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Phantom Housing: The Rise and Fall of Public Housing in North America
Get PDFThis paper examines the rise and fall of public housing in North America in order to explore the principle of sustainability. By extension, it addresses the concept of sustainability as it relates to the city. Urbanity is simultaneously the most and least sustainable form of development. While extremely sustainable from the point of view of density (economies of scale, efficient use ofinfrastructure, etc.), it is highly vulnerable to social, political and economic forces. Such forces can easily trump the environmental sustainability of any building or community.The death and transfiguration of key portions of our public housing stock provides insights into this phenomenon – for which I will use Toronto's Regent Park as a case study. The redevelopment ofthis 69-acre parcel aims to transform a failed social vision into a model for sustainable community development
Metaphor, Architectural Design, and Environmental Response
Get PDFValue-laden articulations of the task of the architect guide manners of working - the concerns, inspirations and procedures given priority. Architectural practices in turn determine the nature of the physical constructs that result. If architects are contributing to environmental degradation by designing buildings that are inefficient and unhealthy, and a pressing need exists to advance more life enhancing, sustaining practices, then perhaps environmentally concerned architects ought not only work towards the creation of better performing, more resourceful building assemblies, but also to engage in basic reflection as to how design problems are expressed and the environmental receptivity such expressions reveal. By tracing the lineage binding utterance to practice to making, we might come to recognize that even subtle shifts in articulation can alter outcomes dramatically. Through such newfound awareness, we are open and encouraged to reexamine the architect's role, to new descriptions of architecture, and to the possibility of deeper attunement and constructive engagement with our world. In their recent edited anthology on sustainable architectures, Simon Guy and Steven Moore suggest "while we might support and even encourage critical engagement with abstract theory about environmentalism, we are not interested in simply playing language games.” Although word play should not be the sole focus of our efforts, in a profession so reliant on effective communication, we should not underestimate the facility of language as constitutive of meaning. This paper explores metaphors as one potentially transformative means by which designers come to understand and describe the works they undertake. It examines the role of metaphors as agents of innovation, capable of heightening awareness of attributes often overlooked or undervalued, yet perhaps of critical significance given the particularities of a design problem seeking explication. This paper summarizes research into the process by which architects "respatialize” metaphors, how novel metaphorical insights have affected thought and practice in the past, and in our era of environmental crises how new categories of metaphor are reshaping and expanding our visions. The paper concludes with a consideration of what makes "green” metaphors effective and how awareness of such characteristics provides the impetus for future research in identifying and utilizing new metaphorical schemas in architectural design
Innovative Sustainable Water Management Practices in Solar Residential Design
Get PDFThis paper communicates the results of an architectural research project which sought innovative design strategies for achieving energy and resource efficiencies in water management systems traditionally used in single-family housing. It describes the engineering of an efficient, multifaceted, and fully integrated water management system for a domesticenvironment of 800 sq. ft., entirely powered by solar energy. The four innovations whose details are conveyed include the use of alternate materials for piping distribution and collection, the use of water in solar energy generation, the design of a building skin which capitalizes on water's capacity to store heat as well as the design of a ecological groundscape which re-usesand filters waste water and rain water.Keywords: energy, plumbing, home desig
Creative Activism: a pedagogical and research tool
Get PDFEnvironmental activism has a long history in protest, addressing issues of degradation and segregation that threaten existing ecologies, social and built fabrics. Environmental activism is traditionally understood as a reaction, chiefly by groups of people, against a perceived external threat. In the 60's and 70's, an activist stance began to emerge in the work of some artists and architects, who used creative methods such as performances, happenings, temporary spatial interventions etc to convey their political/aesthetic messages. Some of this work engaged directly with communities but predominantly it was the production of one individual working ‘outside' society. However such actions demonstrated not only the power of the visual in conveying a political message but also the potential of conceptual creative approaches to reveal alternative values and hidden potentials. This marked a shift from activism as protestation towards an activism of reconceptualisation. Recently, activist groups have developed a more politically informed process. Whilst their ‘tools' may resemble work from the 60's and 70's, their methodologies