by Marty Coleman | Oct 16, 2014 | Architecture Is - 2014 |
Tonight I am going to be part of CHiTCHaT&11. It is a program put on twice a year by the Young Architects Forum of the AIA of Eastern Oklahoma. The post care below explains how it works.
This is the reason I did the drawings on Architecture last week. I am showing them in my presentation.
I have been practicing my timing yesterday and today. Luckily the slides automatically advance so I don’t need to worry about going to long. I just need to work on fitting everything I want to say into 20 seconds per slide!
If you are out and about feel free to come by and sit in on our presentations!
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Here are the Architects and historians I’ve written about so far:
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Here are some of the products available from this presentation
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 8, 2014 | Architecture Is - 2014, Spiro Kostof |
Hello Napkin Kin! Here is the last of my series on Architecture. Next week I will use these 4 images (among others) in a short presentation to a group of architects here in Tulsa.
Spiro Kostof – 1936-1991
Honestly, I didn’t know who Spiro Kostof was when I chose the quote. I assumed he was an architect. I liked the quote and so I used it. When I came to post this morning I looked him up and lo and behold, he is not an architect, he is an architectural historian. That sounds kind of boring compared to an actual architect, right? That’s what I thought. Then I read up on him and it turns out he was a ground breaking academic and writer on architecture who departed from the typical academic review of styles and individual pieces removed from their context. Instead he wrote about architectures place in the world of society, culture, history, and art. He explored the development of architecture in it’s greater context.
Once I learned that I reread the quote and it made even more sense. It was written by someone who studied specifically not only how it develops but how it influences the world it inhabits. Basically he seems to be saying architecture is never in isolation. It can be an actor on the human stage and can also be the stage itself.
I have found the videos from the last class he taught at UC Berkeley, where he was a Professor of Architectural History. I am thinking it would be fun to watch the videos. I will let you know how they are. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/kostof.html
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Here are the other Architects and historians I’ve written about so far:
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Here is a poster of all four architecture drawings available via Zazzle.
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 7, 2014 | Architecture Is - 2014, Mies van der Rohe |
Today is day #3 of my Architecture series. I am part of a program next week called ‘CHiTCHaT+11 put on by the Young Architects Forum of Tulsa. I did the architecture drawings in anticipation of that event and thought I would use the opportunity to take a look at some important architects.
Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) is another of the great 20th century internationalists, like Le Corbusier who I highlighted yesterday. A German who immigrated to the United States (also like Le Corb) he built what can easily be considered some the most iconic examples of the modern style.
Some Examples
The Barcelona Pavilion – 1929
Barcelona Pavilion – 1929
Barcelona Pavilion – 1929
Barcelona Pavilion – 1929
The ‘Barcelona Pavilion’ was actually the German Pavilion at the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain. It was meant to be temporary and was, being dismantled in 1930. The acclaim for this seminal example of the international style was so great however that it was eventually rebuilt to the same specifications in the 1980s.
One way to judge it’s radical nature at the time is to imagine what else was being built at the time. Traditional buildings were still sporting an overwhelming array of decorative facade elements that hid the structure. Mies and others led the spirit of the times and built using a new architectural language. They used glass, steel, concrete and stone in a way that showed the construction, not hiding it behind fancy facades.
Farnsworth House, 1946-1951
Farnsworth House. 1946-51, Plano, Illinois
Farnsworth House. 1946-51, Plano, Illinois – Interior
Farnsworth House. 1946-51, Plano, Illinois – Interior
Farnsworth House. 1946-51, Plano, Illinois
Mies van der Rohe – Chair
The Farnsworth House is known as one of the first residences built in the modern Internationist style. The idea was to have as much freedom as possible in the interior space so walls were kept at a minimum with the entire facade being floor to ceiling windows. It’s interesting to note that like one of his contemporaries (though much different stylistically) Mies also designed the furniture for many of his interiors, keeping in the same vein of minimalist design.
