M.Arch. Thesis

cornell university

cornell university Department Of Architecture

Master of Architecture Core Design Studio Work

TH

2013

department of architecture

spring 2013 _fall 2011

department of architecture

cornell university

2013

Student Life

cornell university

2013

department of architecture

Student Life

department of architecture

cornell university

2013

Student Life

cornell university

2013

department of architecture

Student Life

department of architecture

cornell university

2013

Student Life

cornell university

2013

department of architecture

Student Life

department of architecture

cornell university

2012

spring 2013 _fall 2011

cornell university

cornell university Department Of Architecture

Master of Architecture thesis projects core design studio VI core design studio V core design studio IV core design studio III core design studio II core design studio I elective seminars

aap

department of architecture

spring 2013 _fall 2011

department of architecture

cornell university

2013

Student Life

cornell university

2013

department of architecture

Student Life

faculty name

cornell university Department Of Architecture

Master of Architecture Thesis Projects thesis students (fall 2012 ) Clifford Chan Ryan Glick Noah Ives Gunho Kim Lea (Jihyun) Lee Will Smith Ida Tam thesis students (fall 2011 ) Angela Afandi Yu Ying Goh Michael Jefferson Chris Ka Cheung Wong

aap

student name

fall 2012 _fall 2011

taylor lowe

& jenny sabin

01

clifford chan: Dishonesty Without Apologies

advisors: Taylor Lowe, Jenny Sabin

Precession of Simulacra 02

The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none.

The simulacrum is true.

Ecclesiastes (Baudrillard, 166) We understand simulacrum as: 1. an image or representation, and 2. a vague or unreal semblance taking on traces but separating itself from the original

clifford chan

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My thesis explores: What if we lost the ability to discern what our eyes perceive and what our minds are recalling? If we may use the act of recall as an ally, it now becomes a game of deception. By use a priori experience, I wish to turn past knowns on itself. The intent to propose a built environment further and one based on dishonesty will initiate and trigger a new form of sensorial, tactile and habitable experiences. My thesis follows Jean Baudrillard’s “precession of simulacra” that debunks our dependency on truths and symbols.

For Baudrillard, the technique of trompe l’oeil paintings led him to speculate the increasing difficulties, one faces in separating a representation of reality from reality itself (Kellner). Trompe l’oeil fought for an illusion which intended to simulate or depict a reality beyond the existing. In essence, these portraits extend conditions of the present reality to generate not an alternate but a continuation of its likeness. Baudrillard’s treatise found this disillusion implemented in the arts to possess a direct disturbance onto reality itself. His allegorical claim issued

“the territory no longer precedes the map, nor does it survive it” (Baudrillard, 166).

Following his publications of the late 70s, early 80s, the emergence of new art forms began to push the genre towards a simulated and hyper real artifice. This signaled a new form of simulacrum. No longer was representation an illustration or abstraction of reality, the truth lied in the image itself. The image as it is, thus supersedes the original. In effect, Baudrillard suggested that society would lose its ability to discern. With this to be true, distinction and truth would be indistinguishable.

Notably, this removal of truth becomes problematic with Immanuel Kant and his third treatise, Critique of Judgment. The mapping of this new hyper reality inevitably adds apprehension in regards of placing judgment and value over the object.

In turn, the inability to read the truthfulness or artificiality of the subject matter renders Kant’s ability to qualify the intent and to objectify the subject. For Kant the linkage and response to the pureness of material allows one to respond with the ability to judge for taste. By disabling the 2012

MArch Thesis

taylor lowe

& jenny sabin

recognition of form, one would be unable to judge or place value upon each case. It would become irreconcilable. To this degree, the ability to objectify or assess the object becomes unstable. It is my belief that Kant would likely register the effects of the impure object into a subjective reading and in turn place the project into the category of beauty. With the distillation of known characteristics and the process of the production, previous constants that would normally direct one to the truth are rather misread. The evidence of this misreading has already been documented in the initial review of jury members lead in of material deceit and generative misconceptions (Kant, 59).

I would disagree with Kant. Even without truth, there is still an ability to harness value. Perhaps not in the allegorical scale that Bourdrillard speaks of. In the Borges tale, cartographers engulf the Empire and all reality has dissipated. Rather artificiality still needs a relationship to reality to gain a sense of artifice. Therefore, in my thesis I explored moments where I could tangentially inject reality with a simulation where the simulacrum would exceed and overtake the natural. The natural being the formwork and the reality being the site (Baudrillard, 166).

Being mindful of the prescription one has taken in achieving the 4 stages of simulacra and simulation has masked the identity of the truths. Held in part by the craft found in the earlier stages of the process, the traces of truth had faded with each stage. The first stage in the simulation begins with a reflection of a basic reality. It would be a faithful copy where one can clearly depict the original from the counterfeit. The second masks and perverts our recollection of a basic reality, where we notice and find glimpses of the former. The third stage of simulacra would be evident in the transition between one panel to the next. Here, the production of the copy has proliferated across the field in order to authenticate the counterfeits. In other words, as the increase of likenesses begins to outnumber the original, the ability to decipher reality from the map becomes evident. The last step of transformation rests with the removal of all known realities, where the thesis began with the soft, light and haptic comforts found in fabric, before the pure simulation has been completed. At its finale, the claims to the former have been cleared of its roots and the seed of deception has reached its final staging point. It is here that the thesis has reached the precession of simulacra (Baudrillard, 168).

2012

Matter of fact, Kant does categorize aesthetical judgment as a split between two forms of judgment: 1. empirical judgment and 2. pure judgment. I do believe this thesis holds weight for both empirical and pure judgment. The skepticism of a purely empirical approach can be argued besides the formal aspects

Through this formal framework, the intent of destabilizing our reading and notions of reality begins with the disassociation from our a priori knowledge. Disrupting our intellect by skewing familiar knowns of textures, characteristics and qualities in order to break down and perceive what our eyes see and what our minds interprets. Perception was debased when our faith of truths were broken. In my case, dematerializing likenesses could reorient at once the linear thought process (Kant, 70-71).

MArch Thesis

clifford chan

In creating a hyper reality where dishonesty and believability plays an integral role towards the end result, I believe Kant may improperly conclude that the final object falls in the realm of being pure beauty since it evokes sensation. This surface analysis and placement of aesthetic judgment could stem from the devoid of object understanding and due to the loss of material characteristics. Recession of truths only continue upon the completion the production or precession of simulacra. But placing it under the term beauty would as it were, would emphasize the built environment having nothing to do with purpose, rather it would take on the denotation of serving a purposefulness of being, present only for contemplation.

Although it exists in itself which justifies its own existence I would not admit that its purpose is to be purposeful-less. I find this to be misunderstood.

found at the start of my process of production. Where empirical judgment can be seen and felt with the inherent triggers of sensorial charms, the reciprocity of materials and Lynn’s “machinic� processes becomes the suggestive traces of an execution within formal guidelines (Lynn, 67). Through a series of analogous commands the project was arranged with a direct purpose. As so, the process is not a Kantian beauty which possesses solely purposefulness. On the contrary, it possesses a direct purpose. The thesis was not a resultant of mass production or of a purely analogous means. But undoubtedly, it was a path towards a signature of craft which was both genuine and authentic.

taylor lowe

& jenny sabin

01

02 left

01_Fabric pleats and tucks 02_Aggregation study 03_Pleat and tuck diagrams right

clifford chan

01-06_Fabrication process

03

2012

MArch Thesis

taylor lowe

& jenny sabin

clifford chan

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2012

02

MArch Thesis

clifford chan

Taylor Lowe

2012

MArch Thesis

taylor lowe

& jenny sabin

clifford chan

left

01_Final model mold right

2012

01_Final installation in Milstein Hall

MArch Thesis

dana cupkova

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07

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& mark morris

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ryan glick: Architecture is Flat

advisors:

Dana Cupkova, Mark Morris

Introduction

ryan glick

This thesis challenges two dimensional flatness to act as the primary driver of the formal and conceptual formwork for architectural production. It is my bias that I experience the world as a series of fragmented views. Each view contains the generative potential towards the production of architecture This thesis operates as an methodology which develops composition as a catalyst for this production. The present architectural discourse is focused on volumetric production as a means of conceptual and formal generation.

