' WHOLE ' Thesis in fulfilment of an MArch in Architectural Design

WHOLE

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

University College London Bartlett School of Architecture 2016-2017

WHOLE Investigating the concept of the “whole� in architectural and urban systems

Leyla El Sayed Hussein Research cluster 8 / Large City Architecture Supervised and led by Daniel Koehler

Submitted on the 14th of July of 2017

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Table of Contents

Abstract

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Introduction

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Chapter 01 / The Multiple Meanings of a “Whole”

01.01 / The Whole and its Thingliness

01.02 / /The Whole and its Outside

01.03 / The Whole and its Cohesion

01.04 / The Whole and its Composition

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Chapter 02 / Thingliness as a Core of Part to Whole

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Chapter 03 / Design and Studio’s Research

03.01 / Studio Research

03.02 / Design Research

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Chapter 04 / Micro versus Macro

04.01 / Field Figurations

04.02 / Architectural to Urban

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Chapter 06 / Conclusion

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List of Figures

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References

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Abstract My thesis investigates the concept of architectural “wholes”. At first, I will delve into the multiple meanings of architectural wholes according to different philosophical and architectural schools of thought. Knowing that architecture is a discourse, I will build my argument on the concept of “thingliness” developed by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, arguing that the architectural whole depends in the first place on the embedded nature of the single element.

Once the studio’s approach has been introduced, a description of the main project will follow. The project- situated in the realm of mereology- will be constantly discussed through reflections on the digital and computational processes in design.

The thesis will then investigate the relation of part-to-whole of the project on a bigger scale, the urban.

The part-to-whole question thus becomes a dilemma of the micro and macro. The translation of the former to the latter will not be literal, meaning that the thesis will attempt to demonstrate that it is not as simple as understanding the “part” as a “micro” and the “whole” as a “macro”. Instead, through the complexity of architectural systems, the boundaries between the part-to-whole and the micro-to-macro can sometimes dissolve. The micro can be a group of parts, of a group of wholes, and the macro can be a group of bigger wholes.

The injection of the digital and how the computational field did alter the dynamics between the micro and the macro will also be tackled. Mainly, the thesis will tackle issues such as scalability, the complexity of systems, and the depth of relations among the elements of the architectural whole.

The thesis argues that the wholes and part-to-part relations are built on the “thingliness” of the parts in the first place, and then these relations transcends to a complexity based on the interaction between the discrete parts under a multiplicity of influences. This complexity of relations is sometimes unexpected, uncertain and in constant change.

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Introduction When asked how he would define the universe, Stephen Hawking said that the universe is made of multiple patches; each with its own coordinate system. For Hawking, the universe as a whole is in constant expansion; it is changing and growing with every second passing. Some of its parts (or patches as he called them) are shrinking, others are expanding, and some are dying (Hawking, 1989). On the other hand, Alfred North Whitehead, an English philosopher and mathematician, rejected any single theory to describe the cosmos, especially the “meta-computational theory of the universe” (Whitehead, 19). For Whitehead, one single theory, or one way to compute the universe, underestimates the power of reason.

From these two main approaches I intend to build my thesis framework. Hawking’s approach will be reflected in the understanding of discrete parts (or patches) of an architectural system. The Whole depends on the parts. Whitehead’s perspectives suggest that wholes depend on factors that are much more complex than the part itself. The introduction of the digital and computational architecture is highly relevant here, because it alters how we view the part-to-part relation and consequently the whole.

Knowing that architecture is a discourse, the following paragraphs’ aim is to reveal the paper’s major arguments and establishing its statement, opening the door for multiple discussions revolving around the following questions: What does the word “whole” mean? How and at what stage can we define the whole?

To look into these dilemmas, I will first delve into the multiple philosophical and architectural definition of a “whole”. Second, I will project such ideas on our group’s design research, by discussing how such definitions were manifested, while in parallel discussing the role of computational design in redefining my thesis question, and altering our design research. Third, after setting up what could be the most suitable definition of the whole, I will dig into the micro-macro relation; meaning the dynamics between the architectural and the urban, and how our design project was constantly moving between the two.

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

“The THINGLY substructure is what proved to be the most evident reality in the work” [17] M.Heidegger / Off the Beaten Track / 1950

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Chapter 01/ The Multiple Meanings of Whole

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01.01 / The Whole and its Thingliness At any encounter with an architectural element, many ideas impose themselves. What is the internal behavior of such an element? Would that behavior change if the element encounters another? What would be the dual relation of such elements, and how would it change when the elements grow in numbers?

From the perspective of semantics, a whole means “A thing that is complete in itself” (According to Oxford Online Dictionary), it also implies a negation of division (According to Cambridge Online Dictionary).

Common among most definitions of the whole is the notion of “completion.” “Completion” can imply one of two connotations: either that a system has reached a static state of metamorphosis, hence its completion. Or, a system has reached an infinite static way of behavior that keeps repeating itself as a loop, hence a completion in behavior. Both these aspects of completion could be seen in Alberti’s description of the assembly of a statue from different parts. He states: “…and when the different parts were assembled, they would all fit together perfectly” (Alberti, 129).

The theories of the whole that will build this conceptual framework will not be examined in their historical chronological order. Instead, in Hawking’s words, each theory -include his own- will form a patch that resonates with others. The resulting whole, in this case a mature understanding of the definition in question, will therefore be a product not of the linear growth of one idea, but rather of the dynamics between many. a part-to-whole A notion that can offer a solid foundation for this discussion is Martin Heidegger’s “thingliness”, which he introduced in his text The Origin of the Work of Art. Such a concept would help us look at architecture as a work of art. According to Heidegger, “thingliness” implies a -not necessarily realized- essence of things, but is also conditioned by existence (Heidegger, 1960). In other words, existence is a prerequisite of “thingliness,” although the latter can be imagined and defined prior to this existence. Although this idea seems at first to contradict Edmund Husserl’s notion of “potential wholes” (which will be discussed later), it will eventually prove a useful thread linking all of the arguments together. From the works of Greg Lynn, Levi Bryant, Bruno Latour and Edmund Husserl, we can extract the following four ideas respectively: “Thingliness” is embedded in the behavior of the whole; “thingliness” is embedded in the relation between the elements and in the elements themselves; “thingliness” is embedded in the heterogeneity of the parts which will achieve a composite material but never a whole; and the “thingliness” of the whole is embedded within its types.

But how can the term “thingliness” apply to architecture? Knowing that Heidegger was referring to the concept in respect to works of art, any architectural element can be considered one.

What distinguishes architectural materials is not only language -i.e. their naming-, but also their inherent qualities. Indeed, here is a certain intrinsic objectivity in each architectural material that can define the “thingliness” of an object. In one of his lectures, Juhani Pallasmaa tackles this idea, saying that “materials and surfaces have a language of their own. Stone speaks of its distant geological origins, its durability and inherent symbolism of permanence” (Pallasma, 1999). Pallasma discusses in detail other materials as well, and distinguishes between the different inherent properties of every material. If we adapt such a conceptualization to a system, the whole’s thingliness then becomes the aggregation of each element’s inherent nature.

