ie School of Architecture

Villa Savoye Explanation

Done at Poissy from 1929 to 1931, the freeness of the Dom-Ino system let Le Corbusier find and apply the 5 points in architecture that are gathered in this villa.

The supports (pilotis) are precisely calculated, spaced regularly and used to elevate the first floor off the damp ground. The interior walls are independent of the support system, can be arranged in a free plan, the curving ground floor wall is determined by the turning radius of the motor car that would convey the family here from Paris. The driveway extends under the house, between the pilotis, and continues past the main entrance to a three-car garage and the maid’s quarter. From the ground-level entrance hall the visitor has the choice of climbing the sculptural stair or ascending the ramp (which links all three levels) to the second floor. Here, the horizontal window is made possible by the support system; assuring illumination and an unobstructed view from the living room over the clearing in which the house sits to the forested hills enclosing the site. The large living room is separated by an enormous sliding glass door from the exterior patio and the ramp that continues to the upper level, the flat slab of the roof is used for domestic purposes as a terrace with sculptural windscreen walls. The façade, also independent of the structural supports, could be freely designed and the result was that all four elevations are essentially identical, consisting of a ribbon of windows and openings running the width of the facade at the second floor level.

Le Corbusier’s choice of interior finishes and fittings reflects his enthusiasm for industrial products and his admiration for the functional aspects of ocean liners. The entrance hall alone has unglazed ceramic tile flooring; simple pipe nails, painted black; a pedestal washbasin, freestanding in the hallway; and industrial light fixtures, directed upward to provide reflected light. Skylights, painted intense blue, provide softly colored light reflecting off the white wall surfaces on the second floor.

The artful incorporation of varied spatial experiences and light within a simple geometric container testifies to the mastery of form Le Corbusier had achieved by 1930.

Fernando Jimenez Salmeron, BA Architecture 2008

listas: s_XX , use_RESIDENTIAL_HOUSING_individual

etiquetas: 5 points of architecture , dom-ino , le corbusier , s. xx

alejandro de la sota

Memorias del proyecto:
Terreno existente en fuerte ladera; muros de contención escalonados de hormigón en masa. Diferencia de cotas entre calle de fachada y patio superior, 12 metros. Orientación, Mediodía. Accesos, inferior desde la calle y superior desde el patio. Sótano destinado a vestuarios del gimnasio y campo de entrenamiento de hockey sobre patines; planta baja, a cancha de juegos y cuarto de profesores de gimnasia. Entreplantas primera y segunda, congregaciones, antiguos alumnos y psicotecnia. Planta alta destinada a Museos de Ciencias Naturales, Física, salas de conferencias, de juegos, de Música, lectura, etc. Patio superior para juegos al aire libre, continuación del más reducido, ya existente.
Tema dominante: gimnasio cubierto.
Estructura de hormigón en sótanos, de hierro el resto. En la sala, pilares de ocho metros de altura separados a seis metros, soportando vigas-puente de 20 metros de luz. Forjados de viguetas metálicas y Viroterm, absorbente de ruidos, en la línea baja de las vigas, utilizado conjuntamente como piso de las plantas superiores y techo del gimnasio. Suelo elástico de madera en cancha. Se trató de conseguir un ambiente cargado de humanidad, neutralizador de la frialdad gimnástica; se usaron materiales calientes en color y materia; fue ésta la principal preocupación arquitectónica ambiental.
Alejandro de la Sota, 1962

Este edificio del año 62 nació a su aire. Preocupados con los problemas urbanos, aprovechamiento del mal solar, económicos, no dio margen para preocuparse por una arquitectura determinada; por eso carece de cualquiera de ellas. Tal vez sea otra; tal vez. Explicarlo llevaría a la polémica de: Arquitectura sí, Arquitectura no. Situado el volumen del gimnasio propiamente dicho en la cota justa, se añaden por el arquitecto al programa el sótano, las clases (cubierta del gimnasio) y la terraza (patio de juegos) en la cota del Colegio. Con la elección de la estructura apropiada se consiguen, en el interior del gimnasio y las clases, efectos arquitectónicos.
Los miradores exteriores le devuelven al gran muro la escala urbana. Se remata todo con la valla de protección del patio, que juega con el conjunto y también es fachada.
El gimnasio de Maravillas tiene ya 22 años. No sé por qué lo hice así pero lo que sí sé es que no me disgusta haberlo hecho. Creo que el no hacer Arquitectura es un camino para hacerla y todos cuantos no la hagamos habremos hecho más por ella que los que, aprendida, la siguen haciendo. Entonces se resolvió un problema y sigue funcionando y me parece que nadie echa en falta la Arquitectura que no tiene.
Alejandro de la Sota, 1984

Design description:
Existing ground with a strong slope; stepped in situ concrete retaining walls. The difference in heights between the street of the main façade and the upper yard is of 12 m. Exposure, midday. Accesses, lower from the street and upper from the yard. Basement used as the gymnasium changing rooms and roller skate training ground; ground floor as games yard and trainers room. First and second floor, congregations, former students and psychotechnology. Upper floor assigned to Natural sciences museum, physics and lecture, games, music and reading rooms.Upper yard to open air games, extension of the more reduced existing one. Predominant subject: covered gymnasium.

