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Ayman Rouhani Morgan State University Investigations in Modern Architecture
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Dymaxion House 1927
Archigram 1965
Kimbell Art Museum 1972
H I G H T E C H
Louis Kahn Pompidou Center Richard Rogers
IBM Pavilion Menil Collection Peter Rice Tjibaou Cultural Center 1991
Porto
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Norman Foster
1. Pompidou Center (1978) 2. IBM Traveling Pavilion (1984) 3. Menil Collection (1986)
o Antico 1992 Potsdamer Platz 2000 Kimbell Expansion 2013 Whitney 2015 5
Early Influences Ideological inspiration from the Archigram Group. Though never built, their projects provoked debates, combining architecture, technology and society. Offering a new approach to urbanism, reversing the traditional perception of infrastructure’s role in the city.
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Early Influences The works and writings of Buckminster Fuller had a great impact on the function and aesthetic of the Pompidou Center. In his pursuit to make the world work for 100% of humanity, Fuller spent his life working across many fields, including architecture, design, engineering, science, and geometry. Specifically, ideas of synergetics, geodesic domes, and a dymaxion world were some of his most influential ideas.
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Pompidou Center Paris, France Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers
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Context The Pompidou Center was intended to be a “joyful urban machine”. It achieves it’s relationship to the rich contextual city of Paris both on an urbanistic level as well as that of expression and form. The forecourt echoes the Italian Renaissance ideal of a city. It is a place where art and everyday life can mix. “it spoke of culture, but also of functional versatility; of art, but also of information; of music, but also of industrial design” -Renzo Piano
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The Pompidou Center paying homage to the CathĂŠdrale Notre-Dame and the cities rich cultural history.
Exposed mechanical systems on the roof abstract and resembles the surrounding Gothic ornamented parapets.
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CathĂŠdrale Notre-Dame
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The “Piazza� The site was in the center of Paris, in a run-down area, with a lack of public spaces nearby. The Piazza is critical to the functioning of the Pomidou Center. The public space is horizontial, while the circulation occurs vertically along the facade. The Pompidou is an enormous machine monument, celebrating technology and thrusting itself into the historic center of Paris. The public responded by surging outside in the piazza.
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The Pompidou defines and engages with a series of well used adjacent public spaces. Similar to the Piazza del Campo in Italy, the piazza has a gentle slope, which entices the occupant slowly down to the entrance. (right).
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Structure
Structure The Pompidou expresses Richard Rodgers’ manifesto on the prescriptions of the English High Tech Movement, which many say is culmination of the old Modernism. Ideologically, the movement represents an end rather than a beginning. Structure is pulled to the perimeter of the building, allowing large, unobstructed interior spaces.
Circulation
Services
Open Space 24
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west elevation
east elevation
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Tension Compression
Tension / Compression Loads
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The building is turned inside out. Freeing the interior spaces from accommodating circulation and servicing. Moving these to the outside leaves unobstructed and adaptable interior spaces. The double height interior space connects the ground floor with the piazza
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Floor Plan
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Kit of Parts Each element, both structural and non structural serves it’s own function, yet contribute to the larger “machine”. Each playing its own role in the architectural and mechanical ensemble. Layers of structural elements and mechanical systems create the facade.
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Exoskeleton a. 3 x 45m trusses with holloq tube bottom chords and solid round webs covered with fireproofing b. 850mm hollow cast steel tube filled with water for fireproofing c. Cast gerbette to support escalator and services d. Suspended escalator
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b. c.
a.
d.
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Warren truss Massive 48m long trusses allow for a large span, supporting programs of all sizes.
Trussed mullions The trussed mullions allows transparency to exist between the indoors and outdoors.
Escalator The expressed vertical circulation occurs on the exterior of the building. Suspended by cables along the highly mechanized facade.
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Exterior Wall Section
Gerberette Custom fabricated structural elements fabricated in Germany. The gerberette connects the primary truss system to the vertical support system. These cantilevered arms connect the steel columns to the 157 foot long truss. They allow the loads from the 6 floors to be transferred down the center axis of the main columns preventing bending moment.
Exterior Wall Section
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The “Gerberette” The idea of exposed structure can be traced to the back to Gothic architecture. The custom Gerberettes used at the Pompidou abstracts the traditional Gothic flying buttress seen at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame and applies it in a modernized manner using steel and glass. Both serve the same purpose structurally, transferring dead loads down the vertical support system.
