Influence of automobile on architectural design

Page 1

Influence of

Automobile

on architectural design UA3411 Dhruvil Soni

Guided by Dr. Rutul Joshi





Declaration This work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other institutions and to the best of my knowledge does not contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in text. I consent to this copy of thesis, when in the library of CEPT University, being available on loan and photocopying.

Student Name : Mr. Dhruvil Soni (UA3411) Date : 21/04/2017



Acknowledgement Today, I thank god for giving me all the strength that has marked my position in this journey of life. To the god on earth – my parents, I am grateful and indebted for all their immense love and warm atmosphere that they have sustained, which has helped me to gain self-confidence and define my personality. I also feel blessed due to their prayers extended for my bright future. I place on record, my honest thanks to my Guide – Dr. Rutul Joshi for his expert, sincere and valuable guidance to accomplish this research work. Special thanks to Aashana, a writing hand who has translated my thoughts and intention into words along with brainstorming discussions. I am also obliged to Krishna, Shalin, Vaibhavi and Vedanti for their considerate help which is equally important for completion of this thesis. I take this opportunity to thank one and all, including faculties for their absolute guidance and my batch mates, who directly or indirectly, have lent their helping hand in this venture. Finally yet importantly, I thank the CEPT campus – a roof sheltering all the facilities and opportunities that is essential to open up the vast vision towards this profession.


Content

Chapter 0

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V


Introduction Abstract Context Research Question Methodology Scope and Limitation Overview

02 03 04 04 04 05

Influence of Technological advancement in Architecture 1.1 Influence in Architecture 1.1.1 Literal influence 1.1.2 Evolved influence 1.1.3 Matured influence 1.2 Influence of Technological Advancement in Architecture

08 10 10 12 13

A Biography of Automobile and The Built Environment 2.1 Birth and Early Popularity of Automobile 2.2 Rise and Prevalence of Automobile 2.3 Automotive City

16 22 26

Automobile in Architectural Design 3.1 Automobile in Architectural Design

30

Analysing Influence of Automobile 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4

Developing a framework for analysis Criteria for selection of case studies Examining Instances Synthesis

44 47 49 72

Conclusion 5.1 Conclusion

77

Biblioghraphy

83

Image credits

86


Introduction


Abstract

Automobile has impacted and influenced architecture for a long period. However this relationship has developed through history and is not one which was established in the recent past. The automobile has impacted the built environment at different scales. It has also been an influence to designers of different eras and their works in numerous ways. As a result of this, tracing the origins of this influence and consequences of the historical data became important. Hence this study focuses more on the early influences of automobile on architecture. This thesis will investigate the intricate relationship between architecture and automobile through a study of the influence that automobile has on the designer’s way of thinking and imagination.

02


A nominal machine/object called “CAR” invented in late 18th century, has been affecting the social environment and surroundings. Thus it has become very dominant in today’s world. So it is better to call that now a day’s people are living in mobilization rather than civilization The transformation is observed in surroundings due to introduction of motion in infinite space. For example, a car or an automobile can be a factor for shaping our world that we see today, most importantly the immediate physical environment and architecture. With the invention of the automobile architects recognized that its image, form and function would affect the quality of people’s lives. Thus automobile has long touched the imagination of architects / designers. Sometimes Architects – the designers of stationary object are also concerned with automobile designs. So the result being a harmonic composition of the two elements that stressed their close affinity. Automobiles – the twentieth century’s artifact seems as an influential design object. Architects realized its importance and applied the principles of automotive technology and design to their architecture. Architecture was much before too but the century that has just passed and the one we are in shows an intrinsic link between the two. 03

So one can draw an outline by saying that, automobile took birth as a technological advancement in late 19th century. Then in early 20th century, it emerged as a great commodity for man by increasing its relation to the social life of human beings. Even after that the automobile has been a good example of an evolving machine in its era. So there are various relevances of the automobile to the world through its history and also influencing architecture in numerous ways. In this case it becomes essential to study the influence of automobiles on the Architectural designs.

Context


Research question

Automobile has started influencing its immediate surroundings and built environment. These influences were either as a consequences of its properties and its role in one’s life, or as an impact, or as an inspiration for various designers. So is it possible to pick up an isolated invention from history and trace its effects on architectural design practices? Thus, here the question for this research is to study what are the influences of automobile on various architectural aspects of design.

Methodology

Looking through multiple lenses for ranges of examples. Analyzing the representational drawings, Pictorial and Written data of examples. Looking into various aspects of architectural design like circulation, spatial configuration, Form, Landscape and Construction system through explanatory diagrams.

Scope & Limitation

The study will be concerned to Automobile only, which is a private car and not any other medium of transportations. The study will focus on aspects of architectural design only and so that it will not relate to any kind of issues due to automobiles on urban designs or city planning.

04


Overview “Influence� being one of the most important keyword of this thesis, is elaborated in this first chapter. The chapter is further divided into two sections. The first part is essential as it helps reader to enact the broad understanding of the term influence in architecture. Based on these understandings, three kinds of influences are discussed.

Chapter 1

The second segment briefly explains the way technological advancement has started affecting architecture after industrialization. Looking at the larger scale, automobile was invented as a part of a technological advancement and it has been a great example of technically evolved machine. Thus, it is essential to study influence of this larger context as well. This chapter is likely to create a base or foundation to understand the concept or an idea of influence with reference to this research.

05

This chapter deals with automotive history and built environment. Automobile history contains its birth, growth, various impacts on surroundings and society as well as an inspiring object for many architects. It also incorporates the chronological understanding of various events which are influenced by automobiles. So basically this chapter deals with larger historic context of automobile for analysis.

Chapter 2

This chapter comprises of theoretical background and historical context that is limited to automobile and architecture. It further narrows down the instances where automobile particularly influences architectural design. It includes the examples which are impacted due to automobile’s movement and accommodation. Varieties of examples are presented where new typologies has been arrived in built forms due to automobile. There are also examples of buildings which are influenced by many technical aspects related to the automobile. So, this chapter begins with looking at architecture through a lens of various aspects of automobile and arrives at aspects of architectural design which then construct a base for further studies.

Chapter 3

Initial topic of this chapter explains logically the established relationship between various aspects of automobiles and architectural design. It also defines the criteria for selection of examples that has to be analyzed. Further, in main portion of this chapter, influence on each aspects are discussed in depth through comprehensive varieties of examples to cover all the possibilities of influence. The influence is analyzed with reference to five different aspects of architectural design that has been affected by automobiles like circulation, spatial organization, form and landscape. Chapter ends with a synthesis observed based on the combination of various influenced.

Chapter 4


Chapter 5

The conclusion comprises the superimposition of theoretical understanding of influence onto analytical derivation. Basically it goes back by adding a layer of previous understanding of three kinds of influences onto analyzed architectural aspects of designs through the lens of automobiles. These overlap led to very specific observation which has been also discussed briefly in this chapter.

06


Chapter I Influence of Technological Advancement in Architecture

“Influence� being one of the most important keyword of this thesis, is elaborated in this first chapter. The chapter is further divided into two sections. The first part is essential as it helps reader to enact the broad understanding of the term influence in architecture. Based on these understandings, three kinds of influences are discussed. The second segment briefly explains the way technological advancement has started affecting architecture after industrialization. Looking at the larger scale, automobile was invented as a part of technological advancement and it has been a great example of a technically evolved machine. Thus, it is essential to study influence of this larger context as well. This chapter is likely to create a base or foundation to understand the concept or an idea of influence with reference to this research.


1.1 Influence in Architecture The word influence means, “A capacity to have an effect on the character, development and behavior on someone, something or the effect on itself”. It can also indicate “the power to shape policy or ensure favorable treatment through someone”. For this document one is more interested in the former definition than the later. Also one can easily be mistaken by understanding influence as a reaction to an action, like an impact. Rather influence is something that is more subtle and unnoticed. Its effects are visible or felt slowly and one can easily miss out on its presence while in the process. It can only be perceived at a distance from the object. The most crucial to understand influence on an object, person or phenomena is to understand the change. Change is the only way one can detect an influence and thus look for forces and causes that triggered it. The post-modernist theory says that these causes are not a part of a Meta narrative; instead there are various small narratives which contest with each other to influence a change. Art and architecture are two areas that immensely base themselves on influences. Though these fields demand creativity and uniqueness, their entire foundation is based on history and factors that motivate and create them. For example is Modernism, which is a consequence of the scientific revolution and industrial age. It is not just historical age that influences an art movement; there are various other aspects like context, nature, technology etc. Similarly looking at architecture, one can study influences through various lenses. One of the first and the major influence is nature and climate. Environment, ecology and terrain are the most fundamental factors affecting the built space and architecture. The basic definition of a shelter, (and thus architecture) is a building that protects from the environment and its dangers. From caves to the high-rises we see today, the entire built try and create a sanctuary from the outside and thus orient them to achieve the same. The context of architecture also shapes what the built form will be like. Context is a wide range of circumstances or facts surrounding a particular event or situation. People and their culture, rituals and practices form a relevant background to situate a particular built form. One can argue over the chronology of whether culture affects built form or vice versa, but this argument is unimportant. What is important is to understand that man and the built continuously impact each other. But man alone cannot construct, he always needs tools to aid the process of construction. Technology (which includes machinery and devices developed from scientific knowledge) affects the ability of man to choose a certain method and materials and techniques. Thus one always tries to push the technology to its

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Img. 1.1 Kansas City library, Missouri, USA Img. 1.3 Adidas Shoe box, Amsterdam

Img. 1.5 Nautilus house, Mexico City

Img. 1.4 The Lotus temple, New Delhi

Img. 1.6 Atomium, Brussels, Belgium

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Img. 1.2 Big Pineapple, South Africa

Img. 1.7 Ribbed Vaults

Img. 1.8 Flying Butresses


maximum limits, and innovate. The kind of spans, volumes that one can achieve using advanced industrial materials today, is a result of advancing technologies and the vision and skills of an ambitious human. One can now place the built form at the center being dictated by nature, technology and people. But these aspects are very momentary and only help us to locate a built form in space. To understand the aspect of time and evolution one has to look into historical accounts of the culture, nature, people and the architect. An event or a series of events of the past, eventually impact the evolution context, which in turn dictates the evolution of built form. This understanding of context from a historical perspective is crucial to locate the building in a certain era, and contemporary movements. Thus one can establish that architecture, unlike a painting cannot be seen in isolation. The entire process of building is a contextual act, and there are various processes through which man responds to these contextual impacts.

1.1.1 Literal Influence

1.1.2 Evolved Influence

Literal means directly copying something or in another sense, taking words in their usual or most basic sense without use of any metaphor or exaggeration. But literal in an architectural sense can be taken in terms of form and structure of the building which may be influenced directly by an object. In many cases the function of the building is in literal relation to the influencing object this building serves. For example, Kansas City library in Missouri, USA(image 1.1), The big pineapple in South Africa(image 1.2) and Adidas shoe box in Amsterdam(image 1.3). There are also many examples of literal influence on buildings where the influencing object does not have any direct relation to the function of building. For example Lotus temple in Delhi, India(image 1.4), Nautilus house in Mexico City(image 1.5) and Atomium in Brussels, Belgium(image 1.6). This is the first layer of influence where the factual data is directly transferred to the form or structure of the building. In architectural sense the influence of the object, phenomenon, etc has passed through a layer of processing to manifest itself as the reason of shift or change from the earlier condition of the building. This is the second layer of influence where there is a process of taking in and fully understanding the concept in order to translate into a built form or structure. The process of translating can be based on many, for example; interpretations of designers, consequences of events in the past and properties of the influencing object. For Example the invention of ribbed vaults(image 1.7) and flying buttresses(image 1.8) in gothic cathedrals, changed the way Roman churches were built in medieval Europe because of the evolution in construction system used.

