Carole Critchlow
Kunz, CEE33X
19 de mayo, 2005

Query 6

Query-6: Homes. Please submit using htm format before class (3 PM, May 19)

1. Photo

On this sunny afternoon, light flows into the Las Condes home’s family room through the large windows that extend across the entire south wall. The room is colorful, with bright pillows, decorative paintings and dried flowers placed around the room. In the evening, the room provides a gathering place for the family as they watch their favorite TV shows and the kids use the computer to chat with friends or work on homework. The winter months find the house’s only heat, a small space heater, placed in this room as it is the most comfortable for everyone to gather.

2. Sketch

This sketch shows a bird’s-eye view of my bedroom in my host family’s home. It has a very simple layout, and just fits the necessities snugly into the space – the bed, nightstand, small desk (which I’ve interestingly never sat at), closet, and small bathroom at the back with a sink, toilet, shower, and just enough floor space to stand up in. The room is more focused on function than comfort; it works for its purpose, but as a personal comfortable space, I don’t choose to spend a lot of time there when I am not sleeping or getting ready in the morning.

3. Formal symbolic model

Functions · Provide shelter from elements · Comfortable living space conducive to warm feelings of family and domesticity · Personal space for each resident · Gathering space for the entire family · Accommodate the family’s physical needs and possessions

Forms · Roof, enclosed walls · Supplied with electricity, major appliances, several televisions, a computer · No central heating system; only space heaters for rooms and gas calefones to heat the water · U shape – only one main corridor · 10 bedrooms · Large outdoor patio · Separate rooms with specific purposes/identities – kitchen, living room, family room, bedrooms, bathrooms, yard/patio · Unique and colorful decorations – paintings, flowers, etc.

Behaviors · At most two people per bedroom · Not much ease of movement – odd shape makes you walk through entire house or around outside · Everyone usually eats together at meals, at either the kitchen table, the patio outside, or the small table in the family room · Gather in family room in evening to watch tv · Much time spent in individual bedrooms · Single computer almost always in use · Residents are happy, comfortable

Legend: the arrows express the relationships between the functions, forms and behaviors, and they are explained according to their number in the text below.

Relationships: The house provides shelter for the family through its physical structure, including the roof, walls, electricity, and heating systems (1). These also serve to accommodate the family’s physical needs and possessions (2). The different rooms and their decorations expressing the family’s personality serve to provide the comfortable, domestic living space for the family (3), which is manifested in the family meals, evening time in the family room, leisure time in the bedrooms, and the general happy attitude of the family (4). Because there are 10 bedrooms, which results in there being at most two people in each room (5), each person gets some amount of personal private space, and contributes to each family member spending a fair amount of time in his/her bedroom (6). The patio and common rooms serve to provide gathering space for the whole family (7), which they indeed do at meal times and in the evening (8).

4. Summarize things you liked and did not like (Plus/Delta) about behaviors you see; comment explicitly on relationships to functions, forms and behaviors.

• At most two people per bedroom +
• Because there are 10 bedrooms (form 5), everyone in the house has at least some amount of personal, somewhat private space, which accomplishes one of the functions of the house. This is a good thing, as it allows the members of the family to maintain an individual space with some privacy, which helps them to develop and maintain an individual identity.
• Not much ease of movement – odd shape makes you walk through entire house or around outside Δ
• This result of the odd U shape of the house (form 4) makes it an inconvenience for one to go from the kitchen to the living room, the two most popular rooms; one must pass through the narrow hallway past several bedrooms. It would be better if the house was constructed so that high traffic was kept to the areas it is intended for.
• Everyone usually eats together at meals, at either the kitchen table, the patio outside, or the small table in the family room +
• This behavior is enabled by the existence of common rooms (form 7), which is also a function of the house, and is good because it allows the family dynamic to develop and family members to spend time with one another.
• Gather in family room in evening to watch tv +/Δ
• Again, the result of the existence of the common room as well as the supply of electricity and televisions (forms 7 and 2), it is good because the family spends time together, but perhaps bad as well because TV is not the most stimulating and social experience.
• Much time spent in individual bedrooms +/Δ
• Everyone has some personal space as a result of the many bedrooms (form 5), and it is good that they take advantage of it and have the opportunity to be individual and independent. But, at times it can be excessive to the point that sometimes they do not come out of their rooms to join family events or mealtimes.
• Single computer almost always in use +
• Enabled by the electrical supply (form 2), it is no doubt expensive to operate and maintain, but it used to the full advantage by the family members for homework, keeping in touch with friends and family, etc.
• Residents are happy, comfortable +
• The realization of function 2 of the house. Linked most directly to the physical comfort of the house (forms 1, 2, 5, 6) and how it’s built inside (forms 7, 8). It is what everyone strives for.

