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Design Instruction?

This post aims to share my process during an architectural design (especially for works in my Chises university).

After getting the topographic map of my work, I will firstly read the whole map and conduct a site analysis to sort out the various elements of the place. Factors may be the traffic flow of the site - the flow of people on various roads around the site, the possible routes that the main users may use to reach the building, the roads for vehicles or only for people, etc.; or the vicinity of the site including the wind direction of the environment in which the site is located, the condition of the sunshine, the conditions of surrounding buildings (altitude, mass, distance to your site), the greening around the site... There are many things can be analyzed, so the best choice is to draw analysis diagrams on sulfuric acid paper, which can also form a comprehensive analysis including various factors after stacking together. It can take some time to do th site analysis, but you can gain a deeper understanding of the place during the process, and it’s likely that the idea of the plan naturally arises during the analysis. For example, analyzing the flow of the site can help draw the building entrances and exits, which came to some of the characteristics of the total planar shaple, such as concave emphasis on the entrance. Another example is the application of emphasizing the plants around the site.

In addition, the geometry of the site - such as the shape of the site boundary and even the grid delineated to avoid certain trees in the site to determine the plane composition is also a common practice.

With initial ideas, whether they are only on the general plane or are in three-dimensional form, they can be combined with the actual requirements of the mission statement to the general function of the partition. Of course, it is also feasible to generate a general functional partition according to the requirements of the building type. It is also feasible to determine the architectural outline/stereoscopic appereance according to the characteristics of the site. The design from the functional zoning bubble diagram is one such thind.

The scrutiny of the program should be repeated back and forth between the three-dimentional models and the plane sketches. As for the medium of the model, the SketchUp model is inherently quick and agile, but the lack of binocular imaging and the weakness of the SLI engine lead to a lack of stereosonicity, the loss of the sense of scale due to the arbitrary scaling of the model, and the lack of mastery of modeling methods limitations are all computer models for beginners.

As for the facade design, it is usually involved in the middle of the program. And the most important factors are the actual density, bump advance and retreat, light and shadow and materials. These factors are often associated with the function of the corresponding plane, otherwise it is only a more fake “skin”. However, it’s also suggested that the introduction of counterplan design considerations in schemes as soon as possible. If the function and mass scale take too much time, it will inevitably become passive and not easily deenpened for the facade design because it will become in a hurry. The same is true for site design.

Chaniwa

Chaniwa, or the Tea Gardens, also known as Roji ( 露地 ), is a small garden that attached to the Japanese tea house, dating back to the late Muromachi period around 1523. The spread of Buddhism and Chinese garden deeply influenced Japan, and the attitude of the monk as well as the tea and landscape panting brought great effect to the upper class, also leading to the change of Japanese residential and garden architecture. It is one of my favorite types of garden because of the combination of Zen, tea and painting, which create a kind of clean, elegant and quite style for Japanese garden. It’s like a garden in a larger garden with less change of space, but everything is laid out in a simple and natural way, prominenting the theme of Zen and affecting people’s “innerpeace”. With Zen’s sentimental approach, Chaniwa brings people into a state of indifference and delight, and people feel more about pursuing purely spiritual space.

The purpose of Japanese tea ceremony is to “neglect, respect, clear and silence” to negate seemingly gorgeous and noisy things while rejecting all vanity, emphasizing the desilting and strong heart, seeking inner and spiritual peaceful.

The design of Chaniwa is deeply influenced by this thinking, and the atmosphere of silence and epiphany is greatly created. In general, the complete Chaniwa is divided into two parts, the inner part and the outer part. The outer one is set for guests to clean up, including toilet, rest and other facilities. The inner one is set with rest area, squat and tea house, etc. The dividing line between the two parts is a fence with a bamboo door in the middle, called submarine. In addition, there are other landscape elements such as Tsukubai (low wash basin set), stone lanterns, stepping stones, special patterned ston paths, Koshikake machiai (a waiting place with a bench).

In order to create the atmosphere of quiteness and epiphany of the Chaniwa, it needs to streamline the Chaniwa according to the functional flow of the ceremony. The design of the landscape elements must comply with certain rule. The purpose of the stepping stone is for the participants not to moisten their mojito by damp ground, so the basic priciple is that the laying of stepping stones should be based on the people’s pace. They should also be in accordance with the path of the forward direction and the ultimate purpose is to have a certain rhythm and beauty of the pedestrian path. So the activities of people are limited by the direction of stepping stones. Some Chaniwa even set obstacles on the midway, like trees or bamboo fence walls, in order to cut off the road and make guests unable to see the full scenery of Chaniwa.

In addition, all of the elements are given a deep meaning especially for the middle gate. It represents the dividing line between one world to another, isolated from the secular world. That is, the moment the guests pass through the boundary, they wash themselves out of the miscellaneous thoughrs brought by the world and purify their soul.

In all, the Chaniwa actually pursues, propagates and delivers an abstract and obscure religious thought, through the use of specific landscape elements such as the middle door, stepping stones, plants and squatting that one can see from the real world.

The Wilson Library (Field Trip of 7th Week)

This week I went to the Wilson Library for field trip. The most impressive point in the library, compared to other libraries I’ve been to, is the different kinds of chairs for lobby, reading area and group working. There’s a wide variety of seating options and the quiet spaces are genuinely quite becasue they are divided by soundproof glass. Actually, most of my classes are on the East Bank of the campus of the Wilson Library is a new discovery for me. It’s a “cool” spaces different to the Walter Library, with lots of white resin surfaces and neon upholstry and more outlets than one person could need, especially for the first floor.

