As part of the European Architects Lecture Series on 20 July, Graham Trickett presented a lecture within ARM’s National Museum on international branded architectural mogul Rem Koolhaas.
I find Koolhaas a fascinating architect in two key ways, firstly as an architect who communicates what certain aspects of the practice of architecture can be and secondly as an architect engaging with contemporary economic realities in the attempt to realise complex architectural programs.
Neither of these aspects were explored during the lecture. Trickett firstly explored the Dutch condition, i.e. urban and man made, and the dutch architectural tradition from De Stijl to MDRDV.
What followed was a survey of Koolhaas’s work including, Exodus, the Villa Savoye influenced house Villa Dall’ava in Paris, Educatorium, Maison A Bordeaux, IIT Ilinois and his new library in Seattle.
Trickett touched on Koolhaas’s graphic style, a prejudicing of aesthetics for program and his influence upon contemporary architectural students, the structure of the company’s that Koolhaas is involved with, the Prada store etc.
The lecture was a good introduction to Koolhaas but I think the lecturer failed to communicate the critical depth of Koolhaas’s architectural practice and its complexity.
The following is an accurate transcript of a conversation that Matt and I had this afternoon concerning the relative merits of technology vs craft.
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In the end it seems, the constant barrage of Zahapower proved too much for Matt and not even sacred Uluru could win the argument for him.
Architecture is to be overun by the arbitrary computer systems of a narrow minded energy/environmental lobby without regard to architectural expression, culture, economics or informed debate of any kind. This is the direction being taken in the use of prescriptive rating systems in NSW and other states as they are adopted as ‘requirements’ by the planning authorities.
Begining with the adoption of compulsory energy rating systems, a star rating was required for each development application involving new dwelling(s) by the approval authoritities. Gradually, over time these ratings were tightened up, requiring more and more stars as the benchmark. Easy to administer, the applications either measured up or they didn’t, simple tick the box bureaucracy.
Critically these systems, seemingly designed to improve the quality of project homes, failed in what they attempted to do in key ways as they were missaplied to housing as a whole.
They could not deal with a courtyard house, with cold bridging, with the differences between specific building products, with the context and vagaries of site and sometimes with the architects intentions. This program defied logic in certain circumstances enforcing bad decisions, causing the reduction of glazed areas in buildings, requiring certain types of curtains, excessive insulation. Putting Architects in the position of taking advice from computer program operators, sometimes with little or no building experience, on how to meet the required rating! is preposterous and insulting. Most architects being highly aware of environmental issues and materials and environmental approaches.
Architects, I think accepted the limitations of the system in good faith and to an extent hoped that more sophisticated versions would improve the system. However, the system was sufficiently flexible that the required ratings could be achieved without undue detriment to the quality of the building. But what about the next system on the horizon?
BASIX already out an about in NSW and threatening to spread further may surpass its predessors and actually be detrimental to the architecture profession. According to the Planning NSW, website,
“BASIX is a web-based planning tool designed to assess the water and energy efficiency of new residential developments. It has been developed by DIPNR in association with other government agencies, local government and utilities”
Fantastic, note there is no mention or reference to architects, we kinda have something to do with the built environment. Note also the little architectural sketch in green on the website, fine use us for marketing. Further,
“To obtain a BASIX certificate you need to complete the Basix assessment to meet the mandatory targets for Water, Thermal, Comfort and Energy”
With mandatory targets such as these a project will either pass or fail these ‘exams’ and projects will be required by the planning authorities to pass, to enable the process of approval to proceed. How prescriptive these process’s are I do not know, however the following excerpt is pretty scary
” the cross ventilation section is optional and only available to certain areas. Completing this section will enable up to 3.5 % extra glazing” I’m not sure this would have helped Mies Van der Rohe with his Farnsworth house.
The thrill of knowing I can put an extra 3.5% of glazing into my next project is dampened somewhat as this program seems about as flexible and easy as applying for an apartment in the Stalinist Russia.
The system is overdetermined as evidenced by its online demonstration. Critical to architects is the relaxation of these systems to make them optional or variable where an Architect is concerned and they clash in a detrimental fashion with the design intent of a project. If this does not occur Architects and the community will suffer, losing a richness in the environments that we inhabit and degrading our national culture as expressed through architecture. Ultimately the problem with these systems is that they are anti design, anti lifestyle and represent neither sustainablity nor a balanced consideration of the problems we face in contemporary Australian society.
Well it appears Nath is on the ’shrooms again, utilising their powerful hallucinogens to summon up the spirit of Tim Winton… Or perhaps even Ric The Plastrier?
The beach house is an Australian institution intertwined with memories of first loves, holidays, bodysurfing, zinc, sand and growing up. Culturally the house awakens an enhanced sense of community; sharing space, pitching in with relatives rarely seen, friends estranged by distance, life and committments, swapping private space and catalogued possessions for the hurly burly of shared experience. The event can be marked as seasonal, as a return year upon year to the same place, a ritual of arrival, unpacking, joyous lived experience, repacking/farewells and departure.
Achitecturally, the typology is defined by the iconic weatherboard Corbusian boxes supported on blockwork and stilts or the ramshackle fibro shacks piled up with acretion upon acretion. This house is rare in that we judge not its appearance, but rather the connections it can bridge, the proximity to surf and bush and the quality of its casual spaces and sometimes even the ruggedness of its durablity. Its connection to life, not its representation of status, atleast as measured against the Jone’s, is treasured.
It has often struck me how vital the beach house is as a cultural idea, it is a pure luxury as we cannot dwell within one. The networks that sustain our lives will not allow this to occur. Yet many people invest in the idea and own houses that they do not live in, planning one day to retire to? These un-lived in houses, vacant and empty, devoid of people, occupy the most beautiful areas of our coast.
and they sit patiently silent, as markers of our promise to return?
