Ara Wang

Monday, 14 May 2012

[ARCH1201]Project 3- site

site analysis-adjacent art unit

360° view from the site

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Tuesday, 8 May 2012

[ARCH1201]Project3_proposal1

Inspiration:

Alvar Aalto - VILLA MAIREA, FINLAND

Chenchow Little - SKYLIGHT HOUSE, SYD

Woods Bagot - DOUGONG TOWER, BEIJING/THE IVY, SYD

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

[ARCH1201]Villa Mairea_Project2_Space&Material

Villa Mairea is one the modern house that is richly decorated and constructed in terms of its materials. Aalto at the time, was very much influence by the Japanese styled architecture, namely, the Sukiya style, which emphasizes on the proportions, and rustic harmony of spaces. Aalto then, paid a great deal of attention to the materiality, he does not allow completely unprocessed material in his design, instead, he used materials derived from nature to produce their natural feelings. The analyses above abstractly shows the material distribution of the ground floor and the first floor. The colour gradient reflects the hardness of the material, the darker the colour the harder the material. So in this case, the materials are: (from masonry to wooden) masonry, slate, teak, white beech, turf and tile. The gradually dispersal pattern of these materials also, produced a protective feeling from outside to inside as the picture showed, the arrow pointing towards the very 'soft' core of the building. With the study of the materiality, it turns out that the pattern somehow echos the spaces of the house, as the exterior, interior and in-between spaces. This blurring space approach is also an important concern of Sukiya style.

In this caption, the model shows the different spaces of the house Villa Mairea. The exterior as the perspex whereas the interior modeled with colour paper covered white card. The dinning room as one of the hot zone of the house, is half internal and half external, the external half is covered with the turf cantilever spread to the sauna room, therefore, it is an typical in-between area that is none exterior nor interior. I used this sliding idea as the dinning room represented with one face transparent and the other three opaque indicates the space is an in-between, the reason for the upper face transparent is because i wanted to create this model viewed both 3D and 2D, in this fashion, look from the above, one could see the difference of spaces, and it makes the 2D drawing easier to understand as well. These overlapping layers of both material and space creates an uncertainty that breaks the boundary, Aalto showed this modern approach in every possible pieces of this house, windows in this project is not perfectly squared, columns are sitting on the grid lines, and even the grid lines aren't perfect squares. The flexibility and unpredictability is the beauty of the house.

[ARCH1201]Villa Mairea_Project2_Column

Columns is another important element that plays a vital role in Aalto's design of Villa Mairea. these highlighted element in the first two captures, analyzed the column along with some detail elements such as the chimney and stair poles, added depth to the space. wherever you stand in the building, you could always see the columns, it is also an element that removes the use walls. Aalto tried very hard in avoiding the architectural or artificial rhythm in the space and create a natural screen use columns and poles to define space without disturb the rustic of the outside forest and in relation to inside of the house. Villa Mairea is situated on the hill top site and it is very much fitted in site with the wildness of Finland forest.


This conceptual model i made reflecting to the drawing of the above, was trying to give an idea of horizontal and vertical elements of the project. This is also an initial idea of Aalto. This method make the building visually stands out, and able to identify it from distance, meanwhile, retain the harmony between Villa Mairea and the forest.

Columns with three or two posts of the ground floor turns to have only one post at the first floor, which make the structure on the ground floor visually stronger than it on the 1st floor and kept the irregular form of the design.

Columns in Villa Mairea are made out of many materials, some of them are structural, some are not, but it may hard to tell from the outside, Aalto painted them black and wrapped them with rattan or beech stripes, some of the poles are made out of spruce or pine. The Sukiya style is clearly seen in design of these elements.