Architectural Solutions for
Urban Housing
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
1.1
Introduction
2.1
Exploring the conflict between CIAM and Team X
2.2 Unite d’habitation
2.3 CIAM grid 1948
2.4 Urban re-identification 1953
2.5 Doorn
Manifesto 1954
2.6
3.1 The
Child and the City
3.2 Nagele Grid, 1956
3.3 The CIAM
meeting of 1959
3.4 Municipal
Orphanage 1955 – 60
3.5 Forum 1959 – 63
4.1 Urban
Housing
4.2
4.3 Village
Matteotti Housing Estate 1969 – 74
4.4 Spazio e
Societa 1975 – 2000
4.5 Byker Redevelopment 1968 -81
5.1
Conclusion
6.1 Bibliography
6.2 Illustrations
Except where
stated otherwise, this dissertation is based entirely on the authors own work
Dissertation
contains 6,799 words excluding the contents, bibliography and illustration
pages.
Acknowledgements
I would like to
thank Alan Powers for giving me the space and opportunity to develop my own
opinions of the growing field of architecture.
I would also like to thank my family and fiancé for their unwavering
support.
1.1
Introduction:
CIAM (Congres
Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) captured the spirit of the
machine age but before it had done too much damage to the urban environment and
in particular urban housing, some younger members began to question their
architectural solutions. Under the
leadership of Le Corbusier, CIAM’s vision was of a utopia, a city which could
provide the perfect life for its inhabitants.
His vision inspired hope but ultimately failed to create such a place
and resulted instead in destroying places and memories which are integral to a
person’s identity.
Hugh slabs or
towers of housing rising majestically and disdainfully above the old towns set
in sprawling parkland and totally divorced from the historic fabric.
Peter Popham
(The Experience of
Modernism, R Gold, p. 5)
The younger members of CIAM believed that by erasing our historic
fabric, we were also erasing our identity.
Le Corbusier’s vision lacked the sensitivity and recognition of historic
value. The enormous concrete slabs
effectively wiped out any memory of previous existence in the areas which they
occupied. On a large scale the simplicity
of modernism becomes dull and lifeless.
Historically town planning has always been an extension of
architecture. The Roman architect
Vitruvius wrote 10 books on architecture, which extended into street, housing
and city planning. In
1)
over crowding and out of date housing
2)
inadequate and misdistribution of open spaces
3)
the jumble of houses and industry compressed between road
and rail communications
4)
traffic congestion
One of the first solutions to the housing problems in
Figure 1.1 Forshaw
and Abercrombie,
‘It is possible for
a city to have an ideal arrangement for its industry, commerce and transport,
to be equipped with magnificent public buildings and yet fail as a social
community through lack of suitable housing conditions for large numbers of its
inhabitants’
Patrick Abercrombie
(Forshaw and
Abercrombie, County of London Plan, 1943, p.74)
2.1 Exploring the Conflict between CIAM and Team X
In July 1933, the fourth CIAM meeting was on a cruise ship
to
It was at the fifth CIAM meeting in 1937 that the term ‘La
Chartre d’Athenes’ was first used and the discussions revolved around
information collected in Athens. The
sixth meeting was cancelled and the activities of CIAM ceased during the
war. It was during this period that Le
Corbusier wrote the ‘Athens Charter’, which was eventually published in
1943. The document soon came to be
regarded as a key expression of CIAM’s town planning strategies.
The
suburbs are often mere aggregations of shacks hardly worth the trouble of
maintaining. Flimsily constructed little
houses, boarded houses, sheds thrown together out of the most incongruous
materials, the domain of poor creatures tossed about in an undisciplined way of
life – that is the suburb.
(Le
Corbusier, the
As well as declaring the end of the suburb it also stated
that technology made it possible to build high buildings, which when widely
spaced could create large areas of green open space and parklands. The
2.2 Unite
d’habitation
After the war
Le Corbusier disliked the idea of green bands
on the outskirts of towns and as an alternative proposed ‘vertical garden
cities’. The building was considered
a communal apartment block and included shops, a nursery school, a gymnasium, a
running track, a theatre and roof gardens.
