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IESSOMS fOl SIYDlNlS IN U CHIIHfUU
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HERMAN HERTZBERGER
LESSONS FOR STUDENTS
IN ARCHITECTURE
010 PUB LI SHERS , ROTTERDAM
Thil book reR«:Is the material discussed in Hertzberger's lectures on architecture at De/It Technical Universily from 1973 on, ancl contains elaborated versia!IS al the lecture notes previously published as 'Het openbare rijk' {Public Domain) 1982, 'Rvimle maken, ruimte Iaten' (Making Space, Leaving SpoceJ 1984, and 'Uitnodigencle vorm' /Inviting Form} 1988.
c.,.,pilari<>n by loilo Gho;t, Moriek~ •c• VIijrnen Tronslotion from rM Dujch by lno M e Co.,... design by Pool Gerardo, H...rlen !look dosi9n by Reinour Melrzet, Rorterdam Printed by G.J. Thitmt Niimegt~
o•.
e 199 1 Hermon Hertzbe
3003 HA Rouerdom, rl>e Nethtrlcnds (Www,OlOpublo;.S..I!.nll 1993 S.Ccnd rovisod odi~on 1998 Thild revi ..cl edlh.on 200 I Fo.nh revised edmon ISBN 90 6450 A6A 4
au tor
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ef (hoses ne ~ont pos dif idl faire, ce qui es't dl ·d es, c ·e~t de nous meH - en eto de es foire.J (Bronc sil f
It is Jn vitobl thot the wor you do as an orchJtect shoufd serve O$ the po1nt of cleparlure cr your t~chrng, .ancJ
obvjoully e b.$f oy lo· explain what you ha lo soy is o do 5o .on he bosij of prac: icol experie c : ~ at, indeed, is the common fhte<:Jd of t is boo . Ins d of pre5en ·ng each irJdl iduol work separo y and Pploin}ng ofl #heir clistittc:live fealutas 1n htrn, f e diFFerent Is tuol componenls hove bt!ten orgonized in sue o woy thot, os o whole; the offer something in the way of a th ory; it is the way th~ olements are organized a ron$·orm1 practice ;~self in o theo . When rov discuss your own
work
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hov to 0$ ycwrs.ff
what you ocqui1ed from whom. 8ecou.se evelflhing you 'nd comes fro some er~. The so rce WOJ not r own m{ d, but w~os upplied by th• cultvre you belong to~. A d t a is hy t or of ol r i so manifestly pre "' e y way of o context. Yo,u co ld scy t oJ ;n $0 lot os this boo con ain I uon , th&y or I e le Jo of Bramonte, Cerdol Choreo , Le Corbu$;er, Duiker & Bijvoet, Von E c , Gaud; & Ju;ol. Hortal lobrous , Pollodio, Perozzi, Rietveld, Von der VI gt & Brinkman, and o aJI the others who nt m their eye so lhot I could JH ond IKI precistly w o needed to co ''Y - y ow wor - step fur.rher. Architec s/ond not only they} ore in the habit of concealing their sources of in&p;ra ion and even of trying fo stJblfmo~ tnem · ·OS rf
would ver b pos,ib~e . But in so doing the clt$ign-ptoces3 s clovded, whi~e b disclo ing w of moved ond $lim via~ yo in th liut ptace you may we~l succeed in e plainin9 yovrself ancJ motivot1ng your dedslons. The ,e omples and ;nHctenc•s which obotJncl in this book co J itute e cvlhJrol coni •l within which an orc~itecl wor $, ond .an impress;on ;s 9iven of the ro ge of con· C
entirety on rhe e
really a issue ere. The ai of my '14JJSOns' ho$ olwoys bten to sti vl.o e s • dents~ to evo~e ;n the
w;U enable em to do
on orchifec raJ fro of mind ot th~ir own work; my o;m in ;s boo
;~ th& somt.
Hetman H rtzb rger
Pr,e ace to
e ovr
e Won
In e len years since this boo · wos
F;rst publi$ ed a hosl
ol new uilt · or s by olh·@rs ond y myJeff ove s& # e l1g~ of doy. hese prov;de mo,ny n m Is for rther expanding pon the ' emes fifj s.t Forth i 199 r. T e boo could well hov,e be n compl t J t newed os a uuvJ. That t is as not been the case, tempting thovgh at propoJition might , has to do wil ' Facr ot in e meonlime Le~so s os o S«Juef~ e n ed Space on l~e Atthitect. arl two is co pi en ry #o pa o e More lhon jus o $upplement, H _laces tht earlier publicotion in a new light. Jn this fits' porl the cen'r,ol no ion of 'space ' as mainly o do ir in/1 rpr ring spot1ol ntili s O$ ploces in 5i ua,ions cone rning people. In porl two the accent shifts
o $poce ~·o o mor g nero/ sense, o.s o pot nnol and med;um for inciting ond susfo;ning the con ifioru for s~c in I_ rprelotlon~ the woy o lon9uag does( to e oppli•d ogoin and ogoin. Thv.s he !'No ports relo e in uch rh some oy lhot plac and space relata, os ~performon,-e' oncl 'compelen' •. fu her, o greol deal hoJ chonged in tl.oUt ten years in · e oppr•dafion of ~~, , public domain. There is little left of the vp1u ge, norobly in t e si~tie$ and sevent;es, of personal inRuence on publ;c spo here as rue o alieno ion os o e.n over wifh olorm;ng fo ce. As o resul , o , m e amples in hiJ b may • · ulm ~or ol t
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y least naive. Yet frey are still relevant, ;; only O$ re in rs arch;tec $ mus eep eeking ways o combo ing e oloo ness ol o pvblic domain i in xorobJ decline.
'we
Hetmon Hertz~rgar,
ovember 200 l
CONTENTS
A Public Domain
1 Public and Private 12
2 Ierritorinl Claims lA
3 Territorial D;Hecenhation 20
4 Territorial Zoning 22 5 From User to Dweller 28 6 The 'lfl:betwecn' 32
7 Private Claims on Public Space 40 8 Public Works Concept 44 9 Ibe Street
48
I 0 The Public Domain 64 l l Public Space os Constructed Environment 68 12 Public Accessibility of Private Space 74
I Maklns Spoce, Leavins Spate
C lnvltlns Form
1 Structure and lnterprelolion 92
1 The Habitable Space between Things 176
2 form a nd Interpretation 94
2 Place and Articulation 190
3 Stucture as a Generative Spine: Warp and Weft 108
3 View 1 202
4 Gridiron 122
4 View II 2 !6
5 Building Order 126
S View Ill 226
6 functionality, Flexibllity and Polyvalence 146
6 Equivaleoce 246
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7 Form and Users: the Space of Form 150
8 Making Space, leaving Spoce 152 9 Incentives 164 I 0 form m on ;n,trument 170
Biography and Projects 268 Refersnce< 270
Mater~al
com di•ettos autor~ !:1
PUB IC
10
USSO S FO l SUr£
OMAIN
S I I.H I I E' U t
Publk and Private 12
1
Territorial Claims I 4
2
Streets and Dwellings, Bolr Public Bur ldings Village of Morbisch, Austria BibHotheque Notionole, Paris I H. Lobrouste Centrool Seheer Office Building, Apeldoorn 3
Temtoria I Differentiation 20
4
Territorial Zoning 22
Centrool Beheer OFfice Building, Apeldoorn Faculty of Architecture M.I.T., Cambridge, U.S.A. Montessori School, Delft Vredenburg Music Centre, Utrecht 5
Froct~
User to Dweller 28
Montessori School, Delft Apollo Schools, Amsterdam 6
The 'ln·between' 32
Montessori School. Delft De Overloop, Home for the Elderly, Almere De Drie Hoven, Home lor the Elderly. Amsterdam Documento Urbano Dwellings, Kassel, Germany Cite Napoleon, Paris I M.H. Veugny 7
Private Claims on Public Space 40
De Drie Hoven, Horne lor the Elderly. Amsterdam Diogoon Dwellings. Delft LiMo Housing, Berlin 8
Public Works Concept 44
Vroesenloon Housing, Rotterdam I J.H.von den Broek De Drie Hoven, Home lor the Elderly, Amsterdam
9
The Street 48
Hoorlemmer Houlluinen Housing, Amsterdam Spongen Housing, RoHerdom I M. Brinkman Wee$perstrool Student Accommodation, Amsterdam Sihng Prrnciples Royal Crescents, Both, England I J. Wood, J. Nosh Romerstodt, Frankfurt, Germany I E. May Het Gein, Housing, Amersfoort Accessibility of Rats Fomilistere, Guise, france De Drie Hoven, Home for the Elderly, Amsterdam Montessori School. Delft Kosboh, Hengelo I P. Blom 10 The Public Domain 64
Polois Royal, Paris Public Square, Vence, France Rockefeller Plaza, New York Piolzo del Compo, Siena, Italy Plaza Mayor, Chinchon, Spain Dionne Spring, Tonnerre, france 11 Public Spoce a• Con•tructed Environment 68
Vichy, France Les Holies, Paris IV. Bohord CommYnity Centres I f . von Klingeren The Eillel Tower, Paris I G. Eilfel Ex.hibition Pavilions Deportment Stores, Paris Roilwoy Stations Underground Railway Stations 12 Public Acceuibillty of Prlvate Space 14
Passage du Caire, Paris Shopping Arcades Ministery of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro I Le Corbusier Centrool Beheer Office Bui lding, Apeldoorn Vredenburg Music Centre, Utrecht Cineoc Cinema. Amsterdam I J. Duiker Hotel Solvay, Brussels I V. Horta Passage Pommeroye, Nantes, France 'The leHer'. Pieter de Hoogh
II
1 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
The concepts 'pvblk' and 'private' cen be lnr.rpret.d as the translcrtion into spatial t.rms of 'collective' and 'lndividuof'. In a mont absolute tet\M you could JGYl public: an area that l1 acceulble to everyone at all times; responst'bility fof upkeep is held collectively. private: a n - whose occesslbl11ty i1 d.... r11ined by a smon group or one per~on, with responsibinty for upkeep.
This extreme opposition between private and public · like the opposition between collective and individual · has resulted in o cliche, and is as unsubrle and false as the supposed opposition between general and specific, objedive a nd subjective. Such oppositions ore symptoms of the disintegration of primary human relations. Everyone wonts to be accepted, wants to belong, wants to have o place of his or her own. All behaviour in society ot large is indeed role-induced. in which the personality of each individual is affirmed by what others see in him. In our world we experience o polarization between exaggerated individuality on the one hand and exaggerated collectivity on the otfw. Too much emphasis is placed on these two poles, while there is not a single human reloHanship with which we as architects ore concerned thor focuses exclusively on one individual or on one group. nor indeed exclusively on everyone else, or 'the outside world' . It is always a question of people and groups in their interrelationship and mutual commitment, i.e. it is always a question of collective and individual vis 6 vis each other.
'Wenn ober der lndividvoli~mus nur einen Teil des Menschen erfout so erfosst der Kolle~livismus nur den Menschen ols Teil: zur Gonzheil des Menschen, zvm Menschen ols Gonzes dringen beide nicht vor. Der lndividvalismus sieht den Menschen nvr in der Bezogenheit ouf sich selbst, ober der Kolleklivismus sieht den Menschen iiberhoupl nicht, er sieht nur die •Gesellschoft•, Beide tebensonschauungen sind Ergebnisse oder Aeussarungen des gleichen menschlichen lustonds. Dill$er lusland ist dvrch dos Zusomme~~slromen von kosmischer und sozialer Heimlosigkeil, von Weltongst vnd Lebensongst. zu einer Doseinsverfossvng der Einsomkeil gekennzeichnet, wie es sie in diesem Ausman vermutlich noch nie zvvor gegeben hot. Urn sich
17 LISSOH 101 SJUmllll ll l MIIHlVll
au tor
'If however individualism comprehends only port of mankind, so collectivism only comprehends mankind as o whole of man, or man os a whole. Individualism perceives man only in his self-orientation, but collectivism does not perceive man at o/1, it relates only to 'society'. Both life· views ore the products or expressions of the some human conditions. This stole of aHairs is characterized by the confluence of cosmic and social homelessness, of o world-anxiety and o life-anxiety which hove probably never existed to this degree before. In an otlempl lo e~ope from the insecurity brought on by his feelings of isolation, mon seelcs refuge in their glorification of individualism. Modern individualism hos on imoginory basis. This is why il is doomed, for the imagination is unable to deal factually with a given situation. Modern collectivism is the lost barrier thai man has erected lo protect him from his encounter with himself... in collectivism it surrenders because it waives the claim ro immediacy of personal decision and responsibility. In neither case is it capable of effecting o breakthrough to the other; only between real people con o real relationship el(ist. There is no other alternative here thon the rebellion of the individual for the sake of the liberation of the relotion~hip. t con see looming on the horizon, slowly like all proce~~es of the true human history, o great discontent. People will no longer rise up a~ they did in the post against a certain prevailing trend in favour of a different trend, but against the false realization of a great striving, the striving after communality, for the sake of the true realization. People will fig hi against distortion and for pu1ity. The first step must be the destruction of a Folse alternative, of the alternative: 'individvolism 01 collectivism'. '
The contepts 'public' ond 'private' may be seen ond understood in ...Jative terms as o series of spatial qualities which, differing groduolly, ref.r to o
autor"~
2 TERRITORIAL CLAIMS An open area, room or space may be conceived either as a more or le u private place or as a public area, depending on the degree of accessibility, the form of supervision, who uses it, who takes care of it, and th eir respective responsibilltles. Your own room is private vis a vis the living room and e.g. the kitchen of the house you live ln. You have a key to your own roam, which you look after yourself. Care and maintenance of the living room and kitchen is basica lly a responsibility shared by those living in the house, a ll of whom have o key to the front door. In o school each class·room ls private vis a vis the communal hall. This hall is in turn like the school as a whole, private vis a vls the street outside.
Snms AND DwELUNGS, BAu t• The rooms of many dwellings on Bol1 ore often separately constructed little houses, grouped around o sort ollnner court or yard which may be entered through o gate Once you hove passed this gale you do not hove the feel1ng thai you ore entering the octuol dwelling, although this is In loci the case. The separate dwelling units: kitchen area, sleepmg quarters, and sometimes o deolh-house and birth· house, hove o lor greater .nhmocy and they ore less easily occeuible, certainly to o stronger. In this way the actual home comprises o sequence of distinct gradations of occeuibility. Many srreets on Bali constilute the territory ol one extended family. On this street are situated the homes of
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the different family unit~ which together moke up the extended family. These streets hove on entrance gate, which is often fttted with o low bamboo fence to keep small children ond onimob inside, ond although they ore basically occe~sible to everyone you still tend to feel like on Intruder or ot be~t o visitor Aport from the different nuances in territorial claims, the Balinese distinguish within the public space, temple grounds comprising a series of successive enclosures with clearly marked entrances, lence·openings or the divided stone gateways fknown os tjondi bentorJ . This temple oreo serves os both street ond playground for the children. Also 'lor the visitor it is accessible o"' o street . ot least when there ore no active religious monifestotion.s going on • but even then the visitor feels some reluctance. As o stranger to the ploce you feel honoured to be allowed to enter, All crter the world you encounter gradations of territorial daims w!tft tfte attendant fHiing of acceuibility. Sometimes tfte degree of accessibility ia a maHer of legislation, bvt often it is uclusiftly a question of convention, which is re.speded by all.
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The streets in the Austrian village of Morbisch near the Hungarian border lpublish!MI in Forum 9-1959) contain Iorge doors such os those giving access to forms- but here they give access to side-streets along which dwellings, stables, barns and gardens ore situated.
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These uamples show how inadequate the terms public and private ore, while the so-called semi·privote or semi-public orecu which ore often tucked away inb.tween are too equivocal to accommodate the subtleties that must be token into account in designing for every space and every area.
even on the curbs of the mocodomized highway, where it is left undisturbed by traffic and pedestrians alike, since everyone is aware of the Importance of the contribution of each member of the community to the rice harvest. n Another instance of public merging with private is the laundry hanging to dry in the narrow streets of the towns of Southern Europe. o collective expression of appreciation for the dean washing of each family hanging from o network of cables spanning the street from one family nome to its neighbours across the woy
• Wherever individuals or groups ore given the oppor· !unity to use ports of the public space in their own interests, and only indirectly in the interest of others, the public nature of the space is temporarily or permo· nently put into perspective through that use. Examples of thili too ore to be found everywhere in the world.
Ort Bah -once again used os on example- the nee 1s
spread out to dry on Iorge ports olthe public roods and
Noples
Mal:cnal o
Other examples ore the nets ond ships being repaired on the quoys tn fishing villages~ porh, ond the Dogan: wool stretched across o village square. The u&e of public space by residents as if it were 'private' strengthens the u&er's claim to that area in the eyes of others. The extro dimension given to the public space by thi& claim in the form of use for ptivote purpa&e& will be discussed in more detail below, but first we will look at what the consequences af this are for the archited.
BtauorHioue N.t.nONAlE, PAl s 1862-68 I H. LA~ousrt u In the main reading room of the Bibliotheque Nohonole in Paris the individual work-surfaces lacing each other ore separated by o raised middle 'zone'; the lamps in the centre of this ledge provide light for the lour duectly adjoining work-surfaces. This central zone Is obviously more occesstble than the lower, individual work-surfaces, and is clearly intended lor shored use by tnose seated on both sides.
Cf NTRMt 8EH£ER OFFICE 8UilDI"'G (lllt;
In the early years, before the modern 'clean-desk' trend hod set in, the desks m the offices were fitted wilh ledges which, when the desk.s were placed bock to bock, provided o raised central zone stmilor to that dividing tne reading tables in the Bibliotheque Notionale in Paris. By this articulation o place is reserved lor those objects snored by several users, such as telephones and potted plants. The space under the ledges provides more private storage space lor each Individual user. Articulation in terms of greater or lesser (public) occenibility con also prove to be useful in the smallest details.
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Gloss doors beiWeen two equally publ1c and therefore equally accessible spaces for onstonce provode ample visibo ty on both sodes so that collisions con easily be ovooded on o stncrly equal basis Doors without transparent panels will then hove to 9"'8 access to more private, less occcssobfe spaces When such o code is consistently adopted throughout o buoldong it woll be understood rohonolly or intuihve!y by oil the usen of the prem1ses and con thus conlrtbute to clorify•ng the concepts underly•ng the orgonizotoon of occessibo1tly further clossilicohon con be obtooned by the shape of glou pones, the type of glou sem1·tronsporent or opaque, and hall-doors
II
IISSO i i lO t SIUllli II HCIIIHitll
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When, in designing each spa ce and each segment, you are aware of the relevant degree of territorial claim ond the concomitant forms of 'accessibility' with respect to the adjoining spaces, then you con e.xpress these differences in the articulation of form, material, light and colour, and thereby introduce a certain ordering in the design as a whole. This con in turn heighten the awareness of inhabitants and visitors of how the building is composed of diffarent ambiances os for as accessibility is concerned, The degree In which places and spaces ore accessible offers standards for the design. The choice af architectonic motifs, their articulation, form and moterlol ore determlnecd, in port, by the degree of accessibility required for a space.
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3 TERRITORIAL DIFFERENTIATION
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By marking the gradations of public accessibility of the diHerent areas ond parts of o building on a groundplan a sort of map showing the 'territorial diHerentiation' will be obtained. This map will show clearly which aspects of accessibility exist in the architecture as such, which claims are laid on specific areas and by whom, and what kind of division of responsibilities for care and maintenance of the diHerent spaces may be expected, so that these forees may be intensified (or attenuated) in the further elaboration of the plan.
21
4 TERRITO RIAL ZONING
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The character of each area will depend to a large extent on who determines the furnishing and arrangement of the space, who is in charge, who takes core of it and who iJ or feels responsible for it.
CENTRMl BEIIEE< 0ff'C£ BUilDING 3C,Jii
The surprisrng eHects obloined by the people who work at Centrool Beheer in the way they hod arranged and personalized their office spaces with colours of their own chorce, potted plonl5 ond objects they ere fond of. is not
merely the logical consequence of the foctlhollhe interior finishrng was deliberately leh to the users of the buildrng Although the borenen of the stork. grey inlenor is on obvious Invitation ro the users to put the finishing touches to their space according to their personal Jostes, this in
31
itself is no guarantee thotthey will do so. More i~ needed lor this to happen : to start with, the form of the space itself must offer the opportunities, including basic fittings and attachments etc., for the users to fill in the spaces according to their personal needs and desires. But beyond that, il is essenliolthotthe liberty to toke personal initiatives should be embedded in the organizational structure of the institution concerned, and this hos much more for-reaching consequences than you might thin k ol lint sight. For the fundamental question, then, is how much responsibility the top is prepared to
31 a3
delegate, i.e. how much responsibility will be given to the individual users ot the lower echelons. It is important to bear in mind that in this case it wos only because the responsibility for the arrangement and finishing of the spaces hod been so explicitly leh to the users that such on exc;eptionol c;ommitment to inve~t love and core on their wo rking environment could come oboul. II was thanks to this that the opportunities offered by the arch itect were in foci seized, with such surprisingly successful results. Wh ile this building was originally erected os o spatial expression of the need foro more human envi ronment (although many people suspected thotlhis might be motivated by staff recruitment considerations), there is at present o tendency to dehumanize, largely owing lo cub in expenditure affecting staff in particular. But ot leosl the building con be said to offer some welcome resistance to this trend, and with any luck il will succeed in holding its own. What is disappointing is that what we thought wos o step towards 0 greater responsibility for the users nos turned out to be just about the lost step that con be token, lor the lime being ol leasl. In 1990, there is not much leh of the imagina tive and colourful decoration of the worlt spaces. The heyd~y of personal expressiveness in the 1970s hos given woy to neatness a nd arderlines. It seems os if the urge to make o personal statement has faded, ond that people ore more inclined to conform, nowadays. Perhaps due to the score of rising unemployment in the I 9BOs it is now apparently considered wiser to toke o less extroverted stand in general, and the effects of this ore a lready to be seen in the cool impersonal atmosphere which pervades mosl offices today. FACUlTY Of ARCHITECME
MIT, CAMBRIDGE USA
1967 l31Jll How much influence users con, in extreme cases, exert on their living or working environment is clearly demonstrated by the adjustments to the existing architecture that were mode by students of architecture otthe M.I.T. The student objected to having to work ol drawing-boards arra nged in long, stiff rows, all facing the some woy. Using discorded construction materials that were rega rd ed as left-overs, they constructed the kind of spaces they wonted • in which they could work, eol, sleep, ond receive their tutors on their own ground. One would expect each new group ol students to wont to make their own adjustments, but the situation turned oul otherwise. The outcome of the fierce dispute with the local lire prevention authorities that ensued was that a lithe structures would hove to be dismantled unless o full sprinkler system was installed throughout the oreo. Once this hod been done, the situation ln foci become permanent, W ORKSHOP
24
IIS\O~S
lO R SIUO!MIII K IICH IIIC!Ul!
ond the environment, if it still stands today, may be seen os o monument to the enthusiasm of o group of students of orchitechJre. But we should not be surprised if everything is lor will soon be) cleared owoy · the bureaucracy of centralistic management is firmly bock in control. The influence of users can be stimulated, at least if this is done in the right places, I.e. where sufficient involvement may be upeded; and becauae that depend• on accenibility, territorial claims, organization of maintenance and division of responaibilities, It is essential for the designer to be fully aware of these foctors in their proper graclotions. In cases where the organizational structure precludes the users from exerting any personal kind of lnRuence on their aurraundings, or when the nature of a particular space is so public that no one will feel inclined to exert any inRuence on it, there is no paint in the architect trying to make pravi1ions of thi• kind. However, the architect can still toke advantage of the reorganization that moving into a new building always necessitcites anyway, to try to exert some inRuence on the reappraisal of the division of responsibilities, at least in so far as they concern the physical environment. One thing can lead to another. Simply by putting forward arguments which can reanure the top management that delegating responsibilities for the environme.nt to the users need not necessan1y result in chaos, the architect is in a position where he con contribute to improving matters, and It iJ certainly his duty to at leatt make an attempt in this direction. MONTESSORI ScHOOL, DELFilll,JSl
A ledge obove the door, given extra width so thot objects con be placed on it · os in this case between closwoom
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ond hall · Is more likely to be put to use if it is accessible from the appropriate side, i.e. from inside the closrroom. The shelf above it may creole on oesthelicolly pleasing effect by setting bock the gloss pone, but it is not likely to be put to use. CENrRAAl BEHE£R OFFICE BUILDING 11._391
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Whereas the office spaces in the Centrool Beheer building, in which each worker has his own private island to work in, are taken core of by the users, no member of the office staff feels directly responsible for the central space of the building. The greenery in this central space is looked after by a special team (cf. Public Works), and the pictures on the wells ore hung there by the ort·provision service. These employees too do their job with greet dedication and core, but there is o striking difference in atmosphere
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thorough renovation and cleaning, during which process a Iorge number of adjustments were mode to comply with contemporary workplace requirements. VUOENIURG MUSIC CENTRE 40
between that communal onto ond the indiv1dual work spaces in oil their diversity. At the refreshment counters in th1s central space you were served by the some girl every day; the refreshments department wos organized in such a woy thot eoch attendant was ollocated to o spec1fic counter. She felt respons1ble for that counter ond m due course she regarded it os her own domain, and gove it o personal touch. These coffee counters have since been removed, and tidy seals ond coffee d1spensers have been installed in their place. The entire building hos undergone
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The underlying ideo which proved so successful in Centraol Beheer does not apply to the refreshment counters 1n the Music Centre in Utrecht. The situation there varies considerably fromone concert to the next, with different counters being used ond different ottendonls serving the public. Since no special affinity between individual employees and specific work spaces was to be expected here, there wos every reason lor the refreshment oreos to be completed and wholly furnished by the architect. In both buildings · Centrool Beheer os well os the Music Centre • the rear walls ore fitted with mirrors. In the former, however, they were installed by the stoff, and in the latter they were designed by the architect according to the some overall principles throughout the building. The mirrors on the rear wall enable you to see who is In front of you, behind you and next to you. They recall the theatre paintings of Monel '411, who used mirrors to draw the space into the Rat picture-plane, thus de~ning the space by showing the people in il and how they ore grouped. The Music Centre hos a competent and dedicated housekeeping staff to look alter the place
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This cannot be said of, lOy, the refreshmen t cars of the Dutch railways : the attendants constantly switch trains. The only commitment thot these attendants ever hove with respett to the cor in wh ich they work is that they ore under orders to leove the ptoce clean and tidy lor the next shif1. Imagine how different things would be if the some ollendont always worked on the some train. While the reslouronl-cor hos disappeared · from Dutch trains ol any role • a new form of catering has emerged in air trovel. But the meob served on planes ore more like on imposition on the traveller than o service; they ore served at times thol suit the airline rather than the passenger (os well os being much too expensive, since they ore included in the already high price of the airline ticket).
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S FROM USER TO DWELLER The ll'anslarion af the concepts 'public' and 'private' in terms of differentiated responsibilities thus makes it easier for the architect to decide in which areas provisions should be made for users/Inhabitants to make their awn contributions to the design of the environment and where this is less relevant. In the organization of a plan, aJ you design it in terms of groundplans and sections and also in the principle of the installations, you can create the conditions for a greater sense of responsibility, and consequently also greater Involvement in the anangement and furnishing of on areo, Thus users become inhabitants.
Dnn u~n The classrooms of this school ore conceived os a utonomous units, lillie homes os it were, oil situated along the school hall, as a communal street. The teacher, ' mother', of each house decides, together with the children, what the place will look like, ond therefore what kind of atmosphere it will hove. Each classroom also has its own small cloakroom, instead of the usual communal .space for the whole school, which usually means thot all the woll·spoce is Ioken up by rows MONTESSORI SCHOOl,
of pegs so that it cannot be used for anything else. And if each classroom would hove its own toilet this too would contribute lo improving the children's sense of responsibility (this proposal was turned down by the educational authorities on the groundl thot seporote toilets were needed lor boys ond girls · os if they hove them at home too· which would require installing twice os mony). It is quite conceivable lor the children in each doss to keep their 'home' clean, like birds their nest, thereby giving expression to the emotional bond with their do ily environment. The Montessori ideo, indeed, comprises so-coiled housekeeping duties lor oil children os port of the doily programme. Thus much emphasis is placed on looking alter the environment, whereby the children's emotional affinity with their surroundings is strengthened. Each child, too, con bring along his own plont to the clawoom, which he or she has to core for. {The awareness of the environment ond the need to look a~er It figures prominently in the Monte,ori concept. Typicol examples are the tradition of working an the floor on special rugs · smolltemporory work areas which ore respected by the others · and the importance that is attached to tidying things owoy in open cupboards). A further step towards o more personal approach to the children's doily surroundings would be to make it possible to reg ulate the central healing per dowaom. This would heig hten the children's awareness of the phenomenon of warmth ond the core that goes into keeping worm, os well os making them more a wore of the uses of energy. A 'safe neJt' · familiar surroundings where you know that your thingt are tafe ond where you can concen· ll'ote without being disturbed by others · is something that each individual nuds os much as each group. Without this there can be no collaboration with others. If you don't have a place that you can col/ your own you don't lcnow where you stand/ There ' on be no adventure without o home ·bose to return to: everyone nuds some klnd of ne.st to fall bock on.
The domain of o particular group of people should be respected os much os possible by 'outsiders'. That is why there ore certain rish attac hed to scxalled multifunctional usage. Toke a schoolroom : if it is used lor other purposes outside school hours, e.g. lor neighbourhood activities, all the furniture has to be pushed aside temporarily, and it is evidently not olwoys put bock into its proper place. Under such circumstances ligures modelled in cloy which ore felt out to dry, for instance, con easily be 'accidentally' broken or someone's pencil sharpener turns out to hove vanished into thin air. 18
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It is important for children to be able to di1ploy the things they hove mode in, soy, the handwork lesson without fear of their things being destroyed, ond they should be able to leove unfinished work exposed without there being the danger of it being moved or 'tidied owoy' by 'strangers'.
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After oil, even o thorough d eoning job done by someone else con leave you feeling quite lost in your own space the next morning. A schoolroom, conceived os the domain of a group, con show its own identity to the rest of the school if it is given the opportunity to rnoke o display of the things jthot the children hove mode or work they hove done in dou) that the group is especially involved in. This con be done informally by using the partition between hall and classroom os display space, and by making plenty of windows with generous sills in the partition. A small showcase lin this case even ill uminated) is o challenge to the group to present itself in o more formal way. The exterior of the clo$$room can then function as o sort of 'shop window' which shows what the group has to 'offer'. In this way each class con present o picture which the others con relate to, ond which morh the transition between each classroom ond the communal hall space.
30
LISSONS fOt SJUO!NIS 1• U
Al'OliO ScllOO\S tHO lithe spoce be•ween closstooms has been used to create porch11ke oreos as'" the Amsterdam Monlessou school, these oreos con se~e as proper workplaces where you con study on your own, 1 e not m rne c owoom but not shut out e•ther. These places consist of o work-surface w1th liS own hghhng and a bench enclosed by a low wall In order to regulate the contact between classroom and hall as subtly os possible half-doors have been mstolled hole, whose ombigu•ly con generate the right degree ol openness towards the hall who e offering the requ11ed seclusron from rt, both at the some l•me, in each s•tuot•on Here ogo~n we f,nd (os in the Delft school) the gloss showcase conta•nrng the c ossroom's own m~noolure museum ond d•sploy
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6 THE ' IN-BETWEEN' The wider significance of the conce19t of in·belween was introduced In Forum 7,19.59 (Lo plus grande realite du seull) crnd Forum 8,19.59 (Das Gestalt gewordene Zwischen: the concretization of the in· belween). Sl
The threshold provides the key to the transition and connection between areas with diverpnt territorial claims and, as a place in its own right, it constitutes, essentially, the spatial condition for the meeting and dialogue belween areas of different orders.
The value af this concept is most explicit in the threshold 'par excellence', the entnJnce to a home. We are concerned here with the encounter and reconciliation between the flreet on the one hand and a private domain on the other.
The child silting on the step in front of his house is sufficiently for away from his mother to feel independent, to sense the excitement and adventure of the great unknown. Yet ot the some time, silting there on the step which is port ol the street os well os of the home, he feels secure in the knowledge that his mother is nearby. The child feels ol home and otthe some lime in the outside world. This duality exists than ks to the spatial quality of the threshold os o platform in its own right, o place where two worlds overlap, rather than a sharp demarcation.
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The entrance to o primary ~chool should be more than o mere opening through which the children ore swallowed up when the lessons begin ond spot out ogoin when they end. It should be o place that oilers some l ind of welcome to the children who come early ond to pupils who don't wont to go straight home offer schooL Children, too, hove their meetings ond appointments. Low walls that con be sol on ore the least you con offer, o sheltered corner is better, and the best of oil would be o roofed oreo for when it rains. The entrance to o kindergarten is frequented by parents they soy goodbye to their children there, and wait lor them when school is over for the day. Parents waiting for their children thus hove o ~ne opportunity to get to know each other, and to arrange for the children to play of each others' homes, in short this public space, as o meeting ground lor people with common interests, serves on important social function. As o result of the conversion in 1981t~ll, this entrance no longer exists.
the door to be opened, while the welcoming gesture of the place gives you the feeling that you hove almost been let in already. You could soy that the bench by the front door is o typically Dutch motif · it con be seen on many old paintings, but in our own century Rietveld, lor instance, created the some arrangement, complete with o hall· door, in his famous Schroder house. Utrecht 1924 tltt. I
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J De OVEilOOP, HOME FOR THE EtOERlY (11,11) A sheltered area at the front door, the beginning of the 'threshold', i~ the place where you ~oy hello or goodbye to your visitors, where you stomp the snow off your boots or put up your umbrella. The sheltered entrances to the op011ments that belong to the nursing home De Overloop in Almere ore fitted with benches next to the front doors. The front doors ore located two by two to form o combined porch which, however, is still divided into seporote entrances by o vertical partition projecting from the fo~ode. The halldoors enable whoever is sitting out~ide to keep contact with the interior of the apartment, so that you con at least hear the phone ring. This entrance zone is evidently regarded as on extension of the home, os is shown by the mots that hove been laid outside. Thanks to the overhang you do not hove to wait in the rain for
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34
lESSOI S fOt STUt!US ,. AICM IIICIUII
DOCUMENTA URJIANA 0wELUNGS I'J./0)
DE 0Rif HOVEN, HOM£ FOi THE EtDfRlY 1" 1
In situations where there might be o need for conlocl between inside and out, for Instance in o home for the elderly where 50me of the residents spend o lot of their lime in the solitude of their own rooms due to diminished mobility, wailing for 50meone to visit them, while other residents outside would also welcome some contact, it is o good ideo to install doors with two sections, so that the upper port con be kepi open while the lower half is dosed. Such ' hoiP doors constitute o distinctly inviting gesture: when half open the door is both open and closed, i.e. it is closed enough to ovoid making the Intentions of those Inside oil too explicit, yet open enough to facilitate casual conversations with passers· by, which moy lead to closer contact. Conc...tization of the threJhold os an in·betwMn means, first and foremost, creating o Mttlng for welcomes ond farewells, ond is therefore the translation Into orchitedonic terms of hospltolity. lesldes, the threshold os o lxlilt focility is just os lmpot1ont for sodol contocts os thick walls are for • pnvacy. Condition• for privacy and conclltionl for maintaining social contacts with others are equally neceuary. Entrance, porches, and many atfter forms of in· betw.e.n spaces provide on opportunity for 'accommodation' between od'tolning worlds. This ldnd of provision give• rise to a certoin articulation of the building concerned, which requires both space ond money, without its function being easily demonstrable • let alone quantifiable • and which Is therefore often very diHicult to o
The meander-shaped housing block which was termed 'snake' consists of segments, each designed by different architects. The communal staircases were placed in a fully-lit situation rather than in the more usual residual, generally dimly-lit spoce. In o multi~omily house the emphasis should not lie exclusively on the architectural provisions to prevent excess noise and inconvenience from neighbours; special attention must be paid in particular to the spatial disposition, which may be conducive to the social contacts that may be expected to exist between the various occupants of o building. Therefore we hove given the staircases more prominence than usual. Communal staircases should not only be o source of aggravation where accumulation of dirt and cleaning ore concerned- they should also serve, for instance, as a playground lor the small children of neighbouring families. They hove therefore been designed with o maximum of light and openness in mind, like gloss· roofed streets, and con be overlooked from the kitchens. The open entrance porches with two front doors, one oher the other, show to the communal territory o little more of their inhabitants than traditional closed doors usually do. Although core has naturally been token to ensure adequate privacy on the terraces, neighbouring families ore not fully isolated from one another. We hove aimed ot designing the exterior spaces in such o way that the
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necessary screening detracts as little as possible from the spotiol conditions for contact between neighbour~. Incidentally, such expansion of the minimum space required lor 'circulation purposes' proves to attract not only children · it also serves os o place for neighbours to
Bv.ldiflg or rig~~ 0 . SteidJe, architect
sit and talk. Indeed, in this case the residents also provided the furnishings. In addition to on ordinary front door the dwellings hove o second gloss door which con also be locked and which leads to the ocluol staircase, so that on open entrance-space is obtained. Since this intermediary space between staircase ond front door is interpreted differen~y by different people · i.e. not exclusively as pori of the stairs but equally os on extension of the dwelling · it is used by some os on open hallway, into which the atmosphere of the home is allowed to
10
penetrate. In this woy, depending on which of the two doors is regarded os the real front door, the residents con display their individuality which normally remains concealed in the privacy of the home, while at the some lime the staircase loses some ol the usual no-mon's-land feeling and may even acquire o truly communal atmosphere. The principle of the vertical pedestrian walkway as applied in the Kassel housing project was further elaborated in the LiMo housing estate in Berlin. The staircases of this complex lead up to communal roof· terraces. It was eventually decided that it would not be necessary to incorporate the ploy-balconies that were featured in the Kassel project, as the secluded courtyard in itself offers adequate ploy-space lor the youngest children in particular.
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1849 I M.H. VEUGNY IIJ.14) Cite Napoleon in Poris, one of the first otlempls, and certainly the most remorkoble, to arrive ot o reasonable solution to the problem of distance between the street ond front door in o multi·storey resldentiol building. This interior space, with oil its stairs ond overpasses, reminds one of the multi·storeyed buildings in a mountain village. A reasonable amount of light reaches the top floors through the gloss roof. The residents of the upper floors do actually open their windows onto this interior space, ond the presence of polled plants ot least shows that the people core. Even while it did not prove possible · in spite of the builders' best intentions · to make this interior space [closed off os it is from the street outside! into o truly functional interior street by our standards, when you think of all those gloomy useless stairways that hove been built since 1849 this is indeed o shining example. CITE NAPOlEON, PARIS
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7 PRIVATE CLAI MS ON PUBLIC SPACE The in·betwHn concept is the key to ellminating the sharp divi~lon betwHn a"1!S with diHerent territorial claims. The point is therefore to create intermediary spa
The hallways sel'le os streets in o building which must function os a city lor its ~everely disabled inhabitants, because they ore mostly incapable of leaving the premises without ouistonce. The dwelling units situated along this 'street' oil hove, in pairs, porch-like oreos which on the one hand belong to the dwellings, but on the other hand ore still port of the 'street oreo'. The residents put their own things there, they look alter that space end often grow plants and flowers there os if it were port of their own home, as o sort of veranda ot street level. Yet the porch-like a rea remains completely accessible to passersby, it remains port of the street. It is extremely difficult to reserve the few square metres that ore needed for such o purpose within the endless network of regulations end norms concerning minimum ond maximum dimensions which govern every conceivable aspect of architectural de$ign. In the case of social housing it is regarded on the odministrotive level os on impermissible reduction of the
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size of the dwelli ng unit, or os on unnecessary expons1on of the corridor: the functionality of each square metre is, after all, measured according to quontifloble utllity.The love and core that the residents invest in this space, which is not, stric~y speaking, port of their apartment, hinges on on apparently minor detail. namely the window which allows them to keep on eye on the objects that hove been placed outside, not only as a precaution against theft but also simply because it's nice to be able to see your own things or to see how your plants ore doing. The architect needs on Inordinate amount of ingenuity to get this ideo post the watchful eye of the fire prevention authority. The lighting fixtures in 'De Drie Hoven' next to the Irani doors were installed in small projecting walls, in such o way thor a mot con easily be placed underneath. Using their leftover bits of carpet, the residen ts appropriate and furnish th.e little space thus created, thereby extending the limits of their home ground beyond the Iron I door .
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Provided we incorporote the proper spotiol suggestions into our design, the inhobitonts will be more inclined to expand their sphere of Influence outwords to the publk oreo, Even o minor odjustment by way of spotiol articulation of the entronce con be enough to enco.uroge expansion of the personal sphere of Influence, ond thus the quality of public space will be considMObly increosed in the common interet.!. DtAGOON OwauNGS oa~ll
What could be done with the pavements in 'living-streets', if the inhabitants were to be given responsibility lor the space, may be imagined on the basis of the experiment with the pavement in front of the Oiogoon dwellings in Delft. The oreo in front of the dwellings has not been laid out as a front garden; it has simply been paved like on ordinary sidewalk, and hence os pori of the public domain although, strictly speaking, it is not. The areas belonging to the different houses hove not been marked, nor does the layout contain any suggestion of private claims. The paving moleriol consists of the usual concrete tiles, which au tomatically evoke associations with o public rood because sidewolh ore usually paved with
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resolved in mutual agreement. It is here that every inhabitant ploys the roles that eJCpress what sort of person he wonls to be, ond therefo re how he wonls others Ia see him. Here, too, it is decided what individual and collective hove to offer eoch other.
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exactly the some tiles. The inhabitants then start removing some of the tiles to put plants there instead. 'Dessous les paves lo ploge'. The rest of the tiles are left in place wherever o poth to the front door is wonted, or o space to pork the fam ily cor close to the house. Each resident uses the oreo in front of his house according to his own needs ond wishes, taking up os much of the oreo os he requires and leaving the rest as publicly accessible. lithe layout hod started out from the ideo of separate, private oreos, then no dou bt everyon/ would hove mode the best of it for his own benefit, but then there would hove been on Irreversibly abrupt division between private and public space, instead of the intermediary zone that hos now evolved: o merging of the strictly private territory of the houses and the public oreo of the ~lreet. In this oreo in-between public and privole, individual and collective claims con overlap, ond resulling conflicts must be PUBll( OOIIIN
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LIMA HOUSING ll~tl The liMo housing estate is located at one end of o triangular area, the corner of which il marked by o church. The volumes of this church ore very loosely rela ted to the general orchlteclurol alignment. The completion of
building on this triangular island entails leaving the church to stand aport as o detached self.conloined structure. The courtyard it~elf is qu ite unlike the often depressing traditional Berlin courtyard, and is conceived as o public space with six pedestrian access routes, including connections with both the street and the neighbouring courtyard. These pedestrian routes constitute port of the communal open staircases. The c.entre of the courtyard is marked by the Iorge segmented sond·pil, which wol decorated with mosaics along the curved sides by the resident families themselves. It was not difficult to rouse the enthusiasm of the residents for this project· who were keenly interested in the design of the courtyard as it was · especially after they hod seen photographs of Goudi's pork and the Walls Towers. Technical and organizational ossistonce was provided by Akelei Hertzberger, who has undertaken various similar projeds in the post with equally suc.cessful results. At first it was especially the children who contributed their 'tiles', but soon also the adults joined in bringing
along every piece of crockery they could loy their hands on. No architect nowadays would be able to lavish so much a llenlion on a sond·pil, nor would thai be necessary, because it con just as well be left to the inhabitants themselves. A beller way of responding to the offered incentive is hard to imagine. But more important still is that it has become their own sand-pit and their own concern: if a fragment of the mosaic lolls off or proves to be too sharp, for instance, something will be done about it without if being necessary to hold special meetings, write officia l letters, or to sue the architect. A street area with which the inhabitants themselves are involved and where individual marks ore put down for themselves and for each other Is appropriated jointly, and is thus turned into a communal space.
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8 PUBLIC WORKS CONCEPT 8ijlmermetr HotiJ.ing Estore,
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The point is to give public spaces form in such a way that the local community will feel personally responsible for them, so that each member of the community will contribute in his or her own way to an environment that he or she can relate to and can identify with. It is the great paradox of the collective welfare concept, as it has developed hand in hand with the ideals of socialism, that actually makes people subordinate to the very system that has been set up to li.b erate them. The services rendered by the Municipal Public Works departments are felt, by those for whose benefit those departments were created, as an overwhelming abstraction; it is as if the activities of Public Works are an imposition from above, the man in the street feels that they 'have nothing to do with himj and so the system produces a widespread feel ing of alienation.
The public gardens and green belts around the blocks of flats in the new urban neighbourhoods ore the responsibility of the Public Works de partments, which do
olllhey con Ia make these areas os oHroclive as possible -within the limits of the allocated budgets- on behalf of the community_ Bul lhe results that ore achieved in this way cannot help being stark, impersonal and uneconomical, compared with what could have been achieved if all the flatdwellers hod been offered the opportunity of using o small plot of land (even if no bigger than o parking space) lor their own purposes. What has now been collectively denied them could hove become the contribution of each inhabitant Ia the community, while the space itself could hove been used for more intensively if all that per;onollove a nd core hod been lavished on il. An example of this is to be seen ollhe Fomilistere in Guise, France: o housing project which wos set up on behalf of the Godin stove factory: o working and dwelling community modelled alter the ideas of Fourier. Although it dotes from the nineteenth century, as on example of what con be done it is still of topical interest today. VROESENlAAN HousiNG, Rom~oAM 1931-34 I
lH. VAN DEN 8ROEK i!J,tll Communal a menities con blossom only through the communal elforl on the port of the users_That must hove been the ideo underlying the communal interior spaceswithout fences and partitions · that were designed in the twenties and thirties.
