Big Building
The typology of the Big Building
has always been an inherent part of the 19th Century European city
but its form and expression has changed as the ideology of the urban
realm and specific cultural expectation has evolved.
The urban block of the historic European City achieved a continuity
of urban texture by suppressing the expression of the personal in
favour of the communal. The variation of this form described an ensemble,
the combination of individual buildings within the confines of a
perimeter block, to achieve a smaller-grain scale and flexibility.
Facades appear as a sequence, which are individual yet part of a
whole. They follow a common morphological theme and in their individuality
express the different use and position of each building within the
overall urban design.
The large-scale slabs, high-rise and free-standing buildings of
the post-war Modernist period sought to generate a Metropolitan
Architecture
of the future. However, they suffered from their dogmatism as
they were too often employed as universal types and lost the essential
characteristics of the urban realm which they dominated. More
recent Mega-forms demonstrate absorption of the previous urban
forms of block, slab and high-rise, evoking a powerful presence
due to their large-scale quality. These forms retain the ambitions
of
20th century buildings to provide an inner city model for living
in the Metropolis but their essential difference is that they
have evolved to enter into more of a dialogue with their surroundings.
For example, a large block specified in a masterplan may undergo
a gradual morphological transformation through the design process.
Whilst preserving the unity of the volume, the Mega-form may
be modified
until it becomes an original and powerful expression of building.
The constraints of the site, the brief itself and the architect's
speculations of daily use gradually develop into powerful forces
that shape the design. Other examples demonstrate how the dominant
verticality of a high-rise building may combine with the capacities
of a block to generate urban structure and texture. The high
rise typology, with its minimal footprint, a response to the value
and
resource of land in the inner city, is still capable of being
earthed in the street and responsible for creating an appropriately
urban
character.Any
of these typologies have the potential to be relevant in the
modern city on the condition that they engage with
the needs and
expectations of the people and cultural values that surround
them and that they contribute to both the making of the
public realm and
the feeling of being at home.
This semester the studio will consider the design of a Big
Building in the city of Zurich. To achieve this we must first
understand the characteristics of a Big Building by looking
carefully at what already exists
within the
European context and then to judge how they make a successful
place to live in the city.This will be done through travel
(first hand
experience) survey, analysis and supporting lectures. The
result of this research will be a body of 'intelligence'
which allow
informed design proposals to be made, at the level of both
strategy and detail.
The production of the studio will be specifically directed
towards
- the overall form of building
-
the rhythm and sequence of the fa∫ade
- organisational structure
- the relationship between the individual and the public domain.
- the detail of the building envelope
- the feeling of home
First
meeting: 19th October 2004, 3pm at our studio HIP C2
Language:
English
Type:
O |
