Monday, 23 November 2015

Response 3







Name of building : Thompson Apartment
Location : 307 Thompson street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104
Type : Expressed
Scale: Sort of large formal joint…(?)


This detail between two brick walls is made of wood. The whole building is constructed with those brick walls. This is the front side of the building and on the opposite side; it has same structure with this wood detail. Materially it is incongruence because one is wood and the other is brick, but the pattern shows some kind of congruence because, even though wood detail is vertical, and the brick is horizontal, each wood sticks are regularly located, so it does not that seems to be awkward when we see the connections between two different materials.


This detail has the similar functions with the “Brick Weave House” by studio Gang Architects in Chicago on the lecture power point because the wood itself technically needed to support the whole forces coming from each walls balancing the holes and wood sticks, but also in the night, it works as a ornaments because the light inside the apartments comes through the holes and it make same effect like Brick Weave house.

The detail is designed for construing, which to construct a building that communicates with users. This picture is ‘façade’ which means that this wood detail is connected with the doors. Usually, the other apartment, this part is constructed with a large glass which let people see through the inside stairs, but this detail let people do so without establish glass with the holes. Plus, this detail is the hallway part, and the two brick wall is room part. That means this building is stretched in the backward from this façade. On the each side, there are windows of each room, but the problem is the gap between two buildings next to it is really small so it is hard to ventilate. Therefore, by making this detail with the holes, this whole building is able to ventilate from front to the back. So, this detail addressed practical and significant. However practical it is, the builders might not know there will be a nightclub building established right next to it. The sound wave from club is so easily come through these holes, and it is not good for the users to study inside the apartment. Furthermore, in this long, cold and snowy winter, setting aside its strong practical and ornamental points I am still curious the reason why this detail had to be one of the construction of this building…


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