Anyone who receives this handbook is a lucky person ... But he must first send it to at least ten friends. Which is as many as any successful businessman has. While he's successful.

A woman, for example, sent handbook number III to eighteen addresses and didn't have to cook lunch, because her husband got tired of waiting and the tax inspectorate completely overlooked her firm. Yet another, who didn't send on number I, doesn't know to this day whether her husband really plays tennis with friends on Wednesdays, and so is still mad at the tax inspectress.

DICTIONARY

We sometimes describe something inadequately with the language of architecture. Sometimes indeed we describe language itself inadequately. It's not just a matter of style. Sometimes there's just not the right expression. In 1993, in my English book HOLOTECTURE (see www.holotecture.com) I tried to coin an expression for the multilayered architecture of multilayered man. Sometimes there's just not the right letter. I coined two new letters this year in a play of love, Building Site.

This time I'd like to replace the extremely unsuitable expression for a person who »perceives – observer« »uses – user« architecture with a new word archeit (describing man's passivity).

In holotecture, in which virtual man actively participates, in contrast we would have to use holohe and holoshe.

URH's ARCHITECTURAL HANDBOOK

1/2007

INTRODUCTION

Who wouldn't want to be an architect? Sometimes even the architect himself. This handbook will bring architecture closer to you. And you to the architect. Personally, I’ve read a whole heap of handbooks that I thought could help me with work (lacework, cooking, arranging ikebana, self-defence, the art of love, Slovene wine etc.), on the principle that »what I don't know I can't use (or apply)«.  

I don't feel old. Actually I feel young. My wife would say too much so (who wouldn't). An architect must be like that. To love must be beautiful. The country where he creates, though, must be mature and wealthy, too. Slovenia hasn’t always been. So it can’t be bad for those who know something to communicate their knowledge, experience and ideas to those who think they know everything.

We’re not short of handbooks. Construction manuals, for example, can only provide the basis for construction, not architecture. Architecture isn’t just solid building but BEAUTIFUL building. BEAUTIFUL = PERSONAL. A builder chooses primarily from tables, an architect from his concepts of the beautiful. So there can't be tables in an architectural handbook. It is high time to begin to value (use) beauty above all in architecture. There's enough cement, you don’t have to queue for it any more.

We’ll send you this handbook intermittently in electronic form, now and then, when we’re not winning regattas, visiting openings or eating well. Don't worry if you don't like it. That’s a sign that you've formed your own personal taste, which can only be the highest aim of an architectural handbook.

CHEAP = EXPENSIVE

Only costly lettuce can grow on cheap land. Many a buyer of land on which he'll never be able to build has this experience. There’s a whole range of land from that to that which offers favourable living conditions. Will you have children? Will you drive them to school every day? To dancing classes? To chess? Then don't buy land where there's no school. You'll spend your best years as a taxi driver.

I've drawn a good many houses in my fifteen years practice. Which are the cheapest? Certainly those in which the clients take pleasure! Immediately after them are circular houses or houses with circles, since they need nothing more than a good worker and no other material. A good worker well understands the other elements of a house.

Rectangular, just a little bent etc. ... has no connection with price! Sadly, the investor's main advisor, especially when it's a single family house, is very often the worker. He meddles in everything to cover his own mistakes (ignorance). Did you ever get a car mechanic to mend a tooth? He’s got a drill and pliers, too.

2/2007

QUALITY

While beauty is mostly a personal matter, although it can’t be denied that the personal is also a social matter, quality is a different matter. Criteria must be set to ascertain quality, although it can’t be denied that criteria can also be a social matter.

So in the Slovene speaking part of Europe (by which I mean Carinthia in the north, Istria to the southeast, in places as far as Reka, Delnica, Karlovac and Zagreb, and Friulia) the most important criterion is certainly durability. A bit because of climate probably, a bit because of wars, a bit because life’s hard etc. But what kind of durability? We probably won't live two thousand years. Neither do we walk barefoot to school any more (there's a difference between our land and, for example, the Berliners, who like to go to school in the rain and barefoot). Even if we were to look, to the extent we know our family tree, we would find that our grandparents interest us, about eighty to a hundred years back. Since our progeny probably won’t be much interested in us after that time, our house should survive for our lifetime (100 years) and an additional 80 years for our descendants. Why should we care for those who won’t even light a candle for us in the cemetery!