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Img. 1.9a Reichstag building, Berlin

11

Img. 1.9b Reichstag Dome

Img. 1.10 World Trade Center Transportation Hub, New York


1.1.3 Matured Influence

This is a cultivated influence like the process of percolation. Where a logical filter is put through a large amount of data, and the resulting data is the most efficient solution for the problem at hand. The filters can be technical, ecological, significant as well as functional being an important aspect. It is the third layer of influence, some choices are made as a reflection to the changing context and requirements. Here the best thought out example could be the Reichstag dome by Norman Foster(image 1.9a, 1.9b), which takes care of all filters. Ecological, by its response to the sun and day lighting solutions, through the use of a large sun shield which tracks the path of the sun to shift accordingly. Reduced carbon emission due to the use of the mirrored cone as well as the intent of restoration of a historical monument which has also influenced the form to be a dome. Technological, by its use of materials placed in the present scenario simultaneously giving technical solutions to ecological problems. And functional, by its symbolism of the people being above the government which was not in the case of National Socialism. Looking forward to another example, Form of the mass or form of the structure in most of the designs of Calatrava is derived based on the systems found in natural elements. Means there is something compelling about the physical form of the thing in all of his work, the structure invites visual interpretations like spiky fish or a bird, a dinosaur or a hedgehog. For example in “Oculus” transport hub at the World Trade Center(image 1.9) the structure is derived based on any animal’s skeleton and reimagined it for different function. Through these processes, architecture further strengthens its position at a field within a huge web of context and surroundings, over a period of time. A study of “influences” would always locate itself in past by the virtue of its meaning. It always has an “influencing agent” which affects the “influenced object”. The influence of the agent on the object changes its behavior and characteristics. One can only detect influence when one is able to detect the change on the object and the process the object has adopted to respond to the agent. In architecture the object becomes the building, built form or the typology, whereas influences range from culture to technology to past events.

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1.2 Influence of Technological Advancement in Architecture Application of technology to the design of building has impacted the building design process after Industrialization. As new materials arrived, new construction methods took place and thus design challenges increased. Also focus on the different elements of built environment has changed and at many times it has become dominant, which led to different kind of interaction between the elements. Stephen Emmitt in one of his article said that “The relationship between building technology and design can be traced back to the enlightenment and the industrial revolution, a period when advances in technology and science were seen as the way forward, and times of solid faith in progress”. Advancement in Technology also led architecture to give more efficient/effective design solutions to achieve the satisfaction in performance and construction of buildings. It has helped converting developed designs/concepts into a buildable reality.

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25 years Before Crist on imagining for the future Vitruvius quoted “Architecture is a science arising out of many sciences and adorned with much and varied learning”. This quote of Vitruvius has been realized very well in the last century that has just passed. For example, in Egyptian and Roman time the architecture had been developed more based on the law of forces on materials. Whereas in modern structures more possibilities were developed through questioning the strength of materials and integration of them. In that case planning of building becomes more and more complex due to technological influence, as compared to the past where one can perceive simplicity in planning. There are many good examples in architecture that shows that they are designed and executed based on the technological advancement. Like Pompidou center in Paris(image 1.11), which was a giant Meccano set according to one of its designers Richard Rogers, who also said ‘it is a machine whose purpose was to create social interaction within the city’. Another example is Millennium Bridge in central London(image 1.12) and many more designs of Norman Foster; which seeks for innovation in every project with a deep understanding of how architecture profits from the transfer of technologies from other industries. Apart from the newer implications of technology witnessed in the recent past, old masters have also played in important part in the advent of machine and architecture. Le Corbusier was principally interested in the energy of new constructs, recreating old paradigms instead of reviving them. He also described city centers as ‘The rusty engine of some out of date motor car’. This coupled with the assertion of an aesthetic appropriate to architecture based on the standardization of elements witnessed in automobile manufacture,


would prove to be a key concept in the formation of his building in plans. In the 1928 review of ‘Towards a new Architecture’, Wright criticized the absence of depth in Corbusier’s architecture, and rejected the notion that buildings should appear as machines. Rather buildings should have the efficiency of machines. In his influential article ‘Machine Aesthetics’, Reyner Banham suggested that architects had been frightened of machines ever since engineering established itself as an independent profession. He also argued that architecture should learn from and be influenced by machines. In 1922, showing the empowerment of technology on architecture the Czech architect JaromirKrejer wrote, ’The architecture of the transatlantic liners is an excellent example of modern architecture whose forms, resulting from their very purposefulness as products of modern technology, creatively define the present’. The products of modern technological development has influenced the modern designers, constructors and architects. Hence the way of applying materials has changed. The definition of ornamentation has also changed based on Machine Aesthetics. Having seen that technological progress has been holding architecture in its grip, and automobile being a supreme creation of an era in technological advancement, has also an influence on architecture. Thus, it is essential to study first a brief history of automobile and its impacts on society, surroundings and the built environment. 14

Img. 1.11 Pompidu Center, Paris

Img. 1.12 Millennium Bridge, London


Chapter II A Biography of Automobile and The Built Environment

This chapter deals with automotive history and built environment. Automobile history contains its birth, growth, various impacts on surroundings and society as well as an inspiring object for many architects. It also incorporates the chronological understanding of various events which are influenced by automobiles. So basically this chapter deals with larger historic context of automobile for analysis.


2.1 Birth and early popularity of Automobile In the last decades of the nineteenth century, the world was rapidly changing and many modern conveniences were invented. Like, Type writer, Telephone, Electric lights and the first Automobile. But Automobile has arguably shaped the modern era profoundly than any other human invention. In 1886, the pioneering invention of Carl Benz and Goltieb Daimler brought a revolutionary, new dimension to mobility. The first design of an Automobile that got patent, was the first Petrol/Gasoline powered automobile (4 stroke internal combustion engine) designed by them. And it was the birth of an Automobile exactly 130 years ago. However many engineers had worked on various automotive designs much before that. For example, in 1768 the first steam powered automobile, which was capable of human transportation was built by Nicolas – Joseph Cugnot. After a few decades in 1807 Francois Isaac de Rivar designed the first car powered by an internal combustion engine fueled by hydrogen. The first long distance journey in the history of the Automobile happened in August 1988 by Bertha Benz, which proved how well the concept of a motor vehicle worked at the technical level. Another biggest contribution was by Henry Ford, who designed his first car; the Quadrapole in 1896 and also established the first new company of Ford in Detroit. Later in 1903 he founded Ford motor Company. In 1908 the first modern car Ford Model – T was introduced and in 1913 the first assembly line was introduced by Ford, which created the first mass-production manufacturing system. Looking further to automobile’s early social impacts, making of Detroit as the motor city is the best example for understanding. Detroit is long recognized as the historic heart of the American Automotive Industry. Because of its industrial leaders and innovators, established industries, access to resources & capital, manufacturing ability and serendipitous relationships Detroit, which emerged above the rest as a Motor City in America. Making of early hand-built horseless carriages to the innovation of the moving assembly happened in Detroit. Detroit’s Auto industry began in the 1890s, when many Detroit entrepreneurs had come together and made the cement Detroit as Motor city. Also many different aspects of modern car development took place here including design and marketing as well. In 1896, Henry Ford test drove his first automobile on the streets of Detroit and Ford also established Detroit Automobile Co. in 1898. Within a year Ford started its first auto manufacturing plant and in 1901 opened his second car company. Later in the first decade of the 20th century many more automobile companies emerged and GM (General Motor) was one of them, who opened a company in Detroit in 1908. As a result of this by the 1910, an influx of workers from around the world come to Detroit to work in high paying

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1672

First steam powered toy car

1

1768

The first steam powered automobile capable of human transportation designed by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot

1789

The first U.S. patent for a steam-powered land vehicle

1807

The first car powered by an internal combusion engine fueled by hydrogen by Francois Isaac de Rivar 2

3

4

17

First traffic light fixed in London

1868

The first Petrol/Gasoline powered automobile (4 stroke internal combusion engine) designed by Karl Benz

1886 1893 1894 1896 1901 1903 1906 1907 1908 1913

The first gasoline powered automobile run in springfield, Massechusetts First Motor race in Paris Henry Ford's first car; the Quadracycle Olds automobile factory starts production Motor car Act, US & Ford motor Compony founded

1920 1922

First Auto show, Los Angeles The first semi-monocoque car body construction

5

First Highway for Cars First racing Circuit, UK First Modern car Ford Model -T introduced The first assembly line is introduced 6

8

7 Figure 2.1


factory jobs. Continuing this growth in population by 1950, Detroit’s population hit 1.85 million, which was America’s 4th largest city at that time with 2,96,000 manufacturing jobs. During this time period Detroit had been devoting most of its attention to political and judicial battles as well, which made Detroit to fall. For example, in 1958 a large company in Detroit got shuttered but the structure still stands today(image 2.1), as a symbol of Detroit’s long slow decline. Automobiles can be seen as generator of city life and urban forms. Detroit is the best example where the industry of automobile as well as the consumption, shaped its entire design, and culture. Automobiles also became inspiration for the intellectual society of those times. Its design, was now seen as another challenge upon the community of designers and professionals, who were extremely fascinated by its technicality and aesthetics. The automobile being an intricate design of mobile object also inspired the designers of stationary objects, architects. They have not been only fascinated by progress and the impact of technology on building design and construction, but also by other technical, engineering and artistic spheres of human activity. As result of this fascination, many times Car appears to architects as a house on wheels, or a mobile accommodation. This type of inspiration continued to follow the works of architects in relation to automobiles which has influenced architecture differently. Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the architects who was influenced by the automobile and reflected that in his architectural works. It is said that FLW and Automobile appeared on the American landscape at approximately the same time. He also understood the expanded role of cars in society and many of his project witnessed this understanding. The automobile was more than transportation for Wright. For him it was like a symbol of status, a source of personal pride and an advertisement of good taste in design. His first car was a yellow 1910 Stoddard Dayton sport roadstar with body modification designed by himself. He owned a Knox Roadstar, a Cadillac, a Phaeton, a Cord, couple of Dodges, two Lincoln Continentals and a Ford convertible all before the beginning of the Second World War. Wright also modified 1939 Lincoln Continental after a significant accident(image 2.2). Rather than scrapping the car or having the body panels replaced, Wright decided to redesign most of the car. Wright widened and lowered the back seat to give the rear passengers a more relaxed seating arrangement. The windshield was also lowered, which made for a much sleeker appearance. After the Second World War, Wright continued collecting cars including a Bentley, a Riley, a Mercedes, a number of Crosleys, a Hillman and a Jaguar. So here Wright’s collection of cars had gone from all American to exclusively European designs. After mid-20th century he had become very critical about the present auto design by pointing at American cars as an evidence of bad designs. Apart from modification in his cars, Wright also conceptually designed

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Img. 2.1a Detroit Motor Co. entrance gate

Img. 2.1b

Img. 2.3 Automobile with cantilevered top

19 Img. 2.2 modified Lincoln Continental

Img. 2.4 The Road Machine

Img. 2.7 Villa Stein Img. 2.5 Voiture Minimum

Img. 2.6 Le Corbusier driving Voisin car on the roof of Fiat factory in Turin

Img. 2.8 Comparison between the Parthenon to the Delage Grand-sport


Automobiles. In 1920 he developed the design for an automobile with a cantilevered top(image 2.3). The real innovation in this design was the use of a cantilevered top, which allows for an unobstructed view for the driver. He designed one more vehicle which was intended to be used as a taxi and thus he described it as a “road machine”(image 2.4). The design of this vehicle was inspired by the families’ international harvester tractor. It had two large wheels in the rear and one small wheel in the front attached to the steering. The sitting arrangement was quite different than a conventional car’s sitting arrangement. In this design the driver would sit at higher level in the rear, in a separate compartment, and passengers would sit in one of three sits in the front. Apart from FLW, Le Corbusier was also one of the architects who admired automobiles the most. His view of the world was measured against the performance of machines and their ability, with human beings, to conquer all obstacles and bring solutions to the living world. And automobile being the most advanced machine of an era, influenced his work as well. Le Corbusier also experimented with automobile design and with his partner Pierre Jeanneret, developed the Voiture Maximum in 1928. Later version of this design called Voiture Minimum(image 2.5) was submitted for the SIA competition in 1935, where the concept behind the competition was to produce an affordable design, a people’s car, and at the same time reviving the depressed French automotive industry. The design was compact and provided with a rear engine. Also Le Corbusier’s interest upon seeing the autodrome on the roof of Fiat’s factory (1934) at Turin(image 2.6) illustrated the radical architects’ enthusiasm for the automobile very well. The test track, which is the final stage of production line here at the factory, crowns the building, transforming the factory into a technical object showcasing bold Italian design. Le Corbusier’s fascination with this building reveals the appeal that such industrial spectacles are held for artists and architects alike. He also included three images of it in the final section of Towards a new Architecture. The presence of an automobile in photographs of Le Corbusier’s completed works shows the comparison. As he repeatedly included images of Voisin C14 in his various publications, such as the published view of Villa Stein (1926)(image 2.7). In this image, the parallel between the house and the machine is further emphasized by the similarity between the long horizontal windows of the facade and the analogous configuration of the windows of the car. But such instances were not new to him, where in Towards an Architecture, he had famously compared the Parthenon to the Delage Grand-sport in order to establish a standard, an object of a process of refinement or selection, as much for the temple as for the automobile(image 2.8).

