Take1 Microrayon. Аn Unexpected Scenario as an open building TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE IN LARGE-SCALE HOUSING ESTATES. research proposal Master Thesis at the Riga Technical University Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning detour at the HCU Aleksandrs Feļtins
1. The concept of “open building” evolved as an alternative to the mass housing. What if we appropriate it to the opposed but existing realms? “Architectural form may result from a process of transformation” Habraken, J. »The control of Complexity« in Places / Volume 4, Number 2, p.3 1987
CONVENTION We begin to see the complex form as a social artifact, and its hierarchical and territorial structure is, ultimatelly, a product of convention [which] we find in the concepts of theme, system, and type. Habraken, J.
Theme A theme is what we design when we want others not only to understand what we do but participate in the development of the form.
System “A system is the product of formal rules accepted by all who uses [the form]� Habraken, J.
The Grid and the Zone
Function of the configuration
Architectural field: the grid?
2. To regard the microrayon project as an unfinished one. All the project tools are already in place; all that’s needed is to reorganise, modify and complete them. Druot, F. Lacaton, A. Vassal, J. Plus : Large-scale housing development. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2007.
Type “A type (...)is a complex form principle, containig many themes on various levels, which lives outside formal description in the social body that applies it� Habraken, J.
Geometry and Articulation As a tool, used with appropriate position rules, the grid allows for the generation of extremelly complex and varied arangements. It is the arangement we ulimatelly see, no the grid. Habraken, J.
In the majority of cases the professionals who take care of the interior of the buildings aren’t the same as those who design public spaces, which presupposes a problem. It’s necessary to plan the administration of public space as an extension of that of interior spaces. Druot, F. Lacaton, A. Vassal, J. Plus : Large-scale housing development. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2007.
Capacity 3 bedroom flat 88m2 hair dresser’s saloon doctorate grocery’s
“It is easy to see, then, how we can work from the bottom up as well as from the top down” Habraken, J.
bank workshop ....
Territory: the zone(s)?