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High tech application of flying buttress
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Mechanical Exposure The primary structural elements contrasts with the color coded mechanical systems. Blue: Climate Control Green: Plumbing Yellow: Electric Red: Safety features Services are distributed vertically within the wall frame. Some horizontal distribution occurs, where trumpeted air vents are articulated as “ears�. The building is honest, showing the systems that support it.
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IBM Traveling Pavilion 20 Locations Renzo Piano Building Workshop
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Context The IBM Pavilion was designed to fit any context. Being placed at 20 different cities, the pavilion acts as an object in space. The natural undertones found both in it’s structural expression, as well as the use of materiality, allows to pavilion to nestle into its surrounding environment. Piano is committed to the human aspect of architecture, using natural materials that are familiar to us, while blurring the line between the built and natural environment.
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Response to Nature The IBM expresses the ideal of the immateriality of communication. Telecommunications eliminates distance, making physical location irrelevant. Set in a park, it becomes a provocative blend of advanced technology and nature.
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Seamlessly embeds itself in nature
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Renzo Piano sketches
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Site plan of placing in Milan
Longitudinal section
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Structure The structure itself has its natural overtones. Piano claims that he drew his inspiration for this from the many forms that nature has to offer. Since the pavilion is placed in natural settings, the natural overtones expressed in the structure reinforces the relationship of the pavilion to it’s context.
Structure
Circulation
Services
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Wall Section
Tension Compression
Tension / Compression Loads
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Radial Geometry
1. Series of arches
2. Repetition of module
3. Structural web
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Experimentation The IBM Pavilion uses both old and new materials including laminated wood cross-piles, cast aluminum joints, and polycarbonate pyramids, with new adhesives possessing extraordinary properties. Since the pavilion was transported to 20 various cities, the structure had to be easily assembled, disassembled, and transported in containers. “When you work in a circular way the technical aspect returns to its place at the center. It is given back its dignity� - Renzo Piano
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Denise Pereira 1/2” = 1’0”
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Series of repeated arches
Denise P 1/2” =
Fastening of polycarbo
Pereira = 1’0”
onate pyramids to joists
Denise Pereira 1/2” = 1’0”
Independent module
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Kit of Parts As a son of a builder, Renzo Piano always articulates the connections and joints in his projects. At the Pompidou, those connections were custom built and at a larger, industrial scale. At the IBM pavilion, these connections are completely humanized. They can be touched from within the structure. Inspiration for the joins and structural components was drawn directly from nature. Here, the stalk and veining of a leaf can be seen in the finger joints (right). “The idea of working with pieces, piece by piece, and working on material was a part of the architectural experience. “ - Renzo Piano
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Finger Joints The inspiration for the finger-jointed strut connection was from the stalk and veining of a leaf.
Node Joint Each wooden strut slips into the cast aluminum component.
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Wooden strut to cast aluminum connection
Cast Aluminum Connections Pin jointed junctions of inner chords of adjacent arch to edge of structural chassis.
Detail at bottom of arch
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Shade & Thermal In order to protect the delicate IBM machines from harmful direct sunlight and reduce thermal loss, opaque counter-pyramids would be clipped to the inside of the polycarbonate pyramids. Stretched fabric was also suspended from above to because of the requirement to reduce sun glare on the computer screens.
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Simulation of anticipated light levels
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The Menil Collection Houston, TX Piano & Fitzgerald
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Context The homogeneity of the Menil Collection with it’s surrounding context allows the museum to act as the missing link for Houston. To be a “Treasure House” of a city that has no history. Contrasting the attitude of the Pompidou Center, which is reacting to the unbearable weight of the past and the monuments of Paris. The Menil Collection was designed with the complete opposite need.
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The use of a linear and repetitive pattern as clapboarding within forty-foot long bays, combined with the fenestration treatment and door openings as glazed voids rather than framed penetrations of the wall. The rhythmic articulation of the supporting structure is a reflection of the it’s suburban context (right). “...an experimental museum, one that would function simultaneously as a restoration center; exhibition site, and village ” - Renzo Piano
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The Menil Collection creates a gentle rhythm as one moves through. One that engages the street with an inviting transparency through the use of glazing and it’s extended portico. It is supplementary to an already established neighborhood scale. The Menil reacts to it’s edges in a poetic way. The vast front yard to the north extends the width of the site, promoting public interaction.
