Architectural Sketching

“The initial sketch is always an emotion, not a concept.”

– Sambo Mockbee

Once we begin our daily sketching, all students daily sketch the assigned building at the start of each class.

We use a format for sketching known as 10|1|10

This is short for 10 minutes | 1 minute | 10 seconds

The format that was initially brought about by a professional illustrator to challenge his community; however, many other professions have picked it up as a challenge or way to practice and hone their sketching skills.

Students will sketch their 10|1|10 image and be responsible for the written information for each building.

They will be tested over this material and need to be familiar with various images of each building.

10 | 1 | 10 Sketching

Göbekli Tepe

Prehistoric Era

circa 10,000 BC

[predates Stonehenge by about 6k years]

6 miles from Urfa, Turkey

originally thought to be a cemetery; thought to be built in 6 months to 1 year

Stonehenge

Prehistoric Era

circa 3,000 BC

Salisbury Plain, England* - although it was quarried elsewhere and may have even been located 500 miles away originally, then moved

Pyramids @ Giza

Prehistoric Era

Giza, Egypt

about 2,800 BC

Previous failed attempts, Originally colorful, Base not straight

Tombs of Pharaohs

Middle pyramid appears taller, but is actually just on higher ground

The pyramid in the background is the shortest

The pyramid in the foreground is the largest

Palmyra

Ancient Architecture

Palmyra, Syria

Caravan Oasis since 2nd millennium BC

Crossroads of Persia, Turkey, China, into Egypt, etc.

Part of the "Silk Road" & Came under Roman rule circa 50 AD - what you see in these images is the Roman Architecture built.

Syria has some of the oldest most continually inhabited places.

Mr. Loutfi has been to Palmyra

Machu Picchu

Andes Mountains., Peru

1400's Though it was much later, it is very similar to ancients/prehistoric

For Inca emperor but was for communal living

Astronomical alignments, mysterious,

Dry-stack technique (no mortar, very precise)

Shows people are capable of more than given credit, though details are a mystery

Similar to structures built in Egypt, Easter Island, and China

Parthenon

Classical Era

Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Originally 480 BC; 447 - 432 BC

Phidias was artist who oversaw the layout and construction

The highest point of Athens

Scale of gods - Athena

Doric Order

Curved lines look straight

Designed for views as you approach

Hagia Sophia

Byzantine Period of Architecture

Istanbul/Constantinople/Turkey

Year 360 Magna Ecclesia then 532 AD Emperor Justinian chose

Physicist Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles as Architects

(Anthemius died 1st year of const)

Unique Dome on Square

Was a Christian Church until 1453 when Ottoman Empire took over

Pantheon

Rome, Italy

Romanesque Architecture

118 AD

Apollodorus of Damascus - Architect

Early Concrete, Original visitors never saw back from outside

Coffered Dome and Oculus

Notre Dame

Gothic Architecture

1136 AD

Paris, France (Seine River)

Architects Pierre de Montreuil & Jean de Chelles

Wanting the natural light and pointing to heaven

Flying buttresses - form following function to keep walls up

Campidoglio

Renaissance

Rome, Italy

1536 AD

Architect - Michelangelo

Urban planning example, City Center, use of perspectives/line manipulation, Senate & 2 Conservatories (museums) on either side

Versailles

Baroque

Versailles, France

1168 AD for King Louis XIV

Extremely ornate, lots of gold leaf; highly structured and organized

over nature – Man’s dominance

Many architects, but ones of note:

Jules Hardouin-Mansart

Ange-Jacques Gabriel

Robert de Cotte

Philibert Le Roy

Jacques Gabriel

House of Education | Villa Rotonda

Neoclassicism (new classic)

Andrea Palladio and Claude Nicholas Ledoux

House of Education | Ledoux | Never built

Philip Johnson copied for UH Architecture

[insert Ledoux\Le-don’t joke here]

Villa Rotonda | Palladio | 1566 AD | Vicenza, Italy

Four Books of Architecture | Mass plinths | ornate

Casa Batlló

Art Nouveau (New Art)

Antonio Gaudi | 1904

Only built in Barcelona, but art nouveau was also developing in Paris, in the metros especially.

Anthropomorphic or Biomorphic (human like, or growing naturally)

This was Gaudi’s remodel of a home, abstract of

St. George (patron St. of Catalonia) killing a dragon.

