One Hundred Lessons From Villages

Lesson 1: Every Possible Part

Villages are often described as having been created spontaneously. Yet, from the basic forms determined by the arrangement of elements such as dwellings and public facilities, down to details that appear to be the outcome of mere coincidence, one can rather consider them to be highly planned. The more one studies villages, the more this sense of intentionality becomes evident.

However, in this case, not all parts are necessarily rationally determined, nor is a rational solution uniquely fixed. Therefore, concepts like planning or design intent must be interpreted broadly.

What villages teach us about the “part” is that it is always a meaningful part. A part can contain smaller parts within it, or the commonalities between or sums of parts can also be a part. The collection of such parts constitutes the “whole.” From this interpretation, even what is usually called the “whole” is itself just another part.

When one observes these parts, even outcomes that seem to have come about by chance begin to reveal the intentions of those who created them.

In our own design practice, it is of course impossible to design every part exhaustively. Therefore, it becomes an essential task to determine which parts we assign meaning to, and what we define as a meaningful part.

The photograph shows Ghardaia, a small city in the M’zab Valley. Upon encountering this cluster of small towns, we began our study of the villages.