Architecture Portfolio 2019 Andrew Chittenden

Andrew Chittenden

SPRING 2019

SCI-Arc

Cover image from VS 2632 Devices & Lessons

Andrew Chittenden 3GB M.Arch I andrew.chittenden@gmail.com 818.618.8985

Andrew Chittenden

FALL 2016-SPRING 2019

SCI-Arc

By gathering photographs from within the existing structure to be adaptively reused, you do not necessarily refute or promote the original intent of the architecture, as you are not limited to a set framing, photographer, timeframe, or sequence.

This approach can also incorporate the material development and decay of the structure. Regardless of whether the fragments are then interpreted through models or through drawing, only gathering content accessible from within— meant here quite literally— focuses its representation on the immanent characteristics of the building as an architectural moment and space, instead of as a wholly perceived object on a ground.

Architecture is fixated on the exterior and the facade.

The 45° axonometric gets eternally privileged for its seeming ability to capture a whole project and collapse it into a single view. But it hides all that the building contains. It hides the actual architecture.

It’s high time we flip things inside out. It’s an urgent necessity: as urban density increases exponentially, the art-object-on-a-pedestal model for architecture grows from outdated and tired to irresponsible and even harmful to the field.

This is not a phenomenological exercise, but a matter of perspective. Or rather, an inversion of perspective—deobjectifying the art-object by internalizing its objectifier.

It’s as simple as placing the camera inside the cluster of flowers instead of in front of them. It’s using virtual reality to design from the inside, or augmented reality to carve away solid mass, to peel back skin. It’s questioning chunks and section models as reprentational methods for complete thoughts, and converting them to process models and new incomplete forms.

It’s questioning the impulse to take a step back to get a wider view. It’s choosing to instead take a step closer.

Step inside.

LEFT A spread from thesis research magazine

Contents P.09

3GB

VERTICAL STUDIO Tom Wiscombe, Spring 2019

P.19

3GA

VERTICAL STUDIO David Ruy, Fall 2018

P.33

2GB

DESIGN STUDIO IV Andrew Zago, Spring 2018

P.55

2GA

DESIGN STUDIO III Devyn Weiser, Fall 2017

P.71

1GB

DESIGN STUDIO II Alexis Rochas, Spring 2017

P.83

1GA

DESIGN STUDIO I Matthew Au, Fall 2016

P.97

3GA

VISUAL STUDIES: DEVICES & LESSONS Anna Neimark, Fall 2018

P.109

2GB

VISUAL STUDIES: inANIMATE

Elena Manferdini, Spring 2018 P.117

2GA

VISUAL STUDIES III

P.129

1GB

VISUAL STUDIES II

Matthew Au + Anna Neimark, Spring 2017 P.141

1GA

VISUAL STUDIES I

Matthew Au + Emmett Zeifman, Fall 2016 P.149

3GB

A.I. ASSEMBLIES Casey Rehm, Spring 2019

P.157

3GA

PROJECT DELIVERY

Pavel Getov + Kerenza Harris, Fall 2018 P.167

2GB

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Herwig Baumgartner + Scott Uriu, Spring 2018 P.180

ESSAYS “Placebo”

WHO’S AFRAID OF RELATIONISM

Sanford Kwinter & Marrikka Trotter, Spring 2018

“Let Shape In” SHAPE

Marrikka Trotter, Spring 2018

“Ent(r)ails” SHAPE

Marrikka Trotter, Spring 2018

“Skin In Bone”

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM II

Marrikka Trotter, Fall 2017

Devyn Weiser, Fall 2017

“Villa Snow White”

INTRO TO CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Todd Gannon, Fall 2016

3GB VERTICAL STUDIO LEFT Midterm model of the Elphinstone Tower model kit, photographed in elevation with the lid removed and the parts nested and stacked as they would be inside the box.

3GB Enchanted Models DS 4001 Vertical Studio Tom Wiscombe | Spring 2019

The thing about architectural models is that they are intended to represent things at another scale. We accept that and imagine things that are much bigger, although we of course know that the model itself is a specific and irreducible entity that does more than just point at the “real” thing. Model kits-- often from outside architecture-- are a special kind of model.

They have the dual quality of both being kits of parts that make a “scale” model, but the “set” is also crucial to the overall understanding of the thing. Further, beyond the set is the box, which is often as crafted and bespoke as the model kit itself, and designed to specifically pack, nestle, and display the parts inside.

This semester we will engage the model kit as a space for experimentation about parts, containers, sets, collections, and related obsessions. We will begin to speculate on how to extend and even break model kit logic.

Course Description, DS 4100 Syllabus

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

MAIN TIMELINE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Home of John Elphinstone Manor extension Manor demolition Wedding venue Partial ruin Baroque manor Gothic extension Addition of crypt Demolition of Gothic extension Demolition of wedding venue

MAIN P 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Neu Spu Voy Caf We Res Mai 1:1 lati 9 Mai 10 Tru 11 Fun

3GB VERTICAL STUDIO

PROGRAM (2021)

utrino detector utnik anomaly yager circulatory orbit feteria dding g venue stricted area in chimney elevator Scale ISS Y-Z ďƒ&#x;ip simuon chamber in social quad uck entrance neral reception area

ELPHINSTONE TOWER

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

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Plans & sections of Elphinstone Tower, MacGibbon & Ross, 1887

Elphinstone Castle, 1926

Ruins of Elphinstone Tower, 2017

View of Tower before Demoltion, 1847

Midterm presentation. Inset imagery are all featured drawings or models inside the model kit.

3GB VERTICAL STUDIO

Containers By modeling the voids within the thick, stone monolithic structure of Elphinstone Tower (built in the 16th century in Scotland) instead of the mass itself, a new understanding of the castle’s organizational structure emerges. Discrete, typologically familiar masses gravitationally cling to larger masses, all wrapped tightly inside a neutral box.

My intervention upon the precedent imagines the skin as a taught yet flexible surface. As each wall is peeled away, the contiguous pieces pull away with it, then rest on the wall as a soft new ground within the model kit, creating a new interpretation of their function.

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Work-in-progress second floor plan of the building as assembled from the model kit on its Columbus, OH site.

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

3GB VERTICAL STUDIO

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Landing on the site Spilling the model kit out onto the site provides a new context to test the generative capabilities of the kit’s method of parting.

The provided program of 200,000 SF of office space allows the parts to behave in two quite disparate ways: as vertical accumulations of small, discrete spaces for private meeting rooms and offices, and as an open floor plan mat building organized by the soft, sagging undulations of the original castle’s walls.

Miniature 3D print of the site model’s constituent parts, as arranged for most efficient 3D printing. As united by the raft, they present yet another (re)vision of the precedent model, and yet another interpretation of site.

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

I designed and co-edited the studio’s short research book on model kits and the historical use of models architecture.

MODEL ONTOLOGY THE INNER LIFE OF MODELS

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Speculative Interiority

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Multiverse

This type of kit projects model speculation

Past, present and future coexist; multiple

into natural objects, imagining an interior for

speculations sit together. Does the mod-

every rock and tree. The Hidden World oper-

el bring the ruin to life, or the drawing

ates on a dual action of carving space out of

bring the model to life? The Multiverse

Work-in-progress second floor plan of the building as assembled from the model kit on its Columbus, OH site.

solid masses, then populating that space with

kit uses all aspects of the object - pack-

an architectural program and spatial system

aging, graphic design, part separation,

logically extrapolated from the exterior form.

etc. to establish alternative realities that

Think evil lairs in mountains, cottages in trees

defy spatio-temporal logic. Box repre-

and castles in the clouds.

sentations use anachronism and weird scales to blur the edges between the actual kit and its subject matter.

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Speculative Past & Future

4. CONTAINERS /WORLDS

THE MODELVERSE

DIORAMAS /STAND-ALONE FIGURES / FIGURES WITH CHUNKS OF GROUND / ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS AS SUPPORT / REAL WORLD SETTINGS / SETS 10

Hidden World

2

10 1. Model Kit by Country 2. Bento Box 3. Diorama Box 4. Hyper Box 5. Radically Different Parts 6. Picture Window 7. Snow Globe

8. Weak Container 9. Multiverse 10. Hidden World 11. Form-Fitted Showcase 12. Bag

THE MODELVERSE 17

1 THE MODELVERSE 2 CONTAINERS /WORLDS 3 FLATLAND

Production constraints e.g. Geometry of injection molding, mass production, etc.

Packaging logistics e.g. Size / weight / shape / fragility of pieces, etc.

Mode of assembly e.g. Gluing, snapping, folding, painting, collecting, etc.

Display of Parts e.g. Window boxes, fantastical box illustrations, etc.

Affect e.g. Cohesion, complexity, surreality, portability, etc.

From these constraints have emerged whole new worlds, alive with their own laws, physics, techniques, fetishes and forms.

They have escaped the gravity of their practical origins and developed forms that defy simple classification.

As a ruin

As it was

A Museum Box The Sir John Soane museum is a model kit box that you can entire and inhabit. Time periods past present and future coexist within the space.

THE MODELVERSE

Many factors have influenced how models are broken down into kits of parts.

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PLANNING

The Open

3GA VERTICAL STUDIO

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LEFT A page from the backNOTATION ground research document on Skid Row and urban development projects.

John Cage’s Fontana Mix positions the composer as the creator of calibrated potentials. It is in the hands of musicians to meaningfully interpret and actualize those potentials. An urban planner’s role is similar, and thus a planner’s notation system must succeed in expanding and calibrating generative potentials for architects, legislators, artists, etc. to explore. If a planner resorts too early to orthographic drawings or end-form zoning code for a master plan, untold potential is immediately discarded. Mallarmé’s poetry does not present an infinite set of interpretations, but instead produces a family Studio of resonant contexts in which to enrich DS 4000 Vertical with new harmonic meanings.

David Ruyeach | Fallword 2018

3GA The Open OBSERVATION

According to Leonard Susskind’s theory of holograms, the amount of information a black hole can contain is limited to its available surface area for “With all its eyes the creature-world beholds the open. projecting that information, and entropy is merely But our eyes, as though reversed, encircle it on every information which we cannot yet collapse onto a side, like traps set round its unobstructed path to single surface, or hold in freedom.” a single view. To reverse the theory, if a planner designs a system—which- Rainer Maria Rilke studio willacross take an extended look at phenomena here can mean any projectThisrealized time—it of extraterritoriality and develop new will only contain that which can be projected onto spatial productsiftoyou extend its potentials.

Extraterritorial spaces its surface. In other words, hope to produce exist outside the normal jurisdictions of nation-states a system with flexibility and with unknown potenand constitute an ambiguous zone in contempotials, a system of observation and representation rary urbanism. Everything from duty-free shopping must be crafted that can describe such unknown areas of airports to embassies to free trade zones to potentials without predefining them. How do you military bases are examples of these peculiar spatial classify a particular species of plant if no two to, are conditions that exist adjacent but ultimately precisely alike? Horticultural provides outsidescience of, the normal spaces of societies. All of these methods for planting and examples successfully nurturing a of spatial can be understood as a kind product that hasThe been shape manufactured healthy plant of an unknown shape. is to fulfill some needoutcome of globalization. unknown because there isunaddressed no “final” to In this studio, we want to understand this phenomena describe. The plant, then, is not so much an entity and design new (and temporal) objects in relationship to it. or species as it is a set of spatial actions and observations Course Description, DS 4000-10 Syllabus repeated and evolved across time.

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[ PROJECT]

This is the new approach to urban planning.

The Open

3GA VERTICAL STUDIO

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How does architecture respond to, account for, incorporate and produce unknowns?

Not unknowns only in a speculative sense, but also in the sense of mathematical variables: the ability to shuffle things around in the abstract that don’t yet have a shape, or that will never have a fixed form.

How does architecture resist revealing what it contains? And can that opaqueness be a positive force, a protective or coquettish stance?

What are we actually seeing when we look at a building?

Containment This project proposes a new approach to urban planning. It views the problem as one of linguistics: that the programmatic language, orthographic projections and representational styles of architecture resist the flexibility and indeterminacy of the unknown that is so critical to planning projects of extremely large scale, complexity or temporal extent. They place their focus on an end form—a non-existent, imaginary state in a city—and therefore cannot effectively participate in the city’s design or execution.

The project examines Skid Row in LA as an extraterritorial zone designated and maintained as part of the city’s broader efforts to address its homelessness and housing crisis. The zone’s foundational policy of containment has yielded fixed infrastructure that is no longer capable of serving its growing and developing population. This project seeks to reformulate the semantics and syntax of its containment strategies— immanent and intrinsic to any extraterritorial zone—to develop more functional lexicons and new systems of notation and formulation with observable generative potential.

What we choose to call something changes what we look for when we try to evaluate the result.

By providing less precise but more intuitively intelligible terminology and notation, can we unblind ourselves to the smaller surface details within the built environment?

Can we notice the forgotten spaces, the forest-dark refuges, and the unknowns that were never even hiding in the first place?

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

ACTION transplant

Notation

A1

John Cage’s Fontana Mix positions the composer as the creator of calibrated potentials. It is in the hands of musicians to meaningfully interpret and actualize those potentials. An urban planner’s role is similar, and thus a planner’s notation system must succeed in expanding and calibrating generative potentials for architects, legislators, artists, etc. to explore. If a planner resorts too early to orthographic drawings or end-form zoning code for a master plan, untold potential is immediately discarded. Mallarmé’s poetry does not present an infinite set of interpretations, but instead produces a family of resonant contexts in which to enrich each word with new harmonic meanings.

transpla

ACTION

CLASSIFICATION

native pla

Observation According to Leonard Susskind’s theory of holograms, the amount of information a black hole can contain is limited to its available surface area for projecting that information, and entropy is merely information which we cannot yet collapse onto a single surface, or hold in a single view. To reverse the theory, if a planner designs a system—which here can mean any project realized across time—it will only contain that which can be projected onto its surface. In other words, if you hope to produce a system with flexibility and with unknown potentials, a system of observation and representation must be crafted that can describe such unknown potentials without predefining them. How do you classify a particular species of plant if no two will ever be precisely alike? Horticultural science provides methods for planting and successfully nurturing a healthy plant of an unknown shape. The shape is unknown because there is no “final” outcome to describe. The plant, then, is not so much an entity or species as it is a set of sustaining actions and observations repeated and evolved across time.

This is the new approach to urban planning.

A planning diagram demonstrating the use of grafting terminology to form a development plan for the renovation of an existing tower into an affordable housing project. While a “composer” creates this diagram, it is up to others to interpret. Architects, legislators, service providers, and all other stalkholder and professionals lend their expertise to shape the design into a spatial product.

CLASS native plants

C1

3GA VERTICAL STUDIO

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ACTION select

ACTION select

A3

A5

ACTION cut

ACTION carve opening

ACTION tie

A4

A6

A7

SETTING raised bed

S1

ant

ants

INTO

SETTING

raised bed

harden off

ACTION

sustain

CLASSIFICATION

native plants

select cut

ACTION

ACTION

AND

CLASSIFICATION

scion

select carve opening ACTION

ACTION

AND CLASSIFICATION

native plants

PART

IN

stock

tie

ACTION

TO

ACTION

CLASS

harden off

scion

A2

PART stock

P1 C2

ACTION sustain

A2a

CLASS native plants

C3

PART

stock

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

LA DEPARTMENT OF BUILDING & SAFETY BUILDING CODE

LA DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING

COUNCIL DISTRICT CITY COUNCIL MEMBER

ZONING CODE

THE COMPANY

COMPOSER

COMMUNITY PLAN SPECIAL ZONE DATABASE CONSTITUENTS

D

LEGISLATORS

ADVOCACY

FINANCERS

LAWYERS

INVESTORS

CONSULTANTS

CITY GOVERNMENT

LOBBYISTS

STATE / FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Networks

SCORE

D

FUNDING

By looking at the actions and actors that produce, maintain, and otherwise affect and participate in an urban planning project, you can see the network that constitutes its reality and the condition of its existence. The diagram (“score”) from the previous page is interpreted by a network of actors (in a “performance”), who produce products and services—the goals of the design.

How and what, then, to observe? In the context of Skid Row and the homelessness crisis, visibility and privacy are two strongest forms of agency available to any otherwise disenfranchised population. While the pervasive visibility of encampments has driven much of the sense of urgency for addressing the problem, over-observation leads to over-enforcement of unpracticable laws and the criminalization of homelessness.

Site is now reimagined as a “zone.” Even if a project were to have a target parcel, the range of actors that affect and support the project extends beyond the parcel’s immediate bounds. The actors may include everything from existing structures and inhabitants to environmental conditions and completely unknown influencing factors.

By accepting the zone and its contents as a dynamic formula filled with unknowns, only patterns of observation balanced with willing blindness can allow for the shaping and guiding of its conditions to a more favorable result. It’s messy, cluttered, collaborative work, far closer to music than computer science.

3GA VERTICAL STUDIO

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THE ZONE CONDUCTOR

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

EXISTING RESIDENTS

EXISTING BUILDINGS

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???

C

PERFORMANCE

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D

C

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DEVELOPERS CORPORATION NON-PROFIT GOV'T AGENCIES

FUNDING

PRODUCTS

SERVICES

PERMANENT INFRASTRUCTURE, TEMPORARY STRUCTURE, SOFTWARE, HEALTH AND HYGEINE PRODUCTS, APPLICATIONS AND QUESTIONNAIRES, PARKS, MACHINES, ETC.

OBSERVATION OF FIELD CONDITIONS, PHOTOGRAPHY, HOMELESS OUTREACH, HEALTHCARE, APPLICATION EVALUATION, SECURITY, DATA PROCESSING, LANDSCAPING, PUBLIC MESSAGING, ETC.

CONTRACTORS ARCHITECTURE

ENFORCEMENT

OUTREACH

TECHNOLOGY

MAINTENANCE

OBSERVATION

LEGISLATION

SUPPORT & CARE

ETC.

FOLLOWING SPREAD

A map of downtown LA showing zones serving as the sites of “scores.” The drawing of a circle on a map encapsulates all the potentials within that area—both manmade an otherwise. The edges of the zone become osmotic membranes through which we can encourage movement and growth. In contrast, dense centers can become areas of sanctuary, the High Line before it was The High Line. Areas where people who want or need to can avoid the objectifying gaze of traditional programming, the criminalizing judgements of their homelessness.

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COMMUNITY PLAN AREA

COMMUNITY PLAN AREA

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CENTRAL CITY

WESTLAKE

Z-T-2017-S013-X

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TEMPORARY ZONE REVISED OCTOBER 21 2018 SCHEDULED TERMINATION: (01) MAY 01 2019 COMMUNITY PLAN AREA(S): (01) CENTRAL CITY CPC2009-2363GPA/ZC JULY 07 2009 COUNCIL DISTRICT(S): (01) COUNCIL DISTRICT 14 JOSE HUIZAR ATTACHED SCORE(S): (01) ZS2017-06103 (GREENHOUSE) (02) ZS2019-03323 (CUTTING)

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TEMPORARY ZONE (CONDITIONAL TERMINATION) REVISED SEPTEMBER 03 2018 COMMUNITY PLAN AREA(S): (01) CENTRAL CITY CPC2009-2363GPA/ZC JULY 07 2009 COUNCIL DISTRICT(S): (01) COUNCIL DISTRICT 14 JOSE HUIZAR ATTACHED SCORE(S): (01) ZS2018-01305 (GRAFT) (02) ZS2019-03323 (CUTTING)

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Z-T-2018-C006-X

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Z-T-2018-C069-X ST

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TEMPORARY ZONE (CONDITIONAL TERMINATION) REVISED DECEMBER 14 2018 COMMUNITY PLAN AREA(S): (01) CENTRAL CITY CPC2009-2363GPA/ZC JULY 07 2009 COUNCIL DISTRICT(S): (01) COUNCIL DISTRICT 14 JOSE HUIZAR ATTACHED SCORE(S): (01) ZS2019-03323 (CUTTING) (02) ZS2019-00061 (HYDROPONICS)

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CM, MR, WC, CCS, UV, UI, UC, M1, M2, LAX, M3, SL

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CR, C1, C1.5, C2, C4, C5, CW, ADP, LASED, CEC, USC, PVSP, PPSP

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R2, RD, RMP, RW2, R3, RAS, R4, R5

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TEMPORARY ZONE EMBEDDED SANCTUARY

COMMUNITY PLAN BOUNDARY OBSERVATION ROUTE

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Z-P-2018-A005-X PERMANENT ZONE* REVISED DECEMBER 10 2018 COMMUNITY PLAN AREA(S): (01) CENTRAL CITY CPC2009-2363GPA/ZC JULY 07 2009 COUNCIL DISTRICT(S): (01) COUNCIL DISTRICT 14 JOSE HUIZAR ATTACHED SCORE(S): (01) ZS2018-01305 (GRAFT) (02) ZS2018-03189 (ECOSPHERE) (03) ZS2019-00419 (ECOSPHERE) (04) ZS2019-03323 (CUTTING) (05) ZS2019-03433 (GRAFT) (06) ZS2019-00013 (GREENHOUSE) (07) ZS2019-00175 (GREENHOUSE) *INCLUDES SANCTUARY ZONE

COMMUNITY PLAN AREA

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COMMUNITY PLAN AREA

CENTRAL CITY

CENTRAL CITY NORTH

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COMMUNITY PLAN AREA

COMMUNITY PLAN AREA

BOYLE HEIGHTS

CENTRAL CITY NORTH

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SANCTUARY ZONE ORD. NO. 526,985, EFF. 9/13/18 ARTICLE 7 ยง17.01.A1 ALL LAND-USE RIGHTS RESERVED RESTRICTED ENFORCEMENT SCHEDULED EVALUATION(S): (1) ONCE WEEKLY PARENT(S): (1) Z-P-2018-A005-X CONDITIONAL EXPIRATION ONLY

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TEMPORARY ZONE REVISED DECEMBER 14 2018 SCHEDULED TERMINATION: (01) FEBRUARY 28 2023 COMMUNITY PLAN AREA(S): (01) CENTRAL CITY NORTH CPC1995-148-GPC FEBRUARY 25 2014 (02) BOYLE HEIGHTS CPC2009-3210GPA/ZC FEBRUARY 12 2014 COUNCIL DISTRICT(S): (01) COUNCIL DISTRICT 14 JOSE HUIZAR ATTACHED SCORE(S): (01) ZS2017-00073 (REPOTTING) (02) ZS2017-06776 (RAISED BED) (03) ZS2019-03323 (CUTTING)

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Surface Exposure Addressing homelessness is an act of integration. It is also a topological conundrum: how can someone within an environment somehow still be outside it? The membrane—the building surface, the invisible edge of a zone, the legal limits of some classification or the duration of an initiative—all are topological barriers, breaks in what seemed to be a continuous, homogeneous space. The integration of an individual therefore becomes the integration of space, and a modulation of surface. The smallest nudge to surface can rewrite environmental relationships, and rewire an entire network.

When does a wall become a window?

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

exposure unknowns

3

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longer capable of serving its growing and developing population. This project seeks to reformulate the semantics and syntax of its containment strategies— immanent and intrinsic to any extraterritorial zone—to develop more functional lexicons and new systems of notation with observable generative potential.

[ PROJECT]

[ PROJECT]

The Open

[ PROJECT]

SEEDS

Executive order requiring immediate occupancy of pre-planned, gridbased villages Communal ownership and farming of centrally planned crops.

Federal Housing Administration subsidies.

TRELLISES

Lax enforcement due to a young, weak government and generally well-meaning leader

Re-zoning of a neighborhood TRELLISES

Strict regulation of village plans, but low/no penalty for cultivation of crops outside of communal villages and land.

