2011-‐2012
Diploma 8
Eugene Han Outline and Structure 2011/12
Corporate Domain Diploma Unit 8 will continue its line of research into the role of the corporation as an integral and vital element in the development of the contemporary territorial condition with which architecture must now contend. The unit’s core investigation within the Corporate Domain will utilise reductive elements in architecture as a means to understand the prevalent yet seemingly contradictory tendency for the development of an excessively individualised architecture for an ever generic understanding of the corporation and the city. Corporate Complex As the basis for researching and further developing their understanding of the evolving roles of contemporary corporations in relation to the urban contexts with which they intervene and structure, students will be required to develop speculative proposals for a large-‐scale corporate complex. In keeping with the unit’s adoption of form as derived from organisational logic, the design of the contemporary corporate complex must consider both the dynamic nature of economies in the city, and much more importantly, must be able to address underlying static constructions that allow for the perceptible change of the built environment. Fundamental to the methodology taken by the unit, we will seek to understand the process of the architectural ‘object,’ as adopted from a computational definition. Rather than commence proposals on any given size-‐dependent scale, be it small-‐to-‐large or a more non-‐linear sequence, such an object-‐oriented approach necessitates a simultaneous and non-‐scalar implementation of a priori architectural attributes. Corporate Territory The unit will collectively study seminal works in mid-‐twentieth century Europe and the US, as well as current trends and observations contemporary evolutions are producing. Though current trends in expansion and global territorialisation are immediately understandable, projects must demand a deeper understanding of the layered organisations that must be developed in order for such intricate frameworks to exist, and the varied repercussions they incur on architecture. In order to demonstrate their thesis, students will elect their own site and corporation for the development of their yearlong project. The resultant proposals will demonstrate the success and failures of their established architectural elements as tested for a large scale corporate complex within a stated context. The value of projects will be based on both the credibility such speculations can produce, and much more importantly, on the fractional but precise elucidation of the role of the contemporary corporation within the city.
2011-‐2012
Reading List *Publications and Essays will be updated as the year progresses Banham, Reyner. The Architecture of the Well-‐tempered Environment. The University of Chicago Press, 1969, 1984. Banham, Reyner. Silicon Style. The Architectural Review, 1981: 285. Drexler, Arthur, and Axel Menges. SOM: Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1963-‐1973. The Monacelli Press, 2009. Easterling, Keller. Organization Space: Landscapes, Highways, and Houses in America. The MIT Press, 2001. Easterling, Keller. "The Corporate City is the Zone." In Power: Producing the Contemporary City, by Lieven de Cauter, Michiel Dehaene and Saskia Sassen. NAi Publishers, 2007: 75-‐85. Hitchcock, Henry-‐Russell, and Ernst Danz. SOM: Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1950-‐1962. The Monacelli Press, 1999. Hookway, Branden. Pandemonium: The Rise of Predatory Locales in the Postwar World. Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. Kwinter, Sanford. Far from Equilibrium: Essays on Technology and Design Culture. Actar, 2008. Maggia, Filippo, and Sandra S. Philliphs. Gabriele Basilico – Silicon Valley 07. Skira Editore, 2007. Martin, Reinhold. The Organizational Complex: Architecture, Media, and Corporate Space. The MIT Press, 2005. Martin, Reinhold. Utopia’s Ghost. University of Minnesota Press, 2010. Mertins, Detlef, and et al. The Presence of Mies. Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. Rowe, Colin. Chicago Frame. In The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays. The MIT Press, 1976: 89-‐ 117. Thompson, Grahame. The Firm as a ‘Dispersed’ Social Agency. In Economy and Society. 1982: 233-‐250. Weisfeld, Matt. The Object-‐Oriented Thought Process. Addison-‐Wesley, 2009. Ungers, Oswald Matthias, Vieths, Stefan. Ungers. Skira Editore, 1997. Martin, Reinhold. Utopia’s Ghost. Architecture and Postmodernism, Again. University of Minnesota Press, 2010. Alexander, Christopher. Notes on the Synthesis of Form. Harvard University Press, 1964. Visionary Power, Producing the Contemporary City. Eelco van Welie (NAi Publishers), 2007. Linke, Armin. Il Corpo dello Stato. JRP Ringier. 2010. Lupen, Bernard. Frame and Generic Space. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam. 2006
2011-‐2012
