Part 2 Testing The Question
On Understanding & Interpretation “Sometimes we are satisfied with our understanding. That is the moment when we allow ourselves not to interpret.” - Markus Breitschmid “...everything in the world is connected with something else.” - Alexander Spirkin “Designing minds combine change and acceptance in varying degrees.” - Simon Unwin
On Understanding & Interpretation Architects never work with a tabula rasa, or blank slate. We always work from something, towards something. So, a question: How do we interpret, draw from, and presence architecture relative to a collective, yet particular understanding within the art of building? Understanding is a grounding of knowledge. It relies upon substantive works with essential traces of architectural knowledge passed on through millennia, thus allowing us to build upon the collective knowledge of building. Interpretation is a particular reading of a work of substance, with one’s thinking projected upon, or drawing from, another’s understanding towards a means of building. Interpretation challenges past works and ideas, and allows one to attain another position of architectural understanding. As Juhani Pallasmaa once wrote, “memory is the soil for the imagination.” In one way or another then, architecture is always a collection of conversations with the past. Thus, in one’s practice in architecture is one’s interpretation of what they know about making architecture. Practicing architecture is the matter of which conversations one chooses to have with the past and how one chooses to have those conversations interact to build in the present. It has been said that nothing in the world stands by itself – that every object and thought is a link in an endless chain and is thus connected with all the other links. Architecture then, can be thought of as a single strand in an infinite eb of intellectual connections. So, what are the intellectual connections in architecture that we form to project our own work? Do we get to decide what connections we make, or are these connections unearthed and discovered? The thesis is curious about the way that we draw from what we know about architecture and how that influences how we access knowledge in our surroundings to make architecture.
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Working through the question: an early formulation of the thesis argument.
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Thinking through the thinking hand. A formulation of the relationship between understanding and interpretation in architecture.
Understanding & Interpretation In Architecture: A Diagram What is the structure of the relationship between understanding and interpretation in architecture? The relationship is understood as a series of datum lines that represent levels of understanding. The act of interpretation via the diagram may lead to many different ways of thinking, but ultimately leads to another position of architectural understanding.
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“Understanding is different from interpretation because it provides a moment when something is complete. Understanding gives a stable ground from which to operate and from which to give meaning to all things. How else would we be able to even begin a new interpretation if there is not something already understood?” “…everything encountered is not interpreted. How do we decide what to interpret? It requires a prior understanding as something meaningful, a moment of fi ed meaning that is entirely satisfactory to the perceiver of an object at the moment when he is first confronted with it. It is that relatively fi ed understanding that motivates him, at times, to understand the object more fully and to begin the subsequent interpretive act.” “What would the interpretation even mean to us [without understanding], since it would push us into an infinite process of continuous interpretation without having moments of grounding understanding?” “We seek interpretation because we are not satisfied with current understanding. We desire to make understanding total, and that desire can be stirred by an almost infinite number of impacts, but that new or higher understanding is related to the older (now considered inadequate) understanding.” “Such a functional distinction allows for a fluid cycle in which understanding is a product of prior interpretation but now is immediately grasped. In other words, what is now immediately understood may once have been the product of a labored interpretation and may form the basis for further interpretation.” “Sometimes we are satisfied with our understanding. That is the moment when we allow ourselves not to interpret.”
Markus Breitschmid - Between Object And Culture: On The Interpretation Of Architecture The book is written in response to Johannes Albrecht’s essay titled, “Against the Interpretation of Architecture.” Breitschmid outlines the need for concrete, substantive understandings in architecture that grounds one’s knowledge of building in order to make any interpretation. The interpretive act is necessary because humans are inherently curious. We never are satisfied with our cu rent knowledge.
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“Everything that happens in the world may be attributed to the interaction of things...So everything in the world is connected with something else.” “Nothing in the world stands by itself. Every object is a link in an endless chain and is thus connected with all the other links. And this chain of the universe has never been broken; it unites all objects and processes in a single whole and thus has a universal character. We cannot move so much as our little fin er without “disturbing” the whole universe. The life of the universe, its history lies in an infinite web of connections.” “The human individual, for example, is not a lone traveller amid the jungles of existence. He is a part of the world interacting in various ways with that world. Separate cultures are not closed, isolated islands. They are like great waves in the ocean of history, which work upon each other, often merging into even broader waves, often clashing with waves of a different dimension, so that the regular rhythm of the rise and fall of individual waves is broken.” “The origin and development of objects depend on interaction. Every kind of interaction is connected with material fields and involves transference of matter, motion and information. Interaction is impossible without a specific material ehicle.” “Not a single phenomenon in the world can be explained out of itself, without taking into account its interactions with other objects. Interaction is not only the initial point of cognition but also its culminating point.”
Alexander Spirkin - Dialectical Materialism: The Concept Of Universal Connection Spirkin discusses an idea that any one thing in the universe somehow finds connection with everything else - it is just a matter of finding that connection between two things. In architecture, how do we discover, and then draw from, these connections between different realms of knowledge in order to build?
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“In dealing with the world, people sometimes accept what the world provides or does and at others they try to change it to achieve a view of how it should be – how the world might be more comfortable, more beautiful or better order than it is. Our interaction with the world can be thought of as a mixture of these two responses: to accept or to change. The designing mind is faced with the double question, ‘What should one try to change; and what should one accept as it is?’” “…architecture is philosophy (in a conventional sense). It has to do with trying to understand how the world works and what the response should be. There is no single correct answer but a mixture of wondering and assertion, considering which factors impinge on a situation and how they should be dealt with.” “Products of architecture combine acceptance of some aspects with change of others. There is, however, no general rule to dictate which aspects are accepted and which should be changed or controlled.” “This fundamental indeterminacy lies at the heart of many of the great debates about architecture through history and in the present: should architects follow tradition or should they strive for novelty and originality; should materials be used in the state in which they are found or be subject to the processes of manufacture that change their innate character…?” “Designing minds combine change and acceptance in varying degrees. In some products of architecture the attitude of change and control seems to dominate; in others it is the attitude of acceptance and responsiveness that appears to prevail.”
Simon Unwin - Analysing Architecture Unwin discusses how there is an acceptance of certain things in architecture, while other things are subject to changes. Perhaps those things that are accepted are understandings and the things that seem to change are interpretations. But, what are the things in architecture that we accept and what are the things that we should challenge and test?
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Lock Number Two: A Site To Draw From “In architectural design, the demands of relating a building to a physical location are necessary and inevitable...” - Carol Burns “The site is neither pure nor ideal; it is “claimed,” which is to say it is preoccupied, by knowledge and power and time.” - Carol Burns “…the site is made in the work of architecture and is necessary if the work of architecture is to be made.” - Carol Burns
Lock Number Two: A Site To Draw From Architects build on sites but since architects are always working from something to ground the work and give it place, the site can inspire, as well. The site is what Ernesto Rogers, on the topic of architectural context, calls the preesistenze ambientali, or the surrounding preexistences. One can argue that preesistenze ambientali and history are intimately linked. Rogers writes that, “to consider l’ambiente means to consider history...To understand history is essential for the formation of the architect, since he must be able to insert his own work into the preesistenze ambientali and to take it dialectically, into account.” The site, in tandem with its kairos surroundings, offers fragments of material history and immaterial constraints that can be harnessed by the architect to generate architecture and deepen meaning within the project. In the past, potential sites for architecture were chosen carefully on a basis of health. In De Architectura, Chapter Four of Book One, Vitruvius describes how Roman ancestors would allow sheep to graze and drink near a potential site for fortification. They would examine the livers of these sheep to determine whether or not the site was “healthful.” If the livers were degenerate as a result of disease and malnourishment, then the site was considered unsuitable for human habitation. But if the “local water and fodder had produced perfect, solid livers, there they would lay their fortification .” In grounding the thesis project, just as in the Roman Empire, the selection of site was a careful decision. The “health” or suitability of the thesis site can be measured by the ways it might support, enrich, and nourish the thesis question. What site can provoke a deeper exploration of understanding and interpretation in architecture? The selected site is located at the eastern terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The project finds grounding on the banks of Lock Number Two at the terminus of the canal in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. The site is rooted in a robust legacy of constructive knowledge with an attention to material and formal craft at the scale of the human body. The site is connected with archaic and contemporary understandings of architecture, and provides a framework to provoke various levels of architectural interpretation.
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The locks are enumerated with historic signage along the length of the canal. Lock Number Two is the selected site for the thesis project.
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The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. Georgetown, Washington D.C.
The Sutro Baths ruin. San Francisco, California.
Fort Point. San Francisco, California.
The irregular geometry of the canal contrasts with the grid of Georgetown.
Ruined fragments of architecture are scattered around a pool of water, protected from the ocean by a retaining wall.
The historic fort rests below the Golden Gate Bridge, at the foot of the bay.
Sites To Draw From A range of sites were tested for a richness of historic content, constructive material identity, and strong sense of place. The sites were graphically analyzed to distill relationships within their immediate surroundings. Of the selected sites, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal offered the greatest breadth and depth of architectural information from which to draw. The canal cuts through the architectural landscape of Georgetown which poses an interesting question of threshold and crossing.
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The old abandoned Grain Terminal in Red Hook. New York City, New York.
A small island along the Danube River. Regensburg, Germany.
San Marco Water Taxi Port. Venice, Italy.
The grain terminal is the connection between the water of the docks, and the city beyond.
Water surrounds all sides of a very long and narrow island. How does the history of the city cross the river?
As a primary entrance to the city of Venice, what is the historic connection between the water and the floating city?
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The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal The C & O Canal, or the “Grand Old Ditch,� was constructed from 1828 - 1850 and was operational until 1924, when it was abandoned. It extends 184.5 miles from Cumberland, Maryland to Georgetown, Washington, D.C. The canal uses 74 lift locks to raise and lower boats 610 feet in elevation and connects with many other towns in Maryland and Virginia along the way. The original intent of the canal was to carry goods - primarily coal, from the mines out west to Washington, D.C.
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History Of The Canal Canal boats used to be pulled by mules on a trail to the side of the canal, known as a “towpath.” Canal boats had to navigate locks carefully - for the boat fit the lock “like a nickel in the slot.” The lock gates are near replicas of Da Vinci’s design for the miter lock. Iron furnaces, stone mills, and woodshops were scattered along the length of the canal, which contributed to its material construction in lumber, iron, limestone, sandstone, Red Seneca stone, and cement.
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The historic material qualities of the canal informs the material presence of the surrounding architecture. The old towpath that parallels the canal has become highly refined and civilized towards the retail and business core of Georgetown. Away from the heart of Georgetown, the towpath is more raw. Today, it is popular for running, bicycling, and other recreational activities.
The Canal - Present & Past Constant flooding, combined with the rise of the railroad system, caused the canal to be abandoned. Today, the canal is used primarily for recreational activities, such as running and bicycling, and is protected as a national historic park. In Georgetown, the canal is a casual pedestrian throughway that offers peaceful respite from the city.
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The locks are 15 feet wide, 90 feet long, and varied in depth. The walls of Lock Number One shown above, are about 15’ high.
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Construction drawings reveal a variation of wood, cut stone, and iron cramps to form the canal.
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To Cumberland Site
Canal Terminus
Georgetown, Washington D.C. Georgetown is the terminus of the Chesapeake + Ohio Canal, where the canal empties into the Potomac River. The site is located two miles northwest of the core of Washington, D.C.
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A careful, crafted aspect of permanence is given to the materials that articulates the address of residences in Georgetown.
The lock gates of the canal weave together a rich palette of material. Iron lays within stone and brick surfaces support the giant wood gates.
There is a thoughtful way that brick is used to craft essential elements of architecture in Georgetown, such as this residential stair.
The walls along the canal towpath showcase a robust compendium of local stone.
Georgetown - Craft Of Building There is profound history of construction craft present in Georgetown, particularly in the way material comes together to articulate the surfaces of the city. The walls are often composed of a rich variety of locally quarried stone. The walking surfaces are carefully paved in different courses of brick. Metal work carefully finds its place within stone substrat .
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Georgetown Architecture The extant architecture of the city reveals a careful attention to the scale of materials and form. Larger masses are always broken down into finer components which brings the architecture closer to the scale of people. Fine details tuned to the human hand and body permeate the built environment of Georgetown.
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The Four Locks Of Georgetown At the east end of Georgetown, four locks in sequence step the canal down east to the Potomac River. The Georgetown city block provides a different urban boundary around each lock. How does the existing architecture change from one lock to another, and how does it inform the selection of site?
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Lock Number One
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Site Survey - Lock Number Four The architecture bounding Lock Number Four is characterized by townhomes that contain shops, small businesses, and private residences. Small building volumes with intricate detail establish an architectural rhythm that is sensitive to the pace of walking along the towpath.
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Site Survey - Lock Number Three A finer scale of building makes its way to the next block of residences with aged picket fences that enclose private backyards. The towpath receives greater attention as a path. Regularly spaced guard posts keep pedestrians a safe distance from the canal edge. The topography continues to slope down towards the Potomac River.
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Site Survey - Lock Number Two The existing, more contemporary edifice is unlike the buildings of finer scale found on the preceding locks. The unique elements of detail and craft that are ever present in Georgetown are lost. The scale of building has changed to accommodate a large number of professional businesses at a higher density. Yet, the vast dimension and planarity of the building sharply reveals the nature of the topography.
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Site Survey - Lock Number One At the first lock, the land steeply slopes towards water level. The adjacent architecture gets even larger in scale - a large hotel marks the end of the canal, and the edge of Georgetown. The towpath travels through a dense tree canopy before ending at the edge of a highway.
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Drawing Out A Site The canal presents a question of connection - between north and south, between old and new, between architecture and nature. Possible sites are projected that span either side of the canal in Georgetown to challenge these curiosities of connection.
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Lock Number Two The selected site is divided into two city blocks by the canal at Lock Number Two. M Street NW is a primary traffic artery in Georgetown and borders the north edge of the site. The site marks the beginning of the array of craft-oriented retail shops that have characterized M Street for years. How does this site, disconnected to the literal historic presence draw from that nearby presence to find connection through a new ar hitectural intervention?
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Lock Number Two from 30th Street NW looking east towards Lock Number One and the terminus of the canal.
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View from the canal towpath at Lock Number Two and looking west towards Lock Number Three.
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Bicycle Craft Facility: A Program To Draw From “Where function does not change form does not change....form ever follows function. This is the law.” - Louis Sullivan “...most of a bicycle’s aesthetic characteristics derive primarily from functionality...and we’re with Louis Sullivan.” - Tony Hadland & Hans-Erhard Lessing “I really don’t like the gym. I like experiences, so I take any chance I get to go on a bicycle...” - Blake Lively
Bicycle Craft Facility: A Program To Draw From In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, canal boat families got together in Georgetown to visit various shops of craft: from food shops on M Street to get ice cream or pies to retail items for kitchenware, leather goods, or shoes. The site is bound to the north by M-Street and is obliged to address the retail and craft that still remains as Georgetown’s identity. Given the recreational, contemporary use of the towpath, as well as the rich history of the canal and the city, a bicycle craft facility was chosen as a program to test the thesis question. Bicycles expose an idea about connection. They are beautiful objects of craft that outwardly presence formal connections between different materials to facilitate travel. They are compound machines that combine the functions of very archaic simple machines and efficiently demonstrate the working parts essential to its use. Basically, human force from the legs turns the crankset and pedals which provides motion to a wheel and axle - which is a simple idea of a lever rotating about an axis. Over time, an understanding of assembly, tectonics, and craft of material allowed people to travel faster and farther, with less effort. A bicycle is a prime example of how different pieces of knowledge can come together to make a useful and beautiful contribution to civilization. The same is done in architecture. Thus, in engaging both the site and the thesis, a bicycle craft facility is a provocative, contemporary program that taps into ways of making that can be traced through various points in history. This enables the thesis to find relevance within contemporary society, while reaching back to the past to find new connections between old elements of knowledge and ideas.
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A bicycle craft facility can architecturally demonstrate a knowledge of how the bicycle works, and as well be informed architecturally by the bicycle and the site.
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Building Programs & History The first pass at generating a building program for the thesis project primarily involved uses that directly engaged history, such as museums and libraries. But how can a program with more challenging, contemporary utility draw from historic influences that the sit , architecture, materiality, and thesis question have to offer?
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Building Programs Seeking Connection The thought of the canal dividing the site in two leads to thinking of a bipartite program. How do two different building programs find physical connection across a dividing entity? The contemporary recreational use of the towpath, in tandem with the rich history of the canal led to the selection of a bicycle facility for the program. The initial conception of the bicycle assembly and rental facility evolves into a tripartite program of assembly, design, and exhibition. How can three programs connect?
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Separation The assembly space is located towards M Street, to reveal the process of making to passerby. The building footprint is broken down towards the street to reflect the scale of the small storefronts that are characteristic of Georgetown. The bracket shaped volumes for bicycle design and exhibition form a plaza to the south of the site. Small bridges connect the three buildings across the canal and towpath.
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Parallel The three programs follow each other linearly along the length of the site. All three span across the canal and connect with each other along the way to encourage interaction. Design is the center line, feeding ideas into the exhibition and assembly spaces. In the same way, exhibition and assembly can influence the ay that bicycles are designed.
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Connection The assembly volume rests on the north of the site by M Street, while the exhibition space lies across the canal to the south. Design is a long bar space that runs the length of the site, finding many points of connection with the other two buildings. The form of the building footprints form many courtyards and pockets to narrow the depth of the plan and bring more light into each building. How do the buildings find connection with the canal and the t wpath?
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Draisine 1817
Pedal Bicycle 1863
Starley “Ariel� Bicycle 1871
Karl Drais discovers that a vehicle with two aligned wheels can be balanced with little effort. It is the beginning of replacing horses as a means of travel. The frame structure and wheels are constructed from wood. It is propelled by foot to ground contact.
