ARCHITECTURE ANALYSIS:
GEHRY RESIDENCE
If architecture is music, most buildings would be well-organized symphony: the form is composed of intuitive harmony that resonates with program. Gehry Residence, on the contrary, is an improvised piece.
My first contact with Gehry Residence was made of sheer confusion and skepticism. The diverse visual language and a lack of uniformity completely baffled me.
The drawings I will produce all serve to help me understand the spatial conditions of Gehry Residence and analyze Frank Gehry’s decision-making in creatng Gehry Residence.
The first drawing is a straightforward initial approach to understand the general spatial formation of the building. I first noticed the “structural anomaly“ from the ends of the house. Those outlandish structures would become the focus of my drawings later on.
Creating the section oblique drawing is a process of fully understanding the building’s spatial formation. By researching images of Gehry Residence from multiple perspectives I had a better understanding of the spatial conditions formed by the add-on structures.
I started questioning my first reaction towards the effects brought by the add-on structures. I then attributed the counterintuitive readability to a disconnect among the materiality of the add-on structures. The drawing would extract the add-on structures based on the orientation of material grains.
The digital drawing clarifies the circulation and spatial divisions within Gehry Residence. The creation of the drawing deliberately avoid overlapping so that the individual space would be distinguished.
To connect the missing links among the add-on structures, I made a continuous projection of Gehry Residence that would offer an uninterupted space for the connection. I extend the lines of major add-on structures to connect to nearby structures thereby finding a relationship.
To reduce redundant information, I simplified the structural segments into basic geometric shapes. The language of distortion and dislocation became clear. The fragmentation is in fact unpredictable and was not created systematically.
Discovering the arbitrary nature of Gehry’s Residence, I decided to take a risky path: to capture the spirit of Gehry Residence by translating the three-dimensional building onto a flat realm. I offset the major shapes to emphasize the action of dislocation. Colours were employed to further exaggerate fragmentation.
