Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Habraken - Questions - That - Wont - Go - Away PDF
Habraken - Questions - That - Wont - Go - Away PDF
N. John Habraken
Abstract
I want to raise a more philosophical question. What fundamental images and ambitions have guided us in the past
C: and may guide us in the future? I want to particularly call attention to the way we explain ourselves to ourselves and
to those we work with. This question may not seem practical but, ultimately, our self-image determines the way we ;..
design: our buildings reflect how we see ourselves. To let you know right from the beginning what I am aiming at, my
talk can be summarized as follows: we come from a tradition of monument builders, but today we are almost entire
ly immersed in design for everyday environments. Where we come from is very different from what we do now. The
way we see ourselves is o product of the post and is becoming increasingly counter productive.
"
Keywords: Architectural Education, Every Doy Environment, Design Responsibilities, Teaching Formats
THE EMERGENCE OF THE ARCHITECT Him I consider the architect, who by sure _and
wonderful reason and method, knows both
In the past, the architect's job was about special how to devise through his own mind and ener
buildings: the palace, the castle, the mansion for gy, and to realize by construction, whatever con
the rich and, above all, the place of worship: the be most beautifully fitted out for the noble
temple, the church, and the mosque. You may add needs of man. 1
a few categories to this list, but it remains exclusive.
Consequently, everyday environment was never For Alberti, the subject is not architecture, but the
considered architecture. For thousands of years it architect. In this passage and many others, he
came about through a process so deeply rooted in defines a new kind of person, one who knows how
social patterns and material skills that it was taken to design. This new professional wonted to be free
for granted, much like we take our breathing for from everyday environment and its traditions, con
granted. We still make that distinction. When we straints, and limitations. From now on, focus was on
travel to see architecture, we walk through the innovations and a new way of building. The com
streets and squares of a foreign town towards our mon urban or rural fabric was not what Alberti had
destination: then we stop and look. in mind. For instance, he explicitly recommended to
At the same time we know everyday environ bl.J ild outside the city in free space unencumbered
ments can be amazingly rich and beautiful. Think of by adjoining buildings. In that sense too, he pre
ci Venice, Cairo, Damascus, Kyoto, old Beijing and
z ceded Modernism.
Pompeii, and so many others. As long as human The new language of architecture resulting from
M
shelter was produced environments of high quality that emancipation, spread across the Western
0
> have come about. Master builders are known to hemisphere independent of whatever traditional
a
C: have contributed to their beauty, but the concept of environments were already there. The rural villages
.2
a the architect we identify with is rather recent. It is the in the Russian plains, for instance, had their onion
ci product of the Renaissance. Alberti first formulated
c the new professional role that emerged in those
domed churches, but outside stood the Palladian
villa of the land owner. In the New England villages
days:
1
Leon Battisto Alberti, On the Art of Building, in Ten Books, tr anslated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil leach, Robert Tavernor, The
C. MIT Press, Camb ridge, MA, and London, 6th printing 1996.
0
► 1 2
on the American continent, that villa was trans
formed into a court house or a town hall. In those .D
0
days, already, architects formed a brotherhood that I
transcended national boundaries, making architec C:
.J:
0
ture in what we now call the network mode.
Architectural history is the story of what they did. z
The co-existence of architecture and everyday
environment has yet to be studied in detail. No
doubt there was interaction, interdependency, and
mutual borrowing, but for all we know it was a
happy coexistence. Architecture as an international
culture, found its place in the common fabric which
took care of itself, had always been there, and was C:
what those who made architecture could depend F;q / Rotondo. Detail of the villa Rotondo, (/)
v
i::
on. Vi�enza, Andrea Palladio, arch.
(!)
"'
::,
0
..c:
C
0
Cl..