The original pedal bicycle applies rotational leverage forces of pedaling directly to the front driving wheel. The wooden frame becomes wrought iron. The seat now rests across a thin piece of iron, acting somewhat like a spring to make the ride a little more comfortable.
James Starley introduces a trussing dimension to the spokes of the wheel. Solid rubber tires make bumps in the road less jolting. A hollow-steel frame reduces the weight of the bicycle, while making it stronger. Ball bearings in the axle reduce rotational friction.
Velocipede 1839
High-Wheel Bicycle 1869
The Safety Bicycle 1885
The Velocipede is the first mechanically powered two-wheel vehicle. Treadles connect to a crank mounted on the back wheel via a pair of rods. This system parallels a steam locomotive transmission. It positions propelling forces off of the driving wheel.
Eugene Meyer invents the wirespoke tension wheel, which allows the diameter of the wheel to increase. This multiplies the leveraging power from pedaling even further to increase speed. However, the seat is difficult to access as a result of the bicycle anatomy.
The bicycle is levelled in everyday transport tool availa everyone. Power returns to th wheel through a chain drive con to the pedals, which reduces Corners are easier to handle w pedals now located in a mid drive position.
The Legacy Of Bicycles Like architecture, bicycles draw from the past. The way the bicycle is constructed has evolved with advancements in material - as is the case for architecture as well. The first bicycle was a wood construction, without pedals or gears. Over two centuries, the bicycle developed pedals, gears, a light steel frame, a braking system, soft tires, cushioning for the body, and facility to travel over any topography. Can the contemporary craft of bicycle design and construction inform the contemporary craft of architecture?
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The Racer Bicycle Early 1900s
Bicycle Motocross Early 1970s
Mountain Bicycle 1981
Handlebar form and location is manipulated to alter human form when competing at fast speeds. A lower position forces the rider to hunch forward. While more aerodynamic, it places more force on the wrists and hands. The handle form and material becomes important.
Racing in off-road venues becomes popular. The wheel diameter is reduced for quick maneuvers. The tire gains dimension: in width to increase surface traction, and in thickness to absorb shock from uneven ground. The frame thickens for the same reason.
In rocky climbs, the wheels remain small to make quick turning adjustments. Shock absorbing springs make the ride more tolerable for the rider. A deep yet hollow section makes the frame strong but light. Mud flaps over the wheels decrease spray from wet earth.
nto an able to he rearnnected work. with the d-wheel
Derailleur Bicycle 1925
Recumbent Bicycle Late 1970s
Commuter Bicycle 1990s
The ability to shift gears allows the user to reduce the amount of force required in steep inclines. Simultaneously gears reduce the frequency of pedal cycles at fast and long straightaways. The bicycle is now able to traverse more diverse topography.
The recumbent bicycle is the fastest bicycle in the world. The rider’s positioning forms a smaller frontal profile. The chair seat assumes a laid-back posture, taking pressure off the hands, and distributing it over a larger surface area to the glutes and back.
The city bike is very pragmatic. Baskets, straps, and flatbeds secure various items. The frame is thin and light for maximum portability. The wheels are larger but thinner for paved, flat streets. Flaps keep flying dirt off of pristine business clothes.
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Connecting Gears Gears have become essential to the function of the contemporary bicycle. A gear is a wheel with teeth that meshes with the teeth of another gear to transmit power on a continuous basis. Combining gears of different diameters affects the rotation speed and force output, which ultimately means more or less work for the person powering the bicycle. Gears form a cyclical connection with the crankset through the bicycle chain. What can the idea of cyclical connection bring to the organization of the project?
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Exhibition
Design
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Assembly
Two Cycles The relationship between the three programs will be considered as bi-cyclical. The pedals and crankset of Design provide the intellectual power to pull ideas through the looping chain of Assembly, eventually making a full revolution. Design iterates and Assembly tests.
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Exhibition
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Assembly
Finding Connection Finally, when the designed idea of the bicycle fully manifests itself in its built form, the bicycle is sent forward to Exhibition. The public observes and tests the exhibited bicycles and offer comments and feedback about their experience with a particular bicycle. This knowledge cycles back to Design, and perhaps challenges the understandings of what a bicycle is to a bicycle craftsman. This feedback provokes ideas - designer’s interpretations that lead to other positions of understanding bicycle craft.
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Buildings are thought of simple, rectilinear volumes, while thoughts of a bicycle path follow tangential and circumferential geometry to contrast and connect with the architecture.
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What are the paths of circulation for a visitor or a worker? How does the architecture engage with the grid and the rhythms of Georgetown?
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Assembly
An understanding of the facility’s organization is found through the layering of the site, building footprints, circulation, and metaphor of connection.
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Siting The Project Three building volumes rest on the site and find connection across the canal through a bicycle testing track. Each building’s footprint gets smaller to the north in response to the surrounding building context and the finer scale retail shops found along M Street NW - the primary traffic a tery in Georgetown.
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Assembly
Metaphor To Form The metaphor of two cycles connecting the three buildings directly translates into the form of the testing track. The bicycle track is a horizontal datum line that reveals the 36 foot slope of the site and, as a result, connects all three buildings through three different means of spatial interaction: at the base of the exhibition space, the core of the design space, and the rooftop of the assembly space. A small, “sunken� pedestrian bridge at ground level crosses over the canal as well.
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Design
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The encircling geometry of the bicycle track finds harmony within the rectilinear architecture, and is the primary means for visitors to gain a profound understanding of building through the process of bicycle craft.
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A Space For Assembly The assembly space reveals the processes and meets the spatial demands of bicycle construction. This sketch suggests a place to store raw material. Simple, but beautiful machines such as gears and pulleys expose the historic essences of how man and machine interact to do work. The surfaces of columns change relative to the human body in space. Steel at the base transitions to leather wrappings - a vestige of the bicycle crafting process becomes part of the architectural structure.
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A Space For Design The body is superimposed and analyzed in various sitting positions - working, thinking, stretching, and relaxing. The body is the perfect metric to craft the ideal space for design, which is assumed at 6 feet. A simple desk is precisely 28 inches high, the ideal height for a person sitting in a chair 18 inches off of the floo . A ribbon window is placed at a seated eye-level to view the surroundings in pensive moments, while the rest of the wall becomes pin up space for drawings - a vertical extension of the work surface.
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A Space For Exhibition The exhibition space embodies a summative knowledge of building, and building the bicycle. It is both a gallery and a shop for the art objects resulting from bicycle craft. The space is tall to suspend an ethereal cloud of bicycles at various heights overhead. Walls transition from heavy stone to light glass panels at dimensions that are sensitive to and shared by the human body and the bicycle. A visitor receives a bicycle from the heavens and tests it on the bicycle craft facility track.
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A Space For Exhibition “Natural materials express their age and history, as well as the story of their origins and their history of human use.” - Juhani Pallasmaa Natural materials - stone, brick...allow our vision to penetrate their surfaces and enable us to become convinced of the veracity of matter.” - Juhani Pallasmaa “...we are rooted in the continuity of time, and in the man-made world it is the task of architecture to facilitate this experience.” - Juhani Pallasmaa
A Space For Exhibition Many historians take the stance the no one can reinvent the wheel. Kruft writes, “New systems emerge from debates on older systems; there is no such thing as an entirely new system, and if a system claims to be such, it is either stupid or dangerous. Thus architectural theory and the history thereof are synonymous, to the extent that the present position always represents a phase in the historical process.� The Space For Exhibition is a showcase for the bicycle in all its iterations. It is the space that holds the sum of all collective knowledge about making bicycles and the consequent efforts to use that knowledge with a contemporary means of utility. The architecture seeks to reflect the meaning of the program through the presencing of the methods of building to make space. A Space For Exhibition exposes a timeline of building knowledge ranging from archaic through the most contemporary means of working with material. The exhibition space is divided into two masses to make room for the bicycle track, yet the frame holding the bicycles is continuous and cuts through the two buildings. A massive plinth foundation of bedrock embodies the ancient, rich, and voluminous base of collective knowledge in architecture. A wall launches from the plinth with great mass and thickness at the base to hold the weight of the millennia of knowledge it supports. Frame construction springs off of the heavy wall below that allows the wall to use less mass to work structurally. This imparts ideas of building between structure with panels, skins, and other fill material to enclose space. Arguably, this method of construction embodies principles such as rhythm and repetition. Finally, the wall transitions to sheets of glass - one of the most contemporary materials used in architecture. Through learning and experimentation with the properties of glass and its intersection with other materials, contemporary technology allows this material to be its own structure. Perfectly transparent glass, held by nothing other than itself, displays an array of hanging bicycles within the building. The construction of a Space For Exhibition transitions from great thickness to almost none, presencing thousands of years of past work, efforts, thinking, and innovation to achieve a contemporary, urban pinnacle of display: a temple-like glass jewel box.
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The plan oblique reveals the tall and narrow proportions of the two exhibition buildings, and the gridded frame that unites them. The track begins in the center of the plinth, between the two building volumes. An entrance for facility workers tunnels through the plinth, to connect directly at grade with the design building.
Beautifully crafted bicycles that are manifestations of the process of understanding and interpretation descend from the sky to be tested on the bicycle track. A Space For Exhibition
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The entrance into the bicycle craft facility could have offered a large public plaza to Georgetown. Bicycles would hang overhead outside and two small masses would flank the ends of the plaza.
The selected option splits the long facade into five segments - each equal to the short facade. The center segment is eliminated to make way for the bicycle track in the entrance plaza, while the frame cuts through the two remaining volumes.
Exhibition Entry Two bar-shaped volumes rests on a plinth. At the top of the stairs, the two buildings are divided in the center to form an entry plaza and the start of the bicycle testing track. The frame from which bicycles are suspended cuts through both volumes and is immediately presenced at entry.
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A Temple To Bicycles Washington, D.C. is a city of monuments, temples, and other historic architectural typologies that exude an aura of strength, awe, and wonder. The exhibition space is conceived as a temple to bicycle craft. The ancient idea of plinth found in Greek temples layers itself within the idea of the contemporary urban temple. In section, a massive “U� shaped stone base provides a solid foundation for a precious glass box, much like the Fifth Avenue Apple Store, to rest atop.
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What are the archaic elements of the idea of “temple� that carry through into the contemporary temple to bicycles?
How does the exhibition space connect to the other two programmatic volumes?
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Proportion, Form, & Scale The space is divided in a six foot square module - the measure of the body and bicycle. The short dimension of the building is six bicycles wide by nine bicycles tall. The long dimension of the building is fi e times the short dimension, plus the plinth and stair is six. 6:1 is the longest proportion of stone along the canal and is the proportion between the short and long dimensions of the building. Formal simplicity allows material to generate a greater spatial presence.
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The Vitruvian Man and bicycle are superimposed to ponder their coexistence in space.
The Pyramids of Giza rise from a solid base for strength and permanence.
The entrance to exhibition draws from Greek temple symmetry along the long axis.
The thinning of structure over time challenges how thin a steel frame to hold bicycles might be.
Past tools of building are carefully crafted to shape material. How are materials formed today?
The past shows many ways of how material may join. How does steel meet to make the frame?
Glass fins quietly support the glass panels in the space, like The Fifth Avenue Apple Store.
Exhibition evokes spatial symmetry through the entrance condition, like the Thorncrown Chapel.
The idea of the frame is an idea drawn from past explorations of architecture.
Drawing From Building The exhibition space presences ideas of building from all over the world, in various points in time. It draws from substantive understandings of architecture, as well as past thoughts of architects, builders, and other craftsmen. Perhaps the building not only sits on a plinth of stone, but also a plinth of architectural thought. The building exhibits the bicycle, yet also exhibits a vast volume of building knowledge.
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What is the expression of material to the exterior of the wall?
Stone within steel frames shows that contemporary masonry is no longer loadbearing construction.
The construction transitions to a thin envelope of glass at the top of the wall.
A massive, rough aggregate concrete wall rests upon a strong plinth of bedrock.
Marble is placed in the wall. Where concrete is brittle, a stronger material finds its place.
The moment of connection between the base and the body of the wall is articulated with a reveal.
The bedrock foundation is held together with lime mortar and sinks deep into the ground.
The base of the wall finds its measure from the body and bicycle.
How does a floor to exhibit bicycles draw from that which it serves?
Wall Section This stone base at first gives an impression of weight and mass, as if the construction was stereotomic, which is the way the wall section was initially conceived – as a transition from mass to lightness. However, it is actually a contemporary tectonic understanding in that a steel fili ree construction allows a thin veneer of stone to be hung along horizontal steel channels and allow for a greater economy of material while still giving the outward impression of weight.
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Stone panels range from 2:1 to 6:1 - drawn from the proportions of stone along the canal.
The cramp becomes a meaningful, place-specific commentary of the contemporary stone joint.
Brick pavers within a two foot panel bring the surfaces of Georgetown to the exterior plinth.
A coarse aggregate at the base concrete panel gives the archaic sense of stereotomy and mass.
The middle panel transitions to a medium-sized aggregate.
The top panel changes to a fine aggregate, before transitioning to glass.
What are the surfaces for the exhibition floor? How do materials play within a two foot square?
Copper plates form the familiar dimension of brick. Precast concrete fills the rest of the panel.
The walls of glass are broken down to two foot square panes - the diameter of a bicycle wheel.
Unfolding Wall Surfaces Aggregate within six foot square, precast panels vertically transition from coarse to fin , expressing an archaic idea of stereotomy, while at the same time revealing the contemporary use for crushed stone in concrete. At the intersection of two stones, a square plate of black steel with a circle circumscribed within articulates the joint, pushed off of the stone veneer. The form of the cramp and the distance between the stone and the steel plate demonstrates the contemporary constructive method.
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The exterior facade steals its material palette from the wall of the canal.
Iron cramps used to join stones on the canal can join stone to reveal new ways of building today.
The six foot measure of body and bicycle drives decisions of geometry, dimension, and proportion.
Coarse aggregate concrete panels draw from the walls of Cowgill Hall at Virginia Tech.
A sense for medium aggregate concrete can be drawn from the columns of Cowgill Hall.
Fine aggregate concrete panels are much like the guardrails of Burchard Plaza at Virginia Tech.
The Detroit Bicycle Company celebrates every moment of connection in the steel frame.
The familiarity of Georgetown brick is presenced in the floor of the space.
Older studies of how to make a base for structure is consulted for the way the wall meets the plinth.
A Wall To Exhibit Building The surfaces of the building draw from the material history of Georgetown and the canal, as well as the measure of the body and bicycle in space. The Vitruvian Man and the bicycle, the circle and the square, overlay with the surroundings to guide the form and dimension of material to make space. The joints to form the surfaces of the architecture are always celebrated, always articulated, just as it is with well-crafted bicycles.
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An example of a finely crafted bicycle on display within the space. Brass details celebrate every moment of connection along the hollow steel frame. Soft leather presences the way the human body interacts with the parts of the bicycle even in the absence of a rider.
Exhibition Space The bicycles and the structural frame that supports them presence their materiality through being engaged by light – the combination of polished steel, brass, bronze, and leather reflects the light in a rich, ethereal gold that diffuses through the space.
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Immense sunlight glances off of the cloud of hanging bicycles and the shining metal frame that holds them, casting a rich hue of golden light that filters through the space.
The entrance bears the identity of the facility - the plan of the bicycle track. The precast concrete panels, drawn out in brass reveals, transition from a coarse, heavy aggregate to a fine, light aggregate.
For the exhibition floor, the dimensional familiarity of Georgetown’s brick pavers is brought to the two foot panel in copper to augment the metallic qualities of the bicycle and show the patina of visitors’ circulation.
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A Space For Design “The studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibition is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending.” - Chris Ofili “Each detail tells us the story of its making, of its placing, and of its dimensioning.” - Marco Frascari “Architectural beauty...depends on the proper subordination of parts to the whole...a study of the human figure cannot fail to be profitable.” Claude Bragdon
A Space For Design In architecture, it has been said that, “the sources of our knowledge about architectural theory are [thus] polyvalent, and there is no justification for limiting the scope of enquiry” (Kruft). In this vein, the bicycle falls within this “scope of enquiry” to explore how it can influence ar hitecture. As such, a Space For Design should reflect an ability to gather, hold, and draw from many sources of knowledge. Kruft argues that “architectural theory is synonymous with its writings.” Essentially, the best way for architects to learn about how other architects have thought about making in theory, is through past writings about their thoughts. It is through this medium of learning that the original intent and meaning of the writer comes through to the reader. Words are a convention for communication and each carries with them an inherent meaning or definition. Even though words carry pre-defined semantics, often we overlay our own understanding on top of the generic definition. However, it is one of the clearest and objective ways we have to deliver thought from one generation to the next. In contrast to reading text, the reading of architecture can certainly yield different interpretations between different analyses. So, it is possible that no two people will interpret a work of architecture in the exact same way, because they have different sets of knowledge. A Space For Design houses various mediums of knowledge transmission, including graphic representations, built artifacts, and writings. These forms of didactic representation cover a wide breadth of interdisciplinary material, yet simultaneously has great depth in the practice and theory of design. Essentially, a Space For Design is not only a place to work, but is also a library. It is a place to learn. It is a place to test ideas. It is a practicing school. By this creed, a Space For Design is a collaborative space. It provides a working boundary for the exchange of ideas between a group of colleagues working within a discipline. It is a curated environment that fosters interconnectivity and interaction to bridge ways of thinking to innovate in design. It exposes the intellectual processes of designing a bicycle to the public, as well.