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The fenced-in field with an imals, which owes its existence to the initiative of a staff member of ' De Drie Hoven', has gradually developed into a miniature zoo, with a pheasant, a peacock, chickens, goats, plenty of ducks in a pond Ieeming with fish. For the elderly residents of the home the an imals ore a pleasant and interesting sight, and the rooms with o view of the 'menagerie' ore the most sought-after. Home-made sheds for the animals to spend the night in had been provided by enthusiasts, but by the lime this popular scheme hod proved a succeu and expansion become necessary, the Deportment of Housing Inspection decided that things could not go on like this: they stipulated that a professional construction plan would have to be submitted, and would hove to be approved by all the proper authorities and commitlees. For the local population the 'menagerie' represents o standing invitation to get involved in taking core of the animals or simply to stroll over and see how they ore doing. When do city children gel to see a nimals? The only animals most of them ever see in thei r home environment ore privately owned pets, dogs kept on leashes, because farms of shored ownership and responsibility for animals appear to be impossible Ia organize. The ideo of doing so doesn't even arise · local inhabitants, alter all, do not normally hove any inRuence on how their communal spaces ore laid out and used. But then Public Works can hardly be expected to look
46
lESSORS lOt STUDINIS II IRCIITHTO I£
alter animals all over town. For that o whole new department with a specialized staff would be needed, not to mention thousands of notices saying 'Do Not feed the Animals'. The allotments and the animals at ' De Drie Hoven' are o natural inducement lor social contact belween the elderly residents and the local population · both groups being deprived in c different way. The residents of the home ore forced by circumstance to be outsiders in the city, but thanks to 'their' garden they con offer some compensation for what the others lock · outs iders as they, too, are in the grounds of ' De Drie Hoven'. These uamples serve to Illustrate how the best
intentions can lead to disillusionment and indifference. Things start to go wrong when the 1cale become• too big, when the upkeep and management of a communal area can no longer be left to those directly involved, and a special organlz.atlon becomes necessary, with its own specialized staff, with its own interests and concerns regarding continuity and, possibly, expansion. When the point has b.en reached that an organization'• prime concern becomes to ensure its own c,ontinued existence · retardleu of the aims for which it was established, I.e. to do for others what they can no longer be expected to do for themselves • at that point bureouc.rCKy rears Its head. lutes become a straitjacket of regulations. The sense of personal
responsibility is lost in a stifling hlet'Grchy of answet'Cibility to one's superiors. While there is nothing wrong with the intentions of the Individual link in this Interminable chain of lnterdependendes, they are rendered virtually irrelevant because they are too far removed from those far whose benefrt the whole ayatem was invented in the flr~t place. The rea-n why dty dwellers become outsiders in their own living environment is either that the potential of collective Initiative has been grossly overestimated, or that partkipotion and involvement have been underestimated. The occupants of a house are not really concerned with the space outside their homes, but nor can they really ignore it. Thia opposition leach to alienation from your environment and • in 10 far aa your relations with others are influenced by the environment • alsa to alienation from your t.llow residents. The mounting degree of control imposed fnlm above is making the world around us increasingly inexorable: and this elicits agreuion, which in tum leads to further tightening of the web of regulations. A vicious circle Is the reault, the lac,k of commitment and the exaggerated fear of chaos have a mutually eualating effed. The incredible deatruction of public property • which ia on the rise In the world's major cities • can probably particularly be blamed on alienation from the living environment. The fact thot public transport 1helters and public telephones are completely destroyed week In week out Is a truly alarming indichnent of our society as a whole. What is almost as alarming, however, is thcrt this trend • and its HCalation • is dealt with as if it w- a mere problem of organacrtion: by undertaking perioclical repairs as If they were a question of routine maintenance, and by applying extra relnfarcemenb ('vandal·proofing'), the Jituation appear~ to be accepted as 'just one of those things'. The whole suppreulve aystem of the establiJhed order is geared to avoiding conflicts; to protecting the indlviducrl member~ of the community from incursions by other members of the some community, without the direct involvement of the individuals concerned. This explains why there is such a deep fear of disorder, chaos crnd the unexpected, and why impersonal, 'objective' regulations are always preferred to personal involvement. It seem• as if everything must be regulated and q-ntiflable, 10 01 to permit total control; to create the conditionJ in which the suppNulve 1y1tem of order can make us all into lessees instead of co·ownen, into JUbordinates Instead of portl
itself aeates the alienation and, by claiming to represent the people, obstructs the development of conditions that could lead to a more hospitable environment.
• The architect can contribute to creating CJn environment whith oHera far more opportunities far people to make their personal markings and ldentlficCJtiona, in auch a way that it can be appropriated and annexed by all as a place that truly 'belongs' to them. The wortd that Is controlled and managed by everyone as well as far everyone will have to be built up of small· scale, workable entities, no larger than what one person can cope with and look CJfter on his own terms. Each spatial component will thus be more intensively used (whereby the space is enhanced), while it is crlsa mare fair to the users to demonstrate their intentions. More emancipgtion generates more motivation, and in this way enervy can be released which iJ otherwise suppressed by centralized decision-making. This amounts to a plea far decentralization, for devolution wherever at all paulble, and for the handing over of responsibilities to where they belong • ln order to toke eHective measuNs to solve the problems of the inevitable alienCJtian from the 'urban desert'.
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9 THE STREET Amllerdom, wotlets dlwfcr, lheellrle in lhe t 9111 cenrury: quite different from lodoy, bul remember
how etomped OJ>d lnodequOit l.wsrtog wos In those days.
Gioggio, holy. TrallJc.free living lfnH!I. looH'Vl for a place in the M>ode.
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Beyond our front door or garden gate begins a world we have little to do with, a world upon which we can exert hardly any influence. There is a growing feeling that the world beyond the front door is a hostile world of vandalism and ogress ion, where we feel threatened rather than at hame.Yet to take this widespread feeling as the point of departure for urban planning would be fatal. Surely it iJ for better to go bock to the optimistic and utopian concept of the 'reconquered street', which we could see so clearly before us less than two decodes ago. In this view, inspired by the post·wor existentio· listie zest fo.r life (espedolly Provo os for os Holland is concerned) the street is again conceived as what it must have been originally, namely as the place where social contact between local re~idents can be estobli1hed: as o communol living·room, os it were. And the concept that social relations con even be stimulated by on efficacious application of the architectonic meoM is already to be found in Team X and especially in 'Forum', where, os o central theme, this issue was repeatedly raised. The devaluation of this street concept may be due to
the following foctors: • the increcue in motoriud trcrHic and the priority that it is given; • the inconsiderate organisation of the acceu areas to the dwellings, in particular that of the fTont doors vis ci vis - h other owing to indire
The increased prosperity seems on the one hand to have encouraged lndividuallsm while on the other allowing collectivism to auume proportions quite beyond anyone's gTGsp. We must try to deal with these foctors • even if the architect is unable to do more than exert an incidental influence on the aforementioned rather fundamental aspects of social change • by creating the conditions for a more viable street area wherever possible. And this means that it mu1t be done on the level of spatial organisation, i.e. by architectonic means. • Situations where the street serves as a communal eJttension of the dwellings are familiar to us all. Dependlng on the climate, either the sunny parts or the shaded areas are the most papular, but motoriud traffic is always absent or at least for away enough as not to prevent the residents fTom seeing each other and making themselves heard. living·streets which no longer serve exclusively as o traffic route and which ore organized in such a way that there Is also room for children to ploy are becoming an increasingly familiar sight both in new
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housirtt estates ond in renovation projects · ot leolf In Holland. The lnteresb of the pedestrian ore being token Into ~onsiderotion of Ia~, and with the 'woonerf' {residential oreo with severe traffic restrictions and priority ot oil times for pedestrians) deslgnotion os a legol basis he is slowly regaining his rightful place · or at least he is no longer treated cu an outlaw. However once the motorists hove been tom.d to behove in a more disciplined fashion, their vehicles ore still sa cumbersome, so Iorge, ond especially 10 numerous, that they toke up more ond more of the publi< space. HAARLEMMER HOUTIUINEN HOUSING (100.109)
The central theme in the Hoorlemmer Houlluinen i~ the street as living space, as elaborated in association with Von Herk and Nagelkerke, the architects ol the other side of the street. The decision · which hod more Ia do with politics than with lawn-planning - Ia reserve on area of 27 metres up to the railway for 'traffic purposes' obliged us to build ol leosl up lo th is imposed limit of alignment; as a result !here was no room there for bock gardens (which would in foci hove been permanently in the shade anyway).
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In sum these unfavourable circumstances- i.e. undesirable orientation and traffic noise . meant that lhi~ north side should definitely accommodate the rear wall, ond so automatically all emphasi~ come to lie on the living-street facing ~outh. This 'living-street' is accessible only to the residents' own motorcars ond delivery vehicles; due lo the foctlhol it is therefore closed to general motorized troJfic and to its width of 7 metres · on unusually narrow profile by modern standards - o situation reminiscent of the old city is created. The necessary street fittings such as light~, bicycle rocks, law SO
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fencing and public benches ore dispersed in such o way that only o few parked cars ore enough to obstrucl the posse ge of further traffic Trees ore to be planted to form o centre hallway between the two street sections. The structures projecting from the fo~ode~ • the exterior staircases and living..room balconies· orltculote the prohfe of the street, moki11g it seem less wrde than the 7 metres il meoMes from hous&-lront to house-front. The conseqvence is o zone that provides space for the street-level terraces of the ground-floor dwellings. These pavement gardens with their low surrounding walls ore
no bigger than the lorst-lloor balconies, they could certainly not be any smaller, but the question rises whether they would hove been better if larger As they offer lor less privacy than the livrng-room bolcome.s. one could osk oneself whether the ground-level reSidents ore at o disadvantage but on the other hand the immediate contact with pouers-by and ganerol street activity seems to ba attractive to many people, espeCially when the street regains some of its former communal quality. Strops hove been left open odtormng the pnvote outdoor spaces; the organization of the.se slrips has deliberately been lefl undecided The public works deportment could not resist loyi ng down paving stones in these spaces The inhabitants lor their port ore now already pulling plants there, thus successively oppropriotong th1s basically public oreo.Outch hous1ng construction has troditionolly devoted much oflention to the problems of access to upper storeys, and a greal variety ol solutions hove bl!en developed rn the Netherlands· oil aimed ot giving eoch dwelling 1ls own individual front door wtlh maximum actessibility from the street wherever possible. Indeed the solution we hove adopted •s srmply another voriohon on this essentially ancient theme the iron
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The entrances to the upper dwellings, located on 'public balconies' overlooking the street, do not constitute on obstruction Ia the ground·floor dwellings, but provide the latter with some deg ree of shelter lor their own entrances. Because the stairs themselves are light ond tronsporent the space underneath is fully utilizable for mailboxes, bicycles and children's ploy. Considera ble effort went into separating the access areas to the upper dwellings from the garden spaces in front of the ground· floor dwellings. This is reflected in the clear definition of residents' responsibilities O$ for os keeping their own access areos clean. The absence of such distinct definihon would undoubtedly result in for leu intensive utilization of the available spoce by the respective inhobitonls.
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exterior sloirC0$8$ leod too firsi-Roor landing with the front door of the upper·$lorey dwelling; from there the stoirco~e continue$ inside the building, leoding through the sleeping quarters of the ground-floor dwelling to the dwelling above.
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that perhaps seem so self·evident that one tends to underestimate their importance. • Dwelling units function better If the streets on which they are sited function well as a living-street, and that in tum depends especially on how receptive they are, i.e. upon whether the atmosphere inside the homes can blend with the communal atmosphere of the street outside. This is largely determined by the planning and detailing of the layout of the neighbourhood. SPANGEN HOUSING, ROnEROAM
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The access galleries in the Rotterdam Spcngen housing
scheme (191911 ore still unequalled in whet they offer the residents. Since lhere ore only front doors on one side of this type of 'living·street' the residents hove only their next-door neighbours for company. This is o disodvcntoge compared with o normal slreel, where there ore of course neighbours ac ross the way, too. Nonetheless, here in Spongen social contact between neighbours is exceptionally intense, which goes lo show how im portant the absence of traffic is. Yetlhe social interaction that tokes place on the occeu gallery is inevitably shut oH from the slreet below, to which the dwellings in loci turn their bocks. You cannot be in two places at once.
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The dwelling units for married students on the fourth floor were on inducement to build o gallery-street, which could be seen os o prototype foro living·street, free from traffic and with a view of the roohops of the old cily. It is sole there for even the youngest toddlers to ploy out of doors, while their parents con also sit in front of their homes. The example this design was based on was in loci the Spongen complex of 45 years ogo. One of the problems in gallery-streets is the placement of bedroom windows: if they open onto the gallery there is the disadvantage of insufficient privacy. This situation con be improved by raising the floor of the bedroom, so that those inside can look out of the window over the heads of the people outside, while the window is too high for those oubide to be able to look into the room.
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The building as a whole has since become much less open; and consequently the gallery street is no longer publicly accessible.
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How this works is to be seen, in on elementary form , in the siting principles adopted in some form or other in oil newly constructed housing projects. The demand for more openness ond better sunlight conditions for all dwelling units led, in twentieth-century urban planning, to the abandonment of the hitherto customary perimeter bloc~ siting. That resulted in the loss of the contrast between the quiet seclusion olthe enclosed courtyards ond the bustle and traffic noise of the street outside. The fo~odes giving onto the streets were the fronts (and so the architects concentrated their efforts on them) while the more informal rear fo~odes with their balconies ond clothes-lines- some favoured by their orientation, others quite the opposite • was the so-c·olled living side. This arrangemen t was superseded by strip siting, with two-fronted dwellings, which created the possibility of positioning all the gardens on the side (diagram a). It is important to realize, though, that with this type of layout oil the front doors of one row of houses loo~ out onto the gardens of the next row. So everyone lives on o half-street, os it were, with the spaces between the bloch oil essentially the some instead of
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alternating between garden space ond street space. lncidenlolly, lhe strip siting principle a llows for the some form of a llotment so long as the orientation is suitable (diagram b) but even if that is not the case it is worth making every eHort to ensure that the fronts of the bloch (i.e. where the front doors ore located) face each other (diagram c). If the entrances of the dwellings face each other everyone looks onto the some communal space · you con see the neighbours' children hurrying off to school in the morning (is our clock slow again?). But ho~ing o full view of your neighbours also encourages inquisitiveness, and so with this type of siting it is even more important than with type c to position windows and front doors vis ovis each other carefully, in such o way that some privacy at least is oHered at each entrance to protect against too much prying. In the case of the traditional so-called dosed housing block scheme, all the gardens and oil the entronces face each other. The garden areas ore therefore different in nature from the street areas. RoYAl CRESCENTS, BATH, EI'IGtAND 1767 I J. Wooo, J.NASH 111/·119)
Although certainly not designed with o view to neighbourly interaction, the curved street-walls of the 'crescents' in Both ore particularly interesting in this respect. Due to the concavity of the curve the houses hove o view of one another. It is the some effect as when you ore
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sitfing in o train and the tracks describe o curve: you con suddenly see o str ing other carriages full of fellowpassengers, whose presence you hod not been owore of. A curved street-wall with the houses in the row overlooking the some oreo thus contributes to the communal nature olthot oreo. While the concave side of o curved wall con encourage the feeling of belonging together, the convex side ot the bock sees to it that the houses turn owoy from each other O$ it were, and this con contribute to the privacy of the gardens. The crescent solution therefore works both ways. ROMUSTADT, fRANKFURT, GERMANY
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Ernst May, like his more famous fellow architect Bruno Tout, was among the leading pioneers of German housing construction. The numerous housing schemes he built in Frankfurt in the period 1926-1930 show how keen May's eye was lor the urban details thol con improve living conditions. The lesson he leaches is that the rather dull allotment plans thai usually result from the limited budgets lor social housing con actually be transformed into on excellent living environment in spite of the restricted means, so long os the plans ore worked out with the proper sense of orienlotion and proportion. Of course it is important to realize that the architecture of the dwellings and the design of the surroundings were the responsibility of the some man, who moreover did not make a distinction between architecture and urban planning and therefore succeeded in olluning dwellings and environment to each other is such o way that they bocome complementary ports of a single whole. The Romerstodt housing scheme is situated on o gentle slope by the river Nidda. The parallel streets follow the direction of the valley, end although it might hove been espociolly obvious here, with the terraced streets, to pion the garden consistently on the volley side, it wos docided to make the front doors of the row-houses on either side of the rood face each other. The inequality of the two entra nce sides, resulting from the orientation and the (slight) diHerence in level, was compensated for by organizing the street space in such o way that the houses on the side with leu favourably sited gardens would hove o green zone ot the front. A characteristic detail is that the pavement stops short of the lo~ode, leaving o narrow strip bore directly ad joining the north wall. Thi; is on obvious place for plants, and creepers grown up all over the fo~ode, thus softening its starkness.
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The layout of the housing estate 'Hel Gein' in Amersfoorl is such thollhe emphasis come to lie especially on the quality of the living·streets. The terrain was divided as much as possible into long straight blocks and parallel streets. AI first sight this yields less rolher than more variety than the conventionolloyoul, but the ideo is that quiet straight streets provide a beHer slarling·poinl for variations within the allotments. II is like a sytem of warp and weh, as the warp !streets] in a woven piece of cloth constitute a strong Ieven colourless If necessary) structure, while the weft gives the weave its colour. An important requirement, though, is thol the living·slreets be kept as troffic·free as possible. Much attention hos also been paid to the street pro~les; they ore not only essential for the quality of each individual dwelling, but also for the woy they interrelate. The fronts, and hence also the front doors of the dwellings, foce each other two by two on either side of the street. The streets hove a south-eosl lo north· west orientation, which meons that one side catches more
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sunlight than the other. That is why the streets ore asymmetrically organized: the parki ng spaces hove been moved to one side of the street· the shady side. The other, sunnier side, is largely filled with greenery. The dwellings with f-ront doors on the sunny side and consequently with gardens on the shadier side hove been compensated for this with on extra space j1 .80 m wide) along the front, which con be used to install covered porches, conserva. tories, awnings, or ather individual conveniences. These additions were already supplied by us from the outset in the case of a number of dwellings, which might well serve to stimulate occupants of similar dwellings to follow these examples if they con afford to do so. How this zone is eventually used by everyone concerned will constitute the main source of diversity · not as o product of design but rather as on expression of individual choices. Some of the dwellings, loa, hove roof extensions, and assurances hove also been given that more addi tions will be permitted in o specially appointed zone in the future. The garden sheds ore located either close to the house or in the garden,
depending on sunlight conditions. In the partially shaded gardens, this still mode it possible to create o sunny spot with some shelter. The allotments with a more favourable orientation hove their shed close to the house so that It becomes attractive to construct some kind of connection in the spoce between the two.
LiYJng·street, Hombu•g bei,.Hit lllW1Msl7o/Je and folhorled, Germony
ACCfSSIBrtllY Of FlATS
pwellings should be as accessible as possible directly from the street, a nd preferably not too for removed from it, as is ohen the case in multi·storey buildings. Whenever, as in the case of Rots, you con only reach your own home indirectly by way of communal halls, elevators, staircases, galleries or arcades, there is the risk of these communal spaces being so anonymous that they discourage informal contacts between residents, and degenerate into a vast nomon'~lond . Even if the need foro certain amount of privo· cy for eoc:h unit in multi·story buildings hos been token into account, people who live neltldoor, above, or under each other, do hove lot to do which each other, while the spoHol conditions for this ore locking. Also in a block of flats it is diffic ult to know where to welcome friends and where to soy goodbye. Do you accompany them to your front door and leave them to go down the stairs alone, or do you walk themall the way down to where their cor is parked in the parking lot? And what a lot of dragging around with luggage you hove to do to pock the cor when you go on holiday! If your children ore still too small to play outside on their own, the situation is really problematical. 'The fun beg1ns, getting tit. cor onJ lroilor r.arly ' From ANWB Tourist Guide.
In residefltial neighbourhoods we must give the 1treet a llving·room quality nat only for day·to·day inter· action but al.10 for more 1pe
llving•slreel, Sa~mundhom, England 1887. 'CelebroJing Outen Vic!Otlo's JuMee. By the lote 1880stl>. OIIHo's po(>llloflly hod surmounted me eorll•• woveJ of ~tpubl•canism. oltd col'le lo o clomo( fn the Jubilees ol I887 ond I891, by wltkh lime '"" wo; o• much loved ond revered os any mo~tarch In 8rftol1t before ond since. Not
eir poro.ols to ptot«:t lhem ggomstrhe •••· A sunb..rnlloce fn o womon wos, of couue, o thing to be ovorded ol oil com if she would maintain o ny sorl o/ socia l po•ilion.' IGoldlll'l Wiltler, A counlry CQmeto 1844 • J91 4, Peroguin London/
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Yet it would be o good idea to keep rills kind of imoge at the bodt of your mind as a sort of standard that your design must in principle be capable of meeting. Althouth people in northern countries are not in the habit of taking their meals out of doors, it does happen every now and again, and sa we should see to it that rills is not rendered impossible a priori by the spatial organi~ation of the p~e. Perhaps people will even be more inclined to put the public space to new uses if the opportunities for doing so are explicitly offered to them. Just as important as the disposition of the residential units vis ci vis eoch other is the fenestration, the place· ment of boy windows, bakonies, terraces, landings, doorsteps, porches • whether they hove the corred dimensions and how they are spatially organized, i.e. adequately separated but certainly not too much so. It is always a questian of finding the right balance to enable the residents to withdraw into privacy when they want to but also to seek contod with others. Of crucial importance in rills respect is the space around the front door, the piau where the house ends and the living· Jtreet b-s.lns. It is what the dwelling and the living-street hove to offer each othe.r tt.ot determines how well or how badly they will batt. be able to function.
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The Fomilislere in Guise in the north of France constitutes a dwelling community established by the Godin stove foe· lory a her the utopian ideas of Fourier. The complex comprises 47 5 dwelling units, divided into three adjoining blocks with inner courtyards, as well as extensive facilities such as o creche, school and laund ry. In the Iorge covered courtyards of the Fomilistere in Guise lhe surrounding dwellings literally constitute the walls. Although the shape of lhe courtyard and the prison-like manner in which the front doors ore situated along the galleries slrikes us today as somewhat primitive, this early 'block of Hots' is still o pre-eminent example of how slreet and dwellings con be complemen-tary. The foci, moreover, that these courtyards ore roofed makes them extra Inviting for communal oclivilies such os those which were apparently held there in the old days, when the housing complex still functioned as o truly collective form of habitation. 'Every attempt to reform work relatioM is doomed to failure unless It is accompanied by the reform of building for the purpose of creating o comfortable environment for the workers, which i5 fully attuned lo their practical need5 as well as to providing acceB to the pleasures of community living which every human being deserves to enjoy.' lA God.n, Soh,hons Sodales, POfis 18941 60
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DE DRtE HOVEN, HOME fOR !liE ElDERLY fi!I•HO)
In hospitals, homes for the elderly and similar Iorge living· communities the restricted mobility of the residents makes it imperative to conceive the pion olmost lilerolly as a smal~scole city. In the case of De Drie Hoven everything hod to be accessible within a relatively short distance under the some roof, because hardly anyone is capable of leaving the premises without assistance. And thanks to the Iorge size of the home it was possible to realize such o comprehensive programme of amenities that the institution could indeed approximate the nature of o city in that sense, too. The residents accommodate themselves to their environment as if it were o village community. Strongly influenced by the notion of devolution in the organization, the complex has been divided up into o number ol 'wings', each with its own 'centre'. The differ· ent departments come together in the central 'common room'. This disposition of the spaces has resulted in o sequence of open areas which, from a spatial point of view, reflect the sequence: neighbourhood centre, community centre, city centre · o composite whole within which each 'clearing' or open area serves o specific
fundion. Yet this pattern is dom inated as it were by the centrol'courlyord', which the residents themselves call the 'village square'. This 'village square' is not, strictly speaking, bordered by dwelling units, as is literally the case with the roofed courtyards of the Fomilistere in Guise, but as for os usage and social relations ore con-cerned it does constitute the focus of the complex. This is where all activities tha t are organized lor and by the resident community toke place: parties, concerts, theatre and dance performances, fashion shows, markets, choir performances, cord-game evenings, exhibitions and festive meals for special occasions! Something special goes on there almost every doy. This 'village square' is o very free interprelotion of the usual auditorium for special events, which would be unused half the time if it were o separate, less centrally located hall.
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MONTESSORI SCHOOt, DElfT Cl 41,ll!l
In the Montessori School the communal hall has been con· ceived in sud1o way thor the hall relates to the classrooms as o street relates to the housel. The spotiol relation between cion-rooms and hall and the shape of the hall were conceived os the 'communolliving·room' ol the schooi.The experience of how this functions in the school con, in turn, serve as a model for what could be realized in o street.
tU 142
143 111 KASBAH, HeNGELO
1973 I P. 6LOM tw.wt
No one has been more actively engaged in researching the reciprocity of dwelli ng ond street-space than Piet Blom. Whereas the Kosboh scheme [..,.Forum 7, 19S9 and F0111m 5, 1960-61) was concerned especially with what the disposition of the dwellings themselves could generate, in the 'urban oreo' created in Hengelo the dwellings do not constitute the walls of the street but rather the 'roof of the
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city', leaving the Iorge ground.level space underneath for oil communal odivities ond events.However, only incidental use is mode of the exceptional opportunities in terms of space that ore offered here. There is quite o lesson to be learnt here. The dwellings ore too isolated hom the street below · they ore, so to speak, turned owoy from it, they lace upwards, and not much of the street con be seen from the windows, while even the entrances ore Indirectly positioned vis 6 vis the street. In that respect the form of the street space, os counterlorm to the dwellings, does not creole the conditions for everyday usage. Besides, this space is probably too Iorge to be filled, because there ore not enough amenities · amenities which would hove existed os o matter of course in a selfcontained village of the some size. Bul just try to imagine this scheme in lhe hearl of Amsterdam, with o busy mo1ket in the street below!
Thot must hove been the kind of situation thot Piel Blom envisaged when he conceived his design. Having departed from the h'aditlonal blodt siting principle, archJt.cts have endeavoured, lnspll"td especially by Team X and forum, to invent a stream of new dwelling forms. This ott.n gave rise to spectacular rHults, but whether they fvnction properly is only partiolly dependent on the quality of the dwellings themselves. What is at least as impartont is whether the archJt.ct can find a - y, using the dwellings as his construction material, to form o str..t that functions adequately. The quality of each Is dependent on that of the other: house• and str..b ore complementoryl That the conJtrvcted result Is so often disappointing Is because architects all too often hove a mistoken idea of the way In which the actual street· space will be experienced and u1ed in their scheme. Apart from the fact that they tend to rely too heavily on the effectiveness of 1pedfk pravislana (which all too often tum out to be far leu viable than envisaged) the mast common error li11 in the miacalculatian of the ratio between the size of the public space and the number of people that may be expected to use lt. If the street area is too large, too little happens in too few places, and in spite of all the good Intentions to the conh'ary, the consequence is vast 1paces which osaume the nature of a 'desert' simply because they are too empty. Too many proie«s ·however well· designed · would function satisfactorily if only a market were to be held on a sunny Saturday: the klnd of market you con easily conjure up in your imagiiiOiion, but of which in reality there is onlyper 100,000 cfwellings.
You should really have to test your pion continually for 'population density' by roughly Indica ting the number of people on your blue-print that may be expected to make use of the different areas In varying aituations. ly doing that you will at least get some idea about whether there Is perhaps a surfeit of 1pace far recreation, far inatonce. While vast spaces often appeal to the archltect'a imagination as having a certoin a ir of serenity, it is often doubtful whether the local papulation will feel the same way. For dwellings and buildings In general a wide variety of forms can be devised, so long as the street·space Is farmed in such a - y that it can serve os a catotydng ogent between the local inhabitants in everyday situations, so that at least the distonce betwHn the indivlduallnhabitanb of the all too often hermetically sealed dwellings is not Increased, but rather that the spatial organi1atian may serve to stim.u late social interaction and cohesion.
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10 THE PUBliC DOMAIN
Srud.,tmoreh '" Goltr•o Vi110tro Emonul. Mllon 'With 1/te stu0101 re•ol• educoreon ~OJ rerurned to t,~, Clly and ro tile Jltuls ood ~OJ r~ul lo.ind o 1/eld of rich and dtverJifr«i UPfJt•oc• wlrrc~ '' '""'~ mor~ fofmot•••li>on ict oHe<.d by rhe old Khool syslllm Perl>ops we ore hmd..J toWOfrl an era •n "'h cb t47
ed.x:ot.on and toto/ t•pet•tnce w U"11"'" corncrdt, tn Nl.lch tile Jci>ool OJ on estobi•Jirtrl Q/ld' cod•l•od inthruloon no long~t foos ony t&ason lor exts.:t~nce • I ftoiT! on ortlcle 'A•choltef•ll ond.ducolton' by Gioocorlo dt Corio 'n 'Honrotrl Educohon le>rew' 1969}
If tiM houses are private domains, then the street is the public domain. Paying equal attention to housing ond strMt alike means treating the street not merely as the residual space between housing blocks, but rvther as a fundomentolly complementary element, spatially
t48 14J
organized with just as much care so that a situation is created in which the street can serve more purposes besides motorized traffic. If the street as a collection of building blocks is basically the expression of the plurality of individual, mostly private, components, the sequence of streets ond squoru as o whole potentially constitutes the space where it should be possible for o dialogue between inhabitants to take place. The street was, originally, the space for actions, revolutions, cele-brations, and throughout history you ca:n follow from one period to the next how architects designed the public space on behalf of the community which they in fact served. So this is a plea for more emphasis on the enhancement of the public domain in order that it might better serve bath to nurture and to reflect social Interaction.With respect to every urban space we should ask ourselves how it functions: for whom, by whom and for what purpose. Are we merely impressed by its sound proportions or does it perhaps al.so serve to stimulate improved relations betwHn people? When a street or square strikes us as beautiful it is not ju.st because the dimensions and proportions a re pleasing but also because of the way it functions within the city as a whole. This need not depend exclusively on the 1patial conditions, although they often help, and obviously these case1 a re interesting as examples for the architect and urban planner.
1780/ J.V. LOUIS 1118, 141,1SOl In 1780 rows of houses with shopping orcodes under· neolh were erected on three sides of what wos originally Ihe garde n of the Po lois Royol ln Poris.Todoy il is one of the most 'sheltered' public spaces in the city, while ot the PAI.AIS ROYAL, PARIS
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some time serving os on important short-cui from the louvre oreo to the Biblioth6que Notionole. The small oblong pork derives its spotiol quality ond its pleasant atmosphere not only from the sound proportions of the regularly articulated surrounding buildings, but also from the variegated layout with oreos of gross, choirs, benches, sand-pits and on open-oir cole lor the city· dwellers to choose from . PUBliC SouARE, VENCE, fiANCE IIIli
In countries with o worm climate the street naturally figures much more prominently in the lives of the people than in countries with o cold climate. Public squares like those in Vence ore to be found in every village and every town in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. In many places tourism has severely eroded the trodltionol woy of life, and hence the original function of public spoces, but nevertheless these spaces ore still eminently suited to communal activities · ond perhaps even more so in these changed times, os lor Insta nce open·olr concerts organized lor tourists prove. ROCKEFEUEl PLAZA, NEW YORK tt17l
Rockefeller Plozo in the heart of New York functions even in winter os o sort of urban living·room, when people from oil over go there to skote on the temporary ic.rink. The skaters show off their prowess to the onlookers, and although there is not ollthot much going on, it con happen that the passers-by experience o certain feeling of togetherness, the kind of feeling which you might expect in o theatre, o church, or in some other place where people gather together, ond which arises here . spontaneously thanks portly to the spotiol conditions thol hove been created.
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The situation changes completely wllen the Polio dell Controde is held, and all the different neighbourhoods compete with each other in horse races. This annual event, which is both o ceremony and o proper contest, costs o spell on the entire town and its population, and the lovely shel~shoped space overflows with crowds of people who, • standing along the raised edges, oil hove o good view of the race taking place in the centre.At such times the openair cafes make way for grandstands, and the windows of every single house with o view of the piazza ore filled to capacity, either with paying spectators. or with friends of the families. And of the eve of the contest 15,000 people dine out in the streets of oil the neighbourhoods.
PIAZZA DEl CAMPO, StfNA, ITALY llSS·ISSI
If there is any public space whose enclosed form and exceptional location evokes the impression of on urban living-room it is the Piazza del Compo in Siena. Althougll it is ra ther inward-looking, with Its somewhat stern buildings dominated by the Poloz.zo Communole, its saucer-like hollow with sleep alleys radiating from it stnl unmistakably creates on atmosphere of openness ond light. The sunny side of the pioz:zo is lined with open-air coles which ore full oil year round, especially with tourists 66
l!H4.S I01 SIIOUI5 I* U ( HIIHIUll
PlAZA MAYOR, CHINCHON, SPAIN riS6,1Sn In Chinchon, o small town south of Madrid, the central market square is transformed into on arena when the annual corrida is held. This plaza, shaped like a Greek amphitheatre situated in o hollow on the hillside, Is entirely surrounded by buildings, with shops and coles under the arcades below ond dwellings above. All these dwellings hove wooden balconies running from one end of the fot;ode to the other, joinrng up to form o continuous tiered circle facing the square. Whenever o corrido is held the balconies become grandstands, with rows of seals which the residents sell to make some e:dro money. In this way privole dwellings, located in such prominenl and strotegic places in the life of the community, temporarily toke on o public stolus. 0
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The way these balconies ore oil constructed along the some principles os on open additional wooden zone cantilevered from the relatively closed lo~odes · obviously with this extra public function in mind · they draw the spoce together to form o Iorge uni~ed whole resembling the clonicolltolion theatre with its vertically tiered rows of boxes. DIONNE SPIING, TONtotERlE, fiANCE 11~1
Communal wosh-ploces (or the centrally located water pumps or tops in small rural communities) hove olwoys been o popular meeting-ground lor local inhabitants, where the latest news and gossip is exchanged. Running water and washing-machines hove put on end to this.'Women hove more time lor themselves now', is on argument often heard in defense of modernization. At the famous spring of Tonnerre the place where the water wells up from deep down in the earth was enclosed by o simple circular dam. This solution Intensifies the grandeur of this natural phenomenon, while ot the some time erecting the simple conditions lor o communal wosh-ploce for the people who hoppen to live in the vicinity. We don't make wosh-ploces anymore (cor-washing instollctions don't count). Are there in foci still places where everyday activities give rise to the need to creole communal focilities in the public oreo, sudt os those that ore still to be found in less prosperous ports of the world~ PUll( 101111
67
11 PUBLIC SPACE AS CONSTRUCTED ENVIRONMENT m 160
Untlllfle nineteenth century few buildings w.,. public, and even tben not COII\pl.tely JO, The public acceulbility of such buildings OJ chur
A particularly interesting example is the 'watering-place' with natural springs, such os Vichy in france . The hopes ond expectations concerning the heolthiJivlng properties of the water ore o welcome subject of conversation for oil visitors. The cures that hove been prescribed for them toke some time, which means that their paths cross regularly in the park in the centre of the town where the springs ore located. The main walks through the pork ore roofed with lightweight metal structures, which gives the stroller the feeling of being both inside a nd ou t of doors at the some time. The general atmosphere is that of on endless open-
61
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SfUOr.l~ I~
AI CIIIIOU U
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lis HAUES, PARIS 1854-66 I v. 6AUARO ti6H6ct The market halls in Paris constituted on indispensable link in the chain ol distribution of goods in the city. o relay-station as it were in o mammoth system, where producer and consumer no longer maintain direct contact with one another. The market halls consisted of vast oreos with spoMools ond o sheltered oreo for loading and unloading. This hub of activity did not foil to leave ils mark on the surrounding neighbourhood: there were, for instance, many oll·night restaura nts, some of which still exist, as o reminder of the old d!lys.
The continuing expansion of scale, especially in tra nsportation of food-stuffs, mode it necessary to move the entire centre elsewhere {to Rungis). The vast steel· framed pavilions, once vacated, were demolished in 1971 , in spite of intensive campaigns to prevent this from happening. It is always difficult to fi nd premises to accommodate theatre performances, sports manifestations and other events that ollroct lorge audiences, and these halls would hove served very well for th is purpose. The demolition of these halls ond what they hove been replaced by con indeed be seen as o symbol of the destruction of the public {streel·l space as on 'arena' of urban life.
161 "' 162 f6C
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much less tolerance and community spirit, they ore no longer in use today. hpeciolly the noise of the activities going on in adjoining spaces was felt to be disturbing, and soon people started to erect walls and other kinds of partitions, thereby undermining the spa tial unity that was fvndomentol to the design.
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1889 I G. EIFfEl " " ' The Eiffel Tower, which was erected lor the World Exhibition. is not only the tourists' symbol of Paris, but also, os originally intended, o monument to the new ideas that hod emerged in the course of the ninsteenth csntury. Here we see, in o more suggestive form than ever before, the concrete expression of social change os manifested in the expansion of scale and the centralization of power, A construction such as the Eillel Tower demonstrates that which becomes possible when innumerable small components, each with its specially assigned function and place, ore combined in such o way as to form a centrally conceived entity, of which the whole for exc:eeds the sum of the ports. The sub~ety of this feat of engineering becomes comprehensible when you realize that o scale model of the structure 30 em. high would weigh o mere 7 grams (Guide Michelin). The greater the control of the active forces the greater the expansion that could be achieved. The Eillel Tower is on embodiment of the principle of centralization · which can produce such on owe·inspiring force out of so many tiny subordinate forces . It is o demonstration of the proud accomplishment of on audacious pion undertaken in all inn~ence with no thought of the monstrous and oll~ngulling forces that would ultimately be unleashed. The 'tour de force' of the distribution system, whereby the goods produced by o moss of individuals ore distributed th rough a maze of intermediary channels among o moss of consumers, is based on a sophisticated structure of division of labour, specialization, and efficacious contracts. And ills undoubtedly this kind of organizational technique thai feeds the self-propagating Moloch of scale-expansion and the diminution of the individual's influence on the pr~ess os a whole. THE EIFFEl TOWER, PARIS
COMMUNITY CENTRES I F. vAN KuNGmN
rm1 The community centres designed by Von Klingeren (he coiled them agoras) such as those in Dronten and Eindhoven were ol1empts to assemble under one roof all the activities that toke place in o city centre. It is this kind of setting that generates new social roles and new exchanges· which cannot evolve in the new urban areas and neighbourhoods because no one has though t of making the necessary provisions. Due to planning in terms of separately situated bo.xes with separate entrances, rather than in terms of on integrated urban fabric, the ' boxes' tend to hove on adverse effect on the viability of lhe environment as o whole and, porodoxicolly, the beller they fvnclion, the more they detract from the quality of life in the streel. Thus they ore, really, no more than 'artificial' urban centres which owe their existence to the inadequacy of urban provisions and the lock of on oil-encompassing view of the necenory correlation between newly-built residential neighbourhoods and the existing urban core. However interesting these community centres may hove been os o social experiment in the 1960's, it is not surprising tha t, under the present social conditions with so
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IISSO MS 101 SIUOW S 1• U CIIIU IUtf
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EX.HiatnON PAVIUONS
The world exhibitions · those international showcases of moss production, for which new markets hod to be found or created · necessitated the construction of enormous exhibition holts such as the Crystal Poloce in london II 85 1) 1161, 1681, and the Grand Polo is P900) H"l and Petit Polois in Paris, both of which ore still standing. These vast hall$ of steel and glon were the first palaces for the consumer, who rules ond is ruled by the consumer st>clety (consumers both consume and are themselves consumed in o consumer society).
This age of new production methods and systems also gave birth to new construction methods: the introduction of steel os o building material mode it possible to erect roof structures with on enormous span within a very short lime. Besides, gloss pones could now be inserted in the steel roof-frames, ond the resulting transparency gave the vast holt on airy, light atmosphere. Indeed, the new structures were more like bell-jars enclosing o space offering basic shelter from the exterior weather conditions, and therefore resembled gigantic glon·houses (such as those still standing in Loken near Brussels ond in london's Kew Gardens) rather than the usual solid buildings. (Incidentally, the Crystal Palace itself was o direct product of troditionolgloss-house construction). The Iorge spans, too, undoubtedly, contribute to the feeling of not being inside o building in the conventional sense. While the use of steel structures mode such wide spans possible, and the new possibilities offered by the new construction methods were eagerly exploited, the question rises whether they were truly fvnclionol. Perhaps not, because even though the vast gloss roofs undenia bly provided excellent illumination for hvge spaces, o lew colvmns more would not hove mode that much difference from o functional point of view. Once again, the sheer feasibility seems to hove created the need as much os the need called for new techniques and possibilities. Just as the Eiffel Tower clearly demonstroled a way of thinking, so that way of thinking was undoubtedly inspired by the new possibilities of construction: thus demand generates supply and vice verso (which come first: the chicken or the egg?). It is in loci very difficult not to associate the vast spoMoofs and the woy in which they evolved os well os the minimal spatial articulation that they entailed with the emergence of o way of thinking which has led to the vast e)(ponsion of scale and the attendant centralization ol t9doy. PUIIIC DOIAIW
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PAJttS The expansion of the scale of consumption ond market which found expression in the steel·ond·gloss exhibition halls of the lost century also monilested itself, on o local level, In the Iorge deportment stores.
110 11!
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Unlike the bazaars and other kinds of covered street markets where Iorge numbers of individual vendors come together under the some roof to sell their wares, the deportment store is a single, centrally managed enterprise that claims to run a shop that is so Iorge that everything can be bought there. It is actually a sort of general store, but blown up to gigantic proportions, and with on exceptionally variegated stock. Whereas the merchandise in the general store is kept behind the counter on shelves reaching from Aoor to ceiling, accessible only to the salesman, in the deportment store it is the many storeys that ore visible on all sides of a Iorge central hall • like the shelves in the general store, with the important difference that they are wholly accessible to the buying public. The gloss roof which is to be found In nearly all the traditional deportment stores (e.g. les Grands Mogoslns in Paris) produces the some spatial effect, basically, as a single, Iorge shop, even though the surrounding spaces are divided into separate departments for different goods. The central hall of Golerie Lafayette offers the public a royal welcome, the majestic free·stondlng staircase being especially inviting (the staircase was eventually dismantled to obtain a few extra square metres of soles· space).+
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IISSOIS lOt SIUIIIS INU UIIIOUII
RAilWAY STAllONS
The construction of on expanding railway network opened up the world to travel and to the interchange of products, thereby making the world both smaller and larger. The stations that were erected in the towns ond villages, like so mony gate·buildings, constituted the cornerstones of the system. Not only did the railway stations introduce o new type of building into the towns, usually situated in o prominent place in the centre, they a lso brought with them o whole new range of related urba n facilities and activities, such os hotels, places to eat ond drink, and invariably shops. And quite often they developed quite independently into businesses in their own right, depending only portly on the custom of train passengers. The halls of mony roilwtTy stations hove gradually developed into public spaces, roofed ports of the city, where you con still buy articles when oil the other shops ore dosed, where you con change money, use the telephone, buy magazines, go to the toilet, hove your photograph token ln o booth, get inlormolion, lind o taxi, or hove o quick meal {or on elaborate one · qu ite o number of railway stations ore renowned for their restaurants). This concentration continues in the direct vicinity, with cafes, restau rants and hotels. In Great Britain the hotels are often actually port of the station. In short, the bustle and activity surrounding the arrival and departure of the trains leads to o greater concentration of facilities in the oreo around o railway station than anywhere else in the city.
l1J Ill
Central SrotJon, Glosg,w, Groot 8ntom
UNOERG.OUND RAILWAY STATIONS
The entrances and exits of underground urban transport networh like the Paris metro and the london underground hove the some impact, on o smaller scale and in many different locations in the city, os the main railway stations. Especially the Paris metro, with iis distinctive forms is, os it were, one vast construction which emerges above ground in oil the different neighbourhoods oil over the city, as o lomilior and instantly recognizable landmark. What the railway station is to the city, the metro entrance is to a neighbourhood: o place which aHracls local tTmenities and business. The labyrinthine halls and passages of the main intersections ore o favourite haunt of street musicians, especially in winter, when they seek shelter in this subterranean port of the city.
Porls metro srofion Ploa~ Oovphine
J898-190 1/H. Gv•morcl PUBLIC tO..AIV
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12 PUBLIC ACCESSIBILITY OF PRIVATE SPACE Altttouth the larte buildings which ore intended to be ocfesslble to os mony people os possible o,. not permanently o,.n and although the o,.ning hourt or. In fod imposed from above, such buildings do imply o fundamental and considenlble expansion of tM public world. The most characteristic examples of this shift of emphasis a,. undoubtedly the arcades1 gloss•roofed 1hoppinv street• such 01 those that we,. constrvcted In 1M nineteenth century, and of which 11141ny imp,.ulve exomple1 1till 1urvive oil over the world. The orcade1 served In 1M first place to exploit the o,.n interior 1poceJ, and th.y were therefo,. commercial undertoking1 e.ntirely in keeping with the trend towards opening up sales oreos for o new buying public. In this way pedestrian circuits emerged in the nucleus of shopping oreos. The absence of troffi< permits the route to be narrow enough OJ to aHord the potential buye.r a goad view of the •hopwindows on either side.
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PASSAGf DU (AJRE, PARIS 1
An interesling example of lhe arcade concepl is Ia be
seen, in on elementary form, in lhe Passage du Caire in Paris. The complele building-up of the exceptionally shaped interior space was conceived together with the
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llSSU S lOt SIDDUI S I~ lf(H IIH101!
outer shell according to o rotionol principle of ordering which, too certain extent ond subject to certain rules, permiHed o free disposition of the architectonic elements. Many of the businesses located here ore connected with the premises situated on the periphery, so that on informal network of passages c'Ould develop In ond between the soles points in addition to the official entrances. SHOPI'ING ARCADES
In Paris, where the shopping orcode wos invented ond where if flourished (mony arcades still exist, especially In the first and second 'Arrondissements') there ore three consecutive blocks with connecting interior passages: Possoge Verdeou, Possoge Jouflroy, ond Pouoge des Panoramas. Together they form o brief chain crouing the Boulevard Montmartre, and, if continued, it is easy to imagine how o network of covered pedestrian routes could hove developed quite independently of the surrounding street pottern. Shopping orcodes exist oil over the world, in diverse forms and dimensions depending on the local conditions · often they hove lost their original glamour os expensive shoppi11g districts although in many ploce5 they still Poris, 2nd onot>diuemenf
Possoge dtJ Ponoromos, Paris
Golerle Vivienne, Polis
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accommodate the more luxurious stores. such os the Golerie St. Hubert in Brussels and the Goleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, which ore felt by everyone to be the heart of the city. Ifor o 1urvey, analysis and history ol the arcade see: J.f. Geist,
Syd~~t~y
Possagen, ein Boulyp des 19Johrhunderts, Miinchen 1969)
tl3 IU liS
The principle of the arcade regained topical relevance when the traffic burden in the streets of city centres become so heavy tha t the need arose lor areas exclusively lor pedestrians, i.e. a separate 'system' lor pedestrians alongside the existing street pattern. The nineteenthcentury types of arcade ron through the bloch, like sborl· circuits, and their primary purpose was lo put the interior areas to use. But although the buildings were traversed by these passages, their outward appeara nce was not affected: the exlerior, the periphery, continued to function separately and independen~y as o fo~ode in its own right. In the case ol many covered pedestrian routes of contemporary design the exterior of the complex within which the activity is concentrated resembles the unhospitoble rear walls of a building. This reversal - turning the building moss inside-out, as it were • is no less than the sheer perversion of the principle underlying the a rcade.
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IN AICHIII!IUII
left: Goferlt SJ. Hul.ert, 8runels
Goflerio c!ell'lnd.rslrio Subolplno, Turin
time. Inside and outside are so strongly relatlvized vis ci vis each other that you cannot tell whether you are intide one building or in the 1pace connecting two separate buildings. In so far at the opposition betwHn building mane• and strHt space terves to distlnguith • broadly, at any rate • betwHn the private worfd and the public, the enclosed private domain is transcended by the Inclusion of arcades. 'llle inner tpace it made more acceuible, while the fabric of streeb becomes more close-knit. 'llle city is turned intide out, both spatially and also as far as the principle of Its acce11ibility is concerned, 'llle concept of the etrcade contains the principle of a new system of acceJJibility with which the borderline betwHn public etnd private is thifted and hence partially erased, whereby spatially at any rote the private domain becomes mare publicly accenible.
The break away from the doted perimeter block siting in twentieth-century urbanism, meant the disintetn~tlan of the clear-cut spatial definition given by the street pattern. As the autonomy of the buildings grew, their interrelationship diminished, so that they now stand devoid of alignment as it w~, like an irregular scattering of megaliths far away from each other in an exce11ively large open space. The 'rue e:orridor' has degenerated into an 'espace corridor'. This new open type of siting, so Innovative far the 'physical' condition• of housing construction in particular, has had a disastrous eHect on the cohesion of the whole · a fate that has befallen most cities.The more buildings stand apart as autonomous volumes w ith individualized fa~odes and private entrances the le11 cohesion there is, but also and especially the
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muat not be ollo-d to lead to an orchlt.cture of street walla with the actual dwellings as mere punctuation morka or prop• to support the dkor. We must not forget that the Modem Movement aimed specifically at the improvement of buildings, and notably at the improvement of the dwelling• by mean• of be"er 1iting to ensure more 1unlight, wider view1, more satilfactory exterior spoces etc. 1fte lace of o city i• hall tfle trutfl • JOtislactary ltoutirtt i• tfle otfler, complementary hall. The mony example• of open urbonl1m, OJ designed In the 1920s and 1930s, ore ind"d atill of great relevance, at least if each Is judged according to its own specific qualities.
greater the opposition betwHn public and prhrate space, even though the housing blocks may be deJigned with ac.cen galleries or interior covered strHts or indeed with surrounding private space. UrbaniJm with buildings OJ autonomous freely diJpersed monuments has given rise to a huge exterior environment • at best a pleaJant park landscape where you always feel 'outside'. While modem architects and town planners already started breaking open the city before the Se
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IISSOIS 101 SlUt! VIS U UCMil iCIU U
le Corbusier's most important statement in this context is, that o Iorge space which would in the normal run of things hove been inaccessible as port of the private domain, by virtue of its accessibility is o contribution to the city os o whole. It is importont to beor in mind, however, thotthis solution would hove lost much of its quality if the surrounding blocks hod been designed according to the same principle. In that case the area os a whole would hove presented the usual picture of on overage modern city. It is precisely the surprise of the contrast that makes the principle so clear in this case.
