16.3.12
Villa Müller - Drawings 1:200 @ A3
Garage/Basement Floor
Entrance Level
Raised Ground Level
First Floor
Roof Terrace
Long Section
Short Section/Axonometric
Villa Müller - Analyses
Site analysis
Site Circulation
Building circulation
Raumplan circulation
Raumplan spaces belonging to main living room/hall
Structural Components
Structural Components
Compositional Study
10.4.11
The First Moderns
Piranesi's spectral etchings combine precarious angles of view, changing vanishing points and the manipulation of representational truth. He defies the laws of perspective1 allegorizing to the function of 'Carceri'. Boull'ee argued, "the laws of optics and the effects of perspective give an impression of immensity"2. This is certainly conveyed in his 'Newton's Cenotaph', where the specks3 - that are the human beings are overpowered by the sheer volume created by the light and shade emulating a romantic belief in the power of simple geometric shapes.
The Cenotaphs's unwieldy character in absence of an urban sprawl evokes the majestic emptiness of nature which Boull'ee believed Newton had discovered4. Humanity is shown to have no sense of place in his domain, evoking a 'sublime grandeur' at odds with the unnerving and disturbing disposition5.
Considering the scale of the human figures an euphemism for the insignificance of the actual human body, it is also a critical observation a contrast rather than an analogy of the human body - a compositional strategy that eviscerates the classical theories. This contrast enhances the evolution of these sublime geometric forms, which Boull'ee implied could be found in nature.
Like his subjects Piranesi defied the law, of perspectives, which ironically provided freedom of expression. The overshadowed illustrations of human figures accentuate the impression of the theatrical maneuvering through the prison. Boull'ee creates a dramatic irony between his unassuming subjects and his megalomaniac structure. Posing the question of the actual relevance of their bodies being used as the analogy of the building itself. Their size is at odds with the gravity that has been ascribed to their archaic ideology.
Were they inadvertently creating parodies essaying to emulate the ancients? Where rhetoric is lost? There is no evident pathos between the human figures and the architecture as intended by Vitruvius or Michelangelo. Liberating ideas an allegory in context of the French Revolution where "the space of liberty pacified the revolutionary body"6.
1. J. Rykwert, The first moderns: the architects of the eighteenth century, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1980, p.375.
2-6. R. Sennet, Flesh and stone: the body and the city in Western civilization, New York: W.W. Norton, c1994, p293-296.
Image 1. Marksor, 'Boiteaoutils Architecture early-warning radar'
http://boiteaoutils.blogspot.com/2007/11/piranesi
'Carceri'
Image 2. Jide, 'Yesterday was not dull'
http://yesterdaywasnotdull.wordpress.com/2009/09
'Newton's Cenotaph'
1.8.10
Louis Kahn's Human Being & Decorum
Due to the failure of the International style aiming to minimize material as a response to the scarce economic era of Post WWII societies, Kahn disputed the loss of urbanity and fought to bring back a civic realm of the classical tradition. Kahn’s ideal city where by agreement institutions conversed with the individuals to sustain a culture and bring a balance between the crisis1 of flowing versus universal space2. Khan personifies the wall in his writing and in his architecture to evoke the decorous balance between these ideals. His reverie of Mozart3 implies an endorsement of the ancients for using analogy and etymological development to enhance the language of architecture.
This eternal4 ideal of human agreement in Kahn’s trope is adapted in the Kimbell Museum where forms of an institution5 are generated by agreement and conversation between the beholder, the institution and the exhibition work. Rendered diaphanous and insubstantial in his colour sketch of the interior, the human being is overwhelmed by the sublime6 force of light and energy that the interior is drowned in. This is opposed to the classical view of the human body, but rather a reference to the works of Boullée and Piranesi and may have been considered decorous to the institution, encouraging such a relationship between the institution and the beholder.
Anthropomorphizing the wall in The Room, the Street, and the Human Agreement Kahn illustrated his support for classical notions of order. His hollow columns of Albi Cathedral allowed by modern technology reconfigured the classical order into forms with analogia7. There is a layering of the boundary that creates a resonant light, which allows empathy, decorous for religious ritual – both surviving ancient principles, no doubt inferred from his study of the oculus of the Parthenon which tells a tremendous story of light8. Empathy is evident in the anthropomorphizing of the Exeter Library groaning below and dancing above9. This principle is so important; he states that the Human Agreement is a sense of rapport10. Adapted to modern materials and technology, Kahn’s Room is a romantic11 view of classical proportion, not the ‘left mirrors right’ view of Perrault. Symmetry a most important principle of antiquity, for Kahn belonged intrinsically in the body and the cosmos12, and so in architecture. Kahn’s work exhibits the pendulum of ideas from the past in an attempt for developing the future.
