5 pages essay

Chapter Three I Basic O r g a n i z a t i o n s : The P a r t i

Before ull else, an aesthetic, a work of art, are sys- tems. An attitude is not a system. Genius is a separate and fated thing. Genius gains utterance with the aid of systems. There is no work of art without system.

I -AMEDGE OZENFANT AND LE CORBUSIER

Thus far, we have looked at strategies for formal organization which deal with simple configurations; conditions in which buildings act as objects or centers against a neutral back- ground of continuous space; or conditions in which buildings form edges to define positive, spatial figures. However, it is rare to find either condition operating in its purest form. In the world around us nothing is wholly isolated from its environment. Most organizations of form are hybrid, comprised of multiple and mixed elements. The concept of the parti is

1 used to simplify our understanding of formal ~ organizations. Deriving from the French word

partir (to depart), a parti is a point of departure for an architectural idea. In the Ecole des Beaux Arts, the French school of the arts, the term re- ferred to organizational ideas used in quick sketches, or esquisses, which the students pre- pared in a few hours, and then elaborated for the next few months.

A parti is a clear, strong, abstract diagram which is used as the organizational armature for a more complicated arrangement of form.

Partis can be drawn from elemental geometry: for example, organizations can be cubic, linear, or circular. Partis can make use of a datum or a neutral ground against which variations can be understood. In musical notation, the relative position of notes with respect to the five lines of the musical staff make it possible to read the different notes with precision. In architecture, diverse structures can serve as data, such as planes, lines, grids, and walls. Partis can be metaphorical, borrowing structures that are es- sentially zoomorphic, vegemorphic, mechanistic, or whatever. A very crude ex- ample of a parti is the lay-out of a typical shopping mall. Malls usually adhere to a 'dumb-bell' parti in which anchor department stores occupy each end of a linear system and rows of smaller shops stretch between them. Without the use of formal concepts like 'dumb- bell' or 'bar' the task of arranging a hundred stores can be overwhelming. With such a model in mind, the architect has solved basic issues of organization and can concentrate on refinements.

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3.1 Persian rug.

Transformations of simple formal organiza- tions often serve as the major idea of a design scheme. Actions like 'rotation,' 'reflection,' 'shifting,' 'shearing,' 'translation,' 'displacement' 'repetition,' 'variation,' 'reversal,' 'scaling,' 'in- version,' 'recursion,' etc., are often applied to an initial organization to create more complex ar- rangements of parts which nonetheless are logically connected to one another. Later on in this text we shall see that sometimes the struc- ture of an architectural idea is not drawn from form and geometry but from reference to story lines, or 'narratives,' methods of literary criti- cism, or the very process of manipulating form

itself. However, we shall stick to basics for the moment.

J u s t a s a d a t u m serves a s a ground against which subsequent arrangements of elements can be understood, it is useful first to establish a simple, legible order be- fore a transformation can be meaningful. Hence, designs make use of paradigms or ideal models. The most basic, elemental para- digm derives from the ancient structure of the 'Paradise garden,' often represented in the de- sign of traditional Persian rugs. Essentially a four-square grid, the carpet pattern is divided by stripes representing the four rivers flowing from Paradise. The rivers extend outwards in each of the cardinal directions until they en- counter the surrounding garden wall. The intersection of the four rivers marks the center, which fixes the location of a fountain pool, the source of all fruitfulness. The four-square orga- nization of the overall composition recurs at reduced scale in each of the four quadrants, set- ting up a more complex nesting of dominate - A - and secondary formal orders. This perfect bal- ance between center and perimeter and the suggestion of an organizational hierarchy which extends from the whole to the detail was con- sidered for millennia to be a model of earthly harmony: Paradise.

The Vitruvian Man is another classic para- digm of formal order. While the present example by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) comes from the Renaissance, its origins date back to the writings of Vitruvius, a Roman ar- chitect whose Terz Books on Architecture is the only extant architectural treatise from antiquity. As in the paradise garden, geometrical figures are subdivided into four parts, but this time the

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imposition of cross axes on the centralized scheme reflects the order inherent in the human body. In Leonardo's drawing, the human figure is simultaneously inscribed into the ideal forms of the square and circle. Indeed, the human form can almost be seen to generate these per- fect forms through its own perfection. Leonardo's Vitruvian Man is positioned two ways in this drawing. A y-axis is described by the legs, torso and head while an x-axis is de- scribed by the outstretched arms. This position generates the square and reflects the order of the square at the same time. Superimposed on this drawing is another human figure with his feet outstretched and his arms raised upwards at an angle. This position generates the circle and reflects the shared radial disposition of the circle and the human body.