MINISRY OF f DUCATION AND HEAlTH,
RIO DE JANEIRO 1936-37 I LE CORBUSlEt IIU·1!6) In his conceptle Corbusier did not odopt himself to lhe order of traditional building blocks, as envisaged in the urban pion. Instead of a solid moss with majestic fo~des surrounding the site on oil sides, Le Corbusier designed his building in a free form, os a high-rise construction on columns, so that you don't hove to walk around the block but that you con, instead, cross the distance diagonally underneath. The height of the columns and the distance between them were selected In such o way that the resulting space has o liberating effect.The feeling of liberation is oil the more striking because one doesn't expect o situation like this in the surroundings, and it is therefore a sped ol and stimulating sensation to find oneself there.
We must consider the quality of 111 Ml•spoce and of buildings In relation to each other. A mosaic of interrelations:hips • as we imagine urban life to be • calls for a spatial organiaation in whidl built form and exterior space (which - coli street) are not only comple-ntory In the spatial HftM and therefore reciprocate in forming each other, but also and ..pecially · for that Is what we are primarily concemed wltfl here • in which built form ond exterior space offer maximal acceulblllty to penetrate each other In such a way that not onJy the borderlines between ovttlde and intide become leu explicit, but also that the sharp division betwMn private and public domain Ia softened.If you enter a place gradually, the front door Ia divested of Its significance as a slntle and abrvpt moment; it is eJdendecl, cu it were, to form a step· by· step sequence of areas which are not yet explicitly inside but also t..s explicitly public. The mast obvious u.preuian of auch a mechanism of acceulbllity was to be sMn In the anodes, and It is Indeed not surprising therefore that the arcade idea still Mrvea as an example todoy.
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CENTiMl 8EHfER OffiCE BUILDING llt l-lOOl
The urban plan, wholly in keepi ng with the 'traditional' open construction of the ~rst half of this century, i.e. without o strict alignment of the buildings and without street walls within which the building hod to be situated, therefore coiled for o self-conta ined architectural design with no references to the buildings in the direct vicinity. Instead of o single, colossal constructed volume, o more transparent conglomerate of numerous smaller components was achieved, thanks to the diHerentiotion into more or less independent small bloch separated by arcade-like pouoges (i.e. esse ntiolly public:ly accessible space). And since there ore exits and entrances throughout the complex it looks more like o piece of o city than li ke o single building - most of all it resembles o kind of settlement. Not only is the design conceived in such o way that members of the staff leave their work-spaces to toke o break, talk and hove coffee ot one of the many counten in the central space of the complex - as if they were taking o stroll in the city~entre ·this a reo con moreover be literally public. This opportunity for public accessibility would hove been fully exploited if the original plan hod been carried out: namely to situate the new railway station of Apeldoorn directly adjoining the complex, so thot you could reach the platforms by way of Centrool Beheer (plans were even worked aut in consultation with the Dutch ra ilways to install soles points for train tickets inside the complex). While the building, as on autonomous entity, is put into penpeclive on the formal level by its articulation in terms of o Iorge number of smaller orchitecturolcomponents, on the practical level o similar articulation is achieved
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l!SSORS 101 SIIO! t tS INU(Mli £CIUII
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by the adopted principle of accessibility - that is, that you con enter the building from all directions, gradually and in stages. Under the inAuence of the growing security risk in public spaces, Centrool Beheer, too, has imposed certain restrictions on public accessibility. All entrances ore nowadays guarded with tv cameros, and the need is being felt more and more strongly lor o single central entrance to the complex as o whole, which moreover has become less straight forwardly legible since the contraction of two of the bui ldings into one volume.
VREDENBURG MUSIC CENTRE UOJ.!Oll
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An attempt was mode to ovoid the traditional form of a concert hall in the sense of o ' temple of music' and instead to arrive ot o less formal, less owe-inspiring and therefore hopefully on atmosphere that is more inviting to the uninitiated. Besides revolutionizing the overall 'image', also the 'mechanism' of accessibility hos b~n drastically altered. You do not enter by way of on imposing main entrance, you enter step by step. first you ore in o covered possoge, which leads to the many entrances (as if you were going into a deportment store!. then you lind yourself in the foyers of the Music Centre, from where you proceed to the octuol auditorium. The Iorge number of entrances along the panoge (or arcade} and also directly on the square · when they ore all open · make the buildi ng as a whole temporarily port of the street. And indeed, that is how
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the building luncltons during the weekly free concerb 1n the lunch·hour On those days you see shoppers strolling into the bu.ldlng, often surprised, often listening oltentively although they hove not come to hear the concert, ond sometimes 1ust taking o short cut to the next street
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1933/ J. OUim •wu~~~ Ouiker not only succeeded wonderfully in fitting the enhre architectural programme diagonally into the tiny building site (each cenhmetre ol which hod to be put to use), he also monoged to leave the corner where the entrance is loco ted open, so that the street
•
While the expreuion of the relativity of the concepts of Interior and exterior Is first and foremost a quettion of s.patictl organisation, whether an area tends more towards a street-like atmosphere or more towards an interior depends especially an the spatial quality. And besides, whether people will recognise the area concerned as interior or as exterior, or as some Intermediary form, depends to a large extent on the dimensions, the form and the choice of materials.
In the case of both Centrool Beheer t?~) ond Vredenburg Music Centre (lOll the spaces in the ports which ore intended os semi-street oreos ore extra high and narrow, with illumination from above as in the lroditionol shopping arcade. This type of cross,se<:tion evokes the alleys of old cities, and this evocation is further intensified by the application of the kind of materials lor floors ond walls tho! we ore accustomed to seeing out of dOOI$. As you penetrate further into the Music Centre this feeling is underscored by the use of wood for the floors and walls. The adjoining shopping precinct Hoog Cothorijne is paved with marble, the spaces there ore much wider and
only incidentally illuminated from above. The horizontal character, with predominantly ortificiol lighling, and the shiny, gfomorous.Jooking marble makes Hoog Cothorijne resemble a vost deportment store rather than the public space tha t it emnlially Is.
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Hom SOtvAY, BRussm 1896/ V. HORTA uo.mt Although the doors in the fa~ode ore unmistakably the main entrance of the building, when you enter them you find that they do not give onto o conventional hall but that they give access to a pouoge leading straight through the house to another poir of doors opening onto o courtyard ot the bock This possoge wos Intended to allow carriages to enter so that people could alight in front of the real door to the house without getting wet. The reol front door is therefore s1tuoted ot right angles to the fo~ode, and in itself marks the beginning of o spotiol sequence comprising entrance hall ond staircase leading to the first Roor with the main rooms located along the entire front ond rear walls, w1th Horta's characteristic use of gloss partitions to creole on open connection with the stairwell. 101
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... The pouoge traversing the building gives the impression of being port of the street, even though it is in fact o strictly private and space and port of the house. This impression is strengthened by the streel·like materials that hove been applied in this space, especially the paving stones and the raised stone border. A characteristic Horta detail is the fluent transition between fo~ode end pavement, so that the borderline between building end street ond likewise between private property ond public space lodes, indeed does not seem lo exist at oil anymore since the materiels of fo~ode ond pavement ore the same. It is almost impossible to imagine how this could hove been arranged with the local outho11ties, because they always adhere to o strict separation of private end public space.
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IISSOIS 101 SIUIIIS II IIUIIIOIII
1840-43 (21HI41 Ahhough lhe construction ma terials and lhe forms lhol ore applied in mosl arcades ore of the lype lhot'belong' oulside, sometimes the opposite is the case, as in lhe Pouoge Pommeroye in Nantes. This connection culling across a block between two slreels on dilferenl levels is one of lhe most beautiful arcades still in existence, especially because of ils different levels whfch ore bolh visible from the central space and connected by o Iorge wooden staircase. The use oF wood, which you would not expecl to lind in such o situolion, emphasizes the feeling of being indoors · not only visually, bul also audibly. Inside and outside ore lhus doubly relolivized here, which makes this arcade the example par excellence of how lhe opposition between interior and exterior con be eliminated. PAS·SAGE POMMERAYE, NAr-tll:S, fRANCE,
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'THE Lrna'
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PtETERoe HOOGH 11629-1684) tltSJ
Pieter de Hoogh's painting demonstrates the relativity of the notions of outside and inside, in the way it is evoked not only by means of the spatial distinctions but also and especially by lne expression of the materials and their temperatures in the varying degrees of light. The interior, witn its cool shiny tiles and the severe windows in the background, has an outside temperature in which contrasts with the warm glow of the exterior fo~ode in the sunlight. The open front door without o doorstep makes o smooth transition between the living quarters ond the street with its carpet-like surface. The roles of the inside and outside appear to be reversed, creating o spotialty cohesive ensemble whicn expresses, above oil, accessibility.
16
I!SSO.S FOI S!U!IIS IN UCH III(!UI I
Just os the application indoors of the kind of spatial organi%ation and material that refer to the outdoor world make the inside seem leu intimate, so spatial references to the indoor world make the ouhide seem more intimate; it is therefore the bringing into perspective of Inside and outside and the ambiguity that this gives rise to that intensifies both the sense of spatial occeuibility and the sense of Intimacy. A step•by•step sequence of indications by arch~nic mearu ensures a gradual entrance and exit. The entire complex of experiences elicited by the architectonic means contributes to this proceu: gradations of height, width, degree of illumination (natural and ortifkiol), materials, different floorleveiJ. The different sensations within this sequence evoke o variety of ouociotions, each corresponding with a diHerent gradation of 'iruide·neu and outside· ness' on the bo1is of ~ognition of previous, similor experiences. Not only does each sen1otion refer to a specific gradation of inside·ness and outside·neu, by extension it also refers to corresponding usove. In the fofe901ng t hove posited that the use mode of an area, the s.e nse of responsibility for that area, and the care lavished on it, are all connected with the territorial claims and management, but architecture has by virtue of the evocative qu.olities of oil explic.itly 1patiol images, form1 and materials, the capacity to stimulate o certain kind of usage. Conceph such as public and private thu1 Jhrink to mere administrative entities. ly selecting the appropriate architectonic meoru the private domain con thu• become tess fortress-like and more acce.uible, while the public domain can, once it become& more responsive to personal re•pon1lbllities and the personal care of those directly concerned, be for mo.re intensively used and thus be enriched. While the trend at the end of the sixties seeme.d to be towards a greater openness of society in generol and of buildings in porticul.a r, as well os the revival of the street • the public domain por excellence· there is currently a growing movement towards restricting that accessibility, and towards retreating into one's own 'fortress' out of fear of aggression and the wish to feel secure on one's own ground. lut in so for as the balance between open·neu and closed·nen is a reflection af our fairly open society, we in the Netherlands, with our solid tradition, may have the most favourable conditions imaginable for the realization of buildings that are fundomentally more accenible crnd streets that are fundamentally more inviting.
•
B MAKING SPACE, LEAVING SPACE 'Der Gegenpad von Zwong isl nicht Fr11iheit, SQndern Verbundenheit. lwang isteine nogotivo Wiri:lichkeil, und Verbundenheil ist die positive; Freiheit ist eine Meglichleit, die wiedergewonnene Mi)g/icl;leil. Vom SchickSQ/, von der Notur, von den Menschen gezwungen wetden: der Gegenpol ls nicht, vom Sehidsal, van der Notur, von det~ Menschen lr11i, sondern mit lhm, mil ihr, mil ihnen verbunden und ver/Wndet sein; um dies zu werden, muu man Freilich erst unobhiingig gewarden stin, ober die UnobhOngigkeit i$1 ein Steg und .kein Wohnraum.'
'The antipode of compulsion is not liberty, but alliance. Compulsion is o nogotive reality, and alliance o positive one; liberty is on oplion, o regained option. CompuiJion al the hands of fote, of nolure, of ~pie: its antipode Is not liberation from fate, from nature ond from piiOple, but aUionce with them. To achieve tlris bo11d, however, f*>Pie musl (irsJ become indepertclent, but independence signifies o narrow path, not living-space.' (Marlin Suber, Reden iiber f rzlehung, Heldel~rg 19531
au tor
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2 Form ond lnterpretotion 94
Canals, Amsterdam Mexcaltiton, Mexico Estagel, france Oude Groch!, Utrecht Viaduct Rue Rambau illet, Paris Palace of Oiocletian, Split, Croatia The Amphitheotres of Aries and lu"a Rockefeller Plaza, New York Temples, Bali Columbia Universily, New York
9 tncentiveJ 164 Column$ Piers Housing, Berlin I B. Tout Perforated Building Blocb 10 Form as on Instrument 170
3 Structure os o Generative Spine: Warp and Weft 108
Fori I'Empereur Projeci, Algiers I le Corbusiet 'The Bearers and the People; the End of Moss Housing' I N.J. Hobro~en Houseboats Project Oeventer-Steenbrugge Housing Project Project for a Neighbourhood Centre, Oeventer-Borgele Project for o Pedestrian Underpass, Apeldoorn Housing, Wesrbroek Free University, Berlin I Condilis, Josie &. Woods Project for o Residential Area, Berlin I S. Wewerko Villa Sovoye, Poissy, France /le Corbusier 4 Gridiron I 22
Ensonche, Barcelona I I. Cerda Monhollon, New York 5 Building Order 126
Orphanage, Amsterdam I A. von Eyck linMij, Amslerdom De Orie Hoven, Home lor the Elderly, Amsterdam Centrool Beheer Office Building, Apeldoorn Vredenburg Music Centre, Utrecht Ministry of Social Affairs, The Hague Apollo Schools, Amsterdam 6 Functionality, Flexibility and Polyvalence 146 1 Form and Users: the Spoce of Form 150
8 Making Space, Leaving Space
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Weesperstroot Student Accommodation, Amsterdam Montessori School, Delh Vredenburg Square, Utrecht Diagoon Dwellings, Delft
au tor
1 STRUCTURE AND INTERPRETATION Port A of this study daolt with the reclprocity of public and private 1pheres of influence, and what the archltad con do to contribute to that balctnce • at '-ott if he is oware in each situation of which spe
The concept of strvcture tends to obiCIIre rather than clarify. Anything tflot has been put togethet, howevet shodcllly, soan tends to be described as o strvcture. (And then there ore the netative osso
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bad, in which the constructive aspect occupies a visually prominent position, and which has to do with repetition of prefobricoMd components (whether of concrete or of some othet material), with grids or frames, rigid or shaky or bath • It is a ll labelled structuralism. The anginal and by no means empty meaning of structure and structuralism Indeed appaors to have been submerged by loads of architectural jargon. Strvcturollsm denoted, Initially, a way of thinking originating from cultural anthropology, which rose to prominence in Poris during the sixties and which, especially in the fonn developed by Claude Levi Strauss, exerted a strong influence on the various social sciences. The term is closely bound up with Levi Strauss: his ideas • especially where they daolt with the ofore·mentioned relationship betwHn the collective pattern and individual interpretations • were porticularly inspiring for architecture. Levi Strauss, for his port, was inspired by the linguist Ferdinand'de Sauuure (1857· 1913), who was the first to study the distinction between 'lafttue' and 'porole', between language and 1peech. lofttuoge is structure par excelleMe, a structure that, in principle, contains the possibilities to express everything that con be communicated vetbally. It Is indeed a prerequisite for the ability to think. For on idea con only be said to exist in so for as it permits formulation in words; we use language not only to convey our ideas, language actually shapes tho11 ideas os we express them. For"""latlng and thinking go hand in hand: we formulate at we think, but we also think as we fonnulate. Wlthln this system • a coherent exponse of values • the different inten'elotionships are laid down in rules, but th- is still o lat of freedom of oction within the some system thanks, parodoxicctlly, to the vety some fixed niles that delimit this freedom. In the philosophy of strvcturollsm this ideo Is extended to encompou on image of man whose pouibilities are constant and fixed, like a pock of cards with which you con play diH.rent games depencllng on the - y they have been dealt. levi Strauss (Lo PenH. Sauvoge, 1962) explains that diHerent cultures, whether so·called primitive or so· called dviliud, play o transformation of the sa me game, as It were; the main directions are flJied while the interpretation diHers continually. Hoving studied and compored the myths and legends of diverse cultures Levi Strauss observed that the some themes recvr, and thu1 come to the
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a high c~eg,... of correspon•nc• in structure. All pattems of behaviour within cliffeNnt cuttvr.s, he mafntained, were tTGnsforl'ltations of -h other; howewr different, the relation vis ovis thelr own system within whidl they perform a function would, in principle, be constant. 'In "'- HIM YHI'f, if you compare a piN>tofropll and Its MfGtlve • even tftouth file ,_ images are dlffwent • yov wiU find tfiOt flte relatlotubips between flte romponent parts rwmaln lite Hme' jM. fO
lanfUOte, while perlonnance refers to rile UM he makes of that knowledge In concrete dtvotlons. And it Is with this mare genentf re-formulation of the terms 'langue' etnd 'parole' tflot a link can indeed be estalttished with orchitlldure. In archlhKiural terms you could srsy tflot 'competence' Is form's capacity to be interpreted, and 'performance' is tfte wrsy in whkh Interpreted In a speclflc situation. form is/-
lUliNG mu, l!~YIIG SPICE 1
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2 FORM AND INTERPRETATION lroodly speakint, 'stnlcture' stands for the collective, generol, (more) objectrte, and permib interpretation in terms of what Is expected and demanded of it in a specific situation. One aM~ld also speak of stnlcture in connection with a building or an urban plan: a Iorge form which, changlnt little or not ot all, Is suitable and adequate for accommodating cllfferent situations because it often fresh opportunities time and again for new uses. CANAlS, AMSTERDAM (116-?701
The pollern of the canol beltl in Amsterdam gives the citycentre its distinctive layout and makes it easy to lind one's way. Not only do the successive concentric semi-circles enable one to find one's bearings throughout the centre, they also indicate the passage of time - much like the yearrings of o tree. It is obvious that their original function as 7t6 111
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defensive structures con now be seen merely as the motive underlying their specific layout, which hod and still has, potentially, so muc h more to offer. Besides serving purposes of defence, the canals were used mainly fo r the transport of the incoming ond outgoing goods to which the city owed much of its wealth; and in the days before public sewage systems they served os open drains lor the city's waste. Today the canals constitute the principal green bel~ of the centre, and the boot-tours offer mosses of tourists on opportunity of appreciating the beauty of ils orchiteclure from on exclusive viewpoint. But they also represented o possibility of gaining quite o lot of extto space · o possibility that hod on especially strong appeal in the days when urban expansion was o lop priority, for they were seen os providing a solution to the traffic problems which assumed such gigantic proportions in the 1950s and 1960s. Many canals in Holland were filled in at that lime, which meant that irreparable damage was done to many Dutch towns and cities. In Amsterdam the damage was restricted to o number of radial canals · fortunately the unique semi-circular layout of the main canals was not tampered with. House-boots ore still tolerated in some of the canals because the authorities ore owore of their importance os substitute dwellings in o time of severe housing shortage. But they would like to gel rid of them altogether os soon os possible, because they hove no conception of how this informal and constantly changing variety contributes Ia the liveliness of tne city · especially where the general a ppearance of the city is dominated by formal, dignified architecture, os along Amsterdam's canals. However, when we look at old photogra phs, we see that the canals presented o much busier and untidier picture in the lost century due to the trad ing business tha t took place there: the city centre was not only shaped by beautiful
architecture, but equally by the lively and colourful bustle of activity around the many boots carrying their carg oes right into the heart of the city. The cityscape changes fastest of all with the seasons, especially along the canals where the trees creole o completely different spatial effect in summer than in winter, when they ore bore. Then the different fo~odes ore sharply silhouetted against the sky, forming on almost graphic delimitation of the urban space. And fin ally there is of course the dramatic change of appearance when the canals freeze and the emphasis shifts from the streets lining the canals to the icy centre dotted with skaters. On those relatively rare occasions both the otmospnere and the sense of space changes completely for a while.
Hetongracht, Anuterdom 1672/ G. von Betl:heyde
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MEXCALflrAN, MEXICO tnlt?ll
'The desire to create on environment that con be put to various uses con sometimes be stimulated by specific local circumstances. In Mexcoltiton, o village situated in the Son Pedro river, Mexico, the periodical changes in the water level due to the heavy rainfall in late summer transform the street temporarily into canals, so that the whole place undergoes a veritable metamorphosis.
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life in the village is wholly determined by these natural conditions. The streets continue lo serve lor troHic ond transportation equally eHiciently, albeit in dillerent 'aggregate' stoles, with eoch fully exploiting the specific usage potential' .(4) ESTAGEt, fiANCE (llVlS)
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'Many rivers flowing into the Mediterranean change considerably In volume over the year, depe nding on the season. In Estogel near Perpignan it is the Agly river thot appears ond vanishel depending on the season: either it is non-existent or it rushes post along the ag~ld riverbed. But even when it is dry the river dom inates the small town. During dry periods tne river-bed in the town - o cement trench - becomes port of the public space and oHers the local children o special playground of their own. A gutter runn ing in the centre of the river-bed
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collects the rainwater from the streets: this drain is to the river what the river is to the town, it is o miniature version, both in terms of size and in terms of lime, with periods of dryness alternating with the flow of water. To the children it is an enhancement of their playground - to them it is o river in ih own right, with all the excitement and sometimes problems that o river brings with it.' [4)
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0UDE GtACHT, UTRECHT (11t.llll
In Utrecht the natural difference in level between street and canol has yielded on extraordinary and very effective profile. Already in the fourteenth century goods used to be transported in barges over the conols; they were loaded and unloaded on the quay-sides in front of the storage spoces below street level. These storage spaces, or warehouses, continue under the street to form the basement of the shops situated on the street above. The merchandise could thus quite easily be raised or lowered via o simple vertical connection with the quay-side. At one •
spot there wo~ a sloping tunnel th rough which horsedrown carts could get from the street to the quay ond vice verso, for transportation to locations elsewhere in the town. When the old practice of tronsportotions over water was
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discontinued, these quays lost their original function, until in recent years they started to serve as terraces for coles ond restauran ts located in the former warehouses, the Iotter having been lor the most port sectioned off from ,the shops obove when the transportation of merchandise ceased to go over water, leaving the quay-sides largely unused. So nowadays the old quays hove been put to use again, albeit differently, and when the weather is fine they ore once again crowded with people. They ore indeed exceptionally well situated, along the conols where shelter from wind and traffic noise is provided by the storey-high quay walls. Also the distance between these walls on either side of the canol, with the quay-sides below street level along the water, is very favourable lor o pleasantly proportioned location. The bend in the canol at this point only enhances the space, giving ito pleasing enclosedness without obstructing the view. finally (and who could hove designed this) there ore lovely trees growing on this lower level, which naturally contribute more than onylhing else to the unique ond pleosont atmosphere of this port of the old city centre. Although this profile wos thus created lor specifically urbon purposes, it hos now, o century later, been transformed, without ony fundamental changes being necessary, into on entirely different kind of place. It is easy to imagine the scene when the water in the canals freezes over, providing a natural skating rink. The quaysides then become the perfect place to tie on one's skates, while the street above becomes the domain of spectators. This transformation provides yet more proof of just how muc h this type of urban form con accommodate, in such o way as to be appropriate to each situation os it arises. And although the scale is much forger, the bonks of the Seine in Paris offer comparable conditions. The clochords
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hove hod to give up their troditionol haunts under the bridges: o traffic artery has now claimed this marginal zone by the woter~ide.
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VtAOUCT PLACE DE lA BASTillE • RuE R.AM80UIUET, PAliS (134-2431
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The viaduct was built for the railway, os in so many cities where traffic arteries enter on urban agglomeration. The 72 a rches were filled with whatever come in handy. The vioducl served os o sort of framework, o stri ng of clearly defined comportments, that could be filled in ot will. The viaduct its·elf remains largely unchanged, much as it always was and as il con remain • o permanent structure always ready to accommodate new purposes which in their turn odd new meanings to the surroundings. It is quite remarkable how little notice the fillings seem to toke
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of the semi-circular shape of the frame· hardly a convenient shape for buildings ond apparently oHering no incentive to create o specific counter.form. As if it were the most obvious thing in the world, all the arches were filled in with buildings which were constructed on the some principles as o free-standing house. The viaduct itself did not serve os a starting-point or source of inspiration, but nor was it apparently felt as o hindrance; even the narrow side-streets were able to pursue their course stra ight through the long stone obstacle, which itself both penetrates and is penetrated by the urban fabric. Now that it is no longer used for trains it has been designated os a promenade, leading to the new opera building on the site of the former Gore de Vincennes. These days the arches sport identical fronts, in perfect ottunement with the current civilized and conventional ideas on order and orderliness. And so o unique urban monument has hod to cede to a standard solution.
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PALACE OF DIOClfllAN, SPUT,(ROAliA, 4nt CENI\JRY A.D. (211>7511
Under the heading 'An emperor's home becomes a lawn lor 3000 people in Split' the architect Bakemo wrote about the ruins of this Roman palace, which still constitutes the nucleus ol Split today lfotVm, 2·19621 What were once ports of the poloce structure now serve os walls lor dwellings. What were once niches ore now rooms, and what were once holts of the palace ore now dwellings, and everywhere you con still see fragments that recoil the original function of the structures. This enormous building, being wholly absorbed by the surrounding city, was capable of serving o new and different purpose, with the city being able to accommodate itsell lully to the given form. What we see here is o metamorphosis · the original structure is still present inside, but the way the old hos been swallowed up by the new makes one wonder what
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would be le~, struclurolly speaking, if one were to subtract the later fillings. The process is irreversible · the palace is there all right, inside, but it cannot be recolledl Nor Is II conceivable that, under different circumstances, a completely different way of adopting to what is left of the original structure will ever be realized; at any rote what is left of the structure does not offer the slightest suggestion of that ever happening. The example of Split is especially interesting in thot II demonstrates the divorcement of form ond function so dearly, and it is worth mentioning here because, already
in 1962, it was o source of inspiration lor our way of thinking about orchitecturoJ forms such os omphitheotres · although the Iotter, unlike the palace in Split, not only permitted new forms of usage but even evoked such new applications by virtue of their specific shape and structure.
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THE AMl'HITHEAUES Of ARtES AND LUCCA 11Sm•t
'The amphitheatre of Aries wos used os a fortress in the Middle Ages; then it was filled in with bui ldings ond wos inhabited os o town until the nineteenth century. The amphitheatre of Lucca was absorbed by the town and at the some lime kept open os o public square. Within the nameless urban fabric the oval space is a landmark, it lends its nome and identification to the surroundings. The two omphitheolres, constructed for the some purpose, assumed different roles under changed circumstances. Each took on the colour of the new environment which
circumsta nces, without the structure itself essentially changing. Besides, the Aries example · now that this arena hos been restored to its original state- shows that this kind of process of transformation is basically reversible. A more convincing instance of 'competence' and 'performance' in arch itecture is hard to imag ine. And the fact that these two omphitheotres ore not identical only underscores the polemic quality of the situation: lor just as the autonomy of the oval form is emphasized by the proceu ol tronslormotion, so the form as 'archetype' imposes itself almost inescapa bly.
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inllobitonll, which one enr.rod throogh ltwr gales Jttvor.ci ot lht four cardinol points ChurcJ.es were CO
absorbed it and which was absorbed by it, the environ ment in its turn also being coloured by the ancient structure in its centre. Not only were they thus token lor granted in their new form as on integra l port olthe urban fabric, they also provided that urban fabric with on identity. The oval structure and the surroundings proved, in both cases, capable of transforming each other. These ovals represent on orchetypol form · in this case that of the enclosed space, on interior, a Iorge room wh id t con serve os work-place, playground, pu blic square ond place to live. The originollunclion is forgotten , but the omphi· theatre-shape retains its relevance because it is so suggestive os to offer opportunities lor constant renewal.' 11) These omphitheotres succeed in ma intaining their identity os enclosed spaces, while their content is subject to change. The some form could therefore temporarily assume different oppeoronces under changing
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The for~oing examples, and tho.se that will be given in the following, give rise to a number of conclusions: • In all these examples the multiple purposes that the original structure allowed for were not deliberately or intentionally built into the structure. It is, rather, their intrinsic 'competence' that enables them to ~rform different functions under different circumstances, and thus to play a different role within the city as a whole. • It is certainly not tnle that there is always one
specific form that fits one specific purpose. So there are fot ms which not only ~·mit various interpretations, but which can actually evoke these interpretations under chonging circumstances. So you could "'Y that the variety of solutions must hove bHn contained in the form as inherent propositions.
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• In none of these cases does the actual structure change under the lnfluence of its new function • and thiJ is a crucial point: the form is capable of adoptlft9 itself to a variety of functions and af auuming a variety of appearances, while remaining es.sentiolly the aame. • The degree in which a form a ccommodates different lnterpretation1 passively or evokes those interpretations actively because it is in itself suggestive (as in the case of the arenaJ) varies from one situation to another.
they may even disappear completely from one day to the next. There is an important distinction therefore between cases In which adjustments or e.xtensions are octucdly canstruded, and case• in which the 'filling' relates exclusively to temporary usage, which are therefore more like 'software'. In the following examples the emphaais is on mare temporary adjustments, such as those which daily usage calls for.
Amphlth110tre Weco, lloly
• The main form which we called structure is collective by nature, it is usually controlled by o governing body, ond is essentially public. Control aver the uses to which it Is put ranges from mare public to more private, depending on the commercial interesn involved. • Situations which ore more or leu permanent are utuoUy accompanied by the construction of extension• or further subdivisions • in themselves · often whole edifices In their own right. Chang.. of function can take place in the course of very long periods, of a few years, a • - n, a week, or they c.an take place daily. The thorter the duration of a particular situation the leu permanent the nature of the extensions or adjustment• will be, and in the cote af doily usage
Amphirh.otro Alles, FtoJt
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TEMPLES, BAll
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Unlike the centrohstic emphom on o single, dominating monument as m the Christian world. Hinduism, as practised on Boli, is chorocleri:ted by multiple centres of otlenhon, wh1cn lmds express1on •n what you might coli o decenlroP;:oHon of ceremonial sites There ore thousands of temples spread out all over the •slond, alone ond in groups. There ore multiple levels of oUenhon both .n terms of spoce and an terms of hme, depending on the nature of the celebration the veneration of on ancestor, ceremonies relohng to o good harvest and so on. The use of the different temples is bound up with specific occasions, so that not oil the temples ore used otthe some time but there is olwoys somethmg going on in some of them. The temples, whach vary '" s1ze from small pieces of furniture to small houses, ore sometimes mode ol stone, but usually
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they consist of o sort of open stall with o sophisticated wooden construction and lhotdaed roofs on o stone bose. They ore, essentially, rather like lree-slondong covered oltors ;O the open oir, dotting the landscape. You come across disused temples, of which lillie more than the skeleton sionds· empty stalls one or more of which ore then, suddenly, furnished and decorated with beautiful dropenes with objects mode of bamboo ond palm leavel, and other attributes belongong Ia specific occasions, and always with offerings Eoch mdlvtduoltemple therefore functions as o sort of framework which is elaborated and furntshed, whenever neceuory, woth the proper elements lo specify the porticulor occasion thai requires observance So eoch temple permals temporary oppropriotion to o specifiC end, it is dressed up as il were, to assume o certain role, oher which It is allowed lo revert to its orrgmol, posstve slate
Of course this is o simplification of the octuol situation, because you also find temples thot contain several smaller temples, which in turn contain even smaller ones structures within structures - which might well indicate differences In the relation to o specific ancestor between individuals vis ci vis the community. And os if oil this is not enough, long rows of wome11 suddenly oppeor, coming from oil sides and bearing toll multi-(oloured burdens on their heads: offerings of rice, coconut and sugar in on incredible variety of shapes and coloun. All the offerings ore placed in the lillfe temples by way of o fini shing · and edible · touch: the most transient and softest component in a sequence of attributes ranging from 'hardware' to 'software'. When the ceremony is over and the gods hove received the offerings, the edible offerings ore token home again, where they ore consumed, and any leftovers ot the temple
ore eaten by dogs. This rnoy strike the western, rational mind os somewhat contradictory · alter oil, you either give food to the gods or you eo! it yourself · bui in o less literal and perhaps more intelligent sense it is possible to do both: once the religious transaction has been effected the offering is just o tasty tidbit lor the people and the dogs. So one and the some object con evidently perform several roles, in this case ot differe nt limes when, os here, It is given o ritual interpretation on certain occasions only to be divested of that content when the occasion has passed, and thus to return from the extraordinary to the
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ordinary. In Christian churches oil the religious appurtenances retain their sacred importance ot oil times, even when the church is not in use. In the western world it is inconceivable that o house of worship should become o place where children ploy hide-and-seek, os in Bali where the children regularly turn Jhe temples into their playground. An oltor lor o climb ing-frame · it is ha rd to imagine. People in the West ore perhaps not imaginative enough, and it is not very efficient either, to hove to construct climbing-frames os well os oilers, os if God would object to children climbing over his altars· no, in this port of the world we wont to keep everything neat and tidy and in its proper place, so there must be no confusion concerning meanings. ROCKEFEllERPlAZA, NEW YORX (l6D.!Olt
Rockefeller Plozo, the small sunken public square in the middle of Rockefeller Centre in Monhollen tokes on o completely different appearance in summer and in winter. In the winter there ore the skaters, and in the summer months the lee makes way foro terrace with plenty of seats among plonh and parasols. This clearly defined space offers every opportunity lor exploiting the changing circumstances of the different seasons to the lull.
COlUMBIA UNtvusrrr, NEw YORK 12611
Monumental flights of steps ore o staple feature of buildings which ore intended to emanate o sense of importa nce, and thus to evoke on attendant sense of respect and owe from oil who enter. In this case the building is o library, the nerve-centre of o university, o temple where knowledge is stored. And here the oweinspiring entrance does not in any way invite o casual ond spontaneous visit, wh ile anyone who hos difficulty
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walking is firmly discouraged. So it is by no means o welcoming library! It is as if anyone wishing to partake of that knowledge must be mode to feel that something is expected of him in return. But however imposing the steps were intended to be, the photograph shows thotthey con be used quite Informally, too, rather like o grandstand, il the occasion arises, e.g. when o speech is delivered. So here the architecture proves to function quite differen tly than expected, and even, os in this case with the students turning their bocks to the library, to serve o completely contra ry purpose. On the level of form these steps derive their importance wholly from the uses to which they ore put, and that some importance con, under the influence of the specific use that is mode of the steps, turn into its opposite, as we see here. It would not be diHicult to cite mora examples of how a larg.e·K-ole form can, quite unintentionally, permit diHerent Interpretations, but what we are concerned with here are the potential applica.tions of the established principle. If an architect is capable of fvlly grasping the implications of the distinction between structure and fllllng, or in other words between 'competence' and 'performance', he can arTive at solutions with a grecrter potential value as regards applicability • I.e. with more space for interpretation. And because the time foetor Is incorporated in hia solutions: with more space for time. While on the one hand structure stands for what is collective, the way in which it m-oy be interpreted, on the other hand, represents individual requirements, thu1 r.c:onclling individual and collective.
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Unlike in the previou1 exomple1, we are now concerned not in the first place with the dift.rent interpretation• over time, but with the diversity of individual interpretations which will be able ta coincide in time, thereby con1tituting one whole, thanks ta a structure that, as a common denominator so ta speak, reconciles the diversity af individual forms of expression. The ordering mechanism contained in the following examples brings a variety of images to mind. Let us take the image of a fabric such as that constituted by warp and weft. You could say that the warp establishe.s the basic ordering of the fabric, and in doing so creates the opportunity to achieve the greate1t possible variety a nd colourfulness with the weft. The warp must fir~t and foremost be strong and of the correct tension, but as regards colour it needs merely ta serve as a base. It is the weft that gives colour, pattern and texture ta the fabric, depending on the imagination of the weaver. Warp and weft make up an indivilible whole, the one cannot exist without the other, they give each other their purpose,
3 STRUCTURE AS A GENERATIVE SPINE: WARP AND WEFT
Fo RT t'EMPEREUR PROJECT, ALGIERS 1930
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The ideo underlying this elongated megoslructure which follows the coostline like o ribbon, is to combine o molorwoy a nd living occommodolion. Above and
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underneath the motorwoy there ore stocked Floors constituting ortiliciol building-sites. Dwelling units con be constructed on these sites by individual owners in any style. You could coli this construction of 'sols ortificiels' o bearer (le Corbusler himself used the term superstrucluret, and it would obviously hove lo be built in o single operotion os port of the molorwoy, and by the stole. The drawing shows that le Corbusler envisaged, on paper ol any role, the greatest variety imaginable. And certainly in 1930, in the heyday of the Modern Movement and Functionalism in architecture, this was absolutely revolutionary, even if he hod somewhat noive notions obout troflic, os some later commenlolors hove contended. Buill was o most extroordinory vision, which even today, more thon fifty years loter, inspires more orchiteds than ore prepared to admit ill
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moreover makes the complu as a whole infinitely richer than any one architect, however Ingenious, could ever make it. But that is not aU • the drawing shows that, with such a structure, the greater the diversity in the parts, the better the quality of the whole! So choos
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a.. Corbusier's plan for Algiers is the key to our train of thought, inasmuch as it proposes, explicitty, thot the individual O«upanh are offered the opportunity, by virtue of the strength of the megcutructure itself, to creote their homes exa
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I and order do seem to need one a nother. n.. drawing ai.JO shows .JOme run-of-the-mill dwellings, popular housing (I) of the type thcrt crlwcrys appecrrs in a 5yst.m in which the people themselves have no soy in the design and construction of the houses they live ln. In Le Corbusler's drawing these dwellings do not occupy a prominent position vis a vis the exuberance around them, and they seem to be no more than a curious reminder of da ys gone by. But this type of mau housing Is the reality that we encounter time and again, and Indeed It is one of the most basic problems tha t confront us. People todcry do not seem to have a ny idea how to give expression to their own wa y of living. But there Is no reason to a uume that the capadty to express oneself In a per.JOna l way in form is essential· ly any diHerent fro m the ca pacity to expreu oneself personally In language. And if we do not seem to be ca pable of this any more, then we mcry reasonably assume thot the Impotence of architecture today is ccrused by a very serious disruption of social relations. Man housing, which is superficially In actordance with our industrial circumstances, derives its dominant position from the mechanism af mono-cultural behaviour which governs our society. The lea st an architect can do In a situatio n like this is to provide the outlines of images that will show ways of rousing the people from this condition of numbness. As close a s Le Corbusier's proposal ( 1932) brings us to o n apparently obvious solution, so far o re we removed from it today. Even the smallest steps in that direction soon prove to conflict fundamentally with the consequences of our institutiona liud centralized society, and we do not get much neorer to the realiza tion of o ur pla ns. But those few times that we do succeed ot least give us an opportunity of demonstrating the principle, albeit in a more theoretical than practical wcry.
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1961 I
HA8RAKEN
I would like to mention Habraken's contribution in this context, which in o sense fits in with whot le Corbusier hod in mind when he made his plan for Algie rs. Hobraken tried, in theory otleast, to arrive at a basis on which, using the industrial apparatus that is at our disposal, people can be offered much more freedom in their choice ol haw they wont lo live. The bearers, specially designed skeletal units provided by the state complete with the basic tednicol neceHities, con serve as construclion sites on wh ich people con build prefabricated houses or port ol houses which ore marketed by any number of firms. Since the inhabitant con pick the type of house that he likes ou t of o ro nge of possibilities, and since he con hove certain adjustments mode to suit his taste, he is thus again ac tively involved in the process, in the result of which he currently has no soy. But problems immediately arise because here too the houses soon become wholly commercialized, and therefore subject to the vicissitudes of competition ond marketing mechanisms. And that means that they will be attuned to the lowest common denominator · that of mediocrity· and so we ore right bock where we started. What makes the proposal interesting is the attempt to create the conditions for o more sensible and efficacious exploitation ol the industrial potential that our society has so much of. Every one of us asks himself from time to time why houses cannot be produced like cars, a nd, from a technological viewpoint, it is very hard to understand why we all hove such o problem with houses. The answer is less simple that the question, but one thing is cleor: it is especially the problem of siting with its infinite diversity of requirements and ru les thot conflict with all repetition, which is the mainstay of modern technology. II only you could divorce the house itself os a problem from thot of the 'building site', which the stote could provide as a sophisticated urban framework, then in theory at leost one ol the twentieth century's dreoms could come true. But the very lew oHempts that hove been made to realize thot dreom hove not succeeded in producing a
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fraction of the poetic image thotle Corbusier conjured up for us more than fifty years ago. HOUSEBOATS PROJECT l!ll).lln
Houseboats, usually moored dose to each other in dusters ot the order of the authorities, ore in Holland the most conspicuous example of (odmitledly permonentl accommodation in which the inhabitants still hove o Iorge soy and this has resulted, especially in terms of ex1ernol oppeoronce, in o richly diversified situation. This freedom of expression is undoubtedly due to the absence of o traditional, official form and appearance of houseboats. from the outset the nature of this phenomenon wos established by home-mode solut~ons to the housing problem. That this did not really lead to chaotic situations and the general untidiness that authorities ore so afraid of is, no doubt, because the overall shape and size of houseboats is based on the barges on lop of which they ore built, and which do not vary much. Besides, they ore oil moored lengtnwise too quay-side, from which they get their water, gos ond electricity. So these houseboats represent free and personal interpretations of essentially standard elements which ore connected with the public amenities ol permanent moorings. In places where conglomerations of houseboats constitute entire floating neighbourhoods, usually on the outskirts of the cities, jetties hove often been built by way of public facility: o minimal spine which provides boslc necessities such os access and energy. It is this 'public spine' that aligns the diversity, so to speak, and thus introduces o certain order. You could imagine plonnmg Rooting residential neighbourhoods in oreo.s with o lot of water, even entire cities on the water, with o network of boordwolh instead
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of streets providing the infrastructure. The dwelling units in such o settlement on the water would then be for more varied in appearance than would ever be possible in our ordinary towns ond cities on land. And whot o sense of freedom, to know that you con now ond then move your houseboat to o diHerent spot, for instance when you wonl to be in o specific neighbourhood for one reason or another. (This ideo arose in connection with o pion for urban renewal in the centre of Amsterdam in 1970, so that people who hod to vocate their homes temporarily for renovation could move too houseboat in o canol nearby and therefore not hove to leave their familiar environment ogoinsl their wi ll.)
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DEVENJU-STHN8RUGGE HOUSING PROJECT (214)
DE ScHALM, PROJECT FOR A N EIGHIIOORHOOD (ENTRE (211-711)
Only an open grid has been designed, no more than a street pattern and the basic parcelling. The houses border, essentially, on lwo streets, and con therefore hove lwo front doors: the danger of excessive social control is thus avoided (should it hove arisen ogoin through the emphasis on community spirit). So the expectation is that the different street, each derive their own specific character from the inhabitants and from their activi ties, so that o wide variety of solutions will manifest themselves within a pattern of identically laid
Since the Interaction belween people manifests itself in the street, one con conceive of the neighbourhood centre as o street capable of accommodating o variety of potential accretions, depending on the specific needs tha t ari se and on the available resources . The neighbourhood centre should be planned in such a way that it can evolve over the years, by virtue of its adaptability to specific needs; in other words it should always be possible to add new elements and to alter or even demolish them in accordance wi th changing needs. We therefore started out from what one might call a spine, a street with a transparent roof and at right angles to a number of walls marking off intermedi-ate zones belween the central $treet and future accretions. However chaotic the complex of components moy be, the spinal street must transform the whole into a permanently ordered chaos. If
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space is required foro speciol occasion (i.e. temporarily! sucn OS celebrations, fairs, exhibitions, it h often much beMer to improvise with installations such os marquees, shelters, hongors, stalls and the like. These offer many more possibilities than permanent structures, which tend to be either just too small or for too big, ond which eliminate the element of surprise. For more permanent accommodati·on use con be mode of prefabricated constructions readily available on the market, such os those lor building-site sheds, offices or hangars. The point is then for the inhabitonb to creole their environment themselves, ond in thi1 process architects cannot do otherwise than to hand the inhabitants the oppropriole tools. This project, o typical product of the early seventies, raises quite o few quedions now that the result hos turned out to be not completely solisfoctory. II Is evidentlhotthe usen were unable to live up to what we hod expected of them. They proved unable to do very much more than order complete prefobrlcoted building components, hove them put up ond do some pointing. Th~ 'light-street' has developed into o shapeless moss. Apparently the street with wolfs as o formal motif was not strong enough to withstand the impact of the cross· structures (the 'weft'), let alone to generate them as was originally intended. Although this project certainly combined a Io rge variety of surroundings is not necessarily achieved by a group in o elements and may well in many respecls be lermed a communal space. The project is on illustration of what succen from the viewpoint of o group venture in the neigh· happens, if too much freedom is given to the user. The bourhood itself, this is by no means manifest ot the level of result is disappointing compared with the greater spatial formal unity. What individuals achieve in their private possibilities that on architect might hove offered them.
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PROJECT fOR A PEDESTRIAN UNDERPASS (711·2811
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An underpass running beneath a wide traffic artery constituted on important port of the sunken pedestrian network which was to link the city-centre with the railway station. This, at any rote, was what the Apeldoorn planner hod in mind at the time when the Centrool Seheer building was being designed, and there was every reason then to connect this future pedestrian route to the building. The ideo arose to make the underpass extra wide, so that it could be used for more than just pedestrian traffic. In this way it would be possible not only to ovoid the desola tion which so often characterizes such tunnels, but moreover this construction, as o public amenity, could provide accommodation for institutions requiring space but unable to pay commercial rents, such as youth activity centres, rehearsal space for theatre groups, etc., as well as for marginal selling. But why not also consider the possibility of o covered markell The experience with covered public spoces shows that this ideo is not realistic, and like the urban plan, it hinges on overestimation of what is feasible. In sum the plan amounted to the following : rather than
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using the wide spans that ore commonly featured in underpasses with o view to restricting the number of necessary points of support, a Iorge number of columns were to be used· relatively Io rge columns, so tha t they might serve, without further adjustmen t, as the demarcation of more or less enclosed spatial units, corners, niches, in short of such compartmentalization as might be required. lEach column actually consists of two separate smaller columns enclosed by o wall, which in turn con accommodate additional niches or display windows). The ideo was to demonstra te that by adopting the straightforward disposition of massive 'adhesive' columns, aligned with the walking direction, the suggestion would emanate from them that they should be put to use · in other words, that the construction material should be ordered in such a way as to ensure a maximum of competence.
