CATEGORIES of OPENINGS' TREATMENTS

CATEGORIES of OPENINGS' TREATMENTS

Post  148 --by Gautam Shah 

 

Openings’ treatments are exclusive to the purposes they serve. Such as the orientation (solar exposure, illumination, wind), usages (domestic, commercial, industrial, jails), space units (living areas, kitchens, toilets, store rooms), users (adults, children, disabled, afflicted). Openings’ treatments occur on the outside face -broadly called architectural systems or, on the inside face -largely known as interior treatments. Yet, some treatments are placed within the body of the opening and so do not belong to exterior or interior systems.

There are many exclusive classes of openings' treatments. Other categories of treatments emerge by the contrast they pose.

•  Architectural treatments
• Interior Design treatments
• Barrier systems
• Protection and insulation systems
• Environmental systems
• Utilities
• Signs, Symbols
• Announcements and Declarations
• Identification systems
• Decorations
• Figurines, artifacts, statuettes, seals
• Masking or Framing systems

Other classes of openings

• External versus Internal systems
• Seasonal or temporary
• Individual against Collective treatment systems
• Personal systems and Public systems
• Revealing versus Camouflage systems

Architectural treatments generally occur on exterior faces, but also could be a scheme for the internal face or space. Architectural treatment over openings is one that is designed with the building and can be called the prime strategy.

Interior Design treatments occur with the occupation of the building and user is the key reference. These are often improvisations to customize the architectural design. Some features are corrective actions to add or distract the architectural provisions.

Barrier systems control the transactions occurring through openings. The transactions include passage of human beings, pets, insects, objects, light, air, moisture, odours, radiation, sound, etc. Barrier systems through their nature transparency or opacity allow or bar the transactions. The action of barricading by openings’ treatments occurs through passage and refraction, reflection or absorption. Curtains, blinds, mats, screens, lattices, films, etc. are some of the barrier systems.

 Protection and insulation systems barricading or filtration devices such as barriers, parapets, grills, trellis and other preventive tools such as curtains and blinds.

Environmental systems are more affective if on the exterior side of the building, however, some openings’ treatments are mounted on the inside face so that their handling is much easier. Weather protection systems and shading devices such as porches, verandahs, Chhajjas, louvres, awnings, projections, galleries, balconies, arcades, planter boxes, all are environmental systems.

Utilities are placed over opening’s to take advantage of the change that occurs near or across it. These include: cloth lines, shelves for planters, hooks and frames for climbers, bird feeds, air conditioners, air coolers, exhaust fans, air curtain fans, lift pulleys, ladders, service cat walks, storm shutters, niches and recesses for diyas (lamps).

Signs, Symbols are placed over openings for protection, luck, blessings, omen, to cast a good or bad spell, and to ward off evil. Signs are used for identification such as faith, religion, seals, coat of arms, profession, employment or social position, clan or group, educational and other achievements. Abstract presentations to instruct, warn, welcome, bid farewell, declare wishes, feelings or emotions, congratulate, felicitations.

Announcements and Declarations are placed over entrance or exit openings like doors and gates to catch attention of passerby. These include messages, honors, notices, results, legal orders, declarations of rights and prohibitions, seals, employment or social position.

Identification systems allow a visitor (entering or exiting) to declare, register or celebrate. The identifier systems are declarative through visual, audio and other sensorial faculties or mere registering (recording, acknowledging, checking devices). The identification system associated with openings are: bells, knockers, buzzers, talking pipes, chimes, whistles, sirens, rattlers, vibrators, horns, intercoms, video recognition and surveillance systems, finger, retinal image, DNA and other bio recognition devices.

 Decorations are declaration as well as objects for occupation or possession of space. Toran, Festoons, Plants, shrubs, Bonsai, flower arrangements, climbers, dry arrangements, artificial plants, pots, vases, baskets.

Figurines, artifacts, statuettes, seals are placed over doors of public, religious and also on residences. The purpose is for declaration of faith or affinity, or protection such as the Chinese warlords as door gods, or Ganesha as vignaharta (the trouble shooter).

