Dichotomy 21: ODDS by dichotomy udm

21 ODDS

Editors Julia Kowalski Christopher Perkins Business Manager Bradley Kaminski Staff Chelsea Alexander Evan Broske Martyna Falloni Michael Pfaff Molly Redigan Matt Rybak Julia Schlau Faculty Advisors Professor Tadd Heidgerken Professor Noah Resnick Cover Images: Flowing City Map series by Istvan (ChaoticAtmospheres.com)

PRICE $20.00 US University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture 4001 W McNichols Rd Detroit, Michigan 48221 313.993.1523 Our digital archive can be found at: http://dichotomy.arch.udmercy.edu

Printing: Heath Press, Royal Oak, MI Copyright ÂŠ 2015 by Dichotomy | University of Detroit Mercy All rights reserved. No part of this issue may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from Dichotomy. ISSN # 0276-5748

mission Dichotomy, a student-published journal of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture, strives to be the critical link to the discourse on design, architecture, urbanism, and community development. Like the institution, Dichotomy focuses on social justice and critical thought concerning intellectual, spiritual, ethical, and social development issues occurring in and outside of Detroit. The aim of Dichotomy is to disseminate these relevant investigations conducted by students, faculty, and professionals.

006 008 010 028 044 060 070 080 088

EDITORS’ NOTE

INTRODUCTION

Perry Kulper: SPACE ODDITIES

Paul Pettigrew: MAKING STUFF

Erika Lindsay: SPOMENIK IN FLUX

Chelsea Alexander, Krysia Bussière: PLAIN ANOMALIES

Nathaniel Hammitt: GRAND ADJUSTMENTS

ABF-lab: SHARED ARCHITECTURE

Corrie Baldauf: DIGITAL INTIMACY

108 126 140 158 170 182 196 208 224

RE-FORMING MODELS OF COLLABORATION BETWEEN ACADEMIA AND MANUFACTURING: Christopher Romano

LONDON: THE INFORMATION CAPITAL: Oliver Uberti

THE TEMPORARY PHENOMENON: Jadzia Gajczyk

INVASION OF THE FOOT CARRIER: Mandy Roos

WELCOME TO HONEYWELL!: Michael den Hartog

WHERE IS HERE?: David Parker

FLUID ARCHITECTURE: Irina Voda

EVOLUTIONARY FUNCTIONALISM: Elizabeth Grabowski

UDM|SOA NEWS

'Elephant', photo by Andy Richards, 2013

editors’ note

For nearly forty years, Dichotomy has been a catalyst and meeting place for diverse dialogues within the academic, professional, and artistic communities; expanding architectural discourse by providing a dialectical framework from which to view these novel interactions. In this way, Dichotomy is not only our journal’s namesake but also its method: pursuing connections that may at first seem disparate to generate a new and exciting cross-section of the world of architecture for you, the reader. This concept continues with Dichotomy’s 21st edition—ODDS. ODDS means finding critical links in places one has not looked before. To step outside of the ordinary, to defy the status quo, often provides the greatest reward if one is willing to take the risk. Indeed, choosing to give ODDS a home in Dichotomy proved to be a challenge. In the following pages, ODDS is a punk teenager, a super-object, a tickled image, digital intimacy. ODDS manifests itself in the seasons of urban development, in the charting of those movements, and even in the fluid geometry of a building. The question becomes not “what is the piece of the whole?”, but “how is this a piece of the whole?” Recognizing that everything is connected—even dissimilar things are connected by those same sinuous fibers of difference—ODDS posed many questions to us, and some of those we choose to present to you as well. If author Paul Pettigrew (“Making Stuff ”, page 28) is right, that we truly learn through making, then approaching this journal as a puzzle to be put together is an apt challenge. If you can’t beat the odds, you might as well join them together.

