HOW TO MAKE A HOME IN THE CITY
Graduation project Academie van Bouwkunst Amsterdam 2021 Ivo Clason
Commission members: Laurens-Jan ten Kate Ira Koers Yukiko Nezu
CONTENTS -
Prefix Assignment Introduction
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Research: o • •
•
The home Defining the home Home, the physical • 9Hours capsule hotel • Nakagin capsule tower Conversations about the home Functions • Shibaura house Home, the emotional Nest / cave • Next 21 Osaka Home, the self Proxemics Elasticity Encroachment zone • Moriyama house • Ivery Sur Seine The limitations of the home
o • • •
Home in the city Forms of living together Co-dividual architecture Roji
o
Conclusions
• • • • • • • •
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Project: o o o o o o o o
Location 5 elements Frame Infill In-between Inner connections Outer connections 4x Home • Akiko, Marijn & Uta • Nina & Sachi • Eise & Leanne, Morgane & Ivo • Bartjan & Babette
o
Repair as a radical act
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Conclusions
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Acknowledgments Bibliography
Prefix
For twenty-one years I’ve lived in the same house, the same one that I was born in. Refelingse Erven 155 in Nuenen, the Netherlands will therefore always be a home to me. Yet it isn’t the only place I consider home. Through traveling for my whitewater kayak sport, I’ve been to many places in Europe, some of them I consider truly home. It striks me that when person and the place match their desires, it becomes more than the sum of two. More than just comfort, safety or privacy, it felt like a place where I could be myself, a sense of belonging. For years I noticed this when I stayed at those locations and felt the absence at other locations. This led to conversations with others, often around the campfire, about what these places make you feel at home. I quickly realized that all our ideas of the home are different. Some overlap on concept but differ in execution. This fascination led me into studying architecture from all kind different points of view. First at the Technical school, Build Environment in Den Bosch, and after an art degree from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Throughout those years I’ve always had the same question in mind:
What makes a home different from a house?
In those chapters of education; Technical, Art and now Architecture at the Academie van Bouwkunst these had all different answers from that same question. During my technical education this question was put to the background and the focus was on how to make the “four walls and a roof”. To often it resulted in more of a house than home. This left me unsatisfied and hungry for what more it could be. At the Rietveld academy I felt truly at “home”. In a way that I could explore the question of what a home could be. I graduated with my own all-in one room. A conceptual, but realized space that could be visually adjusted with different colored lights, and changes the appearance of the space instantly. The 3 main functions of the space had different colors. Combined with the colored light, these objects-functions would visually disappear and only on would be highlighted. It would shift the entire focus of the room to leisure (green)/ work (red) or care (blue) “Optimizing” the space by making the whole room a working-space or a relaxing-environment, by a simple click on a button. It resulted in a deeper understanding what functionality means and it made me curious to a broader sense of designing. The Academie van Bouwkunst was a period where I learned how to combine the layers of my educations, but most of all, to place it in the context around my work as an architect. In my previous studies the social part of how to make a home,have never gotten a real change to be explored. I was always focused on the design part of the equation.
My “second” home, La Cabane Saint Crepin, France
This graduation project was a tool for me to research the entire sum. A research combined with visiting and experiencing the works of others in Amsterdam, Tokyo, Osaka & Paris amongst other cities. And with the written research of many architects, theoretical thinkers, sociologists & philosophers. These “collections of the home” I’ve used in the debate with my mentor Laurens-Jan ten Kate and commission members Ira Koers & Yukiko Nezu. Although this project was my personal quest, I choose to incorporate my research in this book in addition to the graduation project, as I see it as a intergral part of the project. For the first time I have the feeling I could look at the entirety of a project. It took time, a lot of searching but I am more than delighted to present the following.
27th Oktober 2021 Ivo Clason
Assignment How to make a home in the city? A simple yet complex question, that deals with a variety of topics. It is a dialogue between personal wishes and public needs. A tango between different layers of the intimate inside and the vibrant outside. What makes the difference between a house and a home? How we define our home is very personal, your house is not my home. Home is a precious state that a place can hold for you. It is a meeting between the physical and the immaterial. If the home is so important, then how do you design for undisclosed inhabitants? In order to find out, I have designed homes for my entire social surrounding to see if my concept will fit their variety of expressions of what they consider home. The project is an attempt to let the inhabitants be the centre point of the design. It is a place for them to root and express their own version of home. So they can form a place that is able to evolve and adapt over time. The project isn’t meant to be an ode to the city, but very much, to the collection of individuals that reside there. Each their own, and their common objectives.
“Standardisation of housing units led, in turn, to the standardisation of families that inhabited them. Housing became a training and disciplining device for standardizing families.”
My project is about place definition and carefully designing the layers of proxemics between the intimate and the public. After researching and visiting key projects in Osaka, Tokyo and Paris, I have made 5 elements of architecture that are key in making a home in the city. With the use of these 5 elements I make sure that the inhabitants are able to realize their own personal “idea of home” and that the future inhabitants are able to do this as well. Starting with a generous frame that gives the general shape and could hold all technical support. In this frame the inhabitants have the freedom to choose its personal infill, in orientation, plan and façade. This is not only based on their personal wishes but also a reaction to its surroundings. Because the units are freestanding it creates informal paths between the houses. This ambiguous space is shared and in negotiation with its surrounding neighbours, could be temporarily adapted to hold a collective function. With this in-between space it creates a place where co-dividuality can take shape. Because the ground floor is raised it creates a new layer between the public and the private. With a maximum of 5 units these inner connections have a potential to succeed, as they are small archipelagos. On the ground floor there is space underneath the in-between that is filled with offices, studios and shops. This outer connection makes the building block integrated in the neighbourhood and city.
The book is made up of two parts, the research & the project.
Riken Yamamoto
Akiko & Marijn, Uta
Benedikt
Elmo, Micha, Vito, Noï
Laurens & Kyveli Stefan
Eise & Leanne
Dirk & Maaike, Daantje
my social surrounding
Guus & Thea
Manus & Sayaka, Lanna, Pia
Satoki & George Leno, Yuni
Julia & Frieda
Arica & Kuni Aio, Tou
Bartjan & Babette
Hisashi Mels & Marielle Quynh
Sachi & Nina
Morgane & Ivo
Gitte & Jair
Introduction How to make a home in the city? A simple yet complex question, that deals with a variety of topics. A dialogue between personal wishes and public needs A tango between different layers of intimate and the outside. How we define what is our home is very personal. Your house is not my home. What makes the difference between a house and a home? Home: An environment offering affection and security -Abode -Domicile -Dwelling -Dwelling house -Habitation Housing that someone is living in If home is the act of living in a house, then why doesn’t every house feel like your home? Are “four walls and a roof” enough to have a home? The feeling of “at home” is important to investigate. At home: At, to, or toward the place where you reside. -To reside; To live, have your home, or stay in a place How do I make sure that everybody has the freedom to express his or her own view of home? Home = a personal place
City = an anonymous space
For whom are we, as architects, designing? Does our client live in this house? What do we do if we don’t know the future inhabitants? If it is all unknown, how can we make fitting architecture? We often have specific target-groups to design housing for. But who actually fits those descriptions and at what moment do they “grow” out of them? The city is a gathering place where conflicting interests collide. Is there a different option to make specific designs for curated target groups? I propose a different look at housing. A dynamic situation that is focused on the inhabitant A place that suits your current needs, and could house the future ones. A place you could consider home A place where you could make your home. or to combine the different point of views of the home You are at home when your way of life and the way of living correspond. When habits and building are matching. When Habitat and habitus correspond.
Home as personal act, the space for living The home as ephemeral space The home as an intangible space, filled with collected objects that remind us of our own history. Thinking about the home is not a privileged question that only the wealthy should be able to express. The right to housing under the Dutch law is a constitutional right. And in it shapes conditions for personal, social & cultural development. Artikel 22 Nederlandse grondwet: The government must promote public health in the Netherlands and must ensure that there are sufficient good homes. The government also creates conditions for personal, social & cultural development and leisure time. The government is taking measures to promote public health.
Chromahotel room 210, an all-in-one functional living space My graduation work at the Rietveld Academy was a physical research in the functionality of a space. How to make a room, that hosts multiple functions, focused on a single function? A bedroom is focussed on the bed, an office is focused on the desk. But what happens if you live in a studio apartment, where all functions are always together? This physical example shows a way where the attention of the room is directed with the use of coloured objects in a coloured lighten environment. With a specific colour the room focuses on a single function. That indirectly means that the other functions are “switched” off, as they disappear into the background.
Chromahotel room213, Graduation project Ivo Clason Rietveld Academie, 2011
The home: Defining the home
When talking about the home, we often mix the terminology of the home, house, homely or at home. Yet, upon further investigation, it seems to be difficult to define what the home is. Not only for myself but also for others. During conversations with my social surroundings it was often easier to describe when they felt not at home and what was missing. In order to find out what the home is I investigate the following: -
Home, the physical Home, the emotional Home, the self
“Man’s first house, consisting of four poles, four beams and a roof. All architecture imitates this primitive construction, and conversely buildings are good architecture insofar they resemble the “cabane.”
Commisioned; Home drawing, Aio Kawauchi, 2021
To Vitruvius, architecture originated in man’s imitation of animal shelters, and the development of architecture ran parallel with the history of civilisation. This conception of the origin and history of architecture is adopted in all early modern treatises.”
la petite cabane rustique, Marc-Antoine Laugier, 1753
Home, the physical Are all houses a potential home?
Laugier’s definition that good architecture resembles a “Cabane.” This four walls and a roof analogy is a very technical reduction of architecture. For him the function of a house is to give shelter from the outside elements. Functionalism is the logical consequence of these assumptions. But is that true?
This monotonous fable is recounted at the beginning of the first chapter of Laugier’s famous Essai sur l’architecture (1753) and, consequently, at the very beginning of modern architecture. In its sublime lack of inspiration, the fable is impeccable: no antagonists, no encounters, no drama, no plot, no sex, no anecdotes, no noise, no ambiguity, no jokes. There is just primitive man and nature, nothing else. Primitive man is perfectly alone, just like Crusoe on his deserted island. His problems are limited to meteorological conditions: the sun’s heat, rain, and humidity.
What’s wrong with the primitive hut? San Rocco 8
Life in the city, Architecture of density, Micheal Wolf 2008
If a space is only the reduction of 4 walls and a roof, then why do we feel at home in some places more than others? It surely has more elements to it, when looking at the soulless architecture that is made around us. But is this the task of the architect and not just only for the inhabitant? Laugier’s definition is also the first separation of what is considered inside the home and what is outside. What belongs to your household is the private, and the outside is public. With it he defines that the home is private and obtained by ownership. Therefore the function of the home is to have protection against the elements and keeping the public outside. What you do inside of this structure is up to the inhabitants themselves. This is still the approach of many architects. This can be seen through the pictures taken of newly realized houses, without any sign of life. Often described as a “clean canvas” for the inhabitant fill it in it with their lives. But is it enough to make a home?