5. Personal vignette: describe an experience you had in your host home that was personally meaningful and describe how that experience made the visit memorable for you.

The day I first arrived at my host home will be one of the most memorable moments for me in Chile. I was so excited to be off the plane and in a new environment, and I was looking forward to the long-awaited meeting with my host family. The taxi driver finally found the house, and my host mom ushered me inside with a warm hug and began to talk a mile a minute. As we walked inside, memories of my time abroad in Spain in eleventh grade came flooding back to me – the houses were similarly nice but modest and colorfully decorated, I was jumping into the deep end of Spanish immersion, and we immediately sat down to eat a lunch of lentil soup, also a common dish in Spain. It brought back all the excitement of spending time abroad, and it made the fact that I was actually in Chile all the more real.

6. Theoretical Interpretation: Rybczynski Home

Rybczynski begins Chapter 2 with an analysis of the engraving St. Jerome in His Study, and then compares his own study to the engraving. He notes in explaining the clutter on his desk that “Hominess is not neatness” (17), and according to this rule, my host family’s house is one of the homiest that you could find – it’s not dirty, of course, but is filled with the kind of everyday clutter that means it’s really being lived in. He then discusses at length a historical view of how houses behaved through the centuries. With regards to many of the characteristics he discusses, our home is absolutely on the most modern end of the spectrum. He would consider it a “private, family home” (49): The family does not live and work in the same building – the home is “intimate,” identified “exclusively with family life” (39) – nor is the furniture “portable or demountable” (26), “sparse,” or “uncomplicated” (25), as was the case in many medieval houses. There is not one single room that is used for all functions, such as cooking, eating, entertaining, and sleeping; rather, each function essentially has its own room, and they rarely overlap. Further, personal privacy is also recognized within the home, which is an even more modern development: all of the family members sleep in different rooms (except for the parents), including the children, who remain in the house well into their 20s. Domesticity – defined by Rybczynski as “ha[ving] to do with family, intimacy, and a devotion to the home, as well as with a sense of the house as embodying – not only harboring – these sentiments” – is a distinctly felt atmosphere.

Additionally, the home is equipped with electricity (a modern convenience of the 19^th century), enabling many modern technologies and mechanized devices that dramatically help the efficiency of performing domestic work and contribute to the physical comfort of the residents.

7. Theoretical Interpretation: pattern language

• Patterns: positive examples

o 69. Public outdoor room: Though the house is not a public space, it still has an outdoor room as Alexander describes it, on the back patio: posts mark the corners and the walls, and a thin thatched cover provides a mock roof , to create a cozy little space in the yard.

o 60. Accessible green: at the nearest street corner to the house, there is a small public park with trees, a small soccer field, some grass, and benches for the neighborhood to enjoy at any hour.

o Accommodation for the seasons (my pattern): The house has large windows and doors that can are open to increase air flow during summer, and though it is not well insulated for the winter, they do have space heaters that can be placed in the common rooms during the cold months. Further, the house has an indoor comedor for eating inside when it is cold, and an outdoor patio with a table and chairs for when it is warm.

• Patterns: negative examples

o 159. Light on at least two sides: Most rooms in the house do not follow this pattern. For example, the family room (as you can see in the photo on the first page) has windows on only one wall. However, going against Alexander’s prediction, it’s one of the most occupied rooms in the house, and it might be because the windows, though only on one side, do extend across the entire length of the wall, letting in a lot of light.

o 127. Intimacy gradient: the entrance to the house leads you into the living room with the kitchen just to the right, but in order to get to the other common room, the family room, you either have to back outside and go through the yard, or go through the house’s main corridor past three bedrooms and a bathroom before getting there.

o 110. Main entrance: Not only does the main entrance to the house not stand out boldly, it is not even visible from the approach to the house once you’re inside the gate. It’s on the side of the house as you walk up the driveway; you only notice it as you walk by on your way into the backyard.

o Easy access to all lived-in areas of the house (my pattern): the house is built over two lots, and is in two main sections: the primary part of the house for the immediate family, and a side wing that consists mostly of just bedrooms that houses several boarding students. Though the two sides share a wall, there is no way to pass between them; for example, for a boarding student to go from her bedroom to the kitchen, she must go through the back yard and around the back of the house through a very narrow that is path open to the elements. This is very inconvenient.

