AA.inter10.11/12 extended unit brief
„…the metropolis of the information age is not, then, the capital of technology; It is rather the land of the humane, in all it‟s ability to connect it‟s own DNA with that of business, disseminating its own genes in a tight network of parental and entrepreneurial relations…‟ _ Andrea Branzi
„Is there some way I can talk about nature, and bring a certain appreciation for what it represents? „The fact that we come from nature and we have to understand what it is so as not to harm it and ultimately harm ourselves; and that there is an importance to have a certain reverence for what nature is, because we are connected to it and we are part of it and if we destroy nature we destroy ourselves. I believe this is a fundamental philosophical position when I look at the world. So I started thinking that maybe the new landscape of our times, the one to start to talk about, is the landscape that we change, the one that we disrupt in pursuit of progress; so I‟m trying to look at the industrial landscape as a way of defining who we are in our relationship to the planet . It is this new landscape that is growing and is part of our economy, is part of our politics, and it is part of how we elect our governments, it is part of everything we do; it is like a big machine that has started rolling; and I‟m not coming at it to celebrate or glorify this industry nor I‟m trying to damn it. I‟m just trying to say: “well, this is what it is”. To show those types of places allows the viewer to begin to comprehend the scale [of this machine of development]; it is another landscape, it is a landscape but it is a different landscape.‟ _ Edward Burtynsky
Workers’ City Apps The Self-Organizing City v2.0 by Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto
AA.inter10.11/12
1
The agenda: “The aesthetic of ecologic activism” Artist Edward Burtynsky portraits two “manufactured landscapes”.In one nature appears manipulated, machined and reorganised to extract resources; her forces have to find new directions, new equilibria; the result is an exuberant and beautiful landscape where the notion of pollution and devastation is confronted with the one of beauty and origination. In the second the logic of the production line dominates, taming any natural response, any personal initiative and any climatic variation; a super-human rationality pervades the scene producing another kind of beauty, dictated by the power of repetition. Romantic vs. Classic. Gothic vs. Modern In this balance of forces [the exuberance of life vs. the rationality of human production] rests the future of our society, in the juxtaposition of aesthetics lies its ability to evolve a new and more sophisticated interpretation of the relationship with nature from which our survival might depend. Edward Burtynsky shipyards collection
INTER10 will investigate the new aesthetic of the manufactured landscape, and evolve a new sensibility towards this delicate balance of productive forces. The Aesthetic of the Architectural landscape will become our engine of ecologic activism.
Edward Burtynsky quarries collection
After materialising such new models of urbanisation in the Middle East with the Dubai Marine Life Incubators and the Network Oasis projects, INTER10 will this year move to China and focus on its new factory cities. Compared to the Emirates, China offers a fundamental difference: the scale of its social landscape, which is composed of about 1.5 billion individuals within its national boundaries only. This makes Chinese „factory cities‟ real social incubators; in their different declinations they are producing examples of typological hybridisation between the natural landscape and a new manufactured one; our ambition will be to imagine radical design solutions for these territories of sociocultural transformation. This year INTER10 will design “Workers’ City Apps”. We will reinvent the factory typology updating it to the scale of 21st century production and global consumption and turning it into an incubator of urban ecology.
The bierf: As the world urbanises fast, our society loses its direct connection with the natural and rural landscape to manufacture new forms of productive landscapes. The discipline of architecture has yet to recognise these emergent spaces and territories and to formulate typologies capable of cultivating this emergent social capital, turning it into new diversity and richness of expression; however the development of these new proto-architectures is of major interest as cities seem to be on desperate need of finding new centres of social exchange where social structures could be forged. This makes it necessary to shift the scale of our observations from the comparatively small architectural object, to the large manufactured landscapes.
