Morphing Contrast | Silent Spatial Dialogue

Morphing Contrast | Silent Spatial Dialogue HYBRIDS design studio 2021-22 Tutors: Riet Eeckhout, Mira Sanders KU Leuven MSc Architecture Mostafa Abuahmed mostafa95khamis.abuahmed@student.kuleuven.be

We, human beings are naturally moving creatures, I believe that we are in a constant silent dialogue with space around us! In contrast with verbal dialogue is the body gestures, it’s international, subconscious and wired to our behavior therefore a simple nodding with the head can give countless meanings in a simple situation. Yet we understand each other through it correctly!

I believe the same thing is happening with walking in space, a random simple walk in a city can say alot about its history, ethics and values! Therefore our silent spatial dialogue greatly happens through motion!

The silent spatial dialogue is an investigation of gathering data from space and the built environment.

Giving importance to the media ecology, the dialogue is based on interaction and manipulation of digital geometrical data… trying to understand what they can say ? to what limit can they be manipulated? or give an accurate representation of real space!

This investigation is to be demonstrated in three steps:

FIRSTLY, we start with an INDIVIDUAL silent dialogue with 3 different cities (Ghent, Belgium - NewYork,USA and Kyoto, Japan) The goal is to reach a non verbal story about each city individually!

SECONDLY, Using the power of digital mediums (Unity 3d, C# ) to smach these three unique individual stories together, trying to simulate how they will morph a collective spatial dialogue together!

THIRDLY, and the part where I can say I found my Hybrids, which is using the immersiveness and interaction of the media ecology with a VR set to simulate a manual morphing experience!

Ghent, Belgium.

The silent dialogue was Ghent was very welcoming! The city offered a lot for its citizens as it does not have a strong dominant stamp. Either a historical or financial one. The city can be easily understood as a home for different categories. Nature is relatively existing inside the urban fabric, especially with the canals in harmony with streets. Ghent says that warmly with its human scale based streets and center! The initial feeling I got from Ghent was Warmth!

It’s welcoming and ready to offer some kindness! The built environment is diverse yet in unique harmony with each other and space in between! I find it hospitable!

NEW YORK, USA. Wandering the built environment of Manhattan New York as my first field of exploration. After a throught review of vloggers. We can grasp certain basics about New York. In my silent dialogue with New York I try to collect all these data in a matter of seconds through non verbal communication!

Thanks to media ecology we can represent the built environment of NY City and have silent dialogue with it! My initial thoughts from NY were quite sharp, NY is dominant for the city scale not the human scale. Not really much to tell about its inner space, just a simple grid with huge competition in building heights to show more importance.

It’s always busy, noisy with cars and horns. Mixed use building might add some fragile social infrastructure. Therefore some skyscrapers are just famous for tiktokers with half empty. The block scale is about showing wealth, prestigious facebook stories, and power... I find it demanding !

Kyoto, Japan.

A smooth dialogue full of information. Nature appears before the city. After a tiny while architecture gives a harmonious appearance with nature. Both the built environment and nature give a smooth impression. It’s not a surprise then to know that the city has 1,600 Buddhist temples scattered around! In addition the city is vibrant all 4 seasons of the year with different aspects to discover each time! With a rich history to discuss, telling stories about philosophy, wars and religion I find it peaceful!

Morphing Contrast | Silent Spatial Dialogue

https://vimeo.com/665360496

Morphing With VR

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiy2sPZbomLqnVnKkr9U5P4vtZnTbhE3A

Project progress documentation : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FCDQOpxVNfiiWTnLBl1UoRKrndopk9HGO5b0N_upg2o/edit