According to Stewart Brand, author of "How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built
(diagram inspired by Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn, page 13, the pie diagram shows the changes to systems in a US office building over an average lifespan of 35 years [figures from Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn, pp12-13])
The site has eternal life whereas elements like the space plan (e.g. the organization of the interior walls) might have a life expectancy between three to thirty years. The question rises whether a building can evolve over time? Likewise, designing flexible buildings is a key to sustainable design. It makes sense to design structures that are built to last. Nowadays, it is even hardly possible to change an apartment building to an office building or vice versa.
Architecture sometimes is rather "tailor-made" for a certain program than open to different functions. Shouldn’t be our buildings be more flexible in design?
1 comment(s):
Buildings will become more and more like furniture. My parents still keep the same furniture they bought 30 years ago. I had mine @ IKEA and if I could I would change them every 3 or 4 years. Our lifes change all the time, it's absurd that our buildings can not change with them.
Post a Comment