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A Space For Design The building is square in plan and finds its dimension according to the six foot square grid. A retaining wall pushes the earth away from the building faces for tall panes of floor to ceiling glass. Four studios of bicycle designers that think and work in different ways occupy the four outside corners of the building, while four libraries holding different sets of knowledge occupy the four corners of the courtyard. The circular bicycle track is circumscribed within the courtyard in the center of the plan.
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Concrete retaining walls articulate the four entrances into the design building. Six foot square precast panels are etched out in dark brass reveals, similar to the walls within the exhibition space. Lighter lines of brass play along a one foot grid that reveal the lines of the topography behind the retaining wall.
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Exterior Enclosure Explain. The bicycle track runs through the core of building section. The sense of enclosure is present, but is open to the sky. The floor of the building merges with the grade of the earth. Architecture and nature find connection.
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Designers descend into an exterior circumambulatory path. This exterior boundary is enclosed by retaining walls, drawn out in six foot precast concrete panels. The bicycle track runs overhead.
A stair is immediately encountered upon entering the building threshold. A thick concrete column marks the structural grid. A concrete waffle slab reveals the depth of material required to span from column to column.
Crossing into the courtyard, one is greeted by a line of projecting windows - the facade of a library. The windows are inhabitable and offer individual spaces of contemplation and thought for the designers reading within.
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At the courtyard crossing, the path sinks, revealing the sloping nature of the topography. The horizontal datum line of windows continue as a measure of the changing landscape. The bicycle track surrounds overhead.
The courtyards transition to the interior, which then rises to meet the grade of the exterior threshold and of the earth. A column marks this last change of elevation.
The threshold at exit is on plane with the earth. The retaining wall marks the end of the building’s spatial boundary. The bicycle path gets higher above as the land slopes down towards the historic towpath of the canal.
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The vaults of the D.C. Metro are a testament to the vast spanning capacity of coffered concrete.
Coffered slabs of Cowgill Hall create large column-free spaces for pin ups and discussion.
Washington, D.C. is known for the presence of cherry blossoms and monuments.
The biting form of bicycle forks to meet the wheel hub embodies an architectural logic of connection.
The way a clip holds up a screen is informed by the biting form of the bicycle forks.
The spatial demands of man and bicycle are consulted to guide the dimensions of the space.
The James A. Michener Art Museum creates outdoor circulation via a retaining wall.
The presence of the retaining wall beyond the glass gives a sense of sinking into the earth.
Courtyards offer a space that orders nature and gathers a sense of peace and contemplation.
Drawing From Design The design building relates to the canal, bicycles, the human body, Washington D.C., and other architecture to form the space. The building is a compendium of knowledge from across the world and across various points in time. The architecture gathers understandings and gives it order.
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Saucier and Perrotte’s Pharmaceutical Sciences building breaks down mass through cantilevering.
McKay-Lyons Sweetapple’s Plaza Building reveals a window cantilever by casting a shadow.
Cowgill Hall presences foliage beyond the window through light and shadow.
The plan of the Villa Rotunda informs the building’s organization of entry and exit.
How does the bicycle path bridge cross the canal from the design building?
The feeling of sinking, as seen in the canal section, is presenced through the architecture.
How is the identity of the design space carefully crafted, like the residences of Georgetown?
The Querini Stampalia orders many kinds of stone together. How is this done in the project?
Carlo Scarpa demonstrates how lines of bronze can celebrate connection between stone.
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Unlike the ornamental cramps of the exhibition building, the copper panels rely on the geometry to form the screen. Stone cramps on the canal become brass clips on the copper screen.
The bicycle track plan traces material subtraction in brass. Meaning and economy are fused together.
Structure & Detail Steel studs are the primary vertical elements from which the copper screen hangs. However, the studs bear little vertical load and do not require a substantial amount of material to function. The economy of material in contemporary construction is celebrated by articulating the castellations. Copper panels find connection to form a screen through the same geometric relationship of the Vitruvian Man and bicycle - the circle inscribed within the square.
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A screen gives a sense that cyclists are passing through the core of the building, but dematerializes to reveal a rooftop public space. The perforated copper screen draws from the proportion of canal stone, but appears light.
The copper screen opens up for the track to continue south across the canal, towards the rooftop of the assembly building.
The courtyard in the center offers a spatial interaction between the designers below and the visitors above. Tree canopies from the courtyard rise up to the bicycle path, giving riders a sense of their elevation above the ground.
Courtyard Track The bicycle track is centered within the design building’s courtyard. The circle and square geometry joins the two tracks from the assembly building to the south and the exhibition building to the north. Cherry trees and their blossoms occupy the courtyard occupy and filter views to the monuments of Washington, D.C. through a copper screen that mimics the proportions of canal stone.
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A Space For Assembly “A structure may be...integral and unified when the parts...are not to be separated or displaced, but their every line joins and matches.” - Leon Battista Alberti “The whole method of construction is...accomplished in one principle: the ordered and skilful composition of various materials...” - Leon Battista Alberti “The joint, that is, the detail, is the place of the meeting of the mental construing and of the actual construction.” - Leon Battista Alberti
A Space For Assembly Arguably, theory is nothing without practice. The normative is nothing without the substantive. There must be the substance that grounds and further provokes thinking. The Space For Assembly exposes the process of physical craft through the bicycle as the substantive vehicle for testing interpretations and new ways of thinking about making. Drawings and models that carry the ideas of making a bicycle enter a Space For Assembly to be built with a processional logic. Organizationally, a Space For Assembly is thought of as a bicycle’s looping chain, with a Space For Design as the pedals and crankset that provides the force to move the chain to turn the wheel. Design generates intellectual power, which pulls ideas through the linkages of the Assembly, eventually making a full revolution. Design iterates and Assembly tests. Finally, when the bicycle reaches critical resolution - when the idea of the bicycle and its built craft reach the most intimate relationship - the bicycle is sent forward to a Space For Exhibition. A Space For Assembly is broken down into separate circulatory paths for different kinds of users. The looping bicycle path on the rooftop define the path for visitors. Aisles to either side of the rows of columns provide circulation for working craftsman within the space. The choice of a glass curtain wall for the facade reflects the transparency of the process, which reveals the rawness, but also the precision of making. The scale, orientation, and connection between each section of assembly is contingent upon the type of activity at each stage of the process. The steps of assembly are distilled down to fi e activities: storing, testing, forming, joining, and finishin . Each activity is housed in a separate volume in the complex, but all are constituent and essential parts of the same working chain.
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A Space For Assembly Five stages of bicycle assembly chain together in series within the u-shaped plan. The initial materials storage and loading section transitions to materials testing. Once the material is tested, it undergoes a forming process to shape the material to the appropriate elements of the bicycle. The elements find connection and are joined together in the fourth stage of assembly. Finally, the finishing stage paints and polishes the bicycles to their final form, before being sent to the exhibition space to be displayed.
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The section of a wing of the assembly building reveals an emphasis on tectonics and the connection of parts to craft space to build bicycles.
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The layering of sketches, bicycle parts, and architectural precedents converge to project the many qualities of the assembly space, and reveal how, and from what certain architectural decisions are made.
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Storage Below the assembly space, raw materials are stored in racks behind masonry walls. Three courses of brick measure to one eight inch course of concrete masonry unit (CMU). Three courses of CMU measure to the diameter of a bicycle wheel. The rule of three guides the size of a window opening to six courses of CMU - a third of the eighteen course wall. Steel beams rest within the concrete column foundation, whose depths respond to span lengths. A cork floor above is soft and forgiving on a standing worker’s feet.
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Thresholds A steel and glass pivoting door for material shipments is centered on the back wall. A crank turns a series of wheels to open the door, similar to a bicycle’s crankset and chain mechanism. Materials descend by a hydraulic lift through a large opening in the floo . In the background, a series of work tables are clustered in series to assemble the bicycles.
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Skylights Protruding skylights hold a sequenced assemblage of bicycles in glass enclosures as one moves along the rooftop. Thin plates of steel form the treads of a stair that bring visitors down into the sunken skylights to observe the activities within the space below. A steel grate and bioblock sandwich absorb rainwater that gathers at the base of the skylight. The concrete slab below is carved away to hold excess rainwater, which is pumped back up to the rooftop.
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Rooftop A deep truss supports concrete deck, insulation, and steel pedestals that support the brick pavers and bicycle path on the rooftop. Guardrails protect riders from the edge of the building. Water is carried through channels that run below the finish roof level to a copper gutter extending off of either side of the building. The water runs down to the base of the building through bicycle chains. Surface tension keeps the water running along the chains and away from the face of the building.
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The assembly space draws from the Parthenon’s axial symmetry at entry.
The Thorncrown Chapel offers the thought of repetition and procession through structure.
Olson Kundig finds the connection of man, nature, and architecture through the threshold.
Scarpa reveals how a door works. He shows how it moves for the passage of people through space.
Contemporary curtain walls use spider clips to join glass, much like iron cramps and stone.
The pulley shows how people and material come together through form to do work.
The Martin Bodmer Foundation building by Mario Botta offers an idea for skylights.
Saucier and Perrotte show how beautiful objects behind glass reveal the meaning of the building.
Scarpa details at the Brion Cemetery provoke asking how material finds assembly.
Understandings Of Assembly What are the understandings of building that inform a space for assembly?
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The Fiat factory demonstrates an understanding of building that allows vehicles on the rooftop.
Glass walls extend the space to the surroundings beyond, and gathers the surroundings in the space.
The horizontality of the Ludenscheid Warehouse in Germany reveals the topography of the site.
The u-shaped channel of the wheel frame informs the u-shaped channels that separate floor tiles.
A greater understanding of building leads to a greater understanding of the tools to build.
The gesture of clamping to join materials together is evident in bicycles, and in the architecture.
Bicycle chains expose a range of ways to assemble material elements to form a part to a whole.
The deconstructed bicycle expresses ways that material and form together may craft a whole.
How do a stick and paper find connection? How do the elements of architecture find connection?
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At the base, the column serves the worker with a table for assembly.
As in the past, the column draws from man, but man is presenced in a different way.
The archaic idea of banding to articulate measure informs the way wood is bolted to the column.
The circular concrete foundation rises to the floor to reveal how the steel column meets the earth.
Rounded wood cladding presences the archaic idea of the column in nature as always round.
The measure of man and bicycle finds its presence in the measured cladding of the column surfaces.
The logic of connection where the vertical meets the horizontal is drawn from bicycle calipers.
The vertical meets the horizontal through a shear, clamping connection.
Steel is cut through to demonstrate an economy of material. Brass caps mark six foot lines.
Column Of Assembly How can bicycles allow us to attain another position of understanding how vertical meets horizontal? The measure of man and bicycle informs the measure of material to form column. The underpinning, constructive logic of bicycle parts are consulted to craft material for structural and functional means.
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Surfaces Of Assembly The column is a body in space, just as a worker assembling a bicycle. How can one body in space serve another body in space? The column not only serves the structural needs of the assembly space, but also serves the activity of the worker. The column supports a table - a surface for assembly. The base of the column is articulated in panels to organize the tools and drawings of bicycle craft, according to the height of the hands and eyes while working.
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Interaction With Surfaces The column responds to the various postures of a worker assembling a bicycle. Tools are located between three and four feet high, just below the shoulder. Drawings are pinned up on the column from four to six feet high, in front of the eyes. The table height is positioned where the arms rest at the three foot line. The process of assembly is revealed through the way the column is used.
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Assembling The Column The order of building structure proceeds as it always has from the most primitive works of architecture - from the ground up. A concrete cylinder is cast in a fiberglass formwork and rises from deep within the ground. At the finish floo , the steel w-section is bolted to a cast-in weld plate. The steel is adorned with wood and the working surfaces that bicycle craftsmen interact with. All of the construction builds up to the final step: the connection of the the column and the truss, the vertical and the horizontal.
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Sunken Skylight Of Assembly A suspended skylight spatially reveals the process of making, at several stages throughout the assembly building. The skylight carves into the interior space to offer an exterior space for observation. The sunken skylight offers a spatial interaction between the worker and visitor. It is held in place by trussed cross bracing that gives rigidity to the frame that keeps it from racking. Brass channels in square brick pavers suggest a direction along the bicycle track towards the suspended skylights.
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Herzog & DeMeuron push structural space out of the building mass. Can space sink instead?
As in Banca Popolare, different materials can be articulated with lines of rich, gold metals.
The Auckland Imperial Buildings use light wells. How deep can a skylight sink into a space?
Bioblocks are composed of highly compacted soil, and can absorb water that gathers in the skylight.
Bioblocks held in a steel grid keeps the structure rigid when the blocks soften in the rain.
Bricks reveal their own process of making - in the way the firing process colors the brick face.
A sinking skylight carves out interior space to gain exterior space.
Four steel posts at the corners suspend a simple bed that sinks into an apartment.
The mechanisms of a water pump can evacuate excess water out of the skylight to the rooftop.
Informing The Sunken Skylight The idea of the suspended skylight emanates from other built work and materials. A suspended bed offers a simple, structural idea to suspend the skylight from the roof and blocks of earth address the issue of dealing with water on the roof through the material’s natural absorptive properties. Scarpa shows that golden metals can draw measured lines through material, articulate an opening, or distinguish two materials apart from each other.
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The assembly roof surface is a rich architectural landscape of protruding and sunken skylights. A six foot grid organizes square skylights and pavers, while a one foot grid generates shifting lines that suggest directionality.
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Ironspot brick slabs bring the surfaces of Georgetown to the roof. Brass strips suggest a direction of travel and draw out moments of connection. A stair descends into the sunken skylight, and into the assembly space below.
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Copper channels funnel water off of the glass and down the concrete base.
The concrete base presences the idea of measure with one inch lines and a deep reveal at one foot.
The skylight offers a protected exhibition space for the sequenced assembly of bicycles on the roof of the assembly building.
A square grid provides the framework to exhibit bicycle parts within the space of the skylight.
Skylight Of Assembly At the rooftop level, how does the visitor engage the process of making, without being in the space itself ? How do we challenge the conventional understanding of spatial engagement through skylights?
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0 - Empty skylight.
1 - Front wheel.
2 - Crankset and pedals.
3 - Derailleur.
4 - Back wheel.
5 - Carrier rack.
6 - Seat.
7 - Frame.
8 - Handlebars.
Assembling The Bicycle In Space Protruding skylights demonstrate the construction of bicycles in space part by part, to presence the process happening within, as one rides along the rooftop track.
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During the daytime, the skylight provides a spot of light that filters through the truss structure and slatted ceiling into the assembly space below.
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At night, spotlights below illuminate bicycle parts within the rooftop skylights. Reflections off of brass and bronze bicycle parts tune the light to a soft, golden glow.
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A lugless joint is one of the most simple ways of bicycle frame connection.
The Westwood wheel frame gently sinks. Can this inform how a rail formally engages the hand?
Steel nipples hold spokes to the wheel rim. Can similar pegs fix tire rubber to a curved railing?
A lugged joint more profoundly presences the intersection of two steel tubes.
The Endrick wheel section is an inclined u-shape, and closely resembles the section of the canal.
A section of a rubber tire. A rubber surface is malleable and can be formed to any surface.
In the Banca Popolare, Scarpa strongly presences the various connections required from rail to pole.
Scarpa’s guardrail at Castelvecchio combines a rectilinear posts with a curvaceous railing.
Scarpa has the railing shelter the structure that supports it. Can this be done with rubber?
A Guardrail From Bicycles What can a rooftop guardrail steal from a bicycle? Excess rubber from assembly is used for the handrail - and is pulled across a u-shaped steel frame to form a resting place for the elbow when the visitor leans upon the guard. The rubber is pinned at the bottom of the curve with a brass nipple - the same fastening system that connect the spokes to the wheel frame. One steel post splits into two, in the same way the front fork splits to meet the bicycle wheel.
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The space is conceived as a long line of visually porous post and lintel frames that span a great distance to clear the center of the space for bicycle assembly. A large skylights drops into the space at each stage of the assembly process.
Assembly Interior Columns and trusses set in series structurally compose a wing of the assembly building. A curtain wall connects the qualities of the site with the architecture within. Visitors outside the building envelope are brought into the space through sunken skylights, which also bring light to the center of the space. Brass channels draw out two foot square floor panels, drawing a dimensional connection with the diameter of the bicycle wheel, the dimension of a coffer in the design space, and the exhibition floo .
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An inhabitable skylight that sinks into the space reveals the process of making at every stage of assembly. The smaller skylights produce spots of light that filter through brass slats which quietly presence the truss structure.
In the center of the space, bicycles are assembled at working tables. A large pivoting door and curtain wall beyond brings the qualities of nature into the space and extends the space into nature.
Trees diffuse afternoon light into the space. The brass details of the columns and bicycles glimmer in the filtered sunlight. Drawings and tools on each column reveal the assembly that takes place at different points in space.
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A Space For Assembly
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Text References *Listed alphabetically by title.
