Summaries:

Deep Space, Thin Walls

The inland steel building was remarked to be the revival of Chicago’s business district, meanwhile only a handful of blocks away the new tallest building in Chicago, the Prudential Building, was getting very little press. This was mainly because the exterior look of the building was dated. For some time there was a movement that considered windowless buildings to be the buildings of the future based on technicalities. With advancements in air conditioning and lighting, these windowless buildings would be superior at controlling light, and temperature. Windows, and a view of the outside were seen as only amenities, and not an essential part of buildings. One of the reasons the idea for windowless buildings lasted so long was due to glass technology lagging behind AC and lighting technology. It wasn’t until late WWII that insulated and heat absorbing glass tech finally emerged. After this technology the Equitable building was the first to use heat absorbing glass. Even after the first building to have heat absorbing glass, prewar codes prevented full glass walls for another decade. And still the idea for windowless buildings continued on technical superior grounds. Glass tech slowly progressed and eventually float-glass tech emerges. This new ubiquity of glass finally fulfills the prophecy of 19th and 20th century modernist prophecies.

The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered

The demand for tall buildings is increasing. This is due to many reasons. There is a need for more offices. City populations are rising. Value of land is rising. New technology and resources are becoming available, like elevators, and steel. For all of these reasons more office buildings are needed and being made. So how can we make office buildings beautiful? First we need to examine what office buildings need. They need a basement that contains the plant for power, heating, and lighting. A ground floor with stores, banks, and areas that require easy access. A second story that is also easily accessible. Offices that can be uniform and stacked. Finally a top floor that supplements the basement. With those necessities in mind the bottom floors should be aesthetically pleasing and catch people’s eyes, the office floors should be uniform and repeated, and the top floor should conclude the design nicely. As for the emotion of a tall office building, it should be noted that they are inherently “lofty” or awe inspiring. Due to this, someone who designs and builds an office building should be full of life and daring. As for the theories of office building design, there are many. All of these theories have a common factor, they come in three parts. The bottom, middle, and top, as outlined above. The function of these parts necessitate the form.

Space

The term space has many meanings and many people throughout history have been in disagreement for what it should mean. To start space is both a thing in the physical world, and a mental construct. The term was also used in philosophy before architecture. In architecture space is seen as a few different things. The first impulse for architecture is to enclose space, and that is an essential aspect of architecture. This is largely how architecture viewed space, even while other viewpoints grew. Some of the more philosophical views of space see it as a property of the mind, and separate of how architects view space. Architectural space perceptions in the 1900s see space as three main things, the original motive of architecture, the cause of aesthetic perception of architecture, and satisfying the expectation that all works of art should reveal movement. Space is also seen as a negative form. Another view of space is spatial division – a series of compartments part of a larger endless space. For the built space, space is enclosure, continuum, and an extension of the body. Moholy declares that architecture is an art of space, and buildings are a creative expression in space. Still there are some philosophers that see space differently. They see space on a much broader scale, having a deep connection with existence in general. Heidegger says space cannot exist independently of one’s own being in it, and space can only be known by its relation of other things. He also says that our bodies are a general medium for having a world. Lefebvre thinks of space on a societal scale, in terms of social spaces. He sees social space as the place that the cultural life of societies takes place within. There seems to be some disdain for architects from philosophers as taking the term space to use only in the physical sense. I hope this makes sense, this was a dense reading.

Critical Response:

In response to the first article Deep Space, Thin Walls, one thing that really surprised me was the idea of the windowless office building. Before reading this I had never heard of this, and honestly it’s a little offensive. Sure it could be done technically, but to have a completely windowless building seems like it would crush the spirit of the workers inside the building. Perhaps I’m biased because I love nature, but the thought of going to work and not even being able to look outside is revolting. I’m glad glass technology advanced quick enough to combat the windowless building. This brings me to my second thought on this article. It was interesting to hear that even after glass technology advanced to the point of being able to fully cover a building there were still codes that prevented it from happening. I would think that for the sake of innovation, the new technology would be implemented as quickly as possible. As a final note for this article I found it funny that despite being a tall, very advanced building, the prudential building was received poorly just because it looked dated.

Application and Interpretation:

Here is the flatiron building that generally adheres to the main rules from the second article, The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered. The bottom floor is aesthetically pleasing, taller than many of the other floors, and easily accessible from both sides of the street. The next couple floors are designed in a similar way to the first, and attract attention to the building from the street. Then there are many floors that look exactly the same stacked on top of one another. Finally once you get to the top there is a change and the conclusion of the design takes place. This building slightly breaks the rules of the tall office building by having the top few floors be the most ornate on all of the building, even more than the first few. It is almost as if the design could be flipped upside down, and then it would perfectly fit the rules of this article.

Takeaways:

• Office buildings grew from technological advances
• The basic structure of office buildings is in 3 parts
• Architecture is an art of space
• Be careful with the use of the word space, as it has meanings outside of architecture