WATERWORLD LONDON
Architectural Association School of Architecture 1 -‐ 19 JULY 2013
WATERWORLD
You can't trust water: Even a straight stick turns crooked in it. -‐ W.C. Fields
London has a strained relationship with water. It turns its back on the very river that runs through it. It has just survived one of the rainiest summers on record, and its inhabitants have yet to acknowledge the rising sea levels that could threaten to submerge parts of the city this century. Kevin Kostner’s mid-‐90’s film Waterworld could yet become our future reality, though hopefully without the bad fashion. This year’s AA Summer School will speculate on the future relationship London will have to develop with the water: how it runs through, falls on, and may soon forever engulf it. Our programme will work on this new Waterworld inventing projects ranging from small-‐scale on site installations to larger scale re-‐imaginings of the city’s future. The Summer Architecture School will invent and describe this new Waterworld through compelling perspectives: spatial, social, economic, ecological, cultural and technological. It will use London as an experimental laboratory of ideas and actions. Individual and collective discoveries are encouraged as well as innovative, evocative proposals. The brief and intense course—based on the renowned AA Unit System—emphasises techniques of interpretation, recording, drawing, making and thinking through diverse media types, both analogue and digital.
WATERWORLD
SUMMER SCHEDULE 2013
WEEK 1 1 July -‐ Mon GROUP 1 GROUP 1 GROUP 2 GROUP 2 2 July -‐ Tue 3 July -‐ Wed 4 July -‐ Thu 5 July -‐ Fri 6 July -‐ Sat 7 July -‐ Sun
9:30 10:30 11:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 14:00 15:00 16:30 10:00 -‐ 21:00 10:00 -‐ 21:00 10:00 -‐ 21:00 10:00 -‐ 21:00 10:00 -‐ 20:00
Registration, Coffee + Croissants Introduction Unit Presentations and Selections Lunch Electronic Media Lab Introductions Workshop Introduction Workshop Introduction Electronic Media Lab Introductions Team Announcements + Drinks Design Studio Design Studio Design Studio Design Studio Design Studio STUDIOS CLOSED
Soft Room Soft Room Soft Room AA Dining Room 16 Morwell St AA Workshop AA Workshop 16 Morwell St AA Terrace 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St
10:00 -‐ 21:00 10:00 -‐ 21:00 10:00 -‐ 12:30 10:00 -‐ 21:00 10:30 -‐ 12:30 13:00 -‐ 21:00 10:00 -‐ 20:00 10:00 -‐ 20:00
Design Studio EVENT Cross Section 1: Internal Critics Design Studio Design Studio PRESENTATION Student Work Show Design Studio Design Studio Design Studio
16 Morwell St 33 Bedford Sq FFF 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St Soft Room 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St
16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St Lecture Hall Bedford Square
WEEK 2 8 July -‐ Mon 9 July -‐ Tue 10 July -‐ Wed 11 July -‐ Thu 12 July -‐ Fri 13 July -‐ Sat 14 July -‐ Sun
WEEK 3
15 July -‐ Mon 10:00 -‐ 21:00 Design Studio 16 July -‐ Tue 10:00 -‐ 21:00 Design Studio 17 July -‐ Wed 10:00 -‐ 21:00 Design Studio 18 July -‐ Thu 10:00 -‐ 21:00 Design Studio 19 July -‐ Fri 10:00 -‐ 17:00 EVENT Cross Section 2: External Critics 18:00 -‐ late End of Summer School PARTY! Individual unit schedules and special events will be announced by unit tutors
FORMAT Issue 3 2—12 July 2013 FORMAT is ‘live magazine’ looking at the shapes that discourse takes. Running in parallel to the AA Summer Architecture School, Issue 3 will talk about talking, show what it means to show something, and present the hidden politics of presentation. Mixing anecdote and analysis, seminars with screenings, FORMAT’s themed, reflexive sessions look back on how knowledge has been formatted into disciplines, institutions, technologies — as well as how the present moment questions or surpasses received formats of cultural consumption. Paraphrasing Marshall McLuhan, ‘The format is the massage.’ http://format.aaschool.ac.uk — Organised by Shumon Basar ALL EVENTS TAKE PLACE IN THE NEW SOFT ROOM AT 600PM ENTRANCE IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC TUESDAY 2 JULY REALITY FORMAT
presents David Cronenburg, the standards of standardisation, and television’s lust for the pseudoreal with contributions from CHARLES ARSÉNE-HENRY, SOPHIA AL MARIA, TOM MORTON and ALEXANDER PROVAN
THURSDAY 4 JULY ESSAY FORMAT
presents Michel de Montaigne’s prose of uncertainty and a Manifesto for the ‘Essay Film’ with BRIAN DILLON and THE OTOLITH GROUP MONDAY 8 JULY TRAILER FORMAT
presents [in an ominous voice] cinema’s art of seductive synopsis and disclosing drama without defusing it with contributions from BERND BEHR, PETER WEBBER and SHEZAD DAWOOD WEDNESDAY 10 JULY COMEDY FORMAT
presents stand-up, sit-coms, satire and the Funny Cat Equation [Laughter] with VICTORIA CAMBLIN, JIMMY MERRIS and PAUL PIERONI FRIDAY 12 JULY HOBSBAWM FORMAT
presents History through the innovations of the famous Marxist historian with contributions from DOUGLAS COUPLAND, OSCAR GUARDIOLA-RIVERA and others
WATERWORLD
Architectural Association School of Architecture Summer School 2013
Director Natasha Sandmeier Programme Co-‐ordinator Priji Balakrishnan Student Co-‐ordinator Eleanor Dodman UNIT 1 I WANT YOUR ROOF Mark E Breeze and Dolores Victoria Ruiz Garrido UNIT 2 LONDON’S ARK-ITECTURE Elena Palacios Carral, Madeleine Kessler and Manijeh Verghese UNIT 3 A MUSEUM OF RAIN Jeffrey Smith, Doug Rice and Robert Horton UNIT 4 WATER: A LOVE STORY Jon Lopez and Sylvie Taher UNIT 5 INVERSE LONDON Arantza Ozaeta and Alvaro Martin
unit 1
Mark E Breeze and Dolores Victoria Ruiz Garrido
I WANT YOUR ROOF
LONDON, 01 JULY 2043
The first streets only became impassable in 2023. By that point the Thames had doubled in width. The Great 2036 Flood of London was the turning point – that was when the pleasure turned to fear: the romance of the river turned to the horror of isolation. It grew from the lower lying areas within the city. At what point they became lakes and then rivers no-one knows. The water did not discriminate between businesses, homes, parks, or transport; it did not care whether you were old, young, poor or rich. It enveloped everything that touched the ground eventually. Suddenly we realized how slow rowing was. Slowly we realized how few foods grow in water. Gradually we realized how little fun water everywhere could actually be, when there was not a drop to drink. But then we rediscovered what was above us all the time: our roofs. The lower ones were snapped up quickly as docking points for the city transportation boats. But the higher ones became the heart of the new city. Each one began to reflect the nature of the tenants below. Some were more practical: places to power the city, places to grow food, farm animals, process waste. But soon a new type of space developed: communal roofscapes, or ‘Scapes as they became known. No one really knew what was public or private on the ‘Scape. Here one could rest and party, tweet and think, sleepover and trade, or just kiss and make up. Some came just to enjoy the view, to smoke up or just to wait. But it was the sense of being a part of the collective that made them work. That was where the new politics began.
