Saturday 28 February 2009
Basement plans
I did a slight tweak to -1. Can you find it? :)
-2 on the scene....
Am SO pyshced by that model maker's news!:) The guy who did the Barajas airport for Richard Rogers may be doing my model!!! lol lol
The model maker asked me how am I going to get the model! :) ;) heh heh you know that saying about model makers. :) :) :)
Oh God has been so kind.
I was almost sinking into despair. My momma called me!
And then I prayed. And God is answering!!!
I am so humbly grateful he is!
Basement level -1
I'm sure this may need to go through more refinement but at least this is first past the post. I expect the walls to be 300m min. I've also made sure to pick up the lines of the structure above.
Functional Relationship Diagrams
Hi there. You may have to look back at my schedule of accommodation but here is the diagram of how the building works in section. This is volumetric zoning which I have done to scale to make sure that I can realistically fit spaces inside the shapes.My building in Context with the site
Hi
This is a really quick vis of my building and what I'm trying to achieve in terms of the site and masterplanning.
While my site is a broad foot print I've sought to constrain GD and make it a series of sculpted planes to increase the amount of right of light to Centre point.
Friday 27 February 2009
Ground floor plan
OK. 1 plan of many. As soon as I get the sizing of the tube structure from the structural engineer I will offset outwards for structure and insulation.
But the plan works and next week I will start to draw it up in CAD when I get the info off the structural engineers.
I've drawn this to 1:250 scale on tracing paper and am overlaying all my plans to make sure they work.
If I've missed anything on this one please let me know of course.
More to follow
wind passing through the building
The form of the building is split as such that as you go up you can draw wind through the building. Preferrably passively.
To the south that is a void space. Which I want to be open. Then you will have to introduce glass and other means to keep it dry etc. But glazing the void would cut it off from the exterior. Also I am trying to keep the external openings to a Bioclimatic tower as Ken Yeang suggests.
By the way ... I have always remembered that a building does not have to be rectangular to fit in with context. It can fit in with it's context via its building programme! lol lol We are in a city here. A city works that is a mix of eclectic styles.
Good news!
Hi everyone!
I've got some very good news indeed. I've been shortlisted for the Assael Scholarship Interview!
Hope I do good!!! But at least I've gotten through!
Many thanks
Roxanne
I've got some very good news indeed. I've been shortlisted for the Assael Scholarship Interview!
Hope I do good!!! But at least I've gotten through!
Many thanks
Roxanne
Diagram showing the parts of the building to move
Tristan's proposal of an entire building moving is surely interesting. This way you have kinetic architecture.
But another way to get the actuated tensegrity is to use the pulley system as suggested by Ramboll Whitby Bird.
This diagram shows the pods where I think you can test the actuated tensegrity
Thinking about how my building would work in section
The section cuts below will be refined much much more of course.
This is the first pass. Thinking of the building as a periscope. And how you'd have to facet primary structure to bounce the light around in it is what led to the creation of the building profile.
Also thinking of what I was calling the exoskeleton frame system - the tube frame system and how that works is also what led to the shape as well as it expresses the concept. So it becomes a sculptural form.
I haven't figured out fenestration as yet.
Roxanne
This is the first pass. Thinking of the building as a periscope. And how you'd have to facet primary structure to bounce the light around in it is what led to the creation of the building profile.
Also thinking of what I was calling the exoskeleton frame system - the tube frame system and how that works is also what led to the shape as well as it expresses the concept. So it becomes a sculptural form.
I haven't figured out fenestration as yet.
Roxanne
Precedents for boucning light around my building
Before I got ill I started looking at ways you could shape the primary structural elements in a building to bounce light through out the building. Thereby naturally lighting it.
Exoskeletons
All of this reasearch I looked at last semester.
Just heard the structural engineer.
Tube exoskeleton it is! I was right!!! :) :)
Site Plan 270209
This is the latest iteration. It shows the proposed groung floor in context with the site.
I'm waiting on the structural engineer now to work up the details for the exoskeleton.
Then I will add thicknesses and such.
Now I've gotten it resolved this far - I will start building some design cardboard models.
I expect that it will refine again.But at least this shows zoning and space allowed for room sizes. I've left enough space that once I get the structural details that the internal dimensions do not change. So the plan should work with structure added to it
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Information from the Kinetic Design Group
I was particularly interested in achieving a system that its structural members had this graceful form to them. Exoskeletons are good. You can hang floors from them and free up your floor plate. More usable floor area. More profit.
Explaination of Actuated Tensegrity
Bodies behave as whole systems held in connective tension.
Tensegrities are special case structures where the play of these two forces is visible in the design
the elegance and power tensegrities have to describe and illustrate the behaviour of whole systems as fractals
“Tensegrity is a portmanteau of tensional integrity. It refers to the integrity of structures as being based in a synergy
between balanced tension and compression components.”2 Synergy refers to the observation made first by R. Buckminster Fuller that in any system the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts. The behavior of tensegrities is a visual demonstration of this.
How does Fuller define it? From Synergetics 700.011: “The word tensegrity is an invention: it is a contraction of tensional integrity. Tensegrity describes a structural relationship principle in which structural shape is guaranteed by the finitely closed, comprehensively continuous, tensional behaviors of the system and not by the discontinuous and exclusively local compressional member behaviors.”3 Easy for him to say… Fuller went on to design the
largest enclosed domes ever built utilizing tensegrity principles.The sculptor Kenneth Snelson who made the first tensegrity structures in 1948 called them something different. In an interview he said, “Tensegrity,
the word, has become so confusing through multiple uses that it calls any definition into question. This is the reason I've long advocated Floating Compression… (It) describes a closed structural system composed of a set of
three or more elongate compression struts within a network of tension tendons, the combined parts mutually supportive in such a way that the struts do not touch one another, but press outwardly against nodal points in the
tension network to form a firm, triangulated, prestressed, tension and compression unit. Why triangulated? The reason is that it's possible to build such a structure whose network is non-triangulated. Such structures are
flaccid and decidedly not firm.”4 In the art world Snelson is well known and his floating compression sculptures are found in galleries, private collections, and museums around the world. (http://www.kennethsnelson.net
/faqs/faq.html) A tensegrity requires at minimum three conditions to fit either Kenneth
Snelson's or Buckminster Fuller's definition.
1. A continuous connective tensioned network supports discontinuous compression struts. Snelson insists that struts must be free floating in a web of tension and not touching. A geodesic dome, which Fuller considers to be
tensegrities, has multiple compression struts meeting at central hubs but they are discontinuously connected, that is, they do not transfer compressive loads.
