DISCIPLINES
STARKVILLE MEDIATHEQUE
PARIS MARKET LAB
HAITI SUPPORTED DESIGN
URBAN CONNECTOME
LONG BEACH SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY TRAINING CENTER
EVANS CHAIRS
PROJECTS
DIGITAL: THE VERNACULAR
VIKTOR TORRIE’S SMALL BATCH BITTERS
ON TECHNOLOGY: CAPACITY
DESIGN FOR THE INDIVIDUAL
Collections Plan
Auditorium Plan
Archives Plan
STKVL_MT
The driving concept behind this vision for the Starkville Mediatheque is the creation of virtual place. What characteristics are needed within the tangible space to allow for virtual place to form? In order to address this question a number a derivations were created to answer questions such as: how does one inhabit virtual space, and if one can inhabit virtual space can one then dwell in virtual space? Virtual inhabitation occurs every time a user sits behind a screen. At that instant the mental projection of his or her self is transported from the tangible plane into the virtual and inhabits the projections of the act he or she is involved in on the other side of the screen. Therefore, one may inhabit virtual space but may one dwell in virtual space? According to Martin Heidegger, one can be sure that they dwell within a space the moment they begin to customize that space to his or her own personal needs and desires.
Youth Literature Plan
One may dwell in virtual space because virtual customization is the very basis for contemporary digital technology. Social media, for a simple example, and web-development as a more complex act, are forms of virtual place making. This dwelling, this potent desire for individualistic projection is based largely on one’s personal perception of space, which in turn transforms that space into a specific place within that individuals psyche. Therefore creating a space where one has the ability to tailor aspects to their personal preference may prove to be one way of creating virtual place, but how is this manifested in the tangible environment? What physical space is necessary to house these interactions? In contemporary virtual reality technology the physical space plays only its most basic functions - shelter and security. A dark hallway will work just as successfully as a lighted warehouse for containing the necessary equipment to transport ones mental self into the virtual realm.
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
This proposal for the Starkville Mediatheque then seeks to engage the relationship between an architecturally dynamic, tangible space and a virtual one. The recent explosion of mixed reality technology makes this proposal possible. The world seen through a mixed reality viewing device may contain as much or as little of either reality as the developer or the user so desire. Basic computer vision algorithms employing graphical tracking markers allow one’s virtual self to be placed within virtual space according to physical objects. These graphics became the motif for the development of the design as a means of encoding virtual way-finding systems within the architecture itself. As this concept began to take form it became apparent that the entire system could work just as successfully outdoors as in, thus creating the concept of the Landscape of Interactivity. This landscape is based on the same fiducial motifs as the architectural elements but the increased amount of space allows for one to engage in the act of dwelling in a way not possible indoors.
Northern Section
Western Section
Eastern Elevation
Northern Elevation
Southern Elevation
Western Elevation
ARToolkit was first made available to the public in early 2003 by the Human Interface Technology Laboratory of New Zealand. ARToolkit provides the basic architecture for the creation of augmented reality (AR) environments. Using a system of images called Fiducial Markers, the software is able to recognize specific markers and associate them with digital information. This information can be viewed on-screen when using a webcam pointed at the marker. The types of information that can be displayed this way are practically endless. Starkville Mediatheque proposes the use of such markers as integrated elements in the built environment which allow for the visitors to become participants when using a heads-up display.
© 2012 CreativeApplications.Net
ARToolkit
In early 2012 GoogleTM announced it would be producing a type of heads up display specifically designed to bring their fleet of social media resources into the realm of augmented reality. Project GlassTM is one of many attempts to bring AR viewers into the everyday. Like others, it has not been looked at for the vast number of possibilities it supplies outside of typical communications-type applications. Starkville Mediatheque imagines an environment where users would check out a pair of glasses upon entering the library and then have the freedom to explore both the physical and the virtual grounds of the campus simultaneously.
© 2012 Google
Project GlassTM
StringTM is a company based in the U.K. which specializes in app development based on the iOS platform. Their showcase app utilizes a powerful computer vision engine with the ability to recognize non-fiducial images (an advantage over ARToolkit) as AR placement markers. Using an app with this ability paired with a heads-up display, any pattern incorporated into a building surface can contain virtual information and viewed in the physical reality. Starkville Mediatheque incorporates this system to use objects such as works of art, architectural patterns and landscape features to provide links to the virtual environment.
© 2011 String Labs Ltd.
StringTM
Web-Conferencing
Because of the increasing globalization of industry and the ease with which software such as SkypeTM allows one to communicate through audio and video to someone in real-time, web-conferencing has become popular in business and personal life. It is now popular to conduct all the business that would have traditionally been performed in an office from the home. In 2011 Wired Magazine ran an experiment allowing their employees to work from home for a month. Their findings were that employees were more productive and happier. Starkville Mediatheque imagines a Landscape of Interactivity where elements embedded into the built environment allow for men and women to conduct business from whereever they feel most comfortable, whether that be inside at a desk or outdoors next to a fountain and shaded by trees.
System Example Fiducial Markers Virtual Object AR Glasses
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A child arrives at the Mediatheque with his parents who will be attending a concert at the on-site theater. He is brought to the children’s department where he meets his friends, the children of the other concert attendees. Each is allowed to check out a pair of glasses and pick a book for their entertainment and education (though he is unaware of its educational value, of course). This is not a book in the traditional sense however but rather an outline of characters and plot to be sent to the glasses from the system’s central computer. The children then run into the forest where they are greeted by their virtual companions - Jack with his enormous beanstalk reaching up past the branches, and Rapunzel who stares down at them from her tower window. The stories are enacted according to the book. However, the children have the ability to become part of the story, interacting with the characters, fearfully hiding from the antagonist and celebrating at the success of the protagonist. When the concert is finished the parents enjoy the shade of the trees watching their children engage in a battle with a fearsome dragon which is, of course, invisible to them. A man is in town on business. He is anxious because his flight was delayed, forcing his meeting back to the following day. Aware of the work awaiting him at the home office and the now large amount of unscheduled time available, he enters the mediatheque and for a short time wanders the grounds. A hot summer day with much more humidity that the man feels like he can bear he seeks out a refuge from the sun. Following a path along one of the reflecting pools he finds a place where the sun is blocked by a large concrete plane dissecting that part of the landscape. The air is heavy with the moisture and the smell of the Wisteria slowly devouring the wall behind him. In this place he is content however. The man polishes his glasses before placing them on his nose, removes his handheld device and selects the application he found on the website for the mediatheque. He enters a number of variables and presses the start button. Instantly he finds himself among his co workers back at the home office though still very conscious of the fact that he is standing in the shade of the wall behind him, the heavy flower sent mixed with the tepidity of the air around him, and the sound of the steady trickle of water as it overflows its bounds to splash among the rocks at their base.
In this way the tangible form of the landscape and the architecture serve as a device, a viewfinder, through which one may actually dwell within the virtual space physically, not simply mentally.
The Paris Market Lab project was completed during a two week charette in a group of six members for submittal to a competition hosted by ArchMedium. The first week was devoted to researching the world of molecular gastronomy which led into a series of iterations on form based on discoveries. It contains a culinary school, a restaurant, and market areas.
PMKTL
The driving concept behind this vision for the Paris Market Lab was a combination of a bazaar-style market and an abstraction of the human digestive system. It was discovered that specific types of food are processed in different parts of the digestive system. Furthermore, different foods when eaten in a specific order at specific interval take advantage of the natural processes in the human digestive tract. An example of this is consuming food that requires a lot of chewing immediately before a meal produces saliva and activates the digestive system. According to this sequence the program and the circulation were designed to provide access to the correct foods at the correct times throughout the course of the meal and as one passes through the building. To account for varying menu choices a system of navigation was developed whereby a user would log into the Market Lab’s system, select his or her meal, and be directed along the course though illuminations on the ground and ceiling. This navigation system is also used to guide shoppers who are not taking part in a meal to various vendors according to which items are on their virtual shopping lists.
Site + Context
The location for the Market Lab lies on the Rue-de-Seine in Paris’ 6th Arrondissement directly in front of the MarchÊ Saint-Germain. Because of its proximity to an existing market steps were taken to design the circulation so that the existing traffic paths leading to and away from the market would natural continue into and through the Market Lab.
