Lucidity by Ben Pennell

BEN PENNELL ON METROPOLITAN REDUX, URBAN ARCHITECTURE 4 sections, 37 new ideas 1

Initial Projections

Eggdemption

A Foreign Tectonic

Non-Passive Use

An Unnerving Threat

A Smooth Reflection

Theatrical Worlds

Immersive Physicality

The Panorama

10 The Spatial Explosion 12 The New Expression

LUCIDITY THE THRESHOLD OF IMMERSIVE SPACE <JACKSON STUDIO>

2014-2015

13 Conditions of Flux 14 Destabalized Form 15 Simultaneous Entry 16 An Appeal to Ethos 17 Robotec Inc. 18 Motherboard 19 Social Battery 20 Droid-C65 21 Formal Contrast 22 Heterotopic Zones 23 Context Relevancy 24 Program Distribution 25 Voyeruistic Street 26 New Adjacencies 27 Shrouded Form 28 The Big Pay Off 29 Primary Circulation 30 Walk-Up Style 31 Housing Module 33 Interactive Content 34 Constructability 35 Continuous Animation 36 Total Design 37 Simple UI

2013 / 2015

BEN P

LUCIDITY THE THRESHOLD OF IMMERSIVE SPACE

2014-2015

PUBLICATION INFO BLURB PUBLICATIONS www.blurb.com Copyright 2015, Ben Pennell Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Contact: Ben Pennell, Doug Jackson BNPennell@gmail.com DoJackson@calpoly.edu All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written consent of the copyright owners. At the time of publishing, all content by the author is believed to be either public domain or used appropriately according to the standards of fair use and attribution. Inaccuracies may be directed to the attention of the author and will be corrected in subsequent editions.

2013 / 2015

First Edition, 2015. Special thanks to: Jackson Studio 2015 and Thesis Advisor Doug Jackson

A01

LUCIDITY

BEN P

LUCIDITY THE THRESHOLD OF IMMERSIVE SPACE

2014-2015

2013 / 2015

First Edition, 2015. Special thanks to: Jackson Studio 2015 and Thesis Advisor Doug Jackson

A01

LUCIDITY

BEN P

CONTENT

A02

LUCIDITY

The Threshold of Lucidity The Realization of Immersive Space Exteriority of Subjective Fiction The Perception of Control

8 28 34 38

THESIS CONCEPT

The Delivery of Control The Architectural Sublime Heterotopic Conditions

SPATIAL MANIFEST

62 68

Programatic Distribution Critical Agencencies Primary Circulation “Walk Up” Housing Intersection

72 80 86 92 102

BENN STATION

Spring Show Acknowledgements

108 134

END OF BEGINNING

CONTENT

A02

LUCIDITY

The Threshold of Lucidity The Realization of Immersive Space Exteriority of Subjective Fiction The Perception of Control

8 28 34 38

THESIS CONCEPT

The Delivery of Control The Architectural Sublime Heterotopic Conditions

SPATIAL MANIFEST

62 68

Programatic Distribution Critical Agencencies Primary Circulation “Walk Up” Housing Intersection

72 80 86 92 102

BENN STATION

Spring Show Acknowledgements

108 134

END OF BEGINNING

ESSAYS AND AESTHETIC FORMULATION/ / / / / / / / / / / /

THESIS CONCEPT The human condition oscillates between seemingly totalizing realities that are mutually exclusive. In general, this unfavorable polarity is diffused by fantasy or technical intervention in an effort to maintain stability. Looming fear and desire have the capacity to disrupt serenity, but can these emotions ever fully evaporate? The iPod tells us that peace comes from inside the earbud. The office tells us that comfort is experienced from behind the glass. The cathedral tells us that God only exists from within the light. But what about the sound of the subway grinding? The smell of the incense burning? The mystery of complete darkness? To combat our individualized form of detachment, the threshold of immersive space confronts the ontological contradictions fabricated by our perception, breaching an otherwise passive form of inhabitation. A voyeuristic juxtaposition of closeness offers the observer an experience that is simultaneously empowering yet sublime.

B01

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

ESSAYS AND AESTHETIC FORMULATION/ / / / / / / / / / / /

B01

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

INITIAL PROJECTIONS

The Threshold of Lucidity

B02

B03

B04

A01: Interior plaza located inside Penn Station, New York City. Photo by Joseph Wright (1995). A02: Rural countryside roughly 30 minutes outside of Downtown Manhattan. Photo by Laura Jacobs (2009). B01: Movie still from Stanley Kubrick’s “Space Odyssey” (1968). B02: Interior foam structure crafted and organized from milled components and MDF waffle core B03: Fragile foam shape is sheathed in two layers of high-density fiberglass B04: Several layers of Bondo applied to fiberglass form to smooth out imperfe tions. Steel members are lag-bolted into the MDF sub-structure. M01: Blake introduces a new set of spiritual principles, casting aside the presumed division of God and man, and suggesting that all things are perhaps infinite products of God’s divinity. Blake, William, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,1793.

THESIS CONCEPT

The architectural crisis of humanity is not necessarily one of a presumed architectural manner. Outside our physical bodies we inhabit dwellings of plush comfort, metropoles of unforeseen connectivity, or ruralities of natural beauty. Productivity at home, school, or the office is general y accomplished through a ranging balance of work and play; but are we all living our lives to their fullest potential? At what point do we abandon the unattainably hedonistic lifestyle of early adolescence, and settle for an adult lifestyle of mediocrity? Despite the brief hours of pleasure found in the instantaneous thrill of play, do we accept the others as equally important moments of living? The struggle, the toil, the commute: how often are we faced with this magnificence and in our panic we flee? I use the word, not in a literal sense, but n terms of our conscious detachment from realityM01—what a wasted opportunity! In constant flight from our fears, we plug nto fantasy and technical obsession to alleviate the presence of an imperfect world. Though temporarily enjoyable, the experience is fleeting and ultimately ineffective aga nst the insatiable concerns of the average man. The looming threat of financia burden, social uncertainty, and personal insignificance fill the empty space n our minds, though in the face of these issues we are powerless over the complete attainment of stability. Plugged into our headphones, our fantasies, how refreshing is the actual confrontation with real danger? Approaching the wild beast who lurks in the bushes, we cling tightly to our possessions -the only barrier against the animal’s domain. We back away in terror,B20 conscious of every footstep, every rustle, every pore of sweat reacting to the uncertain question of death. Moments later, centuries later, we return to the oasis of human intervention (the car, the cabin, the fire) and our attainment of safety yie ds utter bliss.B21 Overwhelmed with the presence of not just pleasure, but the sublime notion of removing pain, our natural instinct is to revel in the brief and responsive moments of stability, immersing ourselves in yet another fict onal extreme. To combat the instinctual drive for an individualized detachment, a meditative sensation of awareness can be found in the sobering transition between pleasure and pain, harmony and dissonance. An investigation of the ontological polarities between objective truth and subjective perception shift the question of what is reality to who has control of reality. As humans, we oscillate between seemingly totalizing realities that are mutually exclusive, they can’t both be true. Considering this unresolved condition, it would be beneficial to create a space that explains the multiplicity of reality and presents the opportunity to become an omniscient participant, capable of navigating these fragile realms. Early precedent and design studies, including the built furniture piece, C1000,B05 focused on a visual expression of contradiction–be it through formal opposition, or spatial reconstruction. For the sake of demonstration, designs were specifically selected and represented in effort to highl ght their polarized and almost theatrical aesthetic. In doing so, the selected works strive to reflect the unstable emotional character of human psyche.

B05

B05: The C1000 Chair conflates two opposing realities: a world that is sharp and unnerving, or smooth and optimistic. By presenting an object that is essentially in a state of flux, it becomes difficult to sit in the chair in a passive and subjective manner. The creator approaches his subject, cautiously, suspiciously. He carries with him the final assembly components. On the set of Ben Pennell’s movie “C-1000” (2014).

