Herman Hertzberger, Lessons for Students of Architecture

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IESSOMS fOl SIYDlNlS IN U CHIIHfUU

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HERMAN HERTZBERGER

LESSONS FOR STUDENTS

IN ARCHITECTURE

010 PUB LI SHERS , ROTTERDAM

Thil book reR«:Is the material discussed in Hertzberger's lectures on architecture at De/It Technical Universily from 1973 on, ancl contains elaborated versia!IS al the lecture notes previously published as 'Het openbare rijk' {Public Domain) 1982, 'Rvimle maken, ruimte Iaten' (Making Space, Leaving SpoceJ 1984, and 'Uitnodigencle vorm' /Inviting Form} 1988.

c.,.,pilarin by loilo Gho;t, Moriek~ •c• VIijrnen Tronslotion from rM Dujch by lno M e Co.,... design by Pool Gerardo, H...rlen !look dosi9n by Reinour Melrzet, Rorterdam Printed by G.J. Thitmt Niimegt~

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e 199 1 Hermon Hertzbee Nethtrlcnds (Www,OlOpublo;.S..I!.nll 1993 S.Ccnd rovisod odi~on 1998 Thild revi ..cl edlh.on 200 I Fo.nh revised edmon ISBN 90 6450 A6A 4

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obvjoully e b.$f oy lo· explain what you ha lo soy is o do 5o .on he bosij of prac: icol experie c : ~ at, indeed, is the common fhteon ict oHeops we ore hmd..J toWOfrl an era •n "'h cb t47

ed.x:ot.on and toto/ t•pet•tnce w U"11"'" corncrdt, tn Nl.lch tile Jci>ool OJ on estobi•Jirtrl Q/ld' cod•l•od inthruloon no long~t foos ony t&ason lor exts.:t~nce • I ftoiT! on ortlcle 'A•choltef•ll ond.ducolton' by Gioocorlo dt Corio 'n 'Honrotrl Educohon le>rew' 1969}

If tiM houses are private domains, then the street is the public domain. Paying equal attention to housing ond strMt alike means treating the street not merely as the residual space between housing blocks, but rvther as a fundomentolly complementary element, spatially

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organized with just as much care so that a situation is created in which the street can serve more purposes besides motorized traffic. If the street as a collection of building blocks is basically the expression of the plurality of individual, mostly private, components, the sequence of streets ond squoru as o whole potentially constitutes the space where it should be possible for o dialogue between inhabitants to take place. The street was, originally, the space for actions, revolutions, cele-brations, and throughout history you ca:n follow from one period to the next how architects designed the public space on behalf of the community which they in fact served. So this is a plea for more emphasis on the enhancement of the public domain in order that it might better serve bath to nurture and to reflect social Interaction.With respect to every urban space we should ask ourselves how it functions: for whom, by whom and for what purpose. Are we merely impressed by its sound proportions or does it perhaps al.so serve to stimulate improved relations betwHn people? When a street or square strikes us as beautiful it is not ju.st because the dimensions and proportions a re pleasing but also because of the way it functions within the city as a whole. This need not depend exclusively on the 1patial conditions, although they often help, and obviously these case1 a re interesting as examples for the architect and urban planner.

1780/ J.V. LOUIS 1118, 141,1SOl In 1780 rows of houses with shopping orcodes under· neolh were erected on three sides of what wos originally Ihe garde n of the Po lois Royol ln Poris.Todoy il is one of the most 'sheltered' public spaces in the city, while ot the PAI.AIS ROYAL, PARIS

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some time serving os on important short-cui from the louvre oreo to the Biblioth6que Notionole. The small oblong pork derives its spotiol quality ond its pleasant atmosphere not only from the sound proportions of the regularly articulated surrounding buildings, but also from the variegated layout with oreos of gross, choirs, benches, sand-pits and on open-oir cole lor the city· dwellers to choose from . PUBliC SouARE, VENCE, fiANCE IIIli

In countries with o worm climate the street naturally figures much more prominently in the lives of the people than in countries with o cold climate. Public squares like those in Vence ore to be found in every village and every town in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. In many places tourism has severely eroded the trodltionol woy of life, and hence the original function of public spoces, but nevertheless these spaces ore still eminently suited to communal activities · ond perhaps even more so in these changed times, os lor Insta nce open·olr concerts organized lor tourists prove. ROCKEFEUEl PLAZA, NEW YORK tt17l

Rockefeller Plozo in the heart of New York functions even in winter os o sort of urban living·room, when people from oil over go there to skote on the temporary ic.rink. The skaters show off their prowess to the onlookers, and although there is not ollthot much going on, it con happen that the passers-by experience o certain feeling of togetherness, the kind of feeling which you might expect in o theatre, o church, or in some other place where people gather together, ond which arises here . spontaneously thanks portly to the spotiol conditions thol hove been created.

