TESSELLAR > Blog: August 2007

Friday, August 31, 2007

Quadruple Houses in Malaysia #1

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia is a sprawling campus designed in the 1970s in the southern state of Johor in peninsula Malaysia. The design attempted to create a Malaysian architecture with the use of traditional Malay building forms, but constructed in concrete rather than timber, and the details are blown up. At the entrance, the mosque is an eclectic combination of middle-eastern styles.

An interesting part of the campus is the low-cost housing for workers tucked in a hidden corner. These are what I believe to be the first adaptation of the quadruple house in Malaysia. It is workers housing at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, built in the 1970's. I believe that it was designed by the university's in;house Project Office.

You can see the cross walls above the roof

The houses are more like the ones in the Cite Ouvriere in Mulhouse rather than Frank Lloyd Wright's Quadruple House: most of the houses front a pedestrian footpath, and they are called cluster houses.

It's a public holiday here in Malaysia - we are celebrating Independence Day. I'm afraid there'll be a few more posts about Malaysia!

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Thursday, August 30, 2007

Rizal's House

The octagonal Casa Redonda, where Rizal's pupils would stay

During his exile in Dapitan, Philipine's national hero - Jose Rizal - bought a piece of land near the shore of Talisay near Dapitan. On this land, he built three houses- all made of bamboo, wood, and nipa.

In a letter to his friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt, on December 19, 1893, Rizal described his peaceful life in Dapitan.

"I shall tell you how we lived here. I have three houses - one square, another hexagonal, and the third octagonal. All these houses are made of bamboo, wood, and nipa. I live in the square house, together with my mother, my sister, Trinidad, and my nephew. In the octagonal house live some young boys who are my pupils. The hexagonal house is my barn where I keep my chickens."

"From my house, I hear the murmur of a clear brook which comes from the high rocks. I see the seashore where I keep two boats, which are called barotos here.
I have many fruit trees, such as mangoes, lanzones, guayabanos, baluno, nangka, etc. I have rabbits, dogs, cats, and other animals."

"I rise early in the morning-at five-visit my plants, feed the chickens, awaken my people, and prepare our breakfast. At half-past seven, we eat our breakfast, which consists of tea, bread, cheese, sweets, and other things. After breakfast, I treat the poor patients who come to my house. Then I dress and go to Dapitan in my baroto. I am busy the whole morning, attending to my patients in town."

"At noon, I return home to Talisay for lunch. Then, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., I am busy as a teacher. I teach the young boys. I spend the rest of the afternoon in farming. My pupils help me in watering the plants, pruning the fruits, and planting many kinds of trees. We stop at 6:00 p.m. for the Angelus."

"I spend the night reading and writing."

Casa Cuadrada, the square main house where Rizal ived, faithfully reconstructed with its original light native materials.

A plan of Rizal's land in Dapitan

Sources: www.jose-rizal.eu
Dingcho at community.webshots.com
Sonny's Multi-interest Site

Mandela, growing up in a Xhosa village

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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Mud Houses for Mars

Win the 1980’s, when NASA wanted ideas for how to build on Mars (or the moon), Persian architect Nader Khalili came up with a winning concept. No need to transport much from Earth; just bring woven plastic tubes. On Mars simply fill up the tubes with dirt to create coils that can be built up to form walls, then roofs.

We are not building on Mars or the moon yet, but Khalili is busy building his ‘superadobe’ mud houses here on Earth. This building technique is easily downscaled to become a low-tech housing house-building solution for poorer countries and for emergency housing.

It is also argued to be a sustainable form of construction because much of the material used is from the building site itself, minimizing energy use on transport. It uses a lot of labour and much less of equipment and materials that contain a high amount of ‘embedded’ energy.

More on Khalili's work at CalEarth.org

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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Kampong House in Kedah

This is a 'kampong' house from Kedah, a state in the north of peninsula Malaysia. This well- preserved house, were relocated to a park in front of the State Secretariat Office. The frame and wall cladding is made of local hardwoods - assembled without using nails - and the roof is made of 'atap', weaved from palm fronds.

