Paul Rudolph’s rendering of a proposed U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, a project from 1954. Like the Beach Pavilion project shown below, the design utilizes the solar heat management strategy of incorporating “Double Roofs” into the design. The upper roofs (in the shape of segmental vaults) take the direct sun—but there’s an air gap between them and the roofs of the living/working spaces below. © The estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation
Paul Rudolph’s perspective drawing of a Beach Pavilion, a Florida project from 1950. Both this and Rudolph’s proposal for an embassy in Jordan (above) are examples of Rudolph use of a “Double Roof”: a composition which has an upper roof (in this case, a structure with tent-like curves) placed over a lower volume (in which are living or working spaces) which has its own roof. The upper roof supplies shade, and the air-gap between the upper and lower roofs prevents the conduction of heat (and creates a covered breezeway.) © The estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation
Rudolph’s Green Practices
In our last post on Paul Rudolph’s engagement with sunshine-management practices (Rudolph: The Green Architect—Part ONE), we showed two projects: the Walker Guest House and the Healy ("Cocoon”) Guest House.
Both of them had been included as case studies in the book “Lessons From Modernism: Environmental Strategies in Architecture 1925-1970”—and they each show Paul Rudolph’s concern for dealing with the intense sun of Florida. In this domain, the Rudolph’s inventiveness at the Walker Guest House is abundantly evident.
Among the book’s case studies is one devoted to Rudolph’s design for the Walker Guest House.
Rudolph’s Other Solar Strategies
Rudolph used other strategies for dealing with the sun. His architectonic treatment of sun screens can be seen on the facade of the Jewett Art Center and his proposed design for the S.A.E. Fraternity House.
Rudolph’s perspective rendering of the S.A.E. Fraternity House—a 1952 Florida project, proposed for the University of Miami—shows his intended use of sun shading baffles, screening, as well as covered walkways. © The estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation
He also integrated screens, baffles and deep recesses of with interesting shapes or compositions onto building volumes. The Greeley Laboratory at Yale and the Cerritto Residence in Rhode Island are prominent examples, as is the Milam Residence.
The Cerritto Residence was designed by Paul Rudolph in 1955, for a site in Westerly, Rhode Island. The exterior featured prominent sun shading elements, parallel to (and set slightly higher than) the roof plane. They are supported on articulated wood brackets, which extend from the roof’s edge (and which are braced, at their bottoms, near the house’s the exterior decks.)
Rudolph’s Milam Residence, in Ponte Verda Beach, Florida, has recessed windows facing the beach-side of he house. Those deep recesses, in its Mondrian-like facade, provide useful shading. Joseph W. Molitor architectural photographs, located in Columbia University, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Department of Drawings & Archives
Rudolph’s Double Roofs
A “green” technique which Rudolph used in several projects is the Double Roof. By placing one roof on top of another—with an air-gap in-between—one is able to decrease the amount of transmitted heat from a solar load to a significant degree. Even roofs with abundant thicknesses of insulation will eventually act as conductors (and then radiators) of heat—but a double roof configuration avoids that conduction problem. The system is a “passive” way to save energy.
In a region where the sun is intense—like Florida, where Rudolph began his professional career—the attraction of such an efficient approach is clear, and Rudolph turned to this arrangement several times. His Umbrella House got its name because the upper roof acts as an “umbrella” (or rather, parasol) over the lower roof—and is justly famous for the elegance with which Rudolph executed the overall design.
The Umbrella House in Sarasota, Florida, designed by Paul Rudolph. Photograph by Francis Dzikowski, Archives of the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation
Rudolph’s side elevation drawing of the Umbrella House. At the upper-right one can see the gap between the upper roof (which provides shade) and the lower roof (of the interior volume of the house.) © The estate of Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation
Paul Rudolph’s proposed designs for a Beach Pavilion, and for a US Embassy (in a region of intense sun load, in the Middle-East) are shown at the top of this article—and they also utilize this efficient roof system.
And The Lesson Is Learned…
Rudolph can’t take credit for inventing the Double Roof—versions of it have probably been constructed for hundreds of years (or longer.) But there is little evidence of its use for most of the first century of Modern architectural practice—even the Lessons from Modernism book only shows a few other examples.
That’s changed in recent years, and numerous examples can now be cited of its use. Here are several screen shots, found on-line, showing the incorporation of Double Roofs:
A screenshot of Architect’s report on bunkhouse and bathing facilities for a ranch in Texas, designed by Rhotenberry Wellen Architects, Not only does it utilize a Double Roof, but a portion of the facade swings upward—as in Rudolph’s Walker Guest House.
2030 Palette has a page on Double Roofs—and one of the structures they show is a project called “Forest for a Moon Dazzler,” by Benjamin Garcia, built in Costa Rica.
A screenshot from the Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s website, showing an emergency children’s surgery center, under construction in Uganda. This impressive project has several wings, most of which are sheltered under Double Roofs.
The Kendeda Building, at the Georgia Institute of Technology is shown on a screenshot in this page from Architect. The architects are Skanska , Miller Hull , Lord Aeck Sargent. A series of Double Roofs shelter the multi-storey building.
Shigeru Ban’s website includes a grid showing his extensive oeuvre—and there one can find a page devoted to his 1993 project, the “House of Double Roof” in Japan (of which this is a screenshot). The text, accompanying the illustrations, says that the Double Roof is used primarily to handle the intense snow-loads of winters in that area—but also “the upper roof provides shelter against direct sun during summer.” The overall aesthetic and composition may remind some of Rudolph’s Umbrella House.
So Was Paul Rudolph A “Green” Architect?
As with all judgments, the answer will depend on the criteria which are applied. Further, in making such assessments, it is important to be aware of the architectural culture (and overall society) within which Rudolph worked—and to be careful to not apply standards that are anachronistic. The environmental movement may have had roots all-the-way back to the 19th Century—but, as we currently experience it, the movement emerged in the late 1960’s. That’s well after the examples of Rudolph’s work which were cited in these posts, and also after Rudolph had completed some of his most well-known projects (i.e.: the Yale Art & Architecture Building and the Temple Street Garage).
So if one were to apply the standard checklist of green building techniques—the use of: photovoltaics, double-glazing with thermal breaks, sustainably harvested woods, high R-value insulation, recycled gray water, low-flow/water-conserving appliances and fittings, etc…—then it would be hard for Rudolph’s buildings (or almost any buildings from the mid-century era) to meet the standard of being “green.”
But one must consider Paul Rudolph—indeed, any architect—fairly, within the context of his era. When doing so, we can see that his use of a variety of efficient sun-load management strategies (as well as others: orientation, integrating planting, and the integration and control of of natural light) show that he did have a consciousness of the energy-use factors, and the eco-systems in which he was working.
Yes, fairly judged, Paul Rudolph was green.