A couple months ago I posted a sneak peak of Travis Boisvenue's video on infill homes in Ottawa. Here's the complete video, where you can see three variations in the city. What do you think?
The homes all look beautiful on the inside, but we don't see much of how they relate to their surroundings, or what they're like to live _next_ to. From the opening shots, it looks like the neighbours of that first house now have featureless 30-foot-high walls hard up against their lot lines.
One could argue that those modest older homes are probably going to be replaced before too long, and with something similarly modern, so it doesn't make sense to adapt the new designs to not overpower the older houses. That's not true everywhere, though -- many areas of the city have fine older homes that we should not just be trying to keep, but to respect as well. It would have been interesting to see that consideration in your documentary.
It's true it's always interesting to see how a new building relates to another. Perhaps that's something Travis will considerer next time around.
I think good architects will tend to consider the surroundings when designing a new structure so that it relates to its environment. But that doesn't mean that it has to look old. So not everyone will like it. To this date my favorite example is the Cassel project (photo here) by Reigo and Bauer
The homes all look beautiful on the inside, but we don't see much of how they relate to their surroundings, or what they're like to live _next_ to. From the opening shots, it looks like the neighbours of that first house now have featureless 30-foot-high walls hard up against their lot lines.
ReplyDeleteOne could argue that those modest older homes are probably going to be replaced before too long, and with something similarly modern, so it doesn't make sense to adapt the new designs to not overpower the older houses. That's not true everywhere, though -- many areas of the city have fine older homes that we should not just be trying to keep, but to respect as well. It would have been interesting to see that consideration in your documentary.
It's true it's always interesting to see how a new building relates to another. Perhaps that's something Travis will considerer next time around.
ReplyDeleteI think good architects will tend to consider the surroundings when designing a new structure so that it relates to its environment. But that doesn't mean that it has to look old. So not everyone will like it. To this date my favorite example is the Cassel project (photo here) by Reigo and Bauer