158-501-1-PB

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

1/13

45

Helen G. Welling, Margit Liv,

Peder Duelund Mortensen and

Lene Wiell NordbergNordic Journal of Architectural Research

Volume 19, No 3, 2006, 13 pages

Nordic Association for Architectural Research

Helen G. Welling, Architect MAA, Associate Professor PhD,

Department of Housing, Institute of Planning, The Royal Danish

Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen.

Abstract:

Situations of dwelling dwellings suiting situations.

This article explores changeable dwellings that offer the possibility

of satisfying spontaneous activities and needs arising from todays

changing family patterns. It deals with dwellings that provide peoplewith room for development and flexibility - an open framework, which

can be adapted to new values and needs in different s ituations, life-

styles and stages. The study is based on information from users in

new housing schemes in and around Copenhagen open build-

ing dwellings that reveal a variety of approaches to these problems.

Who decides to live in these housing types and why? What are the

users expectations to these housing types - and how is their use

of them? Can the goal of architectural quality be maintained to-gether with greater possibilities for individual development and in-

fluence? The analysis of the dwellings show that the architecture

of the open dwelling is dependent on three basic conditions: the

static condition, the suitable condition and the situational condition.

Each condition has its own powerful way of articulation. Our aim is

to translate the observations of the projects in concepts and models

that are applicable in new projects.

Situations of dwelling

dwellings suiting situations

OPIC: IME-BASED DWELLING

Key words:

Dwelling typology, changeability, time-based dwelling, design tools,

architectural expression, user-driven innovation, situationism

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

2/13

46 Nordisk Arkitekturforskning 2006: 3

Observations

wo people have moved into a new apartment near theMetro in restaden, an urban area south of downtownCopenhagen undergoing development. Tis is no ordinary

apartment: it is laid out as a duplex, with areas of floor-through space. In addition, the apartment has the unusualdepth of meters. Its quite dark in the center, but there isa large window on each of the end walls, extending fromfloor to ceiling and from one wall to the other.

Te new residents are testing out possibilities in the spaceand situating themselves in relation to the place:

...it was the architectonic aspect that we fell for when we boughtthis apartment, although neither of us has the slightest under-

standing of either art or architecture, or anything like that. But

we thought it would be both fun and exciting And there was

the floor-through space .... and also you could see the Metro ....

Even when youre standing inside, youve got the sense that you

are outside because the windows are so large that it seems you

can step outside and come back in again in a different way.

Im excited to see how its going to be in winter ... whether itsgoing to be depressing when everything gets dark. But I dont

think so. Were also looking forward to a thunderstorm. Weve

been talking about that for some time. Ten were just going to

sit there on the sofa and sip wine and look outside ...

Five stories higher in the same apartment house, extremelylarge window openings raise the possibility of (figuratively)slicing the dining room table lengthwise down the middleand resurrecting it as a bar in the kitchen. Te other half ofthe table turns into a working table. Te two half tablesare fitted with wheels and have been moved all the way upto the glass faade. Here, on the borderline between insideand outside, the tension emerges and the unexpected cantake place.

Another housing projectposes a different kind of challenge

for the users. Te apartments have been built over a basiclayout. Te user is encouraged to fill the space out in indi-vidually. Some people start out by moving in a rudimen-tary fashion: a double bed, a baby carriage and a makeshiftthree-piece living room set. Te bathroom is the only ele-ment that has been laid out in a fixed way - in the form ofa detached core inside the open space. Te resident invades

the room then starts to walk around and starts to test outthe spatial possibilities in different constellations. Te spaceplaces its mark on the dweller, and vice versa.

Some try to plan it out for themselves:... Yes, we decided for ourselves we designed much of it.

We got hold of a demo when we saw the model unit a CD-

ROM. Ten we made a copy of the drawing of our apartment

and printed out a lot of these. And then we started measuring

and got rolling. I think we put the kitchen in twenty differ-

ent places in the apartment ...

Other people find the frames restrictive:... I just didnt have much of a choice here because I was

bound by the placement of the windows. Tere werent a lot

of choices available that could really be implemented. You

know, somebody like me doesnt really quite get it that when

youre putting up new walls, youre also going to have to deal

with things like electrical sockets. Tats the kind of thing

that I dont quite figure out until after its over!