Seagram Building, 1954-1958, New York City
Seagram Building, 1954-1958
Seagram Building, 1954-1958, Interior
Seagram Building, 1954-1958, Interior
This is the sort of building that passersby don’t take a second look at, and in New York City, you can see why. There are a LOT of buildings there that on the surface seem to be similar. But the truth is this building was the first modernist skyscraper in NYC. It was innovative in it’s materials, it’s design and it’s constructions. One fact is often overlooked by the casual viewer and that has nothing to do with the building itself, but where the building is. It does not take up the entire lot, which was the practice at the time. Mies convinced Seagram executives that by making the building have a smaller footprint that allowed for a air and sun drenched plaza in front of it, it would both stand out architecturally and would invite the employees and community into the space in a welcoming gesture. It seems so passe now to have a plaza/sitting area, but it was a radical idea at the time.
Toronto-Dominion Center, 1963-1969, Toronto, Canada
Toronto-Dominion Center, 1963-1969 – Gas Station
Toronto-Dominion Center, 1963-1969 – Gas Station
I just included this structure because I thought it was humorous to think of driving into a Mies Gas Station!
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Here are the other Architects and historians I’ve written about so far:
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Here is a poster of all four architecture drawings available via Zazzle.
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 6, 2014 | Architecture Is - 2014, Le Corbusier |
In anticipation of a presentation I am giving to an Architectural group next week I have drawn a series on Architecture. I am also highlighting the architect who gave us the quote.
Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier is an interesting architect for the 21st century to consider. His work often is disparaged as machine-like and soulless or as boring and mundane. But often those estimations are given with some ignorance of the radical nature of his contribution during his era.
Citizen Kane
I remember my daughter going through the AFI top 100 films of all time when she was younger. She wanted to watch as many as she could. Number #1 on the list was ‘Citizen Kane’ by Orson Welles. We looked forward to it with anticipation for weeks. When we finally saw it we were very disappointed. There was no way we thought it was the best movie of all time.
But when we found out a bit more about the movie and how it was made, we came to understand why at the time, and for a long time after, it was considered the greatest. It was because it broke so much new ground in story telling, cinematography, lighting, plot, acting, etc. It just broke the mold in so many ways. But guess what? It was so amazing that it got copied incessantly over the next 50 years. So much so that when we look at it now we see a lot of very typical techniques and methods that don’t surprise us at all. They have been repeated ad nauseum and we have been jaded. But if you look at the movie with having never seen all the decades of watered down repetition, then you see it’s singular status as a great movie.
What Was New is No Longer
That is how it is with the work of Le Corbusier. We have seen so much of what he did watered down into the typical boring building block of a building. It’s starkness and emptiness is copied but without the incredible innovation of material and philosophy that Le Corbusier had at the time.
All this is not to say I love all his work. I think much of it is boring and dead and philosophically dated. But the essence of his vision is an amazing one, even if the execution tended to be more stolid and ugly.
Some Examples
Villa Savoye – 1928 – Poissy-sur-Seine, France
He had 5 points to his new architectural aesthetic that were all embodied in this home. As a result it became one of the most recognizable buildings in the ‘International Style’ and influenced thousands of buildings to come.
- Support of ground-level columns to allow continuity of the garden beneath.
- Functional roof serving as a garden and terrace.
- Free floor plan with few load-bearing walls.
- Long horizontal windows.
- Freely-designed facades.
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The Curutchet House – 1949 – La Plata, Argentina
If you want an idea of how radical Le Corbusier was, just look at the home next to the one he built. That was the norm of the era and he created this rectangular skeleton of a building that brought in a lot of light in a very odd shaped lot.
Curutchet House – Front
Curutchet House – model
You can see here how it went back from the front at what is almost a 45º angle. A unique solution, no doubt.
Curutchet House – Inside view looking towards the front.
I saw an episode of a TV show called ‘Extreme Builds’ last week. They built the house while keeping a tree that happened to be right in the middle of one of the bedrooms. Here Le Corbusier did the same many decades before.
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Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut – 1950 – Ronchamp, France
Le Corbusier developed a much more fluid and organic building when he was commissioned to do a religious chapel. It’s innovative construction techniques allow the roof to look like it’s floating when it is actually held up by support columns.
