Critical Practice Masterclass with Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss/NAO, Philip Plowright, Scott Shall, Jeremy Adams, Anirban Adhya, Nawfaa Al-Bahrani, Zahra Alatl, Ibrahim Alsharif, Christopher Bartholomew, Irsida Bejo, Alexis Blackwell-Brown, Stephen Bohlen, Ashley Brenner, Malwina Brown, Brean Bush, Jerry Carter, Alina Chelaidite, Xin Chen, Breck Crandell, Nick Cressman, Terri Douglas, Irina Dwyer, Ghantous El-Tayar, Paul Eland, Ali Emgarreb, Nicole Gerou, Eleana Glava, Khalid Hamoodh, Charlie Harris, Stewart Hicks, Christopher Holzwart, Shannon Iafrate, Christina Jackson, Marianne Jones, Aaron Jones, Jon Krdu, Ryan Kronbetter, Abhimanyu Lakhey, Geoff Lasoski, Erin Lifton, Jinhan Liu, María Lloreda, Ben Luther, Randi Marsh, Steven Mcmahon, Adam Murray, Miros Nava, Allison Newmeyer, Scott Newsted, Charlie O’Geen, Tra Page, Ibn Feisal Peerbaccus, Drew Pelkey, Jonathan Reynolds, Sarah Saleh, Devika Sangurdekar, Stephen Schell, Laura Schneider, Matt Seeley, Jonathan Selleck, Christopher Siminski, Maria Simon, Nahar Sonbol, Randy Sova II, Brendan Sprite, Christopher Stefani, Andriana Stefanov, Kirk Stefko, Suzanne Stiers, Amy Swift, Wes Taylor, Christopher Theisen, Jamie Tischler, Amin Toghiani, Jonathan Tull, Nathaniel Turner, Joseph Vani, Adam Wakulchik, Tyler Walker, Guanyi Wang, Gregory Wood, Shuang Wu, Luting Xu, Chenchun Yang, Kanqi Zhu
CRITPraX, the Critical Practice Studio, is a summer design experience for upper division Master of Architecture students at Lawrence Technological University. Each summer, a master practitioner is invited to lead the 10 week, 4 workshop charrette style studio by introducing their ideology and methodology through a critical atmosphere and intense discourse. The studio stresses team interaction, communication and learning-by-doing. It uses the structure of the professional charrette while blending on-ground workshops with virtual engagement between sessions. Each team is led by a second, embedded master practitioner who works directly with a small group of students to engage the challenge presented by the guest visionary.
CRITPraX Studio Series Master Practitioner: Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss/NAO CritPraX Coordinator: Philip Plowright LTU Architecture Chair: Scott Shall CRITPraX14 Editors: Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Philip Plowright Series Editor: Philip Plowright Publisher: Lulu ISBN: 978-1-312-36653-4 (color pbk) ISBN: 978-1-312-37881-0 (b&w pbk) ISBN: 978-1-312-37885-8 (ebook) Content ID: 14986997 Book Title: Inhabiting Everyday Monuments (CRITPraX 14) Typeset in Gautami Reg/Bold 12/14/24pt © 2014. All rights reserved. Cover photograph Copyright © 2014 by Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss Book design and production by Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss & Philip Plowright. All projects © 2014 by listed authors/leads. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without prior written permissions from the editors or authors. College of Architecture + Design Lawrence Technological University www.ltu.edu/architecture+design 248.204.2805
CRITPraX 14 Critical Practice Studio
Inhabiting Everyday Monuments Critical Practice masterclass with Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss/NAO
order project 1 . TRIPBUSSTOP project 2. RETREAT CLOUD project 3. GARAGE INHABITED essay a. Inhabiting Everyday Monuments studio essay b. Typology as Minimal Complexity index
Twenty four graphic novels contained here are created by eight architecture design teams gathered at Lawrence Technological University in the summer of 2014. They carry analysis and propositions for inhabitation of extraordinary post-industrial landscape between Detroit and Flint, Michigan. This masterclass re-interpretated unrealized visions of radical Western architecture from 1960’ and 1970’ amalgamated with archeology of socialist monuments from Eastern Europe built about the same time These projects are seeking contemporary aspects of inhabiting futures from the past. They are charged with ideologies that inspired them as symbols of the future and their ever dislocation of the everyday into forthcoming times. The projects drew future into the present and explored new typologies of inhabitation and their emerging monumentality.
1. TRIPBU
USSTOP
ENTER THE BOX! / Anirban Adhya & Alina Chelaidite [Leads], Steven Mcmahon, Eleana Glava, Adam Wakulchik, Jeremy Adams, Gregory Wood, Jinhan Liu, Christopher Siminski, Jonathan Tull, Tra Page
WE THOUGHT WE HAD BUILT A PARADISE ...
Look at what the world has become...
Observe the current power big box has over the world
AT FIRST, IT STARTED OFF AS CURIOSITY...
Big box saveed main street!
Big box gave us jobs!
Big box provided homes!
Big box saved our town! Then DESIRE...
Big box saved a monument!
THEN necessity... big box rose up to avoid crowding
Big box became the skyline!
BIG BOX FULFILLED OUR WANTS, NEEDS, DESIRES AND our GUILTS
Finally DEPENDENCY...
big box struck oil and provided cheap gas for us.
werg neve xob gib ,doof nwo sti ytilauq gnidivorp rof noitirtun enoyreve
it took our best. our brightest.
XOB GIBb
XOB GIBb
gnitsixe eht tub detrats epacsdnal derettil emoceb ot dlrow dlo eht htiw
XOB GIBb
xob gib os big ot detabox erter supplied goods! ... yks eht big box created a great shopping experience. everything became affordable for all.
big box made shopping more convenient!
before long big box was the only provider of job.
But we grew to love big box. it provided us unlimited clean big box becamewith our house! energy
BIGBOXTOPIA big box became my savior, my dream catcher, and my pleasure dome.
sale, sale, sale!
buy big buy now
buy one big box get one free!
big Box! big Box! big box! big box! Big box! Big box!
big box now! big box forever!
we want big box
vote big box
buy one big box get one free!
we love big box!
of the big box. for the big box. by the big box.
CIRCA 2064
big! box!
AT PLAY / Irsida Bejo [lead], Stephen Bohlen, Ryan Kronbetter, Amin Toghiani, Alexis Blackwell-Brown, Breck Crandell, Shuang Wu, Christina Jackson, Nicole Gerou, Christopher Bartholomew
‘IN PLAY’ Characters The Midwest Family: •
Mom ‘Nature’ (a.k.a. Uninhabited Ecology) • Dad ‘Norman’ (a.k.a. the Social Collective) • Son ‘Larry’ (a.k.a. the Angsty Teen)
E M O C
T U O
! Y A L P O T T ‘DIS PLAY’ Transformation Monument to Everyday Toy: • • •
Nature (as phenomena ‘at play’) Norman (as user ‘at play’) Larry (as object ‘at play’)
The Midwest Family Trip: From Southfield to Flint in 50 years
Silence
Larry: What are we supposed to be looking at?
Mom: Wow! Look at that sunrise, just take it all in.
Mom: Why the beauty of nature of course. So majestic and pure, almost completely untouched.
Larry: *Singing a tune* ‘There’s nobody but us chickens... and someday we’re all feathers.’
Norman: It’s great and all, it’s just missing something. Larry: Yeah, people. Norman: MmHmm, that’s it. You can’t just survive the great outdoors. You have to make it inhabitable.
Mom: Why would you change something that’s worked so well without being disturbed? It all started with fences, but they just keep getting bigger and taller.
Mom: That may be... or MAYBE you just aren’t understanding. There is a definite problem here. People just don’t seem to be concerned at all with the repercussions. Larry: What repercussions? I’ve got nothing to do with it.
Norman: Why don’t we all just relax?! We seem to get along with nature just fine. You know what I always say, ‘let the wild stay wild.’ Besides I’d rather swim in a pool than a lake any day.
Larry: Speak for yourself. This sounds more like a constant one upping.
Larry: See, now this looks like somewhere I could live. Norman: The hustle and bustle, all the people. Yeah! I like the city life much more.
Mom: Just don’t forget about what’s behind us. The sights in the rear view mirror are so much more beautiful than what’s ahead.
Norman: These buildings stand tall and proud, a testament to all that man has accomplished.
Mom: It’s an atrocity. People never have to leave buildings at all. They’re either at home or at work, but always inside.
Mom: Is this what people call ‘progress’? It’s starting to look more like a war zone. So, what happens to all these old buildings when everyone takes off? Norman: Well, I can’t speak for those people...
H
SW
S OO
Larry: You can’t speak for those buildings either. No one can. It looks like the sky is falling out of that one... and through that one. Mom: My sentiments exactly.
Mom: Things will turn around again, you just watch. Nature seems new, but really it is the original tenant. The roots will break the foundations and the grass will grow from the cracks. Nature will repossess it all.
CRAC
K
Norman: I guess nature always calls man’s bluff. Yet, he’s achieved so much that he can easily play with its settings and even reproduce it indoors.
Mom: Maybe so, but it is only because he knows what a mistake it was to eclipse the natural. Now that he needs it, he has no choice but to synthesize it.
Mom: Just remember, there are some things that no one can control.
Norman: ...resurrected merely as a service to man.
Larry: Wow, that sunset is EPIC. It shines even brighter than the sunrise this morning!
Norman: Oh, I don’t think they were hurting anyone, they were just taking care of their own land, their yards providing a more comfortable home for their families.
Norman: Do you remember the beautiful houses that used to be out here where the fields are? Mom: Of course I remember. I also remember what they did to the land. They tore up the ground and laid driveways, placing fences to border off ‘their property’.
Mom: Well it didn’t stop there, did it? Larry: Of course not! They started to team up and work together.
Norman: Don’t you mean they started to imitate each other? Their need for more pushed them over the edge. They amassed. Larry: Amassed? Norman: Yeah, so they could stretch their reach out to the horizon. Buildings as far as the eye can see.
Norman: You see, all alone, even out for a walk, an individual can accumulate so much. Imagine the power of the collective if they only knew their own power. All it takes is a simple gesture.
Larry: Hell of a card to play. Mom: Watch your mouth. Norman: *silently considering* (Pleased with himself)
ions! Magven McMans e d n a s d o momentum orho were. The ole neighb h y w e h t t l i k u n b i th ey st I sure Norman: Th gs, at lea n i o much so h s t d t e n h e s c nifi compli c a y e h t , ul was powerf . y l k quic
Norman: They put their biggest achievements on a pedestal, and built an everyday lifestyle around it.
Norman: Great job mankind! *pats himself on the back*
Larry: Norman, I think you’re making her angry. Mom: Inflated egos! The only thing bigger than buildings was the excess of their consumption. Sure, they were happy and appreciated the convenience, but only because it made it easier to find themselves.
T
’ N O D
Mom: Take a step back and just look at it all. They have become products of their own fantasy. It has gotten out of control! Norman: We have everything we’ve ever desired. What’s more to want?
Larry: This is what we’ve been driving so long to get to?
Norman: Oh my.
Mom: Look at this traffic. We’re stuck now.
Norman: It gives us a moment to look at that skyline. This is just the beginning...…
*Car motor humming*
Mom: It’s been years since I’ve taken this trip, I don’t even recognize it. Larry: Everyone knows that these fields used to be ginormous factories that built“automobiles.”
SLAM
Larry: Houses, neighborhoods and even cities were built just for all the workers and the growing economy. Mom: It’s a shame, so much land paved over. Larry: Who cares? They sure didn’t. The built environment became man’s playground! Larry: The manufacturing plants were basically man-made monuments to brag about how great their cars were. Norman: Oh, is that all they were? Larry: AND this area had lots of huge churches with super tall steeples... LIKE THAT ONE, RIGHT THERE! Norman: PLEASE put your hand down Larry, I’m trying to drive.
Larry: But those structures weren’t built to last forever. Most of them began to crumble and fall apart. All those big fancy monuments... tsk-tsk
Larry: And when everyone left, the poor buildings were just left to decay. Entire cities were simply abandoned. Can you even imagine what this area used to look like? Gross.
Mom: Oh, I remember exactly how it once was. *sigh*
Larry: Even though most people saw the desolate ruins as the end of these buildings, others saw creative opportunity. Norman: And those people are a completely different kind of crazy, if you ask me. *chuckles* Larry: Well I didn’t ask you. We should be thanking those crazy”people for giving Flint a second hope. They took those broken monuments and turned them into playgrounds. In a way, your people’s everyday monuments became my people’s everyday toys.
Larry: Look at Flint on the horizon!
*Children Laughing*
Larry: Look! We’re here, and this is how the real city has played out... Fine, don’t take me seriously, but the truth is: this place has become an archaeology of future imagination and play.
*car comes to an abrupt halt*
The need to play, and win has taken Nature, man and all he’s built on a journey of new manipulations and old transformations; where confrontations have been as rewarding as collaborations. A moment of ‘STOP’ where the everyday steps out of reality to play itself to the end.
“What is ‘winning’ and what is ‘won’?
FLINTERLAND / Stewart Hicks & Allison Newmeyer [leads], Nahar Sonbol, Ghantous El-Tayar, Zahra Alatl, Xin Chen, Matt Seeley, Brendan Sprite, Miros Nava, Marianne Jones, Tyler Walker
SAVING THE CITY / Christopher Holzwart [lead], Malwina Brown, Shannon Iafrate, Stephen Schell, Andriana Stefanov, Adam Murray, Ibrahim Alsharif, Suzanne Stiers, Chenchun Yang, MarĂa Lloreda
A PLACE BETWEEN TWO PLACES / A DAYDREAM / Aaron Jones & Wes Taylor [leads], Nathaniel Turner, Nawfaa Al-Bahrani, Ali Emgarreb, Charlie Harris, Khalid Hamoodh, Jonathan Reynolds, Brean Bush, Erin Lifton, Ibn Feisal Peerbaccus
EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD
Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Is a Black & White fictional story, containing images fully derived from 4 modeled environments: Sketched Backdrop, Mapped topography, Urban Streetscape, and Interior Vignette. The narrative is from the lyric (Everybody Wants to Rule the World) Tears for Fears. The story follows a 15 yr old boy’s journey into a daydream, where he envisions himself as a deer. He fantasizes the ideal urban utopia, discovers uncertainty and is jolted into his new informed reality. This story is meant to provoke discussion on: The creation and imagination of urban fabric The notion of unrealized utopia The interface of private ideas and the outside world The subtext seeks to examine the delamination of young arrogant ambition from the intricacy of suburban and urban tension. Our inspiration was formulated from interviews, subject photos and random ventures into the place between Flint and Southfield. The dialogue uses the language of: desaturation, halftone, and dreams to synthesize the complexities of inhabitation. Desaturation- Explores the comparison of ideal versus reality. Halftone- Explores perception & understanding. Dreamscape- Explores potential versus determination.
Welcome to your life...
There’s no turning back
Even while we sleep...
We will find you
Acting on your best behavior
So glad we’ve almost made it
EVERYBODY
WANTS TO R U
LE THE WOR
LD
it’s my own design it’s my own remorse
help me to decide help me to make the most
All of Freedom & of Pleasure
Nothing Ever Lasts Forever
EVER YBOD Y WA
NTS T O RU
LE TH
E WO
RLD
There’s a room where
the light won’t find you
Holding hands
while the walls come tumblng down
when they do, I’ll be right behind you
So glad we’ve almost made it
So sad they had to fade it
EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD
I can’t stand this indecision Married with a lack of vision
EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD
Say that you’ll
e e n
t i d
Why Believe it?
EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD
All of Freedom & of Pleasure
Nothing Ever Lasts Forever
EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD
TOWARDS A DRIVE-THROUGH STRIP CLUB / Charlie O’Geen [lead], Irina Dwyer, Paul Eland, Randi Marsh, Scott Newsted, Devika Sangurdekar, Laura Schneider, Christopher Theisen, Ashley Brenner, Kanqi Zhu
EYE OF THE MACHINE / Maria Simon [lead], Joseph Vani, Terri Douglas, Geoff Lasoski, Ben Luther, Drew Pelkey, Randy Sova Ii, Luting Xu, Jamie Tischler
THE YEAR IS 3563... IN A MECHANIZED POPULATION WHERE THE UNKNOWN REMAINS UNFOUND...
SURVIVAL IS EVERYTHING... WELCOME TO MACHINEVILLE.
KING!!! GRAVE DANGER!
YOUR CITY WILL BE DESTROYED....
BUT THERE IS A WAY... ALL WILL BE LOST...
LOOK TO THE PAST!
THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE!
SEND THE 3!
IN 3 WE TRUST!
...A MAP OF NETWORK KNOWN RUINS...
FINALLY THEY ARRIVE AT THE FIRST SITE...
HOW DID THEY GET UP THERE?
PARKTOPIA...
MANUFACTORED WASTELAND...
FACTOPIA...
ATTENTION! ATTENTION! GM RECALLS FLINT! The massive manufacturer has been recalling more than just its products again lately. This time an entire city and its population has been recalled so that you and your family can enjoy the getaway of a lifetime! Hurry down and experience flint world before it’s too late!
FLINT IS FOLLY / Amy Swift [lead], Nick Cressman, Kirk Stefko, Christopher Stefani, Jonathan Selleck, Guanyi Wang, Sarah Saleh, Jerry Carter, Jon Krdu, Abhimanyu Lakhey
FLINT IS FOLLY
MOM! DAD! Can we go? PLEASEEEEEE!!!!
I don’t think so honey. Flint is a scary place!
and don’t be fooled by what people tell ya folks! You’re ensured to have a good time thanks to our new Ha-Has. Barrowed from the historic English Gardens, where it was used to preserve picturesque views while keeping the sheep at bay, these Ha- Has are the perfect buffer for any adventurous traveler!
Our all-inclusive package will gain you access to all of our sectors for an attractive offer.` Drive the Auto Sector, take part in the Poverty Parade, join the hunt on our Murder Safari, experience a hipster lifestyle in the Artistic Sector, and don’t forget to support Flint’s comeback with a visit to our shopping district!` Hurry and get here now before it’s gentrified!
Gee, how can I say no to that!
...and for the summer traveler
Come and stay at one of our exclusive family friendly resorts with amenities for every traveler.
Forget that crowded poolside. Wait till you experience Flint’s curbside!
Rest your head in one of our Quant Chalets!
Ski the Great Summit! Or find refuge under the stars!
Hi welcome to Beta Car 2.0. I will be your guide for this tour of Flint World. If at any point of the trip you would like to see where we are located within the park, you may look at the map located on the screen which identifies the different sectors that make up Flint World. You are currently on route to the auto sector.
En route to the next sector, my activity suggestion is Blight Bingo. On the screen you will see a board of icons representing follies that are located throughout the sectors of Flint World. As you spot the follies in the landscape, tap the icon on the screen to mark it off. First one to 5-in-arow WINS!
AUTO SECTOR
This is called a Factory where people used to produce products using machines. This trend came to an end when companies discovered it was more cost effective to have the products produced by cheaper, non-localized labor, which has since been replaced totally by machines.
Welcome to the Auto Sector of Flint World. Do take note of the multiple overpasses that we will soon travel under. This is part of a physical Superhighway. Historically, cars were manually driven along these paths to travel from one destination to another, often resulting is accidents due to human error.
AUTO SECTOR
To your left is an Auto Shop. This is a place where people would hire experts to repair their automobiles.
Next to the auto shop you will see an excellent example of a Gas Station. This is where people would gather to fill their automobiles with refined oil in order to make it operate.
O ind nly ust som rio e us thin co g uld so be mus Ea ky, ud s eF o lin t
.
“In s activit earch of a says g y this even family frie nd in o s’mor od wholes g? W ell, no ly e o Don’t s and ween me fun lik thing e roa ie miss o sting ut on s over an open Flint flame W orld’s House . Open -Fire!! !
POVERTY SECTOR
MURDER SECTOR Tired of the normal holiday trip? Come on out and join in the Flint World Murder Safari! Feel the rush of the chase, spot the local in its natural habitat, and then...BANG! Good as mounted
We are now entering the Poverty Sector. Out the right side of the car you will see Flint characters in their natural habitat. It is not rare to see them travel by foot or public transit. Please take note that the car door locks have been engaged.
