architecturethrough a

lens

by Brandon Maggiore

I dedicate this book to Professor Ken Carpenterand his class.

architecturethrough a

lens

by Brandon Maggiore

Preface/HDR Explanation 2

Solids and Voids 8

Color Planes 10

Scale and Proportion 13

Rhythm in Architecture 15

Textural Elements 18

Daylight in Architecture 20

Color in Architecture 22

Index and Works Cited 24

contentspreface/HDR explanation 3

solids and voids 5

textural effects 9

scale and proportion 15 rhythm in architecture 19

works cited 23

trip so far 25

contents

prefaceWhen I was faced with the dilemma of filling my schedule with twelve hours this semester (Fall 08’), I turned to a new found interest of mine, photography. I gained a particular curiosity in landscape photography, because I will be spending an entire semester (Spring 09’) in beautiful Bozeman, Montana. I will be living with my uncle and attending Montana State University. During my leisure time, I plan to explore the great outdoors and snap alluring photos of Bozeman and places like Yellowstone National Park. I will be using my compact 10.2 MP Nikon D60 digital single-lens reflex (D-SLR) camera. The Nikon D60 is designed to simplify camera operation and allow the photographer to concentrate more on taking magnificent pictures. The camera’s unique, user-friendly design includes a reduced number of buttons and a monitor that displays helpful settings and information. These qualities relieve me of having to focus too much on the camera and allow me to take great photos. I met with the director of architecture at Louisiana State University and told him about my dilemma. Since a student has to be pursuing a major or minor in art in order to take an offered photography class at LSU, I was pointed in a different direction. Our director, Tom Sofranko, recommended that I take an independent study with a professor named Ken Carpenter. Tom told me that he was known to enjoy photography and was actually trying to offer a photography elective during the spring semester. Carpenter’s proposed class is called “Architecture Through a Lens.” For what it is worth, I was somewhat chosen to be the guinea pig for Carpenter’s class. His class description is as follows:

“The class will explore basic design tools (principles and concepts), such as rhythm and spatial sequence, used by architects to shape environmental perception and response. The exploration will be accomplished through three activities: first, team (two person) fieldwork; second, digital photography; and third, class discussion of the principles/concepts, the examples shown, and the photographs. The design tools to be explored might be as simple as “scale” or as complex as “community”. Teams will be required to show examples, found in Baton Rouge, of a specific design tool used in different ways as well as examples of the absence or opposite of the principle/concept. The class will meet one evening a week (three hours). Each student will have access to a digital camera and a computer. In the initial meeting, student discussion will establish a list of design principles/concepts for investigation and a corresponding list of synonyms and anonyms. The instructor will add terms to the list to give balance. The students will select team partners and individual research topics from the list. During the second meeting, the “investigation list” will be refined, and the instructor will assign appropriate reading material for each student based on his/her selection of investigation topics. Each student will have a minimum of three topics (principles/concepts) to explore. Some duplication of topics may occur. Throughout the semester, students will present their photographs for review and discussion at the weekly class meetings. The collection of work (photographs and text from each student) will be exhibited, and a catalogue type reference book will be published. In some cases, PhotoShop could be used to demonstrate before and after effects of removing clutter such as light poles and coordinating signage.”

While writing this book and providing photographs to accompany the text, I found it to be a bit bland; so, I decided to make it my own by adding a bit of artistic value to each photo. High Dynamic Range Imaging. In image processing and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of procedures that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a

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scene than normal digital imaging techniques provide. So what exactly composes an HDR image? Simply put, it is more information per pixel. When one takes a photo with a digital camera, the colors are converted to furnish the limited palette of the camera’s display. The human eye, however, can take in far more color and light information at any given time. Have you ever photographed a beautiful landscape only to later discover that the picture shows a washed-out sky? Is it almost impossible for you to photograph the interior of a building in such a way that it allows you to also see the scenery through its windows? Such problems occur because a single photographic exposure cannot preserve every highlight and shadow in a scene that contains an enormous range of tonal values. This is why it is necessary to take a photo with the correct exposure settings, or simply create an HDR image. HDR accommodates a way to combine different exposures of the same scene into one image, adding significantly to the amount of data held per pixel (typical digital images contain 8 bits of color information per pixel; an HDR image has 32). The result is an image with more “dynamic range” (see page 9-10 for a visual brief). In other words, the brights are brighter, the darks are darker, and there is much more variance in between. The photos throughout this book are all composed as High Dynamic Range photos. Below is the list of basic concepts-principals-methods of architecture (including synonyms and antonyms) that I first chose as my picture topics, and Ken Carpenter helped polish them into concrete ideas.