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Img. 2.9 Graph camparing the ratio of Car-owning Household v/s Home-ownership rate over the period of time

1 2

21

1913

Pittsburgh creates the first drive-in gas station

1921 1922 1923 1924 1925

The first drive-in restaurant built in Dallas ; The pig stand The first suburban shopping center, St.Louis

1933

New Jersey introduces the first drive-in movie theator

The Lincoln Highway : The first paved roadway from NY to San Fransisco Radios for cars are introduced

4

Motels begin lining Roadways

3

5

6

1939

First Air Conditioned cars produced

Figure 2.1


2.2 Rise and Prevalence of Automobile At one end, automobiles were seen as ‘supreme’ creation of mankind, by the professionals and designers, whereas at the other, an entire industry of the same was being set up. At the beginning of the century Automobile entered the transportation market as a toy for the rich, but in later decades it became popular among the general population because it gave travelers the freedom to travel whenever/wherever they wanted. As a result of this the automobile became cheaper and more accessible for the middle class in North America and Europe. One can also say that the influences on FLW and LeCorb, could be due to the simultaneous process of popularization of automobiles within the society. According to license pursuing record in US, by 1920 over 8 million registrations were done and 23 million by the end of the 1920s. Because Ford motor sold more than 15 million cars by 1927. The reason behind this amount was that two important things were facilitated by Henry Ford. One of them was that he priced his car to be as affordable as possible and second was that he paid his workers enough to be able to purchase the cars they were manufacturing. This helped push wages and auto sales upward. It had become convenient to be connected with urban and rural life. They could choose locations almost anywhere in an urban area and also be connected to mainstream of economic and social life. The automobile had also radically changed city life by accelerating the outward expansion of population into the suburbs. Thus growth of suburbs had allowed people to live on the outskirts of the city and be able to work in the city by commuting. This scenario created mobility on a scale never known before. Due to impact of automobile many different ways of lifestyle and socializing emerged. People moved to the suburbs, took extended vacations, used the car to free themselves from the bounds of the home, and generally consumed their free time in ways never imagined before, which gave birth to travel related services. As a consequences of these new built structures and job opportunities started arising. Which allowed more employment for the world’s growing population. Even cuisines was transformed by the automobile. The culture of fast food arrived so that travelers can have it as earliest and they could be on their way. It can be said that no invention affected everyday life in the 20th century more than the automobile. In 1910, every 44 households owned one car, which increased a lot and by 1930 every 1.3 households owned a car. Home ownership rates had increased too, and that was almost entirely due to the increased mobility that automobile offered(image 2.9). Apart from these, on other side automobile kept evolving itself in terms of its efficiency in technicality and aesthetical form. This was the time when many designers from other fields were asked to involve in designing of such automobiles. Many architects like Richard Buckminster fuller, Renzo Piano and Norman Foster were

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Img. 2.10 4-D transport design

Img. 2.11 compact car D-45

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Img. 2.12 mobile conservatory

Img. 2.13 The London Routemaster double-decker bus

Img. 2.15 The City Car

Img. 2.14 Caravan design


taking active part in these processes, which showed their inclination towards designing objects other than architecture. For example, Richard Buckminster Fuller’s life was influenced by automobile through different perspective. He owned successively 56 automobiles, three of which he invented and built himself. He drove a total of one and a quarter million miles as well. Thus he also believed that automobile are little part-time dwellings on wheels. Both autos and dwellings are complex tools within the far vaster tool complex of world-embracing industrialization. So he turned his attention to transport, to developing a vehicle that would take it back and forth from these places. Doing further development in 1932 he came up with ‘4-D transport’(image 2.10), which had twin four-cylinder petrol engines and a triangular spaceframe chassis enclosed in an aircraft like body. He also explained that the car of the future had to be developed with minimum overall weight and it had to be streamlined. After this he built three different models of Dymaxian car with collaboration of various companies. Also some of American car manufacturers expressed interest in carrying out further development in the hope to help the American car industry. In 1943, Buckminster Fuller was asked to design by the shipbuilder and car producer. He proposed three wheeler compact car called D-45(image 2.11), where he tried to overcome previous design difficulties. His involvement in car design extended over almost two decades, leaving an important inheritance for future generations. Another renowned architect Norman Foster also sees buildings as machines endowed with soul. His own constructions are precisionmade and manufactured in parts off-site. His architecture is sharp and highly engineered, just like an automobile, employing the latest technology transferred from a variety of innovative industries and giving the impression of being made by machines for their own use. In 1992, he was also asked to design a vehicle to provide access for disabled and less able visitors to the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, London. His idea was to design a mobile miniature conservatory like ‘a big glass bubble’, because the maximum use of glass would allow an unhindered all round view of the garden(image 2.12). The only architect who consciously tries to encompass automobile technology in his architectural creativity is Jan Kaplicky. His thoughts have been focused on the problem of how to transfer automotive technology to domestic as well as commercial and public architecture. In his whole life he designed many notable automotive products. In 1983, he had proposed a redesign of the London Routemaster double-decker bus(image 2.13). His idea was to use a streamlined body shape on a long wheelbase chassis with four-wheel steering to achieve maximum maneuverability and seating space. He also designed caravan in 1989(Image 2.14), which was made by a glass-fiber boat-building company. The streamlined body was constructed of semi-monocoque structure with roof-mounted solar panels to provide electricity for its life-support system. Around 1996 he also designed a small, 3m long, three seater city car with electric motors(image 2.15), in which the driver’s seat was centrally positioned with two passengers sitting behind on either side.

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2.3 Automotive City As explained in the previous section, automobile had started impacting various aspects of social life very dominantly. However such influences were not confined to only social instances but it also started impacting on larger scale of built environment. And there was an emergence of automotive cities around the world. Cities which facilitate and encouraged the movement of humans via private transportation are typically called automotive cities. Because automobile is at the core of their formation. One can study the chronology of urban growth from walking cities to automobile cities to establish the relation between these two words, automobile and city. There are three divisions made in the timeline to understand this relationship. First one is walking city (pre 1880), second one is called street car city (1880-1920) and the last one is automobile city (post 1920). The cities have different pattern of built environment based on the division that they belong to. Walking cities were compact and dense, where association of residences and workplaces was existed. Thus it had mixed pattern of land use. Whereas later in street car era, there was an impact of industrialization in terms of migration to cities, like thousands of European immigrants and rural American migrants settled, which led the separation between workplace and residences. Because by the 1880s, low-fare electric street cars replaced the slower and less reliable horse cars. Thus as a result the intimacy and homogeneity of the walking city declined as the extension of efficient transit system derived and expansive urban areas emerged featuring clear segregation and more specialized land use. The automobile city arose after world war I. it began to erode the patterns of the street car city through the concept of deconcentration with dispersal of population into the suburbs. The process of metropolitan growth continued from the street car city period with the decentralization of the population and pushing the suburbs further. Even though automobile was not the only reason for emergence of these patterns. There were other commodities invented like long distance communications (telegraph and telephone) and extension of city services also contributed in forming up. Emergence of automobile also gave less clearly defined and less rigidly geometric pattern of urban growth. For example In some places, such as in Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Houston, Jacksonville, and Atlanta, the automobile played a central role in creating low density, expansive, and some would say muddled and fragmented, urban development. But In contrast, in cities that successfully adapted their infrastructure to motorized vehicles, other urban resources were lost and lifestyles were altered. So here the point that is to be focused is that population declined in city centers and increased in suburbs. It also started arising new typologies in built form, which was as consequences of the social and cultural transformation led by the automobile usage.

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Img. 2.18 Broadacre City Model Img. 2.16 Plan Voisin for Paris

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Img. 2.17 Bitter Root, Montana

Img. 2.19 Automotive Complex at GCC, Abudhabi


Thus, there was a beginning of radical architectural intervention taking hold of the developing environment, where the development of complicated infrastructure was also bought into practice. The invention and popularization of the automobile meant that streets, tunnels and bridges also needed to be built and completely new towns were planned, towns that placed cars instead of people at the center of modern life. Le Corbusier would continue to adapt and reconsider the theme of the automobile in his city plan, as the road became a dynamic part of the modern city. The best example conveying his ideology is Plan Voisin for Paris (1925)(image 2.16). The Plan Voisin was a solution for the center of Paris, drawn between 1922 and 1925 by Le Corbusier. Wright also worked on two city planning for the Automotive Age. His first attempt was Bitter Root, Montana(image 2.17). It was designed as a gridiron pattern with two major axis. Another very popular example was his design for Broadacre city(image 2.18), where his proposal sees a dramatic shift in his scale. His earlier design were constructed with the scale of man in mind, but this time it was to be designed for both man and automobile. So his view of the city changes dramatically with the addition of the automobile. Wright talked about Broadacre city, as he often spoke, in paradoxes; the city “would be now here, yet everywhere�. So the design of this city was based on the idea of decentralization. Looking into the examples of recent time, they are influenced in slightly different ways. For example master plan for automotive complex at GCC(image 2.19), which is 2.5 kilometers long terminal spread over 6 square kilometers, since it contains the test driving tracks, car museums etc. to offer a high level of services to car customers. The architects have chosen two themes – speed and friction as the guiding concepts of the complex. Because the reality is that speed generates because of the friction. This project has contributed to the emergence of new architectural forms, Especially forms specifically related to the automobile. However, in post-car society, movements like Car Free Development encouraged reduced use of automobile i.e. private car and making oneself to depend more on public transportation. Such notions led back to the idea of compact and dense built environment in surroundings. Still what important to understand here is that, the automobile had started affecting various scales of built environment. So while going further it becomes important to study influences of automobile on architectural design as well.

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Chapter III Automobile in Architectural Design

This chapter comprises of theoretical background and historical context that is limited to automobile and architecture. It further narrows down the instances where automobile particularly influences architectural design. It includes the examples which are impacted due to automobile’s movement and accommodation. Varieties of examples are presented where new typologies has been arrived in built forms due to automobile. There are also examples of buildings which are influenced by many technical aspects related to the automobile. So, this chapter begins with looking at architecture through a lens of various aspects of automobile and arrives at aspects of architectural design which then construct a base for further studies.