Our beds are empty two-thirds of the time. Our living rooms are empty seven-eighths of the time. Our office buildings are empty one-half of the time. (R. Buckminster Fuller)
Our roofs are empty all of the time. It’s time we gave this some architecture.
THE AA, 01 JULY 2013
1. WHAT? This studio will make a new piece of city on a roof, a new public space. We will make new parks, terraces and parties. We will make new squares, markets and training grounds. We will make new playgrounds, campgrounds and hostels.
2. WHAT WHERE? This studio will use a test roof as the basis of our research and design. We will remake the various roofs of the Georgian Terraces of The AA. We will rethink the potentials of the roof.
3. WHAT WHERE HOW? This studio will use social media as a research, creative and interaction weapon. We will search, find, broadcast, share, like, ponder, and think through our social network. We will get 1000 ‘friends’ a week, as we become the future of which everyone wants to be a part. We will get 5000 comments, desires, critics, ideas, claims, appeals from Londoners and foreign. We will ‘check in’ to every space we like, as we check out the city we want. We will ‘like’ everything that should be kept, as we hunt and gather the bits of city we will preserve.
4. WHAT WHERE HOW WHO? This studio will use, learn from, and share with local expertise. We will hear from Peter Rees, the City Planning Officer about the need to party. We will talk with David Ireland from “Homes from Empty Homes” about the reuse of spaces. We will get drunk on roof terraces with bankers so we can know what we (don’t) want. We will enjoy the roofs view from the Shard, Centre Point, One New Change, and of course our favourite pub terraces.
5. WHAT WHERE HOW WHO WHEN? This studio will make films, drawings and models of the future of our roofs. We will make drawings to explain our architecture of the future ‘Scapes. We will make models to understand our architecture of the future of the ‘Scapes. We will make new types of films to share the story, atmosphere and experiences of the ‘Scapes.
The environmental crisis that we are already beginning to experience leaves us - as architects uniquely positioned to provide solutions and ways to adapt. This studio is going to embrace change and welcome the potentials of the unused spaces of the existing city. We’re going to look at how the forgotten and unused spaces can provide both a solution to a problem, and a new necessary model of urban development. This is time to rehabilitate, rethink and reinvent new urban solutions; it’s time to explore what a roof can be and do for us - the citizens.
From oblivion we will create opportunity SCHEDULE WEEK ONE: SITE RESEARCH Each student will research and analyze the roof site and its urban capacity, using diagrams, photos, models, architectural drawings and film to understand fully the existing conditions of the specific site and its urban context, and hint at latent potentials. The students will explore how in general we, the citizens, are using the public space in London. We want first to understand the floor to design the sky later. WEEK TWO: ‘SCAPE DESIGN Students will pair-up and based upon their observations in Week One, each pair will choose a given theme for their model ‘Scape: exercising, partying, eating, growing, resting, makingout, instigating, trading, sleeping or working. They will explore projectively what their model ‘Scape could do, be and feel like, in our flooded imaginary scenario, through models, film, diagrams and sketches, for the Mid-Review. WEEK THREE: MAKING MOVIES and DRAWINGS, MODELS and FUN Students will refine and build models, draw diagrams, develop and represent their schemes architecturally to produce a short two-minute film to develop and communicate their proposed model ‘Scape for the Final Review. We will try to show our films out of the AA, we will try to be criticized by the ones who would be using our new public spaces. AA (sweet) SUMMER NIGHTS: Let´s party, share, and debate! You’re going to be watching late evening films on the AA roof terrace: from music videos such as Jump (Madonna, 2008), films of architecture such as Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye (Pierre Chenal, 1929), innovative narrative films such as La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962), roof performances such as the Beatles concert on the Apple building, and cinematic classics such as 3 Iron (Kiduck Kim, 2003), Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987), Million Dollar Hotel (Wim Wenders, 2003), London The Modern Babylon (Julian Temple, 2012) and Underground (Emir Kusturica, 1995), all followed by your own experimental work.
INSTIGATORS MARK E BREEZE Mark E Breeze is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and architect; he is the founder of the film and architecture design, research
and
production
office
REPEAT
DIFFER.
He
is
currently
the
Cambridge University
Department
of
Architecture Teaching Fellow and Visiting Lecturer, where he teaches undergraduate architectural design studio and film courses, and he lectures on contemporary architecture and theory. // Mark has practised architecture in Beijing, Boston, London and New York, working on commercial and mixed-use projects for Norman Foster, cultural projects for Colin St John Wilson and MJ Long, and residential projects for Annabelle Selldorf. Mark's professional film experience includes working as a Producer, Architectural Consultant, and Field Director for the Discovery Channel and Dreamworks under Steven Spielberg. // Mark has taught at the Architectural Association, Boston Architectural College, Nanjing University and Harvard University; he has lectured at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and American University; and he has been a juror on design reviews at a wide variety of international institutions - from Columbia University, the University of Michigan, Northeastern University, Parsons New School of Design and The Pratt Institute, to The Bartlett, the Royal College of Art, and The Architectural Association. // Mark graduated from the University of Cambridge as a Life Scholar with a Bachelor and Master of Arts with First Class Honours, and a Master of Philosophy with Distinction; he received his professional Master of Architecture from Harvard’s Design School as a Herchel Smith Scholar and a John F Kennedy Scholar. He is
an
Accredited
Professional
Leader
in
Energy
and Environmental
Design,
and
he holds
a
Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Design. // Mark's current work explores the experiential potentials of architecture and film at the intersection of culture, ecology, and community.
His recent work has been exhibited and broadcast
internationally: in 2012 he was nominated for an Emmy for his work as Producer of the international architectural documentary Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero; in Winter 2012 his work was featured in the Royal College of Art exhibition The Perfect Place to Grow; and in Spring 2013 his Directorial debut premiered at the Barbican Cinemas, London. //
DOLORES VICTORIA RUIZ GARRIDO Dolores Victoria (Lola) Ruiz Garrido is a founding partner of Semisótano Arquitectos, practising and teaching architecture in Spain and London. Her office has over 12 years of experience designing and building over 40 cultural, commercial, and residential projects; her recent award-winning projects include the Church in Roquetas de Mar, and the Tetris House in Almería - both selected for the Spanish Biennial X and XI. Semisótano have won several competitions, including Europan 7 in Latvia, and the international competition for the Natural Science Museum in Roquetas de Mar, Almería.
