For soft materials, carpet is the most satisfactory—for sitting, lying, and being close to the ground. We doubt that an improvement can be made on it—in fact we guess that if a substitute is used instead, it will eventually get carpeted over, anyway. This means that the areas which are going to be carpeted might as well have a cheap subfloor with matting laid wall to wall.
To emphasize the two zones, and to promote the taking off and on of shoes from one zone to the next, we suggest that there be a step up or a step down between the zones. This will help tremendously in keeping each zone “pure,” and it is sure to help the activities in each zone.
Therefore:
Zone the house, or building, into two kinds of zones: public zones, and private or more intimate zones. Use hard materials like waxed, red polished concrete, tiles, or hardwood in the public zones. In the more intimate zone, use an underfloor of soft materials, like felt, cheap nylon carpet, or straw matting, and cover it with cloths, and pillows, and carpets, and tapestries. Make a clearly marked edge between the two—perhaps even a step—so that people can take their shoes off when they pass from the public to the intimate.
 |
| entrance for shoeS |
❖ *J* ❖
On the hard floor, you can use the same floor as you use on outdoor paths and terraces—hand fired brick and tile—soft tile and brick (248). On the soft intimate floors, use materials and cloths that are rich in ornament and color—ornament (249),
WARM COLORS (250). . . .
1092
| 234 LAPPED outside walls |
|---|
 |
1093
. . . this pattern finishes the wall membranes (218), and roof vaults (220). It defines the character of their outside surfaces.
The main function of a building’s outside wall is to keep weather out. It can only do this if the materials are joined in such a way that they cooperate to make impervious joints.
At the same time, the wall must be easy to maintain; and give the people outside some chance of relating to it.
None of these functions can be very well managed by great sheets of impervious material. These sheets, always in the same plane, have tremendous problems at the joints. They require highly complex, sophisticated gaskets and seals, and, in the end, it is these seals and joints which fail.
Consider a variety of natural organisms: trees, fish, animals. Broadly speaking, their outside coats are rough, and made of large numbers of similar but not identical elements. And these elements are placed so that they often overlap: the scales of a fish, the fur of an animal, the crinkling of natural skin, the bark of a tree. All these coats are made to be impervious and easy to repair.
In simple technologies, buildings follow suit. Lapped boards, shingles, hung tiles, thatch, are all examples. Even stone and brick though in one plane, are still in a sense lapped internally to prevent cracks which run all the way through. And all of these walls are made of many small elements, so that individual pieces can be replaced as they are damaged or wear out.
Bear in mind then, as you choose an exterior wall finish, that it should be a material which can be easily lapped against the weather, which is made of elements that are easy to repair locally, and which therefore can be maintained piecemeal, indefinitely. And of course, whatever you choose, make it a surface which invites you to touch it and lean up against it.
In making our filled lightweight concrete structures, we have
1094
| 234 lapped outside walls |
|---|
 |
| The internal structure of an imaginary lap-ped material. |
used lapped boards as the exterior formwork for the lightweight concrete fill. And it is, of course, possible to use many other kinds of external cladding if they are available and if one can afford them. Slate, corrugated iron, ceramic tiles will produce excellent shingled wall claddings, and can all be placed in such a way as to provide exterior formwork for the pouring of a wall. It is also conceivable (though we have no evidence for it), that scientists might be able to create an oriented material whose internal crystal or fiber structure is in effect “lapped,” because all the split lines run diagonally outward and downward.
Therefore:
Build up the exterior wall surface with materials that are lapped against the weather: either “internally lapped,” like exterior plaster, or more literally lapped, like shingles and boards and tiles. In either case, choose a material that is easy to repair in little patches, inexpensively, so that little by little, the wall can be maintained in good condition indefinitely.
| lapped elements |
|---|
 |
1095
| 12 COMMUNITY OF 7OOO* |
|---|
 |
7°
| 235 SOFT INSIDE walls* |
|---|
 |
1096
. . . and this pattern finishes the inner surface of the wall membranes (218), and the under surface of floor-ceiling vaults (219). If it is possible to use a soft materia] for the inner sheet of the wall membrane, then the wall will have the right character built in from the beginning.
*4* •'I**
A wall which is too hard or too cold or too solid is unpleasant to touch; it makes decoration impossible, and creates hollow echoes.
A very good material is soft white gypsum plaster. It is warm in color (even though white), warm to the touch, soft enough to take tacks and nails and hooks, easy to repair, and makes a mellow sound, because its sound absorption capacity is reasonably high.
However, cement plaster, though only slightly different—and even confused with gypsum plaster—is opposite in all of these respects. It is too hard to nail into comfortably; it is cold and hard and rough to the touch; it has very low absorption acoustically—that is, very high reflectance—which creates a harsh, hollow sound; and it is relatively hard to repair, because once a crack forms in it, it is hard to make a repair that is homogeneous witli the original.
In general, we have found that modern construction has gone more and more toward materials for inside walls that are hard and smooth. This is partly an effort to make buildings clean and impervious to human wear. But it is also because the kinds of materials used today are machine made—each piece perfect and exactly the same.
Buildings made of these flawless, hard and smooth surfaces leave us totally unrelated to them. We tend to stay away from them not only because they are psychologically strange, but because in fact they are physically uncomfortable to lean against; they have no give; they don’t respond to us.
1097
CONSTRUCTION
The solution to the problem lies in the following:
1. Gypsum plaster as opposed to cement plaster. Soft baked tiles as opposed to hard fired ones. When materials are porous and low in density they are generally softer and warmer to the touch.
2. Use materials which are granular and have natural texture, and which can be used in small pieces, or in such a way that there is repetition of the same small element. Walls finished in wood have the quality—the wood itself has texture; boards repeat it at a larger scale. Plaster has this character when it is hand finished. First there is the granular quality of the plaster and then the larger texture created by the motion of the human hand.
One of the most beautiful versions of this pattern is the one used in Indian village houses. The walls are plastered, by hand, with a mixture of cow dung and mud, which dries to a beautiful soft finish and shows the five fingers of the plasterer’s hand all over the walls.