In The Human Condition (1958), Hannah Arendt predicated her thesis on societal introspection on what she called "mass society" - a population which had rapidly grown, urbanized and atomized, bringing ...new imperatives for humans to live together in vast numbers and with closer proximities. Throughout, Arendt discusses how shifting boundaries of public and private define our cities and our lives. As her mass society of three billion now approaches eight billion, how has the relationship between public and private - city and household - played out in the staggering population growth of the sixty years since her book? This article will explore how these six decades since the publication of The Human Condition have seen fundamental transformations in the way we understand what we now call housing, its relationship with the city, and its relationship with collective life.
The period of the 20th century is characterized by a large number of social changes, the development of industry, as well as changes in the structure of the traditional family. In addition, one of ...the major drivers of the need for new housing is the wartime destruction in Europe during two world wars. Significant housing shortage resulted in Mass housing development. This paper recognizes three different periods of development of multi-family housing, as a result of different changes during the 20th century. The first period represents the period after the First world war from the 1920s to the 1930s, the second period features industry involvement in housing around and after the Second world war from the 1930s to the 1950s and the third period centers around changes in spatial and cultural sphere of housing from the 1950s to the 1980s. Each time period is characterized by the progress or evolution of both problems that motivate the development of multi-family housing and innovative solutions for multi-family housing. Paper analyses three examples of built buildings from each time period. Each example is in a certain way an experimental architecture from its time and is distinguished by specific qualities and aspirations especially in the design of common areas of these buildings. The paper through selected examples of multi-family housing researches spatial manifestation of social and other changes. The focus of the analysis of the chosen buildings is on common areas, while the space of the dwelling is not subject to detail analysis. Each of the three periods is characterized by high innovation and an indication that multi-family housing can respond to requests and manifest new different ideas.
The influence of Le Corbusier (1887－1965) upon the architectural works of Kunio Mayekawa (1905－1986) has often been recognized in studies. Moreover, Mayekawa himself mentioned that he had been ...influenced by “Dom-ino (1914)” as Le Corbusier insisted. Having said that, among the “5 points of modern architecture (Les 5 points d'une architecture nouvelle, 1929)” reflected in principle by Dom-ino, only the roof garden was continued by Mayekawa throughout his design activities. If the roof garden in Mayekawa Kunio's works is the only method borrowed from Le Corbusier before, during, and after the war, we can obtain a new idea regarding the construction theory of Kunio Mayekawa by clarifying how Le Corbusier influenced his use of this element. I have used the drawing material and anthologies of Mayekawa Associates Architects & Engineers as my primary sources concerning the works of Mayekawa. I have considered the roof gardens included in Mayekawa's works from these primary materials, classified them into four periods based on existing studies, and thus understood each outline by period (Chapter 2). Next, I have analyzed the elements of the roof garden, upon which Kunio Mayekawa particularly focused at the influence of Villa Savoye (1932) and Unité d'Habitation de Marseille (1952), based upon the drawings and photographs by Kunio Mayekawa (Chapter 3). In addition, I have analyzed the influence of Le Corbusier upon Mayekawa's roof garden by considering the differences between, and similarity to, Mayekawa's roof garden and his interpretation of that of Le Corbusier (Chapter 4). As a result, I have clarified the following two aspects of Le Corbusier's influence upon Mayekawa's roof garden. 1. Mayekawa continued to focus upon Le Corbusier's roof garden in his works and used those designs in Japan as a solution to the problems faced by society. In fact, Mayekawa's roof gardens have been compared to the works of Le Corbusier, each of which Mayekawa had visited. Mayekawa's roof garden can be explained by its relation to the Villa Savoye (1932) or Unité d'Habitation de Marseille (1952). 2. Kunio Mayekawa's acceptance of Le Corbusier's roof garden showed particularly after World War II. In the first period after the war, Mayekawa referred to the style of the composition's elements established in the roof garden of Villa Savoye directly. In the second period after the war, he applied the organic style of the composition elements arranged in the roof garden of Unité d'Habitation de Marseille by abstracting it and making it geometric. In the third period after the war, by applying the relation between a hanging garden and a roof garden at the Villa Savoye to his own roof garden, he added visual indoor-outdoor continuity, as well as a strolling pathway to a roof garden in public buildings. Therefore, Kunio Mayekawa kept his eye upon Le Corbusier's work (which he experienced himself) in the creation of his roof gardens, regardless of whether he referred to their shape. Moreover, Kunio Mayekawa applied the elements that referenced spatial composition rather than referencing forms as he entered the late stage of his career.
