LIFE OF ARCHITECT MICHEAL GRAVES

1. MICHAEL GRAVES
Presented By
Ali Azhar
ARCH-19-03

2. INTRODUCTION
• DATE OF BIRTH : APRIL 1934
• PLACE OF BIRTH : INDIANAPOLIS IN INDIANA, U.S.A
• NATIONALITY: AMERICAN
• EDUCATION :
I. RECEIVED ARCHITECTURAL TRAINING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
CINCINNATI & HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
II. WON “THE ROME PRIZE” IN 1960 & STUDIED FOR 2 YEARS AT
“AMERICAN ACADEMY” IN ROME.
• PROFESSION :
I. BEGAN HIS PRACTICE IN 1964 IN PRINCETON, NEW JERCY.
II. FIRM- MICHAL GRAVES & ASSOCIATES, 1964.

3. INFLUENCES
• GRAVES CONTINUES TO TURN TO ARCHITECTURE ITSELF FOR HIS
INSPIRATION.
• HE HAS A DEEP INTEREST IN EXISTING ARCHITECTURE :- ANCIENT, NEO-
CLASSICAL, MODERN - & DERIVES PLEASURE FROM REINTERPRETING IT’S
FORMS & COMPOSITIONS.
• HE GIVES CREDENCE TO THE BASIC TENET THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING
AS AN ORIGINAL IDEA BUT THAT EVERYTHING ORIGINAL IS BASED ON THE
REWORKING OF WHAT ALREADY EXISTS.
• ONE VERY STRONG INFLUENCE ON THE WORK OF GRAVES IS THE INTEREST IN
& APPRECIATION OF; THE SIMPLE DOMESTIC RITUALS OF LIFE THAT ONE
ENJOYS OR OUGHT TO BE ABLE TO ENJOY, DESPITE THE SPEED AT WHICH
TECHNOLOGY IS RURTLING US INTO THE CYBER SPACE.

4. PHILOSOPHY
•Achitectural language, to be built, will always exist within the technical
realm.
•Important to keep the technical expression parallel to an equal and
complementary expression of ritual and symbol.
•A significant architecture must incorporate both internal and external
expressions.
•The external language, which engages inventions of culture at large, is
rooted in a figurative, associational and anthropomorphic attitude.
• Non Architects can recognize Distinct architectural elements Within their
Compositions & Relate them in scale to their Own bodies.

5. PHILOSOPHY
• GRAVE’S LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTIRE OPERATES ON A NUMBER
OF LEVELS. IT IS MEANT TO BE LEGIBLE & A PART OF EVERYDAY
LIFE.
•
• GRAVE’S PRACTICE IS PRACTICE IN THE LITERAL SENSE OF THE WORD.HE IS
CONSTANTLY PRACTICING THE RULES & PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURE.
• HE DESIRES TO CREATE A PLEASANT, COMFORTABLE ENVIORNMENT FOR THE
PEOPLE IN HIS BUILDING.

6. HIS CONTINUALLY EVOLVING EXPERIMENTATION WITH ARCHITECTURAL FORM &
LANGUAGE AT THE LEVEL OF ABSTRACTION & FIGURATION, SCALE & COLOR, SIZE
& STRUCTURAL SYSTEM IS SUCH THAT, THERE IS EMERGANCE OF NEW IDEAS
WITHOUT DENYING EXISTANCE OF TRADITIIONS.
FIGURE 1 : Denver Central Library, 1990-1996
http//:archdaily.com

7. ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
• GRAVES HAS BEEN AN ARCHITECT WHO IS NOT SIMPLY CONCERNED WITH FORMAL
MANIPULATION OF A SELF- REFERENTIAL LANGUAGE BUT IS EQUALLY OCCUPIED WITH A
BUILDING’S SIGNIFICANCE WITH TIME & PLACE.
• HE DESIGNS BUILDING IN A NEAR- POPULIST ATTITUDE, SO THAT NON ARCHITECTS CAN
RECOGNIZE DISTINCT ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS WITHIN THEIR COMPOSITIONS &
RELATE THEM IN SCALE TO THEIR OWN BODIES.
• HIS EARLY PROJECTS REVEAL DISTINCT REFERENCES TO THE
ENVIORNMENT THAT THE BUILDINGS ARE A PART OF:-
A CURVE REFERRING TO THE CLOUDS ABOVE.
A YELLOW RAIL REFERRING TO THE SUN.
A TERRACOTTA BASE SUGGESTING GROUNDING IN THE EARTH.
A MURAL EXPANDING THE PERSPECTIVE OF A ROOM.

