Transparency
Translates Light
Hengjia Liu || Rep 2-18 | Structures of Light
FORM
IDEA
PLACE 1
7
9
‘PABLO VALBUENA’
15 18 25
CONTENTS
LIGHT STUDY
MATERIAL
COMPOSITION
PLAN
SCALE 1:1000
SITE PLAN
ELEVATION 1
SCALE 1:1000
ELEVATION 2
SCALE 1:1000
ELEVATION 1
GROUND VIEW 1
GROUND VIEW 2
ARIAL VIEW 1
ARIAL VIEW 2
3D VIEWS 2
SITE ANALYSIS
DAY & NIGHT
AMBIENT LIGHT 3
SHADE & SHADOW
9 12
3 SUMMER
WINTER
4
ENTRY 1
ENTRY 2
ENTRY 3
PROPORTIONAL SYSTEM
5
ACCESS & MOVEMENT
USE PATTERN & SOCIAL CHARACTER
6
GEOMETRICAL DIAGRAMMING
IDEA SKETCH
7
LUMINOSITY SKETCH
8
EXPERIENTIAL VIEWS
ON SITE
CONSTITUTE FORM
ENTRY
CRACK EXPANSION
PATH
ON SITE
VOID
SKETCH 9
EXPERIENTIAL VIEWS
ENTRY
CONSTITUTE FORM
BUBBLE GROWTH
ON SITE
10
EXPANSION OF OIL PIGMENT
EXPERIENTIAL VIEWS
EXPERIENTIAL VIEWS
ENTRY
CONSTITUTE FORM
VOID
ON SITE
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PRECEDENTS
Tirpitz War Museum The “Invisible Museum� transforms and expands a historic German WWII bunker into a ground-breaking cultural complex, comprising four exhibition spaces within a single structure. Museum Centre Blavand contains 3 museums and 1 special exhibitions gallery. Each museum serves as an independent unit with requirements for the ability to change exhibitions, host special events and to have their own opening hours. At the same time the complex is seen as a larger communication between the various museums.
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Transparency Light Transparency translates translates Light Transparency translates Light
INSPIRATIONS
GROWTH& EXPANSION 13
FORM EXPLORATION
functional connection
space bubbles
layers
water& light
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3D MODEL IN CONTEXT
PLAN 1
SCALE 1:1000
PLAN 2
SCALE 1:1000
SECTION 1
SCALE 1:1000
PLAN& SECTION 15
COMPOSITION GROUND LEVEL
CEILING LEVEL
-1 LEVEL
-2 LEVEL
-3 LEVEL
ABOVE & BELOW
EXPLODED STRUCTURE 16
IN SITE
ACCESS& MOVEMENT 17
MATERIALITY
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CONSTRUCTION DETAILING 1
19
OUTSIDE& INSIDE
APPROACH, ACCESS and MOVEMENT
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DAY &NIGHT
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CONSTRUCTION DETAILING 2
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INTERNAL VIEWS DAY
23
NIGHT
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LUMINOSITY Linguistic Definitions
Luminosity is the quality of something that gives off light or shines with reflected light. The most noticeable quality of a large, sparkly diamond is its luminosity. In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of energy emitted by a star, galaxy, or other astronomical object per unit time.[1] It is related to the brightness, which is the luminosity of an object in a given spectral region.
Philosophical Meanings
The relationship between persons and things is at the heart of most material culture studies. Light , meaning luminous from old English leoht, has been studied as lumen. Light as subjective, and interior; as sight and mental sensation. What is light? How do people sense light? Light ‘creates atmosphere, highlights and sculpts areas, and opens up spaces, influencing not just how you look at them but also how you feel about them. Light profoundly influences both ambience and mood’ (Sorrell, 2005: 58). People move around and thereby perceive different aspects of light revealing different experiences of the world. At the same time, certain kinds of light have direct impact on the physiology of our lives. ‘Natural light’ lamps for example are used in many homes and offices to prevent ‘Seasonal Affective Disorders’ (SADs) in many countries in the northern Hemisphere.
