MANIFEST
DANNY JANSE TRISOMY21
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Introduction I want to welcome you to my manifest of Architectural Projects 4 at the University of Alicante. This project was given by the teacher Javier Sanchez Merina. During this project we had the challenge to redesign a exciting house from the 20th century to a 21th century house. This doesn’t mean that we had to place the newest TV in the living room, but was given to redesign the house to the nowadays laws and opinions about architecture. Besides this challenge we were asked to redesign the house for the usage of somebody with a born mental disease. We had to redesign the house focussing on the positive features the disease had to offer. So we weren’t asked to place as much slopes or rails as possible, but to stimulate the positive features which come with the disease. In this booklet you will find the final products of the project. The booklet is organised in a chronological order which makes it easier for the reader to understand the chosen options. Every chapter is started with a small introduction where the content of the chapter will be explained. There will also be given a brief summary of what is going to be explained in the chapter. After the project is explained there will be given a reflection on the group i’ve been working with this semester. The booklet will be completed with a manifest at the end. In this manifest i will give a reflection of my opinion about the classes. I hope you enjoy reading my manifest,
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Danny Janse
General
The house
The Project
Introduction Stories of Houses Houses of San Matias Down Syndrome Important figures The client in his house A house as a theraphy Microarchitecture Trisomy21 Manifest Bibliography
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Index Tree
> This tree shows the chronologic order which we worked in. It shows all the finished products in an order to understand the way we worked.
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Chapter 01 STORIES OF HOUSES
This project will be based on the stories of houses written by Javier Sanchez Merina. I will start with chapter with describing my personal interests in architecture, as a short introduction of myself and my vision on architecture Ofcourse this discription is only a small capture of my complete interests. But it will give you a good first impression of it, and will help you with understanding my chosen top-3. This top-3 will be described after the introduction. The three houses will have a small introduction about the project which is gathered from official publishing websites. The architect, building year etc will be shown as well. After this i’ve written a explaination of why this project is in my top-3. This won’t be just me telling how perfect these building are but i will also go in on the flaws of the building. Perfect doesn’t existst, so there are allways things which can be improved. This chapter is basically a filterage of the video-exercises we had to do. The first video i made was a more expanded versionof the second one. So the explaination you will find in this chapter will have the contents of both videos.
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Interests The first exercise we have done was to make a video in where we introduce ourselves as people and as architects. This video was ment not just to introduce ourselves, but also to show our three personal fovorite projects of the ‘Stories of houses’. This personal favorites had to be based on our own personal interests in architecture. In this chapter i will explain my interests in architecture and we will see my top-3 projects from the stories of houses. I will give a small introduction about the project and will also explain my reasons for being in my top-3 list. But before we can do this, i first need to explain my personal interests. First of all we need to understand that whatever we design, we will never begin ‘tabula rasa’. What many people forget is there is always something, in my opinion the word “nothing” can never be applied to a project. We got this earth full of plants, trees, water, sand etc. and now we use these same areas for our own personal usages. The relationship and harmony between these two worlds has to be worshipped and it’s up to us to adjust as much as possible. The world is not a blank paper to draw on, the world is a coloring where we have to fill in the colors. Besides this relationship between the build-world and the given world, there are way more relationships which need to be taken care of. For our personal preferences the harmony between us and the building, and the harmony between the building and the society. We shouldn’t see architecture as physical element but as social elements. Whenever a building works for you, me, the rest of society and has a good ecological relationship, than this will automatically have it’s results in the estetics and usage of the building.
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CAN LIS Mallorca
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Name Can Lis Location Portopetro, Mallorca Architect Jørn Utzon Year 1971 Function Summer Residence A short introduction ‘Located on the top of a cliff on the island’s south coast, the house is built in the area’s yellowish-pink sandstone, known locally as marés stone, making it blend into the landscape. The concrete roof is capped with of yellow tiles while the gables are crafted in the Chinese style, like those of the Fredensborg Houses. The four separate blocks are linked together with walls and courtyards. From west to east, the first block houses the kitchen, dining room and study, the second the living room, the third the bedrooms and the fourth contains a guest suite. All face the sea with slightly different orientations following the line of the cliffs. Utzon prepared preliminary sketches and drawings but these were underwent changes as the building grew. The result is a house that makes optimum use of light and views.’
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Can_Lis&oldid=649359391
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Why is this project interesting to me “As written before in my personal opinion and believe about how architecture should be, i explained the need of a well-functioning relationship with the surrounding of the project. In my opinion Can Lis could work as the perfect example of this type of relationship. It’s not just looking like the surrounding but the project is also using the surrounding, to me this is maybe the most important aspect of architecture. Therefor Can Lis was my number one choice in the top three explained in the video. In this video i explained my interest and fascination on the project gathered during my research. I believe the main concept and realisation of the project make a project ‘good’ but to me these small features, which remind us of what- and where we are and what we’re doing, are the things which make the difference between a ‘good project’ and a ‘amazing project’. Utzon shown us by making small references to the surrounding nature what made this project ‘amazing’ and not just ‘good’. Creating a small gap halfway down the facade which will let the sun trough for only 13min a day, just to remind us how amazing it is that our world is turning around. Beside all these physical elements another great thing about the project is that it was never designed to be great or perfect. It was designed for his own personal usage, not to be all over the magazines etc. So all these things he created in the house weren’t just to be ‘fancy’ or ‘interesting’, it was made because he felt the elements would help him enjoying and fully witnessing the house and it’s surroundings.”
