Process: Material and Representation in Architecture

Gail Peter Borden

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317805649
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

This book examines the interrelationship of representational methods and material systems as fundamental drivers of the design process. Identifying four primary categories of representational logics - point, line, surface, mass - each category is illustrated through four precedent projects that deploy iterative material sensibilities. As a collection, this text provides a comprehensive categorization of the architectural design process.

Through the comprehensive definition of categorical typologies, it illustrates the collective capability of this conceptual methodology. By unpacking projects through their specific design devices, the collective analysis reveals the impact of material techniques and methods of representation as a generative tool. Broad in scope, it identifies and uniformly analyses some of the most significant projects from the last century, including:

• UK Pavilion Shanghai - Heatherwick Studio, Shanghai, China
• Gatehouse - Office dA, Beijing, China
• Maison Colonial - Jean Prouve, France/Africa
• de Young Museum - Herzog and de Meuron, California USA
• Montreal Expo 67 - Buckminster Fuller, Montreal, Canada
• Jean Marie Tjibou Cultural Center – RPBW, Noumea, Indonesia
• House III - Peter Eisenman, New York, USA
• Barcelona Pavilion - Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona, Spain
• Tel Aviv - Scott Cohen, Tel Aviv, Israel
• Los Manantiales - Felix Candella, Mexico City, Mexico
• Yokahama Terminal – FOA, Yokahama, Japan
• Pantheon, Rome, Italy
• Tres Grand Bibliotheque - Rem Koolhaas, OMA, Paris, France
• Brother Claus Field Chapel - Peter Zumthor, Switzerland
• Embryonic House- Greg Lynn

Richly illustrated with consistent, clear and precise line drawings, the book presents a series of iconic precedents through a unique analytical and graphic sensibility.

Point as unit (element)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315814827-4

UK Pavilion, Shanghai Expo | Heatherwick Studio | Shanghai, China | 2010

Built in Shanghai in 2010, the British Pavilion for the World Expo (an international fair and exhibition in which countries participate by creating themed pavilions representing their nation's technology, culture and achievements) was one of over 200 created for the event. The winning design (from a team led by Heatherwick Studio) emerged from a competition calling for a pavilion to be one of the expo's “top five most popular attractions.” This basis for uniqueness required a reconsideration of approach requiring an extremity rooted in simplicity. The designers surprised visitors by not inundating them with the technology and image screens but rather turning to the uniqueness of form, space, material, and experience. The function of the pavilion was not simply as a building to be experienced, but as an iconic figure that would resonate with a graphic and visual presence without ever being physically visited. Constrained by limited funds, the building's size in relation to the site had to be concentrated and focused. Set in a dynamic faceted landscape, the building proper exists as an object in a field. By creating a memorable focal object that only occupied one-fifth of the site, the design strategy (1) created an articulated plane that filled the site (2) set a figural object on top, and (3) tucked the service facilities beneath. Instead of concentrating on form, the pavilion focuses on texture. With the intention of producing an enclosure where the boundary becomes so indefinite that the figure blurs in differentiation from its surroundings. Programmatically the pavilion is conceived as a cathedral to seeds: An element that is significant in its multifaceted implications as a symbol of future potential. The simple form is a 2:3 ratio box (10 meters tall and 15 meters wide) engulfed in a surface of protruding rods. Made of 60,000 identical 7.5 meter long acrylic rods, they extend both inward and outward to diff use the figure. Forming a single curvilinear space on the interior, each rod is capped in a collection of seeds cast into the surface. Collectively, the nodes contain 250,000 individual seeds illuminated through the length of the rod. Set on a faceted landscape of inclined surfaces and lifted edges, the dynamic ground plane, clad in soft grey Astroturf, serves as an amphitheater.

Plan

The plan illustrates the two systems of field and object working at the scale of the site and the scale of the building respectively. Encircled in parallel paths of slow ramping ascent and descent, the folded topography uses triangulation to create a crumpled surface. Metaphorically described as the wrapping paper that the “gift” of the pavilion arrived in (as a gesture of the pavilion as a gift to the Chinese and global communities of the Expo) the ground plane blankets the diverse functions and practicalities efficiently and simply below. The object of the pavilion, softened with chamfered corners and diffused through the serial hair-like surface of the skin, sets gently upon the surface. Entered on the diagonal, the inner space is defined in its undulating and organic form through the varied cropping of the serial rods. The space as a removal becomes an experiential crescendo, a node along the pathway up and through the surface to find a moment of intensity and effect. The upper figure of the ground plane takes the figure of the site and elevates and rotates its position. The figural disruption in conjunction with the sectional translation introduces variable distortion into the field to create moments of dynamic formalism and diverse response. The plate and figure work together to create a field-to-object relationship of dynamic collaboration and juxtaposition.

