July 2015 ISSUE # 7
Learning from students
Architecture and Design Magazine
SAVANNAH
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
WHY
3nta.com
1. 3NTA is an online magazine, with the aim of giving to students’ projects and ideas the dignity they deserve. 2. 3NTA does not pretend to be young, 3NTA is young. While being young, it enjoys the privilege of being naive. 3. 3NTA doesn’t ask for your grades. It considers “interesting” as its only value. For 3NTA there is no “good” or “bad” intellectual work. 4. 3NTA is international and local at the same time. With the role of the rotating editor it proposes local points of view in an international way. The rotating editor changes every month and it is always based in different city. 5. 3NTA is neither serious nor friendly. It is seriously friendly. It believes that communication requires effort and innovation within both architecture and design. 6.3NTA is not a random name. There is a very long story behind it. Maybe one day we will tell you about it… Maybe not. 7. 3NTA doesn’t know if it is going to last forever. But a beginning is more than enough. 8. 3NTA is quoting SAN ROCCO with this manifesto. If you don’t know SAN ROCCO, it’s enough to know that it’s a very cool architecture magazine, but 3NTA is much cooler. 9. 3NTA realized too late that the points are just 9. Unfortunately 3NTA is made by people and people make mistakes all the time. Students more than professionals. Therefore 3NTA is wrong on everything it says, and loves it! 10. this is all.
WHY
the magazine
Students all over the world share their efforts on 3NTA every day and we decided to make it tangible in a Issuu magazine. Here we collected some of the best contents presented on the website in the last month. Articles, projects, graphics, special contents from the rotating editor; all re-edited and reorganized, in order to give you a small taste of what 3NTA is about: students.
savannah
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
#7
SAVANNAH[
360° students' architecture and design magazine
“The Southern belle is a stock character representing a young woman of the American Deep South’s upper socioeconomic class ”
savannah
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
BY THE EDITORS Savannah: t he sout hern Belle
I Spanish moss covers Draping leaves of early spring Blue birds build a nest II Humid summer air Rising to floating white clouds Rain will soon arrive
III Autumn’s gold and brown Leafs dance upon aging grass Trees naked and bare IV Wet and cold gray sky Winter’s essence grips with ice Earth snaps with each step
Sergi Sauras
Valeria Flores
savannah
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
INDEX [10 -17]
[36 -45] Projects/Architecture
Z urbatiya-Mehra S tation Maitham M. Almubarak
[18 -22]
Articles
Jean-Pierre Villafa単e Rotating Editor
Graphics/Po
s el f ana lysis Aluna Vita Yacoe
[46 -53]
Projects/Arc
Estranged Transgr
Justin Zumel with Carolina Berkh Christian Roose
[24 -29]
Projects/Architecture
Scad me diateq ue Qing Rui Teo
[30 -34]
Articles
D esi gnin g L earning
Sergi Sauras - Rotating Editor Sa
Articles
THE ORIGIN O F I NT ER FA CES Giulia Fioravera
[54 -61]
[62 -63]
Graphics/Cu
br ea k ing bad Nicola Vecchio
[64 -71] Articles
sters
Religious ARCHITECTURE AND light
Part III
Glòria Serra Coch
hitecture
e ssion
heimer, Carolyn Hoeffner,
[72 -76]
Projects/Design
N ygaard Josh Brown
[77 -85] Environme nt
avannah
Projects/Architecture
bristol history Rokas Patapas
t out
All the contents have been chosen by our ROTATING EDITORS
savannah
10
Projects/Design
Zurbatiya- Mehra Bord e r C rossing S tation
Author: Maitham M. Almubarak Nationality: Bahrain EMAIL: maitham.me2@gmail.com SITE: www.maithamalmubarak.com Function: Border Crossing Station SITE LOCATION: Between Zurbatiya, Iraq and Mehran, Iran Year: 2014 Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
12
The desert suggests great emptiness of great fullness. In either case, it is a vast of sameness where architecture give us a sense of place. Simultaneously, a monument is created to commemorate the countries. The imaginary borderline between the two countries shall not stand in the way of the Iraqis and the Iranians. Instead, it shall be where their paths cross and where they rest, eat, and pray together.
