I really AM back Looking at Shepherdess Walk, London

Exterior and interior of Shepherdess Walk

Rowan Moore's article about Shepherdess Walk, London  is particularly interesting because of its comments about how our use of and needs in space change:

"Inside, the homes are based on what their developer Roger Zogolovitch calls the “split section”, an idea he has explored on other smallish developments that his company Solidspace has dotted around the capital. This means that you progress up them from half-level to half-level, rather than whole floors at a time, which means that space flows through the building rather than being compartmentalised. A stair, rather than being encased in walls and lobbies, becomes part of the living spaces, and the designation of any one place to any particular activity – eating, working, sleeping, socialising – becomes blurred. The idea is to reflect contemporary ways of living, rather than replicate Victorian hierarchies that have long since disappeared.
The arrangement also makes movement through the houses and apartments into imaginative journeys, with continuously changing shapes and proportions, falls of light, relationships of one room or level to another, and of interior to external terraces and balconies and to views of surroundings or of the sky. It considers inhabitation to be something done in different ways in different places, and at different times of day."

I'm back after writing a book on drawing horses

I had to take time away from this blog for a year or so as I was commissioned to write a book about drawing horses by Ilex/Octopus Press.  The book is called "Draw Horses in 15 Minutes", available on amazon from June 8th, 2015.  It is one of a series written by Jake Spicer and published by Ilex on Faces, People, Cats, and Dogs.  However, Jake does not do horses, so I was approached.  Above is a sample of the 300 pencil drawings I did for the commission.  

I learnt a huge amount about drawing, and so far people who have seen the advance copies say that it is inspiring them to start drawing.

I am still interested in architectural issues, it had to go on the back burner.  This was'nt such bad thing, as I am now clearer on what is of most interest to me, namely housing and everyday architecture.

TURNER PRIZE AND ASSEMBLE COLLECTIVE

Cairns Street, Toxteth transformed after years of neglect

Artists impression of a winter garden in a gutted horse

Good news about a "real life" project being included in this year's Turner Prize, particularly as it focusses on the imaginative work of a group of architects, Assemble, in Liverpool and elsewhere.

Here is the link to the article by Oliver Wainwright.

Victoria Henshaw urban planner

 

Henshaw with local children on a "smell walk" during Manchester Science Festival 2013

It is a while since I wrote in this blog.  I have been busy with other things, notably writing a book about drawing, but I hope to return to this blog soon.

I recently read about Victoria Henshaw who died recently, far too young.  Her field of research was the influence of smell in cities, "an aspect that is entirely invisible, but which she was convinced had a huge influence over how we perceive places".

Steven Holl at Glasgow School of Art

A great exhibition at the original Mackintosh building of Glasgow School of Art to celebrate its new cousin, the Reid Building, designed by Steven Holl Architects (New York) and JM Architects (Glasgow), and located right across the street.  An airy light modern version of a design/art school.  Steve Holl's watercolour sketches show the thinking behind the new design.  Check out the link above for more info and some great photos.

One of many small watercolours in the exhibition "Drawing on Holl"

   

CRM building on left, Steve Holl building on right (note the funnels of light)

Riffing on Christopher Alexander's patterns.

Alexander does not take a conceptual approach to design, rather he designs from "feel".   In his book, "A Pattern Language" he and his colleagues collected over 200 categories of habitual space, ranging from whole cities to the corner of a garden.  These categories, or "patterns" as he calls them, are found whereever a human being or group of human beings feel "alive" and comfortable and in their skins.

This approach does not mean that Alexander is not theoretical or conceptual at all.  His ideas are underpinned by scientific and mathematical principles, but he uses these principles as a springboard from which to work intuitively.

I have been trying to work through some of the patterns in an attempt to explore them.  There is really no short cut.  You have to experience the place or space you are working in and relate to its uniqueness in relation to the patterns.  It is a gradual process.  I tried to capture the essence of some of the patterns by making simple 3d models, but that way was too abstract and not in the spirit of the pattern language.  The approach is place specific.  

So I focussed on my own garden both for real and in models.  Then started playing with drawings of the models.  Here are some riffs on Christopher Alexander's pattern "Half Hidden Gardens" # 111 in his book.  All drawings done with charcoal and paint on paper and about A3 in size.  I had tried to be very analytic and conceptual, but the drawings ran off with me into a different place altogether.  This is probably in the spirit of Alexander's work.

