Comparison

The first thing I notice when looking at images of these two buildings is their rectilinear design.  All lines are straight horizontals and verticals.  Simultaneously I note how both buildings appear top-heavy in that their small bases support larger tops.  Though the exteriors share similarities, there are also obvious differences.  Whereas the Harvard dormitory uses materials such as wood, brick, concrete, metal and glass, the Whitney Museum has a much more limited media palette.  Also dealing with the exterior, there is a huge difference with surroundings.  At the dorm, there are trees, plants, grass, water and other prominent natural elements.  Surrounding buildings aren't right against it.  The museum is located in a more urban setting, with much less landscaping.  Also, the neighboring buildings are within close proximity.

Inside, both buildings have very specific and different functions.  One is a dormitory, where students live and study, and one is a museum where the public can come in to walk around and view artwork.  Within the context of their environments, the Whitney Museum had more freedom to explore a look that didn't necessarily tie in with surrounding styles. The Harvard dorm, though it explores several materials and has a unique look, still ties in with surrounding buildings with its use of brick.

Precedent Analysis

On the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a lack of housing was creating an issue for graduate students. Harvard has the goal to house 50 percent of its graduate, professional and doctoral students. The school approached architect-designer Kyu Sung Woo to help to alleviate this problem by creating a dormitory specifically targeting graduates. Just recently built at 10 Akron Street, Kyu Sung Woo's building was designed to meet LEED Gold standards in an aesthetically pleasing and fully functional way.
With around fourteen thousand graduate students attending the school, it is obvious that not all of them would be living on campus. The dormitory of Kyu Sung Woo accommodates up to two hundred fifteen students. Included are thirty different suite types for the students, a faculty director's suite, a fitness room, study lounges, a multipurpose room, a garage, and a courtyard. The building is located beside the Charles River, offering a peaceful and beautiful view from many of the rooms inside.
For his design, Woo built a large, brick block that sits precariously on a smaller, wood-veneered base. The windows of the building are arranged in an irregular pattern, with many of them protruding from the surface. The 115,000 square foot building contains regionally-sourced siding with recycled content, bamboo flooring and wall paneling, and low-VOC finishes. Also, through its design and engineering, the building's systems use a minimum of energy. Public spaces, like two-story study lounges, are filled with warm tones that make a comfortable learning environment and promote sociability.
Outside the building is a garden designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates which utilizes plants native to New England. This garden connects a courtyard to the riverfront terrace. Though the L-shaped building is very unique in its presence, it still maintains an appropriate scale for Cambridge's other riverside houses as well as carries on the use of traditional brick on the exterior that blends in with older structures on campus.

Precedent Analysis

     On the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a lack of housing was creating an issue for graduate students. Harvard has the goal to house 50 percent of its graduate, professional and doctoral students. The school approached architect-designer Kyu Sung Woo to help to alleviate this problem by creating a dormitory specifically targeting graduates. Just recently built at 10 Akron Street, Kyu Sung Woo's building was designed to meet LEED Gold standards in an aesthetically pleasing and fully functional way.
     With around fourteen thousand graduate students attending the school, it is obvious that not all of them would be living on campus. The dormitory of Kyu Sung Woo accommodates up to two hundred fifteen students. Included are thirty different suite types for the students, a faculty director's suite, a fitness room, study lounges, a multipurpose room, a garage, and a courtyard. The building is located beside the Charles River, offering a peaceful and beautiful view from many of the rooms inside.
     For his design, Woo built a large, brick block that sits precariously on a smaller, wood-veneered base. The windows of the building are arranged in an irregular pattern, with many of them protruding from the surface.  The 115,000 square foot building contains regionally-sourced siding with recycled content, bamboo flooring and wall paneling, and low-VOC finishes. Also, through its design and engineering, the building's systems use a minimum of energy.  Public spaces, like two-story study lounges, are filled with warm tones that make a comfortable learning environment and promote sociability. 
     Outside the building is a garden designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates which utilizes plants native to New England.  This garden connects a courtyard to the riverfront terrace.  Though the L-shaped building is very unique in its presence, it still maintains an appropriate scale for Cambridge's other riverside houses.

