'Considering Critical Regionalism' - A Design Dissertation by Róisín Mc Donald

‘Considering Critical Regionalism’

A Design Dissertation by Roisin Mc Donald

Submitted for assessment for ARCH3109 Architectural Design Studio - School of Architecture, DIT - May 2013

Contents

Introduction

Landscape

Theme + Type

Environment and Tectonics

Urban Context

References

Design Development

Bibliography

Architecture

Introduction

We as a class began the process of this project with a typology study in February of this year. We were asked to find four examples of a specific typology built between 1945 and 2010, analyze each and identify programmatic strategies, hierarchies and other composition clues. This study was to help us later on when selecting a typology, which would be, along with our chosen theme, the main vehicles for this design project.

We then began a desktop study, using maps and other resources, for an analysis of the town of Mallow, Co. Cork, the setting and destination of this project. Divided into groups we were given an area of the town, and asked to identify infrastructure, hierarchies, the figure ground and any other existing physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the running and operation of the town and society. Following this we visited Mallow to complete our analysis, to produce a database containing our studies, analysis and drawings of the town. With this we would be able to identify opportunities within this context and environment to develop, enhance or reactivate.

Both the typology and urban analysis studies provided us with the necessary information we needed to begin our own design process.

I had decided on my theme, Critical Regionalism, early on. After completing a short essay on the topic in semester one I wanted to research its ideals further. With this in mind I wanted to select a typology and site that I could use and develop as tools in my investigation. I decided I wanted to create a centre within the town, a stopping-place, junction and haven that would interact with its surroundings and connect with the already existing infrastructure of Mallow. I therefore begin to look at the areas of the town more specifically. In doing so I choose a long narrow site situated within a block of existing buildings just off the main street. The site is also connected to an existing car park and ends on the boundary of a secondary road.

I then looked at the type of building or complex that would do this, a typology that would become a

practical addition to the town and most importantly relevant to its context. With these factors in mind I decided to design a Craft Cheese Factory.

Farmhouse cheese is a prominent and ever growing industry in Ireland, and more specifically in the southern half of the country. Being a craft and a tradition, it is delicately specified to the people and the place, from where it is made. The production of cheese relies heavily on a controlled environment, which depends on and needs protection from its external climate.

Next I began my design process. Using relevant case studies, I started to develop a program that would ensure the functionality of the factory and a reinvention of the site. As part of the complex I included a cheese tasting room, a shop and a restaurant. These were to become a part of the local fabric and would reactivate the derelict site in creating a hub and junction that would complement the bustling town of Mallow. By using the section of the site, influenced by surrounding elevations and applying 3d modeling a structure began to evolve.

I considered the orientation of the buildings, used the ever-changing environment as a design tool and allowed climatic values to be the main vehicle when deciding on tectonics. I looked at other architects and more specifically critical regionalist. By using case studies relevant as both thematic and design tools, I established methods and techniques that I could use to develop the project further. I wanted to create something humanistic and captivating, and in doing so introduced tactile details and suitable changes to my scheme.

I have structured my design dissertation in order to gain a clear narrative of my design process, which I have briefly explained above. I hope to clarify the breakdown of my development, by showing and explaining the evolution of my design.

1. 1:500 Town Model

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Theme & Type

Theme As Frampton explained, Siza, “grounded his buildings in the configuration of a specific topography and in the fine-grained texture of local fabric”, whilst maintaining “ his deference towards local material, craft work, and the subtleties of local light; a deference which is sustained without falling into the sentimentality of excluding rational form and modern technique”. (FrampFrom the beginning of this process I had decided that I wanted to use this ton, 1992) approach as a tool for direction and decision-making throughout my design process. I wanted to take on the ideals of Kenneth Frampton, other theo- From this I went further to look at other critical regionalist like Mario Botrists on the topic and also Critical Regionalists in the practice of architecture ta, Alvaro Aalto and Jørn Utzon. Later on I furthered my research to look at Robert Venturi’s approach to architecture, and his book, Complexity and themselves.

Contradiction. Sharing some similar ideals to critical regionalism, I began to In semester one I completed a short essay on the topic of critical regionalism. develop my own approach to my architecture.

In it I focused on architects and proclaimed critical regionalists Alvaro Siza and Luis Barragan to discover some of their methods and ideals that enforce For the benefit of a clear and structured narrative of my design process I have this approach. I wanted to find a way to create something that is specifically placed my investigation of Critical regionalism in the Design Development relevant to its context and environment, whilst being apart of, and unique section. within the world of modern architecture.

My chosen theme for this project is Critical Regionalism. An approach to architecture that strives to counter the placelessness and lack of meaning in Modern Architecture by using contextual forces to give a sense of place and meaning.

