BUILDING FLEXIBILITY

The sequence of the 6-S is followed both in design and construction. Architect Peter Calthorpe (nd, quoted in Brand, 1994, p.17) said that, “What stays fixed in the drawings will stay fixed in the building overtime.”

Kendall and Teicher (2000, pg.8) accounted that, “in terms of decision cluster, open buildings advocates disentangling specific parts of the buildings and their subassemblies: minimising interference and conflict between subsystems and the parties controlling them; enabling the substitution or replacement of each part during design, construction and long-term management.” These principles can be applied to attain flexible spaces as well, where a broader consumer choice in layout, furnishing and finishing spaces can be enabled by disentangling and regimenting boundaries. As an example of open building practice Kendall and Teicher explains that in a household project, the occupants are enabled to custom design their dwelling units according to their aesthetic, functional and financial preferences. They can decide their preferential locations to place the walls, kitchens and other services as well as hand-pick favourable fixtures and finishes. Hence, by employing advanced technology, information systems and logistics, the occupants can create custom dwellings at a cost not more than the conventional units.

The layering also defines how architecture rules people via time. This theoretical concept is based on the work of ecologists (O’Neill et al., 1986) where they described that the processes in nature operate in different timescales and hence there is little or no exchange of energy, mass or information between them. “The dynamics of the system will be dominated by the slow components, with the rapid components simply following along”, (O’Neill et al., 1986, p.98). Likewise Brand (1994, p.17) transferred this perception to architecture and noticed that the lethargic slow parts are in control and not the blazing rapid ones. For instance, the Site dominates the Structure, which dominates the Skin, which dominates the Services, which dominates the Space plan, which dominates the Stuff. Hence he perceived that traditional buildings were able to adapt easily because the faster layers which were the Services, did not obstruct the slower parts, the structure. This concept of shearing layers led to the architectural design principle called Pace- layering, which arranged the layers allowing for maximum flexibility. Therefore, such principles and practices can alter the conventional methods in architecture and construction by reforming the process of design, manufacture and installation of building parts.

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