Ian and Dennis

hey this is my part, its still kind of in the drafting process so yeah

i added it with ian's



Architect


Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965)

Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965), who was also known as Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, was a Swiss-French architect, designer, urbanist, writer, sculptor and also painter. He is famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called Modern architecture or the International style. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in his 30s.

He was a pioneer in studies of modern high design and was dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities.

His career spanned five decades, with his buildings constructed throughout central Europe, India, Russia, and one each in North and South America.

Mario Botta (April 1, 1943- Present)

Mario Botta (April 1, 1943- Present) is a well known Swiss architect and designer who was born in Mendrisio, Ticino. He was trained as a technical draftsman before he went to study at the Liceo Artistico in Milan. 1 Botta then study at the Istituto Universitario di Architecttura in Venice from 1965 to 1969. During this period Botta was very lucky to work as Le Corbusier’s assistant and then, Louis Kahn. 1 Botta gained architectural fame during the early 1970s when he began designing small houses in Ticino. 2 Mario Botta has essentially a modernist approach to architecture and had been strongly influenced by both Carlo Scarpa and Louis Kahn in his earlier works. 1 It is stated that because of Botta’s innovated work, the present generations of Swiss architects are internationally acclaimed. 2

Building & Purpose

Villa Savoye (1929 – 1931), France, Poissy

The Villa Savoye was designed as a weekend country house and is situated just outside of the city of Poissy in a meadow surrounded by trees. The building represents the apotheosis of Le Corbusier’s attempt to create the ideal dwelling during the twenties. The design brings to fulfilment ideas first explored in the Citrohan house and developed in a series of major houses during the decade.

The dwelling is seen as a cell for sunlight elevated above the landscape. This is expressed with le Corbusier’s ‘heroic’ imagery of sun decks, ramps, spiral stairs and ribbon windows; it uses a dialogue of solids and planes compacted as in a Purist painting.

The villa crystallises Le Corbusier’s ideals which can be traced back to his admiration for the Parthenon, although his interpretation resembles a Renaissance villa. The centralised form is set temple-like in the landscape, elevated on pilotis, which can be regarded as a contemporary equivalent of classical columns.

The villa is seen as one of the components of Le Corbusier’s utopian city, a symbol of how architecture would enrich life both physically and culturally. The medium is a form, controlled through geometry.

Influence, Social & Cultural Background

Le Corbusier was heavily influenced by problems he saw in industrial cities at the turn from the 19th to the 20th century. He thought that industrial housing techniques led to crowding, dirtiness, and a lack of a moral landscape. He was a leader of the modernist movement to create better living conditions and a better society through housing concepts. Ebenezer Howard's Garden Cities of Tomorrow heavily influenced Le Corbusier and his contemporaries. By the 1920s Le Corbusier had become one of the most important figures in Modern architecture.

Type

Residential

Style; Architectural Elements

Purism & Modern Architecture

The Villa Savoye represents the culmination of Le Corbusier’s Purist style of the 1920s. Purism was a form of Cubism advocated by Le Corbusier. It rejected the decorative trend of cubism and advocated a return to clear, ordered forms that were expressive of the modern machine age. Le Corbusier's interest in mechanation and pure proportion persisted into his architectural endeavours which represent Purist aesthetic as a whole. They have become the foundation to the evolution of modern architecture leading by Le Corbusier in France, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius in Germany.

“Five Points of a New Architecture”

The design exploited to the full of the possibilities of concrete frame construction, which Le Corbusier had proclaimed as the ‘Five Points of a New Architecture’:

1. Columns (pilotis) raise the house in the air, freeing the ground for people and vehicles.

2. A roof garden on the flat roof replaces the ground lost by development.

3. Extending the pilotis through as a structural frame enables partition walls to be freely arranged in what he called the plan libre, or free plan.

4. Disposing windows as required by the interior creates a free façade.

5. Long horizontal windows or ribbon windows – give a more even distribution of light.

Movement; Architectural Promenade

As in all Le Corbusier’s work during the twenties, the movement route has a special significance, being the means of linking the successive experience provided by the villa. The sequential nature of these events becomes the thread which holds the design together, and Le Corbusier cross-references the various relationships of elements with the way these are perceived along the movement route.

Machine Aesthetic

The hard surface and geometrical purity of the villa reinforce the rational and intellectual implications of Le Corbusier’s symbolism. Order and clarity were central to his architecture, reflecting an idealistic attitude towards form which was seen as analogous to the precision and efficiency of machines.

