A building has one site. In this one situation, its intentions are collected. Building and Site have been interdependent since the beginning of Architecture. In the past, this connection was manifest without conscious intention through the use of local materials and craft, and by an association with events of history and myth. Today the link between site and architecture must be found in new ways, which are a part of a constructive transformation in modern life.

Steven Holl

Exploring the connections between an architectural artifact and its situation within the larger environment offers a critical point of departure for exploring the dynamic relationship that exists between architecture and site. The interconnectedness between architecture and site becomes apparent when examining not only their theoretical constructions but also, their physical, metaphysical, and sensual dimensions. This approach and the case studies explored here recognize that links between theory, perception, and sensual experience are needed to address the rupture that has occurred between architecture and site, people and place.

“I see architecture not as the building alone, but the building in relation to its surroundings, whether nature or man-made surroundings. I believe that the single building must be carefully related to the whole in the outdoor space it creates. In its mass and scale and material it must become an enhancing element in the total environment. Now this does not mean that the building has to succumb to the total. Any architecture must hold its headhigh. But a way must be found for uniting the whole, because the total environment is more important than the single building.”

Eero Saarinen from his 1959 Lecture at Dickinson College

Saarinen’s call for creating total environments that synthetically integrate architecture and landscape has its origins in the experience of Modern Architecture, in particular, the spatial content evident in the work of Mies Van der Rohe. A long collaboration with Landscape Architect Dan Kiley would offer Saarinen opportunities to advance remarkable total environments such as the Miller Garden, Columbus, IN (1953-57) (with Kevin Roche and Alexander Girard) that, as Gregg Bleam asserts, can be found in the spatial experience of Mies Van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion, particularly the concept of spatial continuum and the vivid inside-outside relationships made possible by the instrumentation of the free plan.

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