Famous Buildings Update 16

Today, me and my partner are halfway done with everything we need to cut out, so we are still behind. We are working hard and quick as possible but also making sure everything comes out neat. We will try to finish cutting and rabbeting so that we could start to glue all the buildings together.

Famous Buildings Update 14

Today, me and my partner finished our first tower out of six -__- ... in any case, we have done a good job with what we have completed and i am planning on coming in the morning and stop by during lunch to use as much time as possible to complete parts of the project that should have been done already.

Famous Buildings Update 13

Today, we got our first wall out as well as one of the buildings of our fortress. We have assigned each other what each must do in order to use our time wisely. We are a little behind but coming in before school starts will help me and my partner catch up.

Famous Buildings Update 11

Today, my partner started cutting out the front wall of our structure and i started sketching out the buildings to cut out as well.

Famous Buildings Update 10

Today, I figured out that me and my partner were starting the project wrong. We were starting the front part of the project without doing the base first and then drawing the floor plan so we could figure out where each building has to be. The only difficulty is that there are separate buildings so i need to make up for the lack of use for space.

Famous Buildings Update 9

So far, me and my partner have continued outlining our building in order for us to make sure when we cut it out we are cutting out the right things and not missing any parts of the structure. Right now i am currently wondering if i would be able to do anything with the drawbridge now that we are doing a 3D model. We could possibly use an outside material that can make the drawbridge open or close. The most important part though is to make sure we start cutting out the castle so we start building the back side and both sides of the castle.

Famous Buildings Update 8

Me and my partner along with the whole class have began making our 3D models of our structure. We have solely figured out the dimensions and how exactly we are going to draw it. The only problem that will be will probably be the depth but were probably making it harder than we think. Otherwise, we have made good progress.

Famous Buildings Update 6

Today, me and my partner are sure that we completely finished our castle/fortress. The end product is a series of towers, 3 pointed towers, 2 watch towers, and a giant building behind everything which would work as the chapel monastery. We added arches and big windows for a modern look as well as a symbol above the chapel that symbolizes our certain castle-fort.

Famous Buildings Update 5

Today, me and my partner continued on working with our castle/fort. We completed the entire structure, all we need to work on now is the detailing, in other words windows, arches, or any other specific detailing to make the building look more official.

Famous Buildings Update 4

Today, me and my partner have successfully created the outline of the structure of the castle/fotress. We stil have to finish specific and minor details.

Famous Buildings Update 3

Today, we got back our sketches for the current project. Both my partner and I worked on the border, the title, box, thinking of a creative name for the building, and where to start sketching the building. We have come up with a concept, all we need to do now is sketch that concept on a piece of paper.

Famous Buildings Update 2

Today, I completed my second design, creating a more futuristic palace structure. In total, i have a somewhat traditional castle/fortress with a futuristic palace. My partner created two different designs of fortresses/castles. Together, we decided to create a large castle structure but the use for it would be a fortress. We are going to use his design of fortress walls and exterior view with my design of a large castle structure.

Famous Buildings Update 1

Since yesterday i have been working on a design for a structure from the Castles, Palaces, and Forts category. I had an idea of a castle but then after researching ideas for a design, i completely changed the design and decided to make more of a castle fortress.

Famous Buildings

Out of all the categories of famous buildings, my most favorite was castles, palaces, and forts mostly because I love the medieval history behind some of the famous castles. Also, the traditions that are passed down through the generations depends on the culture and out of all of them my favorite is the Traditional Japanese building Himeji Castle.

Besides the fact that one of the projects i had done was to design a building of any style, Japanese Architecture is very intricate in terms of traditional style. The Himeji Castle for instance was my favorite structure that we talked about. My favorite part of the design is the roof and how it overhangs the building.

The Pentagon because I have always wondered what exactly goes on in terms of the use of that building. The only knowledge i have on that building is that it might be where the Secretary of Defense handles the nations military status. This building would fall under the Centers of Power category.

Living and Leisure

Living and Leisure- structures that are used for entertainment, living, sleeping, or service in terms of an everyday life

Roman Colosseum Rome, Italy
- The colosseum back in the day was used for gladiatorial contests and also re-enactments of famous battles and even executions
- Each Good Friday, the Pope leads a torchlit "way of the Cross" that starts in the area around the colosseum, telling that it is very much still in connection with the Roman Catholic Church.

