How to tight everything together as a whole?

The competition deadline for this China project is getting close. It will wrap up everything by the end of this month. On yesterday’s meeting, we just received the checklist for all the drawing materials we need to work on. It’s a full list of A4, single-spaced! I love working on competitions if I’m not doing both school and work at the same time. While interning full time in London ZHA, I was also fortunate enough to participate in a competition. The pace of it excites and challenges every cell of me, and brought me to another zone that I didn’t even know I’m capable of doing.

Doing over 20 hours per week on work could easily loose the equilibrium state between school and work. Like life always is, it is easy to just dedicate to one thing, but very difficult to balance work, life and ambition. What truly brings me a lot of pressure is the balance between the amounts of work I were given in relation to my perfectionist pursuit on the quality of work I want to deliver. Since English is my second language, it takes me much more efforts to read, write, and research. For the deliveries (either drawings, essays or presentations), if they are a cup of water, I’ll have to prepare a bathtub of water in order to fulfill my standard of quality on that cup of water.

Since the school could easily takes up all my energy, I always hope that during the hours I could work, I’m just making productions. Unfortunately, as a group, there are always meetings to check-in and set up next goals when everyone is present. Thus, during the hours I could dedicate to work, most of the times are the meetings. Which also means, in order to have stuff to present during the meeting, I’ll have to work after hours. It is such a struggle for me for the time after work since there are both loads of school and work, but I already exhausted from the day.

For this competition, I’m in charge of a hotel room design, both layout and 3D. Deliveries including renderings (with material and light PS-ed), and line works that demonstrate the spatial organization. In addition, there are also final PS work of elevation and some renderings. All of the work I was assigned are the fun parts. The only issue is the time!

The good thing about making my own design projects in school is that, the product only has one language through out, and could easily being seen as a whole piece. During work, especially in big firms, there are multiple hierarchies,  a design could easily pile up different languages. Till the end, it is very hard to connect all these languages together. Of course it is great to hear so many different voices on how their perception of the design is, and I learn a lot from the critiques.

My original idea on designing this specific hotel room is everything can flow as one piece: There are rhythms of emergence out of the wall and become the functional elements, such as the desk and shelves; bed could also flow and slowly become a sofa; Lighting, ceiling, and floor pattern help tight up all these elements as a whole, and at the same time they echoes with each other.

I guess the process of finding connections, as well as making subtractions between different languages generated by different voices is the crucial challenge for the early stages of working. 

Energy in Architecture

In 1932, Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock proclaimed the emergence of the international style. It is a style that emerged between 1920s and 30s. International style is the direct programmatic expression, with a famous quote: “form follows function”. Construction is industrialized mass-produced, thus it uses a lot of concrete, steel and glass. It is the simplification of forms, honesty of material and clarity of how building stands up that dominate the style. It emphasizes on three aspects. First is the volume rather than mass. In invention of reinforced concrete and skeleton structure system free the wall from load bearing to the only function of partition. Features of creating space focuses on horizontal elements rather than verticality, as well as continuity and integrity of surfaces. Second aspect is regularity rather than axial symmetry. Lastly, it is the avoidance of decoration. The old way of adding decoration only increase the mass therefore contradicts with the reality of modern architecture. 

Compare to the functionalistic of international style, some other people challenged the idea of efficient satisfaction of man’s physical needs. Man longs for the narrow streets and irregular squares of old town he came from, or he escapes into nature. Both tendencies indicate about the space conception which is growing out of functionalism. Architecture is a synthetic whole, and only recently has one tried to reduce architecture to a mere practical activity. It unifies factors of the most different kinds of moments. In other words, architecture is a composition of all the human senses. Synthetic activities are essential for human interaction and cultural development. The Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka once said: “The whole is different from the sum of its parts.” It is the balance between unity/wholeness and complexity.

What tights architecture together as a whole? I personally believe it is the energy force. Ralf Weber’s lecture also mentioned the world is a force field. Every object has its energy. The success of Italian piazza is because the force is flowing and dynamic in it, at the same time the enclosure of Italian piazza kept the force well inside. However, the typical American plaza is created usually be leaving out a block. Because of its loose corners, energy would flow away, and hard to maintain its dynamic. Italian piazza is formed by to enclose, while American plaza is by subtraction. In Fengshui aspect, in order to keep the energy dynamic and constant in a space, they pay attention to the location and size of openings, as well as inner arrangement. The development of Fengshui started with a quote: “Qi”(which means the flow of energy), flow and vanish with the wind, stop when meets water. How to concentrate without let it fade, how to use or even control its movement, as well as how it stop, all decide the spirit of the site, a place. It is the deepest meaning of respond to the context.

Energy flow not only decides the arrangement and layout of architecture, but also on proportional systems. Ralf Weber’s lecture mentioned the visual balance as well as eye movement pattern on a façade design. I think visual balance is achieved by the correct energy flow. Similar to Chinese calligraphy, it is all about energy flow in individual strokes, as well as how these individual energy relate to each other and become a balanced whole (as one character). To decompose the energy flow of calligraphy: firstly, how does the energy/stroke start; usually after the start, there is a slight pause for restoring/collecting energy, then to move; move for how long depends on how much energy it restored at the beginning, then the end; the end could a strong pause or fade depend on when was the pause taken place. If functionalism approach is a computer font; then the energy in architecture, how people experience the space, as well as the proportion systems is the calligraphy.