We all love traditional architecture, but timber is getting more and more expensive. The cost of per square meter of sawn hardwood is more than the cost of concrete by a factor of 20 or more. Atap roofs are notoriously leaky.

These houses are highly ventilated and the lightweight structure has little thermal mass. They are 'ambient' houses that follow the surrounding outdoor temperature. That is fine in the shady countryside. In hotter town areas that suffer from the heat-island effect, they can get uncomfortably warm.

It is right that these houses are conserved, but for housing today, they serve as inspiration rather than solutions.

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Monday, August 27, 2007

Growing up in a Post-War Prefab

"I was born at No 11 Bishpool Estate and lived there until I was 23. My mother brought up four of us boys in the house. Everybody knew everybody and help and support through the various problems was always forthcoming. The majority of us had nothing but everything was shared. The prefabs afforded us a good home. I can remember the frost on the inside of the old Crittal windows and the pipes freezing over for days, then the water bubbling out of the ground (or in the house) as it thawed. Climbing up onto the roof to bang the chimney pipe with a bit of iron to 'sweep' it. Getting wood from 'up the break' and the various woods around to supplement our coal supply. Our gas fridge used to go out regularly, and fuses blew readily, the warm air central heating never worked for as long as I can remember. We had everything there we could want, except the stigma that some financially better off than us tagged us with. I loved my prefab and I loved all my neighbours. I can't go back in time, but if I could, I would like a shot."

Terry Lynch, Ammanford

"I lived in a prefab on Treberth Estate until I left to go to University in 1969. It was a great place to grow up - a big garden, lots of neighbours and a friendly community. The prefab wasn't very high - my sister and I climbed on the roof of the prefab one day to see what it was like. She jumped - and broke her leg. I climbed down and got a neighbour to get an ambulance."

Wendy White in Cambridge

"Down the road from Newport, the estates of Bishpool and Treberth looked like little villages. When I met Ray and Jean, they had bought their prefab 12 years before, thanks to the Thatcher’s “Right to buy”. Even prefabs tenants had the opportunity to become home owners. There used to be around 60 prefabs in the Treberth and Bishpool estates 4 years ago. There is none left today."

Elizabeth Blanchet

The prefabs are the ones with the smaller roofs, among the the cleared sites; the new houses have big grey roofs

Photos: Elizabeth Blanchet Download Blanchet's Ebook "Prefabulous" from www.democraticbooks.org Book #28
Source: Prefab Palaces bbc.co.uk

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Sunday, August 26, 2007

Palaces for the People

After the Second World War there was an acute shortage of homes in the parts of Britain that were badly bombed. Winston Churchill announced a program to build half a million temporary homes; but only about 150,000 were actually built.

The building stopped in 1948 when the prefabricated homes turned out to be too expensive at £1324 each.

These “palaces for the people” were supposed to last only 15 years, but many still survive. Replacing them is proving to be tricky as many of the residents have become very attached to their homes. In Newport, Wales, the groups of neighbours have been moved together, hoping to maintain the sense of community.

Source: viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk | © Crown copyright

Growing up in a Post-War Prefab

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Friday, August 24, 2007

Building a Panaman Mud House

In Panama, the building of a traditional mud house – ‘casa de quincha’ is something of a social event where friends and relatives get together to help a neighbour build a home.

First the main pillars of the house are erected not more than 3 meters apart, and then made into a cage with local rattan sticks of about 25mm thick. Suitable earth is brought to the site. Rice straw and water is added. Next, men with shoulders around each other pound the earth with their feet. The mud is finally placed onto the rattan cage.

The typical Casa de Quincha has a porch, vestibule, sleeping quarters and kitchen.

Today rural homes are more likely to be made with concrete, bricks and zinc, but Panamans still hold “meetings of embarra”, where they remember and celebrate their traditions.

