Precedent Studies

Musée d’Orsay



The transformation of the station into a museum was accomplished by ACT architecture group, made up of M. Bardon, M. Colboc and M. Philippon. Their project was chosen in 1979 out of six propositions, and would respect Laloux's architecture while nonetheless reinterpreting it according to its new function. The project highlighted the great hall, using it as the main artery of the visit, and transformed the magnificent glass awning into the museum's entrance.

The museum has been organised on three levels: on the ground floor, galleries are distributed on either side of the central nave, which is overlooked by the terraces of the median level, these in turn opening up into additional exhibition galleries. The top floor is installed above the lobby, which covers the length of the Quai, and continues into the highest elevations of the former hotel, over the rue de la Légion d'Honneur (formerly rue de Bellechasse).

The museum's specific exhibition spaces and different facilities are distributed throughout the three levels: the pavilion Amont, the glass walkway of the former station's western pinion, the museum restaurant (installed in the dining hall of the former hotel), the Café des Hauteurs, the bookshop and the auditorium.

Metropol Hotel

The design of the Metropol Hotel results both from the respect to the context of Narodni trida –“The National Avenue” – as well as from the vision of a contemporary vibrant downtown with metropolitan palaces, cafés, restaurants and shops facing the street and all other things that support and accelerate modern urban life. Thus, the entire ground floor of the hotel is reserved for an urban café and restaurant which can be fully connected to the street by use of large-size automatically lifted glass panels.

The hotel is draped in a unique fully glazed high-tech façade, a decking, fluently curved at the top. Depending on the intensity of sunlight, the façade is automatically shaded by the use of motor-operated textile awnings which retract in high winds. The windows close automatically in case of rain or when a guest leaves the room. Upon opening them the heating and cooling are automatically regulated. Large-sized glazing allows stunning views of the city. The constant changeability of the multiple layers of the façade adds to the active part the building plays on one of Prague’s most exclusive and eventful streets.

Museum of Water by MID Estudio, Palencia, Spain

“Boxes” hanging from the skylight go down to light up exclusively the sheet of water achieving a more tenuous and quiet space.

Spanish architects MID Estudio have converted an old grain store in Palencia, Spain, into a museum by blocking up windows and door with metallic and wood boxes on the roof and facade. Called Museo del Agua (Museum of Water), the building has been renovated to house a reception area, and temporary and permanent exhibition spaces.

The creation of the Museum of Water has made it possible to refurbish one of the stores in the dock. The building has a rectangular floor measuring 62,4×10,3m, concrete load-bearing walls with a brick sheet on the outer side and a repetitive rhythm both of doors and windows. Wooden trusses with metallic straps form the roof´s structure.

The proposal links the abstract content of the museum to the neutral continent by means of architectural language. A skylight which goes along the ridge of the roof gives sense to the different spaces of the museum bringing and qualifying light into each of them and providing the building of meaning. The skylight is superposed to the pre-existing structure but does not alter it and gets accommodated to its rigorous modulation. That way, both structures, the new one and the old one, complement each other. “Boxes” pending from the skylight bring light inside.

The program is divided in three areas: a reception area with administration and services, a temporary exhibition area and the permanent exhibition area. The building is long and narrow so it establishes a sequential route along the spaces where the visitor always discovers them in the same order.

After the access and the reception there is an exempt piece covered in glass so that it dematerializes with a game of reflections. It holds the administration, facilities, toilets and a small store. The visitor should walk around it to access the exhibition area of the museum. The light from the skylight reflects on its cover.

The space for temporary exhibitions is diaphanous and versatile and multiple activities such as exhibitions, conferences, etc can be held on it. The light coming from the skylight, changing throughout the day and the seasons, enters freely through it.

A sheet of water starts at the end of the temporary exhibition area and crosses the permanent exhibition space, situated at the end of the route, compelling the visitor to surround it. “Boxes” hanging from the skylight go down to light up exclusively the sheet of water achieving a more tenuous and quiet space.

At the same time, the permanent exhibition which will be carried out via interactive audiovisuals will be projected onto those boxes´ surface. The tangible presence of the water moving and the sound that it generates are part of the sensory experience of the museum.

Doors and windows of the existing building are now occupied by metallic and wooden devices. They are designed, like the skylight on the roof is, to drive and filter the light or to direct the visitor´s gaze to the water surface of the dock, as well as to create small spaces which now have the shape of peculiar bow windows where people on a visit can take a break.

