ZAHA HADID

ARKITEK PILIHAN SAFIYYAH..(ZAHA HADID)

ZAHA HADID

Zaha Hadid was born October 31, 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. After graduating she worked with her former teachers, Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, becoming a partner in 1977. It was with Koolhaas that she met Peter Rice who gave her support and encouragement early on, at a time when her work seemed difficult to build. In 1980 she established her own London-based practice. During the 1980s she also taught at the Architectural Association. She has also taught at prestigious institutions around the world; she held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, the Sullivan Chair at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, guest professorships at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, the Knolton School of Architecture, at the Ohio State University, the Masters Studio at Columbia University, New York and the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. In addition, she was made Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. She is currently Professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in Austria.

A winner of many international competitions, theoretically influential and groundbreaking, a number of Hadid's winning designs were initially never built: notably, The Peak Club in Hong Kong (1983) and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales (1994). In 2002 Hadid won the international design competition to design Singapore's one-north masterplan. In 2005, her design won the competition for the new city casino of Basel, Switzerland. In 2004 Hadid became the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Previously, she had been awarded an CBE for services to architecture. She is a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica. In 2006, Hadid was honoured with a retrospective spanning her entire work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In that year she also received an Honorary Degree from the American University of Beirut.

Work

Much of Hadid's early work was conceptual; realized projects include:

• Guggenheim-Hermitage Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania, (2008-) - not realized

• Eli and Edythe Broad Museum, Michigan State University, (2008-)

• London Aquatics Centre, London, UK, (2008-2013)

• CMA CGM Tower, Marseille, France, (2007-2009)

• [[Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion (Worldwide) [Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, London, Paris, Moscow], (2006-2008)

• Bridge Pavilion (2008), Zaragoza, Spain

• Kartal Urban Transformation (2008) (projected), Istanbul, Turkey

• Riverside Museum (2007-2011) (projected) development of Glasgow Transport Museum, Scotland

• Cyprus : Eleftheria square, Redsign,(2007)

• Nordkettenbahn (aerial tramway) (2007), Innsbruck, Austria

• Nuragic and Contemporary art museum (2006) (under construction), Cagliari, Italy

• Maggie's centre at the Victoria Hospital (2006), Kirkcaldy,Scotland

• High speed train station of Afragola (2006), Afragola, Italy

• BMW Central Building (2005), Leipzig, Germany

• Ordrupgaard annexe (2005), Copenhagen, Denmark

• Phaeno Science Center (2005), Wolfsburg, Germany

• Bergisel Ski Jump (2002), Innsbruck, Austria

• Price Tower extension hybrid project (2002), Bartlesville, Oklahoma - pending

• Hoenheim-North Terminus & Car Park (2001), Strasbourg, France

• Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art (1998), Cincinnati, Ohio

• Vitra Fire Station (1994), Weil am Rhein, Germany

• Z.CAR hydrogen-powered, three-wheeled automobile

She has also undertaken some high-profile interior work, including the Mind Zone at the Millennium Dome in London. Ongoing projects include: The 17,500-seat Aquatics Centre for London, one of the new venues being constructed for the 2012 Summer Olympics. While she was previously slated for work in the Docklands area of Melbourne, it has since been announced that architect Norman Foster will be designing it instead. The MAXXI (National Museum of the 21st Century Arts) in Rome. The Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan. Zaha Hadid's project was named as the best for the Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in 2008

