book-2

INTERIOR STRUCTURE 107▲ 6.6 FDA Laboratory, Irvine, California, USA, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership + HDR,2003. The perimeter wall of the library with its internal buttresses.contribute significantly to the simple beauty of the exquisite interiorstructure.At the FDA Laboratory, Irvine, California, surface modulation is takento another degree of intensity in the library. Not only does structuremodulate the interior wall areas, but due to its considerable depth italso plays a spatial subdivisional role around the perimeter of thespace. The library is semi-circular in plan, essentially enclosed withinreinforced concrete walls. Supporting the ends of beams that radiatefrom the centre of the semi-circle, deep cast-in-place buttresses projectinto the room (Fig. 6.6). They subdivide the wall circumference into sixequal segments, each of which has its own sense of partial enclosure. Adesk placed in each segment benefits from natural light through a centralslit window and a perimeter skylight above whose width matchesthe increased depth of the buttresses at roof level.Ceiling structure, together with inclined columns, considerably enrichesthe interior space of the Güell Colony Crypt, Barcelona. Rough hewnstone columns, precisely angled in accordance with Gaudí’s catenaryanalytical study, form an inner semi-circular arcade around the sanctuary.3 This centralized structure focuses attention on the sanctuary andthe particularly richly textured ceiling above it (Fig. 6.7). Shallow andaudaciously thin brick arches support a brick soffit. The constructionmethod, more common in timber than brick, has secondary membersbearing on top of, rather than in the same plane as, the primary members.