TBATime-Based Architecture
A New Quarterly Journal
The Urban International Press - UIP, UK
ISSN 1754-4661 (Print)
TBA International is a full colour quarterly journal maximising on images and architectural design aspects of projects drawn from architectural practices in the European context. ‘Time-based’ indicates that the time factor is a primary design criterion where projects may also have been designed with close collaboration of client management and with user design inputs. Thus all projects in TBA International show how they can adapt and how they respond to change. Short texts support the colour images describing project aims and the project functions. In every project the supporting structure and the finishing equipments used by users to sustain activities are visible. The work of firms of architects, from different countries, covering different building types all of which are time based in concept, execution and use will be published.
TBA Concept
During the 20th century it became increasingly clear that architecture is by no means a timeless medium. To begin with, artists and architects like Constant, Friedman, Archigram and the Metabolists merely toyed with the notion of time. In the late 1960s, however, serious research was done into techniques that would allow buildings to adapt to meet the demands made by time. This was especially true in the housing sector where after many years a new rationale emerged described as 'open building' where the management or users took part in the design process. This open-endedness was not confined to housing and time based designs spread to most other building types. The desire for flexibility, per se, often led to programmatically neutral, characterless buildings. Flexibility became synonymous with blandness and the word subsequently slipped from the architect's vocabulary.
Society is changing at such speed that buildings are faced with new demands which they should be in a position to meet. There are times when buildings change function during construction or even during the design process. For example, the currently weak office market has caused many property developers to alter ongoing projects for office buildings into housing. This usually means that the plans need redeveloping from scratch. A new approach, therefore, is to design buildings that are able to cope with such changes, in other words buildings that respond to the time factor.
Going back to the sixties, designing for the unknown, the unpredictable, was a new challenge facing architects both then and more so today. What role could and should users play in the design process. The challenge in time based architectural design was considered even greater than before. 'Form follows function' is giving way to concepts like ‘function follows form’, ‘two-level design’, ‘polyvalence’, ‘changeability’, ‘flexibility’, ‘disassembly’ and ‘semi-permanence’. Design is becoming an innovative tool for developing new spatial and physical structures that correspond to observable levels of intervention in the environment. Not all of these questions can be dealt with in journal format but the buildings published will reflect some of these issues and may give rise to some clues which could have some impact on design disciplines and related activities
TBA Director
Nicholas Wilkinson, RIBA, AA Dipl.
Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Architecture, TRNC
DPU Associate, University College, London, UK
Director, The Urban International Press, UK.
E-mail: nicholaz.wilkinson@emu.edu.tr
TBA Chief Co-ordinating Editor
Dr. Bernard Leupen,
Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology,
The Netherlands.
Guest Professor, Institute of Planning, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine ArtsSchool of Architecture, Copenhagen, Denmark.
E-mail: B.A.J.Leupen@bk.tudelft.nl
Editorial Board
Dr. Beisi Jia, Hong Kong School of Architecture.
Dr. Ir. Bernard Leupen, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Dr. Fuad Mallick, Brac University, Bangladesh
Dr. Ashraf M. Salama, Department of Architecture, Qatar University, Qatar.
Dr. Ulpu Tiuri, Finland
Dr. Helen G. Welling,The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark
Nicholas Wilkinson, Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Architecture,TRNC
Ir. Jasper van Zwol, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
During the 20th century it became increasingly clear that architecture is by no means a timeless medium. To begin with, artists and architects like Constant, Friedman, Archigram and the Metabolists merely toyed with the notion of time. In the late 1960s, however, serious research was done into techniques that would allow buildings to adapt to meet the demands made by time. This was especially true in the housing sector where after many years a new rationale emerged described as 'open building' where the management or users took part in the design process. This open-endedness was not confined to housing and time based designs spread to most other building types. The desire for flexibility, per se, often led to programmatically neutral, characterless buildings. Flexibility became synonymous with blandness and the word subsequently slipped from the architect's vocabulary.
Society is changing at such speed that buildings are faced with new demands which they should be in a position to meet. There are times when buildings change function during construction or even during the design process. For example, the currently weak office market has caused many property developers to alter ongoing projects for office buildings into housing. This usually means that the plans need redeveloping from scratch. A new approach, therefore, is to design buildings that are able to cope with such changes, in other words buildings that respond to the time factor.
Going back to the sixties, designing for the unknown, the unpredictable, was a new challenge facing architects both then and more so today. What role could and should users play in the design process. The challenge in time based architectural design was considered even greater than before. 'Form follows function' is giving way to concepts like ‘function follows form’, ‘two-level design’, ‘polyvalence’, ‘changeability’, ‘flexibility’, ‘disassembly’ and ‘semi-permanence’. Design is becoming an innovative tool for developing new spatial and physical structures that correspond to observable levels of intervention in the environment. Not all of these questions can be dealt with in journal format but the buildings published will reflect some of these issues and may give rise to some clues which could have some impact on design disciplines and related activities
TBA Director
Nicholas Wilkinson, RIBA, AA Dipl.
Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Architecture, TRNC
DPU Associate, University College, London, UK
Director, The Urban International Press, UK.
E-mail: nicholaz.wilkinson@emu.edu.tr
TBA Chief Co-ordinating Editor
Dr. Bernard Leupen,
Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology,
The Netherlands.
Guest Professor, Institute of Planning, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine ArtsSchool of Architecture, Copenhagen, Denmark.
E-mail: B.A.J.Leupen@bk.tudelft.nl
Editorial Board
Dr. Beisi Jia, Hong Kong School of Architecture.
Dr. Ir. Bernard Leupen, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Dr. Fuad Mallick, Brac University, Bangladesh
Dr. Ashraf M. Salama, Department of Architecture, Qatar University, Qatar.
Dr. Ulpu Tiuri, Finland
Dr. Helen G. Welling,The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark
Nicholas Wilkinson, Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Architecture,TRNC
Ir. Jasper van Zwol, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
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