The Open House has been held in London every September for 21 years now. The idea of this architectural holiday, when two days a year everyone can visit a variety of buildings, was born in 1992 at the kitchen table of Victoria Thornton. Then, in her early 30s, having co-authored an architectural guide to London, Victoria regretfully realized that there are few examples of high-quality modern architecture in the capital, and most often they are exclusive objects inaccessible to ordinary citizens. And in order to educate the general public, the Open House was invented. Its main function is to better acquaint people with the masterpieces of old and new architecture, where they would not have been able to get under other circumstances. Thornton wanted to give people the ability to judge buildings from their own experience, since it is impossible to understand the architecture of a building until you go inside. Indeed, despite the fact that interesting buildings surround us everywhere, for people far from the architectural specialty, the most basic questions remain a mystery: how and from what materials these structures were built, and how they are arranged from the inside.
For the first Open House in 1992, Victoria Thornton opened the doors of 20 modern buildings. Thornton's idea has been widely developed over the years, and she herself was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her contribution to architectural education. The number of buildings and spaces participating in the festival has increased to 830 (in 2013), and the number of visitors has recently fluctuated from 250 to 300 thousand people per festival. Over the past two decades, London has changed a lot, and many urban spaces have become available to everyone, but Open House continues to introduce new buildings to citizens, allowing people to look behind a variety of - usually locked - doors (including, of course, historical ones).
The event is free for both visitors and participants - owners or architects of buildings. A monetary contribution from the latter is charged only for entering the name of their object into the printed materials of the festival (including the catalog): Open House has considerable advertising potential and is able to attract, for example, new customers.
Open House takes place on the weekend, so it never disrupts the workflow in the "participating" buildings. But, despite the weekend, during the days of the festival, their architects, engineers or guides are present in many of its buildings, ready to answer any questions of interest to visitors. Most often, these people are fans of their business, charging with enthusiasm: after communicating with them, you want to build something yourself and participate in OH next year.
To maintain public interest, new buildings are added to the list of festival participants every year. For example, in 2013, the famous No.10 Downing Street was opened to visitors, which has served as the residence of British Prime Ministers for the past three centuries. This Georgian house, built in stages by architects Christopher Wren and William Kent in 1684-1735, has gathered a large queue of those wishing to see the life of the current prime minister.
No less popular in 2013 was the majestic Battersea Power Plant (1929–1955), which was opened this year for the first and last time before the forthcoming renovation: it will be turned into a complex of housing, offices and shops surrounded by a park. For two days, thousands of people stood in a many kilometers queue to enter its territory.
Today, in addition to the recognized masterpieces of architecture and world-famous London attractions (to visit some you need to register in advance), Open House tries to present a wide range of buildings that can interest completely different people. The list of open objects consists of four main categories: engineering, landscape architecture, transformation (reconstruction) and “buildings in harmony with nature”.
It doesn't matter what interests you more: famous buildings or just a recently renovated house on a nearby street, are you ready to stand in line for 5 hours, book a visit in advance or just decide to take a walk with your family - it's impossible to get around everything, but you can be sure: you will definitely find that something interesting for yourself. On average, if you have a lot of enthusiasm and a personal car, you can see from 4 to 10 places over the weekend. But this is on condition that you will not stand in line to get, for example, in
"Cucumber" by Norman Foster. However, if you study the program in advance and think about the route, you can see London as no tourist guide will ever show you.
Archi.ru visited several of the most interesting - and unusual - objects of the Open House-2013.
Linear House ("Linear House"). Сlague Architects. 2005-2006
On the hill of one of the most prestigious districts of London - Highgate, among the historical buildings there is a modern single-family house - Linear House. It cannot be seen from the street, as it is built into the hillside and due to the height difference it looks like a continuation of the landscape. Its name "linear" is not accidental: most of the volume consists of one floor and is built on the principle of a long gallery with a central 2-storey part. The main entrance leads exactly to this gallery - the central axis of the house: it connects several bedrooms, an office, a kitchen, a library and a living room on the main level. Almost each of these rooms has its own access to the garden with a swimming pool. On the upper floor is the master bedroom, which is combined with the living room by a double-height space.
A lot of energy-saving technologies have been applied in the house project. Reducing heat loss can be considered the main passive strategy: for example, one wall of the gallery is designed as a blind and recessed into the ground. To "dissolve" the building in the landscape, the roof of the main floor is planted with plants (including vegetables), which also improves insulation. Inside, the walls, floors and ceilings of the house are made of concrete, which, due to its heat capacity, absorbs excess heat on hot summer days, which reduces temperature fluctuations in the interior.
