Expression of Details: as a key phenomena in the Construction of Space by Anshumi Dhingra

EXPRESSION OF DETAILS AS A KEY PHENOMENA IN

THE CONSTRUCTION OF SPACE by Anshumi Dhingra (UI0514)

Undergraduate Thesis Faculty of Design Cept University 2019

Guided By: Amal Shah

Cover Page Image Courtesy: Jeh, P. B. (2014, January 16). Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined. 25 January â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 6 April 2014. Royal Academy, London. Retrieved from https://aajpress.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/ sensing-spaces-architecture-reimagined-25-january-6-april-2014-royal-academy-london/

dedicated to..... my dada & dadi, for their prayers and fortune, my Father for his firm faith in me, my Mother for immense care and courage, my Uncle, for his endless motivation.......

297

Acknowledgements I hereby present my undergraduate thesis with great pleasure and contentment. The successful completion of the thesis would not have been possible without the input and support of many people, whose names may not all be mentioned here. I would hence like to thank all of them, for their contributions. However, I would like to express my gratitude in specific to the following..... Firstly and most importantly I would like to express my sincere regards to my guide Amal Shah, for his relentless support and guidance, not only for this semester but for all the 5 years that I have spent learning and developing under him. My research couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have been this rich without his constructive inputs and insights. I hence credit him for enhancing my knowledge in the area of my interest. Further, I would like to thank Prof. Kireet Patel, for being a source of inspiration always. I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have reached to this understanding in my research without the significant lessons and discussions with him. I would also like to thank all the faculty members at Faculty of Design, CEPT University who have played a role in shaping me as a designer. Finally, I would like to extend my gratitude to the omnipresent source of support, motivation and courage â&#x20AC;&#x201C;my grandparents, parents, my uncle and my brother and to all my friends for the love, expediency and support throughout this journey of five years.

INDEX Abstract Introduction Aim & Objectives Scope & Limitations Framework of Thesis Methodology

The Narrative of a Detail

1.1 Defining the term ‘Detail’ 1.2 The Exercise of Detailing by Vittorio Gregotti 1.3 The Tell-the-Tale Detail by Marco Frascari 1.4 Rappel a l’ordre, the Case for the Tectonic (1990) by Kenneth Frampton 1.5 Architecture and Aesthetic of Japan by Gunter Nitschke

The Making of Space : through Details

2.0 Relevance of the theory by Edward Ford 2.1 The Detail as Abstraction Place & Displacement 2.2 The Detail as Material Expression Material & Form 2.3 The Detail as Structural Representation Structure & Weight 2.4 The Detail as Joint Abstraction & Joints 2.5 The Detail as Dissonant Element Scale & Dissonance 2.6 The Detail as Space Making Tool According to Japanese concept of space-making 2.7 The Detail as Articulation According to Japanese culture of detailing 2.8 Conclusion

Case Studies

3.0 Introduction 3.0.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.0.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma 3.1 The Detail as Abstraction 3.1.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.1.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma 3.2 The Detail as Material Expression 3.2.1 Katsura Imperial Villa

3.2.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma 3.3 The Detail as Structural Representation 3.3.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.3.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma 3.4 The Detail as Joint 3.4.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.4.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma 3.5 The Detail as Dissonant Element 3.5.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.5.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma 3.6 The Detail as Space Making Tool 3.6.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.6.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma 3.7 The Detail as Articulation 3.7.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.7.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma

Role of Details as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Spatial Phenomenasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Conclusion

Bibliography Illustration Credits Appendix

In details are the possibilities of innovation and invention and it is through these that architects can give harmony to the most uncommon and difficult or disorderly environment generated by a culture. --Marco Frascari

Abstract Louis Kahn also writes on the parallel lines, saying that “The joint is the beginning of ornament and that must be distinguished from decoration which is simply applied. Ornament is the adoration of the joint.” This quote clearly demonstrates the difference between, interlocking constructional elements, junction details and the applied decoration. Hence one might question what is an architectural detail? Detail is architecture at its smallest scale. An architectural detail in-spite of being a small part of the whole has the potential to define and characterize the entire building. Details convey the very idea of the building; they are essential in defining the life and the quality of space. Additionally, details are the demonstration of designer’s approach towards building in general; when the linking of constructional elements, junctions, and expressive material finishes are taken into consideration, by focusing on its constructional and aesthetic values, they turn out to become self-expressive technical compositions. This sympathetic and ingenious process of drawing and working with materials and joints is known as “Detailing”. The method of detailing is what defines the architect’s ideology and the architectural language. The focus of this research thesis is to analyze the role of details, in constructing a space. Details being so crucial in the spatial realm, needs to be highlighted as one of the major defining factor in enhancing spaces. The idea is to study the expression of details and to decode the degree of its role in generating the essence of a space. Apart from the various definitions of detail –here, ‘detail’ is termed as the junction or the joint between numerous parts. The intent also is to realize the significance of small details in buildings, concluding that a

space at the end is an amalgamation of various parts coming together, and that these parts are the major constituents of a space.

Introduction -Architecture serves as a medium to provide various human functions and needs, be it a physical need such as shelter and warmth or be an emotional need like a space to imagine, grow and think. The method we use to design and to build as a response to various habitat problems, acts as a narrative illustrating our lives in both past and present. The narrative is not just restricted to the history behind the architecture or its construction & context, but it also describes the connections showing its visual and emotional character, that fascinates the mind and spirit. Thus, the building defines us as individuals and groups by simply demonstrating the calibre of human culture in the process of constructing a dwelling. Fundamentally, the building is a result of cohesive and conscious joining of number of elements that are brought together with specific purpose. The junction between these elements is equally significant architecturally and as a building as a whole. Emmitt states, in the book Principles of Architectural Detailing, that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the detail is all-important in ensuring high-quality buildings. Indeed, common sense would seem to suggest that the place and meaning of architectural details is paramount, for without the details there would be no building.â&#x20AC;? The details in the architecture of Wright and Scarpa, are in fact consistent and integral to the other design aspects of the building. The details in Scarpaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work illustrates why a certain space is put together in a certain way. In his works, the joining of two parts be it a space, element or a materials gives a distinctive third part. By seeing the marvels constructed by Scarpa, Wright and others, it is quite clear that only by examining and studying the details can we acquire the art of building as a whole. The aim of this research thesis is to investigate

the kind of details present in an interior-architecture project, by using the key principles by Edward Ford as the lens to read details. The idea is to decode the expressions created by the details and decipher the spatial intention it serves, which consecutively, will help establish a language among the parts and the whole.

Aim To recognise and analyze spatial details and their expression which define theInterior environments.

Hypothesis â&#x20AC;&#x153;The details that compose a space define its character.â&#x20AC;? The manner in which the components connect determines the character of a space. The assembly of parts including spaces, elements, materials â&#x20AC;&#x201C;are the assemblies that determine the relationship of the user with their environment. The assembly of objects is directly proportional to the nature of the spatial enclosures and events. estigate

Scope -This study is based on the analyzing details according to the principles given by Edward Ford, and the chapter 2 is based on the framework based on these principles. -This research thesis provides the framework to analyze details in Interior architecture, and to decode the definitive role of those details on the space. -There is a possibility to include many more examples as case studies to compare and evaluate the experience. This thesis only focuses on examples based on Japanese architecture to limit it to a specific context and culture.

Limitation -The concept of tectonics and the idea of detail being a significant aspect are opening up several discussions and opportunities in interior architectural realm. Marco Frascari, Vittorio Gregotti, Kenneth Frampton, all other have described the topic in extreme depths. Hence, there are several other methods to read or analyze a detail; the principles by Edward Ford are used here to analyze and decode the characteristics of detail. They are interpreted based on an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective and understanding of the theory. -To understand the expression of details, which are prominent in Japanese Architecture, the case studies included are based in Japan or are built by Japanese architects. They are hence not in the vicinity of the state. So, bearing the limits of an undergraduate thesis, the case studies are all secondary. -Here, the principles by Edward Ford are used to analyze the role of details in constructing the space they are in and is hence limited to the above intention.

Framework of thesis The thesis is divided into 5 chapters. The first chapter will look through the concept of detail and detailing taken forward by many architects and designers. This chapter will construct a base, by summarizing the essays written by architects namely Vittorio Gregotti, Marco Frascari and Kenneth Frampton. The concept of detailing prevalent in Japanese architecture is also described, to generate a practical association, in terms of culture and region specific detailing approaches. The second chapter will highlight the key categories of details, defined by Edward Ford that will be used as key principles in reading details present inside the spaces. These 5 categories of details are explained by case studies which show its influence in defining the spatial character. Apart from the 5 categories, two additional

categories of details are also explained that are based on the traditional Japanese concept of detailing. The third chapter will include the major case studies â&#x20AC;&#x201C;one is an example of traditional Japanese architecture (The Katsura Imperial Villa) and the other is an example of contemporary architecture (Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma). The subsequent chapter (Chapter 4) will then show the comparative analysis of the concept of detailing between the above two case studies, with an inference in chapter 5.

Methodology -The study is initiated by summarizing essays written by many architects on the role of the details in the Interior architectural realm. -The theory on details, proposed by Edward Ford in his book â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Architecture Detailâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is taken forward, as the framwork to conduct a study on specific interior architecture projects. -A preliminary lens in observing and deciphering the kinds of details present in a built form, various secondary case studies are done for each of the principles of details by Edward Ford. -Having done the 21 secondary case studies (3 each for the 5 principles by Ford and for the 2 principles derived from the Japanese architecture with respect to details, two major case studies are further analyzed with the similar framework.

by Kenneth Frampton

The Case for Tectonic

by Marco Frascari

The Tell-the-Tale Detail

by Gunter Nitschke

Architecture and Aesthetic of Japan

by Vittorio Gregotti

Exercise of Detailing

Traditional Japanese Architecture as the base to analyze the details

Theories stating the relevance of details in generating expressions

The Detail as Articulation

The Detail as Space Making Tool

Two typology of detail derived from the Japanese concept of space-making

The Detail as Dissonant Element

The Detail as Joint

The Detail as Structural Representation

The Detail as Material Expression

The Detail as Abstraction

(The Architectural Detail)

The five typologies of detail by Edward Ford

Defining the framework to analyze case studies: Typologies of details by Edward ford and the typologies based on Japanese architecture

Framework of Thesis

2 The Nest We Grow, Japan, Kengo Kuma

1 Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto, Japan

Case Studies

Parameters to analyze case -studies Case-studies involving detailing and showcasing the idea of construction

To analyze with

To categorize as

The definitions of detail by Edward Ford

Detail Between

1- The Detail as Abstraction Two Spaces

2- The Detail as Material Expression

Two Materials

3- The Detail as Structural Representation

Two Elements

4-The Detail as Joint 5- The Detail as Dissonant Element 6-The Detail as Space-making Tool 7-The Detail as Articulation

To conclude

Detail as the main element in the construction of space

01 The Narrative of a detail

The possibilities of architectural narrations through details..

1.1

Defining the term ‘Detail’

James Eckler, in his book –Language of Space and Form: Generative terms in Architecture, defines the term Detail as.. a. Minute aspects of a form that speak to its assembly, function, or role in a larger compositional order b.

An act of designing the minutia of a form

In architecture, the detail is the smallest designed element. It is referred to as the joining of elements and the character of the connection between them. Detail is also termed as the articulation of small scale objects. The act of detailing is the method of design that is devoted to the minute aspects of a project. One might think, how can something that is so minute add to the larger objective of an architectural design? How can a detail be significant to a building?

Fig 1.1.1 Hand-rail detail of Carlo Scarpa’s Castelvecchio Museum in Verona

The various structural and experiential responsibilities of architecture are reliant on the detail. Pragmatically, the detail is the mechanism that joins elements. The importance is not just on the on the connection, but on the manner of connection, that directs the design of the architectural detail. It embodies of both, the elements that join and the hardware involved in joining them. It will hence conclude the structural integrity of a joint. The act of detailing involves the designing of (or in some cases selecting) the appropriate components to assist the accurate role of a joint or system. More than just functioning as a connection, a detail can achieve more in a design. It can be an interactive tool that defines the engage-

ment of an occupant with the space. It can also be an expressive tool that is exposed, or even embellished upon, with the advent of making an occupant aware of some structural logic, or to also be indicative of the function of the elements it joins. The aesthetic characteristic of the detail has the power to demonstrate a strategy of craft. It is hinged on the consistency of design language in order to unite or correlate the design elements. For example, a type of detail that is used to articulate a system is also used to differentiate it from the other. In his book, The Architectural Detail, Edward Ford finally concludes by defining the detail as: Fig 1.1.2 Column and Vault, King’s College Chapel, John Watsell, UK

“Details are not a class of objects, a library of symbols, or a collection of clever devices. They are the evidence of a necessary mediation between the way in which we see a building and the way we feel a building, between abstraction and animation, between material reality and idealized form, an impossible to quantify informing of one set of attitudes with the other. At its best, the detail is the result of the conscious act of creating the inconsistent, imperfect, or exceptional part, and while often done with an eye toward reconciling the conflicting perpetual demands we make of buildings, it is more likely to be the act of making these differences readily apparent.” Thus it is clear that for the purpose of this study, details will not be studied as small parts or objects but will be looked at as a procedure, a demonstration of thinking and as an outcome of rationalized decisions. The idea is to analyze detail to decode the characters of Space. The details present in a space in some or the other way narrates the story of their making and meaning and their contextual language –considering both physical and meta-physical dimensions of spatial experience.

1.2

The Exercise of Detailing

by Vittorio Gregotti

For Vittorio Gregotti the detail is one of the most revealing components of the architectural language, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Architecture resides in the details â&#x20AC;&#x153;, detailing the qualities of the materials by applying the laws of construction, the detail also raises the question of hierarchy and of the relationship between the part and the whole. The Essay also highlights the decline of the expressiveness in the architectural language, through the obsession for the new and the distinct. To which, Gregotti affirms that it is not a case of total elimination of the detail but that -a problem of the hierarchy of the parts with the whole, which has acquired a greater meaning and is the only cause of the two major problems. Firstly, it resulted from the abstraction of the detail and the choice of materials, resulting into the construction being devalued. Secondly, the decreased expressivity of the detail has led to the total loss of relationship between the physical and the historical place and that is the result of the resurfacing of ornament and decoration.The above cases are the result of the re-awakening of interest in decoration, termed as disregarding the legitimate practical rules of contemporary architecture. Despite being a text in which a criticism of the most extended architecture of the 80s is made, Gregotti is interested in some postmodern works such as Tadao Ando, Pallasmaa, Stephen Holl or Mario Botta, all of them share some ideas not too divergent from Gregottiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, the idea that construction can be a source of meaning and inspiration for the project, as well as the materiality of architecture. These architects through tectonics and the expression of detail also criticize superficial modernity, ideas that both Gregotti and

Porphyrios also share. Vittorio Gregotti states that due to the limitation of our discipline and its inefficacy in reintegrating the sum of the techniques and therefore of the exercise of detailing, that the significance of the detail is subdued. He also says that the self-reflexive nature of the discipline requires that detailing be resituated as an essential architectural problem. This idea is further elaborated in the following essay by Marco Frascari and Kenneth Frampton, in which both reflect and stimulate – the “tectonic return to things.” Concluding that, the tectonic expression of architecture is capable of enhancing the sensual and intellectual experience of building.

Fig 1.2.1 Door Detail of Scarpa’s Fondazione Querini Stampalia

Conclusion: The essay exemplifies the concept of the exercise of detailing and highlights many architects who precisely demonstrate it through their exemplary works. Also the idea that details or the exercise of detailing in architecture is crucial and if given attention can become a point of innovation in design is a concept, that needs to be interpreted in the present and the upcoming architecture.

1.3

The Tell-the-Tale detail

by Marco Frascari

“The art of detailing is really the joining of materials, elements, components, and building parts in a functional and aesthetic manner. The complexity of this art of joining is such that a detail performing satisfactorily in one building may fail in another for very subtle reasons.” (Frascari 501) On the similar line of thoughts like Vittorio Gregotti, architect Marco Frascari portrays the importance of construction in developing architectural meaning, particularly through the formal and informal joints between materials and spaces. In this significant article, Frascari privileges the joint –the original detail –as the generator of construction, and therefore of meaning. The tectonic detail is hence a powerful aspect for innovation and invention. Frascari characterizes architecture as an outcome of the design of the details and their resolution and substitution. While operating sensibly, the “fertile” detail can also be seen as an artistic appearance of structure and use. Frascari’s semiological reading suggests that the detail is the minimum unit of signification within the architectural production of meaning. In Gregotti’s “The Exercise of Detailing,” Carlo Scarpa’s work is chosen as exemplary because “each detail tells us the story of its making, of its placing, of its dimensioning.” The idea of narrative pervades the article, for instance, the intriguing idea that joints are pretexts for generating new texts. Frascari claims that it is possible, because the detail or joint can impose its order on the whole. Thus, located within tectonics is an endless set of architectural ideas. Fig 1.3.1 Carlo Scarpa Detail Drawing

The “techne of logos,” which can be understood as the production of discourse, is the aspect Frascari calls construing. Like Martin Heidegger, Frascari is interested in the etymological connections between words, in this case between constructing (building) and construing (giving order

and intelligibility to the world, i.e., constructing meaning). In Heideggerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s discussion, building is linked to constructing, dwelling, and cultivating, with suggestions of edifying. Furthermore, Heidegger asserts that dwelling is the purpose of life and depends on building. The linguistic connection to phenomenology lends credibility to Frascariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s link between constructing (details and meaning) and construing meaning. A small detour into perceptual psychology however makes a contribution to his debate, in presuming the detail as the perceptual structure for understanding architecture as meaningful. Conclusion: In the above article, Frascari mentions several significant aspects of details in the architectural realm, deriving conclusions that affirms the concept of detailing as important in narrating the tale through the spaces. Frascari, through relevant justifications and co-relation, strengthens the ground, for Gregottiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exercise of detailing. Detail are hence, predominant in a space, which makes the expression of joints or details as the pivotal aspect in constructing the space.

1.4

Rappel a l’ordre, the Case for the Tectonic (1990)

by Kenneth Frampton

In the “call to order”, Kenneth Frampton stresses on the idea that building is primarily an act of construction, a tectonic and not a scenographic activity. Building is hence, not a sign, but is ontological, a presence or a “thing”. In the other attempts to define the “essence” of architecture, this approach can be contextual, for example as a function or as a type. For Frampton, the fundamental aspect is the poetic expression of structure inferred in the Greek (and Heideggerian) poesis: ‘an act of making and revealing that is the tectonic’. In this incisive essay, he identifies “the structural unit as the irreducible essence of architectural form”. The structural unit proves to be more crucial than spatial conception and the pursuit of imagination.

Fig 1.4.1 The Four Elements of Architecture (1852) by Gottfried Semper

Frampton states, that this idea of looking at the ‘poetics of construction’, offers the prospect of combating the co-modification of shelter, and the widespread post-modern concept of ‘decorated shed’ in architectural design, propagated by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, et al. Tectonic is a relevant antidote because it is astylistic, internal to the discipline (i.e., autonomous) and mythical. Frampton proposes the architectural need to consider the ontological outcomes of building with heavy mass walls or with light frames, in relevance with Martin Heidegger’s recognition of the placement of humankind on the earth and under the sky. The two systems signify cosmological opposites, with implication of earth versus sky, and solidity versus dematerialization. To emphasize on the value of such definitions, he also states the significance of Gottfried Semper’s -The Four Elements of Architecture (1852). Semper deduced the four tectonically-based elements from a Vernacular Caribbean hut, namely, earthwork(mound),

hearth, (framework and) roof, and enclosing membrane, using which he countered the typological basis of classically derived ‘Primitive Hut’ by Marc-A Laugier. An emphasis was made by Semper, on the textile history of tectonics, which suggested that the ‘knot’ was the first ‘joint’. The joint to Frampton is “the nexus around which the building comes into being and is articulated as a presence.” Vittorio Gregotti and Marco Frascari also state a symbolic character of the detail in this chapter.

Fig 1.4.2 The Doric Order from Minard Lafever’s The Modern Builder’s Guide, 1883. According to Karl Bötticher’s theory the Kunstform is the fluting and the Kernform is the body of the column.

The Berlage Stock Exchange (1895) by Hendrik Petrus, to the Larkin Building (1904) by Frank Lloyd Wright and the Central Beheer office complex (1974) by Herman Hertzberger, demonstrate resemblance in the level of the tectonic articulation, as a result of their stylistic mannerism. In each of these case, there is an analogous succession of span and support that represents a tectonic language in which the gravitational force passes from purlin to truss, to pad stone, to corbel, to arch, to pier, and to abutment. The technicality of this load transfer includes a sequence of precisely articulated transitions and joints. In each of the above works the constructional articulation engenders the spatial subdivision. The joint affirms the virtue and presence of the overall form while referring to distinct ideological and referential antecedents. As conclusion, there is a mention of two phrases by Frampton that outlines their theory about the real meaning of architecture: -’It is an act of making and revealing what is tectonic’ -’Structural unity is the irreducible essence of the form structural ‘ Tectonic hence needs to be a main focus in architecture and as a result there is a need to eliminate abstraction of design in our work for true architecture to be achieved. With the emphasis on the importance of joints and the poetics of construction, Frampton at the end draws an intellectual understanding of tectonic by stating the primeval history of logos.... “Within architecture the tectonic suggests itself as a mythical category with which to acquire entry to an anti-processal world wherein the ‘presencing’ of things will once again facilitate the appearance and experience of men.”...........

1.5

Architecture and Aesthetic of Japan

by Gunter Nitschke

In the history of Japanese architecture, until the influence of the western building culture in the 19th century, there is not a single building on the Japanese island that made use of stone in its construction, except for the thick support walls for defence. This is not the result of mere understanding of abilities or inabilities of Japan, but is a result of their isolation for 2000 years. Wood, was the only material used for the load-bearing constructions. This demonstrates their well-established inclination for the living and the temporary, for the seasonal cycle, indeed for the things in their original (raw) state, also observed in the Japanese cuisine. In terms of architecture, the imperial ancestral shrines demonstrate the consistency in the thought process and the taste for the living building material. These shrines determine the contradiction addressing sacred buildings, in which the buildings should look new and ancient at the same time. The 115 shrines in the Ise system, most probably created in the 7th century, are dismantled and rebuilt every 20 years, and their treasures and the pebbles upon which they rest are replaced.

Fig 1.5.1 Inner Shrine of Ise. Old Shrine next to the new shrine. Japan

For a deeper understanding of Japanese religiousness and the relationship of Japanese buildings to natural surroundings, it is crucial to understand that the people of Japan saw themselves as living in a kind of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;blood relationshipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; with the gods, who embody natural energies. Till this day Japan has only one imperial line, it has also had only one method of construction, characterized by timber frames and the addition of rooms in the horizontal plane. Taking its cue from European style history, Japanese architectural history has for the last 100 years or so distinguished between three styles within this single method of construction and spatial organisation.