The architecture completely separates the governmental needs from the human needs. To clear customs, one must take the secure underground path depending on their mode of transportation. The path descends them into the ground and detaches them physically and visually from the surroundings. The rest area and the mosque are separated from customs by the river, giving the travellers the opportunity to take advantage of the amenities before carrying on. The path descends them into the ground and detaches Them physically and visually from the surroundings.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
site PLAN
floor PLAN
14
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 15
Recollect memories, as well as is ought. The memorial of peace celebrates those loved ones lost in the wars between the two governments. The circular movement of the bridge path underlays memories from the Hajj, Muslims greatest pilgrim. Those memories are brought to the surface through the ritual one has to take to elevate themselves from underground to above ground. The stepped courtyard allows one to connect, touch, and see themselves in the water. It also between the dry season and the rain season. Inspired by Peter Zumthor’s phenomenology, and Michael Graves’ ideas about cultural influences on architecture, Zurbatiya/ Mehran Border Crossing Station allows an architectural experience with minimum conditioned space with a straightforward circulation. It features a juxtaposition of: floating and hefty, tectonic and stereotomic, effecting the environment and being effected.
16
SECTION
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 17
internal VIEW
internal VIEW
18
Articles
J ean - Pierre V i l l afa ñ e
Author: Rotating Editor Savannah location: Savannah, Georgia, US
© Hannah Kik for ARKHAM Magazine
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
The iconic representation of your work brings a primary concern to mind: how do you keep this brand “Skem” alive. What feeds its identity? What is constant in your design work? Is there a continuous idea that strings together every one of your art pieces?
As a graffiti artist, I merge elements that I capture from other art forms and translate them into graffiti. I have developed a style that was drawn from typographic conventions and that has influenced the work I create outside of graffiti as well. Keeping a brand or an identity alive is definitely a difficult task. The key for me has been to play with different mediums. Collaborating with fashion, product, and graphic designers has given me a new way to interpret and rethink the creative process. For example, using surfaces created by fashion designers has further changed the way I view my own work now. I think for artists and designers, it’s important to demonstrate confidence in ones work. In two-dimensional work, the use of color is a defining feature. For me, it’s important to create something that’s cohesive where the strokes and typographical style maintain a balanced relationship to the colors in which they’re being created. If so, how would you describe the evolution of your style from one branch of design to the other? How has your enrolment at SCAD influenced this multidisciplinary extension of your work?
Graffiti has definitely moulded who I am as an architecture student. Although I would never try to translate my graffiti directly into architectural work, I have explored many ways to combine both disciplines. As a student, SCAD has provided me with a great collaborative environment. Collaborating with students from disciplines like fashion and industrial design has exposed me to new process techniques. This is key to my design philosophy. I feel there is no reason why architects should be afraid to borrow the methodology that the industrial designer or any other discipline goes through to create and develop their design. Working with fashion designers has opened my eyes to creative opportunities where the user driven experiences envisioned by them when creating garment for the body, should be explored and applied by architects in their own work. I recently created a window display for the fashion-marketing department at SCAD. For it I used laser cut acrylic to represent my graffiti in a three dimensional way. This was a challenging opportunity to create a space that coalesces with the graffiti I designed.
20
Your early artistic career is shaped with a heavy background in 2D art (calligraphy, painting, graffiti), what helps you break the flat two-dimensional barrier into the 3D world of architecture?
Graffiti has been a powerful tool to the formation as an architecture student. It’s hard to imagine graffiti as a three-dimensional and volumetric object being that its medium is usually a two-dimensional surface. Creating a graffiti piece requires the same methodology any other art form goes through. You need a good compositional balance and a lot of attention is to be paid to the proportion within letters. I use the same techniques for both things. For example, these strokes created by tags end up making an interesting relation between positive and negative spaces. These spaces must be proportional to its curves and the overall size for the tag to look cohesive. Similar principles apply to creating an architectural section drawing that shows a good diversity of spaces and thus breaks from monotonous repetition created by tectonic elements of a building. All this with the finality of producing exciting spaces.
With graffiti at the origin of your artistic career, what is your take on the potential of urban art as a means to shape the identity of a city?
Art is the expression of the human being. Graffiti is the egocentric version of this expression. Graffiti artists that tag, paint or even vandalize cities have a direct relationship on the feeling people have when they are surrounded by their work. Think of it like a billboard on the highway or an ad at the bus stop. There’s always a company behind it, which wants
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
you to either consume their product or construct an identity for the user through images and other branding strategies. The graffiti artist wants to have an impact on the city by signing a name that represents them. Like architects, street artists have different purposes with their art. Some will make a great mural to promote their name, the name of the “crew� or group, which they write with. Architects usually follow the same logic. They want their work to be recognized through a style, an order or some stamp their buildings repeat. Graffiti has an amazing impact on cities. Lately, it has been utilized to revitalize areas like the Arts District in Miami. Other cities have used the art form to communicate ideas, and even teach the younger generations, keeping them away from bad habits. I consider it a very powerful creative tool given that no censorship or filters are used to create this art form. Your work depicts a fearless use of colour. What triggers the choices behind those vibrant colour mixes? Which are some of the artists who awaken this aesthetic curiosity in you?