Vers une architecture Le Corbusier, 1923
“A house is a machine for living in” The functional description might be fitting of a house, but when you consider it to be someone’s home it quickly falls short. A kitchen is more than just a collection of functional tools in order to cook. If the mechanical approach to designing homes is right we find ourselves in a race to optimize this machine. As there are no obsolete functions on a well design machine. But could this well-designed machine take care of our complex lifestyles? In order to investigate the hyper-functional machine, I stayed in some purely functional spaces. The capsule hotel.
The (personal) machine: Villa Arpel, from the movie: Jaques Tati - Mon Oncle 1958
9Hours Kyoto Optimalisation dogma, hyper capitalism & individualism The capsule hotel 9Hours is a purely functional space. It is well-designed, clear and functions well. You can stay only here for a maximum of nine hours, in which you can shower, read/work and sleep. Although the pod is shaped like a cocoon the entire building is nothing more than a box. There is no need for windows as you do not need to look outside when you execute the functions. A well-designed machine that feeds the needs in the hyper commercial world around it. Having stayed for a week in the 9Hours capsule hotel, I have never felt so much the need for a personal identity. After day three, I realized that everybody in the elevator smelled the same and wore the same outfit. Sleeping everyday in a different capsule, and not being able to leave your stuff in a room for more than 9 hours made the experience distant and impersonal. You could argue that a hotel is by definition not a home; it is at most a place where you could feel at home. But the attempts to erase any personal expressions or interventions made me realize that these spaces have no place to manifest the self. It is not in the functioning of things that lacks care but the ability to use them freely in your own way.
9Hours Capsule hotel Kyoto Japan
Onsen, Bathhouse
Ramen, Restaurant
Park
9Hours, Capsule hotel
7 Eleven, Combini shop
Metro acces
9hour capsule hotel Fumie Shibata’s Design Studio S, Masaaki Hiromura and Takaaki Nakamura
Alarm & charger station Pull-down curtain
Locker Shower Sink
Personal capsule
Gender separated elevator Working & Waiting area Entrance Shoe locker Front desk
9Hours Capsule hotel Kyoto Japan exterior with no windows
9Hour experience: “ After you take off your shoes you put them in a locker with an analogue key, which seems like an ancient relic in this hyper futuristic space. Check-in is almost robotic, you scan your QR-code from the reservation email, and you get your clothing, toothbrush and slippers from a real person. She hands over a manifesto, the rules of the space. Simple, clear & clean. The separation between men & women is very present because of their different elevators. They take you first to the showers & locker space. After a quick shower, with complementary shower gels, you find yourself in the elevator again, now towards your sleeping pod. I can’t help but notice that we all wear the same outfit, a black pyjama. But most of all that we all smell like the same generic shower gel. After arriving at my floor we all go our own ways towards the individual capsules. In a dark dimly lit corridor I search for my number. While crawling into the spacious pod, I am amazed by its build quality. A large mattress, that fits my body, surrounded by glass fiber white panelling and a curtain. While closed it feels private, although the sound of snoring people in the corridor seems to go through. 9Hours Capsule hotel separated elivators
9Hours Capsule hotel Individual sleeping Capsule
After a good night I find myself looking forward to the other days. But after the 3rd night the outfit, that isn’t made for my Dutch body, and the generic shower gel is creeping up on me. The next day I went looking for a new perfume in order to distinguish myself from the rest. A bit of my own identity back.”
9Hours Capsule hotel How to use
Nakagin tower Tokyo
The home separated into parts spread over the city.
“The Nakagin Capsule Tower takes on the challenge of the issue of whether mass production can express a diverse new quality. The Tower also strives to establish a space for the individual as a criticism to the Japan that modernized without undergoing any establishment of an“self.” Kisho Kurokawa I stayed for a few days in the Nakagin tower in Tokyo to investigate if the home of 9m2 is enough. A personal capsule of 9m2 equipped with its own bed, bathroom, including shower-bath toilet and sink, tv -dinning-workingtable-storage furniture.
Home is not about size, it is about personal adaptiveness by person or by space
The convenient and well-designed furniture was at the center of all my interactions in the space. To be clear, this space was meant to be used as being a small part of your total life in the city. Where work consumed most of your time, this apartment offered only a place to store you belongings and to sleep. Most inhabitants had a bigger home, with a family, on the outskirts of the city. This was their convenient pied-a-terre in the city. Without a kitchen in the capsule the eating is done outside, at a restaurant or the convenient store located in the plinth of the building. Work is mostly done at the office, but in my case I could use the foldout desk to use my laptop. Living here required discipline, switching from working to leisure or sleeping, because the space could not house all functions or actions all at ones. Living became an action. Something that has roots in the traditional way of living in Japanese architecture. What was missing in the 9hour capsule was pleasantly possible at the Nakagin tower, the space to personalize. This made us feel at home in the space and we could see ourselves living there for a longer period. Even with the presence of my girlfriend this space never felt cramped. It shows that a well-designed space, even though small, can be a home. And that not every function has to be within the private home. Eating and taking showers we did outside the building. Different parts of the city became our home.
Metro acces
Nakagin Tower
Onsen, Bathhouse
7 Eleven, Combini shop
Soba, Restaurant
Metro acces
Nakagin capsule tower Kisho Kurokawa 1970-1972 / 2022 Methabolic architecture
Entrance
Shower- toilet-bath unit
Fold out furniture
Original bed
Private capsule
Entrance 7 Eleven Combini
Nakagin tower, with Combini store underneath
Nakagin Capsule Tower experience: “ Before going to Japan I found out you could stay and rent a Capsule at the Nakagin tower with Airbnb. Reading the reviews I find myself in-between architecture fans and tourists whom had a terrible claustrophobic experience. The capsules and the tower are in desperate need of a renovation. No warm water, showers are recommended to take at a near onsen. And even the toilet is not really functioning. So we go to the Seven11, on the corner, for our quick toilet stop. The keys are in the mailbox in the lobby, which is easy to open without a key. The entrance and building feels deserted. We did not see anybody during our stay. We don’t dare to take the small elevator so we take the winding stairs that go up around the elevator. We seem to have taken the wrong tower because we can’t find our door number so we cross over to the next tower. Here we have our first view of outside, in the otherwise dark and cramped corridor space.
Nakagin tower, in-between the two cores, privacy shield
When we arrive at our capsule we already can smell the humidity and black mould. Inside the smell is less, but still not comfortable. The original furniture is still functioning well; we have more space than we need. A foldout desk, a working original radio, small fridge, toilet shower bathroom and a foldout bed. But the window is the main star of the space. This large circular window makes the space feel big and somewhat extra-terrestrial. After the second day we put some of our newly bought books on the shelf and made it into our temporary home in this crazy city.”
Nakagin tower capsule interior
Conversations about the home There are a few common elements in the conversations that I had over the years with my social surrounding, which stand out when talking about the home. Points that are important to their lives, individually or as a family. In addition to the home as a functional space and as the definition of private and belonging. The home is described as the place of your own identity, somewhere you could be yourself. A place even safe enough to dream. All of these elements seem to be present in our homes. Yet in architecture we tend to talk about the form or shape of them. Most of all we talk about functions, the right amount of m2 and the practicality of them. Are these functions important to my social surrounding definition of the home?
Nishihara space comparison
Functions: Home as: The kitchen When people talk about their home it is often about the kitchen that is at the heart of the house. A place where the family gathers and with it the moments that are important and memorable. Could you state that the dinner table, the counter or fridge is therefore important to the home ? A few anecdotes from the conversations that I had with my social surrounding. My friends Rei and Chihiro (Tokyo) own a very small fridge. They consume their food directly. But more often they eat outside; not needing a fridge to store their food, the few times they cook at home. The few leftover products they store in a box that keeps the temperature low. “Combini-life” changes the way you live. When food and drinks are always available 24/7, you only buy what you want at that moment. No need for big fridges, coffee machines or frying pans. We take the food home and eat it at our table, which is also our desk for working. Chihiro -
Could you live without a fridge?
“Most of our stuff in the fridge is staying for a long time in there. The fresh products are being consumed rather quickly. And If I look at my own way of shopping for food I buy food for dinner on a daily base. What I feel like eating at that moment. Leftovers and bigger products I keep in the fridge. Otherwise it’s filled with sauces, milk, bigger vegetables, and desserts. In a city like Tokyo we live a metropolitan
Conbini-life refers to the Japanese convinient stores that are 24/7 open. Much more than a supermarket it changed the way people go about their daily lifes. With a large veriaty of products, fresh food and drinks it became a quick stop & go for many customers, often multiple times in a day.
lifestyle, because of the size of our apartment we can’t own all of the machines that are needed in a real household. Maybe the fridge is not so important to own ourselves. The shared economy made changes into our ownership and that resulted in our way of living. This is reflected in our home.” Rei
Roof
Levels
Technical
Walls
Functions
POSSIBILITY FOR CHANGE: Different use of space
Storage
POSSIBILITY FOR CHANGE: Less objects to store
Safety
Home as: Living room A term used when referring to a space to relax and unwind within a household. Within different parts of the world, living rooms are designed differently and evolving, but all share the same purpose, to gather users in a comfortable space. In it the seating could be TV / fireplace orientated, or designed to have conversations around a table. It is meant as the most social space of a house. “ Everyday after coming back from work, we drink tea or a beer in our living room to unwind from the daily stress. We talk and ask how each other’s day went and what we should prepare for dinner. I think it is something I did with my parents after school. I need it so much that I do it even when I’m alone. It is the moment at when I consider myself at home, away for the office and when my personal time starts.” Henk
Home as: Bedroom Space for the private & personal; the intimate. “It made me uncomfortable, when as a child I would go and play in someone else’s bedroom. It felt intrusive to see where someone would sleep, it makes me still uncomfortable.” Daan In a lot of conversations with my social surrounding where about safety or the comfort or the home. A safe place where you could consider taking your cloths off without shame or doubt. The bedroom would be considered for most of them the most private space of all. Followed by the toilet or bathroom depending on your description of private. Bachelard talks about the importance of (day)dreaming as the ultimate way of feeling at home. When it is safe enough you can let your guard down and relax. But mostly it shows that the inhabitant can picture himself thinking about something else than the valiant outside. Home as: Storage During our lives we collect items that remind ourselves of precious moments. These objects are not purely functional but also express an emotional part of us. The home acts as a representation of our personal collection of memories. It shows who we are or like to be seen by others. For some it only takes a picture of their family to make the space their own home. Objects and the collection of them can express the identity of the inhabitant. “I don’t have a lot of space, but it seems that my plants take over. When I moved in recently into this smaller house, I could not part from all my plants. So I am now fully surrounded by plants and have less space for something ells, but I love it!” Juliette Home as: Space The size of a house has an impact on the way of living, but not on the sense of home. Most people feel at home when their demands and spatial opportunities correspond. “For more than 10 years I am living together with my partner on 27m2 it has become clear to me that the amount of m2 doesn’t affect my sense of home. There are many things that I can’t do at home and my needs surpass what my current house has to offer. Where it used to be my home, I now demand different things from the space that it cannot provide. So I have a secondary space, an atelier studio, where I find these missing elements”Morgane Home as: Time The lockdown period during Covid has made it clear that our demands from a space can quickly change over time. Where we would spend most of our time in an office or at work, we now had to convert our “private” space into a working environment, almost overnight. Some had the luxury of an extra room, or working space on the dining table. But most of my social surrounding had to drastically improvise. Some houses could facilitate these changes, others made it very confronting for their users. A lot of them had a horrible time, even if they where at home. Bedrooms became sleep & work spaces at the same time. And for some students who lived in small spaces it was a mental struggle. What we consider home can change quickly, even if physically they are not changed. But do we now have a real choice in choosing our own home? In these times where the amount of available housing is low it becomes more difficult to find affordable housing.
