Architecture and building space
It would seem like a contradiction to be building space. In fact, what’s done is the confinement of space, harnessing of space, defining of space and assigning function to space. Space in its self has no definition. Unless you’re a phycisist and would argue that space is defined by mass-energy-quantum-particles and influenced as a medium by gravity, dark matter and unseen forces, then we can state that space is undefined until people step into the equation. We define spaces for living, working, sleeping, eating, bathing, and so many other activities.
The defining process is architecture. So in order to satisfy architecture, we ask many questions regarding those elements that will help form and develop the undefined space in to occupieable space. Will it be for groups of people? Will it be for private occupancy? Will the outside world impinge on the interior space? How will the space be lit, sound controlled, access given, and what geometric configuration will the space occupy? How does the space interact with other space?
It might be argued that each space is a dynamic environment that must see, listen, breath, process, recover and endure. It is not living, though it may be alive when used. It’s artificial heating/cooling mechanisms, its apperatures to control daylight, its electroluminecent contol mechanisms (lighting), its sound control mechanisms, warning messages for danger, its interior linings and entry/exit passage ways. It has similar characteristics to living organisms. It has some self awareness through sensors, controls, and corrective algorithms. However, it lacks the ability to achieve self-preservation through fight/flight mechanisms. We as architects and designers provide all of these mechanisms to defined space so that it can care for our needs without our active efforts. It protects, entertains, feeds, joins us together, and seperates us from one another.
Should space be so defined that it can only perform one function for us? Is space a specialized feature of our lives? We don’t live that way, changing our minds, habits and activity every day. Do rooms provide us a place to act or do we act according to the room? From experience, we have seen people live their whole lives in a single room that serves all their daily functions. It does not necessarily serve their needs. It is limited to be only what it was designed to do. We sometimes need confined comforting spaces and sometimes vast unending spaces. We sometimes need to sit and concentrate, while other times we need to run free from a single place.
When we design, build and engineer architecture it is up to us to remember that flexibility and the use of a particular space will not always be what we think it should be. To provide longevity to a particular space, we must be willing to provide the space with the needed mechanisms, controls and features that allow it to adapt over the years to serve many differing people. Open floor plans, so popular in high-rise complexes, office building and convention centers, provide unique conditions in the built world. This practice is so different from our residential design practices where each room and space is assigned a specific function. It is becoming more rare that an individual or family will live a single generation in a home, much less mutliple generations. The needs of one family will often differ considerably from the next and as different cultures begin to occupy foreign architecture, the challenge is to provide space and platforms for people to live their lives.
When was the last time you learned of a major city coming into existence? I’m not talking about sub-urban city centers or expansion of an existing metropolis. I mean a city, founded near a natural resource, grown and planned to meet a growing population and commercial interest. The closest thing is perhaps a college campus or new corporate campus. This is not the same. I don’t think we’ll see too many fresh opportunities to define communities or large city centers (except perhaps in countries outside of America). I think we’ll define and redefine existing spaces to serve the current population and technological method.
So, with this in mind, seek to provide flexible space both inside and out when defining new architecture.
