Letters make nice buildings

May 18, 2016 7:27 AM

Buildings used to be designed less as big blocks and more as complex shapes, even shaped like letters, to minimize the distance to an exterior wall and maximize natural light and ventilation. In fact, in 1773, Johann David Steingruber (Google auto-translation) published Architectonisches Alphabet, or Architectural Alphabet (Archive.org), providing an alphabet (more or less) worth of floor plans. It's in German, so you'll probably skip ahead and start with A. Of course, you can still find plenty of letter-shaped buildings (and write geo-greetings), thanks to the ubiquity of aerial photography.
posted by filthy light thief (10 comments total)

Obligatory Sesame Street video link.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:35 AM on May 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

The W building is rather elegant, I find.
posted by brokkr at 7:49 AM on May 18, 2016

Had Steingruber’s ‘S’ ever been built, anyone who lived in certain of the rooms at its corners would have had the odd distinction of inhabiting a serif.
posted by misteraitch at 7:57 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

In the former USSR there are tons of CCCP apartment complexes. The Cs have great yards.
posted by k8t at 8:28 AM on May 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

There's also one of the barracks buildings at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado where all four wings are separated by well-proportioned yards so all the rooms have access to air and light ... but it looks like a swastika.
posted by LionIndex at 8:36 AM on May 18, 2016

In the former USSR there are tons of CCCP apartment complexes. The Cs have great yards.

I'd like to see some of those. In my search for them, I found Giant Soviet Signs Cut Into Forests - lots of things like "100 Years to Lenin", made 1970, in Siberia.

LionIndex: yup, there it is.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:59 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I absolutely adore looking at floorplans, so thank you for this!

Buildings with internal curves set my teeth on edge though. You can't align (most) furniture! Aaaaaugh!
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:00 AM on May 18, 2016

even shaped like letters, to minimize the distance to an exterior wall and maximize natural light and ventilation.

The building where I work is shaped like the letter X, or maybe the \times symbol, maximizing surface area--and in a hot, sunny climate, cooling costs--and forcing the already minimal windows to be covered with slats that minimize natural light, views of surroundings, and the sense of existing in a world inhabited by other life.

still better than the open-plan office in the new building though
posted by egregious theorem at 10:16 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

The architectural alphabet buildings look like they'd be so much fun to run about in and explore. When was the last time a building surprised you? Every one of them looks like it should have some fascinating back story about why it was built that way and what the rooms used to be used for.
posted by lucidium at 1:50 PM on May 18, 2016

Today, the engineers would say that the heat loss or gain through so much exterior wall would use far more energy than would be saved using daylight and natural cross-ventilation. They would say that the most efficient building would maximize the floor plate and minimize the perimeter, the size of windows and the amount of air change. That is what they did in the 70's and how we got a lot of toxic buildings.

This is what happens, Donny, when you allow engineers to influence the design of buildings too much.
posted by a halcyon day at 4:37 PM on May 18, 2016