Serenity

"All architecture which does not express serenity fails in its spiritual mission"

-Luis Barragan

The task of our time is to combine vitality with calm

KLPAC

Sometimes, I feel that the architecture we study is too scientific, but not derived from the feeling of beauty, the sense of tranquility or so called the subconscious sixth sense. When is your last time experiencing a place or an architecture that you wish you want to go back again? What makes you think that it's so special and so spiritual that capture your soul?

As for me, there is such a place which I can't forget and wish to revisit again and again. It is KLPAC, Sentul, Msia, a performing art centre intervened on an old train station. Maybe it's the memory that associated with that place which makes me feel so special about it. In my first visit to KLPAC 4 years back, I fall in love with that place. We got the first price in the National Wind Ensemble Competition there, and I had my year1 architecture sculpture 'habitat' exhibited there too. Back then, I just know that KLPAC has it's own soul that caught my heart, now it seems clearer to me what makes it stood out from other places. It's the power of architecture respecting the nature!

You walk through woods, and suddenly an old brick train station stood in the woods. Soon you realised that it's not just normal brickworks, there is modern 10 meters high glass wall on the other face with vegetation crawling up the wire mesh above the shallow pool. Water flows into the building under the glass wall, blurs the transition between inside and outside. The facade was so transparent, not like most of the glass wall else where which still feels like a wall, a barrier that is blocking you to get out or in, and the sole function is to bring in the sunlight. Overgate in Dundee is a good example I referred to. Plants can soften the transition between the building and the outside world. I realised that most of us like to stay outdoor and stay close to the nature, but we hate the bad weather. That's why we build shelter and like to bring in the nature into the artificial human world. Transparency helps to bring in nature visually, sound of the wind, rustle of the leaves, reminds us of what we are. We aren't just working and shopping fanatics, we are part of the nature. KLPAC gives you the feelings of time, you can trace from the old building what it is like 100 years back, the steam and the coal of the train, slowly settled into a cultural centre. The trees are still growing, witnessing all the changes, while I was there feeling the peacefulness of the nature in that short period of the infinite timeline.

What makes an architecture special for me is the contrast between stillness of the building and the moving things, like the blowing wind, the growing plants and the moving water or even walking pedestrian. They add an important element of life into the still building and the quiet ground. However, if everything is moving or ever changing we will not appreciate the moving things anymore. Hence contrast and balance of two opposite elements, coexist at the same time and space is what makes something nice. Just like the story of 'yi jing' 易经 's yin阴 and yang阳.          

This video shows the coexist of movement and stillness, bright and dark, nature and artificial.
click here for video

The Engineer's Aesthetic and Architecture

The Engineer, inspired by the law of Economy and governed by mathematical calculation, puts us in accord with universal law. He achieves harmony. The engineer therefore has his own aesthetic, for he must, in making his calculation, qualify some of the terms of his equation; and it is here that taste intervenes. Now in handling a mathematical problem, a man is regarding it from a purely abstract point of view, and in such a state, his taste must follow a sure and certain path. The Engineer proceeds by knowledge shows the way and holds the truth.

The Architect, by his arrangement of forms, realises an order which is a pure creation of his spirit; by forms and shapes he affects our sense to an acute degree and provokes plastic emotions; by the relationships which he created he wakes profound echoes in us, he gives us the measure of an world, he determines the various movements of our heart and of our understanding; it is then that we experience the sense of beauty.

Architecture is a thing of art, a phenomenon of the emotions, lying outside questions of construction and beyond them. The purpose of construction is TO MAKE THINGS HOLD TOGETHER, of architecture TO MOVE US. Architectural emotion exists when the work rings within us in tune with a universe whose laws we obey recognise and respect. When certain harmonies have been attained, the work captures us. Architecture is a matter of "harmonies", it is "a pure creation of the spirit"

IBM Traveling Pavilion by Renzo Piano

The traveling pavilion was commissioned for a traveling exhibition of IBM computers to the populace of Europe. The pavilion's design constraints were focused on expediting assembly, disassembly, and transportation. The structural components were consequently made to be small, lightweight, easy to handle and easily transportable.

The pavilion's structure is a series of three-hinged arch trusses that form a barrel vault when connected across by the horizontal laminated wood ties. Each arched truss is a system of clear polycarbonate pyramids, connected to wooden glue laminated members at each apex and aluminum rib mullions at the corners. Additional laminated weed members form a continuous three-hinged arch on the interior that utilise glued finger joints as a fixed connection. The use of glue in fastening wood to metal components is a new use of technology at the time of construction.

