ESCAPE

KSCAPF:

by Ronald Mark Clements

A THESIS

IN

ARCHITECTURE

Submitted to the Architecture Faculty

of the College of Architecture of Texas Tech University in

Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of

BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE

Programming Instructor (ARCH 4395): Prof. David A. Driskiil Design Critic (ARCH 46.^1):

Accepted

Dean, College of Architecture December, 1990

At

N l . ^

PROLOGUE

26 November 1990

This is a thesis, an idea, a position. The manner in which I have chosen to present this information could be considered a bit radical, a step out of the ordinary, but it is how I have chosen to present it. It is intentionally open-ended.

On the following few pages I will present different positions, views and attitudes of man> different people ranging from sociologists, psychologists and architects. I have chosen these views from research I have done because I believe that they support my ideals and views from a different perspective. Inter­mingled into the fabric of this thesis will be a few of my own positions, and at the end of each section will be my conclusion, based on the information of that section. It is not my desire to offend anyone with my views so if you would please take into account that any reference to man or mankind is in representation of all of humanity.

Please note that the expressions that follow that are numbered are portions of Christopher Alexander s. A Pattern Language. Not included here to perpetuate the myth of that book being a cookbook of archi­tecture but because these issues do apply to this presentation.

That is the sum of the organization to this thesis, with the exception of the activity, space and the cost analysis. It is my goal that through this shotgun effect of information presentation that you, the reader, will think, contemplate, interpret and form ideas and positions of your own to compare to my summary.

So let us start this here. Please turn the page, continue to read, and give some thought to my goals.

Sincerely,

Ron Clements

\o my mother, father. Sheila an i ail m\ friends.

I'o m> friends for Just being there.

To Sheila for loving me and being the person I needed when 1 needed vni .imt ttiei l^rcng me lo live up to all of these beliefs I have.

To my parents Peggy and Harold, for believing in me. trusting me. suppniini: me, and kn ing me through it all and giving me ihe tools and values to begin m> life and make the ini'si of it I CIMI

CONTENTS

Prologue Poetic Context and Research Retreat

Theory Conclusion People Conclusion Site - Conclusion Energy and l-ight - Conclusion Building - Conclusion Outside - Conclusion

Activity Analysis Building and People Conclusion Building Conclusion People Conclusion

Space Analysis Criteria Case Studies

Church of the Light Chapel on the Water

Conclusion Cost Analysis Epilogue Bibliography

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POETIC CONTEXT AND RESEARCH

Mankind is the key to the wholistic nature of architecture. Archi­tecture, by fact of existence is FOR him, OF him and THROUGH him. It is this that I suppose, and that the realization of this is that by man being in some kind of built form he can ultimate the different components of the building into a whole, a place where then he can achieve his wholeness.

By occupying this place he can actualize his feelings. He can look into the mirror and wonder out the window simultaneously, achieving the essence of wholism.

I view architecture as an attempt of mankind to raise himself to the level of God. He knows that he cannot create the beauty of a sunrise, for example, but he can create a beauty all his own through the realization of a space or series of spaces that form a unified whole. Each of these spaces being just as important and related to the other as the sunrise is related to the horizon it rises over. Without one the other is incomplete and inconsequential.

This is discussed by Le Corbusier in the following quote:

"The Architect, by his arrangement of forms, realizes an order which is a pure creation of his spirit; by forms and shapes he affects our senses to an acute degree and pro­vokes plastic emotions; by the relationships which he creates he wakes profound echoes in us, he gives us the measure of an order which we feel to be in accordance with that of our heart and of our understanding; it is then that we experience the sense of beauty.""(Le Corbusier 1)

Following are two excerpts from Idea. Form, and Architecture: Design Principles in Contemporary Architecture in which the author quotes Charles Moore on his principles of architecture. They, I believe, relate specifically to my thesis.

Priniple 2: If the buildings are to speak, they must have the free dom of speech. It seems to me that one of the most serious dangers to architecture is that people may just lose interest in it; the numbers of things buildings have in this half century been allowed to say has so diminished that there is little chance for surprise or wonder. If architecture is to survive in the human consciousness, then the things buildings can say, be they wistful or wise or powerful or gentle or heretical or silly, have to respond to the wide range of human feelings.(Schirmbeck 86-87)

Human feelings, that is the key to architecture, that is the void to be filled. Architecture needs to say the things that these feelings need to hear, comforting things, exciting things, necessary things.

Principle 3: Buildings must be inhabitable by the bodies, minds, and memories or humankind. The urge to dwell, to inhabit, enhance, and protect a piece of the world, to fashion an inside and to distinguish an outside, is one of the basic human drives,...(Schirmbeck 86-87)

Ihe real ability of architecture is to encompass the whole of mankind. It is the constant that has stood the test of time and will continue to do so. It is the eternal.

Martin Heidegger, whose concept of being-in-the-world implies a man-made environment, discussed the problems of''dwelling poetically'' explicitly, when he refers to the "art of building""

''Human life takes place between earth and sky in a con­crete sense, and the things which constitute the place have to be disclosed in their immediate presence....The primary purpose of architecture is hence to make a world visible. It does this as a thing, and the world it brings into presence consists in what it gathers....spatiality becomes manifest as a particular "between" of earth and sky, that is, as a "place'CSardello, Thomas 87-89).

It is the creation of these "places" that separates architecture from shelter. Thus raising architecture to a level that relates to mankind and not just serving him.

PROJECT STATEMENT:

It is my desire to represent this union of man and nature in a retreat center for mankind, any man, woman or child. A place for him to escape as he must do from time to time to collect his thoughts and feelings. To leave his daily life and enter a place built by others where he may find peace and possibly see how he can make that lifestyle into one that wants to live, be it through private contemplation or a joining together in community with others. It is only in a place built by man that he can do these things wholly because only in his can he find the greatness of himself without having to weigh it against the larger greatness of God's nature around him. Architecture is the most obvious of his accomplishments available to weigh his greatness against nature and find a sense of worth and value.

