Architecture in the Fourth Dimension | Nov. 15 – 17, 2011 | Boston, MA, USA

Life’s Net [or] a Framework for Growth and Change

Eric Bellin The University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA, USA

ABSTRACT playing in the streets of ’s East End slums. Over the decades following its construction, Le Henderson’s images glorified ‘life as lived’, beautiful Corbusier’s Quartier Modernes Frugés (QMF) in Pessac, and rich in its unpolished reality, an element the a suburb of Bordeaux, began transforming. Built in the Smithsons and their like-minded colleagues amongst early 1920’s, the QMF housing development consisted ‘Team X’ found lacking in Athens Charter urbanism’s of fifty units, stripped-down modernist boxes in four reductive characterization of the city in terms of four formal variations, built to house working-class families. functions—dwelling, work, recreation, and The machine aesthetic of Le Corbusier’s design was, circulation. For Team X, the fields of sociology, however, poorly received and residents immediately anthropology, and ecology were of critical began altering their new environment. Gradually, importance to the practice of architecture and buildings were re-surfaced and repainted, walls were urbanism, and these concerns led them to demolished and new ones constructed, ribbon windows idealistically assert that “life falls through the net of were partially in-filled—thus the QMF continued to the four functions” (Smithson 1991: 9). grow and change over the next half century, a process With this anthropocentric viewpoint focused that calls into question the very notion of an upon ‘life’, there was also a recalibration of values architectural project’s “completion”. that called for architectural production to be founded Although the “desecration” of Le Corbusier’s QMF upon “an examination of the whole problem of human was denounced by many architects, others would find it associations and the relationship that building and a source of inspiration. Constructed in 1970, Lima’s community has to them” (Smithson 1993: 241). It experimental Previ Housing sought to harness the sort was clear that societies of the post-war era were vitality and spontaneity embodied in the adaptation of experiencing momentous change, catalyzed by housing at Pessac, qualities also native to the increasing mobility, accelerating technological ubiquitous informal settlements of Latin America. At progress, and the transformation of traditional social Previ, a team of renowned architects—, structures. If the disciplines of architecture and James Stirling, Fumihiko Maki, and others—provided urbanism were to be focused on shaping families with a framework of structures intended to environments in response to new, emergent patterns support growth, increasing density, and change over of dwelling, what were our cities to become? time, a proposal that drew upon the contemporary The 1960’s-70’s bore witness radical urban discourses of Team X and the Metabolists. Decades proposals—designs such as those of Archigram, the later, similar ideas are being tested in the public Metabolists, and Constant projected fantastic visions housing projects of the Chilean group, Elemental, who’s of urbanity, and one theme that emerged amongst principle architect, , has dubbed the others was the possibility of amplifying urban strategy “infrastructure as housing”. environments’ ability to grow and change. While it is While these examples present valuable case self evident that all cities indeed transform over time, studies of architectural models that provide a these proposals envisioned architectures which framework for growth and change, questions remain actively engaged the process. Peter Cook’s Plug-In- as to the relationship of each case to its cultural, City (1964) envisioned a framework with mobile regulatory, and socio-economic context. This paper living pods which could be inserted anywhere within discusses each of the aforementioned projects, the an urban network of technological transformability. conditions of their successes and failures, and the ’s Plan for (1961) imagined an potential for their inspiration of future proposals. immense structure spanning Tokyo Bay which would house ten million inhabitants. His project was Keywords: Housing, Informal, Growth, Change, predicated on the need for evermore speed and Adaptability, Framework communication, and he imagined the city as a “living organism subject to a continuous cycle of growth and PROLOGUE change… a form of organization responsive to At CIAM’s ninth congress, held in Aix-en-Provence in dynamic patterns of urban flow and changing the summer of 1953, Alison and Peter Smithson function” (Ockman 1993: 325). And Constant’s New presented their Golden Lane Housing Project, a Babylon (1959-74) offered a vision not only of an scheme explicitly intended to offer an alternative urban structure but also of an entirely anthropocentric counterpoint to what was perceived new social and ethical order, one which would unfold as the sterile authoritarianism of Athens Charter in a massive structure spanning the Earth’s surface, urbanism. The Smithsons’ presentation included and within which humanity would live in an endless images by Nigel Henderson, their friend and environment of complete and perpetual stimulation associate, who had photographed children happily and change.

