1. Name the designer and describe their background and their field of design work.
Jørn Utzon
He was born on the ninth of April 1918 and raised in Aalborg, a small town in Copenhagen. He was greatly influenced by his father in his early years as he worked as an naval architect and engineer and was a manager of the local dock and ship yards.
The world renowned Danish designer, Jørn Utzon, was practically unknown up until the age of 38. When he entered in the the “International competition for a national opera house at Bennelong Point, Sydney.”( http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/about/the_architect.aspx). When number 218 was named winner his life was changed for ever.
He was a promising scholar and wanted to follow in has fathers foot steps until he was offered and opportunity to study Architecture at the Copenhagen Royal Academy of Arts. After studying there for many years he gained his diploma. When he graduated in 1942, during world war 2 he lived and worked in Sweden where he ls claimed he got some of his influences from. The person that inspired him was Gunnar Asplund and Later Alvar Aalto, which he got to work with a short time after the war in Finland.
Utzon’s travels and life experiences shaped and manufactured his ideas for the Opera House and his other designs. His childhood memories of sailing and helping design and craft boats inspired him on how the shapes of the Opera House would be sails. Along with his maritime background, which helped decide what materials and how they would actually be made.
The field of design that he was involved with is architecture, he did this in a very modern and large scale, progressing from the designing of state of the arch housing projects such as the ‘Frendsonborg Housing develop...
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...detail and is carried out in an unorthodox manner, where the maximum use of models and prototypes secures that nothing is introduced into the scheme, before it has been carefully investigated and has proved to be the right solution to the problem.” Jørn Utzon, ‘Descriptive Narrative, Sydney Opera House’ January 1965
Experimentation
“Successful flood lighting can only be achieved through experimentation on the surface concerned.” Jørn Utzon, ‘Descriptive Narrative, Sydney Opera House’ January 1965
Some points such as Material research, Models and Experimentaion show just how committed he was to his job and how much thought would go into the design till it was perfect.
6. Identify the major technological processes that the designer uses to facilitate his/her design work.
7. Compare and describe how these processes could best be duplicated in a school-based project.
By giving the biographies of architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander, Hines does nothing to remedy his aimless writing. He writes that Neutra had a variety of experience as an archi...
Lawson, Bryan. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. 4th ed. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2006.
In this paper I will present two differing views on the topic of the design argument. In particular, I will explain William Paley's view supporting the design argument and Bertrand Russell's view against the design argument. After a presentation of the differing views, I will then evaluate the arguments to show that William Paley has a stronger argument.
Frank Lloyd Wright is widely known and is considered to be America’s greatest architect. He is considered, in the eyes of many, to be the most consequential American architect of the 20th century. “Strongly individualistic, flamboyant, and arrogant, Wright designed and built more than four hundred structures that reflect his architectural genius. Directly and indirectly, he heavily influenced twentieth century architecture with his diverse use of geometry in his designs” (Eisenman).
It is the new decade after the end of world war two and modernism is a well-established practice. Its pioneers and spearheads are prevalent figures looming over the new architects and designers who are trying to make their mark in the shadows of such historically influential people. With new technologies and materials emerging from the world wars the next era of modernism had started to evolved, bringing with it philosophies and ideas which seemed far removed from those of the pioneers of modernism “What emerged in the late 1940s and 1950s was an expanding synthesis of questions utterly removed from the confident statements of the pioneers.”(Spade 1971,10) Two significant buildings were designed in the 50's, both of them for educational institutes and to house students of architecture, there were both designed in completely different styles and methods. The first is Ludwig Mies van der Rohes' Crown Hall, finished in 1956 and designed as a part of a campus master plan for the Illinois Institute of technology in Chicago. Mies' design for Crown Hall is one of his most realised expressio...
Who discovered America? The common answer to this question would most likely be Christopher Columbus. However, many explorers and adventurers came to America before Columbus. Viking Leif Ericsson was one of these explorers. Ericsson visited, and may have even discovered, the land that became America on one of his many adventures away from his native Greenland. The life, discoveries, and legacy of Leif Erikson are an important piece of history that not many are familiar with.
Thomas Herzog was born in during World War 2 (1941), in Munich, Germany. In 1965 he completed his diploma for architecture at the Technische Universität München (University of München) and in 1973 he became Germany’s youngest professor of architecture at the age of thirty-two. He is now known famously for his work on eco-tech architecture.
