Rethinking A Lot by Brianna Tramontano

Rethinking A Lot An Exploration of Ritual and Interaction

Brianna Tramontano thesis book thesis book thesis book thesis book thesis book Bryan Shields thesis book thesis book thesis book thesis book thesis book Cal Poly San Luis Obispo thesis book thesis book thesis book thesis book thesis book 2018-2019

Contents 01

4 overview 6

design narrative

8 to research 10 12 14

abstract literature map discourse

26 to make 28 32 36

abstract [show] esquisse vellum

44 to collage 46 48 50 52

concept site program derives

Contents 05

54 to iterate 56 58 64 70

visual prospectus design review 1 design review 2 qualifying review

76 to finalize 78 80 82 84 86

final abstract section detail [show] vignettes physical model 07

90 to reflect 91

reflection

92 to reference 94 97

bibliography endnotes

acknowledgements 3

Overview identify, argue, compare, synthesize, create, challenge, explore “Mental intermingling of people, places and ideas make architecture interesting.” Chambers for a Memory Palace

[this thesis was not a linear process -- it was the product of intense research, zig-zagging of thought, insight from peers and a profound want to position myself with a provacative questioning of what architecture can be and what architecture wants to be]

[Background + Research] On a remote island in the middle of the Seito Inland Sea, I walked a long and winding path through dense landscape to a concrete shell that housed a single installation. Water droplets pulsated from the floor and were sucked back into little holes where I sat on cold concrete and watched undisturbed for nearly an hour. Being a fairly impatient person, I move through museums at light-speed, but something kept me there watching water literally roll by. I had never heard of the Teshima Art Museum, but something about it left an absolute and indelible mark on my psyche. Little did I know, this experience would become the driving facot behind my initial research for my year-long thesis. I became largely critical of the ways in which humans connect to the build environment. Alain de Botton argues that we allow much of our identity to hang on to our surroundings. Environmental psychology and phenomenology delicately criss-cross with empathic design, cognition, and ritual in order to show the ways in which architecture can promote a rigorous correlation between the built environment and ritual. I argued that everyday environments can achieve the slowness and pause that I felt at the Teshima Art Museum.

Teshima Art Museum, Ryue Nishizawa, Kagawa Prefecture, Teshima, Japan, 2010 Personal photo, 2017

[Thesis Test] In testing and championing this type of architecture, a mundane locus of everdayness proved to be the most substantial testing ground. By privileging the everydayness of program, favorable pockets of slowness can appear. In Rethinking A Lot, Eran Ben-Joseph discusses the unceremonious and unproductive design of the places we park our cars and spend a substantial amount of our time. As such, parking structures as a typology presented itself as an ideal foil for arguing this rituaized identity of architecture. Parking structures can be considered dead public spaces that can be revitalized as centers for ritual and experience. Parking decks are an infuential turning point and the first point you physically engage and interact with within the public realm of a city. In terms of site, I initially thought about urban environments as a place for little slowness, but the implicit impenetreability allows for favorable pockets of ritual. With that in mind, I thought of parking as communal infrastrucrure and similar to that of transit stations located within a larger network of communal infrastructure. With a lack of transit-based infrastructure, Los Angeles seemed to ask for a “node” of activity that could act as a potential activator for those going from node to node within the city -- in this case, moving from parking lot to parking lot. By mapping potential “nodes” that could be accessed within downtown Los Angeles, I was able to find a site that presented both compelling and uninteresting adjacencies that would draw, but not distract from the programs presented within the parking deck.

[Design Strategy] I began by applying an empathic design framework that was curated from my psychology research. By thinking of the experience of the building as a series of “experiences”, I was able to grapple with the movement and ritual that would occur within a parking deck. By designing heavily in section, I was able to establish hybrid programs and relationships that exist between user and program, and car and pedestrian. Zooming into individual “moments” that exist within the frameowrk of the entire building allowed for an undertanding of the building and site as a whole.

[as it has been my entire life, I absolutely thrive off of research. I love finding patterns, similarities, differences between pieces of writing and how it can be applied to a unrelated topic: ie. empathy in architecture]

To Research position, think critically, explain, identify, develop. demonstrate, reflect “A bodily reaction is an inseperable aspect of the experience of architecture as a consequence of implied action. A real architectural experience is not simply a series of retinal images; a building is encountered -- it is approached, confronted, encountered, related to one’s body, moved about, utilized as a condition for other things...” Juhani Pallasma

Claim 01 The connection between the built environment and human emotion is directly correlated to experience of place. A substantial amount of the buildings that exist in the urban fabric are disconnected from the quality of architecture that cultivates identity. In a fast-paced world, architecture is not privileging basic psychological needs. The architecture that is ingrained in our daily life has disparate stimuli that allow for hasty movement through a rapidly changing environment. Thus, the current trend in urban design does not allow time for everyday ritual which helps to foster identity through experience of place. As such, the concept of empathy in relation to the built environment has the ability to shape human experience as one’s psyche is projected onto its surroundings while everyday rituals frame and define this experience. With the onslaught of overstimulating, high-density urban environments, it is in architecture’s best interest to elicit empathic responses by composing ritualized experience and phenomena. Architecture’s current role can be considered inconsistent in its capacity to advance psychological responses that relate directly to the human condition and identity. By championing an architecture that promotes a rigorous correlation between the built environment and empathy, everyday surroundings can achieve a sense of slowness and allow for purposeful interaction that considers the human condition.