Like Luis Barragan I want to, “developing more personal and aesthetic expressions for which either new technologies, economic and climatic considerations, or the availability of local materials played a role” (Noelle et al 2007) As a pioneer of regionalism in Mexico, Barragan represented an ‘emotional architecture’ that displayed a new architectural language relating to traditional values and to the modern movement’s original ethics. (Noelle et al 2007)

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2. Luis Barragans House - Luis Barragan 3. Vieira de Castro House - Siza 4. School at Morbio Inferiore - Mario Botta 5. Imatra Church - Alvaro Aalto

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Theme and Vehicle Theme

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For my own analysis on the practice of Critical Regionalism, I have referred to theorist Kenneth Frampton. I have used his ideals as a touchstone, which I have taken and, by applying further investigation, improved my own understanding of this type of practice. In bullet point form I will list six of his principal ideas, expand on them further and then use each Critical regionalism is a marginal practice, its fragmentary nature is what guideline as a tool for my design process: distances it from “normative optimization and from the naïve utopianism of the early modern movement”. (Frampton, 1992) It flourishes in those cultural interstices, which in one way or another are able to escape the optimising thrust of universal civilization. According to Frampton, with reference to the master planning of Paris, “In contrast to the line that runs from Haussman to le Corbusier, it favours the small rather than the big plan.” (Frampton, 1992)

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Section Bagsvaerd Church Interior Imatra Church Sections Imatra Church Section and elevation, Martha’s Vineyard House 10. Exterior Patchwork House 11. Patchwork House - Diagramatic section 12. Plan, Morbio Inferiore School

According to Frampton (1983), “Ever since the beginning of the Enlightenment, Civilisation has been primarily concerned with instrumental reason, while culture has addressed itself to the specifics of expression”.

In a similar way, in Jørn Utzon’s Bagsvaerd Church, completed in a suburb outside Copenhagan in 1976, he uses a vaulted ceiling to express “the presence of a religious space”, whilst also applying a prefabricated “barn-like form” exterior, which Frampton claims is “an agricultural metaphor as a way of giving public expression to a sacred institution”. In another way he has used normative application of prefabricated modular assembly, which complies with values of universal civilization, along with an in-situ shell vault as a ‘one-off structural invention’, unique to the site. (Frampton 1992)

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Critical regionalism favours the realization of architecture as a tectonic rather than the reduction of the built environment to a series of ill-assorted scenographic episodes. (Frampton, 1983) Robert Venturi talks about Alvaro Aalto’s Church in Imatra, Finland, in his book ‘Complexity and Contradiction’, written in 1966. He declares that were “Critics of Aalto, for instance, have liked him mostly for his sensitivity to natural materials and his fine detailing, and have considered his whole composition willful picturesqueness”. (Venturi, 1966) Venturi, rejects this perception and explains that, “By repeating in the massing the genuine complexity of the triple-divided plan and the acoustical ceiling pattern, this church represents a justifiable expressionism”, that, “Aalto’s complexity is part of the program and structure of the whole rather than a device justified only by the desire for expression”. (Venturi, 1966) Function here is dependent on form, and form depends on function.

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Critical Regionalism manifests itself as a “consciously bounded architecture”. Instead of the building being emphasized as a freestanding object, it is erected to determine the territory of the site. (Frampton, 1992) In Frampton’s, 1983, ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six points towards an architecture resistance’, he talks about the resistance of ‘place form’. He suggests that, “the architect must recognize the physical boundary of his work as a kind of temporal limit – the point at which the present act of building stops”. (Frampton 1983) In Martin Heidegger’s essay ‘Building, Dwelling, Thinking,’ written in 1954, he explains that “A boundary is not that at which something stops, but, as the Greek recognised, the boundary is that form which something begins it presencing”. (Heidegger, 1954)

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Critical regionalism is regional to a degree that it invariably stresses certain site-specific factors. Frampton (1996) explains how:

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• The topography is considered as a three-dimensional matrix into which the structure is fitted. American Architect Steven Holl allows Mario Botta’s polemic phrase, “building the site” to assume a particular character in his architecture. Holl said brilliantly himself that, “Architecture does not so much intrude on a landscape as it serves to explain it.” (Holl, 1989) In his design of the ‘Marthas Vineyard’s House’, Holl allows the house to “hug the site”. (Frampton 1989) • The structure is an articulate response to climatic conditions. For example, the structure itself may be used as a device to heat and cool the building. This is seen in a project by Swish architects, Pfeifer Kuhn Architekten, where an external polycarbonate skin is used to protect the building but also to harness heat to serve the building internally.

• Instead of false lighting and air-conditioning it treats all openings as a delicate transitional zone with a capacity to respond to specific conditions imposed by the site, the climate and the light. With this in mind we can consider the Patchwork House again. As seen in the diagram below, window openings are placed very specifically to be used to provide a flow ventilation temper and control the internal environment.

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Critical Regionalism tends towards the paradoxical creation of a regionally based ‘world culture’, almost as though this were a precondition for achieving a relevant form of contemporary practice. It is opposed to the sentimental simulation of local vernacular, but will, on occasion, insert reinterpreted vernacular elements as disjunctive episodes within the whole. (Frampton 1996) One ‘paradoxical precondition’ that could be considered are the forces behind the basic, ‘natural’ evolution of ‘organic’ urban deveopment to an early stage of the design. In relation to architecture and urban planning, Venturi explained, in 1966, how “Architects today are too educated to be either primitive or totally spontaneous, and architecture is too complex to be approached with carefully maintained ignorance”. To explain this further, we can take on Hannah Arendt’s point, who in opposition of modern ‘Megapolitan development’, and in accordance with what Venturi (1966) calls, in relation to primitive urban settlement, “chaotic reality” or “carefully maintained ignorance”, states that, “The ‘in order to’ has become the content of the ‘for the sake of;’ utility established as meaning generates meaninglessness”. (Arendt, citied by Frampton, 1983) Venturi (1966) feels that an art and experience has been lost to the limitations of orthodox modern architecture.