Management of publicity and public image

ANALYSIS

ABOVE Facade photograph and typical plan

ANALYSIS

Public narratives about public housing influence their success Stigmatization of public housing encourages people to flee it when they no longer depend on it Economic diversity is a critical component of upward mobility and overall social stability, so demographic segregation tends to detract from public housing’s goals. Encouraging resident retention at existing projects and construction of additional projects to accommodate new residents is a more sustainable and stable path.

drawing, Wohnpark Alt-Erlaa (Harry Glück, Vienna, Austria, 1973). Not requiring economic recertication of residents—and even allowing family members to inherit the property—caused the population to diversify, which promoted stability. Even the floor plans encouraged diversity and long-term ownership, through large private outdoor patios, a large range of apartment sizes, and landings with only a few apartments.

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Sense of stake or ownership (private outdoor spaces, small communal spaces, short hallways and small landings)

COMPULSORY VILLAGIZATION A Tanzanian socialist agenda to collectivize the agriculture industry

LEFT Aerial imagery of (top to bottom) Alt-Erlaa (Vienna), Pruitt-Igoe (St. Louis), and Stuytown (New York). The sucess or promise of a housing project cannot be deduced from its master plan, but multiple subdivided communal spaces and open access to the surrounding neighborhood tend to cultivate stronger sense of ownership and security.

Shortly after Tanzania gains independence from Great Britain in 1961, Julius Nyerere instantiates compulsory villagization and communal farming in ujamaa to unify the agriculture industry for ease of entering the global market.

A worsening national economy induces Nyerere to enforce compulsory villagization more vigorously. Citizens are physically removed from their properties and returned to ujamaa. Most citizens remain in the ujamaa this time, but continue to secretly cultivate lands outside communal areas.

The evenly gridded farms prove to be neither productive or sustainable and many abandon the new villages, returning to their original homes and fields.

The fledgeling government is too weak to strictly enforce their residency.

The national agriculture industry eventually collapses. Nyerere backpedals, loosens enforcement of collectivization. He designates a new capital, Dodoma, modeled on the landscape-conforming growth of pre-ujamaa villages

The Open

The Open

The Open

[ PROJECT]

[ PROJECT]

[ PROJECT]

The type and intensity of enforcement of a zone’s containment appears to play an outsize role in the resulting shape and form of the zone, moreso even than its orignal designation. The enforcement of its principles—or even the principles themselves— must shift across time as internal demographics shift and an administration’s capabilities change. An end form oriented approach to planning is doomed to fail—a perfect circle in planning will grow lumpier in practice. Maintaining the desired topological properties is far more critical to the containment’s success than any specific shape.

Viewing the previous case studies through a topological lens shows that there are two primary forms of containment: demographic containment, where an individual can or must leave once their classification no longer matches the demographics of the zone, and who will get replaced with a new individual who does match the demographic; and individual containment, where the individual stays regardless of their shifting classifications, in which case the zone itself bends and shifts.

The implication in both cases is the flexibility and porousness to the zone’s boundaries. No matter how palpable or permanent the border might seem, things must be both added and removed, whether the addition the extraction of resources (raw materials, wealth, information, etc.) or the passing through of individuals (college matriculation and graduation, hiring and firing of workers, achievements of sobriety, etc.).

Containment zones therefore paradoxically find themselves most effective when placed along edges and boundaries. To amplify or accelerate the zone’s osmosis through its membrane, the differential between the zone and its surrounding, as well as between adjacent zones on the oustide, should be maximized, as well as the surface area of the zone itself.

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By grouping people into villages purely based on geographic location (rather than race or ethnicity), Tanzania managed to avoid the harmful tribalization that struck some neighboring African countries.

Resident retention

Ujamaa density and infrastructure allowed increased access to education, benefitting the populace overall.

Although Nyerere’s economic controls destroyed the country’s agricultural industry (from net exporter to net importer), individuals rarely suffered seriously, due to the adaptability inherent in lax policing.

OPPOSITE The rectilinearity and dense regularity

of the new ujamaa settles stand in stark contract with the initial agricultural landscapes and scattered settlements.

RIGHT When Nyerere later established a new capital for Tanzania, Dodoma (bottom), he modeled the layout not on the European grids of the ujamaas (top), but the landscape-conforming fluidity of original Tanzanian settlements and farms.

PLANNING

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[ PROJECT]

NOTATION

John Cage’s Fontana Mix positions the composer as the creator of calibrated potentials. It is in the hands of musicians to meaningfully interpret and actualize those potentials. An urban planner’s role is similar, and thus a planner’s notation system must succeed in expanding and calibrating generative potentials for architects, legislators, artists, etc. to explore. If a planner resorts too early to orthographic drawings or end-form zoning code for a master plan, untold potential is immediately discarded. Mallarmé’s poetry does not present an infinite set of interpretations, but instead produces a family of resonant contexts in which to enrich each word with new harmonic meanings.

OBSERVATION

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According to Leonard Susskind’s theory of holograms, the amount of information a black hole can contain is limited to its available surface area for projecting that information, and entropy is merely information which we cannot yet collapse onto a single surface, or hold in a single view. To reverse the theory, if a planner designs a system—which here can mean any project realized across time—it will only contain that which can be projected onto its surface. In other words, if you hope to produce a system with flexibility and with unknown potentials, a system of observation and representation must be crafted that can describe such unknown potentials without predefining them. How do you classify a particular species of plant if no two are precisely alike? Horticultural science provides methods for planting and successfully nurturing a healthy plant of an unknown shape. The shape is unknown because there is no “final” outcome to describe. The plant, then, is not so much an entity or species as it is a set of actions and observations repeated and evolved across time.

This is the new approach to urban planning.

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The Open

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The Open

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Sense of long term prospects (protection from economic re-certification)

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containment has yielded fixed infrastructure that is no

FIG 8

2

and housing crisis. The zone’s foundational policy of

FIG 7

1

of the city’s broader efforts to address its homelessness

FIG 6

Public Housing Qualifying winners of a one-time lottery and their heirs (Alt-Erlaa) Corporate Campuses A best and brightest workers in the field Compulsory Villagization (ujamaa) Residents and owners of nearby land parcels at the time of villagization Indian Reservations Descendents and family members of the tribe, as recorded on member rolls

extraterritorial zone designated and maintained as part

FIG 4

(containment of part)

The project examines Skid Row in Los Angeles as an

FIG 3

Individual Containment

execution.

The Open

FIG 3

4

cannot effectively participate in their design or

Development or construction incentives

ADAPTATION 2

temporal extent of urban development, and therefore

FIG 2

Successful housing also carefully managed its public image. While projects like Cabrini Green experienced a catastrophic cascade of bad publicity to the point that residents lost faith in its safety and stability, projects like Stuytown and Alt-Erlaa featured designs elements that broadcast a sense of ownership and security, and heavily publicized highly used amenities (like communal rooftop pools) and high-profile residents.

3

projects of the physical scope, complexity and

Construction or conversion of large, densely packed affordable housing units.

Focusing on this narratives of collapse (like Pruitt-Igoe and Cabrini Green) ignores the myriad housing projects that succeed. One common factor present in successes was resident retention. Housing that did not require economic recertification encouraged residents to stay in the projects even as their incomes and economic status rose. The presence of those more stable residents helped maintain the sense of safety and community necessary for retaining other residents and drawings new ones.

1

and language of zoning are incapable of describing

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FIG 1

SEEDS

In the US, a common narrative for public housing projects begins in 1945 at the end of WWII, with a surge of returning veterans needing homes. During this period, the population in public housing developments were a diverse mix of ages and incomes, producing an overall stable environment. The Housing Act of 1949, however, provided easier access to mortgages, home loans and contruction loans, pushing more citizins into the private housing market and out of public housing. The population that remained was poorer and less socio-economically stable. Declining revenues caused further deterioration from poor maintenance and insufficient security, making the housing projects largely undesirable to anyone other than addicts, criminals, and those who had no other choice. At a certain tipping point, the whole project would collapse.

Public Housing Middle to low-income citizens (PruittIgoe); Recently homeless on the path to sobriety (SRO Housing) College Campuses A diverse selection of the best and brightest young people for 4 years periods Skid Row Homeless seeking services

that the current modes of architectural representation

Andrew Chittenden

[ PROJECT]

(containment of classifications)

planning. It views the problem as one of linguistics:

Skid Row and the linguistics of homelessness

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Demographic Containment

[ PROJECT]

This project proposes a new approach to urban

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syntax observation notation

01 CONTAINMENT

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monoculture enforcement

PUBLIC HOUSING

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[ PROJECT]

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The containment plan was never a legally binding document. The boundaries of Skid Row were not even legally designated until 2006, with the decision of Jones vs City of Los Angeles. In this case, six homeless men argued that citations and arrests for sidewalk sleeping criminalized homelessness. In the text of the decision, the judge—almost in passing—identifies the streets that trace the border of Skid Row. The city’s special enforcement zone thus became officially tied to a concrete boundary with legal precedent, creating a true extraterritorial containment zone.

[ PROJECT]

Land-use self-determination Establishment of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs TRELLISES

Tribe membership rolls become powerful tools to wield in the disbursement of communal profits.

The “checkerboard” portion of Navajo Nation

INDIAN RESERVATIONS The Indian Removal Act of 1830 evicted all Indians from European settlements established reservations for five federally recognized Indian tribes.

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 reversed some of the Dawes Act’s privatization, attempting to reinvigorate communal tribal ownership.

VIEWCONE ZONING

Overcontainment and deliberate overadministration (via allotments from the Dawes Act) led to unusable tracts of land, economically fallow, even with legal sovereignty over land.

But subsequent land buy-back programs produced opportunities to not only expand boundaries, but create new intra-territorial zones, leased by U.S. citizens, but owned collectively by reservation members.

Permitted grazing and land-use beyond the borders of reservations— physically permeable and cartographically flexible—allowed for firmer borders in other capacities, namely zoning, membership and policing, as there were no longer as many incentives for opting not to live on reservation land if a member of the tribe.

TIMEFRAMES

MECHANISMS

Permanent Temporary

Physical Behavioral Legal

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PLAGUE CITIES / PANOPTICONS 3RD

In Discipline and Punish, Foucault posits Bentham’s panopticon as the architectural diagram of his imagined plague city. Through a bureaucratic chain of surveillance and reporting, a single entity (a government) “sees” everything, and can identify, isolate and treat or expel internal disease.

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MANAGED FORESTS

EXPOSURE

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Minor tweaks to external, federal laws still have a profound effect on the internal workings of the reservations.

USERS

Permanent Temporary

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How a city or space is seen to function is nearly as impactful as how it actually functions. Also significant is whose view is being privileged, protected or restricted. The “poor doors” that keep appearing on towers (a grand entrance on the main street for the market rate apartments; a smaller door on a narrow side street for the rent controlled ones) demonstrate how even mixed housing can entrench separateness and inequality.

What do Main Street’s new cafes look like from the Midnight Mission? Should we shine a crisp light into the depths of Skid Row? Or is there a right to some malleable darkness?

COLLEGE CAMPUSES

The forest resists rationalization.

Colleges enroll potential-rich students and maximize their surface exposure to information and opportunities. While enrolled, adjacencies are to other students, prospective majors, and experimental technologies; approaching graduation, adjacencies are to successful alumni, potential careers, and additional research openings. Opportunity-rich environments are broad evaporative surfaces, facilitating the swift passing through of individual molecules.

The construction of any sizable infrastructure within a forest requires the clearing of trees, thus architecture stands mostly in opposition to the forest—always beside or without or in place of it. The forest has thus resisted ownership.

CORPORATE CAMPUSES

In contrast, corporate campuses wish to limit evaporative exposure, to retain any individual with worthwhile contributions. Internal adjacencies are flexibly reconfigured and carefully managed, producing pockets of isolation along shared communication networks.

It was inevitable that mankind would try to tame it. But before it could be tamed, it had to be quantified. Trees were counted and catalogued. Lists and tables were drawn. The irrational could now be seen at a glance, rationalized into a neat grid on a single page.

COWORKING OFFICE SPACES

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[ PROJECT]

[ PROJECT]

The forest has historically been a resource, a refuge, a hiding place, a dark space. Within it were wild game and crops, witches and gods, shelter and protection. Should crops in a nearby village fall short, the forest’s untamed growth could shoulder the burden for a while.

But the forest was still irrational in itself. The next step was to make the natural world more closely mirror the clean, measured table made of it. The map yearned to reshape the land itself.

Between the two campus types lie coworking spaces like WeWork. While colleges provide educational services, and corporations produce goods and services, coworking spaces are pure adjacency, pure surface—they produce nothing, only facilitate movement.

Physical space begins to mirror educational and professional adjacencies as coworking spaces locate themselves near large company offices in university cities, hoping to build and monteize the bridge between education and career.

The first attempts at scientific forest management in Germany in the 18th century had disastrous conse-

quences. Monoculture forests depleted soil nutrients often within a single generation, destroying not only the forest, but the countless ecosystems that depended on it, ranging from wild game to foraging crops to freshwater.

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This seems overly simplistic. While the plague city faces ever inward, the panopticon faces outward.

The authority is an identifiable point in the center, looking out at a carefully defined perimeter for any sign of transgression or sign of need.

The Skid Row Housing Trust and SRO Housing together develop and manage virtually all public housing within Skid Row’s boundaries, but the two take very different approaches.

The clean, two-dimensional charts were unable to account for or even describe on a baisc level the complexity of the system they were aiming to reshape and capitalize upon. It was not a failure of imagination, nor a willful ignorance, but an inadequacy of notation and representation. If the farmers could have foreseen the farthest reaching consequences, or if they could even have just observed the effects of their actions more immediately and concretely, they could have accomplished their goals.

3RD

SRO Housing

They could have accommodated the irrationality and unpredictability of large ecosystems, and retained the forest’s dark, sustaining unknown pockets. To make something fully knowable is to destroy unknown potential. By rationalizing the irrational, we exhaust the generative potential of chaos to the antichaotic mind.

Before the High Line became a park, it was a forest.

FIG 12-16

Tribal Nations Buyback Program, spurred by the Cobell v. Salazar (2009) settlement, provided funding for tribes to buy back allotments with multiple owners and return them to communal ownership.

[ PROJECT]

FIG 11

The Dawes Act of 1887, in a reversal, tried to fracture reservations by providing individuals, rather than tribes, with parcels of land called allotments. This converted communal ownership to personal ownership, with the goal of eventually obliviating all reservations and converting them to privately owned U.S. land.

[ PROJECT]

Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, as it winds over ridges in the Santa Monica Mountains, is designated a scenic parkway with scenic resources demanding protection. The London View Management Framework is a 300 page document outlining how to protect culturally significant viewpoints of certain monuments and features throughout the city. In The City and the City, two adversarial cities occupy the same physical space, but maintain strict separation by each citizen’s trained ability “unsee” the other city’s citizens.

FIG 10

A mish-mash of conflicting acts and laws that attempted, alternately, to fracture and disperse, unite and empower, contract and expand officially designated land

The Open

BOUNDARIES

IN

Legal recognition of tribal sovereignty (treaties)

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SCALES

Building Solid (Literal) Neighborhood Porous (Literal) City Crosshatch State Invisible

MA

SEEDS

All containment zones operate in two distinct phases: first, the initial designation, and then its subsequent enforcement. The first phase could be anything ranging from the construction of physical infrastructure to a speech act; the latter phase incorporates maintenance of and modification to that initial infrastructure, enforcement of economic and behavioral laws, maintenance of public image, federal and local legislation, termination of the zone, and more.

SRO Housing pairs all its housing with addiction and mental health services. Most of its residences mandate sobriety. The Trust, on the other hand, will rent to anyone who qualifies on their application.

Although services are often located within or near to the facilities, sobriety is never a requirement.

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Guides further reorganization across time: Policing and enforcement Laws, zoning and regulations Formal (visual and viewcone) design Social dynamics Maintenance of physical infrastructure

ALAMEDA ST

SEZs, on the other hand, openly and persistently present themselves to virtually all their inhabitants.

Their special permissions (or prohibitions) are their

2. The Trellis (Enforcement)

ALAMEDA ST

ET

Spurs a spatial reorganization: Physical infrastucture Laws, zoning and regulations Speech acts Economic incentives Events and disasters

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1. The Seed (Designation)

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Containment develops over time

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public housing campuses compulsory villagization plague city or panopticon indian reservations viewcone zoning managed forests

IN

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CONTAINMENT

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Extraterritorial zones should not be automatically conflated with traditional zoning. Only a select few interact directly with zoning code (architects, developers and city officials being the primary users), and even those interactions are typically restricted to a single point in a development process. Once construction is complete—or often once an entitlement has been granted—there will be no further interactions with zoning law, barring some flagrant violation or natural disaster. The code itself is also just the starting point for design decisions. In cities like Los Angeles, most large construction requires variances to the code, for which there is no equivalent master plan or set of guidelines. Variances are instead granted at the discretion of Zoning Administrators in the Department of City Planning upon petition.

There’s no intrinsic requirement for homelessness or housing shortages to be addressed with special zones, but the City of Los Angeles opted into such a strategy when it adopted a policy of containment in 1976.

Skid Row already existed as an area of especially dense homelessness and poverty at that point. The containment plan did not advocate variances of law enforcement within the zone, but instead proposed concentrating resources for the homeless within the neighborhood. The rationale was twofold. Services could be rendered more efficiently to a concentrated population than to a dispersed one. But on a much more sinister level, a defined, isolated zone could also keep the homeless in, out of sight of the rest of the population. As the latter priority grew more dominant, focus shifted to crafting inducements that kept the homeless population contained, leading to variances on matters like sidewalk sleeping and public urination. An inhabitant of Skid Row, accustomed to these allowances, would feel uncomfortable ever leaving.

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“Covering fifty city blocks immediately east of downtown Los Angeles, Skid Row is bordered by Third Street to the north, Seventh Street to the south, Alameda Street to the east, and Main Street to the West.”

Jones vs City of Los Angeles No. 04-55324.

Decided: April 14, 2006

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3R

[ PROJECT]

Strategies of containment have been applied across an enormous range of scales, locations, and eras, from individual buildings to entire nations, temporary installations to permanent infrastructure. Many good intentions have produced profoundly negative consequences—yet just as many questionable motives have produced unintended benefits. What is evident is that few who endeavor to create any contained system anticipate the complexity of maintaining that system, nor the effort required across time to guide it towoard its intended effects. If we are to inherit Skid Row as a zone of containment, even if only to dissolve it, we must understand what is there, and why it works the way it does.

000

SKID ROW

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[ PROJECT]

sole raison-d’être, and were they to fade entirely from consciousness or use, either the zone itself would dissolve into its surroundings, or its population would depart.

ALAMEDA ST

Written another way, SRO Housing sees Skid Row as the plague city, a disease lurking within. Solving Skid Row involves finding and curing the disease.

They cluster their buildings—typically minimally restored existing structures—together in dense pockets deep within the center of Skid Row, isolating and containing the problems of addiction and mental health before releasing its patients out into greater Skid Row or beyond.

The Trust, in contrast, is the panopticon. It sees its resources as part of the region’s stability, and sees the threat coming from outside, as developers squeeze in ever more tightly around Skid Row’s borders, threatening to oust the underpowered and underrepresented residents. It thus spreads its buildings far and wide across the zone, as if to better lay claim to the territory. They have twice commissioned new structures from famous architects, as if to draw outside attention to their claim, and to set themselves on equal footing as their inevitable invaders.

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[ PROJECT]

[ PROJECT]

Image Citations Google Maps. “Kaufpark Alterlaa.” Accessed September 28, 2018. goo.gl/ maps/zA8kbAtSkk52. Screenshot by author.

Pruitt-Igoe Google Maps. “Stuyvesant Town.” Accessed September 28, 2018. goo.gl/ maps/HEawoEefD1n. Screenshot by author.

FIG 4 Thomas Ledl. “Alterlaa Pflanztröge.” November 5, 2011. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alterlaa_Pflanztröge.jpg FIG 5 “Wohnpark Alterlaa Floor.” Open Plans. Digital image. Accessed September 28, 2018. plans.arch.ethz.ch/archives/building/wohnpark-alterlaa FIG 6 Jannik Boesen, Birgit Storgard Madsen, Tony Moody. Ujamaa: Socialism from Above. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1977. 175179.

FIG 7 Google Maps. “Kabuku, Handeni, Tanzania.” Accessed September 24, 2018. goo.gl/maps/zFE38dQCDKv. Screenshot by author.

FIG 8 Google Maps. “Dodoma, Tanzania.” Accessed September 24, 2018. goo.gl/ maps/auXYB9Zpzrt. Screenshot by author.

FIG 9 Google Maps. “Navajo Nation Reservation.” Accessed September 24, 2018. goo.gl/maps/RFWY1smbBJD2. Screenshot by author.

FIG 10 Hal Bergman. “Mulholland Drive, Beverly Hills - Aerial Shot.” Digital image. January 24, 2018. halbergman.com/stock.

FIG 11 Mayor of London. “Map 1: Protected Vistas.” London View Management Framework. London: Greater London Authority, 2012. 12-13.

FIG 12 Joel Sternfeld. A Railroad Artifact. June 26, 2018. High Line. www.thehighline.org/photos-videos/by-photographer/joel-sternfeld.

FIG 13 Nicolas Poussin. “The Triumph of Pan,” 1636. Oil on canvas. London, The National Gallery. Accessed October 8, 2018. www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ paintings/nicolas-poussin-the-triumph-of-pan.

FIG 14 George Shaw. “The Rude Screen,” 2015-2016. Enamel on canvas. London, The National Gallery. Accessed October 8, 2018. www.artsy.net/artwork/ george-shaw-the-rude-screen.

FIG 15 Sander Van de Moortel. “Forest or Plantation?” Digital image. Agroforestry World. March 16, 2015. blog.worldagroforestry.org/index. php/2015/03/16/forests-whats-in-a-name.

FIG 16 “Spruce growth near Kronach Germany.” Popular Science Monthly.

Vol. 83, 1913. Accessed October 9, 2018. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:PSM_V83_D595_Spruce_growth_near_kronach_germany.png.

FIG 17 “Star Apartments.” Digital image. Skid Row Housing Trust. Accessed September 13, 2018. skidrow.org/buildings/star-apartments.

FIG 18 “Ellis.” Digital image. SRO Housing Corporation. Accessed November 21, 2018. www.srohousing.org/property-management.html.

FIG 19 John Cage. “Fontana Mix,” 1958. Accessed October 8, 2018. www.straebel.de/praxis/text/t-cage-fontana.htm FIG 20 Stéphane Mallarmé. Collected Poems and Other Verse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. 142.

FIG 1 FIG 2

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The Open

The Open

References Denise Hruby. “Why rich people in Austria want to live in housing projects.” PRI Global Post. October 26, 2015. https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-10-26/why-rich-people-austria-want-live-housing-projects.

James C. Scott. Seeing Like a State. New Haven: Yale University, 1998.

Jannik Boesen, Birgit Storgard Madsen, Tony Moody. Ujamaa: Socialism from Above. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1977.

John Cage. Notations. New York: Something Else Press, 1969 Jones v. City of Los Angeles, 2006. U.S. 9th Circ. No. 04-55324.

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FIG 3

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That a studio investigating extraterritoriality would concern itself with Skid Row is not a given. Located in central Downtown Los Angeles, Skid Row nonetheless shares many features of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) around the world, even if its goals are not purely economic. What is unique about such zones is not so much their architecture, nor even their broader physical characteristics, but rather the selective enforcement (typically, the lax enforcement or non-enforcement) of laws, regulations and norms governing the surrounding area. With humans erased from the image, the boundary between Skid Row and the rest of DTLA might blur or vanish altogether at places. But inhabitants’ behavior and enforcement of law differ so markedly that with humans in the picture, the boundary becomes crystal clear.

