A friend visited Seattle and we stopped by the new Starbucks Roastery and Tasting Room. It is a combination of cafe, roastery and restaurant, along with a souvenir shop. It is dedicated to roasting reserve coffees. While sitting at a table, I glanced up above the bar and noticed a series of wooden beams that were joined together in an odd arrangement. They were clustered in different amounts. This is an application of athroisis. Just as a group of trees will gather in varying amounts, the designer decided to do the same with this ceiling. Note the three dimensional application. The…
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We humans are linear. We love our straight lines and do our best to find them wherever we look. We like straight roads, straight pillars, tall buildings and straight edges on paper. We try to find straight lines in our scientific endeavors. Sometimes it works, and sometimes the match is way out of line—that pun was unintentional, but I’ll keep it since it works. The stunning rhythms in architecture that consist of straight lines and sharp angles are a joy to view. The colonnade of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Parthenon, a structure by Mies van der Rohe and thousands of…
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One of Nature’s gifts is that it relaxes our senses and promotes healing. There is a peace and calm that overtakes us when we experience a natural setting. In contrast, an environment that continuously demands concentration and focus is not healthy; the mind and body will suffer over time. Why does Nature have such a calming effect? There are most likely dozens of reasons; fresh air, the sounds of birds and a susurrus wind all come to mind. I think the way Nature arranges herself can also play a role, and that role can be used in design. Regularity In…
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Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (formerly known as the Experience Music Project) was designed by Frank Gehry. The inspiration behind the building was a smashed guitar, in honor of Seattle’s Jimi Hendrix. Gehry purchased several electric guitars, sliced them into pieces, and used them as building blocks for an early model design. Three-thousand panels, made up of 21 thousand individually cut and shaped stainless steel and painted aluminum shingles, encase the outside of the building. Their individual finishes respond to different light conditions and appear to change when viewed from different angles, reminding audiences that music and culture is constantly…
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The 20th Century architect, Marcel Breuer designed and built the St. John’s Abbey Church in Collegeville, Minnesota (near St. Cloud.) Breuer states that ‘this cast-in-place concrete marvel is a stepping-stone in modern design of religious architecture in the United States. One must admire the great concrete trees that support the ceiling and the dominant bell banner that shields the church.’ The church is a technological feat as well. Incorporating a massive use of cast and steel-reinforced concrete, it was fundamentally constructed by local carpenters who made the forms into which the concrete was cast. The large bell banner at the…