Hilary R. Smith

Smith 1

Hilary R. Smith Case Studies 6 December 2004

Influence and Design

Architect and philosopher Yehuda E. Safran wrote, “Architecture, if it is to live up to its own concept, is historically constituted as a convergence of different forms of knowledge and experience, strata or reference, and modes of ideality and reality.”1 Every work of architecture relies upon the synthesis of numerous design elements: materials may be chosen based on knowledge of their structural characteristics or experience of their tactile qualities. Patterns of circulation, fenestration, and enclosure must be considered, as well as climate and cultural context. A building in its entirety may be based on a compromise between an architect’s ideal design and that which is feasible to build. All decisions in a design must work together to create a unified whole. The materiality, the floor plan, the lighting schemes, even the doorknobs and bookshelves, are most successful when designed in conjunction with one another. The issue then becomes how an architect makes these design decisions. Material and circulation, among others, must be formed from a specified basis. According to theorist Aldo Rossi, “the basic principle of a theory of architectural…design [is] the necessity to persistently hold only to one theme…The formation of a theory of design constitutes the objective of… architecture.”2 Rossi is suggesting that following a theme gives a work of architecture purpose. Author Paul Heyer continues, explaining that a single theme also guides design decisions: An idea in architecture usually brings with it a strong image that can be seen as the motivating intellectual and architectural force in governing the concept of a building. Then, the various parts of a building complement the idea as they become dependent upon each other to constitute the fullness of the total expression. A building is then something from which nothing can be taken without weakening or destroying the concept. Detail supports concept. Elements and detail are integral to the whole.3 It is thus through this single concept that architecture is created. Heyer suggests that the concept should originate as no more than a doodle, “the smallest and most minimal drawing on a table-napkin-sized page,”4 creating clarity of the concept’s most fundamental aspects. The designer then builds upon this basic idea: “An idea in architecture points a direction but, more important for the architect, it actually becomes a point of departure. It is a commitment on which the success of a project depends, and without it a design will invariably be commonplace.”5 However, as stated, the idea is just a starting point—“a point of departure.” Used properly, it prevents arbitrariness.6 Yet used alone, the resulting design risks shortcomings. Other situational factors must be considered in accordance with the concept, such as sunlight, weather, program, client, and occupants, in order to create a building that is appropriately designed for its purpose and location. As Safran suggested, architecture is a synthesis of multiple elements. Steven Holl, a prominent American architect, provides examples of designs that eloquently incorporate a clear concept with situational factors. His many works, including the Stretto House in Dallas, are iconic examples of concept-driven constructions. Holl writes, Finding an initial concept for each project that captures the essence of the architectural opportunities unique to that project is, for me, a way into it, a door through which new ideas enter architecture. Though many if not most people who appreciate my work seem to focus on its experiential or phenomenological qualities—the light, the use of materials, and so forth—for me, what is important is the idea.7 Holl’s ideas drive his designs, and they are particularly successful because the concepts are consistently rooted in the unique situational factors of the individual project. According to Holl, “A building has one site. In this one situation, all intentions are collected…When a work of architecture successfully fuses a building and a situation, a third condition emerges. In this third entity, denotation and connotation merge; expression is linked to idea which is joined to site.”8 Holl’s words establish that not only is a project rooted in a concept, but a concept is rooted in a site. Using Holl’s Stretto House as a case study, I therefore argue that a building’s site is a basis for which all design decisions can be made, and that the synthesis of multiple ideas—emerging both from the site and from the architect’s personal priorities—is essential in designing a building with sensitivity to its landscape. As a designer, Holl brought to each of his projects elements which he considered important. In addition to site, these elements—light, vernacular, proportion, and craft—are among those that his first publisher listed as reoccurring throughout Holl’s designs.9 They appear to be Holl’s personal priorities. Light became of particular importance to Holl while living in Rome following his college graduation. He lived in an apartment with no windows—an experience he was able to contrast with the strong natural light found in Rome’s Pantheon. Vernacular architecture is rooted in Holl’s background: his young years in the state of Washington gave him an appreciation for vernacular timber structures and carpenter architects. However, proportion and craft are said to be Holl’s two true obsessions—both relate to how even the smallest detail can reinforce a design concept.10 Although these elements may seem to act independently, Holl connects everything to the site: “The tools that Holl uses—his spare language, proportion, attention to detail, and research of the vernacular—are only means to establish, develop, and enhance this phenomenological link between building and site.”11 To understand the connection, the site and context of the case study house must be examined. The site of the Stretto House, chosen by Holl himself, features a stream with three concrete dams. As water flows over the dams into the ponds below, a constant sound of water overlapping is produced. Holl wrote, “Ideas cultivated from the first perceptions of the site, mediations upon initial thoughts, or a reconsideration of existing topography can become the framework for invention.”12 The initial awareness of overlapping sounds proved influential in the design of the Stretto House. Due to the site’s location in Dallas, Texas, local climactic conditions were of initial importance—in particular, heat from the Texas sun. To address this issue, Holl combined his developing concept of overlapping with his interest in local vernacular. Local architecture featured masonry constructions with metal roofs. Holl began to explore the idea of metal roofs creating overlapping shadows to provide shade.13 By doing this, Holl connects site, concept, and vernacular. Holl’s concept came to full realization during a conversation with a former student, John Szto, who was studying piano at Julliard. Trying to build upon the idea of overlapping, Holl discovered through Szto that in music, the term “stretto” refers to the overlapping of tones. Szto led Holl to a particular song that emphasized the stretto: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste by Bela Bartok.14 This song, along with the site itself, became the basis for the design of the Stretto House. The orchestral score is arranged in four alternating sections: heavy—percussion, and light—string instruments. Holl interpreted this musical play with sounds into architectural play with space. The house is organized in four alternating sections: “heavy orthogonal masonry and light curvilinear metal.”15 To reinforce the design’s relationship to the alternating sounds of the score, the plan of the house is orthogonal, while the section is curvilinear. The guesthouse is exactly opposite. To reconnect the concept with the site, the four heavy bodies align with the three dams and the bridge that crosses the stream, creating “spatial dams,” while the curvilinear forms between the spatial dams represent “aqueous space.”16 The spatial dams are anchoring points and represent transition through the house, while the aqueous space reintroduces the idea of overlapping. Yehuda E. Safran refers to the stretto as “the answer entering before the subject is completed.”17 Holl interprets this by beginning a room before the adjacent room has completed: the rooms in