The architectural discourse is becoming increasingly homogenized through this volumetric object-based mode of production. This object-centric obsession has lead to the degradation of artistic architectural invention while simultaneously reducing differences in conceptual identity . left

01-06_Site photos 07-10_Analysis through painting right

01-03_Process diagrams 04_Shear composition model

Historically, architectural production has explored the compositional world through a relationship with the painting. This relationship developed out of a link with a two dimensional medium which allows for relationships to be established by the viewer. The canvas allows for ambiguity to be created within a flat field while allowing an interplay between texture, surface, space, color, form edge and shadow. The current polemic of volumetric 2012

MArch Thesis

dana cupkova

& mark morris

Site driven architectural processes begs for an equally antithetical architectural production. This counter-intuitive process focuses on inherent flatness as an incubator for geometric composition, inherent logics, and information sets to be enacted upon. Extracting existing potentials though the reflattening of built form will serve as means of architectural prodution for this thesis. Daily we engage various contexts within the built environment, by compressing these surroundings into a flattened composition, an exposed series of relationships are unveiled.

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The site for this thesis is located one block south of the united nations complex located at 42nd street and 1st avenue. The plot is located between 38th street and 41st street has remained vacant since the previous con-ed power plant was removed in 2005. Due to its proximity the un the site and its surrounding context is engaged by global diplomacy on a frequent basis. The united Nations and it’s affiliations serve as an international attractor for visitors around the world. The site seemingly acts as a tabula rasa condition which directly challenges the height of the surrounding context. The adjacency of the east river offers horizontal relief from the + + overbearing XR_02

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2012

ryan glick

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MArch Thesis

dana cupkova

& mark morris

left

01_Shear composition right

ryan glick

01_Plan extrusion drawing 02_Extrusion composition model 03_Relief composition model 04_Verticality composition model

verticality which the rest of the city adheres to. The site is pinched between fdr drive to the east and the density of midtown to the west. Rather than produce another one-off copy of its neighbor, this site requires architecture of difference, a proposal which becomes a product of an architectural flatness. While this flatness could will be charged by its context, it will be understood and experienced through a varieties of lenses. Engaged from the air, ground and water this site will provide an ambiguous number of experiential readings.

MArch Thesis

Upon further documentation of the site, the rule for collection of images was such that, each image collected from the urban environment must in some way be view through a portion of the site. this allows the collection to happen through each zone however begins to limit the direction of possible views. in each zone 4 images were used to represent the zone, thus 24 images were collected in total.

2012

Identifying 6 different site adjacencies led me break down the site into 6 zones of investigation. to the north east the adjacency of the un complex, the northwest quadrant hold an strong adjacency to tu-

dor city. the east mid quadrant is confronted by the FDR drive while the west mid quadrant has a strange adjacency to a flat parking lot. the south east quadrant has a relationship with a tall residential tower while the south west has a adjacency with to midrise buildings of the same height. these 6 different conditions spawned the breakdown of the site in the diagram to the right.

dana cupkova

& mark morris

ryan glick

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03

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2012

02

MArch Thesis

andrew lucia

noah ives: Measuring the Endless House

& mark morris

advisors: Andrew Lucia, Mark Morris

Ambiguous Object Ambiguity is the very substance of Friedrich Kiesler’s Endless House: the house spirals outward even as it folds in on itself, it hovers on plinths while echoing the geological forms beneath it and exalts both structural innovation and primal constructions. In this way, Kiesler’s proposition of spatial continuity (between floor, wall and ceiling, and between adjacent “rooms” extends to broader ideological continuity between the various forces of nature, science, society and art. The Endless House presents a vision not only of unbroken space but of uninterupted thought.

noah ives

This use of open-endedness to resolve divergent ideologies is characteristic of late modernism. Canonical works such as Joyce’s Ulysses or Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even similarly combine mythic origins and contemporary customs, juxtapose multiple perspectives and explore the boundaries between different media. In fact, the transition from minimalism to reactionary heterogeneity is evident in the evolution of the multiple versions of the Endless House.

The 1950 model and drawings present a simple ovoid shape with minimum partitioning, while the 1959 version is a twisting collage of forms. The one presents endlessness as hermitic closure, the other as total inclusivity. The development from formal economy into strategies of combination and systematic ambiguity illustrates the adage that minimalism and maxima ism are not opposites, but are two sides of the same coin.

Interpretive ambiguity plays a unique role in the Endless House as an “unrealized” architectural proposal. For Joyce and Duchamp, selfreflexive play on artistic convention adds a layer of

irony to their work. Any link with mythic origins or broader ideals reveals itself to be an artificial fiction that only underscores the banality of contemporary society. The Endless House is instead entirely genuine, and the irony arises from the project’s failure to be built. It is a blueprint for a social cure-all that, clientless and wildly impractical, can never be realized.

Kiesler’s stamp on the unresolved set of drawings is a symbol of stubborn resistance— it is if he were putting his architect’s stamp on the idea of utopia.

In the end, the project is more potent as a propositional drawings and models than it would be in any physical realization.

The sectional sequences embody fluid motion, the plan offers a vision of harmonious society and the totemic elevations celebrate primal man. Photographs of the 1959 model provide a sense of space, but only for specific views under specific lighting conditions. As photographs and orthographic drawings, these images use techniques of transparency, simultaneity and privileged perspective to represent endlessness with a purity and thoroughness that no physical inhabitant would ever see.

Finally, later drawings that make concessions to the complex ties of structure and habitation only emphasize the dissonance between the project as an ideal and as a real proposal.

Ironically, the Endless House is more properly “read” than inhabited. As such, it hovers somewhere between an art object and an architectural proposal, and we are left wondering whether it was never built or whether the project is in fact more complete for remaining open-ended.

left

01_Friedrich Kiesler right

01_Conceptual drawing

MArch Thesis

2012

01

andrew lucia

& mark morris

2012

noah ives

MArch Thesis

andrew lucia

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02

03

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& mark morris

Kiesler’s Private Utopia

noah ives

The Endless House embodies the idea of holism. It notably employs spatial continuity, but this is only an element in establishing psychological continuity between the diverse experiences of the occupants.

The scheme unites individual routines with social interactions, interior activities with natural processes. This was a direct response to what Kiesler considered contemporary architecture’s dominant trend of division and demarcation. His unique working method accorded with this philosophy. Kiesler worked intuitively, using sub-conscsious drawing techniques, large models and full scale artistic explorations that enabled him to physically experience spaces even while designing them. In this way, the production of the Endless House was a part of the project itself, prioritizing immediate presence in the typically repr sentational field of architecture. left

01-04_The Endless House sketches and models right

01_The Endless House research diagram

The Endless House defies standard modes of representation. Its idiosyncratic curvres cannot be fully described by plans

and sections, and the haptic qualities are equally as significant as the form. The drawing set combines measured distan ces, orthographic projections, shadow renderings and various textures in an a tempt to convey a more complete image of the project. It is therefore both a co struction document and an autonomous object of its own.