Concrete structure in basements. Rest of the structure in steel. In the hall, 8 m height columns, separated 6 m, supporting bridge beams spanning 20 m. Slab of small steel beamns and Virotem, noise absorbent, on the lower line of the beams, used at the same time as floor of the upper floors and ceiling of the gymnasium. Elastic wood floor on the court. The intent was to get an atmosphere full of humanity, neutralizer of the gymnastic coldness; warm materials in colour and substance; this was the main architectural environmental concern.
Alejandro de la Sota, 1962

This building was born this way. Worried about urban concerns, development of the bad building site, economics, there was no margin allowed to be worried about a specific architecture; that's why it lacks of any of them. Maybe it is another one; maybe. Explaining it will carry to the polemic: Architecture yes, Architecture no. Having placed the volume of the gymnasium itself at the proper height, the basement, the classrooms (ceiling of the gymnasium) and the terraze (games yard) at the height of the School are added to the program by the architect. Architectonic effects at the interior of the gymnasium and classrooms are achieved by this choosing of the proper structure.
The outdoor miradors return the urban scale to the large wall. The protection fence capps off the whole, being façade at the same time.
The Maravillas Gymnasium is already 22 years old. I don't know why I did it so, but what I do know is that I don't dislike having done it. I believe that not making Architecture is a way to make it, and that all of us

ie School of Architecture lo descubrió en diciembre de 2008

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etiquetas: de la sota , gimnasio , s. xx

ARCHIVO DIGITAL DE TODA SU OBRA

L a Fundación Alejandro de la Sota se constituyó mediante escritura notarial el 2 de abril de 1997. Fue aprobada en la Orden Ministerial del Ministerio de Educación y Cultura del 25 de abril de 1997 con el número 459 y publicada en el Boletín Oficial del Estado del 13 de mayo de 1997.
La Fundación Alejandro de la Sota nace por tres razones: La necesidad de conservar en las mejores condiciones su archivo profesional, la obligación de tenerlo disponible para la consulta por parte de estudiantes, profesores y de cuantos arquitectos se interesen por su obra y, por último, el deseo de su divulgación. Tres aspectos que eran también parte importante de las actividades de su estudio desde hacía años: se quiere dar así una continuidad también al espacio en donde Alejandro de la Sota trabajó en los últimos treinta años. Es, inevitablemente, otra época en la que aprenderemos a hablar de sus obras sin su presencia, a conservar su archivo y su mundo, sin su recreación y sin la tensión y la confianza que daba su permanente mirada nueva hacia adelante. Crear una fundación no es otra cosa que el deseo de compartir este esfuerzo y, en su ausencia, de objetivarlo.

ie School of Architecture lo descubrió en diciembre de 2008

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etiquetas: archive , archivo , de la sota , digital , research , s. xx

PIER LUIGI NERVI 1891-1979

(b Sondrio, 21 June 1891; d Rome, 9 Jan 1979). Italian architect and engineer. He graduated in civil engineering from the University of Bologna in 1913. Before and after serving in World War I, he worked for the Societ? per Construzione Cimentizia (SCC) in Bologna, subsequently going into practice in Rome, as a partner initially in Nervi and Nebbiosi (1923-32) and then with Nervi and Bartolia, until 1960, when with his three sons, Antonio, Vittorio and Mario, he set up Studio Nervi. He first achieved wide acclaim for the Berta Municipal Stadium (won in competition, 1929; completed 1932) in Florence. It was praised internationally not only as a feat of engineering but also for its design and economy, and the building demonstrated his ability to integrate function with abstract sculptural form, for example in the elegant interlaced helical supports of the external staircases. Between 1935 and 1942, again through winning a competition, Nervi designed a series of aircraft hangars for the Italian air force, the first of which at Orvieto (1938) determined their form: long pointed barrel vaults, constructed on latticed grids of light crossing members, rising from complex triangulated edge-beams. The various sized ribs were prefabricated from reinforced concrete rather than pouring them in place. In these hangars Nervi produced the first version of his diamond-patterned lamella vault. When the German army destroyed the hangars (1944) during their retreat in World War II, most of the joints where the ribs crossed remained intact.

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