I was inspired by this weeks lecture after the first question; what is your personal journey through architecture? I immediately began to brainstorm about all the experiences I have had in my life that motivated me to study architecture in hopes of creating a career for this foundation. Home. Home has always been very important to me. I grew up in my mother’s childhood home which creates a special bond between a home and a family. Recently, we have remodeled our family home and transformed an home with so much character into a home that can accommodate another generation. I think having this special connection with my childhood home has always given me an appreciation for how a space can transform your emotional state. In this weeks journal I photograph buildings and spaces that have transformed by journey to becoming an architect. My childhood home is represented as well as a home so beautifully designed and executed in Costa Rica that it truly made me decide this was the path I wanted to take. The curves of the arches, the high ceilings covered in natural wood, the open floor plan that creates a comfortable and warm environment that still feels modern and clean. The way this space and home transformed my mood and mental state which made me reflect on the power that a space can have on your psyche. The other buildings in my journal entry represent my more recent journey through architecture in New York. The most recent part of my journey through architecture has been moving to NYC to peruse my education at Parsons and I feel so inspired walking around the city, exposed to new styles of architecture on every corner. Pictured I have the buildings I can see from my bedroom window, that I look at often and buildings that captured my attention in the city. My connection and appreciation for architecture grows as I reflect deeper on the buildings that have defined my life thus far. The personal human experience is essential if you want your architectural work to be more than 4 walls, you need history, emotion, and memory. Architecture is a very complex art form that combines function and purpose with emotion. Each space you create has the power to change the way people feel and react to a space which can in return create a powerful connection between human and space.

I really enjoyed this weeks lecture because many of the architectural elements and styles presented like the ones in Decius Burton in Palm House or Galerie Vieienne in Paris. I am very drawn to the glass ceilings and more specifically the rounded shape of the frame. Just like The Great Exhibition of 1851 which brought industries from all over the world to learn and collaborate with each other to create a balanced industry for their country. I find this same balance in rounded glass ceilings. The specific combination of the harsh material of glass and the soft edges of the archways that creates a space filled with light. Even though the room is filled with light and it is transparent to the outside world. This balance creates a space that still feels sheltered from the harshness of the outside elements but the human experiencing the space can still appreciate and feel connected to nature. While I was sketching some of the structures, I noticed that the Palm house had an almost tree branch or more specifically palm tree branch pattern that was reflected in the metal frames of the ceiling. As an architect is it important to understand the bones of a structure and this was understood as well through The Great Exhibition of 1851. Understanding the bones of an industry or the bones of a pattern found in nature can inspire architects to create structures that evoke a desired feeling or emotion while someone is experiencing the space. The archway is a powerful entrance but is balanced with smooth edges giving it a timeless and elegant feel to the space. I discovered this same feeling when I was at the Plaza Hotel and I decided to photograph these spaces in my journal and explore them further through an analog exploration.

This weeks journal was based on the lecture about reforming life: the arts and crafts from the mid to late 19 century. This chapter was a little harder for me to grass conceptually and I found myself having a hard time engaging with this material. Above I have compiled some images from the PowerPoint that struck me and that resonated with me the most as well as some drawings from the reading. I am interested in the arches that are in the interior of the Olana House built in the 1870s. The ground size of the arch as well as the very wide opening it’s very aesthetically pleasing to me and I really like this technique to create division between spaces to show distinction but yet still having a continuous flow through the layout. When I was walking around the city I noticed a building that stuck out to me because it’s presence was heavy and ominous which created an uncomfortably that I wanted to explore further. This was the FIT building for the fashion Institute of technology in New York City. I find this building very similar to Charles Macintosh’s Glasgow School of Art. This industrial style of architecture is not one that I am particularly fond of because of the gray tones and stark edges. There also seems to be a heaviness and wait to the building and I find myself more interested in buildings that appear weightless. This was an interesting topic to think about and I am really starting to get a better understanding of my personal style as an architect.

