FLEXIBLE

Flexibility in terms of architectural form and built space? What does it mean? What makes a building flexible?

While flexibility is a big issue when it comes to building, is there anything that is truly flexible that is successful? Does flexible buildings mean a reduced useability? Does a  flexible building mean flexible in purpose, meaning moving parts or easily modified to change the purpose?


WHAT IF FLEXIBILITY WAS ONLY CHANGING THE FEELING/ ATMOSPHERE OF THE SPACE?
Can you have a nightclub in a hospital ward? How do you change the feeling of the space to make it more flexible? Does that mean that it is more flexible if you can rapidly change the feeling of the space?
You can dance in a coffee shop, and you can dance in a clothing store, but is that really where you want to do it? you have some open space, isn't that enough? probably not. The feeling isn't right. The notion that you are in a coffee shop means that you are uncomfortable dancing chatting and whatever it is that you get up to.
It's the feeling of the space that changes. When you think about it, they aren't all that different in terms of what it is that you put in there. What is actually different is what people do, and the feeling of the space. Most rooms have 4 walls and a door. Maybe some windows etc. What elements contribute to making that space unique for one particular purpose? What can you change to make it more flexibile?

Does flexible mean able to change the building fabric, rather than the uses? or the other way around?

Flexibility:
-moving parts?
-non-specific uses?
-easy to modify?
-can be used simultaneously?
-rapidly changing?
-what do we call each space?

Do spaces we create need to be for a specific function? We have houses with dinning rooms, but I personally only occassionally eat in a dinning room. The kitchen, the living, the bedroom?
Why don't we have rooms that are designed around feelings?
the exciting room, the calm room? the adventurous room?
Perhaps these are not the best examples, and clearly there are issues to this, including the addition of furniture and utilities, that may not be 'flexible' by nature and unable to move. But does it make sense to instill a space with a quality that we can pick and choose?