Inside-out and outside-in: The envelope and the search for a heterogeneous interiority

Author: Marco Vanucci Year: 2018 Source type: chapter (Ch. 32 of The Interior Architecture Reader, ed. Gregory Marinic, Routledge)

Raw file: raw/chapters/vanucci-2018-inside-out-outside-in.md

Summary

Marco Vanucci — founder of OPENSYSTEMS Architecture (whose projects Nexo, Laminae, and Diatomics illustrate the chapter) and formerly of Zaha Hadid Architects and AKT II's Parametric Applied Research Team — argues that the building envelope, newly understood through material systems and performance, is "the main agent for the articulation of its architectural interiority." The chapter diagnoses the last fifty years of architectural discourse as "polarized by research of complex forms, on the one hand, and by the innovative articulation of program on the other," while "questions related to the articulation of interior space have not received a corresponding level of critique." Its thesis: "Beyond the dichotomy of form and program, interior architecture can be rediscovered through the articulation of performative envelopes" — envelopes whose "hyperarticulation" through differentiated material organization produces a genuinely heterogeneous interiority, "experienced through its intensive qualities of visual porosity, humidity, light, ventilation," rather than statically providing the homogeneous condition that modern and postmodern architecture both sought.

Key Claims

The polarization diagnosis: "The progressive architectural discourse of the past fifty years has been polarized by research of complex forms, on the one hand, and by the innovative articulation of program on the other" — and while "these two aspects have been thoroughly investigated and have produced vast amounts of literature, questions related to the articulation of interior space have not received a corresponding level of critique." See form-vs-program, interior-architecture.
The typology-to-program sequence: "The postmodern study of architectural typologies (Aldo Rossi's work, for example) with its tendency to privilege form has moved on to extensive research of programmatic hybridization in late postmodernism as evidence by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture" — the form pole then the program pole as two successive phases of the same postmodern discourse. See typology, heterogeneous-space.
The performative turn in digital architecture: the turn-of-century computational phase "marked a new phase" — "The problem of fabricating complex geometries (often related to projects whose main concern were the representation of the form of the object itself) gave way to a deep reconsideration of the material and performative quality of space"; FOA's Yokohama Ferry Terminal "paved the way to a new understanding of the relationship between materiality, structure, and performance in architecture." Advanced computation "became a tool for simulating material behavior, and the performative quality of space ceased to be merely a representational tool." See computational-design, digital-fabrication, architectural-performance.
Representation as politics (the plan/section thesis): "Plan and section are traditionally considered to be vehicles to communicate the organization and political dimensions of the architecture and its interior. The plan organizes a particular sequence of spaces and describes the nature of its human dimension… a symmetrical and centralized plan aligns with a hierarchical organization, whereas a fragmented and distributed plan instigates a more open and democratic occupation of space." Via Robin Evans's "Figures, Doors, and Passages": the corridor's introduction "introduced the separation of different social strata within a single home. Privacy, distance, and the segregation of the aristocracy from servants were manifested in architectural forms for the first time thanks to the addition of corridors and ancillary circulatory spaces." See orthographic-projection, partition-of-space, privacy.
The envelope defined: "The building envelope is the diaphragm that articulates form and affects program. It provides a particular spatial condition on the interior while setting the scene for an event" — engaging its surroundings "economically, socially, psychologically, and politically"; it "organizes the interior of the building and the external public realm with which it communicates; it controls the internal environment and marks the boundary of an architectural interiority." See boundaries, enclosure, interiority.
The envelope's double separation: "Considered to be the oldest and most fundamental architectural element, the envelope embodies the separation between inside and outside, the natural and the artificial. It demarcates the boundaries between two different spheres of control: the private and public properties." Traditionally "relegated to expressing symbolic or representational functions," the envelope "embodies a much larger ecology of meanings and synthesizes many heterogeneous inputs, including economic climate, environment, legislative norms, social organization, etc." See inside-outside-dialectic, privacy, separate-spheres.
The central thesis: "the envelope is the main agent for the articulation of its architectural interiority" (note 2 cites Alejandro Zaera Polo's "The Politics of the Envelope") — interiority produced by the envelope's articulation, not merely housed by it. See interiority, performative-envelope.
The modernist correspondence: "The modernist paradigm was predicated on the assumption that 'form follows function' and implied the correspondence between internal articulation and external manifestation of built form. The modern 'machine for living' represents not only the functionalist response to the problem of architectural form, it also embodies its material strata." See machine-for-living, homogeneous-space.
Flexibility and the programming paradox: "In a mature phase of modernism in the 1960s, flexibility became a desirable architectural quality" for "schools, hospitals, and housing projects for the new capitalist (affluent) society." Programming "was introduced by means of systematically collecting project-related data" — and, following Hashim Sarkis, "while programming sought to elucidate a scientific approach to functionalism, it paradoxically helped to uncover a higher degree of indeterminacy. In short, it helped unleash new formal possibilities beyond its suitability to function." See flexible-interior, form-vs-program.