Massing Studies
Parti Development
Agricultural Research
Le Havre (Main Port)
Le Havre (Main Port) Paris Market Lab
Paris Market Lab
Marseille (Main Port)
France is the leading beef and veal raising country in Europe, raising around 1.815.000 metric tons anually. Beef and veal are raised mainly in the North Western region of France Sheep and goats are raised mainly in the South Eastern region of France which has a drier, mountaineous climate.
Marseille (Main Port)
France is the leader in Europe for sugar beets, wine, milk, cereals and grains, and oil seeds. Vegetable farms in Brittany and flower and olive gardens in Provence France is also well known for their production of mushrooms, cheese, and alcohol.
Plan
Section
Exploded Program Study
Interior Market
Northern Elevation
Globally, island nations are the first indicators of a planet experiencing a radical cultural and technological transformation with resource depletion as a fundamental limiting factor. It is an identifiable pattern of rising seas, volcanism, tsunamis, landslides, salt water intrusion, and resource depletion, all occurring simultaneously. It is a test for humans and nature alike; both learning from the other in a dynamic system that attempts to find a new level of equilibrium. In this world, fast paced learning is of the essence and all solutions must be brought forward to the global stage. Our concept proactively addresses these issues working from the bottom up, relying on humans themselves to act as sensors sharing knowledge and experience through a consistent, resource balancing framework for individuals and communities. The Innovators Forum is the central concept, based on the rise in popularity of social media networks. It operates within a dynamic framework made up of low tech, table top games and models which can be ordered or downloaded free of charge, mobile apps, and websites, to create an open, crowd sourced, technical evolution.
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Life Cycle Based Framework
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Figures Represent Data Per Person Per Day
Online Crowd-Sourced Network username:
password:
enter @ImOI1TJp:
Innovators Forum
Has uploaded a new design Ridge Light
Share Your Designs with the World
AND INNOVATION SYSTEM
username: @FqpnDG9Z: Has commented on: Ridge Light
openform
Maire Lefleur Port-au-Prince Refugee Online Since: 2 Mos. 9 Days
@Pbwm4cuo: Has commented on: Ridge Light
Jean Baptiste Le Rou Pays Community Inhabitant Online Since: 19h. 36min
Kitchen This is my first post so I want to introduce my situation. I am a victim of the earthquake of 2010. Since my rental was destroyed I have been moving from refugee camp to refugee camp. Because I own no land I have not been able to take advantage of any of the permanant structures offered by the numerous humanitarian organizations which are trying to help us. I have been living in an Island Nations Initiative tent for 2 months now and hoping to expand my dwelling to a house soon. Recently my sister moved in with me affording us the ability to sleep in one tent and have an extra for other uses. We felt that a place to cook safely was most important. We removed the faces of the tent and installed shelving and with some old windows we found fashioned a number of solar devices, an oven and a water purifier. I love being able to bake bread again. Its been so long since I lived with any of the modern conveniences i used to enjoy. I hope to add a cistern soon to
@mD8KZroc: Has commented on: Friends Ridge Light Communities
enter @ImOI1TJp: Has uploaded a new design Ridge Light
Share Your Designs with the World
OPEN SOURCE PLANNING AND INNOVATION SYSTEM
ptiste ays ity Inhabitant nce: 19h. 36min
password:
Innovators Forum
@FqpnDG9Z: Has commented on: Ridge Light
openform
Abbee Dubois Port de Paix Garden Expert Online Since: 6 Mos. 3 Days
@Pbwm4cuo: Has commented on: Ridge Light
@mD8KZroc: Has commented on: Ridge Light
Tiered Garden
Designs @RaLYMvcx:
@RaLYMvcx: openplay
Has uploaded a new design Solar Oven
openform
Has uploaded a new design openplanSolar Oven
@LhlROucx:
My Designs
Has uploaded a new design OSB Press
@LhlROucx: Favorites Mail
Has uploaded a new design inbox (4) OSB Press
@t6vN4R4c: Has commented on: Solar Oven
outbox drafts
@t6vN4R4c: Has commented on: Solar Oven
Solar kitchen fashioned from an existing tent. Includes: Oven, Water Distiller, Dehydrater,Germinator
@ETjct5IE: Has commented on: OSB Press
@ETjct5IE: Has commented on: OSB Press
The tiered garden uses one cart and several extra 90 degree brackets to create planters. The purpose of this is to maximize water consumption.
© 2011 CMPBS
Life Cycle Trading Card GameTM
To play spot a Some provided customization for their climate
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while others gave recommendations to improve the original design.
EcoBalance
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WATER USE TYPOLOGY - BATHROOM To play spot a
To play spot a
Right after dawn she awoke. eyes half open,
Shelter is defined by its context, the realization
Structure informs human and human informs
of its importance to protect us from the elements the necessity of shelter for both mind and body is illustrated in its lack.
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EcoBalance
WATER USE TYPOLOGY - BATHROOM To play spot a of its importance to protect us from the elements the necessity of shelter for both mind and body is illustrated in its lack.
ACTION
structure. Cities embody the Chaos.
EcoBalance
Trading Card Game
Shelter is defined by its context, the realization
structure. Cities embody the Chaos.
EcoBalance
EcoBalance
Trading Card Game
Trading Card Game
AIR RESOURCE CULTIVAR - GRASS
To play spot a
To play spot a
Z found the Forum by accident but stayed for
Survival revolves around the inward and
Concrete technical pedagogical abstract nothing is a given toute est construit everything is constructed so construct well intelligently construct then deconstruct then reconstruct better the way we connect things le facon qu’on pense est plus lumineux is more insightful than what we think.
outward flow in order to complete the cycle.
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ENERGY RESOURCE COMPONENT - WETLAND
Trading Card Game
To play spot a hours. All of the constructive help and freely available drawings were amazing to him. Now he was curious to build one of these boxes for himself.
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EcoBalance
Trading Card Game
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To play spot a Bowels of the underground or towers
breaching the clouds. The echo gives it definition.
I had heard about these boxes. my brother had seen them when he was traveling, staying in a cabin made of them deep in the rainforest.
EcoBalance
FOOD RESOURCE COMPONENT - COMPOST
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“knowing” is jolted out of place. No matter what type of structure it is the way we know it is the same. Pleasant or unpleasant places are digested the same way in our minds.
“knowing” is jolted out of place. No matter what type of structure it is the way we know it is the same. Pleasant or unpleasant places are digested the same way in our minds.
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MATERIALS SOURCE CULTIVAR - BAMBOO GROVE
Trading Card Game
Uncertain or unbeknownst verities relative
Uncertain or unbeknownst verities relative
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To play spot a she walked across the floor to the garden bed that were almost ready for another harvest. Resting her hand on the wall frame, she looked past her garden units and the hollow porch at the trees shrouded in cool mist.
To play spot a
Trading Card Game
USE
FOOD ITEM - PORTION
WAGONS
EcoBalance
Trading Card Game
WATER PROCESS COMPONENT - CISTERN
EcoBalance
Trading Card Game
Trading Card Game
ITEM
AIR PROCESS COMPONENT - VENTILATOR
To play spot a Integrate the flows of nourishment and hydration to the abode. Ebb and flow are one and the same.
EcoBalance
EcoBalance
Trading Card Game
To play spot a
EcoBalance
the last time. The house had ample shelving in each of its units, three deep shelves. I used them to show off my pottery and hold my clothes. From my bed, I wonder where he is now.
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WATER PROCESS COMPONENT - GRAVITY PURIFIER
J left his photos on the shelf when he left for
EcoBalance
When he spoke of the days he spent there, cooking after a day of exploring and sitting, listening to the animal sounds, his eyes lit up. I've always wanted to see them for myself and find that joy.
TOOLS - SHOVEL
To play spot a
within worlds within worlds, the Russian doll phenomenon. We are only one piece but a part of the whole nonetheless. We live in our personal universe, in a GAME we are a piece and play a card and we hope that we play our cards right to survive.
Trading Card Game
Trading Card Game
MATERIALS USE WAGON - GENERIC
Concept of miniature realization of the worlds
EcoBalance
EcoBalance
FOOD PROCESS COMPONENT OVEN AND COOKTOP
AIR SOURCE CULTIVAR - SHADE TREE
CULTIVAR
We put the roof together quickly, the four of us in the afternoon. The keys fastened the boxes together quickly and everything lined up great. Soon we were sitting in its shade, out of the hot sun.