This gives me the same feeling of comfortable sitting as the Walter Library, but I think the Wilson Library concentrate more on the types and amounts of sitting, especially in the lobby, which form an atmosphere of “communication”. As there are quite studying spaces for just studying, I think the university libraries concentrate more on their characteristics for the combination of individual reading as well as group working. So they are more likely a student center rather than a place only for researching.

There seems not too many people during my visit time (Friday afternoot) and I can’t tell how crowded it can get during busier times, but I believe there’s much fewer people than the Walter Library, and I really recommend this library for its plentyful space and relative quiet.

How to choose a book?

When I go to the library for field trip this week, a question suddenly came to my mind: How do we choose a book to read if there is no accurate purpose?

I’ve once read a sentence that I can’t remember the actual source, which says that you will find your real interest when you do not aim to read a book, because the book itself will guide you. My first trip to my University Library in China was all about my homework, and soon get bored and then began to pay attention to something else, and gradually have a way of thinking for reading but also understand what a good book is as well as what is worth reading. Actually, there is no need to be afraid of miscellaneous reading, and all we nned to do is to slow down.

I also think there are two different situations when you don’t know what to read in library. One is that you couldn’t find a book to read. For this situation, I think at least you have your favorate kind of books, even if onely one. From that book you can find the mentioned events, characters and even theorems, corollary of the relevant books. For example, Mauch mentions Dostoyevsky, Schrödinger can see quantum mechanics from cats and you can even read from biographies of the violin to Paganini. For design students, it’s more easy for us to find our prefer architects and buildings to learn about. In all, you should look for points of interest in the area you know, then find books around these points.

Another situation is that there are two many books that you don’t know how to choose. I don’t think you should waste your time finding books but grab the nearest book to finish it and then just go for the next book. The curiosity of people is unlimited. Whether you want to study at a certain point or improve your level of education with a lot of time, then just chosse what you find insdead of considering a lot. A good way to do this is to take out 5 books in your book list and don’t read anything else until you finish these five, and you will naturally make a choice.

My Final Project

Kongming Lock (or Luban Lock) is a traditional Chinese intellectual toy. It's also called “Six-Piece Burr,”"Puzzle Knot" or“Chinese Cross”in English. It is said that the toy was invented by Zhuge Kongming about 2,000 years ago based on the principles of the eight-diagram metaphysics and Luban's design of wood structure. It was widely popular among the folks in ancient China, but become less welcomed nowadays. Actually, not only this toy, but also a lot of other traditional inventions become lost because of the long time period. So I hope to call up some old spirit of China from making this toy. As you can see, the concave and convex parts inside the three-dimensional interpolation toy mesh perfectly. There are many types of Kongming locks, which come in different shapes and sizes with different internal structures. They are usually easy to take apart but difficult to reassemble. The process of reassembling the toy is just like a puzzle.

The original structure of the toy comes from Luban's wood invention, as mentioned before, called tenon-and-mortise works firstly invented in ancient Chinese carpentry, which was used as traditional Chinese civil architecture fixer to connect different wood structure without the use of nails and ropes. The protruding part of on the components is called tenon, and the concave part is called mortise. The most basic tenon-and-mortise structure consist of two components, one of which is inserted into the other's eyelet, making the two parts connect and secure. The portion where the the tenon extends into the "eye" is called "tongue", while the rest is called "shoulder".

Until today, this kind of structures is still used in many contemporary buildings such as the GC prostho Museum Research Center by Kengo Kuma & Associates in Japan. The building was designed only by twisting wood sticks to connect together without metal fittings. In a sense it is actually a huge toy. The tenon-and-mortise structure in architecture requires a lot of calculations, and the cost of the wood structure is expensive, so it is now gradually out of the eyes of most architects. But it is still a mainly used structure in wooden furniture. By studying the tenon-and-mortise structure, we can feel the wisdom of the ancient Chinese inventor.

Actually at first, I've told the class that I want to make a magic cube inspired from Eames House. I said the facade made me think of a magic tube, with light and colors showing magic interaction on the faces. But I've had a hard time struggling the structure of a hand-made magic cube. The problem sovled after I had a discussion with Minzhuang during the class. She told me she want to make a three-dimensional story book about Chinese ancient architectures, which helped me consider to also add Chinese elements in my own design. I used to write in my blog post that I really love ancient Chinese architectures. For me, they are one of the most important reasons to choose the major of architecture design. The clever structure, exquisite decorative patterns, magnificent atmosphere are all what I deeply fall in love with. In my opinion, the ancient architectures represent a kind of manner and attitude of ancient China. It can not only contain the imperial majesty, but also can reflect the style of the literati, and even ordinary people's pure hearts. So finally I choose the typical tenon-and-mortise structure as the core of my project

The original material for the toy of lock, as you can see, is wood. However, I want to see the inside structure clearly when looking through it, and make it possible to observe how lights and colors change when rotating the box. This is the initial idea of my final project and the materials are also decided when I first came up the ideas, though I wanted to use glass first to make a sense of heaviness and glass has more permeation of light (which means "neat". But when I actually make the model by myself, I found arcylics much more easy to cut by the laser cutter. The components need to be exactly accurate to make them sucessfully combine together so I believe laser cutter is the best choice. Thus, the Facade trace back my first post of Glass Curtain Wall

I firstly made a Sketch-up model digitally in my computer. The most difficult thing is to calculate the thickness of each connection, and I used most of my time to correct my mistake because of the need of accuracy. I can even imagine how difficult when it was applied in real works through this process. Another annoying thing was the glue. To solve this point, I deliberately allowed the glue to drip over the colorful surfaces while try to keep other surfaces clean at the same time. I think this is a symbol of a multicolored chaos in my mind.

