House of Wiessenhof

[Sacred Space] for grad students of iarc

Sketch-up of [Sacred Space]

Plan and 4 Sections of [Sacred Space]

Crit Room #401

Interior and Exterior Walls

Perspective Grid and Plan

Book Assignments - Drafting

Lettering [Stairs and Quiz]

My Personal Explorations

Pompidou Centre, Paris

Birds Nest, Beijing

The Keukenhof,  Holland

Willow Tree

Waves and Crashes at the Beach, St. Kitts

Photographed By:  Brooke Preston

The W Hotel's Water Ceiling, NYC

Diamonds

Casa Batilo, Barcelona

Gingerbread Houses at the Campground on Martha's Vineyard

Bathroom with neat Water Feature

Coming Full Circle

Community:  Community is locality all inhabited by a group of people.  In Patrick’s class we learned about buildings that were built because of their history, technology, locality, and deconstruction.  The atheneum in Indiana is all about ramps, steps, open spaces, traveling around and being seen and seeing.  The atheneum building’s ramps are shaped to the hills of the grass on the landscape making it all about its location.

Stewardship:  Stewardship is someone who manages another property for financial affairs.  It can also mean that it is the person who manages an event or other specialty.  This past week in my communication class, we had to give persuasive speeches on anything we wanted.  This one guy did his speech on sustainability and how it is our job to take care of the world and not let it get destroyed by where rubbish goes, the use of how much water is used, heat, energy, and more.  When you build a structure, it is friendly to the environment if you make it sustainable.  The Proximity hotel in Greensboro, NC is the worlds first all sustainable building. 

 

Authenticity:  When I think of authenticity, I think of originality.  When you are designing a space, you should always put in some of your own personal creativity that makes it special to you.  Being authentic means not corrupting something from the original.  Frank Lloyd Wright is a great example of how he does not destroy the landscape around his buildings, but he makes it part of the design.  

 

Innovation:  Innovation is about introducing new ideas and methods.  For studio we had to design an architectural space for the grad students downstairs on the first floor of the IARC department.  Each of us designed something totally different and was all different because they all had different stories to tell.  Everyone’s concept was different and they all brought new ideas to the world.

[PAIR]ing DOWN

Meditation/Celebration:  Meditation gives you time to contemplate and go into deep thought.  It is a time for reflection and to give you time alone.  When you are meditating, you want to be in a relaxive state of mind.  Your body wants to feel at ease.  Celebration, however, is different because celebration means you are praising, worshiping, performing, and/or engaging in festivities.  Celebration always involves happiness and joy.  Casa Batilo has a sense of meditation and celebration because the curves in the walls are soothing to the mind, yet the colors in the house are celebrative in light.

Light/Shadow:  Light is what illuminates a room.  It is what all colors depend on.  Light is how a room is brightened to create shades of color.  Shadow does the opposite because shadow is what dulls a room or makes casts of darkness from the opposite side of light from an object.  Shadow is how we can tell that the earth moves during the day.  The Johnson house in New Cannan, Connecticut is the house of Philip Johnson.  The house is all windows on all sides of the façade, which allow for light and shadow to come into the room from the natural outdoors surrounding the house.

 

 

 

Transpose/Juxtapose:  Transpose and juxtapose are words I did not know and had to look up.  According to dictionary.com, transpose means, “to change the relative position, order, or sequence, or to transfer or transport.”  Juxtapose means, “to place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.”  Le Corbusier has his five points of architecture and he follows them in some of his designs for buildings.  In his house, Notre dame du haut, he uses free façade, free plan, pilotis, and ribbon windows.

Literal/Abstract:  Literal means that something means exactly what the word definition says.  It is always true to the fact.  Abstract in design is when you take something literal and turn it into an idea that makes up the concept.  It can be many ideas that make up the concept of the literal thing or object.  The Johnson Wax building is a building for workspaces.  There are lily pads in the workspace.  Literally there are no lily pads, but the columns that go up into the ceiling represent a lily pad in a different abstract form.

Monologue/Dialogue:  Monologue is a composition of a single element or idea when dialogue is a conversation between two people or exchange of ideas.  Falling Water and the Massaro House are both done by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Both of them are single houses that represent monologue, but when both of them are compared they have a lot of dialogue between them.  They have dialogue because they both relate in the way that both structures were built for the landscape around it.

Summary:  A place that is meditative as well as celebrative creates monologue and dialogue.  In order to make a celebration and mediation space, you must abstract the literal message/story you are trying to get across.  In order to abstract ideas you have to use juxtaposition and transposition to make that happen.  Everything has light and shadow effects when there is natural or artificial light.