E-041

Moore House, Orinda, California . Charles Moore . 1962

'Orinda House, also known as “Moore House” is located in a valley behind San Francisco,  was designed by architect Charles W. Moore for himself and built in 1962. In this project, Moore experimented with very simple means the possibility to recreate a project that could embody references to different moments of architectural history and that would allow an unconventional distribution and space articulation.

The small project is based on simple geometry and on the archetypal square plan to create a direct relationship with architectural archetypes such as the primitive hut or a Hindu temple.

A pyramidal roof with a flat sky window on top emerges from the outside walls and is supported by a combination of elements: a ring of beams laid on the exterior walls and some of the wooden columns inhabiting the interior space, while the whole house rests on a simple, concrete foundation. The corners of the building, materialized by sliding barn-like doors, are never touched by the outside walls. The doors can be opened to let the light to get in, underlining the continuity between inside and outside.

Eight columns, in groups of four, sustain two aediculae of different dimensions supporting two asymmetrical pyramidal roofs located within the main roof. These two sub-spaces inside the larger volume articulate the interior, and as they are painted white, they contrast with the rest of the surfaces. Between the two pavilions, a high bookcase structures the place for the beds. Only the toilet, some shelves and the cooking area are enclosed behind a wall, while all the rest of the space is freely distributed under the main roof.'

http://socks-studio.com/2017/01/29/archetypes-and-free-plan-orinda-house-by-charles-w-moore/

E-040

Norrköping House . Sverre Fehn . 1963-64

'The Norrköping Villa was designed by Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn in 1963-64 as a model architecture for an ideal family of four. The 150 m2 house was designed for the exhibition NU 64 and it is a project which was not intended specifically for its building site in Norrköping, but conceived to be independent of any plot, an autonomous architecture responding only to its own internal rules.

The plan is cross-shaped and symmetrical with a central square core hosting services, bathrooms, toilets, kitchen and storage spaces and a second square, without any specific function, surrounding it. In the middle of the four edges of the second square are four “c-shaped” walls which can host the private rooms or be left open and empty in continuity with the central open area. The exterior c-shaped walls are made of bricks while all the corners are glazed with a massive wooden frame. The flat roof covering the central area is lifted to let the light enter the central core. This exercise in symmetry, geometrical control, plan organization based on the module of the square is said by the architect to have been inspired by the architectural principles Palladio developed in his villas.'

http://socks-studio.com/2016/06/18/a-palladian-villa-in-sweden-the-norrkoping-house-by-sverre-fehn-1963-64/

E-036

Quinta da Conceição, Matosinhos . Fernando Távora . 1956-60

'La Quinta da Conceição era una propiedad particular que el ayuntamiento de Matosinhos decidió transformar en parque público. El interés de la obra reside precisamente en la interpretación arquitectónica del cambio de programa. La mayor alteración introducida por el proyecto consiste en la apertura de nuevas entradas y de un nuevo eje de circulación que las une. El resto de los recorridos del parque se organizan a partir de los vestigios arquitectónicos y paisajísticos de los usos anteriores, como dominio de un convento en el siglo XV y como propiedad particular en época más reciente. Los pavimentos, muros y vegetación introducidos por el proyecto «explican» los vestigios, prologándolos sin mimetismo. El pabellón de apoyo a las pistas de tenis se levanta en la parte superior del terreno, dominando toda la zona libre de vegetación paralela al nuevo eje de circulación. El diseño en consola de la terraza y de la cubierta enfatiza la posición de remate de la edificación, simbolizando al mismo tiempo la función lúdica del parque'

http://www.docomomoiberico.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1725:pabellon-de-tenis-de-la-quinta-da-conceicao&Itemid=11&vista=1&lang=en