The late-modernist transition from minimalism to reactionary heterogeneity is evident in the evolution of the multiple versions of the Endless House. The 1950 model and drawings present a simple ovoid shape with minimum partitioning, while the 1959 version is a twisting collage of forms. The one presents endlessness as hermitic closure, the other as total inclusivity. That there is a legible lineage between iterations illustrates the adage that minimalism and maximalism are not opposites, but are two sides of the same coin. This variety of versions implies that the project might further grow and develop.

2012

MArch Thesis

andrew lucia

& mark morris

A Map of Disorientation Space for habitation is not demarcated. It is part of a continuous surface-generalized ...blurs the boundary between what is occupiable and what is not. Disorienting in terms of relations to horizon, sky, earth. Only demarcation is the gradual influence of gravity: a natural force rather than an artificial imposition. This creates awareness of bodily constraints, and of being a two-dimensional organism living in 3-space.

There is no set system of orientation in the envelope. Instead, a variety of systems that don’t relate systematically: bases, opennings, partitions. Each is idiosyncratic and no two locations are alike. The reference points change depending on the location in space.

A Private Cosmos Three distinct base types: unadorned, classicalish, naturalist (or composite?). They have purely decorative facades, separate from the interior. THis creates a sense of sculpture. This creates associations with purely visual/controlled artifice.

A Skin for Several Bodies Internal partitioning is created by the involution of a single surface. Only thickening and apertures create differentiation. The skin is a register of the program. Rather than enclosing a single body, it is a skin for multiple people and their social interactions.

The house also has a life of its own, shown by the idiosyncratic apertures.

The Germ Cell of the Endless House There is a clear sense of interiority, with a material distinction between the outside surface and the inside. However, there is ambiguity between hermetic object and a single continuous surface. The windows are both boundary markers and tunnels into itself. The smooth connection connects the interior and exterior, as does the lack of a solid (window) surface. Being inside and outside are distinct experiences, but house looks both ways equally. The orientation of inside/outside depends on human interpration of concavity as shelter.

Peeling the Pelt of the Endless House Internal partitioning is created by the involution of a single surface. Only thickening and apertures create differentiation. The skin is a register of the program. Rather than enclosing a single body, it is a skin for multiple people and their social interactions.

The house also has a life of its own, shown by the idiosyncratic apertures.

Voids within a Void There is a clear sense of interiority, with a material distinction between the outside surface and the inside. However, there is ambiguity between hermetic object and a single continuous surface. The windows are both boundary markers and tunnels into itself. The smooth connection connects the interior and exterior, as does the lack of a solid (window) surface. Being inside and outside are distinct experiences, but house looks both ways equally. The orientation of inside/outside depends on human interpration of concavity as shelter.

One Blueprint, Various Houses Internal partitioning is created by the involution of a single surface. Only thickening and apertures create differentiation. The skin is a register of the program. Rather than enclosing a single body, it is a skin for multiple people and their social interactions.

The house also has a life of its own, shown by the idiosyncratic apertures.

Hard and Soft Systems Three distinct base types: unadorned, classicalish, naturalist (or composite?). They have purely decorative facades, separate from the interior. THis creates a sense of sculpture. This creates associations with purely visual/controlled artifice.

A Loose Cluster of “Rooms” Internal partitioning is created by the involution of a single surface. Only thickening and apertures create differentiation. The skin is a register of the program. Rather than enclosing a single body, it is a skin for multiple people and their social interactions.

The house also has a life of its own, shown by the idiosyncratic apertures.

Another Machine for Living Three distinct base types: unadorned, classicalish, naturalist (or composite?). They have purely decorative facades, separate from the interior. THis creates a sense of sculpture. This creates associations with purely visual/controlled artifice.

Continuity in Three-Space Three distinct base types: unadorned, classicalish, naturalist (or composite?). They have purely decorative facades, separate from the interior. THis creates a sense of sculpture. This creates associations with purely visual/controlled artifice.

The Ontogony of “Rooms” Three distinct base types: unadorned, classicalish, naturalist (or composite?). They have purely decorative facades, separate from the interior. THis creates a sense of sculpture. This creates associations with purely visual/controlled artifice.

Habitable Sculpture Three distinct base types: unadorned, classicalish, naturalist (or composite?). They have purely decorative facades, separate from the interior. THis creates a sense of sculpture. This creates associations with purely visual/controlled artifice.

A Floating Landscape Three distinct base types: unadorned, classicalish, naturalist (or composite?). They have purely decorative facades, separate from the interior. THis creates a sense of sculpture. This creates associations with purely visual/controlled artifice.

2012

noah ives

MArch Thesis

andrew lucia

& mark morris

01

left

01_Conceptual drawing 02_Surface diagrams right

01_X-Ray isometric drawing

noah ives

02

2012

MArch Thesis

andrew lucia

& mark morris

2012

noah ives

MArch Thesis

andrew lucia

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& mark morris

left

01-04_Surface and space studies right

01_Light and shadow study

There is continuity in all directions. To give a sense of this in a twodimensional drawing, Kiesler uses a sectional series that illustrates the fluid shift between different profiles. There are no definite boundaries between spaces, simply a tightening of the section. Similarly, there are no specific circulation space, but only liminal zones that transition from one open area to the next.

noah ives

The house is simultaneously a singular object and an amalgamation of distinct nodes.

This formal ambiguity allows for flexibility in use: program can flow freely throughout the entire space or can occupy a defined area depending on specific needs. This represents an economy of space, as the house is able to offer more variety in a smaller area.

The house is a layering of multiple tectonic systems, both stacked vertically and nested.

Three plinths support the floating shell structure, and this is topped with crater-like openings that reach skyward. A set of stairs winds upward through each plinth, and at the heart of the primary shell sits a wrapped, cocoon-like structure. There are thus three separate systems, each with its own formal logic and nuances. Theses are in turn organized hierarchically into a cohesive whole.

MArch Thesis

2012

Normative elements of the house such as stairs, windows and the central hearth help to anchor and give scale to the curvilinear skin. These correspond to conventional standards, while there is little precedent for the ordering of biomorphic surfaces. Instead, this is organized around the social and practical needs of the occupants such as lighting, adjacency and privacy. In this way, the Endless House challenges the use of convention and standardization in architectural practice.

andrew lucia

& mark morris

2012

noah ives

MArch Thesis

george hascup

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gunho kim: City Permutation advisors:

& arthur ovaska

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01-03_Geographical condition diagrams

George Hascup, Arthur Ovaska

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01_Site map

gunho kim

Introduction CITY PERMUTATION is an alternative city structure on the periphery of contemporary city of Seoul, where the site has been transformed by the construction of urban infra structure. Territories are transforming according to many reasons. And it, either perceptibly or imperceptibly, has been happened everywhere every time through the history of urbanism not only on the city but on the landscape. And I’d like to take this transformation as a chance that enable us to take full responsibility of the landscape on the basis of signifying contents, and to introduce organizational and logistical construct in support of urbanization. Especially, by dealing with the geographical transformation in a way that investigates a formal methodologies and approaches in relation to the structuring of form in architecture, I want to investigates the viability of an alternative community structure as a new city typology for overpopulated city, such as Seoul.