41 Architecture in the Fourth Dimension | Nov. 15 – 17, 2011 | Boston, MA, USA

While these ‘megastructural’ proposals have and first sight; but experience has shown that the eye will continue to impact architectural discourse, the very soon grows accustomed to these simple and realization of projects which exemplify their theme of pure forms and, before long, finds them more providing an urban framework for growth and beautiful than the complicated and cumbersome change has not been particularly common. Kisho forms found in sculptures and ornaments” (Boudon Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower (1970) in Tokyo 1972: 17). But in reality this proved little more than is perhaps one of the most obvious and best known wishful thinking. examples of their legacy. The tower consists of two service cores with attached living capsules, designed such that with the removal of just a few bolts any capsule could be disconnected, discarded, and replaced by a new and improved capsule—a process intended to be analogous to the growth, life and reproduction of a biological cell. But despite the architect’s intentions, none of the capsules have ever been replaced (Vanderbilt 2008: 179) and the tower has amounted to little more than a representation of the idea of architecture as a framework for growth and change. We are, however, not without other and perhaps more successful examples of this theme’s realization.

ACT I: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED In1924 the French industrialist Henry Frugés hired Le Corbusier to design a worker’s housing development, to be known as the Quartiers Modernes Frugés (QMF), at Pessac, a suburb of Bordeaux. Frugés had read passages of Corbusier’s writing in L’Esprit Nouveau and was intrigued by the architect’s ideas on embracing new constructive techniques, materials, and modes of standardization in the production of modern housing. The client’s need for affordable workers housing paired with Corbusier’s Figure 1: Dwellings at Pessac before (1926 - above) and stripped-down ‘machine aesthetic’ seemed a perfect after (1982 - below) renovations. match, for both agreed that if they “wished to offer Almost universally, residents considered Corbusier’s design the houses to the public at the lowest possible price, an utter failure that demanded alteration, while on the other [they] could not afford to spend money on any hand those in the architectural community condemned the QMF’s transformation as a process of desecration. unnecessary luxuries” (Boudon 1972: 9). Curiously, the very facets of the project that were criticized, As per the client’s explicit wishes, the QMF “was may in fact have been its greatest strengths. That exterior to be regarded as a laboratory, in which Le Corbusier spaces were incorporated within the bounds of the would be able to put his theories into practice and architecture’s structural system made their enclosure and carry them to their most extreme conclusions” modification an easy proposition. That facades were devoid (Boudon 1972: 2). Floor plans were to be more-or- of ornament made them blank slates for residents’ less standardized, and all fixtures, components, and personalization. That the QMF was altered to such an extent details were to be installed in Taylorist fashion, an was an unintended product of its architecture’s design. In his reduction of dwellings to the absolute minimum, Le exercise in serial production. In the end, Corbusier’s Corbusier offered residents a neutral framework, an design produced a neighborhood of over 130 incomplete structure that served as an armature for the dwellings, distributed amongst six housing growth and accumulation of future development specifically typologies. The concrete, steel, and glass structures tailored to the needs and desires of residents. About the were composed of pure geometric volumes, equipped QMF’s modification Le Corbusier once remarked that “it is with Le Corbusier’s requisite ribbon windows and always life that is right and the architect who is wrong.” But roof terraces, and were devoid of any sort of if life is always right, then why shouldn’t the architect play decoration. While the architect argued for the along? structures to be rendered a pristine white, he eventually consented to the client’s desire to paint Shortly after its occupation by residents, the QMF began to change (Figure 1). Spaces were the facades different colors to appeal to prospective buyers. Yet still, those behind the QMF understood partitioned, patios enclosed, terraces covered with that its modernist aesthetic would offer an unfamiliar pitched roofs, ribbon windows in-filled, and surfaces vision of dwelling to most, and they even went so far were repainted and adorned with ornaments. While some of these alterations were aesthetic, many others as to state in a marketing brochure that at the QMF “the external appearance is not always pleasing at were meant to better adapt dwellings both to the

