Totality By Subtraction

Totality by Subtraction

Design Studio 5

Totality by Subtraction Contents

Student Name: Keith Seow

Student ID: s3441442

Totality By Subtraction

Analysis of a modern Japanese icon located in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD pg. 06

A.

From Japan to the Land Down Under

Analysis of a modern Japanese icon located in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD

pg. 26

Case Studies: Kerstin Thompson

An insight into the seminal works of the enigmatic practice in the local architectual scene

pg. 36

Totality On Steroids

A medley of ideas preceding the final presentation that push the boundaries of adaptabily

pg. 48

More Case Studies:

From Tange to Archigram and just about everything in between...

Variation Studies

An insight into the seminal works of the enigmatic practice in the local architectual scene pg. 84

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Studio leader: Critic panel:

Presentation Day

Present Parties

Brent Allpress

Val Austin, Conrad Hamann

Present Parties

Brent Allpress

&

Val Austin & Conrad Hamann & Alter studio participants

Presentation

Location:

Date: Time:

P 100.04.04

Tuesday, 30th October 2018 10am

This project speculates upon the potential rekindling of one of Melbourne’s most endearing yet increasingly derelict icon of modern architecture — Total House (1965) by Bernard Joyce for Bogle & Banfield Associates. The building is now a mere shadow of its highly ambitious and progressive past which sought to meet the growing demands of urbanisation by hybridising programs of seemingly disparate nature. Despite earning heritage status in recency, the architecture remains neglected for the most part and arguably irrelevant with the majority of the populace, save for the handful who value its quaintness where the office block has been likened to a CRT Television.

The building’s Brutalist aesthetics follows a Japanese lineage that traces back to the early works of Kenzo Tange, most evident in the carpark’s seemingly floating façade which bears a striking resemblance to the concrete balustrades of the seminal Kagawa Prefectural Government Hall (1958) in Japan. Lesser known quirks such as its car ramps that terminate midway and the cruciform columns supporting the office block, suggests the notion of scalability, a quintessential trait of the Metabolism movement spearheaded by Tange himself.

The strategies imbued within the proposed alteration considers the pre-existing and latent conditions of the Total Carpark through a series of operations that will reinvigorate its performative qualities for adaptive reuse and re-establish the building as an inclusive mixused development within the cultural context of contemporary Melbourne CBD.

Totality By Subtraction

• Inflatable marquee / office space

• Public access roof

• The Ramp (restuarant and bar)

• Chinese roof skylight feature

• Capsule residence

• Meeting room

• Capsule residence

• Public restroom

• Offstage and storage area

• Public access catwalk system

• Adaptable event space

• Roof terrace

• Car park

• Fitness park

• Running track

• Inflatable exhibiton hall (Lv. 3)

• Stairway and observatory

• Inflatable exhibiton hall (Lv. 2)

• Stairway and observatory

• Inflatable exhibiton hall (Lv. 1)

• Stairway and observatory

• Car park

• Pedestrianised ground level

• Japanese rock garden

• Public furniture

• Wind turbines

• Catwalk observatory

• Tea spout seating area

• Stairway and observatory

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• Auditorium

• Stairway and observatory

• Balcony (existing)

• Running track

• Running track

• Travelator tube and observatory

• Travelator tube and observatory

• Vertical archive and library

• Workshop area

• Travelator tube and observatory

• Travelator tube and observatory

Legend

● Car movement

● Revolving Elevator

● Feature stairway

● Travelator path A

● Travelator path B

• Adaptable central space

• Glass pilotis retail shops

Existing structure

Because the existing footprint has already been maximised, a subtraction of the existing mass is necessary in moving forward by eliminating what is not essential. The periphery of the carpark and the guts of the office block were removed, leaving behind the ramps and mezzanine plates, the office block envelope and integral structural elements.

The experience of the architecture is redefined by autonomous circulation systems of varying types that now populate it. By exploiting the existing edge conditions, the building is made to be experienced sectionally with the added function of an observatory as the new course of movement decelerates travelling speeds.

The building’s hidden metabolist tendancies surfaces through a pioneering methodology called “craft-in-situ”, affording the flexibility for floor plans to conform to programmatic needs. The existing columns act as additional support by cantilevering the floor plates off of them by use of tensegrity.

With the floor plans and circulation systems in place, the architecture becomes fertile for the occurrence of events throughout.

The final implementation which sees the reinstatement of the balustrades according to the new form adds visually eliminates the notion of mundanity through dynamism whilst retaining the carpark’s original identity.

1. Existing Architecture

3. New Circulation

5. Programmatic Array

2. Subtraction

4. Craft-in-situ

6. Reinstatement of Balustrades

The newly established sectional condition develops upon the architecture’s original datum lines and structural layout which retains a sense of familiarity within an inherently new spatial and circulatory system while the implemented void conditions running through the entirety of the car park’s massing reveals the previously concealed lattice-like organisation of the car ramps.

the “craft-in-situ” methodolody facilitates the contraction and expansion of ceiling heights in accordance to programmatic needs.