C AND TA OME NOW ! K day o E IT OFF COME QUI O C nly a uctio UR HANDS! K! COME tory !!! A o n n BAD C of excess to clear out o e REDIT, Flint ur World NO C R Real- invenaccept EDIT, NO Estat M O e all o ffers! NEY AT ALL . ! We
ARTISTIC SECTOR
We are now entering the Artistic Sector. To your left you can see one of the many hipster coffee shops. These coffee shops are community houses for the cashstrapped artist whose main food source is the $4 organic latte or cheap beer.
Organic urban farming is coveted in this area as well. Urban farming is a tool of engagement between hipsters and the local Flint population, which they have no other meaningful connection to.
ARTISTIC SECTOR
In this sector graffiti is not a form of vandalism, but rather is encouraged as a form of high art.
Although many hipsters own cars you will often see them on bicycles to promote their idea of an urban lifestyle. You can spot them at flea markets and thrift shops purchasing discounted items like records, obsolete household items, and vintage clothes
Get he re q the rio uick befor e t brea litera lly! ks o Distric Flint World utt, The Shopp way s ing shoul d be...m hopping aybe.
2 $25 OR 0 5 $ R FO
TTRR UUN NKK SSAA LLEE !!!!!!
ER FING FIVE UNTS! O DISC
That’s right Dick. The mass manufacturer GM has saved the city of Flint with its creation of FLINT WORLD. This new style of ruin porn is popping up everywhere despite the minor sideeffects.``
v
BREAKING NEWS! GM SAVES FLINT!
Disclaimer: FLINT WORLD is a place used for the treatment and prevention of severe boredom. Generic formulations of FLINT WORLD are available and the brand name is discontinued in the United States. The most common side effects of FLINT WORLD are dry skin, itching, dry nose, nosebleeds, cracks in the corners of the mouth, dry mouth, and inflammation of the whites of the eyes. And don’t forget about falling through an open manhole.
The recommended dose of FLINT WORLD is 0.5 to 2 min of visit time per kg of body weight daily. Combining vitamin A with FLINT WORLD may increase side effects. FLINT WORLD is harmful to the fetus and therefore should not be visited during pregnancy.
Get emergency medical help if you can afford it and have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives difficulty breathing swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat. Stop visiting FLINT WORLD and call your doctor at once if you have any of these serious side effects:
Depressed mood, trouble concentrating, sleep problems, crying spells, mauled by vicious pheasant, aggression or agitation, changes in behavior, hallucinations, thoughts of suicide or hurting yourself. Gunshot wounds sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body Tripping over discarded tires blurred vision, sadden and severe headache or pain behind your eyes, sometimes with vomiting. Being heckled by a bum. Being asked for change hearing problems, hearing loss, or ringing in your ears seizure (convulsions) severe pain in your upper stomach spreading to your back, nausea and vomiting, fast heart rate loss of appetite, dark urine, clay-colored stools, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes) severe diarrhea, rectal bleeding, black, bloody, or tarry stools fever, chills, body aches, flu symptoms, purple spots under your skin, easy bruising or bleeding severe blistering, peeling, and red skin rash or joint stiffness, bone pain or fracture.
Less serious side effects may include: joint pain, back pain feeling dizzy, drowsy, or nervous. Being punched in the face. Being looked at threateningly dryness of the lips, mouth, nose, or skin or cracking or peeling skin, itching, rash, changes in your fingernails or toenails.
Note that the makers of FLINT WORLD are not responsible for any or all effects of visiting. Every person who comes to FLINT WORLD does so at their own risk. Can you blame us?
2. RETREAT
T CLOUD
PURE MICHIGAN SANATORIUM: A LAKE-SIDE RETREAT FOR THE TERMINALLY ILL / Anirban Adhya & Alina Chelaidite [leads], Steven Mcmahon, Eleana Glava, Adam Wakulchik, Jeremy Adams, Gregory Wood, Jinhan Liu, Christopher Siminski, Jonathan Tull, Tra Page
S A N AT O R I U M A lake-side retreat for the terminally ill
at the pure michigan sanatorium, you choose your experience. choose any three combinations of coffins/ headstones, paths and cottages to complete your retreat.
sarcophagus lake
land of midwestern waterlillies
graveyard : site plan on the lake
floating coffins
>
geometry : horizontal
>
geometry : vertical coffin walls
headstone 1
headstone 2
array of coffins each V-diagram was arrayed to create both horizontal and vertical surfaces. the horizontal geometric patterns created a new landscape, while the vertical elements defined the edge condition through framing. coffin frame
exploration of friedman : connection and node ESSEN CE OF FRIEDMAN FRIED MAN
UTILIZATION OF THE NET
t ran r an sform ation and r ei nter p r etati o n
ddism ism an tle an d rec r ec o nfi g u r e removal.
remainder.
connect
network
net sits on lake. “connections� weave within net
net becomes connection between (2) monuments
net experiences much of the exploration centered on the idea of what would happen if the nodes were removed from the friedman diagrams. what happens when all that is left is the connections? how can these connections be reconfigured....
net as surface
net as connection (between monuments)
field of sedum sar s ar mento s u m (grav ey eyard ard m oss ) net as enclosure
net becomes shelter / allows inhabitation. structure inside net
application of “v” as coffin configuration
coffin coffin :: aa funerary funerary box box used used inin the the display display and and containment containment of of dead dead people, people, either either for for burial burial or or cremation cremation .. coffin coffin generally generally denotes denotes aa funerary funerary box box with with six six sides sides
the the “V’s” “V’s” became became the the central central focus focus on on exploration exploration and and application. application. the the geometric geometric form form was was tapered, tapered, flipped, flipped, mirrored, mirrored, rotated, rotated, combined combined and and assembled assembled inin many many different different patterns patterns inin order order to to explore explore different different possibilities possibilities and and experiences. experiences.
base base taper taper result result
base base
Prototyping & pixelation cut, cut, taper, taper, re-orient, re-orient, remove. remove. the the geometric geometric exploration exploration focused focused on on the the notion notion that that aa simple simple “shape” “shape” could could be be modified modified and and re-explored re-explored to to create create aa completely completely different different moment, moment, experience experience or or function. function.
combine combine
Shapes Shapes resembling resembling “V’s” “V’s” were were chosen chosen for for an an exhaustive exhaustive development. development. interesting interesting patterns patterns began began to to develop develop when when these these “V’s” “V’s” were were tapered, tapered, extruded extruded and and carved. carved. opportunities opportunities presented presented themselves themselves for for connections connections with with similar similar shapes. shapes. what what happens happens when when these these shapes shapes stack? stack? are are there there advantages advantages to to interlocking interlocking the the shapes? shapes? inin terms terms of of scale, scale, what what can can these these shapes shapes become? become?
stack stack
the the direction direction focused focused on on the the shape shape acting acting as as aa horizontal horizontal or or vertical vertical plane. plane. on on the the horizontal horizontal axis, axis, experiences experiences arose arose that that emphasized emphasized the the geometry geometry as as surface; surface; creating creating aa net net of of sorts sorts on on the the lake. lake. interesting interesting moments moments arose arose as as the the geometry geometry allowed allowed glimpses glimpses into into the the water water below, below, but but also also defined defined aa new new landscape. landscape. as as aa vertical vertical element, element, the the geometry geometry defined defined the the edge, edge, or or the the limit limit of of the the intervention. intervention. the the geometry geometry became became coffins coffins for for the the terminally terminally illill and, and, when when arrayed, arrayed, the the geometry geometry became became aa graveyard graveyard on on the the lake. lake. other other explorations explorations of of geometry geometry as as cottage, cottage, boat boat or or monument monument were were also also explored explored but but abandoned. abandoned.
arete
drumline
much of the exploration was done by cutting out individual sections of the monument outline and stacking, rotating and combining them to create new iterations. What formal qualities can be found? How does each define space, or work with the net / letter?
m o n ument expe rie nce s
base base
surface surface
bastion
horn of cirque
glaci glaciaa l geology
monument as landscape
monument as cenotaph
monument as cave
monument as frame
nunatak
narcissus and nemesis
retreat : lake cottages the study began by examination and removing different forms from the monument (see above). new configurations and opportunities revealed themselves through a series of dissection and reinterpretations. the essence of the monument became the profile. as the monument was originally arrayed, a breakdown of the original “piece� and a closer examination of the sectional quality (especially in regards to one individual moment, or section) revealed a new form that was ultimately extracted. by taking the profile and arranging, stacking, rotating, extruding, and extrapolating, a series of models were created. how could these forms be utilized as objects, support, and inhabitable spaces?
the process to extract the profile of the monument outline began with isolating one of the “wings�. once the form was extracted; stacking, rotating and reconfiguration took place. memory of the existing monument remained, but the new forms were completely unique; the dissected monument was unrecognizable.
mountain of kosmaj
can you find me?
let me lose myself...
LAKE THE RISE AND FALL OF TYPOLOGY: RETREATING THE MIDDEST / Irsida Bejo [lead], Stephen Bohlen, Ryan Kronbetter, Amin Toghiani, Alexis Blackwell-Brown, Breck Crandell, Shuang Wu, Christina Jackson, Nicole Gerou, Christopher Bartholomew LAKE
ORCHARD LAKE On the cool deep waters of Orchard lake in Southeast Michigan rests the quiet natured and heavily-wooded Apple Island. Just off the shores of Apple Island, shallow water and soft ground provide an anchoring point where lies the project’s only tangible connection to the realities of everyday. Beyond the comfort of the island’s shoreline, the silver-blue waters drop well beyond the reaches of light and deep out of sight, making site looklake as if elevated on all sides. The surrounding On the cool waters of the Orchard in Southeast Michigan rests the quiet lake not only acts as a barrier isolating the retreat from pedestrian access, but its natured and heavily-wooded Apple Island. Just off the shores of waters also serve as spatial currency making the retreat a solitary destination.Apple Island,
ORCHARD LAKE
shallow water and soft ground provide an anchoring point where lies the project’s only tangible connection to the realities of everyday. Beyond the comfort of the island’s shoreline, the silver-blue waters drop well beyond the reaches of light and out of sight, making the site look as if elevated on all sides. The surrounding lake not only acts as a barrier isolating the retreat from pedestrian access, but its waters also serve as spatial currency making the retreat a solitary destination.
ELEMENTS
ELEMENTS
Shoreline
Apple Island
Water
Apple Island
Water
ESSENCES Shoreline
ESSENCES
Site
Site
STRUCTURE
ELEMENTS
Horizontal
ESSENCES
PURE / REDUCED
ORGANIZED
YONA FRIEDMAN’S SPATIAL CITY Friedman’s structurally driven theoretical project addresses unavailable building stock such as bodies of water or in this particular instance, a vertical expanse bridging the ground plane and the sky above which is made possible by Friedman’s mechanized vision. The structural framework restrains the use of ground through vertical supports that extend its elevation into a vanishing perspective, while the horizontal skeleton suspends above the city to create a new terrain for inhabitation to be occupied and appropriated by future users.
CHAOS
FROZEN
MONOLITH
ELEMENTS
ESSENCES
KADINJAČA MONUMENT The sculpture’s former meaning was as powerful as its presence. Once portraying the heaviness of soldiers lost, now it has become a reminder of past totalitarian control. Though static, is stones manifest a visually powerful and spatial kinesis. The massive concrete monoliths rely on one another to create a single powerful spectacle of the whole system from afar. Each stone cascades slightly lower than the previous stepping down like stairs from the central stone, which evokes a focal point at the monument’s tallest point. Following the decline of Socialism, the monument was abandoned and its symbolic meaning became obsolete. Now the monument continues to exist in the form of pure sculpture as a horizon of a past collective memory. The arrangement of the stones and the shapes they take on produces a variation of visibility and obscurity. As a result, the sum of parts can be made to look heavier through the placement of shadows or nearly floating through application of direct light.
Vertical
GRAIN
ELEMENTS
ESSENCES
LETTER ‘Q’ The letter ‘Q’ consists of two prevalent components; the circle and the line. Without the other, a ‘Q’ simply becomes one of two shapes, alike an ‘O’ or an ‘I.’ Together, the disparate elements combine to form a peculiarly familiar letter. De-constructing the letter ‘Q’ without detracting its potential as a shape is possible through a series of cross-sectional studies. This allows the letter to be viewed as a single configuration in multiple iterations simply by changing the axis of a cut through a ‘Q’. Scale and proportion, two necessities of design, paired with repetition presents the ability to transform the letter into a device. By taking scale to the extreme, the letter ‘Q’ becomes unrecognizable when reduced to a single unit within a pattern. Furthermore, the pattern can hold structural integrity allowing for the introduction of a mesh created from base geometry.
MERGING TYPOLOGIES MONUMENT OF THE LAKE: MONUMENT GEOMETRY & THE WATER
The tower is perceived as minimally touching the ground by puncturing the water. With the slightest effort, it maintains stability. At this point, what was once ground is now light. The inverted waterfall transcends its former edge, changing the spatial relationship between horizon and gravity.
GRAIN AS THE LAKE: THE ‘Q’ PATTERN & THE WATER
The pattern of the rippling waves transforms into geometric repetition, creating a path along the ground at rest. Walking on water is the only moment where the retreat exposes itself to the outside world. At the thinning point of juncture, the mesh pattern disappears into a vortex underground creating hollow spaces.
GRAIN IN THE GRAIN: ‘Q’ TOWER & ‘Q’ ORNAMENT
The transformation of the ‘Q’ returns to the vertical extension of elements to inspire the simple gesture of stacking. Leaving the letter ‘Q’ on its indigenous 2D horizontal plane and stacking it grows the shape vertically in defiance of the suburban skyline. If each layer warps slightly from one stacked plane to the next, the result creates a dramatic and organic variation throughout and allows each individual level to extract a unique perspective with heightened depth.
GRAIN OF THE MONUMENT: ‘Q’ TOWER & MONUMENT BLOCKS
The building abstracts the static axis of gravity by inhabiting it as a spiral vertical perspective. The surreal monument is met by its realistic counterpart where water becomes the ground at rest, extending the retreat upwards to become a cloud and downwards, burying it into the earth perpendicularly - separating itself from the ground plane at opposite ends.
STRUCTURE OF THE GRAIN: FRIEDMAN’S SPATIAL CITY & ‘Q’ TOWER
The horizon of the city is a distant presence that both divides and connects sky and ground. The metamorphosis of ‘Q’ is a continuum where the structure appears and disappears. The connection between the tower and the structure is dictated by the weight of gravity and the edge of the apparent horizon. At this particular juncture, the vertical axis is experienced as a moment of ‘falling upwards.’
MONUMENT IN THE STRUCTURE: FRIEDMAN’S SPATIAL CITY
MONUMENT
BLOCKS
&
Below the water’s surface, the structure breaks away from the grain and regains its primitive form, inversely mirroring the tower above. Reminiscent of the Spatial City, the height of the grid is broken by solid objects melding contrasting shapes into the base of the tower. Here, the monumentality of these pieces is defined by the penetration of light, sight, and connection to the outside world through a balance of voids and solids.
MONUMENT OF THE LAKE: MONUMENT GEOMETRY & THE WATER
GRAIN AS THE LAKE: THE ‘Q’ PATTERN & THE WATER
GRAIN IN THE GRAIN: ‘Q’ TOWER & ‘Q’ ORNAMENT
GRAIN OF THE MONUMENT: ‘Q’ TOWER & MONUMENT BLOCKS
STRUCTURE OF THE GRAIN: FRIEDMAN’S SPATIAL CITY& ‘Q’ TOWER
MONUMENT IN THE STRUCTURE: MONUMENT BLOCKS & FRIEDMAN’S SPATIAL CITY
MONUMENT IN THE STRUCTURE: MONUMENT BLOCKS & FRIEDMAN’S SPATIAL CITY
MONUMENT IN THE STRUCTURE: MONUMENT BLOCKS & FRIEDMAN’S SPATIAL CITY
“THE MIDDEST”
GG
GM
SG
GL
MS
ML
RETREATING “THE MIDDEST�
x
Level 32 Level 31 Level 30
Level 29 Level 28 Level 27 Level 32 Level 31 Level 30
Level 29 Level 28 Level 27
Level 32 Level 31 Level 30
Level 29 Level 28 Level 27 Level 32 Level 31 Level 30
Level 29 Level 28 Level 27
x
Level 28 Level 27 Level 26 Level 25 Level 24
Level 28 Level 27 Level 26 Level 25 Level 24
Level 28 Level 27 Level 26 Level 25 Level 24
Level 28 Level 27 Level 26 Level 25 Level 24
x
Level 23 Level 22
Level Level23 22
Level 21
Level 21
Level 18 Level 20 LevelLevel 20 17 Level 17 Level 19 Level Level 19 Level23 22 Level 2322 Level
Level 21
Level 21
LevelLevel 1820
Level 20 Level Level 1819
Level 19 Level 18
Level 17
Level 17
x
Level17 16 Level
Level 15 Level 14
Level 17 Level 15 Level Level 14 16
Level 17 Level 16 Level 15 Level 14
Level 17 Level 15 Level 14 Level 16
x
Level 13 Level 13
Level 12 Level 10 Level 9 Level 8
Level 13
Level 12 Level 10 Level 9 Level 8
Level 12
Level 10 Level 9 Level 8
Level 13 Level 12
Level 10 Level 9
Level 8
x
Level 8 Level 7 Level 6 Level 5 Level Level 43 Level 2 Level 1 Level 8 Level 7 Level 6 Level 5 Level 4 Level 3
Level 8 Level 7 Level 6 Level 5 Level 4 Level 3 Level 2 Level 1 Level 8 Level 7 Level 6 Level 5 Level 4 Level 3 Level 2
FLINTERLAND RETREATS / Stewart Hicks & Allison Newmeyer [leads], Nahar Sonbol, Ghantous El-Tayar, Zahra Alatl, Xin Chen, Matt Seeley, Brendan Sprite, Miros Nava, Marianne Jones, Tyler Walker
The Process
FRIEDMAN LAKE’S RETREAT Congratulations on picking up your copy of the catalogue for Flinterland’s premier artist retreat at Friedman Lake. Each cabin is individually concieved for the most unique personalities and every one is the protagonist in their own story.
Flinterland’s Retreats
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Assumptions:
The Formula for Characters:
P(t) = Pro-tips I(c) = Icon C(h) = Character x = Scale Ratio C(t) = Cottage B(l) = Building
|P(t)| = I(c) x•I(c) = B(e) B(l) + √I(c) = C(h)
Character Pro-tips
Outfit Pro-tips
1. Tri-partite organization 2. Strategic Symmetry and Assymmetry. 3. Zoomorphism and Anthropomorphism 4. Posture - not too upright.
1. Doesn’t go all the way up or down. 2. More articulate than silhouette. 3. Emphasizes and frames geometry present in silhouette. 4. Takes shape from silhouette.
The Huddle
INDEX The full collection of characters!
SWAG
SALLY
BARNDOMINIUM
HERMIT’S RETREAT
WOODSTOCK
DAS BOOT
PARAGRAPHER
BEBETO
PEACOCK
Character #1 Swag
Character #4 Sally
Character #7 Barndominium
Character #2 Wood Stock
Character #5 Paragrapher
Character #8 Hermit’s Retreat
Character #3 Das Boot
Character #6 Bebeto
Character #9 Peacock
Flinterland’s Retreats
GAUNTLET
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MIES’ PIECES
FRANCIOS
BARK DECCO
WILLY WESTERN STYLE
MADAME MODE DOME
VICTORIA
NEGATIVE NANCY
Character #10 Gauntlet
Character #13 Mies’ Pieces
Character #16 Francois
Character #11 Madame Mode Dome
Character #14 Bark Deco
Character #17 Willy Western Style
Character #12 Romaneschereque
Character #15 Victoria
Character #18 Negative Nancy
ROMANESHERESQUE
Flinterland’s Retreats
Character #1
SWAG
SWAG
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Friedman Lake Colony’s most confident retreat. Swag’s arrogance most certainly does not go unnoticed, largely due to the beautiful and aggressive large curtain, fastened so as it hangs in a drooping curve on his dome like side. One of his main features is the crimped and bent metal façade. People wishing to stay and swag must either need to build their confidence or possess enough self confidence to handle all the swag.