Your Editors,

Julia Kowalski and Christopher Perkins

'Elephant', photo by Andy Richards, 2013

introduction This iteration of Dichotomy—ODDS—finds itself at a crossroad, a cultural shift from a digital to a post-digital world. What does this mean for creators, for those tasked with thinking about, imagining, and creating physical and virtual spaces open enough to allow for the sort of creative risk-taking that is required if we are to move ahead not at the mercy of the System, but as creators of that System. In a few pages, you will encounter several definitions of “odds,” one of which reads “the ration between the amounts staked by the parties to a bet, based on the expected probability either way.” That’s a particularly apt definition for this issue, which explores (among other things) the stakes of moving ahead in a post-digital, post-industrial world, a world evermore defined by crises: the environment, poverty, sustainability, terror. The French cultural theorist and architect Paul Virilio, in his short but potent book The Administration of Fear, has suggested that “we are facing the emergence of a real, collective madness reinforced by the synchronization of emotions; the sudden globalization of affects in real time that hits all of humanity at the same time, and in the name of Progress. Emergency exit: we have entered a time of general panic.” Tough words, and yet, as the contents of this issue of Dichotomy suggest, we can be shapers of this world, rather than merely shaped by it. Part of the Jesuit mission here at the University of Detroit Mercy is to seek knowledge in the service of humanity. I urge you, dear reader, to keep that in mind as you peruse this issue, whose wide-ranging articles share a common theme of architecture’s place in the world as a provocation, an intervention for good. As one of the articles in the issue suggests, architectural conventions are not “absolutes,” but rather strategies for embracing “fragility and slipperiness.” These are not mere theoretical concepts, but driving forces behind architecture’s ability to intervene in the conventions, the habits of thought that can lull us into political and cultural complacency. Thanks to the careful work of the editors and to the contributors, you hold in your hands not just a collection of words and images, but thoughts and ideas from minds that are hungry to open up new spaces for thinking which, perhaps, is the boldest thing an architect can do. Professor Nicholas Rombes University of Detroit Mercy Department of English

010 014 018 022 026 028 Perry Kulper

SPACE ODDITIES

Perry Kulper is an architect and associate professor of architecture at the University of Michigan. Prior to his arrival at the Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning he was a SCI-Arc faculty member for 17 years. He also held visiting teaching positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Arizona State University. Subsequent to his studies at Columbia University (M Arch) he worked in the offices of Eisenman/ Robertson, Robert A.M. Stern and Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown before moving to Los Angeles. He works on the generative potential of representation and spatial visualizations, on the capacities of diverse design methods in the production of architecture and in broadening the conceptual range by which architecture contributes to our cultural imagination.

Image Credit: Perry Kulper

“Ground control to Major Tom, Ground control to Major Tom, Take your protein pills and put your helmet on” --David Bowie, “Space Oddity” Odds. Space oddities. Dangerous territory. Maybe it’s time to lean into that equation?

SPACE ODDITIES

I’m interested in things that are unusual; a bit off center. Maybe in the depths of our human capacity, we all are. Knowingly, the Surrealists constructed a consistent diet of the strangely familiar, off-center things that broadened what qualified as art, while challenging bourgeois values. Much of their production offered alternative ways to experience a world increasingly driven by standardized practices. Prompted by the theme of Dichotomy 21, much of what underwrites what I enjoy is that sense of familiar strangeness: inherently structured relationally through paradoxical constructs. And while that may be a consistent conceit, my interests are multiple, frequently trading on cultural, representational, and spatial gambles; “grounded’ misfits”, if you will. I’m interested in the prospect of making design propositions that have cultural durability, that participate in the history of ideas, that have real capacity, and that might be a bit anomalous, off-kilter. Who knows? Maybe they even challenge the status quo. This is risky business to say the least. Some persistent interests I frame towards these promiscuous ends include: relations between art and architecture (I don’t make unnecessary distinctions); collections, taxonomies and curiosity cabinets; puzzles and games; hybridization, speciation, and genealogy; shape grammars; ambiguity, eccentricity, unusualness; scaling and miniaturization; emergence, incompleteness and indeterminacy; alchemy; mythologies; alternative temporalities; the generative use of language prompts; and analogical thinking, to name a few. If conventions and typological insistence predict spatial practices, then familiar estrangement might keep us alive, vivifying that which has gone flat; reframing our habitual practices through a tensional play between that which orients us and simultaneously catches us offguard. In my work, I use a range of techniques to reconsider what might be expected. I stretch programmatic framing; broaden what might qualify as spatial elements; enlarge what is possible through the ‘conceptual catalysts’; and make phase-specific and tailored architectural drawings. Programmatic (re)framing (frequently something recognized coupled with something that causes a distance) can structure relations that are otherwise difficult; leaning into strangely familiar shadows, if you will. In the David’s Island proposal, for example, there are programmatic elements that are prickly, relaxing the predictive roles of most programs; the island features landings for mythical sea travelers; a multiplied officer’s headquarters; an axis of mutiny, or an inaccessible divide; camouflaged surfaces; labyrinths of emptiness or air turbulence fields; moving and mis-coordinated landscapes; a machinic surveillance field; erosion surfaces; polished metamorphic rock gardens; ballasted space; an attractive shell surface; easement fencing; photo ops; panoramic steel walls; and no fly zones. In my Central California History Museum proposal, some of the programmatic elements include: tractors square dancing; a fescue, rose and cattle-clad archive filled with molds and jigs for objects that never existed; a beauty pageant for farm animals; and a theater of the muses. This kind of programmatic thinking trades on relatively normal, or expected topics that are relationally assembled, in unexpected ways. This enables innovative form from the bottom up, which unsettles the norm.

Davidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Island, Strategic Plot SPACEover ODDITIES Using notation, indexes, writing and figurative marks this drawing plots varied relations and through time. At the same time it helps discover what kinds of programmatic possibilities might be used to structure the interests and ambitions of the proposal.

Central California History Museum, Competition, Proto-formal Drawing Similar to the cryptic drawings, this drawing advances formal and material possibilities in a more definitive way. It is a mediating drawing, enabling insight about the movement between ideas and the formal and material articulation. It points to programmatic components as well, including: the harvesting surface; floral robots; electronic marionettes; and the theater of the muses.

SPACE ODDITIES

The framing of (a)typical spatial elements animates relations that wade into the waters of the uncanny or anomalous. In the Fast Twitch desert dwelling, a range of designed elements structure the key ambitions or interests of the proposal. A handful of those interests include: nuanced perceptual tweaks in the desert to vivify things taken for granted; hybrid archetypes that de-familiarize existing archetypes; the possibility to structure temporal logics that move between the geologic and immediate, thus displacing more normative expectations about when and where we are; and a tensional play between domestication and the wild, which enables a play between the security of being somewhere while creating a sense of wonderment and discovery. Developed spatial elements that relationally

Central California History Museum, Competition, Aerial View Assisted by: Sen Liu In this image you can see some of the programmatic components of the proposal played out: the fescue, rose and cattle clad archive; the surfaces for tractors square dancing and the theater of the muses (the corset like bit on the large building).

SPACE ODDITIES

structure the potential of those interests spatially include: a pink dust garden; chrome shadows, etched with architectural fragments that will never arrive on the site of the house; milled garden surfaces which are configured by landscape milling machines and encrypted with seemingly familiar, but unknowable languages; milled and real cacti; a miniature cast-bronze bi-plane; a miniature and non-functional stair to nowhere; an oversized ovoid and chromed billiard ball; a rubber storage sack; a miniature version of the project constructed on the living space (the tall architectural object filled with logs); and an inaccessible labyrinth. Among other things, these elements establish the sense of estranged familiarity, reconstituting what our occupation of a desert landscape might reveal.

Fast Twitch, Desert Dwelling, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Top Lozengeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Assisted by: Sen Liu Here, many of the architectural and landscape elements of the desert dwelling are visible: the milled garden surfaces; chrome shadows; the labyrinth; a miniature cast-bronze bi-plane; and the pink dust garden.

Fast Twitch, Desert Dwelling, ‘Miniature + Hawks’ Assisted by: Sen Liu A miniature version of the desert dwelling is constructed on the side of the ‘living space’- a steel clad, log filled space. The steel is calibrated to dematerialize in 100 years, leaving a pile of logs one the milled garden surfaces and desert. One lives in, or occupies a pair of baskets that are suspended from the steel clad, patterned and now partially erased architecture.

