ART 105 Exam 3

Internment Buildings Round 1

All the same; one plan drawn, and replicated Barren landscape and lots of dust Structures look very thin like they might blow away Built a little off ground; organization to put control Paranoia about tunneling Unibody buildings; families all hoisted into other families, no privacy Inhumane

Opus Reticulatum

pyramid shaped brick

Key Quotes from Corb

"Ornament is a Crime" "Form follows function" "Truth to materials" "Machines for living"

What is architecture?

"The will of an epoch into a space" Who is an architect? A poet, a humanist, a builder, problem solvers, community-oriented

Types of Concentration Camps

1) Labor 2) To kill people

Saddlebag Home

A two-room house with a central chimney and one or two front doors, usually gable-roofed

Modern Architecture

After WWII, architects thought we had fought the war to prove we were the best, so they said, if we don't build German buildings that look German, etc., then perhaps we wouldn't have to be as nationalistic They wanted to start a "clean slate," starting fresh from history Modern skyscrapers most closely resemble ziggurats Architects of modern skyscrapers didn't know what to do with completely new and modern, so you can see a tension in that they had to include Gothic ornamentation and Romanesque features in their "modern" structure

Interior of Pantheon

Alcoves along rotunda have columns and statues in each Church made of largest alcove Biggest alcove Dome more intense on inside than outside-outer arch supporting it makes it look less intense Oculus is only natural light let into building Oculus is totally open, so there are manholes in floor and convex floor so water runs out

Architecture of Sugar

Architecture built around pleasure of sugar (ice cream parlor); none of that existed until mass proliferation of sugar Prior to ice cream parlors- House Parlors

Vernacular Architecture (aka Regional Architecture)

Architecture using the look, resources, traditions of the given area in which it's built Emerges from the convergence of local materials + building techniques In the 1920s and 30s, a style and movement emerged that said NO to Eclecticism and the idea that style is a choice Instead of Vernacular, they said we are doing International style

Paul R. Williams

B. 1894 in LA, California; went to LA School of Design Started his own firm Emphasis from his own life made him want to focus on building homes that could represent families Was successful in the 20s and 40s during post-war house boom Has designed over 3,000 houses in his career; almost all were in the LA area First Black architect registered west of the Mississippi

John S. Chase

Born in 1925, John S Chase was an architect at heart from the start. He's cited to have loved to draw airplanes and buildings from a young age. As a boy growing up in Annapolis Maryland, one day he knocked on the door of a local architecture agency and asked them about the role of architects. Therefore only two days after Sweatt v. Painter ruling, John S Chase actually became the first Black graduate student to enroll at the University of Texas. Throughout school as one of four Black enrolled graduate students at UT at the time, Chase faced extreme adversity, as you can imagine. So from there, Chase convinced Board of Architectural Examiners to just waive the usually required internship to practice in the state and to then became the first Black licensed architect to practice in Texas in July 1954 There were no Black owned firms in Texas at the time, and no White firms would hire him, many on the basis it "would anger their clients".

Transportation of Brasilia

City was designed with massive highways for car traffic; celebrates the automobile; it's an obsession with a new technology but isn't efficient No bus stops-evidence the city wasn't made for humans

Dover Sun House

Built in 1948 Concerned about sunlight and heating Built to rely only on solar power, but also aesthetic Exclusively female project Looks 2 story, but it's one story Absorptive double pane black panels to absorb heat Salt canisters store and release heat Run sunlight through heat bins, heat heats salt in heat bins, comes out in home Not seen before, took environment into consideration, demolished in 2010; only successful for two winters But brought housing and environment into a new conversation

Aerial Image of Brasilia

City is surrounded by water; created a golf course-like environment around the city (started by a group of eugenicists in France, Alexis Carrel); green spaces around city would be "green lungs" for cities to purify the diseases between privileged and working class; designed for very explicit segregation

Downsides of Concrete

Concrete releases CO2 so its carbon footprint is huge; overtime, this damage gets worse with decay Sustainable companies are making concrete with more ecologically friendly ingredients