Swag Section Not to Scale
Swag Plan Not to Scale
Character #2
WOODSTOCK
WOODSTOCK
Flinterland’s Retreats
One of Friedman Lake Colony’s most relaxing places to stay, Woodstock is ideal for those who like to take things slowly and peacefully while listening to live music. Many main events of Flinterland have taken place in Woodstock. When he is not booked for concerts, Woodstock enjoys playing card games, football and golf. He proudly features a dog friendly interior.
woodSTOCK
UIF XPPETUPDL QJFDF HBWF WPJDF UP UIF TQJSJU PG QFBDF XJUI UIF PQFO TQBDFT Ä•OF BOE MVYVSJPVT GVSOJUVSF BOE GVSOJTIJOHT GPS UIF CFESPPN EJOJOH SPPN IPNF PÄ?DF CBUISPPN BOE PVUEPPS 4PGBT BOE DIBJST UBCMFT BOE BDDFOUT BT XFMM BT MBSHF TFMFDUJPOT PG SVHT MJHIUJOH BOE EFDPSBUJWF PCKFDUT JO B SBOHF PG TUZMFT GSPN DMBTTJD UP DPOUFNQPSBSZ Ä•OF BOE MVYVSJPVT GVSOJUVSF BOE GVSOJTIJOHT GPS UIF CFESPPN EJOJOH SPPN IPNF PÄ?DF CBUISPPN BOE PVUEPPS 4PGBT BOE DIBJST UBCMFT BOE BDDFOUT BT XFMM BT MBSHF TFMFDUJPOT PG SVHT MJHIUJOH BOE EFDPSBUJWF PCKFDUT JO B SBOHF PG TUZMFT GSPN DMBTTJD UP DPOUFNQPSBSZ BU UIF XPPETUPDL‍ڀ‏TQBDF UIF PXOFS HPJOH UP GFFM SFMBUFE UP UIF NPUIFS PG OBUVFM Woodstock Section Not to Scale
Woodstock Plan Not to Scale
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Character #3
DAS BOOT
DAS BOOT
Flinterland’s Retreats
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Definitely the life of the party in the Friedman Lake Colony, Das boot is known as a must-have guest in every Flinterland social gathering. Don’t let his social skills and party like character fool you, Das boot is meticulously German Engineered with the latest Beer making equipment. Included is a hops garden and a yeast fermentation cellar for the beer artisan, a library with a range of Ancient to contemporary beer recipes with a nice and relaxing environment to study and impress your friends’ pallets. If you are planning on reserving this micro-brewery for Oktober, please reserve early as that is the busiest month for him. No need to bring your own wine here, seriously don’t bring it.
Das Boot Section Not to Scale
Das Boot Plan Not to Scale
Character #4
SALLY
SALLY
Flinterland’s Retreats
Sally is a special part of the Friedman lake Colony in Flinterland. Along with her barrier-free sense of humor and kind heartedness, her design is barrier-free. A special onboard computer calculating Seuristic Algorithms (SAL-LY 9000) allows the artist full control of every feature by voice requests as opposed to commands as well as hand gestures. Sally is meticulously maintained by the American Disability Act for Professional Theory (A.D.A.P.T). You don’t need to be special to visit Sally but if you want to feel special then she is always a good choice.
Sally Section Not to Scale
Sally Plan Not to Scale
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Character #5
PARAGRAPHER
PARAGRAPHER
Flinterland’s Retreats
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A great and popular choice within the Friedman Lake Colony, Paragrapher is the perfect Cottage for those who wish to have a new beginning in the Flinterland Lake community. Paragrapher is spacious enough to hold three to five people comfortably.[a paragraph is 3-5 sentences] He offers his residence the freedom to pursue and discuss anything they desire. Paragrapher contains the largest library, taking up most of the interior walls. Although he can stand alone, Paragrapher is usually found near other citizens of the lake community as he likes being a part of something larger then himself.
Paragrapher Section Not to Scale
Paragrapher Plan Not to Scale
Character #6
BEBETO
BEBETO
Flinterland’s Retreats
One of the most historical cottages amongst the Friedman Lake Colony in Flinterland is Bebeto. He offers his residence a great taste of Italy. Not only limited to the great selection of wine and spaghetti making recipes as well as the wooden oven for a molto bene pizza, Bebeto continuously inspires artists due to his Roman architecture infused with Renaissance principles and a pinch of Neo Classicism. His Venetian heritage makes Bebeto an inherent part of the Flinterland family.
Babeto Section Not to Scale
Babeto Plan Not to Scale
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Character #7
BARNDOMINIUM
BARNDOMINIUM
Flinterland’s Retreats
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Barn style cottage with breathtaking lakefront view. Beautiful oak veneered front door, with glazed bevel plate glass, opens from the front porch into the hall. Open oak staircase leading to the second floor. Large eased openings from the hall to the dining room and living room. Another cased opening from the living room to the den, which can be used as a library. The dining room is provided with a large oak buffet. A bay window in the living room and a good size pantry off the kitchen. We furnish two-panel veneered doors for the first floor with craftsman design clear oak trim. Clear oak flooring for the hall and rooms on the first floor. Clear maple flooring for the kitchen and pantry. Don’t wait until the cows come home. Only $999.99
Barndominium Section Not to Scale
Barndominium Plan Not to Scale
Character #8
HERMIT’S RETREAT
HERMIT’S RETREAT
Flinterland’s Retreats
Charming secluded home with adorable bay window in the front and side gables. Colored leaded art glass windows on the first floor and front door. Isolated living room with colonnade opening between the living room and the parlor. Open stairway and small hall connected with living room, kitchen and dining room. Ottawa front door. Two-panel veneered oak doors on first floor. Make this introverted home your own retreat for only $1,140.
Hermit’s Reatreat Section Not to Scale
Hermit’s Retreat Plan Not to Scale
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Character #9
PEACOCK
PEACOCK
Flinterland’s Retreats
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One of the Friedman Lake Colony’s most recognized artist retreat, Peacock is notorious for standing out in a crowd. The well-shaped space in his high rooms allows for multiple coloured eyes to see the gracious views of Flinterland. When he is not impressing other members of the colony peacock is usually studying film. Many famous actors have stayed in this wonderful retreat including Bruce Lee, Lucy Liu, Chiwetely Ejiofor and Peter Mensah. v
Peacock Section Not to Scale
Peacock Plan Not to Scale
Character #10
GAUNTLET
GAUNTLET
Flinterland’s Retreats
Friedman Lake Colony’s most challenging retreat, this daring cottage will definitely test the ability of the martial artist. It’s dojo like room along with its relaxing garden is meant to provide the residence with a space to relax and free the spirit as well as challenge other Flinterland Residence. The fencing that goes on in the practice area is often brought to the dining room in verbal form. If you are quick on your feet and whit, then this retreat is the one for you.
Swag Section Not to Scale
Swag Plan Not to Scale
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Character #11
MADAME MODE DOME
MADAME MODE DOME
Flinterland’s Retreats
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This charming escape is all about elegance on a budget. The design incorporates the sought after architectural features such as curves in nearly aspect. The main level allows entry by those permitted, while the upper levels accommodate grand living spaces. The living spaces consist of domes upon domes, above, below and even sideways. Prominent, monumental like elevations give the madam the statement she requires while keeping the curves expected of a madam.
Swag Section Not to Scale
Swag Plan Not to Scale
Character #12
ROMANESHERESQUE
ROMANESHERESQUE
Flinterland’s Retreats
Intended to stimulate ones senses, this intriguing retreat draws styling cues for the work of M.C. Escher. The sought after grand arches are located through out along with not only one grand staircase, but a series. They may not lead to any specific level, but it doesn’t matter. While most have one grand staircase, this design has numerous. If the stairs don’t throw you off, the upside down and sideways arches will! You are sure to wow your neighbors and find new spaces daily in this unique design.
Swag Section Not to Scale
Swag Plan Not to Scale
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Character #13
MIES’ PIECES
MIES’S PIECES
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This modern and elegant retreat is located in the Friedman Lake Colony in Flinterland. It features the most cutting edge materials that technology can produce. It has been German engineered down to the last bolt. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of his appearance, Mies’ pieces has been meticulously designed; countless hours were spent on the smallest details. One of his most favorite best kept secret is a cigar humidor capable of holding the largest collection. If you don’t mind sometimes feeling like you live in a glass box then this artist retreat is guaranteed to enrich your stay at the colony by diminishing distractions.
Mies’s Pieces Section Not to Scale
Mies’s Pieces Plan Not to Scale
Character #14
BARK DECCO
BARK DECO
Flinterland’s Retreats
Dedicated to only the most loyal Friedman Lake Colony artists in Flinterland, Bark Deco can be very loud. He gives music artists and composers access to one of Flinterland most advance electric recording studio. Bark Deco’s interior features many traditional craft motifs mashed in with machine age materials and textures. His stance is very bold amounts the colony and is not afraid to show off his rectilinear geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation.
Bark Deco Section Not to Scale
Bark Deco Plan Not to Scale
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Character #15
VICTORIA
VICTORIA
Flinterland’s Retreats
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This English style cottage is one of the Friedman lake colony’s most prestigious member. Many Royal figures as well as Soccer players have stayed under her refuge while in Flinterland. Victoria is known in the community for her gothic revival interior. She has won Vanity Fair Magazine’s best interiors award. Victoria is suited for those who tend to have difficult lives in which hard work; perseverance, luck and love are the main priorities. One of Victoria’s most memorable amenities is a spacious and well organised hat hangers guarantied not to ruffle your feathers or wrinkle your top hat.
Victoria Section Not to Scale
Victoria Plan Not to Scale
Character #16
FRANCIOS
FRANCOIS
Flinterland’s Retreats
This charming artist cottage retreat is part of the Friedman Lake Colony located in the beautiful and prestigious Flinterland Lake. Francois comes with his original French roots. Francois lives by an Ecole-des -beaux -art moral code. He includes a floor plan derived from Le Corbusier as well as the French Gothic era. A fully equipped state of the art Kitchen is perfect for making French Toast and croissants, the fridge is spacious enough to hold over two thousand kinds of cheese and whine. There is no need to hire a dog sitter; Francois has his own dedicated space for your poodle.
Francois Section Not to Scale
Francois Plan Not to Scale
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Character #17
WILLY WESTERN STYLE
WILLY WESTERN STYLE
Flinterland’s Retreats
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Willy western style is one of the Friedman Lake Colony’s wildest addition. He has just recently been tamed and is now part of the Flinterland family. He offers his residence a wide range of opportunity. Many cowboys like this retreat as it has ample room for many hats and boots as well as an authentic salon big enough for a small party. Due to many brawls that have taken place here you are required to sign a waiver. Some notable celebrities that have been part of this cottage are Mr. Colt, Remington, Smith and Weston.
Willy Western Style Section Not to Scale
Willy Wester Style Plan Not to Scale
Character #18
NEGATIVE NANCY
NEGATIVE NANCY
Flinterland’s Retreats
The best views of Flinterland can be viewed from Negative Nancy located in the Friedman Lake Colony. If you feel like you are being too destructive then you might want to consider this retreat as her views offer the residence plenty of opportunities for painters and photographers. And if you are lucky enough to get the chance to book her in the winter once the lake freezes then you are truly in for a treat. Just be aware that most of the residence can be jealous of Nancy and try to bring her down. But her perseverance and views can greatly help those who wish to have a better outlook.
Negative Nancy Section Not to Scale
Negative Nancy Plan Not to Scale
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Collectivity
RELATIONSHIP GRAMMAR The following are a few examples of potential relationships between characters. There are no right or wrong combinations, but each and everyone has a different meaning based on postures and positions.
Loving
Quarreling
Flinterland’s Retreats
Compatibility
Dominating
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Collectivity
RELATIONSHIP GRAMMAR
Companionship
Huddeling
Flinterland’s Retreats
Repelling
Relativity
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The Huddle
MEDIEVAL VILLAGE
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The Medieval Village is an arrangement in the form of a party of friends on Friedman Lake. Some are a little too close, with no room left for Jesus. No zoning laws or any other guides regulate the spacing between characters; each is allowed to exert its own personality and link to thier favorite companion.
The March
VICTORIAN ROW HOUSES One of Friedman Lakes most regimented formations, the row house grouping reduces the individual understanding of each character. The sum is greater than the parts, as a long line emerges with unexpected nooks and crannies. Your individual choices matter less but your voice is louder. Easily interact with your neighbors, just don’t disagree too vehemently or you’ll be stuck next to them for the rest of your stay.
The Tree Huggers
RADIAL
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Flinterland’s Retreats
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The radial formation is Ledoux inspired arrangement for the ecoconcious artist. The flower shape spins, maximizing sun exposure to all those in the formation. There are, however, privileged positions at the center and periphery of the radius. Some are closer to the center, making public collectivity easier. While those on the edges, on the other hand, have more individual space and relationship to the shore.
Dance Circle
SUBURBAN Exclusivity is both the goal and result of the suburban configuration of characters. It’s like a dance circle at prom and only a selected few are weclome. Swimmability is not the primary concern.
Assume the Formation
MANHATTAN
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Manhattanism is a gridded set of points with each character equidistant from four others. Everyone knows their place, but there is little room for individual expansion. Differences are easily registered with the grid as the datum upon which to read deviations in form.
The Worshippers
RINGED The ringed formation creates a wrapped line of characters that are all equidistant from a center point. They must all be looking at something important...
The Takeover
CAMPUS The characters are taking over. Each commands a space much larger than their physical footprint.
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LEAVING THE CITY / Christopher Holzwart [lead], Malwina Brown, Shannon Iafrate, Stephen Schell, Andriana Stefanov, Adam Murray, Ibrahim Alsharif, Suzanne Stiers, Chenchun Yang, MarĂa Lloreda
LEAVING THE CITY
Welcome to the Retreat Lake! Feel free to select from a variety of locations providing pristine views of your natural world. There is simply no better place to retreat from the city! We hope our retreat catalogue will fulfill your needs to find respite from The City.
6
1
2 5
3
4
Choose your type of retreat from the list below! Each option has distinct features and possibilities that you can tailor to your personal desires!
1
2
Folding Retreat Symmetrical form creating an atmosphere where one reflects on their position in the world!
3
Elevated Retreat The way to retreat in the sky, made possible by endless block stacking!
4
Mobile Retreat No limit to amazing views thanks to they dynamic spaces that can expand by sliding!
5
Tetratreat Stable flexibility and unmatched personal spaces allowed by mathematical schizophrenia!
6
Continuous Retreat Endless discoveries provided by continuous corridors.
Stacked Retreat Building by turning, sliding and stacking - allowing unlimited expansion!
1. FOLDED RETREAT
1. Folded Retreat
2. Elevated Retreat The open free-flowing form allows spacious and interactive environment within the Retreat. Following the path, you can reach the lakefront and enjoy beautiful views.
The composition is clean and unique. The same shape can create space within space and space above space!
3. Mobile Retreat
4. Tetratreat
Strong horizontal connections become the ceiling for one and the floor for the other. When more blocks are used they can be stacked vertically to create multiple levels.
5. Continuous Retreat
The sky is the limit! The same blocks are used to build all of these forms. The beauty of the form lies in its ability to form distinctive designs.
Use the forms and your imagination to create more unique spaces for your Retreat. Make it a memorable experience!
6. Stacked Retreat 2. ELEVATED RETREAT
2. Elevated Retreat The string represents the horizontal path that the H block follows and the circulation string guides their position vertically. The intention is to establish order for a continuous spiral.
The circulation string guides your path for the H blocks. 3. Mobile Retreat
4. Tetratreat
The blocks gradually build up along the circulation string and forms a spiral. The variety of spaces formed beneath the stacks create a personal experience for each user.
5. Continuous Retreat
The connected H blocks form spaces on different levels.
6. Stacked Retreat
A space to enjoy social activities!
3. MOBILE RETREAT
2. Elevated Retreat There are many ways to achieve designs with the wedge retreat. A retreat with others and retreat from others...a wedge away from reality.
Horizontal rail avenues connect vast networks together to form expansive routes and infinite arrangement of possibilities!
3. Mobile Retreat
4. Tetratreat
Even when this shape is used as a stack it still provides unique opportunities for separation and unity. Neighbors can explore vertical silos of retreat!
5. Continuous Retreat
Such a simple wedge manipulating in so many ways in all directions around the lake!
This evolution cannot stop, perhaps the Mobile Retreat could be this?
6. Stacked Retreat 4. TETRA RETREAT
2. Elevated Retreat Not enough room? Any blocks can be joined together using the simple twist:lock technology.
The Tetra Retreat is the building block of the future. The geometric perfection just feels right! 3. Mobile Retreat
4. Tetratreat
Mix and match. Collect them all!
5. Continuous Retreat
The Tetra Retreat can be a graceful revolution...
6. Stacked Retreat
How could you NOT make unique and dynamic interiors?
5. CONTINUOUS RETREAT
1. Folded Retreat
2. Elevated Retreat The surface of the building block is sheared to eliminate horizontal constraint.
Stack the looped forms to create complete spaces. The loops allow for improvisation as they can easily change direction and re-orient the direction of the space.
3. Mobile Retreat
4. Tetratreat
Movement can mean many things with this form. Stack the blocks to extend the interior.
5. Continuous Retreat
Continual stacking created fluid continuous space. The blocks have the ability to move around themselves, weaving to create new forms and dynamic spaces.
Allowing the form to loop on itself allows for spatial divisions, separating the guiding circulation to new and unexplored possibilities. Lose yourself in the adventure of perusing through continuous space.
6. Stacked Retreat 6. STACKED RETREAT
2. Elevated Retreat Push. Pull. Top. Bottom
Populate. Relax. Climb. Sit. Explore. Dive. Hide. Consider the sound and light that radiate within the spaces. Enjoy the intimacy and closeness of the Stacked Retreat.
3. Mobile Retreat
4. Tetratreat
Duplicate. Raise. Cantilever. Rotate
5. Continuous Retreat
Spread. Add
6. Stacked Retreat
Populate. Relax. Climb. Sit. Explore. Dive. Hide. Consider the sound and light the spaces radiate. Enjoy the generous open spaces and liberation of The Mega-Stacked Retreat.
WHICH ONE WILL YOU CHOOSE?