DESIGN BY ZAHA HADID

ZAHA HADID EXHIBITION

ABU DABHI PERFORMING ART CENTER

DANCING TOWER

Bridge Pavilion in Zaragoza, Spain

Bergisel Ski Jump, Innsbruck, Austria

BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany

Maggie's Centre, Kirkcaldy

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe (1886-1969) was born in Achen, Germany. As a young boy he attended a cathedral school, and he also learned practical work like masonry from his father.
When he was nineteen years old he went to Berlin, and there he worked for Bruno Paul, who at the time was a very famous cabinet-maker in Germany. Three years later he moved on and he started working for the famous Peter Behrens, who had also taught famous architects like Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier.
During World War I, Mies Van Der Rohe built bridges and roads in the Balkans, and when the war was over his architectural career started blooming in Germany. He financed a magazine called G, and he was strongly associated with the Novembergruppe; an organization promoting modern art. Mies Van Der Rohe also designed the German pavillion for the International World Exhibition at Barcelona, Spain (1929), and the Trugendhat House in Brno, Czechoslovakia (1930). With elementary compositions, fundamentalism and geometrical purity the European style of architecture reached international fame. The new architecture showed functionalism, something that a lot of people seemed to be craving at that time.
Between 1930-1933 Mies Van Der Rohe was the director of the Bauhaus school of art, but when the Nazis took over Germany he moved to the U.S. in 1938. He soon became the director of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
While in the U.S. he planned the Edith Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois (1950), some of the Lake Shore Drive apartments in Chicago (1951), and together with Philip Johnson he planned the bronze-tingle Seagram building (left) in New York. He also designed the Berlin National Gallery (right) in Berlin, Germany. Next to La Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe is considered a twentieth century architectural master.
Additional resources on Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

KUIZ 1

Siti Safiyyah..01bsbo7f011

ARKITEK PILIHAN..ZAHA HADID

Zaha Hadid was born October 31, 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. After graduating she worked with her former teachers, Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, becoming a partner in 1977. It was with Koolhaas that she met Peter Rice who gave her support and encouragement early on, at a time when her work seemed difficult to build. In 1980 she established her own London-based practice. During the 1980s she also taught at the Architectural Association. She has also taught at prestigious institutions around the world; she held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, the Sullivan Chair at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, guest professorships at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, the Knolton School of Architecture, at the Ohio State University, the Masters Studio at Columbia University, New York and the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. In addition, she was made Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. She is currently Professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in Austria.
A winner of many international competitions, theoretically influential and groundbreaking, a number of Hadid's winning designs were initially never built: notably, The Peak Club in Hong Kong (1983) and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales (1994). In 2002 Hadid won the international design competition to design Singapore's one-north masterplan. In 2005, her design won the competition for the new city casino of Basel, Switzerland. In 2004 Hadid became the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Previously, she had been awarded an CBE for services to architecture. She is a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica. In 2006, Hadid was honoured with a retrospective spanning her entire work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In that year she also received an Honorary Degree from the American University of Beirut.

Work
Much of Hadid's early work was conceptual; realized projects include:
Guggenheim-Hermitage Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania, (2008-) - not realized
Eli and Edythe Broad Museum, Michigan State University, (2008-)
London Aquatics Centre, London, UK, (2008-2013)
CMA CGM Tower, Marseille, France, (2007-2009)
[[Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion (Worldwide) [Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, London, Paris, Moscow], (2006-2008)
Bridge Pavilion (2008), Zaragoza, Spain
Kartal Urban Transformation (2008) (projected), Istanbul, Turkey
Riverside Museum (2007-2011) (projected) development of Glasgow Transport Museum, Scotland
Cyprus : Eleftheria square, Redsign,(2007)
Nordkettenbahn (aerial tramway) (2007), Innsbruck, Austria
Nuragic and Contemporary art museum (2006) (under construction), Cagliari, Italy
Maggie's centre at the Victoria Hospital (2006), Kirkcaldy,Scotland
High speed train station of Afragola (2006), Afragola, Italy
BMW Central Building (2005), Leipzig, Germany
Ordrupgaard annexe (2005), Copenhagen, Denmark
Phaeno Science Center (2005), Wolfsburg, Germany
Bergisel Ski Jump (2002), Innsbruck, Austria
Price Tower extension hybrid project (2002), Bartlesville, Oklahoma - pending
Hoenheim-North Terminus & Car Park (2001), Strasbourg, France
Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art (1998), Cincinnati, Ohio
Vitra Fire Station (1994), Weil am Rhein, Germany
Z.CAR hydrogen-powered, three-wheeled automobile
She has also undertaken some high-profile interior work, including the Mind Zone at the Millennium Dome in London. Ongoing projects include: The 17,500-seat Aquatics Centre for London, one of the new venues being constructed for the 2012 Summer Olympics. While she was previously slated for work in the Docklands area of Melbourne, it has since been announced that architect Norman Foster will be designing it instead. The MAXXI (National Museum of the 21st Century Arts) in Rome. The Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan. Zaha Hadid's project was named as the best for the Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in 2008.