Bigness and the final disconnection: Koolhaas's S,M,L,XL theory — beyond a certain scale, "'old' architectural principles (composition, scale, proportion, and detail) no longer apply"; a new urban style "no longer holds a relationship with the context but imposes itself on the context." The chapter's gloss: "Sanctioning the final disconnection between architectural interiority and exteriority, this discourse advocates for the advent of a new type of urban architecture that privileges the content over the context." See junkspace, interior-urbanism.
Junkspace and the envelope's new centrality: Koolhaas's 2001 critique of "soulless, 'mallified' spaces" blending "shopping malls, airports, hotels, convention centers, and art galleries into seamless uniformity" — "The junk space, he argued, is the true product of modernization." The consequence: "interior spaces became increasingly generic, while the building envelope gained a new centrality in contemporary architectural discourse," the envelope becoming "more and more sophisticated and actively responsive to external stimuli as well as internal needs." See junkspace, non-places.
The negotiation field: "The building envelope becomes the field of negotiation between interior spatiality and exterior appearance." See boundaries, inside-outside-dialectic.
Interior defined by difference (the Bateson move): "Interior space can be defined as the boundary that differentiates the exterior envelope of the building with the inside. Difference in temperature, humidity, light condition, and sometimes even pressure is what makes the interior controlled environment of architecture different from the surrounding environment." Gregory Bateson's epistemology supplies the ground: "What gets onto the map, in fact, is difference" — difference, not substance, is what a system registers. See boundaries, systems-theory.
Hyperarticulation as method: "a heterogeneous spatial condition is achieved through the hyperarticulation of the building envelope by means of differentiated material organization" — the performative envelope "no longer statically provides a homogeneous condition as a result of a formal and programmatic search." See performative-envelope, heterogeneous-space.
Intensive vs. extensive space: "Whereas modern and postmodern architecture sought for homogeneous spaces, undifferentiated fields provided a homogeneous environment, a new type of heterogeneous space is emerging: one that seeks difference in kind and in degree, and that can no longer – or not only – be described for its extensive characteristics. Rather, it is experienced through its intensive qualities of visual porosity, humidity, light, ventilation, etc." The chapter's distinctive claim: heterogeneous space is measurable by qualities (porosity, humidity, light) rather than quantities (area, dimension). See heterogeneous-space, homogeneous-space, atmosphere.
The Frei Otto lineage: "Aligning with the great legacy of pioneering architects such as Frei Otto, a new sensibility for the articulation of form, conceived as the result of a form-finding exercise, opened up extraordinary possibilities to connect performance, differentiation, and heterogeneous spaces." See form-finding.
Data integration as design medium: "The possibility to collect and manage large amounts of data allow for integration of information, through computational processing, within the fabric of the architectural envelope. Information-rich, heterogeneous environments are the result of a process of management and cross-fertilization of data within a single integrated design process." See computational-design.
Continuous variation actualized: "the continuous variations of building components allow for the actualization of a truly responsive, differentiated spatial condition" — mass-customized component variation as the physical substrate of spatial heterogeneity. See mass-customization, digital-fabrication.
Function reinvented: "It is now possible to think and design forms that, through their performative quality, are able to reinvent function. Heterogeneous interiority can be sought by means of a differentiated envelope." The form/function dichotomy is not resolved but inverted: performance first, function reinvented after. See form-vs-program, architectural-performance.
The contemporary demand: "A more fluid articulation of program, as well as the pressing demand for a more sustainable built environment, are paving the way for an interiority that is increasingly driven by performative parameters: new functional organization in the work environment (such as coworking office spaces), looser boundaries between working, living, and leisure spaces, and the demand for a more performative understanding of matter, program, and form. New performative envelopes have yet to be explored." See work-leisure-distinction, sustainability.
The practice evidence (OPENSYSTEMS): Nexo — a flexible kiosk whose "triangulated three-dimensional fractal panel… forms a self-supporting structure. Its recursive geometry produces a fractal pattern: a series of identical, triangulated metal plates scale down in size as they grow over each other"; Laminae — "a differentiated and performative envelope attempting to overcome the existing dichotomy between standardization and the need for diversity and change in environmental structures," using "parametric design protocols to develop a semi-modular construction formed by the aggregation of differentiated triangular units"; Diatomics — "the agglomeration of cellular components within a self-supporting assembly to be employed as vertical partition as well as a structural system" (tetrahedral component branching three ways, cubical "cell" branching eight). The chapter's author demonstrates his own thesis in three projects that make the envelope simultaneously structure, partition, and spatial conditioner. See performative-envelope, mass-customization, structural-furniture.