Te residential units mentioned above are not entirelyfunctionally single-valued or spatially unambiguous whenit comes to the future manner of occupancy. Architectureneed not prescribe our behavior. Architecture can be anopen work which, in an unpredictable way, contains pos-sibilities for future development. Te homes of the future

will have to offer people sufficient place to unfold them-selves and will have to offer options open frames that can

be adapted to new concepts of value and needs in differentsituations, different ways of life and different stages of life.Can the new open dwellings accommodate the requiredmultiplicity? What happens when the space becomes vagueand indistinct? odays changeable life situations presup-pose that the individual can address himself interactivelyto his immediate surroundings, whether we are speakingabout society, the workplace or the family. Te dwellings

spatial architectonic quality is not static but is conjoinedwith the dwellings capacity to transform.

The dwelling and the city

In the twentieth century, Danish residential constructionoccupied an internationally acknowledged position ofstrength within the Nordic tradition. Te general awareness

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

3/13

47

in the society about the significance of positive conditionsinside the home was manifest in the s and the post-

wars residential production and was followed up by the de-velopment in the s and s of the low/dense housing as

something counter to the large multi-story buildings.Seen in a global perspective, it is a salient Danish trait

that the challenges of residential construction have foundsuch favor among the countrys finest architects. Te devel-opment of the buildings quality and form transpired as partof an interaction between the government, public and pri-vate corporations, architectural drawing offices and users.

oday, high architectural quality, the articulation in a

contemporary idiom and the production of experimentalliving quarters are significant parameters in the cities po-sitioning and competition in a regionalized and globalized

world. During the dwellings lifetime, a queue of changingresidents, with different kinds of ethnic, cultural, family-related and social stipulations will be posing different kindsof demands on the same residential unit and on the sur-rounding city.

Te young adults have taken up their positions in thecityscape, where their life style unfurls itself everywhere.Tey enjoy the focus on the street and in the cafs and theyparticipate in a wide spectrum of cultural activities. People

who have become used to this way of living in the city asyoung adults will carry this urban-oriented life style intothe ensuing course of their lives. [Frnes & Brusdal, ,p. ]. Te young citizens educational programs generally

begin in the city. Once the young students take up resi-dence there, it is no longer a foregone conclusion that they

will be moving to the suburbs when they have children. Inthe very fabric of our educational system, a great deal ofemphasis is placed on our being able to qualify ourselves. Inmodern society, the human being is in a position to choosemore than ever before in history [Frnes & Brusdal, ].Learning to design ones own life story is a form of training

in itself. Accordingly, we are also prepared and perhapsrelatively well armed for being partners in the elaborationof our physical frames.

Te challenge lying before the architectural craft is to de-velop new urban and building forms, new urban spaces andnew residences that will be robust, susceptible to change

Helen G. Welling, Margit Liv, Peder Duelund Mortensen and Lene Wiell Nordberg: Situations of dwelling dwellings suiting situations

Prehaven

Fionia hus

VM-huset

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

4/13


and architectonically distinctive apartment buildings andliving quarters that can accommodate and can change inthe course of time between different ways of life and dif-ferent functions. At Te Royal Danish Academy of Fine

Arts School of Architecture, research into this field of in-quiry has been set into motion, with support from the Real-dania Foundation and Te Danish Ministry of Culture. Inthe research project, three different building projects withchangeable apartments are chosen for analysis: Prehaven[Te Pear ree Garden], Fionia Hus[Fionia House]andVM-husene[the VM-buildings]. Te aim of the investi-gation is to uncover how new open residential forms in-

fluence the way that residents use the apartments and toask whether this exchange can eventually lead to enhancedknowledge about better urban dwellings. Te registrationand the analysis are aimed at examining whether the ar-chitecture encourages unforeseen creativity or whether the

way in which the apartment is being used has basically beenmore or less predictable from the architects side.

Our experience from the interviews

In the interview technique, we have emphasized the qualita-tive interview and the interviewer as a traveler[Kvale, ].

We visit the place/residence as (an almost) unknown terri-tory and to get an overall sense of orientation. Te inter-viewer engages in a wandering together withthe user. Ques-tions are asked that stimulate the persons being interviewedto tell their own stories and describe their life worlds. Tepotential meanings are converted into new stories, which

are persuasive because of their aesthetic forms and are vali-dated through the effect they have on the listeners [Kvale,]. Te dwelling is the frame around everyday life andexists as its own self-contained culture, with its own aes-thetics, symbols, ideas and possibilities for expressivity.Gullestad explains that the activities of everyday life havebeen largely invisible in sociological research. Tis is chieflydue to the fact that these activities are considered trivial.