Exhibits
2007 - (29 June - 25 November) - Design Museum, London
2006 - (1 June - 29 July) – Ma10 Mx Protetch Gallery, Chelsea, NYC
2006 - (3 June - 25 October) – Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
2003 - (4 May - 17 August) - MAK - Museum für angewandte Kunst or Museum of Applied Arts (Vienna)
2002 - (10 May-11 August) Centro nazionale per le arti contemporanee, Rome[3]
2001 - Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg
2000 - British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
1997 - San Francisco MoMA
1995 - Graduate School of Design at Harvard University
1988 - Deconstructivist Architecture show at MoMA, New York
1985 - GA Gallery, Tokyo
1983 - Retrospective at the Architectural Association, London
1978 - Guggenheim Museum, New York

design by zaha hadid

Arkitek pilihan (Peter Eisenman)

Peter Eisenman

Personal information
Name
Peter Eisenman
Nationality
American
Birth date
August 11, 1932(1932-08-11)
Birth place
Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Work
Significant buildings
House VI
Wexner Center for the ArtsMemorial to the Murdered Jews of EuropeCity of Culture Galicia

Peter Eisenman (born August 11, 1932 in Newark, New Jersey[1]) is an American architect. Eisenman's fragmented forms are identified with an eclectic group of architects that have been labeled as deconstructivists. Although Eisenman shuns the label, he has had a history of controversy aimed at keeping him in the public (academic) eye. His theories on architecture pursue the emancipation and autonomy of the discipline and his work represents a continued attempt to liberate form from all meaning, a struggle that most find difficult to accept. He always had strong cultural relationships with European intellectuals like his English mentor Colin Rowe and the Italian historian Manfredo Tafuri. The work of philosopher Jacques Derrida is a key influence in Eisenman's architecture. He is often seen in a bowtie and a black sweater with a small hole.
Eisenman discovered architecture as an undergraduate at Cornell University and had to give up his position on the swimming team in order to immerse himself in the architecture program there. Eisenman received a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Cornell, a Master of Architecture Degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cambridge. Eisenman received an honorary degree from Syracuse University School of Architecture in 2007.

Practice

Installation art by Peter Eisenman in the courtyard of Castelvecchio Museum in Verona, Italy, Entitled: "Il giardino dei passi perduti", ("The garden of the lost steps")
Eisenman first rose to prominence as a member of the New York Five (also known as the Five Whites), five architects (Eisenman, Charles Gwathmey, John Hejduk, Richard Meier, and Michael Graves) some of whose work appeared in an exhibition at MoMA in 1967. Eisenman received a number of grants from the Graham Foundation for work done in this period. These architects' work at the time was often considered a reworking of the ideas of Le Corbusier. Subsequently, the five architects each developed unique styles and ideologies, with Eisenman becoming more affiliated with the Deconstructivist movement.
Eisenman's focus on "liberating" architectural form was notable from an academic and theoretical standpoint but resulted in structures that were both badly built and hostile to users. The Wexner Center, hotly anticipated as the first major public deconstructivist building, has required extensive and expensive retrofitting because of elementary design flaws (such as incompetent material specifications, and fine art exhibition space exposed to direct sunlight). It was frequently repeated that the Wexner's colliding planes tended to make its users disoriented to the point of physical nausea; in 1997 researcher Michael Pollan tracked the source of this rumor back to Eisenman himself. In the words of Andrew Ballantyne, "By some scale of values he was actually enhancing the reputation of his building by letting it be known that it was hostile to humanity."
Eisenman's House VI, designed for clients Richard and Suzanne Frank in the mid 1970's, confounds expectations of structure and function. Suzanne Frank was initially sympathetic and patient with Eisenman's theories and demands. But after years of fixes to the badly-specified and misbegotten House VI (which had first broken the Franks' budget then consumed their life savings), Suzanne Frank was prompted to strike back with Peter Eisenman's House VI: The Client's Response, in which she admitted both the problems of the building, as much as its virtues.
Eisenman currently teaches architecture at Yale University and has also embarked on a larger series of building projects than ever before in his career, including the recently completed Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin and the new University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. His largest project to date is the soon-to-be completed City of Culture of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