Theodor Lipps

Wilhelm Worringer, Abstraction and Empathy

John Cary, Design for Good

Gustav Johoda, Shift from Empathy to Sympathy

Empathy

Dignity

Peter Blundell Jones, Architecture and Ritual: How Buildings Shape Society

Ritual Colin Ellard, Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everday Life

Sleeswijk Froujke Visser, Framework for Empathy in Design

Winifred Gallagher, The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions

Empathic Design

Environmental Psychology Healing

Sarah Goldhagen Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives

Robert Gifford, Environmental Psychology: Principles and Practice

Happiness Esther Sternberg, Healing Places

Juhani Pallasma, Six Themes for the Next Millenium

Phenomenology

Memory Senses Charles Moore, Donlyn Lyndon, Chambers for a Memory Palace

Juhani Pallasma, An Architecture of Seven Senses

Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness

Literature Map [The visualization of my initial research allowed me to position my argument to be more organized and provocative, as well as to demonstrate my thesis topic in its first stages]

Discourse At times both linear and zig-zagging, this discourse discusses the ways in which architecture, empathy, emotion, cognition, neuroscience, and psychology can criss-cross in ways that could further architecture as a discipline.

[Claim 01] The connection between the built environment and human emotion is directly correlated to experience of place. A substantial amount of the buildings that exist in the urban fabric are disconnected from the quality of architecture that cultivates identity. In a fast-paced world, architecture is not privileging basic psychological needs. The architecture that is ingrained in our daily life has disparate stimuli that allow for hasty movement through a rapidly changing environment. Thus, the current trend in urban design does not allow time for everyday ritual which helps to foster identity through experience of place. As such, the concept of empathy in relation to the built environment has the ability to shape human experience as one’s psyche is projected onto its surroundings while everyday rituals frame and define this experience. With the onslaught of overstimulating, high-density urban environments, it is in architecture’s best interest to elicit empathic responses by composing ritualized experience and phenomena. Architecture’s current role can be considered inconsistent in its capacity to advance psychological responses that relate directly to the human condition and identity. By championing an architecture that promotes a rigorous correlation between the built environment and empathy, everyday surroundings can achieve a sense of slowness and allow for purposeful interaction that considers the human condition.

[Empathic Design] To begin to understand the need for empathic design and empathic responses to the built environment, it is important to understand the origins of ‘empathy’ in terms of its original application in the field of art. The term Einfuhlung as originally applied to German abstract art refers to “a complex transference of one’s ego into an object, whereby the object and the observer become united. The ego is believed to actually penetrate the object so that its form is filled out by the observer’s emotions.” Theodor Lipp, a German philosopher concerned with theory regarding aesthetics, was interested with the source of aesthetic pleasure as the “object fuses, as it were, with the observer,” in his case, an art object. Lipp describes Einfuhlung as the “object is ego and thereby the object the ego object. It is the fact that the contrast between myself and the object disappears…” As such, “the simplest formula that expresses this kind of aesthetic enjoyment runs: Aesthetic enjoyment is objectified self-enjoyment” (Worringer 5). Moreover, Karl Scherner’s early characterizations of empathy were noted in passages dealing with symbolic aspects of bodily stimuli 16

objectifying itself in spatial forms. Scherner discusses “an unconscious displacement of one’s own bodily form – and thereby his soul – into the form of the object” (Jahoda 154). If empathy considers the transfer of one’s ego into an object, empathic design considers the transfer of the human condition’s (ego) into one’s surroundings (object). Although the origin of empathy is an important jumping off point, it does not supply enough about how these notions can be translated into a framework for design which would elicit empathic responses. The quality of empathy discussed can “support the design process as design considerations move ‘from rational and practical issues to personal experiences and private contexts’” (Kouprie and Visser 438). Some metaphors for this type of design have proven to be useful in its understanding. One such metaphor describes empathic design as “an imaginative projection into another person’s situation” (Kouprie and Visser 438). The term ‘projection’ may imply that being empathic relates directly to Theodor Lipps’ original definition. Architecture, as such, can serve as an instrument for this projection. Similarly, as one “projects” into another person’s situation, architecture can allow for the same imaginative projection by the same means.

E M PAT H I C [ F R A M E W O R K ] 01

EDITH STEIN

the emergence of experience

the fulfilling explication

the comprehensive objectification of experience

THEODORE REIK

identification

incorporation

reverberation

CARL ROGERS

entering

living

communicating

discovery + identification

immersion + existence

connection + transference

PROPOSED ARCHITECTURAL [FRAMEWORK]

04 -------

detachment

-------

disengagment + departure

Figure 1.0: Empathic Framework Matrix

[Empathic Design Framework] The amalgamation of these processes allows for a cohesive spatial empathy process which is to be applied to architecture. By designing with an architectural process of empathy in mind, architecture can shape human experience in which everyday surroundings can allow for purposeful interaction. This process is as follows: (1) Discovery and Identification: the act of happening upon and/or identifying a space or spatial experience that aligns with our psyche (ego) (2) Immersion and Existence: by engaging the user and pulling them farther into the experience and/or space, the user will begin to exist fluidly with the experience and/or space (3) Connection and Transference: by continuing a deeper attachment to the experience and/or space from supporting stimuli and the user’s own identity, rituals and memories, the user’s ego transfers directly into the space and/or experience (4) Disengagement and Departure: supporting stimuli keeps the user involved, but allows the user to separate their identity from the place, thus allowing the user to disengage and depart from the space and/ or experience, the disengagement does not allow the user’s ego to fully detach as some part still identifies with the space and/or experience 18