He would use the community (young and old to help place mosaic tiles in his creations)

Casa Batlló

Art Nouveau (New Art)

Antonio Gaudi | 1904

Only built in Barcelona, but art nouveau was also developing in Paris, in the metros especially.

Anthropomorphic or Biomorphic (human like, or growing naturally)

This was Gaudi’s remodel of a home, abstract of

St. George (patron St. of Catalonia) killing a dragon.

He would use the community (young and old to help place mosaic tiles in his creations)

Barcelona Pavilion

Architect: Mies van der Rohe

Building: Barcelona Pavilion

City: Barcelona, Spain | 1929

Mies designed the Barcelona Pavilion as part of the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain. It was to display ideas of the modern movement. It was originally named the German Pavilion and was the face of Germany after WWI, emulating the nation's progressively modern culture that was still rooted in classical history.

This building catapulted both Mies' career as an architect as well as the modern movement in architecture across the world. It is rich in materials, as well as sleek and elegant in its approach and layout. It has overlaps of space to define areas.

Additional info & images found here:

https://www.archdaily.com/109135/ad-classics-barcelona-pavilion-mies-van-der-rohe

Chrysler Building

Art Deco

About the time of WWI (1920’s/30’s)

William Van Alen

1930 | Manhattan, NY

Very Geometric ornamentation, Graphic heavy

Bauhaus

Walter Gropius | Weimar Germany

Around the same time as Art Deco but different direction

Modernism - analytical approach to function, exploring new materials, eliminating ornament

Deconstructivism/Formalism/Structuralism

1926 | Bauhaus was an institution – looked at all aspects of design: music, writing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, architecture – very integrated | teacher living, student living, and shared spaces, connected like a pinwheel

Good link: https://goo.gl/1Qno4H

Villa Savoye

Architect: Le Corbusier | Building: Villa Savoye| City: Poissy, France | 1929

One of the 1st modern takes on a French country house, reacting and celebrating the new machine age. It was often referred to as the start of the “International Style” of architecture because it had to do with principles rather than only aesthetics or regional taste.

The building is detached from its physical context and instead contextually integrated with the mechanistic/industrial age of the early 20th century. This house transformed Le Corbusier’s career. He described it saying “The house is a machine for living”.

He derived “The 5 Points of Architecture”:

Pilotis; Flat Roof Terrace; Open Plan; Ribbon Windows; Free Façade.

Corbu was intrigued and inspired by the technology and design of steamships at the time. The curve of the ground floor wall was determined by the radius of a turning car for that time period. The bottom floor was more maintenance type spaces; the upper floor was more living spaces – and even then, there is a separation of public and private spaces in the upper floor.

Additional info and images:

http://www.archdaily.com/84524/ad-classics-villa-savoye-le-corbusier

Falling Water

Frank Lloyd Wright | Falling Water | aka- Kaufmann House | 1936

Bear Run, Pennsylvania, USA

Vastly different approach from others at the time, Wright opened up corners with windows instead of columns at corners, brought nature inside, used local stone, initially owner wanted view of waterfall, but Wright envisioned this instead, over budget and longer than anticipated, very long cantilevers that many thought would not work, hovering planes and intersecting “spaces”, he often had to prove his structures to builders/contractors before construction.

Additional info & images:

http://www.archdaily.com/60022/ad-classics-fallingwater-frank-lloyd-wright

Notre Dame du Haut (Ronchamp)

Architect: Le Corbusier

Building: Ronchamp (Notre Dame du Haut)

City: Ronchamp, France

1954

Simply referred to as Ronchamp, this is Corbu's design for a chapel in Ronchamp, France. You can see a break from Corbu's "machine" approach as this building is much more organic in form, use of light, and construction technique. Brutalism in architecture often would express the process, especially of concrete and heavy materials honestly, and we find this in Ronchamp.

While it had very heavy elements, Corbu would use light to manipulate a user's experience. The roof, while heavy and weighty, seems to float above a light space surrounding the interior. The walls while thick and massive, have punctured windows that splay out to create bursts of light with a gradation.

