The requirements of the competition appear on a first glance antithetical: they call for two different programs. On one hand a daycare and kindergarten, on the other a center for the elderly. Two programs for people that occupy the two extremes of the age timeline and therefore have very different needs.
However, that condition of coexistence of two different programs is used by the proposal not as a problem that waits to be solved, but rather as a possibility that when treated in an affirmative manner can become the driving force of the project. The meeting of the two different age groups becomes the ‘heart’ of the project.
Therefore, design starts from exactly that meeting; the point where the two conditions coexist. That point becomes a central courtyard – the meeting courtyard – which plays a double role. The first is functional: it is the space where the two different programs exist together; the place where the actual meeting takes place. On a second level it organizes space architecturally: it becomes the joint around which all other volumes and spaces are organized.
The creation of the central courtyard is followed by a tripling of its circular shape. Two more circles are created, diagonally to the right and left of the initial one. Their circular shape is consequently transformed to form another two courtyards.
The three courtyards are then enclosed by a thick wall that almost follows the edge of the lot and defines a solid volume on the ground floor. The three courtyards are acquiring a fundamentally interior character.
KOOZ What references informed the project and its design?
O-E References are always a very important part of our design process. Usually, those references can be found on several different levels and that applies also to the "Wall with the three courtyards" project. On an architectural level there are references to the building tradition of the greater area of the project, which is the city of Chania in Crete. More specifically there are several references to the architecture of the monastery complexes that can be found around the city. Firstly, organizational references: the enclosed, introvert structure of the monasteries and their cloisters is doubled in the project since we realized that it fits the program of the kindergarten. It enhances the feeling of security that is necessary while creating a somehow hidden world that the children get to discover as they live ‘within the wall’. Then there is a number of architectural details from the monastery complexes that are transcribed in our project. For example, the openings and the various perforations of the exterior wall derive from the observation of similar details in the architecture of the area.
Of course, those references are always a starting point. They are altered, transformed, and mutated in order to form a new condition in our project.
Then, there are references on a non-architectural level, that are maybe more important. For this project a significant point of refence was for example Albert Lamorisse’s film ‘The Red Balloon’. We started looking at the film because, despite being quite old – it was released in 1956 –, it manages to capture the idea of being a child in an extremely sensitive, progressive, and ultimately timeless way. It essentially describes it as a quest for freedom. Besides helping us to understand – and to remember – the condition of being a child however, the film became the starting point for thinking of the project in terms of separate events. The different scenes of the film are very clearly distinct to each other, both spatially and – more importantly – in terms of moods, feelings etc. Therefore, we started thinking of the proposed building as such a sequence of events. Like each room or courtyard was a different scene in the film.
Then came a number of references to modern Greek children’s stories that helped us form the character of each one of those different events. For example, one of the courtyards of the kindergarten in our project is called the ‘Lemon-tree hill’, which is a small ‘hill’ on the ground of the courtyard that is planted with lemon-trees. It is a refence to the book ‘The chimney pirates’ by Evgenios Trivizas and a scene where the main character of book lands with his air balloon on the Lemon-tree hill where he meets a girl that he will eventually fall in love with. Then there is the ‘Golden leaves meadow’ which is a refence to ‘Lilliput’, a popular children’s radio broadcast of the 80’s, where the ‘golden leaves meadow’ is a place where one of the characters has to look for the flower with the 100 golden leaves – a flower that can emit light and therefore can help him light the lighthouse in order for his love to be able to return to lilliput with her ship.
Of course, all those refences are not something that one can understand while looking at the drawings or when experiencing the project. On a first level they are design aids. In other words, they help us form an internal narrative that fuels our design process. In many cases we don’t even communicate that narrative after that process is over. However, we believe that some of the ‘magic’ that they bring with them, stays – in an abstract way – with the project.
KOOZ How does the project challenge the potential of the courtyard as a space for encounter?
