The Decision

Today we voted on which pavilion we wanted to send in to the competition. We first walked around and looked at each other’s final projects. We then got a piece of paper and wrote down the name of the pavilion that we wanted to be submitted. The pavilion that got the least votes was eliminated. Unfortunately my groups pavilion was eliminated first, but we did not really care. We then voted again, and another groups pavilion was eliminated. Finally there were two pavilions left. The Future on Track and The Bird. My final vote went to the Bird. It got really intense because it was a tie when it came down to the last vote. Finally Rafael announced the winner as the Future on Track.   

The Future on Tracks design is quite interesting. It has a whole part of the pavilion that slides in and out to company the weather. An example is like when it rains. You can slide inside the other part of the pavilion so that it doesn't get rained on because it has an open top. And when it is sunny a part with an open top can be slid out to take advantage of a sunny day. I believe that is a good idea but may be a bit expensive to build. If it can be pulled off I would be very impressed and enjoy it very much. 

Presentation Day

Today our class finished our final projects and got everything ready to present to anyone who wanted to see.  Everyone set op their models, drawings, and descriptions of their pavilions for anyone to see. Unfortunately, a lot of people from the architecture class did not even show up to show and explain their pavilion. Adding on to that, there were not nearly as many people that came to the architecture presentations as there were last time. Luckily I was able to explain my groups pavilion idea to friends and family members and got good feedback.

Unfortunately I do not have any photographs of what our final project looked like but here is the description that I helped type up of our project.

Pavilion Project Description

Our pavilion is meant to look like a forest to provide a place of safety and comfort. This

pavilion incorporates with the overall required theme because in the future we believe that architecture will be more about the environment in the aspect that it will be better for the environment. This is because we believe that buildings will become more eco-friendly by being made out of recyclable materials and more biomass. This is shown in our idea because the “trunks” of the trees are made of old telephone poles. We will have “branches” made of bamboo with “tree tops”. The connected “tree tops” will be made of canvas fabric. There will be additional stand alone branches on the sides of the telephone poles to help the direct the rain flow away from the audience in a more neat manner. The stage and benches of the pavilion will be made of wood which may possibly be recycled. It is important to say that the branches connect all the trees together to help symbolize how we are connected to one another.

       

At the base of the trunks of the trees there will be oval shapes that have two levels of benches for visitors to sit when they watch performances. Only four trees will have seats while the fifth one will have a larger wooden platform that will be used as the stage. The pavilion will not have walls; therefore there is the issue of elements like wind, rain, and snow. One form of shelter that we do have, are triangle pieces that form the top of the pavilion. The highest points will be above the seats, and will run down the triangles towards the stage (lowest point). We will also have branches on the side of the telephone poles with angled canvas sheets to help direct the flow of rainwater. These ‘Branches’ on the side will also help protect the audience and stage from rain that is coming from the sides if there is some wind, it will not fully keep out rain from the sides, but it will help some.This will help downpours such as rain, snow, and hail. Hanging from the tree tops will be glass shards. These shards will catch light, and create a  beautiful light effect on the stage.

The construction of our pavilion will begin with putting in the old telephone poles in the ground. The poles will be spread about They will go the maximum six inches into the ground, along with additional support. This support will have six two by fours connected between the pole to the ground for support. A couple inches above there will be more two by fours that connect to the pole and the flat two by fours at a 45 degree angle. These will be connected with screws or nails of some kind. The branches will be made of wood and will be connected to the telephone poles with metal connectors so that they will stay in place. We believe we will use a SIMPSONS Strong Tie Connectors to connect the branches to the telephone poles.

There will be four areas of seating that will be used. The four areas will be different in size. Smallest seating area is to the right of the stage. The rest of the areas will be slightly larger, in a pentagon shape (including the stage). The distance between the stage and the smallest area will be 13 ft. The smallest area, to the second smallest is 12 ft. Second smallest to 3rd Smallest is 11 ft. etc. The stage, and the largest seating area being 8 ft.  The stage will be shaped as a large oval, larger at one end, which is facing outwards of the pavillion. The different sections will be hollow, with the 2x4’s underneath the seating/stage.

Field Trip #3

Today we went on our third architecture field trip. This field trip was focused in San Francisco. We first visited Building 1 on Treasure Island. Just today I found out that it is an artificial island and that it was actually built by us. Moving on, Building 1 was meant to be the terminal for an airport was was going to be built but never did work out properly. The building has a curved frontal facade which did not look too bad. This building was not my favorite because it did not really serve a purpose and also I felt that the building was a bit bland with its empty walls. The empty was issue was really prominent on the backside of the building.

Treasure Island Terminal:


After that we visited the art institute. There really wasn't much to see besides a view and a mural done by a famous painter.This was not the new art institute, it is and older one. There were old art studios with old designs. You could tell by the paint and just the overall look with the metal that separated the windows. Something that I found interesting was the raised skylights of offices at the institute. I thought they had a cool shape, but I also felt that they seemed a bit out of place with the building.

