The 2006 Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition has the topic of "The Planless House" Abbreviated description: This is a competition for the Planless House. It is generally thought that the plan is a means for describing lifestyle. The fundamental principle of this descriptive technique is division through the device of walls. People understand the lines on a drawing indicating the walls as describing the essence of a house. Yet should a house be walls? Why can we not describe a house just by furniture? Why can we not describe a house just by tableware? Or what about a descriptive method using only floor textures? Or it would also be possible to describe a house in terms of air temperature or malodorous places due to wind flows. If this is investigated more thoroughly, the house could also be said to somehow become a manifestation of its era. The competition thus concerns a "planless" condition.
More here.
In an earlier thread, I was intrigued by the following statment:
There are interestingly few rooms with assigned functions in the (Katsura) villa. No library, no bedroom, no xxxx. Cool thing about Japanese architecture from the 16th century was that rooms were named for the experience more than the function, so the moon viewing room was a great place to do that, but its function was open...
An architectural program is as much a means for "describing lifestyle" as the plan is, being the primary means in which the program is delineated in a house, so a project challenging the definition of plan would, by extension, also challenge the idea of program. This is the aspect of this brief that has piqued my interest.
I agree. It's a fascinating brief full of potential. Yesterday, my partner and I drove by a small FL Wright house in northwest Evanston. It was built in 1905 and is setup around a spatial and experience that is then expressed in the architecture whereas the neighbors are nouns put together like trains: this is what a front door is, this is an elevation, etc. Think of Koolhaas's house for the disabled man and his family in France. It has the moving platform and creates an experience rather than being a collection of accessible pieces. When you rethink things on this level, you can come up with some fascinating stuff. And this process is open to us mere mortals! ;-) I bet that it is possible to come up with a half-a-dozen compelling diagrams that illustrate different approaches to this question...
Japanese architecture is an Amazon of movements, ideas, problems and solutions, many of which contradict each other. You can find all kinds of great stuff in it! The author makes some very good points.
I realise that this may be the dumbest question to date but I need to get some clarity... When they say NO ELECTRONIC MEDIA, what exactly does that mean? Does it include stuff like floorplans in CAD or just that I shouldn't bother submitting my crappy 3D renderings?
haha, i answered that before chking the website, and now i most admit, the way that it is written implies that you should use, pen, pencils etc.....hmmmmmmm so could be that they really mean NO
use of computer at all.
now wouldnt that be fun for all those ppl raised only on the computer!
Hehe, yeah, in 99 cases out of a hundred I would have made the same assumption, but the website made it sound like there was at least a POSSIBILITY that they're looking for hand-drawn projects only.
It's not a problem for me either way, but I wouldn't want to spend time on a competition only to be disqualified cause I've used the wrong tools.
I don't think it said handwork.... They said photos were ok. I think they are trying to exclude people sending them videos or pdf files on disks. They don't want people to copy images off the web or from books...
If you look at the recent winning entries in Japan Architect almost all of them include digital models and drawings. It is very misleading, but as far as I can remember, they have always listed the same critieria for the competition and they just mean that everything should be printed on paper.
no, I think it's actually too vague to actually mean anything.
same category as 'heterotopia' and 'affordances', words that just describe conditions that exist wether or not we give them a name.
planeless house sounds poetic enough, but a house is very obviously not described solely by its walls and you can probably find way too many examples of houses defined by furniture or ambiguous surfaces that morph from walls to floors.
poetic but not challenging. or maybe that's the real challenge.
but is it always just one judge (this year Kengo Kuma)?
If you look at the recent winning entries in Japan Architect almost all of them include digital models and drawings. It is very misleading, but as far as I can remember, they have always listed the same critieria for the competition and they just mean that everything should be printed on paper.
I think you're right. I entered the year Renzo Piano was a judge--his criticism was fascinating. Make a distinction between electronic and print media... Then you're on the right track. They don't want people sending them burned cds.
they're all just kidding.
of course you can use the computer. the people at shinkenjiku just don't want digital media files. anything that is printed out will be fine.
May 22, 06 5:16 pm ·
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The Planless House
The 2006 Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition has the topic of "The Planless House" Abbreviated description:
This is a competition for the Planless House. It is generally thought that the plan is a means for describing lifestyle. The fundamental principle of this descriptive technique is division through the device of walls. People understand the lines on a drawing indicating the walls as describing the essence of a house. Yet should a house be walls? Why can we not describe a house just by furniture? Why can we not describe a house just by tableware? Or what about a descriptive method using only floor textures? Or it would also be possible to describe a house in terms of air temperature or malodorous places due to wind flows. If this is investigated more thoroughly, the house could also be said to somehow become a manifestation of its era. The competition thus concerns a "planless" condition.
More here.
