A Dutch idea
It’s hard not to notice an invasion of developer-driven mixed-use residential buildings around Clemson and my hometown of Greenville. Lately, I’ve started counting how many materials the architects used for the facades. Sometimes it’s 5, 6 or even 7 on just one facade not including windows! I’m amazed/horrified at the lack of sensitivity and taste that “architects” express when designing these residential facades. I have often wondered just where this idea of patchwork facades came from and why use it when it would be cheaper to just stick to a minimal amount (2-3) of materials?
Alejandro Zaera-Polo’s essay finally solved this mystery for me. It’s a Dutch idea from the 1990s but for reasons unknown, local architects are still employing it today. (He also explained why Dutch have huge windows on the ground floor allowing passerby to see into their living room- another mystery solved.)
Zaera-Polo summarizes the Dutch version of patchwork facades as an expression of “a fragmented, ideally diverse population brought together under the collective umbrella of a modern, multicultural society.” However, he warns that the idea of individuality expressed in these facades is probably just a mirage and that “it may only encourage residents to act as a conformist, homogenous herd united by an illusion of individualism”.
I would like to think that the patchwork facades built today are an accident, but a developer/architect team could easily see them as a way to identify their product with the millennials’ never-ending search for uniqueness and self-expression- like an architectural brand of individualism. I just wish this idea had stayed in the Netherlands!
GrandMarc Clemson, SC
114 Earle Clemson, SC
Main & Stone, Greenville, SC
South Ridge, Greenville, SC
MDRDV- Silodam
West8- Borneo Sporenburg
I have been noticing this growing trend in the upstate as well, but I am assuming may be a trend in the periphery of any growing metropolitan in the US. I also think along with the idea of individualistic expression, the architects are trying to reduce the massive scale of these developments, and rather than use formal trickery, since the developers are holding them to the maximum square footage per the FAR. Instead the architects mix up the materials of the facade for an appearance of multiple buildings rather than one massive building.
ReplyDeleteCan confirm, this style development is happening internationally.
DeleteYou beat me to this point, I totally agree. This is a trend happening nationally and I find the concept baffling. These types of patch-work facades are an on going trend and in my experience seem to be very popular amongst layman but from an architectural standpoint lack purpose and intrigue.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with Chelsea's point that it may be the architect's last ditch effort to avoid a simple extrude mass (which is what the developer wants), it still feels arbitrary to me. In my experience the appeal of these to layman are often based around the simple equation that (sadly) bright colors = interesting.
That is so interesting that this patchwork facade actually came from somewhere. I always thought it was strange, and someone just made it up. It is sad that even though we were warned of its affects, it still happened anyway.
ReplyDeleteYes, but with lack of craft and cheap materials.
ReplyDelete