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The office block features an undercroft conditon with an adaptable deck below converted from the mezzanine parking space and an oversized stairway that mimics the ramps of the carpark which accomodates the auditorium below and bar and restaurant above.

Where the architecture’s existing Russell Street facade was once its dormant and expressionless side, it now features a rhythmic Tange-esque vent erratically punctuated by stairways cantilevered off two-pronged structural members resembling chopsticks. Barely visible above are the yellow windpowered turbines that expel toxic fumes produced by cars within the building through the same sculptural stair core.

The architecture displays an openness to the context as it physically takes on the bold colours of Melbourne’s CBD’s cultural artery — Chinatown.

The expressive facade features circulation systems punching in and out with observatory overruns that reference to the odd ramp terminations. Disjointed from the floor plates, the balustrades act as an armature that host parasitically mounted services to optimise height clearances within.

The Little Bourke street facade receives an inclusive face lift that features a roof overhang, an open ground plane with a glass pilotis retail frontage and a receding bluestone paving finish that beckons you into the Japanese rock garden within.

The car parking area demonstrates how the simple application of bold graphics and lighting can help alleviate the mundanities of everyday activities like parking one’s vehicle.

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The vertical library and archive is one of a handful of spaces that feature a triple volume ceiling space, where the sourcing of information becomes a recreational activity by means of rappelling from shelf to shelf.

The exhibition hall features an unconventional layout of inflatable pods that face one another in a compact setting as a reference to the traditional Chinese courtyard dwellings. The sculptural central stairway takes center stage as a key circulatory element that additionally improves the quality of air as it expels toxic automobile fumes through its individually articulated balustrades.

The reinvigorated roof terrace with its improved quality of air and panoramic vistas into the city makes for an idyllic setting to catch a moment of respite or a casual jog within the city.

The office block’s complex sculptural stairway network unveils the sectional quality of the architecture by allowing one to peer through to the highest most soffit and its adjoining skylight, an homage and reaffirmation of the of architecture’s existing approach of curating views upwards.

The undercroft events space features an off stage area where necessary paraphernalia may be lifted into and out of elevated storage bays thats allow for the occurrence of pop up events to take place below.

The oversized landing above features a bar and restaurant aptly titled “the ramp” where one can dine underneath a sweeping, Chinese inspired roof skylight.

While its easy to dismiss most of Melbourne’s postwar buildings as nothing more than being derelict and irrelevant, much of the progress made within today’s architectural climate since then can be attributed to the progressive strategies specifically employed by these “ugly” buildings.

The Total House’s extensive usage of off-form concrete from a functionalist standpoint, has arguably added to the diverse fabric of Melbourne’s built environment through its bold exploration of material and structural expression. As an archetypal Brutalist structure, the building was met with fresh embrace during the time of its inception in the 1960s as Australia sought for an identity of its own beyond its saturated market of Victorian and Federation typologies. The source for such an inspiration would unexpectedly turn out to the from the Land of the Rising Sun itself.

To Down

From Japan To The Land Down Under

Project Facts

Bernard Joyce for Bogle & Banfield Associates

170-190 Russell Street Melbourne

1964-65

Victorian Heritage Register

Car park, ground level retail, offices and theatre/night club in the basement

Completion date

It has been proposed for heritage listing since the early 1980s, but this has never eventuated

A developer (AXF Group) purchased an option on the site last year, proposing a 60-storey tower despite the site’s height limit of 60m (about 15 storeys).

Melbourne Heritage Action (an activist group) has taken the initiative in preparing a nomination to Heritage Victoria, the State’s premier heritage body.

Total House on Russell St is added to the Victorian Heritage Register.

The owners of Total House have indicated they will challenge the heritage listing of the building as they seek permission to demolish it to replace it with a 70-storey hotel and apartment tower.

Melbourne Heritage Action confirmed that developer’s applications to the Victorian Planning Department have been withdrawn.

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Formal Investigation

The building’s formal gestures, a result of the implemented setbacks into the architecture across the face of the top massing, results in a distinct formal segregation between the towering car park massing below and the monolithic office block above, giving rise to popular connotations such at the “Television” or “Microwave”.

Study Model

Outdoor Spaces

The implications of the building’s setback results in a series of roof terraces and balconies with highly adaptable spaces, allowing its occupants the opportunity for moments of respite and to take in the sights of Melbourne CBD from above.

West Elevation

Despite the building’s inherent modernist approach, the architecture makes attempts at sympathising with its context by having its car park massing match that in height of its existing neighbouring buildings as it implements a considerable setback for its large office block above.

Inadvertent Metabolism

North Elevation

The building’s compositional design take little consideration of the human scale from street level. From a distance where its full stature is in view, it is awkward looking at best and from close range, one is consumed by the unapologetic scale of the car park while the office appears to be nowhere in sight.

The architecture’s austere system of vertical cores—with its circulation overruns—and its overarching strategy of stacking individual levels, alludes to a scalable system of regenerative quality where one could add or subtract volumes with regards to changes in programmatic demands.