CREDITS
Trading Card Game
Trading Card Game
Trading Card Game
COMPONENTS
WATER SOURCE COMPONENT - ROOF
G checked her phone. In the last cycle her garden had netted a large food gain, allowing her to trade with the rest of her digital community for other needs. A coupon for a local garden store appeared as a award for her.
EcoBalance
EcoBalance
EcoBalance
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Our Eco-Balance Trading Card GameTM introduces crowd sourcing through gameplay that is multi generational and inextricably related to human skills and natural resource availability. The card game is a low-tech approach to creating an interactive interface for people to create and share thier ideas of how the system can be used and modified to have the greatest effect on daily life, producing an environment where the user is living at their highest potential. This interactive approach to community building is part of our eco-dynamic “plan” using the relational feedback loop in which all parts of this open source, sustainable planning and innovation adventure inform one another.
Model Assembly Sequence Our open source building procedures are possible due to basic protocols represented in a set of simple physical components. These are made from an advanced wood that has a 100-year life span and is 2 ½ times stronger than conventional wood. When this wood is made into an all-purpose folding box, the vocabulary created begs for creativity. A behaviorally significant scale model accurately simulates daily activity using a particular scale that simulates real space and real time using interactive means and daily eco-Balanced events. A building system at actual scale intelligently connects every part to every participant lacking understanding to others that are familiar with the system; user to user, building to building, community to community.
© 2011 CMPBS
Construction Sequence The cart cooperates with hundreds of other needs, including medical supplies, debris removal, food, water, pop-out furniture, waste water tanks, and even the game parts themselves with a game table included.
Š 2011 CMPBS
Component Integration
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Our digital tools are supplemented by basic physical building components. These begin with a multi-use tent that evolves to meet any number of basic needs from personal or family space to an infrastructure hub, storage locker, kitchen, bathroom, waste water cell, cistern, solar dryers, solar cookers, etc. Indeed the nature of this system allows it to fulfill any number of applications allowing the control of its use to be turned over to the user to create a vernacular order.
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Our basic alphabet of components evolves from a folding box, which arrives on site as a wagon, allowing it to serve different purposes throughout the many stages of its life cycle. The ability for a building component to serve as a mode of transport allows for it to become an indepenent appliance for use by organizations who move much needed supplies into the areas where these wagons will one day become houses. This perpetuates countrywide and worldwide improvement and discussion. An EcoBalanced resource framework guides the discussion as we call upon the wealth of human knowledge to develop simple solutions relating to this global pattern.
POPULATION
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Suitability Analysis
DISPLACEMENT
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Our country-wide basic resource analysis informs us of problems and potentials even under the most severe conditions. We find cell phone networks, food, and waste water plants as well as other spatial resources including climate, medicine, and the availability of fertile soils. This provides us with all spatial information required for informed work, site location, and expanding the use of knowledgeable digital neighbors.
Communications Coverage Hybrid
ROADS
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Population Coverage Displacement Drought Earthquake Flood Slopes Landslide Roads Urban Ports Rainfall
Š 2011 CMPBS
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In proposing the use of an imported building system in Haiti understanding of Haiti’s history was crucial. One aspect this design seeks to respond to is the history of abusive trade relations that has plagued Haiti’s past. By removing the Haitians dependence on foreign imports and aid through fostering micro-industry we attempt to give them the opportunity to begin to develop as a country.
Suitability Results
© 2011 CMPBS
Biological Needs Network
Building System Component Calculator
Input number of members:
Iconography
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Receive suggested numbers and composition of building system components for individual community development.
In neuroscience the term connectome refers to the structural diagram of the human brain on various scales including microscale, mesoscale, and macroscale, all of which may be combined to create a fractally scaling network of relationships that provide a complete key to understanding the processes of the brain. The urban environment works much like a brain. A city is inherently a series of nested networks built on relationships embodied within space. While the brain is a natural entity essetially grown from a code - an individuals DNA - a city is an embodiment of human endevour with a series of restrictions limiting it’s final outcome but without a central rule for growth. What this project postulates is that a city can be abstracted to a mathematical code - essentially the DNA of the city - through the analysis of the various levels of nested relationships which together form the network of the city, or it’s connectome. Armed with this code the designer has the ability to create a building which, while deviating in design from its context, still embodies the complexity and relationships of its surroundings.
URBAN CONNECTOME
Program Distribution Key
A_C C_O E_A E_B E_G E_S H_O H_T P_A P_F P_R RL_M
RT_CL RT_CM RT_CN RT_EL RT_EN RT_F
RT__HD RT_HT RT_I RT_O S_A S_CL S_CM S_F S_G S_H S_M S_PB S_PT S_RE
S_S S_T S_U
Program Point Network
Functional Relationships:
The program and circulation of this project is based on a series of nested networks that exist within the immediate context. Through indepth study of the buildings that make up this context a catalogue was made of every space and the function that it was used for. Knowing this and the proximity between functions of a similar type a mathematical rule was derived which was used to generate the final building form. Because of the extreme complexity of the context this proved to be an interesting way of creating a building that was able to relate to the broader context on a basis of day to day lifestyle.
Points of Infection
Infection:
The building in this sense is not thought of as form or as space but rather as a string of viral code inserted into the existing code of the city. Imaginging that the life of a city is cyclical and that one set of structures lays the foundation for another, over the course of generations this string of viral code manifests itself in increasing numbers relying on the city as a host. In this case the building expands to control the infill spaces of the city. with each generation new spaces are filled and connected back either to existing nodes or to the central node, the point of infection, creating a selfsimilar scaling network based on the original script.
Context The most striking aspect of the context is the extreme textural quality that one feels in this area. Because of the age and materials used, what may at first seem dilapidated in fact takes on a tactal quality that is stunning. The design allows for this in the future.
Urban Agriculture This project serves two functions beyond those embodied in the program. As an agricultural infill project it not only uses the surfaces of its nodes as green walls and roofs for food production but also has a network for bio-reactors which produce a strain of bioluminescent algae that survive on hydrocarbons in the Bay of Izmir less than a kilometer away. Built into the program are a number of processing plants for both food and fuel. Because of this, great thought was put into provide maximum surface area for the cultivation of these species and collection of the sun’s energy for them.
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the transformation of a line of finite length to one of infinite requires the adjustment of D, being the fractal dimension of the line, or its measure of roughness. similarily a surface of finite area may be transformed towards that of infinite surface by the adjustment of D, its roughness. as roughness increases surface area increases and the ratio of building site to planting area decreases.
Maintain Existing Functions
LBSTTC The Long Beach Sustainable Technology Training Center project is the result of a partnership during the second semester of my third year of architecture school. This project was submitted to Leading Edge Competition in 2010 and designed to be netzero. The conceptual background for this project was developed through the research and analysis of natural structural packing systems such as those in lipids, nervous systems, and the lining of insect lungs. It was our position that a building which was to be the education hub in sustainable technology for the region of southern California should exemplify the relationship between buildings and the environment through more than the products which it contained. This was done through the use of biomimicry and lifecycle analysis. It was our desire for this project to function as well at the micro level as at the urban level through the use of wetlands, rainwater rentention and more.
NET ZER SUSTAIN TRAININ
Structural Concept Model
Plans
SECOND FLOOR
Southern Elevation
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RO NABLE TECHNOLOGY NG CENTER
Section Perspective + Daylight Analysis
POLE MOUNTED SOLAR ARRAY
GUARDRAIL GREENSCAPE SUMMER SOLSTICE 9 AM
MULCH LAYER DRAINAGE MAT RIGID INSULATION WATER BARRIER RAISED FLOOR
MORNING
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WAFFLE SLAB FALL EQUINOX 12 PM
AFTERNOON
MORNING
OPERABLE WINDOW
WESTERN LIGHT WINTER SOLSTICE 3 PM
GLASS AIRSPACE
STRUCTURAL CONCRETE
CONCRETE SLAB INSULATION AGGREGATE EARTH
SCALE - 3/8” - 1’-0”
Plan Detail
CLASSROOM
EVANS CHAIRS The Evans Chairs are the brainchild of Annie Coggan, whom I worked for in the summers of my first years in architecture school. Annie will describe her process as part pragmatic and part story telling. The pragmatic aspect of these chairs is simply that Annie’s brother was opening a restaurant and needed inexpensive chairs. The story behind them however is what lends them their charm. Intreigued by the surrealistic quality of Walker Evans’ photographs Annie had the idea to take everyday chairs and augment them using pieces of found objects representitive of the vernacular southern United States. Together she and I picked through salvage shops looking for odd objects to add to the chairs. The work began with Annie handing me a sketch which I would then have to figure out how to construct using the objects we had collected. By the end of the project I became more engaged in the design process, placing elements together and sketching them out before constructing the final pieces.
