Spatial Composition by Lawrence Kasparowitz

spatial composition

Earl Moursund, Professor Emeritus Charlton Jones, Adjunct Assistant Professor University of Oregon, Department of Architecture compiled, edited, designed and illustrated by Lawrence Kasparowitz

Santa Maria delle Salute Venice, Italy floor plan Baldassare Longhena, architect ”Get the habit of analysis - analysis will in time enable synthesis to become your habit of mind.” Frank Lloyd Wright (architect)

Professor Emeritus Earl Moursund at a review of student work in 2006 (82 years old)

ARCH 416G: Fundamentals of Spatial Order The following text and images are an amalgam of the course taught by Earl Moursund at the University of Oregon. It includes work from a Master’s Thesis by Charleton Jones and images from a course I taught at the University of California Berkeley Extension in San Francisco with my business partner and friend, Mary Austern. I had entered the University of Oregon six years after obtaining my Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch.) and only four months after receiving my license as an architect in the state of California. I am very grateful to the U. of O. for giving me a teaching fellowship and providing my wife and I an apartment in a family housing project for an extremely low rent. When I first arrived, I was given the task of assisting a civil engineer in teaching Graphical Solutions for Structures. I approached the head of the Department of Architecture and asked if I could teach architectural design the next quarter. We met every week during that first term and I proceeded to teach architectural studios for six of the nine quarters that I was at the university. I was what is known as an ‘Option III’ student, meaning that I had already obtained a Bachelor of Architecture. There was no fixed curriculum for students like myself. I learned that there was one other Option III student - his name was Charlton Jones (from Gulfport, MS - as I remember). I was told that there were a few courses I should absolutely take, one of them being “Spatial Comp”, taught by Professor Earl Moursund. I had heard that Earl was a “theoretical” teacher, meaning the course was his specialty and that he felt strongly that it was the basis for architectural design.

Earl was a genius...no doubt - he threw complex terms around and was a whirlwind lecturer for the full forty minutes. I learned a conceptual base for architectural design that I was severely lacking. I kept all the notes and projects I did for the class for these past 35 years. I used those notes and handouts to develop a course about spatial composition while I was teaching at UCB Extension. I had hoped to write all this down at some time and five years ago I retired as an architect, landscape architect, land use planner and urban designer. Now I have the time and interest. My hope is that you will find this book both useful and interesting. Lawrence Kasparowitz Auberry, California Fall 2016

Sanitorium Paimo, Finland first floor plan Alvar Aalto, architect “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die ,but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence.” Daniel Burnham (architect)

table of contents

spatial expression 1 case study 1 3 premises 5 basic definitions 7 critical images 8 case study 2 9 intrinsic properties of form 10 closure vs. enclosure 14 elements are ways of location 16 case study 3 19 investigating a spatial element 20 place 23 path 25 place structure 28 case study 4 29 case study 5 30 sustaining constants and diversities 31 proportioning systems 33 geometric analyses 36

modes of articulation case study 6 thought frames considering process transformation space, the structure of existence case study 7 ambiguity transparency complexity the generative principles of architecture relationships to investigate some do’s and don’ts of place making archiectural typology developing an architectural solution case study 8 bibliography additional resources miscellaneous definitions index colophon/gratitude

38 43 45 46 48 50 52 54 58 59 61 63 65 70 74

spatial expression:

“What counts more than style is whether architecture improves our experience of the built world; whether it makes us wonder why we never noticed places in quite this way before.”

develops opportunities for humans to: Ada Louise Huxtable (architectural critic, writer) Help measure where he/she is - clear extents, edges, boundaries, landmarks and physical framework, Instruct one in finding the way (exit, safety), Anticipate events through time, Give orientation, context in reference to the rest of the world,

Evoke a strong pervasive quality or character, Develop a mental framework (image), a logical, coherent configuration and a stimulus for imagining, expanding awareness, Encourage multiple perceptions, richness, increasing the number of ways of thinking about a space (dynamics), Project a possible Person-Universe relationship (Big Unity).

Castle keeps of Medieval Europe

Yale Center for British Art New Haven, CT section, floor plans Louis Kahn, architect

“Architecture is not just as easy as knowing the basic elements. A large portion of its subtlety lies in how they are put together. In language, knowing all the words in the dictionary wouldn’t make one a great novelist. Having a good vocabulary does however give greater choice and accuracy when one wants to say something.” Simon Unwin ( architect, professor)

case study 1

The design for St. Peter’s Basilica (from Wikipedia) Pope Julius' scheme for the grandest building in Christendom was the subject of a competition for which a number of entries remain intact in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. It was the design of Donato Bramante that was selected, and for which the foundation stone was laid in 1506. This plan was in the form of an enormous Greek Cross with a dome inspired by that of the huge circular Roman temple, the Pantheon. The main difference between Bramante's design and that of the Pantheon is that where the dome of the Pantheon is supported by a continuous wall, that of the new basilica was to be supported only on four large piers. This feature was maintained in the ultimate design. Bramante's dome was to be surmounted by a lantern with its own small dome but otherwise very similar in form to the Early Renaissance lantern of Florence Cathedral designed for Brunelleschi's dome by Michelozzo. Bramante had envisioned that the central dome be surrounded by four lower domes at the diagonal axes. The equal c hancel, nave and transept arms were each to be of two bays ending in an apse. At each corner of the building was to stand a tower, so that the overall plan was square, with the apses projecting at the cardinal points. Each apse had two large radial buttresses, which squared off its semi-circular shape. When Pope Julius died in 1513, Bramante was replaced with Giuliano da Sangallo, Fra Giocondo and Raphael. Sangallo and Fra Giocondo both died in 1515, Bramante himself having died the previous year. The main change in Raphael's plan is the nave of five bays, with a row of complex apsidal chapels off the aisles on either side.

Raphael's plan for the chancel and transepts made the squareness of the exterior walls more definite by reducing the size of the towers, and the semi-circular apses more clearly defined by encircling each with an ambulatory. In 1520 Raphael also died, aged 37, and his successor Baldassare Peruzzi maintained changes that Raphael had proposed to the internal arrangement of the three main apses, but otherwise reverted to the Greek Cross plan and other features of Bramante. This plan did not go ahead because of various difficulties of both Church and state. In 1527 Rome was sacked and plundered by Emperor Charles V of Spain. Peruzzi died in 1536 without his plan being realized. At this point Antonio da Sangallo the Younger submitted a plan which combined features of Peruzzi, Raphael and Bramante in its design and extends the building into a short nave with a wide façade and portico of dynamic projection. His proposal for the dome was much more elaborate of both structure and decoration than that of Bramante and included ribs on the exterior. Like Bramante, Sangallo proposed that the dome be surmounted by a lantern which he redesigned to a larger and much more elaborate form. Sangallo's main practical contribution was to strengthen Bramante's piers which had begun to crack. On 1 January 1547 in the reign of Pope Paul III, Michelangelo, then in his seventies, succeeded Sangallo the Younger as "Capomaestro", the superintendent of the building program at St Peter's. He is to be regarded as the principal designer of a large part of the building as it stands today, and as bringing the construction to a point where it could be carried through. He did not take on the job with pleasure; it was forced upon him by Pope Paul, frustrated at the death of his chosen candidate, Giulio Romano and the refusal of Jacopo Sansovino to leave Venice. Michelangelo wrote "I undertake this only for the love of God and in honour of the Apostle." He insisted that he should be given a free hand to achieve the ultimate aim by whatever means he saw fit.

