The envelope

from Takis Zenetos, Architecture and its place

Free ground floor

“The three-dimensionality of the façade can be reinforced by the scaffolding, which surrounds each building with a pattern of change during construction and sometimes is more aesthetic than the building itself. As a result, the exterior of the buildings will no longer be petrified flat surfaces, but three-dimensional and changeable”41 (Takis Zenetos)

This surface, which simultaneously limits and relates an architecturally constructed space,42 must ensure two opposite conditions, the visual opening towards the exterior and the incidence of sunlight and heat. The shaping of this permeable and flexible filter allows it to fully complete the fading of the limit and gradually attenuate the impact of the southern sun.

The architect abolishes the solid appearance of the façade in his domestic projects, although in many cases the interior spatial structure did not correspond to the formal operations that nullify the cube, at any time, he did not stop of developing an envelope that expressed some type of depth. The geometric development of these complex mechanisms differs from the Corbuserian notion of a running window, which usually operates as a single static entity. 43

By taking the possibilities of constructive detail to the limit, it enhances the plastic and expressive implications of the facade surface. The as-

(Right) Fig 75. ZENETOS Takis, Amalias Avenue Apartment vuilding modular sketch drawing, taken from ‘‘Takis Zenetos 1926,-977, Ορέστης Β Δουμανης, ‘World Architecture 4, London Magazine’

41. ’Ορέστης Β Δουμανης, Takis Zenetos 1926,1977, Architecture in Greece Press, Athens 1978, page 7.

42. “What kind of spatial organization is the façade? The facade is evidently a surface, a plane that limits an architectural organism - an architecturally constructed space - putting it in relation to the external space” ARGAN Giulio, Concepto del espacio arquitectónico, page 67.

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sembly of numerous pieces of different materiality; such as awnings, canopies, moving panels, sliding shutters and glazed surfaces, generally executed under an eave, could be reduced in other terms of the transformation of a flat surface into a spatial organism, through the superposition of elements that ensure the correct operation of the envelope. The position and dimension of each piece of scaffolding varies according to the architectural problem and allows to avoid the showcase space, to really supply the needs and private condition of domestic life.

An extensive study of the technique, stimulated in Takis Zenetos the meticulous manufacture of this piece and its millimetric operation. The isometric drawings of the façade of the apartment block in the center of Athens, in 1958, and the interior perspectives of the Yalia Daedalus projected one year later, contain, to wit, the most rigorous and explicit sketches of the development of this piece.

Fig 76. Facade of the apartment building in Kalispera, taken from ‘‘Takis Zenetos 1926,-977, Ορέστης Β Δουμανης, ‘World Architecture 4, London Magazine’

(Right) Fig 77. ZENETOS Takis, Amalias Avenue Interior perspective, ibidem.

43. “The horizontal window: The supports and the planes of each floor form rectangles in the façade, through which the light and air penetrate abundantly. The window runs from one support to another, thus achieving a landscape window. The window disappears between long and unpleasant subdivisions of windows and corbels for balconies. In this way the rooms are illuminated equally, from wall to wall..” MARCHAN Fiz Simon, La arquitectura del siglo XX – págs 294 y 295.

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(Right) Fig 78. ZENETOS Takis, Siemens residence envelope perspective, taken from ‘‘Takis Zenetos 1926,-977, Ορέστης Β Δουμανης, ‘World Architecture 4, London Magazine’.

Fig 79. Siemens residence, south facade photo, ibidem.

(Next Page) Fig 80. Amalias Avenue Apartment building photo facade, taken from ‘Sliding doors in flats Amalias Avenue , Athens, Greece, Takis Zenetos’

Fig 81, 82 and 83. ZENETOS Takis, Kalispera Apartment building, evelope system detail, taken from ‘‘Takis Zenetos 1926,-977, Ορέστης Β Δουμανης, ‘World Architecture 4, London Magazine’.