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The structural design of this residential neighbourhood, smell in scale end only portly built os yet, is not based on principles of construction but on the nature of the actual building site. Centuries ego the oreo was ortificiolly divided by o parcelling system consisting of long parallel ditches · o traditional chorocleristic of the local landscape, which was to be preserved at all costs. It is common practice in the Netherlands to prepare unsuitable construction sites lor building by first depositing o bed of sand several metres thick to serve os the foundation for roods. drains, etc.; this naturally erases every trace olthe underlying landscape, thereby providing o dean slate, upon which on entirely abstracted pion con be realized regardless of the nature of the terrain. But in this cose, grateful use was mode of the 'notutol' orticulotion of the site upon which to bose the urban pion. The main outline of the plan wos to build on the narrow strips between the ditches, and because ihe strips were not wide enough to accommodate o street lined on both sides with dwellings end gardens, the buildings were slotted together, which yielded o profile of very narrow streets threading partially overlapping structures. Thonb to this solution It was possible to keep the space required for the sond foundation and the infrastructure of streets and drains down to the barest minimvn, i.e. as for removed os pouible from the ditches [or rather little conob) in order to prevent transgression of the bonks due
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to lateral pressure. This specific layout was thus wholly engendered by the restrictions and possibilities of the original site. The ditches or little conols were thus retained in the plan; the bonh were reinforced according to varying methods, and where they mark the end of private gardens they hove token on o variegated appearance under the influence of their new function. Not only did the existing articulation end parcelling of the landscape yield o highly specific layout in this case, the resulting orchitedure in turn gave the ditches o new look. Thus the basic structure played o crucial role in the disposition of the buildings, and vice verso: basic structure a nd buildings reciprocate on the level of form . In retrospect, one could argue that the plan as il was realized does not sufficiently manifest the underlying urbonistic intentions. The main reason for this is a port
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from the foctthot the pion hos not reached completion, that it wos not carried out by more than one architect. The scale of the project wos too small to permit engaging more architects, ond unfortunately the truly generative potential of the basic motif· which is ot least manifest in the ditch embankments • was thus not fully uploited with regard to the buildings themselves. During the 1960s o number of pions were drown up, notably in the circles of Teom X, in which the principle of distinction between structure ond complement wos already emphatically included. These pions, in which the rigidity of e..clusive functions and the ensuing disintegration hos successfully been eliminated, con indeed be seen os anticipating and inspiring what we might now coli structuralism in architecture. Fm UNIVUSITY, BERliN, 1963
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&WOODS m•l911 This project, In the original version, proposed o formula for the woy o modern university could be spatially organized as o network of interrelationships ond opportunities lor communicolion. Instead of starting out from the usual division into faculties, each os o stronghold in its own building, with its own library etc., the point of departure in this building was o single continuous structure functioning like o roofed academic agglomeration, in which oil the component ports could be positioned in the most logical relation vis ci vis each other. And because ideas change over lime also the interrelationships will change, and with them the different components; it wos therefore proposed to creole spaces thol con be erected or dismantled within o fixed ond permanent network of interior streets. CANDIUS, JOSIC
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This is explained in the following statements by Shodroch Woods:
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Our intention in this pion, is to choose o minimum organization which provides maximum opportunities lor lhe kind of contocl, exchange and feed-bock thor is the real raison d'etre of the university, without compromising the tranquility of individual work. b) We were convinced that it wos necessary to go beyond the analytic study of dlfferentloculties or activities in different buildings; we Imagined a synthesis of functions ond departments where all disciplines could he associated and where the psychological and administrative barriers which separate one from the other would not he reinlormed through architectural orliculolion or the frogmenlory identification of the ports otthe e..pense of the whole.
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The web of primary ond secondary circulation and servicing retains the pouibiliry of modification so that it con be used efficiently. In the first planning stage il exists only os on approximate network of rights-of-way. It is built only os and when if is required to provide circulation and service. It is not o megostructure but rather o minimum struchlring organization. This organization keeps its potential for growth and change, within the limits olthe technological and economic milieu.
dl No one of the stems has been given greater importance than the others, either in dimension or through the intensiry of activities along it. It is inherent in this plan that it should begin by being non
Woods was certainly addicted Ia 'change and grawtn', to the ideo that change and growth (and apparently never diminution, by the way) should be treated os the most imporlont constants - a nd tnis is the exact reverse of what we ore advocating · but he has received his due in that the Free University, as it was eventually built, turned out to be on ordinary rigid structure oher all. But there is still every reason to at least toke into consideration the still relevant and hence undeniably important basic ideo of o minimal ordering, in this case o spatial orgonizolion necessary lor optimal interchange which, on principle, generates freedom of choice In the way the basic structure is to be fi lled in.
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S. WEWUKA UfHfll 'The street con be regarded os more or leH the oldest element of urban planning. The street hod always been the 'living room' of the people. The ideo of pulling the familiar urban space to use again resulted in this design. The public space mus/ once more become the selling, with on Improved spatial organization, foro// the activities il has been used for since time Immemorial. Unlike the so·c:olled building plan, the proposed zoning scheme indicates only destinations and accessibilities, but
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not the form of the buildings and so on. In this way o variety of differentiated dwelling Forms ond street spaces could arise. The specific Functions of certain oreos might well change in the future, necessitating certain adjustments which, however, need not spoil the unity or organization of the whole. After all there ore, scollerec throughovt the plan, pedestrian bridges over the motorwoy as well as covered cross
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The constraints of working with the proposed theme evidently do not hove o reltricting effect but, os catalyzing agents, octuolly hove o stimulating effect. So the constraints of the theme in foci result in more freedom lis it o porodox that freedom and restraint generate eoch otherf). Different designers working independently con use the grid os o 'master pion', which they con complement with their own specific solutions. In the some woy o greot variety of programmes con be implemented. Within the layout, the components con develop according to their own criteria. The pion as such permits such o variety of Interpretations that, regardless of whotls substituted end by whom, the complex os o whole will olwoys hove o certain order. The euence is thot the grid con be interpreted on all levels • it merely provides the objective pottem, the underlying current os it were, the proto-form, which acquires its true identity by virtue of those very interpretations that ore given to it, notably by the programmes that are filled in end the specific woy in which that is done. Whatever is filled in, it will olwoys be directed ordered, thot is to soy not ordered in the sense of 'subservience' but rather In the sense of 'inclination'. The grid functions os o generative framework which contains within it the basic inclination tho t it transmitted to each solution. And because the grid vests the individual components with the common inclinotion, not only will the ports determine the identity of the whole, but conversely the whole will contribute to the identity of the ports. The identity of the ports end of the whole will be reciprocally generative.' (3J
Aport from the uceptional quality of the plam of Woods and Wewerka as idecu, whcrt - can learn in particular from them Is thcrt we ahould not concentrate our attention to the exclusion of all else on change aa such, but on the structu,. which, in its constancy, is capable of absortMng change. In the example given above, the imate of warp and weft, the collective strvctu,. is therefof. the warp, into which lndivldual lnterpr.tations cr,. woven as the weft. tt is the collective structv,., In itself meaning !993011 :lOt
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little or nothing that evoked the individual interpre!Gtions, which would not have arisen If the ~text had not been there. Mot.over it iJ the strudure that indicate• the coh.,.nce without which th.,. woold only be on ~lming mass of expl'8ftions • whk h we call chaos. The awareness of the ,.,.ssive effects of the equating of dwelling units In apartment buildings as large-scale storage systems reached a peak in the siatles. The consequence was o rGdicol repudiation of everything that merely referred to systems and order imposed from abovw. At the same time much emphoais wo1 ploced on the wealth that iJ the product of individualexr-saion. Thi11k of Sam Roclia'a 'Watts Towers', 01 the postman Cheval's 'Palals Ideal', and all the fantastic arch.itecture that people driven by an extreme commitment aucceeded in creating with their bore hands! And yet the ideal of the victory of individual creativity and dedication over everything that is lmpoaed by the powen that be is an ovenimplification. Just as language is necessary to be able to express ourselves calledively In terms of structure, sa a collecttv. formal atructure it neceuary to be able to elQ)rfls oneself ~patially in one's environment. If there is anything thai comes to the fore out of all these exetmples it Is surely the paradox that the restriction of a structuring principle (worp, tpine, grid) apparently 1'8fultJ not In a diminution but In an expontion of the possibilitiet of adaptation ond the,.Jore of the Individual possibilities of expression. The corred structural theme does nat 1'8ftrict lrudom but is octuolly «>nducive to lreedDml So the way the structure is filled In Is no more subservient to the structure tflon the other way round
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I om still thinking In tei'IM of warp and weft: the warp may welt servw to keep the whole fabric together, but the ap,.ar-ce of the end·product is stif1 determined by the weft. But not only ore strvctvre and infill equivaleltt, they ore also reclpro«~l, and so h.,. the warp and weft idea no longer appiies • in the SGme way that speech also makH language oncl not only the reverse, they therefore generate eoth otfler, and the be"er the quality of each, the less lmportaltt the diatlnction between the two categories.
1929·32 / lE (0-8liSIEi rm-lOS) II is difficult to lind o better example of o 'pion fibre' than le Corbusier's Villa Savoye in Poissy: 'Les Heures Cloires'. The 'plan fibre' demonstrate$ a consistent eJ~ploitotion of the new possibilities offered by the application of the concrete frame. Characteristic of these early ellamples of free pions were, besides the free-standing columM, the often curved walls which almost ostentatiously proclaimed their liberation from a load-bearing function. When confronted with such a concrete framework you inevitably expect the columns to be dispersed according lo some regular arrangement governed by constructive criteria. and at first sight you ore inclined to think that they are arranged as indicated in lig.a, but this is not the case ot all. It is possible thotle Corbusier did indeed start out from such o regular system, but that in the process of his design he must hove felt the urge not only to adopt the walls to the positions of the columns, but conversely also to shill the columns vis a vis the wolfs, in order thus to obtain the correct configuration. By virtue of the VIllA SAVOY£, POISSY
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conditions that the wa lls and column$ offer, both systems allow room lor each othe1, a nd so they neote the conditions of freedom in each other. The building, like o white machine, o spaceship from another plonetlonded in the midst of na ture, represents like no other the mechanism of twentieth-century architecture.
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T11e principle of minimal ordering of the city by a grid such as the gridiron has been known ever since town planning was invented. In towns that did not evolve thanks to a suc"uion of events in a gradual process of growth, but developed oc:cording to a preconceived, fixed pion, the need - • felt time and again, wflenever the locol circumstances did not automatically provide self..vident incentive for tome kind of ordering, for tomething in the - y of a grid: o 'blueprint' for what was to be done next. Whatever the primary point of departure in eoc:h spec.ific cate, there ore variations on the tame theme to be found throughout history which guorontee in a single formula the conditions of land distribution, alto on o larger tcale or in a longer term, and the accessibility of each plot of land. The storting·point is nearly always rectangular or square plots: streets encloting blocks whoM d imensions correspond with the constrvction method which is envisaged, although they could in principle be filled in o variety of ways, the nature of the filling depending on the nature of the period in which it Is required.
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1859 I I. CEaDA llCIHlOI lldefonso Cerda's pion for Barcelona in the ~ond hall of the neneteenth century was aimed ot ensuring o higher quality than that offered by a primary ordering of streeb and blocks within which one could do pretty much os one pleased. The size of the square$ wos e$toblished by him in relation to certain heights of construction in order thus to guarantee adequate living conditions everywhere. He also proposed thor port of the blocks should be kept free from buildings. Nothing come of this in the plan as it was realized because, os is so often the case, the exigencies of living conditions were no match for the for greater power of the landowners and exploiters. Cerd6's proposal foro building principle consisting of strips that could alternate in direction per block, simple as it may seem, created virtually inexhaustible possibilities for variation, which would lead to on inc redibly rich pattern of urban space. And this not only applies to the volumes on the abstract level, there is a lso the alternation with greenery which in itself constitutes on organizing foetor in defining ond varying the space. And we hove not even referred to the further elaboration of the bloch by dillerent orchitecl$, EN SANCHE, BAICELONA
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B each with his own signature, which would outomoticolly ensure that no two places within this lucid, coherent system would be identical. The most ingenious aspect of this pion is that the corners ore always well-defined, and that these 'cornerstone' buildings consistently loce the intersecting streets with o diogonollo~ode. The lour diagonals widen each intersection to form o small square, which thus provide o welcome relief from the monotony ol the long streets. Even in the form in which this pion was ultimately realized, with closed block siting ond much toller buildings than originally intended, the eRect of this corner arrangement on the layout os o whole h still noticeoble, suggestive as it wos for architects - and not least lor Goudi ·to deport from the rigidity of the most obvious solutions.
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In the rapidly developed Iorge American cities we find the gridiron applied in ils most elementary form and will! the most characteristic results. II is hard to imagine a better way to tome the wild collection of architectural forms ranging from flat structures to skyscrapers · whicn is almost impossible to curb in this world of inexorable free enterprise. Ma nhattan is undeniably tile most exciting example of all. Not only does one see the most fascinati ng range of architectural solutions pass before one's eyes like a greatly varied landscape, but due to the curiously elongated shape of the peninsula one is constantly aware of two contradictory features: on the one hand the wide streets along the longitud inal axis whicn ore so long that you con see tile vonlsning point on the horizon, and on the other, the narrower lateral streets covering the relatively short distance from one end by the water to the other. Wnile one experiences the vastness ol the city In Mo nhollen, each side-street still affords a view of the woler beyond. So in this case the grid contributes in a very special way to the woy the urban space is experienced. One of the first things to strike tile visitor to Monhollon is the cold·blooded consistency with which the grid has been applied, until it simply cannot be continued ony further, so that the somewhat frayed edges not only appear to be random but also to some extent insensitive. But remarkably enough it is also in those places tha t the most
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interesting solutions were devised. One would expect, within such o severe rectangular system, thai the extremities would be allowed to terminate in o way befitting lhe possibilities offered by the grid. But, as so often happens, it is the confrontation between one principle and another that reveals lhe nature of each This is most evident perhaps where the regular longitudinal poHern is cut ocrou by Broadway, the old country rood which was left virtually unchanged as if it were inherent in the landscape. Broadway was incorporated into the grid as on inevitable given foetor, and wherever it meets the grid it disrupts fl, thereby cha llenging architects to find on imaginative solution to the irregularity. One celebrated example of such a solution is the Flot·lron building on Madison Square. It is in these places that the nature of the grid manifests itself most convincingly. The biggelt misconception revarding the gridiron system is that it must inevitably lead to monotony, and that its eHed Is r&pressive. Those dangers do admittedly exist, but here are enough great e.xamples to prove that, in a gigantic expanse of buildings, the negative aspetts actually recede Into the background. Whether the ordering of the gridiron will ind"d expand the possibilities of variation instead of reducing them depends first and foremost on whether the proper balance has been found between revulations and fr..dom of choice.
The grid is like o hand operating on extremely simple principles • it admittedly sets down the overall rules, but is oil the more flexible when it come.s to the detailing of each site. As on objective basis II plots the loyout of the urban space, and this layout brings the Inevitably chaotic effect of myriad seporole decisions down to acceptable propositions. In its simplidty the grid is a more effective mean.s of obtaining some form of regulation than many o finer·meshed system of rules which, although o.stensibly more flexible and open, tend to suffocate the imaginative spirit. A.s far os its economy of means Is concerned it is very like a cheuboard · and who can think of a wider range of pouibilities ari5ing from such sim ple and straightforward rules than that of a cheuplayer?
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S BUILDING ORDER In simple temu, you could say that building orcler is the unity that arises in a building when the parts token together clet.nnlne the whole, and conversely, when the separat. parts derive from that whole in an equally logical way. The unity resulting from design that consistently employs this reciprocity • parts cletermining the whole and determined by it • may in a sense be retarded as a structure. The material (the informationl is cleliberately chosen, adapted to auit the requirements of the task in question, and, in principle, the solutions of the various design situation• (i.e. how the building is interrelated from place to placeI are permutations of or at least directly derived from one another. As o result thll\"e will be a distinct, one could say family, relationship between the various parts. Following this troin of thau9ht, one '"s that there is an obvious comparison with that outstanding ellample of structure: language. Each sentence derive.s its meaning from the words of which it is composed, while at the some time each word derives its meaning from the sentence as a whole. Of course, every well-designed building has a consistent idea with a distinct themcrtic unity behind it, a unity of vocabulary, material, and building method. lut here the essential thing is design based on o consistent stra.fe9Y, Starting out from the components you have to go through the whole building again and again to check whether all the utremities can be brought together under the denominator of o common theme (hence putting the hypothesis to the te.st). That exploration in tum leads to adjustment of the hypothesis or theme. This working method implies, in fact, filling In one.'s own design structure, as it were and, by feeding back
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the result, one eventually arr'JVes at an ordering in which the conditions far all conceivabl.e infills are already present • in other words, a structure which may be sold to be programmed to accommodate all expected infilts. In this way it is possible to ajm conKiously at a unity of tpatiallty, components, materiols and colours, in such a way that a maJdmum of variety of uses can be accommodated. This thought process, inspired by structuralism, attemplt to aquare accounts with the somewhat contradictory functionalistic strivint to find a specific form and a specific spatial orvanlxation for each function. Design that '"ks the largest common denominator, the 'set' of all the requirements under discussion In a particular task (i.e. the programme in its widest sense), employs a different strategy and demands a fundamentally different outlook from the architect. ORPHANAGE, AMsTElD.a.M 1955-60 I A. VAN EYCK 1311-3111
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stress or effort. When this a rticulation is carried through to the smallest dimension, not only buildings and cities acquire reciprocal meaning, but buildings and furniture also, because Iorge scole pieces of 'built' furniture ore like small houses in which one feels yet more Interiorized than in o Iorge room. Thus each port is given the dimension which suits its purpose best, i.e. the right size through which it comes into its own. All this has become common knowledge by now, so I wonder if there is anybody who believes not to hove been influenced by it. But what I always found most omoting is that no molter how absorbing the elaboration down to the smallest port may be, the essence of the larger whole remains os powerful os ever. The whole radiates the calm of on equilibrium which encompasses on extraordinary intricacy of form and space in one single image. It seems to me thot the secret lies in the inexorable unity of material, form, scale and consJruclion combined in a building order of such clarity that I hove always associated it more with classical order than with the casbah. (I know, Aldo wonts both; clarity, but lobyrinthion, and casbah, but organized. Neither one nor the other, but both ot once, which coils for o more inclusive mechanism. Sy now we should be in o position to achieve this, with oil the means ot our disposal in the twentieth century.} Perhaps the lintels hove something to do with it ofso, marked os they ore by the horizontal openings placed in such o way as to give the impression of o widening of the
columns ot the top, copitol·like. The continuous lintel zone fotms o horizon throughout the entire building, both inside ond outside. What thus become clear to me wos that the way o landscape is set free by its horizon is okin to the woy the cohesive potential of o building order con give o building a horizon from which · strange paradox · it likewise draws its freedom. It is the dome·like roof units, the round columns and above all the lintel chain which make the penetrability of the building's perimeter from both outside and inside reciprocally possible. They invite, os it were, o ploy of walls around them, letting outdoor oreos in ond interior areas out. Ouiker's open air school comes to mind. There the gloss skin around the class-room's outer edge, by tutning inwards away from il, leaves space lor the ample loggias (outdoor clon·rooms), whilst the concrete frame continues to allow you to 'read' the entire building moss. Through cantilevering, the woy only Duiker knew how, the corners ore rendered even lighter ond more tra nsparent. In the Orphanage the outer skin also turns inwards to form either porch, loggia or veranda within the periphery, but the opposite occurs as well: the interior breaks out in
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three places, doing away with the internal corners which otherwise would hove constricted both movement and view of the5e porliculor places. Solutions of this kind ore certainly astonishing. My very first cursory confrontation with the Orphonoge, still under construction ot the time, was enough to convince me thot this wonderful new building was going to be of on entirely new kind, based on o different mechanism and heralding another kind of orchilecture' .fBI lJNMu (321-3311
The workspace that was constructed on the roof of o laundering factory doting from the beginning of this century was intended os the first step in the pions to extend the premises. The expectation was otthot ti me that successive extensions would become necessary os the different departments expanded: I. the impossibility of predicting which departments would require expansion ot which times;
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3. the quality of the existing premises wos good enough to warrant preservation ond, olthough somewhat gloomy and Inefficiently laid out, the building would still be serviceable oher incidental alterations. In order to channel the expected growth in the future ond to guard against the eventual emergence of a haphazard patchwork of extensions, it was decided to design building units based on o number of interrelated motifs. In this way it would be possible to use different combinations to creole o variety of larger spaces. The fundamental principles for the design were as follows: o. to occommodote the constant changes within the business, eoch building unit hod to meet o wide ra nge of industrial requirements • i.e. it should not be too strictly oHuned to o specific programme, but flexible enough to accommodate varying functions without adjustment to the unit itself being neces~ory ;
b. the premises should be complete ond whole after each extension, regardless of the subsequent stoge in construction; each new addition should therefore constitute o finished whole. The building unit should therefore hove on identity of its own strong enough to be copoble of asserting itself regardless of the specific milieu ond moreover to contribute to the identity of the lorge1 whole of which it is o constituent. The rather demonstrative use of prefabricated components is in this cose not o consequence of the need for repetition but ocluolly • ond this seems paradoxical · the consequence of the desire to individualize each component. The components must be autonomous in order to serve multiple functions, while the form must be chosen in such o way that the different
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building unit~ ore constantly attuned to one another. The original premises were so constructed os to allow for another floor to be added on top, and were therefore sturdy enough to serve os the bose for the step-by·step extensions that would eventually cover this artificial rock· formation. The new structures enha nce the colour of the old, while conversely the old contributes to the creation and formation ol the new. Old and new retai n their own identity wh ile confirming each other's. The extension was never completed. Woue still, the entire complex wos demolished ollhe beginning olthe ni neties.
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Because this complex for elderly and disabled people consists of o combination of o nursing home section, o section where some core is provided, and o section with independent dwellings and central amenities, end because different ministries eoch with their own rules and regulations hove responsibility for the various sections, the overall design hod to accommodate a considerable diversity of dimensions as far os the maximum and minimum heights and widths of corridors, rooms and storeys were concerned. And because the combination of
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these very different categories of accommodation was aimed ot maximum inlerchongeobility, so that re1idents whose condition improved or worsened would need to be moved from one section to another as liNie os possible, it wos obvious thot the complex wos to be conceived not m o conglomerate of separate buildings but os on urban area, o miniature city in which all amenities would, in principle, be available and accessible to ollrMidenls. These considerations led lo the ideo to creole one continuous structural framework, based on the some modular unit, to meet the requiremenl5 of the highly varied and complex programme. The smallest unit capable of serving os the basic component lor rooms of any size was calculated Ia be 92 em. The programmes of requirements of the respective categories were subsequently filled into on overall building order, consisting structurally of a system of column-, beam- ond floor-elem ents, i.e. on order conditioned o priori by the selected unit of measurement of 92 em. and thus receptive to a wide range of specific demands. Synchron ization and stondordizotion of dimensions throughout the complex wos not only important for Interchangeable usage, but also to arrive ot the most rational and rapid construction method, and thus to keep the costs down to o minimum ond to stay within the budget. In order to keep the number of construction elements down lo o minimum, three lintel sizes were chosen, which yield three different boys: 2 x 92 184 em; 3 x 92 276 em; 4 x 92 ~ 368 em. Adding up these boys produces standa rd measurements ol5 x 92, 6 x 92 etc., like o coin system l5
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adapted by means of a number of modifications that did not entail fundamenta l alterations to the original plan, it become evident oher o while that the closed circuit according to which the plan hod been organized was too rigid and hermetic to adopt itself to all the changes that hod become necessary in the mean time, ond in the end the pion hod to be abandoned altogether. The lesson that we learned from this experience was thot if you adhere so strictly to such o specific ond explicit organization of the ma in form , your pion is doomed to failure, and that it would in foci be for beHer to start out from o more open and more Aexible basic structure tho! is capable ol accommodating a djustments os they become necessary. After this failure, o new concept wos developed, according to which the project could finally be realized. The first step, this time, was to establish which general facilities were relevant to the entire premises, such as
staircases, lifts, switchboards, conduit shafts, oir duels and maintenance closets. These were all concentrated in ver tical shafts located ot rational and regular distances from one another throughout the complex. This resulted in o constellation of lowers which, on the construclionol level, serve o stabilizing fu nction within the complex as a whole. The programme of requirements, translated into o spatial scheme, was superimposed on this 'objective' grid marked by the lowers, ond adjusted to the dimensions of the building site. The fixed points of support, the towers, consequently serve to bri ng o certain ordering into the space as o whole, while the 'construction kit' of (prefabricated) concrete elements guarantees the ultimate coherence and unity of the various components which ore formed 'from within'. The building structure of De Drie Hoven, formed as it is by identical beams and columns throughout, is manifestly present in the entire building, although the way it is filled in varies from place to place. The design-concept of such a structure is that o great dive rsity of fillings is possible, as the reflection of o differentiated usage, without detracting from the visual and orgonizolionol coherence
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of the whole. Besides, conversions that become necessary as a result of new insights con be fairly easily undertaken within lhe fra mework of the structure which continues to perform itslooc:J.beoring function and which itself is not or hardly affec ted by olterotion olthe walls, doors ond ceilings, etc. Although it is in o sense painful for the architect on the one hand to see how the components he has designed with so much core eventually disappear or ore altered beyond recognition by others a nd without prior consultation, if is on the other hand also a kind of triumph that his ideo as lor os the overall concept is concerned remains standing. You could compare the struci\Jre too tree which loses its leaves every year. The tree remains the some, but the leaves are renewed each spring. The usage varies over time and the users demand of the building that it adopts itself properly to their Insights os they evolve. Sometimes this entails o step backwards in the spatial quality, but sometimes, too, it means a step forward, on improvement on the original situation.
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to the capacity to absorb change. The ideo which was proposed previously in lwo Designing on office building may well be simple enough competition projec1s for town halls in Valkenswaard ll1H44J in principle, but il was this very necessity of adoptability and Amsterdam ll4S.l46J respectively, and which finally that led to the assignment . Constant changes occur within materialised in the CentrooiBeheer office building, is that the organization, thereby requiring frequent adjustments of o building os a sort of selllement, consisting of a larger to the size of the different departments. The building must num ber of equal spatial units, like so many islands strung be capable of accommodating these internal forces, while together. These spatial units constitute the basic building the building as o whole must continue to function in every blocks; they ore comparatively small and con respect and ot oil times. This means that permanent accommodate the different programme components (or adoptability is a precondition of the design. In each new 'fundions' if you prefer). because their dimensions as well situation, to ensure the equilibrium of the system os o os their form and spatial organization a re geared to that whole, i.e. that it continues to function, the components must be able to serve dff/erent pwposes. purpose. They ore therefore polyvalent. Whereas De Drie Hoven involved a programme with o The building hos been designed as on ordered expanse, very high diversity of spatial dimensions and spatial consisting of o basic structure which manifests itself as an essentially fixed and permanent zone throughout the requirements· which necessarily resulted in a single building order that would allow for a great variety · in the building, and o complementary variable and inlerpretoble case of this office building, analogous to the uhimate zone. chosen basic principle of the square spatial unit, however The basic structure is the bearer of the entire complex, as simple in the elementary sense, proved capable of it were. II is the main construction, it comprises the duct meeting vir tually all spatial requirements. Thanks to their system and coincides with the principal ' traffic routes' polyvalence the different spatial units con, however, if inside the complex. The basic structure manifests itself in necessary toke over each other's roles · and that is o key lwo ways, notably as a continuous structure (spine), ond CENTiMl BEHm OFFICE BUILDING 13113!3!
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with regular interruptions along the periphery of the complex in the form of small towers (cl. the vertebrae). The interpretable zones ore geared to performing all foreseeable functions, which make speci fic demands on the space and which therefore give rise to divergent 'complementary' solutions. It is this interpretable zone thot con be filled in with the primary ingredients of the different component ports. The bosic structure and interpretable zone in ils entirety thus owoits complementary filling in, wh ile remaining essentially the some: the building as o whole derives its identity from the complex of different interpretations.
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From the outside the complex os o whole looks like o random form , and does not exoclly live up to one's expectations concerning a self-contained building. The point of departure in the design- i.e. to ovoid the effect of o 'temple' of music by integrating the structure as much os possible in the surroundings · ond the ensuing principle of occes.sibility resulted in o peripharol arrangement composed of multiple facets. And because all these facets hove been constituted of the same materials they represent, in elfecl, simply different facets of the some whole. In other words, more attention has been paid to the legibility of the pons than to the coherence of the whole, while the whole is represented in those ports. This meons tha t the whole con be viewed from many different sides. The constructional elements become more independent, they are emancipated as it were, and by
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virtue of the different ways in which these elements ore 'assembled' ot the corners the relationships that ore established vis o vis each other also differ constantly. So in spite of its differentiated periphery, the uniformity of materials ond constructional elements as well as the way in which these elements ore joined together make the complex as o whole speak one a rchitectonic language (although the wooden lacings in the interior ore on additional feature). By the application of the some basic materials inside and out, interior ond exterior ore put into perspective, thereby reinforcing the overall expression of accessibility. An important role within the building order is played by the recurrent use of columns, with their emphatic and clearly recognizable form-language. They stand in gridformation with equal distances between them, thus marking off equal areas throughout the entire building. They represent the cadence of the building, and set the rhythm of the space, just as the bars indicate the type of intervals ond beals in o musical score. The arrangement of the columns constitutes a minimal ordering system which allows for o very Rexible filling in of the different ports, and which hos o regulating effect on the great diversity of constituent elements arising from the complexity of the programme. While serving to unify the whole, this column system is on
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inducement to design each space according Ia its specific requirements and location. This principle does not euentiolly diverge from the 'pion li bre' thai was developed in the early years of this century as a new way of e~ploiling the full possibilities offered by the opplicolion of o concrete skeleton consisting of columns and platforms UICI. Among the characteristic features of the early examples of the free plan were the often demonstratively curved walls and also the free-standing columns with their own spaces; these features contrast with the way the free plan is usually applied nowadays, with the columns serving as the starling-point for the walls. In a structure comprising o proportionately greater number of rooms or enclosed spaces, the Iotter 'method' is obviously more suitable. When the columns ore free-standing, round columns ore undeniably preferable, if only because they adopt themselves in o so much friendlier ond gentler way to the presence of crowds of people in their midst. Standing 'in the way' everywhere yet without ever being on obstacle, the columns ma nifest themselves strongly, their strong personality being further reinforced by the square capitals, on 'overstatement' of the form required for the construction. The main function of these aligned capitols, is to coordinate the connections with the ceilings coming towards them from different directions and at different heights. In addition their extra width keep the odioining wall ot o distance, and so helps to creole a certain spaciousness around each column. The columns in the frontages seNe Ia keep the walls at o greater or smaller distance aport, depending on the amount of glass that is required in a specific location. The openings in the frontages ore on the whole always located in the 'column zone', only very rarely do they occur as 'holes' in the wall. The columns standing freely in the spaces enveloping them constitute o motif which recurs In different variations throug hout the building, and which therefore yield a recognizable and characteristic image. Indeed the column was designed to enable each ploce to evoke different spatial experiences, while the bore column remains the some whatever the specific location it is in. Depending on the derived openneu or closedneu it appears In o different guise, you could soy: dressed lor o different port. So the column determines the aspect of o place, while at the some time its own image is determined by that ploce in return. The column structure may be seen as a system that generates freedom : a 'competence' that provides on incentive for the 'performance' belonging to o specific situation, and therefore an instrument thai yielded a coherent building order despite the absence of repetitive spaces.
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Ins lead of a building volume with on endless succession of office floors the building has been articulated into segments; the building volume is thus divided up into several ostensibly more or less separate buildings, grouped next to and opposite each other along on elongated central zone: i.e. several small oflice buildings together forming one complex. Each of these more or less separate 'office blocks' consisting of o number of interconnected octagons, con accommodate one or more deportm~nts, each of which is directly accessible from the central zone. The office units consist of one or more successive or superimposed octagonal islands of t 420m2, in which the spaces con be arranged in many different ways. Each spatial unit accommodates on overage of 32 people in rooms with I, 2, or 3 work-oreos. Although the building was designed primarily os o cell-oflice, it lends itself in principle also to more open orgonizotionol forms where end when the need crises. The building appears to consist of o conglomerate of octagons strung together · at least, tha t is the ~rst impression of the periphery from both outside and inside. Also the subdivision into office units follows o pattern of octagons. From o constructive viewpoint the building is o regularly constituted skeleton mode up of o Iorge number of identical prefabricated concrete elements, which ore assembled on site. These elements hove been combined in such a way that o repetition of similarly identical spatial units is obtained. The main beams, oil diagonally positioned, form o continuous conduit zone across all floors. The pattern hos been chosen with o view to creating con si sten~y square spaces as secondary zones outside the primary zone of the main structure; these secondary zones could be left open in places between the Roor-ponels terminated by secondary edging beams. It is the selected diagonal form of terminating these secondary zones that cuts out the octagonal shapes from the Roar as o whole, as it were, ond it is also here that the desired rhythmical articulation is achieved. The chosen building structure th us makes it possible to 'fill in' the different ports of the programme according to the desired organization. The regular 'objective' disposition of columns offers much scope lor variation in fillings ond readjustments, so that the building will prove to be relatively adoptable to future needs. The building structure serves throughout to introduce order, and will not in eflect restrict the freedom of filling in but will enlarge it. The structure is the architectural common thread running through the entire complell:, making the different components legible and thus ordering
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them. Aport from the spatial division and organization, the structure also generates the stortlng·point for the technical installations, in o pattern of similar conduit shafts throughout the building, wholty integrated into the coMtruction. The main direction of the office units · and that is the direction of the main beams thus constituting the primary structure · is consisten~y diagonal with respect to the direction of the building as a whole. The way the central hall as o spatial main artery cuts through the entire length of the building is therefore followed by the direction of the secondary beams which, although of o lighter calibre than the main beams, perform o function that is at least as important from o spatial point of view. One of the most intriguing design themes of this building was the integration of these two deliberately chosen primary directions. The problem boiled down to making tht:. constructive main beams and the diagonal secondary beams come together in such o way that the Iotter would ensure o convincing and continuous lengthwise definition of the space. The solution to the support of beams coming from 8 directions wos provided by the square column· heads, which, form ing table-tops of 1 square metre and divided into 8 zones, con in principia accommodate beams from all directions. The intersection points, twenty of which were needed to be able to meet oil the spatial demands of the building, were individually and collectively designed os a single plastic theme. The heavy main beams coming togethe r from different directions and the lighter secondary beams were attuned to each other by profiling the higher beams in such o way thotthey unite the dimensions of both types; in addition the column· heads were not oriented to the main beams but rather to the secondary ones (which become edging-beams in the
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voids). The consequence of th is choice of direction is thot the direction of the central hall is just as strongly manifest as that of the moin beoms of the building . The intersections created thus sum up the entire structural principle, ond so, as 1cubic metre-point where everything comes together, they represent the structural and constructive concept of the building as o whole and, by virtue of the diversity within their unity, they ore the most important elements of the building order. Thanks to the large-scale repetition of construc ti ve elements and the possibility of extending Floors wholly or partially at will, the building was eminently suited to execution with prefabricated concrete elements. An advantage was that the quality of the finish that could be obtained was high enough for the elements to serve as bore concrete. The bearing structure is essentially built up of four constructive elements: columns, beams, shafts and floors. The beams resting on the columnheods were furn ished on one side with a projecting ridge wh ich served at a later stoge os o simple attachment lor the 'vo id Roor·ponels' . The requi red degree of accuracy here was provided by prefabrication of the beams. The structure was given stability by the conduit shafts, which 361 369
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were poured on site. For the floors between the beams either prefab units or on-site poured concrete could be used. The parking space beneath the front of the building wos executed with the some column distribution os in the office floors. The decision to adopt a system whereby prepobricoted components con be assembled on the building site represented a considerable reduction of the cost, ond this In turn mode II feasible to erect such o complex structure within a limited budget.
APollO SC.HOOlS (SIG-384)
Both of these schools resulted from the some spatial programme of requirements set by the Ministry of Education and, having been developed from the some building order, os o common design, there ore ma ny similarities between
them. But there ore also o number of Important differences between the two buildings owing to the different siting and the consequently differen~y orientated boy windows of the doss-rooms, but also os o result of the divergent principles underlying the two school communities . •
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The unity of means Inherent in a building order may well remind you of clauifkotion into architectural styles, according to which the ubiquitous clanicist style also, ostensibly, meets the criteria that we set for o building order. In an architectural style each element has its fixed tosk., and allows itself to be combined with others according to specific rules. In this sense an architecturaJ style thus represents o sort of formal language by means of which you can express some things and not others, in the sense that each element and each combination of elements inevitably refers to o certain fixed meaning thereby leavlngliHie or no room for interpretotion. But in addition, and this has more far· reoching consequences, the technicollimitotions of the 'construction kit' determine lh spotictl potential. For instance, you cannot make cantilever • when applying clcusicistic principles, and therefore no open comers without a column (as in the buildings of Duiker and Rietveld) • for the means to do so ore t imply not provided in the construction kit. At o maHer of foct, If the history of architecture has anything to do with orchitecturaJ styles it is "pe
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The building order of o project is the outcome of a more profound realization of the uses to which it will be put, now and in the future. The building order thus anticipates the 'performance' that may presumably be expected of it. And from this a 'competence' is (re)construded through on inductive procen. In fact, therefore, each architectural assignment contains an incentive to develop o new order, i.e. an order e manating from the specific nature of that assignment. Just as each order repruents a specific mechanism, it also lends to be exclusive to that mechanjsm. DiHerent aims a re emphasized in diHerent instances, but the central issue w ith structure is the paradox of an ordering creating freedom · a horizon throughout your plan.
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Flexibility became tfle CGtclt·word, it - • to be tfle panaceo ro cure a ll the ills of archtt.cture. So long as the design of buildings woJ nevtral, it was thought, tfley could be put to different - · ond tfley could therefore, in tfleary at least, absorb and accommodate tfle influence~ of changing timet and situations. That at ~ would be one point gained, but Mutrolity in fact consists of tlte absence of identity, in otfler words, tfle lack of distinctive feature~. The problem of changeability, theft, Is not so much o matter of having to adopt ond modify distinctive featuNJ, but of having tflose distinctive features in lite fint plocel
6 FUNCTIONAliTY, FlEXIBiliTY AND POLYVAlENCE
In fvnctionaUtt archtt.cture lh. fonn _, deriv.d from the expn~uion of efficiency (which did not automatically mean that atl fvnctionollst architectuN wa~ equally efficacious). In tfle 'functional city' and 'functional building' It - • lh. diffe,._ tflat _,. particularly manifest. This amounted to on extreme sp4Kification of requirements and type• of utility, which inevitably resulted In more fragmentation than integration, and if there - • anytfling to which these concepti w.,. not n~sistont, it wa• time. AduaOy, lh. good functionalistJ, pNCKcupiecl and lndMd obteued as they ott.n -r• by their 'lntematlonal style', managed ro avolcllh. usual pitfalb, and mast of their airy, white cubic buildings ON in fact tuited to multiple llut upecia lly the so·called functional urt>anism gives a very clear demonstration of tfle e.xtent to which tfltnklng about solutions to orchtt.ctural problems has been hampered by segregalion of functlons instead of integration. The rapid obsolescence of all roo 1pecific solvtioM leads not only to dtsfunctionality but also to seriovs Inefficiency. Ju.t think of the partdng proges wltfl sloping floors, which are stlO belng built on a Iorge scale. This may well be an inexpensive and easy-to-coMtruct 1ystem, but )'041 con never use tfle building for onytfling else, if thinsJs change • in a period when far fewer people own cars, for Instance.
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'Flexibility signif~es • aince tltere is no single solution thcrt is preferable to all otlten • tfle obaolute denial of a fixed, cleorcut standpoint. The flexible pion st011s out ffom lite certainty that the correct solution does not exist, because tfle problem requiring solution is in o permanent state of flux, i.e. it ia always temporary. Flexibility is ostensibly inherent in relativity, but in actual fact it only has ro do witlt uncertainty; with no daring to commit oneuH, ond theNfore with Nfuslng to accept tfle Nsponsibility that is inevitably bound up witlt each and every action that one tokes. Altflovgh a flexible set-up admittedly adopts itself to each change as It presents itleff,lt con never be tlte best and most suitable solution to any oM problem; it can at any given moment provide any solution but the most appropriate one. Flexibility tflerefore represents the aet of all unsuitable solutions to a problem. On tflese grounds o system which is kept fleAible for the sake of the changing objects tflat are to be accommodated within that system would indeed yield the most neutral solution to specific problems, but never the best, tfle most appropriate solvtion-.
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The only constrvctive Gflpr-ch to a situation that Is subject to change is a form that .tarts out from this changefulneu as o P" manent • that is, essentially o stotk • given fador: a form which is polyvalent. In other words, a form that can be put to diHerent use1 without having to undergo changes its.lf, so that a minimal flexibility can still produce an optimal solution. In our cities of todoy we are confronted with large numbers of dwellings, the construdion of which entails production methods whereby enormous quantitiea of components can be supplied • which, however, ore uniform. By equating the uniformity of dwelling units • the reault of those production methods • with the equality of the inhabitants, we have come to the point where uniform dwellings are assembled in monotonous, uniform building blocks. The uniform urban plan and the uniform floor-p lan are based on the setregation of functions, and it Is the blind obedience to the dictates of thea. functions that • has resulted in taking the distinctions between living and working, eating and sleeping etc. as the Jtarting· point for concefving the spaces fM diHerent purposes in cftfferen.t ways, on the ground• that different Clctivities make diHerent apecific demands on the spocea in which they are to toke plo
By collectively preacribing where people will have to
put their tables and their beds • generation after generation · we are actually causing that uniformity. This collective coagulation of individual freedom of action has a.slgned o pre-determined pwpoH to every place in the home ond in the city allke • and has done so in such an uninspired way that all the variations that make up ld.ntlty are radi
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What the foregolnv, and all the examples that have been cit.d, boil down ta is a plea ta de1ign in such a way that buildings and cities possess the ability to adapt thenuelves ta diversity and change while retaining their identity. What we are looking for Is a way of thinking and acting that can lead ta a different 'mechanism' (In linguistic term• you would say a paradigm) which it less fixed, leu •tali<, and which it thuefore better equipped to meet the challenge that twentieth century society in all ib complexity pub to the architect. The point therefore i1 ta arrive at an architecture that, when the users decide to put it to different uses than thou originaiJy envi1aged by the architect, doe1 nat get upset and confuled and consequently loses its identity. To put it even more strongly: architecture should offer an incentive ta it• users ta influence it wherever possible, nat merely to reinforce its identity, but mare especially ta enhance and affirm the identity of ih users. Structuralism ha• 1hown how effective thi• proces• i• in language, and my persistent reference to this is becauJe it thus indicates a direction for architecture. Even though architecture Is 1till so often conceived as a system of communication, It is not merely a language, although there are a number of analagies, such as the concepts of 'competence' and 'performance', which do not relate to language exclusively b.ut which are just as appropriate ta the use of form • and from which we
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must, In principle, a lso be able ta derive form. It 9"' without saying that efficacy m.ust always come first and foremost, since that is the only criterion that is beyond all dispute • although it is of the utmost importance ta establish what exactly i• meant by the term. Certainly, there are objects and form• that have hardly mare than one single purpose · usually technical appliancet, and these must indeed simply function, they must just do their job, no more and no less. lut most objects and forms have, besides that single purpose for which they are designed and ta whkh they generally owe their nam.e at the most, an added value and potential and hence great efficacy. This greater efficacy, which we call polyvalence and which comes closest ta 'competence', is the characteristic I want ta emphasize as a criterion of design. The following excerpt of a text hom 1963 deals with the same basic principles. It also ~erves as an inti oductlon ta the next chapter.
'The reciprocity of lonn ond p~'
The most important cltcrrocr.ri•tic ol o city ;., perllapr, the conthwou$ dtonge in.Mrltftt In on urfton environment, which we experi.nce o• o nonrtfll, fiYerydoy Jitvfltion. Tfle city i1 subject fo constont chonp, the city ltcrs neYM complied GMI Jtill doe• not comply with the rufa of CWJCinic powt#l ond lunctiollfll evolution, occording to wftkh man hers tried to give it lotm. fYery dfly, eYery HCUon, ond in the long term, fempotGry ond lostlng, lnciclentol ond regulor cltcrnges tcrlce ploce: people move from one house to onotlter find bullcllnt• tue oltered, with the NJult fiKit sllllt• occur in the foci of rite -~~ of re/Gtioruhipt which in """ five rise fo other milts in intentity. Thus e«h lntwvention In loct brillfl crbout o chonge In rite •itllilicGnce of the other built forms fo o f'"'-' or luserute11t. In order fiKit every dtlun ond tvtl)thlnf of the city retcrln It• identity ot oil times, it ;. II«HSOI) for the JituGtion fo be compl.te In it1elf ot every moment in time .. The pnKHf of chflne- mun consto11tly oppeor fo u• a• a pevmoMnt situGtion, tllot if why the chongecr&ility ll..tl must come flm and foremost os o consfont foetor, wflkh contri&ufes to the slfniRcorw:e of eotlt Individual fonrt. In ordv to wlti!Jtond chongH built forms muJt be mod. ;, 1uch Cl woy ti!Cit lfley permit multiple lntetprefotloru, I.e. tllot tftey con llotft absorft and exud. multipN meaning•, witllout, Ito~, losing lfleir identity in the proct~~.
form must be lnterprefo&le in the serue tftot it mun be
copoble of roklng on dilt.rent rot... And it con only folre on tftose diffeTWif niles il the different meanint• are conta.ined In the euence of the form, 10 tftot they ore on implicit provocation n~ther tltCJn on eiCplicit suggestion. A form divemd of the meonint• tftot are ottGched to it,
wftlle poiiH.sing plun~lity &ecouse each meaning can &e derived from it, Is reduced fo its most primary purpose. II we we111t fo rtipond to the multiplicity in wftich IOCiety monilesb itsttl- mun libe•ofelotm from the •hfltkt.s ol coagulahtd meonillfl. We mun contlnuausly fHrdl for archetypal kwm1 wftich, becauM tftey can be OlfOCiahtd with multiple meonings, toll not only ob10rft o twotromme but con al10 pnerote - · form ond programme evoke one another.' [3}
Any Ulliform dwellillfl, therefore, must in the same periof1 of time, like any plocn In tfte city in tliHerent
period• of rime, be copabht of accommodating ahemoting meonillfJ. rh11 analofy make• if chtar tftCII ploce and time can be eliminated and wlufitvted by Cl Jingle, f.«CJI point of departure, i.e. thot mecrnlng~ ore copa&le of chCJnglllf lftehoobode. It ;. ecJVC~IIy cleor fiKit neltfter neutrality, wft/ch Is the i~ re1ult of flelO&ility (tolero&le kw oil, just right kw no -one}, IHH' 1pedficity whklt Is the conseqwnce of roo much IUCpltilion (j111t right • &ut for wftom1}, con yield on od«fuat.IGiution. It Is not ~ ber-en the.. two e.xtreme• of the lode of commhrnent ami roo much sefl.auun~nce tftCit the po•Jibllity of o solution lies, but quite Glide from litem: nomely In o stondpolnt ti!Cit everyone con relote to in hi• or Iter own way, o sfondpoint therefore tllot con rake on fl different • oncl hence divergent • mecrning kw each tndlviduol. In orcl.r to be a&le to hcrw different~ eoth UIIH SWI , H1Y1W f SU C!
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1 FORM AND USERS: THE SPACE OF FORM In the foNSjotft8 the notion of structure was uHPCINfttly collective assodatlons -relnvolved. In twms of the slnlcture and of its designer• ovr main concern was the relation between designer and structure, with the UMJS In effect playing a subservient role, more of object than of subject • for whUe - can establish that a forn1 has been interpreted a s ttructure, that does nat explain what Induced people to do so in the first ploce . Now by taking form in a general sense to be a sort of llnldure, the relotionthip between foun and users becomes conceivable, once more, when the users are Individuals, ond thus the notion of form can throw off the yoke of abstroction. This shift in the attention to what a form can mean to those whom it concern• (and who enter into relotionshlpt with It) Indirectly raiMs the question of the relotion.hip between the creator of the fotm, the designer and the users. Starring ovt ftom Interpretability as an Inherent chorocteristlc of form, - come to the question of what makes a fann • at atfvdure · interpretable. The answer must ~ the accommodating capocity of the form, tholl- say ib 'competence', which a llowt it to be AUed with auodGtiotu and thus brings about a mutual dependence with the users. 5o what - are concerned with here is the space of the form, In the tame way that a muskal instrument offers its P'a~ freedom of action.
