"The flat floor is an invention of architects. It suits machines, not humans." Inspired by the Viennese Secessionists and Austrian artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, as well as bold Gaudinian forms, the author of this phrase, Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000), was a prolific painter, sculptor and architect. His works are marked by the dualities between discipline and indiscipline, the predictable and the unexpected, rational and irrational. In his creative adventure, Hundertwasser was not just an enemy of the straight line. He despised architectural rationalism, claiming fluid forms and striking colors.
He also promotes architectural experience beyond the sense of sight through his works. Hundertwasser claimed that touch, in particular, was one of the most important and constantly rejected senses within the architectural composition. As a result, his projects go beyond using different materials with improbable arrangements, such as tiled walls with colorful mosaics or rough, vaulted ceilings. In many of his architectural creations, there is a deconstruction of what would be a “traditional” space with curved walls and uneven and undulating floors.
The artist defended the idea that architecture should elevate and not subdue people. According to Hundertwasser, an uneven and “lively” floor would mean the recovery of people’s mental balance and dignity, which was violated by the unnatural and hostile urban system. In this dance of surfaces, the undulating path forces the user to be aware of their surroundings, marking their experience in architecture through this appropriation, which is unusual and unexpected.
On the fine line between mental balance and physical imbalance, irregular surfaces have been present in different architectural compositions, extrapolating the Austrian artist's dazzling creations and appearing in present-day projects by great architects. Casa da Cultura, in the Spanish region of Galicia, designed by Peter Eisenman and his team, emerges as a curved surface that is neither a figure nor a terrain, but both, creating an artificial topography that marks the visitors' experience and yet connects them with the rough terrain of the surroundings. Like Eisenman, Jean Nouvel's proposal for the National Art Museum of China also incorporates undulating surfaces at the base of the building, creating public spaces for meeting and contemplation. Besides them, Zaha Hadid, the master of organic and fluid forms, must also be mentioned with projects with the Grand Theatre of Rabat, in Morocco, such as Rem Koolhaas and the surroundings of Casa da Música, in Porto, Portugal.
However, besides the large public and cultural works that use irregularity to mark the user's architectural experience, uneven floors are often seen in projects aimed at children. Understanding small users as more prone to adventures and challenges, playgrounds and community centers deconstruct what would be a “traditional” architecture to stimulate visitors' physical and intellectual capacity. A good example is The Playscape, in China, which, through its accentuated topography, enhances the development of the notion of balance and freedom of decision-making. The hills and ramps allow children to explore and assess the risks of going through the different slopes at different speeds, understanding their limits and challenging themselves simultaneously. In addition, the YueCheng Kindergarten, also in Beijing, features undulating and colorful surfaces à la Hundertwasser, creating a lunar landscape in which children can feel free to explore.
Exploration and adventure also find their way into public squares such as Santa María Mazzarello, in Spain, Israels Plads and City Dune, in Denmark – examples that incorporate uneven surfaces, either because of the topography in which they are inserted or by a purely intentional gesture. Regardless of the reason, its undulations allow for different appropriations and games, dispersing the automaton citizen.
Whether it is Hundertwasser's experimental works or projects by major contemporary architects, uneven and undulating surfaces demonstrate more than simple architectural daring. It is important to value them as ways to reconnect the user to the architecture in an era of speed when people tend to move fast and independently, even on foot.
