Studio Kumpusch_Core I/II 2015/2016 by Christoph a. Kumpusch

ILLITERATE COHERENCIES

Edited By Silvia Cernea Alex Haddad

Critic Photo Contributions Ben Beito Silvia Cernea Alex Haddad

Table of Contents

Foreward by Christoph a. Kumpusch

Seeing the Unseen Mengze Chen

New Familiarities Alexander Haddad

Where Do You Read? Coco Ke Shi

Archives of Conflict Lincoln Antonio

Knowledge Recycling Yizhou Wang

Realizing the Digital Silvia Cernea

Playground for Emotional Development Anosha Zanjani

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Identitatem Identitatis Dylan Belfield

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The Evolution of Spatial Cognition Benjamin Beito

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In Action

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In Process

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Afterward by Alexander Haddad

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Foreward Architecture and Illiteracy:Architecturaliteracy The Library for the Illiterate probes the fusion between [the current state of] evolution and literacy, to suggest a new role for architecture. The Library for the illiterate serves to reasses our collective, communicative, ecological and technological illiteracy by placing a priority on learning from literacy and transforming buildings and communities with architecture as a visual, experiential and virtual stimuli. Christoph a. Kumpusch

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Seeing the Unseen Mengze Chen

There are three important ideas that form the conceptual framework of the thesis: the first is the Anthropocene, the idea that since human life began, our species has interfered with the earth to such an extent that new geological conditions have emerged. We have transformed the earth’s geomorphology, its surface, atmosphere and climate so radically that scientists have named a new geological era, the Anthropocene – a complex technical system of energy, material and information flows that we barely understand; the second idea is that buildings, infrastructure, spaces, cities, urban systems are intensities within the information flow mentioned above; the third idea is that Architecture and Urbanism are deeply tied up with geology and follows geo-logics. Buildings and Cities are geological agents that mobilize geological matter – Earth, Air, Water, Fire. The elements relate us to nature as a physical phenomenon that can be experienced with the senses and is there-

fore directly connected with architecture, which addresses the real construction of the world, the alchemic operation that turns concepts into material. How can this intimacy be exploited through architecture? How can design intervene strategically and instrumentally reshape or redirect flows of geological matter and energy in its fundamental form, i.e. the elements? The elements, which are comprised of matter and energy, relates us to nature and geological context as a physical phenomenon that can be experienced with senses. The design proposes the library of Elements – Earth, Air, Water, Fire. The spaces will act as conduit for the elements, mobilize the elements and bring them to presence, curating a sequential journey and alchemic process which will also generate various programs that are functional, experiential and spiritual.

Experiential Diagrams

Model Diagrams

Plan Diagrams

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Chamber Models

Longitudinal Section

Cross Section

Exploded Axonimetric

Experiential Diagrams

New Familiarities Alexander Haddad

Teh relstionahip beetwen oen’s emtionoal staets, thier enrivonment, adn teh memnetos taht trcae emnoital enevts is oen wichh deos not sscubribe to a lniear cuasal sttrcuure. Emoitons shpae the way envrionemnts are pereicved jsut as evnironemnts can shpae emoiton. Mmeentos teid wtih emootinal hiotsry can trgiger emotnoial rectaions jsut as emioton can emebd iteslf wihtin menemtos—etenralziing fuutre emoitonal hitsories. Furhter, cetrain emtoional sattes, as in the csae of phboia, semeingly faimliar stmilui aer albe to tkae on fatnasitcal emotinoal rloes. Tihs prjoect, a slef-stroage lirbary, sekes to dipslace one’s eomtional (dis)conenction to the memetno thorugh the braedkown of the famliiar, anaolgous to the way one expreiecnes phboia. Can the meemnto be rceast as the unafmiilar, can the ufnaimliar be recsat as teh memetno, cna memtenos be trafnserred bewteen poeple? Thorguh a seqenutial colalpse of inetrioirty, moevment, and prespetcive, prorgam and cicrualtion muatte tehir roels as arcihtetcural sujbects. As oen’s bdoy mvoes thorugh the lbirary’s sequecne of sapce, enlcosure and surafce ditsort and mtuate btoh spaitally

adn strcutuarlly so taht the archtiecutre beocmes fuonded nto on an a pirori deifntiion btu rahter, on teh meemnto craeted by teh indviidual moivng though teh seuqence. Deepndent on teh uesr’s seqeuntial odrer, perectpion, adn meomry, one’s psychogoegrpahy muattes to from indviidual mmeentos adn acrhitcetures. The lirbary sipmly prvoides tihs conxett by wihch oen cna desopit pesronal memnetos and chcek out thsoe of the unafmliiar. The colalpse of rloe adn sqeuence spaitally alolws teh uesr to re-wirte the hitsoires and mtyhs surorunding unfmailiar obejcts witihn teh lirbary thruogh an emoitonal sytnheiss wtih teh ojbects thmesleves. The lirbray is a pulbic slef-stroage faciilty. Pepole cna cmoe adn depsoit thier presonal memetnos as a from of plubic autoiborgaphy. Strngaers tehn can cmoe and cehck out tehse froeign obejcts, as teh libarry’s arcihtceture wrties the myhts of tehir new famiilairty.

