The Typological Response

The Typological Response:

A Discussion of Rossi, Kahn, Scharoun, and the Relevancy of Typology in the 21st Century

The increased scrutiny towards the dispositions of modernism in the second half of the twentieth century brought with it a reemergence of typological discussion as a response and solution to the era’s perceived architectural shortcomings. Much of this critique attempted to define and extract from established, historic architectural conventions.

Aldo Rossi was a strong proponent for this, prescribing the reintroduction of typology as an ‘apparatus’ for connecting history, building and city.1

He, along with his contemporary Louis Kahn, encouraged an idealist, historic-referential position.

Not all architects shared this outlook, however: Hans Scharoun was a prominent advocate for a pragmatic, functionalist methodology. As such, this paper discusses their seemingly contrasting approaches, where it might initially appear that Rossi and Scharoun represent the extremes of an idealist-functionalist spectrum, with Kahn somewhere in between. In actuality, their ideologies demonstrate occasional but significant overlap; subsequently providing a rich portfolio of precedent with which to appraise the typological issue in the twentyfirst century.

“For Rossi, historicism, the modernist critique of history, is an impediment to invention.”2

Critics of modernism frequently lamented its transgressive abandonment of previous styles. As implied here, Rossi saw historical architecture not as an archive for the work of yesteryear; rather, he envisaged how it may be used as a beginning for creation. He provides a pragmatic outlook in proposing that type, though it often appears predetermined, may be manipulated in accordance with circumstantial characteristics.

“Type … [can react] dialectically with technique, function, and style, as well as with both the collective character and the individual moment of the

architectural artefact.”3 Curiously, some of his early buildings echo the machine-aesthetic of International Modernism. This appears to provide the foundation unto which he would begin to establish the typological motifs that would later define his seminal work.

Take, for example, one of his earliest projects – Villa ai Ronchi (Figure 1), a Loos-inspired house built amidst the pine forests of Versilia in 1960.4 The emblematic flat roof, whitewashed exterior and reinforced-concrete construction are all present. Yet the roof itself is fragmented and terraced, hinting at a departure from modernist norm; whilst the windows are uniform in one facade and scattered in another (Figure 2) – still searching for a more ideal form and composition. Rossi elaborates further: “The process of reduction is a necessary, logical operation, and it is impossible to talk about problems of form without this presupposition.”5

With this, a path towards a typological ideal is identified. Again, his earlier works serve as an indication - the section of his iron bridge for the Milan Triennale in 19646 (Figure 3) is a clear abstraction of the Classical porticopediment arrangement (Figure 4); an analogy which can be extended to the Primitive Hut (Figure 5). Consequently, it is one of a number of motifs which become ever-present in his buildings.

These are most explicitly represented at Rossi’s 1968 proposal for the town hall at Scandicci,7 where a collection of his reductive-types are aligned along a principal axis (Figures 6, 7, 8).

The window composition is particularly notable (Figure 7) – where at Versilia it appeared indecisive, here it is structured, ordered, and reduced.

The square indentations in his model become, at Gallaratese a year later,8 the quintessential two-by-two framed window that is near-synonymous with Rossi (Figure 9). This is the reductive process – abstracting the window into

Aldo Rossi and Peter Eisenman, The Architecture of the City (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982), 10.

Ibid., 5.

3 Ibid., 41.

4 Aldo Rossi and Alberto Ferlenga, Aldo Rossi: The Life and Works of an Architect (Cologne: Könemann, 2001), 30.

5 Aldo Rossi and Peter Eisenman, The Architecture of the City (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982), 41.

6 Aldo Rossi and Alberto Ferlenga, Aldo Rossi: The Life and Works of an Architect (Cologne: Könemann, 2001), 35.

7 Ibid., 42-43.

8 Ibid., 46-49.

1 2

Fig. [1]: Villa ai Ronchi

Fig. [2]: Features hint at a departure from orthodox modernism

Fig. [3]: Iron bridge section, Milan Triennale

Fig. [4]: Classical portico-pediment at the Pantheon

Fig. [5]: Charles Eisen’s engraving of The Primitive Hut

Fig. [6]: Symmetrical, axial plan at Scandicci

Fig. [7]: Model of Scandicci. Note the square window indentations to the left

its most ‘natural’ form.