Most recently
Semisótano collaborated as an allied studio with Professor Sir Peter Cook at his office CRAB, where they won together an honorable mention at the Spiretec Competition in India, and the second award with the Tower of Droplets in Taiwan // In parallel to these years of professional practice, she has been developing a personal project to bridge architectural understanding and people through culture and sustainability. In the UK she has designed an educational project for children, teaching sustainable architecture with her “Future Cities Project” in different institutions such as the Islington Museum, and the Hugh Myddelton Primary School. She has created the “Proyecto Express” protest architectural competition in Madrid, curated several editions of Pecha Kucha Jaén, and also directing 10 years of Quick Paint Competitions in her hometown // Lola taught in The Architectural Association in Summer 2012 and has been a juror on design reviews at a wide variety of universities such as The Bartlett, East London Architectural School, Cambridge University and also The AA. She has been lecturing in the Spanish Ministry of Housing in Madrid, Granada Architectural School, and several architectural congresses in Barcelona and Madrid including the 2013 “Architects, Society and Future” congress. At present she is a member of the research group Vandelvira Architect in Jaén University, where she has directed summer courses and sustainable urban projects // Lola is currently the general secretary of Asociación Sostenibilidad y Arquitectura (ASA), the biggest sustainable association for architects in Spain. She is curating within ASA the next WSBChallenge 2014 //
unit 2
Elena Palacios Carral, Madeleine Kessler and Manijeh Verghese
L NDON’S ARK- TECTURE The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes - Marcel Proust The tale of Noah’s ark is a cycle of creation, un-creation and re-creation. The Ark was a boat built for the salvation of the prophet Noah, his family and pairs of every type of animal, to shelter them from the biblical flood and later re-populate the earth with their offspring. This summer we will build London’s Ark to collect and import cultural ways of dealing with water. Rather than paired animals we will pair London with various other cultures in order to learn from, and transform the way the city engages with water. This will be London’s Ark-itecture.
A section through the Belafonte, the fictional boat from Life Aquatic
The ark is a collector. It travels from place to place, observing, archiving and appropriating. It is a vessel that navigates between cultures, resulting in surprising adjacencies: Koolhaas’ fictional floating pool of swimmers that travelled from Moscow to New York now plays host to the mass-bathing rituals of the Kumbh Mela on the Ganges River in India whose ephemeral mega-city is bridged by scaled up versions of the acqua alta platforms of Venice, the sinking city: cleaved by canals and prone to flooding. The ark merges these contexts and cultures together as it charters through the turbulence of the choppy sea. The ark allows for the different spaces intrinsic to water to be transported, transferred and translated to the deserted shores of London. The three-week summerschool will follow the journey of the ark. Pairs of students will come together to build its outer structure; travel to other cultures in order to research spaces created by water and through rooms within the ark, collect these ideas and translate them into mini-universes capable of being imported into London. We will not alter the watery terrain of London but rather the methods by which we utilise it.
L NDON’S ARK- TECTURE
Elena Palacios, Madeleine Kessler & Manijeh Verghese
SCHEDULE Let me tell you about my boat - Steve Zissou, Life Aquatic During the three weeks, we will build an ark, research water-based cultures, collect them into rooms and map out the route back to London to dock along its shores and unfold a new spatial reality that allows the city to capitalise on its watery terrain. This will be interspersed with fun events, interesting talks and exciting excursions.
Noah’s Ark by Mary Singleton
A Map of the World by Vesa Sammalisto
from the blog: The Triumph of Bullshit
CREATE - week 1
UN-CREATE - week 2
RE-CREATE - week 3
In the first week, students will divide into pairs and research their or any other culture that deals with water spatially. Which local customs can London learn and benefit from appropriating?
The second week will see each pair deconstructing how their cultural practice of choice can be spatialised into a room. How does it get transformed into objects and devices?
For the final week, we will export our rooms of translated spaces from their original contexts to London. How does the room now expand to encompass the city? Where does it dock?
The entire unit will also collectively build the shell of the ark model.
activities Boat ride down the Thames Visit to Map shop
activities Talk by Giles Price, Photographer Underground Canal Tour
output Construction of ark-rooms and the devices they contain Map-making of the ark’s route
output Choosing locations in London Unpacking the Ark-rooms Image-making of the cultural import/ export
activities Watch The Life Aquatic Talk by a Naval Architect output Presentation of cultural research Model of the Ark Allocation of Ark-rooms
for the INTERIM JURY Cultural Research Ark Model (collective) In-progress Ark-rooms Unit Map
for the FINAL JURY Cultural Research Ark Model (collective) with the completed Ark-rooms Unit Map Import/ Export images of rooms
L NDON’S ARK- TECTURE
WATERWORLD AA Summer School 2013
PAIRED CULTURES You take delight not in a city’s seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours - Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities The following examples show three different ways to engage with water as a space. Students will be expected to look towards their own or other cultures to find similar ways of dealing with water spatially that can be imported to London through the unit’s Ark.
Image credit: AP Photo / Luigi Costantini
Image credit: OMA / Madelon Vriesendorp
Image credit: AP Photo / Rajesh Kumar Singh
ACQUA ALTA
THE POOL
KUMBH MELA
VENICE Water as social space / infrastructure
MOSCOW / NEW YORK Water as fictional space / island
ALLAHABAD Water as sacred space/ urbanism
Venice, the northeastern Italian city, is comprised of 118 individual islands, separated by canals and linked by bridges. The canals provide the transportation network for the city - moving people and objects around at a rapid pace. Known as the sinking city, Venice is prone to low-level flooding called acqua alta. Rather than treating this as a calamity, it is seen as an opportunity - raised platforms create walkways through the water, tourists bathe in public squares and architects like Aldo Rossi even designed floating theatres and other spaces for people to congregate.
The fictional pool from Rem Koolhaas’ seminal 1978 text, Delirious New York, was powered by swimmers who caused it to float from Moscow to New York by swimming synchronised laps in the opposite direction. It is an enclave of optimism, a vessel of escape, a symbol of communal effort, action and reaction. As an island it travelled from one city to another, docking at different places yet failing to discover the ideal context to situate itself within. It is a ‘dialectical room,’ dividing what is within the pool from what is without.
Kumbh Mela is a Hindu pilgrimage of epic proportions. Occurring once every three years in one of four different places, millions of people congregate to bathe in a sacred river. There are different types of Mela, Maha Kumbh Mela or the biggest one, which took place in January 2013, occurs only once every 144 years. People of every age, race and class are unified in this communal act causing a mega-city to erupt for the duration of the event on the banks of the river Ganges. It is a strange form of temporary urbanism, born out of ritual.
L NDON’S ARK- TECTURE
Elena Palacios, Madeleine Kessler & Manijeh Verghese
The Narcissist’s City, 2012
The Flat Stage, 2013
The Case of the Elusive Room, 2012
ELENA PALACIOS CARRAL
MADELEINE KESSLER
MANIJEH VERGHESE
Elena studied Architecture and Urbanism for four years in Mexico City and graduated from the AA in June 2012. She has worked in small offices and as a freelance architect in Mexico City and is currently working for Squire & Partners in London towards her Part III. Elena is interested in the city as a project and in the discovery of new forms of architects and architecture by questioning the format of an architectural project.
