Project Information Architect:

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Client:

German Republic for German Pavilion, 1929 International Exposition

Location:

Avinguda Marques de Comilla, Montjuic, Barcelona, Spain

Completed:

May 1929, rebuilt September 1986

Area:

1630 square metres

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Site Description

Student Projects Barcelona Pavilion K. Nathan Russell, Jessica Gilmore

The Pavilion was part of the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain, located on one of the narrow ends of the perpendicular axis. The plot was framed by dense shrubbery and small trees and positioned near a wall of the Alfonso XIII Palace. The axis continued behind the Pavilion up a flight of stairs leading to the Spanish Village, a popular attraction at the exposition. The positioning of the Pavilion was an important factor in the conception of the building as a “place to linger in” as it was set away from the general bustle but providing a direct route to the Spanish Village. In 1930 the Pavilion was disassembled, later reconstructed in the sixties.

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Concept Development According to Sergius Ruemenberg, a one-time collaborator of Mies van der Rohe, the creation of a flexible working model was the beginning of the design process. Small planes of glass or celluloid and strips of cardboard covered in colored Japanese papers could be inserted into a base slab of plasticine. Rearranging these wall planes made conceptualizing a ground plan solution easy because the visual effect of any given alteration was quite apparent. Once a possible concept was modeled, a quick perspective scetch could document the idea.

It can be assumed that a whole series of studies preceded the working models, sketches that were discarded once they were no longer needed. Mies van der Rohe likely had the concept of a pavilion in mind before using the working model, as hinted at by the use of Japanese papers to imitate marble and snips of celluiod to represent glass. A large influence on the size of the Pavilion was when Mies van der Rohe found a rare slab of onyx doré from the Atlas mountains in Morocco. The block of onyx was split twice, and the slabs, placed one over the other, determined the height of the pavilion (3.1 meters). 4

Student Projects Barcelona Pavilion

Materials The roof slab is supported on eight steel columns with cruciform cross sections encased in chromium-plated covers. The columns hold up the roof completely, freeing the walls of their typical load-bearin duties and allowing them to simply create space. The walls are now made of honey-colored golden onyx, green tinian marble and tinted and frosted glass. The only traverse wall is made of frosted glass, diffusing the light from the exterior throughout the interior. The use of glass blurred the exterior and interior space, turning the Pavilion into an artistic awareness space more than a structure. In the water court, one of the roofless demi-patios, stands a statue of a dancer by Georg Kolbe, titled “Dawn.” The terrace is paved with slabs of travertine marble about one meter square.

Furniture Mies van der Rohe’s furniture neither interrupted nor diminished the Pavilion’s function. It concentrates more on the conscious experience of self-reflection and withdrawl. As Philip Johnson said, “No other important contemporary architect cares so much about placing furniture. Mies gives as much thought to placing chairs in a room as other architects do to placing buildings around a square.”

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Student Projects Bibliography Blaser, W. (1994). Mies van der Rohe: The Art of Structure. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications. p. 26-35. Dodds, G. (2005). Building Desire: On the Barcelona Pavilion. Oxfordshire, Routledge. Kenchiku to Toshi 2003-001 No. 388, Journal A+U, Japan, A+U Publishing Co. 2003, p. 104-111 Quetglas, J. (2001) Fear of Glass: Mies van der Rohe’s Pavilion in Barcelona. Spain: Actar P Reuter, H., Schulte, B. (2008). Mies and Modern Living. Ostfildrn, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag. p. 145-147. Tegethoff, W. (1985). Mies van der Rohe: The Villas and Country Houses. New York: MIT Press Cambridge. p. 69-89.

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Project Information Architect: Charles Edouard Jeanneret Client: Savoye Family Location: Poissy-sur-Seine, France Completed: 1930 Cost: N/A Area: N/A

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Student Projects Villa Savoye Project Description

Lauren Rice, Tyler La Monda

Villa Savoye is a monument to the modern architecture movement. Villa Savoye unifies his grand process of creatively designing throughout his life. It is evidence of perfection and simplicity. Villa Savoye illustrates with extreme accuracy and incorporates most conscientiously his ‘Five Points of a New Architecture’, which he created in 1925. The five points include “the pilotis; the roof garden; the free plan; the long window; and the free façade.” Essentially, Villa Savoye defined Corbusier’s architecture. In the short history of Villa Savoye it was nearly destroyed after WWII when it was commandeered by the Germans, and almost fell to its demise and deteriorated. Later saved by the Minister of Culture, Mr. Andre Malraux helped preserve the house as a national monument and restored it to its current condition.

