Azuma House: Tadao Ando27
Illustration Azuma House28
Keret House29
Table and Bathroom: Keret House30
3D Model Keret House31
Compared to other projects: If you compare the “Black Pearl to other projects it turns out that this projects lies somewhere inbetween flexible and non-flexible. ‘The Keret house is a small project in Warsaw and this dwelling has about 15 square metre size.’25 It is really well planned and every space has it’s use that leads to the reason that this dwelling is absolutley not flexible. The main factor that you just can’t make it flexible is the extreme narrow plot size and the minimal space which doesn’t allow to change the use of spaces. The other example is the Azuma House from Tadao Ando. This narrow dwelling is a modern example of being really flexible. There are mainly four rooms and a courtyard and those four rooms are not really dedicated to a function except the kitchen and bathroom. It is really orientated on the traditional japanese houses which have no furniture, only the tatami where you can sit and sleep on it. The main room is served by different rooms which can be connected by sliding walls. At the Azuma House the courtyard is the main space and is served by the surrounding rooms which are very flexible in their function. “While describing the origin of his architecture in the Japanese tea room, Ando wrote: ‘a person sitting silent and contemplative in such a space has the feeling of experiencing limitless size within the interplay of light and dark’ (Ando, 1990).”26 Conclusion: So our opinion is that there are many factors how flexibility can be generated, but it does always depend on the current situation of a dwelling and how you could adapt it. The biggest factor for flexibility is propably the amount of space you can use. The more space you have the easier it is to make it flexible. Flexibility means to create space which is not dedicated to a special use and to create such spaces in narrow dwellings is often very hard because of the limited amount ouf space. If you compare very flexible dwellings like the Rietveld-Schröder house or the Farnsworth house from Mies van der Rohe with a narrow dwelling than you can figure out that in these buildings only the bathrooms and the kitchen are dedicated to a use. The diagramm to the left shows how much space is dedicated and non-dedicated in the Black Pearl. So in a way the conclusion can be if you have less than one quater of dedicated space in percantage you can make the design of the dwelling very flexible. Other design options can be to install contemporary walls (sliding walls) or curtains which generate spaces which can be easily adapted.
Rooftop: Black Pearl32 Bedroom: Black Pearl33 Bathroom: Black Pearl34 Rosenfield, Karissa. “Inside The Keret House – the World’s Skinniest House – by Jakub Szczesny” 03 Nov 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 30 Sep 2014. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=289630> Jin Baek (2004). The sublime and the Azuma House by Tadao Ando. Architectural Research Quarterly, 8, p. 149. 27. Jen-Ho Cheng, flickr.com [website], 30. Sep 2014, <https://www.flickr.com/photos/7423622@N04/3890107884> 28. ibid. 29. Rosenfield, Karissa. “Inside The Keret House – the World’s Skinniest House – by Jakub Szczesny” 03 Nov 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 30 Sep 2014. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=289630> 30. ibid. 31. ibid. 32. ”Black Pearl / Studio Rolf.fr + Zecc Architecten” 29 Feb 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 30 Sep 2014. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=211680> 33. ibid. 34. ibid. 35. ibid. 36. ibid. 25.
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Dining Area: Black Pearl35
Living Area: Black Pearl36