Pattern: configuration, design, template ... unarranged, chaotic, abstractTexture: character, consistency, essence ... indirect, bland, unorderedEntrance: ingress, entry, front ... egress, exit, backBoundaries: barrier, margin, wall ... boundless, open, continuedViews/Perspective: panorama, scene, dominant ... blind, closed, limitedShape/Form: contour, format, profile ... blob, mass, unmoldedLayers: superimposed, dynamic, stratified ... plain, singled, blankEnvironment: locality, surroundings, climate ... far, ill-natured, alienCulture: art, knowledge, history ... uncommon, mixed, clashSize/Scale: proportion, extent, dimension ... unsuited, unimportant, ignoredMovement/Threshold: shift, rhythm, disturbance ... stationary, still, staleCirculation: disperse, rotation, noise ... abandoned, calm, restOpen/Closed: outlet, opportunity, clear ... blocked, limited, privateStructure: anatomy, system, makeup ... incomplete, morphed, unframed

Needless to say, I was not on the right track, and Carpenter helped explain it better to me. I was to find common tools used by architects in familiar tasks to achieve different environments and experiences. Social/Physiological Tools Tasks- anonymity - Pattern/Texture/Material - Entrance- community - Scale - Boundary- individual/group - View/Perspective - Threshold- serious/exuberant - Shape/Form Carpenter then told me to read the text, Experiencing Architecture by Steen Eiler Rasmussen to help choose tasks to take photos of.

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solids and voids

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This topic refers to the shapes and forms that architecture takes through the medium of materials. Solids are typically the structural forms of a building, and voids are viewed as the empty spaces between the solids. In other words, solids are the rigid elements such as walls, floors, and roofs that enclose voids such as rooms, windows, and doorways. Steen Eiler Rasmussen refers to the forming of these voids/empty spaces as “the real meaning of architecture.” The relationship between these solids and voids are what create architectural space. In Rasmussen’s book, Experiencing Architecture, he compares two different ways in which architecture can be thought about: as solids assembled in space, or as voids chiseled out of a pre-existing mass/solid. Like the famous set of optical illusions by the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin, the solid elements in the first are viewed as ‘figure’ and the space is ‘ground’. However, in the second illusion, the carved-out space appears as figure and the mass as ground. One can clearly recognize the first drawing as an image of a black vase; however, one can also identify it as two white faces turned towards each other against a black background. Though these images can be perceived separately, it is not possible to see the two profiles and the vase at the same time. The Old Arsenal Powder Magazine and Museum is a good example of a solid within a void because it appears as a dense mass surrounded by a void that is provided through the barricading walls. The solid Pentagon Barracks on page 6 create a void that is a courtyard. The photo on page 7 illustrates the solid backside of LSU’s agronomy building, and the photo on page 8 shows the front of the same solid mass with cavities and voids carved into it.

Downtown Baton Rouge, The Old Arsenal Powder Magazine and Museum (View from Capitol)

Rubin vase: alternative figure-ground relation of vase and heads

6Downtown Baton Rouge, Pentagon Barracks (View from Capitol)

7LSU Campus, Agronomy Building (Sturgis Hall)-back

8LSU Campus, Agronomy Building (Sturgis Hall)-front

textural effects

+2.7 EV +1.3 EV 0 EV -1.3 EV -2.7 EV

We continually find the tendency to hide structure in architecture, like cooking vessels of certain Indian tribes that were merely baskets lined with clay to make water-tight seals. Some building walls are covered with stucco so that only the plaster surface is visible; in others, the brick courses are uncovered and revealed. However, there are buildings that employ both techniques together to achieve effective textural contrasts. The Old Arsenal Museum, which is located on the state capital grounds and adjacent to an old Indian mound, is a good example of this. Its barricading 10 foot high walls are made of brick that are covered by plaster. Combining smooth and rough elements can create fascinating characteristics in architecture. “When wood is exposed to wind and weather, its grain patterns resemble characteristics of an old person whose wrinkled and weather-beaten face has more traits than a young face” (Rasmussen, 178). It is challenging to explain why small differences in textural appearance affect us so powerfully. You cannot give a reasoning for your different assessments, but the differences that you distinguish are real enough. Words can lead you in the right direction, but you have to experience the textural effects yourself to realize what the feeling is about. Varying color and texture can also make different areas seem heavier, lighter, smaller, larger, warmer, or cooler.