Seoul, South Korea, is a city of mountains. The most of city fabric are charged within the surrounded

mountains. And due to the significant amount of mountains, the landscape to city area ratio is almost reaching up to 40% of total area of Seoul. The mountains, formulating a boundary of Seoul, were once a great fortification in the middle ages, and they are now a precious green space providing a huge leisure parks and fresh air to the citizen of Seoul. But because of this geographical condition, as the city expands, it has been a challenge for development of Seoul in planning the territories and infrastructures. People had to consider the level of geographical space in a point of view of specific problems. For example in the section of south border of Seoul show the way in which the intervention was corresponding with different scale in different geographic spaces. So the flat lands are occupied first by city fabric and sometimes the highway is elevated from the ground and trains are running under the mountains in the tunnels. And even the mountain ridges are cut and torn down for future use. With this fact, Recently city government of Seoul announced the 2020 city plan that is introducing

the longitudinal axis of open space in the middle of city and linking mountain ridges for creating a circular park on the border of city. This plan clearly engages with my site, , along with the geographical defeat, because the site is located at south end of open axis and at the same time is a missing link in a circular park where has been cut and torn down for future use. My site, the missing link, is white bare land, in between mountains. We call this site, Nam Tea Ryung, where is located at south border of Seoul. This place Also known as city gate were used to be a narrow road, and had been transformed by the construction of Provincial motor way 47, which is connecting the satellite cities in Kyungki Province to the center of Seoul. So the site is on the critical edge of huge lawn of city fabric become a threshold of city and the nature all so. In the detailed view, we can notice the bare cliff, which was happened because of construction of Road. By tearing down the mountain, and both sides of road are now an abandoned quarry yard.

2012

MArch Thesis

george hascup

& arthur ovaska

60,832 ha

seoul

60,832 ha

Open Space (Forest & River & Lake)

24,344ha , 40%

2020 Circular Garden Plan,

open space (forest_river_lake)

24,344 ha Forest & Open Space (18,420 ha) River & Lake (4,924 ha)

2020 circular garden plan

Open Space (ha)

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2012

Forest & Open Space : 18,420 River & Lake : 4,924

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City Government of Seoul

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Urban Open Space Axis 900 m2 open space per 1 person Minimizatio of smog

Urban Open Space Axis Creating Circular Garden on the periphery of Seoul 900 m2 Open Space per 1 person

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Minimizing The Number of Smog Occurrence : Less than 45 days per year Concentration of Fine Dust : Less than 35

MArch Thesis

gunho kim

Seoul

george hascup

& arthur ovaska

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How would the man-made transformation of topography give the opportunities of creating a new collective space? How can the deformative void become a new receptacle for containing a urban program?

gunho kim

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I made the boundary from the site in my case It will be a 300 by 400 meter boundary. In order to generate the line I parameterize the boundaries firstly and generate the line which doesn’t touch the existing landscape. And from that lines, I made surface by networking curves. After that I sliced the surface to generate line with certain dimension in order to make the space habitable. And the surface was extruded again from the line by intersection generate by slicing, In other to make the surface one directional curve. Finally the surfaces become series of strips for the future use.

The space underneath the strips is also espoused by the grid system. Grid systems are working as a structural and special organizer. It is adopting itself for corresponding the spatial demands, topography, circulation, infrastructure and programs.

As such, my deformed topography is charged with grid system which become a background for underpinning the future intervention and will be covered with series of strips which become a landscape that setting a new relationship to the existing nature.

01_Site section 02-09_Generating site strip diagrams

By far, we see the open city type of unite and my intervention of it as an infrastructure on the landscape. From the scratch, my site will have highways in different level. And they are interconnected with each other and have excess to the site. Soon be equipped with inner circular system supporting the city programs inside. All city programs are will be covered with landscape that is interweaving with the highway. And the strips are beginning to start to be built with circulation behind of each strip. Strips are built continuously. And at the level of 42 meter, there is another circulation interchange coming along with co munal space and connection to the each side of the mountains.

Finally, whole space will be cover with strips. And strips are artificial landscape which providing a space for building and open space. They are all connected with vehicular excess and vertical co nections. So in the section cut, we can recognize their vertical relations. Very complex system supporting the city on the bottom, wide open space in the middle, and artificial landscape on the top.

2012

MArch Thesis

george hascup

& arthur ovaska

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01_Interchange / vehicle access 02_Platform circulation 03_Interweaving landscape 04_Inner circular interchanges 05_Exterior rendering

2012

gunho kim

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MArch Thesis

& arthur ovaska

gunho kim

george hascup

2012

MArch Thesis

george hascup

& arthur ovaska

2012

gunho kim

MArch Thesis

andrew lucia

& john zissovici

final MoDel ProCess & unfolDeD Pattern/Plan Scoring/folding & laminating

Step 1

Step 2

step #1 Fold along the lines from the pattern (all directions).

lea jihyun lee: Gastronomic Architecture advisors: Andrew Lucia, John Zissovici 44

lea jihyun lee

Question Food in an urban context has been a significant subject for interdisciplinary research into the many dimensions of material culture including architecture. Nevertheless, how do we pull together the basic tenants of life, food and shelter meaning architecture, while seemingly so unrelated?

By analyzing inherent conditions, behaviors, and responses of the chosen material, wood veneer, the palette of conventionally available, generic architectural material goes beyond its limitations; it expands and generates a new recipe of application while maintaining the original ingredient.

Proposition What do we learn from the process and transformation of food and how can the taste (aesthetics), the hunger (people), the ingredients (materiality), and the recipes (process) via architecture that would feed and fulfill the thirst of the city?

The thin and flat su face ra dicall y changes its state and transforms into a rigid but soft fabric-like structure while aggregated as a column, which is one of basic components of building structures, offering beyond a mundane, normative experience from our preconception.

Thesis Statement

Precedent: Molecular Cuisine

Inspired by a disjunction between the visual and the bodily/tectonic perceptions of food in molecular gastronomy, this thesis seeks to break the preconceived notions of how material is typically used in the field of architecture.

The science now known as molecular gastronomy is the study of the physical and chemical processes that occur during cooking.

Molecular gastronomy takes cooking and eating to a whole new level. Essentially, this is a reinvention of the cooking process, 2012

MArch Thesis

andrew lucia

& john zissovici

left

01_Final model process and unfolded pattern right

01_Final model process and unfolded pattern 02_Food research

Step 4

Step 3

step #2 Build up while following the order from pre-drawn plan (left). Shape is decided by how the each veneer acts from the scored patterns (different amount) and perforations.

step #3 By ironing, laminate 2-3 layers of veneer sheets while building up vertically also.

01

45

evaporate, and then squeeze or blot out additional water.

A layer of paper is left behind. Essential to the process are the fibers, which are never totally destroyed, and, when mixed and softened, form an interlaced pattern within the paper itself. Modern paper- making methods, although significantly more complicated than the older ways, are developmental improvements rather than entirely new methods of making paper.

Experimentation

2012

The method of making paper is essentially a simple one— mix up vegetable fibers, and cook them in hot water until the fibers are soft but not dissolved. The hot water also contains a base chemical such as lye, which softens the fibers as they are cooking. Then, pass a screen-like material through the mixture, let the water drip off and/or 02

MArch Thesis

lea jihyun lee

setting aside tradition and working from the ground up to create dishes based on the molecular compatibilities of different ingredients by using all the techniques of modern science to create flavors and textures never before experienced. Unconventional cooking methods like spherification, jellification, and emulsification are used. Extremely processed nature of the cuisine as source, an imaginative way to rethink materials in terms of an architectural process would be allowed, resulting in an unexpected outcome.

