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010 Publishers

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IESSOMS fOl SIYDlNlS IN U CHIIHfUU

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HERMAN HERTZBERGER

010 PUB LI SHERS, ROTTERDAM

LESSONS FOR STUDENTS IN ARCHITECTURE

Thil book reR:Is the material discussed in Hertzberger's lectures on architecture at De/It Technical Universily from 1973 on, ancl contains elaborated versia!IS al the lecture notes previously published as 'Het openbare rijk' {Public Domain) 1982, 'Rvimle maken, ruimte Iaten' (Making Space, Leaving SpoceJ 1984, and 'Uitnodigencle vorm' /Inviting Form} 1988.

c.,.,pilarin by loilo Gho;t, Moriek~ c VI ijrnen Tronslotion from rM Dujch by lno Me Co.,... design by Pool Gerardo, H ... rlen !look dosi9n by Reinour Melrzet, Rorterdam Printed by G.J. Thitmt o. Niimegt~

e 199 1 Hermon Hertzbee Nethtrlcnds (Www,OlOpublo;.S..I!.nll 1993 S.Ccnd rovisod odi~on 1998 Thild revi .. cl edlh.on 200 I Fo.nh revised edmon

ISBN 90 6450 A6A 4

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It is Jn vitobl thot the wor you do as an orchJtect shoufd serve O$ the po1nt of cleparlure cr your t~chrng, .ancJ obvjoully e b.$f oy lo explain what you ha lo soy is o do 5o .on he bosij of prac: icol experie c : ~ at, indeed, is the common fhte

CONTENTS A Public Domain

1 Public and Private 12

2 Ierritorinl Claims lA

3 Territorial D;Hecenhation 20

4 Territorial Zoning 22

5 From User to Dweller 28

6 The 'lfl:betwecn' 32

7 Private Claims on Public Space 40

8 Public Works Concept 44

9 Ibe Street 48

I 0 The Public Domain 64

l l Public Space os Constructed Environment 68

12 Public Accessibility of Private Space 7 4

I Maklns Spoce, Leavins Spate

1 Structure and lnterprelolion 92

2 form and Interpretation 94

3 Stucture as a Generative Spine: Warp and Weft 108

4 Gridiron 122

5 Building Order 126

6 functionality, Flexibllity and Polyvalence 146

7 Form and Users: the Space of Form 150

8 Making Space, leaving Spoce 152

9 Incentives 164

I 0 form m on ;n,trument 170

C lnvltlns Form

1 The Habitable Space between Things 176

2 Place and Articulation 190

3 View 1 202

4 View II 2 !6

S View Ill 226

6 Equivaleoce 246

Biography and Projects 268

Refersnce< 270

Mater~al com diettos autor~ !:1

PUB IC OMAIN

10 USSO S FO l SUr S I I.H I I E' U t

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Publk and Private 12

Territorial Claims I 4 Streets and Dwellings, Bolr Public Bur ldings Village of Morbisch, Austria BibHotheque Notionole, Paris I H. Lobrouste Centrool Seheer Office Building, Apeldoorn

T em to ria I Differentiation 20

Territorial Zoning 22 Centrool Beheer OFfice Building, Apeldoorn Faculty of Architecture M.I.T., Cambridge, U.S.A. Montessori School, Delft Vredenburg Music Centre, Utrecht

Froct~ User to Dweller 28 Montessori School, Delft Apollo Schools, Amsterdam

The 'lnbetween' 32 Montessori School. Delft De Overloop, Home for the Elderly, Almere De Drie Hoven, Home lor the Elderly. Amsterdam Documento Urbano Dwellings, Kassel, Germany Cite Napoleon, Paris I M.H. Veugny

Private Claims on Public Space 40 De Drie Hoven, Horne lor the Elderly. Amsterdam Diogoon Dwellings. Delft LiMo Housing, Berlin

Public Works Concept 44 Vroesenloon Housing, Rotterdam I J.H.von den Broek De Drie Hoven, Home lor the Elderly, Amsterdam

9 The Street 48 Hoorlemmer Houlluinen Housing, Amsterdam Spongen Housing, RoHerdom I M. Brinkman Wee$perstrool Student Accommodation, Amsterdam Sihng Prrnciples Royal Crescents, Both, England I J. Wood, J. Nosh Romerstodt, Frankfurt, Germany I E. May Het Gein, Housing, Amersfoort Accessibility of Rats Fomilistere, Guise, france De Dr ie Hoven, Home for the Elderly, Amsterdam Montessori School. Delft Kosboh, Hengelo I P. Blom

10 The Public Domain 64 Polois Royal, Paris Public Square, Vence, France Rockefeller Plaza, New York Piolzo del Compo, Siena, Italy Plaza Mayor, Chinchon, Spain Dionne Spring, Tonnerre, france

11 Public Spoce a Contructed Environment 68 Vichy, France Les Holies, Paris IV. Bohord CommYnity Centres I f . von Klingeren The Eillel Tower, Paris I G. Eilfel Ex.hibition Pavil ions Deportment Stores, Paris Roilwoy Stations Underground Railway Stations

12 Public Acceuibillty of Prlvate Space 14 Passage du Caire, Paris Shopping Arcades Ministery of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro I Le Corbusier Centrool Beheer Office Bui lding, Apeldoorn Vredenburg Music Centre, Utrecht Cineoc Cinema. Amsterdam I J. Duiker Hotel Solvay, Brussels I V. Horta Passage Pommeroye, Nantes, France 'The leHer'. Pieter de Hoogh

II

1 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

The concepts 'pvblk' and 'private' cen be lnr.rpret.d as the translcrtion into spatial t.rms of 'collective' and 'lndividuof'. In a mont absolute tet\M you could JGYl public: an area that l1 acceulble to everyone at all times; responst'bility fof upkeep is held collectively. private: an- whose occesslbl11ty i1 d .... r11ined by a smon group or one per~on, with responsibinty for upkeep.

This extreme opposition between private and public like the opposition between collective and individual has resulted in o cliche, and is as unsubrle and false as the supposed opposition between general and specific, objedive and subjective. Such oppositions ore symptoms of the disintegration of primary human relations. Everyone wonts to be accepted, wants to belong, wants to have o place of his or her own. All behaviour in society ot large is indeed role-induced. in which the personality of each individual is affirmed by what others see in him. In our world we experience o polarization between exaggerated individuality on the one hand and exaggerated collectivity on the otfw. Too much emphasis is placed on these two poles, while there is not a single human reloHanship with which we as architects ore concerned thor focuses exclusively on one individual or on one group. nor indeed exclusively on everyone else, or 'the outside world' . It is always a question of people and groups in their interrelationship and mutual commitment, i.e. it is always a question of collective and individual vis 6 vis each other.

17 LISSOH 101 SJUmllll ll l MIIHlVll

'Wenn ober der lndividvoli~mus nur einen Teil des Menschen erfout so erfosst der Kolle~livismus nur den Menschen ols Teil: zur Gonzheil des Menschen, zvm Menschen ols Gonzes dringen beide nicht vor. Der lndividvalismus sieht den Menschen nvr in der Bezogenheit ouf sich selbst, ober der Kolleklivismus sieht den Menschen iiberhoupl nicht, er sieht nur die Gesellschoft, Beide tebensonschauungen sind Ergebnisse oder Aeussarungen des gleichen menschlichen lustonds. Dill$er lusland ist dvrch dos Zusomme~~slromen von kosmischer und sozialer Heimlosigkeil, von Weltongst vnd Lebensongst. zu einer Doseinsverfossvng der Einsomkeil gekennzeichnet, wie es sie in diesem Ausman vermutlich noch nie zvvor gegeben hot. Urn sich

'If however individualism comprehends only port of mankind, so collectivism only comprehends mankind as o whole of man, or man os a whole. Individualism perceives man only in his self-orientation, but collectivism does not perceive man at o/1, it relates only to 'society'. Both life views ore the products or expressions of the some human conditions. This stole of a Hairs is characterized by the confluence of cosmic and social homelessness, of o world-anxiety and o life-anxiety which hove probably never existed to this degree before. In an otlempl lo e~ope from the insecurity brought on by his feelings of isolation, mon seelcs refuge in their glorification of individualism. Modern individualism hos on imoginory basis. This is why il is doomed, for the imagination is unable to deal factually with a given situation. Modern collectivism is the lost barrier thai man has erected lo protect him from his encounter with himself ... in collectivism it surrenders because it waives the claim ro immediacy of personal decision and responsibility. In neither case is it capable of effecting o breakthrough to the other; only between real people con o real relationship el(ist. There is no other alternative here thon the rebellion of the individual for the sake of the liberation of the relotion~hip. t con see looming on the horizon, slowly like all proce~~es of the true human history, o great discontent. People will no longer rise up a~ they did in the post against a certain prevailing trend in favour of a different trend, but against the false realization of a great striving, the striving after communality, for the sake of the true realization. People will fig hi against distortion and for pu1ity. The first step must be the destruction of a Folse alternative, of the alternative: 'individvolism 01 collectivism'. '

The contepts 'public' ond 'private' may be seen ond understood in ...Jative terms as o series of spatial qualities which, differing groduolly, ref.r to o

t l I

2 TERRITORIAL CLAIMS

An open area, room or space may be conceived either as a more or leu private place or as a public area, depending on the degree of accessibility, the form of supervision, who uses it, who takes care of it, and their respective responsibilltles. Your own room is private vis a vis the living room and e.g. the kitchen of the house you live ln. You have a key to your own roam, which you look after yourself. Care and maintenance of the living room and kitchen is basica lly a responsibility shared by those living in the house, a ll of whom have o key to the front door. In o school each classroom ls private vis a vis the communal hall. This hall is in turn like the school as a whole, private vis a vls the street outside.