Developments are divided into three stages, each one lasting around 400 years: the Shinden style (8th-12th century), the Shoin style (12th-16th century) and the Sukiya style (16th-19th century). The climatic conditions of the eastern seaboard of Asia, has shaped the Japanese religion, arts, clothing, food and also their architecture. The rainy monsoon climate, that has served the people with nourishment, is also the key source of the Japanese having tendency towards passive thought and action. Additionally, they are affected by natural calamities like earthquakes, typhoons and floods, which cause the destruction of all things made and built by man. This aspect of impermanence of all existence has had a powerful impact on the Japanese, in both physical and meta-physical way. Virtually the only thing which has lasting value is land, the plot on which the building stands. The distinctive characteristics of traditional Japanese architecture, that are evident throughout the history, are described below in brief: -Floors are raised 1-2 feet above the ground, to get protection against ground moisture, and to provide good air-circulation in the prevalent hot, damp climate, while still remaining connected to the earth. Fig 1.5.2 Perspective section through a typical one-storey traditional Japanese House

-Wide, overhanging pitched roofs made out of reed, shingles or tiles are constructed above the main building; around the periphery, there is a veranda mostly with a separate roof, for protection against the sun and rain, insulation and light-modulation. -Empty rooms. There are no furniture or carpets; the entire floor area is just laid by the compressed rice straw mats. -A horizontal additive arrangement of space, almost always without an upper storey or a cellar; rooms are divided not by solid walls, but by means of movable panels and temporary installations. The traditional Japanese space is described as â&#x20AC;&#x153;bringing together without distance,â&#x20AC;? as the partitions can be removed entirely or shifted aside. -Perfection in detail and in building type. In Japan, there were no wooden buildings with badly fitting connections, until the introduction of the North American timber frame.

This is because the culture of an island people is oriented inwards and not outwards. -A clear demarcation between load-bearing and non-load bearing elements in the construction makes it easy in carry out replacement or renovation of areas and components within the building. As a result of this distinction, the structure can be easily dismantled and reconstructed in another location. -The Multi-functionality of space. This is achieved as an outcome of the limited availability of land on the Japanese islands.

Fig 1.5.3 Traditional Japanese House Interior View

Conclusion: The Japanese culture is hence deep-rooted in time and place. It portrays the consistency in inheriting the timeless characters into its Architecture, resulting into a language that is specific to their region and culture. This developed architectural language being aesthetically rich, functionally diverse and modern, have many integral roots, pertaining to its character. Therefore, the understanding of this language that has developed from the historic times in Japan is crucial for the upcoming buildings and in developing the notion of detailing as an integral part to Interior architecture. Hence, an attempt is made to decode the key characteristic features of the Japanese traditional architecture with respect to detailing and is discussed along the other methods or notion of detailing.

02 The Making of space,through detail

2.0

Relevance of the theory by Edward Ford

In 1998, Peter Zumthor described the Details as follows: “ Details express what the basic idea of the design requires at the relevant point in the object: belonging or separation, tension or lightness, friction, solidity, fragility....Details, when they are successful, are not mere decoration....They lead to an understanding of the whole of which they are an inherent part.” In the book ‘The Architectural Detail’, Edward Ford expands the palate and offers a series of five alternative readings of the detail. These 5 typologies of reading Details by Ford, highlights the various aspects and ways in which a detail affects the space (the whole), all of which describes the role of detail that are beyond visual. -The first reading is that which proposes, the Detail is an abstraction. This typology of architectural detail is about the repression of the visual presence of the detail. The detail here is hidden or masked whether by intently concealing the possible means of assembly or through the careful creation of consistency in which no particular condition stands out from the rest. (The Detail as Abstraction) -Ford’s second typology talks about the detail as motif. The detail here is generated using a repetitive geometric motif at every scale and in every material to solve every problem. (The Detail as Motif) -The third category of the architectural detail focuses on the formation of order and the establishment of a relationship that is either actual or symbolic, between the articulation of the building and its structural actuality. (The Detail as Structural Expression)

-The fourth category centres on the aspects outlined by Frascari â&#x20AC;&#x201C;the detail as a joint. In this category, the development of our understanding of space is dependent on the expression of the junction between the elements, or often on the prominence of specific intersections. (The Detail as Joint) -Lastly, the fifth category is the detail as a subversive activity, which he affirms to be significant in a distinct way. Here, the detail is used to create a contradiction with the design of the building; it deliberately stands apart to build a moment of experience. This type of detail is intended to engage and provoke, through its design. The above categories of detail portray the key characteristics of Details and the approaches made to achieve those characteristics in the architectural realm. They hence, highlight the role of the details in conceptualizing or constructing the space. The use of these principles to analyze spaces will help decipher the intention of the role of details in constructing meaning in the space. It is important to note that the scale of the typology of the details will vary from being a spatial detail, to a detail between elements or a materially exquisite detail, depending on the conceptual parameters involved in the project. As a consequence, this will demonstrate the role of the various PARTS in generating the WHOLE (the space) and its relevance as a detail or joint.

2.1

The Detail as Abstraction Place and Displacement

The whole and the details are one. -Le Corbusier There are no details. -Paul Rudolph

Fig 2.1.1 The Lord’s Media Centre, London by Jan Kaplicky

The Media Center (1999) is an example of seamless aluminium architecture, designed by Future Systems for Lord’s Cricket Ground. It being developed by shipbuilding technology has joints that are not directly visible. The divisions in the glass are so abstracted that they are marked by glass mullions, with no visible frame showing the connection with the aluminium shell. The only offset in its outer surface is of a minute rain gutter around its horizontal centreline. Jan Kaplicky, its designer said of it: “So there’s virtually no obvious detailing....The major detail is so invisible, and that’s the only detail I want to publish much because it’s so simple that nobody believes it’s there, because it’s not painted over, and it will never show....The smooth effect of the object in that rather busy environment was important from day one.” This is not a current build-out. Doubting the subject of “detailing” to have any contemporary relevance, Marcel Breuer wrote in 1964:

Fig 2.1.2 Sectional Perspective showing construction details of the Media Center, London

“The architecture of past periods tended to blend melodies to the details; a column capital was a piece of sculpture in itself –a bit of art or decoration independent of the building. Today, our details tend to exist solely for the service of the whole structure, and become inherent particles of the whole...So much so that the details often fuse completely with the greater architectural form to the point where it’s difficult to separate them.”

The conclusions to be drawn from the above thoughts are: First, that the details are impressions of traditional architecture, resulting into an unnecessary ornamentation, and that it can be eliminated completely as thought by Breuer; Or second, that detailing is about dissolution or at least about suppressing the crucial technical elements for the intent of acquiring a simplicity or clarity of the image of the built, as it is for Kaplicky. For the above architects, detailing is all about the suppression of irrelevant ornamentation, and of the smaller scale elements that provide a visual representation of a solution to technical problems. For instance, how water is shed from the top of a wall or a windowsill, how a plane of glass is supported, or how two materials are joined. Therefore the means to abstraction in architecture and in detailing is elimination. In the traditional architecture, the elements were visible demonstrating the solutions to the various design issues: copings, sills, mullions, and applied trims. In the advent of non-detail, these elements are present but not as perceptible parts of the built. The non-detail or negative detail requires, for the most part, the manipulation of the constructional status quo in favour of minimalism, abstraction and simplicity, and the visual elimination of certain aspects of the building in the service of representation. It may be the elimination of unnecessary elements, but more often it is the suppression of necessary ones. The primary role of the detail in this case is to abstract the building envelope into nonexistence, to maintain, largely by the absence of detail, the illusion of spatial continuity. The non-detail is hence at times still a detail; its absence conveys a message far stronger than its presence ever could. And while it is true that the articulated detail may separate the building from our abstract perception of it, it may make us conceive of it as a construction that has been assembled, that is composed of parts and not as a unified, singular, and permanent form; this is hardly a condition that can be universally undesirable.

Fig 2.1.3 The Front Facade, Richard Lloyd Jones building, by Frank Lloyd Wright

The abstract details in the Richard Lloyd Jones house includes sills, copings, gutters, trim, and a great deal more. The technical roles they play are accomplished, but the means of doing so are hidden. Details that are visible, the artic-

ulated ones, include the tightly spaced, long, horizontal bands of steel windows, the grid of threads on which the building is woven. They physically separate the interior from the site by their presence, but they connect the house to the site by their minimal quality. In a subtle way they are Wrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s horizontal line of the prairie multiplied many times over.

Fig 2.1.4 The horizontal bands on the steel window in the Richard Lloyd Jones House

Fig 2.1.5 The steel window Facade seen from the Exterior

The house belonged there because of its abstract qualities that made a real spatial connection possible by eliminating more literal, but superficial, connections of a symbolic nature.

Case Studies based on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Detail as Abstractionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Japanese Architecture

2.1.1 Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo Detail as abstraction between spaces 2.1.2 Sky House, Tokyo Detail as abstraction between elements 2.1.3 Sunday School, Ibaraki Detail as abstraction between materials

2.1.1

Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo Architect: Kisho Kurokawa Detail as Abstraction between two SPACES

Fig 2.1.1.1 The Nakagin Capsule Tower -Elevation (left) and Section (right)

Fig 2.1.1.2 Exteriors of the Capsule Tower

The Nagakin Capsule Tower by Kisho Kurokawa, is an example of metabolism (due to the living capsules), exchangeability (due to the modular capsule units), and of recyclability, giving us a prototype of sustainable architecture. The individual units were mass-produced and fastened in the preferred arrangement to the central core by high-tension bolts. These bolts were hidden and were used as joints between the capsules. The detail of these high tension bolts being the inherent structure of the Capsule Tower was abstracted in a way that on the exterior, it just felt as if the Capsule are placed one above the other. The Capsule is hence seen as individual modules irrespective of their inter-dependability. Due to the hidden or abstracted details between the two capsules, the building is perceived as architecture of parts forming the whole.

Fig 2.1.1.3 Image showing details of a single Capsule and the high tension bolt junction between the capsule and the structure

The internal complexity of the tower was suppressed or simplified on the exterior to portray the intended image of the construction (Modular Construction).

2.1.2

Sky House, Tokyo Architect: Kiyonori Kikutake Detail as Abstraction between two ELEMENTS

Fig 2.1.2.1 SKY HOUSE: The threshold space between the interior and the exterior

Fig 2.1.2.2 The interior view showing the junstion of the vertical screens with the roof and the floor of the SKY HOUSE

Japanese architect, Kiyonori Kikutake (19282011) designed a house for himself in 1958, named as Sky House. The Sky-House is an elevated single volume. In the Sky house, a single 10m by 10m concrete slab is raised up on 4.5 m high wharfs located on the central axe of each side, with a definite intention to free the corners. The concrete rooftop is additionally supported by piers. The architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s refusal of functionalism is showed in a multi-purpose, open plan layout with a central living space and benefit regions on the periphery, which reviews traditional Japanese interiors. The open-plan was indeed open also due to the blurring boundaries formed by the sliding screens (design influenced from the shoji screen in Japanese architecture) as the vertical partitions. The junctions between the screen to the roof and the screen to the floor, was abstracted to achieve the spatial fluidity between the interiors and the exteriors.The language of the screens forming the outer Facade of the House and the ones dividing the threshold spaces and the interior are kept similar, for them to look a co-ordinated whole.

Fig 2.1.2.3 Exploded view of the SKY HOUSE, showing the configuration of the various elements

This unambiguous representation of detail between the vertical elements (the screens) and the horizontal elements (the roof & the floor), resulted into an enhanced spatial experience achieved through the details.

2.1.3

Sunday School, Ibaraki Architect: Tadao Ando Detail as Abstraction between two MATERIALS

Fig 2.1.3.2 The joint between Concrete and Glass at the Church of Light by Tadao Ando

The Church of the Light, was built by Japanese architect Tadao Ando and is the main chapel of the Ibaraki Kasugaoka Church, in Japan. In 1999, a Sunday School was added to the main building. The Church of the Light embodies - three 5.9m concrete cubes (5.9m wide x 17.7m long x 5.9m high) with a wall penetrating through the cubes at 15Â°, which in-turn divides the cube into two areas, the chapel and the entrance. Fig 2.1.3.1 Interior view of the Chapel showing the light penetrating inside the through the junctions

Fig 2.1.3.3 Axonometric showing the construction of the Church Of Light

The light, defines the spaces of the chapel. There is strong contrast created between light and solid. In the chapel light penetrates from the rear side of the altar, through a cross cut in the concrete wall that elongates vertically from floor to ceiling and horizontally from wall to wall, orienting precisely with the joints in the concrete. The junction between the two walls of concrete at the Chapel is symbolized to not look like a joint in first place and is so off-stetted that it highlights itself as an opening inside the space. This similar ideology is applied to the concrete roof and concrete wall junctions at the Chapel. Here, through abstracting the details between two materials glass and concrete, the intention of the junction is abstracted. The junction doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t actually appear to be a junction, due to the light penetrating inside the space from it. This light band striking inside from the wall and from the joint between roof & wall heightens the spatial character of the space, giving the dark and light expressions of concrete, materializing the interior of the chapel.

Abstract Diagram : Detail as Abstraction

Plan

3D View

2.2

The Detail as Material Expression Material and Form

A bit of carved stone, the profile of a molding, a few drawn lines, or a single letter from a piece of writing often possesses for the observer the quality of the complete work and can be dated precisely; before these fragments, we have the conviction of insight into the original whole....The feel of the whole is found in the small parts. --Meyer Schapiro

Fig 2.2.1 Pre-cast panels with the image of willow trees in the Utrecht University Library

Fig 2.2.2 The Facade with the willow tree panels at the University of Utrecht

[Details are] a generalizing particle –a ubiquitous symbol of linkage and connections of parts and pieces.... [Detailing is] an intense concern for the smallest of parts –the preoccupation with detail often leads back to a reconsideration of the scheme as a whole... The seed idea can now produce a growth that is integral. --Fay Jones The way materials are fabricated and joined will never be the same; design and fabrication are to become simultaneous, the assembly of large scale components is just around the corner, and a plethora of new materials is about to be unleashed on the market. This innovation exhibits two parallel phenomena. Old materials are being changed by material technology, in theory at least, and new materials such as translucent concrete or carbon fibre are being developed.

Fig 2.2.3 The RoTo Architects’s competition master plan inspired from the patterns of lotus

Fig 2.2.4 The base grid formed from the Lotus leaf patternsRoTo Architects

Many arguments on these new material-based phenomena are concluding to not be really recent. The motif has been something of a resurgence in contemporary modernism as in Herzog and de Meuron’s Ricola Storage Building (1992) with panels imprinted with a photograph of a plant motif. Wiel Arets’s Utrecht University Library (2004) repeats an image of willow trees on glass, precast panels, and cast-in-place concrete. Several projects from practice and academia, depend

on simple geometric motifs relating to culture or biology, which are then applied at different scales to solve various problems in varied ranges of materials , such as RoTo Architects’s master plan competition for a Centre for Art and Culture (2003) in Hefei, China.

Fig 2.2.5 The exterior view of the Edgar J.Kaufmann House, Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright

The same year in which Wilhelm Worringer wrote Abstraction and Empathy, Wright published the first segment of In the Cause of Architecture in 1908.Wright’s ideologies were completely opposed to of Worringer’s. Geometry is not the mechanism for escaping the natural world; it is the structure that underlies it, and abstraction is not a way of distancing it from nature but a way of engaging it. Abstraction was an outcome of conventionalized natural forms. Wright wrote: “[Nature] has a practical school beneath her more obvious forms in which a sense of proportion may be cultivated.” This was, hence, the association of form and material: architectural motifs that were furnished by nature. This impulse of Wright led him to his geometric ornament and conventionalization, which showcases that the quality of materials are more likely to be overlooked than to be portrayed. The Usonian houses were a derivative of a different impulse towards abstraction. In the houses, the disconnection of the material from the natural world through geometry was their virtue and not the opposite. One of the examples of the Edgar J.Kaufmann House, “Fallingwater” (1935), in which one might assume the motifs to be absent, but it is the house which inhibits several types of them. One is the five-sided shape abstracted from the hanging leaves of the nearby forest, perhaps the Rhododendron, which is seen in the light fixtures within the concrete trellis and the steel supports of the curved cantilevered walkway to the guesthouse. The J motif, formed with a semicircle, puts in an appearance here to make some old connections. The J hooks to hang pots over the fireplace are identical to the steel supports for the hanging stair.

Fig 2.2.6 The J shaped steel supports for the hanging stair at the Falling water.

Fig 2.2.7 The patterns of quarried stone formed in the walls of the Fallingwater

The forms of the Fallingwater can be said to grow out of the nature of the materials. If they are not precisely inherent in its materials, they are highly dependent on them. The walls are built with stone quarried on the site, used structurally, as it is in nature, with minimal lintels, and laid in its natural bed. Yet it is in other ways, if not precisely motific, the product of a super-im-

posed geometric pattern. Every third or fourth course is made slightly thinner and projects beyond the wall, marking the 16 inch horizontal module of the building that is made explicit in the long horizontal window mullions.

Fig 2.2.8 The interiors of the Hanna House reflecting hexagonal geometry inspired from the Honey Comb structure

Fig 2.2.9 The plan of the Hanna House by Frank Lloyd Wright, inspired by Hexagonal geometry

As a conclusion, quoting this excerpt written by Fay Jones: “The nature of materials is a very fundamental principle of organic architecture.... Materials should be used in a way that conveys their strength and best qualities, letting each material –whether it is wood, stone, or steel –express its basic nature.” This is the second type of detail, the detail as a manifestation of material. This type of detail is opposite to detail as abstraction, since it is a connection to reality and not a removal. It might be the representation of an inner life; or sculptural expression, or of the reality of inner life –but it is a unity of technique with pattern resulting into a unity of form. The detail as abstraction described the abstract and articulated details, this detail as material expression is about articulated detail made sculptural. This detail hence is not just representing a solution to a problem but rather articulating a sense of its internal forces.This is the detail that emits its inner character by means of animation.

Case Studies based on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Detail as Material Expressionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Japanese Architecture

2.2.1 Great (Bamboo) Wall, China Detail as material expression between spaces 2.2.2 Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre, Shanghai Detail as material expression between elements 2.2.3 Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre, Shanghai Detail as material expression between materials

2.2.1

Great (Bamboo) Wall, China Architect: Kengo Kuma Detail as Material Expression between two SPACES

Fig 2.2.1.1 The walls made of bamboo canes, Great (Bamboo) Wall, Kengo Kuma

Fig 2.2.1.2 Interior View showing the spatial character, Great (Bamboo) Wall, Kengo Kuma

The Great Bamboo Wall by Kengo Kuma was constructed as a part of a scheme aiming to develop series of houses by Asian architects along the Great Wall of China. The massive character of the Great Wall of China was a response to create a division, to shield both their tradition and province from the outer regions. On the contrary, Kumaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bamboo wall portrayed a character of fragility and transparency.

Fig 2.2.1.3 Image showing the light penetrating inside the space, Great (Bamboo) Wall, Kengo Kuma

The walls of the house were created using bamboo canes with varying spacing and thickness, each signifying a distinct level of fluidity from one space to another. The light penetrating from the bamboo walls due to its dappling character clearly illustrates the forests of Asia. Kengo Kumaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aim here was to reinstate the traditional concept of Japanese buildings, which he has tried to achieve through a modern perspective by using light and natural materials in creating a new kind of transparency. Due to the particlization of bamboo, the boundaries between spaces and between the interior and the exterior are blurred. The spaces formed are similar in language but the transition among the spaces create a dynamic impact imperceptible through mere eyesight. Due to the interdependency of the spatial character on the penetrating light, there is a subtle impact of time on the space. Here, the dominating feature is the material expression created by bamboo, that enhances the spaces and the spatial transition.

2.2.2

Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre, Shanghai Architect: Tadao Ando Detail as Material Expression between two Elements

Fig 2.2.2.1 The exterior facade of the Poly Grand Theater, Shanghai -showing the impression of tubes penetrated thorugh the glazed concrete box.

Fig 2.2.2.2 Image showing the expression of material in each element of the Poly Grand Theater, Shanghai

The Poly Grand Theater in Shanghai by Tadao Ando is an example of the use of unusual Platonic geometry. The design of the Theatre highlights five â&#x20AC;&#x153;tubesâ&#x20AC;?, each penetrating through the building of approximately 602,000 sq foot and serving various functional needs.The lobby of the Theater is emphasized by two eye-catching stairways that curve left and right around the concrete wall. This staircase of exposed concrete with the glass railing clings flawlessly to the concrete wall, portraying a brutalistic expression. The many elements of the Shanghai Poly Grand Theater are an example of exceptional material expression. The junction between the floor and the curved surface seen on one of the elevation of the Theater, depicts the effortless joining of the exposed concrete slab and the wall made of steel- clad with aluminum panels as wood finish(elements-floor & wall). Another seamless junction is the joining of the curve with the Facade seen in the top left image, where the steel edge of the curved surface merges with the gridded glazed skin glass facade.

Fig 2.2.2.3 The sun reflecting on the exposed concrete surface, imprinting the grid of the glazed glass facade onto the concrete, all of it characterizing the passage.

Here, the enclosure is an amalgamation of the various exquisite material expressions forming the inner skin of the space. The space is hence an outcome of materiality of elements and the junctions between them.

2.2.3

Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre, Shanghai Architect: Tadao Ando Detail as Material Expression between two MATERIALS

Fig 2.2.3.1 The exposed concrete column and the curved panelled surface junction-the Poly Grand Theater, Shanghai

Fig 2.2.3.2 The surfaces of the Poly Grand Theater, Shanghai

The Poly Grand theater is also an appropriate example of junctions between animated elements used in the built. The junction where two materials meet are not emphasized as much as the materiality of the element itself. But the image formed by the joining of two materials, intensifies the space that holds them.

Fig 2.2.3.3 Facade of the theater showing the grided glass panels with the circular cutout

1-In the first image, the exposed concrete column blends in with the curved surface of aluminium panels finished with wood. The junction is not highlighted but the character of the materials coming together defines the space around it. The second image shows the same materials coming together, resulting into a space defined by the two of them put together. 2-The facade of the Theater, portrays quit a bold expression through the effect of contrasting connection of not just two different materials but materials with dissimilar forms. The materials are stylized, making them define the form rather than the opposite. 3-The interiors of the Theatre also reflect the outcome of articulating the junction between two materials. Here, the shadow from the glazed glass roof falls on the aluminium -wooden finished panels, as a result of the blurred edge joint of the curve panelled wall with the glass roof.

