3
Mies Weave Art Institute of Chicago, February 2015 Atelier Manferdini
5
Mies Weave Atelier Manferdini 1024 Harding Ave, #202, Venice CA 90291 USA Credits: Leonora Bustamante Lukas Blonski Ömer Pekin Nichole Tortorici
To any outsider observing architecture and specifically architects, it might appear obvious that this field has a seemingly unlimited faith in the power of geometry. One of such geometries, yet maybe the most diffused one, is the grid, an overall mastering system that from being professional trade (or even personal secret) has been able to lock into place a good portion of our built environment. Modern American cities stand as witnesses of this need to represent analytically and graphically the rigor of a global organizational rule we can all comprehend. As a consequence, the city has always occupied a privileged spot in the dreams of architects, it is a place where order finds its physical manifestation. The city is a scale where a myriad of different patterns are projected in an unlimited repository of ruled aesthetic principles and where that desire for overall geometrical rigor finds a possible ground to exist. In the history of architecture, grids have been sprawling not only on the ground plane, but they have been visual and analytical protagonists of building facades, created by the rhythm of their fenestrations, ornamentations and structural systems. This set of drawings, is without a doubt, part of this line of work. Each case study uses as a point of departure, a picture of Mies van der Rohe building facades, in Chicago or New York. The original pictures are scripted through a series of cyclical operations that construct and deconstruct each image into a set of vector lines. By changing the scale of the grid, the level of definition of each image becomes more or less abstracted. The monochromatic original façade of Mies is then weaved with a second image, full of colors, at a different scale of resolution. The conceptual basis for the suite of drawings is rooted in gestalt theories of composition and color. The gestalt effect is the capability of our brain to generate whole forms, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of an architectural archetype figure (villa, housing block, tower…etc.), instead of just collections of simpler and unrelated elements (in this case a grid of lines). Another effect of these drawings is the simultaneous legibility of two systems. One can recognize the original monochromatic façade and meanwhile perceive the new colored one. The research wants to test the suitability of this work as a design process and its applicability to current discourse in the architectural practice and theory of architecture. The work is not based on an historical-interpretive methodology or logical argumentation, but wants to provide a working methodology towards a contemporary aesthetic of digital grids and their intricate weaved layers. The decision to start a set of autonomous drawings on gridded façades came from a personal fascination with the work of Mies van der Rohe, and its significance for interpreting late modern American cities from a European perspective. Unlike other traditional examples of modern architecture, Mies built volumes that, although grounded in the most canonical city block , are able to bind together a public space of a finely calibrated urban section with the details of its mullion façade and corner columns. The work will be exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in February 2015.
7
Weave 1.0 Commonwealth Promenade Apartments, 1956 330 West Diversey Parkway, Chicago, Illinois Photograph by: Randy Jacobson
9
Weave 1.1
11
Weave 2.0 Lake Shore Drives Apartments, 1956 330 West Diversey Parkway, Chicago, Illinois Photograph by: Randy Jacobson
13
Weave 2.1
15
Weave 3.0 Seagram Building, 1958 375 Park Ave, New York, NY Photograph by: Stephano Bertolotti
17
Weave 3.1
19
Weave 3.2
Weave 3.3
23
Weave 3.4
27
Weave 4.0 Lake Shore Drives Apartments, 1956 330 West Diversey Parkway, Chicago, Illinois Photograph by: Bob Segal
29
Weave 4.1
31
Weave 4.2
33
Weave 4.3
35
Weave 4.4
39
Weave 4.5
41
43
Weave 5.0 IBM Chicago Parking, 1956 330 North Wabash, Chicago, Illinois Photograph by: Author
44
Weave 5.1
45
Weave 5.2
47
Weave 5.3
49
51
Weave 6.0 Seagram Building, 1958 375 Park Ave, New York, NY Photograph by: Author
Weave 6.2, Model
53
Weave 6.1
Weave 6.2
59
61
Weave 7.0 Chicago Federal Center, 1974 230 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois Photograph by: Randy Jacobson
62
Weave 7.1
63
Weave 7.2
Weave 7.3
67
Weave 8.0 Chicago Federal Center, 1958 230 South Dearborn Street, New York, NY Photograph by: Randy Jacobson
68
Weave 8.1
69
Weave 8.2
Weave 8.3
75
Weave 8.4