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© 1995 Th e University of Michigan

College of Architecture+ Urban Planning

& Patkau Architects

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College of Arc hitecture+ Urban Planning

The University of Michigan

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• I

John Dinkeloo graduated from this college in 1942 and is one of its most distinguished alumni. In many ways, he epitomized the kind of education and talents of which the co llege has been proud and which we are still keen to encourage. John Dinkeloo was an architect, an outstandin g designer, and a student of materials. He was the author of a number of significant arch itectural inventions of the latter part of this century including the neoprene gasket and severa l different types of glass, and he experimented with the use of Corten and exposed steel. john Dinkeloo worked as a young architect in Eero Saa rinen's office and later as a partner with Kevin Roche in the firm Roche Dinkeloo. He was an imaginative creator, who worked on major projects of great significance which have inspired architects throughout the world: the Ford Foundation, the Oakland Museum, the john Deere Headquarters, and many others.

The John Dinkeloo Memorial Lecture is a milestone in our academic year. This lecture se ries began in 1984, three years after the untimely death of John Dinkeloo. It is generously supported by an endowment from faculty and friends, and with the help ofThelma Dinkeloo, John's widow. The Dinkeloo Lectures have brought to this college some of the most important architects working in practice today. The speakers, selected for their commitment to design technology and the art of making buildings, have included Kevin Roche, Fay Jones, Richard Meier, Thorn Mayne, Michael McKinnell, Tod Williams and Billie Ts ien , to name just a few.

I am pleased to introduce a young Canadian architect, John Patkau of Patkau Architects in Vancouver who will deliver the 1995 Dinkeloo Memorial Lecture. John and Patricia Patkau pursued their undergraduate studies at the University of Manitoba. john graduated with a Masters degree from Manitoba in 1972, andl Patricia with a Masters from Ya le in 1978. They founded their partnership in Edmonton in 1978 and moved to Vancouver in 1984. 6

The Patkaus are particularly inspiring in that they are young architects who are developing architectural theory through practice. In an increasingly homogenized world, theirs is an architecture which searches ou t the particular, whether it be in the site, the history of the place, or in the program of the building. The exploration of these issues is clearly evident in their drawings and models, and perhaps most importantly in their completed bu ildings.

This document is a record of the 1995 Dinkeloo Memorial Lecture. It focuses on three of the most recent projects designed by the Patkaus which are significant because they represent three different types of work: a civic building of national importance which was built following a successful design competition, a house, and an award-winning public school which is currently under construction.

Kenneth !Frampton, writing about the Patkaus' work, recently observed! that:

"john and Patricia Patkau are two young Canadian architects whose achievements are all the more refreshing because of their discretely tectonic character. The quality of this work suggests once again that we would do well to turn our attention to the periphery if we would wish to find our way back to more measured and sensitive forms of architectural practice.'"

On behalf of the College, I am delighted to welcome the architect john Patkau.

Brian Carter Professor & Chair ofArchitecture I greatly admire the buildings of John Dinkeloo and believe that he was, above all, an architect who struggled to master his craft through practice. Co incidentally, our projects are very much the work of practicing architects who are struggling in the same way. I am honored to be invited to deliver the 1995 Dinkeloo Memorial Lecture.

Although my partner Patricia and I are very interested in architectural theory and attempt to place our work in the context of a rigorously argued theoretical discussion, this presentation will not center on issues of theory directly- it will center on issues of practice. This is because, unli ke many architects who are interested in theoretical issues, we did not come to this interest as a result of an early career in teaching. We did not develop our ideas in an academ ic setting and then enter into practice to implement these ideas. Until recently we have been isolated from the academic environment and restricted to explori ng our ideas through practice. As a resu lt, ou r ideas have emerged very slowly. We were not ab le to sit down and consolidate a body of knowledge, put forward a platform and execute it. It has been a struggle, as it is for most practicing architects, to find a way from one pr.oject to the next, to understand what we are doing, and to somehow bu ild on that to find some form of mature expression.