Tey have, in other words, been invisible becausethey areall too visible! [Gullestad, ]. During our conversations,a common understanding gradually emerges. Importantquestions start to wedge their way in: What are you doing

with the apartment? What effect is the apartment havingon you? Te questions are repeated in different constella-tions, with the aim of working our way toward each other

and arriving at a consensus [Ryhl, ]. At first, it was dif-ficult for the interviewees to put words on these values. Butafter some time, the interviewees had more and more to say.Our experience has also shown that the life world is some-

thing of a transcendental entity.It has been our task tocollate and compare the impressions from the interviewees

with the residences physical conditions. Tis beginning, themovement and the story ... this route[Certeau, ] leadingthrough the residence that has come to be occupied pro-vides us with a foundation for evaluating a series of poten-tial fields and possibilities.

Te drawings show different specific interior arrangementsand ways of putting up the walls in the apartments of Fioniaand Prehaven.

Te drawings show three interior arrangements, all of theminterior arrangements of dwellings laid out on two levels.Te dwelling is spatially divided into places with differentrelations and values. Te storage area, the bathroom andone separate room are typically situated as niches to the

main room. Te double bed has been placed all the way upagainst the windows wall. Te internal hierarchy has sup-planted the need for privacy from the public.

The users, dream

options, challenges and potentials but with an

economic safety net

Most of the interviewees are members of newly established

families: ages range from the late twenties to the middlethirties. Some of them are divorced and living as singleparents, with smaller or somewhat older children, some of

whom are their own children, while some are newly arrivedfamily members. A few of the interviewees are over forty,

with teenaged children or children who have already movedfrom home.

Many of the interviewees have spent a lot of time look-ing for the right place to live, in the right area and forthe right price. All three of the building complexes in ourstudy have attracted a characteristic cross-section of users,

who view the possibilities for making ones own choice asa special challenge. Tis manifests itself on several levels ofscale. On the city-level, it is important that there is easy ac-

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

5/13

49

cess to the citys life, with its cafs and cultural offerings. Itsnot always certain that this access will be exploited, howev-er, since most of the people are so busy with their jobs. Butthe possibilities must be there. InM-huset, the visual con-tact with the Metro, which is like a kind of friend, standsas a guarantee that there is always the option of heading

downtown... and getting there just six minutes, while atthe same time, one can jump on the bicycle and ride intothe untamed landscape or take a walk and marvel at thenew developments going on in the surrounding unfinishedcity. It is this contrast between city and nature that impartsto the place the excitement people are longing for. It is a


Prehaven

Fionia hus

VM-huset

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

6/13


basic premise that the unforeseen can be enjoyed, especiallywhen there is simultaneously a sense of security about theeconomic gains that are held out as prospects upon the pur-chase of these open residential forms. In the Fionia Hus, it

is specifically emphasized that there is a sense of adventurein putting on your bathing suit and plunging into the sea...as though you were living at the North Sea...

On the scale of the residential-level, what has been attrac-tive is to be able to make ones own choiceabout how theapartment is going to be partitioned. It has been a specialchallenge to be able to make a fresh start like a tabula rasa

after a broken marriage (Prehaven) - or to set out into theunknown and see what happens: lets try this and see if itsgoing to be any fun... (M-huset).

For most of the users, it is difficult to envision a homethat has not yet been constructed. For many of them, it hascome as a revelation or as a shock to see the large openspace with the pervading daylight surging through well be-fore they could put the place to use. It has been difficult toget an overview of the consequences for both the spatialityand the influx of light when setting up the partitions in theapartments.

Te residential units with the largest window sectionshave experienced a marked shift in traditional dwelling-patterns: there is so much interplay in the relation betweenoutside and inside that activities like time spent in the livingroom and eating together and the sleeping function havecome to take on a sceniccharacter without causing any

bother to the user! Tere is no longer a desire to create onesown private and enclosed world. It is has become legal togaze out and to be gazed at and sometimes in a very ex-posed way. We are still marking off our territory and we arestill creating stories that reflect our lifes values and our eco-nomic and social status, but there is an increasing tendencytoward these being temporary. Tey can change at any time and then its only a question of buying a new outfit a

new hairstyle that will hold for a few years. It is this in-dividual branding that can be seen in all three buildingcomplexes, albeit in completely different ways. Prehavenisfor the do-it-yourself people. Tey are curious to see howthe others are doing it, and this kind of mutual curiosityhas come to manifest itself as a very important social aspectof life inside the building. Fionia Hushas attracted a ho-

mogenous user group of people who are looking for qualityand something pure and genuine. MeanwhileM-husethasbecome invaded by those who want to be challenged and

want to challenge and to a marked degree; a group of un-

adulterated Situationists, you might say, operating in thespirit of Constantsvisions from the s.