Sources: La Casa de Quincha, Prensa.com
Photos: Prensa.com and Dino's Panama Photos

Thanks to Roberto Reid from Panama who sent me the material. He blogs about the history of Panama at The Silver People Chronicle

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Thursday, August 23, 2007

Thai Garbage house

Five years ago, a Thai architect, Rachaporn stumbled upon a unique half-completed house at Onnuch - the biggest garbage disposal area in Bangkok. The house was built from carefully selected garbage and left over metal boxes that were once used for snacks. The details were carefully thought out.

The detail of the opening of the house

The roof tiles are made of the metal boxes cut into small pieces

The columns are reinforce concrete with the metal bins as stay-in-place molds

The owner of the house was a man in his 40s, who never built anything in his life before. This is not quite the traditional house that we associate with vernacular architecture. But it does the description of ‘architecture without architects’, and in some ways more interesting than many of the neo-vernacular style housing that we trained-architects design.

Rachaporn describes the garbage house as an example of ‘contemporary vernacular architecture’.

Source: Rachaporn Choochuey's Blog - Phi Phi Design Workshop

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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Quadruple Houses in France

Mulhouse was a free city until 1798 when it became part of France. It was already celebrated for the manufacture of printed cotton goods, and subsequently became a leading centre of the textile and engineering industries.

It also became a pioneer of the French concept of the "Cite Ouvriere" or "Worker’s City". This originated in 1853 when a company was formed to solve the acute lack of decent and hygienic housing. The scion of the textile industry, Jean Dollfus, gave financial backing. In particular, the company came up with a plan whereby the workers could own their own homes - a predecessor of the modern mortgage home loan.

The architect, Emile Muller, built houses based on models from other European countries, including, most interestingly, cluster houses like those in Shrewsbury and Derbyshire, England introduced by Clarles Bage. Models of these workers' houses in Mulhouse were presented during the World Fair of Paris in 1867.

By 1870 the company had built 3000 houses.

References:
Reinventer l'habitat Intermediaire(pdf)3.2 MB
Cite Manifeste
Cite Ouvriere

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Monday, August 20, 2007

Moving Home

This was in Malaysia's New Straits Times a few days ago:

"Farmer Abu Hassan Ahmad was so attached to his home; he decided to take the whole house with him when he had to move. 'We had lived in the old site for more than 20 years, but now we want to be closer to my mother-in –law to take care of her' "

"The 56 year old farmer said several village elders got about 150 villagers to help with the ‘big move”. Besides helping to carry the house half a kilometer to the new site, the villagers also took part in a “gotong-royong” (communal working together) to clear the land at the new location. It took an hour to move the house."

Source: New Straits Times 15th August,2007; photo by Rahmat Othman

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Sunday, August 19, 2007

Bage: Inventer of the Quadruple House

Charles Bage (1751-1822) designed the first ever iron framed building, the Ditherington Flax Mill, located in the outskirts of Shrewsbury town centre, built in 1796 and 1797. Here Bage used his ‘fireproof’ design, which relied on cast iron and brick with flag stone floors. Such construction greatly strengthened the structure of mills, which enabled them to accommodate much bigger machines. Innovative use of new building materials such as iron, steel, concrete and glass drove the invention of new building techniques as part of the Industrial Revolution, and was a key precursor of Modern Architecture.
Source: Wikipedia

Bage might also be credited with the invention of the ‘quadruple’ or ‘cluster’ house, and the first of these houses were built for overseers at the Flax Mill in Shrewsbury. Though these no longer survive, we still have examples in Belper, Amber Valley in Derbyshire, England which were built about 1803 by William Strutt in co-operation with Bage. In this plan, one block divided north-south and east-west to form 4 back to back houses. Each block sited in the center of a large plot so that the northern 2 houses in each block are on one street and those to the south on another. Eight blocks were originally envisaged but only 5 actually built. They were intended as houses for mill foremen and managerial staff.