In these domes it is the tension forces that travel along the outer edges of the struts that are continuous. Similarly, if anatomical structures operate as tensegrities, then in most orientations the bones do not pass a direct load
across the joint– rather the tension members; ligaments, tendons, and fascia transfer loads and the bones float in this tension matrix.
2) All tensegrities are prestressed under tension; they are self–supporting and independent of gravity. But the weight of the structure also adds to the prestress. As you increase the weight load the tensegrity tightens and gets
smaller. The heavier the structure is, the greater the tension, and the less the range of motion. This presents real design problems when trying to model living systems that have and use joints with multiple degrees of freedom. My
models for example can emulate biologic movement because I use elastic tension nets that are taut enough to maintain the shape of the model yet have enough residual elasticity to move through a wide range of positions. When
the size and weight of a model increases, so does the prestress. It is always surprising to discover how high the tension levels climb when building large tensegrity structures. In some of Snelson’s largest sculptures (50’–100’) the
tensile cables carry thousands of pounds of force. To make human scale tensegrity models that articulate and are prestressed is not a trivial challenge.
3) Tensegrities are self–contained non–redundant whole systems. All components are dynamically linked such that forces are translated instantly everywhere; a change in one part is reflected throughout. These features
distinguish tensegrities from all other tension structures, e.g. a radio mast or a sailboat’s mast is fixed at the base and needs that fixed point to keep it upright. The boat does not need the mast for it’s integrity but the reverse is
not true. Every part in a tensegrity is reliant on the entire structure for its continued existence. In terms of living forms, a discontinuity in a structure marks the boundary or interface between separate tensegrities. Also,
molecules within cells within tissues within organs within bodies, and bodies within environments are all synergistically linked tensegrities in a hierarchical cascade from the smallest wholes to the largest.
it is a description of the most efficient way that all form is organized, in terms of most economical use
of energy and material,
Tensegrities
have no lever arms or fulcrums in the classical sense. Forces are transferred
globally across the entire structure
The only way to fully
stabilize and constrain any structure is by triangulating surfaces or cavities in
compression and/or tension in all three dimensions
Tensegrity structures on the
other hand show the forces acting upon them by differentiating out tension
and compression vectors into separate components
In living structure, stability is paired with mobility and objects that are
adapted to allow movement possess degrees of freedom and are not fully
triangulated. Degrees of freedom refer to the number of different ways in
which a rigid object can move in three dimensions (six). They are: movement
up and down (heaving), movement left and right (swaying), movement
forward and backward (surging), angling up and down (pitching), turning left
and right (yawing) and tilting side to side (rolling). A mechanism or linkage
connecting more than one object may have more than the degrees of freedom
for a single rigid object. The human arm for example is considered to have
seven degrees of freedom, three at the shoulder, one at the elbow and three at
the wrist. Controlling degrees of freedom means increasing the stability of an
object and in any joint all other unwanted degrees of freedom are constrained
by a combination of bone geometry and connective attachments.
Because tensegrities are never completely rigid, they have varying degrees of
freedom whose range of motion is determined by their triangulation. In this
respect they are superficially more similar to plants than to mobile beings.
They can flex and accommodate to vectors of force by slightly altering shape.
They bend rather than break. But the peripheries of the body demonstrate
wide ranges of motion that vary in each joint. For tensegrities to emulate
anatomy there must be an increase in ranges of motion without sacrificing
stability or degrees of freedom.
Tensegrities are special case structures where the play of these two forces is visible in the design
the elegance and power tensegrities have to describe and illustrate the behaviour of whole systems as fractals
“Tensegrity is a portmanteau of tensional integrity. It refers to the integrity of structures as being based in a synergy
between balanced tension and compression components.”2 Synergy refers to the observation made first by R. Buckminster Fuller that in any system the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts. The behavior of tensegrities is a visual demonstration of this.
How does Fuller define it? From Synergetics 700.011: “The word tensegrity is an invention: it is a contraction of tensional integrity. Tensegrity describes a structural relationship principle in which structural shape is guaranteed by the finitely closed, comprehensively continuous, tensional behaviors of the system and not by the discontinuous and exclusively local compressional member behaviors.”3 Easy for him to say… Fuller went on to design the
largest enclosed domes ever built utilizing tensegrity principles.The sculptor Kenneth Snelson who made the first tensegrity structures in 1948 called them something different. In an interview he said, “Tensegrity,
the word, has become so confusing through multiple uses that it calls any definition into question. This is the reason I've long advocated Floating Compression… (It) describes a closed structural system composed of a set of
three or more elongate compression struts within a network of tension tendons, the combined parts mutually supportive in such a way that the struts do not touch one another, but press outwardly against nodal points in the
tension network to form a firm, triangulated, prestressed, tension and compression unit. Why triangulated? The reason is that it's possible to build such a structure whose network is non-triangulated. Such structures are
flaccid and decidedly not firm.”4 In the art world Snelson is well known and his floating compression sculptures are found in galleries, private collections, and museums around the world. (http://www.kennethsnelson.net
/faqs/faq.html) A tensegrity requires at minimum three conditions to fit either Kenneth
Snelson's or Buckminster Fuller's definition.
1. A continuous connective tensioned network supports discontinuous compression struts. Snelson insists that struts must be free floating in a web of tension and not touching. A geodesic dome, which Fuller considers to be
tensegrities, has multiple compression struts meeting at central hubs but they are discontinuously connected, that is, they do not transfer compressive loads.
In these domes it is the tension forces that travel along the outer edges of the struts that are continuous. Similarly, if anatomical structures operate as tensegrities, then in most orientations the bones do not pass a direct load
across the joint– rather the tension members; ligaments, tendons, and fascia transfer loads and the bones float in this tension matrix.
2) All tensegrities are prestressed under tension; they are self–supporting and independent of gravity. But the weight of the structure also adds to the prestress. As you increase the weight load the tensegrity tightens and gets
smaller. The heavier the structure is, the greater the tension, and the less the range of motion. This presents real design problems when trying to model living systems that have and use joints with multiple degrees of freedom. My
models for example can emulate biologic movement because I use elastic tension nets that are taut enough to maintain the shape of the model yet have enough residual elasticity to move through a wide range of positions. When
the size and weight of a model increases, so does the prestress. It is always surprising to discover how high the tension levels climb when building large tensegrity structures. In some of Snelson’s largest sculptures (50’–100’) the
tensile cables carry thousands of pounds of force. To make human scale tensegrity models that articulate and are prestressed is not a trivial challenge.