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CAN FELIZ Mallorca
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Name Can Feliz Location Portopetro, Mallorca Architect Jørn Utzon Year 19 9 4 Function Summer Residence A short introduction ‘The design of Can Feliz is similar to that of Can Lis in that it is built in blocks, one for living and working, the second for the kitchen and dining room, and the third for bedrooms. But unlike Can Lis, it is built round a terrace like the island’s local dwellings, and has just one tiled roof covering all three sections. The living room, lit by three lofty bay windows looking out over the countryside and the sea beyond, is a large theatre- like space divided into two levels separated by four or five steps. The upper area is designed for work with large wooden bookcases and a huge work table while an equally large sofa and five simple white- upholstered rocking chairs are spread across the lower level. Many of the houses furnishings are also made of local stone, faced with glazed blue-patterned tiling. On the southern side of the building, there is a large covered terrace which leads onto a series of interlinked platforms down to the swimming pool. On the northern side, there is also a loggia and patio. The entire building is more carefully finished, detracting somewhat from the originality of Can Lis. But the house is an unequalled study in the relationship between structure and light. Furthermore, it fits perfectly into the surroundings, demonstrating Utzon’s gift for adapting buildings to their natural environment.’ Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Can_Feliz&oldid=680055377
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Why is this project interesting to me “Just like Can Lis, Can Feliz can be marked on the same aspects. You can see Utzon used the same concept to design his new summer residence. This resulted is a house which looked way more like the ‘typical’ summer residence. This house is more created around the terrace instead of Can Lis being build around the cliff of the sea. To me Can Feliz is more pointed towards itself than Can Lis is. As explained above the main difference between the two houses are the orientation of usage. Can Lis was more designed towards the magnificant sea which came with a lot of light and fresh air. Can Feliz is more designed as a isolated element. To me it feels like the blocks are hugging the inner terrace instead of the surrounding nature. Ofcourse now i’m comparing ‘great’ with ‘greater’ here, so don’t get the idea that i don’t like this house. Again the harmony with it’s surrounding is done perfectly, with the house almost vanishing in within the trees. Utzon created a warm house completely covered and surrounding by trees but still managed to make it light and open as well, a combination which on forehand seems impossible. And again we should think about the fact that the house is designed for his personal preferences and needs. When creating your own dreams, why would u make something to look good for someone else? We can all have an opinion about it but in the end our comments don’t mean anything, because we’re not ment to like it.”
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CASA DE BLAS
Sevilla la Nueva
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Name Location Architect Year Function
Casa de Blas (The Blas House) Sevilla la Nueva, Madrid Alberto Campo Baeza 2000 Residential A short introduction
‘Faced with an uncomfortable spot for it’s steep, but with a beautifull view over the horizon, a professor of literature commissioned the architect Alberto Campo Baeza to design a home where his family could ‘hear music’. As if they were given supplies to begin the design process and on the first day the client gave a poetry book to the architect. The rest responded to the complicity between client and architect a mutual cultural understanding forged a house where music is heard with silence. The house aims to be a literal translation of the question and tectonic estereotomica: one piece in a tectonic estereotomica box. A distillation of what is essential in architecture. Here again you find one of the favorite ideas of the architect: the determination to do “more with less”. An attitude that should not be confused with minimalism. Campo Baeza essentialist preferred term for their works, no element of adjectives and figurative concessions, but rich in content, proposed findings and bright spaces.’
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Why is this project interesting to me “Even though the estetics of the Blas house are magnificent, also this building is designed the way it is because of the surrounding. It doesn’t has this relationshop with the nature the way Utzon’s buildings got, but still there can be witnessed a beautifull harmony between both sides. In Mallorca we can see the houses and nature almost hugging eachother but here in Sevilla la Nueva we can see the two elements just not bothering eachother and just appreciating eachothers appearance. Besides my personal interest this project is ofcourse mostly known because of the contrast between the two faces of the house. The ground floor, or as Campo Baeza himself calls it “the cave”, is designed very insertive. This element is again faced towards the inside of the building, making it a area completely focussed on it’s usage. At the other hand we have the terrace on the first floor, a completely open space with a amazing view. This part of the house if completely faces towards the surroundings of the house, as a complete contrast to the main floor. Besides the pool this area is completely functionless, making it able to use is the way as wanted. For me the ‘Poetry book’ and the ‘hearing the music’ are just invented to make the story sound more juicy. The true beauty doesn’t lay in these elements or usage, the beauty lays in the estatics of the house and of the beauty of it’s surroundings. The harmony between these two elements can be captured when being on the terrace, the heart of this project. I think everyone can see him- or herself living here which makes it a very human project and therefor being very likeable.”
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Chapter 02 HOUSES OF SAN MATIAS
The most important thing to make a good renovation project is to truely know the house as it is, and as it has been designed. It’s just as simple as cooking a meal, before u can start cooking u need to know which products u will use and what u use them for. The same goes for a project like this. Before we can start to design we need to know the project by heart and know all the concept and features it has to offer. In the first chapter of the Manifesto we will have a look at the original story of the house. This story is written by Javier Sanchez Merina and is afterwards corrected by the architect himself, Juan Domingo Santos. The story is at this moment published on the blog ‘Stories of Houses’ which is available on the internet. Later on this story will be published in a book named after the current blog. We will see the original story of the house within this chapter and give a small reflection on it. In this reflection we will talk about the specifics and ‘special occasions‘ this project has to offer.
