The Five Points of a New Architecture in Earthquake Zones" Global Earthquake Model Caribbean Regional " Programme Workshop" Trinidad and Tobago, 2011 May 02-04 Panelist Robert V. Woodstock
Configuration The most important architectural d e c i s i o n s t h a t a f f e c t s e i s m i c performance are the critical decisions that create the buildingʼs configuration i.e. its size and shape. Simple symmetrical plans and forms are r e c o m m e n d e d o v e r c o m p l e x asymmetrical ones. A square plan provides for a near perfectly balanced system - Christopher Arnold, Seismic Issues in Architectural Design, Designing for Earthquakes, A Manual for Architects
Influences on Seismic Performance Scale Horizontal size Proportion Symmetry Distribution and Concentration Structural Plan Density Corners Perimeter Resistance Redundancy - Christopher Arnold and Robert Reitherman Building Configura3on & Seismic Design Redrawn from Building Configura3on & Seismic Design, Christopher Arnold and Robert Reitherman
Seismically desirable building attributes: Continuous load path Low height to base ratio Equal floor heights Symmetrical plan shape Identical resistance on both axes Identical vertical resistance Uniform section and elevation Seismic resistance elements at perimeter Short spans No cantilevers No openings in diaphragms (floors and roof)
Historical Precedents: The Parthenon THE GOLDEN SECTION Q SQ Q SQ Q SQ Golden Sec3on/Eleva3on redrawn from Architecture:Form.Space & Order Francis Ching Photo credit: Google
Historical Precedents: The Pantheon Plan redrawn from Architecture:Form.Space & Order Francis Ching Photo credit: David Mixer.com
The Domino System 1914-15 The Domino skeleton consisted of six thin concrete columns that simply carried two horizontal slabs as the floors and another as the roof. The columns and slabs were connected by a staircase. Apart from this nothing else was fixed, thus permitting a great flexibility. Redrawn from Le Corbusier: Oeuvre Complete, Willy Boesiger
LeCorbusierʼs Five Points of a New Architecture 1 - Raising the building on Pilotis 2 - The Free Plan 3 - The Roof Garden 4 - The Free Elevation 5 - The Horizontal Window
1. Raising the building on Pilotis The rooms are thereby removed from the dampness of the soil; they have light and air; the building plot is left to the garden, which consequently passes under the house. - Le Corbusier Originally published in Almabach de l Achitecture moderne, Paris 1926 Redrawn from Le Corbusier: Oeuvre Complete, Willy Boesiger Photo credit: Valueyou, Wikiepedia
2. The Open or Free Plan The support system carries the intermediate ceilings and rises up to the roof. The interior walls may be placed wherever required, each floor being entirely independent of the rest. - Le Corbusier Originally published in Almabach de lʼachitecture moderne, Paris 1926 Redrawn from Le Corbusier: Oeuvre Complete, Willy Boesiger Photo credit: Great Buildings
3. The Roof Garden The roof gardens will display highly luxuriant vegetation. Shrubs and even small trees up to 3 or 4 metres tall can be planted. In this way the roof garden will become the most favoured place in the building. In general, roof gardens mean to a city the recovery of all the built- up area. - Le Corbusier Originally published in Almabach de l Achitecture moderne, Paris 1926 Redrawn from Le Corbusier: Oeuvre Complete, Willy Boesiger Photo credit: Great Buildings
4. The Free Elevation By projecting the floor beyond the supporting pillars, like a balcony all round the building, the whole facade is extended beyond the supporting construction. It thereby loses its supportive quality and the windows may be extended to any length at will, without any direct relationship to the interior division. - Le Corbusier Originally published in Almabach de l Achitecture moderne, Paris 1926 Redrawn from Le Corbusier: Oeuvre Complete, Willy Boesiger Photo credit: Great Buildings
5. The Horizontal Window The whole history of architecture revolves exclusively around the wall apertures. Through the use of the horizontal window, reinforced concrete suddenly provides the possibility of maximum illumination. - Le Corbusier Originally published in Almabach de lʼachitecture moderne, Paris 1926 Redrawn from Le Corbusier: Oeuvre Complete, Willy Boesiger Photo credit: Great Buildings
Villa Savoye Poissy, France Photo credit: Valueyou, Wikiepedia