Included in the design was a hotel which along with the other apartments
is still in use today.
The block is raised from the ground by large
supporting pillars, resulting in 90% of the ground space being free. The ‘Unite’ is composed of 23 different types
of living units and contains 337 apartments.
The raising of the structure from the ground seems to have no function,
other than to be aesthetically pleasing.
Figure 2.1
Unite d’habitation,
Unite d’habitate is a practical way of understanding
how the
Figure 2.2 ‘Standard
size unit’ in a ‘green town’
Le Corbusier hated the street and this
scheme reflected his feelings towards it.
He believed it was from an old tradition and no longer had a function
that was viable.
It is the street of
the pedestrian of a thousand years ago, it is a relic of the centuries: it is a
non-functioning, obsolete organ. The
street wears us out. It is altogether
disgusting! Why, then, does it still
exist?
(Le Corbusier,
Moos, 1979, p196)
2.3 CIAM grid 1948
Figure 2.3 ASCORAL,
CIAM grid 1948
1)
Dwelling (green)
2)
Working (red)
3)
Cultivating the body and the mind (yellow)
4)
Circulation (blue)
The grid was devised by ASCORAL under the leadership of Le Corbusier and
presented at the seventh CIAM meeting; the first assembly after the war. The theme of this conference was the
The ‘CIAM Grid’ was also the precedent for future presentations within
CIAM. The Guidelines for these grids was
defined by CIAM and were intended to be an aid in the analysis of various
subjects and designs. This system
allowed other members of CIAM to make presentations in a way that could be
discussed and analysed.
The grid system opened up the way for the younger generation of CIAM to
put forward their ideas. In effect it
gave them the freedom to challenge the leadership and strategy of Le
Corbusier. The initial feelings of the
young Team 10 were expressed in their reaction to the eighth CIAM meeting in
which they wrote’
Man may readily identify himself with his own hearth, but not so easily
within the town which he is placed.
‘Belonging’ is a basic emotional need – its associations are of the
simplest order. From belonging and
identity comes the enriching sense of neighbourliness. The short narrow street of the slum succeeds
where the spacious redevelopment frequently fails.
Team 10 response to the CIAM
8 report 1951
(Modern
architecture, a critical history p.271)
This initial statement was later built into a
comprehensive argument in the form of the ‘Urban Re-identification Grid’ and
responded to what they saw as a need for identity within the community.
2.4
Urban Re-identification 1953
Alison and Peter Smithson became members of
MARS (Modern
Architectural Research Society), the
English branch of CIAM in 1951 and almost from day one were seen as
provocative. After the architectural
success of the
Figure 2.4 Urban
Re-identification Grid
It was at this meeting that the Smithsons put
forward their ideas of ‘human association’ in the form of a
project. Using a combination of
photographs by Nigel Henderson (see figure 2.4) and the Golden Lane project they put forward
the working class streets of East London as potential inspiration for a new
architecture and urban design. It was
here they presented their concept of ‘streets in the air’. The ‘street' was a substantial
component of the Smithson’s ideas and were intended to be used as part of a
system, designed to develop an urban pattern for a city based on ‘human
association’.
Along with this grid they also presented
there competition entry for the ‘Golden Lane Housing Scheme’. Although they never won the competition the
scheme was a powerful tool in convincing CIAM to reconsider the principles put
forward in ‘la Chartre d’Athenes’. The
four defining points of the ‘Urban- Re-identification Grid’ were ‘House,
Street, District and City’ these directly contradicted the four functions of
the CIAM grid. It was this presentation
which laid the ground work in preparation for their statement on ‘Habitat’.
Around the same time, AD (Architectural
Design magazine) 1953 – 75 was being used by the Smithsons to develop their own
opinions of the growing field of Architecture.
