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Le Seuil Franchi… logement populaire et vie quotidienne en Suisse romande, 1860–1960
IBOOIX$ IIBVIIEW$ Le Seuil F r a n c h i . . . logement populaire et vie quotidienne en Suisse romande, 1860-1960 Roderick J. Lawrence, Georg Editeur, Geneva (1986) Readers of Design Studies will, no doubt, be familiar with the work of Roderick Lawrence. He has published widely over the last ten years or so, and several of his papers have appeared in this journal. 'Le seuil franchi . . . ' is his first book, and unlike his more recent 'Housing, Dwellings, and Homes' (1987), see review in Design Studies October 1988 which is essentially a compilation and reworking of earlier publications, constitutes a selfcontained study with a single theme: popular housing in francophone Switzerland in the century after 1860. The thrust of Lawrence's argument is that domestic architecture is the outcome of diverse, and sometimes complex influences, and that in order to understand the way domestic space is used, it is necessary to draw on the full range of available source material, not just the evidence of the buildings themselves. To illustrate this, he takes three different Swiss towns - Geneva, Fribourg, and Le Locle - and analyses developments in housing through a combination of the material evidence - a survey of a hundred or so dwellings - and a variety of textual sources, from prosaic tenancy agreements and official publications to the graphic, if tangential, commentaries on domestic life furnished by contemporary novels and newspapers. Historically, the Swiss experience reflects many of the pressures and influences that went to shape housing in England, France and Germany over the same period: a growing concern, at the outset, with overcrowding and mortality, and an associated demand for housing that
Vol 10 No 1 January 1989
was both cheap and hygienic; the subsequent intervention of philanthropists and industrialists into the housing market; and finally, the functionalist ideals of modern architects which, during this century, were instrumental in transforming both the internal organization of the dwelling and its relationship to the outside. From his field survey, Lawrence identifies five building types: two sorts of tenement building with access to several fiats per floor, the self-contained fiat, the terraced dwelling, and the cottage dwelling. Four of them are urban types, one suburban. This typology he applies to each of the three cities in turn, showing how the incidence and the character of each type varied from one place to another. In order to bring out the changes that took place in the way the dwelling relates to the street, he accompanies each of his type-plans with a diagrammatic representation of its access pattern from the street, first as was customary before 1930, and then as became usual after 1930. These diagrams, which are based on the 'justified' access graphs used so effectively by Bill Hillier and his colleagues at University College London, highlight the growing separation of the dwelling from the street. On the one hand, the graph increases in 'depth', through the insertion of additional external spaces (mostly gardens) between the street and the block; on the other, the dwelling becomes insulated from the old communal areas (galleries, walkways), leaving behind spaces whose only function is that of circulation. The question of access is, of course, intimately related to geometry and dimensions, and it is a pity that Lawrence does not explore this relationship more systematically. Though he notes the increase in metric depth that was associated with the internal location of service spaces (bathrooms, etc.) he does not examine the interplay between topology to geometry, i.e. between the access pattern and the shape and size
of the block - something that is crucial to an understanding of the internal logic of the dwelling. And though the very complete appendices give us the opportunity to look at the plans for ourselves, the information supplied is rather uneven: a good number of the plans show both the width and depth of the block, but others provide neither scale nor dimensions. With a sharper morphological analysis, one feels that his neat typology would fairly soon begin to break apart. To confine our criticisms to spatial analysis would perhaps be unjust in view of the extensive use the author makes of documentary and archival sources. Indeed, this two-pronged method of analysis is central to the study. But here again, there is little that is really new, either in the method or its application. And most people, I think, would readily concede the importance of 'a contextual and temporal perspective' in studying building use. Archaeologists, faced with the difficult task of interpreting the function of material artefacts, have been only too happy to make use of whatever textual evidence is available to them; both ethnographic and historical data can prove invaluable. In calling for a comprehensive theoretical framework, Lawrence seems to elevate a well-accepted view to the status of theory and methodology, and he promulgates this with a proselytizing zeal out of all proportion with its originality. However, much we may agree on the historical and social specificity of patterns of use and meaning, the central concern, for architects and archaeologists alike, must be with the consistent and predictable relations between society and building form. In steering away from the pitfalls of architectural determinism, Lawrence underplays the analysis of space and form, and this, in my view, prevents his study from being as productive as it might have been. Though neither theoretically innovative nor always as rigorous as it should be, Lawrence's study pursues