Museum of Modern Art Manhattan, New York
- A museum that combines all aspects of contemporary art to the modern art that is created today
- Not only is it a museum, but it also houses a restaurant

Centers of Power

Centers of Power- where economical, social, political and military topics are dealt with

The Pentagon Arlington County, Virginia
- It is recongnized as the symbol for the U.S. Military as the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense
- It was targeted by al-Qaeda on the tragic day of 9-11

The White House Washington D.C.
- Official residence and workplace of the president of the United States
- The White House was severly damaged during WWI when the British set a blaze to it, damaging a lot of the interior

Castles, Palaces, and Forts

Castle- is a large and stately mansion
- Originally were fortresses built to defend
Fort- is a fully equiped place with soldiers/troops
- are a permanent army post
Palace- is the official residence of a royal family

Tower of London London, England
- The first ever structure to find a use with having a mote
- There were no doors on the ground level of the tower which helped invaders from easily barging in

Palace of Alhambra
- Once was a fortress during the Crusade
- One weird thing about this building is that they have no proof of who the actual architect that built the building was

Castle of White Heron
- This is one of the odlest structure from Medieval Japan
- The fact that this stucture is made out of wood and has survived over so many years makes this one of the most sacred buildings

Places of Worship

Places of Worhsip- a building or other location where a group of people (which is also known as a congregation) comes to perform acts of religious praise, honor, or devotion.

The Acropolis Rome, Italy
- A place of refuge that inhabitants go to in time of invasion.
- In english this means Upper-city or in general above Athens.

The Parthenon Athens, Greece
- The name of the temple refers to the virgins whose supreme sacrifice guaranteed the safety of the city.
- The city is not only named specifically for Athena, but also Artemis.

Great Synagogue of Florence (Tempio Maggiore) Florence, Italy
- The architects who built his synagogue were Mariano Falcini, Professor Vincente Micheli, and Marco Treves.
- This building integrated both the traditions of the Islamic and Italian worlds.

Notre-Dame Cathedral Paris, France
- The cathedral treasury houses a reliquary with the purported Crown of Thorns, the crown that was worn by Jesus Christ when he was crucified.
- This building was in fact fully completed in 1345, 666 years ago!

Japanese Style Glog

Japanese Style

          The Japanese style was very intricate and very well detailed when i was researching it. To the best of my ability, i recreated the characteristics into a modern-day home. In picture one, you could see how the wall is very thin, obviously with the program i used (Architectural Home Designer 9.0) does not have the option to create traditional paper walls which is one very important part of japanese architecture, so I modernized into a thin interior wall. As you could see that it is very open which is another important aspect of the style as it adheres to the ability of making rooms smaller or larger, in this case its not possible but you could still create that sort of feel that there is nice spacing for each room. In the second picture, the living room was desingned to have a very comfortable and neutral look by using black and white as primary colors for the house. I chose those two colors as it is very well known in japanese culture that it represents ying and yang so i decided to add that element to the home. For the last picture, the need for a comfortable place in the exterior of the house was very crutial to tie the whole house together. The amount of floral and trees creates the zen environment that it needs when one wants to relax outside in the fresh air and beauty that nature is intended to be. This style was very fun to modernize mostly because this style is mostly used for creating temples or shrines.

Japanese Architecture

Characteristics:

• For almost all strctures, many forms of wood is used (planks, straw, tree bark, paper, etc.)
• Posts and lintels support a large and gently curved roof
• The walls are made paper thin for the use of moving them around
• The roof is usually the most visually impressive, most of the time the size of half the edifice
• Slightly curved eaves extend far beyond the wall, supported by a complex system of brackets
• The interior is usually only made of a one whole room, this is where the use of paper walls or screens come in to play

Time Period/History: 57 BCE- 8th century CE
            Since the beginning of time has Japanese Architecture existed, stretching from 5000 BCE to the eight century CE, but the "look" or "feel" of this style was not grasped until 57 BCE. To this day, many Japanese architects make sure to honor the traditional style of Japanese Arch. by using materials that were the basis of the whole style, such as wood. Much of this style was used in the creation of temple and shrines, but were later adopted into residential and public spaces. Although many of the buildings were torn down, they made sure to keep the original and traditional style of the new building for historical rememberance. After years have gone by and after WWII, the style was modernized with the use of metal and stone because the fact that wood can easily burn down.

Location: Japan, Korea, China, parts of western Europe

Architectural Styles

1. Japanese
Dates: From 70,000 B.C., evolution from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D.
Location: Japan
Characteristics: Wood (in various forms)
                        Paper-Thin walls
                        Curved Roof
                        Spacing is very easy because the fact that the walls can be moved
                        The roof is always a very large part of the house, temple, etc, that is supported by tokyō, which are supporting blocks and brackets.

2. Gothic
Dates: 11-12th Century
Location: France
Characteristics: Ogival or pointed arches
                        Emphasized verticallity and natural light
                        Cathedral/Abbey based interior
                        Tall Spires
                        Considered skyscrapers of that time period

3. Spanish Colonial
Dates: 15th Century
Location: Spanish Colonies in Meixco, North & South America, and Spain
Characteristics: Interior/Exterior Courtyards
                        Low Pitched Roof
                        Exterior stucco finish
                        Predominately one-story

Welcome!

Hi! My name is Matt Prado and I will be using this blog as a portfolio for my Advanced Architectural Design class. I will be posting my projects and examples along with a brief description of what I did. Please check back to see my work!