Connections

Concepts: performative-envelope · heterogeneous-space · homogeneous-space · interiority · boundaries · enclosure · inside-outside-dialectic · interior-architecture · architectural-performance · form-vs-program · junkspace · typology · machine-for-living · flexible-interior · orthographic-projection · mass-customization · computational-design · digital-fabrication · privacy · partition-of-space · interior-urbanism · sustainability · work-leisure-distinction · structural-furniture · atmosphere · systems-theory · event-space

Authors: vanucci-marco (author) · marinic-gregory (Reader editor) · Rem Koolhaas — "bigness" (S,M,L,XL) and "junk space" as the discourse the envelope answers · Aldo Rossi — the typological (form-privileging) phase cited as superseded · Le Corbusier — "form follows function" and the "machine for living" as the modernist paradigm's premises · Robin Evans — "Figures, Doors, and Passages" (corridor as social stratification; note 1) · Gregory Bateson — Steps to an Ecology of Mind (difference as what registers; note 5, p. 457) · Hashim Sarkis — the programming paradox (note 3) · Alejandro Zaera Polo — "The Politics of the Envelope" (note 2) · Michael Hensel, Christopher Hight & Achim Menges — En Route: Towards a Discourse on Heterogeneous Space (note 6; the chapter's conceptual anchor) · Frei Otto — form-finding lineage · Foreign Office Architects — the Yokohama Ferry Terminal as the performative turn's seminal project · OMA — CongrExpo, Lille (note 4: "to mix programs, to generate hybrids")

Debates: form-vs-program (the chapter's opening diagnosis and its proposed resolution through the envelope) · static-vs-dynamic-architecture (the envelope "actively responsive to external stimuli as well as internal needs" — dynamism as envelope articulation) · postmodernism-vs-modernism (Rossi's typologies → OMA's programmatic hybridization → the performative envelope as the post-postmodern phase)