In contemporary architecture, ‘empathy’ is rarely acknowledged as a relevant quality of design, and lacks any sort of descriptive processes. It is critical that architecture begins to employ empathic design as a process. Edith Stein, a German philosopher, considers empathizing as a process which can be achieved in three phases. These phases are: (1) the emergence of experience, (2) the fulfilling explication and (3) the comprehensive objectification of experience (Kouprie and Visser 443). Emergence depends on the perception of a past experience of someone else. Fulfilling explication refers to “getting pulled into the experience, standing next to the person facing the object of his emotion” (Kouprie and Visser 444). Finally, comprehensive objectification of experience is the “withdrawing from the other’s experience, with increased understanding” (Kouprie and Visser 444). In general, this process can be well-understood by anyone who has had an empathic relationship with another person’s experience. Similarly, Theodore Reik and Carl Rogers proposed variations of this process. Reik explains the process as (1) identification, (2) incorporation, (3) reverberation, and (4) detachment (Kouprie and Visser 444). Whereas, Rogers defines the process as (1) entering, (2) living, and (3) communicating (Kouprie and Visser 444). Albeit similar, these phases refer to empathy in different levels of interaction with another’s experience. The immersion and existence step assume after the alignment of our ego with a space and/or experience that the space and/or experience allows for the full engagement of the user. Humans innately immerse themselves in environments and elements. This step will follow much quicker than the initial discovery and identification stage because of human need to endure in an immersive setting. The connection and transference condition continue to allow the user to internalize the relationship with the space and/or experience EMPATHIC DESIGN [FRAMEWORK] and truly begin the transference of ego into object. This stage is the most temporal but brings the most significance in the process of empathizing.

DISCOVERY + IDENTIFICATION

IMMERSION + EXISTENCE

CONNECTION + TRANSFERENCE

DISENGAGEMENT + DEPARTURE

Figure 1.1: Empathic Framework Linear Path

Finally, with disengagement and departure, as the temporality of empathy is addressed our “self-awareness is undercut by the sure knowledge that these moments will not last forever” and the “cost of our peculiar means of existence whereby we can stand on both sides of the fence dividing subject and object” to understand that we will not always be in this state (Ellard 162). As designers, it will not always be fully understood how this knowledge can be used, or that it will work correctly. However, dealing with the temporality of empathy is enough to begin to understand how a user’s identity is kept separate enough to allow for the disengagement from the space and/or experience.

[Environmental Pyschology] There is an indistinguishable presence between our surroundings and our psyche. The field of environmental psychology is the study of transactions between individuals and their physical settings. Environmental psychology considers a person and their setting to be a holistic entity and recognizes that “individuals actively cope with and shape environments” and do not act passively toward their environment (Gifford 5). As such environmental stimulation amount varies in intensity, duration and number of sources, but humans do not respond well to too much or too little stimulation as per overload theory and restricted environmental stimulation theory (Gifford 8). There can be a “vague sense of discomfort…in environments proffering too little or too much information” (Goldhagen 70). Thus, the overstimulation of high-density urban environments can affect well-being of the human psyche. Architecture needs to address the current trend in the urban fabric by providing an amount of stimuli that is appropriate for the user to have purposeful interaction with rather than hastily moving through overstimulation. There is some amount of habituation that may occur in these types of environments, and as such it may be argued that the number of stimuli in these urban environments may not have or have little effect on a user. Regardless of this fact, architecture that is thoughtful in its interaction the user is essential. Variation in stimuli is also crucial, but the quality of these stimuli is far more important than quantity. The connection between the built environment and our identity is quietly discernible, but whether we should allow our identity to rest on space is up for debate. Alain de Botton believes we “seem divided between an urge to override our senses and numb ourselves to our setting and a contradictory impulse to acknowledge the extent to which our identities are indelibly connected to, and will shift, along with, our locations” (12). Architecture that acknowledges this aspect but works towards allowing connection is what designers should seek to design towards. Instead of seeing a sensitivity to architecture as problematic, 20

the correlation between user and built environment as a singular entity is more valuable as it produces empathic responses. Thus, the “belief in [the] significance of architecture is premised on the notion that we are, for better or worse, different people in different places – and on the conviction that it is architecture’s task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be” (de Botton 13). Instead of finding this questionable, architecture’s task should be a contribution to our identity through these empathic means.

[Neuroscience + Cognition] Neurologically speaking, our sensory organs receive signals from the world in a standardized way. However, the cells and molecules of the brain work together to “blend these signals into perception, enabling us to sense and negotiate the spaces around us” (Sternberg 13). If designers used this notion in dealing with empathic design, we may begin to discern how the environments can consider the human condition. As “we perceive the world around us, its features of light and dark, sound and smell, temperature and touch, feed into the brain through all our senses and trigger the brain’s emotional centers, make us react” (Sternberg 21). It is clear that architecture has an innate ability to influence our emotions and identity. In the current state of the built environment, “how we perceive the built environment, every one of us, even professional, is more or less blindsighted: mostly oblivious to how our brains process the places we inhabit, all but completely unaware of how we integrate that information into our experiences, and largely clueless ab out how it orients our movements, affects our cognitions, our emotions, and our choices” (Goldhagen 44). This is a call to action for purposeful interaction with our surroundings – by employing methods of the empathic design framework as these “fundamentals reveal that the built environment thoroughly permeates and is manifestly at the core of human of human experience” (Goldhagen 45). By understanding cognition, we can begin to definitively discern our understanding of human experience and which can be looked at through an empathic lens. Thus, “experience is grounded in our sensory perceptions and in our internal thoughts, which together govern how we make sense of the information that comes from us from being in the world. And when something happens in the world or in our minds, that “something” is always situated, in our bodies, in a given time, and in place” (Goldhagen 45). By upholding an empathic architecture, we can situate ourselves more clearly in a given experience. An empathic architecture allows for a distinct understanding of where one is situated. Our environments provide the framework for how we think and by applying a foundation for the architecture we choose to situate ourselves in, our awareness is increased. 21

