ARCH1201 - Week 3 Notes:

ARCH1201 - Week 3 Notes:

Villa.

What do you notice about this historical masterpiece which was designed in 1929 to 1931. Colin Rose wrote a book regarding this house was continued to be printed up until 1990.

Consider the depths, power and thought of the house. It inspires inmaterialisation, that is, it hovers above the forest in part, but it is also buried in to the ground.

It also floats above to give the impression it is come from outer space. It calls into question all that we ever thought about houses. The use of materials to revolutionise us to mass production of houses. It was a house for all, not just for the rich. The design of the house is really 4 houses on top of each other.

As a metaphor for production of a new world. The house could also be called a piece of equipment. And the Villa is framing of a project into mathematical formulas. For example, the stairs with curved geometrical and mechanical attributes that talk you through space. The building floats as you float and parts of the building begin to lead you on a journey to the end.

The building is a triumph over nature. The final journey is to the upstairs open courtyard which is the centre of the house, with a roof garden with all the living space of this open area. The house is inside and outside living which is unusual. The central courtyard at the top of the house gives you the feeling of length due to the long glazed doors and the table is situated on the outside but looks more like a table you would find inside the house. The openness gives you the impression that you are part of the landscape. The bathroom and the bowl at the front of the house are sculptures and the bowl is risen to give enjoyment.

Many different materials were used in the construction, but they are all rendered and painted white to give the form of 1 material. The appearance of the construction being all the same gives the impression that it is a system that can be always apply and it is a system for life.

The complete  complex.

        1. Difficult;
        2. Contrary;
        3. Generous;

Bordeaux House.

The house was designed with different materials, each with a different element. Look at the fire places in the Villa which are very plain and simple and form part of the house, whereas the fireplace in the Bordeaux House are a strong element with different materials.

This house also has vertical and horizontal elements with lots of weaving to give the impression of work. This building shows a richness of texture and colour to give an appearance of a strong building.

It is a complex building with rich colours, rendered to give it a skin but each skin has a different colour.

The garden is different in that it has been moulded into colour to reflect the building.

This house is designed around living and is also 3 houses, one on top of the other. The lower level being cave-like, the top house divided into 2, one for the owners and once the children and the middle is the main part of the house, bringing it all together. The middle house is very open and stretches to both.

The lower level has vertical aspects in that an elevator is used more like a platform rather than an elevator. The reason why the elevator was so much part of the construction is that the owner of the house was in a wheelchair, but rather than a conventional elevator a platform was used and the platform can stop at different levels of the house, which then changes the aspect from being in the kitchen, going up to the library and going up to the upper level of the house etc.

The Gehry House.

It is harsh and rough to give it a freshness of physical and rough energy which can be seen from the drawings which also create rough energy.

The pink bungalow has been framed as a picture and the extensions wrap the house in parts of the building are objects of contemplation. Gehry has chosen rough materials in an attempt to excite the visitor by the building.

The building is to give the impression that it is not finished, which generates the energy that you receive on a partly constructed building site. The energy of going onto completion. The energy of doing. The window is being used to capture the outside light post, so the night life can permeate the house.

The house uses different windows and different glasses to give different perspectives from each of the windows. The angled window also captures the cactus to give it a picture like position.

Summary.

Villa. Abstract, floating above the forest, all of one material, the basin and bathroom are items of sculpture and forming part of the house, windows are such that they create pictures.

Bordeaux house. Brown, heavy house looking, out of dirt, not pure, physical, dirty and strong, realistic, forming part of the landscape, furniture and curtains are of a different era and are a statement in itself. The structure is heavy and looking through the holes give a different perspective of the surrounding view.