a reliquary

RELIQUARY_01

This is not architecture – at least not in the traditional sense – this is a small piece of furniture with architectural referent.  It stems from Michael Graves and his explorations of architectural tropes within product design.  But it asks important questions regarding architectural language, offering the position that the language of building can be adapted and applied to other parts of our lives, even if it be devoid of true tectonic value (see the small ‘windows’ and ‘acroteria’ on the above drawings).

RELIQUARY_02

shingles, squares, and circles

HOUSE_03

Let’s start with the detail this time, reading top to bottom: 1.) A shingled wall curves in to meet a stucco wall in a re-entrant corner.  Square windows are cut from this, mullioned into the four-square, with small, beveled squares around.  2.) This shingle wall is the second story with a colonnade below, the stucco is an otherwise blank wall, with only one tall window cutting through the middle and terminating in a dormer at the roof.  3.) This tall window only hints at the circular interior volume behind, one side a stair, the other an entry.  Other than that, no record of the two wall systems is traced on the interior, where only the radius of the curve exists.  4.) And just like that, we’re back at the detail again.

HOUSE_04

HOUSE_05

HOUSE_02