Along with the figure of the river valley,
Outram uses a regular grid of columns,
called a hypostyle,
to organize his
architecture. While the valley structure
focuses the architecture inward, the
hypostyle relates the detail of its structure
to the surrounding world and integrates
them together. The hypostyle is a regular
grid of columns, potentially infinite in its
extension. Where the valley recalls the
structure of the Greek city-state, the
hypostyle reminds us of the unifying force
of the Roman Empire. It reaches out to
shelter everyone under its spreading
canopy. In the campus plan, the hypostyle
might be recognized in the regular and
ordered planting of trees.
Within the building, the massive columns
of the hypostyle both organize the space
and provide it with a sense of scale. In the
Computational Engineering Building, for
example, the columns are six feet in
diameter-a human dimension. To create
rooms, walls are set between the columns.
To create larger rooms, like the Main Hall,
some columns are removed. To reinforce
the column's absence, Outram leaves a
scar in the floor where the column is
missing.
It appears that the columns of classic
architecture are somehow fundamentally
related to human form (the classic,
cliched image of Samson chained between
two columns that hold up the roof) and to
trees (the columns of an idyllic forest
holding up a canopy of leaves). The human
scale of the columns is important. In some
mystic way, it helps people relate to the
scale of the building. Using modern
construction techniques, however,
Outram's columns are far more massive
than structural requirements would dictate.
To justify their size, and to bring the
various building services into a rational
relationship with his architecture, Outram
moves all of the major services into the
columns, creating columns that, quite
literally, serve the building-his notion of the
"robot" column.
In Outram's buildings, the oversize
columns constitute a distributed, localized
service core. Each column creates a vertical
shaft to contain the support structure,
power, water, environmental control, and
network systems required to operate the
building. This leads to a discipline of
vertical distribution. To accommodate
horizontal distribution, Outram sometimes
adds a "robot beam" along the grid lines
of the hypostyle. In the Computational
Engineering Building, the robot beams are
rarely realized; in some of Outram's other
buildings, the robot beams occur regularly
and quite visibly.
In the Computational Engineering
Building, the columns are large enough
that they can be hollowed out and a
hallway run through them. This occurs
throughout the building, although it is
most noticeable along the south side of the
street at the second floor. Where the hall
passes through a column, a round light
marks its hollow core, as if it were simply
transmitting the light of the overhead
skylight . Walking the hallways, the
"robotic" function of the columns is
reinforced by the fact that access panels,
fire alarm enunciators, and electrical
distribution panels are all located in the
"column zone."