These houses in Derbyshire are believed the oldest surviving example of this particular housing type, and were listed in 1979.

Source: Images of England; search 'cluster'; photos by John Lewis, 2004

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Saturday, August 18, 2007

Building a Sundanese House

Source: ukirsari

'Naga' means dragon, but there is no folklore here related to these mystical creatures. Instead, it is thought to be a shortened form of 'dina-gawir', which in Sundanese means "in the valley". And there it lies along the Ciluwan River in Java island in Indonesia. The the word for house is 'bumi', which also means Earth. People here continue to live a simple, traditional life.

Many visitors come to see their beautiful village; one of them, Gabriella Mihályi, who wrote this in ArchitectureWeek:

“Before a family begins to build, the male head of the household asks permission from the village spiritual leader, kuncen. The day before construction starts, a village meeting is held along with the first of three sacred ceremonies. For the first ceremony, to safeguard the house, yellow rice prepared by the house owner's wife is shaped in a pyramid form and served to the neighbours.”

Source: R.Demming

“The building process starts with the leveling of the ground, the measuring for the house, and the placement of 40 x 40 centimeter foundation stones. Before the foundation stones are placed, a chicken is sacrificed for the purpose of keeping catastrophes away from the house. Its head, feet, and wings are buried under the foundation stones, the head facing east, surrounded with rice and spices — betel leaves, garlic, tobacco, and lime. The blood of the chicken is spread on the foundation stones. Also a singe coin is placed under every cornerstone.”

Walkway between houses

“Then the main beams and columns are installed. These serve as frames for the woven bamboo walls. The door and window frames are also put up. The roof frames are assembled on the ground and lifted into place after all the columns and beams are erected. The roof is covered with two layers, of palm leaves and of strong black grass.”

“Finishing consists of laying down the floor covering and installing the walls, doors, and windows. Bamboo for the floor covering is slashed and dried and placed in the house as 1.5 to 2 meter long, 15 to 30 centimeter wide plates.”

“At the conclusion of construction, another sacred dinner is held for the whole community to express the house owner's gratitude for the work that has been done collectively.”

The last 4 photos from: Sciroccogirl

More pictures at ArchitectureWeek

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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

What makes a City?

Images of various historical monuments, signature buildings, great urban spaces or other famous sights are often associated with the idea of a city. But they merely describe the form of the city, not its substance.

Cities are not just the buildings. Remarkably, a city can still survive when its buildings have been gutted. Hiroshima lived though the Bomb. Throughout history, cities have been devastated by natural or human disasters, but they often get rebuilt, when its people chose to do so.

There are places though, complete with buildings and roads, but which are devoid of people. But these are not cities; deserted by their erstwhile inhabitants, they are just ghost-towns.

The most vibrant towns are sometimes over-crowded, squalid and ugly, but despite these disadvantages, they continue to be magnets - drawing people to them.

At about 600 BC, Alcaeus wrote of the cities of Greece:

"Not houses finely roofed nor the stones of walls well built nor canals nor dockyards make the city, but men able to use their opportunity."

Hiroshima 6th August, 1945

Rising from the Ashes

Ghost Towns

Slums of Hope

Coming:

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India Endures

India is an old civilization that started first in the Indus Valley over 5000 years ago, that has endured numerous invasions. It may have started with conquering Aryans (this is a hotly debated topic). But from 180 BC, it was certainly invaded by a series of incursions by Indo-Greeks, Indo-Scythians, Indo- Parthians and Kushans from the north-west. Then between the 10th and 12th century AD, it was invaded from Central Asia, culminating in the Mughal Dynasty. From the sixteenth century, Europeans from Portugal, Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom started arriving, at first as traders and later as colonial masters. By 1856, most of India was under British control.