Related source notes: Carraher — Technologies: The spatial agency of digital praxis — the Reader's earlier heterogeneous-space chapter (Hight/Hensel/Menges assembled via Carraher); Vanucci supplies the envelope as the instrument that produces the heterogeneity Carraher's chapter only defines · Anderson & Lovell-Anderson — Transforming Interior Volumes — differentiation at the interior-volume scale (autogenic topographies) vs. Vanucci's envelope scale · Manack — Fabricating interiority — the same inside-out direction of fabrication ("from the inside out") and the same curtain-wall dissolution diagnosis; Vanucci adds the envelope as the field where distinction is re-made · McClure & McClure — Inside Looking In — the hermetic seal as the envelope's modernist degeneration vs. Vanucci's responsive envelope as its redemption · Koolhaas — Logan Airport / Junkspace — the generic interior Vanucci names as the condition that made the envelope central · Gattegno & Johnson — From ambient environments to sentient spaces — the responsive environment from the sensor side vs. Vanucci's from the envelope-material side · Odom — Productions — performance as production of effects vs. Vanucci's performance as envelope articulation · Brownell — "Living" rooms — the performative turn's ecological branch (living materials) vs. Vanucci's geometric-material branch (differentiated components)

Direct Quotes

"Among all the elements of architecture, the building envelope plays a key role in defining the relationship between the surrounding environment and the articulation of interior spatiality."

"Beyond the dichotomy of form and program, interior architecture can be rediscovered through the articulation of performative envelopes."

"The progressive architectural discourse of the past fifty years has been polarized by research of complex forms, on the one hand, and by the innovative articulation of program on the other."

"Discourse surrounding spatial design has paradoxically centered on the description of aspects that influence the shape or fruition of spatiality, without engaging into a deeper understanding of the quality of interiority."

"The postmodern study of architectural typologies (Aldo Rossi's work, for example) with its tendency to privilege form has moved on to extensive research of programmatic hybridization in late postmodernism as evidence by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture."

"Seminal projects like the Yokohama Ferry Terminal by Foreign Office Architects paved the way to a new understanding of the relationship between materiality, structure, and performance in architecture."

"The problem of fabricating complex geometries (often related to projects whose main concern were the representation of the form of the object itself) gave way to a deep reconsideration of the material and performative quality of space in new architectures of the digital age."

"Advanced computation became a tool for simulating material behavior, and the performative quality of space ceased to be merely a representational tool."

"Plan and section are traditionally considered to be vehicles to communicate the organization and political dimensions of the architecture and its interior."

"a symmetrical and centralized plan aligns with a hierarchical organization, whereas a fragmented and distributed plan instigates a more open and democratic occupation of space."

"The building envelope is the diaphragm that articulates form and affects program. It provides a particular spatial condition on the interior while setting the scene for an event, which is fostered by the spatial construct."

"Considered to be the oldest and most fundamental architectural element, the envelope embodies the separation between inside and outside, the natural and the artificial."

"It demarcates the boundaries between two different spheres of control: the private and public properties."

"The building envelope, however, embodies a much larger ecology of meanings and synthesizes many heterogeneous inputs, including economic climate, environment, legislative norms, social organization, etc."

"In this sense, and most importantly, the envelope is the main agent for the articulation of its architectural interiority."

"The modernist paradigm was predicated on the assumption that 'form follows function' and implied the correspondence between internal articulation and external manifestation of built form."

"The modern 'machine for living' represents not only the functionalist response to the problem of architectural form, it also embodies its material strata."

"In a mature phase of modernism in the 1960s, flexibility became a desirable architectural quality."

"Hashim Sarkis argues that while programming sought to elucidate a scientific approach to functionalism, it paradoxically helped to uncover a higher degree of indeterminacy. In short, it helped unleash new formal possibilities beyond its suitability to function."

"beyond a certain scale, 'old' architectural principles (composition, scale, proportion, and detail) no longer apply." (on Koolhaas's "bigness")

"Sanctioning the final disconnection between architectural interiority and exteriority, this discourse advocates for the advent of a new type of urban architecture that privileges the content over the context."

"The junk space, he argued, is the true product of modernization."

"In this context, interior spaces became increasingly generic, while the building envelope gained a new centrality in contemporary architectural discourse."

"The building envelope becomes the field of negotiation between interior spatiality and exterior appearance."

"Interior space can be defined as the boundary that differentiates the exterior envelope of the building with the inside. Difference in temperature, humidity, light condition, and sometimes even pressure is what makes the interior controlled environment of architecture different from the surrounding environment."

