A Manifesto for Sustainable Design Essay Example for Free

A Manifesto for Sustain commensurate Design EssayThis pronunciamento proposes an ascend to sustainable see that I am fire in exploring during my time studying architecture. The nous of sustainability is a complex one, non without app bent contradictions. This makes it difficult to define in a wholly satisfactory manner. For the purposes of this manifesto I will advert to the definition proposed by Jason McLennan who asserts that sustainable traffic pattern seeks to maximize the quality of the built surroundings, while minimizing or eliminating banish impact to the internal environment. I find this definition particularly useful in the emphasis which it places on quality. By quality, in this context, I mean an approach to building which emphasises not only thoughtful figure of speech but also the careful use of materials these considerations are crucial to achieve sustainable development.Quality as the architect doubting Thomas Sandell says is always sustainable this holds particularly true if we return to the most basic meaning of that adjective long lasting. My manifesto would involve seven basic considerations a structure should be layered, generous, contextual, connected to nature, innovative, stimulating and idealistic. I propose to examine each of these points in turn, aware that they can be gener everyy grouped nether the heading of sensitivity. As I see it, a untoughened approach to architecture is one that fundamentally responds to the issues of site, user and impact, while not excluding other concerns and all this in a way that is considered, thoughtful and restrained. These, then, are the fundamentals of my approach to design.1. LayeredAccording to T.S Eliot, Genuine poetry communicates before it is downstairsstood I accept the same holds true for genuine architecture. It affects us at a pre-conscious level and its impact transcends the immediate, sensory, effects of the building. As I see it, architecture is not a matter of supe rficial effects. Its must transcend that which is little more than eye-catching gimmickry. A good theoretical account of what I would consider a layered design is Erik Gunnar Asplunds timberland Chapel built in 1922 (Fig. 1).Located on the grounds of the Woodland Crematorium in Enskede outside Stockholm, it was built to accommodate the funerals of children. At first, the chapel seems unremarkable in its elemental simplicity as Simon Unwin puts it without pretentions to being anything more than a rudimentary hut in the woods. However, in quiet and copiously suggestive ways, Asplund imbues this seemingly uncomplicated building with a poetic sense of an ancient and never-ending place for burial. As J.R Curtis puts it, this apparently simple chapel was point by underlying mythical themes to do with the transition from life to death, the procession of burial and redemption and the transubstantiation of natural elements such as water and unaccented. in that location were echoes to o of Nordic burial mounds and of Christs route to Calvary.Fig. 1 Erik Gunnar Asplund, Woodland Chapel, 1922One striking aspect can be found in Asplunds sensitive treatment of the theme of resurrection. The idea is usually made explicit through the use of iconography Asplund, however, evokes the notion of rebirth through his use of insidious association. The Chapel, for example, has only one source of light, which comes from above. The eye is therefore drawn upwards, to the heavens. This effect is accentuated by the pervasive darkness of the building.Like Robert Venturi, Asplund opts for richness of meaning rather than clarity of meaning. As a result, his Woodland Chapel has an uplifting rather than a depressing effect. His Chapel becomes an affirmation of life rather than an acceptance of defeat, and this appeals to me very much. It is no surprise to discover that Asplund himself in a 1940 article on his crematorium building in Byggmstaren referred to the Woodland Cemetery, in w hich the Chapel lies, as a scriptural landscape. Whatever else it is, the Bible is a book of hope.2. chivalrousDesign is people Jane JacobsJane Jacobss fundamental commitment to ordinary human beings is something I admire. Generous architecture offers an approach which puts everyday people at the forefront of the design. This is an inclusive architecture which does not limit itself only to the client and/or private users of the building. aught is excluded. An example of this kind of what might be described as generous architecture can be found in Norwegian firm Snhettas Oslo Opera House on the waters of the Oslo Fjord, completed in 2007 (Fig. 2).Fig. 2 Snhetta, Oslo Opera House, 2007Snhetta are concerned with the social dimension of architecture and this design imaginatively reinterprets the traditional opera houses that conventionally limit their public spaces to exterior plazas or grand lobbies, often only accessible during opening hours. What is striking here is that their Oper a House succeeds in giving back to the city a public space. The sloping rooftop becomes a new public rural area a recreation space and viewing platform that you can walk on, sit on, sunbathe on, even snowboard on. As a result anyone, whether interested in Opera or not, can enjoy the space. The building has been called a social democratic monument by founding henchman