Additional info & images:

https://www.archdaily.com/84988/ad-classics-ronchamp-le-corbusier

Hedmark Museum

Architect: Sverre Fehn

Building: Hedmark Museum, aka Storhamar Barn

City: Hamar, Norway | 1967-1979; courtyard in 2005

Sverre Fehn is an underrated architect. He was very humble yet very effective. He was sensitive to context and history. Very thoughtful, elegant, and gentle with his approach. This museum used an existing 18th/19th century bishop’s palace and barn. Fehn’s additions respectfully addressed the existing conditions while creating a new sense of place and also allow archeological excavations. Fehn would design with thinking of light as another material to build with. When asked what the most important part of his architecture is, Fehn has replied that it is above all, the construction, be it wood or concrete, and harmony, rhythm, and honesty in the use of those materials. He calls the act of building brutal, and elaborates, “When I build on a site in nature that is totally unspoiled, it is a fight, an attack by our culture on nature. In this confrontation, I strive to make a building that will make people more aware of the beauty of the setting, and when looking at the building in the setting, a hope for a new consciousness to see the beauty there, as well.”

Link for bio:

https://goo.gl/d5xlWo

Link for pix:

https://goo.gl/oFWvsj

Kimbell Art Museum

Architect: Louis Kahn

Building: Kimbell Art Museum

City: Fort Worth, Texas | 1972

Kimbell Art Museum is a classic modern architecture building. The main concepts and ideas included the use and control of light, especially natural light, and elegant spaces for the art. The ceilings/roof are vaulted concrete with a slit down the middle to let light in. Then that light is diffused through perforated aluminum reflectors. Light passes through them as well as bounces off of them to the ceiling. This allows the quality of light to be excellent without the danger of damaging artwork. The building is modular – some of the outside spaces echoing what the inside spaces are like. It is also very geometrical, a trait of Kahn’s architecture. Very detailed and thought out, even the metal rolled handrails, and void of ornament. The mechanical equipment is placed near where the vaults touch. Many architects were approached since the owner of the artwork wanted the building itself to be a work of art.

Link for additional images:

https://goo.gl/tjA84X

http://www.archdaily.com/123761/ad-classics-kimbell-art-museum-louis-kahn

Douglas House

Architect: Richard Meier

Building: Douglas House

City: Harbor Springs, Michigan, USA | 1973

This iconic building launched the career of architect Richard Meier. He placed the house gently on a steep slope of the site to give the house a feeling of almost floating among the trees as you engage it at a personal level. It has very clean, crisp lines and spaces that are open for grand views and open use.

While it engages the site, it is completely separate from it and looks like a machine made object that landed in a natural site. The stark contrast of the white building to the natural colors of the trees, changing colors of the leaves, the blue sky, ground, etc. enhance the beauty of those elements to behold as well as the building itself.

It has a private zone above and public zone below.

Richard Meier was also noted as including a binder for owners to know how to properly care for their home.

Link for additional info & images:

https://www.archdaily.com/61276/ad-classics-douglas-house-richard-meier

Centre Pompidou

Architect: Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers

Building: Centre Pompidou

City: Paris, France | 1977

Both architects were unknown at the time of this building. Their approach was vastly different from most at the time. The turned the building inside out, creating one of the most famous and radical buildings of modern architecture. Their approach was high-tech with structural trusses, exposed mechanical elements, and exemplifying constructivism.

They exposed the structure as well as all the elements, and saw the museum itself in movement - and allowing visitors to move freely - maximizing interior space without interruptions.

Link for additional info & images:

https://www.archdaily.com/64028/ad-classics-centre-georges-pompidou-renzo-piano-richard-rogers

Thorncrown Chapel

E. Fay Jones

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

1980

Student of Frank Lloyd Wright

Inspired by St. Chappell in Paris

Only steel used is the diamond-shaped brace at the center of the wooden trusses.

Organic materials native to the site (sim to Falling Water).

All lumber could be carried to site by hand so little was done to disturb the site.

Because of its transparency, the character changes from night/day, sunny/cloudy, etc.

Good resource:

http://www.thorncrown.com/architecture.html

Fay Jones only worked on projects that he could do out of his garage! This information is an encouragement that you do not have to run or work in a tremendous office to do excellent work!

Children's Museum | HOUSTON

Post Modern

Began in the 50’s but more prominent in 70’s+

Venturi – Less is a bore

Fanciful, exaggerated, often playful & witty

Ornamental at times and referenced the past

Houston, Tx

Jackson & Ryan with Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates | 1992 | Over-scaled entrance to have parents feel what children feel since adults accustomed to regular scale | interesting since very close to Mies’ work at MFA