Addressing the scarcity of resources in making:in the light of Adhocism and Critical Regionalism

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Abstract 

Today our world is suffering from the lack of resources to meet the need of its inhabitant’s continuous demand. To meet this demand it is important to look for sustainable mediums or processes to attain the need. Architecture, like any other practices, is struggling with scarcity of resources and the manmade disproportionate distribution of it. In this situation individuals came up with the idea of adhocism. There is another approach in architecture pioneered by Kenneth Frampton, termed as critical regionalism. Thos approach addresses the problems and demands locally and globally with the resources available locally. In the sense of vernacular architecture it strives to counter the placelessness and achieve more humane architecture by addressing its local context, topography, and culture that too has a dialogue with the global stand. It is a progressive approach to design that seeks to mediate between global and local languages of architecture, driven by local forces that ensures optimum use of resources. Thus the intention of this paper is to find out what are the guidelines for making the built form to address the scarcity of resources.

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Overview

Critical Regionalism is an approach to adopt modern architecture, critically, for its universal progressive qualities but at the same time value should be placed on the geographical context of the building. The term Critical Regionalism was coined by Alex Tzonis and Liliane Lefaivre in “The Grid and the Pathway”[1981]. In the essay they address he ambiguity of Critical Regionalism as “Regionalism has dominated architecture in almost all countries at some time during the past two centuries and a half. By way of general definition we can say that it upholds the individual and local architectonic features against more universal and abstract ones. In addition, however, regionalism bears the hallmark of ambiguity. On the one hand, it has been associated with movements of reform and liberation;. . . on the other, it has proved a powerful tool of repression and chauvinism. . . Critical Regionalism is a bridge over which any humanistic architecture of the future must pass.’ [Tzonis and Lefaivre, 1981]

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According to Kenneth Frampton, ‘The fundamental strategy of Critical Regionalism is to mediate the impact of universal civilization with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular place…. It may find its governing inspiration in such things as the range and quality of the local light, or in a tectonic derived from a peculiar structural mode, or in the topography of a given site.’[1981]

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Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this“.  It is a process that generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. It is a very primitive way of thinking. All synthesis has been initially ad hok, even ones that were later refined and perfected. According to Silver and Jencks [1972] adhocism has always been there. As a design approach adhocism starts with everyday improvisation. However this approach is still undeveloped force to address any issue.

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Methodology

The paper explored the essays by Kenneth Frampton’s ‘Towards a Critical regionalism: 6 points for an Architecture of Resistance’ and Silver and Jencks’s ‘Adhocism’ to show how adhocism and Critical regionalism is related in architecture. Examples such as Geoffrey Bawa’s house, the construction of Florance Cathedral’s Dome, Italy by Brunelleschi, slum in Rio de Janeiro, and ‘dontflush.me’ NYC by Leif Percifield to show how adhocism influenced design process in architecture in different aspects. Then Clement’s  gardener concept comes to discuss the overall discussion of the paper.

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“Man is hard to accommodate”

In 1970s environmental theorist Sterling Brubaker analyzed how our relationship changed over time with environment. As we harnessed the nature for food, shelter, producing energy, weapons, technology and so on. And then claimed the right to ‘manage’ the planetary eco system [Borasi, 2007]. Raymond Williams considered ‘nature’ to be ‘perhaps the most complex word in the language’ [Williams, 1983]. Which is now gradually replaced by the word environment [Marx, 2005]. Sterling Brubaker’s conclusion was ‘…..man is hard to accommodate’ [Brubaker, 1972]. It is high time to take care of the resources nature gave us and find out the approaches that are in harmony with nature.

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Lack of resources

According to Frampton, ‘Critical Regionalism necessarily involves a more directly dialectical relation with nature than the more abstract, formal traditions of modern avant-garde architecture allow.’ [1981]. Emphasis, Frampton says, should be on topography, climate, and light; on tectonic form rather than on scenography and should be on the sense of touch rather than visual sense. This practice achieves perfection through trial and error for decades. The whole process is responsive to nature that plays with its topography, light, air, wind flow direction and its cultural context. Its goal is to establish a dialogue between built form and nature that ensures optimum use of energy. Frampton talks about the glazed aperture or masonry façade [or other elements like courtyard, waterbody etc.] emerged in certain climate that provides appropriate ventilation and works as a ubiquitous air conditioner.

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Geoffrey Bawa’s House in Colombo – Sri Lanka, 1959-1970

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In ‘Adhocism’ Silver and Jencks say ‘…adhocism consists of a general and loose approach to a problem rather than a tight and systematic one.’ In 7th Century boat builders used to go to forest to cut ready-made ‘subsystem’ to make sure the optimum use of available resources from trees and combined all these pieces ad hok to make a boat. [Silver and Jencks, 1972]

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Boats from trees. Agents from Royal navy used ah hok system to build boats

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Construction: constrain is good

During the time of Italian Renaissance in 1418 Brunelleschi built the largest masonry building till today. Still, many decades later, no one seemed to have a viable idea of how he build a dome nearly 150 feet across, especially as it would have to start 180 feet above the ground, atop the existing walls. Though the construction system is unknown, it is perceived that he adopted ad hok approach and came up with a new idea to solve it. Thus all other super expensive construction ideas were avoided.