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10Downtown Baton Rouge, The Old Arsenal Powder Magazine and Museum

11Downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana State Museum

12Downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana State Museum

13Downtown Baton Rouge, Shaw Center for the Arts (looking at Hilton)

14Downtown Baton Rouge, Shaw Center for the Arts (view from Hilton)

scale and proportionScale and proportion comply with a proper, comparative relation between things or degree as to size, quantity, or number. There is no correct proportion for architecture. Rasmussen wrote, “Architecture, which often employs simple dimensions, was then as well as later frequently compared with music. It has been called frozen music. That scale and proportion play a very important role in architecture is unquestionable. But there are no visual proportions which have the same spontaneous effect on us as those which we ordinarily call harmonies and disharmonies in music” (Rasmussen, 104). Andrea Palladio, a famous Venetian architect, used sublime and simple ratios found in musical harmony. His villa, Foscari, was influenced by the lucid proportions of the ruins in Rome. Foscari is symmetrically arranged with great emphasis placed on the simple ratios 3:4, 4:4, 4:6, which are ratios found in musical harmony. These musical ratios were used for the layout and sizes of spaces and for the design of the facades. The impression of nobility is firmly integrated into the composition of the facade that reflects its interior disposition. Like Nature, simple proportions within the architecture realm of pure harmonies should be experienced in all its phases. The concept of scale in architecture is typically based upon human measurement and proportions. By manipulating scale, an architect can make a building seem imposing or intimate. “For example, tall columns that extend two stories higher than a three-story exterior wall are large in scale relative to the size of the wall. By scaling the columns so tall, the architect makes the three-story building appear more monumental than it would appear without them” (Dietsch, 17). Scale and proportion not only refers to the relative size of one element to another within a building but also to the entire building’s size in relation to its surroundings.

Hans A. Rosbach. Villa Foscari (front). 2007-07-10

Hans A. Rosbach. Villa Foscari (rear). 2007-07-10

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Baton Rouge, Old Louisiana State Capitol Building

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Baton Rouge, First Baptist Church LSU Campus, The Old Law Building

Downtown Baton Rouge, The Old Post Office Baton Rouge, The Old Governor’s Mansion

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Downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana State Capitol Building

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rhythm in architectureThe simplest method of achieving rhythm in architecture is by purely regular repetition of the same elements; for example, solid, void, solid, void. It is a rhythm that most people can understand. It is man’s way of showing orderliness. Rhythm represents a regularity and exactness that is found only in the order man seeks to concoct, not in Nature. Rasmussen wrote that “there is something mysterious about the stimulating effect of rhythm. You can explain what it is that creates rhythm, but you have to experience it yourself to know what it is like. A person listening to music experiences the rhythm as something beyond all reflection, something existing within himself. A man who moves rhythmically starts the motion himself and feels that he controls it, but very shortly, the rhythm controls him; he is possessed by it. It carries him along. Rhythmic motion gives a feeling of heightened energy” (Rasmussen, 134). Architecture has no physical movement of dimension of time; therefore, it cannot be experienced rhythmically in the same way as music and walking can. Rhythm in architecture can be as simple as a line that your eyes follow in a continuous motion. It is like the uninterrupted flow of a movie strip. Rhythm in architecture is also associated with circulation through a building. Ships and boats are designed to move swiftly through water, and buildings should keep the same concept in mind when designing for the human scale. The design of a building should be based on the movement that will flow through it. Design based on geometry does not necessarily create rhythm; if that was the case, every building would be round. Buildings should encompass the form of life to be lived in them because rhythm comes from the design for occupants. The photos that accommodate this chapter are a few examples of what I saw as rhythm in architecture.

Downtown Baton Rouge, Main Post Office

Downtown Baton Rouge, Repentance Park water runnel

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Downtown Baton Rouge, Repentance Park water runnel

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21Downtown Baton Rouge, Shaw Center for the Arts (front entrance canopy)

22Downtown Baton Rouge, Claiborne Building (N. 3rd St. steps)

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*Dietsch, Deborah K. Architecture for Dummies. Hoboken: Wile Publishing, 2002.

*Rasmussen, Steen Eiler. Experiencing Architecture. Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press, 1962.

*Rosbach, Hans A. “Villa Foscari.” Photo. Wikipedia.org 13 Aug. 2007. 12 Dec. 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Foscari>.

works cited

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*Dietsch, Deborah K. Architecture for Dummies. Hoboken: Wile Publishing, 2002.

*Rasmussen, Steen Eiler. Experiencing Architecture. Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press, 1962.

*Rosbach, Hans A. “Villa Foscari.” Photo. Wikipedia.org 13 Aug. 2007. 12 Dec. 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Foscari>.

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On my way up to Montana, my Dad and I slid off of the icy road and into a ravine; however, I was able to capture an alluring sunset while photographing the wreckage. The following photos show a preview of things to come. Hope you enjoy!

trip so far

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