Architectural Precedence City Centres -‐Rockefeller Center (Associated Architects. NYC, NY. 1928-‐1940) -‐Lever House (SOM. NYC, NY. 1952) -‐Peachtree Center (John Portman & Associates. Atlanta, GA. 1956-‐65) -‐Inland Steel Building (SOM. Chicago, IL. 1958) -‐Chase Manhattan Bank HQ (SOM. NYC, NY. 1961) -‐Seagrams Building (Mies van der Rohe. NYC, NY. 1960) -‐Union Carbide Building (SOM. NYC, NY. 1960) -‐XYZ Buildings (Wallace Harrison & Max Abramoviz. NYC, NY. 1972) -‐Citicorp Center (Hugh Stubbings & Associates. NYC, NY. 1977) -‐Embarcadero Center (John Portman & Associates. San Francisco, CA. 1982) Suburban/Exurban/Rural -‐Johnson Wax (Frank Lloyd Wright. Racine, WI. 1936-‐39) -‐General Motors Technical Center (Eero Saarinen. Warren, Michigan. 1945-‐56) -‐Connecticut General Life Insurance (SOM. Bloomfield, CT. 1957) -‐Upjohn Headquarters (SOM. Kalamazoo, MI. 1961) -‐IBM Rochester (Eero Saarinen. Rochester, MN. 1961) -‐John Deere Headquarters (SOM. Moline, IL. 1964) -‐Bell Telephone Laboratories (Eero Saarinen. Holmdel, NJ. 1962-‐66) -‐Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters (Norman Foster. Ipswich, UK. 1971-‐75) -‐Union Carbide Corporation World Headquarters (Kevin Roche & John Dinkeloo. Danbury, CT. 1983) Contemporary Cases -‐Silicon Valley (Various architects/corporations) -‐Googleplex (Mountain View, CA. 1997) -‐Facebook Headquarters (Palo Alto, CA. 2009) -‐Microsoft Headquarters (Redmond, WA. 1986) -‐General Mills Headquarters (SOM. Golden Valley, MN. 2008) -‐Nike (Beaverton – Unincorporated Washington County, WA) Other Precedence -‐Orphanage (Aldo Van Eyck, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 1960-‐61) -‐Centraal Beheer (Hermann Hertzberger, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. 1967-‐72) -‐Salk Institute (Louis Kahn, La Jolla, USA. 1959-‐66) -‐Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts (Foster + Partners, Norwich, UK. 1987) -‐Plan Obus (Le Corbusier, A -‐Buikslotermeer Urban Study (Van den Broek and Bakema and Aldo van Eyck, Amsterdam, 1962-‐63) -‐Free University Competition, Candilis-‐Josic-‐Woods, Berlin. 1963-‐73 -‐New Draught Beer Department for Greene King Brewery (Michael Hopkins Architects, Bury St. Edmunds. 1979) -‐The Republic Newspaper Plant (SOM, Columbus, Indiana) -‐Inter-‐Action Centre (Cedric Price, Kentish Town – London) -‐IBM UK Ltd at Northern Road (Foster + Associates, Cosham – UK) -‐Canopy of Steel Trees (Jourda et Perraudin, 1994) -‐Inmos Microprocessor Factory (Richard Rogers & Partners, South Wales – UK) -‐Stansted Airport (Foster + Partners, Stansted – London) -‐Stuttgart Airport (Von Gerkan Marg, Stuttgart – Germany. 1991)
2011-‐2012
TERM 1 The unit’s first term will be organised within 2 major halves. The first half will focus on introducing students to common and significant topics that will influence the course of work for all student projects throughout the year. Included within this first half is a series of seminars, covering the theoretical and historical basis of the corporation and architecture. From historic works of urban architecture from such cities as Chicago and New York City, the seminar will progress to the migration and evolution of such architectures into logistics-‐centred exurbias, and finally recent examples and writings on contemporary architecture/corporate strategies. This seminar will conclude with a series of discussions and writings that will set the tone for students to introduce their own architectural agendas within the yearlong brief. Concurrently, the tutor will lead a series of workshops that investigate structural and fabrication strategies used in large scale buildings and infrastructures. Focusing on examples such as structural frameworks and component detailing, these workshops will make use of both physical models in conjunction with digital analysis using Finite Element Analysis. The final seminar will focus on the nature of contemporary computational frameworks and their relevance to the architectural design process. Using Object-‐Oriented paradigms as a model, this seminar will use such notational standards as UML to introduce students in documenting complex object-‐system relationships. We will introduce students to particular members from the Technical Studies department as well with staff from other related parts of the school. By the end of the term, logistic, conceptual, intellectual, and intermediary design solutions shall be fully worked out, and scrutinised for the end of term jury. By this stage, students should be well within control to continue detailing their physical structures and collecting/documenting corollary information to support their architectural claims throughout the break and during Term 2. The aims for this term is that students set up a precise framework of architectural elements that define their architectural propositions, clarify the type and characteristics of their chosen corporate client, and finally clarify the grammar of elements within their proposals that address a range of operative scales of spaces. Such grammar would need to addresses magnitudes of design that address the contextual situation of the project to the design of interior spaces, as well as constrain levels of organisational domains from the prescribe to the indeterminate plan. The term will conclude with a jury in which students will propose their architectural ambitions alongside their working version of their design ‘manual’ of elements and operation for a corporate complex. As a project site assessment is required by the beginning of the second term, students will be encouraged to make any trips during the Winter Break if they have yet to visit their sites. The schedule provided to outline the structure for Terms 1,2, and 3 should be taken as a general reference only, as dates for events and the nature of the curriculum may be modified to best suit the incoming body of students and the aspects of their developing projects throughout the year.