Architecture is an itine rant profession for the young and I moved to Alberta in the late seventies because it was an oil boom economy which offered tremendous opportunities for architects. After only two years of experience in another architect's office I was ab le to become registered. The re was no NCARB, no ora l exam ination; I simply logged my time and became an architect. Immediately upon being registered , I opened our practice in Edmonton . Pat joined me fro m Ya le, together with one ot he r fellow who had a technica l background. It was a nightmare. We learned t he hard way by making mistakes, and the experience has shaped us to this day. Out of the struggle to learn by se lf-teaching, we came to have a tremendous respect for the craft of architecture, for making. Because we were on our own, we had never been exposed to all of the knowledge

8 requ ired to actually co nstru ct a building. We knew how to compose a drawing, but there is a substantial gap between composing a drawing and construct ing a building. That learning process has marked our work and marks to this day a profound respect for the making of buildings, not simply building as the manifestation of theoretical ideas.

We began to find ou r way with the design of the Pyrch House. The house is literally the shape of the property, centered about a gian t mound of rock. By lowering the main space be low that rock, the extremely mediocre and conventional development of " Tudo r-Bavarian" houses alongside is completely obscured. Because of the geometry of the site, the rock stands between the eye and the neighboring houses below. All that can be seen is the ocean beyond, a pure and powerful landscape distilled from the rock and the existing trees on that particular site. The configuration of t he house ensured that it became a largely mute participant allowing these natural elements to speak.

Our intuitive starting point was to seek those things that were particular to the project and center our arch itectural response around them. We came to describe this sea rch as a sea rch for 'found poten tial' -those aspects of site, climate, building context, program, or loca l cu lture, fo r example, that will fac ilitate the development of an architectural order which is evocative of circumstance. 9

In 1983 - a time of crisis in the oil industry-the economy in Alberta was devastated. Our practice was destroyed. We relocated to Vancouver and started again by building a house for ourselves. The site we· could afford was within a steeply sloping, heavily forested ravine. Having spent most of our lives on the Canadian prairies which are characterized by bright blue skies and year round sunshine, we were especially concerned because, in this deep ravine, the sun was lost early in the day.

Two things inspired the design and were consistent with our growing interest in found potential: the nature of the site and the climate. The terrain was so steeply sloping that it was difficult to get around. As a result we conceived of th e hou se as a bridge connecting the various levels of the site. The design was also conditioned by a need for light. In Vancouver everything is sun-seeking. Anything which stands between you and the sun is undesirable. Our response was to make one-third of the roof of glass and to place all of the major openings on the south side. The house was shaped by these concerns. This experience began to confirm the value of seeking out responses that emphasized the particular qualities of the place. 10

The App leton House, designed in 1985 for a site on Victoria Island,, was, for a young family with three small children. They showed us photographs of lofts in New York and industrial buildings and said, "This is the house that we want." The materiality of the images they showed us was completely impossible on their budget. The on ly thing which was feasible was wood frame construction, and so we decided to try to transform wood frame constru ction to represent the more substantial qualities of the images they had se lected.

We began by organ izing the plan about a single large two-story room. All other rooms were simply placed in a lin e behind this large space. Within the large room we created a few elements wh ich we came to call 'totemic' elements. Our idea was to keep most parts of the house to conventional proportions. In the context of this normal world we introduced one giant room, one gian t column and one gian t fireplace. These totemic figures, even though made of conventional construction, were to stand for the robust material and arch itectural presence which the clients had described.

Fo r Seab ird Island School, the found potential was revea led in studies of both the site andl the client. Th is school for a Salish Indian Bandl is on a large delta in the middle of the Fraser River at the point where the river valley disappears into the coastal mountain range. The site is an agricultural area with large fields and a wooded perimeter where the individual dwellings of the band members are located . To the south of the site there is a modest town center, au-shaped configuration of bu ildin gs loosely grouped around a small green. Given the opportunity to bui ld on this site, we chose to locate the building close 11 to other community buildings. This is an obvious move but an especially important one for this community. The aboriginals of western Canada - much as in the United States - have suffered tremendously as a result of t he imperialism that European culture has imposed upon them . Our client represen ted a dying culture in which only a few elders still speak the Salish language. It was a community in disarray with many social problems. Th is school represented a ma jor opportunity for the band. It was to be the ir most significant resource and their largest commun ity faci lity. They we re to co nstruct the building themselves, and so it also represented an expression of their communal will. The school would teach the ch ildren the language that their parents had not learned. It would be understood not as an institution but as a way of passing on knowledge within an extended family.

