Arch 1101. The Hero Shot, The Detail shot

Five examples

Santiago Calatrava

Cuidad de las Artes de las ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences)

Valencia Spain. Completed 2009

Calatrava was an early influence on me as a young designer, as for years I felt that the structure of a building was ugly and needed to be hidden. Calatrava, a Structural engineer and later Architect expresses the structure of a building in all its skeletal beauty and inspired me to seek the beauty in the structure of my buildings. I encourage you all to take a look at his other works too.

I chose this particular building as it photographs so well. We are showing you examples of how to take images of your designs. Following is a rather unconventional architecture link, but one that shows off many "money shots" / "Hero shot" and detail shots.

http://www.takeusanywhere.com/2017/03/28/calatrava-in-valencia/

These are 2 of my favourites. An amazing night time show, lit with contrast in colour between the pure white skeleton and the dark sky. Shown off with a reflection on water. A giant set of fish bones perhaps? Is it even a building?

The detail shot brings in a personal element showing how the building isn't just about the building as a sculpture, but is also beautiful on a personal level.Imagine riding through that space...

Renzo Piano

Jean-Marie Cultural Centre

New Caledonia. Completed 1998

This is an oldie but a goodie. This building really did, in a way, stave way for a green architecture revolution. It was an early example of how to take inspiration from the architecture of a local culture, the Kanak peoples of New Caledonia, who would have over hundreds of generations learnt how to work with the weather, orientation and local environment, and mix it with contemporary design. Renzo used this local knowledge to create a building with passive ventilation, opening skylights, shading and many other environmental design techniques which together keep the building cool, light and integrated into the local environment.

Here's a link or two to a little blurb about the building, I'm sure there's many others

https://inhabitat.com/jean-marie-tjibaou-cultural-center-inspired-by-native-architecture/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marie_Tjibaou_Cultural_Centre

This is my favourite Hero shot. In this we see the "village" of pavilions, we see that it is located near water, the cooling affect of which is used as an advantage in the environmental design. The setting sun shows off the warmth of the natural material, while the sheen gives us a glimpse of the high level of technology involved . The building soars above the trees, but still make us feel that they of the place.

Sorry about all the alamy badges on this, but I chose this image as my detail shot as it shows off the mix of modern and local materials well along with how they are connected. It shows one tip of one pavilion, contrasting against the sky so that we can simply see the construction. I chose this over other similar images as the small amount of greenery gave it context, showed me where it was. Other  similar images made it look like it was floating in space and of no particular environment.

 

Antoni Gaudi

Sagrada Familia

Barcelona, Spain. Construction started 1882 and is ongoing

I'm sure many of you would have seen this building, but to see this in real life really is mind blowing. I've chosen this building- although STILL under construction- as it is both beautiful from afar but even more beautiful up close. Often, as architects, we get lost in the big picture; how our building looks from the outside, from a distance as a stand-alone 'icon'. This building also focuses on the intimate. Everywhere you look is another amazing, hand crafted detail and no expensive is being spared on creating those details. A totally over the top amount of detailing perhaps, but you leave this building (after 10 hours if you are me) feeling like you have been transformed. I've never experienced that from a building before.

Here's my hero shot. Something about sunsets perhaps? This shot emphasis the sheer scale of this building. As a religious building it should be the tallest, pointing the heavens, and this building certainly achieves that.

Now for the detail shows. Where do I start. Here's a couple I took. I'm no photographer- but I think you get the gist.

The first I chose, because, well, those ceilings are really just the most mind blowing piece of detailing. 

The second I chose as I don't think we should forget about colour. Ive shown so far examples in quite subdued colour tones, but this building mixes those subdued tones with punches of colour. This stained glass window runs almost the full length of the cathedral. the colour is so intense that you feel bathed in it, drenched in it as the sun sets outside. Talk about colour therapy! I hope you all get to stand in this light one day. It almost made me feel religious. Its amazing to think that architecture can move you so much

Tadao Ando

Chichu Art Museaum

Naoshima Island. Japan. Completed 2004

Now for something more subdued. This Gallery by Tadao Ando is an example of complex simplicity. It has simple lines, a mono materiality, but such moving and beautiful spaces. Almost completely buried underground, this is an example of how amazing a space can be that is barely visible. Housing an oval room full on Monets waterlillies, and another with a blue light sculpture by James Turrell, this a building of big experiences. Each room is over powering and an artwork in itself.

Here's a little video which analysis the Architecture as Art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU4_s6IEi9o

I've chosen for my money shot an exterior view, showing the small geometric portions of the building that do pop up above the ground level. I love how this building is integrated so well into the hill side of this island. 

For my detail shot I've chosen something that appears quite simple, but is in fact a very complex structural solution. This is a courtyard with a ramp which winds around the perimeter. At the junction of the two is a concrete wall with a thin slot "window" so that as you walk the ramp up, always on your right is this thin, eye level view of the central courtyard. The slot never ends, which means the concrete above appears to hover. The concrete becomes light although immensely heavy. Ando and his tricks. What a genius.

Indyk Architects - designed by myself

Embassy Theatre Bar

Wellington New Zealand. Completed 2012

For my final work I want to show you an interior example. Architects often forget the inside spaces of their building, leaving vast blank emotionless spaces. That essentially is what happened to the Embassy Theatre in Wellington, a heritage listed Art Deco building from the 1920s. A good architect is one whose interior spaces are just as good as the exterior form of the building. Add in a perfect link to the garden /external spaces too and I'll be impressed.

We were commissioned to work on this old movie theatre which had been carved up into smaller spaces to house 3 cinemas instead of the original single large cinema. We were commissioned to interior fitout a space that had been designated for a bar, down a 15m long corridor. It was left over space. An odd shaped, awkward room, barely visible from the main foyer. My initial ideas centred around a few key concepts. How do you get people to walk 15m to a bar and how do you let them know they are welcome to do so? I didn't want this to feel like an exclusive club. 

http://catherinebakker.com.au/wp/project/commercial-projects/embassy-theatre-lounge/

 

The Hero shot shown below is essentially the view just off the main foyer. Firstly we used bold black and white tones to catch your attention. The arches sway left and right and are spaced in plan closer and closer together to give the illusion that the corridor is shorter than it really is. Finally we centred the bar so that it would be visible from the foyer. Materials used in the main foyer- carrara marble were repeated throughout, mixed with warm rich colours. We included a fireplace so that as a destination in the bowels of this building it would feel warm and cosy. This was placed within a wall of heritage tiles drawing focus to one last small remnant of the original walls. You can't see all this detail from the Hero shot, but you get glimpses, and glimpses were enough to get you to walk that 15m to the destination to find out whats going on.

My second image is a detail image. I chose this detail image as I like that it is a mix of a little corner of several aspects of the room. It isn't obviously a photo of one thing or another, it isn't telling you much about the space, rather it is a collage of the various materials showing how each is quite different but has a unified language;  a discussion of materiality rather than of space.