75
its aims clearly and purposefully, and supplies us with a good body of original data. It is for these reasons to be welcomed. If architectural knowledge remains undeveloped, it is a mistake to attribute this lack of an appropriate theoretical perspective. Architecture has never been short on 'theory' - most of it, of course, being nothing more than empty waffle or propaganda. What are needed are the kinds of decent scholarly and analytical studies by which we can begin to lift ourselves up by our boot-straps. These studies may not lead to a global theory of architecture - at least not in the short term - but they should help to push things forward a bit. And this, 'pari passu', should help steadily to improve the quality of design. The field of housing, to which Lawrence addresses himself, is one where good design matters more than most. Frank Brown
CADD made easy: a comprehensive guide for architects Anthony Radford and Garry Stevens, McGraw-Hill, New York (1987), £35.00 This is an attractive book. It is clearly laid out, well written on the whole, and liberally illustrated. Chapters are divided into 'major' and 'secondary' texts. In the words of the authors the major text provides the essential information and develops the themes of the book, while the secondary text provides background, technical detail, extensions into further, less central areas and detailed examples. There is a thirty-page glossary of terms. The context is set with a brief historical sketch of developments in architectural computing as well as of computing in general. The contribution of the University of Sydney Department of Architectural Science is rightly mentioned, but that of the pioneers in England is not. The result is a somewhat American view of history.
76
There is a fairly good description of existing computer hardware. The description of successive generations of computers in terms of hardware alone is misleading. The chapter on software contains a useful survey of thirteen high-level languages, which could with benefit have been expanded to give a more consistent treatment. Databases are well treated. Having covered hardware and software the authors move on to applications. A general introduction to wordprocessors, spreadsheets, databases, electronic mail and management software is quite good. Straightforward chapters follow on computer-aided draughting and design with lots of illustrations. A step-by-step example shows how to enter a plan of a simple building into the computer. There is an up-to-date chapter on intelligent knowledgebased systems with examples. The book concludes with a good section dealing with how to select a computer and software as well as with some related issues. While it is clearly an introductory text for beginners, the authors claim that it may also be used as a reference book. To the extent that most topics are treated at an introductory level this is the case, but there is not really enough detail for serious reference use. There is a tendency to accept statements from third parties at face value. For example, the benefits of 'using large-scale networks to access large databases' are supposed to include precision. Very often one may experience considerable frustration when searching for items that do not fit the precise categories of a particular database. Again, in the discussion of the Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES), the system is described adequately and clearly but no indication is given of its many limitations, for example, of the need to fine-tune an IGES translator to a particular pair of CAD packages. The discussion of computer-aided design studies in environmental
modelling gives equal weight to calculation of daylight factors that have little or no scientific basis and to artificial lighting schemes which do. It is asserted that models of acoustic behaviour tend to fall into two groups: 'extremely simple (almost simplistic for real-life situations) or extremely complex (beyond the scope of generalist architects)'. Apparently this is not true of thermal performance models. Optimization is touched upon briefly, but there is unfortunately only passing reference to an area where the authors can claim considerable personal expertise: multicriterion optimization. More detail would have been interesting here in place of modesty. The book has a slightly reductionist tone, as evidenced by the statement, 'It is management of time, resources and i n f o r m a t i o n that makes possible everything else.' The authors redeem themselves by including an entertaining anecdote about an automatic lighting control system which makes it impossible to darken a room in order to show slides. Ironically, the statement that we are still quite short of design aids that address the really important problems in architecture is followed by a series of examples, several of which could be said to make this very point. Probably the biggest shortcoming in the book is its treatment of the human-computer interface (HCI). This has been recognized as being of increasing importance as technical problems are solved. Aspects of this are touched upon in several places, but it might have merited a chapter to itself. Somewhat inappropriately, HCI is discussed in the context of software only. Elsewhere ergonomics is mentioned, but in its narrowest sense of physical dimensions for desks and so forth. H u m a n needs are briefly aired at the end of the book. It is a good book. The material is accessible and up-to-date. Since it is virtually impossible to be au fait with all of the topics covered it is probable that the authors have had to take