Color selection process is pretty complicated. Colors by themselves have amazing impact on people and what they think and feel. Furthermore, a color combination triggers many thoughts on our brains. Personally, I don’t like to over saturate my paintings with rainbows and palettes of color. I enjoy seeing the work of artists like Barry McGee that have explored the world of graffiti and translated it into contemporary artwork, with geometric forms and patterns. Another artist who has always been on my radar is Ryan McGuiness. His work runs from canvases to illustrations and installations. His use of color follows a very strict relationship to the space it inhabits.
22
You have ventured from graffiti into architecture and later into product design, furniture design, fashion design, installation art, etc. All throughout, seamlessly weaving together a branded image of yourself (Skem). What is next for Jean-Pierre Villafañe?
That’s a question I always ask myself. If someone from another field proposes a project to collaborate, regardless of the creative field they work with, I like to say yes! If I don’t know the medium, I will research and learn its ways so I can produce something that fulfils me. The best way to grow and learn as a designer is to collaborate. Cross- disciplinary projects have had the best outcome for me. In a few years, I definitely see myself working as an architect, but I know for sure, I will never stop creating art and evolving as I go.
http://www.jeanpierreskem.com
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
24
Projects/Architecture
SCAD M ediath eq ue
Author: Qing Rui Teo Nationality: Singaporean EMAIL: imqingrui@hotmail.com Function: Mediatheque Site location: Savannah, Georgia, US Year: 2014 Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
26
Taking a cue from its surrounding buildings and environment, the mediatheque derives its form from articulating spatial characteristics and urban features of downtown Savannah. Designed to be exposed and understood, structure plays an important role in exploring the dialogue between interior and exterior spaces, in relation to existing context. With a contemporary aesthetic the result is a modern building which goes along with its program, without compromising a truthful connection to its historic site.
EXTERNAL VIEW
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
PLANS
28
internal VIEW
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 29
external VIEW
internal VIEW
30
Articles
T h e idea of int erfac es
Author: Giulia Fioravera Nationality: Italian location: Berlin, Germany
Not every designer knows what “cognitive ergonomics” is, but all of them have at least once heard the term “interface”. Well, cognitive ergonomics –among other things– tries to study and explain how users approach interfaces. Despite it’s short history, this science has, during the last decades, achieved a key role in the design process without perhaps designers being consciously aware of it.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
As a matter of fact, anytime that we want to design technological devices, products providing buttons or products with any tangible interaction with users, we are actually designing interfaces. The latter is indeed defined as, translating the words of Professor Francesco Di Nocera, “the parts devoted to the dialogue with the user, receiving inputs and creating outputs”. Never thought about that? As you can now imagine due to the rise of new technology, interfaces have recently deeply changed their aspect and direction. We can summarize these directions following Weiser’s, Ullmer’s and Ishii’s forecasts of the topic: 1) ubiquitous computing or tangible interaction 2) wearable interfaces For a quick reminder of the history of the interface’s path, you can read the following paragraphs, otherwise you might want go directly to the explanation of the two directions below. The invention of the first computing machine is the relevant beginning of the interface’s path. Initially, people’s interaction with the machine was quite limited. They could only manually insert the punched cards, containing the computation into the machine in order to start it. punched cards
32
On the other hand, the users were required to have a deep knowledge of the machine. In the late 70’s we see the beginning of “personal computing” and so the definition of the idea of interface. As a consequence no knowledge of the operating principles of the computer was anymore needed . Finally the introduction of Apple and Windows operating systems concludes the interface definition process, reducing the users “fatigue” and “mental workload” considerably . The experts have a clear idea of the interface’s path. The first goes towards the surrounding. Even if the devices have big dimensions, they can vanish in the space, becoming “transparent” technologies. How is that possible? Think about the advertising billboards all around the city. Sometimes we don’t even notice them or we read them without activating our mental reading process. The same happens with digital big devices. The space becomes the environment in which technologies can provide output and receive our input without us recognizing it. You can think about any digital screen, information point, interactive wall and table and any surface connecting the physical and virtual world. The second direction aims towards the body. We can wear devices, we can always carry them with us and use them. In this case the dimensions are considerably smaller and the usage of the objects is integrated in our daily life. Those kinds of devices become “transparent” because we don’t care about their functional process. We simply use them.