Nels Long. Seven Bridges. 2011. Paint on Bristol. 18” x 12”.
DIGITAL: THE VERNACULAR The area where I grew up is littered with objects that for what ever reason have been abandoned or simply forsaken to decay into nature. The intrigue about these objects is what prompted the first iteration of this work on the vernacular. The system which is used to create these pieces is two-fold, analog and digital. Photographs are digitaized in a process that provides a culling of detail beyond my ability to control leaving the finished image looking much different than the original image. The images are removed from the computer where they are manipulated by analog means. The works shown here are from photographs that were taken of what appeared to be normal objects from across Europe. The question this work asks is, “What is different about the texture or the patina of objects associated with what might be called ‘folk-use’ rather than those associated with the function of contemporary life?”
Nels Long. Amstel. 2011. Paint on Bristol. 18” x 12”.
Nels Long. Vénosc. 2011. Paint on Bristol. 12” x 18”.
Nels Long. Beyoğlu. 2011. Paint on Bristol. 18” x 12”.
Nels Long. Çarşı. 2011. Paint on Bristol. 18” x 12”.
VIKTOR TORRIE’S BITTERS Viktor Torrie’s Bitters are handcrafted, small-batch bitters made in western Oktibbeha County, Mississippi which is home to a large percentage of artists and craftsmen. This line was an attempt to bring not only the aesthetic but the flavor of the Deep South into contemporary mixology. Viktor Torrie’s combines flavors such as sweet potato, sorghum, pecan, and pork to create tinctures for use in cocktails, sauces, and baked goods. The art on the bottles relates to a time when the culture southern states were largely French influenced, a cultural phenomenon that can still observed today. The damask patterning togther with the Victorian Surrealist art speak to the culturally ambiguous atmosphere of places like New Orleans, Natchez, and the Mississippi hill country.
On Technology: Capacity Two great challenges facing architects, urban planners and political socio-economic strategists in the second millennium of the common era are the trends of urban migration and technological dominance. Together these challenges create the basis of a new paradigm which may well define human existence for the foreseeable future. Over the past sixty years, rates of urban growth have risen to an unsurmounted 180,000 people per year, a rate which tipped the urban/rural scale definitively into the urban region sometime in 2007, according to UN estimates.6 While the reasons as to why the majority of the global population now inhabit urban environments may be attributed to failed harvests, better access to higher paying jobs and services, etc., the cost of this migration on the supportive fabrics is often dire, with the worst cases falling to the responsibility of the least capable regions.6,9 While North American and European urban areas have stabilized at around eighty percent, developing and undeveloped regions continue to suffer under the influx of people, allowing its cities to grow to a population forty times larger than that for which the infrastructure was designed. Often these urban areas provide no better services than the rural areas left behind which, in Africa for example, leaves seventy percent of the urban population living in slum conditions.6 This is the issue of capacity. The existing model for urban design developed by modern theorists, while promoting an urban lifestyle, has not proved capable of dealing with the exponential growth urban areas have experienced. This existing model is completely dependent upon the conceptualization of space from a two-dimensional point of view (zoning) and until urban designers begin to think in three dimensions, peak capacity will never be reached and the problems facing urbanization will continue.7,10 The second challenge is beginning to understand how architecture and planning will respond to the technologically-dominant lifestyle that has emerged over the last thirty years. In the same way that recent changes in the political borders and the creation of a universal currency in Europe have affected the way European citizens inhabit that place, so too the phenomena of technological space-time compression has changed the way global citizens inhabit the world.15 At the very lowest level of technological integration humans exist as users within networks even when completely disconnected from technological devices, whether they are ecological networks, social networks, or professional networks. It is when these networks are analyzed and integrated into a constructed “datascape” that they become a layer in understanding the human spatial condition as a whole.3 When a user is connected to a digital device however, and inhabits multiple virtual spaces simultaneously, is when a complexity is reached which has the ability to inform architecture . “No other phenomenon [urban densification] in the history of architecture has been so heavily and widely criticized as this one. It rendered the Modern movement taboo. And although many believe in its necessity , most of us want to distance ourselves from it, frightened of its very complexity and of its assumed dangers. But the awareness of the growing megacities has become apparent and has led, for instance, to UN declarations. A resurgence of interest in the at the end of the millennium can be explained by the new economies: this new financial world has established itself within the major cities and settled with the densest places because of the desired (if not strictly needed) interconnections with the financial world and, because of the density and intensity of cultural life, giving birth to a middle and upper class of multinational character. These processes underline the imminent return of density, born out of clash between pure differences. This clash opens new possibilities for architecture, reuniting banal yet fascinating combinations of programme.” 8 -Winy Maas
ON TECHNOLOGY: CAPACITY
Clearly, architecture at the beginning of the second millennium is faced with a daunting task, and one for which architecture alone may not be prepared. Architecture must mature and develop integrating fields into its discipline which were previously beyond its scope. It must adopt a wider agenda, one focused on directions rather than reactions. In order to survive, architecture must provoke a public debate on space by placing itself in the middle; serving as curator to ideas which could result in its own maturation.9 Statistics As previously stated all matter belongs to some part of an existing network. In this aspect, humans are no different than single-celled organisms. The difference is that humans belong to many more networks and require much more to survive. Therefore, designing spaces for humans to dwell requires a vast knowledge of these networks. Statistics provide another layer to the architectural perception of space through quantitative analysis. In 1999, MVRDV published a project Metacity/Datatown which would serve as their manifesto for the role of statistical analysis in architecture. Metacity/Datatown seeks to define space strictly according to numbers with one element, “Metacity”, which would cover the entire globe composed of smaller “Datatowns.” These towns are formed as 400km by 400km blocks, a distance derived from the possible distance traveled using modern means of transport. Each town is designed to be completely self-sufficient meaning that all the numerable networks associated to each individual, of all the numerable individuals inhabiting a singular Datatown must be quantified. With modern information, processing these calculations are fairly simple, thus quickly creating a virtual representation of a city in which the entire global populace could virtually exist with all their needs met. 3 The power of statistical analysis is the ability to see what is, in a way which predicts what will come next. The problem with statistics alone, however, is that what is or what will come may not be satisfactory. Design is not in the numbers, but rather is guided by them. Where architects and planners often fall short is not in their ability to collect information, but rather how to observe the data they see and extract from it meaning which is translatable to a realistic connection. 3 This translation inserts qualitative analysis back into the equation, allowing for human sensory perception to begin to abstract the numbers according to the designers intentions creating a datascape. 3 The paradoxical relationship between the staunch validity of the original data, and the personal perception of truth within the datascape is the bond which maintains its integration in reality.3 This is where Metacity/Datatown fails. While it is a project in which every global inhabitant could live, it is uncertain if anyone would choose to. Metacity/Datatown however was not designed as a solution to the vast number of urban and climatic concerns caused by rapid urban growth. However it was designed to make the public aware of what the numbers are and just how many of them there are. In this case MVRDV was playing the role of curator, bringing the information, and the possibilities, into the debate. Technology A datascape containing all the information necessary for a project like Metacity/Datatown contains such a vast amount of data that the use of these statistics would not be possible without contemporary technological advances. According to Moore’s Law (which is still proven true) originally composed in 1965, the number of transistors which can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit would continue to increase exponentially. Because this has remained true as technology advances, it continues to advance at an ever increasing rate.16 This has massive consequences on the world of architecture allowing architects to process information at rates and in ways unimaginable in years prior. It also begs the question of what will be the next innovation and how will it again transform the way space is designed. MVRDV is on the forefront of this movement. Upon the completion of Metacity/Datatown, Winy Maas together with a research group from The Berlage Institute began working within the virtual domain using simulation as a tool to translating the data compiled for Metacity/Datatown and eventually creating The Evolutionary City. Evolutionary City is the project which created a bundle of applications - “user interactive planning machinery” - which allow for users from numerous backgrounds to compare and evaluate data to the point of simulating and generating proposals. 12 The Grand Machine: The Ultimate Network as the bundle is called, encompasses numerous
