In order to understand further, what construes intimate spaces, I studied the texts written by Juliani Pallasmaa. such as the Eyes of the Skin and The Thinking Hand, in which he describes the intimate relationship that the human body has with architecture through the senses. He describes this through writing, the feel of a polished concrete wall, the fresh smell of large open voids and the echo of one's footsteps on an empty stairwell. He uses the senses as a vehicle in which a space or building can have a bodily relationship with its users. In Space, Place, Memory and Imagination: The Temporal Dimension of Existential Space, he refers to Gaston Bachelard to help define this intimacy. Bachelard achieves this by referencing lighting, the views provided by space and the privacy achieved by such spaces to create an intimacy with the user. "Indeed, in our houses, we have private nooks and corners in which we like to curl up comfortably. To curl up belongs to the phenomenology of the verb to inhabit, and only those who have learned to do so can inhabit with intensity." (Bachelard, 2014). By viewing "intimacy" as a mean of lighting views and privacy it can be useful for architects to enhance the quality of spaces to create a more intimate architecture. However, Pallasmaa is primarily a theorists and is to a certain degree, removed from the practice-based side of architecture. He has limited built projects to use as a means to embody this theory. I found it essential to research what intimacy means to Architectural practitioners with a portfolio of built projects. Dawn Trimble of Trimble architects wrote a blog entitled "intimate spaces" where she gives a more community-focused interpretation of intimate, which ties in with the ethos and framework of Common Ground when compared to the ideologies of Pallasmaa
INTIMATE ARCHITECTURE: THEORISTS VS PRACTITIONERS
“The definition of “intimate” is an adjective that suggests “friendly” and “devoted”. As it relates to three-dimensional space, we can extrapolate that intimate space is a space that is familiar and close to us, dear to us. Built structures of a small scale do not overwhelm us – they welcome and comfort us.” (Trimble, 2012). These differing views as to what and architecture of intimacies means to architectural theorists and architectural practitioners is an interesting concept that I would like to analyse further. Perhaps these two ideologies can be partly combined and function in parallel to create more comprehensive spaces in both the private nooks in the dwellings that Bachelard discusses and in the “friendly” and “devoted” public and semi-public circulation spaces of architectural practitioners.
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REFERENCES
Carlo Scarpa's built projects became a point of focus for replicating a working method. He applied a great deal of thought and effort to the section. Creating an intimacy between the body and the space in which the body is enveloped. He employs a methodology in his schemes in which one architectural decision can provide multiple functions through a series of punctures and extrusions. For example, the stair risers become plinths and stone surfaces in the Olivetti Showroom or the use of the cantilevered platforms shelter for the habitant beneath the "Can Grande" space in Castelvecchio.
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“Scarpa created a new architectural experience for the user, |
However, as intimate and body-focused as Scarpa’s drawings and built projects are, these intimate spaces are episodic rather than sequential and it would be difficult to replicate their sense of special intimacy in a sequence across this cohousing scheme, and even more difficult to extend such a design process into the realm of “ordinary housing”.
My research draws many parallels with the work of Lacaton & Vassal. As architects, they are very interested in the general condition, and therefore, pay particular attention to the economics of building in their design. In their social housing rehabilitation project in Bordeaux, Lacaton & Vassal's attention to existing structures is evident in three modernist residential buildings. It also demonstrates how, with minor alterations, a modernist building's habitability and usability may be dramatically improved, despite the fact that the majority of these structures in Europe have been demolished. They do this by the introduction of a new façade that affords generous winter gardens to each of the dwellings—offering the opportunity for a facade to generate a unique, intimate space between the inhabitants and their dwellings.
Lacaton & Vassal's constructions look uniquely light, although with clearly defined structural frameworks. From afar, even the boundaries appear hazy. The façade’s combination of transparency and translucency reveals the inside life, forming buildings with dynamic and flexible facades that respond to their surroundings. In his book Dentro do Nevoeiro, Guilherme Wisnik presents an intriguing investigation of the clarity of the modern façade. In contrast to Scarpa's work, the winter gardens of the Bordeaux social housing project are represented in a general sense across the building, which comes with a great benefit to the building's residents. However, I would remark that perhaps not every inhabitant of the 530 dwellings required or requested a winter garden. Perhaps they would prefer a window or balcony space? In my opinion, the lack of variety offered by this interactive façade is a shame because it reduces the amount of intimacy and limits the scope of differing relationships the inhabitants of the units can experience with the building. This concern is echoed in several similar schemes, such as the R50 co-housing scheme with its shared balconies between residents on the same floor. I found this scheme informative earlier in my research. I believe that there is a middle ground that can be explored, which lies between what I have derived from the built projects of Scarpa and the housing schemes such as those designed by Lacaton & Vassal. – Specifically, a façade system that creates a special intimate moment that can be replicated and manipulated across the building to create a series of intimacies across all of the architectural scales. |
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LITERATURE
Juliani PallasmaaThe literature that I carried through into my research at the early stages of this investigation had a significant impact on this investigation of scales that portray the building's inhabitant's intimacy with architecture. The text that has been mentioned frequently earlier in this research is The Eyes of the Skin; Architecture and the Senses by Juhani Pallasmaa (1996). The Eyes of the Skin is an elaboration of an essay entitled 'An Architecture of the Seven Senses' published in an issue of Architecture and Urbanism in 1994. It is a beautifully described ideology for an architecture, based less on the sense of vision, but rather relying more on the other senses which flow through the sense of touch.
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Bruno LatourThe logic of Pallasmaa lead me in the direction of Bruno Latour. Latour, famous for his writings of "Actor-Network Theory", wrote many articles regarding the relationship between the human and the nonhuman agent. He highlights the impact a small scale detail or design decision can have on the building, the user or on society at a larger scale. In The Berlin key or how to do words with things, Latour describes vividly his introduction to and fascination with a forced locking key or "Berlin key". While working at the Berlin Social Science Centre shortly before the fall of the Berlin wall, he remarked how such a small object can dictate the behaviour and demeanour of their human carriers. The Berlin Key not only functions as a tool, it assumes all the dignity of a mediator, a social actor, an agent, an active being, which impacts the actions and experiences of the bodies which interact with it. This level of tactility can be introduced to the Common Ground housing project at a detailed scale to achieve an intimacy between the body and the architecture.
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