Despite the architecture’s inherent austere modern approach, ornamentation may be uncovered within its every corner upon deeper analysis

1. “Floating” Floor Plates

The cruciform joint appears to hoist the office block up, curating an interesting bottom to top human perspective.

The ramps to nowhere allude to a scalable work-in-progress rooted in Tange’s Metabolism movement while the entire system results in a complex yet beautiful sectional condition.

Shimane Prefectural Museum (1960)

3. Ramp to Nowhere

2. Cruciform Joint

Services are foregrounded as parasitic design elements as opposed to being concealed.

The visual impression of the balustrades floating atop one another are made possible by the setback of the columns around the periphery of the architecture.

The building’s surfaces functions as an urban canvas for graffiti which allows it to adopt its role as a public forum where meaning is imbued via colourful messages, albeit forcefully.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (1990)

Kagawa Prefectural Government Hall (1958)

4. Services as Sculpture

5. Urban Canvas

“No context, no problem.”

Its Japanese inspired design demonstrates a willingness to accept foreign concepts which is how architecture is generally derived today where the origin of ideas are never restricted to a building’s immediate context.

To assist me in my personal understanding of the architecture, three montages were executed that represented my interpretations of the building’s progressive nature.

“Ready to Assemble”

The distinct formal segregation and its associated functionalities alludes to an architecture of a kit of parts that is prefabricated and ready to be assembled in swift fashion.

“1960s Newspaper Cutout Advertisement”

The building’s size is commensurate with its utopic ambition of an all-in-one mixed-use development during a time of rapid urbanisation in Australia where the words ‘Total Pleasure’ could hardly be made out.

The award-winning practice of Kerstin Thompson Architects have long been respected within the local design climate in Melbourne, having tackled projects of varying nature from spatial and interior design to large scale architectural interventions.

What remains essential to Thompson’s practice is also what separates herself from most, having demonstrated an exceptional degree of sensitivity and consideration to pre-existing contextual conditions and occupancy wellbeing as a framework to all of her designed undertakings.

Three seminal projects were analysed as case studies in the development towards the mid-semester and final presentations, namely, the insertion of an art gallery at the ground floor of a 1960s Modernist building, the reconfiguration of an Edwardian building into the architect’s personal studio and home and the domestication of a former sheet metal factory. The analysis was conducted with the aid of a written piece by RMIT’s own, Associate Professor Richard Black, entitled Bridging where the works of Thompson were attributed by Black for possessing a symbiotic relationship with the landscape, having shared semblance towards the philosophical approach of the prolific Allison and Peter Smithson and their Solar Pavilion.

Case Studies: Kerstin Thompson

Also known as the Upper Lawn Pavilion, the project was completed in 1962 as a temporary residence for the Smithsons themselves which involved the partial demolishing of an old farmhouse and the subsequent replacement of a pavilion. What materialised was a skillfully executed building which formed a distinct partnership between itself and the landscape it resides in.

Solar Pavilion

The erected pavilion sits deftly atop the North bounding wall which had been retained from the existing farmhouse, striking a difficult balance between being sympathetic yet foreign at once.

The architects championed a brutal representation of materiality between the interior and exterior, emphasising the exterior entrance of the house with a monolithic stepping stone which appears to have erupted from the ground beneath itself.

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The juxtaposition between new and old is made clear within the contrast of the materiality while their raw finish allows for them to collectively acquire a patina of grey in the passing of time.

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The ground floor utilises a Corbusian structure-free facade system that is fitted with operable sliding doors that run the length of the facade which could open up to rear garden and landscape in a panoramic fashion.

Monash University Museum of Art (2010)

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The gallery’s spatial organisation involves running a series of parallel lines on plan across east through west, disrupting the existing plan while providing a new order to the interior and its accompanying landscape.

In an effort to optimise ceiling clearances within, service elements that normally inhabit the interior cavity are brought outside and made into a sizeable canopy which subsequently form the main entrance of the art gallery.

The large canopy along the southern edge of the gallery’s exterior activates the ground floor condition which now acts as an adaptable undercroft space that can host pop up events for large crowds.

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As opposed to the conventional approach of isolating itself, the ground level frontage of the galleries are made porous to allow art to permeate towards the landscape and enhance the cultural and artistic atmosphere within the campus.

Each of the varying class of gallery spaces remain interlinked via walkways and access doorways that allow for natural lighting and views of the exterior to permeate within.

The interstitial spaces create a juxtaposition between the “pure” gallery spaces that are light-filled and free from obstruction and “laneway” type spaces that are darker, narrower and comparatively chaotic.

The newly implemented landscaping converts an underused car lot into the university’s focal point as it stitches together previously disparate buildings within the campus.

Fitzroy Home & Office (1996)

The greenery overspilling from the terrace creates the illusion of the industrial additions resting atop of it, as if temporarily occupying the roofscape.

A segment of the house sits atop a bounding wall of rusticated masonry in a deft manner not unlike the Smithson’s Solar Pavilion.

