Sala House: Concrete bracket and its formwork – Photographs

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, ...

Projects

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 ...

Public Events

Locus Manifesto-exposition "Re-enchant the World: Architecture and the City facing Society´s Transitions" 21/05/2014 to 06/10/2014

The Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris, France

Exhibition

C.E.S. staff:

Maggie Moore, Artemis Anninou, Lily Alexander

Organized by:

LOCUS Foundation & Cité de l'Architecture & du Patrimoine - Marie-Hélène Contal, Curator

The 40 architects already awarded the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture participated and exhibited their works. The exhibition was on international touring until 2016. Christopher Alexander’s participation included the extensive presentation of the Mexicali project in the “Saving the People’s Habitat” ...

Visual & Audio Materials

Locus Manifesto-exposition: CES presented the construction innovation on the use of simple and chip formwork techniques for concrete works, as applied in the Sala House 30/05/2014

Public Event, Visual, Exhibition Board

Created by:

Lily Alexander, Artemis Anninou, Maggie Moore, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

One board in Science Cabinet #1 of the exhibit, illustrating two examples of an experimental use of molds for shaping concrete, namely of a concrete bracket and a balustrade.

Drawings

The Sala House: Concrete bracket and its formwork - Presentation Drawings 01/01/1982

Construction Innovation, Presentation Drawing, Details

Designers:

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

Medium:

Original on Vellum

Two drawings, one a detail of the concrete bracket formwork and the other a partial wall elevation focusing on the bay window and the bracket as support of its slab.