It was in 1953 through this publication that Alison Smithson first used
the expression ‘New Brutalism’. She used
the phrase to describe a small house in
Kenneth Frampton describes the design
language of their ‘New Brutalism’ as having numerous references to the British
warehouses of the late 19 century. The
Soho House was designed to be built in brick, with exposed concrete lintels and
unplastered interiors.
With ‘New Brutalism’ the Smithsons
were effectively exploring how materials can bring life to a person by
connecting them to the place in which they live. The combination of materials is a true
expression of the new and old.
The new construction retains the memories of the past in the same way a
Team 10 plan would be sensitive to the memories of a town. The Soho House is in fact the start of
something much bigger. An example is the
‘Robin Hood Gardens’ project in which the memory of
Alison Smithson edited all the work in the
magazine which related to CIAM and Team 10.
In May 1960 the Smithsons used a special edition of the publication to
give the new emerging organization a name, ‘CIAM Team 10’. It was also Alison Smithson who entitled the
first meeting as ‘Team 10 on its
own’ in the July edition of that year.
Alison Smithson
became the unofficial chronicler of the group through her publications about
Team 10, including the Team 10 Primer (1962, re-edition 1968).
(Van Den Heuve, http://www.team10online.org)
The two main papers which stated the intent of Team 10, ‘The Doorn
Manifesto (1954)’ and ‘The Aim of Team Ten (1962)’ were both edited by Alison
Smithson. ‘Team 10 Primer’ was also compiled and edited by Alison
Smithson and first published as a book in 1968.
Alison and Peter Smithson met Aldo van Eyck at the ninth CIAM
meeting. A & P Smithson Aldo Van
Eyck, Jaap Bakema, Giancarlo de Carlo, Georges Candilis and Shadrach Woods were
all from the younger generation of CIAM and later formed the core of ‘Team
10’.
2.5 Doorn Manifesto 1954
As a result of the ninth CIAM meeting there was a growing
dissatisfaction within CIAM about using the ‘functional
city’ as a tool for planning. As a
group they were looking for a new direction and as a consequence there were a
number of interim meetings.
The manifesto on ‘habitat’ was
compiled at an interim meeting by a small number of the younger CIAM members
including Aldo Van Eyck and Peter Smithson.
This meeting in Doorn January 1954 was attended by members who all had
an affinity with the importance of ‘human associations’. Peter Smithson used the ‘Valley Section’ to illustrate the areas which would
need high density housing (see figure
2.6). He borrowed this Section from
the sociologically based diagram drawn by the Scottish town planner Patrick
Geddes.
Figure 2.6
Valley Section Diagram
Peter Smithson also used this diagram to
illustrate the problems of circulation within the context of community. He stated ‘any community must be internally convenient’ (habitat, Smithsons,
1954) and therefore density must increase as population increases. i.e. (4)
being least dense (1) being most dense.
His final point was that the solutions to urbanisation would be found in
architectural invention rather than in culture or social behaviour. This statement on ‘habitat’ was subsequently given the name ‘Doorn Manifesto’ by Alison Smithson.
2.6
Figure 2.7 A & P Smithson, scale
of association diagram
‘The whole problem of environment’ was the
topic of the Tenth CIAM meeting in
The main concepts discussed in relation to
the ‘scale of association’ were identity,
cluster and mobility. The movement between the house, street,
district and city was described as mobility. Clusters
were defined as groups of houses on a street, and in turn the group streets
formed within a district and so on. The mobility available between these
different associations generated different levels of identity, family, neighbourhood, town etc. They were also trying to identify patterns of
growth in order to facilitate extension and renewal.
The tenth CIAM meeting was organised by
Team 10 under the supervision of CIAM advisory board. Thirty five grids were presented in total at
this meeting seven of which were from members of Team 10. The presentation made
by the Smithsons, which broke the strict rules of the ASCORA grid, was put
forward as an example for a different type of presentation. Le Corbusier along with the other founding
members of CIAM never came to this meeting.