Section

The section reveals the layered arrangement of the program. The base plate of secondary functions is blanketed in the elevating faceted plane. Folding over these programs it becomes figural surface: Both village green and event space, while slowly creating the ascent to the elevated pavilion proper. The object becomes a blurry presence, small, intimate and articulated by its multiplicity of delicate tendrils that diffuse its presence. As a radiating field of rods, their exterior is subtly shaped with chamfered corners that present a continuity and softness to the object. The interior becomes dynamically shaped through the incremental cropping of the rods. A hovering table within the space allows the viewer to occupy the space independently of the form. The collective elements create diverse scales, geometric systems, and programs through the tectonics of the differentiated systems of enclosure and their spatial and experiential deployment.

Elevation

The elevation illustrates the anonymity of system. The totality of the point field uniformly extended across the pavilion eliminates scale and differentiation within the object. Removal of traditional articulation of window, door, and the like makes the emphasis on the continuity of the system. The repetitive field diff uses boundary, abstracts any reference to tectonics, and produces an abstraction of all scales and standards of legibility to create a complete abstraction. Creating an allover field, the continuity and extended regularity effectually resonates through its boundless anonymity and independence of material resonance.

Axonometric

The axonometric illustrates the consistency of the volumetric extension of the system. The softness of the hair-like tectonic extends to the form through the multidirectional chamfering of the rectangular figure. Blurring the boundary of the building surface and its context creates an effectual smudge. The system extends through the multivalent directionality ensuring consistency across the X, Y, and Z axes. The result is a non-directional and abstractly anonymous figure that formally and perceptually denies a grain or direction. The figure becomes soft, abstract, and diff used to establish the power of its individuation and “otherness” from the traditional architectural conventions.

Detail

The details reveal both the simplicity and the homogeneity of the scheme. Defined by the repetitive array, the differentiation is subtle and felt through the shifting incremental change in length. The plan detail shows the linear coursing of the inner rod tips. Bulbed at their inner end to contain and display the seed collections cast in their resin caps, the element is repeated invariably to allow for differentiation to happen in the embed. The section adopts a similar tactic using a stacked bond configuration that completes the grid positioning of the rods. The field is confirmed and enforced to provide anonymity of pattern and emphasize effect of the collective over a differentiation of either part or whole. The elevation of the exterior simply caps the extruded section of the acrylic rod reinforcing the circular profile. The interior axonometric shows the moment of customization and individuation in the seeds embedded and the sculpted shape of the container and viewer on the tip. The detail is the effect through the use of hyper-repetition and array that emphasize the differential of unit within a systemic field.

Object to field

The dynamic resonance of the form happens between the legibility of the piece and the whole. The collective form creates simplicity in its rectangular figure. Softened through the chamfered corners, the edges ease the transition from vertical to horizontal. The continuity of the array transitions from surface to surface allowing for the ambiguity of edge to face to eliminate the convention of corner. The transitional reading of part to whole occurs through the variable scale of the distance of perception. The longer distance allows for the reading of overall shape, while the closer distance engages the field. As a collection of both points and radiating sticks, the field perspectivally responds and transitions as one's position shifts. Embedded in the field is a subtle differentiation that allows the impregnation of image. The Union Jack (as the ubiquitous image of imperial colonization of Great Britain) is applied as both a nationalistic symbol and graphic. Embedding crossing and radiating swaths within the nodal field of the extruded surface, the subtle pattern creates differentiation within the otherwise standardized field.

Extended wall

The uniqueness of the tectonic system extends to the fundamental definition and reconceptualization of the wall. The traditional load-bearing systems that define a plane of enclosure while providing structural support are fundamental to the perceptual and conceptual origins of a wall. Having a solidity and mass, the conceptual and/or actual fill of the poche establishes a reading of both the inner and outer surface while implying a solidity and mass between. As a representational figure, the rendering of the wall as a solid fill denotes the mass through the graphic fill and weight of the mark. The idea surrounding this claim of singularity and continuity is reframed as a collection of marks. As a field of rods, the inner and outer surfaces become defined by the aerosolization into a field of points defined by the tips of the rods. The recombination into a formal surface (either interior or exterior) occurs through the visual assembly of point to point to establish a field. The graphic shift from a solid mass to a field of lines creates a loose fill: A porous openness that emanates into the perceived form. The radial configuration of the lines creates a pinching effect that densifies the lines inward and splays them outward on the exterior. The poche becomes a hatch, dimensionalized and articu...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Process Logics
• Layout Description
• Precedents
• Logic: Point
• Logic: Line
• Logic: Surface
• Logic: Mass
• Index