mY iDoL..... "Sir NORMAN FOSTER"...

Early Life of Sir Norman Foster:









Born in a working class family, Norman Foster did not seem likely to become a famous architect. Although he was a good student in high school and showed an early interest in architecture, he did not enroll in college until he was 21 years old. Foster won numerous scholarships during his years at Manchester University, including one to attend Yale University in the United States.











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. The firm frequently designs special components for these high-tech modernist buildings





Some of MY IDOL buildings:














Willis Faber and Dumas
Building in Ipswich,






New German Parliament, Reichstag, Berlin, Germany



wanna mOre INfo???? juz cLick doWn heRE........



http://architecture.about.com/od/greatarchitects/p/foster.htm

Done by FIRDAUZ 01PSB07F2012

mY architect

kenneth yeang


Arkitek pilihan saya adalah kenneth yeang .Kenneth yeang adalah seorang arkitek yang mengambil berat tentang persekitaran ketika hendak membuat sesuatu rekaan seperti dengan menerapkan unsur bioklimatik yang akan membuatkan rekaan beliau kelihatan sesuatu yang unik.

DR.KENNETH YEANG

~ ecological approach for the design of large projects and buildings that include consideration given to their impacts on the site's ecology and the building's use of energy and materials over its life-cycle.

~ passive low-energy design of skyscrapers, as the 'bioclimatic skyscraper'.

sedikit latarbelakang beliau.... AA Dip., APAM, FSIA, RIBA, ARAIA, Hon. FAIA, Hon. FRIAS, FRSA, PhD. (Cantab), AIA (Associate), Professor (Graham Willis Chair, Sheffield University), Adjunct Professor (RMIT, Melbourne), Adjunct Professor (University of Hawaii), Adjunct Professor (University of New South Wales), Adjunct Professor (Curtin University), Adjunct Professor (University of Malaya), Adjunct Professor (Deakin University). lahir Penang, Malaysia, 1948. Married to Priscilla Khoo Pit Ling (4 children) warganegara United Kingdom Right-of-Abode, Citizen of Malaysia.
	pendidikan: • Primary Education at Westlands School, Penang, Malaysia (1954-1962). • Part Secondary Education at Penang Free School, Penang, Malaysia (1959-1962). • Secondary Education at Cheltenham Boys College, Gloucestershire, England (1962-1966). • Graduated in Architecture from the AA (Architectural Association) School, London, England (1966-1971). • Received Doctorate (PhD) in Architecture from Cambridge University (Wolfson College), Cambridge, England, (1971-1975).

Sample building


Building Name: Menara Mesiniaga

Location: 1A, Jalan SS 16/1, Subang Jaya, Selangor, MalaysiaNos. of Storeys: 14-1/2 Storeys

Design Features The building brings together the principles of the bioclimatic approach to the design of tall buildings developed over the previous decade by the firm.In particular, the building has the following features:

•"Vertical Landscaping" (planting) is introduced into the building facade and at the "skycourts". In this building the planting starts by mounding up from ground level to as far up as possible at one side of the building. The planting then "spirals" upwards across the face of the building with the use of recessed terraces (as skycourts).