Unit Summary: Alternatives

The Alternatives unit is all about taking the rules established in the foundations unit and bending them into new forms. These alterations take a very religious turn as a reflection of crusades and mixing of cultures. A great source of inspiration for Christian cathedral design came from the Hagia Sophia, a mosque in Istanbul. The Hagia Sophia is known for its massive dome and the great, highly decorated interior spaces.
Gothic architecture flourished in the high and late medieval times, after the Romanesque period. It is largely recognized for its pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. There was a great competition to build the tallest cathedrals with the most interior space and light. This was thought to bring the cathedrals closer to heaven, the ultimate goal.
The Renaissance was a revival of ancient Greek and Roman ideals. Emphasis was put on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they were used by the ancient designers.French Gothic Cathedral- Notre-Dame
Renaissance architecture
Villa and Palazzo
Villa-country home, escape for wealthy
Palladio incorporates temple forms onto residential structures
Palazzo-mixed business, entertainment and housing
Baroque- feeling of movement through curved lines-pushing and pulling

Project Outline

Things to be included:

Contour drawing of exterior in context> vellum with pen.

Drawings of exterior [2+] views and interior rooms [3+]> bond with pen, marker and colored pencil.

I. Background

A. Name and Year Built

B. Designer 

C. Location

D. Type of building

II. Details

A. Description of exterior and materials

B. Rooms and their functions

C. Size of building

D. Surroundings

III. Extra

A. About Designer

Questions and Comments:

I haven't found a floor plan of the building.

New Precedent Analysis

Harvard Housing, LEED Gold
10 Akron Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Kyu Sung Woo

The challenge that Kyu Sung Woo was to design a residence that would house fifty percent of Harvard University’s graduate, professional and doctoral students. In doing this, stress would be lessoned on the local housing market and a stronger residential campus community would develop. Housing 215 beds, this residence building includes thirty different suite types, faculty director’s suite, a fitness room, study lounges, a multipurpose room, a garage, a courtyard and even a lakeside view.
For his design, Woo built a large, brick block that sits precariously on a smaller, wood-veneered base. The windows of the building are arranged in an irregular pattern, with many of them protruding from the surface.

Sources:
1
2
Photos by Timothy Hursley

Junctions: Foundations Unit

Junctions can be found in every lesson of the Foundations Unit. A junction is a meeting of two or more ideas that combine into one. With design it can apply to a multitude of things: man verses animal, architecture verses nature, light verses shadow, natural verses synthetic, etc. In architectural history, the most common junction is of one culture borrowing from the ideas, styles and technologies of past cultures. These joinings can be smooth and seamless or can contrast.

The ancient Romans were the masters of borrowing from other civilizations. They did not try to hide their Greek columns, even their gods and goddesses, nor their Egyptian obelisks. Columns that the Greeks evolved and perfected and used for structural support were used by the Romans as pilasters adorning the facades of their buildings. The Romans also erected massive, freestanding columns, an idea from the Egyptians, as symbols of masculinity, victory and pride. Also like the Egyptians, they would carve images into their stonework to illustrate stories of war and triumph of the benefactor.

Roman & Egyptian Column

Also, Romans were very imposing upon the landscape. Unlike the Greeks, who would build with the topography of the site, Romans would cut out and level and build up the site until it was like they wanted. For example, a Greek designer would build an amphitheater on a hill, where the slope of the land would serve as the basis for seating. Romans, however, as shown in the Coliseum, was built without regards to the terrain.