The school is organized in a familial manner. The classrooms are placed along a porch which faces south to t he existin g comm unity center. All of the doorways are directly accessible onto this porch which is a public space. Members of the community can ente r directly into the classrooms, take part in lessons and teach the children. The ch ildren likewise have immediate access to the outdoors where there are teach ing ga rdens and sa lmon drying racks along the porch. Spaces within the bu ild ing are organ ized in a completely open way so that there is no hierarchical separation between teachers, parents and students. These facilities, wh ich are important community spaces, can be used as intensively after hours as during the school day. 12

We were told by members of the band that the orthogonal configuration of the residential schools which they had attended in the past-which had been instruments of cu ltura l genocide-was completely unacceptable to them. So we attempted to make a building which did not have these characteristics. Instead the bu ildin g is irregular and , in a naive sense, more natural. It is more like a landscape or the interior of a forest.

Our first perception of this flat site surrounded by mountains was that it was almost room-li ke in character. Any large bu ilding within this vast room would necessarily take on a figural quality by virtue of the defining mountain s around it, a figural quality which we thought might somehow be suggestive to our clients. The bu ilding began to assume a zoomorphic character which has proved to be significant for the band. They have come to see it as a creature, some as a fish and some as a bird. As a result, the building has ach ieved a level of sign ificance within their community which in some ways is not open to us.

The school was built by the members of the band who had no construction experience. They did not know that the building was difficult but merely said, "Fine, we'll build it". We constructed a large-scale detailed framing model as a part of our working drawings. The model went to site and was a reference throughout the construction of the school. When they could not figure something out they checked the model. This was the first building of any substance that they had undertaken; the workmanship is very good and they had no difficulty doing it. It was a remarkable experience. The buildings we have designed subsequently have become increasin gly 13 explicit about the way in which they are made. The materials relate strongly to the narrative of the building and to the significance of the parts of the bu ilding. The richness of the space is developed directly out of an expression of how the space is constructed. This is part of a larger idea regard ing our interest in the particular, and how this interest is manifested through differentiation; whether that be differentiation of one place from another, or differentiation within the materials and construction of a building.

The !Newton Library explores two ideas about architectural construction: the tectonic expression of building with concrete columns and wood beams, and, on the other hand, an idea of clad construction where volumes are defined by surfaces like dry wall and stucco.

The library becomes almost schizophrenic in character. Each of the two personalities of the building struggles to dominate. The light absorbing exposed construction on one side contrasts with the light reflecting clad construction on the other. At some points, the clad constru ction threatens to completely engulf the wood. At other IPOints where there is a lot of light, near edges or at en trances for example, the tectonic wood construction dominates.

In the development of our work we have initiated a seri es of models designed for our own use after the buildings are completed. They are never shown to the clients but are purely resea rch models made to try to understand more clearly the formal vocabulary of the language that we have been bu ildin g. These models are not part of the design process of the project itse lf but part of a larger, ongoing process. For example, the model of the Clay and Glass Gallery, a fragment extracted from the middle of the build ing, explores the representation of bu ilding assemblies. Roofs and walls are made up of many layers peeled away to reveal the composite nature of the construction. 14 ~- I I

The research model for Newton Library attempts to reveal 15 the two ideas that we used to design the building. We built the model in two parts, one part being more expressive of the static, enclosing nature of clad construction, andl the other more exp ressive of the dynamic, vigorous nature of tectonic construction. In retrospect, I do not think the model successfully differentiates these opposite qualities within the building- research sometimes fails. However, after we finished the model, we realized that we had accomplished! something that had frustrated us at the beginning of the !Project: the inability to develop the section in ground plane. Because of security and the need for handicapped accessibility, it was required that the floor of the buildin g be abso lutely flat with no changes of level. We had previously utilized a changing ground plane as an important part of our architectural vocabulary. When we had completed this library model, we suddenly realized! that we had discovered the ground and had excavated the ground in a way that had not been possible in the real building.