3.1 The
Child and the City
At the same meeting in
Figure 3.1 Lost Identity Grids
The Lost Identity Grid (see figure
3.1) consisted of four panels and looks at the relationship between the
child and the city. Van Eyck designed and built nearly one thousand
playgrounds during his life time. As
well as being places for children to play, they were also an intervention in
the city which incorporated the Team 10 ideas of growth, mobility,
cluster and change. The playgrounds
created something coherent beyond the habitat of a family which enabled
mobility and helped form clusters within the community. As children connected in these places growth
occurred to form groups outside the family units.
These panels directly relates to the ‘Urban Re-identification Grid’
presented by the Smithsons at the ninth CIAM meeting. Van Eyck’s presentation is an interpretation
of the house, street, district and city from a child’s point of view. Van Eyck was also closely associated with a
Dutch group of young painters and poets called Cobra. The group Cobra was very active in the 1940s
and had an affinity with the idea of play
as a creative and cultural force.
‘If childhood is a journey, let us see to it that
the child does not travel by night’
(Van Eyck, In
search of the Utopia of present p.56)
The experience of these playgrounds was considered by Van Eyck to be an
essential part of a child’s growth and sense of place within a community. The
panels outlined the problems which faced the city and illustrated design
solutions in a poetic way. These
solutions were low cost and offered immediate improvements and moved the focus
of architecture onto the children of the city.
This change of emphasis is consistent with my interpretations of ‘human
scale’ as human importance.
‘Since man is both
subject and object of architecture, it follows that its primary job is to
provide the former for the sake of the latter’
(Van Eyck, Projekten, 1948 -
61 p.89)
3.2
Nagele Grid, 1956
The second presentation Van Eyck made,
involved the construction of the ‘
Figure 3.2 Plan for Nagele village
One of the arguments put across in the Nagele
Grid was ‘defined and protective’.
Van Eyck used a plantation of trees to encircle the housing as
protection from the windy weather. These
trees also formed an internal horizon which connects the housing with the open
space in the centre.
Place is the appreciation of space; that is how I see it. If I say:
space represents the appreciation of it, my purpose is again to dethrone
abstract properties to it academically.
Now space-meaning need not be pre-ordained or implicitly defined in the
form. It is not merely what a space sets out to effect in human terms, that
gives it place value, but what it is able to gather and transmit.
Aldo Van Eyck
(Team 10 Primer
p.94)
This project represents an important phase of Van Eyck’s thinking with
respect to his shift from 'space and
time' to 'place and occasion'. It is a
solid example of his meaning and the kind of architecture and urban planning it
would produce. In this apparent change
of emphasis he is actually defining space
and place in real terms. He also believes that the emotional content
of a space is considered to give it place
value. Architecture can be compared
to a musical instrument, which is used to gather and transmit feelings and
emotions.
The most important aspect of the village is
the people who live in it and their
relationship to the each other, which is in effect, governed by the open
central space. The design was generated
and then later, defined by the generic form of the community. The wind breaks have a social and symbolic
function transforming the entire village into a centre without the traditional
thinning out of public amenities into housing.
We could when designing a building, decide that we are concerned
primarily with the composition of light space and materials, ignoring the site
and working from a detached, artistic and structural viewpoint. Our main constraint in this exercise would be
the time in which we had to design and build.
The resulting spatial arrangements may be aesthetic and the spatial experiences may be exciting, dynamic
etc. This would be autonomous art, a
pleasurable experience at most, with no relationship to anything but the
abstract notions of art and science. The
hierarchy would be about the spatial experience rather than human
activities. From the start Van Eyck is
involved in how a structure will work on an everyday basis and it is from these
roots the building grows. With this
method of working he engages with the social structure of the community and the
building is consequently a natural extension.
3.3 The CIAM Meeting Of 1959
The end of CIAM was announced at the Otterlo
meeting in 1959. Le Corbusier had
already sent his letter of resignation to tenth CIAM meeting at
It is those who are now 40 years old, born around 1916 during wars and
revolutions and those then unborn, now twenty five years old, born around 1930
during the preparation for a new war and amidst a profound economic, social,
and political crisis, who thus find themselves in the heart of the present
period the only ones capable of feeling actual problems, personally,
profoundly, the goals to follow, the means to reach them, the pathetic urgency
of the present situation. They are in
the know. Their predecessors no longer
are, they are out, and they are no longer subject to the direct impact of the
situation.
