Lauren Hughes Thesis book by Lauren Hughes

MATERIALITY, ASSEMBLY, AND ATMOSPHERE A THESIS STUDY BY LAUREN HUGHES

INTRODUCTION THE MATERIAL THE DREAM THE ASSEMBLY MODEL CONSTRUCTION NARRATIVE THE SENSES THE INITIAL EXPLORATION SITE BUILDING FORM SHADOW MATERIAL WATER TUNNEL THESIS NARRATIVE RESOURCES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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This project explores the relationship between how a space is dreamt, perceived, and built. It focuses on the process of transforming a desired atmosphere into a physical reality. It also studies the relationships between material, light, shadow, touch, and sight. This exploration proves that one material, concrete, can create a sensory experience and influence how an atmosphere is perceived. The true test came in building a model and creating drawings to prove that this atmosphere, this dream, can become a reality.

THE MATERIAL. Concrete as a material forms the connection between the ideal atmosphere and the means of assembly and construction. The concrete holds hints of its formwork and reinforcement as a tribute to the way it was made. Whether board-formed, polished, or rough, the concrete can take on many forms that speak to the sensory qualities desired in the space. The true test came in building a model, poured in place as it would be in real life. This model proves the successful combination of the dream with the assembly by using concrete to achieve the sensory qualities desired while having a successful construction process.

THE DREAM. Based off of sensory and atmospheric qualities previously studied, a â&#x20AC;&#x153;dreamâ&#x20AC;? of a desired interior atmosphere developed. The question became how to make the qualities into a physical space. What type of form, apertures, section, floorplan, etc. would allow this dream to start to come into being? How do all of the qualities of shadow, light, form, touch, sight, and sound come together to form one cohesive building where all of the qualities work with and off of one another to create a unique experience for the occupant?

THE ASSEMBLY. Once the qualities were turned into a physical space, the question became how to actually assemble and construct a building that would provide this space. How do you make the dream a reality? This involved the exploration of materials that would allow the form to be made while still mantaining the qualities of texture, light, shadow, etc. A series of drawings detailing how this building would be assembled in real life aided in eventually producing a model, poured out of rockite the same way the building would be built out of cast-in-place concrete in real life.

This model was meant to prove the success of the assembly process that was developed through drawings and details. Could the chosen material (concrete in real life, represented by rockite in the model) be poured to create the desired form and sensory qualities desired? This was an exploration in formwork, reinforcement, bracings, and order of construction.

Starting to build a model requires a lot of thought, pre-planning. A set of drawings showing step-by-step pours to show you how to build the model. I had to make my own instruction book. It still wasn’t enough. 2-dimensional drawings can never prepare you for the complexities and problems that you’ll encounter when you add the third dimension and enter the physical world. The first challenge was picking a material to represent the ground. The construction process requires ground infill as you build, so the material has to be easily molded to the pours while allowing for continued construction. I chose foamcore because it’s easy to cut by hand to the necessary sizes, rockite will bond to it as I pour and thus creating a permanence, and because its thickness worked well with my ¼-inch scale. The first part was easy - pour the first ground slab. I measured out where the rockite needed to be poured, made the formwork, made bracings, poured, and leveled it with scraps of chipboard. Formwork came off as the rockite cured and it looked flat and ready for walls. As I built the formwork for the walls, though, it became apparent that the floor wasn’t quite as even as I thought it was. I’m wondering now if some of the liquid seeped through the foamcore after I leveled it. Maybe I should’ve sealed the foamcore before pouring onto it. This unevenness of the floor slab led to some problems with pouring the walls. I had to do a lot of patching in the formwork to cover all of the holes before I could even pour into it. This created a lot of extra work that I’m sure I could have avoided somehow. Another challenge with the formwork for the walls is that half of the formwork had to be on top of the floor slab, meaning I couldn’t just glue the chipboard down like I had done on the foamcore for the floor. I had to get creative with my bracings and have them extend past the floor slab. It ended up working pretty well. Four walls later and the pit for my pool was complete. I set up to pour the steps inside of the pool next. It turns out that this was both a good and bad order in which to do things. It was hard to fit my hands inside the model to set up the formwork. If the wall across from the steps wasn’t there, it may have been easier. On the other hand, the wall across from the steps provided a surface to brace against and made supporting the formwork very east. Plus, this is probably the order in which everything would have been poured in real life. In real life, no one would have had to worry about fitting their hands into the space because dozens of people could have fit in the pool comfortably and had plenty of room to work. The next step was to build up the ground around the pool, which was easy. Then another ground slab next to the pool. When I in-filled ground, I almost forgot to take the thickness of the slab into account. That could’ve messed things up a lot so I tried to keep that in mind for the remainder of the process.