Photographs are by Helena Velez Olabarria.
Via Dezeen

http://archide.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/museo-del-agua-by-mid-estudio-palencia-spain/

Art Dealer and Artists

The Artist:
I chose the Australian artist Robert Owen. He has been characterized for the use of diverse materials and approaches that are linked through a poetic sensitivity to the expressive potential of materials, light and colour.

The Artwork:
The artwork is based around the work of Robert Owen, in particular Cadence #1 which focuses on the span of time using diverse colours.
BUT the gallery also accommodates for modern paintings and sculpture.
In general, it is a neutral gallery for modern artists and artwork.



Characteristics of the Art Dealer:
He is a very rich and well educated man.
He is not afraid of being seen and wants to show off his collections.
He likes communicating with visitors to the gallery.
He wants to make it a space for gossip or a focal point of Newtown.

Narrative:
A neutral and modern gallery for a well educated man who wants to create a space for gossip.

Final Submission

As inspired by project 1, which I did analysis on Utzon's Villa Can Feliz. I adopted three platforms in my developed scheme, namely the lowest platform for contemplation, the middle platform for working and writing, and the highest platform for private space.
(can be seen in Base Floor Plan and Section)


The material for walls is concrete. By creating certain openings on the walls. It makes people understand that it is about space, not concrete; light within the space and how the space receives the light.

Final Model

Model overview

Play of Light

Place for contemplation

Sectional model

Open-close view

Intermediate Submission Plan Section Axonometric

Critiques:
The tower may be taller to exaggerate a sense of sublime.

The drawing conventions used may not be correct.

Certain wall cut in the plan is not reasonable.(like the space beside the staircase)

Cut patterns of the Rock(earth) is not architectural, should be using a more realistic pattern or photoshop the sections.

Notice what happens in the connection between the wall and the roof.(junction details)

Poche drawings should be presented on opaque paper rather than tracing paper.




Some other thoughts:

We should keep in mind that this is not exclusively a form making exercise - it is an exercise in forming interior spaces

Even though this is not a form making exercise, there will be significant emphasis on form because composition of forms is essential to the formation of enclosure and composition of forms will often produce interesting conditions of gaps/openings/void/shafts/chasms that might provide the light/view quality you want

So, we might need to think of COMPOSITIONAL strategies like folding, stacking, carving, shifting, arranging and so on.

Developing my Scheme

Precendent Studies and Site Analysis

Site options (taken from Anuradha Chatterjee 2008 blogsite)
Our project might

1 set on the side of a cliff face

2 set in a valley

3 submerged into a sloping hill or cut into it to join two roads at an upper or lower level

4 bridging a creek or a river

5 set at the waterfront (harbor or river)

6 inserted into an existing urban fabric or a building or set in an empty car park


My final model is cut into a sloping hill in Katoomba, which is the largest town in the Blue Mountains and is home to the famous Three Sisters.



I looked at Tadao Ando's architecture mainly for my precedent. The first picture is the Church of light, notice how the openings on the wall bring light to the room. The wall casts a cross of light down the aisle. I also looked at his Place for Contemplation in Paris and Koshino House. All of the buildings use concrete as the material for the walls. Concrete has a hostile sense to Japanese people. It had to bring a sense of softness and refinement. Ando was trying to make people understand that it is about space, not concrete; light within the space and how the space receives the light. This is exactly what I want to present in this project.

I also gained inspiration from a 2008 student who used corrugated paper as materials for site making. First I tried to use Hebel block which is a kind of soft concrete material but I found it hard to shape without any professional tool and it produced a lot of dust. Then I found corrugated paper best fit here for it has a very representative cut pattern for the rock. And by stacking up corrugated paper layer by layer, a beautiful section can be revealed.

Project 2 18th century Dutch Painting

Johannes Vermeer - The Astronomer
The painting is a portrait of an astronomer in his office, examine a globe. The astronomer is seated by a glass window, the only source of light in an otherwise dark room. This direct light diffuses throughout the room, replacing any stark shadows with a gentle 'glow'. Architectural features of the room seen are somewhat plain and unassuming.
With a book open on his desk, he reached for the globe, staring past it with a facial expression which reveals that he may just made a great discovery.

The globe, the light from the window, and the dark, floral-patterned cloth that drapes the front edge of the table, are the key pictorial and symbol objects.

The globe may represent equilibrium, perfection, the universe.

The light may indicate inspiration from the God.

The cloth may be seen as struggles of human life because the folds and patterns of leaves and blossoms are in all variations of darkness.


The composition Vermeer's painting is divided right through the middle into an upper and lower zone by a nearly horizontal line. I came up with the idea of Upper and Lower.

My Narrative is
"A tower for a man of science who is contemplating, in sensitive, the meaning and purpose of life via the stars."