are nontraditional, 'rhizomatic', pedagogical and fluid; working alongside, rather than against, the established power and funding structures. Such creative processes build new, often unexpected, stakeholder networks; offer neutral spaces in which contentious issues can be faced; and create better understanding of values and identities. They can also lead to permanent improvements and development in the physical fabric. This paper will discuss a pedagogical example of activism in architectural education. The event (www.fourdaysontheoutside.com) is in its fifth year of existence and as such has revealed a value and impulse beyond its learning and teaching value. The paper will discuss how the event contributes to the university's outreach programme and how its structure acts as a seedbed for potential research projects and partnerships. UK Universities talk extensively about applied research but have few actual strategies by which to generate it. Fourdaysontheoutside offers some potential ways forward
"Pushing the Envelope” a modeling-based approach to the development of organic, responsive architectural form
Get PDFThis paper tests design procedures for the development of complex, organic architectural forms. It illustrates a postgraduate student design process, implementing a development sequence based on the intelligent manipulation of architectural envelopes using a variety of existing modeling tools and emerging digital techniques. These stages of development respond to imposed spatial and environmental constraints. The tests began with full-scale modeling of small segments. The major constraints at this stage were spatial requirements and the physical characteristics of materials. The forms derived from the bending properties of prestressed green timber and the dimensions of shingle cladding. This was followed by digital 3D modeling using common commercial applications. At this stage initial models were derived from a traditional space requirement brief. The envelopes for these activities were then manipulated to respond to the spatial limitations imposed by surrounding buildings. This digital modeling process metaphorically "pushed the limits” as vertices of the envelope model were stretched and shifted to achieve a perceived "fit” between the two sets of spatial dimensions. The spatially manipulated geometry was then imported into Ecotect, an environmental analysis package. As an example, the envelope's morphology and cladding material options on the acoustic qualities of the surrounding space were tested. The improved geometry was then imported into a Virtual Reality room, in which the spatial experience was simulated in presentations to the design team and potential occupants. This room utilized six projectors to create an immersive experience to users wearing stereoscopic goggles, and moving in a space surrounded by three large screens, creating a CAVE-like presentation space. Finally there was an attempt to complete the circle by returning from the simulated world to the physical worlds, by creating full-scale models from the digital geometry. This included low-cost techniques such as the generation of paper facets, and the use of more expensive rapid prototyping technology
In Poetic Association: Acts of Architecture in the Realm of Landscape Ecology
Get PDFThis paper describes metaphorical engagement of ecology as a strategy for designing human inhabitation catalyzed by and supportive of healthy urban ecosystems. A case is made for the importance and timliness of collaboration and conceptual association between architects and landscape ecologists. Next, the Australian architect Richard Leplastrier's notion of architecture as "furnishing with particular purpose this larger room we are in” – suggestive of both the architect's role and the context of an architectural undertaking – is examined as a prototype for approaching problems of design in an environmentally sensitive manner. A pilot studio attempt to engage ecological issues through metaphor is described, and building from this experiment andLepastrier's statement, a palette of "human act/environment” case study metaphors is offered foruse in design. Lastly I offer a methodology for testing these metaphors in advanced architecturaldesign studios and evaluating their influence on students' design thinking and the environmental responsiveness of projects that result.Keywords: Architectural Design, Landscape Ecology, Metapho
The Green Church
Get PDFIf "green” is an environmental concept applicable to the design and construction of buildings and landscapes, then we should not limit the scope of the concept solely to the natural environment. Rather, we should include key "environments” in which designers operate, including the socio-cultural, political, and natural environments. In this paper, I present a case study in"green” design that expands the scope of the concept and recognizes the interrelationship between these multiple environments. Using recent construction and renovation on the campus of the FirstPresbyterian Church of Berkeley as the case, I show how these environments are mutuallysupportive. Moreover, I argue that if designers simply consider the natural environment, theirlaudable goals may never be realized. In the first part of the paper, I provide a background on the project and its physical and socio-cultural setting. Second, I discuss how the different "environments” were addressed in the planning and design of the project. I then introduce specific"green” strategies that were employed in the design of the new and renovated buildings. These include considering renovation as the first imperative, thinking holistically about the entire campus,and applying a simplified approach to "greening” the buildings. I conclude by offering suggestionsfor future designers interested in reducing the environmental impact of their buildings.Keywords: Sustainability, Adaptive Reuse, Human Contex
