“The devil is in the detail”- a phrase that I realise will be consistently applied to this building.
Earthworks
Last week I had two small earthmoving machines arrive on site to clear and prepare the site for builder for a few hours, not the frantic weeks of activity when the hotel platform was cut last year. The machines, using laser technology to guide them with pinpoint accuracy, shaved the topsoil from the upper part of the site. As I watched the machines work it became increasingly apparent that whilst the building at the ocean end is almost 5m out of the ground, house will touch the earth lightly.
Rather than taking a typical approach, possibly a compromise in my opinion where the earthworks are set out to either sink the building into the landscape by cutting into the upper contours or by blending with a compromise with a bit here and there till the form neither sits in or out but more uncomfortable, the Architects have committed themselves to a height above datum that existed already to become finished level and then let the building evolve from that contour line. (This approach of working with the contours is very evident in the hotel platform that has already been cut).
I believe as the building platform takes shape over the nest few months that decision to run the floor straight into the landscape will set about making the transition from outdoor to indoor space seamless. Whilst as you move around inside the building a feeling of building whose weight is substantial, yet should give the appearance of resting gently on the landscape will become apparent to the viewer, as the land falls away beneath the building.
Attached are a couple of images of the earthworks, the reader should away that the vertical rise from where I took these photos from one of the building to the other with the change in level being circa 2.6 metres. The shift in the vertical when standing outside remains deceptive to me. It will be interesting to look at the building from this perspective as it becomes a built form.
Mark
Last week I had two small earthmoving machines arrive on site to clear and prepare the site for builder for a few hours, not the frantic weeks of activity when the hotel platform was cut last year. The machines, using laser technology to guide them with pinpoint accuracy, shaved the topsoil from the upper part of the site. As I watched the machines work it became increasingly apparent that whilst the building at the ocean end is almost 5m out of the ground, house will touch the earth lightly.
Rather than taking a typical approach, possibly a compromise in my opinion where the earthworks are set out to either sink the building into the landscape by cutting into the upper contours or by blending with a compromise with a bit here and there till the form neither sits in or out but more uncomfortable, the Architects have committed themselves to a height above datum that existed already to become finished level and then let the building evolve from that contour line. (This approach of working with the contours is very evident in the hotel platform that has already been cut).
I believe as the building platform takes shape over the nest few months that decision to run the floor straight into the landscape will set about making the transition from outdoor to indoor space seamless. Whilst as you move around inside the building a feeling of building whose weight is substantial, yet should give the appearance of resting gently on the landscape will become apparent to the viewer, as the land falls away beneath the building.
Attached are a couple of images of the earthworks, the reader should away that the vertical rise from where I took these photos from one of the building to the other with the change in level being circa 2.6 metres. The shift in the vertical when standing outside remains deceptive to me. It will be interesting to look at the building from this perspective as it becomes a built form.
Mark
posted by Moonlight Head at 8:24 pm
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