0
13►
C: most elaborate vision of all was Tony Garnier's pro
(I)
e
..::t!.
posal for a 'Cite lndustrielle', by which he set out to
.0
I
0 convince himself, his peers, and his clients, that in
C
..c:
the machine age everyday environment could be
0
..., humane and pleasant if designed properly. The
i architectural preoccupation with a new everyday
environment was not always benign. European
mass housing schemes as built before and after the
Second World War were also considered experi
ments in a new architecture and urbanism. Still
today, many millions of people live in the relent
lessly uniform apartment buildings that came to
C: cover urban fields from the Atlantic all the way into
-0
V)
the far plains of Russia. •,
C:
�
E CONTRADICTIONS
�
Cl
C All these examples - the famous Modernist icons
0
_J
C:
and the infamous housing blocks - were done by
0
V) architects who shared the belief that making good
..::t!.
'-
0 architecture, as they understood it, was not in con
E
� flict with everyday environment. .,__
(I) But if we examine the properties peculiar to
E
0
Vl everyday environment and compare them with what
>
Cl
� SHARING VALUES
0
C:
0 What is common cannot be special, but it can be
·-sC:
... of high quality. Famous urban environments from
the post teach us it is quite possible that on entire
(I)
"' environment is beautiful, functions well, and is well
:i
0
..c: Fig 4. Palladian facade of corthouse in New Fane, executed. That kind of quality first of all requires that
C:
(I) Vermont, USA those who work in the some location shore values
C.
0
► 1 4
to a significant extent. Alas, such a sharing is not Cl)
..:,!.
part of our tradition. As already pointed out, the 0
0
Neo Classicists did not heed local custom. Driven I
by their own vision, Modernist architects as well C:
.s:::
0
aspired to an international style among themselves
independent of local thematics. But all that is histo z
ry. Post Modernism liberated us from professional
conformity as well. As a result, because everybody
wants to be different from everyone else, we just
want no comparison at all. Nevertheless, today as
in the past, sharing of qualities in a same locality, is -�
what makes a good environment. �
<(
.S
"'
Fig 5. Venice houses. Houses along canal -0
existence. >-
0
Change goes hand in hand with permanence.
0
Houses may come and go, for instance, but the 0
street remains. The balance between what will
change and what will remain long term is becom
ing increasingly important when projects become -�
0
larger and larger. A housing project of several hun Fig 6. Detail, interior of Sonneveld House, -£
"'C:
dred uniform units cannot just stay rigid when time Brinkman and van der Vugt, arch.1933
goes by, but ml)st adapt to life's variety. A sky .g"'
Q)
scraper in which a few thousand people work is not do not see small scale adaptability as an invitation
a building but a vertical environment the size of a
classical Greek town. Nevertheless, we tend to treat
for a new kind of architecture. On the contrary, we
regard such trends as encroachments on our
'°
0
0
it as just another big_ building. The large project is autonomy. Here again we find a conflict between N
(l)
C:
with us to stay, but it must become increasingly fine our traditional instincts and the real world we must .....
::,
Bergpolder flats, C:
..s::
W. van Tijen, 0
1934 z
�
0)
'
C:
0
..J
ative talent is stimulated by constraints. What else SKILLS AND METHOD C:
0
"'
makes creativity important? There is no reason to _,,,
0
assume that design for everyday environment is less The new skills we need all have to do with cooper E
demanding than what our forebears did. On the ation. Sharing environmental qualities makes us lis �
contrary, sharing values, designing for change and ten to others. Change must honour what was done E
0
permanence, and coordinating distributed design earlier by others and permanence must offer space V)
tion in designing but also promises an architecture trol calls for ways to parse design tasks so that they
0
that will be more lively and dynamic and complex support one another. (.'.)