1.Folding Retreat
2. Elevated Retreat
3. Mobile Retreat
4. Tetratreat
5. Continuous Retreat
6. Stacked Retreat
RETREAT ON A LAKE - immediate architecture / A Toy / Aaron Jones & Wes Taylor [leads], Nathaniel Turner, Nawfaa Al-Bahrani, Ali Emgarreb, Charlie Harris, Khalid Hamoodh, Jonathan Reynolds, Brean Bush, Erin Lifton, Ibn Feisal Peerbaccus
EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD
Project at Play Rules
Objective Create your own retreat by using the guidelines provided to determine space and scale Guidelines: • Determine size of lake • Played pieces must touch lake • Once piece is picked up, must be placed on board • Must use minimum of 1 piece • Must use minimum of 1 scale people • must use minimum of 1 dear • Must use 1 object
Porcelain Paradise: Player: Tre & Elaina Object: Toilet Board Height: 45” A.F.F. Lake Diameter: 15.5” Dia. Completion Time: 2:55 minutes
M P O B L C
My Uncle’s Corvette Players: Cody & Michael Object: Car Board Height: 29” A.F.F. Lake Diameter: 11.5” Dia. Completion Time: 4:26 minutes
Porcelain Paradise: Player: Eliigah $ Adam Object: Picnic Table Board Height: 42” A.F.F. Lake Diameter: 14” Dia. Completion Time: 4:50 minutes
“Porcelain Paradise�
the public playground is suddenly in the midst of a 1 renaissace
This view allows for freedom in thinking and working 2
For many people this is a good thing, it promotes cultural diversity 3
Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more 5
New art for a new world
4
“Picnic Pleasure”
Any restriction of freedom of movement, has to be 6 avoided
The process of things coming together will generate beauty by itself 7
Ahh... Monster and Skittles, my kinda reteat 8
Everything has to remain possible9
“Porcelain Paradise�
[Play] is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained10
We’re changing attitudes as much as we’re chaging spaces11
The forms eventually generated by Architecture Mobile, are the result of this built-in-factor of randomness 12
“In every case, the game’s domain is therefore a restricted, closed, protected universe: a pure space” -Caillois 13
Bibliography1) Beckwith, J. (1967, June 24). A New Renaissance. Art Playground Cheltenham Business Start Up. Retrieved June 19, 2014, from http://artplaygroundchelt.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/after-generatio/ 2) Friedman, Y. (1923, January 1). Artwork (I). yonafriedman.com. Retrieved July 19, 2014, from http://www.yonafriedman.nl/?page_id=658 4)Fuchs, S., & Arens, M. (2012, January 1). World Socialist Web Site. Tatlin’s “new art for a new world” -. Retrieved June 7, 2014, from http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/06/tat1-j19.html 3) Foster, H. (2003, January 1). Design and Crime: And Other Diatribes Radical thinkers. Google Books. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from http://books.google.com/books?id=utEWWIoz5aEC&pg=PR14&lpg=PR14&dq=%22for+many+people+this+is+a+good+thing+it+promotes+cultural+diversity%22&source=bl&ots=Iw4Eaos9Db&sig=lvkzoUsF2NEQW2mE3lslgFdP6eE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=557KU5CcLsKeyASXnoGQCQ&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22for%20many%20people%20this%20is%20a%20good%20thing%20it%20 promotes%20cultural%20diversity%22&f=false 5) Aldo van Eyck and the City as Playground. (2013, March 27). MO. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://merijnoudenampsen.org/2013/03/27/aldo-van-eyck-and-the-city-asplayground/ 6) Wigley, M., & Nieuwenhuys, C. (1999). Another city for another life: Constant’s New Babylon : the Drawing Center, November 2-December 30, 1999. New York, NY: The Center. 7) Friedman, Y. (1923, January 1). Artwork (I). yonafriedmancom. Retrieved July 19, 2014, from http://www.yonafriedman.nl/?page_id=658
8) Class Generated Quote 9) Wigley, M., & Nieuwenhuys, C. (1999). Another city for another life: Constant’s New Babylon : the Drawing Center, November 2-December 30, 1999. New York, NY: The Center. 10) Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2004). Rules of play: game design fundamentals. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. (Friedman and the Groupe d’etudes d’architecture mobile: 72) http://iris.nyit.edu/~rcody/Thesis/Readings/ Topologies%20-%20Yona%20Friedman.pdf 11) Beckwith, J. (1973, January 1). Quotes Page - Playscapes. Playscapes. Retrieved July 19, 2014, from http:// www.play-scapes.com/quotes/ 12) Friedman, Y. (1923, January 1). Artwork (I). yonafriedman.com. Retrieved July 19, 2014, from http://www.yonafriedman.nl/?page_id=630 13) Caillois, R. (1961, January 1). Caillois: Man, Play and Games. Visual Art Research. Retrieved July 19, 2014, from http://www.visual-art-research.com/2010/02/caillois-man-play-and-games/
NETWORK
YONA FRIEDMAN: I DESIGN IN EVERY SCALE
INFRASTRUCTURE
USER ENCLOSURE
Friedman, Yona. Toward a Scientific Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1975. Print.
COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION OF A POLITICAL ZOO / Charlie O’Geen [lead], Irina Dwyer, Paul Eland, Randi Marsh, Scott Newsted, Devika Sangurdekar, Laura Schneider, Christopher Theisen, Ashley Brenner, Kanqi Zhu
I’M A NETWORK OF MULTIPLE HIGHWAY INTERSECTIONS
Friedman, Yona. Toward a Scientific Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1975. Print.
I’M A NETWORK OF MASS PRODUCTION
I’M STRUCTURE THAT ALLOWS VARIOUS ARRANGEMENTS
Friedman, Yona. Toward a Scientific Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1975. Print.
I’M A SHIT TON OF CONCRETE
I CREATE SPACE
Friedman, Yona. Toward a Scientific Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1975. Print.
I’M A BUNCH OF “K” BLOCKS
I LIVE INSIDE AN INFRASTRUCTURE
I’M IMPORTANT, YOU ARE DESIGNING FOR ME
Friedman, Yona. Toward a Scientific Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1975. Print.
I’M A PUBLIC FIGURE THAT BELONGS IN A ZOO
“Political Party Symbol Embroidery Designs.” Political Party Symbol Embroidery Designs. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 July 2014.
PROPERTIES OF A LAKE: PERMANENT NODE DEPRESSION BREAK FROM EVERYDAY ISOLATION SURROUNDED BY A NETWORK
I’M A LAKE
I’M A LAKE
I’M A LAKE
I’M A LAKE
I’M A LAKE
WE’RE LAKES
I’M AN ORGANIZATION THAT WILL SUSPEND A ZOO
I’M A ZOO
Friedman, Yona. Toward a Scientific Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1975. Print.
I’M A CLUSTERF*CK ZOO
Friedman, Yona. Toward a Scientific Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1975. Print.
I’M A BUILDING BLOCK
I’M A BUILDING BLOCK I’M A BUILDING BLOCK
I’MAA“K” “K” I’M
I’M BIG OIL
I’M FAO
I’M FANNIE MAE & I’M FREDDIE MAC
I’M THE UAW
I’M I’MAAMONUMENTAL MONUMENTAL ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION
I’M I’MAAZOO ZOO
I’M FAO
I’M A FISH NET
I’M THE UAW
I SUPPORT ASSEMBLY LINES
AUTOMOBILES CAN’T SURVIVE WITHOUT ME
I’M BIG OIL
I’M FANNIE MAE + FREDDIE MAC
NEED SOMEONE TO FINANCE YOUR ZOO?
DRIVE - THRU ZOO
I’M AN INHABITABLE “K”
I’M A BARREL
I’M A HOUSE
I’M A TIRE
I’M FOOD
ALGAE RISING / Maria Simon [lead], Joseph Vani, Terri Douglas, Geoff Lasoski, Ben Luther,Drew Pelkey, Randy Sova Ii, Luting Xu, Jamie Tischler
IT IS COMING.
WE MUST LOOK OUTSIDE OURSELVES FOR ANSWERS.
THE WAYS OF THE WEVI.
ONE NIGHT...
LARGE WAVES OF WEVI SEEK HELP...
RETREAT IS FOLLY / Amy Swift [lead], Nick Cressman, Kirk Stefko, Christopher Stefani, Jonathan Selleck, Guanyi Wang, Sarah Saleh, Jerry Carter, Jon Krdu, Abhimanyu Lakhey
3. GARAGEIN
NHABITED
oopopoepeprerearartiatiatiotionononHnHoHoHnonoenenyey-Tr ey-Tr y-Tr -Tr aapapapp T ThTheTheAheAneAnAneneGneG.eG.TG.Ty.TynTyngyngng g NNaNatNati oati onti onialonalnal“al“H H“e“HexHxeCexClxCloCol”lo”io”ni”nti ntei ntertreserstrstastataeateJteJueJunJuncunctncti octi onti onisonsns s For For farfar too too long long there there has has been been aa clear clear disconnection disconnection and and separation separation ofof public public social social space space and andhigh highspeed speedhighway highwayby-passes.... by-passes....Highways Highwayswere werethe thelink linkbetween betweendestinations, destinations,but but rarely rarelythe thedestination. destination.Passer-biers Passer-biersignore ignoretheir theirneighbor, neighbor,secluding secludingthemselves themselvestotoin intheir their private private automobiles. automobiles. Social Social space space is is not not the the space space ofof the the interchange. interchange.
MMi ich c higan igan HH ex ex agonal agonalCC lov lov erer leaf leafJ unc J unc t ion t ionCC as as e eSS t udy t udy CC PSPSM -M C-C1 41 -40- 30 3 J ul J ul y y2 021041 4
What What wewe propose propose is is a merger; a merger; the the cloverleaf cloverleaf becomes becomes the the destination. destination. NoNo longer longer is is the the space space vacant vacant ofof meaningful meaningful function function and and devoid devoid ofof social social interaction. interaction. The The cloverleaf cloverleaf is is the the event. event. AsAs one one enters enters the the site site the the highway highway becomes becomes the the walkway, walkway, seclusion seclusion turns turns toto inclusion inclusion and and social socialspaces spacessuch suchasasthe themarket, market,plaza, plaza,park parkand andstreet streetbecome becomethe theprimary primaryfunction function making making non non spaces spaces active active spaces. spaces. The The hexagon hexagon is is the the destination destination and and the the parking parking garage, garage, however however the the carved carved areas areas become become the the space space ofof interaction interaction and and socialization. socialization. The The exploration exploration is is centered centered and and focused, focused, but but the the idea ideacan canbebemorphed morphedand andmanipulated manipulatedinto intoa aplethora plethoraofofsites sites- sites - sitesthat thatwork workmore more successfully successfully with with anan octagon, octagon, triangle, triangle, oror square square - allowing - allowing the the program program and and it’sit’s function function toto exist exist wherever wherever there there is is a bypass. a bypass. What What wewe explore explore is is the the relationship relationship ofof social social spaces spaces toto each each other, other, and and also also toto the the parking parking garage. garage.How Howcan cana asimple simplegeometric geometricobject objectbebethe thecatalyst catalystforformultiple multipleinterventions interventionsand and opportunities? opportunities?Through Throughthe theprocess processofofsubtraction subtractionand andreconfiguration, reconfiguration,social socialspaces spacesare are clearly clearlydefined definedand andexhibited. exhibited.Moments Momentsofofsocialization socializationare areencouraged encouragedand andemphasized emphasized where where positive positive interaction interaction was was truly truly absent absent in in the the past... past...
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Critical Critical P ractice Practice Studio Studio
Off Off icic e eofof SS oc oc ial ialGar Gar age age
OPERATION HONEY-TRAP: ANNE G. TYNG NATIONAL INTERSTATE HEXCLO JUNCTIONS / Anirban Adhya & Alina Chelaidite [leads], Steven Mcmahon, Eleana Glava, Adam Wakulchik, Jeremy Adams, Gregory Wood, Jinhan Liu, Christopher Siminski, Jonathan Tull, Tra Page
T i mT ei ml ienlei :n ef :R Of RMO PME NP TE NA ST TA AS RTATRO THOE XH CE XL OC L O
The story The of story Pentastar of Pentastar to HexClo to HexClo is interesting is interesting to saytothe say least. the least. It’s a It’s storya story of love, of betrayal love, betrayal and revival! and revival! From From it’s onset, it’s onset, the the Pentastar Pentastar was riddled was riddled with controversy with controversy and secrecy. and secrecy. With the With the resurrection resurrection of Eisenhower, of Eisenhower, the project the project has been has been rebornreborn and and revitalized revitalized as HexClo as HexClo
Site Site of first of Initial sketch Initial sketch of the of interstate the interstateInterstate Interstate highway highway act signed act signed highway highway idea idea (pentastar (pentastar addedadded as as an interstate an interstate undisclosed undisclosed earmark) earmark)
1944 1944
1956 1956
1959 1959
first proposed proposed Eisenhower’s Eisenhower’s Pentastar Pentastar projectproject
1960 1960
Eisenhower Eisenhower Assassinated Assassinated by by radicalradical anti anti HexClo HexClo activist! activist! Covered Covered up byup“Scarlet by “Scarlet fever” fever” lies! lies!
Eisenhower resurrected, resurrected, HexClo HexCloproject, project,with withthe the Eisenhower Junction Junction projectproject assassination assassination of Eisenhower of Eisenhower and the and the HexcloHexclo reinstated and unclassified and unclassified onset onset of the of recession the recession fails fails to to reinstated develop develop and isand disregarded is disregarded
1969 1969
1970 1970
2012 2012
T he TNhe at ional N at ional s y s tsem y s tof emint ofers intt ers at e t at H ex e C H lo ex Cjunc lo junc t ionst ions . .
“The “The interstate interstate highway highway act was act never was never solelysolely created created to connect to connect areas,areas, it wasit to was be to used be used as a destination.... as a destination.... Who Who spends spends 20 million 20 million dollars dollars a milea for mileprime for prime real estate real estate and just andfills justitfills withit grass with grass and and water? water? I thought I thought this was thisAmerica.... was America.... I thought I thought wrong...” wrong...” -Dwight -Dwight D Eisenhower D Eisenhower (2012) (2012)
“Though “Though I wasI assassinated was assassinated by that bybastard that bastard radical, radical, I’m back, I’m back, and and so is the so isHexClo the HexClo project!” project!” -Dwight -Dwight D Eisenhower D Eisenhower (2012) (2012)
Single,Single, one layer oneHexClo layer HexClo Junction Junction
Large Large multilayer multilayer HexCloHexClo Junction Junction
Single,Single, one layer oneHexClo layer HexClo Junction Junction
Large Large multi-hex multi-hex HexCloHexClo Junction Junction
“A somewhat factual account of a somewhat factual proposal” * “A somewhat factual account of a somewhat factual proposal” *
Notice
Notice This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Lawrence Technological University College of Architecture and
Design under (LTU CoAD) in the interestofofthe information exchange. The LTU University CoAD assumes no liability for the use and of the information This document is disseminated the sponsorship Lawrence Technological College of Architecture in this document. Design (LTU CoAD) in thecontained interest of information exchange. The LTU CoAD assumes no liability for the use of the information contained in this document.The LTU CoAD does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers’ names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document.
The LTU CoAD does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers’ names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to thetoobjective of thepeople, document. *Any resemblance actual events, or scenarios is entirely coincidental. Though the proposal is obviously true and a
massive cover up by the central government, one should not look into it’s authenticity. All quotes taken by Dwight D. Eisenhower
in 2014 are entirely of). *Any resemblance to actual events, people,true or (sort scenarios is entirely coincidental. Though the proposal is obviously true and a massive cover up by the central government, one should not look into it’s authenticity. All quotes taken by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2014 are entirely true (sort of). Quality Assurance Statement
The LTU CoAD provides high-quality information to serve Government, industry, and the public in a manner that promotes public
Quality Assurance Statement understanding. Standards and policies are used to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of its information. LTU CoAD periodically reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs and processes to ensure continuous quality
improvement. The LTU CoAD provides high-quality information to serve Government, industry, and the public in a manner that promotes public understanding. Standards and policies are used to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of its information. LTU CoAD periodically reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs and processes to ensure continuous quality improvement.
s i st iet ea na anlaylsyi ss i s I-75 and I-75square and square lake lake road interchange road interchange
S i t Se i Pt re oPproospaol s a l
additional additional options options cloverleaf cloverleaf 2 2 (square) (square)
cloverleaf cloverleaf 2 2 (triangle) (triangle)
cloverleaf cloverleaf 3 3 (rectangle) (rectangle)
form form
subtraction subtraction
m omnounmu emnetn: t :
The The I-75 I-75 & square & square lake lake roadroad intersection intersection and interchange and interchange see see almost almost 200,000 200,000 vehicles vehicles per day, per day, making making it a prime it a prime location location for afor social a social intervention. intervention. The The site is site currently is currently not anot destination; a destination; it is strictly it is strictly utilized utilized as a as a transportation transportation route. route. The The physical physical characteristics characteristics of the ofplace the place inviteinvite opportunity opportunity for afor large a large scalescale intervention. intervention. In addition, In addition, the unique the unique features features of the of site the (the site (the triangular triangular configuration) configuration) allowallow a powerful a powerful geometric geometric gesture gesture in theinhexagon the hexagon form.form. The parking The parking garage garage is defined is defined by both by both the site the constraints site constraints (the (the outside outside edgeedge of the of highways) the highways) and and the intersecting the intersecting of the of the highway highway forms. forms. The The project project is about is about carving, carving, removing, removing, and and subtracting. subtracting. The The layers layers of subtraction of subtraction are three are three fold fold : the: highways, the highways, the the monuments monuments and the andfloor the floor plates plates of the ofparking the parking garage. garage.
Using the “Broken Wing” socialist monument, the idea of merging several iterations of the Using the “Broken Wing” socialist monument, the idea of merging several iterations of the through rotation, stacking, and subtracting explored. wingwing through rotation, stacking, and subtracting was was explored. process involved testing the wing in rotation of degrees 30 60, and45 60,and 45 90. and 90. The The process involved testing the wing in rotation of degrees of 30ofand Following the test, the combining and merging ofwings the wings analyzed resulting Following the test, the combining and merging of the werewere analyzed resulting in in identifiable typologies as street, market, and plaza. identifiable typologies suchsuch as street, market, parkpark and plaza.
t y tp yo pl o lg oy g :y p: l pa lz a z a
t y tp yo pl o lg oy g :y m: amr ak re kt e t The Market The Market may may havehave the most the most defined defined socialsocial interaction interaction of allof the alltypologies the typologies (many (many interactions interactions and socializations and socializations occurring occurring at once, at once, between between complete complete strangers strangers in theinbuyer/ the buyer/ sellerseller relationship). relationship). Regardless Regardless of interior of interior or or exterior, exterior, the market the market works works as a as flowing a flowing space space and destination and destination for exchange. for exchange.
Plaza, Plaza, an open an open urbanurban public public space space between between buildings buildings is a definitive is a definitive example example of formal of formal gathering. gathering. WhileWhile the the Park,Park, Street, Street, and Market and Market focusfocus on on uncontrolled uncontrolled sporadic sporadic gathering gathering areas, areas, plazas plazas offer offer the opportunity the opportunity for public for public forums, forums, mainmain events, events, or formal or formal events events to take to take place. place. People People can still can still experience experience the plaza the plaza as a as place a place of rest of rest or refuge, or refuge, but the butspace the space is typically is typically designed designed for gathering. for gathering. PlazaPlaza is is defined defined by itsby enclosure, its enclosure, ranging ranging from from semi-enclosed semi-enclosed to fully to enclosed fully enclosed on allon all sidessides with small with small moments moments of entry. of entry.
formalformal relationships relationships
essence essence
monument monument
The emphasis The emphasis is notison notenclosure, on enclosure, but but on experience, on experience, oftenoften limiting limiting onesones choice choice in travel in travel paths. paths. It canIt be canset beup set up very very rigidly rigidly or sporadically, or sporadically, though though the the function function is always is always diverse diverse and rich. and rich.
formalformal relationships relationships
essence essence
monument monument
e s se esns ce en c: ep :l apzl aa z a
e s se esns ce en c: em: a mr ka ertk e t
Looking Looking for afor true a true socialsocial gathering? gathering? The The plazaplaza offersoffers a gathering a gathering space space for strolling for strolling and and display. display. Experience Experience different different configurations configurations and defining and defining edgeedge conditions. conditions. The plaza The plaza offersoffers the best the best dealsdeals from from local local businesses. businesses. Come Come and enjoy and enjoy a new a shopping new shopping experience, experience, watch watch a a greatgreat event, event, and get andthe getbest the best bangbang for your for your buck.buck.
Are you Are ready you ready to shop to shop till you till drop? you drop? ThenThen look look no further no further than than the district the district markets. markets. Mingle Mingle elbow elbow to elbow to elbow with with complete complete strangers strangers or make or make a new a new friend. friend. If you If are you looking are looking for afor a bargain... bargain... Well,Well, you’re you’re in luck. in luck. The market The market produces produces the best the best local local food food the surrounding the surrounding area area has to has offer; to offer; a truea way true to way support to support the local the local community! community!
T yTpyoploolgoyg y: P: aPrakr k
Open Open and and oftenoften unconstrained unconstrained / / undefined, undefined, the park the park is the is premier the premier space space of informal of informal gathering. gathering. Parks Parks inviteinvite multiple multiple recreational recreational activities. activities. Regardless Regardless of if of they if they are designed are designed (mini(mini parks parks between between cities) cities) or open or open and and less less defined defined (such (such as large as large nature nature parks) parks) the the parkpark encourages encourages gathering gathering and and socialization. socialization.
T yTpyoploolgoyg y: s: tsrtere et e t It would It would be near be near impossible impossible to get to get between between the different the different levels levels of social of social occupations occupations without without the street. the street. Working Working as aas connector, a connector, the street the street brings brings together together the different the different functions functions whilewhile alsoalso acting acting as an asinformal an informal gathering gathering areaarea itself. itself. Defined Defined by edge by edge conditions conditions and and directionality, directionality, the street the street is about is about linear linear travel. travel. Limited Limited access access points points helphelp to to emphasize emphasize the horizontal the horizontal plane. plane.