the aqueous spaces overlap in plan. The aqueous spaces also decend to mimic the flow of the water. Holl writes, “Not only do the forms that compose the house work like instruments, but the landscape also acts as one of the voices in the stretto.”18 The literal coming together of the concept and site occurs at the north end of the house, where the stream enters a spacial dam to create a flooded room. A swimming pool extends from the courtyard into the flooded room, creating a relationship between the water of the house and the water of the site. Holl writes, “When the landscape flows backwards, so to speak, you get the flooded room, the phenomenological center of the house. For me, the concept is the very meaning of the house.”19 The experience of water and dams also is apparent as the house is approached by car. The driveway crosses the stream, making water evident immediately upon arriving on the property.20 The theme is then developed as the car approaches the front door: the driveway passes the flooded room, introducing the concept of house and site as one. Passengers experience the alternating spaces before arriving at the entry dam, where water is quickly reintroduced in a “melting ice” fountain near the front door.21 Holl assures that visitors to the site are aware of its properties, explaining, “within the phenomena of experience in a built construction, the organizing idea is a hidden thread connecting disparate parts with exact intention.”22 Once inside, Holl introduces another of his reoccuring elements, light, to guide the visitor through the house. The roofs of the aqueous spaces are made from curvilinear metal; where the roofs overlap, light is able to shine though, illuminating the pathway from room to room. In addition, the walls of the aqueous space are minimal: there are few partitions, thereby emphasizing the overlapping spaces, and the exterior walls are glass to connect the occupant of the aqueous space with the stream itself. Natural light pours in through the sides of the house that run parallel to the stream. Perhaps the most articulated of Holl’s elements are proportions and details. Every aspect of the house was carefully considered in its relation to the whole. Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste was written according to the Golden Ratio, 1:1.618, and Holl used the same proportion in every detail of the house. The design of the aqueous windows is perfectly derived from the Golden Ratio, as are the spacial sequences, and the design of tables, bookshelves, and numerous other furnishings. 23 Holl also considers every detail: specially made rugs featuring musical scores appear in the house, curved glass light fixtures were designed to accentuate specific areas, even the door pulls on the kitchen cabinets relate back the theme of heavy versus light.24 What is clear in Holl’s Stretto House is that he coverges multiple factors into one coherent design. The site is the basis and reference for all of the decisions made about the house, and the result is a building that is wonderfully appropriate to the site; however, the consideration of other factors also makes the building a intriguing and inhabitable place. In my analysis of the Stretto House, I concluded that the multifaceted synthesis of design elements was the most essential aspect of the house. The importance was not in the music or the site itself, but in they way they worked together with the other factors. For my analytical representations, I therefore chose to illustrate the ways in which the most important elements related to create a unified design. The first representation, Figure A, is a suggestion of relationships. Comprised of four layers, the drawing references the four movements of Bartok’s score, the four special dams, and the theme of overlapping. I identified the key aspects of the Stretto House to be site, concept, theory, and design. The theory is taken from Holl’s writing in his first book. He says, “Building transcends physical and functional requirements by fusing with a place, by gathering the meaning of a situation. Architecture does not so much intrude on a landscape as it serves to explain it.”25 Although he is not referring specifically to the Stretto House, the words have significant meaning to the design. Were Holl not so sensitive to the landscape, the thorough integration of site and building would not be possible; it was with respect to the circumstances of the site that the house was designed, as every aspect of the project stemmed from the stream and its sounds. It is therefore what constitutes the first layer of the drawing, connecting the site and the music, and running parallel to the final design. The elevations of the house create the second layer of the representation, portraying the final design that resulted from the synthesis of all other elements. The east elevation, which is situated on the water, overlaps the music to show the relationship between the three. The curvature of the roofs aligns with the slurs in the music behind it, suggesting a more literal relationship between the music and the design. The west elevation overlaps the sitemap, drawing a connection between the literal dams and the spacial dams. The final two layers, the sitemap and the music, are the backdrop for the drawing; the basis for all else. They overlap to reinforce their connection. The second representation is a more explicit analysis of how elements combine: focusing on the music and the design, the two factors are integrated into one new element. The foundation of the drawing is the orchestral score; the house is shown as being a part of that score. The bars of music become the spatial dams, and the slurs, the melodic elements, become the rooflines. The two features are thereby inseparable, drawing upon their relationship in the design of the house. Holl writes, “The essence of a work of architecture is an organic link between concept and form…A concept, whether a rationally explicit statement or a subjective demonstration, establishes order, a field of inquiry, a limited principle.”26 The importance of a working relationship in architecture is undeniable. A concept “is a strategy designed to raise architecture’s expression to a level of thought…Instead of a philosophy about architecture, [concepts] lead to an architecture that embodies philosophy.”27 In the case of the Stretto House, a thorough design was achieved on the basis of site, and its relevance and success is a persuasive argument to the effectiveness of a site-controlled design. Holl renders the relationship undeniable: Architecture is bound to situation. Unlike music, painting, sculpture, film, and literature, a construction (non-mobile) is intertwined with the experience of place. The site of a building is more than a mere ingredient in its conception. It is a physical and metaphysical foundation. The resolution of the functional aspects of site and building, the vistas, sun angles, circulation, and access, are the “physics” that demand the “metaphysics” of architecture. Through a link, an extended motive, a building is more than something merely fashioned for the site.”28 However, the relationship is by no means required. Many successful buildings have been designed that did not grow conceptually from site. In reference to his proposal for the Chicago convention hall, acclaimed architect Mies van der Rohe, for example, stated, “I don’t feel site is that important. I am first interested in a good building; then I place it in the best possible spot.”29 But there are also those who would agree would with Holl. Frank Lloyd Wright, for instance, believed in the organic harmony between nature and building, with each transforming the other. “No house should ever be ‘on’ a hill or ‘on’ anything,” he states. “It should be ‘of’ the hill, belonging to it, so hill and house could live together each the happier for the other.”30 Of course, simply basing a design on its site does not guarantee success. Holl’s design for the Stretto House, as well as his numerous other buildings such as the Berkowitz House in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, is successful because it considers all aspects of inhabitation and environment in accordance with site and concept. Holl “attempts to engage an overall situation in which everything reacts to what already existed.”31 It is through this thorough examination of architecture’s place in society and in nature that harmony in design is achieved. FIGURE A