“Architecture is a technology not of shelter but of memory”
The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard 1958
Ownership Laugiers’ definition is also about ownership. What belongs to me, and what belongs to the public or the others? Is therefore the home only a private space? Could you feel at home, with all its complexities, in a public space? Or in a space that doesn’t belong to you privately? In order to find out I researched a place that is considered to be the living room of the neigbourhood.
Shibaura house, Livingroom for the city Sanaa 2011
Shibaura house, Livingroom for the city, lunch time break Sanaa 2011
Shared Space
Shibaura house Outer relation
City
“The living room of the city as it is called is a beloved building by it users. A meeting place where the surrounding neighborhood organizes community workshops, like English lessons and a daycare. And acts as an urban oasis for the “Salarymen” that use it during their lunch brake. This informal integration of two worlds that normally not mix has a communal function in this otherwise individual city. This results in a building that lives and breathes. Shibaura experience Upon entering I found myself surrounded with generosity and positivity. The highclass serene architecture, in detail, function and design, has almost a divine feeling, like an atheist church. How come the coffee is so cheap, entrance and tours are for free, it’s clean and you are still surrounded by design objects? How come, in a hyper capitalistic city where people build houses on a plot the size of a parking spot, is such a building possible? Although it is a commercially owned building it does not show this to its users. It is accessible without the “beige-ness” of most community centers. Most of all it is a great addition to the city. From people who use it as an extension of own, often very small, home, as a meeting point. Or the working crowd enjoying a few minutes off. It shows that we do not need to own everything ourselves in order to feel at home. Whereas public space often feel commercially taken over by bars or shops, this building feels truly public, like a park. There is enough space for everybody, some quiet places and spots to meet and chat.”
Shibaura house, Social center for the surrounding workingdistrict Sanaa 2011
Home represents stability in an unstable world. Home is a metaphor for the self. Home is the storehouse of memory. Home is made by, and makes us, what we are. Home is where we can be ourselves.
How to make a home, Edward Hollis 2016
Shibaura house, Livingroom for the city Sanaa 2011
Home, the emotional philosophical question
Functions ~ memories The feeling of home comes into being in the relationship to others. Although the feeling at home is a personal act, defining it is always in relationship to others. It is a place where you can be yourself and to choose your social interactions with your surrounding. The dialogue between inside and outside is not only physical but it is also dialogue between you, your household and your neighbors, the city and society. In these conversations, it is often thought that the architect has to provide a design with all the answers. After which the users on both sides had to play their act. The clearer the play is written, the better the act will be. The clearer the design the better the inhabitants’ lives will be. But how can we as architects understand the complexity of life? How could we even begin to formulate a way of living?
Thuis: het drama van een sentimentele samenleving, Jan Willem Duyvendak, 2017
Home is a place where you can root. The desire for a home is not only anchored in every individual but also in our collective subconscious. Historically and culturally, what we see as home may have taken different forms over time, and expressed differently in each country or society. It is one of our fundamental anthropological constants. Simone Weil, French Philosopher
Simone Weil talks about a place where you can take root and it is probably the most important and misunderstood needs of the soul. If the idea of a home is not a static ideal but a constant evolving need. Then how do, we architects, make a place where people can root and grow?
Home is less attached to brick and mortar, cushions and curtains, than to as sense that we deserve to belong in our surroundings, to shape them, to change them, and in doing so, to dwell in them.
How to make a home, Edward Hollis 2016
Nest / Cave How much does the architect need to define in its design? In order to empower the inhabitants with their own version of home, we need to be able to understand how people root in a place. It needs a flexible structure that could hold various types of the home. Sou Fujimoto makes in his book ‘Primitive Future’, the distinction between the nest and the cave. A nest is a functional space, assembled with a certain purpose. A cave is a reaction to a preexisting space. In essence they differ from each other. Fujimoto searches for the primitive relationship between man and its environment. It almost seems that he tries to design a new version of the ‘Primitive Hut’ by MarcAntoine Laugier with his Primitive Future House. Fujimoto states that the cave spaces are richer and have more possibilities. He tries to translate these artificial caves in architectural forms. He perceives Le Corbusiers Dom-Inó house as a nest and his Primitive Future house as a cave. In A durable framework Dom-Inó House, all spatial elements are clearlyIncremental distinguishable; they have their that is capable of own function. The project by James Wines & SITE’s “High-rise of homes” only holding changes possible: provide an empty space in a framework investment for inhabitants to create their own version of home. Looking at the work of Fujimoto,Making Wines and it Le Corbusier, I think it could possible be a version in between all the types of frameworks. more What is missing in all the three proposals is for the social layerpeople that is surrounding it. They formulate their own home and there is too much focus on the “I”. It lacks is generating a the idea of the “We” and “Us”.
fitting solution
de S
s TIME
I am interested in the infinite conditions between connectedness andyour detachedness; Making own VALUE CHANGE Primitive Future, Sou Fujimoto to be connected while separated home is more valuable POLYVALENCE
With “Open architecture” that has a regenerative design, and steps away from a linear design timeline. Being able to house more then just target groups. A good home has the possibility to have layers in-between the public – outside and Discovering the inside –the intimate. These social layers, called proxemics, are important to materialize so they can facilitate this relation to others. own value in
S
shared items. Freedom in use: A shared space that is capable of holding unprescribed usage
Nest
Cave
Dom-Inó Le Corbusier & Primitive Future House, Sou Fujimoto 2008
Bachelard’s link between the house, home and self might work for the forestdwelling, hut-building savages of Vitruvius’ myth, or the tiny elite who can afford to commission a Frank Lloyd Wright to design and build them a Taliesin, but it’s not going to work for the rest of us. If you live in a flat, it’s unlikely that it was build with precisely you or me in mind.
How to make a home, Edward Hollis 2016
Highrise of Homes, Theoretical proposal for USA cities James Wines & SITE 1981
Most of us make ourselves at home in places which were never really designed for us in the first place.
in M
Next 21 Osaka Gas Frame, Façade infill, adaptability Frame This project comes closest to the work of James Wines & SITE with his theoretical proposal for USA cities, Highrise of Homes.
M hom
The oversized framework provides a generous backbone to offices and housing. Occupants are employees of Osaka Gas Company, that owns the building. Façade infill As an inhabitant you rent the floor area and facade surface. Within some design rules you are free to formulate your own type of house. The façade zone is a reflection of the personal & unique interiors. These change over time with their inhabitants evolving needs. Some houses were split into two after children moved out and less space was needed. Some house gained an extra room or balcony. Adaptability As these outer walls are adaptive over time, the façade zone gained playfulness. Since its first occupants the building is now in its 4th generation of adaptions. Not only in its different inhabitants but also the integration of Internet and other new technologies like heat recovery systems and solar cell panels show. For me this is one of the first buildings where everything comes together. A holistic approach to the building and its environment that is truly metabolistic architecture.
Next21 Osaka Gas, Osaka, Japan
Restaurant
newspaper store Metro
Supermarket
Sweets store
Renovation experiment By taking advantage of NEXT21’s unique construction system (skeleton-infill), large-scale renovations, which are usually considered as infeasible, were carried out.
21 Next
Experiments on dwelling unit interlinked with changing lifestyles
Yositika Utida 1994 - 4th fase inhabitants structuralism 18 appartments 13 architects with freedom to design interiour & facade
Dividing a dwelling unit into two
The outer walls were moved.
We are conducting “dwellings-in-use” evaluations to find solutions to problems of theAfter aging Before society with a declining birth rate Unit #404 (North) Unit #404 (81.51m ) 2
“Woody House” “House of three generation With a rapid decline of birthrates and an increase in the proportion of the elderly population, wefamily” see diverse social changesUnit affecting people’s lifestyle. #405 (South) 2 Among these changes, we have selected six major subjects that need to be addressed in housing design. beenofthe basis for the(92.76m design 2) (190.15m ) Each subject has “House NextGeneration Family” of an infill solution, requiring many considerations covering these six target types of family. N
Diverse types of households are assumed to clarify the relationship between Children’s Children’s Bedroom room Bedroom room family types and the selected six social needs.
Six keywords that represent major social needs to be addressed in aging society with a declining birth rate
Bathroom Toilet Lavatory Living room
● Child
raising ● Elderly-only households ● Increasing emphasis on privacy of individual members of family ● Family support including assistance for child-raising, nursing care and housekeeping activities ● Diversification of work styles ● Networking of individuals
Bathroom Toilet
Hobby room
Entrance
Kitchen
Lavatory Living room
Inner terrace
Entrance
Inner terrace
Dining room
Room for husband Kitchen Lavatory Entrance
Toilet Utility room
Japanesestyle room
Room for wife
Bathroom
Bedroom
Master
○ Applicable bedroom △ Sometimes applicable
9
Renovation experiment
By taking advantage of NEXT21’s unique construction system (skeleton-infill), large-scale renovations, which are usually considered as infeasible, were carried out. Dividing a dwelling unit into two
The outer walls were moved.
Before
After
Unit #404 “House of three generation family” (190.15m2)
Unit #404 (North) “Woody House”
(81.51m2)
Unit #405 (South) “House of NextGeneration Family”
(92.76m2)
N Children’s Bedroom room Bathroom Toilet Lavatory
Hobby room
Living room Entrance
Inner terrace
Bedroom
Bathroom Toilet Living room Entrance
Room for husband Kitchen Lavatory Toilet Utility room
Japanesestyle room
9
Bathroom
Bedroom
Kitchen
Lavatory
Dining room
Entrance
Children’s room
Room for wife
Master bedroom
Inner terrace
About 80% of outer walls were recycled.
About 80% of outer walls were recycled.
Hadaka gashi system Infill
The idea of Infill excited already quite early in Japan with its long history in urban housing. From around the end of the Edo period ( 1603-1867) until the second world war there was a housing system called Hadaka-gashi. In this system the building framework, roof, exterior walls and external fittings belonged to the owner of the houses, and tenants fixed their own infill such as interior fitting, tatami mats, ceilings and internal equipment by themselves. About 80% of Osaka was rented, and most of them made with the Hadaka-gaschi system. The system depended on the Kyo-ma system, a standardization of the tatami mats size. Omnia panel (Eslen void slab) Frame
Systems Building
Omnia panel Omnia panel
NEXT21 uses components such as modular outer walls (cladding system), which can be replaced or rearranged easily from inside, and also can be recycled. All components are of modular design. Of particular importance is that the skeleton was designed by one team, the cladding system by another team, and still different designers are responsible for the design of each dwelling, following the “rules” for positioning infill and cladding elements developed by their respective teams.
Building system
Site-cast concrete Pre-Column PC concrete
Facilities piping Extruded cement panel Tile panel Siding on ALC panel, etc.