CONCLUSION

The concept for this thesis originates from my own personal belief that all individuals can resolve their own private turmoils within themselves, given the opportunity. I also believe that because of the structure of our present day society, this opportunity some­times needs a special place, and that the architect is responsible lor providing this place.

Some of these places exist today, for example the Fort Worth Water Gardens, adjacent to my site is one of these. Thanksgiving Square in Dallas is another. These places are, however, for short term occupation. A few minutes, an hour or two, maybe an after­noon. I wish to design one for longer term visits, from over night up to a week.

RETREAT-THEORY

This is a section of Theoretical positions on architecture. I have chosen these as direct design issues to be addressed in the realiza­tion of the necessary forms.

For Louis Kahn, architecture began

"where The function has already been clearly established. At this stage the essence of the spaces themselves reveals itself to the soul, and when their function has been proper!) understood, the spaces created fulfill a deep psychological need."

For the activity of design, and for the design itself, this means that "before the design, before the actual creation of spaces" there was already in existence "a vision with its own incontestable qualities."(Schirmbeck 64-65)

Two more of Charles Moore's principles of architecture that he believed led to the completion or unification of a design are presented below.

Principle 1: If we are to devote our lives to making buildings, we have to believe that they are worth it, that they live and speak (of themselves, and the people who made them and thus inhabit them), and can receive investments of energy and care from their inhabitants, and can store those invest ments of energy and care, and return them augmented, bread cast on the water come back as club sandwiches.

Principle 4: For us each to feel at the center of the universe, we need to measure and describe points in space as people used to do—in terms of ourselves, not of the precise but meaningless relations of, for instance, Cartesian coordi nates or "rationaP geomeu-ies. Soon after our birth we arrive at a sense of front and back, left and right, up, down, and center, which are so strong that we can feel with whole bodies the significances of them. Our architecture needs to remember them, too, so that we are, not just see it with our eyes or reason it out in our minds(Schirmbeck 86-87).

One of the keys to this goal of wholeness is that contradiction is as much a contributing element as homogeneity. It is through using these two extremes and the innumerable stops in between that a balance of forms, functions, thoughts, and emotions can be achieved in architecture. This is the issue infroduceU to the world by Robert v^nt-ri-c r ^mpiPxitv and Contradirtion in Architec­ture.

Upon ftirther reflection of this concept of wholeness, it is impor­tant to keep in mind that if a place is always at odds with the practical functions held within damage to those functions and the myth that supports them will occur.

Functional ism, following World War 11 achieved a new level of being by developing into that flexible tool which was intended, though seemingly not realized, by Modernists between the two World Wars.

The most direct and focused movement of Functionalism was the "organic" flow which, took a completely different approach than that of the International Style, which dominated between the two wars. The International Style building is distinguished by a few characteristic propjerties:

1. They are usually derived from simple stereo-meu-ic shapes.

2. They appear as unitary volumes wrapped in a thin, weightless skin of glass and plaster.

?i. They show a puritan lack of material texture and articulating detail.(Norberg-Schulz 186-187)

The Functionalist building rises above these simple solutions by taking the user and his needs/feelings into account and attempting to respond to them.

With respect to the International Style which was the foundation for more sensitive styles to follow, Walter Gropius described the buildings of the International Style as "transparent structures" and "sharply modeled designs in which every part merges into the comprehensive volume of the whole." It is imperative to note that even though the Modern Movement looked to science as its point of departure and tried to define a standard that would secure a "polite and well ordered society"; its leaders were not blind to or ignorant of the needs of the user's feelings. Hiis would become that foundation.

In the words of Le Corbusier "Suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good, I am happy and I say 'this is beautiful.' That is architecture. Art enters in."

Continually Le Corbusier turned to man's need for beauty, which he described in two ways:

1. The result of the use of elementary forms and propor tional geometry.

2. The result of functional appropriateness.

"When a thing responds to a need it is beautiful."

He also believed thai architecture is "a thing which itself produces happy people." It is here that the very creed of function­alist architecture is touched upon: The social and human problems of our time are, to a large extent the products of a false and defi­cient environment, and that man's condition may be improved through a new architecture which embraces true and ftindamental meanings(Norberg-Schulz 187).

A prime and literal example of the architectural wholeness comes from Frank Lloyd Wright's book The Natural House:

"Let walls, ceilings, floors, now become not only party to each other but part of each other, reacting upon and within one another; continuity in all, eliminating any merely con-sfructed features as such."

Here are a few other appropriate words of wisdom from the American Master:

"Wright liked to speak of "a new sense of building on American soil" that could grow building forms that were not only true to their function, but also that could express far beyond their own function into the realm of the human spirit and to raise that spirit to higher planes of greatness. He thought that architecture might extend the bounds of in dividuality in an indefinite manner through what he called "safe interior discipline". His attitude was that not only had space come upon new techniques but also that materi­als and methods might speak for themselves in objective terms of humanity.

"...architecture for the spirit of man, for life as life must be lived today; architecture spiritually (virtually) conceived as appropriate enclosure of interior space to be lived in; Form and function made one. The enclosed space within them is the reality.

"This is the sense of the "within' or the room itself (or the rooms themselves) 1 see as the great thing to be realized and that may take the new forms we need as architecture.

"This sense of interior space made exterior as architecture, working out by the way of the nature of materials and tools, transcends, as a fertilizing motive,...this clarifying motive of the whole makes previous ideas useful only as a

I I

means to the realization of this far greater concept of architecture.