The same treatment is given to the four massive cylindrical columns at Scandicci and Gallaratese. Although distilled into their simplest shape, prominence is never diminished; acting as structure, threshold and “the point of greatest tension in the building.” 9 Rossi’s early work might be construed as somewhat conciliatory, attempting to harmonise “the contradictions of modernist utopia … and humanist reality.”10 It is highly idealistic, both in terms of this claimed aspiration and the actual typological elements used. However, this approach did not consistently generate effective, pleasing architecture. Whilst there is an admirable quality in the formality and rigidity to which type is applied, there is also an inescapable starkness.

This might be appropriate for public institutional buildings such as Scandicci, where the motifs employed all find roots in the great institutes of Ancient Greece and Rome.11 Contrarily, the same features are unseemly when utilised for a building such as a school: Rossi’s example at Fagnano Olona12 employs a symmetrical, axial plan and typical window arrangement (Figure 10) to result in a building which is elegant and dignified; but difficult to imagine as a setting for children to enjoy spending time in.

There appears to be a contradiction between Rossi’s pragmatic statement on type and the resultant idealist outcomes. These are not evident of context-manipulated forms reacting with ‘individual moments’ – rather, they more closely resemble rigidly repeated components often neglecting circumstantial appropriateness. Rafael Moneo, a noted disciple of Rossi’s,13

Fig. [8]: Collection of ‘reductive-types’

Ibid., 46.

Aldo Rossi and Peter Eisenman, The Architecture of the City (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982), 8.

11 Mike Cartwright, “A Visual Glossary of Classical Architecture,” Ancient History Encyclopedia, March 10, 2013, https://www.ancient.eu/article/486/a-visual-glossary-of-classical-architecture/ 12 Aldo Rossi and Alberto Ferlenga, Aldo Rossi: The Life and Works of an Architect (Cologne: Könemann, 2001), 58-61.

13 Rafael Moneo, “Aldo Rossi: The Idea of Architecture and the Modena Cemetery,” trans. Angela Giral, Oppositions 5 (1976): 1-21, MIT Press.

9

10

Fig. [9]: Archetypal windows and columns at Gallaratese

Fig. [10]: Plan, elevation at Fagnano Olona

makes a pertinent point in his 1978 essay On Typology: “The type can thus be thought of as the frame within which change operates… rather than being a ‘frozen mechanism’ to produce architecture.”14

Fig. [11]: Richards Medical Research Buildings

Fig. [12]: Salk Institute

Perhaps Rossi became fixated on his types; veering unintentionally towards a ‘frozen mechanism.’ Regardless, his contemporary in Louis Kahn demonstrated a propensity closer to Moneo’s ‘framework.’ His work, much like Rossi’s, is often considered to feature consistently-used conventions.

Interestingly, Kahn was a precursor to the calls for a historic-referential typology – in establishing his archetypal ‘served and servant’ spaces, he drew upon a range of historic influences: from the poche spaces of Scottish castles15 to the Beaux-Arts tradition of his education.16 It is in Kahn’s varying manifestations of this typology where a key differentiation to Rossi can be made.

At Kahn’s alma mater is “his first building of major importance,”17 the Richards Medical Research Buildings for the University of Pennsylvania (Figure 11). Completed in 1961, it is one of the first examples of his work to explicitly demonstrate his hierarchy of served and servant spaces.18 This is thereby evident in plan (Figure 13), with air ducts, stairs, and other services placed in independent towers adjoining the laboratories. These open, obstructionfree spaces are thus clearly defined as

‘served,’ whilst services are given their rightful place.

However, the building had its limitations. Most notably, scientists were vehemently opposed to its open-plan labs, favouring secrecy; and partitions were subsequently installed.19 Kahn, supposedly “hurt by the scientists’ complaints”20 addresses this in 1965 at the Salk Institute in La Jolla (Figure 12). In a lecture a year after its completion, Kahn explains: “[In the design process] I came to visit the laboratory people who were going to occupy these places, and they were so nervous about the smallest noise… they were so afraid that some other scientist, somewhere not too far away who had no education at all would supersede him in some kind of experimental discovery.”21

Kahn appears to rectify the shortcomings of Richards through rearranging the served and servant spaces,22 which are now distinguished in section rather than plan (Figure 14).