Mario Botta’s answer to this, according to Frampton (1992), is that “the loss of the historical city can only be compensated for by ‘cities in miniature’”. Botta’s school at Morbio Inferiore is interpreted as a micro-urban realm – as a cultural compensation for the evident loss of civic life in Chiasso, Italy. (Frampton, 1992) In this way Botta concentrates on issues, which relate directly to the specific place while adapting methods and approaches drawn from the outside. (Frampton, 1983)

Critical Regionalism seeks to complement our normative visual experience by readdressing the tactile range of human perceptions. (Frampton, 1983) Together with the ability of the place-form and the capacity of the body to read the environment in terms other than those of sight alone suggests a potential strategy for resisting the domination of universal technology. (Frampton 1996) “One has in mind a whole of complementary sensory perceptions which are registered by the labile body: the intensity of light, darkness, heat and cold; the feeling of humidity; the aroma of material; the almost palpable presence of masonry as the body senses its own confinement; the momentum of an induced gait and the relative inertia of the body as it traverses the floor; the echoing resonance of our own footfall.” (Frampton 1983) 11 12

Cultural Context and Type Ireland’s temperature climate and grass growing ability, combined with a dairying tradition, are natural advantages that make Ireland one of the foremost milk producers in the world. The ‘The Golden Vale’, is an area of rolling pastureland that extends from east Limerick and across south Tipperary and north Cork. Its rich grasslands are the focus for the most extensive dairy farming activity in Ireland. Located here are some of the largest dairy-processing complexes in Ireland: at Mallow, Co. Cork; Charleville, Co. Limerick; and Mitchelstown, Co. Tipperary. (Irish: Machaire méith na Mumhan)

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Furthermore the production of cheese in Ireland and the Irish farmhouse cheese plays a fundamental role in the growth and development of Ireland’s artisan dairy sector. The county of Cork represents a huge portion of this industry, celebrating in various parts of the county the craft of artisan cheese making. Being a craft and a tradition, it is delicately specified to the people and the place, from where it is made.

“Irish farmhouse cheeses are the product of unique interactions between people, place and pasture. Farmhouse cheeses are produced across the country yet each cheese is an expression of its own particular part of Ireland, encapsulating very different elemental aspects of our native landscape.... Each Irish artisan cheese is unique to its cheese maker, and each cheese maker has a different story to tell. Some are stories of tenacity in adversity; some of dreams fulfilled; most are mixed tales of triumphs, setbacks and – often - obstinate - perseverance. Yet all these stories concern the intimate interaction of people and place in Ireland.” (Your guide to Irish farmhouse cheese, Bord Bia, 2010)

Mallow

13. Landscape, ‘The Golden Vale’ 14. Map, ‘The Golden Vale’

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Type Craft Cheese Factory Robert Venturi (1996) wrote, “Conventional elements in architecture represent one stage in an evolutionary development, and they contain in their changed use and expression some of their part meaning….This is the result of a more or less ambiguous combination of the old meanings, called up by associations, with a new meaning created by the modifies or new function, structural or programmatic, and the new context”.

• In accordance with the Venturi (1966) quote above, cheese making is a vernacular practice that upholds “old meanings”, however with the introduction of new technologies and even regulations this practice has changed vastly in the last ten years. It is my aim to make sure I apply the appropriate facilities for traditional methods of cheese making, however I will also combine a “new meaning” (Venturi, 1966), in order to use “a relevant form of contemporary practice”.

(Frampton, 1992) • As cheese making is a delicate practice it requires specifically controlled and contained environments. Temperatures, humidity levels and other factors need to be catered for. Protection from and use of the environment is essential for production. In this way, I wanted reflect on the notion of ‘specific-site factors’, the building will need to be in direct response to its context and environment.

Taking mallow, a town at the heart of cork, a place with an agricultural tradition and a district flourishing with industry and infrastructure, I intended to design a centre celebrating local tradition, craft, industry and agriculture. This centre will include, at its core a Craft Cheese factory. In addition it will have a restaurant, a shop and a cheese tasting room for private and public use. It will also accommodate an outdoor market and interactive space.

I have researched different cheese making facilities in Ireland and around the world. I have used two case studies as my most dominant influences for the development of my design, these include: •

Fifth Town Cheese Factory, Ontario, Canada

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Corleggy Cheese, Belturbet, Co. Cavan

Case Study 1: Fifth Town Cheese Factory Ontario, Canada

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Fifth Town Cheese Factory was built in 2004, designed for future expansion , the structure integrates well with its agrarian landscape, part of a strategy that emphasizes in both the traditional cheese making process and in the building itself. To fulfill the educational mandate of ensuring that all aspects of cheesemaking are visible to the public, significant altertions to the traditional linear process were made by “folding over� many stages in the production process into one contained area, separate from the retail/tasting room only by a large, transparent triple-glazed wall. The factory produces 12 different cheeses, and the ageing period ranges from 24 hours to 90 days for thr hardest cheeses.

Ground level - Production Layout - Scale 1:200

15. Exterior Fifth Town Cheese Factory 16. 1:200 Ground Floor, Fifth Town 17. 1:200 Process Diagram 18. 1:500 Sections

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Ground level - Production process - Scale 1:200

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Sections 1:500

Case Study 2: Corleggy Cheese Belturbet, Co.Cavan

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Corleggy Cheese Factory -Production Layout - Scale 1:100

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Corleggy Cheese define themselves as a “Cottage Industry”. They do not make cheese on a daily basis, but when they do they get fresh goats, sheep or cows milk delivered fresh in the morning. In one day of production they take in 1000 litres and generally get 1kg from 10 litres of milk. They layout of the buildin is very scattered and not linear. Starting off as one room 30 years ago, further additions have been added as the business expanded.

