EXPERIMENT
T
I S O L A T I O N
T h e p e a k o f M a u n a Ke a Vo l c a n o p r e s e n t s u n i q u e c o n d i t i o n s t h a t g i v e its visitors a sense of other worldliness. Due to an effect, called ther mal inver sion, there is almost always a thick cloud layer below the peak, s e p a r a t i n g t h e s k y f r o m t h e l a n d b e l o w. W h e n y o u a r e a t t h e p e a k a l l y o u s e e a r e c l o u d s b e l o w, c r e a t i n g a t r a n s c e n d e n t f e e l i n g o f s e p a r a t i o n from Earth. There is a sense of isolation that per mits creative freedom and an enviroment for self ref lection as you g aze beyond our home.
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Figure 5
MAUNA KEA V O L C A N O
T h e M a u n a Ke a Vo l c a n o i s H a w a i i ’s h i g h e s t v o l c a n o , a t 1 3 , 8 0 3 ’ i n e l e v a t i o n . I t i s t h e d o r m a n t v o l c a n o t h a t m a k e s u p t h e N o r t h p a r t o f H a w a i i ’s m a i n island. The volcanic sand and cratered landscape are red and sometimes p a i n t e d w h i t e w i t h s n o w. T h e b l a n k c a nv a s o f s m o o t h h i l l s i s c u r r e n t l y s p o t t e d with 12 telescopes that represent foreign metal objects that look out of place in the seeming ly unoccupied place. T he whole scene is ver y sur real and the perfect place for intellectual participants to stretch their creative minds. The site is the perfect place for astronomy. There is very little air turbulence and light pollution is very minimal. The ancient Hawaiian’s used the stars to navigate their surroundings and develop a spiritual connection to their world. Today scientists also study the stars in a more methodical way. Can a site that lends itself so much to spirituality, science, and beauty bring intellectuals together to study the world around them and lear n from each other?
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Source: SciencePhotoLibrary
Observatories
Source: VQR by Haisam Hussein
3D Printed Site Model
Cloud cover below peak
Site Section and Topography Red volcanic rock
Craters
Figure 6
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P R O G R A M
DI SC I PL I NES :
The
Mauna
Kea
A RT
Nature sounds music / reverberation Natural materials sculptor Poet
SCIENCE
Geologist Meteorologist Astronomer Physicist
SOCIAL SCIENCE
Psychologist Anthropologist
RELIGION
Priest Monk Nun
DESIGN
Architect Engineer
Interdisciplinary
Residency
Program
will
encourage
intellectuals from around the world to apply as a participant in one of the five discipline categories. The group will consist of a members with a diversity of passions, cultures, knowledge, and goals. Groups will start their experience together and stay on the site for six months. They will study what they would like and take advantage of the limited distractions of nor mal everyday life and take the opportunity to collaborate with peers from around the world and different backgrounds. Through this program, my design will have to consider the many contradicting attribute of the residency and academic experience.
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CONTRADICTIONS: Private
vs
Public
Life
vs
Work
Self-Reflection
vs
Collaboration
Discipline A
vs
Discipline B
Culture A
vs
Culture B
ARCHI T E CTU R A L PROG R A M Individual Work Space
WORK
Bedroom Bathroom
HOME
Laundry Room Library Collab Studio Lab Kitchen / Dining Warehouse / Storage
SOCIAL
Sanctuary Recreation Room
A residency program for people of different cultures and disciplines who will live in a collaborative environment for 6 months. The organization will encourage intellectuals, who are looking for a breakthrough in their study, to apply. Private living arrangements will be provided, as well as relevant work spaces, collaborative areas, and places for self-reflection. The graph shows how I will treat each space in regards to level of privacy and association with work-life balance. People will experience privacy and self-reflection in their individual minimalistic homes and office pods, but will be encouraged to collaborate when they come together in the social area, where they have to eat, collect research, and use the recreational facilities.
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PR I VAT E Bedroom Bathroom
Individual Lab Space Bedroom
Sanctuary
Individual Work Space Library Collab Studio Lab Kitchen / Dining Warehouse / Storage Sanctuary
Laundry
Warehouse
Library
PUBL I C LIF E
Recreation Room Laundry Room
Recreation Kitchen / Dining
Bathroom
WOR K
SI T E APPROAC H
The site approach is very important to how I encourage interaction between residents, while still maintaining the “four essentials” of borders: identity, privacy, resources, and security. I played with different configurations of the main three programs: work, home, and social. There are many different qualities depending on the arrangement of the site and the curation of the resident’s day to day experiences. I went with a ring like approach as seen in the 3rd site scheme, where the housing dwellings surround the perimeter, the office pods make up the next inter nal ring, and the most inter nal section is comprised of the social area. This organization allows the residents the opportunity to pass through the work area while walking to the central social area. The outer housing ring creates privacy for the spread out housing dwellings, especially since the topography hides these dwellings from the other programs on the site.