3) Tensegrities are self–contained non–redundant whole systems. All components are dynamically linked such that forces are translated instantly everywhere; a change in one part is reflected throughout. These features
distinguish tensegrities from all other tension structures, e.g. a radio mast or a sailboat’s mast is fixed at the base and needs that fixed point to keep it upright. The boat does not need the mast for it’s integrity but the reverse is
not true. Every part in a tensegrity is reliant on the entire structure for its continued existence. In terms of living forms, a discontinuity in a structure marks the boundary or interface between separate tensegrities. Also,
molecules within cells within tissues within organs within bodies, and bodies within environments are all synergistically linked tensegrities in a hierarchical cascade from the smallest wholes to the largest.
it is a description of the most efficient way that all form is organized, in terms of most economical use
of energy and material,
Tensegrities
have no lever arms or fulcrums in the classical sense. Forces are transferred
globally across the entire structure
The only way to fully
stabilize and constrain any structure is by triangulating surfaces or cavities in
compression and/or tension in all three dimensions
Tensegrity structures on the
other hand show the forces acting upon them by differentiating out tension
and compression vectors into separate components
In living structure, stability is paired with mobility and objects that are
adapted to allow movement possess degrees of freedom and are not fully
triangulated. Degrees of freedom refer to the number of different ways in
which a rigid object can move in three dimensions (six). They are: movement
up and down (heaving), movement left and right (swaying), movement
forward and backward (surging), angling up and down (pitching), turning left
and right (yawing) and tilting side to side (rolling). A mechanism or linkage
connecting more than one object may have more than the degrees of freedom
for a single rigid object. The human arm for example is considered to have
seven degrees of freedom, three at the shoulder, one at the elbow and three at
the wrist. Controlling degrees of freedom means increasing the stability of an
object and in any joint all other unwanted degrees of freedom are constrained
by a combination of bone geometry and connective attachments.
Because tensegrities are never completely rigid, they have varying degrees of
freedom whose range of motion is determined by their triangulation. In this
respect they are superficially more similar to plants than to mobile beings.
They can flex and accommodate to vectors of force by slightly altering shape.
They bend rather than break. But the peripheries of the body demonstrate
wide ranges of motion that vary in each joint. For tensegrities to emulate
anatomy there must be an increase in ranges of motion without sacrificing
stability or degrees of freedom.
The direction for actuated tensegrity in this project
To bring the idea of lace's uniaxial networks into the building to create this layering and weaving - which would create varying opacities and transparencies within the building
to interpret the chiral form of actuated tensegrity to connect building elements as the diagram above.
Model of Expanded Octahedron tensegrity
This is one structural strategy how actuated tensegrity can be achieved. Research suggests that adopting the principles of the chiral form is the best building strategy
Research into Ken Yeang
Hi
This is me trying to get to grips with what Ken Yeang is talking about with planning a bioclimatic super-scraper.
Finalise plan foot print and space planning
According to Ken Yeang, I've treated the skyscraper first like master planning zoning. So I've zoned the blg floor plate and made sure I have 'plots' of usable space that can sensibly carry accommodation. Which is why I include these dimensions. So I've got footprint and profile and now I can go back to sections and start working out interior spaces. But I also zoned the building vertically as well. So working out the profile I've allowed for usable space to fit in the faceted shape.
More to follow.
Commissioning a model maker
Hi everyone
Does anyone know of a model maker that I can start talks with to commission this model being built?
This way I can have a nice final model and just concentrate on producing drawings.
Does anyone know of a model maker that I can start talks with to commission this model being built?
This way I can have a nice final model and just concentrate on producing drawings.
Update
Right.
I've done the space planning. And I have some idea of the section and profile. It all ties back in with the concept.
Will be putting up the steps to this shortly.
But what this means is - as I get the exoskeleton structure nailed with the engineers - I can keep refining the plans and sections in cad. So I will start drawing up in cad now.
How building components connect is the next thing. But will also start doing some physical modelling to test out what I have been working up on paper and cad. In terms of the sectional profile and this idea of bouncing light inside the building with these faceted profiles on which can be mounted copper or glass to give reflections and extend the feeling of space blurring the reality of what is inside and outside.
Yes I agree - sketch! Not talk. But now that I have a handle on it and done all the research and checked out how each thing works. I can sketch up the stuff.
But I'm satisfied that it all unravels very nicely now and all I have to do is draw it up. Test and refine.
And get some very nice interior graphics!
Sunday 22 February 2009
Perspective
That perspective looked so good I wanted the power of it alone.
Yes. This is concept stage and need to progress onto real architecture.
Next up 50 floor plans and an aerial view of GD in the context of the surrounding blgs - cad.And not neccessarily in that order.
There is 1 more design stage iteration of this thing that I need to do ... as I push forward.
But am shattered now. So grab some zzs now and up at 8am. This is not for the weak of heart at all!
The warden and security guard came ... luckily I hadn't moved everything yet. And thank goodness that there was still stuff left by the bin!
Oh this is going to be interesting. lol
Never mind. At least now I have a clue for the materiality of my building as well ....
So next up - construction details!
Errr... I'm figuring my cellular insitu concrete basement (walls min. 3oo mm - depth of approx no less than 4 floors -lol) will be sitting on piles ....................................................................
well it would actually be sitting ontop of the underground tunnels which would be on top of piles ...........
Does anybody know?... I suppose I could give a call to Weston Williamson. But that kind of info is strictly classified and not even I have been able to score it! smile.
If I can craft a section - i.e literally build a series of overlays - tying in with my artisan concept I will.
More to follow hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday night.
Until then.
ps ..... thank you Jen!
Yes. This is concept stage and need to progress onto real architecture.
Next up 50 floor plans and an aerial view of GD in the context of the surrounding blgs - cad.And not neccessarily in that order.
There is 1 more design stage iteration of this thing that I need to do ... as I push forward.
But am shattered now. So grab some zzs now and up at 8am. This is not for the weak of heart at all!
The warden and security guard came ... luckily I hadn't moved everything yet. And thank goodness that there was still stuff left by the bin!
Oh this is going to be interesting. lol
Never mind. At least now I have a clue for the materiality of my building as well ....
So next up - construction details!
Errr... I'm figuring my cellular insitu concrete basement (walls min. 3oo mm - depth of approx no less than 4 floors -lol) will be sitting on piles ....................................................................
well it would actually be sitting ontop of the underground tunnels which would be on top of piles ...........
Does anybody know?... I suppose I could give a call to Weston Williamson. But that kind of info is strictly classified and not even I have been able to score it! smile.
If I can craft a section - i.e literally build a series of overlays - tying in with my artisan concept I will.
More to follow hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday night.
