Architecture at Everest: Week 4 Post 3 ~Final Post for this semester~

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/29/13

Jan. 29th, 2013

Documentary:Sendai Multi-Purpose Library, Japan



We take another look into Japan's unique architecture. Except this time, the building is located in Sendai, and is more modern than the Tea house we have seen in my previous blogs. The architect who built it was Toyo Ito. The Library consists of 7 floors. Each one with multiple and different purposes. Construction began as early as 1989 and was completed in January 2001. The building created using the Japanese Concept of Space in the pillars.

In this part of the library you can see the large seaweed-like columns.

http://emssolutionsinc.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/building-with-%E2%80%9Cbarrier-free%E2%80%9D-design-and-floating-floor-slabs-remains-standing-after-the-great-japan-eq%E2%80%A6-mediatheque-in-sendai/
The pillars were made to symbolize seaweed, graceful yet tough and stubborn against the ocean's will.

 The pillars in the Sendai Multi-Purpose library are one of the most interesting things about it. These pillars are not straight as one would think, but slanted. Each one uses the Japanese style concept of space. In total there are 9 pillars.There are 4 main pillars in each corner of the building. The other 5 are randomly placed in the area of the build site. These Pillars are meant to withstand earthquakes. The pillars also arch and twist as they ascend up the flights of stories. Up until now, the Sendai Mediatheque stands as a symbol of modern architecture.

Architecture at Everest: Week 4 Post 2

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/29/13

Jan. 29th, 2013

Documentary:Guggenheim Mueseum, Bilbao

In today's documentary we observed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. The architects who had designed this building were Frank Gehry, Arata Isozaki, and Coop Himmelb. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation ideal location for the build was near Bilbao's ports, due to it's income to fund the project. The Guggenheim museum in Bilbao has a very unique design. Because of no corner of this museum is uniform, it's irregular shape makes it stick out in the urban setting. Also the fact that it is next to 3 major economic hubs makes it even more ideal for profit.

The Bilbao Guggenheim Museum in Spain. This picture most resembles a fish.

http://www.archinoah.com/architectural_photography/exhibition_architecture_/_museums/frank_o_gehry/kriens/das_guggenheimmuseum_bilbao-picture_details-575.html

The building is supposed to resemble a cut fish. An intentional feature added by one of the architects designing the building. The building was done with construction in 1997 and opened in the same year. The museum is very round and seems very "half-baked" but once you enter the main atrium of the building you enter a different world. Everything is very well placed. The museum boasts a wide variety of exhibits from artists from all over the globe.

Once in the main atrium there are a variety of different rooms. Each room has its own accord, style, and size and not to mention exhibit. The whole building is made up of 32,500 feet of stone, glass, and titanium.

A view of the ceiling

http://artmuseumsaroundtheworld.com/guggenheim-museum-bilbao-spain/

Architecture at Everest: Week 4 Post 1

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/28/13

Jan. 28th, 2013

Documentary: Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, France 


The Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, was a Salt refinery made for King Louis XV. In the 18th century, salt had become a very valuable preservative and commodity for everyday life so having a Salt refinery was essential. The architect who had designed the refinery was Claude Ledoux. At first, Ledoux decided to design the first plan for the Royal Saltworks for the king and presented it to him later. Loius XV rejected thje sqaure courtyard design with the factory in the middle.

Upon rejection of his first design, Ledoux tried to design a courtyard that would resemble a hierarchy. Ledoux's design was a perfect circle. King Louis approved of the 2nd design and Ledoux began construction of the Royal Saltworks in 1773. Unfortunately, the economy at the time was bad so Ledoux only made a half-circle. Ledoux made do with what he had. On the diameter, he placed the 2 salt factories and Director's house in the center point of the diameter. The houses for the laborers were placed along the circumference of the semi-circle. All of the buildings were separated to decrease the chance of fire spreading and to put architectural rhythm to it.The building structures were surrounded by a larger wall. The walls were placed to enclose the refinery to keep it private. Behind the Laborer Houses were personal gardens for the  employees living there. The main entrance holds 2 different surfaces on the exterior and interior. On the outside, the straight, smooth roof of the front most part of the entrance collides with the rounded, tile backside of it. On the interior, the smooth ceiling conflicts with the rocky grotto.

