OBSERVED
AN ASSEMBLAGE OF 9TILT DEFINITIONS
IN SAUVE
DI SASR~Li
AND IN OTHER EXAMIATES OF ADDITIVE ARCHITECTURE FOR THE
DESIGN OF AN EDUCATIONAL BUILDING
by Jean-Pierre
Carniaux . B.S.A.D.,M.I.T.1974.
Submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of
Master of Architeotre
at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
yune, 1976
Signature of Author .-.
Certified
by
.
. .o--
. . .
. .
. .
. . . .
.0
0
0
.
Maurice Smith, Thesis Supervisor
Professor of Architecture
Accepted by . .
.
.
Srartment of Architecture
. .
.
ARCHIVES
JUN 14 197q
.
.0
ABSTRACT
OBSERVED
AN ASSEEBLAGE OF BUILT DEFINITIONS
IN SAUVE
DISASSEBLED
AND IN OTHER 3AMLES OF ADDITIVE ARCRITEC T URE FOR TE
DESIGN OF AN EDUCATIONAL BUILDING
by ,Teen-Pierre Carniaux
Submitted to the Department of Architecture on May 14, 1976
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Architecture
The observation of European villages, as well as
4eAayrIV
other examples of f6que#R0AMY
architecture bring to
#0 pul * A..
an understanding of physical USEFORE which can be
applied to the building situation we face nowadays.
Although most of our present information about
vernacular architecture is
the picturesque description
of a lost world, I believe that a careful documentation
of
"
"'Or'"
TAet ari@A&,
can help in generating a design.
vU"d"a
4aeMIracas
This piece of work tries to use form references
(rules of assemblage, organizing framework) previously
observed (that is
Of s aJe*Lhis4
U
e.t.
) in Sauvea medieval villa
in the south of France, for the projective design'1 of' a'
high school on a Cambridge site.
con P&er at
1NOT
it_
sa
a
-----
object but
the
account
of a process of making a place, each design phase
VA
makingan independent partial contribution to the whole,
allowing plural interpretation for the next design
phase, each phase keeping its identity.
This process can be considered a 5u"W6*rg Age*.ery
of the way these villages have been built, added
on, changed during their own larger history. It
cannot be the pastiche of a total form transformed
to another scale, in another context.
The analogy between the two PLACES will be found in
5TaWrAt
their respective
XA
2
um
rather than in their
respective
lurthermore it is hoped that such a process would allow
for participatory design (whoever the participants may
be- users, other designers) since all decisions are
partial and supportive of the next one.
This thesis is part of a collective work which involved
Gail Boyajian and George Hauser, who,
reference,
using the same
Sauve, projected different designs.
Thesis Supervisor:
Maurice Smith
Professor of Architecture
'P.2
REFERENCES.
.Sauve,Gard,is a village of 1400 inhabitants, attached
to a cliff ,overlooking a river. It used to be an important
commercial town on the road between Marseille and Toulouse.
During the XlIIth centuryit housed ten thousands people,
"when Paris was only sheltering twenty s-een thousands souls'
(Source; Syndicat d'initiative...)
.This very high density town settled in a place where the
natural physical framework is making an important change in
definition. In this land of plateaux and plains,separated by
an abrupt vertical white stone cliff,most villages do settle
where the ohysical context is already an incentive to build
upon. Sauve was not built on the top of a plateau ("sea of
rocks") where one would find singular,object-like castles to
house the solitude of a king, neither in the plain where again
large farm complexes would sit alone in the agricultural land,
but grows from the cliff-wall itself,and where the river changes its direction.
A PLACE IN A PLACE,
A NON-NEUTRAL FRAMEWORK.
.The vertical facade of the village is a hard edge,difficult
to penetrate ( the dimensions of the ways in being in the same
range as the ones of private entrances to houses, but once you
are in,you will find a new raised ground,horizontal surface,
overlooking the river some 56 feet above; the large public
THE STEP.
square of the town.)
.The ground floors of most of the houses are built with the
same collective vocabulary of vaults,sometimes left open to
let a street pass through, or even further back in the block
(along the public square) to house market activities,shops..
THE OVERLAP BETWEEN PRIVATE/PUBLIC
ACTUALLY BUILT WITH A PARTICULAR
VOCABULARY.
p.3
.The main streets, directionnal, roughly following the
direction of the land,respond to privacies,to other streets
going uo the hill, to oublic ooen snace by changing some
of their definitions.
A DIRECTIONNAL DISTRIBUTION,
ACKNOWLEDGING WHAT IT DISTRIBUTES.
AN ASSEMBLAGE OF PIECES WHERE EACH PIECE HAS A LIFE
OF ITS OWN AND REMAINS IDENTIFIABLE IN BUILDING UP A
COMPLEX WHOLE, AT ANY SCALE.
p.4
PROJECTION.
