Psarra, S; Araguez, M; (2015) Spatial and social patterns of an urban interior: The architecture of SANAA. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Space Syntax Symposium. Space Syntax Laboratory, The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London

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Abstract

The architecture of the Japanese practice SANAA, led by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, seems to be conceived so as to be spatially and programmatically ‘uncertain’, with configurations that tend to be freed from constrictions and often characterized by multiple layers of transparent materials, establishing a continuous relationship between interior and exterior. The present study seeks to understand whether there is an underlying configurational logic behind SANAA’s architecture that is shared across their buildings. The results of this exploration are presented in this paper in two sections. The first section analyses a selection of buildings from diverse functional and formal typologies in order to explore whether in spite differences they share spatial similarities. The analysis takes into account two different properties: permeability, as the spatial network created by accessible spaces, and visibility, as the set of visually interconnected spaces, either directly or through transparent materials, but not necessarily accessible. Drawing on the conclusions of the first part of the analysis, the second section of the study focuses on what can be considered the first inHdepth study of SANAA’s Rolex Learning Centre looking at both spatial properties and social practices. The particular geometry of the building entails methodological challenges derived from a fluid and continuous undulated interior. Thus, syntax tools are customized to address the floor and ceiling’s undulations; a systematic framework for analysing the intricate relations between permeability and visibility in the building is created; finally, the indeterminate condition of space is explored through a comparison between spatial properties and spatial practices in the building. According to the results of the first section of the study, where a strong foreground structure is identified in the buildings analysed, and after analysing the Rolex Learning Centre by making use of the ‘nearly invariant’ properties proposed by Hillier to describe organic cities (Hillier, 1996), it is argued that the architecture of SANAA resembles urban systems in its topology, and in certain cases its geometry. Moreover, the spatial arrangement is qualified by the control in the use of transparent and opaque materials, which originates a set of areas in the layout with different levels of privacy. Finally, a closer look to spatial practices in the building reveals that the places likely to be used in a more informal way are those hosting a disjunction between levels of visibility and permeability. This is considered an incisive finding that, added to existing research on permeability and visibility relationships, provides a new way to explore the relationship between architectural complexity and functional uncertainty in buildings.

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