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

01.02 / The Whole in Reflection to its Outside

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In his essay titled “Multiplicitous and Inorganic Bodies,” Greg Lynn offers a brief historical overview on the understanding of proportion and geometry. The “organism” or the “architectural” body sometimes functions as a “pack” (Lynn,1998). Lynn seems to focus more on the behavior of the whole system, rather than the behavior of single elements. This is not to deny that when reading Lynn, one cannot but notice his focus on microelements, especially when he describes the anatomy of the flatworm. As a first encounter, the analysis therefore seems to focus on the internal structure of the flatworm, but it’s soon revealed that this is only a means to describe the multiplicity of such worms as well as their ability to proliferate and eventually form a whole.

At the end of the essay, Lynn explains one of his projects, “The Stranded Sears Tower,” as “neither discrete nor dispersed, but rather turns from any single organizational idea toward a system of local affiliations outside itself” (Lynn, 1998). Although in some of the drawings Lynn drew the details of the interior anatomy of each part as separate floor plates (image1&2), which happened to be highly similar to the structure of the warm, Lynn here completely neglects the behavior of any single element in his project. Instead, he emphasizes on the importance of external stimuli in his project, where the floors in each element- functioning as parts- eventually subordinate to the whole, turning the relation of a “part to a whole” into a relation of a “whole to an outside”.

The parts are hence absorbed and subservient to a whole, and the system is hence a “dependency system”, similar to a functional whole (Koehler, 58).

Image 1 / Stranded Sears Tower. Drawing showing the interior anatomy as floors / Taken from the online Greg Lynn Forum

01.03 / The Whole and its Cohesion A clear distinction between the relations within one object, and the relations between the object and its foreigners has been widely acknowledged. There is a certain individuality of the part within the whole that has been discussed in a book called “The Democracy of Things” by Levi Bryant. Bryant, who distinguishes between the “endo relations” and the “exo relations”- where the former stresses on the inner relations of the parts that constitutes an object while the latter stresses on the resulting relations between objects- (Bryant, 2011), is not far from Edmund Husserl’s notion of “actual and possible parts”. Husserl’s approach might be the prime mover of what followed next. The “potential wholes” discussed by Husserl might be “endo”, “exo”, “domestic” or “foreign” potential relations. He introduced the notion of “actual and possible part” and the notion of “actual or potential wholes” (Köhler, 2016). Husserl’s notion implies one of the two things: first, a whole can never be achieved; as long as a potential part is always in play, then the whole might always be in constant change. Second, the whole is in constant transformation, meaning that every aspect of deformation, or every potential part preceding a potential whole, is altering the whole into a new whole.

Rafael Moneo, a Spanish architect, deals with the Cordoba mosque as an interesting example (image 3). The mosque has been significantly modified throughout history, and has been transformed from a Christian church into a mosque; its architectural “whole” was therefore in constant change. Moneo says that the mosque, despite all these changes, kept its own identity, its own “whole”. He speaks about the interlock of part-to-part, or in Bryant’s definitions, of the endo-relations. The structured relationship of the parts has yielded a somehow stable “whole” (Moneo, 1985). The potential wholes in the case of Cordoba mosque were alterations of the original whole but not extreme mutations.

Image 2 / Stranded Sears Tower. The functioning of elements as a “pack” / Taken from the online Greg Lynn Forum 17

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Image 3 / Cordoba Mosque plan, Spain C800-785. Redrawn by Tess Hilgefort after a drawing by Petro Feduci

01.04 / The Whole and its Composition The relation of part-to-whole is increasingly complex, but Bruno Latour, a French philosopher and expert in the theory of science, has written a useful general framework to help thinking about this relation.

Knowing that his theory is much more general than the relation examined above, it might help us look at the part-to-whole relation from a new perspective. In his essay “An Attempt at Writing a Compositionist Manifesto,” Latour introduces “compositionism” (neology) (Latour, 2012), a concept that he believed has enough strength to replace the model of critique. For the author, the whole is a composite of heterogeneous materials that will never achieve universality; it is in constant search for it, waiting for it to unveil (Ibid). By contrasting such a concept to critique, or even replacing critique, Latour proposes a new way of seeing objects. Critique imposes a metaphysical world which is unreached, while “compositionism” penetrates the mundane world, and allows us to interfere with the object. Latour describes “compositionism” as “immanent” (Ibid). Ontology here is much more applicable, and the object alone can yield a certain kind of knowledge. The fact that a system cannot achieve universality can be translated to architecture in relation to the “endo”/”exo” relations. If we introduce the “user” behavior, or the architectural “function” as new parameters, or if we agree that architectural objects can function as “communicative systems” (Donougho, 1987), then the system is in constant change. Latour’s “compositionism” when integrated with the constant change that the architectural system undergoes will indeed never achieve universality. Husserl’s potential wholes will also be in question. The parameters that are in constant change will always affect the relation of the “endo”, the “exo”, and the relation among the two. It can also be a mediator between the “endo” and the “exo”. The closest architectural example to Latour’s theory might be embedded within the integration of super computation into architecture.

With the introduction of the digital (which will be discussed shortly), it becomes possible to conceive the part-to-whole relationship as a matter of systems of behaviors. The field condition as a framework for larger systems that can function on an urban level is a way to see these dynamics and behaviors within the architectural elements that consequently form the “urban”. According to Stan Allen, who wrote extensively on the topic, a ‘field condition’ is a space of propagation, “it describes local relations of difference within fields of celerity”. The overall form of such a system is highly malleable, and what matters is the interrelationship of parts (endo relations) which will govern the comportment of the field (Allen, 2008), (image 4). But such a system indicates the impossibility of universality, as well as the infinity of propagation (image 5). These field conditions help us see the urban as a “dynamic field of interrelated forces, a set of mutually independent variables in a rapidly expanding infinite series” (Maki, 3).

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

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Image 4 / Berry Le Va, New York, 7-1966. Bearing Rolled, Six Specific Instants. Picture showing the behavior of parts forming multiple wholes

Image 5 / Daniel Koehler. 2016. “Introduction: Topic, state of knowledge, method” in the Mereological City, A reading of the works of Ludwig Hilberseimer. Trascript Verlag, p.53 21

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Chapter 02 / “Thingliness” as a Core of Part to Whole

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02 / “Thingliness” as a Core of Part to Whole Going back to the idea of the “thingliness” of the parts, Husserl’s idea of dependence and independence of parts comes into the picture. In his essay, On the “Theory of Wholes and Parts,” Husserl introduces the notion of independent vs non-independent parts (Husserl, 1901). But don’t the dependency and its contrary eventually depend on the nature of the thing? With Husserl’s previously-mentioned notion of potential wholes in mind, one would question the basis on which these potentials form. If such wholes can be formed based on the “thingliness” of parts, therefore one would project or simulate such formation according to the intrinsic nature of the object which will in turn form the relation of one part to another (the structure), or observe the constant change of the whole when new dynamic parameters are integrated into the system.