The Art Nouveau style was always a style that I thought I did not like, I think because I always confused Art Deco with Art Nouveau. Upon further investigation and research I came to really like the aesthetics and the mixture of curves and straight lines found in the Art Nouveau style. To gain a better understanding of this style I researched some significant Art Nouveau buildings in NYC to get inspired. To me the French influence can be very evident in some Art Nouveau buildings like the New Era building and The New York Evening New Building. I was very fascinated with how the curves and lines in the art work and paintings of the time mirrored the same movement in the curves of ornamental details within these buildings. I found it so interesting how the innovations of the American commercial enterprises like the telephone, typewriter, advancements in engineering, incandescent lighting and other essential tools to make modern and sophisticated buildings like the ones mentioned above. This new technology allowed architects to build bigger projects without having to sacrifice the ornamental aspects of the structure.

Art Deco has never been my favorite style, maybe it is the dark colors often used in the interior, the heavy materials or excessive use of ornament, I have just never felt like Art Deco aligned with my personal aesthetic. As I dove deeper into Art Deco by exploring the many Art Deco inspired buildings right here in New York and also looking into the culture of the time, I gained a slightly new perspective on the Art Deco movement. While I still believe that many Art Deco buildings and works are not my style I have gained a deeper understanding of the original concepts of the movement which I feel more alline with my personal aesthetics. The Art Deco movement was first shown in an international expositions of the decorative arts and it was a movement focused on simple and streamlined shapes with geometric inspired ornament. This original idea that was presented in France corresponds well with Robert Mallet Steven’s Tourism Pavilion in my opinion. I find myself more attracted to this earlier form of Art Deco presented in Europe and as the movement ages it way to America the style shifts in a heavier and more dramatic tone.

The avant-garde spirit of the early 20th century lead to many experimental projects that pushed architectural and cultural boundaries through innovation design. Many designs created during this time we’re pushing the envelope of what the traditional aesthetic of the time was. Avant-garde refers to people who are at the forefront of a movement and who are paving the way for others to create on their own. This was a time of great exploration and experimentation in the architectural world. These buildings are made to be statement and to challenge traditional societal values in an innovative way. This New spirit movement of the early 20th century it’s interesting to me because of the context behind these dramatic design. At first glance some of these buildings are too heavy for my personal aesthetic but there are some elements of these buildings that inspire me like the large windows on the facade are something that I incorporate into a lot of my own personal designs. Certain elements of these avant-garde buildings like an interesting take on hierarchy, especially highlighted in the octagonal structure of the building.

The nature and design of cities designed in the early 20th century garden cities highlights two particular movements in architectural design; Futurism from Italy and Constructionism from USSR. The geometric shapes, straight lines and harsh edges are big ideas and characteristics represented in both of these movements. I feel myself being drawn to different aspects of these movements and see many of my own aesthetic design preferences highlighted in some of the buildings represented in the presentation. I am drawn to Gerrit Thomas and his Schroeder House created in 1923 because of the clean lines and corner window. These aspects of constructivism are still translated into modern architecture and these are recurring architectural elements throughout various movements. I found Nikolai Ladovksy’s Linear Planning Scheme for Moscow to transform the Old Moscow towards the development of New Moscow. The circular movement that extends linearly to show the projection of how they would develop the new Moscow.

This week I took the time to explore and research some buildings I have found interesting lately. Specifically I was very inspired by the Lincoln Center and The Heydar Aliyev Centre, by Architect Zaha Hadid, located in Baku, Azerbaijan. This building is created in a fluid form that is representative of the landscapes and natural topography of the desert. This is represented through the folds of one continuous and blank surface. The center is home to a conference hall, a gallery hall, workspaces/offices, and a museum all located in the center of the city. This very innovative design gives a lot of light to the interior through the different fold of the surface creating pockets of windows that allows for natural light to access the interior but it also provides privacy for the individual spaces. This building is eight floors and the auditorium can seat up to a 1000 people. It was interesting researching different buildings because I started to explore my own aesthetic and I have really been interested in large archways that serves multiple purposes. Combination of glass and white texture creates a very simple yet timeless building and I see myself using this aesthetic in my own designs. I found a similar structure in New York, the Lincoln center, which I have decided to focus on for my building description #2 because of the large glass archways.