Masking or Framing systems are placed over the opening to modify the view in or out and to adjust the size of the aperture. Traceries have been used in Gothic windows. Toran have been used over Indian doors as decoration and to ward off birds flying in. Grills are used to impose patterns on the view. Sheer curtains are used to tone the brightness.

Openings’ treatments as scaling device have been used to enhance or reduce the size or importance of the opening. These systems have in many periods of history become very stylized, overwhelming the architecture. Doors and gates have elaborate doorways and gateway structures.

  OTHER CATEGORIES are the contrasting entities.

External versus Internal systems of openings’ treatments. The former, are more exposed to the effects of environment and are usually more substantial or structural in nature. The later ones are in protected or interior locations and so can be very delicate in nature. External treatment substantially depend on their scale and form to be operative, whereas the interior systems take the advantage of their sensorial qualities to be effective.

Hard and Soft Furnishings as openings’ treatments, both are interior elements. However, soft furnishings consist mainly of fabrics and to a very small extent other pliable materials like paper, leather, etc. Some plastic sheets and films come within soft furnishing category. Soft furnishing items for openings’ treatment are not very long lasting and must be replaced frequently. Hard furnishings are qualified by their rigid format and permanence. Hard furnishing treatments are not easily detachable.

Seasonal or temporary treatment systems are meant to for a season or occasion, beyond which these are removed, stored for the next use or discarded. There no effort to integrate such opening treatments unless the effort to mount them requires technical expertise and heavy man-power.

Fixed systems versus Manipulable systems. Fixed opening treatment system require no triggering of any mechanism to be operative, or need to be intensified or slowed down. Manipulable system offer a series of choices through mechanical stops or rests, electrical energy step up-down and boost-stop systems, programmed choices.

Individual against Collective treatment systems. An individual system relates to single opening, and does not occur as the intervening unit between openings. A collective system ties up or disciplines several openings by providing a reference, linkage or a common enclosure.

Personal systems and Public systems allow use of an opening by the single user or offering customized facility. A public system is meant for large number of users often neglecting the needs of individual users. Public systems may be controlled away from the opening, by someone, often a non user.

Revealing versus Camouflage systems. A revealing system allows the ‘original’ character of the opening, but a camouflage system conceals the opening. A camouflage system may even completely negate the opening itself.

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INTERIOR DESIGN INTERVENTIONS

Post 132 - by Gautam Shah 

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 Building Engineering was the pioneer field of Design out of which many specialties like Architecture, Civil Engineering and Interior Designing have separated. All these skills deal with buildings using many common materials and techniques. Interior Design as a result has certain affinity to Architecture. In recent years many other design skills like Urban Design, Town Planning, Mass or Public housing, Landscape architecture, etc. have emerged from architecture. In future many other skills may also emerge from Interior Design.

A building once constructed is initially readied for occupation by the original designer. Buildings last for ages and during the lifespan, must be altered and updated several times. Architects or Building Engineers are unavailable, or have no income incentive for such 'frivolity'. During early middle ages, or perhaps even earlier, low-skilled 'Art -Painters' were hired to paint and decorate old buildings inside and outside. These painters known as building decorators or renovators worked along with their associates, to not only paint but undertake repairs, make furniture and update furnishings. Many crafts-persons like, Iron smiths, Guilders, Glass blowers, Weavers, Embroiders, Rug and Carpet makers, Sculptors, Mural makers, were casually associated with the Decorator, as jobbers and suppliers. Later the Decorator or renovator had a team of hired people who moved from site to site locations. These services for the building were always distinct from the Architecture or Building Engineering. Interior Decorator or renovator was neither a variant, nor subservient to the architect.

Illustrations from the James Shoolbred & Company's 1876 catalogue

The vendors or crafts-persons, creators of complex craft entities worked from their traditional centres. The interior decorator or renovator also worked as a facilitator, scheduling and coordinating the activities at a site. The decorator or renovator even offered comprehensive design solutions with alternatives to the clients. It was a well-documented strategy, serving two basic objectives.

•  It helped creation of a facilitating entity by coordinating skills, materials and objects, from different agencies. 
• It showed the user or client, in advance, the solution, in a representative form -a surrogate.. 