The significance of the wall

What do the homes walls mean to the user? What are theybeing used for? With the unfoldings described below, weaim to display the scope of characteristics we have been ableto register.

Fig. : Unfolding of an apartment in PrehavenAn elderly lady living alone inhabits this unit. Te apart-ment is introverted. Te walls are covered with mementosand pictures: representations that place the life outsidethehome into perspective. Centerpieces and diverse kinds ofstill lifes tell about the residents life story. Te resident con-trols her own scenographic staging and has closed herself offfrom the life going on outside the windows.

Fig. : Unfolding of an apartment in Fionia HusIn this apartment, the walls are still empty. What is im-portant here is the view through the large window section,

which fills out the entire expanse of the one wall. Every-thing has been newly purchased for this apartment. Tepersonal expression will be tempered to the space, the lightand the exposure and will especially come to signal the

residents status.

Fig. : Unfolding of an apartment inM-husetTe resident is a collector. Te apartment functions as akind of vitrine, where the resident is exhibiting himself asan exclusive creator. Te many acquisitions from auctionsare being exhibited in a variety of different and changingconstellations. Tis contemporary presentation and expo-

sure gives meaning to the life of the resident.

Since the dwelling has a limited number of window aper-tures, the space is sensed more in terms of the protectionit offers from the surrounding world. What appears to beappropriate is that the walls can function as surfaces forshort stories and for the accumulation of personal history.

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

7/13

51

Te heirloom is often given a prominent place in rela-tion to the wall. Or else, tableaus are created, arrange-

ments with mementos and still lifes. Some people es-pecially a number of more elderly users do not ascribeany meaning at all to the view. For them, the dwelling isstill a cave, where the life that has been lived makes sensein retrospective glances. Te larger the window openingsare, the more focus there is on the other, out there, inthe surroundings, whether we are looking from the in-

side or from the outside. Inside the new apartment, thewall is emptied of its contents. Tere is an insistence that

the walls undergo constant change and that their surfacesare continuously adapted to the users changing frame ofmind. In the most extreme case, the viewer feels that the

wall should be kept entirely free of meanings, so that thegreatest possible focus can be trained on the exchange ofimpressions being transmitted both ways via the large

window surfaces.


Fig. 3

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

8/13


The users transformations of the open planes

Our analysis is based on the fundamental transformations ofthe architecture and the interior arrangement. We regard thespatial composition as a series of dichotomies involving:

- the spaces form, as opposed to the furnitures spaces, zones, hierarchies and domains- the cores form and placement, as opposed to the

storage space- openings in the outer walls, the light and the view, as opposed to the dividing walls form and the walls utilization- entrance corridors and entrance rooms, as opposed to

spatial circulation, axes and the focus in the rooms use

What enters into the analysis is a conception of time involv-ing a before, a now and an after. Tis conception of timeraises basic questions about the dwellings spatial values andpossibilities for transformation: as they manifested them-selves prior to setting up the interior arrangement; as theycan be analyzed after the interior arrangement has been set

up; and as they can be transmitted further to the next user.

Prehavens basic-plan apartment is formed by six surfaces:four wall surfaces, the floor and the ceiling. Te space is oc-cupied from the one corner and is visually realized over xin the rooms lengthwise orientation. Te perspective fore-shortening of longitudinal walls, the floor and the ceilingresults in a reading of the main proportion that approachesthe Golden Sections clarity and balance. A ceiling with-

out zoning or hierarchy. What has been crucial for manyusers is to establish a relatively large kitchen and to havesufficient space for the familys bedrooms and for accom-modating guests. Many of the occupants have, as it were,woven their way forward to a solution where the open liv-ing spaces are areas that remain afterall the other roomshave been established.

