Shared architecture

The capacity of architecture to generate communities.

Isabel Sarasa Men . Cultural Landscapes . 2015

There is a clear relationship between architecture and behaviour, between society and space.
Architecture has this role of generator of communities. If we observe the study cases, we can
discover how the decissions made in one or another project can promote this community life, or
well, underline the individuality of the inhabitant and forget this public dimmension instead.
The success or fail of this cases will have a huge repercussion on the inhabitants of the
settlements. It will influence several aspects in their life (public but private as well), so paying
atenttion to these issues by the time you face a project of this nature becomes completely
neccesary.
A group of architects that is characterized largely by the attention they pay in all their projects
to the generation of communities are the Swiss team Atelier 5.

Atelier 5 and the Swiss context

Atelier 5 was established in Bern in 1955, by 5 architects: Erwin Fritz, Samuel Gerber, Rolf
Hesterberg, Hans Hostettler and Alfredo Pini. In 1955 they developed their most known project,
the Siedlung Halen in Bern, as an example of integration of commonal areas and facilities in a
residential development. These integration is produced in order to estimulate the social
interation of residents, contrarrest the possibility of segregation problems and create a platform
living by all, as an extension of their own houses.
The projects developed by the group show a clear influence of the theoretical works of Le
Corbusier, implemented with huge pragmatism. There were develop in the context of the
optimistic atmosphere that was felt in Switzerland after the Second World War; a country that
had remained neutral during the war, which had allowed them to enjoy a really good economical
position while other European countries were inmmersed in the reconstruction of their houses,
debastated by the German bombing.
There were also some social tensions in Switzerland, related to the drastic population increase
between 1945 and 1970 in one million inhabitants, as a consequence of migratory fluxes. These
tensions were durable and provocated some rejection towards the Gasr Saisonarbeiter of
southern europe Germany, quickly urbanized in the poorest neighbourhoods of the town.1
The idea that Atelier 5 was trying to develop was built quality houses with a good price. It has
nothing to do with the social housing developments built in Europe at the same time; there the
needs and objectives were different: single family houses for middle class built outside the city,
in order to create community settlements in relationship with nature.
The group has been developing through their career an idea, or a prototype, that has advanced
and enriched by experimentation. Groups of low single family houses concentrated on high

densities, preserving intact the environment and locate in a steep slope, playing with topography
in order to make the most of the views and lightning.
Some members of the group had experimented living in groups such as Ried2 and the
experiences and conclussions had been trasferred to the next development, as a trial and error
process, constantly changing.

Siedlung Halen

The Siedlung Halen has been designed as an important model of high density development with
low-rise houses, which offers higher densities in a communitary area without sacrificing privacy
(which later we will consider as the main responsible of the community success), as a link with
tradition. The development could be read as a modern interpretantion of the medieval standard
house in Berna: an urban house built in a long narrow plot.
Total area is 24720 m2 for built an 6155 m2 of forest. The inclination is about 16 %. Regarding
owning, 10765 m2 were private and 13955 m2 mantein public, plus the forest extension.
The complex has 79 houses, with 4, 5 or 6 rooms distributed in 2 or 3 storeis. In addition, there
were commonal facilities adapted to the needs of their inhabitants: originally there were 160
adults and 116 children living in the complex.

2,3

Man is by nature a social animal6

Social and spacial order are related in terms of a filter between bounded social groups and a
determinated zone. That reflects and sustain the activity that has been designed to serve.4
Community and Privacy . Chermayeff and Alexander 1966

Social grouping exist independently of a space and it doesnt always require an spatial
recognisation. Social heterogenety is a fact but, at the same time, space plays a positive role on
the creation and control of it. Even in the city the structure of a neighbourhood take care of this
heterogeneus urbanity. Individual aspects are modified in order to achieve corporate patterns of
behaviour at the high level of society.
A person, insofar is an individual, reclaims and defend an space. There is a territorial instinc, a
necessity of identity and place, but not neccesary the belonging of a phisical place, such as a
country. There is a portable territory, as a personal space where instruders cant come. Lynch
explains this issue his book Good city form: Man is a temtorial animal: he uses space to
manage personal interchange, and asserts rights over territory to conserve resources. People
exercise these controls over pieces ground, and also over volumes that accompany the person"5.
The relationship between individual and territory is essential.
The other essential aspect for people to consider is privacy. Privacy for the individual but also
for the next level, the family, and later for the community.

Spacial structure. Community facilities

Public areas are becoming in trend now. We can even relate that with the residential
communities iniciated by younger people, despite its another scale. This is about sharing a
kitchen or a living room. You live together but you can choose if any relationship will exist with
your roomates or you will enclose in your room. In the huge scale the issue is the same, families
could participate of these public sphere or remain isolated on their houses, and architecture will
be in a huge part responsible of that. Not about forcing everybody to abandon their privacy and
individuality, but the architects could prepare an area in order to make this relations easier by
preserving individual privacy as the basis to get involved in the community.
Which are the main aspects responsible for these community feeling? Where the architects had
focus in order to achieve their goal and which others had ocurred independently? We can find
some recurrent details in their project that give us an idea of the measures you can take to
generate this atmosphere, so desired in many projects throughout history, that only a few rarely
achieve.
Built spaces are the essential elements for this communal life, because they draw streets and
squares, the basis of the public space.These spatial order is necessary for residents to could feel
at home even out of the door.
One of the common aspects in all projects is the focal point that constitutes the central square,
rounded by the modulated residential units. There is a kind of an open air Coembium7, where
social relationships are celebrated (and ritualized).