Housing

Cookie cutter, looks clean and perfect; this creates an environment with no differentiation between people's homes Trying to erase differences between people through architecture Differences in housing: when everyone was at work, there was massive theft (because no one was home since they all lived in the same exact area); dehumanizing Downtown core of Brasilia didn't have a restaurant or food area, so informal restaurants sprung up along the streets People started creating footpaths on the green lawns because the roads were so inconvenient

Unité d'Habitacion

Corb's building; from the outside, it doesn't look ornamental (there are colors, but he didn't see this as contradictory to simplicity) People hated living here; Corb controlled everything, so furniture, etc. couldn't be moved

Miason Dom-Ino

Corb's design Post-and-lintel, elevated, reinforced concrete floors, steel acts as the "pole skeleton," staircase is on the outside This is showing that this is all a house needs; anything else is just unnecessary ornamentation He's getting out that the house is like a human body; whatever is on the outside is like skin; circular system like plumbing, etc; electricity functions as the heart

Why is this architecture of racial discrimination?

Dehumanizing Treated like animals

Interior of Rajasthan

Energy efficient but welcoming space Lots of color on walls, organic shapes Lots of holes in walls for airflow Orange steel beam outdoor hallway Open, act as a hallway w shade Wanted to interrupt learning process with movements outside- deliberate outdoor movement

San Francisco/Pearl Harbor

FDR signs internment bill for Japanese Americans to move to camps Prior to this, Japanese-Americans doing well After Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans have to put signs up, proving they are Americans, thus losing business because of scare Forcible removal = not just American, also happened in Japan

Firsts of John Chase

First Black architect inducted into Texas Society of Architects First Black president of Texas Exes (UT powerful alumni organization) First Black member for he US Commission for fine arts Helped select Maya Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans memorial in DC Founder of NOMA, National Organization of Minority Architects, to "help others pursue their 'piece of the pie.'"

Auguste Perret

French architect and pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete Huge span of concrete arches that was unseen and unimaginable at the time He, his brothers, and father created their own architecture firm because no firms would allow them to work with concrete like they wanted to Open plan because reinforced concrete can sustain a roof without that many walls This transforms how people can live He also stamped concrete to create an illusion of separate tiles and a floral stamp Changed the building from being viewed as brutalist to more appealing

Concrete and Eugenics

Government wanting to mold its people is thinking of the people as malleable-they don't matter-and concrete is the perfect model for that because it is so malleable Brasilia was only built with elite, privileged politicians in mind, not the average people who would have to live there to keep the city running

The Phillips House (John Chase)

Greater Mid-century modernism: · Lower roofs, single story, less ornamentation Post WWII- Connection to nature (light, wall of river rocks) · Larger windows, geomentic · Bright colors against neutrals · Blend of indoor and outdoor space · Minimal, bright and open spaces (reflect churches he designed prefiously) Folded Plate roof: - great example · Design and function · Shade: Blend of indoor and outdoor space · Key design element of exterior Interior of Phillips house: · Natural light from floor to ceiling windows, · Minimalist · clean lines Natural materials Home is really representative of his work.

Caribbean Sugar

Have 24 hours after its ready and ready to be harvested- must process in 24 hours or less Sugar has to be ground in mills; women were put on frontline to do that, because they had smaller hands-could feed it through Arms would get caught, and they'd let it ride; awful. Ingenious in rounded space Turn and turn in rounded space, then go through cauldrons - heat and distill it, move multiple cauldrons

Philanthropy of Paul Williams

He gave back to his community; Nickerson Gardens Housing Project: added artistic influence to low-income housing; he was a part of building smaller houses in LA during the housing shortage; designed the First AME Church in LA

John Chase's Residence

His home is considered one of the most influential and important buildings he designed. - Social/political and architectural contexts **"One of the first Modernist houses using an interior courtyard as a true extension of the public realm of the house/entertaining area" - not using it as garden lightwell or circulation space Courtyard: originally intended to be a playroom for his children The Chase's heavy involvement with Houston's social and political scene instead gave it a new purpose: a place for hospitality, but more important social change.

