C a s e
S t u d y
a n d r e w
I n T r a n s l a ti o n
h e u m a n n b.Arch 2012 Advisors: L i ly C h i Jenny Sabin
This book is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of the Bachelor of Architecture at Cornell University.
T a b l e
o f
C o n t e n t s
t r a n s l a ti o n c o m p u t a ti o n
5 11
Computer-aided Translation
13
Computation in design
14
Computation in culture
15
Computational Sketches
16
Computational analysis
25
Computing domesticity
32
proposal
39
conclusion
53
appendix
59
A. Collages
60
B. notes
66
translation
This project takes the concept of translation as its underlying conceptual framework. Translation is understood to mean the construction of a mapping from one context to another; a deep analogy which establishes a series of parallel relationships: A is to A’ as B is to B’. Each translation or mapping necessitates further mappings in order to maintain coherency and consistency. The Case Study House program of 1945-1968 serves as the source domain for these translations. The first shift, which is the seed that generates all further shifts, is the mapping from the mid-century to today. This is the project of the thesis: to produce a compelling translation of the program in the contemporary context.
6
AnAlogICAL
The productivity of this framework derives from its capacity to negotiate both sides of the design process: rational, practical, pragmatic, functional design decisions, as well as the aspects of design which cannot
AnalogICAL
be rightly claimed to any functional purpose but which animate and transform it just the same. Analogical reasoning, the underlying process of translation, contains within it both the logical and the alogical, or that
AnalogICAL
which exists outside of any particular logic.
7
AnAlogICAL
Program
Structure
Environment
Ec o n o m y
AnalogICAL
profundity
8
i l l u si o n
self-reference
critique
AnalogICAL
The logical enables the consideration of the rational, quantitative, optimized, objective, literal aspects of design. This is necessarily balanced by the alogical, which allows for the entry of the free, random, absurd, inconsistent, paradoxical and subjective. Taken together, a rich translation can be built, which maps across different conditions, preserving and altering the source material in
ac r o ss l a n g u a g e
ac r o ss G e o m e t ry
ac r o ss t i m e
the process. In the context of this project, each translational shift or mapping is understood simultaneously as a biased reading of the Case Study Houses; as a (similarly biased) interpretation of the conditions defining contemporary culture; and finally, as a deliberate design decision. ac r o ss p l ac e
ac r o ss t e c h n o l o g y
ac r o ss s t y l e
9
computation
If the originary shift of this project is the shift in temporal context from the mid-century to today, then the next crucial shift that radically transforms the introduction of digital computation. Computation defines both the medium of design investigation and representation as well as the cultural context into which the architectural intervention is projected.
12
Computer-aided
Translation
Within the realm of linguistic translation, there is a paradigm known as “Computer-Aided Translation� which anticipates much of the attitude of this project with respect to the role of computation. The assumption is that even with state-of-the-art machine translation systems, the texts that result are of inferior quality to those produced by a human translator. Rather than rejecting flawed mechanical translation altogether, the idea of Computer-Aided Translation is that an automatic translation system which leaves room for human editing and modification is superior to either the machine or the human alone.
13
Computation
in
design
One of the primary goals with this project was to explore the use of computation as a design medium. Computation, scripting, and parametric modeling in architecture have come to be associated with a particular “parametricist� style of formmaking, characterized by complexity, non-orthogonal geometries, graduated variability, and modular component systems, to name a few of the most prevalent tropes. While these and other associated techniques expand the disciplinary vocabulary, and have been crucial elements of a range of sophisticated and intelligent projects, the intent with this project was to take a different approach in its algorithmic strategies. The goal was to derive an algorithmic process from the rigorous analysis of existing, culturally-situated architectural precedents, in the interest of expanding the algorithmic vocabulary and resisting a tendency towards pure formal novelty.