Until then.
ps ..... thank you Jen!
Models!!!! :) :)
Hi! I've been model making peeps! lol
Ummm excuse me. I'm blushing. Just ssssooooooooooo excited.Been a long time since I had this much fun with architecture! Ha ha.
You know .. pitting your design skills with the best [or worse] depending on how you look at it with what your mind can come up with is painful.Worse if it doesn't work ... but if you can make it ...... of course it is exhilerating.
OK OK I agree these are not there yet ... but there're close! :D
Have I got SOMETHING to show you!!! Am proud of myself. Learnt Rhino in 1 hour today. Thank you Jen! By the grace of God the Human mind is an AMAZING instrument (of mass destruction I hear you say looking at this stuff) Ha ha. Wait til you see what I've got from good ole Rhino!!!
And yes. I have floor plans too. And I have them the ole fashioned way of Sarieen and Gaudi.No shortcut computer cutting the plan for me! :P
Stay tuned.
Elevation
OK. It's official. The next time I design something it is going to be a square box! lol [She says ;)]
Um... can you see the mass of ingenuity (This flame of intellect) streaming to the sky? The chiseled planes giving the feeling of a crafted object? lol
If you have a look back to my a4 interpretations of the steam can you see that angular arrangement of shapes. note - in the spirit of!
Before any one asks about gutters and down pipes .. I'm working on it! This beaut comes in at 200m folks! That's including the spire. 186 m of verticle habitable space.
Sigh ... this is a regression. This is smaller than my second year 'Shard' but with being ill yadda yadda - I've had to compromise and scale back ..but..as the saying goes - quality ..... not quanitity!
Oh the life of an international student. So I come back home and find they have placed all my stuff by the garbage bins. ................ that's it. They have just started a war - my lovely flat mates. :) But what I'm going through is no more different to any other international student. However - I still can't quite get over that I almost died in this place and no one would have known and worse yet my course is treating me like a criminal for it.
But we DRAW. This WILL be done.
More coming.
Wednesday 18 February 2009
sketch scheme plan
Try as I would this isn't scanning any better. :( But you should be able to make out on this sheet - the plan I approve of. And hints of the elevation.Now before you say FLW rip off... and I would agree.... I'm thinking of this thing as a crafted piece of sculpture.I also wish the elevation to represent the 'flame' of intelligence. And a mass of light and ingenuity streaming to the sky. The thoughts of the Artisans reaching heavenwards. Tying in with the known artistic meaning of the skyscraper typology.Which essentially is the graphic or phallic representation (depending on how you look at it) of the epitome of man's innovation and creativity.
I wish the elevation to retain the spirit of the 3d conceptual building model made.
I hope you can see it .. if not I'll reload.
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Thoughts ....
My scheme seeks to address the Fall of the Artisan as a
way to retain the spirit of place of Soho.
The proposed scheme is the catalyst for the continuous
output of the acquisition of knowledge by the [New Age]
Artisan. The building programme is one of Knowledge
generation.
A scheme to capture the Bohemian character of Soho
would be tricky. This is true.
But my stance is that since Soho as we know it came
about by the invasion of the Artisan and by their
lifestyle and philosophy of life is what
shaped the Creative Urban Village of Soho.
A primary way to make sure that the essential
fabric of Soho was not threatened or undermined
by developments such as the one currently proposed
by the Council - is to address the 'incorruptible'.
While minds can be corrupted - buildings can be
demolished. History shows it is the demolition of built
fabric that is currently eroding the Artisan in Soho.
While it was the mental and innovative activity of the
Artisan that propogated the Soho as a Material Economy.
Therefore it would seem sense to make a Gnostic Dynamo.
Not in the sense of a machine .. but in the sense of
perpetual thought generation. That is what I am trying
to do.
A mixed use development that sustains perpetual
creative thought generation.
This seeks to replace the void of thought that will be
created when Central St Martins is relocated. The
reason why I called it an Emporium is that is it not a
Design University in the traditional sense.
To recapture the Spirit of place a nucleus of that
essential character must invade the now barren
culturescape and repropogate itself. So my
proposed mini-city would be 'Soho' in essence.
Therefore the building programme and organisation
allows the dynamic incidental creative exchange
between Artisans and Artisans and the public - as
happened 'in the beginning'.
Rather than further investment in institutions which
extract creative output. Which has resulted in the
current saturation and marginalisation
and imminent death of the Artisan in Soho.
The building typology and programme is therefore
innovative to appropriately respond to the unique
context of Soho being a Bohemian Urban
Village and the full range of implications of this
character.
So how do you solidify the generation of thought?
This too is tricky. I think I finally have the
answer. Hopefully more next week.
Essay about my project agenda
Introduction
How can thought be contained in artifice? How can the concrete effect inspiration? By what process can idea made solidified be stimulated, recorded or processed in constructions? By what strategy in building can the perception of the act of creating be heightened? Practically, how can the intangible of cerebral energy be represented by a medium of objectification, that is - architecture?
These are the inherent questions raised by my concept for GD (the Gnostic Dynamo) [Illustration 1]. Based in Soho, London; GD seeks to be a mediation of illumination. ‘Illumination,’ defined as - ‘intellectual or spiritual enlightenment: the special communication of knowledge or inspiration to the mind; a condition of clarification that interprets obstacles translating awareness to understanding’.
This brief for GD developed as a direct reaction for the need to protect the [new knowledge] Artisan in Soho. The building programme attempts to respond to the posited need for artisans and philosophers for the development of culture and the sustaining of economy. A stance that is a direct reaction to The Development Framework Plan proposed by the City Council, that ultimately destroys the essence and soul of Soho [Illustration 2]. GD, as an Arts Emporium seeks to reinstate this bohemian vibrancy. The theoretical discourse of this project also seeks to bring transparency to the way of sympathetically sustaining an artistic district and urban village such as Soho, in contrast to the opacity with which the project is currently being undertaken by the Council.
To reflect the established bohemian character of the area – a building programme, form and typology which is also innovative is therefore sought to merge seamlessly with the context of its environs. Bohemian being taken to mean the unconventional, or the maverick, as well as the breaking of rules. Thus, the test to realise the theoretical stance that GD is a journey of enlightenment through interstitial barriers of varying opacities and transparencies, seeks an unorthodox understanding of the term Scale.
Scale, in architectural terms, is instantly perceived to mean massing; or the sense of matter and height of one building in relation to other buildings or its surrounding environment.