Legacy of John Chase

His style and purpose in architecture is evident in his home and it's courtyard- cited to have aimed at creating "unifying and communal spaces." Much of this stemmed from his Masters thesis and early work designing Black churches in the Houston/Austin areas I think Chase's story and work are demonstrations of the cultural impacts of architecture on society. He was largely responsible for bringing midcentury modernism to the Black communities of Texas. Function = showing architecture bringing people together, connecting people for political change across races Until recently hasn't been well recognized, simply b/c it was built by a Black man. Very influential in greater architecture and his community, but wasn't recognized as so outside of the community.

Plantation House

House itself didn't look like those when they were sites of enslavement Laborers after Civil War took over Mcleod Plantation, and made it a helpful place

Transatlantic Trade of Enslavement

How slaves from Africa were sent to areas with high quantities of crops, slavery, there those crops turned into products, then moved to be sold Starts in London: guns, gunpowder, etc. on ships are taken to Africa to sell there. Sell guns for people, people to be taken to Americas Americas: people unloaded, forced into slavery

Pneumatics

In 1964-65, Victor Lundy created a pavilion at the New York World's Fair His pavilion resembles a mushroom cloud Experimentation around air began to grow Inflatables were seen as a living, organic form of architecture (Reyner Banham quote)

Structure of Brasilia

In 5 years, Brasilia was built and populated-unheard of; there's no slow evolution, it's a master plan Oscar Niemeyer (master architect) and Lucia Costa (master designer) The boomerang-like structure supporting the buildings are like flying buttresses and inverted arcades with the Presidential Palace; Niemeyer is an absolute modernist by way of the past

The Seagram Building, NYC

In order to be modern, we have to get rid of everything that resembles another world Like a Greek temple, why? Lots of glass that opens up the view Post and lintel system that is the entire support; steel structures providing rigidity and strength just like columns before Illusion of being held up by columns at the bottom; wanted it to look like it was defying gravity What is gained by this structure? Architecture reflects the culture, material availability, and engineering ability; it isn't retrospective, it's trying to be of the moment; the skyscrapers reflect this

Why does architecture matter?

It's a huge human footprint that can stay around for hundreds of years

Why are skyscrapers tiered?

Light: if you only built straight-up then you would never get light on the ground in NYC, so the tiers allows for light at the ground

Empire State Building

Lots of rectangles and angles, in general It is wide at the bottom and gets slimmer toward the top; steel allows you to use build straight up without bearing load

Rajasthan School

Low rise, 3 story building- now public school for local area Local area= 95 degrees and little rain most of year Wanted to make space as cool as possible with as little energy possible Crazy energy efficient All water is recycled and reused each day Windows only on northern side: don't want direct sunlight/heat Keeps space cool w out central air system Walls extend out beyond windows- put shade on windows from hot heat

Japanese Community in Internment

Many Japanese adults looked at kids on the loose losing education, put together their own schools; not planned Community was concerned Enough trained teachers interned who volunteered Another way the community reclaimed a dignity/right to knowledge made a newspaper, translating US ones to Japanese; community-building and get around US censorship Newspaper gave them news about outside and inside

Gullah-Geechee People

McLeod Plantation: run by descendants of people who lived there Next to one of the largest enslaving ports in US Many different ethnicities arriving in this port, each group of people has distinct agricultural techniques Ivory Coast: able to work with Indigo Levis/jeans today exist today from the skill of that enslaved woman who knew what do so with those seeds

Atoms for Peace

Mobile exhibit presented by the US Atomic Energy Commission You would see radiated plants, models of atomic energy, etc. Anyone could leave the bus and order their own radiated materials (Atoms for Peace, Radiation Gardens for the Home) You would expose your plants, animals, etc. to the radiation that was shipped to you This experimenting still occurs in gardening spaces to manipulate flowers, fruits, etc.

