EAAC 2011 at NUS

Sunday, May 29, 2011

East Asian Architectural Culture International Conference (EAAC 2011)
Date: 12-14 May 2011;

Venue: National University of Singapore

Theme: South of East Asia: Re-addressing East Asian Architecture and Urbanism

The Department of Architecture of the National University of Singapore is organizing the East Asian Architectural Culture International Conference to be held in Singapore from 12 to 14 May 2011. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘South of East Asia: Re-addressing East Asian Architecture and Urbanism’.This is the first time that Singapore, a city-state in Southeast Asia, is selected to host this international conference to promote the study of East Asian architecture and urbanism. This is a milestone as it heralds the trend of debating East Asian study beyond geographical boundaries. Moreover, it reveals the close historical ties and the shared cultures between Singapore and the other East Asian countries. The study on Chinese overseas has also presented rich evidence of the cultural diffusion from China to surrounding countries. In turn, the hybridized culture that resulted from the fusion of Chinese civilization and local traditions exercised an intriguing influence on the modern development of China. In a post-modern society that sees an increasing transnational flow of people, a comprehensive understanding of architecture and urbanism in East Asia can only be achieved through interdisciplinary research and in-depth study of cultural exchange in the region. Besides providing the conventional platform for scholars to share and exchange information from their study of architectural culture and urbanism in East Asia, the EAAC 2011 will offer an extraordinary opportunity for these topics to be re-addressed in the context of Southeast Asia with particular focus on cultural exchange in the region. Scholars and professionals from the fields of architecture (theory and practice), architectural and urban history, urban studies and other relevant disciplines are welcome to present papers related to the following four sub-themes and to participate in the poster session.

Attended EAAC 2011 conference at NUS recently, speakers and scholars from different parts of East Asian countries were participating this conference. Various titles under different subthemes were presented during the conference. It was actually a good chance to meet scholars from different parts of East Asian countries, but in my opinion , the main and sole problem for this kind of conference is the language difficulties. As scholars are mostly from korea, Japan, China , and Taiwan, which English is not their main language, attendants found that it is difficult to understand their presenation. It is really a waste, I might prefer that there are translator provided for the conference.

Sloane Robinson Building for Keble College by Rick Mather Architects

Friday, February 18, 2011

Site plan

"Rick has given us amazing spaces, huge shafts of light, glorious views, intriguing corridors, flying stairs, intimacy, boldness and restraint. Everywhere there is invention, generosity of spirit, welcome, challenge."

Section

The Sloane Robinson building is the Brick Awards Winner in year 2003. The building's main feature is the 250-seat flexible multi-purpose O'Reilly Theatre which can open out onto the garden terrace and incorporates retractable seating. A dining hall and recital room are located at street level, while upper floors contain six seminar rooms and twenty study bedrooms with magnificent views towards the Butterfield buildings and St Giles Chapel.

Floor plan

The building incorporates innovative low energy strategies, including a unique geothermal ground water heating/cooling exchange system cast into the foundations, the first of its kind in the UK. Buried pipes work to extract ground heat in winter for distribution through concrete slabs via a basement heat exchanger. In summer, the system is reversed to allow cooling. The electricity requirement of the system is around a third less than that used by conventional air-based systems.

Externally, reference is made to Butterfield's rich brickwork by the use of vertically and horizontally laid hand-made bricks that adopt a colour from Butterfield's polychromatic palette. To delineate the curved building ends the brickwork is vertically stack bonded, whereas the Blackhall Road elevation features a horizontal arrangement to complement the two inset glazed slots

All above images and info from Rick Mather Architects

more info about another award-winning project by Rick Mather in Keble College - ARCO Building : Rick Mather Architects

Fares school, Egypt by Hassan Fathy

Hassan Fathy, an Egyptian architect, was a renowed architect of building for the poor. He opened his architecture practice in Cairo, deeply involved in creating an indigenous environment using the mst minimal cost and also to improve the living standards in rural settlement area.

Hassan Fathy integrated Egypt traditional architectural and construction materials into his design, he even trained the locals to use local materials to build their own houses. He also valued the used of brick walls and courtyards for great natural ventilation.

Fares School old photo

Classrooms

Axonometric

walkways

windows bring in sunlight

Fares school, is a prototype school by Fathy, where he implant a lot of his previous ideas into the whole design. The administrative and communal areas (mosque, library and hall) each faced east and west while the classroom facing north and south with a courtyard in the middle.

"The quality and values inherent to the traditional and human response to the environment might be preserved without a loss of the advances of science. Science can be applied to various aspects of our work, while it is at the same time subordinated to philosophy, faith and spirituality." (quoted from African art and architecture)

Section

"The classrooms, like the other areas of the school, were originally intended to be naturally ventilated, due to the extreme difficulty and prohibitive cost of providing mechanical means of cooling. To achieve this, the architect divided each classroom into a square domed area and a rectilinear vaulted space next to it. The domed area was intended to be the seating for the classroom, while the rectilinear space next to it was meant to contain a salsabil, or water pool, to further cool the air coming in through the slots in the vault above. Further ventilation was also expected to be supplied by operable casement windows that were paired with a circular fixed lunette specified to provide light only. In elevation, the rows of classrooms with their alternating slotted vaults and rounded domes clearly tell the story of their intended function, even though they are now partially screened by a boundary wall which has been built to separate them from a main street running alongside. The salsabils, however, were never installed, and the entire space is now used for teaching." (quoted from archnet)

"How do we go from the architect/constructor system to the architect-owner/builder system? One man cannot build a house, but ten men can build ten houses very easily, even a hundred houses.We need a system that allows the traditional way of cooperation to work in our society. We must subject technology and science to the economy of the poor and penniless. We must add the aethetic factor because the cheaper we build the more beauty we should add to respect man."
Hassan Fathy

more info of Hassan Fathy : http://www.hassanfathy.webs.com/projects1e.html

all the above images from Archnet

Merida Museum of Roman Art by Rafael Moneo 梅里达罗马艺术博物馆

Rafael Moneo

The commision architect for the design of Merida Museum of Roman Art is Rafael Moneo, a Spanish architect . He was the laureate of Pritzker Architecture Prize of 1996 and also being awarded Royal Gold Medal by RIBA.