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WORK HOME SOCIAL
Plan:
PROGRAM:
ARCHITECTURAL ATTRIBUTES: ’
00
7,0
DARKNESS
PROGRAM:
LIGHT
- Coming & going (morning & night) - During the use of social spaces
ARCHITECTURAL ATTRIBUTES:
EXPOSED LIGHT HOME
PUBLIC
ISOLATED EXPOSED
WORK
Times of interaction: - During 3 meals
ISOLATEDDARKNESS
HOME
SOCIAL
WORK HOME SOCIAL
SOCIAL
WORK
PRIVATE
PUBLIC
EXPOSED PRIVATE VIEWS EXPOSED VIEWS LIMITED VIEWS
Times of interaction: - During 3 meals - Coming & going (morning & night) - During the use of social spaces - Occasional run-ins at the office clusters
LIMITED VIEWS
Times of Times of interaction: interaction:
Section:
-- During During3 3meals meals PROGRAM:
PROGRAM:
ARCHITECTURAL ATTRIBUTES: ARCHITECTURAL ATTRIBUTES: DARKNESS
DARKNESS
passbybyother’s other’s offices -- When Whencolleagues peers pass offices - During the use of social spaces
- During the use of social spaces
LIGHT
LIGHT ISOLATED
HOME
ISOLATED
HOME
EXPOSED
SOCIAL
SOCIAL
WORK
WORK
EXPOSED PUBLIC PUBLIC
Times of interaction: - During 3 meals
EXPOSED VIEWS
- Coming & going (morning & night) - While walking to or from work
LIMITED VIEWS
- Within the collaborative work space
PRIVATE
PRIVATE EXPOSED VIEWS LIMITED VIEWS
Times of interaction: (don’t interact with everyone) - During 3 meals - Coming & Going (morning & night)
MAST E R PL A N I TE R ATI ON 1
This site plan plays with the landscape in a way that encourages open interactions between residents and allows freedom of choice on approach to the center. In order to get to the essential center “social area” the residents must walk through a forest of office pods. When you get a vague visual of peers working in their private pods it creates a sense of commodore and motivation.
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Figure 7
’
00
7,0
Office Pod Forest
N
Chosen Site Scheme
SI T E SE CT I ON I TE R ATI ON 1
This sectional site scheme takes the residents underground in order to arrive at the central social area. Then they move up, though an elevator ride, and arrive on the artificial ground plane. This plane creates an open clean slate that is scattered with organic office pod towers. A part of the domed pod would be glass, allowing passerby’s to peer in to see you working, but the distance the height provides still gives the person who is working the privacy they desire while they self reflect and contemplate their research.
33
Figure 8
C OV I D -
19
C U R R E N T CONDITION 2 0 2 0
Today we are experiencing boundaries in a unique way, through the invisible limitation of self-isolation during the Corona Virus pandemic. We are physically limited by who we interact with which is defined by a concept of “physical distancing”. There is no actual wall separating us from other people and vectors, but instead physical, invisible space. The only way we can measure this “space” is through our socially constructed measurement system, hence the 6 foot rule. Like our measurement system, time is also a concept we created in order to perceive our world. This period of “stay at home” orders and the halting of typical tasks and events, has war ped our perception of time. The whole world almost feels in limbo as if time has paused. Events we usually use as a frame of reference have vanished and so has our individual sense of time. Time is one of the ultimate invisible borders that control our lives. How can the design of the space we currently live, work, and play in bring us an awareness of time so we don’t fall into a state of uncertainty? This crucial problem seems specific to our current state in the year 2020, but as we move forward in to the virtual world of zoom calls and at home offices we need to address the environment we live and work
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QUAR AN T I N E J OU R NA L Space Memory Time
Once Covid-19 hit the U.S. I began a quarantine jour nal to document how the virus would affect my life and the ones around me. My perception of space, memory, and time were changed and influenced how I moved forward with my design. The way we perceive space has transfor med due to new policies like the 6 foot rule that creates a personal bubble significantly larger than our nor mal personal bubbles. When architects design spaces we take in to deep consideration the space between people. This new spacial rule changes how people move in and interact with buildings. How we experience memory in our built environment has changed drastically, as well. When I left studio the desks were empty. There was no sign of life or history through the typical remnants of trash, ideas, sketches, models, or people. The space was completely different with out the artifacts of the people who inhabited and used the building. The most noticeable and impactful change was the distortion of my perception of time . Time, an invisible border, but arguably one of the most important, has such an important role in our life’s. When self isolation began many events and activities were stripped away from us, completely altering our schedules. We typically rely on repetition to give us a frame of reference for the passing of time but now certain events, such as going to a restaurant once a week, have completely disappeared. Without these reference points and structure individuals feel lost, disorientated, and in a state of limbo.