Villa Savoye Poissy, France It was Le Corbusierʼs Villa Savoye (1929 1931) that most succinctly summed up his five points of architecture that he had elucidated in the journal L'Esprit Nouveau and his book Vers un Architecture which he had been developing throughout the 1920s. First, Le Corbusier lifted the bulk of the structure off the ground, supporting it by pilotis reinforced concrete stilts. These pilotis, in providing the structural support for the house, allowed him to elucidate his next two points: a free façade, meaning non-supporting walls that could be designed as the architect wished, and an open floor plan, meaning that the floor space was free to be configured into rooms without concern for supporting walls. The second floor of the Villa Savoye includes long strips of ribbon windows that allow unencumbered views of the large surrounding yard, and which constitute the fourth point of his system. The fifth point was the roof garden to compensate for the green area consumed by the building and replacing it on the roof. A ramp rising from ground level to the third floor roof terrace allows for an architectural promenade through the structure. The white tubular railing recalls the industrial "ocean-liner" aesthetic that Le Corbusier much admired. As if to put an exclamation mark after Le Corbusier's homage to modern industry, the driveway around the ground floor, with its semicircular path, measures the exact turning radius of a 1927 Citroen automobile. - Villa Savoye and the Five Points of Architecture Wikipedia
Villa Savoye Poissy, France Ground Floor First Floor Second Floor
The Swiss Pavilion Paris, France Ministry of Education Kingston, Jamaica
ARCHITECTURE Architecture is a thing of art, a phenomenon of the emotions, lying outside questions of construction and beyond them. The purpose of construction is to make things hold together; of architecture TO MOVE US. Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light; Our eyes are made to see forms in light; Light and shade reveal these forms. - Le Corbusier
Recommendations for Reducing the Problems Use a design with the ideal configuration when: The best seismic performance for the lowest cost is needed The maximum predictability of seismic performance is desired The most economical structural design and construction is needed, including design and analysis for code conformance, simplicity of seismic detailing, and repetition of structural component sizes and placement conditions - Christopher Arnold, Seismic Issues in Architectural Design, Designing for Earthquakes, A Manual for Architects
Recommendations for Reducing the Problems With an irregular design configuration: A skilled seismic engineer, who is sympathetic to the architectʼs design intentions, should be used from the outset The architect should be prepared to accept structural forms or assemblies that may modify the design character, and should be prepared to exploit these as part of the aesthetic language of the design rather than resisting them The architect and engineer should both employ ingenuity and imagination of their respective disciplines to reduce the effect of irregularities, or to achieve desired aesthetic qualities without compromising structural integrity Extreme irregularities may require extreme engineering solutions; these may be costly, but it is likely that a building with these conditions will be unusual and important enough to justify additional costs in materials, finishes, and systems. A soft or weak story should never be used; this does not mean that high stories or varied story heights cannot be used, but rather that appropriate structural measures be taken to ensure balanced resistance. - Christopher Arnold, Seismic Issues in Architectural Design, Designing for Earthquakes, A Manual for Architects
The Engineer and the Architect The Engineer, inspired by the law of economy and governed by mathematical calculation, puts us in accord with universal law. The Architect, by his arrangement of forms, realizes an order which is a pure creation of his spirit; by forms and shapes he affects our senses to an acute degree and provokes plastic emotions; by the relationships which he creates he wakes profound echoes in us, he gives us the measure of an order which we feel to be in accordance with that of our world, he determines the various movements of our heart and of our understanding; it is then that we experience the sense of beauty. a N- Le Corbusier THE END