Mortar

Mortar came along and was a time saving element because it eliminated the need for perfect leveling of stone-on-stone

Sugar Cane

One of the most efficient photosynthesizers in the plant kingdom; takes sunlight and makes max amount of calories Can generate up to 15kg of cane sugar per meter of sunshine

Command-Control Architecture

Partnering with the local materials around it taken to the extreme Paul R. Williams: one of the first architects to build targeted housing developments Built children centers, community centers, etc. Partnered with Wallace Neff to create Airform Housing: inflatable mold with concrete poured over This was incredibly efficient for large populations after the war, but they fail overtime

Bauhaus

Peak of modern age, "House of Construction" A new take on art school because this school offered many topics of art, design, craft, technology, etc.; the Bauhaus thought good design needed simplicity and efficiency This style is later called Functionalism

Tuffa-based Concrete

Pros: seals joints; forms uniform bedding between bricks; improves costs as masons are replaced with low-skill laborers; increases speed increases speed as precise masonry is no longer needed Cons: requires air, specifically CO2 to create binding chemical reaction; large masses of concrete will create a sealed exterior crust which prevents air for reaching the interior It is the earliest form of concrete; when mixed, it acts as a limestone

Pozzolana-based Mortar

Pros: silica combined with lime and water create calcium-silicate hydrate; does not need air to cure; can cure under water Use of pozzolana made concrete more available and efficient; great if it's being pressed down on but terrible if used in a post-and-lintel system

Pure Geometry of Concrete

Pure geometry made of white concrete; the intent was visible in the material choice (developmentist nationalism): to mold the nation, to mold its people into clean, modern, hyper-organized, and segregated citizens

Ships

Redesigned cargo ships Brooks: drawing done by abolitionist - wanted to make these ships not as hard to imagine Best circumstances on these ships: given 2ft 7 inches width, and 6ft 1 inch for height - more than 90 days in that position. This drawing key in Britain outlawing slavery People took this illustration and made it into jewelry, publicized it

Robert Maillart

Salginatobel Bridge: resembles an arch; rebar makes it possible to create tension of the bridge (concrete is terrible at tension unless reinforced) First mushroom slab in the warehouse: columns hadn't been made with concrete before because it couldn't sustain an entire ceiling, so rebar made it possible

RJR Tobacco Office Building

Same architect who designs Empire State Building years later Was largest skyscraper at the time in the region WS was all about tobacco, as was North Carolina This vertical building had several purposes: to be able to look out over the land, building tall helps with land use and modernity

Inflatable Atomic Energy Commission Pavillion

Showed off the benefits of nuclear energy post WWII Victor Lundy was the architect Lots of curvatures, minimalist, inflatable structure (has to be blown up as a series of balloons) Plan looks like the splitting of two atoms, shows two equals They made this tour to figure out which nations had nuclear materials and also as a goodwill tour Dome within the dome: contained actual radiated materials Perfect for traveling because it could be blown up in a few hours

Brasilia

Signature of great architecture and one of the most poorly designed city for human living The capital of Brazil was going to be moved from coast to central location Lucio Costa was the designer; he was a eugenicist Brasilia was designed to be viewed from overhead: resembles a bird Designs gradually start looking like a shield Costa is claiming land of Brasilia President Getulio Vargas: presidential candidate who ran on moving capital Massive boom for employment and national economy

Internment Buildings Round 2

Slightly slightly nicer; this indicates longevity they want these buildings to have More sinister, even if nicer than last ones Built on ground, not raised (no more tunneling paranoia) Stilts holding up roof; this indicates serious structural issues with these buildings Communal building in middle = school/place to eat School came about because of people who live there, not people running it