Plans for St. Peter's Basilica Vatican City, Rome, Italy

premises: Architecture discloses the essential structure of the world. Through settlements and places, humans define and relate their position in the “known landscape”, As in any creation of people, spaces can be composed so that humans can “enter with their minds” and by discovering the various relationships in the ‘ambient space’ can find meaning and content. That is, the space can respond; it can impart messages through image. Through these messages the person can relate to the environment - tracking, predicting and finding orientation which helps connect to the world structure. Experience and meaning in space are one. One does not have an experience in space and attach meaning. Associative meanings given through the overall building formation pre-empts the spatial experience. Each art form has it’s own intrinsic perceptual mode and nature of experience not capable of being duplicated by another mode. Non-verbal spatial compared to verbal, literary, symbolic and associative modes. Distinctions between pictorial, plastic and spatial perceptions. Architectural space cannot be directly perceived, it must be conceived or imaged (formed in the mind), and has ambient properties. The image becomes the basis of the “experiental unit” through which one defines and relates one’s position and remembers the qualitative aspects.

Relating images becomes the way of “knowing the place”. Composition in any art form is the “means to an image”, a statement whether in music, literature, sculpture, painting or “space-making”. The study of composition is the study of the principles and techniques used to structure and generate the image. The study of spatial composition is the putting together of coherent “thought” in spatial form. Image: perceived relationships through which one constructs a mental conception about the nature of the whole. Each art form has a particular set of element or parts used to generate images (wholes, unities), probably with overlapping principles of ordering: patterns, sets - of size, shape, direction, position, etc. Gestalt: any of the integrated structures or patterns that make up all experience and have specific properties which can neither be derived from the element of the whole nor considered simply as a sum of those elements. Each art form has its own notational system for studying, tracking and discovering relationships between the various elements (keeping track of the projected experience and image relationships).

Academic building floor plan Œuvres d’architecture Marie-Joseph Peyre, architect “He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.” Leonardo da Vinci (painter, inventor)

basic definitions: (Charlton Jones) Composition: the means to an image, a statement - whether in music, literature, sculpture, painting or space. The study of composition is the study of the principles and techniques used to generate and structure the image. Image: formed in the mind - conceived, not actually present to the senses. Order: underlying organization united by some common rule or obligation. Spatial composition: elements composed spatiality to develop order and image (proximity, intrinsic properties of elements, ordered by alignment, layering, centering, enclosure, place). Spatial configurations: (i.e. rooms) are units of closure (completions) and consequently are units of experience (spatial images). These spatial units (contiguous or overlapping) in turn are related through their common characteristics of size, shape and direction or through sharing a common relative position. Spatial elements: any dermarking, defining bit (dome, steps edges, surfaces walls, columns, floors, ceilings, etc.) each of which have their own properties and relate to each other by the shared characteristics in the configuration of space - continuous edge, closure, alignment, layer, corner, intersection, wall puncture, solid/void, termination, focus and centering, etc.

“To combine different elements among themselves, and to pass from there to different parts of the building, and from these parts to the whole - this is the path one must follow if he/she desires to learn how to compose; when one composes on the contrary, he/she must begin from the whole, continue with the parts and finish with the details” J. N. L. Durand ( architect, professor)

Longworth Institute elevation Newcastle, Austraila

critical images: NORBERG- SHULTZ

MOURSUND

LYNCH

Path

Path way goal

Place focus surround Domain

Node Edge Focus

District

What architecture is and what it is not: Leon Krier insists on “the autonomy of architecture, endlessly in need of renewal as it may be, but not to be deprived of it’s own essential contents, nor under any absolute compulsion to borrow contents from other disciplines.“ “There are not different kinds of architecture, but only different situations which require different solutions in order to satisfy man’s physical and psychic needs. Man dwells when he experiences the environment as meaningful. Architecture means to visualize the ‘spirit of place’ and the task of the architect is to create meaningful places, whereby helping man to dwell.” Christian Norberg-Schulz (architect, writer)

Geomorph designs (fantasy game tiles) James D. Jarvis, designer

case study 2 (Lawrence Kasparowitz)

Country Life offices London, England front facade Sir Edwin Lutyens, architect

PERCEPTION vs. CONCEPTION

intrinsic properties of form: Size Shape Position Proximity Alignment Directionality Orientation Density Closure

COMPOSITIONAL ROLES: Focus Transition Edge Couple Order: a means of setting a standard to measure. Pattern: repeatable parts and clues to the next set.

SPATIAL ELEMENTS Spatial elements (any demarking or defining - edges, surfaces, walls, columns, floors, ceilings, etc.) each have their own spatial cues for action and induce or generate direct action or potential composite action. “By deepest instinct we reject chaos and try to order our experiences. We seize upon means to bring coherence into the welter of signal furnished by nature as though our life depended upon it - as it does.” Georgy Kepes ( educator, painter, theorist) “Relatedness, as in a flower, the dependence of parts gives life; no interdependence, no life.” John Ruskin (art critic) Space cells: are units of closure and consequently are units of experience, an image. These units of experience are demarcated by common characteristics of the enclosing spatial element type - repetitions and variations in shape, size, direction and location. Elements and their formation can give aid and support to the territorial intention and define, as well, a range of spatial envelopes (closures) of various sizes denoting ‘private to public’ in the territory suggesting various spatial possibilities.

‘Trulli’ house Alberobello, Italy section and floor plan source: Stone Shelters Edward Allen “Architecture is as fundamental to our lives as language and history since it sets the spatial frames within which we do just about everything we do.” Simon Unwin (architect, professor)

For survival, we understand that each animal or tribe has the need to stake out and defend a territory in order to space itself in relation to others of the same species. The extent of the enclosure is understood through implied boundaries which are defined and reinforced through possession. Groups have cultural signals which define ‘virtual’ spaces through hidden dimensions as a spatial envelope. If this envelope or extent of the space is to be made more permanent to mark the occasion or so that the location may be reinhabited at a future time, a place can be made through the use of fixed feature elements (stones, stakes, walls, pits) which mark and enclose the required formation. The hidden dimension is made more evident and the inhabitants can rely on the fixed feature elements to sustain the territorial imperative. Composing: organizing and relating these spatial units through pattern and potential energy cues of the parts to define, enclose, or direct the space within the ‘field’ or ‘frame’.

Temple of 4 gods (plan for a fantasy game) Dyson Logos, designer

“I believe that the secret of the language of architecture does not lie in the being of space itself, but in the way in which we connect to it.” Dom Hans van der Laan (Dominican monk, architect)

University Library Exeter, NH floor plan Louis Kahn, architect “Spatial composition is humanizing the void.” Bernard Berenson ( art historian)

closure vs. enclosure:

from Architecture: Form, Space & Order Francis D.K. Ching, author and illustrator “In enclosure the eye reacts to the fact of being completely surrounded. The reaction is static: once an enclosure is entered, the scene remains the same as you walk across it and out of it, where a new scene is suddenly revealed. Closure, on the other hand, is the creation of a break (in the street) which whilst containing the eye, does not block out the sense of progression beyond.” Gordon Cullen ( architect, urban designer)

Closure: the mental act of tentative completion - the ‘image’. Closure is dependent on fulfillments - (things completed) frame reference, characteristic physical components, i.e. edge, focus, implicit containment and overall unity. Enclosure: feeling of surround, containment.

Unity Temple Oak Park, IL floor plan Frank Lloyd Wright, architect “Each part fits in a pattern of organization in which each part loses itself to form a unit.” Earl Moursund ( architect, professor)

elements (solids and/or voids) are ways of location: Demarking - making known a territory Aligning - reference to frame, edge (implicit) Edging - explicit Enfronting - stopping the direction of a path Centering - implied or explicit marking Elements suggest what we DO as well as what we THINK (kinetic vs. potential).

