Mat·Building

TEAM X and MAT·BUILDING
15/10/2012

Helena Fuentes Garcia, Inglés 3

0. Historical Introduction
Team 10, just as often referred to as "Team X", was a group of architects and other invited participants (like engineers), who very few people know but who had a profound influence on the progress of architecture and urban design in the second half of the 20th century, mainly in Europe. One oftheir most important concept was the "Mat building", a new way of construction never seen "Mat-building", before. Even though the history of the "Mat-building" has been always told as the history of a great hough failure, some of the points we will study about it have been essentials in the development of the nowadays ideas of urbanism.

1. Team Ten · A new way of thinking
Team X started toassemble in summer 1953 in the 9th Congress of C.I.A.M. They challenged the rted modern doctrinaire about urbanism revaluing concepts that, although in that moment had not any importance, today are unquestionable. They were notions such as density, compac uestionable. compactness, flexibility at the use, etc. They were a very dynamic group who exhibited his new points of view, analyzed problems, evendiscussed strongly. However, they didn't want to get an arrangement, they were not looking for any dogmas about the city constructions. What they wanted was being listened, telling their new ideas and opinions, doing think the people about new problems In fact, their doctrine in urbanism wa announced , problems. heir was in 1954 by the 'Doorn's manifesto' A manifest where they reflected theirideas but in which we don't o'. as find any strict rule, there are only some advices and notes.
DOORN'S MANIFESTO 1. It is useless to consider the house except as a part of a community owing to the inter inter-action of these on each other. 2. We should not waste our time codifying the elements of the house until the other relationship has been crystallized. 3. 'Habitat' is concerned with theparticular house in the particular type of community. 4. Communities are the same everywhere. (1) Detached house-farm. farm. (2) Village. (3) Towns of various sorts (industrial/admin./special). (4) Cities (multi-functional). functional). 5. They can be shown in relationship to their environment (habitat) in the Geddes valley section. their 6. Any community must be internally convenient have ease ofcirculation; in consequence, whatever convenient-have type of transport is available, density must increase as population Increases, i.e. (1) is least dense (4) dense, is most dense. 7. We must therefore study the dwelling and the groupings that are necessary to produce convenient communities at various points on the valley section. 8. The appropriateness of any solution may lie in the field ofarchitectural invention rather than social invention anthropology.



In fact, this one isn't the only new contribution they brought us. A new concept what today all of us have in our mind was born: They referred to themselves as a "small family" of architects who have found the help from the others necessary to their own development; necessary to the understanding of their own individual work".They didn't work alone like architects such as Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe, who worked alone because they wanted to earn their own fame, only their names to be wrote in the books and in the people's minds. Instead, even we can remember some names from Team 10 (Aldon van Eyck, Alison and Peter Smithson, Reima Pietilä...) the really important thing about them is the movement they starting andwhat has done of us, what we are.



2. Birth of a new concept: "Mat-Building"
There was another public document published by this "family". It was written by Alison Smithson in 1974: "How to recognize and read mat-building: mainstream architecture as it has developed towards the mat-building". The term 'Mat-building' was coined the first time in this article. A. Smithsin defined this idea as...