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The situation changes completely wllen the Polio dell Controde is held, and all the different neighbourhoods compete with each other in horse races. This annual event, which is both o ceremony and o proper contest, costs o spell on the entire town and its population, and the lovely shel~shoped space overflows with crowds of people who, • standing along the raised edges, oil hove o good view of the race taking place in the centre.At such times the openair cafes make way for grandstands, and the windows of every single house with o view of the piazza ore filled to capacity, either with paying spectators. or with friends of the families. And of the eve of the contest 15,000 people dine out in the streets of oil the neighbourhoods.

PIAZZA DEl CAMPO, StfNA, ITALY llSS·ISSI

If there is any public space whose enclosed form and exceptional location evokes the impression of on urban living-room it is the Piazza del Compo in Siena. Althougll it is ra ther inward-looking, with Its somewhat stern buildings dominated by the Poloz.zo Communole, its saucer-like hollow with sleep alleys radiating from it stnl unmistakably creates on atmosphere of openness ond light. The sunny side of the pioz:zo is lined with open-air coles which ore full oil year round, especially with tourists 66

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PlAZA MAYOR, CHINCHON, SPAIN riS6,1Sn In Chinchon, o small town south of Madrid, the central market square is transformed into on arena when the annual corrida is held. This plaza, shaped like a Greek amphitheatre situated in o hollow on the hillside, Is entirely surrounded by buildings, with shops and coles under the arcades below ond dwellings above. All these dwellings hove wooden balconies running from one end of the fot;ode to the other, joinrng up to form o continuous tiered circle facing the square. Whenever o corrido is held the balconies become grandstands, with rows of seals which the residents sell to make some e:dro money. In this way privole dwellings, located in such prominenl and strotegic places in the life of the community, temporarily toke on o public stolus. 0

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The way these balconies ore oil constructed along the some principles os on open additional wooden zone cantilevered from the relatively closed lo~odes · obviously with this extra public function in mind · they draw the spoce together to form o Iorge uni~ed whole resembling the clonicolltolion theatre with its vertically tiered rows of boxes. DIONNE SPIING, TONtotERlE, fiANCE 11~1

Communal wosh-ploces (or the centrally located water pumps or tops in small rural communities) hove olwoys been o popular meeting-ground lor local inhabitants, where the latest news and gossip is exchanged. Running water and washing-machines hove put on end to this.'Women hove more time lor themselves now', is on argument often heard in defense of modernization. At the famous spring of Tonnerre the place where the water wells up from deep down in the earth was enclosed by o simple circular dam. This solution Intensifies the grandeur of this natural phenomenon, while ot the some time erecting the simple conditions lor o communal wosh-ploce for the people who hoppen to live in the vicinity. We don't make wosh-ploces anymore (cor-washing instollctions don't count). Are there in foci still places where everyday activities give rise to the need to creole communal focilities in the public oreo, sudt os those that ore still to be found in less prosperous ports of the world~ PUll( 101111

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11 PUBLIC SPACE AS CONSTRUCTED ENVIRONMENT m 160

Untlllfle nineteenth century few buildings w.,. public, and even tben not COII\pl.tely JO, The public acceulbility of such buildings OJ chur7511

Under the heading 'An emperor's home becomes a lawn lor 3000 people in Split' the architect Bakemo wrote about the ruins of this Roman palace, which still constitutes the nucleus ol Split today lfotVm, 2·19621 What were once ports of the poloce structure now serve os walls lor dwellings. What were once niches ore now rooms, and what were once holts of the palace ore now dwellings, and everywhere you con still see fragments that recoil the original function of the structures. This enormous building, being wholly absorbed by the surrounding city, was capable of serving o new and different purpose, with the city being able to accommodate itsell lully to the given form. What we see here is o metamorphosis · the original structure is still present inside, but the way the old hos been swallowed up by the new makes one wonder what

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would be le~, struclurolly speaking, if one were to subtract the later fillings. The process is irreversible · the palace is there all right, inside, but it cannot be recolledl Nor Is II conceivable that, under different circumstances, a completely different way of adopting to what is left of the original structure will ever be realized; at any rote what is left of the structure does not offer the slightest suggestion of that ever happening. The example of Split is especially interesting in thot II demonstrates the divorcement of form ond function so dearly, and it is worth mentioning here because, already

in 1962, it was o source of inspiration lor our way of thinking about orchitecturoJ forms such os omphitheotres · although the Iotter, unlike the palace in Split, not only permitted new forms of usage but even evoked such new applications by virtue of their specific shape and structure.