Shoulder Ventilation gallery
C type outer wall
ALC panel Steel angle Extruded cement panel Steel angles A type outer wall Colored stainless-steel
spandrel
PC double-layer floor Plant boxes Cap piece Coping the balcony Handrail
Colored stainless-steel spandrel
B type outer wall
PC base
Two step housing system Japan’s public housing agency played a big role in supplying mass housing after the Second World War and during the high economic growth period following the war. As the quantity problem of housing was gradually solved, problems of homogeneous housing got more and more obvious. The “Two Step Housing System” was developed in 1979 by Dr.Kazuo Tatsumi in order to solve to the problem of flexibly, responding to diversify the demands for housing. And at the same time establish a social basis of housing as public housing. In this system the “skeleton” like building, the framework, which had a social characteristic, was separated from the “infill.” Which had individual characteristic such as exterior walls and interior furnishings. I propose an adaptation from this system, where the exterior walls are included in the tenants expressions of their own home.
21Next Osaka Gas, active encroachment zone
“It was difficult to find the location of this project. With the connection of a teacher I could get in contact with the university of Osaka. There I could organize a meeting with one of the residence. However after my visit the project has become more publicly known and recognized for its excellence. With it more information became available in English and the project revealed so much more details than I knew when I visited it. For me this is one of the first buildings where everything comes together. A holistic approach to the inhabitants ,the building and its environment that is fully metabolistic architecture. I meet with Mr. Takamura, the resident of the house that I am visiting, in the conference room of the building. It feels dated and it is clear that the focus of the building is not on these spaces. There are some other offices that belong to Osaka Gas but they all seem empty. After a quick introduction we go and walk around the building. The main staircase seemed to be what most residents use to go up to the first floor where the elevators have a more prominent place, but Takamura-san tells me that most inhabitants use the elevator from the parking space underneath the building. Most residents are in their 50’s he explains but soon there will be new residents moving in that are in their 40’s. He is looking forwards to the arrive of the “young” couple. The open-air hallways are dosed in sunlight and vegetation that hangs from the ceiling down and makes pleasant spaces in-between. 21Next Osaka Gas, entrance to offices & housing
It is a small oasis in this concrete jungle of a city. The home is simple, He has one of the smaller apartments, but as he states he only really uses it in the weekends. I guess that means only on Sunday’s. Weekdays he eats with colleagues and only comes back to sleeps. I ask about the participation between the neighbors, but I think he misunderstood me because he only talked about the company. Later I understood that all residents are Osaka Gas employees. The company uses the building as a “living” prototype to investigate new hardware applications. In translations I find out that it researches what are comfortable living conditions. Healthy living, work-life balance, food, leisure seem to be focus point in this design. It almost feels like the company wants to quantify these elements. It isn’t clear in what the goals of these findings are, or what it wants to do with them. It is a pity that Takamura asks me politely not to take pictures of the interior, as it shows some design iterations. If you look very closely the concrete beams still had some marks of previous attachments. But from the outside you cannot see the different generations of design. I would have loved to visit all the apartments and the roof terrace, but I am already more than happy with a sneak peak of the building. 21Next Osaka Gas, Hadaka Gashi system with its Addaptive facade
Home: The self
philosophical question
Feeling at home is primarily an individual emotion and falls under psychology, but research shows that feeling at home is a relational emotion. You feel at home in a certain environment, between certain people, and in relation to others. The study of Jan Willem Duyvendak, shows there are four types of Home. In it he uses two catagories: the social and physical, in relation to proximity and distance . A:
Physical proximity & Social proximity
These types of homes are physically close to each other and socially directed towards each other. Coartyard housing, or shared living homes could be described as these forms of living. B:
Physical proximity & Social distance
These types of homes are physically close but socially separated. Apartment buildings or row houses could be described as these forms of living. The inhabitants have no idea who is living next to them. C:
Physical distance & Social proximity
These types of homes are physically distant from each other and socially directed towards each other. A country or village house with a shared identity could described as these form of living. People know each other, often described as a What ismentality” a home? “vilage city level
D:
Physical distance & Feeling Socialatdistance home comes into beeing by the type of relation with others
in relation proximity These types of homes are physically andwith socially distant to each other. This is the most personal and private directed type of home. The villa or penthouse could be described as these forms of living.
A
B
C
D
physical proximity & social proximity
physical proximity & social distance
physical distance & social proximity
physical distance & social distance
now the city is mostly build for type A / B,
courtyard housing with shared funtions
row house apartment building
C / D are for the fortuned.
village house
villa
Jan Willem Duyvendak thuis in de openbare ruimte - Platform31.nl
country house
penthouse
Each house should be able to hold all the different types of Home. The different types of the home will be expressed through the different facade elements. This will guide as a tool to design different interventions that will express the character of the house with its inhabitants. These interventions will be expressed through the outer zone of the framework, the Infill and have a temporary character that are depended of the symbiosis of the inhabitants and their surrounding neighbors. This will have a physical space inbetween the unit that is used to access the units.
Proxemics Proxemics is the study of human use of space and the effects that population density has on behavior, communication, and social interactions. Edward T.Hall, anthropologist, describes the different layers between the intimate and the public. Hall talks about the relative distances between people in four distinct zones: Intimate space Personal space Social space Public space. These different layers can be found as well in architectural elements. Where they act as physical boundaries between the intimate and the public. Specific façade elements can make a place more personal or enhance the social component. When well used these are a great addition to the intention of the type of home. In my design, the frame has a physical space reserved for these “negotiations” between the personal and public. In this 1,5m zone, the carefully chosen elements make the transition between the personal and the social. I call this the infill of the frame.
intimate
0-15cm 15-45cm
full contact, protect, intimacy, sex, fight close friends
personal
45-75cm 75-120cm
good friends, conversation with partner conversation with friend / acquaintances
social
120-200cm 200-350cm
public
350-700 700>
conversation with strangers / business relations formal business distance between speaker and audience distance between speaker and bigger audience
Elasticity In order to be able to have a dialogue between spaces and social interactions you need a certain elasticity of space. To provide spatial opportunities for elasticity is to work with and within this transitional space. The Japanese have a long-standing history with designing elasticity. The traditional Engawa, a veranda, as a transitional space between the inside and outside. It is a space that has its roots in designing Shrines for their deity. “Ma” is the formulating of emptiness; it is the Japanese notion of space. It differs from than that of the west, in that they see emptiness as “full of nothing.”
“Though commonly used to refer to literal, visible negative space, “Ma” may also refer to the perception of a space, gap or interval, without necessarily requiring a physical compositional element. This results in the concept of “Ma” being less reliant on the existence of a gap, and more closely related to the perception of a gap. The existence of “Ma” in an artwork has been interpreted as “an emptiness full of possibilities.”
The Japanese Spatial Expression www.columbia.edu
Engawa spaces at Kowa Public Apartment Complex in Mihama, Studio Velocity
that is capable of Incremental Adaptation: holding changes investment possible: Over time Making it possible demands change. for more people Staying relevant generating a is theinteresting most Although it is important to define the proxemic layers, it becomes when fitting solution sustaineble they blur. When, at moments, spaces could be temporarily appropriated.way They
Encroachment zone
create a flexible gradation between social layers.
TIME
The encroachment zone is a place where the identity of the residents can be Making your VALUEof the negotiation CHANGEzone of the frame, Interior expressed. I see own this as an extension the : home is the more valuable Amsterdam has a long history of designing thresholds Tabula Raza infill and in-between. and encroachment zones. The landings in front of houses used to be public space. Even the corridor behind the front POLYVALENCE door was public. This changed over time. A large variety of thresholds solutions can be found in the inner city. Can we not bring this back? Exterior:
Discovering own value in shared items.
Freedom in use: A shared space that is capable of holding unprescribed usage Landing
bridge inbetween
Shared space that is capable to hold different users / usages and adapt if needed: Tabula Scripta Windowsill
sequentions between outside and inside
greenhouse inbetween
These spaces fade into the in-between space that could be programmed with common interests like a playing area or garden. This space will have the opportunity to hold expressions of the surrounding neighbors. As they are free to choose what they commonly would like to have. This space is not their private expression, nor is it possible to incorporate the space to the house. This is in the common interest. How could this in-between space look like?
Making your own home is more valuable
Moriyama house,
VALU
P
Inner relation “This famous project is located in Ohta-ku, a ordinary suburb of Tokyo. There is, to my knowledge, nothing special about the neighborhood, yet the project is a neighborhood on its own. A house dissected into separate rooms with open spaces in-between them. Ranging from 1 to 3 stories high, each room is a building in itself; even the bathroom is a separate freestanding building.
Discovering own value in shared items.
Fr A th hold
The Moriyama House comprises out of ten carefully sculpted rectangular volumes, meticulously arranged at right angles to one another and the site. Made of thin sheets of, clinically white painted, steel. Every opening is square or rectangular, and precisely cut, as if with a scalpel. The arrangement of ten mini-houses resulted in an unexpected social network: a new kind of semi-communal lifestyle. Whereas none of the individual units of the house were intended for communal use, Moriyama’s living room soon served as a kind of common room. There, residents often lunch together, enjoy a cold beer on a hot summer day, or screen a film from the roof. “This space gives you the freedom to do anything you like, and it makes you want to.” Similarly, the alleyways between the units have become a place for everyday interactions - to chat, drink sake, or light fireworks. Moriyami As an outsider you can’t participate in these interactions, there is even a sign to keep (unwanted architectural students) out. Yet the everyday, informal way of interactions with each other has created a surplus for inhabitants. I think the small scale, in space and people, contributed to the success.”
Informal paths in-between the houses Miryama house, Sanaa
Informal paths in-between the houses Miryama house, Sanaa
Elastic spaces that create temporary encroachment zone Miryama house, Sanaa
Person Ivry-Sur-Seine, Jean Renaudie Personal
In-between, Place definition & Outer Relation
Privacy
Household
Neighbours Connection
“Arriving by subway the building reveals itself like a mountain. When seen from ground level you can’t be sure how big, far or high the peaks really are. Only from areal pictures you can experience the true size and complexity of this block. Yet it doesn’t feel heavy like a solid mass, but more a landscape with underground caves to explore. At the core2 is a shopping center with houses draped over it that feel personal and intimate. The Kashba structure has an abundance of triangular in-between spaces. These un-programmed spaces, that the inhabitant or user can temporarily occupy, are the 1true stars of this project. These spaces are not neutral but demand action. Through a generous amount of walking routes, these left over Unit corners become pockets for opportunities. I think the triangular shapes helps us with the dogmatic urge to optimize space. Because a triangular shape has always unpractical (but in this case generous) corners. With these the project breathes and creates a variety, individually and for the block. 3a 3b
3c 4
Shared Space
City
In-between space Ivry-Sur-Seine, Jean Renaudie
In-between space that is temporary appropriated with plants Ivry-Sur-Seine, Jean Renaudie
Triangular shapes might create more inefficient spaces, but they make big value in inbetween spaces. Ivry-Sur-Seine, Jean Renaudie
The limitations of home Home seems to be a fashionable topic nowadays. Ikea commercials and rom-coms that tell us the ideology of that there is “no place like home.” Yet there are many occasions we try to apply the idea of the home to more places that just ours own house. This leads to clashes between different expressions of the home. Many falsely use the sense of home in order to create value. “Neighbors should feel a sense of belonging where they live, and once they do, they will engage. And once they are engaged, the neighborhood will be on its way up.” This happens most strongly among radical right parties which, like other populist parties, have made “Home”, “Feel at Home” and “Belong at Home” at the heart of its thinking. They define some of the Dutch as natives, who belong somewhere and therefore have more right to feel at home than newcomers. Numerous labels are circulating for this ideology: populism, nationalism, racism, xenophobia, et cetera. Movements that distinguish between people whom “belong somewhere” and others who don’t.
