CONTEXT
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BUILDING II
Since century until now, building design has been design to express itself unique ,different with the mainstream. Some have lost it connection with context , every architecture tends to explore new forms and ways of constructions and materials. Architecture are not only designing but its having connection with people and its context . It very important to having connect with context in architecture today .
What is the role of context in architecture today? Is context predominantly a physical issue, social, economic, or political issue; some combination of these ? The questions that arise when exploring this relationship are more than simply about finding the proper placements and site issue within architectural space to “accommodate” a community and their behaviors within it.Nowadays,It tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, technological, economic, and social context in which it exists. While often difficult to reconcile with regulatory and popular demands of the four factors mentioned, this kind of architecture still plays a role in architecture and design, especially in local branches.
For example, the left image above shows a piece of architecture in Asakusa, engaging with its corner location through its shape and its facade. It is not easy to imagine this building to be located anywhere else. Its exterior planes are lined up with its surrounding buildings and its material appropriately identifies with the traditional temple district context of Asakusa.
The right image shows a piece of sculpture near Harajuku that stands in isolation and screams for attention (notice it ‘wiggles’ its way into the space between the two buildings without touching them, expressed by its shape). This building can easily be ‘transported’ and placed anywhere else and will still be equally as contextual as it is currently.
~Art is a form of self-expression with absolutely no responsibility to anyone or anything. Architecture can be a piece of art, but it must be responsible to people and its context.~
Context is as important what its was , but in another guide in design . in the past context might just design to merge in the site and seem lees impact to the site . But nowadays, contextual building can be iconic,compared to the surrounding ,but it is still be designed based on the context such as human circulation , site issue , economical issue etc. Famous architect who create unreal building like zaha hadid or Frank Gehry who create fantastic building but they did think about the context of the site too. I suggest we rethink it for a moment about our responsibilities that architecture should be conscious of context first, then only to search for potential of expressing its .
As Adrian Forty stated''every design problem begins with an effort to achieve fitness between two entities:the form and its context, which context is formal ,marked by its study of figure /ground relationships.'' Context can be hidden elements to the building , not necessary to be applied in the outlook, but its is essential to be considered when site planning .
Mill Owners' Association Building / Le Corbusier
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Le Corbusier was commissioned by the president of the Mill Owners’ Association to design the organization’s headquarters in Ahmedabad, a city historically active in India’s textile trade. The building is a physical manifesto representing Le Corbusier’s proposal for a modern Indian architecture. Constructed in 1954, the Mill Owners’ Association Building is considered the first of four completed commissions in Ahmedabad.
Le Corbusier began working predominately in warmer environments, he developed a set of architectural devices in response to climatic and cultural contexts. He took cues from India’s vernacular architecture, emulating the deep reveals, overhanging ledges, shade screens, and grand, pillared halls. He introduced brises-soleil, designed to prevent sun from penetrating the facade, and employed these in combination with thickened facades and unfinished concrete in many of his later projects. Surrounded by ample open space, the Mill Owners’ Association Building was not forced to contend with an existing urban fabric, allowing the architect to propose a distinctly modern aesthetic.
The building sits between Ashram Road to the west and the Sabarmati River to the east. The side walls, to the north and south, are nearly blank and faced in rough stone with a brick exterior. The brises-soleil on the west facade are oriented diagonally to obstruct views from the street while permitting air and indirect sunlight to enter the space. Plants spill from the porous facade, activating the exposed concrete and supplementing the roof garden. At the rear of the building, the brises-soleil are perpendicular to the facade, allowing the breeze from the river to pass uninhibited through the shaded perimeter. Here, Le Corbusier designed the openings to frame views of the river below.The stair core projects beyond the central atrium and main facade, into the elements.
The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor
·Architects
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·Location
Graubünden, Switzerland
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·Architects
Peter Zumthor, with Marc Loeliger, Thomas Durisch
and Rainer Weitschies
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·Project Year
1996
Built over the only thermal springs in the Graubunden Canton in Switzerland, The Therme Vals is a hotel and spa in one which combines a complete sensory experience designed by Peter Zumthor.
Peter Zumthor designed the spa/baths which opened in 1996 to pre date the existing hotel complex. The idea was to create a form of cave or quarry like structure. Working with the natural surroundings the bath rooms lay below a grass roof structure half buried into the hillside. The Therme Vals is built from layer upon layer of locally quarried Valser Quarzite slabs. This stone became the driving inspiration for the design, and is used with great dignity and respect.
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This space was designed for visitors to luxuriate and rediscover the ancient benefits of bathing. The combinations of light and shade, open and enclosed spaces and linear elements make for a highly sensuous and restorative experience. The underlying informal layout of the internal space is a carefully modelled path of circulation which leads bathers to certain predetermined points but lets them explore other areas for themselves. The perspective is always controlled. It either ensures or denies a view.
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The fascination for the mystic qualities of a world of stone within the mountain, for darkness and light, for light reflections on the water or in the steam saturated air, pleasure in the unique acoustics of the bubbling water in a world of stone, a feeling of warm stones and naked skin, the ritual of bathing – these notions guided the architect. Their intention to work with these elements, to implement them consciously and to lend them to a special form was there from the outset. The stone rooms were designed not to compete with the body, but to flatter the human form (young or old) and give it space…room in which to be.
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“Mountain, stone, water – building in the stone, building with the stone, into the mountain, building out of the mountain, being inside the mountain – how can the implications and the sensuality of the association of these words be interpreted, architecturally?” Peter Zumthor