History of Interior Design II 12. Parallels with Contemporary Architecture Tutor : Amal Shah Spring 2021 Faculty of Design, CEPT University
Precedents: What is an Architecture Precedent Study? Key features Precedent can be defined in the following ways:
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Something said or done that may serve as an example or rule to justify a subsequent act of the same or a similar or comparable type.
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The convention established by such a precedent or by long practice.
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A person or thing that serves as a model.
An architecture precedent study can aid your design process from concept to final design. Note that precedents are not copied but used as an inspiration to your design. They are an idea or guide to a method that you are wishing to employ in your scheme. The use of a precedent in design can lend authority to your design by associating your proposal to something else. A precedent can communicate a meaning to your design, whether as a form of dialogue to your client, the public, or for the designer. An architecture precedent study can help you solve problems in a design process that have previously been solved in other designs.
Precedents: What is an Architecture Precedent Study? Look for buildings you can actually visit, explore and experience rather than completely relying on the information you find on the internet or in books. To be able to visit a building, explore it, study the materials, the form etc, is quite different from reading about it in a book. Using precedents local to your site, can help you understand the architectural language of the area and develop a design that is sympathetic to the context. Don’t just select a building ‘because it looks nice’. There needs to be a lot more to it than that: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Why does it look nice? What sets it apart from other similar buildings? How is it constructed? Would it work with your design? How did the architect make the building successful? Or, why is it a negative precedent? Is the design good? What makes it good? What materials have been used?
Precedents: How to Analyse and apply an Architecture Precedent Study? The precedent is there to help you resolve a design problem. Be it a suitable solar shading solution, or a cladding material, you need to drill down on what that particular precedent has taught you and why you feel it is an important inspiration for your design.
Remember that different precedents will offer different solutions and experiences. For example, a building that demonstrates a good floor plan, my not necessarily be the building you want to look at for employing advanced technologies in materials and design.
Take time to research and interpret the precedent building, and figure out how it is constructed and its significant features.
This is where a combination of precedents, can help you develop ideas and solutions, by cherry picking information from each and weaving the concepts into your design.
Analyse the form, structure, using any photographs and drawings you have in order to start to fully understand all aspects of the building or segment that you are focusing on. What is the building or element you are studying for? What function does it fulfils. You can conduct your analysis of the building according to what you are trying to discover, understand or resolve.
Precedents: How to Analyse and apply an Architecture Precedent Study? Some of the things that you should consider are: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Structure Scale Light Materials and surfaces Details Proportions Context Social / cultural impact Form Access Aesthetic And many many more!
It is important not to copy. Be specific in the area which you feel applies to your design, learn lessons from the precedent and find ways that you can be creative with its integration, and solving your design problems. These need to be communicated to your client/tutor in order for them to understand your reasoning, and give them the vision of your design. Continue to build your design and spatial vocabulary and you will slowly create a precedent study library in your mind that you can refer to again and again during your design process. Immerse yourself in architecture, and this will become easier. Critically assess designs you see, ask questions, be inquisitive.
Precedents: Diagrams? “To communicate the analysis of the buildings and the formative ideas in this study, a diagram or a set of diagrams is utilized. The diagrams are drawings that, as abstractions, are intended to convey essential characteristics and relationships in a building. As such, the diagrams focus on specific physical attributes which allow for the comparison of that attribute between buildings independent of style, type, function, or time. The diagrams are developed from the three-dimensional form and space configurations of the building. They take into account more information than is normally apparent in a plan, an elevation, or a section. To reduce the building to its essentials, the diagrams can be intentionally simplified. This elimination of all but the most important considerations makes those that remain both dominant and memorable.”
“For the analysis, it is necessary to establish a graphic standard so that comparison could be made between the diagrams. In general, heavy lines are used in each diagram to accent a particular issue. In the formative idea part of the study, the plan, elevation, or section of the building is drawn lightly for orientation purposes, while the issue being analyzed and compared is indicated by heavy lines or shading.” PRECEDENTS IN ARCHITECTURE Analytic Diagrams, Formative Ideas, and Partis Fourth Edition Roger H. Clark & Michael Pause
Precedents: Diagrams?
Precedents: Diagrams?
Precedents: Diagrams?
1. Composition of Space
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Point
The Pisa Baptistery marks the focal point contextually as well as in the base form.
Indian Coffee House by Laurie Baker
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Line
The Pisa Baptistery marks the focal point contextually as well as in the base form.
The Farnsworth House planning reflecting linearity in space.
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Organization- Space Within a Space
Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier.
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Organization- Interlocking Spaces
Pilgrimage Church, Germany, 1744
The interlocking portions of the volumes is shared equally by each space. The dome links the adjacent spaces
Villa Baizeau in Carthage by Le Corbusier having interlocked volumes.
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Organization- Adjacent Spaces
Chiswick House, London- The spaces are individualistic in size, shape, and form. The walls that enclose them adapt their forms to accommodate the differences between adjacent spaces.
