Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
GERMAN DETAIL BOOK الیکا خفاف شریف 39928460202147 page 20 to 26 -…
GERMAN DETAIL BOOK
الیکا خفاف شریف
39928460202147
page 20 to 26
In the province of Rajasthan in northem India,important decisions were taken only afterconsulting the position of the stars.
He therefore had the instruments reproduced toa large scale in built form. Since the modelsfrom the Islamic world on which these werebased have mostly been destroyed, JaiSingh's observatories are among the finestsurviving examples of this kind of structure.
geometrical form he chosefor the layout of his city - three times threesquares - is a Hindu figure representing thecosmos.
The layout isdominated by the bold diagonal of the GreatSamrat Yantra ("the most important instru-ment").
The gnomon stands in a sunken area andrises to a height of 27.36 m above groundlevel. Its hypotenuse is parallel to the earth'saxis.
The lateral thrust of the steeplyrising walls is restrained at the ends by tower-like structures that house further instruments
The structures are built in local stone rubbleand bricks jointed in lime mortar. Great accu-racy was required in the construction, but de-viations of up to 15 cm could be levelled outwith layers of lime plaster. An ingenious sys-tem of ducts ensured adequate drainage ofthe foundations, even during the monsoon.
But the rajah's contacts with Europefailed to enlighten him about earlier discove-ries made by Copernicus and Kepler.Theinstruments, therefore, bear witness to a con-servative, statio view of the world. Jai Singhnever ceased to believe that the sun revolvedabout the earth.
By this time, however, itwas not the function of the complex that in-terested Western observers, but its sculpturalappearance and architectural form.
Almost all materials experience a renaissancefrom time to time, brought about by newtrends or developments and improved tech-nology.
Thebrick tradition has always been cultivatedmore intensely in northem Germany than inthe south; and in the Netherlands, one hearsof gangs of bricklayers who can lay facingsquickly and precisely at a reasonable cost.
The revitalization that certain materials haveundergone, often as a result of industrializedforms of production, has led to a greaterawareness of their potential application.
Someplanners have identified themselves with spe-cific materials to such an extent that they haveinvented new techniques and tricks in orderto.be able to use "their" materials in ever newsituations. There are architects who have de-voted almost their entire ceuvre to a singlematerial.
"Brickwork à la Louis Kahn" might be a spon-taneous reaction to that, and one couldperhaps add the names of Fritz Schumacherand Fritz Höger to the list.
Today, however, a great sigh goes throughthe architectural profession at the mention ofthe word "brickwork".
thatlarge spans involve problematic laws of con-struction - not only for planners, but also forthe users? During the planning of the Estersand Lange houses in Krefeld, Mies van derRohe's engineer Ernst Walter complained ofthe economic and technical problems implicitto large-span brick construction;
proportions that are typical of brick construc-tion.In his efforts to link spaces via large dooropenings and to create large-scale windows,Mies was constantly confronted with the limi-tations of the material.
One outcome of thiswas the separation of the structural elements- columns, floor slabs and walls - in subse-quent projects.
They reveal a well-judgedinterplay between concrete and brickwork. AlIelements are designed in such a way that theconstruction is legible