Then came the stairs from the newly poured floor slab up to the pool deck. At first this seemed very successful and went off without a hitch. Then came time to pour the floor around the pool deck, three feet above the lower floor slab that was just poured. It turns out that I should have poured both levels of floor before pouring the stairs that connected them, because things didn’t line up quite right and I ended up having to build new formwork for the stairs and re-pouring over the existing stairs in order to fully connect both levels. Next was the staircase that would bring you down nine feet from outdoor ground level to indoor floor level. The formwork was very precise, and the stairs turned out very accurate. However, I had some trouble supporting the stairs, though. I had supports built in to the formwork, which held the rockite perfectly. However, when I went to go infill underneath the stairs, these supports got in the way and made it very difficult to infill but it was necessary to leave the supports until there was ground underneath the stairs or they would cantilever and fall. Looking back, I should have put the earth into place before pouring the stairs. It would have acted as natural supports and I wouldn’t have had to deal with infilling around supports afterwards. The outer walls poured nicely and the final challenge was the roof. This was the part that I was most nervous for. It took a lot of figuring out, drawing diagrams, and double and triple checking math to figure out how to pour the roof in place. My first set of formwork wouldn’t have worked because the formwork would have gotten caught in the rockite and I wouldn’t have been able to get it out. So before pouring, I scrapped that set of formwork and made another. This new formwork featured a lot of support from underneath so as to keep the roof from collapsing and turning my whole model into a puddle of rockite. Then sheets were placed over the supports and all cracks filled in. There were unfortunately a number of places where things didn’t line up perfectly because not all of the pours went perfectly. It was hard to tell that things were off until I tried to connect them all. Suddenly anything that was slightly shifted or a bit off in size made a huge difference when trying to completely seal the formwork for the roof. Overall, I think that this model was a success. It may have taken some problem solving and correcting after pours to get everything perfect, but in the end I have a space that I have built that matches the one inside of my head. This makes my thesis a success because the dream that is made up of atmospheric conditions is actually buildable with my material choice and methods.

THE SENSES. Eight senses were paired with eight different buildings in order to better explore materiality, building form, and assembly as they relate to atmosphere. Desired atmospheres were created based on the senses and the qualities that are needed to experience each sense fully. These senses are: sight, sound, smell, thermoception, balance, chronoception, pressure, and touch.

The buildings for each sense were placed on the sight in an order that, to me, seemed a logical way in which to experience all of the senses. From left to right, the senses are: sight, sound, smell, thermoception, balance, chronoception, pressure, and touch.

SIGHT. An exploration of the way that light reflects off of water, and what differently sized and placed apertures can do to affect the result. The small complex features four buildings, each set into the earth to a different degree. This allows the water to enter the building at a different height in each building, creating a unique reaction with the sunlight that is also streaming in at differnet heights and points in the building.

SOUND. An exploration of what water sounds like and how you know that it is there even when you can not see it. Burying the building underground allows the water to flow down the mountain at ground level but enter the building overhead of the occupant. The water is hidden from view as it flows through the building by a dropped ceiling. Occupants would be able to hear the presence of the water but would be unable to see it.

SMELL. To enter the â&#x20AC;&#x153;smellâ&#x20AC;? building, one must enter through a garden. Overhead trusses support vegetation and provide a fresh scent to the passerby. Moving inside of the building, the occupant is met with a new material and a new scent. A wood such as cedar has a strong and distinct scent, and is the material that has been chosen to make up the interior of this building. The transition between the two smells, as one begins to overpower the other, engages the sense of smell more so than the other senses are encouraged by the atmosphere of this building.