19. Corleggy Cheese site 20. Corleggy Cheese enterance and exit 21. Mature Room, cheese ‘ageing’ on selves

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Cheese Making Process at Corleggy

The milk is delivered or colleeted from local, goats, sheep or cow farms using a small tank-trailer. It is then pumped through this window opening into eitheer of the curddling vats.

The milk is then curddled/cooked in the large vats. Solid elements are produced, removed and placed into moulds. The left over whey is drained and given back to the farmer to utilise on the farm.

The moulds are then drained further in the cleaning area, seen on the left foreground. They are the placed on the press, pinned down using weights and left overnight.

The cheese is then removed from the press and placed into the brine tank, which is situated in the ‘Maturing Room’. here its is drowned in the salty water to create an outer preserving layer.

The cheese is then placed on a draining board to drip, and then when sufficently dry, place on the selve to Mature.

After the cheese has matured to a desired age, it is the packaged and placed in a cooler room, stored and ready for retail.

Urban Context

Urban Analysis Mallow is the administrative centre of north county Cork. It first prospered as a Market town due to its agricultural resources in the surrounding hinterland. Mallow developed as an important industrial base in the early 20th century, based largely on its agricultural capability, with dairy produce and sugar beet.

The town sits beside two castles, the first referred to as the fortified castle, built in the 16th century and the second, the house, built in the 19th century after the former burnt down. This is an important heritage site for Mallow.

The town as it stands now still has a large industrial presence due to the Dairygold factory, situated on the west of the town. On this side of the town, Mallow railway station is situated, another huge infrastructure for the town.

What remains on the main street, is mostly the same, in terms of infrastructure as there was fifty years ago; Banks, hotels, town hall, post office, library, small shops and houses. Schools sit just off the towns core along with any new urban development, including suburban housing and shopping centers. Industrial buildings are situated just on the outskirts.

The town centre was shifted to the north of the town due to the development of Market Square in 2006.

22. Urban Context map/diagram

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Mallow sits on the River Blackwater. The main street rises from it on a hill that curves almost parallel. The main street is narrow and therefore a one way traffic system has been introduced, meaning that the N72 acts as a ring road for the town.

The town has at its core, its main street, Davis Street, which all other infrastructure in the town sits on, or branches off. Roads, or narrow lanes lead off the street to car parks or other urban centres.

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23. 1:500 Town Model 24. Road and River Map

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Mallow once faced its back to the river, as most Irish Country towns do, however with the introduction of urban development, shopping centres and other amenities placed along the N72, the town has been given a frontage to the river.

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25. 1:500 Town Model 26. Figure Ground and River Map

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Urban Fabric The urban fabric of the town consists of the old and the new, agriculture and industry, ruins and infrastructure, shops and shopping centres.

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27. Mallow Castle 28. Dairygold Factory 29. Derelict Building 30. Car park, Carmichael Lane 31. Davis Street 32. Tescos Shopping Centre 33. Street Elevation, Davis Street Lower

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Design Development

Analyisis andFramework

The Site After we completed the survey of Mallow, I had identified an area in which I wanted to base my design. I identified carparks and urban wastelands as potentail sites, along with lanes, streets and main roads to allow access.

At this stage I had not selected my typology, but after refection on the case studies completed by the class and on identifying with my chosen theme, which contains highly contextual and cultural morals, I decided to design a Craft Cheese Factory. This would entail a linear program.

With this in mind I identified Quains Lane as my chosen site. It is a long narrow site that could accommodate this linear process. With the demolition of a burnt down structure a direct link would be made to Davis Street. Potential links to a main road on the north of the site and to the car parkt on the west would provide access for the factory, and for a potential urban link or junction.

34. Aerial View with site 35. Road and Context Diagram

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Burnt down Building

Spa Square

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Initial Considerations The site is what would be identified as ‘Urban Wasteland’. It is derelict and run-down; containing ruins of buildings that where once there. A masonry shed still stands on the site. When applying historical implications I reflected on this old farm or stables shed, on what is left of the other buildings and from looking at old maps of Mallow to see that this site was once a place with some life and activity. I wanted to use this consideration as a vehicle to reactivate the site and the area. It is situated at the Towns core and in terms of reactivation presents a large number of opportunities.

36. Old Map, Quains Lane and Davis Street Lower, Mallow

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Existing Shed on site

Side view of shed

Delapatated buildings on site

Black - Existing structures Grey - Delapatated buildings

The spatial arrangement of the site is also very interesting. The existing forms and masses, together with the kinks along the sites border, due to the adjacent buildings and sites, creates a variety of spaces as one moves through the site. Along with these this level changes on either side of the site made for an interesting challenge to build and connect to the surrounding urban context. Considering this as a mechanism for design I identified the potential for spatial and adaptability in terms of landscaping and structural arrangement.

37. Spatial Arrangement Diagram, Quains Lane

Blue - Occupied space Red - Open space

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Section through site Red - Quains Lane site

Long Section through site Red - Davis Street

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I considered the demolition of the burnt down structure on the site, which fronts Davis Street, as a break in the street elevation. This could create an enjoyable relief on the street to invite town users into this new urban environment.