2011-‐2012
SCHEDULING *Teaching sessions will usually take place during Tuesday or Fridays. This will depend largely on the progression of student projects, scheduling of seminar leaders, and the availability of facilities. Autumn, Week 1 th Monday 26 Sep -‐Diploma Unit 8 brief Presentation th Tuesday 27 Sep -‐Interviews -‐Distribution of brief (first reading assignment, precedent research) th Friday 30 Sep -‐Internal review of past student projects -‐Presentation and discussion of yearlong brief -‐Discussion of work carried out in the 2010/11 academic year Autumn, Week 2 rd Monday 3 Oct -‐Group Tutorials th Tuesday 4 Oct -‐Seminar: The Corporate Complex in the Past th Friday 7 Oct -‐Seminar Review -‐Individual Tutorials Autumn, Week 3 th Tuesday 11 Oct -‐Seminar: The Corporate Complex in Today -‐Group Tutorials th Friday 14 Oct -‐Seminar Review -‐Individual Tutorials Autumn, Week 4 th Tuesday 18 Oct -‐Seminar: On Organisation -‐Group Tutorials: Discussion of client selection, current topics st Friday 21 Oct -‐Seminar Review -‐Individual Tutorials Autumn, Week 5 th Tuesday 25 Oct -‐Workshop: The Frame -‐Group Tutorials th Friday 29 Oct -‐Unit Pinup: Client Selection Review – Final Selection/Approval Preliminary proposals for Frames Site Selection Review Autumn, Week 6 st Tuesday 1 Nov -‐Workshop: The Reductive Element -‐Group Tutorials th Friday 4 Nov -‐Option tutorials if not on student site trips
2011-‐2012
Autumn, Week 7 th Tuesday 8 Nov -‐Individual Tutorials th Friday 11 Nov -‐Unit Pinup: First discussions of comprehensive project ambitions Autumn, Week 8 th Tuesday 15 Nov -‐Group Tutorials th Friday 18 Nov -‐Individual Tutorials Autumn, Week 9 nd Tuesday 22 Nov -‐Group Tutorials th Friday 25 Nov th -‐Individual Tutorials for 4 Year Students th -‐Internal Review of TS5 proposals for 5 Year students Autumn, Week 10 th Tuesday 29 Nov -‐Individual Tutorials nd Friday 2 Dec -‐Unit Pinup: The Project Autumn, Week 11 th Tuesday 6 Dec -‐Individual Tutorials th Friday 9 Dec -‐Individual Tutorials Autumn, Week 12 th Wednesday 14 Dec (TBC) -‐Term 1 Jury th Friday 16 Dec -‐Optional Tutorials if not on student site visits
2011-‐2012
TERM 2 The second term will commence with a presentation and site review from each student, detailing progress made during the Winter Break. We will be carrying through the concepts taken from Term 1, using project design development as a medium for discussion. By the beginning of Term 2, students should arrive to the new term with developed work over the break, whereby the project’s design stage should include a concrete organisational proposal, a breadth of research regarding the functional processes of the chosen client, prototypical structural details relevant to the current design at hand, the general structure of their Technical Studies submission, and an intermediary version of their design ‘manual’. Relative to Term 1, the second term’s structure will be based on much more regularly-‐scheduled tutorials, pinups, and discussions, rather than the inclusion of seminars and group site visits. It is intended that a few outside contributors will participate in discussing student interests and their proposals from perspectives yet to be discussed. Term 2 will conclude with a final jury of invited guests. SCHEDULING