For your class project, show:

8. Theoretical interpretation from the perspective of Flessig: how well does the project support Smart Growth?

In defining ‘smart growth,’ Flessig cites a “list of policy and planning tools” created by “transportation planners, urban designers, environmentalists, developers, and local officials” (4) that one can apply to metroplitan areas as they inevitably grow. The item most relevant to Torre Telefónica is number 9, which advises, “Recognize traditional downtowns and urban neighborhoods as being a critical anchor for the economic and community vitality of a region” (4). The Telefónica tower fits into this general pattern by creating an economic force in the downtown region of Santiago. Further, it passes many of the more detailed checklists that Flessig provides (the relevant ones are discussed here):

· Proximity to existing/future development and infrastructure

o Located in one of the most prominent areas of Santiago, the Telefónica tower is adjacent to basic services such as roads, water and sewer systems, is within one minute walking of a major Metro station (Baquedano), and being on Avenida Providencia, is within a block of housing, restaurant, and entertainment facilities.

· Mix and balance of uses

o Though its primary use is as an office building for the Telefónica company, the building’s large hall on the main floor is also often used for city conventions, etc.

· Site optimization and compactness

o With 34 floors and a structure much higher than it is wide, Torre Telefónica seems to be doing its part with respect to maximizing the use of its site and creating density. Further, with the bustling downtown region of Santiago surrounding it, it is not a density that is out of proportion with the community, which Flessig cautions against.

· Accessibility and mobility choices

o The building is on a pedestrian-friendly site: Large sidewalks line the road at its base, it is directly and easily accessible from the street, one block away is a large park/open space (Parque Forrestal), and it is highly accessible by Metro (estación Baquedano) and bus.

· Community context and site design

o Torre Telefónica gets mixed reviews in this category. The design neither reflects local historic materials or design nor demonstrate use of existing styles. As a skyscraper, however, it is not the first in Santiago and does fit into the city skyline in that sense. Also, the tower is located in the prominent Plaza Italia, and one of the items on the list is whether the site “create[s] or enhance[s] community spaces such as plaza, squares, parks, etc” (15). This is up to Santiaguinos to decide – the plaza was certainly different many years ago, but many people like the new flavor that the building brings to the area.

· Environmental quality

o I do not currently know the environmental status of Torre Telefónica, but hope to find out soon.

· Re-use and redevelopment options

o The building is still new, but in several years when needs and demands change, it could be adapted for other commercial or even residential uses, with an interior overhaul.

9. Briefly comment about:

a. Face(s) of the patrimonio construido de Santiago
The building stylistically breaks away from the historic built environment of Santiago, but in the process it is creating and developing the next stage in Santiago’s patrimonio construido: the modern, commercial, and ultra-metropolitan.

b. Identity of the Chilean designers and the project users that the views show
The designers clearly identify with the business/corporation identity, and the views also show the users of the building as likely corporation employees and big-city residents.

10. Comment on cultural, economic, global issues, political science, psychology and sociology issues that the views suggest to you, ideally with references to theoretical literature.

One cultural/sociological note is that the building (its presence, corporate affiliation, shape) demonstrates how embedded cellular technology has become in modern society, which could be positive or negative, depending on your value judgments. Also, Alexander claims that high buildings ‘make people crazy,’ and since the tower is one of the highest in the city, it could have some psychological impacts if that is indeed true. A final note, an economic and cultural one, is the modernization that the building brings and encourages – how much does it preserve/advance the culture of Santiago and Chile? How much does it advance the economy?

Mechanics: Copy this file from the web and use it as a template for your submission, preserving the included bookmarks. Create hyperlinks to cross reference your own work and the work of other students. Please save all photos related to your project so they occupy 100KB or less. You can use the Save for the web... command in Microsoft Image Composer.