Once we succumb to the idea that the distinctive “thingliness” of the part will yield a wide range of wholes, and that sometimes wholes are never there because they are in constant alteration, then in each and every single alteration a new phenomenon occurs. The manifestation of the phenomena is encompassed by Husserl’s notion of “linkage-whole”, a “synthesis between the observer and the work of art” (Köler, 2016).

Such a relation can perhaps offer some tangible ground to the theoretical arguments previously discussed, making an introduction to an architectural analysis that allows understanding the distinctive effect of each of the following notions: the behavior of the whole is more important than the parts, the behavior of the parts dictate the behavior of the whole, the whole is never achieved but is always a heterogeneous composite, the behavior of the parts and the whole depend on the “thingliness” of the object.

Such a discussion also serves to enlighten our understanding of advanced computation’s interference with architecture. The earlier discussion of “field conditions” leaves a few questions to be thought about: can a field turn into a whole? Is a field ever achieved? However, with the integration of computation the question of wholes achievement becomes secondary. Wholes become uncertain and unexpected. The integration of computation into architecture still acknowledges the “thingliness” of the patches as called by Hawking, but also adds a new element of complexity, which was mentioned at the beginning of this text: Whitehead’s refute of the “meta-computational theory of the universe”, meaning there is much more than the “thingliness” of the part.

In the following I will introduce the Studio’s research topic and our design project while constantly reiterating the role of the computational design in reshaping the part-to-whole relationship previously discussed.

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

“Objects can be related to one another as Wholes to Parts, they can also be related to one another as coordinated parts of a whole. These sorts of relations have an a priori foundation in the Idea of an object.

Every object is either actually or possibly a part� [4] E.Husserl / Logical Investigations / 1901

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Chapter 03 / Design and Studio’s Research

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03.01 / Studio Research Mereology investigates the behavior of the parts, the behavior of their relationship, and the process in which they form a larger system. The studio research also focuses on large systems, and functions on city scale. Knowing that the method used is a bottom-up approach, the studio intends to create large city systems that are integrated with architecture.

Mereology functions on multiple levels: the part-to-part relation, the part-to-whole relation, and the whole-to-whole relation. Through a digital approach, such relations can be integrated in a design research questioning the dynamics between parthood conditions and field conditions. In fact, if the city is understood as the sum of parts’ behaviors, new levels of complexity emerge. Such an approach shifts our perspectives towards the notion of the house, the neighborhood, and consequently the city. Mereological systems do not function like other systems, they are neither typological nor formalistic, they are behaviors.

The final aim of the studio is to create a large city system based on architectural parthood conditions, such a system will depend on the autonomy of its discrete elements, in addition to the relations built visa-vis the resonance of the parts to finally articulate the city with architecture.

03.02 / Design Research MEROS, derived from Ancient Greek μερoς: merós, means “part”. From Meros emerged mereology (Koehler, 42). The latter investigates the relationships among architectural elements, and how their relations affect the whole. Our design research examines the effect that relations between micro elements have on the macro, i.e. the architectural system.

To project such a statement, a Chinese vernacular type of dwelling called the Hakka house is examined and thoroughly analyzed. The Hakka House thus forms a starting point for creating a methodology of design and analysis that is applicable to other architectural systems. The Hakka house acts as a design bed, where its parthood conditions are extracted, digitally simulated, and used to create something new.

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03.03 / Brief History of the Hakka House

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

The Hakka House is a type of communal living found in southern China. It is a large multi-family dwelling.

The Hakka house has deep historical and social significance; it gained its name from the Hakka people, a group of the Han Chinese (Porter, 4). The Hakka housing’s typology is based on an axial symmetry forming an enclosed space. Made of one big ring consisting of one entrance at the ground level, the Hakka house is an introverted system. The interior is made of multiple units, each for one family. Its cohesion offers multiple types of spaces, fully enclosed, fully open, and semi-enclosed. The transition between these spaces is a very distinct characteristic of the Hakka house. Hakka houses vary in size, and several houses are usually built in close proximity, forming clusters that are equipped with multiple living facilities; they are self-sufficient and form independent mini-cities.

Their tall, thick, and fortified mud walls serve as one of their critical characteristics, considering both their defensive and temperature-controlling functions. Such a wall character was a main interest for the project.

Although the plan of the Hakka house seems to be rigid, symmetric and quite repetitive (image 6), closer examination reveals that its wall organization can be more complex.

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Image 6 / Hakka House Plan - Circular rigid distribution of the units Source: team’s own

Image 7 / Hakka House by photographer Tianjin.

Bartlett |my.poco.cn Rc8, lead by D.Kohler | MEROS | R.Kaadan, L.elSayedHussein, A.Su Source: 29

03.04 / Parthood Conditions

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

The walls of the Hakka House separate different functions and different qualities of space. There is a certain hierarchy of wall organization that allows multiple depths of navigation, different types of enclosures, and different types of visibility. Their thick fortified wall that surrounds the units act like a “whole” boundary, however when seeing an aerial view of the Hakka settlements, and how these big rings are being interactive on the macro level, these thick walls seem to lose their “boundary” character (image8).

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Image 8 / Hakka House Aerial View - Urban Settlment / Photograph by Matt Hartzell Source: matthartzell.blogspot.co.uk

03.04 / Parthood Conditions Contemplating the Hakka house, it is possible to understand the notion of the “whole� as manifested in one of three things: One big ring, one settlement of houses made of rings, or one network of relations between such houses.

The approach to such an idea would be to extract the parthood relations from these architectural systems in order to simulate them, such as: courtyard to courtyard relation in one house, unit to unit relation in one house, vertical circulation, horizontal circulation, etc.

At first, we extracted the parthood conditions related to the passage between the unit and the courtyard, having different possibilities (image 9). Case 01 consists of one main entrance to the courtyard flanked by two functions. Case 02 consists of one main courtyard entrance that is flanked by one function but opposed by another one. Case 03 consists of one main entrance with one central function; a radial circulation is produced. Case 04 consists of one main entrance, opposed by one function; a private circulation is created. Case 06 consists of two main entrances opposed by two functions; a corridor is created in the courtyard.

se / Parthood conditions

ard

Image 9 / Parthood Conditions of the Unit to Courtyard Source: team’s own

R.Kaadan - L.El Sayed Hussein / Led by Daniel Koehler

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03.04 / Parthood Conditions Secondly, we extracted the parthood conditions related to the transition between the entrance and the courtyard, consequently moving to analyze the movement within one unit. This analysis allowed a better understanding of the depth of circulation within one unit, and subsequently within the other units (image 10). Third, we analyzed the walls distribution of the units, and then the whole settlement in one main ring of the Hakka house (image 11).