As well as eva luating built !Projects, the models are used to ____u..______u. ______L:..,a t~~ exp lore compositiona l ideas. They deal not only with ideas that are in the bu ildings, but with new ideas such as the concentration of elements and the fragmenting of perimeters. These studies are used in an arbitrary and imposed way to inform ~ subsequent work and to enrich its characteristic arch itectural expression. If you look at certain elements of the models of the Oay and Glass Gallery and of the,! Newton Library which we bu ilt later, you can see that we were transforming purely formal ideas and utilizing them in the context of new projects. The models enable us to begin to understand how our ideas might lead to a more ,evocative, expressive architecture. .

In 1986 we were invited to participate in a national competition for a clay and glass gallery which was to be located in Waterloo, Ontario. Because there were only eight architects competing it was a wonderful opportunity.

The competition site was across the street from a large Seagram distillery and the Seagram Museum, a sign ificant institution which houses the arch ives and artifacts of the worldwide holdings of the company. Even though our site was at the edge of a sma ll town we had at least one neighbor to which we could respond. There was also a lake-or a small weir ca lled Silve r Lake-which was the beginning of a park system connecting downtown to the university.

The site plan resu lts from an analysis of that situation. The first notion was to use the bu ilding in conjunction with the Seagram Museum and Silver Lake to begin to define a rec reational and cultural precinct wh ich would be complementary to the civic center at Waterloo. The two would form bookends defi ning t he extent of the town cen ter.

We suggested creating a space organized about existing things: two towers and a pyram id of wh iskey ba rrels at Seagram's - wh ich is actually a beautiful thing­ and a water feature which we proposed in order to celebrate the po int at wh ich the water of Silver Lake disappeared into a culvert to flow under the town. With those three elements we suggested that there might be an essentially triangular public space. The gallery was to be organ ized to define one edge of that space.

The pyramid of barrels and t he water sculpture that celebrated the disappearance of water we re very much like the column and fireplace in the App leton House ­ totemic elements wh ich were an arch itectural intensification in an otherwise banal context. Because the budget was-like all budgets-limited, we decided to make economy 18 of means an important IPart of our strategy. We !Proposed essentially warehouse­ like spaces. Within those generic spaces, special intensified architectural elements would be inserted: a row of fire columns representative of the fire that is the transformation of both clay and glass; a courtyard for the exhibition of large scale sculptures; a drum for the archives; and a tower for the display of large scale stained glass work. These were the totemic elements within the generic plan that were intended to activate that plan and, in a sense, allow limited resources to speak powerfully within an otherwise conventional context.

El El El An important aspect of the program was a request for a glass-blowing studio. 19 This was to be the first of a series of different studios which would demonstrate the making of different forms of clay and glass art. Artists would be invited to use these stud ios as part of the activities of the gallery. The presence of a studio within the gallery allowed us to address certain aspects of the nature of the gallery as an institution. Also, by making the storage of the collection visible from the central space of the gallery, we were able to make the process from making, to collecting, to dis playing art more explicit. In doing this, we hoped that the visitor would somehow be ab le to understand that, in addition to the work of the artist, there are many layers of cultural judgment which are applied to art before it gets to a gallery space. Work in a gallery is highly qualified by many sets of values that are overlaid upon it subsequent to the creation of the work of art. This is, I think, an important understanding which is generally not recognized. The majority of people who visit art galleries view art as if it is transparent, but it is in fact carefully controlled and presented under very restricted circumstances.

We won the competition but were not commissioned to proceed with the design of the gallery until1988. With the federal election about to be called, funds miraculously became available. However, due to galloping inflation the project­ which had been just about feasible at the time we won the competition-was clearly now not feasible. The budget was fixed , and so we found that we had to redesign substantially in order to enable the scheme to go ahead. The building area had to be reduced by a third in order to meet the new budget. 20 It was decided that the long-term program of studio building would be abandoned and that the museum would restrict its activities to exhibition. The loss of the glass blowing studio had a huge impact on the design. One of the fundamental ideas of that original design was the exposition of the process from making, through collecting, to displaying art. With the studios gone, that generative idea was destroyed. We had to rethink not only the size of the building, but also fundamental ideas about its nature.

