07 - Le Corbusier
Maison Cook | Boulogne sur Seine, France
This analytical drawing of the Maison Cook showcases the house's symmetrical logic and Corbusier's respect for the line of symmetry through his establishment of the central pilotis. By cutting the structure in haft, the drawing analyzes the volumetric treatment of each symmetrical side. The emphasis on the house as a tour de force is further illustrated in the gridding system which orders the centrally aligned pilotis. This drawing argues that the house can stand without the pilotis and rely on its exterior party walls.
03 - Michelangelo
Ricetto of the Laurentian Library | Florence, Italy
Michelangelo’s manipulation of sight and forced perspective through scale and shaping of the elements of the staircase is really specific to Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library. From the image materials of his multiple iterations for the space I get a sense of manipulation of perspective similar to M C Escher’s infinity stair. However, Michelangelo carefully puts a relation between the planar outline of the stair and the perspective lines as if it merges in a point perspective that is outside the border of the room. The railings ornaments in the beginning become smaller as they progress and each step becomes smaller as the stair progress. This forced perspective method is best shown in the plan and best disguised in the elevation of the front perspective. I also believe that the extrusion of the square outline of the room further helps disguise and develop the effect of the forced perspective of the staircase. Therefore, the staircase located in a compact square space works to elongate the tight space almost forming a transition space between the vestibule and the library. Accentuating the procession and making the façade and opening at the end of the stair look much further and grander than they are.
04 - Palladio
Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore | Venice, Italy
Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore | Venice, Italy
Starting from a reading of the elevations, one can start to distinguish the dissimilarities of the two structures. Rendentore is elongated vertically and compressed horizontally, while San Giorgio Maggiore is elongated horizontally, almost stretched in a sense, and compressed in a stratified manner. Translating the reading from elevation to plan. It becomes clearer that the elongation and compression logic of the respective elevations is read through the plan as well. In Redentore, horizontal compression is translated by having a central force or energy in the central nave. The side aisles become pockets of rest or poche that are carved to delineate off-side spaces. The transept is discontinued from the side aisles and further reinforces the central nave’s energy. San Maggiore’s horizontal elongation and vertical stratification are then translated into a much wider plan with a processional continuity and no separation between spaces. Central nave and side aisles all provide flexibility in the procession. The transept is then also enlarged to include the central naïve and the side aisle’s respective axis of precession.
05 - Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola
Villa Guilia | Rome, Italy
Looking at the plan and section of Villa Giulia, it seems that Vignola makes use of a central axis of gaze that is underlined with different axes of precession. The open complex follows an indirect part-to-whole relationship. Similar to Serlio’s method of breaking the appeared symmetry. Vignola uses a method that we can categorize as identical reproductions. Thinking about the Villa as a complex of 2 superimposed structures that are identical in appearance but different in detailing. The 1st part, above the ground, is a scaled-up version of the second part, which is sunk in the ground, and seems to appropriate similar formal relationships but different spatial ones. The underlying geometry in one part becomes a primary geometrical frame of space in the other (and vice versa). The idea of the frame of space pivoting between being a primary geometry in one space and an underlying geometry in the other seems to be very important in Vignola’s Villa Giulia.
01 - Leon Batista Alberti
Tempio Malatestiano | Rimini, Italy
Alberti’s Facade additions to the Gothic church are a clear embodiment of the architect’s maitrise of proportions and scale, through his use of an opposite relationship between the existing and the additions. L.B Alberti understands the placement of his designs about the overall church; interior facades and exterior facades. In his design, he uses an almost mirrored/flipped relationship to model the different types of facades. His interest in geometric reasoning and turn to Roman Classical Architecture can be most understood through his theory on Beauty and treatment. His logical use of the triumphal arch rhythm reflects his control of the perspective, with his use of engaged columns, elevation changes, and entablatures. This inverse relationship between Alberti’s (Roman Classical) addition and the existing Gothic church, one may argue, is achieved through using a versus logic.
FORMAL ANALYSIS
YSOA | Peter Eisenman | TF: Scott Simpson & Sam Golini | 2020-2021
This course studies the object of architecture—canonical buildings in the history of architecture—not through the lens of reaction and nostalgia but through a filter of contemporary thought. The emphasis is on learning how to see and think architecture by a method that can be loosely called “formal analysis.” The analyses move through history and conclude with examples of high modernism and postmodernism.
