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Path In any truly creative endeavor, there will exist a drive that searches for a perfection . . . for a truth . . . for a truthful identity. In music there exists as a matter of fact, harmony . . . and there exists discord. It is universally known that a chord sounded with the octave, the third, and the fifth notes is a harmonic chord . . . on the other hand, it is known that another chord sounded with an added 7th or 9th, is discordant . . . it is “diminished”, a “minor”. This is also true with aesthetics. A truly creative, honest endeavor will seek a harmonious composition . . . one that intends to be harmonious with its surroundings, with its intent, with its user, with its essential purpose. What this kind of endeavor assumes is that it will in fact have a purpose, an intent . . . in essence, an idea behind it, a “Big Picture” . . . something larger than itself that it attempts to convey, reinforce, and/or investigate. In each of these two projects, there is an attempt to develop a composition that manifests the ideals, the inherent qualities of each space and “environment” of its place of being. By the term environment, I mean to include the sense that a site, including its owners and users, evoke.
I use two projects for several reasons. One is that they are two different scales of compositions which reinforces the idea that composition transcends both scale and program. Another is that one is 90% built and the other is still mostly in the realm of the imagination (to begin construction around the beginning of 2001). This difference in phase also shows that the process of creative development is not specific to any one part of the process of manifestation . . . not only the “drawing board”, not only the computer, not just the model, the “schematic design phase”, the office . . . the endeavor to achieve a harmonic, poetic composition and the development of the ideas must continue to the very last construction detail in the field. These two projects do not claim to have found, accomplished, or defined any ultimate truths . . . only to have been done in practice of, in search of a truthful expression of an idea or set of ideas defined by site and client specific qualities and concepts. It is the qualitative issues that form composition . . . it is not the quantitative program, not the square footage requirements, not the magazine image, not the “style” desires . . . not any of these preconceptions that will drive and form a truly creative composition. It is, rather, the interpretations, and the harmonization of the qualities observed in a person . . . at a site, that will reveal an essential character and quality that some new composition must be about.
In developing a composition that will reflect these essential qualities while providing for the functions, one seeks to unify qualities in a harmonic way that remains as truthful to these primary conditions as possible. It is sometimes difficult to explain . . . and to understand . . . what is really meant by “truth in materials” . . . “honesty of structure”. These become, sadly, just cliches . . . sayings . . . with no real meaning. When Louis Kahn asked the question of a brick . . . “what does it want to be?” . . . there was an extreme amount of seriousness . . . and reality to that question. What Kahn is talking about is an intangible sense that comes from listening to each parameter of a project, of a problem, of a material, of a site, or of all these put together - and reading into what these conditions are calling for. This is what Frank Lloyd Wright meant by “organic architecture”. He was not talking about “green architecture”, nor was he talking about “living buildings” . . . Wright meant that one must listen to the clients, to the site, to the surroundings, and to the materials in order to absorb a sense from them about how something should be composed.
I return again to music . . . say a composer is asked by a government official . . . a king . . . to write a symphony for the celebration of the conquering of a land. This composition would have qualities of joy, of pride, of satisfaction, of celebration . . . and one should be able to recognize these qualities in this certain piece of music. At the other extreme, a piece of music composed for a funeral procession should most probably be very solemn, pensive, macabre . . . and once again, one should recognize these qualities in this composition. The very same is true with aesthetics, with physical compositions. Creations must react to conditions . . . and there are, though sometimes more complex, given conditions with each creative project encountered, or made up by someone, which invoke a composition that grows with a certain essence . . . that is truthful to these conditions while not trying to make its own statement, or falsehood.
One might say that one way to think about this reading of conditions is to “Let it Be-come”. In a sense, one must set one’s own agenda aside and ask of the conditions . . . what do you want to become? . . . If one reads the conditions, they will form a composition that begins to take on essential characteristics of the conditions themselves. In this sense, the project will grow from its surroundings. This requires a sort of “kid gloves” mentality where the simplest and most fitting solution is looked at first. All other preconceptions must be erased . . . this is the key. There is a story that my grandfather told me . . . A tractor trailer is driving down a road and comes to an underpass. The clearance to the underside of the bridge is, unfortunately, not enough for the trailer to pass and the tractor trailer comes to grinding halt as the trailer becomes wedged between the roadway and the underside of the bridge. After many hours of thought and attempts with jacks, powerful tow trucks, engineers, mechanics, etc. a man and his daughter of 4 or 5 years old, drive by and stop. The little girl takes one look, and says to her daddy . . . “why don’t they just let the air out of the tires?” . . . When her father suggests this procedure to the driver et. al., this is exactly how they proceeded to un-wedge the tractor trailer from the bridge. So in essence, the technology, the materials, the processes, etc., employed in a procedure are not the primary issue but rather, the primary issue is the intent, the essence that the conditions call for, and how these conditions inform a poetic vision, a concept of how the project should unfold.
