Studio Theme:
The studio intends to look at building as full-scale realizable landscape. It is the belief that architecture as intervention in the landscape need not be merely a discreet object, but a method to suture the landscape, once in a state of rupture, or crisis, or void. Architecture can stitch up an existing excision, fill a rupture and reconnect. Terrain shifts, coastlines, thresholds, tide fluctuations, freeway divisions, geologic fault lines, social crevices, misalignments can be blended over and patched through landscape techniques of fill, growth, extending and playing upon the dynamic systems already in place.
The task will be to design an artificial fabric ‘hyper-programmed’ leaf, one in a system of many. It will be a new collection of surfaces that alternate between the two- and the three-dimensional. In its requirements, the leaf must be able to open and close, gather and disperse, collect and shed, reduce and enlarge, addressing the requisite programmatic mandate. The leaves should be able to work as an organism, many units referentially influencing one another, through adjacency, performance and geometry.
Using the hidden, and the deeply imprinted as a map of development/intervention, analyzing the patterns of use, the architecture will perform as a stitch upon a landscape condition in crisis, responding to a momentary trace or a deeply ingrained furrow. The result will be a rethought, reconfigured extraction/addition, architecture bridging the gap of infrastructure, even at a small scale. The technique is landscape based. Derivations will be based in the feedback process of de-formation and re-formation, in a non-linear process of design.
We will not intentionally be trying to mimic or make things that look like nature, or recreate the processes of nature, but going after a conceptual generation of new geometries and form – structures that are responsive material assemblies to a site, be it physical, social or cultural. We will deny the tendency to chase after only the look of complexity without recourse to the structural and organisational conditions by which complexity is given to emerge of its own accord.
Rather than base the studio purely on ideas of emergence (the notion of novel properties or substances ‘emerging’ out of more fundamental organizations of often a lower order), the studio proposes a feedback process of addressing ideas of reductionism as well (seriality, chance, the readymade, the index).
Reductionism seeks to explain phenomena according to lower-order entities and events, phase transitions, or moments of ‘broken symmetry’, which define the boundary conditions between different orders or regimes of organization and behavior). Reductionism and emergence remain a dialectical pairing, intertwined as methods that try to exacerbate the cause of a condition in all its effects, as well as trying to make sense of those effects by understanding the condition.
Project Abstract:
Research, Document and Design a structure that is rapidly deployable (easy to assemble and dismantle), transportable, durable, of a limited duration, compelling in its function and configuration, and critically responsive to environmental, social, and cultural conditions, utilizing an assembly of welded aluminum frames as a scaffold/structure for a system of stretched fabric panels/components. The fabric could vary in consistency, thickness, color and translucency. The project will culminate in a full-scale realization of the designed structure (or multiple structures, to be determined).
RESEARCH/ANALYSYS
It is intended that a brief period of research be invested in historic model of innovation: prefabrication, fabric/tensile structures and temporary structures.
The program for such a structure shall be one of the following:
- Cabana/Garden
- Catastrophe shelter
- Bandshell including repetitive audience module
- Worship/Meditation space
- Eating space/restaurant/bar
- Boutique/vending space
Cabana/Garden assumes an enclosure having openness to its environment, able to support, and designed around ideas of vegetation and water. Collecting and diverting rainwater for the plant material, designing a type of small scale sheltered garden, and providing for human rest/relaxation through sun shading are the requirements for this type of structure, deployable on urban rooftops, suburban backyards, or in rural areas as cultivated shelter pavilions. One can be flexible and privilege the garden aspect versus the poolside luxury relaxation interpretation of this typology.
Catastrophe shelter is to be thought of as emergency refuge in times of calamity and great need. The structure must completely shelter the elements and provide for basic survival, as a first line of defense. In this program especially, shielding the body, its protection, layering, and tailoring architecture to the corporeal, will be imperative. Consideration should also be given to social ideas of displacement. Further, this structure can be designed to cluster with multiples of itself, and provide for group/community spaces outside of the structure itself.
Bandshell including repetitive audience module is a structure to house a small performance area/stage for any type of performance, be it a concert, reading, lecture, etc. Thought is to be given to the acoustical nature of the components, as well as their ability to provide a changing backdrop. Ability to reconfigure should be taken into consideration, if viable. Additionally, there is a requirement for an extraction of the bandshell, a repetitive module, that when aggregated, can shield and house an audience of varying size.
Worship/Meditation space is a program of great relevancy worldwide. It can assume a religion or denomination, but need not. It must consider the requirements for human introspection, singular, and in a group setting. It is assumed that this typology will research the tenants, rituals and iconography of major world religions such as abstract geometric patterning, the use of the written word, human imagery, even if a specific religion is not to be programmed in. Important will be a critical stance regarding ideas of light and dark, orientation, and scale.
Eating space/restaurant/bar assumes a space for social interaction, eating and drinking being a significant activity of human interface. One must consider the proportion of the space (centered versus linear) and the type of interaction implied. Thought should be given to the nature of the eating space – its manner of deployability, mess hall module in a war, wedding banquet, temporary urban restaurant, summer drinking venue, etc. Rudimentary cooking and refrigeration must be designed into the structure.