“It’s my argument that the beginning of design is intentional. As designers, we have something in mind, before and d uring the time when pencil meets paper and drawings are made. Intention is all we have as designers to offer coherence to the multitude of decisions that need to be made in the design of a building. A p arti works outward from a specific intent, not inward from general qualities; this statement is an instrumental distinction. In this case a p arti is an initial, intentional and predictive decision that all subsequent decisions can be measured against - and through arduous refinement into built form, becomes a personal offering to architecture.” William Willoughby (architect, professor)

Bait ur Rouf Mosque Dakka, Bangladesh floor plan Marina Tabassum, architect

the “Point reference” Distance from fixed point; ‘Location in space’

The Campanile, St. Mark’s Square, Venice ‘Finding your way’

The “Gate” ‘One side or the other’ - the line between the columns separates realms. Enfronting at a perpendicular to the line between the columns vs. at an oblique angle.

The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco ‘The ocean vs. the bay’

case study 3

(Lawrence Kasparowitz)

PIAZZA SAN MARCO, VENICE: - the Campanile serves to locate the piazza; it is clearly visible from both the city and the lagoon. It is a “point reference”. - the three flagpoles demark the main piazza from the minor piazza. They provide an articulation of the two spaces. - the two columns demark the city from the lagoon. They also form a “gate”.

PATH, PLACE, “GATE” AND “POINT REFERENCE”

investigating a spatial element: Inventory of Parts - In a gestalt way, what are the characteristics of the pieces of architecture (walls, openings, ceilings, etc.) in terms of number, size, shape, location, etc.? Overall Formation - What shape is the volume tending to be in terms of an identifiable geometrical entity? What are the proportional and scale relations? Degree of Enclosure - What is the degree of containment as measured by amount of solid wall to opening? Character of Extent - Does the wall/edge tend to have any particular rhythm in solids to openings? What about repetition/rhythm of solid to solid? Is there a sense of characteristic patterns through ‘set building’? Division of the Whole - In the volumetric relations are there any sub-places implied through edges such as beams, vaults, columns, bay window extensions, light intensity, etc.? Intrinsic Properties - Does the syntax (set of positions) of the parts logically express their relation to the room as a whole? Does directionality, alignments, and proximities also aid in defining the space? Can the room be thought of as having a front, back and sides?

Clarity and Potency of Image - Is this room’s critical image that of a place (as opposed to a path or ‘nowhere’)? Does it contain a focus, structured surroundings and strong character? Relevant to other spaces, does the role of the space seem evident in general (arrival place, gateway, etc.)? Is there a center as a defining element of place? Content Relations - How does the room link with and relate to adjacent spaces? What is the room’s relation to the entire house - position and role to composition as a whole? Perhaps the structure of the main room of a building should reiterate the composition of the whole building? Structure: the arrangement or interrelation of all the parts of a whole; manner or construction, structure of society or the atom. Matrix: that within which, or within and from which something originates or takes form or develops. “We now know that buildings and cities can affect our mood and well-being, and that specialised cells in the hippocampal region of our brains are attuned to the geometry and arrangement of the spaces we inhabit.” “The representation of space in the brain” Roddy M. Grieves and Kate J. Jeffery Behavioural Processes Volume 135, February 2017, Pages 113–131

Places, Paths and Domains combined spatially become the real dimension of human existence. Each critical image is composed of a few basic elements which relate in characteristic ways. In composing we need to define the differences between these critical image types in order to structure each one and not confuse them. Otherwise, in trying to structure a ‘place’, we may find ourselves as designers using the components of ‘path’ and perhaps never making a rooted-place. Centralization of a place symbolizes the need for belonging to the world by locating in that world. The longitudinal movement of path expresses a certain openness to the unknown - a dynamism which may be physical as well as spiritual.

“In general, humans regardless of their differences in culture, carry with them diagrammatic images through which they can relate to the physical environment… by finding a match or physical counterpart of the diagrammatic image. If the human cannot find or make such a physical counterpart of that diagrammatic or critical image, he/she is unrooted, disoriented and does not belong. He/she cannot possess.” Christian Norberg-Schulz ( architect, writer)

Château de Coucy Caucy, France renovated by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, architect

place: A place represents what is known what you go out from - a reference where you linger and live, where you find security. Elements make or mark center and establish boundary separating inside from outside, it has focus, multidirectional but carefully balanced energies. CHARACTERISTIC ORGANIZATION OF PLACE: Proximity - cluster of like elements, concentration of mass element, repetition. Center - mass, condition of being somewhere, landmark, sometimes vertical. Surround - closure, boundary, edge, separation from outside, ‘ring of common purpose’. PERCEIVER'S VIEW OF PLACE: Physically at rest, state of being, perception from one station point, exploration made by eye moving, information and relationships retrievable instantly.

Planimetric diagrams of the architectural elements inserted into G. B. Piranesi's Campo Marzio, from: The Sphere and the Labyrinth Manfredo Tafuri

VARIATIONS IN PLACE MAKING: (Lawrence Kasparowitz)

creating sub-spaces (left); light and structure (right)

path: A path is imaged as a linear succession - indicating new opportunities, stimulation, a marked series of events along a way, sequential, continuous, one-directional, departure and return (reversible), directed energy toward real or imagined goal. CHARACTERISTIC ORGANIZATION OF PATH: Way - channel along which the observer potentially or actually moves. Goal - potential arrival state, out there somewhere, reference and guide for movement.

PERCEIVER’S VIEW OF PATH: Physically moving, exploration made by body and eye moving to and from goal along sequential station points, serial vision. “Architecture’s desire to endure depends upon its ability to last in the memory.” Alberto Campo Baeza (architect, professor)

Larkin Building Buffalo, New York floor plan Frank Lloyd Wright, architect

The Concise Townscape Gordon Cullen

SERIAL VISION

Limits of “Place”: Maximum 2:1 ratio Sense of rest, stationary

"Path” and implied motion: Movement, Directionality

place structure: Maintaining a Place - the ‘proximity’ definition of a place. Proximity equals clustering. The oneness of a place (as compared to another place), the identity. Genius Loci - (guardianship of a place) how things (images) belong to the same place and make the place in characteristic ways. Different places have different character. “This character determines the basic properties of the environmental image of most people present, making them feel that they experience and belong to the same place.” Christian Norberg-Schulz (architect, writer) Places are made in ‘characteristic’ ways by the basic property of the components, spatial units, the frame as well as in their consistent relationships - linking, sets, interactions. PARTS OF A PLACE: Spatial elements - voids of perceivable shape. Physical components - solids, bounding surfaces, interrupters (walls, columns, ceilings)

Frames - ground or overhead surfaces (roof, floor) which might be composed of modules or units scribed on the ceiling, floor or wall, parts as reference. Interaction of Parts: reciprocity and influence in generating configurations: Elements on elements Components on components Components on elements Overhead frame on ground frame Element and components on frame Techniques: structuring and generating variations through the trellis of tessellation, as guides for judgement, keeping track of potentials through reference to two or more frames, built-in repetition and variation. Unity of image: the consequence of the contribution of all the constituent elements-parts. Redundancy occurs when the components and the frame of reference contribute exactly the same sense. Within the whole composition or configuration there is a little of the part, and within each part there exists the potential to generate the whole. The greater the diversity of configuration toward random, the greater is the need for a strong reference-order. Tessellation: guidelines within the frame (large enough to encompass humans), an understandable rule system and variation within. (see Case Study 3)

case study 4

(Lawrence Kasparowitz)

EXAMPLES OF TESSELLATION

Elam Residence Austin, Minnesota Frank Lloyd Wright, architect

Packard Residence South Pasadena, California Rudolph Schindler, architect

case study 5 (Lawrence Kasparowitz)

ANALYSIS OF A FORMAL GARDEN

sustaining constants and diversities:

SURROUND: Constants - continuity, completion, edge, boundary, implied extent of mass, enclosure, celebration of gate. Diversity - implicit edge, multiple layers, energy explosion/implosion, netting, screening, directed space, closure, thickness, porches, aedicula. CENTER: Constants - marking, latitude/longitude, “the spot”, mass, static, landmark, celebration of mass-center. Diversity - exploded, displaced, implicit, focus, overhead, underneath, density. PROXIMITY: Constants - clustering of elements or cells, all of the same or characteristic type, maintains the spirit of the place.