LUCIDITY

INITIAL PROJECTIONS

The Threshold of Lucidity

B02

B03

B04

THESIS CONCEPT

B05

LUCIDITY

EGG-DEMPTION

B06

B07

B06: One side of the chair resembles a completed form that is fully achieved. B07: The other half suggests an eroded state of flux that must be resolved with the help of human aid. B08: The voluptuous arm-rest is replaced by a folded steel shard that is cold to the touch.

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B08

EGG-DEMPTION

B06

B07

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B08

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B09

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B09

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B10

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B10

A FOREIGN TECTONIC

B11

B12

B09: Initial sketch depicting the contrasting relationship of the organic white form to itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mechanical interior. Graphite on vellum, 18in x 12in. B10: The chair now fully assembled, its creator stands cautiously, observing its potential threat. B11: The object is small in comparrison to human his form, but will the proportions respond to his body? B12: The first sit is successfull. But is he safe? B13: A close examination reveals the intricate family of parts comprising each appendage. Each leg is equiped with self-leveling steel feet.

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B13

A FOREIGN TECTONIC

B11

B12

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B13

NON-PASSIVE USE

B14

B15

B14: The organic side responds well to his human geometry. B15: The mechanical side does an adequate job of simulating the original condition. The â&#x20AC;&#x153;wing backâ&#x20AC;? extends to support his shoulder. B16: Sitting in his chair, the creator is in a full state of awareness. His physical relation to his surroundings is accompanied by a new sensation of alertness.

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B16

NON-PASSIVE USE

B14

B15

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B16

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B17

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B17

AN UNNERVING THREAT

B18

B19

B17: The creators work as a team, grinding and cutting the rest of the assembly in their hidden lair. Still from Ben Pennell’s movie “C-1000” (2014). B18: Almost completed, two creators wheel their object to its final destination. Still from Ben Pennell’s movie “C-1000” (2014). B19: They massage and fondle their precious solution, their symbol for human ingenuity. B20: The affects of the chair have now fully taken hold. Will he return to his original state of consciousness? Or has the chair permanently altered that which cannot be recovered?

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B20

AN UNNERVING THREAT

B18

B19

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B20

A SMOOTH REFLECTION

B21

B22

B21: The chair exists on its own, and responds well to its natural context. Movie Still from Ben Pennell’s “C-1000” (2014). B22: It is unclear exactly how the chair made it hear. Were the creators responsible, or was this prophetic destiny? B23: They circle the unknown beast cautiously before electing one of their own to individually interact with the unidentified object. B24: Three, anonymous and unsuspecting characters have found something intriguing, sensuous, intimidating. Movie Still from Ben Pennell’s “C-1000” (2014).

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B23

A SMOOTH REFLECTION

B21

B22

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B23

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B24

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

B24

THEATRICAL WORLDS

The Realization of Immersive Space

C01

C01: Walt Disney welcomes his first guests to the opening of Disneyland. Similar to the conceptual ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright, it was extremely important that Disney’s guests felt as if they had been transported from their conventual reality to a world of fantasy and wonder. At this point in history, most Americans were familiar with the typical concept of an amusement park. Aside from the many aesthetic details on the inteior, Disney understood the detrimental affect a conventional parking lot would have on the preservation of his illusion. The monorail served as a gateway, a threshold, exposing the signficance of entering Disneyland. Photo taken outside Disney’s monorail (1955). C02: The Grand Canyon delivers an immersive experience that is both beautiful and sublime. The stark contrast in scale as one immediately comprehends their sense of smallness, highlights the sense of threat in a context naturally devoid of threshold. Photo by Dwayne Jarvis (2005). N01: Friedburg explores the ways in which nineteenth-century visual experiences—photography, urban strolling, panorama and diorama entertainments—anticipate contemporary pleasures provided by cinema, video, shopping malls, and emerging “virtual reality” technologies. Friedberg, Anne, Window Shopping: Cinema and the Post modern, University of California Press, 1993. N02: Classic philosophical thought surrounding the concept of camera obscura was interested in mediums that could provide an objective and truthful view of the world through a “detached eye.” However, as Crary points out, more modern notions of imagery opposed those stable and fixed relations between subject and object. Crary, Jonothan. Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the 19th Century. Boston: MIT, 1992.

THESIS CONCEPT

The onset of the industrial revolution produced a consumer culture of both tangible goods and intangible perceptions. The notion of voyage, aided by the development of locomotion, created new conceptual territories to legitimize the act of tourism and leisure, a threshold to another world. In wake of this new profitable enterprise, the mass med a reached out to the general public, advertising the mythifie exploration of third world countries. Anne Friedberg explains this virtual gaze depended upon “large doses of manipulation and exoticism” that lead toward the “twentieth century mobilization of the consumer through the imaginary landscapes of cinema, tourism, television, shopping malls, the internet.” N01 With the public eye fixated on the seemingly attainable object of travel, instruments were constructed with the intention of simulating the desired experience within the means of an average citizen. Consequently, It was out of this conscious pursuit of representation that artists enhanced a believable sense of physical immersion. During the 19th century, a German painter named Eduard Gaertner began a series of perspectival studies specializing in the depiction of urban architecture.In 1834, he conceptualized a six panel panorama painting of Berlin, referencing a 360 degree photo collage and housed within a hexagonal viewing device.C05 Taken from the roof of the Friedrichswerder Church, the location provided the most complete vantage point for all of Berlin’s best buildings. The technology was simple, but the effect had never been experienced. The panorama addressed the user as an additional piece of the entourage -a user brought into reality contingent upon the physical act of scanning the painting and recognizing that he or she has been completely enclosed in Gaertner’s world. Though entirely believable, an interesting event occurs at the seams of the perspective. Music and literature have the capacity to attach sympathy and emotion to a narrative based on the detachment from self; perspectival painting—specifically panorama—attempts to achieve this same end, but through opposite means of self-involvement. In the critical essay, Techniques of the Observer, Jonathan Crary claims that “The point of view, given the spectator’s location in centre stage, as if he were part of the same, was one of the most important paradigmatic changes introduced by the panorama.” N02 Toward the edge of the ground, where the roof meets the bell tower, the observer can see figures of people placed in the center of the image -meaning the vanishing point is at eye level. Contrary to what Crary suggests, the hyper-realist strategy of immersion is flawed due to its digestible level of clarity While a photo collage would have yielded inconsistencies due to numerous vanishing points, Gaertner refines and corrects a one-point perspective facing due north, and a one-point perspective facing due south, creating what the eye of the observer would naturally see -a complete city scape with no perceivable loss of information. Addressing this condition, he disingenuously alters the perspective grid so that buildings on the fringe match up perfectly edge to edge -depicting an LUCIDITY

C02

THEATRICAL WORLDS

The Realization of Immersive Space

C01

THESIS CONCEPT

C02

IMMERSIVE PHYSICALITY

C03

C04

C03: Monet’s iconic painted lillies as they appear in his magnified, dehuma ized perspective. Monet, Claude. Water Lillies. 1921. Acrylic on canvas. C03: A slightly zoomed out image, however, no less focused on the size and scale of the lillies. Monet, Claude. Water Lillies. 1922. Acrylic on canvas. N03: This short book details Aldous Huxley’s experiences while taking mescaline over the course of an afternoon. Inspired by William Blake’s poem, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Huxley explains his motivations as being rooted in an idea that the brain is a reducing valve that restricts consciousness and that perhaps mescaline might help access a greater degree of awareness. Despite the negative associations with drug use, Huxley ultimately utilizes the experience to ponder the detachment from ego and self in a meditative sort of religious enlightenment. Based on his analysis, architectural concepts such as the infinitely small or the in nitely vast could be deployed in order to facilitate an immersive experience capable of overwhelming a normative state of consciousness. Huxley, Aldous. Doors of Perception. New York: Harper Row, 1954.

