introduction of organic structure

8/3/2019 Introduction of Organic Structure

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1.0 Introduction of Organic Structure.

More than green, beyond individual, Organic Architecture describes a way of thinking

about design that transcends the common, everyday buildings around us.

ecological + individual = organic

While Organic Architecture does describe environmental concerns, it also embodies

the human spirit, transcending the mere act of shelter into something which shapes

and enhancesour lives. While Organic Architecture does describe an expression of

individuality, it also explores our need to connect to Nature. Using Nature as our

basis for design, a building or design must grow, as Nature grows, from the inside

out. Most architects design their buildings as a shell and force their way inside.

Nature grows from the idea of a seed and reaches out to its surroundings. A building

thus, is akin to an organism and mirrors the beauty and complexity of Nature.

Understanding the systems of Nature, Eric Corey Freed regards each design as an

organism and each component as an interrelated extension of that organism. He

designs the proper organism for its environment in accord with the relationships of

each piece to the whole, and the whole to the surroundings. Through an extensive

interviewing process, Eric begins to shape this new creature and provides the

biology. The clients are an integral piece of this development as they are the the true


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designers of their building. Through this process we feel our clients are "designing

their autobiography."

The result produces unique and original forms that reflect the personality and needs

of the client that also happen to be environmentally friendly. With a tendency toward

natural forms and materials, these buildings often resemble organic creatures or

plants, but are wholly new and inventive. This creative approach to design results in

the opportunity to create an autobiography for yourself which lives in harmony with

its surroundings and the environment.

Organic architecture can in many ways be very similar to the previously discussed

blobitecture. Instead of emulating nature like blobitecture, organic architecture

attempts to integrate with nature so that the building and the surroundings can be

one. Instead of believing the regular design styles that form follows function, most

organic architects believe that form and function are one. The design is to build the

entire structure from the inside, similar to how a tree grows from the inside of a seed.

1.1 Origin and Inspiration

Primitive vernacular architecture was innately organic, based on natural forms,

structures and simple, local materials. The rectilinear, perpendicular form of

architecture that came to dominate the 20th century was the reflection of an

industrially driven age. However In the new millennium the designers are awakening

to a new world inspired by the creative forces of nature and biological organisms.

It was in the USA that organic architecture began its great modern journey when

Architect Louis Sullivan described his famous proverb that form follows a key

concept for organic design. Frank Lloyd Wright would often choose sites close to

woods, rock formations, or even waterfalls and his buildings would become part of


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nature.

1.2 Characteristics

-The design approach is inspired by nature and the built form grows out of the site,

emerging like an organism from the seed of the nature.

-It is poetic, radical in design, multifaceted and surprising, distinctive but flexible and

environmentally conscious

-Organic architecture is said to be the mother of all architecture-sustainable or bio

architecture, alternative architecture or any other.

1.3 Approach

-A respect for natural materials ( wood should look like wood)

-Blend into the surroundings ( a house should look part of the hill,not perched on it)

-An honest expression of the function of the building


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2.0 Organic Architecture based on Frank

Lloyd Wright

In Examining the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright it is only natural to concentrate

on the three dimensional, on the masterful articulation of solids and voids. After all,

as one of his early students put it, Wright's main concern was obviously not

mechanical delineation, but "that immeasurably greater thing, the large scale

manipulation of spaces and masses into a vital, intrinsic architecture."' With this

observation in mind it is not surprising to learn that much of the detailed drawing and

drafting was left to student assistants. It is also not unusual for those who analyse

Wright's architecture to become preoccupied with the dynamics of a plan or

elevation. To describe spatial continuity writers search for adjectives suggesting

constant movement: "hovering roofs," "embracing rooms," "rhythmic patterns of

sliding lines and planes," and so on. In Spite of the movement inherent in Wright's

architecture, however, none of his buildings is extremely mobile in spirit. They are in

fact substantially monumental in their earth-bound stability.Among the houses the

one possible exception,Falling Water,is securely entrenched in its hillside and only

the dramatic down-slope view,so often photographed,gives the impression of

cantilevered mobility.Thus, as a significant adjunct to a balanced combination of

mobility and monumentality,an ornamental effect,including in the first half of his

career surface patterns,was of main concern to Wright.It Is to this comparatively

neglected aspect of his work that the following paragraphs are devoted.Wright

undoubtedly learned much about Sullivan's notion of "organic ornament" during his

years in the offices of Adler and Sullivan. The importance of "living structure" as a

phrase in his discussions of architecture is equivalent in emphasis to that which

