MICHAEL GRAVES1934-2015

INFLUENCES• GRAVES CONTINUES TO TURN TO

ARCHITECTURE ITSELF FOR HIS INSPIRATION.

• HE HAS A DEEP INTEREST IN EXISTING ARCHITECTURE :- ANCIENT, NEO-

CLASSICAL, MODERN - & DERIVES PLEASURE FROM REINTERPRETING IT’S FORMS & COMPOSITIONS.

• HE BELIEF IN TO THE BASIC PINCIPLE THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ORIGINAL IDEA BUT THAT EVERYTHING ORIGINAL IS BASED ON THE REWORKING OF WHAT ALREADY EXISTS.

Michael Graves, Team Disney – The Eisner Building, 1991

Michael Graves,

Portland Public Services Building, 1982.

DENVER CENTRAL LIBRARY

• For a post-modern building, the interior of the library is fairly conservative when it comes to the decorative aesthetics.

• Most of the spaces appear as traditional library spaces composed of natural wood evoking a sense of grandeur.

• One begins to understand the abstracted colonnades, vaulting, and colorful painting creating more of a fun learning environment rather than a stark, serious library space.

FACADES ARE SYMMETRICAL & LINEARITY BROKEN BY ADDING VERTICAL BANDS OF COLORS & WINDOWS.

• The Denver Central Library may be one of the first library’s to function more than just a library.

• In addition to the extensive literary collections, the library functions as a community gathering space consisting of multipurpose rooms, meeting facilities, shops, a café, and a special “museum-like” collection.

• FACADES ARE SYMMETRICAL & LINEARITY BROKEN

BY ADDING VERTICAL BANDS OF COLORS & WINDOWS• SYMMETRIAL FAÇADE• GEOMETRICAL SHAPES USED ARE

SYMMETRICAL AND FINISHED AS WELL• REPEATING 2-D PATTERNS , USED FOR

WINDOWS• MICHAEL GRAVES USES GEOMETRIC SHAPES

TO MAKE HIS BUILDING LOOK INTERESTING.

HUMANA BUILDING

PLACE : LOUISVILLE,KENTUCKY,HUMANA DESIGN STARTED :1982

DESIGN COMPLETED:1985 STRUCTURE MATERIAL USED: STEEL FRAME & GRANITE

NO. OF STORIES : 26

• GRAVES STRATEGY HAS BEEN “TO INTERNALIZE THE EVENTS OF THE BUILDING”, IDENTIFYING PARTICULAR COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAM THAT CAN BE GIVEN FORMAL EMPHASIS.

• WHETHER THE EMPHASIS OF THE BUILDING IS PRIMARILY HORIZONTAL OR VERTICAL, A HIERARCHIAL ROUTE IS ESTABLISHED THROUGH THE REPETITIVE SPACES.

• RELATIONSHIP B/W INDOORS OR OUTDOORS BY “PUSHING THE WALL AS FAR OUT AS IT CAN GET TO MAKE A BAY WINDOW THAT GRABS THE LIGHT” OR BY CARVING SOMETHING OUT OF THE FACE OF THE BUILDING SO PEOPLE CAN LITERALLY GO OUTSIDE.

• Richly coloured composition made up of abstract, highly personal variations on classical forms.

• It is a kind of collage of modernist and classical elements, put together in a way that is like neither the modernist skyscrapers.

TWENTY-FIFTH FLOOR TERRACE

Lobby is beautifully detailed, with a number of different kinds and colours of marble, combined deftly enough to provide visual variety at no cost to overall coherence.