DESIGN STUDIES
Vol 10 No 1 January 1989
was both cheap and hygienic; the subsequent intervention of philanthropists and industrialists into the housing market; and finally, the functionalist ideals of modern architects which, during this century, were instrumental in transforming both the internal organization of the dwelling and its relationship to the outside. From his field survey, Lawrence identifies five building types: two sorts of tenement building with access to several fiats per floor, the self-contained fiat, the terraced dwelling, and the cottage dwelling. Four of them are urban types, one suburban. This typology he applies to each of the three cities in turn, showing how the incidence and the character of each type varied from one place to another. In order to bring out the changes that took place in the way the dwelling relates to the street, he accompanies each of his type-plans with a diagrammatic representation of its access pattern from the street, first as was customary before 1930, and then as became usual after 1930. These diagrams, which are based on the 'justified' access graphs used so effectively by Bill Hillier and his colleagues at University College London, highlight the growing separation of the dwelling from the street. On the one hand, the graph increases in 'depth', through the insertion of additional external spaces (mostly gardens) between the street and the block; on the other, the dwelling becomes insulated from the old communal areas (galleries, walkways), leaving behind spaces whose only function is that of circulation. The question of access is, of course, intimately related to geometry and dimensions, and it is a pity that Lawrence does not explore this relationship more systematically. Though he notes the increase in metric depth that was associated with the internal location of service spaces (bathrooms, etc.) he does not examine the interplay between topology to geometry, i.e. between the access pattern and the shape and size
of the block - something that is crucial to an understanding of the internal logic of the dwelling. And though the very complete appendices give us the opportunity to look at the plans for ourselves, the information supplied is rather uneven: a good number of the plans show both the width and depth of the block, but others provide neither scale nor dimensions. With a sharper morphological analysis, one feels that his neat typology would fairly soon begin to break apart. To confine our criticisms to spatial analysis would perhaps be unjust in view of the extensive use the author makes of documentary and archival sources. Indeed, this two-pronged method of analysis is central to the study. But here again, there is little that is really new, either in the method or its application. And most people, I think, would readily concede the importance of 'a contextual and temporal perspective' in studying building use. Archaeologists, faced with the difficult task of interpreting the function of material artefacts, have been only too happy to make use of whatever textual evidence is available to them; both ethnographic and historical data can prove invaluable. In calling for a comprehensive theoretical framework, Lawrence seems to elevate a well-accepted view to the status of theory and methodology, and he promulgates this with a proselytizing zeal out of all proportion with its originality. However, much we may agree on the historical and social specificity of patterns of use and meaning, the central concern, for architects and archaeologists alike, must be with the consistent and predictable relations between society and building form. In steering away from the pitfalls of architectural determinism, Lawrence underplays the analysis of space and form, and this, in my view, prevents his study from being as productive as it might have been. Though neither theoretically innovative nor always as rigorous as it should be, Lawrence's study pursues
75
its aims clearly and purposefully, and supplies us with a good body of original data. It is for these reasons to be welcomed. If architectural knowledge remains undeveloped, it is a mistake to attribute this lack of an appropriate theoretical perspective. Architecture has never been short on 'theory' - most of it, of course, being nothing more than empty waffle or propaganda. What are needed are the kinds of decent scholarly and analytical studies by which we can begin to lift ourselves up by our boot-straps. These studies may not lead to a global theory of architecture - at least not in the short term - but they should help to push things forward a bit. And this, 'pari passu', should help steadily to improve the quality of design. The field of housing, to which Lawrence addresses himself, is one where good design matters more than most. Frank Brown
CADD made easy: a comprehensive guide for architects Anthony Radford and Garry Stevens, McGraw-Hill, New York (1987), £35.00 This is an attractive book. It is clearly laid out, well written on the whole, and liberally illustrated. Chapters are divided into 'major' and 'secondary' texts. In the words of the authors the major text provides the essential information and develops the themes of the book, while the secondary text provides background, technical detail, extensions into further, less central areas and detailed examples. There is a thirty-page glossary of terms. The context is set with a brief historical sketch of developments in architectural computing as well as of computing in general. The contribution of the University of Sydney Department of Architectural Science is rightly mentioned, but that of the pioneers in England is not. The result is a somewhat American view of history.