Reference frame(s): The plot, what the composition is tending to be, a three dimensional shape/image, a unifying thought, a way of thinking about the place, Dwelling in it, an organization of supporting experiences and images, the WHOLE. Diversity or dynamics occur through a re-reference, that is, increasing the number of ways of thinking about the space. Re-referencing can occur through: Extending the reference beyond the expected (stretching the frame) Shift from overall as a reference to the part (cell, edge, etc.) Marked change to another reference such as direction. Eccentric energy balance, some patchiness in place. Shift of scale, a secondary measure: building street, etc, scales. Exaggerating magnitude, enormity, overstatement relative to expected norm. Polarities of reference, inside and outside as two equal and distinct references.

Scale: Determination of enclosure, relative to definition of ‘place’

proportioning systems: Thought Frame: relationships as one experiential unit or principle (as compared to the material or physical) repeated in type which structures the whole organization… the ‘characteristic image’. The entire beauty of architecture came from absolute and easily recognizable numerical proportions. Greek temples were perceived as objects (plastic/sculptural perception). We, on the other hand, are primarily interested in the proportional relations within and between volumes.

creation of rectangles from diagonals “Proportion: the relation of the part to the other parts and to the whole: proportion exists when the same ratios are found in all the major dimensions and of the parts of a building.” A. D. F. Hamlin (architect, professor)

”Vitruvian man” Leonardo Da Vinci, painter/inventor

Spirals and the Golden Ratio Leonardo Fibonacci, mathematician

Volumetric ratios Dom Hans der van Laan, Dominican monk and architect

“Le Modular” Le Corbusier, architect “Beauty consists in a rational integration of the proportions of all the parts of a building in such a way that every part has it’s absolutely-fixed size and shape, and nothing could be added or taken away without destroying the harmony of the whole.” Vitruvius (architect, engineer, writer)

“The Greeks intellectually and mathematically paid attention to the geometrical basis of continued proportions in design and we need not be surprised to find that they discovered the ‘fundamental design principle’ on which nature bases the scheme of growth in living organisms as shown in the proportions of the human skeleton, the growth of plant forms and shells, the arrangement of seeds and countless other manifestations of the Life Force.” Jay Hambridge (artist, writer)

geometric analyses:

Santa Maria Novella Florence, Italy Leon Battista Alberti, architect

Taj Mahal mausoleum Agra, India Ustad Ahmad Lahouri, Ustad Isa, architects

Residence, Utah Clayton Vance, architect

modes of articulation:

THE DEGREE OF EXPRESSION There exists the potential for the presence of any number of these modes in a particular situation. The designer establishes the dominant mode and the parameters of expression in relationship to the particular aspects of a problem. Responding to the context-program-mode of treatment, the degree of expression of the PARTS determine their relative independence and interaction with the whole. The themes of a particular work may be expressed through their major mode of articulation. “The first gesture of an architect is to draw a perimeter; in other words, to separate the microclimate from the macro space outside. This in itself is a sacred act. Architecture in itself conveys this idea of limiting space. It’s a limit between the finite and the infinite. From this point of view, all architecture is sacred.” Mario Botta ( architect, professor)

NATURAL LIGHT (order of light and dark) The consideration of light in RELATION to volume as one of: General or quantitative: light level in footcandles overall; the sense of volume only. Resonance: particular characteristics of the room or building in terms of SHADOWS and slices of LIGHT; the light patterns. Emphasis or focus: directional and contrast through selected apertures. Sun circle: particular characteristics of light according to position of sun during the day and/or season; change in time. Surface and material: solids and cavities, sculptural and textural characteristics of the enclosure. Mood: the unique and dynamic qualities of natural light, color changes in response to light and surface. Task: the particular function and balance of light. System: environmental systems for thermal lighting or other purposes.

THE APERTURE: Types and their general compositional value; i.e. nature and arrangement of opening as ‘the pattern of light’: Roof Wall Extended wall (bay) Spatial context/form of light: treatment in relation to spatial zones (edges, middle, etc.). The detail condition: light as it strikes a mediating object. Materials and methods: the discipline of the fabric, the inherent and/or imposed requirements and expressive potentials of materials and means. Nature of materials: properties inherent and/or imposed. Form (individual shape and overall pattern). Strength (structural or non-structural applications “A room is not a room without natural light.” Louis Kahn ( architect, professor)

“Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light: light and shade reveal these forms.” Le Corbusier (architect)

STRUCTURE: By the choice, shape and disposition of its material, structure clarifies and distinguishes the nature of space. THE EXPRESSIVE RELATIONSHIP OF HORIZONTAL TO VERTICAL ELEMENTS: Column: concentrated loads (beams, girders, etc.). Wall: distributed loads (continuous wall, slab, ceiling, etc.).

THE APPLICATION OF MODE TO BUILDING SCHEME: The architecture of the area (emphasis on the whole continuity of space). The architecture of the room (emphasis on the part- special nature of the space and enclosure). Combined modules of structure related to modules of typical room layout. THE FORMAL ROLE OF STRUCTURE: Identity of the whole Identity of the part Identity of the elements A sculptural incident

The Getty Center Los Angeles, CA site plan Richard Meier, architect

ARTICULATION IN PLAN:

(Gary Moye)

ENCLOSURE IN RELATION TO STRUCTURE:

Interrelated issues of - Expression; either internal space or external shape. Materials and means; details of assembly. The pattern of distribution: structure in relation to the part of the whole.

“You say to a brick, 'What do you want, brick?' And brick says to you, 'I like an arch.' And you say to brick, 'Look, I want one, too, but arches are expensive and I can use a concrete lintel.' And then you say: 'What do you think of that, brick?' Brick says: I like an arch.” Louis Kahn ( architect, professor)

Entry variations Lawrence Kasparowitz, architect

case study 6

(Lawrence Kasparowitz)

Kimball Art Gallery Fort Worth, TX main section and detail section Louis Kahn, architect

Guggenheim Museum New York, NY section through gallery ramps and atrium Frank Lloyd Wright, architect

LIGHT AS A FORM DETERMINANT

National Assembly building Dacca, Bangladesh floor plan Louis Kahn, architect “A great building must begin with the immeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed, and in the end must be unmeasured.” Louis Kahn (architect, professor)

thought frames considering process:

PROCESSES:

Place - Discovering processes which are ‘traced’ within the space, offering opportunities for relating with the ongoing processes at any point in time. One has to understand the particular processes (or at least sense them) used in generating the space (the dynamic order). Processes implies the generating action. Even though the perceiver has a constant station point, the place is ‘energized’, explained and perhaps made more interesting by tracing force of intended motion as the relationship between components in the spatial composition as a kind of tension. Configuration comes out of the consequence of motion. Physical change is keeping track of the consequences where the shape of space might be in the evolution. Complete is to the finite as incomplete is to the infinite. The message is in the dynamics of the subjected action.

