User Designed Apartment Building: Photographs of project model

01/01/1974

Model

The apartment building large scale colored model, made of heavy cardboard and thick paint, depicting an extensive variety of apartments for different families.

Photographer:

Christopher Alexander/C.E.S., Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Source:

Print, Negative

Characteristics:

2 5/8"x3 1/4", 4 3/8"x4 3/4", 8"x8 5/8", 3 1/2"x4 1/4", Color, B&W

Content of

Project

User Designed Apartment Building 1974 to 1975

St.Quentin-en-Yvelines, Paris , France

Residential, Designed , Not built

Client:

French Ministry of Housing - Francois Choay

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, Walter V. Wendler

Project stages:

Preliminary Design Construction Schedule

Design and construction of prototype apartment complex outside Paris. The project was initiated by Francoise Choay, the Minister of Housing in France, in November 1973, when she invited the Center for Environmental Structure to join her analysis of poor quality, ...

References

Scientific Research

The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds, Always Respected and Manifested

Areas of focus:

Design and Building Process

Guiding idea:

Participation of Users

In the last two centuries "modular" design has produced identical apartments, arranged in typical apartment blocks. The same is true for mass-produced furniture. Uniqueness, which expresses personal needs and whiches, and which springs from the need to adapt and connect ...

Models & Mock-ups

User Designed Apartment Building: Building complex model 01/01/1974

Project, Model

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA

Medium:

Array

Size:

26"x40"

Scale:

3/32"=1'

Presentation cardboard model of 27 apartment buildings as they were designed by the participating families.