Peter Zumthor and His Materials

    Peter Zumthor is good at selecting and using materials which is difficult for me. Before, when I did not know how to choose material I would use concrete. It is conservative, but helpful.

    Recent, I read a book about concrete and talked with Joe about David Chipperfield's work. Joe taught me that David chose concrete, because it helps building to hide some complicated structures, making building keeps clean and simple.

Gormley Studio

  Then, I had a talk with Ellen, she told me some materials make people want to touch. For instant, Zumthor's Art Museum.

grey bricks

polished plaster

    Zumthor's hotel.

    Now, I need to know what kind of feeling the columbarium needs. It is a building about death, which may make it look like low-key.

Kengo Kuma and His " Translucent Materials"

  The " Translucent Materials" does not mean the real translucent material, such as, frosted glass. It means the geometric or unordered assembly and permutation of the materials which form the gaps in building envelopes. Through these gaps, people who are in buildings can look the outside and vice versa. The boundary between buildings and nature becomes ambiguous, which makes buildings seem to be translucent.
             

Chokkura Plaza and Shelter

Great Bamboo Wall, tea pavilion, north of Beijing

Yusuhara Town Hall

  Take The Lotus House for instance. Kuma uses the " translucent material" to connect effectively the exterior space with the interior space. The Lotus House is a private vacation residence in the East Japan. Mountains and woods surround the house, and a small river borders one edge of the site. The house is on the northern of the river but it is above the level of the river, so that only the sound of the stream drifts upward and into the project's space. Water rises to the edge of the house in the form of a long, thin reflecting pool containing numerous lotus plants.

Lotus House, MATERIAL IMMATERIAL THE NEW WORK OF KENGO KUMA

http://beautifulrough.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/lotus-house/

   http://www.awacademy.org/2013/kengokuma.htm

   http://www.awacademy.org/2013/kengokuma.htm

   http://www.awacademy.org/2013/kengokuma.htm

  A diaphanous skin of 3 centimeters travertine panels cloaks the exterior of the house. These panels, measuring 20 by 60 centimeters, converge in a checkerboard grid, alternating with voids. 

 http://beautifulrough.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/lotus-house/

  The pattern is held in place by thin stainless steel elements which are spliced precisely between the travertine. So, they recede visually and the stone appears suspended in air(it is a amazing natural experience). Furthermore, the entire screen assembly hangs from the simple structure and sways lightly with the wind. Via eliminating the solid walls, Kuma offers visitors a  more closed opportunity to touch with nature.

http://michellekaufmann.com/2010/07/poetry-in-the-details/michelle-kaufmann-kengo-kuma-3/

  In the help of glass and open space, this screen breaks the boundary between nature and interior space. People feel they still lived within nature.

http://visitoflight.cgsociety.org/portfolio/project-detail/781082/

  

  It is hard to define how to communicate with the nature.The answer can be personal.  But I am sure about one thing----at least, we can feel the nature. It means we can listen, smell, look and think about the nature. Kengo Kuma's design and architectural philosophy show a modest and  gentle altitude towards nature.

Kengo Kuma and His "Natural Materials"

  There are some ideas of Kuma's, showing his understanding about  "erase" buildings.
  EXTERIOR: architecture could be made to "disappear" if it had no exterior.
  INTERIOR: intermediary zones can mediate between inside and outside.

  Take the Water/Glass for example. In the early 1992, Kuma started work on it in Atami. The commission called for a small but elegant guesthouse on a steep hillside with spectacular views of the sea below. From the house's name, we can know the "natural materials" in the design are water and glass. 

  On the second floor, Kuma designed a wide-open terrace covered entirely with a reflective pool beneath the roof. This is a intermediary zone which connect the outside with the inside. 

  

   Floating on this pool of water is an all-glass oval-shaped lounge, where the horizontal floor plate of frosted glass seems to be the only firm indication of the boundaries of the space. 

  The surface of the pool, with its overflowing edges forming an new horizon, extends the presence of the water toward views of the ocean in the far away distance below.

  This building is an extension of the surrounding environment, because the interior water seems to come from the sea and the glass replaces the solid walls which provide visitors with a direct view to the natural beauty.

 glass  

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EXTERIOR: architecture could be made to "disappear" if it had no exterior 

(in this project, Kuma used transparent material, but through his works, he prefers the "translucent" material. If you want to learn more about the glass and spatial effect, you can click my another article:http://kexipengdi.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/sanaa-and-spatial-effects-of-glass.html)

water

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INTERIOR: intermediary zones can mediate between inside and outside

SANAA and Spatial Effects of Glass

  Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa established the SANAA (Sejima And Nishizawa And Associates) in 1995 in Tyoko. In 2010, Sejima and Nishizawa were awarded the Pritzker Prize.

http://www.archdaily.com/54195/

  "Their projects have universally admired exactitude and clarity. While their works pursue a consistent ethos of transparency which is not merely visual, material or literal. Since the beginning of their practice, Sejima and Nishizawa have stated, their pursuit of transparency is more than physical; it is about the clarity of programmatic relations and explicitness of spatial organization."
 ----Engineered Transparency The Techinical, Visual, and Spatial Effects of Glass

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
http://www.archdaily.com/54199/glass-pavilion-at-the-toledo-museum-of-art-sanaa-pritzker-prize-2010/

New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City, 2007
http://www.archdaily.com/70822/

Christian Dior Omotesando Building
http://jennyp12.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/christian-dior-omotesando-building-2/

By challenging our understanding of transparency, horizon and gravity, they produce a obvious tension that is dependent on the observer's position. Their works, such as the Flower House and the Okurayama Apartments always belie the sophistication of mechanical and structural system.

Okurayama Apartmentshttp://www.nhit-shis.org/modern-okurayama-apartment-design-by-kazuyo-sejima/

 Flower Househttp://afasiaarq.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/sanaa.html

  Even in the models, the expected clarity of Plexiglas is undone by an overwhelming whiteness that hides edges and boundaries. Beyond the blurring of inside and outside, floor and ceiling, the observer is often left wondering how the columns could possibly be so thin, or whether the wall are really made of glass.

Surrealism

  Today, I browsed a interesting website: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/ I found  stimulating NEWS of Unexpected Layers of Glass Added to Stones and Books.Born in Tokyo, Dusseldorf-based artist Ramon Todo creates beautiful textural juxtapositions using layers of glass in unexpected places. Starting with various stones, volcanic rock, fragments of the Berlin wall, and even books.
  This work has the contrast of new and old and materials. However, the combinations which breaks our logic are harmonious and new.
 

  Coincidently, I saw my professor's Weibo( Chinese Twitter) introduced a pioneer of surrealism, Meret Oppenheim who is a Swiss artist.

 

  This is her famous creation, Fur Breakfast.

 Look at these works, I am thinking, I can try something surrealistic in my kiosk. Generally speaking, the decoration of cafe is always warm. Designers like using wood as the main material. Now, I want to use reflective material. It is like the dark mirror. It will break the normal logic of people's perspectives of cafes. As for the colour, I choose navy and white, because they are simple and cool. 

  Some buildings or installation use the mirror: