CHAPTER 2 | Form
Primary Solids
The use of simpler and regular shapes lengthened or turned on an axis to generate volumetric forms or solids that are easily recognizable.
A real life example of a primary solid is the airport in Japan. This cylinder building portrays an example of a primary circle extruded to become a cylinder. Solid refers to the 3-dimensionality of the shape. The building and shape is centralized on an axis.
Dimensional Transformation
Altering a form's dimension while retaining the same identification of the original form.
The building below portrays a dimensional transformation from the triangle as a primary solid to an irregular triangular solid. The pyramid is altered on the base by modifying the height or tilting.
Subtractive Forms
Subtracting a piece of the shapes volume is another way a form can be transformed. The shape can have the same initial identity or completely change to another family.
This building by Aytac Architects is a perfect example of subtractive form. The original form would have been a cube that has been extruded then changing the identity by subtracting areas. The subtraction is creating recessed balconies, window openings, and an entrance.
Additive Forms
Adding a another piece or volumetric shape is another way a form can be transformed. Depending on the number and sizes of the forms added determines whether shape retains its original identity or not. Spatial tension, edge-to-edge contact, face-to-face contact, and interlocking volumes are the possibilities of grouping forms together. The nature additive relationships can spatially organized by using centralized forms, linear forms, radial forms, clustered forms, and grid forms.
The Mehrabad House by Sarsayeh Architects defines additive forms in architecture. This grouping is put together by interlocking volumes of multiple extruded cubes. The spatial organization is a grouping sharing the same proximity of a common form called a cluster organization.
Formal Collision of Geometry
The collision or interpenetration of two forms with differing geometry's boundary. One of the forms will visually become dominant. There are a few examples of ways to collide geometry such as the circle and square collision, the rotated grid, articulation of form, edges and corners, and surfaces.
The new design museum in London by OMA, Allies and Morrison, and John Pawson is an example of colliding geometry. A pyramid is centralized by the dominant rectangular cube.
Forms in Art
Solid Form
"Pinter has turned towards spaces with a strong historical and cultural connotation, from which he draws out strata of time that he fits together and superimposes, combining different genres in the development of his works."
-Klaus Pinter
Subtractive Form
"Contributed large-scale cardboard wall reliefs and jaunty abstract sculptures—their swooping, layered planes at once jazzy, menacing and urbane—that appeared to owe much to 1960s predecessors like Lee Bontecou, John Chamberlain and Robert Rauschenberg."
-Florian Baudrexel
Additive Form
"investigates the places between the real and the imagined."
-Michael Weisskoeppel
Photo Citation
Pinterest : les photos déco les plus épinglées en avril 2015. (2015, April 30). Retrieved May 09, 2017,
from http://www.cotemaison.fr/on-aime/diaporama/pinterest-les-photos-deco-les-plus-epinglees-en-avril-2015_24554.html
The New Design Museum in London. (n.d.). Retrieved May 09, 2017, from http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/12104-the-new-design-museum-in-london
Phony. (2014, November 17). Retrieved May 09, 2017, from http://florianbaudrexel.com/phony/
Klaus Pinter - galerie piece unique - Rotor. (n.d.). Retrieved May 09, 2017, from http://galerie-pieceunique.com/exhibitions/klaus-pinter/
Vallonlines, 2015. Michael Weisskoeppel. (n.d.). Retrieved May 09, 2017, from https://www.twfineart.com/collections/artist-michael-weisskoeppel/products/vallonlines-2015-michael-weisskoeppel
Gallery of Apartman 18 / Aytac Architects - 7. (n.d.). Retrieved May 09, 2017, from http://www.archdaily.com/773326/apartman-18-aytac-architects/55efaac4e58eceb6650000c2-apartman-18-aytac-architects-photo
TOKYO ezine. (n.d.). Retrieved May 09, 2017, from http://www.tokyoezine.com/2011/04/19/haneda-airport-gateway-from-the-world-to-Tokyo/
Gallery of Mehrabad House / Sarsayeh Architectural Office - 1. (n.d.). Retrieved May 09, 2017, from http://www.archdaily.com/801759/mehrabad-house-sarsayeh-architectural-office/585764c5e58ecebf57000517-mehrabad-house-sarsayeh-architectural-office-photo
Ching, F. D. (2014). Architecture: Form, Space, and Order, 4th Edition. John Wiley & Sons.