The people in this subcontinent have managed to preserve established traditions while absorbing new customs, traditions, and ideas from invaders and immigrants, making India a unique multi-cultural entity. Many Indian cultural practices, languages, customs, and monuments result from this co-mingling over centuries.
Source: Wikepedia

In this age of globalization, can India maintain its uniqueness against the onslaught of modern generic architecture? According to Matias and Rahul blogging at www.airoots.com, it appears that, at least in and around Mumbai, the local way of life and its peculiar aesthetics have an enduring impact.
They call it the Bombay ‘Masala’, and they illustrate it in their postings:

New Bombay Old Story

Generic City Masala

Kotachiwadi: a hamlet in heart of Mumbai

Dharavikitazawa(Dharavi on the left)

Sooner or later, the Indian vernacular overwhelms the invaders. A happy thought for today - India’s Independence Day!

What Makes a City

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Monday, August 13, 2007

Slums of Hope

Dilip D'Souza wrote today in www.indiatogether.org :

“Not so far from (Bombay) airport, about a million (people) live in what is often called ‘Asia's largest slum’. I've often wondered whether that label is used with pride or shame. If you walk into Dharavi, if you spend a day or two just wandering about, the best answer might be both. It shames India that so many Indians live in the conditions you find there. But at the same time, there is such a lot going on. Such a lot of drive, industry, vibrancy, enterprise. So much spirit. In such squalid conditions, all that cannot but lift you.”

“Dharavi is no place for the squeamish. But neither is it a place for the lazy, the apathetic, the moaners. In more ways than one, this throbbing heart of Bombay is India. Also in more ways than one, it forces you to see what India could be, and what's holding it back.”

“Dharavi encapsulates much of what is wrong in India today. Open drains, piles of uncleared garbage, filth and pitiful shacks are everywhere. Why do so many people have to live like this?”

But Dharavi is more than just squatter homes.

“…… this corner of India produces everything from garments to tallow to watch-strap buckles to lip-smacking savouries like chikki, much of it for export. Much of this activity is illegal and unsafe, but that matters to nobody. For these reasons, for decades now, for all its awful squalor, Dharavi has been a magnet of opportunity that has reached out to every corner of the country. There are people here from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and elsewhere; and of course from Maharashtra itself.”

“…….. this is a place where every free square metre is an opportunity to start a business, where the children of destitute migrants from dusty Bihar backwaters study software.”

Pictures from Helene Perlembou's public gallery

Video shows resistance against plans for redevelopment
Source: Sparcindia
National Geograhic Feature, May,2007

What Makes a City

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Sunday, August 12, 2007

Tessellar > update

In the Tessellar website, are two new pages:

A New Sub-Urban Centre In Sungei Petani

Much of Malaysian township development has followed a suburban pattern with mono-functional zoning. In addition, residential subdivisions create neighbourhoods that contain only specific house-types resulting in income-group segregation. This project is quite different to the conventional pattern.

Part of it is a Honeycomb residential layout comprising a mix of duplex, quadruplex, and Honeycomb garden apartments priced from RM80,000 to RM180,000 (USD22,000 to USD53,000). Some of these houses will be just next to the area containing the semi-detached and terraced light-industry factories and warehouses. They will also be close to shops, a commercial centre and a bus terminal, all within walking distance.

Tessellar > faqs: Getting Lost?

This new post looks the issue of wayfinding and suggests strategies that can be used to make the Honeycomb layout easier to navigate. In short it is about exploiting the opportunities to create memorable vistas and landmarks.

What Makes a City

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Friday, August 10, 2007

A Synthetic Vernacular

A group of mainly Chinese students studying in the Netherlands at Berlage Institute under Peter Trummel have just finished an impressive study for a new housing solution for China.

Starting from the traditional courtyard house-type, they have extended its form using software that can handle dynamic geometry. This technique - associative design - has the ability to generate a wide range of courtyard house designs to meet the multifarious requirements of project, the site, as well as the users. You have to see the video to appreciate the meaning of associative geometry.

