Habraken’s question
In response to ‘Questions that won’t go away’ Habraken
‘We come from a tradition of monument builders, but today we are almost entirely immersed in design for everyday environments. Where we come from is very different from what we do now. The way we see ourselves is a product of the past an is becoming increasingly counter productive.’
Reading Habraken’s article had me asking myself, what I have been doing in architecture school? It seems like everything we make in school ends up being ‘special’ in a way that he says is problematic. Everything cant be special; ’how can everything be special? This question by itself should give us a pause to ask what we are actually doing’.
‘Good architecture, we instinctively believe, is the stone in the midst of running water. The common environment, however, is the running water and change by the way of adaptation over time is essential for its continued existence.’
I though this quote completely summed up his views on the impact of the environment on architecture. Over time, water will even cause erosion which is substantial and inevitable. The built environment should be made to adapt not to last.
Hey Adrianna,
ReplyDeleteI like the poetic discription of "stone and running water" by Habraken, and also agree with the standpoint that built environment should be made to adapt. For a period of time, due to the development of technologies, passive strategies of architectural design has been forgotten for decades. Human believe that they can handle the nature though advanced technologies, such as electrical light, mechnical system, materials with high embodied energy etc. While due to the increasing of crisis, such as energy shortage, natural disasters, sustainability and resilience are back to vision. And fortunately, more and more passive strategies have been discovered and invented, which can be used into the practice.