wearable technology
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 33
Both approaches have, in any event, limits. For example, how nice is it to kill time playing with a big touch screen while waiting for the bus? But what happens with the drivers? Can they be distracted? Yes they can and in the north of Europe it was necessary to remove some screens due to security reasons. But maybe the most evident limit is privacy. This topic has recently been discussed by many experts and there are many papers on it available (my suggestion is: http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~saul/wiki/uploads/CPSC7018108/boundaries_for_privacy.pdf). The point is that with such remarkable devices, it is really easy to show our digital actions publicly or to catch the indiscreet look of the passers-by. So how can designers constrain privacy problems?
mathieu lehanneur escale numĂŠrique
34
The wearable technologies have a more ergonomic limit. They all tend to “miniaturization.” The advertising world wants us to carry as many items with us as we can so that we somehow start considering them part of our outfit. In order to be able to carry as many as we can, they all became smaller and smaller during the last 10 years. It is obvious that for anatomical reasons the miniaturization process can not continue to infinity, unless in the future the human body dimensions will develop and adapt to the technology– what we don’t wish for. So can all the limits be overtaken? Lately designers from all over the world are trying. The tendency seems to be the deconstruction of the functions and the actions. This means that: 1) Big screens won’t allow people to do private things, but only useful ones like finding local information or preparing a set of infos to be sent directly to their smartphones, to be looked at privately. http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~vassilis/files/papers/interact11b.pdf 2) Smartphones won’t be that smart anymore but return to the roots and allow people doing and receiving calls only, in order to became smaller. http://www.thelightphone.com/#getthelightphonefirst Once we have found out what interfaces and their limits are, the real challenge starts . How will we design interfaces in the future? Can this become a relevant question for our next design projects?
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
36
Graphics/ Posters
Se l f Ana lysis
Author: Aluna Vita Yacoe Nationality: Mixed American BIRTH: East Hampton, New York, 10/28/1993 EMAIL: Alunayacoe@yahoo.com Function: Fashion Photography TECHNIQUE: Photos Year: 2015 Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
38
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 39
Within these four years I have developed an aesthetic that pushes me, as the creator, to manipulate and alter my surroundings to convey the beauty that I do not naturally see within my world. Further I am searching for my ideals through the viewfinder of my camera. As a fashion photographer I have chosen a primarily “noir’ tradition in my work. I greatly admire and play with light and the line of a figure within a space of my choosing, to create what I perceive as beautiful.
40
In term of contemporary practice, I would like to think of my work as fine art, and in many cases I feel it is, but to be more realistic I would categorize my photography as commercial. What I intend to do is to collide these two worlds, so I can truly bring my work to its utmost potential.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
44
Ideally I would like to be freelance, allowing myself the ability to work and accept jobs that would continue to strengthen my work and aesthetic, not only as a photographer but as an artist. I hope to continue within fashion, producing editorials and magazine spreads, and ultimately being viewed as a photographer who is able to collide the worlds of fine art, and commercial gracefully and beautifully.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
46
Project/Architecture
Estran g e d Transgression
Author: Justin Zumel with Carolina Berkheimer, Carolyn Hoeffner, Christian Roose Nationality: Asian / American City and date of birth: Beaumont, Texas. 28-04-1994 CONTACTS: justinzumel@tamu.edu Site location: Castiglione Fiorentino, Arezzo, Italy FUNCTION: Multi-use centre TUTORS: Dr. Paulo Bulleti, Dr. Elton Abbott
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
48
As one of the most prominent features of the mix-use complex, the hydroponic gardens are located along the southern edge of the site and provide produce to the restaurant and supermarket. The gardens also provide opportunities for visitors to have direct contact with the plants and learn agricultural techniques. There are also several other learning opportunities for visitors throughout the complex. A theatre is able to play informative videos, as well as open up into exterior performance space for summer productions. At the main entrance of the site, the information center provides a digital interactive experience.
EXTERIOR ROOF
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 49
SITE PLAN
This info center is highlighted by an installation that grows out of the roof structure and fills the three-story atrium. The roof structure is without a doubt the most iconic feature of the center and gives the city defining new identity. Other functions of the multi-use building are a small cafe next to the theatre, office spaces, conference rooms, workshops for learning how to cultivate vegeation and an underground parking lot.
