MENTS ENVIRON LIVING SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 02 ISSUE 2006 SPRING SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 02 ISSUE 2006 SPRING DAYLIGHT & ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE BY LIVING ENVIRONMENTS LIVING ENVIRONMENTS VELUX 10 EURO 10 EURO 10 DAYLIGHT & ARCHITECTURE DAYLIGHT MAGAZINE BY VELUX BY MAGAZINE DAYLIGHT & ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE BY VELUX SPRING 2005 ISSUE 02

Publisher Website Michael K. Rasmussen www.velux.com/da

VELUX Editorial team E-mail Christine Bjørnager [email protected] Lone Feifer Axel Friedland Print run Jana Masatova 90,000 copies Lotte Nielsen Torben Thyregod ISSN 1901-0982

Gesellschaft für Knowhow- The views expressed in articles Transfer Editorial team appearing in Daylight & Architecture Thomas Geuder are those of the authors and not Katja Pfeiff er necessarily shared by the publisher. Jakob Schoof © 2006 VELUX Group. Photo editors ® VELUX and VELUX logo are Torben Eskerod registered trademarks used under Adam Mørk licence by VELUX Group.

Art direction & design Stockholm Design Lab ® Kent Nyberg Sharon Hwang www.stockholmdesignlab.se

Cover photography Jellyfi sh Photo by Chris Sattlberger / SPL / Agentur Focus

Research & copy editing Gesellschaft für Knowhow-Transfer LIVING ENVIRONMENTS DISCOURSE In a time when human technology is nearing the microscopic level in scope and the inhuman in precision, building a house has re- mained a comparatively rough and unprecise undertaking. Com- BY pared to other materialisation processes that are completely computer-controlled, architecture is still a process carried out by JAIME people, as it has always been. Our living environments are con- ceived, built, fi nanced and lived in by people. Ambitions, fears, changes, dreams, frustrations, confl icts and harmonies are deci- SALAZAR sive elements of the process of building, and part of the life of buildings themselves. Architecture has always to address the most contradictory of extremes. It has to shuttle between invention and tradition, be- tween the need for the new and the fear of the new. It has to cater for the unforeseeable: for growth and shrinkage of built-up envi- ronments as well as for changes in use and in the dweller’s mind- set. If there is something that could be described as architecture of the information era, it is a construction that is not considered as fi nished when the building process ends; it is architecture where information about the future life and use of buildings is fed back into the design process. One of the obvious eff orts of our societies is the assurance of our future in the present. Foreseeing our personal and social fu- ture is one of the most important economical – and ecological – factors, and our living environments are a main feature of our intimate feeling of security. Architecture seems more than ever to be a prospective task, rather than a technical one. At the peak of technological progress, mankind is close to developing an ar- tifi cial nature that echoes the nature from which it evolved; ma- chines are very close to becoming ‘animated’ and our natural bodies are increasingly subject to a process of artifi cialisation,of becoming humanoid. Our computer networks are aff ected by vi- ruses similar in eff ect to those that invade us. At the same time, we have recognised, after many decades of destruction, the fra- gility and complexity of our own origins. In a time where innovation is essential for any practice to sur- vive the pressure of globalisation, architecture cannot be regarded as a mere technical service. Let us understand the act of building as an act of continuous improvement , as a manifest ation of human inventiveness and ingenuity: the translation of the incredible com- plexity of our world into building practice. As it has always been.

Opposite photo by Michael Wolf, www.photomichaelwolf.com, Courtesy of Hasted Hunt Gallery, New York, www.hastedhunt.com Read more about Living Environments, starting on page 14.

A 1 VELUX EDITORIAL In this issue of Daylight & Architecture we invite evaluate and strengthen the architectural rele- LIVING ENVIRONMENTS you on a journey through ‘the nature of dwellings’ vance of our products. We see our daily business HOMO HABITANS and present diff erent angles on the theme of our as being closely linked to building design, with the WELCOME TO living environments – housing. overall objective of focusing on daylight and fresh DAYLIGHT & ARCHITECTURE As individuals, we all have relations to hous- air as means of bringing better living conditions to MAGAZINE BY VELUX ing, so this theme is relevant to us in a very basic people’s everyday lives. sense. Beyond that, knowledge and understand- This objective is the platform from which we ing of the development of how people have lived present Daylight & Architecture. In this magazine throughout time and in diff erent parts of the world, – and the issues to come – we seek to bring top- The person and his habitat, the earth: this symbio- and therefore building traditions and trends, are ics and present views and angles about the past, sis has not always been characterised by harmony essential to VELUX. present and future of architecture with daylight, everywhere. Jaime Salazar and Jakob Schoof de- As an international manufacturer of roof win- fresh air and thereby provide a platform for dia- scribe how people made the world habitable and dows and skylight systems, it is important for us logue between professionals. It is our intention to what human living could look like in future: urban constantly to seek out and strengthen the rele- raise questions and by that inspire and facilitate but close to nature, manufactured industrially but vance of our products to architecture. VELUX the discourse on architecture through promoting 14 simultaneously individual, and capable of adapting wants to play a role by contributing and stimulat- the use of daylight and better living environments itself to changing uses and family sizes. ing aspects that lead to better living environments rather than to pose answers and statements that and we want to strengthen and encourage the role are predictable and take us nowhere. REFLECTIONS of daylight in design prioritising. This focus is our Enjoy your read and please visit www.VELUX. platform for building and nurturing relations with com/da for further inspiration and information. NEGOTIATE MY BOUNDARY! the building sector – not least with architects. We want to engage in a dedicated dialogue with professionals about daylight, and thereby

In housing construction, architects and clients usu- ally have to depend on experience and rules of thumb when they want to get an idea of the needs of the future occupants. But there is another way of going about this. In negotiate my boundary!, SPRING 2006 CONTENTS the fi ve young architects calling themselves ISSUE 02 RAMTV design a scenario in which the buyers themselves determine the use, the form and the 40 size of their homes.

1 Discourse by Jaime Salazar NOW VELUX INSIGHT 2 VELUX Editorial SUBURBAN JIGSAW PUZZLE 3 Contents 4 Now 8 Mankind and architecture Architecture by the People 14 Living Environments Homo Habitans 40 Refl ections Negotiate my boundary! Start of the season in the Ice Hotel in Québec, A health social mix is the beginning and the end of 46 European Light Canada. Tiles and carpets that react to daylight. many current housing projects in the Netherlands. Tuscany, Italy A ‘meaningful’ façade by Diener & Diener in In the SWANLA estate in Zevenhuizen, the archi- 50 Daylighting details Malmö. And: The Traumbaum (= Dream Tree), a tects Drost + van Veen have not only created a liv- Open Source Building kindergarten in Berlin, has been converted by the ing space for almost all social and age groups but 54 VELUX Insight 4 student group calling themselves Baupiloten (= 54 have also given the occupants the opportunity to Suburban jigsaw puzzle Building Pilots). extend their homes themselves at a later date. 64 VELUX Panorama Colour makes the diff erence – MANKIND VELUX PANORAMA Hageneiland residential area in Ypenburg Weekend house in the city – AND ARCHITECTURE XXS House in Ljubljana ARCHITECTURE BY A contemporary classic – THE PEOPLE Villa Karlsson in Västerås 70 VELUX Dialogue The International Symposium on Daylight Quality The Austrian Bernard Rudofsky (1905-1988) is Clothes make houses – this at least applies to Hage- 76 Books regarded as the re-discoverer of vernacular ar- neiland, the ‘hedge island’ in Ypenburg in the Neth- Reviews chitecture. His essay Architektur ohne Architek- erlands, with its 119 aparatments from MVRDV. In Recommendations ten – eine kurze Einführung in die nicht-rassereine Ljubljana, Dekleva & Gregoric have built a holiday 80 Preview Architektur (Architecture without Architects – A home for an older couple from the country. And on Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture) the banks of Lake Mälar, Tham & Videgard Håns- 8 has not lost any of its relevance in the 40 years son have re-interpreted the typical wooden red 64 since it was fi rst published. Swedish house in a surprising manner.

2 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 3 The things that make architecture tick: “The cast glass, which makes up the outer NOW events, competitions and selected new devel- layer of the façade, sporadically refl ects the opments from the world of daylighting. light and periodically shrouds the gleaming metal writing behind it. In this way, the light is the only material around the building which is forever changing.” Roger Diener

‘DREAM TREE’ IN HIDDEN MESSAGES PLAY SCHOOL

A changing group of architecture stu- Malmö also learns how many of the dents at the Technical University in world’s towns currently appreciate Berlin call themselves ‘the construc- being near to water: harbours be- tion pilots’. With limited resources come populated areas, or – in the case and under the guidance of two inde- of ‘Malmö Lärarhögskolan’– educa- pendent architects, Susanne Hof- tional establishments for prospec- mann and Martin Janekovic, they tive teachers. The new construction, brought about the transformation named ‘Orkanen’ (The Hurricane) of the ‘Dream Tree’ day-care center was designed by the architects Die- in Berlin-Kreuzberg. As with all their ner and Diener from Basel. The con- projects, the construction pilots struction, which is not far from the aimed to combine architecture with central railway station and was inau- social needs: The conversion project gurated in the autumn, fools the vis- is set to improve quality of life in a so- ual habits of the observer. Depending cially problematic part of the city. on the angle and position of the sun, The central element of the trans- the fi ve-story glass façade either re- formation is the ‘Dream Tree’, which fl ects the blue of the sky or lets the is a construction made from plas- brown clay, which is softened with terboard and highly refl ective stain- the green hue of the insulating layers less steel in the central atrium. The behind it, shine through. 12 millime- dream tree captures the imagination tre thick cast glass with a prismatic of the children, promotes communi- surface structure (type ‘Raywall’) cation and off ers various chill-out was used. It is fastened with point possibilities: It can twinkle, light up holders to the façade of the brick- and produce sound. ‘Dream fl owers’ work. The viewer does not even have grow from the ‘trunk’ alongside a to change location to experience the type of sitting basket and radiant optical eff ect: due to the lightly zig- ‘silver leaves’, which branch out from zagged shape of the façade, the the ground fl oor to the upper fl oor. A refl ective and translucent glass child can sit here and swing to and surfaces can always be seen in one fro surrounded by the backlit green, glance. Letters made of gleaming blue, yellow or orange dream fl owers. metal are visible from behind the Some of the leaves produce comfort- structural glass. These letters al- ing ‘snores’. If the children move the ways make up the same word, in dif- rocking branch, it ‘laughs’. ferent languages: Freedom – Freiheit The leaves cast refl ections onto – Vrijhed – Frihed – Inkululeko. An illu- the internal passageways in various sion of the architects’ design? They ways. The concept is designed for write about their new construction: three diff erent scenarios: In winter, “It is a building without traditional the leaves catch the light in the en- hierarchies [...] The individual areas trance area and cause the leaves on are put together succinctly, only the the ceiling of the passageways at main library covers all tracts and basement level to glisten. In spring takes hold of the whole building.” and summer, the light moves along This is also noticeable on the façade the passageways through the atrium with its alternating window heights, and bathes it in sparkling light. Addi- which are up to 5 metres high. At fi rst tionally, there are six refl ective ‘day- glance, this is exclusively dictated time leaves’ around the glass roof, by functional necessity. However, a which cast sunlight on the atrium closer look changes the overall pic- fl oor throughout the year. ture seen through it. PHOTO BY JAN BITTER RICHTERS CHRISTIAN BY PHOTO

4 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 5 PHOTO BY SENSITILE BY PHOTO QUÉBEC-CANADA HOTEL DACHEZ/ICE JXAVIER BY PHOTO LÖNNERSTAM ANNA BY PHOTO PHOTO BY SADAR VUGA ARHITEKTI

LIGHT REFLEXES AND FLEETING SHADOWS ON GREEN POLICY SHADOW GAMES WINTER BEAUTY THE WALL

It was in his graduate architecture transport light from one surface The doors of the ‘Ice Hotel Québec- structed in late autumn of the same Light can change the appearance circulate at the beginning of the A post-war construction built in an in the same way, but the spaces be- thesis on bamboo that Abhinand point to another by total internal re- Canada’ will remain open until 2 April. year. So you can’t get bored with it, and atmosphere in a space. However 1990s. They were fi rst used in the unusual light: the offi ce building in tween the panes are fi lled with green Lath was inspired to develop a prod- fl ection, the same principle by which In what is now its sixth season, the the interior decoration is simply modi- it is seldom that a surface reacts to manufacturing of glasses and later on Gregorciceva 25, Ljubljana, which plastic honeycombs. The translucent uct which was later to become known fi bre optics work. SensiTiles either temporary building welcomes its fi ed from year to year. The ice hotel daylight to such an ex tent a s in ‘ Wall- T-shirts, in nail varnish and in various was designed in 1945 and built in the honeycombs, which were specifi cally as SensiTile: Lath came upon the respond to the absence of light (i.e. guests with 32 rooms and themed doesn’t only contain beds and settees, paper by Shadows’ by Swedish de- plastic products. In the meantime, the 1950s for the Yugoslav Ministry of manufactured for this project, give work of a Japanese poet in which she shadows) or an active and moving suites and with indoor tempera- but also a chandelier made from ice signers Front Design: the wallpaper advertising industry discovered photo- Foreign Aff airs, is currently being con- the surfaces a graphical structure describes a walk through a bamboo light source. In the fi rst case, Sen- tures of scarcely above freezing. It is with integrated optical fi bres. is plain white under artifi cial light. sensitive pigments. They only react verted by the architects Jurij Sadar which changes according to the point forest that sets the delicate bamboo siTiles cause any shadows that fall based on the ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi The Ice Hotel Québec-Canada But a s soon a s it is illuminated by the to UV-radiation and therefore only and Bostjan Vuga. The Slovenian gov- of view of the observer. When lit from stalks in motion, creating an envi- on their surfaces to shift. In the case in the North of Sweden. The founder is situated in the borough of Sainte- sun, violet silhouettes from lamps change their molecular structure (and ernment will be its new occupants. behind, they dissolve in a fl urry of ronment that gently and quietly re- of the latter, they redirect and scat- of the Ice Hotel Québec-Canada and Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, 30 and other household appliances ap- colour) with daylight and not as a re- Where there were formerly two lines and surfaces. This confuses the sponds to her own movement. ter any oncoming light. In an envi- pioneer of Canadian eco-tourism, minutes west of Québec city centre. pear on it. ‘Wallpaper by Shadows’ sult of artifi cial light. Unlike common offi ces on each of the four fl oors, the perception of measurements and dis- SensiTiles create a similarly dy- ronment with ambient light such as Jacques Desbois, studied the archi- You can get there by car via High- is part of Front Design’s ‘Design by...’ pigments, which refl ect part of the conversion work will produce open- tances and only provides a dim out- namic eff ect in tiles that can be ap- daylight, shadow-producing move- tecture of the Swedish Ice Hotel in way 40 or by shuttle bus from the series, in which they portray the ef- light, the photochrome colouring ma- plan offi ces. As is customary in this line of the employees. plied to a variety of surfaces, from ments around a SensiTile will pro- detail before fi nally implementing city centre. fect that human actions and natural terials partly absorb the light and type of offi ce, the new central zone exterior pavements, façades, foun- duce a rippling eff ect. In darker his idea in winter 2000. The surface infl uences have on the shape of ob- allow the rest to remain. No eff ect can will serve as a meeting point for the tains and swimming pools to inte- en-vironments, beams of light are area of the ice hotel has grown from jects. Among other things the series be seen against a black background. employees and a break-out area. But rior countertops, tabletops and walls. redirected to emerge from another 1,000 m2 in the fi rst winter to 3,000 includes a stool which was cast in The background should ideally be it is also a signifi cant part of the ‘con- The tiles are reactive to changes in part of the surface. m2. The structure consists of 12,000 the mould of an explosion crater, a light, white if possible, in order that struction programme’ for the new light intensity and colour. They dyna- If coloured light falls on a SensiTile, tons of snow and 400 tons of ice and vase which seems to be constantly it can refl ect and ‘colour’ the remain- internal architecture. Glass walls sep- mically ripple, shift and shimmer in a echoes of that colour are dispersed features rooms up to 5.4 metres high. about to fall to the fl oor, and a stand- ing light. However, an ageing eff ect arate the offi ces and meeting rooms way that is (according to the manu- throughout its surface. Multiple col- Since 2000, approx. 220,000 peo- ard lamp which straightens up if peo- can be observed with most photo- from the corridors and at the same facturer, SensiTile Systems) ‘dra- ours become blended, rearranged and ple have visited the ice hotel, about ple enter the room and lays down chrome pigments: The longer they time allow daylight to penetrate the matic, sublime and unlike any other scrambled. Because SensiTile proper- 11,000 of whom spent a night in one again when they leave. spend under UV-radiation, the less offi ce fl oors. The walls between the tile on the market’. ties are inherent, no power is required; of its rooms, which cost upwards of The photochrome pigments which likely they are to return to their origi- offi ces and the halls are made of matt Comprised of a light conducting the light eff ects are created passively 199 Canadian dollars per night. Every are used in ‘Wallpaper by Shadows’ nal transparent condition. translucent glass with green, printed matrix and a substrate within which from external light sources and they year in April, the hotel ceases trading have been around since the 1960s. stripes as blinds. In the central zone, that matrix is embedded, SensiTiles last as long as the material does. and begins to melt, only to be recon- However, they only really started to the dividing walls are constructed

6 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 7 MANKIND Mankind as the focal point of architecture: Text by Bernard Rudofsky. AND ARCHITECTURE interior views of a corresponding relationship. Photos by Yoshio Komatsu.

Architecture without Architects – A Short Introduc- tion to Non-Pedigreed Architecture was the name given by the Museum of Modern Art New York to the exhibition on the research work of the architect Bernard Rudofsky, in 1964. In the following piece, taken from the exhibition catalogue, Rudofsky introduces the reader to a fascinating topic which is as relevant today as it was in the past.

Architectural history, as written and taught in the West- third millennium b.c. only. Since the question of the begin- ern world, has never been concerned with more than a few nings of architecture is not only legitimate but bears heavily select cultures. In terms of space it comprises but a small part on the theme of the exhibition, it is only proper to allude, even of the globe – Europe, stretches of Egypt and Anatolia – or if cursorily, to possible sources. little more than was known in the second century a.d. More- A nation that swears by the Bible also fi nds it an incompa- over, the evolution of architecture is usually dealt with only rable book of reference. Alas, the explicitness of the scriptures in its late phases. Skipping the fi rst fi fty centuries, chroniclers in matters of architecture is never as disconcerting as when we present us with a full-dress pageant of ‘formal’ architecture, learn (Genesis iv: ) that Adam’s son Cain built a city and as arbitrary a way of introducing the art of building as, say, named it after his son Enoch. A one-family town, delight- dating the birth of music with the advent of the symphony ful as it sounds, is a most extravagant venture and surely was orchestra. Although the dismissal of the early stages can be never repeated in the course of history. If it proves anything, expla ined, t houg h not excu sed, by t he sc a rcit y of a rchitect ura l it illustrates the breathtaking progress made within a single monuments, the discriminative approach of the historian is generation, from the blessed hummingbird existence in well- mostly due to his parochialism. Be sides, architectural history supplied Paradise to the exasperatingly complicated organism as we know it is equally biased on the social plane. It amounts that is a town. Sceptics who dismiss Enoch as a chimera will to little more than a who’s who of architects who commemo- fi nd more signifi cance in the Ark, particularly in view of the rated power and wealth; an anthology of buildings of, by, and fact that it was commissioned by the Lord Himself and built for the privileged – the houses of true and false gods, of mer- to His specifi cations. Th e question whether the Ark ought to chant princes and princes of the blood – with never a word be called a building or a nautical craft is redundant. Th e Ark about the houses of lesser people. Such preoccupation with had no keel, the keel being an intellectual invention of later noble architecture and architectural nobility to the exclusion days, and we may safely assume that ships were not known as of all other kinds may have been understandable as late as a yet, since their existence would have defeated the very purpose generation ago, when the relics and ruins of ancient buildings of the Flood. When Noah landed on Mount Ararat he was served the architect as his sole models of excellence (to which  years old, a man past his prime. He preferred to devote he helped himself as a matter of course and convenience). But the rest of his life to viniculture and left the task of building today, when the copying of historical forms is on the wane, to his sons. Th e Bible mentions (Genesis ix: ) Shem’s huts when banking houses or railroad stations do not necessarily – probably put together with some of the Ark’s lumber – but have to resemble prayers in stone to inspire confi dence, such the decline in architecture was sealed. Above Cameroon: The picture self-imposed limitation appears absurd. Th e impious who prefer to turn to science in their quest ARCHITECTURE BY shows a ‘Saré’ house, as the Architecture Without Architects attempts to break down for the origins of archi tecture will have to swallow a few indi- occupants call it, in the city of Ngaoundéré in the north of the our narrow concepts of the art of building by introducing the gestible facts. For it seems that long before the fi rst enterpris- country. It is covered with straw unfamiliar world of non-pedigreed architecture. It is so little ing man bent some twigs into a leaky roof, many animals THE PEOPLE and belongs to the tribal chief. known that we don’t even have a name for it. For want of a were already accomplished builders. It is unlikely that bea- generic label, we shall call it vernacular, anonymous, spontane- vers got the idea of building dams by watching human dam- ous, indigenous, rural, as the case may be. Unfortunately, our builders at work. It probably was the other way. Most likely, view of the total picture of anonymous architecture is distorted man got his fi rst incentive to put up a shelter from his cous- by a shortage of documents, visual and otherwise. Whereas ins, the anthropomorphous apes. Darwin observed that the we are reasonably well informed about the artistic objectives orang in the islands of the Far East, and the chimpanzees in and technical pro fi ciency of painters who lived , years Africa, build platforms on which they sleep, “and, as both spe- before our time, archaeologists consider themselves lucky when cies follow the same habit, it might be argued that this was they stumble over the vestiges of a town that goes back to the due to instinct, but we cannot feel sure that it is not the result

8 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 9 Left Nepal: the main material Opposite Mongolia: in Mongolia, used for the houses in the Nepa- the yurts are called ‘gers’. Felt lese mountain village Dham- covers on an artistically pus, is slate. It is used in partially decorated wood construction white-washed walls and for protect the interior against the the roofs. Windows, supports weather. The ring-shaped and roof brackets are made of opening of the single-family tent carved wood. remains open for ventilation and acts as a natural source of light.

