Ordinary Architecture

Ordinary Architecture does not produce any performative artificiality.We do exactly that, ordinary architecture, in a perhaps not so ordinary way. The work of Ordinary Architecture can be seen as an attempt at keeping equilibrium within intimacy, the emptiness but infilled, and the architecture in everyday. Often, the work is simply subconsciousness, at the best they make us blurred the everyday qualities which we take for being ordinary in our complex and confused urban environment.

Ordinary Architecture emerged from the studio work and researches conducted at The Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design (Sep 2012 - Feb 2014) as well as other interests pursued concurrently with the Post-professional Degree.

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INTERIM SPACE: THE DEGREES OF ARCHITECTURAL INDETERMINACY

Architectural indeterminacy is related to levels of spatial specificity; it is the refusal to choose a safe and introverted position. It is the degree to which a particular structure is adaptable to evolving demands. Smart users live in a digital era, they demand liberty from rigidly programmed spatial typologies, where they have been forced to use space in a pre-determined way. 

While the great social and scientific preoccupation of the nineteenth century had been the perfection of a causal and deterministic model of a mechanistic world, twentieth-century science experienced a shift toward information and indeterminate systems architecture. A lot of architects have manipulated designed indeterminate space for users who desire to have liberty from pre-determined spaces, but it shows limited plan like empty spaces under the terms of generic. The open generic space has a limitation of usage by user without minimal/ essential program which is designed by architects. For that reasons, architects should figure out the ambiguous boundary between determinacy and indeterminacy. The Interim Space aims to seek out those parameters. 

Contemporary architectural discourse has moved from the creation of controlled determinacy to indeterminacy to fit with the radical changes brought about by digital technology development. The Interim Space goes one step further in defining new architectural possibility within the potential of in-between space.

TURNING VALUES INTO VALUE: THE COMMUNITY AND BUSINESS

In a condition of saturated development, cities do not need to start from scratch, or construct indispensable infrastructure which would disrupt the existing development. Instead, cities could choose to focus on the economy of the existing city, focusing on how to enhance the existing development to make a financial profit. Instead, cities have introduced new developments from scratch in order to create this new system of business, instead of introducing simple enhancements or small changes which would allow the preservation of the environment which already exists. Arguably the most prominent example of this phenomenon is “community planning”. In what are often considered the best models of community planning, city government and its consultants are located top of pyramid as creators, while citizens are in a “lower” field which does not offer them the same financial benefits. Naturally, the number of citizens which are neglected, as well as their living conditions, are getting worse. In fact, in most cases, growing community planning contributes to an ever more imbalanced society, resulting in the planners’ ultimate financial gain, leaving citizens without any recourse. 

Admittedly, the success of community planning is often evaluated on the bases of how evenly the planners are able to distribute an ever-increasing population. The city is painted to look very livable, to undertake new business as a brand. People are attracted to live in a well planned community, so the planners establish extensive environment featuring high-value amenities, and market these amenities in order to establish the city’s global reputation.

More over, when a city is recognized for remarkable community planning, the property values often sky rocket, which sometimes causes enormous problems for the development. For example, according to the Economist rankings, Vancouver is considered to be the most livable city in the world.  However, in addition to being perceived as constellation of successfully planned communities, Vancouver is also exemplary of the problems associated with top-down community planning.  Vancouver’s urban governance policies and planning measures have contributed to dramatically increasing property values, effectively exacerbating the city’s housing affordability crisis for low-to-middle income citizens. 

Note: This project was conducted together with Zhou Fang in the Turning values into value: Architecture and the Community Studio at the Berlage with Reinier de Graaf and Laura Baird during the Fall 2012/2013 Term.

See also:

http://www.theberlage.nl/galleries/projects/details/from_ciam_to_cyberspace

Reinier de Graaf: Architecture and Community 

http://vimeo.com/64876602

From CIAM to Cyberspace: Architecture and the Community