•A number of passive low-energy features are also incorporated: All the window areas facing the hot sides of the building (ie. east and west sides) have external louvres as solar-shading to reduce solar heat gain into the internal spaces. Those sides without direct solar insolation (ie. the north and south sides) have unshielded curtain-walled glazing for good views and to maximise nautral lighting.

•The lift lobbies at all floors are naturally ventilated and are sun-lit with views to the outside. These lobbies do not require fire-protection pressurisation (ie. low-energy lobby). All stairways and toilet areas are also naturally ventilated and have natural lighting.

•The sunroof is the skeletal provision for panel space for the possible future placing of solar-cells to provide back-up energy source. BAS (Building Automation System) is an active Intelligent Building feature used in the building for energy-saving.

Structural System:

Reinforced concrete structural frame and brick infill, mild steel truss structure for sunroof, gym roof and mezzanine deck.
External Skin: Laminated float glass, composite aluminium cladding.
Roofing: Tiled r.c. roof slab to roof terraces, metal decking with insulation to gym. roof.
Finishes: Green granite to entrance lobby floor, white marble to lobby walls, composite aluminium cladding to columns and walls, quartz tiles to lobby feature wall, exposed aggregate plaster to forecourt and apron, spray tile to walls, float glass and dry wall to internal partitioning, homogenous tiles to wet areas, carpet to office floors, mineral fibreboard ceiling to offices, white fibrous plaster to lobby ceilings and auditorium.

http://trhamzahyeang.com/

create by

muhammad faizal 01psb07f2011

arkitek pilihan shaheena.."Eero Saarinen"

kuiz1 shaheena binti sahid 01bsb06f534

Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen (pronounced [eːro saːrinen]) (August 20, 1910 Kirkkonummi, Finland – September 1, 1961 Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States) was a Finnish American architect and product designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project[citation needed]: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.
Biography
Eero Saarinen, who was born in Hvitträsk, coincidentally shared the same birthday as his father, Eliel Saarinen[citation needed]. Saarinen emigrated to the United States of America in 1923 when he was thirteen years old[citation needed]. He grew up within the community of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where his father taught. Saarinen studied under his father and took courses in sculpture and furniture design. Saarinen had a close relationship with fellow students Charles and Ray Eames, and became good friends with Florence (Schust) Knoll. Beginning in September 1929, he studied sculpture at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, France.[1] He then went on to study architecture at Yale University, completing his studies in 1934. After that, he toured Europe and North Africa for a year and spent another year back in Finland, after which he returned to Cranbrook to work for his father and teach at the academy. He became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. in 1940. Saarinen was recruited by his friend, who was also an architect, to join the military service in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Saarinen was assigned to draw illustrations for bomb disassembly manuals and to provide designs for the Situation Room in the White House[citation needed]. Saarinen worked full time for the OSS until 1944.[1] After his father's death in 1950, Saarinen founded his own architect's office, "Eero Saarinen and Associates". He had two children from his first marriage, Eric and Susan.
In 1954, after having divorced his first wife, Saarinen married Aline Bernstein, an art critic at The New York Times. They had a son, Eames, named after his collaborator Charles Eames.