So a house can have a flat roof (a 20 cm overhang is enough) and a metal construction. But not a larch facade. Who wants to paint it every five years! Some kind of tested, more modern material like bakelite with plywood etc. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with house maintenance. Firstly it's soothing (if the wife stays off your back) and secondly, it does to remember that our distant forebears also maintained houses. A house is like a women – if you  care for her too little, either someone else will or she'll leave, if you care too much you flop with exhaustion and someone else uses her.

A quality project is:

About neighbours next time.

3/2007

NEIGHBOURS

I walked through the cemetery yesterday. Have you ever counted how many tombstones in a row are THE SAME? The majority of neighbours are actually buried in succession. A similar way of life, the same environment, the same women. And disputes. Isn’t it funny that neighbours so different in every aspect, who often see each other only in court, are so uniform in designing their tombstones? You even see who was first. Other “neighbours” add some kitsch detail. Like at home – a little better light than the neighbour has, slightly more densely plants shrubs than the neighbour has, a little younger wife than the neighbour has (or, indeed, his) – these are the aims of neighbourly relations. One long competition.  

Tombstones are designed death to me! They are subject to stress and unprofessional advisors in design, like funeral directors, stone masons, builders, neighbours. But hang on a second! In the cemetery (although posthumously) the investor cares for form – exclusively because of the neighbour’s indifference.

Why not transmit a little of this to the architecture of the living. Investors should consider what meaning the neighbour’s envy has after death. Why not enjoy angry glance a little in life? It shouldn’t have to be shown who has the biggest but what you get with what you have.

Not to mention quality of life!

Life on a yacht – instead of a prison cell in a square house with projecting roofs for offspring.

A view of a sunny morning through a circular window – instead of the neighbours kitchen through a glass prism.

Lounge in the garden and garden in the lounge – instead of a lounge in a carpark?

4/2007

RATIOS

Humans are attracted for the most part to members of the same species. So, for the most part, we like forms proportionate to the human body. In architecture, for example, we fix the length to the height of a house in the same ratio as the distance from the heel to the navel has to the distance from the navel to our love's mystery. That is GOLDEN RATIO – LOVE – TO OURSELVES

The ratio between a building and the land on which it sits should be the GOLDEN MEAN, the ratio of architectural elements among themselves the GOLDEN SECTION, the ratio between the architect and the investor the GOLDEN GROTTO.

For all who ask,

why must a farmhouse stand in an idyllic environment,

why must a skyscraper stand in a city,

why do we sometimes like chocolate in lemon ice cream,

I can say,

RULES ARE FOR THOSE WHO DON'T MAKE THEM THEMSELVES! Rules in architecture are made only by top architects (and contractors), who are »too modern«, »too courageous«, »before their time« for most of their contemporaries, so only geniuses to generations to come. They transform their deviance into rules, which again obstruct the geniuses of the future. And so on.

5/2007

THE PRESENCE OF THE ABSENT

Everyone sees with the eyes and heart. Some see only with the eyes (especially traffic police) some more with the heart (especially married women). I suspect one needs the other. With the heart means changing what we see into what we really want, or really don't want to see.

Man is thus also made in such a way that he feels strongest in anticipation and in regret, causing exaggerated fear or exaggerated joy.

Matter’s greatest presence is thus in being past or pending.

Architecture has an eminent position in the presence of the absent, since much can be missing (for example one column in a colonnade (order)) and much lacking that it could have (such as a construction entirely without columns (weightlessness)).

A good architect, a master, introduces stresses precisely in this manner of stressing the absent in his architecture, he calms or rouses the observer, thus creates the closest possible = the unique for man.

A good architect sees more than the client. Both with his eyes and with his heart. So, too, good projects are costlier than appears at first sight. Open your eyes or heart at once! The invisible is an integral part of your project.

6/2007

 
OLD AND NEW

The roots of the attitude to the old extend in reality to the young (I say this of women until they are eighteen). We find there the warmth of reliability (when grandma hugged you), respect for an imagined past (when grandpa told of his heroism☻) and jest instead of reality (both knew that even the old passes).

