Phalanstery

[Dustin Jacobus]

Interesting, links with many of our discussions 

Fourier envisioned networks of phalansteries : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanst%C3%A8re 

Reminded me of Bolo Bolo networks and the linear city network of Soleri and of course the Urban Reef concept 

[Dante Monson]

👍

Dante Monson reacted via Gmail

[Eric Hunting]

Though there are many similarities with Bolo depictions by Hans Widmer, I think this represents a far greater degree of communalism than anything we’ve really discussed. Much more like the kibbutz or monastery. The name itself suggests Fourier was thinking in terms of a secular/worker monastery. The Bolo, as Widmer described, could range from ‘cohabitation’ to ‘cohousing’ in density, but seemed to favor the latter, maintaining a discrete ‘household’ model providing private domestic space similar, at least, to modern apartments or condominiums, but not strictly defined. It seems many of Widmer’s illustrations imply classic European townhouse clusters —Euro-blocs as some call them ( https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYVp7WuLk37BmLzpiZwdK3RjW1bYVhXDcJTMxhNJQC967uPcWJs5gEj-e2HY6VsivxNr5puRJxLuOW0B3frfo-xo5AQbQCeD0Z9BwYbvJfPA378JhvpZlL9OWQ78gulyoyVXr4R_G7Lg/s640/Prague.JPG ) that were subject to Adaptive Reuse, rather than being bespoke —much as he has been involved in with the Swiss housing cooperatives. The phalanstery is much closer to a cohabitation model, with less individual/domestic space, strictly uniform in size and features, maybe more like the khrushchevka, though it seems some experiments may have gone the route of dormitories and crèches (for collective child-rearing —used in some kibbutzes up until the 1980s) 

The Urban Reef concept assumes a general/loose size of independent dwellings akin to the traditional townhouse/rowhouse for families, potentially larger live/work dwellings for some production activity (a contemporary 'live-work loft’ dwelling is usually comparable to a condominium unit over an open-plan work space of comparable area and sometimes higher ceilings), and conventional apartments up to artist’s loft sizes for individuals and couples. Cohousing scale at a general minimum. They might be single-storey or multi-storey, but the amount of unit space defined by fire/sound proof demising walls would be loosely similar, though freely adapting with local needs. The Urban Reef is also very much larger in scale —a whole city— and so multi-use and multi-community, hosting many neighborhoods each with their own agora spaces and other facilities. Each neighborhood hosting —loosely following the 15 minute neighborhood model— something around 1000 acres/400 hectares in area and bounded by about a kilometer radius from its local center. This gives us a loose/general span for an urban development corridor in the Linear City model. So, though its approach can apply to the isolated community, it’s less of a single communal building than an urban backplane —a way of laying out an urban infrastructure volumetrically— where there is no strict standard unit space, no fixed functions to the architecture, and a diversity of dwellings and buildings could be individually setup and reconfigured within the superstructure. My goal has always been to maximize the potential and ease for Adaptive Reuse and individual self-expression in crafting the habitat —as I often point out, we are nesting apes with a tragically suppressed impulse to create our own habitats. 

I’ve been working on an article recently and have been using the analogy of JRR Tolkien’s Hobbiton as something people are culturally very familiar with. Tolkien made many of his own illustrations and we know exactly what he was imagining for this place ( https://pod.museoteca.com/oxford//img/web/images/00419.jpg ) which you can see bears many similarities to artwork by Friedensreich Hundertwasser ( https://www.passion-estampes.com/deco2/hundertwasser/hundertwasser-green-town.jpg ) which is then expressed very literally in his architecture which often features this simulation of sandstone-like layered strata suggesting it was carved out of the earth. ( https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UIMxqMd8KPY/TcYTIYgEPZI/AAAAAAAABW0/AtTz-fDPdYs/s1600/01_hundertwasser.jpg ) Very similar to what we see in rammed earth wall construction, which he wasn’t allowed to use in European cities, but perhaps wanted to allude to? ( https://glsre.myplantpro.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/rammed-earth-construction-techniques.jpg ) In this particular example painting, Hundertwasser is clearly depicting the idea I’ve described of an arcade promenade —a recessed terrace edge that serves as a shaded street. He even puts cars in it, isolated from parkland, though that would be impractical and unneeded. But it implies a ceiling height greater than one storey —scale is rather fluid in such Primitivist-Modern painting... Hobbiton was intended to express the idea of a people living close to the earth, figuratively and literally. So Tolkien’s vision has become a model housing for many kinds of fantasy beings, from the fairies, elves, dwarves, and gnomes of fantasy literature to anthropomorphized animals in children’s books. Wouldn’t surprise me if it was actually an inspiration for Hundertwasser. It has long been an inspiration for many sustainable building enthusiasts, though they generally perceive it in the context of an isolated cottage, not in its actual context as a town. But Hobbiton, as originally imagined, is basically a series of townhouses on terraced hillsides. 

Eric Hunting

erich...@gmail.com