FIG 9

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3GA VERTICAL STUDIO

Stéphane Mallarmé. Collected Poems and Other Verse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Roman Mars. “The Containment Plan.” 99% Invisible. Podcast audio, October 10, 2017. 99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-containment-plan.

Leonard Susskind. “The World As Hologram.” Lecture, TVO Big Ideas.

June 28, 2011.

Michel Foucault. “Panopticism.” In Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, translated by A. Sheridan, 195-228. Vintage Books, 1995.

The Open

Spreads from the background research book

2GB DESIGN STUDIO IV LEFT Model photograph of the base of the atrium’s monumental stair

2GB Design Studio IV DS 1121 Big _____ Building Andrew Zago | Spring 2018

“Urban studies never attribute significant importance to research dealing with singular urban artifacts.”

Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City

With the 2GB Studio the curriculum shifts its attention to the study of the relationship of architecture to urbanism and, more specifically, of the architectural artifact as urbanism. The studio project is for a very large mixed use building in the Chicago loop to replace Helmut Jahn’s James R. Thompson Center (formerly the State of Illinois Building), and is to be conceived in relation to the current controversy surrounding the proposed sale of the building. The studio’s main focus is on disciplinary questions of the relationships amongst typology, function, and form in urbanism. These questions will be considered as they relate to current issues of urban politics and policy, infrastructure, and large scale buildings.

Course Description, DS 1121 Syllabus

33

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

Base of the monumental stair, showing double-height stairs for seating

2GB DESIGN STUDIO IV

Sky lobby for the hotel and restaurants, along with escalators servicing the government offices

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2GB DESIGN STUDIO IV

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

The proposal structures itself around the atrium, which forms a continuous forking path throughout the building, with two glazed openings for sunlight on the southeast corner, and two glazed openings on the northwest.

The atrium’s shape, in the dotted context of the overall building massing

The program calls for a mixture of three primary programs: government offices, commercial offices, and a hotel. However, the program also calls to maintain the scale of the enormous atrium of the current Thompson Center, or to else expand it further.

SKY LOBBY

The issue with atriums is that they tend only to activate the comparatively small footprint at the ground level, or else serve as a light well for upper stories’ windows or balconies. In either situation, it becomes a distant object (or vacuum) that can be viewed but not entered. My hope was for the atrium itself to lift up into the building, becoming both a space for relaxation and events, but also a thoroughfare. The resulting operations yielded a 9-story staircase, nearly 200ft wide at its base.

RETAIL GOVERNMENT OFFICE SKY LOBBY

COMMERICAL OFFICE HOTEL MONUMENTAL STAIR

Program diagram

RETAIL GOVERNMENT OFFICE COMMERICAL OFFICE HOTEL MONUMENTAL STAIR

Such a large staircase would be neither usable nor occupiable without careful consideration. Every other landing is 6 feet deep, allowing horizontal traversal across the level surface stretching from one side of the building to the other. In addition, there are stadium-like openings into the floors behind the staircase on each landing. These are a convenience on some floors, but a necessity for others, whose landings may be block by cores or columns. Lastly, double height and depth steps running straight up the slope create a continuous seating space, accessible from all floors, turning the atirum into a viewing arena of sorts for the city beyond the windows.

2GB DESIGN STUDIO IV

9th floor plan, at the top of the monumental staircase

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Basement level

9TH FLOOR BASEMENT

Ground Floor

GROUND 9TH FLOOR FLOOR

9th floor (Top of monumental stair) 9TH FLOOR

NS Section

2

21ST FLOOR (SKY LOBBY)

2GB DESIGN STUDIO IV

21st floor (Hotel sky lobby)

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30th floor

30TH FLOOR

35th floor

35TH FLOOR

EW Section

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

The slope not only helps carry people up into and around within the building, but also forms an inviting gesture of welcome to the buildings and people in its vicinity. The diagonal southeast orientation of the monumental staircase’s entrance opens the building to both the City Hall and County Offices to the south across Randolph Street, but also diagonally across the street to the Daley Center, a federal building. As the program is a union between government agencies and commercial business, its openness to the surroundings and connectedness to other government functions is more than symbolic.

As can be seen in the following spread’s massing model photograph, the north face of the building hoists itself up over the surrounding buildings, not only making the building part of the skyline from the river, but also affording excellent unobstructed views for the hotel located on the top ten floors.

2GB DESIGN STUDIO IV

Collaged renders facing northeast (aerial) and northwest (street level)

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View facing south-southwest

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

2GB DESIGN STUDIO IV

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46 Northwest and southeast views of the 1:400 scale massing model. The color coding and other cladding differentations illustrate the topological properties of the building, whereine the surfaces flip into themselves and emerge on the other side--producing the atrium.

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

2GB DESIGN STUDIO IV

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2GB DESIGN STUDIO IV

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OPPOSITE PAGE Stuffed animals served as the material for the first topological experiments, due to their pliability--geometry was irrelevant, just topology. The product boxes required more geometric consideration, but had clear inner and outer surfaces, such that the flipping, rotating and inverting of segments of the box could read clearly. The bottom Jiffy cornbread boxes inspired the operations that produced the sloping atrium, skewing themselves at the seam between inverted andnormal surfaces, hoisting part of the box off the ground.

Model photographs of an abstract geometric study of the topological operations developed through the stuffed animals and product boxes. Using Palazzo Farnese’s basic typology, the courtyard “O” shape is broken in the middle at an off angle, with the remaining half flipped inside out and skewed upward. By registering the points of skwing quite precisely, opportune openings for light and circulation could be easily achieved.

LEFT

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Bank of England, John Soane

Palazzo Farnese, Antonio de Sangallo the Younger

Le Baigne de Chaux, C.N. Ledoux

ABOVE AND LEFT Study drawings of precedent typologies, with the circulation systems and spatial volumes drawn to be emphasized. I selected Palazzo Farnese as a simple typology, in order to grant myself the greatest precision in registering the operations.

2GB DESIGN STUDIO IV

Palazzo Uffizi, Giorgio Vasari

RIGHT The

topological operations are applied to the Palazzo Farnese, flipping the typology on its side, then rotating, skewing, and flipping inside out one half of the form, such that it lifts a large portion of the building’s mass high into the air.

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Lever House, Gordeon Bunshaft

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2GB DESIGN STUDIO IV

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2GA DESIGN STUDIO III

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LEFT 3/32” section model, entrance to theater.

2GA Design Studio III DS 1120 Playing Against Type Devyn Weiser | Fall 2017 Partners: Maximillian Tavdi, Dasha Ragimova

The brief for 2GA is the Walt Disney Animation Center located in Burbank, CA. Combining masterful artistry and storytelling with groundbreaking technology, Walt Disney Animation Center is a filmmaker-driven animation studio responsible for creating some of the most innovative films ever made.

The studio will critically consider the idea of “type” and “model” in the context of a renewed interest in objecthood — a discourse that posits typological thinking as a problem of collections and catalogues rather than periodization or classification. While no longer concerned with the origin of architecture (Laugier), imitation of nature (Quatremére), or taxonomy of types (Durand), this trans-temporal and nontheistic attitude articulates new ways of engaging the rapidly expanding archive of objects available to the designer.

Course Description, DS 1120 Syllabusa

Site Plan 1/32” = 1’-0”

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2GA DESIGN STUDIO III

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Combined south and west elevations

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Section AA

A

A-102

A-101

A-103

C-102

C-101

C-102 B-104

B B-106 C-101

A B-103

C-104 B-102

B-101 B-105

B

Ground floor plan

2GA DESIGN STUDIO III

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Section BB

A-101

Building A (Tower)

A-101 Offices A-102 Theater A-103 Gallery Building B (Edge) B-106

C-103

B-102

B-102

B-101 B-102 B-103 B-104 B-105 B-106

Cafe/Retail Studio Cafeteria Stages Storage Meeting Room

Building C (Cluster)

C-101 C-102 C-103 C-104 Typical floor plan

Meeting Room Classroom Library VR Space

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2GA DESIGN STUDIO III

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When Walt Disney opened his animation studio in the early 1920s, it was a far different operation than it is today. The scrappy underdog of a business was crammed into a Los Feliz storefront, with most its animators living in tiny bungalows a few blocks away.

Mickey was different back then, too: a mischievous prankster struggling to get his way against characters bigger and stronger than him. This is a far cry from the golden-child, corporate edutainment mascot he mostly serves as today, and a far cry from the monolithic entertainment umbrella company the Walt Disney Corporation has come to represent.

What’s exciting about building an incubator on the Walt Disney Animation Studios lot is that it’s a chance to bring back the mischief and the scrappiness, the chance to cultivate a new Walt and a new “mouse-against-the-world.”

It’s a chance to break the monolith down into smaller, more nimble pieces.

ABOVE & LEFT Research drawings compositing multiple Mickey Mouse tweens into a single frame, investigating the different character and energy espoused by each unique pose in relation to the overall composition.

BELOW & RIGHT Model

photographs from final presentations and intermediate critiques

Artwork from Steamboat Willie (1928)

2GA DESIGN STUDIO III

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Artwork from Fantasia (1940)

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

ED

Se ar tin

Edge

TO

Pi at ve ot

Room

Tower Tower

Volume

Bridge/Cantilever

CL

Pi or ra ea w

Plinth

Delamination

Cluster

2GA DESIGN STUDIO III

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Tower

DGE

Cluster

everal pieces in a linear rrangement, forminga connuous boundary volume

OWER

ieces either stacked one top the other or oriented ertically next to one anther

LUSTER

ieces arranged radially r with implied enclosure, ather than continuous linarity. Sometimes combined with low stacking.

Edge

Rather than select several architectural pieces to arrange within a single composition, we instead selected a single form (which looks like a d, or maybe p, or ’, or...), from which we produced our own new typology, arranging two or more of the forms into various positions, and studying the intersections, overlaps, and relationships those juxtapositions produce. Instead of unifying and homogenizing dissimilar objects (Walt Disney Corporation), we wanted to find the full breadth of expression latent within a single piece of geometry, to bring out its full potential, with all its complexity and multiplicities of meanings (Walt E. Disney).

Shifting to the interior of these newly assembled and arranged pieces inverts the conversation. The focus is no longer the legibility of a single geometric volume repeating, but instead the dissimilar intersections, gaps, and tangencies the compositions produce. These interstitial and residual forms drive the program and circulation, and determine where connections might appear, or perhaps terminate; which interior volumes appear whole, and which appear segmented, nested, or compressed. As a result, program can be distributed much less homogenously.

The basic unit of office/studio spaces occupy many different volumes across all three structures. Though each office may be As we evaluated our results, we narrowed equivalent in space and amenities, each has the arrangements to three typologies that would react productively to the site geome- a completely unique form and character; try: an edge, a tower, and a cluster. The edge imbuing (and encouraging) individuality, diversity and difference—some of the most would orient and contain the campus. The tower would begin or terminate circulation. important principles to cultivate within an incubator, especially for Disney.

The cluster would organize the negative space implied by the other two.

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

Chunk of the “Tower” cluster, reveealing the theater, gallery, and office space within.

OFFICE

GALLERY

THEATER

2GA DESIGN STUDIO III

67

Roof plan and east 90° axonometric drawing. The differentiation between red perforated tile cladding and grey fibre-reinforced concrete cladding was produced by projecting the same “p” shape across the massing at various orthogonal and isometric angles.

Site Plan 1/32” = 1’-0”

The “Cluster” building contains the campus library and education facilities, along with some office space. The “Edge” building contains the cafeteria, retail space, and the the largest continuous office space of the three buildings. The presence of office space in all three buildings allows each to have its own characteristics an identity, without one having a hierarchical dominance over any other.

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3/32” section model views

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

2GA DESIGN STUDIO III

3/64” massing model views

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1GB DESIGN STUDIO II OPPOSITE 3rd

floor plan of proposed Frogtown duplex

1GB Design Studio II DS 1101 Fundamentals of Architecture II Alexis Rochas | Spring 2017

The 1GB studio expands on the fundamental problems of architectural geometry and representation developed in the 1GA studio, completing the foundational studio sequence of the first-year. The studio project is a duplex of two single-family homes in Los Angeles. The form and program of the duplex is framed through the analog of the diptych painting: a symmetrically arrayed pair of frames that contain calibrated similarities and differences, each image complete in and of itself while simultaneously comprising part of a whole.

Course Description, DS 1101 Syllabus

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

1GB DESIGN STUDIO II

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

PREVIOUS SPREAD

ABOVE AND OPPOSITE

Photo of 3d-printed ABS model of duplex

Sections and elevations of proposed Frogtown duplex

1GB DESIGN STUDIO II

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FOLLOWING SPREAD

1st and 3rd floor plans of proposed Frogtown duplex

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN GROUND FLOOR PLAN

1GB DESIGN STUDIO II 3RD FLOOR PLAN

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

ABOVE 3rd floor plan, isolating the section cuts to emphasize the loose enclosure OPPOSITE Figure-ground-

studies to develop the duplex’s massing and program

1GB DESIGN STUDIO II

The form, massing and circulation of the duplex originates from the concept of a loose interlock. As seen in the diagram above (based on a Chillida print), two figues within a ground can be arranged to produce a layout with no determinate figure-ground relationship— there are no perfect enclosures.

The diagrams below show the generation of the duplex’s massing by producing loosely interlocked forms in both plan and elevation, then overlaying and booleaning the resulting intersecting volumes.

The loose interlock concept then guides the systems of excavating the volumes, as well as delaminating shell surfaces: as much as possible, masses are broken up to always loosely define—but never fully enclose—interior spaces.

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

LEFT AND OPPOSITE

Photos of 3D-printed ABS model of duplex

1GB DESIGN STUDIO II

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1GA DESIGN STUDIO I OPPOSITE Site

plan, Hyde Park Library proposal.

FOLLOWING SPREAD

Developed Drawing, Hyde Park Library proposal.

1GA Design Studio I DS 1100: Fundamental Architectural Principles I Matthew Au | Fall 2016

The 1GA studio introduces students to the central problems of architecture—geometry, form, and space—through the technologies of their description—diagramming, drawing, and model making.

Introductory exercises emphasize the role of drawing and analysis as both descriptive and generative. Students pay close attention to the development of ideas that inform an iterative and creative process for working with many different media: from physical models, to two-dimensional drawings, to digital interfaces. The course culminates in the design of a small public building in Los Angeles.

Course Abstract, DS 1100 Syllabus

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

1GA DESIGN STUDIO I

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

Section Cut 1 SECTION 1 (WEST) | ANDREW CHITTENDEN | AU | 1GA STUDIO

SECTION CUT 1

SECTION CUT 2

Ground floor plan FIRST FLOOR PLAN | ANDREW CHITTENDEN | AU | 1GA STUDIO

1GA DESIGN STUDIO I

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Section Cut 2 SECTION 2 (NORTH) | ANDREW CHITTENDEN | AU | 1GA STUDIO

SECTION CUT 1

SECTION CUT 2

2nd floor plan SECOND FLOOR PLAN | ANDREW CHITTENDEN | AU | 1GA STUDIO

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

1GA DESIGN STUDIO I

OPPOSITE AND RIGHT

Photographs of section models of final proposal for the Hyde Park Library

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

1GA DESIGN STUDIO I

91

Rather than treating the gridded cladding as a water-tight surface, I wrapped it around the model like wrapping paper around a gift, allowing it to overlap itself, creating moments of offset with both the edges of surface and the grid alignment on the surface. These offsets and built-up thicknesses could be unraveled for openings into volume, or used to orient internal structure.

OPPOSITE LEFT

OPPOSITE RIGHT

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT

Process models developing a wireframe form through misinterpretations of its oblique views and intersections with alternate misinterpretations.

Drawings and process models developing surfaces to wrap the wireframe, and thicknesses to extrude around the wireframe.

“Fat� model, grid-wrapped surface model, drawing of grid wrapping. I focused on double wrapping to produce additional thickness and interference in the grid.

ABOVE AND OPPOSITE

Drawing and photographs of the Tony Smith Smokebased polyhedron grid.

1GA DESIGN STUDIO I

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3GA VISUAL STUDIES LEFT Still frame of “Cubes Unboxed” unboxing video

3GA Visual Studies VS 2632 Devices & Lessons Anna Neimark | Fall 2018 Partners: Samuel Flower, Nicholas Gochnour, Ji Qi

Josef Albers holds up a circle in the air. Nikolai Ladovsky built the Oglazometr. We are all familiar with the nine-square problem kit used by John Hejduk to train students at the Cooper Union.

These models and exercises made lessons into games that could be played and practiced by generations of students. There was something primitive about them, something very basic, or at the base of knowledge.

Anyone could participate; therefore, everyone could be disciplined. In a recent study of the history of such learning, Zeynep Çelik Alexander referred to this training as “kinaesthetic knowing.” We will unpack some of these terms and historic lessons and build new pedagogical devices that express contemporary learning. The techniques will be familiar as this class will help unpack recent pedagogies in order to develop some distance from within. It will be an in-depth study in diagramming with material props, through physical model photography. We will focus on advancing conceptual thinking, and will engage in visual presentations, reading discussions, and the production of exhibition quality models.

Course Abstract, VS 2632 Syllabus

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Project 1 Orthographic Representation

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

3GA VISUAL STUDIES: DEVICES & LESSONS

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The branded “Cubes with Tubes” game set for teaching architectural representation techniques through kinesthetic exercies.

3GA VISUAL STUDIES: DEVICES & LESSONS

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Cubes with Tubes

ISOMETRIC CUBE

ISOMETRIC CUBE

REGULAR CUBE

REGULAR CUBE

ISOMETRIC CUBE

SMOKE CELL

SMOKE CELL

REGULAR CUBE

FLAT AXON

FLAT ISOMETRIC

SMOKE CELL

ISOMETRIC CUBE

(x4)

A

(x6)

B

C

(x2)

D

The game set we created, provides fixed joints, which are connected by a set of eight sticks. Each set of joints works for only one shape. And since there are only eight sticks, you can only build one shape at a time. The joints are closed­—as in, even though the shapes they produce can be tiled to produce a grid, the joints only produce a single cell. By restricting the possible shapes you can produce, the game can act as an instructive tool, illustrating the differences and similarities between the shapes: which ones have uniform joints, which ones have the greatest number of unique joints, which angles repeat, which are unique. By letting you only build one at a time, you must continually build and deconstruct them, kinesthetically reinforcing your understanding of the underlying geometries and projection methods, thereby equipping you to better develop your skills of architectural representation.

SMOKE CELL

SMOKE CELL

FLAT AXON

FLAT ISOMETRIC

But the sticks would just be sticks were it not for the packaging and the included instruction set and drawings. The pedagogy would not actually leave the walls of the school. By turning it into a branded game, the lessons can escape the institution and reach a broader audience. Latour stressed the importance of portable information (like maps, carried back home from the land they cart). The game is both literally portable (a small, lightweight box) and experientially portable (it includes instructions, and its limited set of outcomes means anyone can participate).

FLAT ISOMETRIC

(x2)

E

(x2)

F

(x6)

G

(x2)

FLAT AXONOMETRIC

H

(x4)

I

(x2)

(x12)

(x12)

CUBES WITH TUBES

CUBE

J

(x2)

K

(x2)

(x12)

L

(x8) (x12)

(x12)

B L

“The game of over-complicating simple geometry!”

L

E

A

D

G

A

B

L

C

B

G

F

K

H B

J

J

G

F

A

D

H

G

J

L L

J

K

B

L G C

G

E

J

J

A L B

TOP

L

AXO

TOP

AXO

TOP

AXO

TOP

The included instruction set shows which joins (A-L) connect to form which of the five possible shapes: Smoke cell, regular cube, isometric cube, flat isometric cube, and flat axonometric cube.

AXO

TOP

AXO

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8_Yih5Q7qM

“Cubes Unboxed� Unboxing Video Part of what makes branded and packaged content portable is the branding and packaging itself. Thus grew a fascination with unpacking and unboxing. We looked at the world of unboxing videos, and found it to be the perfect medium for sending our product and pedagogy out into the world. By cloaking it in the familiar format of the Youtube unboxing video, we rid architectural pedagogy of its intimidating reputation, and allow people to take their first basic steps into this complicated world.

3GA VISUAL STUDIES: DEVICES & LESSONS

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Project 2 Layers Architecture is the accumulation of layers.

A simple white 8.5x11� rectangle can be peeled into many different constituent layers:

Material: Paint on top of drywall....on plywood, over metals studs, over batt insulation over concrete over rebar. Some layers are more permanent than others. Briefest of all is the rectangle of 4-star paper used for a pin up.

Material Process: Paint on paint....on paint on paint on paint. Nearly 3/16� of paint has accumulated on this particular surface, dozens of layers.

Process: Demolition specifications. Producing this object requires a set of instructions and definitions and descriptive drawings. This goes beyond tools and means of construction: there are permissions to acquire (from facilities and John Enright). There are suppositions about what might be behind the wall that cannot be predicted with certainty. There are terms that must be parsed explicitly for a time frame beyond the act itself: remove, remove and salvage, remove and replace.

3GA VISUAL STUDIES: DEVICES & LESSONS

Like the apocryphal stories of brick-whisperer Louis Kahn sensing the weight of a building by holding a brick while standing in front of it, this unit of drywall aids in kinesthetic training of material sense. As we float in a digital world of 2D textures on NURB surfaces, the physical weight of the drywall chunk pulls our feet back to the ground. We see the extent of the infrastructure that stands quite literally behind and quite literally supports the pin ups forming the foundation of SCI-Arc pedagogy.

The size and shape of the drywall chunk, mimicking the most standard and prevalent unit of paper in the U.S. (8.5x11” letter), causes us to reinterpret the wall as legible document. Holding the chunk in our hands, we now look at the wall as a record of its use: we read the pin holes from countless reviews, the sunken chunks from overstrong 3M mounting tape or sloppy repaintings. We read the back—actual writing on the back! We see the rips in the drywall where our knives were imprecise.

And thus the newly constructed drywall chunk replaced into the wall is a completely different object. Not just literally (as it is an actual separate object). But because its placement and context tells us to read it entirely differently. It is a rock pretending to be a wall, instead of a wall pretending to be a book. It is material attempting to become a meaningful object, rather than an object attempting to shed its meaning, return to materiality.

While the rest of the wall built up its thickness and shape unplanned over time, the replacement piece must attempt to achieve its end form, not its initial condition. This can be done either by focusing purely on form (backing the drywall with chipboard to account for additional thickness), or by mimicking the processes that led to the end form (applying dozens of layers of paint). Neither method actually replaces what is removed.

The chunk clearly belongs as part of the wall’s larger continuity—it follows the original surface. But it never quite lines up. There will always be some subtle out-of-placeness. Krauss attempted to contrast centrifugal and centripetal grids in modern art: do the borders of the painting crop a grid that spreads infinitely in all directions beyond the edge? Or do the lines of the grid end, describing not an infinite field, but a finite canvas which is the painting’s world, collapse it onto the surface? The wall chunk begs this question: did you learn more about the wall by removing and replacing the chunk, or did you create an entirely new wall?