Experience may seem like a fluid and idiosyncratic concept, but the cognition behind it is not. Humans “understand, interpret, and organize sensory, social, and internally generated data” during an experience, it is much more than “intuitions, hypotheses and hunches that have mostly guided us in the past” (Goldhagen 46). Our cognitive experience is not idiosyncratic, although it varies from person to person, it is logically and rationally grounded in reality. By understanding cognitive experience, designers can understand the application of empathic architecture and its effects in a real setting. Cognition “is the product of a three-way collaboration of mind, body and environment…our minds and bodies – actively, constantly, and at many levels – engage in active and interactive, conscious and nonconscious processing of our internal and external environments” (Goldhagen 47). While moving through a space, humans are constantly processing the experience. Although intentional design cannot dictate what someone will feel and/or experience, it can give room to purposeful interaction. Similar to the understanding of empathy as the transference of one’s ego, the mind-body-environment paradigm “starts with the somewhat obvious fact that the human brain inhabits a body, and that this brain-mind-body lives on the earth, in space, and in the social world” (Goldhagen 48). As such, architecture is the means by which this brain-mind-body paradigm can exist within. As “human cognition takes place in a corporeal body that lives on the earth and in space”, it also clearly takes place within our built environment. There is no distinction between our cognition and architecture (Goldhagen 48). Primes are nonconsciously perceived environmental stimuli that can influence a person’s subsequent thoughts, feelings and responses by activating memories, emotions and other kinds of cognitive associations. The built environment is full of primes and if designers know what to do with them, “a design can be deliberately composed to nudge people to choose one action over another” (Goldhagen 62). For instance, a change in a ritualistic behavior and how it is perceived can prime very different cognitions.

[Ritual] Ritual permeates our everyday life, contrary to popular belief, it is not something that is purely left to religion or special occasions. Similarly, with architecture, we tend to associate ritualistic architecture as one of symbolism and special occasion rather than the conventional. Rituals highlight aspects of recurrent activities, including coffee-making, brushing our teeth, washing the dishes, eating a meal and so on and so forth. These rituals give “rhythm to social and bodily experience” (Jones 15). As such with ritual and with architecture, “no hard line can be drawn between the utilitarian and the ceremonial, between the practical 22

and the symbolic, because they exist along a continuous scale in contrast with one another” (Jones 16). Schemas, or patterns of association, link our visual experience with more abstract notions. Cross-modal and sensorimotor stimulation as it simultaneously involves both sensory and the human motor system. A simulated action sequence such as walking out the door and to your car, so routine that one barely has to think about it consciously, is also considered a schema. These types of schema are “innumerable and ever-present, so pervade our built environmental experience that it is a though they are literally embedded into the structures and objects of the world, serving as cues to activate nonconscious cognitions” (Goldhagen 55). The empathic framework projected onto architecture can activate these nonconscious cognitions especially with ritualistic behaviors.

[Phenomenology] Similar to the notion of environmental psychology, phenomenology suggests a deep connection between user and architecture. By definition, phenomenology is the science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being. In its relation to architecture, it can be understood as the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness. Heidegger applied this philosophy to architecture in that “a building shouldn’t be understood just as an object to be admired, rather, it is primarily part of an ongoing human experience of building and dwelling.” The idea that “places can bring emotions, recollections, people and even ideas to mind” lies at the heart of phenomenology (Lyndon and Moore xi). The spaces that currently surround us leave much to be desired and we often overlook them as being meaningful. Places “are spaces that you can remember, that you can care about and make a part of your life” (Lyndon and Moore xii). Linking a place to one’s consciousness is more imaginative and vivid than simply passing them by. Finding “places that are memorable are necessary to the good conduct of our lives; we need to think about where we are and what is unique and special about our surroundings so that we can better understand ourselves and how we relate to others. This mental intermingling of people, places and ideas is what makes architecture interesting” (Lyndon and Moore xii). Similarly, Pallasma discusses how architecture has simply become an ocular centralized rather than rich in “kinesthetic, haptic and multi-sensory perception” (Tamari 2). Rather than fully experiencing architecture, it has been reduced to “retinal art of the eye” (Pallasma 29). Without any tactility, architecture is hollow and non-approachable. Whenever we are touched by architecture, it is multisensory; “qualities 23

of matter, space, and scale are measured equally by the eye, ear, nose, skin, tongue, skeleton and muscle” (Pallasma 30). As such, architecture that is physically engaging and that will allow for purposeful interaction must be multi-modular and involving “seven realms of sensory experience which interact and infuse each other” (Pallasma 30).

