Roofs. Local materials, simple technology, sophisticated ideas

“Housing problems are not restricted to the poor. The solutionswe want to put forward concern all societies. But since we haveto set priorities, emphasis was put on techniques accessiblefor the poor members of society. The general problems of housingcan be classified into three principal domains: that of social,environmental and technical criteria.”

Written from the 1970s onwards, Roofs collectspractical information (tested for UNESCO bythe author himself) on the construction of roofsand shelters, which were intended to meet thematerial needs of the poor in the global South.It consists of manuals written independently ofeach other, and is happily representative of thematurity of Friedman, who in those years hadalready decided to focus his interventions onhow to include the inhabitants in the design oftheir habitat, because “participation is notspontaneous and cannot be claimed out ofthe blue.” While Utopies réalisables (literally,“Achievable Utopias,” 1975 – no English editionto date) represents the theoretical summa ofthis intense period, the manuals are the maincommunicative tool the Franco-Hungarianarchitect created, which was aimed at makingsuch utopias concrete.
The manuals are composed of essential“blackboard” sketches, which can also be readand interpreted by illiterate people – a featurethat convinced Indira Gandhi to print a largenumber of copies, and also contributed to theestablishment of the Museum of SimpleTechnology founded by Friedman in Madras(currently Chennai), in the mid-eighties.In Roofs, the author brings to the attention ofhis readers the fact that the various problemsof modern cities are the result of irresponsibleattitudes towards the Earth. This thesis wasperfectly in line with the thinking of somearchitects (including Christopher Alexander,Enzo Mari, Victor Papanek and BernardRudofsky), who at the time, and each in his ownway, expressed strong criticism of industrialsociety.