Ecology of Occupation – Michael Trudgen

In this weeks lecture, Michael Trudgen gave a lecture on the topic of the ‘Ecology of Occupation’ and the concept that form is a verb. The lecture discussed the beginning of purpose design and user centred design and how it filtered through to modern times and where it has gone today. The Paris Design school, Ecol de Bosar in the 19^th century had very strict and traditional design rules about how buildings where designed and in very traditional ways. In 1873, ‘History of a house’ was written – which gave its readers the first insight into user centred design. It was the first time that the user had been though of first and what they want in a building – designing from the inside out (design had previously been all about the buildings façade), which reflected the French interest into social relationships.

Previously in France the ideas about architectural design were reflected well in the chateaus in the 13^th – 16^th century. With highly detailed facades yet on the inside, hardly any rooms, perhaps one instead multiple living rooms – despite the huge space they had at their disposal. These buildings had no concept of program but simply only on the look of the building.

The Italian designers at the time where interested in mathematical proportions and believed that buildings were to be seen and admired at a distance, in a way the buildings became to figure ground for the whole image. But meanwhile in the French renaissance they thought, what if the space was the figure ground and the building was the background? They began to put space first and think about what was taking place in the building – it was now an active space and no longer static. An example of this idea being explored was the development of hotels.

Hotels became a system of rooms, lodging – showing space as the foreground. The French began to cluster together their rooms in larger houses – being the birth of the apartment. The apartment was a series of programs, which could be stacked together inside on large program. These apartments were again part of the French social engagement and developments in the art of convocation.

Private houses celebrated the French idea of social interaction, and status. For example, the bed would not be for sleeping but a status symbol. The French had a habit of naming all small spaces, for example the space between the bed and wall called the Reuel – a luxury and status symbol and assigning a program to the small space.

A social revolution was happening lead by the women, becoming the hostess of the society and the dinner party began to grow and the home became the setting on where the private lives took place and space became a medium for experimentation. A new design of hotels began, a city chateau, build around a courtyard these were places where used as stabilizes, sometimes these spaces were not all obvious but little pockets and alcoves that were all different in shape and size. These alcoves lent them selves to the new idea that there was an experience to be had as one walked through the space. A series of connected rooms creating a spatial drama, making you one moment in command and feel big in the space, and small and in awe of the space.

The idea of occupation began to grow and an interest in residential spaces took off. The residential spaces created a boarder between public and private boarder – meaning space was the defining figure and showed the art of distribution and organization.  The French façade began to explain to the outside what the spaces where like on the inside, it was believed they has Italian detail, and gothic facades – and for example the large windows showed the outside that the inside was light and more enjoyable to live in.

In the 20^th century the Domino plan was discovered as a way to link the French design thinking to modernism thanks to Le Corbusier. This meant that concrete plates were stacked and then I was decided what to put on these levels, which were then wrapped, essentially wrapping the activity and holding up the interior.

During the 19^th to 21^st century the public space began to collapse. Charles Booth created one of the first socio-geographical maps of London, mapping where the poverty and disease where in the city and the results basically showed these were higher in higher populated areas. This lead to the beginning of suburbia. The idea of suburbia was to separate people and isolating them into houses with large gardens so they would have less contact as when they were in the city. This began to spread and people began to move around – metastasis. Convention that people can take on a space is important to how the spaces are modified, and the buildings again became an organism.

There a few examples of how program has been re introduced into design are from the World Expo shows. The 1970 Osaka Pavilion was a radical design, constructed by texture and designed to be a building that people could go into the building and design his or her own experience, an active space.  The Roden Crater by James Turrell is another example of ecology of space was cosmic the concept of the design was centred on the idea that your thoughts and ideas could inhabit space with you, where you where to see yourself observing eternity. 

The 2002 World Expo in Switzerland showed off ‘Blur’ a structure, which was created through water mist. The whole space took minutes to create and then disappear again after the vapour fell. And once more, form was a verb.