The Future of Open Building Conference

ETH Zurich

Open Building integrates both stability and change, as realities within the built environment. Buildings, and their contexts, are dynamic - and through times of varying change need to be modified to remain appropriate and useful.

Designing and constructing Open Buildings involves many people, most specifically the end-user and the architect. This relationship provides the opportunity for appropriate architecture to be produced. No one person decides everything, and we usually celebrate that fact while struggling to deal with the complexity it brings. Since no one party makes all decisions when a building is first constructed, nor over the course of time as the building adjusts to new needs and technical requirements, there is an incredibly high importance of organising decision making and construction in such a way as to reduce excessive dependencies or entanglements among the parties involved. This helps in the avoidance of conflict between people and the parts of the whole they each control, and improves the chances of balancing common interests and the more individual interests of those who inhabit space.

There are three ‘orders’ in which agents are organised within the built environment: Form (Physical), Place (Territorial) and Understanding (Cultural). The order of Form is observed how we operate on different ‘levels’ of the built environment. This hierarchy may differ somewhat from time to time or place to place, however it always has the same characteristics. In The Order of Place we look at control of space, it brings to light territorial hierarchies different from those found in physical form and the interface between technical systems which allow for the replacement of one system with another. The Order of Understanding, comes about because those who intervene always do so, inevitably, in a context of meaning and social understanding.

My current dissertation is critically analysing the relationship between the architect and end-user in architecture, which is an integral part of Open Building, in the contemporary Johannesburg context. The research and analysis required for this dissertation will equip me with valuable information to engage the conference with.

The conference is a focal point of influential people on Open Building, with large volumes of information and discussion. This will be an exceptional opportunity for Unit 2 to benefit as a class. Therefore, the representative that attends the conference should be able to engage, understand and remember as much from the conference as possible. I believe that I will be, an excellent candidate to attend the conference and bring the information back to Unit 2.