Analysing Architecture finds elements which are doing many things.(This might be one of the measures of architecture.) In this section through a hillside house-The Wolfe House-designed by Rudolf Schindler in 1928,you can see that the simple thin horizontal concrete slabs,tied back into the hill,act not only as floors and ceilings,but also as outdoor terraces and sunshades. plan the angled walls open up In the plan of the Falk Apart- a place for each staircase,which ments,it is the angle of the would otherwise be more party walls that does more cramped.The non-orthogonal than one thing. geometry also helps the end apartments to be larger and dif- ferent in plan from the interme- Reference for the architecture diate ones.Schindler has been of Rudolf Schindler: careful not to let the deviation from right-angles create awk- Lionel March and Judith ward shaped rooms;it is as if Scheine-R.M.Schindler,1993. almost all the problems which might have been caused by the shift from rectangular geometry have been reduced down to one tiny triangular cupboard in the left-hand end apartment. As with the Wolfe House, Their precipitous edges are pro- these apartments were designed tected by balustrades which are for a hillside,though one which also planting boxes. is less steep.Their section is In the Falk Apartments of stepped,so that a roof can also 1943(shown in plan,top right),be a terrace.In the section of by the same architect,it is not an individual apartment you so much the element but the can see that the bedroom is al- way it is positioned that does most like an enclosed gallery in more than one thing at once. The party walls between the apartments have been angled so that the living rooms face a lake.But this device has other effects too.It allows the terraces outside each apartment to be larger;it also gives these terraces more privacy.Deeper into the 40
Copyright ?1997. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Unwin, Simon(Author). Analysing Architecture. London, UK: Routledge, 1997. p 40. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/sjtu/Doc?id=10057283&ppg=41
Elements Doing More Than One Thing Reference for Swiss villages: the living room.This device too One of the drawbacks does more than one thing.One with stepped sections is that Werner Blaser-The Rock is can see from the bedroom down inside spaces close to the hill My Home,WEMA,Zurich, into the living room,and thus can be dark.Notice that in the 1976. the bedroom islessenclosed than Falk Apartments Schindler is traditionally the case.But also counters this problem by mak- the position of the bedroom in ing 'streets'between the layers This plan is of a village in the the section creates two different of apartments.These pathways Ticino region of Switzerland. ceiling heights which relate to do at least three things at once: It shows cellular bouses the places they cover:a high ceil-they give access into the apart- (hatched),walls,and some ing over the living room mak-ments;they provide light into platforms adjacent to houses. ing it more spacious;and a low the back spaces-the kitchens, It is difficult to find an ele- ceiling over the entrance and hallways,and bathrooms;and ment which is not doing more kitchen.The line where the low they allow cross-ventilation than one thing at once: ceiling changes to the high also through the apartments. mainly,defining private,semi- suggests the division between the There are many too many private,and public spaces- living room and the dining area. instances of elements doing pathways and small 'nodal' The dining place is identified by more than one thing at once in squares. the lower ceiling. the products of architecture to be able to cover them ad- equately here.This is a charac- teristic of architecture at all scales and types,and from all periods of history.When an ancient Greek hung his shield on the roof-post of his megaron, he was using an architectural el- ement to do two things at once; if that post was also a corner of his bed-place,then it was do- ing three. The process of introducing one element to do a particular purpose,and then seeing what else it does (and so on),is an essential part of the 'organic' tradition in architecture.This is how settlements have grown into villages,and villages into towns,through history. 41
Copyright ?1997. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Unwin, Simon(Author). Analysing Architecture. London, UK: Routledge, 1997. p 41. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/sjtu/Doc?id=10057283&ppg=42
USING THINGS THAT ARE THERE
Copyright ?1997. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Unwin, Simon(Author). Analysing Architecture. London, UK: Routledge, 1997. p 42. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/sjtu/Doc?id=10057283&ppg=43
USING THINGS THAT ARE THERE In this small crevice in a huge particular location is distin- rock face (in the Carnarvon guishable as 'a place'-the Gorge in Queensland,Aus- shade of a tree,the shelter of a tralia),an aborigine family laid cave,the summit of a hill,the the dead body of a small child,mystery of a dark forest.... wrapped in bark.They marked In daily life,one is con- stantly recognising places.This is how one knows where one is, where one has been,and where one is going.With many of these thousands of places one does not interact;they are left unchanged except for the recognition itself, which may be fleeting and hardly acknowledged. Some places however stick in the mind.They are remem- bered because of some particu- lar distinction:a fine view, shelter from the wind,the warmth of the sun;or because they are associated with a par- ticular event:falling off a bicy- cle,fighting with a friend, making love,witnessing a mira- cle,winning a battle.... The next significant step in a relationship with place is that one might choose to use it for something-the shade of that tree for a brief rest on a long and arduous walk,the cave as a hid- the place with silhouettes of ing place,the hill top to survey their hands,made with pig- the surrounding countryside,the ment.This grave is as much a darkest part of the mysterious piece of architecture as is the forest for some spiritual ritual.... Great Pyramid of Giza (and Maybe the recognition of more poignant). a place is shared with other peo- Although architecture is ple,the memory and use associ- always an activity of a mind,ated with it becomes communal. it does not follow that archi- Opposite Page: In these ways places ac- tecture always entails building quire significance of many A cave that is used as a dwell-something physically.As iden- kinds-practical,social,histori- ing is architecture,just as much tification of place,architec- cal,mythical,religious.... as is a built house,by reason of ture may be no more than a The world has many, having been chosen as a place. matter of recognising that a many such places:the cave in
Copyright ?1997. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Unwin, Simon(Author). Analysing Architecture. London, UK: Routledge, 1997. p 43. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/sjtu/Doc?id=10057283&ppg=44
Analysing Architecture Mount Dikti on the island of Castle builders through Crete,believed to have been the history have built their fortifi- birthplace of the Greek god cations on sites which,though Zeus;the route of the Muslim often powerfully dramatic, pilgrimage-the bajj-in and were chosen primarily for around Mecca;the mount from their defensibility.Even if which Christ delivered his ser- identically rebuilt somewhere mon;the stretch of boulevard else,such buildings would not in Dallas,Texas,where Presi- be architecturally the same on dent Kennedy was shot;the another site. places in the australian outback which are identified and re- membered in the 'songlines'of aborigine culture.... Recognition,memory, choice,sharing with others,the acquisition of significance;all these contribute to the proc- esses of architecture. remembering their associations Of course architecture also and significances;it involves involves building-the physical choice of site,and sharing with alteration of a part of the world others. to enhance or reinforce its es- Fundamentally all terres- tablishment as a place.Recog- trial architecture depends upon nition,memory,choice,sharing the ground for its base,some- ...operate at the rudimentary thing that we perhaps tend to levels of identification of place.take for granted. Architecture makes more differ- In a flat and completely ence when it proposes and puts featureless landscape the estab- into effect physical changes to lishment of a place would have the fabric of the world. to be an arbitrary decision; Simeon the Stylite lived in a Architecture always de- (once established however the cave dwelling within one of pends on things that are already place would provide a catalyst the volcanic cones of the there;it involves recognising for other places).The irregular valley of Goreme in Anatolia their potential or the problems shape of the ground,together The caves were extended they present;it involves,maybe,with the courses of the water and refined by carving into the rock. 44
Copyright ?1997. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Unwin, Simon(Author). Analysing Architecture. London, UK: Routledge, 1997. p 44. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/sjtu/Doc?id=10057283&ppg=45