Fig 2.2.3.4 The interior of the Poly Grand Theater, Shanghai

Abstract Diagram : Detail as Material Expression

Plan

3D View

2.3

The Detail as Structural Representation Structure and Weight

When we look at the Seagram building, where the I-beams are just standing for the columns which had to be encased in concrete, there is always a gap between that which we see and that which it represents. —Monica Ponce de Leon The Doric order is a form-metaphor for a once actual structure. . . .[It] is not an absolute part in the Renaissance sense; it is an explaining part in the primitive sense. —Peter Smithson, on the Parthenon The vital aspect of Louis Kahn’s work is that the choice of a specific structural system means the choice of a system of spatial order, not out of technological prerequisite, but out of a conviction that this is the character of the essence of architecture. The lesson of Kahn in specific is that the architecture is about weight. Modernism, was about lightness, be it in art or in architecture. In contrast, Kahn’s approach to monumentality was a heavy-weight modernism. Architecture might be about weight’s absence, its presence, its resolution, or its lack of resolution; or it might be about how it is balanced, distributed, or conducted. If architecture was “about” something else –a view of the world, a manifestation of a society or an intellectual order – weight was the way in which it was manifested. The idea that the architectural meaning to be based on the perception of great mass, weight, and its resolution is not a new one. Schopenhauer said, “[Architecture’s] sole and constant theme is support and load.” There might be the usage of pictorial symbolism and association to convey the ideas in architecture, but those understandings will turn out to be artificial and glib in the absence of a deeper structure. This kind of reading can only develop through our understanding of a building as

the resolution of a series of internal forces in an assembly that communicates these ideas in a more profound and enduring way. The last volume of theorist Karl Botticher’s Die Tektonik der Hellenen, was published in 1851 as the third of the four books. Apart from the almost universal metaphors of architecture as skin and skeleton or clothing and body, Botticher preferred to speak of husk and kernel:

Fig 2.3.1 The Skyscraper by Louis Sullivan

Fig 2.3.2 Modern Art Museum, Texas, Tadao Ando, 2002

Fig 2.3.3 (Top) & 2.3.4 (Right) Column Joint Construction Sequence, Moder Art Museum

“The Kernform (core form) of every [architectural] member is that which is mechanically necessary, the statically functional schema; The Kunstform (art form), on the other hand, is only the functional descriptive characteristic. Though not functional, the Kunstform demonstrated function: These structural components appear in an expressive form that represents most apparently and suggestively the internal concept, the essence of the mechanical function of each component for itself, as well as the reciprocal conceptual-bond-juncture-among all within the whole. This is the decorative or artistic form (Kunstform) of each component.” In 1905 H.P. Berlage condemned the clad steel frames of American office buildings. But in 1912, after seeing Louis Sullivan’s work –he argued the use of clad steel in a structurally expressive way, if not structurally exposed: “In the ‘classical’ skyscraper one is not aware of the iron core or skeleton, although it is the main principle of its construction. In contrast, Sullivan ....began to let the construction show; that is, the stone covering followed the iron skeleton.” Tadao Ando’s Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2002) was a building in the shadow of Kahn, also an attempt to literally build in the manner of Kahn. The concrete in the building is marked throughout with rectangles and grids of small round holes, associating with Kahn’s Kimbell Museum right across the street. The concrete finish used by Kahn (and in theory by Ando) was to leave the surface untouched after stripping away the formwork. At Kimbell, the rectangles marked the plywood formwork and the round holes marked the imprints of the form ties that held them together. On the other hand, in Ando’s building, every other row of the form ties is ornamental, and many of the surfaces were treated after form removal to leave the impression that the walls resulting from form stripping had been perfect. At the same time, many of the real joints are

suppressed. The concrete Ys that support the roof were to be cast in place. Because of the difficulty of vibrating these upright forms, the upper legs of the Ys are precast, and the joint between precast leg and cast-in-place column is hidden. Thus while false joints are added to the walls to make references to historical precedent, the real joints of the frame are hidden, because they are at odds with a predetermined image.

Fig 2.3.5 Addition to the Walker Art Centre, Herzog and de Meuron, Minnesota, 2005

Fig 2.3.6 Educatorium, University of Utrecht, Rem Koolhaas, 1997

Fig 2.3.7 Educatorium, University of Utrecht- Structure

For the contemporary architects to accept the fundamentals of cladding, and to express the structure, the only way to do this is through the expressive characteristics of the cladding. This is not a recent theory as Semper in 1920 to 1970, has talked about the building as body with clothing as a metaphor. The design of Herzog and de Meuronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s addition to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2005) is a highly accelerated Semperian evolution from literal to metaphorical fabric on a steel frame. After investigating various types of metal, a literally translucent fabric exterior was proposed. A mock-up demonstrated that it acted as a giant light to attract insects and the design was changed to perforated metal panels, stamped with a repetitive pattern. The architects argue that it resembles crumpled paper, but the fabric analogy is everywhere. The architects proposed to line the auditorium with organza, and throughout the building, the architects applied a pattern they call paisley, used primarily at transitions from exterior circulation to interior room, at the seams. Rem Koolhaas was unconcerned by the gap between conceptual structure and structural reality, and turned the Corbusian slab into its all too common contemporary descendent, the continuous plane of equal thickness, most conspicuously at his Educatorium at the University of Utrecht (1997), a building that houses an auditorium, cafeteria, and classrooms. Conceptually, the building is a continuous concrete ribbon of uniform thickness that forms the ceiling of the cafeteria and the floor, rear wall, and roof of the auditorium above. We might assume from appearance that the Educatorium is a solid, monolithically structured, bare-bones building of unadorned construction in concrete and glass, with only the curving plywood and its exposed edge as an added layer, but this is hardly the case. Not surprisingly, the thin, continuous concrete plane forming the floor and roof is neither constructionally adequate for all its tasks nor particularly honest. It is too thin to support the long

span above the auditorium, and the tight curve at the rear of the auditorium proved impossible to pour. The first problem is solved rather cleverly, by projecting steel trusses below the ceiling; the second, rather clumsily by building the curve out of cement plaster in imitation of concrete. This is clear on the interior where the plaster framing is exposed, but not at all on the exterior. The curve is visible on the glazed face of the building, but not really exposed as the edge is faced with travertine.

Fig 2.3.8 Wall Section,Educatorium, University of Utrecht, Rem Koolhaas, 1997

The Educatorium was a primary event in the next development of this order: the morphing of the flat slab into the continuous surface, merging wall and floor, ground, and building. Few orders achieved such instant success and instant triteness as the continuous concrete ribbon that soon appeared in the work of Hadid, MVRDV, and Diller + Scofidio. The continuous concrete ribbon is only one example of the creation of the “orders” of modern building, a process made inevitable by the dominance of constructional images over constructional realities and the evolution of those images over time. The result is a constructional style that, in Smithson’s terms, becomes first representational, then ornamental, in this case rather rapidly. Thus the detail as structural representation was about the detail as expressing the sculptural force taking on a structural character. It was about the expression of weight, sometimes about its absence as well. While structural meaning is the key to architectural meaning, it cannot be achieved solely through the direct expression of structure. Direct expression will often be impossible; it can never be complete. There indeed is a necessity for the construction of a narrative, of articulating some pieces of constructional information while suppressing others.

Case Studies based on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Detail as Structural Representationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Japanese Architecture

2.3.1 Sendai Mediatheque, Japan Detail as structural representation between spaces 2.3.2 Tama Art University Library, Japan Detail as structural representation between elements 2.3.3 Mount Fuji World Heritage Center Detail as structural representation between materials

2.3.1

Sendai Mediatheque, Japan Architect: Toyo Ito Detail as Structural Representation between two SPACES

Fig 2.3.1.1 Exterior View of the Mediatheque, Toyo Ito

Fig 2.3.1.2 Interior View showing the column-lattice structure

The key intention behind the Mediatheque, was to design a transparent cultural media centre with a unique support system that provides absolute visibility and transparency with the neighbouring community.From the street, the 6 steel-ribbed slabs, of 15-3/4â&#x20AC;? thickness, appear as if floating. Thirteen vertical steel lattice columns, act as a support system for the slabs, by stretching all the way to the roof from the ground plane. This attractive visual effect is one of the unique quality of the project depicting large trees in a forest, which also functions as light shafts along with being storage for the utilities, network and systems. The spaces on each floor are a free-form, as a result of the structural column lattices fluctuating in diameter as they penetrate through floors. These column-lattices are also independent of the faĂ§ade.

Fig 2.3.1.3 Entire structure of the Sendai Mediatheque, Japan

The tubes of the Mediatheque are precisely demonstrating the internal forces at play and their response to weight. Here, the tube columns, changes as per levels from being a lattice truss above ground to a ductile rigid frame below, piercing throughout the building slabs. The spaces of the library revolve around the structure of the building. There was no need to hide or expose the structure, because its sculptural characteristics were defining the making of each space and of its architecture. The trusses and the frames were dominant connectors between levels(spaces). They apart from being structural were animated into a sculptural expression, providing an aesthetic quality to each space.

2.3.2

Tama Art University Library, Japan Architect: Toyo Ito Detail as Structural Representation between two ELEMENTS

Fig 2.3.2.1 Exterior facade of the Tama Art gallery showing the characteristics feature of the arches

Fig 2.3.2.2 Interior View of the Gallery, showing the predominant arches forming the layout

Japanese architect Toyo Ito interpreted the aspects of a cave into modern architecture. The Tama Art University library is an outcome of this interpretation. The design of the library, consists of an emergent grid of curved lines where the 56 intersecting points are on which the load is evenly distributed. This gave an opportunity for the carving-out of the arches in the desired way, making the part that touch the floor to be the thinnest, much like the stalactites (an element in cave architecture) that inspired the project.

Fig 2.3.2.3 Structure of the arches, Tama Art Gallery

This resulted into turning the heavy concrete construction look extremely light. Due to the floor sloping at the ground floor and the roof slanting at the first floor, no two arches from the 166 arches are alike. They vary in width from 1.8m to 16m, following similar grid on the two levels. Here, the choice of the particular structural system is directly proportional to the choice of a system of spatial order. Irrespective of the technical necessity, the system of construction is defining the nature of the architecture. Here the arches apart from representing construction, are forming the base grid of the floor plan. The single space is separated by the gentle joining of the rows of arches. There is a formation of cross at the junction where the arches meet, which

creates a seismic effect on the structure and the space, apart from emphasizing the directionality of geometry. The detail here is defined by the arches (elements) and by their junctions. The spatial diversity is experienced as a result of variation in arches, providing variation in sensations of being in a cloister of natural light. The arches being a detail of structural representation, dominates the identity of the space.

2.3.3

Mount Fuji World Heritage Center Architect: Shigeru Ban Detail as Structural Representation between two MATERIALS

Fig 2.3.3.1 The reflection of the mountain see in the water pool on the exterior of the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Center

Fig 2.3.3.2 The latticed wood cone structure at the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre, Shigeru Ban

The exterior walls of the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre build by Shigeru Ban are made with latticed wood. The form of this latticed wood exterior wall represents a reversed image of a mountain, which when reflected in the large water pool in the front of it, looks like the mountain. On the inside, a spirally curved slope, takes one from the first floor to the upper floors till the fifth.

Fig 2.3.3.3 The lattice wood structure and the formation of shadow in between the holes Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre

Using a combination of aluminium and glass curtain walls, the design emphasizes the inverted wood-lattice cone structure while providing both interior and exterior views. The iconic “inverted mountain” cone structure of the Fujisan World Heritage Centre was built using 8,000 bars of local cypress linked with lapped joints and rounded on top. Seemingly woven, the lattice is staggered off the wall using small metal spacers. This creates a shadow between the woodwork and the fibre–reinforced concrete panels. The wood lattice is coated with textured white paint, and is structurally supported by 20 inclined H-shaped steel sections at the cone’s base. The representation of the structure is attained through the materiality of wood as a dominant material. This structural aspect of the wooden cone made expressive, through the form and the lap joints, becomes an inherent aspect of

the architecture and the spaces. The wooden lattice structure forms the representative frame clad onto the real structure. The role of the detail here was to portray a structurally aesthetic wooden construction while hiding the complex reality.

Abstract Diagram : Detail as Structural Representation

Plan

3D View

2.4

The Detail as Joint Abstraction and Joint

The architect must look for the rational constructions and forms for edges and joints..... Details express what the basic idea of the design requires at the relevant point in the object: belonging or separation, tension or lightness, friction, solidity, fragility. --Peter Zumthor Good joinery .....should be thought of as an investment, an unseen morality. --George Nakashima Fig 2.4.1 The East Porch of the Erechtheum (406 BCE)

“It is possible to observe,” wrote Marco Frascari, “that any architectural element described as a detail is a joint. Detail can be ‘material joints,’ in the case of a capital, ....or they can be ‘formal joints’ as in the case of a porch.” Defining Joints

Fig 2.4.2 Column to Entablature joint :The East Porch of the Erechtheum (406 BCE)

Fig 2.4.3 Column to plinth joint: The East Porch of the Erechtheum (406 BCE)

The Erechtheum’s East Porch (406 BCE) is made up of a plinth, six columns, and an entablature; these parts join in two ways. In the column shaft the four drums are flawlessly connected, without trim, and the joints in the original building were likely to be hidden; these are invisible joints. Contrastingly, the column-to-entablature or columnto-plinth joints, are excessively decorated, with volutes at the top, tori and scotia at the bottom. These elements apart from being architectural are as much artistic, and for some, a depiction of an inner force. This joint type is rightly termed as an Animated Joint. The combined outcome of these hidden and animated joints makes it difficult to draw a line between actual number of parts and the apparent number of parts, which in this case are not the same.

In the modern building, the number of apparent parts is a tiny fraction of the reality, and the number of articulated joints is a tiny fraction of total number of joints. There is hence another type of joint, the one between the frieze and the cornice. The parts are perceptible as parts, but there is no particular emphasis given to their joining; there are no moldings. These joints are hence termed as to be Adjacent Joints. The Modern Organism To H. P. Berlage, concrete made a joint-less modernism technically possible. According to him the modern building was an organism, corresponding to the human body: “Just as in the human body the external form is an indirect reflection of the skeleton—I say indirect, because the envelope of flesh follows in essence the core of the skeleton but at certain points deviates from it to form denser areas—so the concrete envelope could correspond to the structure in the same way and could also show the same deviations at certain points determined by aesthetic considerations.” Fig 2.4.4 (left) Amsterdam Stock Exchange, H. P. Berlage, 1903 Fig 2.4.5 (right) Truss-to-wall Joint: Amsterdam Stock Exchange, H. P. Berlage, 1903

Wright agreed to the above statement and affirmed that it was through Concrete that the joint-less building was possible. The result of this joint-less architecture was indeed not a repressive monolith, but rather an organism. Both Wright and Berlage were aware of their transition into a new phase of machine age, where the modern architecture is rather an organic unity and not a mechanism. Berlage’s Amsterdam Stock Exchange building (1903) was one of the most mechanistic, most animated and the one that has least continuous joints in modernism.

Fig 2.4.6 Part Section-Amsterdam Stock Exchange, H. P. Berlage, 1903

Fig 2.4.7 Interior View showing the materials of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, H. P. Berlage, 1903

The joint of the steel arch and brick pier is structurally continuous since it completes the catenary line of the arch, but discontinuous since the end of the truss sits on a pin, allowing the connection to rotate. This is an example of the dissonant joint, one that is conceptually at odds with its container, but belongs there nevertheless. It is a moving joint in a static building, a mechanism within an organism. It is not just discontinuous, but animated by an articulation of movement within the otherwise immobile mass of the brick

vessel. It is a resolution of a contradictory aspect of the building, that the monolithic, stable brick mass is covered by a light, elastic iron frame. This joint is not typical of the building; and if we define the joint as a condensation of the concept of the totality of the building, this is its opposite, a paradigm of another order of joining altogether. The Arts and Crafts Joint The new architecture representing itself to be about absence of joints in theory, the old architecture on the other hand was about the presence of joints in abundance. The Gamble House (1909) in Pasadena by Greene & Greene is an appropriate illustration.

Fig 2.4.8 Porch, Gamble House, Greene & Greene, 1909

Fig 2.4.9 Joint 1, Gamble House, Greene & Greene, 1909

Fig 2.4.10 Joint 2, Gamble House, Greene & Greene, 1909

If not precisely a watch, or even a mechanism, it is certainly an assembly of semi-autonomous parts. Many of the connections do not seem to connect. Each individual piece of wood maintains a recognizable independent form. Beams and columns are interlocked, extended, rounded off, and appear to be fastened with exposed pegs so that the pieces maintain their individual character. Pieces are lapped and notched rather than mitred so that there is a visual discontinuity between elements, even if there is a structural continuity. Even the shingles are spaced with irregular gaps and cut with irregular ends so that they fail to merge into the familiar arrangement of regular rows. To the many, the loose assembly of parts in the Gamble House might appear as a metaphor for a society or system of thought, but the joints hold more direct social message. One intention was conscious inaccuracy, to ignore the monotony and uniformity of the ideal cast-iron in modern work. Here the visible joint played an essential role in invoking the idea of one doing the joining. As per the interpretations given above, the joints of the House are animated, not by scotias and volutes, but by fasteners â&#x20AC;&#x201C;bindings, pegs, rabbets, and dowels â&#x20AC;&#x201C;and every animated joint has a mechanism that describes the manner of connection, and, in doing so, displays its internal forces. The parts, although discontinuous, are resolved through articulated fasteners. In particular, the bindings have the power to suggest great forces being resisted, just as they do in classicism.

Thus, the construction of a building, and with it the relation of part-to-whole, was seen in a variety of ways: as a real or metaphorical organism, as parallel to the organization of a society, as a methodology of thinking, as a diagram of spiritual relationships, or as an explanation of construction. The Body Politic

Fig 2.4.11 Interior, S. C. Johnson Building, Frank Lloyd Wright, Wisconsin, 1939

Fig 2.4.12 Column bases at Porch, S. C. Johnson Building, Frank Lloyd Wright, Wisconsin, 1939

In the S.C. Johnson Administration Building in Racine, Wisconsin (1939) , Wright certainly thought of the dendriform columns as trees, which according to Norris K. Smith were a hypostyle hall, “the chief symbol of the body politic.” To Smith, the grid of columns was a literal representation of society and its members and to achieve this phenomenon visually, autonomy should be created between the structural members of the building and the way they are joined. In contrast to the monolithic brick envelope, the columns of the Johnson Building seem almost freestanding. The connecting beams are hidden by the skylight, making the column minimally connected to any of the other surfaces. The shafts taper toward the ground, and the steel crow’s foot fixture at the base makes a tenuous looking connection even more so. The rotating base joint is necessary because the tree is actually a rigid frame, but there are few if any joints of consequence that could be called articulated in the remainder of the windowless brick and glass-tube block. Wright added a steel flared base in some locations to provide space for telephone and electrical connections. The effect of the column base and the reading of the columns in this way are dependent on the joint’s singularity. Without the monolithic brick wrapper, the reading of the building –whether as trees or people –would have no context in which to occur.

Fig 2.4.13 Lap Joint, Ledge House, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Maryland, 1996

Fig 2.4.14 Column to beam detail, Ledge House, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Maryland, 1996

The exceptional joints of both Wright and Le Corbusier, convey an idea far more essential to an understanding of the building than the joints, present or absent, and this is the reason that through their singularity, they form a paradigm of another order of joining within structures that are opposite to them. Here the intention is not to make the Johnson Building superior to the Villa Savoy, but to show that the joinery of the former contributes to the building in a way that the nonjoints of the latter do not, adding an additional

layer of meaning, one that may be separate from the totality. The Constructivist Joint Peter Bohlin is quick to acknowledge the influence of Rietveld, as in what he calls the “De Stijl” casework of his Ledge House in rural Maryland (1996).

Fig 2.4.15 Isometric View column-to-beam detail, Ledge House, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Maryland, 1996

The major walls are logs, but the house contains three separate languages of wood detailing operating at three different scales. The first is the log walls and skin; the second is the post-andbeam roof structure of resawn timber joined with black metal fittings; the third is that of the casework built of small, square members of identical size joined by lapping rather than mitering, in the manner of Rietveld. The lap joint, although structurally adequate for the job at hand, is considerably less strong and less structurally sound than the typical column-and-beam connection of the large timber frame, and it does a great deal toward establishing the hierarchies and scales of the house. The uniform size of all the casework members and the non-connected nature of the joinery act to deny the weight and structural forces of the piece, in contrast to mass of logs and timbers, placing a largely abstract language in a building that is fairly literal.

The Steel Organism Fig 2.4.16 Rosen House, Craig Ellwood, California, 1963

Esther McCoy wrote that Craig Ellwood’s Rosen House in Brentwood, California (1963), that it had achieved “perfection.”It is certainly an example of a steel building with perfect joints, if perfection means the absence of joints. The typical beam-and-column connection not only appears continuous but, because of the addition of stiffener plates, there is an implication that the beam and column interpenetrate one another. The stiffener plates are necessary because of the large size of the bay, and to accommodate earthquake loads, but clearly there is aesthetic intent as well.

Fig 2.4.17 Wall Section, Rosen House, Craig Ellwood, California, 1963

Fig 2.4.18 Wall Section, Residential Block on the Rua do Teatro, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Portugal, 1995

On the surface, there is a great deal of similarity between the Rosen House detail and the beamto-column detail at Eduardo Souto de Moura’s

Residential Block on the Rua do Teatro in Porto (1995), but the means of connection and the forces being transferred in the latter are made explicit—bolts, visible joints, and the means by which that connection resists the loads, the 45º reinforcing plates. It is the exact descriptions of the specific means of connection and the particular forces at work, a technically descriptive animation within an abstract, otherwise joint-less frame. The Animated Joint

Fig 2.4.19 Loft, Lyon School of Architecture, Jourda & Perraudin, France, 1994

Fig 2.4.20 Gallery, Lyon School of Architecture, Jourda & Perraudin, France, 1994

Fig 2.4.21 Carol Cobb Turner Branch Library, Scogin and Elam, Georgia, 1991

The studio spaces at Jourda & Perraudin’s Lyon School of Architecture (1994) are housed in a light, triangulated wood-frame loft set atop a massive arched concrete base that holds the class and review rooms, a series of concrete cubes with arched openings.Although primarily precast with visible joints, it is a solid monolith in comparison to what is overhead in the studio loft, floor-deep triangulated wood trusses. The loft is very much an assembly of parts that maintain their visual identity, held in a somewhat precarious relationship by a series of highly articulated joints. Not surprisingly Peter Rice was also the structural engineer for this project. The entire structure is triangulated, and the steel end connectors not only demonstrate their pinned, rotating nature but taper almost to a line at the point of contact with the adjacent member. The lightweight assembly of the upper space that is composed of semiautonomous parts and articulated joints is the studio, the space for individuals, and the solid, monolithic concrete base that houses the review space, the place of groups and analysis. The joints were explained as the expression of their structural capacities and properties of the material: “We sought to make the passage of the stresses in the parts legible. . . .The solution was very simple make each piece in the form of a cone. Then all the problem was to make visible the forces which pass THROUGH the blades of the wood to the metallic part. . . .One cannot dissociate from the whole of the building this research on the level of the detail. The arches at the ground floor express the way in which one reduces the forces through a specific form . . . with a continuity of compressive forces, whereas that above one is a systems of much finer forces which work successively in tension and compression.”