With the placement of the core, a spatial hierarchyis in-

troduced: a course of spatialities with the smallest volumebetween the core and the longitudinal walls, a larger volumein front of and along the core and the largest volume behindthe core. Inside the apartments arranged for one person,

without any dividing walls, the strength in this spatial lapseis sensed as it runs across the furnitures and the storagespaces volumes. Inside some of the apartments, there is a

single room that is partitioned up with dividing walls insuch a way that a hierarchical sequence is recreated withan entrance room as the smallest room, which continuesinto a larger room running along the core and finally opens

out into the largest room behind the core. In several otherapartments, however, there are either one or two roomsseparated behind the core in the basic apartments largestvolume. Te apartment is divided up in this way onto ahierarchy of domains: a common domain at the entrance anda more private one behind the core but the cost is spatialquality: the residences common zone gradually closes itselfup more and more in the apartments longitudinal axis, and

spatialities are brought forth that are difficult to furnish.Te placement of the windows/balcony-doors in thecorners of the room reinforces the walls architectonic sig-nificance and practicability. Te light falls evenly in, overall the surfaces, but the rooms central zone remains dark.Te construction of ordinary enclosing partition walls de-tracts even further from the spaces light conditions and itsrelation to the surrounding environment. Te walls en-circle and they turn inward toward a non-defined center,to which the residents themselves assign a function: thekitchen, where conversation takes place, or perhaps just anas of yet uninterpreted empty space that changes meaningfrom time to time. Te spatial circulation is interrupted in-side most of the apartments by the furnitures space, whichhas been sandwiched between the core and the longitudinal

walls surface. Te spatial focus and point of rotation areconstituted by the cores closed form. ime as it unfolds

inside the residence is slow; it embodies generations andlife cycles rhythms.

It can be concluded that the walls can be set up in a freemanner and also that the arrangement of the residents in-terior constitutes a project in itself. But there are noproper

ways of doing this and the core dominates: the apartmentsmost intimate space has become the apartments fully en-

closed center. Te basic model apartment and also, mostoften, the materials in the interior arrangement are lack-ing in character and there are vulnerable plaster surfaces.Te apartments equal orientation toward the Four Cornersreflects the undivided space within the dwellings context.But how is the guiding notion about the dwellings open-ness going to be secured and propagated?

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

9/13

53Helen G. Welling, Margit Liv, Peder Duelund Mortensen and Lene Wiell Nordberg: Situations of dwelling dwellings suiting situations

STATIC

1. Base

2. Core

3. Enevelope

4. Entrance

SUITABLE

5. Void

6. Storage

7. Subdivision

8. Circulat ion

SITUATIONAL

9. Nodes

10. Assert ions

11. Dynamics

12. Exposure

1.

12.8.4.

3. 7. 11.

10.6.2.

9.5.

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

10/13


Tis home in Switzerland, designed by the architect, Vacchi-ni, has the same basic plan and volume as Prehaven. But thefloor and the ceiling are actually large concrete plates, whichextend between the columns positioned at the end walls, so

that the walls can be closed up completely. Te glass is dark,so that it will reflect and offer privacy. Te core constitutesa spacious, robust and tangible physical center within thedwellings architecture and interior arrangement.

Architect Jean Nouvel has designed an apartment build-ing where there is a clear distinction in the zoning betweensomething more public and common in the homes lowest

level and something more private up above. Te homesare inexpensive and quite raw in their appearance. Te sav-ings are used savings to make the individual apartmentslarger. Floorage is the architectonic quality that is most

worth fighting for. A visual artist has etched designs intothe interior walls concrete surfaces; the residents will re-spect these walls character. With this, our conception ofthe changeable is being challenged: precise frames are beingset up for the architectonics of the building and for ele-ments of the interior providing the possibility for a dialoguebetween architecture and its users.

Te basic layout of the apartment in Fionia Husis formedby four surfaces: two bearing perpendicular walls, the floorand the ceiling. One section of the almost square surface ofceiling is lowered, with the consequence that the volumecomes to be divided up into three zones. In all the units,

this is followed up in a zoning with a common domain onthe one side, a private zone on the other and an intermedi-ate zone. Te core is constructed inside the intermediatezone, beneath the lowered ceiling. Te storage space hasbeen formed as hollow cavities running along the one per-pendicular wall, positioned up against and like an islandrunning parallel with the core and as a subdivision of theprivate domain. Tese structures reinforce the spaces dy-

namic directional orientation, which moves from withinand outward. ime keeps pace with the light and the visualrelationship to what lies outside the diurnal rhythms andthe years rhythms.

