Manifesto

p icious SPACE

Ca

R

PATRICK J BULLEN

Space

that becomes part of the conscious by

being unpredictable creating

anticipation,

adventure and interaction, through an

impulsive “in the moment�

,

design approach.

Author: Patrick Bullen ID#744067 Editor: Steph Kitingan ISBN: 978-1-921394-28-7 Published by Dinkums Art Press, Melbourne, 2015 Price: refer to web page.

Guaranteed supply and low prices!

Contents p. 1-4

The Disconnection

p. 5-6

The Bricoleur

p. 7-12

Project One - “What’s in the Box”

p. 13-14

Program and Space

p. 15-16

Project Two - “The Pet”

p. 17-18

Innovation and Invention

p. 19-20

Intriguing Space

p. 21-22

Massless Space

p. 23-24

Time and Space

p. 25-26

Project Three - Body of Work

p. 27-28

Intelligent Artificial Space

p. 29-30

Project Four - Bologna Wellness Centre

The Disconnection Capricious is a term that stems from the Italian word caprice which means a sudden change of mood, the word Capricious is best described as the unpredictable and impulsive determined by chance. Today in the 21st century, the world has become so cultivated, inevitably through this cultivation process certain human values have been given precedence and credence. Order over disorder, logic over intuition, stability over change and inaction over action.

Hence there is an imbalance! This imbalance has lead to a disconnection within people, especially in creative understanding and expression. When it comes to design, “thinking” is like a double edged sword, one that is our greatest ally but also our greatest weakness. In a contemporary society where endless information and technology tools are available, architects’ are increasingly losing their way. Ultimately this is creating a disconnection between people and space as the original conception’s quality/consciousness is lost in translation/process. Hence architecture has become devalued, going unnoticed and only having an unconscious impact on the public, due to the lack of awareness in the design.

“There is disconnection between architect’s perception of the built environment and the general publics one.” Annie Choi

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Figure 1 -Aerial of American suburb showing how repetitive and cultivated society has become

Figure 2 -French hedge showing how nature as been adapted to accommodate human values

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To seek the timeless way we must first know the quality without a name. There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but cannot be named. Christopher Alexander

Twenty-first century architecture is pushing for transparency, smoothness, dematerialisation and the “open plan”. Why? Because digital and construction technology is making it easier. Affordability, time constraints and net lettable area/floor plate efficiency are main priorities when it comes to buildings. This is leading to plain, boring and uninspiring space that is at complete odds to the natural environment. Space has become “soul-less” losing what Christopher Alexander labels “the nameless quality” in “The Timeless way of building”.

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Figure 3: “The timeless way of building” Christopher Alexander

Figure 3 illustrates the objective parameters that the “nameless quality” comprises in order for successful twenty-first century architecture. The loss of “the Quality” in space has lead to predictability, which has nullified humans spatial awareness, dulling our essence and fundamental urges. Space must challenge peoples intelligence, senses and physicality like the natural world does, in order to connect to the timeless and be one with the “central quality which is the root criterion of life.”

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Figure 4: “Snowball” Andy Goldworthy

Figure 6: Andy Goldsworthy

Figure 5: “Birdnest” Andy Goldworthy

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The Bricoleur Bricolage is the making or creation of something from a range of materials that happen to be available within the vicinity. The Bricoleur’s “In the moment” design approach creates a connection with the context, thus allowing people to fundamentally connect with it. Ephemeral artist Andy Goldsworthy is a bricoluer, as he creates art using only the materials in his immediate vicinity. The action of doing and testing, designing in and within nature evidently leads to something that could never be preconceived. A bricolage process fosters capricious space and the result/outcome usually leads to the “nameless Quality” outlined by Alexander.

Created space must be unpredictable like a forest or any topological surface to challenge senses and create intrigue, experience and journey. A bricoleur approach to architecture is one way to re-connect, engage and involve the public.

According to Scalpert, bricolage is how “the untamed mind puts order to things”.

Spiritual author Eckart Tolle in “The Power of Now” gives insights into how the modern “civilised” mind can transition back to this natural state.

“Space and silence are two aspects of the same thing. The same no-thing. They are externalization of inner space and inner silence, which is stillness: the infinitely creative womb of all existence.” EckartTolle 6

“What’s in the

B O X”

Each year, undergraduate first-semester students at Monash university undertake a design–make studio project. Students design and collectively fabricate/install full-scale creative play spaces out of corrugated cardboard at ArtPlay, a children’s art Centre near Federation Square.

