Beyond anonymous: a study of architecture and making through participation
R e s e a r c h f i e l d :
R e s e a r c h q u e s t i o n :
A r c h i t e c t u r a l p r o p o s i t i o n :
A b s t r a c t :
The context for this study is the problem that arises when architecture is understood as an object of perfection, captured at a moment in time. The architect becomes disconnected from the occupant, resulting in sombre and anonymous buildings that fail to respond authentically to their context. The study suggests that the architect can begin to address this problem by considering the different ways of 'making' architecture. There are three ways of making architecture that are identified. The making of architectural representation through drawings and models, the making of architecture through construction, and finally the making of architecture over time through occupation. These ways of making architecture are then applied to the architecture of a public facility in a marginalised community that will be self-built by the occupants.
R e s e a r c h f i e l d :
The research field for this study is the role that making can play in architecture. It is interested in the way that architecture can be made during design, construction and occupation, and the way that this can enhance the architectural outcome.
R e s e a r c h q u e s t i o n :
How can the design of architecture embrace and celebrate the involvement of people in such a way that their participation and habitation enhances the architectural outcome?
A r c h i t e c t u r a l p r o p o s i t i o n :
This study proposes that architecture can be enhanced by encouraging the involvement of the occupants in the act of making architecture, and that our challenge is to design in such a way that responds to and celebrates this involvement.
R e s e a r c h f i n d i n g s :
Introduction
Architecture is frequently designed and celebrated as a product that is at its best immediately after construction. The pristine and perfect appearance that occurs before the occupants inhabit a space is often the one that is captured and goes on to represent the project throughout its life. Hence it could be argued that the architect has become divorced from the way that people occupy space, and is instead interested in the creation of an object of perfection. This can be seen in the way that architecture is represented through drawings, and results in increasingly anonymous and sombre buildings. 1
It is interesting then, to realise that the memories, moments, and experiences that become associated with a place are precisely the things that an occupant values.2 This suggests that there needs to be a shift in the way that architecture is produced. We must begin to create architecture that is "genuinely engaging, and far removed from the remote aesthetics of high architectural culture."3
This study explores the way that three different levels of making architecture can start to engage with this problem, and influence the way that we design space. The three levels are defined below:
a) making architectural representation through drawings and models
b) making through the act of construction
c) making over time through occupation
to be continued...