of both animals having similar wants, and possessing simi- It is frankly polemic, comparing as it does, if only by impli- defi es all treatment. Ignorant as we are of the duties and priv- lar powers of reasoning.” Untamed apes do not share man’s cation, the serenity of the architecture in so-called underde- ileges of people who live in older civilizations, acquiesce as urge to seek shelter in a natural cave, or under an overhang- veloped countries with the architectural blight in industrial we do in accepting chaos and ugliness as our foreordained ing rock, but prefer an airy scaff olding of their own making. countries. In orthodox architectural history, the emphasis is fate, we neutralize any and all misgivings about the inroads At another point in Th e Descent of Man, Darwin writes that on the work of the individual architect; here the accent is of architecture on our lives with lame protests directed at “the orang is known to cover itself at night with the leaves on com munal enterprise. Pietro Belluschi defi ned commu- nobody in particular. of the Pandanus”; and Brehm noted that one of his baboons nal architecture as ‘a communal art, not produced by a few Part of our troubles results from the tendency to ascribe “used to protect itself from the heat of the sun by throwing a intellectuals or specialists but by the spontaneous and con- to architects – or, for that matter, to all specialists – excep- straw-mat over his head. In these habits,” he conjectured, “we tinuing activity of a whole people with a common heritage, tional insight into problems of living when, in truth, most of probably see the fi rst steps towards some of the simpler arts, acting under a community of experience.’ It may be argued them are concerned with problems of business and prestige. such as rude architecture and dress, as they arise among the that this art has no place in a raw civilization, but even so, the Besides, the art of living is neither taught nor encouraged in early progenitors of man.” Suburban man falling asleep near lesson to be derived from this architecture need not be com- this country. We look at it as a form of debauch, little aware his lawn mower, pulling a section of his Sunday paper over pletely lost to us. that its tenets are frugality, cleanliness, and a general respect his head, thus re-enacts the birth of architecture. Th ere is much to learn from architecture before it became for creation, not to mention Creation. Yet even before men and beasts walked the earth, there an expert’s art. Th e untutored builders in space and time – To no small degree, this situation came about through existed some kind of architecture, coarsely modeled by the pri- the protagonists of this show – demonstrate an admirable the diligence of the historian. By invariably emphasizing the me va l force s of creat ion a nd occ a siona l ly polished by w ind a nd talent for fi tting their buildings into the natural surround- parts played by architects and their patrons he has obscured water into elegant structures. Natural caves, especially, hold ings. Instead of trying to ‘conquer’ nature, as we do, they wel- the talents and achievements of the anonymous builders, men a great fascination for us. Caves, having been among man’s come the vagaries of climate and the challenge of topography. whose concepts sometimes verge on the utopian, whose esthet- earliest shelters, may turn out to be his last ones. At any rate, Whereas we fi nd fl at, featureless country most to our liking ics approach the sublime. Th e beauty of this architecture has they were chosen with great foresight as depositories for our (any fl aws in the terrain are easily erased by the application of long been dismissed as accidental, but today we should be able most precious artefacts – government and business fi les. It is of a bulldozer), more sophisticated people are attracted by rug- to recognize it as the result of rare good sense in the handling course not within the scope of this exhibition to furnish a cap- ged country. In fact, they do not hesitate to seek out the most of practical problems. Th e shapes of the houses, sometimes sule history of non-pedigreed architecture, nor even a sketchy complicated confi gurations in the landscape. Th e most san- transmitted through a hundred generations, seem eternally typology. It merely should help us to free ourselves from our guine of them have been known to choose veritable eyries for valid, like those of their tools. narrow world of offi cial and commercial architecture. their building sites – Machu Picchu, Monte Alban, the craggy Above all, it is the humaneness of this architecture that A lt houg h exot ic a r t s have long been appreciated in t he We st- bastions of the monks’ republic on Mount Athos, to mention ought to bring forth some response in us. For instance, it sim- ern world – not, however, without being cautiously dubbed only some familiar ones. ply never occurs to us to make streets into oases rather than ‘primitive’ – exotic architecture (the word exotic is here used in Th e tendency to build on sites of diffi cult access can be deserts. In countries where their function has not yet deteri- its original meaning, alien) has evoked no response and is still t raced no doubt to a de sire for secu rit y but perhaps e ven more so orated into highways and parking lots, a number of arrange- relegated to the pages of geographic and anthropological mag- to the need of defi ning a community’s borders. In the old world, ments make streets fi t for humans: pergole and awnings (that azines. Indeed, apart from a few regional studies and scattered many towns are still solidly enclosed by moats, lagoons, gla- is, awnings spread across a street), tent-like structures, or per- notes, no literature exists on the subject. Lately though, ever cis, or walls that have long lost their defensive value. A lthough manent roofs. All are characteristic of the Orient, or coun- since the art of traveling has suff ered conversion into an indus- the walls present no hurdles to invaders, they help to thwart tries with an oriental heritage, like Spain. Th e most refi ned try, the charms of ‘picture-postcard towns’ and the ‘popular’ undesirable expansion. Th e very word urbanity is linked to street coverings, a tangible expression of civic solidarity – or, architecture of ‘fairy-tale countries’ have proved of considera- them, the Latin urbs meaning walled town. Hence, a town should one say, of philanthropy – are arcades. Unknown and ble attraction. Still, our attitude is plainly condescending. that aspires to being a work of art must be as fi nite as a paint- unappreciated in our latitudes, the function of this singularly No doubt the picturesque element abounds in our photo- ing, a book, or a piece of music. Innocent as we are of this sort ingratiating feature goes far beyond providing shelter against graphs, yet, again, the exhibition is not an exercise in quaint- of planned parenthood in the fi eld of urbanistics, we exhaust the elements or protecting pedestrians from traffi c hazards. ness nor a travel guide, except in the sense that it marks a point ourselves in architectural proliferation. Our towns, with their Apart from lending unity to the streetscape, they often take of departure for the exploration of our architectural preju dices. air of futility, grow unchecked – an architectural eczema that the place of the ancient forums. Th roughout Europe, North

10 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 11 From Architecture Without Architects by Bernard Rudofsky, copyright: Left Indonesia: The houses of Opposite Turkey: pointed rocks © 1964 by Bernard Rudofsky. Used by permission of Doubleday, the Baju on the coast of the characterise Cappadocia’s a division of Random Hous, Inc. island Sulawesi are made of landscape. The rock is of mangroves. The roofs are volcanic origin and is therefore The Austrian architect Bernard Rudofsky (Vienna 1905 – New York 1998) covered with palm leaves. The soft and easy to shape. There worked as a consultant to the Museum of Modern Art New York in the people live from the cultivation are fewer and fewer people 1960s. During his many research trips and in his studies all round the globe, and sale of sea algae. living in the houses cut out of he documented informal houses, residential buildings and settlements the rocks. In the fourth and fi fth which cannot be classifi ed in the classical canon of architecture. Rudofsky century, the main settlers here was considered a sarcastic critic of western architecture. As a visionary were Christian monks. and pioneer, he recognised the artistic and cultural wealth of traditional peoples who were disrespectfully referred to as ‘primitive’.

Africa and Asia, arcades are a common sight because they also Th ere is a good deal of irony in the fact that to stave off have been incorporated into ‘formal’ architecture. Bologna’s physical and mental deterioration the urban dweller periodi- streets, to cite but one example, are accompanied by nearly cally escapes his splendidly appointed lair to seek bliss in what twenty miles of portici. he thinks are primitive surroundings: a cabin, a tent, or, if he is Another alien type of the communal vernacular is the store- less hidebound, a fi shing village or hill town abroad. Despite house for food. In societies where food is looked upon as a divine his mania for mechanical comfort, his chances for fi nding gift rather than an industrial product, the architecture of gra- relaxation hinge on its very absence. By dint of logic, life in naries is solemn. So much so that to the uninitiated it suggests old-world communities is singularly privileged. Instead of sev- ecclesiastical buildings. Although small in scale, storehouses eral hours of daily travel, only a fl ight of steps may separate achieve monumentality, whether in the Iberian peninsula, in a man’s workshop or study from his living quarters. Since he the Sudan, or in Japan. In view of their great stylistic purity himself helped to shape and preserve his environment, he never and precious content, we have termed them quasi-sacral. seems to tire of it. Besides, he is largely indiff erent to ‘improve- Apart from the High Vernacular – the sophisticated minor ments’. Just as a child’s toys are no substitute for human aff ec- architecture of Central Europe, the Mediterranean, South tion, to him no technical contrivance makes amends for the and East Asia – and primitive architecture proper, the exhi- lack of viability. bition also includes such categories as architecture by sub- Not only is the need for confi ning the growth of a commu- traction, or sculpted architecture, exemplifi ed by troglodyte nity well understood by the anonymous builders, it is matched dwellings and free-standing buildings cut from live rock and by their understanding of the limits of architecture itself. Th ey hollowed out. Rudimentary architecture is represented by rarely subordinate the general welfare to the pursuit of profi t and wind screens which sometimes attain gigantic dimensions. progress. In this respect, they share the beliefs of the professional In Japan they may shield, indeed, envelop a house, a hamlet, philosopher. To quote Huizinga, “the expectation that every or an entire village. Of the architecture of nomads, portable new discovery or refi nement of existing means must contain the houses, houses on wheels, sled-houses, houseboats, and tents promise of higher values or greater, happiness is an extremely are shown. Proto-industrial architecture includes water wheels, naive thought…. It is not in the least paradoxical to say that a windmills, both vertical and horizontal, and dovecots, those culture may founder on real and tangible progress.” vital fertilizer plants. Being ‘contemptuous of ideas but amo- Th e present exhibition is a preview of a book on the subject, rous of devices,’ we may fi nd the mechanics rather than the the vehicle of the idea that the philosophy and know-how of esthetics of this architecture more to our liking. the anonymous builders presents the largest untapped source of We learn that many audacious ‘primitive’ solutions antici- architectural inspiration for industrial man. Th e wisdom to be pate our cumbersome technology; that many a feature invented derived goes beyond economic a nd e st het ic considerations, for in recent years is old hat in vernacular architecture – prefabri- it touches the far tougher and increasingly troublesome prob- cation, standardization of building components, fl exible and lem of how to live and let live, how to keep peace with one’s movable structures, and, more especially, fl oor-heating, air- neighbors, both in the parochial and universal sense. conditioning, light control, even elevators. We may also com- pare the amenities of our houses with the unadvertised comfort of, say, some African domestic architecture that provides a respectable man with six detached dwellings for his six wives. Or we may fi nd that long before modern architects envisioned subterranean towns under the optimistic assumption that they may protect us from the dangers of future warfare, such towns existed, and still exist, on more than one continent.

12 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 13 LIVING The past, present and future of human dwellings – Following spread Apartment Right Fritz Lang: Metropolis blocks in Hong Kong’s suburbs. (Germany 1926). In his Science ENVIRONMENTS and the professional dialogue in which they are created. A shortage of development land Fiction fi lm, Fritz Lang paints and an ever increasing popu- the sinister futuristic picture of lation led to population densi- a society which manifests itself ties of up to 8 000 residents per in the capital Metropolis where hectare. The apartment blocks technology has gone awry. The with the euphemistic name ‘Har- upper class lives in almost par- mony Blocks’ rise tightly packed adise-like conditions while the on foundations which are sev- labourers are considered inferior eral storeys high and have roofs and vegetate in a type of under- designed as theme parks. world in the bowels of the earth.

There is no place that refl ects our personality as closely as what we call ‘home’. Its basic functions – both physical and psychologi- cal – have remained virtually unchanged over the centuries, but its design and construction have become a task for professional architects and builders. It is a demanding task, as Jaime Salazar and Jakob Schoof argue in their article, which demands not only close cooperation between all those involved in the planning proc- ess, but also – possibly – new paradigms for the planning itself. HOMO H

14 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 15 HABITANS

16 17 1. Le Corbusier: The Modulor 2. Future Systems: House in began to change nature to meet his needs, The question of excluding natural spaces an exponential growth of the human popu- through fashion cycles. It is nearly immuta- lement, form and function, construction and building has become an exception. None 1 LIVING (1947). Based on two basic mea- Wales (1994). From a distance the and, ultimately, to design it in an artistic from human exploitation is probably most lation on earth. At the same time, modern ble, indeed, unimprovable, since it serves its decoration form an integrated whole. This the less, even the planning of mass-produ- surements (1.83 metres – the house located on the Welsh coast ENVIRONMENTS sense. By the end of the middle ages, ‘natu- relevant at its largest scale. We have realised technologies have enabled every one of us purpose to perfection.” Ancient vernacular unity is not only a result of centuries – old ced housing could benefi t if a similar clo- human height – and 2.26 metres – is almost invisible with the excep- the height of one’s fi ngertip when tion of a glass façade in which ral ’ nature in mos t place s in Europe had been that biodiversity, the stability of our climate to communicate with many times the num- builders sought to make their buildings part tradition and maturation, but also of the fact seness between all stakeholders, and the one’s arm is stretched above small porthole windows provide completely transformed into cultural lands- and much more depends on the ‘green lungs’ ber of people we used to. If we consider every of the landscape, and the ecosystem around that vernacular houses are designed, built unity it generates, were integrated into the their head), Le Corbusier devi- ventilation. The roof is turfed cape. In the Renaissance, city walls fell, and of our planet. We have also realised that agri- communication link between two people as a them, because they simply could not aff ord and decorated by the same people – which planning process. sed this measuring system based with grass and there is no gar- in Italy, the fi rst villas outside the city walls cultural landscapes do not have the same unit for possible innovation, then the number them to confl ict with what had always been in turn means that the communication bet- on the golden section for his buil- den. The house is a feature of the dings. In particular the Unités landscape, “an eye overlooking the and the fi rst major landscape gardening pro- ecological value as primary rainforests and of these units has not merely grown at the there before. We still admire ancient ver- ween designer, builder and dweller is of the d’Habitation are marked by this sea”, as the architects describe it. ject were implemented. untouched swamps. Vast areas are therefore same pace as mankind, but even faster. nacular architecture for the way it copes, closest kind we can imagine. rule, ranging from the overall pro- Inside, there is a single large room The transformation of nature then took being protected from all further exploita- The overwhelming increase in informa- often almost eff or tle s sly, with even the har s- Specialisation in contemporary archi- portions to the furnishings. with an open fi replace in its cen- on a new quality, with the agrarian revolution tion by mankind. One of the most notable tion and technological possibilities has lead, hest climates, the most diffi cult sites and tecture, in industrialised nations at least, has tre. Two free-standing, brightly coloured prefabricated pods hou- being replaced by the industrial revolution. examples is Costa Rica, still one of the poo- amongst other things, to a fragmentation of the most sparse building materials. Moreo- become a reality in the building sector, and sing the bathroom and kitchen are Landscapes were increasingly transformed rest countries in Latin America, where nearly our view of the world. Generalists like Leo- ver, we instinctively feel that site and sett- the vernacular approach to planning and also placed in this space. THE

3. Frei Otto: House for Ted Happold 4. Robert Bruno: Steel House, 5–6. ‘Landmark Houses’, Lower (1995). The house, built of vegeta- Ransom Canyon, Texas, USA Mill Estate, England (2005). The ting grid shells on the outskirts of (1978-2002). It would be ‘Lower Mill Estate’ in the Cotswolds Bath, was designed in such a way possible to mistake the Steel is Great Britain’s largest nature that it would not use fossil fuels. House high over a canyon reserve in private ownership. The Instead, it uses three sources of for a sculpture. The self- investor Jeremy Paxton, who owns NATURE OF energy: sun, geothermal energy and 3 built house consists of hund- the land, is now planning to build 46 5 wind. Sun energy is gained via col- reds of steel plates, all of so-called ‘Landmark Houses’ based lectors mounted on the roof and a which Robert Bruno wel- on the designs of international star mast, a windmill on the house gene- ded together by hand. The architects. So far, designs have rates wind energy and a geothermal slightly corroded interior is come from Will Alsop, Piers Gough, storage device provides warm air remotely reminiscent of one Eva Jiricna, Sarah Featherstone and DWELLING which is blown into the house. of Antonio Gaudí’s vaults. Roger Sherman among others. 2 4 6

Right With his vision of the ‘primi- One of the most famous illustrations of the Since antiquity, other prominent the- body, was based on laws of nature – this into cityscapes into which nature had to be one quarter of the country’s land surface has nardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton or Albert Ein- tive hut’, Abbé Laugier gave expres- origins of architecture shows a cherub and a orists had made similar deliberations on time, most prominently, the nature of mate- re-introduced in the shape of man-made been declared nature reserves. stein have virtually vanished from the fi elds sion to a desire – widespread in “WE OUGHT TO VIEW OURSELVES the 18th century – to recollect the lady whose compass and a classical column nature and architecture. In his De architec- rials that was to determine all construction parks and gardens. Forward-looking plan- “Today, there is no primordial nature any of science and engineering. Technological roots of architecture. Although the identify her as a personifi cation of the dis- tura libri decem, Vitruvius defi ned several and most of buildings’ aesthetics. Nature, it ners anticipated this necessity early on in more, only culture”, says the Danish-Icelan- progress (including progress in the design primitive hut idea was criticized as cipline. They both point back at a wooden primordial types of architecture (leaf huts, seems, has become a rather fl exible term, the development of cities. When Fredrick dic artist Olafur Eliasson, who has worked and construction of housing) increasingly WITH THE SAME CURIOSITY AND being naive by many contempora- structure, supported by four living trees, and swallow’s nests, and caves), that were imi- and it is surely one about which every epoch Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux drew their closely with our perception of nature and depends on the cooperation and communi- ries of Laugier, it is still regarded today as the best known symbol of covered by a gabled roof formed from their tations or adaptations of natural forms. has had diff erent connotations. What does ‘Greensward Plan’ for Central Park in New its surrogates. This may be an exaggeration cation between specialists. In architecture, OPENNESS WITH WHICH WE STUDY the natural origins of all building. branches, twigs and leaves. Like Vitruvius, the Renaissance architects the notion of nature mean to us, then, after York in 1857, the site was still a swampy, if we consider the whole earth but it cer- this increasing fragmentation and speciali- The illustration fi rst appeared in 1753 Filarete, Alberti and Francesco di Giorgio the end of the Industrial Era and far into the uninhabited area outside the city limits. tainly holds true for many parts of it. The sation has induced many thinkers and prac- Overleaf A Shoal of Jellyfi sh. Long A TREE, THE SKY OR A THOUGHT, in the Essai sur l’architecture by Abbé Marc- Martini pointed out the human body as the Information Age? But it was foreseeable that it would soon domestication and the redesign of nature titioners to go – like Abbé Laugier – ‘back gone are the times when man roa- med around the land without a fi xed Antoine Laugier, a former clergyman and most important reference point for archi- Our contemporary relationship to nature become engulfed by the metropolis, which still continue everywhere, from the micro to the roots’, to radically simplify planning dwelling. However, man’s herding Jesuit monk. His theory about the ‘primitive tecture in their treatises about proportions is the result of a long history of increasing grew by around 200,000 inhabitants per to the macro scale, in gene manipulation as and construction and to search our own BECAUSE WE TOO ARE LINKED TO instinct has survived, even if the hut’ as the origin of all architecture was a and construction. These thoughts all had domestication and control. In prehistoric decade in the mid-19th century. Today, Cen- well as in mammoth landscaping projects. origins in the quest for new approaches picture of the human has become statement against the prevailing style of a striking logic: We do not usually ques- times, the duality of culture and nature as tral Park is ‘a haven. It is a place here all of We have technological tools that would have to current practices. Vernacular architec- increasingly more individualistic in THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.” modern society. the time, Rococo, with its exuberant forms tion the laws of nature, but accept them we know it today was inexistent. Man was us can alter the frenetic rhythms that make been unimaginable a century ago, and tech- ture, which Bernard Rudofsky helped to rea- and luxuriant decoration. Contrary to this, as given. So who would question any archi- a part of nature, and he did not possess the New York the most exciting city in the world’, nological development has been accelera- waken with his seminal book Architecture HENRI MATISSE Laugier’s essay was a ‘rappel à l’ordre’, a call tecture that was based on natural laws and means to control any but the most minute as the Park’s offi cial web -site a s ser t s . More ting to a point where we, as human beings without Architects, has become a wides- back to reason, modesty, and an attempt proportions? Even modernist architecture, parts of his living environment. With the than an amenity, Central Park has become and creatures of nature, are struggling to pread point of reference [Bezugspunkt] in to link the current practice of architecture often claimed to be ahistoric and unnatural domestication of fi re and with the fi rst per- nothing less than an essential part of eve- keep pace. Scientists have the following contemporary architecture. Rudofsky wri- back to its origins, that is to nature itself. in its shapes and relationship to the human manent human settlements, Man gradually ryday life for many New Yorkers. explanation for this phenomenon: there is tes: “Vernacular architecture does not go

18 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 19 HOME

Victorian Autumn© 2005, by Thomas Kinkade, America’s most collected living artist. According to his website, ‘com- ing from a modest background, Kinkade emphasizes simple pleasures and inspirational mes- sages through his paintings’. His paintings of traditional villages DREAM and old cottages are so popu- lar that they have even become a paradigm for a ‘real’ settlement (see page 22). 20 21 Housing is a very personal issue. Building or the shelter, not only from all injury, but from have done throughout the years. In his book based on human (i.e. walking) speed. New planners have coined the term ‘simulta- It is often claimed that, with its many tribution of numerous specialists from the 1 Juhani Pallasmaa: Identity, Intimacy and LIVING buying a house is probably the most impor- all terror, doubt, and division. Insofar as it is Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard deliber- Urbanism, a movement that many of these neous engineering’, the Disney company rules, New Urbanism restricts the individual most diverse fi elds in order to simulate his- Domicile, published in: Arkkitehti – Finnish Architectural Review 1/1994 ENVIRONMENTS tant event any family can face. However, a not this, it is not home; so far as the anxieties ated about the oneiric house, i.e. the notion concepts adhere to, started in the USA in uses the word ‘imagineering’ (from ‘image’ inhabitant’s personal liberty. Furthermore, tory as perfectly as possible. The question 2 John Ruskin: Sesame and Lilies, house is not necessarily a home. A house is of the outer life penetrate it, and the incon- of ‘house’ that exists in our mind. (In his book, the 1980s. Originally, New Urbanism did not and ‘engineering’) to describe a strategy it may be questioned whether New Urban- remains, however, as to whether history, New York 1891, p. 136f. a clearly defi ned object, inhabited but nec- sistently-minded, unknown, unloved, or hos- Bachelard does not make the strict distinc- intend, and according to New Urbanists still that has its roots in the fi rst Disney theme ist schemes really achieve the healthy social with its slow process of maturation by trial 3 J.B. Bakema: Thoughts about architecture. essarily personalised, a construction with tile society of the outer world is allowed by tion between ‘house’ and ‘home’ that we does not intend, to promote specifi c archi- parks from the 50s: a large number of spe- mix that its planners aimed for. ‘Pepperpot- and error, can be replaced by masterplan- London 1981 4 Speech by HRH the Prince of Wales on walls, roof and windows that protects us either husband or wife to cross the threshold, explained above.) Although he is undecided tec tural s t yle s but an urbanis tic at titude that cialists in diff erent fi elds – architects, civil ting’ aff ordable housing and market-rate ning; and whether a team of experts can accepting the National Building Museum’s from the elements, and a commodity that it ceases to be home; it is then only a part of about the exact size and height of the house promotes human scale, ‘walkability’ and com- engineers, marketing specialists – work housing is a noble intention, but it is hard – emulate the ‘non-expert’ approach to archi- Vincent Scully Prize, November 3, 2005 MY HOME can be traded. When we speak of a house, that outer world that you have roofed over (his indications vary from three to four sto- munal activities as an alternative to the car- closely together from the very fi rst plan- and much harder than the inventors of New tecture that vernacular builders had for cen- we usually think in terms of the exterior shell, and lit a fi re in. 2 reys), he describes the existence of an attic friendly, anonymous neighbourhoods of the ning stages onward, with the goal of pro- Urbanism had hoped – to achieve in practice. turies when they built for themselves. not the image of interior spaces. Secondly, a home provides a spatial – and a cellar as essential, because the attic is post-war period. The following excerpt from viding the later inhabitants and visitors with One of the reasons is the immense popular- The concept of home, triggers thoughts and emotional – framework for most ritu- the symbolic storage place for pleasant mem- a speech by HRH the Prince of Wales explains an experience as intense as possible. Hav- ity of the neighbourhood. In Seaside, Flor- IS MY CASTLE of interior spaces, much more diffi cult to als of our everyday lives: eating, sleeping, ories, whereas the cellar serves to hide the the underlying principles: “I sought at Pound- ing said this, it must be stressed that New ida, the oldest New Urbanist settlement in