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106 SCI Arc Presentation Wall Investigation Los Angeles, CA VS 2632 (01)

SCI Arc Presentation Wall Investigation Los Angeles, CA VS 2632 (01)

29 November 2018 Construction Administration

SECTION 024119 - SELECTIVE DEMOLITION

29 November 2018 Construction Administration

SCI Arc Presentation Wall Investigation Los Angeles, CA VS 2632 (01)

PART 1 - GENERAL

1.2 SUMMARY A. This project requires, but is not limited to, selective demolition to complete the following: 1. Develop an understanding of the substrate wall assembly in a way that physically engages the existing architecture.

2. Question the use and/or function of the pin up space.

3. Begin to consider demolition as an act of forensic uncovering for the purpose of attaining knowledge.

A. Remove: Detach items from existing construction and legally dispose of them offsite unless indicated to be removed and salvaged or removed and reinstalled.

B. Remove and Salvage: Carefully detach from existing construction, in a manner to prevent damage, and deliver to Owner ready for reuse.

C. Remove and Reinstall: Detach items from existing construction, prepare for reuse, and reinstall where indicated.

D. Existing to Remain: Existing items of construction that are not to be permanently removed and that are not otherwise indicated to be removed, removed and salvaged, or removed and reinstalled.

D. Protect walls, ceilings, floors, and other existing finish work that are to remain.

Erect and maintain dustproof partitions. Cover and protect furniture, furnishings, and equipment that have not been removed.

A. Items indicated to be removed and salvaged remain Owner's property. Carefully detach from existing construction, in a manner to prevent damage, and deliver to Owner ready for reuse. Include fasteners or brackets needed for reattachment elsewhere.

E. Provide and maintain shoring, bracing, and structural supports as required to preserve stability and prevent movement, settlement, or collapse of construction and finishes to remain, and to prevent unexpected or uncontrolled movement or collapse of construction being demolished.

B. Predemolition Photographs: Show existing conditions of adjoining construction and site improvements. Submit before Work begins.

F. Provide temporary weather protection to prevent water leakage and damage to structure and interior areas.

C. Owner will occupy portions of building immediately adjacent to selective demolition area. Conduct selective demolition so Owner's operations will not be disrupted.

G. Requirements for Building Reuse:

A. Unless otherwise indicated, demolition waste becomes property of Contractor.

PART 2 - PRODUCTS

B. Historic items, relics, antiques, and similar objects including, but not limited to, cornerstones and their contents, commemorative plaques and tablets, and other items of interest or value to Owner that may be uncovered during demolition remain the property of Owner.

2.1 PEFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS

1. Maintain existing building structure (including structural floor and roof decking) and envelope (exterior skin and framing, excluding window assemblies and nonstructural roofing material) not indicated to be demolished; do not demolish such existing construction beyond indicated limits.

2. Maintain existing interior nonstructural elements (interior walls, doors, floor coverings, and ceiling systems) not indicated to be demolished; do not demolish such existing construction beyond indicated limits.

H. Neatly cut openings and holes plumb, square, and true to dimensions required.

Use cutting methods least likely to damage construction to remain or adjoining construction.

A. Regulatory Requirements: Comply with EPA regulations and with hauling and disposal regulations of authorities having jurisdiction.

I. Remove demolition waste materials from Project site and legally dispose of them in an EPA approved landfill. Do not burn demolished materials.

B. Standards: Comply with ANSI/ASSE A10.6 and NFPA 241.

1. Carefully salvage in a manner to prevent damage and promptly return to Owner.

SELECTIVE DEMOLITION

C. Provide temporary barricades and other protection required to prevent injury to people and damage to adjacent buildings and facilities to remain.

D. It is not expected that hazardous materials will be encountered in the work. If hazardous materials are encountered, do not disturb; immediately notify Architect and Owner. Hazardous materials will be removed by Owner under a separate contract.

1.4 MATERIALS OWNERSHIP

SELECTIVE DEMOLITION

024119 - 1

END OF SECTION 024119

B. Locate, identify, shut off, disconnect, and seal or cap off indicated utility services and mechanical/electrical systems serving areas to be selectively demolished.

1.6 SECTION REQUIREMENTS

1.3 DEFINITIONS

29 November 2018 Construction Administration

J. Clean adjacent structures and improvements of dust, dirt, and debris caused by selective demolition operations. Return adjacent areas to condition existing before selective demolition operations began.

A. Maintain services/systems indicated to remain and protect them against damage during selective demolition operations. Before proceeding with demolition, provide temporary services/systems that bypass area of selective demolition and that maintain continuity of services/systems to other parts of the building.

1. Inspect and discuss condition of construction to be selectively demolished.

2. Review structural load limitations of existing structure.

3. Review and finalize selective demolition schedule and verify availability of materials, demolition personnel, equipment, and facilities needed to make progress and avoid delays.

4. Review requirements of work performed by other trades that rely on substrates exposed by selective demolition operations.

5. Review areas where existing construction is to remain and requires protection.

6. Review selective demolition procedures for work to be done in Historic Preservation Zones noted in the Construction Documents. Provide full explanation on how historic elements will be protected during construction.

A. Drawings and general provisions of the Contract, including General and Supplementary Conditions and Notable Correspondence, apply to this Section.

SCI Arc Presentation Wall Investigation Los Angeles, CA VS 2632 (01)

3.1 DEMOLITION

A. Pre-demolition Conference: Conduct conference at Project site.

1.1 RELATED DOCUMENTS

29 November 2018 Construction Administration

PART 3 - EXECUTION

1.5 PREINSTALLATION MEETINGS

024119 - 2

SELECTIVE DEMOLITION

024119 - 3

SELECTIVE DEMOLITION

024119 - 4

ROW 1 Demolition 5'-0" AFF 11"

AREA OF SELECTED DEMOLITION

DUNN-EDWARDS SUPREMA® INTERIOR FLAT PAINT

5/8" GYPSUM WALL BOARD

1/2" PLYWOOD BACKING

AREA OF SELECTED DEMOLITION

2 8-1/2"

35"

A-3

12/7/2018

VS 2632 (01)

A-2

12/7/2018

VS 2632 (01)

A-1

12/7/2018

VS 2632 (01)

DEMOLITION ELEVATION

1'=1-1/2"

SELECTIVE DEMOLITION DETAILS

SCI ARC PRESENTATION WALL INVESTIGATION

78-1/2"

2 A-3

8-1/2"

KEEP AREA CLEAR

1 A-3

SELECTIVE DEMOLITION PLAN

1 A-2

SCI ARC PRESENTATION WALL INVESTIGATION

WORK REGION PLAN

SCI ARC PRESENTATION WALL INVESTIGATION

SOUTH GALLERY

3-5/8" MTL. STUD TYP.

MTL. FASTNER

DEMOLITION SECTION

1'=1-1/2"

AREA OF SELECTED DEMOLITION

1/2" PLYWOOD BACKING

5/8" GYPSUM WALL BOARD

DEMOLITION PLAN

1'=1"

WORK REGION PLAN

1'=1/32"

DUNN-EDWARDS SUPREMA® INTERIOR FLAT PAINT

1

1

1

specifications for the removal of the wall piece

5'-0" AFF

11"

ROW 2 Architectural

plan, section and elevation drawings of proposed removal

ROW 3 Correspondence

with facilities staff and Institute leadership for permissions and coordination of work.

ROW 4 Drawings

of the removed wall piece, and photograph of the wall piece itself.

Andrew Chittenden <chitty923@gmail.com>

Andrew Chittenden <chitty923@gmail.com>

Andrew Chittenden <chitty923@gmail.com>

Andrew Chittenden <chitty923@gmail.com>

Visual Studies Project Special Permission Request

Permission for Wall Intervention

Permission for Wall Intervention

Permission for Wall Intervention

Andrew Chittenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 1:59 PM To: "Enright, John" <john_enright@sciarc.edu> Cc: samuel flower <soflower65@gmail.com>, qijiwonder@outlook.com, Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>

Andrew Chittenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 1:07 PM To: Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>, George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Cc: samuel flower <soflower65@gmail.com>, Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>, qijiwonder@outlook.com

Andrew Chittenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 1:57 PM To: Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>, George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Cc: samuel flower <soflower65@gmail.com>, Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>, qijiwonder@outlook.com

Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu> Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 10:40 AM To: Andrew Chittenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com>, George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Cc: Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>, qijiwonder@outlook.com, samuel flower <soflower65@gmail.com>

Hi John!

Hi George!

Thanks for the swift response!

We've been developing a project about removals and architectural layering for our VS seminar. For our final presentation next week, we wanted to perform and document an act of removal on a SCI-Arc pin up wall. We've been working with the unit of an 8.5x11" rectangle of drywall. Our hope is to precisely cut out that rectangle from a wall, and replace in the wall an exact equivalent piece (which we have already built and painted). Contrary to the spirit of Gordon Matta Clark, our aim is to actually properly repair the wall to its original condition! The timing and location is very flexible, but we do have some proposals for it.

To follow up on the question I asked you last night, below is a detailed proposal for the Visual Studies project we're hoping to perform in the coming two weeks.

We do consider the removal of the drywall piece an important part of the concept. A major point of interest is the accumulation of layers and layers of paint and other (now embedded) artifacts and dents from its constant use as a pinup space, and its numerous subsequent repaintings. (We're even including elements like that in our accompanying drawing set.) Although we could attempt to simulate it to a certain extent by building out our own wall section, we'd very much like to observe, document and present the real thing.

Would you be available to meet briefly this afternoon to discuss the feasibility of this project? We've been in conversation with facilities already to understand some of the issues and challenges.

Thanks so much!

Andrew, Sam, Nick and Ji

Andrew Chittenden <chitty923@gmail.com>

Please let us know if you have any questions, or need any other details!

John Enright <john_enright@sciarc.edu> Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 10:34 AM To: Andrew Chittenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Cc: samuel flower <soflower65@gmail.com>, qijiwonder@outlook.com, Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>, Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>, George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu>, Paul Holiday <paul_holliday@sciarc.edu>

Hi guys, Somehow this passed by me on Friday. I have ccd Facilities and Paul here, I do not have a problem with this, as long as yes it is repaired. Please contact George and Peter and discuss location, timing, etc.

Cheers, John

John Enright, FAIA

Principal, Griffin Enright Architects Vice Director / Chief Academic Officer, SCI-Arc

Andrew, Nick, Ji and Sam

Andrew Chittenden <chitty923@gmail.com>

Permission for Wall Intervention Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu> Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 1:21 PM To: Andrew Chittenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com>, George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Cc: samuel flower <soflower65@gmail.com>, Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>, qijiwonder@outlook.com

Andrew,

I’m going to review the locaƟon for this tomorrow. Is removing the drywall part of your piece? Removing the drywall between the studs might make the repair problemaƟc. I’m concerned about being able to see where drywall has been patched and repaired later.

Griffin Enright Architects

www.GriffinEnrightArchitects.com

Our hope is to do it in an inconspicuous part of Keck (along the South wall where our class meets) or in the South Gallery, but we are flexible on that front. The primary requirements are just that there's enough open wall surrounding it for us to pin up accompanying drawings and documentation. We're calibrating the size of the removal square such that we would be cutting between studs, ideally removing just a layer of drywall with paint.

This project is our proposal for our final presentation for VS2632.

Visual Studies Project Special Permission Request

12468 W. Washington Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90066 310.391.4484

In a similar vein to Lawrence Weiner's removal art pieces, we're proposing cutting a small square (maximum 11x11") out of one of SCIArc's drywall walls, documenting its removal, and subsequently patching and repairing the wall. Ideally, we'd like to leave the opening for a week to allow for various forms of documentation, and to include the repair of the wall in our final presentation on Friday 12/7, but we could structure the project so that we repair it immediately.

Andrew Chittenden <chitty923@gmail.com>

How about construcƟng a small secƟon of wall that would be against an exisƟng wall? It could almost be like a wall that’s furred out.

Visual Studies Project Special Permission Request 960 East 3rd Street <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Andrew Chittenden Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 11:50 AM Angeles, CA 90013 To:Los "Enright, John" <john_enright@sciarc.edu> 213.356.5315 Cc: samuel flower <soflower65@gmail.com>, qijiwonder@outlook.com, Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>, Peter Zychowski sciarc.edu <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>, George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu>, Paul Holliday <paul_holliday@sciarc.edu>

That's great news--thank you so much! We'll meet with Peter and George today to begin coordinating.

From: Andrew ChiƩenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Andrew Date: Friday, November 30, 2018 at 1:59 PM [Quoted text hidden]

To: John Enright <john_enright@sciarc.edu> Cc: samuel Ňower <soflower65@gmail.com>, <qijiwonder@outlook.com>, Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com> Subject: Visual Studies Project Special Permission Request [Quoted text hidden]

I understand the issue about making it look seamless when repaired! We have some (potentially misplaced) confidence that with a reasonably small square and some carefully installed furring strips on the back of the surrounding drywall we would be able to repair it cleanly and functionally (and we'd obviously work hard to make sure we do)--but we understand that it needs to end up perfect. If it really seems too risky upon review, would less conspicuous locations than Keck make it more viable?

Let us know if it would be helpful for us to be with you ask you check out the locations tomorrow. I don't have class until studio at 2pm.

Thanks!

Andrew

Andrew Chittenden <chitty923@gmail.com>

[Quoted text hidden] Permission for Wall Intervention

George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 8:01 PM To: Andrew Chittenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Cc: Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>, samuel flower <soflower65@gmail.com>, Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>, qijiwonder@outlook.com

How many students do you have working on the project? I believe I have a space in mind that would work. Possibly under the steps near the library/staff entrance off Santa Fe. Let’s meet on Monday to discus. What time would work well for you?

From: Andrew ChiƩenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2018 1:07 PM To: Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>; George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Cc: samuel Ňower <soflower65@gmail.com>; Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>; qijiwonder@outlook.com Subject: Permission for Wall IntervenƟon

Andrew Chittenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 6:11 PM To: George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Cc: Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>, Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>, qijiwonder@outlook.com, samuel flower <soflower65@gmail.com>

[Quoted text hidden]

Sorry to take a minute to get back to you.

There are four of us on the team (all included on the email). That location sounds like it could work very well!

We’re available to meet on Monday. We could all four be there if we did the 1-2pm window, but if it needs to be earlier, two of us are available throughout the the morning. Let us know what’s best for you!

Andrew

Andrew Chittenden <chitty923@gmail.com>

From: Andrew ChiƩenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com>

George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 10:47 AM Sunday, December 2, 2018 6:12 PM To:Sent: Andrew Chittenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> To:Nicholas GeorgeGochnour Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Cc: <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>, Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>, qijiwonder@outlook.com, samuel flower <soflower65@gmail.com> Cc: Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>; Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>;

qijiwonder@outlook.com; samuel Ňower <soflower65@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Permission for Wall IntervenƟon Hello Andrew, [Quoted text hidden]

Thank you, George

[Quoted text hidden]

Permission for Wall Intervention

(And thanks again for taking all this time to figure this out!)

Peter

Permission for Wall Intervention

Andrew Chittenden <chitty923@gmail.com>

Andrew Chittenden <chitty923@gmail.com>

Hi George!

Peter

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM works for us, let’s meet at the Spanish Steps, and look some possible areas.

I hope you had a great weekend. 1pm sounds great. Let’s meet in my oĸce, it is on the second Ňoor next to the elevator.

Hello Andrew,

Thank you, George

Hi Andrew,

Permission for Wall <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Intervention From: Andrew ChiƩenden Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2018 6:12 PM

George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 10:48 AM George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> To:To: Andrew Chittenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Cc:Nicholas NicholasGochnour Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>; Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>; Cc: <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>, Peter Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>, qijiwonder@outlook.com, samuel qijiwonder@outlook.com; samuel Ňower <soflower65@gmail.com> flower <soflower65@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: Permission for Wall IntervenƟon Hello Andrew, Hi George!

[Quoted text hidden] my last e-mail, we’ll meet at the Spanish steps with Peter.

Disregard [Quoted text hidden]

Thank you, George

[Quoted text hidden]

From: George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Sent: Monday, December 03, 2018 10:48 AM To: 'Andrew ChiƩenden' <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Cc: 'Nicholas Gochnour' <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>; 'Peter Zychowski' <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>; 'qijiwonder@outlook.com' <qijiwonder@outlook.com>; 'samuel Ňower' <soflower65@gmail.com> Subject: RE: Permission for Wall IntervenƟon

Hello Andrew,

I hope you had a great weekend. 1pm sounds great. Let’s meet in my oĸce, it is on the second Ňoor next to the elevator.

Thank you, George

From: Andrew ChiƩenden <andrew.chittenden@gmail.com> Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2018 6:12 PM To: George Mayer <george_mayer@sciarc.edu> Cc: Nicholas Gochnour <nickkgochnour@gmail.com>; Peter Zychowski <peter_zychowski@sciarc.edu>; qijiwonder@outlook.com; samuel Ňower <soflower65@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Permission for Wall IntervenƟon

Hi George!

[Quoted text hidden] [Quoted text hidden]

3GA VISUAL STUDIES: DEVICES & LESSONS

107

2GB VISUAL STUDIES: INANIMATE LEFT Detail of animated blooming and decaying flowers

2GB Visual Studies: inanimate VS 2579 Elena Manferdini | Spring 2018

The seminar will look closely at the relationship between animate and inanimate matter in art and architecture; in particular, the class will master various digital and analogue optical effects able to transform an inanimate object into an animate one, through various modes of digital and physical representation.

The seminar is a silent protest against the anonymity and stillness of the ubiquitous â&#x20AC;&#x153;merely interestingâ&#x20AC;? aesthetic that lately invaded the field of architecture.

If it is true that traditional geometrical or chromatic dogmas served to critique a facile and exuberant formalism from the previous generation of practitioners and academics, it failed in proposing a positive advancement in the discipline -and practice- of architecture. These punitive movements are doomed to remain simply a brief transition in the history of our discipline, rather than a solid proposition for an architecture to come.

Course Abstract, VS 2579 Syllabus

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

Chiaroscuro and photorealistic lighting studies

The â&#x20AC;&#x153;still natureâ&#x20AC;? format reimagines the tropes of still lifes and landscapes, fusing them together while activating and animating a static landcape into a dynamically shifting set of effects, affects, and emotions. A change in lighting alone can completely redefine the scene. By situating the camera within the cluster of flowers, the darkness in one and the soft foggy lighting of the other shifts the reading from one of encloser and shelter to one of vast expanse and the progression of time and decay.

2GB VISUAL STUDIES: INANIMATE

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Lentincular print, combining eight frames of animation into a single image.

What appears as motion when walking past the print becomes overlapping layers when standing still.

112

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

2GB VISUAL STUDIES: INANIMATE

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965, Bottom

2GA VISUAL STUDIES III OPPOSITE Video

still of animated vector projections on a physical model

2GA Visual Studies III VS 4120: Multiples Devyn Weiser | Fall 2017 Partners: Maximillian Tavdi, Dasha Ragimova

The ‘artist’s multiple’ was one of the first forms of ‘affordable art.’ At its broadest a ‘Multiple’ is an art object, usually in 3D, conceived and created by an artist in an edition. In 1914 Marcel Duchamp produced the first Multiples by including miniature copies of some of his artworks in his ‘Boite en Valise.’

The term ‘Multiple’ was first coined by Paris gallerist Denise Rene in 1966 to describe the works made by her stable of artists. Multiples were seen as a break with traditional artistic categories because they were editions which looked like originals. Repetition was the result of a conscious choice by the artist; prints, photographs and books are generally excluded from the category because they are primarily associated with the process of reproduction. In the 1960’s and 1970’s many artists created multiples as a way of using new industrial production techniques and making their art more widely available. Multiples became carriers of new ideas, and were often subversive or humorous in intent.

Course Abstract, VS 4120 Syllabus

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118

Digital 2D Mickey Not only was Mickey Mouseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s geometry highly abstracted (based on Claus Oldenbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Geometric Mouse), but the flat colors used to draw him further pushed the images towards the absolute minimal form of representation that could still read as the character when so desired.

Animation pushed the images even farther into abstraction. Since the three-dimensional motion described in the animation made the forms quite easy for the eye to pick up, the representation had to be even further muted, until at points the only sign of Mickey Mouse was the slight shifting offset between the projected hatches which landed on Mickey, and those which landed on the background.

The bottom image on this page is a video which should begin playing automatically. If it does not, right click on it to access the controls.

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

2GA VISUAL STUDIES III

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Digital 3D Mickey Unlike the 2D Mickey, the 3D Mickey appeared instantly figural and deeply volumetric, especially when using Keyshot to produce lit and textured renders.

I focused our efforts therefore on subverting the legibility of the depth and the distinctness of the individual figures.

Some were flattened with section cuts and inverted imprints. Others used complex compositions (inspired by Borromini sculptures) to confuse what would otherwise be a clear arrangement of a few Mickeys standing around each other.

In animation, the clarity of the figures could be confounded using three dimensional masking. Using only a sequence of the Mickey assemblage rotating on a turn table, I was able to mask the visibility of that render using the alpha channel silhouette of that same assemblage rotating the opposite direction, or simply offset in time. The clarity of the new silhouette juxtaposed against the volumetric clarity of the contrasting shapes contained within created a spatially ambiguous composition.

The bottom image on this page is a video which should begin playing automatically.

If it does not, right click on it to access the controls.

2GA VISUAL STUDIES III

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Physical Model Mickey We wanted to incorporate the patterns projected on the 2D Mickey into our physical model presentation, so we constructed a projection rig that allowed us to project live vector animations onto the model, and that also utilized a piece of glass at a 45° angle in front of the projector lens such that a camera positioned perpendicular to the projector facing into the glass would have the illusion of the projections emitting straight from the camera’s lens due to the reflections. The slight imperfections of real materiality meant that the alignment would never be quite perfect, so the subject would never fully flatten out, nor would the focus ever be perfectly syncrhonized.

We filmed the results and presented both an edited video and individual extracted stills.

The stills worked best from off-rig cameras, where the crisp projected lines and highcontrast colors could most boldly reimagine the model’s geometry. The video favored the softer, more ambiguous imagery extracted from the on-rig cameras.

The bottom image on this page is a video which should begin playing automatically. If it does not, right click on it to access the controls.

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

2GA VISUAL STUDIES III

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

Augmented Reality Mickey Augmented reality invites dissonance.

Reality and virtual reality are mediums of purity, unities of experience. Augmented reality requires a layering and juxtaposition that creates excess and trails of duplicates.

There will always be a tracking target image that is both the signifier and a signified. Your choice as a designer is whether to incorporate the signifier/-ed or to hide it. Hiding it is the much more difficult task. With a specialized headset, graphics can only be superimposed as half-transparent holograms over the target. Without a headset, the user must aim a phone or tablet at the target. Greater engagement with the virtual world requires ever greater attention to the real world. Cognitive dissonance is inescapable.

You have to drill a hole in reality to enter a new reality--virtual trepanation. It must be a digital hole, so you need a digital ground to drill into. The more real the digital ground, the more real the hole. Thus, the first step in any successful augment reality project is to build and sell what you eventually plan to destroy. Make duplicates, so you have extras to burn.

Real objects must cast digital shadows. Digital objects must cast realistic shadows. Light from one reality must bleed into the other, and blend somewhere in the middle.

But donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make them match. Coherence is overrated--take off your headset and turn off your phone if you want to focus on only one thing. Augmented reality runs at 60fps, stop motion animation at 12fps, and the retina at around 30fps. But a second in one is a second in the other, and letting the differences rub against each other reinforces the thread that connects them all. You can only reach so far into the podium before your hand either hits a wall or the tracker fails. But if both realities are desirable, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll do your best to keep all illusions running.

2GA VISUAL STUDIES III A physical model of a cluster of Mickey Mouses is augmented with a slightly offset and rotated digital copy of itself, which is then made to spatially intersect with the real model through a careful occlusion clipping pass. This drawing demonstrates the spatial complexity implied by augmented realities layering of real and digital upon each other.