This week we explored interiors fashion and every day life and in my journal I dove deeper into Adolf Loos. As I explored deeper into his writings, The Poor Little Rich Man and ornament and crime, I really begin to get a sense of the reasoning behind his strong distaste of ornament and why his designs are exteriorly very simple and minimal. While this was not necessarily the case for how he arranged the interiors of his homes for he designed from the inside out and often had various different levels intertwining. In Loos’s Ornament and Crime, he describes how the first ornament invented was the cross which is an erotic figure and if today you put an erotic symbol on a wall it would be a disgrace. Basically, culture evolves when ornament is removed from utilitarian items. Loos’s design and this era of early modernist movement supports that ornament is not a necessity of design. Loos takes this further stating that ornament is a crime against the national economy since it is a waste of labor, money and material and that cultural evolution is held back by “stragglers” who are people who hold onto the ornament of the past. People of ancient times were not conscious of the unimportance of ornament, in this movements opinion. but now as a modern society we understand the lack of importance on ornament and this essentially is the main concept of the movement.

This has been one of my favorite chapters to study this far because being from Southern California the mid century modern style is very prominent throughout the region. Growing up I used to go to Palm Springs often and I love the style of many of the classic mid century modern homes. This got me inspired to research some of the architects from readings and articles like J.R. Davidson and Richard Nuesta. First off one of my favorite houses that I came across was the Kaufmann house by Richard Nuesta. After some research, I realized that I’ve seen this house before in Silm Aaron’s Poolside gossip picture which is one of the major pieces that represents this movement of desert modernism in Palm Springs California during the 1950s. Some thing that I find so interesting is that the culture of desert modernism is still so in bedded into the city of Palm Springs even today and this is because many of these international style or early mid century modern architects or commissioned by many celebrities at the time to create these beautiful homes. Speaking of celebrities we move to Los Angeles to look at the Thomas Mann house designed by JR Davidson. This house is so representative of the classic Southern California architectural style. These new innovative styles were made possible through the advancement of many manufacturing techniques that made it possible to create larger size slabs of glass and lighter metal materials.

The Cold War had an effect on creating shift in architecture that desired a more modern residential home. Marcel Breuer explored this idea through the Breuer House. This project explored what an average American family living in a modern, affordable, and well designed home could look like. Many of the materials used in the Breue house became very popular in the years to Cole like wood, glass, and natural stone. Breuer’s various uses of materials were often used to create distinction between spaces and to create a flow throughout the house. Some architects like Philip Johnson in the case of The Glass house choose to highlight one material to define the exterior walls of the building, thus resulting in the glass house. This is an good example of the incorporation of modern architecture living amongst nature and being connected to the natural landscape. Another house that uses glass as a material to define exterior walls is the Farnsworth House by Mies van dear Rohe, created a one room glass and steel house to be a bold representation of modern architecture. Those house is also another example hoe the glass material really allows for the structure to feel completed surrounded by nature. The one story and rectangular shape of the houses is very representative of this movement in the time after the Cold War. This is not only seen in the suburbs but corporate modern structures were also being developed in the major urban cities as well at this time.

I have always been fascinated with the TWA airport terminal and the mid century modern architecture that has been transformed into a hotel where guests can stay. I was so excited when this building was mentioned in our lecture class because I have always been fascinated with mid century modern architecture but even more specifically this hotel. Today, it serves as a remembrance on the past, a golden era of architecture, in my opinion. The head of the house which is the center of the terminal has been marked as a historical landmark and features a promenade wing shaped roof that is very symbolic of the mid century architecture movement. Inside the structure is supported by 4Y shaped peers and is and open three level space on the interior with tall windows which allows for great views of the arriving and departing airplanes. An interesting aspect of this building is the two tube shaped departure and arrival Corridors that extend from the terminal. These tubes are covered in red carpet and create a threshold that feels as if you are being transported to a different time. While some aspects of the original building have been remodeled the head of the house stands in original condition and since it is considered a historical landmark. The head house of the TWA flight center was design by Eero Saarinen Where he explored new techniques of thin shell construction and concrete shell roof. Saarinen designed this in the mid century modern style but was still very influenced by Futurist, fantastic, and neo-futurist architectural styles. Today this hotel serves as a great example of mid century modern architecture and embodies the emotion of this time.