7–8. The Village at Hiddenbrooke, Cal- 13. Rob Krier, Christoph Kohl: 14. Rob Krier + Christoph Kohl: ifornia (since 2000). A village from a Citadel Broekpolder in Heem- Brandevoort, Netherlands (since painting: The Village in California’s Hid- skerk, Netherlands (since 2001). 1998). Instant History in the denbrooke counts predominantly fans A new urban centre in the style south of the Netherlands: Rob of the American painter of idylls, Tho- of a Renaissance town, the Cita- Krier’s fi rst neo-traditional- mas Kinkade, among its residents, del Broekpolder is located west ist town planning in the Nether- since The Village is a reconstruction of Amsterdam. A characteris- lands depicts the growth of the of the painter’s motifs, right down to tic of the development is its rel- small town throughout the ages. the smallest detail. There is a choice of ative density with traditional It is for a reason that Brande- four types of ready-made houses which streets and squares as well as a voort’s town centre bears the the investor – who is a licence holder centrally located cultural centre nickname Veste (=fortress), as of Kinkade’s company – has designed with a tower. The development it is completely surrounded by based on the cottages in his paintings. is surrounded by a water feature a moat. The centre of the small 8 which emulates the course of a town is a market hall which is on 10 11 13 14 9–11. Jakriborg in Sweden (since fi ctitious town wall. the bank of an artifi cial pond. 1999). Jakriborg is a contemporary re- interpretation of a medieval Hanseatic town and has been developed by the Swedish Jakri AB in the densely popu- lated plain between Malmo and Lund. 9 Façades and the fi tting-out of the town are based on the historic originals right down to the smallest details, however, contrary to the originals, Jakriborg has no access to the sea. describe in words, but vividly refl ecting our body care, family life with all its small dra- unpleasant memories. According to Bache- bury, therefore, to create an example of a Urbanism does not merely replicate old com- the USA (and since the movie The Truman 12. Sean Godsell: Park Bench House, own personality. Slowly, over the years and mas and moments of happiness, take place lard, both are needed for our well-being. mixed-use, pedestrian-orientated commu- munities. It combines their appearance with Show now one of the most famous) house THIS IS THE Melbourne (2002). In Melbourne, layer by layer, with furniture, decoration, in our homes in the most literal sense. It As mentioned, a home is far more than nity that refl ected local character and local modern amenities – both in terms of tech- prices have increased ten-fold since the 80s. which is ‘the world’s most livable city’, beloved bric-a-brac and cherished mem- is clear therefore that the task of provid- just a shelter with four walls and a roof and tradition. [... Poundbury’s] lessons are simple: nical outfi tting and in terms of spatial plan- Apartments are sold at prices comparable according to advertisements, around 12 1.7 percent of its inhabitants are with- ories, we create ourselves a home within ing people with a home demands immense the geometric space in between. Much 20th a network of legible, interconnected streets ning. Parking lots, for example, do exist in with those in Manhattan. TRUE NATURE out a fi xed abode. Architect Sean God- our house. According to Juhani Pallasmaa, skills and an intimate knowledge of a cli- century architecture on the other hand – that accommodate the car while celebrating New Urbanist schemes – they are hidden There are other, equally noble objectives sell designed a ‘park bench house’ for “home is not, perhaps, at all a notion of archi- ent’s personality from an architect. A place especially post-war modernism - has prima- the pedestrian, the centrality of the walkable away in the interior of urban blocks. This of New Urbanism that have proven diffi cult Melbourne’s homeless which serves tecture, but of psychology, psychoanalysis that deserves being called ‘home’ can only rily been concerned with the construction of neighbourhood as a building block, accom- apparent lack of ‘truth’ and ‘honesty’ is fre- to achieve. The movement started out as an OF HOME – as a seat during the day and as a mini shelter during the night. and sociology”. Pallasmaa also describes the come into existence through a close cooper- walls and roofs and the spaces in between. modating work, play, shopping and living in quently raised as a point of criticism against alternative to urban sprawl; and yet many essence of home as “a mirror and support of ation with the inhabitant, as Jacob Berend Its design and construction were determined a harmonious way; the ‘pepperpotting’ of neo-traditionalist neighbourhoods. How- contemporary neo-historic settlements have the inhabitant’s psyche.” 1 Bakema observed: “We should prepare the not by the dweller’s needs but by the Ford- aff ordable housing and market-rate housing; ever, in a sense, it only refl ects the schism become examples of this ver y phenomenon IT IS THE PLACE As such, a home has to play a threefold dwelling only up to the point at which the ist principles of standardisation and effi - and, fi nally, the reliance of traditional urban- between past and future, between roman- – because market-driven economy makes it role. It acts as a shelter that protects us individual himself can participate. We want ciency. As a result, a widespread scepticism ism, local vernacular architecture and natu- ticism and pragmatism that is in our minds. more aff ordable to build new houses in sub- from the world outside. The more dishar- to create a framework in which man will has arisen about the ability of modern, mass- ral materials to restore a sense of harmony, We adapt to new technology very easily and urbia than in city centres. Although urban OF PEACE. mony that life away from home exerts on again be master of his own home, his own produced architecture to provide us with a proportion and, above all, something called like have it in our homes – from the PC to infi ll and urban repair were among the over- JOHN RUSKIN, 1865 us, the more we need a home to ‘fall back personal sphere, within the universe.” 3 true ‘home’. We seek security, reliability and ‘beauty’ to day-to-day life.” 4 the ubiquitous TV. On the other hand, we riding targets of New Urbanism, many neo- upon’. In his book Sesame and Lilies from Thirdly, a home is a place for harmony happy memories in buildings whose iconog- The planning strategies for New Urban- still feel a strong romanticism for the living Classicist or neo-medieval neighbourhoods 1865, John Ruskin makes an observation and the storage of memories, most notice- raphy has been in use for centuries, and in ist, themed neighbourhoods bear diff erent environments that surround us, and like to start with exactly the same clean slate sit-

7 that is still valid today. He writes: “This is the ably in old houses where countless fi ne lay- neighbourhoods with a human scale, human names from country to country, but are express this romanticism by ‘dressing’ our uation as their modernist counterparts did. tr ue nature of home – it is the place of Peace; ers and fi lters of dust refl ect what people proportions, and a transportation network based on the same approach. Dutch city homes accordingly. Their planning approach relies on the con-

22 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 23 INTERVIEW WITH Mr. Asadov, in your essay ‘Alex- concrete-block method of building. In includes the land and the infrastruc- vate building sector was exception- styles, whereby the architect him- cialists involved, on criticism and on ALEXANDER ASADOV ander Asadov’s Credo’, which you a megapolis such as Moscow where ture for the builder, amounts to over ally modest. self is frequently unable to judge the general architectural situation publish on your homepage, you private building projects account for 30 per cent of the overall costs. The Gosstroj now no longer ex- what kind of style it is and how its which generates interest in this area. Room service in a high-rise apart- write that in your country inde- a large proportion of the overall con- There is also a subsidy from the state, ists but the architects have not yet elements are to be combined. This In this respect, I am very optimistic ment building in Hong Kong. The pendent creativity has existed struction volume, success has been with the rest being generated from really noticed this. State legisla- is a unique and special area of the and hope there will be a long process photo in an advertising brochure since the mid-1990s. What design achieved in developing the concrete- investments and private money. And tion has been replaced by strong re- art, namely eclecticism. If, however, in one direction. More and more mag- shows what investors (and many leeway did architects have before panel construction industry. This this money is visible – in both the city gional regulation. This means that the demand for a particular style azines will appear and the number of occupants) feel to be their ideal this, at the time of collective build- mainly relates to the building of state- and the architecture. there are now local legal require- grows and if the possibilities exist investors who understand that good picture of living. The quality and ing in the UdSSR? supported home construction and, to Ten to fi fteen years ago, when ments and local standards which in the form of databases and cata- architecture is more expensive than service of the dwellings corre- a less extent, commercial home con- things began to change, one had the regulate the building industry. The loguess of architecture but there are bad architecture will increase con- spond to those of a luxury hotel, There are two kinds of restrictions: struction. Commercial developers are impression that the former state- number of local offi ces which have no schools of ability and professional tinuously. The standards of evalua- and monitoring systems keep In the last 15 years, the Russian hous- on the one hand, restrictions relating buying formerly state-owned produc- controlled project-planning insti- to be consulted and whose stipula- learning, then there is simply a gush tion for architecture will continue undesirables far away from the ing construction business has com- to the specifi c historical, architec- tion facilities and are successfully in- tutes had simply ceased to exist as tions have to be complied with for of something indeterminate which to develop in the consciousness of residential complexes. pleted the change from a state-owned tural, economic and social aspects troducing progressive and fl exible the fl ow of funds from state sources a project is growing catastrophi- is reminiscent of historical architec- the public . industry to a free market. To what ex- of a project. If these restrictions industrial methods of building. of fi nance slowed down considerably cally. The result is that the planning ture. It is a shame. tent has this resulted in the adoption exist as general parameters from and the number of privately planned costs are burgeoning. This is one of At the present time, many Is ecology, in general, an issue in of new architectural values as well? the very beginning but the architect Is the construction of estates com- projects started to increase at a fast the reasons why no well-known ar- projects in Russia are being planned Russian architecture or is it only DAYLIGHT&ARCHITECTURE talked can still make free choices in order posed of detached houses increas- rate. Now that the amount of availa- chitects can fi nd their way around in the historical style and this prac- an afterthought which is added at to Alexander Asadov, one of the lead- to achieve his particular goal, then ing in the areas surrounding large ble fi nance has increased, a certain here or work in our ‘jungle’. In addi- tice is being supported by regional the client’s request? ing architects in Russia, about state they are understandable as such and cities in Russia? To what extent is equilibrium has been established. tion, the Russian building-approval and local authorities in many re- regulation, ecology and the weak- are a form of self-restriction. During this associated with dissolution, Understandably, only the fi t- procedure prescribes that Russian spects. This underlines the wide- Up to now, ecology has not been seri- ness of many Russians for historicis- the Soviet period, unfortunately, the privatisation and individualisa- test survive in the private planning government offi ces always super- spread need for solidity and stability ously demanded by clients. There are ing styles of architecture. main restrictions concerned the way tion of the community? sector. The legislation, which has vise each project. – and, accordingly, for artifi cially in- certain formal state regulations re- in which the architect’s goals were not suffi ciently taken root, unfor- creasing the age of one’s own city, garding environmental protection but achieved. They related to materials There is a clearly recognisable disso- tunately allows some architects to Neo-historical forms of build- even if it is still young. they are regarded by everyone, includ- and constructions, to planning activ- lution eff ect. The lack of homogene- occupy infl uential government posi- ing are very popular in Russia. To ing the clients, as irritating obstacles ity or simply to compliance with fi re ity in society is shown, for example, tions and, as a sideline, to operate pri- what kind of ‘past’ do these archi- Does Russian neo-historicism re- which slow down the building proc- protection regulations. by the expensive buildings and hous- vate planning offi ces . Things like this tectural styles relate? fl ect a deep-seated need for secu- ess. People are only gradually getting The conditions that we had to ing complexes which are being cre- are possible in Russia. At the same rity, and perhaps for sentimentality, used to the idea that they should build cope with at that time are now diffi - ated next to the very cheap and time, really strong architects’ offi ces In my opinion, this is also a well- on the part of the population? And with environment-friendly materials. cult to imagine. I would therefore like traditionally poor districts on the are able to win the struggle to sur- known problem in the west. People to what extent does the interior of For most people, in any case, ecology to emphasise once again: there will edges of large cities. In view of the vive and are developing themselves have root s and, with regard to where homes match the backward-look- is not a real design criterion. This, no always be restrictions.. For instance, social class diff erence, extensive se- successfully whereas some project- they live, need to have a reference ing appearance of the outside? doubt, has something to do with the the city in which we build imposes curity measures are being taken with planning institutes have re-oriented point of stability in a world which conception that our natural resources restrictions on us because neither barbed-wire fences and guards. This themselves and have changed over is changing rapidly. As always with Let’s deal with the second question are inexhaustible. The intellect rec- in urban areas nor anywhere else is underlines the strong diff erentiation from one-sided design-related work us, there are certain special factors. fi rst. There are impressive cases ognises that there are limits to eve- there absolute freedom. But on the that is taking place. Those who in the to a wider range of services. The in- Russia has lived through some tur- where the outside and the inside do no rything and that the effi cient use of other hand, if an architect wants to West are designated a s middle cla ss stitutes which have survived are bulent changes in architecture. Eve- match each other. In our practice, we resources is a question of justice be- achieve his goal, he must not be re- are only a small percentage here in above all those that have special- ryone is familiar with the Russia at have had projects in which there was tween generations. But this realisa- stricted in his use of the instruments Russia and are among those who can ized in planning the technical side the beginning of the century as the a complete imbalance between the tion is not anchored in the hearts or that are available. aff ord to build cooperative and de- of projects belonging to other archi- birthplace of constructivism. After avant-garde outer form of the house upbringing of either the population tached houses. tects. The technical planning disci- this, there was a considerable pe- and the interior design. On the other or specialists. How has Russian housing con- plines are currently in great demand riod of historicism which lasted 25 hand, there are prestige complexes struction changed since the end How individual is the housing mar- on the market. to 30 years and was referred to as erected in the neo-historic style, What meaning does nature have of the UdSSR? ket in Russia in reality? In an ideal case, it is possible to Stalinist architecture. Like socialist whose occupants have surrounded for you if you build in a city like set up small, fl exible design offi ces realism in painting, it is today evok- themselves with modernistic or even Moscow where there are millions There is a rising demand for detached The great progress in architecture is which deal with the creative part of ing a great deal of interest because minimalistic interior solutions. of inhabitants? houses, especially in and around Mos- the result of individual orders. This is projects as well as structured large it was a good school for professional As regards the fi rst part of the cow. In the area surrounding the cap- an area in which, above all, young ar- companies which elaborate and han- architects. In the course of the sub- question, namely neo-humanism, its We observe how Moscow’s green ital, this trend was detectable at an chitects can make a mark for them- dle the details of such projects. This sequent massive industrialization of roots do not lie in security and senti- areas are shrinking like Chagrin even earlier stage. On the outskirts of selves. It is also the area which is least symbiosis is entirely possible in the building, a modern architecture was mentality but in a quite specifi c, false leather. This is a somewhat painful Moscow, we have built a series of very regulated by regulations which re- current situation. created in which the craft of archi- idea of the prestige, signifi cance and but inevitable process. There have large estates of detached houses for quire that approval is obtained before tectural design was quickly lost. status of the object. The measuring been projects which we planned single families and the number of or- a project is implemented. One result How great is the infl uence of poli- In Russia today, there is only a scale for this changes only gradually in existing green areas where we ders has made it clear to us just how of this development is the continually tics on the Russian building sector handful of architects who design and very slowly in the consciousness suggested that the loss of green strong the sector is moving at present . growing number of glossy magazines, – either due to legal regulations or in the historical style and do so in a of society. area should be compensated for by Unfortunately, detached houses are which contain many illustrations of unoffi cial prescriptions? living and creative manner. This is planted roofs. But we were unable still very expensive and the costs of fi rst-class buildings. The national possible and the work of such archi- How high, in your opinion, is the gen- to convince any clients that they upkeep are higher than in many other prize of ARCHIP, one of the most Nowadays, the infl uence of legal stip- tects as Filippov, Utkin, Brodski and eral ability of your fellow-citizens to should use this as an ecological fac- countries. This is due to such factors prestigious national prizes in the area ulations is no longer especially great. Barchin has shown that the histor- judge architecture competently? tor that could enhance the image of as the climatic conditions, the heat of architecture, is also awarded for At the time of state-organised build- ical school of architects has a cer- the object in question. Unfortunately, loss and the still fairly modest pos- private construction projects. ing, legislation exerted a powerful tain perspective on its existence as A small percentage of the population life does not force clients and peo- sibilities of saving energy. Due to our Moreover, a large number of or- regulatory infl uence. There was an a credible trend in art. today knows quite a lot about archi- ple to take the matter seriously and continental situation, we also have ders from cooperatives for multi- enormous state apparatus, the Gos- At the same time, a fl ood of com- tecture, have seen some good ex- the authorities only pay attention to a rougher climate and colder winter storey buildings in cities are going stroj (a committee dealing with all puter-aided designs has broken loose, amples of western architecture and the prognosis and evaluation of eco- than northern Europe. to private planning offi ces. Each in- questions of building in our country), which we call ‘without a tsar in the would like to live in modern homes. logical damage, without forcing the In addition to this, there is a strong vestment project is set up in such a as 80 to 90 per cent of building was head’. It is a kind of designing which This is a natural process which, in investor to bear the costs of protect- tendency to cling to the industrialised way that the share of the city, which fi nanced from state funds. The pri- plays with citations of diff erent many respects, depends on the spe- ing the environment.

24 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 25 This page Greg Lynn FORM: The search for a ‘cell’ or capsule that consti- ridors, but had ‘to design a framework for all interior walls in the upper fl oor are LIVING Embryological House©™ (1998). tutes the smallest inhabitable entity, and its living, the forms of life itself.’ 5 To be able retractable, enabling the space to be used According to Greg Lynn’s concept, ENVIRONMENTS adaptation to ever-varying human require- to do so, the scientists concerned them- either as four separate rooms or as one sin- one single computer algorithm generates an infi nite number and ments have stimulated architectural imagi- selves with the processes of living. Graph- gle, amply daylit space in which the water variety of new houses which can nation throughout the last century. The fl oor ical methods were developed to track the closet is the only fi xed and enclosed element. be adapted to the most diverse plans of houses before the rise of modern- user’s movements through his home and More recent approaches, some of which are surroundings and climates. ism were largely determined by social and subsequently to minimise them by group- shown in this article, include prefabricated representative needs. Apartment houses ing the spaces together diff erently and by housing kits whose parts move, twist and tended to be designed from the outside in, eradicating residual spaces. The old living turn to provide ever-varying combinations the facade being considered more impor- kitchens, for example, were replaced by min- of functional programmes. After 85 years of tant than the ground plan. In middle and imised, functional spaces in which all ele- experience, however, it seems questionable upper class apartments, the semi-private ments were positioned ergonomically - but whether these approaches – often academic living spaces, which served to display social they were mono-functional, useable by only –have really been accepted. It appears that

THE CELL 15 AND ITS METABOLISM 17

16 18

15. Kalhöfer – Korschildgen: Fahrt 17. Kalhöfer – Korschildgen: Zwischen- status, were generally oriented towards the one person at a time and left little space for ‘mobile’ living and the potential it off ers does ins Grüne, Remscheid (1997). The Räumen, terraced houses for Salzburg front of the house, whilst the private bed- change and coincidence. not have a great impact on our everyday liv- clients – both journalists – wished (2002). The architects designed all rooms and children’s rooms, as well as the Critical responses to the ‘one size fi ts ing. Even our furniture has become more or to add another study to their tim- external and internal walls as mobile ber-framed house. Gerhard Kalhöfer rolling shutters. The central hall is con- services, were generally at the back or in the all’ attitude of functionalism were not slow less static. If major spatial changes in our and Stefan Korschildgen designed a ceived as a fl exible, adjustable inter- centre of the house, thus indicating their sec- to emerge, as architects realised that they homes become necessary, we rely on one-off mobile and light-weight extension space, which can be linked up to the ondary status. could not design lifestyles as such but only refurbishment rather than spatial changes on tracks which can be pushed side- adjoining rooms as desired. In addition, With the advent of modernism in the a spatial framework within which they could on a day-to-day basis. ways into the garden in summer to the house opens up to the outside in free up the patio for other uses. any desired combination. twenties, a paradigm shift took place. Liv- fl ourish. The modernist optimism that tech- A second approach aims, therefore, at ing spaces were no longer arranged accord- nological progress would eventually lead to enabling buildings to grow, shrink and 16. N55: Spaceframe & Floating 18. Le Corbusier: Unité d’Habitation in ing to social or representative needs, but greater equality in living conditions was not change their functions over time accord- Platform (1999). N55’s Spaceframe Marseille (1946). A whole town under according to their physical uses, and in generally shared, as many architects feared ing to user needs. The notion of growing is a modular, light, low-cost living one roof: with its integrated shop- unit for three to four persons. The ping mall, a gymnasium, a swimming turn determined the outward appearance it would lead to a minimal common denom- and shrinking houses is commonplace in wall structure consists of regular pool and a playground on the roof, of a house. Inspired by the reformist inten- inator in housing standards which left too vernacular architecture, including mod- tetrahedrons which make the dwell- Le Corbusier’s Unité housing around tion to build dwellings for the subsistence little room for the individual. ern vernacular. In many areas of the world, ing look like a crystal. A platform 1 500 inhabitants was planned as a level, a true ‘science of fl oor plans’ started One approach to the demand for more semi-fi nished houses that have been inhab- attached to jetties or boats turns self-suffi cient unit. Even the range Spaceframe into a fl oating island. of dwellings with 23 diff erent types to emerge, searching for objective condi- spatial and functional fl exibility was the ited for years are not an uncommon view. measuring between 32 and 137 m2 is tions of living that could be generalised and use of sliding partition walls, which were Often their ground fl oors are already in use reminiscent of a small town. turned into normative values. Floor plan widely used by architects such as Gerrit while the top fl oor is still unfi nished. The cul- scientists claimed that an architect had Rietveld, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbus- tural evolution of housing from the purely not only to think in terms of rooms and cor- ier. In Rietveld’s Schröder House in Utrecht, practical into the aesthetic and represent- 5 Gustav Wolf: Die Grundriß-Staff el. München 1931 6 Juhani Pallasmaa: Identity, Intimacy and Domicile, published in: Arkkitehti – Finnish Architectural Review 1/1994 7 Udo Kraft, Das mitwachsende Haus, in: Fezer/Heyden: Hier entsteht …, Berlin 2004 8 Nicolaas John Habraken: Die Umsetzung einer einfachen Idee, in: Fezer/Heyden: Hier entsteht …, Berlin 2004 26 27 ative realm, however, has led most dwellers beginning, but with the end in mind – that is, ern architecture had become academic: It Due to the high complexity of planning mation or entertainment programme from edge on the part of the user. As users fre- to prefer buildings that look ‘fi nished’ right they have to be large enough to cope with had seized power, but had lost its virtues. processes, architects who frequently moder- the almost infi nite number of resources quently fi nd it hard to clearly express their from the start, but still with the freedom the maximum size that the house is likely to More than anything it isolated itself in arti- ated projects with a high degree of user par- available. In the housing industry, however, own preferences, Kent Larson and his co- for later changes. Architects often tend attain. Additionally, if this concept is not to fi cial and autistic techniques. A new fascina- ticipation were among the fi rst to experiment a common international standard such as workers have designed a ‘preference engine’ to neglect such freedom: With the ‘Gesa- end in an enormous amount of landfi ll, build- tion arose from the rich variety with which with new, computer-aided planning tools. HTML is still lacking. Researchers such as that reveals people’s needs and values, and mtkunstwerk’ as the predominant ideal in ing elements have to be easily and cleanly a network of social groups can leave its Today, electronic information and communi- Kent Larson of MIT advocate for a ‘mean- a large number of diff erent ‘design engines’ mind, houses are designed in a way that separated into components that are either marks on a site.” Concepts like Constant’s cation technologies have made user partici- ingful customisation’ that follows the model that each emulate the style of a particular they will only suff er aesthetically from later recyclable or biodegradable. ‘New Babylon’, Yona Friedman’s ‘Spatial pation possible in a wide range of industries. of Open Source software, where every user architect. Moreover, Larson is even devising additions. Frequently, they are designed for If all these requirements are fulfi lled, it City’, Archigram’s ‘Plug-in Cities’ or Eckard Mass customisation has been adopted, for can read the source code of a programme ‘computational critics’ that provide the user just one moment in time – their completion, should not even be a problem to take our Schulze-Fielitz’ ‘Raumstadt’ were all based example, in the furniture, computer and car and improve or alter it according to his/her with expert feedback on the choices they before the inhabitants move in. Accord- house with us if we have to move . It ha s been on the duality of a supporting framework and industries. The most successful example of individual needs. In architecture as well as make during the planning process. ing to Juhani Pallasmaa, “[...] in our role as estimated that in a country like Germany, infrastructure, which was provided by public mass customisation is probably the Internet in Open Source software, this improvement architects we aspire for a meticulously artic- the cost of moving your completely disman- institutions and planned by architects, and itself, where every user selects his own infor- work will demand a high degree of knowl-

