METAMORPHIC STRUCTURECASE STUDY – GUARDIOLA HOUSE

BY PETER EISENMAN

PPT BY S.HARINI, M.ARCH 2016- 2018, SEM I

CASE STUDYPeter Eisenman, Guardiola house, Cadiz, Spain, (1988) This unrealized conceptual house design by Peter Eisenman is a prime example of his ‘deconstructuralist’ style, where he refers to the house as a ‘receptacle’ (like sand on the beach: it is not an object of a place, but a record of the movement of the water) where ‘logic’ and ‘irrationality’ are fundamental components of this space. It is ‘frame and figure simultaneously’ and is based on 3 interweaving ‘L’ shapes penetrating in 3 planes.

METAMORPHIC ARCHITECTURE – DEFINITION

Metamorphic architecture represents the concept of creating a simple form, and then selecting the suitable transformation modifier, such as bending, torsion, lattice box, morphing, etc, to change the form. This modifier is selected according to the concept. By adding a fourth, temporal dimension (time) to the deformation processes, animation software adds a possibility to literally express the space and form of an object's metamorphosis, and then select the best frame during the animation. y

THE GUARDIOLA HOUSE - THEORETICAL GENESIS

The Casa Guardiola is a single family dwelling. The relevance of this work as a case study is due to the method which Eisenman employs through the understanding of his theories. This house represents the manifestation of Plato's receptacle where traces of logic and irrationality are intrinsic components of the object/place The house is represented as both figure and frame simultaneously which lends itself to the theory of Eisenman's "Texts of Between" in which architectural forms can occupy simultaneous meanings and therefore dislocating the building. Eisenman touches on Plato's Timaeus and the image of the receptacle. This episode explores Plato's genesis of man and views the universe as the receptacle which is unchanging but featureless. There are unchanging forms and the changing participating elements within the receptacle.

Eisenman adapts Plato's receptacle not in the pure form of the sphere but in the cube which has a mathematical relevance mentioned in the Timaeus. The difference between earth and fire is the difference between 45 degree and 90 degree triangles. This is how Plato defines the element of earth as having one right angle and one 45 degree angle. If you fuse two triangles you produce a square and if you fuse six squares along their sides you produces a cube . This explains the solidity of earth which is made of microscopic cubes which are packed together.

The Casa Guardiola is heavily influenced by topologies of the site (earth) which Eisenman reflects in his design as the cube.Eisenman employs a method of unfolding intersecting, subtracting and multiplying. As if the form were a mathematical equation to be solved where each line when marked becomes a part of the process in which it was created and so like a mathematical equation shows a clear method from start to finished result.

Casa Guadiola Development of Plan

Grids, meshes, rhythms, multiplication and division, turns and distortions are a universe in themselves. The other is a perceptible system of scale, light and colour, with habitable forms, recognizable typologies, and perceptually defined spatiality.

The interest in this case studies lies in the tension Eisenman creates between contained and container, inside and outside. He draws on the relationship between geometric and tectonic forms.The tangential L- shapes penetrate three planes, appearing in a constant state of flux or movement. He blurs the containers limits and boundaries through materialisation, as if it flowed from internal to external.

Eisenman manipulates the cube through 8 dispositions which appear to randomly influence the cube resulting in an intentional mistake of a building. By first displacing and subtracting one cube from another to generative the iconographic L-shapes and again multiplying these to create the intersection of these forms. He retains the voided intersection of these L-shapes and tilts the one form about the axis of the other by rotation. He then traces the frame definition from the displacement between solid and void to result in the imprinting of these solids and line traces onto the surface of the buildings.

This process as a method of design was a genesis of method throughout the design of his other works. The set of apparent random rules results in a building which shows it's origins and informs the user that there is much more than a traditional build here but rather a message to be decoded and understood.