DESIGN PROJECTIONS FOR A SMALL NON-RESIDENTIAL BUILDING:
TOWARDS A THEORY OF "ASSOCIATIVE-USE"
SPACES
by
RANDALL GORDON BRADLEY
B.A. Noorhead College,
Moorhead, Minnesota
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE
AT THE
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
May, 1974
Signature of Author
Certified by
Maurice Smith, Thesis Advisor
Accepted by
Chairman, Departmental
Committee on
Graduate Students
ABSTRACT
DESIGN PROJECTIONS FOR A SMALL NON-RESIDENTIAL BUILDING:
TOWARDS A THEORY OF "ASSOCIATIVE-USE"
SPACES
by
RANDALL GORDON BRADLEY
Submitted to the Department of Architecture, May, 1974,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Architecture
It is the purpose of this thesis to propose
a methodology that will be an aid in the design,
generation, juxtaposition, and integration of rational,
three-dimensional form into associative-use spaces and
to then test that methodology by projecting it into
a written program for a New England Telephone Company
branch office building located .t Dudley Station,
Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Thesis Supervisor:
Maurice K. Smith, Professor of
Architecture
2
ROTCH
of Architec:tire
LBRARY
Plain
ing
Massachusetts in
Tchology
c_
Room 7-238
Cambridge, Mass. 02139
This thesis is dedicated to:
a rhinoceros.
a tree.
all of the poor black people that live
in this country and whose ability to
hope is matched only by their efforts
to maintain.
you.
me.
CONTENTS
PAGE
De di
cati
on..
.............
..
..
. . . . . . .
Introduction...................... .......
*....
Program for the Circle Office Building..........
N.E.T.
Program............................
3
5
7
7
Circle ComplexProgram........................ 10
The
Physical
Building.........................
11
Permanen-t
Public to Private Oraiain.........16
Bibliography.......................
20
INTRODUCTION
It has been observed that architects, as professionals,
continually engage in two inter-related processes that can
be identified as constants in the translation of a written
program into three dimensional form:
architecture
I.
The "minimal" process that can be employed
in developing a "solution" to a "problem."
II.
The design, generation, juxtaposition, and
integration of rational three-dimensional form
into "associative-use" spaces.
It is apparent that the second process can always
be used to satisfy the first process, but that this
situation is not necessarily reversible.
It is also apparent
to me that the second process is more often than not sacrificed to insure that the first condition is met.
Given
this situation, it seems reasonable for me to try to
establish a methodology that when used with the first process
will always approach the second process, and when used
with the second process will always insure that both processes are utilized to their fullest potential.
This design methodology more simply stated is an
attitude or a way of thinking about built forms that
generates three-dimensional form as "associative-use"spaces.
It has two basic components:
one is the parallel organi-
zation of the physical/permanent building, and the other
is the organization of public to private use space.
In order to get to some application of this metho-dology I chose the program for the New England Telephone
Company branch office building on Warren Avenue in Roxbury,
- Massachusetts.
For my project I designed two separate
buildings using the same relationship of public to private
space.
The first design attempts to satisfy the New Eng-
land Telephone program; the second design attempts to
accommodate the functions of the existing office facility
on the site--the Circle Complex, and organization composed
of Circle Associates, the Venture Capital Fund, the Small
Business Association, and the Resource Center--along with
the N.E.T. program by allowing the building to be built in
two stages.
The primary purpose of the Circle group is to
promote black ownership of business in the black community
of Boston.
It was the Circle Complex that, in fact, proposed
the initial development of this site and was successful in
winning New England Telephone as a tenant.
Two programs follow.
The first is a standard N.E.T.
branch office program used for buildings of the size proposed at Warren Avenue.
The second is a program for the
Circle group which I developed after analyzing their existing office structure.
An adjacency diagram for the N.E.T.
program is inserted between these two programs.
6
Program for the CIRCLE OFFICE BUILDING
New England Telephone Company Branch Office Program
Requirements:
s.f.
A.
General Offices
Public Lobby Area
1,000
Cash counter 14' x 23' plus work
Quick counter 12' x 3'
"
240
"
General Office area (7 stations)
896
(desk plus seating for 1, possibly
2 or 3)
Manager's office with visual control-
100
Training and conference room
300
Lunch and lounge areas
1,000
Kitchen
Coat rooms
Women's toilets, 4 w.c.'s
Men's toilets, 2 w.c.'s
Cash room
B.
