Employing a Concept: Music as Method

architect uses against the opposing arbitrariness and stylistic consistency, as well as a catalyst to unleash experience. 20

Figure 7: Stretto House initial watercolour sketches by Steven Holl In the first phase of Steven Holl’s work, in the late 80s and 90s, the theme of the house is already presented as a mixture of two categories: the American vernacular tradition and his mainspring of research, the “limited concepts”. However important the references to traditional typologies may be, Holl combines them with and adapts them to the client requirements and his own evocative and literary impulses.

21

In the case of the Stretto House, inspiration began with the four masonry dams existing on the site. Holl wanted to use concrete block which is Dallas vernacular; many buildings in Dallas are made of concrete block and metal roofs. 22 Additionally, the need for protection from the scorching Texas sun led the architect to explore the ideas of shadow and overlap. 23

Nevertheless, this house most exemplifies the poetic nature of Steven Holl’s architecture, as well as his method of following an initial concept to its fullest realization.24 Subsequent to its completion, in Parallax, published in the year 2000, he says that “Concepts, the tools one uses to drive design, transcend ideological arguments. We work from a limited concept, unique for each site and circumstance.” . 25 So, in his attempt to release the form of his architecture from the shackles of the modern he now based it on references to music, in this case the fugue stretto, where the imitation of the subject in close succession is answered before it is completed. He imagined that this dovetailing musical concept could be an idea for a fluid connection of architectural spaces. A piece of music was

Figure 8: Existing spring fed ponds

Figure 9: The composition of the roof form according to the musical composition.

20 Francesco Garofalo, Steven Holl (Thames and Hudson), 7; Francesco Garofalo, Steven Holl (Thames and Hudson), 22. 21 Francesco Garofalo, Steven Holl (Thames and Hudson), 14. 22 Steven Holl, Yukio Futagawa, Toyo Ito, Global Architecture (GA) Architect 11: Steven Holl, 1st ed. (A.D.A. Edita), 22. 23Steven Holl, Stretto House (The Monacelli Press, Inc.), page behind cover. 24 Steven Holl, Stretto House (The Monacelli Press, Inc.), 7. 25 Francesco Garofalo, Steven Holl (Thames and Hudson).

chosen for its extensive use of stretto - Bela Bartoks Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste. In four movements, the piece has distinct division between heavy (percussion) and light (strings) with bold overlapping between them. 26

Figure 10: Site Plan of the Stretto House and Guest House

Figure 11: Elevations, Plan and Section of Guest House

26 Steven Holl, Stretto House (The Monacelli Press, Inc.), 7.

Similar to the Bartok score, the building has four sections, and the plan is purely orthogonal, while the section is curvilinear. The guest house is an inversion with the plan curvilinear and the section orthogonal, like the inversions of the subject in the first movement of the score27. Furthermore, beginning with a “limited” concept did not invalidate using principles of proportion or deliberation on rhythm and numbers.28 In one of his concept sketches he prescribes the ordering proportions as 45 percent by chance and 55 percent by mathematical ordering.29 The mathematical proportions were finely-tuned according to the Golden Section ratio of 1:1.618 (It is no coincidence that Bartok composed according to the Golden Section.).30

The materials and method of construction follow the heavy/light and orthogonal/curved rhythm of the concept.31 As the contrast in mass of the bass is emphasized by the physical separation of the light and heavy instruments on stage during the performance, likewise the architectural composition alternates from heavy masonry blocks to lightweight metal roof structures.32

Figure 12: The sketches prescribing the ordering proportions by Steven Holl (top left) Figure 13: Own Diagram identifying the Golden Section in Plan and Elevation

Figure 14: Own diagram associating the construction principles to musical composition principles

27 Steven Holl, Stretto House (The Monacelli Press, Inc.), 7. 28 Steven Holl, Anchoring, 3rd ed. (Princeton Architectural Press), 12. 29 Francesco Garofalo, Steven Holl (Thames and Hudson), 22. 30 Steven Holl, Stretto House (The Monacelli Press, Inc.), 8. 31 Steven Holl, Stretto House (The Monacelli Press, Inc.), 8. 32 Steven Holl, Parallax (Birkhäuser – Publishers for Architecture), 255.

Figure 15: Image of the building under construction revealing the now hidden tubular light-weight roof structures

Figure 16: Own drawings of the roof structural detailing in combination with the concrete-block walls and the glazing

Figure 17: Section of the Stretto House

Figure 18: An exploded view drawing of the Stretto House.

Walking through the house, one experiences that oscillation between, and overlapping of, heavy and light, straight and curved, which Holl derived from that syncopated musical pattern. 33 A gradual fluid movement descends through the “dams”, propelled by the curving roofs, a continuity which is achieved by slightly revealing the method of construction in material and details. 34 However, the selective suppression of the spanning structure through is not being consistently exposed. In this instance, there is a resemblance to Wright’s belief that the spatial character imparted by the materials was of more importance to our experience than the literal exposure of structure.35 Accordingly, carefully selected materials and rich details are essential to the sequential balance.

From the initial concept to finest detail, Steven Holl has expressed that his aim is for idea and phenomena. Such “abstract principles of architectural composition take a subordinate position within the organizing idea” . 36 He believes that:

An overall idea is like a chain of causes and effects working with functions and physical elements.

Unlike a beginning in form, the concept transcends the abstract, organizing the experiential phenomena. In a way, the concept that drives a design like the Stretto House disappears completely in the phenomena of the physical reality and yet intuitively the abundance of the idea may be felt.37 In Robert McCarter’s opinion, author of two books named Steven Holl, Holl's musical heuristic essential will remain a double-edged device, for while it will allow him to render his interior volumes in harmonic colour, there is also the risk of forcing the working into simplistic musical analogies, as in the so-called "spatial dams". He claims that the exterior is called to do more than merely contrast and modulate the flow of the vaulted roof forms, but as mentioned in the previous chapter this might have to do more with the typological remains of his method, rather than his “limited concept”.38

Today that term has assumed a negative connotation and at the time the Stretto House was built it could still barely be a polemical target, as it was in the 80s.39 What allows Holl to avoid locking his work into being forced or simplistic analogies is that the starting point for an architectural idea is the unique character of the site. Following this approach, Holl’s work is recognised for its contextual sensitivity, since the relationship between the site and the project is established in a seed germ that drives the whole creative process.40

Figure 19: Details

33 Robert McCarter, Steven Holl, 1st ed. (Phaidon Press). 34 Steven Holl, Stretto House (The Monacelli Press, Inc.), 8. 35 Robert McCarter, Steven Holl, 1st ed. (Phaidon Press), 93-95. 36 Steven Holl, Anchoring, 3rd ed. (Princeton Architectural Press), 12. 37 Steven Holl, Stretto House (The Monacelli Press, Inc.), 9. 38 Robert McCarter, Steven Holl (Ellipsis London Pr Ltd), 9-10. 39Francesco Garofalo, Steven Holl (Thames and Hudson), 9. 40 El Croquis SL, El Croquis 172, 1st ed. (El Croquis)