125

126 Rendered diagram demonstrating the implied structure of the augmented reality podium videos, where the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Borromini Mickeysâ&#x20AC;? mediate between reality and the digital world below by receiving light from both worlds, and existing in both physical and digital forms that occlude each other accurately.

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

2GA VISUAL STUDIES III

127

1GB VISUAL STUDIES II OPPOSITE Color

vector drawing, using a hatch pattern generated in Grasshopper from a raster Rhino render.

1GB Visual Studies II VS 4101 Techniques of Representation II | Legible Form Anna Neimark + Matthew Au | Spring 2017

This course forms the continuation of Strategies of Representation I. It expands on the use of representational tools to emphasize formal legibility through systems of regulation, annotation and scripting. The assignments focus on building precision and intentionality toward architectural drawing and developing a critical sensibility to the inherent bias in each medium of representation.

Students will analyze a letterform, through exercises in constructing, regulating, transforming, projecting, and rendering. The characters of Le Romain du Roi, developed in late 17th and early 18th century France by the decree of Louis XIV will offer the starting point for drawing and modeling exercises.

Course Description, VS 4101 Syllabus

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

a

1

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3

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5

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11

12

13

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F

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d

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M M J

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j

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l

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ABOVE Vector drawing showing the construction of the letter Å&#x201C; in the Romain du Roi typeface OPPOSITE A

distortion of the above grid and letter

1GB VISUAL STUDIES II

a

b

c

d

e

f g h i j k l m

1

2

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6

7

131

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

l a

k m

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j 2

c

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i j

3

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c 10

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2

13

ABOVE AND OPPOSITE

Axonometric, plan, and elevation drawings of the letter distorted by intersected extrusions. I used the extreme tapering of the letter “p” to accentuate the dropping, melting quality of the distorted “œ” letterform.

8

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1GB VISUAL STUDIES II 133

1GB VISUAL STUDIES II OPPOSITE AND RIGHT

Rendering of the extruded letterform resting against the grid planes use to generate the extrusions.

BOTTOM Paper models (1:1 scale) of the grid plane used to distort the letterform.

The left model uses an internal â&#x20AC;&#x153;waffleâ&#x20AC;? structure for rigidity. The right model produced its curve by layering several glued sheets of manila paper together while held over formwork, like plywood.

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1GB VISUAL STUDIES II

137

Detail of woven thread used to hang the drawing on the wall. The woven lines in the drawing emerge from the page.

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ABOVE AND OPPOSITE

This model plays with plywoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s structure and composition. The layers of ply get peeled back from the veneer and angle back down to the ground, leaving the thin veneer layer alone to limply stretch upward. At the base, the thick layers of ply, which want to remain straight, are solidified into a rigid curve. The veneer layer, which wants to follow and mould to a surface, is separated from its supports and made to thrust upward in a straight line.

Grid model, bending poplar plywood and white birch veneer.

The surface grid mimics the grain of the wood, providing an orientation and scale to the piece. The color was created by laser scanning a swatch of veneer at Home Depot, ensuring it would largely blend into the surface.

1GB VISUAL STUDIES II

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PROJECT TEAMMATE Nicholas Perseo

2

SPACER

TO COMPENSATE FOR MATERIAL LOST TO BLADE EXCESS MATERIAL FROM PREVIOUS CUT O OR U

1

PIECE A OR C

AFTER CUT O ON OPPOSITE END

PIECE A

AFTER CUT Y2

VISUAL STUDIES 4100

PROJECT 2.4 - JIG

1GA VISUAL STUDIES I

detail of a page 9 OF 12 DRAWING in the construction booklet for the band saw jig.

OPPOSITE A

NOTES

PIECES A, B, C, D, E AFFIX THE WEDGE (W) TO THE JIG BASE (J1) WITH TWO PEGS: W.H01 TO J1.H19, AND W.H02 TO J1.H18.

INSERT PEGS INTO W.H04 AND W.H05 TO SERVE AS STOPS FOR THE ROTARY JIG.

1GA Visual Studies I PLACE THE WOOD PIECE FROM CUT Y2 INTO THE GROOVE ON FACE R OF THE WEDGE. SLIDE THE JIG BED (J1) INTO THE SAW BLADE TO COMPLETE THE CUT.

RETAIN THE EXCESS MATERIAL FROM THE CUT; IT WILL BE USED FOR SUBSEQUENT CUTS.

YOU CAN REPEAT THIS CUT BY FLIPPING VS 4100 Strategies of Representation I THE CUT PIECE OF WOOD OVER, COMBINING IT WITH SPACER (S) Zeifman AND THE Matthew Au +THE Emmett | Fall 2016 EXCESS MATERIAL FROM THE PREVIOUS CUT O, AND PERFORMING THE SAME MOVE.

BY REPEATING THIS CUT TWICE, YOU COMPLETE PIECE A. IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PERFORMED CUT U ONCE, YOU CAN USE CUT O (WITH Beginning from the fundamentals of orthographic SPACER S) TO COMPLETE PIECE C. projection, the course will sequentially examine the

notion of sections and cut drawings, oblique and axonometric projections, and various types of curvature, from simple to complex, in both two and three dimensions.

The course will concentrate heavily on geometry.

Distinct from strictly mathematical geometry, architecture necessarily presumes three-dimensional form and, in particular, material dimensions. Methods of two- and three-dimensional projection will therefore be absolutely essential. One of the course’s goals is for students to attain familiarity with descriptive geometry, which allows the visualization and representation of complex three-dimensional forms.

Course Abstract, VS 4100 Syllabus

STOCK

MDF 4-7/8” x 4 3/4” x 3/4” DATE

12.08.2016 REVISION

1

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J1.H09

J1.H08

1 in

J1.H06 J2.H01

1GA VISUAL STUDIES I

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VISUAL STUDIES 4100

PROJECT 2.4 - JIG DRAWING 7 OF 12

NOTES

PIECES A, B, C, D, E AFFIX THE ROTARY JIG (J2) TO THE JIG BASE (J1) WITH A PEG THROUGH J1.H06 AND J2.H01.

INSERT PEGS INTO J1.H08 AND J1.H09 TO SERVE AS STOPS FOR THE ROTARY JIG. PLACE THE WOOD PIECE FROM CUT X2 ONTO ROTARY JIG, FITTED INTO THE CROSS-SHAPED REGISTER. ROTATE THE JIG AND WOOD ASSEMBLY COUNTER-CLOCKWISE UNTIL STOPPED

BY THE PEG IN J1.H09. SLIDE THE JIG BASE INTO POSITION. TURN ON THE BAND SAW, AND ROTATE THE JIG AND WOOD ASSEMBLY CLOCKWISE THROUGH THE BLADE UNTIL STOPPED BY THE PEG IN J1.H08.

DISCARD THE EXCESS MATERIAL, AND KEEP THE WOOD PIECE ON THE ROTARY JIG.

STOCK

MDF 4-7/8” x 4 3/4” x 3/4” DATE

12.08.2016 REVISION

1

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

CUT X3

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

1GA VISUAL STUDIES I

OPPOSITE AND RIGHT

Photographs of completed jig

145

3GB A.I. Assemblies OPPOSITE Oblique

elevation render of proposed part assembly.

3GB A.I. Assemblies AS 2763 Casey Rehm | Spring 2019 Partners: Addin Cui, Talbot Schmidt, Daniel Taveras, Benjamin Weisgall

The course utilizes constitutional neural networks in combination with robotic assembly algorithms to produce scaled timber structures. In addition to 3D form generation, neural networks will be used in to develop 2D texture applications for the structures, exploration the relationship between 3D form and 2D image.

Course Description, AS 2763 Syllabus

149

3GB A.I. Assemblies

151

3D Neural Net Training We trained a GAN (General Adversarial Network) artificial network on a large library of both found and hand-modeled chess knights. Knights were chosen for their clear posture and figuration, but wide range of representational styles and levels of detail. As the GAN we used (64-3D-RaSGAN) produced very low-resultion results (64x64x64 voxel grid), we anticipated posture becoming the characteristic that would carry most successfully through to lumpy massing.

After carefully guiding the GAN’s training, we selected promising results to carry over into the next step, when they would be broken apart into small patterned and tiled pieces to be assembled by robot.

Produced utilizing code written by written by Joni Juvonen (accessed on GitHub: “64-3D-RaSGAN,” by user jpjuvo)

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

Parting and Patterns The solid massing from the GAN is then broken into discrete chunks to be assembled by robot out of patterned layers of small wood pieces. We designed a piece that produces cylindrical voids and scalloped overhangs through particular overlaps and adjacencies.

By combining very short and very long versions of the piece, the total assembly thrusts upwards and outwards with varying velocities, and emphasizes the knightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s off-balance posture and moments of extreme weight and accumulation.

3GB A.I. Assemblies

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

3GB A.I. Assemblies

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Rendered elevations of the final planned assembly of parts into the finished knight piece.

5

4

3GA PROJECT DELIVERY

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A ARCH

TOP OF ROOF 78' - 0"

LEFT Detail

of east elevation B

C

D

E

F

G

5

4

3

TOP OF ROOF 78' - 0"

8801/8 W PIC SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

FACE F9

AMA ARCHITECTS

FACE F8

8 B

3GA Project Delivery METAL FLASHING

SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

WATERPROOFING

DON DEVEL L

CFMF U-CHANNEL STUD INSULATION

8801/8807/8809 W PICO BLVD

1/2" PLYWOOD SHEATHING RIGID INSULATION CONCRETE SLAB METAL DECKING

MIRTIL MON

ANDREW

GFRC TILES 24X24X1" CONNECTOR PLATE

NA

HSS4X4X1/8

DON DRAPER DEVELOPMENTS LLC

CONNECTOR PLATE

No.

5/8" GYPSUM BOARD

FACE F7

FACE F6

6

2

G

F

UPPER ROOF PARAPET DETAIL

3

E

D

C

Desc

FIRST FLOOR 50' - 0"

AS 3140 Pavel Getov + Kerenza Harris | Fall 2018 W12X45 STEEL BEAM

5

B

1

FACE F5

2

B

1 1/2" = 1'-0"

Partners: Mirtilla Alliata di Montereale, Natou Fall

TOP OF ROOF 78' - 0"

MIRTILLA ALLIATA DI MONTEREALE

4

3

1

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

1 5/8" GYPSUM WALL BOARD

2

AMA NATOU FALL

6" INSULATION

1

A-4.1

1/2" PLYWOOD SHEATHING B

RIGID INSULATION

WATERPROOF MEMBRANE

No.

D

L 4x4x1/2"

Description

301 144 SF

302 526 SF

B

CONNECTOR PLATE

306 169 SF

LIVING ROOM

6" CONCRETE SLAB ON METAL DECK

304.1

BATHROOM 305 125 SF

304 64 SF

BEDROOM B

B

B

B

305.1

322.1

308.1

322 50 SF

A

302.1

003.W

C

28

duces Building Information Modeling as one of the

GUTTER DRAIN HOSE

NATOU FALL

B

W12x45

BATHROOM 309

C

94 SF

26 25

D

23 22

19

1

18

BATHROOM

17

B

16

A-4.3

310 129 SF

E 310.1 003.LL

A

317.1

B

0 A-7.2

KITCHEN

316 56 SF

323 325 SF

BEDROOM 315 210 SF

316.1

B

will analyze and develop the architecture by creating

003.R

MECHANICAL

LOBBY

317 272 SF

B

B

F ELEVATOR

RISER

CLOSET

001

004 16 SF

a detailed 3D digital model and a set of 2D construc-

314.1

314 43 SF

B

B

FACE F4

GLAZING (SEE SCHEDULE)

FACE F3 315.1

003.II

DINING ROOM

BATHROOM

318 195 SF

321 119 SF

28

29

002.3

DN

C

1

27

3

B

STAIRS

25

TOILET

002 196 SF

24

321.1

313.1

C

LIVING ROOM

313 33 SF

003.KK

FS01 UNDULATING ALUMINUM STRIPS

22

B

21

A-4.2

19 18

SILICONE SEALANT

B

17 16 15

319

FACADE tures and site visits toCLOSEUP fabricators and construction -

29 RISERS 7 3/16"

173 SF

KITCHEN

A

312 226 SF

BEDROOM

G

320 220 SF

C

B

D

D

WA - A

EXTERIOR WALL_8" metal studs with wood panel exterior and gypsum board interior

WA - B

PARTITION WALL_3 5/8" CFMF studs and gypsum board

WA - C

C.I.P CONCRETE 10"

FS01

sites will further informA-5.0 students of technical docu-

THIRD FLOOR PLAN

1

CAST IN PLACE CONCRETE SLAB

ALUMINUM GLAZING CHANNEL

GLAZING DETAIL - OFFICE 3" = 1'-0"

1

FACADE CLOSEUP

mentation methods for projects that are operating on

1 A-3.2

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1

challenges of a single unit residential project. Lec-

1

20

B

FACE F2

tion documents specifically tailored for the design

RECESSED ALUMINUM GLAZING CHANNEL

311 550 SF

23

B

2

B

311.1

B

A-7.3

26

A

LIVING ROOM

Date

Date

residential building located in Los Angles, students

A

B

003.J

A-7.2

Description

FS02 GFRC PERFORATED TILE CLADDING

20

C

Concrete Slab on Metal Deck - 6"

1 1/2" = 1'-0"

tools for realignment of the traditional relationships

Description

No.

between the project stakeholders. Using a single unit

21

D

WALL OVERHANG DETAIL

2

No.

B

24

OPEN TO ATRIUM BELOW

NATOU FALL

A-3.1

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

1

001 200 SF

29 RISERS 7 3/16" 29

MIRTILLA ALLIATA DI MONTEREALE

MIRTILLA ALLIATA DI MONTEREALE

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001.3

1 A-3.3

linking design and construction processes. It intro-

308 268 SF

B

SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

technologiesDEVELOPMENTS andLLC investigating new models for

KITCHEN

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B B

003.V

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B

DON DRAPER digital DEVELOPMENTS LLC

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303 174 SF

DON DRAPER

A

HSS 4x4x1/4"

307 238 SF

A

CLOSET

8801/8807/8809 focuses on advanced methods of project W PICO BLVD

delivery and construction documents incorporating

D B

BEDROOM

Date

8801/8807/8809 The course W PICO BLVD

CFMF 6" U-CHANNEL

KITCHEN

LIVING ROOM

003.JJ

AMA ARCHITECTS

ARCHITECTS

A-3.4

THIRD FLOOR 1/4" = 1'-0"

N

A-1.3

the forefront of design and construction technologies to date.

Course Description, AS 3140 Syllabus EXTERIOR DETAILS

A-6.1

FIRST FLOOR 50' - 0"

FACE F1

FA SYSTE

A

158

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

A

B

C

D

E

FS02 GFRC PERFORATED TILE CLADDING D

FS01 UNDULATING ALUMINUM STRIP CLADDING

OFFICE PATIO

PARKING RAMP

201.B

F

G

3GA PROJECT DELIVERY

159

AMA ARCHITECTS

8801/8807/8809 W PICO BLVD

DON DRAPER DEVELOPMENTS LLC 5

4

3

MIRTILLA ALLIATA DI MONTEREALE

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

ROOF 95' - 0"

ROOF 95' - 0"

NATOU FALL CANTILEVERED RESIDENTIAL FLOOR D

CONTILEVERED RESIDENTIAL FLOOR

No.

Description

Date

FS02 GFRC PERFORATED TILE CLADDING THIRD FLOOR 82' - 0"

THIRD FLOOR 82' - 0"

LEVEL 3 BOTTOM OF ENVELOPE 80' - 0"

OFFICE SKYLIGHT

LEVEL 3 BOTTOM OF ENVELOPE 80' - 0"

FS01 UNDULATING ALUMINUM STRIPS

SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

105.1

108.1

FIRST FLOOR 50' - 0"

FIRST FLOOR 50' - 0" 204.A

203.B

RETAIL ENTRY

003.HH

MAIN ENTRY

WEST ELEVATION 1

WEST ELEVATION 1/4" = 1'-0"

A-3.3

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SOUTH E 1/4" = 1'-0"

160

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

1

1

A-4.3

A-4.2

24"

LIVING ROOM

BEDROOM

302 526 SF

303 174 SF

4 1/8"

B

B

KITCHEN

DINING ROOM

LIVING ROOM

317 272 SF

318 195 SF

319 173 SF

1 1/4"

ROOF PATIO

OFFICE 204 1631 SF

D

C A

MECHANICAL

BASEMENT B

B1 6979 SF

3GA PROJECT DELIVERY

161

AMA ARCHITECTS 8801/8807/8809 W PICO BLVD 5

4

DON DRAPER DEVELOPMENTS LLC 0 A-4.5

LEVEL 3 TOP OF STRUCTURE 95' - 0"

3

2

1 0 A-4.5

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1 A-4.1

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A

FS02 GFRC PERFORATED TILE CLADDING

A C D STAIR

MIRTILLA ALLIATA DI MONTEREALE

THIRD FLOOR 82' - 0"

B

001 200 SF

BATHROOM 310 129 SF

THIRD FLOOR 82' - 0"

ANDREW CHITTENDEN NATOU FALL

DROP CEILING

OPEN AIR ATRIUM

No.

Description

Date

OFFICE

C

RESTROOM

204 1631 SF

207 113 SF

FS01 UNDULATING ALUMINUM STRIP CLADDING

STAIR 193 SF

C

SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

D A

A

B

RESTAURANT STORAGE

SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

RESTROOM 104 91 SF

109 306 SF

FIRST FLOOR 50' - 0"

FIRST FLOOR 50' - 0"

BASEMENT BASEMENT B1 6979 SF

BASEMENT 39' - 0"

1

WA - A

EXTERIOR WALL_8" metal studs with wood panel exterior and gypsum board interior

WA - B

PARTITION WALL_3 5/8" CFMF studs and gypsum board

WA - C

C.I.P CONCRETE 10"

LONGITUDINAL SECTION 1/4" = 1'-0"

B1 6979 SF

BASEMENT 39' - 0"

LONGITUDINAL SECTION

A-4.1

WA - A

EXTERIOR WALL_ studs with wood pa and gypsum board

WA - B

PARTITION WALL 5/8" CFMF studs an gypsum board

WA - C

C.I.P CONCRETE

1

CROSS SECTION 1/4" = 1'-0"

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

6

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OFFICE WINDOW

4' - 0"

162

SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

FS01 FACADE WITHOUT SKIN

9

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FS01 FACADE WIT 1/2" = 1'-0"

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SEE A-5.2 FOR GUSSET PLATE MOUNT LAYOUT ON FACES

6

GUSSET PLATE MOUNT INDEX DIAGRAM

5

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F8 F7

F9 F7 F1 F2

F3

SEE A-5.2 FOR GUSSET PLATE MOUNT LAYOUT ON FACES

F6 F5

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FACADE FACE IDENTIFICATION NTS

FS01 FACADE PLA 1/2" = 1'-0"

3GA PROJECT DELIVERY

PANEL MODULE

7 A-5.1

163

C

201.C

AMA ARCHITECTS

BLACK PAINT FINISH

UNDULATING ALUMINUM STRIPS 8

UNDULATING ALUMINUM STRIPS

8801/8807/8809 W PICO BLVD

OFFICE WINDOW BEHIND 5

GUSSET PLATE CONNECTOR

SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

DON DRAPER DEVELOPMENTS LLC

2" SQUARE MULLION

TH SKIN

7

FS01 FACADE SECTION 1/2" = 1'-0" CFMF STUD WALL

7

MIRTILLA ALLIATA DI MONTEREALE

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C

2" SQUARE MULLION

ANDREW CHITTENDEN CL

2' - 6"

NATOU FALL

CL

GUSSET CONNECTOR PLATE

No. CL

FMF STUD WALL

Description

Date

UNDULATING ALUMINUM STRIP

2" SQUARE MULLION GUSSET PLATE CONNECTOR

TING M STRIPS

NISH

AN

4

1/2" PLYWOOD SHEATHING STUCCO OVER WEATHERPROOFING MEMBRANE

FS01 EXPLODED ASSEMBLY DETAIL NTS

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METAL GUSSET PLATE ASSEMBLY UNITIZED PANEL MODULE

CONNECTOR PLATE

FACADE SYSTEM - FS01 1

FS01 EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC ASSEMBLY NTS

A-5.1

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN 5

4

TOP OF ROOF 78' - 0"

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FACE F7 2

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FACE F4

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3GA PROJECT DELIVERY

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F

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AMA ARCHITECTS

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TOP OF ROOF 78' - 0"

8801/8807/8809 W PICO BLVD

SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

DON DRAPER DEVELOPMENTS LLC MIRTILLA ALLIATA DI MONTEREALE ANDREW CHITTENDEN NATOU FALL

No.

Description

Date

FIRST FLOOR 50' - 0"

5 C

B

1

FACE F5

2

B

TOP OF ROOF 78' - 0"

SECOND FLOOR 64' - 0"

FIRST FLOOR 50' - 0"

2

FACE F2

1

FACE F1

FACADE SYSTEM - FS01

A-5.2

2GB DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

167

LEFT Detail of primary, secondary and tertiary structural systems

STRUCTURE

SUBSTRUCTURE

S 0.375

FOLLOWING SPREAD

0.375

Full building “megachunk”

RE

STUDS L 6x3.25x0.35

N METAL DECK

2GB Design Development 07-09

Architects:

PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS

M-1

PERFORATED ALUMINUM PANELS 80% APERTURE PERFORATIONS FOR LOW SOLAR EXPOSURE AREAS

SERVICE CATWALKS & SHADES

STEEL MEMBERS

AS 3122 Herwig Baumgartner + Scott Uriu | Spring 2018

BLACKOUT WINDOW SHADE

02 W18X71 TRUSS DETAIL STEEL I-BEAMS S-1

C

SELF-SHADING

C

W12X120 STEEL I-BEAM COLUMNS

Architects:

HSS 4X4X0.375 PEDESTALS FOR CLADDING

A

B

SELF-SHADING

Rafa Tarabichi Maximillian Tavdi

Consultants:

Herwig Baumgartner Consultants: Scott Uriu Herwig Baumgartner Matthew Melnyk Scott Uriu Jamey Lyzun

LED STRIPS DOUBLE GLAZING

Andrew Chittenden Nicholas Perseo Dasha Ragimova Patorn Sangruchi Rafa Tarabichi Maximillian Tavdi

Andrew Chittenden Nicholas Perseo DashaArchitects: Ragimova Andrew Chittenden Patorn SangruchiNicholas Perseo Rafa TarabichiDasha Ragimova Maximillian Tavdi Patorn Sangruchi

RAIN SCREEN (SPANDREL)

Matthew Melnyk Jamey Lyzun

Notes: Notes:

Partners: Maximillian Tavdi, Dasha Ragimova, Nicholas Perseo, Rafa Tarabichi, Patorn Sangruchi

SEE M-2 04-05 FOR SANKEY DIAGRAM AND DAYLIGHTING ANALYSIS

REVISIONS #9 04.09.2018

VERSION 6 04.09.18

- ADDED MISSING GROUND BEAMS

- ADJUSTED LINE STYLES

OFFICES

Consultants:

6” OF CONCRETE ON METAL DECKING

REQUIRES R-12 RATING FOR CONTINUOUS INSULATION TO ACHIEVE U<0.065

02

Herwig Baumgartner Scott Uriu Matthew Melnyk Jamey Lyzun

03

LARGE PORTIONS OF THE OFFICE TOWERS ARE SELF-SHADED BY OTHER PORTIONS OF THE STRUCTURE, LESSENING THE NEED FOR DEDICATED SHADING FEATURES TO REDUCE THE SOLAR HEAT GAIN COEFFICIENT.

