Ad hoc Architecture

“Adhocism” is a term coined by Charles Jencks and first used by him in architectural criticism in 1968. It can also be applied to many human endeavours, denoting a principal of action having speed or economy and purpose or utility. Basically it involves using an available system or dealing with an existing situation in a new way to solve a problem quickly and efficiently. It is a method of creation relying particularly on resources which are already at hand. Incidentally, the word adhocism has the property of itself being ad hoc. An initially clumsy parasynthesis like “one-upmanship” or “feedback”, it forces recognition of its own birth and history.

- Foreword,  Adhocism – The case of for Improvisation by Charles Jencks and Nathan Silver

Paris 

Delft

Vitra Design Musuem (1989) - Frank Gehry

 Vitra Musuem could be understood in the articulation of ‘De-formation’ by Jeffrey Kipnis. He says, “Deformation emphasizes the role of a new aesthetic from. Deformation searches for blankness by extending Modernism's exploration of monolithic form. Deformation is less concerned about a given site, but pays more attention to the fold between internal and external spaces”

For Vitra Museum the form is not the result of a contextual engagement of the building-site but rather a weak and abstract relationship of various forms coming together as an aggregate. One can see a shift from the interest of point/line/plane/volume of modernist formalism to a discourse of curvilinear surfaces. As the smooth surfaces intersect they produce a coherent heterogeneity, both inside as well as outside.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe - Peter Eisenmann

The project with its different levels of plinths creates multiple grounds for the city, one below and one above. The Museum in the basement becomes the third ground and is invisible unless you get deep inside the plinths. As you navigate through the labyrinth the idea of datum is constantly altered. 

The conventional notion of a flat floor to a flat floor ceiling is challenged throughout the project. The blocks become a playground for the pedestrians as different roads from the city can cross through it. 

The bodily experience is interesting within the structure because of the irregularities of ground, vision and sounds.