BergmannNiemann Theories of European Integration Final Version 00000003 (1)
Theories Project 1 final
-
Upload
jannah-jailani -
Category
Education
-
view
41 -
download
3
Transcript of Theories Project 1 final
School of Architecture, Building & Design
Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Architecture)
Theories of Architecture and Urbanism
[ARC 2224]
Project 1 Part II
Analyzing and Theorizing Architecture
Name: Nurul Jannah Masturah Jailani
Student ID: 0310210
Tutor: Dr. Lakshmi Priya Rajendran
Content page
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya
1.2 Building – Tropicana Grande Condominium, Tropicana Damansara
1.3 Christopher Alexander and Urban Residential
2.0 FACTORS THAT IMPACT THE BUILDING
2.1 Population Needs
2.2 Technological Advancement
2.3 Gradients of Space and Movements
3.0 SYNTHESIS
4.0 CONCLUSION
5.0 REFERENCES
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya
Ara Damansara is a small township in Selangor that comprises of residential,
commercial and industrial sectors. It is located near to the Subang Airport, and
established residential and commercial areas of Damansara and Kelana Jaya. The
township is accessible through two major highways, the New Klang Valley
Expressway (NKVE) and Damansara-‐Puchong Highway (LDP).
(Simedarbyproperty.com, n.d.)
It was first developed as a residential and industrial district but commercial
activities began to emerge and spread in the area, and soon after established a
commercial sector in Ara Damansara. Due to the rising quantities in luxury high-‐rise
residential and commercial buildings, the area has attracted an affluent customer
base. It is mainly resided by those who belong in the middle to upper class, as a
result of the area is in a strategic location, and adapts a modern architecture style
that uses moderate to costly designs. Ara Damansara is poised to be developed into
a prestige township, offering a lifestyle that promotes close-‐knit community living.
(Propertyguru.com.my, n.d.)
1.2 Tropicana Grande Condominium, Tropicana Damansara
Tropicana Grande is a luxury high-‐rise condominium developed by Dijaya Group
and was completed by the end of December of 2013. It is located in the exclusive
Tropicana residential, and neighbours several other mid-‐rise and high-‐rise
residential. Tropicana Grande Condominium consists of four blocks of 38-‐storey and
39-‐storey towers that houses over 300 units that overlook the view of Tropicana
Gold & Country Resort golf course through full height glass panels.
(Tropicanametropark.com.my, n.d.) Within each block, there are many different
types available, ranging from small sized units such as the typical units larger sizes
such as the penthouse unit. (Propwall.my, n.d.)
There are numerous facilities that equip the Tropicana Grande that allow the
residents to conduct different activities within the compass of their living territory,
instead of commuting to the city. If they choose to, Tropicana Grande is merely
minutes driving to large shopping malls such as 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Sunway
Giza, Tesco Damansara, and Dijaya’s very own shopping centre, Tropicana City Mall.
(Propwall.my, n.d.)
1.3 Christopher Alexander and A Pattern Language
The chosen architect for this project is Christopher Alexander, an Austrian
architect known for his theories of design and over 200 building projects around the
world. He was recognized as the Father of the Pattern Language movement, and
various contemporary architectural practices were resulted from Alexander’s ideas,
such as the New Urbanist movement. His noted accomplishments as an architect and
author are his books, the Timeless Way of Buildings (1979) and A Pattern Language
(1977), the latter being written in collaboration with several other authors.
He explained in the book that we seek out, for our own sakes, in our own
surroundings, the quality of life in order for us to become alive ourselves. This then
leads to architects, or humans, the tendency to make it come to life in places that
will bring out the quality in us. His theories were further supported in A Pattern
Language, in forms patterns through explanations of diagrams. Each pattern is a part
of a larger pattern through the forces which occur there, and the conditions that
allow these forces to be in harmony.
According to A Pattern Language, the real work of design process lies in the task
of making up the language, because it is the structure and the content of the
language that determines the design. With the power of depth and wholeness of the
language, it can make a thousand buildings live.