These joints are far more than force diagrams. They are animated, as the steel joints reduce the structural members nearly to points at the connection so that they have a minimal visual association. Because of its explicit movement, this joint has an ability to literally animate the structure so that we have a sense of its inner structural life. The Fragmented Joint If the column-to-beam joint of the Rosen House exemplifies perfection, the column-to-beam joint of the covered walk at Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam’s Carol Cobb Turner Branch Library outside of Atlanta (1991) must thus exemplify imperfection. It has little in common with the steel joinery of Mies or Ellwood. The parts are structurally joined, but visibly disconnected and seemingly on the verge of coming apart. Ellwood’s joint was about continuity; Mies’ joint was about autonomy, with a sense of repose; Scogin and Elam’s joint is about fragmentation. The fragmented building is neither watch nor tree. It must appear to be an assembly of parts in disarray, discontinuous with minimal or partial connection. In reality, as a construction, the fragmented building must be a series of connected elements in equilibrium, regardless of what its imagery might indicate.

Fig 2.4.22 Joint/Gutter, Carol Cobb Turner Branch Library, Scogin and Elam, Georgia, 1991

Thus fragmentation is likely to produce a condition in which the actual joint and the narrative fracture are completely at odds with one another. The significant joint, in this case, is not the joint that fragments the building, but the joint that technically resolves the reality of fragmentation without destroying the illusion. These dissonant joints, like many others, convey a different, in fact opposite, meaning then the majority of the details in the building, articulating the act of connection and the maintenance of equilibrium in a building whose overall expression speaks of neither. Conclusion Zumthor describes this type of detail: “Buildings are artificial constructions. They consist of single parts which must be joined together. To a large degree, the quality of the

finished object is determined by the quality of the joints.â&#x20AC;? There are many architects for whom details are not just the essence of detail, but the essence of architecture, for the way one understands the parts of a building and their relationships often become a vehicle for expressing larger intentions. The relation of part-to-whole becomes a metaphor for a larger idea, or at least codifies our relationship to a building in ways beyond structural comprehension. Thus modern buildings, and most traditional ones, contain a reality of joinery and a narrative of joinery â&#x20AC;&#x201C;the actual number of joints versus the number of joints that are articulated and there is vividly an aesthetic necessity for this narrative.

Case Studies based on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Detail as Jointâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Japanese Architecture

2.4.1 Asakusa Culture & Tourism Center, Japan Detail as joint between spaces 2.4.2 Tamedia Office Building, Switzerland Detail as joint between elements 2.4.3 V & A Dundee, United Kingdom Detail as joint between materials

2.4.1

Asakusa Culture & Tourism Center, Japan Architect: Kengo Kuma Detail as Joint between two SPACES

Fig 2.4.1.1 Exterior View showing the facade of the Asakusa Culture & Tourism Centre, Kengo Kuma & Associates

Fig 2.4.1.2 Image highlighting the diagonal shaped spaces fromed between two floor of the Asakusa Culture & Tourism Centre

Fig 2.4.1.4 Part-Isometric View of the Asakusa Cultural and Tourism Centre, Japan

Fig 2.4.1.3 Diagram showing the shape and character of the spaces formed in the Asakusa Culture & Tourism Centre, Japan

The ‘Asakusa Culture & Tourism centre’ in Tokyo is built across Kaminari-mon gate, on a corner lot of 326 sq m. The centre designed by Kengo Kuma & associates, vertically expands, piling up roofs that enclose diverse activities underneath, constructing a “new section” which had not existed in a prevalent layered architecture. The diagonal shaped spaces formed between the roof and the floor, where used to store equipments. By this roof-floor piling, a large volume of air was secured in-spite of its average height, almost near to a high and medium rise building. The roofs, apart from dividing the structure into 8 one-storey houses also define the role of each floor. Due to the different angles of the roofs, there are variations in height from floor to floor with respect to the ground. Hence, each floor holds a unique character and relates distinctly to the outside space. Here, the junction or joint, between the two floors of the Asakusa centre is highlighted on the exterior and defines the interior spaces with its various variable aspects (heights, roof angle) resulting into spaces of distinctive character. Also, since there is an act of stacking different spaces (levels in this case) onto one another, there is a demonstration of the building as parts forming the whole. The joint in the above case is depicting the consciousness of assembly and not just structural expression. Through the detail as joint, there is perception of loads the building carry and transmit, and the stress is put on the connection –black painted on the exterior between the stacked spaces.

2.4.2

Tamedia Office Building, Switzerland Architect: Shigeru Ban Detail as Joint between two ELEMENTS

Fig 2.4.2.1 Interior View of the Tamedia Office Building, showing the timber column-beam joints

Fig 2.4.2.2 Exterior View of the Tamedia Office Building, timber structure under construction

Taking inspirations from the Japanese traditions of “Miya-daiku” and “Sukiya-daiku”, Shigeru Ban designed a wood structure for the Tamedia Office building in Switzerland.

Fig 2.4.2.3 Termination Joints in the timber structure, Tamedia Office building, Switzerland

Fig 2.4.2.4 Column-to-beam joint in the timber structure, Tamedia Office building, Switzerland

The ‘Miya-daiku’ is a characterization of the Japanese temples and shrines and is known for its polished wood details. On the other hand, the ‘Sukiya-daiku’ style is used in the construction of houses and tea rooms involving the aesthetic use of rustic materials. This new office building in Zurich also, represents the Japanese tradition of carpentry in its construction and is hence, made without using glue, nails or screws. The structural timber members are simply interlocked, and an additional secondary structure is used to stabilize their pin joints. The structure is an extension to the present headquarters for Tamedia (a top Swiss media company). Wood was preferred in the construction of the structure for Tamedia, due to its sustainable characteristics, for its renewable properties and also for its aesthetic qualities. The timber gives the building “a unique appearance from the inside space, as well as from the city around,” said his firm. The timber details of the Tamedia Office Build-

ing had no fasteners but still there was a means of connection, of apparent weight. The frame structure highlighted the beam to column and the termination joints, which evoked a consciousness of one doing the joining. The above details descended from the Japanese tradition were communicative of construction through the assembly of parts. The space was hence a result of these parts coming together, which were highlighted by the overpowering connections among these parts.

2.4.3

V & A Dundee, United Kingdom Architect: Kengo Kuma Detail as Joint between two MATERIALS

Fig 2.4.3.1 Interior View of the V & A Dundee Museum, Kengo Kuma

Fig 2.4.3.2 Exterior Facade showing the horizontal stone cladded concrete bands of the V & A Dundee Museum, Kengo Kuma

Kengo Kuma’s first building in the United Kingdom, named as V & A Dundee museum, is also apparently the first deign museum of Scotland. Kengo Kuma and Associates have taken inspiration from the country’s dramatic cliff-formations, translating them into 2,500 pre-cast concrete panels, each weighing up to two-tonnes. Varying the size, shape and placement of these panels resulted in a more organic façade that change over the course of the day, casting shadows and reflecting light that are characteristic of this specific artificial cliff, much like its ancient sisters in north-eastern Scotland.

Fig 2.4.3.3 Facade Detail, V & A Dundee Museum, Kengo Kuma

Fig 2.4.3.4 Interior View of the Main Hall, V & A Dundee Museum, Kengo Kuma

The outcome of this striking structural facade, comprised of horizontal concrete bands cladded in reconstituted stone, were dynamic textures that were susceptible to both natural light and ventilation. Additionally, this banding in the facade aided the building with thermal mass that helped keep the gallery spaces cool in summer and warm in winter. Here the façade was made structural by introducing detail of joining between two materials (the bands of concrete and the stone). The joint between the concrete band and the reconstituted stone, apart from indicating the idea of construction is defining the quality of spaces, due to its characteristics of incorporating natural

light and ventilation. The excessive repetition of the faรงade joint of the V&A Dundee museum, through-out the building, illustrate the building to be an organism composed of disconnected parts. The joint is suggestive of the many interior and exterior characters, highlighting its role in enriching the spatiality of the built.

Abstract Diagram : Detail as Joint

Plan

3D View

2.5

The Detail as Dissonant Element Scale & Dissonance

Obviously detailing does not necessarily depend on an overall guiding concept; even if it has inherent relations with such a concept, it is not simply a declination of general decisions; but gives them form, rendering them recognizable and articulated in their various parts. —Vittorio Gregotti I’m interested in the circumstance when two forms don’t conform to one another but share enough of the congruent aspect to be read as both reinforcing and contradictory. —Eric Owen Moss The handrail detail of Zaha Hadid’s Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati (2003), is an example of detail, that is concerned to be stylistically analogous with the building that it turns out to be functionally indifferent. The handrail in spite of having all the virtues of uniformity lost its sense of being a handrail. The architects to answer this phenomenon said of it as a different design consideration; as they are the points where the hand touches the building. This hence shows that for a detail to be termed as a good detail has to be more than functional accommodation.

Fig 2.5.1 Handrail, Contemporary Arts Centre in Cincinnati, Zaha Hadid, 2003

This detail is the autonomous detail. It is less attractive but more fascinating than the one already present in the building. In this mode, detailing is an autonomous or semi-autonomous activity that follows different rules, responds to different criteria, employs different modes of expression, and follows different precedents than those of the building. These details are not of a piece with the buildings that contain them, in form or concept, but are rather independent, autonomous elements. While autonomous details may have functional origins, they do not all have functional purposes. Many can only be called ornamental; nevertheless their origin is in

the fundamentals of building— shelter, construction, structure, and accommodation. Our immediate engagement with a building, as opposed to our representative understaning, can be divided into 4 different modes: 1- Construction: an awareness of how the building came to be –its parts, and the way in which they are joined and assembled. 2- Structure: an awareness of the forces of gravity and wind upon the building and the way in which these are resisted. 3- Program: an awareness of our own engagement with the building, of how it serves us as a piece equipment to help us move about or accommodate an activity—eating, sleeping, working, or not working. 4- Performance: an awareness of the building as shelter, how it keeps us dry, warm, or cool. The information that for most parts have been suppressed is suddenly brought forward and exaggerated through the autonomous detail. The autonomous detail apart from being autonomous can also be subversive. The subversive detail is an exceptional category of autonomous detail, it is a detail that not only stands separate conceptually, but also shows functional disparity, proposing alternative attitudes, using materials and forms that seem contradictory to the building as a whole. Thus a sixth definition is the detail that is not only autonomous, but also actively subversive—the detail that not only follows different rules, but also contradicts the concepts of the totality of the building. Fig 2.5.2 Wall Detail, Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle University, Steven Holl, 1997

Fig 2.5.3 Knob Covering Lift-slab Hook, Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle University, Steven Holl, 1997

Construction –a change in our awareness of parts and whole Steven Hall’s St.Ignatius Chapel at Seattle University (1997) is an example of lift-slab construction method. It is simple technique, where a concrete floor is poured to form a base. Then another concrete slab is poured on top of the previous one, this slab is then tilted to form the walls. The process requires that lifting hooks be cast into the wall slabs that remain visible in the finished wall. Holl could have possibly masked these construction marks if he wished, but rather he chose to cover them with oval cast bronze covers that dot the facade like so many beetles climbing the wall. In spite of it being an atypical detail, it is an exceptional one. The building reveals very

less of its construction, but the accurate location of each of these lifting hooks reveal a minor piece of information under the circumstance. It is the explicitness of the detail in its silent context, a building that is otherwise non-descriptive of its technology, makes it significant. Holl is certainly aware of these contradictions of expression: “An architecture of matter and tactility aims for a ‘poetics of revealing’ (Martin Heidegger), which requires an inspiration of joinery. Detail, this poetics of revealing, interplays intimate scale dissonance with large scale consonance.” The Constructionally Narrative Detail The autonomous joint that is about construction can describe a more complex process of construction, one indicative not just of assembly, but of a constructional history. This particular type of autonomous detail is the narrative joint, one that tells us, often in a somewhat fictive way, the history of the building’s assembly.

Fig 2.5.4 Column, Bus Station for the Sunila Pulp Mill, Finland, Alvar Aalto, 1937

Fig 2.5.5 Column, Villa Mariea (1939), Finnland, Alvar Aalto

Fig 2.5.6 Inverted V column, Mortensrud Church, Oslo, 1999

Fig 2.5.7 Interior View, Mortensrud Church, Jensen & Skodvin Arkitektkontor, Oslo, 1999

Alvar Aalto’s clustered columns are a specimen of autonomous details with a long history. In Aalto’s work, this history is complete, moving from a literal archaic folk technology to a literal representation of it over the course of his career. The clustered columns, as originally proposed in his Bus Station for the Sunila Pulp Mill in Finland (1937), is more expressive of the structural forces at work than a solid column. Here, the column shafts can be added or subtracted as per the variation in loads. They have become vestigial and symbolic, by the time they were used at the Villa Mairea (1939), as an instance the present interior steel columns are there for tactile and not for structural purpose. At the same time, the caning of the living room columns recalls the more archaic wrapping of the sauna columns that are structural, at least in appearance. The actual role of the above column groups is to demonstrate archaic technology, than to be a structural support. The role of these details is to alter the degree of representation. They are handicraft elements in technologically sophisticated buildings, but they are also representative, e.g., historical, elements in abstract buildings. Structure –a change in our awareness of the forces acting within a building, particularly weight

Fig 2.5.8 (left) Tapering catenary-shaped truss, Palazzo dei Congressi at the EUR, Adalberto Libera, Italy, 1942 Fig 2.5.9 (right) Palazzo dei Congressi at the EUR, Adalberto Libera, Italy, 1942

Fig 2.5.10 Bench, Exeter Library, Louis Kahn, Exeter, New Hampshire, 1972

At one point, the typical column grid of Mortensrud Church is obstructed by the replacement of an upside-down V for a column, which enabled the structure to straddle the present rock that penetrates the church floor. This is a conversion of the structural expression, where the conventional structural element instantly attains an atypical character. This type of autonomous detail as structural element is a circumstantial one, a specific condition that requires a specific, non-conforming detail. But there are autonomous details of a structural nature that cannot be explained by circumstance. If architecture is indeed about structure, and structure is about weight, then as the expression of structure is changed so is the expression of weight, and so is the expression of architecture. Adalberto Libera’s Palazzo dei Congressi at the EUR in Rome (1942) is an abstract, monumental, oversized frame, defined by walls and a tightly spaced marble clad colonnade with little structural character. If it communicates anything about structure, it does so in a subtle, minimal way. This is not true of the support of the glass curtain wall behind the columns. A tapering catenary-shaped truss allowed to rotate at its ends, it is a very precise diagram of the magnitude of the forces of wind it resists—large at the middle where the stresses are greatest, small at the ends where they are the least. In terms of the elements of the building that resist external forces, this is not a primary one, but it is the only one so meticulously articulated. This is another type of autonomous detail, the articulation of constructional forces in a building that otherwise denies or simplifies them. Here, it depicts the conversion of structure into an assertion of scale. One becomes conscious of the dimension of the window, irrespective of the building’s abstraction of indeterminate size. Program –a change in our awareness of our own functional engagement with a building

Fig 2.5.11 (Left) Bench, Woodland Crematorium, Erik Gunnar Asplund, Sweden, 1940 (Middle) Bench, University of Minnesota College of Architecture, Steven Holl, Minnesota, 2002 (Right) Bench, Cranbrook Institute of Science, Steven Holl, Michigan, 1998

The plywood panelling of the wall of the Asplund’s Woodland Crematorium (1940) peels loose forming a continuous bench along its length, with the help of an iron support. The travertine facing of the stair rail in Kahn’s Exeter Library (1972) takes on the organic form of a seat, a shape almost unknown in Kahn’s other work, and in a more subtle way, the mankato stone facing of Holl’s bench at the entry of the

Cranbrook Institute of Science (1998) does the same. In Hollâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s University of Minnesota College of Architecture (2002), the Asplund plywood bench is even replicated down to the profile. All the above examples portray a transformation in architectural rules, an intrusion of a strong response to furniture into the existing shell of a building based on architecture. Here, a table or chair made of square, uncurved, and unmolded members can be as indicative of the human body, purely by its exactitude of its size and its evident contradiction from its architectural context. It is not so much that the architecture is built using furniture, as that it is built of furniture that is incomplete without the architecture, and while these tables are not anthropomorphic because of their sculptural quality, they are because of their scale. Performance â&#x20AC;&#x201C;a change in our awareness of the forces acting on a building Apart from the structural and sculptural animations, there are external animations that deal with the building as shelter, particularly with regards to water. The discrete parts of the traditional architecture tended to be the solutions to the many concerns of building performance. They depicted how water is kept out or how a material is supported, through the use of copings and sills to stop and shed water, and lintels to support masonry. On the other hand the modernist detail, favours to eliminate or minimize these elements while still serving the purpose. There are some themes of traditional and modern architecture, in which there is an exaggerated expression of performance by the exaggerated design of these elements.

Fig 2.5.12 Exterior View, Clare College Hostel, Ralph Erkine, United Kingdom, 1969

The Victorian master of this type of detail was Frank Furness, and his tools were the oversized, over-designed lintel and sill, but the most common of the oversized but isolated performance detail is the enlarged gutter, one that saw great popularity among Brutalist architects. The oversized gutter, which was not confined to concrete, also has a long, autonomous history, although its chain of details is less formally consistent. The roof and balcony drains of Ralph Erskineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Clare Hall Hostel in Cambridge (1969) seem designed for a deluge of biblical proportions. They are literally monumental, comprised of large timber downspouts, concrete scuppers,

and open drains cut into the ground to create a vastly over-designed drainage network that winds its way between the buildings down to the River Cam. It forms a striking contrast to a typical Wright Prairie house, in which the rainwater drops from a small short pipe through the air for a distance of over fifteen feet to a sunken basin below. Wright does not quite make the detail invisible, but he minimizes it. Erskine, by contrast, enlarges it to the scale of the building and beyond. Conclusion Fig 2.5.13 Gutters, Clare College Hostel, Ralph Erkine, United Kingdom, 1969

The awareness of joining, for example, is at times a clear product of the awareness of structural forces, and many or perhaps all animations have structural implications, but the ultimate effect of any animation is to alter the perception of a building at an isolated point toward empathy and away from abstraction, to use Worringerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s terms. It is clear that the autonomous detail, if not the most common type of detail, is the most significant. We may perceive a single building as abstract or animated, but rarely in equal quantities. The autonomous detail is the manifestation of one of these sensibilities in the context of anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the vital in the inert, the naturalistic in the abstract. The expression of both sensibilities is an essential condition for a true architectural understanding. It is the role of a detail not to resolve this contradiction, but to articulate it.

Case Studies based on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Detail as Dissonant Elementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Japanese Architecture

2.5.1 K-Museum, Japan Detail as dissonant element between spaces 2.5.2 The Ark, Kyoto, Japan Detail as dissonant element between elements 2.5.3 M2 Building, Tokyo, Japan Detail as dissonant element between materials

2.5.1

K-Museum, Japan Architect: Makoto Sei Watanabe The Detail as Dissonant Element between SPACES

Fig 2.5.1.1 Combination of metal rectangualr units forming the K-Museum, Japan

Fig 2.5.1.2 Exterior View of the K-Museum, Makoto Sei Watanabe, Japan

The K-Museum was constructed as a part of the first wave of building in the newly progressing â&#x20AC;&#x153;Tokyo Waterfront City,â&#x20AC;? situated at the head of Tokyo Bay on an artificial island. The architect Makoto Sei Watanabe designed the interiors intending to make evident the infinite, networks of energy, information, and utilities. The interaction amongst distinct components of the building defines the character of the city complex beyond conception by a solitary model of measurement.

Fig 2.5.1.3 Exterior View of the K-Museum, showing the surrounding curved surfaces

The Museum renders itself to be an urban structure based on the principle of combination of simple units producing a complex whole. The lucid and abstract forms of the metal components, combines to create a diverse and complex body (whole). The variations in the angle of the reflecting plane deviates the light and intensify the movements of the sun. As a consequence our perception of the forms varies according to the passage of time. Thus, apart from the combination of limited materials and forms made complex, a further exaggeration is added through the medium of light. Furthermore, there is the use of three-dimensional curved surfaces in the surrounding structure , contradicting the rectangular units of the museum. The Autonomous detail between the rectangular units of the K-Museum, is the reason behind the undulations and the conceptualization of spaces. Here, the building and the spaces are an outcome of the dissonant junctions between the rectangular units. The Museum shows a strong sense of direction as a result of the detail that

creates a dynamic character of the form. The abstraction of connection among the rectangular units at the K-Museum, makes the form appear visually prominent. The autonomous detail of these linking units, conveyed the message (concept of a city in this case) which the architecture would have failed to convey, in its absence.

2.5.2

The Ark, Kyoto, Japan Architect: Shin Takamatsu The Detail as Dissonant Element through ELEMENTS

Fig 2.5.2.1 Exterior View of the Ark, Tokyo Japan by Shin Takamatsu

Fig 2.5.2.2 The machinic forms of ‘The Ark’, Japan by Shin Takamatsu

The dental clinic ‘The Ark’, refers to the surrounding in a non-binding manner, drawing a metaphor of a locomotive from the vicinity of a railway line. This is architecture inspired by industrial revolution – expression of the dynamism of machines, dynamics of form. As Takamatsu says, that from the moment of designing Ark, he feels more like an engineer than an architect. At the same time, as one of Takamatsu’s mechanistic implementations from the 1980s, the building, clearly fits in with the style described as the second machine aesthetics, creating mechanical monsters with bulging eyes, presenting “bones and joints” – a skeleton as a building’s exterior.

Fig 2.5.2.3 Front Elevation showing the depiction of mechanical monster at the Ark, Tokyo Japan by Shin Takamatsu

Unlike the first machine aesthetics (the avant-garde of Mies Van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and others), it was oriented towards lightness, versatility, dynamism, electronics and self-regulation. The hyperbole of force, or a striking figure in contrast to the surrounding, represents the structure as more important than its content. Here the details generated by the amalgamation of the machinist forms, constitute an independent narrative, offering an alternative understanding of the building’s concept. These exaggerated oversized forms used in the Ark museum, convey the exaggerated expression of performance manifesting itself in the presence

of tubes, capsules, & lifts. The autonomous detail here was to create external animations dealing with the forms of the building that portray it to be a set of components that are heavy and machinic.

2.5.3

M2 Building, Tokyo, Japan Architect: Kengo Kuma The Detail as Dissonant Element through MATERIALS

Fig 2.5.3.1 Image showing the expansive Ionic column and its junction with the adjacent component, M2 Building,Kengo Kuma

Fig 2.5.3.2 Front Elevation, M2 Building, Tokyo, Japan by Kengo Kuma

Kengo Kuma designed M2, as an automobile retail outlet for Mazda. The building is a clutter of dentils, corbels, triglyphs and arches that are coming together in different scales.