I too, fondly recall the whole design process that Nathan went through in designing the house that is now emerging from the ground, flashing its footings at the world. In fact this week’s strip transcribes pretty much word for word a converversation that was had during this period. It was a long time ago, so there may be some inaccuracies, however, Nath’s pony tail is historically accurate but it probably was not as girly as depicted…
Its funny to think that up until pretty recently , we had prety much no idea what the hell we were doing with these computer things. When our people began looking for real jobs, meaning those jobs that didn’t involve making pizzas or stacking shelves in some supermarket, the offices that we were walking into still had drawing boards on the desk and we (us, the Nintendo generation!)were still more comfortable drawing by hand than by mouse. Now, bearly three to four years on the mouse has replaced the Rotring and drawing boards are only used by those still wearing the bow-ties and even they don’t really exist outside of Harry Seilders office. Some people passionately defend the pencil as a drafting tool and whilst I would like to ramble on about the relative merits of graphite and charcoal in comparison to single button and three button mouses the truth is right now I couldn’t care less. I am tired after a long weekend lounging around a beach house on the South Coast and it is enough for me to know that Nath once upon a time aplied his trademark slap dash style to the rigours of CAD and that we are now to be witness to the fruits of this grand experiment. Will the builder’s tolerance cancel out the drawing’s inaccuracies, creating some kind of divine order? Some perfect act of architecture? Maybe. Just maybe.
Architecture unlike other arts requires a client. And clients are tricky buggers, they possess something which, to misguidly utilise a gevorkiasim, is called potentiality. That is a capacity that most of us rarely achieve, and it involves the potential and willingness to invest large sums of money in order to develop something that the client has decided they need, ie, a house for their family and themselves.
Now as architects when we step in to guide the creative process, usually the client has purchased a site for this thing that they need created, but they have now made a fantastic decision and begun to involve us, they have had the good sense to steer clear of the crap project home designs, avoided the backyard drafters and building mis-designers.
We as architects ( and I use the term loosely in my case having been weighed, measured and found wanting by the gods dwelling in the ACCA headquarters) have been approached, heard through the grapevine, had organised for us, inherited, weaseled or lucked into a commission to design a building. This is the sort of thing that we have invested six years, x dollars, sleepless nights, cranky and enlightened tutors, tangles, whistles, merry go rounds, roundabouts, excessive navel gazing all in the interest, exploration and dream of.
For once we are in the position to bridge the gap between dream and reality. Between the ability as designers we have developed and cultured and the hard light of building day. As seasoned critics we will need to be kind on ourselves as we take the first steps into a building culture hundreds of thousands of years old dealing with the age old complexities of site, design, materials, money, approvals and builders.
My first building is about to come out of the ground, and I have begun to experience its spaces.
Three years ago a family friend came to me, he had decided that I would design his new family house. They had purchased a block high up on a ridge, with a mountain hanging over the top of it. The site had views out to another mountain, a lake, an escarpment in the distance and finally the ocean. Essentially a spectacular site. The brief was for a four bedroom rendered house. I promptly researched the best rendered houses in a classic modern vein that I could lay my hands on. The clients found most appealing a collection of houses published in a book called Casa Moderna
What slowly evolved was an L shaped building drawing on this building language, a testamount to my clients confidence and courage is the fact that the design is totally personal and original. The design presented the top of the L to the street, the level change from street to the site is atleast 1.5 metres. The foot of the L creates a courtyard space, this in contrast to the typical houses that plonked in the centre of a site creates a front and rear backyard. The foot of the L also houses the dining room, linked on the one side to the paved area in the courtyard and through a glazed wall on the other to the long views to the south. There is also an external curved staircase linking the courtyard to a roof terrace above that commands the long views fromthe site.
Its funny, standing in the spaces defined form work or by the subfloor brick work, the skeleton of the building exists. In a way the abstract nature of these elements creates almost the drawn plan on the site at 1:1. The spaces can be imagined and existed within, perhaps for the first time. The client and his family came with me to site and occupied the building, sitting on the walls, walking through the spaces, excited, discovering the nature and location of the rooms and their aspect. Soon they will occupy the finished building and the building will merely frame their lives.
It was very was cool to rediscover the design, the study better appointed than I anticipated, the vague space connecting the lounge, kitchen and dining room works/feels good, the roof terrace is the right size/ not oversize as I had worried about, the dining room is spacious and relates well to the courtyard space and the view.
I am looking forward to discovering my design and how it feels as the building process continues…it is a first work and a real pleasure to watch unfold
Last night we went to a bar that had some Very Talented Barmen.
They had a style that I could describe only as baroque. Every movement these guys made was an exercise in glorious decoration; arms swirling through the air, glasses and cocktail shakers alike undergoing a very many spins every time they meet the barman’s hand, a slice of lime describing a great arc of untold beauty as it hurls through the air destined to be caught in a caprioska way down the other end of the bar.
I applaud these men for their interest in 17th Century architecture and it is certain that they have invested far more time in understanding its arcane geometries than I have, however, I wonder (hope!) if they have an expanded repertoire; is saturday night always baroque night? I mean, a lot has happened since Borromini destroyed the idea of corner at San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and one hell of a lot more will happen in the future, as it is, after all, the future. Tackling the history of architecture using only the Waltz of the Cocktail Shaker to tell the tale is a tall order, granted, however I didn’t set them this task, I just stumbled into their strange dance and would like to see them push it as far as they can. As today’s strip suggests, they could at least acknowledge the wonderful contribution that the Dutch have made to fulfilling contemporary architecture’s desire to put forests in buildings.