19 20 21 22 23

ulated and temporally one-dimensional envi- tleable house 500 or 600 kilometres would a multitude of temporary ‘infi lls’ that con- ronment, whereas as dwellers ourselves, we be lower than that of selling the old house stituted the dwellings themselves and were “THE ARCHITECTURE OF prefer a more layered, ambiguous and aes- and buying a new one elsewhere. 7 designed by the residents according to their METABOLISM WAS thetically less coherent environment.” 6 A third possible approach is based on individual needs. It was the Dutch architect The concept of a ‘growing’ house does user participation in the planning process. Nicolaas John Habraken and his ‘Stichting BASED ON THE IMAGE OF 24 not necessarily require cutbacks on aes- When Mies van der Rohe refrained from Architecten Research’ (SAR) that turned this THE LIVING CELL. THAT thetics, but a diff erent concept of aesthet- predefi ning any spaces except for the bath- idea into material reality for the fi rst time. ics that can cope better with change and room and the kitchen in his apartment build- Their system SAR was based on multi-sto- IMAGE ENCOMPASSES 19–20. N55: Micro Dwellings which is strong enough to sup- (2005). The miniature capsule port it: Stefan Eberstadt’s Ruck- coincidence. Moreover, the construction ing at the Weissenhof building exhibition in rey, reinforced concrete supports and light NOTIONS OF GROWTH, house by the Danish architects sack House is an architectural of growing houses will be entirely diff erent Stuttgart in 1927, he did so because he was infi lls that were suitable for a self-build proc- N55 is welded together out of ‘parasite’ which can fi nd itself from the way we build our houses today. convinced that there are certain spaces in a e s s . In a recent inter view, Habraken repor ted DIVISION, EXCHANGE, [...] steel plates like a ship. Its inte- a new host at any time. Entry is The interconnections between building ele- home that cannot be designed by experts, that he had to overcome severe scepticism rior consists of only a few mobile through a window of the house. elements which fulfi l a range ment s have to be rigorously simplifi ed, made but only by the inhabitants themselves and among planning experts who were deter- TEMPORARINESS, RECY- of uses during the course of the 22–24. Kisho Kurokawa: Nak- reversible and standardised in such a way by those in close dialogue with them. In the mined to defi ne the ‘ideal’ home down to the CLING, RINGS, AND A day. N55 do not manufacture the agin Capsule Tower, Ginza (1972). that other elements that fi t with the old ones 1960s and 1970s, self-build processes were last detail: “I am not a political person, but micro dwellings themselves, but 140 capsules including their inte- will still be available in 20 or 30 years’ time. considered an expression of grass-roots I realised that I was demanding that other DYNAMIC STABILITY.” off er building instructions (so- riors were prefabricated in a fac- called ‘manuals’) on the internet tory, hoisted into place with a An exterior wall may have to be turned into democracy and user empowerment - and a architects change their way of work and Kisho Kurokawa for self-construction. crane and attached to the con- an interior wall later on, so cladding and insu- counter-movement to the predominant func- hand over some of their power. And I had to crete core of the building on the lation have to be removable. Foundations tionalist approach in architecture, of which learn that precisely this always raises engen- 21. Stefan Eberstadt: Ruck- construction site. Even today the and heating systems must be planned in the Lucien Kroll says, “It was the time when mod- ders fi erce resistance.” 8 sack House (2002). Nine square capsules, measuring 10m2 (4.0 metres of additional space that x 2.0 m) each, are used as both can be attached to any building apartments and offi ces.

28 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 29 Le Corbusier: Ville Contem- lion inhabitants consists of 24 poraine (1922). With his fi rst apartment blocks each 60 sto- large-scale vision of a city reys high. They are surrounded Le Corbusier painted a pic- by six-storey apartment blocks, ture of the ‘opened-up, green the so-called ‘redents’. On the town’ which was to occupy the outskirts his plans showed minds of generations of modern sparsely built-up garden towns architects after him. The cen- for another 2 million inhabitants. tre of the town for three mil-

WE MUST CREATE THE MASS- THE SPIRIT OF LIVING IN MASS- PRODUCTION SPIRIT. PRODUCTION HOUSES. THE SPIRIT OF CONSTRUCTING THE SPIRIT OF CONCEIVING MASS-PRODUCTION HOUSES. MASS-PRODUCTION HOUSES. LE CORBUSIER, VERS UNE ARCHITECTURE, 1923

30 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 31 The origins of housing prefabrication were develop the mass-production spirit in the ween client, architect and builder, in which all value or non-value of life itself and defi ne LIVING ENVIRONMENTS somewhat utilitarian and little concerned 1920s and 1930s. Since mass production parties are well-informed, willing to commu- the meaning of life.” 9 Schulze points direc- with customisation or with the dweller as involves not only a rationalisation of produc- nicate and have their fair share of infl uence tly to one of the core competences of archi- an individual. The fi rst buildings to be mass- tion itself, but also of the planning process, in decision making. As mentioned here, the tects: enhancing spaces by providing them produced in Europe were military barracks. architects soon started to lose infl uence ideal has become the exception rather than with experiential value and functional fl ex- In America the civil housing sector also had a and interest. A sort of two-class architec- the rule. Often, one or two parties – the client, ibility. It seems logical, therefore, that archi- long history of mass production. In his 1923 ture emerged, in which only a minority of the architect, and sometimes even the pro- tects should play a natural part in the new NEW PARADIGMS Vers une architecture, Le Corbusier advoca- buildings – public, cultural and offi ce buil- fessional builder – are excluded from the pro- ma s s- produc tion of home s . If we – inve s tor s , ted the industrialisation of the building sec- dings as well as private houses for the aff - cess. Communication, the very factor that architects, builders, suppliers, and clients FOR MASS tor with the seminal words: luent – were designed by architects. The constitutes a measure for progress, is no – increase our capacity of mutual learning great majority of housing was left to the longer considered a necessity. from each other, our physical environments construction companies, to be built accor- But could manufacturers of catalogue can only improve in the future. PRODUCTION ding to standardised plans, with standardi- homes, architects and suppliers not learn

27

26 28

We must create the mass-production spirit. The spirit of constructing mass-production houses. The spirit of living in mass-production houses. 25 The spirit of conceiving mass-production houses. 29

25. IKEA/Skanska: BoKlok (since blocks with six apartments each. In fact he was only calling for what had sed components, and very little infl uence a great deal from each other? And with 29. Apartment blocks in Hong the mid 1990s). Translated lite- Together with the apartment, become a reality in North America decades by architects. their joint expertise could they not deve- Kong. The apartment blocks with rally, BoKlok means ‘smart living’. each client receives a voucher the euphemistic name Harmony before – ‘catalogue housing’ based on the In the Information Age, the housing lop homes that not only fulfi l their function, The housing concept was develo- for €300–€400 and a two-hour Blocks rise tightly packed on foun- ped in the mid-90s in a collabora- consultation session on interior balloon-frame construction technique (for industry has taken the next step of stan- but are linked to context, culture, time, and dations which are several storeys tion between IKEA and Skanska design with IKEA. example, by Sears, Roebuck & Co.) that had dardisation – to a world-wide proliferation fl exible enough to adapt to the dweller’s high and have roofs designed as and has, in the meantime, been been in use since the mid-19th century. The of fl oor plans, independent of site, context, needs? There is a widespread understan- theme parks. Life in the streets exported to fi ve countries. Prices 28. ‘Continental Homes’ shortly is non-existent and monitoring high-speed construction of entire cities client or contractor. E-businesses have been ding that a conglomerate of standardised start at €500 per square metre before delivery, Nashua, New systems keep undesired intruders of living space, making the apart- Hampshire, USA. Caravans, such as Oklahoma City in April 1889 was set up where coming house-owners can buy building parts, assembled according to uni- away from the development. ments slightly more expensive which fi rst appeared in the USA a powerful demonstration of what prefa- the construction drawings of their own per- form plans and dressed in appliqué orna- than a middle-class car. in the 1920s, soon developed brication could achieve. A contemporary sonal dream home, with styles ranging from ments, is not suffi cient to make a house a into the mobile homes as we report relates, “At noon on April 22, 1889 neo-colonial to modernist, and sporting up ‘home’. As a consequence, interest among 26–27. BoKlok embraces two know them today. As a rule, they types of houses: the single-family are only mobile once in their life, [...] there was nothing on the site of Okla- to seven bedrooms and fi ve garages. One investors and manufacturers to work closely house ‘Villa BoKlok’, which has so i.e. when they are towed from homa City but a railroad station and a few set of standard blueprints costs between with architects has risen again. With econo- far only been off ered in Sweden, the factory to their fi nal site. wooden buildings. By nightfall a tent town of 500 and 700 dollars – with no architect’s mic growth and cultural evolution, residents and two-storey multiple family about 10,000 persons had sprung up.” Four fee. All the prospective house-owner has to have become more demanding . They a sk for weeks later, only the ‘balloon frame city’ was do is visit his local building contractor with homes that provide a framework for their fully erected, consisting mainly of one-room the plans and let him build it. self-realisation. The demand for experiences, prefabricated huts. The classic ideal on how a house should writes the sociologist Gerhard Schulze, “is 9 Gerhard Schulze: Die Erlebnisgesellschaft. Le Corbusier’s vision soon became a rea- be planned and built – at least among archi- moving from the periphery to the center of Frankfurt/Main 1997 lity in Europe, too. Architects were quick to tects –involves a triangular relationship bet- personal values; they become a measure for

32 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 33 In his drawing The Three Magnets, Ebenezer slowed down, but it remains unclear as to enough to accommodate a large number reality. We are permeated with narcissism, areas are therefore an absolute priority for municipality is assigned a certain amount Howard, the founder of the garden-city whether this can already be interpreted of people – such as hotel rooms or builders’ the exclusive reference to ourselves, which our future. How to reconcile urban density of land area that may be used for new con- movement, points out a duality that is still rel- as a reversal of the trend. When we make barracks. In some cases, great care is taken always asks: What is the relevance of in my with the dweller’s demand for access to struction. Like their counterparts from the evant in our days: We like to live in the coun- our choice for a dwelling place, we usually by architects and planners to provide these surroundings to me? Sennett claims that nature, privacy and individuality? The ideas Kyoto Protocol, these area certifi cates may tryside, close to what we consider nature, on take in account not only the price of a home, spaces with at least a minimum level of pri- people lose ‘a comprehensive view of society’, that have been developed over the last few be traded among the municipalities. our own plot of aff ordable land, in safe neigh- its size and physical value, but also ‘added vacy and per sonalit y, so that we accept them , as well as their sensitivity to the ‘body public’. decades are manifold – they range from the bourhoods, etc., but we also want the amen- value’ – factors such as being close to nature at least temporarily, as ‘surrogate’ homes. He identifi es the city as the place where the New Urbanist settlements described earlier ities and cultural institutions that a city has (both common grounds and a private gar- On the other hand, and probably as ‘body public’ manifests itself, and suburbia as on to patio houses and lofts, from SITE’s to off er, from fl ea markets to department den), good access to public amenities and a counter-movement to the lack of pri- the arena for our quest for identity. vision ‘Highrise of Homes’, with its stacked stores, and from cinemas to museums. public transport, a children-friendly, clean vacy that nomadic life entails, a growing Now let us for a moment imagine that one-family houses and gardens, to SOLTAG Howard’s solution to this dilemma was and safe neighbourhood, and the opportu- number of people are opting for an introvert all the 10 billion human beings that will (www.soltag.net), an initiative of four Dan- the ‘Garden City’: a settlement of limited size, nity to lead an individual lifestyle in an indi- lifestyle, centred on their homes. NIMBY – soon populate the planet lived in suburbs ish companies that aims at developing pre- limited density, with a clearly defi ned cen- vidualised environment. Urban areas, with Not In My Back Yard – has become a prov- of the European or American style. In Cen- fabricated housing units to be deployed on

LIVING ENVIRONMENTS 30. Ebenezer Howard: The Three 31. Archizoom: Residential Park- Magnets (1898). Living in the ing / No-Stop City (1971). The town or the countryside? In No-stop City by Archizoom is an his diagram, Ebenezer Howard, ironic criticism of the ideology the spiritual father of the gar- of modern architecture which den-town movement, compares has been driven to absurd limits. people to iron fi lings which are In place of the town, there drawn by three magnets: the is a uniform, grid-like supply 31 town signifi es high wages, a cul- network into which people plug tural environment and social themselves in random places opportunities, but also a lack of and erect informal dwellings. 32. Offi ce for Subversive in the London Borough of ME natural surroundings and pollu- Nature has disappeared, Architecture with Harald Tower Hamlets a fresh lick of tion. He ascribes opposite char- it is replaced by an endless Hugues and Trenton Oldfi eld: paint, new curtains and a min- acteristics to the country. The landscape of interiors, similar Installation Intact, London iature front garden with fresh third magnet, the town-country to open-plan offi ces, in which (2003). An industrial build- fl owers, artifi cial lawn and a MYSELF AND – Howard’s garden-town – is con- humans camp out in tents. ing owned by British Rail is barbeque. This campaign was ceived to unify the advantages turned into the caricature of a intended to draw the author- of both living spaces. house for the petit bourgeois: ities’ attention to the poten- SOCIETY in mid 2003, the Offi ce for tial of turning the town’s Subversive Architecture gave wasteland into desperately- a reinforced-concrete shack needed living space. 30 32

tre and perimeter, inhabited by a community their frequent shortage of green spaces and erb for a widespread attitude towards the tral Europe, the average settlement area in the (estimated) 100,000 m² of fl at roofs on 10 Z. Bauman in: Globalisation, the human of homeowners. Today, post-war suburbia of typological diversity, their high housing burdens that life in a society occasionally suburban areas is 800 to 900 square metres concrete apartment blocks that every Euro- consequences. Cambridge 1998 11 K.R. Grossman/A. Tartakower: The Jew- has replaced the Garden City as the projec- prices and their social problems, are not in presents. Sociologists argue that the new per capita. If we multiply this by 10 billion, pean capital possesses. ish refugee, New York: Institute of Jewish tion plane of homeowners’ dreams. It off ers the best position to compete with suburbia culture of introversion has its roots, in part, we end up with a suburbia of nine million Is the current economic and political Aff airs 1944 limited density and the opportunity to ‘build on attracting middle-class inhabitants. in the widespread anxiety that has arisen square kilometres – roughly the size of the framework adequate, then, to make these 12 K. Schlögel in: Die Mitte liegt ostwärts, your own’, but it lacks what the Garden cit- Currently, human lifestyles are diverging after the attacks of September 11. People United States covered with living rooms, ideas successful enough to compete with Frankfurt 2002 13 Richard Sennett, Verfall und Ende sed ies still have: a centre and a perimeter. The towards two extremes: On the one hand, an tend to go out less, spend less of their time garages, front lawns, streets and shopping the detached, single-family homes that still öff entlichen Lebens. Die Tyrannei der majorit y of urbanis t s consider sprawl a s one increasing number of people are becoming in public spaces and more at home, prefer malls. The environmental footprint of this constitute the majority of new homes built Intimität, Frankfurt /Main, 1986 of the greatest threats to contemporary cit- more and more mobile. Although nomadism – having fewer (and closer) friendships to mega-neighbourhood (i.e. the biologically in most European countries? (In Switzerland, 14 In their report “Ecological Foorprint of ies, nature and human community. even in its modern form – is no new phenom- many superfi cial relationships, prefer in- productive areas necessary to continuously their share has just grown again – from 52 Nations”, Wackernagel et al. estimate the available biologically productive surface In the continued process of segregation enon, globalised economy and increasingly house well-being and body care to adven- provide its supplies and absorb its wastes, per cent in 1999 to 63 per cent of all new of the Earth to be around 1 ha per capita in during the last decades, only families with permeable national boundaries have led to ture sports, and rediscover values such as using contemporary technology) would be homes in 2003.) Recently, the German region 2040, with 10 billion people on Earth. At high incomes could aff ord to remain in the the emergence of a new, migrant working fi delity and family. between six and ten times the biologically of Baden-Württemberg’s Council for Sus- the same time, the average German had an cit y centre s . High housing price s have driven class. The world is literally ‘on the move’,10 Richard Sennett has written extensively productive land surface of the earth. 14 tainability has suggested a system of ‘area ecological footprint of 5,5 ha/capita and the average American of 10,3 ha in 1997 the lower income groups to the outskirts, and sociologists are wondering whether the and critically on the subject of this ‘quest for So whatever the backgrounds of subur- certifi cates’ as a political measure against (see http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/rio/focus/ especially into the large building blocks of ‘centur y of ref ugee s’, a s the 20 th centur y ha s identity, composed of elements of the inner banisation, the future of the world has to be urban sprawl. If the scheme is ever put into report/english/footprint) the 1960s and 1970s; whereas much of once been called,11 will be followed by a ‘cen- world’,13 and identifi es it as the force that – and will be – in urban areas. This year, 2006, reality, these certifi cates would work in a the middle classes have left the cities alto- tury of nomads’.12 The modern nomads spend causes (postmodern) narcissism. Accord- is the fi rst time in history that more than similar way to the emission certifi cates that gether, heading for suburbia. In recent years, much of their time in spaces that are either ing to Sennett, we resort to the intimate half of mankind lives in cities. The control of were introduced to implement the Kyoto Pro- there are indications that this exodus has public – such as airport lounges – or generic sphere because of the fear of an uncertain urban sprawl and the improvement of urban tocol. In the case of area certifi cates, each