Snms AND DwELUNGS, BAu t The rooms of many dwellings on Bol1 ore often separately constructed little houses, grouped around o sort ollnner court or yard which may be entered through o gate Once you hove passed this gale you do not hove the feel1ng thai you ore entering the octuol dwelling, although this is In loci the case. The separate dwelling units: kitchen area, sleepmg quarters, and sometimes o deolh-house and birth house, hove o lor greater .nhmocy and they ore less easily occeuible, certainly to o stronger. In this way the actual home comprises o sequence of distinct gradations of occeuibility. Many srreets on Bali constilute the territory ol one extended family. On this street are situated the homes of

14 lESSO S fOI SI58UIS IW UC~II((IU I!

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the different family unit~ which together moke up the extended family. These streets hove on entrance gate, which is often fttted with o low bamboo fence to keep small children ond onimob inside, ond although they ore basically occe~sible to everyone you still tend to feel like on Intruder or ot be~t o visitor Aport from the different nuances in territorial claims, the Balinese distinguish within the public space, temple grounds comprising a series of successive enclosures with clearly marked entrances, lenceopenings or the divided stone gateways fknown os tjondi bentorJ . This temple oreo serves os both street ond playground for the children. Also

'lor the visitor it is accessible o"' o street . ot least when there ore no active religious monifestotion.s going on but even then the visitor feels some reluctance. As o stranger to the ploce you feel honoured to be allowed to enter,

All crter the world you encounter gradations of territorial daims w!tft tfte attendant fHiing of acceuibility. Sometimes tfte degree of accessibility ia a maHer of legislation, bvt often it is uclusiftly a question of convention, which is re.speded by all.

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Other examples ore the nets ond ships being repaired on the quoys tn fishing villages~ porh, ond the Dogan: wool stretched across o village square.

The u&e of public space by residents as if it were 'private' strengthens the u&er's claim to that area in the eyes of others. The extro dimension given to the public space by thi& claim in the form of use for ptivote purpa&e& will be discussed in more detail below, but first we will look at what the consequences af this are for the archited.

BtauorHioue N.t.nONAlE, PAl s 1862-68 I H. LA~ousrt u In the main reading room of the Bibliotheque Nohonole in Paris the individual work-surfaces lacing each other ore separated by o raised middle 'zone'; the lamps in the centre of this ledge provide light for the lour duectly adjoining work-surfaces. This central zone Is obviously more occesstble than the lower, individual work-surfaces, and is clea rly intended lor shored use by tnose seated on both sides.

Cf NTRMt 8EHER OFFICE 8UilDI"'G (lllt; In the early years, before the modern 'clean-desk' trend hod set in, the desks m the offices were fitted wilh ledges which, when the desk.s were placed bock to bock, provided o raised central zone stm ilor to that dividing tne reading tables in the Bibliotheque Notionale in Paris. By this articulation o place is reserved lor those objects snored by several users, such as telephones and potted plants. The space under the ledges provides more private storage space lor each Individual user. Articulation in terms of greater or lesser (public) occenibility con also prove to be useful in the smallest details.

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II IISSO i i lO t SIUllli II HCIIIHitll

Gloss doors beiWeen two equally publ1c and therefore equally accessible spaces for onstonce provode ample visibo ty on both sodes so that collisions con easily be ovooded on o stncrly equal basis Doors without transparent panels will then hove to 9"'8 access to more private, less occcssobfe spaces When such o code is consistently adopted throughout o buoldong it woll be understood rohonolly or intuihve!y by oil the usen of the prem1ses and con thus conlrtbute to clorifyng the concepts 1 underlyng the orgonizotoon of occessibo1tly further clossilicohon con be obtooned by the shape of glou pones, the type of glou sem1tronsporent or opaque, and hall-doors

When, in designing each space and each segment, you are aware of the relevant degree of territorial claim ond the concomitant forms of 'accessibility' with respect to the adjoining spaces, then you con e.xpress these differences in the articulation of form, material, light and colour, and thereby introduce a certain ordering in the design as a whole. This con in turn heighten the awareness of inhabitants and visitors of how the building is composed of diffarent ambiances os for as accessibility is concerned, The degree In which places and spaces ore accessible offers standards for the design. The choice af architectonic motifs, their articulation, form and moterlol ore determlnecd, in port, by the degree of accessibility required for a space.

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The character of each area will depend to a large extent on who determines the furnishing and arrangement of the space, who is in charge, who takes core of it and who iJ or feels responsible for it.

CENTRMl BEIIEE< 0ff'C BUilDING 3C,Jii The surprisrng eHects obloined by the people who work at Centrool Beheer in the way they hod arranged and personalized their office spaces with colours of their own chorce, potted plonl5 ond objects they ere fond of. is not

merely the logical consequence of the foctlhollhe interior finishrng was deliberately leh to the users of the buildrng Although the borenen of the stork. grey inlenor is on obvious Invi tation ro the users to put the finishing touches to their space according to their personal Jostes, this in

31

31 a3

itself is no guarantee thotthey will do so. More i~ needed lor this to happen : to start with, the form of the space itself must offer the opportunities, including basic fittings and attachments etc. , for the users to fill in the spaces according to their personal needs and desires. But beyond that, il is essenliolthotthe liberty to toke personal initiatives should be embedded in the organizational structure of the institution concerned, and this hos much more for-reaching consequences than you might think ol lint sight. For the fundamental question, then, is how much responsibility the top is prepared to

24 IIS\O~S lO R SIUO!MIII K IICH IIIC!Ul!

delegate, i.e. how much responsibility will be given to the individual users ot the lower echelons. It is important to bear in mind that in this case it wos only because the responsibility for the arrangement and finishing of the spaces hod been so explicitly leh to the users that such on exc;eptionol c;ommitment to inve~t love and core on their wo rking environment could come oboul. II was thanks to this that the opportunities offered by the arch itect were in foci seized, with such surprisingly successful results. Wh ile this building was originally erected os o spatial expression of the need foro more human envi ronment (although many people suspected thotlhis might be motivated by staff recruitment considerations), there is at present o tendency to dehumanize, largely owing lo cub in expenditure affecting staff in particular. But ot leosl the building con be said to offer some welcome resistance to this trend, and with any luck il will succeed in holding its own. What is disappointing is that what we thought wos o step towards 0 greater responsibility for the users nos turned out to be just about the lost step that con be token, lor the lime being ol leasl. In 1990, there is not much leh of the imagina tive and colourful decoration of the worlt spaces. The heyd~y of personal expressiveness in the 1970s hos given woy to neatness and arderlines. It seems os if the urge to make o personal statement has faded, ond that people ore more incl ined to conform, nowadays. Perhaps due to the score of rising unemployment in the I 9BOs it is now apparently considered wiser to toke o less extroverted stand in general, and the effects of this ore a lready to be seen in the cool impersonal atmosphere which pervades mosl offices today.

FACUlTY Of ARCHITECME MIT, CAMBRIDGE USA WORKSHOP 1967 l31Jll How much influence users con, in extreme cases, exert on their living or working environment is clearly demonstra-ted by the adjustments to the existing architecture that were mode by students of architecture otthe M.I.T. The student objected to having to work ol drawing-boards arranged in long, stiff rows, all facing the some woy. Using discorded construction materials that were rega rded as left-overs, they constructed the kind of spaces they wonted in which they could work, eol, sleep, ond receive their tutors on their own ground. One would expect each new group ol students to wont to make their own adjustments, but the situation turned oul otherwise. The outcome of the fierce dispute with the local lire prevention authorities that ensued was that a lithe structures would hove to be dismantled unless o full sprink-ler system was installed throughout the oreo. Once this hod been done, the situation ln foci become permanent,

ond the environment, if it still stands today, may be seen os o monument to the enthusiasm of o group of students of orchitechJre. But we should not be surprised if everything is lor will soon be) cleared owoy the bureaucracy of centralistic management is firmly bock in control.