However, the dissolving of the boundaries of planes, walls and roof, serve to reflect the ideological a parti that GD would be the medium that connects user and environment (Soho); translating skewed visions of art, culture and what is the essence of Soho to truth. The break down of barriers, or alternately reductions in Scale, is the orchestration that truly serves to root man firmly to his environment through architecture. So that GD realises its programme of firmly integrating itself in the culture, pulse and space of its neighbourhood. Just as Kengo Kuma’s buildings unite the ‘subject with architecture and the world.
If there is no barrier – there is void. Where there is void – there is no shadow. Where there is no shadow, there must be light, as light is the absence of shadow. Yet, for architecture to be successful it must intervene between occupant and environment to provide shelter, safety and warmth to be habitable.
Of what benefit then, is there in the pursuit in light?
Light – is that [substance] which contains thought. ‘Light’ is known as the manifestation symbolic of thought.Therefore, it is the appropriate tangible medium by which to symbolise or reflect this phantasma of mnemonic energy. Thought is the basis of intellectual activity that manifests creative output. It is known light increases awareness and supports vision. But it is also recorded that luminance affects imagery and thereby the perception of art and reality [Illustrations 3&4].
Moreover, how does one sculpt … or ‘build’ with light? How does one manipulate a phenomenon to achieve the sense of progression, scale and sensory qualities synonymous always with the best architecture?
The answer clearly must lie with the processes of ‘particlisation’ and ‘filtration’ as advanced by Master Architect – Kengo Kuma. Kuma, also being absorbed with providing expressions to ambiguous entities such as light, wind, rain and fog - proclaims his singular interest in what he chooses to call ‘conditions’. And so a reduction or abstraction of Scale in terms of matter and massing as practised by the master builder could be a primary strategy forward to achieving the desired aspiration for GD. Since, surely to build with all glass or to simply bury a building below ground does not negate objectification. Rather, to truly sculpt with the chosen building palette – light, one must justly manipulate it.
To achieve this, it is necessary to rethink one’s approach to the question of Scale. If one chooses to consider ‘Scale’ as ‘the succession or progression of steps or degrees; a graduated series’, then a practical way forward can be found. Especially as an investigation of the exaggerated reductions in Scale, Mass and Matter in Kuma’s works serve to heighten perception, awareness and creativity of the individual.
This essay will therefore study the philosophy and precedents of amplified distortions in Scale in Kuma’s completed projects, which he calls ‘emanations,’ to find a way forward for the design of GD.
We will chart the architect’s manipulation of ‘the detail’ and study how he connects building components to achieve a product of minimisation (building). Consequently, an understanding of the sum of the whole
(macro-scale) in contrast to the sum of the part (micro-scale) is arrived upon. Two case studies are considered in detail. These are The Tea House of the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt and the Lotus House in Kamakura.
Such that GD too would ‘expand and become infinite and identical to the world’.
Anti-Object
Kengo Kuma is known for creating auras and atmospheres, rather than explicitly enclosing space.
He deals with the subject of Scale in terms of subtraction, but he also questions architectural scale in terms of the [macro] Scale of Architecture with a global character versus a local sense of place [micro-scale]. The Shinto Philosophy which imbues each project determines the sensitivity with which he pursues a material structure to create ambiguous, ephemeral conditions. Studying his technique of solidifying a particular phenomenological desire to create experience and mood can determine a way forward for the design of GD.
The processes of ‘filtration’ and ‘particilisation’ exemplified by the Tea house in Frankfurt and the Lotus House in Kamakura respectively are particularly interesting because they demonstrate how he uses opaque and robust materials to achieve transience and transparency. Kuma challenges one’s spatial perceptions and experience of Scale by achieving de-materiality with even the most robust of materials; thereby transforming the ‘ordinary’ space into the sublime. These two projects show how he creates airy, open spaces filled with sunlight and integrates construction details to produce immateriality which is the agenda for this Arts Emporium. The Arts Emporium by nature of its function, requiring the use of robust and durable materials.
His belief that a building should be light and gentle (most prominent in the Tea house) means that he seeks a plan, structure, ventilation system and way that light filters through the building resulting in a design that blends into and becomes intimately connected with its environs. The exteriors of his buildings filter views of the possibilities and activities of the interior to abstractions [illustration 5]. It is intended to adopt the ethos in Kuma’s works whereby it is only once progressed through any one of his buildings in its entirety that full revelation is come upon.
In his projects he relies on structural studies to create dynamic systems of material, technology, structure, information and human beings. Each element is placed in what he calls ‘free conditions’ which effectively means he seeks to create the paradox of relieving connection from structure to create sensations of light and impermanence. The physicality of material and its attributes are always exploited in his designs to manipulate and articulate space. So that optimally, objective reality as perceived by the five senses, oscillates between clarity and distortion.
To express the notion of ‘opacities and transparencies’ as a reference to the underpinning concept of illumination for the proposed Arts Emporium (GD) at WC2H 0EL, Soho London; first we will consider the precedent of The Tea House of the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt.
Kengo’s Tea house is diaphanous. It dissolves into landscape because of its size (scale) in relation to the surrounding trees. It is both ethereal and transparent as it evokes a sense of floating. Kengo insists that the material and construction of the Tea house perpetuates a feeling of weightlessness and a keen awareness of the position of the sun and changing light intensities (illustration 6 & 7). The Tea house is in fact a type of actuated tensegrity structure where its double membranes are connected via strap links which are stretched when structure is inflated, rendering the straps in tension (illustration 8 & 9).
The choice of the Tea house as case-study is appropriate because this house is intended as the place where creativity and imagination can flourish. It exists as a symbol of cultural exchange between Japan and Germany. This is accomplished by engaging the mind in the way that tea is made, so providing an opportunity to understand the culture of Japan through the technology of Germany. Synonymously, it is intended that by the way the general public participate and learn various creative skills in GD, they would understand the history and nature of Soho and the meaning of ‘to create’ and so preserve this tradition.
The Lotus House, on the other hand, relies on the treatment of the stone façade through ‘particlisation’ to demarcate space definition. This building strategy and the construction details to implement it, is the integral factor with this project (illustration 10 & 11).
The solidity of the stone reinforces the effect of weightlessness when in a porous arrangement such as this. Close attention is paid to the size, scale and distance of the individual ‘particle’ relative to the others so that the effect of transparency and lightness is achieved when the individual stones are grouped together en-masse. Therefore material construction and detail are in keeping with his theme of reduction (illustration 12).
Ultimately, these two projects tangibly demonstrate what is left of a building when one ‘erases’ architecture.
The Appropriateness of Idea
To achieve a luminous halo of mnemonic energy, Kengo Kuma’s preoccupations of ‘filtration’ and ‘particlisation’ will be adopted.