[Rethinking A Lot] In terms of mundane and mediocre program, parking lots immediately come to mind. Parking “like driving, has been a fundamental part of our everyday life since the invention of the automobile” (Ben-Joseph 3). With the automobile’s onset, off-street parking solutions have not improved the quality of cities. Parking lots are entirely important to the well-being and flow of a city, but they are often given little consideration in terms of design and the sheer amount of space they take up. Parking lots are also vital to social and cultural life. These spaces “influence the way we drive, the destinations we choose, and the way we behave while looking for a parking space” (Ben-Joseph 3). Rather than avoiding and eliminating surface parking, Ben-Joseph argues that these underutilized spaces come with an “inherent flexibility that stimulates spontaneous public activity” (3). The act of parking is a ritual of convention and habit. The idea of parking as a ritualistic activity may seem counterintuitive but think how many times in a week one parks their car. There is a rhythm and pattern associated with how we usually park, where we usually park (if driving to the same destination), and so on. The parking lot as physical space leaves much to be desired. By capitalizing on the idea that parking is ritualistic, more interesting spaces and programs can be hybridized to wholly ritualize the act. Parking “lots can be integrated into their surroundings with little or no environmental disruption. They can be social and cultural assets – a stage for open, less controlled behaviors where multiuse and multifunction can be achieved” (Ben-Joseph 101). Parking lots are not generally seen as “essential to the arrival or departure sequence” yet there is little attention paid to how one approaches or leaves the space (Ben-Joseph 101). The nature of parking lots as physical space in terms of flexibility and non-defining features make them the perfect testing ground. The empathic framework, as such, can be applied seamlessly to the parking lot program typology.

[Conclusion of Claims] As demonstrated with the parking lot typology, architecture’s current role can be considered inconsistent and disconnected in its capacity to elicit psychological responses as well as to further and celebrate conventional rituals. By allowing for an empathic framework to be applied to the built environment, architecture will begin to address basic psychological needs and to help foster rich and diverse identities. By continually championing these ideals, architecture can achieve the slowness that so much of the world could use. Furthermore, demonstrating the notions of empathy, cognition, neuroscience, psychology and phenomenology within the constraints of the parking lot will allow for a robust, speculative test of the original claim.

To Make to relate, to create “Places are spaces you can remember, that you can care about and make part of your life.” Chambers for a Memory Palace

[making has always been a weak point for me. I was beyond thrilled that I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone and made *actual* things I am insanely proud of]

Abstraction The abstraction of my thesis concept came about with major inspiration from the Pallasma quote below. We experience place through retinal images whether during or after an experience rather than fully experiencing a space in relation to our body and ritualistic tendencies. By identifying my own indiosyncratic rituals that existed within my everyday space and place, I picked a series of four verbs that described these rituals. I wanted to play off and contradict the fact that I am using “retinal images” to display ritual and experience, but give more depth and more ephemerality by creating double exposures. Each ritual is overlayed with two different aspects of the experience and aligned to allow the viewer to see the different aspects of rituals in one combined, eerily familiar image -- as if walking through the experiences with the subject. Double exposure photos printed on vellum, encased in acrylic, displayed on basswood.

“A bodily reaction is an inseperable aspect of the experience of architecture as a consequence of implied action. A real architectural experience is not simply a series of retinal images; a building is encountered -- it is approached, confronted, encountered, related to one’s body, moved about, utilized as a condition for other things...” Juhani Pallasma

The concept of this physical esquisse, the candleholder, came from a derivative of my vellum concept. I wanted to create something that was oddly specific in its use, but also to create a highly ritualized act of something seemingly mundane -- in this case, striking a match and lighting a candle. The base of the candleholder is meant to be held while the user grabs a new match from its holder and strikes it discreetly on the underside of the holder. Lasercut acrylic and basswood with candle, match and match striker

Vellum Furniture[ish] The ritual of pourover is both meditative and personal. The experience of that first trace of coffee-drunk steam is noticeably more complex and satisfying than that of an automized machine. The cup of coffee is a product of an intimate, specialized ritual. The product of this examination of pourover is something both deeply personal and highly ritualized - a custom coffee table that allows you to slow down and have a direct hand in your own coffee ritual. CNC milled plywood with clear polyeurathane

Slow down, take a seat, brew a cup, enjoy with others. 37

38 36

slow coffee table

To Collage translate, synthesize, relate, create “Memories are not ready made reflections of the past, but eclectic, selective reconstructions based on subsequent actions and perceptions...” Architecture and Ritual

[collaging was easily my favorite part of this year. It was one of the things that got me out of my own head. It helped me communicate aspects of my concept, site and program that I could not explain in any other way] 44

concept: ritual Rituals frame and define our everday life. As simple as these rituals may be, they become so deeply ingrained and personal that they can form identity. Rituals and identity are indistinguishable -- there is no beginning and end. As such, our surroundings begin to blend with our rituals. An infinite loop exists between ritual, identity and place as they affect and influence one another. This collage seeks tos show the ways in which our identity references our rituals and vice versa. As we walk through everdayness, our rituals follow along.

site: overstimulating, high-density urbanness The overstimulating, high-density urban environment may seem as though it leaves little time for slowness, but its implicit impenetrability allows for favorable pockets of ritual. The inherent busyness of urban environments allows for an absolute juxtaposition between site and ritual. Instead of continuing to contribute to the fabric of environments that create overstimulation, the site can be used to carve out spaces of slowness that include fundamental practices of everdayness. 49

program: highly ritualized locus of everdayness Slow, everyday rituals are carved out of the urban fabric. These loci of everydayness extrapolate experiences and emotions to cultivate identity. These loci are found within our everyday movement but are highly ritualized to contradict the overstimulation of site. We privilege the everydayness of the program but do not allow its full capacity to penetrate our identity. With the added slowness, our empathic responses begin to shape our experiences as our psyche is projected on to the program. The loci of everydayness not only shape our everyday rituals but define the experience of place.

