Learning from Precedent

This paper argues that precedent should play a fundamental role in the development of sustainable homes. It will describe how the design of two energy efficient family homes in Winchester, England, adopt a distinctive approach to environmental precedent. The modern house is substantially a product of numerical calculation, such as the modelling of performance data and cost-benefit analysis. Construction (materials, u-values) and processes (energy use, assembly, airtightness) are quantified and assessed to ensure they achieve design objectives based on recognised standards of performance (Energy Performance Certificate: A; Code for Sustainable Homes: level 4). However this technical analysis alone cannot inform the initial creative idea. The design of these houses was informed by intuitive reference to a range of diverse precedents, including the work of Alvar Aalto, Sverre Fehn, Robert Venturi and Roelof Uytenbogaardt. The asymmetric roofs of Aalto’s Housing for ex-service men in Tampere (1941) define thresholds to front and side doors, and a sheltered private space to the back overlooking the garden. Fehn’s Villa Norrköping (1964) was designed around circadian rhythms, with day and night-time spaces defined by glazed corners (’eyes’) and alcoves, animated by daylight and shadow. Venturi’s Mother’s House (1964) symbolises in its idiosyncratic form and modest material treatment the pragmatic and egalitarian promise of a home and identity of one’s own. House Uytenbogaardt (1993) exploits solar orientation and the topography of its location to the utmost, framing views of the horizon and sunsets over the ocean. The house is part fortified tower house, part bespoke wooden cabinet, responding to the unique atmosphere and light of the Western Cape coastline. This paper will describe how these two subtly different Winchester houses borrow from each of these examples to reconcile technical requirements with the poetic possibilities inherent in imagining other environments, informed by the specific climate and conditions of the site.

The Potential Contribution of Wood in Green Building Certifications

The building sector has a significant impact on the environment, accounting for 36% of CO2 emissions and about half of material consumption in Europe. Residential buildings dominate the European building stock. In Finland, residential buildings account for up to 80% of the existing buildings and the rate of construction is higher compared to other building types. Therefore, residential buildings play an important role in the transition to a sustainable built environment. A number of studies show that increasing the use of wood can lower the life cycle environmental impacts of buildings. In Scandinavia, the use of wood in small houses is well established, used in 90% of cases. Furthermore, the increasing number of high-rise wooden buildings suggests a growing interest in the potential of wood in large-scale buildings. Green building certification provides criteria to assess the sustainability level of buildings and is expected to influence the building sector in the near future, by promoting the use of sustainable technologies. The aim of this study was to investigate how green building certification schemes assess wood materials and how wood materials can help fulfil sustainability criteria for green buildings. We analyse the sustainability criteria adopted by the most common certification schemes in Finland, BREEAM, LEED and the Nordic Swan Ecolabel, as well as the upcoming Level(s) certification promoted by the European Commission. The analysis shows that the contribution of wood materials to the overall score of green building certifications accounts for between 10 and 36%. Wood is advantageous as a renewable and low-carbon material. Furthermore, wood can offer indirect benefits due to its recycling potential and to water saving in the construction stage. However, wood materials have to comply with some requirements, such as sustainable forest management and low volatile organic compound content. The new European certification suggests a comprehensive assessment including circular material life cycles.

When a Patio Becomes a City

In the 1950s, the city of Casablanca underwent a surge in demographic growth. Having become a strategic port during the French protectorate, it quickly had to accommodate more than 140,000 new arrivals from the countryside. The most extensive urban development project in the city was Carrières Centrales, introduced as a case study in the CIAM IX by the GAMMA team. Michel Écochard, Candilis and Woods reinterpreted the traditional Moroccan house in a compact horizontal fabric as well as in singular buildings. This became the typology not only for a house, but for the whole city. A revisit to Carrières Centrales 65 years after its construction provides an understanding of the metamorphosis that the urban fabric has undergone over time. The critical analysis in this research aims to uncover the main architectural and social parameters that have influenced its transformation. To achieve this goal, fieldwork was carried out during a research trip in October 2018. The work involved contacting local professors, accessing the archives of the University of Casablanca, interviewing the residents, and redrawing and graphing all the architectural elements that had changed since their construction. The urban fabric of Carrières Centrales was found to have evolved in a way that supports the following hypothesis: if an urban model imported into a developing country does not adapt to the changes in the life of its residents, it is considered a failure.

Unsettled – Reconsidering the Notion of ‘Homelessness’ through the Lens of Urban Movement

This paper proposes to reconsider the notion of ‘homelessness’ under the lens of urban movement, suggesting that the long prevailing stigma against people experiencing homelessness is a repercussion of the idea that living an unsettled life can destabilize capitalist societies. Living on the move, by choice or, most commonly, without one, embodies a resistance to the capitalist valorization of land: Transient lifestyles resist the precept of property ownership, and hint at alternative ways of living in cities, beyond capitalist norms. Simultaneously, they are bodily evidence of the mechanisms of urban displacement further triggered by real estate speculation, as it is the socio-economic and political system of capitalism which produces contemporary conditions of unchosen homelessness. Thus, the paper links the stigmatization of homelessness to notions of urban movement and capitalist urban logics. Untangling these complex dependencies, then, becomes also a way to reconsider notions of making a home in cities.

