Living Within Land
In the popular 1964 publication Architecture Without Architects, Rudofsky wrote about architecture not being centred solely around aesthetics and technology, but more a frame for a certain way of life.
He was passionate about rejecting the notion of standardised, cookie-cutter dwellings, and instead encouraged the idea that a home should reflect the history, culture and climate of its immediate surroundings.
“The untutored builders in space and time demonstrate an admirable talent for fitting their buildings into the natural surroundings. Instead of trying to conquer nature, as we do, they welcome the vagaries of climate and the challenge of topography.”
In more recent years, architects have been successfully experimenting with topography, embedding buildings into the landscapes so that the built form becomes one with its surrounding.
Homes carved into cliffs, sunken into the ground or hugged by a hillside. Often the built form is camouflaged by soft landscape so that the dwelling appears to morph and disappear into its setting.
Here, we share some of our favourite houses that take typography on, challenging how we see architecture and how it influences our everyday lives.