READING AND RE-WRITING PLACE: A RESPONSE TO LANDSCAPE
Reading and re-writing place: A response to landscape
Creating good places demands an informed and critical response to place and context. Only through a considered response to landscape can we make places which are locally distinct, use resources responsibly, take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the site, overcome the challenges of topography and climate and embrace the spirit of a place. This is an approach which is at the heart of our practice’s ethos. The studio is founded on the principle that we must first understand and interpret, at various scales and various levels, the contexts and places in which we work.
Our approach as a practice has been shaped from an early stage in our architectural careers through our experiences of visiting and learning from the building culture in rural regions such as Graubünden in Switzerland and Vorarlberg in Austria. Here, we observed architecture which was unashamedly contemporary in its appearance and construction, yet seemed to be completely at home in the landscape, as if it was always meant to be there. A desire to understand and emulate what we had found on our travels led us to further explore the work of the architects who operated there and the idea of ‘Critical Regionalism’ which they adopt. This is an approach to making places which we believe is appropriate to parallel in our work in Wales.
“ Regionalist architects consider the individual place conditions of a locality as having significance upon the design. A response to a location’s topography and other site-specific conditions such as subtle local changes in light and climate is recognised in design terms. The tendency is for buildings to be designed to respond in themselves to the conditions imposed by the site, rather than to succumb to the ease of providing a mechanical system, which would be typical of modern architecture of its time 1 ”
As Florian Musso highlights in his essay, Simply Good, ‘Conscious concessions to regional typicality usually involve picking up on historical manifestations, without being able to incorporate the sense of the form into the imitation.' 2 The approach we set out below is not about senselessly copying the traditional features, forms and materials of the local vernacular in an attempt to make new places ‘fit in’ to the landscape, because ‘a poorly understood copy of old buildings, without clarification as to the living styles and construction forms of the present, destroys the spirit of architecture.’ 3 The response needs to be deeper than superficial appearance for new building to really ‘belong’ to a landscape.
We firmly believe that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to designing new places. Each specific landscape has its own unique qualities - its own topography, geology, micro-climate, history, cultures and imprints of human activity - which call for a unique, place-specific study and response. It does not make sense to have Welsh style, because a landscape in Snowdonia is very different to a landscape in the south Wales valleys, for example.
We also discourage taking a romanticised, nostalgic approach to building in a landscape, which is a danger if it is considered superficially, as a picturesque image, without really understanding it. This can lead to a stance where any contemporary development is seen as detrimental to the natural beauty of the landscape; whereas in reality every landscape is a constantly changing, complex entity, shaped by both natural and human influences. Properly understanding and interpreting landscape on a variety of levels, beyond the visual and superficial, is the first step in a critical design process that leads to architecture which is both contemporary and truly rooted in place.
“ Do not build in a picturesque manner. Leave such effects to the walls, the mountains and the sun. A person who dresses to be picturesque is not picturesque but looks like an oaf. The Farm labourer does not dress to be picturesque. But he is. Build as well as you can. 4 ”
Reading
Site analysis, if done at all, is often presented as a technical operation, using OS maps and representations of place sourced from different media. With the internet providing easy access to aerial images and climatic data, it is all too common that architectural proposals are evolved and even constructed without the designer having stepped foot onto the site.
A Google map may offer some limited information to which climatic data can be superimposed, but this level of information is not enough to generate an in-depth understanding and critical response to the site and its specific set of environmental conditions.
Whereas an understanding of the science of climatic and environmental factors is essential to support the evolution of passive design strategies; sensory and experiential factors should be considered, as the conditions of site also have an impact on experience:
“ It is common for architecture in the realms of regionalism to identify environmental phenomena such as changes in temperature, illumination, air movement, sounds and even aromas as all being able to stimulate the body and to provide a sensory experience of architecture. Critical regionalism recognises that the environment should be encountered first hand, rather than being perceived through information based media, which is all too common in the modern world. 5 ”
As a practice, we have developed techniques for reading and representing landscapes and settlements at macro and micro scales which look beyond the technical and physical representation of a place. Our approach to site analysis aims to explore landscapes through experience, craft and culture as well as through more orthodox methods of measuring and recording.