Quarticciolo

Applying case study methodology, this article addresses problematics related to the identity and origin of the Italian fascist-era residential satellite areas constructed around the capital, Rome. The article focuses on one such suburb, Quarticciolo, built mainly between 1940 and 1943 on the eastern periphery of the city. Three narratives contributing to the formation of the area’s identity are identified and presented: Quarticciolo as (i) an expression of the fascist government’s aspirations, (ii) a significant centre of anti-fascist resistance, and (iii) an example of modern rationalist architecture. The three narratives, along with their constitutive elements, are then compared, and counterarguments to them are presented. It is argued that although all the narratives, in different ways, are connected to historical facts, each one of them on its own offers a one-sided interpretation. The narratives are then connected to the process of the public memorialization of the fascist era and the resistance, and to broader ongoing discussions concerning the architecture of totalitarian and dictatorial regimes as ‘dissonant heritage’.

Affordable Housing Reimagined

This paper explores contemporary affordable housing in Denmark. The aim is to unfold central ideas in some of the most progressive projects that have recently been designed and built. The paper goes into three areas of architecture, namely the social, the formal and the technological. In each area one aspect is analysed and discussed with a point of departure in a specific project: The social in relation to the neighbourly and The Orient by Dorte Mandrup, the formal in relation to the spacious and Dortheavej housing by BIG, and the technological in relation to the rebuildable and Circle House by Fællestegnestuen. The aim is to contribute to the current discourse on affordable housing from a Danish standpoint and in an architectural perspective.

Osallistava suunnittelu supistuvien kuntien taajamien kehittämisessä

Suomen väestönkasvu on viime vuosikymmenten aikana keskittynyt yhä enemmän muutamille suurille kaupunkiseuduille. Samaan aikaan valtaosa maamme kunnista on menettänyt väestöään. Vuonna 2019 asukasluku pieneni 256 kunnassa ja kasvoi vain 54 kunnassa. Kehityskulun ennustetaan jatkuvan ja voimistuvan tulevaisuudessa. Kuntien asukasluvun väheneminen ilmenee muutoksena taajamarakenteessa. Palveluita katoaa, rakennuksia tyhjenee ja infrastruktuurin ylläpito heikentyy kuntien taloudellisen tilanteen kiristyessä. Kehityksellä on myös vaikutus paikallisten asukkaiden arkeen ja sosiaalisiin kontakteihin. Kuntien väestökadon jatkuessa tarvitaan lisää tietoa siitä, miten yhdyskunta- ja rakennussuunnittelun keinoin nykyistä taajamarakennetta voidaan kehittää vastaamaan muuttuneita tarpeita. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on kuvata vakituisten ja vapaa-ajan asukkaiden näkemyksiä väestöltään supistuvien kuntien taajamien nykytilasta ja kehittämismahdollisuuksista. Tapaustutkimuksen taajamat ovat alle 10 000 asukkaan taajamia. Laadullisessa tutkimuksessa etsitään vastauksia seuraaviin kysymyksiin: Mitä palveluita asukkaat pitävät tärkeinä omassa taajamassaan? Mitä palveluita he käyttävät naapurikunnissa? Mikä on parasta omassa kunnassa ja mitä asioita tulisi kehittää? Miten asukkaat haluaisivat osallistua oman taajamansa kehittämiseen? Aineisto hankittiin kolmen eri kunnan asukkaille suunnatulla kyselytutkimuksella. Kyselyyn oli mahdollista vastata verkossa tai paperilomakkeella. Vastauksia saatiin yhteensä 1052 kappaletta. Kyselyn tuloksista kävi ilmi oman taajaman palveluiden merkitys asukkaille sekä pitkien asiointimatkojen vaikutus asukkaiden arkeen. Vastaajat toivat myös esille huollettujen ja viihtyisien sisä- ja ulkotilojen tärkeyden. Tilojen ja palveluiden käyttö on väestöltään vähenevissä kunnissa usein kausiluonteista. Moni­paikkainen asuminen on sekä mahdollisuus että haaste kunnille. Vakituisten ja vapaa-ajan asukkaiden osallistumista taajaman kehittämistoimiin tulisi tukea ja kannustaa. Kyselytutkimuksesta ilmenee, että osallistuminen ja myös halu osallistua on yksilöllistä. Asukkaat ja heidän omaehtoinen työnsä asuin­ympäristön kehittämisessä on väestöltään vähenevien kuntien resurssi, jota tulisi hyödyntää vahvemmin.

Architecture, City and Home: A Personal Narrative of a Globetrotter

Based on a narrative approach, this contribution analyses a personal life journey to discuss the relationships between architecture, city and home.