RR4, Kennedy, Reading response #4 IARC 221

For this weeks reading response I chose to focus on the city of Teotihuacan.  I visited the city a few years ago which I feel gives me a unique perspective.  The pictures I took while I was there.

http-_www.world-mysteries.com_teot_map

Above is a map of the city.  The main street, avenue of the dead, runs north to south.  The avenue actually runs 15 degrees east of north, so that it "aligned with the sacred mountain, Cerro Gordo." Ching, 226.  The major east west axis, Rio San Juan, also was off center by about 16 degrees, which has to do with astronomical reasons.

I think it is very interesting how ordered this city layout is.  It reminds me very much of cities laid out by the Romans.  At this main intersection in Teotihuacan, the common buildings are located, for the common man.  To the north are the sacred pyramids.  Another aspect that I find interesting is that the Larger pyramid of the sun is not the focal point on the main avenue, rather it is on a side axis.

The above image was taken from the pyramid of the moon looking south down the Avenue of the Dead.  The pyramid of the sun is on the left and mimics the mountains behind it.  Smaller stacked pyramids create a grouping around a central platform where rituals took place.

Here is a view looking towards the pyramid of the sun from the ground, adjacent to the central platform.  It is easier to see the massiveness of the grouped pyramids and how they contribute to the monumental feel of the space.  It is very overwhelming being on the platform.

This is the Pyramid of the Sun.  Lots of stacking going on here.  Even more monumental and imposing.  The base of this pyramid is almost the same size as the great pyramid in Giza.

This is the view just before you start climbing the steps.

This is the first set of steps ascending the pyramid of the sun.  They don't look to bad to climb.  however; the rise is almost double our standard stair rise and the tread depth is quite narrow as well.  So climbing sideways is almost necessary.  When you climb this section you see the sky straight above you.  You feel a sense of accomplishment once you near the top.  Then you feel defeat as you realize that you have barely climbed 1/4 of the pyramid. 

Here is a view looking up the steps.  They are quite imposing, almost daring you to try to climb,  telling you that you will fail.

The view from the top looking down.

The city was initially built by the Myans around rituals.  We have seen this use of ritual used in almost every city that we have examined thus far in class.  The use of order, in the layout of the city, as well as the idea that there was some form of a social/political system reminds me of Rome.  Aligning the main roads and pyramids astrologically reminds me of Stonehenge.  I'm also reminded of the Pyramids of Egypt in the way that the larger pyramids are surrounded by smaller pyramids and mastabas.  There are many ideas that come together here to create a sense of power, scale, and order.

BP4, Kennedy, Blog Post #4, IARC 221

In Class on Friday we went on an exploration of circles and axes on campus.  We looked at how the principles of commodity, firmness, and delight were involved, and how these concepts re-enforce circles and their three dimensional forms as sacred.


Commodity = Function

Firmness = Structure + Stability

Delight = Aesthetics + Form and Surface


I took a secondary "tour" by myself to reevaluate what we had learned.  Based on the ideas, I chose to discuss the music building entrance as the space where these three concepts are epitomized.  The school of music sits at one end of College Avenue, one of the main Axes through campus.  This shows the importance of the school of music to the university.

harold_schiffman_photo120_uncg_music_lg

From the outside Firmness appears very evident.  The massive column like entrance appears very rooted to it's physical environment.  The base is made of concrete blocks.  Pilasters rise from this solid base and are infilled with brick and capped off with a decorative concrete "cap".  All  of these materials are very long lived, stable, and solid (like a rock).  This contributes to the sense of stability in the building.  The glass structure adjacent to the circular entrance reinforces the stability concept through the use of horizontal bands that reinforce the stacking theory as well as columns that strengthen the groves theory.

The base of the column like entrance even goes out into the landscape.

These bands that emulate out from the entrance column reinforce that the building is rooted into its environment, almost like it grew directly up out of the ground.   

These bands are continued in the flooring inside the building which adds to the sense of Delight.

When viewed from above the bands in the floor are even more prominent.  Patrick eluded to the bands in the flooring as being ripples in water.  I really enjoy how the two columns in the picture above have the white banding around them as well.  It's almost like they have just been dropped into a pool of water and are emitting their own band of concentric circles.   This concept of water ripples is reinforced directly outside the entrance with a round pond.

This round pond even has concentric rings around it as well, not only with the stone surround but also with the circular walls that frame the courtyard.

