Robert ventury,“Mother’s House” and postmodernism

By: Faezeh Ensafi 

"Architects can no longer afford to be intimidated by the puritanically moral language of orthodox Modern architecture,"

Robert Venturi’s “Mother’s House” or the “Vanna Venturi House” is one of a few crucial architectural precedent of postmodernism. Robert Venturi had some big ideas about architecture, and he found ways to express several of them in this rather small home. Designed for his elderly mother Vanna, Robert Venturi used the house as a canvas to demonstrate some of the “complexities and contradictions” in modern architecture. Theoretically, Venturi sought more than Modernist ideals. He felt there’s a need for change, or perhaps take away from the past. In this house he exercised his main ideas of what these changes should be. As he believed complexity is key to progress, he neglected the idea of strict geometric order particularly when the architect has to give up on functionality or spatial needs. In this house he practically starts with a simple symmetrical model (both in plans and elevations) then starts to distort the order. He starts from basic geometric shapes, simplicity and order then at the end achieves what he calls ‘complexity’. His ideas revolutionized architecture therefore this project can be analyzed in so many different ways including symmetry, geometry and spatial order.

Two years after the completion of the house, Venturi published Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, a seminal text that provided the intellectual origins for the Postmodern movement and In it, he articulated his aims for a new approach to design.

What breaks do to architecture students

By: Daniel Roman

           

            Coming back from thanksgiving break I sit and realize how much breaks really throw people off. I understand that it really falls on the student to get work done, and more than anything to actually time manage each individual’s time. Some time it isn’t about time management but about the momentum that one carries into a break and what they come out with.

For instance and this will be only for the fall semester, you have fall break, and thanks giving break. Luckily for architecture students the third week in the semester is reserved for class field trips that end up being break.

            Besides the metropolitan area of Chicago, I never really did much traveling, so I try not to take these trips for granted. I have been able to travel to other cities and states, from St Louis to Washington DC. It just feels that the third week is the week where we are finally starting to get the ball rolling when out of nowhere we get this unexpected, but appreciated break. These trips usually take anywhere from just a weekend to almost an entire week. Once we return depending on the intensity of the trip, students are tired and lagging at times. Again it does depend on the students, eventually everyone bounces back into a steady groove and keeps the ball rolling.

            But no more than two weeks later at times, you get hit with fall break. It’s a short enough break where you can breath and long enough where it is worth to go back home for the weekend. Fall break takes off Thursday and Friday, and obviously you have the weekend. Once again the break catches you at a time where you are catching up and stepping up your game. One can probably deal with not going home, but it’s been long enough where you sort of miss home and wouldn’t mind going home for a nice home cooked meal. This has unfortunately has happened to me where I am on this break and I decided to take my laptop with all the intentions of doing some work. After the weekend is over and its time to head back I realized that I hadn’t even touched my laptop all weekend. So I return with reality slapping me right in the face. 

            The break that many people are looking forward to is Thanksgiving break, its towards the end of the semester so everyone is going crazy by then and really need a break. The only real bad thing about it is the reality that finals are around the corner. For architecture majors, that really means that final pin ups and reviews are nearing. Many professors do mention how this break is a working break, its to much of a break to let it go to waste and fall behind, time management really is key. One can spread the work load thru out or simply work a lot at the beginning so it could be smooth sailing at the end, the worst it leaving everything till the very end.

            When Christmas break comes, Quigley looks like it was taken over by a zombie apocalypse, people are in the studios sleeping after their final reviews. The delivery boy from jimmy johns has entered Quigley about a million times a day. That if the student didn’t decide to throw in an instant coup soup into the microwave. Architecture school is an interesting place, it creates a different breed of students. I see that every time I bring in a non archtiecrure friend into studio and see how shock they are of our conversations. To even how they are amazed to know that we have our very own desk and space to work on at any given point during the day.