As such, the usage of the adjoining tower can be repeated, though not as a recognition of services; instead, these house separate studies, thereby providing a private space away from the lab.

It is thus evident that amidst his idealism is a pragmatic willingness to adjust trusted conventions. Yet his work remains emblematic of

Rafael Moneo, “On Typology,” Oppositions 13 (1976): 22-45, MIT Press.

Fosco Lucarelli, “Walls as Rooms: British Castles and Louis Kahn,” Socks, 6 April 2012, http://socks-studio.com/2012/04/06/walls-as-rooms-british-castles-and-louiskhan/ 16 Louis Kahn and Robert Twombly, Louis Kahn: Essential Texts (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2003), 10.

17 John Lobell, Between Silence and Light (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1979), 72.

18 Ibid.

19 Robert Gutman, Architecture From the Outside In (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010), 110.

20 Ibid., 111.

21 Louis Kahn and Robert Twombly, Louis Kahn: Essential Texts (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2003), 202.

22 James Steele, Salk Institute (London: Phaidon, 1993), 19-20.

14 15

Fig. [13]: Richards plan. Some ‘servant’ spaces highlighted

Fig. [14]: Salk Institute section. ‘Servant’ spaces highlighted, with private studies labeled (5)

an idealistic whole; questioning modernism’s tendencies whilst striving towards a fundamental architecture. As testament to this, Kahn elected to discuss his Richards Medical Buildings in later years as though the retro-fitted partition walls had not been installed at all,23 suggesting an underlying desire for the purity of his scheme to endure.

Much like Kahn and Rossi, Hans Scharoun challenged the period’s architectural orthodoxies.

Contrastingly, however, he endeavoured for a predominantly functionalist “essential form,” apparently rejecting typology à la Rossi. Peter Blundell Jones, who wrote extensively on Scharoun, implies:

Fig. [15]: Primary School for Darmstadt, 1951 (unbuilt). Ground floor plan

“I now see that the problem of the empty grid relates equally to modern universal ceiling systems and Durand’s universal building types: in both it is the abstract generalisation and lack of specificity that produced such emptiness. From Scharoun I learned first a freedom of design…”24

But Scharoun does not appear to reject typology altogether. A series of schools he designed from 195168 demonstrate a typological, functionalist approach towards the hierarchical articulation of the school’s programme.25 Notably, his basis for this is discernibly idealistic: “Scharoun laid a particular emphasis on the way in which an educational process should gradually integrate the individual into the community, making him socially responsible without repressing his individuality.”26

Commonalities between his schools are thus palpable (Figures 15, 16, 17). There is a sprawling, fragmented freedom to which each building develops; yet, when broken down into their constituent parts a clearly defined hierarchy emerges. Classrooms are clustered in staggered units, with interstitial common spaces to induce sociability amongst students (Figure 18).27 These clusters are optimised for

Fig. [16]: Geschwister Scholl, Lünen, 1958. Ground floor plan

Fig. [17]: School at Marl, 1960. Ground floor plan

Robert Gutman, Architecture From the Outside In (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010), 111.

Peter Blundell Jones, “A Forty Year Encounter with Hans Scharoun” (Commentary, University of Sheffield, 2013), 47-48.

25 Peter Blundell Jones, Hans Scharoun (London: Gordon Fraser, 1978), 15.

26 Ibid., 16.

27 Ibid., 16-18.

23 24

Fig. [18]: Classroom cluster at Marl. ‘Gruppenhalle’ indicates communal space

Fig. [19]: Kindergarten cluster at Darmstadt

Ibid., 17.

Ibid.