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The Original Story In order to materialise architecture on the basis of operating by agreements, “an exhaustive knowledge about the life and belongings of the neighbour - to link with his private world -, is necessary.” The work initiated in 1989 but has no fixed completion date. It started with the City Council showing interest in renovating a deteriorated neighbourhood in the centre of Granada known for prostitution, which led to Juan Domingo Santos receiving a commission to renovate one of the old brothels. Observing basic principles of community life, the architect sought to generate the project from the neighbours’ interests. By negotiating about parts of their dwellings, a game was established which allowed all members to enjoy spaces that they had been longing for. Living in a community The houses in the neighbourhood San Matías are known by its names or nicknames drawn from particular features or physical defects of the prostitutes who owned them (La Remedios, La Pepinica, La Cabezona). Domingo Santos was commissioned to work on a small patio house owned by the Cripple, located in the narrow street Calle Álvarez de Castro just 1, 15 metre wide, and next to houses owned by la Remedios, Carmela of the Dead and a tailor. If one is able to ask the neighbours for a cup of sugar or pinch of salt, to water the plants or collect one’s mail while on vacation, Domingo Santos asked himself why not to go one step further and ask, in the same natural manner, if one could borrow part of their living room or some other spaces they were not using but which one felt really necessary for one’s needs. Historically, against the common thought that dwellings are closed and isolated entities, the medieval city offered its houses the possibility to grow and adjust to the needs of the inhabitants. Asking permission to enter one’s house through a neighbour’s patio or share the laundry line became the rules for a game of exchange proposed by the architect and which received a great enthusiasm from the neighbours. They collaborated with a list of things they would like and what they had to offer in exchange. Legally supervised by lawyers and the architect, the base for this negotiation lay in the exchange of spaces and architectural elements without financial compensation being permitted. The result became an agreed construction that encouraged a communal feeling and traditional way of extending one’s house. As Domingo Santos stated, “it was allowed to build up or down, to the right or left. Any movement was possible if only there was an agreement.”
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Establishing agreements for the houses. In a letter written to us, Juan Domingo Santos meticulously described the intrinsic process for the exchange: The Cripple’s house, which was the catalyst for the whole procedure, had a small shed that was next to a patio. Adjacent to her, la Remedios lived in a house with a beautiful 19th century patio, with stone columns and wooden beams. To make her dream come true of owning this type of patio, the Cripple proposed to la Remedios to incorporate the patio to her house so she could use it as a walkway or a right of way. As an exchange, the Cripple would create in her new house a passageway next to the patio to benefit the house of la Remedios. It would be arranged in such a way that by uniting, they were connected to two streets at the edge of the block of houses, merely by crossing this passageway-patio space. The solution was interesting for both parties, now that it made an elastic zone, which had up to then been very tight and difficult to access. Another agreement they came to, was to join the first two floors of each dwelling (very small) and to gain a larger floor space which could be rented out and thus, they could obtain an income that separately would have proved impossible. The benefits of this co-ownership were shared, depending on the degree of participation. Later, Carmela of the Dead, decided to participate in the exchange, after seeing the economic success and reward that these connections suggested for the houses (which enlarged substantially their surface through their patio). She offered her patio to form part of the passage which, in this case, connected to a square to which it faced. The result was very intriguing because the city, besides the movement through its streets, also possessed internal movements across its patios of different owners and, although being private, having the doors always open, any passer-by could make use of them. To add to this exchange, the Cripple left part of her roof to become a sightseeing spot over the cathedral, which would benefit Carmela of the Dead, and she in turn freed a room with views towards the square for the Cripple. The result of all these changes permitted the Cripple, who originally had owned a small house, between neighbours and with a small patio without interests but with magnificent views over the cathedral, to finally share a traditional patio from 19th century Granada and one room with a view towards a square, with windows over other patios. La Remedios, in all this affair, also had a favourable result, the access to her patio had been improved, which up to then had been disconnected, and she had managed a change of ownership with Carmela of the Dead in a neighbouring house but closer to the centre, which she had been looking for. “This game of exchanges and cessions has been left fractured partly because Granada’s town hall has bought the house of Carmela of the Dead to accommodate a few offices temporarily. As this occupation will be temporary, the Cripple, Carmela of the Dead, la Remedios and I are waiting for its removal to reinitiate this story. Disgracefully, Carmela of the Dead, paradoxes of life, was murdered by a client and let’s just see who is going to be the next owner whom we will approach to incorporate into the game,” said Domingo Santos. This is an extraordinary project, which has emerged from the citizens’ conditions. Without a doubt, negotiation, as a concept, is already an architectural element. With it, new architecture is created which shows a special consideration towards its habitants, and refuses arrogant postures that have broadened the gap between society and architecture. In fact, as Juan Domingo Santos has confirmed to us, the expectations of San Matías neighbourhood have meant that many brothels have been bought and a change in profile in terms of inhabi26 tants has begun to be felt in the recent years.
Captions: a. Juan Domingo Santos (b. 1961) architect. b. The project for these neighbouring houses accepted the present and its contradictions as a point of departure. c. The elements, which have been interchanging during the last 15 years, include patios, a room with windows facing the square, views from a terrace towards the cathedral and the opening of windows over private patios. d. The house of the Cripple was materialised bearing in mind the interests of the neighbours and the interpretation of the traditional patio house in this neighbourhood. For this reason, light is very important and creates changes in the space during the passing of sun- and moonlight. e. The spaces were resolved without internal divisions in order to continue producing occupations or invasions of the neighbouring houses. f. All the plans are open, with the staircase in one of the corners, as in the traditional patio houses of the neighbourhood.
