era | Working Together
How can we work together to achieve the best outcomes for everyone?
Collaborative Implementation of Design Processes between Architect and Builder-Occupier Communities
Context and Significance
‘Decisions are [sometimes] made by people remote from the consequences of the decisions.
Architects make decisions about people whose faces they have never seen.
Developers make decisions about land where they have never smelled the grass. Engineers make decisions about columns, which they will never touch, or paint or lean against …
The construction workers who nail the boards and lay the bricks have no power of decision at all over the details which they build.
The children who are going to play between the houses have no power of decision at all over even the sandpits where they are going to play.’ [Alexander, 1985]
Although this is not always the case for every situation, it can ring true for some.
Architecture has traditionally been perceived as a specialist and elitist service for the wealthy, and yet the total number of dwellings that are produced with professional guidance may account for fewer than one in ten worldwide. [Oliver, 2003]
By far, the majority of dwellings in the world have and will be built by the occupants themselves.
Slowly, attributes of the “vernacular” architecture of builder-occupier communities are being recognised by the professional architectural body. [Rudofsky, 1964; Mitchell, 1998; Oliver, 2003] As a result, the qualities inherent to each community in producing a dwelling are gradually being recognised by representatives of the other.
In turn, the benefits for combining the skills and knowledge possessed by each have been identified and realised by some individuals and groups who attempt to improve the lifestyle of the end occupant through a combined architectural interpretation. ‘As yet there is no clearly defined and specialised discipline for the study of dwellings ..’ and written documentation on the collaboration between professional architect and builder occupier are thin. [Oliver, 2003] But this relationship is increasingly being recognised as beneficial to each party.
Egyptian architect, Hassan Fathy is probably most renowned, not for the work he has produced, but in his collaboration of skills and knowledge with local people in rural Egypt. [Oliver, 2003; Fathy, 1973] Christopher Alexander has also attempted collaborative efforts in creating dwellings in California, USA [Alexander, 1985]. While even more recently, David Week leads his Assai practice in discovering culturally appropriate architectural solutions in Australia and South East Asian countries [http://www.assai.com.au/] through the use of in-house systems based on the interpretation of abstract hermeneutics to everyday concepts understood in architectural practice. [Week, 2001]
Lifestyle
Lifestyle is region specific: dependent upon the context of the physical, social and spiritual world of each particular region. ‘Dwelling is both process and artefact: it is the experience of living at a specific location and it’s the physical expression of doing so.’ [Oliver, 2003] A dwelling is the quintessential interpretation of a people, place and time and as such is a cultural representation of lifestyle.
Architects and builder-occupiers tend to lead separate lifestyles: professionals generally originate in “developed” environments, currently of the capitalist western world, while builder-occupiers are more likely to be resident in developing nations, often in the tropical zone of equilateral regions.
Jorg Vereeke’s National Report on Indigenous Peoples and Development in Guyana noted that communities ‘are too poor to assist in a sustainable way ..[and] without funds provide by donor agencies, it is impossible for them to maintain local structure ..’ [Vereeke, 1994]
Such trends lead to financial, educational and cultural disparity between the two parties when a collaborative effort is made to conjoin forces for mutual benefit.
Although there is great potential for a collaboration to benefit both parties, the result, despite efforts made, can have the potential to fail in both a physical and social sense.
While completing a cultural centre in Noumea, Renzo Piano commented that ‘A mistaken concept of universality would have led [him] to apply [his] mental categories of history and progress outside the context in which they developed, a grave error.’ [Oliver, 2003; Blaser, 2001]
Cases such as this and projects completed by Fathy, Alexander and Week, reflect the current trend in changing attitudes towards approaching architectural design processes: by adopting site specific, culturally appropriate and sustainable solutions in collaboration with the end user. [Bouman, 2002; Davey, 2000; Elizabeth and Adams, 2000; Stagno, 1999]
As a professional specialist, the architect has a responsibility to investigate and institute measures to not only implement such projects, but also to ensure their success.
In this case, how can architects best service builder-occupier communities in order to most effectively create a collaborative effort to achieve a resultant dwelling which more than satisfies the needs, and improves the current lifestyle, of the occupant?
Approach
The historical progress, roles, techniques, methodology and processes for producing dwellings in each environment could be addressed with reference to defining the most effective patterns with which to achieve collaborative and positive outcomes for all parties involved.
The conditions of each environment and the commonalities could be sought to connect the unfamiliar concept of an idea with a familiar medium. ‘If derivations are taken from already “known” material, an "explanatory" system which uses these derivations, will prove to 'interconnect previously unknown or unappreciated factors in relevant ways.’ [Groat and Wang, 2002] Graphic images could accompany these where required to support written documentation. As a result of the logical argumentation presented, a succinct conclusion could be reached.
