The Transition: Typology, Topology and Phenomenology By the mid-eighties, Steven Holl had become bolder, surer of his own philosophy and architecture. As a result, during the second half of the eighties he undergoes a shift from “typology”, the study and documentation of a set of buildings which have similarities in their type of function or form, to “topology”, the mutation of form, structure, context and programme into interwoven patterns and complex dynamics. 6 Nonetheless, something of his old "typology” would linger on in the Stretto House, which may be seen as transitional work, since it is one of his only buildings that demonstrates this underlying tension between the typological and the organic. 7
Figure 4: Servant spaces identification on existing plan
The typological appears in the orthogonal “servant” elements, the spaces that serve the utilised, containing the vertical circulation plus kitchens and bathrooms, while the organic appears in the “served” elements, the spaces that are actively used, containing the living spaces with vaulted roofs leaping over them. 8 The “servant and served spaces” is a concept first articulated by Louis Kahn in his design for the Trenton Jewish Community Centre of 1957 (derived in large part from the similar tartan grids found in Wright's early Prairie Period Figure 5: Plan of the Trenton Jewish Community Centre by Louis Kahn
Kenneth Frampton, Steven Holl, 1st ed. (Phaidon Press), 11-12; Architecture, All About. “TOPOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE.” Medium, Medium, 1 Nov. 2018, medium.com/@AAA_Publication/topological-architecture3e7e4288dc27 ; “Building Typology.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_typology. 7 Kenneth Frampton, Steven Holl, 1st ed. (Phaidon Press), 15. 8 Ibid. 6