.Site considerations:.Enabling pedestrian access through
the site and encouraging community use of the school facilities
distributed the building such that a major path ,answering
Throwbridge street connection to Harvard square and residential neighborhoods north of Cambridge street and east of
Ellery streetwould cross the site passing along a strongly
defined outdoor place between the public library,the major
school building and the outlined diagrammed dining facility.
DIRECT REFERENCE TO SAUVE MAIN SQUARE
IN TERMS OF ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE
DISTRIBUTION.
.Program;2500 students to accomodate.A programmatic piece
physically defined, has been used and became more and more
difficult to recognize as the process went.(see drawing b p.23)
.Building framework:
Using Sauve section ,the distribution pattern climbs up the
the building to get to the roof of the auditorium,which
becomes a raised "new ground" around which more privacies
can get built.Hence a strong context is built up,the dark
areas finding their use as an auditorium,small garage,
storage,machine room... Lower raised grounds in the northern
growth of the building could accomodate sports courts for
A STEP. A NON NEUTRAL FRAMEWORK.
community use.
.Vocabulary to build the framework; -Concrete channels, long directionnal pieces
with a span of 48' to 60',in reference to the long "horizontal"
streets of Sauve,are distribution elements.
-Planks(32' to 20' span),finding supports onto
channel beams, walls, and beams (20' span),and Walls are making
the privacies.
-The slack between thesewo systems is taken
care of by poured in place concrete, and is the vocabulary
P-5
which will build,with more ease,a complex overlapping between
the distribution and the privacies, conditions for intersections of conflicting directions,in some collective form.
THE OVERLAP BETWEEN PRIVATE/PUBLIC ACTUALLY BUILT
WITH A PARTICUIAR1VOCABULARY.
p.6
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Our work should be limited to the definition of a supporting
framework full of tensions,on which should be able to develop
the most disparate organizationnal modes and formal configurations which stimulate the richest dis-order."
GIAN CARLO DE CARLO. How/why to build school
buildings. Harvard educational review,vol39,no.4,1969.
"Flexibility leaves every theorttical possibility open,
in the sense that nothing is A PRIORI excluded,but on the
other hand,it does not initiate anything either."
HERMAN HERTZBERGER.
GENERATE
"CAN WE ASSEMBLE A
CAN THERE BE
LIFE VARIED
PLURALISTIC 3-DIMENSIONAL 'HABITABLE'FIELD?
WE MUST MAKE SOME
YES! "1
IT
MAURICE SMITH.
is 'architecture'
What should'architecture'be for
Mre architects
designers
Harvard educational review,vol39,no.4,1969.
CAN
.Architectute Plus S.D.2 .1973.
.Fenollosa; The chinese written character as a medium for poetry.
.Georges Bataille; Oeuvres completes.
.Moto Kubo; Form orojection,exploration of habitable field.
1971.Thesis,M.I.T.
:Dennis J.Fogarty; IeAken And empetrience//Zecondary schools
for Cambridge.1975.Thesis,M.I.T.
.Hill,Miller,Friedlander Inc.;A-program for the Cambridge
High Schools.
.Harvard educational review; Architecture and education
vo139,no 1969.
.Chinese characters; Dr.L.Wieger,s.J.
The sun rises east
The same way
sgnthe she sun
cAA be physically seen
rising above the horizon line and hide behind a stgn of a tree
LL
I
p.7
in chinese characters, I hope the following drawings can be
seen as associative steps towards an' associative' place.
CONTENTS
.Original references:
.D9 -Sauve,partial view of main square.(raised ground).
.plO-Sauve,collective entrance to the town;general view.
.pl1-Sauve,main entrance/gateway;overlanping distribution
and privacies.
.p12-Sauve,collective form.
.p13-Sauve,door panel,assemblage where every piece is still
a recognizable entity. .p14 Stone assemblage.
.D14 back-Early design studio project using the same
framework vocabulary this design project uses:channels,planks.
.p15-Aerial photograph of Sauveshowing thettsea oforocks",
the town, the river, the plain.
.p16 ,17,18,-observation drawings executed in Sauve.
.p19-Sauve 'cadastre'.
.p20,21-Section through Sauve and its main square.
.Projection:
.p22-Early site plan for the high school/some street Datterns analogies from Sauve.
.p23- a)structure.b)programmatic piece.c)early section of
auditorium.d)early plan and section at 40th..e)at 20th.
.D24,25,26,-3 floors olans,showing framework decisions.
.p27,-section A.
.
p28,section B.
.p297screens to be added to the framework.
.p30- 1/10th plan of part of the building showing oossible
classroom,laboratories configuration,screen and infill.
.p31-axonometric. p32-axonometric showing the raised ground
above the auditorium.
p. 8
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