When I finally finished the project, I found some features that I hadn't noticed before. The middle component is just like the roofless design for the atrium in the row house that every other component have a connection with it. And the other components just like narrow bridges or passages of the Row House with no external window (though they're just transparent). It's like a arcylic box (instead of concrete) of abstract art, using a small physical space to represent a mini universe with rich combination of "rooms".

For the architectural concept showing in the design, I think it mostly represent those of Sou Fujimoto in his House N, which I think most of the Japan architectures including the Moriyama House share the same opinion. It's called "Weak Architecture" by making concessions in order to gain advantages. It is a new approach to deal with the relationship between people and guide people to contact with each other, changing the interpersonal relationships brought about by changes in space and eliminating the sense of distance. It also shows the inclusiveness of buildings: the designed entertainment by fullfilling the potential to create three-dimensional flexible architectural spaces. The seemingly separate and fragmented spaces is in fact an interconnected whole. The outside cube is just like a "shell", and the same material of inside and outside forms a purely spatial combination. In a word, the design tries to express the richness of "in-between".

Through the whole semester and the final project, I further defined my design philosophy and it's also an important part of my project. It can be said that X-LAB taught me how to think deeply. The thinking that inspired me about light and shade, color, form, transparency and translucency was all parts of my design. In other words, this course has dramatically changed my way of thinking and observing, especially in "paying attention to details in life", allowing me to discover the profound architectural ideas that are hidden in this kind of toys.

Why do we read?

After going field trips to libraries for 6 weeks, some thinking about libraries just comes to my mind.

I’ve read a book named Pourquoi lire ? by Charles Dantzig, a France writer. I only read the translation version in Chinese so I don’t know the exact English name. It is his collection of essays in 2010, based on the reason he listed in the book: “Reading for speaking,” “Reading for hatred,” or even “Reading for the sake of reading.” These unsubstantiated reasons form this book, as if saying anything can be the reason to start reading.

And one sentence in the final of this book left deep impression on me: Reading for us to restore the lives of those who are worthy of worship complex, and to resist the puppet pupil of death. The library is the only competitor to the cemetery (These words are translated by myself).

So why do we read?

1. Read for the deceased; 2. Embrace history; 3.Refute ourselves; 4. Give more courage to face the death; 5. Give the author a new life of thoughs.

I think the core for cemetery is just “death”, a symbol of each person’s ultimate unavoidable physiological function to stop the fate in an all-round way, not just referring to a place where a living person thinks about the dead and about the afterlife. As time goes by, the cemetery keeps its depression solemn and witnesses the return of mortal man to nature. It lonely records the development of generation after generation of destruction and creation. The connotation of the library is “curiosity”, symbolizing the still-living people, actively reserving knowledge for the future, verifying the truth, exploring the laws of all things in life and death after death, and stimulating the latter’s curiosity and self-examination spirit. With the passage of time, the library itself caters to the times and disseminates information that is close to and even ahead of time and preserves the classic of ignoring time baptism. So the competition between library and cemetery is like a human being in a fire, and the achievement of this man lies in how much he can save from the fire.

Both of them do the same in two extreme ways: keeping a record of the human history of thought and truth undergoing repeated scrutiny and practice. Everyone is equal in front of truth. Should we explore furthur to enrich ourselves, or presist in life and death but just keep frame and fortune?

Libraries are the only places that can compete with the cemetery, where libraries challenge generations of traditional life and death views through the integration of knowledge and experience.

The Walter Library (Week 6′s field trip)

When I wen to the Walter Library for field trip this week, I tried to use the way of thinking “what is the significance of the place, how can you enhance it and what reasons from your personal experience make you have these ideas?” Actually I agree this is a good way for noticing design details and thinking why the designers want to do this.

The most impressive moment in this library, I need to say, is the atmosphere in the lobby that make people (at least make me) really want to sit down on the sofa. Everytime I went there, I feel hard to leave the sofa and just want to sit all day (and I sat for about 2 hours doing my homework there).

Another impressive point is the distinctive sense of mass. Through the use of heavt materials such as bricks and stones, an accumulation of history and knowledge has been created. On the second floor, the middle lobby and study rooms on both sides have different ceiling structure to reflect different sense of space. For the lobby, the vaulted ceiling creates an open, spacious and comfortable public space to rest, while it’s more private and quiter in the study room.

In particular, the wall lamp in the staircase embodies a sense of hope in the darkness.

To enhance the sence of comfortable, I think there could be a fireplace in the lobby (just as that in the Coffman Hall).

Compared to the Center Library and Walker Library, the Walter Library is in a more classical style rather than a fashion style, which shows the history of campus itself.