The citation by Architectural Association chairman Mohsen Mostafavi, describes Moneo, 67, as "the closest we have to the renaissance architect – practitioner, teacher, theorist, critic … deeply knowledgeable on the arts".

Crypt level

Ground Floor

First floor

.

The Merida Museum of Roman Art was awarded the Manuel de la Dehesa Prize for Emblematic Public Building in Spain of the Decade 1983-1993. The site where the building stands was important archeological findings site, well in front of the archeological complex of the theatre and amphitheatre. Its location become one of the main feature of the design: how to house the collections , how to allude the visitors about the ROMAN past, and how to connects different essential past together?

The plan was finished at the end of 1980 and construction started in the middle of 1981. Rafael Moneo incorporated architecture elements which represent Roman architecture into his design. The brick vaults allowed the building merge with the ancient Roman city.

The museum composed of two main sections which is separated by the Roman road and connected by the imposing walkway which cross over the archaeological remains below. One section is the museum and warehouses, while the second section housed the theatre .

The strongest and most impressive architecture feature would be the main nave with a series of parallel bays of brick vaults. The articulation of the brick vault in addition with the height given and the light manipulated into the museum, gifted a sublime ambiences to the visitors.

more information of the project: Museoarteromano

sketch section

sketch section

Axonometric

Images link: the Diagram of Everything

Introduce "Construction on the way walking in Europe" 旅途上的建筑-漫步欧洲

Just finished reading a book named "Construction on the way- walking in Europe" 《旅途上的建筑-漫步欧洲》

Would like to recommend it to readers who are interested to know about Europe architecture started from the ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Christianity, Gothic, Baroque, Rococo, England Picturesque, NeoClassicm, Modern Architecture, International Style, Bauhaus etc. This is not a history book, the writer Guo Xue Ming outlined the book using his own travel experience.

Nanjing Central Stadium 中央体育场田径场

Nanjing Central Stadium was built in 1931 by 2 China famous architects ,Guan Song Sheng and Yang Ting Bao, as the venue for the Fifth National Sports Event of the Republic China. Nanjing Central Stadium was once the biggest stadium compound in the east, composed of athletic stadium, basketball court, martial art stadium, tennis court, football stadium and racecourse with the total coverage of 1030 acres.

The Athletic Stadium is the stadium most important building, located at the end of the center axis. The stadium is equipped with 500 meter running track and 2 straight 200 meter track., football field ,basketball court and tennis court can be found in the stadium as well. At least 3/4 of the stadium is surrounded by the audience platform, under the platform were once the athletes’ dorm , bathrooms, washrooms and etc. The stadium is symmetrically planned with 2 entrance both located at the north and the south side of the stadium, enhanced by a 5.5meter in height delicately decorated arched entrance. The entrance’s elevation is decorated with Chinese traditional pattern and Wangzhu.

中央体育场建于1931年，为举行中华民国第五届全国运动会而兴建的这组体育建筑群，包括田径场，篮球场，国术场，网球，足球和跑马赛场，总占地1030亩。这是远东最大的体育建筑群，由著名建筑师，关颂声和杨廷宝负责设计。

中央体育场的田径场是整个建筑群的中心建筑，场内设500米跑圈和两条200米直道，跑圈内设标准的足球场，内北两端设篮球场，网球场。田径场有连接场的3/4的看台，看台下设运动员宿舍，浴室，厕所。北看台利用土坡，采用原土压实，上置看台，全部看台可容纳35000余人。

田径场设东西两个主入口，有三个拱形花格铁门，门高5.5米，入口为大穿堂，长15.5米，内有办公室和裁判员，记者的休息室，楼上为带大雨棚的司令台。门楼立面采用传统的装饰图案和望柱。

Travel date: 13 Nov 2010

Glossary of architecture: Voussoir

A voussoir is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, (piatra) used in building an arch.Although each unit of stone in an arch or vault is known as a voussoir, there are two specified voussoir components of an arch: the keystone and the springer.The keystone is the center stone or masonry unit at the apex of an arch, often decorated, embellished or exaggerated in size. （source: Wikipedia)

photos from http://www.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary/archivolt.htm

photos from http://www.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary/archivolt.htm

springer: The lowest voussoir on each side of an arch. It is where the vertical support for the arch terminates and the curve of the arch begins.

Volubilis Morocco

Woodstock

A voussoir 是一个楔形的元素，典型地石头，用于修造 曲拱.虽然石头每个单位在曲拱或穹顶知道作为voussoir，有曲拱的二个指定的voussoir组分： 根本原理 并且 springer. 根本原理是中心石头或石工单位在曲拱的尖顶，经常装饰，装饰或者夸大在大小。 真实的成拱形的行动不发生，直到这个单位到位。 springer是最最低的voussoir，被找出曲拱春天的曲线从墙壁的垂直的支持或abuttment或的地方 码头.

词是被借用的泥工的期限 中间英语 从隐含“轮的”法国动词(OED). 每楔形的voussoir 在旁边轮 上面大量的推力，转移它从石头到石头到最后的边缘，是水平的并且通过推力对支持。 Voussoir曲拱高效率地分布重量并且利用最大 耐压强度 石头，和在 曲拱桥梁. voussoir的外边界是 拱背.

来源：http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/zh_cn/Voussoir