The influence of users can be stimulated, at least if this is done in the right places, I.e. where sufficient involvement may be upeded; and becauae that depend on accenibility, territorial claims, organization of maintenance and division of responaibilities, It is essential for the designer to be fully aware of these foctors in their proper graclotions. In cases where the organizational structure precludes the users from exerting any personal kind of lnRuence on their aurraundings, or when the nature of a particular space is so public that no one will feel inclined to exert any inRuence on it, there is no paint in the architect trying to make pravi1ions of thi kind. However, the architect can still toke advantage of the reorganization that moving into a new building always necessitcites anyway, to try to exert some inRuence on the reappraisal of the division of responsibilities, at least in so far as they concern the physical environment. One thing can lead to another. Simply by putting forward arguments which can reanure the top management that delegating responsibilities for the environme.nt to the users need not necessan1y result in chaos, the architect is in a position where he con contribute to improving matters, and It iJ certainly his duty to at leatt make an attempt in this direction.

MONTESSORI ScHOOL, DELFilll,JSl A ledge obove the door, given extra width so thot objects con be placed on it os in this case between closwoom

ond hall Is more likely to be put to use if it is accessible from the appropriate side, i.e. from inside the closrroom. The shelf above it may creole on oesthelicolly pleasing effect by setting bock the gloss pone, but it is not likely to be put to use.

CENrRAAl BEHER OFFICE BUILDING 11._391 Whereas the office spaces in the Centrool Beheer building, in which each worker has his own private island to work in, are taken core of by the users, no member of the office staff feels directly responsible for the central space of the building. The greenery in this central space is looked after by a special team (cf. Public Works), and the pictures on the wells ore hung there by the ortprovision service. These employees too do their job with greet dedication and core, but there is o striking difference in atmosphere

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between that communal onto ond the indiv1dual work spaces in oil their diversity. At the refreshment counters in th1s centra l space you were served by the some girl every day; the refreshments department wos organized in such a woy thot eoch attendant was ollocated to o spec1fic counter. She felt respons1ble for that counter ond m due course she regarded it os her own domain, and gove it o personal touch. These coffee counters have since been removed, and tidy seals ond coffee d1spensers have been installed in their place. The entire building hos undergone

msos 101 stnws 11 UCk iH CIU H

thorough renovation and cleaning, during which process a Iorge number of adjustments were mode to comply with contemporary workplace requirements.

VUOENIURG MUSIC CENTRE 40 The underlying ideo which proved so successful in Centraol Beheer does not apply to the refreshment counters 1n the Music Centre in Utrecht. The situation there varies considerably from one concert to the next, with different counters being used ond different ottendonls serving the public. Since no special affinity between individual employees and specific work spaces was to be expected here, there wos every reason lor the refreshment oreos to be completed and wholly furnished by the architect. In both buildings Centrool Beheer os well os the Music Centre the rear walls ore fitted with mirrors. In the former, however, they were installed by the stoff, and in the latter they were designed by the architect according to the some overall principles throughout the building. The mirrors on the rear wall enable you to see who is In front of you, behind you and next to you. They recall the theatre paintings of Monel '411, who used mirrors to draw the space into the Rat picture-plane, thus de~ning the space by showing the people in il and how they ore grouped.

The Music Centre hos a competent and dedicated housekeeping staff to look alter the place

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This cannot be said of, lOy, the refreshment cars of the Dutch railways: the attendants constantly switch trains. The only commitment thot these attendants ever hove with respett to the cor in which they work is that they ore under orders to leove the ptoce clean and tidy lor the next shif1. Imagine how different things would be if the some ollendont always worked on the some train. While the reslouronl-cor hos disappeared from Dutch trains ol any role a new form of catering has emerged in air trovel. But the meob served on planes ore more like on imposition on the traveller than o service; they ore served at times thol suit the airline rather than the passenger (os well os being much too expensive, since they ore included in the already high price of the airline ticket).

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S FROM USER TO DWELLER

The ll'anslarion af the concepts 'public' and 'private' in terms of differentiated responsibilities thus makes it easier for the architect to decide in which areas provisions should be made for users/Inhabitants to make their awn contributions to the design of the environment and where this is less relevant. In the organization of a plan, aJ you design it in terms of groundplans and sections and also in the principle of the installations, you can create the conditions for a greater sense of responsibility, and consequently also greater Involvement in the anangement and furnishing of on areo, Thus users become inhabitants.

MONTESSORI SCHOOl, Dnn u~n The classrooms of this school ore conceived os autonomous units, lillie homes os it were, oil situated along the school hall, as a communal street. The teacher, 'mother', of each house decides, together with the children, what the place will look like, ond therefore what kind of atmosphere it will hove. Each classroom also has its own small cloakroom, instead of the usual communal .space for the whole school, which usually means thot all the wollspoce is Ioken up by rows

18 mSO f S fO R SliDE MIS U II(HII!ClUII

of pegs so that it cannot be used for anything else. And if each classroom would hove its own toilet this too would contribute lo improving the children's sense of responsibility (this proposal was turned down by the educational authorities on the groundl thot seporote toilets were needed lor boys ond girls os if they hove them at home too which would require install ing twice os mony). It is quite conceivable lor the children in each doss to keep their 'home' clean, like birds their nest, thereby giving expression to the emotional bond with their doily environment. The Montessori ideo, indeed, comprises so-coiled housekeeping duties lor oil children os port of the doily programme. Thus much emphasis is placed on looking alter the environment, whereby the children's emotional affinity with their surroundings is strengthened. Each child, too, con bring along his own plont to the clawoom, which he or she has to core for. {The awareness of the environment ond the need to look a~er It figures prominently in the Monte,ori concept. Typicol examples are the tradition of working an the floor on special rugs smolltemporory work areas which ore respected by the others and the importance that is attached to tidying things owoy in open cupboards). A further step towards o more personal approach to the children's doily surroundings would be to make it possible to reg ulate the central healing per dowaom. This would heighten the ch ildren 's awareness of the phenomenon of warmth ond the core that goes into keeping worm, os well os making them more a wore of the uses of energy.

A 'safe neJt' familiar surroundings where you know that your thingt are tafe ond where you can concen ll'ote without being disturbed by others is something that each individual nuds os much as each group. Without this there can be no collaboration with others. If you don't have a place that you can col/ your own you don't lcnow where you stand/ There 'on be no adventure without o homebose to return to: everyone nuds some klnd of ne.st to fall bock on.

The domain of o particular group of people should be respected os much os possible by 'outsiders'. That is why there ore certain rish attached to scxalled multifunctional usage. Toke a schoolroom : if it is used lor other purposes outside school hours, e.g. lor neighbourhood activities, all the furniture has to be pushed aside temporarily, and it is evidently not olwoys put bock into its proper place. Under such circumstances ligures modelled in cloy which ore felt out to dry, for instance, con easily be 'accidentally' broken or someone's pencil sharpener turns out to hove vanished into thin air.

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It is important for ch ildren to be able to di1ploy the things they hove mode in, soy, the handwork lesson without fear of their things being destroyed, ond they should be able to leove unfinished work exposed without there being the danger of it being moved or 'tidied owoy' by 'strangers'.

30 LISSONS fOt SJUO!NIS 1 U

Al'OliO ScllOO\S tHO lithe spoce beween closstooms has been used to create porch11ke oreos as'" the Amsterdam Monlessou school, these oreos con se~e as proper workplaces where you con study on your own, 1 e not m rne c owoom but not shut out ether. These places consist of o work-surface w1th liS own hghhng and a bench enclosed by a low wall In order to regulate the contact between classroom and hall as subtly os possible half-doors have been mstolled hole, whose ombiguly con generate the right degree ol openness towards the hall who e offering the requ11ed seclusron from rt, both at the some lme, in each stuoton Here ogo~n we f,nd (os in the Delft school) the gloss showcase contanrng the c ossroom's own m~noolure museum ond dsploy

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The wider significance of the conce19t of inbelween was introduced In Forum 7,19.59 (Lo plus grande realite du seull) crnd Forum 8,19.59 (Das Gestalt gewordene Zwischen: the concretization of the in belween).

The threshold provides the key to the transition and connection between areas with diverpnt territorial claims and, as a place in its own right, it constitutes, essentially, the spatial condition for the meeting and dialogue belween areas of different orders.

32 ussos rot moms t ~ uu ttwm

The value af this concept is most explicit in the threshold 'par excellence', the entnJnce to a home. We are concerned here with the encounter and reconciliation between the flreet on the one hand and a private domain on the other.

The child silting on the step in front of his house is sufficiently for away from his mother to feel independent, to sense the excitement and adventure of the great unknown. Yet ot the some time, silting there on the step which is port ol the street os well os of the home, he feels secure in the knowledge that his mother is nearby. The child feels ol home and otthe some lime in the outside world. This duality exists thanks to the spatial quality of the threshold os o platform in its own right, o place where two worlds overlap, rather than a sharp demarcation.