Other junctions can also be found within design, such as the decision to use local or foreign materials. In Egyptian architecture, buildings were predominately made out of the very sandstone of which their landscape was made. This is a practice that makes some things easier, such as traveling expense and labor. Using local goods help to blend architecture into the landscape and make it seem like it fits its environment. Greeks and Romans also used materials that were more readily available. But, as was the case in the creation of Stonehenge, some designers choose materials that are not local. The stones used for it came from a location very far from the site. This decision not only preserves the local landscape from mutilation, but it makes the structure stand out from the architecture.

Classical Orders

One thing that the Romans did to make an idea their own was to put their own style into it. Their use of columns was often more ornamental unlike the Greeks who used them for load bearing properties. Also, Romans first developed arches, domes and concrete. These three components made everything that they were used in unique. Arches opened up a huge new venue of possibilities to the world. Concrete allowed a brand new surface treatment to be used on buildings which could be molded into any shape and would offer great support.
Junctions, overall, are more common than people may think. It is very important to learn from other peoples’ designs, technologies and artifacts. You never know what you might be able to use of theirs if you can put your own spin on it to make it functional for your visions.

Foundations Unit Sumary

The Foundations Unit largely focused on the similarities and differences between the ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations in regards to their ideas and methods of design. According to Sir Henry Wotton, the basis of design is that, “in architecture, as in all operative arts, the end must direct the operation. The end is to build well. [Building well has] three conditions: commodity, firmness and delight.” The ideas of commodity, firmness and delight play a role in all forms of design and they can be found within all successful artifacts from the ancient times to the present.

Commodity determines the function of an artifact. “A thing must answer its purpose in every way- that is, fulfill its function in a practical sense… (Gropius).” Whether the function of a space is intended for religious ceremonies, offices, performance arts, relaxation, etc, the function must be met entirely.

Firmness is synonymous with strength, stability and longevity. Structures such as the Pyramids at Giza and the temples of Greece and Rome are great examples of firmness. The civilizations that built them had the idea of permanence in mind when these places were constructed. A building should be firm in design if it is intended to withstand the tests of time.

Delight must also be present in a space for it to be successful. A space must be pleasing to look at and feel inviting to the viewer. Delight plays very closely with commodity. For instance, if you are visiting a spa after a week of stressful work, the building’s function is poorly achieved if it is filled with harsh contrasts in colors, textures and sounds.

The basic building unit that all architecture stems from is the aedicule. Aedicules are basic structures that can consist of simply a pair of verticals supporting a horizontal. This is similar to post and lintel structures which can also be found in architecture today. One famous example of this system is Stonehenge, located in England. Stonehenge consists of stone post and lintel frames aligned into three concentric circles.

Also shown in Stonehenge is a sense of hierarchy. With concentric circles, the innermost ring is the smallest and the outermost is the largest. As a place where people would come to observe funerals, this is an important way in which the architecture affected the way people viewed the ceremonies. The center, smallest circle would have enough room for a priest or other important person. As you would move outwardly, the importance of the viewers would lessen as their numbers would greaten. Hierarchy plays an important role in societies and is often clearly reflected in architecture. Egyptians would build pyramids that would highlight the pharos and priests at their peaks, where there would be little room for commoners. Greeks designed temples that would glorify idols of their gods in the centers of their buildings.

A convention that Greeks used to do this was utilizing the idea of a porch, a court and a hearth. The porch of an area is like the border around it that signals an entrance. On a temple this would be a colonnade. A court is right inside of the porch. It can be a courtyard inside of a fence or an atrium inside a building. The hearth of an area is where the heart is. To the Greeks it would be the statue in the center of a temple or even the temple in the center of a city. A porch, court and hearth can most always be applied to design.

A plan of the Acropolis: The wall around the area acts as a porch, the open courtyard is the court and the Parthenon is the hearth.