Le Corbusier
(Frampton, Modern
Architecture, p.271)
Figure 3.3 ‘BY US FOR US’
The ‘BY US FOR US’ diagram presented by Van (see
figure3.3) Eyck at the Otterlo meeting in 1959 marks the succession of CIAM
by Team 10. At this meeting Van Eyck
also presented his design for the municipal orphanage in
3.4 Municipal Orphanage 1955 – 60
Figure 3.4 Municipal Orphanage Plan,
Van Eyck offered the orphanage in
In the light of
what the other creative fields have managed to evolve – a relaxed relative concept
of reality – what architects and urbanists have failed to do amounts to
treason.
Aldo Van Eyck
(Van Eyck, Projekten 1948-1961 p.89)
The orphanage, which used to house just over 100 children, has from the
outset a distinct feeling of infinity due to the attention Van Eyck has paid to
the articulation of numbers and their configuration. The multiplication of the individual units is
done in such a way that the identity of each unit is read as part of the whole. Both the spatial dynamic and the circulation
of these units are governed by diagonals.
This type of duality is called a twin phenomenon by Van Eyck. It is this sensitivity he feels is missing
from the city, in particular the sequences between spaces. He believes that irrespective of the function
or area a space occupies its relationship with other spaces and the whole needs
to be addressed.
Like the ‘Nagele village’ the orphanage has been decentralized into a
number of communal areas with interconnecting internal streets. The residential units are arranged along
these streets in a staggered formation giving each of them individual outdoor
spaces. He calls this sequence or
journey between places the ‘traffic
space’. He is considers the places
in between places, as places, resulting in the growth or dispersion of a
pattern. In this situation the design
has evolved from the daily life patterns of the staff and residents. It is this spatial continuity and his poly-centric
ideas, which he says should be conceived as a city.
Figure 3.5 Orphanage,
4.1
Architectural Solutions
In the summer of 1960 the group
now called Team 10 held their first meeting in Bagnols-sur-Ceze, South of
France. Although Team 10 had formed a
group now it wasn’t until 1961 that ‘The Aim of Team 10’ was published in a
special edition of AD. This was in
response to the public dissatisfaction shown by the founding members CIAM
regarding its end. This aim as described
later in the publication ‘Team 10 Primer’ was to provide the following;
‘Meaningful groupings of buildings, where each building is a live thing
and a natural extension of the others.
Together they will make places where a man can realize what he wishes to
be.’
Alison Smithson, 1962
(Smithson,Team 10 primer,p.3)
According to le Corbusier the street is a
non-functioning relic of the past. For
Team 10 the street brings us from the past into the present. It is the pathways, in which the journey
through a town’s spaces is made possible.
If we replace our towns with parkland and concrete slabs we will be
erasing any memory of the past. The past
is an integral part of the present, both in the identity of a town and a
person. Memories are an important factor
in living and a place can remind us where we have come from and who we are
today.
4.2
Figure 4.1
Team 10 believed social housing should be
integrated into its environment rather than isolated as an object within
it. They preferred high density low
rises and experimented with the tree height for a limit. The only example of this kind of building by
Alison and Peter Smithson is the Robin Hood Gardens, located in Poplar,
We can see Van Eyck’s ‘defined and protective’ idea in the Robin Hood Gardens scheme. The buildings protect the central garden from
noise and additional protection is given by a concrete fence angled in a way to
reflect the sound back into the street.
A view from the pavement allows one to see the physical manifestation of
the Smithsons concept ‘streets in the air’ which, breaks up the
composition while providing a sense of human importance. There is some variation in the volume of
spaces related to the entrances and circulation which draws the eye into the
building.