THERMOCEPTION. Thermoception is defined as the perception of temperature, or the sense of heat (or lack thereof). Upon entering the long, tunnel-like building, the occupant experiences a cold, damp sensation. Some cold mountain water may drip down through the ceiling from the creek that runs overhead. At the end of the hallway, the occupant is met with a warm, deep, inviting pool. The relief of the thermal bath is a large difference from the uncomfortable walk down the hallway to get to this point.

BALANCE. Balance is represented in two ways in this building design. First, the building is burried halfway into the mountainside.The other half is hanging out of the side of the mountain, over a valley. This cantilevered part of the building must rely on the structure of the foundations and the weight of the other half of the building to create a net-zero moment of torque and keep the building from falling. Second is the experience that the occupant encounters as the inhabit and move within the building. To enter, one must use a stairway that leads deep into the ground. As the occupant goes down this staircase, the sensation of the weight of the earth surrounds them and they feel secure within the building. As they progress further into the space and look straight-ahead, they are met with a stunning mountain view unobstructed by earth. Then, at the end of the room, they find themselves standing on a glass floor hovering above the ground and suddenly they feel no support from the earth. The difference between the weight of the earth around them and the weightlessness of the air underneath them encourages the occupant to stand at the fulcrum of the building, where they feel the most balanced.

CHRONOCEPTION. Chronoception is defined as the sense of the passage of time. Time passage is explored in two different ways through the design of this building. There are apertures on the east and west walls that cut across the building according to the angle at which the sun would cross the sky. The possibility of having multiple slits through the walls to correspond to sun angles at different times of year is also a possibility. An asymmetric gable roof allows for a skylight on the southern-facing roof face, which allows the occupant to continue observing the sunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s path in the middle of the day. In addition to seeing time pass by following the course of the sun throughout the day, it is also possible to sense the passage of time through the weathering of the building itself. A metal such as copper is used as an exterior veneer. Copper weathers rapidly and, over the course of months and years, the discoloration, oxidation, and weather damage will change the appearance of the metal and the building as a whole.

PRESSURE. The occupant starts off in a room, a fairly large room - 144 square feet in plan with ten-foot ceilings. Slowly, the occupant moves through the building passing underneath archways, each archway smaller than the last and leading to a room smaller than the one before it. The ceilings get lower, the spaces get smaller. The journey ends in the smallest room - 25 square feet with seven-foot ceilings. The occupant feels claustrophobic and wants release from the pressure of the tight space. At the end of the series of rooms is a stairway. It spirals up, bringing the occupant slowly towards ground level. The release that they feel as they come above ground into open air is the release of the pressure that built up from the shrinking rooms and the sense of the weight of the earth ontop of them.

THE INITIAL EXPLORATION. Initial explorations were centered site, building form, shadow, light, material, and water. These are all qualities deemed to be important in creating a unique, sensory atmosphere. Studies included sketches, charcoals, watercolors, models, and photography.

SITE. Selecting a site was necessary from the beginning in order to ground the project in the physical world and to set constraints. The chosen site for this project is based off of a mountainous site in Ireland. The fact that a natural stream runs down the mountain and through the site gave the project a central focus on water. The selection of a mountain as the site influenced many aspects of the project. The mountainside allows the building to engage the ground and provides a natural way for water to enter the building, as the building becomes part of the streamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s course. By burying the project in the mountain, the focus turns immediately to the interior space, the desired interior

atmosphere,andmaterialsthatcanachievethosequalities.

BUILDING FORM. The shape and shell of the building have direct and dramatic influence over what the interior atmosphere becomes. Therefore, a building massing study and quick section drawings were used to begin identifying different possibilities for interior atmosphere.

SHADOW. A series of study models were made to study shadow and light, and the changes that would occur in the interior space as the building form was changed. Sight: shadow, light, and reflection as they are changed by building form and type of aperture. The relationship of shadow on other important aspects of the building: materiality, water, texture, sense. This became apparent through studies that were done in conjunction with and immediately following the shadow study.