50
The project incorporates the idea that architecture is essentially different objects frozen in time, and is mixed to create a field of different time periods based into one location. The building represents three different time periods, the modern, deconstructivism, and the post-digital age. In terms of modernity, the structure where all the function occurs, represents the time period that has the idea of distinct vertical and horizontal construction through repetition. The representation of deconstructivism deals with the idea of low fidelity that creates a form that envelopes around the modern structure. As a mediation, the in-between of modernity and deconstructivism is the post-digital representation through the concrete cladding and structure. A mediation between deconstructivism and the modern is essential because they both have one thing in common: the evolution of mathematical computation.
north elevation
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
first and half floor plan
third floor plan
second floor plan
roof plan
east elevation section
52
Through further investigation of computational design strategies, we create new part-to-whole relationships within each layer. As a whole, these layers of the building play as parts of the whole building, but as parts, these create their own wholes to organize and negotiate fundamental architectural objects into new, strange mereologies. To further understand the methodology of the concrete work, we must understand the concept of bricolage. In Levi Bryant’s book, The Democracy of Objects, he explains that bricolage is the attempt to forge heterogeneous matter into a consistent object and also the notion that there is actually no whole; there are only parts. There is an internal resistance and autonomy in the parts, a reluctance to be wholified into an overarching object.
axonometric view
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 53
In other words, this post-digital layer creates a whole that is made up of parts that don’t really reach the state of being wholified; thus creating a mass with an envelope as a volume which dissolves into discrete elements that transitions between cladding and structure. Once all these elements come together, they form an assemblage. At first glance of the centre, these architectural elements may seem estranged to the site itself, but in a closer analysis of the building, these patterns become more apparent. Patterns that were common throughout the old and new city, include corner conditions, framed views, using the street geometry to create the border of the structure, dual materiality where there are two prime materials that have contrasting surface articulation. These articulations may not be seen, but these elements are metaphysically there. In terms of materiality, we used colored concrete to represent wood for the underlying material, and polycarbonate for the overlaying material. Over the past two decades, there is a renewed attention of the object over the field. This object (structure) although may seem alien to the existing site, has the same elements as the whole city just a different way of enhancing the same architectural language. In order to consider mnemonic recollection of the past as something that does not simply mean historicist recollection of past motifs, instead, it is an evolutive transformation and enlargement of the axiomatic principles of organizing systems with the capacity to engender new configurations of formal arrangements.
workshop view
54
Articles
Designing Learning Environment
Author: Sergi Sauras - Rotating Editor Savannah location: Savannah, Georgia, US
Architecture’s influence in children’s education. “Building art is a synthesis of life in materialized form. We should try to bring in under the same hat not a splintered way of thinking, but all in harmony together.”
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
Alvar Aalto, “Humanizing Architecture”, 1940.
SAVANNAH
Architecture and Education School architecture had a propulsive effect on the development of the Modern Movement architecture. Due to their social function nature, school buildings favoured the development of powerful architectures, paradoxically low in number. This article explores the evolution of the relations between architecture and pedagogy during the last century and collects relevant proposals dealing with the influence of pedagogical programs in architectural shapes and spaces and vice versa. Despite the long history of education, until recent times teaching was given in buildings that had other core functions. Concerns over school buildings came with the progress of democracy in the nineteenth century. To extend education to large sections of the population was the concern of Joseph Lancaster, who proposed a model of frontal education, hundreds of children sitting on benches in the centre of a room facing a teacher, a model that was adopted universally for many years.
Monitorial Education, Joseph Lancaster
56
In the early twentieth century, renowned pedagogues like the Agazzi sisters, Maria Montessori or Rudolf Steiner proposed the idea that school should be an entity that integrates pedagogy and physical environment, considering both as prime constituent of the training process elements the child. In the words of Maria Montessori, this implied “to create a school atmosphere and decoration that were proportional to childhood and to the need of acting wisely” (1937)
The Modern Movement and Pedagogy This concerns about the relationship between education and space captured the interest of the architects of the Modern Movement, who explored the idea that the built environment could determine the spiritual growth. The above-mentioned Rudolf Steiner, pedagogue and architect, explored spatial configurations that cultivated mental faculties in harmony with the senses and engaged social interaction. School architecture started to focus in a greater contact with nature, air and sun, dissolving boundaries between interior and exterior. Pedagogue Friedrich Froebel considered outdoor space a learning facilitator, as propitiated spontaneous activities and contact with nature. Hygienism and School Architecture Architectural explorations were not only focused in pedagogical issues, but also in hygienic characteristics such as improved ventilation, sunlight and climate control. This exploration inspires a pavilion-type of schematic organization, where classrooms are oriented in search of the best natural conditions, leading to the obsolescence of the organizational scheme of school-cloister. Taking this hygienic exploration to an extreme, the fight against tuberculosis originated the development of “outdoor schools” aimed to bring together education and health strengthening, but the development of antibiotics weakened its main reason to be. However, this exploration refreshed the approach to the relationship between classroom and nature and added valuable insight in how to design successful spaces.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 57
Indoors-Outdoors Continuity A beautiful example of this new trend is the Asilo Sant’Elia, in Como, by Giuseppe Terragni. This project has an intense relationship with the outdoor space, as every classroom has its own to open areas framed by a porch –which acts as a transparent outer skin- and the spaces are filled with sunlight. The link between classrooms and outdoor areas was systematically developed by Richard Neutra. His designs incorporated a lot of dynamism: glass sliding doors that opened to courtyards, indoors openings that allowed crossed ventilation…he worked with psychologists and pedagogues to define an architectural language that ultimately favoured the children, away from formal complexity and ego display. He wrote: “(…) There is no need to impose a loud design, specially in an educational atmosphere with mild climates. It is known that, in the past, philosophers and saints used to sit with his disciples in the shade of a tree, transmitting their wisdom without reinforced concrete structures above them. But they were great men and great spirits who knew how to exploit the universe around them as a teaching material with intelligence and creativity as its simple resource.”
