The early career of Sverre Fehn, the influential Norwegian architect, is marked by the designs of pavilions which were constructed shortly after each other for two major competitions: The Norwegian Pavilion for the World Exposition in Brussels (1956–1958) and The Nordic Pavilion at the Giardini site of the Venice Biennale (1958–1962). This paper studies the process which led from design to construction for both pavilions, identifies structural changes during that process, and investigates the causes and effects of such changes. A study of Fehn’s hand-drawn sketches and photos of models, made throughout the design and construction stages, reveals that despite functional and formal similarities the two pavilions’ development process and the changes which they underwent are noticeably different. The pursuit of ‘abstract space’ during the competition stage for the Brussels Pavilion was tested by considerations of construction only later on, creating a critical tension in the project. Not only did the organisation of structural components change significantly during the design process but the logic of construction underwent a complete transformation. Nevertheless, this transition between different iterations of the Brussels Pavilion suggested an alternative approach for the Venice Pavilion in which the initial thought of construction became a projection, rather than an abstract imitation of built reality. The spatial intention and construction-related considerations of the Venice Pavilion were addressed by a ‘synergetic’ structural principle, implicit in the competition scheme. This unprecedented feature significantly enlarged the ‘space of possibility’ of the roof structure, which provided for adaptation to indeterminacies without compromising the initial design intentions. Changes in the design of the Brussels and Venice Pavilions, therefore, differ in the ways in which they evolved from design to completion: sequential and abrupt, vs. gradual and continuous. This sheds light on a critical shift in the work of an influential architect and the way he approached design indeterminacies, rather than forcing them into submission.

This paper is not a comprehensive survey of the architectural career of Arata Isozaki, one of the most distinguished practicing architects in the world today and the 2019 winner of the Pritzker Prize, but a specific look at his formative years of the 1960s when he began to build his own design methodology. It delineates Isozaki’s encounter with the avant-garde art movement of the 1960s, collectively called “Anti-Art, ” against the backdrop of the “anti-spirit” of Japanese society. Although Isozaki’s artistic side has been overstated at times, previous studies rarely addressed how his intensive interactions with art circles played a role in shaping his design methodology. I would like to examine the convergence of creative individuals and cross-disciplinary connections to understand Isozaki’s architectural thinking.

This study examines how Isozaki’s collaborations with his artist contemporaries enabled him to formulate the notion of the “invisible city, ” a radically new design concept characterised by the expansion of the nature of architecture from producing isolated built-forms to all-encompassing natural and manmade environments. However, after drawing on communications and information theory, which prevailed in 60s architectural circles, Isozaki’s destructive and anarchistic connotation of “invisible city” was channeled into a systematic cybernetic model and eventually transformed into a constructive planning method. I will discuss the realisation of a cybernetic environment at the Festival Plaza of Expo’ 70 and trace the legacy of “invisible city” in his later postmodern work.

This paper reports on the primary school design processes carried out around the 1940s in the County of Hertfordshire in Great Britain, which later evolved into innovative strategies developed by Mary and David Medd in the Ministry of Education from the late 1950s. The whole process, undertaken during more than three decades, reveals a way of breaking with the traditional spatial conception of a school. The survey of the period covered has allowed an in-depth understanding of how learning spaces could be transformed by challenging the conventional school model of closed rooms, suggesting a new way of understanding learning spaces as a group of Centres rather than classrooms. Historians have thoroughly shown the ample scope of this process, which involved many professionals, fostering a true cross-disciplinary endeavour where the curriculum and the learning spaces were developed in close collaboration. A selection of schools built in the county has been used to typologically analyse how architectural changes began to arise and later flourished at the Ministry of Education. The Medds had indeed a significant role through the development of a design process known as the Built-in variety and the Planning Ingredients. A couple of examples will clarify some of these strategies, revealing how the design of educational space could successfully respond to an active way of learning.

Increasingly, healthcare providers are asking for evidence based design solutions in the construction of new facilities. But where does a designer begin when there is no credible evidence to support the design process because it has yet to gain the attention of researchers? Within this paper we reflect on a university-practice partnership undertaken to provide a feasibility study for the future redevelopment of an eight-bed paediatric hospice in Australia. In embarking on this project, the project team assumed that a thorough literature review would furnish a body of research to rigorously inform the feasibility study. The realisation that this research was not available necessitated an evidence gathering process from first principles, where methods from academic practice required translation and customisation to fit within commercial time frames and resourcing constraints. This article recommends a selection of research methods for use by architects working within healthcare settings where foundational research to inform the design process is not available. It also argues for a re-conceptualisation of the built environment’s value relative to wellbeing.

Public spaces had been central to Cape Town’s colonial planning and spatial order, but became marginalised in the twentieth century under modernist planning and apartheid policy. As apartheid came towards its close, architects and planners began to champion public space as a way of addressing the city’s deficiencies. Books, articles, and policy documents were written celebrating public space as a humanist device and vehicle for democracy. The City of Cape Town’s emerging Urban Design Branch instituted a major public space program: the Dignified Places Programme. This paper traces the history of public space as a terrain through which political aspirations, whether of domination or contestation, have been asserted in Cape Town. The paper will argue that at the end of apartheid, a public space turn occurred which reflected the specificities of post-apartheid democracy, in both its aspirations and limitations.