Open Building is an internationally recognized approach to the design of buildings and building complexes with roots in the way the ordinary built environment grows and regenerates. The Open Building approach recognizes that both stability and change are realities to be managed in the contemporary built environment. Buildings – and the neighborhoods they occupy – are not static during the most stable times or during times of rapid social and technical change. They are living organisms that need constant adjustments to remain attractive, safe and valuable.
Using case studies of built projects from around the world, this book explains the Open Building approach and discusses important characteristics of everyday built environment that the Open Building approach designs for. It also presents a key method that can be used to put the approach into use. It addresses questions such as:
• How can we design large projects for inevitable change?
• How can we balance the demands of large projects for efficient implementation with the need for ‘fine-grained’ decision-making control?
• How can we separate design tasks, one task being the design of what should last a century, the other task being the design of more mutable units of occupancy?
• How can we identify and share architectural themes and, at the same time, make variations on them?
• How can we use the Open Building approach to steward the earth’s scarce resources and contribute to a circular economy that benefits all people?
This book is an essential resource for practitioners, investors and developers, regulators, builders, product manufacturers and educators interested in why the Open Building approach matters and how to practice Open Building.
Author(s): Stephen H. Kendall; N. John Habraken
Series: Routledge Open Building
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2024
Language: English
Pages: xiii; 220
City: Abingdon
Tags: Architectural design--Methodology; Buildings--Utilization
Cover
Endorsements
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
Focus on Practice
Separating Design Tasks
Separating Design Tasks Requires Cooperation
What We Mean by Everyday Built Environment
The Open Building Approach Started with a Focus on Large Housing Projects
The Open Building Approach has Broader Applications than Housing
Improving Our Skills
Who We Hope Will Read this Book
The Structure of the Book
Built Projects that Exemplify the Open Building Approach
Background
What Open Building Designs For
Examples of the Open Building Approach in Practice
Urban or Campus Design
Sydhavnen/Sluseholmen: Copenhagen Harbor, Copenhagen, Denmark
Westpolder Bolwerk: Berkel en Rodenrijs, the Netherlands
Katwijk Inner Harbor Project: Katwijk, the Netherlands
Master Plan for the Inselspital Hospital Campus: Bern, Switzerland
Residential
Molenvliet: Papendrecht, the Netherlands
NEXT21: Osaka, Japan
Plus-Home: Arabianranta, Helsinki, Finland
TILA: Helsinki, Finland
TOPUP: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Healthcare
INO Intensive Care Facility: Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland
Sammy Ofer Heart Building: Tel Aviv, Israel
Oregon Health Center: Portland, Oregon, USA
Education
Shenzhen University Engineering School: Shenzhen, PR China
Santa Monica High School Discovery Building: Los Angeles, California, USA
The Open Building Approach Explained
The Origins of the Approach
The Prototypical Urban Problem, Not Limited to Housing
Basic Terminology
The Problem of Evaluation
The Problem of Coordination
Using the Approach: Operations, Communication and Evaluation
Designing a Base Building
Five Characteristics of Everyday Built Environment that Open Building Designs For
Introduction
An Explanatory Note
Separating Design Tasks: Deciding What Is Shared and What Is Decided Independently
Separation of Design Tasks in Urban Design or Campus Planning
Separation of Design Tasks Has Been Commonplace in Office Buildings and Shopping Centers
Separation of Design Tasks Is Becoming Familiar in Healthcare Facilities
Multifamily and Attached Housing Continues to Ignore Separation of Design Tasks
Thematic Design: Sharing Themes and Making Variations
Enabling Coherence with Variety
A Natural Phenomenon
Patterns
Systems, Variants and Structure
Designing with Themes
The Importance of Territory
Understanding Territory Helps Us with the Distribution of Control
Control of Space
The Inherent Hierarchy in Built Environment
Levels
The Levels Model Helps in Several Important Ways
Historical Examples of the Use of Levels
Levels and Change
Relating to a Higher Level
Relating to a Lower Level
Relations on the Same Level
The Disappearance of Levels
Levels and Our Modernist Legacy
The Emergence of an Infill Level
Balancing Permanence and Change
Technical Strategies for Handling Change
Change and Large Projects
The Importance of Studies of Change in the Built Environment
Capacity Analysis – A Key Tool of the Open Building Approach
Introduction
What Is Capacity Analysis?
Capacity Analysis as Part of a Design Process
A Methodological Problem
Evaluating Possible Uses
How Capacity Links Form to Function
The Use of Zones and Margins
Zones and Margins as Part of Capacity Analysis
Zones and Margins in Urban Design
Using Zones and Margins in Housing Design
Sectors
Basic Variants
Grids as Design Tools for Buildings and Urban Tissues
Kinds of Grids
Grids in Urban Design
Summary of the Use of Grids in Designing
A Detailed Study of Capacity Analysis in Adaptive Reuse – Office to Residential
The Challenge of Conversion of Office Buildings to Residential Use
Getting the Design Constraints Right
Studying MEP Constraints is a First Step for Capacity Analysis
DWV Systems in an Open Building Design Strategy
Description of Fixtures
Toilets
Organizing Piping ‘Traffic’ Inside Infill Partitions
Capacity Analysis Study of the Kales Building
An Open Building Alternative to Conversion
Vertical MEP Pipe Shaft Positioning Study
A Design Process for Conversion Using Capacity Analysis
Step 1 – Initial Floor Plan Study Process
Step 2 – Placing Demising Walls to Create Basic Unit Sizes and Margins
Step 3 – Developing an Individual Dwelling Unit
Step 4 – Placing Rooms Inside the Unit
Step 5 – Locate the MEP Stacks
Using the Constraints
Organizing Drainage Piping in a Bathroom in Three Variants
Conclusions
How a Residential Infill Industry Will Change the Culture of Building
Introduction
An Outdated Residential Industry Culture
One Developer’s Perspective
How Infill Companies Would Work
A Question of Business Structure and Culture
Developments Toward an Infill Industry in PR China
Governmental Initiatives
Heneng
An Example of a Heneng Installation
Problems with Heneng and Recent Developments
V3 System Development
Photographs of the V3 Industrialized Infill System
Redefining Base Building and Infill Contents
What We Have Learned
Open Building and Government
What We Should Be Arguing For
Postscript 1: Toward a New Research Agenda
Postscript 2: Tools of The Trade
The Quality of the Commons
Appendices
Appendix One: A Brief Overview of the International Open Building Movement
Appendix Two: Sources of Information of the Open Building Approach, Thematic Design and a Glossary of Terms
Glossary of Key Terms
Index