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906-January 25, 2005) was an influential American architect who played a significant role in both understanding and creating recognizable landmarks and buildings internationally and throughout the country. With his influence as a historical architect, he has had a tremendous effect on today’s generations of architects and his legacy will live on through his inspirational buildings and works. Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio to a well known Dutch family who is recognized for laying out the first town plan of the Dutch settlement, known as New Amsterdam. Born in New York, Johnson often took time off of school for extended trips to Europe, causing his love and fascination with architecture. In 1928, he met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who at the time was designing the German Pavilion, and had also joined forces with the architectural historian Henry Russell Hitchcock, forming a lifelong competitive and collaborative relationship that inspired Johnson to discover his new profound love for architecture. Johnson was an influential individual within pop culture, not only with his modern buildings, but also was mentioned in David Bowie’s, “Thru These Architect’s Eyes” and appeared in Nathaniel Kahn’s 2003 documentary, “My Architect”, which highlighted Louis Kahn’s legacy of being one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. “Johnson the hedonist had little truck with the view that architecture could be a force for social good but viewed it as an aesthetic experience, a triumph of style that would dominate the skylines of corporate America. Not surprisingly, he was viewed as morally suspect by many of the austerely ascetic founders of Modernism” (The Times). Philip Johnson played a signific...
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was born in a small fishing village in Denmark. (If a last name ends in sen, the person is probably from Denmark; in son, probably from Sweden). At age fourteen Andersen journeyed to Copenhagen to pursue either an acting or writing career. He auditioned as an opera singer, was a humiliating failure and spent the next three years anguishing in abject poverty.
“L’auditorium asimmetrico” from the architecture journal “Abitare” briefly summarises the Opera House briefly as Hadid’s first building that has been attended by a high-level British diplomatic delegation at the opening ceremony.1 The unusual significance of this building hints its extraordinary structure and form. The design has been made up by two buildings sitting on a promenade facing to the Pearl River; symbolising the idea of geological crystallisation of two pebbles from the river.2 The main building includes the auditorium and administration space, while the smaller building serves various functions, opening up the space to a wider range of audience.3 The smaller building floats on the mirror pool reinforced the idea of the architecture being part of the cityscape as the water reflects the surrounding skyscrapers; literally blending the design into the city skyline.4 As the title of the article suggests, the Opera House’s asymmetrical auditorium is one of the most marvellous achievements by the architects as well as by the acousticians. The idea of the asymmetrical auditorium might have been carried on from the unbuilt Cardiff Opera House.5 The unique form of th...
The German Pavilion, more commonly known as the Barcelona Pavilion, is one of the most recognizable buildings of the modern period during the early 20th century. It encapsulates every element of modern architecture in one structure. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the fathers of modern architecture, was the architect of this beautiful building. In this essay I will explore how Mies impacted the modern movement in architecture through his groundbreaking ideas using the Barcelona Pavilion as a case study.
Last year, I was involved in designing a roof for a proposed Tate Modern extension in a project sponsored by architecture firm Ove Arup. For this, I gained a Crest 'Gold' Award but more importantly the opportunity to investigate something from a technical point of view, thus branching away from my mainly unscientific subject base.
During the last century Copenhagen has seen major changes in the physical construct of the city but who was involved and what changes have occurred? When did these changes occur? Where were the main areas of development? Why was this change needed? And also, was it a successful development? Main case studies for this discussion include Copenhagen’s post-war master plan for it’s city looking at how it seamless integrated its transport systems, pedestrian walkways and businesses along with housing and zooming in further to the Ørestad district and its development which includes various architecture projects by practices such as BIG. By beginning to find answers to these questions through different sources and analysing them not only through words but also by illustrations and diagrams, an understanding of Copenhagen’s development can be begun to be made. Before these questions can be answered a step back should be made reflecting Copenhagen’s history.
Workshops designed by Gropius in 1925. The incredible, intricate design of the opera house is a wonderful illustration of everything that the modernist wanted to stray away from; the gold statues and carefully carved stone existed as nothing more than beauty for the sake of being beautiful. However, working in an era still feeling the staggering tolls of the Great War, Gropius designed his workshops to be very straightforward. Not only was there no need for these superfluous adornments, there was also a scarcity of resources, which lead Gropius to use cost-effective materials such as glass and concrete for the majority of his buildings. However, there was still beauty in such a simplified work. From the shine of the glass to the sharp and precise geometry, there was still art to be found for everyone wh...
of their buildings. One of the basic questions that this paper will be seeking to answer is whether architects and critics accepted ...