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JJ Watts Studio and Gallery - Sculpture Space Addition. |
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Knowles Stair |
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qualitative “site” The program of this first project is a vertical circulation element. The task of this project is to create an object that occupies a volume of space, existing unobtrusively, providing a means of access to a mezzanine level. The site is a rectilinear volume of space organized by means of a cruciform geometry & demarcated by 6 masonry, cruciform piers. The space (a residence) was designed by Robert and Susan-Davis McCarter of D•Mc² Architecture, who invited me to design and build this sculptural, circulation element for the project. The piers define a space that is 30’x30’ and rises 23 feet in height. The absence of any curvilinear or diagonal geometry is dominating and defines a very ordered space. It is this set of qualities that become the “site” for the project.
The other project manifests from a need for additional space for exhibiting artwork. The owner, JJ Watts, is herself a sculptor . . . an artist of many facets. She exists in a realm of fluidity, in one of morphing solids that speak truths and essence of either function or expression . . . and many times, both at once. The physical site exists between two buildings . . . residential in nature . . . wood frame, pitched roof . . . the usual. The interesting aspect is however, that there exists a space between the two buildings that is about 17’ wide . . . edged by thick stucco walls . . . and is about 45 feet in length. There is, in essence, already a space there . . . a room made of two walls, and extending into the landscape in the other directions. The two existing edges are of differing and varying heights which define a sort of southern directionality to the space. |
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orthogonal expression and curvilinear expression These criteria defined by the “site” of the stair composition generated a concept that contains only orthogonal elements which give way to a series of floating planes. These floating planes are presented by a steel skeleton which offers each individual, flat plane at a different elevation and a different horizontal location to facilitate an ascent to the mezzanine level of the space. In this regard, there is no explicit, dominating diagonal in this focal piece or the space, and the structure may stand independently without touching the edges of the space. Each steel arm holding a floating plane cantilevers from an 8”, vertical, steel pipe which is anchored to the concrete floor plane. Through this structural and elemental composition, the project becomes an object occupying the space and creates a focal piece for the overall, spatial composition.
With the sculpture space project, the composition forms from a desire to enclose space with a minimal amount of structure while taking on a character that seems to carve the space, to contain without limiting. The structure itself becomes a shop welded space frame made of 1/2” steel round bar to minimize weight, and to facilitate ease of fabrication. This also allows the shape of the overhead plane to become a curvilinear element which is determined by the shape of the moment diagrams cut at regular intervals through the canopy. |
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In Search of the Essence of Composition |
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M. Calvino 10 July 2000 |
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Left: This digital model shows the floating planes made of a composite of 3/4” white, hard maple, a 1/4” black plywood spacer, and 3/4” purpleheart . . . the semi-circular landing is composed of the same system.
Right:: detail photo of the underside of a stair tread. The pegs are purpleheart, capping countersunk screws. |
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mathematical expression With the stair project, the critical issue in developing such a structure is maintaining a consistent perception of the deflection of the steel arms supporting the floating planes on which one will step. The key to this is solving structural calculations for moment of inertia based on a constant deflection ratio. This will result in varying sizes of steel pipes, decreasing as the length of the cantilever decreases. Through this process a true expression of the forces and of the composition results, creating something that begins to speak of its reason for existence. Each part of its manifestation, from design to fabrication, to installation & finishing must be a process that reinforces the initial concept of being an independent, sculptural element that is dominantly an orthogonal composition. |
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The space frame of the sculpture space addition, in order to maintain its structural integrity and to retain an economy in material & weight, must change shape and depth according to the variations in moment stresses acting on the system as a whole from wind loads. The moment diagrams are calculated at intervals across the width of the system and then the shape is generated to reflect the variations. The variations in depth are accomplished by developing a 2 tiered space frame with 3 planar grids that are offset by 1/3 the grid spacing for each tier. The length of each member then varies in order to develop the required form. This process of producing the shape is not circumstantial but rather is developed in order to manifest, in the most essential way, a form that reflects the character of the”site” . . . one that reinforces the initial idea, the initial vision formed by qualities of the site and owner. |
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constructing a reality And so it is that each step of creating something must be looked at and approached as if it had never been done before, as if it may be done just for this purpose, with these qualitative ”site” issues forming the process . . . the “kid gloves” of making should be worn through the entire process . . . including that of construction. With Both of these projects, there is an endeavor to visualize and manifest a harmonic unity between program, site, owner, composition, and construction. This endeavor transcends phase, scale, structural issues, and connections. The process of realizing this endeavor does not stop with even the final sanding and polishing of the last corner of the wood treads, or with the cleaning of the glass at the extending ends of the sculpture space . . . it is a quest spanning many years and projects that evolves ever closer to that truth of materials, truth of expression, to that perfect harmony . . . that may never be attained. |
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It is sometimes difficult to erase what we have learned, what we have become exposed to, all of the complex solutions that we have learned . . . and to think as a child would . . . with an innocence, a curiosity, a clean, imaginative thought . . . where the most creative, imaginative things come from . . . where we do not know what we cannot do. This is where and when truly creative thought and ideas emerge.
—Calvino |
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Background, the 1200 # steel skeleton is maneuvered at the shop for fabrication of the cantilevered tread arms. The stair project is scheduled to be completed by the end of July, 2000. |
