Walmart (Tuscarawas) Canton
Image courtesy of Nicholas Eckhart via Flickr
Architecturally, the main difference between the shops in lesson seven and what we're looking at today is scale.
Bigger
The trend in retail seems to be to get bigger and bigger. Big box stores are set back from big roads with big parking lots to house the vehicles that can haul away mountains of purchases.
Uninterrupted Interiors
Super Kmart Center in Cambridge, Ohio
Image courtesy of Nicholas Eckhart via Flickr
The most important concern for these stores is to have a large interior space uninterrupted by walls. This means an enormous yet lightweight roof and a field of smallish columns camouflaged within the shelving.
Lack of Windows
Less important is the traditional method of advertising: the shop window. These stores do not use windows almost at all, whether for advertisement, lighting or views out. In fact, they use the lure of their signage to get you inside and hope you forget about leaving for a long time!
Whole Foods Market, Washington D.C.
Image courtesy of Elvert Barnes via Flickr
There are a some exceptions, of course. I particularly notice them in the high-end or organic groceries, which may prefer to elicit associations with markets more than big box stores.
Unforeseen Consequences
On the exterior, a lack of windows can create areas where there are no natural sightlines and pedestrian security can be compromised at the perimeter, so don't be wandering around the backside of your neighborhood Walmart.
Historic Railpark Museum in Bowling Green, KY
Image courtesy of koningDesign Flickr
Side Note: Most large buildings make an effort to appeal to sidewalk traffic, or at least provide something interesting to look at. Windows & doors are best, but landscaping works, and there are a variety of architectural details that can enrich the pedestrian experience.
Homework #009
Visit a commercial building. Notice some of the elements mentioned above. No need to report back on this one, unless you note something remarkable!
This Week's Q&A #009
Kathy: "Why do big box buildings have no design?" Ally: See the answer above. :) Cheers! -ally
Public buildings are government buildings (federal, state, county, municipal) that are open to the public to some degree. For example, your state capitol is a public building, but the Pentagon is not. Public buildings can also be privately owned buildings that are open to the public freely or with a fee, like museums, concert halls, stadiums, etc. Regardless of who owns them, public buildings may be for assembly (theaters or churches), they might contain offices (city halls), hold collections (libraries), or perform a service (DMV or post office).
What Do Public Buildings Have in Common?
With all these different building groups, what are the elements that most Public Buildings have in common?
Trinity Cathedral, Manhattan
Image courtesy of rufus.ovcwavia Flickr
Access
As mentioned above, public buildings must be open to and for the people. And this should be very obvious architecturally. The main doors should be plainly visible, even if portions of a building are private with secure entrances. Entry areas are typically visible from far away, especially since you need to know which side of a large building to head for. Public buildings (unlike secure government buildings) rarely have fencing or walls about them; nor do they have easily defensible enclosures. They are meant to be welcoming.
Size
Most public buildings are significantly larger* than the surrounding buildings. They are meant to leave a memorable impression on those who see them. They are usually landmarks that help with navigating a town or city. The might have tall towers or enormous domes. However, in cities with high-rises they might have to stand out in ways other than height. One of the ways they can do this is being set off by open space or significant setback from the street. *Exceptions are usually older buildings around whom larger buildings were built like Trinity Cathedral, pictured on the right.
Open Space
Metropolitan Museum of Art (on the left), New York City
Image courtesy of one2c900d via Flickr
Notice how the building is set back from the street.
Open space is just an area that is not filled in with building. It might be a park or a paved plaza... strictly speaking, it is also a street. Large public buildings would be pretty difficult to view from right next to them. Picture standing right next to the base of a tree and trying to admire or identify the characteristics of the tree. You'd need a bit of distance to appreciate its overall presence, and it is the same with buildings. Note: some buildings, like those up on a hill, can be viewed from a significant distance, but that's a different thing entirely: that's almost like signage, "come this way to worship at the Temple of Athena--you're almost here!"