SPACE ODDITIES

The conceptual catalysts, equally implicated in the theme of this issue of Dichotomy, are speculative conceptions of architecture. I have imagined more than 60 of these to date. Imagine: spatial ventriloquism; materializing the space of a buildings construction rather than materializing the architecture; pixelated architecture; using literary terms analogously (aphorism, metaphor, simile, alliteration, and so on) as the construction logics for architecture; erasing drawings to produce architecture; architecture that produces false shadows; and time lapsed architecture. These spatial alternatives are lightly finished projects that serve to keep my imagination alive, provoking ways to think about what might be possible spatially. Odd, maybe, but given current technological, global and material advances, they might not be so odd after all; they are definitely grist for the mill for the new generation of architects, the contemporary cultural agents. Lastly, in the spirit of the thematic focus of ODDS, are the spatial visualizations: the architectural, sometimes invented, drawings. Often made using a combination of conventional techniques, some are tailored for the work they intend and for what might be discovered through making the drawings while designing. Like other aspects of my work, these drawings are sometimes a bit odd: cryptic site drawings that introduce the DNA for a spatial proposal; strategic plots that plot conceptual frameworks, objects, and events over and through time; relational drawings that simply work on specific relationships; aspectival drawings that challenge the authority of perspective drawings, frequently leaving gaps in the drawings and gaps in the architecture; and analogous drawings where things or elements in the drawing are only like other things or behave like other things. Many of the visualizations are phase-specific, augmenting conventions and broadening those ordained and sanctified traditions that protect what is known.

SPACE ODDITIES

Bleached Out: De-commissioning Domesticity, Relational Drawing, v.02 Within a very limited framework, or set of ambitions this drawing studies erasure, censoring and recoding. It is a pre-cursor to an architectural proposal- a relational drawing with no particular scale, orientation or direct spatial implications.

SPACE ODDITIES

Central California History Museum, Competition, Cryptic Site Drawing, v.02, Detail This drawing detail is a kind of chromosomal drawing, a site drawing, made of indexes, notations and construction marks for an eventual spatial proposition. The genetic make up of the drawing anticipates formal and material make up without knowing either of those things, yet.

Maybe familiar strangeness or the grounded but incongruous—the uncanny, might be a way into more accessible spatial and cultural potential. The German philosopher Schelling discussed the uncanny in ‘Philosophie der Mythologie’ in 1835. Anthony Vidler observed that Schelling linked the uncanny to the origins of philosophy, religion and poetry and was a force to overcome toward the possibility of poetry. Freud enlarged the social consciousness through his writing on the uncanny, linking it to our marginalized and repressed impulses. And, many of the surrealists made a steady practice of strangely familiar provocations, altering known and habitual cultural contours. They delivered a strong sense of estranged familiarity by structuring paradoxical and often irreconcilable relationships, releasing the cultural equations in the arts into new forms of possibility. Arguably, releasing the strangely familiar as a relational and actionable pursuit might still have cultural purchase, unlocking dormant architectural and human potential; a seductive possibility to be sure. ODDS is an attentive call to arms; timely, telling; a cheeky shout-out to the silo we call the discipline of architecture; tickling taboos and provoking thoughts against the odds. This particular issue champions the defiance, or at least augmentation of conventions, thinking outside the box, advocating for risky business and calling out loudly into the deep margins of a discipline. Provocatively, the strangely familiar might be a way to project forward, advocating for the uncanny, the paradoxical; a way into the deep streams of cultural consciousness, a rallying call for what might be possible. And who knows, maybe even striking resonant cultural chords on the run. The Surrealists might have gotten it right—real right.

SPACE ODDITIES

When the bell rings how will you respond? Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear me Major Tom? Can youâ&#x20AC;Ś Here I am floating round my tin can.

028 032 036 040 042 Paul Pettigrew

MAKING STUFF A NEUROLOGICAL/COGNITIVE ARGUMENT FOR THE EXPERIENCE OF MAKING IN THE EDUCATION OF AN ARCHITECT Paul Pettigrew received his Architecture BS from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and his MArch from MIT. He has worked for Perkins & Will, Crate & Barrel, and in private practice. In 1999, he joined the faculty of the first-year architecture studio at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He currently curates the first-year design studios. Pettigrew has been designing and fabricating architecturally specific furniture for over 20 years. Custom furniture and architecture incorporating Pettigrewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s furniture can be found in businesses and residences throughout the Chicagoland area, nationally and, occasionally, abroad. His private practice work and student projects have been described in numerous publications. Since Spring 2006 he has shared his interest in architecturally specific furniture design and fabrication with IIT Architecture students enrolled in his Architecture & Furniture course. Architecture & Furniture offers students the opportunity to experience the traditional sequence of master plan, schematic design, design development, fabrication drawings, fabrication, installation and use in a single semester. Image Credit: Paul Pettigrew