THESIS CONCEPT

image that lacks a tangible degree of mental investment to resolve the perception of space. The observer is on the roof, but how can that be? Coinciding with Gaertner’s strategic efforts to maintain his illusion of realism, comes an inevitable recognition of self, and the subsequent incapacity to physically transform. Despite Berlin’s three-dimensional plane of existence, the disconnect between the mind and the alternative environment exists because the observer’s body is undeniably fixed in its location If one is to perceive the experience of immersive transportation, perhaps they must assume an alternative state of being that is “not self.” Though Gaertner emphasizes a personal sense of engagement, it is perhaps presumptuous to assume that a normative consciousness could entirely eliminate given precepts of space. To address the opposite polarity of thought, Aldous Huxley describes his detachment from self through his engagement with two specific conditions found in certain paintings: objects described with magnified detail, or scenes from a far distance: “[Monet] had chosen to paint a close-up of natural objects C03 seen in their own context and without reference to merely human notions of what ought to be.” N03 Objects in space are typically measured in reference to man, not only directing their implication of size, but also their status of importance -most often boiling down to the binary classification of human or non-human. Monet disregards the predilection for organization or referential scale, painting water lilies measured against water lilies, and nothing more. Contrary to our normal vision of the world, the close examination of nature reveals an architecture of veins, stripes, patterns, and geometrical forms otherwise shrouded by a sense of disorganization, resulting in a glance that is often brief and uninvestigated. The same non-human point of view can be established when rendering objects at a distance. A large crevasse conveys a natural silence to overshadow the tiny travelers who make their way through the wilderness.C02 The plight of man is undoubtedly futile against the will of nature to be what it will be. Huxley goes on to describe primeval nature as “[bearing] a strange resemblance to that inner world where no account is taken of our personal wishes or even of the enduring concerns of man in general.” Regardless of time or place, our world is blended together into a homogeneous series of structures fabricated in the vision of man. Every space we occupy is either an affirmation of our existence, or a blank slate that has yet to be conquered. We see buildings of wonder, landscapes of lusciousness, but can we truly comprehend their beauty until we’ve seen them from the viewpoint of the astronaut in outer space or the micron in sub-atomicism? Obviously we can, as most humans are capable of relating any number of experiences in which a piece of art or music or scenery has emotionally moved the observer. However, what exists within these conditions is the limitation of transmitting emotion with the same truth and conviction as the original experience. Recognizing the presence of this limitation can be viewed as either an experiential hindrance, or perhaps an opportunity for new forms of consciousness–most directly associated with the idea of abstraction.

C05

C05: Using methods of camera obscura to sketch the layouts of his paintings, Gaertner was a painter of urban architectural landscapes and the pioneer of panoramic imagery. The Panorama Von Berlin was a six panel piece, painted from the roof of the Friedrichswerder Church. Unbeknownst to him, the piece was representative of a paradigmatic shift in which the viewer ceased to exist as a detached spectator, and instead became an involved actor immersed in the reality of the scene. Gaertner, Eduard. Panorama Von Berlin. 1834. Oil on canvas.

LUCIDITY

IMMERSIVE PHYSICALITY

C03

C04

THESIS CONCEPT

C05

LUCIDITY

THE PANORAMA

C03

C04

C03: “Your Rainbow Panorama,” Studio Olafur Eliasson (2011). C04: Eliasson describes Your Rainbow Panorama “as a mediator that forges relations between these three: you, ARoS, and the city of Aarhus.” C05: What is innovative about the installation is that it not only presents the spectacle of Aarhus, but utilizes blatant and also subtle visual illusions to obscure the otherwise standard scenic view. “What one might experience may be of both panoramic scope and introspective quality – you may see yourself seeing. Sometimes alone, mostly with others.” Olafur Eliasson. Interview by Irwin, Robert by. 27 Mar. 2006.

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

C05

THE PANORAMA

C03

C04

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

C05

THE SPATIAL EXPLOSION

D01

D01: Referenced in Vidler’s Explosion of Space, the work of Robert Wiene represented the genre of German Expressionism and its capacity to relate not only spaces of horror, but sensations and emotions of intense realism. Movie Still from Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920). P01: Anthony Vidler examines the history of several filmmakers and their mutually beneficial relationship to the field of architecture. Filmic art offered the potential to develop a new conception of time and space unhindered by the material constraints of gravity and context. Unlike the static nature embodied by contemporary buildings of that time, films provoked the mystery and investigation of “plastic” art, as it began to unify both time and space. Vidler, Anthony. The Explosion of Space: Architecture and the Filmic Imaginary. Boston: MIT, 1993. P02: This text discusses the requirements of a new architecture, devoid of influential connection to the past or future. In order to create such a space, Eisenman places the responsibility on both the architect (who must remove associations with symbolism and iconography), and the user (who must recognize himself as a participatory reader, capable of reinterpreting his individualized construct of space as a fragment of a larger whole). Eisenman, Peter. The End of the Classical. New Haven: Yale School of Architecture, 1984.

THESIS CONCEPT

The Exteriority of Subjective Fiction

What is fascinating about the non-human translation of perception is the ambiguous relation of truth. Until one has experienced the loss of a loved one, it is impossible to truthfully conjure the correlating emotions of sadness because of their human degrees of precision. Despite experiencing sensations of lesser magnitude, the emotion would be ultimately measured against the relator’s ranging positive or negative condition of either having lost a loved one, or having never lost of loved one. But what about the non-human experience? What about the perspective of the water lily, or the antipodes? Both encompass a ranging scale of perception, completely beyond our comprehension and therefore lacking any measure of comparative thought to confirm or deny its truth and plausibility as a transformative work of art. While panoramic paintings attempt to disregard the body’s transformative futility, Huxeley’s chosen paintings of near or far recognize the limitations of self, relying upon an observational stance that is out-of-body. Unlike the two-dimensional or three-dimensional painterly pursuits, the cinematic experience had the added effect of time to give it a fourth dimension of realism. Despite the medium’s novel label surrounding its first decade of application, the era of German Expressionism proved film cou d be used as a highly respectable mode of artistic exploration. In 1920, Robert Weine directed the German silent horror film known as Das Kabinett des Dr. aligari. When production began, designers were intrigued by the notion of a blurred reality, a subjective experience in parallel with the protagonist’s mental turmoil. Avoiding a conventional approach, the image on the left describes how every detail was manipulated to demonstrate an alternative perception.D01 In response to Weine’s Caligari, New York Times correspondent Herman G Scheffauer hailed the “birth of a new space” in which “architecture now participated in the very emotions of the film.” P01 True shadows are manipulated through lighting to avoid natural casting effects, while false shadows are deliberately painted. Sets are comprised of flat planes, in so e cases flowing sheets of canvas, effectively manipulating the perspectival vanishing point. Weine’s world proposes uncomfortable discontinuities: walls constructed as both “solid and transparent, fissured and veiled, camouflage and endlessly disappearing, [are] presented in a forced and distorted perspective that presses space both backward and forward, finally overwhelming he spectators own space, incorporating it into the vortex of the whole movie.” Scheffauer speaks directly to the involvement of the observer, or in this case, the spectator. Though not immersive in any physical manner, the discomfort created by such spatial discontinuity is what alters the observer’s perception.D04 Considering a one-point or two-point perspective, requiring little participation to comprehend, one could equate the standard filmic experience w th the act of peering through a window frame. Although the observer sees a different scene through his or her frame, the one- point or two-point perspective is preserved -despite an added sense of depth, it is just as ordinary as the space he or she is currently occupying. However, after breaking the perspectival connec-

D02

D02: Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his deathlike sleep. When Alan asks Cesare about his future, Cesare answers that he will die before dawn. The disturbing nature of Caligari’s character is strongly exaggerated by the use of dramatic shadow–exposing a dark and evil personality shrouded by innocence.

