The Architectural Miracles - Essay Example

1- San Juan house is located in the historic town of Quito facing a private garden. The new hall links the exterior to the interior on the old terrace. The commitment to open landscape could be identified through an endless steel girder. The horizontal design of the girder amalgamates the façade which faces the garden. The separation between the ends of the beams and the wall made of sundried mud bricks has been well designed to leave just enough space. The mobile gallery provides ample opening extending towards the garden with the room which could be selected by the user having the ability to go back to its original terrace. The heart of the house is an interior connector located in the hall. The materiality of the house could only be described as massive, timeless and substantive. The vertical design aims to benefit users from the sun. The irregular, thick perforations have been arranged in line with the interior visuals resulting in a non-obvious, primitive order. The principal actor in this house, and also on the land where it occurs, is the tectonics system where an eighteen-meter beam has been suspended, ceiling placed on structural walls and a crack dug in the ground in an effort to save steep drop. 2- A House in a Wine Road – This is an innovative house, a result of the architectural acumen of Lisbon, Portugal’s Plano B. It uses the hybrid earthen wall which combines wattle and daub, cob and rammed earth, resembling the boxed method which was employed in the momentous Briones House, California. This project reconstructs from an existing ruin with the site located in an environmental protection area. Thus, the architects had to keep the use, position and height of previous building, proposing to use previous materials, namely earth, stone and wood, to rebuild, but adopting a different design. The firm developed an intricate building skin, integrating traditional methods of construction with contemporary materials. Wood from the previous construction was used for structural framing while stones were used in laying the foundation. It is a “do-it-yourself” model where residents are greatly involved in construction works. For effective ventilation and insulation, cork boards, reinforced by polycarbonate plates combined with natural materials such as stone, wood and earth, were used to construct the exterior skin. Using industrial materials, including concrete, asphalt and polycarbonate, this project could be considered as a model for sustainable practice, upholding an acute approach to expressive architecture. It should be noted that polycarbonate is a highly durable plastic, its long life cycle beneficial for automotive and construction materials. 3- The Chapel of Reconciliation – Among the most outstanding structures in the death strip was the Chapel of Reconciliation church. Even though the government of East Germany demolished it in the early 1980s, the foundations were left standing, now ruins in the park. On this site, a chapel has been erected in commemoration of those who lost their lives escaping over the wall. Berlin architects, Rudolf Reiter Mann and Peter Sassenroth, were behind the design of the chapel. Martin Rauch, an Australian expert in building using mud bricks, took up the construction contract, building the chapel on the foundations of the destroyed Reconciliation Church sanctuary. The structure is a rammed-earth construction of an oval shape with the inner room surrounded by a portico whose frames are made of wooden slabs and allows light to penetrate through. The altar piece that was originally there did not go down with the demolitions; it is suspended above the cellar staircase of the previous church building which was excavated together with what remained of the cellar doorway, the doorway having been walled up during the time of the building of the Berlin Wall, 1961. The bells used in the older church were taken off prior to demolition. Today, the bells are suspended in front of the chapel within wooden supports. In a slot which has been caused by light sticking out over the roof covered in copper, hangs the altar piece. Upon reunification, the property of the church was taken back to the Reconciliation Parish with the condition of the property serving religious purposes only. 4- Eiteljorg Museum – Eiteljorg Museum houses permanent collections in its three major galleries. The museum has the capacity to hold about 400 bronzes and paintings and more than 2,000 artefacts. Paintings done by the nineteenth and twentieth century artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Russell, Frederic Remington and Alfred Jacob Miller are contained in the American Western Gallery. Among the most impressive artefacts form the permanent collection of objects from India, referred to as “Spirited Hands” exhibition, some are held in the Native American Gallery. Paintings from the original members of the Taos Society of Artists, including works done by Ernest Blumenschein, E. Martin Hennings and Victor Higgins, are contained in the Southwestern Gallery. This museum measures 118,000 square feet and is colored honey. It is erected within a large circular base, drawing inspiration from spaces and circular symbols of the Native Pueblo communities. The exterior of the museum is mostly made of Minnesota dolomite which is a stone whose color and texture arouses the Southwestern Pueblo feel. The base of the building is a German sandstone that is plum in color, a material that has also been used on the floor of the Grand Hall of the museum and other critical areas. In this museum, stone, rich mahogany trim and warm earth tones foster the Southwestern theme. The extensive Grand Hall has well-lit Michael and Juanita Eagle Commons. To this hall, the R. B. Annis Western Family Experience situated on the level of the canal is linked by a twisting staircase. The famous Indianapolis Totem Pole occurs at the center of this staircase. The greater portion of the museum gallery has stained oak floor. 5- The Poeh Center – This doubles up as the administrative function of the Poeh Cultural Center and the parent body of Poeh Museum and Poeh Arts, the latter being the educational initiative of the center. The Poeh Center houses the Poeh Cultural Center Executive Office led by George Rivera, the Executive Director. The center was established in 1988 by Pueblo as a means through which Pueblo artistic works would be expressed and education for the public and Native Americans would be undertaken. It was in 1993 when this collaboration was borne, during the creation and incorporation of Pojoaque Pueblo Construction Services Corporation by the Tribal Council of the Pueblo of Pojoaque with the aim of earning revenues for undertaking and supervising the construction and maintenance works at the Poeh Center. Before then, the programs of the center were offered in different places among the eight northern Pueblos, making access to the programs challenging. About six hundred artefacts with historical significance, including jewelry, pottery, paintings, sculptures and textiles dated prior to the European period to date have been collected from the locals as well as young artists from the six tribes speaking Tewa. The exhibits have numerous figurines which are dressed up in fur-bordered skins. This is significant to students undertaking the Poeh Arts in learning and adopting their culture. 