Leonardo's genius in his design of the Vitru- vian Man comes from the slipping of the circle with respect to the square, creating two centers. The circie, the form connected b y Platonic and Pythagorean tradition to the heavens, is ar- ranged around a sacred center, the navel. The square, the form likewise connected to the earth, is arranged around a profane center, the phallus. Moreover, the arithmetically modu- lated scale at the bottom of the drawing gives measure to the square but further breaks down its dimensions to reflect correspondence with those of the body. The human figure itself is articulated into a series of rectangles related by harmonic proportion, considered in the Renais- sance to be the proportional system which governed the distribution of the heavenly bod- ies. Hence, Leonardo's scheme not only links the proportions and lineaments of the human figure to divine geometry, but also connects the

3.2 Leonardo da Vinci, Vifuzivian Man, c.1500

3.3 Cesare Cesariano, Vitruviaii. Man, 1523.

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3.4 Left: S. Serlio, Round Temple plan, c. 1537.

3.5 Riglzt: S. Serlio, Square Te~rzple plan, c. 1537.

cosmological, ideal harmony of divine order to natural, earthly form.

By comparison, Cesare Cesariano's (1483- 1543) Vitruvian Man nests the circle, square and human figure around a single center, yield- ing a diminished range of meanings and an 'ideal man' with something less than ideally proportioned hands and feet, stubby legs, and a tiny head. To derive subsequent measure re- lated to the overall scheme, Cesariano applied a neutral grid to the entire background. While the grid sheds light on the dimensional proper- ties of the geometrical figures, it does not succeed in reconciling these dimensions with those of the human figure.

While seldom used with the incisive preci- sion of Leonardo, the basic paradigms of the four-square grid and a centralized, radial orga- nization occur over and over again in architecture. Sebastiano Serlio includes many

examples of each in his treatise. The round temple complex is radial, a scheme which by definition places greatest emphasis on the cen- tral point. The primacy of center is further reiterated by the concentric arrangement of rings outward from the center. The square pal- ace plan, on the other hand, is organized by cross axes, much like the Paradise garden. Un- like a radial scheme which privileges only the center, the crossing of the X and Y axes locates one special point, but implies the possibility of an extensible coordinate system in which all points can be identified with equal precision.

Using the concept of parti, relationships can be constructed between buildings of different epoches and for different purposes. Hence, it is possible to learn lessons from historical ex- amples which are divorced from issues of historical style and can be used by designers to- day.

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3.6 Left: Anonymous, Santa Costanza, Rome, Italy, c. 345, section.

3 7 Right: I Janm Costanza,

3.8 G.B. drau Saizt inter

Piraizesi ling, c. 1745, a Costanza, 'lor.

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3.9 Donato Bramaizte, Tempietto, San Pietro iiz Montorio, Italy, 1502.

3.10 Bruno Taut, Pavilion for W e Glass Industry, Cologne, Germany, 1914.

3.11 Antonio da Sangallo tlze Elder, San Biagio, Monfepulciano, Italy, c. 151 8.

For example, the formal structure of a sliced onion, in which a centralized scheme is elabo- rated through the use of concentric bands of material, acts as the organization for the follow- ing buildings: the early Christian Mausoleum of Santa Costanza, A.D. 345; the Renaissance Tempietto of San Pietro i n Montorio, by Do- nato Bramante (1444-1514), c. 1502; and the twentieth-century exposition Pavilion for the Glass Industry by Bruno Taut (1880-1938), Co- logne, 1914. Given the common structure, the schemes develop in many different ways.

Santa Costanza is insular and inward-look- ing. Tucked behind a blank, mask-like wall, it is comprised of an ambulatory ring formed of single columns, the encircling thick, masonry wall, and a ring of paired columns which sup- port the taller central domed drum. There is a progression in scale towards the center, para- doxically allowing the innermost shell to be the most brilliantly illuminated. In Bramante's scheme, the basic elements of Santa Costanza are present, but in such a compressed space that the space between the rings of the building can- not be occupied. Rather, the concentricity of the building expands outwards to organize the surrounding courtyard, setting the Tempietto off as a jewel in an ideal display case. While the previous two examples use the rings as layers which are moved through in sequence, Taut's scheme makes use of concentric rings to orga- nize the path through the building. The axis introduced by the entry stairs is wrapped around the center so that one ascends through the glass-block shells of space on glass block and metal stairs to a special room beneath the glass dome. The axis reappears at the opposite side of the pavilion as a cascade of water,

perimeter of the rectangle is left intact. In a famous essay, the architectural historian Rudolph Wittkower prepared a diagram which connects all of Palladio's villas back to simple variations on the nine-square plaid grid, show- ing how a simple parti can be elaborated to achieve many different results. (Rudolph Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, Rudolph Wittkower, 1949).