-

MONrESSORI SCHOOL, DELFT tSl-lj) The entrance to o primary ~chool should be more than o mere opening through which the children ore swallowed up when the lessons begin ond spot out ogoin when they end. It should be o place that oilers some l ind of welcome to the children who come early ond to pupils who don 't wont to go straight home offer schooL Children, too, hove their meetings ond appointments. Low walls that con be sol on ore the least you con offer, o sheltered corner is better, and the best of oil would be o roofed oreo for when it rains. The entrance to o kindergarten is frequented by parents -they soy goodbye to their children there, and wait lor them when school is over for the day. Parents waiting for their children thus hove o ~ne opportunity to get to know each other, and to arrange for the children to play of each others' homes, in short this public space, as o meeting ground lor people with common interests, serves on important social function. As o result of the conversion in 1981 t~ll, this entrance no longer exists.

II S~ IS IS

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De OVEilOOP, HOME FOR THE EtOERlY (11,11) A sheltered area at the front door, the beginning of the 'threshold', i~ the place where you ~oy hello or goodbye to your visi tors, where you stomp the snow off your boots or put up your umbrella. The sheltered entrances to the op011ments that belong to the nursing home De Overloop in Almere ore fitted with benches next to the front doors. The front doors ore located two by two to form o combined porch which, however, is still divided into seporote entrances by o vertical partition projecting from the fo~ode. The hall-doors enable whoever is sitting out~ide to keep contact with the interior of the apartment, so that you con at least hear the phone ring. This entrance zone is evidently regarded as on extension of the home, os is shown by the mots that hove been laid outside. Thanks to the overhang you do not hove to wait in the rain for

34 lESSOI S fOt STUt!US ,. AICM IIICIUII

the door to be opened, while the welcoming gesture of the place gives you the feeling that you hove almost been let in already. You could soy that the bench by the front door is o typically Dutch motif it con be seen on many old paintings, but in our own century Rietveld, lor instance, created the some arrangement, complete with o hall door, in his famous Schroder house. Utrecht 1924 tltt.

DE 0Rif HOVEN, HOM FOi THE EtDfRlY 1" 1 In situations where there might be o need for conlocl between inside and out, for Instance in o home for the elderly where 50me of the residents spend o lot of their lime in the solitude of their own rooms due to diminished mobility, wailing for 50meone to visit them, while other residents outside would also welcome some contact, it is o good ideo to install doors with two sections, so that the upper port con be kepi open while the lower half is dosed. Such 'hoiP doors constitute o distinctly inviting gesture: when half open the door is both open and closed, i.e. it is closed enough to ovoid making the Intentions of those Inside oil too explicit, yet open enough to facilitate casual conversations with passers by, which moy lead to closer contact.

Conc...tization of the threJhold os an inbetwMn means, first and foremost, creating o Mttlng for welcomes ond farewells, ond is therefore the translation Into orchitedonic terms of hospltolity. lesldes, the threshold os o lxlilt focility is just os lmpot1ont for sodol contocts os thick walls are for

pnvacy. Condition for privacy and conclltionl for maintaining social contacts with others are equally neceuary. Entrance, porches, and many atfter forms of in betw.e.n spaces provide on opportunity for 'accommodation' between od'tolning worlds. This ldnd of provision give rise to a certoin articulation of the building concerned, which requires both space ond money, without its function being easily demonstrable let alone quantifiable and which Is therefore often very diHicult to o

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necessary screening detracts as little as possible from the spotiol conditions for contact between neighbour~. Incidentally, such expansion of the minimum space required lor 'circulation purposes' proves to attract not only children it also serves os o place for neighbours to

Bv.ldiflg or rig~~ 0 . SteidJe, architect

10

sit and talk. Indeed, in this case the residents also provided the furnishings. In addition to on ordinary front door the dwellings hove o second gloss door which con also be locked and which leads to the ocluol staircase, so that on open entrance-space is obtained. Since this intermediary space between staircase ond front door is interpreted

differen~y by different people i.e. not exclusively as pori of the stairs but equally os on extension of the dwelling it is used by some os on open hallway, into which the atmosphere of the home is allowed to

34 IISSOWS lO t SIIO!II S t3 UC itl!

CITE NAPOlEON, PARIS 1849 I M.H. VEUGNY IIJ.14) Cite Napoleon in Poris, one of the first otlempls, and certainly the most remorkoble, to arrive ot o reasonable solution to the problem of distance between the street ond front door in o multistorey resldentiol building. This interior space, with oil its stairs ond overpasses, reminds one of the multistoreyed buildings in a mountain village. A reasonable amount of light reaches the top floors through the gloss roof. The residents of the upper floors do actually open their windows onto this interior space, ond the presence of polled plants ot least shows that the people core. Even while it did not prove possible in spite of the builders' best intentions to make this interior space [closed off os it is from the street outside! into o truly functional interior street by our standards, when you think of all those gloomy useless stairways that hove been built since 1849 this is indeed o shining example.

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7 PRIVATE CLAI MS ON PUBLIC SPACE The inbetwHn concept is the key to ellminating the sharp divi~lon betwHn a"1!S with diHerent territorial claims. The point is therefore to create intermediary spa

Provided we incorporote the proper spotiol suggestions into our design, the inhobitonts will be more inclined to expand their sphere of Influence outwords to the publk oreo, Even o minor odjustment by way of spotiol articulation of the entronce con be enough to enco.uroge expansion of the personal sphere of Influence, ond thus the quality of public space will be considMObly increosed in the common interet.!.

DtAGOON OwauNGS oa~ll What could be done with the pavements in 'living-streets', if the inhabitants were to be given responsibility lor the space, may be imagined on the basis of the experiment with the pavement in front of the Oiogoon dwellings in Delft. The oreo in front of the dwellings has not been laid out as a front garden; it has simply been paved like on ordinary sidewalk, and hence os pori of the public domain although, strictly speaking, it is not. The areas belonging to the different houses hove not been marked, nor does the layout contain any suggestion of private claims. The paving moleriol consists of the usual concrete tiles, which au tomatically evoke associations with o public rood because sidewolh ore usually paved with

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exactly the some tiles. The inhabitants then start removing some of the tiles to put plants there instead. 'Dessous les paves lo ploge'. The rest of the tiles are left in place wherever o poth to the front door is wonted, or o space to pork the fam ily cor close to the house. Each resident uses the oreo in front of his house according to his own needs ond wishes, taking up os much of the oreo os he requires and leaving the rest as publicly accessible. lithe layout hod started out from the ideo of separate, private oreos, then no doubt everyon/ would hove mode the best of it for his own benefit, but then there would hove been on Irreversibly abrupt division between private and public space, instead of the intermediary zone that hos now evolved: o merging of the strictly private territory of the houses and the public oreo of the ~lreet. In this oreo in-between public and privole, individual and collective claims con overlap, ond resulling conflicts must be

resolved in mutual agreement. It is here that every inhabitant ploys the roles that eJCpress what sort of person he wonls to be, ond therefo re how he wonls others Ia see him. Here, too, it is decided what individual and collective hove to offer eoch other.

PUBll( OOIIIN 41

18

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LIMA HOUSING ll~tl The liMo housing estate is located at one end of o triangular area, the corner of which il marked by o church. The volumes of this church ore very loosely rela ted to the general orchlteclurol alignment. The completion of

building on this triangular island entails leaving the church to stand aport as o detached self.conloined structure. The courtyard it~elf is qu ite unlike the often depressing traditional Berlin courtyard, and is conceived as o public space with six pedestrian access routes, including connections with both the street and the neighbouring courtyard. These pedestrian routes constitute port of the communal open staircases. The c.en tre of the courtyard is marked by the Iorge segmented sondpil, which wol decorated with mosaics along the curved sides by the resident families themselves.

It was not difficult to rouse the enthusiasm of the residents for this project who were keenly interested in the design of the courtyard as it was especially after they hod seen photographs of Goudi 's pork and the Walls Towers. Technical and organizational ossistonce was provided by Akelei Hertzberger, who has undertaken various similar projeds in the post with equally suc.cessful results. At first it was especially the children who contributed their 'tiles', but soon also the adults joined in bringing

along every piece of crockery they could loy their hands on. No architect nowadays would be able to lavish so much a llenlion on a sondpil, nor would thai be necessary, because it con just as well be left to the inhabitants themselves. A beller way of responding to the offered incentive is hard to imagine. But more important still is that it has become their own sand-pit and their own concern: if a fragment of the mosaic lolls off or proves to be too sharp, for instance, something will be done about it without if being necessary to hold special meetings, write officia l letters, or to sue the architect.

A street area with which the inhabitants themselves are involved and where individual marks ore put down for themselves and for each other Is appropriated jointly, and is thus turned into a communal space.