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Why we choose this project “Even though the most special thing about this house is the concept of sharing, we fell in love with this project for is physical elements. ” After reading the stories of the proposed housed placed in Spain we specially fell in love with this project. Not only the concept of the project is amazing itself but its materialisation is magnificent as well: how spaces are connected , overlapped one with the other, conforming this final complex tour of a non-defined direction; spaces grow “ up or down, to the right or left”. This intricate play of tiny and delicate spaces where you can be easily surprised by light and shadow plays opened a wide variety of possibilities because of the whole complexity of both , physical, conceptual and human relations. As we were free to decide all the aspects that were going to take part in our project, the house was chosen before the illness. We knew we were supposed to work with mental disorders and in order to separate somehow the physical problems to the mental handicaps, we chose this as a difficult house to go through but even harder for the mental spatial perception. Forcing, this way, not only the client’s mind but also ours to go beyond, make efforts and discover new posssibilities.  Furthermore, one of the main reasons that led us to choose this house was the fact that for us the rest of the proposed houses were somehow “ideal architecture“ placed in idyllic landscapes “far for the madding crowd“... we wanted to work with real architecture with a daily use as we could pour in there all our experiences of our own homes. We only had one thing clear of the disease we wanted to choose: no de- generative disease would be chosen. We wanted our client to be involved in society, not to be released appart just in contact with nature but to be active part of the real world. And we could’t imagine a best place than San Matías in Granada. As you can see our chosen project doesn’t match up with my original top-3 houses. Ofcourse the decision of the the best house to work with is not always the one you like the most. Besides that i found the challenge of working with a mental disease in a more crowded space more challanging then making a project on a location which looks like they’re made on vacation-parcs. This house is a original house in the way just normal people would live, not just these super-rich people buying an expensive house. But ofcourse this was not my only reason to accept the proposal of this project. Right now, during our studies, we’re being trained to become profesional architects. This means we have to be prepared for the realistic future, which means we can’t choose our own house to work with. There is no client who will come up to you and ask which of these three houses he should buy, because he wants to have the easiest and best house for the architect to work with. This is not the way it goes, so i don’t want to work like that neither.
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Exterior
Kitchen
Casa I31
Livingroom
32Casa
I
Hallway
Casa I33
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> Another fascinating fact about the house it that is designed from the sections. Normally a house is designed from the floor plans and elevations, but Juan Domingo Santos decided to work in another way. Instead of combining the horizontal connections with the desired exterior of the house, he choose to work by creating vertical connections. We can find multiple roofwindows which will bring light all to the ground floor. There are also visual connection made between different layer, as can be seen in the living room.
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Ground Floor
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Second Floor
Third Floor
Fourth Floor
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Chapter 03 DOWN-SYNDROME
Our goal was to redesign the chosen house for the usage of a client with a disorder. It was up to us to pick our own disease. There were no criteria for the disease besides it being a mental disease you’re born with. Besides we were free to choose our disease. Our group have chosen to work for Down-syndrome. Down-syndrome is ofcourse one of the best known syndromes in the world. It’s a mental disorder which always captured a lot of attention of people, this goes not only for attention in public but also on TV the down-syndrome is winning people’s hearts. Every year there are more comedies shows on TV where the people with down-syndrome play a huge part. Besides it being a very famous disorder down-syndrome is also always connected with possitive feelings. The people who have down-syndrome are not suffering of it, and they are maybe even ‘happier’ people then we (people without down-syndrome) are. Seeing a child with down-syndrome will automatically bring a smile on our faces, no matter what it’s doing. Maybe we can even say down-syndrome ain’t a disease, because there is nothing they suffer off.
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> Down-syndrome is one of the most famous diseases in the world. This is not because it’s such a terrible disease, but because the disease also brings a lot of positive features. For example, they are very loved by everybody and have a very positive mindset. Still people with down-syndrome are getting hold back in life because they look different and have a different pace in evolving.
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Down syndrome is a genetic order caused by the presence of, all or a part of, a third copy of the chromosome 21. It is associated with physical growth delays, characteristic facial features a mild to moderate interlectual dissability.
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Down-syndrome and humor Down-syndrome and humor are two things that can’t go without the other. Nowadays there are loads of TV-shows based on people with down-syndrome where their humor and sweet befall. Also on the internet the people with down-syndrome take a huge part in 21th-century based humor, where they can be found in loads of memes and statusses. Because of the lack of shame and the self-awareness most people with down-syndrome have it is okay to make fun of them and they do it theirselves as well. Ofcourse down-syndrome is not a disability where everybody has the same mindset, but it’s reasonable to say thet most of them have this self-awareness in combination with the humor. But because of these few people without it and the very protective parents, these jokes don’t allways get accepted that good by the public. It is still a a very controversial sub45 ject in humor, if it’s okay to do or not.
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Chapter 04 IMPORTANT FIGURES
Ofcourse knowing all the statistics and issues which come with the down-syndrome are very important to know but even important is to bring this to the people theirselves. We have gathered information about people their personal lifes. We want to show by doing this that the syndrome is maybe not a helping hand, but it’s never impossible to achieve something. For these people it is very good possible the achieve the same things as we do, they only do it in another way or on another pace. We have been able to interview two person who have the down-syndrome; first we’ve spoken to Pepe (one of the cleaners who works in the main architectural building of the University of Alicante) and we’ve spoken to Marta (the sister of a friend of Eva). These two people thought us probably more about the disease then 10 books with diagnoses would have done. It is the personal befall which teaches about the way they live. Besides these two interviews whe came across a few people who really captured our interests by showing the world that down-syndrome doesn’t mean you’re different. These people show that they can do exactly the things we can, or maybe better in some situations because of the disease. Ofcourse there are multiple people who achieved amazing things while having down-syndrome, but we just wanted to give you a good example of what they can achieve.
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Interview with Pepe Name Age Profession Hobbies Quote
Pepe 40 Maintenance and social volunteer of Cruz Roja Alicante Movies, Music, BBQSs, Helping people “People is like soup, you can take it with or without salt...”