parallel applications, or mini-machines, which share the various data sets in the same way a computer cluster shares the computational load. Inframaker absorbs data on movement and proposes optimized traffic solutions. A Housing Generator develops optimized housing units based on input data. The Evaluator and The Evolver are Darwinist evolutionary problem solvers which translate the input based on innovation parameters. In this way new ideologies can be compared with the existing, based on various input parameters from competing cultural, political or economic ideologies. Evolutionary City is the result; a city which has the ability to study itself, optimize, adapt, and create new strategies accordingly. Because of its user friendly interface, every citizen of The Evolutionary City has the ability to take part and help to improve the function of their city.12 A similar but much simplified version of this software is in place today in New York City. NYC311 was launched in March of 2003 and now handles 50,000 calls a day in addition to information supplied via smartphone applications, Twitter, and Skype by the city’s residents on issues ranging from car alarms to air quality. Because of this service the people in charge of running the city have access to real time data on issues that matter to the residents and are able to address these issues according to their nature and priority. Also, because NYC311 stores all of the information received they are able to create a datascape that allows them to make improvements even before the complaints are received.5 This is the concept behind The Evolutionary City, real time data analysis for the continual optimization of the urban environment. While The Evolutionary City was truly innovative in the attempt to integrate technology and architecture/planning, the result is much like that of Metacity/Datatown in that the result is still simply based on fact, creating a banal and sterile environment. Because of its ability to handle a large number of parameters simultaneously, it does have the capability to deal with the complexities of a contemporary city in a way not previously conceptualized, but the result would not necessarily be an improvement. The observation of the data is still incorrect and while, the human, qualitative analysis is improved, the possible spatial result still remains static. A successful urban environment is dynamic and multi-dimensional, described as overlapping fields where the natural paradoxes of territorial intersection provide a framework for the interrelationships of urban life. The complexity of urban environments is the reason they exist. Cities can be equated with dynamic manifestations of a living organism, forever in the process of distortion and transformation. Therefore, tools such as these that allow one to begin to understand urban complexity are necessary in understanding their capacity for growth but should not be used without correct observation at the risk of diluting the natural potency of the organism in favor of modernist rationalistic urbanism.4 Technology has more to offer architecture than simply computing facts and generating numbers. While the software within The Evolutionary City does take advantage of the virtual domain within its calculated simulations, the effect that happens when one begins to conceptualize the potential of virtual space allows one to think beyond the need of understanding urban complexity and actually begin to design for it. Virtual inhabitation is a fact of life for most people. Everytime one accesses a digital file whether it be on a phone, a computer or a website they are inhabiting that place. It may be argued that users with profiles or website that remain online even when the user is not connected is still inhabiting virtual space. Where virtual inhabitation affects architecture most radically however is most clearly apparent in the obsession with Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG’s or MMO’s) over the past ten years. If the main purpose of architecture is the creation of space, or place (for the sake of this argument), then what purpose does architecture have when its inhabitants spend the majority of their time within a virtual space? MMO users not only move about in virtual space but also meet people and build relationships, conduct business, engage in political protests and even commemorate the passing of a loved one within a virtual world.20 Some users not only bring their Away From Keyboard (AFK) lives into the virtual environment but also their virtual lives into their AFK lives, engaging in trading and “black market” negotiations based on objects or currency within the virtual space. Millions of World of Warcraft users claim Azeroth , the virtual world within the game, is their home.20 Honestly, why shouldn’t it feel like home when their only necessary connection to the AFK life are the simple physiological functions necessary for survival. Most, if not all, of their other needs such as love, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization come from within the virtual environment. According to Martin Heidegger, dwelling is a state of existence - ich bin; essentially I dwell. The word neighbor, nachgebauer, thus means one who dwells near. Building is an act of dwelling. Customization of one’s environment is a result of one’s care for the protection of that
environment; to cherish it. Therefore the enjoyment and protection of one’s self and one’s loved ones is an act of dwelling.18 Dwelling is therefore not tied to physical space but rather the relationship with whatever form of space he or she is currently inhabiting whether that be virtual, physical, or other. This is the challenge for designing architectural space in the current technological world. People, more specifically MMO users, have chosen another world in which to dwell. That world is cherished, much unlike our physical world where famine, disease and deceit consume a large number of its inhabitants.17 The same issues that drive 180,000 people a year away from their homes to live in slum conditions in the urban centers also created a situation where seven-million people chose a virtual world as their home. Virtual space is where architecture will find the tools necessary to understand the existing complexities and design with them to create cities of greater capacity and better environment. Gaming is a perfect way to bridge that gap. Gaming allows for people to come together to create community and collectively discuss their personal perceptions of what they believe their environment should be.19 The addition of game theory to applications such as Evolutionary City may add another layer of input that preserves urban complexity while still allowing it to be studied and, depending on the game play, could allow users to begin to build relationships within that virtual world that could serve as a model for extending urban capacities. In 2007 MVRDV published Spacefighter, another application bundle based on Evolutionary City, as an attempt to explore and model chains of interactive planning using a competitive game environment to model the conceptual city. Unfortunately, while the addition of the users within the application and the assignment of value to specific parameters, among other changes, does create a competitive environment, the interface for the game and the game play is geared more towards the software developers themselves.14 In order for virtual games to begin to make a difference in the way architecture and planning are conceptualized, they must first learn from World of Warcraft and be, “easy to learn, difficult to master.” 17 Landscape Urban environments are not simply comprised of architectural forms. Much more inherent to the urban issue is the concept of landscape. Landscape offers an opportunity to face a situation that is becoming, “increasingly complex, potentially hybridized and decidedly heterodox in relation to the urban structures that nowadays define our environment.” 4 The challenge is to intensify the border region between architecture and landscape in order to preserve that dynamic region. The interaction with that border through the act of crossing it and re-crossing multiplies the potential for resonance and synergy, to reveal the landscape as a multiplicity of places. Urban landscape is not simply the geological patterns on which the city is built, rather it is the fabric that binds the urban environment together.4 In many ways landscape has a permanence and a dynamic quality that architecture lacks. While architectural form may retain a certain amount of fluidity during the design process, once constructed that fluidity is lost. For landscape this is not true. Throughout the design process it is known that whatever the final form may take it is constructed of living organisms and will therefore, continually optimize itself to its environment. The design process itself is rooted deeply in ecology and conservation so that, from the beginning, the final level of complexity is understood.7 Even with people moving from agricultural regions into cities at such an alarming rate arable land is also diminishing. The farm lands that once surrounded and supported cities is being consumed by sprawl as the people who can afford to leave move outside the urban area to escape the failing conditions within. In The Netherlands this problem is especially bad and national policies have been put in place to help preserve the remaining open spaces. In the work of MVRDV, a fear of these ecological risks and a need to publicize them is evident and their work better analyzed with the understanding of these policies.7 MVRDV’s Dutch Pavilion, at the World’s Fair in Hannover in 2002, is a prime example of their use of landscape and their ecological concern. The Netherlands, possibly more than any other country, has a history of conforming the natural landscape to fit the needs of its populace as roughly one fifth of the land that makes up the country’s total area has been reclaimed from the sea. Yet The Netherlands is one of the densest countries on the planet and rivals Germany in technical prowess. What the Dutch Pavilion shows then is a model of urban hybridization between nature and technology. The multi level building seeks to increase the total area of green fields rather than diminish