81 u

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8 PUBLIC WORKS CONCEPT

8ijlmermetr HotiJ.ing Estore,

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The point is to give public spaces form in such a way that the local community will feel personally responsible for them, so that each member of the community will contribute in his or her own way to an environment that he or she can relate to and can identify with. It is the great paradox of the collective welfare concept, as it has developed hand in hand with the ideals of socialism, that actually makes people subordinate to the very system that has been set up to li.berate them. The services rendered by the Municipal Public Works departments are felt, by those for whose benefit those departments were created, as an overwhelming abstraction; it is as if the activities of Public Works are an imposition from above, the man in the street feels that they 'have nothing to do with himj and so the system produces a widespread feel ing of alienation.

The public gardens and green belts around the blocks of flats in the new urban neighbourhoods ore the responsibility of the Public Works departments, which do

olllhey con Ia make these areas os oHroclive as possible -within the limits of the allocated budgets- on behalf of the community_ Bul lhe results that ore achieved in this way cannot help being stark, impersonal and uneconomical, compared with what could have been achieved if all the flat-dwellers hod been offered the opportunity of using o small plot of land (even if no bigger than o parking space) lor their own purposes. What has now been collectively denied them could hove become the contribution of each inhabitant Ia the community, while the space itself could hove been used for more intensively if all that per;onollove and core hod been lavished on il. An example of this is to be seen ollhe Fomilistere in Guise, France: o housing project which wos set up on behalf of the Godin stove factory: o working and dwelling community modelled alter the ideas of Fourier. Although it dotes from the nineteenth century, as on example of what con be done it is still of topical interest today.

VROESENlAAN HousiNG, Rom~oAM 1931-34 I lH. VAN DEN 8ROEK i!J,tll Communal amenities con blossom only through the communal elforl on the port of the users_ That must hove been the ideo underlying the communal interior spaces-without fences and partitions that were designed in the twenties and thirties.

PUBltC DOMm 45

tl DE DRIE HOVEN, HOME FOR THE Etoem

responsibility is lost in a stifling hlet'Grchy of answet'Cibility to one's superiors. While there is nothing wrong with the intentions of the Individual link in this Interminable chain of lnterdependendes, they are rendered virtually irrelevant because they are too far removed from those far whose benefrt the whole ayatem was invented in the flr~t place. The rea-n why dty dwellers become outsiders in their own living environment is either that the potential of collective Initiative has been grossly overestimated, or that partkipotion and involvement have been underestimated. The occupants of a house are not really concerned with the space outside their homes, but nor can they really ignore it. Thia opposition leach to alienation from your environment and in 10 far aa your relations with others are influenced by the environment alsa to alienation from your t.llow residents. The mounting degree of control imposed fnlm above is making the world around us increasingly inexorable: and this elicits agreuion, which in tum leads to further tightening of the web of regulations. A vicious circle Is the reault, the lac,k of commitment and the exaggerated fear of chaos have a mutually eualating effed. The incredible deatruction of public property which ia on the rise In the world's major cities can probably particularly be blamed on alienation from the living environment. The fact thot public transport 1helters and public telephones are completely destroyed week In week out Is a truly alarming indichnent of our society as a whole. What is almost as alarming, however, is thcrt this trend and its HCalation is dealt with as if it w- a mere problem of organacrtion: by undertaking perioclical repairs as If they were a question of routine maintenance, and by applying extra relnfarcemenb ('vandalproofing'), the Jituation

appear~ to be accepted as 'just one of those things'. The whole suppreulve aystem of the establiJhed order is geared to avoiding conflicts; to protecting the indlviducrl member~ of the community from incursions by other members of the some community, without the direct involvement of the individuals concerned. This explains why there is such a deep fear of disorder, chaos crnd the unexpected, and why impersonal, 'objective' regulations are always preferred to personal involvement. It seem as if everything must be regulated and q-ntiflable, 10 01 to permit total control; to create the conditionJ in which the suppNulve 1y1tem of order can make us all into lessees instead of coownen, into JUbordinates Instead of portl

9 THE STREET

Amllerdom, wotlets dlwfcr, lheellrle in

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lodoy, bul remember how etomped OJ>d

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looH'Vl for a place in the M>ode.

48 liSSOl S 101 S0DIW IS II ltCI IIlCIO II

Beyond our front door or garden gate begins a world we have little to do with, a world upon which we can exert hardly any influence. There is a growing feeling that the world beyond the front door is a hostile world of vandalism and ogress ion, where we feel threatened rather than at hame.Yet to take this widespread feeling as the point of departure for urban planning would be fatal. Surely it iJ for better to go bock to the optimistic and utopian concept of the 'reconquered street', which we could see so clearly before us less than two decodes ago. In this view, inspired by the postwor existentio listie zest fo.r life (espedolly Provo os for os Holland is concerned) the street is again conceived as what it must have been originally, namely as the place where social contact between local re~idents can be estobli1hed: as o communol livingroom, os it were. And the concept that social relations con even be stimulated by on efficacious application of the architectonic meoM is already to be found in Team X and especially in 'Forum', where, os o central theme, this issue was repeatedly raised. The devaluation of this street concept may be due to

the following foctors: the increcue in motoriud trcrHic and the priority that it is given; the inconsiderate organisation of the acceu areas to the dwellings, in particular that of the fTont doors vis ci vis -h other owing to indire

0

101 100 101

housirtt estates ond in renovation projects ot leolf In Holland. The lnteresb of the pedestrian ore being token Into ~onsiderotion of Ia~, and with the 'woonerf' {residential oreo with severe traffic restrictions and priority ot oil times for pedestrians) deslgnotion os a legol basis he is slowly regaining his rightful place or at least he is no longer treated cu an outlaw. However once the motorists hove been tom.d to behove in a more disciplined fashion, their vehicles ore still sa cumbersome, so Iorge, ond especially 10 numerous, that they toke up more ond more of the publi< space.

HAARLEMMER HOUTIUINEN HOUSING (100.109) The central theme in the Hoorlemmer Houlluinen i~ the street as living space, as elaborated in association with Von Herk and Nagelkerke, the arch itects ol the other side of the street. The decision which hod more Ia do with politics than with lawn-planning - Ia reserve on area of 27 metres up to the railway for 'traffic purposes' obliged us to build ol leosl up lo th is imposed limit of alignment; as a result !here was no room there for bock gardens (which would in foci hove been permanently in the shade anyway).

In sum these unfavourable circumstances- i.e. undesirable orientation and traffic noise . meant that lhi~ north side should definitely accommodate the rear wall, ond so automatically all emphasi~ come to lie on the living-street facing ~outh. This 'living-street' is accessible only to the residents ' own motorcars ond delivery vehicles; due lo the foctlhol it is therefore closed to general motorized troJfic and to its width of 7 metres on unusually narrow profile by modern standards - o situation reminiscent of the old city is created. The necessary street fittings such as light~, bicycle rocks, law

SO USSOKS 101 SIUDIMIS t U C6IIIC IUII

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fencing and public benches ore dispersed in such o way that only o few parked cars ore enough to obstrucl the posse ge of further traffic Trees ore to be planted to form o centre hallway between the two street sections. The structures projecting from the fo~ode~ the exterior staircases and living..room balconies orltculote the prohfe of the street, moki11g it seem less wrde than the 7 metres il meoMes from hous&-lront to house-front. The conseqvence is o zone that provides space for the street-level terraces of the ground-floor dwellings. These pavement gardens with their low surrounding walls ore

no bigger than the lorst-lloor balconies, they could certainly not be any smaller, but the question rises whether they would hove been better if larger As they offer lor less privacy than the livrng-room bolcome.s. one could osk oneself whether the ground-level reSidents ore at o disadvantage but on the other hand the immediate contact with pouers-by and ganerol street activity seems to ba attractive to many people, espeCially when the street regains some of its former communal quality. Strops hove been left open odtormng the pnvote outdoor spaces; the organization of the.se slrips has deliberately been lefl undecided The public works deportment could not resist loyi ng down paving stones in these spaces The inhabitants lor their port ore now already pulling plants there, thus successively oppropriotong th1s basically public oreo.Outch hous1ng construction has troditionolly devoted much oflention to the problems of access to upper storeys, and a greal variety ol solutions hove bl!en developed rn the Netherlands oil aimed ot giving eoch dwelling 1ls own individual front door wtlh maximum actessibility from the street wherever possible. Indeed the solution we hove adopted s srmply another voriohon on this essentially ancient theme the iron

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exterior sloirC0$8$ leod too firsi-Roor landing with the front door of the upper$lorey dwelling; from there the

stoirco~e continue$ inside the building, leoding through the sleeping quarters of the ground-floor dwelling to the dwelling above.

The entrances to the upper dwellings, located on 'public balconies' overlooking the street, do not constitute on obstruction Ia the groundfloor dwellings, but provide the latter with some degree of shelter lor their own entrances. Because the stairs themselves are light ond tronsporent the space underneath is fully utilizable for mai lboxes, bicycles and children's ploy. Considera ble effort went into separating the access areas to the upper dwellings from the garden spaces in front of the ground floor dwellings. This is reflected in the clear definition of residents' responsibilities O$ for os keeping their own access areos clean. The absence of such distinct definihon would undoubtedly result in for leu intensive utilization of the available spoce by the respective inhobitonls.