34 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 35 INTERVIEW WIT minimum waste. Secondly, Ulrik expects the cleansing of the soil to and waste-saving way of building. LIVING ENVIRONMENTS of adapting to varying conditions of climate, ANDREAS LAUESEN Carlsson who is a specialist in phy- take 10-15 years. I think that this is Therefore, I believe that this method daylight and ventilation as the human skin. toremedation. And, thirdly, Morten the cheapest way to do it. Moreover, is necessary for building in the fu- 2. Think in the long term – because Lund from the Danish School of De- when you do it in the conventional ture. At the same time, however, you sign. He inspired us to keep an open way, you don’t solve the problem – have to consider energy, the environ- nothing lasts forever. In their book Cra- mind in the design process. you are just moving the dirt to an- ment and the use of healthy materi- dle to Cradle, the American architect Wil- other less visible place. als as well. liam McDonough and the German chemist In how far will community life Michael Braungart argue that in nature, in Boase (hopefully) be diff erent That’s a good point. Pollution In reality, it is still mainly the from community life in settle- often goes unnoticed by the public. price that decides which houses THE FUTURE OF nothing has only one life cycle. There is no ments as they are today? And how And the public is seldom bothered are successful and which aren’t. such thing as waste exists as all matter is Together with Force4 – an interdisci- does the architecture of Boase by what it cannot see. Is this ‘in- Are the Boase houses aff ordable part of a continuous cycle of growth and plinary team of eight students from cater for this? visibility’ and lack of ‘immediacy’ to everyone? decay, of birth and death. Similarly, every- The Royal Academy of Fine Arts/ Community life takes place on two a problem when we deal with nat- The houses will be for rent and will School of Architecture and The Dan- levels: in the public park at ground ural resources, in your opinion? cost around 6,000 DKK (850 EUR) thing we produce or build should be part ish School of Design – Andreas Lau- level, which is open to everyone, and I believe that people should speak per month for each 72 square-metre of one of two metabolisms: the technical esen has designed ‘Boase’, a housing on the raised walkways, which are up. Not in a negative way, but rather unit. For a similar new-built fl at in HOUSING scheme for the future which has won mostly only used by the inhabitants. try to suggest some ways of solving central Copenhagen, you would pay the Danish ‘Fremtidens Bolig’ (Fu- Additionally, in each house, there is a the problems. much more. ture Home) award in 2001. Force4 large common space through which 33. Faber Maunsell und Houghton are making now their project a real- each inhabitant enters his or her Were there any concerns about Architects: South Pole Sta- ity in collaboration with KHR Archi- private room. Here you can have a public health because you wanted tion Halley VI (2005). The new tects. DAYLIGHT&ARCHITECTURE party or just meet your friends and to build on contaminated ground? observatory of the British Ant- asked Andreas about the ideas be- neighbours. This open living/meet- Yes, of course. We knew from the be- arctic Survey goes skiing: its tel- hind the project. ing space is a feature that you rarely ginning that this could be the Achil- escopic legs are mounted on skis fi nd in Danish houses otherwise. les heel of the project. Therefore, we which enable it to move and at contacted the state doctor and an the same time prevent it from In general, do you observe a lack expert in toxicology. They told us to sinking in the snow – a fate met of holistic thinking in architec- raise the building above the ground by many South Pole Stations Your award-winning ‘Boase’ project ture today? And could this have so the wind could ventilate the site before it. The two-storey central is now actually being built. How far to do with the way we are trained beneath the building. module has docking places for advanced are the works on site? as architects? smaller living and working units. We are still negotiating the price of The Nordic way of thinking archi- This concept of lifting the build- the building site with the client and tecture has always been holistic. I ings off the ground reminds me a the present owner of the site. We ex- just think that architects and de- little of utopias from the past like pect the building process to start in signers forgot about this during the Constant’s ‘New Babylon’ or Ron approximately three months. 80s and 90s. Some of our big Nor- Herron’s ‘Walking Cities’. Were dic role models have been misinter- you inspired by their thoughts? The fascinating aspect about your preted by those who dominate the Of course we know these projects, project is its holistic approach – architectural scene today. but it hasn’t really been an inspira- encompassing all aspects from tion for the project. Instead, our inspi- 33 the urban scale to the human With Boase, you are actually ‘giv- rations are new materials, changes body, from community to individ- ing something back’ to nature – in society and advanced engineering ual, technology and nature, the and to mankind. Or, as you once and things like that. The home of the future will have to recon- Nature, amongst others, economises on metabolism, in which, ideally, all materials ground and the sky. Did you plan put it, “We reclaim the earth for fu- this ‘big’ approach from the begin- ture generations.”. Do you see this You describe Boase as ‘supple- cile apparent antitheses: it will be urban but the use of materials, maximises structural are infi nitely recycled and re-used, or the ning or did it evolve over time while as a turning point – away from ar- mentary’ to existing cities. Could close to nature, robust, aff ordable and mass- strength and enclosed volumes, produces natural metabolism, in which materials are you were working on the project? chitecture that usually only ever you imagine an entire city based produced but individual, be able to grow and extremely high strength-to-weight ratios, decomposed to become biological nutrients We started out by undertaking broad takes, never gives? on the Boase model? And why/ shrink, provide privacy but also the opportu- creates energy effi ciency through form again. Hence, according to McDonough and and thorough research which we di- I believe that the interest in the in- why not? vided into eight categories: com- dividual human being is generally We made some sketches of entire nity to socialise, and give back to the envi- without external power, uses local materials Braungart, we should beware of what they munity, technology, sustainability, growing in Denmark. But I do not Boase cities on water. We thought ronment more than it takes. Faced with the for building, produces nothing that is toxic to c all ‘mons trous hybrids’ – produc t s or build - identity, self-suffi ciency, dwelling ver- think the situation will change dra- that the system could maybe be used question how to achieve all these seem- the environment and designs structures that ing elements that cannot be cleanly sepa- sus home, network living, human be- matically in the near future. in places that are usually fl ooded – ingly contradictory goals, we might consider can be built by a single organism. rated into components that can become ings dynamic versus constant. These but I think it would be a bad idea be- eight topics have been the generator The site that was chosen on which cause a city should consist of many three strategies that have been put forward Natural structures such as spider’s webs, part of either of the two cycles. Using mod- and the aim of the Boase project all to build ‘Boase’ is highly contami- diff erent people and many diff erent by leading thinkers in the last decades: bird nests and termite hills not only arouse ern technologies, we can emulate the struc- the way through the process. nated. How was it used before? houses and functions. 1. Study the way nature grows, builds our admiration for their beauty, but also for tures, shapes and functions of nature quite There was a small oil company on and evolves. In recent years especially, the their incredibly intelligent use of materials. well. However, there is still a long way to go What were your three main inspi- the site that specialised in produc- A remarkable feature of Boase is rations for Boase – experts you ing new oil products from crude oil. the fact that the dwellings are en- living things around us have proven to be Frei Otto and other engineers have striven to before we will be capable of making them asked, books you read, existing tirely pre-fabricated. What does one of the richest sources of inspiration to learn from these examples. One of Frei Otto’s out of the same renewable or biodegrada- communities or examples from You use willows to purify the this mean in the context of your designers, architects, structural engineers successors, the German engineer Werner ble, strong, effi cient, and beautiful materi- architecture that you looked at? ground. How long do you estimate project? Do you see a need to and material scientists. In his essay Les- Sobek, compares a house to a ‘third skin’ of als as Nature does. If we succeed, the notion Firstly, we went on a fi eld trip to a it will take to do this? And how do ‘think greener’ in the prefab hous- 15 train factory called Scania in Rand- you see this time span in relation to ing industry as well? sons From Nature, the American architect Man – after the fi rst, natural skin and the sec- of buildings being a ‘third skin’ to the human ers, Denmark. They showed us how the time it takes to pollute a site? The industrial production of the and designer Eugene Tsui mentions twelve ond, our clothing. He claims that the skin of body will gain a new signifi cance and even- to produce room-size volumes with Our expert Ulrik Carlsson from DMU houses is a more resource-effi cient underlying principles of natural structures. a house must therefore be as easily capable tually become more than just a metaphor.

36 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 37 3. Rethink our planning strategies. In Secondly, we might profi t greatly if we 35. PLOT: HySociety (2004). nature, simplistic if-then relationships do not rethink the roles of architects, manufactur- ‘What if Denmark had an energy exist. Every action provokes not one reaction, ers and builders. Kent Larson’s forward-look- bill of zero?’ This was the ques- tion the Copenhagen architects but a multitude of reactions. Our ecosystem is ing concept of the ‘Open Source Building’ 17 PLOT asked with their project not based on deterministic programming nor implies that “[...] Builders become assem- for the 2004 Venice Architec- on central control, but on an intricate network blers, architects devise design-engines to ture Biennial. The resulting of iterative, recursive control circuits that all effi ciently create thousands of unique envi- design represents a hydrogen- powered compact urban super interact with one another. Our own brain with ronments, [and] customers (home-buyers) block for 1 500 inhabitants in its neuronal ‘architecture’ is an example. In his become ‘innovators’ at the centre of the proc- which a closed circle of ‘energy book The Art of Network Thinking, 16 the Ger- ess by receiving personalised information on generators’ and ‘energy consum- man biologist and planning theorist Frederic design, products and services at the point of ers’ is created. The main energy source is the sun. Excess heat is Vester argues that planning must embrace decision .” Not unlike Ve s ter ’s idea s , the notion used to heat apartments, offi ces this kind of complexity rather than try contin- of ‘Open Source’ is based on the assumption and a swimming pool.

36. Research station Peak_Lab (2003). The research station 34. Vision of a Space Station Peak_Lab on the Kleines Mat- (1970). After Apollo 9’s success- terhorn is a self-supporting labo- ful landing on the moon, NASA sci- ratory providing its own energy entists planned the fi rst orbital and water supply. It is assem- space station: hollow cylinders bled using Helicopters. The ‘high- containing a mini-version of the fl ier’ is divided into modules earth’s ecosystem. The architec- which, in turn, allow for a vari- ture of the residential buildings ety of uses. For instance, the was only slightly diff erent to the kitchen can be converted into a standard of American suburbia. sleeping or living module.

35

IMAGE CREDITS P.15 IMAGE SOURCE: FILM MUSEUM BERLIN – DEUTSCHE KINEMATHEK P.16–17 PHOTO: MICHAEL WOLF WWW.PHOTOMICHAELWOLF.COM, COURTESY OF HASTED HUNT GALLERY, NEW YORK, WWW.HASTEDHUNT.COM GATEFOLD: A SHOAL OF JELLYFISH PHOTO: CHRIS SATTLBERGER / SPL / AGENTUR FOCUS THE NATURE OF DWELLING 34 LEFT OF P.18 MARC-ANTOINE LAUGIER: PRIMITIVE HUT (1755) 1. DRAWING: LE CORBUSIER/VG BILD-KUNST 2. PHOTO: RICHARD DAVIES 3. PHOTO: ATELIER FREI OTTO 4. PHOTO: ROBERT BRUNO ually to reduce it. Vester identifi es eight basic that if we relinquish central control of the 5–6. RENDERINGS: WILL ALSOP/SARAH FEATHERSTONE P.20–21 rules in bio-cybernetics, amongst which are: planning process and allow a greater degree PHOTO: THE THOMAS KINKADE COMPANY GATEFOLD: HONG KONG INTERIOR the existence of both positive and negative of unpredictability and ‘fuzzy logic’, the result PHOTO: MAP OFFICE MY HOME IS MY CASTLE 7–8. PHOTOS: THOMAS LINKEL feedback mechanisms, the independence of will become more individualised, more robust 9–11. PHOTOS: LARS MONGS 12. PHOTOS: HAYLEY FRANKLIN the system from quantitative growth, a func- and less susceptible to failure. 13. DRAWING: ROB KRIER 14. PHOTO: JAKOB SCHOOF tion-oriented rather than a product-oriented Thirdly, the concept of symbiosis leads THE CELL AND ITS METABOLISM P.26 PHOTO: MARTIN RAND, VENICE, CA 15. PHOTO: LANGE/DECHAU way of working, the multiple use of products, us back to a point we discussed at the very 16. PHOTO: N55, KOPENHAGEN 17. RENDERING: KALHÖFER – KORSCHILDGEN functions and organisational structures, and beginning of this article. The human world 18. PHOTO: FONDATION LE CORBUSIER/ VG BILD-KUNST 19. PHOTO: JAKOB SCHOOF 20–21. DRAWING: N55 symbiosis – the mutual ‘utilisation’ of diff er- has turned into a world of specialists, in 22. DRAWING: KISHO KUROKAWA 23. PHOTO: KISHO KUROKAWA ARCHITECTS ence by interconnection and exchange. which the concepts of individuality and dif- 24. PHOTO: TOMIO OHASHI P.28–29 Now what doe s this mean in the planning ference predominate. In doing so, we have DRAWING: FONDATION LE CORBUSIER/ VG BILD-KUNST NEW PARADIGMS FOR MASS PRODUCTION of a home? Firstly, user feedback – both posi- created the potential to create a multitude 25. PHOTO: BOKLOK 26–27. PHOTO: JAKOB SCHOOF 28. PHOTO: BOB PERRON tive and negative – is vital and should directly of fruitful symbioses, in which each partic- 29. PHOTO: MAP OFFICE/LAURENT GUTIERREZ, VALERIE PORTEFAIX infl uence the planning and production proc- ipant can learn and profi t from the other. ME, MYSELF AND SOCIETY 30. DRAWING: EBENEZER HOWARD ess. Will it be possible to turn the mass-pro- A truly broad-based symbiosis in the plan- 31. PHOTO: ARCHIZOOM / COLLECTION CENTRO STUDI E ARCHIVIO DELLA COMMUNICAZIONE, UNIVERSITÀ DI PARMA duction of future homes into a process that ning process, one that is built upon mutual 32. PHOTO: OFFICE FOR SUBVERSIVE ARCHITECTURE constantly, and almost automatically, learns respect, solidarity and close communication, THE FUTURE OF HOUSING 15 33. GRAPHICS: FABER MAUNSELL + See http://www.tdrinc.com/natarch.htm HUGH BROUGHTON ARCHITECTS from the user’s experiences? If it is, we will will be a sound foundation for our quest to 16 34. RENDERINGS: NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER Die Kunst, vernetzt zu denken. A report to 35. PHOTO: PLOT have achieved a truly function-oriented way create living environments for the 10 billion 36. ILLUSTRATION: PROF. RICHARD HORDEN, LONDON the Club of Rome. Munich 2002 36 AND TU MUNICH; PROF. DR. ULRICH PFAMMATTER, 17 POLYTECHNICS FOR TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMY, FACULTY of designing and building homes. people that will soon inhabit our planet. See the article in this magazine. FOR CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN, CHUR/SWITZERLAND

38 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 39 REFLECTIONS Diff erent points of view: ideas beyond Text by RAMTV – Aljosa Dekleva, Manuela Gatto, those of everyday architecture. Tina Gregoric, Robert Sedlak, Vasili Stroumpakos.

What if the shape and size of human dwellings were determined by the inhabitants themselves through a process of negotiation with each other? In negotiate my boundary!, their fi nal thesis at the Architectural Association in London, the fi ve young architects RAMTV developed a planning tool that enables this kind of negotiation. The result is a cluster of fl ats that fulfi l not only the participants’ individual needs, but also the needs of the community as a whole.

Negotiate my boundary! proposes a model for customis- tural proposal. Th e boundaries created within the project do ing and purchasing dwellings via the Internet. Mass-custom- not defi ne public-private dichotomies, but rather gradients of NEGOTIATE ised collective housing with users’ participation is provided intimacy establishing multiple domains and therefore mani- through web-based software which triggers intensive interac- fold modes of social exchange. It is not only about separation MY BOUNDARY! tion and negotiation among future clients. Th is takes place in and privacy, but also about the potential performative eff ects a real-time environment with incorporated speculative mar- that interactively relate boundary and dweller. ket-strategies (‘stock-exchange’ model). Th e project investigates how today’s evolving social systems i. research process and domestic organisations aff ect urban residential architec- ture. Th is research on the ‘superordinary’ topic of housing is Th e research was initiated by focusing simultaneously on two developed through a design project on mass-customisation of autonomous systems – the territorialising system and the ergo- a neighbourhood with an ‘ambitious’ social agenda. Th e the- nomic system – as a framework for analysing Le Corbusier’s sis simulates the parametric design process introducing user ‘unité d’habitation’ as an initial ecology. In parallel, separate participation whereby, via a web page, future dwellers par- research into contemporary social realities gave information ticipate in the physical and social organisation of the neigh- on the construction of social scenarios. Th e intriguing insta- bourhood and co-design their dwellings. Th ey select activities bility of social relations triggered the research into respon- that in turn generate the dwelling via digital morphogenetic sive environments to enable spatial responses. New boundary processes. All these operations occur under a stock-exchange systems are generated to record and evoke social and spatial model: before buying, the clients negotiate over the Internet dynamism. A genotype system (derived from the territorial- with their neighbours about the shared space. Th is model inte- ising system) and an activity-tile system (derived from the grates principles of simultaneous reaction and responsiveness, ergonomic system) interact and inform each other in ways which installs real-time interaction and negotiation amongst that allow the emergence of a defi nitive spatial organisation, clients in a real-time environment with incorporated specula- a hyper-attached system, which allows it to be mass-custom- tive market strategies. Th e Internet is used as an architectural ised by potential users on the web prior to the installation of design instrument with its interactive parametric potential the residential fi eld on a chosen building site. to generate – strategically, spatially and socially. It becomes a medium for a renewed idea of community and a tool, not 1. Territorialising system > genotype system only to fulfi l and enable social patterns, but mostly to stim- Unité d’habitation was analysed to identify its system of unit Above With negotiate my ulate new social interactions. Th e web ‘signifi cantly lowers types and their combinatory patterns. A high level of general boundary! a wall is not automat- the threshold of personal communication between users and complexity, derived from a range of relatively simple unit types ically a barrier. RAMTV’s story- board depicts possible ways in allows for the development of a certain degree of self-selection and their combinations, is non-visible from the repetitive pat- which rooms and mobile fi xtures and communal self-organisation in a safe and non-commit- tern of the façade. As the principle of interlocking double units can be used together. tal virtual domain. Th is is also the domain in which a genu- is a key feature of the system, this research generates a geno- inely participatory design process fi nally becomes plausible. It type system that is focused on double unit negotiations, test- is precisely these ‘design processes’ of choice, articulation and ing the potentials of the in-between (negotiation space) of two negotiation that become the vehicle for building up the social proximate units. It defi nes the basic geometry, structure, cir- relations that might lead to new forms of community.’ 1 culation and combinatory (interpenetrating) principles. Th e main focus is the negotiation of boundaries along multiple modes, spatial and social, and on many diff erent 2. Ergonomic system > activity-tile system scales, from nano-scale to xl. Negotiation becomes a gen- Th e ergonomic system research focuses on the relationship erative parameter for the spatial actualisation of an architec- between activities and ergonomics – an interface between

40 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 41 Ergonomic system > Activity-tile system Territorialising system > Genotype system Left Summary of the project nego- Below (top) Excerpt from the Below (bottom) The way in which tiate my boundary! At the heart of catalogue regarding possible the residential area is structured the project, there is an ergonomic activity tiles. From left to right: depends on the preferences of the subsystem, the ‘activity tiles’, and a connection between two rooms, residents regarding access to free spatial subsystem, the ‘genotypes’. tile ‘sleeping accommodation’ space, daylighting and the pros- Both complement each other to form and tile ‘bath tub’. pects of the residents: a group what RAMTV call a ‘hyperattached of patio houses (left), a terraced

B system’. The actual shapes and sizes Below (middle) Statistical dis- housing area (centre) or a high- A of the dwellings are negotiated with tribution of household sizes in rise block (right). the cohabitants and neighbours Great Britain (1995–1996). over the internet.

Virtual envelope Negotiation space Customising spatial envelope > Possible actualisation Lofting technique (A – B)

Spatial organisation = Hyperattached system the human body and its surrounding domestic environment. a ssemble rele va nt socia l scena rios r u n f rom a n abst ract mat ri x of is clearly adapting to new social arrangements. Th e increasing Ergonomic positions of the human body defi ned with activ- possible members, defi ning their relations with other members trends are single-parent households and households of singles ities generate the activity-tile system, developed to challenge (links – intimate, parental, some) and boundaries ((non-)pub- or couples over pensionable age. the typical section of living spaces through fl oor-to-ceiling lic, (non-)autonomous) and interactions with other members, By intensive inclusion of shared households,3 a varied deformation in a continuous variation and modify the inte- to highly specifi c social scenarios based on real lifestyle stories, activity community is created, instead of the discrimination rior perceptions in a residential unit. which enable ultra-individualised dwellings. eff ect of separate urban enclaves (maternity homes, elderly residences, etc.). Rather than treating these as separate social 3. Responsive environments > boundaries Spatial organisation = hyper-attached system phenomena, a new potential for social exchange arises: dif- A responsive environment is able to react to stimuli serving Th e genotypes with their defi ned geometry and possible defor- ferent lifestyles and timetables give opportunity for mutual as an input for its performance, appearance or arrangement, mations form a virtual spatial envelope, while the modes of their help – members performing services to each other or/and ful- which in turn are based upon the activities and choices of its aggregation (inter-penetration) defi ne the negotiation space fi lling social needs (e.g. child care). individual users. In order to be considered truly ‘responsive’, (intersectional space between two genotypes). Th is virtual spa- such systems must be able to process incoming information tial envelope is a generic, undiff erentiated spatial entity set up iii. mass-customisation and adapt to a condition diff erent from an initial state (includ- to be actualised through a mass-customisation process. ing an organisation, arrangement or installation of built ele- Unique life-styles demand highly specifi c, tailored dwell- ments). Today, systems such as these can be guided by software ii. social agenda ing units. Today, mass-production is adapting to new mar- systems that control new confi gurations based on information ket demands in the form of mass-customisation. Universal, collected from the patterns of human use and behaviour within Th e potential community is formed via web-based software, standardised products are giving way to personalised, cus- these installations; accordingly, such environments consist of fi rst as a virtual entity, before it is actualised on-site. Th e project tomised products, which are based on new mass-production Type of household (UK 1995 – 96) architectural elements that do more than just ‘move’. is a ‘social experiment’ responding to and amplifying the exist- Single under pensionable age 13% processes that adjust fi nal designs to owner preferences and 28% Singles Diff erent responsive systems are invented to rework the ing social trends, not only to fulfi l the essential needs for Single overpensionable age 15% desires. Computer-based production allows individualised Married couple 29% 74% threshold and view conditions. Th ey also infl uence the def- domesticity and privacy, but to encourage new social inter- Married couple with 1 child 9% products to escape the domain of luxury and to enter the inition and performance of the boundaries – social as well action among future members of the community. It suggests Married couple with 2 children 10% everyday domain of economically viable large series. Indi- Married couple with 3 or more children 4% as physical. Th e project establishes a responsive environment new relations among households, intersections of boundaries Married couple with nondependent children 6% vidualised products are becoming widespread and aff ordable. where your behaviour can be under constant evaluation and and their controlled permeability, sharing and renting spaces, Single parent with dependent children 7% Th e on-line purchase of confi gurable products is already hap- 10% Single parents Single parent with nondependent children 3% therefore responsive to scripted elements of architecture, where opening up boundaries to make them public. Two or more unrelated adults 3% pening with many consumer goods, from cars and dresses to your fl at is breathing with you and learns your habits if this Th e boundaries are not defi ning public-private dichoto- shoes and mobile phones. Th is customisation can vary from is what you want. mies, but rather gradients of intimacy on multiple scales and the most superfi cial (appearance – colours or initials applied Responsive environments are twofold entities: while they are therefore modes of exchange. Th e approach challenges the defi - to Nike trainers) to the most essential (structure – a selection material assemblages able to be seen, touched, adjusted (they nit ion of t he dwel ling a s ‘a l l inclu sive’ 2 with an ‘excluding prin- of the hardware and software components in a Dell compu- have a physic a l presence), t hey a re a lso invisible, in t hat t hey con- ciple’ (e.g. excluding services > a dwelling without a kitchen) ter). Th ese models of mass-customisation serve as prototypes sist of networks comprising software controls guided by script- and an ‘including principle’ (e.g. including public extras > a for how one might design and purchase dwellings today. able performance criteria that ultimately determine how these dwelling with a home-cinema). Th is process attains a highly Carpet Middle-rise High-rise An on-line user interface was developed to facilitate the arrangements respond to specifi c needs and predefi ned events. structured system of dependencies between households and mass-customisation process, in which clients can generate a total inclusion of public space in the private domain, with their future neighbourhood, customise their dwellings, spa- 4. Social scenarios > neighbourhood a network of small-scale public programmes incorporated in tially and performatively, and buy them. A simulation of the Initial research into social realities within the domestic realm the dwellings (e.g. mini cinema, restaurant with home-cooked on-line purchase of individual dwellings tests the processes of became the basis for simulating social scenarios that, in turn, food), leasing or renting part of the fl at (sauna, magnifi cent information-gathering and collective negotiation that mod- generate the organisational diagrams guiding the development dining room, professional kitchen...). ulate and refi ne the design. Th is simulation was created in of the proposed responsive neighbourhood, informing the fi nal Current social trends suggest that households will be order to explain the dual processes of ‘dwelling’ and ‘unit-gen- design while describing its operations. Th e processes used to smaller than ever before. What might be called the ‘family’ eration’, including the techniques for arriving at appropriate