Uniting the Motorcar and the house

The car is an inherent theme of Le Corbusier’s architecture. Aware that this phenomenon would totally change people’s loves, Le Corbusier made it an integral component of his work on urban planning and architecture. It is however, the Villa Savoye that it assumes its purest expression, with the movement of the car in some way forming one of the fundamentals of this architectural oeuvre, connecting the architectural promenade experience.

Site Context

The Villa Savoye stands in Poissy, a small town bordering a river around thirty kilometres west of Paris. The residential district that accommodates the Villa Savoye is located on a hilltop position from where it commands views of the river. “The site: a vast lawn, slightly convex. The main view is to the north in opposition to the sun. The villa is tucked out of sight from the street: only a large millstone wall can be perceived, running along the southern edge of the property, crowned by treetops that hint at the grounds behind.

Function

The distribution of rooms on the ground floor splits the house into three main functional zones: First, the reception rooms, including an entrance hall and a large cloakroom. Second: the living space, comprising the kitchen, dining room, salon, son’s bedroom and guestroom. And third, the service core – two maid’s rooms, caretaker/gardener’s lodge and chauffeur’s apartment. Garaging for three cars, a tool store, a trunk room, wine cellar and storage cellar complete and ensemble. The First floor provides for a master bedroom, measuring around 20m² with an en-suite bathroom and lavatory, as well as a boudoir and linen room.

Form

The form is intended to be an elevated cubic volume above the meadow, the geometry of man poised above the geometry of nature.

The centroidal form is placed centrally within the centroidal site, a horizontal form in a horizontal situation. A prolonged contemplation of this primary form was intended.

The entry block shape is determined by the turning capability of a vehicle, with the fundamental dynamic of a curvilinear volume tensioned against a rectangle.

Material, Technology & Structure

As one of the Modernist architects, Le Corbusier exploited the flexibility of concrete to create new forms and shapes that aligned with the quality of machine. The Industrial Revolution triggered new interests in engineering, innovation, structure and form. Reinforced concrete was used to achieve new architectural aesthetic. The construction of Villa Savoye allows Le Corbusier to fully realise the architectural philosophy he has developed throughout a decade of modern movement.

A representation of 20th century architecture

References

Sbriglio, J. (1999). Le Corbusier: The Villa Savoye. Birkhauser: Foundation Le Corbusier.

Baltanás, J. (2005). Walking through Le Corbusier : a tour of his masterworks. New York : Thames & Hudson



Casa Rotonda (Round House) (1980-1982), Stabio, Ticino, Switzerland

“The Medici home at Stabio reveals itself as an unexpected presence in an anonymous and sparsely developed context whose few buildings have, however, irreparably changed the character of the setting.” 3

When Botta was designing this building, he envisioned a circular building, cut on its north-south axis by a slit from which the light falls from above. The intent of the building was not to grab attention or contrast with the surrounding buildings; instead it was to seek the spatial relationships with the landscape and the distant horizon. 4



Influence, Social & Cultural Background

Mario Botta’s background is Swedish and was influenced by Carlo Scarpa, Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier in his earlier works. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Ticino region was going under some dramatic changes. Ticino changed from being a primary agricultural economy to an industrial economy that emphasised on tourism. 2 Due to this, most of Ticino’s architects designed for the wealthy bourgeoisie, who had profited from the change in economy. The school that Botta attended generates its designs from an architectural and contextual perspective. These designs were an attempt to relate to the old and the new, which was to continue the trends and to realise them in an architecture conceived as an act of culture. 2

Type

Residential



Style; Architectural Elements

It is stated that Mario Botta often quotes Le Corbusier’s theory of how “a theoretically perfectly realised architecture drives away contingent presences and achieves the ‘miracle of inexpressible space,’ yet the solidity of his architecture, with its precise symmetry and geometry, seems to strive for control and certainly.” 5 In all of Botta’s work he shows similar ideas and concepts; however these elements seem to be very repetitive which makes the viewer almost bored with his architecture. Casa Rotonda is a perfect example of Botta’s concepts and ideas. Botta strives for simplicity in creating uncomplicated, expressive designs for both the city and the mountain. 5

Site Context

The house appears a little out of town, an area of recent subdivision. It is stated in a sparsely developed context whose few buildings have.



