The conditioned outdoor room, Bernard Rudofsky, (1955)
1. In this article Rudofsky expresses his main ideas about the importance of a proper garden, an outer space that is blended within the interior space. Rudofsky starts by saying that people will never succeed in “conquering” the climate, “nobody could say that we have come to terms with the outdoor”.[1] According to him, climate is the thing that defines us as humans- physically and mentally.
Rudofsky mentions the Garden as the most important part of the house, in the past, he says, the gardens were contained within the house “Rooms without ceilings”.[2] He critics the fact that today these spaces are vacant most of the time, and people don’t treat them as potential living spaces.
The text mentions three instructive architectural elements (Gate, Bench and Post), as important parts of the garden, Parts which makes it livable space.[3] According to Rudofsky, The physical wall is an important act which brought order and made the garden habitable. Rudofsky critics the walls people are building today, and says they doesn’t invite play or rest.
His conclusion is that perfectly conditioned outdoor rooms can be achieved anywhere, but it must take in account the transition of the seasons, and the different hours during the day. This way we could achieve the habitable garden, and makes it additional living space and a “nobler version of the house”.[4]
In my opinion, The Building by F451 Architects doesn’t demonstrate these ideas. This house has no garden space, or any in-between spaces. Even though the house is planted very well in the topography, it still hasn’t succeeded in creating a true and intimate relation between its habitant and the surrounding nature. Moreover, there are not any “rooms without a ceiling” and the border between the inside and the outside is very strict and stiff.
In Conclusion, this text has a lot to do with Advanced Architecture ideas. The critic that Rudofsky writes, about disconnection from nature, claims about proper houses we all should live in, and the importance he is giving to the climate factor, all these are similar to the AA values. AA tends to see nature as an important part of the architectural act. Moreover AA tends to create proper and close relations between nature and housing. AA goal is to make human inhabit properly, and happily on earth, and that’s exactly the point Rudofsky describes in this text
2. I’m interested in ideas similar to these that described in the text. Questions such as how should we live today? How our cities should look like it the future? What mistakes are we doing today? And how architects can help and solve them?
I’m fascinated with this period of time we all are living at. Our society is changing and evolving really fast, our needs as humans are changing constantly, and I think architects must react quicker than ever to those changes. Architecture must come up with new ideas, new solutions and new economic thinking.
In conclusion, Architecture defines us as human beings, I want to investigate more about the direction we, as a society, are going. To understand better these connections of economic-nature- and architecture.