It is the superimposition of different human activities as seen in the section of the building that allows for an unexpected life to emerge. This is illustrated by the odd condition of having an oyster bar in a locker room facing the Hudson, naked men with boxing gloves eating oysters. His analysis of the Downtown Athletic Club is an optimistic and opportunistic look on how the stacking of different human activities (program) can generate different and exciting modes of living and architecture. This so called retroactive manifesto studies how diverse forces and pressures (developers, zoning constraints, and metropolitan anxieties) gave form to Manhattan. Dung Ngo, (Houston: Rice School of Architecture, 1998)įor Koolhaas and OMA, the concept of the program is traced back to the analysis carried out in the book, Delirious New York. “One of the great lack of architecture today is that these institutions are not being defined, that are being taken as a given by a programmer and made into a building.” Louis Kahn: Conversation with Students, ed. The architect has a civic duty and responsibility that goes beyond the brief. He is not merely satisfying the brief and servicing his client but a placing a building in a society. In this scenario, the architect takes a more active role in the design of a project. He looks for what truly makes a school, a hospital, a library, a laboratory to which will lift the spirit. Kahn searches for the “nature” or the inherent qualities that make a human institution by looking at archetypes. Dung Ngo, (Houston: Rice School of Architecture, 1998) p.55 Kahn stated : “As a professional you are obliged to translate the program of a client into that of the spaces of the institution this building it is to serve.” Louis Kahn: Conversation with Students, ed. This was a way to generate a type of architecture that provided inspiration to both the spaces and the activities that would take place inside the spaces. In other words, the architect should not take the program and translate it de facto into a building.Īfter the architect has received the program, Kahn advocated for a phase of reprogramming by which through a dialogue with the client the architect would try to find the nature of the design problem or what he would want the project to be. For both Kahn and Koolhaas, this definition is limited.įor Kahn, the program should not be taken literally. It also represents the client’s desires and aspirations for a future building. In this document, the client describes the types of spaces, the sizes and numbers of rooms, and the budget for carrying out the project. The program has been defined as the client’s brief. This essay seeks to reveal two different approaches of program in design. Both architects have operated their practices through the concept of program. On the other hand, the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and Rem Koolhaas have gained more notoriety as a group of architects being program driven. However, little attention has been placed to the more humanistic facet of his work and his interest in using the program as an instrument to create spaces that are inspiring and dignify the institutions of man. Much attention has gone into his use of materials, the crafting of light, the orchestration of space, and the physical manifestation of architecture. The aesthetic appearance of Louis Kahn’s buildings has been thoroughly studied. Ana Miljacki et al, “2 Architects 10 Questions on Program: Rem Koolhaas + Bernard Tschumi”, Praxis 8: Re: Programming, p.7 I have been trying to find ways that we could circumvent or avoid the Architect’s passivity and by this I mean his or her dependence on others.” ed. “Program increasingly has another connotation for me, which is closer to Agenda. You please society in your programming, not in the way you do your lousy building.” Louis Kahn: Conversation with Students, ed. If you change that programming, you release wonderful forces because the individual then never makes the mistake of making something which pleases himself. “Our profession is shabby only because we do not change the programming.
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