A contemporary building which uses the parti of the nine-square grid is Louis Kahn's

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flanked by two sets of stairs which appear to have been 'unwound' from the center.

Both the Paradise Garden and the Vitruvian Man rely on Csquare grids, organizations in which center is defined by two crossing lines. The 9-square grid differs from this in that the center is void, and hence occupiable. Antonio da Sangallo the Elder's (1455-1534) Church of San Biagio can be seen as an incident in the ma- nipulation of the 9-square grid. The grid clearly structures the overall lay-out of the building. The central square is most vertical and given further prominence by its crowning dome. Im- plied by the spatial envelope, the corner squares are left void to yield a cruciform plan. Andrea Palladio's plan for the Villa Thiene also uses the nine-square grid as a formal armature. The schematic plan diagram yields a nine-square tartan grid, composed of wide and narrow bands of space. While the basic nine-square or- ganization establishes a firm overall order, the narrow, intermediary bands of space can house the stairs or be absorbed into adjoining spaces. Hence, variation can occur in the development of the plan without compromising the clarity of the parti. As in San Biagio, the central space is given primacy. However, unlike San Biagio, the

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3.12 Palladio, Villa Tlziene, Cirogna, Italy, c.1550.

diagram of the basic grid structure of Palladian villas.

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3.14 Louis Kahn, Exeter Library, Exetrr, N m Hampshire, 1972, plan.

3.15 Exeter Library, ceiling.

3.16 Exeter Library, interior v i m .

(1902-74) Exeter Library in Exeter, New Hamp- shire. Here the basic nine-square organization is expanded to include other ordering devices. Cubic in general form, the building is like a palazzo, with a voided interior cubic volume wrapped by the perimeter spaces. The wrapper itself is layered, providing double-height bands of space at the fenestrated edge for reading car- rels, a denser zone away from the light for the shelving of books, a swath of space for circula- tion around the center, and a very narrow shaft of space between the outer edge of the corridor and the concrete structural element that defines the center. The exterior walls of the library do not meet at the comers, but are pulled apart, voiding the corners and introducin~ diagonal - - - axes into the building. These diagonal axes are reinforced by the disposition of interior stairs, services, and angled structural piers. The ar- rangement of structural members and sky-lights of the ceiling plan clearly map out the simulta- neous presence of the nine-square grid and the diagonal cross-axes.

Richard Meier also uses a nine-square grid to organize his High Museum in Atlanta, Geor- gia. Like Kahn at Exeter, Meier elaborates the internal structure of the nine-square grid, but he also manipulates the grid itself through a series of transformations. Starting with the simplest idea of the nine-square grid, Meier's first elabo- ration is to expand the width of the central areas of the grid to three column bays while the outer bands are comprised of two column bays. Within the central band, the outer bays are used for arculation and the inner for services such as bathrooms. Next, the corners of the grid are given their own definition through a system of enclosing walls making them read as special pa-

I B A S I C O R G A N I Z A T I O N S vilions. Entry is established by pulling one cor- ner pavilion out of the matrix. The dis- placement is mapped by the double, shifted wall of the auditorium and the irregular, or- ganically-shaped space of the entry lobby which appears almost as if the taut fabric held between two pavilions in the undisturbed condition had been snapped like elastic and assumed a new, relaxed form.

The violent displacement of this corner re- verberates throughout the organization of the building. Along the trajectory of the displace- ment, a path is extended to the street. This diagonal axis sponsors the radial organization of the atrium. The circulation bays at the re- mote corners are voided as corridors, makmg possible the reading of a four-square grid; while the remaining circulation bays are rendered solid and used for vertical circulation. The crossing of circulation paths marks the center of both the four-square and the radial organiza- tion, while the center of the nine-square organization has become distended and pie- shaped.

The spatial neutrality of the nine-square grid has been shattered, resulting in a highly site- specific arrangement of form. The hard, ell-shaped edge of the wrapper addresses the back of the site and serves as a background for the figural volumes towards the main street. Hence, a building organization which seems at first glance to be impossibly complex is under- standable and clear through reference to a simple spatial paradigm and its transformation.