Johan Zacharias Blackstadius (1816-1898)

Once the first objective was achieved without being continuously present on the site, it was possible for the design-in-charge person to devote more time and attention for the second objective. The Interior renovator began to play a very active role of a professional interior designer, rather than being simply a site bound interior contractor.

 

The professional Interior Designer now operated from a Design office or Studio, located in an urban area. The design studio was the place for creating drawings, sketches, other presentations, models, pilots, prototypes, dummies, cartoons (replicas of artwork in full size), samples, etc. It contained samples of materials and catalogues. The studio was a fixed location facility where Interior designer was able to meet clients, suppliers and crafts-persons. 

 

The physical distancing of a studio from the site also detached the Design and Execution aspects of interior practice. In the combined practice of Design+Execution, the need for a documented scheme was not very acute, as decisions immediately turned into actions. In Exclusive Design practice, all decisions had to be formally transmitted through documented design brief as an assignment to the site-based agency.

 

Schematic documentation of design has been a very difficult aspect of business. Amateur Interior Designers (or formally untrained - hobbyists) lack the capacity to document their design intentions, so prefer to work on the site, providing oral instructions to contractors or their workers. Many Interior Designers, even today, where practicable would like to execute their work by themselves. The tradition of combining design + execution persists for many reasons: 

• The Salle des Gardes was built during the reign of Charles IX. Some traces of the original decor remain from the 1570s, including the vaulted ceiling and a frieze of military trophies attributed to Ruggiero d'Ruggieri. In the 19th century Louis Philippe turned the room into a salon and redecorated it with a new parquet floor of exotic woods echoing the design of the ceiling, and a monumental fireplace (1836), which incorporates pieces of ornament from demolished rooms from 15th and early 16th century.
  

1. Interior components require complex details and materials for their sensorial qualities. These are difficult to present through formal design documentation, and must be effected only through personal involvement.
2. Interior designing involves improvisation. The coordinated effect can be achieved, only when components or systems are substantially produced by the designers themselves. 
3. Amateur or untrained interior designers do not have such proficiency.
   

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STORAGE SYSTEMS

Storage systems constitute the largest and the most important group of amenities, that make bare spaces worthy of inhabitation. We not only store materials but also tools to work upon the materials. Stored things help us to conduct our life at a rational pace. Storage spaces occupy substantial space and often require very acute management.

Materials that we store include not only physical, static and non static things, but biologically live beings (pets) and nonphysical things like ideas, concepts, feelings, experiences and thoughts. Tools include gadgets to process various types of materials and also utilities that facilitate storage of materials.

Some of the things we store are static or less mobile and can be stored without being 'contained', while things like gases, liquids, and biological beings need to be contained. Nonphysical things are stored in terms of their impressions formed on some physical medium.

At domestic level we store,
1. edibles
2. other provisions
3. clothing
4. raw materials
5. tools.
6. Energy resources.

Edibles are stored mainly because their supply is seasonal or time related. Other provisions are stored for the same reason and also because we may consume only a small part of the commercially available or producible lot at any instant. Clothes are stored because their use is a climate and often occasion related. Raw materials need to be stored to amass a usable size of stock and to season or process them. Tools need to be stored because we use them over and over again not only for the same tasks but also different tasks. Energy resources are localized and often seasonal.

At commercial level we store mainly
1. raw materials or consumables,
2. tools
3. energy resources (fuels, kinetic energies etc.)
4. records.

At industrial or production level in addition we store output products and output effluents. At all levels we also need to store means, mediums and containers for storage, measurements, handling and transportation.

Like all human activities the act of storing is very purposive, so provides an impetus to some form of organization. Stored things are far more organized than a very vast left out universe whose order is unknown and is beyond control.

Things are always stored with a clear concept that these will be retrieved in future. A person who stores things may not be able to relish them, unless he has a way to retrieve them at the right occasion, location and format.

Things are generally stored with perception that these are items of wealth and their value will be greater when retrieved. The increment in value may be due to sheer act of containment (location massing), aging (maturing, ripening), organization or orderliness induced through the act of storing, and art or technique of retrieval. Like all wealth, the value of stored things changes with time, and this change may not add to the wealth.

