Architect: Charles Willard Moore (1925-1993)

Biography
Charles Willard Moore, renowned American architect, writer of numerous articles and books, and teacher, was born in
Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1925.
Moore was highly educated. He earned a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor (1947), and Master of Fine Art and Doctoral Degrees from Princeton University by 1957
He studied with Jean Labatt, Enrico Peressutti and American architect Louis Kahn.
His academic posts include serving as Dean, Chairman, and faculty member at five different universities, including the
University of California at Berkeley, Yale University, and the University of Texas at Austin.
A prolific architect, Moore completed 180 commissions, and served as principal architect in firms in California,
Connecticut, and Texas.
Moore was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and winner of the AIA Gold Medal in 1991 for outstanding
contributions to the profession, known to be the professions highest honor.
During his education and early career, he distanced himself from the purity of the popular International Style and
instead focused on architecture that was historicist and contextual.
His goal was to work within the existing context and to enhance its essential character.
Moore was known for his outgoing, gregarious and engaging personality that complemented his innovative,
unconventional and one-of-a-kind designs.
Following his scholarly career, Moore established an architectural firm in New Haven, Connecticut. He collaborated
with a wide and unusual variety of colleagues and traveled extensively.
Moore's Master's Thesis explored ways to preserve and integrate Monterey's historic adobe dwellings into the fabric
of the city. His Doctoral dissertation, "Water and Architecture", was a survey of the presence of water in shaping the
experience of place; many decades later, the dissertation became the basis of a book with the same title.
Based on his studies at Princeton, Moore developed a humanistic approach to architecture in which each design
attempts to engage users within a clearly defined spatial environment.
To effectively activate these spaces and generate synthesis, Moore creates a kinetic combination of unrelated forms.
During Moore's term at Yale, he shifted the design emphasis from architectural formalism to a re-examination of the
nature and function of architecture in today's world. Moore designed several buildings during this period that
illustrate his disagreeing, with the moralistic position that much of modern architecture assumes.
He purposefully created architecture that engages history, myth and creativity.
Instead of using architecture to moralize an ideal, Moore used it to generate an environment that stimulated the
user.

Thought process of Charles Moore:

Followed neo-classism
"Working within the existing context He emphasized on the fact that buildings should reflect the particular
circumstances of place and use.
Architecture is about feeling, and about place, and its function is to enrich human emotion and enhance sense of
place.
Design should be based on client preference and on a symbolic reference to the site.
Architecture should bring out responses from all the senses, not only the visual.
Architects should have a humanist approach.
Charles Moore was a postmodern innovator, an architect who gave importance to the use of loud colors and
unconventional materials.
Moore established his reputation with striking and fanciful designs that both blend his constructions into the
landscape and separate them out in amazing ways.
Moore's buildings, do not represent any single style or belief, but rather are the result of his response to their setting,
their cultural context, and their individual clients.
They tend to be playful, full of drama and surprise, expressing cultural aspirations and translating architectural
precedents into something new and relevant to the present age.
He tried to establish a contrast between functionality and the possibilities of irony.
He used loud color combinations, wild graphics and unconventional materials including plastic, platinum tiles and
neon signs.
His projects exhibited his sense of pop, historical, and modern motifs.
He had the amazing ability to transform historical architecture into work relevant to the modern world - "Working
within the existing context"

Moore House -Architects own house at Orinda, California, US

The Moore House is a private dwelling designed by Charles Moore for himself. It was built in Orinda, California, in 1962.
"Its forms were derived from primitive huts and from Mayan or Hindu temples .
This house brought Moore early acclaim because of its evocation of a Vernacular tradition and its unique expression
of interior space.
This small square residence is located on a round meadow in a grove of oaks.
It is a tiny building, only 25 sq ft. but it makes up for this with a spatial/structural system that is complex for its few
members and size.
The foundation is cast- in-situ concrete on a gravel bed.
Two square aedicule (an opening such as a door or a window, framed by columns on either side, or a pediment
above) define specific spaces beneath them and support a steel truss that serves as a ridge beam for the hipped roof.
The base of the roof is supported by a rigid square frame of horizontal beams cantilevered off of four shear walls.
This allows for the corners of the roof to "float", with sliding windows and opaque screens that can open the corners
completely to the surrounding meadow. It also provides lateral stability.
Large wooden columns placed to hold up a symmetrical roof over a square plan, and the symmetry of the openings
lies about a diagonal axis, so that patterns are overlaid.
Sliding walls unlock to an open site.