Additive-subtractive - exploding of planes or columns from some reference (matrix) such as a block or initial plane (similar to layering or screening). Force fields - relating through fields, from within to without the immediate frame or field; centers, directions zones work together to form a synthetic totality. Displacement - taking out one component and replacing by implication causing interaction by relating new position to a new resolution. Shift - transposition, leaving an implied position, causing tension between the new explicit position and the old implicit position. Reversal - revolution about some edge or boundary describing the flip from positive to negative. Transformation - evolution from one condition to another.

transformation:

(Francis Ching)

“Borromini’s architecture is an architecture of

movement and aspires to a condition of dynamic equilibrium. Movement is evoked by a mixture of compositional operations reconstructable in the final image and such to provoke in the observer at various times the impression of a movement taking place, an imminent movement, or a completed movement. The fundamental compositional operations are growth, rotation translation, curvature, and torsion - as well as inversion.” Paolo Portoghesi (architect)

“Penetrate beyond the material world grasped by senses and discover the intelligible world of ideas and form - only the universal ratios or ideas of harmony have true being - the harmonic relations cannot be heard but are understood by the mind.” Plato ( philosopher)

Analysis of plans of churches Francesco Borromini, architect

space, the structure of existence: For synthesis, read down For analysis, read up

TO COMPOSE SPACE WITHIN SPACE SO THAT OPPORTUNITIES MIGHT BE PROVIDED … for a human to relate him/herself to their environment and stretch levels of comprehension through being able to: Measure where he/she is - clear extents, edges, boundaries, landmark, physical framework, Find the way (exit, safety) through instruction, Anticipate events over time (sun pattern, ecological processes), Find orientation, context (this in reference to the rest of the world), Have evoked a strong pervasive quality or character, Develop a mental framework, a logical coherent configuration and stimulus for imagining, expanding awareness,

Discover multiple perceptions, richness, increase the number of ways of thinking about the space (dynamics), … through discernable person-environment measures: Territorial assertions Critical image Closure Direction Scale Rhythm and patterns … to express the dynamics (or intensities) of multi-reference occurring through a re-reference, that is, increasing the number of ways of thinking about the space: Re-referencing can occur through: Extending the reference almost beyond the expected, stretching the frame, Shifting from the overall as a reference to the part as a reference, Marking changes to another reference such as direction, Eccentric energy balance, some patchiness in place, Shifting of scale, a secondary measure of relative size (building scale, street scale, etc.) Exaggerating magnitude, enormity, overstatement relative to expected norm. Polarities of reference; inside and outside as two equal and distinct references, ambiguity

… with image or ‘concept frame’ possibilities: Self/universe Microcosm of the world Energ/force/structure Universal growth Typological - each level as a concept reference for the next level; urban, situational, cultural, building, generic, spatial, element. … and ‘thought frame’ reference: Complementary Reversal Screen Layers of insideness Transformation Transparency Shift- transposition Inflection Screening Contrast Additive-subtractive Displacement Intrusion-protrusion Aedicula Dominance Duality In a single cell (node) as unit of experience place definition (intensity/diversity) - or as sequential volumes (path definition). ... as defined by the ‘physical frame’:

Floor/ceiling frames Unit as frame Edges Boundaries Enclosure Shape … and the inter-intra relationships/linkages: Size Shape Direction Color Repetition Sets Gradation Differentiation Syntax Role … of the constituent elements: Spatial elements Voids of perceivable shape Physical components Solids or bounding surfaces Force fields: helps parts relate to each other (radiating energy) Anticipation: what in the world does it want to be? :fulfillment of part to whole Gradation of layers: solid to void, vica versa Inflection: shift from center to edge, visa versa Stretching: scale change Protrusion/intrusion: change of force direction.

case study 7 (Lawrence Kasparowitz)

Taj Mahal Accra,India section Ustad Ahmad Lahouri, Ustad Isa, architects

Reichstag remodel Berlin, Germany section showing interior Norman Foster, architect

EXTERIOR / INTERIOR FORMS

Friesen Residence Los Angeles, CA site plan Richard Meier, architect ”The responsibility of an architect is to create a sense of order, a sense of place, a sense of relationship.” Richard Meier (architect)

ambiguity: Double meaning, expression capable of more than one meaning - provocative perceptual event in the art form, dynamic in that it is exciting, baffling, witty, whimsical - clear in many different ways. Illusion: an unreal perception or image, not in accord with the facts; is it or isn’t it? Ambiguity in elements, syntactical form, meaning or semantics. Ambiguities when: A detail is effective in several ways at once by comparisons with several point of likeness. Two or more alternative meanings are resolved into one. Two apparently unconnected meanings are given simultaneously.

Frank house Washington, CT isometric Peter Eisenman, architect

“Architecture suggests rather than insists.” Phil Dole ( professor)

transparency: Transparency: simultaneous conception (breaking away of edges and proportions). Ambient closure: increasing awareness of position by multiple use of references. Transparency asks the question: where is the room? Transparency implies more than an optical characteristic, it implies a broader spatial order - an approach to the practical task of building up completeness from interlocked units by an ingenious transparency of relationships.

“Transparency means a simultaneous perception of different spatial opportunities. The transparent ceases to be that which is perfectly clear and become that which is clearly ambiguous. Transparency may be an inherent quality of substance as a glass curtain wall or it may be an inherent quality of organization. One can distinguish between a literal and phenomenal transparency - there is that contradiction of spatial dimensions as characteristic of continuous dialectic between the fact and the implication.” Colin Rowe ( historian, professor) “If one sees two or more figures overlapping one another and each of them claims for itself the common overlapped part, the one is confronted with a contradiction of spatial dimensions. Space not only recedes but fluctuates in a continuous activity.” Gyorgy Kepes ( educator, painter, theorist)

Saltzman house East Hampton, NY floor plan Richard Meier, architect “Dissection of objects accomplished by breaking up the surfaces of the natural forms into angular facets. Fragments of lines hover over the surface. The advancing and retreating planes of cubism, interpenetrating, hovering optically transparent without anything to fix them in position are in contrast to lines of perspective.” Sigfried Giedion (historian, critic)

complexity: Ambiguity: capable of being understood in either of two or more possible senses - ‘Intent is the richness of meaning over the clarity of meaning’. Both/And: (architecture) double meanings, having it both ways, simple, yet complex, simultaneous perception, contradiction. Difficult Unity: given through the inclusion of diverse parts or elements rather than the easy unity of exclusion of diverse elements.

Fragmentary Part: parts can be more or less wholes in themselves, inflection can be a means of distinguishing diverse parts implying continuity, it implies the art of the fragment, the richness of the sub-place. Inflection is the “bending inwards, curving” of the part to and from the whole. Extreme inflection is continuity. Level of expectancy: contradiction adapted corresponds to the ‘kid glove treatment’ - contradiction juxtaposed involves the shock treatment - an artful discord gives vitality. Various parts might do double tasks. Use of superimposing images. Dynamics of Duality: fighting between parts.

House San Diego, California Pacific Associates, architects

Venturi House Philadelphia, PA first floor plan. Robert Venturi, architect EXAMPLE: Order accommodates both the generic element of ‘house’ in general as well as the circumstantial elements of house in particular. Complex as well as simple. Open as well as closed. Big and little (apparent size-scale) “Architecture is the beginning of something because - if you're not involved in first principles, if you're not involved in the absolute, the beginning of that generative process, it's cake decoration.” Thom Mayne (architect, professor)

Difficult unit of medium number of diverse parts over the easy unity of a few or many ‘pivotal parts’. Interior multiplicity distorted to fit the rigid bounds of exterior. Multiplicity appropriate for a house protruding beyond its two parallel walls in all directions.

Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, California initial sketch massing studies Arata Isozaki, architect

the generative principles of architecture:

(Charlton Jones) THE BASIC PRECEPTS, THE ESSENTIALS, AS A MINIMUM THAT AN ARCHITECT SHOULD KNOW HOW TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT: Know about syntactical integrity: how to build logical sets of position and meaning merely from positioning (this is possibly the first principle of architecture). Know about closure: how to define a container by establishing a boundary, either physically or poetically (this is possibly the second principle of architecture). Know how to build up strong configurative patterns; recognize order. Know how to set up a frame of reference. Know how to keep space structured on a non-residual basis. Know how to think about elements purely in terms of their compositional role in the spatial structure, rather than in terms of their utility.

Be familiar with the known criteria for judging compositional content: Path structure Place structure Domain identification Be familiar with the formal properties of, and therefore with the consequences of, some known geometrical entities that are common in the environment, especially: Square, cube Rectangle, rectangular solid Circle, sphere Know how to develop an edge. Know how to define a center. Know how to deal with proportion as a guide for measuring and relating to a thing. Know how to use scale as a reference.

Douglas house Harbor Springs, MI side elevation Richard Meier, architect “If you have total freedom, then you are in trouble. It’s much better when you have some obligation, some discipline, some rules. When you have no rules, then you start to build your own rules.” Renzo Piano (architect)

relationships to investigate:

(Charlton Jones) OVERALL FORMATION What configuration is the volume ‘tending to be’ in terms of a known geometrical entity - the simplest ‘conceptual whole’ that one could identify and use ‘as a measure of..?’ (i.e. cube, rectangular solid, cylinder, etc.). What are the proportional relations from the specifics of the configuration? INVENTORY OF PARTS What are the Element Types, in terms of walls, columns, windows, doors, etc. that can be identified in the composition? How do their quantity and intrinsic properties contribute to the character of the ‘space cell’? Is their intensity built up through repetition or variation? CHARACTER OF EXTENT Does the wall/edge modulation tend to have any particular rhythm? Solid to void? Solid to solid? Is there a characteristic pattern through the building up of sets? What are the proportions of the wall openings to the overall volume?

DEGREE OF COMPLETION What is the sense of enclosure as containment or extending the room generic? Does the entrance orientation directly engage the room focus in terms of centering and enfronting, or must one realign once inside? INTRINSIC PROPERTIES What are the intrinsic properties of the configuration; the ‘internal logic’ that must be fulfilled? How do proximities, alignments, directionalities, etc. aid in defining the space? Does the syntax (meaning from position and sets of position) of the parts logically express their relation to the room as a whole? Can the room be thought of as having a ‘front’, ‘back’, and ‘sides’? DIVISION OF WHOLE In the volumetric relations are there any sub-places implied by edges or through element types such as beams, vaults, columns, alcoves, bay window extensions, or some event like light intensity? Is there potential for spatial ambiguity through multiple readings? FRAMES OF REFERENCE AS GUIDES What are the sets of compositional techniques that are used to track relations in the space? ROOM IMAGE What is the ‘scheme’, the underlying order, that gives structure to the space?

Cathedral of the Resurrection Ville nouveaux d’Evry, France floor plan Mario Botta, architect ”Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.” Le Corbusier ( architect)

some do’s and dont’s of place making: (Charlton Jones) Bilateral symmetry is a function of path (ceremony, sequence) and therefore not of place. Mass center should not occupy the geometric center - this limits opportunities and perceptions of place as a whole and induces motion of path structure. Openings and entrance should not be at the corner and on the diagonal orientation. Variation in entrance should provide oblique and perpendicular access to the main space and subspaces, and particularly principal facades/elevations and focal elements. Two focal elements should not oppose each other across the space. Tower and principal building facades should perform roles other than those of completing surround (making closure). Subdivisions within the space should produce variations in an order which is hierarchical (in size, shape, direction, etc.) The composition of the space should be perceivable from one or two station points and not depend on sequential views.

Variation of the edge should help define sub-spaces (multiple readability) as well as make closure for the main space. The overall structure of the space should be perceivable and then understandable (conceivable) through sets of relationships; height of surround and tower mass center to width of space, amount of opening to solid, in the surround height of main facade element to dimension of the space, sensing proportional relations of height to width to make closure. “The places we call beautiful are the work of those rare architects with the humility to interrogate themselves adequately about their desires and the tenacity to translate their apprehensions of joy into logical plans - a combination that enables them to create environments that satisfy needs we never consciously knew we even had.” Alain de Botton ( writer)

Chikatsu-Asuka Historical Museum Osaka, Japan site sketch Tadao Ando, architect

“Architecture is always a comparison between man’s rational thought and nature. Architecture is the discipline of transforming the natural state into a cultural one. From this perspective, I feel legitimate in using rationality — mathematics, geometry — as the basis of my architectural approach. By doing this, the comparative difference with nature is strongest, and the dialogue between nature and culture will also be strongest. I cannot conceive of an architecture that imitates nature: architecture is nature’s other. This is the ethos of my language in design.” Mario Botta ( architect, professor)

architectural typology: Typology is defined as ‘existing beyond itself’. It suggests a study of types of inherent generic principles to which the designer has immediate and direct access and which can be formulated as a body of working theory for the purpose of establishing and generating frameworks for guides in design. The study of type further suggests acknowledgement of a valuable and extensive composite of human speculation and statement about the essence, meaning and nature of the type through centuries of exploration, originating possibly in the glimmer of pre-cultural memory of earliest need.

Ontology: a study of being or existence. Ideology: a system of ideas Extrinsic: originating from without, not belonging to a thing. Intrinsic: from within, belonging to the essential nature of a thing. Symbolic: something standing in for. Experience: apprehension of reality or eternal, bodily or psychic event. Meaning: the thing one intends to convey (send) or the thing that is in fact conveyed (receive).

Typical building configurations Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand, architect and professor

Typological study of Palladian Villas Rudolph Wittkower, art historian “I would define the concept of type as something that is permanent and complex, a logical principle that is prior to form and that constitutes it.” Aldo Rossi (architect)

Project for a lamellar skyscraper perspective elevation section Franco Purini, architect and professor

TYPE DEVELOPMENT:

METHOD OF INQUIRY:

Toward a phenomenology of architecture through: Meaning in itself, forming level couplets as context guides, Meaning in context of cultural and situational levels. URBAN - ultimate referral: street, public building, monument, alley, commons, block, urban fabric. CULTURAL - particularization in time of a program type (circumstance): English seaside villa, Italian villa. PROGRAM/BUILDING - accounting for the function and usefulness: library, bank, factory, country house. SITUATIONAL - particularization in place of a generic type (circumstance): building on top of a hill, building at an edge, building on a slope. GENERIC - characteristic geometrical pattern: central church, latin cross church, slot building site, four-square house. SPATIAL UNIT - smallest experiential units or cells: room, porch, courtyard, corridor, rotunda, vestibule, loggia. ELEMENT - basic pieces of architecture that a designer has to use: doors, walls, floors, windows, domes, towers, ceilings, roof columns, piers, arches, pilasters.