14
Computation
in
culture
The shift towards algorithmic techniques in design is merely a specific case of a broader digitization of culture. Today’s subject constructs an identity simultaneously through digital and analog networks, building relationships locally and globally. The material media of culture—news, television, film, music, art, books—are increasingly dematerialized, infinitely reproducible, and freely shareable (legal restrictions notwithstanding). The public sphere is articulated now primarily as a set of communications happening across digital networks, with participation unbound by time and physical place. Where does this leave our physical environment? What are the architectural consequences, if any, for the structure of the home if it no longer functions as the primary site for housing and displaying an identity constructed through the acquisition and possession of cultural media? What is the impact on the neighborhood if the public sphere and social relationships are no longer bound by the physical proximity of neighbor to neighbor? Ultimately, houses are still houses, and neighbors are still neighbors. Posting a photo of an Eames chair on tumblr is not the same as inviting a guest to sit in one in your living room. Sharing an interesting article from the Washington Post on Facebook is not the same as sharing a proverbial cup of sugar. However, systems like craigslist, Zipcar, ebay, and airbnb represent the overlap of these two worlds, a novel kind of digitally-mediated physical realm. What if the logics of these user-data-driven, self-organizing systems were extended to the construction of physical homes and communities?
15
Computational
Sketches
The following computational sketches trace the evolution of the design process through which this project was conceived. In many cases the algorithmic techniques employed fell into precisely the traps of naive optimization, reductionism, and formalism that I set out to avoid. However, each attempt in both its successes and failures informed the strategies of the next. Each sketch represents a biased reading of the original Case Study Houses (in most cases Neutra’s Houses 6 and 13) and an attempt to translate that reading into a generative strategy capable of producing new architectural solutions. Each sketch produced both irrational results with little seeming applicability as well as results that appeared to exceed their generative logic in rationality and architectural potential.
16
Experiment 1. Form + Geometry The first algorithmic experiments in translation read the architectural source material as abstract form. This algorithm derived from Richard Neutra’s House 6 understands the original as a set of four volumes, which are expressed with different material systems. This constitutes a fairly distant reading of the project, incorporating very little of Neutra’s actual intentions. As a result of this lack of constraint, many of the forms produced begin to deviate wildly, producing results which cease to resemble architecture.
17
A similar attempt with Charles Eames’ Case Study House 8 reproduces some of the principles of modularity and regular ordering systems but produces only a hollow shell without any of the content or architectural complexity of the original house.
18
Experiment 2. Additive Program This algorithm understands the original project as a set of additive programmatic groupings. A fixed seed geometry serves as the base, and programs are added one-by-one, achieving a minimum area for the specified program. No attention is paid to adjacencies or the particular characteristics of any specific space.
Dining Room
Dining Room
Kitchen Family room
Guest Bath
Bedroom 4
Play Room
Co Be
rr
d
id
ro
o
o
m
Be
ag
e
Ba th 3
d
ro
o
m
Master bed cl
os
et
ro
om
2
Bedroom
Corri-
3
dor
Of
f ic
e
la u dr ny w o st rks ud h io o p
Bedroom 2
ba th
or
r
er
Service
st
st
Coats/ Utility
ma
Kitchen Living Room
/
Master Bed th ba
st
k
CLoset
o
ra
g
e
family room
it
ch
Dining Room
en
Master Bath
Co
rr
id
o
r
ro
o
m
il ’s om Ch ren ro d ed b rk o p w ho s
Dining Room
th ba
ro
n u l a ry d
o
o cl et
sa m r te ed b
m
t es u m g oo r
ssa m r t e at h B
19
Experiment 3. Program Specificity This sketch represented the first attempt at bringing specific relationships from the original houses to bear on an algorithmic strategy, rather than reading all programs equally. Again following an additive model, these plans were constructed in order to guarantee specific relationships. In each plan, the kitchen overlooks the outdoor court, the garage anchors the plan to the road, the fireplace acts as a pivot between the living room and the living court, and windows are disposed such that neighbors cannot see into each other’s houses. Kitchen, Dining and Service
Garage
Given particular starting conditions, the algorithm Bedrooms and Private Space
Outdoor Court
Children/Guest Bedrooms
Fireplace
was able to reproduce the plans of houses 6 and 13 using the same logic, provoking a reading of
Living Room
the two houses as members of a larger set. 20
Experiment 4. Styling These algorithms move away from the production of form to the articulation of surfaces as building systems. An arbitrary form composed of planar surfaces can be “styled� as house 8, 9, or 16. These algorithms understand the aesthetics of the Case Study Houses in a decidedly contemporary way - as a set of parametric surface effects applied to an arbitrary form.