Piazza d'Italia in New Orleans, Louisiana :

Introduction:
After 1974 Moore worked mostly in Los Angeles with the Urban Innovations Group of the University of California at Los
Angeles' School of Architecture and Perez Associates, with whom he designed his best-known project, the Piazza d'Italia
in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Piazza is owned and maintained by the City of New Orleans.
The central fountain, located in the middle of a city block, was accessed in two directions: via a tapering, keyholeshaped passage extending from Poydras Street, or through an arched opening in the clock tower sited where
Commerce Street terminates at Lafayette Street.
Essential to the Piazza's design was the full realization of its intended surroundings, which were to have included a
rehabilitated historic row of 19th century buildings facing Tchoupitoulas Street (buildings whose rear abutted the edge
of the Piazza).
Piazza d'Italia, an urban square (public place) dedicated to the Louisiana city's Italian community that provides a
place to play in the water in the setting of a melodramatic manifestation similar to Rome's Trevi Fountain.
The Piazza dItalia is located adjacent to the American Italian Renaissance Foundation Museum and Library on the
corner of Tchopitoulas and Poydras Streets.
The Moores team designed infill buildings to complement this anticipated historic restoration. The mixture of restored
architecture and new construction was to have fully brought into being the context envisioned for the Piazza, such that
it would function as a "surprise plaza" in the mode of the urban area, wherein the pedestrian is proceeding unawares
along a narrow passage or alley, only to suddenly emerge into a sunlit plaza ringed by cafes and shops.
This intended effect was responsible for the placement of the Piazza d'Italia at the heart of a city block, set back from
the surrounding streets.
The story of the Piazza's conception, planning, and execution is an inspiring one: a idyllic combination of architects and
clients that was enriched by a concerned intersection of tastes and fantasies, a surprising sharing of values and dreams.
It was originally conceived by several members of New Orleans; considerable Italian community.
The vibrant cultural mix of New Orleans has owed a great deal to its Italians, though their contributions has never been
widely recognized as those of the French, Spanish, or African Americans.
To remedy that situation, it was decided that a new symbolic focus - part gathering and part memorial - was needed by
the Italian community.
At about the same time, New Orleans was becoming increasingly concerned about the startling Demolition rate of
buildings in the central business district (CBD).
To counteract that trend and to provide a sign of revitalization, the city decided to develop a block it owned in that
area. That created the perfect opportunity to give the Italian citizenry its longed for monument.
Planning and design

Combination of ancient architecture and modern design elements.

Moore conceived of a public fountain in the shape of the Italian neck of land, surrounded by multiple hemi cyclical
colonnades, a clock tower, and a campanile and Roman temple - the latter two expressed in abstract, minimalist,
space frame fashion.

The facades are one side of the space and the whole is surrounded by a ring of trees.

The Piazza d'Italia occupies a circular area off center of the development, which consists of buildings and open-air
corridors planted with trees.

The fountain is set on a ground of concentric circles in brick and masonry, and is composed of a raised contour relief
of the boot of Italy and a construction of several staggered, interconnected facades following the lines of the circles.

Each facade incorporates one of the five Classical Orders in various materials, including marble, stainless steel,
artificial lighting and water.

Charles Moore's use of all five Classical Orders makes a very conscious reference to the past. The details, however,
speak an entirely different language from that of Vitruvius, or Roman public architecture in general.

His articulation of the Orders is more than a recitation of Classical form. The Doric, Tuscan, Ionic, Corinthian and
Composite columns and other architectonic (having qualities, such as design and structure, that are characteristic of
architecture) elements associated with the orders draw on the wealth of Greco-Roman architecture in Italy.