Madeleine recently graduated from the AA. Previously she received a Masters degree in Structural Engineering and Architecture from Sheffield University. Madeleine has also worked and studied in Finland, China, Switzerland, Belgium and the UK. Most recently she was awarded the KPF Traveling Fellowship, facilitating an exploration in cross-cultural exchange along The Silk Road through Central Asia.
An AA graduate with a previous degree in Architecture and Mathematics, Manijeh is a tutor, editor and writer. Having previously worked for practices in London and Boston, she currently teaches an Intermediate unit at the AA, is the Salon co-ordinator at Disegno magazine and is the editor and founder of the website, AA Conversations. Manijeh is interested in the idea of cultural context and the communication of information through various media and formats.
REFERENCES
Films: • The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Wes Anderson, 2004
Books: • Noah’s Ark, Heinz Janisch and Lisbeth Zwerger, 1997 • Maps of the World, Gestalten, 2013 • Thames: Sacred River, Peter Ackroyd, 2008 • Venice from the Water: Architecture and Myth in an Early Modern City, Daniel Savoy, 2012 • Delirious New York A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, Rem Koolhaas, 1978. • The Kumbh Mela, Mark Tully, 2002
CREATE
UN-CREATE
RE-CREATE
3
WED
Guest Speakers Workshops Lectures + Events
Photographer Giles Price
Tutorials: Images
18
Presentations Outings and Field Trips
Exhibition, Finishing up! Presentation and Final Push
17
Image Making
15
16
Group design of map
11
Group Meeting 10am Tutorials: Mapping Re-cap interim work JONATHAN POTTER Brief 3: Mapping MAP SHOP
MOVIE NIGHT: Life Aquatic (7.45)
Group Meeting: Design of the Ark
MID REVIEW
Mini-Jury with
SUMMER SCHOOL PARTY!
FINAL REVIEW
19
Group Presentation of Chosen Sites
Picking of Sites
12
Brief 2: Ark Rooms Andreas Design of Ark Room in Pairs
9
5
FRI
Group Meeting 10am Naval Architect Andreas Finish the Ark Shell
4
THURS
Presentation of Research
10
Group Meeting 10am Group tutorials: Paired Cultures Paired Cultures Research Build the Ark
2
TUES
Tutorials for Mid-Review
Prepare Interim Presentation
Group Meeting 10am
8
UNIT DRINKS
Divide into pairs
Brief 1: Paired Cultures
Unit Presentations Inductions
1
MON
7
SUN
Exhibition Design
IMAGE-MAKING WORKSHOP
13
Group Presentation of Ark Rooms
Design of Ark Room
Tutorials: Mapping
UNDERGROUND LONDON CANAL TRIP
14
Group Meeting 10am STUDIOS CLOSED
6
SAT
L NDON’S ARK- TECTURE WATERWORLD AA Summer School 2013
unit 3
Jeffrey Smith, Doug Rice and Robert Horton
AA SUMMER SCHOOL_LONDON 2013 WATERWORLD
UNIT 3
A MUSEUM OF RAIN Jeffrey Smith Doug Rice Robert Horton
A MUSEUM OF RAIN_PAGE ONE Jeffrey Smith Doug Rice Robert Horton
INTRODUCTION__________________________________________________________________________ Much of the world’s attention is now focused on the issue of global climate change, and London is not immune to the impact of these changes. In London's case, this appears to include increased annual rainfall, 15% above average in 2012. As Londoners come to grips with the impact of global climate change on their city, perhaps new site and new building programs can be created which explore the spatial, three dimensional, and aesthetic opportunities created by London’s new conditions, its “hydro-phenomena." This project asks: “How can a building meet water where it starts, in rain? And could a Museum of Rain be a model for economic and management solutions and at the same time a resource for creativity and innovation ?”
THREE WEEKS OF STUDY and EXPLORATION___________________________________________________ A MUSEUM OF RAIN The goal is a rich and evocative building program and design study focused on the subject and spatial experience of rain, explored in the context of London, its parks and gardens, its buildings, and its museums. Convenient to public transportation, Victoria Park in London’s East End will be the immediate context for the study. The unit will divide into several design teams. Each team will select a site in the park for their design and program study. Rain. It's all over the map: showering, spitting, drizzling, tiddling, teeming, bucketing, drumming and blattering; not to mention “cats and dogs” and “pitchforks.” And rain, though inherently transitory, is physical and often unforgettable. The effect of rain is just as varied. It can be cleaning and healing or threatening and destructive. It can be a stormwater nuisance and a threat to the city's mood, its fragile waterways, and eroding buildings. At the same time it can also be an environmental resource and a global commodity. Rain is needed and welcome; it washes away dirt, smog, guilt, and bad memories. In the country, rain is a saving grace; it brings the crops, continues the cycle of life, and maintains the economic and ecological system of planting and harvesting. Its sign, the rainbow, is the most beloved of images. Its sound can lull or alarm; every community must work out its relationship to rain. The thrust of the work for the three weeks will be the program development and project design of a new Museum of Rain. Students will work as a unit to develop the program in a preliminary way and will then work in smaller teams to refine the program, identify unique program features, and develop the project design in response to the particular site each team has chosen in Victoria Park. We imagine a large, shared overall site plan. This will be supported by models, drawings, sketches, diagrams, and photographs from each design team. The emphasis for student design presentations will be “the storyboard” of the place, the life and experience of the building and its grounds. Interpretive features such as simulators, video, and waterworks will be encouraged. IS IT TOO MUCH TO SAY THAT THERE IS AN ARCHITECTURE OF RAIN? Rain figures prominently in the accumulated wealth of cinematic experience. Filmmakers have long understood the potential of rain, its physical presence, its many moods, its capacity to become an integral part of the story and storytelling—its sheer beauty on screen. In its movie incarnations, rain is cleansing, rain is grace, rain is the birth of life; rain is also disaster, ruined hopes, and a projection of despair. Full feature screenings and thematic presentations throughout the three-week course will focus on the cinematic experience of rain created by filmmakers...the visual, aural, and tactile vocabulary of rain. ...from these and the unit discussions they engender we will broaden our understanding of rain.
A MUSEUM OF RAIN_PAGE TWO Jeffrey Smith Doug Rice Robert Horton
SUPPORTING PRESENTATIONS / ACTIVITIES____________________________________________________ In addition to mid-session and final reviews, regular in-studio project reviews, a series of lectures and field trips are planned. Below is a preliminary agenda for unit presentations and additional activities. SITE AND CONTEXT / BUILDINGS AND WATER / TRAVEL DRAWINGS / MUSEUMS 1_Victoria Park Overview. Prior to a site visit by the students, this talk will present the physical characteristics, features, dimensions, surrounding context, and history of the Victoria Park. 2_Buildings, Rain, and Water. Roofs, Overhangs, Gutters, Downspouts, Covered Walks, Pools 3_Museums and Museums of London. A survey of distinctive museums and museums in their particular contexts. 4_Travel Study and Drawing. In an age of digital cameras and laptops this rarely practiced craft nonetheless still has relevance to the inquisitive eye. Brief travel drawing exercises will focus on specific architectural and landscape issues, i.e.: the edge of a canal, the ceiling of a nave, a particular window.