Architecture

The first major work by Saarinen, started together with his father, was the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, designed in the rationalist Miesian style: in steel and glass, but with the added accent of panels in two shades of blue. With the success of the scheme, Saarinen was then invited by other major American corporations to design their new headquarters: these included John Deere, IBM, and CBS. Despite their rationality, however, the interiors usually contained more dramatic sweeping staircases, as well as furniture designed by Saarinen, such as the Pedestal Series. In the 1950s he began to receive more commissions from American universities for campus designs and individual buildings; these include the Noyes dormitory at Vassar, as well as an ice rink, Morse College, and Ezra Stiles College at Yale University. Both the Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges at Yale have received criticism from students for failing to fulfill basic dormitory needs.
He served on the jury for the Sydney Opera House commission and was crucial in the selection of the internationally-known design by Jørn Utzon.
"Eero Saarinen and Associates" was the architectural firm of Eero Saarinen, who was the principal partner from 1950 until his death in 1961. The firm was initially known as "Saarinen, Swansen and Associates", headed by Eliel Saarinen and Robert Swansen from the late 1930s until Eliel's death in 1950. The firm was located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan until 1961 when the practice was moved to Hamden, Connecticut. Under Eero Saarinen, the firm carried out many of its most important works, including the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) in St. Louis, Missouri, the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport, and the main terminal of Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C.. Many of these projects use catenary curves in their structural designs. One of the best-known thin-shell concrete structures in America is the Kresge Auditorium (MIT), which was designed by Saarinen. Another thin-shell structure that he created is the Ingalls Rink (Yale University), which has suspension cables connected to a single concrete backbone and is nicknamed "the whale." Undoubtedly his most famous work is the TWA Flight Center, which represents the culmination of his previous designs and demonstrates his expressionism and the technical marvel in concrete shells.Saarinen died, while undergoing an operation for a brain tumor, at the age of 51. His partners, Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo, completed his ten remaining projects, including the St. Louis arch. Afterwards, the name of the firm was changed to "Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo, and Associates", or Roche-Dinkeloo.

arkitek pilihan nor'ain..>LE CORBUSIER

KUIZ 1

NOR'AIN BT. SULAIMAN
01 BSB07 F017

LE CORBUSIER

Le Corbusier was born Charles Edouard Jeannerct on October 6, 1887, in LaChaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Le Corbusier was the second son of Edouard Jeanneret, a dial painter in the town's renowned watch industry, and Madame Jeannerct-Perrct, a musician and piano teacher.

was a Swiss-born architect, designer, urbanist, writer and also painter, who is famous for his contributions to what now is called Modern architecture. In his 30s he became a French citizen.

He was a pioneer in studies of modern high design and was dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities. His career spanned 8 decades, with his buildings constructed throughout central Europe, India, Russia, and one each in North and South America. He was also an urban planner, painter, sculptor, writer, and modern furniture designer.

Notre Dame du Haut, or Ronchamp Commentary

"Surrealism is a key to other late works of Le Corbusier, most notably the church at Ronchamp, France, of 1950-54... Notre-Dame-du-Haut was a more extreme statement of Le Corbusier's late style. Progamatically,...the church is simple—an oblong nave, two side entrances, an axial main altar, and three chapels beneath towers—as is its structure, with rough masonry walls faced with whitewashed Gunite (sprayed concrete) and a roof of contrasting beton brut. Formally and symbolically, however, this small building, which is sited atop a hillside with access from the south, is immensely powerful and complex."

Informally known as Ronchamp, the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp (French: Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp), France completed in 1954 is considered one of the finest examples of architecture by the late French/Swiss architect Le Corbusier and one of the most important and successful examples of religious architecture in the 20th century, an honor it shares with the Matisse Chapel in Vence.

Site

The site is high on a hill near Belfort in eastern France. There had been a pilgrimage chapel on the site dedicated to the Virgin Mary, but it had been destroyed during the Second World War. After the war, it was decided to rebuild on the same site. The Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut, a shrine for the Roman Catholic Church at Ronchamp, France was built for a reformist Church looking to continue its relevance. Warning against decadence, reformers within the Church looked to renew its spirit by embracing modern art and architecture as representative concepts. Father Marie-Alain Couturier, who would also sponsor Le Corbusier for the La Tourette commission, steered the unorthodox project to completion in 1954.

The chapel at Ronchamp is singular in Corbusier's oeuvre, in that it departs from his principles of standardisation and the machine aesthetic, giving in instead to a site-specific response. By Le Corbusier's own admission, it was the site that provided an irresistible genius loci for the response, with the horizon visible on all four sides of the hill and its historical legacy for centuries as a place of worship.