of Snhetta, Craig Dykers and one can see why.In a recent television interview, Dykers went on to remark There is a sense of being able to place your feet onto the building that gives you a sense of ownership. At a certain point you no longer see the building as an architects building but as your own building This is the kind of architecture which interests me. The fact that this building is sited in the middle of a highly populated area shows what can be done to help people raging a fuller life including those who provoke no focused interest in the Arts. This approach seems particularly relevant as more and more p eople live in cities and comes as a reminder that a city need not be a soulless, inhuman place.3. ContextualAlways design a thing by considering it in its next larger context a leave in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan. Eliel SaarinenArchitecture is inextricably rooted to place. An cognisance of context then, would seem to be a sine qua non but unfortunately this is not always the case. An understanding of the social, historical, environmental, cultural and human qualities of a place is vital to building to best effect. Bycontextual, then, I mean an architecture that is sensitive to the history and memory of the site. This would by no government agency exclude an awareness of the buildings that surround it. I admire Alvar Aalto for his understanding of the importance of relating design to the most significant features of the local site the kind of features that are, as Michael Trencher puts it, any physically self-evident or h istorically and culturally relevant. Aaltos design for the Enso-Gutzeit render in Helsinki, (1959-62), affords a good example of this approach (Fig. 3).Fig. 3 Alvar Aalto, Enso-Gutzeit Headquarters in Helsinki, 1959-62 The site for this building was in the old, Neo-Classical centre of the city and Aalto sought to respond to Engels buildings on the harbour and to the Church on a nearby hill. Arising out of his prise for the site, the exceed of Aaltos office building derives both its horizontal and vertical character from the nearby historical buildings, hence its symmetrical, formal faade.A more recent example of contextually sensitive design is afforded by Grafton Architects proposal for the new Faculty of Economics for the University of Toulouse, still under construction. While envisaging their project, the architects walked from one side of the city to the other, gauging the character of the brick facades, the polygonal towers, the transitions from streets to courts and the und erlying spatial patterns. The resulting design offers a sensitive response to the layered history and comical geography of the site. As founding partner Shelley McNamara has put it, the building weaves into the mesh of the city.4. Connected to NatureStudy nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will neer fail you. rude Lloyd Wright By nature I mean a world predominantly uninterfered with by man. Building in a way that is sensitive to what is natural, its resources and habitats is a key issue in current debates about sustainable design. That verbalise, it is nearly one hundred years since Frank Lloyd Wright offered architectural proposals showing how to live in harmony with the environment. He called this an organic architectureof nature, for nature.Lloyd Wright also understood the connection between nature andwell-being the closer man associated himself with nature, the greater his personal, eldritch and even physical well-being grew and expanded as a direct result of tha t association. It is hard not to agree wholeheartedly with Lloyd Wrights philosophy. As I see it, Architecture must connect to the natural worldnot just in terms of the use of resources or in merely avoiding the negative impact of building on the environmentbut also, as importantly, in terms of what a connection to nature can offer. His design for the Kaufmann Residence at Falling Water provides an obvious example of Lloyd Wrights respect for nature and the natural world (Fig. 4).Fig. 4 Frank Lloyd Wright, Falling Water, 1935At Falling Water, as Neil Levine remarks you do not ask where the house ends and the natural environment begins. This sensitivity is present throughout his oeuvre, so that his buildings often seem to grow out of the environment and never appear at odds with it.5. InnovativeThere is often an assumption that to be truly innovative is to break away from all that went before, to micturate something totally new. I do not agree. As I see it, the most interesting avan t-garde architecture has always been steeped in an understanding of the past times. As T.S Eliot said To be totally original is to be totally bad. Just as every human being comes from parents, so every new idea owes something to what has gone before. While not rejecting the achievements of the past, Le Corbusier understood that new challenges require innovative thinking. He proposed radical ideas to enrich modern living, from private villas to large scale social housing to utopian urban plans.Yet his inexhaustible inventiveness, that heretical habit, driving-force of all his artistic desires was always rooted in an understanding of what had gone before. His 1955 design for the Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, in Ronchamp, (Fig. 5) provides a good example, though it marked