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THE AMl'HITHEAUES Of ARtES AND LUCCA 11Sm•t

'The amphitheatre of Aries wos used os a fortress in the Middle Ages; then it was filled in with bui ldings ond wos inhabited os o town until the nineteenth century. The amphitheatre of Lucca was absorbed by the town and at the some lime kept open os o public square. Within the nameless urban fabric the oval space is a landmark, it lends its nome and identification to the surroundings. The two omphitheolres, constructed for the some purpose, assumed different roles under changed circumstances. Each took on the colour of the new environment which

circumsta nces, without the structure itself essentially changing. Besides, the Aries example · now that this arena hos been restored to its original state- shows that this kind of process of transformation is basically reversible. A more convincing instance of 'competence' and 'performance' in arch itecture is hard to imag ine. And the fact that these two omphitheotres ore not identical only underscores the polemic quality of the situation: lor just as the autonomy of the oval form is emphasized by the proceu ol tronslormotion, so the form as 'archetype' imposes itself almost inescapa bly.

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oreJ>Cs ol Nimes ond Aries, lronsformed Ink~ ~vded /,"f., homlen, wnll• tho remains ol

tho ,...., Golfo.Romon ll>wns - • abandoned 10 !he lizards ond the snohs- thor 91-.s us o good icl1>0 of u.bon cloleriD.. ' ...Jn.........o......1 ~ SCH~OOE~ HOUSE, UTRECHT 1924

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'At the very heart of the Nieuwe Bouwen in Holland was Rietveld's Schroder House, hardly bigger than o public housing unit of today, articulated in componenb, each one as if it belonged to o piece of furniture. The design is often described as o th ree·dimensionol Mondrion pointing, but quite aport from the foci that Mondrion's paintings ore not concerned with extending beyond the flat plane, such o comparison does not do justice either to Mondrion's ideas or to those of Rietveld. While Mondrion tried 1o harmonize the different weights of speclfk colours (as Schonberg composed colour· sounds), ond in so doing may well hove pointed models for true democracy, Rietveld on the other hand, working with building materials which possess physical weigh t, makes them weightless, so that new interrelationships con be established and the new aims be achieved. from a distance and from the outside these aims seem abstract, intended os a sod of objective composition of planes ond lines, and indeed this is the qua lity that tends to receive most emphasis in the many publications devoted to the Schroder House. But from the inside all the different components, separately ond vis ovis each other, prove to be within the reach of everyday gestures. The space is exploited to the full, not only inside but also in the peripheries: each oreo is wholly oHuned to the purpose it is expected to serve, with each corner, window or door being fitted with so many benches, cupboards,

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niches and ledges that they blend unnoliceobly into the furniture. Although the house is actually quite small - the main floor consists of just one room which con be subdivided when necelsary - the infinite articulation of the space makes it both very Iorge ond very small. This house, with all its features, big and small, working together Ia create a truly habitable, friendly completene$5, shows what kind of nests people would build if they could, but besides that it offers a balance of seclusion and extroversion. Since the Schroder House Rietveld never built anything that come quite so close to o utensil. As for as this is concerned he moy well hove been strongly influenced by Mn Schroder, for whom and with whom he designed the house. That he was so prepared to listen to her shows his true nature ond his profoundly right otiitude to architecture. The ideo underlying the design of the house culminates in the glas~enclosed corner of the living story. When the big window in the corner Is opened it Is truly a window on the world. Because the corner is not obstructed by any support the space shaped by the walls ot right angles to each other is allowed to expand outside, thereby creating a unique spatial experience. The sensation of being both inside and outside at the some time- a greater relotivisotion of interior ond exterior is ha rd to imagine. This wos indeed a most radical break with all that hod existed before, and it symboli~es for many of us the excitement of the new technological possibilities. Yet this wi ndow, paradoxical though this might seem, is simply a product of a carpenter's workmanship. Rietveld himself hod to go to o smith to order on extra long window fastener. Technicolly, in fact, the entire SchrOder House could hove been constructed with the means of o century earlier. Unlike Duiker and Von der Vlugt, who sought inspiration from new techniques, Rietveld mode primitive and timeless dasigns: the carpenter's dream of o different world. The small bench outside by the window of Rietveld's study, under the balcony, to the left of the front door, wos designed for Mrs Schroder, so silling there she wos still in contact with Rietveld when he was ot wotk inside. The way in which the projecting planes of balconies and walls form a habitable space here thanks to the right combination of shelter ond contact, with both inside and the garden, is actually clossicol: what is new here is only the form it tokes'. [7)

