IRIS VAN HUIJSTEE
ARCHITECTURE
From the great bamboo wall to a workshop extension
The detail constructed in the first assignment is part of the Great Bamboo wall designed by Architect Kengo Kuma. This house manages to express the perfect synthesis between architecture and the land, between human intervention and the work of nature, with rare poetry. As a local product he used mostly bamboo for the building, the use of bamboo symbolize the cultural exchange between China and Japan as this material was historically imported from China. At the point where the dining room and living room are located, the southwest wall of the building is characterized by a double shell of tempered glass separated by a gap filled with goose feathers that act as insulation.
The new extension will play two important roles in the functioning of Vertigo and the Campus of the TU/e. The first one is be a representation of the architectural engineering department. The second important role is to create a new, quick entrance to the workshop.
In Kuma’s buildings the symbolic content finds expression in the “skin” of the building, an osmotic filter between human being and environment. Because the extension is part of the park, a natural surrounding, and the use of a local product is desirable, the façade is made of win the form of tree trunks. The trunks are used in a non-conventional, different way, because they are not cut up in pieces, but used as a whole logs. Kuma’s buildings are always adapting in sense of light and shadow, physical response to materials, flexibility and specific sites. The extension of the workshop opens up to the surrounding small park to give the insider an outside feeling. At the same time, the outsiders can have a glance inside at the display stage near the window or the working students further away. The massive wooden logs are placed in such a way that openings for windows are appearing which make the tree trunks suddenly look fragile.
Architectural Engineering
PROJECT:
Master course
TUTOR:
Jan Schrevers
COOPERATION DETAIL WITH:
Gwenda Harmsen and Laura Jansen
ASSIGNMENT:
Construct a 1:1 or 1:2 scale model of a detail in a building which you think is special in a conceptual, technical or other way. After that design a small extension to the model workshop in Vertigo. This design should clearly be inspired by the previously mentioned detail.
LOCATION:
Tu/e Campus, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
PROGRAM:
A small extension (100 m2) to the model workshop of Vertigo, just for constructing the details for this course, the rest of the year it will function as a exhibition space.