Architecture and Clothes

Moshe Safdie has mentioned that the architectures has long been integrated into the border of fashion. And when watching the video of Yamamoto, I’m also thinking of the combination between these two elements. I think the boudary of fashion is actually vast. Not only architecture has been integrated into fashion design, but everything in the macro and micro worlds can become a source of inspiration at the same time. So I find some examples for this kind of “combination”, which I believe also help me in my way of thinking.

In the field of fashion, many big brands have been inspired by architectural elements such as Dior, Issey Miyake, Vetements, Jacquemus and other international brands. To sum up their commonality, the use of architectural elements in fashion design can be attributed to two lines of thinking: one is the use of texture and the other is the use of structural details.

Use of texture:

The use of patterns in clothing can create architectural space in it. This is a kind of direct use. Mary Katrantzo in the 2011 Spring/Summer Collection combined the images from Architectural Digest and Interior Design with the structure and silhouette of garment, showing a concept of placing the room on a woman instead of women into the room, to complete a set of architectural prints fashion design series.

There are also uses of design techniques on fabric in addition to the use of patterns, and show different forms of surface texture. For example, the designer of HUGO BOSS took inspiration from the brand’s headquarters in Metzingen, Germany, using its architectural form to finish a series of apparel pieces with rugged knitting.

Use of structure details:

Another common use of architectural elements on clothing is the structural use. Usually designers will focus on some of the specific structure of the building, analyzing or directly simulating, extract the deformation and then apply to the cloth form. Therefore people sometimes will think some clothing works are similar to a building but not exactly the same. In fact, they are the use of structural design. Yamamoto Yohji is an example, as well as Issey Miyake and Kawakubo Rei. They incorporate architectural elements into their traditional national costumes to create their own unique design charm.

For example, here are works of Issey Miyake:

In addition, a part of the clothes such as a sleeve can also be made similar to the state of the building structure:

Through the above examples, we can see that there is indeed interoperability between architecture and fashion. Not just buildings, many other fields can use transformation of form and reference from inspiration to get more creative design ideas, which combine elements from different origins. I think this is what Moshe Safdie wanted to express.

Storytelling

Recently we talked about story telling and presentation during class.The question comes to me: What is a general preogram speech, and what is a good program speech when we do presentation for our architectural design? If you can clearly show the site relationship, such as the setting for the entrance of the building, the clarity of the derivation logic in the function of design, etc., which is needed for a good program expression (maybe 60 points), but never excellent. An excellent speech, however, must have something to do with moving people that must go beyond other people or programs at the cognitive level. If you are talking about cultural buildings, such as museum exhibition center, you have to talk about how to make the design has what kind of temperament: is it like quiet water in a couryard with meditation atmosphere to feel the human nature and the universe resonance (like Ando), or like a light, elegant box with a sense of flotation, which gives a feeling of delicate and ambiguous human emotions (like Kazuyo Sejima), or a sulpture-like architectural form and space to leave deep impressions of vivid volume (like Zaha Hadid or Frank Gehry). How does your design touch the visitor, change the temperament of the site and even activate the whole city?

Typical examples are the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao with a building to enhance the image of the entire city of Bilbao, or the concept of the Dandelion of British Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo to bring the cognitive refreshment of life, or the National Parliament House in Bangladesh which shapes the whole nation with a sense of sacred and dignity.

If your design is a seemlingly boring residential quarters, there is another set of logic to talk about how to maximize the benefits for developers as well as offer perfect living experience for users. An excellent residential district should consider the moments of entering the entrance, through the lobby, flower hall, corridor, elevator hall, entrance hall. What’s more, your home’s porch space design, living room design and even into the master bedroom and bathroom, are all need to consider about the experience feeling. When you can tell so many dimensions of understanding for your design and considerations while others just talking about how he did the following buildings with how many square meters for the layout, your presentation will be much more thick and interesting.

An architect who lives in a dwelling house must also remember that he does not exist for the purpose of calculating the sunshine. We ultimately use the power of design to make the world a better place. Of course, it is also important to talk about this to others, helping them understand what you have done. What if designing a school? How to help children have better cognitive of society and nature with learning knowledge from textbooks? How to let children have more appropriate space to learn to communicate, play together and think independently? How to let teachers and children have more interaction? And the efficience of sports facilities? The presentation will be more attractive when you consider more and deeper. Only if you express your understanding of design beyond the expectations of your audience, they will agree that your presentation is excellent. Essentially, this is because you have a better understanding of your design with a higher thinking dimension. Of course, this need a lot of time to learn and accumulate.

To summarize, many architects who appear to be “well eloquent and articulate” may be profound or humorous or have an understanding of design beyond the ordinary. Therefore, presentation for designs is a long-term training skills. The benefits are also obvious, especially in our future career, which worth our exercise.

House N

Talking about the facade of architecture, House N is my favorate.

House N, which designed by Sou Fujimoto, is located in a traditional residential district of Oita is Japan. The architecture has three walls and the outer layer wraps the entire villa and garden. To prevent the garden from light, all the walls are open with large windows. When reducing the hustle and bustle outside the streets, the house will not have estrangement with the outside world. The middle of the house is a transitional space and the innermost layer is the indoor functional areas for the owner’s daily life.

This architecture contiunues Fujimoto’s design philosophy for the Primitive Future, which explores a primitive state realted to the habits of human beings in earlier burrows, and architecture, while expressing the primitive way of life, creates new things that belong to the future.

