FIVE POINTS OF RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE

April 2020

The famous french architect Le Corbusier was one of the pioneers of the International Style movement. Early in his career he distilled his revolutionary ideas to ‘Five Points of Architecture’. The publishing of these principles allowed Le Corbusier to formalise the knowledge he had garnered through the exploration of contemporary design and construction techniques. Creating a set of tangible ideals that he could utilise to develop an innovative style different from all that had come before. 

I have been contemplating the manner in which Le Corbusier was able to clearly refine his thoughts during my travels over the last few years. This was evident both in the moment and retroactively as I have been learning about new architects, discovering unfamiliar concepts and visiting countless projects in person. These design experiences have begun to hit a saturation point, where there seems to be a concentration of concepts that are intrinsic to the projects that draw my attention.

As my travels return to Australia after an amazing three years in the US I am looking to explore my own ‘Five Points of Residential Architecture’ to help distil my experiences into tangible ideas to help direct both future projects and research. These ideas will also hopefully stand as a conceptual milestone to look back on as they inevitable evolve over the years to come.

Le Corbusier’s ‘Five Points of Architecture’ were largely prompted by the innovation in manufacturing and construction techniques. They are quite functional, but innovative in pursuing an architecture free from contextual restraints:

1. The Pilotis: A grid of concrete or steel columns replaces the load-bearing walls.

2. The Free Groundplan: The absence of load-bearing walls allows flexible use of the living spaces.

3. The Horizontal Windows: Horizontal windows that cut through the non-load-bearing walls along the facade and provide the apartment with even light.

4. The Free Façade: Open and closed sections on the façade enable the separation and connection of the exterior design from the building structure.

5. The Roof Garden: Both as a kitchen garden and as a sun terrace.

Le Corbusier first published his points in 1927 and soon after realised his iconic Villa Savoye - a design that altered the architectural discourse.

The intention of my own concept refinement is not to forever redefine the direction of contemporary design like Villa Savoye, but rather to draw more clarity and insight from the wealth of architectural experiences that I have exposed myself to recently. The following ‘Five Points of Residential Architecture’ are in no particular order, but do rely on the complementary nature of each of the aspects to achieve their full potential.

Five Points of Residential Architecture

1. Regionalism:

Underpinning the sustainable success of a residential design is the harmony and integration with both its immediate and broader context. Thankfully the fundamental aspects of site planning are incorporated by the majority of designers.

It is important to incorporate these basic site-planning strategies as early as possible in the design process. Once these are confirmed it allows for the more complex aspects of the projects context to also be considered. This ensures the design is bound and embraced by its geographic context.

The Watzek House by John Yeon is a wonderful example of a project that goes beyond fundamental site planning and integrates all aspects of the environs into the built outcome. John Yeon was considered a master of regional modernism, and this project which was one of his first, remains one of his best. The house uses a beautiful mixture of locally sourced timbers and craft techniques that work together in a symphony. This is reinforced by a simple arrangement of forms that prioritises access to nature and the views from key moments within the house.

The house understands its place in both the site and the greater Pacific North West context. The house still has a presence on the land - it does not try to become its surroundings. It instead looks to embrace the language of the area and introduce itself as a complimentary element. This allows the occupants to enjoy the site and unearth aspects of it that were under-appreciated before the buildings existence.

Naturally projects that have a deep site understanding endure well and improve with age and patina. Inherently becoming a more sustainable long-term outcome that looks to rebut the growing trend towards fast architecture. The ability to integrate the project into its natural surroundings is fundamental to achieving a harmonious understanding for the design to then build open to create a great piece of architecture.

2. Honesty of Construction:

The logic of construction is often hidden or disguised from the occupants. Subconsciously humans have an intrinsic desire to understand the construction of their dwelling. This is due to countless generations of our ancestors that constructed their own shelters. These inherent desires, while seemingly irrelevant today, still hold true as we feel most at home in designs that demonstrate their construction logic - especially if they can enlighten the occupants on the craft that is embedded in realising the building.

All homes require some form of structural and construction strategy. I have always found myself drawn to designs that use these items as essential aspects of the base concept. The Weston Havens House in the Berkeley hills, designed by Harwell Hamilton Harris, is one of most vivid interpretations of where the fundamental processes of dispersing structural loads and the craft of construction is integral to the design concepts.