Fig 2.5.3.3 M2 Building, Tokyo, Japan by Kengo Kuma

The use of glass curtain wall capped by panels is done to control the traffic noise. The real structure of the building is reinforced concrete, but illusion is created demonstrating the building to be a masonry construction. An enormous column with an abridged shaft strikes right in the middle of the pile, with an incongruous scale. The function of this enormous column replicating â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Ionicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; order is revealed in the interiors of the building, where it functions as an atrium with glazed elevator shaft. Functionalism and Modernism are represented by the curtain wall and the highway barriers respectively. On the other hand, the classical motifs depict post-modernism. The intention behind blending these distinctive features, was to convey the inception of a new post-industrial connection. The building was highly criticized. Here, the central replica of the post modern column, with its expansive form blown out of scale and its materialistic character, subdues the building as a whole. The form of this expansive column and its junction with the adjacent components narrates the architectural concept, independent of the character of the other ele-

ments in the building. The detail hence with its aggressive autonomous joints narrates the architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concept, using the shape of the enlarged capital of the Ionic Columns. The autonomous joint of the Ionic column not only follows disparate language but also contradicts the concept of the building as a totality, resulting into a subversive detail.

Abstract Diagram : Detail as Dissonant Element

Plan

3D View

2.6

The Detail as Space-making tool

According to Japanese concepts of space-making “Length of time depends upon our ideas. Size of space hangs upon our sentiments. For one whose mind is free from care, a day will outlast the millennium. For one whose heart is large, a tiny room is as the space between heaven and earth.” --Translated from Saikontan, Yuhodo, Tokyo, 1926

Fig 2.6.1 The ancient art of Japanese Painting

Place is an outcome of lived space and lived time, it is an expression of our state of mind and heart. The above poem with its origins in Chinese language ends with a character which in Japanese is pronounced as ‘ma’. For the Japanese and Chinese who are vigilant towards using language, this ideogram, fully articulates the two simultaneous components of a sense of place: the objective aspect (given) and the subjective aspect (felt). There is a contrast between the translated meaning and dictionary meaning of ‘ma’, where one says it to be a ‘place’ and the other as ‘space’, respectively. In the due history, preference is given to the notion of place over the contemporary idea of space, as a quantifiable area. Christian Norberg-Schulz in the book Genius Loci stated that: “In [our] understanding of nature we.. recognize the origin of the concept of space as a system of places.” It must be highlighted here that a ‘sense of place’ does not contradict an objective understanding of the homogenous quality of space. Rather, it imbues the objective space with an added subjective understanding of lived, existential and non-homogenous space.

As Edward Relph rightly said in Place and Placelessness that “Physical appearance, activities, and meanings are the raw material of the identity of places...” Ma: The One-Dimensional Realm Beam span (hari-ma)

Fig 2.6.2 Isometric sketch of a typical machiya townhouse, showing a doma as a kitchen and workspace (From Nihon no Minka, Gakken, Tokyo 1980)

The meaning of ma here is a line in space, a measure of length or distance. In the historical era, the wooden post-and-beam construction has been the main aspect of Japanese architecture. The distance between the centrelines of successive posts –developed into the fundamental structural unit of the traditional Japanese wooden house. To denote this as a measure of carpentry, the character is pronounced as ‘ken’. (The dimension of ken has varied over time and in different regions from about 10-6 feet in length). All the column sizes and timber dimensions were articulated as fractions or multiples of ken, by the 16th century. Ken was also the origin of the tatami mats, as the sizes of the mat were derived from ken. Ma: The Two-Dimensional Realm Six-tatami room (roku jo no ma) Ma integrated with a number of tatami mats denotes area. The usage of the space is defined by the specific number of floor mats, used in the space. A Japanese would speculate the definite use of the space based on the number of floor mats. From the time of incorporating the tatami mats into Japanese residential architecture, the land area is espressed in 2 ways: the tsubo, an area one ken square measured from the centrelines of the columns; and jo, the area covered by one tatami. None of the measures are exact. The tsubo does not link with the thickness of the walls, while the sizes of the tatami mats keep varying as per region. The square meter is used in Modern Construction.

Fig 2.6.3 Fukinuke-yatai painting techniques by which the viewer is invited to move from scene to scene. (Redrawn from Kasuga Gongen scroll c. 1300)

Ma: The Three-Dimensional Realm Space (empty space/ ku-kan) In the historic times, Japanese carried out the vertical division of space in two parts- one way was by using the sky, which signified emptiness or an absence of content, the second way was

through heaven, which represented an earthly region of habitat.

Fig 2.6.4 Image showing key features of traditional Japanese Residential Architecture

In the present times, ku signifies ‘empty’ in the simple physical sense, and ‘void’ in Buddhist metaphysics. The combined word ku-kan, is of current origin. This word was formed to indicate the idea of three-dimensional objective space, which came from Western influences, as the Japanese language didn’t, had the word of its own. The Japanese structure demonstrates a semantic depiction of space distinct as compared to that of European languages. The following combinations of ma with other characters, illustrate it appropriately: - (do-ma) Work space: especially in farmhouses with stamped-earth floors - (ma-biku) To thin out: making room for plants to grow - (cha-no-ma) Tea room; because of the word “cha” (tea), this denotes space in the home where guests are entertained or the family gathers

Fig 2.6.5 Bird’s-eye view of the rock at Ryoanji (From Izozaki Arata, Ma: Space/Time in Japan, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York 1976)

- (toko-no-ma) Display alcove in the traditional Japanese sitting or guest room for a scroll, flower arrangement or objet d’art The toko-no-ma is an important social connotation for the Japanese life, due to its characteristic spatial and aesthetic concept. It typically caters to the unifying focus between the host and guest, through an act of creation on the part of the host and an act of appreciation on the part of the guest. Ma: The Fourth-Dimensional Realm (ji-kan) Time (meaning: time-place) This is abstract time with no indication of length, beginning or end. In Japanese the ji character that denotes the ‘forward movement of the sun’ is pronounced as toki. Thus “time” is expressed in Japanese as “space in flow,” making time a dimension of space. Indeed, time is essential to human experience of place. Most cultures measure and express time in terms of intervals in space (or at least they did so before digital clocks replaced sundials and watchdials). It is not surprising then, that the same Japanese character, pronounced variously as

ma or aida or kan, can be used to denote either temporal or spatial extension. Some examples: -(ai-no-ma) Literally: reciprocating place 1. A room in between 2. Interval, leisure (ma-jikai) Literally: a close space 1. Close at hand (spatially) 2. Drawing near (temporally

Fig 2.6.6 Image showing the stepping stones to manipulate movement

The dual relation of ma to space and time is not simply semantic. It reflects the fact that all experience of space is a time-structured process, and all experience of time is a space-structured process. A similar presentation and understanding of space as a time and mood structured process can be seen in the layout of traditional Japanese stroll gardens and, on a smaller scale, in the placement of tobi-ishi, (â&#x20AC;&#x153;skipping stonesâ&#x20AC;?) used to make garden paths. By a sophisticated placing of the stones, our foot movements can be slowed down, sped up, halted or turned in various directions. And with our legs, our eyes are manipulated, and our visual input from spatial phenomena is structured over time.

Case Studies based on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Detail as Space-making toolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Japanese Architecture

2.6.1 House NA, Japan Detail as space-making tool through spaces 2.6.2 Yusuhara Town Hall, Japan Detail as space-making tool through elements 2.6.3 Great (Bamboo) Wall, China Detail as space-making tool through materials

2.6.1

House NA, Japan Architect: Sou Fujimoto Detail as space-making tool through SPACES

Fig 2.6.1.1 Front Elevation, House NA by Sou Fujimoto

Fig 2.6.1.3 Sections, House NA, Japan by Sou Fujimoto

Fig 2.6.1.2 Image showing the flexibiltiy of interior spaces at House NA, Japan

House Na was designed considering the desire of the clients to live as nomads within their own home. The spacious interiors of House NA comprising of 21 individual floor plates all situated at different heights, is associated with the concept of living within a tree. Described as “a unity of separation and coherence”, there is flexibility of function provided by the house as per the individual’s requirement. It contains both single room spaces and larger spaces. Due to the undefined program and the separate floor plates, there is a possibility to conduct range of activities at different scales. The size of the floor plates varies from 21 to 81 sq ft. The floor plate are internally linked through variety of stairs and ladders having both fixed and movable steps. Due to the stratification of floor plates to a furniture-like scale, makes the structure to cater to multiple functions such as providing circulation, seating, working spaces etc. Here, the floor plates and its specific size range are acting as Space making tool. The spaces created by arrangement of the floor plates at different levels, form the whole house (building). The spatial character hence, is a result of the arrangement and the dimension of these ‘floor plate’. The floor plate hence acts as a space making detail, by becoming a module that defines and gives dimension to the spaces through its distinct repetition.

2.6.2

Yusuhara Town Hall, Japan Architect: Kengo Kuma Detail as space-making tool through ELEMENTS

Fig 2.6.2.1 Column-to-beam junction, Yusuhara Town Hall, Kengo Kuma

Fig 2.6.2.2 South Facade showing the overhang that replicates the traditional Japanese Construction, Yusuhara Town Hall, Kengo Kuma

The Yusuhara Town hall is a two-storey building, built for the little Japanese community of Yusuhara. It houses public administration facilities, the chamber of industry and commerce, a bank and an IT centre. The façade consists of glazing panels and wooden cladding orienting like a puzzle. The material and the traditional overhang are intended to celebrate the traditional Japanese wooden structure.

Fig 2.6.2.3 The entire structural system made in Cedar Wood, Yusuhara Town Hall, Kengo Kuma

The major structure is organized in a grid system that is supported by columns. Instead of having a massive timber column, Kuma decided to split the columns into 4 smaller members. Beams in 8.5” wide then penetrate between the members of the columns and are stabilized with bolts. The splitting of columns into 4 parts, creats an illusion making the massive column to appear much lighter. This resulted into an experience of lighter atmosphere as the lights can penetrate through the structure. Besides that, by breaking down the columns, it contributes in saving more materials. The grid system consists 5 layers of thick wooden girders. The layering of members replaces the use of massive beams meanwhile allowing lights to get through the system. All the blocks are notched at the top and bottom to fit themselves with the beams. This notching method is inspired by Japanese traditional joinery when the bolts did not existed. All the bolts were recessed and flushed with the members to emphasize the notches. Also, the beams are extended creating a 3’ overhang on the south façade, which extablishes the language of traditional Japanese

construction.

Fig 2.6.2.4 Interior View, Yusuhara Town Hall, Kengo Kuma

Here, the detail of the particlized system of girders and columns, characterizes the space by making it appear lighter. This girder and column system is executed in Japanese Cedar wood. The space is hence dominated by this extensively used cedar wood system, making the impact of the other elements almost negligible. This structure, forms the base in dimensioning or defining the spatial boundary, with the cedar wood textures providing materiality. Also, the characteristic feature of the bolts and notches in the girder, conveys the idea of construction.

2.6.3

Great (Bamboo) Wall, China Architect: Kengo Kuma Detail as space-making tool through MATERIALS

Fig 2.6.3.1 Exterior View, The Great Bamboo Wall, Kengo Kuma

Fig 2.6.3.2 Image showing the fragmented Bamboo walls of the Bamboo house, Kengo Kuma

The walls of the house were created using bamboo canes with varying spacing and thickness, each signifying a distinct level of fluidity from one space to another. The light penetrating from the bamboo walls due to its dappling character illustrated the forests of Asia. Kengo Kumaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aim here was to reinstate the traditional concept of Japanese buildings, which he tried to achieve through a modern perspective by using light and natural materials in creating a new kind of transparency. Through the particlization of bamboo, the architectural space is transformed into an interactive place by no longer being visually measurable. The rhythmic character and the distance between the fragmented parts of bamboo are perceptible only through the movement of human body and not mere eyesight. The detail created by Bamboo as a material, acts a space-making tool and articulates the character of the space. The space is majorly defined by the light penetrating from in between the bamboo canes, through this there is hence a possibility of creating the desired articulation of time.

Abstract Diagram : Detail as Space-making element

Plan

3D View

2.7

The Detail as Articulation

According to Japanese culture of detailing The evolution of Japanese culture has resulted into making it a heterogeneous and homogeneous culture at the same time. The contradictory and complex methodology of Japanese culture to approach design originated from several well-established aspects. The wisdom of design rather than the knowledge of design is best described by Gyorgy Doczi in the Power of Limits: ‘the West seeks knowledge by taking things apart and looking at each separately, the East takes another approach which is to put things together to look for the holistic nature of design, The East seek wisdom instead of knowledge’ (Doczi, 1981, p. 127). If we rethink the above opinions with respect to design and with due importance to the field of Japanese design, we shall observe that the partto-whole relationship is carefully taken into consideration. The detailing considered within Japanese design clearly demonstrates the range of extravagant and rigorous design outcomes.

Fig 2.7.1 Torii gate at Miyajima Island

As the spatial compositions in Japan varied depending on the natural environment, they became experts in dealing with the changes needed to deal with the site. This ability to detail subtle design nuances led them to take details into account at all scales.In the effort to affirm their relationship with nature and comprehend their existence in society, various concepts developed over time, such as the notions of wabi, sabi, and iki. These combined with ‘ma’ and ‘oku’ provided essential elements in the Japanese cosmology. Wabi is the aesthetic sense. It is focussed on naturalness and reserve, and of simple quietude. It is the highly individual aesthetic of simplicity, and was originally promoted by the Zen tea master Sen-no-Rikyu.

Sabi deals with simplicity, but of an aging simplicity. It is an imperfect and quiet sense of subdued taste. Iki deals with the worldly tastes, urban and often subversive. It is an aesthetic that favours decoration (Dunn, 2001). Lastly, oku is a spatial term, much like ma, but instead deals with the centre, the point that extends itself deep to the core of the entity (Bognar, 1988).

Fig 2.7.2 An older Shinto Shrine at Ise

When discussing details, consideration of these elements is essential. In addition to the high degree of detailed dexterity and controlled restraint witnessed in a tea ceremony, the principles of wabi-sabi are nowhere else more evident than in gravel gardens and in the horticultural craft of bonsai trees where nature is delicately controlled into miniature compositions. WOOD-BASED DESIGN Wood has been used as the primary material in construction throughout the history of traditional Japanese architecture. Nearly all Japanese buildings were timber structures until the Meiji Restauration in 1868. In fact, the use of wood has become one of the most distinct characteristics of traditional Japanese architecture. Wood offers greater elasticity compared to stone and brick, and thus greater structural resistance to seismic activity. This is one of the reasons Japanese buildersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; favoured wood. Building Buddhist wooden temple complexes in Japan was so strong that major technical advances in carpentry craft took shape. Woodbased design and wood joinery construction method was so advanced and strongly revered in Japan for its aesthetic quality that was quickly canonized as a symbol of the then political regime. THE JAPANESE CARPENTER: ARCHITECT AND BUILDER

Fig 2.7.3 Abbotsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; residence and gravel garden in Koya-san

The design and construction of all religious complexes and residential buildings fell exclusively to the hands of Master Carpenter and his assistants throughout the history of traditional Japanese architecture. The carpenters of the time demonstrated master-ship as a double builder and designer, architect and construction worker.

The trading tools of the Japanese carpenter were pre-industrial. Construction and design based on wood was done carefully with hand tools. The skills and techniques involved in building wood structures varied from region to region, from schools to schools, and from religious sect to sect. The detailing techniques of wood working varied even within the same group of carpenters from one Master Carpenter to another. STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORK

Fig 2.7.4 Small thatched roof in the gardens of Nishi Hongan-ji

The traditional Japanese construction method is based primarily on a structural framework of wood joinery. The introduction of Buddhism into Japan, however, sparked a remarkably rapid development in the detailing systems applied to wood-building joinery structures, resulting in a sophisticated construction method and building design for its time. Japanese wood joinery is based on a construction bracketing system where each structural member is joined together without any fasteners and braces based on non-wood. The intricate bracketing components were carefully carved from wood in traditional Japanese architecture using preindustrial woodworking hand tools, which were fitted together and held in place solely by force of gravity and also by strength in the joints themselves. WOOD JOINERY It is not an easy task to build any wood joint, especially considering the fact that most of the buildings were built using pre-industrial hand tools for woodworking. Making wood joints requires a skill level that can only be applied correctly and effectively through years of exposure, practice, and experience. Although it is possible to create a joinery piece in a number of different ways, it is not possible to overlook some basic foundations for joinery making, such as the correct layout, the importance of the center line, the direction of wood grain, and the desired end result of a tightly fitting joint.

Fig 2.7.5 Gravel garden in Ginkaku-ji

There is a standard set of joints for different structural design applications in the catalog of traditional Japanese wood joinery, but there are also variations in the detail of each basic joint within each standard set. Construction methods and joint styles applied to a specific structural function vary from region to region and from school to school in Japan.

Case Studies based on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Detail as Articulationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Japanese Architecture

2.7.1 The Kyoto International Conference Centre, Kyoto Detail as articulation of spaces 2.7.2 Komyo-ji Temple, Toba, Japan Detail as articulation of elements 2.7.3 Kagawa Perfectural Office, Japan Detail as articulation of materials

100

2.7.1

The Kyoto International Conference Centre, Kyoto Architect: Sachio Otani Detail as articulation of SPACES

Fig 2.7.1.1 Image showing the Inverted triangle in the interior of the Kyoto International Conferenece Center, Sachio Otani

Fig 2.7.1.2 Exterior View of the Kyoto International Conferenece Center, Sachio Otani

Japanese architect Sachio Otani designed the Kyoto International Conference Centre in 1963. This exposed reinforced concrete construction represents a unique geometric mega structure, which is a modern interpretation of traditional Japanese architecture.

Fig 2.7.1.3 Interior View showing the impact of the inclined column on the spaces , Kyoto International Conferenece Center, Sachio Otani

The International Conference Centre building was designed with an intention to represent a symbol of Japan for the visitors coming from all round the globe. Otani stated that the centre should â&#x20AC;&#x153;reflect traditional Japanese forms as well as the sophistication and practicality of modern architectural thinking.â&#x20AC;? Hence, the shape of this massive conference centre of 156,000 sq m was an outcome of overlapping triangles forming series, and complementing each other both visually and conceptually. Inspiration from the surrounding mountains is observed in the triangle shaped base that is topped by an inverted triangle which again is derived from the traditional Japanese Pagoda. The reinforced concrete columns inclined at an angle of sixty-eight degree forms the most prominent attribute of the Centre. These inclined columns create dramatic impact on the interior space without decreasing the floor area. The space has a capacity to house 2000 people at a time and it also spans over 4 floors. The building is thus an imitation of the principles of traditional Japanese architecture, portrayed

101

through modern concepts. It hence demonstrates the articulation of the use of the reinforced concrete as wood in Japanese architecture throughout the building. Due to the replication of the character of wooden joints in concrete, the building is seen as an amalgamation of part, in-spite of it being an example of brutalism. Also, there is an integration of rectangular concrete bars in the faรงade of the conference centre that gave an indirect co-relation to the wooden columns of the Japanese architecture. The concept of threshold spaces or verandas are also seen on the exteriors and in the interiors, as lobby spaces.

102

2.7.2

Komyo-ji Temple, Toba, Japan Architect: Tadao Ando Detail as articulation of ELEMENTS

Fig 2.7.2.1 The roof of the Komyo-ji Temple representing traditonal Japanese architecture, Komyo-ji Temple, Tadao Ando

Fig 2.7.2.2 Exterior View of the Komyo-ji Temple, Tadao Ando

Komyo-ji Temple was designed for the pure land sect of Buddhism. The main aim behind the design of the temple was to discover every single possibility that wood provided. As per Ando, the above possibilities were already present in traditional Japanese wood architecture, which was precisely about assembly. The building incorporated cutting of wood into several pieces, and the construction took form by the amalgamation of those pieces. Ando through the space wanted to represent the reoccuring of wooden architecture. Hence he created a distinctive structure comprising of different parts, with each one rich in tension.

Fig 2.7.2.3 The interlocking column and beam, Komyo-ji Temple, Tadao Ando

The square laminated wood structure of the temple portrays the traditional Japanese temple architecture and joinery. The large scared space formed in the interior of the temple comprises of 3 layers of interlocking beams, supported by 16 columns in 4 groups. The comparison of this space lined with tatami mat is made with the forest. The interlocking beams and the columns are an example of articulation of the Japanese concepts in the contemporary context. Laminated wood is used here to keep in step with the spirit of traditional â&#x20AC;&#x153;assemblyâ&#x20AC;?, that resulted in a simple style reflecting modern-day building technology. Here, the expression evoked by the structural elements (beams and columns), of

103

the Komyo-ji temple narrates its association with the Japanese historical contexts. The materiality of the spaces is also an outcome of the same. The details apart from constructing the spatial character also narrate the concept behind the same.

104

2.7.3

Kagawa Perfectural Office, Japan Architect: Kenzo Tange Detail as articulation of MATERIALS

Fig 2.7.3.1 Exterior View of the Kagawa Perfectural Office, Kenzo Tange

Fig 2.7.3.3 The Interior of the Kagawa Perfectural Office, Kenzo Tange

Fig 2.7.3.2 The Facade showing the interpretation of traditional Japanese Architecture, Kenzo Tange

The Kagawa Prefectural Office by Kenzo Tange is constructed as an addition to an existing municipal building. The building comprises of an eight-storey square shaped administrative office tower, built along a low rise legislative assembly that is rectangular in shape. Both the halls are constructed using reinforced concrete. In the Kagawa Perfectural Office, there is an amalgamation of the simplicity of traditional Japanese wooden architecture, executed with modernist rationality. In Tangeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind, the ordered geometric frames of the Yayoi tradition dominates the Kagawa building, which is expressed by the post and beam structure. The beams supported on columns are highlighted on the perimeter of the building, supplemented by a grid of finer beams with the beam ends aesthetically showcased on the elevation. All of this is the representation, in concrete, of traditional Japanese timber construction. The faĂ§ade here abstracts the character of Japanese architecture, by using the aesthetics of timber construction in concrete. The same system, the key to joint-less modernism, here became the mechanism to make an assembly of discrete, autonomous parts, using a construction system, that if not an organism, resulted into the difficulty of the articulation of discrete part. The materiality of the concrete was stretched to a greater extent by articulating it as per the properties of timber, which enhanced the spatial quality in a unique way in comparison to the original material.