ORIGINS - not antecedents as an architectural historian would see, but basic human understandings about life: agora as sacred place to be. MEANING - invested, as tracking through time, certain opportunities are intrinsic, i.e. european duomo vs united states capitol domes. IDEALS - notion that transcends specific local/cultural/stylistic/personal influences. Ideal as a reference for measuring. NECESSITIES - the physiological use coupled with mental use of something to make the relationship: need for enfronting and centering at a doorway, need for direction, cadence and beginning/end on a stairway. “Typological questions deal with the nature of architecture itself.” Rafael Moneo (architect)

Citrohan House Weissenhof, Stuttgart, Germany photos of model Le Corbusier, architect

developing an architectural solution:

Explore the potentials for developing a sense of ‘place’ through the accommodation of program within context.

DEVELOPING A SCHEME:

(Charleton Jones)

INITIAL RESEARCH: GOALS:

Find out what a designer needs to know to proceed to do the first phase -

Identify the issues that are important to the problem; letting the pieces be known and learning the nature of each pieces.

Become familiar with the programmatic requirements of the problem,

Inventory the principles and configurations that establish a logical realm of possibilities for dealing with the message potential.

TOWARD A SCHEME: GOALS: Find out the potentials for relating the interior volumes through considerations of position and linkage (programmatic), Find the contextual references to which the interior organizational structure must refer (contextual).

As background and context for the study, re-affirm and develop overall aspect and structure of the street. ‘Develop’ suggests that the consideration of the edge, the landing and steps, the proportion of height to width and the overall aspects of elements. Developing suggests the thoughts expressed through image as organizational structure (the relations between elements, edges, volumes, etc. as a WHOLE qualified by the particular ‘site’. In this way, one can think of design as adapting the ‘principle’ to the ‘circumstance’. Scheming further suggests the MAJOR relationships which combine building principle and site into a larger organizational-structural whole as the image of place using patterns and qualities of both the building and site as resources. To scheme one might relate images as defined by adjective and noun: arcaded-street, meeting hall.

Benneton nursery Ponzano Veneto, Italy Alberto Campo Baeza, architect “Space, light and order. Those are the things that people need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.” Le Corbusier ( architect, painter)

CONCRETIZATION:

WAYS OF THINKING:

After developing a scheme and an image structure, the designer is responsible for a ‘concretization’ of that scheme. A scheme is not a building, rather it is a diagram in the mind that acts as a mental guide for designing or a guide for the beholder in understanding in imageable terms.The scheme, the imageable characteristics of the future ‘design’, has thus far been based solely on the criteria of ‘the type’, as a set of principles for ordering. In addition to the typological concerns the ARCHITECTURAL IMAGE has other aspects that must incorporated to complete its structure. TYPOLOGICAL ASPECT - the underlying organization coming from with the form that structures the message potential of a design. The type has principle properties and configurative properties - the principles are within and tracked through configuration. CRITICAL/PUBLIC ASPECT - the underlying organization coming from within the form that is understandable only conceptually, as an image. This aspect becomes the criteria for judging whether the environment is structured or not; path, place, domain, etc. CONFIGURATIVE ASPECT - the literal and concrete aspects of architecture. Here ‘imageability’ has to do merely with the memory of the perceptual characteristics of physical form.

Divide the scheme into manageable pieces to keep from having to look at the whole thing at once; realms, domains, elements, etc. Each identified ‘piece’, according to its own nature, should be assigned a compositional role relevant to the building as a whole (scheme) - as opposed to a functional role: transition, focus, major/minor, linkages, etc. Each compositional role will be assigned an aspect of the image structure that will become the criteria on which design decisions are based. This is establishing known goals to try for. Until now the design process has primarily been concerned with the question: ‘WHAT’? What is the nature of …? What are the messages that should be sent? What is the content, experience, meanings? Now the focus of the inquiry needs to shift over to the question: ‘HOW’?’ How are the relations formed? How is the content expressed? How is space constructed?

INVESTIGATIONS:

STUDIES:

Following is a tentative list of known discrete investigations that a designer can use to study the composition. The idea here is that one can get understandings by, at times, not looking at the whole design at once, but rather focus on specific aspects of the design. These inquiries will aid a designer to pose the kinds of questions to his or her self that will lead toward architectural design and not away from it. Frame of Reference Inventory Re-referencing systems inciting dynamics Syntax study Space cell quality study Accommodation check Closure study Edge pattern study Path structure study Place structure study Domain extent study Inventory of ordering concept sets Verification of basic scheme Character/Genius Loci quality study of parts and composite.

Means of combining and separating various activities and sets of activities relative to the scheme syntax. Position in spatial structure to configure paths and places: shape, size, direction and location. Common qualities in the syntax of the scheme: patterns of relationships of the spatial units to each other and to outer envelope or frame in developing sets of units to form edge, focus, etc. Rehearsal of activities in places: light, closure, aperture openings, movement, focus, repeating characteristic elements: wall, floor, etc. Rehearsal of activities in paths: light, continuum, choice, movement, characteristic elements: corridors, steps, landings, etc. Coherent image and character of the whole: sets, floor changes, staking, transformations, focus or center, toward a hierarchy.

case study 8

(Lawrence Kasparowitz)

Tigbourne Court Hambledon, Surrey, England Sir Edwin Lutyens, architect

Tigbourne Court Hambledon, Surrey, England floor plan front view, view from garden Sir Edwin Lutyens, architect Gertrude Jekyll, landscape designer

bibliography (Earl Moursund) Arendt, Hannah. The human condition. Bachelard, Gaston. The poetics of space, _____. Architectural space in ancient Greece Cassirer, Ernst. An essay on man. Gauldie, Sinclair. The appreciation of the arts, Architecture Le Corbusier, Towards a new architecture Lynch, Kevin. The image of the city. Moore, Charles. The place of houses. Moore, Charles W. and Bloomer, Kent C., Body, memory and architecture. Norberg-Schulz, Christian, Existence, space and architecture. _____. Genius Loci _____. Intentions in Architecture. Rowe, Colin. The mathematics of the ideal villa and other essays. _____. Collage CIty. Scruton, Roger. The aesthetics of architecture. Sitte, Emile. City planning according to artistic principles. Summerson. John. Heavenly mansions _____. The classical language of architecture.

Venturi, Robert. Complexity and contradiction in architecture. Wittkower. Rudolf. Architectural principles in the age of humanism. Zevi, Bruno. Architecture as space.

additional resources (Lawrence Kasparowitz) Balmer, Jeffrey and Swisher, Michael. Diagramming the Big Idea, New York, Routledge, 2013. Blatteau, John and Hirshorn, Paul. Philadelphia rowhouses, Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, 1977 - 81. Ching, Francis D.K., Architecture: form, space and order, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1979. Clark, Roger H. and Michael Pause. Precedents in architecture. New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985. Cullen, Gordon. The concise townscape, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1971. Curtis, Nathaniel Cortlandt. Architectural composition, Cleveland, J.H. Jansen, 1926. Di Mari, Anthony and Yoo, Nora. Operative Design: a catalogue of spatial verbs, Amsterdam, BIS Publishers, 2012. Di Mari, Anthony.Conditional Design: an introduction to elemental architecture, Amsterdam, BIS Publishers, 2014.