Who do you live with? I live with my parents. Have you got brothers and sisters? Yes, I have two sisters and one brother. I am the third son. How is your room? My room is big, I have a bed and a table with a TV and a hard disk to watch films... I have many things in my room. Do you like films? Yes, films and music but not reading. Are you tidy? Yes! Well, sometimes... What would you like to change in your room? I would like to have a computer and a mix machine like those of the Dj’s. Would you like to live alone? I wish I could! I really would like to... But with no girlfriend... well if I get married with girlfriend of course. How would be the house of your dreams? I want a traditional house, mixed Arabic and Spanish. It would be a detached house, with swimming pool, Jacuzzi, spa... A house to make BBQ’s, with no neighbors. How is your current house? I live in a residential urbanization. In my house there is the living room when you enter and at the end the kitchen and a bathroom. Upstairs there is my room. Can you tell me what do you see from your room? People walking with dogs, children, the neighbors from the house in front shou- ting... They are always shouting and saying nasty words What do you usually do on your free time? I spend the most part of my free time in the Cruz Roja. There I do many things related to young people, AIDS, refugees, food, workshops, camps... I do many things and I have friends there; we sometimes go to have dinner to Alicante and go to the Carnival... I am also in an organisation for disable people but I don’t really like going there.
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And why do help in the Cruz Roja? I am bored at home. What do I do at home? Nothing! I prefer to go to the Cruz Roja and help, nowadays people, as refugees, need much food. As you work here in the Polytechnic School IV I want to know what you think about this building? It’s very big and spacious, but I don’t really care about it. What are your expectations for the future? Continue helping people. Now we are making a campaign for refugees and we have beaten last year’s record of money. We collect here the money and then send everything to Madrid so that they distribute the whole part from there. And the following campaign will be the one of Christmas, for children.
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Interview with Marta Marta is a 25 year old girl who lives in a semi-detached house with her parents and her sister Nuria. Marta has Down Syndrome and she works in a clothe store. She loves her work , being with clients it is sometimes hard but it is really satisfactory. She also combines her job with a formation asociation where she learns cooking, crafts,...ect. Marta is a really nice girl, she is always smiling and laughing, she loves living with her family, spending the summer near the beach, going out with her friends... And she also has her manias; she is such a tidy person that she even tidies up her sister’s bedroom! From such an easy exercise as “Drawing routines” many things can be discovered from the spatial perception and mental paths of people. First of all it was asked two sisters to draw a room, Marta`s room. Marta’s routine in the morning Marta wakes up and goes to the wardrobe to choose her clothes. Then she goes back to bed to get dressed and after she leaves her pyjamas on the trunk next to bed. After that she goes to the bathroom and goes back to the room to get her contact lens sitting on the desk. Finally she goes to the kitchen to have breakfast and leaves home. First exercise By comparing Marta’s and Nuria’s drawing it can be seen the space perception of both girls. While Nuria draws a more or less well proportioned bedroom, Mar- ta draws the container and then the fourniture having as references the perimeter walls. Void space in Marta’s drawings sees far bigger as the scale of fourniture is samaller than it should be. In here the most remarkable thing is the main reference of the walls and how the realtion between the different ieces of fourniture are quite insignificant compared to its place on the space, as main focuses of the activities of Marta. Second exercise This mental tours were made having her bedroom as a point of reference. Analyzing the paths drawn by Marta, especially those outside her main space it can be seen that here it doesn’t really matter the tour but just the depart point and the goal. Here the concept of serial vision is not present at all. It could only be highlight as a reference the corridor of the main floor understanding it as a change of direction but avoiding the whole tour of the staircase. It could be something like: straight donwstairs and straight to the kitchen. *The whole house has been drawn having Nuria’s sketches of the house as reference.
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> Oliver Hellowell is a 18 year old photographer with Down Syndrome, whose mother says he sees the world differently from most people: “So there will be a glimpse of something or a leaf or that stands out, in a stream because it is a different color and it’s showing up to the water. He spots details wherever he goes and this are the details that other people miss” Oliver achievements and his talent are inspiring and very encouraging not only for parents of children with this disease. Even some people interested in photography even when they are out think “ what would Oliver take a picture of now?” This reference has been quite signifcant for the project in the technical development as it will be seen later.
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> Pablo Pineda is the first european graduate with Down Syndrome . Proud advocate of his dissability promotes normality through this topic: “People have to admit how they are and be proud of themselves”. Insists from his own experience on the problems that overprotection from parents lead on the autonomy and development of people with Down Syndrome . There must be a relationship completely based on reliance trying not to limit children’s possibilities... “ Children with Down Syndrome must go to public school. There is interaction with different people and it promotes a mutual learning”. As he admits is one of the keypoints of his achievements . His history is somehow the chronicle of self-improvement. He is absollutely aware that he has become the model where many people look up to and he will continue struggling to turn integration a reality in society. This reference has been specially important for the new story of the houses as Pablo is an inspiration figure and example of overcoming, showing then the limits of people are mainly set by themselves.
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Chapter 04 OUR CLIENT AND HIS HOUSE
Now we’ve seen the house and know about the diasease, it’s time to combine these two and see what will happen. In the first sight the concept of the house and the disability have a lot of conflicts. Later we will see that these conflicts don’t only cause negative things but can also produce a positive effect. One of these conflict is probably the social awkwardsness of the disease and the main concept of the house the share spaces. People with down-syndrome have a naturally mindset which is not open for any changes. This doesn’t mean that they can handle with changes in their lives. But it means that for example a room in his house is his, and he would find trouble to accept the fact that he has to share this space. In the beginning this conflict looks like something negatve, but it’s a challenge to find the the positive features. For example the positive thing is that we stimulate our client to improve this socially awkwardness, and to stand open to this concept.