My scheme advances the question of containing thought in edifice and Kengo’s theory of ‘non-object’ is appropriate because thought is diverse and of unlimited possibilities; therefore difficult to represent in any singular expression.
As a journey of enlightenment through interstitial barriers of varying opacities and transparencies; in a mediating construct that illumines the veil of skewed visions. This project is the crafted object that fabricates from the dark, heavy fog of intangible ideas of the [new age] Artisan - the woven revelation of elements, whether tangible or intangible, in delicate streams of real product to be apprehended by all. Ultimately, GD transmutes function to become the catalyst for continuous output of the acquisition of understanding and knowledge generation.
It is creative cerebral activity that focuses artistic expression and manifests creative innovation. It is this activity that Soho is known for. This creative novelty has been intrinsically responsible for shaping the cultural landscape of Europe and internationally. Therefore, a primary strategy of sustaining this palpable imprinting on global social and cultural values of morals, art and conduct, would be to focus spaces to accommodate thought. Consequently, creating atmospheres and auras for people to think, to innovate and design is the essence to sustaining the Soul of Soho.
As such, inside and outside will reciprocally condition each other, permeating into the landscape through zones which include and reflect the surrounding environment. The discontinuously continuous discrete presence and virtual absence of material will be used to articulate space defined by the material physicality [illustration 13].
As in Kengo Kuma’s designs, by using transparent, translucent and opaque borders, a continuous trajectory of habitable space will be created. Extremely relative in nature, the building(s) would vary in transparency and weightlessness depending on the way the light hits the surface of the skin of façade [illustration 14]. Not possessing a clear overall image, it appears to blur. Space is indefinite and only when one moves close to the structure, is it made part of the whole through the positioning of barriers and volumes in relation to the sun, movement of the observer, and intended changes in light which filters inwards. The principle of the Tea house as an actuated tensegrity structure will be capitalized to find a dynamic structural system to express the design aspirations of the proposed Arts Emporium for Soho [illustration 15].
The above techniques will be used to bring about a heightened perception of the spaces of the building and of one’s consciousness to induce creativity. The building, like sunlight, will have hidden codes and signals to the human psyche to promote curiosity and learning [illustration 16 & 17].
Towards a Conclusion
To achieve a separation between nature and architecture which is as ambiguous as possible; the philosophy of the master builder of thinking of architecture at the level of the ‘particle’ and then from the point of view of light and shadow will be adopted.
Therefore, Light is the medium on which the processes of ‘particlisation’ and ‘filtration’ operate to create atmospheric permeations in plan and section. To create atmospheres which shape and direct thought [illustration 18,19 & 20].
These two processes employed to represent the flow of thought within the building as a matter of ‘crossings’ (filtration facilitated by particlisation).These processes facilitating the crossing of the Artisan into the realisation of potential and manufactured artefact. Translucent, transparent and opaque borders are hence positioned in relation to the movement of the sun and observer such that the inwardly filtered changes in light stimulate creativity. The means by which I achieve the stated processes would be structure, building programme and spatial organisation. These strategies will act as the interstitial barriers used to create spaces for the [new age] Artisan to invade, occupy and learn.
Kengo Kuma believes that to connect the subject to world by means of ‘filtration’ and ‘particlising’, time and space must be connected by means of the plan. Time, in this instance, is measured in movement and transformations in mind state.
Just as the setting of the progression to the tea house from the outside serves as a philosophical preparation for the transformation that happens inside via the plan. The site of GD in Soho, will be subjected to the interpenetration of matter to create an architecture of progression, on which the design of the plan connecting space and time is integrated [illustration 21 & 22].
The envelope of GD will act as an intermediate sensitive filter, whereby the art of mnemonic energy can be developed in its enclosure [illustration 23].
‘Particlisation’ will be achieved by the manipulating of the medium of light into colour, since colours are known to be the genesis of the spectrum of light; light and colour known stimulants of the mind. In particular, permutations of the colours black, yellow, red, orange and green will be used because of their respective properties of confidence, mental clarity, energy, stimulation and balance of mind, emotion and body. Therefore in light and dark, various moods are created - weaving, layering and interconnecting peoples, ideas and building spaces.
This filtration expressed as continuous layers of the planes of the building which interpenetrate one another as if by osmosis to metaphysically mimic the flow of thought through neurons in the brain. This idea of osmosis can also be represented by a feeling of permeation within the building by using fabric or other materials to similar effect as the Tenara 3T40 membrane of the Tea house [illustration 24 & 25].
To fully realise this condition of discontinuously continuous material substance – a structure of actuated tensegrity will be investigated [illustration 15]. Thus by plan, section and structural strategy, the theme of the unveiling of elements is realised as the revealing of passages within the building as legibility but also as directed learning [illustration 26].
The hidden sources of light created as a result of plan and sectional treatment is intended to cause progression through building and induce curiosity; stimulating the mind to question and prepare for innovation as the Tea house achieves impermanence with its hidden source of light of LEDs in the ground floor slab [illustration 27 & 28].
By allowing light, colour and the passage of wind to interact with the designed environment, the nature of sensory qualities including feeling the sun’s warmth and hearing the passage of wind are propagated. A bio-climatic construction which relaxes, stimulates and prepares the body for creativity is achieved.
To have passage ways naturally lit to serve as unassisted way markers, independent of appended signage, would attune occupants with nature by allowing the passing of time to be registered in the Art Emporium’s lighted modes, routes and zones.
Scale will be appropriated by the idea or thought of the Artisan; in conjunction with the passage of the temporal and the fluxes of daylight intensity regulating the building.
Consummately, GD will seem to issue forth from the site.
How can thought be contained in artifice? How can the concrete effect inspiration? By what process can idea made solidified be stimulated, recorded or processed in constructions? By what strategy in building can the perception of the act of creating be heightened? Practically, how can the intangible of cerebral energy be represented by a medium of objectification, that is - architecture?
These are the inherent questions raised by my concept for GD (the Gnostic Dynamo) [Illustration 1]. Based in Soho, London; GD seeks to be a mediation of illumination. ‘Illumination,’ defined as - ‘intellectual or spiritual enlightenment: the special communication of knowledge or inspiration to the mind; a condition of clarification that interprets obstacles translating awareness to understanding’.
This brief for GD developed as a direct reaction for the need to protect the [new knowledge] Artisan in Soho. The building programme attempts to respond to the posited need for artisans and philosophers for the development of culture and the sustaining of economy. A stance that is a direct reaction to The Development Framework Plan proposed by the City Council, that ultimately destroys the essence and soul of Soho [Illustration 2]. GD, as an Arts Emporium seeks to reinstate this bohemian vibrancy. The theoretical discourse of this project also seeks to bring transparency to the way of sympathetically sustaining an artistic district and urban village such as Soho, in contrast to the opacity with which the project is currently being undertaken by the Council.
