HOUSE DESIGN
by
JEFFREY OWEN BROSK
B.A.,
B.S. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
1970
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF MASTER OF
ARCHITECTURE
AT THE
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY
$\AN ,,1976
-.....
Signature of Autho
rtment of Architecture
January 21, 1976
Certified by.
............
Don
P
-iosi'
so aeProf or, Thesis Supervisor
Accepted by.
Assistant Professor,
Copyright
e
:.ichael Underhjll,
Chairman, Departmental
Committee
Jeffrey Owen Brosk
11
2 R976
L.ISR ARI z
1976
D91
ABSTRACT
HOUSE DESIGN
Jeffrey Owen Brosk
Submitted to the Department of Architecture on
January 21, 1976 in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Architecture
I have designed a house to demonstrate and explore
the use of color as form in architecture. The
main premise is that since color effects our
perception of space both on a psychological and a
physical level, it must be considered an important
Once one then accepts
architectural element.
color as an integral part of the design process,
its use requires a reevaluation of the massing and
In the process of design,
organization of forms.
I have probed many divergent attitudes one could
bring to this problem and the final design
However, the
represents a solution at this time.
and I
elusive,
solution
the
problem is large and
be
still
I
will
now
from
suspect many years
Therefore I view this thesis as a
looking.
starting point, and not a termination.
Thesis Supervisor:
Title:
Donald Preziosi
Associate Professor of Architecture
2
Dedicated to my parents,
Doris Annette Brosk and Bernard J.
Brosk.
3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to express my deep appreciation to my
advisors Donald Preziosi and Jerzy Soltan for
their inciteful advice and criticism, and to
express my gratitude to my thesis critics Wayne
Andersen, Whitney Chadwick and Carl Nesjar.
Finally, I would like to thank the Department of
Architecture for providing such a full and
flexible educational framework.
4
HOUSE DESIGN
5
Color is life; for a world without colors appears
to us as dead...
As flame begets light, so light
engenders colors.
Colors are the children of
light, and light is their mother.
Light, that
first phenomenon of the world, reveals to us the
spirit and living soul of the world through
colors.
The Art of Color, Johannes Itten
6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT
8-11
DRAWINGS
12-22
COLOR ELEVATIONS
23-27
MODEL
28-39
BIBLIOGRAPHY
40-42
7
STATEMENT
For the sake of greater clarity and understanding
of this body of work it is necessary to frame it
in the larger context of my other work and
thoughts.
The basic premise of this work is that
the essentials of painting, sculpture and architecture are the same.
The numerous artificial
boundaries set up by each particular discipline
serve largely to the detriment of each.
In this
thesis I have tried to bring to bear all my
previous work in painting, sculpture and architecture to begin a body of work that will incorporate
and transcend them.
In this design I have approached the use of color
in seven major ways:
8
- to establish interconnectedness of interior
and exterior;
- to establish a dialogue with ground and sky;
- to establish a dialetic of two and three
dimensional space;
- to delinate surface plan;
- to break surface plan;
- to delinate volumetric space;
- to establish time-color-memory phenomena.
Usage was the general organizing principle concerning the degree of color used in various
sections of the house.
Areas that would be
occupied for short periods of time could work with
a higher saturation of color than areas of the
house that would be occupied for generally longer
periods of time.
However, this generalization
must be modified by the exact nature of the
9
activity taking place.
Therefore, while designing
one must consistently be living in the house and
tasting the different colors as he contemplates
their use.
However, in the end this project must be judged as
you would any house design, because it is not
meant to be a three dimensional color exercise,
but a house in which people would live and love.
Color must be just one more tool that an architect
has at his command, and not the sole purpose of
the building.
However, this tool we call color
must be carefully and thoughtfully used because
there will always be the temptation to merely pour
pretty colors on buildings.
This temptation must
be avoided because color has
so much more poten-
tial if it is used as an integral part of the
10
design process, for then its use requires a
reevaluation of the massing and organization of
forms.
11
DRAWINGS
12
0
13
BROSK
PLAN scale 0I
5
-10
0
B
I
14
5
BROSK
10
LIGHTING PLAN scale
15
BROSK
SECTION A-A scale 01
16
K
AF
BROSK
SECTION B-B scale 010
17
BROSK
SECTION C-C
scale 0
1
18
BROSK
NORTHEAST ELEVATION
scale 01
19
n
K
BROSK
0DWWD0
__________
NORTHWEST ELEVATION
scale
0
?
1
20
p
4
--ID
-
-i
BROSK
SOUTHWEST ELEVATION
I
________________________
scale 0
i
21
22
COLOR ELEVATIONS
Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers,
The
the soul is the piano with many strings.
key
one
touching
artist is the hand that plays,
in
the
cause
vibrations
to
or another purposely,
soul.
Concerning the Spiritual in Art, W.
Kandinsky
23
scale
24
25
26
NCN.
MODEL
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
110
38
39
BIBLIOGRAPHY
40
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ardalan, Nadar and Bakhtian, Laleh, The Sense of
Unity, The University of Chicago Press,
Chicago and Laden, 1973.
Bachelard, Gaston, Poetics of Space, translated by
Maria Jolas, Orion Press, New York, 1964.
Gatz, Konrad and Achterberg, Gerhard, Colour and
Architecture, Architectural Book Publishing
Co.,
New York, 1967.
Gombich, Hochberg and Black, Art, Perception and
Reality, Johns Hopkins University Press,
Baltimore, 1972.
Itten, Johannes, The Art of Color, translated by
Ernst von Haagen, Von Nostrand Reinhold
41
Company, New York, 1973.
Kardinsky, Wassily, Concerning the Spiritual in
Art, George Wittenborn, Inc.,
New York, 1972.
Klee, Paul, The Thinking Eye, George Wittenborn,
Inc.,
New York, 1969.
42