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Burnt down Building

Spa Square

38. Road and Context Diagram

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SWEET SHOP

SHEEHANS BROTHERS BUTCHERS

Existing Street elevation with delapated building at center

Architectural Aesthetics & Form

drying cave recycling depot concrete parking pad

ageing cave 1

ageing cave 2

Organisation + Spatial ideas When considering the organisation of my selected typology I started by referring to the Fifth Town Cheese Factory. I simply took the area of each relevant production space and distinguished each as a rectangular box. I used these then to establish a spatial and functional program that would sit appropriately in the site.

tank/trailer wash bay

shipping & receiving

The production of cheese requires a linear program to allow the much more efficient running of the factory. Considering this as one factor of spatial organisation, I have also kept in mind the creation of another layer on top, around and in between this. This layer would allow for the reactivation of the derelict site. It would become an urban space for town users.

milk holding tanks & Pasteurization dry storage

Along with production, the Cheese factory, as part of its urban complex, was to include a shop for retail sales, a cheese tasting room and a restaurant. I wanted these two separate programs, one (production) functioning as an the industrial and the programmatic, and two (commercial) functioning as a vessel for urban being and exchange, to overlap and create attractive urban spaces.

utility

At this point in my design, I had for some reason dropped the idea of creating direct links to the adjacent sites and roads. I was developing the idea of an ‘Urban Pocket’ or street, to come in, interact, relax, observe and ‘be’.

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39. 1:200 Ground Floor Plan, Fifth Town Cheese Factory

gallery

walk-in fridge

lobby

public w/c

cheese tasing/ sales

wrapping room production

Tectonic Logic + Material Concepts

For me, I found the ageing caves to be one of the most appealing features in the process of cheese making. I enjoy the idea of how milk, a natural and raw liquid can be transformed into cheese simply by being cooked, drained, pressed and stored. The caves, or mature room, allow the cheese to be stored at the correct temperature, humidity and with the appropriate amount of ventilation. Traditionally cheese would have being stored in an actual cave, underground. This as a tectonic consideration came to mind; characteristics like hard, thick, stone, rock, low, damp and dark.

I was also developing a conversation between traditional and industrial.

With traditional in mind I could image a small farm settlement, made up of separate masonary structures organised with primitive dwelling patterns, with no ‘real’ planning or architecture. I imaged the industrial as a lightweight, framed thing that is made up of the most technically advanced, affordable, practical and efficient type of materials.

I envisioned a contradiction of the ‘old meaning’ and the ‘new meaning’, the organic and the prefabricated, the raw and the plastic, the hard and the flexible.

Major review 1 – 14.03.14

40. 3D Views, Major Review 1

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Considerations Structure, Form and Spatial arrangements

41. Structural/Spatial Model

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Desk Review - 28.03.14

Considerations The Energetic Facade System

Major Review 2 - 04.04.14

42. Model Major Review 2

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Architecture

Apart from and in conversation with my theme and vehicle for this project, I have also paid relevance to and gained influence from the fundamental and architectural ideals analysed, implemented, applied in practice or critiqued by architects Steven Holl and Robert Venturi.

Steven Holl - Berkowitz House, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts 1984

The house is an inside-out balloon frame of wooden construction; a skeloton house whose modern bones define a veranda. Along a contiuous porch, wooden members receive the natural vines of the island, which transform the straight linear mode of the architecture. (Holl, 1989)Volumes are placed within the frame which allow for a ‘left-over space’, to be determined and defined as the in-between space, or as Venturi called it the “Residual Space” (Venturi, 1966).

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43. Exploded Axonometric, Martha’s Vineyard House 44. Ground Floor Plan, Martha’s Vineyard House 45. Structural/Spatial Model 44

Seen here in an early structural model, I have tried to apply a similar method, with an outer wooden frame, and inner individual volumes, whos size is determined by what happeneds in them.

Later on, seen in my final presentaion axometric drawing, I went a step further with this ‘framed box’ method. I applied a pitched roof, instead of a box, as to adapt to the surrounding context. More importantly though when I applied the ‘Solar wall’, the pictched angle was necessary for solar gain.

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Referring back to point four of ‘Theme and Vehicle’, when I talked about Steven Holl’s ‘Martha’s Vineyard’s house’, where Holl gives a didactic demonstration of the way in which context is embodied in his work.

Landscape, type and building method are synthesized into a new and challenging whole. One example of this is how he allows the house to step down the site as one passes from bedroom corridor to kitchen/dining room, to the living room, and finally to the northern pergola-covered deck opening to the ocean. (Frampton, 1989) While the roof remains flat, the floor hugs the site, layering the house into the topography, while remaining delicately suspended above the earth.

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46. Plans, Section, Elevation, Martha’s Vineyard House

Although I am using a much different typology, I feel my design is still quite similar. Holl for example has allowed the spatial arrangement of the house, in terms of program and type, to be determined by the slope of the site. In my design I have allowed for the three tiered levels on my site to dictate the program and spatial arrangement of my project as a whole. The highest level (the car park) allows for the start of the cheese making process, the milk is then pumped down into a holding tank, situated on the lowest level; this is the production level for the factory, where at the end of this linear process the product is shipped out. The second level is defined as the public realm. It moves above, between and meets the other levels; however each is felt separately by the user due to a ramp or stair threshold. The program and production process move down the tiered site, however this is only seen in the landscaping of the site. The scale and appearance of the built structures relate to the surrounding built environment.