In earlier examples, e .g . the arenas, we also dealt with accommodatint capacity In the literal sense, but what we have now termed 'competence' • namely the lmpllcation of accommodating capacity for meanings • sheds a clifhtrent light on all forms in which architecture i1 involved. ' .., to here we are not talking about a notion of form that presuppaMs and maintains a formal and unalterable relotlon between object and viewer. We are not h - C,o ncerned with 0 viJuof appearance OJ 0 shell arovnd the object, but with form in the sense of ac
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Deaignlng should be a matNr of Of9ClNzlng material in l4ICh a _,., that its potential is fully exploited. Everything that hos bMI'I deliberately shaped should fvndion bettw, i.e. it should be better geared to cloing what b upected of It, by different pellfll• In cfiffereat situationa and at diffeNJtt ~. In whcrte...., we set out to mob - must tty to DOt only _ _. the requirements of the function in the strict HIIH, but also tflat more than - purpose may be serwd, so that it can ploy 01 many d~t roles as postlble for tfle benefit of the indivicluol ut«t. fodl user wiJI ttlell be oble to read to It In his or her own way, to in..,.... It personally so that it may be integrated into his fonliiiGr IUn"'UUIdinp. Just lib words and ~. forms cfetlend on how they - •read• and whkh images they ore able to confure up for the "read.,.. A form can e¥Db dlffeNnt lmot" In dlffwent people and in situations, and tflus toke on a diffeNilt and It It the phe-n of tflis ~· tflat is the key to on oJterecl OWOI'eMU of f.rm, which will -ble UJ to -ke tflinp that ore better suited to more lifucltions. l1le ability to obsotb meonlnp and also to abandon them again without essentially chontint ltMif moll.. f9rm a poteMial bearer of significance • in short,
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8 MAKING SPACE, LEAVING SPACE We should go about designing in such a way that th• result does not refer too ou_tspokenly to an unequivocal goal, but that it still permits interpretation, sa that it will toke on its identity through usage. What we moke must constitute an offer, it must have the capocity to elicit, time and again, specific reactions befitting specific 1ituationa; so it mulf not be merely neutral and flexible • and hence non·speciflc • but it must possess that wict.r efficaciousness that we caJI polyvalence.
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The living-street on the fourth floor is illuminated by meons of large concrete light-blocks. These blocks ore close Ia the ground so that the light does not bother the inhabitants while their view from the high windows is not obstructed either. The primary function of these blocks is illumination, but by virtue of their form and placement they offer opportunities for a variety of other uses. 'As for as shape and siting ore concerned these blocks were conditioned, os it were, to ploy o variety ol roles, and they ore in fact interpreted as benches, work-surfaces, and • in worm weather · as picnic tables. These lightbloch hove been placed so centrally that they oct as focal points in oil saris of circumstances. They o r~;~ li~e magnets, to which things tha t happen in the communal walkway enoch themselves, and so they con become on incentive for street-life, that multicoloured blend of manifestations ol
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individual and collective interests. Nol making any provisions means, in theory olleasl, thai plenty of opportunities exist for spontaneous improvisation with the space and · certainly for the architect • plenty of scope for dreaming. 8111 then · we feor ·that so long os the environment is organized according to fixed meanings and the concomitant form-symbols in the sense of 'what is right' and 'whoI is not right', the inhabitants themselves will not be capable of doing very much of thei r own accord.' (4]
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MoNtessOill ScHool, DeLFT m"1' The pones with extra wide ledges over the doors, between closs·rooms and hallway in the Montessori School in Delfl con be used for placing potted plants, books, models, cloy figures, and to put owoy assorted odds and ends. These open 'cabinets' thus constitute o framework that con be filled in according to the specific needs and wishes of each group in its own particular way. The central point of the school hall is the brick podium· block, which is used for both formal onemblies and spontaneous gatherings. At first sight it would seem that the polenliol of the space would be greater if the block could be moved auf of the way from time to time and, os was to be expected this was indeed o point of lengthy discussions. It is the permanence, the immobility, and the 'being in the way' that is the central issue, because it is indeed that inescapable presence as o focal poinlthot
conto1ns the suggest1ons and Incentives for response in each situation as it arises. The block becomes a 'touchstone', ond contributes to the articulation of the space in such o woy thotthe range of possibilities of usage increases. In each situation the raised platform evokes o particular image, a nd since it permits o variety of interpretations, it con ploy o variety of different roles, but conversely also the children themselves ore stimulated to toke on o greater variety of roles in the space. The children use it to sit on or to loy out materials during handwork classes, music lessons and all the other activities which toke place In the school hall. Incidentally, the platform con be extended in oil directions with o set of wooden sections, which con be drown out from the interior of the block to turn it into o real stage for proper theatrical donee and music performances. The children con pul lhe different ports
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This ordering constitutes o fixed frame of reference, for individual ond collective initiatives. The material that hos been used for the low walls to mark oH the separate comportments consists of perforated building blocks, which in turn provide smaller openings or
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Trees go well with market places, and they make the oreo less bore ond desolate on the days when no market is being held. Since there was already o cor-pork under the square ra ised boxes of bricks were constructed to hold the minimum amount of soil needed lor the trees to grow in. The size of these boxes ond the distances between them were determined on the basis of the market-stalls, so that the trees would serve as fixed points for the positioning of the rows of stalls with suffident space in front and behind eoch row. The market vendors who were allocated, or who chose, spaces next to the tree-boxes, use them for extra, informal display-space. As a result, the boxes often lake on quite on exotic appearance, which even, in a way, recoils the temples of Bali. The construction of the tree-boxes served as a good opportunity to install the necessary electricollocilities lor the market as well as for street lighting in the some operation. The tree-boxes hove been designed in such o woy lhot they provide seating in the shade on days when there is no market • the principle of multi·purpose design that, os for os we ore concerned, should underlie everything we do to the urban environment. 411
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When the decision hod been Ioken to re-organize the space of Vredenburg square in Utrecht to accommodate the market which hod lrodilionolly been held there, it was proposed to plant trees on the square.
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The e.xamples cited in the fon190ing centred on the applkation of components which function temporarily in certain 'usoge situations', after which they reYert to their original state, only to undltlJO new metamorphoses later, as the need ari•••· You could •ay that the relationship between those feotvres and the Ulers is temporary, with the appropriation by those users being •imilarly temporary and therefore casual. In a context of area• thot r.quirelooking after, you could go o step further by lecMng quite a lot of the component• in an unfinithed 1tate, 10 01 to offer the users the opportunity of finishing them In the way most suited to their particular need• and preferences.
skeleton is o hoff-product, which everyone con complete according to his own needs and desires. The house consists basically of two fixed cores, with several split levels constituting the dwelling units which con occommodote a variety of functions : living, sleeping, study, ploy, relaxing, dining, elc. In each unit, i.e. level, a section con be partitioned oFf to make o room, the remaining area forming on indoor balcony running along the entire living-hall (voidl. These 'balconies', which con be furnished according to the tastes of the individual members of the family, constitute the living oreo for the family as o community of people. There is no stricl d ivi~on between living and sleeping areas (with the imposition of 'going upstoirs'l. Each member of the family hos his own pori of the house · the Iorge communal living· room.'(4J
OIAGOON DWElliNGS (Hl-41SI
'The ideo underlying the skeleton houses, eight prototypes of which hove been built in Delft, is that they ore in principle unfinished. The pion is, to some e)(tent, indefinilive, so thai the occupants themselves will be able to decide how to divide their living space · where they wont to sleep, where to eat and so on. If the family circumslonces change the dwelling con be adjusted accordingly to meet new needs, and even to some extent enlarged. The actual design should be seen as o provisional framework lhot must still be filled in. The
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'Architects should not merely demonstrate what is possible, they should also and especially indicate the po~sibilm.~ tha.t are iRherent in the design and within every-'s reach. It is of the utmost importance to reoliz.e that there is a lot to be learned from how occupa.nts respond individually to the suggestions c.ontained in the design. Housing is still design.d according ta what local government bodies, investors, soclologists a nd architects think people want. And wha.t they think cannot be other than stereotyped: such aolutions ma.y well be roughly adequate, but they can never be wholly satisfactory. They are the collective interpretation by a few of the individual wi1hes of a muJtitude. What do we really know about everyone's individual wishes, and how should we set out to discover what they are? The stu.d y of human behaviour, however painstaking and thorough, can
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never penetrate the thick skin of conditioning which has formed that behaviour and which suppresses a truly personal exercise of the will. leca.use we ca.n never learn what each penon r-lly wants for himself, no one wUI ever be capable of Inventing for others the perfect dwelling. In the da.ys when people still built their own homes they were not free either, because every society is, by definition, no mare than a bosic pattern to which its members are subservient. Everyone is doomed to be as he wants others ta see him • that is the price the individual must pa.y to society in orcler to
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belong, and sa he i• both po:u euor of and possessed by collective pattern• of behaviour. Even if people build their own houHs they cannot escape from this but, everyone should at leoat be free to give his personal interpretation to the colledive pattern,' [4)
How much one has to do with one's neighbours depends to o great extent on the type of boundary there is between the gardens. A fence is euentiolly o means of obtaining maximum isolation from each other. Absence of oil boundaries, on the other hand, means being seen constantly by one's neighbours, being unable to ovoid one another. Simply providing the rudiments of o partition between adjacent premises, by woy of on invitation to which everyone can respond os he wishes, provides on incentive ond legitimates the measures which everyone would like to take, but which they would otherwise hesitate to toke on their own. A low base of perforated blocks provides the foundation lor a brick wall, but it con also serve as the support for a wooden fence.' [4) The raised terrace at the bock created possibilities for personal interpretation. firstly the stairs, which were restricted to the absolute minimum during construction, could be replaced by alternative arrangements for access to the garden. Secondly there is the open space under the small terrace, deliberately left unenclosed in spite of the usual decis•on to shut off such areas - a decision that architects tend to toke in order to ovoid duller ond untidiness, without their realizing the potential advantages of such an extra, sheltered little place. Finally, this small terrace, bounded by walls on three sides, is emi nen~y suitable for o lateral extension to the living-room.
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'Adjacent roof-terraces facing each other are in this case separated by o metal bar structure, by way of o summary demarcation between the two areas. Ra ilings and bars invite one to hong things from them or to ottoch things, especially lightweight, temporary materials such as canvas
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or reed moiling. Here ogoin, we lind the bose of perforated blocks, which can very well be used lo put plants in them.' [4] The challenge offered by these unfinished roof·ter10ces yielded o great variety of solutions · one inhabitant even used his to build o complete greenhouse (which resulted in o pitched r·ool after all!). This particular ideo hod not occurred to the architect himself. The structure wos dismantled after a few years to make space lor on extra penthouse-room · the important thing being not so much the ingenuity of the construction as the actual fact that
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alterations of this kind and on th is scale ore indeed feasible. Atlhe front, nexlto lhe entrances, o tiny 'yard' was suggested architecturally by the presence of o vertical concrete beam. Because the beam itself serves to support the balcony obo¥e ond the space behind the beam is open, there is not on actual sheltered portico, a lthough il would be quite easy to construct one by, soy, installing o gloss roof. And depending on the indi¥iduol inhabitant's needs and tastes, and on what the situation inspires in his or her imagination, the space con even be closed off completely to serve as o bicycle shed, but it con oho be used to make on exlension (odmilledly o very small one! to the entrance hallway inside. Viewed from the living-room above, the concrete beam morh o space that could, in principle, be turned into on outdoor living space to which access is provided by the 'window' · deliberately positioned and proportioned in such o way that, depending on personal interpretation, it con be used either os o Iorge window or as a small door. Garages were not formally provided for in the plan, although this would not hove been unusual in this type of housing. But the carport-like space of street level con be used as such, and even garage-doors con quite easily be installed • but this space con equally well be used to creole on extra room: on office, study or workshop which con be mode directly occes.sible from outside if necessary. So many people leave their ca rs out of doors anyway, ond o great many people attach more importance to the luxu ry of on extra room than to prolonging the life of their cor by o few years. 'Windows con be designed os o framework that con be filled in according to the chaise of the occupants with either gloss or closed panels. The framework itself is
o constant foetor, and represents, you might soy, the context and order within which each individual's liberty and oil liberties together con be token os on integral port ol the whole. The framework is devised to accommodate all conceivable inlills within the limits of certain regulations, in the sense that the sum of oil the different infills will olwoys amount too coherent whole.'[4l
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'One could draw the condusion from all this that all we have to do is deviM bare cartridtes, as unemphatic and neutral 01 possible, so as to allow the inhabitant. optimal freedom to realize their spec:lflc Hsires. However paradoxical this may Mem, it is highly questionable whether such a degree of freedom would nat result in a sort of paralysis, because while so very many alternatives present themselves, it is still extremely difficult to make the choice that will prove to be the best one for you. It is rather like those huge menu• that offer such on infinite variety of dishes that one's appetite is d.ulled ratite, thon whetted. When there ore too many pouibilities to choose from It con become virtually impossible to reach a decision, let alone the best one • too much con be just as bad 01 too
little. Not only is it a prerequisite for every choice that the range of pouibilities con be grasped, (and is therefore limited), but also the ch-Mr must be able to vlsuolize the alternatives one by one in terms of his own way of thinking, he must be able to conceive of them in terms of his own expen.nce, in other words, they must elicit auociotion, sa thot he con compare them mentally with propositions of which he w01 already conscious or which can be raised from his tubconscious elllperience. ly comparison of the lmot• evoked by the new stimulus with the images already collected in previou1
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expen.nce, itt potential can be asMued and can con~~equently become an e.xtension of his fomiliar wOIId, and thus of his personality. 5o if the mKhaniam of MIKtion neceuitates recognition or idetltificotion of images already stored in experience, it i• of the utmost importance that everything that is offered should evoke 01 many ouociotioM as pouible. The mauociotions con be evoked the mare individuola will be able to respond to them • that it, the more chance there is that the auociotions evoked will be of sp eclflc relevance to the user in a given situation. Eoch form therefore, rather than being neutral, should contain the greatest possible variety of propotitions which, without imposing any one specific direction, ~an thus constantly bring about 01sociotions. An incitement Is necessary to motivate ond ttimulate man to adapt his environment to his own needs and to make It his own. And sa must confront him with stimuli that will elicit interpretations and utoges in the woy best suited to his own purposes. These 'stimuli' must be so deaigned as to evoke images in weryone's mind; images which, through being prajKted into his experiential world, will result in ouoclation• that encourage ind'rvldual use, that is to say, the very uM that is most appropriate for hit tituation at that particular time. The focal point in this whole story, and the examples cited here ore intended to emphasize this, io~ that people in their dependence on themselves and on each other, and the fundamental rettrictioM this impoMS, ore unable to liberate themselves from the tystemt of signification and the underlying system• of values and valuation which confine them, without , _ help from outs.ide. freedom may well hold great potential for many but there must be a •park to get the engine running. Toke, for instance, a dark space or niche • for most people It will suggest a seduded and 1afe comer, but for each individual it hat 0 arfferent significance, a relevance to his particular circumstances: it con be juo~t o secluded comer to relcut in, for quiet study, for aleep, for use as a darkroom, or just 01 storage for foocl or other private belonging•. tf a houM is to hove the capacity to evoke aJI these different kinds of 0110Ciotions and be able to accommodate them, it mutt have such a secluded corner 1omewhere • and in the same - y, small rooms, to-r rooms, attla, tellors, and windows under eaves induce other kinds of osaociotiaM. The richer the variety of what is offered, the great.r the copocity of the houM to meet the most richly variegated Hsiret of the inhabitants.
HS
The starkness and poverty of most new housing manifests itself in this respect, sadly contrasting with what on old house has to offer • possibly in contravention of the building regulations. One need only think of the infinite pouibillties tho! old houses offer for converting and furnishing in as many ways as there ore people. Even if, as In a new building, they are based an a stereotype, they still have much more to offer because of the greater richneu of stimuli for new auociaJions, whkh make it panible for its inhabitants to truly appropriate the space.' (4)
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9 INCENTIVES Design IJIICired 10 maximum 'incentive' quaflfy calls for o n- ond diHerent apprvoch on the port of the ard\INct. What Is required Is a shift In the lows of attention: the architect must switch his habitual concentration from the building pi"CCf'GGIl'M, wltkh uwally reflecta only a collective interpretation, 10 the multiple situation, lndlvlduol or colledlve, os It arises In tfte everyday reality of nerythlng that we build. To bring this variegated assortment of dato to the surface the architect hos only one means at his disposal: his imagination. He must use his imogination 10 the fuiiiO be able to identify himself with the uaers and thus to undermmd how his design will come ocroas 10 them and what they will expect from it. Tkh s,.cifk Imaginative copoclty, which moy be IMn as an Indispensable port of the architect's normal competence and which should a s such be acquired Bke any other
sklll, Is the o~ means of getting thl"'Ugh to what-an· j in fact basic facts: the programme behind the (buildlt\gl programme. How one should go about pr«esslng a ll these facts, which must ultimately result in a design that will lnd1ed be capoble of Inducing auoclatlons among the uaers, is a d'tfferent story, but some of the more cona.te aapects of ttUs process, which pertain to the 'anatomy' of a builcllng, con help 10 explain directly or lncllredly the 'inducement' or 'Incentive' quaUty of the architectural feotures dealt with In the exGmpl.s gi¥en in the previoua chapter. Certainly In thate cas.. where -
cletiberotely leave something unfinished because we expect the users to be capable of doing a better loll at flniahlng It than would, the botic farm that ia employed mutt, on the technical and proctlcallevel, lend Itself 10 such purpas...
Anatomically speaking all mcomplete porta must nat only be rec..,tlve to odapiOtion and addition, they must oliO, to a certoin extent, be,c&.slgned 10 accommodate various sotut1ona, and $hould moreover
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clamour 10 be completed, 10 to 'fMOk. Porta that are not uplicitty Mlf-contalned but rather exist in relationship with other components, must be foo med In such a way that they con indeed be fitted together or combined, in other wonb that they induce the user to toke such action. In the moat litet ol sense, too, the semi-finished product must consist in an incluc>ement • and that is something which con only be achieved If that was your ideo from the very Jfart• The mast elemeDtary principia, e.g. that it b eo~ier 10 ocld onto something straight than onto a •lonfint or curved plone, play a major role here, espedaly when you con reasonably cusume that ttMtte will be no architect around to help when the decision must actually be token.
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for the erection of wall~ or partitions rectangular columns ore not necessarily beller os o starting-point, but they ere certainly eos1er Ia work with than round ones, end it is 1m· portont to beer that in mind, especially In cows where the columns c011stitute the cor-ner1tones of the organization of the space. And this is indeed nearly olwoys the case · except an the early 'pion libre', where free-standing col· umns define their own space irrespective of dividing walls. The columns an the Centrool Beheer office building os well as In De Drie Hoven were profiled in such o way thai they hove a maximum 'slotting' capacity to accommodate adjoining walls and low partitions, while also the proportioning was wholly geared to such purposes In the Music Centre (which may be choroctenzed os o sequence of large spaces merging Into one another with relatively few partitions) lhe columns ore round. ••41.HI Round, freestanding columns In o Iorge space where many people come together function most solisfoctory in o crowd, where they ore unobstructive and do not stand in the way. In the Apollo schools square columns were used wherever ad joining walls occur, while the lour free-standing columns in the hall ore round t4i01. They stand, rather aloof, in the midst olthe bustle of activity, where they con be read os intersections of the spatial construction. Not only the form but olso the dimension of component ports and of course the dimension of the spoces betw..n the different ports determine their accommodating capocity, which in tum strongly influences the rcinge of possibilities os to the disposition of the fumlture. Consequently it Is often better to make a column tlightly larger than strictly ne
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In addition to columns, especially piers, which occur in every building in many forms, con serve a variety of purposel, depending on where they ore located ond on the space they leove open: toke lor instance o chimney breast, the kind thot you find interrupting one of the long walls in so many old houses, end which you cannot ignore when you ore furnishing the room; indeed, the pier os such marks the space and provides o starting-point, since the spoce on either side strongly effects the possibilities and limitations of the room os o whole
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(will o bed lit in the niche, or is it just too big?l. In the skeleton dwellings which ore 'conditioned' os much os possible to occommodote additions end olterotions, the piers on either side of the floor section thot could be designated os garage space were positioned in relation to one another in such o woy that there ore multiple potential solution$ in the woy ollrontoges or garage doors. A less obvious solution hos been chased here with o view to increasing the range of possibilities. Such o 'startingpoint' poses o problem, to which each user con find the solution that suits his purposes belt. If you have an eye for these things you can see examples everywhere of alterations and additions to houtes which the inhabitants themselves have made In the course of time, probably without prior permiuion from the authorities or landlords, and usually very successfully. Such additions are especially likely to have been made in places that aHered incentives in that direction, such as balconies which 'clamoured' to be roofed, and particularly loggias, which could quite easily be enclosed. De Orte HO\-en, HOJite fot l~e Eldody
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1925-27 I B TAVI ,m~1~1 II does not seem likely that the features that encourage that sort of addition or alteration were deliberately included by the orch1tect, although you would be inclined to think so in the case of Bruno Tout's housing complex in Berlin · which really looks as if it was de5igned to accommodate oil the alterations that the inhabitants hove mode since the houses were built. Bruno Tout, in the early days ol anonymous mass housing, was undoubtedly one of the lint architects to side unequivocobly with the users. II was not unhl much later, HOUSING, BHUN
when we hod got to know all the oppressive effects of endless rows of identical dwellings, that proposals started to be put forward to try to do something, os on architectural principle. about that soul-destroying anonymity
PERFORATED BUILDING StOCKS
Such incentives ore inherent in concrete perforoled building blocks, representing os they do o basic and at the some time e~treme e~omple of reciprocity of form and usage. The holes in these blods jusl as literally demand filling in (at least if the blocks hove cavities on one side only· otherwise they become windows). In situations whe re perforated building blocks were applied, os on the living balconies in the home for the elderly De Drie Hoven, or in the apartments in the Hoorlemmer Houlluinen housing scheme in Amsterdam or in the Kassel housing project, they were always soon put to use · mostly as Flower pots. 01 course, people who wonted polled plants or window-boxes anyway would easily hove found other solutions for their greenery, but since these blocks look unfinished on their own ond clamour to be put to some kind of use, so to speak, they ore on incentive to do something with them.
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l!SSO • S lOt SIOOINIS •• Am ll!CI UI[
By adopting the principle of reciprocity of form and usage as a starting-paint, the emphasis admittedly shifts to what one could describe as greater fr.edom for the users and inhabitants, but this should not be taken to mean that the architect should, as a consequence, follow the instructions of those users os to what he must do - and especially os to what he must not do. When we indirectly advocate giving the users a greater role to play in the shaping of their surroundings, the objective is not primarily to encourage more ind ividuality, but rather to redress the balance between what we ought to make for them and what we should leave up to them. Offering 'incentives' which evoke associations In the users, which in turn lead to specific adjustments to suit specific situations, in fact presupposes • notwithstand ing the shift in emphasis • a more thoroughly considered design based on o more detailed and more subtle programme of requirements. The paint in creating incentives is to raise the inherent potential as much as possible, in other words: to put more into less, or to make less out of which more can
be drown. for each situation the following could be said to apply! incentive + association = interpretation. In this question the 'incentive' itself is a sort of constant, which produces a variety of interpretations through varying associations. And if we substitute 'competence' for 'incentive' and 'perlormance' for 'interpreftltion' we find ourselves back with the linguistic analogy again, as described on page 93 (Incidentally, who can help noticing the miniature, rudimentary arenas in the perforated blocks?) Just as the architect's stand 'vis a vis' a collective structure Is int•rpretative - i.e. that of the user - so his stand 'vis a vis' the users of his architecture is that of making his design interpretable for them. An architect must be quite clear about how far he should go and where he should not impose: he must make space and leave space, in the proper proportions and in the proper balance.
from It, within the limits of his -~~ ability. Thus illllrviMflt and plcryer renal to eoch other their respective abQitiet to complement and fulflO Ofte another. Fonn as on in1tn1ment offers the nope for each penon to clo what he has most ot heart, Oftd abon all to clo It In his own way.' (4)
10 FORM AS AN INSTRUMENT ""e mor. inftvenc. you con , - l t y exert on the things MOund you, the mote you wiH feel emotionally involved witt! them cmd the mor. attention you ww11 poy to them, cmd also, the more you will be lndined to lavish care and lon on the things around yCMI. You can only dwelop an affection fw thiftts thot you can idemify with • things on which you con pn>ject so much of youl' - n identity and in wtlich you can invut so much cor. and dedkotlon thot they become pol't of you, absorbed imo your own penonol-rtd. All thot cal'9 and dedkation makes It -m as If the object needs you, not only con you cledde to o Iorge extent whot ha,.,en• to it but the obj.n lt..tf pb o soy in your life as well; this kind of relationship too may evidently be seen as o proce11 of mut\HII appropriation. The more lnvo!ved o penon i1 with the form and conhnt of his surroundinp, the mON tho.. surroundlnp become aPfi"'Prioted by him, cmd just as he toke~ pas..sslon of his surroundlft9•• so they will toke pos....ion of him. In the light of thi1 reciprocal appropriation of ,.ople and thinp it Is fail' to state thot the lncet~tivu thot oN oHered by us os orchitecb represent on invltvtlon fw comp1etion and 'colouring' by the people who then, whiM on the other hond the people too extend an lnvltotlon to the thinp to complete, colow ond fltlln theil' own exittence. Thus u..r and form r.inforce eoch other oncllnteroct • and such o r.lotlonshlp Is onolopus to that between Individual and community. u..,. project themselws oftto the fofm, just as indivictualt thaw th.ir true colour in their various r.lotionshlps with others, while playing and being played upon, and thereby became who they or.. form directed to-rds o glvef'l pvrpose functiorlt as on apporotus, and whel'9 form and programme 01'9 mutually wocotive the apparotul ltteH becomes on iMtrum....t. A property functioning opporotu1 doN the wotit for which it Is programmed, thot which is expected of it • no leu, but also no mON. ly pressing the right buttons the expected results ore obtained, the some fw everyone, always the same.
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A (musical) Instrument ""ntlally contolna 01 mony pouibillties of uaoge 01 u1e1 to which it iJ put - on iMtrument must be played. Wrthin the limits of the instrument, it iJ up to the player to drow what he con
170
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The following text from 1966, originally published In forum 7·1967 under the~ 'Identity' co:n Hrve 01 a JUmming upl 'In the de.tgn of each building the architect must constantly bear in mind thcrt the user• muat hove the h'eedom to decide for themNives how they want to use eoch part, each space. Their personal lntefpretotf9n is Infinitely more Important thon the stereotyped approach of the orchited strictty adhering to his building programme. The combination of functioN whklt together coMtitute the programme is geared to a standard poHNn of living • a IOf't of hithest common foetor, more or len JUitable for every-· and in.vltobly results In everyone being forced to fit the image that we ore expected to project, accordltlg to which we 01'9 expected to act, to eat, to ste.p, to entw OU1' homes • on Image, in Jhort, which eodl one of us only nry folntty ....-bles, and whkh is wholly inadequate. In other word•, it Isn't at all difficult to cl'90te a lucid orcllitectur. if the requftm.nts thot it iJ JUppand to meet a,. obscu... enough! It is the distrepartc:iu that oriN from everyone's lnd'rndual need to ~~ a tpeeif'lc function, depencfing on the drcumstortc:es and place, in his or her own way, thot ulti-tely provide eodl one of us witt! on Identity of _., own, and becauH it is impoulWe (and has always been lmposs!We) to toll« everyone's circumJtoncea to fit exactly, we must
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Into tonslcleratlon by glvlnt them priority In the de•ltn stop, I.e . by lncludlne them as lmportont issues in the programme of requirement•, can we expect thot tcKh lndlviclual will be induted to fotm his or her - n inter'pfetotlon of the issue cotKtmed. TM diHerent rain, being given priority by way of provocation, will be •ueee•ted without Mint mode explicit. Within the framework of the conclltlonine that ha• b"n given to the fotm, the user talns the fr"dom to thaose for himself which pottem suits him be1t, to select hiJ own menu as It -re; he can be trver to hlmnlf, hiJ identity is increased. loth place, tcKh component, will have to be attuned to the programme in its totolity, i.e. to all the upected programme~ together. If condition the form to otcommodate an optimal dl.,.,..lty of usage, then Infinitely more poulbllities can be utnKted from the totolity, without this netenarily cletradint In any way from the primary designation of the proiect. The 'retums' can be increased by the poulbllities of usage which are embedded in the cle•lgn aJ Intentions under the surfote.' (3o)
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that arises, in other words, it must not only be accommodating but also stimulating -and it is this fundamental and active adequacy that I would like to call 'inviting form': form with more sympothy for people.
When you look ot one of the vosl number of books on archiledvre that are being published nowadays and you see all those glossy photographs, token without exception in perfect weather conditions, you con 'I help wondering what goes on in the architects' minds, how they see the world; sometimes I think they practice o diHerent profession from mine/ For what con archileclllre be other thon concerning oneself with silllotions in doily life as lived by all people; it's rather like clothing, which must after o/1 not only suil you well, but also Fit properly. And if it is the fashion nowadays to concern oneself with outwore! appearances, however cleverly vested with references to higher things, /hen orchiteclllre is degraded Ia sculplllre of on inferior sorl. The point is thai whatever you do, wherever and however you organize space, it will inevitobly hove some degree of influence on the silllotion of people. Architecture, indeed, everything that is built, cannot help playing some kind of role in the lives of the people who use it, and it is the architect's main task, whether he likes il or not, to see to it that everything he makes is adequate lor o/1 those silllalions. /t is not only o matter of efficacy in the sense of whether it is practical or not, but olso of whether whol we design is properly otlllned Ia normal relotiom between· people and whether or no/ il affirms the ~uolity of all people. The question whether orchiteciiJre has a social function is totally irrelevant, because socially indifferent solutions simply do not exist; in other words, every intervention in people's surroundings, regardless of the architect's specific aims, has o social implication. So we ore not in loct free to go ahead and design exactly what we please -everything we do has consequences for people and their relationships. There is not that much on architect con do, which makes it all the more important to make sure that Few opportunities there are ore not missed. If you think you can't make the world o better place with your work, at least make sure you don't make if worse. The art of architeclllre is not only to molce beautiful things · nor is II only to molce useful things, it is to do both at once · like o tailor who makes clothes that both loolc good and fit well. And, if at all possible, clothes that everyone can wear, not just the Emperor. Everything we design must be adequate lor every situation
174
liSSO KS IOl SIUDI 81S IWH!HIIf(I OH
au tor
1 1he Habitable Spoce betwMn Things 176
Raised Sidewalk, Buenos Aires Weespentraot Student Accommodation, Amsterdam La Capelle, France High Court, Chondigorh, Indio I Le Corbusier Vredenburg Music Centre, Utrecht De Evenoar, School, Amsterdam Apollo Schoots, Amsterdam St. Peter's Square, Rome 2 "-• and Artkulation I 90
Right Dimensions Hoorfemmer HouHuinen Housing, Amsterdam 'The Potato Eoters1 I Vincent von Gogh De Drie Hoven, Home for the Elderly, Amsterdam Montessori School. Delft Centrool Beh&er Office Building, Apeldoorn Home Conversion, Amsterdam St. Peter's, Rome Vredenburg Music Centre, Utrecht 3 Vl-1 202 Montessori School, Delft Weesperstroot Student Accommodation, Amsterdam Pavilion Suisse, Paris I Le Corbusier Balconies Pavilion de I'Esprit Nouveau, Paris lle Corbusier Documento Urbano Housing, Kassel LiMo Housing, Berlin Thou School, Barcelona I Martorell, Bohigos &Mackay Vredenburg Music Centre, Utrecht De Overloop, Home for the Elderly, AI mere Pore Guiill, Barcelona I A. Goudi, J.M. Jujol Sociology of Seating Apollo Schools, Amsterdam
4Vlewll 216
Yon Nelle Factory, RoHerdom I M. Brinkmoro, l.C. von der Vlugt Rietveld,Schroder House, Utrecht I G. Rietveld De Overloop, Home for the Elderly, Almere De Evenoor, School, Amsterdam
s
VIew Ill 226
World Exhibition Pavilion, Paris I F. le Ploy Cineoc Cinema, Amsterdam I J. Duiker Vredenburg Music Centre, Utrecht Villa Sovoye, Poissy, France I le Corbusier Pede!trion Underpass, Geneva, Switzerland I G. Descombes Chapel, Ronchamp, France I Le Corbusier Alhambra, Granado, Spain Mosque, Cordoba, Spain Private Home, Brussels / V. Horta Maison de Verre, Paris I P. Choreou, B. Bijvoef and l. Dol bet Von Eetvelde House, Brussels I V. Horta Castel Beranger, Paris I H. Guimard Apollo Schools, Amsterdam Bibliotheque Ste Genevieve, Paris I H. Lobrouste 6 EquiYalence 246
Open Air School, Amsterdam I J. Duiker De Overloop, Home for the Eld&rly, Almere Villa Rotondo, Vicenzo, Italy I A. Palladia Hierarchy Mosque, Cordoba, Spain St. Peter's, Rome Dutch Pointers le Corbu$ier, Formal ond Informal Parliament Building, Chandigorh, Indio I Le Corbusier Water Reservoir, Surkej, India
rmm' rOtr!
175
au tor
1 THE HABITABLE SPACE BETWEEN THINGS By approoching the designed object as an instrument rather than as on apparatus, as we did in the previous sectlon of then studies (part 8), we were In fact already advocating what amounts to a greater efficiency. Hoving dlscuued examples of the ability of form to play different roles under changing circumstances not only by creating the necessary conditions but ol$0 by actually encouraging such differentiated usage, this section will deal with extending this ideo to a ge.nerol principal. For what we need is an expansion of the pouibilities of a ll the things we design so that they will be more useful, more applicable, and so more suited to their purpose, or suited to more purposes. If something is geared very specifically to o certain aim it functions the way it has been programrMd to function, i.e. as it was expected to function. This is the
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liSSUS lOt SlUDINIS IWUCH IIHIU II
sort of functionalism that the functionalists talked about, but it is also the minimum of utility that con be expected of architecture. And in order to achieve more than that minimum in the diversity of situations as they arise I a m pleading far form and space with a greater 'accommodating' potential, like a musical instrument that sounds the way the player wonts it to sound. The point is to increase this 'accommodating potential' and thus to make space more receptive to different situation•. Once you start look ing for them it is easy to find even in the most unexpected comers examples of usage that the designen (if any) certainly never envisaged. People use their surroundings in every situation as best they can, and quite often the thing s around them, quite unintentionally, offer unexpected opportunities which are then grasped 'in passing' as it were.
"l"egularitles' such as diHeRtKes in level occur everywhere, and lntteod of going to gr9Gt l.ntfhs to minimize them we should rather concentrate an trying to faml them sa canKiously that they cctn be mcutlrnctlly uploited. Parapets, railings, past and gutters art forms of articulation and represent increcutd possibilities far attachment. They can be uMd aa primitive elements of what we could call the basic grammar of architecture. Occurring aa they do in divtrM shapes and sizes they ctrt a constant stimulus far usage in everyday lift.
The mast elementary provision ta enctblt peopl. ta take pas~tuion of their direct environment is probably the provision of Mating (the opportunity to Mat havlnt everythlnt ta do, lintuimcally, with Mfflement). A plo
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'There where the sidewalk is so high that you con sit on it or leon against it, in streets with o sleep incline, for instance, such o place, if favourably situated (as on o cornerl, con become a place where people meet ond linger. This is where young football players find a ready audience, and a place any street vendor wonting to draw the attention of passers-by w.ll wont to make use of: on obvious spot, but with the natural advantage of some seclusion for the display of his wares.' (4)
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'A long, brood parapet should look fairly unobtrusive of first sight, jusl somewhere to pause, Ia leon against or to sit on, for o fleehng moment or for o longer conversation as the case may be Sometimes it !terves os eating-space when the rastouronls is crowded, and tl was used for laying oul o buffet supper one Christmas.' (4] For con!Qct to be es!Gbllshed spon!Gneously a certain casualne11, non·cammittalneu, is indispensable. It is the ~ertainty that you can break aH con!Qct and withdraw as soon as you like that enc,ourages you to carry on. The es!Gblishment of contact is in a way rather like the p~ess of seduction, with both sides making equal claims on the other In the knowlecfte that retreat is possible at any time. Here too the auodations that are evoked in us by the
111
l!SSOI S lOt SIOO!NIS IN AmiiiCIUl!
images we all store in our consciousness • collective associations, we could say • ploy a decisive role. Just think of o courting couple which is readily imagined sitting on o bench, with all the attendant associations of bonds for the future and the sihJotions that appear to arise inevitably, a s a result.' (4]
lA CAPElLE, fRANCE 14131 'It does not toke much for things to serve os a sort of structure to which everyday life con attach itself. The simple roiling where elderly people find support when going up or down o stepped street is, for every child in the neighbourhood, o challenge to demonstrate its agility. It serves as o playground climbing-frame and, in summer, is sure to be used for building huts and hideouts. In Holland, moreover, you can be sure that housewives would use such a roiling far beating the dust out of their carpels. A straightforward iron roiling is literally 'at hand', lor a wide range of uses, far oil sorts of ordinary, everyday situations, and it transforms the street into a playground. The designed, purpose-built playgrounds which are scattered throughout the city ore, lor the time being, indispensable places of refuge far children. But, like prostheses, they are also o painful reminder of how severely the city, which should itself be a playground for its citizens and children, has been amputated in this respect.' (4]
Ma'ter
HIGH Coou. OtANDIGARH 1951-55
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The '8ri5e-Soleil' comtructiom which ore feotured •n 50 much ofle Corbu1ier'5 loter architecture, con5ist of o fixed concrete grid mode up of horizontal and vertical planes; be11de5 screening off the sun, of course, the honeycomb-like structure with its deep niches serves other, less obvious purposes too. Whot fascinated le Corbusier himself about thl5 structure was no doubt primarily its strong plasticity, and I would not be ol oil surpnsed If he never really considered the possibility thot it could prove useful for o variety of other reo sons besides its expressive plasticity and its screening properties, thereby adding on extra quality to the building os o whole.
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In the foregoing examples the quality oroM from more or less chance fodors, in ony cose It did not resuh from deliberate design, but it must also be possible to turn such qua lity into an explicit requirement of the design brief. Meeting this extra qualitative requirement need not cost much extra money, it con ensue as o matter of courn once you put your mind to it. What this amounts to is doing more with the same material, organixing it differently, giving more prominence to what wos already there • it's a matter of priorities.
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A theatre lobby con never hove too much seating. Only o comparatively small proportion of the audience lind on 'official' seal during the intervals, so the more informal sealing accommodation there is, the better.
180
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In order to meet extra sealing reqwement masonry plmth courses were constructed wherever leoslble: len camlortoble than on upholstered bench, no doubt, but no leu serviceable for that. Another typical problem during on interval is finding somewhere to put down cups,
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glosses and bottles. The solution lends to be to use ony Rot surface that is available. Providing such space exclusively for that purpose would probably be taking things too for, it is sufficient to make the lop of parapets, bolus1Todes, partitions etc. wide enough, e.g. by adding a wooden ledge, for this minor ohhough persistent problem On the upper level of the shopping arcade the metal balustrade curves outwards at regular intervals to provide space lor o small bench, from where one con just oversee, looking from side to side, the arcade below in both directions. The raised bock - a little too mojeslic perhaps· was the concession that hod to be mode to the building authorities, since the regulations applying to the height of parapets hod Ia be strictly observed; the more natural and somewhat more elegant design of the model that preceded the definitive veuion was turned down. At present these seats ore now removed because they supposedly attract too many 'vagrants' who make themselves at home in this sheltered moll, especially at night; they leave a lot of rubbish behind and there ore many complaints by passers-by about harassment. This is a problem in cities oil over the world a nd it must be a bitter paradox that a welcoming gesture also invites the
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presence of less desirable guests. Once you open the door you must let everyone inl the tendency to make things os impersonal and unassailable as possible is not surprising, but the consequences ore often absurd.
... 111
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The stotrwoy up to the entrance of the new primary school 'De Evenoor' in Amsterdam has been given on extra ortic;ulotlon to make the a"ess from street level to the school more fluent. The juxtaposition of the two Aigh•s of steps thus suggested bending the roll"ng components vis vis each other This gave rise to the decision to make the poropert elemen ts on the landing curve tn such o way os to produce two small places to sit. Certainly the form here !like the comer seats in the Music Centre gallery) is rather dominant and by no means fortuttous, yet in both cases it is quite o logical outcome of the given situation. Here the form explicitly offers tis function, unlike in the case of the curved perforated steel sheeting on the upper landing, where, however, children soon discover the implicit seoting opportunittes
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Arouo SCHOOLS (1!1-493) 'Window sills, shelves ond ledgGs in a clowoom all offer opportunities to disploy the children's handicraft products which ore not only usually frog ile, but olso numerous. It ts especially this sort of thing that enables children to appropriate o spoce, to make themselves ol home in il. That is why we odd ledges etc. wherever feasible ond suitable.' [1 OJ
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L 'Colums today seldom hove o either o separately defined bo)e or the troditio~ol capitol of the columns of the closslccl orders. They simply dissopeor into the Aoor. But there ore situations where o widened section of the column just above the floor offers Interesting el(tro
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advantages AI the entrance to o nuuery school, e.g, parents gather Ia wait lor their chuldren to toke them home. II would be a bit exaggerated to install special benches just lor these woinling parents, and It is even doubtful whether they would be really wonted. All the more oppropriole, then, IS the informal sealing· space offered by these discs, which one you might well be grateful for when it turns out that one hos to walt longer than expeded. During the children's recess the discs ore used to leave coots and bogs on · a better place for them than on the ground in o comer, surely.. And lost but by no means least this column inevitably serves os 'home' to hide-and-seek players '(1 OJ
1656/ G.H. BERNINI lm .4tS) 'Each of the countless columns of the fou rfold colonnade of Bernini's Piazza Son Pietro in Rome hos o square bose Iorge enough for one to sit on quite comfortably, while the columns themselves ore so thick os to provide shelter to those seated there. These multiple 'seats' bordering the ovol, just where the most seclusion is provided, offer informal hospitality to everyone, even whe n the rest of the piozzo is deserted. How many of the columns now ot the design stage oil over the world offer o like additional quality to those who will later hove to live with th em~ ' [6] Sr. PmR's SouARE, ROME, SINCE
51, PtJtt 17S4/ G.P. Ponini
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DEEVENAAR, SCHOOl (UH!I) Parapets bordering sloircases ore very often placed slantwise, following the direction of the hand-rail. This is indeed in many cases the most obvious solution, whereby on indication of the presence of this the stairs is given in a quite logical woy. But in o situation where o poropet is so positioned thot it offers o view of something, os in 'De Evenoor', it invites people to leon their elbows on the top, or even to sit on it. Wherever something is going on people wont somewhere to pause ond watch · and that itself is enough reason to try to let the architecture of the loco lion contribute to potential seating capacity. So in this case it wos o good ideo io have, instead of the usual slanting poropet, a parapet divided into stepped sections with horizontal coping that is wide enough to leon your elbows on or to sit on. And if, as in this case, the wall is of masonry, the stepped design is much easier to execute, since there is no sawing of bricks to be done. So the execution, quite unintentionally, recalls elaboration of Berloge and Loos. APOllO SCHOOLS tm.SOt-503)
'Every ~ind of step or ledge by a school entrance becomes o place to sit for the children, especially when there is an inviting column to offer protection and to leon against. Rea lizing this generales form. Here ogoin we see that form generates itself, and that is less o molter of inventing than of listening ollenlively to what men ond objects wont tobe.'(lO] Of some kinds of spaces we know beforehand that they will be gratefully used, ond bearing that in mind it is important to make the periphery of the building os inviting as possible, by activating each component wherever possible- and that includes, for instance, the space in front of the kindergarten entrance under the staircase leading up to the school proper. Such spaces very often degenerate into dark ond smelly corners where only rubbish collects ond cots roam, but no people. By making the flight of steps rise from o raised platform this situation con be avoided, while giving the a rea under the staircase a more positive vaJue. II is the mostliterol lorm of making the space between things more habitable. We must take care not to leave any holes and comers behind which are lost and useleu, and which, becau1e they serve no purpose at aU, are 'uninhabitoble'. An architect must not waste spoce by the way he organizes his material, on the coniTary he must add space, and not only in the obvious places that strike the eye anyway but al.so In places !hot do not generally attract attention, i.e. betwHn things. The foregoing examples 1how how you can increase the functionarrty of an arr.hitectural design by consistentfy
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taking account of the ln·betwHn space. Admltteclty we come acrou Instances of thla kind of utra quality quite often in our surroundings without any architect having deliberately Intended them, but still it is fair to say that we should on the whale try to make objects more substantial, leu two-dimenaional • by thinking mare In terms of zones. Freestanding walls, if they don't reach the ceiling and are suffkiently thick, can ••rv• as sh•lves far putting things on. One of the striking things about Italian churches in particular Is tha t they hav• a knM· hlgh projecting stone plinth
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alway• ' " some people sitting or lying. And the motorcars of th• old dcrys had running boarda to facilitate getting in and out which also made excellent eJitra Mats during a pknk. The ••tension of the usable space by the addition of (infonncll) •Jttro homontal plan•• ...,...._.. the reward for making mare uplkit what was in fact an Implicit requirement. And If this added value Is INft primarily u yMiding an enlargement of the capacity far seating and far putting things on, this may 111m a somewhat limited advantage at first sight. lut th• point here Is the designer's or architect's commitment (both in generol and In particular) to create this adct.d value wherever pa11ible, as the us•rs will tum svch utras to further advantage. *h intensification of the material should, Ideally, become second nature to th• architect, a queJtion of handwriting rother than an utra, le11 a matter of what you design than of how you design it. It ia to the content that we should be adding, and as little as possible to the design (the danger of superfluous projections and fuuln•u Is ever-preMnt). A prerequisite far creating inviting form is empathy, the way hospitality is bosecl on anticipating the wishes of one's guests. Increasing the 'accommodating potential' amounts to a greater suitability for what is required of farm; a farm th•refare which is more orientated to people's n11ds in different situations, and which c.o nsequently has more to offer. The habitabl• apace betwe•n thing• ...,..sents a sJ.Ift in attention from the offkial level to the informal, to where ordinary day·to-day llveJ are led, and that means in the margins betwMn the eJtablished meanings of •J19IIcit function.
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having everythi119 you need around you within ea1y reach. Different activitiu and u•e• require different spatial dimensions. A space big enough for plcrylng plft9pOft9 is not neceu.arlly suitable for a 1mall group of people 1itting round a table holding a conversation, for instance. What dimensions to give a space is always a queation of sensing the required distance and Ri9ht Dimensions proximity betwMn people, dependi119 on the 1ituation The first consideration of decisive importance in design· and the purpose of space. The right balance between i119 a space is whot that spoce is intended far and what distance and proximity is an i.mportant point in seating arrangements, especia.lly seating around a table: not not, and consequently what the proper sin, is to be. The first and most obvio~u condu~cion is: the bigger the so far aport as to di"ourage intensive contact when space the more possibilities it will offer. This would that is called for, nor so close together as to make one imply simply maki119 everything as big cu possible. feel crowded. Feeling crowded con even hove o Of c:ourse that does not work. In a kitchen that is too poralyxing effect: in a full elevator shored with mostly bi9 you have to fetch and c:arry much more thon strictly stra.ngers you will alway• find that conversations necessary. It's simply a question of expedience, of become stilted and soon peter ovt.