Styles of Paul Williams

Spanish revival style was a common style for him; matches the vibe of LA and California English Tudor was also common for Williams; cozy home fits values of family Mediterranean Revival style: large windows, open spaces, sunny Modernism: wasn't a main focus but he did it for his clients (like Frank Sinatra's house) He built a lot of houses for Hollywood stars in the early 1900s Frank Sinatra Residence really boosted Williams's He was able to make very large rooms feel cozy and intimate Large wrap around staircase; innovated patio as an extension of the home LAX "Flying Saucer" Tower, Saks Fifth Avenue building in LA, Golden State building (which sold insurance to Black Americans at the time), Beverly Hills Hotel, Polo Lounge Concrete-focused in standing the test of time and a neutrality

Le Corbusier (Corb)

Swiss architect who was one of the largest proponents of the International Style He began by attacking the architecture of the Victorian age and compared it to the newness of engineering; he claimed engineers would be the builders He hated any kind of decoration or anything that doesn't stem from engineering function; wanted things to be clean, barebone utility, machinery-like "True, good architecture" was that aiming for/reflecting modern efficiency He designed everything around himself and his body

What is architectural history?

The goal is that the buildings should be able to speak to who they are and what they are trying to say back (the building is primary source material)

International Style

The name was coined at an exhibition at MoMA; it's not really international

Ancient Greek Masonry

They built with stones and created level stones to balance load

Chase's "Paradisiacal" Courtyard:

Though the original intent of his courtyard is unclear, there are theories that courtyard houses provide the "individual freedom for personal expression" which are not allowed in the public. As a Black family HEAVILY involved in the Texas civil rights movement, this theory makes sense. The Chase House became a center point, described as "Pivotal for Black Houston" People described these parties as a gathering of influence from all professions- a place where deals get done and social change became apparent. It was a space that ultimately was designed for entertaining and this purpose. Connecting realms- business to art industry leaders, across racial and political lines

The Pantheon

Unsure what it was used for: think either temple or guy who built it worked for Cesar I, and it was a monument to them One of largest unsupported domes 3 Building's of it- one burned down, one struck by lightning, Og columns were red, from Egypt —> white now Brick stamping Structure Greek and Roman influences Greek: pediment, frieze, portico, Corinthian style columns Domed rotunda in back: similar to Roman bathhouse Support beans used to be bronze- Pope at one point took all bronze to make cannons for Italy Brick and concrete, some marble in columns

German Art Museum

Very plain; nothing about it denotes art So harsh, no curves Industrialist Rome vibes; columns and stuff Columns, but none we recognize; intentional lack of ornamentation Ideological nostalgia that undergoes so much of racial ideology- Looks back at history and totally misinterprets what that meant Racist ideology always does this Huge stones Art museum needs light; this has almost no natural light, teeny windows that are recessed so little comes in

Key Phrases of International Style

Volume over density Regularly over symmetry: axial isn't required Eradication of or ornament

Adolf Loos

Writes a book called "Ornament and Crime" Calls people who use traditional, non-white architecture are not modern people and diminishes their humanity He hates Vernacular Architecture

Concrete

cement, lime, water; tiny stones added act as an aggregate

Opus Incertum

concrete that is inserted in the middle between stones

National Congress

dome, saucer (playing with form and balance), no visual of where to get in the building (making another point about the dictatorship)

Opus Testaceum

flat triangle-shaped bricks stacked and filled with concrete

The Picturesque

genre of art that takes something difficult and shows it to you in Kitsch manner Idyllic Only nod to what it is in singular stalk of sugar in land Picture commissioned by large slave owner in south, they just wanted something "pretty of the land"

Steel Reinforced Concrete/Rebar

holds concrete rigid and in place, so post-and-lintel systems are then possible with concrete

Airform Housing

inflatable mold with concrete poured over This was incredibly efficient for large populations after the war, but they fail overtime

Presidential Palace

inverted arcade, accessibility (ironic because it's housing a dictator, so Niemeyer is making a statement), the entire front of the palace is glassed (represents transparency), columns are expanded to look like the shield of Brazil; roof is flat and cantilevered off the building to make them look lighter-than-air while they are solid concrete

Parlor

space to welcome people into your home to serve them sugar (tea, cake, coffee); when It was for the rich