From the editors
ARCHITECTURE WITHOUT ARCHITECTS.02 Words Zuza Sliwinska
In the monotony of standardized, cookie-cutter architecture, we continue striving for novelty in our designs. Yet, we find our imagination limited to the confinements of engraved in mind, set of typologies. Despite the pragmatic rationale behind the forms and shapes of our buildings, we wonder: is there a space for more originality and one-of-a-kindness? Will the future of design generate more limitations or possibilities, bringing dreamscapes to life? And if so, will our role as designers still be a creative one or will it become passive in favour of new (artificially) intelligent designer?
As a member of Bouwkunde, you have likely become
look like? Populated by same-looking structures,
familiar with the work of Bernard Rudofsky. If you
only now and then interrupted by work of some
haven’t, please grab a copy after rounding off the
more daring designer or global starchitect? The
last page of this issue! In his discourse Architecture
popular yet monotonous residential building type of
Without Architects: A Short Introduction to
'5 over 1' was developed in the United States in the
Non-Pedigreed Architecture, he takes a look at
80s. Like in the case of other typologies, it was
vernacular construction and argues the position of
essentially a product of the housing crisis, a need to
architectural practice as a universal phenomenon
accommodate many people in affordable, easily
born in the hands of non-specialist and non-
buildable and replicable dwellings. A similar
architect. Who, according to him, acts
situation drove the development of twin solutions in
spontaneously, often out of necessity, supported
European countries, resulting in the unification of
solely by experience gathered within his/her
how residential units look today.
community lifetime.1 With all the above perfectly justified by economic As I navigate through pages of Rudofsky’s efforts to
and social factors, I still get carried away with a
bring attention to the unfamiliar or otherwise what
thought - what if our cities were a collection of
we could describe as informal architecture, I can’t
one-of-a-kind buildings instead? With each
help but notice that the array of examples in the
structure looking utterly different from its
book is everything but uniform in form and shape.
neighbour? An urban scape from a dream, escape
The diversity comes in typology, tools and materials
from the monotony? Would it add more colour to
used, ornamentation (or complete disregard for it),
the urban environment or create confusion in
and endless other parameters of unique identity
navigating the city without clear distinctions
each of these structures carries.
between various functions? And more interestingly, would we be capable of creating such variety in the
Isn't this historical narrative pictured by Rudofsky
age of mass reproduction and high demand for
quite the opposite of what today's urban landscapes
construction?
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From top: Granaries in Spanish province Galicia; Photographs of the village at the foot of the Bandiagara cliff, Dagan tribe, Sudan; Minature silos structures on Ivory Coast. (featured in 'Architecture without architects' by Bernard Rudofsky)
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