Robert Venturi - Residence in Chestnut Hill, Pa., 1962

Furthering on from the last point made in reference to Steven Holl, I can also refer back to Robert Venturi and his design of a house for his own mother, when he is practiced his own theory of ‘Complexity and Contradiction’. As represented in the plan and section of the house, the inside spaces are complex and distorted in their shapes and “interrelation-ships”. They correspond to the complexities inherent in the domestic program as well as to some “whimsies” not inappropriate to an individual house. On the other hand, “the outside form- as represented by the parapeted wall and the gable roof which enclose these complexities and distortions - is simple and consistent: it represents this house’s public scale.” (Venturi, 1966)

47. Ground Floor Plan, Residence in Chestnut Hill 48. Exterior, Residence in Chestnut Hill 49. 1:500 Town Model with Massing Model

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As seen in my ground floor plan, I aimed at trying to make a realm for work and production with specified and separated spaces, whilst always creating something that is relevant in terms of scale and form to its urban context, as seen in the massing model.

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Robert Venturi - Inside and Outside, and Residual Space

In relation to modern architecture, Venturi talked about how ‘flowing space’ was used to achieve the continuity of the inside and outside space, how it produced an architecture of related horizontal and vertical planes.

These uninterrupted planes were scored by connecting areas of plate glass: “windows as holes in the wall disappeared and became, instead, interruptions of wall to be discounted by the eye as a positive element of the building.” (Venturi, 1966) There was an emphasis on the interior and exterior space of being ‘one’; this was permitted by new mechanical equipment, which for the first time, made the inside thermally independent of the outside. (Venturi. 1966) In contrast to this Venturi wanted to analyze the “old tradition of enclosed space and contrasted space”. (Venturi, 1966) The idea that multiple functions can be contained within a building, that a room can be a space in a space and that there is a significant awareness to the outside, the inside and the within.

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An example of this is at Alvaro Aalto’s Maison Carree. He uses the continuity of the shed roof as an exterior front, in contrast to the vaulted interior spaces below, which are used to inhance sound, and are manifestations of multiple functions which are allowed to be contained within.

Venturi refers to this as “Containment and Intricacy” (Venturi, 1966) He explains that a crowded intricacy within a rigid frame has been a pervasive idea”, and that it “might be one of the viable methods for dealing with chaos and the endless of roadtown; through the creative use of zoning and positive architectural features it is possible to concentrate the intricacies of roadtowns and junkyards, actual and figurative.” (Venturi 1966) In this way, with reference to point 6, Venturi suggests a method for creating a “chaotic reality”, that relates to a ‘natural urban sprawl’. Instead of what Frampton also opposes as a “sentimental simulation of local vernacular”, Aalto concentrates of the actual, the functional, “the in order to, instead of “for the sake of ”, to create relevant contradictions for a regional architecture.

50. Section, Maison Carree

As seen in this sectional drawing, the actual and functional is represented in two ways. One, with the vaulted ceilings in the working space of the production room and in the ageing caves, and two, the pitched solar roof and solar wall, which is angled at the sun for the necessary heat gain and to allow for heat to move up towards the heat containing and dispensing system. The form and scale of the structure is also to relate to its urban context. Both spaces are defined by their environmental circumstances. High humidity levels in both cause for condensation to rise to the ceilings and so to avoid any dripping on the products the vaulted ceiling allows the access water to drip down to the ceilings and into a drainage system. In relation to Aalto’s Maison Carree, this “ambiguous juxtaposition of one shape and the other gives the interior its peculiar power and tension�. (Venturi, 1966)

“This contradiction between the inside and outside may manifest itself in an unattached lining which produces an additional space between the lining and the exterior wall” ,as seen in Venturi’s own diagram.

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51. Diagram by Robert Venturi, Residual Space

Seen here in the plan of my fist floor level and in this cross section through the main production space, there is an obvious representation of the transition between the outside and the inside through the light canons which extend directly from the outer window, allowing light to travel within the intermediate space, and into dispensed in the working space. With reference to the Aldo Van Eyck quote, this feature as both functional and peculiar allows for a representation of a detachment of the inner and outer windows, “between outside and inside, between one space and another (between one reality and another)�. (Van Eyck, citied

by Venturi, 1966)

The idea of residual space comes into play here, where instead of the continuity of space, there is an understanding “between outside and inside, between one space and another (between one reality and another).....Instead the transition must be articulated by means of defined in-between places which induce simultaneous awareness of what is significant on either side. An in-between space in this sense provides the common ground where conflicting polarities can again become twin phenomena”. (Aldo Van Eyck citied by Venturi, 1966) An example of this can be seen with Philip Johnson’s design of the Guest House in New Canaan where he uses multiple inner layers to emphasise multiple enclosure. (Venturi, 1966)

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52. Section, Guesthouse at New Canaan

The residual space is the circulation space and intermediate space between the outside layer of the solar wall and the inner, contained, in concrete, working space. The solar wall harvests solar energy and dispenses into the residual space providing, which has the working spaces contained within it. In one way this space acts as the wall, Venturi explains that, “Designing from the outside in, as well as the inside out, creates necessary tensions, which help make architecture. Since the inside is different from the outside, the wall - the point of change- becomes an architectural event.” This space also induces a “simultaneous awareness of what is significant on either side”, whilst also creating the necessary spatial tensions for an “architectural event”. As said by Venturi (1996), in conclusion to his chapter ‘The Inside and the outside’, in his book Complexity and Contradiction, “These interior and environmental forces are both general and particular, generic and circumstantial.”