A History Of Architectural Theory: From Vitruvius To The Present Hanno-Walter Kruft A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of The Sublime and Beautiful Edmund Burke A World History Of Architecture Michael Fazio, Marian Moffett, Lawrence Wodehouse An Essay on Architecture Marc-Antoine Laugier Analysing Architecture Simon Unwin Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture Somers Clarke, R. Engelbach Architectural Surfaces Judy A. Juracek Architectural Theory: From The Renaissance To The Present Taschen Architectural Theory: Volume 1: An Anthology From Vitruvius To 1870 Harry Francis Mallgrave Architecture and the Virtual: Towards a New Materiality Antoine Picon Architecture, Environment, Nature Vittorio Gregotti Between Object and Culture: On The Interpretation of Architecture Markus Breitschmid Bicycle Design Tony Hadland, Hans-Erhard Lessing Buildings Across Time Marien Moffett, Michael Fazio, Lawrence Wodehouse Tom Kundig: Houses Dung Ngo Carlo Scarpa Robert McCarter
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Carlo Scarpa and The Castelvecchio Richard Murphy Carlo Scarpa: Architecture Atlas Guido Beltramini, Italo Zannier Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Handbook 142 National Park Service Collage City Colin Rowe Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture Robert Venturi Constructing Architecture: Materials, Processes, Structures Andrea Deplazes Contemporary Architecture In Washington, D.C. Claudia D. Kousoulas, George W. Kousoulas Contemporary Curtain Wall Architecture Scott Murray Contemporary Staircases Catherine Slessor Details For Living Stephen Crafti Door & Window Design Antonio Corcuera Doors: The Best of Fine Homebuilding Taunton Press Doorway Simon Unwin Dressed Stone: Types of Stone, Details, Examples Theodor Hugues, Ludwig Steiger, Johann Weber Earth Construction Handbook: The Building Material Earth In Modern Architecture Gernot Minke Elements Of Architectural Design: A Photographic Sourcebook Ernest Burden
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Façades Pilar Chueca Façades: Principles of Construction Ulrich Knaack Flat Roof Construction Manual: Materials, Design, Applications Sedlbauer, Schunck, Barthel, Künzel Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture Christian Norberg-Schulz Historic Buildings of Washington, D.C. Diane Maddex How To Study Public Life Jan Gehl, Birgitte Svarre Human Experience and Place: Sustaining Identity Paul Brislin, AD Nov. / Dec. 2012 Inside Architecture Vittorio Gregotti Introduction To Early American Masonry: Stone, Brick, Mortar, and Plaster Harley J. McKee, FAIA Karljosef Schattner Architecture and Photography Klaus Kinold Karljosef Schattner, ein Architekt aus Eichstätt Wolfgang Pehnt Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings Louis Sullivan Lake / Flato Dan Fluckinger Life Between Buildings Jan Gehl Kuth / Ranieri Architects Byron Kuth and Elizabeth Ranieri Masonry: How To Care For Old and Historic Brick and Stone Mark London
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Masons and Builders Library: Bricklaying, Plastering, Rock Masonry, Clay Tile Masons and Builders Library: Concrete, Block, Tile, Terrazzo Louis M. Dezettel Modern Architecture: A Critical History Kenneth Frampton New City Spaces Jan Gehl, Lars Gemzøe New Stone Architecture David Dernie On Site: Architectural Preoccupations Carol J. Burns Precisions Le Corbusier Rappel a l’Ordre: The Case for the Tectonic Kenneth Frampton Space, Place, Memory, and Imagination: The Temporal Dimension Of Existential Space Juhani Pallasmaa Stairs Scale Silvio San Pietro, Paola Gallo Territory and Architecture Vittorio Gregotti The Architectural Plates From The “Encyclopédie” Denis Diderot The Art of Building in Ten Books Leon Battista Alberti The Beautiful Necessity Claude Bragdon The Bike Deconstructed Richard Hallett The C&O Canal: An Illustrated History Thomas F. Hahn, Diana Suttenfield-Abshir
References
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The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses Juhani Pallasmaa The Four Books on Architecture Andrea Palladio The Function of Ornament Farshid Moussavi, Michael Kubo The Grid: Form and Process In Architecture Design Richard Scherr The Modulor Le Corbusier The Quest For Ornament Olivier Domeisen. The Skylight Book Al Burns The Spaces Between Buildings Larry R. Ford The Structural Basis Of Architecture Bjørn N. Sandaker, Arne P. Eggen, Mark R. Cruvellier The Tell-the-Tale Detail Marco Frascari The Ten Books On Architecture Marcus Vitruvius Pollio Windows & Skylights: The Best of Fine Homebuilding Taunton Press Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture Adrian Forty
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Online References *Listed alphabetically.
Activities In Georgetown http://www.georgetowndc.com/25-things-do-georgetown/ Apple Store 5th Avenue http://architizer.com/blog/bohlin-cywinski-jackson-designscreate-sensitive-ornament/ Architecture Collage http://www.wwmarchitects.co.uk/ Auguste Choisy http://www.augustechoisy2009.net/fr/documentos.php?id_nav=5 Basilica Cistern http://www.istanbul.com/en/explore/places/istanbul-yerebatancistern-museum Berlin Crematorium h t t p : / / w w w. a r c h d a i l y. c o m / 3 2 2 4 6 4 / c r e m a t o r i u m baumschulenweg-shultes-frank-architeckten Bicycling In D.C. http://www.bike-the-gap.com/discovering-dc-bike/ Bioblocks http://materia.nl/material/bioblocks/ Blacksmithing https://www.pinterest.com/aguaart/blacksmithing/ BMW Central Building http://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/bmw-central-building/ Board Formed Concrete http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/board-formed-concrete/ Brass Details http://www.brasscraft.com/pdf/0302_brass_fittings_catalo .pdf Brion Cemetery http://www.phaidon.com/agenda/architecture/articles/2013/ december/23/carlo-scarpas-cemetery-for-brionvega-boss/ C&O Canal Information https://www.nps.gov/choh/index.htm Camera Deconstructed http://www.deconstructionart.com/completed-quartz-5-filmcamera/
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Cantilever Window http://www.mlsarchitects.ca/brock.htm Carlo Scarpa http://architectuul.com/architect/carlo-scarpa Carlo Scarpa Drawings http://www.archiviocarloscarpa.it/web/disegni.php?lingua=e Chicken Point Cabin http://www.olsonkundig.com/projects/chicken-point-cabin/ Curtain Wall Details http://www.tripyramid.com/ D.C. Metro Concrete Coffers http://www.architectmagazine.com/awards/aia-honor-awards/dcmetro-wins-the-2014-aia-25-year-award_o Detroit Bicycle Company http://detroitbicyclecompany.com/ Double Exposure Portrait Photography http://www.fubiz.net/2014/05/26/double-exposure-portraits-byantonio-mora/ Double Exposure Urban Photography http://www.dan.iella.net/#/new-york-london/ Drawing Precedents http://krobarch.com/winners.asp?winner_year=2014 El Lissitzky Self-Portrait “The Constructor” http://www.moma.org/collection/works/83836?locale=en Encyclopédie http://www.historyofinfo mation.com/expanded.php?id=2876 Evolution Of Column https://marywoodarchtheory.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/ alberti-projects.pdf Evolution Of Man http://www.huffingtonpost.com/great-work-cultures/doessurvival-of-the-fitt_b_7767664.htm Fiat Turin Rooftop Test Track http://jalopnik.com/5714628/fiats-roof-top-test-tra k
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First Nations Garden-Pavilion http://www.archdaily.com/14021/first-nations-garden-pavilionsaucier-perrotte-architectes Fondation Martin Bodmer https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fondation_Martin_ Bodmer,_Cologny,_Geneva,_Switzerland_-_20140614-02.JPG Fujian Bridges http://www.appletravel.cn/holidays/travel_info.php?id=75 Gears - How It’s Made https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZgsV0AZJJ0 Historic Images Of The C&O Canal https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=299FF5DE1DD8-B71C-07A229E088BFB362 How A Bicycle Is Made https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_cdePe0bDQ Imperial Buildings Light Well http://architecturenow.co.nz/articles/the-imperial-buildings/ James A. Michener Art Museum http://www.kierantimberlake.com/pages/view/23 Japanese Courtyards And Gardens http://www.zenjapaneselandscape.com/gallery1.html Karljosef Schattner https://www.fli kr.com/photos/pg/sets/72157608324241766/ Leonardo Da Vinci Canal Lock http://www.leonardodavincisinventions.com/civil-engineeringinventions/leonardo-da-vincis-canal-lock/ Locks On The C&O Canal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locks_on_the_Chesapeake_and_ Ohio_Canal Ludenscheid Warehouse http://www.schneider-schumacher.com/projects/projectdetails/87-erco-automated-warehouse.project Ningbo Museum http://www.archdaily.com/14623/ningbo-historic-museum-wangshu-architect
References
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Parthenon http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/travel/ct-travel-newparthenon-pg-photogallery.html Peter Zumthor h t t p : / / b l o g . d a u m . n e t / _ b l o g / B l o g T y p e V i e w. d o ? b l o g i d =0 M A b 6 & a r t i c l e n o =6 3 6 8 2 6 3 & _ b l o g h o m e _ menu=recenttext Projecting Cantilevers http://saucierperrotte.com/projets/faculte-des-sciencespharmaceutiques-de-ubc/ Pyramids Of Giza http://www.britannica.com/topic/Pyramids-of-Giza Soil Profile http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/w ps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ edu/?cid=nrcs142p2_054308 Spolia http://www.petersommer.com/blog/archaeology-history/spolia/ Sunken Skylight https://www.frogx3.com/2015/02/25/hermoso-apartamento-enmanhattan/ TED: Amanda Burden: How Public Spaces Make Cities Work https://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_burden_how_public_spaces_ make_cities_work?language=en Tom Kundig Sketch https://archivisum.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/rolling-huts-oskaarchitects/ Time-Lapse Photography http://www.stephenwilkes.com/fin -art/day-to-night/5408defbb7c0-4d9c-b89d-25740a627753 Time Montage Photography http://gizmodo.com/these-time-warp-photos-show-six-cities-inthe-past-and-1555656800 Thorncrown Chapel http://www.thorncrown.com/photogallery.html Tile Tech Pavers http://www.tiletechpavers.com/adjustable-pedestals-standard/
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Towards The Future Of Composites http://www.coroflot.com/Keepers/Towards-the-future-ofcomposites Vancouver Alleyways http://curiouslines.com/category/vancouver/ Vitruvian Man http://leonardodavinci.stanford.edu/submissions/clabaugh/ history/leonardo.html Waffle Slab orming http://www.alsina.com/en/solution/alucubetas/ Windows Of The World h t t p : / / w w w. a n d r e v i c e n t e g o n c a l v e s . c o m / i n d e x / G00004m4OOrWV5YE Wood And Steel Columns https://www.pinterest.com/pin/289215607293613541/ Zamora Offices Double Glass acade http://www.campobaeza.com/offices-fo -the-junta-de-castilla-yleon/?type=catalogue
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Image References *Images listed by page number.
12. Drawing Out A Question. Drawing. 17. Working. Stan Allen. Scan. 21. Thesis Process Diagram. Sketch. 25. Semantic Interpretation. Sketch. 26. Drawing Of Banca Popolare. Carlo Scarpa. Online. 26. Sketch Of Therme Vals. Peter Zumthor. Online. 26. Sketch Of Rolling Huts. Tom Kundig. Online. 27. Tree Of Knowledge. Chrétien Fréderic Guillaume Roth. Online. 28. Semantics Collage. Drawing / Xylol. 33. Tulou Interior Courtyard. Fujian Province, China. Online. 33. An Old Bridge In Fujian. Fujian Province, China. Online. 33. The Bridge School. Fujian Province, China. Online. 38. Les Passages. Paris, France. Photograph. 38. Powerline Alleyway. Vancouver, Canada. Scan. 38. Retail Alleyway. San Francisco, California. Scan. 38. Alleyway Shop. Chicago, Illinois. Photograph. 38. Town Square. Telc, Czechoslovakia. Scan / Digital Montage. 38. Pedestrian Street In Old Town. Stockholm, Sweden. Scan. 38. Clustered Community. Skaade, Denmark. Scan. 38. Plan Of Skarpnack. Skarpnack, Stockholm. Scan. 40. Passage Of Place. Sketch / Watercolor. 40. Synthesis Of Urban Montage. Sketch / Watercolor. 41. Interstitial Place. Digital Montage. 42. Place And Time Collage. Drawing / Xylol. 44. Antiques Sign. Online. 44. Iron Gate. Online. 44. Grunge Brick Wall Online. 44. Urban Tree. Online. 44. White Door. Online. 44. Window With Shutters. Online. 44. Brooklyn Bridge Drawing. Online. 44. Sculpture. Online. 44. Construction Worker. Online. 45. Mountain. Sketch. 45. Matterhorn Mountain. Swiss Alps. Online. 45. Skyscrapers. Sketch. 45. Skyline. New York City, New York. Online. 45. Eiffel Tower. Sketch. 45. Eiffel Tower. Paris, France. Online. 46. Interpretation Of Collage. Sketch. 46. Working Collage. Photograph / Digital Montage. 47. “The Constructor.” El Lissitzky Self-Portrait. Online. 47. Photocollage. WWM Architects. Online. 48. Interpretation Of Time-Lapse. Sketch. 49. The Classical Orders Of Architecture. Online. 49. The Evolution Of Contemporary Man. Online. 49. The Camera Deconstructed. Online. 50. Time-Lapse Of London. Online. 51. Diagram Of Time-Lapse And Exposure. Sketch.
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51. Place Through Time-Lapse. Photograph / Digital Montage. 55. Diagram Of Chronos Time. Digital. 55. Diagram Of Kairos Time. Digital. 56. Creation Of Place. Digital. 56. Growth. Digital. 56. Construction. Digital. 56. The Built And Built Upon. Digital. 57. Erosion. Digital. 57. Civilizing Ground. Digital. 57. Documentation. Digital. 57. Synchronizing. Digital. 58. Kairotic Observation. Digital. 63. Juhani Pallasmaa Compendium. Sketch / Xylol. 64. Plate 1. Sketch / Xylol. 64. Plate 2. Sketch / Xylol. 65. Plate 3. Sketch / Xylol. 65. Plate 4. Sketch / Xylol. 66. Plate 5. Sketch / Xylol. 66. Plate 6. Sketch / Xylol. 67. Plate 7. Sketch / Xylol. 67. Plate 8. Sketch / Xylol. 68. Plate 9. Sketch / Xylol. 68. Plate 10. Sketch / Xylol. 69. Plate 11. Sketch / Xylol. 69. Plate 12. Sketch / Xylol. 70. Plate 13. Sketch / Xylol. 70. Plate 14. Sketch / Xylol. 71. Plate 15. Sketch / Xylol. 71. Plate 16. Sketch / Xylol. 72. Plate 17. Sketch / Xylol. 72. Plate 18. Sketch / Xylol. 73. Plate 19. Sketch / Xylol. 73. Plate 20. Sketch / Xylol. 74. Plate 21. Sketch / Xylol. 74. Plate 22. Sketch / Xylol. 75. Plate 23. Sketch / Xylol. 75. Plate 24. Sketch / Xylol. 76. Plate 25. Sketch / Xylol. 76. A Collection Of Thoughts. Xylol. 77. Juhani Pallasmaa Compendium. Sketch / Xylol. 82. Humanity. Digital Montage. 83. Human. Digital Montage. 84. The Historian. Drawing. 85. The Interpreter. Drawing / Photograph / Digital Montage. 89. Tuscan Order. Scan. 90. Parthenon Exterior. Online. 90. Parthenon Perspective. Online. 91. Thorncrown Chapel Exterior. Online. 91. Thorncrown Chapel Perspective. Digital Montage.
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92. Hadrian’s Villa Archway. Photograph. 93. Hadrian’s Villa Wall 1. Photograph. 93. Hadrian’s Villa Wall 2. Photograph. 93. Hadrian’s Villa Wall 3. Photograph. 93. Hadrian’s Villa Wall 4. Photograph. 93. Hadrian’s Villa Wall 5. Photograph. 93. Hadrian’s Villa Wall 6. Photograph. 93. Hadrian’s Villa Wall 7. Photograph. 93. Hadrian’s Villa Wall 8. Photograph. 93. Hadrian’s Villa Wall 9. Photograph. 94. Treppe. Ehemalige Domdekanei. Karljosef Schattner. Scan. 94. Treppe. Willibaldsburg. Karljosef Schattner. Scan. 94. Pfarrkirche St. Andreas Karljosef Schattner. Scan. 94. Foyer Und Aufzugsturm. Karljosef Schattner. Scan. 95. Altes Waisenhaus 1. Karljosef Schattner. Scan. 95. Altes Waisenhaus 2. Karljosef Schattner. Scan. 95. Ehemaliger Hofstall. Karljosef Schattner. Scan. 95. Lehrstuhl Für Journalistik. Karljosef Schattner. Scan. 96. Legacy Of Wall. Digital Montage. 98. Legacy Of Structure. Digital Montage. 103. Diözesanmuseum. Karljosef Schattner. Scan. 103. Maison Carrée And Carré d’Art. Online. 103. Ningbo Museum. Wang Shu. Online. 104. Contact. Drawing. 105. Contact - Urbanity. Drawing / Digital Montage. 105. Contact - Surfaces. Drawing / Digital Montage. 105. Contact - Artifact. Drawing / Digital Montage. 105. Contact - Crop 1. Drawing. 105. Contact - Crop 2. Drawing. 105. Contact - Crop 3. Drawing. 105. Contact - Crop 4. Drawing. 105. Contact - Crop 5. Drawing. 105. Contact - Crop 6. Drawing. 106. Dialogue. Drawing / Xylol. 107. Dialogue Crop 1. Drawing / Xylol. 107. Dialogue Crop 2. Drawing / Xylol. 107. Dialogue Crop 3. Drawing / Xylol. 107. Dialogue Crop 4. Drawing / Xylol. 107. Dialogue Crop 5. Drawing / Xylol. 107. Dialogue Crop 6. Drawing / Xylol. 107. Dialogue Crop 7. Drawing / Xylol. 107. Dialogue Crop 8. Drawing / Xylol. 107. Dialogue Crop 9. Drawing / Xylol. 107. Dialogue Crop 9. Drawing / Xylol. 108. Interpretation. Drawing / Digital Montage. 109. Interpretation Crop 1. Drawing / Digital Montage. 109. Interpretation Crop 2. Drawing / Digital Montage. 109. Interpretation Crop 3. Drawing / Digital Montage. 109. Interpretation Crop 4. Drawing / Digital Montage.