"Inevitably this deeper sense of building as integral pro­duce of the spirit of man is to construct the physical body of our machine age. But that in itself will not be enough. Unless this construction were to enable a broader, finer sense of life as something to be lived in to the full, all resources of time, place, and man in place to give us an architecture that is an inspiring environment at the same time that it is a frue expression of that life itself, the ideal will again have failed.

For Kahn a space was "...not a space if one could not understand how it was created." and "while the purpose of the space can be defined, its character cannot be defined." To some extent I accept this to be frue. The architect can only communicate a limited amount of his feelings and emotions in his designs to those that follow in his footsteps to experience that space, reading from the physical and the subliminal thoughts of the architect.

From the introduction of A Pattern Language-

"... buildings will not be able to become alive, unless they are made by all the people in society,..."

12

CONCLUSION

Throughout this section, space is the recurring theme, as, in my opinion, it should be. Architecture, minimalistically is the con­tainment of space. This space has a purpose which is to fultill; needs, visions and more. But this purpose also should give a presence, a feeling, even speak to us. The most important of the vehicles of this action is to relate to the human within, as Charles Moore put it, to make us "feel at the Center of the Universe." I hold that this relationship should transcend the element of im­agery. It should put forth to the inhabitant the opportunity to solidify the different elements of the architecture. To let each and every person feel that they helped or influenced, in some manner, the creation of that space.

This is possible in several ways, but the result of it should be a balance within the mind of the person within.

In my opinion. Modernism as a movement, made a noble attempt at this. It was architecture in the rough, if one will. Incredibly simplified so that the user could impan their own particular feel­ings to it, with a common foundation for each individual to start trom; that of just understanding how the space was put together, created.

1

RETREAT - PEOPLE: PRIVACY V. COMMUNITY

PRIVACY

In comparison with crowding, personal space, and territory, the concept of privacy has been neglected by society as a whole.

However, a large number of theoretical and discursive analyses o\' privacy exist, done largely by political scientists, lawyers, philoso­phers, and recently sociologists.

Please note that all lists in this section are from Philo.sQphical Dimensions of Privacv: An Anthology edited by Ferdinand David Schoeman

Listed below are the theoretical results of these analyses. The results come as personal interpertation and should be accepted as such.

1. Privacy is an interpersonal boundary-control process, which paces and regulates interaction with others. Privacy regulation by persons or groups is somewhat like the shifting permeability of a cell membrane. Sometimes the person or group is receptive to outside inputs, and sometimes the person or group closes off contact with the outside environment.

2. Two important aspects of privacy are desired and achieved privacy:

Desired is a subjective statement of an ideal level of interaction with others

Achieved is the actual degree of contact that results from interaction with others

3. Privacy is a dialectic process, which involves both a restriction of interaction and a seeking of interaction. A traditional view of privacy is that it is a shutting off of the self from others. My view is that privacy is optimally conceived of as an interplay of oppos­ing forces—that is different balances of opening and closing the self to others.

4. Privacy is an optimizing process. In other words, there is an optimal degree of desired access of the self to others at any mo­ment in time.

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5. Privacy is an input and output process: people and groups attempt to regulate contacts coming from others and outputs they make to others. It is important to understand how people and groups regulate privacy with regard to what comes in from others and what goes out from the person or the group to others.

6. Privacy can involve different types of social units: individuals families mixed or homogeneous sex groups, and so on.

7. Behavioral mechanisms used to achieve privacy goals. a. Verbal and paraverbal behavior b. Personal space defined by the angle and distance of

orientation to others. c. Territory or the use, possession, and ownership of areas

and objects in a geographic locale d. Cultural Mechanisms - customs, norms, behavior by

which members of different cultural groups regulate contact with others

8. Privacy functions a. Control and management of interpersonal interaction b. Plans, roles, and strategies for dealing with others c. Features of self-identity

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Alan Westin, member of the New York Bar and highly published as a theoritition provided a systematic analysis in 1970, categoriz­ing four types and functions of privacy.

TYPES: 1. Solitude-person is alone and free from observation of

others and, as such is the most extreme condition 2. Intimacy-occurs within a small group (husband and

wife) separate themselves from the outside in order to be alone.

3. Anonymity-a person "lost in a crowd" in a public space with others but doesn't expect to be recognized no more engagement other than casual with others.

4. Reserve-includes "...the creation of a psychological barrier against unwanted intrusion" one literally "tunes out other people"

This indicates how different size social groups are involved in privacy and how settings make a difference and suggests the operation of various mechanisms to achieve different degrees of privacy.

FUNCTIONS: 1. Personal autonomy-deals with the cenfral core of the self

and important issues of self-worth, self-independ ence, and self-identity

2. Emotional release-permits people to relax from social roles, to be "off stage" and to deviate from rules and customs in a protected fashion.

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3. Self-evaluation-integration of experiences, opportunity to plan future actions.

4. Limited and protected communication-provides the opportunity to be alone with another person and/or small group and share confidences.

CONCEFFUAL ANALYSIS OF PRIVACY

Anchored around: social units, dialectic quality of privacy, opti­mization nature of privacy and privacy as a boundary-regulation process

Units: usually an interpersonal event, involving relationships among other people. Person to person, person to group, group to person and group to group social units can be formed.

Dialectic quality: social interaction is a continuing interplay dialectic between forces, driving people to come together and to move apart. Separation on an arrangement type of basis is healthy but forced separation like solitary confinement in prison is not, thus, privacy is not solely a "keep-out" or "let-in" process. A synthesis of being in contact with others and being out of contact with others is the desired approach. These desires change over time and with different circumstances. A balancing of opposite forces.