Technical approaches to housing problems have suffered from top-down rigidity. Technologists always look for the best answer; but in real life, people are different, and each location on a site has its very specific parameters. Mass housing has suffered when it was dominated by engineers who saw it as a problem of the bricks and mortar: one solution with hideous consequences is the use of repetitive standard plans. In fact the focus should be on people, and when you do this, the solution becomes more varied.

With associative design, the students have outlined a strategy for mass customization, making the technological approach more humane.

They call the result a ‘synthetic vernacular’. I wonder what Sishir Chang (see Living Together in Singapore) would say about this!

I'm dreaming about tessellation on steroids.

Links: Gallery Shiyun;
Download original MP4 video 48 minutes 156MB at:
Associative Design @ Berlage

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Ghost Towns

The atomic bomb could not extinguish Hiroshima; its inhabitants came back to rebuild it.

But here are 7 cases of abandoned places compiled by Web Urbanist.

7. Ghost Towns of the American West

6. San Zhi, Taiwan

5. Near Genoa in Italy

4. Promyshlennyi, Russia

3. Airfields of New York

2. Tere-Hole, Siberia

1. Pripyat, Ukraine

See also MirageStudio7.
Commenters at Web Urbanist have posted more links to the "twilight zone".

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Thursday, August 9, 2007

Living together in Singapore

Modern high-rise architecture in the style of Le Corbusier is often derided as being pigeon holes, alien and inhumane. Yet here, over 90% of the population are now living in high rise new towns built by the Housing Development Board (HDB), and the people have fully colonized these structures, and made them their homes in the sky.

"Flats were first introduced in the waning days of British colonialism and were greatly expanded following Singapore's independence on this day in 1965, 42 years ago. A new master-plan was developed for Singapore under the guidance of the UN Development Agency emphasising modern industrialized, mass housing, in the International Style."

"At least one generation of Singaporeans has grown up in high rises and they now have children. During that time an effective and pervasive common value system has developed among Singaporeans living in high-rise housing. This system includes respect for the physical environment, and a high level of tolerance of ethnic differences. Living below, above and side by side other people requires tolerance of neighbours and a respect towards the environment of the housing estate for the good of all."

"One place that illustrates how people have adapted to the high-rise environment is the void deck. This area has become the settings for various distinct activities involving the residents including major ceremonies and daily socializing. Malay weddings and Chinese funerals are communal activities that require a fair amount of space. In these situations the void decks are elaborately decorated to accommodate the pageantry of these activities and after the ceremonies are completed, residents will clean up and return the void deck to its normal state. These activities also illustrate the high amount of tolerance expressed by residents of other ethnicities living above the void decks because these activities generate a lot of noise and, sometimes, funeral smoke and ash."

"Another activity unique to the void decks is as a social area for elderly, particularly women, residents becoming an ‘old women's corner'. Social activity by the elderly also enforces behaviour of other residents. Teenagers who may cause mischief in the void decks are often unwilling to loiter there because the elderly may criticize the younger residents for their behaviour."

"Along the access corridors also, most residents personalize this space in various ways by setting out plants, shoe racks, and items of religious importance. With limited space in the corridors conflicts occasionally arise between the residents. These are usually settled by the residents themselves with one party often deferring to the other, and though they may grumble privately, they will tolerate the neighbour's use of their space."

"Another example involving residents self-policing is the drying of clothes which are often hung on a pole cantilevered out from the flats. Many residents have complained that wet clothes from upstairs will drip down on their own while drying. To solve this problem residents have developed schedules for drying clothes so they will not drip on each other's laundry."

"The physical layout of Singapore's new towns reinforces planned to provide needed services in convenient locations for the residents. One is the ‘wet market' for fresh produce. The only time many of them are open, is in the morning when housewives do their daily shopping. Friendships and associations are gradually developed from the familiarity among housewives going to the market at the same time every day."

