Alternative multifunctional design practice

Text: Péter Müllner

By the early 1960s it had been obvious that there is a huge and widening gap between needs of users – concerning architecture – and the everyday practices of the profession. In order to bridge this gap, architects and theoreticians of architecture then started to work out various proposals for a solution as alternatives to the functional design practice. This study, however, focusses on presenting concepts of design methodology that define usage as an activity changing by time, and thus – as opposed to the deterministic approach of functionalism, regard a long-term maintenance of usage (practicability) the best solution to tackle this issue.
Presenting the concepts of flexibility, multivalency, underdefinition offers a comprehensive view of tendencies and ambitions in the architectural theory of the period, and the very same concepts also provide an adequate context to present polivalent practice, which is the main objective of this study.