The whole building layout can be seen from this picture.

 http://www.wan-governance.com/my_weblog/2009/07/index.html

Ledoux also had created his own kind of column. He had drawn influence from the Greco-Roman and Renaissance style Doric Columns and replaced every other segment with a square to add flair and originality to it. Ledoux's columns were an architectural statement included rhythm, unique design, and cost efficiency  in one bundle. Sadly, in 1926, the last owner of the Saltworks had used T.N.T. to destroy the buildings. However, restoration work has brought back these historical monuments from the 18th century.

Claude Ledoux's columns are unique and cost effective at the same time

 http://www.lodgephoto.com/galleries/france-jura/column-detail-royal-salt-works-saline-royale-arc-e-144.html

Architecture at Everest: Week 3 Post 3

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/24/13

Jan. 24th, 2013

Documentary: Saynatsalo Town Hall 

The Saynatsalo Town Hall was completed in the year of 1951. It is located in Saynatsalo Finland.Alvar Alto had the won design contest to begin construction on the Town Hall. Aalto's design of the building was a large square surrounding the courtyard. However, the square is not fully closed as to give off a contrasting feeling of how closed and open the Saynatsalo Town Hall can be. This feeling is supported by the fact that there is a lot of nature in the courtyard. Aalto had made his building entirely out of bricks. He wanted the building to look as if it were made by the locals and not commercially because in their history they were part of a communist government and they want to forget that part of their history, hence the locally made-look.

The layout of the building surround an inner courtyard. The Saynatsalo Town Hall boasts a variety of different uses such as government offices, city hall, and a public library. People use the courtyard as a place to read after borrowing a book, or to reflect on a decision, as the courtyard is an ideal place to do so. The grass stairs shown below also offer some sanctity to read.

Saynatsalo town hall's all natural grass staircase.

http://openbuildings.com/buildings/saynatsalo-town-hall-profile-2975


 The Council Chamber, (shown below) is where all of the representatives held meetings to discuss town issues. Alvar set up the chamber in a classroom style fashion because he believed that this way the people in the chamber would come up with thoughtful self-relfected answers to the current issues. The roof of the Council Chamber is slanted, so Alvar came up with a way to support the roof with something he called "Butterfly Beams". The beam (or truss) was composed of 3 major beams which supported the smaller beams holding up the roof.

A view of the "Butterfly Trusses/Beams" in the council chamber designed by Alvar Aalto.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorcasino/sets/72157608422335190/detail/?page=8

Architecture at Everest: Week 3 Post 2

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/23/13

Jan. 23rd, 2013

Documentary: Casa Mila, Spain

The Casa Mila was a very asymmetrical build located in Barcelona Spain. Construction started in 1905 and was considered fully completed in 1912. Casa Mila's construction was commissioned by Roser Segimon and her husband Pere Mila after they had returned from the American Colonies laden with wealth. The architect working on the Casa Mila was Antoni Gaudi.Originally the Casa Mila was meant to be a religious symbol for Catholics but most of the aspects were abandoned due to its many offenses to government conduct in building safety.

Over the years people did not appreciate the Casa Mila's true architectural beauty and left it to deteriorate and fade. In the 1980s Casa Mila's had been completely abandoned and ignored by the people of Catalona. This building had been subject to much criticism and not only until recently the Casa Mila had been restored to its original beauty.

Today,the Casa Mila stands as a very strong cultural symbol in Spain. For many people the building resembles a large coral like structure, something that referenced the ocean. To Gaudi the Casa Mila was similar to the human anatomy, with the pillars its bones and stone the flesh. The Casa Mila serves as an apartment complex and town gathering place. The Casa Mila was primarily made of stone as it was a sturdy material. The roof of the Casa Mila is decorated with statues of religious meaning.

