Space And The Architect: Lessons In Architecture 2. - Review - book review

Architectural Review, The, May, 2001 by Mohsen Mostafav

By Herman Hertzberger. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers. 2000. NLG59.50

This book is a follow-up to Hertzberger's Lessons for Students in Architecture published in 1991. Similar in approach to the earlier book, it aims to trace some of the sources for, and examples of, the author's architectural projects of the last 10 years.

Hertzberger is the pre-eminent father-figure of contemporary Dutch architecture. Best known for the 'sociability' of his Centraa Beheer office building in Appeldoorn (1968 72), he has also played a key role in shaping architectural education in the Netherlands. The Dutch edition of this book coincided with his retirement as Professor at the TU Delft in 1999. In that year Aldo Van Eyck, to whom this book is dedicated, died.

In common with Van Eyck, Hertzberger is concerned with the way activities take place - how they become actual. The role of the architect is to construct the framework and situation for the manner things are to happen. The strength of Space and the Architect is in its visual articulation of this kind of spatial anthropology. Hertzberger's illustrations are derived from diverse sources and locations across the world. Their poignancy comes from their attention to particularities - the small detail of things, the sociology of the table, the quality of light at Budapest railway station, the way public baths are used, and so on.

The photographs frequently focus on the occupation of interior space - a much neglected territory of investigation. Space and the Architect is constructed around seven chapters with an end section: 'Lessons for Teachers'. Each chapter begins with a short text with a title such as 'Mental Space and the Architect', 'Space and Idea', and so on, followed by building examples from different eras. There are more overlaps and similarities between the chapters than differences - for example, the Maison de Verre by Pierre Chareau used in the section on 'Mental Space and the Architect' could easily fit into a number of others, such as 'Spatial Discoveries' or 'Anticipating the Unexpected'. The texts describing the various projects are, however, akin to extended captions. At times full of oneliners, they nevertheless exhibit Hertzberger's energy and enthusiasm.

This is not the type of book that one would be expected to read in a particular sequence. In a sense, it is a book of aphorisms and a repository of inspirational images - of relevance for anyone interested in architecture; though some of Hertzberger's own recent projects are not, as presented in this context, always the most convincing demonstrations of the lessons he wants to teach us. The underlying difficulty with this 'image-with-words' approach is that it can too easily become a recipe book for the production of a 'humanist' architecture whose legitimacy is too literally linked to the idea of its conceptual referent. Then, form comes to 'embody' content, rather than instigate it.