RAIN AND WATER TECHNICAL ISSUES / LANDSCAPE IDEAS AND ISSUES 1_Rain Happens. A brief explanation of the collection, conveyance, treatment and discharge of rainwater in the urban environment. 2_Environmental Psychology: An Introduction to Socio-Biology. The evolutionary argument as to why and how we take pleasure in built environments. 3_The Future of Water. A discussion of the future of water, its impact, economics, politics, sustainability, and equity in the context of global warming. 4_Gardens and Settings. We will explore the siting of a building and the space for its setting, looking carefully at the integration of architecture with the landscape. CINEMA AND RAIN 1_Introduction to the Cinema of Rain. We begin our close study of rain by looking at how it functions on film: rain as character, mood, theme, or abstract formal presence—and aural presence, too. We seek to see rain in an active way on film, the better to makes our senses alive to it. 2_Inundation. How communities deal with rising waters—a subject of practical and mythical proportions. Among the examples: Jia Zhang-ke's Still Life looks at the Three Gorges Dam project and its displacement of lives, the Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? stages a biblical flood with folkloric overtones, and Kevin Reynolds' post apocalyptic Waterworld finds humans adapting to a drenched planet. 3_The City and Rain. A look at how the city meets rain and how rain folds into the urban environment, defining buildings and people, in films such as Frank Capra's Meet John Doe, Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent, Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition. 4_The Romance of Rain. "Only love can bring the rain/ That makes you yearn to the sky" (Pete Townshend). The enchantment of rain, seen in a series of love scenes sculpted by precipitation: Woody Allen's Manhattan, Jacques Demy's Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love, and others. 5_A Filmmaker and Rain: Akira Kurosawa. Tracing the vision of a single filmmaker, for whom rain is a signature of his film style. Japanese master Akira Kurosawa uses rain like a sensory paintbrush, in films such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo.
A MUSEUM OF RAIN_PAGE THREE Jeffrey Smith Doug Rice Robert Horton
BOOKS WORTH REMEMBERING __________________________________________________________________ Thames Estuary 2100 Report The Environmental Agency Collage City Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter The Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs On Photography Susan Sontag The Human Condition Hannah Arendt The Vertical Garden: From Nature to the City Patrick Blanc Origins of Architectural Pleasure Grant Hildebrand Sculpting in Time Andrei Tarkovsky Something Like an Autobiography Akira Kurosawa
TUTORS____________________________________________________________________________________________ Hometown: Seattle, Washington. USA In the U.S., Seattle owns the national “Rain City” reputation. As such, it is clearly a Sister City to London in the context of rain. Jeffrey moved to the Pacific Northwest coast as a teenager and Doug and Robert, being Seattle natives, have grown up with Seattle’s infamous rain. What we know is that there is a good and a bad to all that goes along with our particular weather patterns and conditions: rain forests, mountain snow packs, glaciers, rivers, lakes, streams, flooding, leaking roofs, soggy yards, soaked shoes, tidal surges, rising sea levels, slow and dangerous traffic, storms, umbrellas, lush rain gardens, rainbows, and the occasional landslide. In this, we are experts. Jeffrey Smith Prior to graduation from the University of Oregon Jeffrey taught Architectural Theory and Architectural Design at the U of O. After graduation he taught Architectural Design at the University of Washington. Since that time he has worked as a senior project designer with several large corporate firms here in Seattle, traveled extensively, collected slide projectors, and studied art. He is currently painting and working independently on two residential projects. http://jeffreysmithworldphotography.com/ Doug Rice After a 15 year career in graphics, and advertising, Doug’s midlife degree in landscape architecture from the University of Washington brought him to work for King County’s Storm water Section to educate the general public about storm water control and water quality. He currently chairs the regional STORM coalition. Doug has a mastery of interpretive signage, Low Impact Development techniques, natural yard care methods, and has been teaching garden design independently for 18 years. Doug has a minor in environmental psychology and is a nationally recognized practitioner of Social Marketing. One of his programs has been featured in Social Marketing to Protect the Environment: What Works. Doug has a TV show called “Yard Talk” on the KCTV Network: http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/stewardship/nw-yard-and-garden/yard-talk.aspx Robert Horton Robert is the film critic for KUOW (Seattle's National Public Radio station) and the Herald in Everett, Washington; he is also a longtime contributor to Film Comment magazine. He curates the Magic Lantern film-discussion program at the Frye Art Museum, is Adjunct Faculty in Film Studies at Seattle University, and is a guest speaker for Smithsonian Journeys and Humanities Washington, as well as a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association. His books include Billy Wilder: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi), the upcoming Frankenstein (Columbia University Press), and the zombie-Western graphic novel Rotten and its prose spin-off The Lost Diary of John J. Flynn, U.S. Agent (Moonstone Books). He blogs on movies at The Crop Duster (roberthorton.wordpress.com). In 2012 he curated the Museum of History and Industry's "Celluloid Seattle: A City at the Movies" exhibit. http://roberthorton.wordpress.com/
unit 4
Jon Lopez and Sylvie Taher
WATER: A LOVE STORY 2013 AA Summer School Tutors: Jon Lopez and Sylvie Taher
Where did the romance go? Somewhere in the development of our modern lives, we lost the romance of water. Water has became part of the infrastructure, it is like the tube system. It is there, we are heavily dependent on it, but we would never outwardly accept that dependence, let alone celebrate it in anyway. We’ve taken it for granted. But wasn’t there a time when the romance still lived? When water was more then just water. When it was about a moment of calm, or purity, or travel, or even the simple promise of reflection? This unit is an attempt to rekindle the romance with water. Building from the myth of Narcissus, unit four will re-image the story of water in London. Narcissus is the portrait of a man, who, confronted with a reflective pool, fell in love with himself, and forgot his environment. The three principle elements of the myth, the material pool, the self, and the setting, are all central to the story. They each in turn become central to our story. We will take the three ingredients; the reflective surface, the protagonist, Narcissit himself, the scene and explore, deconstruct, and redefine, each one, until we finish in the end with a new scene. A different Narcissitic story, where London is reflected to inspire a new love story.
WATER: A LOVE STORY Ingredient One: The Reflective Surface
In our first week, we will focus on exploring the reflective qualities of water. What makes for the purest reflection in water, and what in turn breaks it? These are the types of questions that we will ask you to explore. The exploration will take place in two parts. First off, a photograhic archive; you will be asked to critically observe how water behaves. You will be paired off into groups of two or three, and will work together to build your archive. Day one of the archive, you will be encouraged to confine your exploration to the interior, the home, the school, the institution. Day two of the archive, you will be encouraged to move out into the city, the river, the canals, the ponds, the puddles. Observation done, we will move to the next step. Here, once again in groups of two or three, you will be asked to take your observation and transform it in a model. Each group will build one planar surface. Each surface should show the qualities of water which you found most fascinating in your study; perhaps a perfect mirror like reflection, maybe a distorted ripple, or a murky shadow. Whatever you found in your archive, you now have to build. This plane could be anything from a murky concrete cast to a crystine resin pouring. You will be encouraged to test and explore a variety of materials to express the quality which you have identified in your archive. We, in turn, will work along side you with suggestions of materials and techniques in order to enable you to build your image of water.