Commonal services in these settlements arent too luxurius, and they are adapted to the
inhabitant needs. In Halen there is a kindergarten, a little store, a restaurant, a swimmingpool, a
picnic and barbacue area, a meeting room, a laundry, sportfields, a playground, a boiler room
and the communal garage, where there is a workshop area and a small refueling space; here the
residents can refuel cheaper because of an agreement between the association and the fuel
company.
The election of this uses has mainly importance, because they could be the point of several
social interaction or, on the other hand, remain desolate because they have nothing in common
with the inhabitants. Nowadays needs and lifestyles had changed, for instance, the shop in
Halen closed some years ago. People buy in big commercial areas, and spend more time at
work. Transport facilities had improved, which contributed to the descend of the use of the
small shop. This is not a failure: social behaviour change and the communal services election
should be consequent with that. Before becoming a shop, this space in Halen was a nursery,
where children of the surrounding area had access as well, but over time it turned into a store
and adapt to these new needs.
One of the main spaces, where a lot of relationships take place is the swimming pool.
Something unthinkable in other European social developments after the war. Projects such as
Halen, Siedlung Wohnanlage Brunnadern in Bern or Siedlung Bremgarten Bodernacher
includes that, because this is a point of confluence of all neighbours, so the density of
interactions is higher. In Siedlung Raid, for instance, there is an indoor swimmingpool, adapted
to the climate.

4,5

On the planing its also remarkable that public areas are mainly used during the evening,
because the rest of the day people is at work, so its important to keep that in mind when we are
thinking about lighning and orientation of these spaces, in order to create the perfect conditions
there to be used.
For instance, in the Judabuf Siedlungen in Brugg8, some of these services are elevated with
pilotes and creates a cover open space in the ground floor, where people can spend time together
even in winter.

Scale
Atelier 5 projects have different sizes; for instance Judafub siedlungen in Brugg8 is smaller than
Halen or Rainpark9, but it still has this different streets and hidden squares designed by the
architects, and also the communal services.

Experience shows that these communal aspect only works in small scales. We can observe that
in a city; despite the size, people is always living around in the same neighbourhood. Its
important to get the correct size of the dwellings, or otherwise, It will be just another project
that disguised as public sphere, only get a waste of individual privacy rather than a beneficial
development for the people
Tulous settlements in China, for instance, are circular constructions of huge proportions where
could live around 70 families concentrated around a central point. They were created as a
defense estrategy but they are still active nowadays. However, what is the value of private
property? What is the level of privacy? Social aspect there is the central point however, the
scale is too big and the attention to individuality has been forgotten so they dont achieve the
correct community balance.

6,7

Individuality in the community

Many projects based on community life have been developed with varying success throughout
history. If we look through them we see that many failures have to do with ignoring the needs of
privacy of the individual as an autonomous being. For example, one of the keys that the
Familistere of Godin10 had respect to Fouriers Falansterio11 is that each family has its own
housing, protecting its autonomy, ensuring public services and facilitating relationships.
Another interesting project regarding communitary aspects are the related with the soviet
dreams or new deal utopias. The Narkomfin project12, for instance, is one of the best examples
of this approach. Government tried to interfer in the inhabitants life with the objective of
introduce the socialist ideary. However, unlike the first commune houses13 in the 20s, there they
wanted to stimulate the collective life, instead of impose that. The apartments were individual
but kitchen and services were still brought to public zones. This could had been a good example
of this ideas, but the final construction has nothing to do with the original project, because of the
changes in the communist government.14
The key of the success of these projects is the incentivation of these communitary life without
renounce to individual privacy. There are some parts used un common but also some should
remain private, and its necessary to thing about which should be their independence level and
the hierarchy of their location.

Gardens and terraces, are placed in both sides of the section. They structure the disposition of all
areas but also act as a filter between interior and exterior, and helps on the maintenance of each
inhabitant privacy.
These community-privacy issues can be translated also to the interior of the houses. You should
think how to move from one room to other and which of this spaces will remain common or
exclusive. Also the boundary has importance because if you achieve the neccesary privacy in
the private open spaces, such as the gardens or the terraces, the complex will has this expected
relationship with nature. People wouldnt spend time outside in this spaces if you are exposed to
all neighbourhood there, just like happens in lots of dwellings nowadays.
Almost every Atelier 5 projects were free car communities. The complex remains calm, quiet
and prevented from the danger that the introduction of automobiles could generate. Children
spend time outside in the streets and houses dont have to beat with the noise of the vehicles,
despite they are so open to the exterior.
These social approach imprengs all project aspects, even construction. As weve seen, privacy
and individuality is essential for the project so all will be consequent with these idea. In Halen,
houses structure is concentrated on the lateral walls so the space of each house remains
dynamic and open to changes and renovations that each particular would wish to carry out.
These walls are made by Durisol, a mixture of wood fibers and concrete. The wall is in fact
made by two 12 cm. layers with a 8 cm free space between them, in order to ensure sound
isolation. Floors, balconies and foundations are made by concrete and on each house are
separated from the others. Pipelines are also individual for each house, that is directly connected
to the main pipe, in order to isolate again house from outside noises. All junctions are also
acustic insulated.

