A Buddhist Temple
Connecting Identity
Buddhism is spirituality that is rich with symbolic connections, motifs, references and has a deep visual dictionary tied to its religion. This coupled with Buddhism's focus on spreading good nature to others in everyday life is what drew me to exploring Buddhism as a religion. I knew I wanted to draw on the visuals and symbols of the religion, and early on I wanted to use the religion as a base point for my form and concept, just as many other permutations of the sacred spaces representing Buddhism have before. However, early on the amount of symbolism became somewhat overwhelming to filter through. As I studied the religion and its architecture, I became facinated by every little story or symbol I could find. Naturally my mind wanted to utlize all the imformation I could. Its no wonder to me that this translated to a convaluted and layered concept at the beginning. Before focusing on the shared inner buddha nature and the path to it as my visual language, I attempted to utilze the symbolism of a mountain, of water, and of many things. Initially, my concept was about separate forms within each other, connecting and influencing each other. Each space was meant to represent some separate identity, connected. This was tied to how the inner Buddha nature within us all influences our outward form, though it may be buried and abstracted. Luckily through several processes of simplification I noticed how my narrative of space and form really wanted to relate to the journey to our inner Buddha nature, and interacting with it and each other along the way. I believe my concept eventually represented this through simple gestures in my architecture, and through the process of simplification ( a process I can't help but parralel to Buddhist practices ) I developed an architectural narrative that functions for its purposes while telling a story. In the end my plan resembled a highly abstracted geometric lotus, with the wings almost being petals and the inner worship space the center ( of which represents enlightenment ). I actually had no intention of representing a lotus in form, the geometry actually arose from abstracting the central worship space square, relating it to the context, and joining it through the engawa space. However, the lotus form made itself evident, somewhat to my suprise, and completely unitentionally. I have yet to decide if this representation is positive or negative.
Beginning Schemes: Discovering Concept
Reflections
Dallas Visit
Mid Term
Final
End of Semester
The trip to Dallas was a welcome step away from the normal studio grnd. I had been there once before, but this time I was really able to explore architecture that I have learned about in school with a deeper more tactile appreciation. I particularly enjoyed the science museum, the facades interesting characteristics were meant to mimic a specific mineral that formed in a highly ordered cube form.I also thought it was interesting that the architects translated the smooth and almost surreal geometry of the mineral into a jagged exterior.The interior was full of many fascinating exhbits that I could have spent days exploring From there we explored the Wyly theater, there we were treated to a performance about African American Culture that was intriguing to see expressed through movement. After exploring the city more, its fine dining ( food trucks ) and interesting parks and other theaters we visited our site. Initially it was a bit of a scale shock to realize how large our site was and also how close it was to the other cultural institutions in the area. I'd have to say though that my favorite parts were the art museums, the first of which was the Kahn Kimbell Art Musuem and the Piano addition, the simplicity and efectiveness of the barreled vaults were beautiful. After we isited the modern art musuem by Ando. While there, I picked up a book of Ando's that was a series of interviews describing his influences and principles. It was in this book that I read on our drive back that I was introduced to the term engawa, which I utlilzed on a space that I had been developing without a clear way of describing before. The words seem to fit all too well.
Mid terms approached quickly and with full strength. By that time I felt as though I was just then refining my conceot and beginning to visualize my environment. The engawa began to take form and the worship space started to become a true palce of worship. However, the materiality was out of place, I became too focused on representing texture in an exaggerated way and stepping away from the simple unity of material, structure and form that I was looking for. I was honestly disappointed in my model, sadly I wasn't able to give it the time it deserves, but I had fun experimenting with my renderings, not taking them too seriously. Sadly, in a sleep deprived haze I deleted most of my sketchup model, which would later hurt due to the fact I would need to rebuild it in Revit. But this proved to be a good thing, in rebuilding I redesigned and became more conscious of what I was developing. My critique was brief, comments mostly focused on my use of materiality, and my definition of the engawa and the refinement of my concept. Also, it was brought up to re think my roof structure, which I agreed, and later allowed me to develop a simple and effective structural pattern. To see my work for the Mid-Term look here.
When the time came to work on my finals I wanted to set aside as much time as possible to devote to this project. I wanted to experiment with different representation styles and make all of my drawings appear as a whole presentation. Though I knew some of what I wanted to do was a fantasy, I felt it was important to try. I had fun doing my worship renderings, and while I wasn't totally staisfied with the prints of my other renderings, they were fun to do and explore. Another part of my final design I enjoyed doing was exploring ways to represent my ideas and concepts through diagram. These helped me to create a simple dialogue of my process. Lastly,I always enjoy exploring model making, while I felt rushed due to time contstaints I still exprimented with using a pyography pen to burn the exterior faces of balsa wood strips to represent the burnt wood I was using. It came out nicely and coupled with my structure model I had two physical representations I had fun doing and was proud of. My critique went well, I had positive comments about my concept, howver it was a common theme that I had a lot of information and ideas, to the point it was impossible to talk about in the time allotted. I appreciated the critiquers viewpoints, particularly when discussing ways to further develop my interior court spaces. To view my fianl boards and models look here
This semester proved to be one of the most challenging semesters of my architecture education. In a way it felt as though I had forgotten how to design an actual building. I felt behind for a majority of the semester, but that only pushed me to work harder. I appreciated learning how to design all of the systems, and while challenging, I learned alot creating the T.I.Ws. I appreciated the pressure and intensity of the semester as it will help me grow as a designer. While at the time it seemed like hell, and burnt me out towards the end, the end of the semester re-ignited my desire to work as hard as possible to grow and learn. I thank my professor Nancy Chikaraishi for pushing me and teaching me valuable tools to use on future projects and in my career.