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A New Story After Carmela of the death was murdered, the house became in the possession of a young boy, who just left the house of his parents to start a life on his own. The boy just finished his master-degree in economics and found a job at a small accounting firm at the centre of Granada. His twin brother has down syndrome and lived at that moment still with his parents back in Murcia. But at the age of 24 he started to feel the need to leave his parents and life on it’s own. His parents had the feeling that it still was a little to early for him to leave the home. In fact, for them it would always be too early for him to leave home, they were so afraid... but the idea of independence was persistent on his son’s head. So his parents came up with the idea for him to go live with his brother in Granada. If he could live with his brother, his parents would feel a lot safer than if he’d live on his own. Living with his brother for a while would be the perfect first step for him to leave the house and become independent. So it didn’t took long before he decided to go and live with his brother. As his brother worked all day, he decided to start working as a volunteer at the petting zoo. After living together happily for 2,5 years his brother got married and decided to leave the house to go and live with his wife. He felt really bad for his twin brother because this house was the only thing he had left. After consultation with his wife, they decided to donate the house to his brother with a usage and admistration cession for the Down People organisation in Granada which his brother was part of. In this way his brother was able to keep living in the apartment with overview from the organization. The only agreement that was made was for the organization to be able to use several of his rooms for group activities. The organization became so enthusiastic about the house that they decided to buy the other three houses as well, as soon as the possibility arrived. So now the organization was the complete owner off the whole building and housed multiple younger people with down-syndrome. At this point the organization asked several younger architects to redesign the house to make it as well “liveable” for the people living there but also useable for the organization to use the space for organising activities for small groups up to +/- 16 people.
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> The Dark background represents the fear of sharing a area that in the mind of our client is his. The handshake of the bright colors (green & red) illustrates the pureness and kindness of the client to help other people in need. The white lines should represent the staircase where the agreement of the sharing of space has been made.
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Purety in emotions This image ‘as the title in the picture says’ is about the purity of emotions people with Down Syndrome have. If they’re happy, everything is wonderful and they are the happiest people in the world. But on the other side, when they’re sad or angry, this will reflect on everything in their surrounding as well. If they’re angry, than everything is bad. You can see this as a negative thing, but i think in this case we need to be more like them, than they need to be like us. If they don’t like someone, they won’t be kind to this person. And when they like someone, they will let this person know as well. This pureness and being their true selves is someone we “people without down-syndrome” can learn from them. Cause when we don’t like someone but we still need their help or something similar, we will pretend to like them and for example laugh to their jokes, even though in your head you don’t find it funny at all. Being our true selves is something we can learn for people with down-syndrome
Football is connected with fun, but would he still enjoys this place when he just lost a match?
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Emotions take a important part in the perception of an area. But for people with DownSyndrome this connection is even stronger.
> The drawing is to the last detail hand-made with help off Adobe Illustrator. Neither was there a model used for the perspective. Everything is based on the eyes of the client (Height, Perspective, etc.) and is drawn to show the interests and emotions.
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Chapter 05 A HOUSE AS A THERAPY
I will now explain to you the concept of the redesign of the project. For this part of the project we had to work in a combination of group and personal work. Normally the order of the project would be to first make the microarchitecture followed by the redesigning of the project. But because of the multiple changes of the microarchitecte we have decided to change this order, because of our way of working. Instead of using the microarchitecture to resdign the house we’ve used the redesigning of the house to create our microarchitecture. This chapter will explain the theory which comes with the concept of our redesigning. First the theory of serial vision will be explained. This serial vision is of huge importance to understand the changes we’ve made to the project. This theory will contain also examples which origin from ‘The concise townscape’ by Gordon Cullen; a book which goes in really deeply about this theory. These examples are of an very different scale then of our project, but will help very good to understand what we’ve done in our house. Afterwards the redesignment of the ground floor will be shown. The redesigning was my personal work and will be explained step by step. Also the results of my group mates will be shown, because in the end it’s a groupwork and it will be good to compare it with the orther parts of the building.
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Theory of the concept To understand the concept of the design of the house, you first need to understand the theory of ‘serial vision’. Serial Vision is something you might have never heard of but it is something we all witness in our lives. Serial Vision is fragmentizing the route you take to come somewhere. A relevant example can be found in the book ‘The Concise Townscape’ by Gordon Cullen, where he shows us the visual reasons why historical cities are build in the way they are. He gives us the following explanation: Image when you’re sitting in your living room and you want to know what time it is. So you decide to look at the clock on the wall, and you see the time. When you put your eyes towards the clock. You see the wall, the clock, the fingers of the clock, etc. So your eyes actually capture all this information, while your brain only captures the time from the combination of the fingers of the clock. This system is called ‘manipulating within tolerances’. Having sight comes not just handy, but also make us able to have memories and being able to witness things. This gives us emotions in our brain which come up when we see a certain thing of talk about a certain topic. This is the first step in completely understanding Serial Vision. “Image walking down a straight street with half way down the street a small courtyard and on the end a small movement to the right with a monument hidden at the end. In this scenario a large amount of ‘Visions’ are coupled to each other besides us walking in one singular pace. When a person is walking down a city on a single pace the vision of the city keeps constantly changing and there appear serial differences and visual interests (reference points). This is called ‘Serial Vision’. So our personal goal is to manipulate de parts of a path we have to follow so emotions while come up inside of us. Let’s compare a straight simple street with the street which was described before. When we would walk a similar distance in both examples, the street from the example would be way more pleasuring to walk trough. The street offers us a huge amount of reference point to focus on when we walk down the road. In our mind we say we walk towards the courtyard, and when you reach the courtyard you’re telling yourself that you’re walking towards the turn of the street. In the straight street we would walk from one point to the other and the road wont let any emotions come up. There must me a contrast between reference points for or brain to trigger our mind to remember and witness the road. All the pictures and drawings in the next 4 pages are coming from the book ‘The Concise Townscape’ by Gordon Cullen.
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> Here we can see an example of serial vision. There is a short walk described, a walk without an destination. Where do we base our route on? Where will we end and why? this will be explained in this page, where all chosen reasons of replacement are shown.