Literature
Alexander, Christopher [1985] The Production of Houses New York: Oxford University Press
‘Decisions are made by people remote from the consequences of the decisions. Architects make decisions about people whose faces they have never seen. Developers make decisions about land where they have never smelled the grass. Engineers make decisions about columns which they will never touch, or paint or lean against. Government authorities make decisions about roads and sewers without having any human connection at all to the place for which they are making these decisions. The construction workers who nail the boards and lay the bricks have no power of decision at all over the details which they build. The children who are going to play between the houses have no power of decision at all over even the sandpits where they are going to play.’
Primary Source
Blaser, Werner [2001] Renzo Piano Centre Kanak: Cultural Centre for the Kanak People Boston: Birkhauser Verlag
‘Only an attitude that is made conscious can promote knowledge and education. “Living within the present is the essential sense of our work. Because we only serve what’s to come if we indeed realise the present. In the search for the spiritual order in architecture, traditional values become important – here for example with the understanding of the tradition of the Kanak.”
Secondary Source
Bouman, Ole [2002 #4] Archis: The Architectural Dimension of Culture
‘When the contours of a national architectural policy were being drawn up .. there was a concept that was served up as a panacea for the over rationalised building industry: the cultural dimension of architecture.’
Links architecture and culture: the relevance of society to the built environment and whether architecture has provided anything in return for the culture it ‘borrows’ from the create itself.
Secondary Source
Davey, Peter [October 2002 #1268] Architectural Review: In Context
‘Buildings.. will be necessarily responsive to climate and local resources of technology, materials and labour. They will vary greatly according to location and culture
Secondary Source
Elizabeth, Lynne and Adams, Cassandra [2000] Alternative Construction: Contemporary Natural Building Methods New York: John Wiley & Sons
‘Bringing ecological building technologies to another country, bridging cultural gulfs and foreign languages, is full of obvious as well as hidden pitfalls. First, there are the challenges of constructing in a new place – finding materials, modifying designs, communicating with the building crew, and dealing withlocal authorities … Most developing countries are anxious to modernise. In many places, a community has given up sustainable Indigenous building methods in favour of “western” concrete, wood frame and steel at great expense to their natural environment, culture and standard of living. A return to local materials can be associated with a return to poverty. In order to take root, sustainable building techniques must be proven to be clearly superior – less expensive, more bueatiful, warmer, cooler or easier to build.
But changing attitudes takes more than hard evidence; it requires give and take, a localisation of designs and methods, a dialogue between respected collegues. Introducing a new technology is never a one-way process.’
Primary Source
Fathy, Hassan [1973] Architecture for the Poor Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press
‘.. we sought shade in a nearby madyafa. But inside the loggia of this madyafa there was such a cool and refreshing draught that we immediately looked to see why. The loggia was built with its back to the prevailing wind, and opened downwind. In the back wall and high up were pierced two rows of small openings, facing the wind. Now in common architecture practice one would always have the bigger opening facing the wind, if the object were to catch as much breeze as possible. Yet in fact this madyafa was cunningly arranged according to the best precepts of aerodynamics. As my brother explained to me later, a loggia opening to leeward, with only small openings to windward, will have steady airflow through it because the airflow over and round it creates low pressure within it, so air is pulled in a steady stream through the small openings. A loggia with a large opening to windward, on the other hand, with no openings or only a small one to leeward, will soon fill up with air, so that fresh air passes over the loggia instead of through it, leaving the inside air stale.’
Primary Source
Groat, Linda and Wang, David Architectural Research Methods John Wiley and Sons
Describes varying methodology for undertaking forms of research investigation and is specifically targeted towards the discipline of architecture.
Primary Source
Henfrey, Thomas [unknown] Investigation of the potential for the utilisation of traditional ecological knowledge in the development of community-based resource management and conservation strategies in Guyanese Amerindian Communities, with particular reference to human-animal interactions. University of Kent at Canterbury APFT Programme
‘It is proposed to undertake a two-year programme of research which will investigate the potential for using the traditional ecological knowledge of Amerindian peoples in the design of local programmes for the conservation and management of natural resources.’
Secondary Source
Human Ecology, Environmental Management and Education: Report of the Caribbean Seminar, Georgetown, Guyana 11th – 15th February 1991, The Commonwealth Human Ecology Council: London
'.. sustainable development is biologically and society based. The main elements of sustainability were identified as minimal wastage; non-overexploitation; non-scientific methodologies/cultures .. Several aspects of socio-economic and environmental importance were identified, these included: food; culture; tourism; livelihood; tropical forest resources; environmental management ecology; potential pollution problems; rural migration.'