In such a metropolitan random cavernous house, occupants are freer and more creative to use/arrange for space. The design of the three concrete cover greatly saves the cost of construction with the simplest, most natural way to achieve the infinite possibilities of small space.

Fujimoto believes that the so-called ideal building is to make the external space similar to the internal space, and make the internal space similar to external space. The building does not aim to build a clear boundary for exterior and interior, but to build a rich place between them.

The three embedded layers generate transition from the city to the building, from outdoor to the interior, and from open to privacy. They create numerous space for reverie with a purely spatial combination. A 150-square-meter small space with a triple-decked enclosure breaks the wall between the building and the street, completes its infinite definition of visual presentation, and tells us that there is no space in the world which is too small to carry huge ideas.

Living in this house is like living in the clouds, because it replace the specific realm in the original existing building through the gradual change in the field. In a heavily covered nested structure, there is always a relative relationship between the interior and the exterior, which means there is internal inside internal and external outside external.

In the awareness of Japanese culture, Japan is a resource-scarce island, so they treat any resources fully utilized with little waste. In this way, the typical feature in Japanese culture is formed as making the best use of everything.

For Fujimoto, House N can extend to a street, a city, and even represents this infinite world, becuase the world as a whole is composed of infinite nests. In his imagination, cities and houses are essentially no difference. They are formed only in different ways, but all represent a state of primitive space inhabited by human beings.

If the Final Wooden House is the ultimate form of wooden architecture, then I think House N is the ultimate residence house for urban life, through which designers combine the originality of the world with a specific residential function under the same “cover”.

The Central Library (Week 5)

This week I went to the Minneapolis Central Library for field trip. It is in the center of Minneapolis and easy to reach because of the nearby metro transit stations. Its special facade and the location makes the library a landmark of the city. I found it interesting that many of the librarians were old gentlemen, which gave a sense of wisdom and experience. This may also be a way for government to solve working pressure (I guess). And their slowly speaking speed just works for me because it is really easy for foreigners to listen.

I’ve done some research of this library before for my ecology class. As a recently built library, it shows a lot of design elements of modern life and the use of new technologies, and the most significant charateristic of its design is the contribution to ecological design. As for me, I especially love the use of lights, including natural light and electric lamps.

For the lamps, I notice that the ceiling lights not directly illuminate downwards. Instead, they shine upwards on the ceiling, and use the reflect light to illuminate the whole room.This is really an efficient way to reduce the energy use as well as make the interior light softer for reading.

The independent table lamps are setting for people to choose whether open or not. Making the reading area near the huge floor-to-ceiling windows is also a way to reduce the need for electric (which is different from the layouts of the St. Anthony Library, so the central library has a much more opening atmosphere).

The natural light not only comes from windows, but also from the skylight accoding to the adequate sunlight during the daytime in Minneapolis. This may not be so obvious when walking downstairs. But you will get the surprise moment like what I took in the photos when going upstairs by yourself instead of taking the elevator. I don’t know if this is a reward from designers to those who saves energy from elevators, but I really enjoy the “residual” lights on the floor.

And here’s a machine for returing books, so there would not need a large of librarians to service people who just return books.

From the perspective of the economic benefirs and the use efficiency of the library buildings, we should explore how the architectural design of a library adapts to the requirements of the modernized development of the library so that its spatial layout and functions are scalable, flexible and economically adaptable to achieve the sustainable development of the library building, and makes the library an eternal work.

Skyscrapers

I’ve mentioned something about skyscrapers for their showcases in my post of field trip for the Walker Library. At present, China is famous for its rapid construction of skyscrapers. From most apparent reasons for the construction of China’s skyscrapers, I think one of the reasons is that the premium of the lot has far exceeded the cost of construction, and it becomes almost the only option to build skyscrapers to solve the issue of lands. And skyscrapers themselves can become a kind of competitive segment because of the need of competition. When a project lacks core competitiveness, the skyscrapers can be used as one of the means. In the social logic, it is mainly the intensive use of land that the same land can solve more social functional space. This also reduces the cost of various kinds of transportation since the distance between urban functions is shorter , and the scope of indoor walking is included. It further reflects the current level of civilization as well.

However, as ordinary people, I’m thinking another reason for building skyscrapers. Skyscrapers, with their prominent external facade and a wide range of internal vison, help people outside can see the inside easily and see more outside in the super-tall levels. The viewers have some kind of worship and the owners have some kind of pride.

When people mention the skyscrapers, the first thing comes to me is the Towel of Babel.

People always have “eternal” desires. When we realize that people’s lives are restricted and we will finally leaving the world one day, we long for being long-term existence. Thus what we desire to build something to create a record in this world, leave our name in the long history and be commemorated by our descendants. However, the tragedy of this story is that people have not even succeeded in building the Tower of Babel. In addition to this failed lesson, it is even more difficult to leave behind any material things to be handed down to future generations.

In the painting, the Tower of Babel spiral rises in the imagination of artists, and the large volume in people’s desire was never stopped. People wanted to become as powerful as God. When science and technology are not powerful enough, people want to climb higher and gather to build the Tower of Babel. Why are the images about the Babel are circular? People always have a strong spirit of adventure to ascend, put the whole world under the feet, taming and defeating such “high mountains” again and agian. The adventure itself is also the historical process of Babel. Our contemporary world are using the way of technology and science to continue writing about the story of the tower, and go farther and farther on the road on conquest. I believe the story of the Tower is just the story of contemporary skyscrapers.