them by providing layers of natural program, parks, forests, etc. within the boundaries of the pavilion. The density and diversity within the program and the emphasis on nature serve as a, “symbol for multi-faceted nature of society.” 13 While ecological concern and attempts to draw attention to the risks is a valid role for architecture to play, the work of MVRDV does not always provide a legitimate solution to the problem. The methodologies they use are deeply modernist, as is evident by the way they present risks within the contemporary model as a basis for the design. The solution to these risks comes from a very thorough library of documentation (data) about the existing model but, as previously mentioned, the design process suffers in the way they observe or select what information to use and how. This was a methodology used by architects and planners such as Le Corbusier, Hilberseimer, Van Eesteren, and Van Lohuizen at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, the level of complexity to be understood calls for a solution that is more contemporary. The result of this is the lack of integration between built form and landscape in most of their work. While the building may house its own landscape on the interior, the way it is connected with the exterior landscape or urban fabric is not defined. When asked of this, Slavoj Zizek’s remark is, “too general and too specific at the same time.” 7 Two great challenges facing architects, urban planners and political socio-economic strategists in the second millennium of the common era are the trends of urban migration and technological dominance. Together these challenges create the basis of a new paradigm which may well define human existence for the foreseeable future. If architecture makes a point to provoke the public debate and stand for its own personal development by accepting outside methodologies, it may be the force which guides us through the period of change. If architecture realizes the complexity and the fragility that exists within the creation of place and reintegrates itself with the urban landscape, then our cities may indeed become the urban environments they were once conceived to be. Footnotes: 1. Brandlhuber, Arno & Kniess, Bernd. “Arno Brandluhuber/Bernd Kniess (B&K+).” Archilabs’s Earth Buildings: Radical Experiments in Land Architecture. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2003. 74-79. Print. 2. Brayer, Marie-Ange. “On the Surface of the Eart, in Search of the Chorographic Body.” Archilabs’s Earth Buildings: Radical Experiments in Land Architecture. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2003. 12-19. Print. 3. Chabard, Pierre. “The Datamorphis of the World.” Archilabs’s Earth Buildings: Radical Experiments in Land Architecture. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2003. 28-33. Print. 4. Gausa, Manuel. “Architecture Is (Now) Geography.” Archilabs’s Earth Buildings: Radical Experiments in Land Architecture. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2003. 40-43. Print. 5. Johnson, Steven. “Invisible City.” Wired Nov. 2010: 156-61. Print. 6. Kinver, Mark. “The Challenges Facing an Urban World.” BBC News. BBC, 13 June 2006. Web. 02 May 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk>. 7. Lootsma, Bart. “Biomorphic Intelligence and Urban Landscape.” Archilabs’s Earth Buildings: Radical Experiments in Land Architecture. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2003. 30-38. Print. 8. Maas, Winy. “Berlage Institute.” Archilabs’s Earth Buildings: Radical Experiments in Land Architecture. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2003. 30-38. Print. 9. Maas, Winy.”Architecture is a Device.” KM3: Excursions on Capacities. Barcelone: Actar, 2005. 34-45. Print. 10. Maas, Winy.”Trends.” KM3: Excursions on Capacities. Barcelone: Actar, 2005. 24-29. Print. 11. Maas, Winy.”(Im)possible worlds: Speculations .” KM3: Excursions on Capacities. Barcelone: Actar, 2005. 46-93. Print. 12. Maas, Winy.”Everyone is a citymaker: Optimizations.” KM3: Excursions on Capacities. Barcelone: Actar, 2005. 1248-1355. Print. 13. Maas, Winy.”Stacked Landscape.” KM3: Excursions on Capacities. Barcelone: Actar, 2005. 1118-1125. Print.
14. Maas, Winy. Spacefighter: The Evolutionary City (game:). Barcelona [u.a.: Actar, 2007. Print. 15. “Time and Space Compression.” Cyborg Anthropology. 26 June 2011. Web. 02 May 2012. <http://cyborganthropology.com/Time_and_Space_Compression>. 16. Kanellos, Michael. “Moore’s Law to Roll on for Another Decade - CNET News.” CNET News. CBS Interactive, 10 Feb. 2003. Web. 03 May 2012. <http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001984051.html>. 17. Levy, Steven. “Living a Virtual Life.”Newsweek V. 148 No. 12 (September 18 2006) P. 4850, 148.12 (2006): 48-50. 18. Heidegger, Martin. “Building Dwelling Thinking.” Poetry, Language, Thought. New York: Harper Colophon, 1971. Print. 19. “TNS New Challenge: Amigo Legal Games.” New Challenge. The New School. Web. 03 May 2012. <http://tnsnewchallenge.com/projects/amigo-legal-games.html>.
Design for the Individual: Analysis of the Work of Hassan Fathy Countless work has been published on the phenomena of dwelling. How people inhabit spaces, seek shelter from the elements and gather in communities is a topic of great interest to architects in order to fully facilitate harmony between the space and the inhabitant. Modernism brought about a reorientation in these ideals, a new view at dwelling. A key text to mark the end of this movement as noted by Diane Ghirardo in her book Architecture After Modernism is the book Architecture for the Poor by Hassan Fathy.1 In his work Fathy addresses key changes to the way one should think about public housing from a design standpoint as well as a bureaucratic one. Fathy had the opportunity to design and build a new settlement for a group of people, the Gourni, who were at the time living among the tombs at Luxor and making a living from grave robbing. Placing an emphasis on individuality as well as culture and tradition, the Gourna Project had a chance for success beyond that of typical government housing, but bureaucratic powers were startled by the project’s attention to detail and the project was ultimately terminated for fear of the project’s cost. Design for the Individual will attempt to address how culture, tradition, and individuality are important in public housing and how the lessons of Fathy could potentially be used in similar projects outside the third world and in today’s standards. Much of the critique about architecture has to do with specific styles, an interesting dilemma because many architects insist that their designs decisions are not stylistic. However, one cannot argue that different regions, cultures, and religions create such different designs that sometimes referring to a specific style is the most coherent way of researching specific groups of buildings. Also from a construction point of view, style can be helpful when attempting to create something that fits with the regional specifics. A style can be a source of pride for a specific culture. Egypt however, did not have a style that was original to itself. While Egypt’s temples and palaces are studied the world over simple domestic architecture was typically borrowed and so became a medley of traditions from the surrounding regions, the result being a complete lack of cultural pride by Egyptians in their architectural heritage. 2 “Tradition is the social analogy of personal habit, and in art has the same effect, of releasing the artist from distracting and inessential decisions so that he can give his whole attention to the vital ones” 3. Tradition in architecture is typically given the role of public buildings and residences because in the modern world it seems like what is coined “Traditional Architecture” has somehow taken a back seat to the contemporary. The ease and cost of building traditional architecture in the United States makes it the prime choice for structures where form is less important than function and so it has become boring without any thought to the spaces themselves. In Fathy’s work however, a need for tradition was demanded because of the climate and availability of building materials required that he work using the methodologies created by his predecessors. This is a valuable lesson for contemporary architects today. “Modernity does not always mean liveliness and change is not always for the better” 4. With the world progressing thoroughly into a global economy and the ability to have parts made in China with materials from Germany all being assembled at a site in New York, the architect can easily loose sight both of the intended occupant but also the tradition for that region, resulting in bland layers of technicality that lack a sense of placement and depth. “The individual artist’s duty is to keep the tradition going, with his own invention and insight to give it that addition momentum that will save it from coming to a standstill, until it will have reached the end of its cycle and completed its full development”.5 Before the advent of the architectural profession, the occupant would work directly with the buildings, expressing each desire and watching his wishes be carried out. The disconnect between
DESIGN FOR THE INDIVIDUAL
the owner and the craftsman in modern construction has created entire neighborhoods of identical houses. Housing for the masses is a different question entirely. How when one architect can spend several years on one home for one family in order to have that dwelling fit the needs of that individual family can one possibly begin to consider designing for 10,000 families? Faced with this task the common action is to introduce statistical value engineering and lump the entire population into groups based on basic demographics. With this strategy the architect need only develope a small number of variations to the original design in order to successfully accommodate a large number of different domestic configurations. The problem with this lies in the vast number of extremely complex and dynamic relationships which have not been specifically designed for. Typically to the one funding the project (ie. governenments) this is not a concern. The problem has been fixed and people who were not housed are now housed. There is little thought of the quality of these spaces. A perfect example of this lies in the world’s response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. “The labor processes can be classified as follows: 1) creative labor; 2) technical labor; 3)administrative and organizational labor; 4) skilled labor; 5) semiskilled labor; 6) unskilled labor” 6. Each of these various classes is necessary to the completion of the project. Remove any one and the project will not be completed. In order to economize then designers often skimp on certain aspects of the overall whole. For example creative labor can be drastically reduced by the previously mentioned practice of designing through demographics and only creating a very few variations of a home for very many different families to inhabit. Technical Labor can be reduced by reducing the quality of the home, and so on until the government funded home is bland, characterless and damaging to the family’s health that will eventually live there.7 This is one of the primary problems with other modern housing projects typified by the Pruitt-Igoe housing blocks of St. Louis. On top of this the Housing Act of 1937 laid out that the goals for public housing be “decent, safe, and sanitary”, and where these goals meant to be the minimum guidelines they in fact became the typical plan for public housing(Fig.1).8 How then should the dilemma of public housing be addressed? Fathy would propose that you give each individual family it’s necessary means to provide for itself and it would, and would do so according to its varied and independent needs, thus producing a rich community that was fueled off the fulfillment of their work. Examples of this do exist. In China entire villages were created, family by family, underground. This was done partly out of material necessity and partly because by moving their dwelling underground the ground is left open for crops to be cultivated (Fig. 3, 4, 5). The Dogons, a people that number a quarter million live along the plateau of Bandigara in mud huts, the complexity of design and planning of which is simply incredible (Fig. 6,7).9 The fact is however, that this is not a viable option for the majority of the world’s poor. The disadvantages that Fathy has in his project, the terrain, remoteness, and climate are actually advantages to him. The poor in a New Jersey slum would not be able to simply find ways to make shelter aside from their typical use of refuse and given the modern drug problems of many of the underprivileged, monetary donations for materials would most likely be spent otherwise. Here lies the other advantage of Fathy’s situation, the ground. His ability to make sufficient mud bricks on site makes this project perfect for an exercise with the inhabitant where both share the responsibility for the design and construction. While the idea is of true worth, the builder owner relationship that he suggests needs substantial development before it can be used beyond the Egyptian countryside. 10 The spread of Americanized western ideology has proved to be very damaging to many local customs and traditions. Where Egyptian craftsman would typically construct their millwork from pieces of smaller timbers, due to the availability of wood, and were able to create very complex and unique patterns, now they see pristine solid wood doors on American homes and simply copy them. This goes back to the problem of American traditional architecture. The creation of standardized materials, while allowing certain constructions to be built simply, everything begins to look the same when used incorrectly. A resurgence of craft into the mainstream would not only provide for a much greater aesthetic complexity, it would also return jobs to the craftsman who know their work better than anyone else.11 This is where modernism begins to lose some of its design credibility. With the focus on a function driven form and a removal
