AA Summer School 2017
C.R.A.P Clashing Rubbish Assembling Props Sabrina Morreale Lorenzo Perri
AA Summer School 2017 - C.R.A.P.
KITBASHING KITBASHING is a practice whereby a new scale model is created by taking pieces out of commercial kits. Ready-made fragments are de-contextualized in terms of meaning, proportions and materiality to create a radically new artifact. Nowadays it is particularly relevant, considering the overwhelming abundance of informations, goods, cultures and iconographies that surrounds us. Architecture must become a collision among this multitude of fragments, far beyond its disciplinary boundaries. Architects are now asked to introduce an unexpected order and unconventional hierarchies. KITBASHING is then a design approach rather than just a technique. It is a medicine against the flatness of preconceived architectural references, a recipe to clash aesthetics, technologies and ways of thinking apparently incompatible.
Kitbash (1)-MODIFY
The practice of modifying a model (not limited to toy action figures) to achieve some result other than that intended by the manufacturer.
Kitbash (2)-RECYCLE
To modify any project and crap it up with non-stock parts, often with interesting results. Use of existing or scrap pieces (from just about anything) is usually preferred to fabrication of new ones.
Kitbash (3)-INTERTWINE
A term used in the video game industry to imply something that can be easily created from preexisting assets by a person who has no actual idea of what the job will entail.
Kitbash (4)-CONSTRUCT
The practice of taking two plastic model kits, and using parts from both to make a new model.
Piranesi, via Appia 1756, Fontanelle cemetery, Naples 1660 and Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition ,Gage Architects 2014
AA Summer School 2017 - C.R.A.P.
AA Summer School 2017 - C.R.A.P.
CULTURAL HYBRIDS Nowadays, the digital kitbashing seems just related to a formal exercise of unlimited ornamentation and articulation of shapes, then made homogeneous in terms of material qualities. However, even these purely technological compounds can be transformed through symbolic appropriation. Looking back at the history, we see less obvious examples of kitbashing as a cultural act, mainly belonging to these two categories:
The world of creatures The Centaurs developed both in the context of classical mythology and in the modern pop culture, can be grouped morphologically according to their constituent features and species. The fact of adding specific animal parts to human beings is always based on cultural and contextual circumstances. The results are different humanoids able to reassure or to instill fear and revulsion just through their aspect. Moreover, fragments of creatures and biological pieces can be used as spatial tools. In the paintings of P.Bruegel, H.Bosch and S. Dalì, humans and animals are dissected, accumulated and distorted to create architectural stage-sets.
Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights 1500, Roberto Ferri, Centaur, 1978 and Dali, The Temptation of St. Anthony, 1946
The world of machineries The Steampunk aesthetics is made of anachronistic technologies and retro-futuristic inventions, deeply connected to the idea of depicting a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has maintained mainstream usage, or a fantastic world that similarly employs steam power. Merging the genres of fantasy, horror, historical and speculative fiction, one of steampunk’s most significant features is the way in which it mixes digital media with traditional handmade art forms.
Becher, Blast-furnaces 1980, Textile Machine in Prato, 1960, Paolozzi, Robots, 1971 and Halleux’s toys inspired for Tim Burton movies, 2017 AA Summer School 2017 - C.R.A.P.
OUTCOMES AND METHODOLOGY WEEK ONE -Landscape Identify your own field of interest to collect fragments and build your kit, allowing a multitude of different pieces to contaminate it. The hybrid selection is the first stage of your design. Through a series of sketches, drawings, digital iterations and crafted models, a landscape of creatures and machinic objects will appear, setting the basis for further developments.
WEEK TWO -Tapestry The collected fragments are classified, grouped and assembled, then becoming props to be placed on top of your canvas. They create an ambiguous framework, being constrained by the proportions of a background but at the same time exceeding it. The result will be two tapestries - one for each category horizontal accumulations of different objects, in between surfaces and tridimensional spaces.
WEEK THREE -Totem A totem is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe. It is the ideal outcome for a collective project, aiming to conceive the assemblage of fragments as a cultural act. The tapestries become a single vertical inhabitable space, where iconography and experiential narrative coincide.
Maher, House mirage, 2013, Centre Pompidou, Magiciens de la terre, 1989 and Perry, Map of truths and beliefs, 2011 AA Summer School 2017 - C.R.A.P.
