Altius Architecture: Bringing a Midcentury Modern into the 21st Century
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06.20.07
It is a depressing litany on TreeHugger, the stunning house by Paul Rudolph or another great modernist torn down because the kitchen wasn't big enough or the windows were crappy or it just wasn't big enough to satisfy the need for a closet as big as a bedroom and a bedroom as big as a living room. Our needs have changed but our wants have changed more.
So it was wonderful to see at the Twenty+Change exhibition a classic house by a great Toronto modernist renovated and extended rather than the usual blow-it-away and do a monstrous faux chateau.
It was originally designed by John B. Parkin, architect of modernist icons like the fabulous Toronto airport (just demolished after forty years of incremental picking away) and Bata Shoe Headquarters (on its way out as the Aga Kahn moves in), working with Mies Van der Rohe on the Toronto Dominion Centre and other great buildings, including a number of terrific houses.
For this Parkin house on the edge of a ravine in Rosedale, the place to live in Toronto if you have got the bucks and want to walk to Holt Renfrew, Toronto's Altius Architects worked out a "substantially revised program that accommodates the new occupants and reacts with sensitivity to the original design intent. Alterations include a greening of the existing building’s envelope and mechanical systems, new green roofs, a second storey addition, new interiors, improvements to the building’s exterior spaces, and a restoration of the ravine property."
Some would say it is not the house it was but at least it is still there. Congratulations to ::Altius Architecture.
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Now this happens to be a nice modernist building, but I can't help thinking that modernism per se is part of the problem. It seems so un-Green. It hates tradition, loathes decoration or frivolity, abhors the concept of "fitting in" and being a good neighbour. It's all flat panels and big pieces of glass and steel. So machine-like, so unnatural.
I'm not really sure what Green architecture would look like, but every fibre of me rejects the cool, antiseptic style of so much Modernist "eco architecture". A true Green building, to me, is gentle, soft, traditional, rich in decoration and personality, joyously ad hoc and improvised, skilfully built, embodying the wisdom of the ages.
Above all, it would be a democratic building. The architect would have consulted the neighbourhood, talked to the people who have to look at it day in, day out and asked them what sort of building THEY would like. Hmmm, now when did an architect ever do that?!
I agree with the previous comment. To me, green stands for more than just rigid, flat, masculine walls. It needs the grace of the feminine curves and decor to blend into a living, permeable, mixed-use town or city.
There have been worse modern buildings built than the one that is depicted here, however I truly believe that green design on this scale is also to incorporate New Urbanism to let go of this perverted automobile wet dream fantasy that we call the North American suburbs.
Modern doesn't always mean green,
but then neither does soft, curvy and decorative,
All those things that you all listed could be "extras" unnecessary for context or program and thus not green.
If anything i think most modern "green" designers are trying to move away from the whole domed house Whole Earth catalog version of green building.
Do granola chic
And personally i agree.
When I think 'green architecture' I think of anything that employs recyclable material or is recyclable as a whole. Cob, strawbale, earth-sheltered, earthships, rammed-earth, etc. all come immediately to mind. Each method has its pros and cons.
I would have to say that my favorite example - though fictional and atleast partially CGI - is Bag-End (the ancestral home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins) as portrayed in Peter Jackson's rendering of The Lord of the Rings.
The building methods and materials used at Dancing Rabbit in Mo. are all pretty impressive too. I am working on convincing my wife that we need to follow those lines rather than buying a conventional home and saddling ouselves with so much more debt. Student loans are bad enough.
BTW - for more info. about the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage visit www.dancingrabbit.org
Some of you may not like 'modern style' but if you want large numbers of people to embrace a movement, playing to current tastes/trends is a good way to win converts. But yes, I agree with those citing this house as too large, suburban, etc. Density/modesty rules!