A view from inside one of the atriums in the Casa Mila

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casa_Mila_courtyard.JPG

Architecture at Everest: Week 3 Post 1

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/22/13

Jan. 22nd, 2013

Documentary: La Tourette 1963

The Sainte Marie de La Tourette was a church, residence, and school for Dominican Order members to learn how to become a fully devoted and enlightened Dominicans. The architect that designed the Sainte Marie de La Tourette was Le Corbusier, a French Architect. Marie-Alain Couturier one of the Dominicans of Lyon had given Corbusier the task to build the priory in the Eveux valley.


Corbusier's build site was slanted. He did not want his building to slant with the hill's slope so he put the building on concrete stilts so the building was elevated and touching the hill at the same time. The stilts were hidden behind walls other supports.The building itself is a large perimeter made up of mostly reinforced concrete. It's roofs had grass on it and meter tall walls so Dominicans could not see the view of their surroundings. On some of the walls were glass patterns of consecutively shrinking squares. The building is a contradiction due to these glass patterns co-existing with its resemblance to a bunker. Glass makes the building more open, while it's bunker-like appearance makes it seem closed off.

La Tourette was mainly composed of rooms for the Dominican Priests and Class rooms. The dorm rooms were very small, like a holding cell. The rooms were very bland and the only link to the outside world was a large window out looking the valley, which was used during meditation.The walls have 2 different concrete textures, smooth, and rough. The smooth side is used to keep the feeling of serenity used when meditating. Most of the time, the priests would customize their rooms with computers and books. The classrooms were standard, having a chalkboard and seats for the students. The church of La Tourette was not fully attached to the main compound but slightly detached. In the center of the perimeter are hallways and corridors leading to the church.

Sainte Marie de La Tourette is still used today by Dominican Friars.

http://openbuildings.com/buildings/the-monastery-of-sainte-marie-de-la-tourette-profile-2130

A view from inside the church of La Tourette

http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-3475106285

 

 

Archiecture At Everest: Week 2 Post 3

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/16/13

Jan. 16th, 2013

Short Project: Memorable Stairs

Today, I got the chance to share my work with the rest of the students of Architecture class. Our project prompt was "Make Memorable Stairs". We looked at the over head projection for inspiration. I then decided to make a staircase leading to a scenic tour house overlooking the ocean in all of it's awe and wonder.

I decided to put the ocean on the Western side so that the sunset would look beautiful. The stairs have no railing so that you can gaze openly at the view. When you get to the house, it is enclosed but you still have a view due to the large windows facing westward. The stairs plunge you into a protected space while you can still view the ocean and takes you towards another open space on the roof..If you still do not like the viewing point, you can go upstairs into the veranda where you can get a higher, if not better view. The rocky hills are outlined with stretches of beach.It's good to have many options for viewing angles in scenic areas because you might see new things every time you look at it.

The stairs and veranda are supposed to enhance the feeling of grandness in the view. The different environments and how quickly each one changes shows how the stairs can be memorable. For instance the open rocky terrain suddenly closes as you enter the building and all you can see is the ocean once you look outside the window. You want to get a better view so you go up the stairs into the veranda and you take a moment to take in the beauty of it all.

Architecture At Everest: Week 2 Post 2

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/15/13

Jan. 15th, 2013

The House of Sugimoto 

In today's documentary, we take a look at the traditional Japanese culture. The Sugimoto House was made in 1743 and is located in the heart of Kyoto. The house was burned in the Great Fire of 1870. Fortunately, the specifications for the house were noted down and it was rebuilt similar to the old way. The Sugimoto House is still inhabited by people.

The house consists of 15 rooms, each with it's own function for the family's activities. The designs for the rooms are very simple, with not much furniture. It consisted of a shop, family living quarters, and employee living quarters. The more family oriented parts of the building are farther away from the street. There is no furniture in the house to define what a room is for. There are also no windows to peer inside the depths of the buildings. There are slits in the wall's called "insect windows" to peer outside. There are no corridors. The rooms are side by side, each varying in length and width. There are complex codes to tell which room is which. The are only sliding "doors" in the house..The building is elevated so that it can resist earthquakes and floods. The structure has no nails so that it is easier to take apart in case of a fire. It is easier to take apart a building on fire than to douse it with water. The building may be stable and easy to handle in a fire, but it is still susceptible to sound. 

