Entrega final

Corrección Final

Planta Baja esc. 1:250

Primera Planta esc. 1:100

Tercera Planta esc. 1:100

Segunda Planta esc. 1:100

Five proposals for five locations

From 20’s to 50’s, the worldwide architecture was influenced by the modern movement and its ideas about internationalization of architecture. These postulates were defended and promulgate by C.I.A.M. congress around the world. But day by day, the society began to realize the real problems of these modern approaches.

However, between 1954 and 1956, a new generation of young and aware architects promoted the tenth C.I.A.M. congress. For that, architects like Aldo Van Eyck, Georges Candilis and Alison and Peter Smithson proposed a new way to understand architecture focused in guaranteeing social relationships, a correct growth of cities, and relationships between buildings and its environments.

Alison and Peter Smithson were the most implied couple. They took part in the writing of the” Doorn Manifesto”, and they made two presentations for the last C.I.A.M. congress. One was a scroll which illustrated their ideas about the concepts of identity, association, cluster and mobility. They illustrated these ideas thinking about the different patterns of growth for city and scales of human associations: House, Street, District and City.

The first case answers to the isolated house. A & P Smithson presented “Borrows Lea Farm”, an earlier project of 1953. They use it as an example of design related with its surrounding environment.

The second case corresponds to the Hamlet, and this design was called the “Village unite”. It is a clear-cut architectural unity of five dwellings. Here, they understood this archetype as an alternative to the standardized suburban houses which ignore the location and the community. It is important to remark the setup of its gardens and the way these open onto main roads and fields.

For the third case, the village, appear the “Fold Houses”. These houses, which may be built in different configurations, are characterised for its massive walls, tow storey high, which serves as a windbreak.

At the next level up, we found the Town. For that, the Smithson couple designed the “Close Houses”. These houses provide a covered passage only for pedestrians based in the distribution in parallel of the different sorts of houses. If they implemented it on a longer scale, they could form a distinct continuous network.

Finally, the “South Facing Terraced Houses” were designed for the city level. These are a twelve-storey residential building which contains one hundred and eighty dwellings. Their typical curved form tries to catch the sun exposure and reduce the shape of the building in the city.

In this way, Alison and Peter Smithson offered a new opposite point of view to the modern movement. Instead of continue the internationalization in architecture, they propose a seriously care about the problems of each location and its environment.

Sources:

Team 10: 1953-81: in search of a utopia of the present

Author: Heuvel,Dirk Van Den