3.1 Automobile in Architectural Design It is an established case that architecture has been highly influenced by the advancing technologies of the industrial modern age. Automobiles have been an equal influence on the built form and the following text is trying to look at various aspects of the same. The masters of modern architecture: Le Corbusier, Frank Loyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, Ionel Schien have been particularly involved in what we can today call “automobile design”. Their body of works clearly indicate a fondness towards this new “supreme creation of human mind”. Apart from seeing automobile as a ‘futuristic’, ‘modern’ and fascinating engine, they also appreciated its aesthetics and high functionality. Cars were conceptualized as an epitome of machine aesthetics, efficiency, precision, and scientific advancements. Architecture not only borrows from this conception of automobile, but also from the functionality, movement patterns of vehicles and technological aspects of the industry. With increasing usage and needs of this particular machinery in daily life another layer was added to the spectrum of building typologies. The following chapter tries to decode multiple aspects of automobile and its influences on architecture. Architecture is most intimately linked to the automobile, to a new vision of space and time. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in his ‘Futurist Manifesto’ in 1909 said that “We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath – a roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the victory of Samothrace”. The society and the intellectuals of the twentieth century were awed by the advent of automobiles. The factory space that manufactured these machines developed a new and unique element: the spiral ramp. The Lingotto Fiat plant in Turin which was built in 1926(image 3.1), is one of the example where architecture becomes a machine to manufacture cars (or an equipment). The spiral ramp and the race track in the building were used to streamline the production of cars and test them after they were manufactured. Even Le Corb drove on this track, highlighting its importance and futuristic monumentality. Today this plant has been converted into a convention Centre with functions like auditoriums, shopping malls, cultural centers etc. This new envisioning of space left as a result of thriving automobile industry of the twentieth century clearly states that automobile has left architecture with a new form of legacy and unique enduring significance. Frank Loyd Wright predicted that automobiles are not a fad, and highly futuristic. He believed “By means of the motorcar and the collateral inventions that are here with it, the horizon of the individual has been immeasurably widened”. Thus Wright proposes

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Img. 3.5 David Wright house, Pheonix Img. 3.1 The Lingotto Fiat plant, Turin

Img. 3.6 The Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing project, Pittsburg Img. 3.2 Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin

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Img. 3.3 The Gordon Strong an automobile objective

Img. 3.4 The Guggenheim museum, New York


the eradication of the garage and design with the new term “carport”. While criticizing old mindset about garages he said, “A carport will do, with liberal overhead shelter and walls on two sides.” Also the carport, in most of its forms, could be expanded to accommodate more than one car if necessary. The carport, in its earliest form it was a simple cantilever, like in the Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin built in 1936(image 3.2). Wright believed that the “inevitable car” will seem a part of the whole house. There was a recognition of automobile as ‘inevitable’ and the object of future which needs to be accommodated in the built form. Wright also designed buildings where the influence of automobile reached another scale, he designed to accommodate cars and driving itself within/through the building. The Gordon Strong “an automobile objective”(image 3.3) is a design that he proposed in 1925 to serve as a commercial tourist attraction at Sugarloaf Mountain. The first requirement for the objective was, “to provide maximum facility for motor access to and into the structure itself.” since most of the visitors would be arriving via automobile. The building was also to add the “element of thrill” and expand the enjoyment and beauty of the mountain itself. This building design had the form of circular ramp that would enable cars to ascend the building from the exterior. The client Strong mocked the design proposal and in response to this criticism Wright explained how he created his concept and his desire to not have visitors park their cars on one side but take it into the building, to become a part of the experience and have it aside them while they are in the building. Le Corbusier said “The age of the Automobile has arrived. Human biology is now in the grip of new speed. Our legs have been replaced by the wheel.” This comes true in the proposal made by Wright which was later abandoned. But this design did have an influence on a number of his other projects, for example the design of the Guggenheim museum(image 3.4), which was built after thirty years, takes the design for the automobile objective and turns it upside-down and inside-out. David Wright house(image 3.5) was also one of his works that explored this idea of movement in another scale. Movement is very integral to automobile. The main function of automobile is transportation, and thus movement or mobility of a certain kind has to be facilitated in the spatial configuration of houses, institutions, intercity linkages, public spaces, residential schemes, towns as well as cities. The above mentioned project was highlighting an experiential movement of cars within a building. The functional aspect of transit using cars, led to establishment of new schemes and forms of planning and building which allowed easy movement and access of automobiles. The Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing project by Frank Lloyd Wright(image 3.6) encompasses this idea of automobile as a private object that moves from one point to another and needs to be housed with the owner. The design allows simplified movement for cars into from public to private space. This functionality has led to the design of the symmetric houses in a cluster which are repeated in a gridded manner.

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Img. 3.7 Villa Savoye, Poissy, France

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Ease of mobility of cars not only dictated town planning projects, it also dictated the form of a building. The curved wall of Villa Savoye(image 3.7) is a result of provision of automobile and its movement. Looking into one of its drawing, it includes a small motorcar circling under the pilotis to enter into the garage indicating its key role in the conception and design of the building. Even Le Corbusier was quick to point out that the base of the building itself was designed to accommodate the turning radius of a Voisin car passing under its elevated main floor. Slants and asymmetry in the façade construction, ramps and spirals, rounded edges and projections make the volumes dynamic in form; as if the vehicle, in the exact moment that the engine is switched off, transfers its kinetic energy to the building. This dynamic, the potential kinetic energy, fascinates the architects and artists with its futuristic symbolism. The function and usage of automobile gave rise to new forms, which then starts a debate of aesthetics, inevitable in architecture. Jaromir,’Jan Kotera’,Zivot II, 1922 said “The bodywork of an elegant automobile, standing in front of architect Kotera’s buildings, corresponds to the building in its proportions, lines, functional use of material etc; both are products of the same modern spirit, which has transformed mass into new forms, responding practically to new needs, aesthetically satisfying this spirit’s goal of beautiful form adhering to function.” Modern architects saw functionality as supreme in architecture and rejected ornamentation. The beauty of automobiles was seen independent of decorations or ornaments but rather on the harmony of the whole organism, on the logic of its function. Le Corbusier’s architectural ideology draws from this idea of “form” and “beauty”. Le Corbusier implied a direct connection between the form and structure of the modern machine and the new architectural aesthetics. Villa savoye is the good example, where the ground floor is set in to allow a car to circulate under the building. The assumed motion of the car is continued by a ramp, which leads from the drop-off at ground level to the roof garden. Like a ‘framed view through the car windows that began the sequence. Within Villa Savoye the machine fully enters the garden. Through the architectural promenade, man and machine have become one.’ In many of his works one can see the influence of automobile in some or the other way. This influence reflected in various scale and types of architecture. The presence of an automobile in photographs of Le Corbusier’s completed works shows the comparison. As he repeatedly included images of Voisin C14 in his various publications, such as the published view of Villa Stein (1926). In this image, the parallel between the house and the machine is further emphasized by the similarity between the long horizontal windows of the facade and the analogous configuration of the windows of the car. But such instances were not new to him, where in Towards a new Architecture, he had famously compared the Parthenon to the Delage Grand-sport in order to establish a standard, an object

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Img. 3.8 Citrohan House design

35 Img. 3.9 The Robie House, Chicago

Img. 3.10 Cloquet gas station : FLW’s first gas station design


of a process of refinement or selection, as much for the temple as for the automobile. Le Corbusier not only appreciates machine for beauty and functionality but also interprets that the technological advancements will bring a revolutionary change in architecture. His interest in the development of modular units for housing which could be mass-produced had found its earliest expression in his designs for the Domino system of 1914. He believed “If the problem of the dwelling or the flat were studied in the same way that a chassis is, a speedy transformation and improvement would be seen in our houses. If houses were constructed by industrial massproduction like chassis, unexpected but sane and defensible forms would soon appear, and a new aesthetic would be formulated with astonishing precision.” Since they were never realized, the idea was at the heart of his later architectural vocabulary in projects such as Citrohan House design of 1922(image 3.8). Le Corbusier developed the plans for the house, serial, rational, house frame construction method, a system that paid homage to the French automobile manufacturer. Automobiles in the early twentieth century were seen as socially relevant objects, with a presence felt in the public sphere. It was seen as a symbol of luxury, and a bourgeoisie lifestyle. Its involvement in daily life was exaggerated with new building typologies that promoted its usage and privileged its users over others. Automobile showrooms, factories and service centers were the new kind of typologies directly related to manufacturing and maintenance of the machine. But other kinds of services began attaching itself to the use of cars, like drive in restaurants, theatres etc. Garages changed architectural history in 1920’s and 1930’s as the automobile established itself as a status symbol and sign of individual mobility. Robie House(image 3.9) built by Wright was for the first time when any architect had designed an attached garage to house. Wright believed that the functional connection must be established due to client’s interest towards automobile. Since then garages became an integral part of the North American suburban housing. There were also seen public garages, where people could accommodate their automobiles. In 1905, the first parking lot was developed in France. Auguste Perret built the “Garage Mourboeuf” in the Paris, the design was even more revolutionary than the machines that it accommodated. The skeletal structure is clearly visible as a grid on the façade, and the infill of brick and glass. This building served the beginning of an entirely new genre of architecture, because the previous carriage shed design proved to be an unsuitable architecture for the inner city. Parkings became increasingly complex and the architects attempted to accommodate the function in the most efficient manner. With incoming of high-rise typologies, one begins to explore possibilities of multistory parking. The flat-roof style, with open

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Img. 3.11 De Cope Parking station, Utrecht

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Img. 3.12 Marina City Tower, Chicago

Img. 3.13 drive-up laundr, Wisconsin

Img. 3.14 Valley National Bank, Phoenix


parking surfaces, allowed the number of levels to be increased. Betrand Goldberg’s Marina city in Chicago(image 3.12), which was completed in 1964, is an example, where parking levels are usually added as either full-story or split-story and the ramp system could either be part of the parking silos, or take the form of a separate, round, tower like structure containing the spiral ramp. Parking is not the only service space an automobile requires, they also require service centers, repair shops. The building in these volumes serves the automobile when it is immobile; before it is sold, while it is being serviced or parked. Wright imagined functions to be attached to driving and thus gave rise to new built form that was never imagined before. In 1945 Wright proposed a drive-up laundry in Wisconsin(image 3.13). Wright commented on his design saying that “The street was very busy, which would add to the amount of traffic to the location. Additionally the customers would appreciate the integrated covered parking if they chose to leave their cars. In 1947 he was asked to design for Valley National Bank in Phoenix(image 3.14), in which he included a curved rear wall with six windows for drive-up banking in the rear. All this kind of design attitudes of Wright proves his futurist understandings about the automobile. Cars were initially individually produced but with the industrialization of this process it became possible to distribute them in large numbers, creating new business. Because of the size of the products on offer, the showrooms are envisioned with large display windows, in contrast to retail shops. Unlike department store facades, which were largely closed in the second half of the 20th century, showroom facades remain more open. Here the competition between manufacturers is not within the building but is to be found in the building across the street instead. The nature of lived spaces, organization of functions was changing in the twentieth century. The era was of modernization and mutation to newer, advanced and pioneering forms and typologies, with booming technologies. While Le Corbusier tries to involve the revolutionary ideas of technology into built space and envisions a ‘utopia’ to occur. In 1926, Theo van Doesburg wrote that “presently building is already gradually assuming the characteristics of an assembly line; the assembly of normalized, machine-produced parts. Just like our cars, our dwellings will be factory produced within the foreseeable future…in same manner as mass-produced articles, in the grand industrial way”. This way of interpreting technology was subjective and ideological. Its implementation does not borrow from the automobile industry. But some architects like Buckminister fuller and Kalpicky took some very integral aspects of automobile engineering into their architecture and looked at spaces from that lens. R. Buckminster fuller considered the automobile a broken-off part of the house and he believed that automobiles are little part

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Img. 3.19 Media center at Lord’s Cricket Ground, London Img. 3.15 Mechanical Wing

39 Img. 3.16 The Tween Dymaxian Deployment Unit

Img. 3.17 Mobile hotel capsules

Img. 3.18 Mobile

library


time dwellings on wheels. Both autos and dwellings are complex tools… component tools within the far vaster tool complex of world-embracing industrialization. In the mid-1950s the popular notion of mobility in architecture turned towards modular systems and the use of habitable cells. It was envisaged that these units would change their position from site to site and in horizontal and vertical planes. Urban areas were transcribed in complex, three dimensional grids to establish an infrastructure for these modular cells. Automotive forms and technology inevitably influenced the resulting architecture. There were many notable designs which reflect this ideology. Buckminister Fuller’s Mechanical Wing design of 1940(image 3.15) was a combination of all mechanical and energy requirements into one package mounted on an “A frame” auto trailer. Grouped around a small diesel engine was one of the unit bathrooms with a sealed packaging and chemical disposal apparatus, and a kitchen / laundry unit complete with sink, cooking range, and refrigerator. The Tween Dymaxian Deployment Unit of 1940-41(image 3.16) was practical statement of the foregoing ideas, and the first of his projects to attain mass production. The design was a conversion of the corrugated grain storage bin to a dwelling unit. The change was effected mainly by replacing the standard top with a compound curvature roof and by adding skylights, ventilator, porthole windows, and a door. Walls and ceiling were lined with fiberglass-backed wallboard, designed for wartime use as radar stations, dormitories, hospitals etc. Ionel Schein was a Roman architect living in France, a pioneer of the architectural use of synthetic materials and the designer of the first all plastic house, Maison en plastique (1955-56). His proposals for mobile hotel capsules(image 3.17) and for a mobile library(image 3.18) using all plastic materials were inspired by the architecture of automobile bodies. Kaplicky was more inclined in using the engineering technique of automobiles in his design. The Monocoque construction techniques of automobile industry in architecture has certain advantages like, it reduces the cost of the separate frame by incorporating the necessary strength within the self-supporting building skin. Kaplicky used this technique for his Media center project at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London(image 3.19), which was the first example of this type of construction applied in architecture. The buildings main shell body is raised on two concrete cores containing stairs and lifts. The boldness of Ivan Magoulius’s statement “In the 20th century, the deep relationship between man and his horse has been transferred to a new, almost equally dependable and indispensable friend – the Automobile” is undoubtable. The examples given above have left no hesitation regarding the consequences of automobile design, use and functionality on architecture. One can now very objectively state that automobiles have been highly significant in shaping the built form and organization of the current times.