Christine Kenline Thinking about dwelling in building. Heidegger and design resaerch

Like Alexander, who wrote his “Notes on the Synthesis of Form” about a decade later, Heidegger believed that the ordinary experience rather than (or at least as well as) abstract theory should be the foundation of design.  His ideas were influential in the 1970s and 1980s, and now again there is a movement towards community involvement in design.  One designer who has described his influence is Christine Kenline in her essay:   “Thinking about dwelling in building”  For more please see my post on 3.4.2013

In this interesting paper Christine Kenline analyses Heidegger’s essay “Building Thinking Dwelling” as part of an exploration into the architectural design process.

Building and dwelling are separate concepts.  Dwelling presupposes the process of building, which is basically a way of separating and sheltering the individual from the external environment.   But not all building is carried out with an understanding of dwelling, that is, with the mental, emotional and physical effect of the building on the inhabitants, with a balance between beings and buildings.

Kenline references Heidegger in his use of etymology to understand the real nature of building which incorporates a fuller sense of dwelling.  Once we listen to language, then we access an authentic existence embodied in the root meanings of words.  For example, Heidegger believes in the “thingness” of objects and in their role in “gathering” and focussing experience.  “Andenken” (memory) is a kind of thought which discloses this gathering.  

Kenline suggests however that there is a language of communication between beings and buildings but this is her interpretation and is not mentioned by Heidegger in his text.  But, she claims, architects can  build in a way that enhances and encourages dwelling in a fuller sense, which respects the nature of materials, the context of the building and the emotional, mental and physical needs of the inhabitants.  She does not elaborate on what exactly this means. She also discusses whether dwelling in the deeper sense is in fact realistic in our modern culture, “where beings have forgotten how to be”.

Architects need to be aware of this kind of thinking, according to Kenline, so that the true nature of buildings can be revealed.  They should approach building with “thingness” in mind rather than thinking of building as an opportunity for self expression.  Buildings are “non-representational” creations rather than “artworks with aesthetic value”.  The loss of such an attitude to building reflects and results in a subjective and over-individualised way of life. 

Nowadays humans have little awareness or respect for the fourfold – the coexistence of earth, sky, spirituality and mortals – and of the fact that we are defined by how we dwell with things.  This in turn defines how we dwell within the balance of the fourfold and preserve its balance.  Buildings should not disturb the four-fold or nature, but act as sites or gathering points for it.  Location is very important in considering an architectural design.  “Man’s relation to location, and through locations to spaces, inheres in his dwelling”.  Heidegger argues that the main focus of architecture should be the human experience in the widest sense. He also sees the work of art in a wider sense as an artefact which preserves the truth, that is, which cultivates the life of beings. 

Kenline is a proponent of design research as an essential part of the design process.  “The architect’s role is to understand the cultural, social, physical and emotional needs of beings in order to develop an understanding of beings and buildings… the architect needs to make the nature of a building visible so that it can be dwelt in.  If a specific type of building does not show its true nature… then beings will stay in a state of anxiety, unable to rest as a ”mode of being-in-the-world”.

Alexander and many other architects acknowledge the importance of Heidegger’s ideas, and “question the authority of professional expertise and sought instead to validate non-expert building”. 

Kenline surveys various architectural movements.  Functionalism, she considers, does not consider the true nature of dwelling.  Structuralism is too rigid, without the necessary flexibility and freedom.  Postmodernism and phenomenology are too representational.  For her, design research incorporates the lived experience of beings into the process, in conjunction with the specialist knowledge of architects.  

In this article, Kenline loosely interprets Heidegger’s ideas to support her belief in design research.  In the process, she sometimes goes beyond his actual statements.  For example, he does not mention the “language of buildings”as a form of interaction between building and inhabitant.  I do not find her analysis very helpful in clarifying some of his ideas, for example, the relation between “site” and “location”.  In fact Heidegger’s writing in this article is deceptively simple.  His belief about “thingness” and “beings” is derived from a much deeper philosophical analysis, explored at length in his other writings, including “Being and Time”.  It is easy to cherry-pick from Heidegger’s text but less easy to clarify what he actually meant.  Kenline's writing was a welcome find as part of my exploration into the ideas of Alexander, but she gives few clues about how to create the perfect dwelling and how to collaborate between design research and formal architecture.

Another writer whose ideas are deceptively simple is Christopher Alexander.  It should be noted (click here) that Alexander was a scientist and mathematician before he became an architect.  His architectural theories are based originally on an application of set theory (please see an earlier post in this blog), and as such can be quite difficult to grasp by the non-mathematician.  His ideas have an attractive naturalness but are underpinned by this initial theory.  Those attempting to critique his work need to be aware of this rigorous aspect.