In an earlier thread, I was intrigued by the following statment:
There are interestingly few rooms with assigned functions in the (Katsura) villa. No library, no bedroom, no xxxx. Cool thing about Japanese architecture from the 16th century was that rooms were named for the experience more than the function, so the moon viewing room was a great place to do that, but its function was open...
An architectural program is as much a means for "describing lifestyle" as the plan is, being the primary means in which the program is delineated in a house, so a project challenging the definition of plan would, by extension, also challenge the idea of program. This is the aspect of this brief that has piqued my interest.
I agree. It's a fascinating brief full of potential. Yesterday, my partner and I drove by a small FL Wright house in northwest Evanston. It was built in 1905 and is setup around a spatial and experience that is then expressed in the architecture whereas the neighbors are nouns put together like trains: this is what a front door is, this is an elevation, etc. Think of Koolhaas's house for the disabled man and his family in France. It has the moving platform and creates an experience rather than being a collection of accessible pieces. When you rethink things on this level, you can come up with some fascinating stuff. And this process is open to us mere mortals! ;-) I bet that it is possible to come up with a half-a-dozen compelling diagrams that illustrate different approaches to this question...
Japanese architecture is an Amazon of movements, ideas, problems and solutions, many of which contradict each other. You can find all kinds of great stuff in it! The author makes some very good points.
there
http://images.google.com/images?q=artist+loft&hl=en
before
after
not there
http://www.museumpeace.com/10/0928.htm
I was 3 when that cascading Green Enfilade was drawn...
curiously, this was on Archidose a week ago...
(nice use of stencils, by the way)
i was thinking of that one too, ap. was published in the arch record last month.
it's not so much that it doesn't have plans as it is that very little about the building can be understood from looking at a plan.
"Dear Otto and Maria, I just found that Sphinx on Uranus. I will use it as inspiration if you ever ask me to design your next house."
--http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=32189_0_42_0_C, 01/25/06 11:58
[AP, it dawned on me the other night that you read me the best, because whenever there's been speculation here about me you're always right.]
i like walls.
In fact, you can never have enough walls or columns for that matter.
I realise that this may be the dumbest question to date but I need to get some clarity... When they say NO ELECTRONIC MEDIA, what exactly does that mean? Does it include stuff like floorplans in CAD or just that I shouldn't bother submitting my crappy 3D renderings?
*no electronic media* means do not send in CDs/DVDs, send only printed sheets.
haha, i answered that before chking the website, and now i most admit, the way that it is written implies that you should use, pen, pencils etc.....hmmmmmmm so could be that they really mean NO
use of computer at all.
now wouldnt that be fun for all those ppl raised only on the computer!
Hehe, yeah, in 99 cases out of a hundred I would have made the same assumption, but the website made it sound like there was at least a POSSIBILITY that they're looking for hand-drawn projects only.
It's not a problem for me either way, but I wouldn't want to spend time on a competition only to be disqualified cause I've used the wrong tools.
jaja, thats the thing! i guess if ppl are going to do this comp, you HAVE to do all handwork - OR it might be all for nothing.
interesting...
I don't think it said handwork.... They said photos were ok. I think they are trying to exclude people sending them videos or pdf files on disks. They don't want people to copy images off the web or from books...
If you look at the recent winning entries in Japan Architect almost all of them include digital models and drawings. It is very misleading, but as far as I can remember, they have always listed the same critieria for the competition and they just mean that everything should be printed on paper.
Although I just looked up the brief for 2004 which states:
Media: Pencil, ink, blueprints, photostats, photographs, colored drawings, and so on are acceptable.
It looks like they have added "NO ELECTRONIC MEDIA",so its possible this has changed this year.
hejduk, terragni, hypostile hall(s)...
instantly set as desktop background.
Bye House and Danteum and a little bit of Villa Massimo and a little little bit of me.
anyone have a link to last year's winners online?
"no electronic media" means you can't use computers. you need to hand draft. read the website clearly and you'll understand.
Looks like an awesome competition. be interesting to see how it goes. just hope people don't take it too literally though.
no, I think it's actually too vague to actually mean anything.
same category as 'heterotopia' and 'affordances', words that just describe conditions that exist wether or not we give them a name.
planeless house sounds poetic enough, but a house is very obviously not described solely by its walls and you can probably find way too many examples of houses defined by furniture or ambiguous surfaces that morph from walls to floors.
poetic but not challenging. or maybe that's the real challenge.
but is it always just one judge (this year Kengo Kuma)?
I think you're right. I entered the year Renzo Piano was a judge--his criticism was fascinating. Make a distinction between electronic and print media... Then you're on the right track. They don't want people sending them burned cds.
well, i think i'll do hand drawings, they look better usually.
I agree. Good hand drawings that ilustrate well-thought-out and seductive ideas will rule the roost! Good luck!!!!
why they don't want people to use computer? that's stupid.
anyone is going to use computer anyway?
they're all just kidding.
of course you can use the computer. the people at shinkenjiku just don't want digital media files. anything that is printed out will be fine.
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