Six unmatched walls of different orders and heights form the vertical structure of the Piazza. Marble and bright
yellow, yellowish orange color and red surfaces cover the facades, treatments used frequently in Roman buildings;
the other materials, such stainless steel, neon, and light-transmitting water, were not.

The Tuscan columns, for example, are fully covered in polished stainless steel and their moldings and curves have
been abstracted to a minimum of flat, conic and cylindrical shapes.

The horizontal molding bounding the echinus of several stainless steel capitals were made of rings of neon lights.

The Doric colonnade has no physical shafts, only cylindrical streams of translucent water.

While it has the rounded echinus and abacus, the shaft is only suggested by the water.

Some of the composite columns have angular, stylized stainless steel capitals.

In their flutes, florid carved fillets were replaced with geysers. These composite columns had the appropriate halfcircle flutes on the shaft, and fairly complete moldings at that top and bottom of the shaft.

The Ionic columns possessed the simpler and more fluid Greek volutes and had the base and echinus convex
molding. The alternately concave and convex moldings at the foot of the Ionic columns were in style of Roman
examples

The entablatures allude to Greek and Roman forms but include only portions of them for each facade.

Some columns have pedestal bases, others do not; those that do only have a profile, each front having been
seemingly sliced off and replaced with an encrusted "cross section" of the base sprayed with water.

In fact, streams of water were placed everywhere: on the Doric architrave, the Ionic entablature, almost every
pedestal, and the ridges of the Italian peninsula. Even two roundels sporting masks of Charles Moore himself spit
water from one of the wall.

Ar. Richard Meier:

Richard Meier (born October 12, 1934 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American architect known for his rationalist
designs and the use of the color white.
Worked for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill briefly in 1959, and then for Marcel Breuer for three years, prior to starting
his own practice in New York in 1963.

Identified as one of The New York Five in 1972

He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University in 1957.

Much of Meier's work builds on the work of architects of the early to mid-20th century, especially that of Le
Corbusier and, in particular, Le Corbusier's early phase.

Meier expanded many ideas evident in Le Corbusier's work, particularly the Villa Savoye and the Swiss Pavilion.
His work also reflects the influences of other designers such as Mies Van der Rohe and, in some instances, Frank
Lloyd Wright and Luis Barragn
In 1984, Meier was awarded the Pritzker Prize, and in 2008, he won the gold medal in architecture from the Academy
of Arts and Letters.
Smith House, Getty Centre, Barcelona Museum Of Contemporary Art,
The Athenaeum, Museum Of Television and Radio, Jubilee Church.

Philosophy /theory:

Richard Meier has maintained a specific and unalterable attitude toward the design of buildings from the moment
Richard Meier first entered architecture.

Although his later projects show a definite refinement from his earlier projects, Richard Meier clearly authored
both based on the same design concepts.

With admirable consistency and dedication, Richard Meier has ignored the fashion trends of modern architecture
and maintained his own design philosophy.

Richard Meier has created a series of striking, but related designs.

Richard Meier usually designs white Neo-Corbusian forms with enameled panels and glass. These structure usually
play with the linear relationships of ramps and handrails. Although all have a similar look, He manages to generate
endless variations on his singular theme.

Richard Meier 's white sculptural pieces have created a new vocabulary of design for the 1980s.

His white is never white since it is subject to constant change through the forces of nature: the sky, the weather,
the vegetation, the clouds and, of course - the light.

The three of the most significant concepts of Richard Meier 's work are Light, Color and Place.

His architecture shows how plain geometry, layered definition of spaces and effects of light and shade, allowed him
to create clear and comprehensible spaces.

The main issue Richard Meier is focusing on as an architect, is what Richard Meier termed placeness: "What is it that
makes a space a place."