FIGURE B ENDNOTES 1 Yehuda E. Safran, “Steven Holl: Idea and Method,” Steven Holl: Idea and Phenomena, ed. Architekturzentrum Wien (Baden: Lars Muller Publishers, 2002) 75-6. 2 Paul-Alan Johnson, The Theory of Architecture (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994) 30. 3 Paul Heyer, American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993) 120. 4 Heyer 120. 5 Heyer 120. 6 Francesco Garofalo, ed., Steven Holl (New York: Universe Publishing, 2003) 7. 7 Safran 73. 8 Steven Holl, Anchoring (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1989) 9. 9 Kevin Lippert, “Publisher’s Forward,” Anchoring, by Steven Holl (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1989) 7. 10 Alejandro Zaera Polo, “A Conversation with Steven Holl.” Arcade Fall 1996: 6-17. 11 Lippert 8. 12 Holl 9. 13 Steven Holl, “From Concept to Realization,” Stretto House, by Steven Holl Architects (New York: The Monacelli Press, 1996) 7. 14 Holl, “From Concept to Realization” 7. 15 Holl, “From Concept to Realization” 7. 16 Holl, “From Concept to Realization” 7. 17 Safran 74. 18 Safran 74. 19 Safran 74. 20 Holl, “From Concept to Realization” 8. 21 Holl, “From Concept to Realization” 8. 22 Holl, Anchoring 10. 23 Holl, “From Concept to Realization” 8. 24 Holl, “From Concept to Realization” 8. 25 Holl, Anchoring 9. 26 Holl, Anchoring 10. 27 Garofalo 24. 28 Holl, Anchoring 9. 29 Heyer 86. 30 Heyer 87. 31 Safran 77.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brawne, Michael. From Idea to Building. Great Britain: Butterworth Architecture, 1992.