Landscape

For this part of my design I have considered landscaping as a realm defined by the built environment. If I take point two, from the section ‘Theme and Vehicle’ under consideration where:

Critical Regionalism manifests itself as a “consciously bounded architecture”. Instead of the building being emphasized as a freestanding object, it is erected to determine the territory of the site. (Frampton, 1992) In Frampton’s, 1983, ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six points towards an architecture resistance’, he talks about the resistance of ‘place form’. He suggests that, “the architect must recognize the physical boundary of his work as a kind of temporal limit – the point at which the present act of building stops”. (Frampton 1983) In Martin Heidegger’s essay ‘Building, Dwelling, Thinking,’ written in 1954, he explains that “A boundary is not that at which something stops, but, as the Greek recognised, the boundary is that form which something begins it presencing”. (Heidegger, 1954)

68. Diagramatic Drawings for Porta Vittoria 69. Mass Model for Porta Vittoria

Steven Holls project for Porta Vittoria, in Milan in 1986, is a good example of urban landscaping. The site for the project, commissioned by the XVII Triennale of Milan, was a disused freight rail yard, bordered by blocks of different housing types. The aim of the project was to redevelop the area.

Steven Holl stated that “The conviction behind this project is that an open work - an open future – is a source of human freedom.” Holl uses built form to define spaces, streets and thresholds all with different spatial conditions to allow for human activity and movement. (Holl, 1989)

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Even though this project is at a much larger scale to the one in Mallow, the spatial considerations Holl uses is something I took on as a way to create an urban junction, not something that stops, but instead a variety of spatial conditions that either kinks, steps up, down or even into.

70. 3D Context Drawing, Porta Vittoria 71. Site Plan, Porta Vittoria

Environment and Tectonics

“Critical regionalism is regional to a degree that it invariably stresses certain site-specific factors�. (Frampton, 1992)

The Energetic Facade

At an early stage of my design process, I had decided in terms of materials and tectonics of the building as a whole, that I wanted to establish a contrast between the heavy, masonry, and ‘traditional’, or “old meaning” (Venturi, 1966), encouraged by the tradition and craft of cheese making, in tension with a “new meaning” (Venturi, 1966), the modern and the industrial of dairy production.

With this in mind I began to look at light weight skins and facades, and came across a firm called Pfeifer Kuhn Architekten. Swish architects Christoph Kuhn and Gunter Pfeifer, have since established their own separate firms, however this is only recently and both still pride themselves on the projects they shared. Their most significant and principle practice is their research and application of ‘Energetic Façade Systems’.

As an environmental approach and, in junction with my theme and vehicle, in relation to “site specific factors”, I have used three case studies by this firm, as exemplary models, for the further development of my design and research of my chosen theme.

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ZKD - Freiburg, Switzerland

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Patchwork House - Mullheim, Switzerland

Bingel House - Freiburg, Switzerland

ZKD Freiburg

Located in an industrial area of Freiburg, the architecture of the ZKD building is very modest. The building functions as a storage unit for art work and museum artefacts, as well as acting as a primitive house. The internal environment is very specific due to its typology. In the same way as the ageing cave in a cheese factory, storage rooms inside the building must be controlled and kept at very specific temperatures and humidity levels to maintain the safe keeping of the items stored inside.

To meet the requirements of passive house construction, the head gasket is characterised by high air tightness, from a lack of thermal bridging as well as a thermal insulation. The construction of the wall consists of an internal limestone block wall with a thickness of 20cm, thermal insulation which varies form varies from 24 to 30 cm, an external limestone wall of 24cm, timber panels, timber batons and finally polycarbonate corrugated plastic panels. The limestone acts as a temperature-regulating material and the polycarbonate skin is fitted onto timber batons to allow hot air to rise up the building to be stored and dispensed accordingly.

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56. Plans, ZKD Freiburg 57. Sections, ZKD Freiburg 58. Exterior, ZKD Frieburg 59. Facade, ZKD Frieburg

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Patchwork House - Mullheim

Functioning as a semi-detached house, the internal zoning of this house is characterised mainly by an energy garden at it centre fronting a north to south orientation, where family members cross over and back to the living spaces of their homes. The translucent roof and wall enclosure wrapped over the north to south elevations is regarded as a high efficient air collector. This air collector in connection with the storage mass of wood (board stack – structures) makes an effective year-round solar entry by means of a natural flow of hot air up the building. The heat is then either, collected and pressed through a chimney that distributes the heat into the open energy garden in the winter or ventilated out through openings in the roof in the summer. In the winter the heat will rise and circulate form the energy garden into the living spaces which are contained by concrete block walls to allow for heat storage.

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60. Plans, Patchwork House 61. Heat Movement Diagram, Patchwork House 62. Interior , Patchwork House 63. Exterior, Patchwork House

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Bingel House - Freiburg, Switzerland

The Bingel house has a very similar construction to the patch work house; however where a wood stacked massing system is used in the roof for the energetic facade, aerated concrete is used in the walls.

The construction is an extension to an older house. Where the new construction provides further living space it is also a primitive heating system that like the first two buildings allows the natural flow of heat to move up the facade and collected. In this case however the heat is gathered and distributed into the older building.

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64. Groundfloor Plan, Bingel House 65. Heat Distribution System, Bingel House 66. Section of Extension, Bingel House 67. Interior of Extension, Bingel House

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From these case studies I have taken an almost direct application of the ‘Energetic Facade System’. Especially with the Patchwork house, my wall and roof construction consists of an outer polycarbonate layer, fitted onto timber batons that are then fix onto a timber framing system.