7

p.25

“What’s in the Box” - Final Outcome exhibited at Artplay

8

The brief challenged students to design a

ensure that the spaces could be prefabricated,

Viewing space tailored to five-to eight year-old

thereby minimizing construction time on site and

children. The viewing space would house and

making the installation demountable and

display the 1:20 scale model ‘miniatures’

re-usable. A fixed number of 2400 x 1200 mm

produced by each individual student during the

corrugated cardboard sheets were nominated at

design phase of the project. Students were also

the start of the design phase, challenging

encouraged to develop methods for fixing and

students to create a structure that would be

joining that didn’t rely on glue. This also helped

materially efficient as well as structurally sound.

Display Area

Seat Slide Entrance

Stairs

FIRST DESIGN SKETCH

9

“What’s in the Box” resulted from my 1:20 design

intrigue and excitement through unpredictability.

model, which was selected to be built at full scale.

The space challenges children to earn their way

The conception stemmed from an interrogation into

to the display area. An organic spiral inspired the

what space meant to me as a child, the most

maze-like circulation which changes height

memorable and meaningful were the ones that

gradually building suspense, it is dark apart from

triggered strong feelings in particular excitement

the slit letting in light on the stairs, revealing the

and playfulness. Humans naturally love

kids feet to outside viewers. The design was

anticipation, adventure and interaction but

achieved through an impulsive “in the moment”

unfortunately created space often dull these

process, development was hands on with white

urges especially in school design where it is crucial

card used for “dog model” iterations.

for kids to learn by interacting with their physical environment.

Therefore I wanted to create a journey for kids to get to the display space, creating

p.15

10

ACE

s and intentions een problems. I ng multiple vious projects I’d dback early on it me a clear obpful as it made ectives. As the perience to the doing this hopee biggest weakdels throughout ethod of “stack” e we have vend the two way g how at first model drives

Display Area

Seat Slide Entrance

Stairs

FIRST DESIGN SKETCH Concept Sketch

STEPS

A

A DISPLAY SHELVES

EXIT HOLE

PLAN 1:20

What’s in the Box: Plan

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FINAL OUTCOME

Display Shelves

Entrance

Entrance

Exit

12

Program & Space Technology has allowed for twenty-first century architecture to layer space regardless of program type.

In “Delirious New York�, Rem Koolhaas laments how the invention of the elevator and therefore the skyscraper does allow architects to facilitate very different programs and spaces in the one building. For example shown on the right, a bachelor pad with naked men eating oysters, is part of a diverse program within the one tower. This programming freedom lends itself to unpredictable spaces, however the journey and sense of arrival to them is still limited.

13

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“The P e t” “The Pet” was a sketch design for a art gallery combined with a stock exchange on Fishermans Bend in Melbourne.

The conception was influenced by OMA, with the form and layering of floor levels. The design challenged traditional stacking methods of program, attempting to create more of a connection between the art and finance world. This lead to capricious spaces within.

Main Entrance MAIN ENTRANCE

SOUTH ELEVATION 1:500

15

Isometric Section

View across the Yarra

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Innovation & Invention “Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought”. Eckart Tolle Often the greatest inventions and creations stem from a place of no thought. Many of the greatest innovators and scientists of our time like Albert Einstein vouch that their breakthroughs came when their mind was switched off the problem at hand.

Successful architecture projects are ones where the architect has stayed true to an impulsive in the moment concept sketch, as it circumvented thought and logic tapping into a creative energy more powerful then the mind.

Figure 7 shows Frank Gehry’s impulsive Guggenheim concept sketch. The story goes that Gehry was sitting outside at a restaurant with a client, who unconsciously scrunched a napkin, throwing it onto the table. Gehry picked it up, instantly getting the inspiration he was seeking for the Guggenheim form. The point being made is that architects need to be attuned/realise “signals” of inspiration at any time or setting of the day. Figure 8 shows how true the Guggenheim project was in keeping to the original concept, it is this trait in Gehry’s projects that has made him one of the most successful and famous architects.

The flow within a process can help dispel thought, allowing more innovative ideas to arise, for instance with running writing your pen is in constant contact with the paper, keeping you more focused and on task as opposed to typing. Figure 7 shows how Gehrys drawing style is similar to running writing, enabling him to utilise the potential of the creative right side of the brain.

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Figure 7 -Concept sketch for Bilbao Guggenhiem by architect Frank Gehry

Figure 8 - Bilbao Guggenhiem built outcome

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Intriguing Space

The breaking of open space creates intrigue and encourages occupants to have a greater awareness of their surroundings, making them more present and in the moment. In “Villa Savoye� Le Corbusier pilotis point of architecture uses columns as visual space dividers and points of interest.

This combined with an unconventional plan layout creates an unpredictable and unique space.

