NOV 2019

CONTEST - ARCHITECTURE ESSAY COMPETITION: WHAT IS SMALL-SCALE ARCHITECTURE?

Furniture is small-scale architecture. It is of fundamental importance in the definition of spaces, both in the monumental and domestic areas. Due to its relative proximity to the human scale, it has a crucial influence on the domestication of spaces and therefore promotes habitats, even within those complex forms with intricate facades that, supposedly, constitute good architecture.

An example of this is the study of Saint Jerome [1] in the painting by Antonello Da Messina, introduces a human scale in an empty space. Domesticate a room that is otherwise cold and habitable. The space is completely organized around the furniture [2], and this furniture is organized around human activity. It has a direct connection to the human scale, it is habitable and encourages human connections and interactions, therefore it is architecture on a human scale.

This idea has also been interpreted by modern architects. Some of Le Corbusier's interiors are organized primarily by furniture arrangement and rely on compact cabinets grouped together, to create fluid spaces and, more importantly, to influence people's lives. For example, in Charlotte Perriand's designs for the Unité de Habitation, the place of furniture was given importance as a supporting feature of architecture, even in respects so important as to make the role of women visible throughout the world. home.

On the other hand, the wooden core of the Farnsworth house, like the study of San Jerónimo, manages to incorporate a new use in a vast space while respecting its interior value. They activate centralities within an open space that affect its habitability in a categorical, formal and functional way. In this context, these small-scale architectures acquire contemporary relevance in countless examples of rehabilitation from sheds to houses.

The city and the territory where we will live in the next few years has already been built [3], and the most sensible option from our perspective as architects is to recycle. This leads us to think about our current architectures, in which furniture could act as a powerful tool regardless of the space that surrounds it.

Rehabilitation through furniture that, due to its size, scale, location and function, has a decisive influence on the space, is not only a functional possibility but also architecturally useful. The new intervention does not impose pre-established schemes for the regeneration of space, and has the potential to support new forms of life that favor a more humane and domestic architecture. In conclusion, domesticating obsolete architectures using small-scale interventions is a way to humanize architecture and a possible strategy to project into the future.

[1] Antonello da Messina, St Jerome in his Study, 1474–1475, Oil on wood. National Gallery, London

[2] Georges Perec, Species of spaces, 4th ed (Barcelona: Montesinos, 2004), 123.

[3] Xavier Monteys, Rehabitar en nine episodes (Madrid: Lampreave, 2012).

Arch. March.María José Ochoa.

Arch. March Pablo Cevallos.