Adaptability as Functionality

The issue of adaptability is a strong driving force in designs aspiring to survive the unknown future. While there are many designers utilising this feature, very few succeed at making it overly beneficial. While many adaptable façades, structures and instalments present aesthetically pleasing forms, they often lack functionality and purpose.

Because of this, I want to take the idea of an adaptable façade and take it further, to use it as a tool that addresses future needs in a direct manner, allowing its purpose to be obvious. As stated by K. Lynch (1990):

"(Flexibility).. proves to be a difficult thing to accomplish, however. This is not the problem of choosing a form that, while serving one purpose today, will serve a different, but definitely known, purpose tomorrow. Preparation for a known change to come may have its complications, but can be approached and solved in a straightforward manner. The more adequate our predictions of the future become, the more will our anxiety for flexibility be transmuted into such tangible problems. But as long as our environmental patterns outlive our original guesses, we face the rather harrowing problem of providing for unspecified future change, of providing generalized flexibility"

This is a very interesting point, as it is directly linked to our future scenario issue. We have no definitive idea of what the future will hold in store, so we must analyse current trends and problems to imagine a future solution that addresses not only problems currently in existence, but those which have not yet come to fruition. Lynch Carries on to say:

"Multipurpose" spaces, large clear span areas with movable partitions, are often cited for their flexibility... But although such unspecialized, "non-directed" forms may be of great value in maximizing present choice, they are not necessarily more adaptable. Once occupied and in use, with partitions established, they may be as resistant to change as any other. Their only advantage lies, not in the lack of structure, but in the fact that by wide spans major structure is concentrated at certain few points. Changes in other zones are therefore less vital."

He frequently mentions the notion of having a set gridded structure that remains permanently, while the other spaces can be filled with a variety of activities and uses that can be altered as needed. This point of view seems much more informed that those who state that if a space is open and empty, it must therefore be adaptable and future friendly. Though this is sometimes the case, I want to explore the contrast of a set, rigid structural element with a flexible one that work together to form a future-proof building.

(Link to Lynch's article: http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/@@/B33B10DFF30DCE28CE38C05C58FEEEEB/courses/1/DAB810_12se2/content/_4400873_1/embedded/Environmental%20adaptability.pdf)