The Robin Hood Gardens were built around the
idea and use of public gardens in
The buildings both have a very definitive
beginning and end mainly due to the positioning of the site which is dominated
by traffic noise. They wanted to create
a quiet garden which in turn would become an open centre. Thus the two buildings are both positioned
with a corresponding relationship to the open space garden.
Unfortunately unlike the Nagele village
designed by Van Eyck there are no internal horizons to connect the two facades
with the garden. If the internal streets
had been on the garden side the buildings would have had visual lines
connecting them to the open space. This
would have reinforced the protective nature of both buildings as well. With the ‘streets’ placed on the road
side of the buildings, it leaves the circulation of the occupants exposed to
the noise of traffic.
The
Figure 2.4 Golden lane housing plan
1952, Works and Projects, p.36
The golden lane housing plan as it would be in as a super structure
Figure
The site (Robin Hood Gardens) has therefore been organised to create a
‘stress-free’ central zone protected from the noise and pressures of the
surrounding roads by the buildings themselves.
Vidotto
(Smithson, Works and projects p.122)
Robin Hood Gardens is a good solution to
urban housing which is about protecting the historic memories of
Figure 4.2 ‘Streets in the air’ a view
from
The circulation on the south side receives
the sun and connects with the skyline.
The scheme when compared to most of the housing solutions for
4.3 Village Matteotti Housing Estate 1969 – 74
The Village Matteotti Housing Estate in
From the outset De Carlo wanted the future
residents to be involved in the design process.
He set up an exhibition of alternative housing designs intended to
persuade the residents that low rise, high density housing would be the idea
solution. He formulated a number of
design principles which included separating the pedestrian and vehicle traffic
and individual outdoor spaces for every dwelling. After discussions with the residences it was
also decide that every home would have a direct entrance from the street.
On this point we should be very clear, and therefore it is
indispensable first of all to clarify the basic differences between planning
‘for’ the users and planning ‘with’ the users
Giancarlo De Carlo
(Giancarlo De Carlo, 1992 p.211)
This quote defines the basic difference
between the Smithsons, Giancarlo de Carlo and Ralph Erskine. The Smithsons plan ‘for’ the users,
Erskine and De Carlo plan ‘with’ the users. De Carlo sets up a dialog with future users
using an exhibition and Erskiine sets up an open office in Byker to connect
with the individuals who have been allocated housing.
Planning ‘with’ the users is a
psychological tool used by some designers to stay in touch with the future
residents, while they are designing. The
actual input users have on the future housing in minimal, it is the architect
who designs the building. The most
important point is that the building is focused on the user. This can be done in a number of different
ways as illustrated by the examples I have used.
Figure 4.3 Village Matteotti Housing
Estate plan
In Matteotti De Carlo uses similar strategies
to the ones Van Eyck has used in the Municipal Orphanage. De Carlo has used a three dimensional network
of circulation and amenities to decentralize the hierarchy of spaces. All of the individual homes relate to the
whole through the circulation and the dispersion of amenities. The pedestrian circulation is made up of two
systems, the first is on ground level and the second runs along the tops of
garages and interconnects the adjoining blocks with bridges (figure 4.5). De
Carlo’s circulation is an interesting interpretation of the Smithsons idea of ‘streets
in the air’.
Figure 4.5 View of the pedestrian
bridge
The mathematics of the individual units is based on five main
prototypes, which each have three variations.
Each of these is laid out in three different ways, thus providing 45
distinct types of apartment. The
resulting pattern means that the identity of each unit is read as part of the
whole. This system is very similar to
the multiplication Aldo van Eyck uses in the Amsterdam Orphanage.
Figure 4.4 View of the street
4.4 Spazio e Societá (1975 – 2000)
At this point it is worth noting that De
Carlo took over the Italian version of the French journal Espaces et
Sociétés. He established the magazine under
the Italian name of Spazio e Societá (Space & Society). Spazio e Societá was a journal about
architecture in use on a daily basis. De
Carlo’s strategy was to use the community as an integral part of the design
process. His magazine was about the way
everyday people used architecture and written in a way that everyday people
could read it.