LUCIDITY

tion between what is in the frame and what is in front of it, the observer’s own space is “overwhelmed” by multiple vanishing points and seemingly incomprehensible set designs—a captivating insertion into the emotionally disturbed viewpoint of the protagonist’s struggle. The cinematic experience is a successful method of representation because it is devoid of tangible form, but rife with three-dimensional space. We become immersed in an alternative reality theoretically detached from the ontological inconsistencies of the built-world. However, the transformative capacity of contemporary architecture is severely handicapped by it’s latent relation to its user and its predecessor. Preconceived notions about what a building should say or do or be, filter into the subconscious perception of space—negating the psychological clarity of the mind, and superseding conceptual intention with the inescapable fixation on tangible orm -positive space, when in fact architecture should be just the opposite. Eisenman states that a “non-classical architecture” should begin “actively to involve an idea of a reader conscious of his own identity as a reader than as a user or observer of it.” P02 That in mind, a decontextualized architecture devoid of historical narrative could offer the opportunity to reconnect with a public conception of reality. The individual “readers” would bring their own anxieties or desires, and inevitably project them on to the scene as they begin to interact with space. To establish a framework for experiencing the present moment, one must consciously recognize their role as an empowered user, capable of escaping control of consumer culture and deploying their own sense of reality. In doing so, spatial and self awareness become the basis for manipulating an instantaneous connection to man and the negative space that encapsulates.

THE SPATIAL EXPLOSION

D01

THESIS CONCEPT

The Exteriority of Subjective Fiction

D02

LUCIDITY

THE NEW EXPRESSION

D03

D03: Iconic images of sordid darkness, coupled with disturbed and deconstructed visual discrepancies provide a platform for a seemingly totalizing and immersive reality. D04: Each stage set is crafted to warp the expected and intuitive sense of perspective. Both images shrink and collapse the physical context; however, one produces an atmosphere of entrapment, whereas the other produces an atmosphere of dominance.

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

D04

THE NEW EXPRESSION

D03

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

D04

CONDITIONS OF FLUX

The Perception of Control

E01

E02

E03

E01: One object in a series of 4 design studies focuses on texture variance. The first represents the smoothest iteration. PLA print A, 4in x 4in. E02: The second object represents a mid-range of flux, equally responsive to both aesthetics of smooth and sharp. PLA print B, 4in x 4in. E03: The third object is a more spatialized piece, tangentially related to the original prints mainly concerned with pattern. PLA print D, 4in x 4in.

THESIS CONCEPT

While works of art and cinema have the capacity to be framed into an experience that is both immersive and transfiguring, architecture’s inevitable condition of porosity inhibits the manifestation of vision. Although a space was designed with the intention of contemplation and silence, or interaction and dynamism, the experience is often jaded by inhabitants in visible defiance of the prescribed program -a threatening situation to challenge the immersive capacity of architecture unless diluted by a mental effort to navigate or comprehend. Although there is typically one exhibit in particular that he or she is meant to see, the aimless wanderer of The Met will find extreme engagement going from gallery to gallery, moment to moment, due to the absence of a clearly defined start and end point. There is no “right way” to navigate the program, and so the labyrinthine spaces of confusion and discord become curated by the wanderer’s active participation to randomly move through space. A complimentary affect of Weine’s distinction between the real and the surreal can be found in an architectural threshold that destabilizes our relationship to space. Entering Le Corbusier’s chapel of Saint-Piere in Firminy, the user is confronted with an unresolved sense of scale by the drastic comparison of the tight circulation versus the open sanctuary.E04 Additionally, as the user navigates the through space, the building presents a transformation from an orthogonal geometry to a circular one as it extends vertically. Inhabiting a space in flux, the ambiguous nature of form makes the relationship to the building uncertain.E02 The circular geometry that is being pursued is never fully attained—Corbusier truncates the building at an irregular angle before the transformation between orthogonal and smooth is realized—leaving the building in a frustrated state. The chapel provides only a veneer of solidity based on its form and materiality. The concrete shell suggests a dense interior, but the main sanctuary space is heavily perforated. The irregular ribbon of light penetrating the girdling gutter and the graphic of constellations contradict the presumed structural flow, giving the overall space a feeling of airy lightness. Though similar in size and scale, the obligatory gothic cathedral contains a much more diffused—and therefore digestible—contrast between form and scale. Due to the structural constraints of stone, every wall or vaulted ceiling celebrates the invention of the arch. Exposing themselves in not just two dimensional relief, but three-dimensional space, the arch seamlessly blends circular and orthogonal geometries in a way that is both non-offensive and visually stable—carrying the load from ceiling to column. Despite the grand size of the main atrium and arcade, the space is broken down into modules of human scale. Statues of realistic proportions visually support dispersed structural loads, and large column spans eventually disintegrate into small triforiums in the clerestory. Le Corbusier’s chapel in Firminy stands in confident opposition to historical logics of geometry and scale. Despite the pitched walls of his conical form, the flat ceiling defies gravitational presumptions, and trims the lofted curvature before it can resolve itself. Additionally, it is worth

E04

E04: Le Corbusier’s Chapel, presenting the main sanctuary as a truncated expression of a rounded form that is never fully realized. Église Saint-Pierre located in Firminy, France (1974). Q01: Roland Barthes was an essayist among the literary movement of French Structuralists. The chosen passage is especially relevant in that he describes the phenomenon of being simultaneously engaged in two realities: the reality of the film and the reality of exactly what encapsulates it (the theater). To him, the ambiguous state of being both of this world, and out of this world is more perplexing then a given scenario of total immersion. Barthes, Roland. The Rustle of Language: Leaving the Movie Theater. Trans. Richard Howard. 1987.

LUCIDITY

noting that despite Corbusier’s obsession with béton brut or “raw concrete,” the board-form concrete of the inner shell is unexpectedly cleaner and less pronounced then his other works. This closer attention to detail sends the human scale of construction into the background, appropriating a higher level of attention to the mystical contrast between the grand sanctuary and small figures that occupy. Contrary to the logic and ornament of his predecessors, the ambiguity of Le Corbusier’s chapel makes it difficult for the user to occupy the space in a passive, subjective state. The mitigation between phases of consciousness—an overwhelming sense of self versus an overwhelming sense of space—is the fascinating threshold that instigates mental participation in an attempt to resolve uncertainty. Addressing this hypnotic duality in terms of cinema, Roland Barthes speculates having “two bodies at the same time: a narcissistic body which gazes, lost in the engulfing mirror, and a perverse body, ready to fetishize not the image but precisely what exceeds it.” Q01 In this paring, Barthes describes the figurative distance between image and user, dismissing a critical distance of “intellectualization,” but observing an amorous distance of “discretion.” Meaning that instead of comprehending a prescriptive delivery of spatial entirety, the ambiguous nature of the theater, or the sanctuary, subverts the spectators individualized realm of space with an overwhelming necessity to resolve the immersed conflation of opposing realities.

CONDITIONS OF FLUX

The Perception of Control

E01

E02

E03

THESIS CONCEPT

E04

LUCIDITY

DESTABILIZED FORM

E05

E06

E05: The exterior massing describes the radiused form as it resolves itself into four corners. E06: The main space is penetrated by objects of an ornamental nature, providing a visual antithesis to the otherwise monolithic solidarity. E07: This last object represents the “sharp,” within a sliding scale of aesthetic. Deviating from a binary identity of “curved” or “straight,” this undoubtedly polarized item still presents both mechanization and naturalism.