During the time between winning the competition and securing the commission, we had come to the conclusion that the conventional modern gallery which is characterized by white walls, no expression of construction, and no natural light represented a completely abstract world cut off from all context. This isolation of art was something that we felt might be challenged.

We developed a couple of strategies which would allow us to build a bridge through the building from the art that was being displayed to the lives of the people who would be coming to see it. The first of these strategies was the use of natural light. Because this gallery is for clay and glass, the problem of ultraviolet degradation does not exist. We took advantage of this opportunity to exploit natural light in a variety of ways so that the daily cyole and the seasons are made evident in the building. More importa ntly, something that we came to understand between the competition and the final building is that stained glass is not intended to be seen in an artificially lit environment. It is predicated! on changing natural light. G ~..

Main Floo r Plan fire columns entry vestibule lobby information and ticket desk 4 cloakroom 5 gift shop 6 tea room main gallery tower gallery small works gallery 10 courtyard gallery 11 demonstration and adjudication 12 support facilities 13 me.chanical and electrical room 14 The second thing which emphasizes the connection between the building, the art 22 and the gallery users is the craft of making. The building is clearly legible in this respect and is therefore brought within the range of normal experience, much like the craft of making the artifacts on display. In this context, it might be possible for people to relate more strongly to the craft of making art and come to understand ·. that art is not exclusively contained within the domain of a gallery or of an elite.

THE FIRE COLUMNS ARE Consequently, this building is explicit about the way it is made. The materials

INTENDED TO BE A HYBRID relate strongly to the story of the building and to the significance of the parts. The basic structure consists of wood roof and floor decks supported by steel ARCHITECTURAL & ARTISTIC beams which bear upon concrete block walls. The exterior is clad in the industrial EXPRESSION OF THE FIRE red brick characteristic of the area. The brick represents the addition of layer

THAT IS THE ORIGIN OF upon layer, the method of modern construction. There are subordinate elements­ like the canopy which has yet to receive its glass, or the entry loggia which is CLAY AND GLASS ART. made of wood, the most tenuous of all materials. These materials are assembled THE CONCRETE SHELLS ARE together to form a clear vocabulary and rigorous hierarchy of building materials. ARMATURES SUPPLIED WITH Finally, the totemic elements - the fire columns, the stained glass tower, the

ELECTRIC AND GAS SERVICES. small works gallery and the courtyard -are made of reinforced concrete to represent their primacy. Concrete is the most durable, as well as most difficult THESE TOTEMIC ELEMENTS of construction materials. ARE TO BE DEVELOPED The totemic elements are further elaborated. The idea of the courtyard, for BEYOND THE ARCHITECTURE example, was not only to make the composite nature of building construction WH ICH IS TH ERE AT PRESENT explicit, it was to make this composite nature poetic. The courtyard is constructed

TO BECOME A MORE DYNAMIC of two layers of concrete walls. In various areas, one or the other of the layers of concrete is pulled away and a tile layer is introduced that is representative of the AND REPRESENTATIVE interstitial layers of insulation and air and vapor barriers. On top of that, a wood EXPRESSION OF WHAT trellis is added which is reminiscent of the formwork required for the casting of IS GOING ON INSIDE the concrete. The richness of the space is developed directly out of an expression

THE BUILDING. of how the space is constructed.

L

The Barnes House, completed in 1994, is located at the edge of an open rocky outcrop on a forested five-acre site which overlooks the Strait of Georgia and the mainland of British Columbia to the north and the rocky shoreline of Vancouver Island to the northwest. It is a site with diverse qualities-a textural, intimate quality of immediate contact with rock, tree bark and grass together with a distant view of the sea and the mainland beyond.