of detail from structure, standardization makes perfect sense. But there can only be so many of the typical modernist forms before they too become bland and unappealing. In his work with New Gourna, Fathy attempted on many fronts to engadge the craftsman in the design process. In his setting this was especially wise. These relationships became a foundation to begin to stimulate an awareness towards micro-industry and cultural sensitivity. This awareness began convince the occupants about the prospects of both being able to work on their homes and to revive certain cultural techniques that had begun to die out. This has deep social implications. Many of the poor in third world areas are not able to elevate themselves above poverty because their trade is no longer needed. If one can find a way to revive the need for that trade and juxtapose it with a modern design technique, tradition may be preserved while design can progress.12 Again, Fathy was lucky to have the availability of the mud and to be almost required to use it because of budget. The technique that he used in his project was revived from an ancient Nubian tradition of corbelling that was becoming harder to find. By using this material he was able to revive a lost art while taking advantage of a plentiful resource. Beyond that fact, the masons whose craft was to build these mud brick structures were so efficient that the construction of ninehundred homes in at a rate of thirty houses per month was not unreasonable. Here contemporary design can learn a crucial lesson. Construction in the civilized world rarely takes the time to think about local resources and techniques and often specifies certain systems and techniques that are very difficult and expensive simply because the material or the skill of that specific workforce is not available. Knowing that in the context of the construction site there is a specific material or group with specific talents would be a great asset to any design, and as designers this must be carefully considered.13 With the reestablishment of the relationship between the designer and the craftsman the only party unspoken for is the owner, in this case, the inhabitant. Fathy had much difficulty however, getting any input from the Gourni people. This can only be expected. A people fully content with where they are and how they live being asked to pick up and move to a new location away from the only source of income that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever known has no motive to move. While this may not be entirely true for projects attempting to house people in similar situations elsewhere, the desire to stay where one feels safe and secure, and with all the accoutrements of home would be very difficult even if promising a well design place to dwell. How then should this crucial party be reached, for without their input the entire system of individualized design would be flawed. 14 In order to make an attempt to design for the Gourni people without their input, Fathy made two studies that he hoped would allow him to grasp an aesthetic that would suit these people. First he made a study of the vernacular architecture at old Gourna, making specific note of buildings with the least luxury. Secondly, he compared his designs to the landscape, and by setting his design to flow around the natural terrain, as well as several things of great importance to the Gourni people, his designs began to be more tailored to the people who would live there.15 Another major consideration Fathy made in order to make his plan function successfully is the extreme climate in northern Egypt. Passive strategies for this climate call for large thermal masses that take a long time to heat up, but store heat allowing it to radiate throughout the considerable cooler night. Here a mud brick construction is the perfect material choice.16 Typical thermal massing techniques involve the use of concrete with a transfer coefficient of .8 where mud bricks have a coefficient of .22, thus allowing them much longer periods of heating and cooling. Ventilation is also a key factor in this climate. Because of the dryness of the air cooling can be achieved simply by the movement of air, therefore adequate ventilation is mandatory.17 When designing for maximum passive gain and ventilation orientation must be derived from the sun and the wind. Designing for homes in large quantities like the Gourna Project presents some interesting difficulties because of reflected radiation off of neighborâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s houses which can sometimes be more intense than the sun itself. Fathy chose to orient the houses so that the living rooms face south rather than north despite the harsh desert sun. He did this because while the southern side receives the most radiation from the sun the angle at which it impacts the south-facing wall is much greater than the angle at which radiation that is reflected off surrounding surfaces impacts the north facing walls. Any light that does directly impact the southern wall can be nearly eliminated by the addition of an overhang to shade that elevation. The northern façade would be designed in such a way as to allow sufficient northern breezes to enter the building and carry the hot air up and out of clerestory windows that would line the top of the walls which were extended an extra half story to allow for the hot air to rise. This attention to detail, the dominance of passive
strategies seems second nature in Fathy’s work. To him it makes perfect sense that when designing for poor who have no means to afford the extravagant costs associated with temperature control and electric lighting, to use systems where these luxuries are not required. At what point in contemporary design were these critical details deemed unnecessary in public housing projects?18 “The rational approach was abandoned, because it would have required open minds and a real kind of collaboration and teamwork: architects working with engineers and social scientists, continuously trying to find better solutions, making experiments and testing them, working with business and government to encourage more research, experiment, and improvement” 19 (Fig. 8). Working at this level of detail provides many opportunities to bring lost local customs back into the design. One such detail, the Malkaf, or wind catch, is a chimney like element that rises above the roofline to catch cooler fresher air and funnel it into the heart of the home. Baffles are often placed within this airway that may be wetted to add humidity to the air and in turn cool the room.20 Fathy compares community to a shoe. When it’s new it’s rough and awkward but with use it breaks in and becomes comfortable. Likewise through multiple generations a community begins to achieve complexity through the quirks and stigmas that imply individuality. Therefore to successfully pick up one fully functioning community and move requires a deep investment in social studies. Everything must be known from the number of children each family has to knowing personal grudges and community gossip. “The visual character of a village, like the habits of its population may change beyond recognition while to the undiscerning eye of the statistician it remains exactly the same. Statistics will completely miss such vital information as how the people celebrate personal and religious feasts. By remaining ignorant, for example, of the custom whereby anyone who has come back from Cairo stays the first night not in his own house but in the mayor’s madyafa, to give out news, an architect would fail to make provision for the custom”21. The layout of this new development proves to be the part of the design where an in depth knowledge of kinship structure and local customs is most necessary. Egyptian peasant towns are typically composed of many tightly pack homes both to protect from hostile nature of the countryside and to preserve precious farmland from sprawl. Preserving local custom in street design proved to be very difficult. While typical straight lines can provide certain efficiency they are a true western icon which has no place in the Egyptian countryside. Straight lines also bring buildings together in parallel lines that can create monotony in the street elevation by pressing each home together and squeezing out vegetation. In New Gourna the homes were composed in blocks which allows for a semi private entrance on the courtyard side while the density of each block brings a level of urbanity to the development the complexity of which adds vibrancy to the lifestyles of the inhabitants. Furthermore the courtyards created by these blocks carry a local signature of the Arab world. Because of the harshness of the ground in the desert the sky was the focal point of divine concentration to those who inhabit this part of the planet. The courtyard then allowed for the house to have a central room onto which windows would open allowing the viewer to see sky from any window in the house without having to see the ground itself. These courtyards are the last stronghold for sanctity in the Arab home, the addition of a fountain creates a path from harsh world outside, through a cleansing mediator into the heart of the home. In his layout Fathy designed each home around a courtyard and in turn each group of homes around another courtyard with each block of homes designed for one badana, or tribe.22 Each badana consists of ten or so families each centered around a central patriarch living independently, but with strong internal ties. For example a member of one badana would not shop for groceries at the shop of another and so forth. In this way the courtyard was able to act as a common ground for meetings of the entire badana on the occasion of weddings and ceremonies of the like.23 Knowing this specific kinship structure was necessary for the success of the design for not only must each family must have its own individualized home but each badana its own individualized block. A designer without this knowledge could