Smith house, Connecticut

On the use of white in his buildings: "The whiteness enables one to see the architectural ideas, openness vs. closure, linear
vs. plane elements, solid vs. void, public vs. private. "
Set on the craggy coast of Long Island Sound in Darien, Connecticut, Richard Meier s Smith House is a Modernist
lighthouse of transparent geometry.
The site is 1 1/2 acres and drops from a plateau on the north side that contains several evergreen trees to the rocky
shoreline of Long Island Sound on the south.
The house is located on an axis with the entry drive, and lies slightly below the crest of the sloping hill. This allows a
sequence of approach, entrance, and views. As one enters the site, they see views of the house beyond, but they are also
able to see the surrounding landscape.
The main principle of the houses design is the dialectic between public and private spaces. This opposition plays itself out
in spatial organization, both vertical and horizontal.
The steep front elevation, a closed white plane interrupted only intermittently by windows, acts as an opaque screen to
private interior spaces such as bedrooms and bathrooms, which, on all three levels, lie just beyond.
The transition through the entryway to the southern, public side is sudden: the brilliant blue sound leaps into view, invited
by the fully glazed rear elevation. Meier uses glass generously on this side of the house to open the corresponding public
spaces above and below the main floor to the spectacular setting.
The buildings materials sustain its spatial dynamics.
The Smith House keeps to a traditionally American structural system. A wooden bearing-wall and framing system supports
the private half of the house, while the glazed public areas rely upon a steel columnar structure. Only the fire-place is brick

ARCHITECT: RENZO PIANO

Renzo Piano was born in Genoa (Italy) on September 14, 1937. He graduated in 1964 from the school of
Architecture of the Milan Polytechnic

As a student, he was working under the design guidance of Franco Albini, while also regularly attending
his father's building sites where he got a valuable practical experience. Between 1965 and 1970, he
completed his formation and work experiments with study travels in Britain and America.

In 1995, Renzo Piano was called upon to renovate the Centre Georges Pompidou, because the
popularity of the place needed to expand library and exhibition place and to reorganize public spaces.
The renovation was reopened on the eve of new miilenium, December 31,1999.

Renzo Piano 's principal work includes more than 40 world-famous projects, as museums, galleries,
churches, music parks, institutes and national centers, shopping centers, bridges, reconstructions of
squares, airports etc.

Design ideology:

Followed High tech architecture and atrusturalism.

Renzo Piano is an absolute master of art, master of light and lightness.

He understands well about construction, structures and the scale of pieces.

Like most works designed by members of the "High-Tech" movement, Piano established technology as
a starting point for his designs.

Generate an architectural character based on technological forms with a concern for user comfort and
needs.

Piano has applied his structural experiments to a range of social and civic projects.

Fusion of local traditions and global technologies.

Research, Experimental forms and a sensitivity to context are fundamental approach to architecture.

Ideas are explored through scale models, computer simulations and full-size mock-ups of building
details.

Collaboration with experts in other disciplines complements the design process and influences the
evolution of a more complete and responsive design solution.

"In their nomination of Piano, Thomas Howarth, FAIA, and Kira Gould, AIA, described his work as
'sculptural, beautiful, technically accomplished, sustainable... He integrates the diverse disciplines that
combine in contemporary building into cohesive, humane environments.

Renzo Piano also achieve several honour, regarding to his recent works. Renzo won the Pritzker
Architecture Prize in 1998 and is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

Menil Collection Museum, Houston (TX), USA,1982-1986:

The building envisioned by would not remake the existing neighborhood but rather blend in and harmonize with it.

The buildings dark-stained pine floors, low-slung profile, large lawn, and surrounding portico (which mimics the deep
porches typical of early Houston homes) further recall the neighboring domestic structures.

The first time that Piano gave to the light a particular role was working in the project of a museum of the surrealist
and primitive African art collection of Dominique De Menil, sited in Houston. During a trip in Tel Aviv with De Menil,
visiting a museum in the same latitude of Huston, arose the idea to make of light the main point of the new musem.
The idea grew up and Piano studied a lot of different ways to utilize the zenithal light in the exposition halls.

Extremely meticulous and advanced research into natural light, and concern for conservation of works of art, were
the two principal forces driving the design of the Menil Museum.

A modular system of "leaves" covering the roof regulates the flux of light into the halls and is the building's main
architectural feature.

