Works of Architects

Tadao Ando
 Tadao Ando – Design Philosophy
• Geometric purity of form and space, intersect together making a
statement.

• Architecture is mono systemic - A single idea is wrapped inside the core,

veiled and shrouded by the outside forms.

• Use of exposed concrete, glass and steel.

• Use of monotone colors, allowing the material to express itself.

• Light is allowed to express its own form, unhindered by obstacles,

reflections or shallow artificial highlights.

• No irrelevant ornaments or embellishments to distract the eye of the

inhabitant. Stripped to the bare essentials of shape and volume.
Church on water
Azuma House – Row House
Azuma House – Row House
Geoffrey Bawa
 Contemporary Vernacular

• The diminishing influence of the tropical modernist idiom during the

1980s can be linked to three factors:

• The disenchantment with modernism due to the rise of

postmodernism in western architectural discourse

• The rejection of modernism as an expression of socialist pragmatism

(and communist ideology), and

• The reaction against utopian projects as vehicles for social

engineering associated with the post-war nation-state.
 Contemporary Vernacular

•Bawa’s revival of the local vernacular attracted many associations

•it resembled the cultural artefacts of the precolonial
past and was hailed as a patriotic gesture.
•it drew from the colonial vernacular, particularly the island’s
own Portuguese tradition and other, Indian, Italian and Spanish vernaculars,
reflecting a truly post-modern approach.
•In contrast with the socialist modernism or ethno-centric expressions of the
nation-state the simplicity of the vernacular tradition, its climatic sensitivity,
rural roots and place-based construction practices, seemed the
most appropriate repository of everyday Sri Lankan architectural
expression.
•the vernacular was the most democratic expression of the new nation.
Madurai Heritage – Club House
Architects office at 2, Alfred House road. 1963
Carmen-Gunesekera-House-Colombo-1958
Kandalama Hotel,Sigiriya

Kathiresan.M # Theory of Architecture - 2

•Colombo’s elites were nostalgic for
pre-colonial walawwas: sprawling
residences comprised of courtyards
and verandahs, where their ancestors
had lived as village headmen.

•British plantation bungalows had

also borrowed from these forms
and developed a leisurely lifestyle
modeled on feudal practices

Bawa, Ena de Silva House

(Source: Author, based on
drawings in Taylor, 1986).
Daniel Libeskind
Imperial War Museum, Manchester, UK
Kathiresan.M # Theory of Architecture - 2
Jewish Museum, Berlin.
 Metabolism name

• Whilst discussing the organic nature of Kikutake's theoretical Marine City

project, Kawazoe used the Japanese word shinchintaisha as being
symbolic of the essential exchange of materials and energy between
organisms and the exterior world (literally metabolism in a biological
sense.) The Japanese meaning of the word has a feeling of replacement of
the old with the new and the group further interpreted this to be
equivalent to the continuous renewal and organic growth of the city. As
the conference was to be a world conference, Kawazoe felt that they
should use a more universal word and Kikutake looked up the definition
of shinchintaisha in his Japanese-English dictionary. The translation he
found was the word Metabolism.
 Metabolism Manifesto(Architecture)

Metabolism is the name of the group, in which each member proposes

further designs of our coming world through his concrete designs and
illustrations. We regard human society as a vital process - a continuous
development from atom to nebula. The reason why we use such a biological
word, metabolism, is that we believe design and technology should be a
denotation of human society. We are not going to accept metabolism as a
natural process, but try to encourage active metabolic development of our
society through our proposals.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
 Design Philosophy

• Mies was the architect of the context, seeking always to fit buildings and
volumes in the line of landscape, without destroying, without creating
any discordant tensions.

• Erects buildings of absolute modernity which contrast with those around,

without violence or clash but rather as a dialogue, a transition, a history.

• His works are imbued with great clarity, clarity of lines and clarity of light.

• The exterior is always an extension of the Interior and walls are not a limit
but an opening.

• Mies is extremely aware of the landscape.

 Design Philosophy

• He hates ornamental overload

• Materials are selected and

worked with the greatest care;
perfect finishes, although less
visible at first sight, give the
feeling of completed work.

• Thoroughness of geometry -
but not rigidity, harmony of
proportions, precision, play of
reflections and light
characterize his architecture.
 Farnsworth House

• In 1945 he begins a private order,

the Farnsworth House.

• Located in the countryside, on

the banks of the Fox River, to be
a kind of retreat house, it entirely
marries the nature surrounding,
and seems suspended in time.

• Light, very impressive under any

point of view, without any walls
of separation between the
various living spaces, you can
admire the perfection of every
detail and finishes - "God, said,
lies in the details”
Federal Center
•It is a complex of 3 buildings designed by
Mies – the mid-rise Everett McKinley
Dirksen building (30 stories), the high-rise
John C. Kluczynski building (42 stories)and
the single-story post office building.

Federal Center, Chicago. 1964-74

 Seagram Building
•It is a 38 storied building

Seagram Building, NY . 1958

Seagram Building

Seagram Building, NY . 1958

Crown hall, IIT, Illinoise
Crown hall, IIT, Illinoise