Te apartment opens itself up with the balcony, the bayand a fully open glass faade facing the sun and the view,

while the private zone is more closed off. Access is from

the stairway to the intermediate zone. A transitional spacebetween the public and the private spaces is established be-tween the entrance door and the core. Te partitioning withthe dividing walls takes place only in the private domain;

this reinforces the spatial hierarchy. A further formalizationof domains that are well known in other cultures could havebeen realized had there been enough room for a sequencebehind the core.

What can be concluded is that the different arrangementsof the residential interiors are very much the same. Tereis actually only one way to put up the three dividing walls.

But this is a very good way of doing so. It suits the needs ofthe residents, who place a greater emphasis on the detail in-side the home and on the furniture than on making generalalterations in the apartment. Te family room is large andlight and the rooms are well proportioned. Furthermore,the illumination inside the apartment can be enhanced ifthe walls are designed with sliding doors. But it cannotreasonably be expected that coming generations of users

will be making many changes in the apartments interiorarrangement. Te possibility of choosing between differ-ent lines in the materials and different colors will, in mostinstances, only apply to the first people who move into theplace the open dwellings basic idea is not necessarily go-ing to be handed down.

In contrast to Prehavenand Fionia Hus, there are in theM-Housemany different variants among which to choose. Te

possibilities of variation are found in the choice of the par-ticular apartment, but apartments without dividing wallscan also be purchased in any event, by the first occupants.Te basic layout of the apartments consists of a set of vol-umes: a volume that extending through the deep building

This home in Switzerland, designed by

the architect, Vacchini, has the same

basic plan and volume as Prehaven.

But the floor and the ceiling are actu-ally large concrete plates, which extend

between the columns positioned at the

end walls, so that the walls can be closed

up completely. The glass is dark, so that

it will reflect and offer privacy. The core

constitutes a spacious, robust and tan-

gible physical center within the dwellings

architecture and interior arrangement.

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

11/13

55

body; a two-story high volume; and a volume that spreadsitself out behind the one faade. Te ground layouts com-plexity opens up for alternative arrangements of zones anddomains. In households with more than two people, this

inevitably gives rise to conflicts between the yearning forprivacy and the yearning for spatiality and adventure. Teapartments bathrooms and installations are built into thecorners of the complex basic-layout forms. Te arrange-ment of the storage area typically follows this pattern orstands as detached elements. Te glass facades extend allthe way out to - and beyond - the constructions beamsand columns. Te influx of light and the relation to the

surrounding world are promoted by the glass walls, whilethe intermediate zone might appear to be dark. In some ofthe interior arrangements, intimate spatialities are createdinside the intermediate zone, to which one can withdraw.But many occupants lose floorage in the circulation andthe areas for interior arrangements to the need for storagespace. In many of the apartments, the architectonic ideais followed up with glass dividing walls and sliding doorsand the walls decoration is a freely composed layer, withits own life. Te mirror images in the window surfaces andthe glass dividing walls are juxtaposed with the surrounding

milieus pictures into a timeless simultaneity in the pres-ent moment. Te apartments entrance rooms have beenformed as interior corridors, outside the transitional spaces or zones leading into the apartments. Tere is clearly

an urge to satisfy this intention, seeing that the residentshave gradually filled the areas around their front doors withplants and furniture.

Our conclusion is that there is no intention to create pri-vacy and that the effect of the spatial complexity is that,for many people, there is no necessity to put up walls. Tedwellings guiding idea and capacity about openness canconsequently be propagated further to future dwellers. Inresponse to the apartments large glass facades and transpar-ency, one can ask, polemically, whether there is anythingat all that remains which can be called privacy. On the

contrary, the space between the buildings is characterizedby the life inside the apartments, while the meeting withthe foreign, the different and the unanticipated is absent.One might ask, then, whether there is anything at all thatremains in the city which can be called the public.

Conclusion

In our observations we have found three fundamental con-ditions each connected to different measurements of time:

Te static conditionhas the characteristic of permanenceTe suitable conditionhas a shorter lifetimeTe situational conditionis only momentary and is continu-ous transitional

We believe that this division could be inspiring and serve

as a key to meaning and value in architecture: inside theresidences physical elements, inside the home, inside thebuilding and even on the urban level.

