Any Site Can Be Flat With A Bulldozer

 

“The bulldozing of an irregular topography into a flat site is clearly a technocratic gesture which aspires to a condition of absolute placelessness, whereas the terracing of the same site to receive the stepped form of a building is an engagement in the act of “cultivating” the site.” Kenneth Frampton

I found that this quote hit me to the core. In undergrad I was just stepping my toes into software and felt that with technology we could design on flat surfaces wherever. I mean why not? We do in fact have bulldozers that can flatten any site and allow for massive buildings or buildings as sculptural art pieces. In my opinion one of the major flaws of the Modern movement in architecture was the lack of placelessness in most of the projects built at that time.

Last semester in Professor Dustin Albright’s mass timber studio, I was tasked with designing an elementary school in Forest Acres, Sc where the site had rolling hills in a suburban neighborhood. I could have responded as the modernists did and flatten the site or fill in the cavities and build over it; however, I utilized the slope of the site to push the building down into the site to not tower over the surrounding houses. So in short I agree with the idea in critical regionalism that architects need to respond to topography, context, and the climate.