Theme 8.1

What are the 3 concepts of LOCUS?

1. “The locus is a relationship between a certain specific location
   and the buildings that are in it. It is at once singular and universal”, this is the universal locus

2. LOCUS- Viollet-le-Duc, defending the concept of LOCUS, talks about the
   difficulty of transposition of a work of Architecture.
   The PLACE takes part in Architecture as a particular and specific space.IF A BUILDING IS PROPERLY ROOTED IN A PLACE, YOU CANT TAKE IT ELSEWHERE BECAUSE IT IS SO WELL ADAPTED TO THAT PLACE.

3. Concept of LOCUS and PLACE : drives us to the concept of PSYCHOLOGICAL
   Without which the “genius loci” of the environments would be impossible to capture. DEALS WITH SPIRIT OF THE PLACE, NOT SCIENTIFIC

What is the concept of limit?

The essence of architecture is located in the limit, in that issue which differenciates the figure from the ground.

The worm is aware of the of the skin of the apple and its limits of the skin (which is red, bright, and of a certain temperature and luminosity) because it acts as a constant reference for the limits of its actions.

The limit is an energetic concept that can bring a new understanding to projects.. A limit, or wall, isnt just a separating body between inside and outside, but rather an entity that gets feeds off the tension and energy provided by the different realms it sits between.

Architectural philosophy in Morphosis-Thom Mayne (the importance of the skin)

Breaks in the limit, or the skin of the building, forces interaction with the environment. The limit/skin can be broken, manipulated, shrunken, etc.

THE BUILDING MANIFESTS ITS INTERNAL ELEMENTS EXTERNALLY USING THE SKIN AND ITS BREAKS.

The LIMIT as project genesis
Thom MAYNE (Morphosis firm, from USA), who understands that the SKIN is more important than the BODY. A broken SKIN of the building, a DYNAMIC skin which connects in a chnging way INTERIOR-EXTERIOR.
Interest in isolating the SKIN from the BODY in the Architectural piece

Architectural philosophy in Alejandro Zaera (the importance of the bundle)

Another vision about the LIMIT-SKIN: Alejandro Zaera-Farshid Moussavi

The spinal column (espina dorsal) of his work in his architectural studio:

The problem of the bundle (envolvente)
The floor is part of it. He treats the floor as a surface which sometimes is below.

Example: Yokahama Terminal, Zaera

What is LIMIT?

Limit = relation between geometry and place

The LIMIT (frontier INTERIOR-EXTERIOR), implies the consideration of the
PLACE.

What are the two approaches to PLACE?

1. Negationism (Modern Movement): negate the place

2. Revision (Totalitarian critics, scandinavian archi, etc), revision takes context into consideration. Totalitarian regimes like Hitler’s Germany sought to express national identity via architecture by reacting against modern movement, did this by axial scheme control, neoclassicism

What are the 2 ways to integrate or be sensitive to a place?

MIMICRY and CONTRAST

place should never be ignored. either of the environment or against the existing

What is LOCUS?

The distinctive atmosphere or pervading spirit of a place

Adalberto Libera
Malaparte House, 1938

Resembles a docked ship by the ocean, fusion of architecture into the terrain.

Example of being rooted in its context

What is considered PART of the architectural work?

Preexistences on the site that emerge in place (can be physical, cultural, social etc.). We cannot change the place, but we can take advantage of pre-existing conditions,

Forest Cemetery
Stockholm, Gunnar Asplund (Competition 1915 with Lewerentz)

Example of Scandinavian design that rejects modern movement by closely considering place and taking interest in landscape and nature.

Asplund does not stop in classicism: he fuses it with the PLACE, with the genius loci
–He consequently breaks off –ruptures- with the landscape
negation posed by the Modern Movement

Aalto, Villa Mairea, 1939

Example of Scandinavian design that rejects modern movement by closely considering place and taking interest in landscape and nature.

Asplund does not stop in classicism: he fuses it with the PLACE, with the genius loci
–He consequently breaks off –ruptures- with the landscape
negation posed by the Modern Movement

Alejandro de la Sota – Gimnasio del Colegio Maravillas, 1960-62

Sota produced richness from the limits/confines of the site.

Alejandro de la Sota – Gimnasio del Colegio Maravillas, 1960-62

Project is best understood through section. Large thick beams are needed for support, and they were large enough to add classrooms atop of the beams.

Label the layers from top to bottom: Classroom (EDUCATION), gym with benches (FITNESS), sports pool (BELOW STREET LEVEL)

Sun comes into gym from the south using skylights and no vertical piers. The roof is the limit between inside and out. Sota pulled the limit line (roof) down to generate a space body, classrooms.

Alejandro de la Sota – Gimnasio del Colegio Maravillas, 1960-62

Sota removed the vertical piers from the gym to generate a design with light.

LIGHT + LACK OF VERTICAL PIERS = Key

Shows limit being pulled down

Barcelona Pavilion, Mies Van der Rohe, 1929

Limit is ambiguous here with the partition walls

Can’t discern whether you are fully inside or out, blurred distinction of spaces.

