Offices For National Parksand Wildlife Byron Bay

From GraemeJohnBarr - 1/3/10 6:32 PM

Hi Monique,

Thanks for the positive comments. While this is a fairly simple office building added to an existing work shed it does have some mathematical ratios of significance.

It is important you mentioned “ratio” as this is the relationship of the part to the whole. Each part relating mathematically to the idea for the whole building.

It is the Idea that sets apart an architect's building from that of a stylist designer. The Idea a building with meaning should be present in all the decisions made within the design of the parts of the building. The Idea was discussed by Plato, Buddhists, Gothic architects, Professor Koller, etc (see http://architecturewiki.editme.com/DesignTheory )

The idea for a building may be to “complete a hill”, educate or “to draw out” for a school, instruct “to pile up knowledge”, “to walk to and from heaven with works from the Creator” (a factory), etc. an etymological dictionary assists in understanding the essential nature of what we design, eg A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language by WW Skeat.

The Idea for the building can then be related to numbers, eg 1 is the number of creation, 2 the number of duality and intellect, 4 the base and matter, etc. For an understanding of numbers you could read “The Sense of Unity” by Ardalan and Bakhtiar (University of Chicago Press).

Design grids can then be created in plan and elevation and your buildings major points then can be made to coincide with the intersection of lines and directions. Traditionally 2 grids were overlaid over one another. Eg, the 12 pointed star representing the temporal sphere, or time and its passage, can be used with a 9 pointed star representing the beings of the earth and the final number in numerology (before returning to 1 again, reduced by adding the 2 numbers together, ie 12 is 1+2, ie 3, 10 is 1+0, ie 1, etc).

The James Ratio Hunter, by John James (Lakes Printers 1978), is a good book to examine traditional design grids and their mathematical formulae.Creating plans and elevations on design grids creates immensely satisfying and pleasing ratios and visual effects. Many of the angles created by transposing 2 grids are acute or obtuse and can be at once modern or classical and timeless. The shapes created are marvelous and should be tried.

In the offices for the National Parks my idea was the traditional Aoriginal Australian story of the Rainbow Serpent. “(The Rainbow Serpent) It is known both as a benevolent protector of its people (the groups from the country around) and as a punisher of law breakers. The rainbow serpent's mythology is closely linked to land, water, life, social relationships and fertility.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Serpent . The National Parks Service looks after the areas of traditional and environmental significance in Australia and the Rainbow Serpent seemed appropriate for the Idea for the building. The manifest shape resembles the work shed as the body of the snake and the offices its head.

The front of the offices were broken into 3 structural bays as the number 3 represents the empathy by the National Parks Service for the Arakwal National Park they administer. An Idea also has to work functionally and this spacing of supports worked well for the span of the flooring and roof and other framing. Expressing the framing breaks up the building and imbues the building with meaning. It also creates visual rhythm, a place for structural support and a break with other elements in the building.

Other vertical elements are used visually to break up the length of the building. In simple terms a tall building needs horizontal lines to make it look not so tall and a long building needs vertical breaks to visually shorten a building (consider the lines and shapes that break up the mass of a gothic or classical building). Also in simple terms breaking shapes into odd numbers is more pleasing than breaking them into even numbers. With odd numbers one always gets substance and not structure in the middle. Even numbers can create duality which isn’t usually a good design solution.

When working with smaller elements the ratio of the Golden Ratio is also useful for making practical and attractive shapes. The Golden Mean is found in shells and other natural growing things. The Golden Mean or Ratio is about 1 to 1.62 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio . Creating shapes with the Golden Mean is always pleasant. Balustrade panels, elevations, windows, mirrors, furniture, etc can all be set out to the Golden Ratio. The photo of the Office building for the National Parks is approaching the Golden Ratio when one considers the highest corner and the length of the offices and in my opinion creates a pleasant building ratio of height to length.

I hope this is of some assistance. This is an immensely important subject for architects and a rigorous study of ratio will bring great rewards.

Regards,

Graeme J Barr 

From 124.182.146.103 - 1/2/10 11:12 AM

wow this is an amazing design 

since im a student and  learning about the math of architecture i would like to know how to do a ratio of a builing like this one 

and it would be helpful if i knew how to do ratios so i feel confident to do my own designs with ease, and not having to worry about wrong measurements  thanx if you can  

thank you regards Monique