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Chapter IV Analyzing Influence of Automobile

Initial topic of this chapter explains logically the established relationship between various aspects of automobiles and architectural design. It also defines the criteria for selection of examples that has to be analyzed. Further, in main portion of this chapter, influence on each aspects are discussed in depth through comprehensive varieties of examples to cover all the possibilities of influence. The influence is analyzed with reference to five different aspects of architectural design that has been affected by automobiles like circulation, spatial organization, form and landscape. Chapter ends with a synthesis observed based on the combination of various influenced.


4.1 Developing framework for analysis Automobile has its basic aspects as a designed object which has influenced architecture in numerous ways. Like its mobility, accommodation, aesthetics, and its type/system of manufacturing. Which are its physical aspects. There are some non-physical aspects of it like its impact on social and urban life. The most basic purpose of automobile that it has to move, has impacted various aspects of architectural designs either as a need or as an aspiration or as a thrill that it provides. Whereas with the idea of owning some object and that has to be accommodated within one’s territory, the automobile has influenced the architectural spaces. And being the modest and highly appreciated design of an era many of its technical aspects like its structural systems and its manufacturing types are adopted into architectural designs. As a machine it has also suggested efficiency and aesthetics in the built environment. New typologies arrived with its increasing usage in society to provide the related services and accommodation of it in a larger scale either as a storage or as a display of it. Because of its property like speed, it has impacted daily urban life and thus it has highly influenced the larger scale in built environment. Since the mode of transportation has changed, the idea of arriving to any built form has changed. The experience that this mobile object is giving has impacted the way of approaching any building. Because now one moves with a certain speed and gets a view through the defined picture frame. So the way one approaches is influenced in built environment.

Whereas the automobile has certain specific movement based on its speed and turning radius, which defines the possible path and reformulates the circulation spaces in built environment. So the influence, which was based on the mobility of automobile as function or aspiration or a medium of enjoyment can be seen in form of the circulation of any building, because movement of any object directly correlate to the space for circulation.

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Automobile as a machine also influences architecture. It suggests the efficiency in functionality of any building, which in most of the cases depends on organization of spaces. And with the introduction of new mobile object either as a connection of the spaces or to support its movement, it has put its impression as well on to spatial organization of building. With increasing usage of automobile, new typologies emerge in the built environment, where the structural organization of the building are being affected. Because the anthropometry of automobile defines the spacing between structural elements. And in many examples the organization of its structural elements reflects the organization of structural elements that is being used in the construction of the car.

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There are many aspects of automobile that has determined the Form of any building. In many buildings the shape and size of form has been defined by the mobility of the car. And being a machine it has also suggested the aesthetics to the built form, which helps to generate the design. With increasing usage of automobile, new typologies emerge in the built environment, where the form of the building is being affected. Because the anthropometry of automobile defines the volume of the spaces. Automobile being the most evaluated design in the 20th century, there are noticeable adoption of the type/system of production into construction technology of buildings in the history of architecture. Due to these revolutionary events it has impacted the scale factor in architecture, which can be studied through the form of any building.


Looking at the larger scales of built environment, movement of automobile was at the center of the design and it had become guidelines for the planning of cities. And thus it has also consequently shaped up various elements of built environment and changed the overall vista of that particular area. Hence such influence can be overviewed as a landscape. So there are these many aspects of architectural design like, approach, circulation, spatial and structural organization, form and landscape, that have been affected the most by multiple aspects of automobile. Each one of these aspects of architectural design is being influenced by numerous aspects of automobile either based on its ideology or its utilitarian aspects or as its tectonics. Another way this can be said that any one of the aspects of automobile can be the reason for influencing various aspects of architectural design simultaneously. So here these various components of architectural design will be studied analytically with suitable examples based on the specific type of influence.

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4.2 Criteria for selection of case ctudies

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The selection of examples for analysis are based on the combinations of three major component; Time, Architects and Scale of the building. Automobile was evolving through the 20th century. It was at its peak and its social relevance was also increasing in this time period. So here the range of examples is within this timeframe. Another fact that automobile being a modest designed object and the most linked object to human’s daily need, many architects were fascinated and they were responding it in many ways like some of them were literally into designing of automobiles. These kind of attitude reflected in the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, R. Buckminster Fuller, Norman Foster and Jan Kaplicky, which are selected here as an examples since they project the influences of automobile on architecture. Since architecture deals with wider range of scales in built environment, this study limits itself within the range of individual built form of various typologies as well as a modular units and its master planning.


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4.3 Examining Cases Circulation can be explained as movement to and fro or around something, especially that of a fluid in a closed system. Now a days it is very common for people of architecture intelligentsia to use the term “Circulation system�, to address movement of people, cars and services. Circulation is synonymous to movement, and twentieth century saw a fundamental shift, where mobility became very central to the modernizing European society. It was seen parallel to time and used as a factor to determine strength and efficiency of a system. Automobiles were one of the most important inventions which sided this idea of movement. Architecture and Urban Design, now had to cater to this new moving object, which was seen analogous to pedestrian movement. Cars, unlike pedestrians have a very particular linear movement, and need a certain radius to turn. The specificity of the movement governs the nature of spaces needed for the same. The following chapter looks at how anatomy of spaces within the building as well as movement of automobile and people changes with the advent of cars.

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The Sugarloaf Mountain project by Frank Lloyd Wright, is a project where circulation takes the forefront. The program of the building is centred on the thrill of riding an automobile, and thus the spiral ramp is inevitable. What is crucial to notice is that the ramp is open or semi open to sky, so that the people inside their cars, gain the best view of the valley surrounding the project. The conscious choice of situating the ramp on the outside of the project clearly mentions that the designer wanted to prioritize movement of automobiles, adding an element of fun or recreation to it. The ramp does not lead to a final destination, which is programmatically determined, but rather becomes a journey to be enjoyed and experienced.

Fig. 4.1 The shape and Form of circulation in Sugarloaf Mountain project

Circulation


In contrast to this, the *drive-in service requires the automobile to pass through it, in order to make the building more efficient. There is a shift of purpose, which determines the nature of circulation space in this case. Here the car enters a plaza with circular movement, in the front of the building for most competently serving the utilitarian needs of the programme. The movement of cars in this case is in a covered space, with a more inviting form. Cars need to pass through the building rather than keeping it in the backdrop like in the case above.

Fig. 4.2 The shape and Form of circulation in Drive In Laundry service

50 With utilitarian and functionality of spaces becoming more articulate and specific. One also begins to observe an entire new typology of buildings revolving around cars. In multilevel car parking, one can jokingly say that humans are replaced by cars. Thus the kind of spaces required for circulation changes. De Cope, multilevel parking has two spiral ramps for the vertical movement of cars. One third of the floor space is allocated to the movement of cars as well, awarding the two edges for parking facility. Unlike the drive in services, where the car has to pass through the building, here the cars inhabit the building, justifying the area given to horizontal movement of cars.

Fig. 4.3a The shape of circulation in De Cope multistorey parking


Fig. 4.3b The form of circulation in De Cope multistorey parking

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There are also situations, where abstraction of movement of automobile is used as a concept or principle for designing movement of people within the building. Not always, circulation is to be seen as a rationalistic approach towards a functional design. Villa Savoye is the best way to understand both; the rational and programmatic need of an automobile moving within the building, as well as the abstraction of that movement translated into another design element for circulation. The lower story of the house has a grid of columns and a curved wall, which conveniently and artistically allows the car to enter the building, turn and park itself in the allocated space. Together with this semi open space, a ramp that translates the movement of automobiles for the people to go up. The ramp opens up to the views and vistas, almost giving a sense of moving towards infinity, quiet similar to a horizon facing road.

Fig. 4.4 The shape and the form of circulation in Villa Savoye


David Wright house by FLW takes abstraction to a higher level, where he decides to make a house in the form of a spiralling ramp. The vertical and horizontal movement of people, within the house is in form of a circular ramp around an open court. The path is initially open to sky and gradually enters into a semicircular house. The entire movement within the house is a derivation from the unaccomplished Sugarloaf Mountain project.

Fig. 4.5 The shape and the form of circulation in David Wright house

FLW’s obsession and struggles with spiralling ramps is what has taken shape in the Guggenheim museum in New York. The building is a clear inspiration from the architects’ exposure to automobile, thrill of movement and the design of the Sugarloaf Mountain Project. It can also be seen in contrast to the Sugarloaf Mountain project, where the ramp was spiralling in, whereas here the ramp is spiralling out, for maximum light to enter the building. Also the circulation is designed so that the user is looking inwards, into the courtyard, unlike the Sugarloaf project, where the ramp was looking outwards. And the major difference is that the ramp in the museum is for people and not cars.

Fig. 4.6a The shape of circulation in Guggenheim Museum

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Fig. 4.6b The form of circulation in Guggenheim Museum

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Spatial Organization

The previous section scales through the effects of automobile on the approach of any building. But that is not the only aspect that automobile touches upon. Now the automobile has to cross the threshold of the building. It has to enter it for various purposes; to pass through it, to accommodate itself within it or to service itself, etc. The ownership of automobile dictates that the building of the owner shall have enough volume to house that machine. Sheltering such a big machine, adds new spatial requirements inside the building, and thus a domino effect is seen in the spatial organizations of the built form. Some spatial organizations have a very direct, first hand response to the functions and needs of accommodation in sync with the larger building ideology, whereas some buildings see an indirect or subjective effect on spatial organization drawing from the principles of automobiles. The following chapter tries to bring various examples of buildings and proposals of such kind together within a broad framework of two aspects of automobile: its movement and its accommodation. The first precedent to such an argument is always the typologies which have emerged due to automobiles. Drive in Services, Showrooms, Factories, Garages are categories of buildings whose mother is automobile, and thus their spatial organization has to inherit from it. The suburban housing schemes are one such typology of housing. The organization of the entire scheme from master plan level to the scale of an individual unit is a response to the use of automobile. The cluster organization in the Cloverleaf Quadrupole Housing project is one such example. Each house is geometrically placed in a swastika like formation, to maintain its privacy, as well as provide access to motorway leading to the house. This perpendicular symmetrical organization is also a reflection of the gridded plans that materialized during the era of cars.

Fig. 4.7 Radial organization of units in Cloverleaf Quadrapol Housing project

The simplicity of movement together with an artistic and creative architecture is what the modern architects were striving for. One such inventive project is the Sugar Loaf Mountain project, by FLW. With circulation as the centre of the design, the spaces organize themselves radially around the spiralling ramp. The project is an

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unambiguous and a blunt acknowledgement of the recreational use of automobile. Keeping that as focus, the programme and volumes arrange themselves around it. The resultant space within the helical ramp was proposed as a planetarium and functions like restaurants, auditoriums etc were tucked around the inner side of the ramp, keeping the vista of the mountains open for admiration.

