineteenth century, and has since advanced to provide affordable air travel. The third tsunamf3 has been an electrical and electronic appliances revolution which reached Western consumer markets with radio in the 1920s and then. expanded significantly after World War JI. And the fourth revolution 4, rapidly gaining pace now, is based on computer and 1 Maine and Foreman (eds.), 1957, p. 1016. Their encydopedia credited the first steam engine prototype to Hero of Alexandria in 130BC, the first steam-propelled road vehide to Richard Trevithick in 1796 and the first steam locomotive to George Stephenson in 1814. 2 This phase is explained in Lupton and Miller, 1992, pp. l-39. 3 'Tsunami' is the Japanese word for tidal wave. 4 In general discussion, the telecommunications revolution is often said to have triggered a third (rather than a fourth) wave of international social upheaval. For example, Alvin Toffier "divides civilization into 8 telecommunications technologies which have been generating, since the 1970s, new genres of equipment that are transforming work practices-indeed, many human routines. Because all of these progressions of technology have been altering social attitudes and behaviours, they also have been influencing architectural theories and designs. In this paper, we are concerned with what computer buffs might term 'the look and feel' of houses as 'human/machine interfaces'5-but the focus is the architectural ideas contained in literature rather than built works, because these provide the narrative needed to understand the rationales which have generated sophisticated structures. The main part of this paper compares concepts which have been recently raised (in diverse contexts} by various theorists concerned with the architectura 1 impacts of telecommunications technologies. As part of that examination of contemporary views, this paper also refers to some house and home philosophies of the past-certain of which are now being promoted as worthy of renaissance. Before considering the future of domestic architecture, it may be valuable to briefly discuss the four waves of change mentioned earlier, because each has altered architectural theories about housing. First, the gradual equipping of American and European houses with modem plumbing, gas and electricity had outcomes which inspired some key architectural writers-notably Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier-to gradually clarify the idea of "the healthy house"6 during the three decades after these technologies were initia11y delivered to major US and European cities from around 1840 to 19107• During that three parts-a First Wave agricultural phase, a Second Wave industrial phase and a Third Wave phase now beginning. ft Toftler, 1980, p. 18. 5 'Look and feel' and 'human/machine interfaces' are comparable terms widely used in the computer culture to explain different styles of computers: referring both to the appearance of hardware and the on screen 'personality' of software systems. The original sources of these phrases are not known. 6 Le Corbusier, 1923, p.... 7 Lupton and Miller, 1992, pp. 1-39. 9 period, many houses were equipped with mass-produced pipes, heat-generating boilers and wiring (Fig. 1) that made it possib1e for interiors to be bright, even at night, and more easi1y cleaned. Because of those techno1ogies, kitchens became capab1e of keeping food fresh and pure, and home bathrooms were wide1y estab1ished (often converted from maids' or chi1drens' bedrooms) as faci1ities to deanse bodies of dirt and odours.