Well-known for his numerous publications and their contributions to architectural pedagogy in his native Norway and abroad, Christian Norberg-Schulz is one of the most important architectural theorists of the 20th century. From Genius Loci (1980), to New World Architecture (1988), and to The Concept of Dwelling (1993), the author, professor and practitioner examined experience and phenomenology as the basis for a specific vision combining modernism with local traditions in architecture.
These strategies were also articulated in practice with Arne Korsmo and later in his solo studio. A Fulbright scholar at Harvard in the 1960s, he also taught at Yale and MIT and was Dean of Architecture and Design in Olso. He collaborated with Korsmo in 1955 in a notable cluster of row houses originally planned as ten. Only three were built at Planetveien, one of which would become his own. The grouping of single-family dwellings explored open spaces inundated with natural light and the potential to aggregate individual needs with the effective collective massing strategies.
A manifesto of modern design principles, the dwelling reflects the obsession that many modernists had with modular design principles. Each space follows a 12-foot-by-12-foot (3.6x3.6m) major grid as a tool for planning rooms, rigorously organising materials and tectonic details. Like Schindler, Wright, Mies and many others a 48-inch-by-48-inch (1.2x1.2m) minor module regulates everything from partitions to integrated furniture, façades and structures are all anchored by to the all-encompassing, controlling nature of the grid.
For modernists, the grid was a compositional device but also related to ideas of affordability and industrialization as it normalized building systems and materials to be integrated according to their fabrication and production dimensions, theoretically reducing waste. The post and beam system also based on the grid-module showcases the modular coordination theories developed in the early 1920s, the grid also arranges a clear separation of structure and skin, as well as served and service spaces - all iconic elements included in Shulz’s case study of affordable mass housing.
Site massing and modular grid planning strategy