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109. Interpretation Crop 5. Drawing / Digital Montage. 109. Interpretation Crop 6. Drawing / Digital Montage. 109. Interpretation Crop 7. Drawing / Digital Montage. 109. Interpretation Crop 8. Drawing / Digital Montage. 109. Interpretation Crop 9. Drawing / Digital Montage. 115. Early Thesis Argument. Sketch. 116. Understanding And Interpretation Diagram. Sketch. 123. Lock Number Two Sign. Photograph. 124. Chesapeake And Ohio Canal - Aerial. Online. 124. Chesapeake And Ohio Canal - Sketch. Sketch. 124. Sutro Baths Ruin - Aerial. Online. 124. Sutro Baths Ruin - Sketch. Sketch. 124. Fort Point - Aerial. Online. 124. Fort Point - Sketch. Sketch. 125. Red Hook Grain Terminal - Aerial. Online. 125. Red Hook Grain Terminal - Sketch. Sketch. 125. Regensburg Island - Aerial. Online. 125. Regensburg Island. Sketch. 125. San Marco Water Taxi Port - Aerial. Online. 125. San Marco Water Taxi Port - Sketch. Sketch. 126. The Chesapeake And Ohio Canal. Drawing. 126. The Chesapeake And Ohio Canal - State Lines. Online. 128. History Of The Canal Collage. Scans / Digital Montage. 130. Looking West Of Lock Number Four. Photograph. 130. Brick Towpath. Photograph. 130. Dirt Towpath. Photograph. 131. Mule Eating Out Of Trough. Online. 131. Children On Canal Boat. Online. 131. Boat On Canal. Online. 131. People Waiting By Lock. Online. 131. Approaching A Lock. Online. 131. Boat Locking Through. Online. 131. Brick Towpath At Lock Number Three. Photograph. 131. Lock Number Four. Photograph. 131. Canal Boat Just Beyond Lock Number Four. Online. 131. Steel Structure Along Canal. Online. 131. Water Pouring Through Lock Gates. Online. 131. Bridges Over Canal. Online. 132. Lock Number One. Photograph. 133. C&O Canal Construction Drawings. Online. 134. Map Of Washington D.C. And Site. Drawing / Digital Montage. 136. Georgetown Residential Address. Photograph. 136. Alongside Lock Gates. Photograph. 136. Georgetown Residential Stair. Photograph. 136. Towpath Wall. Photograph. 137. Townhouse On Lock Number Four. Online. 137. Sidewalk In Georgetown. Online. 137. M Street At Dusk. Online. 137. Small Residential Street In Georgetown. Online.
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137. Pedestrian Street In Georgetown. Online. 137. Entering Georgetown. Photograph. 137. Residences Of Georgetown. Online. 137. Pinstripes Of Georgetown. Online. 137. Georgetown Storefront Entrance Detail. Photograph. 138. History Of Georgetown. Xylol. 140. The Four Locks Of Georgetown Site Map. Digital. 142. Drawing Of Lock Number Four. Digital. 144. Elevation Of Lock Number Four. Photocollage. 146. Drawing Of Lock Number Three. Digital. 148. Elevation Of Lock Number Three. Photocollage. 150. Drawing Of Lock Number Two. Digital. 152. Elevation Of Lock Number Two. Photocollage. 154. Drawing Of Lock Number One. Digital. 156. Elevation Of Lock Number One. Photocollage. 158. Drawing Out A Site. Sketch. 160. Lock Number Two - Selected Site. Digital. 162. Lock Number Two From 30th Street. Photograph. 163. The Towpath At Lock Number Two. Photograph. 167. Factory Of Pulleys. Online. 168. Building Programs And History. Sketch. 169. Building Programs Seeking Connection. Sketch. 170. Separation. Sketch. 172. Parallel. Sketch. 174. Connection. Sketch. 176. The Legacy Of Bicycles. Digital. 178. Connecting Gears. Analog Model. 180. Two Cycles Diagram. Digital. 181. Finding Connection Diagram. Digital. 182. Finding Connection Site Plan Layer 1. Drawing. 184. Finding Connection Site Plan Layer 2. Drawing / Digital Montage. 186. Finding Connection Site Plan Layered. Drawing / Digital Montage. 188. Siting The Project. Digital. 190. Metaphor To Form - Model. Analog Model. 190. Metaphor To Form - Site Section. Drawing / Digital Montage. 192. Comprehensive Site Plan Oblique. Drawing / Digital Montage. 194. A Space For Assembly. Sketch / Digital Montage. 196. A Space For Design. Sketch / Digital Montage. 198. A Space For Exhibition. Sketch / Digital Montage. 203. Space For Exhibition - Plan Oblique. Drawing / Digital Montage. 203. Space For Exhibition Rendering. Digital. 204. Exhibition Entrance Facade Option 1. Sketch. 204. Exhibition Entrance Facade Option 2. Sketch. 205. Space For Exhibition Plan Oblique. Drawing / Digital Montage. 205. Space For Exhibition Plan Oblique. Drawing / Digital Montage. 206. Temple To Bicycles. Sketch / Digital Montage. 207. Elements Of The Temple Sketch. Sketch. 207. Exhibition Connection. Sketch. 208. Proportion Form Scale. Sketch / Digital.
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209. Space For Exhibition Section 1. Drawing. 210. Vitruvian Man And Bicycle. Digital Montage. 210. The Pyramids Of Giza. Online. 210. The Parthenon Entrance. Online. 210. Thinning Of Column Orders Over Time. Scan. 210. Old Tools Of Building. Scan. 210. Studies Of Wood Joinery. Scan. 210. 5th Avenue Apple Store. Online. 210. Thorncrown Chapel Exterior. Online. 210. Interpretation. Drawing / Digital Montage. 211. Space For Exhibition Section 2. Drawing / Digital Montage. 212. Exhibition Wall Section Crop 1. Drawing / Xylol. 212. Exhibition Wall Section Crop 2. Drawing / Xylol. 212. Exhibition Wall Section Crop 3. Drawing / Xylol. 212. Exhibition Wall Section Crop 4. Drawing / Xylol. 212. Exhibition Wall Section Crop 5. Drawing / Xylol. 212. Exhibition Wall Section Crop 6. Drawing / Xylol. 212. Exhibition Wall Section Crop 7. Drawing / Xylol. 212. Exhibition Wall Section Crop 8. Drawing / Xylol. 212. Exhibition Wall Section Crop 9. Drawing / Xylol. 213. Exhibition Wall Section. Drawing / Xylol. 214. Exhibition Wall Surfaces Crop 1. Drawing. 214. Exhibition Wall Surfaces Crop 2. Drawing. 214. Exhibition Wall Surfaces Crop 3. Drawing. 214. Exhibition Wall Surfaces Crop 4. Drawing. 214. Exhibition Wall Surfaces Crop 5. Drawing. 214. Exhibition Wall Surfaces Crop 6. Drawing. 214. Exhibition Wall Surfaces Crop 7. Drawing. 214. Exhibition Wall Surfaces Crop 8. Drawing. 214. Exhibition Wall Surfaces Crop 9. Drawing. 215. Exhibition Wall Surfaces. Drawing. 216. Lock Number Four. Photograph. 216. Iron Cramps. Online. 216. Vitruvian Man And Bicycle. Digital Montage. 216. Cowgill Hall - Coarse Aggregate Concrete. Photograph. 216. Cowgill Hall - Medium Aggregate Concrete. Photograph. 216. Burchard Plaza - Medium Aggregate Concrete. Photograph. 216. Detroit Bicycle Company Bicycle Seat. Online. 216. The Towpath At Lock Number Two. Photograph. 216. Study Of Structural Bases. Scan. 217. A Wall To Exhibit Building. Drawing / Digital Montage. 218. A Bicycle Of Craft. Online / Digital Montage. 219. Space For Exhibition Crop 1. Digital. 219. Space For Exhibition Crop 2. Digital. 219. Space For Exhibition Crop 3. Digital. 220. Space For Exhibition - Rendering. Digital. 225. Space For Design Plan Oblique. Drawing / Digital Montage. 226. Space For Design Plan Oblique. Drawing / Digital Montage. 227. Space For Design Plan. Digital.
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227. Retaining Wall Section At Entrance. Drawing / Digital Montage. 228. Design Building Section. Drawing / Digital Montage. 230. Design Building Section Crop 1. Drawing / Digital Montage. 230. Design Building Section Crop 2. Drawing / Digital Montage. 230. Design Building Section Crop 3. Drawing / Digital Montage. 231. Design Building Section Crop 4. Drawing / Digital Montage. 231. Design Building Section Crop 5. Drawing / Digital Montage. 231. Design Building Section Crop 6. Drawing / Digital Montage. 232. D.C. Metro Coffered Vaults. Online. 232. Cowgill Hall Waffle Sla . Photograph. 232. Washington, D.C. Cherry Blossoms. Online. 232. Bicycle Fork To Hub Connection. Scan. 232. Design Building Screen Detail. Drawing / Digital Montage. 232. Vitruvian Man And Bicycle. Digital Montage. 232. James A Michener Art Museum Exterior. Online. 232. James A Michener Art Museum Interior. Online. 232. Japanese Courtyard. Online. 233. Pharmaceutical Sciences Building. Saucier And Perrotte. Online. 233. Plaza Building Window. McKay-Lyons Sweetapple. Online. 233. Cowgill Hall Light And Shadow. Photograph. 233. Villa Rotunda Plan. Scan. 233. Bridges Over Canal. Online. 233. Chesapeake And Ohio Canal Section Drawing. Online. 233. Georgetown Residential Address. Photograph. 233. Querini Stampalia Wall 1. Photograph. 233. Querini Stampalia Wall 2. Photograph. 234. Design Building Screen Section. Drawing / Digital Montage. 234. Design Building Screen Detail. Drawing / Digital Montage. 235. Space For Design Rendering Crop 1. Digital. 235. Space For Design Rendering Crop 2. Digital. 235. Space For Design Rendering Crop 3. Digital. 236. Space For Design Rendering. Digital. 241. Space For Assembly Plan Oblique Drawing / Digital Montage. 242. Space For Assembly Plan. Sketch. 243. Space For Assembly Plan Oblique Drawing / Digital Montage. 244. Assembly Building Section 1. Drawing / Digital Montage. 246. Assembly Building Section 2. Drawing / Digital Montage. 248. Storage. Drawing / Digital Montage. 249. Thresholds. Drawing / Digital Montage. 250. Skylights. Drawing / Digital Montage. 251. Rooftop. Drawing / Digital Montage. 252. The Parthenon Entrance. Online. 252. Thorncrown Chapel Interior. Online. 252. Chicken Point Cabin Pivoting Door. Olson Kundig. Online. 252. University Of Venice Main Gate. Carlo Scarpa. Online. 252. Curtain Wall Detail. Online. 252. Drawing Of Pulleys. Online. 252. Martin Bodmer Foundation. Mario Botta. Online. 252. First Nations Garden-Pavilion. Saucier And Perrotte. Online.
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252. Map Of Details At Brion Cemetery. Carlo Scarpa. Scan. 253. Fiat Factory. Turin, Italy. Online. 253. Private Residence Glass Wall. Online. 253. Ludenscheid Warehouse. Online. 253. Bicycle Wheel Frame Drawing. Scan. 253. Drill On Moving Track. Diller, Scofidi , + Renfro. Scan. 253. Bicycle Brake Calipers. Scan. 253. Bicycle Chains. Scan. 253. The Bicycle Deconstructed. Scan. 253. Stick And Paper. Analog Model. 254. Column Of Assembly Crop 1. Drawing / Digital Montage. 254. Column Of Assembly Crop 2. Drawing / Digital Montage. 254. Column Of Assembly Crop 3. Drawing / Digital Montage. 254. Column Of Assembly Crop 4. Drawing / Digital Montage. 254. Column Of Assembly Crop 5. Drawing / Digital Montage. 254. Column Of Assembly Crop 6. Drawing / Digital Montage. 254. Column Of Assembly Crop 7. Drawing / Digital Montage. 254. Column Of Assembly Crop 8. Drawing / Digital Montage. 254. Column Of Assembly Crop 9. Drawing / Digital Montage. 255. Column Of Assembly. Drawing / Digital Montage. 256. Surfaces Of Assembly. Drawing / Digital Montage. 257. Interaction With Surfaces. Photocollage. 258. Assembling The Column. Sketch. 260. Sinking Skylight Sketch. Sketch. 261. Train Depot. Herzog + DeMeuron. Online. 261. Banca Popolare Detail. Carlo Scarpa. Online. 261. Imperial Building Light Well. Auckland, New Zealand. Online. 261. Bioblocks. Online. 261. Bioblock Wall. Online. 261. Bricks. Online. 261. Sinking Skylight. Online. 261. Suspended Bed. Online. 261. Water Pump Drawing. Online. 262. Assembly Sinking Skylight 1. Drawing / Digital Montage. 264. Assembly Sinking Skylight 2. Drawing / Digital Montage. 266. Assembly Protruding Skylight. Drawing / Digital Montage. 266. Assembly Protruding Skylight Crop 1. Drawing / Digital Montage. 266. Assembly Protruding Skylight Crop 2. Drawing / Digital Montage. 266. Assembly Protruding Skylight Crop 3. Drawing / Digital Montage. 267. Empty Skylight. Drawing / Digital Montage. 267. Front Wheel. Drawing / Digital Montage. 267. Crankset And Pedals. Drawing / Digital Montage. 267. Derailleur. Drawing / Digital Montage. 267. Back Wheel. Drawing / Digital Montage. 267. Carrier Rack. Drawing / Digital Montage. 267. Seat. Drawing / Digital Montage. 267. Frame. Drawing / Digital Montage. 267. Handlebars. Drawing / Digital Montage. 268. Assembly Protruding Skylight - Day. Drawing / Digital Montage.
References
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269. Assembly Protruding Skylight - Night. Drawing / Digital Montage. 270. Lugless Bicycle Frame Joint. Scan. 270. Westwood Wheel Frame Section. Scan. 270. Bicycle Wheel Frame Drawing. Scan. 270. Lugged Bicycle Frame Joint. Scan. 270. Endrick Wheel Frame Section. Scan. 270. Rubber Tire Section. Scan. 270. Banca Popolare Rail To Pole Connection. Carlo Scarpa. Online. 270. Castelvecchio Interior Guardrail. Carlo Scarpa. Online. 270. Castelvecchio Exterior Guardrail. Carlo Scarpa. Photograph. 271. A Guardrail From Bicycles. Drawing / Digital Montage. 272. Assembly Interior Sketch. Sketch. 273. Space For Assembly Rendering - Crop 1. Digital. 273. Space For Assembly Rendering - Crop 2. Digital. 273. Space For Assembly Rendering - Crop 3. Digital. 274. Space For Assembly Rendering. Digital.
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Appendix Of Thoughts What follows is a chronological compendium of writing that speaks to the raw, intellectual development of the thesis question and project. The entries are dated to get a sense for the duration of when the train of thought transitions from one subject to another.