Feeling at home and mutual connection are therefore seen as preconditions for a good and livable neighborhood and city. More and more policy makers therefore believe that the nation, a city and certainly the neighborhood should feel like home. Based on this idea, politicians, in collaboration with social-workers and local organizations, call on residents to commit themselves to their collective home, by collectively defending themselves against norm-transgressive behavior. Through neighborhood committees, neighborhood activities and taking care of neighbors in need. More social control and social cohesion should lead to a greater sense of security and trust between residents and to a livable environment that everyone can rightly call home. But is this actually possible? In my opinion everybody should be able to feel at home in his or her own place. I do not have the right to tell you what or how that should be. This is private. The public space is for everybody; therefore there are certain utterances that are not suitable in this space. I could even argue that there is a new definition of public spaces needed. The problem for me is the sense of feeling at home in the public space. For me it is not the “I” that has priority but in this space it is the “everybody”. Paradoxically enough, making a home all too often leads to open conflicts between residents about what the public home should look like, but above all who gets to determine that. Conflicts between tenants and buyers, between established and newcomers, between young people and the elderly, between antisocial and socially conformed people. Therefore, for me, the home applies to the proxemics of the intimate and personal, maybe at moments the social. Many architects have tried to direct social elements with their architecture. Some have had even stronger social agendas. This is a very nuanced topic and I am well aware of the history of some architects. I believe that by designating certain levels of freedom to specific spaces these expressions can be what every these users want to give them. I am not designing engagement or preferred social actions. I am facilitating the possibility for a wide rage of social options.
Feeling at home in the public space from platform_31.nl
Thuis: het drama van een sentimentele samenleving, Jan Willem Duyvendak
Life in the city, 100x100 Micheal Wolf 2008
Home in the City The city is a gathering place of opportunities & ambitions. A place that can be enlightening, or, at moments, it can swallow you. The city has a great attraction to many people. A place to manifest the self. This creates a difficult balance between finding your own place and others who are chasing their own dream. This dance is becoming increasingly difficult for more and more people. The city offers less diversity, age, purchasing power, and education level, than fifty years ago. The city is becoming a place for “the happy few.” Some might say it has always been like this but we see a growing majority of society, not having the opportunity to participate. The creative sector, for example, that can’t find affordable studio’s in the city and is already looking outwards, leaving to other places. The city is slowly becoming a monoculture. And this would exclude many of us. I feel like we’re at a tipping point.
Who is the city for? And whom are we actually building for? Is there room for me in this city? The city can be a cruel place, everyone at some point in their life will experience that they do not feel at home in the city. These moments are when your wishes and opportunities are not in balance. This project is not particularly an ode to the city, but to the collection of people who live there, with each their own personal and their common parts. Therefore I want to focus on their place in the city, how to make sure that they can flourish, develop and adapt to changes in their own place.
“We build this city,-” Starship If the home is a complex notion on a personal level, a city, with its different inhabitants, makes it even more difficult to define. Rather than selecting or segregating people by background, ethnicity or financial capacity, we need to understand that a city, by definition, is a collection of individuals. Some have more in common with each other than others. Most of all we have the right to live amongst each other. This is sometimes difficult to acknowledge. That there are also other people who think differently than you do. The city is a place not only for the happy few. Cities are increasingly driven by the market economy, which ends up excluding architects whom think & create for individuals. I am suggesting, with this project, a new direction for architect in order to engage, by recovering the power to invent and intensively engage with the social reality of now. I acknowledge the financial part of most buildings, but choose the social part above all. A house is made for its inhabitants and is not a financial model for someone ells his gains. These are difficult questions that probably have even more complex answers. Nevertheless, I think it is good to investigate them and thereby perhaps regain the balance that the city is currently missing. I am an architect; therefore I will look at the city from an architect’s perspective. I will look at small-scale action and intervention, related to the home. How to create the private, shared and public? Would it be possible to design personal living wishes for people, without me actually designing their private homes? How can we live together as a collection of individuals?
Forms of living together “It is important to create a city on the smallest scale: that of the inhabitant. Which means a continues attention to its inhabitants. It means that housing must not be considered as an issue of number but as an addition of spaces of life. To take the most careful attention to every dwelling and its inhabitants.”
“Almost everywhere the quality of housing is not sufficient at all.”-Anne Lacaton Designing a house for a specific person is not difficult. But ensuring the same quality for several people is. Not only for the residents but also for the neighbourhood or city. With this project I looked into a form of living together without losing the sense of self.
Co-dividual architecture Co-dividuality is a concept that expresses respect for the specificity and singularity of each person, while at the same time, relating to the need to be together and to create a sense of community. The notion of co-dividuality first emerged in 2016, in connection with the architectural exhibition Future Vision in Tokyo. It is an attempt to understand the new uses for, and the appropriation of, public and private spaces. This is done by the redesigning their boundaries. The goal is to offer spaces where people can feel comfortable alone together. Philosophers and economists theorize that individual freedom is a necessary condition for the human being. A new way of understanding individuality and collectivity. It is a deeper understanding that a person has individual as well as social needs. Those don’t always overlap and change under situation and time. By defining in a design what this social or shared identity is would simply underperform and quickly become absolute. Commercial entities that sell shared spaces, as community amenities such as a gym, collective office, living room or kitchen do not understand the fragile dynamics that allow a successful participation on a social and personal level. Therefore I am not defining their actions, but I give the opportunity to be able to formulate and do them. This is done in the in-between space Dynamics of a group, like there are in any collective living form, are in constant flux. Therefore to predict or design an identity for a certain group isn’t going to make people feel at home. In makes them perform. Especially in the context of a city, a heterogeneous mix, where you live amongst people that you do not know. Or have a profound social relation with. The combination of physical proximity and social distance leads regularly to tensions between neighbors. In my proposal there is a focus on the personal, the collective and the public. Each with their own limitations & expectations. In truly understanding that we live in a city that is a collection of individuals it enlightens us to find commonalities amongst each other. It respects the difference by allowing each other privacy. The need for a personal & private home, and the understanding that there commonalities amongst us. Therefore it is interesting to look at Courtyard houses, a collection of individuals with a common space that bonds them. This space is shared and acts as a buffer between the private (inner) and the public (outer)
Roji, japanese streetscape The narrow public alleyways between the traditional Japanese houses, called Roji. They are typically narrow, often dead-end alleyways, no more than a few meters across. Their intimate and human scale, fosters a sense of community between neighbors and encourages chances of social encounters. Roji act as mediating spaces between the private interior and the larger public realm. They are public paths but filled with personal items like air conditioners, bikes and vending machines. But are also cared for and utilized in highly personal ways. A form of urban gardening, DIY way finding, and improvised pedestrian amenities are a common in these streets. In these indeterminate, liminal spaces, the line between the public and the private blurs.
The plants and items are a tool for the inhabitants to “regulate” the borders in between the private space, the shared and public. I see these items as an important part of the role of the facade.
Schoonschip, Amsterdam, Space & Matter 2008-2021
In projects like the Schoonschip by space&matter in Amsterdam you see the same happening at the jetty. The space is used for implementation of greenery, that indirectly create small pockets areas for seating in the (public) shared space and at the same time acts as a buffer in-between the houses.
In search of space to accommodate the unknown. When we look further than the need to optimize the use of space, we find ourselves in a place of opportunities. During the conversations with my social surrounding, they rarely described their space as efficient and optimal. They talk about the uncommon & undefined and the space that stand out. These make a place memorable and important. Therefore they have value to them. How to design the unknown? A-centricity allows any place to become the center. It creates both a sense of being at the center & a sense of multi-centrality. It creates a rich environment, full of divers settings that allows personality. The archipelago makes it possible that neither each persons identity nor the collective identity are fixed and are established once and for all. I can change to the exchange with the other without losing or diluting my sense of self that is what actually archipelago thought can do. Not to force worldview to others and resist. It is to discover and engage with them.
In the private and the public realm it is important to be able to root & make space your own, even if it is for just a moment. This is especially important if you do not own all the required elements yourself. Learning from the capsule hotels and Shibaura house it is possible to use the city as your home. But it depends on the generosity and flexibility of the city. The introduction of a smaller circle, a group of people whom you likely bump into will create a “public familiarity.” This enlarges the chances of a sense of rooting in the surrounding area. “They knew their neighbors not because they made special efforts to meet them, but because they lived in a place where casual interaction was a feature of everyday life.” Eric Klinenberg on social infrastructure.
Our cities are largely planned: the houses, the roads, the public transport lines, the social and public institutions and the public space in which these functions are located together form an infrastructure that has been devised by policymakers. There is also the lived city, which where created in the process by the citizens who live and work there. It is a space where people live independently of the professionals, in everyday reality. They see their city through different eyes. Not as an object that must be made livable through policy and planning, but as the habitat in which they do their daily activities. The focus is on the in-between conditions that the neighboring of units creates. The system does not envision growth anymore, or reconfiguration, but the serendipity of the plan suggests a organic organization of spaces. Flexibility of usage happens through the users’ appreciation and usage of the space, rather than by an actual “regeneration” of the building throughout time.
Conclusion Although the home is a personal act, the architect has a great responsibility to make sure that everyone will be able to realize its own type of home. Whether that is an open social or closed private home. Standardization should not prohibit these expressions; it should make sure that this freedom stays available to its users. Home is designated to the private and at moments could cross over into the shared space. This space is a negotiation between each other private spaces. This is an active continues dialogue. What is norm-transgressive behavior depends very much on the place it takes place. What is socially accepted in a street with a lot of nightlife can be different from that of a living area. I am not describing or designing what this norm should be. I am designing elements that make affordance. An environment that does not directly determine behavior; it makes certain behaviors more likely to occur. You feel at home in a certain place, among certain people but always in relation to a specific place and specific others. Designing for a homogeneous group does not solve it. Nor the idea of inclusivity as a fix for all problems will do. We need to have an understanding that it is a complex matter and that there needs to be generosity with a constant effort to try and make it work out.
Living is a verb, it is a participative action. The goal of this project is to create a place in the city that feels like home but in several stages. Not with a strong personal identity, given by the architect, but in separation between different layers going towards the public. Layer 1 is your own home, which should be able to contain your ideals and wishes. This is the most pure personal definition, which all differs amongst each other. Layer 2, the in-between, is a space that is the collection of individual expressions. This is not a private layer nor individual; it is shared amongst the neighbors and cannot be individually owned. The outcome of this “tango” based on the commonalities that this collective of individuals have is something that these entities can formulate together. If there are commonalities, for example neighbors who both have children can make space for a playground. Or if there are no mutual interests there could be space for greenery.