& john zissovici

lea jihyun lee

andrew lucia

2012

MArch Thesis

andrew lucia

& john zissovici

lea jihyun lee

left

2012

01_Experimentation setup right

01_Rigidity vs. flexibility weaving experiment

MArch Thesis

& john zissovici

lea jihyun lee

andrew lucia

left

01_Weaving wood fabric right

01_Experimentation setup

2012

MArch Thesis

andrew lucia

& john zissovici

2012

lea jihyun lee

MArch Thesis

george hascup

01

02

03

04

05

06

& mary n. woods

will smith: Urban Archipelago: An Architectural Synthesis of Brooklyn’s Post-Industrial Waterfront

will smith

advisors: George Hascup, Mary N. Woods

Abstract

Site Description

This project builds on urban and architectural concepts put forward in O.M. Ungers’s Dialectic City. Using contextual cues to transform new and old, Ungers makes dialectic synthesis. The current challenges facing New York City’s urban environment include many of the historical and social concerns which Ungers engaged, but now the city must also consider the diversity of a growing population, the challenges of a fluctuating economic landscape, and the volatility of more frequent storms. Considering these new urban forces, how can we harness Unger’s dialectical tensions to combine residential, commercial, and public functions in a waterfront architectural project that exposes the formal and performative qualities of the site’s industrial and pre industrial histories?

Ungers sought fragmented and heterogeneous sites as laboratories to test his theory that architectural space could be constructed through a process of site specific urban analysis. In these critical urban conditions Ungers identified banal realities that could be used as operative tools in making complex architectural sequences of positive and negative space. The Red Hook Container Terminal is a working port situated between two typologically divergent neighborhoods that are severed by hig way and tunnel infrastructures. The site has morphed over time, changing shape in response to evolving waterfront programs and needs. Given the historically factual evolution of waterfront use, and the now imminent demand for recreation access to these one industrial spaces, how will they be formally and programmatically defined?

2012

MArch Thesis

george hascup

& mary n. woods

will smith

01 left

01-06_Site photos

ISLAND

2012

right

MARSH

01_Aerial site photograph 02-04_Site diagrams

02

03

04

MArch Thesis 84

Project

85

86

& mary n. woods

will smith

george hascup

2012

MArch Thesis

george hascup

& mary n. woods

left

01_Final model right

01_Site plan 02_Vehicular access diagram 03_Pedestrian access diagram 04_Site Axes

will smith

2012

01

02

03

04

MArch Thesis

& mary n. woods

will smith

george hascup

MArch Thesis

155

2012

Project

george hascup

& mary n. woods

will smith

left

01_Plan right

2012

01_Final model

MArch Thesis

jenny sabin

& andrea simitch

left

01_Hutong desnification diagram 02_Site plan 03_Courtyard house evolution right

01_Hutong infill

01

02

ida tam: Authenti-City

advisors: Jenny Sabin, Andrea Simitch

The Issue

ida tam

To preservationists, authenticity is the key word. Th e notion of authenticity symbolises genuineness, localness, origins, and sincerity in forming a unique identity of a “place”. However, inarguably when we are trying to improve people’s life in gritty run-down neighbourhood in a developing country, something has to change; we cannot retain everything in the process of preservation. Th e authenticity of the past is not the authenticity of today. Th erefore when speaking of authenticity, we must also aware of the shift in space and time throughout the past, and not to mistaken that a single identity of a place will last forever. Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics has been the catalyst for the capital’s modernisation and economic develop-

MArch Thesis

The Question While most preservation theories concern the preservation of stable and constant heritages/landscape, this thesis argues for the equal importance (if not more) of an alternative definition of authenticity that: not of the past, but the present; not the preservation of the physical fabric, but its people; not the traditional typology, but its evolution and adaptation to current needs

2012

03

ment. However, in order to make way for the Olympics, many neighbourhood are being torn by forced evictions. Traditional hutong neighbourhoods and communities with its 700 year-old houses were almost completely destructed in this gentrification process.

jenny sabin

& andrea simitch

2012

ida tam

MArch Thesis

jenny sabin

& andrea simitch

left

01_Degree of historic interest 02_Height restriction 03_Places of historic importance 04-07_Hutong densification diagrams 08_Densification system

temple residence of famous people Hall Shiheyuan Commerial Commerial frontage

01

02

03

subtraction 01 v1= 0.5 v2= 8 v3= 1 v4= 1

subtraction 02 v1= 2 v2= 8 v3= 1.2 v4= 1.2

04

subtraction 03 v1= 2 v2=0.05 v3= 1.2 v4= 1.2

substraction 04 v1= 0.7 v2= 7 v3= 1.2 v4= 0.1

05

substraction 05 v1 = 1 v2 = 7 v3 = 2 v4 = 0.05

substraction 06 v1= 0.7 v2= 0.7 v3= 1 v4= 0.1

06

Addition 01 v1 = 1 v2 = 7 v3 = 2 v4 = 0.05

Addition 02 v1= 0.7 v2= 0.7 v3= 1 v4= 0.1

08

ida tam

07

Located in the northeast of central Beijing Tiananmen Square, the southwest side of Xuanwu District. Th e junction of the east front door of Qianmen. Dazhalan is on the main axis that follows the city’s organisation of the Imperial grid, south of the Forbidden City and north of the Temple of Heaven.

Unlike the neat and orderly design of NorthSouth orientated hutongs in the imperial city, Dazhalan has evolved to a freely developed grassroots style that is composed of eastwest oriented slanted axis and uniform hutong patterns.

The centre part of the site, which is currently provding community and local retail services to its residents, is going to be demolished as an extension, forming a 1.6km long disney strip.

The east have been occupied by traditional old brand names, selling silk goods, hats, herbal medicines; the west are made of diff erent markets selling craftwork, artistry, and antiques.

The west are made of diff erent markets selling craftwork, artistry, and antiques. The original fabric of two markets areas that have

been demolished, and replaced by disneyland-style retail street catered for tourists.

The centre part of the site, which is currently provding community and local retail services to its residents, is going to be demolished as an extension, forming a 1.6km long disney strip.

right

01_Beijing hutong patterns 02_Daylight studies 03_Historic fabric 04_Road widening and densification 05_Typologies 2012

MArch Thesis

jenny sabin

& andrea simitch

B- 39

02

HISTORIC FABRIC

04

05

2012

03

MArch Thesis

ida tam

01

martina decker

& andrea simitch

left

01-02_Raimund Abraham Hinge-Chair right

01-04_Conceptual drawings 01

02

angela afandi: Misreading Wegman’s

advisors: Martina Decker, Andrea Simitch

De-Familiarizing the Familiar

angela afandi

Spaces become familiar to us through their recurrence in our lives again and again to the point that we cease to pay attention. This thesis seeks to de-familiarize the ordinary, in order to heighten the experience of the ordinary. I am taking Wegmans, a familiar place for the city of Ithaca, NY, and a familiar architectural typology of a supermarket, and de-familiarizing it through architectural representation. I am representing, again and again, misreadings of this one supermarket to reveal hidden spaces which are concealed within its banal exterior. Thus, this unfamiliar representations of Wegmans become the working drawings of imagining the ordinary supermarket.