On top of the building is "The Treasure House,which houses the collection of 10,000 pieces of art. Selected pieces are
continually rotated throughout the predominantly naturally lit conditions.

The interiors are kept simple to encourage contemplation on the art itself.

The exterioran understated facade of gray cypress siding, wide expanses of glass, and white-painted steelechoes
the surrounding bungalows, all of them painted the same shade of what has become known as Menil gray.

The museum is only one floor of galleries, with storage and services in the basement below, and one floor of offices
and art storage above.

Visitors are first greeted by a large lawn on the North side, and the walk across this space allows for taking in the
spatial context of the museum.

The portico wrapping around the entire building creates a tectonic understanding of the structure, exposing the steel
I-beam columns and intricate detail of the custom steel roof assembly.

The museum contains nearly 30,000 square feet of gallery and public space, most of it along the north side of a 320foot corridor.

Leaf system

The inspiration was Pianos own sailboat which he had recently built using ferro-cement.

Due to the flexibility of this particular material, Piano designed a wave-shaped leaf for the Menils roof and ceiling.

He used this along with white steel trusses, both in the gallery spaces and on the buildings exterior, to unify the
structure.

The leaves function as a method of controlling light levels and also as a means of returning air flow.

 Architect : Sir Norman Foster

BIOGRAPHY

Born on 1st June 1935, in Manchester, England.

He went to private school and grammar school but left early earn a living.

After leaving school he worked for two years in the city treasurers office, studied commercial law, and was in the
Royal Air Force. . At this time he developed an interest towards Architecture.

He entered Manchester University School of Architecture and City Planning when he was 21 (1956) and graduated in
1961.

Upon graduating he won a fellowship to Yale University and there he earned a Masters Degree in Architecture.

In 1963 he worked with Richard Rogers, Sue Rogers, Gorgie Wolton and his wife, Wendy Foster as a member of Team 4.

Foster Associates (now known as Foster and Partners) was founded in 1967 and now has offices in London, Berlin, and
Singapore, with over 500 employees worldwide.

Foster and Partners has received over 190 awards and citations for excellence and has won over 50 national and
international competitions.

He was knighted in 1990.

In 1999 he was honoured with a life peerage award (taking the title Lord Foster of Thames Bank) and in that same year
was awarded the 21st Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate.

DESIGN PHILOSOPHIES:

Foster Associates became known for "High Tech" design that explored technological shapes and ideas. In his work,
Sir Norman Foster often uses off-site manufactured parts and the repetition of modular elements.

Creates buildings that people are fascinated by, that is dynamic and yet stays very environmentally aware.

In design process he takes into consideration ways to reduce elements that are harmful to the environment such as
carbon dioxide emissions, greenhouse gases and fuel consumption.

Fosters designs are more than just environmentally friendly. Each detail is carefully planned out and the use of space
is always taken into consideration.

Fosters designs have many bold shapes and hes not afraid to use colour to enhance and emphasize his work; which
includes everything from door handles and tables to airports, bridges, and office buildings.

He doesnt limit himself in the design world to just one field, he allows himself to branch out and really show his talent
by taking on smaller projects as well as bigger, publicized ones.

Fosters advances in the design world have allowed him to alter many architectural rules that for so long were never
challenged.

His works were mainly based on ecology. There were definite relationships between nature and buildings.

Norman allowed natural light to penetrate, and used it as a medium to interact man and nature. He believed that
daylight upgrades the efficiency and state of mind of visitors and users of the building.

He also believed in the use of latest technology to design very sustainable buildings.

AWARDS:

1983-RIBA Royal gold medal

1990- RIBA Trustees medal

1990- Honored with knighthood

1994- AIA gold medal

On 12th June 1999 Elizabeth's birthday, Norman Foster was honored with a life peerage, taking the title Lord Norman
Foster

In the same year, he was awarded the prestigious 21st Pritzker Architectural prize laureate, considered the Nobel Prize
of Architecture.

The Centre was commissioned as the French car manufacturers main UK distribution facility. In addition to
warehousing, it includes a showroom, training school, workshops, offices and a staff restaurant.