2.0 FACTORS THAT IMPACT THE BUILDING
2.1 Open Common Spaces
As stated by Alexander et al. in the pattern #60 Accessible Green, people require
green places to go to, and if they are close, they will use them. However, if the green
place is too far away, then the distance overwhelms the need. The proposed solution
was to build one open public green within three minutes' walk -‐ about 750 feet -‐ of
every house and workplace. This means that the greens need to be uniformly
scattered at 1500-‐foot intervals, throughout the city. (Alexander, Ishikawa &
Silverstein, 1977)
Image 1: Accessible green areas in Tropicana Grande
(Source: http://www.tropicanametropark.com.my/TropicanaGrande/siteplan.html)
As seen from the site plan, the compound of Tropicana Grande is abundant in
greeneries, which are accessible by the residents. Different kinds of facilities were
providing the greens for the condominium, such as a Japanese Garden, Reflexology
Garden, Gathering area, and viewing deck, all of the mentioned are within walking
distance and in the center of the condominium compound. Christopher Alexander
believes that these green areas act as a mean of escape from the city, and gives a
relaxing and tranquil quality to the city environment.
Image 2: Sports facilities in Tropicana Grande
(Source: http://www.tropicanametropark.com.my/TropicanaGrande/siteplan.html)
In addition to having public green areas, the pattern #72 Local Sports insist on
a scatter of places where the community is able to perform sports, and is visible to
passers-‐by as an invitation to participate. (Alexander, Ishikawa & Silverstein, 1977)
Small sports facilities are integrated among the green areas in the compound of
Tropicana Grande. Such facilities include gymnasium, pool, tennis court and a
basketball court. These facilities are scattered (referring to Image ) in order to
promote the residents to walk through the compound to get to the courts as well as
giving optimum visibility to residents of what sort of sports community are available
for them.
2.2 Technological Advancement
Pattern #207 Good Materials expresses only using biodegradable, low energy
consuming materials, which are easy to cut and modify on site such as concrete and
earth-‐based materials like brick, tile, wood planks, gypsum, plywood, corrugated iron
and bamboo. (Alexander, Ishikawa & Silverstein, 1977) however, Tropicana Grande
consists of mainly steel, concrete and glass. This is possibly due to the technological
advancement in industrial building material production. Through this advancement
as well, it allowed the building to be built at a height of 38 storey.
Building a high-‐rise residential may pose a problem. Even with the advancement
currently available, high-‐rise buildings still contribute to sustainability issues since
they are very difficult to compensate, especially in really tall buildings. Other than
that, pattern #21 Four-‐story Limit states that in any urban area, no matter how
dense; keep the majority of buildings four stories high or less. It is possible that
certain buildings should exceed this limit, but they should never be buildings for
human habitation. (Alexander, Ishikawa & Silverstein, 1977)
It is contrast to the condominium’s height. The reasoning behind the pattern is
due to that above four-‐storey, residents become isolated and unattached from the
street level and thus the environment which may lead to depression and other
psychological problems. Despite that, there are many high-‐rise residential being built
not only as sign of progress, but in order to accommodate more of the population
living.
2.3 Gradients of Space and Movement
According to ‘A Pattern Language’, the spaces inside a building should be
arranged according to their degree of privateness, to enable people to experience
the dimension of added meaning for activities at the chosen space. Homogenous
spaces, where every room has a similar degree of intimacy, nulls all possibility of
subtle of social interactions in the building. (Alexander, Ishikawa & Silverstein, 1977)
The essence of the Pattern #127 Intimacy Gradient, is that as you move in to the unit
through the entrance, there is an increase to the degree of intimacy until the
farthest spaces from the entrance are the most intimate, such as bedrooms.
Considering Tropicana Grande is a condominium, there are limited spaces for the
residents thus it is usually small families or a handful group of people occupy each
unit. Constricted to the finite sizes of condominiums, the rooms and spaces must be
arranged carefully in order to achieve the gradient of intimacy stated in ‘A Pattern
Language’.
