The Wormser Dom’s Sanctuary Interior was a gift to the cathedral St. Peter of Worms for its 1000th birthday. It is an important piece of German history and for the last 50 or so years has kept a wooden altar and finally decided to change it in 2018. This was Heringer’s first project in Germany, and she won the contest the cathedral held among architects to build it.

This project is different than the buildings I have covered in the first three posts, as it was just an altar. She chose to construct the altar from earth and to be built by the community. Everyone was invited to help build the altar and had a part in a project that would be used for generations. She did this with the idea that with all the gold and stones in the church the altar shouldn’t be totally eye catching and wanted to build a sense of community. This final architectural piece I’m covering is a truly unique piece and shows more of who Heringer is as an architect. She loves to incorporate the community, utilize natural and local building resources, and minimal environmental impact.

The METI Handmade School aims to develop knowledge and skills within the local population and utilize locally available resources. This school is in Dinjapur, Bangladesh and wants to provide a free and open form of learning to schoolchildren and trainees. It utilizes mud and bamboo and used local labor. These are all common themes in Heringers architecture.

The ground floor utilizes thick earth walls, containing three classrooms. In contrast, the upper floor is light and open utilizing bamboo walls and views of the surroundings. This is the third building of Heringer’s I’ve analyzed and definitely is showing a trend in her style. All of her buildings utilize local labor and materials providing a low to non-existent carbon footprint and incorporates local building styles and traditions.

Three Hostels in Baoxi is a collection of hostels in a village in China. The intent of the project was to show that safe, beautiful, and humane architecture can be made with bamboo.These hostels utilized local labor to weave bamboo and use rammed earth. The costs were minimal compared to modern costs and left the majority of projects with the local community.

These hostels- named the Dragon, the Nightingale, and the Peacock- are all built with different designs, but each including a weaved bamboo outside with a mud and stone core. They utilize fire to heat water and inside the core when necessary, where the facility units, stairs, and an attached sleeping unit is. The woven bamboo outside provides a nightshade style look. These hostels are another unique way that Heringer has utilized local labor with natural building resources, providing an excellent example of a sustainable building.

Disneyland, designed by Walt Disney opened July 17th, 1955 Anaheim  California. Disneyland lets millions of people a day come in and experience its amazing attractions and view its beautiful one of a kind views. Disneyland is one of the larges theme parks consisting of 85 acres of attractions and fun.

Disneyland is known to be the happiest place on earth. I have been to Disneyland over 12 times now and every time I have gone it has been just as fun as the first time. It has been a place that i feel like a little kid again and place i can forget about all my issues in life, let go and just have fun.  Disneyland reminds me I am and can constantly grow as a person. Considering Disneyland started with only 15 attractions and now has 51 attractions.

Disneyland had brought me more joy than any place in the world. It reminds me that no matter what is going on in my life there is always something bigger than me, something bigger out there.  Disneyland is a reminder to be happy cause whatever i am going through i will get through it and it will pass.

The Urban Architect’s held an international art museum competition that was held in Budapest.  As you can see from the picture above, the park is built next to water.  The water is meant to counter the environment of the park.  Its purpose is to take away the stress of the city for its visitors.  It is a buffer to bring together the city and the architecture.  It has a similar style to my first blog post discussing the science museum by Mari Ito.

There are two “wings” on either side; one of the pond side and the other on the park side.  People can move and walk on top of the “wings” from either side of the park.  They are also semi-transparent so they do not take away from landscape.  There are entrances that lead you inside of the “wings,” where people can eat, read, or relax while enjoying the forest and nature surrounding you.

The underground portion has a controlled environment including, temperature, humidity, and light.  In the basement, there is an “underground forest” that connects the visitors both physically and visually to the park.

The Nasushiobara City Library is located in the Kuroiso district of Nasushiobara in Tochigi, Japan.  This building is still under construction.  A competition was held to design a multipurpose facility that also consisted of a library and local government offices.

The first floor will be used mainly by the public, where the visitors can expand their knowledge or spend time with friends or family.  The second floor will be used to house the library services.

There are also different areas on the land of the city library.  There is the main area (Activity area) where you learn and expand your knowledge, “Magazine Street” where community members go through on a daily basis and allows them to visit the library easily, “Calmness” which is a quiet area where visitors can relax, “Forest Pocket” which allows visitors to be surrounded by nature, and finally the “Station Square” which is an open area where visitors can walk around.  This library provides a centralized location where people can feel as if they are in different locations and can enjoy the many different aspects of the area.  This is why the Nasushiobara City Library is known as “a library in the heart of a community.”

The HYH House in Ota-ku, Tokyo in a quiet residential area that was designed by Urban Architects (UAo).  This house has a total floor area of 161.35 square-meters and is an open-concept building.  Similarly to the Frank Lloyd Wright House, the HYH House’s windows were carefully placed for the viewer to observe the outside landscape, while at the same time preventing outsiders from viewing the inside of the house.

Another thing that is interesting about this house is that noise travels far within this house.  It was designed to reflect the natural environment using acoustics.  The building was designed to house a family, where you could hear anyone from anywhere inside the house.

In Komatsu, Japan, Mari Ito designed this 6,063 square-meter science museum in 2013.  The museum is created using curved concrete covered in grass to get the illusion of four rolling hills.  Visitor’s are even able to roam and explore these man-made grass hills.  Ito’s plan was to integrate landscape and architecture into one central location.  It even serves as a public park to the city of Komatsu.

The reinforced concrete provides support for the building and was left exposed internally and externally.  This image below shows the underside of one of the rolling hills.  Because of the grass on the rooftop, there is additional insulation that is provided throughout the building. The elements of the building allow for natural light, shade, protection from the elements, and proper drainage.  As Ito said while designing the building, “the rooftop curve serves as a sweeping canopy controlling light and also drains rain water into a reservoir for planting irrigation.”  This allows the building to be more efficient and use less resources than most; making it an environmentally-friendly building.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which was originally known as the Museum of Non-Objective Art, has come to be known as one of the most iconic yet unusual buildings in all of New York. This museum is located on some prime real estate; 5th avenue right across from Central Park. The timing of the construction of this building is even unusual in the sense that the idea of the building was done in 1945 but the actual construction of the building did not finish until nearly 1959. This delay is thought to be because of the various wars that went on at the time.

This building pushes boundaries by creating a circular building that is made out of the heavy material of concrete.  Upon entry, one would glance up and notice the glass dome at the very top of the building. This building holds six floors of art and exhibits that are connected by one continuous, winding ramp. The building is part of the art, expanding the exhibit to include the building itself. While a good idea, many artists complained that their art was not being displayed in the way that it was intended to be seen because of the sloping walls. This was the last project built by Wright and was opened for business just six months after his death. 

Fallingwater is arguably the most famous of Wright’s pieces of work because of how highly praised and admired it has been over the years. Not only was it admired by the residences and visitors, but the American Institute of Architects actually named this residence as the “best all-time work of American architecture”.

This house was designed for his friend, Edgar Kaufmann, who requested a holiday home for him and his family. The building began to undergo construction in 1935 and was completed just three years later. Kaufmann requested for the home to face the Bear Run Nature Reserve Waterfall, but Wright outdid his request by actually planting the house on the landmark itself. This house became part of the natural scene because of its natural color palette and its low, horizontal framework. Wright wanted to physically and spiritually embrace the natural world into the daring and evolutionary construction of “the House over the Waterfall”. This residence eventually opened as a museum in 1964.