The Structure of Everyday

March 31^st, 2016

The Structure of the Ordinary by N. J. Habraken

Lecture by Prof. Vishwanath Kashikar

The Structure of the Ordinary by architect, academician and theorist N. J. Habraken was written in 1962 in Dutch and translated into English in the 70’s. While the book was published by the MIT press in the year 1998, it projects Habraken’s views beginning from 1960’s.

The book was written as a reaction to the modernism period and discusses ideas and concepts that emerged during post-war Europe. It discusses the relationship of “everyday life experiences of people” to “formal design”, proclaiming that together it can define place making. Due to sophisticated warfare technology, post World War II condition saw mass destruction of European cities in countries like Germany, France, England, etc. Post-war cities became home to the industrial revolution, creating jobs and thus, resulting in large migration of people. This created a need for mass public housing and saw the escalation of large number of social and government housing projects that filled up cities with identical looking structures & neighborhoods. This modernist approach to mass-produced houses neither allowed the people to connect to their memories nor gave them a choice for alterations, hence alienating them from their “sense of dwelling”.  

Habraken states that while standardization in mass production leads to greater efficiency, it destroys the sense of individuality that added value to people and their built environment. Standardization does not have to be the order of the day. To support this Habraken suggests a configuration that organizes the built environment in the order of Form- Physical Order, Place- Territorial Order and Understanding- Cultural Order. He critiques modernist discourses where architecture is seen independent of its people by stating, “(…)a built environment resembles an organism more than an artifact. (…) Interaction of the people with the forms they inhabit is a fundamental aspect of the built environment.”

Habraken constructs a hierarchical progressive approach beginning from a room, to home, to building, to block and finally to the city, where every constituent plays its part. Through this idea Habraken divides the control of the various authorities to reinstates the power in the people to personalize their dwelling. According to him this assigning of control would inculcate a sense of ownership amongst the inhabitants. While each element exercises its control in the system, it receives support from the element on the higher level to it and it acts as an infill for the same higher-level element.

Habraken’s method lets the actor concerned with a specific level to do his job and leave the rest for the next in the hierarchy. This landmark text prods architects and planners today to rethink the methods of city planning and designing of built environments. If applied to our present city context one will seldom get to see the banal matchbox-like blocks of the Slum Rehabilitation scheme or the run-of-the-mill, low and middle income group government scheme housing complexes.

(Word count: 471)