Making the Strange Ordinary The architecture discipline has paid little attention to study the everyday, the Laundromat, the deli, the art store, and the daycare; all the while, the everyday users, takes the spaces of their routine for granted. Architecture knows the exceptional, extraordinary, and the one-of-a-kind—the holiday.

This is easy to understand as everyday architecture are used over and over again in close timing within each usage, creating a routine, a normal, and a mundane, or in Gregory Bateson words, it creates habits that operates on the unconscious level, and one is not going to do something on the conscious state of mind when the task can be done in the unconscious state. In the middle of that unconscious repetition, holiday architecture provides relieve that jolts one’s conscious. And there all the hype and attention go. Like Georges Perec saying, the daily paper talks about everything but the daily. Thus, I found the interest to bring the everyday to the concious mind. The everyday environment deserves the study that architecture has given to the holiday.

It deserves the design attention that will allow the ordinary to engage with one’s imagination. What if there are moments and scenarios in the everyday that open the hidden strangeness of the ordinary? What if the normal become the strange?

2011

MArch Thesis

martina decker

01

& andrea simitch 02

03

04

2011

angela afandi

MArch Thesis

martina decker LES

TAB

GE

VE

VEGE

TABL

MEAT

SEAFO

OD

MILK MILK

ENERGY DRINKS

DAIRY PRODUCTS

CANNED FRUIT LAUNDRY SUPPLIES

DVD

TEA

COFFEE

GRANOLA

TEA

COFFEE

GREETING CARDS

BULK WATER

BULK DRINKS

BULK CHIPS

BULK CHIPS

TOILETRIES

SWEETS SWEETS SWEETS

ER

PPLIES

SU BATH

MEDICINE

BU TT

EAST ASIAN FOOD SOUTHEAST ASIAN FOOD S

CHEESE CHEESE HUMMUS DIPPING SAUCE

DOG/CAT FOOD

NOODLE PPLIES

SU BATH

COOKIES COOKIES GRANOLA

CLEANING SUPPLIES

BEANS RICE

INDIAN FOOD

REGISTER REGISTER REGISTER REGISTER REGISTER

HARDWA

RE

FROZEN MEALS FROZEN MEALS

BREAD

JA

Y LL JE L EA TM OA

BULK WATER

CANNED VEGETABLE

A L RE CE

JUICE

BULK WATER

BULK JUICE BULK WATER

SHALLOT

WATER

GARLIC ONION

M

SAUCE DRESSING

FROZEN PIZZA

FRUITS

MILK

PROCESSED MEAT

DOUGHNUT

PATTISERIE PATTISERIE

ROLLS

DRINKS

JAM

BREAD

ES

SNACKS

EGG

NUTS

COFFEE

FRUITS

FRUITS FLOUR

EGG

MAGAZINE MAGAZINE

E SPIC

PASTA SAUCE

TEA

FRUITS FRUITS

EGG

JAM

SPICE

HARDWARE

PASTA PASTA

NUTS

SEAFOOD

SUSHI

SANDWICHES

OIL OIL

CASSAVA

PIES

YOGHURT YOGHURT

MEDICINE TOILETRIES

02

CANNED SOUP

POTATO POTATO

CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS

01

ES

FROZEN

PEPPER

TABL

MEAT

TO GO DRINKS TO GO MEALS

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

VEGE

SALAD

MEAT

& andrea simitch

angela afandi

take grocery store as an everyday building type

Wegman’s, Trader Joe’s, natural delis, and organic supermarket, are different typologies of grocery stores. Yet, they all need to fulfill people’s expectations of grocery shopping, of what they sell, where things are (zones), and how they navigate through the spaces (signage, shelves dimensions and spacing). Grocery stores can play more with the unexpected by describing in detail the familiar grocery shopping environment that often escape one’s attention, as well as creating a fade in and out of the familiar store layout and shelf/fridge forms.

The familiar is the base, and with a game plan, it plays tug and war with the shoppers. Translating this into architecture, examples can be found in Office DA’s Toledo Residence and Mill Road Residence, in which the architect describes the ordinary bricks and sidings respectively with extra sensitivity in design and morphed the standardize construction into quirky material arrangements.

MArch Thesis

In the history of American grocery stores, profit has always been a central theme. Architecture has been a tool to attract grocery shoppers and increase store’s efficiency to reduce the number of employees. New York City’s first market field in the 1630s is located between the West India Company’s storehouses and Broadway for easy access between the fort and the main street. Similar case of easy water transportation access narrates the first open public market in now Battery Park. The following colonial market places in New Amsterdam often occupied triangle leftover spaces of Y shaped street intersections. When sellers long for a more permanent place to do their business in spite of a good or bad weather, the street market house came into light. A market structure is constructed in the middle of a street, providing easy access from the traffic flow from either sides of the structure, typically 25-30’ in width and 300’ in length. Building interiors were arranged into functional areas of meat, fish, vegetables, and other produce with at least one customer corridor in the middle. The market became more permanent as it moved to the building block, changing the linear shape of the structure into a square one, allowing for less distances to be travelled within the interior for customers.

2011

Navigating a grocery store means moving in and out a catalog of groceries. Our grocery shopping experience happens at the unconscious level because we expect the same categories of groceries in whichever catalogs we go. In fact, going to a new grocery store for the first time give us hiccups because we are nudge into our conscious state when we expect it to be still in the unconscious. Flowers, produce, and bakery are set in front to stimulate shoppers’ sensory, because one is going to buy more things when he/she is hungry. At the same

time, milk and egg are place at the very end of the store, as people tend to need them anyway, and it will get them passing less selling items.

martina decker

& andrea simitch

Can a spatial experience become a personal experiential and imaginative wandering? Gaston Bachelard mentions in his Poetic of Space, that the moment one reads a room; he is off writing his own room. The moment one enters a new room in his adulthood, he starts to wander off to his childhood room.

In Art, John Carey and David Lee stated that a work of art is a personal opinion; as artistic experience vary from one person

to another, they are pushing the question of what is a work of art (for me)? Hence, this familiarly strange/strangely familiar architectural representation is a platform onto which users of ordinary spaces can stand on to read the room and off to write their own. These are drawings and model that ask the readers to observe and interrogate their daily environment.

left

01_Dish rack misreading diagrams 02_Misreading reorganization diagram right

01_Misreading conceptual drawing

2011

angela afandi

MArch Thesis

martina decker

& andrea simitch

left

01_Exterior perspective right

01_Exterior perspective 02_Interior perspective 03_Interior perspective 01

angela afandi

This making the ordinary strange starts off from an inspiration from literature, specifically magic realism fictions—stories which nudge on everyday happenstance and give it the fantasy to give the reader room to relate their everyday life into and imagine forward. Magic Realism, according to Wendy Faris, author of Ordinary Enchantments, combines realism and the fantastic in the way that the extraordinary grows organically from within the ordinary to the point that it blurs the separation between them. The literary genre thrived when the postcolonial literature modifies the dominant western literature of realism. Thus, Magic Realism becomes a representation of the blurring and clashing of different cultures in the postcolonial world.

For Faris, Magic Realism’s enchantment lies in the way the narration reports events that humans ordinarily do not. She suggests that the narration involve forces higher than human perception. For me, it is the hyper sensitivity to the ordinary and the realistic description of the physical world that Magic Realism’s narration is able to push human imagination back to and beyond their physical perception.