The ATBAT (Atelier des Bâtisseurs), probably best known as the architectural design office of Le Corbusier that realized the Unité d'habitation of Marseille, was not solely Le Corbusier's main place ...of activity; many architects and engineers from various origins attempted to produce their own planning theory through activities all over the world. Assuming the ATBAT is an international exchange organization, this research will clarify how its key members joined it, what they learned about the related area through cooperation both within and outside of the ATBAT, and how they finally became independent from Le Corbusier. Unknown previous experiences of the key members, who later became important architects and urban planners, are historically clarified. The result of this historical research will be meaningful for future studies examining the ATBAT's planning theory from the cultural and regional viewpoints. The overall picture of the ATBAT, which has been an object of much praise, criticism, and reassignment from members, is complicated. In this research, four key members who represent the international exchange at the ATBAT are chosen and the background of their participation and collaboration with the ATBAT is clarified. The key members are Vladimir Bodiansky, George Candilis, Gérald Hanning, and Gyoji Banshoya. The contents of their exchanges, including points of opposition among them, will be examined by analyzing primary materials, such as their letters, business records, autobiographies, planning documents, and magazine articles, to clarify the history of the ATBAT's organizational transformation. In contrast, in this research, I will not examine the content of their plans; my consideration is limited to the simple facts of the members' footprints by studying the remaining documents and records. This research aims to clarify the history of the ATBAT organization as this aspect has not been systematically treated in previous studies in which planning-theory research was the main focus. Based on the participation process of the key members and the work experience in the Unité d'habitation of Marseille, the history of the formation and transformation of the initial ATBAT was clarified. In the formation process, the key members worked for the creation of the CSTB, associated with the Syrian–Lebanese expert Michel Ecochard who could deal with historical urban spaces and modernism very well, and worked with the United Nations and the MRU. All their works can be regarded as international exchange activities in the ATBAT that were created for promoting the reconstruction of war-damaged France. The organizational change of the ATBAT can be understood in the era of industrialization wherein architects and engineers were divided according to their specializations. Furthermore, Le Corbusier was a highly successful architect of the Unité d'habitation. In other words, the friendly relation between Le Corbusier and the ATBAT members at the beginning of the formation rapidly changed, and the engineers were adopted by the architects to work at a disadvantage. Therefore, the talented ATBAT members who had contributed to the project in Marseille had to explore their own path. Hanning willingly left Le Corbusier. Candilis was ambitious enough to be an architect himself. Bodiansky began pursuing an independent career as a consultant engineer. Since then, the ATBAT underwent a further major change, but its trigger was brought about by the work experience of the Unité d'habitation of Marseille, which is still a symbol of the era.
Urban densification is affecting our quality of life – from vitamin D defi ciency due to not enough sunlight reaching us in the tall urban canyons that are created by high buildings, to urban heat ...islands disrupting our sleep, and many other causes of human irritation. Exploring the Radiant City famously proposed by Le Corbusier in 1930, Guest‐Editor Marcus White, together with Australian architect Tianyi Yang, a researcher and lecturer from Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Melbourne, investigate ways to make the model more workable with pencil‐thin towers.
The gamification of urban housing design utilising artificial intelligence (AI) can be a game‐changer. The ability of AIs to speedily probe and evaluate the multidimensional combinations of ...‘action‐spaces’ of spatial and architectural propositions provides an opportunity to create new models of housing densities ignored by received Modernist assumptions. Shajay Bhooshan and Alicia Nahmad Vazquez, studio masters at London's Architectural Association Design Research Lab (AADRL), explain how.
In this thought-provoking book, Jane Rendell explores how architectural space registers in psychoanalysis. She investigates both the inherently spatial vocabulary of psychoanalysis and ideas around ...the physical ‘setting’ of the psychoanalytic encounter, with reference to Sigmund Freud, D.W. Winnicott and Andre Green. Building on the innovative writing methods employed in Art and Architecture and Site-Writing, she also addresses the concept of architecture as ‘social condenser’ a Russian constructivist notion that connects material space and community relations. Tracing this idea’s progress from 1920s Moscow to 1950s Britain, Rendell shows how interior and exterior meet in both psychoanalysis and architectural practice. Illuminating a novel field of interdisciplinary enquiry, this book breathes fresh life into notions of social space.”
The Unité d'Habitation is a seventeen-storey apartment block built between 1947 and 1952 in Marseilles, France. Today the construction of such a building, in almost any part of the world, would ...hardly be newsworthy; however the construction of the Unité d'Habitation not only attracted global interest at the time, but it can also be seen as one of the most influential buildings of the twentieth century. This was for a number of reasons. The architect was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris who, better known as Le Corbusier for most of his adult life, was probably the most influential architect of the twentieth century. The building, in many ways, initiated the hegemony of Modern Movement architecture throughout the world. But, perhaps most importantly, it was seen by much of the architectural profession as a prototype for how people should be housed in the future - with consequential major social, environmental and urban impacts. This paper examines the background of the design and describes the construction in detail. It also comments critically on the building's suitability as a model for mass housing, revealing the extent of its various functional failings that have not, as far as the author is aware, previously been exposed.
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