Sullivan places on the term "growth" in explaining the organic principle.In his

Kindergarten Chats the older man points out the lack of growth or change in the

ornament of contemporaneous architecture.One solution is to remove all ornament

momentarily in order to allow the "decayed" matter to be forgotten. Then architects

could start a new with a fresh ornament of the times, for a building without any


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ornament was as unthinkable to Sullivan as a summer tree without leaves.In his

Autobiography,Wright seems to agree with this conclusion and goes so far as to

state the meaning of ornament as the "imagination giving natural pattern to structure

itself.'"'In order to be "natural" a pattern must be as integrated to the structure as

spots are to a leopard,or a patterned shell is to the turtle.These are the identifying

characteristics of nature.In a similar way a building would not be fulfilled or

identifiable as an individual structure without its ornament, something particularly

suited to itself-its "natural pattern."

Organic Architecture can take many forms. It can be designed of varied materials. It

can be anywhere. With consideration of site, and respect of materials, Wright

created masterpiece after masterpiece. These ideas were not originally his, and he

never claimed to own them. He simply advocated for upholding principles of Organic

Architecture in a cultural climate he felt had lost these principles. Wright had a strong

disdain for historical revivalism and was revolted with the previous half a millennium

of the world's architecture preceding his career. He was aghast at the reuse and

feeble imitation of ancient architecture. Wright said that the architecture of the

Renaissance was nothing but a facade -pilasters, arches, this, that, and the other -to

paint a picture. But Wright held sacred the architecture of times before that, becauseancient architecture was Organic Architecture. Wright so admired the indigenous

architecture of the Mayans, Native Americans, Asians, and so on, because they all

built by these principles -the nature of the land, the materials of the land. They built

shelter that would accommodate their basic needs, without unnecessary ornaments

and features, and made them beautiful. Wright loved even the architecture of Greeks

and Romans, but because it was their own. He didn't feel it was necessary, or right

to take the skins of those buildings and recreate them today, but rather take those

principles behind their beauty, and create a natural architecture with modern

materials and engineering, without creating a carbon copy.


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CASE STUDY: Sydney opera house

3.0 Introduction of Sydney opera house

The Sydney Opera House is a masterpiece of late modern architecture and an iconic

building of the 20th century. It is admired internationally and treasured by the people

of Australia. Created by an architect who had been an avid sailor and understood the

sea, the Sydney Opera House inhabits the world-famous maritime location on

Sydney Harbour with such grace that it appears that the building belongs there

naturally. The massive concrete sculptural shells that form the Sydney OperaHouses roof appear like billowing sails filled by the sea winds with the sunlight and

cloud shadows playing across their shining white surfaces. As its Danish architect

John Utzon envisaged, it is like a Gothic cathedral that people will never tire of and

never be finished with.The Sydney Opera House represents a rare and outstanding

architectural achievement: structural engineering that stretched the boundaries of the

possible and sculptural architectural forms that raise the human spirit. It not only

represents the masterwork of Utzon but also the exceptional collaborative

achievements of engineers, building contractors and other architects. The Sydney

Opera House is unique as a great building of the world that functions as a world-

class performing arts centre, a great urban sculpture and a public venue for

community activities and tourism. This monumental building has become a symbol of

its city and the Australian nation. The Sydney Opera House is not a simple entity but

alive with citizens and urbanity. The outstanding natural beauty of the setting of the

Sydney Opera House is intrinsic to its significance. The Sydney Opera House is

situated at the tip of a prominent peninsula projecting into Sydney Harbour (known


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as Bennelong Point) and within close proximity to

the Royal Botanic Gardens and the world famous

Sydney Harbour Bridge. Bennelong Point is flanked

by Sydney Cove, Farm Cove and Macquarie

Street.(refer to picture)

These sites saw the first settlement, farming and

governing endeavours of the colony in the late 18th

and early 19th centuries. Known as Jubgalee by the

traditional Aboriginal custodians (the Cadigal

people), Bennelong Point was a meeting place of Aboriginal and European people

during the early years of the colony. The Sydney Opera House is an exceptional

building composition. Its architectural form comprises three groups of interlocking

vaulted shells, set upon a vast terraced platform and surrounded by terrace areas

that function as pedestrian concourses. The shells are faced in glazed off-white tiles

while the podium is clad in earth-toned, reconstituted granite panels. The two main

halls are arranged side by side, oriented north-south with their axes slightly inclined.

The auditoria are carved out of the high north end of the podium so that they face

south, towards the city, with the stage areas positioned between them and theentrance foyers. The north and south ends of the shells are hung with topaz glass

walls that project diagonally outwards to form foyers, offering views from inside and

outside. The tallest shell reaches the height of a 20-storey building above the water.