Views and natural lighting forms an integral part of the architecture’s internal experience. This image demonstrates that approach by means of small bay windows and a glazed opening running along the top edge of the floor, all integrated into a wardrobe.

An added emphasis on the varied experience of the architecture includes the addition of interstitial spaces such as the entry courtyard where sculptural poles rising from the base create a sectional experience as one climbs the stairs prior to their entry into the main living spaces.

The seemingly prefabricated nature of the house and the coming together of the concrete volumes, zinc roofing and parasitic attachments contributes to the theatre of the street as the architecture pays an homage to Fitzroy’s industrial roots.

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A cross section through the house demonstrates the architecture’s varied filtration of views and light within. As a result, the experience within becomes highly diverse in nature as one’s sight lines between the interior and exterior is consistently changing according to their location.

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With an extended north frontage along Webb Street, the main rooms and outdoor areas are orientated to the street, enhancing the public realm the vibrant activity that takes place within the daily rituals of the house.

Webb Street

Fitzroy Sheet Metal Factory (2001)

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The image on the right demonstrates how the architecture utilitises the newly implemented void condition to bring natural lighting and views to the exterior within, a strategy that prove to be an ingenious workaround against the former factory’s deep and tall massing

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The overarching intervention involves punching through the core of the architecture with a cylindrical drum volume that would subsequently take on the role of being a courtyard, a lantern at night and the lung for which the adjacent spaces would be subjected to a connection to the exterior.

The drum acts as an oversized air-well which subjects the architecture to a wealth of natural lighting and ventilation right in its core, making the former industrious factory a fertile setting to populate with highly habitable spaces within.

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The programmatic organisation of the space utilises the architecture’s long depth in the allocation of spaces, from hardworking communal areas down the middle to increasingly solitary spaces of relaxation towards the edge of the building’s footprint.

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In a manner not unlike the Monash University Museum of Art, the Drum creates a strong presence that disrupts the original flow of the building, resulting in a kind of forcefield where the farther you travel from it, the less vigorous the movement becomes, as with its associated activities and programs.

A summation of Thompson’s works sheds light on the essence of the void condition and how the architecture mediates the connection between the occupant and landscape through the medium of circulation and experience, highlighted in red in the sketches below.

Fitzroy Home and Office (1996)

Monash University Museum of Art (2010)

Fitzroy Sheet Metal Factory (2001)

Totality On Steroids

While the building’s recent designation as a landmark of heritage status was a hard fought battle, the recognition’s arrival was marked by the disjunction of its currently dissipated lifespan as an increasingly dilapidated and irrelevant piece of architecture. The goal of mid-semester was to re-establish the building to its former greatness, in an effort to future-proof it and considerably extend the its lifespan to avoid future scenarios that would again result in it existing in its current state of disuse. Pushing those boundaries are four speculated sets of strategies that addressed the architecture’s longevity —

Instant Cores1 which aims to infiltrate the existing architecture via cores that allows for the propagation of void spaces and the occurrence of events,

Urban Camouflage2 which envisages the architecture as an armature for parasitic elements and programs in its functioning as a cultural hub,

TV Tower3 which imagines the architecture as oversized antenna from which programs can be suspended off of and,

City Buoy4 which uses the concept of pneumatic technology in a constantly expanding and contracting architecture that may one day possibly save itself from an impending tsunami attack.

Super Mario Warp Pipes

Instant City by Archigram

Très Grande Bibliothèque (1989) by OMA

Bubble Tea, in Serene State

Bubble Tea, in Disrupted State

Instant Cores1

Guided by the principles of Archigram’s Instant City, Instant Cores explores the idea of a single core that has been allowed to “grow” within as it begins to take control over the existing structural and circulation system.

The existing architecture

A single core infiltrates the architecture from the office block above and spreads downwards and throughout, providing a new mode of circulation as it subverts the existing structural system and logic in place.

The disruption of the existing caused in Phase B sets off an effervescent effect, resulting in the creation of blobbed volumes throughout.

The blobbed volumes are subsequently subtracted from the main massing to create spaces for events, expressive gestures for the entrance and voids that reveal the architecture’s existing void condition.

Eleventh Storey Plan

Sixth Storey Plan

Sketched Isometric Diagram

Sketched Sectional Diagram

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Exterior Perspective B

Cross Section

Elements of Chinatown

Chinatown Night Scene

Cathedral (1996) by John Hejduk

Bellossom (#182) Before ad After Ornamentation

Urban Camouflage2

Taking iconic elements from the immediate Chinatown context, this strategy aims to utilise the architecture’s existing envelope as an armature for the attachments of parasitic elements that contribute to the programmatic functions of the building whilst meaning is imbued upon it.

The existing architecture

The difficult to master eating utensils—chopsticks—embodies the architecture’s new structural system in an erratic manner.

In an opportunistic fashion, parasitic attachments in the form of lantern capsules and tea spout light wells begin to inhabit the “skin” of the architecture.