[site unseen] I initially intended this derive to explore my site before actually being able to experience it in person. It was the best way to understand what exactly was happening on and around the site and how it could connect in linear path away from the site.

[site seen] After completing the initial derive, I knew that I needed to walk the site in person and take as many pictures as possible to create a second derive that showed the pathway in and around the site that I found the most important.

To Iterate to create, to test, to constrain “Places are spaces you can remember, that you can care about and make part of your life.” Chambers for a Memory Palace

[iteration is the key to successful design projects. Although the project (again) seems linear, there was a lot of back and forth in the iteration before coming to the final speculative test]

[Design Review 1] To begin to understand the implications of my programmatic decisions, I decided to test some mundane ritualistic tendencies that exist around San Luis Obispo and distill them down to a diagrammatic essence. I first explored, to park, or the act of parking your car and walking to the front of a store. The space in the inbetween is both wildly underutilized and not really identified as usable space. There are three zones of discovery between parking and the storefront -- many paths can be taken through or around these zones of discovery. I looked at the intersections in the locus extruded to see what kind of spatial qualities could be created. For, to dispose, there are more objects in the path of discovery, but the interaction is equally important. Finally, for to step, there is a different degree of dimensionality with going from one level to another.

to step

to dispose

to park

Locus of Everydayness: An Exploration of Empathy and Ritual

locus

locus distilled

locus extruded

DISCOVERY + IDENTIFICATION

IMMERSION + EXISTENCE

CONNECTION + TRANSFERENCE

DISENGAGEMENT + DEPARTURE

I started my research in fall quarter with the researching of everyday rituals and empathic designs. I found frameworks for empathy as an experience from psychologists, but there isn’t a framework in relation to design. I combined and reconfigured the existing frameworks to create a framework that can also be a linear ADAPTED FROM THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FRAMEWORKS OF STEIN, REIK AND ROGERS experience in three dimensional space. In applying this framework, I thought it would be best to choose something that is both mundane and everyday which can be redefined.

ARTS DISTRICT LA TIMES BUILDING

SITE (SPRING STREET)

LITTLE TOKYO

FREEWAY ENTRANCE

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

In choosing site, I took into consideration a place that has a high density of parking lots, but an underutilized cityscape in terms of walkability. I landed on downtown Los Angeles and began mapping all the parking structures in the area. I then mapped places you could potentially walk to in the radius. I zoomed in to a dense area of parking structures that could be developed into a network of slowness. I chose a parking structure on Spring Street as my point of discovery and a network that connects and transfers to Grand Park.

I thought of the entrance of the parking structure as a point of discovery...

and being immersed within that experience within the garage rather than moving through quickly...

and then connecting to the city at a pedestrian level...

and finally “disengaging” from the “experience” and into the rest of the city.

[Design Review 2] Going into the next design review, I began to think in terms of parking structure hybridization and rather than making the most efficient structure possible, flipping to the opposite and designing it as inefficient and slow as possible. I also focused on a couple of different relationships - car to city, city to car, individual to collective and mundane to extraordinary.

By first designing heavily in section [for section show initially], I was able to come up with connections and “building blocks” of program [shown in the diagram on this page]. I finally settled on zooming into different programs within these “building blocks” to show an experiential storyboard of sorts. However, the biggest turning point in the design proposal came right before section show during a discussion with a professor. By thinking about movement as a means of discovery rather than entrance, I was able to create a more interesting and integrated design. I also wanted to imagine spaces as always changing and always flexible - although they may accomodate a certain activity, something spontaneous can always happen.

the view is amazing up here !

i love coming here for lunch

hmmm, there’s so many good options ...

i’ll take two pork tacos !

it’s been really good to see you !

have a great day !

thank you !

be careful ! mmmmmmm ...

thanks for meeting for lunch !

what a nice plant !

i love coming here for lunch

*bohemian rhapsody plays*

eat! play!

such a nice treat to be able to hang out for a bit !

the specials this evening are...

such nice music !

park! eat! play! 68

what a great book selection, i hope you enjoy it !

i’ll take a drip coffee to go, please !

here’s your cheeseburger animal style, have a great day !

are you hungry ?

these are my favorite hamburgers !

park! drive-thru! shop!

such a pretty view !

i wish i could sit on this !

right now we have some up and coming LA artists !

what artists are featured here today ?

INFORMATION

such a nice commute to work !

i’ll take two americanos and a cappuccino !

COFFEE

two cappuccinos for here !

i really like these shoes, they’re fun !

that’ll be $55.50, cash or card ?

thanks, have a great day !

they have the best coffee in town !

it’s been so good to catch up with you !

shop! bike! meander! 69

[Qualifying Review] Going into qualifying reviw, I took a lot of criticism from design review 2, that reflects a lot of the changes made to the section including the connections between levels and the blurring of lines between parking and other program. In thinking about the quote to the right, I started digging deeper with the immersive moments and editing the original moments done for design review 2. This project relies heavily on these experiential moments due to its size and nature of the program as well as to really convey the narrative.

“Specificity is the soul of narrative” John Hodgman

The section developed a lot between section show and qualifying review. A lot of depth and detail of experience was added as well as visual connection between layers and the blurring between parking and pedestrian. Once the section was more developed, I was able to focus heavily on the four moments called out and develop those even further.