76
There is a fairly good description of existing computer hardware. The description of successive generations of computers in terms of hardware alone is misleading. The chapter on software contains a useful survey of thirteen high-level languages, which could with benefit have been expanded to give a more consistent treatment. Databases are well treated. Having covered hardware and software the authors move on to applications. A general introduction to wordprocessors, spreadsheets, databases, electronic mail and management software is quite good. Straightforward chapters follow on computer-aided draughting and design with lots of illustrations. A step-by-step example shows how to enter a plan of a simple building into the computer. There is an up-to-date chapter on intelligent knowledgebased systems with examples. The book concludes with a good section dealing with how to select a computer and software as well as with some related issues. While it is clearly an introductory text for beginners, the authors claim that it may also be used as a reference book. To the extent that most topics are treated at an introductory level this is the case, but there is not really enough detail for serious reference use. There is a tendency to accept statements from third parties at face value. For example, the benefits of 'using large-scale networks to access large databases' are supposed to include precision. Very often one may experience considerable frustration when searching for items that do not fit the precise categories of a particular database. Again, in the discussion of the Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES), the system is described adequately and clearly but no indication is given of its many limitations, for example, of the need to fine-tune an IGES translator to a particular pair of CAD packages. The discussion of computer-aided design studies in environmental
modelling gives equal weight to calculation of daylight factors that have little or no scientific basis and to artificial lighting schemes which do. It is asserted that models of acoustic behaviour tend to fall into two groups: 'extremely simple (almost simplistic for real-life situations) or extremely complex (beyond the scope of generalist architects)'. Apparently this is not true of thermal performance models. Optimization is touched upon briefly, but there is unfortunately only passing reference to an area where the authors can claim considerable personal expertise: multicriterion optimization. More detail would have been interesting here in place of modesty. The book has a slightly reductionist tone, as evidenced by the statement, 'It is management of time, resources and i n f o r m a t i o n that makes possible everything else.' The authors redeem themselves by including an entertaining anecdote about an automatic lighting control system which makes it impossible to darken a room in order to show slides. Ironically, the statement that we are still quite short of design aids that address the really important problems in architecture is followed by a series of examples, several of which could be said to make this very point. Probably the biggest shortcoming in the book is its treatment of the human-computer interface (HCI). This has been recognized as being of increasing importance as technical problems are solved. Aspects of this are touched upon in several places, but it might have merited a chapter to itself. Somewhat inappropriately, HCI is discussed in the context of software only. Elsewhere ergonomics is mentioned, but in its narrowest sense of physical dimensions for desks and so forth. H u m a n needs are briefly aired at the end of the book. It is a good book. The material is accessible and up-to-date. Since it is virtually impossible to be au fait with all of the topics covered it is probable that the authors have had to take
DESIGN STUDIES