(fwd) Re: How Buildings Learn (fwd)

Thought this review might be of interest.

*********************************

From: claycj@xxxxxxx (Clay c j)
Newsgroups: alt.architecture.alternative
Subject: Re: How Buildings Learn
Date: 19 Dec 1994 02:35:15 -0500

In article <donald.j.nelson.4.68.783881147@xxxxxx>,
donald.j.nelson.4@xxxxxx (Donald J. Nelson) writes:

I saw your request for the review of How Buildings Learn.  It just so
happens that I reviewed this book for our newsletter for the California
Society of the American Institute of Building Design.  I think the book
will have some lasting effect.  Many important things to say and issues to
raise.  I would be open to hearing what others think of the book and/or
the principles discussed.
 Here is the review:
October 15, 1994

Review by Clay C. Johnson,  Claycj@xxxxxxx

Book review of  How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built
by Stewart Brand, published by Viking Penguin

Stewart Brand has assembled another book filled with pertinent information
to provoke our thoughts about buildings beyond what we assume in our
everyday world.  "How Buildings Learn" takes a look at how buildings exist
through time, an area of study that is woefully inadequate.  By his own
admission, this book is just a beginning of what this area of study may
be.  This book is much deeper than  "how fast does the roofing wear out?",
but looks at how buildings respond to the changing requirements that are
demanded of them.

Throughout the book there are numerous series of photos taken of the same
building over a period of time.  This process, called rephotography, is
one of the most effective ways to show how buildings change.  Two
rephotography examples of public buildings
not to be missed in the book are the Cliff House in San Francisco and the
Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe.  Another rephotography series shows
an owner built house in New York.  The owner, a cabinetmaker, works part
time on the family home for two years before moving into one finished room
in the large shell.  The photos then document the progress of which parts
of the house get completed in response to family member's needs.  During
the project the owner becomes a general building contractor.

Various chapters in the book present harsh criticism or thoughtful praise
for different aspects of the industry as they relate to the aging of
buildings.  The chapter titled "Magazine Architecture"  takes a direct
shot at the flashy but poorly functioning buildings designed by some
architects that fail to understand how the building is actually used.
Brand  freely admits his early advocacy of the geodesic dome was
misguided.  The inherant construction problems of adapting rectilinier
building materials and techiniques to these faceted structures caused
domes to be difficult to build and non-adaptive.   Within this chapter
Brand shows how "post-occupancy evaluations" (asking the users of the
building how well it works) are used and not used.  The disdain of the
architectural profession of these evaluations is what inspired this
chapter.

Brand has praise for the building preservation movement and demonstrates
its progress and limitations in how it helps older buildings deal with
modern reality.  The preservationists were the professionals that have " a
pragmatic interest in the long-term effect of time on buildings."  This
sets them apart from architectural historians that are only interested in
the original intent and influence of buildings.  Examples of buildings
that have endured by chance or intent fill this chapter.  "Adaptive Use"
is the sleeper in this category.  Brand shows such extremes as the Quaker
Oat Company grain silos being converted to a Hilton Hotel and, as another
example, his own house, a 1912 tugboat.

Remodeling is addressed in the chapter titled "Function Melts Form."  Here
Brand examines how houses and offices, buildings with the highest rate of
change, get carved up, adapted and added to.  He observes that porches as
the most likely area of a house to be rebuilt or enclosed.  Using photo
examples as wide ranging as a summer house in Massachusetts to a 70 year
old adobe in Santa Fe, Brand makes his point showing how fast porches do
evolve.

What I have mentioned so far just scratches the surface of the information
and insight included in this book.  What this book means to all of us is
to open up to the perspective of seeing our buildings not as an end
product of our efforts but as a dynamic object traveling through time.
This perspective may be summerized with this morsel from the chapter The
Scenario-Buffered Building. "A building is not something you finish.  A
building is something you start."