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The goal of the redesignment The main goal we’re trying to establish in the redesignment of the project is to improve the guidment of our client trough the house. The main difference between us and people with down-syndrome when is comes to this guiding is the perception of referring. If we take the example of page 64-65 as an example and imagine this route was planned to be followed. We (people without Down-Syndrome) would still (more or less) fracture our route in the same way. We will make multiple visual references in our head which will help us to fragmentate the route and make it easier to follow. People with down-syndrome wouldn’t do this as well-organised as we would do it. They would start in front of the main entrance and know in which direction they’ll have to walk to get somewhere. This means both will infentually arrive at the same point, but for the people without down-syndrome this route would be more pleasent. This conclusion is based on the fact they capture more of the surrounding and have to focus less on where to go. The people with down-syndrome will have to focus more to find these references we find in a natural 68 way.
A House as a therapy On the left we can see the first step in the redesignment of the house. Before we can place these reference points we first need to find out where to place them. In every stage we can see all possible routes in the floor to make in red, with 11 red dots as possible important points which will be taken as the spots to base or visual study on. From all these 11 point we can see the possible sight shown in pink. These pink areas can tell us the possible places of reference points to make it able to always be able to move yourself around the house. In the two floorplans under here we can see the final result of these placements. After some quick sketches made on sketching paper is set various points as possible reference points. these points can be found in the left floorplan where the starting point show us the possible sights frrom this reference points. By filtering this information i’ve been able to produce the last floorplan. In this floorplan we can see all the final places of the reference points. The idea behind these reference points is that you must always be able to guide youself to a next reference point. This will help our client for a better orientation of where to go. Being able to make smaller steps of his movements around the house should open him/her more to the social values the house has to offer. So we’re not just helping the client in a way of guidement but are also helping them in a social way. This will be further explained on the next page.
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Social activities as a reference point As explained in the last page we are going to expand these reference point to improve the abilities this concept has to offer. The purpose of these reference points is too stimulate the guidement of the client. This means that the reference point has to be something was captured the mind of the client and will be remembered as a stable point in the house. To make these reference points not just visual references but make them also a part of their daily is a decision not just made on the fact that it would be more helpfull. The decision is also made because of reason we’re doing this. In the normal day life the people with down-syndrome have the same reference points available as us, and still they don’t manage to guide themselves the way we do. So why would we give them visual reference points if they won’t use them in that way? People with down-syndrome are besides their different look mostly known for their different social skills. This different social skills have as well good and bad values for the client. One of the good features is for example the lack of shame. Ofcourse this can also work in negative ways, but doing what they want to and how they feel like has mostly positive consequences. But one of the negative features can be the different pace and quality of conversations between people with and without the syndrome.
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We decided to do these reference point not in a visual way but in a way of experience, in a way of social stimulation. In a house where everything is about the interaction between the different inhabitants of the apartments in the block we found that the socail abilities of the client had to be stimulated. By making every placed reference point a socail activity we can achieve this goal of stimulating the social abilities. Every reference point will be a point which will capture the mind on the client on a different way. If we take for example the living room we create social activities on a direct house-scale. For example something as simple as the TV can function as a reference point because the usage will have to be shared with other people, this will stimulate the social interaction between the inhabitants of the house. The same idea can also be used for everyday things like watering the plants, eating or just a place to provide a location for conversations. In the bathroom this has to work on a different scale. There can be worked on social activities on housescale but in an indirect way. There can for example be placed an blackboard in leave messages to the next user. You can leave your creativities on here or just write down something you think of while spending time in the bathroom. Wherever possible need to be looked for a interaction of scale which will stimulate the social activities on a neighborhood-scale. It is important for the client to feel safe to get outside of the house and interact with other people. This has to be done for example close to the window and the entrance of the building.
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> We can see here the final result of the redesigning of the living room. As you can see the reference points can be found on three places in this vision. We can see the sitting-element in the front, the TV and the hightable in the back of the living room. Also the step has been turned in to a bench and a clear small pair of stairs has been placed to reach to the next room. Now these two rooms are better connected allowing it to share their functioning and usage.
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ATHE small summary of the changes made to the project PROJECT IN DIAGRAMS...
The patio>The three buildings work as a fortress to the exterior that is conformed as a maze of narrow dark streets. Inside of the property the view is mainly drawn to the patio in the middle of the construction that becomes the main axes of the community, not only as a place to pass through but also as a place for social interaction, art creation and community support.
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Walkable axes> In order to favour the connections between properties some new paths are opened, generating much possibilities to walk through the whole space and a more complex space ensemble that ease communications. 74
Categorizing spaces> Most of the interventions carried out have the intention of generating community spaces in order o favour the relations over the neighbourhood all around the patio.
Following this aim one of the biggest intervention is the tranformation of the slopped roof into a big at terrace.
Resultant spatial organisation>
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Chapter 05 MICROARCHITECTURE
As explained before we’ve worked in a slightly different order than the other members of the class. We first redesigned our house and have afterwards created our microarchitecture. This was because of our different microarchitecture proposals. The microarchitecture is basically a human scale model which have to stimulate to features which comes with the disease. We have challanged ourselves by not helping the client, but to stimulate and improbe the positive features of the disease. And because we worked in a different order our microarchitecture had to be addaptive to the redesignment. In this chapter you will see a complete explaination of the microarchitecture with all the chosen options. There will again be a small explaination of the theory of ‘Serail Vision’ which again takes a huge part in the design.
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> The model is made out of paper thickness which can almost be described as a cartboard. We made a 3D-model of what the model had to look like, and with the help of a digital program we were able to create a ‘pasting-model’ to make the model in human scale.