This house sits dramatically on a hill looking out over the bay towards San Francisco. The success of this house lies in these beautiful views, which are intensified by the inverted trusses that compress the interior spaces and expands upwards towards the vista. These trusses are something that would be typically utilised in a utilitarian home design, except in the traditional upright position. This design ingeniously flips this norm to create something outstanding.

The Weston Havens House, like many of my favourite houses, has a Japanese sensibility to the craft and intricacy of construction. The house uses a textured assembly of both timber structural elements and cladding that demonstrates clearly the hand of an invested craftsman. This is evident in the layering of the complex timber structure that allows the entry bridge to hang between the street and the main house like a rope bridge in a tree house. The extra level of thought allows this house to exude a real sense of care that makes you feel a little saddened whenever you eventually have to leave its walls.

The result of being transparent and honest about the construction can lead to transcendent designs that make us feel drawn to its shelter, but also energised by the literal understanding of the energy of the physics moving through the dwelling.

The Weston Havens House is one of the finer examples of how the physics and skill of construction can be factually expressed. Not all designs have to do it as dramatically as the inverted trusses of Weston Havens - as this may feel a little ridiculous without the remarkable site. Nonetheless, I feel that it is important to implement an understanding of how the building will be constructed and how the structural loads will be distributed as an essential aspect of the design concepts – rather than being deliberated later in the project when the options are much more constrained.

3. Modesty and Efficiency:

As I lauded in my previous article ‘Land of the Free’ from November 2019, one of the most important facet to ensure the sustainability of a project from an ecological standpoint is the adoption of a modestly sized dwelling. It is important to design in a manner that ensures the upmost flexibility and effectiveness of every module within the house. This is a crucial aspect for not only the pragmatic reduction of the carbon footprint, but also in the creation of connections and planning subtleties that this level of refinement can unearth. 

The ability to design in an efficient manner was explored with great enthusiasm during the post-war housing boom when materials were scarce, but innovation was high. Modestly sized mid-century designs with exciting ideas were being explored with great passion. These projects included Pierre Koenig’s Stahl House and Robin Boyd’s Walsh Street House. Such projects were an exploration of how small interior floor areas could be maximised with close connection to vibrant exterior spaces. These studies blurred the line successfully between inside and out - improving both.

Questions of housing availability and density continue to create concern. It was pleasing to uncover the Strathmore Apartments by Richard Neutra in Los Angeles recently. This series of eight detached apartments is one of the finer examples of mid-level density. The complex was designed in the interwar period to cater for the presumed future housing need of the adjacent UCLA campus.

I recently visited the street-facing apartment that sits above the uphill series of garages. This apartment has a small floor area, but manages to smartly incorporate 2.5 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms and a generous Kitchen, Living, Dining and Exterior Dining Terrace into this space. The apartment is lit by plentiful natural light from the street facing horizontal strip of windows which allow light to penetrate deep into each of the areas. The spaces feel generous, but homely, a balance that too often is not considered adequately. The outcome is a type of home that could suit many different occupant typologies and will forever be in demand.

The underpinning joy of the whole site is the interstitial zones between the apartments. This space is used as a stepped pathway to access the apartments up the sloped site. This courtyard of natural delight acts as the lungs and heart of each apartment. The access to all six apartments is from this area, with many of the apartments opening onto or looking directly over the beautiful space. This abundance of greenery is a complimentary element to the International Style apartments - one supporting and sustaining the other.

The reality of these amazing apartments is that the site would often be filled by either one large or two medium sized homes. This would greatly reduce the functional use of this land and the potential joy that the highly efficient and interesting apartments create. Large is definitely not always better. Often in the refinement to create modest and efficient dwellings the design unearths benefits that outweigh the sum of parts created by a large dwelling. Never miss a chance to fine-tune a design. In doing so you might actually be able to do much more with the financial investment.

4. Interest and Creativity:

To achieve an outstanding residential outcome the architect needs to go beyond simple box ticking. While a functional, well-planned outcome should be at the heart of all designs, there is often an opportunity to go beyond this to find a higher level of intrigue. This flourish might be inspired by a characteristic of the clients, the geography of the site or a material that elicits an idea to elevate the design on a trajectory towards being a triumphant piece of architecture.

It is usually this piece of innovation that initially sparks the interest of occupants with the other subsequent, but crucial, points working calmly in background to create a succinct project.

