Photograph

C.E.S. Office – Martinez House: Terrazzo floor with squares, diamonds and crosses – Photographs

01/01/1984

Interior View

Photograph of the finished floor in the main room.

Photographer:

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

Source:

Digital

Characteristics:

Color

Content of

Construction Innovation

C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Terrazzo floor with squares, diamonds and crosses 1984

Work of Art for Project, Terrazzo Work

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, Eleni Coromvli

Red, yellow and blue polished terrazzo floor with squares, diamonds and crosses made on a 400 sq. ft of a living room; with styrofoam lost form technique.

References

Scientific Research

Ornament and Function as Products of Unfolding

Areas of focus:

Design and Building Process

Guiding idea:

Structure Preserving Transformations

Ornament arises as part of the design process, when a person is making and seeks to embellish this "something" while making it. It arises as a result of the latent centers in the uncompleted thing requiring still more centers, requiring ...

Projects

C.E.S. Office - Martinez House 1977 to 1984

4207 Arthur Road, 94553, Martinez, CA, U.S.A.

Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1984

Client:

Center for Environmetal Structure - C.E.S. Directors

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Jonathan Fefferman, Harissos Tsiringas, Gary Black, David Dacus, Olasheni Agbabiaka

Contractor:

Center for Environmetal Structure

Project cost:

$120,000

Project stages:

Layout on the site by C.E.S. Design Development and Building Permit drawings done after layout Direct construction management and on-site design decisions Users involved in the construction Innovative construction methods

The second building completed on the Martinez site, was a 2,000 square feet house. A gunite all-concrete building as well, it was the first sizable and fully functional project in which C.E.S. used gunite, while applying all permit and specification ...

Models & Mock-ups

C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Terrazzo floor with squares, diamonds and crosses; paper mock-up #6 01/01/1984

Construction Innovation, Mock-up

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, Eleni Coromvli, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA

Medium:

Array

Size:

52 1/2"x82 3/4"

Scale:

1'=1'

Full-scale paper mock-up with gouache paint, depicting the alternative finally used for the terrazzo floor of the main room — a geometric pattern composed by large red squares diagonally placed, surrounded by yellow stripes with blue crosses.