Function

In each of Botta’s buildings it aims to understand the situation and therefore generate a new function. Botta stated that “I do think architecture lives beyond its function, it gives shape to history.” 5 In Casa Rotonda Botta make us questions the nature of dwellings with everything subordinated to form. The interior of this building is symmetrically laid out around the central slot of the stairwell. The skylight and the rooms are irregular, left over spaces resulting from Mario Botta inserting a rectangular grid into the house’s cylinder.



Form

Casa Rotonda has an obvious geometrical form which seems seemingly impenetrable at first glance. Its cylindrical shape contrasts with the large cuts in its surface and imply a confliction between fortification and openness.



Material, Technology & Structure

The great portico faces directly onto the countryside, north-south



References

My Quick Model

Design Process

When I was designing the small cabin, I also looked at Tom Kundig's. These cabins were a showcase of Kundig's work, along with Chicken Point Cabin. I took special consideration into the roof shape and line.

Above: Olson Kundig Architects. (2010). Rolling Huts. Retrived the 9th of March 2010, from  http://www.olsonkundigarchitects.com/Projects/825/Rolling-Huts

Above: Olson Kundig Architects. (2010). Delta Shelter. Retrived the 9th of March 2010, from http://www.olsonkundigarchitects.com/Projects/38/Delta-Shelter

More Diagrams are put into the panels with the other drawings

Part C: Cabin Drawings

MY CABIN DESIGN

This design is a reproduction of Tom Kumdig's Chicken Point Cabin. My design brings together Tom's concepts and ideas but not only from Chicken Point but from his other cabin designs.

Tom's idea of a central fireplace, which brought together the spaces and the people, was also used in my design. Instead of using a fireplace, which is not really climatic in Brisbane, I replaced it with a native, paperbark tree. . The tree also sits in the middle of a courtyard, linking the human activities of the living space and the main bedroom.

Tom Kundig's concept of the huge window at the south of his design, was also used in my design. However due to the size of the required cabin, it is much smaller but still gives a delightful experince on the occupants. This window in my design is sitting north to take advantage of the pervailing breeze and needed light. Some horizontal panels were added just above the window, so that the living space didn't turn into a sauna during the middle of the day, acting as an evironmental filter. The roof line also achieves this effect.

The roof line is taken from not only Chicken Point but other designs of Tom Kundig's. The angled roof opens up more to the environment of the lake and the forest. Glass louvers occupy the space in between walls and ceiling, to help ventilate the spaces. These louvers also lets more light into the spaces, such as the studio, living space and main bedroom.

The arrangement of the spaces in my design are also similar to that of Tom's floor plans. They open up to each other around the living space, which links to the lake and the forest. Views of the lake are seen from most of the spaces in the cabin. The living space, with the use of the huge window, opens up to the environment elements. These two concepts bring together the effect of inside-outside spaces which causes the occupants to experience the both environments.

Tom Kundig's design was mainly built using concrete, wood, metal and glass, to form an industrial style throughout the cabin. I took this idea into my design as much as I could. I used concrete for structure on the west side of the building, but wasn't able to continue with it anywhere else due to the climate of the region, instead the east side of my cabin is wooden cladding.

The coutyard, linking the living space and the main bedroom has a series of vertical panels to disguise the view of the lake. This concept was not linked in anyway to Kundig's designs. It was a concept I took on, because I believed that a different approach was needed in order to provide a greater varity of delight. The arrangement of these panels are shown in the drawings below.  

Drawings for Elevations and floor plans were copied from:

St Lucia House: Hasini Vithana's Blog, accessed the 23rd of March 2010,  

http://qut-stluciahouse.blogspot.com/

C House: Daisy Ng's Blog, accessed the 23rd of March 2010,

http://7192398dab310chouse.wordpress.com/

Part B: Chicken Point-Own Drawings

Tom Kundig's Drawings

Part B: Chicken Point-Research

CHICKEN POINT CABIN

Chicken Point Cabin is very well designed by Tom Kundig and has many architectural qualities such as:

• The huge, 20feet by 30 feet window that acts as the wall when it is closed, opens up to the forest and lake. Refered to a tent opening, opens the living space to breeze and needed light. This big window gives an open feel. "Little house, big window" in Tom's words. The mechanical device used for opening this window was designed to require direct action by the user. 
• Mainly made of concrete , wood and steel. Concrete helps with thermal heating and cooling. Steel and wood helps with support and design.