Hakka House / Parthood conditions Circulation and Navigation

USE

onditions o Courtyard to Unit it

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

on among the a House. Such o extract the that function s: circulation /

Image 10 / Studying the Navigation among the Sub-units of the Hakka House. This analysis serves extracting the parthood conditions that function on the following levels: circulation / visibility / navigation Source: Team’s own

MEROS / A.Su - R.Kaadan - L.El Sayed Hussein / Led by Daniel Koehler

OS | R.Kaadan, L.elSayedHussein, A.Su

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Image 11 / The Inner wall distribution of the Hakka house, removing the rigid ring and extroverting the inner system Source: Team’s own

The enviormental asset of the Hakka House as an extroverted system of walls

03.04 / Parthood Conditions What was most relevant to the research in all the parthood conditions was the walls’ role in creating these conditions. Therefore we decided to abstract these wall conditions to their basic rigid form in order to digitally simulate new interactions that will allow us to create new architectural outcomes.

Once simulated, these parthood conditions became visible in their field figuration, each creating a potential whole.

The movement from one wall figuration, to a parthood condition and consequently to a beginning of a field was the first jump towards the movement from the architectural to the urban. The way parts interact is almost a bottom-up approach but never a linear approach. Parts might be interacting simultaneously, and relations might occur in different locations of the system.

Going back to Heidegger’s thingliness and its application in the project, we should also expand on his note about what makes a thing a thing. According to his definition, when asking such a question we should also ask what the enabled conditions for the thing to happen are, and whether these conditions are a thing by themselves? he states that such conditions must be “unconditioned” (Heidegger, p.8) Therefore we can deduce the following: the thingliness of things might be conditioned by something external, which is not a thing by itself, but might something similar to an enabling agent that triggers the thingliness of an object.

When extracting the parthood conditions of the Hakka House different groups emerged: The relation of the entrance to the courtyard, the relation of the courtyard to the unit, the relation of the stairs to the unit, and the relation of the unit to the other unit. Such a differentiation allows us to abstract the Hakka House to its basic mode of operation.

The abstraction of such parthood conditions does not imply having a new model which looks physically similar or identical to the existing model; it should, however, keep the existing conditions intact.

The movement from one wall figuration, to a parthood condition and consequently to a beginning of a field was the first jump towards the movement from the architectural to the urban. The way parts interact is almost a bottom up approach but never a linear approach. Parts might be interacting simultaneously, relations might occur in different locations of the system.

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03.04 / Parthood Conditions

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

First we abstracted the parthood condition of the relation of the courtyard to the unit. Such a condition when abstracted disregards the circular physical identity of the Hakka House, and reflects on its core of organization rather than its formal appearance. From these diagrams we then abstracted the movement between these units and the combinations of circulation among these rooms. (image 12)

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Image 12 / Abstracting the Hakka House’s parthood conditions to their basic form Source: Team’s own

03.04 / Parthood Conditions The abstraction of the Hakka house’s parthood conditions will be the local condition upon which these fields will be built. On this note, Terzidis states in his book “Expressive Form: A conceptual Approach to Computational Design” that the algorithmic process is different than the computational and digital process, in the sense that it is by itself a “high level of abstraction” (Terzidis, 71).

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03.04 / Parthood Conditions

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Similarly, abstracting the rules, or the parthood conditions of the Hakka house are another form of abstraction of these conditions to their basic form, in the sense that the physical shape is not related to the physical form of the Hakka house, but share the same condition.

In addition, the linear growth suddenly becomes irrelevant., The architecture of some buildings of Mies Van de Rohe such as the Brick country House in 1924 ( (image 13) or the cite des etoiles of Jean Renaudi in 1974 shows a similar modus operandi (image 14 ). Once the fields based on the parthood conditions of the Hakka house, or any other architectural project, are built, there would be no need to specify neither the start nor the end.

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Image 13 / Mies Van der Roh, Brick Country House Source: The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries

03.04 / Parthood Conditions The abstraction of the Hakka house’s parthood conditions will be the local condition upon these fields will be built. On this note, Terzidis states in his book “Expressive Form: A conceptual Approach to Com

Image 14 / Jean Renaudi, Cité des Etoiles Source: Centre Pompidou 37

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

“For those cultures, creating buildings and creating cities were one and the same thing�[27] Fumihiko Maki F.Maki / Nurturing Dreams / 2008

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Chapter 04 / Micro versus Macro

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04.01 / Plan Figurations It has been said that the advancement of computation has boomed in the last 40 years. (Parisi, 403). The algorithmic automation introduced to the design field functioned on a wide range of layers: material’s behaviors, structure and form, tailored fabrication methods, etc. This project focuses on how the computational processes allow a certain development of the thinking design process that will guide all other forms.

The computation process allows the “process of self-assembly out of the interaction of loose elements” (Parisi, 403). Resonating back to Heidegeer’s “thingliness”, Parisi’s statement agrees that the process of self-assembly is based– in accord with its name- on the “self,” i.e the embedded self-behavior.

These first trials of wall’s behavior focusing on self-assembly are examples of self-arranging walls through local interactions based on the properties of each wall. (image 15)

Re-reading Walls

MEROS / A.Su - R.Kaadan - L.El Sayed Hussein / Led by Daniel Koehler

Image 15 / Self Organizing Walls Source: Team’s Own

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04.01 / Plan Figurations Through this computational process of algorithmic design, many aspects of the process were unexpected.

Although the process was based on specific rules determined by code, the design itself was experimental.

Unlike existing biological rules, the image of an algorithm does not match what can be “perceivable and cognizable by the subject;” the term “experimental axiomaric” describes well a large part of the design process. (parisi, Re-reading Walls 410).

Walls to Figurations The following diagrams show experimental movement from a part to a beginning of a field figuration. (image 15)

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Image 15 / Self Organizing Walls Source: Team’s Own

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- R.Kaadan of - L.El Sayed Hussein / Led from

by Daniel Koehler TheMEROS first/ A.Susteps moving the micro to the macro were to allow for one type of continuous wall to repeat itself in some random points in space. The macro dimension here does not show a high level of complexity, or a heterogeneous variety of spaces; the process is similar to 3D printing, a procedural linear building of space. (image 14). A new layer of complexity was needed, therefore this two-dimensional alphabet became an outset for hundreds of field figurations. Each part of the alphabet is made of a different wall fragment (image 18). Each field figuration accompanied by its distinct part shows how the discrete autonomy of the part is itself responsible for such a figuration (image 16).

