Building/Ground: Changing Topography 3

Source: Emilio Ambasz Associates

Houston Plaza Center, Houston, Texas, USA, 1982 designed by Emilio Ambasz Associates

Thus, the grid of the city became the grid of the plaza, with a rough edge on the outside representing the incomplete nature of the growing city, and the square pool in the center representing the plaza itself.

The ground slopes down from the edge of the plaza to the large square pool in the center, with its circular opening above the atrium. The taller trellises toward the center serve as gazebos, with portals and seating. -- architect's web site

Source: thecityview.com

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin, Germany, 2005 designed by Eisenman Architects

with 2,711 blank, dark gray concrete pillars—or as they are often called, steles. (Stele is the Greek term for a slab or upright stone, frequently inscribed, used as commemorative markers in ancient times.) These abstract forms, 3 feet wide and almost 8 feet long, vary in height up to 15 feet and occupy a grid with 3-foot-wide paths. Eisenman sculpted the flat site into rolling contours so that the steles’ differing heights are exaggerated, then tilted them from .5 to 2 degrees in two different directions to maintain an overall unity of a level top (not slanted) within this changing topography. These elements—abstract forms, gridded plan, rolling terrain—adhere to the overriding theme of repetition with displacement, to create an immensely powerful kinesthetic, tactile, and visual experience.-- Architectural Record July 2005.

Prada Catwalk Man SS 2012, Milan, Italy, 2011 designed by OMA

The audience is organized in a perfect field. 600 visitors sit on individual blue foam blocks distributed over a 1.5 x 1.5 meter grid spread through the entire hall. Models flow through the highly-organized audience, following multiple choreographed routes that allow maximum visibility. -- architect's web site

Source: mayalin.com

2 x 4 Landscape, Wood, 36' x 53' x 10', Originated at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 2006 designed by Maya Lin

The sculpture 2 x 4 Landscape is fabricated from thousands of construction grade 2 x 4's placed on end.  From above they transform a landscape into a pixel-like view of a hill, incrementally rising in height to form the hill.  Its form, imaginary but consciously shaped, makes ambiguous the boundary between land and water.  It is both reminiscent of a landform and a water wave.  The duality of this shape is noticeable as you walk around it, and is oriented in the space so that from two approaches it appears as a simple hill and from the other sides it appears fluid and amorphous, a wave about to crest. -- architect's web site