Defined Defined by light, by light, length, length, openness openness and and surface, surface, the park the park is about is about horizontal horizontal planes planes that that do not do have not have a defined a defined circulation circulation pattern. pattern. It is a It setting is a setting within within a a city that city that provides provides opportunities opportunities for for relaxation, relaxation, physical physical activities, activities, exploration, exploration, social social gatherings gatherings and and connecting connecting to nature. to nature.
formalformal relationships relationships
essence essence
monument monument
e s es se sn ec ne c: e p: a pr ak r k Theres Theres no question no question that that largelarge green green spaces spaces create create a healthy a healthy environment. environment. These These spaces spaces are are essential essential to community to community development. development. The The concrete concrete jungles jungles of old of prided old prided themselves themselves on the on the reduction reduction of greenspace, of greenspace, whilewhile this this community community encourages encourages largelarge expanses expanses of parks. of parks. Our Our parks parks become become the “in thebetween” “in between” spaces spaces that that define define the Plaza, the Plaza, or the or Market. the Market. Plus,Plus, theythey are are typically typically raised raised highhigh above above the other the other social social spaces, spaces, taking taking in asinmuch as much sunshine sunshine as possible! as possible!
formalformal relationships relationships
essence essence
monument monument
e s es se sn ec ne c: e s: t sr te re te e t Streets Streets will bring will bring you you fromfrom pointpoint A to Apoint to point B, but B, also but also serve serve a primary a primary social social function! function! Mingle Mingle withwith passer-biers, passer-biers, or discover or discover newnew areas areas (Hey, (Hey, is that is that a new a new plaza plaza I haven’t I haven’t visited?) visited?) TheyThey are are well well defined defined areas areas that that focus focus on directionality on directionality and and travel. travel. A proper A proper street street will will invite invite investigation, investigation, and and havehave interesting interesting edges edges that that allowallow for discovery for discovery through through theirtheir many many openings. openings. HowHow elseelse could could you you get around get around without without them? them?
C oCmo bmi bn iantai to ino: n :
Social Social Occupation Occupation 4 4
HOUSING HOUSING
Social Social Occupation Occupation 3 3
HOUSING HOUSING
Social Social Occupation Occupation 2 2
HOUSING HOUSING
Social Social Occupation Occupation 1 1
PLAZA PLAZA
MARKET MARKET
PLACE OF PLACELESSNESS
STREET STREET
CONFIGURATION CONFIGURATION
HEXCLO JUNCTION AS A DESTINATION
EXTERIORITY: Ambivalence of geometry and repetition of slabs
NEW INTERIORITY: Surfaces and contours
NEW TYPOLOGY: Endless canyon atrium
NEW EXPERIENCE: Voids and non-voids
EDGING THE CITY: A MIDWAY FOR EVERYDAY COMBINES / Irsida Bejo [lead], Stephen Bohlen, Ryan Kronbetter, Amin Toghiani, Alexis Blackwell-Brown, Breck Crandell, Shuang Wu, Christina Jackson, Nicole Gerou, Christopher Bartholomew
a4
b4
a3
b3
a2
b2
a1
b1
c4
d4
e4
c3
d3
e3
c2
d2
e2
c1
d1
e1
SITE
GEOMETRY
MONUMENT
GARAGE
CUBE REGISTRATION
Studies of the infrastructural interchange as a solid cube.
the stack interchange of I-96 Jeffries Highway and M-39 Southfield Freeway
platonic solids: the cube is stacked following the Fibonacci sequence
casting of vertical voids from solid columns
circulation for vehicular and pedestrian traffic
a4
The site experienced within parametric borders.
Section
Plan
a3
GEOMETRIC HIERARCHIES The Fibonacci sequence slices the stacking series of solid cubes into two pieces.
Interplay of polarity and rotation The separated pieces follow the upward pattern of changing scale while turning on its axis.
e2
ITERATIONS OF MERGING ELEMENTS
Solids and voids of the monument extend upwards to form a new typology of space: the vertical atrium.
Void of the columns merged with sequences of geometry form flattened symmetries and patterns that [when stacked] create a skin.
d4
INTRUSION OF SITE
The site grounds itself through the act of intrusion by pulling the bottoms of the highway ramps downwards until they meet the ground.
EXTRUSION OF NEGATIVE SITE
STAMP OF SITE
The site is mirrored above itself and then pressed downwards, stamping the negative imprint of its peaks and valleys into a solid surface.
PLATES SLICED FROM NEGATIVE EXTRUSION
e4
EXTRUSION OF NEGATIVE SITE
The negative imprint of the site is extruded from below, exposing the memory of the ground.
PLATES SLICED FROM NEGATIVE EXTRUSION
The extruded negative grade surface exposes spaces where none of the roads contact the ground. These spaces are separated as plates to accommodate program.
b3
Geometric studies of solids and voids as a memory of highway mobility traced in a state of stasis above.
d3
I NEVER GO TO WORK Spatial Progress
Step 1 of 3: Cube geometry
Step 2 of 3: Spiral action
b4
ar
tis
tic
architectural gestures as cultural instruments
s
ilitie
nd
ra
rog
lter
el
rall
pa
a and
n
p ate
a ms
p
ib oss
a physical and imagined proposal
a
ent of movem
lines be
twee
e and n chanc
ness
random
scientific
d2
Step 3 of 3: Applied to site
b2
DYNAMIC DYNAMIC PROGRESSION PROGRESSION OF OF THETHE CUBE CUBE
Simple space-frames are stacked symmetrically into complex forms that are distorted using an asymmetric process of extruding half of its solid interior.
c4
Puncture / Carve
Divide / Slide
Trim / Boolean
ARTISTIC ARTICULATION
d1
THE LONELY CROWD
or n lab urba
uction local prod
auto manufacturing
Y Y STR STR INDU INDU
a2
THE LONELY CROWD
INDUSTRY
aut om anu fac turi ng urban labor
uction local prod
a1
FLINTERLAND IN PERSPECTIVE / Stewart Hicks & Allison Newmeyer [leads], Nahar Sonbol, Ghantous El-Tayar, Zahra Alatl, Xin Chen, Matt Seeley, Brendan Sprite, Miros Nava, Marianne Jones, Tyler Walker
FLINTERLAND IN PERSPECTIVE A Proposal for a Parking Structure
LAST KNOWN PHOTOGRAPH C.L.O.V.E.R. L.E.A.F.S. (Continuous Loops of Vertical Exiting Ramps Leading Everyone Around Flinterland Sites) Flinterland’s vertical configurations of private and public architecture. Formed through the accumulation of character objects, they are large mounds of inescapable and labyrinthine spaces. Because one cannot escape a C.L.O.V.E.R. L.E.A.F., it is unclear what the full formation looks like. This is the last known photograph of one before it became too large to escape.
Page 5
The geometry of Anne Tyng fills in the gaps between objects making connections where there were none.
POSSIBLE CONFIGURATION This is one possible configuration of a C.L.O.V.E.R. L.E.A.F. Each is only experienced through a series of vignettes and it is therefore impossible to know its full form. The following document is the sum total of personal vignettes one might find within a C.L.O.V.E.R. L.E.A.F. Each is described through a first person description with a snapshot photograph that attempts to describe the indoor/outdoor space as well as how people have attempted to populate these spaces with their everyday activities.
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TABLE OF CONTENT Since no one knows the full shape of C.L.O.V.E.R. L.E.A.F.S., it is only known through its interior spaces. The following is a catalogue of various snapshots. Each includes a verbal first person account of the space and how it accomodates the public uses that Flinterland demands of it. Also, there is an image of a typical everyday scene and a diagram that breaks down the geometrical relationships of the void spaces.
Bark Deco & Bebeto
Das Boot & Swag
Mies & Das Boot
Hermit & Woodstock
Mies & Peacock
Paragrapher & Bebeto
Mies & Bark Deco
Nancy & Francois
Sally & Woodstock
Page 11
Victoria & Peacock
Paragrapher & Swag
Paragrapher & Peacock
Swag & Woodstock
Sally & Mies
Roman & Victoria
Sally & Paragrapher
Victoria & Woodstock
Nancy & Mies
Nancy & Peacock
Francois & Victoria
Barndominium & Mies
Page 13
Bark Deco & Bebeto
Das Boot & Swag
Page 15
Page 17
Mies & Das Boot
Hermit & Woodstock
Page 19
Page 21
Mies & Peacock
Page 23
Paragrapher & Bebeto
Mies & Bark Deco
Page 25
Page 27
Nancy & Francois
Page 31
Sally & Woodstock
Page 33
Page 29
Victoria & Peacock
Swag & Woodstock
Page 35
Page 37
Sally & Paragrapher
Nancy & Peacock
Page 39
Page 41
Page 47
Paragrapher & Swag
Sally & Mies
Page 43
Page 45
Victoria & Woodstock
Francois & Victoria
Page 49
Page 51
RE-LINKING THE CITY / Christopher Holzwart [lead], Malwina Brown, Shannon Iafrate, Stephen Schell, Andriana Stefanov, Adam Murray, Ibrahim Alsharif, Suzanne Stiers, Chenchun Yang, María Lloreda
RE-LINKING THE CITY
T
hou care about thy food, and thou hast a busy life. There is to truly take the care and attention thou wouldst like on consuming local, organic, wholesome foods.
not enough time in a day
This food was all grown outside The City so it’s untouched by urban grime. It’s better for you.
T
was once the case that the lower caste was
separated from it’s food. They would
travel to “grocery stores” to purchase food from sources unknown.
A
nd then the “organics” Food to be sure, yet still of suspect origins. What is “needed” is a place f’r elite to meet and eat. The surest way to “know thy food” is to grow thy food. Sup the beer and grow the grain.
Dear Lord! Let us pray for them.
The bacon here can actually help clean your arteries!
Quick! Before someone sees us.
T
he silo thy food entertainment venue!
“selective intellectuals looking for organics.” Not thy typical run-of-the-mill grocery store ‘r restaurant. ‘Tis is a “true” food experience for the “taste aristocrat.” Drive on in. Not only will thou get to see how thy food is cultivated, processed and prepared, thou will take part in the process. Drive on in to our convenient location right ov’r A local food source f’r only :but
top of the highway.
The Original Silo
The New Silo
It makes me feel bouyant!
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
$
$
$
$
The Silo Plan
Participate in the production and consumption of thy food by using thy menu to cruise about the SILO from course to course.
F
The Menu
irst Course
Locally Rais’d Oysters. Scuba Dive to Harvest. Steamed with Butter.
The Menu
S
econd Course
Seasonable Vegetables. Choose the Vegetables thou Desired for Future Meals
Segway Picking
S
trawberry Fields
V
egetable Garden
F
armer’s Market Bicycling
S
eafood Diving & Harvesting
Seafood Snorkeling
TT
enth enth Course Course
Strawberry and Apple Cobbler With Apple Brandy
T
The Menu
hird Course
Hearty Stew, “Simmer’d” since yesterday with Ingredients from other Patrons. Served with Red Wine
V
ineyard
Ingredient Selection
N
inth Course
Vegetables roasted on sticks.
F
The Menu
ourth Course
Coq Au Vin: Chicken braised in Pinot Noir and cook’d with Root Vegetables
P
asture
Live Food Interaction
A
battoir
W
inery
Car Powered Grape Press
Humane Slaughter
F
S
The Menu
ifth Course
The Menu
ixth Course
Choice Cut of Goat served on a Bed of Wild Rice.
Caprese Quiche of Fresh Mozzarella, Basil and Tomatoes
Grazing
Car Mill
A
nimal Pens
Fitness Center
Live Food Interaction
S
E
The Menu
eventh Course
The Menu
ighth Course
Potted Pie of Minced Mutton and Cow Served with Oatmeal Stout
W
Scaling For Eggs
heat Fields
Enchiladas with Grilled Corn on the Cob and Spicy Jalape単o Butter
Maize Fields
C
ow Farm
Dairy Farm
Maize Maze
A
nd so it goes, the prestige of food is ever changing,
always -- ALWAYS -- for the exclusivity of the sophisticated.
Dear Lord! Let us pray for her.
Quick! Before someone sees us.
The bacon here can actually help clean your arteries! It makes me feel bouyant!
SOCIAL GARAGE - Non Urban Place / A COMMERCIAL BREAK / Aaron Jones & Wes Taylor [leads], Nathaniel Turner, Nawfaa Al-Bahrani, Ali Emgarreb, Charlie Harris, Khalid Hamoodh, Jonathan Reynolds, Brean Bush, Erin Lifton, Ibn Feisal Peerbaccus
EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD
Commercial Break This work explores the architectural mash-up of cemetery plots, parking grids, storage modules, and jail cells through the lens of a fictional graphic narrative. The study is furthered through a base analogy of gridlike geometries which dictate the individual planning of these consituent uses. The story follows a boy as he reimagines a series of television commercials into an obscene mixed-use architectural space. This self storage drive-in movie prison for the dead is meant to stoke discourse regarding storage spaces and the value we place on them and their contents. Of specific concern is the place-less ness of these spaces, and their relationship to individual and collective identity within an urban context.
Jon...
Jon, take those boxes to the garage
Okay...
Jon, Jon, Wake up Jon!
Jon, Wake UP!
The Boxes
Detroit, Detroit, MIMI
A PATTERN LANGUAGE: MASS-PRODUCTION, MONUMENTS, MOATS / Charlie O’Geen [lead], Irina Dwyer, Paul Eland, Randi Marsh, Scott Newsted, Devika Sangurdekar, Laura Schneider, Christopher Theisen, Ashley Brenner, Kanqi Zhu
Parking Parking Garages Garages Premier Premier Garage Garage 10231023 Parking Parking StallsStalls (64’ (64’ x 9’ =x 576 9’ = SF) 576 SF) 1023/2 1023/2 = 511.5 = 511.5 x 576x SF 576 SF TotalTotal = 294,624 = 294,624 SF SF
Jefferson Jefferson Parking Parking DeckDeck 8 Levels 8 Levels (110’(110’ x 188’ x 188’ = 20,680 = 20,680 SF) SF) TotalTotal = 144,760 = 144,760 SF SF
Greektown Greektown Casino Casino Parking Parking Garage Garage 13 Levels 13 Levels (187’(187’ x 466’ x 466’ = 87,142 = 87,142 SF) SF) TotalTotal = 1,045,704 = 1,045,704 SF SF
Parking Parking Lots Lots Comerica Comerica ParkPark
Atwater Atwater St. &St.Antoine & Antoine St. St.
Howard Howard & Second & Second
Interstates Interstates I-375 I-375
I-75I-75
M-10 M-10
Anne Anne Tyng Tyng
Parking ParkingGarages Garages
Conventional Conventional Sloped Sloped Ramp Ramp
Contemporary Contemporary Automated Automated Slab Slab
Site Site Selection, Selection, City City ofof Detroit Detroit
Dodecahedron Dodecahedron
Remaining Remaining Space Space
Parking Parking Garages Garages
Parking Parking Lots Lots
Remaining Remaining Material Material
RETURN OF THE WEVI / Maria Simon [lead], Joseph Vani, Terri Douglas, Geoff Lasoski, Ben Luther, Drew Pelkey, Randy Sova Ii, Luting Xu, Jamie Tischler
FOLLY IS MONUMENT / Amy Swift [lead], Nick Cressman, Kirk Stefko, Christopher Stefani, Jonathan Selleck, Guanyi Wang, Sarah Saleh, Jerry Carter, Jon Krdu, Abhimanyu Lakhey
Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss Inhabiting Everyday Monuments
This masterclass created contemporary interpretations from unrealized visions of radical Western architecture from 1960’ and 1970’. These interpretations were amalgamated with archeology of socialist architecture from Eastern Europe built about the same time. The three visions from the West were taken from Constant Nieuwenhuys, Yona Friedman and Anne Tyng. The archeology of socialist architecture was drawn from an array of Yugoslav and other Balkan monuments as well as abandoned socialist institutions. These studies are seeking contemporary aspects of inhabiting futures from the past. They are charged with ideologies that inspired them as abstract symbols of the revolution as well as the aesthetics of their aspirations towards the everyday. Lawrence Tech, being located in Southfield in Michigan north of Detroit proper, is suitable for this kind of exploration of the future from the past. However we based our search further north towards the city of Flint, rather than going south. This allowed everyone for expanding explorations of the corridor between the two major motor cities, seeking for radicalizing infrastructure, ideas for inhabitation and exquisite nature in between. Significant amount of people in Michigan come from both West and East hemispheres the explorations in this masterclass relate very closely to the future of migrations, mobility and inhabitation. The role of architecture and design was challenged within the combination of given and found sources. This by default was meant to explore their amalgamations and new typologies. And to this approach we developed an affinity to artistic ways of working, where one does not necessarily follow previous discoveries, but may stand as counterpoints to each other in procession. Repeating this method several times during the process, one absorbed each other by sets of contradictions and briefs. In addition the design teams of eight to ten architects was guided by professional team leaders. This made architectural and artistic work advance full of surprises and new discoveries. Due to the team structure simulating the work of a creative office, singular visions overpowered practice of creating options. In efforts to expand architecture as a spatial practice, the projects were susceptible to absorbing logics and strategies of art, as well other
everyday practices. The expansion relied on various ways as to discover inhabiting new kind of monumentality, where extraordinary is normal, where unseen is foreseen, where unreal is surreal. In such and continuous switching of logics, architectural propositions received archeological qualities, some reached the stage of melancholia. And beyond the obvious affinity to art practices the work of the teams came to the point of critical distinction. No two strategies were the same. Parallel to distinction of approaches the studios engaged in exploring new amalgamated typologies of architecture. Search for new and emerging typologies helped keep extraordinary proposals within the domain of minimal complexity, something that is essence to every type of visionary and archeological architecture. The compression of time constraints in a charette type work style kept urgency to continuously move ahead with the traces of previous stages of design work. The condition that all propositions must be mediated as a graphic novel created additional urgency to proceed and accelerate from within the genre of the medium. This was similar to film or music production where the timing of medium dictates the working of the content. Needles to say plenty of models and drawings became instant archeology, or a distinct kind of waste in the studio. One of the key objectives in this way of leading studios is the allowing for complication to overcome increasing complexity of contemporary ways of life. This coming from the convictions of Yona Friedman who states that he prefers complication over complexity was one of the key attitudes taken as essential. That essential, in order to be made contemporary needed to be challenged attempts to eliminate it. The essence from Constant, commonly identified as play, has been transcribed as contemporary forms and mobile spaces of work, sometimes unnoticeable, but rooted in everyday spatial practice. The obsession of Anne Tyng with Platonic solids and their cosmic analogies has been given an oblique interpretation where tradition is challenged by scale, size or deflection. The essences of former socialist monuments, rooted in abstraction and symbolism were manipulated so that they can work as a form spatial currency that can be transplanted and amalgamated with the others. And finally the conditions of infrastructure in Michigan, it’s radical origins, and shrinking effects and performance, were seen as binding elements of design strategies. For example the dislocation was taken
as a valuable spatial condition working with an archipelago of lakes in Michigan as well as highway exchanges. As a result the places of passing were crafted as places for being. All three projects were designed to follow this amalgamation of existing sources, from unrealized visions to archeology of socialist monuments and reality of Michigan’s urban decay. The key challenge remains as to how to inhabit them both as process, object and discourse. The projects themselves are meant to be their own discourse. The three projects that follow are 1. TripBusStop as the interpretation of a typology of a new bus stop, in a state of Michigan that largely abolished public transport, 2. Retreat Cloud as the interpretation of the idea of a retreat as a place of work rather than play, 3. Social Garage or I Never Go To Work, as the new interpretation of overflowing typology of generic car-parks across urban and suburban landscape. This publication is followed by a website criticalpractice.ltu.edu recording parts of the process and Vimeo collection of short videos where participants talk or point to their experience, link TBD.
STUDIO
Philip D. Plowright Typology as Minimal Complexity
Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss is dangerous. He believes in the future; in the ability to bring something new into the world; in a post-ideological world; in the end of war; in the infusion of architecture with irrationality. Yet, he stresses pragmatics and approaches the future by returning to the past. And his visionary process is grounded in the oldest and most defensible methodological framework possessed by architectural design – the deployment of pattern through typology. Pattern-based design processes can be found in the writing of Vitruvius and were rationally developed in the 19th century by J-N-L Durand to meet the requirements of an industrial age1. There was a resurgence of interest in typology in the 1960s and 1970s by urban theorists and designers. And then it vanished from practice in architecture (although urban design still pursues typological research). It is difficult to find the term today in the intellectual culture of architecture, even more problematic to use it in public. Yet, typology is important as it uses past successful ways of engaging space as its source material through the development of formal rules. It presupposes relevance of the new design by allowing it to become a version of what already exists. Jovanovic Weiss’ design process is not that as written about by Vitruvius, de Quincy, Durand, and Moneo or rather it is in its essence but not in its practice. It contains the same underlying framework and structure of information deployment, but the actual method involves 1
Plowright 2014, 135-8
Figure 1: Pattern-based framework (from Plowright 2014)
more complexity, the injection of artistic tactics and carefully conceived interventions to allow the improbable to become relevant. Jovanovic Weiss develops his own terminology to refer to classic typological processes, something important as it allows the abandonment of predetermined expectations. Still, he starts with objects of cultural mass – the monument, the parking structure, the bus stop – reduces them by finding their essential pattern, relations or priorities and redeploys a new version through fuzzy repetition2. Past patterns are used for future occupation but without being nostalgic or historical.