To reflect the established bohemian character of the area – a building programme, form and typology which is also innovative is therefore sought to merge seamlessly with the context of its environs. Bohemian being taken to mean the unconventional, or the maverick, as well as the breaking of rules. Thus, the test to realise the theoretical stance that GD is a journey of enlightenment through interstitial barriers of varying opacities and transparencies, seeks an unorthodox understanding of the term Scale.
Scale, in architectural terms, is instantly perceived to mean massing; or the sense of matter and height of one building in relation to other buildings or its surrounding environment.
However, the dissolving of the boundaries of planes, walls and roof, serve to reflect the ideological a parti that GD would be the medium that connects user and environment (Soho); translating skewed visions of art, culture and what is the essence of Soho to truth. The break down of barriers, or alternately reductions in Scale, is the orchestration that truly serves to root man firmly to his environment through architecture. So that GD realises its programme of firmly integrating itself in the culture, pulse and space of its neighbourhood. Just as Kengo Kuma’s buildings unite the ‘subject with architecture and the world.
If there is no barrier – there is void. Where there is void – there is no shadow. Where there is no shadow, there must be light, as light is the absence of shadow. Yet, for architecture to be successful it must intervene between occupant and environment to provide shelter, safety and warmth to be habitable.
Of what benefit then, is there in the pursuit in light?
Light – is that [substance] which contains thought. ‘Light’ is known as the manifestation symbolic of thought.Therefore, it is the appropriate tangible medium by which to symbolise or reflect this phantasma of mnemonic energy. Thought is the basis of intellectual activity that manifests creative output. It is known light increases awareness and supports vision. But it is also recorded that luminance affects imagery and thereby the perception of art and reality [Illustrations 3&4].
Moreover, how does one sculpt … or ‘build’ with light? How does one manipulate a phenomenon to achieve the sense of progression, scale and sensory qualities synonymous always with the best architecture?
The answer clearly must lie with the processes of ‘particlisation’ and ‘filtration’ as advanced by Master Architect – Kengo Kuma. Kuma, also being absorbed with providing expressions to ambiguous entities such as light, wind, rain and fog - proclaims his singular interest in what he chooses to call ‘conditions’. And so a reduction or abstraction of Scale in terms of matter and massing as practised by the master builder could be a primary strategy forward to achieving the desired aspiration for GD. Since, surely to build with all glass or to simply bury a building below ground does not negate objectification. Rather, to truly sculpt with the chosen building palette – light, one must justly manipulate it.
To achieve this, it is necessary to rethink one’s approach to the question of Scale. If one chooses to consider ‘Scale’ as ‘the succession or progression of steps or degrees; a graduated series’, then a practical way forward can be found. Especially as an investigation of the exaggerated reductions in Scale, Mass and Matter in Kuma’s works serve to heighten perception, awareness and creativity of the individual.
This essay will therefore study the philosophy and precedents of amplified distortions in Scale in Kuma’s completed projects, which he calls ‘emanations,’ to find a way forward for the design of GD.
We will chart the architect’s manipulation of ‘the detail’ and study how he connects building components to achieve a product of minimisation (building). Consequently, an understanding of the sum of the whole
(macro-scale) in contrast to the sum of the part (micro-scale) is arrived upon. Two case studies are considered in detail. These are The Tea House of the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt and the Lotus House in Kamakura.
Such that GD too would ‘expand and become infinite and identical to the world’.
Anti-Object
Kengo Kuma is known for creating auras and atmospheres, rather than explicitly enclosing space.
He deals with the subject of Scale in terms of subtraction, but he also questions architectural scale in terms of the [macro] Scale of Architecture with a global character versus a local sense of place [micro-scale]. The Shinto Philosophy which imbues each project determines the sensitivity with which he pursues a material structure to create ambiguous, ephemeral conditions. Studying his technique of solidifying a particular phenomenological desire to create experience and mood can determine a way forward for the design of GD.
The processes of ‘filtration’ and ‘particilisation’ exemplified by the Tea house in Frankfurt and the Lotus House in Kamakura respectively are particularly interesting because they demonstrate how he uses opaque and robust materials to achieve transience and transparency. Kuma challenges one’s spatial perceptions and experience of Scale by achieving de-materiality with even the most robust of materials; thereby transforming the ‘ordinary’ space into the sublime. These two projects show how he creates airy, open spaces filled with sunlight and integrates construction details to produce immateriality which is the agenda for this Arts Emporium. The Arts Emporium by nature of its function, requiring the use of robust and durable materials.
His belief that a building should be light and gentle (most prominent in the Tea house) means that he seeks a plan, structure, ventilation system and way that light filters through the building resulting in a design that blends into and becomes intimately connected with its environs. The exteriors of his buildings filter views of the possibilities and activities of the interior to abstractions [illustration 5]. It is intended to adopt the ethos in Kuma’s works whereby it is only once progressed through any one of his buildings in its entirety that full revelation is come upon.
In his projects he relies on structural studies to create dynamic systems of material, technology, structure, information and human beings. Each element is placed in what he calls ‘free conditions’ which effectively means he seeks to create the paradox of relieving connection from structure to create sensations of light and impermanence. The physicality of material and its attributes are always exploited in his designs to manipulate and articulate space. So that optimally, objective reality as perceived by the five senses, oscillates between clarity and distortion.
To express the notion of ‘opacities and transparencies’ as a reference to the underpinning concept of illumination for the proposed Arts Emporium (GD) at WC2H 0EL, Soho London; first we will consider the precedent of The Tea House of the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt.
Kengo’s Tea house is diaphanous. It dissolves into landscape because of its size (scale) in relation to the surrounding trees. It is both ethereal and transparent as it evokes a sense of floating. Kengo insists that the material and construction of the Tea house perpetuates a feeling of weightlessness and a keen awareness of the position of the sun and changing light intensities (illustration 6 & 7). The Tea house is in fact a type of actuated tensegrity structure where its double membranes are connected via strap links which are stretched when structure is inflated, rendering the straps in tension (illustration 8 & 9).
The choice of the Tea house as case-study is appropriate because this house is intended as the place where creativity and imagination can flourish. It exists as a symbol of cultural exchange between Japan and Germany. This is accomplished by engaging the mind in the way that tea is made, so providing an opportunity to understand the culture of Japan through the technology of Germany. Synonymously, it is intended that by the way the general public participate and learn various creative skills in GD, they would understand the history and nature of Soho and the meaning of ‘to create’ and so preserve this tradition.
