A HOUSE is a...

For this design project we had to look at our exemplar house in terms of:

A house is an environmental filter.

A house is a container of human activity.

A house is a cause for delight.

As we did so in class, I again decided to take the approach of brainstorming. From recently looking in detail at section, site and plan, as well as from ideas in the resources below I came up with the following points/ideas:

A house as an environmental filter:

~ Frames views - decides what we can and can't see.

~ Partially buried = thermal advantage.

~ From the street you can only see the concrete platform - it is withdrawing itself from the neighborhood - creates own little world.

A house is a container of human activity:

~ The house as 'a pedestrian link between the paths of the upper and lower levels that border this lot'(Yoshida(Ed.), 2006, 12)

~ Modules - the whole house is separate from itself, being broken by levels or stairs. It would be very easy to find an alone space.

~ Personal space - ie bedrooms are quite small, where as the shared living is quite large - promotes family activity (contradictory to the broken spaces).

~ Inside/Outside living - When portugal is in it's wet season this must dictate the activity contained in it (probably more so than a regular house due to being linear).

A house is a cause of delight:

~ Different experience - eg. occupation of the roof.

~ Suspense - it reveals itself a bit at a time.

~ "the choice of exposed concrete creates an idea like that of massive stones appearing naturally on the site"(Yoshida(Ed.), 2006, 12). (I also had this feeling - one of the reasons I chose Casa Tolo. I felt like it was an industrialized nature.

~ Small number of materials = unity.

~ Influence from Esher + Piranesi as a child(Pearson, 2006, p. 2). - like living in an artwork

Here I have also included a image of my mind map thinking:

References:

Yoshida, N. (Ed.) (2006). Living with nature. Architecture and

Urbanism, 426, 16.

Pearson, C. A. (2006)In northern Portugal, Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira cascades CASA TOLO down a steep slope through terraced gardens[Abstract]. Architectural Record, 194(4), 2.