Magic Realism stems back to the literature of everyday fantastic—a term that Italo Calvino uses to describe the fantasy stories of the second half of the 19th century.

These stories concern with “ordinary things that conceal within its banal appearances, mystery, disturbance, and extraordinariness,” that then enchant the reader through seeing another world of the real and the ordinary.How can our ordinary spaces are turned into extraordinary like Lewis Carroll’s wonderland (He tickles the readers’ imaginative mind using inversion, distortion, and exaggeration of the characters’ characters that turns the ordinary into extraordinary)? Can architect break the third wall and include their personal stories like A.A. Milne storytelling his son about Pooh (his son’s stuffed bear) while storytelling us (He is layering his story within story)? Can we address our hypothetical space readers like Rudyard Kipling does in his short stories (“now, you must not forget the suspenders, o, best beloved.”)?

2011

MArch Thesis

martina decker

& andrea simitch

01

2011

angela afandi

02

03

MArch Thesis

Re-organization of Shoes in Store

aleksandr mergold MATERIAL

& david salomon

SHOE

Re-organization of Shoes in Store

MATERIAL

SHOE

Shoes in the store become the intermediary between the human body and the sensorial awareness of these surface materials. Different types of shoes have inherent geometries that influence their ergonomics and aesthetics, and these geometries are more compatible to certain surface materials, and do not perform as well on others.

42

01 yu ying goh: Sensing Surfaces advisors:

Aleksandr Mergold, David Salomon

43

Introduction

yu ying goh

Reorienting the sensorial hierarchy of our perceptions from a world dominated by vision to the plurality of our other senses is the focus of this thesis. In particular, it wants to reconnect our bodies to the diverse array of sensory experiences like touch and hearing available to us, on the ground we walk on every day. By internalizing and compressing a sample range of surface materials of New York City into the fi xed boundary of a retail shoe store along Broadway in SoHo, this thesis aims for new shopping experiences that apprehend the tactility of materals around us, starting from the feet, through the testing and display of a curated collection of shoes.

left

01_Shoe reoganization diagram 02-05_Urban surface textures

This thesis is important to architecture because architecture needs to be experienced not only through seeing, but through direct, sensorial interaction with our built environment. There is a tendency of today’s architecture to neglect its tactile and material aspect, in preference for “the architecture of the eye” that has turned architecture into “an art form of instant visual image”. Thus, this thesis aims to reorient the sensorial hierarchy of our perceptions from a world dominated by vision to the plurality of our other senses.

right

01_Site plan 2011

MArch Thesis

02

03

04

05

aleksandr mergold

& david salomon

broadway

prince

yu ying goh

2011

spring

MArch Thesis

Precedent 3 Mandarina Duck Flagship Store - NL Architects / Droog Design | Paris France | 2001 | 3444 sqft

aleksandr mergold

Relationship of Display Type with Capactiy to Elicit Touch & Movement of Body

& david salomon

Precedent 3 Mandarina Duck Flagship Store - NL Architects / Droog Design | Paris France | 2001 | 3444 sqft

Precedent 3 Mandarina Duck Flagship Store - NL Architects / Droog Design | Paris France | 2001 | 3444 sqft

yu ying goh

21

Sequence of Events

1

Display Type

2

3

4

Sequence of Events

1

8

7

8

Display Type

2

3

6

7

Capacity to Elicit Touch & Movement of Body

Capacity to Elicit Touch & Movement of Body

4

5

6

5

20

left

01_Precedent analysis (Mandarina Duck Flagship Store by Droog Design in Paris, France

20

2011

MArch Thesis

Precedent 4 Prada Epicenter - Herzog & de Meuron | Tokyo Japan | 2003 | 30785 sqft

aleksandr mergold

& david salomon

Relationship of Display Type with Capactiy to Elicit Touch & Movement of Body

Precedent 4 Prada Epicenter - Herzog & de Meuron | Tokyo Japan | 2003 | 30785 sqft

Precedent 4 Prada Epicenter - Herzog & de Meuron | Tokyo Japan | 2003 | 30785 sqft

23

1

Display Type

Sequence of2 Events

1

8

2

7

8

3

4

3

6

7

Display Type

yu ying goh

Sequence of Events

Capacity to Elicit Touch & Movement of Body

Capacity to Elicit Touch & Movement of Body

4

5

6

5

22

right

22

2011

01_Precedent analysis (Prada Epicenter by Herzog & De Meuron in Tokyo, Japan

MArch Thesis

aleksandr mergold

& david salomon

Proximity Analysis of Blending Diagrams

ones

1A

1B

2A

2B

yu ying goh

3A

3B

4A

4B

left

01_Defining spatial zones 2011

MArch Thesis

aleksandr mergold

& david salomon

Proximity Analysis of Blending Diagrams

1A

1B

2A

2B

3A

yu ying goh

3B

4A

4B

right

2011

01_Material overlap

MArch Thesis

& david salomon

yu ying goh

aleksandr mergold

left

01_Final model right

01_Final model

2011

MArch Thesis

aleksandr mergold

& david salomon

left

01_Final model right

01_Final model

2011

yu ying goh

MArch Thesis

werner goehner

& aleksandr mergold

01 left

01_King’s Way From east to west the King’s Way or King’s Walk follows the traditional route slicing through Old Town and New Town and extending to Prague Castle.

02_Magistrala The north-south boundary of the Magistrala highway divides Prague physically. The division has spurred on buildings of glass and steel to the east of the highway, development that is atypical to the historic center to the west.

Image description

02

right

michael jefferson: Mesto

01_Final Model

advisors: Werner Goehner, Alex Mergold

introduction

michael jefferson

Prague, a city with multiple superimposed and overlapping histories, lacks a defined future. A frenzy of entities including UNESCO, the Czech government, and informal associations has resulted in a stagnant condition of hyper-preservation.

Simultaneously, the rules prescribed for conservation and, conversely, new developments are abstract and loosely interpreted.

At this pivotal moment in the discussion of Prague’s future, a soon to be vacant site exists at the crossing of the city’s most important historic axes and, thus, is neither a part of one era nor another. Whereas many areas in the Czech Republic are entitled “_____- mesto“ and are qualified (i.e. Staré Město, Nové Město, etc...), this project will be the embodiment of all: staré, nové, historical, soviet, etc. A Hyper- Mesto.

MArch Thesis

2011

Masaryk Station, Prague’s first train station built in 1845 and among the first in Europe, will soon be vacated with its traffic being diverted to the present day main station (Hlavnínádraží). The voided condition of the site puts it at the forefront of the discussion of preservation and development. Located along the Magistrala highway, the site is the only element straddling this boundary; it is strategically positioned in historic and potentially economic terms and, correspondingly, contentiously debated.

werner goehner

& aleksandr mergold

magistrala

preservation

Where the city’s historic defense wall once resided, the Magistrala highway was built in the 1970’s during Soviet occupation. The wall effectively reaffirmed the boundary between Staré Město and Nové Město (Old Town and New Town) and areas of Prague constructed during the industrialization era such as Vinohrady and Žižkov.

The site is wedged between the UNESCO World Heritage Zone (the historic center of Prague) and other conservation zones defined by the city and national government.

The highway’s physical construction has manifested a historical trajectory, a defined wall with different rules for development and protection on either side.

The ambiguity of its relationship to the city, somehow negotiating between two zones of preservation and simultaneously abstaining, prompts debate for how to build or whether to build at all.

