The Public Sphere

“Space“ and „time“, as the basic elements and the basic forms of existence of all things, space is the extensiveness of material existence, and time is the continuity and sequential order of material movement process. Space and time exist side by side, so to understand Piet Blom’s understanding of time, we need to first understand his definitions from life, to the functions, and then to the space.

Temporality of Life

Piet Blom abstracts the basic form and space from the traditional dwellings by shaping the familiarity and warmth of the buildings to form a real community. What’s more, he used natural materials and pursued the naturalization of the space environment. For instance, the color of the building envelope is close to the woods, creating vibrant atmosphere of the outdoor space thus the space transition is natural and coherent. Combined with the design of green spaces such as garden, atrium, and small theater, the whole building integrates and blends naturally with the design theme, which stands as a testament to his belief that “architecture serves the people, not the other way around.” Thus, aesthetic values and concepts have been introduced into daily life. It is no longer simply above life; aesthetics comes from life and should also return to life.

Besides the aesthetics of life, „the Kasbah“ also urges us to look for the essence of life. With the city‘s development, people‘s material wealth promotes the diversification of lifestyles. Still, working in the era of urbanization and the closed and indifferent artificial space environment makes people restless and depressed. „Till his death in 1999, Blom designed homes and urban schemes as if to reject the stern, coldness of post-war Modernism in light of a warmer, more human architecture.“ His drawings, diagrams, and homes portray affectionate spaces that release the mind, allowing people to share public spaces, create opportunities for communication and release tension and stress [Fig. 3.1].

Fi the appearance of public space in Piet Blom‘s concept ultimately reflects the desire of people to communicate with nature and realize the communication in mind.

(this metaphors village). Piet Blom was against the monotony of the terraced houses and flats of the time because he realized that the design method usually focuses on the „individual existence“ of the buildings but ignores the various elements of „ownership,“ such as the relationship between public space and people.

Diversification of functions

As people‘s activities are increasingly separated from natural space, artificial space naturally plays more roles. So only when people get rid of the constraints of architecture and different activities that can be supported by a corresponding space, can architectural space be regarded as a real success. In the Kasbah, the diversification of architectural function aims to design the corresponding functional space according to the activities so that architecture can adapt to the change of lifestyle.

Through research, we divide the public space in the kasbah into five sites: the outside, courtyard, transition space, corridor, and interior. And through observation, we summarized various behavior types and applied them to these five sites[Fig. 3.2]. The public space in this project is very compatible, which succeeds in providing functional space for different general behaviors and a possibility for a colorful personal life. Suppose these two types of diversity serve only the primary use and become the extra space. In that case, it is doomed to be invalid, as the overhead layer of many modern commercial buildings [Fig. 3.3].

In addition to compatibility, integrity is also feature of this project in terms of functionality. As an experimental project, the Kasbah illustrates Blom‘s idea of „living as an urban roof“; the homes are situated in closely-packed configuration on the first floor. The same concept is also reflected in Cube House [Fig. 3.4]. Blom‘s original idea is to put each individual building like a tree, and the whole building assembly is a forest drawings the Cube Houses in Rotterdam. https://www.archdaily.com/423234/ the-people-sarchitect-dutch-resident-s-pay-tribute-by-crowdfunding-future-pietblom-museum

Next to that is the contradiction of space also manifested in this project: existence and absence, indoor and outdoor, nature and artificial, finite scale, and infinite conception. The architectural area, therefore, has a multi-layered, rich, and undefined meaning. Since people‘s behaviors and activities are diverse and uncertain, they are not only the bipolar movement of „yes“ and „no,“ but also the coexistence of contradictions with the meaning of „and.“ The paradox of space is manifested in: people want the air and sunshine both indoors and outdoors, hope to shelter, and hope for peace in public places. Piet Blom achieves this goal by placing public Spaces in high-density communities: the residents in the Kasbah can see each other frequently, such as through the neighbor‘s kitchen window, people can overlook other‘s roof terraces. And people can also adjust the space to fit their needs; some install their skylights or drag wood stoves and niches on the stairs are „split-open“ as storage space. But it‘s also what Piet Blom wants. Nowadays, the architectural area of the new era has the characteristics of multi-level and multifunctional, which often integrates people‘s communication, leisure, entertainment, shopping, catering, education, fitness, cultural and sports activities, etc. And that‘s exactly what makes Piet Blom‘s work unique, because he already had vision of how buildings should be connected more than 40 years ago.

Piet Blom enables users to experience the characteristics of different space types through a variety of specific architectural space processing techniques to make the space atmosphere more prominent. For example, the transition function is the most basic function of the overhead layer in the Kasbah, which shows the transition between space and psychology. The overhead layer at the bottom of the house can connect the public and private spaces that have no direct relationship [Fig. 3.5]. Blom used pitched roof as an architectural prototype, where space is layered and permeated. The closer to the house, the more sense of belonging people will have at home [Fig. 3.6]. Thus people can intuitively feel the psychological feeling of easing the transition.

Of course, if the overhead layer is not adequately handled, it will be abandoned, so we cannot ignore it during the design. Just as the existing condition of the Kasbah, the residential bottom overhead layer is relatively low, and this kind of space gives person a strong sense of oppression. Due to the limitation of the height of the overhead layer at the bottom, people will be reluctant to stay here because of the dim environment. Which will cause a decrease in space utilization rate and can only be used as place for parking and an aisle. Therefore, considering the temporality, the designer should combine the overhead with the facilities to promote communication between residents [Fig. 3.7], and the overhead space can be reasonably divided.

Vitality of Space

Nowadays, residential space design often only considers people‘s functional needs but neglects people‘s spiritual needs. But