May 2019
Peter Stutchbury, Wall House, 2009, Shizouka, Japan [1]
I was quite content in Melbourne. Happily working at a job that I thoroughly enjoyed in a city that I loved. However, when the opportunity arose to move abroad, it sparked a desire to develop a greater understanding of the way architecture is created and nurtured in differing parts of the world. Leading to widespread travels around the United States, before settling in San Francisco. Continuing exploration of the varying architectural conditions that exist in Northern America has allowed for a deeper understanding of the principles that I feel inspire the strongest architectural results. Leading to more refined thoughts on the future and role of architectural design in the residential mass market. This post will explore these ideas and look to outline the key questions that I feel will define the next generation of architectural design.
The ability to understand the site is regularly the most important aspect of the design process. When residential designs embody sensitivity for the location, context and human desires the likelihood of success is greatly increased. This is often something that does not have to impact the cost or difficulty of realising the project. The simple traits of orientation, layout and proportions are something that has been mastered over the centuries, yet constantly neglected in contemporary design. Friends recently went through the volume built house process in Melbourne and achieved a well located, modestly sized house that will for the long term be an asset to its site and surroundings. Sadly I feel that this is not the case for a large proportion of the housing stock being built today. The dominance of companies who prioritise income over quality is creating an increasing disconnection from the benefits of quality design by the general public.
Melbourne Urban Sprawl Developments [2]
High-end residential architecture is trying to alter this trend and demonstrate a path forward. Many see the role of architectural design as an important leader of styles and ideas that can be utilised by en-masse residential projects. I feel like this notion in large part is being mismanaged. The majority of the houses produced by the leading architecture firms are fine tuned arrangements of the site and environmental concerns, intertwined with the brief and personality of the clients. These important concepts are usually deeply ingrained through the whole project. It is often only at the final step that items such as the tile finish and paint colours are selected. These finishing items whilst done late are almost certainly done in a way that links back to the founding principles of the design process. Through a consistent logic, a cohesive design can be achieved.
These important elements of consistency and context are rarely adopted by the residential construction industry. Instead development projects or tract housing schemes continue to erect the cheapest options, with little care for the fundamental aspects of housing design. Choosing to focus importance on the finishing styles of the house. A quick screening of Australian reality show ‘House Rules’ demonstrates this point. These shows continue to spruik ‘fast architecture’ – quick work intended to mask fundamental issues of the design behind paint and soft furnishings. These renovations do little to delve into the underlying issues of the dwellings they are renovating. This continues to separate the homeowner from what is possible in a dwelling when the primal features of residential design are successfully implemented.
Robin Boyd, Walsh Street, 1958, South Yarra, Melbourne [3]
Nowhere is this thinking more evident than in the houses that demonstrate the maximum potentials of residential design. Robin Boyd’s own house ‘Walsh Street’ is quickly becoming a Melbourne icon since its purchase as the home for the Robin Boyd Foundation. I fondly remember visiting the house during my studies and it completely redefined my views of what residential architecture could achieve. This houses special arrangement of functions and spaces across a blur of interior and exterior zones is an unparalleled piece of sensitively designed residential architecture. The contrast between this house and the monotony of mainstream residential outcomes could not be starker. This gap unfortunately only seems to be widening, with little emerging to alter this trend in Australia or the US.
The startling realisation of this trend was definitely a factor behind the decision to move abroad. As I continue to explore North America I am constantly unearthing new design concepts and variations. These experiences have allowed for the refinement of my thoughts on what underpins successful residential design. The main element of the USA that has amazed me is the differing cultural, social and environmental conditions that exist across the country – both architecturally and generally. I have found the way both bespoke architectural design and mass-produced housing has interacted with these differences quite fascinating.
Rick Joy, Desert Nomad House, 2006, Tucson, USA [4]
The projects that I generally feel have the greatest success are those that acknowledge their site and context through sensitive siting and material selection. These projects often link to their historical roots and vernacular building solutions that have evolved in the region over centuries. This indigenous understanding of the land within the context of modern society can lead to creative outcomes that both inspire and sit effortlessly within their native contexts. I began to refer to this mindset as Regional Modernism – an architectural style that both looks back to the past to understand the landscape; whilst also looking forward to utilise the positive aspects of the evolving internationalised society that architecture now sits.
As I began to feel pretty impressed with my ‘new’ definition I started to research the ideas and soon came across the term Critical Regionalism originally theorised by Alex Tzonis and Lefaivre in their essay ‘The Grid and Pathway’. This concept was further publicised by the writing of Kenneth Frampton – a figure that is hard to avoid in the academia of modern architecture.
“Architecture can only be sustained today as a critical practice if it assumes an ‘arriere-garde’ position, that is to say, one which describes itself equally from the Enlightenment myth of progress and from a reactionary, unrealistic impulse to return to the architechtonic forms of the preindustrial past. A critical ‘arriere-garde’ has to remove itself from both the optimisation of advanced technology and ever-present tendancy to regress into nostalgic historicism or the glibly decorated. It is my contention that only an ‘arriere-garde’ has the capacity to cultivate a resistant, identity-giving culture while at the same time having discreet recourse to universal technique.”
Frampton across a broad body of work has developed a clearer definition of Critical Regionalism as the ability to delicately balance the combination of being regionalist without becoming nostalgic; along with the ever present need to be modern without disregarding important vernacular precedents.
