N. John Habraken

John is the author of Supports; an Alternative to Mass Housing (1962), first published in Dutch, and then in English in 1972 and again in 1999. John proposed the separation of "support" or base building from "infill" or interior fit-out in residential design and construction.

John became Director of SAR, the Foundation for Architectural Research in the Netherlands. He held that post from 1965 to 1975, researching and developing methods for the design and construction of adaptable housing. During that time he was appointed professor at Eindhoven Technical University, to set up its new Department of Architecture, and serve as its first chairperson.

John moved to America to take up the post of Head of the Department of Architecture at MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, which he held between 1975 and 1981. He taught at MIT untill his retirement in 1989. John then served in a partnership for the invention and development of an infill system for residential construction between 1987 and 1997.

John remains occupied with methods and theory of architectural and urban design. He lectures on these topics worldwide, and is the author of a number of books, research reports, and many articles. Notably:

The Structure of the Ordinary (1998) investigates the laws governing the built environment revealed by patterns of transformation.

Palladio's Children (2005) is an attempt to explain why architects do not know how to deal with the everyday environment. Edited by Jonathan Teicher.

A Dutch citizen, John was born in Bandung, Indonesia in 1928. Went to primary school in Surabya and Jakarta. Secondary school was interrupted for three years by war events. He received his architectural training at Delft Technical University, in the Netherlands, between 1948 and 1955. Between 1955 and 1957 John served in the Royal Dutch Airforce as a deskbound non-commissioned officer.

John is the recipient of the 1988 Creative Achievement Award of the Association of Collegiate Schools in the US; the David Roëll Prize for 1979 from the Dutch Prince Bernhard Fund; The King Fahd award for desing and research in Islamic Architecture, 1985-86; the Oevre Award for 1996 from the National Foundation for Art, Design, and Architecture in the Netherlands; and the 2003 Kubus for advancing the standing of Architecture, from the BNA, the Dutch Association of Architects.

He is an honorary member of the Architectural Institute of Japan, and Knight of the Royal Order of the Dutch Lion 2003.

John presently lives in the single storey house he designed and built for his parents in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.

Website: www.habraken.com

e-mail: john@habraken.org

16.00 to 17.30 on Friday 18 May 2007

Everyday Architecture

Summary

We are already deeply immersed in everyday architecture, but do not speak of it because it is in conflict with our Palladian heritage on at least three points. Everyday architecture requires change over time, and the environmental structure to enable that change; a sharing of values within a locality as a condition for self identification; and a distribution of design responsibility to make large projects fine grained.

Open Building fits into everyday architecture as a strategy, and professional projects implementing Open Building have appeared in various parts of the world. But in the true nature of everyday architecture, much takes place unrecorded where our ideology and habits are absent.

Everyday Architecture

More to follow shortly...

What priorities do we want reflected in land use planning?

Has the notion of a distinct town and country become unsustainable?

Can planners reconcile government policies with where and how people actually want to live?

Is it justified to describe policies based on constraining building activity as "planning"?

Introduction

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