Postindustrial Architecture, Dynamic Complexity and the Emerging Principles of Strategic Design
Get PDFThe transition from industrial era society to postindustrial society has shifted architecture away from being a predominantly cultural activity, one that is primarily focused on the physical attributes of a design. The newer architectural orientation leans more toward social ideals and strategic missions. These two perspectives have always coexisted in the discipline and critique of architecture, but the traditional subjugation of strategic concerns is eroding. The two aspects should now be considered in a more explicitly unified and mindful way. In that sense, the transition is not between two factions of practitioners with different philosophies, but between two aspects of thought balanced in some manner by each architect. The ultimate intentions of this paper are first to examine the forces of postindustrial change and then to outline a set of principles which establish strategic design as an architectural activity tantamount to, compatible with, and discursively engaged by physical design
Global Design and Building Practice: A Case Study of Hearst Headquarters, New York, NY
Get PDFThis paper describes aspects of "Global Design and Building Practice”, a research started at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 2002. The objective of this investigation is to provide design and building professionals and researchers with a better understanding of the impacts of globalization on practice. In this research, the impacts of globalization on practice are examined both in breadth and depth. Processes involve qualitative analyses of interviews with design and building professionals and researchers, quantitative analyses of project data, and in-depth case studies of recent and current "global building projects”, i.e. projects for which spatial extensity of actors extends beyond the local. This paper presents a diversified analytic framework of four distinct global project types. It analyzes the principles behind the transformation of practice and demonstrates the correlations between different global project types and the impacts on practice based on "project DNA”, an innovative concept that acknowledges that it is not only the characteristics of each configuring actor that matters in a global project, but rather the configuration as a whole and the position of each actor within it that determines the its characteristics and impacts on practice. Both global project type and project DNA are illustrated with the summary of an in-depth case study of Hearst Headquarters, a recently completed global project in New York, NY
Style and Architecture in a Democratic Perspective
Get PDFThe paper deals with research on structural relations between architectural education andcultural and human sciences. The paper addresses two major premises. Firstly the cultural role that architecture can play in the shaping of the ongoing process of democratisation of the global society. Derived here of is thesecond one: "What are the implications for our currentarchitectural education?” The argument develops over three stages.The first one concerns a subject in the field of cultural history, stating that, historically, architecture was commonly an expression of the ruling powers. The first paradigm is that of the earliest modern democracy, the USA. Its initial architectural expression was inspired by Thomas Jefferson who adapted the language of the classical order. The neoclassical style became the canon for the new state buildings: the capitols and the courthouses. This paradigm shows a contradiction and failure to project concepts of democracy and revolution into architecture. The second paradigm comes from the modern architectural movement of the interbellum period. It was inspired by revolutionary ideas of radical socialism and equal right movement, proclaimed and empowered by the USSR. This paradigm again shows ” albeit of another nature ” the failure to express the modern concept of democracy into an adequate architectural form. Both paradigms learn how astylistic canon dominated and misled the architectural shaping of a young, democratic society. In a second step, the paper focuses on two fundamental reflections. The first one highlights the relationship between democracy and style. A modern concept of liberty, for example, becomes visible in an architectural interpretation of Jefferson's original design for the first Academic Village, Virginia. In the analysis of this architectural realisation, a more subtle image of Thomas Jefferson emerges. He was the founder of the Declaration of Independence, the philosophical basis for the first modern, democratic state. The second reflection dwells on the only consistent democratic philosophy of the 20th century, that of John Dewey. His concept of creative democracy is relevant to educate the 'democratic consciousness' of young architects. It is further assumed that thinking in such a'democratic way' can help to release architecture from a dogmatic stylistic canon.The third and final step addresses the implications for architectural education. The challenge is the shaping of the student's social and political consciousness via an analysis of historical buildings freed from an encyclopaedic and uncritical approach