4.5
Byker Redevelopment (1968 -81)
In 1968 Ralph Erskine began designing the
Byker Housing Estate in
Like De Carlo, Erskine also believed in
participation from the future residents early in the design process. He set up a studio in the area so as to build
up a relationship with the local community.
Erskine was interested in the branch of sociology that is concerned
with studying the relationships between human groups and their physical and
social environments. He put this study
into practice by having an open door policy with respect to the neighbourhood
residents who were welcome to come in with their comments and criticisms. After a family was assigned an apartment they
were also invited to the office to discuss the interior layout, finishes and
the general plan of the area. Erskine
used all of this information to inform his final design for the district and
individual homes.
Figure 4.6 Entrance from the main road
The Byker housing forms a wall to protect the residents from the noise
of a busy road situated along the edge of the site (see figure 4.6). The
windows are small and the walls are high to reduce the amount of noise which is
allowed to penetrate into the apartments, communal path ways and green
areas. Within this wall the individual
apartments form a complex pattern. The
arrangement of the communal areas and housing is similar to Van Eyck’s ‘Nagele
village’. There are a number of open
green areas which form focal points for the corresponding housing. In consistency with Van Eyck’s ideas, Eskine
uses the internal walkways, galleries and bridges to visually and figuratively
connect with the open spaces.
Erskine has used the internal street circulation to create communities
within the community. The Byker
neighbourhood is in effect made up of family units grouped together within the
larger group of Byker. This is a model
example of how to use the ‘human
association’ strategy to solve urban housing issues.
Figure 4.7 View from one of the
courtyards inside Byker
Ralph Erskine was a member of the Team 10 who effectively addressed
these issues of urban growth in his Byker redevelopment scheme in
Figure 4.8 Byker Housing Estate
Plan
At the time Byker was the largest housing
complex in
The estate
also became a listed building in 2003 and part of the cultural heritage of the
north-east.
5.1
Conclusion
Figure 5.1
This African village (see figure
5.1) is a good way to illustrate what is lost in Le Corbusiers philosophy
regarding urban housing. If we look at
the spaces we can see they have a complexity in sizes and shapes. We would know the chief’s hut because it
would have a slightly bigger space around it.
There is a growth and dispersion of space. The difference between what Le Corbusier
proposed and the village according to the Peter Smithson is that the village
has a sense of belonging and identity.
The spaces inside Le Corbusiers standardised unit would be artistically
composed, although the outside spaces and repetition would be bland.
It is widely assumed that Le Corbusier’s vision of a perfect city is an
analogy to inspire hope. Although it
does perform this function, Le Corbusier’s utopia is set out quite specifically
in the
Team 10, have a reasonable and sensitive approach to urban housing and
town planning. On the surface all of the
strategies used by the various members and participants of Team 10 are
different. Van Eyck looks at the
activities of intended participants to generate the generic form of a place and
consequently builds a counter form.
Eskine’s approach is to study human groups, their relationship to the
environment and design a building based on all the information he has gathered. De Carlo is taking a more involved interest
in the everyday use of a building and believes in a continual interaction with
the user during the design process. De
Carlo is concerned with breaking the barriers which exist between architects,
builders and clients. The Smithsons
defined ‘New Brutalism’ as
architecture which responded to the way in which people lived and built. Architecture
as defined by Team 10 in 1962 is to create living buildings which are a natural
extension of each other.
At the centre of all these different approaches is Alison and Peter
Smithson’s recognition of the sensitivity required to produce architecture of
value. The ‘scale of human association’ is
at the heart of this argument. Le Corbusier acknowledges his inability to
understand what is expected of him in his letter of resignation from CIAM. His vision of utopia, love and enthusiasm for
architecture inspired hope and the international platform which he created was
passed on to the younger members of CIAM.
The discussions and debates which arose consequential developed human
based strategies for creating architectural solutions. More importantly these
architects have all questioned the purpose of architecture and the role of the
architect. The result is a reservoir of
information regarding the creation of relevant architecture. The design strategies which have been created though this process are still unresolved in
the studio today. In my opinion the
heavy handed autonomous compositions of Le Corbusier are still dominating the
discussions of space, light and materiality.
