CONTEXT and BUILDING I
Architecture in context is neither an attention nor innovation, it had been a strong and significant visual relationship to the surrounding. An individual building is always seen first as a whole, the surrounding environment and context will define a value of it. Creating a places and spaces that enrich the lives of the people who use them is the foundation of Architecture, one’s lifestyle, comfort and experience is all contribute to the process of architecture.
Every building should engage in a dialog with context that can be history, beliefs and needs of a particular place and time. Context in architecture can be interpret as “language”, the language to communicate between buildings, language that allow interaction between building and human.
“To retreat to a hopelessly artificial past is unrealistic, but to allow a brutalizing system to dominate and destroy traditional urbanism is irresponsible.” Quoted by Tom Schumacher.
Context as foundation of architecture can be seen throughout architecture transformation. An old town of Edinburgh located at Scotland, Europe as a significant medieval style of architecture have been preserve until nowadays together with the new development surrounding it. Heritage building had aim culture as their main purpose in planning, the architecture style should be in common or similar that promote culture at that time. As they believe, culture enhance and represent what in need for user experience.
However, the ideas of context is different from now. People in different time experience different things, the demand and need required at that time is much lesser compare with modern architecture. After years of explore, context is not only a simple consideration on culture or design style. In modern architecture, context have been divide into different kind, physical and non-physical, but all of these is basically based on human needs. The demands and experience have been taken as priority as a context together with surrounding elements.
The language between building and context is to communicate with experience, to fulfill demand and requirement of user. Culture alone cannot be a strong context consideration in architecture. In modern architecture, buildings on the same masterplan no longer to be similar in façade or design style, the priority is how a context can be used as an advantage to improve human satisfactory. A heritage town planning is no longer a standard in modern architecture.
A contemporary building that can be used to describe the relationship between contexts and modern architecture is Borneo Sporenburg by West 8. The planners, West 8, gave twenty-odd architects the same townhome envelope but allowed each to design with minimal constraints. The result is a streetscape of diverse, integrated modern facades. Each is unique, but they form a coherent whole. The well planning master plan allow the buildings connected by itself even the façade and layout are totally different.
Borneo Sporenburg is a masterplan with new types of three-storey, ground-accessed houses deviating from the usual terraced house. A framework for high density living was created that satisfies all the demands of an ordinary household. There are more than 100 architects take part in designing and developing new housing prototypes and the resulting designs include patios, roof gardens and striking views of the waterfront.
Each architects propose a different design, ideas and space planning. However, surrounding context interact with building and communicate to user is based on a standard request by West 8. This is to ensure maximum comfort and experiencing for user, the ideas to apply common context interact with human to define an urban planning. The buildings itself is not a medium to connect the masterplan, no longer suitable in modern architecture.
The whole masterplan was divided into a variety of house types and the waterfront, adding character at the Borneo Sporenburg housing development and make the neighborhood easy to navigate.
Priority is to investigate the possibilities for developing a good neighborhood areas with a pleasant environment. The architects were allow to deal with different materials as envelope based on their own ideas to interact with environment, the space planning can be vary but to ensure best comfort and experience can be achieved.
In brief, Borneo Sporenburg was a successfully example in planning with context. It had proved that building is just part of the many things to form an excellent masterplan. We should always take human need and demand as the key to design. The experience and ideas created for Borneo Sporenburg project had a significant impact on future urban planning and it had strengthen the definition of context in modern architecture.