Image 16 / Cellular Automata Source: mathworld.wolfram.com

04.01 / Plan Figurations Large Arrangement / Single element

Large Arrangement / Single element

MEROS / A.Su - R.Kaadan - L.El Sayed Hussein / Led by Daniel Koehler

MEROS / A.Su - R.Kaadan - L.El Sayed Hussein / Led by Daniel Koehler

Image 17 / Big arrangement made of a repetition of one continuous wall Source: team’s own 43

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

04.02 / From Architectural to Urban

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In his visit to some Mediterranean cities, Fumihiko Maki, a Japanese architect, noticed that these cities evolved over the years without the supervision of an architect’s master plan. He then stated the following: “this convinced me that ultimately, in a truly organic form such as a city, the urban order can be maintained only if the autonomy of individual buildings and districts is assured” (Maki,41). Maki’s observation stresses the importance of the singularity of the parts, and how each building with its own lifespan, spatial qualities and presence, forms the city.

This autonomy of the parts was also reflected in semantics in one of Maki’s essays called “Collective Form,” written in 1964. Maki divided the vocabulary of architecture as: division of walls, floor and roofs, columns, units, and links (Maki, 27). His division is of high importance because it is not based on any hierarchy; no concept of growth was embedded. For instance, the columns, units, roofs and floors, walls and links, seem to emerge all at once, maybe even simultaneously. Maki describes every one of them independently from the other, as if each can exist on its own. However, when he moves to his discussion of urban design, he states the following: “Urban design is ever concerned with the question of making comprehensible links between discrete things” (Maki, 29). In our design project, we do not intend to form discrete elements and then force their linkages; however, the uniqueness of the elements will propose a certain type of linkages, which can sometimes be the element itself.

As stated above, the movement from the micro to the macro (and vice versa) is a core part of the thesis’s development and is one of the main design factors. With the introduction of the digital, such a dynamic (between the micro and the macro) expands to include multiple layers of complexity. The point of describing our design in relation to the micro-macro is to assure the importance of the single architectural element in forming large city systems; once the latter becomes highly complex, the system will depend on the dynamics between the micro and the macro, while the interrelation among the elements expands and changes in an infinite pattern.

What is meant by “complexity” here can be dissected into multiple sections: - The first approach of complexity in the design research was quantity. As a first step a series of 2D alphabet was created in order to produce a series of its correspondent field figurations (image 18).

- The second approach of complexity was a series of combinations of the 2D alphabet which allowed more diversity on the level of the field figuration, and consequently a larger variety in the types of spaces (image 19).

- The third was to merge multiple field figurations, in order to achieve a somehow exponential range of spaces.

- The fourth was to develop a series of digital methods that re-reads these fields on different hierarchies; these methods show a complexity on the levels of the functional distribution, the level of enclosures and open spaces, and the distinctness of parts. Each method will be tackled in the following sections.

04.02 / From Architectural to Urban The first approach consisting of building upon quantity was manifested in the 2D alphabet, in the 3D alphabet, and in the scalability of each. Image 18 shows samples of the produced 2D alphabet of wall fragments that were later used to develop the field figuration on the two-dimensional level.

Image 19 shows the concept of scaling walls, where the wall as a part can be made of one or more walls together, and Image 20 shows the 3D alphabet used later to transform the field figurations into three-dimensional city scale models.

The first step in reading the micro-versus-macro was this basic reading of a field which consists of wall figures sometimes making enclosed spaces, other times making open or semi open spaces. Some fields show a nuance of porosities; while the original part shows one type of porosity or convexity; the field figurations create a kind of heterogeneous type of spaces (image 19) A 2D alphabet developed from different wall figurations became an outset for hundreds of field figurations. Each part of the alphabet was made of a different wall fragment (image 18) and each field figuration accompanied by its distinct part shows how the discrete autonomy of the part is itself responsible for such figurations (image 19).

The process of simulation resembles what Gilles Deleuze called “objectile,” i.e. the constant metamorphose of form. However, the process of such an “objectile” is not directly proportional to time, in the sense of time’s linearity; interestingly, these field figurations are not time-based and do not contain any growth pattern. These continuous figurations of fields cannot be tracked, and cannot be placed in a time frame.

Image 19 / Samples of the plan figurations using different parts. The “thingliness” of the part is reflected in the difference between the fields Source: Team’s own

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

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Image 18 / Samples of the 2D Wall Fragments Alphabet, each having its own discrete property Source: Team’s own

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04.02 / From Architectural to Urban 06to/ Macro Micro to Macro 06 / Micro Scalability here also functions on the level of the part and its details, and since the design tackles the

here also functions on of thethe level of and the part and itsand details, since ourtackles designthe tackles the ScalabilityScalability here also functions on theelement, level part its details, sinceand our design wall as an architectural and as a focal point of the research, the scalability of one can be as an architectural element, a focal point of our research, we can test thewall scalability wall as anwall architectural element, and as a and focalaspoint of our research, we can even test even the scalability tested. of one wall. of one wall.

What matters the most when scaling the wall, as in scaling its depth, is that the more we scale, the more we can create new definitions for such a wall, and consequently new definitions for its neighboring wall.

This will eventually reflect on the whole in general. Scaling the wall to the extreme can still be considered a thick wall or even a room

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Image / Scale of one wall: one wall /layer, threesecond walls / seventhird wallsof multiple layers.

23 /20 Three walls: made of second one image 23 /image Three walls: first made offirst one layer, and third ofand multiple layers.

Source: Team’s own Source: Source: team’s ownteam’s own

Whatthe matters the most whenthescaling theinwall, as initsscaling depth, that the What matters most when scaling wall, as scaling depth,its is that theismore we more scale,we thescale, the we can create new definitions such a wall, and consequently new definitions for its neighbormore we more can create new definitions for such afor wall, and consequently new definitions for its neighboring wall, which will eventually reflect on the whole in general.

Scaling the wall to the extreme ing wall, which will eventually reflect on the whole in general. Scaling the wall to the extreme can still can still be considered a thick wallaorroom. even a room. be considered as a thickas wall or even

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Image 21 / 3D Alphabet of wall fagments made from different scales Source: Team’s own

04.02 / From Architectural to Urban 06 / Micro to Macro

The concept of scalability here is not only formal, or geometric. As we discussed earlier, the Hakka The second approach to complexity after developing the 2Dofalphabet merging different parts to house, acting as a house of houses can yield a high scalability complexitywas within the inner organizaachieve a more field of figurations.

Thisbound approach main concepts: quantityofand scaltion of one unit.diverse Therefore, scalability becomes to theincludes level of two complexity and the multiplex influences within thisissystem. ability.

The quantity defined simply by the amount of wall fragments produced with their corresponding Another approach to increase the scalability of our design trials was to introduce more parts, each field figuration.

One aspect of theInscalability is defined actual scale that of the walls’multiple fragments; uniquely different from the other. the following images by arethe trials to systems include partsscalability here neither merely formal nor geometric. As discussed earlier, the Hakka house, acting as a making bigisarrangements.

In the following using different parts, of repeating of theone same house of houses, are cantrials yieldofabig higharrangrements scalability of complexity within theinstead inner organization unit.wall.