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August 24, 2015 - Working Just get working! By working on something you will unearth some morsel that will interest you and fuel your future discoveries. Working is always arbitrary at the beginning, and constraints take shape as the work progresses. How do you manage the fear of beginnings? The anxiety of beginning conceals a fear of a false conclusion…Or for me, a fear of working on something that is not worthwhile…or doesn’t fuel my future work. If you start with a fi ed end in mind, you foreclose the possibility of discoveries made along the way. So, work with the belief that the work you do holds truths that are multiple, and interlaced. Be confident that if you begin to unravel the fabric of the work, you will eventually tease out all of the text’s multiple embedded meanings. With that knowledge, you can gain a liberating permission to start anywhere with your work. How to work better:Do 1 thing at a time. Ask questions. ASK ASK ASK. Accept change as an inevitability. Admit mistakes that you’ve made. You learn so, so much from those. Say things simply. Just say what it is. No need for frills or extra vocabulary to “sound intelligent.” Get to the core of what you’re actually working on. Smile. You get the opportunity to work on your own interests in architecture and urban planning, and that’s awesome. So enjoy it! Often, we talk about the process of work…or the mechanics of working – this topic cuts through any conversation about theory, the critical, the objective, the representation, the performance, and just focuses
on the practices themselves. Question the question…if you reach a roadblock, it is more likely that you are asking the wrong question rather than you are pursuing a false answer. Dare to be silly. No one advances without feeling absurd or a failure every now and then. Simplify. For clarity. For rigor. “In attempting a black painting, know that truth is beauty, but shit is shit.” – Frank O’Hara Harvest ideas. Edit applications. Ideas: need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment for success. Applications: need constraints, specificit , and critical rigor. Repeat yourself. If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again. You learn by memory, especially kinesthetic memory. August 28, 2015 - Fundamental Beliefs Architecture exists for people. It is an intellectual construct created by people, for people. Therefore: cities are for people. If the thesis deals with interstitiality, then by transitive means it deals with architecture: spaces created by the materials that form boundaries and thresholds that capture and shape space. August 28, 2015 - Interstitiality “The time may soon come when planners, designers, developers, and others will recognize and act on the simple notion that the spaces between buildings are as important to the life of urban man as the buildings themselves.” “...they [people] will choose based on the quality of life...the belief is that you will improve the quality of public life by improving the quality of public space. Public space is the place where people
can meet as equals. It is the place where society builds trust.” Why don’t we stop and scrutinize the nooks and crannies of everyday urban life? These are the spaces that surround, enclose, and channel our activities. Alleys defined by grungy industrial fire escapes, a make-shift pocket park between two buildings, a pedestrian cut-through between blocks. Sometimes these spaces are remarkable, like Paley Park in New York City. Other times, these spaces are perceived as remarkably uninteresting - they don’t draw a single drop of one’s attention. What is interesting? What is not? What is space that is worthwhile that draws peoples’ attention, and is beneficial for the collective good city? Interstitiality defines the consequential (or inconsequential) formation of space as a result of locating objects in a particular arrangement. It also deals with transition - as in the transition between one space to another, similar to threshold. One could argue that a threshold is an interstitial space. August 31, 2015 - Urban Planning + Architecture = Urbitecture??? When engaging an enormous scale in urban planning, at the scale of an entire city, it is important to think about what makes a good city. Diversity, memorability, and character create identity and interest in an urban landscape, and should be heralded in the design discussion. Therefore, though the masterplan is a vision usually created by a single team, it is important that other architects and planners are involved in the finer grain design scale of individual buildings and plazas and parks. The masterplan Appendix Of Thoughts
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guides the development, and offers an ideological singularity that all of the other projects composing the masterplan can draw from. But with various other teams working on these smaller scale projects, the way that the core idea is approached and interpreted differently with each team, resulting in loose intellectual cohesiveness with a diverse richness in physical manifestation. It is in this manner that cities should be developed. As it ages, and necessitates re-imagination, renovation, and adaptation, the core idea of the city plan and intent exists to be drawn upon for guidance. If you want people to live in cities, you have to make it convenient and exciting. That’s why mixeduse makes sense, because it places as much variety of program as possible close to places that city-dwellers live and work. The success of mixed-use is derived from our desire for walkable + transit-oriented proximity. Most frequently visited programs (like a grocery store or public park) are more populous in the city to reduce various residences’ commute times to get there. Less frequently used programs (like a car-shop) are fewer and farther between. Mixed-use also relies on the affordability of space to attract a variety of people, so it’s important for cities to find ways to keep things affordable. What can the thesis test? What are the essences of what you want to investigate? Memorability, reminiscence, place, identity, time, texture, form, character, narrative, interstitiality, space, connection, passage, transition, intervention, variety, diversity, vision, holistics, detail, beauty, pragmatism, efficienc , and density. When you are planning for 298
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millions of people, it is difficu t to identify what the common interest is among the population, if there is one in the first place. How are the vast multitude of interests channeled towards a project that will make the city better and more desirable? That will offer a better quality of life? That will attract people to the city? Can an argument be made for simply good space? Is the argument for “good space” enough for people to get behind? Or is there a way to test individual narratives as influences in shaping the city
only material fluids can fl w. The very choice of metaphor shows that time is inseparable from matter. It is not only a subjective thing. It is the way we express an actual process that exists in the physical world. Time is thus just an expression of the fact that all matter exists in a state of constant change. It is the destiny and necessity of all material things to change into something other than what they are.”
How about testing process versus outcome in an architecture + urban planning project? That is one of the greatest debates in planning theory today. Is it about the thing you make? The place that you create? Or is it about how you make the thing? How you make the place? Can you put trust in the process and working intelligently, to arrive at a beautiful output in the end?
Reduction Of Semantics: Place + Time
Perhaps thesis can test a relationship between private versus public space. It is an endless battle in cities between parks, plazas, and pedestrian zones, versus developers and investors that want to fill urban voids with retail, commercial, residential, and other programs to make money. Is there a way to marry the two rivals in a harmonious, co-existing, and interdependent relationship? Is there a spatial gradient that can be made between private and public in the city, where trust in society is built, and where people can all enjoy fantastic space as equals? September 5, 2015 - On Time “Time is an objective expression of the changing state of matter. This is revealed even by the way we talk about it. It is common to say that time “fl ws.” In fact,
September 17, 2105– Reduction Of Semantics
“Time is an objective expression of the changing state of matter. This is revealed even by the way we talk about it. It is common to say that time “fl ws.” In fact, only material fluids can fl w. The very choice of metaphor shows that time is inseparable from matter. It is not only a subjective thing. It is the way we express an actual process that exists in the physical world. Time is thus just an expression of the fact that all matter exists in a state of constant change. It is the destiny and necessity of all material things to change into something other than what they are.” From the above, it is evident that Place and Time are intimately, and inseparably connected. Time is a mental construct to describe the fact that all Matter exists in a state of Constant Change. Time is inseparable from Matter. Place is formed from Matter. Time is inseparable from Place. (1) All Matter exists in a state of Constant Change. Place is formed from Matter. All place exists in a state of
Constant Change
Time is insepara (1) All place exists Constant Change Place = Constant (3)
Reduction Of S + Transition
Transition, n. Etymology: < em, noun of act transit- (see trans 1. A passing or p condition, action, to another; chang 2. Passage in t or writing from another. 3. The passage fr a later stage of formation. 4. Change from a a later; a style of mixed character.
From the above, Transition involv of Time, as do conceptually, as physical manife interactions, and interactions of pe
Place involves th Time. Urban involves t Time. Transition involv of Time. Place, Urban, and the construct of
Place = Constant (3) Place, Urban, and the construct of Place, Urban, an Constant Change
Reduction O Interstitiality
e. (2)
able from Place.
s in a state of e. (2) t Change Time
Semantics: Urban
Latin transitiōntion < transīre , sit v.). passage from one , or (rarely) place, ge. thought, speech, m one subject to
rom an earlier to development or
an earlier style to f intermediate or
Interstice, n. Forms: Also 16 pl. intersticies. Etymology: < Latin interstitium space between, < *interstit-, participial stem of intersistĕre, < inter between + sistĕre to stand; compare French interstice (14th cent.). 1. An intervening space (usually, empty); esp. a relatively small or narrow space, between things or the parts of a body (freq. in pl., the minute spaces between the ultimate parts of matter); a narrow opening, chink, or crevice. 2. An intervening space of time; an interval between actions. From the above, it is evident that Interstitiality involves the construct of Time. In engaging “between”, “intervening”, and “interval”, Interstitiality also involves the semantics of Transition. Finally, both definitions of Interstiality involve Space.
it is evident that ves the construct oes Place. Urban a Place, is a estation of the d necessity of eople over Time.
Interstitiality involves the construct of Time. Interstitiality involves the semantics of Transition. Interstitiality is defined y Space. Interstitiality is a Space that involves Time and Transition. (6)
he construct of
Place, Urban, and Transition = Constant Change. (5) Interstitiality is a Space that involves Time and Transition. (6) Interstitiality is a Space of Transition, in Constant Change. (7)
the construct of
ves the construct
d Transition share Time. (4)
t Change Time.
d Transition share Time. (4) nd Transition = e (5)
Of
Semantics:
Reduction Of Semantics: Timelapse Time-lapse, n. Etymology: < time n. + lapse n. 1. An interval of time, esp. between two events; the passage of time; spec. an interval of time in the narrative of a play or film that is not represented in the
action portrayed; a chronological break in the action. 2. Time-lapse photography or cinematography (see Compounds); a facility for accomplishing this; a time-lapse film 3. attrib. Designating the technique of taking a sequence of photographs at set time intervals to record events that occur imperceptibly slowly, so that when the resulting film is played at normal speed the action is speeded up and perceptible; relating to or used for this process. Esp. in time-lapse photography, time-lapse video. From the above, it is evident that Time-lapse involves the construct of Time. In engaging “interval”, Time-lapse also involves Transition. However, by definition, Time-lapse also introduces dynamism to perception. Time-lapse involves the construct of Time. Transition involves the construct of Time. Time-lapse shares the construct of Time with Transition. (8) Place, Urban, and Transition = Constant Change (5) Time-lapse shares the construct of Time with Transition. (8) Time-lapse, like Place, Urban, and transition is under a state of Constant Change. (9) Time-lapse introduces dynamism to the interval of perception. Time-lapse, like Place, Urban, and transition is under a state of Constant Change. (9) Time-lapse introduces a dynamic perception to Constant Change. (10) Reduction Conclusion
Of
Semantics:
Place is under Constant Change, because of Time. Place, Urban, and Transition are all undergoing Constant Change. Interstitiality is a Space of Transition, in Constant Change. Time-lapse introduces a dynamic perception to Constant Change. From the above, it is evident that Place, Urban, Transition, Interstitiality, and Space are all under Constant Change. It follows that Time-lapse offers a dynamic lens to perceive Constant Change, and thus to perceive Place, Urban, Transition, Interstitiality, and Space. Finally, it is conclusive that all semantics center around the concept of the expression of time by physical demonstration. September 18, 2015 - Thesis Statement Time explains the destiny and necessity of all material things to exist in a state of constant change. It is this change in physical matter which contributes to the construction and montage of place. The process becomes a historical documentation of sequential event in Chronos time. In the continuum of human observation, of place, one stands in the moment of Kairos time, seeing in-between time, through the vestiges of time - a witness of the inevitable. The thesis subjects itself to the context of urbanity, in particular, the interstitial conditions of the city. The contemporary built environment lends itself to history, as the city is a practice in iteration “ad naseum,” and is seldom if never subject to complete demolition to start anew. It then can be said that the vestiges of years and years of energy, thought, and time are ingrained throughout. It can be argued that the present physical environment embodies Appendix Of Thoughts
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the memory of the city. It is the intent of the thesis discovery to explore those conditions that get at the revealing of layers through human perception. The idea of “time-lapse” acts as a parallel mechanism to describe the witnessing of a great passage of time, in a brief span of time. The surfaces, connections, objects, and other physical matter during the perception define the spaces of the city, and give clues to the environment of urban place extant in historical regression. The thesis will test the idea of contemporary thinking, practices, and pragmatism in a search to identify the essential qualities of place as it relates to the recollection of physical memory in the urban fabric. September 26, 2015 - Juhani Pallasmaa “...human constructions also have the task of preserving the past, enabling us to experience and grasp the continuum of culture and tradition. We do not only exist in a spatial and material reality, we also inhabit cultural, mental, and temporal realities. Our existential and lived reality is a thick, layered, and constantly oscillating condition. Architecture is essentially an art form of reconciliation and mediation and in addition to settling us in space and place, landscapes and buildings articulate our experiences of duration and time between the polarities of past and future. In fact, along with the entire corpus of literature and the arts, landscapes and buildings constitute the most important externalization of human memory. We understand and remember who we are through our constructions, both material and mental. We also judge alien and past cultures through the evidence provided by the architectural structures they have 300
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produced. Buildings project epic narratives.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “Built structures, as well as mere remembered architectural images and metaphors, serve as significant memory devices in three different ways: first, they materialize and preserve the course of time and make it visible; second, they concretize remembrance by containing and projecting memories; and third, they stimulate and inspire us to reminisce and imagine. Memory and fantasy, recollection and imagination, are related and they have always a situation and specific content. One who cannot remember can hardly imagine because memory is the soil of the imagination. Memory is also the ground of self-identity; we are what we remember.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “We cannot conceive or remember time as a mere physical dimension; we can only grasp time through its actualizations: the traces, places, and events of temporal occurrence.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “[The city of memory] is empty because for an imagination it is easier to conjure architecture than human beings” -Joseph Brodsky “Is this the inherent reason why we architects tend to think of architecture more in terms of its material existence than the life and human situations that take place in the spaces we have designed?” Juhani Pallasmaa “The recollection of places and rooms generates the recall of events and people” -Juhani Pallasmaa “The remembered image arises gradually, piece by piece, from fragments of memory as a
painted cubist picture emerges from detached visual motifs. I have written about my own memories of my grandfather’s humble farmhouse, and pointed out that the memory house of my early childhood is a collage of fragments, smells, conditions of light, and specific feelings of enclosure and intimacy, but rarely precise and complete visual recollections.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “We internalize our experiences as lived situational, multi-sensory images and they are fused with our body experience. Human memory is embodied, skeletal and muscular in its essence, not merely cerebral.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “Buildings and their remains suggest stories of human fate, both real and imaginary...Ruins and eroded settings have an especially evocative and emotional power; they force us to reminisce and imagine.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “...this emotional power of the architectural fragment.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “It is hard to recall, for instance, a familiar or iconic photograph as a two-dimensional image on photographic paper; we tend to remember the depicted object, person, or event in its full spatial reality. It is obvious that our existential space is never a twodimensional pictorial space, but a lived and multi-sensory space saturated and structured by memories and intentions.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “The significance of objects in our processes of remembering is the main reason why we like to collect familiar or peculiar objects around us; they expand and reinforce the realm of memories, and eventually, our very sense of self.” -Juhani Pallasmaa
“I am what is -Wallace Stevens “I am the space -Noel Arnaud
“...the intertwi world and the the externalized remembrance -Juhani Pallasmaa
“We live in m which the mater as well as the e remembered, an constantly fuse -Juhani Pallasmaa
“The experienc or space is alw exchange; as I s the space settles city and the city d are in a constan our settings; sim internalize the se our own bodies, o bodily schemes, u Memory and actu and dream, m Pallasmaa
“...the body is no of remembrance site and medium work, including t architect.” -Juhan
“In addition to devices, landscap are also amplifie they reinforce belonging or alien or rejection, despair. A landsc architecture can create feelings. authority and aura strengthen our ow project them back feelings of ours source.” -Juhani P
“Its [architecture
s around me.”
e, where I am.”
ining of the self as well as d ground of and identity.” a
mental worlds in rial and spiritual, experienced, the nd the imagined, into each other. a
ce of a place ways a curious settle in a space, in me. I live in a dwells in me. We nt exchange with multaneously we etting and project or aspects of our upon the setting. uality, perception merge.” -Juhani
ot only the locus e, it is also the m of all creative the work of the ni Pallasmaa
being memory pes and buildings ers of emotions; sensations of nation, invitation tranquility or cape or work of nnot, however, Through their a, they evoke and wn emotions and k to us as if these had an external Pallasmaa
e] role is not to
create strong foreground figures or feelings but to establish frames of perception and horizons of understanding.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “Architecture is needed to provide the ground and projection screen of remembrance and emotion.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “...architecture has to safeguard memories and protect the authenticity and independence of human experience.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “...an architecture that evokes a primordial, unspecified awareness of the past and temporal duration, and a layered sense of time. Its emotive and associative power lies in the total fusion of ingredients into an indivisible entity.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “Architecture begins with the establishment of a horizontal plane; consequently, the floor is the “oldest” and most potent element of architecture.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “In any significant experience, temporal layers interact; what is perceived interacts with what is remembered, the novel short circuits with the archaic.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “...there are also novel images that resonate with remembrance. The latter [novel images] are at the same time mysterious and familiar, obscure and clear. They move us through the remembrances and associations, emotions and empathy that they awaken in us. Artistic novelty can move us only provided it touches something that we already possess in our very being.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “Every profound artistic work surely grows from memory, not from rootless intellectual
invention.” -Juhani Pallasmaa “Only works that are in vital and respectful dialog with their past possess the mental capacity to survive time and stimulate viewers, listeners, readers, and occupants in the future.” -Juhani Pallasmaa September 29, 2015 - Thesis Statement: Kairotic Memory + The Synchronous Montage Of Place. Time explains the destiny and necessity of all material things to exist in a state of constant change. It is this relentless editing of physical matter which contributes to the iterative montage of place. It follows that place is ephemeral - a flee ing condition of physical existence. With respect to the human condition, the capacity to draw upon memories is important in the description of place as a translation of a lived experience. The ability to make memories and remember them is the human capacity to time-travel. A memory remembered is a kairotic moment that enables us to see across chronological time. Without humanity, there is no need for architecture. It is arguable then, that the individual is the eternal site for the work of the architect. The mind in tandem with the body, form the locus of remembrance. Thus, upon recollection, a lifetime of observation saturates the memory with bursts of multi-sensorial fragments. We remember place not by photographic twodimensionality, but rather by spatial flashes of lived event. We attempt to montage these glimpses to somehow form a descriptive, comprehensible whole in communicating the identifying qualities of place.
