Modular Mountain Building
Architecture has always been anthropomorphically modular. Vitruvius informed us that each of the orders is based on a numerical proportion taken from the ratio of a man’s foot to his height (the Doric, 1:6); a woman’s foot to her height (the Ionic, or 1:8); or a maiden’s foot to her height (the Corinthian, 1:9). And, almost two millenia later, Le Corbusier generated his modulor system, which coordinated the proportions of the human body with the ever-expandable golden ratio. In each case, architecture was derivitive of the human module. The building was the body, the anthropmorphic module the cell. But what if that cell is damaged, malignant? Then the body dies. And, most of the time, building modules are damaged, are unhealthy. We chose to correct that. A healthy body has ample respiration, light, activity and circulation. A healthful building body, a healthful living cell must therefore do the same
In any system, the whole should be greater than the sum of its parts. If each part, each module, each cell is a healthy unit, and if its form facilitates dynamic connectivity and performance, than the whole of the building will necessarily exceed an arithmetic aggregation of its rooms. Its product will by asymptotic. That is was our hope for the Mountain Module building.
Each module optimizes respiration (air flow) and circulation (vertical and cardiovascular). When one module is added to another, they form a diagonal ascension, a slope that, if continued many stories, produces a midrise aggregation that is as much mountain as it is building. Residents each have their commodious ‘cave;’ residents and visitors have a continuous topography that can be climbed for exercise and the enjoyment of a ‘fair prospect;’ and the each city that develops a ‘range’ of Modular Mountain buildings suddenly attains a picturesque backdrop. The modernist social housing projects that are every city’s built blight can immediately be replaced with healthy, gratifying mountainscapes that are beneficial to viewers and users alike.
In any system, the whole should be greater than the sum of its parts. If each part, each module, each cell is a healthy unit, and if its form facilitates dynamic connectivity and performance, than the whole of the building will necessarily exceed an arithmetic aggregation of its rooms. Its product will by asymptotic. That is was our hope for the Mountain Module building.
Each module optimizes respiration (air flow) and circulation (vertical and cardiovascular). When one module is added to another, they form a diagonal ascension, a slope that, if continued many stories, produces a midrise aggregation that is as much mountain as it is building. Residents each have their commodious ‘cave;’ residents and visitors have a continuous topography that can be climbed for exercise and the enjoyment of a ‘fair prospect;’ and the each city that develops a ‘range’ of Modular Mountain buildings suddenly attains a picturesque backdrop. The modernist social housing projects that are every city’s built blight can immediately be replaced with healthy, gratifying mountainscapes that are beneficial to viewers and users alike.