Field work or deep mapping techniques are used to engender relationships with site. This approach places a conscious emphasis on the act of research, encompassing a number of fields of investigation including anthropology, history, ecology, climate, economics, sociology, and chronology. The relationship between anthropologists and artists reveals the potential to explore an exciting yet undiscovered intellectual territory, which inhabits the ‘place in between’ 6 disciplines.
The concept of the ‘ethnographic turn’ in contemporary art practice was introduced through the influential paper ‘The Artist as Ethnographer?’ written by Hal Foster in the late twentieth century. In parallel to this there was evidence of ‘significant shifts in both the theory and practice of cartography’ and ‘the definition of the map itself transformed the role of mapping within geography, while maps and map making became a focus for important contemporary connections between cultural geography and various art practices.’ 7
Exploring ‘site’ through fieldwork methodologies and mapping techniques outside of established ways of working benefits our approach and practice. For us, the ‘charged spaces between orderly and established ways of working’, 8 are the most interesting and fruitful, as within this space, opportunities for innovation reside.
This integrated and trans-disciplinary practice, enables us to produce a multi-layered reading of sites and, therefore, to critically engage with the spatial, temporal, cultural, historical and environmental characteristics of a landscape.
One aspect of this is interpreting the nature of landscape in terms of its physical characteristics – inscription, patterning, urban grain, morphology and typology and spatial ordering. Through analysing a region in this disciplined and systematic way, as an archaeologist may do, the events over geographical and human timescales which have shaped the contemporary condition are revealed, and clues to inspire the further transformation of the building ground are uncovered.
Our research also relies on perception and intuitive responses, and how to record this. Landscapes are visited and walked over and over again. A site can feel completely different in morning light compared to afternoon light, in summer compared to winter. We try to use creativity and not factual reference to explore ways of understanding.
The objective is ‘to gain an insider’s knowledge of place and landscape, as opposed to a knowledge acquired by mediated representations which can only provide an outsider’s perspective’.
Re-writing
Fieldwork or deep mapping is not an end in itself; the next stage is to interrogate the landscape analysis, and to translate the data into a narrative for an architectural proposition. This poses the question: how can we evolve a conceptual framework which forms a basis for the design of a project which is appropriately scaled, responds to the current and future needs of a locality and culture and takes a critical attitude to landscape?
Our approach is to be speculative, creative and imaginative about architectural propositions, whilst also questioning and re-inventing identity and cultural notions of time.
It is possible to derive order and rules for a spatial framework for design from studying and understanding the structure of the landscape.
These rules are related to compositional geometry, scale, proportion and interval, order and spatial continuity, and can be extracted from the underlying rationale of the existing landscape and vernacular typologies discovered in the research.
Based on these analogous criteria, urban and landscape patterns and spatial arrangements of street and square, or building and enclosure, although re-cast in a new light, become logical reinventions of tradition. This approach enables us to create places which are formally and spatially ordered through historically and analytically informed geometries, and are therefore expressive of regional and cultural conditions. In this way, it is the uniqueness of the landscape and the cultural appropriation of space rather than a prescribed use of form or style that informs our design process.
This idea of ‘analogy’ is not to copy. The intention of critical regionalism is not to provide a nostalgic interpretation of the vernacular style of the locality, but to identify and extract elements of the local vernacular and re-interpret them in a contemporary manner. In this way, the architecture is contemporary, yet is not reductive of its regional identity. 10
Assessment of landscape character during the analysis stage will have established whether existing landscape or settlement elements, important to the regional condition and locale, offer compositional rules to respond to. For example, if the context has a language of field boundaries which are hedged or walled, these come with a legible geometry, pattern and scale related to the plots they enclose. This could begin to offer dimensional and geometrical rules for enclosure, boundaries and edges, both to the site itself, and any division of plots or groupings of buildings within a larger development.
