The last beginning: EXPERIMENT 3

Being of Chinese descent, I've often seen traditional chinese paintings of the awe-inspiring Huang-shan (Yellow Mountain ranges). I have attempted to replicate the landscape. 

 

 

 

 

CRYENGINE REPLICA:

 

 

 

 

"A RATIONAL IRRATIONALITY"
My proposed theory derived from a mashup of three articles:
1. George H. Marcus, Le Corbusier: Inside the Machine for Living (New York: The Monacelli Press, Inc, 2000), 30.
2. Andrew Benjamin, "The Standards of the Non Standard," Architectural Review Australia, 2000-2003, AR087. 
3. Kate Nesbitt, Theorising a New Agenda for Architecture: an Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-95) (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, date not specified)

Although Le Corbusier's Plan Libre permits the interior to develop freely unhindered by the lack of internal divisions determined by structural requirements, his "Machine for Living" paradigm idealises that "One of the most important concerns of modern architecture is to determind precisely the function of the materials (Le Corbusier)", implicating that the architectural features should act as a celebration of the structural frame. This utilitarian approach is contradicted by Eisenmann who critiques the traditional opposition between the qualities of the good, the rational, and true, and of the terrifying sublime (the unnatural and unpresent).

While indeed, “Architecture must displace the former ways of conceptualizing itself,” and “requires a more complex form of the beautiful, one which contains he ugly, or a rationality that contains the irrational.”  a continuity or a confluence between mathematics and matter is capable of overcoming the separation between form and function wherein replacing the opposition is an approach delimited by "morphogenesis" proposed by mathematician Abraham robinson. Accordingly, differences and discontinuities should be effects of continuity. What was an originally discontinuous structure- Le Corbusier's Maison Domino- through its digitalisation becomes a continuity that is then able to generate different discontinuous elements.

Thus, the University located between two factions of the valley will demarcate the rational, but through a controlled ravelling and unravelling of program and structure that differentiates between, yet unites, the various meeting, circulation, and teaching and learning spaces. Such is my theory of the "rational irrationality".

EXP2: 5 realtime images

the"Electroliquid Aggregation":

 Architectural originality and futurism can be achieved by breaking rectilinear and euclidean rules of geometry, creating a creative adventure between function and experience. (Daniel Libeskind)

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Individual, unique entities can be arranged to work harmoniously to contribute to a whole. (Hans Scharoun)

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When rectilinear and euclidean rules of geometry are broken to create unique entities, architectural originality and futurism can be achieved. When both the former and latter are present, it is the contrast and transition between them which create an adventure between function and experience.

image 1:

Through its linearity and vertical extension, and perpendicular angles, Monument 1 epitomises the rectilinear and euclidean rules of geometry. Against the backdrop of rising glaciers which it frames, it alludes to notions of status and conformity. 

image 2:

Looking down from Monument 2 to 1, one realizes a vast transition in not only height but geometry and shape. Like the glacier boulders and icebergs of the surrounding landscape, which have become somewhat separated from each other and the motherland, the monument is composed of individual and unique entities which regardless, still belong and contribute wholistically to the structure.  

image 3:

The space between serves as a junction in which the two ideas collide and melt into one another. It is straight, flat, and linear- yet it joins the two components at acute and obtuse, rather than right angles, and it tapers slightly inwards as one reaches the foot of the pinnacle structure. Thus it serves as a bridge across which ideas can be exchanged and intertwined.

image 4:

The entire structure is nestled at the opening of a gorge in the glacier

image 5:

The enclosure and low-roofedness experienced in monument 2 differs greatly from the openness of the first. At night time, artificial lighting plays a major role in reiterating the sense of disorganisation and intimacy which contrasts with the distanced, calm and rational.

Link to sketchup model:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=e7f8866f4a8456c16a0c50adfce31b36&result=4

Link to Cryengine levels folder (contains the latest and final version of the terrain as well as successive developments of it):
http://www.mediafire.com/?4kin55l5ulhvdee


SOME OTHER IMAGES:

The Power of Light

36 textures- from light to dark

The green light on non-prismic forms was a false alarm, I then had to find a way to "bend" rather than "break" the rules. The fragmented monument 2 now consists of a large cube which has had half of its mass displaced by another prismic volume, and then a negative prismic void cut into it (this totals 3 blocks). The previous floating pentagonal structure has been replaced by a rectangular block which serves to permit access from the pathway to enter monument 2, via stairs which have been chipped and carved from its surface, as well as small broken fragments which appear to be caught in a suspended "matrix moment"

In my opinion this current model still corresponds with the two original concepts and the"Electroliquid Aggregation":

Architectural originality and futurism can be achieved by breaking rectilinear and euclidean rules of geometry, creating a creative adventure between function and experience. 

+

Individual, unique entities can be arranged to work harmoniously to contribute to a whole.

=

When rectilinear and euclidean rules of geometry are broken to create unique entities, architectural originality and futurism can be achieved. When both the former and latter are present, it is the contrast and transition between them which create an adventure between function and experience.

Monument one appears as a commemorative pinnacle framed by vertically elongated prisms extending towards the heavens. The viewer then descends to monument two, where the linearity is demarcated, bringing one back to the primitive origins of mass and void; the structures which were not machined or manufactured by man but by natural phenomena.

The textures I have chosen to reinforce this idea.

Im finding it expremely hard to create a terrain that compliments the fragmented form of my monument.