Different societies endow special importance to certain commodities, as prime things worthy of possession and display. It could be utensils, crockery, clothes, handicrafts, bags, containers, Sanduks, Pataras, gadgets, tools, armaments, trophies, prizes, certificates, photographs, paintings, sculptures, antiques, jewel ry, stuffed animals, or a pet.

Storing is also called archiving. In archives generally documents are stored, retrieved and re stored. These documents are preserved and often restored.

Things need to be stored when we wish to condition their state. During storage controlled modifications are allowed or supported. Stored things are affected by not only the environment (atmosphere) but by gravity, magnetic and other energies.

Things are also stored to isolate them, because an encounter with them is likely to be hazardous or inclement to the well being of people or environment. Things are also stored (dumped) when one does not know what to do with the items, or because economically it is not viable to `store' (organize, rationalize) them. Dumped things have no perceptible value, but there is an expectation that dumped things will degenerate eventually, or a better technique or suitable opportunity of dealing with them may become available in future.

There are many different types of storage units. Within our body, Kidneys, Glands, Levers, Stomach, etc. are examples of storage systems. Petroleum tanks, Reservoirs, Septic tanks, Granaries or silos, Settling ponds, Jails, Auditoriums, Concentration camps, Detention camps, Sheep yards, Balloons are also storage units. Atmosphere is a very vast and almost infinite storage unit of energy, dusts particles, radiation, moisture, gases etc. Solid walls and wool garments are capable of storing heat so function as storage unit. Most things store kinetic energy in proportion of their mass. Fusion energy within particle bonds is also a storage system. Ships, Transport containers, Railway wagons, Submarines, Airplanes are transportable storage systems.

Liquids and gases need vessels to contain them. Since vessels have shape defined by the quality of material and construction technique, their size is inherently limited. Things which are comparatively small in size (grains, chips, boulders) may require some type of containment, if stored at angles steeper then their angle of repose or under vibratory conditions that can displace them. Containment is necessary for mass transportation, bulk-handling, high density for packing, and to reduce the amount of air space within the bulk. Containment is often done in modulated units, to improve transportation, stacking and handling. Pallets are modulated units used for lifting goods through fork lifts. Ship containers, gas cylinders, injection vials, medicinal capsules, bullets, grenade, are some of the examples of modulated storage units. Things that are irregularly sized or shaped, can be stored in heaps, provided there is no chance of a spread out. However things that are uniform in size and shape can be stored in stacks. Stacking and heaping systems of storing, both have size limitations. In stacked and stored things, items placed at the bottom are not only difficult to retrieve but there is an overloading burden on them. Such a burden may cause changes in stored things. In stacked or heaped storage, each of the stored elements interacts differently with the environment.

Shirts or clothes, when overburdened, show unwanted creases. Woolen pullovers and suits when overburdened loose their fluffy character, and look flat or dead. Silk Sarees loose their tenderness, while rayon get an indelible permanent press. Cotton mattresses when overburdened for long become stiff. Over heaped cement bags get a false set. Overburdened soils over a period turn into a rock like structure. A person with overburdened memory tends to forget less important thing. Oxygen when heavily burdened (compressed) turns into a liquid and Carbon dioxide into ice like form.

Even for things stored within their burdening limits the process of retrieval will affect the quality of storage. Things stored in a library book shelf pattern can be retrieved, irrespective of order of storage. But heaped or stacked things can be retrieved as `first stored - removable last'. In grain stores like silos all old grains must be removed before fresh ones are stored or alternatively a bottom extraction must be arranged.

Dry edible items like food grains, and condiments are best stored at low humidity and at slightly lower temperature than average. Wet or moist foods and cooked foods need a temperature lower than one that allows bacterial growth. Most bacteria get sterilized at 70 C (as in pasteurization) but once the temperature is lowered there is a likely hood of recurrence of bacterial growth. However, foods stored below 4 C may retard bacterial growth.

Design of a storage unit depends on:
1. Storing procedures: handling, packing
2. Storage format: heaps, stacks, contained
3. Environmental conditions desired
4. Codification, identification
5. Retrieval procedures