Architectural Building Analysis of the Phillips Exeter Academy Library

ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

Phillips Exeter Academy Library

LOUIS KAHN Cody Ng Joon Hong 1002058028 Diploma in Architectural Studies AI113_Introduction to Design Principles

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Analyzing design Introduction to the building and architect

Plane and Volume Point and Line Horizontal elements defining space Vertical elements defining space Form and Organization Shapes and formal collision of geometry Dimensional transformation Subtractive transformation Ordering Principles Axis Symmetry Hierarcy

Repetition / Rhythm Datum

Quality of Space and Circulation Qualities of space Circulation

Form grouping Spatial relationship Organisation

Project 1 Analyzing design

01

Architecture is generally conceived—designed— and realized—built—in response to an existing set of conditions. These conditions may be purely functional in nature, or they may also reflect in varying degrees the social, political, and economic climate. In any case, it is assumed that the existing set of conditions—the problem—is less than satisfactory and that a new set of conditions —a solution—would be desirable. The act of creating architecture, then, is a problem-solving or design process.

Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College & Hospital 20 February 1901 - 17 March 1974.

American architect.

Born in Pärnu, Estonia then emigrated to the United States.

Participated in a total of 14 projects.

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

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Yale Centre for British Art

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Louis Isadore Kahn

Location Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire.

Main Purpose Of The Library Make use of the Harkness table -A table that can sit up to 12 students.

-Allows students to face one another and give presentations instead of learning in a classroom.

Rules Louis Kahn set while designing the library: 1. Readers should be able to read using natural light.

2. Each reader should have their own carrel space.

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Phillips Exeter Academy Library

Exterior of the building is made using bricks which are: Uneven Deformed Blackened

Rejected Ideas for the Exeter Library: Roof Garden 2 exterior towers with stairs open to the weather Reason: Removed from the plans because neither of the features would be practical in New England winters.

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Issues Tackled In The Design of The Exeter Library

Bricks Facade of the Exeter Library Interior columns

White Oak

Travertine Marble

Interior walls Furniture Careel tables Window panels

Main entrance staircase Floor of central hall

Poured Concrete Atrium Interior columns Cross beam at the top of the atrium Floor

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Materials

Unique design of the building 1. Building is lit using natural light.

2. Atrium has unique geometric design.

3. Building is split into 3 different sections: Inner ring/atrium (3).

Middle ring/reading and bookshelf area (4).

Outer ring/carrel areas (5).

Allows readers to read using natural light.

Only require artificial lighting during cloudy days and nights.

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Interesting Things About The Exeter Library

Architecture is more than just designing a building that fulfills the clients wishes within a set space.

Architecture can also be about making eco friendly environments, using surrounding nature, reusing and recycling old building materials, creating a building with a low cost and many more.

"Architectural form is the point of contact between mass and space ‌ Architectural forms, textures, materials, modulation of light and shade, color, all combine to inject a quality or spirit that articulates space. The quality of the architecture will be determined by the skill of the designer in using and relating these elements, both in the interior spaces and in the spaces around buildings�

- Edmund N. Bacon.The Design of Cities

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What I Understand About Architecture

Project 2 Plane and Volume

02

Space constantly encompasses our being. Through the volume of space, we move, see forms, hear sounds, feel breezes, smell the fragrances of a flower garden in bloom. It is a material substance like wood or stone. Yet it is an inherently formless vapor. Its visual form, its dimensions and scale, the quality of its light—all of these qualities depend on our perception of the spatial boundaries defined by elements of form. As space begins to be captured, enclosed, molded, and organized by the elements of mass, architecture comes into being.

Represents the cross beams at the top of the atrium.

Represents the reading areas around the library.

Represents the atrium as an internal view of the Exeter Library.

Represents the chamfered corners of the Exeter Library.

Represents the atrium of the Exeter Library.

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Abstract Representing the Design of The Exeter Library

Exeter Library is depressed because the ground is excavated for a basement.