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> This image shows the vision you will have from the microarchitecture-model. In here we can see the image living room thevision house and > Tis showsofthe you willshown have the focus of the client when wearing the model. trough the finished microarchitecture. In this You can see that the surrounding example it shows the focus onbecomes a point in the morecurrent blurredliving te more we get away from room of the project. As the you can the diafragm. surroundings of the focus are still visible but get more blurred the farther u move from the binocular.
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Chapter 06 TRIMSOMY 21
This course i’ve worked in a group with Marta Mochniak from Poland and Eva Candela from Spain. In this chapter i will give a small briefing about the way we worked as a group.
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> The group-name ‘Trisomy21’ origins from the name of the disease. Down-syndrome also gets called trisomy 21 because there are three 21th chromosomes, instead of two. We decided to call ourselves after this disease.
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Trisomy21 As explained in the title-page i’ve formed a group during this semester with; Marta Mochniak (Poland) and Eva Candela (Spain). It was a combination from three totally different background and cultures. From the beginning this diversity caused a lot of genius interventions and solutions, but ofcourse there were also some periods where these different cultures clashed. From the start there was a really nice atmosphere where sessions of complete focus where followed by having a proper laugh. To me this is a very important part of working as a group. The way you’ve worked and felt during the project will always reflect in the final products of the project. As well we were lucky we had the same attitude towards our work. All three of us found the project more important then our sleep, for example. I think we were very lucky to have three of these people together in a group, because we very well understand what we can produce in a certain period. I’m proud to say this, because i really believe our group had an positive effect on our work. Wherever possible we tried to help eachother and neither were we too shy to ask eachother for help or sollutions. To me the spanish way of working together also had an possitive affect of working as a group. In spain it’s very normal to meet at somebodies house during the weekend or nights to work together. Back in The Netherlands this isn’t that normal, school and private life are mostly well separated, and group work only takes place at school. But to go to somebodies house to work, meet their families and see how they live really helps for ‘the group feeling’. Our most progressive and interesting conversations took place during the designment of the microarchitecture. We met, more or less, 3 days a week to rethink our proposals and discuss about the way it had to be done. During these meetings we automatically got into some kind of ‘roles’ which very well reflected our mindset. For example most of the time Eva was was full of ideas and concepts of what to do with the microarchitecture. Most times it were ideas she just came up with we could discuss about or maybe adjust to our goal. Marta had the roll of materializing the microarchitecture. Whenever Eva came up with an idea Marta always translated these ideas into materials or objects to use. I automatically turned into the roll of ‘the teacher’ as we described it. Every time we came up with an idea, concept of a way to materializa it i just thought about this in a very rational way. In this way we could filter all the problems or clashes our idea would have at the first stages. So i really think every member of our group had an positive effect on what the other was doing or thinking. We kind off worked in an circulair process where we allways kept rethinking the things we had decided or done. 93
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Chapter 08 MANIFEST
When a architect designs a house he’s not making what he have made before. Every person and architect had the personal goal to evolve as a person. And ofcourse so did we. This course we had the possibility to for once do a project in a totally different way. This different approach gave us to possibiliy to evolve in a different way, to widthen our perspectives. In this last chapter i will tell u in a short reflection my opinion of the classes we have had during this project, and i will also explain what this ment to me as a designer. This last chapter can be seen as a conclusion of my project, where i explain why i’ve worked in the way i’ve done.
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Manifest To start my manifest i would like to say that this course had nothing i had expected when i signed up for it. When i signed up for the course i thought it was going to be an project like every other project. This semester we had the bless to be able to travel trough spain while having class. At first it sounded very strange to me but in the while experiencing it i totally adored it. Ofcourse it was an nice experience to be able to travel around spain and see all it has to offer, but i think this wasn’t the best part about it. Learning architecture is not something you can just do behind your laptop or desk, you need to go out and see it yourself. You have to be inspired and interested by the real world and not by some nice pictures you’ve found on the internet. This is the one thing i heard every teacher say for years, and this semester it was proven to me. By seeing all these buildings, cities, landscapes being informed by professionals thought me more then 20 books or websites could have done. Especially the meeting with Alberto Campo Baeza is one that will stick with me for a while. To hear him talk so passionately about his work and vision was truely inspiring, even though i didn’t agreed with him about some elements. But i think the fact i didn’t agreed with him, but in my head having a discussion with him i never had in reality, showed me that im starting to get a own opinion and vision on architecture. It’s not just reading articles and books anymore going like “yes, i think it’s right was he’s saying” but now im basing it on my own vision and opinion. So maybe this course didn’t thought me as much of architecture as i aspected, it defenitly helped me to elvolve as a designer. Campo Baeza designes on a totally different way then Juan Domingo Santos designs, but does that makes one better than the other? Ofcourse not. Every building or location asks for another answer. Imagine if all architects would have had the same opinion and agreed to this one thing we called ‘perfect’. Everything would’ve been designed in a similar way. Is that the perfect world? In my opiniong the diversity in projects, opinions and visions is the most important aspect in the 21th century architecture. This is the main reason why we decided to not redesign our house to be up-to-date for the 21th-century, but to redesign it to be an reflection of the different opinions and visions we have on the project.
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Bibliography Literature: VERB-series: Crisis Processing The concise Townscape - Gordon Cullen De Menselijke Maat (The Human Scale) - Prof. A.J. Haak Digital Information: www.Storiesofhouses.blogspot.com www.downsyndrome.org.au www.imdsa.org www.juandomingosantos.com www.facebook.com/aspau-223092593135/?ref=ts www.oliverhellowell.com
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Introduction
02 - 05
Stories of houses Houses of San Matias
06 - 21 22 - 37
Down-Syndrome
38 - 45
Important Figures
46 - 53
The client and his house A house as a therapy Microarchitecture
62 - 75 76 - 89
Trisomy21
90 - 93
Manifest
94 - 96
Bibliography
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54 - 61
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