Optimization: Related feature of privacy is that too much or loo little is unsatisfactory and that persons or groups seek varying optimal levels of privacy

Boundary-regulafion: Desired and achieved privacy: two perspectives,

1. personally defined ideal level of interaction that a person or group desires

2. resulting outcome or achieved amount of actual interac tion, which may or may not match what was desired.Input and output

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The concept of privacy emphasizes certain themes:

1. privacy as an interpersonal process with several classes of potential actors

2. privacy as a bidirectional process involving incoming and outgoing contacts

3. privacy as a regulatory process involving adjustments ol self-boundaries to permit various levels of contact with others

4. privacy as a multifaceted process involving achieved and desired levels, which fit together to yield optimal or non-optimal privacy states

5. privacy as an optimization process, with too little pri­vacy reflected in fewer contacts than desired

6. privacy as a dialectic process, with open/closed and accessible/inaccessible forces operating in a si multaneous and dynamic fashion.

Environmental Privacy Mechanisms

Personal space-the invisible boundary surrounding the self; intru­sion into this space creates tension or discomfort.

Four distances: 1. Intimate distance - body contact to

18 inches 2. Personal distance - 1.5 to 4 ft. 3. Social distance - 4 to 12 ft. 4. Public zone - beyond 12 ft.

to regulate interaction and to avoid inappropriate intrusions

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59

Anyone who has to work in noise, in offices with people all around, needs to be able to pause and refresh himself with quiet in a more natural situation.

THERHFORF:

Give the buildings in the busy parts of town a quiet "back" behind them and away from the noise. Build a walk along this quiet back, far enough from the building so that it s in full sunlight, but pro­tected from noise by walls and distance and buildings. Make certain that the path is not a natural shortcut for busy foot traffic, and connect it up with other walks, to form a long ribbon of quiet alleyways which converge on the local pools and streams and the local greens.

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COMMUNITY

69

There are very few spots along the streets of modern towns and neighborhoods v. neic people can hang out, comfortably, for hours at a time.

THEREFORE:

In every neighborhood and work community, make a piece of the common land into an outdoor room - a partly enclosed place, with some roof, columns, without walls, perhaps with a trellis; place it beside an important path and within view of many homes and workshops.

too

The simple social interface created when people rub shoulders in public is one of the essential kinds of social "glue" in society.

129

No social group - whether a family, a work group, or a school group - can survive without constant informal contact among its members.

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27

THEREFORE: ^B # \ WOmail'S SpiTlt

Make certain that each piece of the environment — each building, open space, neighborhood, and work community — is made with a blend of both man's and woman s instincts. Keep this balance of 111211*$ Spirit masculine and feminine in mind for every project at every scale, from the kitchen to the steel mill.

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People cannot maintain their spiritual roots and their connections to the past if the physical world they live in does not also sustain these roots.

147

Without communal eating, no human group can hold together.

182

When people eat together, they may actually be together in spirit — or they may be far apart. Some rooms invite people to eat leisurely and comfortably and feel together, while others force people to eat as quickly as possible so they can go somewhere else to relax.

2.-S

CONCLUSION

It is wrong that privacy is neglected. I do believe that architects do try successfully to achieve and maintain it on a level above that of isolation. The question is whether or not it can be categorized as either desired or achieved. The answer is in the quality of the space.

As for community which also relates to space, more specifically the physical characteristics of the space. All of the conceivable types and definitions of community are elements of society and people themselves. The architectural responsibility is to provide those physical requirements necessary to aid the process of com­munity; sitting areas, standing area, proper environmental comfort, etc...

The architect is also responsible for maintaining a connection to society and context as well as a separation from it, either being at the discretion of the individual exbperiencing the space.

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RETREAT - SITE

The city of Fort Worth, Texas is located in the North Central section of the state. Approximately 250 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, near the headwaters of the Trinity River.

It has a climate categorized as humid-subtropical with hot sum­mers. It has a wide temperature range and precipitation varies from 20 to 50 inches annually. Winters are mild with approxi­mately 3 cold fronts a month with sudden temperature drops. Periods of extreme cold are few and not very long lasting, with mild weather occurring throughout the winter months.

The hottest days of the summer months are usually associated with fair skys, westerly winds and low humidity. Few nights are un­comfortable.

Rainfall is most frequent during the nighttime; rainy periods lasting only about a day or two. The majority of rainfall is associ­ated with thunderstorms. The average days above freezing is 249, with the first freeze in late November and the last in mid March. The site I have chosen for my design is not what one would call a hospitable one. Located in downtown Fort Worth on the west side of the Fort Worth Water Gardens by Philip Johnson is a wasted plot of land presently being used for a parking lot for the Gardens and Tarrant County Convention Center, as well as the few down­town businesses located in the surrounding area.

The site offers little visually to the south and west with views of the Interstate-30 overpass and further parking lots respectively. The views to the east and north, however, offer the Water Gardens

and the downtown skyline.

I see promise in this location, specifically in an interpretation of "city" presented by Gail Thomas:

"The Voice of the city can be heard coming from expected sources, other than from its own people. It is housed in its buildings, in its sfreets, roadways and freeways, in the detail of its spaces which, when cared for, become places, in fountains, benches, flowers, bells, trees, lights, clear glass windows, food vendors and sfreet corner musicians. ... The architecture and design of a city cohere to form a living language—a comprehensive pattern of phenr>iTipna sequestered within a given region which tells the ' r its soul.

"...the major quality of buildings or cities that we care anything about is care itself, or we might say, love. Build­ings that get a generous helping of care have a capacity to absorb our care or our love, and then when they get enough of it, to give it back to us."

