What is the SAR foundation?
The SAR (Stichting Architecten Research, “Foundation for Architects’ Research”) was a Dutch research institute founded in 1964 by a group of large architectural practices together with the Bond van Nederlandse Architecten (BNA), the Dutch association of architects. The foundation studied how mass housing could better meet residents’ wishes. Its first director was the architect John Habraken, who in 1961 had written the influential book De dragers en de mensen (“The supports and the people”). The SAR existed until 1990.
The idea: support and infill
Habraken argued that a residential building consists of two parts with very different lifespans and owners:
- The support: the structure, the shell, the main service runs and the access. This part is shared, long-lasting and determined by the developer or the community.
- The infill: the internal walls, kitchen, bathroom and installations inside the dwelling. This part belongs to the resident and can change over time.
By decoupling the two, residents can lay out their home and later adapt it without touching the loadbearing structure. This principle is the basis of what is now called open building.
What the SAR developed
- A design method enabling architects to design supports that allow many different layouts. It worked with a fixed modular grid and with zones and margins on the floor plan, so that support and infill fit together.
- Dimensional coordination: agreements on dimensions, so that infill components from different manufacturers fit into different supports.
- The concept of urban tissue (1973): research into the relationship between dwellings and their surroundings at neighbourhood level.
Relevance today
The ideas of the SAR can be seen in projects with freely divisible floor plans, in shell homes that buyers finish themselves, and in current thinking on circular and adaptable building. Anyone who buys a shell or wants a flexible layout benefits from the same principle: the fewer loadbearing internal walls and the better the services are bundled, the easier it is to alter later.
Related terms
- Open building
- Shell (casco)
- Shell construction (cascobouw)
- Architect
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