Study 1: The relationship between formal devices; i.e. facades, openings, geometries, etc. and program - that is, the relationship between overall form/appearance and program.
This final model is essentially a precise three-dimensional map of the facades, openings, and geometries sans the three floor plates. Viewing the entire architectural composition free of the floor planes allows the delicate and precise relationships between the facades and openings across the three levels to be explicitly made visually-apparent. It is made visible that certain combinations of facades and openings frame,in spatial terms, the context of programmatic functions; intimate functions on the top level, free-form living functions in the middle floor, and pragmatic domesticity in the lowest floor. The overall appearance is dictated by an interplay of three distinct striations of facade and opening types in sympathy with the mode of living intended by the architectural program.
Study 2: Psychological relationships between different zones of use.
The architectural portfolio of Rem Koolhaas and OMA is distinct for its often-explicit articulation of program. This is true both for large- and small-scale projects, as well as across a range of sectors such as residential and commercial; interesting examples include the Seattle Central Library (2004), CCTV Building (2008), and Villa Dall'Ava (1991). The Bordeaux House also exhibits a distinctive architectural articulation of different zones of use - that is to say, programmatic function - that produce exciting possibilities for psychological interpretation.
The model below uses bold colours to emphasize the different zones of use, monochromatic geometric forms to represent the critical circulatory elements that link the zones of use, as well as thin frame-like elements to explicitly define the important voids in the architecture. Immediately, a range of psychological relationships can be appreciated: the structured architectural program defined for the parents standing in ordered opposition to the whimsical treehouse-like program produced for the children; another, the domesticity of the lowest floor sitting at the bottom of a visual hierarchy of programmatic functions; and the red zone, the 'heart of the architecture', situated in a delicate balance bound by contrasting programmatic zones of use as well as an explicit vertical void situated in the geometric centre of the architecture.
The model below uses bold colours to emphasize the different zones of use, monochromatic geometric forms to represent the critical circulatory elements that link the zones of use, as well as thin frame-like elements to explicitly define the important voids in the architecture. Immediately, a range of psychological relationships can be appreciated: the structured architectural program defined for the parents standing in ordered opposition to the whimsical treehouse-like program produced for the children; another, the domesticity of the lowest floor sitting at the bottom of a visual hierarchy of programmatic functions; and the red zone, the 'heart of the architecture', situated in a delicate balance bound by contrasting programmatic zones of use as well as an explicit vertical void situated in the geometric centre of the architecture.
Study 3: The relationship between structural strategy and program.
This abstract model was intended to convey, in elemental and visually-exaggerated terms, the character and 'personality' of the structural system; a bold system of peculiar geometric and engineering elements that liberate the floor plan from structural functions. A particular 'moment' in the mode of living is abstracted by the series of red floor sections, allowing programmatic functions to be read in the context of structural articulation.
The structural strategy pushes the mode of living strongly in the direction of one defined by the vocabulary of liberation and freedom; the disabled resident, for whom the architecture was intended, must surely be greatly affected by an exciting and unique architectural context that challenges and defies the physiological realities he is forced to confront in more conventional architectural contexts.
This abstract model was intended to convey, in elemental and visually-exaggerated terms, the character and 'personality' of the structural system; a bold system of peculiar geometric and engineering elements that liberate the floor plan from structural functions. A particular 'moment' in the mode of living is abstracted by the series of red floor sections, allowing programmatic functions to be read in the context of structural articulation.
The structural strategy pushes the mode of living strongly in the direction of one defined by the vocabulary of liberation and freedom; the disabled resident, for whom the architecture was intended, must surely be greatly affected by an exciting and unique architectural context that challenges and defies the physiological realities he is forced to confront in more conventional architectural contexts.