Asilo Sant’Eli, Como, ITALY – Giuseppe Terragni
58
Richard Neutra
In search of an extendible classroom, he developed window systems that integrated nature and outdoor activities to engage education. Flexibility is crucial, even in the furniture design, as a classroom where the professor and the kids are always in the same position and furniture and materials are always in the same spot is condemned to become, sooner or later, a prison. Therefore, seats must be removable, tables adjustable, doors big and windows connected to new interesting spaces. Age Ranges and Spatial Design Concerned with responding to the particularities of children processes, architects turned their attention to psychology. German architect Hans Scharoun, inspired by Edouard Claparède ideas about how pedagogy should come from the child, his mental development and his needs, studied how to group students by age ranges in his proposal for Darmstadt School, establishing a connection with their level in a local scale but always keeping the connection with the whole school in a bigger scale. This idea was probably developed after Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget theories about children cognitive development and its different stages: sensorimotor (age 0-2), pre-operational (age 2-7), concrete operational (age 7-11) and formal operational (age 11-16+). Scharoun established three architectural units to accommodate children’s specific needs.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 59
The proposal that architecture should accompany the cognitive development of children added a level of complexity to school design that was doubtfully practical. Scharoun simplified his theory and applied it in his built schools, without giving up the grouping of different age ranges. Classroom had to convey protection for the youngest, favour concentration for the intermediate and allow flexibility for the teenagers, in a subtle way and a systematized construction system. His ideas influenced school architecture since then. Pedagogue Margit Staber pointed out that: “(…) The most important task of education is the insertion of the individual in the community through the development of a sense of personal responsibility, so that the resulting community represents more than the sum of individuals it contains. This aspect of education can not be taught directly, it is rather a matter of general experience and gradual formation of consciousness that allows the individual to find the right contact with public life and community”.
Isn’t this a beautiful way to summarize Scharoun’s approach to school architecture?
Hans Scharoun
60
SCHAURON’S first unit
SCHAURON’S intermediate unit.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SCHAURON’S superior unit
SAVANNAH 61
A brief conclusion Hans Scharoun set a precedent on how the building arts must transcend construction and design to incorporate psychology and philosophy, disciplines that deal with human behaviour in a more intimate way. By doing that, we humanize architecture and we focus on what really matters, the harmonious relationship between space and its users. During the last 50 years, innovative educational systems have been developed with more or less success. Examples? Open Plan schools without defined classrooms, Dutch structuralism bringing together servant and served spaces, or, lately, the school as a city, where corridors become streets that promote interaction and are complemented by plazas where community life is encouraged. Maybe Scharoun’s rejected complexity was not the answer, but the question. How can we translate all Piaget’s psychology of cognitive development in placing the 3-year-old kid’s chair in the perfect position?
Swedish Free School Organization Vittra
62
Cut out
BR EA KIN G BAD C UT OUT
Every month on 3NTA new cut outs (.png) ready to be used in your renderings and collage.
Author: Nicola Vecchio Nationality: Italian Location: Novara, Italy Function: Series of Breaking Bad characters cut out USED SOFTWARE: Adobe Photoshop CS6 Year: 2015
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
64
Articles
R el i g ious archit ecture and l i g ht.
