CMU - Issuu

from Undisciplined CMU

by Chau Tran

UN- DISCIPLINED

CMU

8”

16”

A Design-Build Masonry Architecture Studio

Originated in a 2nd year undergraduate architecture designbuild studio competition at the School of Architecture of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the UNDISCIPLINED CMU (concrete masonry unit) assembly was an assignment intended to produce a mock-up of a paper-project for a police station in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Although the competition had requirements and agenda of its own, the design studio expanded the given program and material theme. Shifting from the expected representation of the building in a mock-up, the focus was given to the exploration of the material parameters and cultural dimension of the project on the given site of a 6’ x 8’ x 8’ volume. The typical CMU was chosen due to its commonplace status in the construction industry stimulating unexpected readings challenging its cultural implications. The design process was not linear and it required simultaneous exploration and production through digital, physical, and analog methods. The immersion into systematic thinking that

was embodied in the framework of the studio was key to the iterative process that allowed the final result, it is the product of the networked connections of the masonry industry and its architectural aspirations. The project also went through moments of uncertainty and frustration, as the results seemed always unpredictable or unexpected. Each step forward was treated as an accomplishment with excitement, yet research and critical inquiry were daily ingredients that encouraged the studio. Primarily this publication documents the build (or CMU-Monument), however, it showcases the individual work of a group of students including the final selection from which this project was based. While the built project is meant to last a year, this book is a long-lasting record of the process that produced it and the varied realities that were provoked through it. The book is a counter-cronology, as you advance on it you will encounter the projects and exercises that led to the constructed object.