2011

michael jefferson

MArch Thesis

werner goehner

void

& aleksandr mergold

+ contention

Masaryk Station, Prague’s first train station built in 1845 and among the first in Europe, will soon be vacated with its traffic being diverted to the present day main station (Hlavnínádraží). The voided condition of the site puts it at the forefront of the discussion of preservation and development. Located along the Magistrala highway, the site is the only element straddling this boundary; it is strategically positioned in historic and potentially economic terms and, correspondingly, contentiously debated.

Preservationists have declared that no new building should be undertaken. Simultaneously, the Masaryk Station Development group has organized private competitions including a proposa by Jean Nouvel. The divergent intentions by these groups underscore universal contradicting aspirations that yield a condition of both radical change and radical stasis. This project seeks to emphatically and critically engage both preservation and development.

michael jefferson

01

2011

MArch Thesis

werner goehner

& aleksandr mergold

left

01

01_Interior perspective right

01_Exterior perspective 02_Interior perspective 03_Interior perspective 04_Exterior perspective

02

03

2011

michael jefferson

04

MArch Thesis

& aleksandr mergold

michael jefferson

werner goehner

2011

MArch Thesis

werner goehner

& aleksandr mergold

2011

michael jefferson

MArch Thesis

maria hurtado de mendoza

chris ka cheung wong: Misreading Wegman’s

& caroline o’donnell

advisors: Maria Hurtado de Mendoza

Caroline O’Donnell

the explanation (narration): contrast, analogy

private prison system problem

In a 2008-released study, evidence indicated that states can save a substantial amount of money if they use a shared system of both privately and publicly managed prisons. The research showed that during the study period (1999–2004), states were able to save up to $15 million on their yearly corrections budget by using at least some privately managed prisons. (The study was overseen by James Blumstein, director of the Health Policy Center, Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies.)

Many organizations have called for a moratorium on construction of private prisons, or for their outright abolition.

The religious denominations Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and United Methodist Church have also joined the call, as well as the Catholic Bishops of the South organization.

Proponents of privately run prisons contend that costsavings and efficiency of operation place private prisons at an advantage over public prisons and support the argument for privatization, but some research casts doubt on the validity of these arguments, as evidence has shown that private prisons are neither demonstrably more costeffective, nor more efficient than public prisons. An evaluation of 24 different studies on cost-effectiveness revealed that, at best, results of the question are inconclusive and, at worst, there is no difference in cost-effectiveness.

chris ka cheung wong

Others have suggested that cost savings come at the expense of security. In the wake of the escape of three murderers from the minimum/medium security Kingman Prison, Arizona attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Terry Goddard said “I believe a big part of our problem is that the very violent inmates, like the three that escaped, ended up getting reclassified (as a lower risk) quickly and sent to private prisons that were just not up to the job.”

2011

MArch Thesis

maria hurtado de mendoza

& caroline o’donnell

01

03

02

04

05

chris ka cheung wong

06

left

2011

01_Conceptual collage right

01-06_Final model

MArch Thesis

chris ka cheung wong

maria hurtado de mendoza

& caroline o’donnell

guilt is ambiguous.

private prison system

The population of wrongly accused prisoners rises in the US even as the prison population decreases. In today’s economy, Prison is a booming business. At the same time, those of us who call ourselves free are trapped in a routine, commitments, and surveillance that sometimes come close to the life of the incarcerated. The guilty are removed from their society, rehabilitation resources like education, physical training, counseling, are located outside the city. As the two populations grow closer to each other in their daily lives, how can the city benefit from keeping its prisoners in place, in terms of community regeneration, as well as through architecture, program as reminiscence and as warning?

A private prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned by a third party that is contracted by a local, state or federal government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with local, state, or federal governments that commit prisoners and then pay a per diem or monthly rate for each prisoner confined in the facility.

prison definition from oed:

The privatization movement can be traced to the contracting out of confinement and care of prisoners after the American Revolution. Deprived of the ability to ship criminals and undesirables to the Colonies, Great Britain began placing them on hulks moored in English ports. The partial transfer of San Quentin prison administration from private to public did not mark the end of privatization. The next phase began with the Reconstruction Period (1865–1876) in the south, after the end of the Civil War. Farmers and businessmen needed to find replacements for the labor force once their slaves had been freed. Beginning in 1868, convict leases were issued to private parties to supplement their workforce. This system remained in place until the early 20th century.

1. the condition of being kept in captivity or confinement; forcible deprivation of personal liberty; imprisonment. Hence (now the usual sense): a place of incarceration.

2. With article or other designation. A building or other facility to which people are legally committed as punishment for a crime or while awaiting trial.

There are roughly 2.3 million people in jails and prisons in America, more than any country in the world. The United States has 756 people in jail per 100,000 people.

No other country has more than 700, and only two are over 600 Russia and Rwanda.

Of the 2.3 million people in American jails, 806,000 are black males. African-Americans--males and females-make up .6 percent of the entire world’s population, but African-American males--alone--make up 8 percent of the entire world’s prison population. I know there are people who think some kind of demon culture could create a world where a group that makes up roughly one in 200 citizens of the world, comprises one in 12 of its prisoners.

Today, the privatization of prisons refers both to the takeover of existing public facilities by private operators and to the building and operation of new and additional prisons by for-profit prison companies.

Federal and state government has a long history of contracting out specific services to private firms, including medical services, food preparation, vocational training, and inmate transportation. The 1980s, though, ushered in a new era of prison privatization. With a burgeoning prison population resulting from the War on Drugs and increased use of incarceration, prison overcrowding and rising costs became increasingly 2011

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maria hurtado de mendoza

& caroline o’donnell

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facilities, housing almost 99,000 adult offenders. Companies operating such facilities include the Corrections Corporation of America, the GEO Group, Inc, and Community Education Centers. The GEO Group was formerly known as Wackenhut Securities, and includes the Cornell Companies, which merged with GEO in 2010.

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Corrections Corporation of America has a capacity of more than 80,000 beds in 65 correctional facilities.

The GEO Group operates 61 facilities with a capacity of 49,000 offender beds, Most privately run facilities are located in the southern and western portions of the United States and include both state and federal offenders.

MArch Thesis

chris ka cheung wong

tion of a jail to a private operator.

The following year, CCA gained further public attention when it offered to take over the entire state prison system of Tennessee for $200 million. The bid was ultimately defeated due to strong opposition from public employees and the skepticism of the state legislature. Despite that initial defeat, CCA since then has successfully expanded, as have other for-profit The modern private prison business prison companies. As of December first emerged and established itself 2000, there were 153 private corpublicly in 1984 when the Correc- rectional facilities (prisons, jails tions Corporation of America was and detention centers) operating in awarded a contract to take over a the United States with a capacity of facility in Hamilton County, Tennes- over 119,000. see. This marked the first time that any government in the country had Private companies in the United contracted out the complete opera- States operate 264 correctional problematic for local, state, and federal governments. In response to this expanding criminal justice system, private business interests saw an opportunity for expansion, and consequently, private-sector involvement in prisons moved from the simple contracting of services to contracting for the complete management and operation of entire prisons.

maria hurtado de mendoza

& caroline o’donnell

chris ka cheung wong

chris ka cheung wong

: Freedom? : What if we bring prison back to this city? : When a whole city become a prison, is it a prison anymore? : a city = a prison?

2011

MArch Thesis

maria hurtado de mendoza

& caroline o’donnell

2011

chris ka cheung wong

MArch Thesis