Author: Glòria Serra Coch Nationality: Spanish location: Barcelona, Spain
In the early Christianity period and the Romanesque, another big shift regarding the use of light took place. The secrecy of the cult and the decline of technological progress in the first period of the Middle Ages originated in architecture - again characterized by the darkness, with small openings in the façades.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
However, in this case, the inside of the church was accessed by devotees and there was a small penetration of light in the interior which was more concentrated in creating movement in the space. The brightest part was situated in the altar, always oriented towards east. Therefore, the individual was attracted by this brightness and moved towards it. In this way; we can observe a progressive change of direction of the light treatment, from a more central structure to a linear one.
diagram. light configuration in a Romanesque church - G.Serra
The evolution from the Romanesque architecture to the Gothic period was intimately related with a change in meaning of faith. Besides, a scholastic philosophy, conceived as a meeting of the ancient classical philosophy with the medieval Christian theology, started to gain strength and was characterized by putting a lot of emphasis in the philosophy of light related with god. Therefore, the theological discourse evolved to a focus on light as a message from god. At the same time, the culture moved from the Roman Empire to northern countries and a concern for cold and insulation and lighting the interiors started. As a result, Gothic churches have the objective of introducing as much light as possible in the interior space, a light understood as “the light of god�. Consequently, an overwhelming feeling, like in Byzantine churches, is achieved.
66
The vertical dynamism, relatlinked with the heaven and the sky, and the light income are the main features of the Gothic cathedral. Two features intimately related, as the evolution of the structure is what allows the vertical space and the presence of big openings at the same time. However, this “light of God� has a magical attribute related to it and, therefore, it is not considered as ordinary. As a consequence, the openings of the church are situated towards the sky rather than the direct exterior. In addition, the use of
diagram. light configuration in a gothic church - G.Serra
ed with the conception of god
stained glass confers this light a special character. The most impressing example of the symbolism related with openings in the Gothic church is the rose window, an icon of the divinity oriented towards west and, therefore, illuminating the altar in the afternoon. Additionally, the inside surfaces of the church tend to have also a gloomy quality in the reflection of the light. All in all, the general impression given to the individual entering in the Gothic cathedral is of insignificance of the human in front of the grandiosity of God.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 67
In the border between Europe and Asia, the Ottoman Empire had a position of great power, clearly reflected in its architecture. Its geographical position promoted an influence by the byzantine type, adapted to the Muslim faith. This alteration is mirrored in different lighting changes, with daylight and artificial light treatments. The increment of daylight penetrating in the interior by opening windows with stained glass in non-structural walls would be a first one. But also the lowering of the perception of the ceiling level by the addition of pendants of oil and, therefore, the creation of a new ceiling in a human scale is a very interesting one, as it deals with the use of artificial light in the design.
diagram. light configuration in an ottoman church - G.Serra
The result is a shift from an overwhelming sensation in Byzantine churches to a serene feeling in Muslim mosques, a calm environment more suitable for personal reflection than for impression.
68
diagram. light configuration in the Renaissance - G.Serra
The Renaissance is the period of the reason, the age of invention, when mysticism, divinity and faith lose importance and experience while insight and human reasoning gain relevance. However, the Renaissance is not only determined by these factors, it is also the age of change from a theocentric conception of the world to an anthropocentric one. Humanism and individualism become the central point of discussion and, therefore, the human body becomes a principal reference for architecture. The translation of these concepts into architecture bring a focus in geometrical organization that, in the case of light, is translated to a modulated arrangement, following a rhythm and enlightening the architectural elements.
Light is not a tool anymore to emphasize the magnificence of God; it is a light made for the human. In this case it is used to accentuate some architecture strategies adopted in the design of the building. For this reason there is a change of use from stained glass, which gives the light spirituality, to transparent glass, which allows the entrance of pure light and makes easier the emphasis in the structure and the architecture.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 69
On the other hand, Baroque architecture has a clear connection with the dramatic use of the light. Instead of treating it in an immediate way, like in the renaissance, its objective is to give a scenic effect. To achieve this atmosphere, among other strategies, a high contrast between light and shadow - chiaroscuro- is used, as in the paintings from the period. At the same time, the complex and ornamented forms of the surfaces create shades against the light.
diagram. light configuration in the Renaissance - G.Serra
Another aspect that adds the scenic characteristic to the ambiance is the mysterious precedence. In a lot of the cases it is not easy to see where the light comes from. Instead, the observer is only able to see the effect and therefore, he gets more impressed by it. In general, the perception of the space is characterized for its high dynamism and contrast.
light configuration in modern architecture - G.Serra
First unitarian Church. I Kahn - G. Serra
First unitarian Church. I Kahn - G. Serra
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 71
Getting closer to current times, in the case of modern architecture we can witness a big change in the structure of the ideological field. Although the use of natural light is still of great importance in divine spaces, the spiritual meaning tends to depend more in personal spirituality or ideology of the architect than actually the period itself. However, it is interesting to see a general tendency towards the central model, which gains importance again. Also, a combination of both models is developed, as a central plan that collects light from the perimeter. Besides that, in the specific field of light treatment there is also a general interest in the daylight cycle and its perception from the interior of the building. In conclusion, although new technologies have been included in daily life and religion has a different position in society, the most meaningful spaces still show a clear relation between the use of daylight and its spiritual conception. In the case of contemporary architecture, as it is always more difficult to analyse with perspective the closer periods, the explanations should be understood more as hypothesis than a research coming from consolidated knowledge. In any case, we can perceive a clear inheritance of the use of light in sacred spaces of modern architecture. However, a progressive shift from a more conceptual use of light in the former one towards a more scenographic use in the case of contemporary can be recognized. This symmetry could be understood as a parallelism with the relation renaissance-baroque, a progression from a more intellectual use of light to a more expressionist one.