Mezzanine located on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the Exeter Library.

Visual continuity from the Mezzanine to the floor below is interrupted.

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Elevated & Depressed Planes

Large concrete cross beams located at the top of the atrium add an additional geometric shape to the library.

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Overhead Plane

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Vertical Linear Elements

The columns around the library visually reinforces the geometric shape of the Exeter Library.

The columns also support the planes above.

The edge definition of the Exeter Library is strengthned by the repetition of column elements along the building's perimeter.

Bookshelves in the Exeter Library.

Exterior corridors of the Exeter Library.

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Parallel Planes

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4 Planes / Closure

The facade of the Exeter Library acts as a closure. The windows and arcades are small openings that create an interplay of light and shadow.

The atrium of the Exeter Library acts as an internal closure that is weaker because of the 4 circular openings of the atrium.

Form and Organization

0 Project 3 Task 1 3

“. . . A good house is a single thing, as well as a collection of many, and to make it requires a conceptual leap from the individual components to a vision of the whole. The choices ‌ represent ways of assembling the parts. . . . the basic parts of a house can be put together to make more than just basic parts: They can also make space, pattern, and outside domains. They dramatize the most elementary act which architecture has to perform. To make one plus one equal more than two, you must in doing any one thing you think important (making rooms, putting them together, or fitting them to the land) do something else that you think important as well (make spaces to live, establish a meaningful pattern inside, or claim other realms outside).â€?

Charles Moore, Gerald Allen, Donlyn Lyndon The Place of Houses 1974

The square shape of the atrium is received totally within the volume of the Exeter Library.

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Square in a Square

Cube Altered

The cube's height is shortened to become a 33 x 33 x 24 prismatic shape.

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Cube

Volume in the centre of the building was used to build an atrium.

Volumes of the atrium are subtracted to create a unique building style such as the 4 circular openings of the atrium.

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Volume of The Atrium

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Interlocking Volumes

The atrium interlocks in the centre of the Exeter Library, the atrium as well as the rest of the library retains its identity and definition as a space.

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Space Within a Space

The atrium is enveloped and contained within the larger volume of the library.

The atrium has a unique design that helps to strengthen its image as a freestanding object.

The atrium of the Exeter Library is linked to the entire ground floor of the library.

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Space Linked By a Common Space

Each of the spaces are separated by different planes: Fireplace: columns surrounding the area.

Bookshelves: bookshelves themselves act as parallel freestanding planes.

Reading area: Each carol table are separated by the walls around the table.

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Adjecent Spaces

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Centralized Organisation

The atrium of the library allows the Exeter Library to become a centralized organisation. The atrium creates an overall configuration that is geometrically regular and symmetrical about two or more axes.

Ordering Principles

0 Project 3 Task 2 4

“. . . Nothing but confusion can result when order is considered a quality that can equally well be accepted or abandoned, something that can be forgone and replaced by something else. Order must be understood as indispensable to the functioning of any organized system, whether its function be physical or mental. Just as neither an engine nor an orchestra nor a sports team can perform without the integrated cooperation of all its parts, so a work of art or architecture cannot fulfill its function and transmit its message unless it presents an ordered pattern. Order is possible at any level of complexity: in statues as simple as those on Easter Island or as intricate as those by Bernini, in a farmhouse and in a Borromini church. But if there is not order, there is no way of telling what the work is trying to say.�

Rudolf Arnheim The Dynamics of Architectural Form 1977

Atrium

Corridor

The line of sight from one side to the other through the atrium.

Induces movement and views along its path.

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Axis

Radial Symmetry Equivalent elements balanced around 2 axes that intersect at the atrium Symmetrical from the top view, front view and side view.

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Radial Symmetry

Hierarchy - Atrium 1. By Size - The Atrium dominates the architectural composition of the Exeter Library by being significantly different in size compared to the other elements in the Exeter Library's composition.