I best remember that they did not in general like to be patronised. They knew very well themselves where they are declining and where it leads – both mentally and physically.

In my opinion, an architect must have such an attitude to old buildings concerning housing, to old towns concerning urbanism and to old forms concerning design (more about my terminology next time). Preserving a building still able to live is like putting grandpa or grandma in an old people's home.

A little nostalgically romantic perhaps but such is our renovated house at Bogišićeva 5 in Ljubljana. The old mast made from water pipes is jestingly replaced by a newer stylised inscription cut with a jet of water »architects«, on which we still hang the flag. The excessively narrow gates have been replaced by reliable and wide automated ones (now even women can enter the courtyard by car).
The imaginative facade openings, the colour of the facade, the height of the building in relation to its surroundings, the balcony railings and everything else have been consistently retained (conserved).

DICTIONARY

We often hear that there's no right expression for this or that in Slovene. It's true. Unfortunately, in contrast to the Croatians, we’re too modest in coining new – Slovene – expressions. Even English is not ashamed of newly minted words. Especially in relation to architecture, since this is a profession that is in constant interaction with technological development.

As pioneer of the use of holography in architecture, in 1993 in my English book HOLOTECTURE (see www.holotecture.com), I coined this expression for the modern multilayered architecture of apparently technically »improved« man. This expression is often used today.

The English have systematised expressions such as design, housing, urbanism, planning, but the Slovenes don’t. So in The Philosophy of Architecture I added to the already suitable expression

oblikovanje = design
the integrated terms 
stavbenje = housing,
mestenje = urbanism.

In general, Slovene academic linguistic debates reveal a human tireless subservience to mincing words. Instead of decisively translating or inventing expressions for what we simply don't know how to name, even if it is a foreignism (why not be the first Slovenes), for example in academic debates we deal comprehensively with the writing of »tsunami, cunami« (although the word is actually wrongly translated and should be »tusnami«) etc.
 
Neither Slovene nor English have yet discovered words co-ordinately (as in ski/skier, motor/motorist, medicine/medic) to replace the extremely unsuitable borrowed words for a person who perceives architecture – observer – and one who uses it – user. The difference between these words can be compared in language with the difference between telling and discussing.

I suggest the expression
arheit, which describes human passivity.

In the case of holotecture (in the sense of respecting roots) it would thus be more appropriate to use the terms holohe or holoshe.

7/2007

 
PRESENCE OF THE ABSENT

Everyone sees with the eyes and heart. Some see only with the eyes (especially traffic police) some more with the heart (especially married women). I suspect one needs the other. That means changing what we see with the heart into what we really want, or really don't want to see.

Man is thus also made such that he feels strongest in anticipation and in regret, causing exaggerated fear or exaggerated joy.

Matter’s greatest presence is thus in being past or pending.

Architecture has an eminent position in the presence of the absent, since much can be missing (for example one column in a colonnade (order)) and much lacking that it could have (such as a construction entirely without columns (weightlessness)).

A good architect, a master, introduces stresses precisely by means of stressing the absent in his architecture, he soothes or rouses the observer, thus creating the closest possible to man = something unique.

A good architect sees more than the client. Both with his eyes and with his heart. So, too, good projects are costlier than appears at first sight. Open at once your eyes, or rather your heart, or rather your wallet! The invisible is an integral part of your project. And you probably know that what is invisible to the eye is sometimes the very essence!

8/2007

CATALOGUE ARCHITECTURE

Even such an uncivilised man can’t help from time to time finding in himself a worthless form of dwelling. Then he disgusts himself, like a supporter at a basketball match, unless he was an animal.

It's understandable for a nineteen seventies child to have gazed in amazement at a Quelle catalogue that his father brought from Germany. It's less understandable for an adult today, especially an educated one, to try and adapt his living environment to those in the catalogue. Is the past inescapable?