MATERIAL. Starting to think about material, the idea of horizontality became important. The horizontal lines draw you into the space and the added texture encourages interaction with the building. The addition of materiality also introduced a new sense: touch. A smooth concrete will feel different to the touch than a board-formed concrete will. Stacked stone will feel differently than a stone veneer with the faces of the stones open to the occupant. The decision to encourage horizontality and to pick a material with more varying surface texture led to the possibility of using concrete as a primary material and structure choice. Material also became an important factor in light studies because of the texture, and additional shadows it created.

This study explores how light from differently sized and placed openings interacts with a horizontal material choice, such as boardformed concrete. Raised parts of the wall surface became lighter, while recessed parts of the wall surface saw varying degrees of shadow. The degree of shadow depended on the protrusion of the unit above it.

WATER. Water: Its placement within the building, interaction with the building, and the connection it provides between the building and the site. All of these qualities were given careful consideration and study. Water influenced building shape and form, placement on the site, etc. Important considerations: How does water enter the building? What atmospheric qualities does water provide? - Sound - Touch (wet/dry, cold/warm) - Reflectivity

TUNNEL. In order to more completely study each sense as it relates to the material and form of the building, the decision is made to split one building into multiple. This led to the idea of a complex of eight different buildings for eight different senses. The idea of trailing multiple buildings down the mountainside is created. A tunnel system is created to connect each of these individual buildings. The tunnel introduces the questions of relating the senses to each other. How does awareness of one sense contribute to experiences with the others? How do multiple senses play off of each other and work together? How is one space experienced many different ways by different occupants using different senses?

The idea of using water as the connecting feature between buildings came when the idea of a tunnel system was dismissed. The way in which water interacts with each building will relate to the sense that each building is encouraging. Through this, another way to experience each sense is created. The buildings are also given a feature common to one another as well as the site. This leads to a study of both water and concrete as materials, and how each is perceived differently by different senses. By incorporating both into a space, it creates the opportunity for the occupant to experience the space in a way unique to them. The materiality of the space will heighten different senses in different people and encourage occupancy in different ways.

The year-long exploration started with an exploration of buildings that were constructed of different materials. The buildings that I was drawn to were all simple buildings in form but each had a very distinct and powerful atmosphere inside. These buildings became precedents for me as I began my own project, hopefully one that would be a space as unique and powerful as the buildings I admired. My own explorations started with studies of shadow and light. This went hand-in-hand with an exploration of building form. How does changing the form affect the light that is allowed to enter the space? How do the desired interior light conditions influence how the form is developed? In order to add a constant to the project, I set about picking a site. A city by the train tracks or isolated on a mountain? Each poses an interesting question but draws the exploration in completely different directions. The mountainous site that was chosen has a river running through it, and the water collects in a natural lake in the valley below. How does this water interact with the building? How does it enter? How does it interact with the light that is also entering the building? Moving back into light studies, materiality starts to influence decisions. By adding texture to the walls, mostly in horizontal patterns through the use of concrete or stacked stone, you create places of highlight and moments of shadow on the same wall. It adds a depth to the wall. Once you have textures in the building through the addition of materiality, you get more options with how and where the light comes into the building. Adding apertures on the walls will bring direct light onto the floor and a more diffused light to the rest of the surfaces whereas an opening in the ceiling will put the direct light on the walls. If you bring water back into the equation you get the question of whether the water enters the building through the same opening as the light. If so, what affect do they have on each other? The water will reflect the light and will appear to shimmer as it enters the building but may take some direct light away from the materials that make the physical building. If they enter through different openings, what is their relationship then? In order to more fully study each specific quality that has come into question (light, shadow, water, materiality, form, site), each quality was separated into a separate building and explored on its own. This led to the schematic development of eight buildings for eight different senses. The senses (sight, sound, smell, thermoception, chronoception, pressure, balance, touch) were used as devices through which I could study individual atmospheric qualities. How do you experience each specific space that is designed to encourage the use of one particular sense? How are materials manipulated, how does the building sit in the ground, where are the apertures, where and how does the light come in, and how does water interact with the space?