21
Experiment 5. Morphing The first study which operated on the plans themselves rather than attempting to re-generate them algorithmically, this series of sketches investigated algorithmic techniques of morphing in order to transform the houses. One set of studies dealt with morphing between houses, finding intermediate and hybrid conditions, and a second set dealt with transforming the boundary conditions of the plans to new forms, deforming the plan but preserving its internal relationships in the process.
22
Experiment 5. Self-organizing urban form This set of studies reads the houses in their context as defined by a set of distance relationships to their neighboring homes. Diagrammatic houses self-organize within the site, trying to achieve a desired distance. At the levels of density present in the suburban context of the original houses, the simple solution of staggering the houses with respect to the street emerges. At increasing densities, latticework configurations emerge, but beyond a certain point the desired relationships of distance and privacy cannot be maintained. To adapt to this condition either the expectations of distance and privacy must be reduced or the configurations must expand into the third dimension.
23
Expanding on this set of studies, a more developed algorithmic strategy incorporated a more detailed definition of site constraints including obstacles and anchored geometries, as well as the concept of shared spaces or resources around which units could organize. It was these studies that eventually evolved into the base algorithm for my ultimate proposal.
24
Computational
a n a ly s i s
As a way of getting deeper into the conditions of the case study houses themselves, I developed a set of algorithms which—rather than generating or reproducing relationships from the houses—simply focused on producing analytical diagrams which examined the projects as drawn. These studies attempted to represent the conditions of privacy, openness, light, siting, and indoor-outdoor relationships that characterized the projects.
25
Analysis 1. Plan drawing
26
Analysis 2. Program
27
Analysis 3. Privacy
private
public
28
Analysis 4. Daylighting
morning light
evening light
29
Analysis 5. Indoor-Outdoor Boundary
30
Analysis 6. Site Relationships
31
Computing
domesticity
The final algorithm that served as the basis for my proposal was an attempt to combine the most meaningful and successful parts of earlier studies. Like Experiment #5, it was based on a dynamic, force-based model, enabling the self-organization of units relative to one another. However, instead of treating the house as a single, diagrammatic box, it read complete plan arrangements from the drawings of the original houses, treating each space as an autonomous unit negotiating its relationships with spaces in the house as well as spaces belonging to neighboring houses. Furthermore, system an awareness of private and public spaces, and introduced the possibility for shared spaces to emerge. G E N E R A T I the VE C O N D I Tincorporated IONS:
PLAN AS NETWORK
R E S U L TA N T C O N D I T I O N S :
32
SITE LIMITS FORCE DENSITY
P R I VA T E S P A C E S AV O I D P U B L I C A R E A S
SHARED INDOOR AND O U T D O O R S PA C E S AT T R A C T
Operating within this system, I began by studying the effect of various forces on the simple combination of 2 houses.
SHARED OUTDOOR SPACES
SHARED GARAGE + OUTDOOR SPACES
SHARED GARAGE + OUTDOOR SPACES, STRONG PRIVACY FACTOR
SHARED GARAGE + OUTDOOR SPACES, HIGH PLAN FLEXIBILITY
HIGH GRAVITY
MEDIUM GRAVITY
LOW GRAVITY
33
House combination
privacy relationships
plan transformation
program
34
ORK
SITE LIMITS FORCE DENSITY
P R I VA T E S P A C E S AV O I D P U B L I C A R E A S
SHARED INDOOR AND O U T D O O R S PA C E S AT T R A C T
Applied at the scale of the site, to organize 25 separate units with distinct sets of user preferences and relationships, certain architectural and or-
CONDITIONS:
ganizational conditions emerged.
