The Hay Barn and its Sculptural Meanings
The barn as a highly vernacular building typology offers us a new reading of architecture through its material and construction economies. Inspired by Rosalind Krauss’s analysis of minimalism arts, the Pennsylvanian hay barn is explored here through the expression of its sculptural forms as a result of methods of construction and planning.
A Typical Hay Barn Studied in Its 3 Parts
“Their difference belongs to their exterior—to the point at which they surface into the public world of our experience. This “difference” is their sculptural meaning; and this meaning is dependent upon the connection of these shapes to the space of experience.”
Rosalind Krauss, Passages in Modern Sculputre
Formation of the Roof
image source: library of congress
Framing strategy: Balloon Framing
image source: library of congress
4 basic roof bents
piece by piece roof-wall balloon framing
spatial variations from the density of structure
Formation of the Base:
Accumulated Contingency
image source: library of congress
Establishment of the Central Barn/Non-barn Axis
The Expanded Field (to be continued in part 2)
The barn then lends itself as the central axis, from which the project expands toward the industrial and the institutional.
*thesis in collaboration with Lingxin Feng