Boutique/vending space is a typology rooted in commerce and vending, as well as exhibition and display. Aside from providing adequate spaces for a contemporary guerrilla boutique, such as changing area, cashier or back of house monetary storage, and display of goods, this program must acknowledge the notion of the shop window and be designed for specificity of viewing from the outside in. It is at one’s discretion as to what type of garment or object, if any, the space is designed for.
2-Site/Environment:
The site shall be an abstract one, intelligently focused upon a general geographic or environmental condition or area requiring such a program. General classification can fall under the following not mutually exclusive categories:
Density:
Hyper-urban
Urban
Suburban
Rural
Uninhabited
Environmental/climactic:
Hot arid
Hot humid
Temperate
Waterfront – fluvial/river
Waterfront – marine/sea
Swampland
Grassland
Forest
Desert
Mountain
Agricultural landscape (the plains), rice paddies, orange groves, commodity farming…
Glacial
Social:
Low income
Middle income
Luxury
The site could also, for specificity of design, take into account a specific geographic area in need, dealing with landslides and floods in Asia, refugee shelter in Europe, or any location, for a variety of needs in the United States. Similarly, geographic areas can be evaluated on a purely market driven basis and provide for luxury resort spaces in Asia, temporary safari based vacation dwellings in Africa, or residential recreation commodity spaces anywhere.
3A-Materials:
Fabric will be the primary material of proposed the structure, moving a it into new applications of architectural space, and expanding its potential range. As such, one must understand the behaviors of different types of fabrics (woven and non-woven). Using the material, begin a physical exploration and testing of the material’s structural and surface effects. How can the structural weave be optimized for the process of creating free-standing material configurations? Conduct analysis through mapping, diagramming, photographing (high contrast), scanning and digital collage of the selected material and its extracts. This part of the studio will encompass 5 discrete chosen fabrics and their responses to the methods applied.
Qualities to track and consider relative to he surface:
Grain
Direction
Strand strength
Tightness of weave
Porosity
Elasticity
Reflectivity
Refractivity
Fabric memory (wrinkling, the ability to regenerate)
Light
Temperature
3B-Technique/Assembly/Deployment
Closely related to the materials research above, the exploration of techniques of manipulation will expand on the material qualities harvested from the fabric structures. One can consider pleating, folding, seaming, smocking, bending, perforating, corrugating, shearing, splintering, piercing, faceting, cutting, relieving, knotting, unravelling as speculative acts in the process of going from a flat plane to a three dimensional assembly, taking account pattern to surface effects. The core question of moving from a flat surface of material that is completely supple to a formation where rigidity and stiffness create volume and shape is to be found in the technique.
Additionally, the strategy of fabrication, assembly, and deployment will be key as parameters that impact geometry and behavior. What will define a module? Will each have its own boning/substructure? How the modules (see below) can aggregate, whether they are discontinuous, or if they nest, whether they are connected along a seam, or a point of rotation, whether a lattice is necessary as a framework, and the manner in which the assembly is grounded – shall all be investigated. Can components change their position, reconfigure, locally, and/or across the entirety of the structure/field?
3C-Pattern/Modularity/Geometric Relationships
Co-dependent with the exploration of materials and technique, modularity is the vehicle by which to move beyond just the testing of technique, and scripting operations, which necessarily focus purely on geometry. The goal is to establish a behavioral architecture, to look for correspondences between formal and spatial articulation, environmental factors, analogical systems based in any component of research and other mediums of agency. Working through the multiple and subtle variation (differentiation) of the material, the ability to design the reproducible singular, and consider its method of attachment to its variation is imperative.
How, and why a module changes and shifts across a field… whether those relationships are fixed or can change. The sequencing of those changes is based on a set of instructions. The relationship of pattern and instruction (manipulation sequence) can be translated into the process of establishing digital techniques of creating surface effect. This is not a question of simulation; it is a question of instruction and procedure.
Studio Procedure
Each program/type shall be developed by a collaborative group of no more than 4 to 5 students. Each group will be required to address all the task issues listed in the syllabus. However, every team member shall have a particular expertise in each avenue of research, to be supported by the team. This means that a project phase, theme, aspect and/or category is delegated to one student where each is responsible for specific inputs on the design development. The emphasis of each such expert will inform the other emphasis areas within the group as well as be affected by it.
During the first couple of weeks, each topic of research will have a representative from each team. When computational techniques are introduced, they will be incorporated into the research as the tools for initial outputs and thoughts, tests, etc.
For the first review scheduled, each team deliver a project research book.
The studio will then focus on scripting computation as well as prototyping for the Mid-review.
Through computation, if appropriate, the intention of the studio is to explore possibilities of parametrically altered dynamic systems in order to generate a full-scale realizable structure. Here, “dynamic” is intended, as an inclusive term to be understood as multiple aspects: formal development parametrically altered dependent systems. The plan is to use Grasshopper as a tool. Additional script based parameters can be incorporated into Grasshopper strategies.
Such parametric design strategies in tandem with exploration via prototype development will lead to the generation of the overall structure.
Planning the final production, exact assembly methods and configurations, working with Fabric Images in preparation for fabrication will lead us to the Final Review.
