Architecture begins with a 9-square grid.
Space is the most fundamental concept in architecture, and architecture has been referred to by many architectural theorists as the organization of humanly meaningful spaces. Articulating expressive spaces that are not only perceived but also project emotional bonds is what architecture entails.
Guess the hours of sleep I lost because of this project, 15 hours? 20 hours? Even I can’t give a precise estimate of that, but I did lose sleep during the cause of the weeks of this project. I would leave my room at 8 am and not return until 11 pm, not considering that I stayed up from dusk till dawn virtually every day. It’s that tedious.
This project was the first project of the semester, it required us to design a place of habitation for a family of 4, I was required to plan the spaces in the proposed place with some given geometrical shapes. During my freshman year, I saw the then 200 level students do this project and it seemed very interesting to me. I have since looked forward to this project.
The project appeared different from the four projects we did in the previous semester. The first instinct I had with this project was to produce an iconic building to design a building that looks like a known object in plan or elevation.
After doing further research I moved away from my initial idea and adopted a grid approach. This architectural theory is an outstanding one by John Hejduk, the popular New York architect and architecture professor, who was very interested in basic design concepts like shape, symmetry, organization, and reciprocity, and is known famously for the statement “Architecture begins with 9 square boxes”.
AAt this stage of my research for this project I started sketching with John Hedjuk’s 9 square boxes. The dilemma I faced trying to combine the given shapes to form a balanced geometrical plan was instantly solved. I proceeded to make a spatial analysis of the place of habitation for a family of 4. I then came up with a bubble diagram showing the positions of the spaces and their relationship to one another.
I placed one of the shapes, a circle at the center of the grid, then aligned the other shapes to this shape at the center. The shape at the center was a circle that housed a courtyard in the building and was the nexus of the building. This courtyard served the purpose of circulation and ventilation for the living room and family lounge, both adjacent to the courtyard. The open courtyard also provides ample illuminance to the entire public spaces in the building.
The open courtyard makes the entire public space in the building excessively lit, in contrast to the lobby that welcomes visitors from the anteroom into the living room. Visitors coming from the dimly lit lobby into the excessively lit courtyard have a positive feeling about the aesthetics of the interior of the building. Even though open to the courtyard, the family lounge maintains its private character and provides good views of the outdoor area. A good deal of attention was placed on the kitchen which is accessed from the living room. It is a 32-meter square space that also accommodates the dining area.
To end with, the project was an attempt to solve the problem of ensuring adequate ventilation and lighting in the indoor spaces, to ensure the best position of different spaces concerning structural considerations, and otherwise, to design an aesthetically pleasing and geometrically balanced building using the given shapes. These challenges were met to the best of my knowledge of architecture.
This essay was an attempt to articulate and improve my design thinking and architectural writing skills. Thank you for your interest in this writing. Stay in touch as I bring your way more of this in an improved way.
