De gevel - een intermediair element tussen buiten en binnen

Abstract

The research focusses on the façade of the collective residential building in the Dutch city. The high complexity of functions of the façade makes it a very sensitive element of the house. The façade is the skin of the house, a boundary between outside and inside, between public and private. Here the resident can react between a minimum and a maximum of contact with the world around the dwelling. At the same time it is the representational element, the face of the residence or even the mask. The façade sends signs to the observer, it tells a story. At the beginning of the 20th century, architects had to answer the question of how to present a residential building which consists of a group of dwellings stacked onto each other and how to build up a transition from public to private. The interrelation between the building façade as a representational element and as a social filter between outside and inside is researched on collective housing projects within the urban context. Research aim was to show the development of the representational and the filtering functions of the façade in Dutch residential buildings of the last century in relation to the society and the different attitudes. The development is set in an international perspective. Tendencies in design and ideas about the meaning of the façade are traced as well as the relation between the floor plans of the residential building and the façade. The intention was to obtain more insight into the various meanings of the residential façade, while focusing on aspects of aesthetics and the social aspects of privacy. The research has developed a method to analyze the façade of the collective dwelling in a new way.