This eternal4 ideal of human agreement in Kahn’s trope is adapted in the Kimbell Museum where forms of an institution5 are generated by agreement and conversation between the beholder, the institution and the exhibition work. Rendered diaphanous and insubstantial in his colour sketch of the interior, the human being is overwhelmed by the sublime6 force of light and energy that the interior is drowned in. This is opposed to the classical view of the human body, but rather a reference to the works of Boullée and Piranesi and may have been considered decorous to the institution, encouraging such a relationship between the institution and the beholder.
Anthropomorphizing the wall in The Room, the Street, and the Human Agreement Kahn illustrated his support for classical notions of order. His hollow columns of Albi Cathedral allowed by modern technology reconfigured the classical order into forms with analogia7. There is a layering of the boundary that creates a resonant light, which allows empathy, decorous for religious ritual – both surviving ancient principles, no doubt inferred from his study of the oculus of the Parthenon which tells a tremendous story of light8. Empathy is evident in the anthropomorphizing of the Exeter Library groaning below and dancing above9. This principle is so important; he states that the Human Agreement is a sense of rapport10. Adapted to modern materials and technology, Kahn’s Room is a romantic11 view of classical proportion, not the ‘left mirrors right’ view of Perrault. Symmetry a most important principle of antiquity, for Kahn belonged intrinsically in the body and the cosmos12, and so in architecture. Kahn’s work exhibits the pendulum of ideas from the past in an attempt for developing the future.
1. A. Perez-Gomez, Architecture and the crisis of modern science, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1983, introduction, 3-4, 297-326
2. P. Kohane, The Space of Human Agreement: Louis Kahn and The Room (Paper presented at the international conference of the research of modern architecture UNIVERSAL versus INDIVIDUAL, Jyvaskylä, Finland, August 30 – September 1, 2002)
3. L. Kahn, The room, the street and human agreement, A.I.A. Gold Medal Acceptance speech, Detroit, June 24, 1971’, A.I.A. Journal, 56 (September, 1971)
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. R. Sennet, Flesh and stone: the body and the city in Western civilization, New York: W.W. Norton, c1994, p.293 – 296.
7. Wikipedia, Analogy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy
8. L. Kahn, The room, the street and human agreement, A.I.A. Gold Medal Acceptance speech, Detroit, June 24, 1971’, A.I.A. Journal, 56 (September, 1971)
9. P. Kohane, The Space of Human Agreement: Louis Kahn and The Room (Paper presented at the international conference of the research of modern architecture UNIVERSAL versus INDIVIDUAL, Jyvaskylä, Finland, August 30 – September 1, 2002)
10. L. Kahn, The room, the street and human agreement, A.I.A. Gold Medal Acceptance speech, Detroit, June 24, 1971’, A.I.A. Journal, 56 (September, 1971)
11. P. Kohane, The Space of Human Agreement: Louis Kahn and The Room (Paper presented at the international conference of the research of modern architecture UNIVERSAL versus INDIVIDUAL, Jyvaskylä, Finland, August 30 – September 1, 2002)
12. Ibid.
2. P. Kohane, The Space of Human Agreement: Louis Kahn and The Room (Paper presented at the international conference of the research of modern architecture UNIVERSAL versus INDIVIDUAL, Jyvaskylä, Finland, August 30 – September 1, 2002)
3. L. Kahn, The room, the street and human agreement, A.I.A. Gold Medal Acceptance speech, Detroit, June 24, 1971’, A.I.A. Journal, 56 (September, 1971)
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. R. Sennet, Flesh and stone: the body and the city in Western civilization, New York: W.W. Norton, c1994, p.293 – 296.
7. Wikipedia, Analogy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy
8. L. Kahn, The room, the street and human agreement, A.I.A. Gold Medal Acceptance speech, Detroit, June 24, 1971’, A.I.A. Journal, 56 (September, 1971)
9. P. Kohane, The Space of Human Agreement: Louis Kahn and The Room (Paper presented at the international conference of the research of modern architecture UNIVERSAL versus INDIVIDUAL, Jyvaskylä, Finland, August 30 – September 1, 2002)
10. L. Kahn, The room, the street and human agreement, A.I.A. Gold Medal Acceptance speech, Detroit, June 24, 1971’, A.I.A. Journal, 56 (September, 1971)
11. P. Kohane, The Space of Human Agreement: Louis Kahn and The Room (Paper presented at the international conference of the research of modern architecture UNIVERSAL versus INDIVIDUAL, Jyvaskylä, Finland, August 30 – September 1, 2002)
12. Ibid.
History & Theory of Architecture 2, 2010 cont...
Garnier's Paris Opera
Michelangelo's Capitoline Hill
Alberti's San Andrea
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