If we take a look at the residence, the static conditionis con-stituted by the buildings permanent entities fitting a deter-mined function, or by space that has the ability to embodydifferent needs for living. Te suitable conditionconsists

of the dwellings ability for physical displacement, spatialchanges that can suit changing life styles. Te situationalconditionis the not defined, the unfinished, the transitory,the raw and the meaningless, which continuously chal-lenges the imagination and calls for the experiment. In oursearch we find dwellings that consist of a combination oftwo or three of the above named conditions. We find that


Architect Jean Nouvel has designed an

apartment building where there is a

clear distinction in the zoning between

something more public and common in

the homes lowest level and something

more private up above. The homes

are inexpensive and quite raw in their

appearance. The savings are used tomake the individual apartments larger.

Floorage is the architectonic quality that

is most worth fighting for. A visual artist

has etched designs into the interior

walls concrete surfaces; the residents

will respect these walls character. With

this, our conception of the changeable

is being challenged: precise frames are

being set up for the architectonics of the

building and for elements of the interior

providing the possibility for a dialoguebetween architecture and its users.

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

12/13


time-based dwellings do exist within all three conditions.In the second part of our search, we will study and focus ondwellings that are dominated by one single condition.

We propose, that we can project the same conditions on thescale of the city. We envision that, contrary to the normalpractice, thestatic conditionin the city could be constructedas the public space, the city park and the open town square.Tose three spatial entities must be afforded special atten-tion and economy, must be invested with a high degree ofquality in the design and must render the historical layersand stories in the citys topography visible. Inside and on

the edge of these kinds of spaces, the most overriding andidentity-creating functions can be placed. Tesuitable con-ditionin the city could consist of the new constructions andbuilding structures that have to be able to contain homes,businesses and common functions in a changeable form.Tesituational conditionin the city could be the space ofpossibilities, which is being kept clear for the time being inorder to make room for the experimental, the informal, theinexpensive and will perhaps come to be temporary fordealing with the unforeseen and the various tasks that willarise in the formation of the city.

We envision a field of potential between the physical framesand the way the spaces are put to use. An enhanced aware-ness about this could be used constructively. It would un-fold along the lines of the kind of consciousness with which

James Joyce and Jackson Pollock challenged, respectively,

the reader and the viewer. Teir works are open to interpre-tation, but they contain such strength and are so distinctive.It will never be possible to deprive them of these qualitiesin the course of time. About Jackson Pollocks art, UmbertoEco writes:

Te disorder of the signs, the disintegration of the outlines,

the explosions of the figures incite the viewer to create his

own network of connections. [Eco, , p. ].

Te open work is not finished; it is not a dead object. Itrepresents something new in a more flexible version in aform that is like a field of possibilities. Eco links the worksopenness directly with our capacity for attaining an aes-thetic experience:

Tus, in the dialectics between work and openness, the

very persistence of the work is itself a guarantee of both com-

munication and aesthetic pleasure. (...) Openness ... is the

guarantee of a particularly rich kind of pleasure that our civi-

lization pursues as one of its most precious values, since everyaspect of our culture invites us to conceive, feel, and thus see

the world as possibility [Eco, , p. ].

Te living quarters, the residence in the city and the city canalsobe seen as open works as interactive processes transpir-ing between the user and the architecture, where the architec-tonic design and the users arrangement of his own interiorengender something valuable: a saliently distinctive characterthat gives meaning, weight and robustness to the architecturein contrast to the changing uses and the changing interior ar-rangements, and simultaneously encourages the users freeinterpretation of the frames. At the same time, accessibilityand sensuousness must be unfurled in the elaboration of theresidence in such a way that the notion of architectonic qual-ity will be expanded into something universal.

ranslated by Dan A. Marmorstein

Authors

Helen G. Welling, Architect MAA, As-sociate Professor PhD, Department ofHousing, Institute of Planning, Te Roy-al Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schoolof Architecture, Copenhagen.

[email protected]

Peder Duelund Mortensen (principal ofproject), Architect MAA, Associate Profes-sor, Department of Housing, Chair of Insti-tute of Planning, Te Royal Danish Acad-emy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture,Copenhagen. [email protected]

Lene Wiell Nordberg, Architect MAA,Research Assistant, Department of Hous-ing, Institute of Planning, Te RoyalDanisch Academy of Fine Arts, School of

Architecture, [email protected]

8/12/2019 158-501-1-PB

13/13

Documents

158-501-1-PB