Sectional Diagram

Orthographic Projection Sequence

Sections

Familial Mementos as Sequential Typologies

Memory-Creation Patina Diagrams

Psychogram

Details

Psychogram

Familial Models

Model Detail

Where Do You Read? Coco Ke Shi

The unstable nature of city can make us sick. The wall of houses mostly alike one another in modern districts deprives the pedestrians of all sense of orientation. The streets full of rushing crowds and vehicles amplify the labyrinthine spaces for one who is haunted by his two dimensional doubles in the mirror glass skyscrapers. Institutional settings, such as libraries, even if entitled as a therapeutic treatment for human minds through knowledge and education, inevitably contribute to this social estrangement and alienation through its articulation of spaces and subjects. The omnipresent bookshelves and stacks manifest the library as the space only for the literate. The high enough ceiling overwhelming all the human scale experiences, despite its attempt to establish a public open space, standing in stark contrast to the extremely silent atmosphere. The reading rooms become a luxury, in that people are no longer able to find an intimate space, uniquely for him/ herself, to acquire knowledge through its particular means.

Therefore, this project tries to rearticulate the library spaces as psychically charged reading rooms through the use of human bodyscale experiences to center, to fix and to stabilize the model of harmonious unity. By introducing interactive artistic activities such as music, drama, dance, painting and poetry into the process of human knowledge acquisition, this visual library not only archives words and languages, but also collects sound, images and movements that document homely communications between people, and between people and spaces. It is not a library solely for the literate, but for all who need an emotional and mental therapy from the uneven urban anxiety and modern nostalgia. In a large macro scale, the library is a category of therapeutic reading rooms and experiences that rescue people from the urban turbulence. In a smaller micro scale, each space is an archive of respective elements that constitute the uniqueness of this space.

Room Axonimetrics

Room Typologies

Plan

Through-Building Section

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Site Axonimetric

Archives of Conflict Lincoln Antonio

Located on the intersection of Fulton Street and DeKalb Avenue, this project focuses on developing a new public library which houses archives of war and conflict, both past and present. The archives, circulation, reading rooms, and community event areas experience both visual and programmatic overlap, creating “conflict space” in which the rhythm and of a particular zone is interrupted, altered, or converted entirely. The structural elements which surround the interior program form a system that acts both as an exterior shell and an interior framework, drawing from the structural representation described in Ruskin’s Nature of the Gothic as well as the celebration of prefabricated steel manufacturing of the industrial era. One of the defining moments in this project is the overlapping visual archives, which extend through several floors. In this collection, indexed content displays information on each conflict from several different sources, tracking where information overlaps as well as where it differs.

Exploded Axonimetric

Study Models

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Longitudinal Section

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Knowledge Recycling Against Environmental Indifference Yizhou Wang

The library of environments is an environmental and intellectual statement against the ignorance and indifference towards the status quo and evolving trends of environments, in the connotations of nature, academia, society, and urban gesture. The library, as the converging singularity of information in various forms in the urban settings, is the transportation hub of collecting, archiving, and emitting the information. In our vision of re-thinking this library for the illiterate, the library should also be the re-distribution hub of knowledge re-creation, through the fragmentation, selection, deletion, and reconfiguration of knowledge knots. These actions should be provided by the library to the all the people, regardless of which stages they are at in the spectrum of cognition to the environmental literacy, even though each group of the key demographics calls for the distinct typology of space, or environment. In other words, the library would play the catalytic character in the recycling, reprocessing and reconfiguring the knowledge, for the operational process of performing these actions would be the instrumental path against the illiteracy, ignorance, and indifference, or even reluctance towards the concerns of environments

This social and intellectual manifesto calls for itself to be projected onto the urban fabric of the library, where the structure and volume have to shape the idiosyncrasy, in that the internal sophistication and conjugation of various environments of the library would be externalized, and so would the catalytic effects. Therefore, the inhabitable pillar form is employed both volumetrically and symbolically as the experimentation site of the knowledge recycling dedicated for different selected categories of people, the uneducated, general public, students, and scholars. What is more important is the ambiguity and fluidity in connecting these pillars together, which was formalized through the floating structure as the corresponding part of the spatial duality, the communal space to engender the mixture and communication of people with different levels of environmental illiteracy. What we hope to ultimately accomplish is the cross-reference catalytic effect between people and people, people and knowledge, as well as between knowledge and knowledge, towards environmental literacy.

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Realizing the Digital Silvia Cernea

Digital illiteracy. The precise shifting through of information online. Isolating the true from the false. This library does not separate the digital from the physical, but is the seam between the two. Oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online persona is a manifestation both of their physical surroundings and their own personality. Coupled with anonymity, the digital realm becomes an overwhelming repository of information, governed by the faceless masses. By instating a curated set of scholars who research and parse through both digital and physical information in the form of online research and books, a visitor to the library can learn a distilled, precise knowledge set that hones in on the important and gives a hierarchy to information. The

library itself is created by learning from and extending forth from the site context, just as our online personas extend from our physical world. With multiple access points and a double-layered circulation that intertwines and only combines at certain points, the visitor has a set walking path that intersects with a server and book delivery strip. This â&#x20AC;&#x153;digitalâ&#x20AC;? strip serves both as structure and a physical manifestation of the cloud for an information-packed neighborhood server. With the changing surroundings it is more and more important to retain the spirit of site, and this community information center is a step towards knowledge and remembrance.

