From Urban Experiences to Architectural Narratives
"Cities are a densely coded context for narratives of discovery and the recovery of experience. They have a capacity to act as condensers of information and to integrate assimilations of behaviours, people, styles, typologies, forms, ideas. Cities are comprehended through spatial practices. Movement in the city is a major practice which enables us to accumulate and organize urban experiences. It creates spatial narratives containing memories and views, specific places, objects, beginnings and ends, distances, shadows, buildings or parts of them, encounters, signs and panoramas. Urban space becomes intelligible through sequences of movement. Its complexity, mystery, splendour, rhythm, are revealed and interrelated through the route of the urban dweller. Similarly to urban space, architectural space is perceived in terms of sequences and spatial practises. According to Jean Nouvel 'To erect a building is to predict and seek effects of contrasts and linkage through which one passes...in the continuous sequence that a building is...the architect works with cuts and edits, framings and openings...screens, planes legible from obligatory points of passage'."
(Vaso Trova)
Vaso Trova (2008). 24th NCBDS: 'We Have Never Been Pre-Disciplinary', Georgia Institute of Technology. Sabir Khan, Chair.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
A house is a symbolic place that regulates privacy
"A house is a symbolic place combining paradoxical concepts that can easily be identified as 'binary codes.' Internal and external, private and public, female and male, sacred and profane, clean and dirty are binary codes used to explain roles and activities of people in spaces (Lawrence, 1990; Ünlü, 1999). The spatial configuration of house layouts may be different in different periods, regions, cultures, and societies. Societies establish order in their livelihood spaces and reflect their personalities in these spaces.
There is a mutual relationship between space and human relations. The differences in social systems reveal morphological diversity in house layouts. The family contains the socio-economical structure of society; although it is a small element, it is the cornerstone that forms the future of society. The family needs a specific space, a house, to achieve this function based on their characteristics and the desired level of privacy (Sungur and Çagdas, 2003).
Privacy is a dynamic topological property of space; therefore, it should be approached in an analogous manner. Spaces could be categorized not only depending on their degree of privacy, but also according to their capacity to regulate privacy. At the same time, complementary approach counters the strict categorization of spaces into either public or private. According to that point of view, architectural space and its various elements should act as regulators of privacy. Space and its elements should be able to increase or decrease privacy according to the customized needs of its occupants (Georgiou, 2006).
Robinson (2001) identified different zones of privacy within a single Midwestern house and pinpointed their importance for the individual. Robinson argues that through a series of spaces with different degrees of privacy, the autonomy of the resident within a small social group is provided. Furthermore, the individual is granted a large measure of control over time, space, activity, and social interaction."
(Faris Ali Mustafa, Ahmad Sanusi Hassan and Salahaddin Yasin Baper, August 2010)
Faris Ali Mustafa, Ahmad Sanusi Hassan and Salahaddin Yasin Baper (2011). 'Institutional Space, Domestic Space, and Power Relations: Revisiting territoriality with space syntax', Asian Social Science, Vol. 6, No. 8, ISSN 1911-2025 (Online), Canadian Center of Science and Education
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Simple Houses: making a new house attainable for first-home buyers
"The [Aotearoa New Zealand] government has opened its first 'simple house' today, its answer to streamlining the design and build process to allow first-home buyers affordable housing.
Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson opened the house designed by Stephen Smith and built by Housing New Zealand in the south Auckland suburb of Otara. ...
'Simple Houses can be built anywhere in New Zealand and the layout can be easily changed to suit owners' needs so residents can get the most of privacy and sun,' Williamson said.
The government's first Simple House had three bedrooms, a large open-plan dining, kitchen and lounge area, a bathroom and study. ...
The government said the new simple house concept would make it quicker and cheaper for aspiring home owners to build a simple home, largely because of streamlined consenting."
(New Zealand Press Association, 22 October 2010)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Room to Swing a Cat: Parker Morris Standards
"In the early 1960s government tried to map how big each room should be to fit in the furniture associated with it. For example, a bedroom shared by a couple should comfortably accommodate a full-size double bed (minimum 4ft 6in), as well as enough storage for two people’s clothing. The resulting Parker Morris report proposed minimum dimensions for each room and a figure for storage according to how many people lived in a home. Sadly Parker Morris never imagined dishwashers and fridge freezers, home computing and DVDs so his standards are outmoded."
(Gentoo Group Ltd 2006)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Architecture of Change: Design Adjusts to the Age of Flux
"The Architecture of Change is a paradigm shift that embraces the transience in today's culture and life in an age that worships change. We are the most news-centric generation ever, ruled by flux and mobility. Process is as important as the continually morphing goals. We are beset with styles, trends and other forces of change. A new means to help sustain our adaptability in the built world is rapidly emerging and can be termed The Architecture of Change. It frees us from buildings and environments that are bland boxes made of immutable materials and mute walls. It enables us to design with more emotion, and deliver experiences driven by content and meaning."
(Richard Foy, 15 October 2004, Design Intelligence)
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The Constellations ProjectSHARE