a profound change in direction from his earlier works and a move away from standardization and the machine aesthetic adverted to in Towards a new(a) Architecture. J.R Curtis even suggests that a nostalgia for the gia nt ruins of antiquity began increasingly to show itself in Le Corbusiersimaginatively forward thinking work.Fig. 5 Le Corbusier, Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, 1955In a manner similar to the approach of Asplund for his Woodland Chapel, Le Corbusier sought to evoke religious emotions through the play of space, light and form rather than relying on traditional iconography. In my opinion, what particularly makes the building raise is its mixture of old and new, its daringly original design linking with an organic awareness of past forms. Curtis suggests a synthesis of influences from Hadrians Villa to the mud buildings from the Mzab in Algeria, to Dolmens and Cycladic buildings, to the Parthenon itself. Out of an awareness of these sources, Le Corbusier manages to invent a new vocabulary. Other examples of this syncretism mixed with an innovative approach can be found in his designs for the Villa Madrot in Le Prdet, the Pavillon Suisse in Paris and the Duval Facory in Saint Die.The res ult has been described as a wholly new formal idiom and one which owes its impact to the combination of the past and the wholly modern. An interesting contemporary comparison is The Sea Organ, in Zadar Croatia by Nikola Baic, built in 2005. The architect consulted master organ makers and Dalmatian precious stone carvers in his wish to create an experimental installation on the quayside to create a natural musical organ powered by the waves of the sea. Underneath its refined white stone steps are 35 musically tuned tubes, through which the waves create random harmonic sounds. This kind of architecture excites me strikingly innovative, yet sensitively grounded to the history of the site and traditions of the local people.6. StimulativeStimulative architecture, I would define as that which lifts the spirit, making us feel more alive. It surprises and challenges us even as it makes us appreciate more the needs it fulfils. Charles Rennie Mackintoshs design for the Glasgow School of Art affords a good example (Fig. 6). Built in both phases from 1897-1899 and 1907-1909, the School still excites not least by its subtle playfulness. Around every corner the visitor is struck by something unexpected.Fig. 6, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Glasgow School of Art, 1899 On a closer look, a fusion of opposites emerges. Materials range widely and include leaded stained glass, exposed concrete and painted softwood. Their interplay is matched by an unexpected synthesis of light and dark, mass and plane, the old and the new, the solid and the void. As a result, the building imparts what Denys Lasdun calls the brooding air of frozen excitement. The fundamental stress lies in its manipulation of space. It seems to provide an example of what David Brett describes as a kind of poetic workmanship where structure, features, interiors and furnishings become subject to a unifying system of forms, metaphors and unconscious associations.7. IdealisticThis concept ranges widely and includes re spect for people coupled with a hope to advance and uplift. It is the opposite of cynical or purely utilitarian. A building finally is more than something purely functional. It should gravel a spirit and not turn its back on artistic considerations. I would argue that high-mindedness is the underlying principle to all the approaches of the architects above. Even if idealism is a difficult idea to define, it still has a reality and nowhere is it, and conversely the cynical, more obvious than in architecture. The ultimate goal of architecture, said Aalto in 1957,is to create a enlightenment every house, every productof architectureshould be a fruit of our endeavour tobuild an earthly paradise for people. This idea appeals greatly to me and would be one of the basic impulses behind my approach to architecture.ConclusionIn conclusion, the seven points of this manifesto provide an overview of some approaches to sustainable design that I am interested in exploring during my time studying architecture. These basic considerations propose a design that is layered, generous, contextual, connected to nature, innovative, stimulating and idealistic. These approaches can be generally grouped under the idea of sensitivity, that is a respect for people, nature, site andprecedent.Examples of these considerations can be found in the work of architects, both past and present from the timeless profundity of Asplunds Woodland Chapel to the striking innovations of Le Corbusier and more recent examples from Grafton Architects Toulouse Economics Department and Snhettas Oslo Opera House. This is a manifesto for a lasting architecture. The bottom line is that sustainability is not a design aesthetic, as Robert Stern points out it is an ethic, a basic consideration that we have to have as architects designing buildings in 10 years were not going to talk about sustainability anymore, because its going to be built into the core processes of architecture.List of IllustrationsFig. 