WATER: A LOVE STORY Ingredients Two & Three: The Protagonist & his Site
From water to protagonist... Having identified your ‘type’ of reflective water, you will now be asked to create a self portrait, using your model as inspiration. If your model was a perfect reflective plane, perhaps your self portrait should be too, if it was murky, a murky self portrait could follow. What we ask you, in that in creating your self portrait, you construct the scene. What are you showing, what are you hiding? Where are you placed and why? What is key is that this portrait is a construction, where you manipulate and transform the environment in order to convey one message. We will work along side you to help translate your earlier archive and model into a spatial construction, where you, as protagonist, center in the story. From protagonist to site... This is where you, now leave the picture. Each student will be given one of three sites, the canal, the river or the pond. At your given site, you will be asked to recreate your portrait. This new portrait, should have all the qualities of your self-portrait, except, without you in it. So what replaces yourself? A building, an object another reflective plane? Once again, the aim is to reconstruct the scene. It is a spatial excercise, where you define how the environment is portrayed. Perhaps like in the original myth of narcissus, you choose to ignore it, or maybe in a moment of generosity, you allow the setting to matter.
WATER: A LOVE STORY Ingredients Re-united: The Myth Recreated
Now, it all comes together. Using the original archival study, the model, the self portrait, and the urban portrait, you will be asked to create a collage of a new scene of Narcissus for London. In this final week, you will create new and unexpected relations of water within the city. The three elements of the myth of Narcissus; protagist, reflective plane and setting, become coopted and recollaged into a new story. This final week is again broken down into two parts. First, working quickly. In pairs of two or three, you will cut and paste a myriad of diffferent possible stories using the archive which you have build as your basis. After this initial process of working quickly, we ask you to slow down and focus on creating one final water collage; your re-imagined water myth of London.
Tutors Jon Lopez Jon read Architecture at Canbridge University, receiving the Edward S Prior Prize, and studied on a scholarship at the AA, where his diploma project was nominated for honours and won the prize for best technical thesis. He has recently set up his own office, OMMX. He has taken part in various building projects and workshops and maintains a keen interest in 1:1 fabrication and material testing. Sylvie Taher Sylvie is a writer and architect based in London. She trained at the AA where she wrote a thesis titled ‘Architects Versus the City or the Problem of Chaos’. She has since written for Publica, The Architectural Review, AA Files and Blueprint. She is currently teaching History and Theories in the 3rd Year at the AA, and working as a freelance writer.
UNIT 44 -- WATER: LOVE STORY WATER: A LOVEA STORY UNIT WATER: A LOVE UNIT 4 - WATER: A LOVE STORY STORY Schedule
AA Summer School 2013 AA Summer School 2013 Tutors: LopezSchool & Sylvie Taher AAJon Summer 2013 Tutors: Jon Lopez & Sylvie Taher Tutors: Jon Lopez & Sylvie Taher
WEEK 11 WEEK 1WEEK July - Mon 1 1 July - Mon
WEEK 1
1 July - Mon
2 July - Tues 2 July - Tues 32 July - Wed 3 July July -- Tues Wed 43 July Thu 4 July July -- Wed Thu 54 July July --- Fri Thu 5 July Fri 65 July -- Sat July 6 July - Fri Sat 76 July - Sun 7 July July -- Sat Sun 7 July - Sun
WEEK 22 WEEK 8WEEK July - Mon 2 8 July - Mon
WEEK 2
9 July Tues July --- Tues Mon 98 July 10 July Wed 910July July -Tues Wed 10 July - Wed 11 July - Thu 11 July - Thu 12 July Fri 11 July July --- Fri Thu 12 13 July Sat 12 July Fri 13 July - Sat 14 July Sun 13 July Sat 14 July - Sun 14 July - Sun
WEEK 33 WEEK WEEK 3 15 July - Mon WEEK 3 15 July - Mon 16 July July - Tues 15 16 July -- Mon Tues 17 - Wed 16 July July 17 July -- Tues Wed 18 July July -- Wed Thu 17 18 July - Thu 19 July Fri 18 19 July July -- Thu Fri 19 July - Fri
09:30 09:30 10:30 09:30 10:30 11:00 10:30 11:00 13:00 11:00 13:00 14:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 14:00 15:00 14:00 15:00 14:00 15:00 14:00 15:00 16:30 15:00 16:30 10:00 - 21:00 16:30 10:00 - 21:00 10:00 21:00 10:00 10:00 -- 21:00 21:00 10:00 21:00 10:00 10:00 -- 21:00 21:00 10:00 10:00 --- 21:00 21:00 10:00 21:00 10:00 -- 20:00 10:00 10:00 - 21:00 20:00 10:00 - 20:00
Registration, Coffee + Croissants Registration, Coffee + Croissants Introduction Registration, Introduction Coffee + Croissants Unit Presentations and Selections Introduction Unit Presentations and Selections Lunch Unit LunchPresentations and Selections Electronic Media Lab Introductions Lunch Electronic Media Lab Introductions Workshop Introduction Electronic Lab Introductions Workshop Media Introduction Workshop Introduction Workshop Introduction Workshop Introduction Electronic Lab Introductions Workshop Media Introduction Electronic Media Lab Introductions Team Announcements + Drinks Electronic Media Lab Introductions Team Announcements + Drinks Loosen Up Team + Drinks LoosenAnnouncements Up Study ofUp the Qualities of Water Loosen Study of the Qualities of Water Model of the the Quality Identified Study of Water Modelof of theQualities Quality Identified Model of the Quality Identified Model of of the the Quality Quality Identified Identified Model Model of the Quality Identified Model of the Quality Model of the Quality Identified Identified STUDIOS CLOSED Model of the Quality Identified STUDIOS CLOSED STUDIOS CLOSED
Soft Room Soft Room Soft Room Soft Soft Room Room Soft Soft Room Room Soft Room AA Dining Soft Room Room AA Dining Room 16 Morwell St AA Dining Room 16 Morwell St AA Workshop 16 St AAMorwell Workshop AA Workshop AA Workshop AA Workshop 16 St AAMorwell Workshop 16 Morwell St AA Terrace 16 Morwell AA Terrace St 16 Morwell AA Terrace St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 16 Morwell Morwell St St 16 Morwell St 16 16 Morwell Morwell St St 16 16 Morwell Morwell St St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell 16 Morwell St St 16 Morwell St
10:00 - 21:00 10:00 - 21:00 10:00 21:00 10:00 --- 21:00 21:00 10:00 10:00 12:30 10:00 21:00 10:00 - 12:30 13:00 21:00 10:00 -- 21:00 12:30 13:00 10:00 21:00 13:00 21:00 10:00 - 21:00 10:00 21:00 10:00 21:00 10:00 - 21:00 10:00 20:00 10:00 21:00 10:00 - 20:00 10:00 20:00 10:00 20:00 10:00 - 20:00 10:00 - 20:00
Study of the Site Study of the Site EVENT Cross Section 1: Internal Critics Study of the SiteSection EVENT Cross 1: Internal Critics PRESENTATION Student Work Show EVENT Cross Section 1: Internal Critics PRESENTATION Student Work Show Self Portrait PRESENTATION Student Work Show Self - Portrait Self -- Portrait Self Portrait Self - Portrait Self Portrait Deconstructed Self --- Portrait Portrait Deconstructed Self Self Portrait Reconstructed Self -- Portrait Portrait Reconstructed Deconstructed Self Collage Study of New Portrait Self Portrait Reconstructed Collage Study of New Portrait Collage Study of New Portrait
16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 33 Bedford Sq 16 Bedford Morwell Sq St 33 Soft Room 33 Bedford Sq Soft Room 16 Morwell St SoftMorwell Room St 16 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell Morwell St St 16 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St
10:00 - 21:00 10:00 - 21:00 10:00 -- 21:00 21:00 10:00 10:00 - 21:00 10:00 21:00 10:00 10:00 -- 21:00 21:00 10:00 21:00 10:00 21:00 10:00 - 21:00 10:00 17:00 10:00 10:00 -- 21:00 17:00 18:00 late 10:00 18:00 -- 17:00 late 18:00 - late
Collage Study of New Portrait Collage Study of New Portrait Final Collage Collage Studyof of New NewPortrait Portrait Final Collage of New Portrait Final Collage of New Portrait Final Final Collage Collage of of New New Portrait Portrait Final Collage Collage of of New New Portrait Portait. Final Final Collage of New Portait. EVENT Cross Section 2: External Critics Final Collage of Section New Portait. EVENT Cross 2: External Critics End of Summer School PARTY! EVENT Cross Section 2: External Critics End of Summer School PARTY! End of Summer School PARTY!
