Humanism, Universalism and the "Native Genius": Civic Engagement in Housing Design from Alberti to CIAM and Beyond

Alberti’s famous analogy “a house is like a small city and the city is like abig house” has been repeated as a mantra to promote a more humanist approachto architecture and urban design. This dictum was used by the postwar generation of architects and urban planners engaged in the revision ofmodern movement’s interwar principles to foster a re-conceptualization ofthe role of the individual in the built environment. This issue was especiallyrelevant to mass housing design in the aftermath of World War II and urbanrenewal processes from the 1970s onwards. Nowadays, we are again facingtimes of change. There seems to be a trend to polarize the participationof the individual on architectural and urban design practices related withmass housing. On the one hand, spontaneous engagement of the individualis praised as expression of one’s identity. On the other hand, commodificationof architectural practices detached from a particular circumstance isalso gaining momentum. In this context, to what extent both participatoryprocesses and the attention to local culture can contribute to deliver a morehumanist approach to housing design? How can universalist approaches bemingled with the “native genius”? Has the affirmation of the particular tobe made against the universal?In his De re aedificatoria, Alberti contends that the elements relevant for understandinga building are regio (the surroundings of the building), area (thebuilding site), partitio (partition), parie (wall), tectum (roof), and apertio(opening). Together with highlighting the importance of taking into accountin the design of a building universal concerns on issues such as climate,hygiene and salubrity, Alberti stresses also the central role of adapting thebuilding to its context. This dialectic would be also central in post war architecturaleducation in Portugal, especially in the Oporto School led by thefigure of Carlos Ramos, who fostered the transition between a Beaux-Artssystem and a modern approach. In the 1956 CIAM congress in Dubrovnik,a group mainly composed of former Ramos’ students presented a proposalfor the design of a rural community, which showcased an outcome deeplyinfluenced by both Alberti’s humanist discourse and the Team 10’s “other”modernism. Moreover, this group’s proposal was seminal in supporting anarchitectural approach that could foster civic engagement in the designprocess, foreseeing the 1970s and 1980s trend towards the promotion ofusers participation in the design process.Drawing on research currently being conducted about Alberti’s influence onarchitectural theory and practice in Portugal, this paper will contribute todiscuss in contemporary architectural education and practice the need fora re-assessment of the immanent values shared by both the Renaissancehumanist and the post-war revision of modernist principles. The role of theindividual and its community as part and parcel of a process where assumeddogmas were changing will be especially highlighted. This paper will thusdeliver a contribution on how change in the built environment can be fuelledby civic engagement in the design process.

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1