The house also uses active systems: ventilation with a heat recovery system, which is generally in great demand in English private houses, solar panels, a heat pump and a waste water treatment system. For the successful combination of passive and active energy efficiency strategies in this project, its authors, Clague Architects, were awarded the prestigious RIBA Downland Sustainability Prize in 2008.
Office of the architectural bureau Cullinan Studio. 2006–2012
Walking along the canal in the Angel neighborhood, you come across a recently refurbished Victorian foundry that now houses an office and the other is occupied by lofts overlooking the water. The renovated building was opened a little less than a year ago: after almost 20 years of waiting, the architects of the Edward Cullinan bureau (Edward Cullinan) finally got the long-awaited office worth 1.5 million pounds. They redesigned the building for themselves and now occupy the first two floors of the new Foundry complex. During the days of the Open House festival, they themselves conducted excursions there and in colors told about the process of rework, treating everyone to coffee and cakes.
One of the facades of the workshop, which is of historical value, could not be touched, but the configuration of the window openings was not suitable for the new purpose of the building: the overlap between the first and second floors divided the huge window into two parts, but a small window for the office on the second floor was not enough. Therefore, the architects decided to cut the floor so as not to split the window in two. The resulting double-height space is cozy and bright, but this solution also has a drawback: people working on the upper level hear all the conversations below, which significantly interferes with concentration.
The building is insulated with material
Warmcell (This is a zero-CO2 recycled newsprint insulation). The thickness of the thermal insulation in some places reaches 600 mm, so the building is very warm and tends to overheat in summer, which the natural ventilation system cannot cope with. In winter, the building is heated with a floor heating system, which is powered by an air source heat pump. Solar panels were installed on the roof, which allowed the building to get “Excellent” according to the BREEAM system instead of the rating “Very good”.
Eco-class Growing Communities in Hackney. 2004
A vegetable garden or even a farm in the middle of a park can be found both on the outskirts and in the center of London. However, the Growing Communities enthusiasts who created such a vegetable garden in the Hackney area have gone further: their garden is planted with all kinds of lettuce, aromatic herbs and other edible plants, here they diligently grow crops and fight off the invasions of snails and foxes. But the key goal of their organic vegetable garden is to attract residents' interest in healthy eating. The scheme of his "work" is extremely simple: for 8 pounds a week (400 rubles) you can buy a club membership and receive a basket of fresh vegetables and fruits once a week.
But, in addition to growing and selling vegetables, gardeners also teach their craft to children, and local schools regularly organize training sessions in the classroom in the garden.
The classroom for about 15 people is a timber structure with a green roof raised on small piles to minimize its impact on flora and fauna. Rainwater is collected from the roof for domestic needs, there is a compost toilet ("rural type") inside the room, and the walls are insulated with the same Warmcell. Thus, gardeners and schoolchildren have a weather-protected space that does not harm the environment, but only complements it.
Boating commune in Kingsland Basin on the Regent's Canal. 1984
Before the advent of a dense network of railways, goods in England were transported on barges, which traveled at an average speed of 5 km / h along the then developed system of canals - from southern England to Scotland. Then on such boats in a cabin with an area of 3-4 m2 up to 6 people could spend the night, since most of the vessel was given over to accommodate cargo. With the advent of railways, these narrow barges and canals were abandoned, but after many years interest in them returned, and people, leaving their usual way of life in their homes, began to settle in boat communes.
During the Open House festival, one could visit a similar commune in Kingsland Basin in the Hackney area. In a small bay between new buildings there are 20-30 boats, some of which are broken and used exclusively as housing. Usually the inhabitants of such boats have to "roam" along the canal in search of a pier, but the uniqueness of the commune in Kingsland Basin is that the boats are always laid up there, equipped with electricity and water supply, a waste recycling system, a common open space and even a floating garden and a vegetable garden. The boats are heated by small coal-fired stoves, and the roofs of some ships are equipped with solar panels.
The inhabitants of the commune preferred these cramped boats to the convenience of modern apartments in order to live in harmony with themselves, surrounded by the same carefree happy people. Here, no one is hiding from anyone, boats are often unlocked, children are running along them. From one of the residents of the commune, we learned that she has been living here for 13 years, and all the glass new buildings around the cove were built after she and her neighbors settled there. As she recalls, the noise during the construction was eerie. But the boat dwellers have the right to occupy the bay, and not a single development company could force them to leave, although it is clear that it would be more convenient to build luxury housing on the bank of the canal without 30 boats under their noses. But these free people managed to save their bay, also restoring the life of unnecessary boats.
During its existence, London's Open House has inspired many other cities to organize similar festivals. Today, about 20 cities annually hold similar architecture festivals. In 2013, Buenos Aires joined them, and in 2014 Athens, the metropolitan area of Gdansk-Sopot-Gdynia, San Diego and Vienna will follow. We can only hope that sooner or later Open House will reach Russia.