Acropolis at Athens
Image courtesy of taver via Flickr
Design
Almost all public buildings will have had an architect design them. This means that at the very least, their design was not accidental. In the world there is a a lot of accidental design that is the result of few choices, minimal budgets, zoning regulations & building code, leftover materials, and poor workmanship. For public buildings, of course there are budgets and regulations, but these are carefully managed during the design process. You can be assured that public buildings look like what they were meant to look like. Many government buildings will look solid, like they've been there a long time, and even intimidating in a you-don't-want-to-mess-with-us sort of way.
Legislative Assembly in Chandigarh, India by Le Corbusier
Image courtesy of robespiero via Flickr
They may even be unwelcoming if they are more interested in security, like the new federal courthouse here in Salt Lake City. You don't want to have to go in there unless you work there. Banks will often have a similar impression of security & trustworthiness. Some public buildings will assert wealth and ancientness (sometimes trying to look like Greek temples, for example), while others will imply modernity or thrift.
Symphony halls and other assembly spaces are often very welcoming, almost as if their forecourts (required to allow all those people to get out in a hurry during emergency) were lined with large open arms to embrace, like at St. Peter's in Rome.
Homework #008
Visit a public building! Take note:
Is the public access highly visible? Could its forecourt be called "welcoming?"
How does its size relate to the other buildings nearby?
Is there enough open space to view the building and to set it apart?
What is its design trying to communicate?
Sydney Opera House
Image courtesy of Rob & Jules via Flickr
Report back!
This Week's Q&A #008
Clarissa: What's the deal with the Sydney opera house? And why can't all houses have that roof?
Ally: Wikipedia has a really nice article about the opera house here.
Sydney Opera House from above
Image courtesy of Rob & Jules via Flickr
Start with that.
The Roof
The curved concrete panels are supported by precast concrete ribs and finished with tile. The overall effect is fairly crustacean. You may have noticed from the article that it took six years for the team to find an affordable shape. (As I mentioned above, even public buildings have budgets!)
Sydney Opera House in the skyline at night
Image courtesy of Linh_rOm via Flickr
One of the most important aspects of a hall of this type is acoustics, and it would seem that the roof shape would have a significant impact on them. As completed (very different from the original design), the acoustics have remain troubled, even being dangerous for the musicians' hearing.
Success or Failure?
The project was ten years late and 14x overbudget. Wow. Both a source and a result of so much turnover in the team. Still, it is THE icon of the Sydney skyline, and will be there for the foreseeable future. Success or Failure, do you think?
As you can tell, precast* beams and panels are not an inexpensive way to go. It was state of the art in the 1950s. Each element must be computer modeled and manufactured, then transferred to the site. *precast merely means that the pieces are manufactured in a factory, not poured onsite. While I did not find many examples of curved precast roofs in homes, here are a few:
One of the most basic urban building types is the shop on the street with living space above. It's worked for restaurants, hardware stores, neighborhood markets, tailors, milliners, cobblers & dressmakers, jewelry stores, really all sorts of shops.
"the mercantile" (urban/Main street)
Image courtesy of bradleygee via Flickr
It's a great arrangement that makes for a very short commute, only one mortgage/lease payment, and increases the level of watchfulness over the shop when it is closed. When it doesn't work as well (but is still attempted):
the shop is too noisy/stinky for residential proximity, like a printing press or a butcher
the shop requires too much space for expensive real estate, like a carpentry storefront
Mercantiles are the general store version of the same thing, just not squished next to other specialty shops on a street. Rural mercantiles were somewhat isolated, early department stores that tried to carry everything a person might need. Sears' & Walmart's ancestor, I suppose. The buildings would be quite different (urban vs. rural), but the purpose was the same: sell stuff and live very close.
Japanese Restaurant in Koreatown, NYC
Image courtesy of Jeffreyvia Flickr
"Warren Mews"
Typical London mews
Image courtesy of garryknight via Flickr
First of all, what's a mew? (No, silly, not a "mew," a "mews," not related to "mewling.") Although the word's etymology is pretty insane, the simple answer is that mews are based on the typology of some old London carriage houses (with living above) that front on narrow streets & alleys. Since the large carriage doors lend themselves to providing an open-air shop, many mews are a small-scale, urban version of what we're already talking about: shop below, living above.