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environment and residents’ ways of life. Roofs over and all dwellings were produced with a surplus of patios were constructed to accommodate for leaks, buildable surface area. Essentially, each project was terraces were seen as ‘wasted space’ and enclosed to constructed as a structural and service core that expand the interiors, and ribbon windows’ were would initially satisfy the minimum requirements for replaced with smaller, more traditional apertures dwelling, but support unit expansion either into the that provided for both increased privacy and greater area surrounding the dwelling or through the ease of repair. The residents of the QMF were for the construction of additional stories. While this most part poor and secured their dwellings at little- strategy, referred to by some as the provision of to-no cost through a governmental program, and “slack space”, is by no means unique within the larger before long much of the neighborhood fell into a state context of late 20th century housing, the magnitude of disrepair. of its implementation at PREVI does seem somewhat unprecedented. Where projects such as Herman ACT II: STRUCTURED INFORMALITY Hertzberger’s Diagoon Houses have provided for Throughout Latin America, informal housing has modest increases in interior volume, and UN Studio’s been both a ubiquitous and problematic Flexible Housing in Almere allows for the addition of phenomenon. Lack of sufficient housing and prefabricated modules to provide for 25% gains, extensive poverty have led millions to construct their some dwellings at PREVI have expanded their volume own dwellings on whatever land available and with by as much as 200-300%. Further, PREVI offered whatever materials can be found. This has led to the twenty six different housing typologies, designed by emergence of extensive squatter communities that those amongst a group of over fifty architects, all of often lack proper services and leave their populations which provided for extensive expansions that have in both unhealthy and unsafe conditions. And yet, in since been realized. Single storey structures have the informality of these settlements, residents benefit developed into multi-storey apartment buildings. from being able to easily adapt their surroundings to Monotonous rows of houses have transformed into their needs and to be in close proximity to large-scale textured streetscapes. And within this stark social networks within the community’s dense framework of public housing, a vital and layered environment. One might argue that these aspects of neighborhood has grown. informal housing have helped render it a Latin Over the decades of PREVI’s life in time, one of American cultural institution. There is little doubt the more highly sought after dwellings has been that that while such communities are lacking in some designed by James Sterling. His design, square in plan respects, the barrios, campamentos, and favelas of and centered on an exterior courtyard, has proved South America are replete with the gritty vitality of particularly well suited to expansion due to the ease everyday life. of providing sufficient access to light and ventilation In 1965, a joint venture was launched in as building massing is increased. In one case, that of collaboration between the Peruvian government and the Zamora Family, the original one-storey dwelling the to develop a large experimental for a single family was gradually expanded into a housing project in a suburb of Lima, to be known as three-storey structure that incorporated tenant PREVI. The development was to consist of over 1500 spaces—a small shop, clinic, and legal office— dwellings and its objective was threefold. First, the transforming what began simply as a humble, single- housing was to be low-cost for low-income families, family house into both a dwelling and a significant provided as an alternative to informal settlements. source of income. At PREVI such adaptations have Second, to meld local technical and cultural been the norm rather than the exception. knowledge with the imagination of the avant-garde, While PREVI housing has by most accounts been the project would bring together a team of over forty a success, it is not without problems. While the architects, half of them Peruvian and the remainder a quality of the original construction was carried out by collection of foreign designers of international professionals and properly executed to provide for renown—James Stirling, Fumihiko Maki, Kisho resident’s safety, the same cannot necessarily be said Kurokawa, Aldo Van Eyck, Christopher Alexander, for dwellings’ growth over time. Some additions have and the firm Candilis, Josic, and Woods amongst suffered from both poor construction quality and others—some of whom were members of Team X. overcrowding which negatively impacts the And last but most important, PREVI housing was to environment. Originally, the PREVI design team be considered an organizational structure within stipulated for the provision of an on-site center for which informal development could proceed, one that technical assistance where residents could seek would insure its meeting of proper standards of guidance in maintaining their homes and planning health and safety, while harnessing the virtues of expansions, and this might have helped avoid “self-managed transformation’ (Garcia 2008: 32). problematic outcomes, but unfortunately the At PREVI the notion of a house was conceived Government never put the center in place as planned. not as an object, but rather as a process. Designs were In terms of its ‘openness’, PREVI housing makes “focused on practicality, economy, and for an interesting study as rather than providing appropriateness for local resources, labor and solely for the flexible configuration of interior spaces, environmental realities in Lima” (Garcia 2008: 17), or the modest expansion of a small set of houses. Its

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primary strategy was to provide a spatial and Moreover, Elemental saw the Quinta Monroy physical framework for the expansion of dwellings far project as more than simply providing residents with beyond the bounds of the original structure, and this homes, but also as offering a vehicle to help residents was mobilized at the scale of an entire neighborhood. overcome poverty, whereby a home’s expansion Instead of imposing a completed form upon the might be a means of accumulating value and patterns of residents’ lives, PREVI’s designers accessing capital by property improvements or using provided them with an ordered foundation for it to secure a loan to start a businesses. This strategy informal development, granting their lives as lived clearly draws upon the successes of PREVI, but the authority to guide the growth and emergence of Aravena and his team did well to learn from some of their dwellings over time. While Le Corbusier stated its failures as well. after the fact that “life is always right”, the architects of PREVI admitted it from the start.

Figure 2: Plans of a dwelling at PREVI designed by James Stirling. Resident additions are shown in red.