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Thanks to th. open comer in Rietveld's SchrOder House you are not, when inside, separated from the outside world, you aN in th. middle of It all. Also th. gla11 circle on top of th. Van Nelle factory brings the in1ic:le world outside and the homon inside. loth of these

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solutions are typical of the Nieuwe louwen and both • os radkal as they are • are based on the absence of load· bearing construction elements in the periphery of the building. It is the principle of the cantilever which was made poulble by the application of reinforced concret., that produced this new, unprecented experience of space. But however a iry the constrvction of a building may be, and however the opposition between inside and outside is relativized by for instance recesses in the fa~ade, that extraordinary new sensation of tra.nsparency and lightness can only exist when the constructive comer-column is absent, and when the fasad.e is sa thinly constructed that it apparently has only itself to support. The mast consist.nt, and also the most beautiful, ore the open comers in Duiker's buildings. The woy the load-bearing strvcture of the Technical School in Scheveningen and of the Zonnestroal Sanatorium, and of course of his Open Air School in Amsterdam complements the thin glau exterior hos never been seen before or since, but the influence of these unparalleled buildings is still felt today, all over the world. DE OVERIOOP, HOME fOR THE ElDERlY (411 ll9)

A residential building lor the elderly constituting a selfconta ined organizational unit (where ma ny of the inhabitants tend to stay on the premises due to impaired mobiliiyl almost inevitably assumes the nature of a bastion_ In this case the location, not in the heart of lhe res idential neighbourhood but on o residual site on the edge of town at the loot of the dyke along the Veluwe lake, further emphasizes this undesirable effecl of recluslveness. While the spatial organization of the interior con be

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designed with on eye to maximum openness lor the residents, the design of the exterior should ot least see to it thotthe complex os o whole does not look more withdrawn then necessory. Passers-by should be able to gel o glimpse ol life on the premises, but especially the residents themselves should hove ample opportunity of maintaining visual contact ot least with the outside world. To express this ideo os explicitly os possible the location of the communal spoce, used for receptions and festive gatherings, wos located so os to hove the best possible view over the Veluwe loke up to the horizon. With its Iorge wi ndows on three sides ond the suggestion of roundness due to the semkirculor roof projection the structure looks more like o ship's bridge then o tower room, thereby referring olso to the ship-like buildings of the Nieuwe Bouwen movement. tiYIIU G IO U.

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That the angle af vision is expanded by opening up a comer is a definite advantage, but it is not the only oM. After all, bays added to or proj.ning from a fa~ade enable you to step outside, as it were, so that you have a view up and down the street below. lut when this open corMr is not an addition, because it is the actual comer of the building that ha1 been opened up, the effect is that the building seems lighter, leu mauive at the very points where one would ex_ped strength. This change in the equilibrium results in a shift of emphasis, and thus alters the rhythm of the structure te become open at beginning and end, a1 in many musical compositions an upbeat. 1n 01

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Opening up corners where wall ond ceiling meet, os in tne Delft Montessori school (611.m.67!1 and the conversion of o private house in loren f£111, or the application of the low parapet in the Amsterdam studenl home 1613t, make the range of vision expand· even when that is not literally

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if the case - by virtue of the shift in focus of attention, drawing the eye upwards or downwards or to the street outside. The quolily of the light entering through the windows changes, too: where it enters, unreflected, from above, it brings with it the quolily of the outside, which is

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especially important in areas !such os the communal a reo in the school) where you wont to relate more directly to the world outside than, soy, 1n the classrooms. DE EVENMR, ScHOOt !UW29J

By placing two odioining classrooms behind o curved

section olthe lo~ade they become o sort ol communal boy. The wall dividing the classrooms comprises ot one end, where it meets the fo~ode, o sliding partition. When it is closed, the two spaces ore both visually ond audibly separated, but when i1 is opened the two classrooms easily blend into one oreo embraced by the boy. Besides, the view of the outside world from each dossroom is considerably widened when the partition is opened.

