Author(s): Jonathan Ochshorn
All buildings change or, as Stewart Brand argues, they 鈥渓earn鈥濃攐ften badly鈥攐ver time. In fact, a time-based understanding of the life cycle of different building systems is a key component of building flexibility, preventing relatively short-lived ducts and conduit, for example, from being embedded in relatively long-lived structural elements. Yet even taking such advice to heart, making buildings truly flexible is not easy, since both culture and technology change in ways that simply cannot be predicted. This paper focuses on Alan Colquhoun鈥檚 critique of the Pompidou Center in Paris (1977)鈥攖he competition-winning museum designed by Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, and Gianfranco Franchini (along with Peter Rice of Ove Arup & Partners)鈥攊n order to dig a bit deeper into both objective and subjective aspects of flexibility that relate primarily to size and geometry.
Volume Editors
Amy Kulper, Grace La & Jeremy Ficca
ISBN
978-1-944214-21-0