ACT III: HALF A HOUSE Elemental, the office of architect Alejandro Aravena, was formed as a joint venture by the Catholic University of Chile and the oil company COPEC with the mission of creating and undertaking projects of public interest and social impact. In 2003, Chile Barrio, a governmental agency charged with the task of improving living conditions in the nation’s poorest areas, contacted Elemental with the proposal that they undertake a social housing project in Iquique, a Figure 3: Quinta Monroy before and after resident’s city in the north of Chile. additions. The site, known as the Quinta Monroy, was a 54,000sqft parcel in the center of the city, occupied by 150 families in a dense informal settlement where, An important component of Elemental’s process as could be expected, living conditions were poor. was their active community engagement by various The budget for the project was extremely limited— means. Workshops were held with residents early on, only $7500 per dwelling for land, site development and the concepts and strategies were discussed with and construction. Elemental looked to PREVI housing them so that would understand the designers as a precedent. intentions. Children were given drawings of the basic Aravena felt the budget would only allow them dwelling unit, and asked to imagine what their homes to build half a house of proper quality and size per might become over time. In coordination with the family, so Elemental’s strategy was to design the residents, Elemental developed a strict building code housing as an open system providing utilities and a to guide modifications, and the community elected a solid structure for the whole, but enclosure for only team of representatives to enforce the agreed upon half of the volume of each dwelling. Aravena saw this requirements. Throughout this process, residents as the most difficult half of a house for a family to were also advised on suitable modes of unit build, and the rest—partitions, interior finishes, and expansion and maintenance. And finally the Quinta the remaining enclosure would be left for families to Monroy’s ‘openness’ took on an additional dimension, build on and by their own time and means, allowing as in some instances even fragments of the residents both for customization and pragmatic growth. old, disassembled dwellings were re-incorporated Aravena has dubbed this process “infrastructure as into their new homes. housing”. The success of Quinta Monroy is, without doubt, intimately connected to its social and cultural context.

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As residents were accustomed the do-it-yourself work of architecture is less an object and more a mentality of squatters camps, the self organizational process unfolding in time. But what is to be learned strategies employed at Quinta Monroy were both from this? familiar and pragmatic. Further, with the requisite At Pessac, we’ve seen that the impulse of low cost and reduction of dwellings to the absolute residents to modify their surroundings to fit their minimum, the living conditions provided seem low by needs lies latent in many situations, and if the the standards of developed nations, but if understood architecture supports it, modifications are likely be in context, the degree of improvement is striking. made. The crucial component in this situation, While the residents of Quinta Monroy still live in however, is that beyond reconfiguring internal poverty, one must compare the result of Elemental’s layouts, the voids within the bounds of Corbusier’s effort to alternative social housing projects produced initial structure—terraces, carports, and the like— for the same per-unit cost (Figure 4). In this light, it allowed for volumes of interior space to be becomes clear that in providing infrastructure for significantly expanded. This sort of flexibility does housing to grow within and upon rather than a more than simply allow for spatial reorganization and finished product, what has been achieved at the adaptability in cases of reuse. It provides for the Quinta Monroy is something truly extraordinary. possibility of substantially increasing the value of a dwelling by growing its interior volume. Capitalizing on this aspect of the QMF, was one of the greatest successes at PREVI. Here, we’ve seen that the strategy of “self-managed transformation” is particularly well suited to third-world contexts, and that the degree of unit growth possible, if properly planned for, may be far greater than many would propose. Again, this offers the potential for an extraordinary growth in value, a particularly important realization in relation to public housing. Often, public housing projects can be compared to buying a new car—as soon as you drive off the lot, its value quickly depreciates. This has not been the case at either PREVI or the Quinta Monroy, where residents structures have served a vessel for the accumulation of value. But even in these successful cases, if growth proceeds unregulated and unassisted, it is inevitable that problems will arise. And herein lies an important realization of Elemental at the Quinta Monroy: that intense community involvement can greatly contribute to the success of a time and growth based strategy for housing. By involving residents throughout the process and offering them guidance and guidelines in the expansion of their dwellings, they were able engage residents and make them feel truly invested in the project. Houses weren’t simply given to them, but rather residents played an active role in their homes’ production, serving as a source of intense pride and allowing them to truly take ownership of their dwellings. Thus, it seems crucial that in any proposal