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

E07

DESTABILIZED FORM

E05

E06

THESIS CONCEPT

LUCIDITY

E07

INCREASING SCALE/ / / / / / / / / / / /

SPATIAL MANIFEST Programs dedicated to the action of movement are visually paired against programs of stillness. Programs dedicated to the object of pragmatism are visually paired against programs of leisure. By maintaining a critical distance between varied constituents, architecture should aim to adequately reflect the diversity of human perception, appealing to our ranging phases of consciousness.

F01

Spatial Manifest

Luc id ity

INCREASING SCALE/ / / / / / / / / / / /

F01

Spatial Manifest

Luc id ity

SIMULTANEOUS ENTRY

The Delivery of Control

F02

F03

F01: Gregory Crewdson’s photographs take place in small-town America, but are often disturbing and surreal. His photographs are elaborately staged and lighted using crews familiar with motion picture production. Crewdson, Gregory. Untitled. 2003. Photograph. Beneath the Roses. F02: Movie still from David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” (1986). Imagery throughout the film represents either specturm of optimism and happiness, or hopelessness and evil. F03: Frank Booth, played by Dennis Hopper, holds an innocent family hostage as he sobatoges the viewer’s illusion of innocense. R01: This interview explores Olafur Eliasson’s interest in phenomenology, specifically centered on the user and their relationship to context. The text explains the intentionality of incorporating not just the mystery of infinite space, but also an empowered audience, capable of both an subjective sensory response and an objective recognition of self. Olafur Eliasson. Interview by Irwin, Robert by. 27 Mar. 2006.

SPATIAL MANIFEST

A destabilizing spatial relationship affords a small degree of empowerment to the extent that it provides alternative perceptions of individualized reality from which to choose. However, additional elements of interactivity could have the capacity to push further then the ontological question of what is real or what isn’t—delivering the ability to manipulate the public sphere of reality by virtue of the user’s enhanced, critical distance. Le Corbusier provides a platform for the user to assume a non-passive, “participatory role” in the mental investigation of space. Olafur Eliasson, a contemporary installation artist, adds to the notion of a “participatory role” suggesting the additional phenomenon of “seeing yourself seeing,” an experience similar to the difference between a lucid dreamer (an “oneironaut”) and a regular dreamer. The preexisting condition of phenomenology suggests a tendency to detach experience from social context. Elliasson suggests a more dynamic condition that removes contextual indifference, and delivers criticality as a tool for reevaluating the user relationship to his or her environment. The Weather Project realizes Eliasson’s ambition because it is both phenomenologically mystifying, and contextually relevant. The brilliant sun orb emits a warm and comforting glow that contrasts with the otherwise grey milieu of London.F04 It commands the whole space, providing a venue for an uncorked behavioral antithesis that has otherwise been repressed. Memories, feelings, sensations, sights, and sounds resonant with the Londoner’s latent desire for warmth and sunlight. Upon entering the yellow aura, the user observes his fellow peers— inevitably taking note of their meditative techniques and their prolonged reaction to the given environment. The cause and effect of the cumulative participation becomes amplified by the mirrored ceiling condit on, showcasing the presence of the human interaction and their positive contribution to art and space. Earlier decades looked to phenomenology as a passive formula to construct the user’s understanding of his or her surroundings; the contemporary individual instead looks to phenomenology to become an active vehicle to negotiate his or her relationship to surroundings. In response to the connection with temporality, Eliasson suggests that “any situation or object can be made relative and negotiable if you insist that YES (You’re Engagement Sequence) is a necessary component of the perceptual process.” R01 Later adding that “the user is the source of the artwork. And the psychology—the memories, expectations, moods, and emotions—that a person brings to the work is an important part of it.” Although philosophers would argue that fundamental elements for a sublime experience depend upon the recognition of our limitations and powerlessness, Elliasson creates a space that is simultaneously divine and awe-inspiring, but also empowering. Other precedent works provide different strategies for establishing a critical dialectic surrounding the conflation of opposing real ties.F02 Gregory Crewdson photographs staged scenes constructed with an obsessive degree of visual detail, offering large amounts of visual exploration and ontological

F04

F04: The Weather Project was installed in the large turbine hall at the London Tate Modern in 2003. Eliasson used humidifiers to create a fine mist, as wel as a circular disc made of monochromatic lamps which radiated yellow light. The ceiling of the hall was covered with a huge mirror, in which visitors could see themselves as tiny black shadows, perplexed with their own narcissism.

LUCIDITY

credibility. His scenes often take place in mundane suburban settings with ordinary subjects involved in extraordinary events. The following image shows a car that is over-turned in a chaotic and morbid manner, and yet the contextual background remains unmoved. The mysterious girl in the foreground appears to be ambivalent to the horrifying scene taking place in her periphery.F07 Despite the fact the scenario doesn’t make sense, the viewer is simultaneously brought through both the ludicrousness of the scene but also the believability that this was a real event, captured by a photographer with a field camera. The scene is staged, but the image is no less “real” then any other photograph the viewer would have seen. The juxtaposition of visual detail and the decontextualized moment allows the viewer to come to the image with their own anxieties and desires, which they project on the scene. The work of these artists suggest that the world is indeed more diverse then we initially perceive. Beneath the veneer of fog and gloom that surrounds Olafur Elliasson’s Tate Modern installation, exists a powerful yearning to bask in a warm, optimistic sunlight. Equally opposite and confrontational, beneath the veneer of Gregory Crewdson’s suburban, mundane backdrop, exists an unknown territory of mystery and sin. Although thematically diverse, the critical works depend upon an ambiguous setting devoid of cohesive narrative. In response to this condition, the user or viewer become actors; necessary participants in the artistic conception, responsible for completing the narrative and demonstrating its negotiable purpose.

SIMULTANEOUS ENTRY

The Delivery of Control

F02

F03

SPATIAL MANIFEST

F04

LUCIDITY

AN APPEAL TO ETHOS

F05

F06

F05: Heavily influenced by the sinister underworld depicted by directors such as David Lynch, Stanley Kubric and Alfred Hitchcock; Crewdsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s images stand alone in their capacity to illustrate both beauty and horror in one instantaneous image. Crewdson, Gregory. Untitled. 2003. Photograph. Beneath the Roses. F06: Unlike film, the extreme lack of information (derived from de-contextualized narrative) coupled with the extreme presence of information (derived from visual detail), creates an experience that is both immersive and destabilizing; preventing the viewer from looking at the image in a passive manner. Crewdson, Gregory. Untitled. 2003. Photograph. Beneath the Roses. F07: Although the scene is bizzare and almost supernatural, the audience is nonetheless familiar with the mundane suburban setting. Crewdson, Gregory. Untitled. 2003. Photograph. Beneath the Roses.

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

F07

AN APPEAL TO ETHOS

F05

F06

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

F07

ROBOTEC INC.

G01

A02

G02

G01: Robotech Inc. evaluates the role of technology in an urban context by fuzing stylistic concepts of British HighTech and polymorphism. Both styles, borrowed from notable offices such as Gherry, Richard Rogers, and Neil Denari, provided the opportunity to study precedented use of form and material from an unbiased perspectiveâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;capable of combining and discarding certain elements at liberty. (2013) G02: Entry sequence highlights the main intersection of visual styles as continuous surfaces flow into high tech cladding systems. G03: Clad in rolled stainless steel and perforated metal, the facade assumes a dynamic stance, promoting the aritficial identity of the robotic brain behind the operation.

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

G03

ROBOTEC INC.

G01

A02

G02

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

G03

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

G04

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

G04

MOTHERBOARD

G05

G06

G04: Housed in the middle of a central void space, the robotic faberge egg [DROID-C65] acts as a moderator for creativity, a serendipitous beacon for the people of Hollywood. While inside the central space, the user is meant to experience the same sense of terror and bewilderment explored in the works of Crewdson and Eliasson. Simply by virute of its unannounced placement, almost invisible from the exterior, the experience captures an emotional dexterity that can be described as nothing less then sublime. Physical model of Robotec Inc, comprised of bristol paper, lightweight MDF, and PLA. 24in by 26in by 14in.