This historical legacy was woven in different layers into the terrain – from the Romans and sun-worshippers before them, to a cult of the Virgin in the Middle Ages, right through to the modern church and the fight against the German occupation. Le Corbusier also sensed a sacred relationship of the hill with its surroundings – the Jura mountains in the distance and the hill itself, dominating the landscape.

The nature of the site would result in an architectural ensemble that has many similarities with the Acropolis – starting from the ascent at the bottom of the hill to architectural and landscape events along the way, before finally terminating at the sanctus sanctorum itself – the chapel. You cannot see the building until you reach nearly the crest of the hill. From the top, magnificent vistas spread out in all directions.

Structure

The structure is made mostly of concrete and is comparatively small, enclosed by thick walls, with the upturned roof supported on columns embedded within the walls, like a sail billowing in the windy currents on the hill top. The Christian Church sees itself as the ship of God, bringing safety and salvation to followers. In the interior, the spaces left between the walls and roof and filled with clerestory windows, as well as the asymmetric light from the wall openings, serve to further reinforce the sacred nature of the space and reinforce the relationship of the building with its surroundings. The lighting in the interior is soft and indirect, from the clerestory windows and reflecting off the whitewashed walls of the chapels with projecting towers.

The structure is built mostly of concrete and stone, which was a remnant of the original chapel built on the hilltop site destroyed during World War II. Some have described Ronchamp as the first Post-Modern building. It was constructed in the early 1950s.

The main part of the structure consists of two concrete membranes separated by a space of 6'11", forming a shell which constitutes the roof of the building. This roof, both insulating and watertight, is supported by short struts, which form part of a vertical surface of concrete covered with "gunite" and which, in addition, brace the walls of old Vosges stone provided by the former chapel which was destroyed by the bombings. These walls which are without buttresses follow, in plan, the curvilinear forms calculated to provide stability to this rough masonry. A space of several centimeters between the shell of the roof and the vertical envelope of the walls furnishes a significant entry for daylight. The floor of the chapel follows the natural slope of the hill down towards the altar. Certain parts, in particular those upon which the interior and exteriorBourgogne, as are the altars themselves. The towers are constructed of stone masonry and are capped by cement domes. The vertical elements of the chapel are surfaced with mortar sprayed on with a cement gun and then white-washed - both on the interior and exterior. The concrete shell of the roof is left rough, just as it comes from the formwork. Watertightness is effected by a built-up roofing with an exterior cladding of aluminium. The interior the walls are white; the ceiling grey; the bench of African wood created by Savina; the communion altars rest, are of beautiful white stone from bench is of cast iron made by the foundries of the Lure.

Furnishings

Small pieces of stained glass are set deep within the walls, which are sometimes seven feet thick. The glass glows likes deep-set rubies and emeralds and amethysts and jewels of all colors.

Because it is a pilgrimage chapel, there are few people worshipping at most times. But on special feast days, large crowds of thousands will attend. To accommodate them, Le Corbusier also built an outside altar and pulpit, so the large crowds can sit or stand on a vast field on the top of the hill. A famous statue of the Virgin, rescued from the ruins of the chapel destroyed during WWII is encased in a special glass case in the wall, and it can be turned to face inward when the congregation is inside, or to face outward toward the huge crowds.

Roof

The billowing roof of concrete was planned to slope toward the back, where a fountain of abstract forms is placed on the ground. When it rains, the water comes pouring off the roof and down onto the raised, slanted concrete structures, creating a dramatic natural fountain.

Location : ronchamp, france

Date : 1955

Building type : church

Construction system : reinforced concrete

Climate : temperate

Context : rural, mountains

Style : Expressionist modern

Notes : Soft-form composition, deep windows with colored glass (wall thickness 4' to 12')