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Technical Aesthetics The columns, or pilotis, of the building are defined by a system of walls independent of the structure. The exterior walls enclose the structure with a relatively simple symmetrical form in dialogue with the asymmetrical interior organization. The pilotis enables Corbusier to create the open floor plan and free façade. The strip windows exist in an arrangement which allows a non-alignment of column and plan grids and establishes a system free of the requirements of structure and circulation, yet creating a tension between them. The roof garden is a key component in the integration of the organic environment and architectural elements. The roof is meant to be a living space, but do you think you would fall off?

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Site Documentation and Analysis Villa Savoye Design Approach Le Corbusier’s understanding and appreciation for the machine and the development of technical spaces was an inspiration to his design of Villa Savoye. Previous to this project, he had three compositions in which he built upon the principles to produce the fourth and final composition – the Villa Savoye. About the site he said, “It is a magnificent property shaped by a large pasture and orchard forming a dome-like rise encircled by a belt of full grown trees.” The surroundings and structure are incorporated together by allowing the natural spaces to flow through it with ease. However, the structure itself does not blend with the surroundings. It successfully separates itself form the environment through its architectural and technical elements while still allowing accents from the outlining topography and vegetation to interact.

Four Compositions a rather easy type picturesque full of movement can be completely disciplined by classification and hierarchy very difficult (to satisfy the spirit)

very easy convenient combing very generous on the exterior an architectural will is confirmed on the interior all functional needs are satisfied (light penetration, coninuity, circulation)

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Precedences Villa Savoye Bibliography Barford, George. Understanding Modern Architecture. Vol. 1. Worcester, Massachusetts: Davis Publications, Inc, 1986. N. pag. Print. 1 vols. Curtis, William R. Modern Architecture Since 1900. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Regent's Wharf, United Kingdom: Phaidon Press Limited, 1987. 275-85. Print. 1 vols. Colquhoun, Alan. Modern Architecture. Vol. 1. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. N. pag. Print. 1 vols. Meier, Richard. “Le Corbusier Villa Savoye, Poissy, France. 1929-31.” Global Architecture 1.13 (1972). Print.

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Overview Architect:

Shigeru Ban Architects

Location:

Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan

Area:

167.5 sq. meters

Budget:

$200,000

Completed:

November 2000

Intended Use: Residential, Family of 5

Axonometric View

Entrance Facade at Night



Site Description

Precedence Study Naked House Josh Weber, Jeremy Larsen

The house is located amid a cluster of greenhouses surounded by rice paddies and fields that extend for kilometers in all directions. It is near the Shingashi River nearly 20 kilometers north of Tokyo. The surrounding buildings on the site strongly influenced Shigeru in his design. This can been seen in the green house look that the house has taken on.

Plan View

Corigated Plastic & Textile Membrane

Nylon Membrane Wall Lining

Site Plan

Concept Development The client asked Ban to design an open layout for his family, void of any isolation. Ban’s creation ties the old Japanese design with modern architecture. Translucent walls, similar to shoji screens surround the house and sliding walls act as a skin for the rooms. Ban took the Japanese technique of open layouts a step further by designing four cardboard rooms, mounted on casters. These mobile rooms, with tatami mats padding the floor, can be arranged in any order by the clients family, inside and outside the house. The only fixed elements of the house are 1.5 bathrooms and kitchen and storage rooms.

Mobile Rooms with Tatami Mats

Interior Layout Variations

Interior Variation



Construction

Precedence Study Naked House Josh Weber, Jeremy Larsen

Wall Section Detail

The exterior frame is made of wood studs with two layers of corrugated fiberglass-reinforced plastic. Removing the interior nylon membrane panels reveals the air pocket acting as insulation, together with 500 plastic bags stuffed with synthetic fire retardent fibres. A drop ceiling conceals the roofs 34 trusses. Sticking to the open layout, Ban designs the east and west facades to open completely. The materials used on the house allows light to immerse the interior in a “low-level, even glow - a way of controlling light that is anchored in Japanese culture and has been employed for many centuries in the traditional paper walls.”1

Cross Section

Interior

Interior Variation

Interior Variation

East Exterior

Bibliography 1

Precedence Study Naked House



Jeska, Simone (2008). Transparent Plastics: Design and Technology. Basel/Boston/Berlin: Birkhauser Verlag AG

Josh Weber, Jeremy Larsen

McQuaid, Matilda (2003). SHIGERU BAN. New York: Phaidon Pollock, Naomi (2001, April 13). Amid rice paddies, Shigeru Ban creates NAKED HOUSE, a luminous, translucent shed with moving rooms. Architectural Record, 148. Ban, Shigeru (2009) Naked House. Retrieved September 17, 2009 from Shigeru Ban Architects web site: http://www.shigerubanarchitects. com/SBA_WORKS/SBA_HOUSES/SBA_HOUSES_24/SBA_Houses_24.html

Permanent Elements, Closet and Laundry