Not being fully clear is one of the virtues of the limit and this building.

What does DYNAMISM refer to in terms of the limit?

The limit, specifically doors, are an energetic area which spurs dynamism and draws us in in a centrifugal way (draws out attention, is the center point like in Asplund’s Stockholm Public Library)

Gunnar Asplund, Stockholm Public Library, 1930

From afar, there is a clear limit on the facade - a large flat wall. Up close to the door, we see a transition from exterior to interior.

TENSION OF LIMIT IS CONCENTRATED AT THIS CENTRAL DOOR

Chapel in a Forest Cemetery, Gunnar Asplund, 1920

Rejection of international style. The pitched roof is very different from international style like that of Le Corbusier; it is vernacular. THe columns are semi-classical an serve as a metaphor for the trees.

FUSED WITH NATURE, SENSITIVE TO THE PLACE. Trees blur the transition from nature to built environment.

This shows the CONCEPT OF A LIMIT BEING BORN FROM A PLACE

Chapel in a Forest Cemetery, Gunnar Asplund, 1920

Arrow shows transition from external cosmos through the limit to the internal cosmos of the dome.

Depending on the design of the limit or object (shape, color, texture, etc.), links to the environment can be made. Architecture is never alone; it is surrounded by the environment,

Woolworth Center-Princeton, Juan Navarro Baldeweg, 1995

Contemporary echoes/

Consequence of manipulating the limit: orientation towards existing architecture. Response to the environment anf existing things. SENSITIVITY TO A PLACE

How can limit serve as a testimony to new trends/style?

The limit can be used to remark technical elements of a building, like the Pompidou Center which was a ‘machine of culture’.

Quality can also be born from consideration of a POOR environment in which architecture is located, like the Pompidou center which was built at the time in the preexisting depressed Jewish quarters, and it revived the area as a cultural machine.

Pompidou Center, Rogers & Piano, 1977, Paris

Fittings and technical equipment (plumbing, air conditio tubes, etc) are placed outside: If its neeeded to change them, there is no need of demolishing parts of the building.

Rogers used the building as a FRAME.

Wall functions as a limit, but also as a space body and medium to express new technical design on the exterior!!!

Revived the existing area before. Proposes sound contrast with its environment.

Limit: Relationship between MASS and VOID?

The Architectural OBJECTS within a
context are SOLID bodies which
“emerge” in the middle of
the general VOID.

And the space between them is filled with “expressive tension”

Void isnt empty, but rather full of distinct energy from the buildings

Peabody Terrace.
J.L.Sert, 1962

Example of PROPORTIONED MASS AND VOID

3 towers from the modern movement are spaced out for good balance of mass and void. There is space for them to breathe.

Cahill Center, Morphosis thom Mayne, 2009, Pasadena

Broken manipulated skin is the key to this project

A broken SKIN of the building, a
DYNAMIC skin which connects in a chnging way INTERIOR-EXTERIOR

Cahill Center, Morphosis thom Mayne, 2009, Pasadena

External and internal fractures of skin

Plan is nearly regular, but the broken fracture lines are very evident in section

Cahill Center, Morphosis thom Mayne, 2009, Pasadena

Thom Mayne, Morphosis, 157 housing block in Carabanchel, 2000

Example of a project that starts by working with the limit.

Vertical axis = skin

Manipulated curved skin = key of the project

90 degree vertical plan, then turns 90 degrees to be flat, then another 90 degrees back to vertical

Floor and wall become the same cohesive limit. The floor becomes the roof

Thom Mayne, Morphosis, 157 housing block in Carabanchel, 2000

Yokohama terminal, 1995-2002, Alejandro ZAERA-Farshid Moussavi

The same limit is both the floor and the roof an the ways

This makes a new topography within the work.Manipulation of the limit as it goes from floor to roof, similar to the BAND OF MOEBIUS

The project as a problem of “envolvement”
The floor: part of the LIMIT, SKIN
Treat the floor as a surface that sometimes is below and other is covering you…
Building over which you walk,…a reflection about topography, an “uncertain” floor….

Architecture and place: what are the 3 relfections about NATURE

1. Biomimetism

2. Biomorphism

3. Einfuhlung

What is biomimetism?

Imitation of systems and processes of nature (vertical upward growth, self-sustainability, drawing from natural resources like sunlight and water).

‘The conscious emulation of nature’s genius’

Example:

Foster’s Gherkin Tower (2003) which emulates a glass sponge found deep in the ocean whose round shape disperses tension in the body.

What is biomorphism?

Imitation of shapes and symbolism from nature (Art Nouveau), much more aesthetic and visual connection to nature than biomimetism.

Example: Guadi’s Casa mila and its iron balconies that emulate seaweed

What is eifuhung?

Theory relative to subjective preferences tht states the positive impact of the presence of nature in the human mind:

• direct = vegetation, water, landscape

• Indirect = Biomimicry, biomorphism,

Nature generates aesthetic and emotional experiences