Within this a glulam panelled wall is used as the massing element, which allows for the collected heat to move up the facade and then collected or ventilated out. However instead of using a chimney to press and distributed the heat below, I have decided to use the same distributing system used in the Bingel house, which spreads horizontally through a piping system and then distributed to what, in accordance with Venturi, in the last section, is the “residual space”, or even with relevance to the patchwork house, the ‘energy garden’.

My preference for this system over the chimney system was to allow for the heat to also be distributed to the older shed structure. All the new buildings to the site, with the exception of the ageing caves are designed with this system. However, in conjunction with the last section, and the idea of “a space within a space” and also with the ‘contained’ space of the patchwork house, the working spaces, including the production room and the wrapping room are given an extra concrete layer to allow for thermal comfort.

The visible outer faรงade is made up of concrete barges orientated to face in the direction of northeast to southwest, and a corrugated polycarbonate facade facing a northwest to southeast direction. There is a combination of the heavy and the lightweight, therefore going back to my initial consideration, of creating a building whole that applies this contradiction to pay a necessary relevance to its context, and type.

References Projects

Luis Barragan House and Studio, Mexico City, 1948 - Luis Barragan Vieira de Castro House, Vila Nova de Familacao, Portugal, 1994 - Alvaro Siza School at Morbio Inferiore, Ticino, Switzerland, 1977 - Mario Botta Imatra Church, Imatra, Finland, 1958 - Alvaro Aalto Bagsvaerd Church, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1976 - Jørn Utzon House at Martha’s Vineyard, MA, United States, 1988 - Steven Holl Patchwork House, Müllheim, Switzerland, 2005 - Pfeifer Kuhn Architekten Residence in Chestnut Hill, PA, United States, 1962 - Robert Venturi Maison Carree, Baroches-sur-Guyonne, Ile-de-France, France, 1960 Alvaro Aalto Guesthouse, New Canaan, United States, 1949 - Philip Johnson Porta Vittoria, Milan, 1986 - Steven Holl ZKD, Freiburg, Switzerland - Pfeifer Kuhn Architekten

Images 2. The Home of Luis Barragan in Mexico City. Matteucci, R. Abitare.

May 2009. Issue 492. Pp 103-109 3. Hail Siza: house, Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal. Penny McGuire.

Architectural Review, 1999, June, v.205, n.1228, p.54-57. Published in England.

15-18. “Green Cheese” .Leslie Jen. (2009) Canadian Architect.

39. “Green Cheese” .Leslie Jen. (2009) Canadian Architect.

43-46. Anchoring, Steven Holl, Selected Projects 1975-1991. Third Addition. Princeton Architectural Press. (1989).

4. Mario Botta. Jodidio, Philip. 1954-Köln. New York. Taschen, c1999

47-52. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, Robert Venturi.

Museum of Modern Art Papers on Architecture. (1966).

5. Alvar Aalto : Volume 1 : 1922 – 1962. Zurich : Artemis, 1963 (1990)

53-59. http://www.guenterpfeifer.de/ 2.

6. Modern Architecture, A Critical History. 3rd Rev Edition. Frampton, Kenneth. (1992).

60-61. Pure Plastic : new materials for today’s architecture. Berlin: Braun: London. Thames & Hudson (Distributor), (2008)

7-8. Alvar Aalto : Volume 1 : 1922 – 1962. Zurich : Artemis, 1963 (1990) 9. Anchoring, Steven Holl, Selected Projects 1975-1991. Third Addition.

Princeton Architectural Press. (1989).

10. http://www.guenterpfeifer.de/ 2.

11. Pure Plastic : new materials for today’s architecture. Berlin: Braun: London. Thames & Hudson (Distributor), (2008) 12. Mario Botta. Jodidio, Philip. 1954-Köln. New York. Taschen, c1999 13. “The national and the local — practices of de- and retraditionalization”. Ó Giolláin, Diarmuid (June 2005). FF Network (The Folklore Fellows) (28): 17,fn.5. ISSN 0789-0249. Retrieved 2009-03-08. “”Machaire méith na Mumhan”

62-71. http://www.guenterpfeifer.de/ 2.

Bibliography Books & Essays Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, Robert Venturi.

Museum of Modern Art Papers on Architecture. (1966).

Anchoring, Steven Holl, Selected Projects 1975-1991. Third Addition.

Princeton Architectural Press. (1989).

Modern Architecture, A Critical History. 3rd Rev Edition.Frampton.

Kenneth. (1992).

Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance. Frampton, Kenneth. (1981).

“Green Cheese” .Leslie Jen. (2009) Canadian Architect.

Pure Plastic : new materials for today’s architecture. Berlin: Braun: London. Thames & Hudson (Distributor), (2008) “Building Dwelling Thinking”. Heidegger, Martin. (1971). from poetry, language, thought, translated by Albert Hofstader, Harper Colophon Books, New York.

“The national and the local — practices of de- and retraditionalization”. Ó Giolláin, Diarmuid (June 2005). FF Network (The Folklore Fellows) (28): 17,fn.5. ISSN 0789-0249. Retrieved 2009-03-08. “”Machaire méith na Mumhan” Mexico: Alternative Expressions. Noelle,Louise; Topelson, Sara. Docomomo Journal. Mar2007, Issue 36, p70 ‐ 72. 3p

Websites http://www.guenterpfeifer.de/ 2.