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Some architects design based on flat planes, boxes and tweaking the standard configurations. She has a much more 3-D model which she explodes. If one were to take a box and cut slashes out of it to open irregular flaps and fold the roof and then, perhaps hang off a second story landing a ramp downward to a room that hangs in the atrium space, not touching the first floor, (such as at Sollac in France) we get a sense of what she is doing and how hard it is to put her designs into flat images or words. At a Florence project the walkways between buildings is through the canopy of trees, crisscrossing through the branches on ramps. At least it was to be and will be again. Before construction, the site was cleared of the huge tree that had been built into the design (as had also happened to Nasrine Seraji, the previous lecturer in the series). One of Decq's projects currently underway is in Nanjing, China. 20 architects won contracts to design showcase homes in 2003 and by lottery were assigned the site they would use. Hers has 10 meter change in rocky elevation and she has named it Rolling Stone. Hers is housing made into a compound of pods. One is a glass-roofed tower with buttons to push to activate the stairs, and rooms, such as to bring the bed platform out of the wall, or pop the bathtub out. To go to the roof, one is on a floor which raises walls as well, limiting where you can go. She likes the ideals of sci-fi 60s, plastic and metal, shiny moulded objects. At one project being developed, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome the stations to wash your hands after the toilets are white monolithic cubes in a room of stainless steel walls, floors and ceiling. By motion sensors, when one moves ones hands over the cube, the cube glows red and water fountains up. On another part of the surface, motion detectors eject soap or hot air to blow dry. (The project is also from winning a design competition which her firm seems to be a lot of.) Many architects seem indifferent to color or bow to the purity of "neutrals" or delegate the authority for color to fashion trends. She shows color as an architectural element that can help a building user place himself or herself in space. Color is a dynamic like, and with, natural lighting. The goal of the color and the shape of space is to make the user aware of where they are in space and awake to the fact that they are somewhere in space. At this library the green is green on one direction of stairs, but appears yellow when going the other way because of the difference of indoor electric lights and the flooding of daylight. Primary red, vivid colors such as that green and black are the more common palate than the metal finishes and whites that had been popularly touted by many of the architects of the last couple years of the forum series. She mentioned in passing the psychology of shapes of space. In a long space, such as a corridor, one understands how to interact. The shape tells you the function, conveyance, and the action required, to move. In a square space such as a foyer, you understand intuitively that this is a place to gather. The space feels static. Ways of traveling through one of her buildings convene in a wedge-shape space. The stairs, the hall and the elevator are clustered to signal travelling. Too often in buildings, the location of elevators is a mystery and away from the stairs. This serves the building so that central mechanical shafts can be in the centre, not taking up potential window real estate and is equal distance from each end of the building however stairs are often on exterior walls. For users, such as a group, some of whom need to the stairs and some the elevator, this forces people to breaks stride socially. At the bottom of this architect dossier page you can see one of her projects, a glass office building that had a translucent sunscreen sheet (controlled by solar) that would come down a few feet from the glass skin of the building to keep indoor temperatures in check. Odile Decq and firm have also furniture for Domeau & Pérès , a sectional inspired by the "snake" seating, chairs and sofa two-sided setee that was made for a public space. She also was engaged in the process of learning how to make objects scaled smaller than the human body such as a Valli & Valli handle. She explained how she was stretched to think or ergonomics on a scale of not landscape but landscape of the hand and what would fit comfortably for male and female hands of different sizes. How something fits you allows you to enjoy or be indifferent to the object. Decq stated she likes to be surprised and likes the building to surprise people pleasantly as well. She finds that architects in general obey too much and we have to resist this conformity. | ||||
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