2. By placement - The atrium is strategically placed in the centre of the building to call attention to themselves as being an important element in the building's composition, because of this, the atrium: Helps to focus the centralized organisation of the building.

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Hierarchy

Columns Form repetitive structural bays and modules for space.

Bookshelves Forms parallel freestanding planes all around the library.

form repetitive structural bays and modules for space.

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Rhythm and Repetition

Windows and Arcades Windows and arcades repeatedly puncture the building's surface to allow light and views to enter its interiors.

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Rhythm and Repetition

The atrium has sufficient visual continuity, size, closure and is regularly seen as a figure that embraces the elements within its field.

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Datum - Atrium

Axis Located in between the parallel contrast squares.

Symmetry Abstract is using a glide reflectional symmerty.

Hierarchy Rendered square draws the attention to itself.

Datum Contrast squares form a path leading to the centre square.

Rhythm & Repetition Parallel contrast squares.

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Abstract Representing the Ordering Principles of the Exeter Library

Quality of Space and Circulation

0 Project 3 Task 3 5

“… We have been observing that the human body, which is our most fundamental three-dimensional possession, has not itself been a central concern in the understanding of architectural form; that architecture, to the extent that it is considered an art, is characterized in its design stages as an abstract visual art and not as a body-centered art … We believe that the most essential and memorable sense of three-dimensionality originates in the body experience and that this sense may constitute a basis for understanding spatial feeling in our experience of buildings. …The interplay between the world of our bodies and the world of our dwelling places is always in flux. We make places that are an expression of our haptic experiences even as these experiences are generated by the places we have already created. Whether we are conscious or innocent of this process, our bodies and our movement are in constant dialogue with our buildings.”

Charles Moore and Robert Yudell Body, Memory, and Architecture 1977

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Openings within Planes

The openings of the arcades are similar to the wall: creates a redundant compositional pattern.

Degree of Enclosure

Clustered

The frame of the windows are similar to the wall: Forms unified compositions within the plane.

Creates a redundant compositional pattern.

Emphasizes its individuality as a figure.

Centred

The opening appears stable and visually organizes the surface around it.

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Openings within Planes

Degree of Enclosure Centred

At the corners of the Exeter Library, there are windows that are centred that can appear as a bright figure and appears stable and visually organize the surface around it.

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Openings At Corners

Degree of Enclosure Vertical

The chamfered corners of the Exeter Library erodes the definition of the space and also allows light to wash the surface of the wall plane perpendicular to it.

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Openings Between Planes

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Internal View

Wider views of outside the Exeter Library.

Larger Windows

small windows act as an opening that tends to frame its view.

Fireplace

Atrium

Small Window

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View

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Light The Exeter library is known for its use of natural light throughout the whole building. The sunlight enters the windows at the top of the atrium and diffuses of the cross beams at the top of the atrium to light up the atrium.

Example of diffused light in the atrium.

Areas lit using natural light Including: Light intensity and areas of diffused light.

The windows around the Exeter Library allow readers to read using natural light and helps to light up different areas of the library.

Oblique Approach

Entrance is discrete because: all sides of the Exeter Library are alike.

Main enterance only located on one side of the building.

No road leading directly to the entrance.

Recessed Entrance

Provide shelter and receive a portion of exterior space into the realm of the building.

Located inside the exterior corridor.

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Approach & Entrance

Ground floor

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Third floor

As the building is a library, people tend to walk around to different areas of the building to discover new books.

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Configuration of The Path

Pass Through Spaces

By cutting through the corridor of the library, the path creates patterns of rest and movements within it.

Pass By Spaces

The integrity of the carol spaces are maintained as we walk past them.

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Path - Space Relationship

Open on One Side

Provides visual and spatial continuity with the spaces it links.

Open on Both Sides

A physical extension of the space it passes through.

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Form of The Circulation Space

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-Spiral Staircase-

Stairs, accommodating a change in level and reinforces the path of movement.

Thank You Cody Ng Joon Hong Diploma in Architectural Studies codyng21@gmail.com