105

Abstract Diagram : Detail as Articulation

Plan

3D View

106

2.8

Conclusion Detail is the junction between two elements, and detailing is the enhancement of that junction. In architecture, the junctions are observed amongst spaces, elements and materials. -Detail as abstraction This abstracted and simplified detail is playing a significant role in blurring the junctions between the two spatial modules of the Nakagin Capsule, in enhancing spatial flow of the Sky House by abstracting the partition and floor joint, and in creating a bold concrete and glass junction for the Sunday School. -Detail as Material Expression This sculpturally exquisite detail through its materiality is transforming the joints into a novel junction that characterizes the space. This detail in the Great bamboo wall by Kengo Kuma is creating spatial fluidity through characteristic use of Bamboo, and showing the extensive materiality of elements and the junctions between the elements at the Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre. -Detail as Structural Representation in the Sendai Mediatheque by Toyo Ito, is demonstrating the structural forces resisted by the latticed column. This lattice structure of the column being predominant creates a unique spatial character. This same structural detail observed in the Itoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tama Art University library and Shigeru Banâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mount Fuji World heritage centre, defines the space by its aesthetical depiction of resisting the structural forces. -The Detail as Joint between spaces observed at the Asakusa Culture and Tourism Centre by Kengo Kuma, makes the building to be perceived as an outcome of stacking different units. The same detail as Joint observed in the Tamedia Office building by Shigeru Ban, is communicative of the assembly of different parts forming a whole. The V & A Dundee museum demonstrated expres-

107

sive spatial feature achieved as a result of the faĂ§ade junctions. -The Detail as Dissonant Element was created by manipulating the scale of the elements. This dissonant detail in the K-Museum, convey its complexity achieved through the dramatic compositions of rectangular units. This same detail is created by over scaling specific conceptual forms at the building level, observed in both The Ark by Shin Takamatsu and in the M2 building by Kengo Kuma. -The floor plate dimension of the House NA, by Sou Fujimoto through its arrangements at different heights creates distinct spaces, sufficing varied range of functions. The grid system formed by interlocking detail between the beams and columns of the Yusuhara Town Hall, spans the space vertically and horizontally, making itself the dominant character of the hall. Lastly, in the Great Bamboo Wall by Kuma, the spaces are constructed through the bamboo cane wall, creating dappling effects in the spaces. The floor plate, the grid system and finally bamboo walls defined and dimensioned the spaces in the above projects. They functioned as a Detail making the space. -Through the articulation of concrete elements the spaces created in the Kyoto International Conference Centre were dramatic and highly expressive, this same articulation of wood in the elements of the Komyo-ji temple, conveyed the attributes of traditional Japanese architecture. This detail as articulation in the Kagawa Perfectural Office manipulated the brutalist concrete material into the characteristics that wood demonstrates as a material. From the above case studies, the manner in which components meet establishes the character of a space. Assembled objects, assembled spaces â&#x20AC;&#x201C;even arrangements of objects â&#x20AC;&#x201C;constitute assemblies meant to determine the occupants interaction with their environment. There is a direct co-relation between the assembly of objects and spatial enclosures. The act of assembly hence is the predominant function of much of the design process. Designing and detailing the intersection between elements, spaces or materials can define a language that can be orchestrated and utilized to

108

the other connections between these physical pieces as they meet one another. When assembly is looked at as a generative tool, the act of constructing becomes an outline of spatial connection and a source of invention.

109

03 Case Studies 3.0 Introduction

3.0.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.0.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma

3.1 The Detail as Abstraction

3.1.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.1.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma

3.2 The Detail as Material Expression 3.2.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.2.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma

3.3 The Detail as Structural Representation 3.3.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.3.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma

3.4 The Detail as Joint

3.4.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.4.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma

3.5 The Detail as Dissonant Element 3.5.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.5.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma

3.6 The Detail as Space Making Tool 3.6.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.6.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma

3.7 The Detail as Articulation

3.7.1 Katsura Imperial Villa 3.7.2 Nest We Grow, Kengo Kuma

110

3.0

Introduction CRITERIA FOR SELECTING THE CASE STUDIES The major criteria behind selecting the two case studies i.e., the Katsura Imperial Villa, that deals with traditional Japanese architectural concepts and the Nest We Grow structure dealing with the modern architectural concepts built by Japanese architect (Kengo Kuma). The main idea here is to compare and correlate the role, each typology of detail creates on the spatial character. These two projects involved distinct contexts with one using traditional methods of construction and the other going the modern way. The region was hence restricted to Japan to draw significant parallels between the two with a strong cultural base.

111

3.1

Introduction: THE KATSURA IMPERIAL VILLA, JAPAN Set in wooded surroundings within the ancient perimeter of the imperial capital, Kyoto,the Katsura Palace is the finest product of a secular and unofficial tradition. It was built in the 17th century by Kobori Enshu, tea ceremony master and architect, who sought to express his ideals of rustic simplicity and picturesque nature on a larger scale that has been rare to find before. Katsura is not attributable to a single architectural style, nor to a unique project or to a single author, with its extremely heterogeneous mixture of compositional elements, that are perfectly integrated into one another. Bruno Taut read Katsura, as a place in which every element is in perfect harmony with the others, at the same time being perfectly independent as well, giving the villa a symbolic political connotation. The carefully balanced environment considered the fragility of a human and caged its experience within proportions a man could relate to.

112

3.2

Introduction: NEST WE GROW, JAPAN BY KENGO KUMA & ASSOCIATES + COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN UC BERKELY From the Japanese architectural firm of Kengo Kuma and a team of students at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design comes “Nest We Grow,” an elaborate timber community food hub recently constructed on the island of Hokkaido. The wood frame structure mimics the vertical spatial experience of a Japanese larch forest from which food is hung to grow and dry. A tea platform in the middle of the nest creates a gathering space where the community can visually and physically enjoy food around a sunken fireplace. Local foods make up the elevation of the Nest as people see the food forest floating above the landform. Sliding panels in the façade and roof open to facilitate air movement through the structure

113

during the summer and warmer parts of the day. The tea platform sits up into the Nest, keeping it in the warm air created by the skin during the colder months, and in a cross ventilated area during the warm summer months.

114

3.1

Detail as Abstraction The abstraction, here signifies the buildings that show little evidence of their defined environmental envelopes or layers. An architecture that signifies a kind of spatial character, where the connection between the inside and the outside is seamless. The materials cover the space, with imperceptible changes, inheriting seamless details. The primary role of detail in this case is to abstract the building envelope into non-existence, to maintain, largely by the absence of detail, the illusion of spatial continuity.Hence, abstraction here means details that solve the problem but go unnoticed.

115

3.1.1

The Katsura Imperial Villa: Detail as Abstracttion

The Katsura Palace is an appropriate example of standardization in Japanese Architecture. The use of standardized material and dimension has resulted in extreme spatial flexibilty and possibility of expansion.

Fig 3.1.1.1 Fusuma and Shoji screens forming the spatial character, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

Fig 3.1.1.2 The exterior merging with the interior, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

1-Here, the building envelope is abtracted, blending the inside and the outside into each other. Due to the sliding screens, the boundaries of the space were blurred, opening onto the expansive natural beauty outside, which according to the Japanese is called Naturalness. There were no visible doors, or operable windows, or door or window frames. Abstracting the envelope or boundary of the space meant hiding the entry or isolated spaces.

Fig 3.1.1.3 The abstracted or hidden joints of the screens with the floor, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan GSPublisherEngine 0.3.100.100

116

Fig 3.1.1.4 Dimension of the space making elements of the villa Shoji Screen (top left),Fusuma (top right) and tatami mat (bottom), Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

Fig 3.1.1.5 Floor Plan,Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

Fig 3.1.1.6 Interior Layout formed by Tatami mat as the base module, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

Fig 3.1.1.7 Interior View, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

2- Also, through the use of Tatami mat as the

flooring element, the dimension of the spaces were manipulated, depending on the tatami mat compositions . The plan hence abstracted the technical necessities of construction by hiding it with the use of Tatami mats.

GSPublisherEngine 0.3.100.100

This resulted into making the isolated spaces into one big union or whole, since the spaces throughout the villa showed identical character. Fig 3.1.1.8 Joints between tatami mats, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan GSPublisherEngine 0.3.100.100

Fig 3.1.1.9 Diagram showing abstraction of joints in the tatami mat, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

GSPublisherEngine 0.3.100.100

Fig 3.1.1.10 Abstracted Bamboo rain-water drain, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

Fig 3.1.1.11 Image showing the bamboo drain, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

3-In the advent of eliminating the conventional details, there was no evidence of water, and therefore no visible copings, sills, flashing, gutters, downspouts or drips at the Katsura Palace. All of which were inherited in through specific uses of bamboo. The Bamboo gutter and drain detail, inspite of its functional aspect does not interrupt with the aesthetics of the building and its exterior.

117

Conclusion: Here, abstracting the details resulted into enhancing the spatial character by eleminating and suppressing the technical and constructional information. This led to a selective representation of elements that were necessary in serving the function of the space. The details inspite being present, were suppressed logically. Katsura hence, represents the art of building and not mere construction.

Fig 3.1.1.2 Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

118

3.1.2

Nest We Grow: Detail as Abstracttion

Fig 3.1.2.1 Facade Detail, Nest We Grow, Japan

The exterior of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Nestâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (the structure) demonstrates itself to be a simple structure, due to the unambiguous facade comprising of the base wall and the perforated panels. The use of polycarbonate sheet on the exterior of the building covered the dense timber construction of the structure behind it (from the exterior). Here, the abstraction of the shell (facade) conveys the two quality of the Nest; one is solid (platform/base) and the other is the perforation or a sense of lightness. The wall at the base of the building, constructed to block the prevailing Northwest winter winds, appears to be permanent or fixed from the base. The offset between the polycarbonate sheet facade and the base wall, expresses the distinction of the two structures, making the above structure to appear lighter due to the reflections of the timber structure beneath it. The interior spaces are perceived as continuous and a sense of spatial flow is experienced. This is achieved due to the abstraction in levels and due to absence of any solid vertical division. The hanging planter boxes are used to divide the space vertically.

ne 0.3.100.100 GSPublisherEngine 0.3.100.100

119

Inference: Detail as Abstracttion --The detail as abstraction in Katsura Villa involved creating a spatial fluidity through abstracting flooring details and the junctions of the vertical screens. This made possible to achieve a constant spatial language in the interiors, at the same time it blurred the boundaries between the interior and the exterior. --The same detail as abstraction worked in simplifying the exterior image of the Nest, which inherently incorporated a massive timber structure. By this simplification at the exterior level, there came a point where the independent components of the structure appeared to be a whole, which on the interior was hard to perceive. --In both the cases detail as abstraction enhanced the spatial narrative, making the intention behind the built, unambiguous. This detail was not perceived directly but was to be experienced by ones sense while going through the space.

120

3.2

Detail as Material Expression This detail involved manifestation of material. It is opposite to abstraction and aims at developing a connection to reality and not a removal of information. This detail is meant to be highly representational or having the essence of sculptural expression. The detail not just demonstrates a solution to a problem but aims at articulating the internal forces through the emission of the inner character, it holds. The main idea behind the detail as material expression is to look into meaningful relation between form and material. It must derive from an engineered inclination but should be conveyed through its sculptural character.

121

3.2.1

The Katsura Imperial Villa: Detail as Material Expression

Fig 3.2.1.1 Gutter made with bamboo, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

Fig 3.2.1.2 Bamboo Gutter, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

1-The bamboo gutter detail and the bam-

boo-sprig fencing at the Katsura Palace, being executed in bamboo makes an association with the metal gutter pipes and the wooden fences respectively. Both of the associations are based on the conventional solutions given to a specific design problem. Here, the character of the bamboo being hollow from inside makes it a coinciding material with the hollow pipes. Also, due to its flexibility as a material, it was translated into a fence, giving an expression of a weaved element. It was hence a sculptural transformation, carving out the essence of Bamboo and imbibing the character inherent in it through animation of it and sometimes combining with another material.

Fig 3.2.1.3 Bamboo-sprig fencing, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

122

Fig 3.2.1.4 Plaque and windows at the Shoi-ken, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

Fig 3.2.1.5 The Front Gate- Katsura Imperial Palace, Japan

2-On the other hand, a different sculptural expression is observed in bamboo used in the windows and in the facades of one of the tea houses. The bamboo here is stylized sufficing the function of metal railing or grill, providing views but obstructing physical movement through spaces in both the cases. The bamboo front gate at the villa is also an example of the use of material in its natural state and animating it to convey meaning specific to time and place. Bamboo is environmentally desirable and a sustainable material, and most importantly it was a material in its natural state.

Conclusion: The detail mentioned above involved education of the function of the element but with major focus on materials. The extent to which Bamboo was abstracted and animated lead to a relationship of building and place. It showed a timeless character by inheriting the culture and constructional techniques.

Fig 3.2.1.6 Exploded view of the Palace showing the types of materials used in the space

123

3.2.2

Nest We Grow: Detail as Material Expression

Fig 3.2.2.1 The column-to-beam joint through moment connection, Nest We Grow, Japan

Fig 3.2.2.2 Interior View of the structure of the Nest, Nest We Grow, Japan

At each floor level, two perpendicular pairs of glulam larch timber beams intersect each column. The beams nest into 3-inch-wide-by-10inch-deep notches in the columns. The notches are the size of the beams, resulting into a flushed surface. The bolts that hold the composite columns together also secure the beams, completing through the rigid moment connection. Laminated Timber termed as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Glulamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is used extensively throughout the structure. The structure appears less heavy due to the splitting of the beams into two, which in-turn rests on the solid timber column with the help of moment joint. Here, the expression generated from artistic use of timber and from the moment connections, reflects into the spaces of the Nest. The material expression of the structure apart from depicting the function of the element draws ,major focus on the joining of materials (in this case elements of same materials).

124

Inference: Detail as Material Expression --The detail as material expression in Katsura Villa was obtained by manipulating bamboo in varied sculptural ways. The material characteristics of Bamboo were stretched to an extent, to achieve a unique expression specific to time and place. The elements created by these sculptural features of bamboo, were so distinctly new that they appeared to be art pieces which didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t had any historical manifestations. Hence, the details were time and context specific. --The same detail as material expression, used in the Nest We Grow building, helped create a fresh image out of the prevalent timber construction method. Here, the same structure was constructed in glulam timber. The beams of the structure intersecting the columns, split into two and the junction is enhanced by using moment connection. These combination of glulam timber and the dominant moment connection joints, generates a contemporary image of forests through this nest. --In both the cases the material expression conveyed a composition specific to the time and place of the building. The material expression detail played a significant role in enhancing the spatial character by its material artistry.

125

3.3

Detail as Structural Representation The detail as Structural Representation is about the detail as an expression of weight involved in constructing a building. It is about expressing the sculptural force taking on a structural character. The crucial factor here is, between the exposed and the expressed structure and between the frame and the skin. The result has to be a clear distinction between the structure and the non-structure. The detail here makes one conscious of an assembly, of the role each part played â&#x20AC;&#x201C;wire in tension, stick in compression, and the canvas lifting it all.

126

3.3.1

The Katsura Imperial Villa: Detail as Structural Representation

Fig 3.3.1.1 Fig 3.3.1.2 The Bamboo and the reeds used as structure in the roof of GSPublisherEngine 0.5.100.100 The Imperial Gate at the Katsura Imperial Palace the Imperial Gate

1-The Imperial Gate at the Katsura Palace can be seen demonstrating the structure explicitly. The two posts, as well as the ridge pole and outer beams, are unstrapped cork oak logs (a type of wood). The emphasis on the rustic is enhanced by the miscanthus thatched roof and the lattice of the smaller sticks of bamboo: reeds used for the structural parts of the ceiling. The gate portrays itself as an assembly of parts that shows resolution of internal forces communicating the idea behind it in a more profound and enduring way. The vertical oak log, in the Imperial Gate is a support to not only the thatched roof but is also adding support to the Gate. The junction where, the wooden horizontal member pass the vertical oak log,demonstrates its mechanism and the degree of its response to the various loads coming over it.

Fig 3.3.1.3 The Section of the Geppa-Ro, Katsura Imperial Palace

127

2-The ceiling and the ridge-support post in the Geppa- ro at Katsura Palace, also demonstrates detailed structural narrative through the use of natural/ untreated materials as major structural elements.

Fig 3.7.1.4 The ridge-support post of the Geppa-ro, Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto

In the first place, instead of normal roof-support framework seen in Japanese houses, a striking arrangement is observed in which the main ridge support is a bent, unbarked oak log rising from the beam that transects the building from the middle. Further support for the ridge is provided by slanting beams at the four corners.This beam across the middle of the tea house, the upper door track hanging from it, and the frame of the shoji are all relatively thin and delicate. Consequently, through the light character of the elements in space, our attention is drawn towards the roof or upper part of the space, since the construction represents the weight of the roof. The result of this type of construction -characteristic of sukiya-style architecture, is conveying to us the role of each element in balancing the roof and binding the elements of the space together. The form of each part is somehow informing its relation to the whole.

3-Also, the entire structural order that is inherent

in the Katsura Palace, makes the Palace appear floating and in connection to the ground plane at the same time. This structural articulation that is evident in the elevations of the Palace is what requires an absolute clarity, clarity of the structural columns and beams, and of the non-structural infill screens. The structural and the non-structural elements in the construction of the Palace, are rhythmically orchestrated so much so that whole built resulted to be an integrated assembly. The structure was conveying the character of the light columns carrying the load of the weight of the massive Palace.

Fig 3.3.1.4 The Frame structure at Katsura Imperial Palace

128

Conclusion: The Katsura Palace is hence about the narrative of weight and the structural variations helping to carry the load. Here the understanding of a buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inner forces is the mechanism revealing the architectural meanings, making the space to demonstrate the idea its constructional characteristics. The structural expression separates the literal decora-

tive from the one that conveys the role of tradition, history and language on the space.

129

3.3.2

Nest We Grow: Detail as Structural Representation

Fig 3.3.2.1 Column-to-beam moment connection, Nest We Grow, Japan

Fig 3.3.2.2 Isometric View showing the structural grid, Nest We Grow, Japan

Nine larch timber columns anchored in concrete footings provide the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary structural support. To save money, each column is a composite of four 6x6 Glulam (Glued laminated timber) timbers, held together by nine steel plates and 40 bolts. The resulting 12-inch-square columns rise 29.5 feet, recalling the verticality of Japanese larch forest. On first and second floor levels, cross-bracing members bolt into tabs of the sandwiched steel plates. This cross-bracing combined with the moment connections and catwalks at the thirdand fourth-floor levels provide the necessary lateral resistance against seismic and wind forces. The structure of the Nest, hence narrates the role of the elements, the moment connection and cross-bracing in resisting the loads acting on the building. The building hence appears to be an assembly of parts, giving due relevance to the intention behind the design decision. There is visual clarity between the load bearing timber structures and the non-load bearing polycarbonate sheet facade. An unambiguous spatial narration through the structural expression is observed in the building.

130

Inference: Detail as Structural Representation --This detail as structural representation created the image of Katsura Villa as kit of parts. There was a clear distinction between the structural and non-structural components which made evident the various structural forces and the resisting elements. This exposed structure was not just demonstrating the construction but was an inherent aspect in generating a spatial language. The gate roofs of the Katsura Villa conveyed their construction, also creating a sense of hierarchical spatial transition, whereas the several components that created a gridded interior and exteriors by modular division of spaces demonstrated the assembly of parts making a unified whole. --The timber structure of the Nest was scaled to an extent that the spaces were carved out around it. The column and beam construction was no longer thought of as a structural element, due to its intertwining as a spatial element by serving various functions. The structure hence blended well to define the spatial expression. --Here, the structural representation was not direct or obvious depiction of the construction methods, but was a manipulation to achieve an intended spatial feature.

131

3.4

Detail as Joint The role of the detail as Joint is not just to lay out a constructional narrative of a building, but to narrate the relation of the parts to the whole, narrating the various factors that created an expression. Here, the lightness of the components, their identifiable character, and the perception of the parts as an assembly in equilibrium are the factors that are to be expressive of the program.

132

3.4.1

The Katsura Imperial Villa: Detail as Joint

Fig 3.4.1.1 The Joints of the Imperial Gate, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

Fig 3.4.1.2 The key joint between the vertical oak log and the horizontal wooden member, Imperial Gate, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

1-The Imperial Gate is an assembly of parts, since it expresses the joints between the vertical oak log and the horizontal wooden section. The structure of the Imperial Gate is highly articulated, as a result of the way in which the parts or the elements of the gate are coming together. The joints here transform a material into something entirely new, showcasing the new role the element performs. As a result of the character of the joint used in the Imperial Gate, the whole structure of the gate conveyed itself to be a moving or mobile structure, just due to the moving joints in them.

GSPublisherEngine 0.5.100.100

Fig 3.4.1.3 The exterior sketch of the Katsura Palace, showing the columns as the junction between the Ground Plane and the built.

133

2-The Katsura Palace is itself an architecture involving the amalgamation of various parts or elements. The whole Palace is an assembly of kit of parts. The key elements that make the space of the Katsura Palace are the Tatami mats, the Shoji & Fusuma screens, the various wooden columns and beam forming the core structure and lastly the roof as a separate construction of parts in itself.

Fig 3.4.1.4 The exploded view of Katsura Palace, demonstrates that the whole Palace is a composition of various parts

134

The result is a system that conveys of a structure to be an assemblage and less of a unified whole. Here the various joints the ones between the building & the site, the screen & the floor, the screen & the roof are the essence of the solution to the many programmatic and conceptual factors. Here the joint detail is revealing those intentions as a narrative.

3.4.2

Nest We Grow: Detail as Joint

Fig 3.4.2.1 The column to beam joint, Nest We Grow, Japan

Fig 3.4.2.2 Interior View, Nest We Grow, Japan

Three major joints or junctions are observed in the Nest We Grow structure, that are in-turn defining the spatial character.

1-Column-to-beam Joint

Moment connection is used to join the beams to the columns. The sizes of the bolts portray the stiffness of the joint. Since, there are several beam to column junctions, these bolts are present throughout the interior spaces. The moment connections apart from providing the necessary support convey a perception of parts as an assembly in equilibrium. The joint is hence highlighted and considered crucial in characterizing the spaces.

Fig 3.4.2.3 Front Elevation, Nest We Grow, Japan

2-Facade-to-the-base wall Joint There is actually no visible connection between the facade and the base wall of the structure. There is a moderate gap between the two, from which a glimpse of the timber construction behind is obtained. This gap, not being a physical joint appears as a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;disconnecting pointâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; between the facade and the wall, demonstrating the contradicting character of the two (one is solid and the other is translucent). Through the gap, there is a narration of the kinds of structure and material involved in the building.

135

3-Planter boxes-to-the-beam Joint The structure has no vertical divisions except the one on the periphery forming the facade and in the central mezzanine space. The planter boxes are hanged from the split beams, which act as a vertical division in the space. The detail between the hanging planter boxes and the beam is hidden in the gap between the two members of the beam, making the planter boxes to appear floating. Due to this hidden joint, the idea of floating vertical division is enhanced.

Fig 3.4.2.4 The Hanging Planter Box Detail, Nest We Grow, Japan

136

Fig 3.4.2.5 The Hanging Planter Boxes seen on the inside, Nest We Grow, Japan

Inference: Detail as Joint --The detail as joint in the imperial gate of the Katusra Villa conveyed the joining of parts to construct the gate. The joint itself became a narrative irrespective of the other attributes of the gate. The column to foundation joint observed on the exterior of the villa, made a depiction of the whole building to be fixed to the ground plane. These joints in-spite of being simple and repetitive had the power to played a crucial role. --In the same way the joints observed in the Nest, illustrated distinct features like the column-to beam moment connection showed the heaviness of the junction through those massive bolts coming on all the four sides, the unique non-joint observed in the facade and the ground plane conveyed an impactful contradiction between the materials used in the building. --In the above cases the detail as joint, enhanced the character of the joining of different elements. Through equilibrium and contradiction in the above joint details specific character of the spaces became easily perceptible.

137

3.5

Detail as a Dissonant Element The detail here is about the linking of scale and perception. These perceptions involve weight, force, and a certain tactile engagement, and hence the size of the perceived forces is critical. Here is the idea to juxtapose the language of furniture and the language of architecture, or the idea of informing one with the other. The furniture and architecture are two different scales of interaction and the detail is about intertwining one into another, to convey the spatial expression.

138

3.5.1

The Katsura Imperial Villa

Fig 3.5.1.1 The Axonometric view of the Imperial Das at the New Palace of Katsura Imperial Villa

GSPublisherEngine 0.5.100.100

Fig 3.5.1.2 The furniture of the Imperial Das are constructed along the walls of the Katsura Palace. The amalgamation of language of furniture with the language of architecture

1-The Imperial Das in the New Palace is par-

ticularly valuable example of the sukiya style during the period. The volume of the Imperial Das is visually separated from the rest, through subtle variations. The whole Das covers a space formed by three tatami mats. The ceiling is set at a low level, the floor is raised above the rest of the room. Beside the shoin window, are cabinet and shelves, which create arrangements reminiscent to the geometric patterns of the Mondrian. It is known as “Katsura Shelving” or “True Shelving” in Japan. The scale at the Imperial Das is altered in a way that it stands separate in comparison to the other spaces. The furniture -the seating, the cabinets & shelves are inherited in the structure of the built. Hence the character of the space is largely defined by these built in furniture inside the space.

139

Fig 3.5.1.3 The cabinets in the Dressing Room constructured on the wall in a Mondrian Grid, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

2-Cabinets in the Dressing Room of the New Palace and the Shelves in the Middle Shoin

In the above designs, the furniture is not just a furniture piece but becomes a part of architecture. The cabinets and shelves are emerging from the wall, the seating and the levels are emerging from the floor. These small scale elements are engaging in a way that is personal, direct and anthropomorphic, while allowing the qualities of the building to exhibit at the larger scale. This inturn becomes the idea of generating architecture out of furniture. These in-built furniture elements do not ignore structural expression but express the diminution of structural forces that occur at the small scale.

140

3.5.2

Nest We Grow: Detail as a Dissonant Element

Fig 3.5.2.1 Sectional perspective showing the functionality of spaces of the Nest, Nest We Grow, Japan

Fig 3.5.2.2 Sectional Isometric, Nest We Grow, Japan

The structure of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Nestâ&#x20AC;? is such that it interacts with the user in various ways, through its scale. Due to the several platforms added along the structure, there is transition experienced in the interaction with the structure. The working platform is emerging out from the base wall, with many elements and cabinets constructed along the timber structure. With no definite language in the Nest, a spatial freedom is experienced without any dominant furniture pieces or any interior element/elements. This gives any opprtunity for the spaces to be multifunctional, sufficing various requirements. Hence, the detail here through its dissonant character convey, the multiplicity of the spaces. Fig 3.5.2.3 The platform and storage space made along the foundation wall, Nest We Grow, Japan

141

Inference: Detail as Dissonant Element --In the Katsura Imperial Villa, the furniture element of the Imperial dias and the cabinets define the character of the spaces that compose them, by juxtaposing with the architectural language. The space is hence an outcome of the combination created through these furniture. --On the other hand, in the Nest, the entire structure interacts with the user at the furniture scale. The structure in-spite of being massive, have levels and platforms that interacts with the user by serving their multiple functional requirements. Hence, it is no longer perceived to be an independent structure but an inherent functional object, that is continuous in all the spaces. --The detail as dissonant element in both the cases demonstrated a narrative that is a result of transforming the scale and the interaction with the user or with the other elements of the space.

142

3.6

Detail as a Space-making element Here, the detail as space-making element refers to details (joints) that form a fundamental module in the construction of the space. This detail defines the dimension of the space apart from creating the spatial expression. The space is an outcome of a constructive repetition of this detail (module). Due to the dominance of this space-making detail, the other spatial elements are subdued, leaving only the detail to be highlighted.

143

3.6.1

The Katsura Imperial Villa: Detail as Space-making element

Fig 3.6.1.1 Tatami Mat as a module in dimensioning spaces, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

Fig 3.6.1.2 Fusuma & Shoji Screens forming the spatial boundaries, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

The detail here is based on the principles of traditional Japanese culture. The Katsura Palace quit evidently portrays the inheritance of those principles.

1-The Tatami mat of size 3â&#x20AC;&#x2122; by 9â&#x20AC;&#x2122; is arranged in various layouts, which in turn forms the dimension of a room at Katsura Palace. Making the mat as a base module for measurements of the spaces. 2-A horinzontal, additive arrangement of space is acheived by means of movable panels and temporary installations, and not by solid walls. The Fusuma and shoji screens forms the vertical movable divisions of space. The dimension of the screens are similar to the diemnsions of Tatami mats, hence it is put together with the dimensions of the mats. These screens can slide and can be removed as well. They form the temporary vertical partition of the space.

144

Fig 3.6.1.3 The Frame structure based on the principle of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Kenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Japanese Architecture Ken is a distance between two columns, Katsura Imperial Villa, Japan

3-The structure of the Palace is a Frame structure, in which the distances between the columns are defined by the Tatami room dimensions, making it a modular grid as well. The entire construction is based on specific dimensioning elements. These specific dimensions of the elements, and their constructive amalgamation are resulting into a multifunctional, additive or expansive architecture.

145

3.6.2

Nest We Grow: Detail as Space -making element

Fig 3.6.2.1 Section showing the Mezzanine, Nest We Grow, Japan

Fig 3.6.2.2 The timber structure of the Nest We Grow, Japan

The 9 larch timber column structure attached to the ground by the concrete footings, serve as the primary structural support for the Nest, of 919 sq ft.

Fig 3.6.2.3 Second Floor Plan with the mezzanine space, Nest We Grow, Japan

This timber structure comprising of 9 columns, with beams that are split into two, crossing the columns, forms a dominant structural grid inside the Nest. The spaces, are formed with the structural grid dimension as a base module. The mezzanine in the heart of the Nest is constructed in the centre combining 3-4 moment connection joints forming a cube frame. The catwalk area on the other hand is formed around the periphery of the Nest, creating a spatial flow through the square grid of the nest. The dimension of the key structure i.e; the timber construction becomes a module around which the spaces are constructed. It is hence a space-defining detail. Also, in the nest there is no visual demarcation of a wall or of a floor, the grid subtly craves out spaces through the Nest, making the separate components appear as one big whole.

146

Inference: Detail as Space making element --The detail as space making element, in Katsura Villa, defined the entire floor plan of the palace. The tatami mat sizes, and the vertical shoji screen dimensions divided the vertical and horizontal planes of the Villa, making compositions that replicated the Mondrian Grid. These specific traditional elements of Japanese culture, created the spatial dimensions and the spatial quality. --In the Nest We Grow building, the structural grid of the glulam timber construction defined the spatial boundaries. The distance between the 9 columns forming the structural grid, became the horizontal dimension whereas the distance between the two beams, defined the vertical measurements. The space making element here was not a specific module, but a structure formed by combining specific components. --The detail in the above cases defined the spatial measurements. These space-making details apart from dividing the spaces also make the division or the making of spaces visually expressive.

147

3.7

Detail as Articulation Here, the detail as articulation is referred to as making the joint or connection highly expressive, for it to convey its own narrative along with enhancing the spatial character. Detail as articulation works when a simple junction or joint is made distinct through its animated features that serves in enhancing the entire space. By this animation or articulation of joints, each part involved in the formation of the detail comes into being and becomes perceptible. Hence, a constructive assembly of parts is obtained by thoughtful articulation of the detail. Apart from creating a spatial narrative or expression, this detail plays a role in deciphering the role of individual components involved.

148

3.7.1

The Katsura Imperial Villa: Detail as Articulation

Fig 3.7.1.1 Imperial Gate, Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto

Fig 3.7.1.2 Details of the Imperial Gate, Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto

Since Katsura Imperial Villa is an example of traditional Japanese architecture, it demonstrates the detail as articulation at various instances and through various elements and materials.

1-Roof of the Imperial Gate The gate emphasizes the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Mountain-hutâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; aspect of the palace. Cork log is used in the two posts, as well as the ridge pole and in the outer beams. The emphasis on the rustic is enhanced by the thatched roof and bamboo used as the structural part of the ceiling. The thatch and the bamboo in the roof of the imperial gate are expressive of the construction and demonstrate the making of the gate with precision. This character is achieved through the constructive articulation of combination of materials coming together.

Fig 3.7.1.3 Longitudinal Section of the Geppa-ro, Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto

149

2-The Geppa-ro ceiling

There is a contrasting feature in the geppa-ro ceiling as compared to the roof-support system seen in Japanese Houses. This makes the interior more characteristic than the exterior. Here as the main ridge support of the ceiling, a bent unbarked oak log is used, rising from the beam that transects the building near the middle. The slanting beams on the corner provide further support to the roof.

Fig 3.7.1.4 The ridge-support post of the Geppa-ro, Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto

Fig 3.7.1.5 Front Wall of the Shokin-Tei Tearoom, Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto

Here, the key principle underlining the ridge support is that of the balancing man toy (yajirobei). The ridge support is hence an articulation of the balancing man principle so much so that it transforms to become a structural support at a scale much larger than its original scale. This bent oak ridge support forms the key feature of the Geppa-ro.

Fig 3.7.1.6 Interior of the Shokin-Tei Tearoom, Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto

3-The Interior of the Shokin-tei Tearoom

The tearoom at the Katsura Palace is precisely a 3 mat room, with a small extension named as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;daimeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. There is a low door to enter into the tearoom, with an intention to enter on the knees. This gesture of obstructing the view at eye level and articulating it in a way that brings our attention to the arrangement of the tearoom as we enter. This articulation of the detail, affects the user and the space. On the bottom left, is the hearth that is covered with lacquered boards, behind which is a curving log. This log acts as a terminus of a small projecting wall running from midway up to the post to the ceiling. These distinct features of the

150

tearoom are typical of the teahouse architecture, and are aimed at making the tearoom a microcosm in itself. This spatial articulation of space achieved in the Shoikei-tei tearoom is so obtained by the location and scale of different elements at a subtle level. Here, in the Katsura Palace without the use of any apparent space-defining element, the tearoom is defined and modelled by articulation at the surface and through selective elements in the space.

151

3.7.2

Nest We Grow: Detail as Articulation

Fig 3.7.2.1 Planter Box Hanging Detail, Nest We Grow, Japan

Fig 3.7.2.2 Interior showing the hanging planter boxes, Nest We Grow, Japan

Through the articulated detail in the Nest, various spatial features are altered and are made to convey the intended concept behind the structure.

Fig 3.7.2.3 South Elevation of the Nest, Nest We Grow, Japan

152

1-Hanging Planter Boxes The gap obtained by splitting the beams into two is used as a space to hang various objects like plants, fishes and other raw foods. This detail to hang planter boxes is so executed that the hook is hidden between the split beams. The planter boxes hence appear to float from distance. By articulating this detail, the handing points are hidden behind the beams which simplifies the space from those points. By hiding these joints, there is sense of lightness in the spatial character, as these planter boxes also serve as delicate elements creating visual division in the nest.

Fig 3.7.2.4 Column-to-beam moment connection, Nest We Grow, Japan

Fig 3.7.2.5 Isometric View showing the structural grid, Nest We Grow, Japan

2-The moment connections and structural articulation The heavy timber construction is made to appear light, by splitting the beams in to two. These beams traverse through the 9 huge timber columns, connecting with them using the moment connections. Here, by articulating the beams and the column-to-beam junctions, the prevalent image of the structure is orchestrated to convey a distinct image. The heavy construction appears light, and a sense of it to look a Nest is intensified. On the other hand, due to the use of moment connections at the column-beam joint, the resistance to the forces coming on the joint are made perceptible. Here, by articulating the beams and the junctions between the beams and columns, the existent character is manipulated, to achieve specific spatial expression.

3-Bolts in the Poly-carbonate sheet faรงade

Fig 3.7.2.6 Polycarbonate sheet Facade, Nest We Grow, Japan

The exterior faรงade bolts convey the idea behind the fixing of the faรงade to the timber structure. By articulating the bolts on the faรงade, the structure demonstrstes the attaching of the sheet to the base structural timber grid.

153

Inference: Detail as Articulation --The detail as articulation in the Katsura Villa was observed in the roofs of the villa. The roofs demonstrated the articulation of bamboo and wood. The characteristic use of the bent ridge support enhanced the entire space by its singularity. The Imperial Gate roof through articulation was perceived as a heavy construction above the gate. Additionally, the concepts of the teahouse architecture, articulated the space of the shokin-tei tearoom, by subtle accurate placement of the elements inside and around the tearoom. --In the Nest, through this articulated detail the heavy timber construction appeared lighter due to the splitting of beams in the timber construction. The moment connection articulated the column beam interaction, making it aesthetically sound. Also by exposing the bolts on the polycarbonate sheet facade, made its appearance as an element fixed onto something. --The detail as articulation in both the cases was about an extra animation of the detail or connection or animating individual parts that form the detail. The term animation here means highlighting a feature through its exaggerative presence or repetition.

154

Role of Details as ‘Spatial Phenomenas’

155

a- Defining spatial simplicity and complexity 1a Defining Profane & Sacred Mircea Eliade describes the sacred as differentiated space in his book The Sacred and the Profane. Unlike the heterogeneous and unarticulated profane space, the sacred space is unusual and unique. The role of details in moving from profane to sacred is often highly articulated, not limited to religiousness: what is sacred is distinct from what is profane. For example, placing four sticks to form a room on a sandy beach differentiates an otherwise neutral sandy plane. 2a Tectonic Order & Spatial Geometry The construction process is a careful and systematic assembly of elements to form a complimentary whole. Assemblies often form a series of layers, one on the other: the skin, for example, can be built in itself as a series of layers only after completion of the skeleton. Proportional systems or hierarchical patterns, even as the project increases in complexity, help to develop and maintain a sense of order. Alternatively, tangential transitions may blur the boundaries between geometry and geometry. 3a Reconciling Structure & Enclosure The structure and enclosure relationship is one that reflects how we are building today. How these two systems interact is an essential issue in developing not only a clear process of construction but also an understanding of the nature of what supports and what encloses it. An essential characteristic of contemporary building is the differentiation between the structure and the enclosure ; or more generally, the differentiation between the things that hold up the building and the things that enclose it. 4a Harmonizing forms (Mass & Voids) Harmonization of forms is a fundamental aspect of any architectural design project. These forms may be the varied volumes of internal space or varied contexts such as changes in neighbouring building heights, scale or marking an important element. Ranking the spaces of a building into

156

primary, secondary and tertiary categories is also a way of briefly describing and conceiving its essential components.

b- Creating spatial experience and character 1b Response to light/ sculpting light Light in a building is necessary for human activity, but psychologically and emotionally essential for human well-being. Consequently, its modulation can influence how we feel, act, think and know. Throughout the day and year, sunlight changes considerably: the almost imperceptible movement of the sun or the weather change offers a myriad of spatial experiences as a result of the light response of buildings. 2b Relating materials (articulating space) Typically, paths through a building or room differ from the rest areas. This differentiation can be made explicit or implied through aligned doorways by changing floor plane materials or level changes or by walls or colonnades. However, it is the ceiling plane that allows the best path / room differentiation opportunity. 3b Reinforcing Tectonics A buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tectonic form includes the relationship between structure and enclosure, between column and wall, and the types of wall-to-wall ; however, it can be simplified as a description of the bones of a building. These bones â&#x20AC;&#x201D; columns, beams, piers, walls, arches, and vaults â&#x20AC;&#x201D; can be isolated or mixed into complex tectonic systems. This skeletal system can orchestrate or mediate the scale of the sequence. 4b Sensing/ Connecting Scale Buildings are generally part of larger civic settings ranging from dense urban fabrics to rural landscapes. However, a building is, in a greater sense, part of a larger social, spatial and historical setting beyond its own site. How a building is involved in this setting depends on its material, type, use, meaning, and culture sensitivity. The way a building accommodates multiple scales is an important participatory act: civic scale, street

157

scale, and human scale. This multi-scale ability to work simultaneously helps to understand how details such as doors, windows, sills and other small-scale elements are integrated into the larger scale of a building. 5b Sheltering within the space (incorporating furniture) There are moments when elements in a building, such as desks, bookcases, balustrades or stairs, become intermediate dwelling places by accident or design, like engaging with windows or finding rooms in rooms. In these places, the elements become places which act in their original intention but still give a secondary meaning or place. The benefits of efficiency and framing activities are the incorporation of furniture such as cabinets, benches, panels, bookcases or desks into a room. In this case, furniture interweaves with the room as well as becomes an active user. It becomes as critical as the floors, walls and windows in shaping the room.

c- Creating spatial journey 1c Creating membranes Buildings can and are often linked to a site or context by massing, ratio, material, and other large-scale movements, but links can also be more personal. Visual alignments with specific landmarks, window or door framed views, or openings marking the path of the sun often integrate a building and its context on a personal level. Furthermore, it can be part of a transcendent experience to discover links that can only be noticed at specific times or from particular points of view. 2c Experiencing or uniting connections Smooth transitions from one condition to another â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from bottom to top or from side to side â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are often achieved by overlapping elements that are clearly recognizable. Elements interweave with each other in these transitions yet maintain a great deal of their autonomy to form new amalgamated systems. Like gaskets between two parts of the machine or hyphens that join

158

two words, architectural gaskets or hyphens are identifiable elements that connect building pieces. These connectionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;between two buildings or between new buildings and existing onesâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;are interstitial spatial and material connections that enable the two elements to coexist. 3c Interfacing public with private Like plant tendrils or pseudo pods of an amieba reaching out to interface with the environment, a building can reach out, in a sense, to connect with a site and interface with the public domain. These connections can be as simple as the joints of a building that align with those of the paving, low walls that extend into the landscape, or overhangs that protect an entrance. The surrounding context is not residual but part of the building when extended in these ways.

159

160

161

05 CONCLUSION

162

Conclusion

The construction of space narrated through joints The smallest unit, the detail plays an important role in the above examples. In fact, the predominant notion of detail to be a small unit or so called minute aspect of significance is not true. From the above case studies and instances, the detail can be in any scale ranging from being a detail between two spaces, two elements or two materials. Irrespective of their size, details play an essential role in constructing spaces. The detail apart from being a junction where two parts meet, has a capacity of conveying a narrative more profound. This is rightly termed by Edward Ford, in his book The Architectural Detail.... “An expressive structure can follow one of the two modes. One is mathematical: the way we see and understand a truss, a bridge, or a vault as a diagram of the forces at work. It is an understanding that is intellectual rather than intuitive; one that is largely acquired. The second type of experience –one that is at least partially intuitive –is sculptural: the perception of an animation of an inert mass, such as the bulging and expanding of the Ionic order at the frieze, capital, and torus that suggests that internal forces are at work. These ornaments in their own way are no less expressive of structure than a bridge by Robert Maillart. The building is suddenly by structurally expressive elements....Both types are animations of their inner materials. One is engineered, mechanical, and real; the other is sculptural and often symbolic.” (Ford 260) Detail hence if thought on well, can convey design decisions and enhance the spatial character. The above analysis of Katsura Villa and the Nest We Grow structure by Kengo Kuma with respect to the categories of details given by ford demonstrate the distinct manifestation of the types and the varied results obtained spatially. The detail as abstraction, helped abstract the boundaries of the spaces in Katsura Palace, whereas it simplified the structural and non-structural elements of the Nest by Kengo Kuma. The materially exquisite detail in Katsura Palace helped achieve the key cultural aspects of

163

sustainability in the Japanese architecture in the villa. On the other hand, the same material expression in the Nest we Grow, signified the local material and the construction methods used in that region, of Japan. The detail as structural representation conveyed the traditionally acquired construction aesthetics in the roofs of the Katsura Villa, making it look visually heavy. The same detail made the heavy timber construction appear light in the Nest. The detail as joint in the Katsura Villa demonstrated the assembly of parts in constructing the spaces where the structural moment connections of Nest, highlighted the act of joining of the beam and column. The dissonant detail in the Katsura Palace was created by blending the furniture language with the architecture, whereas in the Nest the structural grid demonstrated features at the scale of furniture. As the manifestation of Space-making detail, the tatami mats and the shoji screens were used as a repetitive module to construct the spatial boundary, whereas the dimension of the prominent timber structure in the Nest, defined the spatial dimension. Finally, concluding with the detail as articulation observed in the detailed roof construction of the Katsura Villa, conveyed specific cultural aspects of the Japanese. On the other hand, the timber construction through the articulated moment joints, made the detail appear as an aesthetic decision. Hence, the details with similar categories manifested distinctly, rather conceptually have the power to affect the spatial character and thus affect the architectural narrative. The above inferences affirm that â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;details that compose a space defines its characterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. It also confirmed that the details which exist at small scales or are hidden also play a significant role in generating the spatial character.

164

Bibliography Books Ford, E. R. (2009). Five houses, ten details. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Ford, E. R. (2011). The Architectural Detail. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Frampton, K., & Cava, J. (2007). Studies in tectonic culture: The poetics of construction in nineteenth and twentieth century architecture. Chicago, IL: Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Naito, A., & Nishikawa, T. (1993). Katsura: A princely retreat. Tokyo: Kodansha International. Nesbitt, K. (1996). Theorizing a new agenda for architecture: An anthology of architectural theory 1965-1995. New York: Princenton Architectural Press. Schittich, C. (2002). Japan Architecture, Constructions, Ambiances. Basel: Birkhäuser. Eckler, J. (2012). Language of space and form: Generative terms for architecture.

Unpublished Thesis Richardson, L. (n.d.). Adoration of the joint: Investigation and translated application of jointing methods. A Research Project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture Professional, Unitec Institute of Technology(Unpublished master’s thesis). Weber, P. D. (1991). Beyond bolts: Architectural details, construction, meaning(Unpublished master’s thesis). Anjaria, A. (2011). Details : Construing significance(Unpublished undergraduate thesis). CEPT University.

165

Patel, N. (2007). Making of a ‘real ‘ identifying detailing as a method of contriving ‘order’ in the making processes(Unpublished undergraduate thesis). CEPT University. Khambhayata, S. (2017). Experiencing the ‘Thingness’ in architecture(Unpublished undergraduate thesis). CEPT University. Singhvi, R. K. (2016). Details as semiotic tools for critical reading of architectural narrations illustrated through the works of prof Neelkanth Chhaya(Unpublished undergraduate thesis). CEPT University. Hanchate, V. (2011). Detailing : A carlo scarpa retrospective(Unpublished master’s thesis). CEPT University. Bhatt, P. (2000). Works of carlo scarpa : An investigation into the phenomenon of insert(Unpublished undergraduate thesis). CEPT University.