How does typology work? The core factors in a typological approach is returning to existing objects or entities as a source for design, the reduction of those objects into core compositional relationships, and the redeployment of those relationships to propose a new iteration of the original objects or entities. When the relationships are based in a repeated series of objects which are known (school, hammer, library, chair, residential neighbourhood, fork, etc) then these are called types. When several factors are brought together to created something unknown but still using existing content, then these are called prototypes, or the beginning of a new series. Every object or entity can have an aspect of themselves reduced to a fundamental pattern, or as Jovanovic Weiss terms it – its essence. 2 For a discussion of fuzzy repetition see Plowright 2014, 136–7
Figure 2: Jovanovic Weiss’ method based on using multiple pattern-based frameworks
This necessary abandons the whole for a diagrammatic representation of that which defines the core aspect of the thing. The essence should represent a set of core values through formal relationships or be presented through model, image or diagram. It is not simply a conceptual idea and contains only itself. This means that the formal then holds the socio-cultural content, removing its visibility but maintaining its priorities. Mapping to an essence, an essential pattern, is a way to reduce something complex, something that is non-discrete with extended boundaries and entailment in the socio-cultural realm, into its minimal form. A form that can be packaged, transferred, replicated and redeployed. The underlying framework for a typological approach is one that chooses a type to analyze and then reduces that type to formal composition (Figure 1, step 1 and 2). The socio-cultural content is abandoned and a set of rules developed for the various aspects of the reduction (Figure 1, step 3). Specific aspects of the reduction are chosen for association through how they support each other (what they add). These are then manifested as a fuzzy repetition of the type, meeting all the requirements of the rules but creating variations through adjusting any non-required variable based on context (Figure 1, step 4). The new manifestation meets the rule for the type by not breaking any core relationships but playing with everything not defined by those rules. A critical factor is that typological approaches always start with a pre-existing found object or entity – the past, so to speak. Jovanovic Weiss calls this a source. A framework, however, is only a most skeletal structure from which a more robust and detailed method is developed. Jovanovic Weiss uses the same overarching structure which he describes as “finding essences”, “rebuilding by removing essences” or “pixelation”, “clouding”, and “rebuilding [in context]”3. These map to the three sections of the underlying framework and involve standard exploratory and evaluative phases (divergent-convergent processes). The adaptation of the framework to an explicit method occurs in several ways. Jovanovic Weiss defines sources loosely as any object of cultural mass, including objects, buildings and people. He also doesn’t limit the investigation in “situation/type” to a single source, but runs multiple reductive processes in parallel. Where a standard typological method would use a rational convergent technique of evaluative thinking such as clustering or SWOT analysis, he uses various and often artistic strategies to select and distort the outcomes. Jovanovic Weiss calls this merging (see 3
Jovanovic Weiss 2014b, Jovanovic Weiss 2014c
Figure 2). Each one of the lines of “source-identify essence-deploy essence” in the diagram above contain the entire typological framework within itself. This includes source selection, essence identification (reduction to pattern) and exploration of all variations that meet the rule of that particular type for redeployment. We can consider a pattern-based framework (Figure 1) to be found in each and every instance of the source-to-deploy essence sequence in Jovanovic Weiss’ method (Figure 2). Each reduction of a source and following expansion of possibilities is encapsulated and isolated, left independent until the merging phase, a phase critical for the possible outcomes that Jovanovic Weiss imagines. The multiplicity of the framework within the method introduces complication rather than complexity into the work yet the overall method stresses reduction and simplification – a way of “starting dumb to become smart”4.
Finding essences Looking at the starting point of the explicit method, Jovanovic Weiss starts were all typological methods start – the reduction to the pattern – or as he calls it, the creation of minimum complexity. He introduces a starting bias based on his own interests – including post-ideological monuments, everyday infrastructure, and artists working in architectural space. This doesn’t stop all of these starting positions from being reduced to their essential patterns, their core information. And as the process requires, all other information is then abandoned except the essence. That other information is still present, only embedded now 4
Jovanovic Weiss comment in studio critiques, Summer 2014
Figure 3: Composition holding socio-cultural information
within the compositional and formal characteristics of the pattern. How can formal composition hold socio-cultural information? Composition holds the possibility of social interaction on a very basic level. If we take the example of two rooms with exactly the same formal dimensions, lets say 50’-0” by 50’-0” and populate it with the same objects – 4 benches, two doors, and a dais or stage (Figure 3). Depending on the placement of the objects in the space, different uses of the space are encouraged or made easier. Placement of circulation elements, such as doors, affect patterns of movement which then affect points of stasis or sedentariness. Arrangement and composition of seating areas encourage solitary or group engagement. The introduction of convex spaces associated with a dais create human gathering locations. So while the rooms have exactly the same elements, they have very different compositions and very different social possibilities. In the case of room example, it is not the objects but the relationship between objects which create the socio-cultural possibilities. The arrangement of the benches to each other, to the dais and to the circulation pattern is the essence. This is a reduction of complexity, a minimal set of information which describes the essential nature of the
Figure 4: Essence extraction and typological variations of the letters E, F, H (left) and I, L, T Jonathan Selleck, Guanyi Wang, Sarah Saleh, Jerry Carter, Jon Krdu, Abhimanyu Lakhey)
thing, ignoring – in this case – material choices, the length of the shag carpet (shag?!?!), the wall paneling, the reverberations of sound and so on. Those might be reduced in another essence but not this one. Another reduction could be done that just looked a sound and surface material, ignoring movement and gathering, or the sectional pattern of the rooms. A diagram which can then be reproduced for whatever bias is the designer’s priority. All other variables can be adjusted to fit the purpose or whim of the designer as long as they do not break the core relationships. When the pattern is repeated, distorted, overlayed and stacked – the socio-cultural content is also maintained as long as the core relationships, the essence, is not broken. Yet it also allows the socio-cultural to be absent from the direct discourse by being present within the pattern. This process can use any position or idea that can be spatially diagrammed or visual represented and is not restricted to architectural spaces (Figure 4). For example, it is possible when considering a source as an object of cultural mass to reduce the work of individuals rather than formal compositions. The process is the same, a search to define their pattern, their essence. In these cases it is about finding the ‘code’ that makes the project work. Jovanovic Weiss’ interests brings in the sources of Constant Nieuwenhuys, Yona Friedman, and Anne Tyng. Their work is reduced to patterns of the structural frame, strategies of stacking, occupational freedom, deconstructability/adjustability, inhospitable
(right) (Team Lead: Amy Swift, Team: Nick Cressman, Kirk Stefko, Christopher Stefani,
sites, priorities of geometry, objects within objects. The work of each of these sources was reduced to its minimum level of content which still held the essence of the ideas, ready for redeployment. The source can be considered an almost random choice, something based on the whim or interest of the designer. They may not start with relevance but instead acquire relevance through the process. These are what Alexander D’Hooghe, another typologically based designer, calls crowbars. A crowbar simply something to use to open up possibilities. These, for Jovanovic Weiss, are aspects of his obsessions and interests – a case of Jovanovic Weiss acting as an artist. They include other designers and artists as well as post-ideological objects such as communist monuments abandoned by the passing of political regimes and drained of their former signification. Or the crowbar might be simply a starting point with formal properties and cultural content – alphabetical letters, bus stops, cottages and parking garages. Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss’s strategies towards minimum complexity. It is strange that the first moves towards minimum complexity is to make more clutter, more confusion, and more mess by running three to five simultaneous, and unrelated, typological investigations simultaneously (Figure 5). Each of those investigations then involve divergent
Figure 5: Divergence clouds of three source investigations (Team Leads: Anirban Adhya & Alina Chelaidite, Team: Steven Mcmahon, Eleana Glava, Adam Wakulchik, Jeremy Adams, Gregory Wood, Jinhan Liu, Christopher Siminski, Jonathan Tull, Tra Page)
explorations of versioning, pixelation, and clouding as ways of iterating and distorting. It is a strategic move to do this. One of the key ideas that Jovanovic Weiss introduces into his typologically based design method is what he calls the irrationality of the artist. There is no attempt to streamline the process or the information at this point – the first moves are a divergent motion which requires decisions to be delayed. The idea is to stress what might be possible through the exploration within the layers and interaction between the layers in the divergence cloud. For Jovanovic Weiss, art enters the design process in several ways. First is the encouragement of complication rather than complexity. Complication allows for artistic moments – introduced by different aspects of the sources. For Jovanovic Weiss explicitly, the artistic is held by the monument – an object created by a collaboration between an artist and an architect and holding cultural and political values rather than usable purpose. When testing to whether content is artistic or architectural (and Jovanovic Weiss does not confuse one discipline for the other), he quotes Jacques Herzog saying “an artist wakes up with a panic, architects wake up with a reason.” The panic gives the
Figure 6: Divergent technique of exploratory thinking using image based content (Left – Team lead: Irsida Bejo, Team: Stephen Bohlen, Ryan Kronbetter, Amin Toghiani, Alexis Blackwell-Brown, Breck Crandell, Shuang Wu, Christina Jackson, Nicole Gerou, Christopher Bartholomew)
unexpected, non-systematic decisions and the project then is a test. In the end, the use of artistic tactices within an architectural process centers not on the object but on how decisions are made. Irrationality is introduced as both a technique for divergence as well as convergence. The artistic is a point of decision making, not of form. The irrational is then rationalized by “making it work” and giving it relevance. If there is no advantage to the choices, then it is a point to return to divergent content and make another selection. Besides the complication of the source material layering and the introduction of artistic decision-making, Jovanovic Weiss does something very smart in the exploratory thinking phases found in each of the four steps. He stresses divergent techniques that engage the image as the core device of investigation rather than non-visual ideas or writing (Figure 6). Divergence in this format is still an inherently conceptual and expansive process but the opportunities come from something more native to formal design. Brainstorming, challenge, questioning are all processed through the found image5. This is important – in a traditional typological process, the formal properties of the investigated type would be reduced to diagrams. In this case, the diagram is replaced by an image, but an image that is then treated as a reduction and a discrete event. It is a key aspect of the implication of the source material to something usable in a process that encourages complication. 5
For a discussion of cognitive divergent techniques see Plowright 2014, 79-85
Figure 7: Merge convergent technique of distortion. Left: Jovanovic Weiss’ notes in studio, Right: Process notes (Anirban Adhya, Alina Chelaidite et al)
The steps of Jovanovic Weiss’ method still conform to the familiar design structure of divergent and convergent techniques of thinking. They are used to either generate a series of options, or they are used to reduce the volume of options so decision-making can occur. The major structural operation in the method, one not found in the classic version, is the cluster of tactics around that is called the merge. This is located at the point in the underlying framework where a single typological investigation would start to assemble a new variation on a type’s pattern. In Jovanovic Weiss’ method, the merge operates in the same way, but instead of addressing a single type, it brings several types together using one or more tools from a set developed for the purpose. The merge is a meta-technique, a way of bring the various layers of typological investigation together into a cohesive project. The tools are stacking, superimposition, swapping, distortion and conflict. The merge can only occur once the divergent techniques have created a critical mass of options (between step 3 and 4, Figure 2). It isn’t a rational process, as in it doesn’t need practical reasons for making decisions, but it is a pragmatic process. It affects things in the world by manifesting forms to be occupied. It is also a convergent technique. During the merge process, large aspects of the project are abandoned – just like all design methods which must leave behind 99% of the divergent content when making a decision. The goal is to move to simplicity from the complication. The tools found in the merge stress the super direct and over simplified, a way of combating complication. These are the dumb moves and strategies to amalgamate irrationality into rationality. Dumb but as a way of being smart, as Jovanovic Weiss says. In all these strategies, the patterns of the essences are maintained and will start to introduce conflict through collision and compression while reinforcing their independent, internal relationships. Superimposition will create new objects by colliding one essence into another. Both need to be maintained but a third thing will be formed by the imposition. An opposite approach is the tactic of distortion – where things imposed on each other but can not overlap or superimpose. This means that the introduction of an aspect of one onto another must distort the composition based on adjacency which priorities the preservation of all typological patterns. So a interior volume swells while maintaining its pattern. Plates or slabs have disruptions, penetrations and interruptions but maintain their independent core relationships. This gives logic to the repetition as well, using often non-related content in direct
association with each other. Interior composition is maintained as an essence. Jovanovic Weiss calls this “eating� as in the volume eats the organization, the organization eats the skin, the skin eats the volume and all permutations of these relations (volume eats skin, and itself and so on). Another word for eating is erodes, and speaks of the relationship between the elements (Figure 7). An aspect of the merge stressed by distortion, but held in all the strategies, is treating processes as independent and parallel . Physical structures such as slab, enclosure, and occupation are self referential and discrete, as are objects formed from each of the essences developed by sources. Each process is purposefully suspended from having a relationship with each other and treated as separate factors of volume, organization and skin. This can be seen in the tactic of stacking, where one element is simply placed upon another maintaining both the logic and the identity of both. The stacking does not need to be massed vertical but can also be horizontal or sectional (Figure 8). In these cases, one form is simply interrupted by another without too much reasoning or purpose. However, once it occurs, the result is analyzed for potential and opportunities. Each orientation of stacking has its own advantages and affects occupation.
Figure 8: Three versions of the merge convergent technique of stacking. Left: vertical intervention between two sources (Irsida Bejo et al), Center: horizontal stacking of versions into landscape (Team Leads: Aaron Jones & Wes Taylor; Team: Nathaniel
Where stacking purposefully avoids conflict between the essences, distortion engages it directly. Conflict can also be used as a strategy by itself. In this case, the designer would look for essences that hold conflicting typologies, and would cause each other disruption if placed in too close proximity. Then, they are placed as closely to each other as possible to exacerbate that disruption. In this case, the conflict is an engine for creating possible and rational distortions of form in order to address the conflict. The final merge tactic is swapping (Figure 9). It is another way of imposing in the relationship between variations between sources or even within a line of investigation of one source. Merging by swapping takes one element and replaces it completely by another. It is a complete replacement without any consideration for nuances or smoothing the relationships – often causing disruptions in the proposal. Swapping maintains one parameter coming from the essence (pattern) but abandons responsibility for all the others. Another object is identified that meets that chosen parameter and the swap simply replaces new object with the former by mapping the selected parameter – be it angle, location, mass, rotation. The swap will be successful if the parameter has purpose but the advantages of the swap will come in the disruptions and the opportunities created by this point of unexpected difference.
Turner, Nawfaa Al-Bahrani, Ali Emgarreb, Charlie Harris, Khalid Hamoodh, Jonathan Reynolds, Brean Bush, Erin Lifton, Ibn Feisal Peerbaccus), Left: sectional stacking using collage (Stewart Hicks, Allison Newmeyer et al)
The merge tactices are all based on amalgamation but the end result isn’t eclectic. While some parts are pragmatic stressing structure and occupational logic, others are artistic, points of panic. However, design relies on coherence to create a successful proposal - the parts having some form of common relationship and addressing a common goal. Coherence is set by the designer through their intentions. This is why the source selection isn’t random although it might be conflictual. Sources are chosen for the potential of effect towards the goal of the designer. This is very different to eclectic approach which relates only the parts to their purpose or effect and abandons the responsibility to the whole.
Amalgamated typologies Jovanovic Weiss’ method of design uses tactics to purposefully suspend disbelief and rationality in order to see what might also be possible. Yet engaging those tactics using a typological framework and primary method of information development as the source material means that the end result will always be responsible – as long as it meets the core pattern. It allows, however, the freedom to explore the irrational, symbolic and cultural without being irrelevant. The result will also be unexpected as using multiple lines of typological investigation and then creating a merge between layers allows the essence to be consumed and obscured – creating the new by using the old. The result stresses simplicity and adaptation without losing a playfulness which is sorely needed in our contemporary period.
Figure 9: Merge convergent technique of swap where one version of a divergent exploration (y) direclty replaces another form of the exploration (x) in the same situation. Left: original situation; Center: two terminations of divergent process, Right: New composition with swapped form (Amy Swift et al)
In the end, Jovanovic Weiss hopes for memory without nostalgia, using the past to make a future while not be beholden to that past. It is a case of reoccupying what we have already but with a repetition of difference allowable through a typological process so it is no longer what it was but a distortion that reinforces a cultural purpose. References: Plowright, Philip D. (2014). Revealing Architectural Design: Methods, Frameworks & Tools. Oxon; New York: Routledge. Jovanovic Weiss, Srdjan (2014a). “TripBusStop”. Critical Practice Studio project brief. Southfield: Lawrence Technological University. Jovanovic Weiss, Srdjan (2014b). “Retreat Cloud”. Critical Practice Studio project brief. Southfield: Lawrence Technological University. Jovanovic Weiss, Srdjan (2014c). “Social Garage”. Critical Practice Studio project brief. Southfield: Lawrence Technological University.
classic terminology Jovanovic Weiss terminology typology ----> minimal complexity pattern ----> essence type ----> source convergence ----> choice type reduction ----> finding essences resolving layers ----> merge, amalgamation divergent technique ----> clouding, pixelation, versioning convergent technique ----> conflict, distortion,, stacking, superimposition, swapping assembly/proposal ----> rebuilding by removing essences
IND
DEX
PROJECT 1 / MAY 16-17, 2014 CHARETTE / REVIEW JUNE 6, 2014 TRIPBUSSTOP
Invent and design an idea for future bus stop typology somewhere between Detroit and Flint. Get in your car, or your friend’s, boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s car and go north towards Flint. Imagine that there is new idea of public transportation that one can use. Think of the corridor that this distance makes, about one hour by driving. If you were the one taking the bus, how many stops would one need? What is the added purpose of the bus stop besides waiting? Can the space of the stop become the place for being, learning, not for transitioning from A to B only? Take a look at major precedents on mobility and memory. Constant and his idea for the future from the past project entitled New Babylon is the major example. It is radical because it proposes networked urbanism for a so called Homo Ludus, the man or a woman basing life on the forces of play. It is fair to say that we today live this condition, where work and play are so intermingled that the distinction between them is like air. In parallel, take a look at the examples of late socialist memorials, institutions and monuments. Most of them are abandoned or vacated today leaving them in a state of contemporary archeology. It is interesting that late socialist expressions in the East took their cue from the West mostly from land art and abstract expressionist movement in the US. This project may be able to complete the circle and bring the esthetics back to the US. Where do memories of this kind of mobility and stasis accrue? Can you think of a bus stop as such kind of spatial framework that allows for monumentality and memory of everyday, or even ordinary life. Or the memory of everyday and creative waiting. All design mediums are encouraged, from analog to digital, physical or virtual. Artistic approaches are welcome. Quick foam models are welcome. In terms of design methodology, think that there are three basic approaches to material design: 1. volume, 2. organization and 3. surface. Together they amalgamate into your propositions. To develop the idea, use anything available. However, present the work as a graphic novel as a spread made of 6.63”x10.25” dimensions per each page.
-May 16th, 2014 10:00 am / Friday / Introduction / Getting to know each other / Guest appearance by Stephen Zacks, Director of Flint Public Art Project 12 pm / Friday / TRIP / Self-organized 5 pm / Friday / Back from the trip to LTU / Oral and Visual Impressions / Discussion -Midnight encounter with participants and faculty. Film screening: The Warriors, by Walter Hill, New York gang fiction on 27 mile trip from Coney Island to Bronx, and back. BBQ by Professor Philip Plowright -May 17th, 2014 10 am / Saturday / Strategy Consultations / Sections working on their own 2 pm / Saturday / Work Ideas and Intentions / Sections working on their own -May 18th, 2014 10 am - 2 pm / Sunday / Where do we go from here?
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ENTER THE BOX!
