 |
| Built environment | Levels | People/Agents | System |
As I unpack the concepts of Open building, I am excited
primarily by its close relation to how I perceive architecture. Secondly, by
the articulation and further clarification of some of the ideas one grows to
develop in how one views the built environment and the role of architecture.
I personally consider architecture, whether a building or a
space, as an integrated system, made up of various components (or sub-systems)
working together to form the whole. In the same breath, I consider that same
architectural entity as also being a component of a greater, more complex
system (the environment in which it sits). Thus, I would consider it as a
system within a system. The distinction between those two perspectives of the
same thing is what I would understand Open building terminology would refer to
as levels.
The system in which architecture (buildings) exists as a
component, includes other components: other fields of knowledge, including users
and how they interact with the environment. Thus architecture doesn’t exist in isolation.
It is here where I find the relevance of Open building: in exploring the
interfaces between spatial practitioners and societies when it comes to the delivery
of architecture, and approaching the design of architecture with an
understanding of its impact on the other parts of the whole in which it sits as
a component.
The emphasis of Open building in designing for transformation,
within a stable framework is a step further in ones understanding of the built environment
as a system. It is here where I see Open building being further explored in my
personal design thinking.