Websites MA: Place, Space, Void. (2019, April 19). Retrieved from https://kyotojournal.org/culture-arts/ma-place-space-void/ Hays, J. (n.d.). JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE: WOOD, EARTHQUAKES, TEA ROOMS AND TRADITIONAL HOMES. Retrieved from http://factsanddetails. com/japan/cat20/sub129/item687.html Looking East. The Japanese Aesthetic. (2019, February 11). Retrieved from http://architasters. com/essays/looking-east/ Unknown. (1970, January 01). Approaching Chronoshomes : Katsura Imperial Villa. Retrieved from http://indayear3studio-1617s1.blogspot. com/2016/08/approaching-chronoshomes-katsura.html Valenzuela, K. (2015, January 29). Nest We Grow / Kengo Kuma & Associates College of Environmental Design UC Berkeley. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/592660/ nest-we-grow-college-of-environmental-design-uc-berkeley-kengo-kuma-and-associates Yellowtrace, T. (2015, December 27). Nest We Grow by Kengo Kuma UC Berkeley Students. Retrieved from https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/ kengo-kuma-nest-we-grow/

166

List of Ilustration 1.1.1 Holland, C. (n.d.). Invention & revelation. Retrieved from https://www.ribaj.com/culture/ book-review-carlo-scarpa-castelvecchio-revisited-richard-murphy 1.1.2 IMAGES OF MEDIEVAL ART AND ARCHITECTURE. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.medart.pitt. edu/image/England/Cambridge/KingsCollege/ Interior/Cambr-kingsch-Interior.html 1.2.1 FONDAZIONE QUERINI STAMPALIA by Carlo Scarpa. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://theartstack.com/artist/carlo-scarpa/fondazione-querini-stamp-1 1.3.1 THE TELL THE TALE DETAIL. Marco Frascari. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://compo3t.blogspot. com/2013/12/the-tell-tale-detail-marco-frascari. html 1.4.1 Gottfried Semper Carib Hut | ARC resources | Architecture details, Architecture, Traditional japanese house. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://in.pinterest.com/pin/402227810444062314/?lp=true 1.4.2 Modeling History. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.arch.columbia.edu/books/reader/221-modeling-history 1.5.1 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pitt.edu/~asian/week-4/week-4.html 1.5.2 R/architecture - Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stop admiring the Minka typology, such an amazing juxtaposition of spatial simplicity and structural complexity in this section. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www. reddit.com/r/architecture/comments/7k6mve/ cant_stop_admiring_the_minka_typology_such_ an/

167

1.5.3 Elements of Traditional Japanese House. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.danielthiebaut.com/ elements-of-traditional-japanese-house/ 2.1.1 Discussion: “I hope we are always a step ahead of our time” – an Interview with Jan Kaplicky. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://inspiration.detail. de/discussion-i-hope-we-are-always-a-stepahead-of-our-time-an-interview-with-jan-kaplicky-107714.html?lang=en 2.1.2 E-Architect. (2015, May 19). Lord’s #Media Stand by Future Systems http://t.co/zWAbk8K56x #Cricket Ground in #London pic.twitter.com/ o4PQXiQPFb. Retrieved from https://twitter. com/e_architect/status/600689823981117440 2.1.3 Westhope : Richard Lloyd Jones House (cousin) Tulsa OK (1929) | Frank Lloyd Wright | architecture Frank L. Wright | Lloyd wright, Frank lloyd wright, Frank lloyd wright homes. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://in.pinterest.com/ pin/521221356856199994/?lp=true 2.1.4 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.steinerag. com/flw/Artifact Pages/RLJones1985.htm 2.1.5 Westhope : Richard Lloyd Jones House (cousin) Tulsa OK (1929) | Frank Lloyd Wright | architecture Frank L. Wright | Lloyd wright, Frank lloyd wright, Frank lloyd wright homes. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://in.pinterest.com/ pin/521221356856199994/?lp=true 2.1.1.1 (n.d.). Retrieved from https://modulatingruin. wordpress.com/page/7/ 2.1.1.2 Sveiven, M. (2011, February 09). AD Classics: Nakagin Capsule Tower / Kisho Kurokawa. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/110745/ ad-classics-nakagin-capsule-tower-kisho-kurokawa 2.1.1.3 Kisho kurokawa: Nakagin capsule tower building. (2011, November 18). Retrieved from https://

168

www.designboom.com/architecture/kisho-kurokawa-nakagin-capsule-tower-building/ 2.1.2.1 Sky House / Kiyonori Kikutake ⋆ ArchEyes. (2016, March 26). Retrieved from http://archeyes.com/ sky-house-kiyonori-kikutake/ 2.1.2.2 Sky House / Kiyonori Kikutake ⋆ ArchEyes. (2016, March 26). Retrieved from http://archeyes.com/ sky-house-kiyonori-kikutake/ 2.1.2.3 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://ruwimgt.pw/kiyonori-kikutake.html 2.1.3.1 (43), B., (47), T., (43), C., (55), N., & (68), O. (n.d.). Architecture Carved from Light - Tadao Ando’s Church of Light. Retrieved from https://steemit. com/design/@beery/architecture-carved-fromlight-tadao-ando-s-church-of-light 2.1.3.2 Nyawara, B. (2018, January 19). Church of the Light by Tadao Ando. Retrieved from https:// www.archute.com/church-of-the-light/ 2.1.3.3 Idea - Drawing - Fabrication. (2018, December 13). Retrieved from https://in.pinterest.com/derekmhudson/idea-drawing-fabrication/ 2.2.1 Saieh, N. (2011, May 20). Utrecht Library / Wiel Arets Architects. Retrieved from https://www. archdaily.com/136377/utrecht-library-wiel-aretsarchitects 2.2.2 Saieh, N. (2011, May 20). Utrecht Library / Wiel Arets Architects. Retrieved from https://www. archdaily.com/136377/utrecht-library-wiel-aretsarchitects 2.2.3 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.archive. rotoark.com/projects/education-cultural-civic/ center-for-art-and-culture-competition 2.2.4 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.archive. rotoark.com/projects/education-cultural-civic/

169

center-for-art-and-culture-competition 2.2.5 Fallingwater House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, courtesy of Western Pennsylvania Conservancy | A R C H I T E C T U R E | Falling water house, House design, Frank lloyd wright. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.at/ pin/455989531011465846/ 2.2.6 Falling Water Mill Run, PA Frank Lloyd Wright | Falling waters | Falling water frank lloyd wright, Road Trip, Frank lloyd wright. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.ie/ pin/409053578639795975/ 2.2.7 FLW - Falling water. (2017, October 27). Retrieved from https://in.pinterest.com/soboledna/flw-falling-water/ 2.2.8 Lin, C. (2017, September 01). Site Visit / Hanna House or Hexagons on Steroids. Retrieved from https://www.formandfield.com/blog/2017/8/31/ site-visit-hanna-house 2.2.9 Stanford University Hanna House - Architectural Rehabilitation - ARG. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.argsf.com/portfolio/stanford-university-hanna-house-architectural-rehabilitation/ 2.2.1.1 Kengo Kuma Archives. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://larryspeck.com/architects/kengo-kuma/ 2.2.1.2, 2.2.1.3 Great (Bamboo) Wall Kengo Kuma & Associates. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.world-architects.com/de/kengo-kuma-and-associates-tokyo/project/great-bamboo-wall 2.2.2.1, 2.2.2.2, 2.2.2.3 Gibson, E., & Gibson, E. (2017, June 20). Tadao Andoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre captured in new photographs. Retrieved from https:// www.dezeen.com/2017/01/13/poly-grand-theatre-tadao-ando-shanghai-china-yueqi-li-photography/ 2.2.3.1, 2.2.3.2, 2.2.3.3, 2.2.3.4 Gibson, E., & Gibson, E. (2017, June 20). Tadao Andoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre captured

170

in new photographs. Retrieved from https:// www.dezeen.com/2017/01/13/poly-grand-theatre-tadao-ando-shanghai-china-yueqi-li-photography/ 2.3.1 Sullivan, Carson, Pirie, Scott Building. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/a/sullivan-carson-pirie-scott-building 2.3.2 Sveiven, M. (2012, March 02). Flashback: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth / Tadao Ando Architect & Associates. Retrieved from https://www. archdaily.com/213084/flashback-modern-artmuseum-of-fort-worth-tadao-ando 2.3.3, 2.3.4 Ford, E. R. (2011). The Architectural Detail. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2.3.5 Minneapolis. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www. mortenson.com/minneapolis/projects/walker-art-center-expansion 2.3.6 Kroll, A. (2011, March 15). AD Classics: Educatorium / OMA. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/119580/ad-classics-educatorium-oma 2.3.7 Colonnese, F. (2011, July 04). Utrecht, Educatorium. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/fabio_colonnese/5900160119 2.3.8 Ford, E. R. (2011). The Architectural Detail. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2.3.1.1 Sveiven, M. (2011, March 09). AD Classics: Sendai Mediatheque / Toyo Ito & Associates. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/118627/ ad-classics-sendai-mediatheque-toyo-ito 2.3.1.2 Sendai Mediatheque. (2019, May 26). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/lgmstudio/5986329738/lightbox/ 2.3.1.3

171

Behance. (n.d.). Precedent Study | Sendai Mediatheque | Toyo Ito. Retrieved from https:// www.behance.net/gallery/68280195/Precedent-Study-Sendai-Mediatheque-Toyo-Ito 2.3.2.1 Fairs, M. (2013, November 19). Tama Art University Library by Toyo Ito. Retrieved from https:// www.dezeen.com/2007/09/11/tama-art-university-library-by-toyo-ito/ 2.3.2.2 Fairs, M. (2013, November 19). Tama Art University Library by Toyo Ito. Retrieved from https:// www.dezeen.com/2007/09/11/tama-art-university-library-by-toyo-ito/ 2.3.2.3 Fan, W., & Fanwen2. (n.d.). Construction Communication-Tama Art Library. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/fanwen2/docs/final 2.3.3.1, 2.3.3.2 Wang, L. (2018, January 03). Shigeru Ban’s Mt. Fuji World Heritage Center opens in Japan. Retrieved from https://inhabitat.com/shigeru-bansmt-fuji-world-heritage-center-opens-in-japan/ 2.3.3.3 Shigeru ban-designed mt. fuji world heritage center opens in japan. (2018, June 04). Retrieved from https://www.designboom.com/architecture/shigeru-ban-mt-fuji-world-heritage-centreopens-japan-shizuoka-12-22-2017/ 2.4.1 Athenian acropolis. Erechtheion. Athens (Αθήνα). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://ancientrome.ru/art/artworken/img.htm?id=6348 2.4.2 The Erechtheion. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://fysathens.weebly.com/the-erechtheion.html

2.4.3 Greek architectural orders. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://smarthistory.org/greek-architectural-orders/ 2.4.4, 2.4.5 Ford, E. R. (2011). The Architectural Detail. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

172

2.4.6 Detailsinsection.org. (2016, November 01). H.P. Berlage â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Main Hall and Coffee House, Stock Exchange, Amsterdam 1903. Retrieved from http://www.detailsinsection.org/?p=966#prettyPhoto/0/ 2.4.7 Stock exchange building amsterdam - Google Search | SUCH STRUCTURE | Building, Amsterdam, Louvre. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://in.pinterest.com/pin/549791066986124509/ 2.4.8 Ford, E. R. (2011). The Architectural Detail. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2.4.9 Interior Photographs of The Gamble House. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://gamblehouse.org/ interior/ 2.4.10 Jones, T. (2011, May 27). They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t build them like this anymore: The Gamble House. Retrieved from https://communicatescience.com/zoonomian/2010/06/05/they-dont-build-them-like-thisanymore-the-gamble-house/ 2.4.11 New Frank Lloyd Wright Exhibit Gives You a Free Look Inside His Designs. (2017, July 12). Retrieved from https://freshome.com/frank-lloyd-wright-exhibit/ 2.4.12 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.chicago-workshop.com/?p=3177 2.4.13, 2.4.14 Mjobrien architect. (n.d.). Retrieved from http:// mjobrien.com/ 2.4.15, 2.4.16, 2.4.17, 2.4.18 Ford, E. R. (2011). The Architectural Detail. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2.4.19 Lyon school of architecture | art structure | School Architecture, Architecture, Wood architecture. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://in.pinterest. com/pin/180425528802524234/?lp=true

173

2.4.20 (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.com/ search?q=lyon school of architecture&tbm=isch&source=univ&hl=en-IN&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiH76WZ1briAhWVfSsKHSS3BDkQsAR6BAgJEAE&biw=1163&bih=525#imgrc=OTIHNP8X4n0ibM: 2.4.21, 2.4.22 Ford, E. R. (2011). The Architectural Detail. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2.4.1.1 Cifuentes, F. (2012, July 05). Asakusa Culture and Tourism Center / Kengo Kuma & Associates. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/251370/ asakusa-culture-and-tourism-center-kengo-kuma-associates 2.4.1.2 Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center Yu-Chang Tseng Architecture | Design. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://cargocollective.com/ yutsengdesign/Asakusa-Culture-Tourist-Information-Center 2.4.1.3 Kengo Kuma Asakusa Culture and Tourist Center in Tokyo, structural diagram | Architecture | Tourist center, Building concept, Kengo kuma. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://in.pinterest.com/ pin/134896951322081453/?lp=true 2.4.1.4 Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Centre, by Kengo Kuma. (2017, February 15). Retrieved from https://www.australiandesignreview.com/architecture/culture-tourist-centre-asakusa/ 2.4.2.1, 2.4.2.2, 2.4.2.3, 2.4.2.4 Valenzuela, K. (2014, February 24). Tamedia Office Building / Shigeru Ban Architects. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/478633/tamedia-office-building-shigeru-ban-architects 2.4.3.1, 2.4.3.3, 2.4.3.4 V&A Dundee / Kengo Kuma and Associates. (2018, September 12). Retrieved from https:// www.archdaily.com/901892/v-and-a-dundeekengo-kuma-and-associates 2.4.3.2 Ozhisar, H. (2018, October 09). A Living Room For The City: Welcome Kengo Kumaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s V&A Museum Dundee. Retrieved from https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-news/ephpf/a_living_

174

room_for_the_city_welcome_kengo_kumas_v_a_ museum_dundee.html 2.5.1 Fiederer, L. (2016, May 07). AD Classics: Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art / Zaha Hadid Architects. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/786968/ad-classics-rosenthal-center-for-contemporary-art-zaha-hadid-architects-usa 2.5.2 Minner, K. (2011, March 01). AD Classics: Chapel of St. Ignatius / Steven Holl Architects. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/115855/ ad-classics-chapel-of-st-ignatius-steven-holl-architects 2.5.3 Cobb, M. (1970, January 01). Steven Hollâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s St. Ignatius Chapel: A Celebration of Panelization and Making. Retrieved from http://studioecesisblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/steven-holls-st-ignatius-chapel.html 2.5.4 Ford, E. R. (2011). The Architectural Detail. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2.5.5 #Finnishmodern. (n.d.). Retrieved from https:// insta-stalker.com/tag/finnishmodern/ 2.5.6 ArchiloversCom. (n.d.). Mortensrud Church | JSA Jensen & Skodvin. Retrieved from https:// www.archilovers.com/projects/63025/mortensrud-church.html 2.5.7 Saieh, N. (2011, August 31). Mortensrud church / Jensen & Skodvin Architects. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/1929/mortensrud-church-jsa 2.5.8 Most interesting photos tagged with achillefuni. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.flickriver.com/ photos/tags/achillefuni/interesting/ 2.5.9 Seier Seier. (2007, January 08). Palazzo dei congressi, E.U.R. rom marts 2003. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/seier/502576303

175

2.5.10, 2.5.11 Ford, E. R. (2011). The Architectural Detail. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2.5.12 Cadman, S. (2008, March 23). Clare Hall. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/ stevecadman/2354440462 2.5.13 Clare Hall, Herschel Road, Cambridge: Detail of balconies. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.architecture.com/image-library/ribapix/image-information/poster/clare-hall-herschel-road-cambridge-detail-of-balconies/posterid/RIBA19186. html

2.5.1.1 1996 – K-Museum – Makoto Sei Watanabe. (2017, May 19). Retrieved from https://architecturetokyo.wordpress.com/2017/05/19/1996-k-museum-makoto-sei-watanabe/ 2.5.1.2 # Makoto Sei Watanabe. (2010, December 22). Retrieved from https://thefunambulist.net/architectural-projects/makoto-sei-watanabe 2.5.1.3 1996 – K-Museum – Makoto Sei Watanabe. (2017, May 19). Retrieved from https://architecturetokyo.wordpress.com/2017/05/19/1996-k-museum-makoto-sei-watanabe/ 2.5.2.1 ARK, Kyoto Japan (1983) | Shin Takamatsu Architect & Associates | archi :: Shin Takamatsu | Industrial architecture, Architecture, Modern architecture design. (n.d.). Retrieved from https:// in.pinterest.com/pin/557390891363440368/ 2.5.2.2 Janvranovsky. (2015, September 09). Janvranovsky. Retrieved from https://janvranovsky. tumblr.com/post/128707602298/shin-takamatsusdental-clinic-in-kyoto-jan 2.5.2.3 Shin Takamatsu | Shin Takamatsu | Drawings, Construction drawings, Architecture graphics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://in.pinterest.com/ pin/348747564876304020/

176

2.5.3.1 1991 – M2 Building – Kengo Kuma. (2017, April 03). Retrieved from https://architecturetokyo. wordpress.com/2017/04/03/1991-m2-buildingkengo-kuma/ 2.5.3.2 M2 Building by Kengo Kuma in Tokyo . . . . . #m2building #column #architecture #tokyo #japan #kengokuma #postmodern #exterior #facade... | 建筑 | Kengo kuma, Architecture, Tokyo. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://in.pinterest. com/pin/644014815442775071/?lp=true 2.5.3.3 R/UglyArchitecture - M2 Building, Tokyo, Japan, by Kengo Kuma [1600x1600]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/UglyArchitecture/comments/1jm90c/m2_building_tokyo_japan_by_kengo_kuma_1600x1600/ 2.6.1 Ma (negative space). (2019, May 14). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_(negative_space)

2.6.2 MA: Place, Space, Void. (2019, May 17). Retrieved from https://kyotojournal.org/culture-arts/ma-place-space-void/ 2.6.3 MA: Place, Space, Void. (2019, May 17). Retrieved from https://kyotojournal.org/culture-arts/ma-place-space-void/ 2.6.4 Tokonoma. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www. wikiwand.com/en/Tokonoma 2.6.5 MA: Place, Space, Void. (2019, May 17). Retrieved from https://kyotojournal.org/culture-arts/ma-place-space-void/ 2.6.6 Riefe, J. (2016, June 24). Pacific ocean cool: When American Arts and Crafts met Japanese modernism. Retrieved from https://www. theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jun/24/yasuhiro-ishimoto-photography-greene-japan-ar-

177

chitecture 2.6.1.1, 2.6.1.2, 2.6.1.3 Rosenfield, K. (2012, April 30). House NA / Sou Fujimoto Architects. Retrieved from https://www. archdaily.com/230533/house-na-sou-fujimoto-architects 2.6.2.1, 2.6.2.2, 2.6.2.3, 2.6.2.4 Timbertech17.files.wordpress.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://timbertech17.files.wordpress. com/2018/11/glaeserloostrom_expo_bldgs.pdf 2.6.3.1 Great Bamboo Wall. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.archidiap.com/opera/great-bamboo-wall/ 2.6.3.2, 2.6.3.3 Great (Bamboo) Wall Kengo Kuma & Associates. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.world-architects.com/de/kengo-kuma-and-associates-tokyo/project/great-bamboo-wall 2.7.1, 2.7.2, 2.7.3, 2.7.4, 2.7.5 Verghese, G. (n.d.). The Way of the Detail. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/ figure/Gravel-garden-in-Ginkaku-ji-Photography-Author_fig6_258022321 2.7.1.1 Design and Interior. (n.d.). Retrieved from http:// www.icckyoto.or.jp/en/about_us-2/architecture/ design/ 2.7.1.2 Zeballos, C. (1970, January 01). THE METABOLIST MOVEMENT. Retrieved from http://architecturalmoleskine.blogspot.com/2011/10/metabolist-movement.html 2.7.1.3 Gallery of AD Classics: The Kyoto International Conference Center / Sachio Otani - 2. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily. com/403543/ad-classics-the-kyoto-international-conference-center-sachio-otani/51e2e86be8e44e7c880000be-ad-classics-the-kyoto-international-conference-center-sachio-otani-image 2.7.2.1, 2.7.2.2, 2.7.2.3 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.galinsky.com/ buildings/komyoji/index.htm

178

2.7.3.1 Kagawa Prefectural Office. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sosbrutalism.org/cms/15889353 2.7.3.2 Chakroff, E. (2014, March 25). Kagawa Prefectural Government Office - Kenzo Tange (3). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/ evandagan/13415040054 2.7.3.3 Barr, J. (2019, February 18). Do|Co|Mo|Mo|Japan|05 : Kagawa Prefectural Government Offices. Retrieved from https://www.johnbarrarchitect.com/single-post/2018/12/07/DoCoMoMoJapan04-Kagawa-Prefectural-Government-Offices-Takamatsu-Kenzo-Tange 3.1.1.3 Self generated Image 3.1.1.6 Self generated Image 3.1.1.9 Self generated Image 3.1.1.10 Self generated Image 3.2.1.1 Self generated Image 3.2.1.3 Self generated Image 3.2.1.4 Self generated Image 3.2.1.5 Self generated Image 3.3.1.2 Self generated Image 3.3.1.4 Self generated Image 3.4.1.2 Self generated Image 3.5.1.1 Self generated Image

179

3.6.1.1 Self generated Image 3.6.1.2 Self generated Image 3.6.1.3 Self generated Image

180

Appendix Review 1: 23rd January, 2019 Discussion Notes: - To specify and define â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Detailsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; with its relation to Tectonics or poetics of construction. - To gather methods of reading details in a space and justifying them through appropriate case studies. - Defining a specific framework of analysis to read details and understanding their roles in the spatial enhancement. Consideration: -The primary essays of the thesis, construct a base of the meaning of details and its interior architectural contexts. -The 5 key typologies of details by Edward Ford are used to read details in the spaces. -The details are observed in three types, i.e.; between spaces, between materials and between elements and the case studies are selected respectively. Review 2: 28th February, 2019 Discussion Notes: - To redefine the scope of the research and the case studies. - To specify the number of case studies required to convey the principles of detail by Edward Ford. Consideration: -The scope of the research is confined to traditional Japanese architectural projects. - The number of case studies included explain characteristics of details through spaces, elements and materials. Review 3: 19th March, 2019 Discussion Notes: - To develop a constructive framework of the

181

case studies section with inferences for each detail category. Consideration: -The primary case studies are compared on the basis on the typologies of the details with inference provided for each individually.

182