Meaning and Behavior in the Built Environment

By: Cole Hartke

When the world of architecture sees a building as just a building, a place that is used and its looks I believe in what Semper says “the body of a building may be perceived as though it were literally a physique. This brings us back to Semper’s privileging of the joint as the primordial tectonic element as the fundamental nexus around which building comes into being, that is to say come to be articulated as a presence in itself.” (Frampton) A building just doesn’t have to be an inanimate object; life can be all throughout the design. When someone walks into a structure they should be immersed in what the place has to offer, with not just with the looks but with the feel of it also. “that inanimate objects may also evoke “being” (Frampton) When an architect designs a structure it should not be just a place but a part of them. it’s the ideas that run through a person’s mind that come out and is an extension of the designer. What is designed is the life of the designer and when people come to enjoy the structure they are immersed in the designer and their ideas creating life in a space more than something nice to look at. To tie this theory back to the use of tectonics, the life of a building is directly related to not only what you see inside, the beauty of the scenographic elements with that of the structure. There is beauty and life in every-thing that is on the planet it just takes an effort and a bit of design to extract it’s true and full potential. The structure that is shown can and should be a great addition to the design but it can’t just be shown, it has to work with the overall concept of the design, because if they don’t tie into the building then they are not tectonic they are just an extrusion of the structure to the exterior or interior of a building. After the reading of the article Rappel A L’ Ordre I came across another article that supports he theory that if have been stating in the previous paragraphs. “Harrison and Howard report on a mapping study of urban components an image ability and conclude that mist urban residents do not have strong personal attachments to particular places.” (Geoffrey, Bunt, Lorens)This quote from the article supports my discussion of how buildings need to have life. An attachment should be made between the person designing a building and the people that the building is there for. There has been an essence of not having an attachment to a building because this is just an object to them. It is easy to discard something that isn’t alive or has any attachment to the emotion of someone. A real design that has life and can touch a person’s inner emotions can leave a lasting effect on the person. An attachment to a building is formed by how they feel in a space or what takes place in that place. Being part of an urban setting most of the structure are usually public or no residential, because of this it makes more sense to why they would not see a building with a strong emotional attachment. They visit these places and they know that they are there but don’t always get a feel for what they are doing and all of that relies heavily on that designer and his job as an architect.

References

Frampton, Kenneth. “Rappel A L’ Ordre, the Case for the Tectonic.”

Broadbent, Geoffrey, Richard Bunt, and To-mas Lorens. “Meaning and Behavior in the “Built Environment.”

Thanksgiving break in Carbondale…as an architecture grad student:

By: Casey Bucher 

The life of a graduate student is nothing short of spectacular.  People tell you all the time, “oh to be young and in school again” or “it must be nice to not have to wake up everyday and go to work”. My favorite is always “how are you going to survive in the real world, all you’ve ever known is school”.  Let me tell ya, it just makes me feel even better about myself every time I hear it.  The funny thing is, most people just compare my grad school experience to their undergraduate life.  Little do they know, getting your masters of architecture degree is significantly different than any undergrad or graduate program.  Sleep? yeah right…you’ll get that after you graduate. Money? Seems like everything I earn from part-time jobs goes straight to a model, presentation boards, or 11x17 print-offs.  While many grad students can relate to the limited sleep and money problems, not many understand the feeling of living in the studio.  Deadline after deadline makes it hard to have much of a life.  The most recent example of this would be Thanksgiving “break”.  The normal student’s break would consist of: home, family, food, sleep, fun, little bit of homework (maybe), more food, lots of sleep, finishing up with a little bit of fun.  The architecture grad student’s break: work, homework, work, eat, little bit of sleep, homework, homework, homework.  I only wish this were an exaggeration! Through the many late nights working in the studio, the sight of graduation in the somewhat-near future seems to get everyone through.  It’s been a long, painful road for us…but well worth it in the end. Countdown to graduation: 166

Semester Discription

By: Andy Cunningham

How’s everyone doing this week? Hope you all had a good thanksgiving, and hopefully had some time to take a break from your work for a while and relax.

The end of the semester is upon us. Time for some late nights and probably a bit of last minute panic for some of you. I know for me, for the first time in the four years that I’ve been in school that I actually feel pretty good about where I’m at in the semester, and don’t feel to stressed. It’s a strange yet awesome feeling. I know what the stress is like though, and I just want to say even though that it sounds hard but to relax because trying to rush to get stuff done just increases your chances of forgetting things or messing something up. That happened to me junior year, I was rushing to put my board together at the end, and somehow forgot to put part of the project on the board. (It was a performing arts school that had a whole bunch of parts that were required and some stuff fell through the cracks). This year however the semester has gone pretty smooth, may it’s the fact that we are working in groups this semester and while we have our own building to do, it’s nice that there are site decisions that can be bounced around the group and it makes deciding on what to do a whole lot easier.

I also wanted to say that even though most of you have to build models to not necessarily rely on the technology that may be available. Yes the laser cutter is a great tool and can make model making a whole bunch easier. Don’t forget that there are multiple grade levels trying to get at it and only a limited times that it is open. One thing that I’m grateful for my community college professors is that they forced us to build by hand and not use the laser cutter, it’s nice because it gives you more freedom on when to build your model.