A great example of a project that exudes this charm is the Rockefeller Guest House in New York City by Philip Johnson. This house was designed for Blanchette Rockefeller, the wife of John D. Rockefeller III, who was an active patron of the arts, twice serving as the president of MoMA. The Rockefeller Guest House was envisaged, as the name asserts, as a guesthouse for visitors they had in the city, as well as an exhibition space and location for the varying parties and dinners that their lives entailed.

The Rockefeller’s interesting mix of brief allowed Johnson to create a dwelling that intentionally blurred the line between what is a house and what is a gallery. The outcome is an inwardly focused house that is private to the street, but extremely open inside its heavy walls. The design revolves around an expansively open interior naturally illuminated by a central courtyard. This inner paradise can serve as either an oasis from the busy city for guests, or as a vibrant event space.

Johnson’s ability to maximise the clients brief is the underlying motivation for the success of this design. He was able to weave a beautifully cohesive design that is able to embrace its duality of functions. It is crucial to note that this point of interest does not come at the cost of other important items of the design.

There are countless examples of projects that solely focus on the innovative idea and do little else well. These projects usually draw your attention and photograph well, but under greater investigation are lacking the soul that is required to adequately function as a home. Rather this point should act as the stimulus that motivates and accentuates the other items that underpin a piece of high quality residential design. It is the motivator that guides and inspires all the other items to a transcendent level.

5. Innate Human Desires:

The final and potential most important point is the ability of a house to calm our innate human instincts and provide the best platform to achieve our fullest potentials. This may seem very ethereal, but humans have existed for thousands of years, with the modern advances in housing construction filling only a tiny portion of this timeline. Our brains are fine tuned often for something much different to what contemporary dwellings entail. This creates a scenario where housing outcomes often ignore several aspects that have a detrimental impact on the occupants.

The benefits of natural light are pretty publicly known, especially when it comes to the health benefits for recovering patients. There are also countless other factors that are important to consider when designing a home. The Kings Road House by Rudolph Schindler in Los Angeles does the best job of incorporating these innate characteristics of any house that I have visited.

The Kings Road House was designed by Schindler early in his career for his own and another family (Richard Neutra for several prominent years) to live in. Schindler conceived of the house while camping in varying spots across California. During these experiences he noted the inherent importance of being able to have a strong mass at your back as you look out across the landscape. This was achieved in his Kings Road House as the bold concrete walls that anchor the otherwise lightweight structure and fulfil the human desire for prospect and refuge. A desire to both have the ability to feel safe in your abode, whilst also being able to look out across the landscape.

The sense of camping is vivid throughout the spaces of this wonderful home. The scale of the rooms prompt the occupants to sit and embed themselves into the varying courtyards that link to all the living spaces. Instead of looking over, or out and across, the compressed height of these spaces prompts a feeling of being directly connected to these garden areas. A clear link to the feeling of opening your tent in the morning and looking out at the day - both energising and calming the occupants.

The house links well to another innate human characteristic of social connections and privacy. Schindler was trying to rethink the traditional norms of housing layouts in this design, when he proposed a single storey, detached dual family dwelling. The house is a three-legged pinwheel plan with the two separate family areas and garage fanning out around the site with the kitchen as the central hub. The two family areas are distinctly separate and have their own private courtyards that their spaces open onto. This creates an interesting mix of privacy in the living areas, complimented by the social aspects of the joined kitchen and amenity spaces of the house.

This was a highly innovative design for its 1922 completion date. Obviously there are areas for refinement, such as the balance of the two family dwelling - which could be a source of contention for certain occupants. The questions Schindler was asking were focused on how his own home could best allow for the highest quality of living through an exploration of the inherent aspects of what humans are looking for in a home. A mantra that will have a fundamental benefit to all house designs.

One of the most common questions an architect receives is some form of:

“So what types of architecture do you design/like?” 

As the points in this post look to explain this question is not easily answered succinctly. Architectural design is inherently a complicated undertaking that must incorporate a range of factors into a logical outcome. The dismissal of any one important facet of the design concept can inherently undermine the outcome - even if the other aspects are exemplarily executed. Therefore I guess the best one line answer that I can give in response to the above question is:

“Architecture that cohesively and confidently understands and responds to all aspects of the project.”

But in an ideal world I would love to direct people to this post.