PLATFORMS. Architecture and the Use of the Ground

The platform is not only a way of raising buildings or people from the ground, but also an architectural form that redefines and negotiates the way in which the ground itself is made inhabitable.

While often seen as a symbol of power, the platform has also served as a gathering place: a point of orientation and exchange among communities. Its use as an architectural archetype is common to many cultures and different ages, and yet very little has been written about it. One of the few texts on the architecture of the platform is the 1959 essay “Platforms and Plateaus’ by Jørn Utzon, which is republished at the end of this book. Expanding and problematizing Utzon’s appraisal of the platform as an architectural idea, our research aims at building a more systematic and critical enquiry into this archetype.

The book ‘Platforms’ consists of an introductory essay and 30 case-studies of platform architecture through images, axonometric drawings and short texts. It also includes drawings and images of “Primary’, a prototype for a public gathering space designed and built in a marginal urban location in Sharjah as part of Right of Future Generations, the Sharjah Architecture Triennial curated by Adrian Lahoud in 2019.