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New
Forms of Collective Housing in Europe edited
by arc en rêve centre d'architecture
Birkhäuser, 2009
Hardcover, 296 pages
Following previous exhibitions at
the arc
en rêve centre d'architecture in Bordeaux, France
-- most notably Rem Koolhaas's Mutations and Voisins
- Voisines, which focused on new forms of individual
dwellings -- their Collective Housing exhibition
and accompanying book collects notable projects but also
asks difficult questions. This is not just eye candy. Perhaps
in response to their exhibition on single-family houses,
the museum asks if sustainable development today equals
a resurgence of collective housing in urban locales. Naturally
they ask about the form these projects take, but they also
inquire into the relationship between the individual and
the collective.
The book tackles these questions
in a myriad of ways. Photos by Marco
Bohr, Aurore
Valade, Marja
Pirilä, and others at the book's beginning reveal
what is missing from most architectural photography (the
projects in this book included), people. These provoke questions
of the individual's place within places of collectivity,
but naturally they cannot provide answers. Essays by philosophers,
geographers, sociologists, and even scientists continue
their inquiry, though their diversity of messages makes
it clear that answers are not what are needed; it is more
questions. The 45 projects that follow can be seen as 45
answers, or they can be seen as questions. In other words,
not only is each project particular to its own conditions
-- negating the possibility of universal solutions -- each
design is just one solution of many that could occur in
response to the same conditions. Or to further clarify,
each project provokes more questions via its existence.
One example is this
week's dose, the e_3 project in Berlin by Kaden
+ Klingbeil. It takes an infill site and manages to
make corner units of its full-floor dwellings. In the process
it activates the space of movement from street to apartment,
potentially making sites of communal interaction that other
design responses might not afford. If successful, should
this design become a template for other sites where communal
interaction is desired? Or should a more ambitious project
like Markus
Pernthaler's Rondo in Graz be a more appropriate model
for communal life, a building where all aspects of shared
life take place in one building? Of course, there is not
one answer to any question concerning the design of collective
housing. But inquiries at the level of philosophy, photography,
criticism, and architecture are helpful in developing considered
and suitable responses. Like the cities they occupy, new
forms of collective housing is an ongoing project that unfolds
and informs over time.
The 45 projects included in the exhibition
and book were completed between 2003 and 2008. Their documentation
in this large-format book is through black-and-white photographs
and drawings for each building. With color photographs and
essays bookending the projects (critical essays and color
plates for the 45 projects end the book), the room left
for the projects is not enough. Most buildings receive only
two pages for photos and drawings, with two pages for title
and text; these last could have been combined to make more
room for imagery. Regardless, this is a well-done and beautiful
collection of notable and lesser-known buildings by a range
of architects in a range of European countries.
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