house owen brosk

HOUSE DESIGN

by

JEFFREY OWEN BROSK

B.A., B.S. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA1970

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF MASTER OF

ARCHITECTURE

AT THE

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF

TECHNOLOGY

$\AN ,,1976

Signature of Autho -.....rtment of Architecture

January 21, 1976

Certified by. ............ Don P -iosi'so aeProf or, Thesis Supervisor

Accepted by. :.ichael Underhjll,Assistant Professor, Chairman, Departmental

Committee

Copyright Jeffrey Owen Brosk 1976

11 D91

2 R976

L.ISR ARI z

e

ABSTRACT

HOUSE DESIGN

Jeffrey Owen Brosk

Submitted to the Department of Architecture onJanuary 21, 1976 in partial fulfillment of therequirements for the degree ofMaster of Architecture

I have designed a house to demonstrate and explorethe use of color as form in architecture. Themain premise is that since color effects ourperception of space both on a psychological and a

physical level, it must be considered an important

architectural element. Once one then accepts

color as an integral part of the design process,its use requires a reevaluation of the massing andorganization of forms. In the process of design,

I have probed many divergent attitudes one could

bring to this problem and the final designrepresents a solution at this time. However, the

problem is large and the solution elusive, and I

suspect many years from now I will still be

looking. Therefore I view this thesis as a

starting point, and not a termination.

Thesis Supervisor: Donald Preziosi

Title: Associate Professor of Architecture

2

Dedicated to my parents,

Doris Annette Brosk and Bernard J. Brosk.

3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to express my deep appreciation to my

advisors Donald Preziosi and Jerzy Soltan for

their inciteful advice and criticism, and to

express my gratitude to my thesis critics Wayne

Andersen, Whitney Chadwick and Carl Nesjar.

Finally, I would like to thank the Department of

Architecture for providing such a full and

flexible educational framework.

4

HOUSE DESIGN

5

Color is life; for a world without colors appearsto us as dead... As flame begets light, so lightengenders colors. Colors are the children oflight, and light is their mother. Light, thatfirst phenomenon of the world, reveals to us thespirit and living soul of the world throughcolors.

The Art of Color, Johannes Itten

6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT

DRAWINGS

COLOR ELEVATIONS

MODEL

BIBLIOGRAPHY

8-11

12-22

23-27

28-39

40-42

7

STATEMENT

For the sake of greater clarity and understanding

of this body of work it is necessary to frame it

in the larger context of my other work and

thoughts. The basic premise of this work is that

the essentials of painting, sculpture and archi-

tecture are the same. The numerous artificial

boundaries set up by each particular discipline

serve largely to the detriment of each. In this

thesis I have tried to bring to bear all my

previous work in painting, sculpture and architec-

ture to begin a body of work that will incorporate

and transcend them.

In this design I have approached the use of color

in seven major ways:

8

- to establish interconnectedness of interior

and exterior;

- to establish a dialogue with ground and sky;

- to establish a dialetic of two and three

dimensional space;

- to delinate surface plan;

- to break surface plan;

- to delinate volumetric space;

- to establish time-color-memory phenomena.

Usage was the general organizing principle con-

cerning the degree of color used in various

sections of the house. Areas that would be

occupied for short periods of time could work with

a higher saturation of color than areas of the

house that would be occupied for generally longer

periods of time. However, this generalization

must be modified by the exact nature of the

9

activity taking place. Therefore, while designing

one must consistently be living in the house and

tasting the different colors as he contemplates

their use.

However, in the end this project must be judged as

you would any house design, because it is not

meant to be a three dimensional color exercise,

but a house in which people would live and love.

Color must be just one more tool that an architect

has at his command, and not the sole purpose of

the building. However, this tool we call color

must be carefully and thoughtfully used because

there will always be the temptation to merely pour

pretty colors on buildings. This temptation must

be avoided because color has so much more poten-

tial if it is used as an integral part of the

10

design process, for then its use requires a

reevaluation of the massing and organization of

forms.

11

DRAWINGS

12

0 5 10PLAN scale I -BROSK

B

I

14

0

5 10

BROSK LIGHTING PLAN scale

15

BROSK SECTION A-A scale 01

16

K

BROSK SECTION B-B scale 0 10

17

AF

SECTION C-C scale 0 1BROSK

18

BROSK NORTHEAST ELEVATION scale 01

19

n

0DWWD0

K __________

BROSK NORTHWEST ELEVATION scale 0 ? 1

20

p

-i ________________________

ID ---

BROSK SOUTHWEST ELEVATION scale 0 i

21

4

- I

COLOR ELEVATIONS

Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers,the soul is the piano with many strings. Theartist is the hand that plays, touching one keyor another purposely, to cause vibrations in thesoul.

Concerning the Spiritual in Art, W. Kandinsky

23

scale

24

N-

CN

.

MODEL

28

38

11 0

BIBLIOGRAPHY

40

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ardalan, Nadar and Bakhtian, Laleh, The Sense of

Unity, The University of Chicago Press,

Chicago and Laden, 1973.

Bachelard, Gaston, Poetics of Space, translated by

Maria Jolas, Orion Press, New York, 1964.

Gatz, Konrad and Achterberg, Gerhard, Colour and

Architecture, Architectural Book Publishing

Co., New York, 1967.

Gombich, Hochberg and Black, Art, Perception and

Reality, Johns Hopkins University Press,

Baltimore, 1972.

Itten, Johannes, The Art of Color, translated by

Ernst von Haagen, Von Nostrand Reinhold

41

Company, New York, 1973.

Kardinsky, Wassily, Concerning the Spiritual in

Art, George Wittenborn, Inc., New York, 1972.

Klee, Paul, The Thinking Eye, George Wittenborn,

Inc., New York, 1969.

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