Cecilia, Fernando Marquez, and Levene, Richard. Steven Holl: 1986-2003. Madrid: El Croquis, 2003. Frampton, Kenneth. Steven Holl Architect. Milano: Electa Architecture, 2002.

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Garofalo, Francesco. Steven Holl. New York: Universe Publishing, 2003.

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Heyer, Paul. American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993.

Holl, Steven. Stretto House: Steven Holl Architects. New York: Monacelli Press, 1996.

Jacobson, Clare. Ed. The Chapel of St. Ignatius: Steven Holl. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999.

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Mortico, Enrico. “Steven Holl: Texas Stretto House.” Domus Dec. 1992: p.56-65.

Polo, Alejandro Zaera. “A Conversation with Steven Holl.” Arcade, Fall 1996: p. 6-17.

Short, Elizabeth. Ed. Anchoring: Steven Holl. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1989.

Steiner, Dietmar M., Yehuda E. Safran, and Wolf D. Prix. Steven Holl: Idea and Phenomena. Baden, Switzerland, 2002.

“Work in Progress: Steven Holl’s design of a house in Texas brings a new approach to architecture as frozen music.” Architectural Record April 1991: p.134-137.

Yarinsky, Adam. “Construction in Four Parts: Steven Holl.” Lotus International 1993: p.58-67.