Back inside, lets look at the column entrance.  When entering the building from outside you step under the massive column, compressing you down, spatially.  Then you open the doors and step into this huge expanse of space.  This reminds me a great deal of how Frank Lloyd Wright treated the entrance to many of the houses he designed.

Once you enter the building you are greeted with this view.  An enormous amount of Light is present which registers at the top of my delight scale.  The use of groves and stacks is very evident here.  Even down to the legs of the chairs in the space. This is the space where my eyes dart around constantly.  There is something grabbing my attention everywhere, which is very delightful.

This is the wall adjacent to the glass wall, which acts as a secondary facade.  We have stacking on the base, with grove like columns rising from the base, just like the main entrance column outside.  This tells us this is where we need to go next.   In this case it's the performance hall for the school of music.

The commodity of this space is for it to act as an entrance for the building.  It provides shelter, comfort, protection, and a sense of belonging as well.  Here, a gathering space is created for the auditorium and  the main axis through the building begins as well.  Large crowds gather here and move through here on a continual basis and the space functions extremely well in this regard. 

One thing that I find extremely interesting is that the pipe organ and organ recital hall are enclosed in the entrance column.  Circles mark spaces that are sacred to us.  It took the university over 30 years to raise the funds to purchase the organ.  I think that it is fitting that something that took that long to obtain and which is regarded in such a high status resides in such a space.  Another interesting idea that relates to the commodity is the lack of noise in the building.  While I was taking pictures the organ was being played and you could barely hear it when you were right next to the doors into the chamber. 

Overall;  The entrance to the music building gives me a great sense of delight.  The materials and design principles utilized in the design and construction of the building give it great firmness  and a commodious relationship with it's function.

Design Manifesto (theory 1)

Good design should be meaningful, thoughtful, approachable, energetic, affordable, and most importantly, sustainable.

As a designer why waste time, energy, and materials designing a sub-standard product.  There is always a way to create a design that satisfies all the necessary parameters, and do it in the “right” way.  Most of the time this takes multiple attempts, sometimes it’s three, sometimes it’s 3000.  A lot of design relies on thought.  Thinking how someone is going to use something, where and when they will use it.  How other people will use it, not just the target audience.  Then think about how people will utilize the design far off in the future.  Is the design dated in just a few months or years.  Maybe the concept should be rethought.

Part of being sustainable is longevity and permanence, make it last!!  Another key factor in being sustainable is re-usability, re-cycle-ability, re-incarnate-ability.  How many lives can the product have before it is no longer useful.

Aesthetics are key to any good design.  Pleas-ability is key in gaining acceptance or outrage.  Elegant, understated, refined materials;  Simple, clean, meaningful lines; Considerate, functional, eternal ideas.  These are the words that describe how I think and see the world around me and how I plan the world around me.  Everything has a place and everything in it’s place, please, leave the fluff for the marshmallows.  Good design is all around us;  sometimes we’re blown away by it, sometimes it’s so good we don’t even notice it.

COLOR WEEK!!!

Last week was color week.  We worked with ColorAid paper, which is a calibrated, silk screened, color paper. 

My first combination.  Finding the middle color.

Composition two.  Overlap, using the middle color.  This is when it started to make sense.

Five Square.  Taking it to the next level.  Five squares all overlapping to create middle colors.

Composition four.  Color Triad.  The middle color of three colors.

Combine all of the above to create our very own color palate that we utilize during the balance of the semester.  Here we utilized middle colors and triad middle colors.

Final composition.  Here we used the colors in our color palate to create an abstract representation of the light during the four seasons.  Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter - from top to bottom.

During the week we all learned a great deal about color and how to work with it.  There were lots of surprises, lots of magic moments, some frustration, and much much gained knowledge.  I can't wait to work with the palate that I created.

a penny is a terrible thing to waste

Our response to the Powers of Ten video by Ray and Charles Eames focused on an artifact that there seems to be an infinite supply of, yet many deem worthless: the penny. While pennies don't work in parking meters or vending machines, and have even been crusaded against by some politicians, they are still valueable.

So what does this have to do with the powers of ten? Research shows that about 100,000,000,000 pennies have been lost (taken out of circulation) to sewage drains, trash cans, storage, etc. We looked at different values of this number by powers of ten: one penny, ten pennies, one hundred...to see just what these so called "nuisance" pennies could purchase. What if we hadn't wasted those hundred billion pennies?


Laura Kimmel, Jack Kennedy, Alex Pokas