This post is the first part of an article that appeared under the title Comfort Zone in the #1_20 issue of ADATO, Luxembourg’s only architecture journal. The issue theme was Architecture + Medicine. My working title came from Richard Hamilton’s famous 1956 collage. I’m not sure why. It could be that architecture is just a […]
I didn’t go out of my way to look for Otto Wagner’s Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station. I just got off the train and there it was. And I didn’t seek out Josef Maria Olbrich’s Secession Hall but there it was at the other end of Karsplatz. A few days later I encountered Otto Wagner’s Schützenhaus (1904-1908), […]
Space that’s enclosed is different from space that’s not and, with caves, those spaces are defined by the inner surfaces of the cave and by the cave mouth. The cave mouth is the boundary between inside and outside because it’s the only surface that has an other side. If humans are supposed to have an innate […]
Boarding houses are dwellings that can be lived in either as houses or hotels and it seems like they’re due for a comeback now that much of our existing house and apartment stock is either fully or partially rented out short-term to persons not a part of the owner’s household. Property and investments have now […]
This planet has seen some extreme housing density in its time. If you were in The Rookery in New York in 1865 you’d know what 4,700 persons per hectare looks like. If you were in Madrid 1930-31 you’d recognize these two buildings in Karel Teige’s 1932 book, The Minimum Dwelling. The lower one has a density of […]
Repeating Crevice is the English title Kazuo Shinohara gave to a 1970 house that, in Japanese, is known as 同相の谷, dōsō no tani (“In-phase Valleys”). The drafting style of the plans below shows they came from one of the two early books that led me astray. For many years I thought of Repeating Crevice the way it was presented – as an architectural exploration […]
On second thoughts, coffee shops as co-living rooms aren’t going to work in the UK. Coffee houses are blandspace, neutral ground, business places, places you meet people you’re not keen to let any further into your life. British television dramas focus around pubs – not diners as in Seinfeld or coffee shops as in Friends. This should’ve been a […]
Co-living is dwelling units having reduced area and some form of living space as shared amenity. The term is entering popular usage to collectively describe various forms of co-living tenure. The very one we have most need for is not one of them. This is odd. Let’s start by taking a look at what co-living isn’t. The 6,391 sq.ft triplex penthouse at first seems a bit pricey at […]
Even though time has proved much of Karel Teige’s The Minimum Dwelling prophetic it’s still disturbing for something written in the 1930’s to seem as if it was written for us today. Teige may have been over-eager to place so much faith in dialectical materialism but his perceptions on architects, buildings, society and how people live remain timely now. Teige […]
It’s back – this time with the emphasis on FUN! Flashback. Remember New York’s 2013 adAPT microflat competition? The winning project was by Monadnock Development LLC, Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation and nARCHITECTS. Apartments were between 250 sq.ft and 370 sq.ft. Skilful yes but I find convertible furniture and rooms a bit soul-less. They’re so willing to bend themselves to accommodate and please […]
