CONTEXT & BUILDING PT.2

CONTEXT & BUILDING PT.2

Context is a physical and non-physical elements that influencing a building. From what we can see through the architecture in early 19th centuries, most of the architects are considering more towards the physical part of the context, so called ‘site’ or ‘contour’ when designing a building and this allows them to blend in their designs into the background of the site ; contemporary architecture tends to relate more about non-physical part of context ( environment, social, economical and technological ), as the lifestyle had changed much from past which lead to the changes of context influencing.

From my point of view, I think that contemporary context is as important as it was in century ago, only that the difference is the changed of the requirements to achieve an effective design. “ THE TASK OF THE ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT IS TO REVEAL,THROUGH THE TRANSFORMATION OF FORM,THE ESSENCE OF THE SURROUNDING CONTEXT ”

- philosophical text, in the sense that, the population had raised overcrowded by century, meaning requirements were more demand onto inhabitant shelter and building’s environment.

FALLINGWATER

FRANK LlOYD WRIGHT

“ TO UNDERSTAND HISTORY IS ESSENTIAL FOR THE FORMATION OF THE ARCHITECT, SINCE HE MUST BE ABLE TO INSERT HIS OWN WORK INTO THE PREESISTENZE AMBIENTALI AND TO TAKE IT, DIALECTICALLY INTO ACCOUNT ” written by Adrian Forty. What he is telling is that we as an architect must understand well about the site so that we able to blend in our design with the site’s context.

Fallingwater designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is an example of the contextual architecture. This building was designed to redefine the relationship between human, nature and architecture, and was built in early 19th centuries. The house is well-known for its connection to the site; it is built on top of an active waterfall which flows beneath the house. This building uses natural materials like stones and woods for construction as they are economic.

Glass is used for most of the openings, so there is no medium in between human and site, and from the view out of the glass within the long cantilevered terraces, we could see directly the connection with nature. The fireplace, ‘hearth’ in the living room integrates boulders found on the site which protrudes up to a foot through the living room floor was left in place to demonstrably link the outside with the inside ; from the cantilevered living room, a stairway leads directly down to the stream below, and in a connecting space which connects the main house with the guest and servant level. This building trying to reach out the condition of ‘forgetting the presence of the building while you are with the nature’.

From this we could seen how architects for the past fully utilize the context from the surrounding into his design and trying to creates architecture as a whole with the environment, respect to the material used and form of construction which can be related to the site condition.

GANENDRA ART HOUSE

KEN YEANG

Contemporary architecture is a range of style of architecture appropriate to the current time period. It was influenced by variety of factors as the time passed and what we can observed is that climatic context is the most influencing factor toward the building design nowadays.

One good example to show that it’s design is well adapt to the context is the Ganendra Art House by Ken Yeang at 2011. The building is at the forefront of architectural style, boasting effective and affordable design. As the climate condition in Malaysia being hot and humid throughout the year, so the space presents unique green features including a wind chimney, wide openings and pitch roof. The Ganendra Art House was built facing toward north and equipped with shading devices so that the sunlight penetrating into the building is minimize.

The wind chimney near to the entrance is serves as natural air-conditioner to cool down the interior space ( wind is catch through the chimney and transfer the cool wind to all the main spaces for both ground level and first floor level). Same function as the wind chimney, the building has quite a number of wide openings which to allow air flow through within the space. Consider Malaysia’s rainfall rate, the roof are built slanted to prevent water trapped on top which will causes collapse of roof. The steel bars and broken concrete blocks from the previous building were recycled and reused for the building construction as it is more economic.

Throughout the research, although the demands of context is different between past and present, but however, both epoch had shown us how important is the context to the building design. Understanding context not just about site study and analysis, but it’s a measurement and judgement which will affect the efficiency of the building layout. By adapting our design to the context, we could allocate a harmony building’s environment.