SECTION (NORTH-SOUTH) NOT TO SCALE

M-1

GIES ARE HIGHLIGHTED YELLOW AND EXPLAINED BELOW.

M-1

TYPICAL FACADE SECTION. THE PERFORATED ALUMINUM CLADDING PANELS BLOCK MUCH INCOMING SUNLIGHT, AND THE SERVICE CATWALKS BETWEEN THE CLADDING AND VAPOR BARRIER SERVE DOUBLE PURPOSE AS SUN SHADES.

SECTION AA DETAIL NOT TO SCALE

Notes: VERSION 5 04.09.18

TEMPERATURES ABOVE COMFORT ZONE

GALLERY

- UPDATED WALL AND ROOF CHUNKS

Zone 9 needs cooling only one third the amount of time that it requires heating--it is a heating-dominated zone. The building utilizes three strategies for implementing the necessary cooling: 2. SUN SHADING OF WINDOWS, 4. HIGH THERMAL MASS NIGHT FLUSH, 7. NATURAL VENTILATION COOLING. The latter two actually take care of virtually all cooling needs. Unfortunately, the shading of windows is an inevitable artifact of certain artistic design decisions that could not be modified. The shading of windows does not resolve all excess solar heat gain, therefore both night flushes and natural ventilation are retained as strategies. However, not all strategies must be utilized in order to return the temperature to the comfort zone.

PV ZONE

PV ZONE

a disciplinary one, where we challenge representation

M-2

REFER FOR TYPICAL SHADE DETAIL

05 M-2

B The cladding system is offset from the vapor barrier and glazed enclosure of the actual studio space. In this gap run catwalks for window cleaning. These mesh catwalks act as additional sun shades. further reducing solar heat gain.

°C 23.0 22.3 21.6

C The bridge-like layout of the overall structure results in the near complete self-shading of the north tower and small slab. The south placement of the core of the south tower further blocks direct solar heat gain.

20.9

SHADING TRELLIS OVER ROOF PATIO ENERGY kWh / m2

PERFORATED ALUMINUM PANELS

23.0 22.3 21.6

LED STRIPS

20.9

20.2 19.5 18.8

20.2 19.5

CATWALKS

18.8 18.1

18.1

4. HIGH THERMAL MASS NIGHT FLUSHED

16.0

04 M-1

16.7

N

16.7

02

7. NATURAL VENTILATION COOLING

17.4

17.4

The operable windows and operable flaps in the perforated aluminum panels provide a means for flushing excess heat during the night. The majority of the year, it is more desirable for the thermal masses to retain their heat for the cool mornings, but the building retains this functionality for the most extreme cases that natural ventilation and sun shaded windows are incapable of fully mitigating.

Although the majority of floor plates are too deep for cross-ventilation, the overall small size of the floor plates allows for a large percentage of the usable floor space to be within 20ft of an operable window, in range of natural ventilation cooling. This helps reduce some dependence on mechanical ventilation and mechanical cooling.

PV ZONE

08

M-1

M-1

03

2 SUN SHADING OF WINDOWS A The entirety of building (walls and roofs) is clad in a continuous performated aluminum panel that has the effect of a bris-soleil, reducing solar heat gain by blocking on average 60% of direct sunlight.

ROOF development DECK Our approach to design is not only a

technical advancement of the project but will also be

02

16.0

SURFACES WITH GLAZING SUN PATH DIAGRAM NOT TO SCALE

05

MARCH 21ST SUN PATH, 06:00 - 18:00 CLIMATE CONSULTANT

M-1

M-2

FIELD OF VIEW

03

CLADDING APERTURE

23.0

tion of design and manufacturing are in flux and are 22.3 21.6

1°

20.2 19.5 18.8 18.1 17.4

While BIM is an important development in this 16.7 16.0

SUN PATH DIAGRAM

SUN PATH DIAGRAM

MARCH 20TH RADIATION ANALYSIS, NORTHEAST VIEW, 06:00 18:00 (LADYBUG)

regard, our aim is to re-think how we can envision

NOT TO SCALE

M-1

NOT TO SCALE

The 2’x4’ photovoltaic panels will replace the 4’x8’ black aluminum cladding panels on certain rooftops, utilizing the same offset secondary mullion system and covering the rest of the building. As the cladding system is already glossy black, the PV panels will not stand out from the rest of the building‘s envelope.

Due to the very large available roof area and 20.5° southward slope, we will utilize continuous crystaline silicon panels parallel to the roof. The small roof atop the south tower is flat (1° slope), but its total lack of shading justifies its usage for PV panels.

LOBBY 3,628 2’x4’ photovoltaic panels = 29,024 SF ofTHEATER panels

be hacked apart, peeled away, cut away, sliced, and

2’X4’ PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS CONDUIT FOR PV CABLING CONTINUOUS RIGID INSULATION METAL DECKING

exploded. Cuts will no longer be flat as in conven-

IN SLAB S & GALLERY)

LIBRARY

N

tive. We will attempt to combine multiple ontologies

CLASSROOMS

Client:

NOT TO SCALE

The Walt Disney Co.

A LARGE PORTION OF THE ROOF IS SLOPED 20.5° TOWARD THE SOUTH, MAKING THOSE SURFACES IDEAL FOR PV PANELS, AS IT IS CLOSE TO LOS ANGELES’ 33° LATITUDE.

Millennial The Walt Disney Co. Rock 500 S. Buena Vista St.

Burbank, Project Name and Address:

08

Millennial Rock

01 A-6

09

M-1

PHOTOVOLTAIC PANEL SECTION DETAIL NOT TO SCALE

BASED ON SUN EXPOSURE AND RADIATION STUDIES OF SELF-SHADING, ONLY CERTAIN AREAS RECEIVE ENOUGH SUNLIGHT TO JUSTIFY PV PANELS.

integration, and dis-integration all at the same time.

01

04.09.18

LED SCREEN DETAIL Scale: NOT TO SCALE

Sheet Content:

ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS Sheet Number:

04.09.18

ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS

Sheet Content:

BASED ON SUN EXPOSURE AND RADIATION STUDIES OF SELF-SHADING, ONLY CERTAIN AREAS RECEIVE ENOUGH SUNLIGHT TO JUSTIFY PV PANELS.

nization, energy, action on other things, depletion,

500 S. Buena Vista St. Burbank, CA 91521 Course Date:

Sheet Content:

Date:

in terms of their profile, silhouette, internal orga-

NOT TO SCALE

Project Name and Address:

500 S. Buena Vista St. NOT TO SCALE Burbank,Scale: CASERVICE 91521

Scale:

PHOTOVOLTAIC PANEL DISTRIBUTION

Description, AS 3122 Syllabus

S-03

SECONDARY STUCTURE NOT TO SCALE

CA 91521

Date: Millennial Rock04.09.18

into the discussion, where things may be represented The Walt Disney Co. M-1

Project Name and Address:

Client:

tional plans and sections, but will be warped and ac-

COURTYARD SOUTH TOWER (OFFICES & AUDITORIUM)

ROOF SLOPE STUDY

Client:

29,024 SF x 15 W/SF = 425,360 W

of the building components as one, where things can

SOUTH (SELF-SHADED)

N

06

DECEMBER 20TH RADIATION ANALYSIS, SOUTHWEST VIEW, 06:00-18:00 (LADYBUG)

We will re-consider drawing and the representation 20.5°

07

OFFICES

20.9

increasingly based on three-dimensional live data.

exceed the design object itself.

MANUALLY OPERATED WINDOWS

30°

M-1

ENERGY kWh / m2

and communicate design in innovative ways which

PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS MECHANICALLY OPERATED

M-1

M-1

and search for relevancy in an era where documenta-

OFFICES

UILDING’S COMPONENT MASSES

08 PV ZONE

NOT Sheet TO SCALE Number:

M1

SECONDARY STRUCTURE PARKING Sheet Number:

S3

168

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

01 S-2,3

PRIMARY & SECONDARY STRUCTURE

STEEL TRUSS SYTEM PRIMARY STEEL TRUSSES HSS 16 x 16 x 0.375 HSS 8 x 8 x 0.375

01 S-3,4 01 A-3

STEEL POST & BEAM SYSTEM PRIMARY STEEL COLUMNS W12X120 PRIMARY STEEL BEAMS W18X71 CONCRETE SHEAR WALL SYSTEM REINFORCED CAST CONCRETE CORE

TERTIARY STRUCTURE

CLADDING SUBSTRUCTURE PEDESTALS HSS 4 x 4 x 0.375 MULLIONS HSS 6 x 6 x 0.375 ENCLOSURE ALUMINUM STUDS C-CHANNEL 6x3.25x0.35 FLOORS 6” SLAB ON METAL DECK

CONCRETE SHEAR RETAINING WALL

WALL CHUNKS AND DETAILS 07-09 01

PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS

M-1

BUILDING ENVELOPE SYSTEMS

A-7 01

MATERIALS & FINISHES

A-8 02 01

TRUSS DETAIL

S-1

TOP WALL SECTION CHUNK

A-3 01

TOP WALL 2D SECTION

A-17

01

3D WALL DETAIL

A-4 01

2D WALL DETAIL

A-18 01

3D WALL DETAIL

A-5 01

GALLERY 2D WALL DETAIL

A-19

01

FACADE CHUNK

A-2

02

MIDDLE WALL SECTION CHUNK

A-3 02

MIDDLE WALL 2D SECTION

A-17

03

BOTTOM WALL SECTION CHUNK

A-3 03

BOTTOM WALL 2D SECTION

A-17

OFFICES

LIBRARY COURTYARD

CLASSROOMS

01 A-6

Collaborative drawing with Dasha Ragimova

LED SCREEN DETAIL

ROOF DECK

2GB DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

169

Architects:

Andrew Chittenden Nicholas Perseo Dasha Ragimova Patorn Sangruchi Rafa Tarabichi Maximillian Tavdi

Consultants:

Herwig Baumgartner Scott Uriu Matthew Melnyk Jamey Lyzun

Notes: REVISION 9 04.09.2018 - ADDED CATWALKS - ADDED LINEWORK FOR CLADDING PANELIZATION - ADDED ADDITIONAL ANNOTATIONS AND CALLOUTS 03

TRUSS TO CORE CONNECTION DETAIL

- IMPROVED PEELING

S-1

OFFICES

OFFICES

LOBBY THEATER

CAFETERIA

Client:

SERVICE

The Walt Disney Co. Project Name and Address:

Millennial Rock

PARKING

500 S. Buena Vista St. Burbank, CA 91521 Date: Scale:

04.09.18 NOT TO SCALE

Sheet Content:

Mega Chunk

01 A-1

MEGA CHUNK NOT TO SCALE

A-1

Sheet Number:

170

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

CONCRETE SLAB OVER STEEL DECKING HSS 4X4X0.375 MULLIONS FOR CLADDING STEEL DECKING

Collaborative drawing with Dasha Ragimova

2GB DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

171

Architects:

Andrew Chittenden Nicholas Perseo Dasha Ragimova Patorn Sangruchi Rafa Tarabichi Maximillian Tavdi

Consultants:

Herwig Baumgartner Scott Uriu Matthew Melnyk Jamey Lyzun

Notes: REVISIONS #9 04.09.2018 - ADJUSTED ROOF DECKING

Client:

The Walt Disney Co. Project Name and Address:

Millennial Rock

500 S. Buena Vista St. Burbank, CA 91521 Date: Scale:

04.09.18 NOT TO SCALE

Sheet Content:

TERTIARY STRUCTURE Sheet Number:

01 S-04

TERTIARY STRUCTURE NOT TO SCALE

S4

172

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

STEEL MEMBERS

W18X71 STEEL I-BEAMS W12X120 STEEL I-BEAM COLUMNS HSS 4X4X0.375 PEDESTALS FOR CLADDING

Collaborative drawing with Dasha Ragimova

2GB DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

173

Architects:

Andrew Chittenden Nicholas Perseo Dasha Ragimova Patorn Sangruchi Rafa Tarabichi Maximillian Tavdi

Consultants:

Herwig Baumgartner Scott Uriu Matthew Melnyk Jamey Lyzun

Notes: REVISIONS #9 04.09.2018 - ADDED MISSING GROUND BEAMS

Client:

The Walt Disney Co. Project Name and Address:

Millennial Rock

500 S. Buena Vista St. Burbank, CA 91521 Date: Scale:

04.09.18 NOT TO SCALE

Sheet Content:

SECONDARY STRUCTURE Sheet Number:

01 S-03

SECONDARY STUCTURE NOT TO SCALE

S3

174

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

HSS 16x16x0.375

ISOMETRIC

02 S-02

ELEVATION

03

TRUSS DETAIL 1

2.5

5

S-02

10

STEEL MEMBERS

HSS 16x16x0.375 PRIMARY STEEL TRUSS HSS 8 x 8 x 0.375 PRIMARY STEEL TRUSS W12X120 PRIMARY STEEL COLUMN

CAST CONCRETE

REINFORCED CAST CONCRETE CORE CONCRETE SHEAR RETAINING WALL REINFORCED CAST CONCRETE FOUNDATION

Collaborative drawing with Dasha Ragimova

CORE-T 1

2GB DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

175

EMBEDDED STEEL PLATE REBAR

Architects:

Andrew Chittenden Nicholas Perseo Dasha Ragimova Patorn Sangruchi Rafa Tarabichi Maximillian Tavdi

Consultants:

ISOMETRIC

Herwig Baumgartner Scott Uriu Matthew Melnyk Jamey Lyzun

SECTION

Notes: REVISIONS #9 04.09.2018

TRUSS CONNECTION DETAIL 2.5

- ADDED STRUCTURAL DETAILS - MISCELLANEOUS CORRECTIONS

5

Client:

The Walt Disney Co. Project Name and Address:

Millennial Rock

500 S. Buena Vista St. Burbank, CA 91521 Date: Scale:

04.09.18 NOT TO SCALE

Sheet Content:

PRIMARY STRUCTURE Sheet Number:

01 S-02

PRIMARY STUCTURE NOT TO SCALE

S2

o or mely de to ever, ssist

The eep, ome 60’), nical quire ater.

ject ting nt of that apor sun t as

eas outh

01 M-2

176

01 WALL CHUNK WALL NOT TO SCALE M-2 CHUNK NOT TO SCALE

0

M

ANDREW CHITTENDEN

CEILING CEILINGRETURN FAN RETURN FAN ACTUATORS ACTUATORS CONTROLLED CONTROLLED

BY B.M.S.

BY B.M.S.

HVAC RETURN HVAC RETURN

NATURALLY VENTILATABLE NATURALLY VENTILATABLE B.M.S. B.M.S. CONTROLLED CONTROLLEDDAMPER DAMPER

20’

20’

HEATING COIL HEATING COIL

NORTH NORTH

03 SECTION BB SECTION BB TO SCALE NOT M-2

03

NOT TO SCALE

M-2

RAISED FLOOR RAISED FOR FLOOR I.T. CONDUIT FOR I.T. CONDUIT

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Natural and mechanical ventilation, as well as solar exposure and daylight autonomy diagrams for a typical office floor in the building.

EN

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Who’s Afraid of Relationism?

HT 2515 Sanford Kwinter & Marrikka Trotter | Fall 2018

Placebo The Castle, The Cloud and the Column Placebos only enter scientific research as a negation or subtraction.

In 18th century France, a scientific commission ascribed the curative effects of Franz Anton Mesmer’s “magnetism”1 to the power of a patient’s imagination, but rejected any physical or scientific connection between such imagination and the doctor’s actions. Two centuries later, the mandated double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial acknowledges the participation of placebos in the patient response, but only in order to subtract that effect from the medicine’s effect like a mathematical constant in order to isolate the “real” effect. Recent research, however, casts doubt on such clear and hard distinction.

Analysis of the enzyme COMT has led some scientists to suggest that imagination and pharmaceutical drugs operate along the same biochemical pathways, at the same time—and can influence each other’s efficacy. Imagination may be scientifically and chemically inextricable from effective medical practice.

Tasked with conjuring such responses of the imagination is ritual, which permeates nearly every realm of healthcare, from the folkloric practices of traditional medicine and the theatricality of acupuncture, to the branding of medication and the private one-on-one interactions at a modern clinic with a degree-carrying doctor. Seemingly opposed to ritual sits “the conveyor belt of routinized care”2. Routine, in a general sense, both reinforces and largely constitutes daily reality and the ordinary. But implicit in both routine and ritual is repeated, rehearsed actions—both are dynamic states. While routine associates itself with cyclical behaviors that result in equilibrium, ritual’s redressing of the everyday into unfamiliar form with its specialized spaces, costumes and theatrical roles deliberately cleaves a break in that reality to alter its shape and course into a new cyclical equilibrium.

Architecture acts both upon and within the imagination. To perceive a building in the whole requires mental haptic assemblage. The shifting impressions and levels of detail visible from different angles and distances coupled with the incompleteness of view inherent in any experience of interiority turn architecture into nonlinear sequences of fragmentary perceptions. These fragments can only be united into

FIGURE 1 Interior views, Machine Project, Matthew Au, 2010.

FIGURE 2 Floor plan. Machine Project, Matthew Au, 2010.

ESSAYS

a presumed totality within the mind’s eye, for which Alfred North Whitehead creates the term “prehension”3.

While incomplete shapes may imply or suggest certain completions to the imagination, Whitehead stresses that the prehension is separate from the thing itself4— the viewer can never have claimed to have actually captured the thing in its totality, as the thing is merely a fleeting alignment within a continuous, homogeneous substrate.

Matthew Au’s Machine Project (FIG 1) resists the complete view. His supplied design narrative sets the scene: upon cost estimating his schematic design, he found materials alone cost nearly the entire budget. Rather than pay himself the remaining amount as a nominal fee as planned, he instead bought larger quantities of the selected materials until he had spent exactly 100% of the budget, then put to use every inch, pound or unit of excess material without functionally altering his design. The resulting space, with its missed connections, wide overlaps, its open convex creases beside seamless concave creases, its persistent non-orthogonality, produces a perpetually unstable oscillation of alignment and misalignment within a cramped footprint that prohibits a single unifying view (FIG 2). Stark shadow lines beg for the walls to be snapped straight, but a resolution of any one kink would upset the next adjacent alignment. Spinning around in place, the visitor chases the kink around the room, from corner to crease to surface and back again to the beginning. Critical to maintaining this dynamic state is the lack of any discernable origin to the misbehavior. While Au’s narrative supplies the external stimulus for the presence of excess material, the lack of any clear point of reference manages to recontextualize even the wall flush with the building’s envelope, such that everything present is pulled into the gravity of the room’s own dynamic system. The visitor’s prehension of the space shifts cyclically with the view.

These periodic motions find footing in Stuart Kauffman’s discussions of state cycles and boolean networks.

His boolean network is a closed system consisting of various elements who take some or all of the other elements’ states as inputs, processes them by some defined function, and alters its own state accordingly.

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The number of elements could stretch beyond count, and by extension, the number of potential states—every possible combination of all element states possible within the system—could be even higher. His insight was to look instead at state cycles. Even in astronomically large systems, there are a finite number of states, meaning states will eventually recur, producing finite cycles5. The number of state cycles within the system was typically small enough to be individually characterized, observed and studied6. From this behavior, Kauffman could extract two types of interactions: minimal perturbations, in which changes by external force to certain elements’ states resulted in configurations either already part of the given cycle or that led right back to the state cycle; and structural perturbations, which would shift elements out of their current state cycle into a completely different one—a systemic change, or a “catastrophe”7. Here we can see the echoes of routine and ritual: a cyclical state of repetitious movement jolted by a systemic shift into a new, altered cycle. Au’s Machine Project walls experience Kauffman’s minimal perturbations in their dynamically shifting states of alignment and disorder on eternal loop. The rephrasing of the wall into a series of cycling states in response to excess material conjures the potential for a catastrophic shift, but within the limited scope of a single room, the catastrophe never emerges.

OMA’a Torre Prada and Valerio Olgiati’s Plantahof Auditorium leap straight to catastrophe. Both prominently feature the simple, somewhat dumb move of a column piercing the building’s envelope (FIG 3-6). In both cases, the event is prominently visible along the building’s axis of entry—it is no structural compromise to be disguised or disavowed. Both buildings are constructed with common tectonics, structural systems, and even typologies, but each building’s configuration is carefully calibrated to be off in such way that it cannot resolve its systems within itself. Such a statement begs the question, though, of what “within” means in this context. A building’s containment can be classified in three different ways: as envelope (the material, topological form of enclosure); as regulating geometry (the abstract vectors tracing the paths and axes along which the building’s boundary systems organize and subdivide themselves); and as information surface (the

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perceptual screen onto which various expressions of the building are projected). All three respond to each other’s states like elements in a Kauffman-esque boolean network, free of hierarchy or hylomorphic form-giving. Their friction and resonances, both consonant and dissonant, generate the potential-rife folds and heat to catalyze a catastrophic rift. Their fluidly overlapping prehensions encode the very means and manner of their individuation, that Simondon-ian source of haecceity and identity.

Architectural catastrophe is only truly individuation, an expression of its systemic uniqueness and internal coherence, when the trajectory of the structural perturbation is encoded into the building itself.

Were the column merely piercing the wall due to an external site condition, an extrinsic fact, the action would in no way represent the innate characteristics of the building. But when a pattern—which in an architectural context could correspond to both formal expressions and reactive behaviors between coexisting systems—can only be derived in its totality by forces and configurations within the substrate itself, that pattern represents an “intrinsic fact”8 of the building, its immanent nature.

The first glance a visitor to Fondazione Prada gets of the Torre Prada’s leaning column is the purest: a crisp and flat white parallelogram stretching straight from the tile roof of the adjacent gallery up to just beyond the top corner of the rectangular white box of a tower (FIG 7). The parallelogram shape and stark white flatness against the sky turns the column’s elevation into a drawing on a surface: it is not a column in the round propped against a tower, but skinny rectangle skewed sideways through a box representing the building. Paradoxically, though, this is the most solid the column ever appears. While it is an enclosed volume as it reaches up through the room of the adjacent gallery, half way up the column a void opens and fractures the mass into its two component side surfaces to allow the tower’s elevator—external to the building envelope—to penetrate the column and reach the roof (FIG 8). The elevator leaves a dark chasm in the roof below, as if the box shape of the column might have emerged from that very void.

Yet an oblique view of the tower from the south suggests a different regulating geometry for the column. A dark gash in the white surface of the tower’s south fact streaks diagonally from the top of the column through the roofs below and down to the ground, as the column were ripped from the surface, or if the shadow cast by the column, already in place, gained physical force and burst through the stucco walls (FIG 9). Yet the gash appears somewhat off as a shadow—it just barely misses its connection to the top of the column, leaving a gap that seems to thicken the width of the column, whose white edges are hard to discern from the white of the wall behind. And though its

FIGURE 3-4 Interior

view and section. Plantahof Auditorium, Valerio Olgiati, 2010

FIGURE 5-6 Interior

view and section. Torre Prada, OMA, 2018.

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angle across the surface recalls the angle of the column’s tilt, a close examination reveals it to be quite different. So while it repeatedly hints at and inarguably references relations to the building’s material properties, its regulating geometry, and its very representation as a shaded render, its extents are in fact bounded more closely by the width of the staircase core behind the gash. That it correlates so closely to the other system’s readings simply reinforces the column’s multiple simultaneous incomplete identities, identities both defined by and entirely consisting of those adaptations and reactions.

FIGURE 7 View from the west. Torre Prada, OMA, 2018.