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Unité d’Habitation – 1947 – Marseille, France
Unite d’Habitation
Unite d’Habitation – Plaza Wall
Unite d’Habitation – rooftop – Children’s wading pool, penthouse and ventilation tower.
Le Corbusier built 4 versions of this same apartment building throughout Europe. It’s use of rough concrete (Beton Brut) brought on the phenomenon known as Brutalist Architecture.
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Centre Le Corbusier (Heidi Weber Museum) – 1963
This building was built by Le Corbusier to highlight his architectural work and his archives.
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Le Corbusier also was involved in the design of the United Nations headquarters in New York. I did not include it because he was not the predominant architect on the project. He did have substantial say in the overall layout of the buildings in the allotted space.
If you are interested in not just the history of Architecture, but the history of social engineering and how architecture played a role in those efforts during the 20th century Le Corbusier is one of the essential designers you need to be familiar with. He is well worth investigating not just for his buildings but for his wide-spread influence in so many fields of creative and commercial endeavors.
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Here are the other Architects and historians I’ve written about so far:
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Here is a poster of all four architecture drawings available via Zazzle.
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 5, 2014 | Architecture Is - 2014, Julia Morgan |
Hello Napkin Kin!
Later this month I am presenting my drawings at an event put on by the Young Architects Forum of AIA Eastern Oklahoma, A Chapter of the American Institute of Architects here in Tulsa. The event is called CHiTCHaT 10 and it is 20 images, 20 seconds each. So, about 7 minutes total.
Because of the nature of the group I thought it would be fun to create a few drawings just for the presentation. I created a series titled ‘Architecture Is’ that had a quote from a famous architect that was being spoken by actual buildings.
Here is #1.
Julia Morgan
The quote is by Julia Morgan, an amazing architect who built mostly in California. She’s best known for having been the chief architect on the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. She collaborated with Hearst for 28 years on it.
She built extensively around the San Francisco Bay Area. Remember I mentioned recently that I stayed at an Airbnb location in Berkeley when visiting my daughter Chelsea? Well, I was being given the tour of that house and was in the back yard when the host pointed to the house immediately behind her and mentioned it was built by Morgan. It was just the back of the house and it didn’t have a lot of definition but I could definitely tell it was in that Arts and Crafts / Craftsman style she was primarily known for in most of her residential work. I would have liked to been able to get in to see the interior. The East Bay of the SF Bay Area has an amazing collection of residences in that style. I think it’s more beautiful than the Victorian style you see more often in the actual city of San Francisco.
Some Firsts
Julia Morgan was the first woman to:
- Graduate for UC Berkeley with a degree in Civil Engineering
- Graduate from the Ecole Nationale et Speciale des Beaux-Arts in Paris in Architecture
- Receive the AIA God Medal
Some Buildings
Here are a few photographs of her buildings.
Merrill Hall, Asilomar Conference Center, Monterey, California – 1928
Asilomar Lodge Interior
Morgan built 16 buildings at what originally the YWCA Conference grounds at Asilomar. 13 of them still remain. It is a now State Park in California.
Mills College Campanil (Bell Tower), Oakland, California – 1904
This bell tower was the first on a college campus in the US and the first building made of reinforced concrete on the west coast. It survived the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.
Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California
Julia Morgan worked in Hearst Castle for 28 years (1919-1947), only stopping when Hearst ran out of money and left San Simeon for good.
Berkeley City Club Swimming Pool, Berkeley, California
Indoor pools were very much in style back in the 20s and 30s. I stayed at an Airbnb place in Tehachapi, California last month that had one and it was great to swim in! You can see it here.
Sacramento house, on Sacremento State University campus, 1920s
Sacramento house -1920s-interior
Residential Home, Presidio area of San Francisco
Redwood Grove house
Julia Morgan did an prodigious amount of work. This selection barely scratches the surface. Do a google search on her and read up, she’s an amazing architect.
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Here are the other Architects and historians I’ve written about so far:
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Here is a poster of all four architecture drawings available via Zazzle.
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