Cities are physical instances of the interactions between people. As a macrocosm of architecture, the montage of the urban environment lends itself to individual memories of place. One may recollect experiences from various conditions in the city that will contribute to the composite eidolon of place. The thesis seeks to investigate the essences of the “placeness” of place as a montaged, composite synchronization of various qualitative mental constructs across the lifetime of an individual in urban environments. October 2, 2015 - Anecdote of the Jar - Wallace Stevens (about what makes Place) I placed a jar in Tennessee, And round it was, upon a hill. It made the slovenly wilderness Surround that hill. The wilderness rose up to it, And sprawled around, no longer wild. The jar was round upon the ground And tall and of a port in air. It took dominion everywhere. The jar was gray and bare. It did not give of bird or bush, Like nothing else in Tennessee. October 4, 2015 – Thesis Statement The ephemeral nature of place forces the human capacity to remember – a kairotic moment to travel across chronological time. Individual memory occurs in multi-sensorial fragments, each person remembering different qualities from one another, but the collective remembrance of humanity perceives place through the essential qualities of architecture echoing throughout Appendix Of Thoughts
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time. Humanity’s existence in civilization is the eternal site for architecture. The thesis will use the city – the most contemporary form of extant civilization, as a physical grounds for exploring the creation of place. The milieu of urban conditions sets various stages for humans to remember place through lifetimes, and for humanity to remember through millennia. October 5, 2016 - Thesis Thoughts Man’s presence in architecture, even in man’s absence. Ex: Durable material up to 6’ on a column, and then a change in material until the top of the wall. Humanity does not need architecture…CIVILIZATION needs architecture. How can the architect impact people of different ages? The architecture has to be able to stand alone. It can be for people…but it must be able to exist as itself…why? Because you cannot design to control the behavior of people. All you can do is provide suggestions. Architecture does not control behavior, but it does INFLUENCE behavior. In the absence of human presence, the architecture still exists, and it can be discussed in the absence of activity and use. Can mankind / humanity / civilization be represented through the “all knowing architect / architectural historian?” There are two levels of understanding and perception of space in architecture: The level of HUMAN. A young child. An adolescent. An elder. The level of HUMANITY. The thoughts, experiences, and perceptions of thousands of years of human observation of space. Harkens back to the most elemental origins of architecture in civilization. What echoes through the ages of civilization 302
Understanding & Interpretation In Architecture
in architecture? Timeless systems of order. Timeless expressions of structure. Timeless material qualities. HUMANITY sees the architecture objectively + historically, with omnipotent knowledge. The space is the space. It stands alone. HUMAN sees the architecture in various ways, the perception influenced by individual experiences, current processes of thought, and physical existence in space. The space is projected in certain qualities, highlighting what is important to the person witnessing it. The space is not just the space. It becomes a projection of what the individual sees. THESIS: The ephemeral nature of place forces the human capacity to remember – a kairotic moment to travel across chronological time. Individual memory occurs in multi-sensorial fragments, each person remembering different qualities from one another, but the collective remembrance of humanity perceives place through the essential qualities of architecture echoing throughout time. Humanity’s existence in civilization is the eternal site for architecture. HUMAN: Different forms of representation and projection of contemporary space reveal different attributes and elements of architecture to different people. (Human, individual) HUMANITY: Essential qualities of architecture that echo throughout past civilizations come together to form contemporary space. But the feeling of place resonates with humanity’s memory that represents many millennia of observation, practice, and documentation. (Humanity, history of civilization) The thesis will use the city – the
most contemporary form of extant civilization, as a physical grounds for exploring the creation of place. The milieu of urban conditions sets various stages for humans to remember place through lifetimes, and for humanity to remember through millennia. The thesis will investigate and project the qualities of “placeness” through the subjective memory of humans [individuals] and the objective memory of humanity [civilization] in the form of an urban passage. Questions: Is there some collective memory of space that is relatable to each and every individual? What is your architecture in the city? A “passage” of place? A linear track through the city of interior and exterior spaces connected through blocks and streets? Alleys + side streets? An architectural “ped-way?” A single building? A building with old bones…Takes certain conditions of the city and embodies it in the work. The qualities of the old clash with the new…What are the essential qualities of architecture? Structure. Columns. Beams. Walls. Surface. Walls. Floors. Ceilings. Space. Proportions. Solids + Voids. Geometry. Scale. Atmosphere. Material. Color. Texture. Scale. Pattern. Smell. Transparency. Light. Color. Intensity. Point + Form of Entry. October 27, 2015 - Three Relationships Of Memory 3 relationships are tested: Contact, Dialogue, and Exegesis. Each relationship carries with it a particular means of testing the genetic foundation + evolution of building. All 3 attempt to get at the essences of architectural
memory, but th forms of intera seek to take a crucial but ephe of civilization, a something eterna
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of architecture ritical discourse commentary on material, form, Rather than an araphrasing, the nship offers a interpretation of the lineage of 2015 - Canal
of
Canals: [In
ys have been used since the Native uropean settlers njamin Franklin yor Rhodes in 1772 emphasizing canals. George the principal nections by canal. Canal Era in the
United States was in the 1850s. There were over 4,000 miles of canal at the time. Most of which now are abandoned. Chesapeake History:
+
Ohio
Canal
Constructed between 1828 to 1850. Attempts to connect what was known as “the West,” which is Pittsburgh, PA to “the East,” which is Chesapeake Bay. In a span of 30 minutes, there would be about 15-20 boats waiting at the lock. 550 boats operational on the canal on any given day at its peak use. Canal boats were pulled by mules walking on a parallel trail to the side of the canal! They pulled the boats at approximately 2 miles per hour. Seems slow, but they didn’t want to go too fast. There was a speed limit of 4 miles per hour on the canal. The inspiration and standard for the construction and implementation of the C+O canal came from the construction of the Erie Canal, which was 363 miles, and connected Lake Erie and the Hudson River. Material to build the C+O canal was very expensive, and consisted of lumber, building stone, and lime for cement. Excavation usually revealed unexpected hardpan, slate, or gravel which made the labor difficult and costly, both in time and money. Mostly agricultural around the canal, so labor was unskilled. So men from very diverse backgrounds, in particular, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, England, and Wales worked on the canal. Welsh miners came to the U.S. to dig the Paw Paw Tunnel. Bad contractors. Workers had poor food, makeshift dwellings. Disease swept through the workforce. The C+O Canal Company races and fights against the B+O {Baltimore and Ohio) Railroad Company for securing land titles to build. Canal was used as each section was completed:
Georgetown to Seneca – 1831. Harpers Ferry – 1833. Hancock – 1839. After Hancock, the company ran into big financial problems. As a result, the C+O Canal didn’t reach Cumberland, MD until 1850…8 years after the railroad got there. With that, the company discontinued its original plan to continue the next 180 miles to the Ohio River in Pittsburgh.1875 was when the canal was used most. COAL IS THE PRINCIPAL CARGO CARRIED ON THE CANAL. Load was picked up from Cumberland, and shipped East to Georgetown. Being a boatman was a lifestyle, different from being a farmer, or a typical townsman. In 1877, two years after peak, there is a boatmen’s strike, and a devastating flood which damaged the canal. Furthermore, a shortage of reparations funds, a series of miners’ strikes, and droughts contribute further to the decline. Eventually, many boatmen leave the canal and start new lives elsewhere with different work. The C+O Canal depreciates and never recovers. Flood also destroys adjacent programs – flour mills, wharves, warehouses, lime kilns, feed stores, boatyards, repair docks, and the roads which brought grain and building materials to the canal. The Railroad buys the canal, and keeps it operational. The competition with the railroad ultimately kills the functionality of the canal…trains carried more coal faster to their destinations. Canal was only used while it was warm enough to keep the water in the canal liquid. Once it got too cold, the canal froze, and no one could travel on it. Typical months of operation were April – November. Huge flood of the Potomac in 1924 floods the canal – it is the 5th major flood to the canal over the course of its life. Additionally, Cumberland exhausts its coal supply in the
mines. Used for nearly 100 years… operated until 1924. The end of the C+O Canal marks the end of the whole mule-drawn, canal-boat era in the United States. President Eisenhower declares the canal a National Monument in 1961. It became the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park on January 8, 1972. Chesapeake Numbers:
+
Ohio
Canal
184.5 miles long. Cost $12 million. Canal was typically 50-60 feet wide at towpath level, and sloped to 30-40 feet at the bottom. Carried a minimum 6’ deep of water. 74 lift locks. Typically 15’ wide by 90’ long – clear. Rises 610 feet in elevation from Georgetown to Cumberland. 11 stone aqueducts which carry the canal over Potomac tributaries. 7 dams to supply water to the canal. Several waste weirs to control the water level. 200 culverts to carry roads and streams under the canal. 3,118 foot tunnel to take it under a mountain. Variety of stop gates, river locks, guard locks, bridges, shops, section houses, and lock houses. Typical canal boat was 14.5’ wide, 92’ long, drew 4.5’ of water, and could carry up to 135 tons of cargo. In 1875, the peak year of use, over 500 boats carried nearly a million tons of cargo, 900,000 tons of coal, 1,000 tons of flou , nearly 9,000 tons of wheat, over 1,000 tons of lumber, and 3,500 tons of corn. C+O Canal Relationship With Georgetown: Boatmen were always anxious to arrive in Georgetown and unload their coal. Difficult to handle the mules and manage the boat…the mules would have to cross the busy streets, and when the lock was under a bridge, the towline stretched over the bannister across Appendix Of Thoughts
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the street and tied up traffi . Some boatmen just wanted to unload coal and immediately head back to Cumberland for another load, but others really liked it in Georgetown and wanted to stay awhile. Boat children and their families really liked Georgetown. It was where they had their fun. They got together to play there, they would go to a big candy shop on M Street to get ice cream, or go to the bakery to get pie and cake, they’d watch open air movies on M Street. The men would sit on their boats and play poker during a layover. Ice was available in Georgetown…and boatmen usually went without ice on their trips, so it was a treat to have a cold drink there, and they saved ice for later by throwing it under the coal on the boat…apparently coal was insulating. Georgetown was also a place to “stock up” for the winter after the last run East. Boating families would buy, “flou , sugar, coffee, shoes, and clothes.” Locks: Locks are used to make a river more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to take a reasonably direct line across land that is not level. How Locks Work: The principle of operating a lock is simple. For instance, if a boat travelling downstream finds the lock already full of water: The entrance gates are opened and the boat moves in. The entrance gates are closed. A valve is opened, this lowers the boat by draining water from the chamber. The exit gates are opened and the boat moves out. If the lock were empty, the boat would have had to wait 5 to 10 minutes while the lock was filled. For a boat travelling upstream, the process is reversed. The boat enters the empty lock, and then the chamber is filled by opening 304
Understanding & Interpretation In Architecture
a valve that allows water to enter the chamber from the upper level. The whole operation will usually take between 10 and 20 minutes, depending on the size of the lock and whether the water in the lock was originally set at the boat’s level. Boaters approaching a lock are usually pleased to meet another boat coming towards them, because this boat will have just exited the lock on their level and therefore set the lock in their favor — saving about 5 to 10 minutes. C+O Canal Locks: To enter a lock required great care and patience. The boat had to be steered in a direct line in the center of the canal, for the least deviation would cause a collision with the stone walls that might sink it, for it fitted the lock like a nickel in the slot. There would be a “lock man,” whose job it was to operate the lock for boats to lock through. Often times, there was a lock house that the Lock man lived in, adjacent to the lock. Boatmen would fire a homemade cannon, or sound a horn or bugle, shine their lantern, or simply yell, “Heyyyyy lock!” All of this was to alert the lock man ahead of time to “set” the lock to prepare for the boat’s arrival, for a timely and smooth lock through. November 18, 2015 – Program Description A Bicycle Assembly Facility + A Bicycle Rental Facility. Bicycles embody an idea about connection. They are compound machines that combine the functions of very archaic simple machines. Human force from the legs moves a pulley system (the pedals), which provides motion
to a pair of wheels and axles. The result - people can travel faster and farther, with less effort. A Bicycle Assembly Facility reveals the processes and decisions of construction. There are inherent thoughts about The Facility pulls from a collective knowledge to discover how connection, material choice, form, and order are essential in assembling a bicycle. The Facility is didactic, in that the public is able to observe the methods and ways of making. A Bicycle Rental Facility is more utilitarian to the site, but provides another way to learn. It provides visitors and local residents a sustainable, beautiful, and accessible way to explore the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. After viewing the process of making the bicycle, there is a profound understanding of how something is made. Arguably, upon renting the bike and riding along the Towpath, people might ask questions about how certain things along the canal are made, and can begin to unravel the historic and contemporary significance of the knowledge of making in the built environment. A bicycle itself is a prime example of how different pieces of knowledge can come together to make a useful, beautiful, innovating contribution to civilization. Thus, in engaging both the site and the thesis, A Bicycle Assembly + Rental Facility is an exciting, contemporary use that preserves a way of making that harkens back to ancient discoveries and processes. This enables the thesis to find relevance in contemporary society, while reaching back to the past to find new connections between old pieces of knowledge + ideas. December 1, 2015 – Thesis Statement
It can be argued of understanding done in the pas contributions in t is a reason why that we, “canno wheel.” There is Heiner is always “amateurs copy steal.” The quot stolen from Pabl told in first year, and stay foolish.” from Steve Jo speech at Stan In this vein, the architecture dep own collective k building. Progre through sheer int Rather, innovatio stems from our thinking, and our new intersections knowledge and p the exegesis, o of collective k architects continu the legacy of a thesis asks how the essences knowledge, to contemporary c making meaningf architecture.
December 3, 20 As Foundation
Isn’t it interesti nearly universa rich education a qualification th individual to be to work or co professional w everyone would education is t upon which peop productive and the problems of It is education tha contemporary an discussion, an innovation for the
d that the notion g what has been st, is essential to the future. There we keep hearing ot re-invent the s a reason why s telling us that y, professionals te itself is even lo Picasso! I was to “stay hungry, This too, is stolen obs’s graduation nford University. e progression of pends on our knowledge about ess is not made tellectual novelty. on in architecture unique ways of r capacity to find s between existing past ideas. It is in or interpretation knowledge, that ue to build upon architecture. The w we interpret of collective make relevant, contributions in ful space through
015 - Knowledge
ing how society ally accepts a as the validating hat deems an ready or worthy ontribute in the world? Nearly agree that one’s the foundation ple are able to be contributory to the world today. at underscores all nalysis, intelligent nd progressive e future. So then,
is meaningful work achieved by knowing as much as you can? Is it about being able to have as vast of a knowledge reservoir as possible, to draw more new connections between bits of information, to apply to their discipline of work? Is this the most we can aspire to as human beings, to be as contributing to society as we can while we exist? Work, relationships, communication, and interaction are the ways we are able to not only bring meaning to our own lives, but make our own meaningful, and useful contribution to the collective knowledge of humanity. December 6, 2015 - How A Bicycle Is Made Design. Studio – a space where bicycle designers and engineers can research, draw, communicate, and collaborate together to learn from each other and innovate. Assembly. Lifting + Storage. Space for receiving and storing raw material. Testing. Space for testing the raw material. Forming. Form other objects too. Bicycle frame. Space for forming raw material into the necessary parts. (Rolling steel… flame heats up and seals the roll into a closed cylinder.) Polished with emery cloth. Enameling + rust proofin . Brackets Steel is pressed to make joining brackets, using less material that is free of joints – stronger and lighter as a result! Front Fork. All formed as one piece, to be stronger to take all the bumps from the front wheel. Heated / treated in the furnace. Polished with a fine emery cloth. Enameling + rust proofin . Joining. The tubes of steel are connected together by the brackets to form the frame.
Drilled + pegged together and subjected to heat to be welded. Treatment. Steel is dipped in a tank of some solution to cool and take on a sheen. Frames are transported by lift to storage racks. December 6, 2015 - How Are Gears Made? A gear is a wheel with teeth that meshes with the teeth of another gear to transmit power on a continuous basis. Combining gears of different diameters affects rotation speed and force. Making a gear starts with a large round bar of high grade steel, containing carbon which makes it stronger. Bandsaw cutting with coolant running to cool slices a piece of the steel to make the gear of the right thickness. This piece is called a “gear blank.” Blank spins – a turret machines the blank into a specific shape… shaving away steel to Drill cuts into the middle of the blank with coolant to keep the friction temperature down. Grooves are cut into the gear to reduce its weight. Holes are drilled through the gear around the circumference through which lubrication will fl w when the gear is operating. Also lightens the gears weight. A gear-shaper carves out the inner teeth within the center hole, with a titanium coated cutter. Gear spins in a circle, and the cutter goes up and down at a particular pace to space out the teeth appropriately. A gear hopper slowly carves into the outer perimeter of the gear to form the outer teeth of the gear. It continues to cut until the teeth are the right depth. A probe analyzes the dimensions on every tooth to ensure meeting the engineering specification . Gears go into a furnace with carbon injected inside. The steel absorbs the carbon, and is strengthened as a result of the
heating + carbon process. Gears soak in oil afterwards, and the steel hardens more. The heat treatment distorts the precision of the gear, so each gear is grinded by computer controlled machine to precise specification , to make sure they work properly with bearings. Gears can be done in various sizes. Gears made out of nylon, aluminum, brass, and stainless steel too! Some gears have straight teeth. Other gears have angled teeth, which make less noise when turning against another gear. Machinery does work through gears by the movements of rotation and turning. One gear to another gear connection changes one RPM to another RPM via relationships of teeth and diameter! If the teeth do not fit perfectly, it will lead to material erosion, at a pace which is dependent on material strength and durability. In addition, a poor fit is noisie . December 7, 2015 - The Concept of Universal Connection Nothing in the world stands by itself. Every object is a link in an endless chain and is thus connected with all the other links. And this chain of the universe has never been broken; it unites all objects and processes in a single whole and thus has a universal character. We cannot move so much as our little fin er without “disturbing” the whole universe. The life of the universe, its history lies in an infinite eb of connections. In a crystal, which is an ensemble of atoms, no individual atom can move in complete independence of the others. Its slightest shift has an effect on every other atom. The oscillations of particles in a solid body are, and can only be, collective. Appendix Of Thoughts
305
Connections exist not only between objects within the framework of a given form of motion of matter, but also between all its forms, woven together in a kind of infinitely huge skein. What is a connection? It is a dependence of one phenomenon on another in a certain relationship. The materiality of the world conditions the connection of everything with everything else, expressed in the philosophical principle of universal connection. Investigation of the various forms of connections is the primary task of cognition. Connection is the first thing that strikes us when we consider anything. In order to know an object in reality, one must embrace, study all its aspects, all the immediate and mediate connections. This is what drives scientific thought in its search for systematic connections everywhere, both in particulars and in the whole. So everything in the world is connected with something else. The human individual, for example, is not a lone traveller amid the jungles of existence. He is a part of the world interacting in various ways with that world. Separate cultures are not closed, isolated islands. They are like great waves in the ocean of history, which work upon each other, often merging into even broader waves, often clashing with waves of a different dimension, so that the regular rhythm of the rise and fall of individual waves is broken. Everything that happens in the world may be attributed to the interaction of things. The origin and development of objects depend on interaction. Every kind of interaction is 306
Understanding & Interpretation In Architecture
connected with material fields and involves transference of matter, motion and information. Interaction is impossible without a specific material ehicle. Not a single phenomenon in the world can be explained out of itself, without taking into account its interactions with other objects. Interaction is not only the initial point of cognition but also its culminating point. December 8, 2015 - On Origin Why do we care about origin? There is something about origin that peaks our curiosity. Perhaps it is the unique capacity of human beings to ask the question – why? Does the journey to origin stem from our need to explore? Arguably through exploration, we have built civilization. The innate need for us to know perhaps drives exploration. The unknown is uncertain. Uncertainty often drives inquiry and question. So, it is also arguable that the unknown pushes us to question. And it is in the framing and specificity of the question that steers exploration. Although exploration often seeks to understand something in particular, sometimes we explore and discover something unexpected. It is important to understand that this unexpected discovery does not make the exploration a failure! The unexpected discovery is a new connection that likely spawns other questions. The search continues in answering the original question, but new questions subsequently branch from the unexpected finding , which spawn new explorations to answer them. In this vein, it can be said that there is a mutual relationship between questions and explorations. Questions fuel
December 8, 2015 - On Process
the way how the a the available in uses it as a founda architecture can p
Why is it that we are so obsessed with process work in architecture?
