architecture studio water - louis kahn Serena Yu 722034
---------------------------------------------SITE : View to river Closeness to roads for convenience and noticeability Located in view of road for noticeability Moderate level of loudness for noticeability Can be view from the landmarks across the river and at the Alexandra Garden Located near the populated club building I located my design in a noticeable place for it to accentuate its monumental characteristics.
THEMES: I based my design on the main themes of contrast and elements of monumentality seen in Louis Kahn’s work Contrast: Contrast is a main feature of Kahn’s buildings and non-linear placements of very regular and symmetric shapes is shown in many of Kahn’s work. The Fisher house’s asymmetric plan of two regular squares and the non-linear placement of rectangular windows is a good example of this. The Phillip Exeter Library’s main material used indoors of concrete and timber is another great example of contrast in Kahn’s work through materiality. Concrete is associated with mass, heaviness and industrialisation, completely opposite to timber’s lightness and its connotations with nature. This forms visual interest for the users. For my building too I decided to use heavy concreate along with light timber and great levels of transparent glass to create such contrast through materiality. Contrast in the Hierarchy of Floors:
Kahn used light along with height to create a hierarchy of floors in the Phillip Exeter Library. Such is done through allowing more light at the top than at the bottom. The greater lighting at the top floors gives it a better sense of openness and grandness compared to the bottom, it also creates a sense of separation between the floors. With my building I used the element of height alone without the separation of lighting to create hierarchy. I left out the separation of floors through lighting to create a great level of openness in both floors. Openness is achieved from the great amount of light from many its windows and also from the interior’s large open spaces with not many closed walls.
Elements of Monumentality:
To create monumentality prominent in Kahn’s work I used openness to create greatness. This is done through many large windows and openly arranged internal walls. Symmetric geometries is used often in Kahn’s work such as the National Assembly’s exterior and plan. This use of symmetric geometries create regularity, formality and also grandness. The dominant material in my building is concrete. This is because concrete is associated with mass and heaviness. Utilising such heavy material can highlight the regular and symmetric forms of the building. The heaviness also produces a level of intimidation and greatness, and this generates monumentality. Repetition created through regular patterns of arrangements and repetitive use of certain shapes is very common in Kahn’s work such as the Salk Institute many modules for its exterior, and the National Assembly repetitive uses of circles for its interior and exterior. The use of these repetitive modules and shapes creates unity through the single building and it also provides a sense of formality. For my building I used many repetitive arrangements of windows and poles, and similar angled structures, to achieve this effect of formality from repetition.