Halban, Oman. Since the technocratic hubris in architecture burst in the sixties, the self-image of modern architecture as a morally and culturally superior discipline collapsed, and architects could no longer just be architects, but had to lean on other disciplines as a source of justification for their works. In the seventies, architects had to be accompanied by sociologists for otherwise they would not have survived the dynamics of participation processes that replaced the design of form at that time. In the eighties, there was no way forward without a French philosopher friend who could deconstruct anybodies attempt to compose a holistic form. In the nineties, working together with an artist was de-rigueur. After the turn of the century, the architect’s crutches became more obscure with anybody from ethnographers, geographers all the way to software programmers guiding the way. But now finally, in the last years, the pendulum has swung fully back into engineering. Now we are heavily leaning on climate engineers. Can’t take a step without them, it seems.
Recently, I saw an article, a home story, about an eco house in the Netherlands in which the architect posed not in the living room, but in the technical room. He was hardly able to stand upright in this narrow chamber, crouching in between water tanks, batteries, manifolds, valves and ducts, but seemed to be immensely proud of his achievement: creating the maximal comfortable indoor environment with only the minimum of resources used.
This is a paradigm shift. Technology is back. But this time technology is no longer hailed as such, and not misused as an image of modernism, but has become a tool for modernity. For creating living spaces, comfort zones. Rather than objects and forms.
At the moment we are building an eco house on our campus in Halban, Oman. A small villa with the whole set of so-called active and passive design strategies. While it is still under construction it is fascinating to see that what used t be a mental image during the design process is actually materializing into reality. This, of course, gives every architect a high. But what really counts in the end will be the capacity of the building to create a certain indoor climate. The success will be measured in degrees Celsius and percentage of relative humidity, in kilowatt hours per square meter and year. All of this is invisible. We are creating a building that can be evaluated with eyes closed. The paradigm in architecture has shifted from appearance to performance.Halban, Oman. Since the technocratic hubris in architecture burst in the sixties, the self-image of modern architecture as a morally and culturally superior discipline collapsed, and architects could no longer just be architects, but had to lean on other disciplines as a source of justification for their works. In the seventies, architects had to be accompanied by sociologists for otherwise they would not have survived the dynamics of participation processes that replaced the design of form at that time. In the eighties, there was no way forward without a French philosopher friend who could deconstruct anybodies attempt to compose a holistic form. In the nineties, working together with an artist was de-rigueur. After the turn of the century, the architect’s crutches became more obscure with anybody from ethnographers, geographers all the way to software programmers guiding the way. But now finally, in the last years, the pendulum has swung fully back into engineering. Now we are heavily leaning on climate engineers. Can’t take a step without them, it seems.
Recently, I saw an article, a home story, about an eco house in the Netherlands in which the architect posed not in the living room, but in the technical room. He was hardly able to stand upright in this narrow chamber, crouching in between water tanks, batteries, manifolds, valves and ducts, but seemed to be immensely proud of his achievement: creating the maximal comfortable indoor environment with only the minimum of resources used.
This is a paradigm shift. Technology is back. But this time technology is no longer hailed as such, and not misused as an image of modernism, but has become a tool for modernity. For creating living spaces, comfort zones. Rather than objects and forms.
At the moment we are building an eco house on our campus in Halban, Oman. A small villa with the whole set of so-called active and passive design strategies. While it is still under construction it is fascinating to see that what used t be a mental image during the design process is actually materializing into reality. This, of course, gives every architect a high. But what really counts in the end will be the capacity of the building to create a certain indoor climate. The success will be measured in degrees Celsius and percentage of relative humidity, in kilowatt hours per square meter and year. All of this is invisible. We are creating a building that can be evaluated with eyes closed. The paradigm in architecture has shifted from appearance to performance.