Consideration should be given to the retention of any existing landscape elements because they can provide privacy and screening, and a desirable sense of place and character to the proposed development. As well as retaining existing boundaries, the landscape strategy could propose additional native hedgerows or walls to provide a framework of domestic boundaries separating each plot. The design language of new walls and hedgerow boundaries should read as new elements and be distinct from the historical elements.
Typically, new development, whether in rural or urban settlement, is characterised by cul-de-sac roads. However, access and infrastructure should also be considered in relation to the scale, geometry, proportion and interval of the local context. Consideration should also be given to routes and relationship to future developments in order to avoid alien street patterns and isolated plots.
The spatial framework that the route pattern and road hierarchy establishes has a big impact on the overall planning and composition of new development, and there are alternatives to the pattern book cul-de-sac and scattergun building approach typical of ‘could be anywhere’ development in the UK. The routes and spatial ordering of local historic settlement patterns can offer clues for a new framework for appropriation of space which is regionally rooted.
Alternative infrastructural layouts may instead consider, for example, a ‘pastoral open court’ approach which makes reference to the arrangement of farmsteads in the locality. In this approach, the proposed layout would arrange development plots of various scales around a series of arrival courtyards. A different approach to layout would be demanded if the site was in a post-industrial landscape, for example. The point is that understanding the landscape through site analysis offers ways in which to respond to context and re-interpret ideas from the vernacular in a contemporary way, so that new development has a relationship to context and local distinctiveness, rather than the placeless ‘could be anywhere’ approach which is all too common. These examples are only to illustrate a critical design process, they are not intended to provide repeatable solutions - these must be evolved on a site-by-site basis.
Responding to what has been learned from analysis of the site is also important from a sustainability point of view. If the topography and climate have been understood, the designer can employ passive design strategies to reduce the development’s energy demand and carbon emissions. A carefully sited, oriented and composed development will make use of the natural resources from the sun, wind, earth and sky. The demand for mechanical heating, cooling and electric lighting is then reduced, meaning that complex high-tech building services are not required.
Topography and the typology of buildings in the region give clues to appropriate relationships to ground. Through vernacular building, people developed a deep knowledge of the landscape in which they lived and worked; and this was reflected in the way they built, including how buildings related to the ground, whether it is flat or sloping.
‘The sensitivity for materials and structure is repeated in the building and the way in which it is placed. Built into the dynamic of landscape forms, the buildings seem to have grown together with the land from whose raw materials they were built. As geometric forms they illustrate a simple interrelationship between their parts, the scale of their functions is natural and obvious, they relate to a clearly defined axes and show subtle differences in their detailing.’ 11
Relationship to ground as a result of topography has historically had an influence on the plan form and composition of settlements. Steep valley sides have resulted in linear formations of terraces arranged either along the contour or stepping up the hillside. On flatter ground, arrangements can take many different forms and might be more dependent on the cultural requirements of the locality.
In new mass development, composed of pattern book layouts, little consideration is usually given to the lie of the land, and they are planned as if the site were entirely flat. This results in the ground needing to be levelled during construction. This misses opportunities for views, passive solar gains and a rational form and scale derived from a more considered response to topography, as well as contributing to the slow deterioration of regional identity.
Employing a framework derived from understanding and responding to a landscape is also beneficial in integrating new development into the existing fabric of settlements through order, form and spatial organisation.
For example, in rural farming areas, analysis of local farmsteads might enable us to identify a tradition and character in the composition of dwellings and their out buildings. This observation can inform the design of new development which relates to existing farmsteads in its geometry and layout, and makes a positive contribution to the locality. Proposals may take on ‘constellation’ type plans which originate from traditional villages where houses are grouped, yet independent of each other. In this way, several buildings can be arranged in such a way that they are legible as a single entity, whilst each structure still possesses its individual and different character.