Fig. 4.8 Central organization of spaces in Sugarloaf Mountain project

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But one should not blind ones opinion about the extremity of organization with such ambitious and enthusiastic proposals. There are some brilliant examples, where a larger idea; conceptual and philosophical, together with functional aspect of movement of cars and the programme dictate the organization of the building. Le Corbusier, in Villa Savoye translates his understanding of movement of automobile into his idea of a house as a machine. The movement of the car on the ground floor is converted into a ramp for human movement leading to upper floors. This idea of movement like an efficient machine makes the ramp as the centre of the building as well as the spatial organization. At first level, the spaces are arranged in a circular manneraround ramp, which continues to the level of the terrace. By such an organization, the lived spaces are arranged on the edges of the box looking outwards, into the forest, whereas the served spaces become core of the building.

Fig. 4.9 Radial organization of spaces in Villa Savoye


Similarly in the David Wright House, the movement of automobile is what the architect abstracts and uses for organizing the movement within the house. The circular ramp is a derivative of the ramps used for movement of automobiles. The spiralling circle is divided into two parts; the ramp and the house. Though the geometry is circular the movement can be said linear, as there is a single defined path within the house. So the spaces of the house are also arranged linearly, one after the other along the curvilinear path.

Fig. 4.10 Linear organization of spaces in David Wright house

Villa Savoye and David Wright house are cases where automobiles indirectly influence the movement and thus the organization of spaces. A building like Marina City tower, in Chicago, built in 1964 is a classic example when the automobile directly as well as indirectly affect organization. The tower has two parts, where the lower twenty floors are allocated as parking for cars, and the upper levels are residences. In this case, the building has to cater to movement as well as accommodation of the cars. Due to this, the helical ramp becomes the central core of the building in the lower floors, and the parking spaces are arranged radially around it. This organization then translates into residences above, which are centripetal to circulation core at the geometric centre.

Fig. 4.11 Central organization of units in Marina City tower

Mobility of automobile seems to dominate the organization of spaces in above examples. It is obvious, because cars entail with itself a sense of movement. But there are also cases where more than movement, the volume for storing the car becomes an

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important feature while organizing the functions. Robie House was the first project, where a garage was built within a house, due to interests of the clients. This attachment of a functional volume to the ground floor plan, divides the house into two linear bays (in plan). The garage, together with other services formed the service bay of the building, parallel to the lived spaces of the building. This service bay further continues on the first floor.

Fig. 4.12 organization of spaces in Robie house

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There is a notable impact of automobile on the organization of spaces within any built form. There is an attempt made above to select a variety of possibilities and extent automobiles infiltrate into architecture and organization.


Structural Organization

Spaces and structure always move hand in hand. While looking at architecture and organization of spaces, one finds that structural organization becomes the tool to achieve desired spatial volume and quality. If spaces are voids, there structure becomes the mass, arranged to achieve it. The structural organization of the examples mentioned above, have some particular characteristics, which are influenced by automobiles. Like the case above, this impact is observed as being directly as well as indirectly influenced by automobiles. Some buildings have a naive response towards the spatial and circulatory requirements of automobile, where as some structures borrow from the abstract principles of technology and movement of automobiles. Marina City tower, is a precedent for the the kinds of structure which is completely based on the movement and accommodation of cars. The columns are radially placed parallel to the central core of the building. The distance between the columns is strategic to allow two parking spots on lower level and a spacious residence on the upper floors. The structural grid of columns together with the central core, form a stable structure, which allows such a tall building to withstand forces. Geometric radiality is the most important feature for the stability of structure.

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Fig. 4.12 Organization of structural elements in Marina City tower

Fig. 4.13 Organization of structural elements in Sugarlosf Mountain project

Similarly the Sugarloaf Mountain Project uses a radial grid of columns. As the project has a constant helical ramp, the distance between two columns along the radii is constant, thus forming parallel rings of structure. The structural quality of the project is not very different from Marina City tower, where the only difference is that in this project, one sees a superimposition of two grids: circular and radial, whereas the previous project had only a radial arrangement. The above projects have a direct impact on the structure as a result of the use of automobile within the building. This is a more functional response to a new machine or technology. But some architects


were highly inspired by the method of production and construction of automobile. This inclination and understanding can be seen translated into some design moves and structural strategies. One such project is Villa Savoye, where to support the idea of the ramp, a new grid of structure was introduced. The ramp in the project is seen as an abstraction from the idea of movement of automobile applied to humans. Thus the structural columns become a tool, to achieve this conceptual idea.

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Fig. 4.14 Organization and Grids of structural elements in Villa Savoye

Similarly, Citrohan houses have a structural system which relies on the idea of mass production, an emerging feature of automobile industry during that time. The entire system of two parallel bays of columns in based on the idea of having a free plan, and a simple assembly with high aesthetic value. This kind of modesty in the structure is a result of the architects Utopian idea of solving housing crisis of modern times using technology and efficiency similar to the production of an automobile.

Fig. 4.15a Standard organization of structural elements for Citrohan Houses


Fig. 4.15b Apllication of standardised structural organization in two different type of Houses

Le Corb’s interpretation of automobile was more tending towards the idealistic and artistic responses. The technical interpretation of automobile is what is explored by Jen Caplicky, in the Lords Media centre. Jen shows an immense understanding of cars and its structural principles. Like cars, which has a structural chassis, supported over four points on the ground (using wheels), the media centre can also be seen as a huge chassis supported on the ground. The main hall has a monocoque structure which supports its own curved form. This volume is then simply placed over two columns which transfer the load to the ground. These columns further become a channel to connect services from ground to the body, like wheels in a car.

Fig. 4.16 Organization of structural elements in Media center of Lord’s stadium

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Form refers to visual shape and configuration of something . It is very important in architectural studies to understand and analyse the “form” of the building. According to Francis DK Ching ‘form suggests both structure and external outline and the principle that gives unity to the whole. While form often includes a three dimensional mass or volume, shape refers more specifically to the essential aspect of form that governs its appearance – the configuration or relative disposition to the lines or contours that delimit a figure or form.’ In the book, he further goes ahead to state properties of form as size, colour and texture; all three of which are highly visual and tactile in nature. As one begins to look at form in architecture in more detail, it is evident that form is also a manner of arranging and coordinating the elements and parts of a building, so as to produce a coherent image. This chapter looks at aspects of forms: its transformation, shapes and sizes and articulation from the perspective of automobiles. Movement, accommodation and technology of cars have influenced spatial, structural configuration as well as circulation and approach of the building. While understanding these aspects in detail in the previous chapters, one misses out the totality of the built form, or its parts which come together to form the whole. This chapter tries to understand the effect on the form and shape of architecture using particular and general examples.

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All other forms can be understood to be transformations of the primary solids, variations which are generated by the manipulation of one or more dimensions or by the addition or subtraction of elements . Let us look at automobile as a force, and architecture as an object. According to basic Newtonian principle, the object has a reaction to every action/force applied on it. Similarly, one can look at changing forms of the building with the coming of cars. In Robie house, the fact that a room for the cars had to be added to the function of the house, led to an interlocking of a service volume with the lived volume along the length. The overall form thus becomes a linear one, with interlocking volumes one behind the other, for separating the two different functions. One can look at this as a process of augmentation to an existing function as well as form.

Fig. 4.17 Additive form of Robie House due to introduction of attached Garage

Form


A similar domino effect can then be seen in the suburban houses coming up across the developed nations. In Villa savoye, there is a sense of sculpting out the required volume for the automobile machine to pass through the “machine for living”. Francis DK Ching calls this subtractive transformation where a geometry is removed or reduced from a perceived geometry. With this example one can clearly argue that cars have been indispensible force in shaping forms of architecture in modern times.

Fig. 4.18 Subtractive Form of Villa Savoye derived based on the automobile’s movement

Sometimes limitations of automobile become generators of forms. The spiralling mountain of the Sugarloaf Mountain project, is a case where the particularity of movement of cars has been used to design a place for thrill and enjoyment. The spiralling path gives a feeling growth, as if extending to the sky. The monumentality achieved by its sheer scale and size, is a rational result of automobile and its specifications, together with the designer vision for a place of celebration of cars and its possession.

Fig. 4.19 Additive form of Sugarloaf Mountain emerged because of automobile’s specific movement

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The form of the building also has a property of shape and size, something which automobile has hugely affected in architecture. On one end we have buildings like the Sugarloaf Mountain project, which is literally to be inhabited using a car, and on other extreme one sees projects like mechanical wing, by Buckminster Fuller, where you inhabit a car. The project is highly inspired by automobiles, and the form is a resultant of an effort to make houses that can be moved, literally. It explores the optimum sizes and dimension needed for the man to live and tries to accommodate it within the space of a mobile object. One can look at this as a desire of living in a house on wheels.

Fig. 4.20 Compact form of Mechanical Wing design

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This utopian idea, is further extended into Mobile hotel Capsules by Ionel Schein, where he designs cabins of the minimum required dimensions, so that they can become portable. He also details out the method of carrying them, and planting them onto any site. This idea of living inside a car, was not only revolutionary, it also gave rise to an entire debate of optimum sizes and shapes for habitation and movement.

Fig. 4.21a Drawings of Mobile Hotel Capsules representing the shape and size of its form


Fig. 4.21b

Shape also is another relevant property of form. Cars began to dictate circular or rounded shapes of easy movement and turning. This demand of automobiles was interpreted by architects, to treat corners and edges of buildings. At times the circle became the primary plan type; like in Marina City Tower. The cylindrical form is an extrusion of a circular car parking in the lower levels and petal like residential units arranged circularly in the floor above.

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Fig. 4.22 b Shape of the form of single unit in Marina City Tower

Fig. 4.22a The shape and size of the form of Marina City Tower

In Lords Media centre, the shape of the building is a result of the technological advancements of automobile. The size and silhouette of the building is based on the technology of making car chassis, which allowed the designer to have a huge column less internal volume, elevated from the ground like a car. It also imitates the curved, streamline features of cars, hinting onto the competence of the structural design of automobiles.

Fig. 4.23 The shape and the size of form of Media Center @ Lord’s stadium


Curves also became important features of designs, in order to accommodate automobiles within the built environment. They were used to articulate edges and corners of buildings like the drive in services by FLW. Here the architect integrates linear as well as curved forms to create a complete building, with the high rationality and functionality. Spaces to be accessed using cars, are specifically the ones with curves, whereas, on the other end, the curve simply is used for the purpose of aesthetics of form. This shift from using curves and circular elements for function to using them for the purpose of aesthetics and treating corners can be speculated due to advent of automobiles. Modernist architecture of began repeating elements to complete the building and make it wholesome. Villa Savoye and Johnson wax Building are some of the best examples, where curved element is repeated for the purpose of homogeneity.

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Fig. 4.24 Introduction of Curved walls in plan of Drive In Laundry service as an articulation of the form

Fig. 4.25 Curved walls and Horizontal windows in Villa Savoye as an articulation of the form

Facades also become elements which are extensively used for creating uniformity within the built environment. It becomes an envelope of form, highlighting its shape and size. In De cope parking, the surfaces of the form are indicative of what it inhabits. When a building is made for cars, its skin can thus take some


liberties of reflecting the outlook behind the building, as well as complementing towards the boldness and opacity of the form. Similarly in Robie House the horizontality of the house is emphasized using the exposed lintel and sill bands. For a person, moving on the road, she experiences this strong linearity of the house, from the window of his car. The facade becomes an impression of the road and its length. Articulation of the elements of a building is the extent to which automobiles have influenced architecture and design.

Fig. 4.26 Emphasizing horizontality with the articulation in the Form of Robie House

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A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landform and how they integrate with natural or manmade features. It can also refer to physical elements of a geophysical landforms such as Mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and living elements of land cover such as humans, animals, plants. It also encompasses the different forms of land use by humans, such as buildings, structures, and weather conditions such as lighting or rainfall. The above definitions make it clear that landscape involves a large variety of elements within is umbrella. It is crucial to realize that these elements do not exist in isolation, and a landscape is always formed when these elements come together to form one whole ‘vista’.

