#generic architecture

[bazaretcathedrale]

L’Oasis, Centre Commercial d'acosta, Aubergenville, Yvelines

photo : Florian Bérenguer, 2015

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C&A, Centre Commercial de Flins, Flins-sur-Seine, Yvelines

photo : Florian Bérenguer, 2015

[normalarchitecture]

MUSEUM OF CAPITALISM COMPETITION: THE BIG BOX

The Big Box is a proposal for a museum stripped bare of any monumentality, identity or even character. This banal building is an embodiment of total anonymity, maximum efficiency and pure speculation - in short the key characteristics of capitalism. It is big. It is a-contextual. It is expandable. It is repeatable.It is not beautiful and it doesn’t try to be. It is architecture reduced to it’s bare essence, the provision and demarcation of empty space. Here the act of designing is denied any aesthetic role but put in the service of ensuring efficiency and achieving maximum space, in which anything (or nothing) can take place.

Typology of Capitalism The Big Box is inspired by the contemporary big box buildings which are big, generic,warehouse-like structures accommodating disparate and often interchangeable functions such as supermarkets and distribution centers.From the suburbs of America to the logistic hubs of the Euro-Delta to the mega-cities of Asia, these big boxes are now found throughout the world, often along highways on the periphery of urban areas. Through these buildings the invisible flow of capitalism is given physical- albeit temporary - form. Inside the big box, capitalism is reified.

The ubiquity of the big box buildings canbe seen as symptomatic of the homogeneity of the hegemony of capitalism. Despite their immense size, the lack of any qualities associated with architectural aesthetics renders them invisible. Ubiquitous, anonymous - with the exception of color schemes or logos announcing their corporate affiliations - and endlessly repeatable,the generic big box is the ultimate typology of capitalism.

The Big Box as Museum The Big Box is made up of two main components, the perimeter / facade whose presence demarcates the physical limit of the museum and an interior which presents itself as an absence of architecture in favor of emptiness and possibility. With services and supporting facilities concentrated within a linear strip along the perimeter, this empty space could be utilized in its entirety as one big open exhibition space, or it could be subdivided into different strips offering different experiences of capitalism. Within these strips different activities concerned with production of goods and subjectivity could take place simultaneously;film-making, artificial nature, quasi-religious motivational speeches, mini-golf. What is on display are not simply artifacts, but the processes of production. The back of house becomes the front of house. The museum utilizes the idea of flows in a distribution center as the means of circulation and display in a demonstration of assembly line - like efficiency.

The Big Box is not a museum for slow,quiet contemplation. It is immediate. Its intention is to merge the visitors with the flows of capitalism. Its focus is on speed and efficiency. In The Big Box the act of displaying and observing is recast in the mold of production and distribution, the museum as demonstration of pure efficiency, capitalism given form.

*The Big Box was awarded Honorable Mention in the ideas competition for the Museum of Capitalism.

[normalarchitecture]

PR1MA BRICKFIELDS:AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMPETITION 

The brief for the competition called for re-thinking the idea of affordable housing for a site in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur. The main concern of the brief was to keep construction cost at a minimum, to provide units at affordable price,community building, to imbue the development with the concept of transit oriented development and to connect the development with the ongoing Rive of Life project.

Eschewing any notions of a ‘concept’, our project is defined through THE 10 POINTS ON AFFORDABLE ARCHITECTURE, THE COMMUNITY AND TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT

1.    Affordability is approached in our project as a basic architecture; an architecture than abandons formal invention and decorum in favour of compactness and efficiency and yet is an ‘open structure’ able to accommodate changes and individuality.

2.    The proposal is basic in terms of form and in relation to the structural and construction system. The apartment slab and the podium for parking and facilities are based on the same structural division, eliminating the need for transfers. The limitation of the block height to 24 storeys produces a compact block and reduces structural and mechanical cost. 

3.    Our scheme presents two scenarios of affordability: 

-       Immediate affordability: providing the basic units to be purchased at an affordable price.

-       Accommodating life: providing the possibility for homeowners to add to and expand their living units as their range of affordability increases. 

The blocks are designed to be compact with clearly delineated zones of circulation (the street), servant spaces (kitchen, toilets), served spaces (living spaces) and expansion (the shelf). In this sense the design of the blocks could be understood as a framework or a series of platforms to which additional spaces or elements could be added to, contributing to a dynamic testament to the evolution of life. 

4.    The units within the blocks are divided into two storey ‘neighbourhoods’ served by internal ‘streets’ at every two floors. The elimination of circulation not only increases the efficiency of each block but also creates a shared common space, fostering the sense of community within each neighbourhood. 

5.    Communal terraces are accessible from the internal streets, these multi height spaces provides the linkage between neighbourhoods within a block, forming the next level of communal life. 

6.    Each 24 storey block is arranged in pairs flanking a shared facilities deck on top of the parking podium. Together, the two blocks and the podium form the ‘superblock’ community. The two superblocks proposed for the Brickfields site are further linked by a bridge at the facilities level. The superblock can be understood as almost a typology of compact living which could be applied for other PR1MA developments with careful adjustments. 

7.    The superblocks are arranged to act as a gateway to the river, framing the project’s connection to the issues of housing development, communal life, and the River of Life project while addressing the notion of Transit Oriented Development. 

8.    Vehicular circulation on site is limited to a zone along the front perimeter of the site and underneath the superblocks, clearing up most of the site area for pedestrian and bicycle movements. This is especially crucial along the river front, where the River Park provides a direct connection to the River of Life project. 

9.    Pedestrian walkways and bicycle tracks are provided from the nearby Bangsar LRT Station, through the site, towards the River Park. Other amenities include a bus shelter for shuttle buses and a River Pavilion which could serve as a water transport stop in the future. 

10.  The careful positioning and interlinking of units, circulation streets, blocks, facilities, superblocks, the River Park and various methods of pedestrian and vehicular movement creates a cohesive sense of connectivity for all inhabitants. Here, 1000 affordable homes become 1 community.

Conceived as a repeatable typology, the scheme is a demonstration of how an architecture based on efficiency and developed within a set of clear limits could still incorporate subtle but meaningful ideas on the issues of affordable urban housing. Architecture here is employed not in the creation of new forms, nor of iconic images but as a way of thinking and working within the limits of affordability.

This proposal was a collaboration with Abdul Hakim Abdullah and Nurul Alia Ahamad and received the Honorable Mention in the PAM PR1MA Affordable Housing Competition 2016.

[archiveofaffinities]

Cesar Pelli, Cleveland Clinic Building, Cleveland, Ohio

[archiveofaffinities]

PROPOSAL FOR A GENERIC BUILDING 004