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Lithe Luminosity: The architectural lighting of the Barcelona Pavilion
The Barcelona Pavilion was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as the German National Pavilion for the Barcelona International Exhibition, held on Montjuïc. What may be even more compelling, but is largely overlooked in the literature on the pavilion, is that image reflections in the glass and the polished marble walls delineate borders at the same time as they create a combined view of interior and exterior spaces. In this way the presence of light by use of a free and asymmetric assemblage of solid walls and glass walls – of transparent as well as opaque glass – make space appear infinite, unlike traditional architecture. This emphasis on fluid transitions and transparencies between the interior and the exterior once again became prevalent in much architecture of the later 20th century and our contemporary present, especially by the extensive use of glass façades in urban architecture. Glass, steel and four different kinds of stone (Roman travertine, green Alpine marble, ancient green mar-
ble from Greece and golden onyx from the Atlas Mountains) were used for the reconstruction. Mies van der Rohe’s originality in the use of materials lay not so much in novelty as in the ideal of modernity they expressed through the rigour of their geometry, the precision of the pieces and the clarity of their assembly. Mies van der Rohe designed a chair, especially for the Pavilion, consisting of a leatherupholstered metallic profile that over the years has icon of modern design. To such an extent, in fact, that the Barcelona chair is still manufactured and marketed today. The sculpture is a bronze reproduction of the piece entitled Dawn by Georg Kolbe, a contemporary of Mies van der Rohe. Masterfully placed at one end of the small pond, the sculpture is reflected not only in the water but also in the marble and glass, thereby creating the sensation that it is multiplied in space, while its curves contrast with the geometrical purity of the building.
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REFLECTION Linguistic Definitions
The light reflection in architectures can be used to create a number of different effects, such as making a space look bigger, adding privacy, as well as making the best possible use of natural light, so it is little wonder that reflection continues to be a mainstay in modern design.
Philosophical Meanings
Accompanied by the belief that light and brilliance could help in creating iconic architecture and a better human world, the locus of meaning in architecture has shifted from the internal space-form towards the external surface. The lighting reflection in a space defines its character and creates impressions. The increase in light and positive energy make better use to create an illusion of space. The human eye perceives its form through the incidence and reflection of light and in that way acquires information about the ambiance in a given place. Visual impressions are interpreted in our brains and put in context to create emotions that move us to take particular actions. Some architectural designs are able to reflect light, capture the image of surrounding entities and in some cases even blend in to the environment.
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Reflection Growth: Reflective Facade of Elbe philharmonic hall
Visionary glass culture of Scheerbart, and indirectly to the golden shimmering skin of Berlin’s Philharmonic by Hans Scharoun as well. Inwardly and outwardly curved glass elements distort the perception of the city, water and sky. They build a fresh contrast to the uniform plane glass curtains of the International Style. The environment is not appreciated as a clear mirrored picture, but instead goes through a process of modification and reproduction. Due to the curves of the balconies, the building reflects points or lines of brilliant light streaks. With a blue or diffuse sky the distinctive curves reflect the light as bright lines, similar to the horizontal lines seen in the designs of the automotive industry. Under direct sunlight, bright glossy points appear and evoke a jewel-like shimmer. Additionally, the vertical and horizontal convex curves of numerous single glass elements reinforce the shiny distorted reflections of the sky. Overall the curved façade with its printed dot screens evokes a vivid and liquid image, which
expresses a close link to the water around. Built upon the historic brick warehouse below, and with its abstract choreography of complex distorted light reflections. These strategies with shimmering veils have significantly increased the relevance of the surface as a carrier for the meaning of a building. The International Style has come to a point in façade design where the uniformity of mirroring cubes has begun to erode a sense of human scale. Consequently, concave and convex building forms, reflective curved façade elements, or a mixture of the two, have opened another set of options, generating more multifaceted images for the city. Furthermore, the interest in complex reflection patterns has swept aside brutalism with its raw concrete dualism of dark voids and light surfaces. Neither shadows nor simple mirror effects seem to evoke enough attraction for our spectacle-oriented society today. Therefore, new landmarks will continue to reach for innovative combinations of material and form to create brilliant veils and a bright urban future.
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OPACITY Linguistic Definitions Opacity means the quality of being difficult to understand or know about, especially because things have been intentionally kept secret or made complicated. Opacity is the quality of being difficult to see through. If you refer to something’s opacity, you mean that it is difficult to understand.