The shell structures cover nearly two hectares and the whole site is nearly six

hectares.(picture below)


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3.1 The podium with its concourses, steps and

forecourt

The podium, with its origins in the ancient architectural idea of the raised platform,

becomes in Sydney a continuation and evocation of the local natural terrain, building

as landscape, in a manner similar in intention to that of other great Nordic architects,

notably Asplund, Aalto and Pietil (Carter 2005). The base of the Sydney Opera

House rises up as a massive monolith of reinforced concrete, a grand granite-clad

podium. Its monumental scale forms an artificial promontory that offers continuitywith the harbour-side landscape. The podium measures 183 metres by 95 metres

rising to 25 metres above sea level and was the largest concrete form in the

southern hemisphere in the 1960s. The podium lends a ceremonial aspect to the site

and has been likened to a great stage or an altar of a majestic church. The

inspiration for Utzons design came from Mayan monuments, Chinese temples and

Islamic mosques. Just as the stone platform of Mayan temples allowed worshipers to

escape the jungle, the podium of the Sydney Opera House invites patrons and

visitors to escape the city to a vantage point where they can explore the magnifi cent


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vistas and experience the building. Utzons visits to the Mayan ruins on the Yucatan

Peninsula in Mexico inspired his design for the podium and the wide stairs leading

up to it: The Mayan platform gave a new, cosmic dimension to the terrace by placing

the Indians in touch with the sky and an expanded universe above the jungl. It was

Utzons conclusion that such stone jungle platforms were instruments for the podium

and the wide stairs leading up to it.

3.2 The vaulted roof shells (the shells)

The audience and the performance itself, all taking place on top of the plateau,

should be covered with a light sculptural roof, emphasising the heavy mass of the

plateau below. The vaulted roof shells with their glistening white tiled skin set amidst

the grand waterscape setting of Sydney Harbour are an exceptional architectural

element. Utzon originally conceived them as single layer, rib-reinforced parabolic

shells but they had to be refined during the design, engineering and construction

process. The eventual design solution turned the shells into arched vaults. The

established usage continues to refer to them as shells. The fi nal shape of the shells

was derived from the surface of a single imagined sphere, some 75 metres in

diameter. This geometry gives the building great coherence as well as allowing its


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construction to benefit from the economies of prefabrication. Constructed ingeniously

and laboriously by the Hornibrook Group, each shell is composed of precast rib

segments radiating from a concrete pedestal and rising to a ridge beam. The ribs of

the shells are covered

with chevron-shaped,

precast concrete tile lids

the shallow dishes clad

with ceramic tiles. The

main areas of the shells

are covered in white

glossy tiles with matt tiles

edging each segment.

This creates a beautiful

and ever-changing effect

so that the building

shines without creating a mirror effect. The tiles change colour according to the light

and the perspective and can be anything from salmon pink, ochre, the palest of

violets and cream or ghostly white. The white glazed shells draw attention to their

identity as a freestanding sculpture. The two main shell structures cover the two

main performance venues, known as the Concert Hall and Opera Theatre. The third

set of shells that overlooks Sydney Cove was designed specially to house a

restaurant.


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3.3 The glass walls

Utzon wanted the walls to be expressed as a hanging curtain, a kind of glass

waterfall that swings out as it descends to form a canopy over the lounge terraces

and foyer entrances. Indeed, the north terraces are really great verandas with a

glass canopy cover overlooking the harbour. The glass walls of the Sydney Opera

House are a special feature of the building. They were constructed according to

architect Peter Halls modified design. The open end and sides of the shells are filled

by hanging glass curtain walls. The topaz glazed infill between the shells and the

podium was built as a continuous laminated glass surface with facetted folds tied to

a structure of steel mullions. A special feature is the canting out of the lowest

sheets, which allows views out without reflections. The glass walls flood the building

with sunlight and open it to the evening views of the city and harbour. Visitors often

stand in the foyers under the shells mesmerised by the towering glass walls and

intrigued at how the walls are held upright.


