Habitus Magazine | Issue 23

When I was young it was fashionable to refer to approved people as engagé. The origins of the word lay with the French political avant-garde, but by the time it had filtered through to us it meant being ‘with it’ or strongly connected with what was going on.

The opposite was dégagé. This was generally a sign of approval as well, but meaning ‘cool’, or so up-to-speed that nothing was any longer worthy of attention.

I am sure these words would be a valuable addition to the architectural lexicon, especially because they could mean more or less anything you want them to mean. They are wonderfully suggestive and hint, very usefully, at the fact that architecture is a living force, responding to what’s out there, but also shaping the way we respond to what’s out there.

For example, dégagé architecture might be so cool as to be beyond context, even beyond the clients and any programme they might naïvely have in mind. This is pure architecture which, like the music of the spheres, is only experienced in the abstract.

On the other hand, engagé architecture is very much rooted in everyday reality. It can mean, for example, that a building is a ‘good neighbour’, sympathetic to the scale, palette and materials of its neighbours. Or, that a building is of its place – be that the natural landscape, the immediate built environment or, more broadly, cultural place with all the values and history that entails.

You will sense some bias on my part here, so you won’t be surprised to find a lot of engagé architecture in Habitus – if only because it is a residential magazine. Certainly, in this issue you will find dwellings which engage in all sorts of ways. In some respects, my favourite is not a dwelling at all – the toilet amenities designed for the orang asli in Malaysia by architects, WHBC. No need for any puns on engaged – here is something totally engaged with the landscape, the culture and with the everyday needs of a community.

But other projects are equally engaged, if in different ways. Artist, James Powditch is completely engaged with his home/studio, from building it to working in it. Korakot Srivakorn, as one of Thailand’s most dynamic businesswomen, is not only totally involved in the commercial and architectural world, but lives in a house designed by Duangrit Bunnag which facilitates engagement with the landscape, with art and with the spiritual dimension.

The Bronte Apartment in Sydney, the Nanea House in Hawaii, the Scotland Island House north of Sydney and the Wirra Wirra Pavilion, also north of Sydney, all engage with the landscape, while the Terasek House in Kuala Lumpur responds strongly to the character of the neighbourhood it is in.

Anyway, the last thing we want is for Habitus to be dégagé, n’est-ce pas?

PAUL MCGILLICK | EDITOR