We make circulation and programmatic models
illustrating the proposed experience of the users. This is all presented in terms of the context
and how the building is made accessible.
We explain the importance of the surroundings and the views which are
available from various positions within the building and outside. But we don’t consider the importance of the
building for the community or the effect it will have on the place. If the space around a building grows bigger
than any other space in the urban environment, it will become a centre. A new centre which doesn’t acknowledge the
historic fabric of a place will essentially destroy the memories of a place and
consequentially its identity.
Too often there is an artistic sensitivity,
but no sensitivity towards the people who live in a place, immediately and
historically. The result is autonomous
art, a three dimensional sculpture with little or no meaning, which is
consequently given a programme.
Many people fail to see the contradictions in
le Corbusiers architecture, his work is about function, yet composition always
dominates. On a larger scale even this
dominating feature is compromised, only to become bland and repetitive. When the geometry of a site reflects the
needs of the users it generates a place.
6.1
Bibliography
Le Corbusier, Oeuvre complète. 1934-1938,
Le Corbusier, Oeuvre complète. 1938-1946,
Aldo Van Eyck, Projekten, 1948 – 1961,
Aldo Van Eyck, Projekten, 1962 – 1976,
Rudi Fuchs, Aldo van Eyck:
the playgrounds and the city,
Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History,
John R. Gold, The Experience of Modernism,
Max Risselada and
Dirk van den Heuvel, Team 10 in search of
a Utopia of the present,
Jean Jenger, Le Corbusier Architect of a New Age,
Royston Laudau, New Directions in British Architecture,
Lewis Mumford, The City in History,
S. Von Moos, Le Corbusier: Elements of a Synthesis,
Alison Smithson [edited by], Team 10 Meetings,
Alison Smithson [edited], Team 10 Primer,
Alison and Peter Smithson, Without Rhetoric, an architectural aesthetic,
Alison Smithson [Documents compiled by], The Emergence of Team 10 out of C.I.A.M.,
Catherine Spellman and Karl Unglaub, Peter Smithson: conversations with students,
Nigel Taylor, Urban Planning and Theory since 1945,
Marco
Vidotto, Alison + Peter Smithson Works
and Projects,
Benedict Zucchi, Giancarlo De Carlo,
6.2 Illustrations
Figure
1.1
Forshaw and Abercrombie,
Figure
2.1 Le Corbusier, Oeuvre
complète. 1938-1946,
Figure
2.2 Le Corbusier, Oeuvre. 1938-1946,
Figure
2.3,
Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel,
In search of a Utopia of the present, 2005, p.19
Figure
2.4,
Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel,
In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.31
Figure 2.5, Vidotto, Works
and Projects, 1997, p.37
Figure
2.6,
Spellman, Conversations with students,
p.38
Figure 2.7, Max Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia,
2005, p.52
Figure 3.1, Max Risselada
and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.56
Figure 3.2, Max Risselada
and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.59
Figure 3.3, Aldo Van Eyck,
http://www.team10online.org/
Figure 3.4, Van Eyck, Projekten
1948 - 61, 1981, p.53,
Figure
3.5,
Van Eyck, Projekten 1948 - 61, 1981, p.71
Figure 4.1, Vidotto, Works and Projects, 1997, p.123
Figure 4.2, Max Risselada
and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.177
Figure 4.3, Max Risselada
and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.220
Figure 4.4, Max Risselada and
Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.221
Figure 4.5, Max Risselada
and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.221
Figure 4.6, Photograph
by McPherson 2005
Figure 4.7, Photograph
by McPherson 2005
Figure 4.8, Max
Risselada and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p. 224
Figure 5.1, http://depts.washington.edu/envhlth/info/images/autumn2002/villagescene.jpg
Front and back cover, Max Risselada
and Dirk van der Heuvel, In search of a Utopia, 2005, p.224, p.59,
p.220, p.123