2 PlACE AND ARTICULATION
HAA~LEMMER HounUINEN HOUSING ISO.S101
The small pavement gardens ot the front, enclosed by o low brick woll, ore no bigger than the livlng·bolconies on the upper floors. They could hardly hove been even smoler, of course, but it is by no means certain that they would hove been better if larger. They ore just big enough to offer sufficient space foro smell company of people, and the needs of different families in this respect do not oppeor to vory much. There hos to be enough room for a few choirs around o small table, which con be round, square or oblong but which seldom devioles from lhe
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standard size. (All this is just as predictable as the foci that the width of the overage pavement is inadequate.) The balconies of the upper-floor apartments ore relatively spacious, unlike the usual situation where the people downstairs with front gardens hove more space ol the ir disposal than the occupants of the upper floors. Half of the area of these living balconies is roofed: portly by o gloss owning and portly by being set bock in the lo~ode. An added advantage of the Iotter is that there is just enough room for o door on the side leading to the adjoining kitchen, which further contributes to integrating exterior and interior living spaces. The partition between two adjoining living-balconies is lowered to parapet-height over a distance of 60 em. at the front, so that neighbours con easily communicate with each other if they wish. VINCENT VAN GOGH, 'THE POTATO EATERS ',
that it necessarily fits property so as to give the people in it the right feeling • like clothes whid1 fit well, neither sa tight as to be uncomfortable nor so loose as to hamper one's movements. Most architects, when they are not restricted by rules and regulations, tend to make apaces too large rather than too small. Everything is kept as open and spacious as possible, thereby precluding the usual and understandable objections, but the architects fail to realize that there may be possibilities that are in fact token away by their grand gesture, that they are making more things
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Rother then taking the rules of minimal dimensions drown up by housing authorities and building regulations officers os o spatial standard of measurement, you could toke the space occupied by people silting around o table as o sort of unit. This theme is frequently dealt with by pointers, who with their keener eye for composition often toke such o unit os their spatial starting-point. A lamp hanging over the table accurately defines the centre of attention. The light it sheds around it makes the people ond their attributes together shape the space, so that there is ultimately o fusion between people and place. The way this 'lost supper of the poor' shows how people and space complement each other makes il o particularly instructive lesson in orchileclure. A room that is too sma.ll for its purpo.se is inadequate, but 10 is a space that is too la'11fe, because although It may be big enough to hold a lot that does not mean
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imposalble than poulble. The larver the dimenaions, the more diffkult it i1 to uae them to best advctntage. Aren't all thon urban piGnnen and an:hitects constantly trying, under political preuure or not, to reHNe mare ctnd more space for separate tTam zonea,
bicycle zones and other areal deaignated to tTaffic • all theae facilities having in common that the houses have to be placed further and further apart as if they were children'• clothea that have to be let out? Wherever traffic space it squandered the buildings became Isolated, standing far apart. This makes it impossible for ern urban space to evolve organically from building height• and distances and thus to create a mec11ure of intimacy and secluaion. That atmoaphere of intimacy does exist in tome old city centres, where the tTaffic Ia not allowed to reign aupreme. And unleu th•re is more contact and understanding betwMn opposite sldea of the stTeet (can they atiU hear them· selves speak with all that traffic noise?) we can fart•t abcrut reaaonobly functioning public space altogether. 0 £ 0RIE HOVEN, HOME FOR THE ElDERlY (Sill
'Instead of the usual seating accommodation by the window in ho$pitolwords, every two bedrooms shore o siHing-room in the spoce created by widening ihe corridor. Low brick partitions enclosing the fixed seals ~epa rote the space from the actual corridor 1 giving some seclusion from the people walking to ond fro while 192
I!SSUS fOt SIU IIMH 1• UCB IIE CIUE
offering o view of wha t Is going on. This arrangement encourages casual contact between the staff, even when they ore very busy, and the residents. People siHing there hove o sideways view down the corridor, while the windows of the bedrooms at the bock con be opened, thereby also allowing for some contact. Tese niches, which were smuggled through the barrier of strict square-metre standards, con easily accommodate four people (at the most sixl. It is o place to receive visitors, to eot o meal, and quite often there's o TV set or radio. The rear wall has as much shelving as possible, which offers spoce lor the residents to put lreo)ured possessions for which there is no room in the bedrooms. The size of these spaces end the way of furnishing create on impression of a basic living-room, just right for the number of people living there. If they hod been much larger they would certainly hove been less functional.' [7] What use is to be made of a space decidea whcrt the ri9ht proportions are to• be, and since the architectural and spatial conditions of a place encourage certain forms of usage and discourage others, architects have a tremendoua influence, whether they Uke it or not, on what can and will take place in a space. Their decisions as to si&e alone are enough to didate what a 1poce is right for and what not. Spaces such as the arenas described earlier (in parts A and 1), Rockefeller Plcrso, the public squares of Venice, and also such interior spaces as the libliath.que National• in Paris, are of a sin that is attuned to usag• in a variiJty of situations which, however different, resemble each other in that they are focused one common activity. Of cours• the skaters on Rockefeller Ploza, like the readen in the llbllotheque Nationale, tend to be immersed in their own activities, but juat as the skaters share a common audience, the readen 1hare an all-pervading atmosphere of concentrcrtion. This applies to large spaces and small ones alike: the dimensions have to match whcrt iJ going to take place there (or conversely, what goes on there has to match the dimensions). We must see to it that the dimensions of space, large or small, are appropriate for the functions they may be expected to serve.
Provide that place Although architects have alwoya been preoccupied by 'piGce', it was Aldo van Eyck who first formulated the ' oncept in such a way thcrt you cannot ignore it. From among the many of hiJ tuts that deal with place and space, two well-known atatemenb are quoted here.
0
'Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more. For tpace in the image of man is place, and time in the Image ol man Is occasion. • 'Malc:e ol each a place, a bunch of places of each house and each city, lor a house Is a tiny city, a city a huge haute'. Aldo vo• Eye!. 1962 MONTESSORI ScHOOl , DElfl ~I •S10•
'Whenever o class of nursery-school children ore leh to their own devices they lend to form small groups, smaller than you might expect; ond it so hop~ns thot these castle· builders and prelend.fathers and mothers feel much more ol home in smaller spaces thon in Iorge ones. BeoJing this in mind it seemed a good idea to hove several smaller sond·pits instead of one Iorge one. (Whenever you see nursery-school children playing together in o Iorge group you con be sure thot o teacher is behind it off, monitoring this communal activity.) The Montessori school in Delft hod o sond·pit divided into several small comportments · lust right lor sondcostles. Children of sondcostle oge usually ploy on their own, or in twos or threes; lour toddlers rarely ploy together in o group, and live or more seldom or never. In Iorge sond·pils the more exponsionisl·minded youngsters con all too easily disturb the concentration ond intimacy of the others, simply because there is no demarcation of claimed space. So here the size of these small sand-pits matches and even enhances their use. The right size is made up of the totality of dimensions that are attuned to the expected usage, while conversely o certain size will attroct the usage that is best attuned to it.' (7] This sand·pit as a whole, having been subd1v1ded into a raw of comportments in order to accommodate the use 11 is designated lor as well as poss1ble, presents on elementary example of the principle of orticulahon
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Articulation Space thauld always be articulated in tuch a way that places are c.reated, spatial units whose appropriate dimensions and correct measure of enclosedness enable them ta accommodate the pattern of relations of those who will uJe it, How a space Is articulated Is a .decisive factor: It will determine to a high degrH whether the 1pace will be suitable for a single large group of people, say, or for a number of small, separate groups. The more articulation there is the smaller the spatial unit will be, and the more centres of attention there are the mare individualizing the overall effect become• • that is, that Jeveral activities can be pur~ued by separate group• at the Jame time.
193
That 10 much emphasis is laid on the articulation Into small spatial units is often in~rpreted as a di~regard for the larger scale, but this is a miuonception. It is not 10 that a large boldly articulated space neceuarily discoui'Gf" un by a single central group, just as, Aroo is floe ..,.,. lo
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conversely, a large unarticulated space does not neceuarily create the conditions for diHerent uns at the some time. It is in foct pauible ta articulate a space in such a way that it is suitable for both centraliud and decentrali1ed usage, In which case we can adopt both the large·scale concept and the smoll·scale concept, depending on how we wish ta in~rpret the space. lut what we are talking about is merely the principle; It goes without saying that the nature of the articulation, such as its 'wavelength' and its quality • that is, how the principle i• put into pradke • determineJ the potential of the Jpace.
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CENTRML BEHEER 0ff1CE BUilDING tslHlll
The or1iculotion of space was the principle underlying the design of the Centraol Beheer insurance office. Point of departure wos the tenet thot off work, os well os off recreational oclivity, takes place in small groups, not individually but not collectively either. A study of the situation showed thor all the diHerenl components In the programme could be interpreted os spaces, or places, of 3 x 3 m, or of multiples thereof. And because things in practice ore never so precisely numerical, the necessary margins were token into account lo allow lor overspill into the circulation oreos. If this building con be said to hove the potential not only to absorb for-reaching internal changes but olso to give the Impression that it could also be designated for quite different purposes, then that is due to the or1iculation. So, when for instance on art exhibition is mounted in the building jos is done regulorlyl, the environment can quite simply and easily be transformed into o space with gallery-like qualities. However, the dream of o constructed space attuned to every conceivable programme of usage was not fully realized here, although it seems within reach. The secret of articulation into a diversity of places is, indeed, that this dream con never be fully realized. For the size of the spatial units we coli places is based on the spatial needs of what we might coli the patterns of social interaction. The building, then, con serve os o basic struc· lure only for those purposes thai more or le$s match it. The range of possibilities of o building is determined by the
in~nsity.
All things •hould be given the ritht dimens~, and the r!tht dimension~ are those that enable them ta be as workable as paulble. If we decide to stop making things of the wrong sill it will soon become clear that almost everything should be mode quite a bit smaller. Thing• should only be big if they con•ist of a mtusing together of smal.l units, for ovenind proportions soan create dimnce and detachment, and by their persistence in designing on too Iorge, grand and empty a JCOie, architects have be
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obstacle• in order to obtain a single, large space. H-ever, they found that the new bigger space wa• not only for more difficult to organir.e and fvmith, but also that the extra space provided by the new arrangement proved to be dlsappalnt11111. The old, articulated, am~ngemenl had offered more stimuli for the creation of places as well as more spatial diHerentlatlon. So by articulating a space there appears to be more room, while the 'place-
density of its structure ond the articulation derived from it. While it functions very well as on office building, it provides quite on unsatisfactory environment lor a company party with oil the stall, lor instance, so it is not surprising that for such even ts use is mode of the larger hol~spoce of the adjoining building. This ha ll forms on integral port of the complex as a whole and is therefore easily accessible. oouibfe
One could measure a Raor•plan accordint to the capacity it has for creating place~. and with that an lm,.-.uian is abtalned of the patentlal of the flaar space for accommodating more or leu separate activitiet.The traditional floor·plan in Dukh housing comprises twa connecting roomt, separated from each other by bullt·in cupboards enclosing tliding doors. Many people over the years decided to remove these
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A smol~scole and by no means spectacular conversion of a standard dwelling was undertaken to adjust the downstairs floor to a more differentiated usage, so that more activities con toke place there independently of one another. The original floor pion followed the conventional poHern of kitchen, dining room and living room; alter adjustment to the needs of o family with more difleren· tioted occupations the ground floor contains otleostthree extra workspoces os well os on extra table and choirs in the kitchen. The additional space of forgotten corners wos used to increase the number of places, thereby increasing the capacity of the communal living space os o whole. 'Piace·capacity' is a quality of that part of the floor space that is not needed for getting from one place to another. A major criterion for the quality of o floor plan Is that the available floor space is used as efficiently as pouible, that there is no mare cirwlation 'space' than drlctly necessary, I.e. that the •pace it organiud in such o way that optimal place-
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When we look at one of the first plans attributed to Baldassarre Peruzzi" preceding Michefongelc's pion according to which the church was eventually constructed, we ore struck by the fact that the articulation is intricate and imaginative even though the plan is not much more than a diagram. We see a series of spaces which yield on amazingly rich pattern without the brood lines of the whole being lost. It seems as if we ore dealing with o completely different scale from that of the plan of Michelangelo. The pori which you would initially be inclined to call the main space is hardly different in its articulation ond proportions from the spaces situated next to it. Consequently, one con not really speak of a main space or of secondary spaces any more. No single pori dominates any other here.
The constructed plan of Michelangelo is, it is true, &$Sentiolly the some in principle, but the measurements hove been altered which created different proportions with the result that the central space become dominant. The other spaces hove been given o subord inate role and their enclosure has been reduced to such on extent that it Is extremely unlikely that anybody would still toke it into his head to use them independently of the main space. This main area seems to absorb the rest, and this effect would undoubtedly be increased if we also took the section into consideration, by comparing the height of Michelangelo's plan with on imaginary one in the some heighl·width proportion for the Peruzzi pion. You con see here what o change of articulation does to space: how the interplay of o few changes of measurement is able lo alter o space to such on extent that it loses ib enclosing capacity where smaller separate I NYiftl5 fOU
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' This pion was ptoba· bly designed in coltobora110n with Bromo.. ~. lhe many pions of St Peter's have bun amlbllled 10 cu 1110ny different orchltecl$, end o1 Is Impossible 10 soy exactly who designed which pion, cs infa
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groups ore concerned. This concept of enclosing capacity or 'place quality' is concerned with the degree to which o space is capable of being Inviting to larger or smeller groups, depending on its proportions end form. This seems to be based on the exact balance of enclosure and openneu, intimacy and outlook, which ensures that there Is sufficient focus on various places to enable people to be involved with each other, even they realize that they ore oil together in one Iorge spolia! whole. 'If we compare different pions of StPeter's such os those attributed to Bromonte, Peruzzi, do Songallo end Michelangelo, we also see that whereol they hardly differ from each other in principle, there ore definite differences in articulation and abo in the extent to which the central space dominates. The differences between these plans ore subtle but rather vital, as far os 'possibilities' for use ore concerned. So the proportions of the central space in relation to the rest in the 'official' Bromonte pion ore just that bit different from those in the plan of Peruzzi, making the central space of the former much more important. Moreover, the lour spaces in between the towers end the central space · churches in themselves os it were, miniature copies of the whole · which ore so typical of the Peruzzi pion, ore missing. Instead, these places become as it were the entrance hall and thus more of wolking.through spaces. The four semkirculor northexes of the extremities of the central space hove also disappeared (they reappear, by
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the woy, in another pion attributed to Bromonte). All in all, this does mean a great lou of enclosing capacity for distinct groups. Thus you con see that the exceptional quality of the Peruzzi pion is derived primarily from this insertion of another complete spatial world in between the towers and the main space. Moreover, the proportions ore inter-related in such o woy that both the independence of all the ports and their interdependence remain in perfect balance.' [6) MusiC CENTRE !5Js-sm As a ploce where people come together a music centre repre5ent5 on exceptional venue for meeting and maintaining contacts. The building may be expected to be spotiolly organized in such a way that it ot leost offers ample opportunity for social contocl5. (This i5 especially a matter of correct articulation, that is, the adoption of proportions that will accord with the pattern of relationships between users throughout the premises.) The dimensions therefore hove to match the size of the groups that people form naturally, in different places and situations. One must be free to choose whether to join a group or to remain alone, to be seen or to stay in the background, to go and talk to certain people or to ovoid them. While all attention in the auditorium is focused on that one central event taking place before o single group, before and alter the performance that single mou disintegrates into o Iorge num ber of smell groups. In Vm>ENBURG
points, through which the visitors ore led naturally to the foyers on all levels. There is a Iorge number of buffet counters divided over the different floors, so that it does not tole too long to be served during intermissions. In addition to the stairs inside
spatial terms this calls for a large number of places, inlerconnecled yet with some degree of separateness, quite unlike the situation in the auditorium. The loctthot the number of people using the building otthe some time is very Iorge calls lor only one vast undivided space. It is only in the auditorium itself that a single, undivided space is needed to accommodate o very Iorge number of people at the some time. The seating arrangement consists of balcony-like comportments interspetSed with o Iorge number of aisles and stairs followi ng the amphitheatre shape from top to bot1om; exits ore located ot many
the auditorium, the different levels ore connected, outside the auditorium in the foyers, by staircases located symmetrically in pairs ot the lour corners of the central volume. Instead of o few Iorge staircases we opted once again lor o larger number of small staircases just wide enough lor two or three people to use without interrupting their conversation. In designing the foyer oreo, which encloses the main auditorium like o tenuous skin, maximum use was mode of the pouibilities afforded by each place, such as a view of the square outside or into the arcade, or conversely seclusion all round. IN VIIU6 IOU.
S40
In the early stages of the pion, it looked os if the space surrounding the main auditorium would be laid out simply surrounding the auditorium in the conventional manner. But in the course of the design process it was gradually transformed Into a succession of spatial units with o variety of qualities, where daylight alternates with artificial light, high ceilings with low ones and the occasional concave one, where there ore niches with wall tapestries and wider oreos along the route· all of which contribute to the creation of o rich assortment of places. Even someone taking the narrowest passage from one point to another posses through on area that is much more than o mere circulation zone. The foyers ore dotted with places to sit: informal ones like low walls but also proper wooden benches with small tables as well as the more Intimate niches with cushions. Where the foyer widens there ore Iorge round tables with choirs around them. The diversity of qualities was accentuated in places by lining the limber linishings with sof1 materials: the ta pestries by Joost von Roojen, which lend intensity to the smallest corner. Walking through the building, the assortment of places range from introverted corners where you con withdraw from the crowd, and places where you hove on overall view of everything that is going on, to areas from where you hove o view of the interior of the auditorium or of the town outside. In this way articulation increases the range of spatial perceptions. In addition, the variegated design of these essentially small spotlol units contributes to the accommodating capacity of the whole, as people ore more inclined to spread out than in, soy, the undifferentiated open space of o hall. [5)
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The concept of scale, which Is used indiscriminately merely to denote sin, has to do with whether o duigned space or buildint is thought of os too Iorge or too small, whether It is larver or smaller than what we ore used to. The adjectives 'lorge·scole' and 'small· scale' say nothing about actual measurements; some thlnts are very Iorge ctnd others very small simply because they need to be sa, which does not make them necessarily too lorve or too small. The important thint to bear in mind Is articulation • thua the confusion surroundint the concept of scale need no longer cloud our vlaion. Toke an ocean liner • ia it a Iorge·scaie or o smoll·scale construction? It is of «n~rse a very large veuel (although a mere speck on the ocean), and would not in o street, soy, but still it is made up of a larse number of smo.ll cabins, cubicles, corridors and stairways • oil of them units of for smaller dimensions than their counterparts an land. ly 'articulation' we usually mean: the rflythmkal, or rather metrical, definition of walls and fa~ades giving rise to o certain plctstidty. This Is a recurRnt theme throughout the history of architecture, and not without reason, for it is the element of plaaticity that has proved, time and again, a most effective means of expressint the external chorocteristica of o building and o particular arthitecturalstyle. And, os metre in music arranges the piece into segments thereby giving It lucidity, sa the metric element in architecture makes distances and sins Intelligible. The siu of objects is far more difficult to gueu if they are flat and unartkuloted than if they ore divided up Into units whose size is familiar to us, so that we can see the whole os the sum of its part1. That is also the reason why something of very Iorge dimensions (On be reduced by graphic artl·
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cularion to proportions that are more easily grasped, JO that it JHmJ leu vaJt and more perceptible· in other words, less like a mauive monolith. Articulation can, therefore, serve as a means of increasing legibi· llty, and can thus make an essential contribution to the perception of •pace. lut it can only do &o on one con·· ditian: namely that what we perceive on the graphic level corruponds with the spotial organization auggested by the overall image. So if the exterior of a building indic.a tes a division into several smaller spatial units which bear no relation to the interior arrange• ment, at Is still all too often the case, this type of articulation serves no other purpose than to decorate the ~ode, and consequently to introduce an element of meaningless ploaticity. Indeed, the historic fa~ades of old houset that hove been drown together and converted into offices or hotels, soy, are thus reduced
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to mere urban decor. It is only when graphic and/ or plastic elements in the fa~ade actually refer to the divisions of the space inside that they help us to understand how that space is organized and what sort of patte rn is followed. In architecture all means must be aimed at forming and consequently confirming the enclosed space in such o way that it is ready to accommodate a aod al pattern of the utmost variety and richnesa.
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3 VIEW l We must always loalt few the right balcmce betwMn view and seduslon, in othef wonls for a spotial orgcaniaation thot will enable everyot~e in evlfY situotion to take In the position of his choke vis a vlt the otMrs.• In the Hdion devoted to articulation the conwpt of partition lnevitobly received ""'" attention than that of comiNMtian, separation mare than unifi· cation. Yet the openMIS of the cliH.rent places is just at funclamental at their seponltelwu, indeed the two are complementary, to that enclo.s eclnus and open· ness con each exist only by the grace of tho other; they relate to each other cllalecticolly, 01 it -re. The degree in which places are separate or open vi• a vis each other, and the woy in which that is done, lie• in the hands of the clesigner, and consequently you can regulate the duirocl contact in a particular situation in 1uch a way that privacy is ensured where
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that is required, while the range of vision of 'the ather' does not become too restricted. ly introclucing diHerences in level the scope of ponibilities is expandocl, but with different levels we must take into account that those who are higher up
look clown on the ones standing below; the positions are th• refore not equal, and we mutt ... to it thcrt the 'lower-clowns' have the opportunity to avoW the pe of th• 'higher-ups'. MoNmsoRt ScHOOL, DElfT tS46·S•9J
The ideo behind the difference in levels in the classrooms is that while some of the children ore pointing or modelling in the lower ~action of the room, the children in the other section con do work that requires more concentration, undisturbed by the others who ore engaged in less arduous activities. The teacher, standing up, con easily oversee the entire class. Although it might hove been better, from the teacher's viewpoint of keeping on eye on what is going on, to put the 'workers' in the lower section, this wos not done so os to ovoid giving the hard workers the feeling of being 'sent down'.ln this case there were additional reasons for this arrangement, such os the location of the 'self-expression' oreo close to and flush with the corridor, and also the requirement that the 'normal' clou section be illuminated directly through the windows in the fo~ode.
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Obviously il ls the lines of vision that govern o proper division between areas that stimulate visual contact and those that offer more privacy; the way we deal with the height of spaces, especially in spaces with raised sections, is therefore of prime importance. The spacious
landing on the stairs is just so much higher than the lower· lying dining section (this oreo is currently in use os a disco) that people sitting on the low parapet ore on the some level os the people walking post in the dining oreo. This makes it easier to enter into casual contact.
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1932 I LE ( OR8USIU, lliHIII The passage-like landing after the first six treads of the stairs· whicn sets bock the actual staircase· provides o space from where you can see over the wall of the communal living room, ond so olso be seen. This opens up the view of anyone going up or down the stairs, while offering o certain degree of privacy to those in the living room from the gaze of people entering the hall. PAVIUON SUISSE, PARIS
BALCONIES
Balconies ore often mode to extend along tne lull width of o building, and that is nat o bod idea from the point of view of cost ond constructional convenience. A disadvan· loge, however, is that such balconies cannot be very wide · for one thing because they toke light oway from the under· lying storeys.Aithough such on apartment in such o bui~ ding hos o respectable number of square metres of extra
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space on the balcony, there isn't very much you con do with this long ond narrow space. If the space were of a different shape · more like o square, for instance · it could easily hold a table ond several people sitting around it having a meal together in the open oir. Square balcony space also offeu more seclusion simply because of its depth, ond con also easily be partially screened off. Besides, part of the living room thus comes to lie directly adjoining the exterior fo~od e, which results in o space with plenty of light but also one fromwhich you con see directly onto the street instead ol having to go out onto the balcony first.
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If there was ever on architect with o keen eye for this ki nd of elementary spatial orgonizolion then il wos le Corbusier. All over the world there ore examples of how he, looking throug h different 5pectocles, 05 it were, took old cliches aport and turned them into new 'spatial mechanisms'. Don't forget that in his design for the 'ville rodieuse' • although it has since been repudiated, not without reason, for the lock of urban space provided for in the pion • dwellings all hove loggias, Iorge two·storey·high exterior rooms. He showed on example of such a loggia· like balcony in the 'pavilion de l'esprit nouveau', built for the International Decorative Arts Exhibition in Paris in I 925 and now reconstructed in Bologna Italy. However, when he was faced with the procticol requirements of designing large housing projecb such as the 'Unite' in Marseille, he was obliged lor ~nonc iol reasons to settle lor conventional narrow balconies, but these, too, were well thaught-out and more spacious than is usual nowadays. 204
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lmposos tociol contact, bvt at tho tame time wo must never impase the absence of social contact either. The architect Is not only a bvlldor of walls, he is also and equally a builder of oponingt that offer views . loth • walls and oponingt • are crucial.
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Using elementary principles of spatial organization it is passible to introduce a great many gradations of soclusion and opennou. Tho dogroo of seclusion, lib tho dogroo of oponnou, mvst be very carefully dosod, so that tho conditions are created for a great variety of contoch ranging from Ignoring those around yov to wanting to be together, so that people can, in spatial terms anyway, place themselves vis a vl.s others as they choose. Alto tho individuality of all must of course bo respected as much as pauible, and wo must indeed 100 ta it that tho conttructod environment novor
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xln the section of this housing project, the theme of stairwells by woy of 'vertical streets' wos combined with the principle of balconies os eltterior rooms. The very spacious balconies ore juxtaposed on eoch floor in such o woy that they alternately project to the front ond to the side so that the vertical space is not restricled by on overhanging balcony of lhe floor above. So these balconies comprise o loggio~ike secluded port os well as o more open ond extroverted terroce·like pori either with two storeys of vertical clearance or open to the sky. The secluded port is scree ned off on one side by non· transparent gloss bricks. This design enables you to sil outside without being observed ond without being obliged lo lake notice of the neighbours, or, if you prefer, to choose o more 'outgoing' position with o view of the other balconies ond in full view of them, too. So you ore free to decide whether you wont to be alone or perhaps to chol with the neighbours • if only to borrow some sugar or to comment on the weather.
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The themes we hod developed in Konel were token up ogoln in the lindenstresse building project in Berlin, the city with the largest end most intensively used balconies, where Hugo Haring designed his lovely spocious balconies. The number of dwelling units wos greater in the Berlin project than in Kessel, ond the different demends of the specific situetion resulted in e variety of juxteposilions ond olignmenb which exploit the different odvontoges of the locelion to rhe full .
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THAU SCHOOL, 8AJCELONA
1972.7 5 I MARTOREll,
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'The main staircase of this multi·storeyed school rises in one direction along the fo~ode, giving access to the successive floors ot different points in the building: the entrances ate not located one above the other vertically. As the staircase extends across the entire front, the space overhead is highest otthe bot1om of the stairs. Since the different floors ore open facing the stairs, each Roar has o full view outside through the gloss fot;ode · and hence also of the people on the staircase. The layout of each
floor is clear at a glance; there is constant contact between people walking up and down the stairs and others pausing jsilling or leaning). Instead of the conventional superimposition of spolia! units we hove, here, o unified whole with the staircase serving os o means of bonding the Aoors together; it is on illustration of how you con offer spatial support to what the children in different classes hove in common. So here both coming and going becomes a communal, do ily activity, with o reasonable chance for everyone to catch o glimpse of o friend in o different doss.' J9J
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This con be regarded as on attempt on o limited scale to bridge the gop between everyday life on the street a nd o space that is usually tucked In among the other service areas in the background. The paint is to draw the attention of the people who wotk in the building to the visitors and vice verso. A similar situation is to be found in the Cenlrool Beheer office building where you con see into the dish·woshing oreo and watch your plates bemg cleaned, while the people doing the cleaning · not the most ottroclive of jobs · need not feel banished and excluded from contact. [13J
De 0 VU tOOP, HOME FOR !HE ElDERlY ll41.~Uo like De Drie Hoven, the other housing project for the elderly, De Overloop, has o village-square-like space in the centre wnere all tne communal facilities ore located. In tnis case the residents con also toke their meals in the central oreo, or leo and coffee ot various times of the day. In short this is where everything happens a nd where on escape from the isolation of the Individual dwelling units Is offered. We started out from the ideo that oil the 'interior streets' witn dwelling units should converge on the central space )II
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VREOfNBUIG MUSIC CENlRE (Sll Slil
The unofficial heart of the building is the artist~' foyer. This is where the musicians and technicians get ready for the performance, and also where they unwind aftec.-ir, often until very late This space, which is olmost/on:ian~y used, is situated near the dressing rooms, store rooms 15nd other service oreos There is o visuollink with the public passage above, so that passers-by con cotch o glimpse of what is going on behind the scenes downstairs in the Music Centre, while the people in the artists' foyer need only look up to see the world outside.
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so thotthe residents need to walk only o short distance to get there. And since none of the floors was to be excluded, this central space hod to extend vertically up to the top of the building. The Iorge void thus created also contq!ns the lil1s with ver tical windows through which the residents con be seen entering or leaving the central hall. The lifts ore the most commonly used means of vertical transport, but there are·olso staircases. These staircases are differently situated on each floor, their location being determined by variation rather than by repetition of direction ond visibility in the space. This sets them aport from the secondary staircases situated of the end of each wing wh1ch follow the normal stairwell principle.
210
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PARe GuEu, BARCElONA 1900-l ..t I A. GAUDI, J.M. JuJOt (S89-Stll
Goudl's meandering parapet bench enclosing the main terrace in Barcelona's Pore Guell curves in sud1 o woy thai your view depends entirely on where you choose to sit. Where the poropel curves inwards you con sit facing each other in a semicircle, and where it curves outwards you hove o view of the Iorge central area which, although enclosed by the sinuous poropel, gives on impression of being the outside. The 'turning-points', that is, the orcs marking the transition from concave lo convex, offer on ambiguous vantoge·point. The bench with its continuous S.. ' shape constitutes a constant succession of extroverted and introverted places in oil gradations and with adequate bock-support throughout; seen in its entirety it embodies a wide range of qualities which make it just os suitable foro family picnic os for a moment of more solitary relaxation, e.g. to contemplate the scene on the main terrace in front of you, or to wail lor someone. This bench consists of o continuous fascinating ribbon of coloured pottery sherd designs (probably not only by Goudi himself but also by his student Jujol) a lwentieth
There ore mony situations where you lind yourself facing other people or with your bock to them · which is something the designers of various means of public transport, such os trains, trams ond buses, must toke into account. This proximity to people who ore lor the most port complete strangers con lead to forced contacts, but it con also lead to more animated encounters, which moy be very brief but which con also be more lasting. The woy of organizing the seating in such situations is essentially no different from the woy on architect deals with the organisation of a building. In the old doys the !roms hod benches olong both sides of a wide aisle, so that everyone sot with their bock to the windows facing the
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centro! aisle; the result wos o communal space like o waiting-room where you could cost o casual eye over the other occupants without ony embarrassment. But more often than not the aisle is crowded with standing po»engers who obstruct your view entirely. The greater passenger copoclty was no doubt the main reason lor this arrangement, which is still to"be seen in the subways of New York ond Tokyo. An additional advantage is that both sitting and standing passengers con move clo5llf togetheros the need arises to make room lor more passengers: the space allotted to each possenger is not
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prescribed but depend5 on o Ructuoting demand. Tre ins usually hove benches across the carriage lor two or three people lacing each other or bock-to-bock in pairs. The design of the traditional 0-troins, with their separate comportments like so many small rooms with gloss· panelled sliding doors along a narrow corridor, enables you to make o more leisurely choice of your travelling companions· for this remarkable arrangement means that you may hove to spend several hours in fairly close contact with 5tronger5. Once you hove found o seat you see little of what goes on in the rest of the train except for passengers joining or leaving the company in your comportment end others walking post in the corridor in search of o seat and ot every station. Once inside the comportment you hove o full view of your fellow passengers sitting ocroH the narrow aisle, or you con look out of the window or a t the passengers in the
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corridor, which offers the only standing-room on the train. Modern trains and buses, like planes, hove rows of seals ollfocing the fronl, os in o traditional classroom. Even though you ore sitting quite close to the other passengers, you will probably not hove any contact with them except perhaps with your immediate neighbours. The growing popularity of this kind of sealing arrangement whereby contact with others is virtually non~xistent reflects on unmistakable trend toward individualism in other environments, too. The some is to be seen on railway platforms and other public places where there is a concentration of people waiting: the old.foshioned long benches have nearly all been replaced by individual seals separately mounted of 'cole' distances from each other. This new form of sitting side by side in a row yet separately was invented to protect users from being bothered by those sitting next to them, and to prevent people from lying down on the benches. But the result is also that two people cannot sit close together anymore, nor con people move up to make room lor others: distances hove oil been fixed beforehand, ond so the use that is mode of the seating is no longer flexible. Places that ore used by o lot of people over o short period of time, such os cafes, counters, company restaurants etc. ore furnished with o large number of identical tables or counters which hove been designed with space-saving in mind. Consequently you a lways sit in o company of six or eight people, the size of the group being dictated by the size of the table. However, even in these situations more variety· os in normal restauronls where groups of diHerent sizes must be seated at the tables · would suit the pattern of social interaction of the users, better too. Many people would prefer o small table, many others o Iorge one: o small table for 2, 3 or 4 people when you ore in the company of friends or o larger one for 6 or 8 people if you wont to be more anonymous (so that at least you don't feel you hove to introduce yourself to the others or ask their permissio11 to 'join' them]. And then there must also be places where you can sif on your own in such o way that it is obvious to the others, so tha t you need not feel embarrassed about reading your newspaper or just
remaining silent. Tables by windows ore especially suitable for this kind of usage because, even if there is no view to speak of, you con easily sit facing owoy from the others, thereby indicating your wish for privacy quite dearly. For those people who ore alone but would like to enter into contact with others, very long tables would be a good solution. The contocJs that toke place ot such o table ore random in the sense that it is not its length that determines which groups toke their seals there. Of course the shape of a table, too, con exert a strong influence on the pattern of social interaction. Think of the equality of position offered by a round table os opposed to on oblong one.
'balcony'. The location of this teachers' corner, ond its open and inviting nature - the children con go right up to them ot any lime- gives the hall space os o whole the quality of o Iorge living room. The gloss skylight panels provide maximum visibility when looking down from the balcony into the hall, even when the classroom doors ore shut. The stairs to the uppermost level were designed to be as transparent os possible so os to ovoid obstructing visual contact and to let the daylight entering through the skylights penetrate into the recesses of the space.
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Schools ore still being built today along the old lines of o row of classrooms along o corridor with cool·pegs and the occosionol'work-corners'. There ore often external reasons for such o pion, and the classrooms themselves may be well-designed ond may function accordi ngly. But you must realize that, with this type of arrangement, each classroom becomes o self.contoined, separate unit with ot best o reasonable relationship with its immediate neighbours. Children in different classes see each other in the corridor when the lessons start and finish - and ol those limes it is usually very lull - and, if they ore lucky, there is also o communal hall where they con meet. In o situation where the classrooms ore grouped around the communal space, so that the children leaving the clomooms outomoticolly converge in the centre, there would be much more opportunity for casual and spontaneous contact between children of different ages. It would stimulate ideas for doing things together, if only because both teachers and children of different classes would gel lo see more of each other. The school halls in the two Apollo primary schools hove o split·level amphitheatre-like orgonisallon, which greatly increases the range of visual contact. Situations of players and audience arise easily ond spontaneously: children sitting on the treads of the stairs connecting the two levels soon start behoving like on audience, thereby challenging the players on the lower level to give what you might coli o performance. The split-level design of the central space not only gave rise to the adoption of the amphitheatre Idea, it also provided o point of otlochmenl for the six classrooms, disposed in two groups of three with maximum mutual visibility. This visual link drows alltne classrooms together in o way that would not be pouible with o strict division into superimposed storeys. The hoiI space functions rather like o big communal classroom, where the teachers also hove their own place (with o corner screened off for the school head) on the top
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Whatever an architect does or deliberately leaves undone • the way he concerns hinueH with enclosing or opening • he always influences, intentionolly or not, the most elementary forms of social relations. And even if social relations depend only ta a limited extent on environmental factors, that is still sufficient reoson to aim ~onsciously at an orgctnization of space that enables everyone to confront the other on an equal footing. Ignoring this potential of architecture amounts in the end ta less freedom for the Inhabitants. However, the aversion shown by many architects to sociological and psycholovical approaches Is in a sense understandable. For here we are, surrounded by the failures of a past period, with its social utopias such as 'spaces for social interaction' and other romantic, useless lot Clny rate never used) notions invented by architects who believed they ~ould simply predict the behaviour of people. Architects in general have a predilection for theatrkal simplifications. Attvnement to psychologically and saciolly inescapable fo~rs was never a prime concern in architecture. Carefully calculated dimensions, a correct articulation and the right pf'OpGrtion of openness
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and seclusion are the starting·paints for the shift in attention to the 'habitable space between things'. Social architecture does nat exlst, but that does not mean that we can ever afford to ignore the implications of how people relate to each other, and how they reCld in different situations. The mere choice betwHn a door open.lng outwards or inwards Is in itseH on indication of this inescapable responsibility • for the direction in which the door opens will decide whether everything that goes on in the room can be seen In one glance upon entering, or whether those inside the roam have the lime ta prepare themselves for your entrance. Admittedly - have only talked about detail• up ta now, but there are so infinitely many details in every building that they might well all together be just 01 · important as the grand gesture of the architecture in its entirety. For us a building is the sum of all those 1mall gestures which, like the thousands of mu1cles in a ballet dancer's body, together create a unified whole. It is this grand total of decisions, provided they are taken with proper consideration and due care, that can result in a truly wekoming architecture.
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4 VIEW II Bringing the outside world inside. 'It Is the principle of shelter thot receives special emphasis In the history of the origins of architecture, os it gradually acquired an Increasingly articulated form, from hut to house, in the course of human history and of the rise of the city. For us the history of the view is just as important as thot of shelter. And whot we mean is, aport from having a view of one another, having a view of the outside world. Just as spatial relations influenc.e person.ol relations, so they determine the way we relate to the environment. lut Instead of maintaining the opposition of Interiorexterior as a fvndomental contrast, we know, In the twentieth century, thot interior and exterior ore relative concepts, and therefore depend on where you stand, and in which direction you look. 603
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It is no coincidence thot the character of twentieth· century architecture is so much more open than It has ever been in the post. Not only do we now hove the means with which to achieve this, there Is also more need for openness. We hove opened all the windows and so we hove embraced the outside. And if Holland con be said to have played a remorlcoble role In modem architecture, as it developed along with the new twentieth-century consciousness In a noturcll process, as it were, then that is hardly 1urprising ' considering the openness that has always been and still is a choraderistic feoture of Dutch society. That you can look stroitht into Dutch living·rooms and can almost toke port in whot goes on inside Is a tradition that never foils to amaze visitors to this country, and it show• thot the Dutch ore less hampered by fear of the outside world than people in many other countries, where private property and homes tend to be 1eoled off fro.m the out1lde world. The e.xceptionolly Iorge expanses of gloss in our buildings, which ore possible thanks to the mild climate and perhaps to our feeling of mutual dependence, at any rate refled an extroverted interest, on open·
mindedness about the opinions of others. If Holland is a country of openness and of smallness, then that is the expression in terms of form and space of the way we relate to one another, of how we treat each ather ond how we have managed, Inside and out, to maintain a reasonably harmonious social environment, In the sum and in the partsl' [7}
VAN
NEill
fACTORY, ROmlDAM
1927-29/ M. BRINKMAN,
l.C. VAN OER VtUGi IWl-601) 'One of the most lucid examples of the Nieuwe Bouwen jos the Modem Movement was called in Hollondl, and certainly the biggest in this country, is the Von Nelle factory in Rotterdam. Its huge dimensions ore never overwhelming and the building not only shows what is going on inside but is also designed so os to give those who work inside as wide a view as possible, not only of the world outside but especially of each other. The curved exterior of the office section cannot hove been solely due to the adjacent traffic route, nor was the layout of the building volumes the determining loctorin this particular solution. That Von der Vlugt opted for this magnificent enclosing curve· thereby going against the convictions of his colloboroteur Mort Stom • is impossible to explain in rational terms•. But what he su"eeded in achieving this way, end that is what concerns us here, is that office end factory ore with in sight of each other. This ideo recurs in lhe staircases, which project so lor from the building that you con see oil along the fo~ode from each landing. The staircase on the right of the entrance to the office seclion is quite unique. It bursts out as it were, cutting across the Ia~ ode almost os if It was simply too much lor the building to contain. The stairs toke you out of the building, and offer o view of the fo~ode, the sports fields beyond, ond whet used to be open polderlond in the distance. The widest panorama of all is to be seen from the circular roof structure, which recalls
the commond,bridge of o ship. But this highest point with its impressive view of the harbour installations on ihe hori· z:on is nol there only for those in command but also lor all the loclory workers. The building as o whole, originating as it did from o sort of rational but wide-angled approach, signified o clean breok with the post, and offered o glimpse of o new world, with better relations between people.Whot makes this building so spectacular is, besides the fact that it looh like o great transparent machine, thai it brings the principle of un-hiero rchicol relationships into rational architectural organization.' (7]
• 'The chocolate-box on top ol tbe factory wot designed and drawn by me, much against my own wosbu. Nor did I hove much !ytnpotloy for the concovt walt of the office •edion • but Van der Vlugl wo• ln cl>arge.' (from o leltet to 8okemo, l 0 June 196A, O$ cited in: ).8. Bokemo, l.C. von der Vlugr, An11terdom 19681
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(... ) The gloss begins at sidewalk or lawn level and continues upwards unbroken until// meets the clean line of the sky. The serenity of the place is total. Everything is open to the side. And this is of enormous significance to all those who ore working, on all eight "oars, inside. Because Inside we find o poem of light. An immaculate lyricism. Dazzling vision of order. The very atmosphere of honesty. Everylhing is transparent; everyone con see and be seen os he works.
When you reed le Corbusier's description of the building, which he visited in 1932, you realize thai il would probably hove been impouible to make this dream come true anywhere except in Holland:
The speclocle of modern life 60!
'The Von Nelle tobacco factory in Rotterdam, a creation of lhe modern age, has removed all the Former connololion of despair from that word • proletarian•. And this deflection of the egotistic property instinct towards a Feeling for collective action leads to a most happy result: the phenomenon of personal porticipolion in every stage of the human enterprise. Lobar retains its fundamental materiality, but it is enlightened by the spirit. I repeal, everything lies in that phrase: o proof of love.
(... ) The manager of /he factory is there in his gloss oHir:e. He con be seen. And he himself, from his office, con see the whole illuminated Dulch horizon, and, in lhe For distance, the life of the great pori. The immense refectory continues the pattern, The managers, the highest and lowes/ administrative grades, the workers, mole and female o/1 eat together here in the some great room, which has transparent wol/5 opening onto endless views of meadows. Together, all together. (... ) I found it fascinating to observe lhe laces of those factory girls. Each one of lhem was on ex,pression of lhe life within; joy or the opposile, o reflection of lheir passions or their difficulties. But, there is no proletariat here. Simply a graduated hierarchy, clearly esloblished and respecled. TMs atmosphere of o well-run, diligent hive is olloined by means of o universe/ and voluntary respect for order, regularity, punctuality, justice and kindliness. (...) An example of everyday reciprocity: I keep up the place in which I work; my work interests me; so the trouble token is o source of joy/ A virtuous circle for once/ All ore united in o compact solidarity; oil bear o larger or o smaller shore of the responsibility; participation. Porticipolion. Thai was how the Von Nelle Factory was created. The architect was given a year in which to draw up a provisional pion; then they spent Ave years working oulthe fino/ form. Five years of collaboration: meelings Ia discvss every problem individually. And it was not only the direclors and the architects and the managers who were ot those meetings. The heads of lhe various deporlments were also present, as well os o skilled workman or clerk representing each of the specialized functions lo be performed in the Factory. Ideas con come from anywhere. In molters of moss production, it is well known how vitally importonl o minor short-cut con turn out lo be. There ore no small things, there ore only correclly designed things that work. Participation I I con lruly soy lhot my visil to that Factory was one of the most beautiful days of my life.' (le Cort.rW.r, to ville rort,...., 1933, pp. ln- 179)
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USSOIS 101 STUt[NIS II U(KIHCIUU
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RtElVEU>SCH~OOE~ HOUSE, UTRECHT 1924
I
G. RIETVELD
1610.614)
'At the very heart of the Nieuwe Bouwen in Holland was Rietveld's Schroder House, hardly bigger than o public housing unit of today, articulated in componenb, each one as if it belonged to o piece of furniture. The design is often described as o th ree·dimensionol Mondrion pointing, but quite aport from the foci that Mondrion's paintings ore not concerned with extending beyond the flat plane, such o comparison does not do justice either to Mondrion's ideas or to those of Rietveld. While Mondrion tried 1o harmonize the different weights of speclfk colours (as Schonberg composed colour· sounds), ond in so doing may well hove pointed models for true democracy, Rietveld on the other hand, working with building materials which possess physical weigh t, makes them weightless, so that new interrelationships con be established and the new aims be achieved. from a distance and from the outside these aims seem abstract, intended os a sod of objective composition of planes ond lines, and indeed this is the qua lity that tends to receive most emphasis in the many publications devoted to the Schroder House. But from the inside all the different components, separately ond vis ovis each other, prove to be within the reach of everyday gestures. The space is exploited to the full, not only inside but also in the peripheries: each oreo is wholly oHuned to the purpose it is expected to serve, with each corner, window or door being fitted with so many benches, cupboards,
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niches and ledges that they blend unnoliceobly into the furniture. Although the house is actually quite small - the main floor consists of just one room which con be subdivided when necelsary - the infinite articulation of the space makes it both very Iorge ond very small. This house, with all its features, big and small, working together Ia create a truly habitable, friendly completene$5, shows what kind of nests people would build if they could, but besides that it offers a balance of seclusion and extroversion. Since the Schroder House Rietveld never built anything that come quite so close to o utensil. As for as this is concerned he moy well hove been strongly influenced by Mn Schroder, for whom and with whom he designed the house. That he was so prepared to listen to her shows his true nature ond his profoundly right otiitude to architecture. The ideo underlying the design of the house culminates in the glas~enclosed corner of the living story. When the big window in the corner Is opened it Is truly a window on the world. Because the corner is not obstructed by any support the space shaped by the walls ot right angles to each other is allowed to expand outside, thereby creating a unique spatial experience. The sensation of being both inside and outside at the some time- a greater relotivisotion of interior ond exterior is ha rd to imagine. This wos indeed a most radical break with all that hod existed before, and it symboli~es for many of us the excitement of the new technological possibilities. Yet this wi ndow, paradoxical though this might seem, is simply a product of a carpenter's workmanship. Rietveld himself hod to go to o smith to order on extra long window fastener. Technicolly, in fact, the entire SchrOder House could hove been constructed with the means of o century earlier. Unlike Duiker and Von der Vlugt, who sought inspiration from new techniques, Rietveld mode primitive and timeless dasigns: the carpenter's dream of o different world. The small bench outside by the window of Rietveld's study, under the balcony, to the left of the front door, wos designed for Mrs Schroder, so silling there she wos still in contact with Rietveld when he was ot wotk inside. The way in which the projecting planes of balconies and walls form a habitable space here thanks to the right combination of shelter ond contact, with both inside and the garden, is actually clossicol: what is new here is only the form it tokes'. [7)
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Thanks to th. open comer in Rietveld's SchrOder House you are not, when inside, separated from the outside world, you aN in th. middle of It all. Also th. gla11 circle on top of th. Van Nelle factory brings the in1ic:le world outside and the homon inside. loth of these
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solutions are typical of the Nieuwe louwen and both • os radkal as they are • are based on the absence of load· bearing construction elements in the periphery of the building. It is the principle of the cantilever which was made poulble by the application of reinforced concret., that produced this new, unprecented experience of space. But however a iry the constrvction of a building may be, and however the opposition between inside and outside is relativized by for instance recesses in the fa~ade, that extraordinary new sensation of tra.nsparency and lightness can only exist when the constructive comer-column is absent, and when the fasad.e is sa thinly constructed that it apparently has only itself to support. The mast consist.nt, and also the most beautiful, ore the open comers in Duiker's buildings. The woy the load-bearing strvcture of the Technical School in Scheveningen and of the Zonnestroal Sanatorium, and of course of his Open Air School in Amsterdam complements the thin glau exterior hos never been seen before or since, but the influence of these unparalleled buildings is still felt today, all over the world. DE OVERIOOP, HOME fOR THE ElDERlY (411 ll9)
A residential building lor the elderly constituting a selfconta ined organizational unit (where ma ny of the inhabitants tend to stay on the premises due to impaired mobiliiyl almost inevitably assumes the nature of a bastion_ In this case the location, not in the heart of lhe res idential neighbourhood but on o residual site on the edge of town at the loot of the dyke along the Veluwe lake, further emphasizes this undesirable effecl of recluslveness. While the spatial organization of the interior con be
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designed with on eye to maximum openness lor the residents, the design of the exterior should ot least see to it thotthe complex os o whole does not look more withdrawn then necessory. Passers-by should be able to gel o glimpse ol life on the premises, but especially the residents themselves should hove ample opportunity of maintaining visual contact ot least with the outside world. To express this ideo os explicitly os possible the location of the communal spoce, used for receptions and festive gatherings, wos located so os to hove the best possible view over the Veluwe loke up to the horizon. With its Iorge wi ndows on three sides ond the suggestion of roundness due to the semkirculor roof projection the structure looks more like o ship's bridge then o tower room, thereby referring olso to the ship-like buildings of the Nieuwe Bouwen movement. tiYIIU G IO U.