FIGURE 8 View

from the south east. Torre Prada, OMA, 2018.

FIGURE 9 View from the south.

Torre Prada, OMA, 2018.

It is only after proceeding into the building’s open-air ground floor that the column’s structural motivation is allowed to express itself.

Approaching from inside the campus, the tower appears to be a basic rectangular extrusion. But the ground floor cuts off sharply at the north edge of the site into a trapezoid with a precariously heavy rectangular mass looming above. The unstable layering repeats once more above, creating the appearance of a building straining to twist away from itself, held in place only by the column on its back. What is expected to serve as an architectural element of compression is revealed to be in tension—the building wants to fall away, but the column pulls it back. Even in its structural role of pulling, the column defies simple extrinsic genesis: not only does the column reach just beyond the tip of the roof, as if the building just barely evaded its grasp, but it even takes care to just slightly mismatch the angle of the west elevation’s overhangs, once again referencing yet ultimately asserting its independence from those external forces and regulating lines.

In each view and each scenario, the leaning column casts itself in a different outsider role, each time declaring its uniqueness from, but relation to, the given scenario and systemic environment. Each calibration of difference then feeds back into the configuration of the other systems: the off-axis apertures into the adjacent gallery space so as to align with the column; the rationalization of an elevator traveling outside the building’s envelope; the deliberate slight misregistration of all the building’s oblique angles. Here lies the ritual: the column’s mindful and specific response to each context creates charged performative spaces, and its shifting roles place the surrounding context and visiting participants into their own unfamiliar roles. By breaking its own routine, it breaks its context’s routine, conjuring a permanent, structural perturbation: a catastrophe.

Plantahof Auditorium translates this complex interplay back down to the scale of a single room, collapsed into a single material. The first hint that the leaning column on its west face is not a functional buttress is its horribly mismatched scale relative to the wall itself, a mere kickstand of a flying buttress. Yet it is also too large for the window

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tials through their jolted attention and lingering stares.

A catastrophe is a black hole gravitationally drawing lifesustaining attention. Leonard Susskind found the limit to the information that can be contained within a black hole is proportional not to its volume, but to its surface area9. In other words: a building can only hold as much value as it can outwardly express. To fade into noise, into routine swirling flows without differentiated roles and Stepping inside complicates the relationship even fur- rituals, is to collapse into singularity, to exhaust all hope ther, as the internal source of the herniated column for a re-emergence of heat and form. Only a building’s fragment reveals itself. The column stretches diagonally rituals can keep the systems vibrating. to a heavy concrete joist halfway up the pitched roof, stretching lengthwise and terminating just before the walls on either end. A few meters down from the T, a beam stretches wall to wall just above eye level, then crawls vertically up the west wall to the roof’s peak. The impression is of a concrete T and L either levitating in or pinned between the sloping walls of the auditorium. Of course, the “column” supporting the L span is the walls themselves, and we know that the harshly terminating T column continues through the wall to the ground on the other side. But the monomaterial treatment prevents easy comprehension of these overlapping systems, creating the marked sense of erasure, incompleteness, and misregistration. Unlike Torre Prada’s multi-act play with shifting roles, Plantahof Auditorium’s ritual is processional, religious. Each view presents obvious kinks in registrations, gaps where we expect structure, objects out of scale with their surroundings, but the building consciously subverts any obvious hierarchy that could designate a definitive reference point, or configurational origin. We find ourselves back in Matthew Au’s Machine Project, flattening creases only to find a new fold emerging just outside our line of sight. Yet here, enough potential energy is built up through the perceptual friction between the building’s layers of containment that a full systemic catastrophe can occur. next to it. The heavy, concrete box of column dwarves the opening, which is scaled just smaller than human height, creating an ambiguous functional and geometric relationship. The monomaterial treatment collapses all the building’s systems together into a blank surface, whose scaleless misproportionality eschews any reliable frame of reference. The systems are instead left bulging, pressing and straining against each other.

Mesmer’s magnetism was not a lie, but a yearned-for truth—with the mind convinced, the body chose to follow suit. With the mind convinced, momentarily frozen walls of a building may find movement again, disintegrating back into tumbling particles and shards, melting its residues into vectors and flows, possessing its inhabitants’ minds and vicariously exploring its latent poten-

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FIGURE 10 West elevation.

Plantahof Auditorium, Valerio Olgiati 2010.

ENDNOTES 1

Greenberg, Gary. “What if the Placebo Effect Isn’t a Trick?” New York Times, November 8, 2018.

2

Ibid.

3

Whitehead, Alfred North. Science and the Modern World. New York: The Free Press, 1967: 69.

FIGURE 11 Interior beams and columns. Plantahof Auditorium, Valerio Olgiati 2010.

4

Ibid.

5

Kauffman, Stuart A. “Antichaos and Adapatation.” Scientific American Vol. 265 No. 2, August 1991: 80.

6

Kauffman, Stuart A. “Antichaos and Adapatation.” 81.

7

Kauffman, Stuart A. “Antichaos and Adapatation.” 79.

8

Whitehead, Alfred North. Science and the Modern World. New York: The Free Press, 1967: 108

9

Susskind, Leonard. “The World As Hologram.” Lecture, TVO Big Ideas. June 28, 2011.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Greenberg, Gary. “What if the Placebo Effect Isn’t a Trick?” New York Times, November 8, 2018. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://www.nytimes. com/2018/11/07/magazine/placebo-effect-medicine.html Kauffman, Stuart A. “Antichaos and Adapatation.” Scientific American Vol. 265 No. 2, August 1991: 78-84.

Simondon, Gilbert. “The Genesis of the Individual.” Zone 6: Incorporation, eds.

Jonathan Crary & Sanford Kwinter. New York: Zone Books, 1992: 297–319.

Susskind, Leonard. “The World As Hologram.” Lecture, TVO Big Ideas.

June 28, 2011. Accessed November 15, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=2DIl3Hfh9tY Whitehead, Alfred North. Science and the Modern World. New York: The Free Press, 1967.

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Shape | HT 2718 Marrikka Trotter | Spring 2018

Let Shape In The Shape of Interiority Shape was superficial, as Robert Somol and Michael Fried had it.1 Shapes lacked predetermined meanings or intelligible relationships to past forms. And on a literal level, they were all just surfaces. Somol laid out a series of five steps to produce so-called “logo buildings,” and all five focused on intensifying the surface of the building or its silhouette—two dimensional properties that collapsed any suggestion of complex interiority.2 Shape projects, by these definitions, were big, solid blocks. Tom Wiscombe, in pulling Graham Harmon and Tristan Garcia’s theories of flat ontology into architecture, carved out space for the interior by thickening the surface and wrapping it around a collection of smaller objects. Objects pressing against the skin from inside could distort or even puncture the surface, leaving hints on the outside of what might lie inside, and inventing a charged space between the objects and skin. By granting each element its own objecthood—mass, interior, surface articulation, and ground3—shapes could forge legible relationships to one another without resorting to historical allusion or reacting mechanically to external flows and forces.

Yet Garcia bases his definition of ontologically flat objecthood on mathematical set theory: a thing is the difference between what it contains and what contains it. The suggestion of some sort of containment theory seems promising for approaching interiority in architecture, but Garcia upholds set theory’s rule that a set cannot contain itself—it may only be contained by other sets. While seemingly innocuous, his rejection of compactness dooms ontologically flat architecture to its old familiar topological arrangement: “A thing is nothing other than the difference between being-inside [l’être entré] and being-outside [l’être sorti].”4 To relegate architecture to mere mediator between inside and outside turns buildings into onion skins at their worst, and misassembled matryoshkas at their best. Shape, so crisp and clear on the outside, vanishes from view on the inside, replaced by a new collection of shapes with the very same dynamic.

A building must be able to contain its whole self within itself to progress beyond this arrangement, and to allow the internal space to be read as shape.

FIGURE 1 Ground plan, Winton Guest House, Frank Gehry

FIGURE 2 Moriyama

SANAA

FIGURE 3 Earthrise (NASA/JPL)

House,

ESSAYS

Small scale projects have long overcome interior-exterior schizophrenia by assembling individual roomobjects with perfectly correlated interior and exterior shapes. Frank Gehry’s Winton Guest House gathers four simple irregular shapes around a central pyramidal room-object in a pinwheel arrangement, all pressed flush to the center but never intersecting (Fig. 1). To enter, the visitor walks between the spokes of the pinwheel into the central mass, each wall of which contains both a glass door with a view of the adjacent masses and a doorway into one of them. The pervasive simultaneous views of the insides and outsides of the masses—and their integrity as non-intersecting masses—reinforces the legibility of the interior spaces as shapes. SANAA pushes the Moriyama House’s roomobjects apart from one another, producing standalone boxes scattered across an open corner of a residential block. Units made up of multiple boxes connect with glass hallways (Fig. 2), making quite clear the discreteness of each object as one walks between them.

Such projects unfortunately also serve to show the limits of such an approach. To demand perfect unity of interior and exterior experience reverts shape back to Somol’s big blocks—just explicitly hollow this time instead of perceptually solid. Such simplicity cannot accommodate larger projects with more complex programs and adjacency requirements. A building beyond a certain scale requires spatial subdivision and cannot count on providing each room with its own discrete mass and identity—nor is such discreteness even universally appropriate. A building then must not merely correlate the exterior and interior, but pull the exterior inside and incorporate it into the interior spatial experience.

Yet shapes geometrically are defined by edges—that is, they are bounded. The boundaries need not be fully enclosed—the human mind is able to pre-consciously complete perceptually implied shapes. The impulse to complete an unenclosed shape’s edges resonates with George Kubler’s theory of the perception of time, particularly mankind’s inability to sense an event until after it has passed. Temporal distance is not so different from spatial distance: Kubler’s metaphor for experiencing the present is to stare at a faceted gemstone from

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such a close proximity that one’s whole view is flooded with innumerable distorted reflections and refractions.

It is only by stepping back from the gemstone that the views cohere into a unified, clearly perceptible object.5 Thus, paradoxically, to better understand a building, the human impulse is to step away from it until it is bound by our perceptual frame. By this principle, exteriority is the antithesis of shape. A flat ground plane appears to extend infinitely in all directions at our feet, and above us, a volumetric void expands indefinitely.

How can a finite surface, a finite edge, a finite interior, ever hope to contain an infinite expanse? How can a container collapse into the space it contains?

Peter Sloterdijk trains his lens on creation myths across the ages in order to unpack the interior-exterior dialectic. Pre-Judeo-Christian mythologies tended to see mankind’s creators as Great Mothers from whom every person was birthed.6 Caves, some of the first dwellings for proto-humans, serve as the symbolic wombs and birth canals from which humankind sprang. In dying and returning to the earth, humans return to the womb, such that all life’s experiences and the whole physical world emerges from and ends up in a cave.7 All exterior space, therefore, is contained by an interior space. How, then, to step back and take in an all-containing space?

How to consciously comprehend an interior one only enters in death? Sloterdijk’s literary solution is to divide the self in two: one who enters into and reports his sensual experiences of the pitch-dark cave, and one who remains outside to interpret rationally, at a distance.8 In fact, such a suggestion is not so literary after all— mankind’s understanding of the Earth evolved in a nearly identical fashion. Up until a half-century ago, the planet could only be experienced as a continuous non-Euclidean plane extending infinitely in all directions, with a sky extending infinitely above. Then, in 1968, the Apollo 8 manned lunar mission brought back a photograph of an “earthrise” (Fig. 3)—the first true external view of Earth distant enough to for it to resolve into its spherical shape. When the Voyager 1 space probe sent back the famous “Pale Blue Dot” photograph in 1990 (Fig. 4), where Earth and five other planets appear as tiny specks in an enormous field of stars, NASA captioned the image the “first ever ‘por-

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trait’ of our solar system as seen from the outside.”9 By externalizing our perception of ourselves, we were able to transform what is geometrically and topologically an exterior space (the surface of a sphere) into an interior space, re-interiorizing humankind.

If shape is no longer merely geometric or topological, but now purely perceptual, there needs to be a new framework for defining containment, and a clear set of goals for its deployment. Somol’s shape strategies encouraged the creation of hulking object-buildings in the middle of open spaces, detached from their context.

Such an approach is no longer sustainable for modern urban environments, where open space is nonexistent, housing cannot be built fast enough, and density only increases with time. For shape to remain relevant, it must be able to operate and drive formal design in more varied conditions that don’t rely so heavily on exteriority: narrow streets, infill projects for gaps between buildings, renovations and expansions of existing structures. Shape stood—and stands—to be re-examined for its historical and sociopolitical blankness and neutrality, its versatility and adaptability, its easy and attractive appearance.10 Interiorized shape must fulfill the same potential without resorting to formal indexing, operating with the same effortless immediacy, and with the same triggers to pre-consciously complete partially rendered shapes.

Manuel de Landa explores mechanisms of spontaneous ordering and synchronization in nature in his 1992 essay “Nonorganic Life.” On opposing ends of the spectrum lie chaos and solitons—the former representing complete asynchronization, and the latter representing entities that retain their identity throughout time and space, like a tsunami crossing the ocean instead of dissipating like a typical wave. Most critical is his abstraction of these interactions and transitions into “mechanism independent”11 operations. Much as topology allows for the study of spatial relationships without fixed or given geometry, the “phase portraits”12 de Landa develops allow for the study of organizations and synchronizations independent of any specific matter or material. For example, the non-linear diffusion of a lit candle finds equivalents in nerve impule propagation, spreads of infectious disease, the human heartbeat, and

more.13 Within a “phase space”14, attractors and repellors exert influence on the surrounding matter, not defining a predictable result, but describing the range of tendencies within a system. Using de Landa’s framework, it’s possible to evaluate a much more fluid and dynamic execution of shape and interiority.

Norman Foster’s Apple Park takes a literal approach, enclosing an infinite corridor loop within a perfect 1,500 foot diameter ring. The project founders, however, on both practical and theoretical levels. As a suburban corporate headquarters, it makes no attempt to adapt to its context. De Landa rejects the artificial isolation of “conservative systems,” because it is the surrounding ambient fluxes that trigger dynamic shifts and variations within a system. Successful systems maintain enough disorder to reorganize themselves nimbly as needed, but enough order to retain its identity and energy—to retain its solitons, and not let them all diffuse like ordinary waves. Apple Park’s pristine circular shape and tabula rasa context represent too solid a state, too much order. No individual part of the building can react to any specific context, both because the ordering system doesn’t allow variation, and because there are not enough external stimuli to trigger a reaction. The interior shape may be legible, but only because it is the same everywhere. Eventually it disappears from view, ignored as irrelevant.

John Soane’s Bank of England, OMA’s National Art Museum of China proposal and Agadir Convention Center proposal all attempt a tightly packed sack-ofobjects approach to internal organization. While each relies on somewhat arbitrary bounding boxes—the full footprint of its London City Block in Soane’s case, and large flat squares in both of OMA’s cases—the enclosed area is packed densely with smaller objects. In Soane’s case, masonry poche alone separates the individual masses, all connected in enfilade but for a few choice light courts and two primary entry roadways, which afford views of the exterior skins of certain adjacent masses. Built piecemeal over decades, and incorporating many existing structures, the ground plan lacks any overarching order beyond its two primary axes, producing too dense and chaotic a collection of spaces to read as a coherent shape from inside.

ESSAYS

FIGURE 4 Pale Blue Dot (NASA/JPL)

FIGURE 5 Ground plan, National Art Museum of China, OMA

FIGURE 6 Agadir Convention Center, OMA

FIGURE 7 VitraHaus, Herzog & de Meuron

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OMA’s two projects attempt more deliberate organization within the mat building type. The National Art Museum drives five radial avenues through to an enormous central atrium below a four story mass (Fig. 5). Within the clusters of enfilade galleries that fill the remainder of the space, the outermost are highly rectilinear, while those more central in the mass borrow the organic curves and asymmetry of the nearby atrium. The synchronization of rectilinearity and curvature produces a wayfinding mechanism for the maze-like interior, reinforcing the visitor’s understanding of the larger space they’re inhabiting. The Agadir Convention Center consists of three stacked slabs. The topmost slab is single story hotel, with evenly sized but irregularly oriented and distributed light courts (Fig. 6). Two larger spaces manifest themselves as larger gaps in the slab that break the rectilinear project grid, and each housing an organically shaped object. De Landa notes that though the tendencies of a given system may be innate to its stock and arrangement of attractors and repellors, those tendencies are only perceptible once actualized.15 The rough uniformity of the hotel rooms’ light courts interrupted in only a couple precise instances actualizes a much broader range of specific systematic traits than Soane’s haphazard chaos, or the National Art Museum’s highly predictable geometric mimicry. The parameters of the light courts’ variations reveal the surrounding shape in much the same way as a single line extracted from a Frank Stella painting can describe the thickness of the stretcher bars and overall dimension of the painting.

What emerges from these first case studies is a definition of interior shape that has less to do with continuity and silhouette than with coherence within a complex system. Unlike the predictable results of parametricism, the inclusion of chaos within an complex system ensures new discoveries and overall heterogeneity—repeated forms will not always be identical. Complex interior shape consists of instances of deliberate and synchronized reactions to the boundary shape’s conditions. The exterior surface of the building must still be literally visible from the interior, but it need not always be. The coherence of the system and the rigorous actualization of its tendencies perceptually complete the shape. Three examples below demonstrate promising executions of legible interior shape.

Herzog and de Meuron’s VitraHaus consists of stacks of extruded house-like pentagonal shapes. Each extrusion is of a slightly different length and proportion, as called for by the program. The building’s only windows are at the ends of the extrusions, but the interior space within each is completely unpartitioned. VitraHaus escapes the restrictive simplicity of Gehry’s Winton Guest House and other object-room projects by letting the shapes overlap, and rigorously

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articulating the resulting intersection (Fig. 7). Though the glazed surfaces, which peer only outward, afford just small glimpses of the adjacent volumes, the broad zones of intersection allow unrestricted views from one extrusion to the next. No two intersections are identical, just as no two extrusions are identical. But a set of carefully developed rules about slope angles and traversable surfaces clearly define the system’s parameters, such that staircases, balconies and peep holes seem rationally laid out. The set of intuitive expectations based on these subconscious observations fills out the shape of the remainder of the space without needing to see it all, and without the gut reaction to step back for a wider view. Though the museum is situated on an empty site in a vast landscape, its structure as a collection of shapes would let it adapt quite easily to any dense urban context.

Bernard Tschumi’s Le Fresnoy plays an even simpler game than VitraHaus. Rather than demolishing a small campus of dilapidated buildings, Tschumi built a shedlike metal roof above the entire complex, and connected the existing buildings anew with a series of suspended catwalks. By not fully enclosing the building, interiority is reimagined as implied, loose containment, with the catwalks activating what would otherwise be residual empty space between the inner buildings’ roofs and the superstructure. The implied boundaries of the roof and catwalks also serve, somewhat unexpectedly, to reframe the existing structure’s profiles, and to draw attention to their otherwise banal and ignorable shape.

One mass is let to extend a few feet beyond the boundary of the roof, but all its apertures are boarded up and painted over in a unified color. Only that outer surface catches the sunlight, as the rest falls into deep shadow under the roof, further collapsing the building into its base geometry (Fig. 8). There is the perpetual confusion of being simultaneously inside and outside, but Tschumi’s choice to neither complicate that relationship nor render it ambiguous grants it its power. Inhabiting the gaps and spaces between the inner structures and their surrounding roof primes the visitor to question what next invisible layers of containment exist beyond the project. Le Fresnoy presents a strong argument for the viability of shape in infill projects and renovations.

Tom Wiscombe’s Main Museum of Los Angeles Art provides the most complex and nuanced interpretation of interior shape. The museum is a renovation and addition to an existing historic structure. However, the program is spread across three disparate areas of the building: in the sub-basement, a collection of galleries; on the roof, two new standalone galleries structures; and within the rest of the building, a connecting corridor windings its way into, out of, and through the floor plates and exterior walls of the building, fully enclosed from the rest of the structure (Fig. 9). The passageway paradoxically reinforces the shape and presence of the historic building’s floor plates and exterior cladding by violating them.

The project is neither a sack of objects, nor a monolithic block. The building flips itself inside out and spills its organs onto the roof and into the basement, allowing the intestines to entwine and permeate the new interior. By maintaining the topological integrity of the separation between passageway and interior mass, the visitor is simultaneously spectator and inhabitant—the precise split between perception and sensual experience that Sloterdijk proposed.

De Landa opens his essay describing the challenges of representing and developing the dynamics of complex systems. Although computers had only recently gained the ability to efficiently process non-linear calculations at the time of the article’s writing, he notes that, with the example of metallurgy, people were studying and mastering such systems long before developing even the formal reasoning techniques to rationalize them, through what was a sensual and intuitive knowledge and learning process. Interiority, as a complex, non-linear system, has tended in architecture to be approached—and dismissed—with the same sensual, intuitive impulse. It’s not computational power that’s been lacking for developing a more rigorous, rational approach to interiority, but rather a productive language and theoretical framework. The happy coincidence of shape’s deliberate hollowness leaves room to adapt and apply shape’s strengths and goals to this new territory.

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ENDNOTES 1

Robert Somol, “12 Reasons to Get Back into Shape,” Content, ed. Rem Koolhaas and OMA-AMO. Cologne: Taschen, 2004, and Michael Fried, Art and Objecthood. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

2

Robert Somol, “Green Dots 101,” Hunch No. 11 (2007): 35-36

3

Tom Wiscombe, “Discreteness, or Towards a Flat Ontology of Architecture,” Project No. 3 (2014): 37

4

Tristan Garcia. Form and Object: A Treatise on Things. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014: 11

5

George Kubler. The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things. New Haven: Yale University, 1962: 16

6

Peter Sloterdijk. Spheres Volume I: Bubbles. Microspherology. Trans. Wieland Hoban. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2011: 271

FIGURE 8 Le

Fresnoy, Bernard Tschumi

7

Peter Sloterdijk. Spheres Volume I: Bubbles: 273-5

8

Peter Sloterdijk. Spheres Volume I: Bubbles: 285-6

9

NASA/JPL, “Solar System Portrait - Earth as ‘Pale Blue Dot’,” Image Caption, https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA00452. Accessed 03.12.2018.

10

Robert Somol, “12 Reasons to Get Back into Shape,” Content, ed. Rem Koolhaas and OMA-AMO, Cologne: Taschen, 2004: 86–87

11

Manuel de Landa, “Nonorganic Life,” Zone 6: Incorporations, ed. Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter. New York: Urzone, 1992: 135.

FIGURE 9 Main

Museum of Los Angeles Art, Tom Wiscombe Architecture

12

Manuel de Landa, “Nonorganic Life,” 136.

13

Manuel de Landa, “Nonorganic Life,” 135.

14

Manuel de Landa, “Nonorganic Life,” 136.

15

Manuel de Landa, “Nonorganic Life,” 138.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blackwell, Adrian. “Less and More: On the Political Potential of a Virtual Architecture.” Architecture is All Over. Ed. Esther Choi and Marrikka Trotter. New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2017, 120-133. de Landa, Manuel. “Nonorganic Life.” Zone 6: Incorporations, ed. Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter. New York: Urzone, 1992.

Fried, Michael. Art and Objecthood. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Garcia, Tristan. Form and Object: A Treatise on Things. Trans. Mark Allan Ohm and Jon Cogburn. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.

Kubler, George. The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things. New Haven: Yale University, 1962.

Sloterdijk, Peter. Spheres Volume I: Bubbles. Microspherology. Trans. Wieland Hoban. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2011.