30

CONCLUSION

Unlike the other major cities in Texas, Fort Worth can still offer the previously discussed concepts to its inhabitants and visitors. It still offers that homey feeling without prostituting itself for that ever appealing cosmopolitan feeling so many of our larger cities in this region are frying to achieve at great loss to their individual character.

Fort Worth contains and returns this kind of love and feeling. Due north of my site is the recently revitalized downtown historic district, a prime example of this kind of love/care relationship expressed above.

The time, energy, and money put into the revitalization has given the people of the city something to be proud of. to enjoy, experi­ence and share with their friends and relatives both in the region and from yonder points great and far.

One might call the results of this time, energy, and money in the words of Lyle Novinski,

"... a more fitting union, that is, that which might make the life lived there be lived more fully...."

M

RETREAT - ENP:RGY AND LIGHT

130

THEREFORE:

At the main enfrance to a building, make a light-filled room which marks the enfrance and sfraddles the boundary between indoors and outdoors, covering some space outdoors and some space indoors. The outside part may be like an old-fashioned porch; the inside like a hall or sitting room.

107

Modem buildings are often shaped with no concern for natural light — they depend almost entirely on artificial light. But build­ings which displace natural light as a major source of illumination are not fit places to spend the day.

135

In a building with a uniform light level, there are few "places" which function as effective settings for human events. Iliis hap­pens because, to a large extend, the places which make effective settings are defined by light.

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CONCLUSION

Light is an important consideration for energy consumption. It not only takes energy to produce artificial light but it also requires energy to combat the detrimental side effects of producing light, such as heat buildup and discomfort to the user. Artificial light is normally inadequate for proper illumination of a space to maintain a certain level of productivity and comfort. I believe that a system of controlled day lighting is the answer. Fort Worth has a large number of sunny days. Sunlight is immeasurable in its quality and nurturing affects. Sunlight is free. A series of louvers and/or shades could provide more that the appropriate amount of illumi­nation and heat buildup can be controlled to either supplement needs on cold days or be blocked out completely on hot days.

Certain activities require more energy consumption to provide comfort to the participants that others. Therefore certain spaces that house similar activities should be situated to share in their energy needs.

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RETREAT - BUILDING

132

".... long, sterile corridors set the scene for everything bad about Modern Architecture."

THEREFORE:

Keep passages short. Make them as much like rooms as possible, with carpet or wood on the fioor, furniture, book shelves, beautiful windows. Make them generous in shape, and always give them plenty of light; the best corridors and passages are all of those which have windows along an entire wall.

127

Unless the scales in a building are arranged in a sequence which corresponds to their degrees of privateness. The visits made by strangers, friends, guests, clients, family will always be a little awkward.

125

Wherever there is action in a place, the spots which are the most inviting are those high enough to give people a vantage point and low enough to put them in action.

Changes in Level Stairs Accessible

public pbcc

sUirsats

7

118

A vast part of the earth's surface, in a town, consists of roofs, couple this with the fact that the total area of a town which can be exposed to the sun is finite, and you will realize that it is natural, and indeed essential, to make roofs which take advantage of the sun and air.

THEREFORE:

Make parts of almost every roof system usable as roof gardens. Make these parts flat, perhaps ten-aced for planting, with places to sit and sleep, private places. Place the roof gardens at various stories, and always make it possible to walk directly out onto the roof garden from some lived-in part of the building.

109

The shape of a building has a great effect on the relative degrees of privacy and overcrowding in it. and this in turn has a critical effect on peoples comfort and well being.

151

The larger meetings are, the less people get out of them, but institutions often put their money and attention into large meeting rooms and leisure halls.

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95

A building cannot be a human building unless it is a complex of still smaller buildings or smaller parts which manifest its own internal social facts.

66

What is a church or temple? It is a place of worship, spirit, con­templation, of course. But above all, from a human point of view, it is a gateway. A person comes into the world through the church. He leaves it through the church. And, at each of the important thresholds of his life, he once again steps through the church.

THEREFORE:

In each community and neighborhood identify some sacred site as consecrated ground,....

150

The process of waiting has inherent confiicts in it.

THEREFORE:

....create a situation which makes the waiting positive. Fuse the waiting with some other activity...something which draws people in who are not simply waiting.

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149

Have you ever walked into a public building and been processed by the receptionist as if you were a package?

THEREFORE:

Arrange a series of welcoming things immediately inside the enfrance....

160

A building is most often thought of as something which turns inward — toward its rooms. People do not often think of a build­ing as something which must also be oriented toward the outside.

THEREFORE:

Make sure that you treat the edge of a building as a "thing", a "place", a zone with volume in it, not a line...which has no thick­ness. ...places that invite people to stop. ...depth and covering, places to sit, lean, and walk....

158

Internal staircases reduce the connection between upper stories and the life of the sfreet to such an extent that they can do enormous social damage.

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CONCLUSION

An infinite number of issues can be brought up when thinking of the building itself. Among those, an appropriateness of scale to the city context and to the individual(s) within and around; adapta­tion to the events happening within and outside of; effective use of the spaces, including the roof; actual size and how that relates to the surroundings; spaces within spaces; the ability to be personal and intimate without neglecting the need to be a presence.

My desire in this design is to achieve these things while achieving a tie to the historic past of the city of Fort Worth. This city has undeniable roots and ties. My goal is to target those of an archi­tectural nature that are from the early part of this century in Fort Worth. At that time there were some very individual and innova­tive movements that have been lost in recent years. I would regret to see this trend continue, especially in light of the historical revitalism that has recently risen throughout the city.

RETREAT - OUTSIDE

60

People need green open places to go to; when they are close they use them. But if the greens are more than three minutes away, the distance overwhelms the need.

114

Outdoors, people always try to find a spot where they can have their backs protected, looking out toward some larger opening, beyond the space immediately in front of them.