Energy flow is a story telling.

On non-orthogonal architecture approach, Zaha’s project has one of the most aesthetic forms. Her design has the energy flow, which gives the speed character when I perceive her forms. Quote from Ralf Weber’s lecture: “For non-architects, only form is accessible to the senses, when all judgments are based on perceptions.” Lots of contemporary firms tired to study her language. Nevertheless they just purely copy her form without understand the energy flow in the works. Before intern there, I was also intrigued and don’t understand why some of her works can have such strong energy flow, while other imitation’s form is too soft to hold the energy. When in there studying how people works, I could see her form has similar spirit from Chinese calligraphy. Instead of design from a random hand drawing curves, the curves in her design are generated from straight lines, then filet the corners in different degrees. There was never any random in a good work, everything is controlled.

Even though the elegancy of some of her forms still intrigues me, I just wish there is more humanity aspect within the form. Her forms look nice when the scale fit in the paper or computer media; when it is in human scale, I can’t resonate with her harmony of energy. The best modern spaces with great energy flow in human scale I have been to are: Ando’s museums in Naoshima and Awajishima, Zumthor’s Thermal bath in Vals, and Snohetta’s Oslo Opera house. Those buildings not only fulfill the aspects of human perception in all senses but also connect the spirit of earth and sky.  

Shopping Mall Design Task

Recently the group joined a competition in S.E. China for a mixed-use building, with retail, office, hotel, and garden. I was assigned to participate in the shopping mall portion of the design.

When contemplating what shopping malls should be like, here are the starting points:

Shopping malls should be:

-      - Infinite loop, no dead end

-     -  Clear circulation pattern, visible and at the same time easy for people to understand the space.

-      - Introduce natural light, greens into the space.

-       -What is the sequence of space?

-       -What kind of experience would u like to create?

-      - Any specific ancient/existing geographical fixtures in this province?

With these thoughts and questions in mind, here are the analyses of shopping mall evolution through out the history period:

In the past, “shopping malls” are appearing as the market form.  They are usually grounded to earth. Because of their ground-spirited, “shopping malls” are perfectly in human scale. The developments of ancient “shopping malls” are usually developed from a corner/intersection, to a street, then to a district.

When international modernism taken place during 30s, buildings become mass-produced, and then they become current “shopping malls”: They are couple-storey-buildings with one or multiple openings/atrium in the middle. Main circulation is usually located around the openings. To distinguish between successfully shopping mall from not so populated ones, I think there are these aspects:

1.     Clear and regular circulation path that is easy to be understood to visitors. Human being has the will to control, to comprehend the environment they are in. If the circulation is sprinkled around without visibility, the space would feel as a maze. When the sense of control cannot be accomplished, this space would be uncomfortable for the most groups.

2.     It is in human scale, or it is divided and fit in human scale.

3.     Introduce the connection of earth and sky by introducing natural light into the space.

4.     Shape of the openings.

The future trend of shopping mall would be the vertical version, or the stack version of 1^st period; plus the 2^nd type of main circulation. In other words, the scale of shopping mall is divided into pockets of clusters, with integration of gardens on different levels. There is a hierarchy of scale: from each cluster(could be a floor or 2 floors) which shares a garden and secondary vertical circulation, to the main atrium that tight up the space as a whole. In this period, shopping mall re-introduce human beings back to nature, as well as back to social interaction that is lacked off in the current period. 

Rhythm, Harmony, and Proportion

In modern architecture, there are always the unspoken rules on what is in proportion. When the design is not base on mathematical arrangement, how did architects/designers evaluate what is a good design?

In music, the variation of harmony can be distinguished by listening, or most obviously, while learning. There are different definitions of harmony. For example, Chopin way of putting harmony together is totally different than how Bach does. Chopin uses his harmony in a very rich way. In other words, every chord combination is perfect. His notes always look dense, his chord-spans are usually close to human extreme (same with Liszt and Rachmaninoff); therefore it looks difficult to learn. However, surprisingly, when learning his new piece, every moment is in harmony, you would know this chord is right without mis-reading from his dense notes. In this way, even though Chopin notes are looks much more complicated than Bach, learning his piece is easier since your ears instruct hands to learn this piece. It makes the learning process pleasant because the happiness of conquer appears right away. While for Bach, especially for fugue, piano learners can easily lose the patience of learning. The piece looks less dense than Chopin of course, but his harmony is in movement instead of solid chords; in other words, his harmony is delayed and elongated. There are hardly any harmonized moments, but phrase instead. Harmony in Baroque music is by alternating the theme rhythm in different period. Learning a Baroque piece is totally different than any other classical music. There are at least 2 lines themes, or even 7 themes performing together. It is the themes that compliment each other. Since it lacks of moments in Bach fugue, learning is always difficult. You might have already familiarized one hand playing 4 themes, but putting both hands together playing totally difference harmony and rhythm is very challenging.

I personally think Oslo Opera House can represent Chopin or Rachmaninoff. It is elegant, pure, harmonized. Its beauty appears in asymmetric balance, like Chinese calligraphy. The harmony of materials (dark blue glazing and white marble) represent glacier. I feel purified  when walk through the space, as well as playing Chopin. For Baroque music, I have found similarities with Zaha buildings. In her drawings, there are always repetition of elements appears in different moments, and they have relation with each other at some points. Interweaving and flowing together as a whole. I guess these harmonized drawings and also due to the fact that she listen to Bach while designing.