In the Chiba Project the program was untested, open-ended, and involved few pre-conceptions. Our intention was to investigate the relationship between an architecture and nature.
The surface of the earth was scraped away to provide a place for two parenthetically inverted walls. A middle ground between these two walls was created to serve as both a part of nature and to provide a commentary on it....the impulse to dominate the landscape by a hermetically sealed object was discarded in favor of the creation of a space in which unexpected relationships were allowed to happen. The normally secondary architectonic element of wall became the focus in this strategy. The walls are directly related to the landscape as non-buildings, with a massiveness that is appropriate to the sheer magnitude of the site. The organization of the space between the walls continues the investigation which began with the Crawford House in the development of a repetitive, totemic geometry which organized the building. In the case of the Chiba Golf Clubhouse, however, these totemic pylons were expanded into habitable pieces of the building itself.
These two idealized notions of walls (restraining the earth), and space created by their placement, were joined by the pavilion, which constitutes the third architectonic element on the site. The Pavilion acts as a counterpoint to the first two elements; it was placed in the air, and outside the limits of the bounding walls, thus affording the observer a perception of the vastness and expansiveness of the natural setting. Rather than being carved from, or integrated into the site, this building is lifted, detached, and isolated from the configuration.
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In the Chiba Project the program was untested, open-ended, and involved few pre-conceptions. Our intention was to investigate the relationship between an architecture and nature.
The surface of the earth was scraped away to provide a place for two parenthetically inverted walls. A middle ground between these two walls was created to serve as both a part of nature and to provide a commentary on it....the impulse to dominate the landscape by a hermetically sealed object was discarded in favor of the creation of a space in which unexpected relationships were allowed to happen. The normally secondary architectonic element of wall became the focus in this strategy. The walls are directly related to the landscape as non-buildings, with a massiveness that is appropriate to the sheer magnitude of the site. The organization of the space between the walls continues the investigation which began with the Crawford House in the development of a repetitive, totemic geometry which organized the building. In the case of the Chiba Golf Clubhouse, however, these totemic pylons were expanded into habitable pieces of the building itself.
These two idealized notions of walls (restraining the earth), and space created by their placement, were joined by the pavilion, which constitutes the third architectonic element on the site. The Pavilion acts as a counterpoint to the first two elements; it was placed in the air, and outside the limits of the bounding walls, thus affording the observer a perception of the vastness and expansiveness of the natural setting. Rather than being carved from, or integrated into the site, this building is lifted, detached, and isolated from the configuration.
Certain aspirations with the Crawford House were easier to achieve in the Chiba Golf Club because the program by its nature was untested and open-ended, involving few preconceptions. We intended to investigate the relationship between construction and nature to replace the historical dominance of architecture over nature with a supportive or balancing relationship.
The surface of the earth was scraped away to provide a place for two parenthetically inverted walls. The normally secondary architectonic element of wall became the focus. The walls are directly related to the landscape as non-buildings, with a mass appropriate to the magnitude of the site. The middle ground between these two convex surfaces represents the boundaries of an architectural site. We discarded the impulse to dominate the landscape with a hermetically sealed object and instead created a seies of subterranean spaces within this interstitial area. The organization of the space between the walls continues the investigation begun in the Crawford House by isolating and eroding the repetitive, totemic geometry of the work’s idealized structure. In this project, however, these totemic pylons and their supporting volumes expand into habitable spaces that allow light to penetrate the subterranean depths.
The pavilion, the third architectonic element on the site, is an object-building juxtaposed against the idealized notions of walls (restraining the earth) and of the rhythmic spaces they create. The pavilion, in the air ,beyond the binding walls, acts as a counterpoint to these two elements, affording a view of the expansive natural setting. Neither carved from nor integrated into the site, this building is lifted, detached, and isolated. Spatially horizontal, as opposed to the verticality of the inner spaces, it figuratively reiterates the inner order of the complex.
The Jpga project concerns itself with the interaction of man-made architecture and natural landscape. It attempts to develop a strategy which links a site investigation to an architectural language by direction a focus to the physical and by drawing on all of one’s senses, producing an architecture which is interested in making natural environmental processes self-evident. The work is perceived as an instrument of measure, a sum of knowledge capable of organizing space and time. The entire program with it’s emphasis on the game (golf) is about movement, the rhythm of walking, the narrative and diversity of place, and the dynamic and connective nature of organization.
The building is about the land’s surface (hence it’s orientation to the building’s sectional characteristics) as it effects movement both through the automobile and through the pedestrian. The basic Parti is made up of four elements; a segment of a curved wall which produces a space for arrival (automobile), a lineal sequence of alternating volumes which accommodates a majority of the program, a second circular wall which embraces the larger site and facilitates movement to the grounds, and a pavilion which contains space of dining and social events.
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