diving right back into it

Well hello my beloved friends and family. For the last few weeks I have been wondering how to jump back into this blog thing. In my head I thought I would write this monumental, all-inclusive post that would serve to summarize the past 5 or 6 months. The longer I searched for the theme or the style of this formidable resurrection post, the harder it was to write.

Part of the hesitation was that I want to change the focus of this blog. I had been using it periodically to show my own work and our life in Eugene, but since last fall I have taken an interest in writing as a medium to express architectural themes and spatial properties. It is an overlooked and undervalued component of our work here, so I would like to start using this blog more frequently as a means to articulate the process of my education (which I had been doing a little) as well as track my own interests and inspirations as they come to me. Every term there are dozens of projects, people and events that inspire me, so I would like to pass them along and figure out what they mean to me by articulating my thoughts to you. With that said, I may disable the email function of this blog, as I do not want to overcrowd your respective inboxes.

So today, instead of trying to catch everyone up at once, I will write this post as if there was no break. Every so often I will do my best to post some work from the fall term, but until then I just want to get started reviving A List of Books.

Here is a project I came across the other day while reading dezeen. It is not my own work and it is only indicative of my education as it happens to be a beautiful project from the mountains of Japan.

The Kuri at Chushinji by Katsuhiro Miyamoto & Associates. A Kuri is built to house the priest and his family, as well as provide a space for intimate community events.

The concrete roof was formed first. It reminds me of the roof at Le Corbusier's Ronchamp. Concrete is one of my favorite materials for its flexibility and strength - both structural and aesthetic. Despite the high carbon emissions produced by its main ingredient (cement), there is room for improvement through the use of byproducts such as fly ash and recycled aggregate. It is also one of the most widely available construction materials around the world, making it applicable to a range of projects.

The roof is meant to play off the traditional temple form. Many of these temples last hundreds of years thanks to impeccable care and sanctity of use. Over time the interior walls and layouts of temples go through modifications and renovations, but the roof form remains constant. This roof was designed with the intention to last 100 to 200 years.

photos courtesy of the dezeen site, taken by Takumi Ota

Traditional Japanese architecture and Buddhist teachings emphasize an awareness of the seasons. This picture shows the blurring of the boundaries between interior and exterior environment. If you look closely you can see the interior wood framing touch the roof without any layers in between. The gaps left over by this process visually and physically connect the occupants with the elements. The visible, single roof element also serves to unify the individual chambers which are partitioned by interior walls and screens.

I love this section drawing. This project exemplifies the type of scale that I would like to work with right now. The further I get in school the harder it is for me to grasp designing large buildings. There is an approach to space on a small scale that I can feel. Perhaps it is something that will change over time as my abilities develop, but if I want to evoke emotion through architecture, I have to be able to put myself inside the building during the design phase.