T space

On a four acre site in Dutchess County, New York, a new wooden "T" space sits near a stone "U" house from 1952, which has a steel "L" addition from 2001. 

The new gallery floats over the natural landscape. It has nine steel columns and nine elevations, all integrated via proportions of 1:1.618. 

A rain skin of natural 2x2 cedars is suspended on stainless steel screws. There is no plumbing, or sheetrock. The interiors are painted plywood and the floor is sanded marine plywood with all the stains of the 4 month construction process exposed. 

Wooden windows, doors and skylights were specifically built for this space. The gallery is reached from the east by a gently sloping wooden ramp, and exited on a wooden ramp through the south elevation which is a large pivoting wall. 

Light comes from skylights, cut to achieve 25 foot candles of natural light on the walls, eliminate the need for electricity.

http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?type=museums&id=117

Tadao Ando architecture

This page will be images of some inspiring designs from the minimalist Tadao Ando.

Tadao Ando

I start by looking at Tadao Ando who is well recognise minimalist architect, learning about his philosophy and approach to design will be crucial for my own practice.

The minimalist design is strongly influenced by the Japanese traditional design and architecture, which focuses on the simplicity and elegance of the shapes. The Japanese architect Tadao Ando creates buildings, in which light, water, wind and concrete co-exist to perfection. Ando uses mainly concrete and glass. He projects unique spaces, which change constantly, because the sun and wind play in their confines. The Minimalist Architect himself says that light has a decisive role in all of his projects.

According to him, the architect’s main goal is to create a private zone for the person in the ranks of society. And he encloses the spaces with thin concrete walls. The walls are the main element according to him. They have the power to divide the space, to rearrange the placements and to create new territories. The Japanese man uses basic geometric shapes – squares, rectangles, circles, triangles. His trade mark is the round openings, which impale the buildings, letting the sun in the rooms.

The Famous Architect uses the natural resources to their full extend, so as to restore the natural binding between the building and nature, lost in the cities’ modernization process. One of his favourite elements is water. That’s why he builds his buildings close to water areas, added naturally and harmoniously to the exterior. Although the concrete constructions are perceived as heavy and harsh, the works of the genius Japanese man are gentle like silk. The grace they possess is not as much due to material combination, as to their shape.

The Japanese architect doesn’t forget wood, which rules in Japan’s architectural outlook. Some of his minimalist buildings are constructed of wooden bars like a fine scaffold. He doesn’t seek openness in the outside, but rather aims to put a fence around the inner human space. The dense fence, which surrounds his buildings, is placed between the lively places – the yards, which make the rain, greenery and wind a part of the household territory. When projecting his buildings, Tadao Ando thinks about their inhabitants and this becomes clear in the details, which have a specific appeal in his compositions. Ascetically clean shapes, where beauty is the only leading power – this is a characteristic element of Tadao Ando’s minimalistic style.

http://www.minimalisti.com/architecture/01/minimalist-architect-tadao-ando.html

Minimalism Architecture

In this page I have loaded images of minimalist architecture that inspires me and could help me with my own practice.

Minimalism

For my design, I have chosen to look into minimalism as a theory that I can apply for my practical design.

What is minimalist?

I suppose we should start by trying to define minimalism. Here are 2 definitions I found online. Movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. Simplicity of style in artwork, design, interior design, or literature, achieved by using the fewest and barest essentials or elements to maximum effect. Minimalism has also been called ABC art, reductivism, and rejective art and its theories have been applied to lifestyle.

Minimalism aims for simplicity and objectivity. It wants to reduce works to the fundamental, the essential, the necessary, and to strip away the ornamental layers that might be placed on top. Minimalist designs tend toward more whitespace, better typography, grid layouts, and less colour. Mies van der Rohe famously said “Less is more” to describe his aesthetic sense of having every element serve multiple purposes both visually and functionally.Buckminster Fuller later reworked the phrase to “doing more with less” and Dieter Rams changed it to “Less but better.”All three are saying the same thing. Minimalism is about designing smarter.

Minimalist Design Architecture

All minimalist designs should not and do not look alike. Minimalism does not mean take everything away until only black text on a white background remains. It means communicating as much as possible with as few elements as possible.

It strikes me that instead of a design being minimalist or not minimalist; it’s more a case of to what degree does the design embrace minimalism. We can strive toward it, but even the most minimalist design could be reduced further.

None of this should be taken to mean that every design should end up being minimalist. Different design styles set different moods and invoke different emotions in your audience.
Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals you can add meaningful aesthetics on top. Ornamentation works when it has a solid foundation to sit on.
Stylistic details won’t save a design that fails to execute the fundamentals.

Summary

Minimalism is reducing your work to the essential and using less to do more. In order to do minimalism well you need a strong understanding of basic design principles. When you master minimalism you master design.

Urban Development

"Three historic patterns of urban settlement are found in Africa. Monumental urbanism is characterised by substantial permanent structures in the stone, and was especially prominent in north, eastern and southern Africa, from Egypt and Eritrea to Zimbabwe. Satellite urbanism is characterised, in both early and later contexts, by collaboration between interlinked community clusters that together create and urban settlement structure. This type of settlement, which is normally identified with earthen structures, is found especially in West Africa, from Mali to northern and southern areas of Nigeria. Migratory or peripatetic urban settlements characteristically prevailed in central Africa, these cities sharing a relatively nomadic identity. Related cities were often re-established on a new site following the death of a ruler or a sequence of traumatic events. Many peripatetic cities were built of more ephemeral materials, such as raffia and bamboo, but were also associated with more permanent ritual sites, such as cemeteries. In some African urban contexts, several of these design attributes were at play, with local building materials providing unique possibilities for creativity."

By David Adjaye

Tropical rainforest

-Tropical rainforest is one of the oldest types of vegetation to have survived and is found in an area that extends from Guinea, in the north, to the basin of the River Congo in the south. 

-the climate in the rainforest has high humidity and little seasonal variation. 

-Temperature is typically 30C by day and 20C at night.

-the combination of high rainfall it high temperature and humidity encourages the growth of a dense evergreen forest, where different species of trees grow to different heights. Above the thick undergrowth the canopy is formed by trees that may be 60 metres tall. 

-Historically the forest has provided food and material support for the indigenous people who live there.

-Colonialism has played a major role in this part of Africa and the three main types of colonial city are Portuguese, British and French.

-tropical rains dominate the climate in this region of Africa.

-There is architecture of fertility in this area, an architecture that has to deal with the climate and at the same time is responsive to the specific conditions in different places.

-The roof architecture of freetown is a good example of the language of form that is necessary to deal with the heavy rains.

-You can also see it in the architecture of Monrovia where you have over hanging roofs everywhere, if you go there in the rain, you understand why certain forms and details are used in such consistent way.

-The architecture of Accra is dominated by big roofs that protect the other building elements from the worst of the weather.