kcab back to
kcab to back, stack, lack, hijack, pack, kickback.
Back to Back is a joint portfolio that celebrates not only the work produced in a studio environment, but also the studio itself. Produced back to back in the same space, the pro(ob)jects featured within are homologous relatives that are both independent from and dependent on the influence of each other’s maker. The studio environment serves as a catalyst that creates a culture of constant conversation, feedback, and critique. The pro(ob)jects are juxtaposed on the subsequent pages by contrasting hatches which signifies authorship. These hatches also accentuate a figure-ground relationship between authors, flipping back and forth and creating a flowing stream throughout the book. The film-strip presents a scene in the studio, in which the two authors are seen working and conversing with one another, sometimes augmented by the accompaniment of others. Each section is broken by a component of studio culture to illustrate the dynamism of the space.
stack,
Stacking is a mechanism that constructs a three-dimensional mass from two-dimensional planar sheets. The Stack dimensionalizes solid-void relationships of the pro(ob)jects, which is equally attentive to its negative space as its positive space.
lack,
The term lack is often negatively associated with absence, inadequacy, or incompetence. In this instance, the Lack is reframed as the absence of the stacked mass. The solidvoid relationship established in Stack is inverted to expose the once hidden geometries that were embedded in the previous pr(ob)ject.
This spread is therefore an ambitious attempt to work with the specificity of the twodimensionality of the three-dimensional form. Instead of photographs with light and shadows that accentuate the solidness and spatiality of the form, the spread pushes part of the abstraction to the other end — text. While the hatched shapes on the page retain some of the rudimentary geometries of the three-dimensional form, words, these very letters on this very page, although about the form, have no resemblance to the form whatsoever, until we fill it around the void created by the hatched shapes, like how formwork is filled for a rockite cast. The processes, although done in different dimensions, share similar spatial and logical qualities. Texts, after being extracted to purely a shape on a white page and ripped
away from all the meaning they carry, are not as different as we originally imagined as they are but space-occupying constituents.
In order to understand and gain command over the complexity embedded in the concept of space-making as it exists in the field of architecture, we, as a studio, have been working on a series of consecutive exercises designed to enable the manipulation of different media. The starting focus is on (spatial) form: how it comes to being, suggests meaning, and elicits reactions.The form is to be incredibly e vocative , while at the same time maintaining a strict sense of economy. The process of space-making begins with formmaking , which at an early stage is simply enclosure — forming a shape, a twodimensional space. Every move of this process leaves a clue that dictates the f o l l o w i n g processes of three-dimensionalization including pushing, pulling, shearing, extruding, excavating. And through the process of flattening, which could be understood as both the delineation of a spatial form, as well as the (re)presentation of a three-dimensional object on a flat page, we seek to compare the two-dimensional result to what should theoretically be the parent of the form. Like stirring a cup of coffee in the opposite direction doesn’t separate the milk in it, undoing something usually doesn’t reverse what is done. The mismatch interesting as it is the leftover of our unique design decisions.
hijack, This pro(ob)ject begins with a framework resulting from the hijacking of geometric elements from Lack. The framework is translated into an experiential gallery where the solid-void relationship is recontextualized to the human scale.
pack, The final architecture is the culmination of the space-making sensitivity built up from the preceding pro(ob)jects. The architecture is packed into a compact site, while programs are packed into the compact architecture.
kickback. The Kickback is a celebration of the semester’s worth of pro(ob)jects, a social gathering that mimics and parallels studio culture. The close proximity helps illustrate the affinity that these pr(ob)jects have from one another. The Kickback also seeks to pull out certain personalities embedded within them, highlighting individuality while working to compose a whole image.
kcab to back, Wilson Chan | Rachel Skof UG1 Studio 2019 - Lomeli
kcab back to