larryland

There is an architectural idea we subscribe to that lets building materials be what they want to be.

Metals can be polished or left to patina but they should work to their strengths: Steel should be tensile, brass should be soft, etc

Stone can be polished or rusticated but it should bear its load or show its veneer.

Concrete should be sculpted to show off its plasticity and then finished to show the mould that formed it or trowelled until it rings to show chemical process.

Glass should be held frameless to show the strength of its thinness.

Plaster and render should be left unpainted to show their surface but also incomplete to show its application.

Materials can be of one nature where people interact with them (smooth and softened) and another where they are battling the weather.

There is something very Zen about these concepts and the struggle to achieve the balance that is required.

Australia is becoming (or perhaps always has been) a grossly over governed country.

Australia will for the foreseeable future have a water problem.

I see a simple solution.

Remove the middle layer (state).

Set up a local government based on watersheds.

The federal government deals with external affairs and national issues (health, education etc). 

The local government deals with the complexities of the locality and its residents.

I think of light in two ways: 

Direct light …..what you see when you look at the sun.

Reflected light…..what you see when you look at the landscape.

Direct light is often difficult to look at. The sun and spotlights are not retina friendly but a camp fire or a neon sign at night can make us smile.

Direct light works best at night (or when it is not competing with daylight).

Reflected light is generally more retina friendly and works night and day….from the moon to beautifully lit merchandise.

Lightfittings can use direct, reflected and sometimes both light sources.

A pendant light can provide both direct or reflected light.

Spot lights and Shoplighters need to illuminate surfaces with direct light but need to be shielded from our eyes. They need to come from the general direction of the observer or have baffles to focus them.

Good quality office fluorescent lightfittings use direct light (baffled) and reflected light.

Diffusers on lightfittings refract the light to get better coverage for the light and to minimize retinal discomfort.

Walls or ceilings can become extensions of the lightfitting by reflecting light.

For a light or a surface to appear bright it must contrast with a darker surround (we don’t see stars in the day).

Light can be used to modulate our perception of space (as with colour).

One of our favorite architectural devices is to remove all services and lights from the ceiling and then use the clean plane to be a lightfiiting itself.

You must illuminate a surface not a space (we don’t see the sun’s rays going past the earth at night) … you can fill the space with a gas or particulate to reflect the light.

Swimming pools are the best lightfittings I know…

For some reason I have always imagined space as liquid.

Contained space is like the water in a glass…..it is like a room that has one large window looking at a view….the space is contained by the walls and the view.

Spilling spaces are generally public spaces with many entrances and exits…..the space spills out in many directions.

Flowing spaces (which I guess is where the imaginings started) are directional spaces like halls that can gush or meander and have billabongs and waterfalls.

What I want to make is spaces that squirt or splash or gently ebb and flow.

I think this analogy also helps to demystify the relationship between time and space….it is like paddling down a river….it takes time….and it changes with time.

Or maybe it is just old surfer crap.

There are 3 easily discernable types of green buildings:

The cave

This is the building that uses the consistent temperature of the earth to temper the built environment.

These buildings are generally massive internally, have small windows and well insulated exteriors.

You need to take into account the embodied energy in the fabric of these buildings.

The treehouse

These buildings have large rooves for shade, adjustable and permeable walls to catch and direct the breezes.

The responsive

These innovative buildings respond to their changing environments and can be as simple as an automatic awning that moves with the sun to the bubble buildings that grow and shrink to suit requirements.

However the most common green building appearing is …

The brown 

This is a building that is heavily engineered, monitored and marketed to appear green but will soon discolour.

When you stand in public you take up the least area. This is important when you stand on the hill at the footy … you are also ready to run or sit.

Perched on a high stool, you can be comfortable in a standing crowd and ready to run.

Sitting, you feel more comfortable and your back is protecte but not so comfortable if the room is crowded. 

The older I get the more I like lounging but the harder it is to get up. Lounges need to be corralled in groups or have wide backs to be comfortable in large or crowded spaces,

Lying down in public can feel very decadent but is also very vulnerable. These bed/lounges need to be in niches or up against walls … it is obvious but you also take up the most area in this prone position. 

For many years I have lived in traditional “queensland” houses … and they are crap.

They were built to face the street so you only had a 25% chance of your house facing the desirable northeast orientation.

The verandah also faced the street (or if you were lucky another side) so again you had to be lucky to have the verandah protect you from the western sun.

The same reason means that more often then not you had to put your head out a window to see a view.

These houses were built with no insulation and single skin walls so most of the time you had 18mm of timber (generally with lots of holes in it) between you and outside. This means they have the thermal performance of a tent - hot when its hot and cold when it is cold and varying quickly in between.

The cracks in the walls meant that dust filtered easily thru the floors walls and ceiling.

Their flimsy walls and fretwork panels gave little privacy.

But I still like them.

Because their ceiling heights are generous and their rooms are well proportioned.

Because their timber structure is a detail, a complete system cleverly adapted to its environment and beautifully legible.

Because their dark interiors and ‘under the houses’ offered a retreat from the glary Queensland daylight.

Because you could read in them the references and aspiration to Georgian houses they wanted to be.

Because sometime the Queensland climate is so benign it is nice to camp.

Blueshift Architecture is dedicated to the construction of hedonism.

Not hedonistic actions themselves but making spaces that encourage pleasure.

Pleasure in work, rest and play through a comfortable environment, playful forms, choreographed journeys, humorous references and places to contemplate these notions.

All of this underlies the serviceable planning, budgeting and the process of making a building.

These (any many other concepts like them) elevate a building to architecture. 

Interstitial space is the space between two others.

It is flavour of the month (decade).

It is the verandah or the indoor/outdoor space.

It is the zone between private and public, the blurred threshold… A grey zone.

Interstitial space applies equally to our houses and our public spaces and creates an extra dimension to our architecture.

Many architects are using these spaces, and reversing internal and external finishes, to create the new type of indoor/outdoor rooms.

But there is a problem on a different level. 

Our public spaces are becoming privatised by commercial ventures and security cameras.

Our private spaces are becoming increasingly public with authorities demanding details of everything we build for the public record or legislating where rooms should be in our dwellings.

 I am beginning to worry about the creeping insidiousness of the grey zone.

PS The interstitial space idea is borrowed from engineering where interstitial spaces are used to temper the environments of those around them (such as in refrigeration).

Make a room with colour

Traditional rooms have the same colours on the walls and generally white on the ceiling.

Even if a space is not a conventional four walls and a ceiling you can make a room out of it with this colour theory.

Let the building fabric colour the room

Careful selection of building finishes and linings can enable you to let the materials colour the room.

Sculpt space and form with colour

Colour can be used modulate space or form.

Elements of architecture can be contrasted with those beside them through colour choice.

These ideas and many others like them are not so obvious on architectural plans and often comes as a surprise to the uninitiated at the end of construction. They can also be used to transform an existing space … with a lick of paint.