Loose-Fit Architecture: Designing Buildings for Change
September/October 2017 Profile 249 Volume 87 No 5 ISBN 978 1119 152644
Guest-Edited by Alex Lifschutz
The idea that a building is 'finished' or 'complete' on the day it opens its doors is hardwired into existing thinking about design, planning and construction. But this ignores the unprecedented rate of social and technological change. A building only begins its life when the contractors leave. With resources at a premium and a greater need for a sustainable use of building materials, can we still afford to construct new housing or indeed any buildings that ignore the need for flexibility or the ability to evolve over time? Our design culture needs to move beyond the idealisation of a creative individual designer generating highly specific forms with fixed uses. The possibilities of adaptation and flexibility have often been overlooked, but they create hugely exciting 'loose-fit' architectures that emancipate users to create their own versatile and vibrant environments.
Contributors include: Stewart Brand, Renee Chow, Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson, John Habraken, Edwin Heathcote, Despina Katsakakis, Stephen Kendall, Ian Lambot, Giorgio Macchi, Alexi Marmot, Andrea Martin, Kazunobu Minami, Peter Murray, Brett Steele, and Simon Sturgis.
Guest editor:
Alex Lifschutz
Imprint: John Wiley & Sons Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 279mm,
Width: 206mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 635g
ISBN: 9781119152644
ISBN 10: 111915264X
Series: Architectural Design
Pages: 144
Publication Date: 22 September 2017
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
About the Guest-Editor 05 Alex Lifschutz Introduction Long Life, Loose Fit, Low Energy 06 Alex Lifschutz Back to the Future The Everyday Built Environment in a Phase of Transition 18 John Habraken Learning from the West Coast: Long-Termism and Change An Interview with Stewart Brand 24 Peter Murray NEUBAU Flexible Self-Build Cities in Germany 30 Anne-Julchen Bernhardt and Jörg Leeser Japanese Innovation in Adaptable Homes 38 Kazunobu Minami Adaptability A Low-Carbon Strategy 46 Simon Sturgis Four Decades of Open Building Implementation Realising Individual Agency in Architectural Infrastructures Designed to Last 54 Stephen Kendall The Fetish of Flexibility Farrell/Grimshaw Partnership, 125 Park Road, London 64 Edwin Heathcote Flexible Architecture for Evolving Work Practices 68 Despina Katsikakis System Separation A Fitting Strategy for Future Development 76 Giorgio Macchi Dead and Dying Shopping Malls, Re-Inhabited 84 Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson Shaping Mexico City Evolutionary Housing for Low-Income Urban Families 92 Andrea Martin and Jorge Andrade Educational Innovation through Building Adaptation 96 Alexi Marmot Revolution and Evolution The Architectural Association 106 Clare Wright Continuity and Change Challenging the Disposable Chinese City 114 Renee Y Chow Self-Build and Change Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong 122 Ian Lambot Designing Landscapes for Change Albertopolis 130 Kim Wilkie Counterpoint Mixing Up the Mediterranean Model Architecture Amid Urban Flux 136 Luca Molinari Contributors 142
Alex Lifschutz is the Director of London-based practice Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. Lifschutz co-founded the firm (with the late Ian Davidson) in 1986, after working for Foster Associates. It is now a 100-strong practice. Central to the practice's work is the 'long-life, loose-fit' ethos, which considers the life of buildings beyond their immediate future. The office also has a particular expertise in the creative reuse of historic buildings, from the Oxo Tower refurbishment of the 1990s to a number of sensitive interventions in buildings in Westminster, to a string of innovative retail spaces in historic luxury department stores across Europe. The practice has made an essential contribution to the regeneration of London's South Bank.?Lifschutz is Past President of the Architectural Association and is Chair of Body & Soul, a charity devoted to children and teenagers affected by HIV.