Project Analysis Proposal

Jack E. Boucher

Jeff Dean

Johnson Wax Building, aka, Administrative Building, 1936-1939
14th and Franklin St., Racine, Wisconsin, USA
Frank Lloyd Wright

The Johnson Wax building utilizes a unique and innovative selection of materials. [delight] Windows comprised of several layers of Pyrex glass tubing sealed with rubber gaskets fill the space with natural light while retaining privacy. The rest of the building is made of precast concrete and bricks that were made in over two hundred different shapes and sizes. The building is a fourteen story tall tower with curved corners. [commodity] It was intended for corporate offices and a research laboratory, though the research lab no longer meets required fire safety codes.
One defining feature of the Johnson Wax building is the use of dendriform columns. [firmness] These steel-reinforced concrete columns are nine inches wide at their base and tapir upwards into a “lily pad” top, which spans eighteen feet. Due to the precariousness of this design, Frank Lloyd Wright was required to demonstrate how much weight a single column could carry before he received a building permit. It was determined that the columns could hold up to sixty tons before cracking, forty-eight more tons than was required.
“This building, with its transparency between floors and the activities on them, along with the whole idea of blocking out the outside is said to have a strong influence in the design of casinos.”

Sources:
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Years 625 BC and 625 AD

625 BC

Technology

First cosmetic surgery, in India
Cloaca Maxima (main sewer) is built in Rome
Processional Way constructed in Babylon connecting the city’s temples with its royal palaces, inlaid with burned bricks and stone in bituminous mortar
Work begins on canal to connect Nile with Red Sea, but is not completed

Institutions

First Curia (senate-house) built in Rome
Teachings of Zarathustra dominate Persian religious though.
Babylonian buildings are faced with blue, yellow and white enameled tiles
The Book of Deuteronomy is compiled as one of the five books of Moses

Governance

Assyrian expansion into the region of Palestine (about 855-625 B.C.)
Early and middle orientalizing phase: proto-urban
Babylonians reassert control over Mesopotamia
Urbanization and development of social structure of rome
Naples is founded in Greek settlement of Neopolis
Draconian laws are established
Chief archon of Salamis frees people enslaved due to debts, repeals Draconian laws and removes death penalty except for homicide cases.

Commerce

Houses made of stone with tile roofs built in Rome
Paving of the forum
Goods are brought into Babylon by means of camels, riverboats and carts drawn by donkeys.
Corinthian tyrant Periander strips female nobility of gold jewelry and embroidery to finance government for decades
Demotic and cursive hieratic script replace hieratic writing in Egypt…used universally for business and literary purposes



625 AD

Technology

Slavs invent new plowing equipment that increases food production in northern and western Europe.
Chinese establish an imperial bureau for the manufacture of porcelain
Chinese Zhaozhou Bridge is the first open-spandrel stone segmental arch bridge
Vertical axis windmills
“The Opening of the Universe” written by Indian mathematician/astronomer Brahmagupta

Institutes

British conversion to Roman Catholicism by Pope Gregory I
Seven Deadly sins established: pride, envy, sloth, wrath, gluttony, lust and avarice
Shotoku Taishi code of Japan demands veneration of Buddha, Buddhist priests and Buddhist laws
Pantheon at Rome is consecrated as the Church of Santa Maria Rotunda
The prophet Mohammed begins to preach the new religion of Islam
Irish missionary Columban founded monastery in Italy
Pope Boniface V spreads Christianity through parts of England via missionaries
Islamic Sharia encourages men and women to obtain secular and religious educations
First English school is founded at Canterbury

Governance

Byzantine emperor Maurice and his five sons are executed…Maurice turned the failing Roman empire into the well-organized Byzantine Empire
China’s Sui emperor, Wendi, is killed by his son after a 23-year reign…he attacked hereditary privileges, reduced power of the military aristocracy and established civil service examinations
Persia resumes war with Byzantine and soon controls Armenia and Syria
Sinoization of Japan
Persia overpower Egypt
Mohammed’s forces take Mecca with troops that include women
Beginnings of Norway by Olaf Tratelia

Commerce

China’s Sui dynasty constructs a canal that links existing waterways to the new Chinese capital
Basra port is founded at head of the Persian Gulf
Sugar and manufacture of sugar begins in China
Japan enters terrible famine



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