A02

G05: A small microcosm extending each boundary of the site contrasts notions of sharp versus smooth, G06: The complex of Robotec insinuates a sense of dynamism by moments of overlap and inlay. Despite the inevitable static nature of the exterior shell, the cinematic interior space is heavily influenced by a serendipitous moment of mechanical movement. G07: A small cat-walk extends to unite the office program with the adjacent animating complex.

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

G07

MOTHERBOARD

G05

G06

A02

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

G07

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

G08

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

G08

SOCIAL BATTERY

G09

G10

G08: Preliminary context model illustrates the stacked and fragmented massing of the office envelope. G09: Design studies focus primarily on the use of pattern as a tool for spatial exploration. G10: Both images look to axonometic drawing and the use of 3D projection in order to achieve the final 2D image. G11: The bottom massing, predominantly containing animation and greenscreen studios, is meant to formally and organizationally act as a battery for the entire complexâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;delivering energy throughout the remaining programs.

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

G11

SOCIAL BATTERY

G09

G10

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

G11

DROID-C65 G12: DROID-C65 is the motherboard of the building, the central hub. It acts not only as a central core, but as an artficial identity in control of its surrounding technological domain. G13: While creating ambiance for the central studio space housed inside, C65 â&#x20AC;&#x153;breathsâ&#x20AC;? in and out suggesting to the user that he is, in fact, a living thing within a continuous state of flux. G14: The typical office floorplan reimagines the inner structural core as an open void filled with exterior elevators. The void is prodominantly offset roughly thirty feet from the exterior envelope, maximizing floor-space and daylight.

G12

G13

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

G14

G12

G13

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

G14

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

G15

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

G15

FORMAL CONTRAST

The Architectural Sublime

H01

H01: Mies stands beside his modernist monument, The Seagram Building (1958), located in New York, NY. His buildings represent a revolutionary typographic, combining elegance and efficiency. While his regard for constructability is indeed present, his modulated facades present a new family of ornament to the otherwise Neoclassical decor of Manhattan’s Skyline. H02: Early spatial studies imagine a Mies-like interior space that is encapsulating, yet simultaneously penetrated by formless expressions of threshold–fig ratively and literally breaching otherwise stratified programs of space S01: This text evaluates contemporary artists and theorists exploring notions of the sublime, in relation to transcendence, terror, uncanny, and the infinite. Providing philosophical and historical context, Morely examines the conflic ing interpretations of the sublime as it has evolved from Burke, and Kant to present-day writers and artists. Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. N.p., 1757. S02: Rozin and Royzman refer to the notion that, while possibly of equal magnitude emotionally, negative and positive experiences are not equally salient. Empirically measurable data–such as comparing change in temperature interpretations–demonstrates this characteristic, and can be traced to evolutionary traits of natural selection. Rozin, Paul, and Edward Rozyman. Negativity Bias, Negativity Dominance, and Contagion, 2001. S02: Morely, Simon. The Sublime: Documents of Contemporary Art, 2010.

SPATIAL MANIFEST

To inhabit a space that is truly sublime is to immerse your imagination in a world governed by what is dark, uncertain, and confused. Edmund Burke writes “Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the deas of pain, and danger is a source of the sublime [and] productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.” S01 Huxley discussed the futility of transmitting an emotion with the same power and magnitude as the original experience; but perhaps a space can have the capacity to override human perception through transference, so long as it adheres to the specifications of a sublime architecture. First and foremost, a sublime architecture will incite horror. According to Burke, it is an antithetical contrast to the classical aesthetic quality of beauty. Although either experience can produce pleasure, the relationship between the beautiful and the sublime is mutually exclusive. The conception of this duality can be articulated by means of their causal structures. Burke continues his explanation, claiming that the formal cause of beauty is the passion of love; and the material cause is the aesthetic quality of smallness, smoothness, delicacy, etc. Conversely he explains that the formal cause of sublime is the passion of fear (especially the fear of death); and the material cause is the aesthetic quality of vastness, infinit , magnificence, etc. Although the sublime is meant to instill horror, the user of such a space will receive pleasure knowing that the perception is fictio . And despite the unfortunate necessity for discomfort, the experiential relationship with a sublime architecture is much more powerful and evocative then its beautiful counterpart. The “negativity bias” refers to the notion that, even when of equal intensity, things of a more negative nature (unpleasant thoughts, emotions, or social interactions; harmful or traumatic events) have a greater effect on one’s psychological state and processes than do neutral or positive things.S02 Put simply, the average person is prone to become much more upset about losing fifty dollars then happy about finding fifty dollars. According To oy Baumeister, a professor of social psychology, those who are “more attuned to bad things would have been more likely to survive threats and, consequently, would have increased the probability of passing along their genes.” The article continues, “Survival requires urgent attention to possible bad outcomes but less urgent with regard to good ones.” This emotional response is attributed by a large degree to a case of misguided instinct, and although somewhat superfluous, can be most advantageous to the architect who wishes to stimulate an otherwise opiated populous. However grand, the contemporary realization of the sublime should move past the classical notion of powerlessness. Most philosophical understanding would suggest that the sublime addresses what cannot be commanded or controlled. Kant declared that sublimity was the way by which “the divine manifested itself in the natural world.” While the user may experience a sensation of smallness, Simon Morley writes, “we come to a recognition of our limitations, and so transform a sense of negative insufficiency into a positive gain: such experiences serve to establish our reasoning powers more firmly within

H02

LUCIDITY

H03

FORMAL CONTRAST

The Architectural Sublime

H01

SPATIAL MANIFEST

H02

LUCIDITY

H03

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

H04

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

H04

H05

H04: This spatial study imagined the relationship between the metropolitan streetscape, and what lies behind closed doors. Formless objects are injected into the urban fabric to support, and be supported by the existing masonry context. The main space was meant to house a large audio-visual apparatus, designed to hide and reveal the surrounding context at random– creaing a sensation of hyper-awareness. Graphite on vellum, 18in x 12in. H05: Acting as an aesthetic foil, Alexander Calder’s work visually acheives boldness and audacity, despite being constrained by the same material properties. Alexander Calder, Five Swords (1976). H06: The use of repetition is not only structurally sound, but also spatially overwhelming, as the user directly compares his sense of scale to the rigid and substantial block massing. Mies Van Der Rohe, Seagram Building (1958).

SPATIAL MANIFEST

their rightful, although diminished, domain.” S03 In the presence of the architectural sublime, the user is presented with two perceptions of space: the first scenario describes a complete manifestation of Kantian divinity, the second scenario describes a simultaneous recognition of God’s omnipotence working in conjunction with the free will of man. A sublime architecture depends upon the impending sensation of threat, but this exterior condition does not have the capacity to entirely divorce user from pre-existing conceptions of reality. Fears, obsessions, and anxieties brought forth and otherwise dominating the psyche, are not eliminated; but rather, shown in comparison to the threat of potential danger. Despite the presence of these contested realities, the user is never totally immersed in either one. Instead of occupying a totalizing reality, a simultaneous pairing of both terror and safety effectively demonstrates the transparency of the user’s perceptions.H07 The subsequent fixation becomes centered on the user’s abi ity to manipulate reality by virtue of his or her enhanced, external perspective. Just as a lucid dreamer exerts control over their participation within a dream, the sublime subject could become empowered with a heightened state of consciousness through the understanding of their reality as a provisional one.

