Sectional Buoyancy

Without the benefit of defining features (urban, rural, dry, wet, introverted, extroverted), the idea of Site is abstracted into the more generic condition of Ground as a lens for understanding how each of these architects positioned their buildings with relationship to the earth, the horizon, and the sky. These are the ubiquitous elements within which Le Corbsuier, Koolhaas, Loos, Mies, Johnson, and the Eames tease out the tensions between technology and nature. The analytical tool of the section reveals the architects’ attitude towards horizon as a measure of the distance between the elevation of the main level of inhabitation and the ground. Each has a unique sense of buoyancy in how the figure of the building is situated between earth and sky. Mies, for example, elevates his slab to eliminate the pictorial foreground of his riparian site to emphasize the middle ground of the river and the background of the horizon as the primary visual elements which describe the experience of the house. Johnson, on the other hand, embeds his slab into the earth, allowing the eye to trace the continuity between the interior brick floor, the grassy lawn, and the soft undulation of the hilly horizon beyond. Le Corbusier, Koolhaas, and Loos each use the terrace as a means of creating an artificial ground plane which regulates the internal landscape of the house with the external landscape of the site. Through a process diagramming, abstraction, and synthesis, this projects takes as its own the particularities of each six projects’ treatment of ground, hinging them forward into a sequence of floors,  ceilings, walls, and roofs which hypothesize appropriation as a tool for discovering unexpected meaning.

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Section Analysis

Each section is positioned along the principle datum of each project, then analyzed against the ground condition to provide metric of sectional buoyancy.

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Structural Analysis

The buildings’ typical bays and load bearing components are identified as structural system prototypes. The layouts are intentionally idealized to maximize appropriation potential.

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Sequencing

The sections are ranked by their buoyancy . The most “sunken” building (Eames house) is positioned at the lowest end of the site, while that which most “floats” (Villa Stein) is located at the top of the site.