Anirban Adhya & Alina Chelaidite [leads], Steven Mcmahon, Eleana Glava, Adam Wakulchik, Jeremy Adams, Gregory Wood, Jinhan Liu, Christopher Siminski, Jonathan Tull, Tra Page ENTER THE BOX speculates the future of our culture of mass production, consumption, and waste and is a critical reflection of our spatial practices. Three ideological patterns are considered. During the Flint trip, big box was identified as a repetitive structure in the landscape. Study of Constant gave us the tool of play as a creative expression of space-making. And post-Soviet monuments served as a tool for visualizing future from the past. The project imagines a future, where the growth of big box is fueled by our endless needs, wants, desires, and guilt. The phenomenon is formally explored through studying the cellular structure of the big box and using it to develop large scale configurations. The formal configuration is distorted to extreme through repetition, multiplication, arraying, and networking such that big box consumes everything. In the process however, the big box loses its own identity and becomes something else – a utopia. What is the nature of this utopia? What is it? What is the possible future of our built forms and cultural practices? The intervention projects big box as a prototype for collection and storage of our everyday memory. This reinforces imagination of our existing landscape, its inhabitation, and occupation as material for possible future.
AT PLAY
Irsida Bejo [lead], Stephen Bohlen, Ryan Kronbetter, Amin Toghiani, Alexis Blackwell-Brown, Breck Crandell, Shuang Wu, Christina Jackson, Nicole Gerou, Christopher Bartholomew The Midwest Family Trip: From Southfield to Flint in 50 years ‘IN PLAY’ The Midwest family has come to realize that life in Southfield has become still and inhabited by the daily routine this typical city has offered them. In a desperate need for self-discovery and freedom, they pack up the car northbound towards Flint. The trip facilitates their transformation and responds to their need for adventure. It is a journey in memory and mobility from Southfield to Flint, in fifty years. ‘AT PLAY’ The journey disrupts the existing suburban city through the ideology of play. Suspended and imposed in the midst of the everyday, it creates its own course and duration – between the dissolution of the old and creation of the new – sometimes with anticipation (speed) and other times with curiosity (stops). ‘COME OUT TO PLAY!’ The moments of STOP are the ‘Compositional Gestures’ – where the everyday steps out of reality to play. ‘IN PLAY’ The need to play...and win, will take Nature, Norman and Larry on a journey of transformation, revealing multitudes of self that are parasitic in memory and nomadic in mobility – displayed as compositional gestures that manipulate old images to imagine new moments. ‘PLAYS OUT’ Trip. What starts in Southfield is played out in Flint. Once over, it recreates itself as a memory, an archeology of future plays.
FLINTERLAND
Stewart Hicks & Allison Newmeyer [leads], Nahar Sonbol, Ghantous El-Tayar, Zahra Alatl, Xin Chen, Matt Seeley, Brendan Sprite, Miros Nava, Marianne Jones, Tyler Walker This is the myth of Flinterland, the sinking city. The tale is told through collage fiction, a style of visual narrative developed by Post Modern author Donald Barthelme. A large section composed from found ephemera serves as the underlying structure for the narrative, while each page frames and reframes the meta-section at various scales in a sequence of vignettes. In Flinterland, buildings are sinking for no explicable reason. At first, residents are unsure of their precarious situation and react out of fear and confusion. Over time, they begin to accept and eventually love their unusual situtation. The act of sinking in the story is a literary
conceit, a physical metaphor treated realistically for literary effect. References to the town of Flint, Michigan are strewn throughout the story with the city serving as the character in the narrative. Reality and fiction overlap in an amalgam of metaphor, description and myth.
SAVING THE CITY
Christopher Holzwart [lead], Malwina Brown, Shannon Iafrate, Stephen Schell, Andriana Stefanov, Adam Murray, Ibrahim Alsharif, Suzanne Stiers, Chenchun Yang, María Lloreda Integrating Intersections is an epic narrative set in the near future, amidst a contentious society struggling to achieve balance with the sublimation of urbanity from a continually expanding condition named “Tanturbia”. Tanturbia, is a sprawling, consumer-based, homogenizing entity, devoid of urbanity. The main character, John Stevens, mayor of The City, finds himself in the tough position to meet the outcries of his angry and confused citizens. Follow John, as he is excommunicated from his post by his own people, thrown out into an unknown land until he can return with an answer to help protect their City. Steven’s adventure leads him through the confusing and ubiquitous suburban milieu, until he discovers hidden spaces containing the unique qualities that he needs to piece together to engender harmony between the many opposing forces that exist in his world.
EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD BUS STOP | A PLACE BETWEEN TWO PLACES | A DAYDREAM Aaron Jones & Wes Taylor [leads], Nathaniel Turner, Nawfaa Al-Bahrani, Ali Emgarreb, Charlie Harris, Khalid Hamoodh, Jonathan Reynolds, Brean Bush, Erin Lifton, Ibn Feisal Peerbaccus
The story follows an suburban boy’s journey through a daydream, where he envisions himself as a deer. In this dream, he imagines an idealized urban utopia, as constructed from piecemeal television imagery. Ultimately, he finds himself ill equipped within this new environment. This story is meant to prompt discourse regarding suburbia, urban fiction, and urban reality. Our work was informed by interviews, subject photos, and random ventures into the place between Flint and Southfield Michigan.
TOWARDS A DRIVE-THROUGH STRIP CLUB
Charlie O’Geen [lead], Irina Dwyer, Paul Eland, Randi Marsh, Scott Newsted, Devika Sangurdekar, Laura Schneider, Christopher Theisen, Ashley Brenner, Kanqi Zhu Contemporary design and building emulate a culture of overproduction and overconsumption where buildings are disposable. Shortsightedness regarding the potential of material and spatial properties has inherently created modern monuments based on the function those spaces served. Buildings are predicated on the nature of standardized materials, rather than surrounding conditions. As opposed to this, our work is based on use of site and found objects, extending the life of detritus rather than rely on newly produced materials. Existing infrastructure is seen as a valuable component inherent to the process. Site and material engage in a relationship transcending site-specific architecture to become site-derived architecture. Function is assigned to spaces that best utilize the existing conditions with minimal deconstruction. We began by adopting a comic-book style scenario to describe a design scheme informed by the ideas in our thesis. We created a group of “heroes” who were based upon real people with connections to Detroit’s past. The characters design a city of the future, the framework of which is predicated on mass-production. They are then brought forward in time to observe the result of the misuse of massproduction as a design driver.
EYE OF THE MACHINE
Maria Simon [lead], Joseph Vani, Terri Douglas, Geoff Lasoski, Ben Luther, Drew Pelkey, Randy Sova Ii, Luting Xu, Jamie Tischler Set in year 3657AD the graphic novel examines a post human earth inhabited by a race of machines. The machines live within a wasteland of human development, surrounded by partially buried social monuments of the past. The stark landscape sets the stage for the remains of a failed, consumerist driven society. The machines, in a state of their own crisis, seek to exhume and learn from the everyday monuments of former human settlements on the earth. The race of machines operate under one master machine simply known as ‘the central’. ‘The Central’ decrypts a code from the past that raises great concern about the future of the machine civilization. ‘The Central’ sends three machines to an abandoned human settlement to excavate artifacts from the past. Piecing together artifacts from the archeological studies the machines struggle to recreate an accurate interpretation of each type of social monument. The machines mistakenly project themselves into the role of the car in a drive thru restaurant.
They develop a delusional vision of a parking garage where the machines fail to understand the car and its relationship to human transportation and settlement design. The machine’s continued misinterpretation of the monuments attempts to comment on the ubiquity of the vehicle between Southfield and Flint Michigan. The narrative also presents the car as the unit of consumerism that lead to the exploitation of resources and eventual demise of unassisted human occupation on earth. Machines are faced with a biologic nostalgia they didn’t know they had.
FLINT IS FOLLY
Amy Swift [lead], Nick Cressman, Kirk Stefko, Christopher Stefani, Jonathan Selleck, Guanyi Wang, Sarah Saleh, Jerry Carter, Jon Krdu, Abhimanyu Lakhey Flint is a city constructed of myths. The design team sought to explore these myths through satire in the form of the folly, creating a spectacle through the experience of the theme park. Each folly – automobiles, poverty, murder, arson – is explored with its own contrived sector experience, troping on the mythical constructs of the place. The style of the work relies on a “bubblegum” comic naiveté, which identifies issues of class and voyeurism in a ruin porn economy.
PROJECT 2 / JUNE 6-8, 2014 CHARETTE / REVIEW JUNE 27, 2014 RETREAT CLOUD
Concepts: #Monument to Naturalizing Emptiness / #Yona Friedman / #SelfOrganized Inhabitations / #Cottages on a lake, river or in the forrest / #Forrest within a forrest / #Field within a field / #Object within and object / #Alfred Jarr’s writer’s cottage / #Minimal complexity / #Animism / #Using earth or water as spatial currency Design a retreat somewhere between Detroit and Flint preferably on a river, mini lake or in the forrest. Find a piece of water or forrest that one can occupy with touching the ground minimally. Main vision shall come from Yona Friedman’s Spatial City, largely considered being a Western utopia. It shall be combined by chosen late socialist archeology in the East which are now in ruins. All design mediums are encouraged, from analog to digital, physical or virtual. Artistic approaches are welcome. Quick foam models are welcome. Large scale mock-ups shall be looked as the key to finding architecture as the possible new medium of dislocation. In terms of design redux, think that there are three basic approaches to material design: 1. volume, 2. organization and 3. surface. Together they amalgamate into your propositions. To research the ideas use anything available. However, present the work as a graphic novel as a spread made of 6.63”x10.35” dimensions per each page. -June 6th, 2014 10:00 am - 1 PM / Friday / Review of the TRIPBUSTOP project 2 pm / Friday / Release of the RETREAT project 3 pm / Friday / Strategy Consultations / Sections working on their own -Midnight encounter with participants and faculty. Film screening: The Warriors, by Walter Hill, New York gang fiction on 27 mile trip from Coney Island to Bronx, and back. BBQ by Professor Philip Plowright Film screening: Dark Star, by John Carpenter, visionary sci-fi spoof or all spoofs about three-member space ship crew neutralizing unstable planets across the universe. Pop-corn provided by Professor Philip Plowright.
-June 7th, 2014 10 am / Saturday / Sections working on their own 2 pm / Saturday / Work Ideas and Intentions -June 8th, 2014 10 am - 2pm / Sunday / Where do we go from here? --
PURE MICHIGAN SANATORIUM: A LAKE-SIDE RETREAT FOR THE TERMINALLY ILL
Anirban Adhya & Alina Chelaidite [leads], Steven Mcmahon, Eleana Glava, Adam Wakulchik, Jeremy Adams, Gregory Wood, Jinhan Liu, Christopher Siminski, Jonathan Tull, Tra Page The Pure Michigan Sanatorium project investigates lake as an object and proposes the notion of retreat as a process of detachment and final resting place for the terminally ill. Three elements are applied: Post Soviet monument (as section/ volume), Yona Freidman (as spatial network/ grid), and letter (as geometry/ grain). The monument is deconstructed and reconfigured into multiple performativity elements. Friedman’s spatiality is flattened into a surface. The Letter is used as a unit for pixilation. The lake is considered as a site for these three elements to create different experiences at multiple scales. The reconfigured monument becomes support for the net (as single element), structure for inhabitation (vertical rotation), and the topography (by horizontal clouding). The net creates the connection between the inhabitations (as horizontal surface) as well as becomes inhabitation space itself (through folding). Horizontal and vertical arrays from the letter are imagined as planes holding the coffins. Each of these elements, developed in isolation, are never merged or integrated. However, the overall configuration is constructed by careful placement that promotes strong visual relationship of sympathy and respect to one another. The result is a retreat that reinforces the lake as an everyday monument for all of us.
THE RISE AND FALL OF TYPOLOGY: RETREATING THE MIDDEST Vertical exploration of horizontal escapes. Irsida Bejo [lead], Stephen Bohlen, Ryan Kronbetter, Amin Toghiani, Alexis Blackwell-Brown, Breck Crandell, Shuang Wu, Christina Jackson, Nicole Gerou, Christopher Bartholomew
“Men in the middest make considerable imaginative investments in coherent patterns which, by the provision of an end, make possible a satisfying consonance with the origins and with the middle.” - Frank Kermode, The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of fiction. The city exists in the middest between ground and sky. As a distant presence, the retreat becomes an escape fringing on the horizon - something that doesn’t fully reveal itself to the public. Its visual and spatial registration hinges on its gravitational existence, stability, and inhabitation as an object whose essence and fragility is loss of ground. The process of extracting essences from four typologies: lake, structure, monolith and grain - produces a series of vertical perspectives that explore horizontal escapes by imagining future dislocation of groundlessness. Lake - as horizon of ground at rest Structure - as horizon of past collective memory Monolith - as horizon of elevated heights Grain - as horizon of geometric gestures
FLINTERLAND RETREATS
Stewart Hicks & Allison Newmeyer [leads], Nahar Sonbol, Ghantous El-Tayar, Zahra Alatl, Xin Chen, Matt Seeley, Brendan Sprite, Miros Nava, Marianne Jones, Tyler Walker The following is a catalog for Flinterland residents to choose a personalized retreat that is specifically equipped for navigating the flooded landscape of their city. Each cottage is understood as a “character,” providing an unexpected and specific housing “type” for each resident. This concept of an object having character is our interpretation of an everyday monument, which is ultimately a translation of techniques such as symmetry, tripartite organizations, and posture. Each character is mobile and capable of being reoriented as they float in a lake created during a great flooding event within Flinterland. The design of the cottages are developed through the manipulation of alphabetical characters and then decorated with a “cozy” of patterned paper that wraps the objects. The interiors are communicated through a collaged section and plan that compliments their overall forms. Each character has a textual description, which creates a symbolic relationship between
the exterior form, the interior décor, and the type of person that might stay in such an object. At the end of the catalogue are a few potential urban configurations of the cottages, which suggest potential relationships between the objects and their inhabitants.
LEAVING THE CITY
Christopher Holzwart [lead], Malwina Brown, Shannon Iafrate, Stephen Schell, Andriana Stefanov, Adam Murray, Ibrahim Alsharif, Suzanne Stiers, Chenchun Yang, María Lloreda The decision to leave the City and its pervasiveness is often a yearly ritual for urban dwellers. Many retreat to their favorite sacred spaces that are removed from their everyday worlds, yearning for the tranquility that nature provides. The City is a distracting and chaotic territory, and its pulsation congests not only our lungs, but also our minds. Personal creativity and freedom is nurtured by means of venturing outside the rituals of the everyday. The Retreat Catalogue, your very own personalized retreat design resource, offers the opportunity to connect with the fundamentals of one’s inner being through the self-expression of space creation. The Catalogue offers a collection of spatial solutions that are possible through the selection and organization of your chosen Retreat building block. Selecting a domestic environment is a very personal experience, and we hope you find an invigorating spatial solution that will suit you and open expand your mind. Build a retreat yourself to suit your immediate and restorative needs!
RETREAT ON A LAKE - IMMEDIATE ARCHITECTURE / A TOY
Aaron Jones & Wes Taylor [leads], Nathaniel Turner, Nawfaa Al-Bahrani, Ali Emgarreb, Charlie Harris, Khalid Hamoodh, Jonathan Reynolds, Brean Bush, Erin Lifton, Ibn Feisal Peerbaccus We understand retreat to be a personal program or an individual attitude toward space. To manifest this understanding we produced a toy, where individuals would generate space as an extension of their free will ( sort of ). The lake metaphorically represents a counter-condition – the original condition being “city”. We then understand the lake / retreat to be a non-city. -
The random sculptural combinations, casual rules, and general playfulness seek to harvest and translate user driven content into architectural intelligence. Using trade software, the 3D assemblage is processed into technical architectural components, and then integrated into a graphic comic.
COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION OF A POLITICAL ZOO
Charlie O’Geen [lead], Irina Dwyer, Paul Eland, Randi Marsh, Scott Newsted, Devika Sangurdekar, Laura Schneider, Christopher Theisen, Ashley Brenner, Kanqi Zhu Building on our criticism of mass-production and throw-away society (conceived by the misappropriated industrialism), we developed a “lake retreat.” The “lake” was interpreted as a negative space—typologically similar to the empty spaces encircled by an interstate highway. The “retreat” space was envisioned as a zoo—a place where people go to learn and have fun. As a twist however, we saw the zoo as a place where people could be locked up and gawked at. We picked the people to display from groups who we saw as antithetical to the ideas of our thesis—mass producers, polluters and general enablers of over-production and over-consumption in society. The zoo is suspended over an interstate and hangs precariously from towers based on Soviet Monumentality and icons taken from the groups imprisoned within. The suspended architecture and makeshift construction of the zoo are borrowed ideas from Yona Friedman. The inane use of the letter K reflects our opinion of the design constraint: “This episode is brought to you by the letter K.”
ALGAE RISING
Maria Simon [lead], Joseph Vani, Terri Douglas, Geoff Lasoski, Ben Luther, Drew Pelkey, Randy Sova Ii, Luting Xu, Jamie Tischler Retreat is a change in the of a state of mind. Concurrent to the existence of the machines in ‘Eye of the Machine’, our story follows the events in the life of an ancient species known as the Wevi. The Wevi culture has developed over many centuries to become deeply wise, knowing all secrets of the world. One of the most revered societies in existence, the Wevi live in innovative retreat style dwellings over the water. Water serves as the Wevi lifeblood, it is their tool of communication, their main means of transportation, circulation and life. The Wevi water compounds were designed based on basic geometric units derived
from letter and number forms. Wevi were enamored with the vehicle but were wise to recognizing its problems and limited lifespan. They chose to set a framework for their society based on the typological elements of the parking garage, car factory and drive thru. Simultaneously, their settlements offer a sense of independent flexibility and spatial adaptability that were revered. Wevi developments are elevated with minimal connections to the ground further adding to the utopian quality of their settlements. Each neighborhood’s population is based on the limits of Wevi communication keeping the nodes within their networks intimate and socially connected. The Wevi settlements utilize streams, rivers and other water networks to form connections from one lake site to the next. The wise society becomes threatened by an environmental balance they can’t control. Algae blooms, disrupting the peaceful existence of the Wevi, they must search for help…
RETREAT IS FOLLY
Amy Swift [lead], Nick Cressman, Kirk Stefko, Christopher Stefani, Jonathan Selleck, Guanyi Wang, Sarah Saleh, Jerry Carter, Jon Krdu, Abhimanyu Lakhey The concept of the folly is carried forward as the design team explores Flint as a retreat. At the fine grain, each folly is a jewel-like inhabitable monument developed from a methodical exploration of alphabetic form within a grid, then raised above the city in an expansive mega-structure. Raising the retreat above the urban ground plane of Flint preserves the city as spectacle, and accuses the architect of proposing naïve visions. Satire remains the method of delivery.
PROJECT 3 / JUNE 27-29, 2014 GARAGE INHABITED
#Monument to Dislocation / #Expanded inhabitations / #New social space in between abandoned houses / #Inhabitable monument / #Anne Tyng / #Radical Tectonics / Vertical Factory / #Spiral living Design a garage, gas station and art gallery somewhere between Detroit and Flint. To develop the idea, use anything available. However, present the work as a graphic novel as a spread made of 6.63�x10.35� dimensions per each page. Use graphic novel software iComic or Comic Life. The template will be provided. The idea and the reasoning behind the dimensions is that all the work can be easily ordered and printed from lulu.com. -June 27th, 2014 10:00 am - 5 PM / Friday / Review of RETREAT project 5 pm / Friday / Release of GARAGE INHABITED project -Midnight encounter with participants and faculty -June 28th, 2014 10 am / Saturday / Sections working on their own 2 pm / Saturday / Work Ideas and Intentions -June 29th, 2014 10 am - 2 pm / Where do we go from here? -Session 4 / July 18-20, 2014 FINAL REVIEW -July 18th, 2014 10:00 am - 6 PM / Friday / Final Review -June 29th, 2014 10 am - 2 pm / Where do we go from here? / Discussion and book, video production --
OPERATION HONEY-TRAP: ANNE G. TYNG NATIONAL INTERSTATE HEXCLO JUNCTIONS
Anirban Adhya & Alina Chelaidite [leads], Steven Mcmahon, Eleana Glava, Adam Wakulchik, Jeremy Adams, Gregory Wood, Jinhan Liu, Christopher Siminski, Jonathan Tull, Tra Page Operation Honey-Trap studies the interstate highway system and proposes to develop a Hexagonal Cloverleaf Junction as a destination for social occupation. Three memories are considered: broken arrow monument (an iconic memory), cloverleaf (an infrastructure memory), and parking garage (an everyday memory). The monument is considered as a form to interpret configurations of traditional social occupation—street, plaza, market, and park—through repetition, addition, and shifting. The cloverleaf is used as a site. The garage is used as a visual device for formal manipulation of slabs and ramps. The interaction and integration of these memories result in the hexagon, which can form various configuration by stacking. From a distance, it can be understood as a typology of destination landmark on the highway. As one approaches, the typology changes to surfaces, where the geometric properties get dissolved and it is difficult to depict the overall geometry. Inside, it illustrates a new typology of interiority that provides clues for human experience but never allows one to understand the entire landscape. The hexagon becomes a naturalized condition: a prototype of immersion, drift, discovery, and getting lost. One can see it, enter it, and never get out. The Hex-Clo is a trap.