Come back to the definition of skyscrapers in Wikipedia: A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building having multiple floors. So there are two requests, tall and habitable. I consider tall as a desire, and habitable as a concept of conquest. With the progress of structural science, modeling technology, the establishment of skyscrapers is no longer as difficult as histoy. From the Empire State Building in NY, the World Trade Tower and the world’s highest level in Dubai, we witnessed the desires of “tall” that technological advancement met. At the same time, people are also pursuing habitable, trying to put the idea of dwelling into heights, such as the planned urban forest skyscrapers planned by the MAD firm. The concept originated from the mountainous landscape and the traditional villages are built on hillsides as commercial buildings, over 70 floors and each floor is unique, with the central cylinder runs through all floors, providing facilities such as elevators. Each floor has floor-to-ceiling glass to provide a broad field of vision, so the idea is in fact like that of the Tower in construction.

Actually, the construction of every skycrapers is a victory of human wisdom. I admire this an exciting event and the people’s wisdom to conquer the sky.

The Own House for Architects

Why do architects design their own houses are mostly simple, especially for those introduced by the media as famous cases?

When thinking of this question, I remember a line from a Chinese TV serial: From the psychological analysis, the more simple-minded people, the more you need embellishment and filling. While complex people have special psychological needs for simplicity.

Actually I believe there are three reasons to pull an architect back to a simpler road. First is that the consensus of modern architecture is to advocate consiseness, just as this article Toward Resilient Architectures 3: How Modernism Got Square says (which I think is really interesting and worth reading). Second is the capital constraints when facing actual projects and limitation of budgets. The last and the most appropriate reason is that based on the understanding and love of architecture and living, the own houses are likely to have a deep understanding of architecture. It may be a little exaggerated to say that things are back to basics, but it is very likely to contain a lot of design details in dull surfaces.

I take Enric Miralles as example. He has a lot of gorgeous architectural design, but in his remodeling project of his house in 1999, we can see a simple house (at least compare to his other projects).

From the indoor we can also see the raw material exposure, intuitive structure and simple furniture. However, the use of a sculpture-like light tube highlight the architects approach and understanding of fun in space. And this is the complex in simple (you see, the splicing of floor, the structure of the bookshelf, the white-washed wooden beams under the lighting tube, etc.)

Another example comes from the house of Julian Marsh near the Trend River in the southeast of Nottingham. The house is used as living space as well as the studio. Marsh is very good at the use of various materials. In the corner of the plot (formerly a meat workshop), L-shaped house extended from both sides of the townhouse, and the inner courtyard facing east, where the sun arises. The left hand is the living space, while the studio and own gallery on the right.

Although the outer facade is very interesting because of the collages based on material changes, the interior can be said simple. However, this house was not only awarded the RIBA Prize in 2011, but also shows the architect’s strong ecological design capabilities. It’s code 5+ score and the house in code 6 is considered “zero carbon” according to UK energy efficiency.

First of all, the excellent use of natural light can be found in the interior. The walls of the painting are all covered with diffused sky light. The mezzanine in the lower right corner is a transitional space near the courtyart, but is also regarded as sunshine room, with the phase changing material to adjust the indoor thermal comfort. Secondly, the restroom uses a wet-and-dry-separation & free-flushing toilet, which is dry and clean. and the exclusion can be converted into fertilizer on the spot. The exterior of the L-shaped intersection is north of the cloudy side where there is a food storage room. And the inner courtyard is a vegetable garden for self-sufficient.

If your are engaged in an industry for a long time, understanding the depth of it, you will naturally become “simple”. Like many fashion designers prefer simple everyday wearings (Yamamoto Yohji), but you will find whether the cutting or with or the fabrics are exquisite. They know what is good, and the architects know the meaning of the house very clearly. Instead of valuing the superficial beauty, they return to the starting point of their home life. There are a lot of thingking and details behind the seemingly simple design.

The Light in Architectural Design

When I think about this title, the first architect that comes to my mind is Louis I. Kahn and his Kimbell Museum of Art, a wonderful example of the use of light.

Kahn believes structure is the creator of light. In his opinion, choosing a structure that is synonymous with choosing light to give a good effect to space, which makes light a part of the architectural order, and this is well represented by the Kimball Art Museum. What’s more, when the structure and the light has some deep relationship, the light will seem full of power.

How to control the natural light is particularly important in the design of art gallery buildings, which is also usually one of the most important challenges for architects. It is necessary to ensure the indoor lighting needs to add bright color artwork, but also to ensure that no destructive UV lights shines on them. The abundance of sunlight in the Fort Worth area of Texas, where the Kimball Art Museum is located, is a question facing Kahn. Fortunately, he encountered with an ideal museum owner, Richard Brown, who is also the chief executive of the museum. They agreed that in the design of Kimball, natural daylight should be used as the main lighting source. Furthermore, in Kahn’s mind, art galleries should be a space defined by unity of light and structure. In the Kimball Art Museum, Kahn devised a structure with a castellated roof and let the light enter from the skylight. In fact, this non-arch-like structure actually tends to bend the beam more and straddle the column vertically. The structure of the curve is a curve (a rolling point on the track, also known as cycloid).