If you're afraid of someone taking offence, don't say that most architecture today is created from leafing through catalogues (magazines), and most architects willingly listen: »D'you see? I want something like that ....« When the matter’s been more or less felicitously copied, they forget where they saw the original. Awards and so on follow; but it doesn't alter the fact that it’s ONLY CATALOGUE ARCHITECTURE. The copy may even be better than the original, but a copy remains a copy, and ARCHITECTURE IS NOT A COPY. And beware – if you copy, you'll always find someone who’ll know that you copied!

Architecture must be like a song. Even more than a song! Unlike a song, it must be harmonious/resonant on all sides. Even back to front (from the courtyard), from up down (from the attic). If you can't compose yourself, you're a catalogue (karaoke) architect.

Someone will say: «What's Architecture to me? I've had enough architecture«. He doesn’t know that there's no such thing as »more or less a virgin«. Nor »more or less a child« etc. There's only one Architecture!* Just one, but with a thousand and one personalities that You yourself can breath into it. There's no architecture from a catalogue! You're not from a catalogue. The heart of Architecture is an idea, just as the heart of a clock is a mechanism! And even they're sometimes catalogue copies (like the ETA mechanism).

Why make a circular staircase if you feel an amorphous one would be finer (Or are you going to adapt to the worker who doesn't know how to make it?)? Why make a square greenhouse if you feel you'd rather have a triangle (Or will you copy from a catalogue because you're afraid of your talent?)? Why make a gable roof if you feel that a roof bothers you (Are you really afraid of leaks, even though you haven't seen such a roof leak since 1975? What about a department store, does it leak?)? Why make your ancestral gravestone like that of your neighbour if you'd rather have something unique (Can you really think of nothing but a variation of your neighbour's?)?

There's nothing wrong with having no talent for Architecture. We can't all be architects. But be an architect/builder. You'll know at least what you are. I, for instance, have no ear for music, but sing all the same – when I want. Every so often I check whether it's any better ...

* Building is less than architecture, Holotecture is more than architecture. Holotecture is meant for man who's only coming, though unstoppably: VIRTUAL MAN. Improved by bio- and techno-components. (See also my book, the Philosophy of Architecture.)

CENTRING

The end of the year actually has the same effect as wine. You discover things you’d rather not know about the people around you. They tell you, for example, that they’ve given funds (probably money) for New Year presents to the poor!? Did they really give them so little? Did they just want to tell us that they »help« the poor? What’s that got to do with us? That’s every individual's personal decision. And only at New Year? Doesn’t this also suggest bad planning? Well, maybe business will improve next year and, after buying the new yacht (to order), there'll still be something left for calendars.

And lest we forget – you discover too, who's really important and who can be put off. Maybe it's one and the same person. In other words, those who don't have time for you. Anyone who doesn't have time for you is inattentive, absent minded, not alive, uncentred, remote from everything and thus also from his own centre. He's a hundred light years away from Architecture.

Just as you have to turn on the radio when you want to listen to it, so you have to switch off from everyday tasks when you want to deal with Architecture. Perhaps some training is required for this, a »drill«. So, from this number of the handbook onwards, I’ll add some data which you can use for centring.

It’s appropriate to start with the GOLDEN SECTION. The golden section (in Latin sectio aurea, or sectio divina) is a ratio that can be reproduced by dividing a straight line into two unequal parts so that the ratio of the smaller to the larger is the same as the ratio of the larger to the full length of the line. Euclid set a problem in his Elements, which reads: »Divide a straight line into two unequal parts so that area of the rectangle outlined above the entire line by the height of the smaller part of the line is the same area as the square based on the larger part of the line.« His trigonometric solution leads to a division of the given line into the ratio of the golden section, as the ratio between individual parts of the line, and similarly also the ratio of individual parts of the line to the whole length of the line. Euclid divided the given line into two parts and called them major (larger part –M) and minor (smaller part – m). The ratios give us Pythagoras's theorem, which is the basis of the classical construction of the golden section on a line. Point C is called the golden point, which divides the line AB into the golden section. Seen from a construction point of view, the golden section is the trigonometric procedure of dividing a line into two unequal parts so that the shorter part to the longer is in the same ratio as the longer to the whole length of the line. The solution shows that the ratio of M:m always equals 1.618033988749894848204586834366... The number is called the number of the golden section.