The Ozenfant Studio in Paris by Le Cor- busier, 1922, is another building whose complexities are governed by simple geometric figures placed into dynamic relationships with

3.17 Richard Meier, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, c. 1982.

3.18 High Museum, diagrams.

3.19 High Museum, atrium.

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each other and the site. At first glance, the foot- print of the plan appears to be an irregular polygon. Upon closer analysis we see that the plan is comprised of a primary square and canted trapezoid. Further analysis reveals that a relationship exists between these two forms: the trapezoid can be seen as the remnants of another square, folding out from the first, gen- erative square along a hinge-point marked by the spiral stairs and truncated where the prop- erty lines are met. Further elaborations of the diagram connect back to the ideas of rotation, hinging, and spiraling. Proportional relation- ships between the long and short sides of the rectangle describe a golden rectangle, wherein B/A = A/(A+B). An infolding of the golden rectangle progression towards the spiral stair locates other main elements of the plan, such as the balcony and ladder.

The comer of the primary square is voided, wrapped by windows not only on the corner walls but on the ceiling as well. Function, light, views and ventilation are optimized. Formally, the erosion of the corner responds to the angle of the oblique wall. Ordering devices which im- plicitly govern the plan, such as the golden rectangle progression, are used to generate the section and elevations of the building. Draw- - ings of elevations explicitly note proportional strategies through the use of regulating lines, a network of parallel and perpendicular lines, lightly drawn over the elevation to reveal the presence of similar rectangles.

Metaphor can serve as the basis of a parti. The Renaissance architect Pietro Cataneo explicitly liiks the form of a longitudinal church plan to that of the human figure. Eero Saarinen's (1910-61) inspiration for the TWA Terminal at

Dell Architettura 3.24 Pietro Cataneo, Anthropomorphic Church P l n i ~ , 1567.

3.25 TWA Terminal, exterior v i m .

3.26 Eero Saarinelz, TWA Ternzinal, New York, 1958-62, interior view.

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3.27 Left: Alvar Aalto, Siiynatsalo Town Center, Siynutsnlo, Finland, plan.

3.28 Right top: Siyitatsnlo Town Center, model.

3.29 Right bottom: Sayniitsalo Town Center, view.

3.30 Left: Antoni Gaudi, Crypt of the Chapel of the Colonin Giiell, Santn Coloma de Cervelld, Spain, c. 1908, view.

3.31 Right top: Crypt of tlte Chnpel of the Colonia Guell, plan.

3.32 Right bottom: Crypt of the Chapel of the Colonia Giiell.

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Kennedy Airport was the idea of flight. The arched concrete shell of the building mimics the wings of a bird. Alvar Aalto's Saynatsalo Town Center in Saynatsalo, Finland follows a 'headltail' organization. Just as the head and tail of a snake are differently shaped and per- form different functions than the body, which is more or less equal across its length, so too does Aalto's scheme begin and end with special, fig- ural elements. The head-piece is the council chamber, the most important space in the com- plex. The bent bar of offices is repetitive, neutral and edge-like along its length until it terminates in a special condition. The library separates itself from the main building like the rattle at the end of a snake's tail.

In his design for Santa Coloma de Cervello, Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) goes beyond Cataneo's two-dimensional equation between the human form and architectural space. For Gaudi, the three-dimensional development of space is mimetic of the decaying carcass of a large animal. Structural ribs in the ceiling vault are analogous to ribs. Roughly hewn, primitive shafts look more like bleached bones than col-

3.33 Pablo Picasso, Greeiz Still Life, 1914, Museum ofModeun Art, Neui York.

3.34 Lc Corbusicr, CitC de R i f i g e (Saluatio?~ Army), Paris, France, 1931-33.

3.35 C i t i dde RCfige, plan.

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3.36 Left: John Hejduk, Wall House 111, project, 1968- 74, plan.

3.37 Right: Wall IIouse 111, elevation.

3.38 Frank Gelz y, Wintotz Guest House, Wayznta, Miiznesota, 1983. elevation.

3.39 Winton Guest House, plaiz.

umns of any known order, evoking a sense of horror and piety in the observer.

When the program of a building is complex, parti strategies which accommodate diverse ele- ments and diverse scales are often adopted. Le Corbusier's Salvation Army Building, or Cite de Refuge, in Paris, 1931-33, organizes repetitive elements, dormitory rooms and workshops, in a tall slab which acts as a datum for smaller, more figural pieces. The neutrality of the slab acts almost like the continuous surface of a table top to organize diverse elements in a still-life com- position similar to that achieved by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) in his Green Still Life of 1914. The cubic and cylindrical volumes at the Salvation Army Building set u p the entry se- quence into the building.

