Author: rileynoble49

The project I chose was the Quinta Monroy designed by Alejandro Aravena. Aravena was featured in the film Urbanized, as the architect and designer for low income housing in Iquique Chile. The main goal of this project was to provide housing for people previously living in makeshift slums without sacrificing a good location. Quinta Monroy explores the idea of expansion architecture and applies it to the social issues of poverty and overpopulation. The project essentially is to build half a house that can comfortably suit a family, but can also be expanded upon in terms of both space and functionality. Elemental, the firm headed by Aravena, built the more challenging structural parts of the house, and allowed the families to construct the rest of the house as they were able to afford more amenities and as their needs changed. While Urbanized doesn’t mention this specific project, they give the example of being able to afford only a water heater or a bathtub. Many of the architects assumed that families would prefer a water heater, but the families themselves preferred a bathtub. This idea of “participatory design” as the documentary puts it is important in providing people with a space they can inhabit and thrive in. This is an extremely creative and practical way to allow people to lift themselves out of poverty with a limited budget. Quinta Monroy provides cheap yet still aesthetically minimalist architecture through concrete and wood, all while addressing multiple social issues.

My main theme for my project was to create maximum structural efficiency. I accomplished this by interlacing identically cut cardboard squares in order to use the vertical strength of the cardboard as well as distribute the force of me sitting onto multiple joints. Originally, my idea was to think of the materiality of cardboard in a different way by using cardboard pulp as a sort of glue in between layers of cardboard, which would be supported internally by long tubes of empty wrapping paper rolls. However, I both didn’t have enough cardboard as well as not enough time to construct every layer while letting it dry. With the new structurally efficient design, I was able to use much less cardboard while retaining similar strength properties. While I was sacrificing some aesthetics of the stool, I still tried to provide a relatively minimalist look while incorporating column-like attributes.

One of the main decisions I had to make was how far in to make the insertions for the other pieces to fit. The weight needed to be relatively evenly distributed and symmetrical to ensure the structure would not collapse. However, I also considered where specifically on the chair the weight would be distributed according to human anatomy, and concluded that there are two main points the butt (for lack of a better word) makes contact with the chair. Therefore, I did not make the incisions in a perfect grid form, and instead put slightly more cardboard where the weight is being concentrated. This ends up distributing the pressure in the joints slightly more evenly in order to allow the stool to last longer.

I have finished the construction of my stool and while I didn’t have enough cardboard for my original design, I was able to construct a stool with a grid-type architecture to ensure stability. My main goal with this stool was to provide maximum strength within a lightweight frame, making the grid design perfect for this project.

The electrical box sits quietly in the back corner of the basement, waiting in times of disaster. For when power outages hit our neighborhood. It is masked by a white cabinet that attempts to beautify the underground bedroom it sits in. However, the bedroom is not in isolation, the wires from that box connect the entire house, making it bright. The cabinets beautify an item that beautifies other things. It is the end of the loop in a house of decoration. The basement brings this beauty to the tip of negative space, where light is able to highlight the diagonal beams running through the ceiling. This gives way to an eye catching asymmetry in the main hallway. Even though the hidden beams and the electrical box are in completely different spaces, they depend on each other for both support and lighting. They are a perfect couple in a complex system called home. The same beam that makes the ceiling possible, is supported by a large metal pole, decorated in wood and paint. Without the pole running through almost the entire house, neither the diagonal pole nor the electric box can do its job. As kids, we played around the pole, ignoring the protectiveness it provides for us. Without these details, our house wouldn’t be what it is. A complex system of beams, columns, and wires make up what I call home.

For my building, I chose The Mountain which is an apartment building designed by Bjarke Ingels. Apart from the professional design of the building, many other professional techniques were used to comprehend and construct the building. Some of the fields of study I think were necessary in the entire process of conceiving and constructing this building are computer science, environmental science, materials science, structural physics, advanced geometry, anthropology, business relations, and basic industrial construction. These different fields of study are all necessary to be able to create a building from start to finish. While architecture focuses mainly on the design of the building, these other fields can be just as important to architects, as they have to design the building around other principles rather than just aesthetics. These different fields (some of which are required for a proper education in architecture) help provide a more well rounded curriculum for architects to be able to understand what they are designing.

I think that an environmental structures course within the architecture curriculum would be extremely beneficial especially for modern architects to be environmentally conscious through joining the natural world and the artificial world in which we create buildings  and infrastructure. With climate change becoming more and more of a world problem. Architects need to be able to adapt to a changing world while also preserving some of the traditional values in architecture such as space and structure. The course would mainly consist of looking at how different organisms are able to build structures as well as how we can limit the ecological impact of those structures. Additionally, the course should look at the aesthetics of nature and how that can be integrated into modern architecture.

My project theme was “workspace”, as I tried to find letters in and around spaces in which I worked. I mainly used my room as well as the hall lounge for my photos, as I tried to keep my work to a specific space in order to further portray the spaces in which I work.

These two drawings are both of Therme Vals by Peter Zumthor which we looked at earlier. The first drawing is more of an artistic rendition of the building, while the second picture depicts more of the practical uses of the different spaces in the building. Additionally, in the first drawing, the spaces are easy to see in terms of the dark shaded areas, as well as how they’re defined by domain. The second picture describes domain in terms of open space and being closed around strict walls.

I took my domain picture in the dorm lounge on our floor. People often use this domain to do their homework and relax after classes. For the most part, only our hall uses it even though the door is open and anyone can walk in. Even more surprising is that not all halls have a lounge, meaning that theoretically there should be even more of an incentive for people from other floors to come use our lounge. However, there is a sense of identity that is associated with ones dorm hall, and that is expressed through the name of the hall right outside our lounge. The name outside is able to deter people from entering the lounge because they don’t feel it’s theirs to use. I’m facing the east door of the domain, and what I can see are chairs, couches, and tables all thoughtfully arranged to encourage a collaborative environment while also prioritizing comfort in the way and material in which the furniture is built. However, there is a sharp contrast between the soft, rounded edges of the fluffy chairs, and the hard, sharp geometry of the plastic chairs. Rasmussen writes, “When we see a spherical object we do not simply note its spherical shape. While observing it we seem to pass our hands over it in order to experience its various characteristics.” (18) While the room has strict boundaries that are clearly defined as walls, the interior of the room also has boundaries and domains that are not as clear. For example, the domain in which the man in the green sweatshirt demands is much larger than the domain of each of the women pictured behind him. The personal domain is more of a product of culture and comfortability, and the room tries to tighten some of those domains by forcing people to decrease proximity to each other at tables. However, this ideal is somewhat broken down because we can see through the picture that the man in the green sweatshirt is sitting alone at a table designed for 4, and it is unlikely that a stranger will enter his domain for fear of being nosy or not polite. This idea relates to Levine’s writing as he says, “Human creations transform this natural world to accommodate the needs and desires of human beings.” (35) The human creation of the lounge was meant as a leisure space so students who desired a low volume space could be satisfied.