"What gets onto the map, in fact, is difference, be it a difference in altitude, a difference in vegetation, a difference in population structure, difference in surface, or whatever. Differences are the things that get onto a map." (Gregory Bateson, quoted, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, p. 457)

"The definition of a performative envelope, however, allows for the articulation of an interior spatiality that no longer statically provides a homogeneous condition as a result of a formal and programmatic search."

"a heterogeneous spatial condition is achieved through the hyperarticulation of the building envelope by means of differentiated material organization."

"Moving away from the idea of a homogeneous interior to embrace a truly differentiated heterogeneous spatiality allows for a deep reconsideration of the traditional dichotomy between form and function in architecture."

"A new sensibility is emerging, one that uses computational materials to establish a new relationship between material, structure, and performance."

"Aligning with the great legacy of pioneering architects such as Frei Otto, a new sensibility for the articulation of form, conceived as the result of a form-finding exercise, opened up extraordinary possibilities to connect performance, differentiation, and heterogeneous spaces."

"Information-rich, heterogeneous environments are the result of a process of management and cross-fertilization of data within a single integrated design process."

"the continuous variations of building components allow for the actualization of a truly responsive, differentiated spatial condition."

"Whereas modern and postmodern architecture sought for homogeneous spaces, undifferentiated fields provided a homogeneous environment, a new type of heterogeneous space is emerging: one that seeks difference in kind and in degree, and that can no longer – or not only – be described for its extensive characteristics. Rather, it is experienced through its intensive qualities of visual porosity, humidity, light, ventilation, etc."

"It is now possible to think and design forms that, through their performative quality, are able to reinvent function. Heterogeneous interiority can be sought by means of a differentiated envelope."

"A more fluid articulation of program, as well as the pressing demand for a more sustainable built environment, are paving the way for an interiority that is increasingly driven by performative parameters: new functional organization in the work environment (such as coworking office spaces), looser boundaries between working, living, and leisure spaces, and the demand for a more performative understanding of matter, program, and form. New performative envelopes have yet to be explored."

"CongrExpo is 300 metres long and has a very diagrammatic organization… In the east-west direction, each of these components can be used independently, but openings between the components make it possible to use the building as a single entity on the north-south axis, to mix programs, to generate hybrids." (OMA's CongrExpo, quoted in note 4)

Open Questions

The chapter claims the envelope is interiority's "main agent" — but is the envelope's articulation sufficient to produce interiority, or does the Vanucci interiority remain a spatial-physical interiority that leaves the psychological, cultural, and embodied registers (interiority's other senses) unaddressed?
If heterogeneous space is "experienced through its intensive qualities of visual porosity, humidity, light, ventilation," how is it documented — can orthographic projection (orthographic-projection) record an intensive envelope, or does the performative envelope need the representational evolution Weinthal demands (movement, quality, time)?
Bateson's epistemology (difference is what gets onto the map) grounds the envelope in difference detection — but Bateson's point was that the map is not the territory. Is the hyperarticulated envelope a map of environmental difference, and if so, does the interior become a reading of its own skin?
The chapter's three OPENSYSTEMS projects are structures (kiosk, envelope prototype, partition) rather than occupied interiors. What is the performative envelope's domestic register — and does "New performative envelopes have yet to be explored" concede that the interior application is still pending?
Zaera Polo's "Politics of the Envelope" (the chapter's note 2) argues envelope typologies encode political orders. Vanucci adopts the envelope-as-agent thesis without the politics — is the hyperarticulated envelope politically neutral, or does differentiated material organization distribute control (who owns the gradient, who sets the porosity)?
The Koolhaas genealogy (bigness → junkspace → generic interiors) explains why the envelope gained centrality, but the chapter does not ask whether the hyperarticulated envelope can escape junkspace or merely embellish it — is differentiation the cure for the generic, or its most sophisticated symptom?
"It is now possible to think and design forms that, through their performative quality, are able to reinvent function" — is this functionalism overcome, or function re-founded on performance (a determinism of parameters replacing a determinism of uses)?