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T IME BAS ED NOT T IME L E S S , S T I L L MORE TO BE DONE
Some architects are still somewhat careful in
embracing open building for two reasons. Firstly
they see the design responsibility of 'the plan' being
taken away from them and secondly they worry at
having a third party who is not an architect to
'design' his or her own floor plan. This could occur
in health, educational, residential or office environments
and since the third party is likely to be a lay
person and not someone from the design disciplines
it is deemed as unprofessional. This is largely
a misunderstanding because the role of the user
is not a design role in the professional sense of the
word. Rather the users are making their priorities
and relationships for various functions in the form
of a plan but more likely expressed with a dolls
house type of model or by computer modeling. This
can be applied to the work place, health care, educational
buildings and many more types. It is often
engrained in the mind of the professionals that they
must perfect the plan, work and work on it, polish
it, defend it, the plan is theirs and where the physical
structure only relates to that specific plan. Any
change in the plan brings about a change in the
structure. This really is a negation of open building.
Such a one to one correlation of structure to plan
leaves no room for movement or any alternative
plan. This was the horror of some nineteen fifties
and sixties tower blocks for council tenants where
four or even six units per floor were shaped by the
vertical structural sheer walls and columns. These
could be holding up to twenty five stories and at the
same time these monolithic structural concrete
walls formed the plan configuration of the flats on
each floor. The characteristics of this approach
were standardization and the complete inability of
the building to respond to change. Timelessness
rather than time-based would be the best description
of such buildings.
Office blocks were and still are good examples
of open building where on any one floor different
internal arrangements are possible regardless
of what goes on in the floor above or below. In
addition there may be two large offices on one floor
or a large number of smaller offices on another
floor.
Set against this background and cost limitations
the idea of alternative unit sizes and floor
plans variations were seen only as viable for the rich
where tailoring plans to suit user's specific needs
was costly and limited to very few people. Indeed
the whole idea of a fluctuating infill arrangement of
room, offices, corridors, halls, foyers, cafes and
restaurants was seen to be like a disease which
must be stamped out until everything is firmly fixed
and under control. The pioneering support projects
of the nineteen sixties really did break new
ground in giving control to the council tenant and
right to decide. At last the poor could have a say in
how they wanted to live.
The challenge of support design (base building)
is that the structure becomes a generator of
alternative plans. The support is fixed but the plan
inside can move. The architecture here lies not in
the plan of rooms but in the plan of the structure
and its visibility inside and sometimes outside creating
a truly architectonic fusion of art and technology.
This architectonic approach not only considers
these aspects but also lays emphasis on the site
and immediate environment, climatic factors and
construction techniques.
Since the nineteen sixties, starting in
Rotterdam, the Netherlands and later in other
countries in Europe the third party approach for
designing and generating plans in government
social housing and housing association projects
has been proved to work within existing financial
constraints and building legislation. However it still
has to find its application in many other parts of the
world. Whilst we have also moved on a long way
from the idea of structural/building themes and
plan variations more applications in different building
types are wanted. There is much more to still to
be done.
Nicholas Wilkinson This is
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