Subsequent attachments begin to take place in the form of brise soleil inspired by the chinese curved roof and a new signage system fashion out of the appearance of a teapot’s handle.

Vandalism of Prada Marfa (2005)

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Oversized Pegboard Idea

Tea Spout as Parasitic Attachment

Balustrades as Armature

Teapot Handle as Signage

Oversized Lantern as Rooms

Parasitic Lantern Array

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Exterior Perspective A

Perspective B

Exterior

Cross Section

TV Tower3

Inspired by the sculptural antennas of Total Carpark, along with the office block’s connotation as a TV Box, this strategy re-imagines the architecture’s envelope as a core from which programmatic volumes may be suspended off of through means of tensegrity.

Only the existing office block is kept and rotated onto its side, while its guts have been refitted with a repetitive plan similar to that of the Old Melbourne Gaol’s central hall.

A total of eight cruciforms have been implemented into the architecture, four to hoist the building up and in providing an open ground plane and another four as sculptural services above.

Programmatic volumes of various shapes and sizes are attached to sides of the architecture, inserting themselves onto the metal framework of the existing curtain wall.

The final phase sees the securing of the cantilevering volumes by the attachment of tensile cables to the cruciforms above.

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Capsule Pier (1965) By Ron Herron

Gasket House (1965) By Ron Herron

Old Melbourne Gaol, Central Hall

Old Melbourne Gaol, Diagram

タレント (Tarento) on Netflix’s Terrace House

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Sketched Cross Section

Sketch Elevation A

Sketch Elevation B

Variation Concept Plan

Variation Concept Elevation

Variation Concept Isometric Detail

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Exterior Perspective B

Cross Section

City Buoy4

Inspired by the horizontal voids that punctuate the architecture’s car park massing, the idea involves inflating spaces within the existing voids as a means of optimising the amount of attainable space, beyond what conventional partition walls are capable of.

The existing architecture

Generators are placed above the office block and car park’s roof terrace that would later provide a constant supply of pneumatic pressure.

An inflatable core room is add on each corner and level of the car park which would later be responsible for disseminating air into the several rooms across individual levels.

The inflated rooms eliminate the need for a conventional column grid system while allowing for the possibility to expand and contract ceiling heights as required by programmatic demands.

Stock Image of Balloon Inflated by Japanese Girl

Inflatable Bouncy Castle

Craig Green for Moncler

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai

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Sectional Detail of Inflated Edge Condition

Sectional Diagram of Air Flow

Tsunami-proof technology in the event of an natural disaster

Typical floor plan

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Exterior Perspective B

Cross Section

More Case Studies:

Diverting attention away from the local design climate, the same analytical attitude was focused onto a seminal body of works from across the globe which demonstrated semblance of philosophical similarities with the Total Carpark.

Works from the renown Kenzo Tange whose influence in the making of the architecture is undeniable, forms the main backdrop of this segment. Also included are a selection of works from the enigmatic collective of Archigram whose speculative approach towards adaptive forms of architecture appears to be a developed interpretation of the Metabolism movement spearheaded by Tange himself. These works that push the boundaries of the human imagination are subsequently followed and concluded by contemporary built examples by Bernard Tschumi and Herzog & de Meuron.

The aforementioned body of works, documented in no particular preference or order are utilised as inspirational fodder towards the ideation and development of the mid-semester and final presentations.

Peace Memorial Museum

On August 6th, 1945, a B-29 bomber dropped the first atomic bomb in history over Hiroshima, resulting in the death of over 150,000 by December. Kenzo Tange was commissioned with the challenge of commemorating one of mankind’s most devastating innovation to date and his execution of the Peace Memorial Museum was a matured response well beyond what his repertoire then suggests.

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The architecture’s Modern approach is undeniable in its extensive expression of off-form concrete as its main choice of finish and the usage of the Piloti concept pioneered by Le Corbusier which lifts the building’s main massing up some 6 metres, creating an open ground plane which rightfully returns the space back to the community at large.

Monuments of significant meaning have been allocated their place around premise, such as this parabolic shaped cenotaph which offers an axial view directly towards the Genbaku dome, a relic of the disaster that has been retained today.

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The interior architecture achieves a strong balance in its design, free from monotony without asserting any kind of overstatement which would have resulted in the exhibits’ message and atmosphere of solemnity being lost.

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The vertical fins arrayed along the facade is a trademark move of Tange’s which affords the architecture a rhythmic language on the exterior as it executes its sun shading duties from end to end.

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Tange’s proposal for the entire site was hinged by its axial composition and focus on harmony of its urban structure as a whole, running across both east-west and north south axis culminating with the Genbaku dome which is regarded as the symbol of the disaster.

Kagawa Prefectural Government Hall (1958)

Composing of an eight-storey administrative office tower, the Kagawa Prefectural Government Hall was an addition to an existing municipal building which together formed an L-shaped layout, framing a central courtyard thats takes its inspiration from temple gardens, fusing the tradition of Japanese wooden architecture with the inherent simplicity of Modernism’s rationality.