16 Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 Morwell Morwell St 16 16 Morwell St St 16 Morwell St St 16 16 Morwell Morwell St 16 Morwell St 16 16 Morwell Morwell St St Lecture Hall 16 Morwell Lecture HallSt BedfordHall Square Lecture Bedford Square Bedford Square
unit 5
Arantza Ozaeta and Alvaro Martin
2013 WATERWORLD // AA Summer School
INVERSE LONDON
_______________ Arantza Ozaeta & Álvaro Martín
ESCENARIO And then, we have a very strong urge to make a new beginning.1 Nowadays, London turns its back on the Thames River, the river runs through it and divides the city, and citizens are not aware of 2 the fact that water can cover parts of their city in a close future . This Unit inverts these 3 facts and proposes a new scenario where: the city will face a waterland, the river will be a link, and citizens will be aware of flood capacity of their world. A new working frame is needed, a parallel scenario where testing ideas and experiments that helps us to define possible relationships between London and water. What would happen if the map of the city is inverted: land will be water and water will be land? London would be a waterland, composed by a minimum tongue of land and a vast extension of water. This is a process of inversion and erasure: texture is taken off the map, and a new territory emerges. This potential territory is characterized as a waterworld: where inhabitants live with “the active struggle between earth and water”3. This is a world where the land is scarce and valuable, and where new colonization forms of the water appear.
New Cartography of ‘Inverse London’: a Waterworld (Arantza Ozaeta & Alvaro Martín, 2013)
BRIEF The Unit will develop large scale re-imaginings of the city’s present at a new context that address water as a parameter to define an speculative scenario where students will explore certain conditions which define the present world, such as instability, temporality and new forms of social space. By the abstraction of the city form from the traditional point of view, we pretend to encourage the detection of subtle and new dynamics in the urban life which shape a changeable and adaptive city, understood as a landscape of events. Chosen parameters will trigger the design of a parallel London from the most infrastructural (as we can see in some examples of Metabolist plans by Tange or Maki) to the most subtle proposals (take Ishigami’s Project “Island Garden” as an example). The Unit explorations will address 3 key questions: 1. How to colonize a piece of land that follows the trace of Thames River? In a world with scarce squared meters of land, they become valuable. We will deal with topics such as density, porosity, economy and connectivity. Will we use the land to plant forests or to build towers? Will we build the rest of the city from this piece of land or far away? Will this lineal element connect the islands or will it separate them? 2. How can we colonize the vast extension of water? How will these new Islands look like? In a context dominated by an unstable and volatile element which depends on parameters, such as the humidity, temperature, wind, topography, etc., how will the new city be redefined? Which parameters will define its infrastructures, its public space, its energetic equipments, its social space? 3. How can this speculative work about a parallel scenario inform the present? A new and unexpected context encourages risky and creative attitudes. New situations and parameters incorporates other visions to the debate, students are encouraged to adopt vocabularies, graphics and techniques from disciplines related to the new world (geography, cartography, ecology, climatology, economy, etc.).
METODOLOGY & SCHEDULE Since current society requires immediate and responsible solutions, this Unit encourages training and creativity of students by production and self-evaluation. This is an intensive course, and doing something quickly requires fast movements, immediate answers and constant self-criticism. We don’t waste time in making up huge theories or in developing intricate ramblings. A first action -immediate, vigorous and even thoughtless- of the students shouldn’t be inhibited by complexity. Every week new precise instructions are provided and we follow them; we must just ‘jump in’ without knowing the result. We will discover it.
1
KOOLHAAS, Rem; MAU, Bruce. S,M,L,XL. Monacelli Press, 1995. Overall theme AA Summer School. 2013. 3 DELEUZE, Gilles. Deserted islands and other texts. 1953‐1974. New York: Semiotext(e), 2004. 2
2013 WATERWORLD // AA Summer School
1st week: A FEAST AROUND THE CITY
At this first step, we will work all around the same table, as in a Feast. A FEAST is a kind of project in which each guest at table -agent- seems to act individually, but everyone is perfectly coordinated with the whole group to perform the act of having lunch. Our table will be the city of London at July 2013, our case study. All students take their places around this common working table where they interact and they are in close contact with each other work all the time. This physical coexistence generates a constant debate: arguments and agreements, rejection and needs, problems and solutions, questions and answers. The Unit will organize a day-visit along the Thames River and other aquatic sites, in order to detect ways of living in a metropolitan ‘waterworld’ (such as the house-boat village at Bermondsey), infrastructures, border conditions, etc. It consists of a movement from the laboratory to the real world, the ‘outside’, where a phenomenon will be caught and brought to the laboratory. This new material, free of its outer inputs, will reveal its own nature.