ThereIn the first trial (image 23) we combined different arrangements of similar elements, sometimes slightly fore, scalability becomes bound to the level of complexity and the multiplex of influences within the system. changing in scale. In the second trial (image 24) we combined different arrangements of different Inelements. the following are trials of big arrangements using different parts, instead repeating the same wall.

Although the boundaries of their “wholes” was almost similar, eachofshowed a different level scalability, only the of complexity, but also on the level ofoffunctionality.

Inofthe first trialnot (image 21) level we combined different arrangements similar elements, sometimes slightly changing in scale. In the second trial (image 22) we combined different arrangements of different elements. Although the boundaries of their “wholes” were almost similar, each showed a different level of scalability.

Image / Combining similar from theof3D alphabet; thewith “whole” somehow image2223- a / Arrangement based elements on the repetition similar elements different scale show a homogenous level of scalability Source: team’s own Source: Team’s own

image2224- /bArrangement on elements the repetition of different Image / Combining based dissimilar on the scalabilityelements level from the 3D alphabet the “whole “somehow show a Source: team’slevel own of scalability heterogeneous Source: Team’s own

Leyla El Sayed Hussein, WHOLE

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04.02 / From Architectural to Urban The third approach consists of merging different field figurations. The interactions of different fields can open the door to many doors in terms of urban possibilities. Such possibilities can be on the level of functions, types of clustering, types of navigation, etc. (image 23).

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

type A

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type B

type C

Image 23 / Merging different types of wall figurations to increase the level of complexity on the city scale. Through this process the movement from the micro to the macro becomes more complex in terms of functional distribution, city infrastructure and interaction between the different types of fields.

Source: Team’s own

04.02 / From Architectural to Urban The introduction of such possibilities is what led to the fourth approach: developing colored digital methods that allow the reading of complex large systems. Introducing the color palette to these wall figurations was a way to always show the autonomy of the discrete part through this dynamic process of interaction.

From these colors we can read multiple meanings: the distinctiveness of the part, the type of enclosures, the amount of entities, as well as the different types of clustering.

Images 24 - a and 24 - b / Image 24 - a shows a monotone color defining the same “whole” while Image 25 - b shows different types of clustering, each cluster is related to one color and can be considered as a “whole”. This hierarchy of reading helps defining the boundaries between the micro and the macro.

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04.02 / From Architectural to Urban

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Images 26 / Field of Figurations Source: Team’s own

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Images 27 / Wall Fragments and Enclosures Source: Team’s own

Images 28 / Enclosures Source: Team’s own

04.02 / From Architectural to Urban

This type of resulting images (images 27 and 28) can be read as a digital map. However, historically, “maps have long been seen as objective, neutral products of science.” The mapper’s job is also to represent the surface as “faithfully as possible” (Kitchin & Dodge). The digitally-produced maps or ways of reading these field figurations in this thesis are not related to any geography; they create their own space and can force their corresponding geography. They can even be a geography by their own. Unlike the classical way of mapping, these images do not portray any existing case, but re-invent and suggest new types of spaces (images 28 and 29).

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Images 28 / Enclosures / Detail Source: Team’s own 53

04.02 / From Architectural to Urban

The logic of this coloring digital method is to highlight the distinctiveness of the part (image 27), the distinctiveness of the cluster, (image 25) or the types of enclosures (image 28).

This method allows to see the nesting of these walls and their types of spaces. Some spaces sit in other spaces (image c), others share common spaces, (image d) while others are separated by void (image e).

The produced images show different levels of complexity because the “interactions between evolving organisms are generally believed to have a strong influence on their resulting complexity and diversity” (Sims, 28). This is why the color diversity in the images is directly related to the complexity of interaction among the figures, and consequently related to the movement of the micro towards the macro.

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

On the urban level, these images open the possibilities for a new type of urban spaces. Many books have been written on city planning, like Camillo Sitte’s “City Planning according to Artistic Principles” for example. The book, written 128 years ago, presents a series of guidelines for city planning and focuses on the creation of public spaces. Sitte’s focus on public spaces was a rethinking of the modern way of planning cities, thinking that the latter offers poor public spaces. The detailed images (28 and 29) offer a new way of thinking and reading the urban space. They do not follow specific monotone guidelines and still create a diversity of urban spaces, such as Plazza’s, with small voids and openings. The variety of porous spaces produced can itself be a part-to-part relation, a part, or a whole.

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Image 29 shows a detail (Type 1) from Image 28. Diagrams A, B, C and D show a hierarchy of readings of the “whole”. Diagram A shows the detail as a whole, as one entity disregarding any voids or negative spaces. This reading considers the voids as part of the whole. Diagram B shows the detail in two distinct wholes, with a void as an independent entity separating the two. Diagram C shows the nesting of the units within the units. It divides the detail into four distinct wholes: the first whole on the top having one type of nesting, the upper-middle whole showing two nested parts, the middle lower whole showing eight nested parts, and the bottom whole showing one part. Diagram D shows each color in the original type translated into one part.

Image 29 shows a detail (Type 2) from Image 28. Diagrams E and F show a similar reading to Diagrams A and B; at first, the detail acts as one whole, then it acts as two wholes separated by void.

This detail shows a big amount of void spaces. Image 30 shows these voids as wholes; the pink colored void is a reading of extroverted courtyards while the purple void is a reading of a big whole as a void including different parts as masses.

Images 30 / Type 2 / Part-to-Whole / Diagram G Source: Team’s own

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B

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Images 29 / Type 1 / Part-to-Whole Source: Team’s own

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E Images 29 / Type 2 / Part-to-Whole Source: Team’s own

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Detail 3 from Image 29 shows a bigger scale of aggregation. It shows a dense concentration of parts nested into each other that requires a higher depth of reading.

Some parts can be read as spaces branching out into others, some as central spaces between other parts, and some as long corridors or passages.

The “whole” here can be divided according to similar types of spaces. (diagram K)

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

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Images 29 / Type 3 / Enclosures / Details for different types of “wholes” Source: Team’s own

type i type ii type iii

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Following these steps, a new investigation began on the level of the project’s three dimensionality. Unlike semantics, or the previous classification of Maki’s architectural elements in terms of: walls / roofs / stairs / etc. ( See page 44 ), algorithmic language do not read semantics as such.

The previous studies showed a movement from the micro to the macro on different levels. If we consider the walls as roofs, as floors, as horizontal circulation elements (such as corridors), or as vertical circulation elements (such as stairs) a new layer of complexity can be added to the architectural level, and consequently to the urban level.

Image 30 shows wall interactions as roofs, walls and floors on the level of one unit. The latter can be Wall Alphabet / Units andthe Clusters read as a whole, dinstinct as a unit.

Image 31 / Micro Unit as Whole Source: Team’s own

MEROS / A.Su - R.Kaadan - L.El Sayed Hussein / Led by Daniel Koehler

These units started interacting with other units forming clusters. In each study a certain type of interaction based on a digital logic allowed to read the part-to-whole differently.

