The international competition for the new campus of the philological institute in Berlin was won by architects Candilis, Josic, Woods and Schiedhelm … [Read more...]
Dysfunctional Plans
The floor plan is a reflection of the societal conditions and the hystorical context in which it is created, thus embodying specific notions of privacy, familiar bonds or social relationships among inhabitants. Whenever the plan doesn't interpret the notion of inhabiting within the parameters of what is considered "normality" in a specific moment in history, we call it "dysfunctional". A dysfunctional plan implies a questioning and a critical resistance towards any notion of standardization; through configurations of non canonical spaces, it problematizes any comfortable accomodation for the daily living functions and may even become a means of conflict, misbehaviour and abuse. On the other hand it may represent an attempt to embody hypothesis of subversion against a given model.
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The House of Glass Was Suddenly All Solid Walls, A Project by Anne Holtrop (2006)
Not much happens in A.M. Homes's short story "The Weather Outside Is Sunny and Bright": the protagonist visits her Alzheimer's mother, takes a bath, … [Read more...]
Grid, No Corridors, No Open Floor: Casa Mora by Ábalos y Herreros
Casa Mora is an unbuilt project by Iñaki Ábalos y Juan Herreros, two Spanish architects who worked together from 1985 until 2008. (Cf another post … [Read more...]
Extended Sequence of Flowing Spaces: 33rd Lane (Geoffrey Bawa’s House in Colombo – Sri Lanka) – 1959-1970
Geoffrey Bawa’s house in Colombo (1959 - 1970) is an exercise in horizontal densification. The result of decades-old process of annexation of four … [Read more...]