than has been seen in the past. It will be an archi The tool of cooperation is method, it comes to
tecture in which the permanent is truly structural the fore wherever we seek to work together. Method
-�
and meaningful and the short-lived full of energy is no more or less than a generally accepted way of
0
and surprises; where form is thematic in unending working. A good method allows each of us to do £
"'C:
variation and renewal, and where the act of design our own with a minimum of fuss. But method does
ing is significantand respected on all levels of inter not dictate results. It facilitates interaction between -�
Cl)
:,
vention. This new architecture demands both inven designers, leaving judgment to the individual,
tion and talent to come into its own. allowing her to experiment and explore. Indeed, in
-a
Nevertheless, creativity cannot define a profes architectural design as in music, method allows 0
0
N
sion. Creative people are found in all walks of life. coordination, but thereby also stimulates improvi (I)
C:
They shape medicine, law; science and engineer sation. In music, we ploy together because we :,
....,
ing. It is not enough to call a ourselves a creative ·accept methods of scales and tonalities and har N
0
profession and claim privilege for it. Donald Schon, mony. Given on accepted theme, each con impro- z-
in his reflections on the practitioner's role in society, vise as port of a larger whole. The skills that come �
(V')
has pointed out that the skilled and knowledgeable from using method creatively we may coll 'themat
�
professional must possess what he calls "an artistry" ic skills'.
0
C:
to be a good practitioner. That goes not only for In architecture such skills include, for instance, 0
architects, but also for engineers,_ lawyers, and making variations on an accepted typology, or 0!=
medical doctors. But a profession's identity is using agreed upon patterns, or setting up a system cii
c
defined in terms of knowledge and skills. It will be of parts and relations for the creation of different
forms in the same style. All this helps to share val
"'(I):,
asked: What is it your profession knows that others 0
..s::
do not? Do you have the skills and methods to ues. In terms of change too, the abilities to explore
Q)
apply that knowledge successfully? variations allows us to anticipate possible changes !:l.
0
l 7 ►
....
C
,.
0
I
C:
i
t__
V,
-0
C
'
�
E
Fig 9. Alexandria. Public housing Alexandria, Egypt, built in solid natural stone as financed by Saudi Arabia. \
�
O> in programs, or in context, without abandoning how different examples compare, how it behaves
C:
_,
0
form principles already set into play. In terms of dis over time and responds to change of inhabitation
C:
tribution of design control, thematic development or other circumstances. Teaching architectural
.
0
I/')
of possible lower level variations helps us to assess design without teaching how everyday environment
the capacity of the higher level form we are work works is like teaching medical students the art of "
Q)
a::
Q)
ing at. Just as we assess the capacity of a room to healing without telling them how the human body
E hold different uses by imagining how it might be fit functions. You would not trust a medical doctor who
0
VJ
>- ted out as a bedroom, or a study, or a play room. does not know the human body. Knowledge of
0
everyday environment must legitimize our profes
0 sion.
l'.)
NEW TEACHING FORMATS Recently, schools of architecture promote
research, if only to establish their academic cre
-� If you try to organize your design teaching that way, dentials. But we do not have a clear research agen-
'
0 you will find the traditional studio format does not
-£ \
help. Learning a skill demands exercise, and exer
.Q cise demands failure and time to try again. The jury
ti
invited to a design studio does not ask what the stu
Q)
::,
-0
C
environment can our profession establish a 121
"'
0
urgency. We have been in a state of denial for too .x
long as a result of which we suffer a lack of direc 0
-�(!)
:::,
'°
0
0
N
<ll
C
:::,
--,
I z
0
Voyatzaki, of a talk given for the 6th. EME
ENHSA meeting of Heads of European Schools of (')
Architecture, June 2003 in Hania, Krete, Greece. �
0
C
The some subject of this orlicle is dealt with in some .2
0C
depth in "PALLADIO'S CHILDREN'� a new book Author's Address:
(2005) published by Taylor & Francis, 2, Pork Square, N. John HABRAKEN
Milton Pork, Abingdon, Oxon OX7 4 4RN, Great Britain. Emeritus Professor of 121
V)
:::,
ISBN 0-4 7 5-35784-5 (hbk) or 0-415-3519 7 -8 (pbk} Massachusetts Institute of Technology 0
..c
or www.tondf.co.uk habroken@xs4al1.nl C
(!)
a.
0
19■