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Thesis submitted to the faculty of theVirginia Polytechnic Institute and StateUniversity in partial fulfillment of the require-ments for the degree of Master of Architecture

doreen ebert

William Brown

William Galloway

Michael O’Brien

Heiner Schnoedt

May 2nd 2000. Blacksburg

A B S T R A C T

A higher level of complexity is possibleby combining more than one idea as longas the order of the elements is readablein each built condition.

Order is possible at any level of com-plexity. The more complex the greaterthe need of order.

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conditions

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RONOKE ,VA

Founded in the first decades of the 19th century, Roanoke’scharacteristic is a typical american middle size city, with a populationof 240.000.

The first floors in downtown roanoke are inhabitated by commericalfunctions, whereas the 2nd and 3rd floors house mixed use function.

salem avenue

kirk avenue

market square

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Light, open space, the neighbor, and the narrow character of the site are thedetermiant issues for constructing new.

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S E E I N G T H E S I T E

Iight

verticality

neighbor

U N D E R S T A N D I N G T H E S I T E

A gap in the wall of the street with anarrow and high proportion is the site forthe project.The site measures 25’x90’x35, which aretypical dimensions for rowhouses in thislocation.Rather difficult conditions for buildingmark the site. The perimeter of this placeis defined by three existing brick build-ings, two of them having openings fac-ing into the site. The forth edge is opento the north, facing the street and a largebank building. The site proportions ( widthto height to length 1:1.4:3.6) contributetowards a strong vertical character ofthe place.

Although the site is a narrow gap, thedesign must involve the neighbors onboth sides. The empty lot at the presentis their source of light and open space.

The ground level provides for publicmovement, stemming from the sur-rounding functions, such as the bar, theshop, a large bank, and its relative loca-tion to the town center.Confronted with issues of public and pri-vate in one site, the building has to makea transformation from public to private,from front to back, and from down to up.

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THE PATH

Despite the narrowness and the limited sitearea, the architecture’s built form does notmeet its volumetric potential.An independent building with its own lifewill share the place offering interaction andintegration to all surrounding buildings. Thepeople living here will have the opportunityto know their neighbor through visual andspatial contacts.Row houses are ordinarily oriented alongthe longitudinal axis of a site.The transverse orientation of this buildingis generated from the stronger relation tothe neighbors and the sharing of openspace and light. The appearance and char-acter of the building is open and playful inthe short axis and closed to the street.This structure increases the resident’sawareness of their neighbors and the inter-locking spaces they share.

Four concrete walls slice the volume trans-verse and occupy the place, touching theenvironment on a minimum.These four concrete walls are major ele-ments. All are vertically continuous, andhave strong spatial and architectural pres-ence.

THE WALLS

T O U C H I N G T H E S I T E P E R C E P T I O N O F T H E S I T E

The visual experience of the building andsite is dependent on movement. It cannotbe understood simply through the plan northrough the elevation. Seeing and ap-proaching the building in its whole onlyhappens by including the dynamics of athree-dimensional movement.

Following the sequence of places, path,and steps multiple views are formed andone’s mind is able to encounter the wholebuilding.As one moves slowly through the spaces,one makes dynamic transitions from pub-lic to private, from outside to inside, fromlight to dark, while experiencing guidedviews. These actions create a path en-abling one to see the house from multipledirections before entering. The path placesthe person in touch with the surroundings.Changes in direction of motion offer placesto rest and places to observe. These mo-ments establish a reconnection betweenone’s apprehension of the site and thesite’s entirety.

move to see and see to know

Light is important, because of the narrow-ness of the site and its use for housing.The rooms in a rowhouse in downtownRoanoke typically have a one-sided light-ing condition resulting in a dark middlecore of the house.The apartments of this project are madeof two shifted volumes to overcome thelighting condition of a typical rowhouse.

The elements forming the enclosure be-tween the four concrete walls, exist inthree degrees of transparency and canoffer different geometries and positionsthat allow light to penetrate. Because ofthe intermittently receding and advanc-ing of the side surfaces, in accordancewith the regular spacing of the walls, di-rect top and side light and reflected indi-rect light is possible. The design respond-ing to the difficult light conditionaccomodates the neighbors need for lightand provides a sufficient light for theinterior.

U S I N G T H E S I T E

LIGHT NEIGHBOR

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walls

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THE WALLS

Making architecture with four planes.

In the hierarchy of elements, the four con-crete walls are primary. Being walls theseelements are vertical, massive and maturein their presence.The four vertical concrete planes are paral-lel to one another and perpendicular to theadjacent buildings. The rhythm and the dis-tance between them is based on the rhythmgiven by the facades of the neighbors.The four planes gain a complex configura-tion after the introduction of secondary ideas,such as the light, the path and the usage.The result is individual shapes where theoutlines for each wall relate to the humanactivities and the daily use as well as to thevisual experience (transparency) and theway one passes through them.