Philosophical Meanings Philosophical use of ‘opaque’ traces back to Quine, and so we begin with his account of it. In some works, Quine speaks of a “purely designative” or “purely referential” occurrence of a singular term; such occurrences are ones on which the term “is used solely to designate its object.” The contrast is between occurrences such as that of ‘Gauguin’ in Gauguin was born in Paris, and its occurrence in. The sentence ‘Gauguin was born in Paris’ starts with a‘g’,which is not “purely referential”. Elsewhere, Quine speaks of a singular term’s position or context being purely referential, such positions being ones where a term is “used simply to specify its object.” The difference, presumably, is that if referentiality or opacity is a property of occurrences, it could in principle be a one off affair, with t in S(t) occurring opaquely, t′ in S(t′) not so occurring; if opacity is a property of a locus or position, it won’t be one off in this way.
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Mysterious Opacity : Italian Pavilion - Expo Shanghai 2010, China
Water, Air, Light are the primary elements behind the concept of the Italian Pavilion, which, due to its “mysterious” aspect of walled city, aims to the effect of surprise, to show an amazing variety of identities through a material that is compact and opaque by nature, but can also be transparent. The exhibition structure is 18 m high, with an area of about 3,600 m2, and is configured as a system of separate parts forming a geometrically unitary object. The cross cuts, clear as razor-slashes, are the inside/outside connecting elements of a structure that reproduces the topographic morphology of Italian towns. The building was built with transparent cement i.light®, a newly developed cement-based material by Italcementi. 3,774 transparent panels made of i.light® cover a total area of 1,887 m2, the equivalent of about 40 % of the whole architectural
structure, generating in the building a sequence of lights and shadows that change constantly throughout the day. i.light®, the innovative material ensures transparency by mixing cement and admixtures according to a formula developed by the research laboratories of Italcementi. Thanks to an exceptional flowability, the admixtures bind a matrix of plastic resins inside the cement-based material without generating cracks or weakening the structure. The resins of different colours react both with natural and artificial light creating a warm and soft light inside the building and an image of bright shininess on the outside. The transparent panels are proposed as architectural components with different but integrating functions as internal lighting (shading and light scattering techniques) and thermal insulation .
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FILTRATION Linguistic Definitions
Filtration is any of various mechanical, physical or biological operations that separate solids from fluids (liquids or gases) by adding a medium through which only the fluid can pass. The fluid that passes through is called the filtrate. In physical filters oversize solids in the fluid are retained and in biological filters particulates are trapped and ingested and metabolites are retained and removed.
Philosophical Meanings
Filtration differs from sieving, where separation occurs at a single perforated layer (a sieve). In sieving, particles that are too big to pass through the holes of the sieve are retained . In filtration, a multilayer lattice retains those particles that are unable to follow the tortuous channels of the filter. Oversize particles may form a cake layer on top of the filter and may also block the filter lattice, preventing the fluid phase from crossing the filter. Commercially, the term filter is applied to membraneswhere the separation lattice is so thin that the surface becomes the main zone of particle separation, even though these products might be described as sieves. • Filtration is also important and widely used as one of the unit operations of chemical engineering. It may be simultaneously combined with other unit operations to process the feed stream, as in the biofilter, which is a combined filter and biological digestion device.
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Sitooterie Filtration: UK Pavilion for World Expo 2010
Heatherwick previously experimented with texture and architecture at a much smaller scale with his Sitooterie projects. The Seed Cathedral is the ultimate development of this. Inside the darkened inner sanctum of the Seed Cathedral, the tips of the fibre optic filaments form an apparently hovering galaxy of slim vitrines containing a vast array of embedded seeds. Below the circulation zone is a further layer of spaces which can be used for cultural and commercial events hosted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and is available to hire by other organisations throughout the duration of the Expo. This accuracy ensures that the Seed Cathedral’s fibre optic array creates an apparent halo around the high structure, with the fibre optic filaments rippling and changing texture and reflectivity in the gentlest wind. The wavering external surfaces of the Seed Cathedral form a delicate connection between the
ground and the sky.These fibre optic filaments are particularly responsive to external light conditions so that the unseen movement of clouds above the Seed Cathedral are experienced internally as a fluctuating luminosity. The studio’s intention is to create an atmosphere of reverence around this formidable collection of the world’s botanical resources; a moment of personal introspection in a powerful silent space. A special artificial grass surface has been uniquely developed to act as a welcoming and restful public space for Expo visitors. Beneath the Seed Cathedral and the landscaped surface area is a canopied and naturally ventilated entrance and exit sequence for the Seed Cathedral. This circulation zone, running along three edges of the site, contains a narrative of three innovative environmental installations designed by London-based design studio, Troika.
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Structures of Light