THEREFORE:

....first, make at least one smaller space, which looks into it and forms a natural back for it. Second, place it and its openings so that it looks into at least one larger space.

When you have done this every outdoor space will have a natural "back"; and every person who takes up the natural posi­tion, with his back to this "back" will be looking out toward some larger distant view.

43

115

The courtyards built in modem buildings are very often dead. They are intended to be private open spaces for people to use - but they end up unused, full of gravel and abstract sculptures.

THEREFORE:

Place every courtyard in such a way that there is a view out of it to some larger open space; place it so that at least two or three doors open from the building into it and so that the natural paths which connect these doors pass across the courtyard....

126

A public space without a middle is quite likely to stay empty.

THEREFORE:

Find a middle object or a center piece. ...sometimes offset....

44

Ill

If a garden is too close to the street, people won't use it because it isn't private enough. But if it is too far from the street, then it won't be used either, because it is too isolated.

THEREFORE:

....place the garden in some kind of half-way position, side-by-side with the house, in a position which is half-hidden from the street, and half-exposed.

106

Outdoor spaces which are merely "left-over" between buildings will, in general, not be used.

THEREFORE:

Make all the outdoor spaces which surround and lie between your building positive. Give each some degree of enclosure; surround each space with wings of buildings, trees, hedges, fences, aicades, and trellised walks, until it becomes an entity with a positive quality and does not spill out indefinitely around comers.

45

105

People use open space if it is sunny, and do not use it if it isn't, in all but desert climates.

THEREFORE:

....never leave a deep band of shade between the building and the sunny part of the outdoors.

121

Streets [paths] should be for staying in, and not just for moving through, the way they are today.

THEREFORE:

Make a bulge in the middle of a public path, and make the ends narrower, so that the path forms an enclosure which is a place to stay, not just a place to pass through.

120

The layout of paths will seem right and comfortable only when it is compatible with the process of walking. And the process of walking is far more subtle than one might imagine.

46

104

Buildings must always be built on those parts of the land which are in the worst condition, not the best.

61

A town needs public squares; they are the largest, most public rooms, that a town has. But when they are too large, they look and feel deserted.

161

The area iinmediately outside the building, to the south — that angle between its walls and the earth where the sun falls — must be developed and made into a place which lets people bask in it.

163

A garden is the place for lying in the grass, swinging, croquet, growing flowers, throwing a ball.... But there is another way of being outdoors: and its needs are not met by the garden at all.

THEREFORE:

Build a place outdoors which has so much enclosure round it, that it takes on the feeling of a room, even though it is open to the sky.

176

Somewhere, in every garden, there must be at least one spot, a quiet garden seat, in which a person — or two people — can reach into themselves and be in touch with nothing else but nature.

48

CONCLUSION

These points above are more than in any other section of this thesis for the sake of reminding myself of the architectural expectations of outside. They address building to building relationships. Hav­ing been raised in a fairly rural area of Fort Worth, the majority of the time I am guilty of neglecting what outside urban space is supposed to be. My personal beliefs of what the outside should be are along the lines of big fields and lots of trees. Obviously not possible in a mefropolitan downtown. However these qualities can be achieve within the urban fabric through an approach that recog­nizes the fundamental order of nature; rhythm, balance, etc... with a thoughtful approach to the context. With a positive interpreta­tion the entire downtown area can benefit.

4^

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ACTIVITY ANALYSIS

My activity analysis comes from a direct review of this thesis up to this point. If the topics and words above are to describe the space, then they should also outline the activities to occur within.

BOTH THE BUILDING AND THE PEOPLE IT TOUCHES

Communicate Reach into ITiemselves and louch Nature Escape Privacy

social groups individuals families mixed and homogeneous sex groups solitude intimacy anonymity reserve

Social Interface Constant Informal Contact Repair Staying In Walking paths

CONCLUSION

These are the activities that both the building and its inhabitants and passers-by are responsible for. The building can provide some of the spaces and facilities but the people must provide the cosmic things; feelings, emotions, etc... The two will interact directly for these.

52

PEOPLE

Sun Basking Lying in the Grass Waiting Contemplation Pause and Refresh Himself with Quiet in a More Natural Situation Collect His Thoughts and Feelings Find Peace See Hang out Private Contemplation Joining Together Wholly Find the Greatness of Himself and Weight It Against the Greater Around Using the Crapper

53

CONCLUSION

These are the activities that people alone are responsible for, I believe. Like in those listed before the building can provide something necessary for each of these but its the person who decides to do this.

54

The numbers that follow the activities in this section are to aid in relating them to the spaces that are listed in the next section.

BUILDING

Provoke Plastic emotions. • • • •0,6,9,1.5,16,23,24,2.*) Wake Profound Echoes and Relationships. • 23,24,25 Represent Society • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •0,2,25 Union of Man and Nature • • • • • • • • • • • • • •0,1,23,24 Balance Between Openness and Closedness. • • • • 1,24,18,19,20 Green Open Spaces To Go To • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •0,23,24 Maintain Their Spiritual Roots and Their Connections to the Past

0,25 Communal Eatings • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •9,10

leisurely and comfortably and feel together not go some place else to relax

Places - which function as effective settings for human events 9,15,16

Action-vantage points • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ^0,1,23 involvement • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ^0,23

Take Advantage of the Sun and Air • • • • • • • • • 0,23,24,25,6,16 Tranquil 23,24,25,19,21 People's Comfort and Well-being • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •ALL Meeting 0,1,2,6,7,15,16,23 Worship 23,24,25 Gateway threshold • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 0,1 Enclosure • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ALL Connection • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ALL Protection • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ALL

55

CONCLUSION

These are the things that the building itself is capable of doing, capable of performing. It, as a thing that exists, whether in reality or in the mind of the designer, should do these things and these should be taken into account.