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Inspired by the built form of Japanese shrines, the overall composition plays upon the idea of stacked (isolated, accentuated, crossing, counterposed) beams, giving the false impression of a timber construction as opposed to concrete.

In Tange’s own style of Modernism which goes against the grain of mainstream monotony, the architecture feature custom designed furniture and fixtures, including this three-dimensional mural located at the lobby by artist Genichiro Inokuma.

The building’s central core is applied within the lobby as Piloti like elements that create an open plan and a relatively free facade that supplied the space with an abundance of natural lighting via the glass curtain walls.

The patterns formed by the edges of the beam’s corners is reminiscent to the structural rhythmic pattern of the Hiroshima Peace Centre and Tange’s personal home. ►

The combination of greenery with a gentle topology and a water feature within its central courtyard gives rise to a surreal scene of a tranquil garden space set within a concrete environment.

Kenzo Tange House

Of his earlier works, Tange’s personal residence is exemplary of his approach towards a hybridised philosophy, synthesising between pre-modern Japanese design and Western Modernism within his architecture. Building upon the tradition of Japanese houses, the house itself is lifted off the ground—a precursor to the Hiroshima Peace Centre—affording it privacy and isolation from the Summer’s humidity. ►

In typical Tange fashion, the first storey plan features a central service core within a rectilinear open plan. The traditional use of the tatami mat module and sliding screens allows for the space to be adaptive through the reduction and expansion of rooms according to needs.

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The front yard features organic grassy mounds where the neighbours’ children would occasionally come over to play upon.

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A generous roof overhang along the balcony’s edge creates a transitional space between the interior and exterior and integrates the occupants to the immediate landscape through panoramic views.

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Here, Tange has reverted to domesticated materials away from the massive concrete, featuring timber, tiles and rice-paper screens donned by abstract ink shapes—an input of his in a somewhat rebellious attitude against the traditional notion of beauty.

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The open ground floor plan features a rhythmic placement of slender Pilotis that is informed by the architecture’s structural timber framework and modulated partitions that compartmentalise the larger plan into a series of secondary spaces.

A Plan For Tokyo (1960)

A Plan For Tokyo is perhaps most exemplary of Tange’s Metabolist ideologies summed up into a single large scaled project. It highlights an ambitious solution to combat Tokyo’s issue of urban sprawl and incremental congestion within the city by creating a series of linked hubs “like the vertebrea in the spine”. The long and wide “civic axis” would begin at the hub of tokyo and extend out into the suburbs.

The project was proposed to be built over the bay which in spite of the high costs would rekindle Tokyo’s past life as a seaside city.

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The office units were planned to occupy the vertebrae themselves. In reducing the amount of structural foundations over water, the office blocks are elevated via square-shaped cores carrying circulation and services at regularly spaced distances apart. The surrunding open space follows the principles of Le Corbusier’s Pilotis, carried out in an exaggerated manner.

The first type of buildings developed were the housing units which grew out from the sides of the vertebrae. The buildings were shaped like oversized tents where residences live outside along sloping walls while its inside were used for communal activities. Platforms within the tent walls allows for residents to customise their own spaces to their living needs. ►

The floating pattern of the tent-like housing structures creates a rhythmic effect that is reminiscent of the roofscape of a traditional Japanese village, made to be exaggerated in scale.

In addressing the needs of rapid urbanisation and the widespread usage of the automobile, Tange proposed for a new physical order upon Tokyo that would accommodate the city’s growth and internal regeneration. The proposal for “fixed” open axis surrounded by ephemeral programs speaks of the adaptability embodied by metabolism.

Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center

Inspired by the concept of organic growth, the Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center is the first of Kenzo Tange’s projects to have embodied the ideologies of Metabolism which were highlighted in his Plan for Tokyo six years earlier. The main idea involves having an infrastructural core—in this case, a cylindrical service stack—which could have capsulised units “plugged” into it as required.

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Its cylindrical service core contains a stairway, two elevators, a kitchen and toilets on every level, enabling the architecture the capability of anticipating the impromptu removal and addition of capsule units at any given moment, although this was never realised.

Despite its towering stature, the architecture’s modularity allows for it to sympathise with the existing building in its adjacency in height while subsequent levels above were incorporated with a setback.

In typical Tange fashion, the ground floor space is returned to the community as an open water feature which additionally serves as public seating for pedestrians on the go.

The interstitial void spaces intended for future capsules units are utilised as overhanging balconies that provide panoramic vistas into its surroundings and areas for storing service elements.

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The rhythmic arrangement resulted by the grouping of capsules alludes to the architecture’s intended but never realised regenerative nature.

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Archigram Archive

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Developing upon the Plug-in City model, Plug-in Offices works upon the industrial pylon as a megastructure which could similarly allow office capsule units to be inserted in and out as required. The pylons would inhabit itself across the width of major thoroughfares, facilitating vehicular movement through it rather than obstructing it.

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Peter Cook’s Instant City (1969) imagines an architecture liberated from any anchor, where an aerial blimp could travel from city to city and unpack its content like a travelling circus would.