Somol, Robert. “12 Reasons to Get Back into Shape.” Content, ed. Rem Koolhaas and OMA-AMO. Cologne: Taschen, 2004.

Somol, Robert. “Green Dots 101.” Hunch No. 11, 2007.

Wiscombe, Tom. “Discreteness, or Towards a Flat Ontology of Architecture.” Project No. 3, 2014.

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Shape | HT 2718 Marrikka Trotter | Spring 2018 Ent(r)ails Even the allegorical concepts to which Milton grants distinct shape and precise physical characteristics shun clear formal resolution. The incestuous relationship of Satan, Sin, Death, and the Hellhounds reveals a distinctly topological problem. Sin emerges from Satan’s splitting head, yet through her Satan then produces a son, who through his mother begets a pack of beasts who cyclically defy topological clarity by separating and rejoining their progenitor in an unending loop. It is a snake of infinite length consuming its own tail. The paradox of a head and a tail on anything of infinite length does not prevent a clear mental image from forming—a logical inversion of the linguist’s favorite phrase, colorless green ideas sleep furiously: syntactically sound yet visually unrealizable. Such is the Satanic world into which Milton ushers the reader: contradictions and self-violations abound, as often literal as conceptual.

Chaos, then, seems no longer quite so different from the other personifications, despite his being deprived a palpable shape. The emptiness and infinite expanse within Chaos’ realm is only a topological mirror of the self-consuming snake. In the former, an infinite space contains all matter (the mine from which God forges all new creations). In the latter, an infinite surface contains all space. Milton attempts to distinguish the two through matters of agency. Only Chaos, the infinite expanse, seems to defy God’s control, despite his access to it. The trope of rape amongst Satan’s brood similarly mocks the allegorical personifications’ newfound agency by cruelly negating it—there is always another layer of scales and skin containing the current one. Literal containment becomes the only legitimate form of agency, whether successful restraint or deliberate release.

Edmund Burke’s standard for judging the success of a work of art is its ability to arouse passion, its affect.

Obscurity, a lack of clarity and a lack of boundary, he argues, produces the greatest affect. Yet such an experience of infinite expanse cannot occur while an object’s bounds can be seen. Here lies the fatal challenge to architecture. Architecture is containment. Architecture is a boundary. If architecture’s goal is artistic, to evoke emotions, its very definition precludes its success. Here, Rumrich and Milton may rejoin us. Both the infinite container and the infinitely contained are illusions: Satan enters into and escapes from his fall through Chaos’ abyss, and Sin asserts her agency by opening the gates of Hell for Satan’s journey to the Garden of Eden. It’s a world of permeable thresholds and temporary envelopment, much like food eaten never entering the body topologically, yet nevertheless being contained by it. Architecture as miles of tangled entrails; as involute Klein bottles and herniated passages; as vast spaces hosting mischievous agents and pregnant with explosive fire— this is the architecture that has the potential to evoke awe, astonishment, even terror, to thrust itself back into our consciousness and our imagination.

REFERENCES

Burke, Edmund. “A Philosophical Inquiry Into The Origin Of Our Ideas Sublime And Beautiful, An Introductory Discourse Concerning Taste, And Several Other Additions.” London: Thomas M’lean, Haymarket, 1823.

Rumrich, John. “Things of Darkness: Sin, Death, Chaos.” Chapter. In The Cambridge Companion to Paradise Lost, edited by Louis Schwartz, 29–41. Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

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History of Architecture & Urbanism II | HT 2120 Marrikka Trotter | Fall 2017

FIGURE 1 Section, S. Maria della Divina Providenza di Lisbona

Skin in Bone S. Maria della Divina Providenza di Lisbona S. Mariaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s section droops and flutters before your eyes. More mirage than architectural document, the drawing resembles a collage of familiar architectural features defying any immediate spatial gestalt.

Several identities layer upon one another, but they join imprecisely, seams bursting at the edges. A darkness lurks beneath it all. To find our way between the layers, into the seams, to understand this darkness, we first need to find an anchor.

A thick articulated entablature with a steeply protruding cornice splits the interior volume in two. Its horizontal lines run from one side of the drawing to the other uninterrupted, a spine onto which the rest of the elements attach. Below the entablature, we can see a two-story space. What appear to be Corinthian pilasters on raised pedestals snake their way from the ground to the architrave, spaced with an uneven rhythm. Twice, pilasters appear to double up. On opposite ends, they reduce to single strands. Between some pilasters are rounded arches atop shorter columns, wavy like the pilasters, but drawn without fluting or volumetric shading. Between other pilasters are vertically-stacked pairs of openings into darkened passages.

Between the remaining pilasters are pairs of shaded rectangles, most likely inset panels. Taken on its own, the lower register does not explicitly describe any depth or volume, just flat geometric shapes.

Above the entablature is a sequence of vaults, oculi, and lanterns that merge to form a continuous ceiling. Looking closely at the far-left

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lantern, we see that it tops a semidome. A similar rib structure repeats below the rest of the lanterns, causing the eye to read these successive forms as adjacent volumetric domes. Yet overlapping domes are spatially impossible, and what we’re left with instead is a sequence of groin vaults whose webs between the bays are allowed to sag. This residual curve describes the start of a dome-like volume, while also producing subtle transverse arches with its bulge—structure, carefully concealed. The oculi replace the bosses of the groin vaults, truncating the ribs and opening a void precisely where you would expect the entire structure to need to join to support itself. Two tiers of cornice lips inside the lanterns further emphasize the void, preventing the structure from ever visually connecting at a point.

Large clerestory windows occupy the bays below the lanterns, as well as the bays between the vaults, severing the implied transverse arches from their bases with yet another void. The second vault from the left and its lantern are nearly double the size of the others, yet the lantern bleeds beyond the top of the page, preventing it from dominating the image as it does the space.

The subdued representation of the oversized dome and lantern suppress the fact that the space is not perfectly uniform and symmetrical, and that there is a direction to procession through the building. The entrance is almost invisible, a tiny opening in the wall on the bottom right, commanding even less visual weight than the clerestory window cut into the façade above it.

Sequencing the space from this starting point, though, many of its features begin to suggest a traditional church layout. Procession moves left toward the largest vault, which resembles a central dome above a crossing. Beyond it to the left, the rounded semidome and raised floor suggest an apse and choir. But where, then, is the transept? Where are the chapels? If there is any volume and depth to the lower register and the plan, the architect of S. Maria has done his best to bury it in ambiguity.

Focusing where the transept would be, we see a rounded arch with spandrels surrounding a window and a cornice. The area is shaded with evenly spaced horizontal lines, producing a light grey color. By using horizontal lines, the architect does not commit the enclosed

surface to any spatial depth or curvature—a flat surface and a curved surface would follow the same horizontal contour. It is simultaneously surface and void. Yet the architect has elsewhere in the drawing established non-ambiguous systems for describing curved surfaces.

Along the ceiling section and vault ribs, diagonal hatching increases in density and darkness as the surface rotates away from vertical toward the picture plane, producing clearly legible volume, which allows the illusory domes to appear before the viewer. Inside the large lantern, the surfaces are given gradated shading to suggest a light source from the right, and the architect uses vertical contour lines to express the curvature of the octagonal dome within the shading at the very top edge of the drawing. Even the much smaller lanterns feature a crosshatched gradient to express their rounded depth against their flat section cut. All of this would lead to the conclusion that the walls beneath the rounded arches on the lower register are flat, as they do not deploy any of these techniques.

However, the cornice below the inset windows is hatched with dense vertical lines, separating it from the plane of the arch itself and its supporting columns. Similar breaks and separations now become visible across the entire entablature separating upper and lower registers, producing oscillations in depth. At the very least, this separation suggests that the surface beyond the rounded arches is set back from the plane of the pilasters. But the architect gives the fewest clues possible about this depth—as soon as the eye’s focus is moved elsewhere in the image, the walls flatten back into a plane and space collapses. With each movement of the eye, the surfaces and details undulate and pulse.

The rectangular panels on the lower register also resist settling on a fixed form by using similar horizontal hatching. The two sets of panels below the central vault are narrower than the two in the apse, yet it is unclear what force is compressing them. Here, a spatial cue comes from the pilasters. What at first glance appeared to be double pilasters in fact could be a corner elevation of a square column. The architect does not deploy any shading on the different faces of these pilasters, letting it oscillate between double pilaster and square volume. But the doubling continues up through

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the entablature and into the ribs of the central vault, whose webs seamlessly merge into the octagonal faces of the large lantern, with its clearly shaded surfaces and rendered volume. It would seem that these narrower panels are in fact foreshortened walls pushing into the page to carve out an octagonal space.

As satisfying as this determination may be, it unearths yet more problems and contradictions. If what we thought were pilasters were columns, is that only true for the ones on this octagonal corner? Or are they all columns in the round? At the very left edge, at the end of the apse, one pilaster appears to be drawn from a corner view, but unlike the columns surrounding the crossing, this one is extremely narrow, barely the width of one flute. Despite the flatness, it appears to be completely detached from the wall, and oscillating both side to side and in and out. It is as if the architect took the two-dimensional drawing of a wavy pilaster and rotated it in three dimensions, rather than drawing a three-dimensional wavy pilaster.

The architect’s drawing systems compromise spatial integrity all across the page. The most well-described three-dimensional geometry in the drawing is the semidome over the apse. In this section, you can see a bay window in front elevation (directly below the lantern), corner elevation (next to the left), and section. The detail of how the webs of the bay connect to the window sill and relate to the ribs is clearly resolved geometrically. Yet the windows, the frieze on the entablature, and the rectangular panels below do not foreshorten in the final panel as you would expect them to based on the architect’s treatment of the octagonal crossing. The effect is unnerving. If it is spatially accurate, it means that the far left wall and window are much wider than the next bay over, but foreshorten in elevation to the exact width as the first. Given the architect’s attention to foreshortening in other portions of the drawing, given the volumetric accuracy of the semidome, and given the previous instances of flat/volumetric interplay, the space would appear to have been accurately drawn, with the intent to flatten the volume back into the page from this particular orthographic view.

The windows themselves play into this. Formally they root themselves in gothic ornamentation, but they

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seem even more closely related to the two-dimensional whorls and volutes of illuminated manuscripts. Their shapes do not react to the spaces they occupy. They rest like stickers on the blank surfaces provided to them, responding only to the boundary lines to adjust their dimensions. The shading on the scrolls that form the bottom frame of the main bay windows doesn’t read volumetrically, but they are nevertheless drawn the exact same way all three times they are featured—it was no slip of the hand, no dearth of skill. The windows inset within the smaller upper bays occasionally attach to the contour of the surrounding vault, but with a series of two dimensional sweeps of line that don’t appear to have depth. Rather than rendering the edges and depth of the sills, the architect draws a simple uniform drop shadow border around the edges of the frame to differentiate it from the wall around it. The choice to fill the window frames with a consistently sized grid snaps what would be an indefinitely extending exterior space back into the plane of the paper. So lacking in depth, the only useful information they do in the end provide is registration for where the building can’t extend any further into depth. We are trapped on the inside of this structure, and the windows define not an exit, but a boundary.

The negative space in the drawing that does express depth is the darkness. Darkness, too, is rendered with rectilinear gridded crosshatching, but hatching so dense that the lines lose their legibility and fall back into an abstract space. It is deployed in only two places: the passageways on the lower register, and the seam between the ceiling and the external roof structure. In the lower register, these passageways alone hint at human occupation. The second story archways feature a balustrade, the only element in the drawing explicitly referencing a human scale or use. The lower opening is clearly a doorway, despite its unfamiliar inwardly-rounded corners, as it matches the height of the building’s entrance precisely. Despite being so clearly occupiable, the darkness provides no clues as to what you would be occupying.

What is beyond the threshold?

Stepping back from the drawing and letting the space all collapse back onto the page starts to reveal the answers. The darkness pushes into and beyond the page.

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The interior details flatten onto each other and sit in front of the darkness. The attic spaces, aligned horizontally with the passageways below, seem to connect with them behind the interior architecture. A new image emerges: from the straight angular lines of the exterior walls and roof, an ornate architectural skin drapes down, sagging between the lanterns from which it hangs. Small openings are cut into the skin below. The alignment isn’t perfect—some roof pitches slide off from their registration, and the asymmetrical exterior structure and oversize vault shift visual weight toward one side of the building. This horizontal misregistration slips the image left and right, left and right, a vibration that works its way down through the frieze and into the pilasters, fluttering in unison like a curtain in the breeze. It is a shimmering stage set, an interior façade.

The exterior walls disguise the graceful catenary curves behind sharp angles and straight blank walls. Yet those angles also generate and sustain the curves, pins and hangers against which gravity can pull. There are no seams at the door—the illusion is uninterrupted as harsh, abstract geometry yields to human subjectivity and gentle contour. But the architect doesn’t want you to enter the building in physical space. It may have been built (or it may not have been), but here, on the page, is the real building. Within the discrepancy be-

tween exterior and interior, body and soul, action and intention, behavior and principles, lies a more complete understanding of oneself. The architect can draw you a church, a place of supposed salvation, but the chapels and altar are flat and unoccupiable. The windows admit no light. The only place left to go is into the interstitial corridors, the poché—the darkness. We look down at our bodies and see skin pulling at and stretching around shapes we can feel to be bones and muscles and organs, structures that provide us with our life. But we have rarely if ever seen our own bones—it is a world without light. This church tears open the skin and thrusts you into a subcutaneous zone, the interior you’ve been always external to, despite it containing you. It’s inside out: rather than encasing structure in a façade, the drawing represents the interior as an enveloping façade separating you from an abstract cerebral space. The church is an inside-out man, skin hanging inside the skeleton, organs dangling without. You can look down and see the interlocking forces that define your humanity and character, that define and differentiate the physical self and the mental self. It slips against itself and shivers before your eyes, never fully focusing or settling on one reading. But such is the challenge in self-reflection as a subjective viewer.

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1GA Intro to Contemporary Architecture | HT 2100 Todd Gannon | Fall 2016 ESSAY PROMPT

In your design studio, you were asked to examine

Essays we have examined in class provide models

the work of the sculptor Tony Smith as a starting

for bringing historical questions to bear on current

point for your own investigations. Outline your posi-

architectural practice. Though some authors argue

tion on the role of historical precedents in general

for works that innovate within established conven-

(and Tony Smith in particular) in the production

tions and others promote more subversive alterna-

of new work. In building your case, discuss specific

tives, each takes a specific stance with respect to the

concepts and practices we have encountered in the

role of historical precedents in the production of

readings throughout the term parallel or contrast

new work.

your ambitions.

Villa Snow-White

Our first assignment as graduate students at SCI-Arc took us to LACMA, where we awkwardly mis-measured Tony Smith’s sculpture Smoke with our footsteps. The subsequent portions in the assignment applied interventions upon the form and its pieces. The resulting disfigurement provided a form for a final incarnation: a library. According to the pin-up chart provided to us for our final review, we will be placing an elevation rendering of our building exactly two inches to the right of a drawing of our initial Tony Smith experiments. Why is this early drawing there, in such a place of prominence? Why must we know where our library was born, and lay bare the birth canal? When it comes to producing new work, I would argue that, while historical precedent will never—and should never—supply an answer to any given problem or need, it is going to provide the language in which the proposition will be interpreted, and thus must be carefully considered.

What motivated our instructors to focus us on Tony Smith? More broadly, what is the value in defining a shared precedent for the entire class? Immediately prior to our first large review, our instructor peered down the long gallery at the fifty-some-odd Smoke sequels lining the walls and asked if they all looked the same, or if they all looked different. Without a vocabulary to parse the miniscule differences between the webs of octahedra, the answer could only be that they’re all the same. Yet once terms are defined, it’s impossible for any single one to be much like any other. Zago and Gannon (2016) name this phenomenon a “discourse community,” and explain that a “proliferation of linguistic complexity enables not

FIGURE 1 The cube, the cubeon-point, and the misunderstood hexagon

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only nuanced description of topics important to the group but also the construction of the group’s selfidentity” (2). By providing a specialized vocabulary, one indicates what words and concepts are necessary but lacking in a standard vocabulary and establishing them as problems warranting attention. Even more productive than the increased “nuance” is the increased efficiency—it’s much faster if you don’t have to re-define your terms at the start of every conversation or paper. From this impulse, we SCI-Arc initiates have not just the cube, but also the cube-on-point and the misunderstood hexagon. We have not just the cell and the cell, but also The Tony Smith Cell.

Exercises revolve around these shapes, tropes, and identities, and our knowledge of their forms serve as the basis of our research and expectations. An edge in a Smoke grid that is cropped along a plane instead of let to continue to the end of an octahedron becomes an active choice, as does the angle of cutting, whether it emphasizes the regularity and repetition of Smoke’s grid, or its resistance to legibility along a single collapsed plane. Our investigations are reminiscent of the arts education tradition of copying the paintings of old masters. One can focus on the finer details of brushwork, color mixing, and composition if one is not already overwhelmed with the management of content. Just as physics equations assume simplified and idealized situations to study relationships between properties (e.g. “on a frictionless surface,” or “in a vacuum”), the simplified and idealized environment of an introductory graduate school course takes most factors out of our hands and allows us to examine very specific relationships.

Yet we were performing interventions on Smoke, not simply copying it. What were we supposed to pull from the sculpture? The first question posed to us was whether Smoke represented a figure or a field. It could be a field because it clearly has a grid structure that could be extended beyond the bounds of the sculpture’s current form. Yet it could be figural, because it does have bounds, which are not cropped, but terminations based on the extents

of whole individual octahedra and tetrahedra. It was this ambiguous systematization and replicability that Fried (1967) lamented in artists like Smith and Judd, especially Judd’s “specific objects.” The implication that the series could go on forever places too much emphasis on the observer’s presence in the room to acknowledge the temporary finiteness of the system in its current iteration (144). Yet because Smoke could be interpreted as just one instance of a system, it was Smoke’s system we were copying, not the sculpture itself—words and a syntax, with which we could form original sentences. But come final review, there will be critics in the jury who are likely not familiar with Smoke, and who are certainly not familiar with the SCI-Arc discourse community, for whom a cell is just a cell (or a cell, or a cel). Why build upon so much jargon, only to invite outsiders into the conversation?

This opening up to an outside audience demonstrates to us that, no matter what language a piece was created in, it will be viewed, appreciated, and discussed in the language of the viewer. Language is applied to a piece, not inherent in it. Jencks (1977) discusses externally applied language in the context of metaphor. An average person will visually analogize any building they see to something else in their visual lexicon. Jencks hones in on anthropomorphic and non-architectural objects as sources of interpretation, but it’s true for buildings, as well. The architecture an individual is familiar with is the architecture against which any new building is judged, the terms with which all future discussion will be held. Jencks warns that trying avoid the conversation—to “concentrate on the supposedly rational aspects of design” (p8)—impel the buildings to exact metaphorical revenge, by “looking like metaphors for function and economics, and [being] condemned as such” (p9). Krauss (1986) “expanded the field” of sculpture by providing a vocabulary to discuss works of art previously not considered sculpture—or any other medium, for that matter. To her, it was about creating new language for objects. With Jencks, and with our Tony Smith project, it’s about objects as words, and as signifiers. An emotional investment in and respect for the objects themselves is unnecessary—words can just be

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words. In the foreign language we are studying at SCIArc (architecture), Tony Smith’s Smoke becomes our introductory vocabulary list, with which we can begin experimenting with syntax, forming new thoughts and evoking emotional responses not inherent within—or dependent upon—any single word or object.

If the discourses of appreciation and observation are entirely divorced from or parallel to the discourse of creation, how then does one take part in—or attempt to account for—this latter discourse? Schumacker’s (2011) approach feels unsatisfying: although he touts parametricism’s ability to internalize myriad external influences to generate limitless forms, his attempt to define the process as a style yet again distances it from legibility—from the vocabulary of the architecture’s actual users—while unnecessarily limiting the range of its expression. The inputs are often blended into a homogenous mush. Lynn (1993), attempts to resolve this problem by focusing on precisely how the inputs get mixed, using food analogies (“beating, whisking and whipping...chopping, dicing, grinding, grating, folding, creaming and blending” (p35)) to refine an approach where “individual characteristics are maintained...each is a distinct layer within a continuous mixture” (p35). He seems to lean toward a simplicity of parts set next to or against each other: just as Jencks distills architectural language into basic comparisons, Lynn tends to highlight moments where one axis hits another, or one scale of detail mimics another. It’s anticipating a dialogue, even if that dialogues exact substance and language is impossible to predict.

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of reverence. By inserting an extremely legible signifier into an otherwise more subtly coded structure, Graves showed his ability to anticipate certain kinds of discourse, exercising control only where necessary, and only in the broadest strokes. It was less to impose certain discussions, than to steer away from less desirable ones—like, say, why the Seven Dwarves were holding up the Villa Savoye.

In the end, while designing my Tony Smith library, I found myself referencing SANAA’s New Museum, whose exterior cladding system I copied for my library’s cladding. In researching the studio, I became obsessed with the intricate details of their layers, their processes for building the expanded aluminum mesh, and their subtle variations and refinements to this skin across their other buildings. But I see no reason for me to bring up this studio I admire as I present my library in the final review. Their only visible contribution is a technical detail in a drawing. But I’m certain I will spend a huge chunk of my presentation talking about how I used Tony Smith’s cell—something I don’t particularly admire—to disrupt a square grid and define an oblique circulation system through a rectilinear programmatic structure. It just seems to make more to talk about.

Why did Michael Graves, at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, build the Seven Dwarves holding up a pediment in a building that otherwise was not classical in style? Graves has integrated figures into his post-modernist architecture without classical iconography before. I would suggest that he was aware of Disney’s fastidious brand management, and that ambiguity would not be allowed near their trademark characters. Greek pediments are in the general public’s visual lexicon, with predictable implications

FIGURE 2 Villa Savoye, via Michael Graves

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ANDREW CHITTENDEN

REFERENCES

Baird, George, “‘La Dimension Amoureuse’ in Architecture,” in George Baird and Charles Jencks, eds., Meaning in Architecture (New York: George Braziller, 1969): 79-99 Eisenman, Peter, “Aspects of Modernism: Maison Dom-ino and the Self-referential Sign” Oppositions 15/16 (Winter/Spring, 1980), reprinted in Eisenman Inside Out: Selected Writings 1963-1988 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004): 111-120 ———, “The Futility of Objects: Decomposition and the Processes of Differentiation,” Harvard Architecture Review 3 (Winter 1984): 65-82, reprinted in Eisenman Inside Out: Selected Writings 1963-1988 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004): 169-88 Fried, Michael, “Art and Objecthood,” Artforum 5 (June 1967): 12-23, reprinted in Art and Objecthood: Essays and Reviews (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1998): 148-172 Jencks, Charles. The Language of Post-modern Architecture, 2nd ed (New York: Rizzoli, 1977) Krauss, Rosalind. “Sculpture in the Expanded Field,” October 8 (Spring 1979), reprinted in The Originality of the Avant-garde and Other Modernist Myths (Cambridge, MIT Press, 1986): 277-290 Lynn, Greg, “Architectural Curvilinearity: The Folded, the Pliant, and the Supple,” in Folding in Architecture (London: Academy Editions, 1993): 8-15 Schumacher, Patrik, “Parametricism and the Autopoiesis of Architecture,” Log 21 (Winter 2011): 63-79 Zago, Andrew and Todd Gannon, “Tabloid Transparency: Looking through Legibility, Abstraction, and the Discipline of Architecture,” in Mitra Kanaani and David Kopek, eds., The Routledge Handbook for Architecture and Design: Established and Emerging Trends (London: Routledge, forthcoming)

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