AA.inter10.11/12
Edward Burtynsky factories collection
2
Term1_Urban productive landscapes Term 1 will be structures around 3 different moments: 1_Workers Stories: We will start our research in term1 from reading true stories of Chinese migrant workers; we will analyse their trajectories, their rural origins, their ambitions and their struggles; but especially we will describe these narratives in relationship to their effects on a changing landscape, from rural to urban and back again. Our attention will focus on the migratory attitude of workers as well as on the emergence of the factory as a real social network or city within the urban territory.
Edward Burtynsky factories collection
Term2_Factories Term2 will be devoted to the re-design of a Chinese factory landscape. During the field trip we will select an existing factory and scan its capability to interact with the social, ecological, topological and climatic context.
Edward Burtynsky urban transformations collection
2_Modelling Self-Organization: Working in groups we will introduce parametric drawing and modelling techniques; we will learn how to generate, evaluate, appreciate, control, and visualize patterns of selforganization; finally we will machine prototype models of manufactured landscapes.
Hungarian Pavilion _ Venice Biennale 2006
Our architectural speculations will focus on the material, spatial and temporal articulation of these machines for social organisation and material production; plans, sections and detailed drawings will form the basis to investigate the critical intersection of the emergent factory landscape with the existing natural and artificial one. Term3_ Workers’ City Apps These proposals will provide an architectural stage for the final term3 brief, the “Workers‟ City App” project, prompting the factory spaces to evolve into gardens of social cultivation. The final versions of the Worker City Apps will be used to present the project portfolio and the most successful applet will be commercialised on the App store.
Algae Farming Network Urban Applet _ London
3_Augmented reality: In the last part of the term each group will investigate the potential of augmenting their urban productive landscapes through the conception of four urban design applets, to be tested on Apple‟s iPad. The conception of the Apps will be stimulated by a series of seminars and reading of Italian radical group Archizoom‟s work and theorist Andrea Branzi.
AA.inter10.11/12
3
INTER10_ Re-charging city_ solar desalination dune
The method: Drawings: Drawings will form the basis for all our design investigations; students will be supported by unit staff to acquire the necessary digital design skills to produce the “classic” INTER10 digital drawings [which have been receiving nominations and prices consistently every year]. A first set of drawings will operate as frames to manufacture the productive landscape models; a second set, more detailed, will describe new proto-factories, and a third set will serve as a spatial stage for the workers‟ city applications.
INTER10_ Bio-quarry productive landscape garden - Dubai
Video simulations / animated drawings: The design of artificial productive landscapes and workers‟ cities implies the manipulation and incorporation of human and natural behaviour within artificial structures; it requires making assumptions about their potential of survival, intensification, growth or shrinkage. These assumptions will be visualized and tested with two kinds of “simulations”. Digital simulations will be achieved by animating our digital diagrams and drawings in time while time lapsing video techniques will be used to capture spatial and behavioural effects of our prototype models as they unfold in time.
INTER10_ MIST city _ fog harvesting prototype model
INTER10_ Eden Eden Eden self-generating oasis_ Al Ain_ UAE
Prototype models: Inter10 models are not representational “maquettes” but are fabricated and deployed as tools of experimentation; we treat them as generative prototypes enabling us to understand and “cultivate” new environmental, structural or material performances and behaviours. The main set of prototypes will be developed in term1 and 2 and will serve as platform for the development of the TS3 module.
AA.inter10.11/12
Field work and research: Inter10 field trips are moments of intense field work, research, exploration and of course fun. Following last year‟s hugely successful formula we will create 4 independent research teams that will craft their individual explorative itinerary through the Chinese countryside and urban terrain. Such individual effort will be coordinated by a collective agenda that will bring us all together in predefined strategic locations where we will be able to exchange information, experiences and meet local partners and cultural groups. The results of the trip will form the basis for our projects in terms2 and 3 and will be collected in a research book.
4
- The 2min. long “Worker‟s city App” demo/video: The Apps demo or short video illustrating the project as a digital interface and as a related prototypical space or territory in the city. -Technical study book: Collecting and illustrating the technical research and design development; this component is compulsory for all third year students and constitutes the key TS3 submission material. The year will terminate with the production of a Unit book; for reference see last year’s “World Dubai Marine Life Incubators” available in the library on the unit shelf and at the AA bookshop.