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Ron Herron’s Gasket House (1965) speculated the house’s construction to be composed of a series of plastic strip profiles with perforations along its edge. The perforations would later be insert with tensile cables that would allow each home to be individually suspended off of a megastructure.

► Because the homes do not rely on the conventional stacking typology, each of them could be individually removed and replaced like capsule units, making the entire housing system a regenerative one.

Peter Cook’s Plug-in City (1964) relies on a constantly evolving “megastructure“, containing circulation and essential services for inhabitants, from which residential capsules amongst other typologies could be “plugged” into and out of it with regards to their individual life cycle.

► Mike Webb’s Sin Centre (1962) speculates of an entertainments complex where the circulation systems of both the pedestrian and car would converge in perfect harmony, one where cars could travel across ramps in high speed while people navigate through elevators like in an amusement park.

In spite of their lack of built works, Archigram’s contribution to the architectural sphere has been nothing short of spectacular for their whimsical solutions to real world problems faced by the realities of today. The collective would argue that their works are of true vitality for their constantly adapting forms in comparison to the so-called organic designs fueled by Parametricism today.

Le Fresnoy Art Center

Le Fresnoy Art Centre by Bernard Tschumi sees the converging between new and old is an unprecedented scale and manner. Rather than simply demolishing the existing 1920s leisure complex, the strategy employed sought to retain them in its entire, overlaying instead with an autonomous roof and circulation system from which new events could occur over an old roofscape.

The three autonomous elements in the form of the roof, circulation and pre-existing leisure complex were all subject to being colour coded. The classification brings about an intriguing visual emphasis upon the segregation and collision occurring between the three seperate entities.

Across the newly implemented large scaled roofing, sizeable voids were punched through to make way for skylights that theatrically highlights the existing roofscape, as the shadows of the industrial trusses gets overlayed upon it.

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The implemented concept is a development upon Tschumi’s principles for his seminal project Parc de La Vilettem where the autonomous elements of “points, lines and surfaces” are overlayed against one another to achieve a diversified outcome.

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The interstitial spaces created by the compression between the new and old roofscape would be punctuated by service elements that are foregrounded as designed entities themselves.

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The autonomous circulation allows one to travel across the old roofscape in a surreal manner, similarly to how engineers would walk along catwalks as they survey service elements in areas restricted to staff access.

1111 Lincoln Road (1997)

1111 Lincoln road traces Herzog & de Meuron vision of a parking garage that is liberated from the negative connotations typically associated to it. The car park which was instead designed to look as light possible, akin to a house of cards, featuring angular columns and dynamically aligned floor plates with a tapered profile towards its edge, lending viewers its razor-thin appearance.

The roof of the car park culminates in a luxury penthouse with a front yard lined with lush greenery large roof openings that supply the house with an abundance of natural lighting. The ultra habitable and secluded environment makes it a highly unexpected place to live in that is hidden in plain sight.

Of the building’s three hundred available parking lots, each one of them pushes the envelope of the typically mundane experience of parking one’s car, offering ceiling heights beyond the norm and panoramic view of city of Miami.

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The architecture with its full-on porosity, lights up like a lantern at night and contributes to the theatrical display of the cityscape.

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This perspectival section demonstrates the relationship between the car park’s floor plates in its contraction and expansion between the different levels. The difference in ceiling clearances would subsequently cater to a variety of programs it now hosts, including a double height retail space on the fifth floor.

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Taking center stage with architecture is a sculptural concrete staircore which offers a winding path and view upwards into the guts of the garage.

As research were being conducted primarily during the first half of the semester, variation studies took place as an explorative process of administering new insights and established notions into threedimensional outputs applied with consideration of our chosen sites. This developmental phase is akin to the willful regurgitation of ideas that have been—metaphorically speaking—tossed into the dryer and made to come out in a different manner, in hope of gaining something positive out of each round of processing.

While the results of these variations, more often than not bear the following synonyms—willful; scale-less; ridiculous; speculative; saturated; mundane; dystopic; utopic; un-serious; too-serious (and the list goes on)—they have arguably provided the final design with a encyclopedic list of “Not-To-Do” items. In others words, the experimentative attitude which has taken place prior to the final presentation has provided it with a substantial grounding into pursuing the ideal set of notions based upon the feedback gathered throughout the semester.

Some of the ideas that you are about to witness may stem from a comical point of view and as such, you the viewer will not be blamed for taking them lightheartedly. Design should after all never be taken too seriously, for the germination of successful ideas are traditionally sprouted from seemingly ridiculous propositions.

Variation Studies

Variation n°1 - Roundabout

Variation 1 develops upon the Centre Pompidou’s strategy of designating its services and circulation along the edge of the building’s envelope, resulting in an optimum atmosphere within that is truly focused on the experience of its programs.

Key Features

Like Jenga with voids, the alternating stacking language of the office blocks results in a series of roof terraces that preserves the architecture’s pre-existing interstitial spaces.