A sense of mobility and journey is an integral part to the Villa Savoye, it was designed considering arrival in an automobile, then for the slow walking immersion up into the house on a spiral ramp flanked by a forest of columns. An alternate circulation is also provided, giving occupants the option of another experience through the space on a spiral staircase.

Corbusier like Dali proportions his work according to the golden ratio/ rectangle. He believed the proportion to be more aesthetically pleasing, helping him plan Villa Savoye through a ratio grid system that is found in nature, the most knowledgeable space designer.

It is clear that the grandfather of modern architecture realised the importance of Capricious space as his designing of space challenges conventionality and planarity.

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Aerial of “Blur”

Entrance to “Blur”

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Massless Space The “Blur” by Diller & Scofidio challenges the notion of space by being a habitable medium that is “formless, scaleless and massless”. (Scofidio 2005, 187) The immersive environment blurs occupants visuals challenging the twenty-first century value of transparency by creating unpredictable and ever-changing space.

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Figure 9 - “The Persistence of Memory” - Salvador Dali

Figure 10 - “The Disintergration of the Persistence of Memory” - Salvador Dali

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Time & Space Time and space cannot be separately defined from each other, rather they are interconnected and interwoven. Albert Einstien’s “Special theory of relativity” was a revelation, bringing a new understanding and perspective to the world.

“Events that occur at the same time for one observer could occur at different times for another.” Albert Einstien Artist, in particular surrealist artist, began to think about space dimensionally rather than linearly. The soft clocks in Figure 9 show Dali’s take on the relativity of space and time, in comparison to the hardness, representing our fixed notion on cosmic order. Figure 10 shows the decay of this order or space, illustrating that all solids/matter are made of atoms which are 99% empty space.

It is time for architects to design spaces that acknowledge our multidimensional universe, breaking perceived spaces through unperceived spaces in matter, assembling and intensifying atoms within a space, to create a layering of defined empty spaces that exhibits Alexander’s timeless “quality.”

24

Completed Art piece

Process

25

“Body

of Work�

The artwork was inspired by American artist Chuck Close, who deconstructs his portriats into small squares comprsiong various patterns and colors.

BOW attempts to challenge our standard perception of space, delving into the hidden colors and patterns.

Innovative use of color and pattern is a vital consideration for the designing of capricious 26

space

INTELLIGENT ARTIFICIAL SPACE Digital technology has subtracted from physical space turning it into a clean open shell that goes unnoticed. However why should space and technology be separated? With the rapid progression of technology it should be integrated as part of the physical environment.

In the Twenty-first century, it is time for space to challenge the statics of architecture. The emergence of artificial intelligence shall allow for space to adapt its features through color, sound and movement, for example based on the mood of occupants.

Capricious space encompasses adaptability, as it vital for the future, especially with an increasingly unpredictable environment due to climate change.

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Traversable Roof

Aquatic Zone

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“Wellness Centre

Bolongna�

Bologna Wellness Centre was a conception which focused on the designing of unique space through parametrically creating and optimising gridshells.

The innovative design seeks to challenge conventional space through the use of a traversable roof which is comprised of steel gridshells and reinforced concrete arches, that protrude into the aquatic zone underneath.

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Reference List Antoine Picon, “Digital Design Between Organic and Computational Temptations,” in Architecture in Formation. On the nature of information in digital architecture, Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa and Aaron Sprecher, eds. Routledge, 2013.

Carlo Ratti with Matthew Claudel, Open Source Architecture, Thames and Hudson, 2015. (excerpt) Christopher Alexander, “The Timeless way of Building”, 1979.

Eckart Tolle, “The Power of Now”.

Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, “What about SPACE?,” 306090, no. 15, 2013.

Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, “Architecture as a Habitable Medium,” in Disappearing Architecture: From Real to Virtual to Quantum, Georg Flachbart, Peter Weibel, eds. Birkhauser, 2005, pp. 184 – 195.

Irénée Scalbert, “The Architect as Bricoleur,” Candide. Journal for Architectural Knowledge, no. 4 (07/2011), pp. 69-88. (Pages skipped as there is English and German text) Mark Dorrian, “Clouds of Architecture,” Radical Philosophy, 144 (July/August 2007).

Michael Weinstock, “Morphogenesis and the Mathematics of Emergence,” AD Architectural Design Profile. V. 74, n. 3, 2004: 10-17.

Peter Eisenman, “Strategies of the Void. Rem Koolhaas, Jussieu Libraries, 1992-1993,” in Ten Canonical Buildings: 1950-2000 (New York: Rizzoli, 2008) pgs. 200-228 Rem Koolhass, Delirious New York, Monticelli Press, (excerpt).