Model & Mock-up

The Upham House: Hand-made, painted and glazed lily tiles; plaster mold

01/01/1991

Construction Mold

A plaster mold of a lily flower pattern, made for casting low relief ceramic tiles to be embedded in the stem wall of the house foundation.

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, Randall Schmidt, Lizabeth Chester, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA

Medium:

Array

Size:

8 5/8x11 1/4"

Scale:

1'=1'

Content of

Construction Innovation

Upham House: Hand-made, painted and glazed lily tiles 1991

Work of Art for Project, Hand-made Tilework

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, Randall Schmidt, Lizabeth Chester

Low relief clay tiles produced from the plaster mold of the first successful original tile; four different variations of color combinations were tested on the site. The ones embedded in the stem wall of the foundation were the yellow lily ...

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

House for Chris Upham and Stephanie Upham 1989 to 1994

37 Poppy Lane, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1994

Client:

Mr. & Mrs. Christopher and Stephanie Upham

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Randall Schmidt, Carl Lindberg, Gary Black, James Maguire

Contractor:

Center for Environmetal Structure

Project cost:

$439,000

Project stages:

Layout on the site by clients and C.E.S. Use of full scale mock-ups Design Development and Building Permit drawings done after layout Direct construction management and on-site design decisions

Two-story family house, with 2,400 square feet floor area, designed with the participation of the clients. The construction of a massive 15 high foot high retaining wall and sewer reconstruction caused by unusual hill condition added $96,000 to the house ...

Photographs