Construction Innovation

Sala House: Wooden post and beam, load bearing structural frame combined with red and grey cast concrete exterior walls

1982

Construction System, Combination of Timber Framework and Concrete

Timber frame and concrete combination system: the vertical loads are taken by the interior post-and-beam system system, where columns and beams are simply pinned together by invinsible steel pins. All shear forces are taken by a one and a half inch concrete shell outer wall, which acts as a shell which ties the building together. The exterior concrete shell is applied by pouring alternating colored strips in one and two foot lifts. Sandwiched between the two is a layer of foam insulation. The interior pine-paneled walls are attached to the post-and-beam frame.

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, Gary Black

Content of

Project

Sala House 1981 to 1983

700 Hillside, 94706, Albany, CA, U.S.A.

Residential, Realized , Construction completed in Jun-1983

Client:

Mr. & Mrs. Andre and Anna Sala

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Gary Black, Bob Smith, David Turtle, Seth Wachtel, Andre Sala

Contractor:

Center for Environmetal Structure

Project cost:

$180.000

Design and construction process:

1) Personal vision: C.E.S. worked with the Sala family to gain an understanding of their needs and to derive from them a deep and personal vision of their house. 2) Layout on the site: several sessions on the site, laying out the exterior edges of the house volume along with outside courtyards, completed by C.E.S. staff working with the Salas. The interior rooms of the ground floor were also laid out on the site. 3) Preparation of drawings: At the end of the layout process it was possible for C.E.S. to prepare a set of drawings for the building permit from the City of Albany. 4) Construction commences and design continues; C.E.S. was the general contractor, and so the design process which had been begun in the first phase was carried through the construction phase, with many crucial on-site design decisions being made weekly, even daily, while the house was under construction. 5) Finishing touches: Hand-painted woodwork, color, details, furnishings, were done by C.E.S. staff and construction crews.

Project stages:

Pattern language for the project by clients and C.E.S. Layout on the site by clients and C.E.S. Design Development and Building Permit drawings done after layout Use of full scale mock-ups Direct Construction management along with on-site design decis

Three-story tower, 20 feet by 20 feet in plan on each floor, on a wooded, sloping site. The interior structure of the house is wood post and beam with pine panelling and hand-painted surfaces, and the exterior is a red ...

Contents

Drawings

The Sala House: Wooden post and beam, load bearing structural frame combined with red and grey cast concrete exterior walls 01/01/1982

Presentation Drawing, Axonometric, Section

Designers:

Christopher Alexander, Gary Black, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Medium:

Original on Vellum

Two drawings illustrating the construction system. The axonometric combines the three main stages of construction; on its top part the wooden post and beam frame with the wall infills, ready for the pour; on its middle part the formwork for ...

Photographs

Sala House: Wooden post and beam, load bearing structural frame combined with red and grey cast concrete exterior walls - Photographs 01/07/1983

Exterior View, Interior View

Photographer:

Mark Darley/Esto, Albany, CA, U.S.A.

Source:

Digital

Characteristics:

Color

Two photographs of the house, juxtaposing the wood-concrete combined construction system; one of the exterior concrete walls and the other of the interior with the wooden cladding and the visible structural frame.

References

Scientific Research

Innovative Construction Systems, Techniques and Materials

Areas of focus:

Design and Building Process

Guiding idea:

Construction Innovation

One of the main topics of research, included in every building project, was to identify, early on in the design process, the material and techniques of construction. This would re-establish building as an art, and allow rapid shaping and adaptation, ...

Books

The Nature of Order - An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe. Book Three - A Vision of a Living World 2005

Authors:

Christopher Alexander

Publisher:

The Center for Environmental Structure Publishing, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

No of pages:

697 pp

“A Vision of a Living World”, the third volume of “The Nature of Order” series, presents, for the first time, a full spectrum of Alexander’s and CES built and unbuilt works. The book describes hundreds of buildings, plans, neighborhoods, drawings, ...

Book Chapters

Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 5A / Wood and Concrete Combinations

Publication,

Book title:

The Nature of Order – An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe.
Book Three – A Vision of a Living World

Pages:

533-537

Articles

Christopher Alexander and Contemporary Architecture 01/08/1993

Publication, Article

Authors:

Ingrid Fiksdahl-King

Published in:

A+U Architecture and Urbanism - Special Issue, pp. 7-151

Publisher:

A+U Publishing Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

Language:

Japanese, English

Drawings

Sala House: Presentation Drawings - Second and Third Floor Plans with special design and construction elements 01/01/1982

Architectural Design, Project, Presentation Drawing, Floor Plan, Details

Designers:

Christopher Alexander, Gary Black, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Medium:

Original on Vellum

Size:

18"x24"

Second and third floor plans and perspectives of special features of interior and exterior elements: concrete balustrade, door, alcove, exterior concrete wall construction system .