The light enters through the slits in the center of the dome of the revolving curve, illuminating the silver concrete roof. Most of the light is reflected by the reflector to the side of the dome and a small portion of the light is transmitted through the reflector so that the back of the reflector is not too dark, so that the entire vault into a luminous surface light, but also to the interior space to bring the appropriate natural light. This lighting structure is called “filter” by Kahn. He mentioned in a speech that the light on the interior of the concrete arch will looks like silver or silk under the natural daylight. This kind of silver light will be evenly sprinkled in the whole room rather than directly on the exibits, but also make people comfortable to experience the natural light over time changes. Actually I think the silver (silk) quality of concrete is more because of the texture obtained from such kind of light rather than the smoothness surfaces of its own. Therefore, it is particularly important in what kind of environment to show the characteristics of materials in architectural design. Thus, the structure, materials. light and architecture will fit themselves in the environment, making you think this series of design is how natural and clever that they seem like coming into its own without work and extra effect.

Someone may feel the museum just like a warehouse because of the tubular arch unit. But then a real person stands under this great “arch”, the structure and space itself will shock him. That is the sense of space which can not given by images or textbooks.

Kahn once said that not all houses belong to the art of architecture, but only light can make them an art. While demanding, this should be an ideal for architects today. Kahn spent his entire life exploring the light of architecture, leaving many completed or unfinished practice in this regard, include Kimball Art Museum. And this is one of the greatest contributions Kahn made to the world.

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet

Any objective discussion based on history can not use current judgments and values, but rather return to the original context of history. I use the "ordinary" non-secular "great" to summarize Gaudí's life's work.

Gaudí’s era was Art Nouveau beginning in the 19th centure. The motto is: our roots are quiet in the trees and moss on the side of springs. Gaudí’s architecture is not a masterpiece without any reason. Any great masterpiece can not be separated from the era of environment and wisdom of the ancients. From the 18th to the 19th century, the great background of the history of civilization was the industrial revolution and the Enlightenment. The thought of architecture also made tremendous changes at this stage. Prior to architecture theory, due to the limited level of science and technology and human self-awareness, "orthodox" discussions are based on God and religion, the use of numbers and geometric way to express. After the Enlightenment, God and religion continued to be questioned, ideas were liberated step by step, the supremacy of the architectural period was disintegrated in the classical period, and avant-garde architects began to oppose the classical proportions, the classical columns, the order and so on, resulting in several important issues eemodeling: a new attitude and research approach to history, new architectural aesthetics, new theoretical texts, etc.

Among these pioneer architects is Violet Le Duke, who has the most influence on Gaudi. Leduc is a representative of structural rationality, a lot of study Gothic architecture. He believes that architectural aesthetics in the new era is a true expression of the rationality of building construction. These real and reasonable common development with the growth of all things in nature, the most fundamental of which is a set of visual logic system. Gaudi, one of Leduc's loyal readers, has many of his marks and shadows in his building. Accompanied by the arrival of Art Nouveau. The Art Nouveau is still a search for new ways of architecture and art. Architects, artists and scholars think that architecture needs to adapt to the spirit of the times and should return to the basic principles of architecture. Art should not be an imitation of appearance, but reveal the fundamental things hidden in reality, draw inspiration from nature and learn from the East. Thus, the building operation began to pay attention to the organic form and the laws of nature; the relationship between the architectural space and the use of functions; the use of materials; material properties and architectural forms have inherent logic relations and so on. Although these buildings imitate the forms of nature, their essence is the fundamental logical relationship between the pursuit of form and the inherent features. In these times, Gaudí's work has become less "mysterious" and gradually "readable."

Gaudi's architecture belongs to the times, but transcends the times. This is where he is "ordinary" and "great" stand. Gaudi's architecture, which I interpret in two parts, is based in part on Lerduk's thought and the Art Nouveau resonance, so one can see his rational use of materials and structures; numerous natural curves, imitating the natural forms, and so forth. Gaudí uses many complex structures, such as ribs, arches, etc. to interpret his understanding of structural rationality and bold use of modular structures. The top floor of the Mira House is a series of arches connected by many brick thin arch ribs. The rib arch structure originated from the study of Gothic building structure. After precise mechanical calculation, the arch and arch The formation of a meandering curve, so that the formal language cleverly combined with the structural logic.

Meanwhile, he replaced the load-bearing wall with a framing system in the Mira apartment, with a limestone slab that looks thick but in fact very light The material is maintained as a façade and each node is carefully crafted. The other part of Gaudi's architecture - beyond the age of the part - is the expression of his nationalist cultural nationalism in Catalonia and its spiritual expression. Catalan culture is influenced by Islamic culture, which is also where many of Gaudí's puzzling origins are. Gaudí is passionate about blending the symbols, forms, materials and technologies of traditional culture with elaborate processing to create a vibrant and interesting decorative style. Outdoor, indoor, full of space filled with glass, porcelain and other materials veneer with mysticism decorative expression. This "mystery" comes from Gaudí's metaphor for spiritual aspects such as religion, decay, survival, and death. The minaret, which represents religious significance, became a full-fledged chimney at Gaudi, and these chimneys have the function of ventilation to distinguish them from the classical ones.

Gaudi's work finally expresses mechanics, religion, metaphor and naturalism vividly. He inherited Leduc's rational thinking of the structure and inherited the expression of new art in the era. At the same time, he transcend the times with his own understanding and definition, the cultivation of languages and culture and art, which can not be distinguished by individuals.