EDGING THE CITY: A MIDWAY FOR EVERYDAY COMBINES
Irsida Bejo [lead], Stephen Bohlen, Ryan Kronbetter, Amin Toghiani, Alexis Blackwell-Brown, Breck Crandell, Shuang Wu, Christina Jackson, Nicole Gerou, Christopher Bartholomew The project borrows the idea of the original state fair, as grounds of exchange between industry and spectacle. Local producers meet and mingle with the everyday consumer while products are displayed and promoted and games are played. The fair is a much needed break from an otherwise routine existence. I Never Go To Work concept is approached as an alternative 24 hour cycle suspended in stasis. The design becomes a balancing act of program and
wonderment, scientific methods and artistic articulation, architectural gestures and cultural instruments. An interchange of industry (work), spectacle (play) and still life (parking), where: • Program of work is standard, automatic and almost selfless in expression. • Program of play unleashes spatial conditions that distort the order, compression and form of industry – allowing for imagination in ways of inhabitation. • Program of parking consists of stillness in movement and possible activity. EDGING THE CITY: A MIDWAY FOR EVERYDAY COMBINES is an infrastructural apparatus for production and an artistic sculpture - carved, sliced, stamped, extracted, and finally extruded by the inhabitation of everyday combines. An inhabitation that searches, discovers and shapes interior spatialities by extending the effects of its former platonic presence.
FLINTERLAND IN PERSPECTIVE
Stewart Hicks & Allison Newmeyer [leads], Nahar Sonbol, Ghantous El-Tayar, Zahra Alatl, Xin Chen, Matt Seeley, Brendan Sprite, Miros Nava, Marianne Jones, Tyler Walker As the third and final project of the Flinterland trilogy, this project, “Flinterland in Perspective”, weaves together the fictional world of the myth with the physical reality that we know, albeit with a slightly skewed connection. If the first project is understood within a comprehensive section; and the second is a set of independent objects, whose relationships are primarily described through plan; this glimpse into Flinterland offers an embodied look into the lives of its residents told via perspective photographs. The forms of public spaces are composed by what results when two characters, or ‘Friedman Lake’s Retreats’ come together. Geometry inspired by Anne Tyng is the connective tissue between the objects, and also becomes domesticated through human occupation. The series of independent snapshots remain isolated vignettes, allowing the audience to imagine how they amalgamate into a parking structure. We liken this arrangement to Italo Calvino’s narrative, ‘Invisible Cities’, where a series of isolated stories of various places add together to become the description of one complex city. Here a sequence of secluded and sometimes contradictory snapshots come together as a parking structure with added public program. Scale is introduced through objects from previous narratives of Flinterland, as well as everyday objects at unfamiliar scales. These hints and connections within each scene form visual riddles that interrelate the character objects with the initial myth, and the everyday occupation of this unusual city.
RE-LINKING THE CITY
Christopher Holzwart [lead], Malwina Brown, Shannon Iafrate, Stephen Schell, Andriana Stefanov, Adam Murray, Ibrahim Alsharif, Suzanne Stiers, Chenchun Yang, María Lloreda The rise of the epicurean foodie has engendered a culture that seeks only the highest quality of food. Seemingly everyone today is becoming a ‘Food Aesthete’, with the ability to broadcast one’s tasteful delights throughout social media, food blogging, and of course, the food Instagram. Everyday food now has the option to be bourgeois. People are choosing to pay more for what they eat; not only because it was locally produced, but because they want to be a part of ‘The Scene’. Food and its procurement is entertainment; the forum to see and be seen. Contemporary food is pervading into daily activities, which seems more appropriate than radical, if you think about how little it influenced our lives in recent history. The City allows us to forget that there is an abundance of quality food outside of its walls. The quality food that does make it through those walls is treated as high commodity and thus, high-end. There is a solution to bridge rural resources within the urban organization of The City’s highway system. The SILO - a place for Selective Intellectuals Looking for Organics, amplifies this condition, and pushes not only the procurement of food as entertainment, but also the conditions of processing and production. The SILO is the automobile and cultural entertainment garage, the emporium of our cultural lives, and the height of all food experiences -- it is a working farm.
SOCIAL GARAGE - Non Urban Place A COMMERCIAL BREAK
Aaron Jones & Wes Taylor [leads], Nathaniel Turner, Nawfaa Al-Bahrani, Ali Emgarreb, Charlie Harris, Khalid Hamoodh, Jonathan Reynolds, Brean Bush, Erin Lifton, Ibn Feisal Peerbaccus This work explores the architectural mash-up of cemetery plots, parking grids, storage modules, and jail cells through the lens of a fictional graphic narrative. The study is furthered through a base analogy of the grid like geometries which dictate the individual planning of these types. The story follows a boy as he re imagines a series of television commercials into an obscene mixed-use architectural space. This self storage drive-in movie prison for the dead is meant to stoke discourse regarding storage spaces and the value we place on them and their contents. Of specific concern is the place-less ness of these spaces, and their relationship to individual and collective identity within an urban context.
A PATTERN LANGUAGE: MASSPRODUCTION, MONUMENTS, MOATS
Charlie O’Geen [lead], Irina Dwyer, Paul Eland, Randi Marsh, Scott Newsted, Devika Sangurdekar, Laura Schneider, Christopher Theisen, Ashley Brenner, Kanqi Zhu We again began by graduating our critique of “throw-away” culture by studying how the mass production of automobiles has informed and shaped cities. Our research revealed a surplus of parking garages and lots in the downtown area of Detroit, informing their status as new monuments. We set up an equation where parking is moved to the perimeter of downtown and the resulting island is naturalized as an urban park and social gathering space. All automobiles are moved out of downtown into the interstate area—which was promptly flooded by redirecting the Detroit River. The cars are contained within dodecahedrons – a platonic shape studied by Anne Tyng. The parking garages were gutted, adorned with gold and their materials were used to build a system of “skyways” for pedestrian traffic elevated above the city. These skyways are connected to the street level via the garage shells, the interiors of which were designated as “vertical plaza” spaces to help with navigation. The streets below were re-imagined for pedestrian traffic: the wide, car-friendly avenues were turned into large, continuous plazas with greenery and art work, and the narrower side-streets became canals with gondolas and floating marketplaces. The parking lots were meanwhile transformed into large art installations and public spaces.
RETURN OF THE WEVI
Maria Simon [lead], Joseph Vani, Terri Douglas, Geoff Lasoski, Ben Luther, Drew Pelkey, Randy Sova Ii, Luting Xu, Jamie Tischler It is a time of crisis. The natural world and the machine world are out of balance both teetering on the edge of demise. The Wevi arrive en mass at the edge of the pond seeking aid from the machine, the machines likewise struggle in need of the wise Wevi. Two towers are built in dialog with one another. Scales collide, a network of vertical and horizontal towers create a new urban typology. One tower, the machine’s tower is a testament to the upward movement of the machine’s aspirations for domination, physically responding to the design of the machine itself. The Wevi, being reliant on the water, must live in a horizontal tower that can grow as a network that weaves its way in and around the heavy vertical tower of the machines. Both towers use parking circulation as a synergistic strategy of movement in and between the towers. Paris and Flint serve as inspiration to lay out the important programmatic patterns of the two newly formed collaborative societies. A new dialog is developed, born out of an equation of typological elements of the past and the realities of the
present. Platonic shapes create massive three-dimensional grids that provide a responsive occupation for each culture. The structure is reflective of the unique movement, scale and lifestyle of body. Moments of shared space are carefully crafted for collaboration. The connections are productive. Wevi wisely assemble the artifacts of the past. Machines employ their power and command over nature. A new destiny is formed‌ but for how long?
FOLLY IS MONUMENT
Amy Swift [lead], Nick Cressman, Kirk Stefko, Christopher Stefani, Jonathan Selleck, Guanyi Wang, Sarah Saleh, Jerry Carter, Jon Krdu, Abhimanyu Lakhey The monument is explored as a social space at a variety of scales – starting with the scale of the region and dialing in to an intimate scale. The individual inhabitable monuments gather as points of collection, forming an urban-scaled monument navigated predominately by the auto. These urban-scaled monuments are broken down into clustered neighborhoods, comprised of monument units at 3-6-9 scales to support a variety of functions. The individual monuments explore the tensions present in accommodating automobiles in human spaces. The human spaces focus in at the most basic of human needs at an intimate scale.
LEADS&F BIOGRA
FELLOWS APHIES
SRDJAN JOVANOVIC WEISS
Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss is a Serbian-born architect living and working in Manhattan, New York. He is the founding principal of Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss / NAO and co-founder of School of Missing Studies (SMS). He holds PhD from Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths University of London, Master of Architecture post-professional degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design and Diploma in Engineering and Architecture from University of Belgrade. His books include Socialist Architecture: The Vanishing Act (with Armin Linke, 2012), Almost Architecture (2006), Lost Highway Expedition Photobook (ed. 2007) and Evasions of Power: On the Architecture of Adjustment (ed. 2011). His designs include Villa 62 in Ordos, China (urbanism by Ai Weiwei), Threadwaxing Space, Participant Inc., Swiss Institute Contemporary Art in New York and Slought Foundation Office in Philadelphia. His curatorial projects include exhibits: Lina Bo Bardi presented at Columbia GSAPP, Yona Friedman: About Cities at The Drawing Center in New York and Anne Tyng: Inhabiting Geometry at The Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and at the Graham Foundation in Chicago. His design experience includes working with Herzog & de Meuron Architects, Richard Gluckman as well as artists Jenny Holzer, Robert Wilson and Marjetica Potrc. Jovanovic Weiss teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia GSAPP and he taught at Cornell, Harvard, Lawrence Tech, Pratt, Parsons, and Temple. www.thenao.net
PHILIP PLOWRIGHT
Philip Plowright is an Associate Professor of Architecture (Design, Theory and History) at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan; a registered architect in Michigan; a founding member of the synchRG systems-based think tank; and Editor-in-Chief of Enquiry/The ARCC Journal of Architectural Research. He holds degrees in studio art, art history and architecture from the University of Guelph and the University of British Columbia, Canada and is pursuing advanced research in Cognitive Linguistics at the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Based out of the Detroit and mid-Michigan area, he works between professional and academic architectural design on disciplinary issues between meaning, interpretation, method and knowledge transfer in socio-formal environments. His work has been published in various locations and formats, ranging from books, book chapters, academic proceedings and journals to popular architectural magazines such as Boundaries: International Architectural Magazine (Italy), Architecture and Construction (Iran), Archnet-IJAR (USA), Bauwelt (Germany), and Arkinka, Revista de Arquitectura, Diseno y Construccion (Spain). His most recent book, Revealing Architectural Design: Methods, Frameworks & Tools, was published by Routledge in early 2014. It is followed by a chapter on sustainable architecture as ecology in Architecture and Sustainability: Critical Perspectives (Sint-Lucas Architecture Press, Belgium).
SCOTT SHALL
Scott Gerald Shall is Associate Professor and Chair in the Architecture Department at Lawrence Technological University, the principal of the design firm sgsa+d and the founding director of the International Design Clinic. Shall’s research and creative work in this arena has been disseminated widely, including presentations at Third International Symposium On Service Learning In Higher Education, the 2011 ARCC National Conference and the 2008 International Conference on Informal Settlements And Low Income Housing as well as invited lectures at Brown University (2009), the University of Maryland (2009), the New School for Design at Parsons (2008), and the Pratt Institute (2008). Shall’s writing on socially-responsive design has been featured in a range of peer-reviewed publications, including works by MIT Press (2013), the AIA Press (2010) and the University of Indianapolis Press (2010). In 2008 Interior Design magazine published the work of the IDC along with projects by Kengo Kuma & Associates, OMA, and Buckminister Fuller in an article highlighting practitioners who are challenging the edge of design practice. Shall has exhibited his creative work in venues around the world, including solo shows at the San Francisco Museum of Art in La Paz, Bolivia (2011) and the AIA Center for Architecture in Philadelphia (2009) as well as group shows at the Sheldon Swope Museum of Art (2010), the SPOT gallery of Poznan, Poland (2010), the Goldstein Museum of Design (2010), multiple shows at the Crane Center in Philadelphia (2010, 2011) and the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale.
FELLOWS
ANIRBAN ADHYA
Anirban Adhya is an Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design. He is a founding member of the synchRG systems-based think tank and an active proponent of the Detroit Studio service-learning outreach program. Adhya’s research focuses on sustainability as ecology with emphasis on well-being and social ethics in places. This interdisciplinary investigation integrates theories and practices of sustainable placemaking and everyday urbanism through mixed-modal methodologies in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and planning with those in ecological theory, cultural studies, public health, environment, and behavior. His work on urban theory, public realm, and strategic regionalism in Detroit has been published in Terrain Vague: Interstices at the Edge of the Pale (2013), Urban Design International (2013), The Urban Wisdom of Jane Jacobs (2012), Volume 20 (Archis, 2009) and the ARCC Journal 6/2 (2009). Adhya’s research has been funded by institutes like the Coleman Foundation (Fellowship Program), American Institute of Architects (AIA Research Funding Program), and the University of Michigan (Marans Fellowship). He holds a PhD in Architecture degree from University of Michigan, a Master of Architecture degree from the University at Buffalo, and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from India.
IRSIDA BEJO
Irsida Bejo is a Detroit based architectural designer & urban researcher, whose work focuses on spatial exploration of thresholds from military to cinematography, cartography to aviation, public domesticity to digital publics. She has established D/ AGSTUD/O, a design research experiment of The Excluded Middle - the interstitial and transitory character of the spatial threshold as a possible model for a less possible architecture. As a Fulbright Fellow, she has launched (and currently runs) PERfACT, a curious online threshold that connects creative individuals in Albania and abroad, by encouraging them to view the country as a ‘creative experiment’, to challenge & improve it through cultural, spatial and ideological tactics. Bejo is also a Co-Founder, Chapter Organizer & PARK(ing) Day Lead at ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY - DETROIT. The New Humanitarian Creative. A collaborative effort that provides pro-bono architectural services to those in Metro Detroit that need it the most and can least afford it.
ALINA D. CHELAIDITE
Alina Chelaidite is a Romanian born architectual designer practicing in the Detroit area. Her work concentrates on parametric design and how “social landscaping”, urban growth using parametric design, engages urban typology.
AARON JONES
Aaron Jones is a registered architect, illustrator, and fabricator based in Detroit, MI. Aaron’s work aims to prompt alternative urban discourse and empower positive change at varied scales. The work manifests as pop-up structures, comic books, performance art, critical writing, as well as other formats. Aaron is a 5th generation Oklahoman, having since practiced architecture in both Texas and Michigan. He holds a Master of Architecture from Cranbrook Academy of Art and was a summer Fellow within CEMAT - Centre d’Etudes Maghrébines à Tunis - based in North Africa and sponsored by the US Dept. of State. Professionally Aaron maintains his practice on Detroit’s Eastside and teaches various architectural coursework within Lawrence Technological University’s College of Architecture and Design. Recent accomplishments include solo exhibition within NEW PROJECT’S ( Chicago ), group exhibition within The Storefront for Art and Architecture ( NYC ), and summer tenure as Architect in Residence for the Bronx River Art Center. Current work includes an upcoming exhibition at the Goethe Institut in Johannesburg South Africa. Aaron’s work is represented by Balloon Contemporary, Chicago, IL.
STEWART HICKS
Stewart Hicks is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at University of Illinios at Chicago (UIC) and founding partner of the collaborative practice Design With Company. DWC is dedicated to what they call “Slipstream Architecture,” which reveals latent conditions of reality through design narratives and fictions. Their work includes textual and visual narratives, speculative urban scenarios, installations, and small-scale interactive constructions. Prior to joining UIC, he held positions at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign and the University of Michigan. Hicks has received numerous national and international awards including the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award and the Young Architect’s Forum Award (as Mitnick Roddier Hicks). His collaborative designs and writings have been widely exhibited and published in venues such as Log, bracket, MONU, Abitare, Architectural Record, and Mark.
CHRISTOPHER HOLZWART
Chris Holzwart is a Denver based architectural design. He holds architectural designers from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and Miami University. Holzwart’s work has been featured in design websites, publications, exhibitions, and an international architectural education summit. The focus of his work is to link technological, cultural, ecological, and physical relationships between architecture, environments, and users. The work can be described as ‘disciplinary-faceted’, due to the differing breadths and scopes of each architectural project.
ALLISON NEWMEYER
Allison Newmeyer is a cofounder of Design With Company. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has also taught architectural design and representation courses at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Illinois Institute of Technology, and University of Illinois in ChampaignUrbana. She received her Masters of Architecture from the University of Michigan. She has years of experience working with design/build and architecture firms in Chicago, Princeton, and Champaign. She is a fellow of the MacDowell Artist Colony and is the recipient of architectural awards from the Van Alen Institute and Architizer.
CHARLIE O’GEEN
Charlie O’Geen is a College Professor of Architecture (Design, Materials and Tectonics) at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, MI, and was recently awarded a fellowship by the Kresge Foundation for his research in Detroit, MI. He holds a Bachelors of Science and Masters degree in Architecture from SUNY Buffalo as well as a Masters of Architecture from Cranbrook Academy of art. O’Geen has worked for several design-build practices and has managed construction projects in four countries (most recently for Power House Productions in Detroit). His research investigates the exploitation of existing site conditions for use as building systems. The work stands in opposition to conventional building practices which are materially consuming. Unconventionally, O’Geen’s work moves off paper and into a full-scale reality and looks to expose the opportunities of existing material energy.
MARIA SIMON
Maria Simon is an Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Hawaii Manoa, where she teaches visual communications. She is also Curator of the Haigo and Irene Shen Design Gallery, as well as an Architectural Adviser to the Barak Obama Hawaii Presidential Center Initiative project where she facilitates the feasibility study and pre-competition analysis for the project. Simon is Principal at NomiLab, an architecture and design firm specializing in design. She holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and a Bachelor of Architecture from Pennsylvania State University. She has lectured at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught at the Lawrence Technological University. Simon’s focus is visual communication through both hand and digital drawing techniques.
AMY SWIFT
Amy is an architectural design-builder, writer, and artist living-working-advocating in the city of Detroit. In 2012, she formed Building Hugger to fill what she saw as a void in accessible renovation design and development services focused on marginalized vernacular structures. Swift has taught adaptive architectural design at the University of Detroit Mercy. Currently she lectures on the history and theory of 20th century architecture and leads design studio labs focused on building tectonics at Lawrence Technological University. She studied Architecture at Kent State, holds a BS in Interior Architecture from Lawrence Tech, and completed a MS in Historic Preservation from Columbia University in NYC.
WESLEY TAYLOR
Wesley Taylor is a graphic designer, fine artist, musician and curator. He has spent many years “scene building” in the Detroit hip-hop community as both an emcee and graphic designer. He is co-founder of Emergence Media, along with Invincible. Taylor’s most recent body of work revolves around the promise of the future; he imagines that “the future” is his client and he is in change of marketing for “the future” and branding its many possibilities. In 2011, his work was presented in the two-person show Brandished at Re:View Gallery in Detroit. Taylor holds a graduate degree in 2-D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art and teaches design at Eastern Michigan University. He also manages a five-person artists’ studio collective in Detroit called Talking Dolls.