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Figure 9
To be continued...
CLOCK
WORK
M AC H I N E Observatories
Clock face markers
Office Pods
Hour hands
Social Area
Center axis point
Housing Dwellings
Human charging stations
The awareness of time, or should I say unawareness, became a very important part of how I worked on my thesis project when self-isolation started in March 2020. The community of twelve members on my site will be experiencing very similar situations, due to their isolation from society and a focus on an ambiguous research type project. I wanted to give the members something I felt deprived of in my CornaVirus situation, the motivation and structure time provides. I decided to treat the entire site like a clock. Each piece, the observatories, housing dwellings, office pods, and social area, have a role in this mechanical system. Each of the twelve individual office pods will roll in a circle such that their view will frame each of the twelve observatories on every hour. While in their private office pods members will experience the very slow movement of the rolling pods across the diverse landscape and recognize unique natural features that will provide a frame of reference for their day.
37
Figure 10
X
XII
XI
IX I
II III VIII IV
V
VII
VI
SITE
SCHEME
Each office pod is the same distance from the center axis of the site. As each pod rotates its window frames an observatory on every hour. Through out the day the members will experience many views and take in the beautiful landscape at an optimal level. As the office pods roll they will leave their foot print in the landscape. Residents will have to physically step over this indention in the ground in order to psychologically enter the “work zone”. The center social area will dig itself in to the ground and express the holistic mechanical clock system. Just like the dining hall it holds, the social area will feed and energize the site and the people using it. The housing dwellings are scattered on the outskirts of the site, where they are hidden from the center programs. The whole site works together as a organic system.
38
Figure 11
11
12
10 9
1
2 8
3 7
4
6 5
Social
Work
Home
WORK
Rolling at a max of .07mph
39
PODS
40
H O U S I N G D W E L L I N G
Each private housing dwelling each hosts one resident and consists of a bedroom, bathroom, and living room space. The spaces are very minimal so residents are encouraged to migrate towards the center of the site. The resident will start by waking up and facing down the mountain. Then he or she will eventually need to use the bathroom, and their perspective will be flipped to view the observatories above, as seen in curated view number 3.
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Figure 13
3 1
LIVING ROOM
1
3 LIVING ROOM
BEDROOM
BEDROOM
2
2
Curated Views 1
2
3
SOCIAL
AREA
The social area will provoke conversation, collaboration, and a sense of comradery. The circular retaining wall would be lined with books that the community could use for research. The center table would encourage the residents to eat together because the best conversations start over a plate of dinner. This would also be the place where you enter a tunnel to access your office pods. You walk through an underground tunnel, and then arrive at an elevator that takes you to the office pod level. Hopefully this architectural middle-man will promote crossing paths to and unique moments of ideation.
41
Figure 14
THANK
42
K YOU
FIGURES Figure #
Page #
Source
1
4
Soft Border Drawing
2
6
Borders Lines as Horizontal Sections Cuts
3
19
Illusion of Privacy Paradox
4
24
Soft Border Paradox
5
26
Mauna Kea Site Drawing
6
28
Mauna Ke Peak Photographs
7
32
Iteration 1 Site Plan
8
33
Iteration 1 Concepts
9
36
Quarantine Journal Entries
10
37
Clock Work Drawing
11
38
Site Scheme Drawings
12
39
Office Pod Drawings
13
40
Housing Dwelling Models
14
41
Social Area Concept Drawings
43
ENDNOTES Note #
Page #
Source
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
5 5 5 5 6 7 7 7 7 7 11 11 11 12 12 12 13 14 14 17 17 18 18 19 20 21 22 22 24 24
Tanner Lectures on Human Values: The Idea of a Borderless World by Achille Mbembe Mississippi River Drawings by Harold Fisk 1944 Borderwall as Architecture by Ronald Rael Borders in a Borderless ASEAN by I Made Andi Arsana Do We Need Borders to Define Our Identity? TEDx Talk by Milene Larsson Tate Art Museum (official site) Roden Crater by James Turrell (official site) ARTnews 15 Essential Works of Land Art Donald Judd Foundation Chinati Foundation National Geographic - Building Walls May Have Allowed Civilization to Flourish by Simon Worrall LA Times - 5 Misconceptions about the U.S.- Mexico Ralph Waldo Emerson quote Dimensions of Citizenship (La Biennale di Venezia): Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman Estudio Teddy Cruz: Manufactured Sites See note 3 The Border is a Way of Reinforcing Antagonism that Doesn’t Exist Zaha Hadid Architects (official site) Unbuilding Walls (La Biennale di Venezia) Mending Wall by Robert Frost LA Times - Why Borders Matter See note 21 See note 19 Har vard Law Review - T he Right to Privacy See note 4 See note 11 See note 5 See note 5 Broadway Production: Hadestown by Anais Mitchell See note 5