PROJECT Location: I searched for a location that already had an existing variety of different types of homes. A place where I would add to the existing variety of typologies and that would have a diverse range of inhabitants. In order to be able to investigate this, from a personal experience, I have chosen to search within Amsterdam.
Funenpark Funenpark is in a diverse neighborhood that is surrounded with different typologies of housing. From urban villas to mass social housing. The former transfer site belonged to Van Gend & Loos, a transportation company, until the end of the seventies. After a long period of vacancy and degradation, 551 homes were built in the area, then renamed Funenpark. Designed by former government architect Frits van Dongen. There are sixteen residential blocks in the park, each with a different design and designer. In the Funenpark, homes have been built for various target groups, students, families and the elderly, ranging from social housing to owner-occupied homes in the more luxury segment. The street and park is a car-free zone and is only for pedestrians. The location of the project is at a part that was recently taken in use as a playground for adjacent schools. The 191 owner-occupied homes consist of maisonettes, live-work apartments and penthouses. The 114 social rental homes are partly intended for the elderly and the disabled. All surrounded in a park that is famous for its encroachment zone. The unconventional plot shape will force the design to be creative.
Location
Oosterburg
Rietlanden
molen de Gooyer
Czaar Peterbuurt
Het Funen
Design
5 elements:
The design consists out of 19 unique towers with spaces in-between them for offices and public functions. In groups of 5 towers with a raised ground level that connects the houses. Each tower has a connection to the ground floor and the raised ground level. This provides a place in-between the public space, outside the plot, and acts as a buffer in-between the houses. The design includes:
This project is about place definition and carefully designing the layers of proxemics between the intimate and the public. After researching and visiting key projects in Osaka, Tokyo and Paris, I have made 5 elements of architecture that are key in making a home in the city.
19 unique towers of: 12 x three leveled units 4 x four leveled units 2 x five leveled units 1 x two leveled unit
With the use of these 5 elements I make sure that the inhabitants are able to realize their own personal “idea of home” and that future inhabitants are able to do this as well. •
A frame that holds the diverse stories of a home
Starting with a generous frame that gives the general shape and can hold all technical support. •
An infill of a facade that translates those stories towards the outside
In this frame the inhabitants have the freedom to choose a personal infill, in orientation, plan and façade. This is not only based on their personal wishes but also in interaction to it surroundings. •
A place for opportunity, the in-between
Because the units are freestanding it creates informal paths between the houses. This ambiguous space is shared and in negotiation with its surrounding neighbours, could be temporarily adapted to hold a collective function. With this in-between space it creates a place where co-dividuality can take shape. •
A chance to form a community, or to take a more individual part in it.
Because the ground floor is raised it creates a new layer between the public and the private. By building up the design from small groups of a maximum of 5 houses, the mutual relationships have a better chance of success. Build as small archipelagos they create spaces for shared idea. These contribute informally on the Inner connections between neighbours. •
A relation with the city
On the ground floor there is space underneath the in-between that is filled with offices, studios and shops. This outer connection makes the integration of building block in the neighbourhood and city. With these steps I am able to design a home for everyone. I will elaborate on them in the following pages.
In this design there are between 22 and 65 apartments in total possible to realize. Varying from 49m2 - 98m2 - 147m2 In the current version there are 33 different apartments realized. This could change in future versions. In six overlapping groups, consistent out of maximum 5 towers. In 6 overlapping groups of towers, consisting of maximum 5 towers.
Frame unit Flexible & adaptable
Incremental investment possible: Making it possible for more people generating a fitting solution
Making your own home is more valuable
A durable framework that is capable ofA durable fram Incremental Adap holding changes that is capa investment possible: Incremental holding Ove cha investment possible: A durable framework Making it possible Making it possible deman that is capable of people for more people for more Stayin Infill holding changes generating a Adaptation: generating a is th time fitting solution Over fitting solution demands change. sustain Facade interactions: Staying relevant 1.5m dialogue zone TIME TIME isuser the & most location sustaineble way specific own VALUE Making your own Making your VALUE CHANGE home is more valuable TIME home is more valuable VALUE
CHANGE
POLYVALENCE Interior : Tabula Raza Discovering own value in shared items.
POLYVALENCE
In-between Person
Discovering own value in shared items. Freedom in use: A shared space that is capable of holding unprescribed 2 usage
E Discovering Shared own value in capa shared items. Exterior: Symbiotic Freedom ind Personal Household Neighbours Shared space that is Privacy Connection A shared sp encroachment use Freedom in use: that is capa capable to hold zone: relation a A shared space holding unpre different between your home if that is capable of usage users / usages & surrounding Tab holding unprescribed and adapt neighbours if needed: usage Tabula Scripta
Interconnection 1
Personal Privacy
Household
Neighbours Connection
Relation between each other in groups of max 5 enteties
Unit
3a 3b
3c 4
Shared Space Outerconnection
Open city block public, city relation with shops / workplaces
3c
City
POLYVALE
Frame The frame is starting point for building the home. Metaphorically but also physically it is at the basis where the inhabitants build upon. It is a flexible loadcarrying framework made from CLT. Floor parts can be applied on any level height and come in three standardized elements. These can be attached to the columns in any location. And be readjusted in any configuration. The framework has no fixed vertical circulation points, orientation or level heights. It comes in 3 variants: • • •
3 level unit 4 level unit 5 level unit
Incremental investment possible: Making it possible for more people generating a fitting solution
A durable framework that is capable of holding changes
Adaptation Over time demands chan Staying releva is the most sustaineble w
TIME Making your own home is more valuable
VALUE
CHANGE
In Tab
POLYVALENCE Discovering own value in shared items. Freedom in use: A shared space that is capable of holding unprescribed usage
Every unit has the possibility to have a roof terrace and a connection on the ground floor and raised ground floor. In addition a temporary structure can be made where a plateau could be made on top of the raised ground floor. These could offer access to the apartment. Every type of stairs is possible. The frame consists out of a core of 4x4m with columns in each corner. Overhanging floor parts of 1.5m deep are connected to this core. Resulting in a 7x7m floor plan that is omni directional.
Exterior Shared space capable to differen users / usa and adap if neede Tabula Scr
Material The serial produced frame is made in segments from Cross Laminated Timber. These can be assembled at location. Additional or unique pieces can be adjusted or made on site. The construction is made in such a way that floor segments can be repaired and replaced when future inhabitants want to change the frame. The structural frame is load carrying and in each of the four pillars has the option to hold the vertical shafts for plumbing and electrics. These can be accessed from the bottom and top of the floors. 1000
2700
11420 2700
3400
1.5m “dialoog” zone
1500
7000
4000
1500
Inside the frame With the intention to make a frame that could house any possible form of home, I’ve designed also for the possibility to have multiple forms of households. These could all be realized in the same framework and adapted over time. When there is need for more space, you could consider a different configuration of the frame. With a newborn you need more space, but when the young adult is moving out this space could be transformed into something else. This makes a flexible framework, also in use.
Full unit 147m2
3 units 3x 49m2
2 units 1x 49m2 1x 98m2
2 units 1x 49m2 1x 98m2
“Divided” model
“Inter-generation” model
“void”model
Each with their own entrances.
Exchangeable distribution, adaptable to needs parents/students/seniors
Living and growth model Private outdoor space/ incremental investment
2 units 1x 49m2 1x 98m2
2 units 1x 49m2 1x 98m2
Full unit 147m2
“Bounteous”model
“Machiya” model
“Friends” model
Living & shared space Community space playground / workshop
Woon-Werk Studio, ook voor externe gebruikers
With each their own entrance but shared living room & kitchen
In order to test if the frame would have flexibility I’ve started with designing iterations within the same boundaries.
Assembly
Incremen investment po Making it po for more pe generatin fitting solu
Infill The proxemics layers from the intimate to the personal (0-1500mm) The façade is more than just a protective layer that separates the inside and the outside. It is a dialogue zone where the different layers of proxemics become materialized. These elements can make your home more private, by placing openings in such way that there is not so much to see from the outside. Or it could make your home more social with opening doors towards the shared outside spaces. These elements do not only tell something about the 300mm thickness of the wall, but more about the full 1.5m dialogue zone around the core space.
“If the edge works, so does the space”
Making your home is more v
o s
Life between buildings, Jan Gehl, 1987
Design start facade
fysieke nabijheid & sociale nabijheid
fysieke nabijheid & sociale afstand
A
B
The infill is where the different typologies of the home are made. They differ in the way you relate your self towards others. By carefully playing with the different layers of proxemics you create the different type of home. Home type A Physical proximity & Social proximity
C
D
fysieke afstand & sociale nabijheid
fysieke afstand & sociale afstand
A physical and socially open home, inside to outside and outside to inside. Seen and being seen, interaction is the main goal, open house. Home type B Physical proximity & Social distant A physical open but socially closed home. Inside to outside and outside to inside is limited. Seeing but not being seen, interactions are only when the inhabitant wants this. These requier action, in activating the boundries. Home type C Physically distant & Social proximity A physical closed off outside, socially open home within, selected outside to inside. Selective interactions, maybe not with close surroundings, that are chosen by the inhabitants. Home type D Physically distant & Social distant A physically closed off outside, socially open home within, inside to inside. No intended interactions with surrounding, introverted house.
openingen zijn niet gebonden aan frameverhoudingen
The façade contains a grid system that unifies the different houses. Window and openings can be placed freely over this grid. The inhabitant has the freedom to choose the placing and size of these openings.
Windows & openings Every house has windows and openings, they cause interactions between inside and outside. But they can offer much more than that. They are the physical expression of the proxemics layers in the façade. They translate the intention of the typology of the home. With nuanced openings in the facade like the Outer or Inner hatch the inhabitant can choose its moment to interact with the outside. The traditional Japanese Agemise bench acts as a temporary activator, when folded down the bench provides a place to sit or to show produce. The Doma takes the outside, in this case the shared, inside the private. The Engawa provides an extra shared layer towards outside. The canopy makes a subtle personal layer in the shared space. These are architectonical elements for the inhabitant to play with and create their own layers towards the intimate.
facade kan verlegt worden
+1000
+3080
Window opening
Window opening high
opening hatch
Folding door
outer hatch
Piv
static separating inside to outside
temporary intervention separating inside to outside defined borders shows privacy
temporary action connecting inside to outside
temporary intervention separating inside to outside defined borders shows openess & privacy
tem sep outs defi show
+3080
static connecting inside ~ outside drapes makes it temporary +3780 separating
Window opening low static separating inside to outside
+480
7600
r hatch
Pivot door
Hinged window
canopy
Engawa
Vestibule / Portico
rary intervention ating to outside d borders openess & privacy
temporary intervention separating & connecting outside to inside defined borders shows openess & privacy
temporary action connecting inside to outside
static connecting outside
static transition zone inside ~ outside
Vestibule / Portico transition zone outside to inside
e / Portico
Portico one nside
Full unit 147m2 + 49m2 rooftop garden Agemise innerhatch Temporary intervention connecting (open / closed for business) shows openess
temporary intervention separating inside to outside defined borders shows privacy
3 units 3x 49m2 Loggia separate entrances static transition zone outside to inside
Doma
2 units 1x 49m2 1x 98m2
separate entrances static transition zone outside to inside
Assembly
Assembly
section 0
section 1
section 2
section 3
home is more valuable
PO
In-between The proxemics layers from the personal to the social (1500-3500mm)
Discovering own value in shared items.
