Summary
Highlights
George Estoyano introduces Luis Basabe Montalvo, an associate professor at Madrid School of Architecture. Montalvo, along with Enrique Arenas Lareaga and Luis Palacios Labrador, formed the architectural practice Arenas Basabe Palacios in 2006. The firm has won over 30 architecture competitions and has completed built work, including a cultural association, a warehouse conversion, and a residential building in Madrid. Their work on housing and urban design across different scales, rule-based approaches for variety and complexity, and a multidisciplinary approach aligns with the themes explored in the Design Studio Epsilon at Melbourne School of Design.
Basabe Montalvo introduces the concept of the 'multiplayer city,' where urban design and architecture are seen as a holistic production of the city, not confined to architects alone but involving various stakeholders. He shares an inspiring image of a low-income neighborhood in India where life has overflowed the built environment, showcasing how architecture is incomplete without the dynamic changes brought by its inhabitants. This perspective critiques the overly planned and static urban developments and advocates for cities that can react to change and embrace diversity.
Basabe Montalvo discusses two early competition entries that illustrate their foundational ideas. The first, in Austria, challenged traditional suburban values, which often prioritize property and connectivity over intimacy and comfort. They aimed to create a city that balances public and private elements, using 'plugins' like winter gardens and detached gardens, treating public spaces as objects to be interwoven into the urban fabric. This approach seeks to move beyond the fragmentation of the suburb by detaching the house from the garden to create new, overlapping patterns and a more dynamic urban tissue.
The second competition entry, located in Sweden, further developed their ideas by using the square as a symbol of community and a structural element around which buildings are developed. This 'twin phenomena' approach creates both small, contained communities and a binding green infrastructure that connects them, fostering a layered complexity. The goal is to facilitate diversity in development, accommodating large projects, small-scale developers, cooperatives, and individual houses within the same urban fabric. Montalvo likens city-making to cooking, where the process and interaction of ingredients are crucial for a rich and integrated outcome.
Basabe Montalvo elaborates on a significant project in Vienna, transforming a former farm and research center into a new neighborhood. He introduces John Turner's diagram on who builds the city (public, private, and popular sectors), emphasizing that a democratic city requires a balanced and diverse collaboration of these actors. Inspired by Habraken's concept of 'support plus infill,' the project uses the private garden as the core 'support' structure, allowing diverse 'infill' from various developers and individuals. This framework encourages heterogeneity and allows for a mix of larger public housing and smaller private structures to coexist, fostering a dynamic and adaptable urban environment.
The discussion shifts to the importance of 'free space'—the areas between public and private. Basabe Montalvo advocates for a third, interstitial space that is neither strictly public nor private, where common activities and natural ecosystems can flourish. He cites Sørensen's project in Denmark, where fences, symbols of private property, are transformed into spaces for community interaction. In the Vienna project, this translates into varied green spaces, from public passages to 'urban wilderness' zones that support local flora and fauna. These spaces facilitate diverse activities and allow for unexpected appropriations by residents, enriching the neighborhood's social and ecological life.
Basabe Montalvo emphasizes the critical role of collaborative processes in urban development. The Vienna project involved numerous experts (landscape, energy, co-housing), the co-housing association of Vienna, and local neighbors, transforming the project into a live, iterative process. Community-building activities, such as workshops and summer cinemas, began even before construction, highlighting the importance of social tissue preceding built form. He concludes by presenting an engineer's plan of the completed projects, noting that even in their assembled form, the different architectural and landscape styles reflect a living, continuously changing urban environment, akin to the dynamic Indian neighborhood initially presented.
During the Q&A, Basabe Montalvo addresses their unique visual style, explaining that it avoids photorealistic renderings to emphasize ideas and systems over a final, static image. He explains their philosophy of defining systems and structures that enable objects to evolve over time, rather than dictating the objects themselves. He stresses the iterative nature of the planning process and the need for a generative approach rather than a predefined outcome. Key influences include Dutch structuralists like Habraken, particularly his concept of 'support and infill,' which provides a framework for diverse contributions in urban development. He also recommends John Hejduk's 'Victims' for its influence on understanding architecture as an evolving object.