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.