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A Discourse on Method : the Segal System A Discourse on Method : The Segal System John McKean Published as ‘Einfaches Bauen’, Architese, January 1987 (Commissioned by Anthony Tischhauser, it has never been published in English) ________________________________________________________________________ In this essay I shall first introduce the 'common-sense' architecture of Walter Segal, focussing closely on his most outrageously original everyday details. To find where this came from, I shall then look at his early biography (in Switzerland and Germany). This will let us, finally, have an idea of his world-view, his Weltanschauung, and make a comment on his achievement. Simple architecture? There is no such thing! Is concentration on the real issues of the provision or the enabling of appropriate architecture (those issues which outlast intellectual posing and competitions of connoisseurship) simple? It is, of course, not simple. But it is one goal; and one which makes for a more integrated, a less alienated architecture. It also makes for less alienated participants involved, be they architects or inhabitants, builders and craftsmen. Surely, says the aspiring young architect, there are then some rules, some definite prescriptions for this honest architecture? There are practical rules of procedure suitable to construction, replies the architect; but of course materials and means of building vary, so even these rules must be modified with such variation. However, "in architecture there is a method to be followed in all cases that present themselves, but there are no definite prescriptions or rules to be followed. This method is none other than the application of your reasoning faculty to all particular cases." The speaker here is uncle Eugene, the architect in E.E. Viollet-Le-Duc's late 19th century essay How To Build A House (L'Histoire d'une Maison). This speech of his offers the key to reading that fascinating book as a discourse on method: the method of common- sense, rooted in everyday reality. Here we are shown a man fully conversant with all aspects and stages of construction: material, technical, aesthetic, legal and economic. His power is exercised through direct knowledge and contact. He is a man of the site, its material possibilities and processes. He is only a draughtsman to explain ideas which he has already worked out. John McKean December 1986 A Discourse on Method : The Segal System Page !1 Walter Segal (1907-1986), our subject here and an architect who had very little time for architectural ‘In architecture there is a method to theory or conventional practice around him over be followed in all cases that present many years, would recognise a fellow professional themselves, but there are no in Eugene here. definite prescriptions or rules to be Viollet's book of 1875, ostensibly for teenagers, was followed. This method is none other described in the Gazette des Beaux Arts in 1880 as than the application of your "the best book anyone could put in the hands of a young man thinking of a career in architecture." reasoning faculty to all particular Jean Jacques Aillagon, in Architectural Design cases.’ exactly 100 years later, called it "one of the most moving pleas ever made for the profession of architect." The career of Walter Segal, whose method is so close to the Eugene of Viollet's tale, spanned the last half century, initially in Switzerland but largely in England. Segal's career might equally be seen as a most moving plea for the possibility of the professional architect today. The Rule of Common Sense Viollet's Eugene - exactly as Segal - is impressively erudite, with wide historical and cultural knowledge; but with a learning always rooted in reality. He - just as Segal - is full of common-sense ingenuity. In the story of this house, he even devises his own way of slating, using copper hooks to hold the leading edge and resting the slates on chevron-shaped battens. The brief discussion - arguing against traditional nailing, problems of movement and difficulties of repair; and arguing for his system, more firm in high winds, more rain-proof, and as cheap and simple as the traditional technique - is an epitome of his empirical method, and of his concept of ‘appropriate technology.’ Segal's method is identical. Eugene's slate hanging is paralleled exactly by many tiny Segal 'inventions' based on returning to first principles. The essential word is common sense. Segal's architectural project in this sense is based on a logical step-by-step common sense very like that of Paxton and Fox at Crystal Palace (1850) or even closer to I.K. Brunel's, when he designed the timber- frame Crimean War hospital (1855), shipped out to Renkioi and erected so fast - and where Brunel's thoroughness, very like Segal's, even extended to designing details of transportation, unloading and construction by a few chosen carpenters. Segal's construction details, systematised about 20 years ago, are usually based on things which touch and are not fixed: the timber posts sitting on lead caps on founds; the uncut wall panels held by pressure only; the roofing felt bottom layers free to move... all based on sensible and obvious criteria, in the case of these examples the issues are humidity, expansion and so on. John McKean December 1986 A Discourse on Method : The Segal System Page !2 The Segal method of building is based on precision high technology: total calculation, and precise optimisation of resources. The point is not ‘hi-tech’, of course; but a system which becomes humanised into ‘appropriate technology.’ He uses finest quality, high- cost, stress-graded timber members of minimum section; he avoids 'second shaping' by careful scouring of the market, and by using uncut, easily available manufactured sheets and panels. His bills of quantities are complete lists of material required on site, with each building element listed separately (not aggregated). Thus the whole forms an accurate and detailed shopping list. Moreover, because the list is in order of erection, the materials, inevitably but intentionally, can be sorted before delivery. Loaded in this order on the lorry and unloaded in reverse, the materials are stacked on site so that required items are always those nearest to hand, avoiding 'second handling.' With each element detailed and located diagrammatically, the carpenters can use the Bill of Quantities as a working detail. The completed Bill is priced by a builders' merchant and an extremely accurate estimate given to the client. These are each little examples of the 'method', and most of them only apply to little buildings. There are a thousand such radically "simple things" which Segal has developed over the years, into a folk wisdom of architecture very similar to that of Eugene. But he has gone much further than Viollet-Le-Duc. For Segal's is not just a system of architectural knowledge, but is integrated into a world-view, exemplified in his understanding of the place of housing, the enabling role of designers, the creative potential of anyone to construct their own dwelling; and it is demonstrated in his own career. For his clients, Segal's dwellings are full of little details which make everyday life easy. The client for one of his earlier brick houses noticed how: "the boiler room had been provided with a small inward opening window of odd size (necessitating cut bricks) and placed on the inner face of the wall. Externally the cill was formed of a flat piece of zinc sheet which appeared adjacent to the front door and about 1.5 metres above the door step. We soon discovered the cill could accommodate four milk bottles exactly out of reach of children… "All light switches were placed at the same height as the door handles so that one never had to search for the switch when entering a darkened room… "The staircases had no risers, being composed solely of strings and treads. Each tread was fitted with a square hardwood batten at its leading and rear edges. The battens were secured with brass cups and ‘But Segal has gone much further screws. The width of treads between strings than Viollet-Le-Duc. For his is not was exactly 27". This arrangement allowed us to buy a shorter than usual length of standard just a system of architectural width stair carpet, cut it into separate pads knowledge, but is integrated into and secure it with the battens. After a world-view, exemplified in his approximately five years, when the carpet had understanding of the place of worn away along the nosing, I unscrewed the housing, the enabling role of battens and reversed the pads. After a further five years when the carpet nosing had worn designers, the creative potential again, I cut off the worn part and exposed the of anyone to construct their own clean hardwood nosing. Thus our original dwelling; and it is demonstrated stair carpet lasted 20 years!… in his own career.’ "And so one could continue..." John McKean December 1986 A Discourse on Method : The Segal System Page !3 In his own house in Highgate, London, the last brick and wet-trades building Segal designed ("the end of ‘Single-handedly, Segal invented the thirty years' war" as he described it), similar the impossible idea of ordinary, touches abounded. I instance one example: for non-skilled working-class men and acoustic privacy between dining and living room, women from the waiting list for which are divided by a single-skin brick wall (fair- public authority housing, building face both sides), there are two doors, one opening into each room. Moreover, displaying also the Segal their own homes. His self-builders ability to make common sense of found products, have ranged from retired men in they close remarkably successfully on door-stops their 60s to single mothers; many made of square-section bitumenised polyurethane are families with young children joint filler.
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