Discolored facades, rebellious workers and an overgrown viewing garden. No, the day-to-day reality of homes, schools and offices is often different than the architect ever imagined. That is why architect Marlies Rohmer goes on a journey through her own buildings and talks with the users. This results in a brilliant book full of important insights.
"If you go outside when it's raining, it's like getting a bucket of water in your neck," says a resident of a house in Almere. It was designed by Marlies Rohmer and completed in 2001. Above the entrance, the facade is covered with beautiful slates. But they have the peculiar effect of creating a waterfall during a heavy rain shower. No, that's not what Rohmer had intended. But that's how it turned out.
She only found out by talking to the residents after the house was completed. That's what every architect should do. Of course it was all conceived with the best of intentions, but in practice it is almost always more unruly. Rohmer is very vulnerable. After almost thirty years of designing, she goes in a van along her own buildings to talk to the users.
What happened to my buildings…? is one of the best books I read this year. It's original, beautifully illustrated and hilarious at times. The odyssey along 25 buildings is written by Hilde de Haan and Jolanda Keesom and appears in a bilingual (Dutch and English) edition.
Fixed flex desk
Rohmer's open attitude produces fascinating, but sometimes uncomfortable stories. Take the head office of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. Rohmer took care of that. An open space was created inside with flexible workplaces for the employees. Completely in accordance with the new way of working, where you are no longer in a fixed place every day.
You would think such a modern approach is well thought out. But when Rohmer visits the property, it is used completely differently. Many employees were dissatisfied, some even angry that they no longer had their own space. They put red and white barrier tapes around their desks. There is even a party tent in the open space so that groups can isolate themselves. Rohmer has a surreal conversation with someone who indicates that he has a 'fixed' flex desk in the building. Closets are suddenly cluttered throughout the room. Well, she hadn't foreseen it that way. If she had known that the space would be used so differently, she would have made a different design.
Fortunately, there are also plenty of good things going on. Rohmer's approach at the Dobbelmanfabriek in Nijmegen is praised by the residents. The lofts in old warehouses are beautiful and pleasant to live in. Very nice, but it is more interesting, more fun and more instructive to read where things go wrong.
Design misunderstandings
An appealing miss can be found at the Matrix school in Hardenberg. Rohmer designed a gigantic and striking building with large white panels. Those panels turn out to attract much more dirt than expected and need to be cleaned often. In front of the building, Rohmer had bright orange containers placed as storage space. They are gone now, because many parents thought that they were still being built. Moreover, many teachers could not open their heavy doors.
After reading this book, I never thought for a moment that Rohmer's buildings had failed. Of course, not all of her decisions turned out well. But that doesn't make her designs fail. School building the Matrix is not suddenly a miss, because of all that filth on the panels. I cannot praise her approach, courage and the vulnerability shown enough. Rohmer wants to learn from the past. That seems to me to be one of the most valuable qualities of an architect and with that she distinguishes herself in a positive way from many of her colleagues.
It also makes for a particularly successful book. A few weeks ago I wrote a review for NEMO Kennislink of How hard can it be by Jasper van Kuijk about everyday designer annoyances. He rightly states that it is strange that there are now often reviews of buildings in newspapers, in which nothing is mentioned at all about their use. After all, isn't that very important to answer the question of whether a property has been successful? I think Rohmer agrees with him. And that Van Kuijk appreciates her approach. Anyway, I laughed hard, marveled and enjoyed What happened to my buildings…? .