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The concept of the living-sheet is based on the Ideo that its inhabitants have something in common, that they expe

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W EESPERSTiAAT STUDENT ACCOMMODAfiON 11 12115) The dwelling units for married students on the fourth floor were on inducement to bu ild o gallery-street, which could be seen os o prototype foro livingstreet, free from traffic and with a view of the roohops of the old cily. It is sole there for even the youngest toddlers to ploy out of doors, while their parents con also sit in front of their homes. The example this design was based on was in loci the Spongen complex of 45 years ogo.

One of the problems in gallery-streets is the placement of bedroom windows: if they open onto the gallery there is the disadvantage of insufficient privacy. This situation con be improved by raising the floor of the bedroom, so that those inside can look out of the window over the heads of the people outside, while the window is too high for those oubide to be able to look into the room.

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The building as a whole has since become much less open; and consequently the ga llery street is no longer publicly accessible.

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SiTING PRINCIPlES (I Ill How this works is to be seen, in on elementary form , in the siting principles adopted in some form or other in oil newly constructed housing projects. The demand for more openness ond better sunlight conditions for all dwelling units led, in twentieth-century urban planning, to the abandonment of the hitherto customary perimeter bloc~ siting. That resulted in the loss of the contrast between the quiet seclusion olthe enclosed courtyards ond the bustle and traffic noise of the street outside. The fo~odes giving onto the streets were the fronts (and so the architects concentrated their efforts on them) wh ile the more informal rear fo~odes with their balconies ond clothes-lines- some favoured by their orientation, others quite the opposite was the so-colled living side. This arrangement was superseded by strip siting, with two-fronted dwellings, wh ich created the possibility of positioning all the gardens on the side (diagram a). It is important to reali ze, though, that with this type of layout oil the front doors of one row of houses loo~ out onto the gardens of the next row. So everyone lives on o half-street, os it were, with the spaces between the bloch oil essentially the some instead of

56 IIHOII fOI llUIIliiK U CKilltlUII

alternating between garden space ond street space. lncidenlolly, lhe strip siting principle a llows for the some form of a llotment so long as the orientation is suitable (diagram b) but even if that is not the case it is worth making every eHort to ensure that the fronts of the bloch (i.e. where the front doors ore located) face each other (diagram c). If the entrances of the dwellings face each other everyone looks onto the some communal space you con see the neighbours' children hurrying off to school in the morning (is our clock slow again?).

But ho~ing o full view of your neighbours also encourages inquisitiveness, and so with this type of siting it is even more important than with type c to position windows and front doors vis o vis each other carefully, in such o way that some privacy at least is oHered at each entrance to protect against too much prying. In the case of the traditional so-called dosed housing block scheme, all the gardens and oil the entronces face each other. The garden areas ore therefore different in nature from the street areas.

RoYAl CRESCENTS, BATH, EI'IGtAND 1767 I J. Wooo, J.NASH 111/119) Although certainly not designed with o view to neighbourly interaction, the curved street-walls of the 'crescents' in Both ore particularly in teresting in this respect. Due to the concavity of the curve the houses hove o view of one another. It is the some effect as when you ore

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sitfing in o train and the tracks describe o curve: you con suddenly see o str ing other carriages full of fellow-passengers, whose presence you hod not been owore of. A curved street-wall with the houses in the row overlooking the some oreo thus contributes to the communal nature olthot oreo. While the concave side of o curved wall con encourage the feeling of belonging together, the convex side ot the bock sees to it that the houses turn owoy from each other O$ it were, and this con contribute to the privacy of the gardens. The crescent solution therefore works both ways.

ROMUSTADT, fRANKFURT, GERMANY 1927-28 I E. MAY 1111> m t Ernst May, like his more famous fellow architect Bruno Tout, was among the leading pioneers of German housing construction. The numerous housing schemes he built in Frankfurt in the period 1926-1930 show how keen May's eye was lor the urban details thol con improve living conditions. The lesson he leaches is that the rather dull allotment plans thai usually result from the limited budgets lor social housing con actually be transformed into on excellent living environment in spite of the restricted means, so long os the plans ore worked out with the proper sense of orienlotion and proportion. Of course it is important to realize that the architecture of the dwellings and the design of the surroundings were the responsibility of the some man, who moreover did not make a distinction between architecture and urban planning and therefore succeeded in olluning dwellings and environment to each other is such o way that they bocome complementary ports of a single whole. The Romerstodt housing scheme is situated on o gentle slope by the river Nidda. The parallel streets follow the direction of the valley, end although it might hove been espociolly obvious here, with the terraced streets, to pion the garden consistently on the volley side, it wos docided to make the front doors of the row-houses on either side of the rood face each other. The inequality of the two entrance sides, resulting from the orientation and the (slight) diHerence in level, was compensated for by organizing the street space in such o way that the houses on the side with leu favourably sited gardens would hove o green zone ot the front. A characteristic detail is that the pavement stops short of the lo~ode, leaving o narrow strip bore directly ad joining the north wall. Thi; is on obvious place for plants, and creepers grown up all over the fo~ode, thus softening its starkness.

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HET GE1N, HOUSING 1124 1181 The layout of the housing estate 'Hel Gein' in Amersfoorl is such thollhe emphasis come to lie especially on the quality of the livingstreets. The terrain was divided as much as possible into long straight blocks and parallel streets. AI first sight this yields less rolher than more variety than the conventionolloyoul, but the ideo is that quiet straight streets provide a beHer slarlingpoinl for variations within the allotments. II is like a sytem of warp and weh, as the warp !streets] in a woven piece of cloth constitute a strong Ieven colourless If necessary) structure, while the weft gives the weave its colour. An important requirement, though, is thol the livingslreets be kept as trofficfree as possible. Much attention hos also been paid to the street pro~les; they ore not only essential for the quality of each individual dwelling, but a lso for the woy they interrelate. The fronts, and hence also the front doors of the dwellings, foce each other two by two on either side of the street. The streets hove a south-eosl lo north west orientation, which meons that one side catches more

51 IIHOMS lOt IIUD!m IN uctii( IUI

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I I I II II 1 I I I I I I I I sunlight than the other. That is why the streets ore asymmetrically organized: the parki ng spaces hove been moved to one side of the street the shady side. The other, sunnier side, is largely filled with greenery. The dwellings with f-ront doors on the sunny side and consequently with gardens on the shadier side hove been compensated for this with on extra space j1 .80 m wide) along the front, which con be used to install covered porches, conserva. tories, awnings, or ather individual conveniences. These additions were already supplied by us from the outset in the case of a number of dwellings, which might well serve to stimulate occupants of similar dwellings to follow these examples if they con afford to do so. How this zone is eventually used by everyone concerned will constitute the main source of diversity not as o product of design but rather as on expression of individual choices. Some of the dwell ings, loa, hove roof extensions, and assurances hove also been given that more addi tions will be permitted in o specially appointed zone in the future. The garden sheds ore located either close to the house or in the garden,

depending on sunlight conditions. In the partially shaded gardens, this still mode it possible to create o sunny spot with some shelter. The allotments with a more favourable orientation hove their shed close to the house so that It becomes attractive to construct some kind of connection in the spoce between the two.

ACCfSSIBrtllY Of FlATS pwellings should be as accessible as possible directly from the street, and preferably not too for removed from it, as is ohen the case in multistorey buildings. Whenever, as in the case of Rots, you con only reach your own home indirectly by way of communal halls, elevators, staircases, galleries or arcades, there is the risk of these communal spaces being so anonymous that they discourage informal contacts between residents, and degenerate into a vast no-

mon'~lond . Even if the need foro certain amount of privo cy for eoc:h unit in multistory buildings hos been token into account, people who live neltldoor, above, or under each other, do hove lot to do which each other, while the spoHol conditions for this ore locking. Also in a block of flats it is difficult to know where to welcome friends and where to soy goodbye. Do you accompany them to your front door and leave them to go down the stairs alone, or do you walk them all the way down to where their cor is parked in the parking lot? And what a lot of dragging around with luggage you hove to do to pock the cor when you go on holiday! If your children ore still too small to play outside on their own, the situation is rea lly problematical.

'The fun beg1ns, getting tit. cor onJ lroilor r.arly ' From ANWB Tourist Guide.

