Project 2: Mies Van Der Rohe and the open space

Norwegian National Opera-ballet

Glass house interior - interplay of heavy glazing

Farnsworth House

Barcelona Pavilion - Interior

Barcelona Pavilion - Exterior

Project 2: Louis Kahn and light

Light beaming through the room can emphasise the ambiance of the room.

An opening in the roof can ignite the ceiling.

The power an opening has on a pitch black wall.

Reflective light on fixtures within the ceiling can cast shadows that will embrace the room.

Openings can be in any form to give out light.

Project 2: Preliminary Model 1

I began about thinking the way light can bounce off walls and provide the ambiance of the room. This room embeds my narrative:

"Luminous shelter for an exhausted triathlete, determined on a new challenge."

Where the platform with the steps highlights her private space. Perhaps her bed, a place where she rests from all her hard work. This private space, yet dark on the inside, glows on the out - like a solar eclipse - like the woman in the painting. The layering of roofs provide different light work on the interior, it reflects the weight of the place, light. This was expressed in the painting, where the sill of the window had many layering's of sill - that were rather exposed due to the absence of a curtain. I imagine the space to be quite open. I didn't build the other walls in order to look into the room, but I envision a solid wall on one side (passage into other rooms) and a glazing wall the other. A sensation of public versus private space. The glazing though will not be overly exposed, but contain panels or walls that can be moved in order to block out light when needed. The ceiling above the elevated panel contains an extruded panel that absorbs the light and reflects it in a ecliptic way.
The space is generally intended to "rest". Sometimes after a hard day of exercises all you want to do is "rest", a place of privacy and and yet a place of exposure.

Project 2: Week 2 Attempt

Louis Kahn was another interesting architect that intrigued me. More so, Kahn's ability to manipulate light within rooms. Moving panels and the ricocheting light off walls. In a way, light through the room can create beautiful architecture, which is a concept I want to explore into this design. Something Hoppers image "Summer Sun" strives for.

Mies Van Der Rohe is one of the architects I strongly admire for his structural applications. Looking into few of his selected works and his own inspirations, I noticed his obsession with glazing and open spaces. Architecture that is light in appearance and open in ambiance. Prime Example was his floating roofs, as seen through the "Barcelona Pavilion".

Explorations of room layouts, inspirations and potential materiality.

This page brought me to more brainstorming about the narrative of the painting through the different concepts Hopper conveys in his artwork. After more thought, I've reached a yet NEW narrative:
"Luminous shelter for an exhausted Triathlete, determined on a new challenge".

Exploring the Poche side of the image - the way a dark room is heavily lit up by a small opening (door or window).

These images show a general relationship between different type of walls and the different openings. Each highlighting shadow and light work of the room. The bottom sketch represents the contrast between public and private place - light and dark respectively. This is conveyed through Hoppers painting where the woman has the ambiance of darkness (inner self) within a brightly lit up room (outer self).

Brainstorming some keywords and the play on light within a room.

Perhaps a bunker is still a bit eerie and needs more positive ambiance feel in the room, after all, the room is highly lit up by the morning sun. I proceeded with a lookout/tower option discovering room layout, geometry and some light movement.

Following my first stab at the narrative I realised that such words lead me to very depressing architecture, not that it's a bad thing, but soon found out that depressing themes are hard to come up with ideas for. Maybe the woman is not disturbed at all and just needs to find her inner-peace. Creating a bunker or an underground shelter (within a cliff) may perhaps become a better solution..... it didn't.

-Which brought me to my second attempt at the narrative:
"An isolated shelter for a hopelessly lonely model." <<< Model was brought in due to her physique. An ideally shaped body and a make-up painted face.

The initial idea derived from the picture's surrounding; an eerie, semi-dark feel of the room. Applying different light movements and shading developed into a balance of contrast, similarly to the painting. The cube symbolises her room, while the spiral symbolised her misery and failure.

-Which brought me to my first attempt at the narrative:

"A remote lookout for a hopelessly [disturbed] lonely woman." <<< (disturbed later changed to hopeless due to its uncomfortable feel).

Project 2: Potential Site 1 - Cockatoo Island

My choice for Cockatoo Island (located to the NW of Sydney CBD) was primarily due to its industrial appearance. The motif of the crane, reaching into the sky, powerful and stable, signifies hope and opportunity - similarly to the "Morning Sun" picture by Edward Hopper. In the distance of the painting, we observe buildings in shape of factories (personal opinion), Cockatoo Island conveys a run-down derelict site with a potential to blossom. Despite its rugged appearance on the outside, the site is beautiful in both, topography and stability whilst being centered on a river - corresponding to the figure on the bed in the "morning sun".

Project 2: The Painting - Morning Sun

Morning Sun (1952) - A powerful image of a woman staring into the sun with a defenceless impression. The expression on her face, like a mask, could suggest her loneliness and hopelessness, or determination and power. Yet her body language does suggest her weakness; a resting/exhausted position or perhaps a fearful grasp of her body. The ambiance of the room perhaps suggests hope; "morning" initiating a new start, the lit up room for guidance, as well as an over sized window to indicate opportunity (window of opportunity), whilst the expression on her face contradicts. Centering in her bed like a focal point draws the focus of her mind - the determination. A fit, beautiful, healthy looking figure generally possesses more chances in life and a better composition.

The picture above (Office in a small city 1953) depicts a man looking through the window, yet not concentrating at anything beyond the interior - a realm of experience has been closed off to him a sense of alienation and loss. The image on the right (Morning in a City 1944) also conveys a loss in thought as the woman stares at the corner of the room and not at the window. A vulnerable stance in a dark gloomy room contoured by light, unlike the hope seeking imagery of "Morning Sun" as the woman stares into the light - a fearless exposed mindset, rather then a weak gesture in the dark.

Project 2: The Artist - Who is Edward Hopper

Born in 1882 and living in New York from 1908 with his wife Jo, Hopper became one of the most respected artist for his engaging relationship with interior space and light as well as the polarity between Nature and Civilization.

Hopper's paintings tend not to offer us extensive panoramas: rather they limit the view - a substitution on an interior space seeing through a window, or window prospects limited by houses or other icons of the civilized world, for an unrestricted view of nature.

The motif of windows in many of his paintings not only register loss but also provide a visual transcript of scrutiny of the inner self - a scrutiny which induces us to examine ourselves.

In my opinion, the depression is emphasised within different parts of his artwork, whether its the light, the room, or the expression on the face itself perhaps conveys a different side. A new beginning, a fresh start, a motif that can justify that sorrow and remorse will not bring the end of it all, and no matter how hard things can become on different circumstances, there is always hope that each and one of us must strive for.

"if you can say it in words there would be no reason to paint" - Edward Hopper.


Rolf Gunter Renner, Edward Hopper, 1882-1967: Transformation of the Real, Taschen, 2000

Project 1 - Group Model - Villa Muller