56

SPACE ANALYSIS

The outline of spaces and their actual derived square footages are from both the Seventh Addition of the Architectural Graphics Standards and my own judgement.

Parking 0 Outside 1 Entry - 400 2 Reception 500

Office 3 Director 500 4 Secretary 300 5 Caretaker 500

Storage 500 Unfamiliar gathering area

6 Lobby - 2000 7 Conference rooms (2) - 2000 8 Restrooms 500

Communal eating 9 Dining room 2000 10 Kitchen-1500 11 Director's office 500 12 Receiving area 500 13 Storage 1000 14 Restrooms 200

Familiar gathering area 15 Small meeting rooms (2) 500 16 Informal gathering room (living room)

500 17 Restrooms 200

59

Communal sleeping 18 Common area - 500 19 Cubicles (15)-750 20 Communal Restrooms - 750

Individual sleeping 21 Bedrooms (8) - 2400 22 Restrooms - 800 23 Gardens (roof and ground level)35% of total

ft- 13020 24 Private alcoves throughout 15% of total ft - 4743 25 Chapel

Circulation 20% of total ft - 5998 Mechanical 15% of total ft - 5227

TOTAL - 40072 sq ft

60

CRITERIA

The above listed spaces are, I believe necessary for a retreat center that will serve the needs of the diverse groups of people that will visit this place. Environmental concerns are equally diverse.

Large areas of natural light controllable from within that area.

Areas of darkness and closure. Individual HVAC control for the different areas. Large amount of good, natural ventilation. Diverse use of different textures and colors to heighten the

senses. Organization of the spaces in a form of hierarchical man

ner. Public to Private.

CASE STUDIES

Church of the Light, Ibaraki Japan Ar. Tadao Ando Co. Tatsumi Kensetsu Pr. Church for United Church of Christ congregation. 113

sq. m. (1215 sq. ft.), one story.

Modesty was demanded of this church, both by the limited means of its congregation and by its crowded location in a middle-class suburb of Osaka. Fitted tightly between the street and an existing auxiliary building, the new church is a linear volume, focused on a cross cut out of the concrete wall behind the alter.

The walls of this sanctuary define a volume equal to three 5.9 meter (19 foot) cubes, end to end. Slicing through this at an angle that relates to the site plan, a freestanding wall defines a narthex at the entrance, linked to the gardened site by extensive glazing. A tall,narrow opening leads from here into the main room, lighted mainly by slits of glass; its only large glass area is heavily shaded by the angled wall. In the morning, sunlight pours in through the cut-out cross; in the evening, lights outside the church illuminate the focal cross and cast sfrong patterns on the walls.

Floors, pews, and platform furnishings are all made of rough scaffolding planks, stained a dark neutral color. Ando advocates natural materials for "parts of the building that come into contact with the human hand or foot."

Completed last year at a cost of only 25 million yen (about $200,000), the church is seen by Ando as a challenge to the pre-

63

vailing economic rationalism, in which "everything is determined by cost, and there is no room for human considerations." Even as this church was going up, it was expected to take years to com­plete serving in the interim as a roofless chapel. But enough money was raised to carry it right through to completion, "thanks to the enthusiasm of the congregation and the construction com­pany." It was apparently a case of inspiration winning out over calculation.

64 _

Chapel on the Water Ar. Tadao Ando Co. Obayashi Corp. Pr. Church with area of 520 sq. m (5600 sq. ft.) facing

artificial pond.

A rural tract on the island of Hokkaido is the setting for this chapel, which is one component of a developing culture-oriented resort. Within a kind of natural cowl, an artificial pond has been erected on its shore.

One enters along a freestanding wall forming an L in plan. A gentle slope leads up to the chapel entry, a glazed volume about 10 meters square (about 32 feet square), surrounding a smaller cube formed by four-cast-in-place crosses. A dark, curved stair leads down from here to the chapel itself, where the pond reappears through a wall of sliding glass doors, with a steel cross rising from the water.

In Hokkaido's rigorous climate, resembling that of Northern New England, the setting presents strong seasonal variations, with vivid fall foliage and heavy snow cover in season. It is in this framed, ever changing landscape, says Ando, that "ones senses the pres­ence of what is natural and sacred."

The Chapel on the Water and the Church of the Light, completed in 1988 and 1989 respectively, reflect ideas worked out for the Chapel, on Mt. Rokko of 1986. In that chapel, too, an entry process involving a 180-degree turn leads into the sanctuary itself.

65

which is cubic. At Mt. Rokko, a glazed side wall lights the solid altar wall, in the manner of some earlier Modern churches, while in the two later religious buildings, the light comes principally from behind the altar.

The developer who built the Chapel on the Water has also commissioned the Ando office to design a Theater on the Water, to be built about 400 meters away, with curved, banked seating for 6000 facing a 200-meter-long platform extending out "•• er the water; it would be used for concerts, fashion shows, and-in the winter-as a setting for ice-skating.

"Like a single flower in a vase in the tokonoma (a raised platform) of a teahouse, it is not the quantity of visual stimuli that bears richness; rather, it is inner quality of the message."

"To regain the fullness of life, I want to continue to pursue the reductive aesthetic I have developed through my practice as an architect. My buildings are being refined towards geometric simplicity, but I also seek to generate complexity through the introduction of various elements. This mixture is the true state of nature and man's existence."

" By employing geometry as a methodology, I seek to synthesize past and present, East and West."

66

CONCLUSION

The comparison of these two places of worship shows that even with two completely different type of contexts for the two projects, the same materials can ultimate two sensitive, responsive, intimate and sacred buildings.

