Representando el tiempo: polivalencia espacial en las viviendas Diagoon y Centraal Beheer

At the end of the sixties, Herman Hertzberger works in two architectural proposals that, despite their different nature, are guided by the same structuring principle: the spatial polyvalency. This concept, characteristic of Hertzberger’s imagery, is fed on the research published in Forum years before at a theoretical and graphic level. Both in Diagoon experimental housing in Delft, and in Centraal Beheer office building in Apeldoorn, polyvalency is presented by Hertzberger as the architectural solution that allows to bear the change and the growth, characteristic features of mass society. Through an analysis of diverse unpublished sketches, dating from the late sixties and referring to the first stages of the design of both projects, it is aimed to discover the graphic mechanism used by Hertzberger when devising polyvalent forms, paying special attention to the time factor because of its key role in their definition and representation.