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TOPOGRAPHICAL ARCHITECTURE. WHEN ARCHITECTURE TURNS INTO LANDSCAPE
Abstract
Contemporary life is characterized by a state of continuous change and thatпїЅs why standard solutions are no longer the key to all problems. Like many other fields, architecture seeks new alternatives to overcome the challenges we are facing on daily basis. Sustainability is one of the many issues that concern us, trying to solve some of the problems that globalization generates. On this line, one of the directions is a definition of architecture as landscape: topographical architecture. Topographical architecture has a subtle presence in the landscape, being perceived most of the times as a variation of topography or as a small landform, as a continuation of the natural land, as the result of a collaborative process with the natural context. Borrowing the particularities of the surroundings, this kind of architecture is often seen as a way of preserving the natural landscape. But if this solution was so good, how come the examples are so few? Small buildings prevail, both due to financial considerations, and the preconceptions. Although the reluctance of people to such living spaces is obvious, examples show us that larger interventions are much easier assumed by the users. Through several examples and a brief historical foray, this paper aims to present some possible ways of insertion of such constructions into the context, as well as some of the advantages, but also disadvantages of such an approach in architecture.
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References8
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Simonot B., Forces and Form, in Brayer M.A., Simonot B., eds., Archilab’s Earth Buildings. Radical experiments in Land Architecture, Thames and Hudson, London, 2003, pp 10;
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Informations about the house were taken from the National Register of Historic Places, United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/wi/Jacobs2.pdf, on 22.04.2017;
Hauxner M., Open to the sky, The Danish Architectural Press, Copenhagen, 2003, pp 56;
Ando T. et al., Emilio Ambasz Inventions: the Reality of the Ideal, Rizzoli, New York, 1992, pp 43;
Aaron Betsky, Landscrapers: building with the land, Thames and Hudson, New York, 2002, pp 144.
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