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Any built form has an inside and an outside, and the approach to it, becomes the first experience the user gets before really entering the building. So approach to any built form also become an important aspects while studying the landscape. With the advent of automobiles, the way one experiences a built from the outside changes. Instead of being on foot, the user now accesses the built, using this machine. The machine (here a car) thus alters the frame of view of the user. The experience of the approach now is dependent on the automobile and the building. The meaning of approach includes a sense of movement but with the advent of automobile, this sense of mobility gets exaggerated. A sense of entry for any building is an important way to define the way one approaches the building. In initial designs, catering to automobiles, this sense of entry is more of a modification of the old gated bungalow typology to accommodate cars. But Wright, very intelligently uses cars to his benefit in the Robbie house. The approach to Robbie house is perpendicular to a linear road. The driver has to take a sharp turn to enter into a gate which defines his sense of entering the property. While nearing the house, one is able to admire the beautiful roof and length of the house. The long road adjoining the house not only compliments the linearity of the design but also amplifies it for the driver traversing along it. In this project, a very strong sense of boundary exists which becomes a key feature while arriving into the project, but Frank Lloyd Wright did not miss the opportunity of using the roads and thus automobiles to highlight the aesthetics of the project.

Fig. 4.27 Approach to the robie house through surrounding landscape

Landscape


Another project of FLW which entirely bases itself on the use of automobile is the unbuilt Sugar loaf mountain project. Designed as a scenic overlook around the hill top, with restaurants and planetarium, the project has a spiralling ramp for the cars as the most important recreational element. The only way to approach and use this building was through automobiles, and thus the sense of entry has to be welcoming for the cars. The path leading towards the monumental project, with its curved ramps, is itself curving, in order to reveal the mountain slowly to the driver and suddenly without realizing, the driver begins his journey upwards.

Fig. 4.28 Approach to the sugarloaf mountain derived based on immediate form of landscape

In case of this project, automobile is an integral part of the experience of the architecture, as well as its approach, but in buildings like Viamala road house, a drive in service, the architecture becomes a gateway for the approaching vehicle. The programme demands that the building welcomes automobiles to pass through it and get serviced. Thus to highlights its roof, which is inspired by the surrounding mountains, and to allow efficient movement of multiple cars, the building is approached diagonally where the vehicle turns to enter into the envelope designed particularly for cars. So now with automobile, one more element of ‘motor way’ or ‘carriage way’ is added to the already existing exhaustive list of elements. Vehicular roads are important for the movement of automobile and it is evident that automobiles have a very structured and designed way of moving. This prerequisite of the cars, urges an overlay of network of motorways for the built form. Villa savoye has an articulated drive way from the main road till the house, integrated with a designed landscape of trees, shrubs, lawn or open land. The conscious choice of placing the house, motorways and trees, begins to hint that automobile affect the landscape, and will soon become an inevitable feature. Villa Savoye has a frontal approach to the building. Being a remote site, Le Corbusier uses this as an opportunity. He cites the building within a dense forest, and thus the approach to the Villa becomes an element of surprise for the driver. He has to go through a dense cover of nature in his car, to experience the aloofness of the house. Within the foliage of the trees, the driver is able to perceive a floating mass of a machine to live. The elevation seen on the approach is the best way to depict the ideas of lightness. Le Corb imagined

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the house to be a machine, and one could only enter this machine with another machine (a car). From the above examples, one can claim that there did not exist a uniform way of accessing the built form of a similar typology. Automobiles were interpreted in multiple ways by multiple designers, and thus the experience was designed by their understanding and vision of this paramount object.

Fig. 4.29a Form of the motorway in Villa Savoye

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Fig. 4.29b Entrance elevation of Villa Savoye emerged based on how one approaches it

Fig. 4.29c Placement of elements on the land with reference to each other

Critically looking, the above projects are of a similar typology, but the effects of automobile led to birth of a new typology all together: the suburban housing. The entire idea of living away from the city depends on the ability of humans to move faster and cover larger distances in shorter period of time with the help of cars.


Thus these housing schemes are planned and designed to house automobiles. The cloverleaf housing project by Frank Lloyd wright, shows an efficient way of arranging the houses so that each house gets access to a motorway to allow cars to enter the house. Each house is given a vehicular approach, and the planning clearly indicates the importance given to automobiles over pedestrians. The experience of nearing the project is conscious of automobiles in the foreground and unapologetically lets it dominate, by giving prominence to carriage ways and easy access.

Fig. 4.30a Motorways in Cloverleaf Quadrapole Housing project

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Fig. 4.30b The form of a cluster and the followed pattern in their organization

In another words here the designer takes some liberty from the grid, and invests in elaborately designing the motorway as well as the placing of each housing unit to allow easy access. There are some exceptions done as junctions of where one unit of four houses is turned diagonally. The project is a great example of how cars become the force driving the master plan, as well as design of the cluster and placing of the unit. It influences all scales of the project. As mentioned earlier landscape is an accumulation of parts. Once cars became mainstream in the lives of urban dwellers, one can see an emerging change in the design of modern cities and towns. Motorways become a line physically dividing a piece of land, but in the notions of the occupant, it acts as a connector between two distant parts of the city. Strong linearity becomes the key feature of


the emerging new cityscape catering to automobiles and its ease of movement. The perspective view of Voisin city plan is clearly indicative of this new emerging linearity of from and articulation of the facade to complement it. Le Corbusier uses a grid to deal with the issues of urban design and as geometry to cater to the movement of cars within the city. The grid thus goes onto become the force that determines the form of the plus shaped buildings in the centre of ever block. This form is also a result of Le Corbusier’s principle of a free ground free ground for pedestrians. A dedicated grid for automobile supports the argument that cars were highly influential is making urban design and master planning a more industrial process. One can say industrial, because now the city fabric looks like a product of mass production and mechanical repetition.

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Fig. 4.31a Motorways become the guideline for planning of the city

Fig. 4.31b Movements of automobile force to shape up the built elements on the land

Fig. 4.31c Emphasizing the horizontality of widened streets through the articulation of the built form

Vehicles, bring with itself another layer of complexity and architecture tries to accommodate them with maximum efficiency and aesthetic vigour. By simply guiding the way one accesses the building, approaches it in a car, architecture addresses the fact that automobile has now come into human lives and will remain an ‘inevitable’ object of the future.


4.4 Synthesis One can squarely say that cars were one of the most radical and revolutionary invention of the twentieth century. Its impacts of lifestyles and cultures have now become norms. There are two features of automobiles which has influenced architecture. One is the function of automobile i.e. movement or more sophisticatedly called� transportation�. Mobility implies they need a space to move and stop or be stationary. These requirements of movement and accommodation of automobile as a machinery affects the built forms. Secondly architecture as a creative field, borrows from the technical aspects of advancing manufacturing processes. Automobile being one of the greatest industrial creation of mankind, immensely influences building technologies and systems. Earlier built forms were made to allow movement of humans and some other livestocks. Now there was a new player in western life, which required space to move and was closely linked to man means of transportation. Movement of the automobile starting from the approach of any built form to inside the building governs the organization of spaces and structures of the building. Apparently it has also influenced the form of the building. Then with the idea of accommodating the car next to the house there was need of an extension in building as a shelter for the car. From the porch to the garage to the multistory parking, all of these the volumetric composition of the built form are consequences of usage of automobiles in city life. For example, Sugarloaf Mountain project, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, allows the movement of cars into the building with an avid understanding of the anthropometry of a car. And as a consequence of this Idea, circular form of the building emerges. Thus organization of spaces and structure become center oriented. Whereas in another drive in services designed by him, he allows the cars to pass through the building. So the form becomes subtractive in nature with geometry to allow easy movement of cars. A housing project near Pittsburg, designed by FLW is great example showing how the car movement defines the organization/ composition in planning at various scales. Like, the clusters in masterplan are composed based on the movement of the cars. The units are organized in cluster based on how one approaches the individual unit with the car. Same kind of influence is seen in the plan prepared by Le Corbusier for Paris. Where movement of the cars become guideline for the organization of the various type of urban spaces and individual built forms. An apartment building designed by Betrand Goldberg named Marina city tower, where the shape of the form is circular which was derived based on the movement of the automobile in the most compact way to accommodate them in the multi-level floors. This has also defined the spacing between the structural elements. And apparently it has influenced the size and shape of the units on the upper floors. Another great example is the Villa Savoye designed by Le

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Corbusier where the movement of the car carves out the mass of building and accommodates them within the building affecting the ground floor organization of spaces and accordingly the grid of structural elements. Whereas in the robie house designed by FLW, there is a garage attached to the volume of the house and this idea derives a specific type of volumetric composition of whole built form. Another two buildings designed by him show that how the form has become subtractive because of the accommodation of the automobile and other spaces in the building are organized accordingly. New built typologies were established due to the incoming of the cars. One type was to house many numbers for storage and another was to accommodate them for display. Both are different purposes of accommodating the cars and the scale and proportion of the spaces inside the buildings are derived from these two reasons. Apparently it has also affected the volumetric composition of the particular built form.

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Apart from these functional aspects there are many technical aspects like Mobility, pre fabrication, structure system and mass production which have influenced architecture of the built from. All these various type/system of production, have been derived from the manufacturing of automobile and applied to the construction system of the various built forms. For example, design of Citrohan house or Dymaxian twin unit are inspired from the Idea of coming up with the most efficient design that can work in various contexts. Another example is of the mechanical wing, where the idea is to design a mobile space. Just the scale and proportions of the form become compact. Using the same design principle, the Mobile hotel capsule was designed and constructed with the system which has been borrowed from the Automobile industry. Whereas in Media center the structural system that has been used is based on a designer’s inspiration from the automobile industry. There are many values that have been added to architecture because of automobile. The built form gains a new symbolic identity due to automobile. Frank Loyd Wright’s Sugarloaf Mountain Project has a monumental scale which comes from its capacity to hold automobiles. Automobiles were still seen as a symbol of prosperity, luxury and associated with a certain bourgeois lifestyle. It then becomes an artefact that has to be housed in the building to enhance its grandness and monumentality. With an addition of a new mobile object in the built environment, a new set of dimensions had to be adopted. Based on the anthropometry and technology of automobiles, a new scaling and proportioning system is derived for the built form. Marina city tower by Betrand Goldberg, derives its proportions and scale from automobiles. Whereas the compactness of mobile hotel capsules, or the large voluminous space in the media center are adoptions of technological advancements of the automobile industry. One can also see an emerging pattern in distribution of spaces and activities. These organizations are then repeated from building level to the level of


a city plan to create new rhythms. These rhythms can be seen in the organization and production of mass housing, to development of gridded city plans facilitating automobile movement. There is a rhythm to the movement of automobiles, which also dictates form and organization in architecture.

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Fig. 4.32 Emerged patterns as an influence of automobile in various architectural aspects of design


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Fig. 4.33 Comparison of sections of all examples to recognise the scale and proportioning system influenced by automobile.


Chapter V Conclusion

The conclusion comprises the superimposition of theoretical understanding of influence onto analytical derivation. Basically it goes back by adding a layer of previous understanding of three kinds of influences onto analyzed architectural aspects of designs through the lens of automobiles. These overlap led to very specific observation which has been also discussed briefly in this chapter.