Figure 4: Comparison between typical social housing in the that employs such a extensive strategy of self- outskirts of Iquique (above) with the Quinta Monroy project managed construction should surely establish some (below). organizational entity to both engage the community and provide guidance in matters of future growth. EPILOGUE Still, it is important to acknowledge that as can In each of the cases here discussed the ‘final’ be told from these examples, the quality of expansion architectural result emerged from the interplay seems almost inevitably low and, while we’ve seen between life as lived and the neutral structures undeniable improvements upon living conditions in within which it unfolded. This deference to ‘life’ as third world contexts, it is questionable how effective the final authority in architectural production, will these strategies might be in developed nations where seem in opposition the impulse of many architects. In standards of living are higher and regulatory their inability to shape the final result, if there even is environments are more strict. But again, it would such a thing, a level of control is removed from seem that Elemental’s approach offers hope. In architect’s hands, and one must accept that such a developed contexts it would be all the more

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important to provide residents with guidance, Improvement.” ITCC Review, Oct. 1978, v.7, n.4, maintaining a close dialog with qualified pp. 42-52. professionals to guide them in their dwellings Friedman, Avi. The Grow Home. Montreal: McGill- continued construction. And one can envision Queen’s University Press, 2001. scenarios where groups of students or volunteer Gallanti, Fabrizio. “Elemental, Aravena!” Domus, Nov. workers might assist residents in carrying out the 2005, n.886, pp. 34-41. work to expand and change their dwellings, not Garcia-Huidobro, Fernando, Diego Torres Torriti, and unlike existing programs such as Habitat for Nicolás Tugas. Time Builds! Barcelona: Gustavo Humanity or Auburn’s Rural Studio. Gili, 2008. The projects here discussed—PREVI and the Kendall, Stephen and Jonathan Teicher. Residential Quintay Monroy in particular—offer valuable Open Building. New York: E & FN Spon, 2000. examples of the possibilities open housing, beyond Leupen, Bernard, René Heijne, and Jasper van Zwol. the reconfiguration of interiors, to the true growth of Time-Based Architecture. Rotterdam: 010 structures via time-based methods. Not only does this Publishers, 2005. offer an increased opportunity to accumulate value in Matthews, Thomas. “Le Corbusier’s Pessac: An one’s home, but also provides for a home’s ability to Experiment in Urbanism Continues.” expand in step with the needs and means of a family. Architectural Record, Nov. 1987, v.175, n.13, pp. Examples such as these serve to remind us that we 87-89. build above all else for people, and the strategies here Ockman, Joan, ed. Architecture Culture 1943-1968. discussed offer possibilities for conceiving of housing New York: Rizzoli, 1993. as a true framework for growth and change, an “PREVI/Lima: Low Cost Housing Project.” armature that supports the emergence of patterns of Architectural Design, Apr. 1970, v.40, n.4, life as lived, and an architecture that both shapes and pp.187-205. is shaped by our ways of dwelling within the world. Schneider, Tatjana and Jeremy Till. Flexible Housing. Oxford: Elsevier, 2007. REFERENCES Smithson, Alison, ed. Team 10 Meetings. New York: Aravena, Alejandro. “Alejandro Aravena: quartiere di Rizzoli, 1991. abitazione Quinta Monroy.” Casabella, Mar. 2006, Smithson, Alison and Peter. The Charged Void: v.70, n.742, pp. 80-91. Urbanism. New York: Monacelli, 2005. Ballesteros, Mario. “Elemental—Lessons in Smithson, Alison and Peter. “The New Brutalism.” in Pragmatism.” Perspecta 42, 2010, pp. 83-89. Architecture Culture 1943-1968, Joan Ockman, Bona, Enrico D. “Verifying Le Corbusier.” Casabella, ed., New York: Rizzoli, 1993 [1957]. Feb. 1970, v.34, pp. 6-9. Taylor, Brian B. Le Corbusier at Pessac. Paris: Boudon, Philippe. Lived-In Architecture. London: Spadem, 1972. Lund Humphries, 1972. Vanderbilt, Tom. “Time Capsule.” Dwell, May 2008, “Corb at Pessac.” Architectural Review, Sep. 1967, v.8, n.6, p. 178-182. v.142, p. 230. Verona, Irina. “ELEMENTAL Program: Rethinking Ferrand, Maryléne, Jean-Pierre Feugas, Bernard Le Low-Cost Housing in Chile.” Praxis 8, 2006, pp. Roy, and Jean-Luc Veyret. Le Corbusier: The 52-57. Quartiers Modernes Frugés. : Birkhäuser, Wigley, Mark. Constants New Babylon : The Hyper- 1998. Architecture of Desire. Rotterdam: 010 Finlayson, K. A. “Squatting and the Role of Informal Publishers, 1998. Housing in Incremental Growth and Self

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