In residefltial neighbourhoods we must give the 1treet a llvingroom quality nat only for daytoday inter action but al.10 for more 1pe. OIIHo's po(>llloflly hod surmounted me eorll woveJ of ~tpublcanism. oltd col'le lo o clomo( fn the Jubilees ol I 887 ond I 891, by wltkh lime '"" wo; o much loved ond revered os any mo~tarch In 8rftol1t before ond since. Not

Ill m Ill 13&

Yet it would be o good idea to keep rills kind of imoge at the bodt of your mind as a sort of standard that your design must in principle be capable of meeting. Althouth people in northern countries are not in the habit of taking their meals out of doors, it does happen every now and again, and sa we should see to it that rills is not rendered impossible a priori by the spatial

organi~ation of the p~e. Perhaps people will even be more inclined to put the public space to new uses if the opportunities for doing so are explicitly offered to them. Just as important as the disposition of the residential units vis ci vis eoch other is the fenestration, the place ment of boy windows, bakonies, terraces, landings, doorsteps, porches whether they hove the corred dimensions and how they are spatially organized, i.e. adequately separated but certainly not too much so. It is always a questian of finding the right balance to enable the residents to withdraw into privacy when they want to but also to seek contod with others. Of crucial importance in rills respect is the space around the front door, the piau where the house ends and the living Jtreet b-s.lns. It is what the dwelling and the living-street hove to offer each othe.r tt.ot determines how well or how badly they will batt. be able to function.

FAMJUSTUE, GUISE, fRANCE I 859-83 fl33136) The Fomilislere in Guise in the north of France constitutes a dwelling community established by the Godin stove foe lory a her the utopian ideas of Fourier. The complex com-prises 47 5 dwelling units, divided into three adjoining blocks with inner courtyards, as well as extensive facilities such as o creche, school and laund ry. In the Iorge cover-ed courtyards of the Fomilistere in Guise lhe surrounding dwellings literally constitute the walls. Although the shape of lhe courtyard and the prison-like manner in which the front doors ore situated along the galleries slrikes us today as somewhat primitive, this early 'block of Hots' is still o pre-eminent example of how slreet and dwellings con be complemen-tary. The foci, moreover, that these courtyards ore roofed makes them extra Inviting for communal oclivilies such os those which were apparently held there in the old days, when the housing complex still functioned as o truly collective form of habitation. 'Every attempt to reform work relatioM is doomed to failure unless It is accompanied by the reform of building for the purpose of creating o comfortable environment for the workers, which i5 fully attuned lo their practical need5 as well as to providing acceB to the pleasures of community living which every human being deserves to enjoy.' lA God.n, Soh,hons Sodales, POfis 18941

60 liHOIS fOl SIUIIUS II AHI IlHIDII I I

DE DRtE HOVEN, HOME fOR !liE ElDERLY fi!IHO) In hospitals, homes for the elderly and similar Iorge living communities the restricted mobility of the residents makes it imperative to conceive the pion olmost lilerolly as a

smal~scole city. In the case of De Drie Hoven everything hod to be accessible within a relatively short distance under the some roof, because hardly anyone is capable of leaving the premises without assistance. And thanks to the Iorge size of the home it was possible to realize such o comprehensive programme of amenities that the institution could indeed approximate the nature of o city in that sense, too. The residents accommodate themselves to their environment as if it were o village community.

Strongly influenced by the notion of devolution in the organization, the complex has been divided up into o number ol 'wings', each with its own 'centre'. The differ ent departments come together in the central 'common room'. This disposition of the spaces has resulted in o sequence of open areas which, from a spatial point of view, reflect the sequence: neighbourhood centre, community centre, city centre o composite whole within which each 'clearing ' or open area serves o specific

fundion. Yet this pattern is dominated as it were by the centrol'courlyord', which the residents themselves call the 'village square'. This 'village square ' is not, strictly speaking, bordered by dwelling units, as is literally the case with the roofed courtyards of the Fomilistere in Guise, but as for os usage and social relations ore con-cerned it does constitute the focus of the complex. This is where all activities tha t are organized lor and by the resident community toke place: parties, concerts, theatre and dance performances, fashion shows, markets, choir performances, cord-game evenings, exhibitions and festive meals for special occasions! Something special goes on there almost every doy. This 'village square' is o very free interprelotion of the usual auditorium for special events, which would be unused half the time if it were o separate, less centrally located hall .

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MONTESSORI SCHOOt, DElfT Cl 41,ll!l In the Montessori School the communal hall has been con ceived in sud1 o way thor the hall relates to the classrooms as o street relates to the housel. The spotiol relation be-tween cion-rooms and hall and the shape of the hall were conceived os the 'communollivingroom' ol the schooi.The experience of how this functions in the school con, in turn, serve as a model for what could be realized in o street.

KASBAH, HeNGELO 1973 I P. 6LOM tw.wt No one has been more actively engaged in researching the reciprocity of dwelling ond street-space than Piet Blom. Whereas the Kosboh scheme [..,.Forum 7, 19S9 and F0111m 5, 1960-61) was concerned especially with what the disposition of the dwellings themselves could generate, in the 'urban oreo' created in Hengelo the dwellings do not constitute the walls of the street but rather the 'roof of the

62 l !SSOJS 101 StlOUIS I~ H!flfTHIUtl

city', leaving the Iorge ground.level space underneath for oil communal odivities ond events.However, only incidental use is mode of the exceptional opportunities in terms of space that ore offered here. There is quite o lesson to be learnt here. The dwellings ore too isolated hom the street below they ore, so to speak, turned owoy from it, they lace upwards, and not much of the street con be seen from the windows, while even the entrances ore Indirectly positioned vis 6 vis the street. In that respect the form of the street space, os counterlorm to the dwellings, does not creole the conditions for everyday usage. Besides, this space is probably too Iorge to be filled, because there ore not enough amenities amenities which would hove existed os o matter of course in a self-contained village of the some size. Bul just try to imagine this scheme in lhe hearl of Amsterdam, with o busy mo1ket in the street below!

Thot must hove been the kind of situation thot Piel Blom envisaged when he conceived his design.

Having departed from the h'aditlonal blodt siting principle, archJt.cts have endeavoured, lnspll"td especially by Team X and forum, to invent a stream of new dwelling forms. This ott.n gave rise to spectacular rHults, but whether they fvnction properly is only partiolly dependent on the quality of the dwellings themselves. What is at least as impartont is whether the archJt.ct can find a -y, using the dwellings as his construction material, to form o str..t that functions adequately. The quality of each Is dependent on that of the other: house and str..b ore complementoryl

That the conJtrvcted result Is so often disappointing Is because architects all too often hove a mistoken idea of the way In which the actual street space will be experienced and u1ed in their scheme. Apart from the fact that they tend to rely too heavily on the effectiveness of 1pedfk pravislana (which all too often tum out to be far leu viable than envisaged) the mast common error li11 in the miacalculatian of the ratio between the size of the public space and the number of people that may be expected to use lt. If the street area is too large, too little happens in too few places, and in spite of all the good Intentions to the conh'ary, the consequence is vast 1paces which osaume the nature of a 'desert' simply because they are too empty. Too many proies however well designed would function satisfactorily if only a market were to be held on a sunny Saturday: the klnd of market you con easily conjure up in your imagiiiOiion, but of which in reality there is only-per 100,000 cfwellings. You should really have to test your pion continually for 'population density' by roughly Indica ting the number of people on your blue-print that may be expected to make use of the different areas In varying aituations. ly doing that you will at least get some idea about whether there Is perhaps a surfeit of 1pace far recreation, far inatonce. While vast spaces often appeal to the archltect'a imagination as having a certoin a ir of serenity, it is often doubtful whether the local papulation will feel the same way. For dwellings and buildings In general a wide variety of forms can be devised, so long as the streetspace Is farmed in such a -y that it can serve os a catotydng ogent between the local inhabitants in everyday situations, so that at least the distonce betwHn the indivlduallnhabitanb of the all too often hermetically sealed dwellings is not Increased, but rather that the spatial organi1atian may serve to stim.ulate social interaction and cohesion.

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10 THE PUBliC DOMAIN

Srud.,tmoreh '" Goltro Vi110tro Emonul. Mllon 'With 1/te stu0101 reol educoreon ~OJ rerurned to t,~, Clly and ro tile Jltuls ood

~OJ r~ul lo.ind o 1/eld of rich and dtverJifri UPfJtoc wlrrc~ '' '""'~ mor~ fofmotli>on ict oHeops we ore hmd..J toWOfrl an era n "'h cb

ed.x:ot.on and toto/ tpettnce w U "11"'" corncrdt, tn Nl.lch tile Jci>ool OJ on estobiJirtrl Q/ld' codlod inthruloon no long~t foos ony t&ason lor exts.:t~nce I ftoiT! on ortlcle 'Acholtefll ond.ducolton' by Gioocorlo dt Corio 'n 'Honrotrl Educohon le>rew' 1969}

t47

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If tiM houses are private domains, then the street is the public domain. Paying equal attention to housing ond strMt alike means treating the street not merely as the residual space between housing blocks, but rvther as a fundomentolly complementary element, spatially

64 msos 101 SI UIIUS r UCIIIHIOII

organized with just as much care so that a situation is created in which the street can serve more purposes besides motorized traffic. If the street as a collection of building blocks is basically the expression of the plurality of individual, mostly private, components, the sequence of streets ond squoru as o whole potentially constitutes the space where it should be possible for o dialogue between inhabitants to take place. The street was, originally, the space for actions, revolutions, cele-brations, and throughout history you ca:n follow from one period to the next how architects designed the public space on behalf of the community which they in fact served. So this is a plea for more emphasis on the enhancement of the public domain in order that it might better serve bath to nurture and to reflect social Interaction. With respect to every urban space we should ask ourselves how it functions: for whom, by whom and for what purpose. Are we merely impressed by its sound proportions or does it perhaps al.so serve to stimulate improved relations betwHn people? When a street or square strikes us as beautiful it is not ju.st because the dimensions and proportions a re pleasing but also because of the way it functions within the city as a whole. This need not depend exclusively on the 1patial conditions, although they often help, and obviously these case1 a re interesting as examples for the architect and urban planner.