Drawings above retrevied from: Dung Ngo. (2006). Tom Kundig: Houses. Princeton Architectural Press: New York 

Left:  Olson Kundig Architects. (2010). Chicken Point Cabin. Retrived the 9th of March 2010, from  http://www.olsonkundigarchitects.com/Projects/101/Chicken-Point-Cabin

• 
  
  Cabin is designed to be used all year round, but especially in summer, therefore spaces open up to the environment (big window).

Left: Olson Kundig Architects. (2010). Chicken Point Cabin. Retrived the 9th of March 2010, from http://www.olsonkundigarchitects.com/Projects/101/Chicken-Point-Cabin

• Keeps rough theme, left unfinished to naturally age and fits with natural setting. Tom Kundig was inspired by silver mines and saw mills for Chicken Point. 
• 
  
  Many access points, either by the huge 19 foot steel door at the road entrance or by the water. 
• 
  
  The main bedroom made of plywood is suspended into the concrete-block shell and overlooks the living space, other additional bedrooms and service spaces are saddlebagged on the two sides of the main volume (living space). (see Figure  )

Chicken Point Cabin is well designed to take advantage of the quiet lake side environment. Tom Kundig merges industral style of comfort with the lake side views and climate. The main attractive quality of this cabin is the huge window and its angled roof line, which is shown to be Kundig's style. It is very unique and functions works very well.

Left: Olson Kundig Architects. (2010). Chicken Point Cabin. Retrived the 9th of March 2010, from http://www.olsonkundigarchitects.com/Projects/101/Chicken-Point-Cabin


References:

•        Dung Ngo. (2006). Tom Kundig: Houses. Princeton Architectural Press: New York

•        Moody, F. (2009). The Natural. Retrived the 6th of March 2010, from http://www.seattlemet.com/home-and-garden/articles/architecture-tom-kundig-0606/?print=1

•         Olson Kundig Architects. (2010). Chicken Point Cabin. Retrived the 9th of March 2010, from http://www.olsonkundigarchitects.com/Projects/101/Chicken-Point-Cabin

Part A

The three houses that I researched in the first part of the assignment were St Lucia House, D House and Chicken Point Cabin. I researched as much as I could into each design under the categories of:

• a house is an environmental filter
• a house is a delightful experience
• a house is a container for human activity

St Lucia House

Architect: Elizabeth Watson Brown and Peter Skinner
Located: Brisbane, Australia
Lot size: 400 squared meters
Year: 1997-2008


Left: Elizabeth Watson-Brown Architects. (n.d). St Lucia House. Retieved the 9th of March 2010 from, http://www.elizabethwatsonbrownarchitects.com.au/













St Lucia House was a very fascinating house to research and a lot of this information was written by the architects husband, Peter Skinner. The following was discovered:




A house is an environmental filter-

• Small-lot housing
• Light weight construction
• Inside- outside spaces linking to the Poinciana tree which leads to an interplay of shadows and reflections on the buildings fabric.
• The northern elevation is designed to maximise openness (50 percent of the window wall remains open for half the year) also high southern openings to maximise cross ventilation. Internal spaces are designed as openly as possible to maximise air movement.
• Idea that "in a climate where the natural desire is to live and sleep outside, under the stars and enveloped by breeze." (UQ library-cite properly)
• Designed to be thermally comfortable without the use of air-conditioning.
• Subtropical living
• Micro climate. summer breezes can be pre-cooled due to the given shade, transpiration and evaporation in the heavily treed northern court.

A house is delightful experience-

• Movement of house utilises bridges, falls, low branches, stairs and ladders, high and low ceilings and dark and light to entice movement embodying hazard and mystery.
• Half inside- half outside use to spaces.
• Reflectivity enhances visual connectivity of inside and out. By day the reflective greenery is deep within the room, by night reflections double the size of the internal volume and end up encircle the tree.
• Half open wall-openness further the ambiguous boundary.

A house is a container for human activity-

• Muti-generational living patterns- sliding doors permit sub-division into three different social settings.
• Six separate entrances give flexibility and privacy of access, and five decrete common spaces that allow for independent living for the three social groups.
• Idea of the house being a refuge- this is achieved by the low-ceiling retreat zone
• Interlocking sliding doors, open the corners of the operational kitchen onto the semi-rooofed and canvas-sided deck.
• Design is widely preferred as an environment for a family life.

Flexible to use for future usage.