January 22, Interpretation
Arguably, it is the process that reveals insight to where something comes from. It is our process work that shows other people and ourselves how we transitioned from point A to point B, and from point B to point C and so on.
We are the arc own reality. Sh esteemed researc psychology tells have to recogniz control over how interpret the ob our external wo everyone has the the world thro particular lenses. to see what they attend to, and w So in architectur contributions in o time, we first hav and construct the information that Time constrains h able to learn and to do from wha best one can hope be as aware as po available knowled around oneself. T extract knowledg to use in the pre on the shoulders This process perm construction knowledge in others to use in th
explorations, and explorations fuel questions.
Perhaps we are so curious about understanding how other people think and arrive at their different discoveries and conclusions, because none of us see the world in the same way as any other person. It is our unique perspective, our individuality – that shapes who we are and how we think. We use the mediums of drawing, modeling, photography, and many others because historically, they have been successful in communicating our individual finding . The way we draw, the way we model, the way we document our explorations in architecture – all are telling in how we perceive the multi-faceted qualities of architecture. In order for us to understand and construct meaningful architecture today, we draw, both figurat vely and literally, upon the past. So in argument for an architecture that is interpretive upon past knowledge, an openness and honesty towards process work is essential to show others how the architect uses that knowledge. The significan e of interpretation is in the way in which the architect draws upon the past. It is in the way in which the architect draws connections between various fragments of knowledge. It is in
So then, how d choose what info How does he inte
The process o relies on the in principles, and the architect, adopted from wh from people aro the people bef education, from from practice. Th are inseparable
architect accesses nformation, and ation upon which project itself. 2016
-
On
chitects of our hawn Achor, an cher on positive s us that, “We ze that we have w we choose to bjective facts in orld.” Essentially, e capacity to see ough their own Everyone is able want to see and what they do not. re, to make our our own place and ve to find, gather, e environment of t we draw from. how much we are what we are able at we learn. The e to do then, is to ossible of all the dge and resources To recognize and ge from the past esent is to stand of those before. mits the ongoing of collective architecture for heir own way.
does an architect ormation he uses? erpret it?
of interpretation ndividual values, constraints of which he has hat he has learned ound him, from fore him, from m literature, and hese core beliefs from the work
of the architect, because these beliefs are evidence of his own composition as an individual. To part with them is to part from himself. Without identity, as a person or as an architect, then who are you? I think information and knowledge is interpreted based on their value to the architect, with respect to what the architect seeks to accomplish. The value of a piece of knowledge depends on what the architect deems important in his reality, and can be expressed in a multitude of ways. Vitruvius tells us that the intellectual core with regards the act of making is threefold: Firmitas - Strength. Utilitas - Utility. Venustas - Beauty So then, the question for myself is, how does Alex Cheng interpret knowledge to make his contributions to architecture? What is really important to Alex? What can Alex draw from to project the value, meaning, pertinence, beauty, function, and sensibility of interpretation? I would argue that the various values of knowledge of making in architecture today can be broken into 5 parts: Permanence (instead of Strength) Utility Beauty Meaning Connection / Interaction Is interpretation learning and understanding other people’s ideas or ways of thinking, and combining and connecting these ideas one learns about in a new way to make a contribution in some manifestation? WHAT IS A GOOD INTERPRETATION???
Mortality forces us to pass ideas, knowledge, and thought along through talking, writing, drawing, and other available forms of communication and documentation. So the only way we are able to move forward, is by looking backward and learning from what has been done. So a good interpretation in architecture is one that not just steals from history, but rather presences past ideas and references those thoughts in the work. A good interpretation makes evident the thinking and knowledge behind the contribution one makes. As Juhani Pallasmaa once wrote, “imagination stems from memory.” In this way, when buildings, spaces, and details are encountered by other people, they are able to understand how the architecture came to be. In one way or another then, architecture is always a collection of conversations with the past. Thus, in one’s practice in architecture is one’s interpretation of what they know about making architecture. Practicing architecture is a matter of which conversations one chooses to have with the past, and how one chooses to have those conversations interact to make in the present. But the presence of past ideas does not mean something like Classical replication. The copying of the same forms, techniques, and ways of putting elements of architecture together is not the intent of good interpretation. Instead, good interpretation relies upon the embodied ideas and ways of thinking. It’s about one understanding architecture as, “wow, that’s a nice thought” versus “wow, that’s nice.” The “niceness” of a building, of a space, of a detail, comes from profound thinking and ideas.
Beauty, functionality, sensibility, and meaning is naturally derivative from this process. Drawing from the past is not about reproducing a 2,000 year old Corinthian column in the present. Instead, it is understanding the way a Greek column was made, what it meant to people, and how it can be drawn upon for something to be useful, be beautiful, be meaningful in the present. January 25, 2016 - Influential People To Thesis Shawn Achor. Positive Psychologist. Perception of the world is paramount. Reality is an individual, conscious construction. Steven Johnson. American Popular Science Author & Media Theorist. Everything is connected. New connections between old ideas and knowledge give us innovation. We continue to build upon the past, nothing is novelty. Juhani Pallasmaa. Architect & Architecture School Professor. We are what we remember. Memory is the soil of the imagination. Memory is not photographic – it is a montage of fragments. The body is the site of the architect. Perceived reality is a synchronization between the past, present, and future. Wang Shu. Architect & Architecture School Professor. Timeless architecture. Deeply rooted in its context and yet universal. Innovate approach to architecture, in tune with tradition while being genuine to the present. Francis Kéré Architect. Applied knowledge learned elsewhere to a locality. Draw upon local resources, traditions, & values in tandem with knowledge acquired abroad. Appendix Of Thoughts
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Li Xiaodong. Architect. Brings together traditional and contemporary modes of expression. Carlo Scarpa. Architect. The idea is embodied in all scales of architecture. Reveal the process of thinking when drawing. Hanno-Walter Kruft. Author On Architectural Theory. Knowledge in architecture is multidisciplinary. Comparative analysis yields diverse understandings of architecture. Writing is the most accurate way of transmitting idea and thought from one time to another. January 29, 2016 - Programmatic Semantics General Overview. Through the making of a bicycle, three inextricably connected programs are selected to test the depth of meaning of interpretation in architecture: a Space For Design, a Space For Assembly, and a Space For Exhibition. The question is, can past knowledge and ideas about making architecture be expressed in contemporary interpretations and connections between them, and how are they presenced? Space For Design. In architecture, it has been said that, “the sources of our knowledge about architectural theory are [thus] polyvalent, and there is no justification for limiting the scope of enquiry” (Kruft). In this vein, the bicycle falls within this “scope of enquiry” to explore how it can influence ar hitecture. As such, a Space For Design should reflect an ability to gather, hold, and draw from many sources of knowledge. Kruft argues that “architectural 308
Understanding & Interpretation In Architecture
theory is synonymous with its writings.” Essentially, the best way for architects to learn about how other architects have thought about making in theory, is through past writings about their thoughts. It is in this through this medium of learning that the original intent and meaning of the writer comes through to the reader. Words are a convention for communication, and each carries with them an inherent meaning, or definition. Even though words carry predefined semantics, often we overlay our own understanding of semantics on top of the generic definition. However, it is one of the clearest and objective ways we have to deliver thought from one generation to the next. In contrast to reading text, the reading of architecture can certainly yield different interpretations between different analyses. So, it is possible that no two people will interpret a work of architecture in the exact same way. A Space For Design carries a responsibility to house various mediums of knowledge transmission, including graphic representations, built artifacts, and writings. These forms of documentation cover a wide breadth of interdisciplinary material, yet simultaneously has great depth in design practice and theory. Essentially, a Space For Design is not only a place to work, but is also a library. It is a place to learn. It is a place to test ideas. It is a practicing school. By this creed, a Space For Design is a collaborative space. It provides a working boundary for the exchange of ideas between a group of colleagues working within a discipline. It is a curated environment that fosters interconnectivity and interaction to bridge ways of thinking to innovate in design. It exposes the
intellectual processes of designing a bicycle. Space For Assembly. Arguably, theory is nothing without practice. The normative is nothing without the substantive. There must be the substance that grounds and further provokes thinking. A Space For Assembly exposes the process of physical craft through the bicycle as the substantive vehicle for testing interpretations and new ways of thinking about making. Drawings and models that carry the ideas of making a bicycle enter a Space For Assembly to be built with a linear logic. Organizationally, a Space For Assembly is thought of as a bicycle’s looping chain, with a Space For Design as the pedals and crankset that provides the force to move the chain to turn the wheel. Design generates intellectual power, which pulls ideas through the linkages of the Assembly, eventually making a full revolution. Design iterates, and Assembly tests. Finally, when the bicycle reaches critical mass – when the idea of the bicycle and its built craft reach the most intimate relationship, the bicycle is sent forward to a Space For Exhibition. A Space For Assembly is broken down into separate circulatory paths for different kinds of users. A line of operable glass separates the working facility from two promenades for visitors and bicyclists. The choice of material reflec s the transparency of the process, which reveals the rawness, but also the precision of making. The scale, orientation, and connection between each section of assembly is contingent upon the type of activity at each stage of the process. The steps of assembly are distilled down to fi e activities: storing, testing, forming,
joining, and f activity is house volume in the com constituent and e the same working
Space For Exhibi
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take the stance einvent the wheel. “New systems ebates on older s no such thing new system, and ms to be such, it d or dangerous. al theory and the are synonymous, that the present epresents a phase process.”
Exhibition is a he bicycle in all is the space that of all collective t making bicycles, ent efforts to use o a contemporary The architecture ct the meaning m, through the the methods of e space. A Space xposes a timeline owledge ranging rough the most means of working A massive plinth edrock embodies and voluminous ctive knowledge A wall launches with great mass the base to hold the millennia of supports. Frame rings off of the w that allows the s mass to work s imparts ideas etween structure kins, and other enclose space. method of
construction embodies principles such as rhythm and repetition. Finally, the wall transitions to sheets of glass - one of the most contemporary materials used in architecture. Through learning and experimentation with the properties of glass and its intersection with other materials, contemporary technology allows this material to be its own structure. Perfectly transparent glass, held by nothing other than itself, displays an array of hanging bicycles within the building. The construction of a Space For Exhibition transitions from great thickness to almost none, presencing thousands of years of past work, efforts, thinking, and innovation to achieve a contemporary, urban pinnacle of display: a temple-like glass jewel box. March 2, 2016 - Practice Thesis Speech I am interested in investigating the relationship between understanding and interpretation in architecture. So, I ask the question: can our understanding of past knowledge and ideas about making architecture be challenged, and expressed through meaningful, relevant, contemporary interpretations? How do we draw connections between works of architecture, and how do we presence them? Understanding according to the OED, is defined as: 1. Possessed of understanding; having knowledge and judgement; intelligent. 2. The faculty of comprehending and reasoning; the intellect. 3. Signification, meaning, sense. 4. Reference or application (to something). I define understanding in architecture as a grounding
of knowledge. It relies upon substantive work that leads to elementary principles acquired and passed on through millennia. The collection of understandings allows us to continue to build upon our vast volume of collective knowledge in civilization. Interpretation according to the OED, is defined as: 1. The action of interpreting or explaining; explanation, exposition. Inferentially. 2. An explanation given; a way of interpreting or explaining; a comment, a commentary. 3. The action of translating; a translation or rendering of a book, word, etc. 4. A construction put upon actions, purposes, etc. I define interpretation as a particular reading of a work of substance, with one’s thinking projected upon other’s understandings. In architecture, the process of interpretation is the means of formulation and testing that allows us to reach the next level of understanding. I am testing this relationship through a bicycle facility along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Georgetown, Washington D.C. Through the making of a bicycle, three inextricably connected programs are selected to test this relationship between understanding and interpretation in architecture: a Space For Design, a Space For Assembly, and a Space For Exhibition. The bicycle is an extroverted object of art. It exposes the way it works... Feedback Notes. Why is the project an appropriate vehicle in testing architecture in the way you want to test it? Space and boundary. Need the ranges
of site. Need to explain its legacy. Need the 3 entities to be legible. The image is clear. Make the definition more concise. Get rid of some of the OED definition . Pick 1. Get to the architecture faster. April 20, 2016 - Thesis + Program Description Understanding And Interpretation In Architecture. Alex Cheng. Thesis. How do we interpret, draw from, and presence the collective understanding of building to project our own architecture? Project. The craft of the bicycle seeks to test the relationship between understanding and interpretation in architecture through three building programs: Assembly, Design, and Exhibition. “So we must look back at the built evidence.” -Oliver Domeisen. “Everything that happens in the world may be attributed to the interaction of things... So everything in the world is connected with something else.” -Alexander Spirkin “Understanding is different from interpretation because it provides a moment when something is complete. Understanding gives a stable ground from which to operate and from which to give meaning to all things. How else would we be able to even begin a new interpretation if there is not something already understood?” -Markus Breitschmid Programs. Exhibition. A Space For Exhibition showcases the collective understanding of building the bicycle. It is the Appendix Of Thoughts
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space that holds the substantive sum of all collective knowledge about making bicycles, and the consequent efforts to use that knowledge to a contemporary means of utility. The architecture seeks to deepen the meaning of the program, through the presencing of the methods of crafting bicycles to make space. A Space For Exhibition exposes the volume of building knowledge through archaic and contemporary means of working with material. The space presences thousands of years of past work, thinking, and innovation in the form of a contemporary, urban temple of bicycle display. Design. A Space For Design should gather, hold, and draw from volumes of knowledge. In architecture, it has been said that, “the sources of our knowledge about architectural theory are [thus] polyvalent, and there is no justification for limiting the scope of enquiry” (Kruft). In this vein, the bicycle falls within this “scope of enquiry” to explore how it can influence ar hitecture. The reading of architecture can certainly yield different interpretations between different analyses, so it is possible that no two people will interpret a work of architecture in the same way. A Space For Design carries a responsibility to house mediums of knowledge transmission, including graphic representations, built artifacts, and writings. These forms of documentation cover a wide breadth of interdisciplinary material, yet simultaneously has great depth in design practice and theory. The space is not only a place to work, but it is a library – it is a practicing school – it is a place to learn – it is a place to test ideas. The space provides a working 310
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boundary for the exchange of ideas between a group of colleagues working within a discipline. It is a curated environment that fosters interconnectivity and interaction to bridge ways of thinking to innovate in design. It exposes the intellectual processes of designing a bicycle. Assembly. It can be said that, theory is nothing without substance. There must be the substance that grounds and further provokes thinking. A Space For Assembly exposes the process of physical craft through the bicycle as the substantive vehicle for testing interpretations and new ways of thinking about making. Drawings and models that carry the ideas of making a bicycle enter a Space For Assembly to be built with a linear logic. The steps of assembly are distilled down to fi e activities: storing, testing, forming, joining, and finishin . Each activity is housed in a separate volume in the complex, but all are constituent and essential parts of the same working chain. Organizationally, a Space For Assembly is thought of as a bicycle’s looping chain, with a Space For Design as the pedals and crankset that provides the force to move the chain to turn the wheel. Design generates intellectual power, which pulls ideas through the linkages of the Assembly, eventually making a full revolution. Design iterates, and Assembly tests. Finally, when the bicycle reaches critical mass – when the idea of the bicycle and its built craft reach the most intimate relationship, the bicycle is sent forward to a Space For Exhibition. May 2, 2016 – Quote “Architecture is the constant fight between man and nature, the fight
to overwhelm nature, to possess it. The first act of architecture is to put a stone on the ground. That act transforms a condition of nature into a condition of culture; it’s a holy act.” – Mario Botta May 19, 2016 - Reflection What is the point of a thesis? How is the architecture thesis part of the craft of the education of an architect? I think that the thesis first and foremost, allows the student to demonstrate architectural knowledge. Through the demonstration, perhaps the student discovers what is important in architecture, and works through the thesis questions and project to craft a convincing argument for it. Like most things in life, you take a stance and position yourself relative to others. This identity, depending on its strength and position, is polarizing. It can really distance you from some people, but you probably do not mind, because it also draws you nearer to others that think like you, and have similar interests. What has working on an architecture thesis revealed to me? It revealed a way of working. It revealed how I form ideas, and where those ideas come from. It revealed the questions I ask myself and my work in order to make architectural decisions. It revealed what it is in architecture that I really find important and give my time to when I sit at the drafting board. It revealed how differently I see architecture in comparison with my student colleagues, professors, and other architects. Why is architecture worthwhile? Because architecture at the very
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This thesis was was selected as the Virginia Tech School Of Architecture 2015-2016 Pella Prize Winner For Excellence In Undergraduate Thesis.
Understanding & Interpretation In Architecture Alexander Cheng Undergraduate Thesis: Fall 2015 - Spring 2016 College Of Architecture & Urban Studies Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Special thanks my ever-enthusiastic thesis advisor: Hilary Bryon.