The system is fastened together by polished cast aluminum connections and supported by a space-frame floor that sits on a grid of adjustable steel posts. The building is assembled from a kit of standardised parts that can theoretically expand indefinitely in length.

To further save on time and labor, the structure is not entirely dismantled for transportation. The vault is broken down into half arch segments that are the width of one polycarbonate pyramid, small enough to be loaded onto trucks.

Gravity and lateral loads

Outer and inner chords of laminated timber members frame the polycarbonate pyramid web members. These half arch components form a three-hinged arch that distributes tension and compression loads through the outer and inner chords.

Apex connection(on the left)

The standardised cast aluminum joint connects the exterior laminated wood members to the apex of each polycarbonate pyramid. The finger joint provides a large surface area for the epoxy glue to contact the wood and metal to ensure a strong connection.

Interior connections( on the right)

Cast aluminum pieces with finger connections attach two vertical wooden arches to one horizontal wooden member and the threaded extrusion connects to the pyramid base.

Assembly of the building

Two halves of the arched truss units are pinned at the base to the space frame floor and then lifted into arch position. Pin connections join the arch crowns and the floor seams as additional units are attached to complete the cylindrical vault.

Eastern Docklands Housing

Borneo Plot 12 is a private house designed to fit in the narrow long site of 5 by 16 meters at the Eastern Docklands Housing. In spite of the plot narrowness, only half of the width is being used. A private alleyway of 2.5 meters wide sits next to the narrowest house imaginable. The front and the back of the house are essentially covered with bold plain walls. On the first glance, it may seem monotonous compare to most of the compelling neighbors. However, when approaching this architecture, one will immediately realise the strong articulation of the enormous glass facade along the alley. This glass facade opens the entire house to face the alley. 

The body of the house projects into the open slot of space in tree volumes. On the underground the storage projected out forms the sloping car-park floor.  Another two projecting volumes provide a bedroom/ bathroom suite and two studios on the first and second floor. The section perspectives give a sense of how much transparent this house is compared to a traditional row house. With these ingenious interlocking spaces, the architects have brought light and air into the house. MVRDV again show their talent on the space arrangement with incredible use of void spacing.

Parkrand Housing- MVRDV

Parkrand Housing is a massive block that houses 240 apartments. At the first glance, it is a giant rectangular box, 3 smaller boxes were excavated out craftily and another 3 holes were punched at the top. The mass that left formed 5 standing tower, which were joint by a continuous strip of ribbon penthouses at the top. This configuration enable maximum views for each houses toward the park at all directions.        

A semi-public, semi-outdoor 'living room' sits on the first floor, overlooking the vast park on the ground floor. From distance, the giant scale 'tree pots' and the hanging lamp looked just like the bonzai framed by the towers, but when approaching them, we would feel the tininess of people, as if we were the dolls or puppets of some giant. This feeling is so strong when I stood at the foot of this giant house.

There is always surprise from MVRDV. When walk pass the building, the reflective and semi-reflective tiles forms the ever changing pattern depends on the angle the light is reflected. This wee details do give life to the building.

The pent-house ribbon seemed floating with no reaction to the gravity just like the WoZoCo, give stunning effect and made people admire at the hidden structure.

Behind of the modern astonishing block, there is a humble playground hidden inside the woods. Some of us just transformed into playful kids on the discovery of the playground. The 'toy' maybe designed for adults, as the scale is just too large for kids. MVRDV did not forget to evoke the playfulness buried deep inside us in their design. There is always a small child in out heart.

WoZoCo

WoZoCo (Woon, Zorg and Complex, translated as a sheltered housing development) is the icon of modern architecture in Amsterdam. This housing project is aimed to accommodate 100 units for the elderly dwellings. At the early design stage, the architects merely fit in 87 units within the slab in the box. Another 13 units were glued to the side of the volume in half joking attempt. They swiftly realised the potential of the joke before worked out with the structural engineer. This is why WoZoCo has its shape today.

Although the hanging units are 50% more expensive, the economic layout of the main slab has compensated the extra expenditure. Indeed, it achieved as the cheapest of all social houses in Amsterdam. If the 13 units were to stack on the main mass, it would be too tall and would place the surrounding buildings in shade. If they were positioned elsewhere on the site, the open space would be further reduced. This is the reason behind the floating houses.

On the other hand, the individuality of the houses is stressed. Dwellers have a large variety of doors, fenestration and balcony to choose from. WoZoCo is well maintained today and is still a popular architectural tourist destination.  

The parks beside the WoZoCo, serene, the perfect living standard.

Details of joints.