Sometimes, the whole cluster can be read as one whole and other times it can be read as a series of independent units acting together ( images 32 and 33).

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Wall Alphabet / Units and Clusters

MEROS / A.Su - R.Kaadan - L.El Sayed Hussein / Led by Daniel Koehler

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Image 32 / Units and Clusters showing different reading of “wholes” / Interaction 1 consists of making orthogonal voids between the parts Source: Team’s own

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Wall Alphabet / Units and Clusters

MEROS / A.Su - R.Kaadan - L.El Sayed Hussein / Led by Daniel Koehler

Image 33 / Units and Clusters showing different reading of “wholes” / Interaction 2 consists of making rotational voids between the parts Source: Team’s own

04.02 / From Architectural to Urban

Furthermore the movement towards the macro was reflected in combining different 3D units (similar to the method used in the 2D alphabet and the 2D field figurations, page 45).

The way these 3D based on different wall fragments interact increased the complexity of relations between the parts, therefore the macro became a series of discrete types of spaces each keeping its own nature yet interacting with its neighboring space.

The fact that these parts come together in a series of events allowed for a bigger macro in which a coherent heterogeneity was born. Such coherence based on the “thingliness� of the part in the first place developed a harmonious relationship between the individuals that can still manifest itself if few parts were removed from the system.

Image 34 shows the interaction of one element into the 3D field figuration. Each study shows a certain number of the elements in the field, but all of them show a similar interaction.

The introduction of the digital as been said before, uncovers not only the objectivity of the part, but also its dormant abilities when resonating with the other parts.

Later different three dimensional fields will interact together to create a more complex macro.

Image 34 / 3D Wall figuration with different number of elements Source: Team’s own

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04.02 / From Architectural to Urban

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

In the previous design studies the relation between parts vis-a-vis the part itself still had a hierarchical presence. The more the system moves into the macro, the more Manuel Delanda’s flat ontology becomes relevant. For Delanda the “flat ontology” is made “exclusively of unique, singular individuals, differing in spatio-temporal scale but not in ontological status” (Delanda, 52). In these systems that the thesis tries to research (image 35), and from an ontological points of view, all the parts, their relations, and the whole they form become equal in being.

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Image 35 / Samples of three dimensional field figurations intended to interact with each other to produce large city systems Source: Team’s own

04.02 / From Architectural to Urban Image 36 shows a sample from the large city scale interaction produced from the different parts (shown in image 35). The types of spatial qualities that are produced are as been stated in the thesis’ argument based on the “thingliness” of the part. However, the type of interactions between these parts is sometimes unexpected and open possibilities to unforeseen types of linkages and architectural spaces.

Fields Figuration / Large Scale Arrangement

MEROS / A.Su - R.Kaadan - L.El Sayed Hussein / Led by Daniel Koehler

Image 36 / Sample of the large city system produced from different parts Source: Team’s own 61

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

“From this perspective, cities are not static arrays of material structures, but are regarded as analogous to living beings...� [102] M. Weinstock / THE METABOLISM OF THE CITY / 2011

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Chapter 05 / Conclusion

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05 / Conclusion During the sixth century B.C, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus wrote that “all entities move and nothing remains still” (Heraclitus, as appearing in Plato’s Cratylus, 401d).

One hundred years ago the mathematician Alfred North Whitehead rejected the “meta-computational theory of the universe (e.g. the universe explained by the Leibnizian Principle of Sufficient Reason)” .Such a theory aims to describe a simple formula for an infinity of worlds (Parisi, 419).

Reducing the part-to-whole relationship to the “thingliness” of the part is what this thesis has focused on.

However, such a “thingliness” is always conditioned by a layer of complex factors, meaning that it would not manifest itself on its own. Such a complexity is what also enhances the part-to-whole relationship, which in the first place is based on the part’s “thingliness”.

Although the Hakka house is surrounded by a rigid wall that marks its boundaries, its “whole” never ends.

Its interior organization is in constant motion, and its navigation and spatial qualities keep metamorphosing and alter the “whole” constantly.

The “whole” is never closed, and one can read the wall fragments researched in this thesis as discrete autonomous machines interacting together. These machines can be “wholes” on their own, given their inherent properties. Each part has its own decision-making that forces a part-to-part relation and consequently a type of a “whole.”

These types of “wholes” based on the relation between parts re-question various previous methods of “design by research.” The contribution of computerized digital design to architecture reinforces the bottom-up approach, because the digital sheds light on the lying objectivity of the part. This methodologyical and theoretical approach of design not only re-questions architectural design, but also allows the design of large city systems with infinite boundaries.

What seems to be constant in this design approach is the continuous resonance of parts. In this sense, the Theory of Becoming becomes valid when reading architectural systems as becoming bodies due to the part-to-part interaction.

This methodology knows no order of form, or any procedural linear type of growth, but rather a resonance of parts, a resonance of part-to-part relations, and a resonance of wholes.

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Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Image 37 / Large city system produced from different parts Source: Team’s own

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06 / List of Figures Image 1 / Stranded Sears Tower. Drawing showing the interior anatomy as floors / Taken from the online Greg Lynn Forum. 1992 Found at glform.com Image 2 / Stranded Sears Tower. The functioning of elements as a “pack” / Taken from the online Greg Lynn Forum. 1992.

Found at glform.com Image 3 / Cordoba Mosque plan, Spain C800-785. Redrawn by Tess Hilgefort after a drawing by Petro Feduci Source: Allen, Stan. “From Object to Field: Field Conditions in Architecture and Urbanism” 2009

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Image 4 / Berry Le Va, New York, 7-1966. Bearing Rolled, Six Specific Instants. Picture showing the behavior of parts forming multiple wholes Source: Allen, Stan. “From Object to Field: Field Conditions in Architecture and Urbanism” 2009

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Image 5 / Daniel Koehler. 2016. “Introduction: Topic, state of knowledge, method” in the Mereological City, A reading of the works of Ludwig Hilberseimer. Trascript Verlag, p.53 Image 6 / Hakka House Plan - Circular rigid distribution of the units Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Image 7 / Hakka House by photographer Tianjin.