[Immersive Moments] Although the moments are important in futhering this speculative test, these immersive moments gave an additional layer of depth in terms of the pedestrian experience rather than solely a zoomed-in snapshot of the existing section. I wanted to showcase some of those original aspects including discovery [the entrance off of the street] and immersion [sitting and play area] that I originally intended with initial development of the overall concept.

ENTRANCE OFF OF STREET 74

SITTING AND PLAY AREA

BIKE PATH AND GARDEN 75

To Finalize to synthesize, to differentiate, to create, to curate “Worse yet, there are those who would abandon the tangible world altogether in favor of a virtual reality assembled in computer networks - memory palaces dislodged from the earth and inhabited by electronic speculation. We intend to remain unabashedly earthbound, ready to spend out limited days imagining palpable places, places that people can reach on their feet and fill with their presence.” Chambers for a Memory Palace

[what a strange word: final, For designers, we know that nothing is ever really final, however the following pages provide a moment in time of a synthesis of ideas, discourse, discussion and design.]

The connection between the built environment and human emotion is directly correlated to experience of place. A substantial amount of the buildings that exist in the urban fabric are disconnected from the quality of architecture that cultivates identity. In a fast-paced, car-centric world of transportation, architecture is not privileging basic psychological needs. The architecture that is ingrained in our daily life has disparate or non-existent stimuli that allows for hasty movement or no interaction. By championing an architecture that promotes a rigorous correlation between the built environment and ritual, everyday surroundings can achieve a sense of slowness and allow for purposeful interaction that considers the human condition. Rethinking A Lot is a speculative test of composed ritualized experience and phenomena in the everydayness of the parking structure in downtown Los Angeles. These slowed down, purposeful interactions can be achieved through the redefinition of the parking structure typology designed with intimate inefficiencies and a mix of program types from the magnificient to the mundane including art galleries and traditional LA strip mall typologies.

S E I E C AT IEN M IC I T F N F I E IN

retail space closely entwined

pockets of greenspace to slow down

meand

pedestrian walkways act as speedbumps

atrium stair as egress and hangout space

dering ramp down to other levels meandering ramp up to parking level

03 85

The model was intended to show some key parts of the section suspended in place by acrylic. These sections of a section were supplemented with drawings to show space and program three dimensionally. 3D printed buildings, laser cut acrylic, basswood, plywood and cardboard

To Reflect to organize and reflect “A rumination in my mind Winding like the ramp at the Guggenheim I’m not content but I’m feeling hesistant To build something that’s sacred till the end” Conor Oberst

[This book -- the culmination of my architectural education -- honestly has me feeling emotions I never thought I would feel.] The year as a whole was nothing and everything I expected it to be, but overall better than I could have wished for. Although it took a little while to get started and really ground my thesis ideas/inspirations/wants/musings as a wholly specific and meaningful discourse, the structure of the course really helped develop that it both a linear and wandering way. I could go off track but also quickly link back up with my initial thoughts. Don’t believe for one second that I never went on tangents -- this book is a tight package of a linear thought process, but it wasn’t always that simple. The real breakthrough in collecting distant thoughts and turning them into tangible process was with collaging. I didn’t previously have any experience in using collages as a means of communicating concepts, it allowed me to be a bit more free-flowing and loose -- something I am definitely not used to doing. In many ways, I was able [and guided] to go outside of my comfort zone in both my discourse and its eventual proposal as a speculative test. This, I believe, was the true win of my experience during fifth year. The studio environment and culture truly fostered and allowed for the development of ideas I would have otherwise let go or not have even explored. For my speculative test, I was happy with the avenues in which I explored, but still feel [as I always do] that it could have been pushed and pulled and prodded even more. But what designer doesn’t think that? I truly believe, however, that this thesis year [as shown throughout this book] is wholly me. From the colors to the fonts to artifacts. I have also become entirely aware of my own personal rituals and have spent time defining, refining, and exploring them. I also have more appreciation for the rituals of others. [For more specific reflection on each section, check out the marginalia]

To Reference assess, translate, evaluate

[I spent most of the summer before thesis year collecting books + information. I’m definitely a researcher and the act of collecting information is absolutely therapeutic. Although I didn’t use all of these books in my discourse, they still held value in my overall thesis musings] 92

Bibliography [Annotated] de Botton, Alain. The Architecture of Happiness. Vintage, 2008. The Architecture of Happiness focuses on the psychology and philosophy of architecture and the presence of architecture on our daily lives. It discusses the connection between one’s identity and their location – how something as simple as a light fixture can affect our mood. de Botton also discusses how the quality and indistinguishable presence of architecture affects our happiness. Woven beautifully with architectural history, this book exemplifies the need for good design. Ellard, Colin. Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life. Bellevue Literary Press, 2015. Colin Ellard shows the intersections between neuroscience and architecture and environmental design within everyday places. Similar to de Botton, he discusses the impact of surroundings and how they can affect our thoughts, emotions, and actions. Moreover, he discusses this in a means that speaks to the physical responses in the brain that happens when we are affected, either positively or negatively, by our surroundings. Eran, Ben-Joseph. ReThinking A Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking. MIT Press. 2012. Ben-Joseph Eran discusses parking lots as a landscape for transformation in the urban environment. He argues that parking spaces can be aesthetically pleasing, environmentally responsible and redefined as something architecturally interesting. Gallagher, Winifred. The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions. Harper Perennial, 2007. The author explores the relationship between the built environment and inhabitants while drawing on the latest research on behavioral and environmental sciences. She discusses these ideas with the use of relatable and dynamic case studies to understand the ways in which design and place can change our quality of life. Gifford, Robert. Environmental Psychology: Principles and Practice. Optimal Books, 2014. This book discusses a general overview of environmental psychology and its applications to particular design problems. Environmental psychology in this case is “the study of transactions between individuals and their physical settings”. It discusses the need for understanding the balance between the built environment and its inhabitants through theory, research and practice to improve our environment.

