Deviation from the standard - the plasterboard ceiling in OMA's McCormick Tribune Campus Center

"Instead of trying to wrestle order out of chaos, the picturesque is being wrested from the homogenized today," wrote Rem Koolhaas in 2000 in his essay "Junk Space" in this magazine. At the same time, a six-page specification for a plasterboard ceiling was developed that the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) wanted to install at the McCormick Tribune Campus Center (MTCC) at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. As stated in the quote, OMA ignored the manufacturer's recommendations for the installation of the standard product when designing this blanket and did without the usual final coat of paint, which led to an apparently unfinished solution in which the plasterboard panels and the fillers were applied joints and above the fastening screws remained visible. An analysis of the e-mail correspondence, the specifications and hand-drawn technical sketches for the element shows in an exemplary manner to which uncertainties a deviation from the standard leads and how meticulously these were dealt with and documented

Specifying intent at the museum of childhood

n a 2009 interview, architect Peter St John of Caruso St John Architects defined a good architect as one who makes few compromises, highlighting precise instructions as imperative in achieving this. An architectural project, St John stated, 'is far more likely to work well if you put an enormous effort into defining what you want, to achieve quality’. At Caruso St John Architects' 2006 entrance addition to the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, London [1], the precise specification of mortar and mastic joints throughout a cut-stone facade was employed to define expectations of quality in the constructed facade. These specifications, written in accordance with the recommendations of professional practice, set out stringent expectations of dimensional perfection. When dimensional variations during design development and construction threatened to disrupt these expectations, the precise definition of quality shifted, becoming less defined by dimensional perfection and more reliant upon the ‘architectural intentions’ underpinning the project. In referencing conceptual, ideological, historical and technological intentions which were difficult definitively to express, this critical phrase – ‘architectural intentions’ – is examined here in terms of its ambiguity in the context of the written specification [2]. Ambiguity in the written specification is emphatically rejected by regulatory and advisory bodies in the architectural profession, which frequently advise that the written specification must provide, above all else, certainty. In The Architects' Journal in 1989, author Francis Hall went as far as describing the properly drafted specification as the ‘one certain opportunity’ for an architect to set down a ‘definitive and enforceable expression of standard and quality’. ‘Properly drafted’ is typically translated as a prosaic language, specifically devoid of poetic content. The ability of the unambiguous written specification to convey adequately the poetic content of architectural intentions has, however, been under critique since its inception

Precision in architectural production

In the professionalised context of contemporary architectural practice, precise communications are charged with the task of translating architectural intentions into a prosaic language to guarantee certainty in advance of construction. To do so, regulatory and advisory bodies advise the architectural profession that ‘the objective is certainty.’1 Uncertainty is denied in a context which explicitly defines architectural quality as ‘fitness for purpose.’2 Theoretical critiques of a more architectural nature, meanwhile, employ a notably different language, applauding risk and deviation as central to definitions of architectural quality. Philosophers, sociologists and architectural theorists, critics and practitioners have critiqued the implications of a built environment constructed according to a framework of certainty, risk avoidance, and standardisation, refuting claims that communication is ever free from slippage of meaning, or that it ever it can, or should, be unambiguously precise when attempting to translate the richness of architectural intentions. Through close readings of architectural documentations accompanying six architectural details constructed between 1856 and 2006, this thesis explores the desire for, and consequences of, precision in architectural production. From the author’s experience of a 2004 self-build residence in the Orkney Islands, to architectural critiques of mortar joints at Sigurd Lewerentz’s 1966 Church of St Peter’s, Klippan; from the critical rejection of the 1856 South Kensington Iron Museum, to Caruso St John Architects’ resistance to off-the-peg construction at their 2006 entrance addition to the same relocated structure in Bethnal Green; and from the precise deviation of a pressed steel window frame at Mies van der Rohe’s 1954 Commons Building at IIT, Chicago, to the precise control of a ‘crude’ gypsum board ceiling at OMA’s 2003 adjoining McCormick Tribune Campus Centre, this thesis explores means by which precision in architectural production is historically and critically defined, applied, pursued and challenged in pursuit of the rich ambiguities of architectural quality

Creating common ground: the value of participatory design in articulating a common ethos for dwelling

Philosopher Karsten Harries’ defined the ‘ethical function of architecture’ as that of articulating a ‘common ethos.’ From this stance, this paper considers how architectural processes may help to, as Harries described, articulate a common ethos to help us dwell. Our close examination of an ongoing renovation of a small Bowls Pavilion in a popular neighbourhood park in Grangetown, Cardiff, led by a group of residents who with an aim of gathering community, is set within the context of an ‘age of austerity’ in which volunteers are encouraged to ‘step up and take over the management of services and assets in their own communities.’ Our research scrutinises challenges and opportunities faced by residents taking on a Community Asset Transfer, and examines the challenges for participatory design and appreciative inquiry in supporting the pursuit of a common ethos for dwelling

Community consultation for quality of life in Wales

Community Voices Cardiff was part of a UK-wide research project, Community Consultation for Quality of Life (CCQOL) funded by the Arts and Humanities and Research Council. CCQOL was initiated by Professor Flora Samuel, based on the belief that creating maps of local assets - the places people value most in their communities - is a good way to involve local communities in co-creating local knowledge about their area. Applying the Quality of Life Foundation’s Framework themes of Control, Health, Nature, Wonder, Movement and Belonging in a Commonplace online mapping platform, a map-based approach aimed to test how creating local knowledge through community consultation can help inform longer-term decisions about future development and improvements in our communities. Taking a ‘hyper-local’ approach, Community Voices Cardiff operated from the Grange Pavilion in Cardiff’s Grangetown. This is one of Wales’ most ethnically and faith diverse communities. The Community Voices Cardiff team had a co-investigator with ten years of partnership working experience in the area, a Community Partnership manager resident in the area with substantial experience in activism, and a Student Ambassador resident in the area with a leadership role of a local Youth Forum. Their focus was on capacity-building and knowledge exchange between planning professionals and local residents. They did this through a Local Advisory Group. The team carried out various activities focusing on wellbeing, housing, greening, young voices, consultation language, and Place Plans. The team’s approach aimed to bridge the gap between statutory consultation and meaningful engagement, while addressing the challenges of mistrust and negative impacts on mental wellbeing for both planning professionals and residents when statutory requirements fall short. The research was characterised by capacity building, collaboration and ‘leaning into discomfort’ through engagement, with the need to be particularly alert to buzz words

A Grangetown to grow up in: A children and young people's plan for Grangetown, Cardiff.

This is our plan for Grangetown. The plan was written by the children and young people of Grangetown alongside a team from Cardiff University