The walls are poured on site in pieces, andthese parts are assembled in a tilt up method.The resulting joint becomes the opportunityto celebrate the complexity. At controlledpoints, when directly exposed to the eyethe joint is performed as an event and be-comes a place for light, objects, and open-ings.The daily life in the apartments will takeplace always between or around the fourwalls. The presence of the walls provides arhythmic structure for the activities.

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WALL WALL WALL WALL

Generated based on human activities, use, and visuality every wall has an individual line, which forms its character.

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The major walls are poured on site and assembled in a tilt up method.

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The floor slabes stay within the boundaries of the concrete walls and make places that let the vertical continuitybecome visible.

The floor plane is placed in pieces between the primary element ondifferent levels. The design of not penetrating the concrete walls in onepiece supports the hierachy and the verticality of the concrete walls.

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Each wall is shaped through the influences of the human, its use, and the defined level of transparency between them.

floorlevel

loft

stair landing

window,working height

floorlevel

floorlevel

working height

groundlevel

usage

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transparency

When directly exposed to the eye, the joint is makes a place for light and openings.

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neighbor

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Integration and interaction with everybody is possible since one is spatially close to the neighbors. Theperson living here knows his neighbor.

influence of the neighbors on the design

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... where people of the adjacent building step into the site onto the first landing, tohave direct contact to the site

The adjacent buildings and their existingopenings have a great impact on thedesign of the infill elements that formthe enclosure of the apartments.The decision to maintain the access tolight and air for the neighbors influencedthe infill in its geometry and in the choiceof material.The issue of privacy for each apart-ment is challenged in such a narrowspace. In the row house, separationsbetween privacy and community areusually made by the longitudinal partywall.The orientation of the four walls manipu-lates this traditional boundary. A semipublic are along the brick wall of theneighbors will serve for light. This areais generated by the receding and ad-vancing of the infill elements, that willserve for the visual privacy.The simultaneous response to both is-sues of light and visual privacy, in per-mitting or preventing transparency is arather confronting one, but the patternforming the infill, allows a dialog be-tween both issues.This developed pattern, whose dimen-sions and appearance is derived fromthe human usage, creates lines through-out the space that the eye can followeasily.

Lines occure of the heights where a per-son would sit, would work, stand, standunder and the heights a person couldreach. The constant shape of arectancular pattern 2’ by 3’ forming theinfill, give the opportunity to each ele-ment to react in its geometry, and in itsmaterial choice to light and privacy.Depending on the desired level of pri-vacy and light, elements are transpar-ent, translucent or opaque. Correspond-ing to the dialog between light and pri-vacy, decisions are made, that allow theopenings of the adjacent buildings a con-trolled view inside the new building onlyon very few occasions. Generally theexisting openings face an opaque ortranslucent material, but the infill is placeat a farther distance in order to havelight and the view into the site.The moments of un-privacy are impor-tant for an interaction of all the inhabit-ants. This moment is where a controlledview through all the buildings is possible,or where people of the adjacent buildingstep into the site onto the first landing,to have direct contact to the site.

I N F L U E N C E O F T H E N E I G H B O R S O N T H E D E S I G N

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... moments of un-privacy, where a controlled view through all the buildings is possible.

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An intermittently receding and advancing of the side surfaces is a condition generated by the important neighbor - light relation.

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path

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A rowhouse is typically seen as a fa-cade and not as a volume.Even though this building faces one byentering the site, it is not the way onewill see and understand it after steppinginto it.

one has to move to seeone has to see to know

A sequence of spaces throughout thesite creates the path leading from thefirst steps through the building into theapartments. Following the path and arhythm of repeating conditions the build-ing and the site can be seen and experi-enced in a three dimensional way.After stepping through the series ofthresholds and reaching the apartmentone will know about the site (its dimen-sions and character), the neighbors (thematerials) and the building (its charac-ter and position to the site).

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While moving inbetween the brick walls of the neighbors and the enclosure of the first apartment a contact, in form of talk or view is intended.34

The top floor landing, simi-lar to the previous one, isthe highest outdoor roomof the complex. This placefaces the street and publiclife but still offers privacy.it enables a overlookingview.

After reaching the first setof stairs to the secondfloor, one crosses thewhole dimension of thesite in the short axis.

Landing on a plane thattouches both neighbors, anawareness of the narrow-ness of the site is present.A visual re-connection toall sides of the lot is pos-sible from this point. fromhere one enters the firstapartment ...

