Comments on: Heterotopia by David Kohn Architects

By: D. YIM

D. YIM — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:16:47 +0000

Heterotopia, it’s the notion of Foucault…….not of De Certeau..

By: Steven Rendell

Steven Rendell — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:17:06 +0000

Spatial multitasking… only a female could come up with that! Genius.

Nice building, good luck with it!

To Floyd Landis: It’s not architects who should stay away from writing, it’s you! Stick to cycling. Please.

By: David

David — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 19:46:57 +0000

Many thanks. The dog is by Jeff koons.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:29:03 +0000

David,
I am so intrigued by both the concept of spatial multitasking and the gigantic rainbow dog…
With a bit of luck, it will be a wonderful beginning of the year for you.

By: floyd landis

floyd landis — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:23:36 +0000

Nice paper architecture. As I’m sure you’ll agree, it means nothing until and unless it is built. Architects shouldn’t be allowed to write, and that includes me.

By: David

David — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 20:52:40 +0000

A couple of other thoughts I hope are helpful:

The whole structure is built of timber, hence the sizes of the trusses. Timber structures consume the least amount of CO2 in their manufacture and construction which was a key concern of the project. The structure being visible throughout the building was to give the centre a provisional nature that would encourage change. Like in many similar projects, this idea was taken from the work of Cedric Price.

The project is indeed like Sanaa’s Museum. A significant difference between the Sanaa project and the Heterotopia project however is that at Kanazawa all of the major gallery spaces are “white cubes”, classic reduced cubic gallery spaces. In the Heterotopia each of the major spaces is an urban type, a machine hall, a church nave, a terraced house, a rotunda etc. and retains these formal characteristics, allbeit in timber. This was to promote a connection between contemporary art spaces and everyday urban life and memory, responding to concerns developed in Brian O’Doherty’s “Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space,”1976.

By: David

David — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 20:31:25 +0000

The new planting is an energy crop, SRC (Short Rotation Coppice) or Miscanthus, that grows very quickly and can be turned into woodchips and burnt in a plant in the arts centre. The area of new planting shown in the aerial perspective has been calculated to provide a sufficient harvest on a three year cycle to heat the building all year round.

As you probably know, I borrowed the term Heterotopia from Michel de Certeau’s 1967 lecture about ‘other spaces’ which was subsequently published in English in Diacritics, 1986. In the essay he describes spaces that exist in societies where behavioural expectations are turned on their heads where, amongst other qualities, a space “… is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible.” He goes on to propose that the garden is one of the oldest heterotopias having been in times past a sacred space that represented the whole world but at the same time is no more than a small parcel of land. Carpets are consequently transportable heteroptia. This description of the transformational qualities of gardens lead to the adoption of the term, heterotopia, for the competition entry.

By: gaque

gaque — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 19:14:47 +0000

that model looks too similar to sanaa’s kanazawa museum. the structure, however, is completely unlike sanaa’s thin and hidden approach to structure…those giant trusses are quite apparent.

the “heterotopia” is taken too literally in the architect’s summary. and, how are the new forests providing “fuel” for the facility?

By: Margherita

Margherita — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:41:39 +0000

This is an impressive, clever and heartwarming project. Art, nature and eco-sustainability establish here an outstanding partnership. The building stands strategically in the park like an ancient citadel on the top of a hill. Londoners really need a heterotopia, a place where they can be different from themselves and imagine new possibilities for the future. If only they could build this for real: this is my wish for 2008!