Above: Axonometric drawings of the design

Below: Plans 1:100



Below: Sections 1:100



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Following images: 1-50 isolated section model of the building








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Following images: 1-100 model of the building + site + surrounding buildings

As part of the final submission for ARCH1201 Project 2, an architectural proposition exploring the relationship between a public and a private activity and an imagined landscape is presented.

The following concept was predominantly inspired by the architectural program of Rem Koolhaas' Bordeaux House (1998), as well as another earlier work of his, House In The Forest (1994). The program is simple enough; a residence for an artist set in an idyllic forest landscape. But the 'residence', as it were, serves dual private and public functions; it is private in the conventional sense that it is a home and workplace for the artist, but public in that there is an exhibition space on within the architecture where public events are hosted by the artist.

Like the Bordeaux House, the program is split across three levels: a lower floor set into the earth with a distinctive skylight on the opposite side to provide natural light; the middle floor serves as the exhibition space; and the upper floor, bound by an inverted u-beam and truss frame element, is reserved for domestic and private programmatic needs.

This is the third and final set in a three-part series of iterative studies exploring the relationship between program + specific aspects of architectural articulation in Rem Koolhaas' Bordeaux House.













Study 2: Psychological relationships between different zones of use.

This is the second set in a three-part series of iterative studies exploring the relationship between program + specific aspects of architectural articulation in Rem Koolhaas' Bordeaux House.


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 analytical drawing unpacks the facades and then attempts to envision a variety of roles the different parts of the facade play within the overall architectural program. A bold dichotomy between the internal and the external is the dominant theme; the facade is the architectural articulation of the limit of the world as known to the inhabitant of the architecture.



Study 2: The psychological relationship between different zones of use (programmatic functions).

This simple set of one-point perspectives looking down into the interior of the architecture allows the distinctive variations in psychological attitudes projected by the program to be read clearly. The upper floor has a clear sense of privacy, with vertical and horizontal elements separating private zones between members of the same family. The middle floor, the most fascinating of the three, is a sublime architectural environment bounded by glass and a minimal set of metal vertical panels. It is a transitional area, caught between the upper and lower floors, yet its simple materiality and freeform plan invites the individual to stop and consider why this floor seems so different from the other two. Finally the lower floor, cut into the earth, has a much more explicit relationship between solid-void to articulate the variety of domestic programmatic functions one would expect to occur here; cooking and cleaning, storage and utility, dining, and watching the television. It is the least romantic floor, inviting the inhabitants to look elsewhere for a more meaningful architectural environment; either of the two upper floors would be suitable.




Study 3: The relationship between structural strategy and program.

This analytical drawing attempts to understand the significance of the unique structural system by highlighting it within its architectural context and explicitly connecting the visual imagery with a keyword related to the human structural anatomy. In this way, the structural architecture is 'personified', allowing the program to be read more clearly; an architectural proposition that seeks to liberate the inhabitant from his own disabilities. Another consequence is that the floor plates, once again, can be read as floating elements within the overall program; their programmatic function is freed from structural concerns, producing exciting possibilities for a pure marriage between form and function.

This is the first set in a three-part series of iterative studies exploring the relationship between program + specific aspects of architectural articulation in Rem Koolhaas' Bordeaux House.


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 is an interesting architectural aspect to explore because of the rich diversity in facades and openings present in the Bordeaux House. There are opaque, transparent, semi-transparent elements; concrete, glass, and metal elements; circular versus floor-to-ceiling openings. In the initial exploratory study below, the three distinct horizontal striations of facade types are explicitly expressed. By delineating the facade types so explicitly, the architecture's program as 'three houses stacked on top of each other' can be read plainly.






Study 2: The psychological relationship between different zones of use (programmatic functions).

This is an interesting architectural aspect to explore because the Bordeaux House is famous for being satisfying to its inhabitants beyond aesthetic and technological contexts. A rich interplay between different programmatic zone types creates a diverse range of psychological experiences. In the study below, the focus is on the relationship between the two 'separated' houses (one for the adults, the other for the children) on the top floor of the house. Their physical separation is masked by the contiguous beam that wraps around that floor, but is explicitly revealed in this illustration. The vertical circulation is mirrored; an elevator platform and cantilevered staircase on the left, and a spiral staircase in a circular column on the right. On the left, there is a glass open-air balcony; on the right, the most distinctive opening is a peculiar circular opening in the facade. Psychologically, the two opposing zones affords two distinctly different experiences within the same architectural context; an element of the 'parti' for the program was to create a complex building, because it would be the extent of the world for its disabled inhabitant; the distinct psychological variations between spaces is evidence of this expressed in architectural terms.






Study 3: The relationship between structural strategy and program.

In the intial exploratory study, a simple model seeks to simplify - in the most basic of elements - the architectural strategy of the house. The model aims to express two observations: the bizarre structural system as an artform/sculpture in itself; and the spatial freedom afforded by floor plates free of structural columns or beams. The appearance of such an architectural composition is wonderfully-liberating and comforting all at the same time.

The model below illustrates the bizarre structural system, as well as the freedom this affords the floor plates. This 'liberation by structure' means that the interior space is free to be dictated by programmatic, rather than structural, requirements.

1:100 Bordeaux House, Project 1

Ground Floor

The plan cuts through earth, glass, concrete, and steel. A glass threshold separates the courtyard from the working interiors of this lowest floor; a space characterized by a wall geometry that synthesizes rectilinear with curvilinear elements. On this floor the vertical circulatory system terminates; the staircase to the rear of the elevator; the elevator; the staircase to the middle floor; and the circular staircase. It is the architectural interface through which the building's occupants begin their interaction with the building.



Middle Floor

The middle floor is the most peculiar of them all. Its walls are not really walls, but panes of glass; This plane is intersected by two key structural elements; the cross beam to the rear of the elevator, and the spiral staircase. There is a transient quality to this floor that reinforces circulation to the levels above and beyond.



Top Floor

The top floor is interesting because from the exterior it reads as a singular mass, with an apparently singular volume within. But the plan reveals a dichotomy between singularity and pluralism; the top floor is actually a dual set of interior spaces; one, accessible by the elevator, for the mother and father; the other, accessible by the spiral staircase, for the children of the family. Porthole-like windows slicing through the external facade create exciting and peculiar opportunities for viewing out, as well as allowing light to enter the internal spaces at strange and conspicious angles.




Axonometric

The axonometric clearly conveys the playful, delightful, and charismatic form of the building. A diverse set of building elements and geometries produce a wonderful architectural display.



Cross Section

The cross section allows the structural elements to be read clearly in elevation, highlighted here in a bold red that is sympathetic to their real-world importance to the design.



Longitudinal Section

The relationship between the major parts of the house here are clearly articulated; solid-void, materiality, circulation, mass, are the key relationships that can be read. The building's distinct relationship with the natural landscape is also explicitly conveyed.