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Florence Cathedral Dome, Italy by Filippo Brunelleschi, 1418

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Alfredo Brillembourg as Director of Urban-Think Tank, after training in New York, Brillembourg returned to Caracas in the early 1990s and saw his city with fresh eyes. "I realized that the formal city couldn't survive without the informal city … in the slums I discovered a whole new social geography … I began rethinking my whole profession, unlearning what I had learned, and then re-focused on adaptation and reuse and using scarcity as a resource."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rochinha slum in Rio de Janeiro in September 2012. Photograph: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters

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Scarcity pushes the limit and achieved the goal.  If scarcity can achieve the goal then the argument is why abundance is considered as utopia all the time? In ‘How Buildings Learn’ Stewart Brand says, ‘Form follows funding. If people have money to spare, they will mess with their building, at minimum to solve the current set of frustrations with the place, at maximum to show off their wealth, on the reasonable theory that money attracts money. A building is not primarily a building, it is primarily a property, and as such, subject to the whims of the market. Commerce drives all before it, especially in cities…’ Lester R. Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, in his ‘Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stressed and a Civilization in Trouble, 1995, argued that the only way of saving a planet stressed by human intervention would be to adopt new behavioral ethics and to follow the path of the eco-economy, in which the throwaway economy will be replaced by a comprehensive reuse/ recycle economy. 

 

 

Asking for help from technology

Technology can be adopted to solve the current issue following adhocism and can be practiced as Critical Regionalism in the long run through trial and error. As an example, DontFlushMe by lpercifield was created to allow NYC residents to help reduce the amount of pollution in the harbor. Some 27 billion gallons of raw sewage is dumped into the harbor every year. This is the largest source of water pollution in New York. This comes from Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) that open when the sewer system is overloaded. The idea is to enable residents to understand when the overflows happen and reduce their wastewater production before and during an overflow event. Custom sensors will be created and placed in key CSO locations throughout the city. The information collected will be available via a wide ranging alert network.   Participants will be able to receive text message alerts to their cell phone, view alerts on a website and via twitter, as well as calling a local phone number for real time updates.    An internet connected lightbulb has also been developed in conjunction with this project. This provides colored light based on the sewer level and can be used in any standard light fixture.

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Prototype using xbee network and arduino

 

Dweller as designer

Architects take it as a challenge and great pride going to different places and working in different culture and climate. They make brilliant project, get s covered by all means of media and then leave. But how they are addressing how the building it performing throughout time.  It never comes in front how the dwellers are using the space or reacting with the maintenance later. According to Borasi, in ‘A paradise of weed’ Gilles Clement’s vision has its parallel in the approach of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who would ‘erase architecture’ and ‘…recommend the gardener’s practice as a model for architects. The gardener is a key figure, who installs himself in the garden, and thus belongs to it, so there is no distance between himself and his subject, the flora and fauna that surround him. The gardener engages engages the process of transforming the environment in a way that is both active and passive: he does nothing to control it, but the garden cease to exist the moment he abandoned it.’ [Borasi, 2007]

 

 

How much a building should not cost

In the design of The National Parliament building in Bangladesh, Louis I Kahn addressed the local culture, construction method and that too inherent the global stand. This building is celebrated word wide and it is considered as a national monument. The construction cost of tis building was 32 million USD in 1982. The buildings consumes so much energy that now the Government has to allocate 2.09 billion USD [2014-15] yearly for its maintenance. Where the national budget for the country in 2014-15 was 2505.06 billion USD. The maintenance cost of this building is 0.08% of this country’s total national budget. My argument is how much a building should be allowed to consume.

 

 

Conclusion

To address the issue of energy three things can be followed. Matter or energy do not get destroyed, they just change their phase.  Reusing or renewing the resources is one of the guideline that can meet the necessity. Also the program of a build environment should be determined based on ethics and function. According to Borasi the relation between human and environment is neither aesthetic nor technological, but rather ethical [Borasi, 2007]. The last one is giving the climate the most priority to follow and act according to it in the design and making process. To put in the words of the manifesto of Philippe Rahm, ‘Form and Function follow[T1]  Climate.’

 

 

Reference

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Alex Tzonis and Liliane Lefaivre, “The Grid and the Pathway, An Introduction to the work of Dimitris and Susana Antonakakis’, Architecture in Greece, 15 [ Athens;1981], p.178

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Frampton, Kenneth (1983). “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance” in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. edited by Hal Foster,Bay Press, Port Townsend

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Borasi, Giovanna, "Environment: Approaches for Tomorrow". Canadian Centre for Architecture. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

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Williams, Raymond. ‘Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society’. New York: Oxford UP, 1976. Print.

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Brubaker, Sterling,’ To Live on Earth; Man and His Environment in Perspective’. New York,New American Library, 1972. Print.

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Leo Marx, ‘The Idea of Naturein America’, in keywords: Nature;for a different kind of Globalization, edNdia Tazi [New York:Other Press, 2005]

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Jencks, Charles., and Nathan Silver. Adhocism: The Case for Improvisation. [1st ed.]. New York: Doubleday, 1972.

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http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-design-lessons-from-slums

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Brand, Stewart. How Buildings Learn: What Happens after They're Built. New York: Penguin, 1995. Print.

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Lester R. Brown, ‘Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stressed and a Civilization in Trouble, 1995.

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Gilles Clement, Le jardin en movement: de LaVallee au parc Andre-Citreon, 1994

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http://www.thedailystar.net/sites/default/files/upload-2014/ads/Budget-2014-2015.pdf