CONTINUITY + DENSITY
P R I VA T E + P U B L I C C L U S T E R S
S H A R E D P U B L I C C O U R T S A N D S PAT I A L OVERLAPS OF SHARED PROGRAMS
35
CONTINUITY + DENSITY
INTERLOCKING, SPREAD-OUT VOLUMES
36
P R I VA T E + P U B L I C C L U S T E R S
S H A R E D P U B L I C C O U R T S A N D S PAT I A L OVERLAPS OF SHARED PROGRAMS
L E S S - P R I VA T E P R O G R A M S B U F F E R P R I VA T E S P A C E F R O M P U B L I C S P A C E
BOTH PLANNED AND UNEXPECTED P R O G R A M M AT I C O V E R L A P S E M E R G E
P R I VA T E P R O G R A M S O R I E N T E D O U T WA R D S G E T P R I VA T E D E C K S O R BALCONIES
OVERLAPS CAN FUNCTION AS SHARED S PA C E S , S PAT I A L C O N T I N U I T I E S , O R HYBRID PROGRAMS
37
proposal
40
41
The site, not far from the Hollywood Hills that hosted many of the original Case Study Houses. However unlike the original sites, this neighborhood is densely populated with 2- and 3-story residential and commercial establishments, and lacks the views and foliage of the hills to the North.
42
43
44
45
46
On-site 3d fabrication facilities are shared with your neighbors, allowing you to construct household implements and objects on demand!
Enjoy the use of digitally-man-
You and your neighbor
aged shared storage facilities,
can also agree to share
for that cuisinart you only
facilities
need once in a blue moon, or
your
the Phillips head screwdriver
whether it’s a laundry
to tighten up your office chair.
room or a yoga studio!
to
increase
available
space,
Enjoy
ample
outdoor
living
space
shared
with only your closest neighbors.
Ideal
for
entertaining or microblock parties!
47
48
49
50
51
conclusion
At my final thesis review, one critic questioned whether or not I had created Architecture. I replied to him that no, I didn’t think the architectural proposal that I was presenting in itself constituted a well-developed, refined piece of architecture. Over the course of the semester, in discussions, pin-ups, and reviews, many profound and important questions arose. If my thesis did not result in a polished architectural result, it is my hope that it did produce at least the beginnings of an argument about these questions. •
How do architectural images and ideas engage with the public? How do digital media change the way culture engages with architectural form and ideological content?
•
How do changing technologies of design alter the user’s involvement in the conception of architectural spaces? How can (and should) the architect retain authorial control beyond system design and curatorship?
•
Where in the process of design and design computation does “editing” occur? Is modifying parameters in an already-established computational system sufficient, or does the design process require both system modification as well as extrasystemic post processing?
•
How do computational, scripted, semi-autonomous processes fit into creative practice?
•
To what extent can functional questions of program and privacy, and phenomenological properties of light and space be meaningfully represented and manipulated through digital processes?
Another critic at the final review suggested that the project surrounding these questions might occupy a lifetime of further investigation. I hope very much that he will turn out to be right. 54
Acknowledgements I wish to extend special thanks to my advisors, Lily Chi and Jenny Sabin, for their critical feedback, high expectations, tireless support, and patience as I wrestled with this project. I could not have asked for better guides during this intellectual endeavor. I’m enormously grateful to Aleksandr Mergold, Kevin Pratt, and Dana Cupkova, for meeting with me throughout the semester to discuss ideas and provide new perspectives. Their insights and support were of great value to me in developing this thesis. Thanks to all of my professors over these 5 years, who planted many of the seeds that grew into the questions that continue to obsess and fascinate me. Finally, thanks to my family, without whose endless love and support I simply never could have reached this threshold.
55
appendix
A.
Collages
In the process of working on the project, I developed a number of collages to explore aesthetic intuitions outside of the framework of the algorithmic system. Though these collages did not directly contribute to the ultimate proposal, I wanted to include them as works in their own right, and as examples of work “outside the system,� an element I think is crucial to any designer working in a computational environment.
58
59
60
61
62
63
B.
notes
Finally, for those willing to strain their eyes, some of the raw material of the thought process that transpired during the development of this thesis.
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65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73