Materials and Methods
Woodbury University ARCH 243 Fall 2018 Instructor: Joshua Stein
Each major material — wood, masonry, steel, concrete and glass — is placed within a fundamental context of physical properties, historical evolution, structural behavior, sustainable design, contemporary methods of construction and detailing, building envelope systems, and new and future products. Their influence on design with respect to durability, building cost, life cycle cost, and scheduling is evaluated.
Project 1
examines material performance in the context of a selected building. Teams will analyze the design, development, detailing, fabrication and construction of their precedent with a specific emphasis on issues of reflexivity and refinement, inherent to the design process, while addressing the question: as a design concept moves toward a built reality, what are the adaptations, transformations, optimizations, and compromises that necessarily occur?
Project 2
will examine 3-dimensional visualization techniques as they relate to the building construction details. Several details from Project 1 will be chosen from the precedent, and individually constructed as a composite axonometric drawing based on three of those details. Each group member will be designing an integrated 3-dimensional version of a set of details taken from the building precedent, with an understanding of the source details and their relationship to each other. The most compelling design, will become the guiding plan for the group construct of Project 3.
Project 3
will examine material fabrication techniques in the context of building details. Teams will construct a full-scale version of the axonometrics from project 2. In this assignment, groups will be fabricating a 3-dimensional version of composite details taken from their chosen building precedent, utilizing materials and methods that replicate the source details as closely as possible.
This project was based on Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, California, which was then redesigned with parts of the house we were interested in the most. This model’s main focus was to attract the most attention to the metal louvers, which are shown in the second floor of the actual building. Many prefabricated materials were used during the construction of the house, such as steel and aluminum framing, because of the need for quick and more housing after World War II. Therefore, the aesthetic of our model was based on the simplicity yet complexity, of Neutra’s design, as well as the horizontal aspects of the Kaufmann House. Our construct can be considered sustainable, since sealers are applied to the exterior plywood, as well as anti-corrosion coating on the steel tubes and louvers. In addition, our project made sure to incorporate special meanings that Neutra included in his design. For instance, Neutra used basic materials such as steel, glass, wood, etc., but also kept a similar color pallet to the surrounding dessert, so we made sure to do the same. Furthermore, rods were welded to the top and bottom of the steel louvers, in order to make them operable, just as the Kaufmann house’s. Through representing Neutra’s Kaufmann House together, our group was able to understand how buildings come to life, and how important it is to know materials and how they perform.