Image 3: Arrangement of spaces according to degree of intimacy (Block B)
(Source:
http://www.tropicanametropark.com.my/TropicanaGrande/images/floorplan_block_d_b.jp
g)
Through observing of the floor plan of one of the Tropicana Grande’s blocks, which is
Block B, a pattern could be seen. Emerging from the lifts, residents will be lead to the
unit’s private lobby. Upon entering the unit, they will arrive at the living room that
connects immediately with the dining area and the dry kitchen, while the bedrooms
are located further in the unit. The architect had defined the gradient of intimacy in
the arrangement of spaces within the unit, with the private spaces are from the semi
or public through the use or a narrow corridor.
In reference to Alexander et al., in order to create a house, which is bright, sunny,
and cheerful, the right rooms must be facing towards the south; otherwise the house
will become dark and gloomy. This pattern helps to place the rooms along the
intimacy gradient where indoor sunlight is needed most.
Image 4: Location and orientation of Block B
(Source: http://www.tropicanametropark.com.my/TropicanaGrande/siteplan.html)
Image 5: Position of sunlight coming into the building
(Source:
http://www.tropicanametropark.com.my/TropicanaGrande/images/floorplan_block_d_b.jp
g)
From the site plan, the chosen block is orientated towards Northeast and
Southwest, which means to say that the spaces are receiving sunlight mainly from
the Northeast and Southwest (referring to Image ). The Pattern #128 Indoor Sunlight
states that the most important rooms are placed along the south edge of the
building, and spread the building out along the east-‐west axis. Fine tune the
arrangement so that the proper rooms are exposed to the south-‐east and the south-‐
west sun. (Alexander, Ishikawa & Silverstein, 1977)
3.0 SYNTHESIS
With an abundant number of green areas, the condominium provides relaxing
places and integrating nature with the compound to create a relaxing atmosphere.
The presence of greeneries will also encourage the residents to use the areas for
outdoor activities. Along with this pattern, the different sports facilities provided are
beneficial to the residents of Tropicana Grande. Not only does it encourage outdoor
activities, it also helps promote a close-‐knit relationship between members of the
community.
Regarding high-‐rise buildings, although Alexander et al. recommended the height
to be less than four-‐storey, the construction of high-‐rise may be dependent on its
contextual conditions. Since Malaysia is a still a developing country, many high-‐rises
are built to show progress, especially in upper class residential. In spite of the
possibilities of psychological issues mentioned, there have been many people who
still chooses to live in high-‐rise buildings compared to individual houses. The
reasoning behind this selection is due to high rise provide better security in terms of
break-‐ins, as it is difficult to steal big items through a small door without dismantling
it and the fact that some residencies, require access cards which only brings them to
the resident’s floor.
The Block B of Tropicana Grande does not fit the ‘optimum orientation’
recommended by Alexander et al. exactly, however it does not run from it either.
Considerations were still taken by the architect of the condominium in order to
achieve maximum indoor sunlight in while keeping in mind of the thermal issues.
Which is why Block A (referring to Image ), the only block that is facing directly
towards the East and West sunlight, has compact shape in order to minimize the
Eastern and Western sun.
4.0 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Tropicana Grande Condominium does incorporate patterns from
Alexander et al.’s theories. However, there are discrepancies in the design. This is
mainly due to contextual conditions like population, and technological progress that
allow for more modern adaptations of the patterns.
5.0 REFERENCES
Albany.edu,. notitle. Retrieved 11 June 2015, from
http://www.albany.edu/mumford/wtc/forgey.htm
Alexander, C. (1979). The timeless way of building. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., & Silverstein, M. (1977). A Pattern Language. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Lifewithalacrity.com,. (2004). Intimacy Gradient and Other Lessons from
Architecture -‐ Life With Alacrity. Retrieved 11 June 2015, from
http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/08/intimacy_gradie.html
Propertyguru.com.my,. Ara Damansara Homes, properties and houses for Sale/Rent
| PropertyGuru Malaysia. Retrieved 10 June 2015, from
http://www.propertyguru.com.my/selangor/ara-‐damansara
Propwall.my,. (2015). Tropicana Grande, Tropicana | Propwall. Retrieved 10 June
2015, from http://www.propwall.my/tropicana/tropicana_grande?tab=property
Simedarbyproperty.com,. Sime Darby Property -‐ Ara Damansara. Retrieved 10 June
2015, from http://www.simedarbyproperty.com/township_ara_damansara.aspx