Left: Elizabeth Watson-Brown Architects. (n.d). St Lucia House. Retieved the 9th of March 2010 from, http://www.elizabethwatsonbrownarchitects.com.au/


 
 
 
 
 
References:

•       Elizabeth Watson-Brown Architects. (n.d). St Lucia House. Retieved the 9th of March 2010 from, http://www.elizabethwatsonbrownarchitects.com.au/
•     Skinner, P.R. (2003). The House. Retrieved from  http://www.arbld.unimelb.edu.au/events/conferences/aasa/papers
•       Skinner, P. (2004). Claims to the Significance of St Lucia House as Design Research and Contribution to Knowledge. School of Geography Planning and Architecture, UQ: Brisbane
•       University of Queensland. (2006). St Lucia House. Retrived the 6th of March 2010, from http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:3544

C House

Architect: Donavon Hill Architects

Located: Brisbane, Australia

Year: 1998

Left: Pmarckesano. (2005). C House. Retrieved the 20th March 2010 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/45547840@N00/61370494/



A house is an environmental filter-

• The everyday experience of occupation to be as if it were in a landscape. This is reinforced by the handling of light, emphasising the changing conditions for the day and year. This experience contributes to the house's sensual and varying atmosphere.  
• Terraces offer a range of experiences beyond a 'house'.
• Sub-site in an outdoor room, which can be occupied most of the year.
• Its big open fireplace and smooth finishes, the 'Outdoor Room' is open to the elements. Captures the dramatic north-western view.

A house is a container for human activity-

• The house was designed to be multi-functional, it can operate as a family house, a share house, a multi-residence or home office without incurring resource cost.
• Small suites of rooms open up to great ceremonial 'public' space, which by the dimensions and proportions are controlled to give harmony and unity.
• The house contains a heart: a large, elevated, stone paved, sculpturally-walled room, hovering between interior and exterior.

A house is delightful experience-

• The house occupies a steep, suburban site with views of brisbane city. It has been contructed principally of fine-grade concrete and is decorated with cabinets, screens and finishes in fine timber, metals, glass and ceramic titles.
• Its surfaces are described as the Veneto villas by using the sam control and richness but C House, the rustication is boardmarked concrete and the string courses are carefully articulated pour joints.
• Contrasting materials work really well- bring the inside out and so forth.
• Design is inspired by Le Corbusier's designs, Japanese tea houses, the queenslander and even it is said that Arab Architecture.

References:

• Hill, T and Donovan, B (1999) The Domestic Ideal. Architecture Australia, 88 (3) Retreived the 1st of March.
•  Croft, C. (2004). C House. Laurance King Publishing: United Kingdom

Chicken Point Cabin


Architect: Tom Kundig
Located: Hayden Lake, Northern Idaho
Year: 2000-2003






Left: Olson Kundig Architects. (2010). Chicken Point Cabin. Retrived the 9th of March 2010, from http://www.olsonkundigarchitects.com/Projects/101/Chicken-Point-Cabin



A house is an environmental filter-

• 
  
  The huge opening door, opens to the environment- both for aesthetic and for ventilation (little box with a big window)
• 
  
  Building materials are specific for climate-concrete, wood
• 
  
  Inside-outside spaces, linking both of them

A house is delightful experience-

• 
  
  Keeps rough theme, left unfinished to naturally age. Fits with natural setting.
• 
  
  Consintrates on a different inspiration-silver mines, saw mills
• 
  
  Gives an impression of an old industrial style, with the wheel, that makes the huge window move.
• 
  
  Huge window gives the feeling that your sitting outside.
• 
  
  Some how cosy with the industrail style.

A house is a container for human activity-

• 
  
  Fits up to 10 people.
• 
  
  Zoning of spaces, separates public and private
• 
  
  Can be accessed by the water.
• 
  
  Main bedroom looks out to living space below- gives impression of space
• 
  
  Huge steel door- entrance for winter time, when can not enter by water.

• 

Left: Olson Kundig Architects. (2010). Chicken Point Cabin. Retrived the 9th of March 2010, from http://www.olsonkundigarchitects.com/Projects/101/Chicken-Point-Cabin









References:

•          Dung Ngo. (2006). Tom Kundig: Houses. Princeton Architectural Press: New York

•          Moody, F. (2009). The Natural. Retrived the 6th of March 2010, from http://www.seattlemet.com/home-and-garden/articles/architecture-tom-kundig-0606/?print=1

•         Olson Kundig Architects. (2010). Chicken Point Cabin. Retrived the 9th of March 2010, from http://www.olsonkundigarchitects.com/Projects/101/Chicken-Point-Cabin