In Le Corbusier's 'bar/objectt organization for the Salvation A m y Building, the bar is one- sided, embedded into the fabric of Paris. John Hejduk uses the wall as a datum to organize figural objects in his Wall House 111, but in this case, the wall is two sided. lnstead of using a neutral vertical element like a wall or a slab as a datum for the organization of disparate pieces, Frank Gehry collages and collides discrete vol-

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umes together on a common ground plane in the assemblage of elements which comprise the Winton Guest House in Wayzata, Minnesota.

It would be impossible to catalogue all pos- sible parti configurations, they are numberless. Nor are partis selected solely because of their ability to accommodate programmatic de- mands. All houses are used for dwelling, yet the forms they take are myriad. Sometimes they are linked to the specific customs of a place, like the vernacular housing on Mykynos, and sometimes linked to more subtle represen- tations of the aspirations and pretensions of the clients

The Paris Opera House by Charles Garnier (1825-98), 1860-75, and the Berlin Philharmonic Hall by Hans Scharoun, 1956-63, are both the- aters for the performing arts. However, both buildings respond to very different political and cultural pressures which influence the arrange- ment of forms. In nineteenth-century France, Charles Garnier chose a strongly axial, layered organization which emphasized the hierarchy of a highly stratified society. In post-World- War I1 Germany, the recent experience of the Third Reich made authoritarianism suspect.

3.40 Lcff: House, Los A r t ~ e l e s .

3.41 Right: flouse, Los AngrIcs.

3.42 House, Mykunos, Greece.

r B A S I C O R G A N I Z A T I O N S 53

umes together on a common ground plane in the assemblage of elements which comprise the Winton Guest House in Wayzata, Minnesota.

It would be impossible to catalogue all pos- sible parti configurations, they are numberless. Nor are partis selected solely because of their ability to accommodate programmatic de- mands. All houses are used for dwelling, yet the forms they take are myriad. Sometimes they are linked to the specific customs of a place, like the vernacular housing on Mykynos, and sometimes linked to more subtle represen- tations of the aspirations and pretensions of the clients.

The Paris Opera House by Charles Gamier (1825-98), 1860-75, and the Berlin Philhannonic Hall by Hans Scharoun, 1956-63, are both the- aters for the performing arts. However, both buildings respond to very different political and cultural pressures which influence the arrange- ment of forms. In nineteenth-century France, Charles Garnier chose a strongly axial, layered organization which emphasized the hierarchy of a highly stratified society. In post-World- War I1 Germany, the recent experience of the Third Reich made authoritarianism suspect.

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3.33 L e j f Chnrlrs G.iriller. Paris O p r n ~ H ~ i , ; e , Pnris. Frn~lce, 1860-75, serll 11.

3 4.1 Riqlii: Paris Oycnr H,l,se, S r a , l ,

s t n i r .

3.45 Paris Opera House, plan.

Scharoun sought a deliberately non-hierarchical arrangement of form. In Berlin, the grand stair of the Paris Opera House is shattered, atomized, rendered non-hierarchical and democratic through its multiplicity and equality through- out the theater. Even the strong division between front and back, the stage and the audi- ence, which is so important in Garnier's scheme, disappears in Scharoun's. In the Philharmonic, the stage acts as an instable center enveloped by tiers of seating, like shards of a broken vessel. The fragmented disorder of the interior extends outward and is mapped on the exterior of the building. Here, unlike Paris, no singular, monumental entry is provided. Like the stairs, entry is diffused and reiterated throughout the plan.

The location of the buildings in the fabric of the city further enforce these meanings. Situ- ated at the terminus of the grand YAvenue de Optira, the monumentality of Garnier's building commands views across the entire city. Scharoun's building, situated near the old Ber- lin Wall, deliberately disrupts traditional street patterns of the city and is positioned to inter- rupt the flow of the old Potsdamrner Strage,

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once a grand boulevard which extended across the length of Germany signifying and helping to consolidate the authority of the capital.

In discussing partis we have observed that simple organizational structures can be elabo- rated to yield verp different buildings and to communicate very different messages about their client, culture and world view. As build- ing programs or site relationships grow more and more complex, the utility of the parti in- creases. Without a governing, overarching order, the designer confronts an impossible task; every design decision, even fairly trivial ones, must be made from an infinite range of possibilities. The parti provides a structure which limits the range of choice and assures co- hesion of the whole. The parti is a graphic device which holds within it the germ of an ar- chitectural idea. Rather than enforcing rigidity on an architectural solution, the parti is suffi- ciently flexible to accommodate great variety. In this way, complex buildings can have coher- ence and clarity, abiding by an order which extends from the general concept to the detail.