42 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 43 designs that are as individual as the preference sets and nego- performance, which are embodied in build sections, defi ned Negotiate my boundary! is a master thesis project developed at the tiated requirements of each occupier. by activity-ergonomic relations. A process of lofting4 connects Design Research Lab (AADRL), M.Arch Graduate Design Course at the It is a parametric design process that explores mass-cus- the chosen sections, creating spatially unique dwellings cus- Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA), London, UK. tomisation on an urban collective residential scale. Th e fact tomised by user inputs and the automated process of connec- Negotiate my boundary! is also a book, which was recently republished at Birkhäuser Publishers, Basel. that the proposed housing units are not suburban villas (e.g. tion. Everything occurs in a ‘stock-exchange’ model: a virtual freestanding objects like Villa Savoye), without physical prox- spatial envelope enables the fi eld of negotiation to occur inside CV imity to their neighbours, determines the necessity for mutual a very specifi c set of constraints. eff ects, where customisation of one unit aff ects the other. (+RAMTV) is an international team of fi ve young architects. The fi ve constant members are: Th e mass-customisation process selectively records user level 3 > Customising the boundary Aljosa Dekleva (Slovenia), Manuela Gatto (Italy), Tina Gregoric (Slovenia), preferences and negotiates with design constraints. It is struc- Th e last level of customisation focuses on the enclosure systems Robert Sedlak (Germany) and Vasili Stroumpakos (Greece). tured at three diff erent levels, with each next level refi ning the directly shaping the project’s interactive social environments. degree of ind ividua lisation of your dwel ling environment: pa r- Diff erent responsive systems are proposed to the clients, who Aljosa Dekleva graduated from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia with a Master of Architecture with Distinction from the ametric neighbourhood looks at the various ways in which the can select and specify their pattern, shape and specifi c kinetic Architectural Association Design Research Laboratory (AADRL), London. project can be specifi ed by clients on an urban level; custom- performances of the boundary that aff ect the relation to the In 2003, he co-founded the Dekleva Gregoric arhitekti architectural offi ce ising the spatial envelope includes the procedures by which exterior, to all neighbours and also to the internal space of the practising in Ljubljana, Slovenia. www.dekleva-gregoric.com users are able to customise their own dwellings; and custom- dwelling. Two developed interactive systems (louvres system Plans and sections 1:200 Manuela Gatto graduated from the Istituto Universitario di Architettura ising the boundary defi nes the interactive systems of respon- and wire system) are based on the mechanical and software- di Venezia (IUAV) and in 2002 obtained her Master of Architecture with sive enclosures, where clients select and control the shape and defi ned performance of the elements to redress the threshold Distinction from the Architectural Association Design Research Labora- performance of their dwelling-unit boundaries. and visibility conditions, thus controlling the social and phys- tory (AADRL), London. She has taught at the Architectural Association in ical performance of boundaries, inducing a continuously var- London and is currently project architect at Zaha Hadid Architects, manag- ing master plans and building work in Spain. level 1 > Parametric neighbourhood iable social space. Th e responsiveness on an urban level is determined by the Tina Gregoric graduated from the Faculty of Architecture, University of parameters that both clients and planners defi ne. A client’s log- conclusion Ljubljana, Slovenia with a Master of Architecture with Distinction from the in on a web page is an offi cial entry to the club, one becoming Architectural Association Design Research Laboratory (AADRL), London. From 2002 to 2004 she was a lecturer at the Technische Universität Graz, a member of a community, while simultaneously establishing Urban residential architecture with negotiable boundaries is Austria. In 2003 she co-founded the Dekleva Gregoric arhitekti architec- it. Th e clients activate initial inputs for the parametric neigh- a product of today’s intricate social situations and interac- tural offi ce, Ljubljana, Slovenia. www.dekleva-gregoric.com bourhood by fi lling in an on-line questionnaire specifying their tions. It is a Big Brother situation, where you are extremely degree of inter-connection to surrounding neighbours, their exposed (if the nature of your ego allows it) and your facili- Robert Sedlak completed a concrete-builder apprenticeship before he studied architecture at the University of Applied Sciences in Nuremberg relation to the open space, inclusion of public programmes ties and lifestyle are shared with neighbours and a larger pub- and subsequently at the Architectural Association Design Research Labo- and the range of activities in the dwelling etc. In parallel to lic. If you don’t fancy the exposure, you can withdraw and ratory (AADRL), London, where he received a Master of Architecture with the spatial preferences, they are developing their social sce- remain totally isolated: your home becomes a cocoon. Either Distinction. He is practising in Germany as an architect. nario – establishing links among future members of a commu- way, the setting becomes a responsive environment where your www.schoeneneuewelt.org nity and defi ning their types of household boundaries, being behaviour can be constantly evaluated and adjusted by means Vasili Stroumpakos has an M.Arch with Distinction from the Architec- either autonomous or non-autonomous and either public or of scripted architectural elements. Your domestic space lives tural Association (AADRL) and an Arch Diploma from Aristotle Univer- non-public. All their choices are saved and used to defi ne the and breathes with you, learning from and reacting to your sity. He teaches at AADRL, AA Diploma and Media Studies and has been mode of aggregation of the units in a new urban situation – habits – if this is what you want. appointed Head of the AA Digital Platforms Department. In 2002, he launched 00110.org (www.00110.org), an organisation specialising in into one non-hierarchical sponge-like spatial organisation. Th e proposal sets up strategies, parameters and regula- digital interface and information design. He is currently undertaking Th e planners’ task is to defi ne the general envelope of the tions. Th erefore, a single, defi nitive outcome in a system is research at the London Consortium on Information Surfaces, which will dwelling clusters with the initial constraints set by a hyper- never achieved – rather, the ongoing evolution of the project enable him to gain a PhD. attached system (geometry, principles of combining units – is continually recorded by on-line information gathering, dis- penetrating one into another) and parameters that guarantee play and negotiation. Th ere are many possible actualisations a coherent development of the aggregation, such as daylight depending on social input, negotiation conditions and site spe- conditions, access, structure and contextual infl uences. Th e cifi city. Th e simulation of real-life scenarios by potential cli- Above (top) The individual Above (bottom) With nego- 1 Patrik Schumacher, Autopoiesis of a residential community, in B. Steele, ed., façades are individually adapted tiate my boundary!, the fi n- RAMTV, Negotiate my boundary! (London: AA Publications, 2002), p.14. decisions of every party are embodied in a virtual spatial enve- ents has led to a possible architectural materialisation, which in the fi nal planning stage. Using ished apartments could look lope with clearly defi ned negotiation spaces, which serve as a renders the output of the ‘parametric design process’. Th e a system of vertical louvres, the like this – or they could be 2 ‘A dwelling is structurally separate accommodation whose rooms, including basis for further customisation and design defi nition. project becomes an ongoing life-game simulation of fl uctu- user can determine which areas completely diff erent. As soon bath or shower, WC and kitchen facilities, are self-contained’ (UK, 1991). ating preferences, constraints and agreements. of his home should be open to the as the negotiations are com- 3 level 2 > Customising the spatial envelope outside and which ones he wants pleted, the Cluster Blaster Shared household includes at least a double boundary (small households to be more intimate. program automatically gen- within another larger household arrangement – linking of small households Th is process of spatial as well as social negotiation allows for erates the working drawings (single-parent family, elderly, single) into larger collective ones.) several unpredicted results of spatial materialisation of the vir- from the cumulative data. tual spatial envelope that were placed on the market through 4 Lofting is an automated process of connecting several sections to generate client-defi ned modes of negotiation about the position, shape a 3D result, a technique commonly available in all modelling software. and performance of the space among several diff erent parties. A client is invited to negotiate with its neighbours about the negotiation space by choosing preferred activities and their

44 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 45 43°19 05 N, 11°19 51 E 05.2002

46 47 La terra senza dolcezza d’alberi, la terra arida Che rompe sotto Siena il suo mareggiare morto E incresta in lontananza È un luogo non posseduto dal senso, una plaga diversa Che lascia transitare i pensieri Però non li trattiene, non opera come ricordo, ma come ansia.

Previous page The land unsoftened by trees, the dry land S. Quirico D’Orcia, Siena Whose dead swell breaks under Siena Photo by Andrea Rontini And reaches its crest in the distance www.andrearontini.it It is a place not possessed by meaning, a diverse region Which allows thoughts to pass through Not holding them back however, not operating like memory, but like anxiety.

48 49 DAYLIGHTING Taking a closer look: how daylighting Text by Kent Larson. DETAILS is brought into buildings The individual design of living space today involves much more that the mere selection of furniture and fi ttings. Modern interfaces between client, architect and manufacturer allow the customer himself to be the architect of his own idea of how to live. In the following article, Kent Larson from the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, USA, describes a new approach to mass customization in OPEN SOURCE BUILDING the construction industry.

Left Post occupancy, The mass-housing blocks of Taipei, as conceived by their creating generic living spaces. But the idea for architectural ad-hoc personalisation of architects, are dreary and monotonous. Th ese banal build- customization is certainly not new. Mies van der Rohe sug- mass housing in Taipei. ings, however, become the backdrop for extraordinary cre- gested in  that “if one limits only the kitchen and bath as ative expression. In an ad-hoc and probably illegal manner, standardized rooms, and the remaining living area with mov- windows become bays, bridges are added, and balconies are able walls, I believe that any justifi ed living requirements can infi lled with an endless variety of forms, materials, and sys- be met.” Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, wrote in tems. Some show a meticulous attention to detail while oth-  that industrialized construction processes could “meet ers look like death traps. But the whole reveals, at the scale the public’s desire for individuality and off er the client the of the city, a powerful desire of individuals to create personal pleasure of personal choice.” and unique places of living. Today, the need for meaningful personalization goes well While not expressed in the façades of u.s. and European beyond the satisfaction of desire. Th e home is rapidly becom- buildings, this desire is revealed in the hundreds of books, mag- ing a center for proactive health care, distributed energy pro- azines, and television programs devoted to home design. Com- duction, work, commerce, entertainment and learning. Homes panies like Ikea, Home Depot, and Lowes exist largely to tap in the future will likely contain the most complex activities of this do-it-yourself market. Th e housing industry, however, has any building type. It can be argued that many of the looming not found a workable strategy for meaningful customization. societal problems due to demographic pressures and energy Other industries are rapidly adapting their products and shortages must be addressed by fi nding a new model for the processes to respond to the market demand for customiza- cost-eff ective tailoring of the form, technologies, and services tion. Car websites encourage visitors to ‘build and price your to meet the needs and values of individuals. car’; Dell has become the most successful pc manufacturer by producing tailored computers for individuals; the New York open source building Times allows online members to ‘create a customized news We belie ve t hat it is now possible to increa se t he qua lit y, respon- alert’; Nokia off ers interchangeable faceplates to personalize siveness, cost-eff ectiveness, and formal richness of residential mobile phones; and clothing and shoe companies can scan architecture by taking advantage of the new tools of our epoch: your body to create personalized products. Many of these inexpensive computation, powerful algorithms, almost-free companies are, in eff ect, integrators who form business rela- electronics, the internet, high-performance materials, and new tionships with a network of strategic partners and suppliers design, fabrication, and supply-chain technologies. We pro- to off er ‘batch quantities of one’ personalized products. Th ey pose a new model for design and construction, called Open provide consumers with increasingly sophisticated confi gura- Source Building model, with six underlying concepts: tion and decision-making tools for customization. Speaking at a National Association of Home Builders conference in ,  Integrators partner with developers to off er William Novelli, Executive Director and ceo of aarp, said branded, tailored solutions to individuals the following about baby boomers and housing, “Th ey love  Buildings are disentangled layers of integrated assemblies choice: set up the smörgåsbord and let them help themselves.  Manufacturers agree on interface standards and Th ey will. Th ey want information – and the more sources the become tier-one suppliers of components better because they are not afraid to make decisions – but only  Builders become assemblers on their own clock and on their own terms.”  Architects design design-engines to effi ciently create Th e existing process and fee structure of housing devel- thousands of unique environments opment, however, makes it largely impossible to address the  Customers (home-buyers) become ‘innovators’ at the center unique design problems of individual residents. Architects of the process by receiving personalized information about

PHOTO BY KENT LARSON KENT BY PHOTO typically focus on planning and the exterior envelope, while design, products, and services at the point of decision.

50 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 51 Opposite (far left) Scale study Opposite (bottom right) Left View from above of digital model of the building exterior. PlaceLab interior testing one table showing plan, information aspect of Open Source Building: display, tagged physical compo- Opposite (top right) PlaceLab Integrated Interior Infi ll (I3) nents, and continuously updated interior, showing Integrated Inte- components with sensing and feedback about design . rior Infi ll (I3) fi t-out. Each of the addressable lighting infrastruc- 22 interior components contains ture. Shown are hinged, a micro-controller, sensor bus, accessible sensor bus raceways. and a variety of state change All cabinets use the same sensors, environmental sensors, embedded connections and and communication devices. technologies, simplifying installation and increasing fl exibility. The facility contains hundreds of modular sensors. RENDERING BY LARSON 2003, SCALE MODEL MCLEISH 2003 LARSON KENT BY PHOTOS LARSON KENT BY PHOTO

In this chapter, we summarize the work of the mit House_n with the means to eff ectively make informed decisions with- design iteration interface Once t he design is set, speci fi cations for standard products can Research Consortium to prototype and test selected design, out becoming overwhelmed by the process is essential. Th is Using one of many possible design iteration interfaces, custom- be sent directly to the manufacturer, and machine data can be decision-making, and construction systems that support this involves much more than simply off ering choice since, as Joe ers can experiment with design alternatives, and evaluate a com- sent directly to millwork fabricators, for example, for the pro- new model. Pine writes, “Customers do not want choice. Th ey want what plex mix of elements including form, fi nishes, lighting, health duction of customized or mass-customized components. they want (and generally now).” technologies, appliances, comfort systems, and services. chassis and integrated interior infill (i) A good designer has the ability to keep many variables at House_n researcher t.j. McLeish developed a design inter- standards gm’s well-publicized HyWire concept car is conceived as a play simultaneously until converging on an integrated solu- face prototype where the users have various tools to help them Widely available, highly customized places of living will only standard chassis common across their entire product line, tion – simultaneously solving many problems, from formal to understand the design and its implications: be possible if the design and construction industry collec- with highly customized ‘infi ll’ (the body parts, fi nishes, elec- functional. We believe that home-buyers, using sophisticated tively agrees on standards for how building components and tronics, etc.) often provided by ‘Tier-1’ suppliers. Personal decision ma k ing tools, c a n become ‘ innovators’ at t he center of • Conceptual views: diagrammatic fl oor plans showing the systems connect. Th is would involve standardized interfaces computers are built with a similar strategy. No comparable the process by receiving carefully tailored personalized infor- relationship of spaces and elements. for power, data, plumbing, and mechanical attachments as is approach, however, can be found in the design and construc- mation about design, products, and services at the point of • Tangible objects: optically tagged scale physical objects placed common in the electronics industry. It would allow interop- tion of buildings. decision. In our model of design, experts create systems that on the plan. Th ese objects provide the means to move architec- erable a ssemblies w it h su ffi cient economies of scale to increase Th e mit House_n Group has developed prototypes to capture their design knowledge and values. Th ey are used to tural elements and furniture to study alternate arrangements. quality and reduce costs. Th is approach may transform how separate a building into a ‘chassis’ (the standardized structure, guide non-expert designers through complex design and deci- By physically moving or replacing scale objects, the displayed homes are created over the next – years, and create new power, data, and plumbing of a building) and ‘infi ll’ (apart- sion-making problems – without requiring that one think like views and information is continuously updated. Th e views of pathways into this -billion-per-year-market for compa- ment interior fi tout that are customized at the point of sale by an expert. Th is approach to design decision-making for non- the design are updated by moving a physical scale fi gure. nies producing materials, products, and services for the home. the individual and connect in standard ways to the chassis). expert designers involves four integrated components: • Perceptual views: as the physical objects are moved, a ten foot- It could create the ultimate mass-customized product: highly A variation of the chassis/infi l l strateg y wa s u sed to create a n high projected perspective rendering showing form, light and personalized living environments comprised of a complex inte- apartment-scale research environment to study the interactions preference engine materials is updated in real time. Th is presents the solutions gration of customized, mass-customized, and standard inte- of people with new technologies. Th e PlaceLab, an mit House_ A preference engine takes people through a series of exercises as perceived by an individual standing at a particular spot at grated assemblies. n plus tiax llc initiative, consists largely of prefabricated, cus- or games to uncover needs, preferences, values, and reason- a particular time of the day. tomized cabinetry components with accessible connections to able tradeoff s – what might be called the architectural pro- • Data: the alternatives can be evaluated according to cost, per- Kent Larson is principal research scientist at MIT’s School of Architec- the building ‘chassis’. Th ese components house sensing, com- gram. Th e preference engine builds a user profi le that includes formance, durability, etc., including data provided directly ture and Planning. He is director of the Changing Places research group munication media, lighting and control systems. family size, budget, aesthetic values, and range of activities. To from the manufacturers. and the MIT Open Source Building Alliance. Larson has practiced archi- tecture since 1981: in partnership with Peter L. Gluck from 1981 to We envision a future where individuals could tailor their prototype and test various strategies, we built a digital table 1995 in New York City, and as Kent Larson Architects, PC from 1995 to physical and computational environment according to their that projects images and data from below onto a luminous computational critics present. Architectural Digest selected his fi rm as one of the 100 archi- needs and values via customized Integrated Interior Infi ll (i) surface, and uses sensing to recognize gestures and optically While iteratively exploring a design solution, most non-expert tects for residential design, and his designs have won numerous awards. components, each with pre-installed, tailored technologies. tagged architectural component scale models. designers will require feedback from experts related to best practices, building codes, and design integrity. Since face-to- rethinking the design process for design engine face interaction between a skilled architect and client is typ- responsive places of living Th e design engine is a computational algorithm that makes use ically not feasible for housing developments, we envision a Th e customization of homes is signifi cantly more challenging of the preference engine data to create a starting point design system where architects provide software ‘plug-ins’ that non- than the mass-customization of individual products since the that the ‘designer’ (i.e. the future homeowner) then refi nes. expert designers can use to get real-time feedback as they make users of the system have a wide range of age, interests, skills, We envision many design engines, each capturing the changes to their designs. While code requirements can be rule- and cognitive ability. Th e resulting home is a complex mix of unique va lues of a particular architect. We have experimented based, capturing the more subjective values of a designer may many products, some standard and some customized, that exist with several strategies, ranging from a simple decision that require a more open-ended approach. Computational critics in the complex context of architectural form, light, and mate- fi nds a best-fi ts among a series of pre-developed solutions, to can provide feedback to the user as incremental changes are rials. Since it is not feasible for an individual designer to work a more complex and unconstrained design system. made to the design. House_n researcher Reid Williams imple- closely with each resident of a large housing development, a mented a prototype of a computational critic system that runs design interface that provides individual non-expert designers with the design iteration interface described above.

52 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 53 VELUX INSIGHT Architecture for people – building with VELUX.

Text by Katja Pfeiff er. SUBURBAN Photos by Torben Eskerod & Bert Teunissen. No two people are identical. This realisation was kept JIGSAW PUZZLE in mind by Rotterdam architects Drost + van Veen when they designed the Swanla estate on the out- skirts of Zevenhuizen. Rented and owner-occupied properties, lofts and terraced houses of diff erent sizes – all have been joined together to form two homogeneous compact blocks, which provide a great deal of leeway for users who may want to modify them at a later date.

54 55 Previous The fact that the com- plex includes diff erent types of living arrangement cannot nec- essarily be seen from the out- side. The northern ‘living island’ shown here mainly accom- modates two to three-storey detached and terraced houses.

Left The complex rises to a height of six storeys on the side facing the village. Here, on the south-western end of the large ‘island’, the rental apartments are located.

Opposite There is parking space either in the underground garage or between the residential units. A brick-red wall makes it possi- ble to see into the courtyard.

Zevenhuizen is one of many small villages was formerly used for agriculture located complex was completed. I accompany the in a catchment area in the northern part of at the edge of the village. Not much money architect, Evelien van Veen, on a tour. We Rotterdam. It is 16 kilometres from the city considering the noble ambition of creating approach SWANLA Catsburg from the west centre and located between two freeways something ‘completely diff erent’. and cross a narrow footbridge. The site is in fl at ‘ polder ’ countr yside . T he Zevenhuizen - The main aim of the programme was to surrounded on all four sides by canals. It is Moerkapelle has around 1,000 inhabitants, provide accommodation for less well-off peo- only possible to reach it in two places by car, a fi gure which is rising as is also the number ple and people with a higher income in one in the east and west corners. of pensioners, singles and single parents. But location. Following this plan consistently, the “At the request of the client, people should there are also families here who want to architec t s de signed a jigs aw puz zle of rented not park in front of the house. This was some- avoid the noise of the big city, looking for the apartments, apartments for sale, lofts, sin- thing completely unusual for a small village peacefulness of the green landscape, an idyll gle-family houses and terraced houses. The like Zevenhuizen.” said Evelien van Veen . And between canals and greenhouses, industrial result is a homogeneous and compact urban- this is what was done. In spite of the unusu- park and freeway. planning concept. It generates the impres- ally wide road, there are no cars in front of At the moment, a ‘lot of work is being sion of a fortress – a strong gesture which the building because most of the residents done on the housing market’, says the local combines the diff erent forms of living in a sin- park their cars in the underground garage community in an offi cial statement. And gle entity. The social character of SWANLA of the complex or next to their house. At the the ‘need for high-quality homes is growing’. Catsburg becomes especially clear if the same time, the scaled dark roof which almost Such homes are being built in Utrecht, Rot- project is compared with other buildings in reaches down to the ground catches the eye. terdam and Amsterdam but you seldom hear the surrounding area. The estates developed From under it, a wall with a warm brick-red of this happening in a small village such as around the site in past years correspond to colour protrudes. Generously curved corners Zevenhuizen on the outskirts of the city. The the home construction companies’ standard- complete the façade and give an idea of how young Rotterdam architect’s offi ce, Drost + ised terraced houses which are found all too big the complex is. With its fi ve fl oors of apart- van Veen, were willing to take on this chal- often in the provinces of Holland. ments, it marks the entrance and, at the same lenge. The development company, Woon- As winners of a limited competition, (the time, relates to the buildings opposite. We partners Midden Holland, invested around city invited three offi ces to present their walk round the corner, our hands stroking the 11 million euros in SWANLA, a two hectare work), Drost + van Veen started planning rough brickwork skin. “Old clinker was used residential project on a piece of land which in 2000 and, at the beginning of 2005, the here,” said the architect, “only good material.”

