FLOATING BUILDINGS - TOYO ITO

Toyo Ito’s Sendai Mediatheque Left (McKitrick) Right (Phillips, 2014)

Toyo Ito designed the Sendai Mediatheque located in Sendai Japan, with the concepts of Organic Architecture in mind. Toyo Ito’s designs also incorporate his idea of ,“ a piece of clothing to wrap around human beings”, in which he explains as architecture that needs humans to be part of the architectures aesthetic attributes (Hobson, 2014). Sendai Mediatheque exhibits a sense of levitation of the seven horizontal planes through the modification of the pillars, as the thirteen individual pillars are created from many thick steel beams creating a solid but tense and less bound pillar that is seemingly transparent and unstable, which hold the seven platforms. The glass walls also contribute to the levitation as now only the floor planes are totally opaque and create levitating solid two dimensional planes, also the way the columns are designed with a truss like formation also contribute to the overall design as they are both of different thicknesses and are uneven. With these same characteristics from Toyo Ito’s Sendai Mediatheque I wanted to create an influential building of the same quality.


ITERATIONS

Iterations 1–4 with final design.

In the first iteration (1) I attempted to make the column as one whole structure with the levels placed over the top, bottom and middle of the column. I found out that making the column this way proved to be more time consuming. The (2) iteration was similar except it took more definition and detail to the model and used less pieces and primarily the levels stayed connected , I made the column level by level which proved to be very effective which made ( 2 ) look aesthetically pleasing, but with both of these (1) and (2) iterations the results did not make the platform float more. The (3) iteration stripped the cylindrical form and replaced it a square like rotating column , which still did not make the building have that floating like structure .The (4) iteration I took away the thin columns that held the levels in place and I also changed the material from foam board to balsa wood in which in doing so the was progressing to have a floating like structure.


Final Design

Final design: showing a visible supporting structure thus creating and achieving a floating like building.

With the final design I replaced the main materials with hard clear plastic but kept with the wood sticks. From iteration (2) experience and knowledge I constructed the column the same way. With the change of a clear plastic material I had achieved The representational aspect of “floating” within the final design is that it defies logic in reality and has no realistic levels and only a visible supporting structure thus creating and achieving a floating like building.


Bibliography

en.wikiarquitectura. (2015, 2 8). Sendai Mediatheque. Retrieved 27–08 , 2017, 2017, from wikiarquitectura: https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/index.php/Sendai_Mediatheque

Hobson, B. (2014, 7 31). Retrieved 27–08 , 2017, from Dezeen Magazine: http://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/31/movie-interview-toyo-ito-architecture-clothing-wrap-around-human-beings/

McKitrick, K. (n.d.). Sendai Mediatheque — Toyo Ito — Kevin McKitrick. Retrieved 27–08 , 2017, from Kmckitrck’s Blog: https://kmckitrick.wordpress.com/sendai-mediatheque-toyo-ito-kevin-mckitrick/

Phillips, S. (2014, 6 1). Happy Birthday Norman Foster and Toyo Ito. Retrieved 27–08 , 2017, from University of Texas Libraries: http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/aplhighlights/tag/sendai-mediatheque/

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