Supportive local planners increased their site development limit from 50 to 67 per cent, allowing a floor area of
25,000 square meters.

It has brilliant yellow (Renaults corporate color); cable-stayed tubular steel masts, that supports a reinforced
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) membrane roof.

Prefabricated rectangular building was formed as a series of suspended modules42 in totalcomprising 16m high
masts, connected to pin-jointed portal frames.

Each module measured 24m x 24m - much larger than usual planning module developed so as to maximize the
planning flexibility of the internal spaces. And was 7.5 meters high at the edge and 9.5 meters in the center - Allowing
the Centre to accommodate a range of uses from industrial warehouse racking to its subdivision into office floors.
As extensions were required, modules could be unbolted and new ones added. Initially, 36 modules were devoted to
warehousing, the rest located at the narrower end of the site where the building tapered to a generous entry and Porte
cochere.
The building is also stepped at one end, narrowing to a single, open bay that forms a Porte-cochre alongside a doubleheight gallery.
Primarily a showroom - as signified by suspended car body shells - the gallery was used by Renault as a popular venue
for arts and social events, encouraging wider community involvement in the building.
Covered spaces were used for spare parts warehousing, visitor reception, distribution and regional offices, vehicle
showroom, after-sales maintenance training, and staff dining.
Ample natural lighting was achieved by clear glass panels inserted where the mast pierced the roof and by a louvered
roof light at the apex of each module; the louvers could be opened for ventilation.

 The building was centrally heated and lit according to the function of the space.
Building, the innovative 288m long building which houses offices, a restaurant, showroom and training centre as well as
warehouse space is supported by 360 Macalloy tendons with fork connectors at either end.

 The HSBC Main Building is the headquarters for The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in Central
Hong Kong.

It is located along the southern side of Statue Square near the location of the old City Hall, Hong Kong. The previous
HSBC building was built in 1935 and pulled down to make way for the current building.

The new building, after three previous demolitions, was designed by the British architect Lord Norman Foster and Civil &
Structural Engineers Ove Arup & Partners
(J. Roger Preston & Partners Engineering) and was constructed by Wimpey International.
The building is 180-metres high with 47 storeys and four basement levels.
The building has a module design consisting of five steel modules prefabricated in the UK by Scott Lithgow
Shipbuilders near Glasgow, and shipped to Hong Kong.
Foster's solution for the requirement to build in excess of one million square feet in a short timescale was to design a
building the construction of which would rely on an exceptionally high degree of off-site prefabrication. Components
were manufactured all over the world. The structural steel came from Britain; the glass, aluminium cladding and flooring
from the United States; the service modules from Japan. All these had to fit together perfectly on site, calling for a
degree of precision in engineering and assembly never before attempted in the construction of a building.
The need to build downwards and upwards simultaneously led to the adoption of a suspension structure, with pairs
of steel masts arranged in three bays.
By the use of bridge engineering techniques, and by locating all services in prefabricated modules hung on the east
and west sides of the building, Foster eliminated the need for a central core, creating large, unobstructed floor areas
that are the key to the building's flexibility and efficiency.
The bridge building techniques have been used in the construction of this skyscraper. Eight large tubular steel columns
on two sides of the building, braced by rectangular beams, act as bridge supports, with the oors suspended from
them.
Allowing free oor plans with ample oor area lost to columns. Services are also located in and around the concrete
columns.
The most conspicuous features of the building are the eight groups of four aluminium-clad steel columns, which rise
from the foundations up through the main structure, and the five levels of triangular suspension trusses which are
locked into these masts.
From these trusses are suspended five groups of floors. They can be seen clearly on the outside of the building -- the
inverted 'v' sections of the suspension trusses span the structure at double-height levels -- giving the building much of its
distinctive character.
The need to build downwards and upwards simultaneously led to the adoption of a suspension structure, with pairs of
steel masts arranged in three bays. As a result, the building form is articulated in a stepped profile of three individual