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The eHect of opening up the comer between two wolls is even stronger when the corner between wall and celli119 is removed: this revolutioniws the traditional spatial paradigm as it manifests itself e.specially in the structural framework (where wall.a and ceilings/floors meet). The 'windows' are no longer openings in a wall or roof·plane • and therefore basicaiJy framed objects • but they actually constitute the open transitions between planes, there.by making the overol image less massive and 'stabile' and consequently less separate fram ih environment. So the Nieuwe louwen brought the outside world Inside into our familiar surroundings, which were thus dematerialired and rendered transparent. The architectonk space was expanded, and If this modem architecture reminds one of ships and bird.a, that is not anly due to the formal Idiom Inspired by the universally admired functionalism of modem naval architecture, there i1 abo and especially a deliberate allusion to the sense of freedom evoked by a view embracing endless space, and at the same time to the Inevitable awaren.e u of vulnerability.

Ope~ Air School, Amllltrdom

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Zonne>lrool SonoJOliog.en (Netl.erlonds) Urban design for former Sambcrdon area. Almere·Hoven (Nether· lands) Two office buildings, Roo~ndooi!Netilerlonds) Co~version of office j'Arbeidsvoorziening') in theatre compleJo 0gtl oreo). Freising fGermonyJ Audllorium, RorM (Italy} Governmenr office building lor Ctramique site, Mooslricht (Nether· rands) hteMion to fire Deportment School, Schconlwgen jNttherlands) Extension to Von Gogh Museum. Ar11!1etdam (Netherlands) Office bui[ding IO< landlog Brondenbu19- Potsdam (Gea oreo and for tl.e r.bvctino.Colombo a•is, iome jltolyJ Creche, Berlin (Germany] lo!hor Gunther Buchh~Jm Mu~um, Feldoling !Germany) • Urbon design for communoty centre, Oollgow (Ge1111ony] Academy of Arn ond Design, ~o[dlng (Denmarl ) 'Urban design for i'enonlulo, Tel Aviv {f~rael) New-bvild for lchrhus Hogeschool, Ronerdam jNethe,lands) Urban design for A.el Spr1nger Mulh Media, Berlin (Germany) Urban de1ign for ThereliMhohe, Munich (Gtrmany) • lheotre, Heisinger (Denmark) lrrbon de~ign lor un[vers•ty complex, Malmo jSweden) Urban d111ign, Berlin Pankow (Germany) 'Urban design of Pole is quarter lhou1ing. oHices, parking), 's·titriogenbo:.ch (Nttht pbotogrophiees por Johan von der Keuken', trCI'Ielling exhibition fi!Oturing buih work (Studenlt' HOilst, De Orie H011en, Ce1ttraol IHhHr, Vredenburg Mu1ic Centre, Apollo Scnoolsj, three rerk', Bouwoo. 12, 1989, pp. 2~21 lecture in /ndesem 1990, Oelfr 1990 Hoe modem i.s cle Nederlondse archltedvu•~ 0 I0 Publishers, Ronerclom 1990. 60.05 lnrraduelion In Jon Molema, lr. J. Ouiler. S.rlttorchlfe66, 69 ..,.;111, o .S.H. St. Pettt's Sq~o•e. Rom~ since 1656, 185,261 llotot, P. Kosboh, Hengtlo I 973; 62 .,.,_.., o. St. Ptltr's, Rom~ since I 452; 197. 258 a.w.,..,., M. Spangen Hou1ing, Rotterdam 1919; 49,54 ~riot~;.... ,, M. 1 L.c. vero o1w VM>gt Von Nelle Factory, Rotltrdom 1927·29; 216 a...t., J.H• • . , ...., Vrot$enloon Houl'"11· ~oflerdom 193 1·34; 45 Caroclllio, .ltolt I. W...to free Unrversity, Setlin 1963; 116 EnJOnche, Barcelono 1859; 122 1., a. lllp Mt, L. Dtlloet Moisan de Verre, P01is 1928.32, 238 a-.1 le Polors Ideal. HoUle R"ll 1879-1912; 119 O.Meooboo, G. Pedelltion Undetpcu, Genevo I 981, 232 Ovibr, J., I. lifvMt, J.O. w;, • ..,,. Zonnemaol Sono101rum. Hilve11um 1926-J I; 225 J., a. llf-ot Open A~ xhool, Ams!erdom 1930; 246 Ouibr, J. Cintcc Cimao, Amsterdam 1933; 82, 226 llffti, O. Tile Eoflel Tower, Pcrrs 1889; 70 fyd