The building blends together with the nature around it to encourage meditation for those with strong values of Japanese tradition. People come in to learn the Tea Ceremony as part of cultural heritage. When one enters the house, they must take off their shoes as a sign of respect and tradition. There is only one room in the complex where there the western influence of architecture is seen.

In this picture you can see the long passage way lined with sliding doors of the Sugimoto House.

http://www.ovguide.com/tv_episode/architectures-season-5-episode-2-the-house-of-sugimoto-616441

Architecture At Everest: Week 2 Post 1

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/14/13

Jan. 14th, 2013

Johnson Wax House

 Today's documentary was about the Johnson Wax Headquarters. It was made for the S.C. Johnson and Son Company by Frank Lloyd Wright. The build site for the headquarters was located in an ugly industrial area, so Frank Wright decided to make the HQ enclosed from the pollution. The building had very blunt corners and was very wide as apposed to a tall sharp sky scraper. Its walls were made of bricks giving it an old fashioned look.


Internally, the building resembles something from the future with the mushroom shaped columns. The parking garage's combination of the mushroom style columns and low ceiling make it appear as if it were a cave. The low ceilings enhance the idea of enclosure and separation. An entrance from the garage leads to the main work room where all of the employees desks and offices are located. The building takes from a tiny sort of discrete garage to a wide, huge, open space. The great work area's roof is supported by more mushroom like columns which are completely hollow. The columns would not be able to support the weight of the headquarters without the ingenious invention of steel mesh, which also allowed wiring to go through them. The clearings in the "mushroom forest" allow as much natural lighting as possible and electrical lights when needed.

The building received an add-on tower in the middle of the site years later. This tower was used for research, hence the name "Research Tower". In this tower, they experimented with different strands of wax products.




Inside the Great Workroom employees go one about their day at work while the rays of the sun light up the room.


http://djcoregon.com/dailyblog/files/2012/11/johnson-wax-factory.jpg

Architecture at Everest: Week 1 Post 3

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/10/13

Jan. 10th, 2013

Today, Rafael started introduced us to our 3rd and final architectural idea, Venustas. Venustas meant attractiveness. And as usual he would go on and explain what this meant for architecture. There were multiple aspects contributing to the beauty of a building, and they are balance, proportion, symmetry, light, space, shape, line, color, material, scale, rhythm,and texture. Each one of these aspects supports the overall idea of what each person defines beauty to their own accord.

As usual, the architectural idea of Venustas had a documentary about it which we watched. The documentary focused on a French Apartment housing called the Nemausus 1. It displayed simple yet efficient ways of having more space in a home while making it appealing to the senses. The Nemausus 1 consisted of 2 buildings and a courtyard between them. The posts in the garage that support the buildings are strong because they are made of reinforced concrete.

The apartments themselves did not really have any doors or rooms but 3 parts for a family to use. The living spaces had different configurations and combinations so that each apartment room was not alike to the next. The living space consists of 2 parts, an upstairs and downstairs. The downstairs separated by a block containing a bathroom, and heater unit. The downstairs seems very open due to the large windows out looking the city. Outside there are walkways and verandas for residents to visit each other.The only door was made of glass, just like the walls leading to the veranda. The glass walls could be folded so that they could seal the apartment or reveal it to let in sun and fresh air and they lead to the verandas. Each apartment had 2 floors and was connected to the complex above it. Outside there are walkways and verandas for residents to visit each other.

Originally, Jean Nouvel who was the architect who designed Nemausus 1, planned that the actual living spaces were not to be decorated and ever forbid the residents from decorating it. It was to be kept bland with no paint, decals, or wallpaper to cover the concrete wall so that it would materialize Nouvel's idea of a modern household and how people really live. Despite the warnings residents retaliated by doing the exact opposite of what Nouvel had wanted by decorating their places. The residents won their battle to decorate their apartments.

 This is the design for the sunny house for our short project today. It is built near the beach facing west so that the glass roof catches the setting sun over a calm beach.