Central Beheer building having adjacency in spaces in plan as well as volumetrically.
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Organization- Spaces Linked by a Common Space
Vierzehnheiligen
Palazzo Piccolomini, Pienza, Italy
Library, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, Louis Kahn plan
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Foreshortening- Foreshortening is a technique used in perspective to create the illusion of an object receding strongly into the distance or background. The illusion is created by the object appearing shorter than it is in reality, making it seem compressed
Jewish Museum Berlin by Daniel Libeskin
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Movement
British Museum, London- The spaces are planned around the primary movement path
Guggenheim museum where the movement bath plays a vital role in spatial planning and experience
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Unity
Villa Château
Villa Shodhan by Le Corbusier
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Balance
Villa Rotunda by Palladio
National Assembly Building Dhaka by Louis Kahn
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Focus-Emphasis
St Peter’s Square, Vatican city
Brion-Vega Cemetery
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Contrast
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad by Louis Kahn National History Museum London, a contrast of mass and void
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Scale and Proportion
Villa Foscari,, Italy, 1558, Andrea Palladio
Villa Graches by Le Corbusier
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Square
Borobodur, the Buddhist stupa monument
The boathouse jewish community centre, trenton new jersey by Le Corbuiser
Elements of Design | Composition Of Space Triangle
Modern Art Museum, Caracas, Venezuela, 1955, Oscar Niemeyer
Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, Egyp
Villa Sundt House, Madison by Frank Loyd Wright
2. Form, Space and Organization
Linear Defining Elements in Form, Space & Organization
Sainte- Chapelle Cathedral, Paris
GC Prostho Museum, Japan, Kengo Kuma
Planar Defining Elements in Form, Space & Organization
Palazzo Strozzi,, Italy, 1538
House, Berlin Building Exposition, 1931, Mies van der Rohe
Surface as Defining Element in Form, Space & Organization
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, 1646, by Francesco Borromini (Baroque)
Taichung Opera House, 2009, Toyo Ito
Order, Organization & Circulation : Linear | Form, Space & Organization
Speyer Cathedral, Germany, 1030
Salk Institute of Biological Studies, California, Louis Kahn
Order & Organization & Circulation : Centralized | Form, Space & Organization
Villa Farnese, Caprarola, 1547–1549
Guggenheim Museum, New York City by Frank Lloyd Wright
Order & Organization : Grid | Form, Space & Organization
Crystal Palace, 1851, Joseph Paxton
Centre Pompidou, Paris, Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers
Order & Organization : Clustered | Form, Space & Organization
St. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome, 1633–1641
IIM Ahmedabad, Louis Kahn
Symmetry | Principles of Design | Form, Space & Organization
Villa Rotunda by Palladio
Unity Temple, Illinois, 1905–1907, Frank Lloyd Wright
Axis | Principles of Design | Form, Space & Organization
Uffizi Palace in Florence, Italy, frame an axial space that leads from the River Arno, through the Uffizi arch, to the Piazza della Signoria and the Palazzo Vecchio
Multiple axes of Darwin D. Martin House and Estate, Buffalo, New York, 1904, Frank Lloyd Wright
Hierarchy by Point, Line. Plane & Volume | Form, Space & Organization
Villa Trissino at Meledo, Andrea Palladio
Legislative Assembly Building, Chandigarh,1956–1959, Le Corbusier
Datum by Point, Line. Plane & Volume | Form, Space & Organization
St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City
Sanskar Kendra, Ahmedabad, Le Corbusier
Rhythm, Repetition, Hierarchy by Point, Line. Plane, Volume | Form, Space & Organization
Wells Cathedral, England
Jean Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center by Renzo Piano
3. Elements of Space-Making
Walls | Elements of Space- Making
Villa Capra La Rotonda, Andrea Palladio
Heydar Aliyev Centre, Baju by Zaha Hadia
Columns | Elements of Space- Making
Decorative columns from Renaissance
Yusuhara Wooden bridge museum, Kengo Kuma
Windows | Elements of Space- Making
Gothic Rose windows
Ronchamp Cathedral, 1955, Le Corbusier
Doors & Portals | Elements of Space- Making
Round portal in all door openings necessitating thicker walls Speyer cathedral
IIM Ahmedabad by Louis Kahn
Flooring | Elements of Space- Making
Baroque Flooring techniques
Falling water house by Frank Lloyd Wright
Ceiling | Elements of Space- Making
Pantheon, Rome- Renaissance
Menil Museum, Renzo Piano
Staircase | Elements of Space- Making
Romanesque staircase
Gothic staircase
Olivetti Staircase, Carlo Scarpa
Facades | Elements of Space- Making
Facade from Renaissance period
Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry
Threshold | Elements of Space- Making
Lisbon workshop by Filippo Brunelleschi
Barcelona Pavilion by Mies Van Der Rohe
Ornamentation | Elements of Space- Making
Baroque style f ornamentation
Aurora Place facade by Renzo Piano