The volumes of the units seem to be randomly placed as they are scattered around the plot. Varying between perpendicular towards the waterfront and under an angle of 45.° The whole is laid out with modest and appropriate relationships between the adjacent volumes. If fact they are carefully placed so that they create archipelagos in groups of 5 units. Each of these units has a relationship between the units on the ground floor and the raised ground floor. These units create inbetween spaces that are separated and connected at the same time. They are places where unrelated things can coexist and interdependently stimulate one another. It is a space where the shared can be expressed by the inhabitants.
Fre As tha holdin
The façade is the translation of the intention of the inside (the intimate), the inbetween is the dialogue between the units (the shared). The spaces in-between the buildings create informal paths between the houses. This ambiguous space is shared and in negotiation with its surrounding neighbors, could be temporarily adapted to hold a collective function. With this in-between space it creates a place where co-dividuality can take shape. Because the ground floor is raised it creates a new layer between the public and the private. I call this the glue of the conglomerate. Conglomerate rock is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed of a substantial fraction of rounded to subangular gravel-size clasts
“It is in the in-between where all the unexpected things take place”
Herman Herzberger
Exterior: d space that is able to hold different rs / usages nd adapt needed: ula Scripta
Polyvalent objects The larger spaces in-between the units can hold a temporary shared function. The surrounding neighboring units choose these. It could facilitate a shared wish for a playground for their children or barbeque spot with a big collective table. Or, if they do not find commonalities within the group, it could be a collective garden. In order to hold these different functions the space needs to have polyvalent objects, which do not limit the possible outcome. Polyvalence Polyvalence describes the ability of form to be open-ended, where it suggests rather than dictates use, thus allowing for multiple forms of inhabitation. At the core of polyvalence lies the understanding of Affordance. Affordance can be used to explain how different individuals can “read” uses into the same form based on the personal capabilities.
Gibson J.J. The theory of affordances and the design of the environment, 1976.
“The environment does not directly determine behavior; it makes certain behaviors more likely to occur.” Polyvalence as a design approach considers the intimate relationship between people and form, acknowledging people’s ability to “read” use into form and for form the express use. Environment does not directly determine behavior; it makes certain behaviors more likely to occur. It allows that architectural interventions can only invite or discourage a curtain use of space, yet they cannot cause it. Consequently, a deep understanding of the targets of such interventions is crucial to increase the likelihood that desirable affordances are realized. -E.Rietveld, A rich landscape of affordances, 2014 Polyvalence also implies that the same form can remain relevant despite personal change. The same person can interpret it differently over time. For example, the space that once was used as a play structure might evolve to become a place for sunbathing, reading or meeting friends.
Inner-connection The proxemics layers from the social to the public (1500-3500mm) Person people who are strangers to each “Public familiarity” is a desired situation where Personal Household Neighbours Privacy other and in principle have nothing to do with each other, regularly meet inConnection a more social space. Where they slowly become acquaintances to each other. This is the goal of the Inner-connection. Shaping conditions for belonging.
The notion of belonging alludes to the meaning that individuals can derive from attachment to places and social settings. Feeling a sense of belonging contributes to the construction of self-identity and is pivotal for the experience of life-quality. 2
Wahl & Oswald 2013
1
Unit
Finding out what you have in common could make it easier to have a shared wish come true. But what if you do not find something in common with your neighbors? Maybe a garden with more intimate spots could provide enough distance between the houses for them to feel separated. Formulating from not only the self but the Shared Space commonalities contribute to the feeling of ownership and self-identify. Crucial to the concept of the home. 3a
3b
3c
4
It is also an understanding that the shared space, the in-between, is not a extension of their personal space. This limits City the things you can do in them but guaranties its freedom to all.
“Try to find conditions for belonging”
Herman Herzberger
The academical-architecture field has a long history of trying to socially involve in inhabitants lives. Some offer great solutions that fit to them, others are forcefully wrong and do more harm. In my approach to this topic I carefully analyzed with what type of configurations and conditions these connections might work. I do not want to choose a specific social connection. I think that this is up to the inhabitants themselves. They choose the level of engagement, participation or social interference. Most of all this in-between space is a informal, casual space where interactions can be made on the way to your own home. Therefore the units are low in number and each home has several sides to choose a form of participation. “They knew their neighbors - not because they made special efforts to meet them, but because they lived in a place where casual interaction was a feature of everyday life.”
Eric Klinenberg social infrastructure.
Different options in use of the in-between space. Up: A collective playground for the childeren who live sin the urrounding units. Down: A garden to enjoy independently, as the neighbors do not have a collective bond.
Outer-connection 3a
The proxemics layers from the social to the public (3500-7000mm)
3b
3c 4
Shared Space
The offices and shared spaces underneath the raised ground floor integrate the building block into the neighborhood and city. With these spaces the conglomerate gets openness. It combines the different rhythms between the active city life and the private home with. It is a continuation of the general theme in the surrounding neighborhood, but in a smaller scale. The threshold between the public life, the city, and the shops / offices are low. The offices are 700mm below ground level.
“There will be a new emergence of architecture at the moment when a city becomes a house, and simultaneously neither a city nor a house.”
City
Primitive Future Sou Fujimoto 2008
Cafe at the Cornerbuilding
Office underneath the raised groundfloor
Akiko & Marijn, Uta
Benedikt Stefan
Elmo, Micha, Vito, Noï
Laurens & Kyveli
Eise & Leanne
Dirk & Maaike, Daantje
Guus & Thea
Manus & Sayaka, Lanna, Pia
Satoki & George Leno, Yuni
Julia & Frieda
Sachi & Nina
Arica & Kuni Aio, Tou
Bartjan & Babette
Hisashi Mels & Marielle Quynh
Morgane & Ivo
Gitte & Jair
Waterfront view
4x Home
I explore four homes in depth, each representing a different typology of the home. With their different starting point, interests and social engagement. This is reflected in the frame, infill, in-between, and their inner & outer connection to the block. These design directions have been based on the conversations that I had with them. Home 1 for Akiko, Marijn & Uta. Physical proximity & social proximity. A physical and socially open home. Home 2 for Nina & Sachi. Physical proximity & social distant. A physical but socially closed home.
Sachi & Nina
Akiko & Marijn, Uta
Home 3 for Eise & Leanne - Morgane & Ivo. Physical distant but social proximity. A physical closed off outside, socially open home from within. Home 4 for Bartjan & Babette. Physical distant & Social distant. A physically and socially closed off home.
fysieke nabijheid & sociale nabijheid
fysieke nabijheid & sociale afstand
Physical proximity Social proximity.
A
B
Physical proximity Social distance
Physical distance Social proximity.
C
D
Physical distance Social distance
fysieke afstand & sociale nabijheid
fysieke afstand & sociale afstand
3
2
4 1
Morgane & Ivo
Eise & Leanne
Bartjan & Babette
Home 1 for Akiko, Marijn & Uta
A young family of 3, both working in the creative field and with a young daughter.
“Home is where we are together, in the city where we work and live. Friends and family surround our lives and at the center is our home. Our dream is to combine our home with an adjacent studio, from where we could see our children play in the garden. We enjoy an open house, where our neighbors and children could run in and out.” Typology of home A
Physical & Social proximity
fysieke nabijheid & sociale nabijheid
fysieke na & sociale a
A
B
C
D
A warm and open home, where interactions are welcome. A place to grow, blossom and develop. A place not only for themselves but it is generous in sharing space and attention wit others. Frame A simple 3leveled frame construction with stairs situated above each other. Infill 98m2 home + 49m2 studio office The house has two entrances, one for the studio office and a separate for the home. Although the studio is internally connected with the home part, the front door makes the home part orientated in a different direction than the studio office. In-between With large sliding doors the home is connected to the ground floor, raised ground floor and the temporary balcony in-between a connected unit. On the east side of the building the windows have outside hatches to have more privacy. The windows from the kitchen look towards the garden on the ground floor. It is an open house, where the outside can become inside. Inner-connection The unit has 4 different levels that connect to its surrounding. The ground floor studio with a shared garden/lunch spot that connects to the home of George, Satoki, Leno & Yuni. Because the neighbors also have children, they often play with each other. That is why a playground has been created in the in-between space. They also take turns looking after each other’s children. Both parents can keep an eye on things in the garden between the studio and the adjacent unit. The first level connects to the raised ground floor, where in dialogue with the other 4 units, a playground is created. With the connection on temporary balcony in-between the adjacent unit of Nina & Sachi is a calm sunny spot created. The roof terrace gives the unit a private place, purely for themselves. Outer-connection With the studio office located at the ground level, clients have an easy access.
fysieke afstand & sociale nabijheid
fysieke a & sociale a
3 4
ground floor studio private entrance, shared garden
1st floor Kitchen & living room own entrance
2nd Floor bedroom, nursery bathroom 3rd roof terrace
Social connections on 3 different levels
In-between playground
Studio office on ground floor
Home 2 for Nina & Sachi Couple, both working in the creative field.
“To us home is a separate place than our work. We live a busy life and use the city as our living room. We enjoy the city life to its fullest. Home is the place where we come back to, at the end of the day. It is the place where we store our memories and objects we collected in the city. Our home is a ‘Wunderkammer’, a cabinet of curiosity. “ Typology of home B
Physical distance & Social proximity
fysieke nabijheid & sociale nabijheid
A A home with carefully designed layers in-between the public and the intimate. A home that is selective in its interactions with the neighbors and is more drawn to itself.
fysieke nabijheid & sociale afstand B
Frame The top 2 floors of a 4 floored unit. Infill 98m2 home C Designed as a cabinet of curiosity, the home is made as custom furniture. With space for the collected items from outside and small intimate spaces forafstand us to fysieke enjoy them. & sociale nabijheid In-between
As the home is more focused on itself the chosen interactions with the direct neighbors do not show immediately. The home isolates itself with a public outdoor staircase and a semi private outdoor staircase towards a shared platform. The additional layers of proxemics make that the home has more distance from other units. Inner-connection With the location of the home on the top two floor of a 4 floor unit, it distances itself from the rest. Outer-connection The city is where they collect, the home is where they store and reflect.
D fysieke afstand & sociale afstand
4
3
3rd floor in-between plateau kitchen living room entrance
4th floor bedroom bathroom, workplace
Two Apartments above each other. Top two floors are part Nina & Sachi’s unit
Private outside access to home 2 Top apartment socially disconnected
Home 3 for Eise & Leanne - Morgane & Ivo Two couple, each with their own wishes.