Deliverables
Each project research category will be assembled into book form at 11X17 – a project manual that will serve as an artifact for publication.
For project reviews, the book pages can be disassembled into presentation format – 22X34 drawings, a minimum of 2 per research category.
There should be a graphic consistency amongst all materials. All project research and development must be tracked graphically, and presented fully developed and annotated, each phase relating to the one prior. It is required that each item produced have a clear conceptual standpoint, be translated, interpreted, reinvented.
Considerable importance will be placed on physical models as a means to investigate one’s ideas, designs and intentions – material tests, a multiplicity of models at several scales, and an abundance of full-scale prototypes.
The studio will culminate in a full-scale installation, as an all-studio effort. The process will require planning, strategy, and measure, but it thrives on emergence, local tactics, and experimentation/invention.
Schedule
| AUGUST | |||
| Week #1 | 08/31 | Monday | Studio selection, studio overview, student presentations, student group formation & program assignment |
| SEPTEMBER | |||
| 09/03 | Thursday | RESEARCH: PROGRAM, SITE, MATERIAL, TECHNIQUE, PATTERN
Desk crits – due:
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| Week #2 | 09/07 | Monday | LABOR DAY – NO CLASS |
| 09/10 | Thursday | RESEARCH: PROGRAM, SITE, MATERIAL, TECHNIQUE, PATTERN
Pin-up – due:
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| Week #3 | 09/14 | Monday | RESEARCH: PROGRAM, SITE, MATERIAL, TECHNIQUE, PATTERN
Desk crits – due:
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| 09/17 | Thursday | RESEARCH: PROGRAM, SITE, MATERIAL, TECHNIQUE, PATTERN
Pin-up – due:
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| 09/19 | Saturday | RESEARCH: PROGRAM, SITE, MATERIAL, TECHNIQUE, PATTERN
Desk crits – research development discussion Start of computation/scripting instruction |
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| Week #4 | 09/21 | Monday | RESEARCH: PROGRAM, SITE, MATERIAL, TECHNIQUE, PATTERN
Desk crits – due:
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| 09/24 | Thursday | RESEARCH: technique, material & precedent
Desk crits – due:
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| 09/26 | Saturday | RESEARCH: PROGRAM, SITE, MATERIAL, TECHNIQUE, PATTERN
Desk crits – research development discussion Computation/scripting development |
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| Week #5 | 09/28 | Monday | STUDIO REVIEW 1
RESEARCH: PROGRAM, SITE, MATERIAL, TECHNIQUE, PATTERN |
| OCTOBER | |||
| 10/01 | Thursday | EXPERIMENTATION/PROTOTYPING
Pin-up – due:
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| Week #6 | 10/05 | Monday | EXPERIMENTATION/PROTOTYPING
Pin-up – due:
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| 10/07 | Saturday | EXPERIMENTATION/PROTOTYPING
Desk crits – prototyping discussion Prototype planning & review of all models |
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| 10/08 | Thursday | EXPERIMENTATION/PROTOTYPING
Pin-up – due:
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| 10/10 | Saturday | EXPERIMENTATION/PROTOTYPING
Desk crits – Prototype development |
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| Week #7 | 10/12 | Monday | EXPERIMENTATION/PROTOTYPING
Desk crits – due:
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| 10/15 | Thursday | EXPERIMENTATION/PROTOTYPING
Desk crits – due:
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| 10/17 | Saturday | EXPERIMENTATION/PROTOTYPING
Overview of all materials produced to date |
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| Week #8 | 10/19 | Monday | MID-REVIEW
EXPERIMENTATION/PROTOTYPING 3 DISCRETE PROTOTYPES |
| 10/22 | Thursday | FULL DESIGN
Group discussion re installation direction & planning Desk crits – prototype selection & production development including schedule |
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| Week #9 | 10/26 | Monday | FULL DESIGN
Desk crits |
| 10/29 | Thursday | FULL DESIGN
Desk crits |
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| NOVEMBER | |||
| Week #10 | 11/02 | Monday | FULL DESIGN
Pin-up |
| 11/05 | Thursday | FULL DESIGN
Desk crits |
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| 11/07 | Saturday | FULL DESIGN
Desk crits |
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| Week #11 | 11/09 | Monday | FULL DESIGN
Pin-up |
| 11/12 | Thursday | FULL DESIGN
Desk crits |
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| 11/14 | Saturday | FULL DESIGN
Desk crits |
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| Week #12 | 11/16 | Monday | FULL DESIGN
Desk crits |
| 11/19 | Thursday | FULL DESIGN
Pin-up |
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| Week #13 | 11/23 | Monday | FULL DESIGN
Desk crits |
| 11/26 | Thursday | Thanksgiving Day – no class | |
| Week #14 | 11/30 | Monday | FINAL REVIEW – DRY RUN |
| DECEMBER | |||
| 12/03 | Thursday | Installation/application development / Production | |
| 12/05 | Saturday | Installation/application development / Production | |
| Week #15 | 12/07 | Monday | Installation/application development / Production |
| 12/10 | Thursday |
FINAL REVIEW |
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