72
Project/Design
N y gaard
Author: Josh Brown Nationality: American EMAIL: joshua.louis.brown@gmail.com Function: Musical instrument Site location: Savannah, Georgia, US Year: 2014 Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
74
The Nygaard Stringed Instrument is an artefact based upon my Norwegian heritage. By following my heritage from my ancestors’ lives in Norway through their immigration to the United States to my memories of my family today, I uncovered the importance of music and craftsmanship throughout my ancestry. In Norway, music is a staple of religious ceremony, festivals and family gatherings. The final inspiration came from a small lucky buckeye nut that my grandfather, Roger Nygaard, has carried with him since childhood. The persistence of that small object in my memories of my grandfather inspired the soft indentions and asymmetrical design of the instrument. As a symbol of my grandfather the buckeye also represents his persistence to succeed, unmatched work ethic and dedication to family. The instrument consists of a Spalted maple neck, hollow body, inverted bridge and sliding wrist piece, all combined to form a sleek profile that fits comfortably into the palm of ones hand like a precious newborn child. Indentions in the side of the body reflect the depressions of a buckeye that will patina beautifully over time. The cast bronze pieces are inspired by my family history and represent Nordic mythology, especially through the animal-like head piece. The bow follows the same principles as the instrument through the sleek and comforting forms. The silhouette of the bronze keys handle is inspired by the comforting form of a buckeye, while the triangular prism that adjusts the string and bow tension is designed to honour my families religious belief in the holy trinity.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 75
76
instrument views
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
78
Projects/Architecture
Bristo l H istory
Author: Rokas Patapas Nationality: Lithuanian EMAIL: rokasp1993@gmail.com Function: Archive of Bristol and Thematic Museum Site location: Bristol, UK Year: 2015 Institution: Cardiff University, Welsh School of Architecture
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
80
The concept is based on representing the history of Bristol in an interactive way through experience of scale, light and journey. The building aims to allow people to experience the 3 dimensionality of the internal spaces and the exhibits that are housed within it. The building houses the Archive of Bristol (glass cube), mixed use spaces such as archive reading area, lecture hall, study rooms. The main part of the building is the 3 elements museum. Water, Ground, Air.
internal view
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
internal views
Each level exhibits transportation devices developed in Bristol during its industrial times. The museum floors are connected by a ramp that directs people to other floors allowing to observe the exhibits from different angles and points of view.
section
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH
84
Faรงade
park
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
SAVANNAH 85
The faรงade is covered in different transparency glass panels. Different transparency glass combinations represent the levels, half opaque at water level, mostly opaque and ground level, and nearly transparent at air level, all of this would lead to varying light effects that would change for the person as he walks around the building. In order to create a connection between the context and interior, fully transparent glazing plots are placed on the faรงade, connecting particular exhibits to the surroundings of the site. Moreover, to maintain the connectivity between inside and outside, the visitors are able to see into the collection from the park that is under the museum. The museum floors have openings that allow people to look up and see the exhibition. The museum would stand as a box of curiosities, with glimpses of what awaits inside, raising an interest for the people to actually go inside and see the things within.
ISSUE # 7/ July 2015
STAFF
In this issue
Editor in chief Luca De Stefano
communication manager Marco Mattia Cristofori
ART DIRECTORS Giulia Fioravera AGNESE Laguzzi
co-founder Lorenzo Bottiglieri
EDITORIAL STAFF ELENA Monteleone
ROTANTING EDITOR sergi sauras Valeria flores
WRITERS Glòria Serra Coch Giulia Fioravera
DESIGNERS Maitham M. Almubarak Teo Qing Rui Aluna Vita Yacoe Justin Zumel Carolina Berkheimer, Carolyn Hoeffner, Christian Roose NICOLA Vecchio Josh Brown Rokas Patapas
PE O PLE
In this issue
savannah
DO YOU WANT TO BE IN OUR NEXT ISSUE? CONTACT US 3nta.com/CONTACT/