Lastly, I want to say that if you have time to go check out some presentations of the classes especially if it’s the class above you to get an idea of what you will be doing in the coming years and the quality that is going to be expected, and see some of the hopefully cool things that others in the program are doing.

Royal Academy for the Visually Disabled

By: Alicia Luthy

Hello all! Here we are coming back from Thanksgiving break! The semester is coming to an end and everything’s deadline is approaching rapidly. It is to the last few weeks to where we live purely on coffee instead of sleep. Over break I furthered my research into my thesis topic and discovered another great case study. This week’s case study is the Royal Academy for the Visually Disabled. It is located in Tabarbour-Amman. 

The design is based on the Spatial Mental Map Design. This calls for clear lines for movement and functional separation between different divisions. The idea behind the Mental Map is for the people to get a special map of the building in their mind that they can move independently. The building’s circulation is linear and straight allowing for easy navigation without obstructions. With schools for the impaired, lighting is very important. In this academy, the school has a skylight that gives a blue light. However, it is said that the blue light is discomforting to the blind students so it is actually a disadvantage. Navigation is also important throughout the school. Handrails line the corridors and the stairs. On the handrail of the stairs there are circles that tell the students which floor that they are on. Also, there are circles on the wall in different shapes to also help notate which floor is which. The corridors are wide but become narrow in the kindergarten section. Contrast is used to differentiate the walls and the doors. However, the door knobs are the same color so they are not legible. Signage is important, Braille is mostly used throughout. In this academy, the signs are very legible for the visually impairs. Each room has a simple logo that expressed the function of that room. They can recognize the function by touching the logo.  There is a room that is for the visually impaired that still have sight and can read but only large letters. The room strengthens their sight and is colored black for reading easily.

Like the Anchor Center and the Hazelwood School for the Dual Impaired, this academy also relates well to my thesis topic. The approach to navigation in this school is interesting. Although there are some flaws within the design, the approach to navigation with the circles forming different shapes is interesting. Also, I have not thought about rooms for the partially impaired or rooms to help improve the vision of the students. This school is a great example because it not only shows great design features but it also shows what does not work.

I hope every wakes up from the turkey coma and had a wonderful break! Until next time!

http://www.slideshare.net/hum89/visually-impaired-as-a-design-challenge

Architectural Rendering

By: Aaron Neal

There is no better way to show off your design than with a well-made rendered perspective.  Clients and the average layman can relate to the human scale, and they can easily imagine what the space or building will look like once built.   These perspectives have been used for ages to sell the ideas of the designer.  Like everything else in the profession, these images were created using hand drawn techniques.   The media used ranged, from color pencils, ink, pastels, markers, and paint.  Watercolor for example was a really popular choice for most architects.  These images gave the space a bit of human quality, giving the viewer an image that captures the feeling and essence of the space.  As the computer age entered into the profession, architects figured out how to create these rendered perspectives using software to artificially simulate the space.  As technology progresses, advancement in lighting texturing, bump mapping, ambient reflections, and refraction help create more realistic images.  CGI is now advanced enough that people can create near photorealistic images and renders.  At first this seams all really cool and impressive – which it is – but this also leads to an unexpected issue.  When a designer gives a client a photorealistic image, the client will either love it, or they will find everything they don’t like about it and will complain about it.  “Why are the bricks that color?”  “How come you are using that kind of tree?”  These are questions asked by the people who don’t realize that this is just an idea of what the final product will look like and not a simulation of what is actually going to be built.  While the old media only were loosely sketched or painted, they provided something that most architects renders lack – the character of the space.   This character is what is really important when trying to sell a designed space.   What will this room or lobby feel like?  Now this isn’t to say that computer renders cannot capture the feel of the space, but it becomes a little bit harder than just hitting the render button.  Renderers need to understand the importance of framing the right shot, the composition, the color scheme, and other fundamental art theories to be able to really breathe life in their renders.  By using and understanding these basic concepts, the artist can capture the right scene that will allow the client to understand their space.  The other thing that older hand drawn media has over the computer is that human quality to it that lets the client know that this is only a concept.  To give that same feeling to computer images more work has to be done in post processing.  You can use a filter that gives the image a hand drawn look, but that is only falsely imitating another form of media.  Other people digitally paint in some effects to give that hand touch to the images while some other artists choose to add line work over the drawing to give the image that concept feel.  There are many methods in successfully creating a digital render, but it takes a lot more work and knowledge than just hitting the render button and having the computer spit something out.