Reflections on the History and Future of the Open Building Network September 2015 2 Reflections on the History and Future of the Open Building Network The Origins of the Open Building Network Conferences An informal international network advocating the During the intervening years since the founding of the CIB implementation of what is now called “open building” has W104, we have met 19 times. These meetings, hosted and existed since the early days of the SAR (Stichting Architecten organized by network members and their local supporters, Research in Eindhoven, the Netherlands). Housing for the have taken place in Delft, Brighton (UK), Helsinki, Paris, Millions – John Habraken and the SAR (1960-2000), Bosma, Bilbao, Washington, DC, Boston, Muncie, Indiana (USA), van Hoogstraten, Vos, NAIA, Rotterdam, 2000) helps to tell Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong, Beijing, Mexico City, and Durban, this history. After years of such informal contacts, and after South Africa. The ETH / CASE in Zurich agreed to host a an early attempt (SAR INTERNATIONAL) failed to take root in conference in 2015 on The Future of Open Building, and the mid-1980’s, a formal network was successfully discussions are taking place to meet in Korea in 2017. On established in 1996, in a meeting in Tokyo, called CIB W104 occasion, we have met with other CIB Commissions, and Open Building Implementation (www.open-building.org). It members attended some triennial CIB World Congresses. was formed under the auspices of the CIB - the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and The most recent conferences have expanded beyond the Construction (www.cibworld.nl). Karel Dekker from the traditional emphasis on housing to include education for Netherlands and I were invited to be the first joint open building, open building-related urban design methods, coordinators. When Mr. Dekker stepped down, Ulpu Tiuri, open building in the design of health care facilities, and the an architect in Finland took his place, followed by Professors inevitable and important link with sustainability. Three Jia Beisi (University of Hong Kong) and Kazunobu Minami recent conferences included an international student (Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo). Later, Professor competition, with winners from Korea, China, Germany, the Shin Murakami (Sugiyama Jogakuen University) replaced UK, Singapore and the USA who were offered prize money Professor Minami. raised by the meetings’ hosts, from generous architecture firms, product manufacturers and clients. Whether members of CIB W104 or not, participants in the world-wide open building network now come from many Published Work countries, including the incubators of open building – the Each conference produced published proceedings. These Netherlands and Japan, as well as the United States, the proceedings together contain well over 400 peer-reviewed United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Iran, France, Germany, papers and are stored in the ICONDA®CIBlibrary database Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Israel, Russia, Korea, China, the (http://www.irb.fraunhofer.de/CIBlibrary/about.html). Over Republic of China (Taiwan), Indonesia, Vietnam, New the years, special issues of Open House International have Zealand, Thailand, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa. We been dedicated to these papers (http://www.open- are architects and urban designers, economists, constructors, house.org). A book titled Residential Open Building was clients, building system developers, policy advisors, published in 2000 (Kendall and Teicher, Spon, 2000). This researchers in government agencies, teachers, scholars and book, essentially a primer on open building, presents a short students. history of Open Building, a survey of milestone projects, discussion of methods and products, a discussion of the Purposes economics of open building as well as suggestions for the The CIB commission’s original purpose was twofold. First, we future of Open Building. It has since been translated into would document developments toward open building Korean, Japanese and Chinese with the latter adding a internationally, and disseminate information about and number of new project profiles. Professor Jia Beisi of the analysis of these developments. Second, we would convene University of Hong Kong assembled the beginnings of an international conferences at which participants could international compendium of case studies present papers and projects, exchange information, offer (https://app.box.com/s/irppq5bzjmnleq0rd2zhx6ufveammr2 support to local initiatives and recruit new members. These j). A sizable number of other books, reports and collections activities focused initially on the methodological and of essays have been published on the subject in English, practical aspects of residential open building, the field of Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Chinese and Japanese, and dozens of activity in which open building had its origins. This stemmed technical reports have been produced in several languages. principally from John Habraken’s seminal book Supports: An Open building is referred to in countless books, scholarly Alternative to Mass Housing, published in English by the papers, dissertations, and articles in professional journals. Architectural Press, London in 1972 from the original Dutch In-depth country reports and studies have emerged in edition published in 1961, as well as his later work Finland, the Netherlands, China and Japan. (www.habraken.com). 3 What is Open Building? open building recognizes as unsustainable both integrated, centralized or unified top-down control, and the anarchy of Open Building is the term used to indicate a number of disjointed individual initiative, no matter the politics or different but related ideas about the making of environment, economic theory at work. for instance: Open Building and Technology • The idea of distinct levels of intervention in the Open Building is not first of all about technical matters, and built environment, such as those represented by is certainly not about large “open,” neutral and 'support’ (or ‘base building’), and 'infill' (or ‘fit-out’). unobstructed structural skeletons. Since technical systems Urban design and architecture also represent two emerge, are used, and evolve in a kind of ecology of discrete levels of decision-making. production, directly corresponding with societal structures, • The idea that users / inhabitants may make open building products and processes are most successful design decisions in their sphere of control, as well when they are not inventions but cultivations of existing as professionals; technical and human resources. That said, open building • The idea that, more generally, designing is a principles serve as important platforms for further process with multiple participants among whom development of building practices and products. are different kinds of professionals; • The idea that the interface between technical Design Methods systems allows the replacement of one system To handle the complexity of levels of intervention, with another performing the same function - as distributed control and change, open building practitioners with different fit-out systems (e.g. from different apply particular design methods. These include capacity suppliers) capable of being installed in a given base analysis (also called “test fits”) in the design of supports or building; base buildings; the use of zones and margins as a means of • The idea that built environment is in constant describing the limits of variation in spatial terms; and transformation, and that, as a consequence, dimensional and positioning grids to facilitate change must be recognized; communication between different parties each responsible • The idea that built environment is the product of for different building elements. an ongoing, never ending design process in which environment transforms part by part. Some Of What We Have Learned (www.habraken.org) Open Building is Subversive Levels of Intervention + Distributed Control + While it may sound strange, it has been clear for some time Change that the prosaic shopping center and office building exhibit Open building is fundamentally concerned with cultivating the characteristics of open building. Little or no theoretical the quality of everyday environment. Its methods therefore or methodological work preceded their coming of age. Their address distribution of control or responsibility, a key first appearance and subsequent evolution progressed ingredient of a healthy everyday environment. We recognize pragmatically, led by real estate developers and business that built environment is never finished and that no single entities of all kinds. Architects and contractors learned to party does or can control everything over the long arc of provide the needed services, often producing work of history or even in the initial implementation of built exceptional quality. Product manufacturers and their supply environment. chains began introducing suitable products, fabrication and construction methods. New standards, regulations and Open building implementation seeks to avoid centralization financing tools were developed to match the new realities. of control from the top, or, conversely, the chaos that can These developments are international in scope, crossing result from the lack of a well-understood distribution of economic, political, cultural and technical boundaries. responsibility from the bottom up. Instead, we recognize a hierarchy of levels in the making of sustainable environment. These