Restaurants
Strictly speaking, restaurants are shops, they're just a unique subset. Architecturally, the main difference is the inclusion of a kitchen, food waste removal, and restrooms.
The Mews, Shanklin, Isle of Wight, with craft shops
Image courtesy of garryknight via Flickr
In many ways they are like other types of shops:
they need a location for deliveries
their showroom is in the form of tables and seats
their merchandise is prepared food
they may have sidewalk cafe seating, but many markets and shops also use the sidewalk space for displaying items for sale
The difference between a "commercial" building & a shop (according to me)
"Barnes & Noble - Valley View Mall"
Image courtesy of MikeKalasnikvia Flickr
I'll never forget the first Barnes & Noble bookstore with a cafe I went to in the early 1990's. I had just returned from Italy, and was so enamored with the bookstore/coffee shop marriage that I wanted to go back and open an English language bookstore in Florence. I loved the idea of a destination where you might spend an entire morning, afternoon or evening, where loitering was welcome. Like a library where food & conversation were allowed. Pretty much heaven. Of course, Barnes & Noble is very suburban in scale. It's big and "big box"-y and everything that the "shop around the corner" is not. It also makes more money, so it wins (sadly, in my book). As a "big box," it fits better in a discussion of larger scale commercial buildings (lesson #009) than in one of shops.
The Shop Around the Corner from You've Got Mail
Cheers, ally
Homework
Homework #007: Visit a small shop or restaurant. During your visit, notice stuff like... 1. circulation patterns (where you have to walk to get where you need to go):
is the wayfinding clear? (is it obvious which way you need to go, or are signs required?)
is there enough room to pass, or are you squished?
is there enough room for the owners/employees to do their job without making you move or being in your personal space?
alternately, is there too much space so that the shop is unwelcoming (some high-end boutiques can be this way)?
can you get to accessory spaces like restrooms, dressing rooms?
2. lighting:
is the space daylit or artificially lit or both?
if "both," which parts of the shop/restaurant are more pleasant to be in?
did you know that certain types of lighting successfully encourage a customer to buy?
3. merchandise displays:
what is prominently displayed? Is it the big ticket item or is it the clearance item?
once they've got you inside, how are they still advertising to you? Is it more subtle?
Report back. You know the drill.
birds taking advantage of a garbage collectors' strike.
Image courtesy of moon angel via Flickr
This Week's Q's& A #007
I'm asking the questions this week, and as April 15 is Tuesday, I'm thinking taxation:
Big Red Barn
Image courtesy of Bruce Guenter via Flickr
Agricultural Buildings
Quick, what's the first thing you thought of? A red barn, right? Yeah, me too. And there's a few reasons why: they're bright red, and they're the most prominent building on a farm. It's the number one advertisement a farmer has for his prosperity.
Building Groups, Barns, Silos & Stables
Houghton Hall - Stable Square
Image courtesy of ell brown via Flickr
I've always been more fascinated with building groups than single buildings.
1. Maybe you start with a BARN: invite people for miles around to your barn raising so it goes up quickly and you have some shelter for the night. You can sleep in the loft while you build a one-room or two-room house, and your animals will be safe from predators on the dirt floor.
2. Next will likely be a small starter HOME which you can add to later if you need more room. Be sure to plant some grass to deter wind erosion if necessary. Surround your buildings with some nice trees that will protect you from the wind out on the countryside. Check out these haunting farmhouse photos from the midwest.
Wallonie Farm courtyard, Belgium
Image courtesy of Simon Blackley via Flickr
3. As you become established and have larger harvests, you might need an open shelter or storage shed for your hay (basically a barn with no sides), a silo for your grain, or an additional barn. Alternately, you might relocate your animals to a more secure stable and retain your barn for equipment and harvest.
Proximity
You would likely build all of these in the protected area near or even connected to your original barn and home.
Viljandi Castle in Medieval times
A. Tuulse: "Die Burgen in Estland und Lettland"
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Close proximity means that predators, thieves, sick animals, or fires would wake you up before too much damage was done. Your buildings would all have equal access to amenities like a water well, and wind protection. And together they would likely form a secure courtyard where children can play and chickens can peck.