Kenzo Tange, Plan for Tokyo 1960
XDGA, Monaco extension 2002
Ron Herron, Seaside Bubbles 1966
Document 1: CARTOGRAPHY LONDON 2013 Every student will add its own layer of information, the superposition of all of them will produce an informed common document, a Cartography. Cartographies are “geographical maps of a place”, but we would like to redefine them as “geological maps of a place”, what means “a representation technique that shows measurable and descriptive relations of a place dealing with its composition, internal structure and generative process”. We use diagrams to describe reality and we apply them in the construction of models and new cartographies that represent the Latent Environment of a place, these are cartographies of what is possible, what is real and what is needed. +Our Unit will be visited by Theo Lorenz, AA Interprofessional Studio [AAIS] Director. Together with him we will explore alternative forms of collaboration between multiple creative professions, he will expose hidden ‘worknet’ between multiple professions and their products. nd
2
week: AN INVENTORY OF COLONIZATION PROTOTYPES
This Unit works as if in a LABORATORY where creativity is a result of experimentation. We could take risks without fear of mistakes: launch and discard hypotheses. The whole group will debate about forms of colonization of this new waterworld. We introduce the notion of “Island”. An island is a part or terrain surrounded by water completely. It can’t be conceived without the water, its inhabitants are aware of this condition between land and water, between the stable and the unstable. It’s an entity, it’s complete. Its perimeter, boundary, is dynamic, its position related to the sea constant changes.
Jackup floating structure 2010
Floating Casino Boat Blue Chip 2
Oil platform
Document 2: INVENTORY OF COLONIZATION PROTOTYPES Students will work in teams of 2/3p. They will look for references of “colonization prototypes and islands” such as oil rigs and jackups (productive islands), floating resorts (moving islands), icebergs (temporary islands), Sealand (micronations), etc. All of them will be compiled in a common document: an Atlas or Inventory. From their compilation and analysis, we will extract the qualities which will define our models to colonize the water. Here students will produce 4/5 PROTOTYPES of the new islands which reconstitute the city of London in a new waterworld. While models are representations of final results, the main advantage of the prototype is that it constitutes a testing document. It can (and has to) be forced to suffer modifications as a part of the working process. Project is considered as an experiment. +Our Unit will be visited by Francisco Triviño, an architect and founding member and director of Hipo-Tesis. He will join the teachers group with the aim of encouraging students how to embrace other disciplines and fields of knowledge in the definition of models of colonization. rd 3 week: A PROJECT AS A PRODUCT & AN IMAGE
Since we have defined and built our prototypes of models with which colonize the waterland of our alternative London, we will extend their definitions by the production of an image. Here students will adopt the role of a traveler who visits the islands and take a picture of a special place, which will represent the environment of the island. The Artist Joan Fontcuberta works in this direction,
2013 WATERWORLD // AA Summer School
by creating evidences of nonexistent places, but real in the mind of the artist. By the technique of the montage (cinema) replacing the photo-montage, the students will explode their fantasy. They will produce images showing a deeper definition of their islands: social space, inhabitants, materials, fashion, technology, etc.
Doc.1_ Cartography: Diller Scofidio
Doc.2_ Atlas: Didi-Huberman
Doc.3_ Postcards: On Kawara
Document 3: POSTCARDS A postcard consists of a photo and a text. A photo is an evidence of a done trip. A souvenir of a place as a prefabricated instant. The text is a short and brief description of the perception of this place which adds information that is invisible in the photo. This document addresses the idea of the ephemeral. +Our Unit will be visited by LOTOCOHO, two designers specialized on jewelry. On one hand, they will teach students about the relevance and construction of an image -references, messages, technique-. On the other hand, they will show students how to deal with a project as a product.
To finish, the Unit will go on a ‘trip’! The prototypes of colonization and islands will be worked as jewelry pieces which will be exhibited in the final jury together with an image and a short text (postcards). All the prototypes together will constitute a single common model of the new city of London: The Inverse London. Students, Visiting Teachers and Unit Staff will pack our bags, and we will travel all together through the new Inverse London, visiting its neighborhoods produced by the students. We will be travelers, conquerors, seekers, adventurers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY DIDI-HUBERMAN, Georges. Atlas, ¿cómo llevar el mundo a cuestas? MNCARS, 2010. KOOLHAAS, Rem; MAU, Bruce. S,M,L,XL (especially, XL chapter). Monacelli Press, 1995. KOOLHAAS, Rem; OBRIST, Hans Ulrich. Project Japan. Metabolism Talks... Taschen, 2011. LATOUR, Bruno. Paris: Ville invisible. Web version: http://www.bruno-latour.fr/virtual/CAST/index.html OUMAN, Ole; et al. Archis 198: Islands. Archis / Artimo, 2003. SCHALANSKY, Judith. Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot on and Never Will. Penguin Books, 2010. SMITH, Dan. 100 Places you will never visit: The world’s most secret locations. Quercus Publishing Plc, 2012. SORIANO, Federico; URZÁIZ, Pedro. Pop Up. Architectures that appear and disappear. Fisuras, 2013.
CV &Bio Unit Staff: Arantza Ozaeta and Alvaro Martín head the architectural office TallerDE2 since 2007 [ www.tallerde2.com ], which makes an ongoing commitment to research and knowledge, both in training and innovative practice. Their work has international scope, been recognized, published and awarded on several occasions. Arantza Ozaeta and Alvaro Martín’s work is mainly developed between Spain and Germany, where they are teaching, researching and building recent winning competitions. They studied architecture at the Madrid Polytechnic ETSAM and at the TU Delft of The Netherlands. In Rotterdam they collaborated in MVRDV. They completed the coursework for the PhD at the Madrid Polytechnic ETSAM in the Department of Advanced Projects in 2010 where they are PhD candidates. They have been teaching at the Architectural Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain), Hochschule Coburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), Ural State Technical University of Ekaterimburg (Russia). In addition, they have actively participated in debates and lectures. Arantza Ozaeta and Alvaro Martín won the European competition Europan-9 in Selb (Germany) in 2008, where they are developing an entire master-plan through the Urban Acupuncture Principle. Recently, they have received the German Bauwelt Prize 2013 “First Works” for their first completed project.
Visiting Teachers: Theo Lorenz, AA Interprofessional Studio AAIS Director [ www.interprofessionals.net ]. He is an architect, painter and media artist. Trespassing between art and architecture his interest lies within the relation of digital and physical space and the associations between subjects and objects. He is a member of n-o-m-a-d.org, spatialwork.net and director of T2 spatialwork ltd [ t-2.org ] together with Dr. Tanja Siems.
Francisco Triviño, founding member and director of Hipo-Tesis [ www.hipo-tesis.eu ], a thought-platform in an embryonic stage based on transversal scientific knowledge emerging from the collection and publication of independent texts. Launched by a team of architects, it embraces other disciplines and fields of knowledge open to contribute. Anna Tomich, a british designer and partner of LOTOCOHO [ www.lotocoho.com ], together with Jorge López, a spanish photographer and artist. LOTOCOHO work makes visible the geometric constructions and physical/material that imply decisions and delimit cultures. They generate spaces of exchange where the physical rule of geology, the connections and its expressions are assimilated by its users. Their work has been published in a number of specialized publications in Architecture, Photography and Design.
WATERWORLD
UNIT SELECTION FORM
Please write YOUR NAME in block letters below __________________________________ Write the NUMBER of your two first choice units below ________________________ _______________________ We try to ensure that all students are placed into their first choice units, but in some rare cases this might not be possible, so please also include below a second choice unit. _______________________