Church on the Water, Hokkaido, 1985–8 At the edges of the outer walls to left and right, the slate floor is held back, creating a shadowed slot into which the concrete wall slips out of sight. Because the wall does not meet and bear upon the floor, as is usual, the relationship of the wall to the ground is uncertain, and the rippling surface of the black slate floor appears to float free of the walls, merging with the rippling surface of the water. Robert McCarter & Juhani Pallasmaa, Understanding Architecture weight
Lightness & Heaviness "Lightness is born of heaviness and heaviness of lightness, instantaneously and reciprocally, returning creation for creation, gaining strength proportionally as they gain in life, and as much more in life as they gain in motion. They destroy one another also at the same time, fulfilling a mutual vendetta, proof that lightness is created only in conjunction with heaviness, and heaviness only where lightness follows." — Leonardo da Vinci Robert McCarter & Juhani Pallasmaa, Understanding Architecture materialweight
Buttresses Buttresses, Ruskin writes, are structures against pressure: a cathedral’s walls want to fall outward, for example, pushed aside by the relentless weight of the roof. But this gravitational pressure can be stabilized by an exoskeleton: a sequence of buttresses that will prevent those walls from collapsing outward. However, Ruskin points out, there is a similar kind of pressure from the waves of the sea. Think of the curved hull of a ship, he writes, which is internally buttressed against the “crushing force” of the ocean around it. It is a kind of inside-out cathedral. Geoff Manaugh, BLDGBLOG www.bldgblog.com weightarchitecture
Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface A Book by Robin Clark www.goodreads.com Phenomenal: An IntroductionPhenomenal: Exhibited WorksStealth Architecture: The Rooms of Light and Space Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One SeesRobert Irwin: A Conditional ArtThe Finish Fetish Artists art
Phenomenal: An Introduction An Essay Aesthetic palate cleansingUntitled (Light Canvas)Little Blank Riding HoodNot intended to be read until you have seenA vaporous middle-world+5 More
Phenomenal: Exhibited Works A Gallery Untitled (Light Canvas)EindhovenStuck RedZero MassLittle Blank Riding Hood+4 More
Stealth Architecture: The Rooms of Light and Space An Essay by Michael Auping To absorb it or build your ownA stealth architectThe measuring unit of all spaceThe walls are reserved for the sunA little too something+1 More