185
Employment Office
Waiting area + 2 people and 1 secretary
Testing + 6' x
8'
Interview + S' x 10'
48
so
s.f.
C.
General Administration
5 groups of 8
plus 3 or 4 miscellaneous spaces
Service order room
Supply room (general)
+500
400
Toilets/coats
Training/conference
300
ADJACENCY ACTIVITY DIAGRAM for N.E.T. Program
A.
General Public Area
Lmts
Cash room
B.
Employment Office
(Private entrytie into rest
of building)
C.
General
(Files communication with
General Office)
and:
Lounge/Dining/Kitchen
Toilets:
N.B.,
Telephone Room,
Rooam
fewer men than women
10' x 12' and Electrical/Mechanical
Circle Complex Program
Venture Capital Fund:
6 offices
Reception area (2 secretaries)
Small Business Association:
7 offices
2 typists
Resource Center
Black History Museum
3 classrooms
Film room
3 offices
Circle Associates
2 executive office
1 bookkeeper
1 accountant
1 secretary
10
THE
Physical BUILDING
Permanent
The general site conditions suggested to me
a lineal organization that I will refer to as parallel
organization of the structure.
This simply means that
the major structure runs parallel to the distribution.
that this organization generates the
I have found
desired relationship between public and private spaces
because it facilitates more ways of generating a physical
continuity between the distribution and individual spaces.
And more important,
parallel organization establishes
a relationship between the distribution and the private
spaces to the given directional reference and remains
closely associated with that reference because it does
not change direction abruptly.,
I have used a 24' x 20' bay system as my basic
but to get to a theory of "associative-use"
structure.
spaces, I have attempted to push this bay beyond its
normal use.
This has lead me to a number of interesting
facts that I will try to relate in a consecutive manner.
1.
A simple 24' beam span can cantilever
1/3 of its original length at each end.
that I cantilever 6'
at both ends,
Assuming
I generate
a new spanning length of
6f
for a to-tal of 36'.
See Diagragm A.
24'a-
66'
2.
When this bay generates itself in a lineal
direction we establish a new set of dimensions:
24', 12', 24', 12', 24', etc.
See Plate 2.1.
It should be noted that the 12' dimension
is the zone of the cantilever and this zone has
a great deal of inherent possibilities:
a.
We have the opportunity to cantilever
or not.
b.
We have the possibility of putting a
floor on top of the beams in this space
or not.
c.
In section, if
we give a 12' floor to
floor height to one bay and an 18' floor
to floor height to another, we have the
possibility of allowing light to come
through the space by not building--we have
the opportunity of generating a continuous
surface by placing stairs in this opening,
or we have the possibility of defining
smaller use spaces in both directions by
creating a non-continuous surface.
See
Diagram B.
3. Vanes (rectilinear columns) serve at least
two functions.
1)
When used in the same plane as
the exterior closure of the building they kilow
for masonry units to be butted next to them
without any unnecessary breaking and fitting; and,
2)
when used in the interior spaces as a free
standing column, vanes help establish and reinforce
the existing lineal direction being employed
in the building.
4.
Walls that are load-bearing play a significant
part in the definition of "associative-use" spaces.
There are two important factors to be continually
considered in the use of bearing walls:
1.
Their placement (interior or exterior)
2.
Their articulation (their run, change
of direction, height, and returns)
Besides supporting its own weight as an
exterior enclosure,
a bearing wall is
obviously
capable of supporting the structure of the
building as well as being erected as solid masonry
walls in the interior spaces of the building.
The association we make with large, load-bearing,
solid, external masonry walls is usually that
of an "edge" or "end" of the physical building
and the other side of the wall is considered
"outside."
However, when we have interior bearing
walls, we can still make that same association
13
with the "edge"
or "outside" condition happening
on the other side of the wall,
actually done is
but what we have
created a case for "inside"/
"outside" spaces within the building.
It is obvious that bearing walls can be
used to replace columns; but more importantly,
a bearing wall can allow the next column in that
particular row, to move further away from its
Take for example a row of
original placement.
columns placed 20' c. to c.