SCHEDULE SCHEDULE Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
10:00 Introduction + Unit Presentations
Introduction to the brief: Architecture is just a meaningful clash of C.R.A.P.
Workshop:
Work Session:
Workshop:
Brick Lane Market:
Selecting and Collecting
Assembling a landscape of fragments on a 2D canvas
Kitbashing digital sampling and 3d modeling
Collecting found objects
Tutorials in Unit Space
Work Session:
Film Session: Hugo Cabret M. Scorsese
Drinks!
14:00 Unit Selections + First Unit Meeting
Seminar:
Work Session:
The world of Creatures vs The world of Machineries
Sketches, collages, handdrawings
Drinks!
Film Session: Kitbash Kid W.Jun’An H.JingYu
John Soane Museum: A world of fragments by candlelight.
Kitbashingdigital totems
Tutorials in Unit Space
Tutorials in Unit Space
20:00
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
10:00 Work Session: Assembling a tapestry of 3D fragments
INTERMEDIATE JURY
Student Show:
Workshop:
Portfolio presentations
Engraving Cnc + 3D Printing
Tutorials in Unit Space
Tutorials in Unit Space
Tutorials in Unit Space
+
+
+
Crafting Fragments
Refining Pieces
Refining the Assembling
14:00 Pre-Jury Rehersal
Workshop: Layering -
Guest Lecture + Collective Discussion
Work Session:
Film Session: Vatel R. JoffĂŠ
Drinks!
Casting + Moulding
Construction Props vs Stage-Set
20:00 Film Session: Tron 1982 S. Lisberger
Monday
Tuesday
Dinner + Drinks!
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
10:00 Work Session:
Work Session:
Work Session:
Machineries and Creatures as Spatial Tools
Defining Perception and Experience
Defining Narrative and Symbolism
Tutorials in Unit Space
Tutorials in Unit Space
Tutorials in Unit Space
Work Session
FINAL JURY
14:00 Pre-Jury Rehersal
20:00 Film Session: Edward Scissorhands T. Burton
Party + Drinks!
AA Summer School 2017 - C.R.A.P.
Film Session: Star Wars: Episode IV G.Lucas
Saturday
Sunday
Bibliography 1.Architectural fragments- Typografia Bettini,2005 , by Bryan Cyril Thurston 2.Collage, Assemblage, and Altered Art: Creating Unique Images and Objects Paperback 15 Mar 2008 by Diane Maurer-Mathison 3.Aldo Rossi: Drawings and Paintings Hardcover – 30 Jun 1993 by Aldo Rossi 4.Piranesi, 2 Vol. Hardcover – 25 Oct 2011 by Luigi Ficacci 5.The Altered Object: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration Hardcover – 28 Jan 2007 by Terry Taylor 6.Fragments: Architecture and the Unfinished: Essays Presented to Robin Middleton Hardcover April 1, 2006 by Barry Bergdoll, Werner Oechslin 7.Seamless: Digital Collage and Dirty Realism in Contemporary Architecture Hardcover December 15, 2016 by Jesus Vassallo 8.Sir John Soane’s Museum, London Hardcover – 1 Mar 2009 by Tim Knox
Bio(s) Sabrina Morreale and Lorenzo Perri graduated together from the AA in 2016.
Sabrina (Rome,1990) has worked in many architectural practices between London, Italy, Thailand and Cambodia. She is also collaborating with various magazines as illustrator and with the RIBA as curator assistant. Her projects have always been related to the idea of fragmentation, using different media, enhancing the process of how things are made and assembled together. She taught at the AA Summer School 2016, investigating the Gif as a medium to construct space and ideas. http://sabrinamorreale.com/
Lorenzo (Florence,1989) has worked as a consultant for Inter 7 and Diploma 8 at the AA, while participating to several competitions with international firms. He is a co-founder of the research-based Plakat Platform and the Architectural practice Ecòl, whose work has been recently awarded in Italy and Vienna. Obsessed with geometry and aesthetics, precision and expression, before architecture he studied engineering and classical piano. http://e-c-o-l.it/ Lately, they started working together on several projects, using architecture as a methodology to reach different outcomes: toys, pastry tools and story-telling. They have been in Bolivia for the last two months to organize the AA Visiting School, exploring cultural assembling as a realm where architecture meets identity and folklore.
AA Summer School 2017 - C.R.A.P.