Tadao Ando biography :http://architect.architecture.sk/tadao-ando-architect/tadao-ando-architect.php
Rokko housing : http://www.cse.polyu.edu.hk/~cecspoon/lwbt/Case_Studies/Rokoo/Rokoo.htm
Kenneth Frampton : http://www.colorado.edu/envd/courses/envd4114-001/Spring%2006/Theory/Frampton.pdf
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The Rokko Housing I,II,III
Rokko housing I
While emphasized on interaction
and encountering, this collective housing was created with variegated
relationship between public and private through the concept of alley spaces and
public terraces where residents encounter. With the intention to create and
reinforce a relationship between nature, public space and private space, a grid
system is employed to control the overall structure.
Each of the 20 units is 5,4
x 4,8 m in size, and each has a terrace looking out towards the bush harbour of
Kobe.
Rokko housing II
Some years later, Tadao Ando
build a second housing complex, adjacent to Rokko Housing I. (Rokko Housing II.).
Four times larger than the original building, this structure includes 50
dwellings, designed on a 5,2m square grid. A third and even larger structure is
now under way above Rokko Housing II.
In Rokko III,
another element is introduced: prefabrication. The architect is embarking on
this project without any client commission at the time of 1991. Though
certainly it can be said that prefab means to lower costs in group housing
based on technical and economic rationale, the architect’s attempt is a far more
socially related thinking. It is a logical choice given that Rokko III is a
complex several times the size of II.
Process/ Landscape |
one of the most
exciting aspects of the project at that time is that it is actually built
"into" the landscape while stepping down along the slope. The attempt
is to take advantage of natural site constraints, as oppose to the common
practice of "erasing" the whole terrain and natural features,
or building over stilt structure. Such an attempt
not only demonstrated the building design being integrated with the natural
landscape, but also achieved a design variety. It is important to note
the extensive cut and fill works involved.
Rokko housing I |
Rokko housing I and I |
Terrace |
Interior |
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Tadao Ando: one of the world 's greatest living architect
One of the most influential architect in this type of building is Tadao Ando. He was born in 1941 in Osaka, Japan. From the age of 10 to 17 Tadao Ando worked at local carpenter, where he learned how to work with wood; and built a number of models of airplanes and ships. His studying was very unusual. "I was never a good student. I always preferred learning things on my own outside of class. When I was about 18, I started to visit temples, shrines and tea houses in Kyoto and nara; There's a lot of great traditional architecture in the area. I was studying architecture by going to see actual building, and reading books about them." His first interest in architecture was nourished in Tadao's 15 by buying a book of Le Corbusier sketches. "I traced the drawings of his early period so many times, that all pages turned black," says Tadao Ando: "in my mind I quite often wonder how Le Corbusier would have thought about this project or that."
Tadao Ando took a number of visits to the United States, Europe and Africa in the period between 1962 and 1969. It was certainly at that time that Tadao Ando began to form his own ideas about architectural design, before founding Tadao Ando Architectural & Associates in Osaka in 1969.
Tadao Ando 's winner of many prestigous architectural awards, for example Carlsberg Prize (1992), Pritzker Prize (1995), Praemium Imperiale (1996), Gold Medal of Royal Institute of British Architects (1997) and now is one of the most highly respected architect in the world, influencing an entire generation of students.
The first impression of his architecture is its materiality. His large and powerfull walls set a limit. A second impression of his work is the tactility. His hard walls seem soft to touch, admit light, wind and stillness. Third impression is the emptiness, because only light space surround the visitor in Tadao Ando 's building.
All Tadao Ando 's work are characteristically simple, and we can find similar forms in the first half of 20th century: "I am interested in a dialogue with the architecture of the past", he says, "but it must be filtered through my own vision and my own experience. I am indebted to Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, but the same way, I take what they did and interpret it in my own fashion."
He's most remarkable works are certainly the religious buildings. "I feel that the goal of most religious is similar, to make men happier and more at ease with themselves. I see no contradiction in my designing christian churches. " Tadao Ando has build a number of christian chapels and other places of religion and contemplation. One of the most amazing church is also one of his simplest, the church of the light (Baraki, Osaka, 1988-89).
Introduction to Critical Regionalism
Critical regionalism is not a new form of
architecture. In his Ten books, Vitruvius discussed regional variations
in architecture, and the Romantics propounded picturesque regionalism
during the nineteenth century; in addition it has dominated architecture in many
countries during the last two centuries.
This type of architecture is a strategy
for achieving a more human architecture in the face of universally held
abstractions and international clichés. Coined by Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre in 1981, the term was
seized upon by Frampton, who argued that
architects should seek regional variations in their buildings instead of
continuing to design in a style of global uniformity using ‘consumerist
iconography masquerading as culture’, and should ‘mediate the impact’ of
universal civilization with themes drawn indirectly from the individual
‘peculiarities of a particular place’. While appreciating the dangers of
industrialization and technology, he did not advocate revivals of either the
great historical styles or a humble vernacular type of building.
In essence, he sought the deconstruction of global Modernism,
criticized post-Modernism for reducing architecture to a mere
‘communicative or instrumental sign’, and proposed the introduction of alien
paradigms to the indigenous genius loci.
In his book Frampton explains critical reginalism as will mediate the spectrum between universal
civilization and the particularities of place. To maintain its critical edge
one need be aware of the draw of Populism. This movement seeks to economically
supplant reality with information, often in the form of imagery found in
advertising. Critical regionalism, situated between and beholding, simply
requests the recognition of both world culture and universal civilization. This
recognition must mediate the world culture by 'deconstructing' the eclecticism
of acquired alien forms and the universal civilization by limiting the economy of technological production.
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