2008 SEM 2 NEW START WK 1

Operation between architecture and landscape

This knowledge might escape the terms of building and landscape altogether, focusing on how elements share an urban space, an ecosystem, or a temporal frame.

Five Operations

• Reciprocity
• Materiality
• Threshold
• Insertion
• Infrastructure

Reciprocity stands against hierarchy, an ordering principle through which architecture has historically subjugated landscape.
Materiality challenges an aesthetic tradition of disembodied contemplation.
Threshold precludes a fixed and static conception of boundary.
Insertion calls into question a figure/ground formulation of the city.
Infrastructure critiques an assumption of landscape as originary ground.

What is Figure/Ground?

Figure Ground

http://daphne.palomar.edu/design/fandg.html

An understanding of Site : Terrain, Contextual Form, Micro-climate

Review and Thinking

Swetic gave me a lot of advice:

1. The glass is not a good material for playing the lute. Because its ability of absorbing vibrate is not good.

2. For the idea of eliminating the boundary, the outside skin of bamboo wall is a little bit unwanted. (Personally, I think it's fine because the width of gaps between two bamboo sticks can be adjusted. )

3. The opening is not enough for the idea of eliminating boundary.
(Personally, I consider the site is beside the seaside, so the closed glass curtain wall can stop the strong wind coming in. )

4. Glass is not a good material for the wall of seaside building.

(Personally， I think it depends . Sometimes the use of glass for seaside building realizes the idea of design. The follow picture is from Kengo Kuma 's Water/Glass House.

5. For the model construction, the glass roof can not be directly put on the column. There should be beams on the columns for supporting roof.


The good example of Transparency and Connection( Drowning architecture in the landscape)


In an infinite game of reflections, in his Water/Glass House Kuma is inspired by Taut, who draws on the lessons of Katsura to create a building that once again attempts to satisfy the obsession with drowning architecture in the landscape. A layer of water gently covers the edges of the building, as in Katsura's bamboo verandas, while a stainless steel louver casts the shadow of the roof onto the water. The water surface stretches further out to unite the surface with the Pacific Ocean, and a glass box floats on top of this mirror, breaking up and reflecting the rays of the sun inside and outside. The project becomes "a total environment in which everything dissolves, where there is no disarticulation of space, where boundaries disappear" (Kuma), finally drowned in the water, the ocean and the blue sky.

Final Model of Project 2

Narrative and Design Concepts

Eliminating Boundary

You can see that the name of this oil painting is “A Love Letter”. The theme of love offers me all the ideas of design. That man is far from home but never far from her heart. The letter can be seen as a connection which eliminates the distance and boundary between that lady and man

I plan to design a space with large glass wall for that lady playing the lute. The nature light pours in from the upper part to give an ample illumination for that lady playing the lute. Let us pretend the outside view is seascape so it also provides a wide angle of view to see outside scenery. The large transparent glass curtain wall also eliminates the boundary of the internalized room and the outside world.

The shallow pond outside room creates an interesting vagueness expression. People may not distinguish the obvious horizontal lines of sea.

The outside skin of wall can be treated as variety of changes. I decide to use bamboo to offer some privacy of this space. But the gaps of bamboos also provide some kind of opening of wall.

Material Use:

Concrete Slab and Column
Glass Curtain Wall (Inside Skin)
Bamboo Wall (Outside Skin)

Understanding of This Painting

A scene of this painting is a well-to-do woman is being handed a letter. She glances up questioningly at her maid and paused in her lute playing. Although the lady has not yet opened the letter it is apparently from the picture that it is from a lover. The two pictures in the background indicate this.

Emblem of the Objects in the Painting

A painting within a painting often indicates the artist’s intention in the picture. Here the lower painting is a seascape. In the 17^th century language of imagery the sea stood for love and a ship for a lover. The upper picture shows a man walking along a sandy path: as in the painting of the ship, there is the suggestion of a person on a journey. The lover is far from home but never far from her heart. Vermeer has incorporated even more references to love into this picture. A lute symbolizes the harmony produced by love: when one lute is played, other nearby lutes resonate in sympathy.

Spatial Arrangement in the Painting

The location of the observer is interesting in the painting. It can be seen that a scene of domestic intimacy is revealed by pulling a curtain to one side. So it reveals another space in front of it.

Illumination Analysis of this Painting

The light is going through from left side of the room for that lady playing the lute. And the space in front of it is darker, which indicates the space is more privacy.

ARCH1201 Project 2 Room and Narrative

A Love Letter

Jan Vermeer
17th Dutch Painting

Final Model of Villa Muller