30 Rafael Moneo, “On Typology,” Oppositions 13 (1976): 22-45, MIT Press.

31 Ibid., 120.

32 Ibid.

28 29

the perceived needs of the user: for example, at Darmstadt the kindergarten cluster (Figure 19) features intimate, enclosed teaching spaces, as Scharoun believed children must feel “welcome and [protected].”28 The south-facing outdoor area is vast, allowing children ample play space and natural light for optimal “physical and spiritual growth.”29

This is perhaps what Moneo envisioned when he described the “framework within which change operates.”30 Each scheme features constant elements that are altered according to circumstance, demonstrating a functional malleability in a series of buildings that are idiosyncratic and lively, but certainly not conventionally appealing. It is almost antithetical to Rossi’s own school designs; but still with its faults. Much of this can be attributed to its pragmatically-driven plan: at Marl, the fragmented form created a multitude of ‘hidden’ spaces, which were difficult to supervise.31 At Lünen, teachers complained student areas were generated at the expense of staff quarters.32 In general, rooms were considered too small and too defined, lacking flexibility. Thus, there is again the suggestion of an uncompromising position; where Rossi was seemingly unyielding, the same might be said of Scharoun.

It becomes apparent that a typologically-driven design, whether historic-referential or functional, can

Fig. [20]: Model for school at Darmstadt

Fig. [21]: Main entrance, Geschwister School, LĂźnen

Fig. [22]: External view of the school at Marl

be as much a hindrance as it is a freedom. To find a balance between the two is complicated – as architects with the ability of Scharoun, Kahn and Rossi have shown – and therefore, it must be handled carefully and sensitively.

Nevertheless, these approaches still enabled the upheaval of International Modernism in the twentieth-century, and when the movement’s vestiges carried over into the next; so too did typology as a response. In some sense, however, the sensitivity to which the aforementioned architects practiced (regardless of the success of their schemes) seems to have become muddled by others in the twenty-first century.

Herzog and de Meuron’s 2013 Peréz Art Museum in Miami is one such example (Figure 23). It features elements clearly derived from the climactic design of a tropical vernacular33 – possibly the Malay house typology (Figure 25).34 These are partly functional: the raised floor avoids storm surges,35 for instance.

The canopy roof, though, is slatted, permitting rain penetration; whilst the verandah it is typologically intended to protect is mostly beneath the concrete gallery space ‘boxes.’ The roof, as such, may as well be ornamental.

The “boxes” themselves invite a paradoxical juxtaposition (Figure 24).

Tropical vernacular is known for its use of lightweight materials,36 yet the

Fig. [23]: Peréz Art Museum

Fig. [24]: Juxtaposition

Fig. [25]: Climactic design strategies of a typical Malay house

Amy Frearson, “Herzog & de Meuron’s Pérez Art Museum creates new “vernacular” for Miami,” Dezeen, 3 December 2013, https://www.dezeen.com/2013/12/03/herzogde-meuron-perez-art-museum-miami/ 34 A. Ghafar Ahmad, “Malay Vernacular Architecture,” n.d., http://www.hbp.usm.my/conservation/malayvernacular.htm 35 Herzog & de Meuron, “Pérez Art Museum Miami,” Herzog & de Meuron, n.d., https://www.herzogdemeuron.com/index/projects/complete-works/301-325/306-perez-artmuseum-miami.html 36 A. Ghafar Ahmad, “Malay Vernacular Architecture,” n.d., http://www.hbp.usm.my/conservation/malayvernacular.htm 33

gallery spaces at Peréz are enclosed in characterless, stereotomic forms that dominate the building’s composition.

It is by no means an unpleasant building; but architecturally, the use of type is confusing and dishonest. It is partly historic-referential and partly functional, but fails to embrace either approach with confidence and is, as a result, unconvincing.

One example is certainly not indicative of an industry-wide contemporary issue. However, it does point to the salient use of typology in today’s architecture as well as the conscientiousness to which it must be used. In this sense, the twentiethcentury buildings examined in this paper are strong examples as they provided captivating alternatives to their era’s critera – which, despite their shortcomings, was mostly powerful and persuasive. Peréz Art Museum, on the other hand, demonstrates how typology can be used simply as a veneer for a more banal design. As such, there is much to be learnt in the work of Rossi, Kahn and Scharoun; and applying the lessons from these might help contribute towards a twenty-first century architecture that is altogether contextual, functional and aspirational.

Word count: 2034

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