Gaudí had never consciously incorporated himself into any genre, and he never had the kind of industrial age Van Gide Wilder wanted to find Building ideal, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the ideal of handicrafts. Gaudí's "Ordinary" is the blood that flows through his ancestors from start to finish - There is no difference between the best of the time; and his "greatness" has left an era of immortality after he detached from the world to a "light" world, unable to imitate, unable to transcend, and unable to inherit.

Color of Photos

In the post-processing of photographic photographs, photographers usually adjust the color, texture and other factors of the photos. Among them, I believe the “black and white” can effect the photo a lot. Because color is one of the more intuitive visual elements in aphoto, using some black and white effects to highlight the subject of a photo can be more visually striking in some photo precessing. So I think of some brief analysis of the visual presentation of black and white in photos.

First is the highlight of theme. I think photography is an art of subtractive. Essentially, the photo does not need to record all the information the photographer sees, but rather to catch the the moment what he would most like to see. So, for photos, it is never perfect to include all things, and never realistic to have all vivid colors. Colors have a strong psychological suggestion. When there does not need colors to describe emotions, they can be properly deleted. This is the process of subtraction. It weakened the emotions, leaving people not misleading by colors, thereby making it clearer and purer to see the information and content of the image itself. Removing the excess help get closer to the core.

Second is the emotional interaction. Black and white photos usually resonate with people. In general, viewers try to recall and look for information in the photos. Compared with colorful photos, black and white photos often give people a deep meaning, a connotation of the feeling. Through black and white portraits, viewers can observe the person’s eyes, details of the face, etc. But the lack of color will also weakened the people’s intrest and increased their sensibilities.

Third is the effect application. In order to make the final presentation of the message convey more accurate information, I think it can be considered to use white and black images in some situations, such as: larger lighte and shadow variations; colors are not necessary; colors can not be handled because there are too many; the designers want to emphasize the composition or theme.

However, note that not all images are suitable for processing as black and white images. Forcing the processing of information into black and white images will lead to a lack of message transmission when the color elements are needed to use for expressing emotions and information.

As can be seen from above, the black-and-white effect is more likely to highlight the subject of photography in some cases, and the more the color-based photograph is, the more visually striking one is and the more it can be selectively applied according to the content and theme of photography. in addition, the monochrome photos are not as simple as our imagination. They need a recognization of the contrast on the screen, adjustment of the composition, clear outline/patterns, and attention to photography and other issues, in order to make the final result of the photo more likely to trigger the viewer’s emotions resonance. This is also useful in our architecture design.

The Rapson Library (Week 4)

Today I went to the library in Rapson Hall for field trip. For previous field trip, I mostly went to public libraries, and found that there are a lot of difficult between public library and university library.

Firstly, the services are different, causing the focus of the collection different. The university library focuses on serving scientific research, and the collection mainly focuses on professionalism and sophistication. The public library focus on serving the general public, so the collection will emphasize its popularity and “open”. In addition, public library activities may be more abundant.

The clients are different. University library’s main service targets are the students and faculty members. So the readers has its own characteristics which is the teaching of professional knowledge and learning, in addition to the basic characteristics of public library readers,. Public libraries serve a wide range of audience, including readers of all occupations, ages and cultures. The readers’ needs are similar, most of them are to satisfy their own reading hobbies, leisure appreciation, etc. The public libraries are mainly equipped with various kinds of resources, such as literary works, historical documents and popular science works, which are rich in variety and copy volume.

The differences are also in service items. It is precisely because of the different purposes of service that make university libraries and public libraries provide different services. In addition to the traditional library lending, the university library also provides services such as reference and inquiry, subject librarians, and other services to meet the needs of readers for scientific research and academic exchanges. Especially for the application of information technology, university libraries provide specialized services such as online search and download, resource discovery and knowledge management, while rarely providing services like bookstore, calligraphy, entertainment or catering. On the other hand, taking into account the needs of readers, especially the needs of the elderly and young children, public libraries provide lectures, counseling and exhibitions on early childhood education, the elderly and public health sciences. Public libraries also provide book delivery, child care, elderly first aid, Catering and other services.

Book resource allocation is also different. University library resource allocation, both its content and quantity, are based on the characteristics of our school to carry out the layout. In content, the configuration is covered by all the resources of the school, and no basic configuration will not be configured or a small amount of configuration, for example, normal university of medicine, agriculture, forestry, military and other aspects of the information is less, the university of science and technology literary, historical and philosophical data is also relatively less, and the university of science and technology pay more attention to the acquisition of database resources. In quantity, there is no more than three copies of a book in general (in China). Public library configuration of the book taking into account the uneven cultural level of readers, generally tend to literature, art, science and other popular books, and a large number of copies.

And all these difference cause the layout of the premises. Due to the limited campus space and in order to improve the space utilization, the university library is generally set up a library (book shelves), reading room and a small seminar room for small learning. Due to the large number of college students and graduate students in our country, university libraries are always packed with readers, and many university libraries also have the phenomenon of grabbing blocks (especially in China). While [ublic library is generally set up in the city center, convenient transportation, convenient for readers to the museum. In addition to space, there are also more seats, restaurants, bookstores, parking and other facilities. In recent years, public libraries have borrowed books for their convenience and have installed self-service loan-returning machines in some densely populated communities or in the streets.

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