We attempted to design a house that would make this variety of landscape experience more evident. Here, the site is understood to be not only the rocky outcrop upon which the house is situated and has surrounding vegetation, but the entire region which is visible from the site. In this context the house has been designed as a landscape focusing device-a mechanism through which the experience of this place, from the small scaled textural characteristics of the rock to the large scaled expanse of the sea, is made manifest. To do this, we placed the house in what seemed to us at the time a very odd location. We found a depression in the rock and sank the house into it so that the lower floor is embedded within the rock. From the street and the lower parts of the site, the house is entered without being aware that there is a panoramic view of the ocean beyond. Adjacent to the entrance are two windows which are at floor level. They are only four feet high. These windows focus on a view of the rock which is only just outside the glass. Turning at the top of the stairs up to the main floor of the house, the panoramic view of the entire region is revealed. The hou se connects one part of the site to another. 28

fOR THE MOST PART The lower part of the house is a studio for the owners - an amateur sculptor and

THE SHEll OF THE HOUSE a landscape arch itect. The upper floor is their living quarters. It is a simple house with a few rooms and a terrace. The house takes on many different qualities. IS COMPRISED OF Within, the inhabitants are sometimes below grade and sometimes above grade. CONVENTIONAl WOOD One side of the house is in the forest, the other side within the clearing. The side

FRAMING, STUCCO ClAD, of the house that faces the clearing is obviously composed using very simple

ON A REINFORCE.D CONCRETE shapes. The forested side has a strange, almost weak shape which is intentionally submissive to allow the vegetation which surrounds the house at this point to be GRADE BEAM FOUNDATION. the dom inant element. On one side the house is recessive, and on the other side THREE CONCRETE COlUMNS it is assertive.

RISE WITHIN THIS VOlUME Consistent with our interests to develop the particular characteristics of things TO SUPPORT A HEAVY we have increasingly sought to reveal the in herent differences in the nature of

TIMBER ROOF STRUCTURE. materials. Concrete is massive and steel is tensile and linear. A steel canopy, over a window, is only three-e ighths of an inch thick but cantilevers thirteen feet flOORS ARE GENERAllY as a result of a sha llow curve which gives it an arch shape and slender ribs on the EXPOSED CONCRETE, underside which are somethin g like the ribs of the mouth.

EITHER AS SlAB-ON-GRADE Increasingly we have come to particularize the various characteristics of each IN THE lOWER lEVEl project and the va ri ous materials and components within each building. Th is

OR AS A TOPPING ON house, unlike the early houses which were more generic in quality, begins to bring more explicit architectural expression into the development of details. WOOD FRAMING IN THE

MAIN lEVEl

\.

30

0l: !------31

10

Lege nd entry 1 studio 2 bathroom 3 guest room 4 living room 5 master bedroom 6 dining room 7 kitchen 8 utility room 9 terrace 10 barbeque u fire pit 12 STEEL IS USED AS A 32 COUNTERPOINT TO THE

MONOLITHIC CONCRETE

AND STUCCO CLAD WOOD

FRAMING, AS ELABORATED

CONNECTIONS BETWEEN

CONCRETE AND HEAVY

TIMBER, AS RAILINGS AT

STAIRS AND AS A CANOPY

OVER THE ENTRANCE AND

LARGE WINDOW FACING

NORTHWEST. THIS CANOPY,

WH ICH IS MADE OF

10 MILLIMETERS THICK

STEE L PLATE, CANTILEVERS

3.7 METERS OVER THE

OPEN I NGS IT SHELTERS.

Strawberry Vale School is currently under construction in the outskirts of Victoria. Th is project deals with a subject that has been implicit in our work from the very beginning: the relationship between the man-made and the natural. The distinction between the man -made and the natural, upon which much of our architectural heritage is based, is losing its significance. As surely as the forces of nature act upon our buildings, we work upon the natural world. Gravity, rain and snow, wind , changes in temperature, plant and animal life, all act to reduce buildings to their material constituents. At the same time, through the act of building, we work upon the natural world at both the relatively small scale of the building site as well as the relatively large scale of resource extraction, processing, manufacture and transportation. It is no longer clear whether anything is truly natural or truly man-made.

As a result of the increasing continu ity between the natural and the man-made, our cu ltural traditions need to be re -examined . Both classicism and modernism are based upon the distinction between the natural and the man-made - whether that be the humanist tradition within classicism where architecture is understood to be a representation of 'man' as the measure of the world that is other or whether it be the abstract tradition within modern ism where architecture is understood to be a manifestation of pure form juxtaposed to a world that is other. If the distinction between the man-made and the natural is losing significance, these cultural traditions within which we work have to be, if not questioned, then enriched and expanded.