... or walks up the stairsfacing the street and partlysheltered by the floorabove. A contact, in formof talk or view at somepoints is intended whilemoving inbetween the brickwalls of the neighbors’ andthe enclosure of the firstapartment.

At this point of entering thesecond apartment, one hasvisually surveyed thebuilding in its totality.

The sequence forming thepath starts with the publicoutdoor space, which leadsfrom the street into the site.

The garden in the back isanother outdoor room andthe location of the main en-trance to the apartments.At this point the long axisof the site is experienced.

The following dark and en-closed building core on theground level holds utilityfunctions and leads to thegarden

From here, one steps ontothe first element, which isa covered outdoor space.this is a place inbetweenpublic and private as wellas inside and outside.

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house

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The building contains two apartments splitinto three levels. The small apartments madefor a single person measure 33m2 and 36m2.Each of the apartments has three privateinterior rooms and several outside placeswithin the spatial sequence of the whole build-ing.The functional concepts for the apartmentsare very similar. The first dwelling consistsof three inseparable rooms, forming a livingspace. The space is differentiated but notstrictly divided into rooms. The design ofthe rooms is not directly related to their laterfunctions. Although they provide places forkitchen, bathroom, storage and for living,the design and the use of the rooms itself isdependent and related to the way the wallsare shaped, used and experienced.To approach each apartment, one has towalk through the whole first floor, which holdsthe utility rooms and places for storage andthe mailbox. The applied functions make thefirst level to a shared space.

Even though each of the room has a differ-ent sensory quality, based on its geometry,the way it is lit, and the visual connection tothe site, all of them are united through thepattern of the infill and their belonging to alarger space within the spatial sequence.

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3rd floor apartment 3rd floor

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S E C O N D F L O O R A P A R T M E N T

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translucent transparent opaque

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The pattern is derived from its human usage. It creates lines throughout the whole space that the eye can follow easily.

reach

stand under

stand

look over

work

sit

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The room that hosts kitchen, bathroom and storage space

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the enclosure inbetween the four concrete walls, exist in three opacities and can offer different arrangements that allow light to come in○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

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The decision not to fill the volume ofthe gap creates a small outdoor spacein the back of the site.Throughout time the site was left with-out a use. A playful interaction betweenthe surrounding tall and massive wallsand nature took place. Without humanassistance plants started to discoverthe walls, to climb up, to touch and tocover them. This place seems be ask-ing for a “no touch”, it developed overtime and should be left alone. For thisreason the old walls surrounding thegarden are elements of the garden ar-chitecture, but unchanged and un-touched.Looking at the garden as a volume, thesurfaces are made out of the sky, thefourth concrete wall, a plane of simplegrass to walk on and the three old brickwalls, partly covered by wild plants

The element that will continue the ideaof the built architecture into the grownarchitecture is the 5th wall. Concreteand plants, working together, createthis vertical element beside the fournew walls. Like the other concrete wallsit will offer places to pass through, torest, to play and places for the singleplant, the smallest garden as such. Itwill be fixed in its position and its mate-rials; stones, water, concrete and na-ture, but it will change in its heights,depending on years - change in its trans-parency, depending on the season -change in its elevation depending onthe inhabitants.By experiencing this wall and it’s offer-ings, one will experience the place withits sheltered character, the silence, thegreen, and the garden.

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F I N D I N G S

A higher level of complexity is possible by combining morethan one idea as long as the order of the elements is readablein each built condition.

Order is possible at any level of complexity. The more com-plex the greater the need of order.

Order can be the relationship of a limited set of elements thatinform and reform each other.

Ideas about the wall, the path and the relation to the adjacentbuildings generate the elements of the type wall, path andinfill that combine elemental characteristics as well as addi-tional pimary and secondary characteristics.

Every element has some independence and completenessof its own, but at the same time it is part of the largercontext. The elements may acknowledge different degreesof the dependence but they can never be wholly self-con-tained.

A constant dialog between the ideas and elements takesplace until a complex condition is articulated and every singledecision is confirmed prior to inform the primary elementwhich is baseline for the secondary.

When the primary is informed by the secondary a complex-ity can be made. When the secondary concerns individualgenerate autonomous parts complication is the likely result.

Through a cycle of informing and reforming of the wall, pathand relation to adjacent buildings a complexity can beachieved.

Every informing and reforming within the given order incor-porates a shift to a higher level of complexity.

Wall a vertical independent member that is used to define and devide space

Infill a dependent element between others

Path a course with a starting point through a sequence of spaces to a destination

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V I T A

doreen ebertoctober 15th 1976

1995 -Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany

to be continued

1998 - 2000Master of Architecture

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and StateUniversity, Blacksburg Virginia

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