6- Veteran Affairs Palo Alto – The first and only polytrauma rehabilitation center built together with a blind rehabilitation center was designed by Smith Group JJR in collaboration with the Design Partnership, the associate architect. Measuring 174,000 square feet, this stood out as the largest consolidated rehabilitation center in the system of Veteran Affairs, having the capacity of 24, 32 and 125 polytrauma, blind rehabilitation and polytrauma transitional rehabilitation beds respectively. In the center will also be outpatient occupational/physical therapy clinic, clinical programs to serve veterans back from Afghanistan and Iraq and outpatient clinic for physical medicine and rehabilitation. This center will be a replacement, consolidation and expansion of programs for inpatient polytrauma and services essential in physical medicine and rehabilitation. Throughout the facility, family spaces are spread for integrated approach to care. Other outpatient and inpatient services offered include occupational and physical therapy, gait training, speech therapy, telemedicine, cognitive therapy and training for drivers. 7- VA Brockton Spinal Cord Injury – This will offer veterans suffering from traumatic spinal-cord injuries the access to outpatient clinical services and long-term inpatient care. For a majority of the locals with an average of 285 days stay period, SCI provides a home. The concept of its design is founded on a simple idea of getting the natural world to the patients. This design leverages on the slanting topography to connect the 2 heights of the inpatient floors to the environment, landscape and the community at large. Social areas and elements of the clinical program are intertwined between green roofing network and adjoining grades. The intimate courtyard gardens promote the community serene moments for smaller groups of residents. This two-storied building has 12 unique houses on each level, each with a capacity of 12 beds, organized in the form of finger-like extensions into the landscape. The length of the facility is surrounded by a linear spine, Main Street, which connects the main lobby, programmatic elements, therapy programs, two therapy courtyards and the neighborhoods. It allows natural daylight into the building. 8- Vietnam Veterans Memorial – This is a national memorial measuring 3 acres, located in Washington, DC. It is used to honor the servicemen from the US Armed Forces who participated in the Vietnam War, those that died in in the line of duty in South East Asia and Vietnam and the ones unaccounted for during the War (Missing in Action). The construction of the facility and the related issues has raised controversies, in some cases, leading to extensions on the memorial complex. At the moment, the memorial is divided into three: the Vietnam Veterans, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial and the Three Soldiers statue. The Memorial Wall, made up of gabbro walls measuring 75.21 m long and sunk beneath the earth surface and earth mounted behind it, has the names of the honored servicemen etched in regular spacing and typeface in panels arranged in horizontal rows. Moreover, there are names of the Missing in Action, MIA servicemen at the time of constructing the walls while the names of those Killed in Action, KIA have been etched in Optima typeface. However, the engravings do not give information on the unit, rank or decorations of the servicemen. Diamond is used to denote those that died in action while crosses denote the missing, including MIAs and POWs among others. Upon confirmation of death of those that were missing, diamond would be superimposed on the crosses. If a missing veteran return, a case that had never been witnessed as of March 2009, a circular circumscription on the cross would be undertaken. The list occurs chronologically beginning from the apex of the panel 1E in the year 1959 (even though it came to be later noted that military advisors were the maiden casualties who succumbed to artillery fire in the year 1957), growing by the day on panel 70E located on the eastern wall, ending on 25 May, 1968, then going back to panel 1W apex in the year 1975. 9- Water – In New Mexico, water resource is scarce. Water has been considered as a precious and valuable commodity in communities from the early days of civilization, crucial for the survival of humans and sustaining settlements. The 19 Pueblos all occur along the region’s largest river, Rio Grande. Together with its tributaries, Rio Grande gets fed with water from Southern Colorado Mountains through New Mexico which makes it accessible by communities from Pueblo. Traditionally, the Pueblo people were great conservationists of water, building special structures like check dams and reservoirs to help in water management. Specifically, the early reservoir located near Woods Canyon Pueblo had a capacity of 40,000 gallons to 50,000 gallons of water which was attained after heavy storms. This is the capacity held by 2 family-size swimming pools. However, the reservoir could dry up during the dry periods. Because of these variations in water availability, the people living around Woods Canyon Pueblo should have had other more reliable water sources. With this regard, the springs at the bottom of the canyon near the site proved important to these people as it provided water throughout the year. 10- Acequia system - The numerous good farmlands in Pueblo were irrigated with water from River Chama with the other remaining few up the highway, all the way to Santa Fe in the east, depended on rain water. Santo Domingo farms were irrigated by water from the North River (Rio del Norte) through deep irrigation ditches. All the crucial farmlands owned by the Pueblo occur downstream, east of the river, extending the expansiveness of the plains to join the Santo Domingo pueblo. These farmlands consume all the water of River Rio Grande trough the wide and deep irrigation ditches. Acequias have been a common thread in the existence of New Mexico for a long time. The earliest ones were created by the Moors from the Middle East, with time extending in popularity as they were integrated into the culture of the Spanish. Some of the irrigation canals have their histories stretching as far back as 1400 AD, but the acequia systems grew upon the colonization of the area by the Spanish. These Spanish colonies came with new approaches for the creation and maintenance of canals together with new tools and structures of flumes, head gates and bridges among others. These emergent technologies changed the agricultural practices of Pueblo Indians. A combination of the Spanish agricultural technologies with the irrigation tradition of Pueblo resulted in acequia systems that were communal-based and put into use for centuries. Read More