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Playground for Emotional Development Anosha Zanjani

Emotional literacy is the aptitude to recognize, label, and understand feelings in both oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s self and others. It is a prerequisite skill to emotional regulation, successful interpersonal interactions and problem solvingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it is one of the most important skills a child is taught in their early years. The Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Library for Emotional Literacy plays on the notion of fantasy and imagination within the offered play areas while teaching children emotion-

al literacy through picture books, imitation, documentation, and classroom exercises. Resting on the theory that make-believe play facilitates children in the process of replaying their experiences, the library allows visitors to understand and gain knowledge by projecting their own symbolic schemes onto reality.

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Identitatem Identitatis Dylan Belfield

When designing for illiteracy, it is important to consider how the occupants are to learn without relying on the written word. Playing with the notion of how distance and visibility between spaces change how pervasive the feeling of being watched is perceived, the library allows users to explore the notion of identity, and begin to peel back the different identities that oneself contains. Within interlocking spaces at a multitude of scales, people can observe each other in public, intimate, and introspective situations. The collection then, is not a simple archive of books, but rather a temporal accumulation of human experiences, truly embracing the spirit of educating the illiterate without relying on a system of literacy. A strong divide occurs between an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s truest desires and feelings and the mannerisms and actions they display in public. Conventionally, individuals develop three masks with which to interact in society: the first mask is displayed in public settings, determining how one acts around loose acquaintances or strangers; the second mask exists to define how one acts in intimate situations among friends and family in the semi-private realm; and the third mask is the most personal of all, the most genuine reflection of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thoughts and behaviors, reserved for only the most introspective and private circumstances. However, with the advent of the internet age, a new mask has emerged, one which blends the characteristics of an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s innermost private mask with the mannerisms and candor of the semi-private mask and the situational experience of the public mask. This new mask has begun to bleed between the realities of the physical and the digital, and is enabled

by the anonymity provided by the internet. The morality of an individual shifts drastically depending on which mask one subconsciously wears, which is in turn determined by the situations one finds oneself in. The library invites users to discover and learn about their specific identities and the identities of others, and how these particular settings influence how people interact and react. The library encourages occupants to investigate identities through the dichotomy present between the voyeur and the exhibitionist. The portion located on the site creates strong visual tension between itself and the more public fragment on the plaza, never quite touching while allowing views into each. Various pods graft onto the surrounding buildings, playing with the notion of being watched and how far apart spaces need to be in order to instigate the feeling of being surveilled. Obscured by the proliferation of linear elements and refractions within the glass while remaining exposed to more distant areas, the interlocking spaces provide areas for people to observe each other while others meet up and hang out in some of the more open spaces. Using natural light to highlight spaces and conversely diminish attention in others, users are able to watch others while remaining somewhat concealed from their observed subjects while still remaining visible to others in more distant areas. The library seeks to turn the notion of the observer and the observed on its head, turning the voyeur into the exhibitionist, and allowing occupants to explore the notion of identities in ways they otherwise might not be able to.

Model Diagram

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The Evolution of Spatial Cognition Benjamin Beito

In the spirit of architectural education and the future of spatial depiction, I proposed a library designed to teach Cognitive spatial literacy: the ability to comprehend and manipulate systems of geometric forms through the mind in conjunction with the hands. The library program is organized in a five-floor progression from unconstrained spatial play, to strategic spatial theorization. The top floor features a research center dedicated to the technological development of the interactive hologram modeling table! The architecture presents itself as a continuous, winding bookshelf structure supplemented with foliage-laden terraces. The interior sports adventurous circulation with an assortment of sunken pits to promote a relaxed, yet dynamic environment for spatial learning.

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Afterward The library as both a literal and phenomenal construct holds within itself the ability to invade public life with the same arresting qualities as thought production. The library as a typology can transcend its language-based interiority and extend into the epistemological, the phenomenological, the inarticulable; it can extend out into forbidden illiteracies and unfound coherencies. It lives without breathing and collects without purchase. The library whispers, but it makes no sound. Alexander Haddad

Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation Core Studio II

Library for the Illiterate Professor Christoph a. Kumpusch Spring 2016 Students: Mengze Chen Alexander Haddad Coco Ke Shi Lincoln Antonio Yizhou Wang Silvia Cernea Anosha Zanjani Dylan Belfield Benjamin Beito Thank You to All of the Critics: Amale Andraos Jose Araguez Stella Betts Todd Brown Tei Carpenter Patrice Derrington Kenneth Frampton Douglas Gauthier Mimi Huang Ivy Hume Julie Janiski Dr. Mark Morris Dr. Tracie Morris Saretta Morgen Kate Orff Ilias Papageorgiou Lyn Rice Rachely Rotem Dr. Anthony Titus Dimitra Tsachrelia Eirini Tsachrelia Uri Wegman