56 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 57 58 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 Swanla interiors: photos by Bert Teunissen www.bertteunissen.com 59 In spite of tight fi nancial resources, the archi- on the structure which determines the adja- It stops drizzling when we arrive bet- troughs mark the dividing line between the stairs leading to the upper fl oor. The diff er- or has never existed in such a form. In terms tect’s offi ce paid special attention to the selec- cent rows of houses and the axes of sight ween the two ‘islands’. The playground in private and communal outdoor area, which ent ground plans are all based on the same of its shape, the building emanates strength. tion of building materials. Brick and stone into the open meadow landscape. the middle of the square is empty. Friday has now been planted. scheme: a spacious living room with an open It is alive. are typical of the region. Traditional forms of We continue walking along the south- afternoon. An old gentleman is taking his The largeness of form which character- kitchen, two or three bedrooms, a balcony building, materials and context have played east side. After around 50 metres, the build- dog for a walk. Most of the residents do not ises the complex from the outside gives way or loggia facing outwards or a terrace fac- Opposite The site is surrounded a leading role in the projects of Drost + van ing becomes lower. The three-storey terraced return from work until later. inside to an almost family-like ambience. ing the courtyard. Everyone profi ts from the on all four sides by water courses. The longitudinal views Veen: the small tiles used for the SWANLA houses begin here but the materials remain We enter the glass foyer on the west side Everyone can choose who he or she mixes daylight which comes into the rooms from of the two ‘islands’ which form roof, for example, were a response to the vil- the same. The dark camoufl age-like panel- of the complex. It was already apparent from with socially, or chooses who not to mix with, above through the large glazed fronts and the complex are slightly off set lage scale of the project. The ceramic shingles ling is in the form of a strip or a monopitch the outside that Drost + van Veen had based as the case may be. Within the terraced and the roof windows. This is especially clear in from each other. have a slightly horizontal bend in the direction roof accompanying the continuous brick-red their work on ‘other’ design principles here; single-family houses, the condensing princi- the corner houses, whose living space is lit Above The rental apartments in of the sky and refl ect the sun, although this is base set back horizontally. But, in spite of like randomly thrown down Mikado sticks, ple rules; garden arbours seam a narrow up from two sides. the southern part of the complex rare at this time of year. the diff erentiated cubature, it is very diffi - the individual staircases intersect with each alleyway in the middle of the courtyard. The In the plans, the interior fi ttings were are accessed from the interior The residential complex comprises 48 cult to distinguish between terraced house, other, thus creating diverse spatial relation- terrace between house and outbuilding is reduced to the essentials. The buyers select courtyard through walkways terraced houses and 41 rented apartments single family house and maisonette apart- ships and angles of view. Thanks to the large completely private. the ground plan according to their personal protected by glass elements. with an eff ec tive living area (BVO) of 1 1 , 6 80 ment. As in the case of the rented unit, glass panorama windows, the entrance area looks Most of the people living in SWANLA needs and wishes. But not only that; they square metres. It consists of two ‘islands’, façades at the entrances and closed anthra- open and light. For the inside of the complex Catsburg come from the vicinity, namely a make the fi nal decision on the individual one being around 50 metres wide and 130 cite-coloured garage doors alternate with as well, the architects elaborated a function- lot of older people who, as the architect said, appearance of their home, for example the metres long and the other having the same each other. The wooden doors and window ally and spatially eff ective concept: a con- fell attrac-ted by the ‘special nature’ of this garages which can be fi tted out to create an width but being 85 metres long. What is strik- frames are painted in the same grey col- struction made of wood and glass panels housing concept. The ground plans of the additional room. If the fi nancial means per- ing is their arrangement: only the end points our. The roof, which can almost be touched, protect the arbours against the wind. Like residential units are all based on the stand- mit, the owners can have another fl oor built are on the same axis whereas the edge of provides us with shelter against the rain. A the staircases, they are also made of pre- ard size of 5.4 m wide and 11 m or 12 m deep. where this is possible. This is done by plac- the block narrows slightly towards the mid- narrow parking bay between two terraced fabricated concrete elements – matching The types of apartment vary between 109 ing a monopitch roof on the already existing dle. The large form is retained but is never- houses with a monopitch roof interrupts the minimal materials used. A bench implies and 190 square metres of living area and fl oors. In the course of the next few decades, theless pleasingly interrupted when seen in the row of buildings after about 20 metres. that the place is accepted by the residents. the maisonette apartments are between SWANLA Catsburg will change in appear- perspective. There was another important Through small openings in the brick wall, we On the ground fl oor, a similar impression is 141 and 196 square metres in size. Access ance and even that which is shown by the reason for splitting into two parts and off - catch a glimpse of the courtyard, terraces, conveyed: the terraces are open towards is f rom the lowe s t level, with a single fl ight of many design models will not be applicable setting the roads, however: they refl ect back plants and outbuildings. each other. Low, soberly designed wooden

60 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 61 Facts Previous Four intimate views Below (right) Additional living Location Zevenhuizen-Moerkapelle, NL into the interior: in spite of the space is provided by the monopitch Type of building Residential building, outwardly uniform apartments, roof which can be placed onto the (social)rent and for sale the occupants and their styles existing flat roof if required. Development company Woonpartners Midden Holland of living differ from each other Architect Drost + van Veen Architecten, considerably. Bottom (clockwise from left): Roof Rotterdam, NL facade (vertical section), general ©FMGB. GUGGENHEIM BILBAO MUSEOA, BILBAO, 2006. Completion date 2005 Below (left) The gable roof and plan, cross-section through under- façade form a unit. Their surface ground garage and rental apart- consists of anthracite-colored ments with covered access. ceramic shingles with a slightly horizontal kink that reflects the sun and endows the whole with a village feeling.

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Host of the award event for

A3

C5 */5&3/"5*0/"- 7&-69
"8"3%
 '03
456%&/54
0'
"3$)*5&$563& Veen n 8887&-69$0." va + t Dros

© of ht opyrig d c d n a by ings aw Dr

62 D&A spring 2006 Issue 02

V6330-001_Guggenheim_ad.indd 1 24-02-2006 15:22:23 VELUX PANORAMA Architecture with VELUX MVRDV intentionally dispensed with any kind of extravagance. from all over the world. Only the diff erent facade materi- als diff erentiate the buildings.

COLOUR MAKES THE DIFFERENCE HAGENEILAND RESIDENTIAL AREA IN YPENBURG

Facts Location Siemensvaart Ypenburg, Rijswijk Type of building Terraced and semi-detached houses Investor Amvest, Amsterdam Architects MVRDV, Rotterdam Completion 2001

1

Since the beginning of the 1990s, ances, such as roof shape, window housing in the Netherlands has under- arrangement and choice of materi- gone a radical change. With the with- als. MVRDV decided to play the archi- drawal of the State from domestic tect’s game and reduced the houses construction, prices doubled within externally to their original prototypes a few years. At the same time, the- – two storeys with gabled roofs, with matic residential areas were being no apparent gutters, porches or other developed which were sometimes accessories. Only skylights occasion- con-structed as parallel worlds, for ally interrupt the homogenous roof- example as mediaeval forts or cas- ing casting some daylight inside. tles from the Renaissance period. In MVRDV fulfi l the inhabitants’ the VINEX area in Ypenburg there is subliminal wish to have their ‘own’ an urban extension of approximately house with brand recognition factor 15,000 accommodation units based through their calculations regarding on the ‘countryside’ theme. The mas- the choice of materials. The houses ter planners, Fritz Palmboom and Els are clad in a uniform way from the Bet, divided the site, which was previ- foundation to the roof ridging. There - ously a military airport, into themed fore, no two neighbouring rows of areas such as moorland, wood or houses ever receive the same façade water. Hageneiland, which can be material. The following materials are translated as ‘the hedge island’, is used: wood shingle, corrugated fi bre part of the ‘water district’ planned cement boards, aluminium sheets, by MVRDV. The name stems from blue and green polyurethane panels the high hedges, behind which the in- and clay roof tiles. The green houses habitants’ private gardens will disap- will become overgrown with ivy in pear. The area is only accessible by the coming years. foot, the only parking spaces being along the ring road. In planning the 119 privately owned and rented dwellings, MVRDV 2

were confronted with another pecu- MØRK ADAM BY PHOTOS liarity of the private housing market: the risk of poverty. The fl oor plans of 1. The ‘hedge island’ Hagenei- 2. The interior estate is com- the dwellings are largely standard- land is part of a master plan pletely free of cars. The rows are ised; typological experimentation is created by Fritz Palmboom and each composed of a maximum not desired and the architect usually Els Bet. The proximity to water of six individual houses and are designs the façade only. He provides – as is often the case in the Neth- interspersed with many smaller the residential area with its own erlands – determines the urban spaces, which give Hageneiland identity through outward appear- planning concept. the appearance of a village.

64 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 WEEKEND HOUSE IN THE CITY 1. The building authority regulations, due to 5. Thanks to the long roof dormer, the height of XXS HOUSE IN LJUBLJANA which the roof is oriented towards the north, the upper-fl oor room is suffi cient. In addition, necessitated a special light concept in order the shape of the dormer allows the light to enter to be able to supply the interior with a large from above, not from the front. amount of natural light. 6. A great deal of natural light enters through Facts 2. The attractive ‘Krakovo’ district near the the staircase opening and lights up the ground Location Ljubljana old town is characterised by small hous- fl oor. The minimalist staircase looks like a sculp- Type of building Residential building ing lots in the country-house style. With its ture made of steel. Only a thin piece of steel Client Private external form, based on the preceding build- serves as a handrail. Architects Dekleva Gregori_ Architects, ing, the XXS House blends in perfectly with Ljubljana 1 its environment. 7. The cubature of the small house looks as if it Completion October 2004 has been cut out with a knife due to the large- 3. Location diagramme. format fi bre-cement panels used for the façade. 4. Elevation. It therefore stands out from its surroundings, especially in terms of the materials used.

Anyone who has been to Ljubljana, reaction of Dekleva Gregori_ archi- the capital of Slovenia, will know the tects to this idea was a kind of strict picturesque Old Town with its many minimalism in form and material: the small cafés dotted along the River simple 43 square metre cubature of Ljubljanica. Not quite so well known, the ‘Xtra Xtra Small House’, which however, is the attractive ‘Krakovo’ had to match the preceding building district not far from the Old Town. due to local building authority regu- Originally created as a trading quar- lations, is emphasised even more by ter for the neighbouring monastery the façade and roof panelling made built in the Middle Ages, it has in re- of large-format fi bre-cement panels. cent years become increasingly at- The windows, which are fl ush with tractive for people who want to be the panelling, look as if they were cut near city life but also would like to to size with a knife. There are two have a house with a garden. Erected rooms, one on top of the other – sim- in small lots, the country-house style ilar to the concept of a hotel suite. buildings – each adjoined by an elon- Equipped with only the minimum fi t- gated garden – look like a green oasis tings, they perform all the functions in the most densely populated city – from bathroom to small kitchen – in Slovenia. which are necessary for short-time It was in this environment that stays. A sculptural steel staircase in the small XXS House, planned by the middle of the ground fl oor leads Dekleva Gregori_ Architects from to the bedrooms on the upper fl oor. Ljubljana, was built in 2004. The Here, the architects used a trick to 6 client, the father of Aljosa Dekleva, handle the north-facing orientation and an architect himself, helped to of the roof: the elongated roof dor- fi nance the young architect’s offi ce mer does not open out towards the in its fi rst independent project. The front but upwards, thus admitting building plan was based on an unu- a large amount of natural light into sual idea for using the house: the cli- the rooms. This makes living in a very ents lived in the countryside and the small space a unique experience in a couple wanted a ‘weekend house in townhouse bathed in sunlight. the city’ in order to be able to partic- ipate in the city’s cultural life. The 2

3 45 5 7 DRAWINGS BY AND COPYRIGHT OF © DEKLEVA GREGORI_ ARCHITECTS PATERNOSTER MATEVZ BY PHOTOS

66 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 67 A CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC 1. Villa Karlsson is set in an area 3. Roof windows placed as light VILLA KARLSSON IN VÄSTERÅS with amble space to the next shafts add light to the staircase and neighbour, the nearest small to the upstairs living space ready for town and the sky above. guests, but not yet furnished apart from a few decorative items. 2. Freely placed windows in a Facts sprawl punctuate the roof and 4. The interior, which is kept bright Location Tidö-Lindö, Västerås (Sweden) the ‘closed’ facçades together white, forms a marked contrast to Type of building Single-family house with the screen-like, fi xed shut- the ‘Falu-red’ colour used outside. Client Björn and Berit Karlsson ters. This makes the light inside Architects Tham & Videgård Hansson 1 the house diff er and change in a 5. Detailed cross-section. Arkitekter AB constantly changing pattern of 6. Axonometry of the construction. Completion 2002 light and shadow.

Situated on a small island near the ditional barns, warehouses and other the solid and prismatic exterior. oversized wooden panels made of huge lake Mälaren, the red-coloured rural buildings in the area have been On the northern coast of Lake the heartwood from slowly grown wooden ‘Villa Karlsson’ is a modern the primary source of inspiration; a Mälaren in mid-Sweden, the house pine. Traditional Falu-red paint cre- example of simple family-life plan- pattern still very common on and is situated in a former recreational ates the prismatic look, at the same ning and co-existence with the wild, around the island Tidö-Lindö. area where the original, archetyp- time re-interpreting the Scandina- Swedish nature. Its shape resembles Rooms en suite in combination ical Swedish cottages have been vian roof technique used for centu- a traditional Swedish cottage, albeit with transverse passages off er sev- either extended or replaced by ries in the North and on the island of in an extended, extra long, version. eral alternative ways to use the ‘ready-made’, ‘do-it-yourself’, cata- Gotland. All exterior fi ttings are also The brief from the clients, a cou- house. Windows are placed to high- logue houses. painted red to emphasise the tradi- ple in the mid-sixties with no pre- light certain views, e.g. of the garden To keep construction costs low, tional, monochrome exterior look vious experience with architects, lake, a special tree or the sky above, the modules are based on a standard of a Swedish wooden cottage. As a was to create space on the ground as if the windows and the views out- cc1200 module. Standard building contrast to the red exterior, the inte- fl oor for themselves; the upper fl oor side were paintings in a fi ne art gal- components made the costs ex- rior is kept bright monochrome with should be ready for future extension lery. The use and placement of the tremely low , i.e. 30-50% less than plaster-white surfaces and modern and be used by visiting children and windows is a strong and poetic ele- the average cost level. The exterior Scandinavian and international fur- friends when staying overnight. Tra- ment creating a dynamic contra st to materials of the Karlsson Villa are niture classics. 3 5

2 4 6 PHOTOS BY ÅKE E:SON LINDMAN AB ARKITEKTER AB HANSSON VIDEGÅRD & THAM © OF COPYRIGHT AND BY DRAWINGS

68 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 69 VELUX DIALOGUE The International Symposium on Daylight Quality.

Fig. 1 (Left) BTV Building in Wolfurt, Austria. IN SEARCH OF A Layered façade elements are combined to control daylight and sunlight in bank offi ces and COMMON LANGUAGE apartments. (Source: Baum- schlager & Eberle Architects, Lochau, Austria)

Text by Werner Osterhaus, Symposium Co-Moderator. To move daylighting design into the 21st appreciate the daylight contribution. ing in well-designed spaces bathed in abun- century, a common and specifi c language is Alexia Monauni of Austrian architecture dant daylight and direct sunlight to provide To move daylighting design into the 21st century, a common and required to facilitate exchange and debate fi rm Baumschlager & Eberle off ered a number added warmth – both psychophysically and specifi c language is required to facilitate exchange and debate between all parties involved in the building of projects which explored the treatment of psychologically. He wants to provide for that between all parties involved in the building industry, along with industry, along with clearly defi ned descrip- building façades to regulate daylight and desire in new ways and is prepared to inves t clearly defi ned descriptors of the factors responsible for achiev- tors of the factors responsible for achiev- sunlight with integrated architectural ele- the time and join interdisciplinary teams to ing high-quality daylighting applications. Awareness of and ing high-quality daylighting applications. ments of varying context-dependent mate- make it happen. easy access to detailed information on successful examples of Awareness of and easy access to detailed rial qualities. Her fi rm utilises a layer approach But the building users’ ‘love of daylight daylighting design applications are other critical steps in this information on successful examples of day- often incorporating sliding panels in the exte- and sunlight’ is not unconditional, as Peter process. That is the consent reached by daylighting experts – lighting design applications are other criti- rior layer, recessed glazing elements in the Boyce, a long-time researcher and consult- researchers, educators, architects, lighting designers and users cal steps in this process. That is the consent central layer and curtains or blinds in the inte- ant on human factors in lighting design, of daylit buildings – at a symposium in Budapest. reached by daylighting experts – research- rior level to allow the occupants to vary the pointed out in his contribution. Others could ers, educators, architects, lighting designers amount and nature of the daylight or sunlight clearly confi rm this. Despite the overwhelm- and users of daylit buildings – at a sympo- entering the room (Fig. 1). It would have been ing general longing for daylight, buildings sium in Budapest. interesting to see how these strong architec- users will complain if things are not work- There seems to be little doubt that peo- tural designs are experienced by the occu- ing well. Building occupants might experi- ple clearly like daylight and sunlight. They pants in their daily routine. ence high brightness contrasts between strive to create and enjoy buildings that Ivan Redi of architectural fi rm ‘Ortlos’ diff erent parts of their visual fi eld, discom- provide plentiful and visually pleasing nat- (without fi xed place) presented his team’s fort from glare or veiling refl ections at their ural lighting. Access to good daylight and a desire to explore the new possibilities of the workstations, overheating due to excessive pleasant view have almost become synon- digital age in order to allow architecture and solar radiation entering their space, or other ymous with high-quality buildings and good lighting design to move in new directions. problems associated with the design of the architecture. Architects attending the sym- Trying to recapture the skills of the old mas- daylighting system. On the other hand, if posium and pre senting some of their de sign ter painters, he essentially suggests that daylight and sunlight could reasonably be work certainly demonstrated that they have daylighting design in architectural applica- provided and they are not, then people will a strong personal desire, as well as a client- tions is like painting with light and shadow complain about the lack of these elements. driven mandate, to integrate daylighting in suppor t of an ar tis t ’s composition to allow Reasons for less-than-optimum day- and views to the exterior environment cre- the viewer (or building occupant) to experi- lighting conditions in a building might range atively into their buildings. ence a scene or space in a particular way. from a lack of fully understanding the funda- Research from around the world has also In Mr. Redi’s view, researchers focus mental premises of daylight and sunlight as identifi ed that good daylighting design can too much on quantifi able aspects or fi nal form givers in architecture to the inappro- improve worker productivity and student results and too little on the design process. priate application of technology on the part learning, provide a healthier environment, It is during the design process that decisions of the designer. In addition, the lack of clear signifi cantly reduce energy consumption, are made which signifi cantly aff ect a build- defi nitions and descriptors or indicators for and improve the image of designers and ing occupant’s experience of a space. Mr. daylight quality impedes the communica- building owners/occupiers as visitors will Redi also speaks of his clients’ dream of liv- tion between researchers, architects, light-

70 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 71 Left Physical model based light- Werner Osterhaus is an architectural educa- ing design simulation for a complex tor and lighting researcher with the Centre for daylight environment in the artifi - Building Performance at the School of Architec- cial sky with sun simulator. (Source: ture at Victoria University of Wellington, New Peter Andres, Lighting Consultant, Zealand. He can be reached via e-mail at Hamburg, Germany) [email protected].

More detailed information on the individual presentations off ered at the sympo- sium can be found at the Daylight Site at http://193.163.166.242. Above & Right Computer-based lighting design simulations for complex (above) and relatively simple (right) environments. (Source: Ivan Redi, Ortlos Archi- tects, Graz, Austria)

ing designers, and building owners or users light provided on the working plane. Workshop in conjunction with LBNL occupy arch Council of Canada (NRC) focussed on for the architectural and social context, well- also concerned about the extra time needed regarding the goals of daylighting design and Fabio Bisegna from the University of much of Eleanor Lee’s time these days. The how new knowledge on occupant responses distributed across the space, and supportive to incorporate these processes into the over- how to achieve high-quality daylit buildings. Rome addressed issues of daylighting design project presents a unique opportunity to to daylight in buildings can be incorporated of human health and well-being. all time and fi nancial framework. And they Current guidelines and recommenda- from the perspective of Southern Europe assess the many factors infl uencing day- into existing and new design tools. One of Potential, known descriptors for day- are concerned about how they will know tions are frequently based on research con- and particularly highlighted the connection light quality long before the building goes NRC’s research projects has tracked the light quality include: whether their design decisions will ulti- ducted many years ago with now outdated between daylighting and solar control, a crit- into the actual construction phase. Exterior movement of individual offi ce workers to • Luminance (adaptation, ratios, contrast, mately achieve the desired outcome, espe- lighting and control systems or building ical issue for energy conservation and human and interior façade elements, daylighting correlate their daily routine with information distribution) cially as they understand that diff erent technology. Offi ces are a prime example: comfort in the Mediterranean region. and solar control systems, electric lighting about the various luminous environments • Volumetric brightness (perceived eff ect people occupying a space can have widely the critical work surface has moved from András Majoros from Budapest’s Univer- integration, furnishings and offi ce equip- in which they move about. Linking both the of overall brightness of all room surfaces – varying responses to its characteristics. the horizontal desktop to the near-vertical sity of Technology highlighted the dynamic ment can all be tested and evaluated prior dynamics of daylight and the behaviour of analogous to mean radiant temperature in From lighting specialists employed by computer screen and lighting needs have characteristics of daylight as one of the to their installation in the fi nished building building occupants can provide new insights thermal comfort assessment) scientifi c and academic institutions, design- changed accordingly. These new realities reasons why people enjoy and prefer day- design. Nevertheless, LBNL researchers when assessing the daylighting performance • Illuminance (ocular, vertical, horizontal, work- ers expect more design-oriented outcomes require diff erent approaches to the prob- light. Daylight and sunlight vary in intensity fi nd that existing daylighting metrics are of a building or space. Ultimately, it is hoped plane, scalar, cylindrical, uniformity) from the research conducted. In general, lem. Many assessment models cannot be and colour throughout the day and seasons. insuffi cient when it comes to establishing that design tools can dynamically evaluate • Daylight factor (average, minimum) both designers and researchers need to adapted to include some of the current Automated daylighting and solar control clear design parameters and assessment various possible design scenarios. • Correlated colour temperature and spec- ‘think more with their eyes’ than with their (day)lighting technologies. New models are systems have been developed in response, criteria for the many aspects of this inno- Hamburg-based lighting consultant trum of light source light metres, as Ivan Redi expressed it. therefore required to close that gap. attempting to carefully negotiate the fi ne vative building. Visual comfort experiences Peter Andres off ered the symposium par- • Directed and diff use lighting contributions This symposium has set the scene. It has Marc Fontoynont, leader of the daylight- line between what might be perceived by the often vary greatly from one person to the ticipants a detailed look into his fi rm’s light- Unfortunately, even established design- brought together participants from diff erent ing research programme at the National Uni- occupants as either desirable assistance or next. This presents a huge challenge when ing quality assessment process. Both virtual ers frequently apply these terms or descrip- fi elds that rarely mix and created a forum for versity of State Public Works (ENTPE) in removing all control from the users. at tempting to de sign a daylight sys tem that and physical models are part of the reper- tors incorrectly and without a clear under- exchange and debate. The need for a common France, introduced the symposium partic- Jan Wienold from the Fraunhofer Insti- responds to the needs of all building occu- toire, along with many years of experience. standing of the underlying concepts. Further language is obvious as there is defi nitely more ipants to daylighting research conducted at tute, Germany participates in the ECCO- pants. Nobody really wishes to relinquish He feels that access to an artifi cial sky education is obviously needed. than one viewpoint. Daylighting researchers, ENTPE and within the International Energy Build project, an interdisciplinary European control over their personal work environ- with sun simulator is essential to study the In addition, all of the above are still educators, designers and building users are Agency Task 31. Key aspects included results research endeavour specifi cally looking at ment to someone else. dynamics of daylight and sunlight, especially descriptors of measurable quantities, rather not necessarily on the same wavelength – at from user preference studies regarding day- developing algorithms for user and climate Marie-Claude Dubois, Université Laval, when unusual geometries are proposed for than qualit y. De signer s want to k now how to least not yet. However, the willingness to lighting control systems and useful indica- responsive daylight and solar control sys- Canada, presented current research on a specifi c space. His clients can get a fi rst- set design goals for daylight quality and how collaborate clearly exists. It was proposed tors for the cost of light provided by diff erent tems. So far, several important aspects have assessing daylight quality in simple rooms hand experience of a model’s interior and these goals can be approached. Good exam- that other disciplines should also be included, means. If one can demonstrate that good been advanced through this project, rang- through computer simulation. Simplicity in are able to see the impact of diff erent design ples are an essential part of this process, as especially experts in vision science and psy- daylighting can provide cost savings com- ing from better means to assess luminance the geometry of the space, she says, allows solutions. He seems to suggest that physical well as design tools appropriate for the com- chology. It would also be valuable to include pared with other measures, investors are mapping camera images for likely glare the researcher to carefully assess the impact models are still seen by many as more true plexity of the decision-making process at a structured post-occupancy evaluation on more likely to support such design. Daylight occurrences to the proposal of a new dis- of many individual variables in the compu- to reality than virtual models. each step along the way. Simple tools (e.g. the buildings they have designed to connect from windows and skylights was identifi ed comfort glare formula. ter modelling process through parametric High quality-daylighting, he suggests, rules-of-thumb) are often suffi cient early design and research in order to enhance our as the preferred source of providing light Full-scale mock-up and computer simu- study. Too complex geometries make such can perhaps be best described as the type on. Later, more complex design tools allow- understanding of daylight quality. indoors and also the most economic source lation models of the new offi ce building for studies diffi cult, as interdependence of var- of daylighting which is suffi cient for visual ing spatial (three-dimensional) and tempo- with 0.35 € for skylights and 1.08 € for side the New York Times newspaper currently iables clouds the picture. task performance, visually comfortable and ral (time) representation will be required to windows per mega lumen hour (Mlmh) of being designed by Renzo Piano’s Building Guy Newsham from the National Rese- glare-free, visually pleasing and appropriate make appropriate decisions. Designers are

