Yona Friedman
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Yona Friedman | |
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Born | Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Budapest University of Technology and Economics | 5 June 1923
Occupation | Architect |
Yona Friedman (5 June 1923 – 20 February 2020)[1] was a Hungarian-born French architect, urban planner and designer. He was influential in the late 1950s and early 1960s, best known for his theory of "mobile architecture".[2] In 2018, on his 95th birthday he was awarded the Austrian Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts.[3]
Early years
Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1923, into an ethnic
In 1956, at the Xth International Congress of Modern Architecture in Dubrovnik, his "Manifeste de l'architecture mobile" contributed to question definitely the daring will planning to architectural design and urbanism. It was during that conference, and thanks especially to the youth of the Team 10, that "mobile architecture" was coined in the sense of "mobility of living." With the example of "Ville spatiale", Friedman set out – for the first time – the principles of an architecture capable of understanding the constant changes that characterize the "social mobility" and based on "infrastructure" that provide housing. Planning rules could be created and recreated, according to the need of the inhabitants and residents. Its focus on people themselves arises from its direct experience of homeless refugees, first in European cities facing war and disaster and later in Israel, where, in the early years of the State, thousands of people landed every day, with housing problems .
Maturity
In 1958, Friedman founded the Groupe d'études de architecture mobile (GEAM) which dissolved in 1962. In 1963, he developed the idea of a city bridge and participated actively in the cultural climate and
In 1987, in
Mobile architecture
In 1958, Yona Friedman published his first manifesto : "Mobile architecture". It describes a new kind of mobility not of the buildings, but for the inhabitants, who are given a new freedom.
Mobile architecture is the "dwelling decided on by the occupant" by way of "infrastructures that are neither determined nor determining". Mobile architecture embodies an architecture available for a "mobile society". To deal with it, the classical architect invented "the Average Man". The projects of architects in the 1950s were undertaken, according to Friedman, to meet the needs of this make-believe entity, and not as an attempt to meet the needs of the actual members of this mobile society.
The teaching of architecture was largely responsible for the "classical" architect's under-estimation of the role of the user. Furthermore, this teaching did not embrace any real theory of architecture. Friedman proposed then teaching manuals for the fundamentals of architecture for the general public.
The spatial city, which is a materialization of this theory, makes it possible for everyone to develop his or her own hypothesis. This is why, in the mobile city, buildings should :
- touch the ground over a minimum area
- be capable of being dismantled and moved
- and be alterable as required by the individual occupant.
The Spatial City
The Spatial City is the most significant application of "mobile architecture". It is raised up on piles which contains inhabited volumes, fitted inside some of the "voids", alternating with other unused volumes, making it look aesthetically pleasant. The basis of its design is that of trihedral elements which operate as "neighbourhoods" where dwellings are distributed without a price.
This structure introduces a kind of merger between countryside and city (compare to Paolo Soleri's Arcology concept) and may span:
- certain unavailable sites,
- areas where building is not possible or permitted (expanses of water, marshland),
- areas that have already been built upon (an existing city),
- above farmland.
This spanning technique which includes container structures ushers in a new development in
The spaces in this grid are rectangular and habitable modular "voids", with an average area of 25–35 square meters. Conversely, the form of the volumes included within the grid depends solely on the occupant, and their configuration set with a "Flatwriter" in the grid is completely free. Only one half of the spatial city would be occupied. The "fillings" which correspond to the dwellings only actually take up 50% of the three-dimensional lattice, permitting the light to spread freely in the spatial city. This introduction of elements on a three-dimensional grid with several levels on piles permits a changeable occupancy of the space by means of the convertibility of the forms and their adaptation to multiple uses.
In Friedman's own words "The city, as a mechanism, is thus nothing other than a labyrinth : a configuration of points of departure, and terminal points, separated by obstacles".
Major written works
- 1958: Mobile architecture
- 1975: Towards a scientific architecture ISBN 0-262-56019-4
- 1980: A better life in towns: [campaign for the renaissance of cities]
- 1999: Yona Friedman. Structures serving the unpredictable ISBN 978-90-5662-108-7
- 2006: Yona Friedman: Pro Domo ISBN 84-96540-51-0
- 2010: Yona Friedman Drawings and models ISBN 978-2-84066-406-2
- 2015: Yona Friedman. The Dilution of Architecture ISBN 978-3-906027-68-5
Exhibitions
- 2017: "Yona Friedman. People's Architecture". Centre des arts de l'École Internationale de Genève – EIG
- Sketches in Permanent Collections: MOMA, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris.
- 2015: Mobile Architecture: Yona Friedman, Power Station of Art, Shanghai
- 2014: 1001 nuits + 1 jour, mfc-michèle didier
- 2014: Dictionnaire, Promenadologues #3, Cneai, Chatou
- 2014: Yona Friedman, École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-La Villette, Paris
- 2013: Möbianne, Cneai, Chatou
- 2013: Iconostase version 3, Cneai, Chatou
- 2013: Diapositives 1958–2002, Cneai, Chatou
- 2012: "Yona Friedman. Genesis of a Vision". Centre Archizoom – EPFL
- 2012: Le Musée de rue et le Musée iconostase, Cneai, Chatou
- 2012: Handbuch, Berlin – Paris 2012, Galerie Chert, Berlin
- 2011: "Architecture Without Buildings", Ludwig Museum, Budapest
- 2009: Venice Biennale, Inventing Worlds.
- 2007: Dare to make your own exhibition, Cneai, Chatou
- 2007: Shanghai Biennale
- 2005: Venice Biennale
- 2003: Venice Biennale
- 2002: Yokohama Triennale
See also
- Archigram
- Constantin Xenakis
- Manfredi Nicoletti
- Megastructures (architecture)
- Metabolist Movement
References
- ^ "Yona Friedman, French Architect and Urban Planner Passes Away at 96". ArchDaily. February 21, 2020.
- ^ Harris, William (19 April 2016). "cities in the sky: re-evaluating yona friedman". 3am. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
- ^ https://www.kiesler.org/en/kiesler-prize-2018. kiesler.org. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
- ^ Edwin Heathcote (24 June 2016), "Interview: architect Yona Friedman", Financial Times. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
Further reading
- www.yonafriedman.com, an online extended monograph with more than a 1000 pictures with project descriptions, available for research and actualities, by Helene Fentener van Vlissingen. This website permits announcements, reviews, a forum and contact facilities.
- Annie Ratti, Yona Friedman, Luca Cerizza, Massimo Bartolini, Anna Daneri, Marco De Michelis, Manuel Orazi "Yona Friedman" Charta/Fondazione Antonio Ratti (March 1, 2009) ISBN 88-8158-705-X
- Sabine Lebesque, Helene Fentener van Vlissingen, "Yona Friedman. Structures serving the unpredictable", NAi Publishers, May 1999, ISBN 978-90-5662-108-7(a monograph of the work of Yona Friedman up to 1999).
- Yona Friedman, Manuel Orazi, "The Dilution of Architecture". Nader Seraj Ed., Park Books, Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-906027-68-5
External links
- Fond Denise et Yona Friedman
- Yona Friedman
- Yona Friedman - Utopies Réalisables
- Yona Friedman at archINFORM
- e-flux Archived at September 29, 2011
- note Yona Friedman - Collection Frac Centre
- Short biography on Megastructure Reloaded
- Blue Print Magazine June 12, 2009
- Yona Friedman papers Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Accession No. 2008.M.51. The archive contain manuscripts, sketches and drawings, and photographs and slides documenting the broad intellectual activity of this visionary architect and planner.