LUCIDITY

H06

H05

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

H06

HETEROTOPIC ZONES

H06

H06: If Mies is meant to represent the pragmatic, industrial concerns of capitalist persuasion, Calder’s imagery evokes the dynamic optimism of human form. H07: A heterotopic zone contains all places and spaces that function in a non-hegemonic condition. Michael Foucault describes spaces of “otherness,” which are simultaneously physical as well as mental. The space of a phone call or the moment when you see yourself in the mirror are examples of heterotpia. For this final image, the space is meant to reflect the Miesien language of urbanity, but also the rural landscape lying just beyond our periphery. Outer views to the surrounding context are framed with an edgeless condition, making the image appear two-dimensional and perhaps less real then what lies within. Though new forms provide a foreign aesthetic, the ambiguous vocabulary makes the viewer’s relationship to the space uncertain. Branching off of Foucault’s idea of the physical and mental, the viewer is presented with forms of apparent fantasy and reality; but deploys his own mythic consciousness, his fears and desires, when deciphering between the two.

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

H07

HETEROTOPIC ZONES

H06

SPATIAL MANIFEST

LUCIDITY

H07

INCREASING SCALE/ / / / / / / / / / / /

BENN STATION The spatial overlap between Madison Square Garden and Penn Station is an opportunity for programmatic intersection that is currently under-utilized. A new proposal for this historically loaded site suggests combining the perspectives of entertainment and transportation in an effort to blur the focal point of spectacle. The juxtaposition of leisure and pragmatism allows Benn Station to adequately reflect the multiplicity of reality, and provide the capacity to navigate between our invariably skewed perceptions.

K01

BENn STATION

Luc id ity

INCREASING SCALE/ / / / / / / / / / / /

K01

BENn STATION

Luc id ity

CONTEXT RELEVANCY

K02

K03

K01: Main concourse within Benn Station witnesses the single programatic intersection, as each constituent collides with the formless object of observation. K02: Orginal Penn Station waiting area, designed by Mckim, Mead, and White. Photo by Patrick Lucien (1924). K03: The Rolling Stones performing in the newly constructed Madison Square Garden, replacing the orginal structure. Photo by Larry Holsten (1971). K04: The third iteration of Penn Station, renamed â&#x20AC;&#x153;Benn Station,â&#x20AC;? is meant to reconcile the opposing programtic entities of entertainment and transport.

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K04

CONTEXT RELEVANCY

K02

K03

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K04

PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION

K05

K05: Large map of Lower Manhattan, describing the current footprint of MSG. K06: The overall massing depends upon the establishment of structural credibility and visual cohesion with the site. The new forms evoke the movement and dynamism of the trains beneath, yet become shrouded and concealed by a modernist simplicity on the exterior. The spatial resultant is that of layers, and serendipitous moments of exploration.

K06

RETAIL 600,000 sf (13%)

Waiting / Concourse

Restaurants / Cafe

LUCIDITY

Leisure Shopping

ENTERTAINMENT 800,000 sf (18%)

Side Auditorium

BENN STATION

HOUSING 900,000 sf (20%)

Side Auditorium

OFFICE 1,200,000 sf (26%)

CIRCULATION

Main Concert Hall

RETAIL

Private Amenities

BENN STATION

Shared Gym Space

ENTERTAINMENT

Open-Air Courtyard

HOUSING

Housing Modules

OFFICE

Entry Sequence

Main Floor Space

BUILDING PROGRAM

BENN STATION 600,000 sf (13%)

PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION

K05

K06

RETAIL 600,000 sf (13%)

Waiting / Concourse

Restaurants / Cafe

LUCIDITY

Leisure Shopping

ENTERTAINMENT 800,000 sf (18%)

Side Auditorium

BENN STATION

HOUSING 900,000 sf (20%)

Side Auditorium

OFFICE 1,200,000 sf (26%)

CIRCULATION

Main Concert Hall

RETAIL

Private Amenities

BENN STATION

Shared Gym Space

ENTERTAINMENT

Open-Air Courtyard

HOUSING

Housing Modules

OFFICE

Entry Sequence

Main Floor Space

BUILDING PROGRAM

BENN STATION 600,000 sf (13%)

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K07

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K07

VOYERUISTIC STREET

K08

K07: Physical model of Benn Station, comprised of bristol paper, lightweight MDF, and PLA. 24in by 26in by 14in. K08: The C1000 served as a visual cue for a destabilized condition. What is the nature of form? K09: Programmatic elements are paired together inside the building to enhance the conflation between serenity and discord. Within the massing, there exists several layers of space with varying degress of size and scale. The Desired effect is not based on the notion of creating a self-sustaining micro-city, but rather, a superficial experiment based the visual impact of such agacencies.

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K09

VOYERUISTIC STREET

K08

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K09

NEW ADJACENCIES

K10

K10: Zoomed-in map of Lower Manhattan, describing the current footprint of MSG. K11: Fulfilling the specifications of the rezoned Penn Station distric, Benn Station will accomodate office and housing on the upper floors, a new spatious concourse on the ground floor, and theater zones nestled in the middle region.

BUILDING PROGRAM OFFICE HOUSING ENTERTAINMENT BENN STATION

RETAIL

CIRCULATION

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K11

NEW ADJACENCIES

K10

BUILDING PROGRAM OFFICE HOUSING ENTERTAINMENT BENN STATION

RETAIL

CIRCULATION

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K11

SHROUDED FORM

K12

K13

K12: The south and west facades are sheathed with an additional skin composed of louvered shading devices. K13: The main entry to the train station pertrudes from beneath the modernist massing to indicate the public domainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presence in an otherwise privately operated space. K14: The main entrance to the west theaters serves as a large cantilevered truss for the office floors up above.

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K14

SHROUDED FORM

K12

K13

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K14

THE BIG PAY OFF

K15

K16

K15: This original design study envisioned large â&#x20AC;&#x153;formlessâ&#x20AC;? objects inserted within the metropolitan street to serve as a threshold for meditation and stillness. K16: The main space was meant to house a large audio-visual apparatus designed to hide and reveal the surrounding context at random in an effort to create hyper-awareness. K17: This preliminary render of the main concourse presents the three vocabularies: Straight, radiused, and free form as they represent different elements of program.

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K17

THE BIG PAY OFF

K15

K16

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K17

PRIMARY CIRCULATION

K18

K18: Zoomed-in map of Lower Manhattan, describing the current footprint of MSG. K19: Regardless of which floor, the majority of Benn Station is dominated by a repetitive structural gridâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;making the more glamorous spaces plausible in the context of constructability and cost. This drawing cuts through the main entry to the station on the ground floor, the housing complex on floor 7, and the main theater atirum on floor 13.

BUILDING PROGRAM OFFICE HOUSING ENTERTAINMENT BENN STATION

RETAIL

CIRCULATION

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

A02

PRIMARY CIRCULATION

K18

BUILDING PROGRAM OFFICE HOUSING ENTERTAINMENT BENN STATION

RETAIL

CIRCULATION

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

A02

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K20

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K20

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K21

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K21

WALK-UP STYLE

K22

K23

K22: The modules are clustered together in such a way, so that each unit has visual access to a shared courtyard–a shaft of light to soften the inherent density of such a large block of program. K23: Within each unit, each family has a large double-height living room that looks upon an active interior streetscape. K24: Housing units contain elegant aspects–such as the continuous surface conjoining bedrooms to the kitchen beneath–but ultimately conform to a strict Miesien organization with regard to structure.

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K24

WALK-UP STYLE

K22

K23

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K24

HOUSING MODULE K25: Rather then designing hundreds of tiny micro units, the housing element was fragmented into large megablocks, not unlike the typical shared housing community found in outer borrows such as Brooklyn or Queens. By organizing these large units into chunks consisting of four floors, each unit becomes equipped with a large spacious living room and kitchen, and each housing block contains a reduced amount of dead-end corridors.