The choice of materials in these two projects is of great impt)r tance to me. Concrete shows strength and stability: wood, sensi­tivity; glass lightness and freedom, as could steel; and water in the one for the life blood of all of humanity.

1 also chose these two because 1 believe that they exemplify the type of small, comfortable place of worship for use by a small group or individual.

67

COST ANALYSIS

Done according to the 1990 Dodge Square Footage Cost Fstima-tor.

Please note that because Dodge did not have a specific building type that fit the description of my building, I use an average of the same categories from the building types of:

Religious Education One Story Motel Country Club

1.0 Foundation .1 Footings and Foundation $4.35/FT2 = $174,313.20 .9 Excavation & Backfill $.79/FT2 = $31,656.88

2.0 Slab .1 Slab on Grade $2.62/FT2 = $104,988.80

3.0 Superstructure .7 Roof $3.15/FT2 = $126,226.80

4.0 Exterior Closure .1 Walls $6.94/FT2 = $278,099.60 .6 Doors $1.76/FT2 = $70,562.72 .7 Windows and Glazed Walls $2.26/FT2 = $90,562.72

6.0 Interior Construction .1 Partitions $3.85/F^l7 = $154,277.20

8.0 Mechanical $4.51/FT2 = $180,724.72

Please note that elecfrical is included in the Mechanical.

Total Square Footage = 40,072

Sub-total = $I,211,376..56 Site Work 5% of Cost = $60,568.83

Sub-total = $1,271,945.39 Contingencies 5% of Cost = $63,597.27

Sub-total = $1,335,542.66 Loan Interest Rate Assumption =11%

$1,335,542.66 x 11 % = $1,482,4.52.36

Rent, Assumption of $40/FT2

11,700 FT2 (leasable) x $40/FT2 = $468,000

Total = $1,950,452.36 Payback = Cost/Income

1,950,452.36/468.000 = 4.17 years

70

EPILOGUE

In conclusion, this is my thesis and the research I have done to support it, but more importantly this is me, now. This is what I have become in 24 years of living and especially in the last 5 years of my formal education and the opportunities of informal education that I have been inn oduced to during these few short years.

I have come to realize that as the world perceptually decreases in size do to the increases in our soci­ety's level of consciousness and through technological advances, like telecommunications, etc. , we all need to escape and re-evaluate our lifes, loves, needs and desires. These things cant be taken care of in just a few hours sometimes and it becomes necessary to isolate ourselves or join with others to discuss these problems.

I believe that a place that can provide the opportunities for these things is essential and necessary in everyones life and it is my hope that the goals and personal bias I have chosen to use as an outline for the design of such a space can answer the needs of others as well as myself.

Thank you for taking the time to share these things with me and I hope that I have aided you also in evaluating these needs and that you can see the need to form a position and act on it.

Ron Clements

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexander, Christopher. A New Theorv of I irhan Design New York. S \ Oxtord Uni\ersitv Press 1987.

Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern l.anyuiigtv New York. NY : Oxford rniversity Press 1977.

Alexander, Christopher. The Timeless Way of Building New VOrk. NY Oxtord I niversiu IVess 1979.

Altman, Irwin. Environment and Social Behavior Monterey. California: Brooks, (ole Publishing Co . 1975.

Bloomer, Kent c. and Charles W. Moore. Body. Memory, and Architecttire New Haven, ( onnectieut: Yale University, 1977.

Cohen, Judith Singer. Cowtown Moderne: Art Deco Architecttjie of l-ori Worth. Texas. Colleee Station, Texas: Texas A & M Press, 1988.

Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical History. New \ ork. N.\ .: Thames and Hiklson, 1985.

Lampugnani, Vittorio Magnago, ed. Encyclopedia of 20th- Cennir\ ArchitcLimv. Ncv\ Yoik, N.>.; Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986.

\^ Cnrhiisier Modular 1 and 11. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Universiiy Pi ess. 1986.

Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. New York, N.Y.: Dover. 1986, 19.M.

Norberg-Schulz, (^hristian. Meanings in Western Architecture. New > ork, N.Y.: Rizzoli. l^hV

Packard, Robert T., AIA ed. Architectural Graphic .StanHarrls New York, N.Y., John Wiley and Sons 1981.

Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead New York, N.Y.: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1943, 1971.

Rybczynski, Witold. Home: A Short History of an ir\f^ New York, N.Y.: Viking Penguin Inc., 1986.

Sardello. Robert and Gail Thomas, eds. Stirrings of Culture: Fs^avs from the Dallas InaiftP Dallas, Tx.: The Dallas Institute Publications, The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, 1986.

Schirmbeck, Egon. IDEA. FORM AND ARCHITFCTIIRF- ne.ipn Principle, in rnntemporary ArchitfCtlirf. New York, N.Y.: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Inc.. 1987.

Wright,Frank Lloyd. IIi£_tianiia]JlQUS£. New York, N.Y.: Horizon, 1954.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Cover of The Fountainhcad Ayn Rand

p 319 of Modem Architecture: A Critical History. Kenneth Frampton

p 194 of Meanings in Westt-rn Archiiecture. Christen Norberg-Schul/

p 78 of The Natural House by Frank Lloyd Wright

p .367 of Fncyclopedia of 2Qth-Century Architecture

p 71 of Idea. Form, and Architecture by Egon Schirmbeck

p 301 of A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

p .348 nf A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

p 148 of A Pattern Language hv Christopher Alexander

p 644 of A Pattern Language bv Christopher Alexander

p 604 of A Pattern Language hv Christopher Alexander

p 632 nf A Pattern Language bv Christopher Alexander

p 158 of Modern Architecture: A Critical Historv. Kenneth Frampton

p 331 of A Pattern Langua^ie by (^hristopher Alexander

p 304 of A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

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