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That the angle af vision is expanded by opening up a comer is a definite advantage, but it is not the only oM. After all, bays added to or proj.ning from a fa~ade enable you to step outside, as it were, so that you have a view up and down the street below. lut when this open corMr is not an addition, because it is the actual comer of the building that ha1 been opened up, the effect is that the building seems lighter, leu mauive at the very points where one would ex_ped strength. This change in the equilibrium results in a shift of emphasis, and thus alters the rhythm of the structure te become open at beginning and end, a1 in many musical compositions an upbeat. 1n 01
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Opening up corners where wall ond ceiling meet, os in tne Delft Montessori school (611.m.67!1 and the conversion of o private house in loren f£111, or the application of the low parapet in the Amsterdam studenl home 1613t, make the range of vision expand· even when that is not literally
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if the case - by virtue of the shift in focus of attention, drawing the eye upwards or downwards or to the street outside. The quolily of the light entering through the windows changes, too: where it enters, unreflected, from above, it brings with it the quolily of the outside, which is
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especially important in areas !such os the communal a reo in the school) where you wont to relate more directly to the world outside than, soy, 1n the classrooms. DE EVENMR, ScHOOt !UW29J
By placing two odioining classrooms behind o curved
section olthe lo~ade they become o sort ol communal boy. The wall dividing the classrooms comprises ot one end, where it meets the fo~ode, o sliding partition. When it is closed, the two spaces ore both visually ond audibly separated, but when i1 is opened the two classrooms easily blend into one oreo embraced by the boy. Besides, the view of the outside world from each dossroom is considerably widened when the partition is opened.
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The eHect of opening up the comer between two wolls is even stronger when the corner between wall and celli119 is removed: this revolutioniws the traditional spatial paradigm as it manifests itself e.specially in the structural framework (where wall.a and ceilings/floors meet). The 'windows' are no longer openings in a wall or roof·plane • and therefore basicaiJy framed objects • but they actually constitute the open transitions between planes, there.by making the overol image less massive and 'stabile' and consequently less separate fram ih environment. So the Nieuwe louwen brought the outside world Inside into our familiar surroundings, which were thus dematerialired and rendered transparent. The architectonk space was expanded, and If this modem architecture reminds one of ships and bird.a, that is not anly due to the formal Idiom Inspired by the universally admired functionalism of modem naval architecture, there i1 abo and especially a deliberate allusion to the sense of freedom evoked by a view embracing endless space, and at the same time to the Inevitable awaren.e u of vulnerability.
Ope~ Air School, Amllltrdom
t92MO/J. O..iker, 8. Bil- •
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The expa:nsion of the architectonic spoce by the Nievwe lovwen movement is only one port of the story of the twentieth century. Our thinking In terms of relativity
ho• a lso enlorted the domain in which architecture manifests itself, and hence alto the spoce of architecture. 'The truth' no longer exists. Depending on our standpoint ond on our objectives we experience o layered reality, and so it is up to architecture to 'reveal' more, to make the different levels of experience tron•· porent, os it were, ond thus to •hed more light on how thing• work ond how they ore interconnected. Whatever meaning is attached to the experience of spoce, In the twentieth-century world it certainly embroc11 more than o purely visual perception. The exposure of un•uspected layers of meaning by twentieth•century ort ond science hoJ changed our way of seeing, ond therefore also the woy we feel. The world has changed becouH we now SH thing a in o woy we did not see them before, or rather, in o way we--did not realize we were seeing them. We ore copoble of sHing JO much nowadays that we con not 'ontent ourselves with superficially pleasing appearances ond decorative architecture. The apace of architecture also comprises on answer to the other phenomena and layers of meaning present in our pluralistic consciousness.
1867 I F LE PLAY Ul More often then not buildings ore portrayed rn full sunlight, but here the opposite is the case. And with the reversal of day end night it seems as if inter1or e nd exterior, too, hove switched roles. like o greollomp the rounded slructure illuminates the space 1n which it stands, slrelching oul its glon overhanging roofs with lighls suspended at regular inlervals in o we lcoming gesture so that you ora virtually in the building even before you hove possad the actual threshold. The overall transparency of the structure in itself is on invitation to enter this modern palace containing o huge range of goods for the new consumer market, like o radiant planet affording o view of the new world. W O
1933 I J. Du1m ruw• 'The evocation of o view of a new world is especially strong In the Cineoc newsreel cinema designed by Duiker & Bljvoet. Intended os on information machine that you con enter casually, in-between visits (to the shops, to catch up on what Is going on in the world in pre-television days), Ihe building itself also pre$ents itself as o totally new structure geared in every deJoil to performing the fu nction of o window on lite world. Aport from the storey-high illuminated sign (on edifice in its own right) and the smooth Ironsilion from the street to the interior of the cinema (achieved by o glon owning and by resloring to lhe slreel o precious corner of lhe premises), it is especially the curvad gloss fo~ode above the entrance thai oHrocts attention. CINEAC CINEMA, AMslERDAM
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Thonks to the gloss woll rounding the corner of the first floor the room containing the film projectors becomes visible from the street, while the operators [in the days before outomoted projeclion) in turn ore offered o view of the slreel. Duikers prime concern, here, was probably Ia demonstrate the technology of the projectors, but os a result, instead of being hidden owoy in o corner, the people responsible lor keeping things running ore given o place in the centre of attention, within the cycle of everyday life end in full view of it. Sa here the architect's concern for the essential requirements of this purpose-built cinema, situated on o tiny, left-over, owkword site, gove rise to o fundamenta lly different spatial organization' .[7) 'The toll illuminated sign wos demolished in November 19SO, and the gloss porch was covered over with wood. Only the curved gloss wolf was preserved, except that the original mullions hove been replaced with thicker ones )os
also ha ppened yeors ago in the Open Air School). Thus, the lost of Duiker's greot works has been irreparably mutilated, and the number of relatively intact examples preserved from this period of history, sponningborely twenty years, is growing alarmingly small. Since they cannot be put in museums like old cars and even lroins and ships, and ore not old enough to be eligible lor the protection given to ancient buildings, only o few photographs will be left to convey on impression of these wonderfully light constructions. Who will still be oble, in fu ture years, to describe what emonoted from them and the feeling they evoked~' [8] 63S 636 VREDENBURG MUSIC CENtRE, (633-6421
'The Iorge box-shoped skylight on lop of the Music Centre lets in enough light to be oble to give performances during lhe day wilhout ortiliciollighting · when the sky is
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dear, ot ony rote But even when additional artificial lighting •s necessary you still hove some ideo of whotthe weather is like and whether it Is early or late In the doy · olleost you con tell whether the sun is shining outside, and the musicians do not hove to rehearse In on ortific1olly ht space. The possibility of holding doylit performances odds yet another alternative to the olreody generous ronge of lighting focililles, while conversely the skylight also acts like a beacon to the outside world. a s•gnol of the odivilies the Music Centre has to offer ' 15)
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The dominant feature of the building is the main auditorium with 1700 seats which, lollowing the omph•theotre shape, offer on excellent view of the central stage. The holl•lself is virtually symmetnc 1n design In a concert hall excellent sound is of course o prime objective, but o good view is complementary to good sound! Seeing musicians perform helps listeners Ia dist
enhance the emotional involvement of the audience as a whole, which in turn inspires the musicians. While the quality of modern rl!(:ordingl allows people to listen in the privacy of their own living rooms to renditions that ore seldom acoustically equalled in live performances, it is the shored experience that makes concert-going such a special experience. Besides, if is in the concert hall that you con see the heroes and heroines of the record sleeves at work. The design, more like thol of o theatre-in-the-round than o traditional concert-hall, makes this auditorium suitable lor the numerous other types of music in which the acluol performance ploys a more central role than in scxalled classical music. Besidi!S, the platform con be enlarged to include the ground-floor sealing area, thereby making proper in-the-round performance possible. 'The auditorium is equipped with the full range of theatrical lighting facilities with controls installed · visible to the audience· on the bon overhead. Besides being suitable for a wide range of musical performances, the concert hall should, ideally, actually contribute to the quality of what goes on inside it by enhancing the general atmosphere and working conditions. Beside$ offering possibilities of adjustment with respect to size and position of the platform as well as to the seating arrangement and capacity· i.e. technical and organizational flexibility, the space must hove the copdcify to adopt itself to the degree openness or mtlmacy called for by o port1culor performance And what
or
it always boils down to is: what is offered in the way of involvement of listeners with each other and with the musicians. The amphitheatre shape of the auditorium not only offers everyone in the audience o good view of the musicians, it also offers members of the audience a good view of each other, ond that, in combination with the spacing of the seats and the articulation of the space, makes it possible for on atmosphere of unity, of communion even, to a rise, which would hove been unthinkable in a more conventionally designed concert hall with rows of seals behind one another all facing the some direction. Thus the building adopts itself to the specific nature of the event taking place, not only by making the auditorium itself adoptable [flexible, in mistaken architectural jargon) but also by giving it polyvalence: not only by providing o suitable environment for performances ranging from clossicol orchestral and chamber music lo jazz, variety and circus (with live lions!), not to mention the experimental performances with different sections of the orchestra positioned in the extreme corners, but also by giving the space itself the role of on instrument upon which oil these different events con be played.' (51 ·~l
• Our an:hltecture must be capable of accommodating aU thoH diHerent sitvatioru whic:h affect the way a building is understood and used. Not only must it be capable of adapting itself to changing weather conditions and different seasons as well being suitable
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VIllA SAvovE, Potssv, FRANC£ 1929-32 1 L£ ConustEt f6A)i411
The Iorge enclosed outdoor living room of this villa is undoubtedly the most impressive example of the constructed extenor space which is to be found in neorly oil of Le Corbusier's designs. Thanks to the foci that this interior landscape is situa ted on the periphery of the volume and that it hos the some horizontal windowarrangement as the adjoining living oreos, the terrace also offers o view of the exterior landscape. Le Corbusier's roolterroces ore neither gardens nor interiors: they represen t o completely different spatial entity with o highly specific quality of its own. The plant-boxes, too, creole o mere illusion of o garden. They ore certainly too big to be ITeoted like flower-pots, but they ore not the some os garden flower-beds either, although in his sketches le Corbusier included o lor richer variety of plants than most other architects, who tend to think of plant-boxes In terms of o mere detail with which to fill up empty ports first of the drawing and subsequently of the ac tual building ... Here they ore more like the seedbeds in nurseries that con be covered with gloH, and that is indeed how they could be used by green-thumbed inhabitants. This ossociotion is further strengthened by the inclusion in the plant-box of o light, ond it is this integration of two such apparently unrelated components that makes the design so exceptional.
us 641
Framing skylights in o terrace floor in th is way makes them less vulnerable, and also less of on obstacle. Looking up from the space below, the overhanging greenery gives you some ideo of the terrace overhead. Unlike the conventional skylig ht showing o stork rectangle of sky to the observer below, le Corbusier's skylights fringed with plants offer o leu abstract view of the world outside, ond even, sometimes, o glampse of someone out on the terrace looking down or te nding the plants. What le Corbusier did here, os he so often did in his outstanding works, and what o mere detail such os this illuslroles, is to combine euentiolly modest elements in such o woy that they ore complementary by virtue of the space each gives the other. •
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PEOESIRtAN UNDERPASS, GENEVA, SWn2£iiANO
1981/
G. OtSCOM&ES C64HID In Loney, near Geneva, Georges Descombes designed o pedestrian underpass connecting the two sections of o pork cut across by o motorwoy. The corrugated iron conslituting the octuol tun nel is exposed to view ot either end. But there is also o slender steel footbridge in the tunnel, under which o stream runs from one section of the pork to the other. This bridge, much longer than the actual tunnel, extends into the pork ot each end ol some distance from the motorwoy·romp.
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So, only o relatively small portion of the walkway os o whole connecting the two sections of the wooded pork is underground, whereby the possoge through the octuol tunnel is relotivlud to become o mere incident on a longer lrojectory. So you wolk ot o sort of sole distance through the carcass of o primordial reptile of corrugated sheet·iron, your steps on the wooden boardwalk hollow· sounding: o feeling of secrecy. Besides, holfwoy olong the tunnel there is on opening overhead, in the middle of the motorwoy (which is something more underground possoges should hovel. The tunnel itself hos been reduced to o mere seclion of o longer route, a relatively brief interlude in o stroll in the pork. The effect of the bridge is to shorten the tunnel, simply by prolonging the craning from one oreo in the pork to the other. And, os so ohen, the most eventful route is also the shortest connection between two points,
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AlHAMBRA, GtANAOA, SPAI'I, 14 TH CENT\J~Y A.D
1955 I LE COR8USIU 1>53,6141 The chapel of the Notre Dome du Haul in Ronchomp Is usually cited os on e~omple of e~pressionism in buildil\9 by the master of expressionist architecture, le Corbusier. The roof Is shaped like o huge basin, from which the water escapes through o single spout like those we ore used to seeing in cathedrals, but more organically formed . II tokes some time for the collected rainwater to drain owoy alter the shower has moved away over the hill-tops: it gushes forth with tremendous power, its fa ll being broken by pyromid·shoped points in a nother concrete basin on the ground under the spout. The following excerpt is from o text written upon the death of le Corbusier on 27 August 1965: 'Everything on artist lays his hands on changes its course, le CorbusilH was never Involved In form alone, he was always concerned with the mechanisms of what loy before him; he would alter the bed of o stream to change the direction of the water, so that the water would render that different course visible and become o different body of water; the water would thus become clearer and more true to itself, while at the some time the direction, too, would become clearer and truer. So the building tells us something about the water passing over ib roof and the water tells us about the building; and in this way both water and water-covered surface shape each other by telling us about the other and about themselves.' [2] CHAPEl, RONCHAMP, FRANCE
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By conducting the worer over the stone steps, where it forms a sequence of little cascades down the channel from one tread to the next, these Rights of steps in the Alhambra assume on extraord inary form The light reflected by the surface of the stream os well os the sound intensify the image of a stepped descent, and that is perhaps why such o pedestrian feature as o fl ight of steps suddenly strikes one as something special. But it is not only our awareness of the phenomenon of steps that becomes more acute, also the phenomenon of water is
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intensified by this felicitous combination · the some liquid substance that we lend to toke lor granted cannot escape notice in this pronounced form . The small round ponds wilh fountains carved into smooth marble ore ortiliciol pools of water like the pools that form
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on any poved surface, but here their presence hos been formolized and mode permanent by means of a minimal architectural intervention. A primary a rchitecture with water· next to marble the richest and most refreshing material imaginable in this wo rm Andalusian garden! MosouE, CoaoosA, SPAIN, 786-1009 ~£sus" The courtyard of the mosque in Cordoba is shaded by orange trees growing in circular depressions in the pavement. These circles ore connected by means of channels, thereby forming on efficient irrigation system for the trees. In the relatively Iorge hollows the water has ample opportunity to be absorbed by the soil; the narrow connecting channel is only for easy transportation of the water from one tree to the next.This design derives its beauty not from the simplicity of form os such, but from the fact that the form shows so dearly how it functions . You could soy that form in this cose not only follows function, but thot it actually is the function. Not only does the circular form combine beautifully with the shape of the trees to creole o graphically interesting design, it also matches the swirl of the stream of water for better than o square shape would hove done (which would also hove corners that would be more difficult to sweep clean).
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Architecture can soy something about certain phenomena such as time or water, which in turn make o statement about the architecture: they become mutually explanatory. ly showing how things work, and so by bringing them to the surface, the world around us can be read, can be decoded, as it were; architecture muft e.~~plain, unveil. Essentially this amounts to o battle against reduction and the alienation that goes with it, the alienation that we con see encroaching upon us on oil sides, making us ever more subservient to an environment which has less and less meaning for us and over which we have len and leu control. We should a im for the most readable form, i.e. form with the greatest expressive force. Rainwater transported in pipes hidden from view tells us nothing about what is going on, and so this remains an abstroct system that can, at best, be expected to function noitelessly. In the same way, when we enter o tunnel under o river we must simply assume that we will get out at the other end eventua·lly: we cannot see what we are doing. Conversely, crossing o b ridge is always self..viclent, while there may even be ships paulng below us, making us aware of its dual function. Abstraction of form thus goes together with recluction of Information about the way It works. Something similar tokes pl.o ce in closed lifts: when you are in them you ~on only rely on the number lighting up on the panel to tell you where you are, and even
that depends on the country you are In, with the ground floor being called first floor in some countries, and the confusing use of initials to indicate street level in others. The entire system is based on the reliance on codes: you can't do much about it yourself e.xcept wait and see whether you will find yourself where you want to be. The tendency in architecture to make form more obstrod in an effort to achieve simplification always implies the risk of losing expressive force. This price is all too readily paid fo.r a superficially pleasing and graphically aesthetic overall image. The temptations of 'leu is more' aU too easily leads to too little being achieved at too great a cost. Opinions may differ as to what is superfluous and what Is essential, but simplicity con never be attained by mere omission ... 'du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas'. Regardless of whether the result ls sheer simplicity or complexity, we must always strive after the form with the richest articulation of referenc.e s, so that the maximum scope of pas.sibilities and experiences is offered. The e~tpansion of the architectural space in the course of the twentieth c'e ntury has meont that the materials we use and the way we orvani-ze them reveal more than there is to see. The complexity of the task represents several realities simultaneously, and all those realities must be accommodated as aspects within the piCJn. They constitute, so to speak, a multiple large·scale
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programme by way of o richly variegated substance underlying the specific, straightforward requirements stated in the design brief. The more levels of experience • as aspects · are token into account in our design the more ouociotions con be mode, ond H1erefore the wider the range of experiences for diHerent people in different situations, each with his or her own perceptions. PRIVATI: lioN.~:, 89USS£1S 1896 I v . Ho~lA 6&WI
'As m oil the Iorge provote houses designed by Horlo, thos house, which he buolt lor hos own use (now !he Horto Museum) hos o central staircase around which the entire vertical structure is formed. The main living oreos on the first Roor, woth diHerent levels front and boc~. ore not closed off from the staircase· in stood of hovong to walk down corrodors to the separate rooms, the staircase itself
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leads one through the different oreos of the house. The stairs ore very wide on the ground Roar, and become narrower os they rise. It seems quite logical thot the sloirs to the more private areas on the upper Roars need not be as wide, and on added advantage of the stairwell becoming more open towards the top of the house is that the light entering through the gloss skylight con penetrate deeper into the building. The proportions of the staircase make one aware on every floor of the height of the building, thereby giving the building os o whole spatial coherence end unity.' (9)
something we only notice when II doesn't work. The most striking thing about the lamps Horta designed lor the hall a rea in his own home is of course the similarity to flowers. But to Horta himself the plant-like form represented more then mere ornament: it wos o way of organizing the energy requirements in o functional manner, whereby the lood·beoring structure of the building is combined with a distinct system of conduits lor gaslight and heating. Each component in this integrated system functions independently of the others, and con be seen to perform Its own task within the whole.
We hove become used to having electricity in every room, with the wiring hidden from view somewhere in the walls, but thot reduces the phenomenon of electricity to something we toke for granted end never slop to th ink about. And the healing, being regulated automatically, is
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l. DAL&El IUS~ Ill The mosi striking thing about this house is not the exterior. When you first see it, tucked owoy in o courtyard, it certainly doesn'i look the woy you would ellpecl a house of gloss to look. Besides, you can hardly see anything of the interior from the outside: the big gloss brick fo~ode sits there, olmosl like o wi ndowless wall, in the middle of the old orchiiecture, adopting ilself to the shape of the surroundings. With its unemphatic exterior, the house sets itself aport from its surroundings only by o spectacular
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contrast in materiel between the gloss fo~ode and the massive stone wall beside end above it. But I cannot imagine anyone, upon entering that house lor the first time, not being owed by the space that opens itself up to him beyond that wall of solid gloss. To me this house· one single space really, like on orticulolion of places merging and overlapping from one level to the next, without distinct partitions · was a completely new experience when I first visited it. I entered o spaceship, out of this world, with wonderful panels of curved metal which you could turn or slide aside jusi wi th your finger, mysteriously, to open up a space which hod temporarily been hidden from view. Rother different, to soy the Ieos!, from the normal world, where rooms ore shut with heavy wooden doors swinging on hinges in door.fromes set in stone walls. And then the pair of parallel sliding doors,one of them solid and the other transparent, which you con move independently to enable you to get precisely those gradations of sound and visual contact !hot you wont in o specific situation. The openness with its acoustic transparency makes each remote corner audible, and, together with the unusual quo lily of the light filtering through the gloss bricks, diffuse and serene like indirect lighting, evokes on extraordinarily peaceful end airy atmosphere. So this was how I envisaged the new world of the twentieth century: ond it wos here thot I first recognized, in architecture, the sense of space thot Picasso, Broque, Leger. Delounoy, Duchomp, hod evoked .10 me. The allusion to o new ero wos further affirmed, so it seemed, by the mechonicol end often literally mochine·like character of all the components in the woy they evoke strong associations with on industrial world, in which ports of buildings, like the ports oF motorcars ond aeroplanes, ore produced in factories, and then assembled. You hod olwoys wondered why buildings could not be assembled in the some woy, out of perfected components· and here this wos octuolly what hod happened: the train windows thoJ slide up end down, lightweight aeroplane
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cogs and wheels exposed to view showing how the wi ndows open and close, and attention everywhere for the smallest detail; everything invented a nd constructed on the bosis of entirely new principles. This is how you imagined on architecture mode up of prefabricated structural components. The dream that such o wealth of solutions could be within the reach of all seemed to be coming true or lost. The technique with which this house was designed and constructed down to the smallest detail coils to mind the symbolic perfection of a Rolls Royce and now, afler more than fifty years, with everything still functioning equally smoothly, we still loll lor it. And this is nor really that surprising either, lor its delights lie not only in the beauty of each solution as such, but derive from the implication that it would be possible to repeat them. Sa it all looks more like the form of a technique than the technique of o form. And we con still imagine that the technology of our time will be capable of producing on architecture in which each element within the composite whole con be understood lor what it is and why it has been made that way. But why has the course of industry taken so little notice of the potential of this technique?
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While there ore plenty of buildings with industrial implications on the formal level, and which therefore perpetuate our dream, the architectural components tnat ore industrially produced do not resemble them, and they lock the feeling of Choreou, Eames or Piano. The inter~ts of the construction industry and the paths it treads in practice do not always coincide. The construction industry would rather produce trash with built· in obsolescence, or prostitute itself with perfect prefabricated concrete elements which hide behind a mask of ridiculous vag uely classicist mouldings: we are
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capable of so much · and therefore also of gronness. No, the 'Maison de Verre' remained a dream, and the new world of industrial production still has not learnt how to manufacture conslructionol elements with the some degree of perfection os, soy, modern electronic equipment. It is the misleading paradox of this house that the ideo of industrial production is not confirmed by the industrial reality: things thotlook os if they ore reproduceoble ore not necessa ri ly so. Architecture seems, time and ogoin, incapable of bridging the gop betwee!l ideo and reality the way ort does. 'Only rarely does architecture succeed in escaping its ostensibly inescapable fa te · that of seeking to assert itself in one trend or another, instead of exposing the superficiality of trendinen and replacing it by o truer reality. And architecture, it seems, lends to be too molerlol to be ideal, and instead of otlocking existing reality it does the oppposite: it does its utmost to olfirm it. We con only speak of art when on entirely different mechollism is at issue, when o different paradigm replaces what is familia r a nd within easy reach. What makes this house o work of art is that it makes us
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look ol the world around us with different eyes: it is through the change in our vision that it con change the world. Oil second thoughts the 'Maison de Verre' is more like o complex of unique pieces, on extremely delicate equilibrium of ideas such os con probably arise only once, ol o single moment in history; a holld-<:rofted product, which, with more emphasis on the connections between the various elements than on the elements themselves, is closer to Art Nouveau than to modern industrial thinking. Toke, for instance, the feeling you get when you see the way in which the electricity is conducted through free· standing vertical pipes a nd columns on which the switches ore mounted, and which therefore, instead of coming out of the wall randomly, becomes visible and intelligible os on autonomous system in its own right: that is the spirit of Horta. Here you see the true functionolity, arising from Art Nouveau. But also the spatiality of this house becomes less amazing once you've been inside the big houses designed by Hor1o. There, too, you already lind, as a concept, the principle of the continuous, articulated space, which con be expanded or contracted ot will by means of adjustable
elements, and in which there ore no corridors, halls or staircases in the conventional sense any more, so thot the hierarchy of serving and served spaces slorts to lode, a nd each area becomes living space. When the Dolsoce family was still living there, the house was indeed a Iorge living space with, even in the remotest corners, that touch of Annie Dolsoce's coring hand and her deep love of architecture, by which a nd for which all this come about. So this house, with oil ih perfect metal constructions, radiated a special kind of warmth, which somehow defies description. Perhaps the mosl remarkable thing about il was that the atmosphere il breathed was so unlike the highly exclusive, ostentatious atmosphere thot you usually lind in such a wealthy environment. Complete equivalence reigned in this space, the some core being lavished on the most everyday kind of utility goods as on !he priceless orl
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objects by these elegant and imaginative people in their ever-hospitable environment: o wonderful dream come true of o new, lighter ond more transparent world.' [11 ] The way a building is put together, I.e. how it works, should be 'legible' to its users: instead of a layer of stucco covering everything up, for instance, it is better to show the adual building bricks, the beams, columnJ of steel or concrete, and the lintels over the windows. It might not be such a bod ideo to leave at least some of the 'in nards' of the building exposed to view, too, to make people more aware of the eHort that goes into c:reating a sotisfadory dwelling. In fad, our utilitarian objects in general could do with a more straightforward and lucid design. In the nineteenth century, with its tec hniques firmly rooted in the craft tradition, this was obviou1ly not as important as it is today, with the increasing alienation - also in architecture • of man from his environment. People have been proved wrong time and again in simply trusting that things in the world will be organized with their best Interests In mind: we must be able to see for ourselve~ what is going on.
exactly right, thereby making the studs themselves on integral port of the composition os o whole. Depending on which way you look of It, this ironwork manifests Itself either os on organic plant-like growth or os o systematic composite whole mode up of a Iorge number of ports, eoch of which is delicately shaped and subtly attached. CASTEl BfRANGER, PARIS 1896 I H. GUIMARD (6181
Hector Guimard, who is especially famous lor elegant plant-like metal sculptures framing Metro entrances in Paris, wos also quite capable of working with stondord l-
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ond T-proWed metal rods. Instead of simply sowing them off otthe required length os most people would do, he paid special attention to the extremities of eoch piece of prolile·bar. Being standard moss-produced elements, the bors would of course oil hove the some thickness, but for
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the finishing of the ends of the bars he turned to the smith; thus each section become a hand
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Alouo ScHOOtS l'al,U?l We do not make balustrades with flowing lines mode up of lengths of metal tubing welded together or of profile rods, but we do try to make them of separate components, in such a way that the emphasis is not only on the actual components but equally on the spaces in-between them. And in places where the different components meet and ore olloched, so that the proper space is allotted to each, the attention is drown to the edges. 'A building, but also part of a building, explctins itseH by showing how it worlu and what it's for. We try to mob each element clearly legible bath Independently and in its relation with the others and th.us to make it not only part of a larter structure, but also a seH· contained whole. Thus details can claim complete priority where it matters: in this respect th.,. Is not that much difference from the approach to the building in its entirety. The whole and the parts define each other mutually, and they require the same mecnure of aHention; this is also true in urban planning, where the detail• obviously figure very prominently. While the aiteria that apply in urban planning may be d.iHerent, the thought·proceu is bcnlcally the same as In the urban
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d..lgn of details, including the de5ign of a balustrade, for lnstance.'(l OJ ly thawing how things wortc, and leHing eoch element speak for Itself as far as its function in the larger whole is concerned, the architecture of a building can intensify our awareness of the phenomena that make up our environment. If it Is clear how a thing works, that is because it looks as if it can be taken apart. The expression of analysability and the apparent pauibility of being dismantled are not only chorocteristlc features af Horta's Art Nouveau designs and of the architecture of Chareau, lijvoet and Dalbet as exemplified in their wo.nderful Maison de Verre, but also of the contemporary canstructivi1m (undoubtedly influenced by these celebrated artists) of people like Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster • and of course of
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Heidi Weber pavilion in Zurich (1963·67} 1&!-H!II, some years prior to the construction of the Centre Beau bourg in 1970. ay giving independence to the component parts these do not only gain more identity thanks to the expression of their specific function within the whole, for in addition aHention is drawn to the joins and encounters between the ports. A shift of emphasis occurs from the objects themselves to what connects them, to their interrelationships.
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is more than you can say about the architectural heroes of today and their followers, who stiU have not been able to equal the spatiality achieved more than a century ago on the basis of enentially analogous principles by someone like Henri labrouste.
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Not only did Horta as well as Choreau et al. give each component part its due within the whole, they also ultimately concerned themselves with space, and each of them succeeded in their own way in developing both revolutionary and magnificent spatial mechanisms. This
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Althougn enclosed by massive neo-Renoissonce walls, tne elongated readi ng room of the Sainte Genevieve Library (from 1843-5011 has o surprisingly fragile-looking span with two parallel borre~vouh·like shell$ forming the ceiling. The delicate ironwork is like a modern addition to the heavy remains of the post, and even though you con still find classicist motifs on the slender columns, they ore no more than superficial decorations. The plant-like tracery decorating the curved spans does little to conceal the fact that iron framework serves o purely constructional purpose: the architect's solution, here, is in fact on
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example of Art Nouveau ovontlo lettre. Allhough the ceiling consists of two parallel spans gracefully barrelvaulted ol each end, the space is not divided into two halves: it remains o unified whole. This is portly due to the foci that the row of columM in the centre does not extend oil the woy from one end to the other, leaving the areas ot eoch end uncluttered. The building is much longer than II is wide, but the treatment of the long ond short fo~odes is identical: the some articulation, the some fenestration end also the some book galleries going oil the woy round with stoircoses placed diagonally in eoch corner (so that no side con impose o hierarchical direction on the spoce).(Would you hove placed the stairs in this woy in the corners?) This equivalence of short and long walls is what mokes the library so unique from the point of view of spatiality: the way the double-voulted ceiling leaves the space undivided, intact, is truly amazing. But let us take o look to find out how lobrouste achieved this: if the spans hod really been semi
case the art of making a nd the making of art ore indistinguishable. His solution is not merely the result of what he wos capable of, but, al$0 and indeed more importa ntly, he was capable of olloining what he envisaged in terms of spatiality. (12)
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6 EQUIVALENCE When something that was a Htondary feature in one situation cGn become the main feature in another, in other words that both fHtures can adapt to specific conditions, then we have a system of values in which there is no hierarchy of importance among component parts. And when, for instance, something in any architectonic ordering, on element or on orgoni:ration of elements, con perform different functions depending on its placement in diHerent situations, then its value is no longer constant. loch element can then, depending on the way it is introduced, perform o pivotal function, that is, it con become o centre of o system in its own right; In that case equivalence can be sGid to exist. Conversely, on architectonic ordering in which primary and secondary elements are recognizable as such cannot but refer to a hierarchy of constant and unalterable values: a system of values which is unequivocal and which consequently precludes interpretation an more than one level. In o strictly 1ymmetrical composition you can for instance visually express no more than that the content of the right· hand side is the same as that of the left-hand side.
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lut if we start out from the principle that each element has its awn specific value, not more nor les.s value than any of the other elements, i.e. that they ore a ll equal, then our designs will have a fundamentally different organi:ration: It will be o matter of creGting the right balance between all the elements so that each can function optimally In its own right as well os in its relation to othen.
Ati ScHOOl, AMsTERDAM 1930 I J. Dutm c1ao-1ou There is o story thot Ouiker could only get permission to build his Open Air School on o site that was largely hidden from view by buildings, so that it would not clash too much with its surroundings in this well·ta-do neighbourhood. Whatever Duiker himself may hove felt obout the enclosed sile on which he was to build the school, there is no doubt that the gloss building would hove been very vulnerable indeed in on entirely open setting (even though trallic noise was nol yet o problem at that lime). The protective enclosure ol the fairly massive blocks surrounding the building emphasizes its openness rather than vice-verso, while the proximity to the un tidy bocks of the dwellings with their small gardens ond balconies, combined with the informal atmosphere of this little poloce of gloss, strengthens the feeling of living in o community. The adoption in urban planning of the perimeter block-siting principle with its differentiation of street side ond enclosed courtyard obviously results in more formal house-fronts ond more Informal bocks. In this case o kind of reversal of inside and out has token place, because the presence of the school with its playground ond entrance, informal as they ore, creates a front within the enclosed space. Due to this relotivizolion of the enclosed spoce the situation in !oct comes closer to the open site plan.What strikes one about the building is the at first sight somewhol illogical addition of the gymnasium on the right, which does not match the otherwise largely symmetrical main layout. This is oil the more remarkable here In view of the e~ceptionolly principled and lucid structure, with the concrete Om~
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framework consisten~y defining the slructure thro ughout. In the cose of on architect like Duiker, it is especially interesting to examine the ideas underlying his meticulous and well·thought-out solutions. An ottemptlo analyse those thought processes yields the following results.
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The plan eviden~y required the inclusion of seven dolsrooms · o number that, regardless of whether you arrange them in twos or in threes, means that one classroom tokes up o separate position, which inevitably affects the symmetry of the overall design. The building consists of layers of two classrooms each which could thus shore one outside classroom, grouped around the stairwell. The remaining classroom could thus occupy the ground floor, positioned in the some woy as the other clomooms above, while the space on the other side could be used as o gymnasium. There were several reasons to raise the ground floor classroom somewhat: In the first place no doubt to make up lor the extra height that was needed lor the gymnasium so that ils roof would not be higher thon the first floor. Another reason was that the children in the ground floor classroom would easily be distracted from their work when children from other classes were in t~e directly adjoining playground. This situation was greatly improved by the difference in level, so that the children sitting inside ore higher than those playing outside. 8ut when you look ot the entrance there is more to It than that. The actual, formal entrance is situated under the small gate-house in which the nursery school is located. Once the children ore on the playground, in the courtyard, they ore in o sense already inside, and there is no need therefore (inasmuch as Duiker ever felt such a need}to emphasize the entrance to the building itself · for the entrance cannot be missed. Nonetheless you could call the
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'approach' · under the loggia-li ke porch llonlled by the two symmetrical columns of the wholly symmetrical framework · clossicol, in o sense. This solution is really so 'normal' and at the some time almost monumental that it is all the more striking that the front door itself is placed • informally· to the right of the axis of the building. On closer inspection it becomes clear that some steps were necessary to reach the main staircase leading up from the lending in front of this domoom. A functional reason, then, to move the entrance wllh drought-door to the right; indeed it seems quite logical, especially because once you ore in the 'loggia' (i.e. between the two 'entrance columns') it really doesn't make any difference whether the door is exactly in front of you or slightly to one side. But for everyone other than Duiker this solution would have been the least obvious. Indeed one must hove o very specific and highly exceptional altitude lo be able
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to deviate from one's carefully balanced symmetry for the sake of a convenient entrance, instead of trying lo cram it into the preconceived design. The point is that Duiker did not simply make do with the circumstances as they presented themselves bullock precisely those measures that resulled in on organization that erected the best possible conditions for usage, view end routing. Over the formal order of a consistent symmetry he gave priority to on arrangement in which each part functions optimally both in its own right end as port of the whole. This example of Duiker's school provided the key, if not directly then at any rote indirectly, Ia the solutions presented in the following examples.
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home lor the elderly in Almere i~ situated on o residual site in this new town; on one side it adjoins o parking garage, on the other il branches out freely, without any point of support In the urban surroundings. All the fo~od es facing outwards thus toke on the role of frontages. In other words, there ore no bocks Ia the buildings with rear entrances for delivery etc. !the kitchen delivery entrance is located of the end of one of the wings). Nor i~ there one single main entrance, because the pedestrian entrance to the enclosed inner court, where the less mobile residents con venture out into the world, is no more and no less important than the entrance on the other side, which con be reached by cars. From whatever direction the building is approached, its main shape is seen to be o ~ymmetricol composition, grouped around o central area which is higher than the
rest and where the different wings come together. The symmetrical aspect of the design is not due so much to o preconceived plan as to the fact that there was simply no valid reason here to deport from the obvious principle of symmetry.However, this was not a strict rule: wherever deviation from the symmetrical would beneAt the functional organization the principle was abandoned, in other word~ no concessions were mode at the expense of requirements from within which did not automatically ~tin with 'the system', As o consequence o whole range of incidental deviations hove risen, which together determine the overall ospecl just os much os the main outline. One of the innu· meroble examples of this is the middle section of the west fo~ode : to allow the central hall area to benefit fully from the view it was reasonable to incorporate both o boy and o balcony in that section. There were, in theory, two ways of retaining o strict symmetry: either two bays on either side of o balcony, or two balconies on either side of a boy. But both solutions would hove clashed with the spotiol requirements of the two elements regarding their optimal functioning, and besides, the asymmetrical placement made the space of the boy link up much better with the spotiol organization of the centre os o whole. Instead of designing two balconies thot ore too small or two boys that ore too small simply lor the sake of the overall composition, each element is given its due. The dimensions of the balcony, moreover, mode it possible to include a gloss owning over port of the balcony spoce, so that there is a choice between more and less sheltered places to sit.
709 710 711
• When you start out from a formal order it Is important to avoid to having to force all the elements into lfMit order, ll.cause then you will inevitably make tham subservient to the whole, lfMit is, the value lfMit is given to the pam will 1M dictated by the order governing the wflole. Only by starting out from each individual element and by making it contribute in ill own rlfllt to the whole con an ordering be ochieYed In whkh each component, larva or small, heavy or light, has its rlghtfvl place In accordance with the specific part It plcrys within tfle whale. ?
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1570 I A. PALLADIO Ill I l Pollodio's Villo Rotondo is umversolly odm~red by orchttects. The stmple, lucad floor plan and the purity olthe elevation make the building on unparalleled example of absolute architecture, and of th11 orchitecturol world as o VILLA ROTO~OA, VICtNZA, ITAlY
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l!SSOI S lOt SI8DIUS 1• UCWHIUtE
'reflection of divine perfection'. You con as easily imagine 11 beang used os o church, as o school or os o home, and tn Its essential suitability lor many purpo5e5 this element· ory floor plan represen ts o kind of archetype. bpeciolly unique as tha way in which the entirely symmelracolloyout
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accommodates the four identical loggias along the lour fa~odes. There is indeed no front, no bock, no side; the building is the wme on all sides- olleost as long as you look ot it from the outside. Inside the building the situation is different. You con well imagine choosing which loggia to sit on depending on the time of day and the $tlason, for -and this is quite remarkable- although a ll four ore identical, each offers o completely different experience. Not only does the sunlight hove a different effect on each side, olw the views are completely different - of the avenue leading up to the house, ol the garden, of the farmland belonging to the villa and of the hills beyond. Thus it is in the urban contelCi thot this free-standing villa manifests its most characteristic quolitities. From the outside you con survey the house in its entirety, but it is inside the building thotthe diversity of spatial sensations can be experienced to the full. Countleu architecture historians hove devoted studies to this particular villa, but what Palladia himself had to s,oy about it is lor more interesting. Palladia's own main concern was, apparently, the magnificent views on all sides. So you see that it is not enough to look at o building from the outside alone, but that ill true quality con be appreciated only when you also look out at the surroundings from the inside. Unfortunately the building is not open to the public, so if you wont to get the feel of it you will hove to go and see Joseph Losey's film 'Don Giovanni', which was shot for the most port in and around this villa. 'Amongst many honourable Vicentine gentlemen, there is Monsignor Paolo America, on ecclesiostil, and who was referendary to two supreme Popes, Pia the fourth and fifth, and who for his merit, deserved to be mode a Roman citizen with oil his family. This gentleman after having travelled many years out of a desire of honour, all his relations baing dead, come to his native country, and for his recreation retired to one of his country-houses Up
is in the middle, is round, and receiveds its light From above. The small rooms ore divided off. Over the great rooms (the vaults of which ore according to the first method) there is a ploce to walk round the hall, fifteen loot and a hoff wide. In the extremity of the pedestals, that form a supporl to the stairs of the loggias, there are statues mode by the hands of Messer Lorenza Vicenlino, o very excellent sculptor. ' !Andrea Pall..dro, I Gvaltro libri 0~1/" AtcMJellUro.Ve"ite l 5701
Kierarchy Persons or things can be dlffwent and yet eqwl. Whether you value the one m«e thon the other depends on the sltvotlon yo41 ore In and on the value it represerm for you ot thot 1n0ment. Just os the impomnw depends on the situotion you ore in, so the situation depends on o variety of ext.rnol foctors (think of the difference in the importonce of water In the detett and in a country nice Hollcmd, for inatance~ When people or things ore unequal, they tend to be treated unequally, too. And when that inequality Is embodied In a tystem of valuation in which clusification in degrees of importance takes place, you have hletorchy. ly equivalence I mean diffet.nt people Of things whkh you value equally and which you can d anify CKcording to a value system without thot
resulting In lneqvatlty. The following example fTom J.Hordy mokes this clear: If you want to classify a number of books according lo value orwl you stort by making o ptle with the most valu-able book on top and the least valuable one ot the bottom, then this pile will, essentiality, represent o hierarchy. Now If you place the books vertically In the some order then their position will be sMn 1o be equivalent ev.n though the dauification is the some. lhe differenus ore dill there, but the order Ia one of dlff-e and not of priority. Of course the books co&Jid hove been ordef'ecl occording lo other criteria, such aa accor--ding to cwthor, aiu , Of dote of publication, but Cll os the books havelleen stocked to lotm o pile there will Inevitably be o top - ond o bottom one. Once hierarchical OJTOng-ntt hove been introduced, they tend 1o be aeff·perpetvotlng. At first sight one might wond4w whether hl-rchy In archlted\n'e • as for os objects oncl the clemonds Inherent In them ore
concerned • Is auch a bad thing, but unequal demands very soon give riae 1o unequal situations, which con in film easily contribtne to Inequality amont pellftle. lhat Is especiaUy Inclined to hoppen when you con only think In terms of your own pen-t standards, and are
au tor
therefore unable to relativize them vis ell vis diHerent situations. When deslgnlnt we make ample use of claulfications of the order of importonce of component porh, as in a structure (Omposed of main beams and subsidiary supports, or in a raad networic with main traffic arteries and minor roads. So long as such an order m-ly reflects a differentiation of qualities, there Is na prob.lem. However, when svch an order implies placine one thing above the other rather than side by side, extra caution is needed. An elementary example of spotiol conditions confirming inequality or even contributing to it is the location of o foreman in o factory, In o small office on o raised level so that he con keep on eye on everything that is going on. But he would be in o better position to judge how the work is proceeding il he hod more contoc:t, i.e. if he stayed on the same level os those who ore answerable to him. We must try to avoid pulling the person in charge, who therefore has a hig her position at the workplace, in o spatially more elevated position than the others, in other words to ovoid placing undue emphasis on the superiority of his position within the organization. People in o physically higher position than others ore always ot on advantage over those down below. Even people who ore simply toller than overage ore ot an advantage, and if there is o choice between lop and bot1om punk-beds the top one.s ore always token first. In everyday language, too, people 'look up' to others or 'look down' on them, and the hierarchical implications of these expressions refer directly to the some kind of spatial preconditions in architecture. It is necessary to consider always whether o raised position is really functional, os in the case of the wheelhouse on a ship or the stage director's box in the theatre, and to toke core that those people with more
decision·moking powers than others ore not automatically permitted to dominate the workplace on the level of spotiol organization, too. In on office building the managers and deportment heads soon claim the most attractive rooms for themselves, regardless of whether those rooms ore the most appropriate ones lor them on the functional level. In the Centrool Beheer office the senior stall deliberately occupied the more inword·looking 'work· islands', which ore less favourably placed as for os the view outside is concerned. Thus the general criterion of 'quality' with respect to the workplace was relotivized: in no way did the spotiol organization reaffirm the hierarchy within the company, in fact it hod a mitigating effect. In the years since the office Centrool Beheer was built there has been a general tendency to reinstate the traditional hierarchic relationships, but the managing directors stiff occupy the some offices, and the oreos occupied by the lower echelons ore still unaffected by this trend. Analogous examples con be found in the scale of urban planning. Thus there is o strong tendency to make the location of the more expensive dwellings more attractive and thus to distinguish between cheap and expensive housing. There is not so much wrong with that, provided the greater attraction of the more expensive housing is not achieved ot the expense of cheaper housing, thereby unnecessarily widening the gop between the two. This is the case when the more expensive type of dwellings ore oil situated on the edge of o housing estate, thus obstructing the view of the cheaper type of dwellings crowded together in the middle. The more favourable the location of o residential neighbourhood, with a view, soy, of o pleasing landscape, the more the architect will feel motivated to 'do something with it' ... and more often than not that means making o grand gesture in the form of on elongated, multi-storeyed apartment building, for instance · but where does that leave the houses and streets further bocU The greater the number of dwellings in o beautiful location, the greater the number of dwellings in the area whose view is obstructed, and the greater the difference between privileged and under·privileged local residents. With each solution we come up with we must ask ourselves whether the spatial conditions are equally diJtributed and whether, deUIMrately or acddentally, our solutions risk reconfltmine, on the spatial level, that whkh was already dubious on the social level. Even If archit.ctvre as svcll can perhaps exert only a minor inftv.nce on the hierarchicol relations within sodety, then at least we ca:n try to avoid undencoring that hierarchy and instead propose spatial conditions to counter it. To whot ext.nt can architecture hcrve a political implication? Is there such a thine as totalitarian architecture, or democratic architecture, or are thue
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terms merely fanciful interpretations based on o penonol fMilng ond thus without ony general validity? Everyone is indindecl ta experience ex~..sively largescale buildings which dwarf human beings as oppres· sive, and indeed all tataliterian 1"e9imes demonstrate a rema~able fondness for awe•inspiring dimensions. This is especially obvious when the buildings that are -ted by such a regime are in fact blown·.up versions of an old, even familiar world and style of architecture. lut not every building that is huge neceuarily exudes an oppressive atmosphere. Indeed, the very lock of accenibility, or even a forbidding 1tructure lllte that of many mecf11val castles, need nat neceuarily be uperienced as opprenive either • the inhabitants may well be friendly people whose forbears had ta defend themselves against a hostile outside world. ly reversal of a situation of context architecture can a lso take on a
diHerent meoning • filce a formal, imprenive flight of steps can turn into an informal, friendly grandstand. Furthermore our sense of what ane con and cannot do in architecture often arises from the assodation that a ~lf'fain form or architectural idiom e¥oke in us. Classicism, for Instance, tends ta be ouacioted with authoritarian regimes, because we know that It was favou1'ed by those regimes, and so evidently held clf'fain special attractions for them and presumably suited their purposes. Still, it is not quite 01 simple as that: fot there are certain cloukist buildings that hove a friendly and by no meoM authoritarian aPfMOran
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asped that show unequivocally whether on environment is authoritarian or toleNnt is the degree of freedom offered by the orvanization of the architectural space for indeed lade of itl to choose one's visval focus of attention: is one's a ttention fordbly drawn to o slntle point or is one free to ignore thAt focus and concentrate on other a spe
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tobles and make only round ones from now on, but still these kinds of small detolls are often only the beginning. In office buildlngs, for instance, the she of the roam indicate• how 'high up' the occupant i• in the hiefarchy, thereby Ignoring functional criteria • the monogen a:re the only ones who are allowed to place their clesk cflatonally. lftn If archlt.cture ln itHif cannot be blamed for abuse of power, and eertoinly cannot prevent it, it is 1urely better to guard ogainst creating 1potiol c.onditlons in which 'bossineu• thrives.