E-035

Case di vacanze. Arzachena (Sassari) . Marco Zanuso . 1962-64

'In una lottizzazione del 1962 che da una strada vicinale disegna porzioni di terrada 4 ettari in lingue strette e lunghe che puntano al mare, troviamo collocate due case per vacanze dalla pianta quadrata. Costruite in contemporanea tra il 1963 e il 1964 a venti metri dall’acqua, esse appaiono uniche presenze in un paesaggio aspro e vuoto, disegnato solo dai recinti dei muri a secco dei pascoli. E una Sardegna dei primordi, appena sfiorata dalle imprese dell’Aga Khan dove lo skyline della costa appare completamente sgombro.
L’alloggio estivo per due famiglie milanesi in una Costa Smeralda che non ha neanche la luce elettrica viene spinto tipologicamente da Zanuso verso l’identificazione con l’alloggio-ovile sardo di cui il ‘correr’ recinto di prima misurazione della campagna, e in pianta la forma generatrice.
Abitare qui nello spirito delluogo significa soprattutto ripararsi per alcune ore della giornata che per il resto viene vissuta in esterni o schermarsi dal vento che batte insistentemente. Tra il ripararsi e lo schermarsi si vengono elaborando queste due piccole fortezze primordiali, niente altro che due recinti di 15 x 15m di lato dotati di un tetto e tirato su dallo spiccato nell’unico materiale onnipresente: il granito.
Una fascia di sassi arrotonda di grosse dimensioni disegnat perlopiu dal vento persistente e in posizione di avanguardaverso il mare. Alle spalle, una perimetrazione agrícola da pastorizia rimanda ad un mon chiuso dalle tradizioni arciach proprietario del terreno risultante poi essere il muratore stesso delle due case. Per il resto, sa mirto e olivastri nella piu estre delle vegetazioni mediterraneo.
Di tre tipi, grigio chiarissimo, giallo e rosa bruciato il granito dei muri si estende alle case nell’unica possibife forma di costruzione di tipo tradizionale di blocchi erratici uniti con malta di calce e cemento a doppia faccia a vista. Un muratore del paese costruira da solo in dodici mesi le due case tagliando a spacco i blocchi in peaature variabili tra i 25 e i 40 cm e gettando poi lui stesso le solette e le gronde in cemento armato.
Planimetricamonte tra l’una e l’altra delle case. Zanuso stabilira un angolo di rotazione a conferma di come l’asse di riferimento non sia un fronte astratto, ma un allineamento dettato dalla variazione mistilínea del disegno della costa rispetto al la qua le si vuole stabilire un principio di corrispondenza.
All’interno del recinto la pianta verra elaborata su un reticolo di 9 quadrati ideali di cuí se ne conteranno 4 occupati da pieni(tre ca mere da letto piu una zona cucina-pranzo) e 5 da vuoti in configurazione di croce greca di cuí uno ‘pieno’ per la presenza fissa di un tavolo all’aperto ed un altro parzialmente occupato da servizi (bagno e torno-camino).
Smussati sugli spigoli da un tagl io a 30° che ne segnera gli ingressi, i quadrati pieni graviteranno decisamente sul centro della corte nella zona coperta da un graticcio di canne.
Luce, ombra, ventilazione si alterna no al l’interno del recinto in un elementare quanto antropologicamente attento gioco d i scambi tra aperto e chiuso.
L’elegante doppio sistema del le chiusure nello spigolo e risolto in un’anta secca da 90 cm che viene riposta nello spessore del muro e da un sistema di persiane in legno di abete trattato con carbol inium ad anteasimmetriche. Una doppia opzione di chiusura: sul filo interno diagonale della camera si avra una porta piena e una chiusura definitiva del l’ambiente, sul filo esterno a completare il quadrato del la muratura le ante asimmetriche elegantemente tag liate nelle doghe da fen diture vert icali consenti ranno fin dalle camere, fin dai letti, una permeabi li tá visiva completa fino al punto centra le del tavolo in granito della corte in un’idea di schermatu ra più che di vera chiusura.
Una dialettica tra aperto e chiuso ribaltabile anche all’esterno: dal mare la casa-recinto offre lo spigolo piú ricco e il suo momento illusionistico più forte nei due lati che presentano aperture. Da quel punto, grazie ai due v uoti dell’ ingresso e del finestrone e al le posizioni angolari del le stanze, il tutto si smaterial izza e si comincia a pensare che l’edificio non ci sia, che non esistano volumi coperti, che il 15 x 15 m non racchiuda stanze o ambienti ma un semplice recint o acielo aperto per pastori.'

http://hicarquitectura.com/2017/06/marco-zanuso-case-di-vacanze-arzachena-sassari-1962-1964/

E-034

Mathsson summer house, Frösakull, Sweden . Bruno Mathsson . 1960

'Frösakull consists of a base platform measuring 10x15 metres, on which a structure of galvanized iron is erected. The walls are made of corrugated plastic, South American wood (“parapine”) and glass which have been attached directly to the structure. The roof was made by fl exing translucent opal-white acrylic plastic between the rafters to form six barrel-vaults that run across the structure enclosing the entire space except for the inner court. Under the transparent vaults and steel rafters, a ceiling of angled and mounted wood slats is suspended, sifting the light like venetian blinds. The house has two yards: an inner court enclosed with corrugated plastic and thus screened from view, and a sun patio that is not on the platform, but is enclosed with the same corrugated plastic thus incorporating it into the body of the building. The layout is very simple; the building consists of two parts: a closed part with north-facing wooden walls for the bedrooms and bathroom/toilet, and an open part with corrugated plastic walls and a roof covering half the space that makes up the living room and inner courtyard. The only different part is the little sun patio, added as an extension to one of the façades.'

