The Architecture of Breaking Bad

my name is Walter Hartwell White I live at 308 Negra ayal Lane Albuquerque New Mexico 87104 This Is My Confession free8 negro Royal Lane of wise known as the white residence is one of the most recognizable houses in pop culture that exists in real life I think it's nice how the structure acts as a staple throughout the show where we can see how Walter's house physically evolve throughout the entire series however it's not just the fact that we see this house in almost every episode but rather how the architecture surrounding it allows the audience to connect with Walter's character experience and family in a more intimate setting his personal conversations with Skyler the small moments with Holly or the crimes he hides between the walls despite existing in real life we're going to be focusing specifically on the house that was portrayed in the show and not whatever this is stupid it's a family home well you rented it to them I didn't rent nothing out to them in this analysis we're not only looking at the elements of this house that elevate the show but we're also going to be critically analyzing the structure from an architectural perspective this is analyzing architecture constructed in 1972 this era specifically focused on Simplicity minimalism and an overall human and functional approach to how houses were designed located in albuquer New Mexico the house that was soon be purchased by the white family perfectly visualizes wal's average Lifestyle although not a bad looking house by any means the single story and simplistic design is almost a physical embodiment of Wal status especially when compared to the grand houses of the successful Elliot and Gretchen Schwarz I'm no expert in materiality but looking at the house itself it features what appears to be a wide vinyl cladding Timber framing as well as a pristine Pizza resist in ashall shingle roofing the choices of these particular materials were popular during the time the house was constructed mainly due to its energy efficiency low maintenance and cheape cost I think the physical presentation of the house and the materiality reflects Walter's character in a way as it visually represents his family focused well presented an overall clean and average Lifestyle and later in the show as Walter's criminal Alter Ego becomes public his physical appearance becomes torn down beaten up and Abandoned and this directly reflects onto his house if I'm being honest I really like how this house is designed primarily due to its internal layout because the real life existing homeowners like to keep their lives private it's hard to find an official floor plan of the house however you can always trust the internet with my amazing research skills and the help of some redditors online I was able to find a neat accurate floor plan we can analyze and from this I created my own floor plan although it may not be to exact scale the choice to combine the living room dining room kitchen and outdoor patio although very common amongst family homes is a very clever and functional decision combining these specific rooms allows for great circulation and separates these very social areas from the private and more intimate bedrooms the only criticism I have about this floor plan is the bathroom in a house of free bedrooms How can there be only one toilet what if Walter junr needs to take a in the middle of the night does he have to walk through his parents room while they're sleeping so he can relieve himself but what about the guest whenever there's a social event and a guest needs to take a they're going to need to walk out of this public social setting into this more private area which sort of disrupts its public and private Dynamic despite my critique of this I think it was quite clever from a storytelling perspective as this did lead to a major plot point of the story Hank using W's onu bathroom led to Hank finding out Ward's big secret which is quite genius in a storytelling way but from an architectural perspective I suggest not to have only one toilet in a free bedroom house you can take it from me I actually did this in one of my projects my tutor at the time absolutely ripped into me basing off from the House's real life location the structure has a good amount of Windows fully utilizing the Sun paath and natural sunlight when it comes to ventilation the house is pretty functional bringing up this left side once again is quite good as a connection of these social spaces allows for that cross ventilation to pass through the living room dining and Patio all together another criticism I'd have to give though is this room in the Middle with no windows or no access to ventilation this room right here would heavily rely on artificial means to cool and heat the room as seen in the show however it does have an airon system which wal of course uses to hide his money in I think it's quite interesting how Walter uses these hidden spaces within the details of the wars to hide his criminal Alter Ego as the audience we know he has something to hide he has a secret he doesn't want people to know essentially him using his house as a hiding place is almost a reflection of himself the one thing I really like about the wire residence is how normal it is if I could sum up this house in one word it would be normal as ridiculous as it may sound I think there is a sort of Beauty in how average Walter's house is in Breaking Bad unlike many other houses in pop culture this down Earth Suburban lifestyle allows the audience to somewhat understand W's trans information from an average high school chemistry teacher to a ruthless Kingpin although many improvements could be made to this house after analyzing the exterior facade interior layout climatic analysis and the era it was constructed in I do have to give the Architects props you can argue that a lot of these points weren't considered by Vince Gilligan and his team when writing the show or creating the production sets but the beauty of Architecture is that it's subjective how you perceive this building and the motifs behind it is completely up to you from a storytelling perspective this house represents more than just a house for the white residents it functions as a way to describe Walter's development throughout the show visualizing his Safety and Security family issues and most importantly his character

Channel: tuarn

Views: 30,270

Keywords: breaking bad, architecture, heisenberg

Id: FK1jz0Kstk8

Length: 8min 16sec (496 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 07 2024