Variations on the Johnson tower was an academic exercise submitted as a graduation work for my Diploma course in architecture. Being an extraordinary piece of work reflecting Wright’s ideas about architecture, and especially in terms of the relation interior/exterior, the Johnson tower is a paradigm in contemporary architecture. This tower was chosen for the present project as the original piece upon which some variations were composed. The outcome of the project can be found in three pieces of architectural design that, as a whole, try to reveal some of the principles that lie behind modern architecture.

 

Three main issues were considered to be the main factors affecting a building’s typology. These were function, environment and materials/constructive systems. Three different alternatives were then assigned to each factor as follows: function=housing/offices/recreation; environment=hot-humid/hot-dry/mountain; materials=concrete/wood/metals.

 

Therefore, 27 possible combinations could exist: |(3)3|. Three further specific alternatives qualifying the former were studied to bring a total of 729 possible combinations: |((3)3*3|. These further possibilities included specific cases of the main factors e.g. different sites for each kind of environment, and different structural cases for each material.

Following some analysis, only three combinations were developed, as they were considered fundamentally different among themselves.