Columns of Lee III
While taking a closer look at all of the columns of Lee III, I made a connection with this outdoor column. I appreciate their presence as a design tool so repetitive it is almost unnoticeable.
The interior columns (the trees) are the center of attention with a literal halo around them, bringing the eye up and around the space of Lee III. The exterior Y columns with a web of lines, hold up the awning and do not even touch the face of the building. This realization helped me understand how the columns in this building do individual work. They resemble a group project where no one shares a task but everyone does their own job efficiently and it all comes together in the end.
I made a model of this column out of corrugated cardboard, painter’s tape, and clay. This Y column is so beautiful because it does not really look like it is doing that much work. The Y Column politely holds up the edges of the roof and exists in a way that reminds me of trees lining the driveway for a country home.
I originally intended to remove the tape once the glue dried but decided to keep it to give it some pizazz. Then it reminded me of the columns at the Parthenon.
The columns at the Parthenon were made by stacking pieces on top one another instead of the column being one continual piece. The blue tape wrapped horizontally around pieces of my column made it feel like these columns. As they age, the seams have become more apparent. This process makes the Parthenon feel less monumental (since the lines of the columns are not continuous) but brings forward a new appreciation for the craftsmanship to create these columns nearly one million days ago.
Cecil Balmond's INFORMAL | Introduction
After reading Balmond’s introduction to Informal, I have a deeper appreciation for structure within Architecture. If, when designing a building, we take into consideration the structure first, it will allow us to be freer with our design and come out with a more cohesive unit.
Looking at Lee III, the post & beam structure is highlighted with the arrangement and emphasis of the columns. Even though this building is beautiful, are we stuck in the rhythm of post and beam construction?
To truly move into a new era of post-post-modernism, or follow the likes of Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas in neo-futurism, we, as architects, need to embrace the structural engineering process of construction fully. This reliance is reinforced by computer-aided design. Using computers will only get one so far when designing since one is limited by what the computer is capable of. Once architects get out of the geometric routine of structure, there will be more innovation in the field. To have complete freedom when designing buildings, one has to explore more free options for structure.
Resource
Balmond, Cecil, Christian Brensing, and Jannuzzi Smith. “Introduction.” Essay. In Informal: Cecil Balmond. Prestel, 2002.