Famous Architect’s building:
Application of Architectural and Structural materials
Reflection
Throughout this project, I feel interesting to learn about all these materials used in the construction. I learnt to differentiate the architectural and structural materials by understanding their properties, concepts used, and ideas. Architectural materials are mostly used to furnish the building, giving the building an interesting look and facade whereas structural materials are used to support the building, mainly the primary materials such as concrete and rebar. There are a few issues faced when doing the research. I needed to clearly understand the purpose of the building in order to know the concept and ideas of these selected materials. Besides, analysing the materials is also another challenge because I could only analyse the materials through online photos as some materials are not stated in the articles. Overall, this project is a great opportunity for me to study different types of materials. In addition, analysing materials through images develop my knowledge of construction materials.
Poly Grand Theatre
I have selected Tadao Ando's building, Poly Grand Theatre, which is located in Shanghai, China as my case study. Poly Grand Theatre has a dull exterior look covered with an interesting facade, a concrete facade protected by an aluminium curtain wall. The main structural material is concrete, a material that is favoured by Tadao Ando. Many architectural materials can be found when looking deep into the building, such as aluminium, timber, glass, plasterboard, and last but not least is the stone tile. Tadao Ando used these repeated materials to design this theatre, making it becomes an amazing and explorable theatre.