CASE STUDIES - POROSITY

OMA- Tres Grandes Bibliotheque

The concept of their proposal resided in the notion of the library spaces being excavated as voids from a ‘solid cube’ containing the archives. The concept offered great architectural freedom, with the public spaces (or voids) being liberated from the constraints of a predeterminded structure or form. 

STEVEN HOLL - SIMMONS HALL MIT 

Holl’s design solution was that the building would metaphorically work as a sponge. It would be a porous structure that would soak up light through a series of large openings that would cut into the building so that light would filter through in section. These breaks in section would then become main interactive spaces for the students, providing views onto different levels. In his original drawings, Holl referred to these breaks as the building’s “lungs” as they would bring natural light down while circulating air up.

TOYO ITO - Taichung Metropolitan Opera House

FIELD CONDITIONS

NATURE OF THE FIELD

A field should be a representation of a collective form that is a diagram of forces (the operations of energy) in equilibrium. Then it is essential to elucidate what forces are at work and to find the most appropriate ways to represent each force and the relation it entails. (e.g. magnetic lines, topo lines)

FORMAL RELATIONSHIP

A field condition would be any formal or spatial matrix capable of unifying diverse elements while respecting the identity of each (monads?). Field conditions are relational, and not figural, they are based on interval and measure. Field configurations are inherently expandable; the possibility of incremental growth is anticipated in the mathematical relations of the parts.

To retain the classical principle that hierarchical distribution of parts to whole is constant, and individual elements are maintained in hierarchical order by extensive geometric relationships in order to preserve overall unity. Geometry is the invisible scaffold that at once controls the distribution of parts, but disappears in the final building.

Basic repeatable blocks/units -> placed in the field that is reflective of the forces->hierarchical distribution of the units based on the assumptions associated with the forces within a single system-> extensive geometric relationships created by overlapping systems-> overall form is an elaboration of conditions established locally.

Generate a simple algorithm, and the run it out like what we did with the ARCH 1502 exercise.

LAB COMPLEX PROGRESS

I started off with the idea of how heat sources will create radiant zones and disturb the fields. Overlapping of radiation zones will create different thermal effects. The intersection of the zones were compelling in the grid. Therefore my instructor wants me to establish the wall grid and then embed the spaces inscribed like the intersection lines into the system.

1) Establish inhabitable walls as labs, and then  - what are they?

• hierarchical relationships between the labs and infrastructural elements like Louis Kahn in the Richardson Medical center in Philadelphia (making the servant space evident)
  

2) put into elevator shafts to make academic promenade (for the crew); then set a cruise route (for visitors) that made out of voids and special views

• Gordon Matta-Clark: carve holes in the building.
  
• Rem Koolhass: bibliothique de France
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• FEEDBACK LOOP: experience through different thermal zones.
• circulatory scenarios - hierarchy
• consider user group and experience
• denial of spaces and access to the spaces
• exchange and feedback loop implied
• threshold moments

3) embed large spaces as the program requires - new initiation for space making

Again, factors to consider:

1. thermal dynamics
2. circulation
3. shading
4. program
5. site

I should go back to the original zoning TD concept and then follow my instructor advice in the way I process the sequence.