Stanley Saitowitz, Yerba Buena Lofts, 2001, San Francisco, USA [5]
To celebrate Frampton’s 80th birthday an event was help at Columbia GSAPP to mark the milestone. For the event Frampton handpicked five architects to discuss their own work and its ongoing connection to his thinking. Frampton noted that his selections were influenced by his ongoing preoccupation with the concept of Critical Regionalism. The selected presenters were Steven Holl (New York), Rick Joy (Tucson), Patkau Architects (Vancouver), Stanley Saitowitz (San Francisco) and Shim and Sutcliffe Architects (Toronto). These architects represent the variances in the best work coming out of North America. However, importantly, they identified the ways in which Critical Regionalism has informed and shaped their processes.
The vast differences between Joy’s pavilions in the desert, Saitowitz’s apartment projects in San Francisco or Holl’s museums across the world, demonstrates what the variances in brief, site, and budget can be extrapolated into. The event was transcribed into a publication of essays which highlighted the key underlying theme of consistent rigour throughout to ensure a link to the site and to leverage the greatest potential benefits to the clients and extended surroundings.
One of the finer examples of the execution of Critical Regionalism is the Strawberry Vale Elementary School by Patkau Architects. The project is located on the outskirts of Victoria on Vancouver Island, Canada. The project takes the idea of a school well past the basic brief and looks to develop a rich sense of community that goes beyond the classroom.
“Increasingly, we think of our work as a project of trying to establish relationships between things, a means of constructing mutually beneficial ground between the circumstances of the project, enduring natural systems, and the needs and desires of individual clients and communities.”
The architects thought through all aspects of the design to ensure it could achieve the best potential outcome for the site, the students and the broader system. Patkau actively looked at the site as a system and the ways in which the new school could integrate into the existing processes. The bold roof form is a direct outcome of the environmental performance requirements of each space. This in combination with other spatial decisions throughout created an outcome that connected students to the landscape whilst also aiming to ensure that the students were not overwhelmed by the design.
Patkau were able to transform an often boring building typology into a true asset that not only respected the site but improved it. More importantly they created a form that can inspire countless students to achieve their best potentials and also develop an increased appreciation for the benefits of architecture.
Patkau Architects, Strawberry Vale Elementary School, 1995, Victoria, BC, Canada [6]
The concepts of Critical Regionalism could happily lead a driven and talented architect to a successful career of site responsive houses. However, the difficulty with these ideas and why it is not more widely utilized is the commercial desire to standardise. Critical Regionalism preaches a mantra that prompts bespoke responses for each individual project. One of the areas that it actively tries to resist is the rise of universal design that ignores the context of where a project is located – not surprisingly the original article by Tzonis and Lefaivre was published in 1981 as architecture was trying to rationalize the growing dissolution with the International Style.
“Everywhere throughout the world, one finds the same bad movie, the same slot machines, the same plastic or aluminium atrocities, the same twisting language by propaganda, etc. It seems as if mankind, by approaching en masse a basic consumer culture, were also stopped en masse at a subcultural level.”
This stands as the greatest test for architecture going forward. Long gone are the generations of residential architecture produced by craftsman. This era ended with the industrialisation of the first and second World Wars. There have been countless attempts to positively fill this void in the modern era - with the majority of these having fallen flat. The market has seen a steady dominance by large conglomerates prioritising a cost efficient product that they can translate into the most profits.
Development housing projects, which constitute the majority of residential housing, are mastering the art mediocrity. Designing houses cheap enough to excite and thus sell to prospective home owners, but little more.
One of my favourite pastimes is the Youtube blog of The Nerdwriter, Evan Puschak. His post ‘The Epidemic of Passable Movies’ noted that there will always be bad movies, and that there will always hopefully be good movies. However he aptly raised the rise of ‘passable’ movies in the middle. He was concerned by the rise of movies that could be great, but due to their lack of tonal control end up being merely ‘passable’. I couldn’t help but make parallels on many levels with residential architecture. The peak of architecture is potentially as great as it has ever been, and sadly the lower end of the market is still languishing with few opportunities to enhance their surroundings. As Puschak noted it is the middle band that is most disheartening and something that seems to be worsening. Those, who with the means to produce something great are choosing not to, instead settling for the ‘passable’. This trend only seems to worsening. Most alarmingly this seems to be prompting a growing disconnection with the benefits of quality architecture on our lives.
Potentially game solving concepts such as Critical Regionalism provide a wonderful template for how to achieve sublime architectural outcomes. If this passion can be harnessed and implemented in the base elements of mass-produced housing there is a high chance of a dramatic increase in the overall quality of housing. However the ideals being produced by bespoke outcomes are currently only being used superficially. Solving this problem will be a daunting task that will take action from all levels of architecture, government and industry.
In the interim I am looking to garner myself with a growing body of architectural knowledge and experiences. I am hoping that this will uncover positive ideas and solutions that can not only improve the lives of individual clients but the general public.
References:
Alex Tzonis and Lefaivre, ‘The Grid and Pathway’, 1981
Kenneth Frampton, ‘Five North American Architects’, 2012
Kenneth Frampton, ‘ Towards a Critical Regionalism’, 1983
Paul Ricoeur, ‘History and Truth’, 1966
Evan Puschak, ‘Nerdwriter – The Epidemic of Passable Movies’, 2016
Image Sources:
Wall House, Peter Stutchbury Architecture
Urban Sprawl, realestate.com.au
Walsh Street House, Robin Boyd Foundation
Desert Nomad House, Arquitectura Viva
Yerba Buena Lofts, Payton Binnings of Artemis Real Estate
Newton Library, Patkau