POINT EXPLORATIONS

As we come to and end of the semester we find ourselves closing with an interesting and very enlightening chapter of the class: EXPLORATIONS. We have gone through the units:Theories, Foundations, Alternatives, and Reflections. We have seen how each of these units transition into each other and we nowcome to a close with explorations in which all 4 of the previous combine together create. This unit touches on how as designers are exploring ideas and going back in the past to EXPAND on these past ideas to create new and better ones. Although the question of "are we looking backward or forward into the future come about, it is seen that past successes are looked at, and exploration of how to make them even more successful are becoming more popular, therefore focusing more on moving forward rather than back. We went into how the inspiration of new styles were not due to the past architecture, but the designers were beginning to grab their inspirations from art work. We see this in an example given by Patrick, in the Sydney Opera House by Utzon. This concert hall was created to be pleasing to the eye, imitating the sails on a sail boat, but as the surface is extremely interesting and eye catching, the main function of this building does was a failure; the sound programming. With this being an Opera House, the sound is an important factor. While the firmness and the delight are there, the function is very well not, leaving the Opera House to be really only a large piece of art.

http://www.destination360.com/australia-south-pacific/australia/sydney/sydney-opera-house

Next we learned about good design for all. When designing a space, building, place, ect. a good design has a function for all. One building we looked at was the chrysler building by William Van Alen. This building has a series of high-rises that stretch vertically to the sky. The material goes from stone to metal, giving a "starburst" effect when the light from the sun hits the top of the building. Due to rules, the building gets smaller and smaller as it goes up, seeming as though the building is one with the ground starting large and stone at the bottom and moving into being one with the sky, as it gets smaller and a more glistening top material. As seen through out there are windows in which the sun is used to light up the interior space.

http://wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/images/chrysler_empire_state_building_23march02.jpg

Another, and one of my favorites, we went over was the Villa Savoye, by Le Corbusier. He once said "A house is a machine for living - it should be as practical as a typewriter, a telephone, an automobile." In the Villa Savoye, he shows just this in making it like an car deck. He focused on how the place was like a machine and very literal in the way it was built. The white band is the main entertaining level. As he used a curvilinear wall that was painted darker on the bottom it is as if the place could fall at any minute. The Villa Savoye was pursued as a circulation device where as there are ramps throughout the house taking you from the bottom to the top. As you reach the top it is an open space, as if he took the ground and placed it on the roof. He wanted it to be more about the experience, therefore being a design for everyone to enjoy.

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/france/poissy/savoye/bannerindex.jpg

As we closed up this unit, and the semester, we finished with how the east meets the west, and how these days it seems to be as though the designers have less and less say, and it is becoming more about "keeping up the Jones" and making houses the way "we want it to look" rather than society. Closing on a simple reminder of "Always go to SUBSTANCE before SURFACE, it is and will always be more important."