"Another area which plays an important role in the daily lives of the residents are the eating areas known as ‘hawker centres'. A typical hawker centre has several small food and drink stalls and open seating for customers. The hawker centre is one of the best examples of multi-cultural in Singapore. At almost every hawker centre there will be a blend of stands selling Chinese, Malay, and even Western food; it is also not unusual to find vendors of one race selling the food of another, such as Indians selling Malay food."

In creating an architecture that both reflects and reinforces the culture that uses it and is accepted by that society, a new ‘vernacular' has been formed.

Source: Sishir Chang, ‘A High-Rise Vernacular in Singapore’s Housing Development Board Housing’ Berkeley Planning Journal 14 (2000): 97-116
Download

Coming:

More 'Quadruple' Houses
Back-to-back Semi-D's

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Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Rising from the Ashes

In the aftermath of the devastation, it was believed that nothing would grow in Hiroshima for 75 years.' Yet, weeds began to grow again out of the scorched earth. Although much had been wiped out, seeds below ground escaped fire, blast and radiation damage.

In particular, the blooming of the city flower, Canna Oleander, became a symbol of hope.

Cheaply constructed makeshift dwellings,‘barakku' (barracks) began to be built in the wasteland. By December 1945, the number of shacks increased, but the living conditions were appalling, with many people on the verge of starvation. By April 1947, more permanent wooden houses sprung illegally.

Three months after the bombing, a Reconstruction Committee was organized under the direction of the central government’s National Central Planning Office for Reconstruction.

In January 1946, the Hiroshima Reconstruction Bureau was set up by Hiroshima City to carry out reconstruction measures. Municipal authorities, the city assembly and Hiroshima’s citizens cooperated to prepare a modern city plan.

A Reconstruction Council discussed the reconstruction process and the future of Hiroshima City. Proposals were meticulously debated, explained and justified until a general consensus on the actual approach and guidelines to the reconstruction of Hiroshima was decided. These combined visions of Hiroshima’s future were the basis for which the new Hiroshima would emerge and develop.

The idea of reconstructing a new city above a mass graveyard disturbed many. This proposal suggested the new city on another location while the city centre remained a grand symbol of world peace surrounded by religious and cultural institutions.

Another proposal reflected the desire to forgive and forget the total destruction and loss of entire families and relatives. This proposal, by Shigeru Watanabe, a renowned artist, was of a modern, advanced development, without any indication of the devastation.

Sankichi Toge envisioned a formal concentric design with new buildings encircling a Peace Memorial.

This proposal suggested the new city to be constructed on top of the old, raised by large concrete pillars and foundation. A new slate of development could be achieved while keeping the old city preserved and remembered.

Source: http://www.ecolo.org

Today, Hiroshima’s city centre has been totally rebuilt, dominated by commercial high-rise blocks; a testament to the indomitable human spirit. But the Atomic Bomb Dome, Peace Park and other memorials still commemorate the city’s dark history. The memory of 6th August 1945 endures.

Reference: Museum, H. P. M. "The Spirit of Hiroshima: An Introduction to the Atomic Bomb Tragedy, Hiroshima", The City of Hiroshima,1999.

This post was based on work by Anniz Fazli Ibrahim Bajunid, UiTM, Malaysia

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Monday, August 6, 2007

6th August, 1945, Hiroshima

“… That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of TNT. It had more bomb power than 2000 times the blast power of the British “Grand Slam” which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare…”

Harry S. Truman, President of the United States

On this, the ‘Little Boy' was dropped and it exploded 580 metres above the city of Hiroshima. The temperature around the vicinity of the epicenter rose to 4000 Celsius. Fierce heat rays and radiation burst in all directions expanding the air around the fireball, creating a high-pressure blast.

An estimated 140,000 of the 350,000 population of Hiroshima about 40% perished almost immediately. Thousands of others were affected by all kinds of ailments and serious trauma and other after effects of radiation. 13 square kilometers of the city was laid ruined with 78% of the city structures destroyed or severely damaged.