1 Erik Gunnar Asplund, Woodland Chapel, 1922 (Source http//www.fubiz.net accessed January 12, 2012) Fig. 2 Snhetta, Oslo Opera House, 2007 (Source http//www.mimoa.eu accessed January 12, 2012) Fig. 3 Alvar Aalto, Enso-Gutzeit Headquarters in Helsinki, 1959-62 (Source http//www.fubiz.net accessed January 14, 2012) Fig. 4 Frank Lloyd Wright, Falling Water, 1935 (Source http//www.mimoa.eu accessed January 12, 2012) Fig. 5 Le Corbusier, Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, 1955 (http//farm4.static.flickr.com accessed January 20, 2012)Fig. 6 Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Glasgow School of Art, 1899 (Source http//www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk accessed January 12, 2012)BibliographyAllen, Brooks H. (editor), Le Corbusier Essays, Princeton Princeton University Press, 1987 Anderson, Jane, Architectural Design, London Thames Hudson Press, 2011 http//www.architectural-review.com accessed November 22, 2011http//bigthink.com accessed December 12, 2011Blundell Jones, Peter, Gunnar Asplund, London Phaidon, 1995. B lake, Peter, Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture and Space, London Penguin Books, 1964http//www.blackwoodgallery.ca accessed November 11, 2011Brett, David, C.R Mackintosh The Poetics of Workmanship, Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1992 Brooks, Bruce, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959 Building for Democracy, Hong Kong Taschen, 2006 http//www.coldsplinters.com accessed 22 November, 2011Craig Dykers Interview GRITtv on youtube.com, 12 November, 2011Curtis, William J.R, Modern Architecture Since 1900, London Phaidon, 1996 Eliot, T. S., Dante. in Selected Essays young York Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1950 Elkin, T., McLaren, D. and Hillman, M., Reviving the City towards sustainable urban development, London Friends of the Earth, 1991 Gill, Brendan, Many Masks A Life of Frank Lloyd Wright, stark naked York Putman, 1987 http//www.graftonarchitects.ie accessed October 25, 2011Heinz, Thomas A., The Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright. London Chartwell Books, 2000 Hertzberger, Herman, Space and the A rchitect, Rotterdam 010 Press, 2000 Hoffmann, Donald, Frank Lloyd Wrights Fallingwater The House and Its History, New York capital of Delaware Publications, 1978 Honour, Hugh, A World History of Art, London Laurence King, 2005 http//imodern.com accessed January 22, 2012Jencks, Charles, Le Corbusier and the Continental Revolution in Architecture, New York The Monacelli Press, 2000 Maddex, Diane, Frank Lloyd Wright Inside and Out, London Pavilion, 2002 Middleton, Haydn, Frank Lloyd Wright, New York Heinemann, 2001 McLennan, Jason, The philosophy of Sustainable Design, New York Ecotone Publishing, 2004 Pallasmaa, Juhani, The Eyes of the Skin Architecture and the Senses, Wiley-Academy, 2005 Pearson, Paul David, Alvar Aalto and the International Style, New York Whitney Library of Design, 1978 Quantrill, Malcolm, Finnish Architecture and the Modernist Tradition, London Taylor Francis, 1995 Ray, Nicholas, Alvar Aalto, London Yale University Press. 2005 Ryan, Zoe, Open New Designs for Pub lic Space, New York Princeton Architectural Press, 2004 www.sandellsandberg.se accessed November 22, 2011http//www.spatialagency.net/ accessed November 21, 2011Tempel, Egon, New Finnish Architecture, New York, Washington Frederick A. Praeger, 1968 http//www.treehugger.com accessed November 22, 2011Trencher, Michael, The Alvar Aalto Guide, New York Princeton Architectural Press, 1996 Unwin, Simon, Analysing ArchitectureVenturi, Robert, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture New York Museum of Modern Art Press, 1966 Wolschke-Bulmahn, Joachim, Places of Commemoration, Washington Dumbarton Oaks, 2001 1 . McLennan, Jason, The Philosophy of Sustainable Design, New York Ecotone Publishing, 2004, p.5 2 . www.sandellsandberg.se accessed November 22, 2011 3 . Eliot, T. S., Dante. in Selected Essays New York Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1950, pp. 199-237 4 . Unwin, Simon, Analysing Architecture, p.255 5 . ibidem p. 256 6 . Curtis, William J.R, Modern Architecture Since 1900, London Ph aidon, 1996, p. 113 7 . Wolschke-Bulmahn, Joachim, Places of Commemoration, Washington Dumbarton Oaks, 2001, p.1016 8 . Venturi, Robert, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture New York Museum of Modern Art Press, 1966, p.16 9 . Johansson, pp. 59-60 10 . http//www.blackwoodgallery.ca accessed November 11, 2011 11 . Anderson, Jane, Architectural Design, London Thames Hudson Press, 2011, p. 129 12 . Ryan, Zo, Open New Designs for Public Space, New York Princeton Architectural Press, 2004, p. 28 13 . Ibid. p. 29 14 . Craig Dykers Interview GRITtv on youtube.com, 12 November, 2011 15 . Eliel Saarinen, Time Magazine July 2, 1956 16 . Trencher, Michael, The Alvar Aalto Guide, New York Princeton Architectural Press, 1996, p.34 17 . Quantrill, Malcolm, Finnish Architecture and the Modernist Tradition, London Taylor Francis, 1995, p. 122 18 . Tempel, Egon, New Finnish Architecture, New York, Washington Frederick A. Praeger, 1968, p148 19 . http//www.architectural-review.coma ccessed November 22, 2011 20 . http//www.graftonarchitects.ie accessed October 25, 2011 21 . Middleton, Haydn, Frank Lloyd Wright, New York Heinemann, 2001 22 . Brooks, Bruce, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959 Building for Democracy, Hong Kong Taschen, 2006 p. 12 23 . Ibid. p.