Goldhagen, Sarah Williams. Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives. Harper, 2017. Similarly, Sarah Goldhagen discusses the impact that the built environment has on our feelings, memories and well-being. She argues, however, the need for design that is more inclined to help and foster the human experience. She also combines the latest in neurological and cognitive research to back her claims. Jahoda, Gustav. “Theodor Lipps and the Shift from ‘Sympathy’ to ‘Empathy’.” Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 41(2). (Spring 2005). pp. 151-163. The author discusses the origins of empathy and its effect on different aspects of design and humanity. I mostly used this article to understand the differences between sympathy and empathy and how empathy can be applied to design. Jones, Peter Blundell. Architecture and Ritual: How Buildings Shape Society. Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. The author discusses the ways in which everyday ritual are framed and defined by the spaces we inhabit. Peter Jones uses case studies to explore the ways in which different types of program reflect our experiences. He states that “memories are not ready made reflections of the past, but eclectic, selective reconstructions based on subsequent actions and perceptions and on ever-changing codes by which we delineate, symbolize, and classify the world around us.” Lyndon, Donlyn, Moore, Charles W., Chambers for a Memory Palace. MIT Press, 1996. Two distinguished architects write letters to each other discussing the essential ideas of place-making with each chapter forming a chamber with each chamber speaking about the author’s personal experiences with place. They speak of the memorable qualities of the place and why it is so intriguing to them. The most indicative line to me states that “places are spaces that you can remember, that you can care about and make part of your life.” Pallasma, Juhani. “An Architecture of the Seven Senses.” A+U Special Issue: Questions of Perception - Phenomenology of Architecture. (1994). pp. 27-37. Pallasma elegantly writes that “a bodily reaction is an inseparable aspect of the experience of architecture as a consequence of implied action. A real architectural experience is not simply a series of retinal images; a building is encountered -- it is approached, confronted, encountered, related to one’s body, moved about, utilized as a condition for other things…”

Pallasma, Juhani. “Six Themes for the Next Millennium.” Architectural Review. (1994). pp. 74-79. Pallasma talks about the future of architecture and the ways in which designers can begin to implement the six themes he deems the most important. These themes, Pallasma argues, can be used to design architecture that is relatable in human experience. The theme idealisation was especially useful in “creat[ing] works of architectural art that confirm human value, reveal poetic dimensions of everyday life and, consequently serve as cores of hope in a world that seems to lose its coherence and meaning.” Sternberg, Esther M. Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Wellbeing. Belknap Press, 2010. The author takes a deeper look at the way our surroundings can have the power to heal. Through groundbreaking research of neuroscience and psychology, Sternberg discusses the psychological and physiological responses to spaces and how it affects the way we heal. It shows how different case studies can trigger different responses and how designers can use this biological basis to better design for inhabitants. Sternberg discusses how “our sensory organs receive signals from the world around us, and how the cells and molecules of the brain work together to blend these signals into a perception, enabling us to sense and negotiate a world around us”, which will be important in discussing the neurological approach to space perception. Worringer, Wilhelm. “ Chapter 1: Abstraction and Empathy.” Abstraction and Empathy: A Contribution to the Psychology of Style. Elephant Paperback, 1997, pp. 3-25. Wilhelm Worringer uses Theodor Lipps who introduced the concept of Einfuhlung (“empathy”) to the field of art to describe the ways in which abstraction and empathy overlap specifically in German abstract art. This source is important for understanding the definition and application of the idea of empathy to artistic endeavors. He writes that “the sensation of happiness that is released in us by the reproduction of organically beautiful vitality, what modern man designates beauty, is gratification of that inner need for self-activation in which Lipps sees the presupposition of the process of empathy.”

Endnotes Cary, John. Design for Good: A New Era of Architecture for Everyone. Island Press, 2017. [A great look at how architecture can change the world] Isozaki, Arata. Japan-ness in Architecture. MIT Press, 2011. [A wonderful starting point for Japanese architecture, its aesthetics and history. Important inspiration for initial thesis musings] Maltzan, Michael. Social Transparency. Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2016. [What I originally intentioned my thesis to be based on -- still an amazing read regardless] 2005.

Murakami, Haruki. Kafka on the Shore. Vintage International,

[A book that intertwines experience and memories in a hauntingly authentic and beautiful way -- a classic that encompasses the values of my thesis] Richter, Max. Recomposed Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, 2014. [Architecture should make everyone feel how this symphony has always made me feel] Personal rituals. [It’s been a wonderful growing experience observing my own rituals, refining them, and creating new ones]

Acknowledgements “I get by with a little help from my friends” The Beatles

Too many people to acknowledge not only for this year, but for the past five years. To my parents -- for everything. I can’t even begin to say the thanks that you deserve for your unwavering support and love. To my Jar -- my constant in a world of inconsistency. Thank you for acting as my editor, agent, and design partner. To my brother -- thank you for constantly pushing me to be better. To Bryan -- you have such an incredible gift as an educator, thank you for sharing it with me. To everyone who has touched my architectural education over the last five years -- I wholeheartedly thank you, I wouldn’t be where I am.