O-E Courtyards are a feature that can be found in most of our projects, so it is clearly a condition that interests us a lot. At the same time the courtyard is an archetypical condition and as such it carries an incredible amount of strength and possibilities. A space of encounter is obviously one of them, but we don’t want to challenge it at all; instead, we want to use it in the fullest possible way. I don’t think that you can challenge archetypes and in our design process we never start from negations anyway. We try to practice design as an affirmative action, therefore with the courtyard we start by accepting it for what it is. But the fact that you can’t challenge something like the courtyards does not mean that you can not alter it, or better, modulate it. So, after you accept the courtyard for what it is and what it does – which is already quite a lot – there are infinite ways in which you can try to alter that a little in order to create a new condition. Therefore, in our case, the courtyard as a space for encounter was mostly a process of finding those encounters on several different levels. Not only the encounter of children or even the encounter of the children with the elderly. It is also a space for encounter between humans and the natural element that might help to form new relationships between them. Also the encounter between what is inside and outside. Most of the spaces that are around the courtyards can open to them, making the courtyard an extension of the classrooms.
KOOZ What are for you the opportunities which can arise from the encounter and merge of the elderly and the younger generation?
O-E The encounter and merge of the elderly and the younger generation was another important starting point of the project. The requirements of the competition outline appeared on a first glance antithetical as they were calling for two different programs. On one hand a daycare and kindergarten, on the other a center for the elderly. Two programs for people that occupy the two extremes of the age timeline and therefore have very different needs. However, in line with our understanding of possibilities rather that problems as the core of the architectural act, we tried to transform that coexistence into the driving force of the project. Then we found that there are several research studies that explain that such a co-exitance can be extremely beneficial for both age groups, and that strengthened our case. Of course, that decision – to create spaces where the two age groups will co-exist – did create some actual problems that had to be solved. For example, issues of access to the meeting courtyard, or issues of control and security that were part of the requirements of the competition brief. But once those issues were solved, the encounter became the reason for the generation of new spatial conditions that we wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. So, in terms of inhabiting such a building we only have the studies that show that the coexistence can have useful results. In terms of architecture, that co-existence helped us to design a different condition that wouldn’t have been created if we treated the two separately.
KOOZ What role does nature play within this relationship?
O-E As already said, the project tries to work with the concept of memory quite a lot. What is very interesting here however, is that memory is something very different for the two programs that will be hosted. For the children is mostly about creating memories. Memories that at that age can become very formative and important. For the elderly on the other hand is more about triggering memories that are already formed in some distant past – possibly when they were children themselves. So, the natural element is something that might become the link between the two, and if that happens then maybe a little bit of magic can be created. The scent of the eucalyptus or the color of the jacarandas for example can at the same time generate new memories for the children and trigger existing memories for the elderly and therefore create new, invisible connections between them that can alter the experience of both or even transfer something from the elderly to the children. I speak of magic because it does sound quite metaphysical, but I do think that it is actually a possibility.
KOOZ How does the project explore the relationship between architecture and nature?
O-E That is a tough question – how can any project explore the relationship between architecture and nature? Let me start however, by saying that there is nothing ‘natural’ in something that is designed. In other words, we might use in our design natural elements – trees, flowers, the earth – but that is still part of architecture, not part of nature. That is, if we think of architecture as something other than nature, which – for better or for worse – is what we do most of the time. In that case I think that anything that we design is part of architecture and can never be part of the natural word.
That being said, I think that it might be far more interesting to think of the two not as different, antithetical conditions, but rather as the one being a subset of the other. In other words, maybe it is better to think of architecture as being part of nature – being nature itself. In a way, taking the “everything is a construct” concept and transforming it into “everything is nature”. The main principle remains the same, but the focus is shifted. That might prove to be a great help in our time where considering climate change, we are forced to rethink about the role that architecture has to play in that context. Thinking of architecture as nature – as we would think of any other animal habitat – can give us a totally new perspective and transform our understanding. However, we are so much used to think of nature as something other, that it is challenging to change our perspective. For this specific project, it is all about architecture that uses natural elements – and maybe creates a more humane architecture that way. I don’t think that it can explore the relationship between architecture and nature much further because one of the two elements – nature – is absent.
KOOZ How do you envision the project evolving over time?
O-E I think that time would help the project achieve the character we are looking for. The natural element will become more dominant and will start occupying the building. At the same time, the materials we propose, for example exposed concrete, age in a very special way which will add a patina layer to the textures of the project that for us is something desirable. Of course, we will never actually find out!
Bio
Object-e is a studio composed by Dimitris Gourdoukis & Katerina Tryfonidou with Evangelia Paschalidou, Christina Moschopoulou, Meropi Konstantinidou, Danai Evangelopoulou. The project "The Wall with the Three Courtyards" has been realized in collaboration with structural engineer Giorgos Liakos and E/M engineer Giorgos Evgenidis.