towers, respectively twenty-nine, thirty-six and forty-four storeys high, which create floors of varying width and depth
and allow for garden terraces.
The floors are hanging floors.The building is divided into five zones. These zones, and the double-height levels which
separate them, form an integral part of the concept of movement around the building.
There are 47 storey's of office spaces including the main lobby
There are four basement storeys which are the vaults.
Express lifts travel from the plaza to the double-height areas, while movement between the floors in each zone is by
escalator. Altogether there are 62 escalators in the building.
The building is also one of the few to not have elevators (only 10) as the primary carrier of building traffic. Instead,
elevators only stop every few floors, and floors are interconnected by escalators.
Entrance and atrium:
At ground level, beneath the building, an open public area has been created without any loss of office space.
On entering this plaza what first strikes most visitors is the spectacular atrium rising 170 feet through 11 levels of the
building.
The public banking areas are situated around the atrium and are reached from the plaza by the longest freely
supported escalators in the world.
At the top of the atrium is a bank of giant mirrors. These form part of an innovative, computer-controlled sunscoop
that reflects natural sunlight into the atrium and down to the plaza,.
Open-plan offices surround the atrium, allowing staff to work under natural light, while noise levels are controlled by
means of careful acoustic engineering.
Sophisticated building management computers automatically keep light and temperature at constant levels.
The mast structure allowed another radical move, pushing the service cores to the perimeter so as to create deep-plan
floors around a ten-storey atrium.
From the plaza, escalators rise up to the main banking hall, which with its glass underbelly was conceived as a shop
window for banking?
The main characteristic of HSBC Hong Kong headquarters is its absence of internal supporting structure.
Another notable feature is that natural sunlight is the major source of lighting inside the building.
There is a bank of giant mirrors at the top of the atrium, which can reflect natural sunlight into the atrium and hence
down into the plaza. Through the use of natural sunlight, this design helps to conserve energy. Additionally, sun shades
are provided on the external facades to block direct sunlight going into the building and to reduce heat gain.
Instead of fresh water, sea water is used as coolant for the air-conditioning system.
The emphasis on flexibility is apparent throughout the building. All flooring is constructed from lightweight movable
panels made from the same material as that used for aircraft floors. The panels, which may be covered with carpet tiles
or other materials, can be lifted to reveal a comprehensive network of power, data, and telecommunication and airconditioning systems. Computer terminals or other such pieces of equipment can be installed easily with minimum
disturbance.
This design was to allow equipment such as computer terminals to be installed quickly and easily.
Similarly, all internal walls are made up of movable partitions so that office layouts can be changed and modified as
required, without the need for any structural alterations.

MODULE IV
(Dec 2011/Jan 2012 SEE Examinations)
1. a. Discuss various aspects of post modernity in architecture quoting Sony Building, New York city as
the first post modernist statement.
b. Santiago Calatrava is Sculptor Architect. Elaborate along with appropriate examples
OR
2. a. Discuss post modernity in architecture along with relevant examples
b. Explain the architectural style/principles of Ar. Charles Moore through his work, Pizza d Italia in
New Orleans, Louisiana, US.
(August 2011 Supplementary Examinations)
1. a. Discuss post modernity in architecture along with relevant examples
b. Explain the architectural style/principles of Ar. Charles Moore through his work, Pizza d Italia in
New Orleans, Louisiana, US
OR
2. a. Discuss various aspects of post modernity in architecture quoting Sony Building, New York City, as
the first Post modernist statement
b. Elaborate the ideas/principles adopted by Ar. Richard Meier by quoting Getty centre, Brent wood, LA
as an example.
(January /February 2012 make up examinations)
1. Explain the ideas of the following architects with the help of one relevant example for each
a. Richard Meier
b. Charles Moore
c. Renzo Piano
OR
2. Highlight the contribution of the following architects to contemporary world architecture.
a. Norman Foster
b. Santiago Calatrava
(August 2012 Supplementary Examination)
1. a) Explain any one work of Richard Meier and Charles Moore.
b) Write short note on (any one) of the following: Santiago Calatrava and Norman Foster
OR
2. a. Explain the works of architect Renzo Piano
b. Write short notes on Lyon Satolas Railway station