Not so public: owning public spaces

Halen was financed with the foundation of a housing coperative. The group had problems on
finding somebody interested in the promotion of the settlement because it was absolutely
different from other developments, and no one wanted to take that level of risk. So Atelier 5
decided to establish an association to finance their projects so they wont have problems on
developing their ideas and that will allow them to create this kind of settlements, with so much
attention to the public space and communal facilities.
The buyers of the houses werent included in the association at the beginning, but later they
established another association with its own administration, with five residents elected for a two
year term. The association is the owner of the public spaces so all inhabitants are responsible for
that. In the settlement website you can consult their estatements, that consist on the principles of
sharing and equality; for instance, every house should lead the administration at some time.
They held some meetings where owners discuss each issue in the settlement and vote the
decissions.
Its important to create a sense of belonging; residents shoud feel at home; create a link on a
personal level with those spaces. As we have seen, the cofinancing could help on this issue:
people care more if these spaces are on their own. People in Atelier 5s projects is so related
with the public space that someones furnish and set up them. There are chairs and tables in the
squares, plants and flowers, and even carpets or pictures. These intensive use of that commonal
areas is a sign that the goal of the legitimation of the community has actually been achieved,
through the appropriation of the public space.

The power of architecture

Almost everybody lives in a kind of local area, but not all can be called communities, that create
cohesive social groups. The social environment of a family or unit is related with the network of
social relationships they mantein, and its normal that these relations could exist easier with
people next to you, because the opportunities of interaction are higher, the density of encounters
is more elevated, but these relationships are no necessarily based on locality. But something
more is necessary in order to consider a community related to the public space, as we have
discuss along the paper.

So archiecture could be an ideal instrument when it comes to improve people lifes, creating a
pleasant community atmosphere that, as we have discussed, appears necessary for a proper
development because of their social nature.
As we have seen, architecture has the capacity of generating and legitimate communities.
Siedlung Halen by Atelier 5 is one of the best examples of this social architecture, made from
the correct balance of public and private, and it has become a point of reference for new
communitary developments to the present.15

Notes
1. Steinert, Johannes-Dieter, Migration und Politik. Westdeutschland Europa bersee
1945/1961. Kommunikation und Gestaltung, Osnabrck, 1995
2. Siedlung Ried W2. Niederwangen bei Bern, 19831990
4. Chermayeff, Serge, Alexander Christopher,Community And Privacy, 1966
5. Lynch Kevin, Good city form, London, 1984
6. Aristotle, in Politics
7. Grabow, Stephen, and Spreckelmeyer, Kent, The Architecture of Use: Aesthetics and
Function, in Architectural Design
8. Atelier 5, Judabuf project.
9. Rainpark estate, Atelier 5, Brugg, 1971
10. Familisterio by Andre Godin, Guise, France 1877
11. Falansterio by Charles Fourier (1772-1837)
12. Narkonfim Building, Moisei Ginzburg, Ignaty Milinis, 1928-1932, Mocow, Russia.
13. The commune house Kommunalk had been the prototype for housing imposed by the state
and the soviet architects, in an attempt to bring communism to all aspects of daily life, so
families should share all spaces, banning at any time individual privacy.
14. The arrive of Stalin to the government, caused alterations in the buildinf and the paralization
of the construction of these spaces that would serve te community, as the kindergarten or the
social centre.
15. The italian architect Giancarlo de Carlo, showed the Siedlung Halen as a model to the future
residents of his development Villaggio Matteotti, Terni, 1968-1974.

Images:
1. Leonardo Bezzola, 1955, Atelier 5, Bern.
2. Left, Yoshi Kusana, Swimming pool in Halen, Yoshi Kusana, Bern.
3. Right, Albert Winkler, 1963 Halenladen store,
4. Left, Yoshi Kussana, 2012, Saulenhalle, Bern.
5. Right, Ried Siedlungen, Niederwangen, Suiza
6. Left, Hakka Tulou, China.
7. Right, Narkomfin Courtyard, Moscow, U.S.S.R, 1930
8. Yoshi Kussana, 2012, Siedlung halen square, 2012

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1945/1961. Kommunikation und Gestaltung, Osnabrck, 1995
Chermayeff, Serge, Alexander Christopher,Community And Privacy
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in Architectural Design.
Lynch, Kevin, Good city form, London, 1984
Sennett, Richard , The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation, Yale Univ Pr, 2012
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