San Francisco Art Institute:


Finally we visited Coit Tower. Coit tower wasn't what I expected it to be. I was expecting more extravagance and detail. I also was expecting a good view from the top but that dream was crushed when I found out you had to pay $5.00 to get to the top. Besides that, it was a beautiful tower. I liked how it was not just smooth all the way around, but had little indents that made it more of a polygon.


Coit Tower:

Courtyards

Courtyards date back to as early as 3000 BC in China and Iran. In ancient Rome they called their courtyards atriums, but now atrium has a different meaning.  As we learned before Islamic cultures had structures called courtyard houses. The book describes them as “continuous ‘mats’ of introverted flat-roofed buildings, with narrow streets framed by blank walls for access.”(34). China also used courtyard houses. The book said that courthouses were very abundant in cities, one of them including Beijing. These courtyard houses were usually a group of houses of a family and its extended family members. Courtyard houses were also used for the wealthy in China in the aspect in they had a series of courtyards that increase in privacy. 

Islamic courtyard house:

In 1945 courtyard forms came back into style. In in 1945 people were becoming more fascinated with ancient and distant cultures so they brought back the courtyard. Many buildings were built with a courtyard like old civilizations. An example of this is the French practices of Candilis, Josic, and Woods that used the Islamic “mat plan”.

Candilis, Josic and Woods courtyard at Berlin Free University:

 The courtyard had been re-born as a more special area. “…the courtyard found extended theoretical advocacy as a model for housing in 1964” (34). The idea behind these courtyards was to provide privacy with family members and to offer “contact with the restorative powers of nature” as the book states it. This was meant to counterbalance the busy fast paced life of modern cities.

Haus am Moor

Today I took it into my consideration to do a post about something interesting that I found that was not from class. Today I found about a very cool building called the Haus am Moor in Austria that was designed by Bernardo Bader. This house is a one room house with a connected studio. It is a very simplistic design that looks like a barn from the outside but on the inside looks modern and amazing.


This is a picture of the outside of Haus am Moor. As you can see this does not look like an ordinary house. This could easily be mistaken for a barn. The whole house is basically all made of wood. I find this design quite unique because it is so simple but you can tell it is something else more elegant. This is especially because of how the light comes out he the building like that. I really think that adds a great effect that helps this building stand out.


These are some pictures from the inside of the house itself. It all very simple and made of one constant material. This really puts a cool vibe on the place because it is all smooth and one color so it really gives a simple yet modern feel to the house and studio. Also if you see in the bottom right and top left picture the walls are not perfectly straight. This gives a cool effect that makes this building just hat more unique.


Here is another picture from the inside of the house. What I really like about this is how much natural light is coming into the room. Because of the two large windows it really fills this area with light which I love because I enjoy buildings with a lot of well used natural light.


I do not own these pictures. I got them from http://www.thecoolhunter.net/architecture/  

Christian Architecture

Today in class we had a lecture about Christian Architecture. We first learned about basilicas. Basilicas are a building that are meant for worship. They are basically an older version of a church because they serve the same purpose of talking and spreading the religion. They are large buildings with some sort of point of direction, whether that is to the front of the building, or to the center. They are quite beautiful buildings because they have lots of detail and decorations to really help create a sacred feel in the buildings.

We also learned about the difference in Constantinople and Roman Basilicas. One of them has a more a more direct forward view to the end of the building while the other has a more centered viewpoint. Also One is longer than the other. The longer building has the focus point at the end of the building while the shorter one has the more centered focus point.

We also watched a video about Christian/Roman architecture. In the video they showed and talked about how they built a very large Basilica. What I found the most interesting was how they found ways around issue that they had, even without our modern technology. I also found it interesting how they did not have architects deign the basilica, but they had engineers. Though this seemed quite helpful because they were able to solve issues that could have ruined the whole building they were not dealt with.


Old St. Peter's Basilica:

Arches

Arches were originally uses for utilitarian and underground structures. An example of this would be storehouses or drains. They reached their main popularity in Gothic architecture but seemed to be uncommon in more modern architecture. The main purpose of the arch is that it allows the spanning of masonry walls, or walls made of items mainly held together with the use of mortar.  As stated from the book arches are “a pure compression structure and therefore ideally suited to materials such as stone or brick that are strong I'm compression but weak in tension. Also arches have outward thrust at their bases and the book says that this must be resisted to ensure stability.

Romans were the first to really take advantage of the use of arches. As we have seen they used them in many structures like aqueducts and imposing bridges. They were also used in the widely known coliseum. Because of the Romans liberal use of arches they became the first metropolis with a population of more than a million.

Coliseum:

 

Arches are also used to create structures like vaults which are basically a large continued hallway of an arch. They when they are rotated they enabled the creation of structures like domes.

The strongest forms for arches are given by a parabolic shape and have catenary curves.  These formed the basis of the Cantalan system of vaulting and were exploited by Antoni Gaudi

Parabolic Arch:

In the book it said that arches are not normally seen in modern architecture. This is because now-a-days we have materials like steel and reinforced concrete that is strong in both compression and tension. 

Reinforced concrete example:                                           

Lots of Steel tubes: 

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