Interpreting the geometry, compositions and scale, proportion and interval, order and spatial continuity, and re-casting them in a new light, leads to analogous spaces - spatial relationships which are analogous to those within existing settlements of the region. This enables communities to identify with the new buildings or spaces, because similar feelings will be evoked.
“ Perhaps this is what analogous architecture is all about - the search for familiar emotions, engendered by realist architecture, which strikes a chord with us and makes us try to understand what we are actually feeling. 12 ”
To commercially-minded developers, it is simple and economical to deliver generalised layouts to various localities around the UK, but who profits from this way of doing things? How does the region benefit? What effect does this approach have on regional identity and cultural diversity?
We advocate a design approach which ensures that new buildings are not conceived in isolation of context and with which people cannot identify. Creating a sense of place and belonging requires an understanding and critical response to the site and landscape, especially in terms of geometry, scale and materials. To summarise, we have outlined four key steps to understanding and responding to landscape - and it is not possible to get to the final step without completing the first three - :
- to formulate and test an approach to fieldwork: The spatial, temporal, historical, cultural and environmental concerns of sites are experienced and recorded through fieldwork and deep mapping practices,
- to critically record and analyse the fieldwork:
- to interrogate the research and translate it into a narrative for an architectural proposition.
- to design a new place that is honest and experienced, and which is ordered formally and spatially through historical and analytically informed geometries, expressive of regional and cultural conditions.
Only through a thorough understanding and interpretation of the landscape can new development address culture and heritage, have a critical attitude to landscape and locality, and be formulated not from the perspective of nostalgia and preservation through replicating the existing, but through the acceptance that landscapes and places have to be adaptable and responsive to change.
Footnotes
1 Kenneth Frampton, A Critical History of Modern Architecture, 3rd edn (London: Thames and Hudson, 1992)
2 Florian Musso, ‘Simply Good’, in Building Simply, ed. By Christian Schittich (Germany: Birkhäuser, 2005)
3 Ibid
4 Adolf Loos, ‘Rules for those Building in the Mountains’, in 2G International Architectural Review, no. 14
5 Kenneth Frampton, A Critical History of Modern Architecture, 3rd edn (London: Thames and Hudson, 1992)
6 Suzanne Ewing, Architecture and Field/Work, (Routledge, 2010)
7 Denis Cosgrove, ‘Cultural Cartography: maps and mapping in cultural geography’, in Annales de Géographie 660-661 (March 2008)
8 Andrea Kahn, Architecture and Field/Work, (Routledge, 2010)
9 Christopher Tilley, Body and Image: Explorations in landscape phenomenology (Left Coast Press, 2008)
10 Kenneth Frampton, A Critical History of Modern Architecture, 3rd edn (London: Thames and Hudson, 1992)
11 Raimund Abraham, Elementare Architektur: Architectonics (Salzburg: Pustet, 2001)
12 Martin Steinmann, Matter of Art (Birkhäuser, 2001)
Image references
01A Haus am Sturcherwald, Bernado Bader Architects
01B School, Paspels, Valerio Olgiati
01C School, Vella, Bearth and Deplazes
02 Process model to understand topography, existing enclosure and built form, Wye Valley. Images: ALT-Architecture
03 Fieldwork sketches: composition of built form, hill town, Croatia and monasteries, Meteora. Images: Rhian Thomas ALT-Architecture
04 Deep mapping Study; Literary Geography of Vale of Ewyas. Images: Rhian Thomas ALT-Architecture
05 Settlement morphology: Carmarthen. Images: Rhian Thomas ALT-Architecture
06 OLGIATI Bardill Studio: Scharans, Switzerland, Valerio Olgiati link and link
07 Mädcheninternat Kloster Disentis: Switzerland, Gion Antoni Caminada
08 Maierhof Housing Development: Vorarlberg, Feld72. Photographs: Hertha Hurnaus