3 Relationships of Architecture to the Earth

Years ago, back in school, we attended a lecture by renowned architect Daniel Liebskind. He showed a series of simple diagrams that categorized built-form into one of three categories relating to the Earth’s geometry.

A. Buildings that have a primary geometrical axis that is a tangent to the Earth’s geometry (thereby touching the Earth’s geometry at 1 point)
B. Buildings that have a primary geometrical axis that is a chord through the Earth’s geometry (thereby touching the Earth’s geometry at 2 points)
C. Buildings which have a primary geometrical axis that aligns with the Earth’s center (thereby touching the Earth’s geometry at 3 points).

Yeah we know… theoretical, heady, academic. But it’s an interesting way to look at the built environment around us and it offers a different method to compare and contrast built-form. We’ve rounded up five important examples of each category and an additional category of undecided projects. To narrow down the possibilities we’ve added a few constraints: the examples had to be built and they had to be architecture (they had to keep the heat in and the rain out), and they had to be recent (realized within the last 15 years). We’ve put on our black turtlenecks for this one so feel free to throw your theoretical tomatoes at us. Or better yet – cast your vote for the undecided and post your favorite examples.

A. Tangent

Wilson House in Melbourne Australia by Denton Corker Marshall

[photo courtesy of Denton Corker Marshall]

Markia-Alderton House in Australia’s Northern Territory by Glen Murcutt

[photo courtesy of Glen Murcutt]

House in Bordeaux, France by OMA

[photo courtesy of OMA]

Algarve House in Portugal by Eduardo Souto Moura

[photo from Ten Houses by Rockport Publishing]

Casa Ponce in Buenos Aires by Mathias Klotz

[photo courtesy of Mathias Klotz]

B. Chord

Visiting Artists House by Jim Jennings

[photo courtesy of AIA Architect]

[photo by Joseph Readdy]

Seed bank on the island of Spitsbergen, Norway

Baiao House in Portugal by Eduardo Souto Moura

[photo from Ten Houses by Rockport Publishing]

Royal Netherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by Dick van Gameren

[photo courtesy of Dick van Gameren]

Seattle Art Museum Sculpture Park by Weiss Manfredi

[photo by Alan Berner]

C. Axis

Helical symmetry: Twisting Torso building in Malmö, Sweden by Santiago Calatrava

[photo by Ipso]

Radial symmetry: Agbar Tower in Barcelona by Jean Nouvel

[photo by Mike Pevsner]

Radial symmetry: 30 St Mary Axe in London by Lord Norman Foster

[photo by WallyG]

Bilateral symmetry: Burj Al Arab Hotel Dubai

[photo by H.Andras_xms]

Bilaterial & Radial symmetry: The Petrona Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by César Pelli

[photo by Thomas Evan]

Undecided These projects threw us off axis (pun intended) – we couldn’t quite figure out which category they best fit into, or maybe they fit into multiple categories…

London City Hall by Lord Norman Foster

[photo by Purple Cloud]