Take this example to its extreme and you have a castle community within a gate.
Another option is to plan the courtyard from the beginning like a hacienda. Notice the tendency to turn water wells into fountains in a hacienda courtyard.
Traditionally, farmers have been more interested in
Oak Alley Plantation, Vacherie, Louisiana
I grew up a half hour from here; I've never been inside.
Image courtesy ofPrayitno via Flickr
announcing their success with prominent barns and silos than in having impressive houses, though I'd have to say that some Texas farmhouses are pretty elaborate.
The exception to this would be plantations, where the colonial owner/overseer lived in a nice home while the actual farming was generally done by a "lower" class of people, often natives or imported slaves. The crops were grown on a large scale for sale on the commercial market and not generally for local use.
Do you wanna go to Norway?
barn at the Norwegian Folk Museum
Image courtesy of shannonkringen via Flickr
Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo. I wanna go so badly, but I don't think my little ones will prefer it over Disney. :(
Have any of you ever been to Norway? This museum is an open air collection of vernacular buildings collected (relocated from their original location) into an architectural exhibit.
Click thru for the Norwegian Farmstead exhibit. By the way, did you notice all the cool Norwegian architecture and textiles in Frozen?
Becher Photography & Agri-Industry
The first collection of architectural photographs to really intrigue me was in an old German book with the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, a fabulous husband-and-wife photography team who documented industrial structures from 1959 to 2007.
As an aside, they were very interested in the question of typology (building types), just like us! They usually grouped the images together by type onto a large poster.
Homework
Homework #006 Visit an agricultural building
Greenhouse at the National Botanic Garden of Belgium at Meise
Another beautiful image by Simon Blackley via Flickr
With each new building type we talk about, your assignment will be to visit an example and report back on your experience. The building types we will be looking at are listed at the top of the post.
Feel free to do them out of order if you happen to be near something cool... and be sure to let me know if there's a building type that I left out that you are super interested in.
Gabriel: "Were the people who built the Lord of the Rings movie set "Bag End" inspired by a certain style of architecture?"
Ally: While I can't comment on someone else's inspiration, I can definitely point to some traditional examples of homes that may have influenced artwork for the Lord of the Rings books and recent films.
Contemporary Illustrations
If you recall, Bag End is described like this:
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
When I read the book as a child, I pictured a hobbit hole with an entrance like a mole hill and a hidden home beneath. Most of the artwork surrounding the stories have included a round, vertical entrance door which only references the idea of a hole. Check out some of the images here. And Tolkien's own illustration here.
You can tell that the movie set, while super cool, was heavily indebted to earlier artwork for source material.
Turf Houses & Green Roofs
Turf houses -- traditional houses that are built partially into the ground with sod/grass for insulation & roofing -- are not uncommon in Iceland, Scotland and parts of Scandinavia. (click links for pics)
Turf Houses, Iceland
Image courtesy of brian.gratwicke via Flickr
Being partially UNDERGROUND, they benefit from the ground temperatures (typically 55deg year-round) during extreme temperatures.
Modern buildings built partially underground are often called earth sheltered homes or earthships (though the second term is a proprietary label).
The modern version of a turf roof is called a "green roof," and is highly engineered to deter infiltration of dirt and/or moisture through the turf. Green roofs can be very helpful in urban areas by reducing heat islands effect, cleaning polluted air, and alleviating storm drain loads.
Shire house repurposed as a sheep house from inhabitat
When soil is used in addition to plants, there is the added benefit of insulation. Traditionally, there have been very few materials available for insulation other than the thermal mass* of thick masonry walls, which only really helps slow down the temperature changes rather than reducing them.
*This is the most helpful in places where it is hot during the day and cool at night, like the desert.
I've been gathering some images of vernacular buildings on Pinterest; many of them have a relationship aesthetically to Bag End, and they will have predated the Hobbit, which was published in 1937. (The Lord of the Rings trilogy was written later, mostly during World War II.)
