Dear friends,
For the next three weeks Of Houses will be guest curated by the Canadian architect Adrian Phiffer.
Adrian is the founder of the design practice Office of Adrian Phiffer (www.adrianphiffer.com). Its approach to the practice is rational and irrational, reasonable and unreasonable - a purely creative process. Every decision made is driven by instinct. We like it. We don’t like it. We don’t know. In that way, there are no predefined products. The outcome is completely unknown. And it produces bizarre creatures that we often don’t understand. But it’s different. And authentic.
Adrian Phiffer is originally from Romania. He received his Master of Architecture from University of Architecture and Urbanism “Ion Mincu” in Bucharest, and a Master of Urban Design from University of Toronto. In 2001-2002 he studied at Ecole d’Architecture de Toulouse under a Socrates-Erasmus Scholarship offered by the European Union. He has worked with Baird Sampson Neuert Architects and Moriyama Teshima Architects in Toronto, and with OMA in Rotterdam. In parallel to Office of Adrian Phiffer, he directs The Flat Side of Design and teaches architecture and urbanism at University of Toronto - John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.
For OfHouses Adrian has prepared a very consistent selection of residential projects from Canada, for which he wrote this insightful introduction:
"Upon my arrival in Toronto, back in 2005, I felt a sense of pure disappointment with the city. This city didn’t have as many skyscrapers as I was dreaming. Toronto was not dense. I was quite naïve. It took me a few good years to understand that Toronto, and to some extent all the major Canadian cities, have been engaged in a quiet intensification of the urban fabric through small increments – a densification that doesn’t show off. I consider it to be a much more intelligent and sensitive than the current “condo” mania that has taken over the city.
The first four houses that I would like to present are a brief demonstration of how Canadian architects have tried to address the idea of city building by occupying undesirable lots in the middle of the city. Starting with the Sky Bungalow (Vancouver, 1944!) that aimed to demonstrate how parking lots could become spaces of residential intensification, and continuing with the house of architect Barton Myers (Toronto, 1970) in Yorkville, a desolated area at the time, and with Jacques Rousseau’s Maison Coloniale (Montreal, 1990), a corner building that with its anthropomorphic features resembles a mask; this series ends with Shim Sutcliffe’s Lane House (Toronto, 1993), a delicate incision in an overlooked urban configuration - the back lane.
Of course, when investigating residential architecture in Canada, one cannot avoid also looking at examples that are set in the Canadian landscape. I should say that the next three houses are just a thin overview of this category. Many other examples could have found their place in here as superb examples.
These three houses are fascinating as a collection because, even though each one them seems to showcase a different approach to building in the landscape, fundamentally they are all examples of a confrontational dialogue: architecture vs nature. Either through materials, forms, or ways of positioning on the ground, they project a presence that speaks about the idea of autonomous object in the landscape. Roger Kembel’s Culhane House (North Vancouver, 1974) is an alien presence, both in form and color, in the pristine British Columbia forest. It’s probably the most obvious example. The Pyrch House (Victoria, 1984) by Patkau Architects, developed in a shy postmodern tone, imposes itself over the landscape like a medieval castle claiming an invisible territory. The house meets the ground, the stones in the most brutal way. It simply cuts through in order to make room of the phallic extrusion of the chimneys. The Gaboury’s House (St. Vital, Manitoba, 1968) is a very subversive example; arguably one of the most fascinating building in the nature. The reference to surrounding nature is obvious, the material of the façade is like the bark of the trees around. But because of the extend that it is being used at, basically wrapping all forms of the building, it becomes even more “architectural” than the red plywood in Kembel’s Culhane House.
By no means the selection of the above seven house should be considered ultimate. Personal interests and curiosities have influenced this collection. The viewer is experiencing here something which could be called a tasting session of Canadian residential architecture."
(Cover: Adrian Phiffer, Hannes Gutberlet, Shirin Rohani /// Ceci n’est pas un maison - A new landmark for Aldgate International Competition /// 2010.)