PAI.AIS ROYAL, PARIS 1780/ J.V.LOUIS 1118, 141,1SOl In 1780 rows of houses with shopping orcodes under neolh were erected on three sides of what wos originally I he garden of the Po lois Royol ln Pori s.T odoy il is one of the most 'sheltered' public spaces in the city, while ot the

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some time serving os on important short-cui from the louvre oreo to the Biblioth6que Notionole. The small oblong pork derives its spotiol quality ond its pleasant atmosphere not only from the sound proportions of the regularly articulated surrounding buildings, but also from the variegated layout with oreos of gross, choirs, benches, sand-pits and on open-oir cole lor the city dwellers to choose from.

PUBliC SouARE, VENCE, fiANCE IIIli In countries with o worm climate the street naturally figures much more prominently in the lives of the people than in countries with o cold climate. Public squares like those in Vence ore to be found in every village and every town in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. In many places tourism has severely eroded the trodltionol woy of life, and hence the original function of public spoces, but nevertheless these spaces ore still eminently suited to communal activities ond perhaps even more so in these changed times, os lor Instance openolr concerts organized lor tourists prove.

ROCKEFEUEl PLAZA, NEW YORK tt17l Rockefeller Plozo in the heart of New York functions even in winter os o sort of urban livingroom, when people from oil over go there to skote on the temporary ic.rink. The skaters show off their prowess to the onlookers, and although there is not ollthot much going on, it con happen that the passers-by experience o certain feeling of togetherness, the kind of feeling which you might expect in o theatre, o church, or in some other place where people gather together, ond which arises here

. spontaneously thanks portly to the spotiol conditions thol hove been created.

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PIAZZA DEl CAMPO, StfNA, ITALY llSSISSI If there is any public space whose enclosed form and exceptional location evokes the impression of on urban living-room it is the Piazza del Compo in Siena. Althougll it is ra ther inward-looking, with Its somewhat stern buildings dominated by the Poloz.zo Communole, its saucer-like hollow with sleep alleys radiating from it stnl unmistakably creates on atmosphere of openness ond light. The sunny side of the pioz:zo is lined with open-air coles which ore full oil year round, especially with tourists

66 l!H4.S I 01 SIIOUI5 I* U ( HIIHIUll

The situation changes completely wllen the Polio dell Controde is held, and all the different neighbourhoods compete with each other in horse races. This annual event, which is both o ceremony and o proper contest, costs o spell on the entire town and its population, and the lovely

shel~shoped space overflows with crowds of people who,

standing along the raised edges, oil hove o good view of the race taking place in the centre.At such times the open-air cafes make way for grandstands, and the windows of every single house with o view of the piazza ore filled to capacity, either with paying spectators. or with friends of the families. And of the eve of the contest 15,000 people dine out in the streets of oil the neighbourhoods.

PlAZA MAYOR, CHINCHON, SPAIN riS6,1Sn In Chinchon, o small town south of Madrid, the central market square is transformed into on arena when the annual corrida is held. This plaza, shaped like a Greek amphitheatre situated in o hollow on the hillside, Is entirely surrounded by buildings, with shops and coles under the arcades below ond dwellings above. All these dwellings hove wooden balconies running from one end of the fot;ode to the other, joinrng up to form o continuous tiered circle facing the square. Whenever o corrido is held the balconies become grandstands, with rows of seals which the residents sell to make some e:dro money. In this way privole dwellings, located in such prominenl and strotegic places in the life of the community, temporarily toke on o public stolus.

0

The way these balconies ore oil constructed along the some principles os on open additional wooden zone cantilevered from the relatively closed lo~odes obviously with this extra publ ic function in mind they draw the spoce together to form o Iorge uni~ed whole resembling the clonicolltolion theatre with its vertically tiered rows of boxes.

DIONNE SPIING, TONtotERlE, fiANCE 11~1 Communal wosh-ploces (or the centrally located water pumps or tops in small rural communities) hove olwoys been o popular meeting-ground lor local inhabitants, where the latest news and gossip is exchanged. Running water and washing-machines hove put on end to this.'Women hove more time lor themselves now', is on argument often heard in defense of modernization. At the famous spring of Tonnerre the place where the water wells up from deep down in the earth was enclosed by o simple circular dam. This solution Intensifies the grandeur of this natural phenomenon, while ot the some time erecting the simple conditions lor o communal wosh-ploce for the people who hoppen to live in the vicinity. We don't make wosh-ploces anymore (cor-washing instollctions don 't count). Are there in foci still places where everyday activities give rise to the need to creole communal focilities in the public oreo, sudt os those that ore still to be found in less prosperous ports of the

world~

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11 PUBLIC SPACE AS CONSTRUCTED ENVIRONMENT

61 IISSO KS fO! SfUOr.l~ I~ AICIIIIOUU

Untlllfle nineteenth century few buildings w.,. public, and even tben not COII\pl.tely JO, The public acceulbility of such buildings OJ chur

lis HAUES, PARIS 1854-66 I v. 6AUARO ti6H6ct The market halls in Paris constituted on indispensable link in the chain ol distribution of goods in the city. o relay-station as it were in o mammoth system, where producer and consumer no longer maintain direct contact with one another. The market halls consisted of vast oreos with spoMools ond o sheltered oreo for loading and unloading. This hub of activity did not foil to leave ils mark on the surrounding neighbourhood: there were, for instance, many ollnight restaura nts, some of which still exist, as o reminder of the old d!lys.

The continuing expansion of scale, especially in transportation of food-stuffs, mode it necessary to move the entire centre elsewhere {to Rungis). The vast steel framed pavilions, once vacated, were demolished in 1971 , in spite of intensive campaigns to prevent this from happening. It is always difficult to fi nd premises to accommodate theatre performances, sports manifestations and other events that ollroct lorge audiences, and these halls would hove served very well for th is purpose. The demolition of these halls ond what they hove been replaced by con indeed be seen as o symbol of the destruction of the public {streell space as on 'arena' of urban life.

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COMMUNITY CENTRES I F. vAN KuNGmN rm1 The community centres designed by Von Klingeren (he coiled them agoras) such as those in Dronten and Eindhoven were ol1empts to assemble under one roof all the activities that toke place in o city centre. It is this kind of setting that generates new social roles and new exchanges which cannot evolve in the new urban areas and neighbourhoods because no one has thought of making the necessary provisions. Due to planning in terms of separately situated bo.xes with separate entrances, rather than in terms of on integrated urban fabric, the 'boxes' tend to hove on adverse effect on the viability of lhe environment as o whole and, porodoxicolly, the beller they fvnclion, the more they detract from the quality of life in the streel. Thus they ore, really, no more than 'artificial' urban centres which owe their existence to the inadequacy of urban provisions and the lock of on oil-encompassing view of the necenory correlation between newly-built residential neighbourhoods and the existing urban core. However interesting these community centres may hove been os o social experiment in the 1960's, it is not surprising tha t, under the present social conditions with so

70 IISSO MS 101 SIUOW S 1 U CIIIU IUtf

much less tolerance and community spirit, they ore no longer in use today. hpeciolly the noise of the activities going on in adjoining spaces was felt to be disturbing, and soon people started to erect walls and other kinds of partitions, thereby undermining the spa tial unity that was fvndomentol to the design.

THE EIFFEl TOWER, PARIS 1889 I G. EIFfEl " " ' The Ei ffel Tower, which was erected lor the World Exhibition. is not only the tourists' symbol of Paris, but also, os originally intended, o monument to the new ideas that hod emerged in the course of the ninsteenth csntury. Here we see, in o more suggestive form than ever before, the concrete expression of social change os manifested in the expansion of scale and the centralization of power, A construction such as the Eillel Tower demonstrates that which becomes possible when innumerable small components, each with its specially ass igned function and place, ore combined in such o way as to form a centrally conceived entity, of which the whole for exc:eeds the sum of the ports. The sub~ety of this feat of engineering becomes comprehensible when you realize that o scale model of the structu