INTER10_ Material self-organisation_ soap bubble model
The technical studies brief: This year INTER10 will experiment with a new type of technical study model, fully integrated within the unit‟s agenda. We will have our own technical study tutor that will work with individual students and alongside the TS3 staff in the development of dedicated TS3 books. The brief of INTER10’s TS3 study this year will be the spatial and performative re-functionalisation of existing large scale factory warehouses. Students will be encouraged to develop the technical feasibility of a set of specific operations to be executed on the existing building; such operations can range from interventions on its envelope, its internal microclimate or its structure. Each prototypical intervention will be tested to simulate and compare the behaviour of the factory complex before and after the interventions. Students will be encouraged to focus on a specific set of parameters, build a physical prototype and time lapse a series of simulations.
INTER10_ the hanging gardens of Jebel Hafeet
The unit staff: AAInter10 encourages studio work to support the development of the Unit as an “ecology of ideas”. Term one will be predominantly group work; individual projects in term2 and 3 will be cross referenced and connected to the unit research. A series of open discussions and pin-ups will be organized both with experts in London and in China which will provide information and feedback on the work in progress. A guest list and dedicated seminars series will be compiled during the year.
Inter10 seeks students with a strong sense of curiosity towards the social and natural sciences, interest in landscape architecture and an exploratory attitude towards a new definition of ecologic architecture.
INTER10_ Algae Farming Station
Students in Inter10 are encouraged to expand the boundaries of their discipline, enriching their portfolio and tools set with techniques and methods borrowed from biology, computer science, media design and digital crafting.
The portfolio: The final portfolio will be structured to support and emphasize the experimental ethos of the unit and will feature the following components. -The LabBook: The book format portfolio illustrating the year long research, design development, prototypes and components, compiled around the project‟s narrative and suggesting implementation as an urban Application. The book will be square, 40 by 40 cm of size and will include 5 large folded up drawings.
AA.inter10.11/12
5
Inter10 reading list: Unique in the school, the Inter10 has published two books from the projects in UAE that will serve as reference for the students during the year. Also ecoLogicStudio will publish its first main book with Routledge in January 2012; the theory contain the book will serve as main text for seminars and discussions with the students during the year. Further suggested readings include: 1_Atlas of Novel Tectonics _ Reiser+Umemoto_ Princeton Architectural Press 2_Deleuze&Guattari for Architects _ Andrew Ballantyne_Routledge 3_The tree ecologies_Felix Guattari_Routledge 4_A thousand years of nonlinear history- Manuel De Landa_Swerve 5_Walkscapes, walking as an eastethic practice _ Francesco Careri_ GG 6_Constant's New Babylon_ Mark Wigley 7_Weak and Diffuse Modernity_ Andrea Branzi_Skira 8_Le jardin planétaire – il giardiniere planetario _ Gilles Clement _ 22publishing 9_A thousand Machines_Gerald Raunig_ semiotext(e) 10_Occupying and Connecting _ Frei Otto _ Menges 11_Emergent technologies and design_ Hensel, Menges, Weinstock_ Routledge 12_Landscape Urbanism, A manual for the machinic landscape_ Ciro Najle_ AA Pubblications 13_Space Craft, Development in Architectural Computing – David Littlefield _ RIBA Pubblishing 14_Environmental Tectonics _ AA Publication 15_Fibrous Room _ GG Gallery Pubblications 16_The Informal City, Caracas Case _ Brillenburg, Klumpner _ Prestel 17_Youniverse, BIACS3 _ Seville Biennale 2008 _ Catalogue 18_The World Dubai Marine Life incubators_ INTER10_ecoLogicStudio Publishing 19_Future City_ Catalogue_Thames and Hudson
AA.inter10.11/12
6