Dynamicsfrom stool to city

Jan Brouwer

11052015

The development of building in a new direction as outlined in the invitation to this symposium is taking place very slowly. More slowly than you and I would wish. The solutions for realizing a new generation of products, buildings and towns are often paid lip service to, but barely put into practice.Pressure from the political front will appear necessary in order to achieve that change.

The course for designers of the built environment is not or barely up to par in view of the desired developments. For the architecture courses, conceptual and contextual thinking on the basis of the cultural component is still of greater significance than thinking on the basis of change in, among other things, energy management, climate change and scarcity of materials. A change must be formulated in this conceptual behaviour. Cultural history and aesthetics are important but the social concepts and climate change require our specific attention.

The architect course benefits from a collaboration with the industrial designer course. The architect is expected to have considerable awareness of cultural history and aesthetics, the industrial designer thinks in a broader and more integral way.In the construction industry, sequential processes still apply, for industrial projects, an integral approach is at the forefront.

After World War II, Jean Prouvé and his followers lost from the lobby of the traditional construction industry. He had and still has a considerable influence on the development of light construction components where prefabrication, replacement and recycling play an important role.This movement was suppressed in France by the existing building companies. The traditional building company saw the market being lost to other branches of industry.

It are not just the necessary changes from within the industry which are important, but external factors such as climate change play an important role in construction processes. The spatial adaptation in this area requires much attention to the design and execution of a new generation of products, buildings and towns

Death to the architectural concept

• Jan Brouwer