The Lotus House, on the other hand, relies on the treatment of the stone façade through ‘particlisation’ to demarcate space definition. This building strategy and the construction details to implement it, is the integral factor with this project (illustration 10 & 11).
The solidity of the stone reinforces the effect of weightlessness when in a porous arrangement such as this. Close attention is paid to the size, scale and distance of the individual ‘particle’ relative to the others so that the effect of transparency and lightness is achieved when the individual stones are grouped together en-masse. Therefore material construction and detail are in keeping with his theme of reduction (illustration 12).
Ultimately, these two projects tangibly demonstrate what is left of a building when one ‘erases’ architecture.
The Appropriateness of Idea
To achieve a luminous halo of mnemonic energy, Kengo Kuma’s preoccupations of ‘filtration’ and ‘particlisation’ will be adopted.
My scheme advances the question of containing thought in edifice and Kengo’s theory of ‘non-object’ is appropriate because thought is diverse and of unlimited possibilities; therefore difficult to represent in any singular expression.
As a journey of enlightenment through interstitial barriers of varying opacities and transparencies; in a mediating construct that illumines the veil of skewed visions. This project is the crafted object that fabricates from the dark, heavy fog of intangible ideas of the [new age] Artisan - the woven revelation of elements, whether tangible or intangible, in delicate streams of real product to be apprehended by all. Ultimately, GD transmutes function to become the catalyst for continuous output of the acquisition of understanding and knowledge generation.
It is creative cerebral activity that focuses artistic expression and manifests creative innovation. It is this activity that Soho is known for. This creative novelty has been intrinsically responsible for shaping the cultural landscape of Europe and internationally. Therefore, a primary strategy of sustaining this palpable imprinting on global social and cultural values of morals, art and conduct, would be to focus spaces to accommodate thought. Consequently, creating atmospheres and auras for people to think, to innovate and design is the essence to sustaining the Soul of Soho.
As such, inside and outside will reciprocally condition each other, permeating into the landscape through zones which include and reflect the surrounding environment. The discontinuously continuous discrete presence and virtual absence of material will be used to articulate space defined by the material physicality [illustration 13].
As in Kengo Kuma’s designs, by using transparent, translucent and opaque borders, a continuous trajectory of habitable space will be created. Extremely relative in nature, the building(s) would vary in transparency and weightlessness depending on the way the light hits the surface of the skin of façade [illustration 14]. Not possessing a clear overall image, it appears to blur. Space is indefinite and only when one moves close to the structure, is it made part of the whole through the positioning of barriers and volumes in relation to the sun, movement of the observer, and intended changes in light which filters inwards. The principle of the Tea house as an actuated tensegrity structure will be capitalized to find a dynamic structural system to express the design aspirations of the proposed Arts Emporium for Soho [illustration 15].
The above techniques will be used to bring about a heightened perception of the spaces of the building and of one’s consciousness to induce creativity. The building, like sunlight, will have hidden codes and signals to the human psyche to promote curiosity and learning [illustration 16 & 17].
Towards a Conclusion
To achieve a separation between nature and architecture which is as ambiguous as possible; the philosophy of the master builder of thinking of architecture at the level of the ‘particle’ and then from the point of view of light and shadow will be adopted.
Therefore, Light is the medium on which the processes of ‘particlisation’ and ‘filtration’ operate to create atmospheric permeations in plan and section. To create atmospheres which shape and direct thought [illustration 18,19 & 20].
These two processes employed to represent the flow of thought within the building as a matter of ‘crossings’ (filtration facilitated by particlisation).These processes facilitating the crossing of the Artisan into the realisation of potential and manufactured artefact. Translucent, transparent and opaque borders are hence positioned in relation to the movement of the sun and observer such that the inwardly filtered changes in light stimulate creativity. The means by which I achieve the stated processes would be structure, building programme and spatial organisation. These strategies will act as the interstitial barriers used to create spaces for the [new age] Artisan to invade, occupy and learn.
Kengo Kuma believes that to connect the subject to world by means of ‘filtration’ and ‘particlising’, time and space must be connected by means of the plan. Time, in this instance, is measured in movement and transformations in mind state.
Just as the setting of the progression to the tea house from the outside serves as a philosophical preparation for the transformation that happens inside via the plan. The site of GD in Soho, will be subjected to the interpenetration of matter to create an architecture of progression, on which the design of the plan connecting space and time is integrated [illustration 21 & 22].
The envelope of GD will act as an intermediate sensitive filter, whereby the art of mnemonic energy can be developed in its enclosure [illustration 23].
‘Particlisation’ will be achieved by the manipulating of the medium of light into colour, since colours are known to be the genesis of the spectrum of light; light and colour known stimulants of the mind. In particular, permutations of the colours black, yellow, red, orange and green will be used because of their respective properties of confidence, mental clarity, energy, stimulation and balance of mind, emotion and body. Therefore in light and dark, various moods are created - weaving, layering and interconnecting peoples, ideas and building spaces.
This filtration expressed as continuous layers of the planes of the building which interpenetrate one another as if by osmosis to metaphysically mimic the flow of thought through neurons in the brain. This idea of osmosis can also be represented by a feeling of permeation within the building by using fabric or other materials to similar effect as the Tenara 3T40 membrane of the Tea house [illustration 24 & 25].
To fully realise this condition of discontinuously continuous material substance – a structure of actuated tensegrity will be investigated [illustration 15]. Thus by plan, section and structural strategy, the theme of the unveiling of elements is realised as the revealing of passages within the building as legibility but also as directed learning [illustration 26].
The hidden sources of light created as a result of plan and sectional treatment is intended to cause progression through building and induce curiosity; stimulating the mind to question and prepare for innovation as the Tea house achieves impermanence with its hidden source of light of LEDs in the ground floor slab [illustration 27 & 28].
By allowing light, colour and the passage of wind to interact with the designed environment, the nature of sensory qualities including feeling the sun’s warmth and hearing the passage of wind are propagated. A bio-climatic construction which relaxes, stimulates and prepares the body for creativity is achieved.
To have passage ways naturally lit to serve as unassisted way markers, independent of appended signage, would attune occupants with nature by allowing the passing of time to be registered in the Art Emporium’s lighted modes, routes and zones.
Scale will be appropriated by the idea or thought of the Artisan; in conjunction with the passage of the temporal and the fluxes of daylight intensity regulating the building.
Consummately, GD will seem to issue forth from the site.
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