Architecture at Everest: Week 1 Post 2

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/9/13

Jan. 9th, 2013

The day started off with the usual presentation and introduction to the subject and idea of the day. The element of architecture on focus is Firmista which stood for stability or firmness. We then watched our daily documentary on the Pompidou Center in Paris whose building related to the architectural element of Firmista. The infrastructure of the building itself is made of entirely of porticoes and support beams. The exterior of the building shows all of the trusses and support beams left over from the porticoes to create the interior of the building, it was as if it were naked.

The inside however was very different. It serves of multiple purposes each with it's own section of the building. It features a library, an art museum, and offices. The pavilions in the museum boast their own architectural ingenuity and many colors that are attractive to the eye to differentiate things instead of using a monotonous shade of white or grey.

The outside is where all of the architectural firmness is shown. The steel frame is visible from the outside and covers the whole building. There is an escalator leading to the top of the building where the restaurant is located. While ridding the escalator you can view Paris from the glass tunnel that surrounds the escalator.

Architecture at Everest: Week 1 Post 1

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/8/13

Jan. 8th, 2013

 Our teacher Rafael has been doing a very good job of teaching  Architecture and Design and explaining himself and the ideas of Architecture to us.Yesterday, we watched a documentary on the Siza School of Architecture. The school is located in Porto, Portugal. The buildings are somewhat concealed behind the trees yet revealing only narrow views of the school. The buildings were designed so that the old trees would be removed making it seem that the school grew with the trees. The four towers of the school are located by a river bank so that it projects serenity to the students learning inside. The staff buildings are near the noisy motor way. There is an underground pathway that connects the administrative buildings to the towers. In the towers, the windows are vertical slits large enough to see all of the outside and to let in light.

Sunlight is arced through an architecturally designed curve to project reading light in the library. In the hallway it seems as if the light were coming out of the wall. The sunlight is manipulated so that it projects this way. The roof is actually glass and there are false ceilings and walls to reflect the light to create this illusion.

This helped inspire an idea on what our buildings should for the mini-projects. We have a mini-project  that we do daily after watching a documentary. At the end, Rafael introduced us with a large project that should be completed by the end of the month with our table-mates. In our project we are supposed to design another Summit program school. We had to decide between using Gilroy or San Fransisco to place the school. Naturally my table partners and I chose Gilroy, because it offered less distractions to its students, where as the San Fransisco location was located next to the SF International Airport and Highway 101. Seeing as there weren't that many roads leading to the SF build site, we figured the traffic would be momentous. So we set our eyes and school on Gilroy. After the decision, we began the map and placement of buildings on the campus.

Jan. 9th, 2013

Today Rafael started us off with the normal morning presentation and then began to introduce the 3 elements of architecture. Such as Utilitas, Firmitas, and Venustas. It means utility firmness and attractiveness. Today's architectural theme was Utilitas. The documentary was on the  BauHaus in Germany which was created on 1919 by Walter Gropius. BauHaus translated from German into "Building House". The school itself was a school of art, architecture, and design. Ironically the complex itself is a work of art and architectural creativity, much like the  Siza School of Portugal. Like the Siza School, it offered a complex building placement that secluded yet made the students interact with each other.

 In the BauHaus the strength of the building is supported by large pillars located on near the edge of the inside of the building. The steel frames on the outside of the building support the "glass curtain walls". The stairs are not rectangular at all but in a spiraling fashion. During the day, the windows along the stairwell almost illuminate the whole thing. If the sun over the eastern wing does not hit the normal window panels there are extended windows arching over the roof to get the afternoon sunshine. A row of glass windows that are constructed in such a way that they can be opened and closed by mechanical use of a pulley.

On the inside of the building, the theater uses minimal lighting through the use of the metal reflectors located above the lights. On the stage, the lights only hit the actors or stage performers by blocking the light from the audience with the use of an extended wall from the ceiling. For the furniture, the BauHaus minimizes the use of chairs in work spaces by having the students work on the floor so that their work space is larger. There are chairs in places where they are required such as the cafeteria, and theater. The chairs that are used are made of aluminum tubes and a seat, without the back to support one's back making it lightweight.

On the outside of the dormitories, the BauHaus features outward balconies for students to use for social and viewing purposes. On the roof of the dormitory is a flat space for students to use for social encounters and what not. As stated above the school was made so that people would maximize contact with each other.