1971

James Stirling, Michael Wilford & Associates

Olivetti Headquarters     Milton Keynes

1




Maison Millennium 001   2304
Maison Millennium 002   2317
Maison Millennium 003   2318
Maison Millennium 004   2319

not there   3800u 3800v

1996.08.03
Stirling interpretations    


1997.04.22
S/AM post-Vidler/Rowe
...make reference to the ramp and elevator combination that first appeared in Stirling's work at the Olivetti Headquarters; the dual vertical motif found a perfect place within the Schinkel/Altes Museum analogy. The Olivetti design does, however, point back to Le Corbusier (and even to Hejduk/Bye House) and particualry the Maison Dom-ino. The Olivetti building, of course, also has broader connections to Le Corbusier's Olivetti Center at Milan...


1997.04.22
S/AM - AP, etc.
...the worm's eye axonometric of Stirling's Sheffield U. competition has affinities with the conference room composition at Olivetti/Milton Keynes.


1997.07.30
dom-ino and other paradigm buildings
...completed the MKOlivetti conference room model and set it among the other paradigmatic buildings. Seeing the five "buildings" together tells an interesting story. We see Le Corbusier's own development and then we see an inversion of the paradigm in Hejduk and Stirling--an inversion, yet also a further development. Hejduk's Bye House is like the Maison Dom-ino (and the second composition) without the floor slabs, which have been converted into a gigantic wall--the floor slab inverted from horizontal slab to vertical slab. With the floor removed, only the column grid and the free-form shapes of the "rooms" remain and the circulation elements have also been separated out, and also inverted to an extent.
The Stirling construction takes the Corbusian paradigm a step further. The floor slabs are also eliminated, and the major component is a space raised on columns (pilotis), yet the space is not a box, but a single room in a free-form, organic shape (which seems slightly related to the study of the Bye House). The other major elimination (more a replacement, actually) is the lack of stairs and the new inclusion of a ramp and an elevator instead.
Interestingly enough, the basic paradigm of structure, space, and (vertical) circulation are the same elemental components of each design, and seeing the designs together offer a concise representation of the evolution of a seminal modern (architectural) idea.


1997.08.18
Maison Dom-ino Legacy     3122s 3800u

1997.12.09
promenade architecturale
Part 4 of the Stirling essays will be about the Stirling-Le Corbusier-Olivetti connection.


1998.01.08
Stirling Muses
The path through the lobby [of the Museum for Nordrhein Westfalen] ends with the choice of either taking the ramp or the elevator to the upper gallery level. ...recall the conference room "construction" from the Olivetti Headquarters design (project) as the "origin" of the ramp-elevator motif (...also go briefly into the Maison Dom-ino connection).


1998.02.13
From: Stirling's Inheritance To: Stirling's Legacy Re: Stirling's Muses Part II    


1998.12.26
the Maison Millenniums   5998   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i   j   k   l   m   n   o   p   q   r   s   t   u   v   w   x   y   z   aa   ab


2000.07.23
blob and box
...about Le Corbusier's Olivetti Headquarters design as the first manifetation of blob and box, and Stirling's Olivetti Headquarters as the second manifestation of the blob and box.


2005.09.14 14:07
Mat buildings
Now look at Le Corbusier's design for the Electronic Calculation Center Olivetti, Rho-Milan, 1963-64--it's got mat, blob and funky [box] hi-rise all in one. The first to reenact this one was Stirling with his unbuilt design for the Olivetti Headquarters, Milton Keynes, 1971.

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