“We would love to find a home in this city, but at this moment it is to difficult to invest in something that would be suitable for the next 5-10 years. Because we found a solution with my parents we both could realize our dreams and at the same time have something personal. We could take more care of them when we would switch from a small place to a big space. ”
fysieke nabijheid & sociale nabijheid
fysieke nab & sociale afs
A
B
C
D
Typology of home C
Physical proximity & Social distance
A multi-generational house that has been split in two. With a starter home on the ground floor for the young couple and a bigger home for the retired couple, the parents, on the two floors above. These homes are made with the intention that the two couples can switch between the two houses. If the young couple needs more space, than the studio, it can be swapped with the home above. When, for example, a family expansion takes place. This way, the new family can start from a small scale home and get into the bigger space when needed. The retired couple can stay close to its family yet still have their own freedom. Because each home is fully functional each household can live separatly and chose to get together with each other on the moments they want. Frame A three-leveled frame construction with a stepped staircase. Divide into two apartments, a home studio and a bigger home. Infill 49m2 home studio +98m2 home Designed as two separated home with an inner staircase that connect the two households. The studio is orientated towards the small patio. The bigger house on top is focused towards the park. The large stepped staircase has large windows with places for plants to let the park inside. Other parts of the floor are split-level, so it creates playfull rooms that flow into each other. In-between With its focus turned away from the surrounding neighbors the house is very much on its own. It plays a secondary, quiet role in the group of units. Inner-connection Both homes are designed from inside out. The two houses are not directed towards its surrounding. The top apartment uses a corner of the shared space but turns its “back” towards the traffic space. Outer-connection With no direct relation with the city, the houses are very much focused on them selves.
fysieke afstand & sociale nabijheid
fysieke afst & sociale afs
3 4
ground floor studio Morgane & Ivo own entrance, connecting staircase
1st floor house Eise & Leanne kitchen & living room
2nd Floor bedroom, bathroom, office
Two separate apartments differently orientated connection to raised groundfloor underneath office
Home 4 for Bartjan & Babette active couple
“ I feel at home in the mountains butfysieke my nabijheid &work sociale nabijheid is in the city. I want a tree house where I can shut myself off from the outside world” A
fysieke nabijheid & sociale afstand B
Typology of home D
Physical & Social distance
Build as a mountain hut for a couple that is not often in the city. It distances itself physically and socially, as it is the only freestanding unit. Both the facades on the top and ground floor are closed, and are only activated whenever the inhabitants want to open up. The middle layer is fully open and brings the sunlight inside. Frame
C
afstandlight Without a middle part on the first floor, the open void makes thatfysieke the outside & can reach into the living room on the ground floor. The passage around it becomes sociale nabijheid a working space that lets the inhabitants in direct contact with outside while also being able to communicate with the living room. The diagonal stairs towards the top floor float in the void above the living area.
Infill 147m2 home When the inhabitants want to engage with its surrounding the façade can open up towards outside. This activator shows their engagement with the outside. In-between The freestanding unit makes that the in-between is directly public space. Because it acts as an island it needs clearer boundaries of proxemics layers. Inner-connection It choses not to engage in interactions with it direct surrounding. They want to keep their lives private. Outer-connection It choses to create distance between the interactions with it city surrounding.
D fysieke afstand & sociale afstand
3 4
ground floor kitchen & living room loose storage / drying room
1st floor work circulation / plant room, logia
2nd floor bedroom, bathroom
Freestanding home that withdraws itself from the environment
Light reaches into the home through the void in the middle of the 1ste floor
Don’t move, improve “Once there is movement, there is a possibility to direct the movement” Floris Alkemade
I truly believe that despite more awareness, the main focus of acting environmental is in observing what we have, maybe improving it but most of all it is in taking care of it. Therefore you need to make a valuable home for its inhabitants. So how do we learn from this and use it in new buildings? By making sure that a multitude of options are available and that there is space for something that is unforeseen. The true difference is made in spaces that are designed with more than a single functional use. If we consider how drastically our lives changed in the last few years during Covid and the “new” requirements we have from our homes, compared to preCovid. The sudden need for working space in the home environment, the need for plants & outdoor space during lockdown, a separate space to make a zoom call without disturbing the whole house. The conclusion is that we continuously need to redefine our home. To live somewhere is an action. We architects could never predict all of these sudden changes so how can we look into the future. All architecture is a form of projecting & arriving. The more polyvalent and flexible the spaces are, the more the houses can handle a multitude of ideals, the better future proof it will be. We will not make a climate friendly environment by consuming differently. It needs to become less, on all parts. We need to look at what we have, and if that is not sufficient to our demands, we look at what we change to it. The right to repair, should be also applied to buildings. This could be shown as an act of care, like the Japanese art of Kintsugi.
Additional floorspace
The art of Kintsugi, the Japanese custom of mending broken pottery with golden lacquer seams, is a beautiful allegory of how an object’s age and history can be celebrated. - Age-Inclusive public spaces
Improved with a new logia
early tower protoype model
Conclusion We are only ever the temporary occupants of the buildings we inhabit, which will almost always last longer than we will. And our occupations are dynamic, as we shift furniture around to suit our momentary needs, and as we endlessly collect, arrange, rearrange, or dispose of all the countless objects that pass through our hands. Our homes are, after all, nothing more than the ephemeral arrangements, illusory, staged to frame the little plays of our lives. It is necessary to be able to root and blossom in a place, therefore it is important to be able to define your own home. This project aims to give the inhabitant its freedom to decide and change during its stay. It challenges the static attitude that most architecture seems to have. It looks further than a singular approach to togetherness and gives affordances to the users. Home is about the self, in proximity to others. This dialogue between the intimate and the public is reflected in the choses of façade elements, making the architecture flexible, dynamic and the inhabitants in control of their own home in the city.
early mass protoype model
Bibliography Bibliography name author, book, publisher, year • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
ANA, Learning for Multifunc, 2017 Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, Penguin books 1958 Ellen de Bruin, Sociaal psycholoog Naomi Ellemers/ ‘Wat voor een ander goed is, is niet per se goed voor jou’ - https://www.nrc.nl/ 8-8-2019 Alain de Botton, De architectuur van het geluk, Atlas 2006 Benedicte Chaljub, Renée Gailhoustet, une poétique du logement, Éditions du patrimoine, Centre des monuments nationaux 2019 Benedicte Chaljub, La politesse des maisons, Renée Gailhoustet architecte, Actes sud L’impense 2009 Titia Daniels, Handboek voor Hedendaagse Hofjes, Deltahage 2013 via https://stipo.nl/app/up loads/2017/06/2015-HandboekVoorHedendaagseHofjes.pdf KRFT: Thomas Dieben, Oscar Vos, Dense individuality, https://www.denseindividuality.com 2017 Jan Willem Duyvendak Fenneke Wekker, Thuis in de openbare ruimte? Over vreemden, vrienden en het belang van amicaliteit, https://www.platform31.nl Sou Fujimoto, Contemporary Architect’s Concept series 1 SOU FUJIMOTO: Primitive Future, LIXIL 2008 Dominique Hauderowicz + Kristian Ly Serena, Age-Inclusive Public Space, Hate Cantz 2020 Herman Herzberger, Lessons for students in architecture, 010 publishers Claudia Hildner, Future living collective housing in Japan, Birkhauser 2014 Dan Hill, The quiet accumulation of urban elements rooted in daily life” #1, https://medium.com/ia macamera/moriyama-house-by-ryue-nishizawa-c9ae1fb7eb55 2018 Pieter Hoexum, Thuis, Atlas 2019 Edward Hollis, How to make a home, The school of life, Macmillan 2016 Jutakutokushu, The Japanese House Architecture And Life After 1945, Shinkenchiku-sha Publisher 2017 Birgit Jürgenhake, De gevel - een intermediair element tussen buiten en binnen, Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Afdeling Architecture 2016 Salvator-John A. Liotta & Fabienne Louyot, What is co-dividuality? post-individual architecture, shared houses, and other stories of openess in Japan, JOVIS 2020 Stephen H. Kendall, Residential Architecture as Infrastructure: Open Building in Practice, https:// books.google.nl/books?id=BzZPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT383&lpg=PT383&dq=hadaka+gashi&source=bl&ots=I 6R0U-RI0T&sig=ACfU3U0zIav1nh20ZXd6uXKK8eTjvYtrGw&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj5rL7hrM_0Ah WD8LsIHbg2Dv0Q6AF6BAgeEAM#v=onepage&q=hadaka%20gashi&f=false Koh Kitayama, TOKYO METHABOLIZING, TOTO 2010 Vincent Kompier, Flexibel bouwen voor de Toekomst, BNA Onderzoek 2014 Léopold Lambert, Ivry-sur-Seine/ The Architectural Genius of Renée Gailhoustet & Jean Renaudie in Paris Banlieues - https://thefunambulist.net/magazine 2018 Cathelijne Nuijsink, How to make a Japanese house, nai010 publishers 2012 Rose Marcario, Repair is a radical act, Patagonia https://www.patagonia.com/stories/repair-is-a-radi cal-act/story-17637.html E.Rietveld, A rich landscape of affordances, 2014 https://www.researchgate.net/publica tion/275887640_A_Rich_Landscape_of_Affordances San Rocco, Whats wrong with the primitive hut, https://www.sanrocco.info/callforpaper/ what-s-wrong-with-the-primitive-hut Richard Sennet, The open City, https://urbanage.lsecities.net/essays/the-open-city 2006 Richard Sennet, Building and Dwelling, Allen Lane 2018 Jack Self, Shumi Bose and Finn Williams, Home economics, The spaces 2016 Christion Schittich, Housing in Japan, Typologies for Small Spaces, Edition DETAIL 2016 Mitsuo Takada,Tradition of “Hadaka-gashi” System in Osaka and the New Generation Housing System Flex Court Yoshida, https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/259487/1/trav erse_2_29.pdf Maartje ter Veen, De inclusieve stad – Nomen is omen – https://www.Archined.nl 2019 Femke Vink, An Investigation into the Development of the Spatial Concept of the In-Between Space in the Netherlands and Japan in the 20th Century, https://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/ uuid%3A51d81c1b-f6e3-4284-ba5a-30a7780d3f2c Jacob Voorthuis, Een genereuze stad, http://www.voorthuis.net Jacob Voorthuis, Een genereus denken, http://www.voorthuis.net Marjoleine de Vos, Pieter Hoexum: ‘Als alles kan, dan heeft niets meer betekenis’ https://www.nrc.nl/ nieuws/2021/06/13/als-alles-kan-dan-heeft-niets-meer-betekenis-a4047131 Osaka Gas experimental housing NEXT 21, https://www.osakagas.co.jp/company/efforts/next21/about/ https://medium.com/iamacamera/house-na-by-sou-fujimoto-25a75839025a
Acknowledgments Mentor Laurens-Jan ten Kate Commission members: Ira Koers Yukiko Nezu Thank you for the continued support and guidance that you have given me during this project. Not only for letting me dig, but helping me to find my path. External commission members: Rob Hootsmans Henri Borduin Studio Elmo Vermijs Dirk Overduin & the other fellow studio members Thank you for the help and the times in-between the models. Family Eise Clason Leanne Clason For the endless hours, listening, debating, helping gluing and reading. Morgane de Klerk Thank you for being my partner on this long journey and still want to join on architecture safaris. This would not have been possible without your support.
early in-between protoype model
Ivo Clason Architect
+31 0610379815 Studio Derde Kostverlorenkade 34 1054 MB Amsterdam The Netherlands
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