At any one of these
columns a bearing wall replaces it and runs for
a distance of 8 feet.
Now the implications of
this act are that the next column in the row can
move up to 8 feet away from the original 20' c.
to c. bay system.
This movement can initiate a
new bay system or become a special place within
the existing system.
See Diagram C.
The articulation of a bearing wall defines
spaces
and connects parts of the building
through a continuous surface definition.
By
lowering a wall, turning it perpendicular to the
structure, allowing breaks in it, and allowing
it
to end altogether in
some places,
we are able
to create, define, partially build, interior
as well as exterior spaces that still indicate
the original structural organization.
It
is
my
opinion that this articulation
of the wall allows us to associate with the spaces
generated by the wall, as a reference to the
structural organization.
I believe that this
particular structural organization encourages
and creates a more desireable and more perceptible
relationship between the distribution and private
and public spaces.
15
PUBLIC TO PRIVATE ORGANIZATION
The difference between public and private functions
and the consequent distinction between public and
private spaces is the other major ordering device I used
to design my project.
I have tried to design the use
spaces of the two buildings to reflect a public-toprivate progression.
It becomes fairly obvious, very quickly, that
most public space in any building is in the entry/
lobby area, and that some of the most private spaces
are given over to offices and specific function rooms,
e.g., rooms for special equipment, communications rooms,
rooms for handling currency, etc.
To make perceptible
to the user the progression from very public (lobby)
spaces and functions to very private (offices), the
remaining work categories which fall within the public
to private continuum must be progressively ordered
from public to private.
Then these functions are used
to design spaces which reflect this progression.
Functionally there are two separate buildings
described in the N.E.T. program:
an Employment Office
and a Business office (which combines the General and
Administrative Offices named in the program).
Section B of the program is the Employment Office
which gives company tests and interviews to applicants
for jobs with the telephone company.
16
The program calls
an entry/reception/waiting area, two small testing
rooms and two offices for interviewing the applicants
which I have ordered (following the public to private
progression) like this:
public
entry-) reception -)waiting ---
-private
-)testing
)----interviewing
I have combined sections A (General Offices) and
C (Administrative Offices) under the heading Business
Offices because these two parts of N.E.T. function together
The General
at almost every level of the job hierarchy.
Office includes the Quick Counter, Cash Counter, a
number of service stations and the Manager's office.
The Quick Counter directs incoming customers to the
appropriate service desk for bill paying, requesting
telephone service, and/or complaining.
takes bill payments.
The Cash Counter
Each station in the General Office
is staffed by one telephone company employee.
The
Manager's office needs visual control over the service
area.
He handles particular cases of customer service.
The General Administration office includes more
than 40 work stations with five of those assigned to
supervisors.
The Service Order Room houses the computer
which must be adjacent to the supply room.
The training-
conference room provides space for meetings and for
training new personnel.
The diagram below shows the
public to private progression as I have organized it
for the Business Office.
17
General/
public
Admin./
entry-)counter -) service desk-manager's
off cLrivate
entry,
administration desk
-
The connection between these two buildings is
made through a door which opens from the employment
office into the lunch/lounge area.
This area is primarily
for the employees of the building.
However, I have
made it accessible to the public through the service
area so that customers can have a cup of coffee while
they are waiting to discuss their telephone service.
The diagram below combines the two foregoing diagrams
and shows the lunch/lounge connection.
PUBLIC
A
Business Office
B
Employment Office
employees
reception
area
ub
public
Entry
Entry
reception
area
counter
area
waiting
waiting
l ounge .
.lounge
interview
interview
lavatories
testing
service
area
manager
employees,
I(General)
employeesd
(Admin
counter
area
lounge
lounge
service
desk
manager
admin.
desk
lavatories
lavatories
PRIVATE
This diagram, combined with the parallel organization
of the structure gave me the basic design organization
18
that I have used in both designs for the telephone company
layouts.
SUMi1ARY
It is clear to me that these two organizational
principles can be applied to the inter-related processes
that are the basic tools of architects.
It is hoped that
the consequence of this application will enable us to
associate with our built environment in a manner that
is commensurate with our ability to live in harmony and
understanding with our natural environment.
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Yaqui Way of Knowledge. Simon & Schuster,
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Halprin, Lawrence. Cities. Revised Edition, Y.I.T.
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