8. Major
Projects
HUMANA BUILDING PORTLAND BUILDING
WALT DISNEY DOLPHIN
HOTEL

9. The Detroit Institute of
Arts, USA
Minneapolis
Institute of Art
(Mia), USA

10. HANSELMANN
HOUSE

11. MARITIME EXPERIENTIAL
MUSEUM

12. Castalia,
Netherlands
Fifth
Avenu
e, US

13. BURJ UL ARAB
RESIDENCIAL
TOWER ,INDIA
Sheraton Miramar Hotel, Egypt
KEAN UNIVERSITY
CONTEMPORARY COTTAGE ,NEW JERSY

14. PORTLAND
BUILDING

15. PORTLAND MUNICIPAL SERVICES
BUILDING
• Built : 1980- 1982
• Type : Government offices
• Cost : US$29 million
• Floor: 15
• Location : Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, USA
• height : 71.6 m

16. Designer Michael Graves
Location
Portland, Oregon,
USA
Date 1980
Building Type
Government
offices
Climate Mild Temperate
Context Urban
Architectural Style Post Modern
Notable Facts
Block mass with
decorated facades,
criticized for
unpleasant
interior. Icon of
Post-Modernism

17. About the building:
•The Portland Public Service Building, popularly known as the Portland
Building, is a 15-story municipal office building located in downtown
Portland, Oregon,United States.
•The Portland Building was a design-build
competition sponsored by the city of
Portland, Oregon. Located on a 200-foot
square downtown block, the building
houses the city's minicipal offices.
•Site offers a rich and special setting
characterized by the adjacent City Hall and
County Courthouse buildings on two sides,
and the public transit mall and the park on
the other two sides.

18. • Attic or head.
• Middle or body
• Base
• the design of the building addresses the public nature of both the
urban context and the internal program.
• In order to reinforce the building's associative or mimetic qualities,
the facades are organized in a classical three-part division of:
FRONT ELEVATION
BACK ELEVATION
About the building:

19. ARCHITECTURE
Portland Building, with its distinctive block-like design and square
windows, has become an icon of postmodern architecture
After many years of neglect, ornament
returned.
The two obtruding triangular forms are
largely ornamental. They exist for
aesthetic or their own purpose.
Use of sculptural forms, ornaments,
Anthropomorphism.
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of
uniquely human characteristics to non-
human creatures and beings, natural and
supernatural phenomena, material states
and objects or abstract concepts. .

20. WINDOWS
It forms the basic element as surface
texture, due to their proportion &
repetition.
ARCHITECTURE
Cubical facades treated in the classical
three part division or tripartite form
with the base, Shaft & cornice.

21. ARCHITECTURE
Façade
•Uses column as surface treatment &
defining the cornice or the head of the
building & entrance.
• Facades are symmetrical & linearity
broken by adding vertical bands of colors
& windows.
• Uses square windows but tries to
achieve the principles of neoclassical
style.

22. ARCHITECTURE
•These forms are sculptural and are
somewhat playful.
•These forms are not reduced to an
absolute minimum; they are built and
shaped for their own sake.
•The building units all fit together in a
very organic way, which enhances the
effect of the forms.
SCULPTURAL ELEMENTS

23. ARCHITECTURE
•It has a typical symmetrical façade which was at
the time prevalent throughout Postmodern
buildings.
•The façade is a symbolic picture of a house, looking
back to the 18th century. This is partly achieved
through the use of symmetry.
•Playfully extravagant forms and the humour of the
meanings the buildings conveyed.

24. THANK YOU