L e C o r b

From today on I will document my studies as an architect.

On our first day of class our professors took us on a field trip. Shit cost me $3. We went to Harvard to visit a building built by French architect Le Corbusier. The Carpenter Center is the arts building for Harvard students and man does it own ours. The building is one of Corb's latter works in his concrete phase of modern architecture. It serves as both a side entrance to the school campus as well as a learning facility that includes both classrooms and art studios. These Harvard kids get a damn building from Corb and we get to work under a subway station? Fuckin sweet... Anyways the Carpenter Center really is pretty sick. Now that I look back it was a perfect first project precedent. You see, the Carpenter Center maintains a very clear logic. There is a very stern grid system formed by Corb's beloved pilote. Whats more is that a large majority of these pilote are visible from outside the building. And being Northeastern students we cant exactly waltz inside the Harvard studio.


For our assignment we were asked to put together a set of plans for the building by physically measuring it. A plan really seems like nothing after all we've been through -- even if we have to get the measurements by hand, but at the time it was pretty unbelievable. So after finishing the exercise our studio professors began teaching us the basic skills needed to complete the upcoming assignments. This included model making, plan and section knowledge, and the usage of autocad. Fuckin autocad. First week of school and I have scaled floor plans, sections, and axonometric drawings. Fourth week of school and the engineers draw a single gear as a homework assignment.


Once we completed some study models, the "cubes," we began the main project. We were to each design an intervention for Corb's Carpenter Center that would be positioned along the eastern facade. This intervention would act as an outdoor learning space. I took a simple approach and did my best to avoid disrupting Corb's design. I mean come on, who am I to fuck with Corb? My design integrated his brise soleil as both seating and as a sort of curtain that separates the the learning space and the street. The space itself contains a large auditorium suitable for all sizes of learning groups and some cylindrical seating which continues off of Corb's grid system.



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