08 - Le Corbusier
Cite de Refuge | Paris, France
The drawing analyzes the structural order of the Salvation Army. Thinking about this project as an outcome of site conditions that direct the order of the pilotis and the volumes composing the building. By analyzing the reasoning of the columnar order based on the site lines, this drawing detaches the site boundary lines. These detached lines compose themselves on the axis of movement inside the structure. From here, we get two sets of perpendicular lines, each set is in relation to the site boundaries, and each set orders the directionality of columns in the ground floor plan.
9- Aldo Rossi
Elementary School | Fagnano Olona, Italy
The structure has a proportional relationship, which creates balance and a proportional relationship through the building's symmetry between elements in the plan. This analysis showcases Rossi’s treatment of this as a master plan by looking at the spatial arrangement of the complex. The treatment of the interior and exterior spaces. I argue that the tempietto-like central library defines the organizational module of the interior and exterior parts. This module is presented as a whole, haft, and third; the composition of these modules highlights the building's proportionality.
10 - Robert Venturi
Vanna Venturi House | Philadelphia, USA
The original impression from looking at this house relates to the Las Vegas and Hollywood set facades. This drawing puts emphasis on the front and back facades as an illustration of the Venturi's complex symmetry both in plan and in elevation the facades reflect a symmetry of number or object instead of a symmetry of placement; the front facade is split in the middle and carries the same number of openings on each side, but their placement is manipulated. Venturi's manipulation of symmetry in the facade is articulated as a series of layered elements that create a compositional balance.
02 - Donato Bramante & Luciano Laurana
Santa Maria Della Pace | Rome, Italy
Palazzo Ducale | Urbino, Italy
In comparing the corner instances in the courtyards of Santa Maria della Pace and Palazzo Ducale, it is important to reflect on the optical illusion system that Bramante uses to reveal the hidden architect’s logic. The corner anomaly in Santa Maria Della Pace can only be understood by analyzing the arch-to-column connection in the courtyard’s colonnade. The arch meets an outer layer of columns with Doric capitals, these columns are split in half and have an Ionic column centered between them. This column inside the column situation is then separated in the second-floor façade. Moreover, due to the difference in height between the first floor (taller) and the second floor, Bramante makes use of hidden almost dashed lines in the column stylobates, which through repetition constitute an imaginary frame that makes the proportions of the two floors look more identical. The corner situation in Della Pace can then seem to reflect on the idea of orientation, directing the corners back to the center of the courtyard. In Palazzo Ducale, the colonnade is constituted of single uniform Composite capitals that support the arches. The height difference between the first and second floors is optically fixed through the addition of circular motifs between the columns and the entablature of the first floor. Almost as if Bramante was obliged to utilize an additional ornamental motif (circle) in order to fix the height difference between the floors due to the absence of the stylobate. Finally, the corner anomaly in Palazzo Ducale is characterized by the introduction of the Corinthian column that split the composite columns into half and joins the two sides at the corner. The circle is also noted to be split as well, the color-coded bricks on the floor further reflect the orientation of the corners to the center of the square.
06 - Francesco Borromini
San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane | Rome, Italy
Sant Ivo Alla Sapienza | Rome, Italy
In analyzing the form of both churches, there is a similarity for both chapels in the fact they take the triangle as the original geometrical logic. Borromini then manipulates the triangle differently in each of the churches; in relation to the face of the wall in Saint Ivo and in relation to the column order in Saint Carlo alle Quatro Fontane. The former manipulates the triangle composition in order to achieve a central point focus, whereas in the latter Borromini creates a different composition from the triangle resulting in an axial logic of space. In Saint Ivo, two oppositely facing triangles are superimposed on each other to have their center overlap. The corner of each triangle is then booleanned with the edge circles. The logic of producing a concave or convex niche out of this boolean is dictated by the appurtenance of the corners of each of the respective triangles. The logic is clear that there is one triangle with concave corners and the other triangle has convex corners. Therefore results in 2 symmetrical orders, each of respectively 1 to 3 corner ratio. In Saint Carlo, Borromini mirrors the original triangle horizontally, creating two points (one in the north corner of the triangle and the other in the south). The two points become the center of the ellipse which organizes the internal spatial logic. The axial separation of the space is then led by the line that vertically goes through the two centers of the ellipse and the horizontal line on which the triangles are mirrored. The logic is clear that the columns are symmetrically containing the interior space and the result in dividing the space into 4 identical quadrants or a symmetrical order of 1 to 4 ratio.
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