Durand, Jean-Nicolaus-Louis. Précis des leçons d'architecture données à l'École polytechnique, Paris. Chez L’ Auteur, 1804. Haneman, John Theodore. Pictorial encyclopedia of historic architectural plans, details and elements, Mineola, New York. Dover Publications Inc., 1984. Krier, Rob. Architectural composition, New York, Rizzoli International Publications, 1988. ____. Elements of architecture. London, AD Publications, Inc., 1983. Lyndon, Donlyn and Moore, Charles. Chambers for a memory palace, MIT Press, 1994. McCreight, Tim. Design language, Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Brynmorgen Press, 1996. Stratton, Arthur. Elements of form and design in classic architecture, London, Studio Editions, republished 1987. Thompson, D’Arcy. On growth and form, Cambridge (England), Cambridge University Press, 1961. Unwin, Simon. Analyzing Architecture. New York,Routledge, 2003. Urban Design Associates. Architectural pattern book, New York, W.W. Norton, 2004.

miscellaneous de nitions (Lawrence Kasparowitz) Aedicula: the small shrine-like space within a larger room. Alignment: arrangement in a straight line, or in correct or appropriate relative positions. Antecedent: a thing or event that existed before or logically precedes another. Conception: the way in which something is perceived or regarded. Concretizing: to make concrete, real, or particular; give tangible or de nite form to. Con guration: the way the parts of something are arranged. Containment: the act of controlling or limiting something. Demarcation: the act of creating a boundary around a place or thing. Dynamism: belief that all phenomenon can be explained in terms of interaction of different forces. Eccentric: not placed centrally or not having its axis or other part placed centrally.

Generative: capable of producing or creating, relating to or produced by the rules of a generative grammar. Genius Loci: "spirit of a place,"the prevailing character or atmosphere of a place. Hierarchy: an arrangement or classi cation of things according to relative importance or inclusiveness. Intrinsic: of or relating to the essential nature of a thing. Juxtaposition: an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast; the state of being close together or side by side. Multiplicity: the quality or state of being multiple or various; the number of components in a system (as a multiplet or a group of energy levels). Perception: a way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression. Phenomenology: the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness. Proximity: nearness in space, time, or relationship. Residual: the quantity left over. Superimposition: to set or place on or over something else.

Syntax: a connected or orderly system : harmonious arrangement of parts or elements. Transpose: to change the relative position, order, or sequence of; cause to change places, interchange. Typology: the systematic classi cation of the types of something according to their common characteristics. Redundancy: the inclusion of extra components that are not strictly necessary to functioning, in case of failure in other components.

index

concepts Accomodation check Additive/Subtractive Aligning Ambient closure Ambiguity Anticipation Aperture Architectural image Articulation in plan Bilateral symmetry Both/And Building conßguration Center Centering Character of extent Clarity/potency of image Closure Column Composing Composition Compositional role Concept frame Conception Concretization Conßguration Conßgurative aspect Constants Constituent elements Content relations Critical aspects Cultural Degree of completion Degree of enclosure Degree of expression Demarking Detail condition Developing a scheme Difficult unity

72 44,45 16 54 52, 56 49 39 5, 71 41 63 52, 56 65 23 16 20,61 20 14, 59, 72 40 12 5, 7, 59 10, 71 49 9 72 14, 45, 59 72 31 49 20 72 68 61 20 38 16 39 70 56

Displacement District Diversity Division of the whole Domain extent Domains Double meaning Double square Dynamics Dynamics of duality Edge(s) Edging Element Enclosure Enfronting Entrance Exceptional diagonal Experience Expression Exterior/interior forms Extrinsic Fibonacci series Focal elements Focus Force fields Formal role of structure Fragmentary part Frames of reference Gate Generic (type) Genius loci Geometrical entities Gestalt Goal Golden ratio Gradation of layers Ideals Ideology Implied center Implied motion Implied shift Inflection Initial research Intrinsic properties

45 8 31 20, 61 73 21 52 33 1 56 8, 10 16 9, 68 14 16 63 46 5, 65 42 50 65 34 63 8 45, 49 40 56 28, 61 18, 19 68 28 36, 37, 59 5 25 34 4 68 65 46 27 46 49 70 20, 61

Inventory of parts Investigations Juncture Le Modular Level of expectancy Light as form determinant Maintaining a place Mass center Materials Matrix Meaning Method of inquiry Mood (light) Multiplicity Natural light Nature of materials Necessities Node Ontology Openings Order Orientation Origins Overall formation Overlap Palladian villas Path Pattern Percievable Perception Physical components Place Place structure Thought frame Toward a scheme Tower Transformation Transparency Type development Typological aspect Typology Unity of image Urban (type)

20, 61 72 50 35 56 43 28 63 39, 42 20 65, 68 68 38 57 38 39 68 8 65 63 5,7 40 68 20, 61 46 66 8, 19, 25, 27 10 63 9 28 19, 21, 23 24, 28 27 33, 49 70 63 45 54 68 72 49, 65 28 68

Variations of placemaking Variation of the edge Volume Wall Way Ways of thinking

24 63 41 10, 40 25 72

architects/authors Alberti, Leon Batista Allen, Edward Aalto, Alvar Ando, Tadao Asplund, Eric Gunnar Berenson, Berndard Borromini, Francesco Botta, Mario Bramante, Donato Buonarotti, Michaelangelo Burnham, Daniel Campo Baeza, Alberto Ching, Francis Cullen, Gordon Da Vinci, Leonardo de Botton, Alain Dole, Philip Durand, J .N. L. Eisenman, Peter Fibonnaci, Leonardo Foster, Norman Giedion, Sigried Giocondo, Giovanni Hambridge, Jay Hamlin, A.D.F. Huxtable, Ada Louise Isa, Usted Isozaki, Arata Jarvis, James D. Kahn, Louis Kepes, Georgy Krier, Leon Laan, Hans van der Lahouri, Usted Ahmed Le Corbusier Logos, Dyson Longhena, Baldassare Lutyens, Edwin

Lynch, Kevin Mayne, Thom Meier, RIchard 33, 36 11 intro 64 57 13 47 62, 64 3,4 3,4 intro 25, 71 14, 46 14, 26 6, 34 63 53 7, 65 53 34 50 55 3 35 33 1 37, 50 58 8 2, 13, 39, 43, 44 10, 54 8 12, 35 37, 50 35, 39 62, 68, 71 12 intro 9, 73, 74, 75

8 57 40, 51 55, 60 Moneo, Rafael 68 Moursund, Earl 15 Norberg-Schulz, Christian 8, 21 Pacific Associates 56 Palladio, Andrea 33, 66 Peruzzi, Franco 3,4 Peyre, Marie-Joseph 6 Piano, Renzo 60 Piranesi, G.B. 23 Plato 47 Portoghesi, Paolo 47 Purini, Franco 67, 89 Rossi, Aldo 66 Rowe, Colin 54 Ruskin, John 10 San Gallo, Guliano 3 Sansovino, Jacapo 3 Sanzio di Urbino, Raffaelo 3,4 Schindler, Rudolph 29 Tafuri, Manfredo 23 Tange, Kenzo 8 Tabassum, Marina 16 Unwin, Simon 2, 11 Van der Laan, Hans 12, 35 Vance, Clayton 37 Venturi, Robert 57 Viollet-le-Duc, Eugene 22 Vitruvius 33, 35 Willoughby, William 16 Wittkower, Rudolph 66 Wright, Frank Lloyd intro, 15, 25 29, 43

colophon:

This book was produced on a Toshiba Chromebook 2. Google applications such as Docs, Drive, Draw, etc. were used to layout the pages, insert the images and format the text. There are four fonts that were used; Anton for the main titles, Alegreya for names Quattrocento Sans for the text. Lobster for the page numbers. Printing is done by Createspace. Fulfillment and shipping are through Amazon.

gratitude:

The Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture accepted me as a graduate student, gave me a teaching fellowship and guided me through a joint thesis that resulted in my obtaining both a Master of Architecture and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree. Specific thanks to Earl Moursund and Charlton Jones. Additionally, I would like to thank Wilmot (Bill) Gilland, Jerome Diethelm, Jerry Finrow and Kenneth Helphand for their encouragement and support.

notes and sketches