72 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 73 Visit thedaylightsite.com

Facts Key speakers The VELUX International Daylight Sympo- -Marc Fontoynont, Head of Building Sci- sium, held on 6–7 November 2005 in Buda- ences Laboratory, Département Génie Civil pest, was the fi rst international academic Urbain et Bâtiment in Vaulx-en-Velin (F) event to focus exclusively on daylight in -Peter Boyce, Consultant, Human Factors architecture. 80 participants attended, rep- in Lighting (GB) resenting architects from private companies, -Alexia Monauni/Elmar Hasler, public authorities, researchers and teachers Baumschlager& Eberle (A) from universities and schools of architecture. -Guy Newsham, Institute for Research in The symposium included participants from Construction at the National Research 17 countries on four continents, including Council of Canada (CDN) 13 key speakers. It was led by two modera- -Jan Wienold, Fraunhofer Institute for tors, Marc Fontoynont, Head of Building Sci- Solar Energy Systems (D) ences Laboratory, Département Génie Civil -Werner Osterhaus, Senior Lecturer, Urbain et Bâtiment in Vaulx-en-Velin (F), and Wellington School of Architecture (NZ) Werner Os terhaus , Senior Lec turer from the -Ivan Redi, ORTLOS architects (A) Welling School of Architecture (NZ). -Eleanor Lee, Building Technologies, Lau- rence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA) -Fabio Bisegna,Department of Fisica Tecnica at the University of Rome (I) -András Majoros, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Architecture (H) -Marie-Claude Dubois, Laval School of Architecture, Québec (CDN) -Peter Andres, Light Consultant, Hamburg (D)

74 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 houses on the American West Coast. UTZON’S Utzon’s approach to the origins of try for neo-modernism. The second onto designs which have stood the BUILT BY HAND – book: there is a picture of a building in The scheme for fast-selling houses de- OWN HOUSES architecture becomes particularly is amazement about the triumphal test of time is viewed distrustfully, VERNACULAR Cicmany, Slovakia alongside houses BOOKS veloped later: 28 Case Study Houses clear in his Mallorca houses, which procession of a new traditionalism traditionalists must avail themselves in Al-Hajjara, Yemen. Frescos in Holz- were planned up to 1966, but only 20 take up a great deal of space in this which enjoys great popularity, par- of more radical, provocative views BUILDINGS AROUND gau, Austria, and in Ardez, Switzer- Michael Asgaard Andersen, REVIEWS of these ever materialised. book. With them he reverted to re- ticularly when it comes to house than their neomodernist counter- THE WORLD land follow splendiferous murals in Tobias Faber A few years ago the authors gional construction techniques so building. In fact, the Netherlands parts – ‘precisely because they dare Valledupar, Columbia. In the epilogue, For further reading: Arkitektens Forlag 2005 Ethel Buisson and Thomas Billard skilfully that a native architect later has developed a new centre for ‘New resist this tradition of the new’. Authors: Bill Steen, Athena Steen Yoshio Komatsu writes, “When I fi nd recent books ISBN 87–7407–316–8 prepared to update the history of the wrote Utzon had taught him to look Urbanism’, partly in the slipstream In Unmodern Architecture, Ibe- and Eiko Komatsu a beautiful house, my heart beats presented by D&A. Case Study Houses to the present at his own homeland in a new way. created by the British and Ameri- lings describes the development of Photos: Yoshio Komatsu faster as I get feelings from its shape, time. They visited the houses which Jørn Utzon is most widely known as Utzon’s houses always developed can precursors. Entire small towns ‘contemporary traditionalism’ and its Gibbs Smith, Utah, USA 2003 materials and settings”. It is beauty were still in existence, took photo- the architect responsible for the Syd- directly from the building process. were, and still are, based on the ex- main representatives in Holland, Rob ISBN 1-58685-237-X in simplicity that fascinates the pho- graphs of them and spoke to their ney Opera House and the church Bags- In the introduction to the book, Kim amples of villages, fortifi ed towns or and Léon K rier, Adolfo Natalini, Vera tographer and surely also the reader. current occupants. In addition, they værd Kirke in Copenhagen. The Danish Dirckinck-Holmfeld and Martin Kei- castles, with or without moats, from Yanovshtchinsky, Sjoerd Soeters and The hospitality of the residents who searched for plans and photographs Architectural Press and the Louisiana ding sum up his attitude entirely, the Middle Ages. Molenaar & van Winden, to name but In 1989, the two authors Athena and inhabit many of the large, colourful in old editions of Arts & Architecture, Museum of Modern Art now want to “The construction is the architecture, Architects have at their mercy a few. In doing so, he makes it clear Bill Steen of Indian, Mexican and Eu- photographs should also not be for- which they could then compare with open the Pritzker Prize winner’s other, everything else is lipstick”. Charac- the devotees of neotraditionalism that they were nearly all trained in ropean ancestry, founded the Canelo gotten. Despite the variety of build- their new photos. In their text, they lesser-known buildings to the public teristically, in 1952, he only drew up and the like, who are irreconcilably the tradition of post-war modern- Project, a non-profi t and community ings, materials and locations that they THE PRESENCE OF integrated the past and present, in a real ‘Tour de Force’: before 2007, the plans for his fi rst house in Helle- against even the term ‘traditional’, ism and are now making up for what organisation in the pasture lands of present, the authors do not claim that architectural documentation and re- Utzon’s extensive archive compris- bæk after it was completed. Utzon’s which is like a red rag to them. To to a large extent passed the Nether- Tucson, Arizona. They had already this is exhaustive – they could not ful- THE CASE STUDY ports in an amusing way. At least as ing 25,000 drawings will be sifted houses are examples of architecture that eff ect, genuinely objective, im- lands by at the time: postmodernism. made a name for themselves, par- fi l this anyway. In a world increasingly HOUSES enlightening as the buildings them- through and his designs will be pub- that requires a second glance: except partial surveys are rare. Hans Ibel- Ibelings keeps to the book’s promise ticularly in the USA, with their self- controlled by Western consumerism, selves is the description of the build- lished in a complete edition. for his opera house design, they are ings, author of the much-discussed by describing things impartially and built houses made from straw and Built by Hand is a collection which Ethel Buisson, Thomas Billard ing of the housing and the excitement Utzon’s own houses form the prel- not eye-catching due to their con- book, Supermodernism, attempted therefore the book sometimes shows other natural materials. inspires courageousness as it refl ects Birkhäuser 2004 that the Case Study Houses caused ude to his works catalogue. The very cise shaping, but due to the use of to carry out such a survey. He ac- neotraditionalism in a new and un- The book, Built by Hand, pub- the wealth of cultures and exhibits ISBN 3–7643–7118–8 in Arts & Architecture and other personally coloured strip on the title space, perspective, light and atten- cepts the possibility that the number usual light. Unfortunately however, lished in 2003, gives a comprehensive new ‘old’ methods: not every ‘roof (French edition: Les éditions de media at the time. In the end, the page was designed collaboratively by tion to detail. The book’s readership of readers who have a strongly neu- in doing so, he almost exclusively overview of their activities through- over the head’ that provides warmth, l’Imprimeur 2004 chapters were supplemented with declared Utzon connoisseurs, such is drawn in by numerous detailed tral attitude towards him may not presents the views of the architects. out the project and how the architec- protection or simply gives pleasure ISBN 2-910735-51-6) short digressions into American ar- as Tobias Faber and Christian Nor- drawings and excellent, in print how- be decreasing. However, he retorts: The ‘fellow players’ have been faded ture was constructed by hand using has to be built from glass, concrete chitecture and contemporary his- berg-Schulz, who died in 2000. How- ever somewhat lifeless, colour pho- “Just as I wished to document super- out, despite the fact that without traditional materials and techniques and corrugated iron. The ‘Case Study Houses’ are a part tory of the 1940–1960s. ever, this is not the only reason that tographs by Søren Kuhn and Tobias modern architecture out of curiosity, them the architectural movement which were typical to the area. How- of American architectural history Despite the documentary-style the book is easy to handle. It shows Faber. Further fi ndings from the ar- I now attempt to provide a picture of would never have developed to such ever, the real author of Built by Hand like the famous writing on the Hol- photographs, it is always the archi- how Utzon, spending time working chive research also rouse curiosity. another phenomenon in contempo- an extent. This included the hous- is their Japanese friend and photog- lywood hills. The architects who tecture and not the established pref- in his offi ce, started with examples rary architecture, which fascinates ing industry, which gave contracts rapher, Yoshio Komatsu. He and his designed this unique series of ex- erences of the inhabitants that take such as Wright, Asplund and Aalto me to the same extent and which I for the buildings, and the ‘man on wife Eiko were off round the world, perimental houses have become centre stage. The Presence of the and with great constructive clarity sum up under the name ‘contempo- the street’ as the buyer, the wishes making pictorial records of indige- world renowned: Charles Eames, Case Study Houses is not a book on developed an architecture of his own. UNMODERN rary traditionalism’.” of whom the new-old architectural nous buildings and their inhabitants, Eero Saarinen, Richard Neutra and architecture in the traditional sense, At the end of the 1960s, he lost his in- ARCHITECTURE At the beginning of his book, Ibe- style attempts to fulfi l. Therefore, who were also architects. Pierre Koenig, to name but a few. but a report on a present-day expe- terest in industrialised buildings and lings compares traditional architec- possibly inadvertently, Unmodern The chapters entitled Earth, Their buildings epitomise the es- dition to an architectural era, which developed his own timber construc- ture with biological nourishment: in Architecture portrays neotraditio- Stone, Wood, Bamboo and Straw Hans Ibelings sence of the ‘American dream’: the would otherwise have been consid- tion system for residential premises, the past nothing else existed. How- nalism as something that it never constitute the introduction to the NAi Publishers, 2005 belief in advancement and industrial ered as obsolete. The book is split which he christened ‘Espansiva’. ever, at the moment, because archi- was: an autonomous art (of build- 472-page document. Short texts in- ISBN 90–5662–352–4 pre-fabrication and also in steel and into three equal parts: it depicts However, his buildings always re- tecture was practically eliminated ing), which is practically detached troduce the respective construction glass (apparently) still abounds and wonderful, light-fi lled architecture, mained committed to people and due to the eff ects of industrialisation, from market forces. techniques. There are other sections because of this, the buildings are ex- portrays an architectural genera- their requirements. His basic themes If you ask Dutch people about the people must seek to reinvent it under dedicated to buildings: On the Water pertly embedded in nature. In 1945, tion and its ideals, and documents were the original purposes of house state of architecture in their country another name. And traditionalism and In the Earth, Mobile Homes and John Entenza, publisher of the archi- how architecture and the media in- building: a place for people to con- today, sooner or later two reactions in architecture is considered to be Building in Response to the Climate. tecture magazine Arts & Architec- fl uenced each other in the past. gregate around a fi replace, a retreat will inevitably come up. The fi rst is a like ‘organic’ when it comes to food Grain storage, places of worship, ture invited eight architects, who into the protective grotto and a de- general lament about the decreas- – something which is a way of life or roads and entrances, windows, hand- were native to California or who had sign that allowed sunlight to be cast ing architectural quality in what more superfi cially a lifestyle. Ibelings crafted details and ornamental art migrated there, to build the fi rst eight into the building. had hitherto been the model coun- noticed that in a time when holding can likewise be found in the picture

76 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 77 2 PETER EBNER AND Der Baron auf den Bäumen Olafur Eliasson basics – Grundformen der FRANZISKA ULLMANN (The Baron in the Trees) Surroundings Surrounded Architektur BOOKS Author: Italo Calvino Publisher: Peter Weibel (basics - Basic forms of RECOMMEND dtv Verlag MIT Press Architecture) RECOMMENDATIONS ISBN 3-423-10578-X ISBN 0-262-73148-7 Author: Franziska Ullmann European architects recommend Frei Otto – Complete Works (Italian original edition: Springer Verlag Publisher: Wilfried Nerdinger their favourite books in D&A. Italo Calvino ISBN 3-211-83800-7 Birkhäuser Verlag IT’ART ISBN: 3-7643-7233-8 (German) 88-04-37085-8) ISBN-10: 3-7643-7231-1 (English)

1 Guillermo Vazquez Consuegra No German architect has gained so In his novel which was fi rst pub- Essays on Space and Science is the “What is a solitaire? What makes a 2 Peter Ebner and much international recognition in the lished in 1957, the Italian author, Italo sub-title of this unusual exhibition solitaire into a monument? Why is Franziska Ullmann second half of the 20th century as Calvino, tells the story of a really re- catalogue by and about the Icelandic a building profane? What makes a 3 Nabil Gholam and Frei Otto. Last year, in celebration of markable recluse: on 1 5th June 1767, artist Olafur Eliasson. Although the space into a sacred space? Why do Aram Yeretzian Frei Otto’s 80th birthday, the Archi- the 12 year old Cosimo Piovasco di exhibition of his work, Surroundings Zaha Hadid’s buildings have a dy- tecture Museum of the Munich Tech- Rondo climbs a tree in his garden Surrounded, which fi rst took place namic eff ect?” nical University dedicated a com- in protest against his parents, and in 2000 in Graz and 2001 in Karls- Franziska Ullmann answers these prehensive exhibition and a mono- never returns to the ground again ruhe was made up of notes from Eli- and many other questions on archi- graph of more than 200 pages to the in his lifetime – not even in order to asson’s works, the artist renounces tecture and spatial perception in her 123 great engineer and architect. In it, his die: he gets swept out of his tree by the otherwise usual documentation book, basics. In direct comparison companions of many years describe the land anchor of a Montgolfi er, and and instead reveals the theoretical with texts and pictures of interna- the most important aspects of Frei vanishes out to sea. In the book, Cosi- background to his work in the cata- tional buildings, she researches the Otto’s works, in particular the con- mo’s younger brother and companion logue. The 704 page book contain 56 meaning and infl uence of basic ar- stant tendency to learn from nature for many years, Biagio tells the story essays by natural and spiritual scien- chitectural elements individually and that lead to him becoming one of the of his life in the trees. Italo Calvino’s tists, architects and art theorists. 30 in compositions. Her starting point precursors of ecological architec- book ranks among the greatest ex- of these were published for the fi rst is Wassily Kandinsky’s fundamen- ture in the 1980s and 1990s. The vol- amples of the ‘adventure novel’. It is time in this book. tal work Punkt und Linie zu Fläche ume ends with a detailed list of his written in an amusing way, but nev- (Point and Line to Plane), in which 200 buildings and projects from ertheless with great depth. the painter makes a similar analysis 1951 to 2004. for painting elements.

1 GUILLERMO Pensar la arquitectura 18 años con al arquitecto Inquietud Teórica y Estrategia 3 NABIL GHOLAM AND Beirut City Center Recovery Living under the Crescent Moon: VAZQUEZ CONSUEGRA (Thinking Architecture) Louis I. Kahn (18 Years with Proyectual (Theoretical Anxiety ARAM YERETZIAN Author: Robert Saliba Domestic Culture in the ArabWorld Author: Peter Zumthor Architect Louis I. Kahn) and Design Strategies) Steidl Authors: Alexander von Vegesack RECOMMENDS Gustavo Gili Author: August Komendant Author: Rafael Moneo RECOMMEND ISBN 3-882243-978-5 and Mateo Kries ISBN 84–252–1992–2 COAGalicia (purchase from Actar Vitra Design Museum Alejandro de la Sota [email protected]) ISBN 84–94941–68–1 Traditional Domestic Architec- ISBN 3-931936-41-1 Publisher: Moisés Puente Rodríguez (English edition: Aloray Publishers, (English edition: The MIT Press, ture of the Arab Region Gustavo Gili ISBN 0–913690–06–6) ISBN 0–262–13443–8) Author: Friedrich Ragette ISBN 84–252–1880–2 Axel Menges ISBN 3-932565-30-4

Alejandro de la Sota (1913–1996) Peter Zumthor is one of the promi- In this book, the engineer August Ko- Rafael Moneo has dedicated a large For probably the fi rst time, Friedrich In his picture book, Robert Saliba de- Living under the Crescent Moon – ranks among the masters of Span- nent heads in contemporary Swiss mendant allowed the revue of his 18 amount of his time as an architect Ragette’s book systematically pre- scribes the reconstruction of two of Domestic Culture in the Arab World ish architecture of the 20th Cen- architecture. Even in times of globali- year work, which he carried out to- to teaching and architectural criti- sents the traditional residential ar- the most popular quarters in the Leb- depicts residential cultures in the tury. However, despite the fact that sation the architect, who was born in gether with Louis Kahn, and of the cism. In this book, which developed chitecture of the Arab world from anese capital after the Civil War from Arab world: Nomadic tents of the his buildings were well publicised, 1943 and is a qualifi ed cabinetmaker, numerous buildings that emerged from a lecture course at the Harvard the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf. The 1975 to 1990. The real estate com- Tuareg and the Bedouins, Moroc- his written works are still largely has proven his down-to-earth atti- during this time. In so doing, the Salk Graduate School of Design, Moneo author, who was employed as an ar- pany ‘Solidere’, founded by the late can Kasbahs, magnifi cent houses unknown. De la Sota’s texts from tude. His work is based on the use Institute, the Olivetti Underwood analyses the works of eight contem- chitect in the Arab world for more Lebanese Prime Minister and build- with courtyards in towns like Mar- 1951–1996 have been compiled for of material and construction, not on Factory, the seat of government in porary architects and their theoret- than 30 years, analyses the climatic ing developer Rafi k Hariri, played a rakesh, Damascus or Cairo and 20th the fi rst time in Moisés Puente Ro- formal trends, as well as respect for Dacca/Bangladesh and the Kimbell ical positions: Herzog & de Meuron, and cultural factors which infl uence key role. At the end of the Civil War, century buildings by the architects dríguez’s volume, which also con- our cultural inheritance. Gustavo Gili Art Museum make new ways of doing Rem Koolhaas, Frank O. Gehry, Al- construction in the Arab world and it drew a master plan for the recon- Hassan Fathy, Elie Mouyal and Ab- tains a lot of until now unpublished has now released a collection of texts, things accessible to the readership. varo Siza, Peter Eisenman, Aldo presents the designs for residential struction of the devastated and di- delwahed El-Wakil. The Arab habits material. One section of the book is which Zumthor composed during the The Galician architectural associa- Rossi, Venturi Scott & Brown and buildings from nomadic tents to vided city centre. The book takes and ways of life are imparted to the dedicated to the essays of the archi- last 10 years, in the ‘Arquitectura con tion, the publishers of the Spanish li- James Stirling. The book, which in- densely-built cities. In addition to the on an unexpected current political reader using ceramics, textiles, tool tect, a second recounts several dis- Textos’ series. They form a rare and censed edition, consider the book to corporates 600 illustrations, does analytical part of the book, Ragette meaning due to the recent assassi- and architectural elements. With cussions with de la Sota and a third valuable testimonial to the archi- be of ‘cultural value’ as it contains not only give the reader a great in- presents a collection of more than nation of the ‘inventor’ of modern- numerous internal photos of private contains transcriptions of a number tectural thinking of the headstrong valuable insider knowledge into the sight into the work of eight promi- 200 examples of traditional archi- day Beirut. However, even without houses, the book off ers a portrayal of of lectures that he gave throughout Swiss, who has been teaching at the work of one of the major architects nent architects, but also provides tecture from all 13 countries in the this, the book brings the Beirut City the spheres of the Arab world which his long career. Academy of Architecture in Mendri- of the 20th century. just as much information about a Arab region. Center Recovery into discussions is rarely seen a s they are generally ro - sio (Switzerland) since 1996. ninth – the author himself. about future town construction in bustly protected from outsiders. the Middle East.

78 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02 79 DAYLIGHT & ARCHITECTURE ISSUE 03 SUMMER 2006

TEXTURES

80 D&A SPRING 2006 ISSUE 02