Radiant heat, flash burns, fire damages and firestorms, and the highly radioactive ‘black rain' catapulted the catastrophe to another level as firefighters and army shipping units and relief teams struggled through disrupted and destroyed transportation networks and utilities.

In post Atom-Bomb Hiroshima, as far as the eye could see, once thriving commercial districts, quiet residential neighbourhoods and bustling factory zones were left with nothing but a nightmare of burnt landscapes. Almost nothing was left standing. The city was in total ruin. Inflation spiraled. Black markets thrived. Whole families vanished. Possessions were ruined. Jobs disappeared. Radiation sickness and death predominated.

A British mission stated, “The impact which both cities (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) make is of having sunk, in an instant and without struggle, to the most primitive level”.

Reference: Museum, H. P. M. "The Spirit of Hiroshima: An Introduction to the Atomic Bomb Tragedy, Hiroshima", The City of Hiroshima,1999.

This post was contributed by Anniz Fazli Ibrahim Bajunid, UiTM, Malaysia

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Sunday, August 5, 2007

Frank Lloyd Wright's Quadruple House Type

One of the least appreciated of Wright’s work is the Quadruple House at Ardmore, Pennsylvania designed in 1939, but based on an idea dating back to 1902. Here four housing units are attached by a cross-wall, and accessed by separate driveways at right angles to each other, such that from each elevation you can see only the entrance to one house.

Frank Lloyd Wright is known mainly for the houses he designed for the rich, but here is a design suitable for the lower income group. The cross party walls that divide each block into four units are shared thereby reducing the cost of each unit. Typical single family homes on ½ acre lots could provide a density of 8-10 persons per acre. This new house type could triple that. Wright produced this design to be a prototype for mass housing that does not sacrifice what Americans were used to!

He wrote in "The Architectural Forum" of January, 1948,

‘in this scheme standardisation is no barrier to the quality of infinite variety to be observed in Nature. No entrance to any dwelling in the group is beside any other entrance to another dwelling. So far as the individual can know, the entire group is his home. He is entirely unaware of the activities of his neighbours. There are no looking from front windows to backyards….Playgrounds for the children (on) sundecks, are here independent roof gardens placed where the mother… has direct supervision over hers’

However, in 1942 an ambitious design for a mass housing project for 100 units of quadruple homes for the U.S. government in Pittsfield, Massachusetts went awry. Architects in the state lobbied the government insisting that the job be given to a local architect. The government relented, and dismissed Wright. The government offered to buy the plans from him. This would have allowed the designs to be built. However Wright would have none of this; he never returned to designing quadruple homes.

America so thoroughly forgot about this novel building type that in 1990, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office remarkably granted a patent to a Richard Mitchell for a building form that is basically the quadruple idea.

Reference:
John Sergeant "Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian Houses: Designs for Moderate Cost One Family Homes" 1976,Watson-Guptil Publications, New York

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Friday, August 3, 2007

Semi D's in Dayton, Ohio

Semi-detached housing consists of pairs of houses built side by side, sharing a party wall and having a symmetrical design. Semi-detached are more affordable than detached houses (single family homes), but higher class than terrace housing (row houses).

The very first semi-detached cottages were built in Britain by Joseph Damer, an 18th century Earl who employed Capability Brown as architect. The Shaws, a father and son architectural partnership later made them popular in London in the 19th century. They are now common in Britain, Ireland, Australia, in parts of Canada, and other commonwealth countries like Malaysia.

Source:http://homepages.tesco.net/

One doesn’t normally associate the US with semi-detched houses, but I was surprised by "Dayton Doubles" in the MidWest Blog.

One of the earliest, from about 1830

At the turn of the 20th Century

Pre World War 2

Post War Suburbia

1988 Neo Vernacular

Coming:

Back-to-back Semi-D's
Frank Lloyd Wright: inventor of the 'Quadruple' House
More 'Quadruple' Houses

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Looking at houses and housing around the world; curious about the people and the places; thinking how we can create better homes for more people.

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