Circulation

Spatial Organization

Literal Influence

Sugarloaf Mountain project

Sugarloaf Mountain project

David Wright house

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Evolved Influence

Marina City tower

The Guggenheim museum

David Wright house Cloverleaf Quadrapole housing project

The Villa Savoye

Matured Influence Drive In Laundry service

De Cope multistorey parking

The Villa Savoye

The Robie house


Structural Organization

Form

Landscape Voglreiter’Auto Residence

Media Center @ Lord’s stadium

BMW Museum Sugarloaf Mountain project

Marina City tower Marina City tower

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Mechanical Wing

Sugarloaf Mountain project

Media Center @ Lord’s stadium

The Villa Savoye

The Robie house Cloverleaf Quadrapole housing project The Villa Savoye

The Villa Savoye

Voisin plan for Paris Mobile Hotel Capsules Citrohan house


5.1 Conclusion So far based on analysis of various architectural aspects of design, the influence of automobiles can be classified into three categories. First is observed as a consequences of automobile where any aspects of automobile is indirectly related to the change in the building. For example, the distribution or organization of the activities and behavioral pattern in the buildings could been modified based on the introduction of automobile. Second category is recognized as an impact, where any aspects of automobile is directly related to the change in built form. These changes can be perceived due to automobile’s movement and its accommodation. For example, to house itself or its movement, the building changes its form based on specific characters of automobile. The curvature in motor ways, the emergence of ramp and the surface treatment are the examples of influence as an impact of automobile. Third category can be recorded based on inspirations from automobiles. The derived output is either dependant on designer’s interpretation on automobile or based on various aspects of automobile itself. These aspects include the systems of manufacturing, structure of body and aesthetic form.

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Below mentioned are various reasons describing the influence of automobiles falling under three major types of influences in architecture. When automobile literally influence the building, the factual data of automobile is directly implemented. Influence gets evolved, when any aspects of automobile interrupts the architectural design process. These aspects can include the sequence of events, reasons or ideas. When the final outcome of design is derived by multiple aspects of automobile in a logical way, it becomes efficient in functionality or its aesthetic form. Such influences can be sensed as matured. The analytical framework used in this thesis includes architectural understanding of circulation, spatial organization, structural organization, form and landscape. Various examples of building were analyzed to understand the influence of automobile on each facet of the building. The influences in all of these examples are literal, evolved or matured which is briefly described further. Looking into the aspect of circulation, there are examples which have been influenced in a logical and functional way to accommodate the functional need of cars. Hence, these examples are termed as matured influence. For example, in De Cope multi storey parking, the shape and the form of circulation is efficient for the vertical movement of the cars to travel to upper level parking spots. Similarly, Drive in laundry service building by FLW and Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier, functionally responds the program or the requirement of the building to have a drive way and a shaded parking. But the central ramp in Villa Savoye is evolved by architect’s idea or inspiration from cars but is not meant for the movement of automobile. Thus, the ramp in the former is an evolved influence of automobile on the circulation of a built form.


Similarly, in Sugarloaf Mountain project, the shape and form of the circulation for automobile is defined based on architect’s idea for a place of thrill and the joy of riding an automobile. Considering the case of Guggenheim museum and David Wright’s house, human movement in the building is influenced by the spiral movement of the automobile. Going through the examples that study spatial organization of a building, one can state that it is influenced maturely, with logical reasons to make the organization efficient enough in terms of functionality and aesthetics. For example, in Cloverleaf housing project, there is a logic behind organizing units in a radial manner which makes it practical to navigate private car. In Robie house, the spaces are separated in two different bays based on the accommodation of garage within the built form. There are various examples in which a specific type of organization is evolved to support the change that is due to movement and accommodation of automobile. For example, in Sugarloaf Mountain, the shape of the circulation guides the spaces to be organized in a central manner. The same is implemented in the case of Marina City Tower and David Wright’s house. Whereas in Sugarloaf Mountain and Marina City Tower, the organization of structural elements are evolved from an ideology and property of automobiles that has transformed by passing through multiple filters. For example, there was a need to introduce a secondary grid for structural elements in Villa Savoye to support various ideology that has been interpreted by designer for using automobiles. Similarly in Citrohan house, the system for structural organization has been derived based on designer’s understanding of ideology behind automobile. The organization of structural elements in Media center of Lord’s cricket stadium is literally influenced by the organization of structural elements of automobile. There are many remarkable examples of buildings, where its form is highly influenced by the automobile. Like in many examples size and shape of the form is evolved based on automobile’s movement or its accommodation for example Sugarloaf Mountain project and a unit in Marina City tower. Also many technical aspects of automobile has played an important role to evolve specific form of any building like the compact from of Mechanical wing, the massive and bulky form of Media center of Lord’s stadium are borrowed from the automobile technologies. There are also many examples recognized as matured influence of automobile on the built form. In such influence multiple aspects of automobile has been considered to come up with the final outcome. For example in Robie house and in Villa savoye the final form including its articulation of built depends upon various aspects related to the functions of automobile. However in Mobile hotel capsules, its size, shape and articulation of form is derived based on the idea of mobility and manufacturing system from automobile industry. Moreover in many examples, the surface of the built form is literally influenced by the image of automobile or any other visual aspects related to it. Like Voglreiter’s Auto Residence in Salzburg, Austria,

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where the treatment of all the surfaces are done to pretend its appearance as a car. Another example of such influence is observed at the BMW museum in Munich, where the symbol of BMW is imposed on the surface of the roof. One can also recognize that automobile has influenced the landscape aspect as well. Automobile has played an important role in sculpting the land. Some of the derivation comes to fulfill the functional requirement and some of them have been evolved based on other aspects related to automobile. For example in villa savoye the landscape is evolved based on inspiration that designer gets from the automobile. Whereas in the design for Voisin city plan the land is sculpted based on automobile’s functional need and elements of landscape like, motorways, built form and vegetation are affected physically, indicating a matured influence of automobile. Another example of matured influence on landscape is masterplan prepared for Cloverleaf Housing project by FLW where the land is divided such that it functions in efficient way and fill the maximum no. of housing units.

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Overviewing all these examples of various architectural aspects, the literal influence is observed only in form and structural organization of building. The reason is these two aspects are the only aspects where there is a possibility to portray visual and tectonic part of architecture. However one can also perceive evolved and matured influence of automobile on these two aspects. Furthermore in other architectural aspects like circulation, spatial organization and landscape, there is an existence of evolved and matured influence. Since these are the aspects which portray designer’s ideas of efficiency in design or inspiration from cars.


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Makakli, Elif Suyuk. Technology in Architecture. Germany: LAP LEMBERT Academic Publishing, 2012. Margolius, Ivan. Automobiles by Architects. UK: Wiley publications, 2000. Mchale, John. 1962 R. Buckminster Fuller. New York: George Braziller Inc., 1962. Miller, Daniel. Car Cultures. Bloomsbury Academic, 2001. Mumford, Lewis. Highway and the city. London: Secker & Warburg, 1964. Parissien, Steven. Life of the automobile. USA: Atlantic books, 2014. Sadie, Moshe. The city after the Automobile: Architect’s vision. West-view press Inc., 1998. Scully, Vincent J. “Frank Lloyd Wright”. New York: George Braziller Inc., 1960. Print. Uffelen, Chris Van. Automobile Architecture. USA: Braun, 2011. Urry, John. Mobilities. Cambridge: Polity press, 2007. Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright. An Autobiography. London: Quarlet, 1979. Wright, Henry Ed. ”The Architectural Forum: Frank Lloyd Wright”. New York: Times Incorporated, 1948. Unpublished thesis Panchal, Varish. Architecture as consequences of automobiles. Ahmedabad: CEPT University, 2013


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Image credits Chapter 1 Image 1.1 http://www.idesignarch.com/kansas-city-public-library-missouri/ Image 1.2 https://es.pinterest.com/pin/558868634990814737/ Image 1.3 https://s-media-cache ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fb/82/e1/fb82e1a351bc0290dff6d7087f7b5071.jpg Image 1.4 http://www.delhicapital.com/images1/lotus-temple.jpg Image 1.5 http://cdn.designrulz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/nautilius-designrulz-00013.jpg Image 1.6 https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/55/dd/a0/55dda0da14b300f5b20e870173baf89e.jpg Image 1.7 https://www.pinterest.com/ning_075/ribbed-vaulting/ Image 1.8 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/395964992212240197/ Image 1.9 http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/reichstag-new-german-parliament/ Image 1.10 http://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5850/5d18/e58e/ce89/4b00/0035/slideshow/ SC_Oculus_062.jpg Image 1.11 http://www.parisdigest.com/photos/centre_pompidou_museum_paris_france.jpg Image 1.12 http://www.parisdigest.com/monument/centre-pompidou.htm

Chapter 2 Figure 1.2 Image 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CugnotSteamTrolly.png Image 2 https://usercontent2.hubstatic.com/12668301.jpg Image 3 https://www.daimler.com/company/tradition/company-history/1885-1886.html Image 4 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/442408363371735395/ Image 5 https://userscontent2.emaze.com/images/07f50151-c4c9-4c7f-854b-df2ced44eb44/835bcc66ba7ed a2ad084c4a266cea6bb.jpg Image 6 http://autotransportassociation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/1912-ford-model-t.jpg Image 7 http://www.assemblymag.com/ext/resources/Issues/September2013/asb1013line5.jpg

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Image 8 https://www.speeddoctor.net/media/2010/05/Lancia-Lambda-1.-5.-Serie-1922-1925.jpg Image 2.1 http://theweek.com/articles/461968/rise-fall-detroit-timeline Image 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 Foundation, Frank Lloyd wright. “Frank LLoyd Wright’s Automobiles” Quarterly 8, no.2 (1997) Image 2.5 Margolius, Ivan. Automobiles by Architects. UK: Wiley publications, 2000. Image 2.6 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/109986415877717945/ Image 2.7 http://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/CorbuCache/900x720_2049_1076.jpg Image 2.8 Le Corbusier. Towards a new Architecture. London: England etc architectural press, 1963. Image 2.9 http://oldurbanist.blogspot.in/2013/02/was-rise-of-car-ownership-responsible.html Figure 2.2 Image 1 http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2013/12/01/FILL-ER-UP/stories/201312010079 Image 2 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/458311699549394705/ Image 3 Image 4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_of_the_Lincoln_Highway 87

Image 5 https://www.pinterest.com/pandasquiggles/drive-in-theater/ Image 6 http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/PopularScience/11-1933/first_air_conditioned_auto.jpg Image 2.10, 2.11 https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ideas/dymaxion-world/dymaxion-car Image 2.12 Margolius, Ivan. Automobiles by Architects. UK: Wiley publications, 2000. Image 2.13, 2.14, 2.15 Margolius, Ivan. Automobiles by Architects. UK: Wiley publications, 2000. Image 2.16 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/54113632999561093/ Image 2.17 http://www.steinerag.com/flw/Artifact%20Pages/PhRtS145.htm Image 2.18 https://www.pinterest.com/chen4482/low-density/ Image 2.19 Jodidio, Philip. Architecture and Automobiles. Mulgrane: Images Publishing Group Pvt. Ltd., 2009.

Chapter 3 Image 3.1 http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20140825-a-racetrack-in-the-sky Image 3.2 https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7229/7343971606_f33ba41854_b.jpg


Image 3.3 https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/flw/images/flw0105x.jpg Image 3.4 FLW foundation Image 3.5 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/52987733087154700/ Image 3.6 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/82190761926819705/ Image 3.7 https://st.hzcdn.com/fimgs/86a1aa500109dbeb_4746-w618-h301-b0-p0--modern-exterior.jpg Image 3.8 http://interieurites.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Le-Corbusier-au-Centre-Pompidou-maisonCitrohan-1920-1922-%C2%A9catherinevernet.jpg Image 3.9 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/412783122071978739/ Image 3.10 http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/frank-lloyd-wright-gas-station Image 3.11 http://www.archdaily.com/261203/parking-garage-de-cope-jhk-architecten Image 3.12 http://bertrandgoldberg.org/projects/marina-city/ Image 3.13 Wright, Henry Ed.,”The Architectural Forum: Frank Lloyd Wright”, Times Incorporated, New York, 1948. Image 3.14 Pfeiffer, Bruce Books. Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly, 8 (Spring 1997), 24. Image 3.15, 3.16 Mchale, John. 1962 R. Buckminster Fuller. New York: George Braziller Inc., 1962. Image 3.17 https://www.flickr.com/photos/23605204@N04/ Image 3.18 https://www.pinterest.com/adaptablefuture/arch-adaptable/ Image 3.19 https://www.pinterest.com/danelkington/kaplicky/



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