Build to context ,Article -THE HINDU

While viewing the urban landscape, the individual structures built need to conform, fuse in harmony with the already existing buildings and the language of the urban space. Structuring to be iconic, never mind if the building is completely out of sync with its neighbourhood, can prove to be more of a sore feature in the prevailing urbanscape than the stunning edifice that it was purported to be.

Professing these views and more was Architect Alfredo Caraballo of Allies and Morrison, in his presentation at a recent event held at BMS College of Architecture. During his captivating presentation, Caraballo drew attention to the need to conform to the existing urbanscape whereby the emerging structure sits in harmony, blending fluidly with the existing structures, the building contextual rather than purely iconic.

“Cities are increasingly becoming generic in the manner they are planned, making it difficult to determine which culture they belong to”, he opines. “With rapid urbanisation, a similar skyline is seen everywhere, the tall buildings, the similar patterns akin to cities of towers, be it New York or Mumbai.” Should every city follow this pattern or should we look at culturally specific designs and structures, keeping in perspective the climate, environment, and sustainability, Carabello asks.

Stressing on the cultural, geographical background, Carabello adds, “Bring the contextual difference into the structures where the buildings have legibility. If everyone wants iconic structures, our cities will cease to look different, across geographies.” To reiterate his point, he presented some of his projects which were designed to fuse into the context of the culture and geography they featured.

His project Canada Water, located in the heart of Southeast London, comes with its historical network of old docks and canals that connect to the Thames. The design deliberated upon involved creating an urban marker that made the most of the existing dockside setting as well as the transport connections that prevailed in the region, keeping in perspective the surrounding low buildings.

The building thus faces the tube station, coming up as a hinge between the existing conditions and the context that is likely to emerge in the future. “The existing dock office is Victorian, with the river around. So the building was planned as a 36-storey tower, with retail shops at the ground level, the offices on top of the building, with the family spaces built around. A balance between the big and the small buildings in the area was thus established”, explains Carabello.

Configuration

The configuration of the façade links the past to the present, the steel and metal, detailing the vernacular of the 19th century, tying in with the bricks while simultaneously connecting to the future.

His project Keybridge House, located in Vauxhall, London, comes up in a conservation area which comprises brick-terrace houses. The transition between the existing context and the emerging new context needed to be brought in, where “the existing Brutalist buildings tied in seamlessly with the new London.” The approach sought was to split the design of the building into smaller structures, encompassing the residential units, the primary school, office space and retail units, where the scale as well as the character of each is different. “The layering which is so typical of London, the tall buildings existing with smaller ones, we brought into this structure. Thus the school was incorporated in between while the civic building featured on one side and the residences on the other.” The design is also structured as to reveal which building is civic and which is residential by merely viewing the windows. While arches run around the building, the structure simplifies as it rises, to accommodate the residential towers.

Many faces

“The tower has different faces, depending on which side it is viewed from. The brick façade continues the fabric that existed in the area, linking to the traditional Victorian architecture that existed”, Carabello elaborates.

While brick mansion blocks restore the scale and materiality that characterised the street in the past, the twin tall towers on the northern side fold and adjust to the context, the brick masonry reflecting the local industrial vernacular.

His project Yorkville Square in Toronto is surrounded by tall buildings, “where the strength is in the collection of towers put together and the space in between.” It is a spatial frame of five buildings working together, creating a semi-outdoor space in between.

According to Carabello, “the heart of the project is not the tower as they form only the background, but it is the open space in between, connecting the passages.”

The slender towers conceived as a pluralistic icon, with their recognisable silhouette on the Toronto skyline, serve as a contemporary reiteration of the golden age of skyscrapers in North America.