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3.4 Performance halls

The Sydney Opera House has two main performance halls, the Concert Hall and the

Opera Theatre. Utzon likened the relationshipbetween the performance spaces and the

shells to the structure of a walnut: the

walnuts hard shell protects the kernels

slightly wobbled form. His original design

conceived the halls as being largely

constructed of plywood and hanging

independently within the vaulted shells so that

their forms could be adapted to create the

best acoustical performance. During the final

design and construction of the halls after Utzons departure in 1966, plywood was

used in only one of the halls. The Concert Hall is the largest performance space of

the Sydney Opera House and accommodates up to 2700 people. Fitted high on the

southern wall behind

the stage is one of the largestmechanical-action pipe organs in the

world (Murray 2004: 135). Birch

plywood, formed into radiating ribs on

the suspended hollow raft ceiling,

extends down the walls to meet

laminated brush-box linings that match

the floor. The Opera Theatre is theSydney base for Opera Australia and the

Australian Ballet, and a regular venue for

the Sydney Dance Company. Its walls

and ceiling are painted black and the floor is brush-box timber. The Drama Theatre,

the Playhouse and the Studio were developed as new performance spaces after

Utzons departure. They are located in the podium.


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3.5 Public and back of house interiors

Peter Halls design for the interiors used different finishes to distinguish the various

spaces in the building. Utzon regarded the foyers as outside spaces, designed to be

seen clearly through the glass walls. In keeping with Utzons vision the foyer fabric

was designed with the same natural palette of textures and colours as the exterior.

Off-form concrete painted white was used for the internal podium walls. Other

spaces that were to be used heavily by patrons, visitors, artists and staff were

finished in the same white birch veneer as the Concert Hall. The veneer, which was

applied to ply panels moulded to a shallow U shape, was used in various forms to

conceal services, absorb sound and accommodate the changing geometry in the

building. Affectionately known as wobblies, the panels were used throughout the

complex, most notably in the Drama Theatre and the Playhouse and their foyers, the

major corridor systems and toilet facilities. The white birch veneer in its various forms

brought visual unity to the performers and staff spaces within the podium.


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Upper floor plan of Sydney opera house

Lower floor plan


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Elevation


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4.0 Conclusion

By study the structure of Sydney Opera House,I can conclude that, an organicstructure need a deep and lot of work. All of the element in the building and also

around the building need to be include as consideration, because an organic

structure is a big word and need to be as it should. The interior of the structure also

need to be organic. The Sydney Opera House itself show how unique of the organic

architecture. From the faade to the interior of the structure. The structure is directly

connect to its surrounding.. The skyline of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the blue

water of the harbour and the Sydney Opera House, viewed from a ferry or from theair, is dramatic and unforgettable. Besides, Utzon's design was, arguably, beyond

the capabilities of engineering of the time. Utzon spent a couple of years reworking

the design and it was 1961 before he had solved the problem of how to build the

distinguishing feature - the 'sails' of the roof.


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5.0 Bibliography

http://www.architecture411.com/notes/note.php?id_note=9

http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/assessments/bilateral/pubs/soh-

utzondesignprinciples.pdf

http://ashet.org.au/images/Opera-House.pdf

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/166

Art Journal,vol 25,Autumn 1995,ornamentation and the organic architecture of

Frank Lloyd wright, by james M.Dennis and L.B.Wenneber, College Art

Association http://architecturehomedesignz.com/search/sydney-opera-house-organic-architecture/
http://www.architecture411.com/notes/note.php?id_note=9http://www.architecture411.com/notes/note.php?id_note=9http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/assessments/bilateral/pubs/soh-utzondesignprinciples.pdfhttp://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/assessments/bilateral/pubs/soh-utzondesignprinciples.pdfhttp://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/assessments/bilateral/pubs/soh-utzondesignprinciples.pdfhttp://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/assessments/bilateral/pubs/soh-utzondesignprinciples.pdfhttp://ashet.org.au/images/Opera-House.pdfhttp://ashet.org.au/images/Opera-House.pdfhttp://whc.unesco.org/en/list/166http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/166http://architecturehomedesignz.com/search/sydney-opera-house-organic-architecture/http://architecturehomedesignz.com/search/sydney-opera-house-organic-architecture/http://architecturehomedesignz.com/search/sydney-opera-house-organic-architecture/http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/166http://ashet.org.au/images/Opera-House.pdfhttp://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/assessments/bilateral/pubs/soh-utzondesignprinciples.pdfhttp://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/assessments/bilateral/pubs/soh-utzondesignprinciples.pdfhttp://www.architecture411.com/notes/note.php?id_note=9


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CONTENTS

1.0 Introduction of Organic Structure

- 1.1 Origin and Inspiration

- 1.2 Characterictics.

- 1.3 Approach

2.0 Organic Architecture based on Frank Lloyd Wright.

3.0 Introduction of Sydney Opera House

- 3.1 The podium with its concourses,step and forecourt

- 3.2 The vaulted roof shells

- 3.3 The glass wall

- 3.4 Performance hall..

- 3.5 Public back of house interiors

- 3.6 Plan and Section...

4.0 Conclusion.

5.0 Bibliography


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introduction of organic structure

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