Secondary Source
Knox, Paul and Marston, Sallie A [1998] Places and Regions in Global Context: Human Geography Prentice Hall Incorporated
‘.. places are not just distinctive outcomes of geographical process; they are part of that processes themselves. Think of any neighbourhood, its distinctive mix of buildings and its people .. There is thus a continuous two-way process in which people create and modify places while at the same tie being influenced by the settings in which they live and work.’
Relates Human behaviour and habits to the physical environment.
Secondary Source
Mitchell, Maurice [1998] The Lemonade Stand: Exploring the unfamiliar by building large scale models Centre For Alternative Technology Wales
‘Academics have struggled to codify the influences on built form that they are able to measure. They hope that by enumerating these influences they will be able to identify the most appropriate building form for any given environment. Research into appropriate building techniques for developing countries has focused on the strength, durability and cost of building materials such as stabilised earth blocks and fibre-cement roofing tiles. Mathematical and computer models have been developed to predict the influence of economy and climate on the choice of materials and preferred building shapes. Nevertheless built form, particularly house form, defies prediction. Dwellings constructed at the same time by different people in the same climatic zone with the same access to materials and finance, can be as different as chalk and cheese.
This difference becomes obvious when we accept that the choice of building technology is made as much on the basis of an individual’s or society’s unpredictable subjective response as on measurable statistics such as strength, durability or cost.’
Primary Source
Oliver, Paul [2003] Dwellings: The Vernacular House World-Wide Phaidon Press
‘The architecture by the people represents in excess of 90 per cent of the world’s buildings. Dwellings is about the types and forms of vernacular houses built around the world, traditional buildings that self-built by their owner-occupiers or built by members of a community, from many countries … a record of domestic buildings by Indigenous groups that still exist and thrive in the world today, as well as others that are sadly under threat or disappearing. It is also a useful survey for understanding how different communities cope with issues that affect everyone who builds: climate, migration, as well as symbolic or cultural meaning in architecture.’
Primary Source
Prussin, Labelle [1995] African Nomadic Architecture: Space, Place and Gender Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press and The National Museum of African Art
‘In addition to pointing out the effects of wind, rain, diurnal temperature differentials, and seasonal change on vernacular architecture .. the choice of building materials is traceable to climate and geological formation.
..
In architectural terms, structure, form, and space are absolute. Roofs and walls will either stand up or fall down in response to winds and roof loads. They will be constructed of available resources, in response to land surfaces and relief, to light and shadow, to temperature, humidity and evaporation, to radiation, in order to satisfy the thermal, physical, social, and psychological requirements that contribute to the character not only of a particular material culture but of a culture at large.
..
It is .. no accident that the structural complexity (and artistic virtuosity) of critical architectural elements reflect this particular wind pattern; that the sturdiest and heaviest artefacts are located on the side of the prevailing winds; that beds and the weight of people on them, which contribute to the structural reinforcement of the windward side, are located precisely in response to the wind resistance.’
Secondary Source
Rudofsky, Bernard [1964] Architecture Without Architects: a short introduction to non-pedigreed architecture New York: The Museum of Modern Art
Secondary Source
Stagno, Bruno [1999] An Architect in the Tropics Asia design Forum Publications
‘When we look east and west from our home viewpoint, across the tropical belt, we discover surprising similarities in architectural solutions. This belt, despite being multi-national and m,ulti-cultural, is consistently characterised by the fact that concrete and imaginary realities co-exist there and share an alternating hegemony, by way of a constant game of surprises and perplexities that provokes unwanted results .. a correct interpretation of latitude, and more specifically of tropical latitude, not only gives expression to the architectural language but also [assures] its coherent adaptation tot eh environment.’
Secondary Source
Week, David [2001] PRACTICAL HERMENEUTICS: WD-40 in the Architect’s Toolkit Architectural Theory Review Vol 6 no. 2
‘What evolutionary dynamics teaches us is that there is no inherent direction to evolution. Evolution is pure dynamic play.’
Primary Source
Vereecke, Jorg [1994] National Report on Indigenous Peoples and Development Guyana: United Nations Development Program
‘.. the community is too poor to assist in a sustainable way. The only item they can bring in a project is labour. Without funds provided by donor agencies, it is impossible for them to maintain local structure and if they have ideas how to overcome a problem, they have to ask permission to the higher government levels. In many cases the initiative dies a silent death, because of different agenda’s, notions of time and realities.’
Secondary Source
Primary Source
Australian and Torres Strait Islander Commission http://www.atsic.gov.au
National Indigenous Housing Principles
Primary Source
It is such a fascinating topic with so much potential for collaborative efforts for the future.
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