On Corbusier

ERGONOMIC SYSTEM.Researching the ergonomic system addresses the interface between the human body and its domestic environment. It begins with Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation. The ergonomic positions of the human body linked to specific activities challenge the conventional living space sections through their continuous deformation of typically orthogonal floor and ceiling systems. 

NON-INTEGRATED/ ULTRA TRANSFORMABLE  vs. ULTRA-INTEGRATED UN TRANSFORMABLE

Two radical extremes in Le Corbusier's approach toward furniture and its performance- his chaise lounge vs. the bathing area at Villa Savoye. Although formally similar, one of these is totally integrated and fixed within the architecture, while the other is kinetic and remains isolated. 

Performative aspect by Le Corbusier: 

mapping of activities in a typical double unit of Unite d' Habitation

Image Sources:

1. Portrait of Charlotte Perriand on Corbusier's Chaise Lounge. Image provided by Mary McLeod.

2. Villa Savoye's bathing Area

3. As described

4. http://spacecollective.org/florianv/564/Unit-dhabitation

TERRITORIALISING SYSTEM

There are no " mute" walls in the Unite system; almost all internal wall divisions become vertical teritorialising devices , which are either transformable or hybrid assemblies of structure, storage, services, working surfaces etc. ( For example: the kitchen area is defined towards the lounge area only by its furniture; sleeping zones are identified by sliding partitions)

Canadian Case studies: which focus on complex internal combinations of slip-knot dwelling units.  

Europa 6, Montreal

As a result of the bridges, all the 56 cooperative apartments are through-units opening both into the courtyard and onto the street. "This means," Boutros maintains, "better cross ventilation, more and time-varied light penetration and a stronger sense of community intimacy for the residents." Second-level units also have access to their own individual garden terraces, delineated by hedges and each centred on a large tree planted in a deep soil trough.Two compact, crisply minimalist lobbies off McGill provide elevator and stair access to the west-side units reached by traversing the suspended bridges. Owners are thus provided with striking views of the harbour and the city on the way to and from their units. At the same time, says Boutros, from surrounding streets and the park (now being redeveloped), residents also become part of an animated tableau as they cross behind the screen of the north walkways.

Unity 2, Montreal

1. Unit: Unite d'Habitation, Corbusier

2. Europa 6, Les Architectes Boutros Et Pratte: Canadian Architect

3. Unity 2, Atelier Big City, Montreal : Canadian Architect

NEGOTIATE MY BOUNDARY

Image by +ramtv: 

Aljosa Dekleva, Manuela Gatto, Tina Gregoric, Robert Sedlak, Vasili Stroumpako

The project investigates how today's evolving social systems and domestic organisations affect urban residential architecture. This research on the "super-ordinary" topic of housing is developed through a design project on mass-customization of a neighborhood with an "ambitious" social agenda. The project simulates the parametric design process introducing user participation whereby, via a web page, future dwellers participate in the physical and social organisation of the neighborhood and co-design their dwellings. They select activities that in turn generate the dwelling via digital morphogenetic processes. The internet is used as an architectural design instrument with its interactive parametric potential to generate- strategically, spatially and socially. It becomes a medium for a renewed idea of community and a tool, not only to fulfill and enable social patterns, but mostly to stimulate new social interactions. 

The main focus is the negotiation of boundaries along multiple modes, spatial and social, and on many different scales from XS to XL. Negotiation becomes a generative parameter for the spatial actualization of an architectural proposal. The boundaries created within the project do not define public-private dichotomies , but rather gradients of intimacy establishing multiple domains and therefore manifold modes of social exchange. It is not only about separation and privacy but also about the potential performative effects and interactively relate boundary and dweller.

Image by RAMTV for: Soft(ware) Boundaris Exhibition, 2003