In each space, every occupant is going to experience the space differently. Environmental changes such as drought, snow, etc. also start to influence how a space is perceived. Once the spaces have been developed the question becomes what qualities are important in each of these buildings and how do they start to talk to and influence each other? How do you take the qualities of each individual space and create a space that gives each occupant their sensory experience? I focused in on the senses of touch and sight, with sound playing a supporting role in my further investigation in spatial experience. Light and water enhance these senses. Materiality is the key in creating surfaces that look and feel different and essentially creates the space. Concrete. There are many different ways in which you can treat concrete. Look at Zumthor, Ando, Kahn. Each has the same material but a completely different atmospheric effect in all of their projects. At this point, I have a space that I see and occupy in my mind. It embodies all of the qualities that I’ve deemed important to experiencing and perceiving a space. - Materiality - Light - Touch - Sight and then to a secondary degree, - Water - Sound The question becomes how to make this space a building and a physical reality. That’s where the architecture lies, in turning this dream into a physical experience. In order to create the reality, several questions must be addressed: Can the concrete really do what you’re asking it to do? Can it hold the form needed to let the light (and water) in? Can it create the textures that the light will bounce off of and the crevices that will house shadows? Yes. The results of my explorations tell me that yes, concrete can create this “dream.” It can make my sensory atmosphere a reality. The drawings helped me to build the model and the model combines the qualities of material with light and sense to create the space that I want people to perceive. This is a successful thesis in that I was able to make my “dream” a reality through using the tools of drawings, models, and photographs to explore materiality and its relationship to light, shadow, touch, and sight.

RESOURCES. There were several precedent projects for this thesis. First, before the project even began, I researched four buildings that I personally believed had unique interior atmospheres, similar to the one that I wished to create. Each was built out of a different material or assembly method and yet still achieved the desired effect. These buildings are: The Christian Kerez Chapel in Oberrealta, Peter Zumthorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Therme Vals, Belvedere Gardens in Salem, VA, and the Robert Bruno Steel House. After a trip to the Cube at RDF in Blacksburg, my interested started focusing more on shadows and light and how they can affect an atmosphere. Finally, Mepkin Abbey by W.G. Clark and Josh Stanstny encouraged me to explore glass and different means of letting light into a buiding. After turning one of my sketches of their building sideways, I was inspired to have light enter my own building through the roof. Studying all of these projects helped to turn my own project into what is is today. Thank you very much to the architects of these projects, for inspiring my own work.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Thank you doesn’t seem enough to thank everyone who helped me on my path to graduation. All of your support, encouragement, advise, and love has helped me through these five years of architecture school and through my thesis - the final test and culmination of all of my knowledge gained in school. To my parents, thank you for supporting me through everything. For letting me call you at really weird hours as I leave studio because I got spooked walking home, for proofreading essays, for sitting with me in studio for hours over breaks because I felt that I needed more time to work, for sending care packages and cards and letting me know I’m loved. Thank you for coming down to see my final lobby exhibition, I was so proud and excited to be able to show you what I’ve actually been doing all of these years in studio. I love you! To Patrick, the best thesis advisor ever, thank you for being calm when I was freaking out. For telling me “good, keep going” whenever I got stuck. For working out problems with my design with me, and reassuring me that I was doing alright whenever I started to feel like I was on the wrong path. I couldn’t have gotten through this year without all of your calm support. To my brother, who always offered to bring me food in studio and came to see my pin-ups, despite his own busy schedule. It meant the so much for me to be able to show you my work. To my boyfriend and my roommates, who put up with all of my weird hours, me turning the dining room table into a drafting board, and me having to reschedule plans because of a deadline or because I really just needed some sleep. Thank you for bringing me food, coming to visit me in studio, and agreeing to movie nights at home rather than going out to do something. You all have kept me sane and provided a wonderfully fun life outside of studio (because that does exist, sometimes). To my studio mates, you have turned into some of my best friends. I couldn’t imagine going through all of those late nights, weekends, etc. in studio without you. From helping me work out problems in my designs to providing breaks in the form of movies in the side room, I actually liked spending time in studio because all of my friends were there. I’m going to miss you all so much next year. Thank you all so much, I couldn’t have done it without you!