Autonomous cylindrical cores are placed along each corner of the architecture’s footprint, encasing elevators with overruns that could take people from the street level up to the roof.

The previously hidden ramps of the car park are now foregrounded onto the exterior as its complex lattice system takes centre stage.

Variation n°2 - Pancakes & Waffles

Applying the same cylindrical core method used in Variation 1, Variation 2 sought to redefine the automobile garage by use of an automated parking system where cars would be descended into a Tange-esque waffle network as it waits to be retreived by its owner.

Key Features

The introduction of two wider cylindrical cores allows for the integration of additional programs such as toilets, beyond mere circulation.

The insertion of a courtyard space down the middle creates a usable area for both office workers and the public at large.

Drum-like office spaces, equipped with the capability to spin on a slow pace enhances the experience of the typical working environment.

Cars parked within the system would be foregrounded against the glazed edges of the waffle system’s beams, resulting in a constantly changing facade.

Variation n°3 - Urban Ornament

Variation 3 explores the balance between form and function, oversizing upon generic forms such as spheres as a means of augmenting its pragmatic capabilties, to the extent where it reaches an ornamental scale.

Key Features

Where the crystal TV Box was once occupied by office works, this variation inverts that notion as cars are transported up and parked there instead. As the TV box becomes a lantern at night, the silhouettes of the cars would add to the theatrical display of the city.

Oversized spheres now form autonomous office spaces that resemble more to commands centres that observe upon the city.

A sunken amphitheater within the ground floor activates the architecture as a cultural destination for the public.

Variation n°4 - Rally Tower

Variation 4 taps into Japan’s cultural pastime of motorsport drifting. The architecture—akin to Mike Webb’s famed Sin Centre—seeks to harmoniously converge both human and automobile circulation whilst enabling high speed driving with the compound.

Key Features

The car ramp’s labyrinthine network would result in a direction interaction with the architecture as it weaving in and out of porous office units.

An autonomous steel superstructure overlaying upon the main architecture provides the structural framework for which the ramps would be suspended off from by use of tensile cables.

The architecture’s ramp circulation culminates upon a levelled floor plate above as a point of reference to the peak of the Japanese mountains where drifters would either end or commence their races.

Variation n°5 - Carpark Totaled

This variation explores the notion of what would transpire by means of simply flipping the architecture onto its side. The result are unexpected with its newly formed interstitial spaces and rekindling of existing ornaments.

Key Features

The undercroft between the car park massing and the office block transforms into an interstitial public space when circulations of different typologies collide.

The cruciform joint now embodies the role of an entryway, curating an entirely different perspective form its previous orientation.

Car lots are now added like prefabricated shelves within a cabinet. The floor plates are supported by Tange-esque concrete beams.

The retail spaces are now embodied within a super slim tower where the storefronts now resemble advertising graphics.

Little Bourke Street Elevation

Variation n°6 - Antenna City

Antenna City works upon both Variations 1 & 4 as it seeks to wrap the office block with a circulation all around where the cruciform joints will now act as antennas that suspend them through tensegrity.

Key Features

As the cruciforms carries out its vital responsibilities of suspending the network of cantilevering car ramps, it begins to embody yet again an ornamental role as a sculptural element.

Each of the ramps are held together by tensile cables supported by articulated rivets spaced equally apart.

The ramps would form generous overhangs with sunshading capabilities that optimise the usage of balconies.

The elevated aspect takes reference from Tange’s precedents and creates an open ground plane that is accessible by the public.

Little Bourke Street Elevation

Variation n°7 - TV Tower

TV Towers builds upon the notion of plug-in programs which allows for the constant renewal of programmatic spaces that are parasitically attached to the building’s facade.

Key Features

Like previous variations, it likewise uses the cruciform as an antenna to suspend volumes off from.

The volumes which are parasitically attached to the architecture’s primary massing can take on any shape or form.

The tensile cables would extend it reach all the way to the ground level, creating a new street condition from which the public can interact with.

The elevated stair core would transport one up into the considerably monotonous atrium before entering the different rooms available, akin to the act of shuffling through TV channels via the remote.

Little Bourke Street Elevation

Variation n°8 - Joy In The Division

As the name suggests, Variation 8 takes pleasure in exposing the architecture’s complex system of stacking and does so through the creation of large gestures, voids which invite the public introduce the possibilities for new programs to sprout upon.

Key Features

The architecture interacts with the immediate context and does so by inviting Chinatown’s array of lanterns in which gradually morph in scale to become capsule units within.

The roof terrace’s potential as a place is respite is maximised here as it converted into a concrete Japanese Garden.

Service elements continue to be foregrounded above, including the entrance to a large slide which one allow one to sectionally experience the architecture are they descend in high speed.

In addition to its circulatory function, the large slide now embodies a part of the architecture’s facade expression.

Variation n°8 - Joy In The Division

Russell Street perspective, pt. I

Little Bourke Street perspective

Russell Street perspective, pt. II

Russell Street perspective, pt. III

Student Name: Keith Seow

Student ID: s3441442