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K25

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K25

AN UNNERVING THREAT

K26

K27

K26: The housing system has one centralized, private gathering point above the main concourse. K27: Rooftop is equipped with necessary amenities such as helicopter pad and egress stairs, but also houses a modest garden to overlook the burgeoning Penn Station district. K28: Each programmatic constituent is meant to have its own corresponding formal vocabulary. The satisfies tectonic aspirations of modernity, and spatial sensations regarding contemporanity.

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K28

AN UNNERVING THREAT

K26

K27

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K28

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K29

BENN STATION

LUCIDITY

K29

BENN STATION

100

LUCIDITY

101

K30

BENN STATION

100

LUCIDITY

101

K30

INTERSECTION K31: Programs otherwise socially stratified are united by one singular, formless expression of threshold. This floating, inhabitable space overlooks the main concourse of Benn Station, encouraging a sense of stillness and relfection in an environement normally associated with density and panic. In doing so, programs dedicated to the action of movement are visually paired against programs of stillness. Programs dedicated to the object of pragmatism are visually paired against programs of leisure.

BENN STATION

102

LUCIDITY

103

K31

BENN STATION

102

LUCIDITY

103

K31

BENN STATION

104

LUCIDITY

105

K32

BENN STATION

104

LUCIDITY

105

K32

BENN STATION

106

LUCIDITY

107

K33

BENN STATION

106

LUCIDITY

107

K33

THE FINAL SHOW/ / / / / / / / / / / /

STRIP TEASE â&#x20AC;&#x153;Stripteaseâ&#x20AC;? was the final exhibition of 5th year undergraduate architectural thesis projects produced by the 2014-2015 Jackson Studio, and featured 18 proposals that were each a unique critical inquiry into new possibilities for architecture. These thesis projects were the result of a year of intensive research and design work, and represented a wide range of ambitious solutions that demonstrate the potential for architecture to meaningfully intervene within the world, and to create powerful new experiences. In order to reflect the creative ambition of each student, the final show was designed in a manner that exposed individuality while simultaneously maintaining a curated, uniform aesthetic.

L01

Strip TEASE

108

Luc id ity

109

THE FINAL SHOW/ / / / / / / / / / / /

L01

Strip TEASE

108

Luc id ity

109

INTERACTIVE CONTENT

L02

L03

L02:The “Striptease” installation was designed to present the wealth of this research and design content in manner that rewarded protracted and in-depth engagement—through techniques that offered playful and interactive forms of exploration. L03: 12 pads extended from the ribboned screen, allowing users to select images from the scrolling display. L04: Designed and constructed by the students in the studio, this installation featured two Sixty-foot long by five-foot high suspended rear projection screens that defined a meandering perimeter to the gallery space, and which displayed a continuous image crawl of each of the students’ thesis projects.

STRIP TEASE

110

LUCIDITY

111

L04

INTERACTIVE CONTENT

L02

L03

STRIP TEASE

110

LUCIDITY

111

L04

CONSTRUCTABILITY L05: The original desire was to emulate the animation sequence that can be described as none other then a â&#x20AC;&#x153;tickertape,â&#x20AC;? similar to what would be found in the New York Stock exchange. With that concept in mind, the studio out to design a structure that could be assembled in less then 24 hours on site. The scrolling animation was to be projected on translucent fabric, but it posed two immediate concerns: the first asked how the students could support the material with speed and precision; the second asked how they could physically wrap the non-rigid material along a radiused edge. The structural solution was solved by crafting a series of wood and steel composite modules that could be assembled before the final day of installation. The fillet solution was to inset the edge of the radiused modules, to allow space for a rigid 1/8in sheet of clear polycarbonate -providing a rigid backing to prevent puckering on the corner conditions.

STRIP TEASE

112

LUCIDITY

113

L05

STRIP TEASE

112

LUCIDITY

113

L05

CONTINUOUS ANIMATION

L06

L07

L06: A staff of scantily clad individuals provides flavored nutrient cubes to the hungry spectator. L07: Though visually indiscrete, there were five flavors of random assortment bubblegum, watermelon, strawberry, taro, and honey. L08: Advanced visualization software donated by ImmersaView allowed for geometric correction of the projected images on the curved surfaces of the projection screens.

STRIP TEASE

114

LUCIDITY

115

L08

CONTINUOUS ANIMATION

L06

L07

STRIP TEASE

114

LUCIDITY

115

L08

SPATIAL MANIFEST

116

LUCIDITY

117

L09

SPATIAL MANIFEST

116

LUCIDITY

117

L09

FRAME MODULE L10: Eighteen modules were assembled before the show. Compromised mostly of lightwieght MDF and steel bracing, each module bolted together with ease and stability.

STRIP TEASE

118

LUCIDITY

119

L10

FRAME MODULE L10: Eighteen modules were assembled before the show. Compromised mostly of lightwieght MDF and steel bracing, each module bolted together with ease and stability.

STRIP TEASE

118

LUCIDITY

119

L10

TOTAL DESIGN

L11

L12

L11: The accompaniment of food and spectacle combined to create an unparalleled sequence of splendor. Max takes an anonymous rice cube, unknowing of its bubblegum nature. L12: Observers gazed at the moving renders as they float past. L13: Despite the default scrolling pink screen, a blue background periodically appeared indicating the show title and demonstrating how to utilize the software.

STRIP TEASE

120

LUCIDITY

121

L13

TOTAL DESIGN

L11

L12

STRIP TEASE

120

LUCIDITY

121

L13

SPATIAL MANIFEST

122

LUCIDITY

123

L14

SPATIAL MANIFEST

122

LUCIDITY

123

L14

POINT TO SELECT L15: Visitors were able to interact with these strips of moving images projected on these screens through the use of Leap Motion 3D controllers, which employ hand- and finger-sensing technology in order to allow users to control content on a screen similar to using a mouse, but without actual contact.

STRIP TEASE

124

LUCIDITY

125

L15

STRIP TEASE

124

LUCIDITY

125

L15

SIMPLE UI

L16

L16: The interactivity of the Leap Motion interface enabled visitors to select and manipulate content from the constantly moving image crawl, and to customize their own viewing experience of the work. L17: This interactive interface, which was entirely designed and programmed by the students in the studio, allowed visitors to manipulate content with three basic gestures: pushing forward to select content, pinching to grab and move content, and pinching and moving both hands together or apart in order to resize content.

STRIP TEASE

126

LUCIDITY

127

L17

SIMPLE UI

L16

STRIP TEASE

126

LUCIDITY

127

L17

STRETCH TO ZOOM L18: After the sub content was selected, the visitors were able to use one hand to pinch and move; or two hands to pinch and zoom. Although the background graphics were, in a sense, static and fixed; the opportunity to select your own individual palette of works provided individuality for not just the project itself, but the visitors at the show. Additional content could be shifted, re sized, and ultimately discarded with the simple wave a hand.

STRIP TEASE

128

LUCIDITY

129

L18

STRIP TEASE

128

LUCIDITY

129

L18

STRIP TEASE

130

LUCIDITY

131

L19

STRIP TEASE

130

LUCIDITY

131

L19

HERE WE ARE/ / / / / / / / / / / /

END OF BEGINNING

132

Luc id ity

133

HERE WE ARE/ / / / / / / / / / / /

END OF BEGINNING

132

Luc id ity

133

BEN PENNELL ON METROPOLITAN REDUX, URBAN ARCHITECTURE 4 sections, 37 new ideas 1

Initial Projections

Eggdemption

A Foreign Tectonic

Non-Passive Use

An Unnerving Threat

A Smooth Reflection

Theatrical Worlds

Immersive Physicality

The Panorama

10 The Spatial Explosion 12 The New Expression

LUCIDITY THE THRESHOLD OF IMMERSIVE SPACE <JACKSON STUDIO>

2014-2015

2013 / 2015

BEN P