Clearly, while architecture is the product of human thought and work it also is affected by and increasingly affects the environment within wh ich it exists. In many ways what seems to be missing from both classicism and modernism, understood in this manner, is evident in the subtle environmental adjustment characteristic of vernacular architecture. The design of the Strawberry Vale School attempts to pursue a line of 36 investigation which not only acknowledges our cultural traditions but, inspired by the vernacular, also gives architectural form to environmental forces.

There have been two schools on this site: the present school, and a one-room school built in 1893. We began by taking the original school and relocating it at the point of entry to the site. The present school will be demolished, with the exception of the foundations which will define play spaces and teaching gardens. The site therefore becomes a historical record of the schools in the area-the old school, the present school, and the new school.

At the same time, the site is developed so as to mitigate the impact of construction on the site. For example, rainwater run-off from the building is collected in trenches and runs along a swale to collect in a marsh. Plants planted by students will clean the water before it re-enters the groundwater. The materials of the building have been carefully selected to minim ize embodied energy and toxicity.

The community to be served by this school conside rs itself to be 'semi-rural' in character. A strong and present relationship to the natural world plays an important part in the cultural and educational objectives of this community. To this end all classrooms are oriented toward the south to optimize potential natural illumination within the interior as well as to maximize visual connection to an adjacent woodland. Furthermore, all classrooms are located on-grade providing direct access to the out-of-doors and the possibility of an extended program of teaching. This not only maintains a small scale consistent with the neighborhood of single-family dwellings but also attempts to establish a positive reciprocity in the definition of woodland and schoolyard. To locate classrooms in this way, and keep the school within the site, classrooms 37 are grouped into pods of fou r. This creates a series of 'in-between' spaces which are both interior and exterior, which may be used by individuals or small groups from adjacent classrooms.

A meandering circulation spine provides access to each pod of classrooms as well as the library, administration offices, gymnasium, and other support faci lities. The irregu lar configuration creates further sma ll-scale common spaces within which a wide variety of activities, both spontaneous and planned, may occur. The creation of these non-programmed 'in-between' spaces creates an overlap between classrooms, and between classrooms and other facilities, which not only augments the capabilities of individual classrooms but also establishes an intermediate scale and provides an architectural basis for the creation of a greater sense of community within the school.

Within the construction of the school, large spans are framed in steel because the sizable members that would be required to span using wood would require first growth material. Elsewhere, small scale wood construction, the vernacular of the west coast, is used with exposed fram ing.

40 Computer analysis of the building has located skylights and clerestory windows 41 to maximize natural light. The lighting system is controlled by sensors which turn off lights automatically when daylight provides adequate illumination within the spaces. In classrooms, drywall has been added where reflectivity is required to increase illumination. In areas with a lot of ambient natural light, the dry wall has been stripped away to reveal the underlying construction. This creates a clear distinction between exposed construction and clad construction.

The circulation spine contains the major ducting which provides air to all of the classrooms. We were told, "Don't give us exposed ducts. Ducts are only interesting to architects." Consequently, in the classrooms, where the students and teachers spend most of their time, ceilings are clad to create a luminous interior and to obscure the mechanical system. In areas such as the circulation spine, ductwork is exposed for practical and didactic reasons. We want the students to begin to understand how a building is made-that there is a structure and a mechanical system.

The roof, too, has been shaped in a strong response to topography and climate. The site steps down, and the roof breaks to follow the slope of the site. The finishing of the roof is in two parts. The parts over interior spaces which are insulated are expressed as a heavy ribbed construction which is raised to acknowledge the thickness required for the insulation whilst the overhangs are thinner and are clad with smooth steel which is expressive of the absence of insulation.