Winter, Week 1 th Tuesday 10 Jan -‐Unit Pinup: Comprehensive project status th 5 Year Technical Studies statements and roadmap th Friday 13 Jan -‐Individual Tutorials Winter, Week 2 th Tuesday 17 Jan -‐Individual Tutorials th Friday 20 Jan -‐Individual Tutorials Winter, Week 3 th Tuesday 24 Jan -‐Individual Tutorials th Friday 27 Jan th -‐Unit Pinup : Additional Emphasis on TS5 for 5 Year Students Winter, Week 4 st Tuesday 31 Jan -‐Individual Tutorials rd Friday 3 Feb -‐Individual Tutorials Winter, Week 5 th Tuesday 7 Feb -‐Individual Tutorials th Friday 10 Feb th -‐Unit Pinup : Additional Emphasis on TS5 for 5 Year Students Winter, Week 6 th Tuesday 14 Feb -‐Individual Tutorials th Friday 17 Feb -‐Individual Tutorials Winter, Week 7 st Tuesday 21 Feb -‐Individual Tutorials th Friday 24 Feb -‐Term 2 Jury (TBC)
2011-‐2012
Winter, Week 8 th Tuesday 28 Feb -‐Individual Tutorials nd Friday 2 Mar -‐Individual Tutorials Winter, Week 9 th Tuesday 6 Mar -‐Individual Tutorials th Friday 9 Mar -‐TS5 Interim Jury th -‐Individual Tutorials 4 Year Students Winter, Week 10 th Tuesday 13 Mar -‐Individual Tutorials th Wednesday 14 Mar th -‐4 Year Interim Table Reviews th Thursday 15 Mar th -‐4 Year Interim Table Reviews th Friday 16 Mar -‐Individual Tutorials Winter, Week 11 th Monday 19 Mar -‐Individual Tutorials nd Thursday 22 Mar th -‐5 Year Interim Table Reviews rd Friday 23 Mar th -‐5 Year Interim Table Reviews
2011-‐2012
TERM 3 The majority of time and effort during the final term will focus on finishing production of architectural proposals, detail drawings, representation, and portfolio design. At this stage, students should have a strong grasp of the conceptual foundation of their proposals. At the very beginning of the term, it is critical that students already have strong and clear documentation regarding the physical designs of their building proposal, as well any other corollary documentation finished such as their design ‘manual’. The latter half of the term will be primarily invested in preparing students for their final tables and examinations. SCHEDULING Spring, Week 1 th Tuesday 24 Apr -‐Individual tutorials th Friday 27 Apr -‐TS5 Final Submission Spring, Week 2 st Tuesday 1 May -‐Individual tutorials th Friday 4 May -‐Individual tutorials Spring, Week 3 th Tuesday 8 May -‐Individual tutorials th Friday 11 May -‐Unit Presentation Spring, Week 4 th Tuesday 15 May -‐Individual tutorials th Friday 18 May -‐Individual tutorials Spring, Week 5 nd Tuesday 22 May -‐Individual tutorials th Friday 25 May -‐Unit Presentation Spring, Week 6 th Tuesday 29 May -‐Individual tutorials st Friday 1 Jun -‐Individual tutorials Spring, Week 7 th th Wednesday 6 , Thursday 7 Jun th -‐4 Year Final Table Reviews th Friday 8 Jun -‐Individual tutorials
2011-‐2012
Spring, Week 8 th th Monday 11 Jun/Tuesday 12 Jun -‐Individual tutorials -‐Presentation Check th Wednesday 13 Jun -‐Diploma Committee Day1 th Thursday 14 Jun -‐Diploma Committee Day2 th Friday 15 Jun -‐Diploma Honours Presentation Spring, Week 9 Work shall be carried out by all students on the Projects Review Exhibition space th Monday 18 Jun -‐Tutorials as needed th Wednesday 20 Jun -‐External Examinations for RIBA/ARB Part II nd Friday 22 Jun -‐Graduation -‐Opening of Projects Review Exhibition