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The most ex1reme example of abuse ol spatial conditions is Hitler's insistence on silling ot o desk on a raised platform ot the end of o very long, high room so thot visitors would hove to cover o considerable distance while he looked down ot them: o calculated eHartto make the visitor feel small and unsure of himself. There ore many other less extreme examples ol misuse of space, not ofwoys inlentionol, perhaps, but due to lock of foresight. Functional solutions lhol oppeor quite innocent con turn out to reiterate the exertion of power. Think ol the star-shaped arrangement of the bookcases in many libraries, wilh the tupervlsor in the middle so thot he or she con oversee everything at one glance -like in o prison. And the persistence of those ridiculous little balconies on the fronts ol 'important' public buildings which, however pleasing the sculptural effect on the frontlo~ode, ore really only suitable for 'tolking down' loon ossembled group of people.
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786-1009 C134·110l This mosque, founded in the eighth century, consists of several architectural components together forming o Iorge hell of abo ut 135 x 135m. Unlike Christian churches, o mosque is bosicolly o piece of holy land, rectangular in shape enclosed by walls and filled with columns: o sort of forest of petrified trees with vaults ond cupolas overhead. Although the orientation to Mecca is ol~importont in the Mohammedan religion, it does not ploy o port in this bull" ding. Here there is no oxis expressing o specific orientation aport from the obvious procticol constructional
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Communal prayers ore held in mosqves, ond there ore 's.ermons', but mos.tly people pray individually. The vast space of the hall in the Cordoba mosque con accommodate o huge crowd of worshippers, whose sole poin ts of reference in the space ore the numerous columns, if only beco11se people con leon ogoinst them: there ore no seats, everyone sits on the Roar. But the mosque also serves os o Iorge roofed public square, where people come for peace and coolness besides. prayer. The forest of columns articulates ond defines the space in such o way that there is no single explicitly
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central locus- the focus con shift anywhere in the space. However strong the religious impositions of Islam moy hove been, the spoce of the Cordoba mosque itself does not impose anything on its visitors: it welcomes any group of people, regardleu of their purpose. At any rate that was the situation until, in the sixteenth century, a huge hole was cut into the heart of the ma~que to make room for a Christian church. The church was duly erected, in spite of vehement apposition from those who realized how much irreparable damage this would do to o building that is unique in the world. This disastrous undertaking resulted in the creation of a centre which, due to the sheer size of the new structure and il$ position in the middle of the space, inevitably become a mercileuly dominating feature . It is quite remarkable how the church with its toll windows letting in the bright sunlight clamours for attention, overwhelming
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the old environment with its finer articulation and subdued light. Regardless of where you stand in the building, you con never get away hom the influence of what hos undeniably become the main area; o spatial hierarchy has been inescapably and Irreversibly established, while absolute equivalence ruled the spoce as a whole originally. Because the original spoce hod no explicit centre of attention, the centre could be anywhere and of any size, depending on the situation and the number of people. Without imposing ony particular order or type of use the spoce (more like a covered market than o place of worship) presented itself as open and responsive to every form of attention. And thus this space, unlike the Iorge 'columnless' mosques in Istanbul, represented the archetypal covered public square.
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Pfon 51. Pt.ler's / Btomo•te
ST. Pm~·s. RoMe •w·mt The comparison of a few moments from the history of St. Peter's helps to clarify much about the attitude and ideos of the architects involved, precisely because the building is such o powerful symbol of hierarchy. Even when history is obscure on the subject the pions themselves, if regarded os projections of the architects' consciences, ore still able to tell their own story about the standpoints end feelings of the people who designed them. It seems to me that the Peruzzi pion, which prompted these considerations, would be difficult to surponJn , richne$s. As o schematic pion is actually not much more then a diagram, but as an archetype it could also serve as o basis lor many other things, maybe very different from o church. Toke o school, for instance, where the classrooms could hove their own separate domain in the towers, while the space in its entirety offers groups the greatest
141 141 141 744
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opportunity imaginable for finding o place wi1h the proportions, intimacy and connection with the others needed at that particular time. The closer you get to the centre the more open it becomes, which gives more scope lor communal activity. The pion is organized as o succeuion of places, each of which forms o centre in relation to those around it but no space dom inates ony other, so that the space in the middle does not necessarily hove to be the principal space as well, but could also be regarded as the hallway to centres situated around it. So this pion is o perfect example of the principle of equality expressed in spatial organization. its exceptional spatial qualities, moreover, enable each port to be interpreted separately even though this interpretation will hove on inAuence on the surrounding ports, and vice verso, because of the open organization. This polyvalence Is thus onti·hierorchicol in principle; you could go even further end soy that it is o spatial model of freedom of opinion and choice, whereby various opinions ore able to influence each other without dominating because of the 'transparency' of the whole. Just imagine whet it would be like if this plan hod been worked out further end built instead of whet is there now, with its one.sided relationships that actually could already hove been detected at the planning stage. The proportions, the articulation, the relationship of enclosure to the penetration of spaces, both os such end with respect to each other, the concavity end convexity of wells, the directions, the entrances and their positions, oil combine to form the spatial organization which determines whether o plan lends itself to the promotion of domination or equality. Thus spatial relationships exert on inRuence on the relationships between people. Another equally vital difference between the plans of both Bromonle and Peruzzi and thai of Michelangelo is to be found In the principle of accessibility. The consistent symmetry os well os the composition of the pions of Peruzzi ond Bromonte suggest several entrance$ on oil sides, and the Bromonte plan even proposes twelve entrances end exits oil together: Michelangelo has only
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unmistakably become the fo~ode and that implies o bock and sides, and the main oxis which Moderno was later to extend with his addition to the church is already indica1ed in Michelong~lo's plan. So the spotiol inlerprelolion of the centralized, hierarchical woy of thinking which has always characterized the Church was irrevocably introduced into the organization of the building. While a certain resistance to this hierarchy con be detected in Michelangelo's rather forced attempt to give ot least the lout interior sides the some value, Moderno seems to hove hod no problem with it ot all. His addition
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one entrance which is further occentuoted, moreover, by o colonnade ond steps. So, although his interior is still symmetrical the accent on the exterior definitely lolls on the side with the only entrance. The foci that you con only go in ond out on one side would undoubtedly imposes one direction on the interior, and causes its cenlre of gravity lo shift in such o way tho! the symmetrical form would be belied by use. Bromonle's many entrances help to establish the independence and equality of the various spaces, and they also seem lo be saying that people ore welcome from oil sides ond directions. Michelangelo a ltered lhe proportions of the spatial units so that the whole church virtually become one central space. If there should still be ony doubts that his oim in doing this was lo creole conditions which would shift the locus of ollention to the centre, then this single main entrance is enough lo dispel them. One side has
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of o nove definitely formed o spatial main axis, which focuses the attention on the centre of Michelangelo's pion no matter where one is in the building. It thus becomes both the centre ond the final point of attention . Everyone knows his place now, so do rily ond order hove been inexorably established in the architecture, thus demonstrating its subservience to power. 'The square or piazza which Bernini later placed opposite the church, olreody completed by Moderno, is not only o lesson in urban planning but also in counterpoint. The space enclosed by the circular, curved colonnades forms, as it were, on independent counterpoint to the church. The independence of the oval port is further increased by the fact that it is not directly connected to the church, nor does the oval serve, literally speaking, as o sort of gateway to it. After all, the tropezoidollorecourt resulting from the receding connecting orms is situated in-between. This recession certainly does not mole the fo~ode of the church more imposing, as is sometimes claimed in on attempt to interpret Bernini's plan in terms of the perspective power of these arms. However, since the perspective is reversed it actually increases the distance and, seen from the church, it promotes independence, if anything. It seems to me that the connecting arms were not mode to recede lor the sake of perspective, but because of Moderno's facade which wos extremely wide in the lrmlled spoce available, and because of the need to connect with the ovol. Thanks to Bernini, whatever his objectives with regard to the Church may hove been, the church has been relegated to the distance, in spite of its place of honour. The colonnades enclose o separate space with o form of its own. It is the accommodating potential of this colossal space which theoretically enables the crowd of people there to assemble either in front of or opposite the church, or even to turn their bocks on it. Although the square is situated on the main axis of the church it does not really enhance it. Only the geographic centre marked by the existing obelisk, which Bernini hod to toke into account, is actually situated on the church
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axis. However, each half of the oval has its own geometric centre and, moreover, the two fountains olso serve os centres of gravity, as it were, despite their positions on the edge of each cirde segment of the oval enclosed by the colonnades. The centres of both halves of the oval ore situated outside the axis ond it is there, on either side within these two halves - between the fountains and colonnades - thot the feeling of being inside is strongest. However, we must also realize that Bernini's plan is lorn from its context in the present situation, with a yawning spoce in front of it, instead of the intimate Rusticcucl square, with its informal atmosphere, lacing the oval. Othervvise, according to Bernini's plans, the square would hove hod o final, enclosing arch itecture which would not only hove increased its seclusion but would olso hove resulted in the official entrances being situated to either side of the axis instead of upon it. Bernini's truly origi nal counterpoint leaches how approaching violence could be checked. In the working· out of this ingenious architectural concept he also showed that he hod the right attitude ond the right feeling to be able to corry through what must hove been his a ims so
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consistently tho! they ore also easy to discern in the ports. The fourfold colonnade, no mere partition but o substantial building itself, forms o visual boundary which is enough to give both helves of the ovol the effect of being walled. looking through thts enclosure you con see the neighbouring houses which thus remain ever·presenl so thot the two worlds, both shaped according to a logic of their own, the one informally ond unpoved, the other entirely sculpturally formed, complement each other in their conlrosf. This, moreover, results in beautiful spaces in·between. Only when viewed from the centres of the oval segments, where the lour rows of columns ore, os it were, in conjunction, does the 'wall' lose its enclosing copocity ond become transparent. Did Bernini do all this deliberately, and if so wha t does it molter? After oil, his surprisingly original solution works ond that's all that counts I for nearly three centuries o sort of orchitedurol balance continued to e)ltSI between the church and Bernini's square, even without the final arm which would hove consolida ted its counterpoint to the church, and would hove mode it more diflicult to break open. or course those who wonted to give even greater e)lpression to the power
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of the Church hove a lways aimed to break it open and the street grid also helped to promote if. However, it was Mussolini who personally gave the orders in 1934 to demoli5h the 'Spino' I So this celebrated neighbourhood was duly replaced by the architects Pocentini and Spoccorelli with the cheerless selling of the Via della Conciliozione. fascism and the Church come to terms with each other in the field of urban planning, and it is difficult to imagine a more literal expression ol their social intentions. The axis which originated from Michelangelo's single main entrance was thus extrapolated ond blown up to the scale of the dty. This placed the church in the visual field, thus expressing its domination in the context of urban planning.' 1(6]1 Bernini's square is not only o mognili<;ent counterpoint to the church, it is also and especially the first public square in the world not to hove been shaped by the buildings surrounding it. It is in foci on edifice in its own right, with the colonnades forming two transparent yet sturdy fo ~odes. Instead of being leftover space, the square itself is the focus of attention thonb to the shift in emphasis from the actual buildings to the urban space between them. itlooh as if the architect deliberately designed the oval oreo between the random irregular edges of the surrounding neighbourhoods with o view to creating a new urban space in Its own right, thereby giving the residual fragments of space a certain form and stature, too. The contrast between this Iorge elliptical form with its graceful geometrical design ond the historkolly evolved urban fabric of the surrounding area into which it was imerted must hove been especially spectoculor when the square with its obelisk and fountain were built, since it was the only consistently poved ond properly drained place in the city at the time.
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3 Modcmo 5
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Fronts and bcKiu The example of the diffe,.nt ltages of development of St. Peter's and Bernini's square show how an:hiteds can abuse space in order to lmpreu, or conveHely how they can use it to help create equality between men and thing.s. It also confirms how problematical the position of the architect has always been, dependent as he always was on the large sums of money that were necessary for him to actually realize hi.s ideas Tilt Hoppy Fomily/ and all too often he allowed himself to make Jon Steon/1625-791 concusions In the end. So he always had a subnrvient role, and he was nearly always in the service of the reigning poweN, and consequently allowed himself to be used time and again as a tool in the hands of a few rather than of the c.ommunlty at large. Throughout history architects have been involved mainly In building pyramids, temples, churches and palaces, and hctrdly or not at all in providing dwellings for ordinary people. Architects as a rule concerned themselves only with the out-of-the-ordinary, and on the rare occasions that they did have Ia consider the focts of everyday life it was always in ,.lotion to the outward appearance of a building, and very often m quite spedfically with the front, the ~ode of a house that had to look grand. IH m The history af an:hitedure Is a history of fofades • the buildings seem to have had no backs at alii Architects always sean:hed for a formal order · they prefer,.d to lgno,. the other side of the coin, the bustle of everyday Tho Counny Houte/ life. And this is stillla:rgely true toclay, even though the Pie~t de Hoogh design of public housing has in the course of this (1629-84/ century become a full·fledged branch of an:hitecture. Behind the Schonkweg/ The,. is still that invisible ancls.ubconsdous dividing Vl""nl YOn Gogh line between an:hitecture with a capitol A and without. (1853-901
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DUTCH P-'INTEaS Dutch pointing is especially remarkable for the fact that the subjects ore mostly quite ordinary, ru!H)f-the-mill situolions with quite ordinary people. Even when the subject has o significance that lronscends the ordinaryand what better medium than pointing to make it do so· there is o tendency to interpret the lofty subject in terms of on everyday situation. Dut<;h pointers did not pay much attention to the problem of the gods, nor for the ways in which they manipulate men; and their patrons, too, hod liHie power to dictate the way they wonted themselves a nd their possessions portrayed. All the more numerous, then, ore the domestic scenes, such os Von Gogh's ' Potato Eaters' and of course Jon Steen's interiors, which offer us o glimpse of life behind the scenes. Such paintings show people in informal situations. Even though there were masters ond servants,
The Ullle Slreel/ Johonmu Vetmeer {163U5)
the way In which the men and women, tromps and musician~, children and pets appear to coexist does not give one the impression tha t differences in soc1ol status, such os they were, were actually cultivated. In any case the great artists did not display particular interest m such matters, while their keen sense of proportion surely mode them interested in showing what was really going on. Another artist, Pieter de Hoogh, shifts his attention · as soon as he steps outside the house · to the back yord, to the informal side of things llike Van Gogh, in facti. Even in Holland's most famous painting, 'The Nightwotch', the emphasis is not really an the fortitude and bravery of the soldiers of the civic guard, because of the liveliness of the scene with children and dogs running around. Sure enough, all sorts of symbolic meanings ore attributed to these secondary ~gures, butthot does not detract from the informality of their presence in the company. And our next most famous pointing, Vermeer's 'Street in Delft', shows both back and front. The location Itself is, almost as a molter of course, the bock yard, as usual lacing the street and as usual peopled by diligent women, cleaning, sewing or indeed pouring milk like the woman undeniably dominating the scene. The Dutch Old Masters that ore treasured o~ great masterpieces by the world's leading museums and to which Holland owes its reputation as o notion of pointers contain on absolute denial of the distinction between formal and informal. The Dutch pointers of the seventeenth century demonstrate how the principle of equality has olwoys been rooted in our tradition os o molter of course, and it is undoubtedly thanks to this tradition that on architecture that was neither intended to impress nor to oppress could develop, with a non-hierarchical spatial organization and o fairly down·to-eorth attention to both people and the utilitarian aspect~ of things. It was not until the twentieth century that the world of architecture .started concerning itself with public housing construction, ond it is not so surprising that the Dutch were among the first - for once· to transfer the focus of attention from the for mol exterior to the essence of o dwelling: the organization of the Roar pion, of the
accessibility, and the integration Into the urban context From o formal order in which primary ond ~econdory functions ore disposed in o ~xed hierarchy the attention shif1ed to on interrelated whole in which primary and secondary functions become interchangeable, depending on their role within the organization as o whole and on how that role is appreciated- in other word~, depending on one's viewpoint and vantage point.
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Nightwok:h/R•mbrandl von ~iin {1606-69)
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lE CORBUSIER , fORMAl AND INfORMAl
No one hos been more successful ol bridging the gop belween formal order ond daily life than le Corbusier, the lwentieth century architect por el!cellence. Without ever actually quoting forms from the post, he derived his formal language not only from the clos.sicol monuments lhol he visited on his many travels, but also from primitive farmhouses and especially from what the new technologies hod Ia offer. He tra nsformed a mll!ture of ocean liners, aeroplanes, trains, Greek and Roman columns, vaults, mos.sive stone walls, and modest adobe
dwellings into on architecture in which all these ingredients con be tasted without them being individually recognizable. His kitchen is suffused with a rich bouquet of aromas from diverse places and historical periods, rich and poor, city ond countryside indiscrimotely. His inspira tion come from oil over the world, but especially from his direct surroundings · and he was receptive to many things that ora usually shunned by architects. You need only look carefully at one of his many perspective drawings (often outlined 'orchitectonically' by a droughtsmon and then I
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IISSO NS 101 SIUDIWIS IMU( HIIIC1Uif
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filled in by himselij to see o variety of everyday features which would be rejeded by most architects os bourgeois but which, os he realized full well, would shape the reality of everyday existence once the building was completed. When le Corbusier used the term 'o machine lor living' he was referring not so much to perfection and automation but rather to o special attention for how o dwelling octually functions and how it should therefore be designed with that in mind. In le Corbusier's later works (alter the Second World Wor) and especially in the buildings he designed in Indio it seems, or first, os if the people occupy o rather subsidiary position as o result of o shift in emphasis to an unprecedented sculptural form. He decided to locus his attention on the seat of government in Chondigorh, the new capitol of the Punjab lor which he supplied the urba n pion; the design of the dwellings wos left to others. This new administrative complex wos to give expression to the hope and optimism with which the tragically impoverished subcontinent sought to develop into o new, modern stole o dream in which architecture offers people o way out of their dismal situation. The monumental sculptural power of the form Le Corbusier conjures up before our eyes is owe-inspiting and fantastic. But isn't it oil rather more lor architects than lor the people in thor city? More for those in power than lor the electoroJe? Yes and no. At first sight it would seem so, but the extraordinary thing is that he succeeded in avoiding this pitfall, too. Architects who hod never seen anything
like it before regarded this new world of forms os on exclusive novelty, but in spite of their originality, the great rough blocks of concrete resembling ortiliciol rocks ore so integrated in the surroundings os to blend into the landscape, and in that sense they hove o certain fam iliarity for the local inhabitants. for the rough unfinished concrete structures, so unlike the lightness and smoothneu of stereotyped modern buildings, ore not really so lor removed from the traditional homes the local population built for themselves. It is because of their vast proportions and massiveness thotle Corbusier's buildings dom inate the surround ing$, certainly not because of any authoritarian echoes in the orchilecturel And there is no trace of references to classicist forms , nor indeed Ia any other forms that might evoke associations wilh the exertion of power. Thus these buildings con be approached just as well riding o donkey as riding in o limousine, and people look the some inside ond outside regardless of whether they ore wearing ex.pensive clothes or ore shabbily dressed. It evidently makes lillie difference, here, who you ore and what you represent. PARliAMfNT BUIIOING, ( HANDIGARH, INDIA
1962/ HI
I.E Couust£R 1111.1m
Especially the main hall around the assembly room is uniquely spacious. As big as o cathedral, filled with the ta llest columns you ever sow, this space gives you the feeling thot it has been there for thousands of years.
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It could as easily ho¥e been used as o market, or as o place of worship, or for great fesli¥ities you con imagine this space as the setling foro very wade range of events, over o very long period of time. These later desagns by Le Corbusier could qUJte easily change, you could even Fill them up with whatever you like not that that was le Corbusaer's mtenhon · wrthout !has ever oflecling the aden lily of the burldangs. This might even be to thear advantage, one day, JusI os rhey will retain their beoury, when they grow old and decoy, os o sort of essenHolly, habitable landscape
266
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WAm RESUVOIR, SU~KEJ. INDIA 1446 • 5 11113}
This large reservoir, of which lype there are many in the environs of Ahmedabad, Indio, was conceived as on entourage lor royal relaxation, but also os o water reservoar lor penods of drought. Like everywhere an Indio, people flock to the waterside every day to wosh and dry the lengths of brightly coloured cloth in which they dress themselves The vast stepped surround ensures that the water IS always easily accessible regordiess of the level, while the horiz.ontol articulation provides everyone with thear own 'sedian' and hence with o temporary terra tory
Ma•ter
If ever on o~hitectvrol environment demonstrate how o generous gestvre of royal form can offer spoce to accommodate the doily life of eountleu people, it must be thete steps in lnclio. They thow dearly that there need not be an unbridgeable gop between a formol architectonic order (wtllch a.rchitects ore so keen on) on the one hand and meeting the requirementt of informal everyday occupations (which architects treat with disdain) on the other. We believe that this gop Is only unbridgeable If the architects coiiHfMII are themHives locking in quality and competence. The royal or grand gesture need not therefore outomotkolly exclude everyday life, on the contrary, if con lend it a touch of royalty and grondeun the ordinary becomes extraordinary. It is a widespread miKonception omong architects that they should concern themselves with the extraordinary, i.e. that
they bring the exceptional down to the level of the ordinary instead of rendering the ordinary extraordinary. In our woric we must olways aim at quality on so mony lev.ls as are needed to create on environment which does not exdusivefy serve o particular group of people but which serves all people. Archltectvre must be both generous and Inviting to all a like. Archltectvre can be described as Inviting If itt design is os fot tMomlng to the outslclen of society as to members of the establishment, and if one could imogine it existing in any other conceivable culturol context. The architect Is like the phytlclan • there Is no roam for discrimination between values in his thinking; he must devote hit attention equally to all values, and he must simply see to it that what he does makes everyone feel be"er.
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BIOGRAPHY 1932 1958 1959·63 196$-69 197().99 Since 1975 Since 1983 1986-93 199().95 1991 Sonce 1991 Sii\Ce 1993 Since 1995 Since 1996 1997
1999 1999~
Since 2000
1he Hague (Netherlands) 8NA Cube (lnsriMe of Dv~h Architects' oword)lor his complete
Sorn '" Amt~erclom Groduo~ from 09lft Uni-sily ofTechnology. Seb up hil own oflic& On edotoriol boord of the Outth orcnitecturoJ mogozine Forum lwith Aldo von Eyd, Joap Salem a ond others) lecMes at the Academy of Aeu"cher Archi!ebM fxtroordinory proleuor ot the Universiw cle Geneve Choirmon of !he 8erloge ln"itute, Am1terdam Riclde< in de Orde W'On Oranie Nossou !Knight of the Orde< of Oronjo Nos.au) Honorary FeOow of the Royal fn~titute Cfl British Architecb lionorory 111ember of me Akacle111ie der Kiinste, Berlin Honorary me!Ylber ollhe ~codemlo delle Arti del Di~no, Firenze HonO
ceuvre.
1993 1998
2000
PROJECTS be
Ouest Profe.uonhips 1966·1967, 1970, 1977, 1980 Mit, Cambridge iUSAj 1968 Columbia Univeniry, New York (USAJ 1969·1971, 1974 Toronto University JConoda) Tulona Untveuily, New Orleans (USAI 1978 1979 Harvard University, Mauochuse"s (USA) 198 1 University of Pennsylvonio (USAI 1981·1986 Unlversite de Gene•e (Switzet1ond) 1987, 1993, Various uni.,.rsilles in rile United Stoles and Canada 1996
1967 1967-70 1968.70 196S.72 1972-74 197J.78 1977·81 1978.80 1978·82 1979·82 1979-90
1968 1974
1980
1985 1988 1989
1991
Cily of Amsterdor!! Prize for Archi!ecture for the S!Udents' House in Weespor>troot, Amsterdam (Netherlands! Eternit Priu for CenPraol Beheer oliice burlding. Apeldooro li'lether· lands) Fr[tz.Schumocher Priu for hi1 complete 01<1vre AJ. •on Eck Prlz.e for Vr~denburg Musi-c Cet(Nethe~londs) Eternit Prize [honorary mention) lor Vredenburg Music Centre, Utrecht INerherlonchl M..cl.elbach Prl~e. orchiteci\Jrol award by the Ciry of Arnsr.rdam for the Apollo School•. Am.ste
261
lHIOlS IJt S!UmJS IJi UCHII HIUI!
Concteie Pri~eiO! the Ministry of Social Welfare and employment, The Hague (Netherlands) Pli.x Rhlnon 1993 for the Schoolveraniging Aefdenhout 8entveld School. Aerdenhout (Nethllflondsl City of Sredo Award for Archlleclure for the lobrory and De Nieuwe Veste Centre lor Art and Mulic (Mu1ic and Douvre (Netherlands) School Building Prize 2000 lor MootelSori Coliege Ooil, Am1rtrdom INothorlonds]
1980.82 198().83
1980.84 1982·86 1984.86 1986·89 1986·93
1988·98
Stud~<~t> Hou~
Wellpea11oat, Amsterdam {Nethe
178. 203 Montessori primary school, l>elft !Nerherlondsl; 25, 28, 33, 62, !53, 193, 203 h1ensi011 to llnmij, Amsterdam (Netherlood1) (o:lernoli~ed in 1995); 128 Ot Orie Hoven nulling home, Amsterdom.Slotervoort (Neth&rlands); 35 , 40, 46, 61 , 130. \92 House convttsion, lllrtn (Nethedandsl 8 e.11perimenlal hou~siDiogoon type}, Delft INelherloodsj; 41 , 157 Extension to Montessori School, l>elh 1Netherlond$J Centrool8eheer ollice bijilding (with lucas & Niemeijer). Apeldoom (Netherlands); 17, 23, 25, 80, 11 d, 133, 194 De Sc:holm c001muniry centre, De-.enter·Sorgele (Netherlone Hogue (Netller· lands!: 138 Pavilions, busllops and morkellocilitfts lor square (Vredenborg. plein(, UtceochljNotl>erloods); 156 Apollo primary $Chool1, A111sterdom {Netherland!(; Amslerdom MontessoriSchoolondWillemsporkschool; 31, 142, 183, 186, 213,242 De o.-erloop nursing homo, Allllert-HCJ'Ien (Neriterlondsj; 34, 210, 220, 249 liMo hovsing, Berlin {Germany}; 41 1, 207 Oe Evenoor primary 1Chool, Amsterdam !Netherlands); 182, 186, 224 Hti Gtin housing project 1406 or>e·fomily hooses end S2 oparl· lllentsl. A111ersloort fNelherlaods); 58 Theone cenire on Spui, The Hogue (Ntthetlond1), complex consisl· ing of opor1Jnent1 and retoil prerni~e1; theatre ond film focilities (Theater oon het Spui, CloeiYlOtheel: Hoogs filmhuis, Stich!ingl
Mat
1
co
d
1988·96 1989.90 1989·99 199().92
199().93 1990-95 1991·93
1991·98 1992·95 1993·94 1993-95 1993·96
1993.97 1993.99
1995.97 1995.99 1996-98 1996-99 1996-00 1998.00
1999.00
haul Bentveld], Aerdonhour (NemerlondsJ Amstardcmse 8uurt hou>ing project, 43 units, Hoorlem (Netherlands) Srudio 2000, 16 live-work units in Muziekwijk neighbourhood, Almere (Netherlands) 'Kiick o.er den Oijck' housine ptoi&d. Marwutein Noord, Dordrecht jNetherlonds) De Polygoon 16·dowoom primary sc~ool, Almer& (Noth~rlonds) II ~,i .cfetached hou~es, Almere.frlmwij~ jNetilerlonds) Benelux Potent Ofltce, The Hogue (Netherlands} ExteMion to CenrraoiBeheer office building, Apeldoorn (Net~r· lands) Extension to Wlllemsporkschool, Amsterdam (Netherland!] Library ond De Nieuwo Ve>l&, Conlte lor Art end Music (Music and Dance depatlment), Breda (Netherlands) Oarf'litory/gues•house, Kurobe Ciry (Toyof'lo DislrictJ !Japan) Chasse Thootre, Breda JNethetlonds] Anne frank primary school, Po~ndrechtjNetl.erlonds) De 8ombordon 20-clouroom remedlnl school, Almere (Netherlands) Mcrkant lheolte, Udan (Ne!hotrlcnd>J Hou1ing on Vrijfleet •on E1locn, Popendrecht(Nethetlondl) Ronerdomer Slfcsse ~®line p(ojed, 136 vn1h, Duren !Germany) Exre~1ion to Vondetveen deporltnent store, Auen (Netherlands) Strolouer Holbinse1housing project- Slock 7 • B. Berlin (Oer111onyj Mcntessotl College Oost, secondoty school for opprox. 1650 pupils, Amslerdom (Netherlands] E>.ttnsiM to the librory, Breda (Nether(onchJ Sijlmer Monument -first stage - lin coo perc lion wlrh Georges Des· co111bes). Amsterdam (Netherlands) Oe Koperwiek pri111cry school, Venia (Net~trlonds) Housing project, Prooyenspork, Middelburg (Netherlands) Bijlmer Monumenl - second (finolj stage -(in cooperolioo with Georges Oescom~sl, Am>lltrcfom (Nelhetlond>l Schirmeilltr Hou11 on 8otneo-eilond, Amsterdam (Nelherlonds) Porodijnel housing proiecl, Capelle con d1n US1ei(Netherlandsl 32 hov1e1, !Casteel Unicum building scheme in Poelgeest planning oreo, Oegslge6st (NethetlondsJ De Vogel1 primary school, Oeg$1geest (Netherlond1) Extension IQ Wilfemsparhchool, Amsterdam (Nelhorlondsj
Studie.s/ unreallzed projem 1968 1969·73 1971·72
1974 1975
1984 1986 1986-91 1988 1989 1989·9 I 1990.94
199().00 1992 1993
1995 1996 !997 !998
1999
2000
2001
Competitions (',.first prize) 1964 1966
1967
Monogoon housing Urban pion lot cily e•tension end sltucture pion, 0IS'Itnter jNether· lonci!J Me111orandum of objectives end crltorlc ltK r~newcl olthe old city centre of Grooingen (Netherlands) , in cooperotioo with De llcw, lcmbooij, Goucfnppel and otho" City centre pion, Ei~dhoven (Netherlo~d1J (with Von don Sroek and
1982
8o~ema)
1985
tic
1986
1970 1980 1983
(Neth~rlonds)
1976 1977
1978 1979 1980
Propose! for a university library incorporating a I 9th century church, Groningen [Netheflands) Institute lor fcolog1col Research, Hewen jNetherlonds) Urban pion for SchoiiWburgplein (theatre squorej, RoHerdcm (Netherlands) libwry, loenen o/d Vecht (Netherlands! Ex!en>ion IQ linmij. Amstarc!om.Sio181dljk (Nethll!londsl Proposal to develop Forum districi, The Hogue (Nelhet!ands) Housir>g ptoiecl, Berlin.Spanclo" (Germany)
Edension to S1 )ooll Academy ol the Arts, 8redo (Netherland$) Expedmentcl housing project ltK Zuiderpolcler (Rooting 'water· housti'), Hoorlem (Netherlond1) E>plonode film Centre (<>er· lands) Urban sh.tdy lor Moogjesbclwork (par! ol the old centte), Zwolte (NetherlandII <!nsion to Vredenbutg Music Centre (ind. lhird ooditorium) end on accompanying urban d•sign lor the Utrecht City Project, Ultacht (Netherlcndtl Office building, Ceromique site, Maastricht (Netherlands) MediaPor~ office comple~ with sh.tdios and housing, Colog~~e (Germany) Amsterdam Mu1ic Centre lor chamber music, Am1terdom (Nether· lands) Study for a dtt>ign for a new academy (art. music, orthitechlre etc], RoHerdam (Netherlands! Housing project for Stralo~r Holbinsel (81~k 12), Serlin (Geliog.en (Netl.erlonds) Urban design for former Sambcrdon area. Almere·Hoven (Nether· lands) Two office buildings, Roo~ndooi!Netilerlonds) Co~version of office j'Arbeidsvoorziening') in theatre compleJo 0<1 Spvi, The Hogue (Nelherlonds) Residential building, courtyard D at Veer~ Pcort, Middelburg (N111herlnnds) Shopping centre in 1/eerse Pocrt pion. Middelburg!Netherlonds) HrwgemeMtld hou1ing pro[ect, Maastricht (Neme~lond1) btension ond re<~ovotion of office building, Benthemsltoal, Ro"et· dam {Ntthetlands)
1988 1989
1990
199().91
Chu"h· Driebergen !Netherlands) town holl, Val~~tnswoard (Netherlands) City Hall. Ar1aterdom (Netherlands) Urban design for Nieuwt'larkl, Amsterdam (Netherlands) Urban design for Ro~rberg, fronUutt om Moin (Germany) Creche. Serlin jGermonyJ Urban design fO< Colognt/Mu!heim-Nord (Germany) Office building for Friedrich Eberl Stiltung, Bonn fGermonyJ Office bYilding IO< Gruner & Johr, Homburg (Germany! Of/ice building lor Publ ic Works, Fronkfur1 om Main (Germany) • Folm centre jocodemy, museum, lobrory etc), Serlin (Germany) E•iension lo iown holl, Scint·Deni$ (Froncel Urban design for Sic<>
~~~
W!U.c!S
269
au tor
1991
1992 1992-93 1993
1993-94 1994 1995
1995·96
1996
1997
1998
1998-99 1999
2000
2001
• Beoe!ux Bcond Office, The Hogu& {Nethedonds) Offiu building in Richti-Aieol. Zurich-Wc!lisellen (Swilwlond) ·ciry l hecire, Delh (NetMrlcnd•J Scnoollor Coll~ge Anctole franu, Droney (France! Olfite co.,ple• for Sony, Pot~clamer Platz, 6erli~ (Germany) • Berlin Olympia 2000 I ucban design lot port of Rummehburger Buehl, 8edm [Germany) Hoosing project foe Willeneilond, Arn1terdom (NefherlondsJ • Housing projecl, Ouren (Germany) • Urbon ~1ign (oflice1 f01 Cl-sOJ>gtl oreo). Freising fGermonyJ Audllorium, RorM (Italy} Governmenr office building lor Ctramique site, Mooslricht (Nether· rands) hteMion to fire Deportment School, Schconlwgen jNttherlands) Extension to Von Gogh Museum. Ar11!1etdam (Netherlands) Office bui[ding IO< landlog Brondenbu19- Potsdam (Gea oreo and for tl.e r.bvctino.Colombo a•is, iome jltolyJ Creche, Berlin (Germany] lo!hor Gunther Buchh~Jm Mu~um, Feldoling !Germany) • Urbon design for communoty centre, Oollgow (Ge1111ony] Academy of Arn ond Design, ~o[dlng (Denmarl ) 'Urban design for i'enonlulo, Tel Aviv {f~rael) New-bvild for lchrhus Hogeschool, Ronerdam jNethe,lands) Urban design for A.el Spr1nger Mulh Media, Berlin (Germany) Urban de1ign for ThereliMhohe, Munich (Gtrmany) • lheotre, Heisinger (Denmark) lrrbon de~ign lor un[vers•ty complex, Malmo jSweden) Urban d111ign, Berlin Pankow (Germany) 'Urban design of Pole is quarter lhou1ing. oHices, parking), 's·titriogenbo:.ch (Ntthtldoorn jN&therlonds) Conversion and u tension al low courts, Zwolle (Ntrhe~londsl Urban deslgn lol' SiteS of Theresie~hohe [housing, shops. offic•sl. Muni(h [Germany) • DWR o!li'e butldi~g. Amsrecdom (Ner!terlond1) Ex!ensfon to office building, Homburg {Gtrmonyl • PDswerl housiog proje-ct, HoorlemiNeth•rlondsl Moslcrplonning study. two office buildings in Thereilenhoht, Mooich (Germany! CompleJ< to house prirtrory s-chools, ofter-ochool COJt and crkhe tn Osdorp. Amsterdam (Netherland~} Worer·houses, Copenhagen (Denmor~J Urban design lor offtce di1trict, Ulm (Germany!
1985
1986
1987
1988 1989
1991
1992 1992.93 1995
1996 1998
BtrUn I Genna I Vienne / Zogreb / Splij / Braunschweig/ Cologne ond further ('Six architecture> pbotogrophiees por Johan von der Keuken', trCI'Ielling exhibition fi!Oturing buih work (Studenlt' HOilst, De Orie H011en, Ce1ttraol IHhHr, Vredenburg Mu1ic Centre, Apollo Scnoolsj, three reti~on and other p~ojetts since 1979[ MIT, Cambttdge {USA) ond various other univer>iries in the USA (Filmhous Et.plonode, Bicae Universl liit, Munich I Town hall, Middelburg / Si~nnal Muse~m al ArtJ ibeta Puero, SOo Poulo I Hous der Niederla~cle. Munster I Musev.m Nogete, l'logele; rra~lliog exh ibitioo '1-lermon Hembetger Atfo,ulorions', compiled by the Netherland! Architecture lnsritute, Ro"erdom
Group ond OM·mon show•
REFERENCES
1967
Publlcotlons by Hermon Hc.il:d>eifer
1968
1971 1976 1980
Biennole de$ Jeune$, Poris [Fran"l· [SIIIdents' House] S•edelijk Museum, Amslerdom (Ne!herlonds![lollowing oworc:l ol City of Am$1ardam Award lor ArchileclureJ His!Qricol Museum , Amterdom [Netherlands) [show ol plans lor Nieuwmorlt quartet. Amsterdam) V~nice Siennole [ttoly) Stichting Wonen, Amsterdam [Netherlon•.hl Kunsthous, Homburg (Germany]
270
USSO J~
'Concours d'Emulofi011 1955 ¥Qn de slvdenten'. BOI!Whmdig Weekb/od, 1955, p. 403 'lnleiding ·• fol'llm no. I, I 960 ·w~ten en gawelan', Forum no. 2. 1960/61, pp. 46-419 'V~rl(hroolde ~elderbeid', fo
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'ZOP · 200.201 'Monre,sori Primary School in De!k', Harvard fducolionof Review: Arc~irtcrure ond Educorior~vol. 39 no. 4, 1969, pp. 58-67 'Schoonh.id~tQI!ImissiGs', forom 1970, pp. 13-15 'Lool, B. !.d.l. Archfl
T Espoce de lo Maison de Verre', l'Arellilechlrt d'Aujourd'hui no. 236, 1984, pp. 86-90 Biennolede Paris. Arthi~ect~Jre, wik/8russel~ 1985, pp. 30J5(exhobor•on cotc1ogue) 'Archit«..,ur en con~trucfoeve vrijheid' and 'Bibliolheque Ste Genevibe in Porljs', Archiiecrwr/8cw~n no. 9, 1985, pp. 33.37 (12) Profeel documenJalion Music Cowre Vredenburg. Delh [981 [13] 'Stodtverwondluneen', Mo12tlaJi"n no. 2 !Reader ol rl... Hotb!th~ie dtr Kunst·B4rfonl. 1985, pp. 40.5 I "Right siu Of right size',lec!Ure in lndtsem 1985, Dollt 1985, pp. 46-57 'Espoce Monlessl)(i', TecJmrques & hchi~erk', Bouwoo. 12, 1989, pp. 2~21 lecture in /ndesem 1990, Oelfr 1990 Hoe modem i.s cle Nederlondse archltedvu•~ 0 I0 Publishers, Ronerclom 1990. 60.05 lnrraduelion In Jon Molema, lr. J. Ouiler. S.rlttorchlfe<:tuu!/4, Rolterclano 1989 1he Public Reolm'. A•U. 199 1. pp. 12·44 'Mag net 'n be-er(e ~t:berper olsllrblieh?', loop H:udy: Anorchrsr, O have any ideo of whot they dJOw?'. 5/iid!o '90 '9'2. Ths 8erloge Cohiets I, RoHerdcm 1992, pp 13·20 l&uoJU lor S!vddills In Arcbir.cture, Rotrerdam 1991. se~ond 11Yi$ed edirion, Rotterdam 1993, rhotd revised edition, Ro!lerdom 1998 'Nora, ond Triet~nale, Nora, 1992',\ecture in The Jopon ArdHiect Emo lu~ no. 8, 1993, pp. 147·152 'fen b•o$Coop met vi~ie', Sl rien no. !97, 1994, pp. 58.01 'Kiosloko1en oon eeo centrale leer~traol', 1/uimle op school, Almere 1994, pp. 16-17 Herman Hertzberger Proi~tkle/Pta{ects/ 199().1995, Rotlerdom 1995 Vom Bouen. V01/esungen iib.r A!chite~IIJI, Munoch 199S(Germcn translation o! leu011s lor Students lrt Archilecrure) 'Desig~ing os Research', The New Private 1/eolm. Sludio '93.94. The Barlage CohiersJ, Roherdam 1995, pp. 8·10 Clocss~ Theater Breda, Rolterdom 1995 uusons for Srudenfl in Architecture, Tokyo 1995 Uapone~ tronslationJ lazlolli di Atc.hftf'tturo, Romc·Bori 1996 (lta[ioo lrooslotion of tenons for SI!Jdents in Archoleclurej li~oos de Atqurteturo, Soo l'ali!o 1996 [Pa
271 IS
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ShJcJents In Atchrleclurt, Taipei 1996 1Chrnue tront.lotlon olleuont lor ShJclents m AldutechJre) Betgeijk, H YOn, H.rmon H.m~er, ilo$le/8ol!on/ &erlrn 1997 'Le Cor!Mtsier et lo Hollonde', le C66, 69 ..,.;111, o .S.H. St. Pettt's Sq~o•e. Rom~ since 1656, 185,261 llotot, P. Kosboh, Hengtlo I 973; 62 .,.,_.., o. St. Ptltr's, Rom~ since I 452; 197. 258 a.w.,..,., M. Spangen Hou1ing, Rotterdam 1919; 49,54 ~riot~;.... ,, M. 1 L.c. vero o1w VM>gt Von Nelle Factory, Rotltrdom 1927·29; 216 a...t., J.H• • . , ...., Vrot$enloon Houl'"11· ~oflerdom 193 1·34; 45 Caroclllio, .ltolt I. W...to free Unrversity, Setlin 1963; 116 EnJOnche, Barcelono 1859; 122 1., a. lllp Mt, L. Dtlloet Moisan de Verre, P01is 1928.32, 238 a-.1 le Polors Ideal. HoUle R"ll 1879-1912; 119 O.Meooboo, G. Pedelltion Undetpcu, Genevo I 981, 232 Ovibr, J., I. lifvMt, J.O. w;, • ..,,. Zonnemaol Sono101rum. Hilve11um 1926-J I; 225 J., a. llf-ot Open A~ xhool, Ams!erdom 1930; 246 Ouibr, J. Cintcc Cimao, Amsterdam 1933; 82, 226 llffti, O. Tile Eoflel Tower, Pcrrs 1889; 70 fyd<, A,...,. Orphanage, Amsterdam 19S5-60, 126 o...tll, A., J.M. Jujol Perc Guell. Borcelono 1900.1 4; 21 1 Oo4l.. ,.u .A. Fcmlllsl,re, Guise 1859·83: 44, 60 GMorcl, H. Colle! Beranger, Poris 1896; 241 Undttrground Railway Stations 1898.1901 ; 73 Htlwtb
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272
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moms IN U(H ti !CIUI!
l'orvul, I . St. Peter'>, Rome >ince 1452; 197, 258
,..,,, lo WOlld Exhibition Pavili011, Peril 1867; 226 Pltfto, L 16M Povillcn, Pom 1982-84; 243 IIMtnW, 0 . Rietveld-Schrader H011>e, Utrec.hll92A; 34, 219 IMia, S. Wens Tcwtli, IOI Angeles 1921-54; I 19 s- Oollt, G. ;, Sl Peter's, Rome >inct 1452; 197 Scloitobl, L xhlou kle•n Glienic~e. Berlin 1826; 255 Tav!, I . Hou>ing, 8trlrn 1925-27, 167 v..,..,, M.H. Cite Nopal4on, Pori> 1849; 39 W.-lre, l . Praitctlor o resrc!entrol oreo, Berlin 1965; 118 w...t. J, a J. NorJr Royal Crescenh, 8oth 1767; 56,254
Illustrations All photographs by Hermon Hertzbtrger e~otpl: R. Bolte-Redc!ot; 653 Hein de ilovter, 347 a.~ggrooff; 6.41 Rrchord Btyond; 525 Martin Ch01les; 587, 602, 616 George> De.combes, 469, 646, 649, 650, 65 I. 652 Willem Dlof"OCm, 30, 31, 75, 76, 95. 138, 139, 1.40, 423 , 432 , 434, 437, 445, 448, 453, 462, 478, <179, 527,538,539, 584,596 Aldovan Eyd; 316,319, 321 L. feininger; 313,541 Ooll Floc11; 580 Reinhard friednlch; 297, 298 P.H. Goede; 315, 320 WerntH Hoo1; 51 Jon Ho'"'"'"· 145, 146 A\.elti Htrt.r.btrger; 85, 86 Ver0011 Hemberger; 719, 720, 721 , 722 JohonvonderKeukon; 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,21, 22, 39, 44,141 , 207, 39i, 395,396, 397, 401 , 40A, A05, 406, 409, 4 14, 417, A49, 461, 465, 491 , 535, 546, 594,600,623, 624 Klou>Kinold; 388, 483, 493 , 499, 526 Michel Kort; 737 Bruno Krupp; 37 J. Kurtz; 203 Rudoll Menke; .429 Roberto Pont; 713 louis von Pori don; II 0 Morion Po11 WokoH, 505 Uwa Rau; 84, 576 Renondeou, 389 Rorold Rooze11; 599 lrok Solomons; 3A1 H. Srege111on; 430, 431 H. Tulkor; 642 Jon Vennal; 323, 324, 325, 326, 329 Get von dtr Vlugt, 61, 62, 66, 88, 89, I00, I02, I03, 371, 387, 4196, 578, 579.6 19, 626,627,705,706.707 Gordon Winter; 132 Cory Wolrnsky. 467
The work of Berman Bertzberger ls the subject of wide international esteem. 111111 first saw publication of Hemberger's Les&ons for Students in Architecture, an elaborated version of lectures he had given since 11173
at Delft University of Tedlno\ogy.ln it, the background to his
work and the ideas underlying it are put into words by the arc.hitect himself. It presents a broad spectrum of subjects and designs, with practical experience and evaluation of the use of these buildings serving as a leitmotif. This immensely successful book has gone through many reprint& and has also been publiahed in Japanese, German, Italian, Portu.gueae, Taiwanese, Dutch, Polish and Chinese. The book divides into three parts: Public Domain, Making Space Leaving Space, and Inviting Form. By arranging texts and deaigru into a number of themes Bertzberger has managed to direct his broad practical experienc.e into a fascinating theory. ln his view everyone - the more he seea, experiences, and absorbs - is automatically in posaeuion of an ever-expanding arsenal of potential instructions with which to choose a path towarda a result. More than 750 illustrations give a broad insight into Bertzberger's 'library' and a stimulating impression of one of the moat important Dutch architects alive today. Rather than supplying the reader with
design recipes, Butzberger has provided an euential source of inspiration to everyone involved in aome way with the design process.