Helena Mattsson

http://www.mikaelolsson.se/media/ahomeisnotahousehelenamattssonsteidlverlagmikaelolsson.pdf

E-032

New Baris Village, Kharga . Hassan Fathy . © A Kawatli . 1965-67

'Discovery of a large water well sixty kilometers south of the Kharga Oasis in 1963, which had been estimated to have the capacity to continuously irrigate up to 1000 acres of land, led the Organization for Desert Development to propose an agricultural community here at that time. 
This remote and forbidding wilderness outpost, which is almost in the geographical centre of Egypt, was planned to initially house 250 families, of which more than half were intended to be farmers and the remainder to be service personnel. His previous experience with such a project, and particularly his ability to build it inexpensively, made Fathy the logical choice as the architect for New Baris.
Without a visible clientele to design for, Fathy concentrated on a thorough study of both the traditional architecture and climate of the region. In addition to examining the fourth century AD mudbrick ruins of the necropolis of Bagawat nearby, he also closely observed the existing village of Kharga, where the material used, as well as the width and orientation of the streets and introverted forms of the houses effectively offset summer temperatures as high as 50C degrees that could potentially cause serious physiological problems for the people living there.
These considerations, along with the additional need for the cold storage of the fruits and vegetables grown by the community prior to shipping, and the impossibility of providing air-conditioning, led Fathy to focus on natural systems as the formative influence on the new village. For this reason, the souk, or market place, became the active heart of a community which spirals out to fit a rather steeply graded ridge on either side of it. This souk, and other communal buildings around it, differ from their predecessors at New Gourna both in the more realistic choice of functions represented and the compactness of the open spaces between the buildings themselves.
To solve the problem of the cold storage of perishables, Fathy turned to the physical solutions provided by the thermal mass of materials used and the manipulation of natural air movement as the only possible answers. By putting the storage areas below grade and refining the malkaf designs he had used previously by adding baffles, incrementally reduced airshafts and secondary towers to accelerate circulation, temperature reductions of up to 15C degrees were achieved.'

https://archnet.org/collections/11/sites/2560

E-018

Sea Ranch Condominium, Califormia . Charles Moore . 1963-65

'Confronted with designing the condominium complex of Sea Ranch on a spectacular Pacific Ocean site north of San Francisco, Moore Lyndon Turnbull Whitaker tightly grouped the units around a courtyard with traditional shed roofs an intersecting and towerlike wall planes, creating an overall commanding form but one of identifiably individual parts, at once casual and modest, open to views and sun yet sheltered and protected from the wind. It was a concept of cluster designed to preserve the openness of a rugged and beautiful site, the California wood tradition projected into a mid-sixties leaner sensibility and aesthetic, with a builder's type awareness of economy'

'American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century'. Paul Heyer. Ed.Wiley, 1993. p106-107

E-012

Project E-2 . Hiromi Fujii . 1968-1971

'Project E-2 (1968-1971) by Hiromi Fujii is an example of the Japanese architect’s research on “neutral” architecture, one liberated from any burden of stylistic or historical reference. The works of this period are marked by an intense research on the grid as the most abstract way to organize architectural space.

In this specific project, a house is structured on a sequence of two rows of six adjacent square rooms which are connected one another to form an “enfilade”. Each room is equipped with specific built-in furniture that is concentrated at the center of the square, to leave free circulation on the four sides. An identical row of square rooms is connected to the first one, but this time, the rooms are empty and deprived of a roof to make an exterior counterpoint to the house.

In order to enhance the abstract nature of the project, the projections are all drawn on squared sheets of paper. The projects, which stands at the center of the paper sheet, seems to materialize out of the square pattern as if its structural and formal logics are already intrinsically contained within the grid.'

http://socks-studio.com/2016/09/10/materializing-abstract-space-project-e-2-a-house-by-hiromi-fujii-1968-71/

E-003

Sea Ranch Condominium, Califormia . Charles Moore . 1963-65

'Los apartamentos responden a la idea de espacio único con ambientes diferentes construida mediante la inserción de un "edículo" que contiene, en un altillo, el dormitorio y el aseo y, debajo de él, un lugar caracterizado de la casa. Este edículo se reconoce como un volumen propio dentro del amplio espacio interior que forma el apartamento, con claras referencias a edificios agrícolas. Cada interior se asoma al paisaje mediante una galería o un balcón, que se proyecta hacía el exterior del volumen; el resto de la iluminación se produce cenitalmente desde la cubierta'

http://josejove.blogspot.com.es/2013/04/sea-ranch-charles-moore-1963-65.html

E-002

Sonsbeek Paviljoen, Arnhem . Aldo van Eyck . 1966

'Six parallel walls almost 4m high are placed with a distance of 2.5m from each other. The way the walls bend forming semicircular spaces and the sudden cuts transform this simple pattern in a complex spatial device'

http://socks-studio.com/2013/11/18/sonsbeek-pavilion-in-arnhem-aldo-van-eyck-1966/