Source: my.poco.cn Image 8 / Hakka House Aerial View - Urban Settlment / Photograph by Matt Hartzell Source: matthartzell.blogspot.co.uk Image 9 / Parthood Conditions of the Unit to Courtyard Source: Anqi Su Image 10 / Studying the Navigation among the Sub-units of the Hakka House. This analysis serves extracting the parthood conditions that function on the following levels: circulation / visibility / navigation Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein

06 / List of Figures Image 11 / The Inner wall distribution of the Hakka house, removing the rigid ring and extroverting the inner system Source: Anqi Su Image 12 / Abstracting the Hakka House’s parthood conditions to their basic form Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Image 13 / Mies Van der Roh, Brick Country House Source: The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries Image 14 / Jean Renaudi, Cité des Etoiles Source: Centre Pompidou Image 15 / Self Organizing Walls Source: Anqi Su Image 16 / Cellular Automata Source: mathworld.wolfram.com Image 17 / Big arrangement made of a repetition of one continuous Walls Source: Anqi Su Image 18 / Samples of the 2D Wall Fragments Alphabet, each having its own discrete property Source: Anqi Su and Rania Kaadan Image 19 / Samples of the plan figurations using different parts. The “thingliness” of the part is reflected in the difference between the fields Source: Anqi Su Image 20 / Scale of one wall: one wall / three walls / seven walls Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Image 21 / 3D Alphabet of wall fagments made from different scales Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein

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06 / List of Figures Image 22 - a / Combining similar elements from the 3D alphabet; the “whole” somehow show a homogenous level of scalability Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Image 22 - b / Combining dissimilar elements on the scalability level from the 3D alphabet the “whole “somehow show a heterogeneous level of scalability Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Image 23 / Merging different types of wall figurations to increase the level of complexity on the city scale.

Through this process the movement from the micro to the macro becomes more complex in terms of functional distribution, city infrastructure and interaction between the different types of fields.

Source: Anqi Su

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Images 24 - a and 24 - b / Image 24 - a shows a monotone color defining the same “whole” while Image 25 - b shows different types of clustering, each cluster is related to one color and can be considered as a “whole”. This hierarchy of reading helps defining the boundaries between the micro and the macro.

Source: Anqi Su

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Images 26 / Field of Figurations Source: Anqi Su Images 27 / Wall Fragments and Enclosures Source: Anqi Su Images 28 / Enclosures Source: Anqi Su Images 28 / Enclosures / Detail Source: Anqi Su and Leyla El Sayed Hussein Images 29 / Type 1 / Part-to-Whole Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Images 29 / Type 2 / Part-to-Whole Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein

06 / List of Figures Images 29 / Type 3 / Enclosures / Details for different types of “wholes” Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Images 30 / Type 2 / Part-to-Whole / Diagram G Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Image 31 / Micro Unit as Whole Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Image 32 / Units and Clusters showing different reading of “wholes” / Interaction 1 consists of making orthogonal voids between the parts Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Image 33 / Units and Clusters showing different reading of “wholes” / Interaction 2 consists of making rotational voids between the parts Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Image 34 / 3D Wall figuration with different number of elements Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Image 35 / Samples of three dimensional field figurations intended to interact with each other to produce large city systems Source: Leyla El Sayed Hussein Image 36 / Sample of the large city system produced from different parts Source: Anqi Su, Leyla El Sayed Hussein and Rania Kaadan Image 37 / Large city system produced from different parts Source: Anqi Su, Leyla El Sayed Hussein and Rania Kaadan

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07 / References Books Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting and On Sculpture: The Latin texts of De pictura and De statua, ed. and trans. Cecil Grayson (London: Phaidon, 1972), 129.

Anthony dunne and Fiona raby, speculative everything: Design, Fiction and Social dreaming, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013), 44.

Bryant, Levi R. 2001. The Democracy of Things. An imprint of MPublishing, University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor, Open Humanities Press. p.215.

De Landa, Manuel .2013. Intensive science and virtual philosophy. Bloomsbury Academic, p.51.

Deleuze, Gilles. Le pli. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit. 2011.

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Harris William. HERACLITUS. The Complete Philosophical Fragments. Translation and Commentary and the Greek Text. Middlebury College.

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Hawking, Stephen. 1989. A Brief History of Time. Bantam, 1st edition.

Heidegger, Martin. 1950. Off The Beaten Track. Cambridge University Press. Translated and edited by Julian Young and Kenneth Haynes Maki, Fumihiko. 2016. Nurturing Dreams. The MIT Press.

Mackay R, Avanessian A. #Accelerate#. 1st ed. [Falmouth, United Kingdom]: Urbanomic Media Ltd.; 2014.

Luciana Parisi’s Chapter, Automated Architecture, pp.402-424.

Ratti, Carlo, and Matthew Claudel. The City Of Tomorrow: Sensors, Networks, Hackers And The Future Of Urban Life. 1st ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016. Print.

07 / References

Book Chapters Allen, Stan. 2009. “From Object to Field: Field Conditions in Architecture and Urbanism” in Space reader.

Chichester, U.K. Edited by Hensel, M., Menges, A. and Hight, C. pp.118-143.

Husserl, Edmund. 2001. “Investigation III, On the Theory of Wholes and Parts” in Logical Investigations Vol II. Routledge,Taylor and Francis Group, Oxon. Edited by Jose Bermudez, Tim Crane and Peter Sullivan. 1-41.

Kitchin, Rob and Dodge, Martin. 2011. “Rethinking maps” in The Map Reader Theories of Mapping Practice and Cartographic Representation. Wiley-Blackwell. 108-114 .

Koehler, Daniel. 2016. “Introduction: Topic, State of Knowledge, Method” in The Mereological City, A reading of the works of Ludwig Hilberseimer. Transcript Verlag. 19-47.

Journal Articles Donougho, Martin, 1987, “The Language of Architecture”, in Journal of Aesthetic Education, 21(3): 53–67.

Latour, Bruno. 2010. “An Attempt at a “Compositionist Manifesto”” in New Literary History, Vol. 41. 471490. p474.

Lynn, Greg. 1998. “Multiplicitous and Inorganic Bodies” in Fold, Bodies and Blobs: Collected Essays. Ante Post asbi; 01 edition. 33-61. p45.

Maki Fumihiko. 1964. Investigations In Collective Form. 1st ed. St. Louis: School of Architecture, Washington University; pp11-50.

Moneo, Rafael. 1985. “La vida de los edificios. Las ampliaciones de la Mezquita de Córdoba” in Arquitectura, nº 256.

Porter, Andrew. Ashton, Abigail. Yang, Moyang. Hawley, Christine. 2009. “Hakka Cultural Park” in Bartlett Design Research Folios.

Sims, Karl. 1994. “Evolving 3D Morphology and Behavior by Competition” in Artificial Life IV Proceedings, ed. by R. Brooks & P. Maes, MIT Press, pp28-39.

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07 / References

Weinstock, Michael . 2011. “The Metabolism of the City: The Mathematics of Networks and Urban Surfaces� in Architectural Design, 81(4), pp.102-107.

Online Websites Oxford Online Dictionary: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/whole Cambridge Online Dictionary: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/whole Greg Lynn Forum: The Stranded Sears Tower: http://glform.com/buildings/stranded-sears-tower/

Leyla El Sayed Hussein / WHOLE / MArch Architectural Design / Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL / 2016-2017

Lecture

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Pallasmaa, Juhani. Lecture delivered for the 1999 RIBA Discourse. Full text: http://fluxwurx.com/jstudio/ wp-content/uploads/2011/02/pallasmaah_ apticityandtime.pdf

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