The design of Strawberry Vale School acknowledges the manner in which buildings are normally made: a steel frame is quickly erected, things are tacked onto that frame, and layers of finishes added. In this case, layers of finishes are added judiciously-only where they play a more positive role rather than merely to dress rough construction. Nevertheless if you look closely at the design you will see that we have not always been rigorous in adopting this conventional strategy. We may not yet be sensitive enough to the necessities of building in a construction industry based on conventional practices. Some of the millwork in the school precedes the glazing and even some of the framing. The only possible sequence of assembly is to bring the millwork into the building at an unusually early stage of construction. Unlike a house or other small building which can be a handcrafted object and 42 go against the grain of conventional constructional practices, larger buildings generally cannot afford this luxury. At the same time, we are reluctant to adopt wholeheartedly the conventional vocabulary of construction with finishes. We have come to increasingly value the expression of the basic construction of the building, and that is not something which the North American construction industry is set up to do. In our recent projects we have attempted to find ways to go beyond this, to find ways, sometimes highly unconventional ways, to make the construction of the building and the architecture one.

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Our research model of Strawberry Vale is a representation of where I think our work is headed. We have completed a series of buildings and have struggled very slowly with a series of ideas which began intuitively and which have become more formally expressed and more carefully considered over time. These are ideas regarding the particular in the context of the general. In a world dominated by global culture it is necessary to foster a local culture to define yourse lf as a people. A regional place defined exclusively by global culture is, in a sense, a1 colonial place without a culture of its own. Although we are inevitably shaped by global culture, we need to make a local culture, and we need to reinforce the particular in the context of an overwhelming generality. The principle mechanism in the creation of the particular is differentiation. Further, through consideration of certain traditions within modern arch itecture and classical architecture, we have come to question the idealization upon which those traditions are based. We have embraced a pragmatism which, more than mere practicality, is a philosophical pragmatism. Rather than being derived from the presuppositions of action-or idealization - our architectural principles are derived from the results of action. As a consequence our work is directed inevitably toward the characteristic of heterogeneity, the emphasis upon difference and differentiation.

john Patkau March 1995

john G. Dinkeloo, 1918-1981 46

john G. Dinkeloo was born in Holland, Michigan in 1918 and graduated from the architecture program of the Un iversity of Michigan in 1942. Upon graduation he joined the office of Skidmore Owings and Merrill in Chicago where he worked first as a designer and subsequently as the ch ief of production. Eight years later John returned to Michigan to join the office of Ee ro Saarinen and Associates in Bloomfield Hills where he was to become a partner. During this time he was involved with the design of a number of important projects including the TWA Terminal at Kennedy Airport and Dulles Airport in Washington DC as well as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the Morse and Stiles Colleges at Yale University. Following the sudden death of Eero Saa rinen in 1961 John Dinke loo formed a partnership with Kevin Roche becoming a founding partner of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo & Associates in 1966. This practice was to become one of the most distinguished architectural offices in the United States and, with the completion of projects such as the Ford Foundation in New York, the Headquarters for John Deere in Moline and the Oakland Museum, became a practice whose work has been internationally recognized.

John Dinkeloo was responsible for the development of thoughtful and elegant systems of design and detailing. He was involved in many different and highly original technical innovations including the development of different types of glazing, the use of structural neoprene gaskets and of high-strength low-alloy weathering steel in the exposed structures of buildings. ln 1968 he received the Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Six years later the practice received the Architectural Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects. In 199 5 the Ford Foundation Building was se lected for the AlA Twenty-Five-Yea r Awa rd.

John Dinkeloo died in 1981. The John Dinkeloo Memorial Lecture was established at the College of Architecture+ Urban Planning as a recognition of his extraordinary contribution to architecture and to honor the work of this distinguished and highly respected alumnus of the Un iversity of Michigan. The Dinkeloo Lecturers 47

The John Dinkeloo Memorial Lecture at the College of Architecture+ Urban Planning of the University of Michigan has been delivered by architects who are internationally recognized for their work in practice.

1984 Kevin Roche 1985 E. Fay Jones 1986 Robert j. Frasca 1987 William Pederson 1988 Richard Meier 1989 Thomas H. Beebe 1990 Gunnar Birkerts 1991 Them Mayne 1992 Tod Williams & Billie Tsien 1993 Michael McKinnell 1994 Diana Agrest 1995 John Patkau