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Setback section diagram
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The Menil draws in natural elements to select interior spaces. However, rather than having an interior courtyard or cafe, the Menil celebrates its front lawn, where people from all over Houston come to have picnics.
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Structure
Structure Similar to the Pompidou, the Menil Collection is volumetrically uncomplicated. The supporting structure is exposed around the perimeter of the building, and its roof consists of an integration of structure, mechanical services, and natural and artificial light. Structure informs space rather than simply modulating it.
Green Space
Open / Private Space
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Section
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Interdisciplinary Approach The organic form of the section was designed using highly sophisticated mathematical models. with an external illumination level of 80,000 lux. The “leaves” diffuse the intensity of the natural light to a mere 1,000 lux for it’s gallery space. Invention meets the poetry of light and art.
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Section of light refraction in exhibit space
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Kit of Parts Contrasting the highly mechanized aesthetic of the components in the Pompidou, and more similar to the raw, natural elements of the IBM pavilion, the elements in the Menil are sensually crafted, once again suggesting an organic connection with the surrounding trees. The 291 light diffusing “leaves� becomes the inner layer of the roof and shows a striking similarity to an x-ray of a digitalis flower (right).
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Piano does not reject modernism but he seems more interesting in investing space with quality rather than the rhetorical iconography of modernist ideals. The qualities of interior spaces derive from the filtering of natural light and the artwork that they contain. The result is modest, purposeful, and conscientious.
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c.
Leaf Detail a. steel bolts
b.
f.
b. ductile-iron trusses c. steel clasps
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d. cast ferro-cement leaves e. steel reinforcement mesh f. steel pin
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a.
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k. l. j. m. n.
Basement through Second Floor Section a. concrete footing with rebar
k. concrete slab roofs
b. concrete foundation wall
l. wideflange beams
c. concrete paving
m. ceiling support
d. 6in Cyprus T&G weatherboards
n. hung ceiling
e. cast ferro-cement leaves
o. 6in groove oak wood flooring
f. ductile-iron trusses
p. concrete plank
g. custom steel channel
q. steel beam
h. 5in steel channel
r. open web steel bracing
i. 6in Cyprus weatherboards j. 5in steel channel
i. o.
p.
h. q.
g. f. e. r.
d.
c.
b. a.
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Atomsphere The Menil Collection with its serenity, calm and meekness, is far more “modern� than the Pompidou Center. The appearance of technology in the Pompidou is a parody. The technology used in the Menil Collection is more advance, but is not flaunted. The result of this is a place inducing peace and quiet, with an atmosphere encouraging contemplation.
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“Growing up by the sea, you get an idea of the infinite surface of the world, and you grow up with a number of desires. One is to run away. And I did. The other one is for light. Light is probably the most untouchable, immaterial material of architecture. I have another obsession: fighting gravity. In the sea, everything floats.� - Renzo Piano
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Ethics in Architecture Piano expresses the importance of architecture’s relationship to it’s natural, physical and social context. In all three projects, the immaterial elements of space are expressed with equal importance as the built, tactile components. The Modernist ideal of structural exposure matures into a modest application where structure supports function. A building can honest; showing all of it’s structure, connections, and systems while it’s materiality is used to reinforce it’s ideals. Supporting functional needs in a pure, honest, and efficient manner; architecture now is humanized.
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Bibliography
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1. Buchanan, Peter. Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Complete Works. London: Phaidon, 2008. Print. 2. Renzo Piano: Logbook. New York: Monacelli, 1997. Print 3. Jodidio, Philip. Piano. Place of Publication Not Identified: Taschen, 2012. Print. 4. Ford, Edward R. The Details of Modern Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2003. Print. 5. Piano, Renzo. “Architecture and the Environment.” Franzen Lecture. 30 Oct. 2006. Lecture. 6. Rogers, Richard. “Richard Rogers on the Pompidou.” Interview. Dezeen Magazine 26 July 2013 7. Public Places Urban Spaces (2010) Matthew Carmona, Steve Tiesdell, Time Heath, Taner Oc 8. Smart, Pamela G. Sacred Modern: Faith, Activism, and Aesthetics in the Menil Collection. Austin: U of Texas, 2010 9. Fox, Stephen. “Piano’s New Museum For The Menil Collection.” Art Newspaper Aug. 1982: 5-7 10. Piano, Renzo. “10 Questions for Renzo Piano.” Interview. Time Magazine 4 July 2011
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