have all too easily separated these badanas according to family and because of it the entire development would fail because of his or her lack of understand of these social underpinnings.24 Above and beyond the family orientations and its requirement on layout the simple question of subsistence became a worry for Fathy during this project. While in Old Gourna the people were able to make a living from the scourging of tombs, the act that was the reason for their relocation in the first place. By moving them to a new location however and stripping them of the only income they’ve ever known this entire people was now virtually unemployed. The new development did allocate roughly 2,500 acres for farmland but this was only enough to grow food for about 3,000 people leaving an excess of 3,000 still without a way to survive.25 Two apparent answers could potentially relieve this problem. This first is somewhat similar the Gournis previous occupation. The new location is strategically placed near the great monuments and the ability to take advantage of tourism from these sites could greatly help support the Gourni people. The second option, while requiring considerably more skill, is to revive culture and traditional crafts and trade that had been lost over the years.26 Alabaster turning, blanket weaving, construction and jewelry if reinstated into the community could be sold to surrounding areas for enough profit to allow Gourna to not only survive but prosper. Not only would their livelihood no longer be at risk but they would have the opportunity to maintain tradition that was being lost for future generations.27 “The most serious assaults on the Modern Movement had lasting impacts. Fourbooks published within less than a decade signaled the forthcoming change: Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), Aldo Rossi’s The Architecture of the City (1966), and Hassan Fathy’s Architecture for the Poor (first published as Gourna: A Tale of Two Villages, in 1969).28” Architecture for the Poor is a critical text to mark the end of modernism because Hassan Fathy’s design work is centralized around a collectiveness, a focus on individuality but furthermore he seeks to surpass the stereotypical norm for architectural design and begins to make serious commitments to the preservation and fulfillment of tradition, culture and an overall desire for the wellbeing of the humanity his architecture directly contacts. His attention to detail moves beyond the strive for harmony. It goes beyond form and function and begins to look at dwelling as an organism much like the work or Le Corbusier but by designing each organism for each person a level of symbiosis begins to be achieved that is lacking in the work of the great modernist designers.29 Pietro Belluschi defined communal architecture as, “a communal art, not produced by a few intellectuals or specialist but by the spontaneous and continuing activity of a whole people with a common heritage, acting under a community of experience.”30 This quotation summarizes the entire work of Hassan Fathy and sets a standard that was unheard of in typical modern design. For designers in the postwar era this is a standard that should be strived for, to use a collective of professionals to design spaces that are individually tailored for each inhabitant where the attention to detail leaves nothing overlooked. From such a design process a knowledge of form should emerge to rival that of high modernism. Footnotes: 1.Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976. Ghirardo, Diane. Architecture After Modernism. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996. 2. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976. 3. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976. 4. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976. 5. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976. 6. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1976. 7. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 8. Bauer, Catherine. “The Social Front of Modern Architecture in the 1930s.” The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1965), pp. 48-52 9. Rudofsky, Bernard. Architecture Without Architects. New York: Modern Museum of Art, 1964. 10. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 11. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 12. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 13. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 14. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 15. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 16. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 17. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 18. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 19. Bauer, Catherine. “The Social Front of Modern Architecture in the 1930s.” The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1965), pp. 48-52 20. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 21. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 22. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 23. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 24. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 25. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 26. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 27. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 28. Bauer, Catherine. “The Social Front of Modern Architecture in the 1930s.” The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1965), pp. 48-52 29. Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 30. Rudofsky, Bernard. Architecture Without Architects. New York: Modern Museum of Art, 1964. Images are scanned from “Architecture Without Architects,” by Bernard Rudofski in order to illustrate the emphasis of his work on my research: Rudofsky, Bernard. Architecture Without Architects. New York: Modern Museum of Art, 1964.
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Credits
This document contains a mixture of personal individual work, academic individual work, academic group work, and professional group work. All projects created with the assisstance of others has been represented in such a way as to place emphasis on my contribution to the project but may contain some elements of which I am not the author. To those who contributed their work and consented to its use here in order to best convey the comprehensive nature of these projects I would like to thank and provide credit to. Starkville Mediatheque: This is an individual project completed to satisfy the requirements the second semester of my fourth year at Mississippi State University under the tutelage of Professor Frances Hsu. Some images not of my authorship are used to represent existing consumer products and copyright information is presented on these respective pages. Other images such as those used in perspectival compositions are from the creative commons with the exception of the fairy tale illustrations which were found in: Weinstein, Amy, Nancy Eklund. Later, Dorothy Bell, Sara E. Stemen, and Nicola Bednarek. Once upon a Time: Illustrations from Fairytales, Fables, Primers, Pop-ups, and Other Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Books. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2005. Print. Paris Market Lab: This was a group project which was completed as part of a two-week charette in the second semester of my fourth year at Mississippi State University under the direction of Frances Hsu. Group members included: Taylor Coleman Matthew Jordan Walt King Joe Mangialardi Will Randolph Haiti Supported Design: This project is part of an ongoing emphasis at the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (CMPBS) known as the Island Nations Initiative to provide well designed, environmentally responsible building systems to the parts of the world which will first feel the devistation created by climate change. More specifically this project was the subject of CMPBSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; attention during the 2011 year while I was working there under a co-op agreement with MSU and was submitted to CitySense: Advanced Architecture Competition in September of 2011. While elements of this project have been developed for many years, and are continuing to be developed, the team I was fortunate enough to work with on this portion was made up by: Dane Carlson Aaron Cloninger Pliny Fisk III Lindsay Franta Loveleen Gill-Aulakh Jack Murphy Adam Pyrek Aiyou Zhu All the work contained on these pages is the intellectual property of CMPBS copyright 2011 and used here with permission. Urban Connectome: The urban connectome is responsible for a large portion of my course work during my study abroad at Izmire University of Economics in Fall of 2010 during what would be the first semester of my fourth year. This individual project was completed under the tutelage of: Serdar Asut Gudjon Erlendsson Gul Kacmaz Erk
Long Beach Sustainable Technology Training Center (LBSTTC): LBSTTC was created during a partnership with Aaron Schwartz during our comprehensive design studio, second semester of third year at Mississippi State University. Images on the first page are used under a creative commons attribution license with the exception of the black and white image used from: “A Library of Lungs.” Seedmagazine.com. Seed Media Group LLC., 2009. Web. 13 Jan. 2013. <http://seedmagazine.com/portfolio/22_library-of-lungs.html> Evans Chairs: The Evans Chairs were designed and constructed by Coggan and Crawford, Architects while I was an employee of the firm. They are the property of Coggan and Crawford, Architects copyright 2008 and used here with permission. Digital: The Vernacular: These are a series of prints based on photographs I have taken since 2007. They have been featured at the Cotton District Arts Festival in 2010 and 2011. All work is copyrighted by me, Nels Long, 2012. Viktor Torries’ Bitters: Viktor Torries’ Small Batch Bitters are handcrafted by me in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi from local and organic ingredients. All artwork relating to this product was design by me including lables, packaging and marketing images. Copyright Nels Long 2012 On Capacity: Technology: This paper was written to satisfy the requirments of Theory of Architecture under professor Jane Greenwood in the second semester of my fourth year at Mississippi State University. All research sources are cited throughout the paper. Design for the Individual: An Analysis of the Work of Hassan Fathy: This paper was written to prove understanding of the concepts presented in Postwar History of Architecture, an elective taught by Dr. Burak Erdim in the first semester of my third year at Mississippi State University. All research sources are cited throughout the paper. Sources for images used are provided at the end of the footnotes. Index Graphic: This circular graph was created using software provided by Circos. Krzywinski, M. et al. Circos: an Information Aesthetic for Comparative Genomics. Genome Res (2009) 19:1639-1645