Blog 2
-The Standard Hotel had a beautiful ceramic wall separator. It was a casted material and utilized into the shape they wanted, it was not a fire ceramic. The ceramic was actually casted into units then assembled together, and has a steal frame holding it in place. They are stacked and has a binding compound that allows the units to stick together. It is used primarily as a decorative element. However the way the ceramic was molded into this beautiful shape really intrigued me.
-There is a wall at the Standard Hotel which is a cleft cut stone (Basalt, type of slate) . The stone is very course.
^(you can see how crooked it is, it isn’t cut evenly, you cannot make a straight line when it is cleft cut.
-The walls at the Whitney are “on site concrete”. They created a mold using ply wood to get the same of the column they wanted, and poured the concrete into it. Once it cured they took the wooden panels off. Then sanded it down. It is very well worked concrete.
-The reception desk at the IAC building is very beautifully made. It has 8 layers of 1/4″ glass. The layers are glued together. They have a milky texture because it was sand blasted. The top surface of the stack has a clear polish.
-At 100 11th ave, building, there was a very beautiful use of glass, where the floor was made out of glass blocks inserted into the ground, where there is a beautiful reflection of light. Then they used channeled glass on the walls, where they were installed side by side. There is a blue tint to it which makes the glass more translucent rather than transparent. It is very beautiful the way they used 2 different types of glass to create different lighting reflections.
(Channeled glass)
(Block glass)
-The apples store on 14th st and 9th avenue used metal in a very intelligent way. It is Anodized, which is very good because it means it is not oxidized. It was added to a column in the store, which is only about 1/8th” thick however it surrounded regular columns so it is mainly used as an aesthetic, however the way it captures and reflects light really heightens the aura of the space.
I wanted to talk about the relationship between the cleft cut stone and the ceramic room seperator as they are both at the standard hotel and they are placed directly opposite each other, and can be very interestingly contrasted. as the difference between them is that the stone is very ridge and its a natural material from the ground, it is placed perfectly however each rock is not cut straight so that contradicts each other. Then across the room is the ceramic room separator where the ceramics are perfectly smooth as they are hand made and perfectly molded into the shape designed by the artist. The stone is the ridged dark grey while the ceramic was painted white. When you look at each imagine individually you would think that they are 2 completely different interiors, however when you imagine them placed side by side it creates a beautiful effect.
(Cleft cut stone)
(ceramic room separator)