“I would argue that any theory of human intelligence which ignores the interdependence of hand and brain function, the historic origins of that relationship, or the impact of that history on developmental dynamics in modern humans, is grossly misleading and sterile.” 1 I find it odd that architecture students are required to take 150+ credit hours to graduate with a professional architecture degree and not a single credit hour requires students to conceptualize, design develop, construction document, fabricate and/or use a project from start to finish. The ultimate goal of most architects is to build. Oddly, students might never build as part of the educational “process” that leads to the “product” we call architecture graduates. For 24 years I have been fabricating site specific functional objects in my architectural practice. For the past eight years, I have been exploring the possibility that “making” is as important as “thinking” and “drawing”. I have been documenting the historic tradition of “craft” in schools and education. I have been researching neurological/cognitive studies that support the importance of “making” in the education of an architecture student. Most importantly, for eight years, I’ve been working alongside my students to conceptualize, develop, draw, model, mock-up and fabricate at full-scale and in real materials the relationship between the human hand, body, mind, form and function. My contribution to Dichotomy is a selection of observations, research, and projects made by me and my students as evidence to support our thesis that physically making an idea from

concept to functional object is a unique and critical experience in the education of an architecture student.

Figure 1: “Modular Meandering Bench” Architecture & Furniture group project originally designed to be site specific to IIT’’s Crown Hall adapted & modified as part of Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry Smart Home exhibition

No Smoking Gun Someday I hope that we are able to place an architect in an MRI machine and figure out what is going on between hand and brain as the architect conceptualizes, designdevelops through drawing, and then ultimately construction documents their proposed design. These MRI readings would be compared to the architect placed in an MRI scanner who not only conceptualizes, design-develops through drawing, and documents their proposed design, but also physically builds at full scale in real materials their design intentions. Would any difference in brain activity and development be observed? Would differences in brain activity and development be temporary or might there be long-term, retained, brain development applicable to similar design problems in the future? My research has yet to uncover

MAKING STUFF

architects sliding in and out of MRI scanners. In the mean time, tests have been administered that hint at what we might find in the architect MRI scans of the future. The hands of the architect are extensions of and a means for communication with the creative brain. We architects are constantly moving our design ideas back and forth between what our mind and brain imagine and what our hands are able to translate to paper and hard drive. What is the difference between the hand-brain connection of the drawing architect vs. the constructing architect?

all or some of the tools and techniques that will be used to construct our design. The hand-brain connection between the dominant sketching, drawing, and mousing hand in tandem with the non-dominant hand at rest or keyboarding hand must be very different than the hand-brain connection of the dominant and non-dominant hands of the architect lifting and supporting material as it makes its way out of the wood pile, onto the table saw, under the drill press, in an out of clamps gripping and un-gripping as boards or sheets of material are systematically assembled into a functioning whole.

“The behaviors involved in complex human tool use cut across boundaries traditionally drawn between social, cognitive, perceptual and motor processes. Long-standing neuropsychological evidence suggests a distinction between brain systems responsible for representing: (1) semantic knowledge about familiar tools and their uses, and (2) the acquired skills necessary for performing these actions. Contemporary findings in functional neuroimaging support and refine this distinction by revealing the distributed neural systems that support these processes and the conditions under which they interact. Together, these findings indicate that behaviors associated with complex tool use arise from functionally specialized networks involving temporal, parietal and frontal areas within the left cerebral hemisphere.” 2

“The range of functions that hands serve arguably exceeds any part of the body. Hands sense like eyes, but they also speak, sculpt, spar, and shape our world. They are both input systems and output systems. They allow us to survive as individuals, and they link us together socially. Hands are integral to who we are as a species, as members of groups and as individuals.” 3

Intuitively, we suspect that there is a difference between designing and not knowing or caring which tools and techniques will be used to build our designs versus knowing and caring which tools and techniques will be used to build our designs and/or having physically worked with

Epiphanies 1 & 2 My first epiphany occurred just out of graduate school, working on my first set of large-scale wall sections. Looking back and forth between the office’s previously drawn wall sections and the new wall sections I was drawing, my brain only registered lines, numbers and words. Simultaneously, I was “moonlighting”— designing and fabricating Donald Judd-inspired furniture for my first apartment using handtools and hand held power tools in my parents garage. After completion of my first functioning furniture pieces, it was as if a switch was shifted from off to on. I no longer saw lines, numbers and words in my wall sections. I now

saw materials, connections, connectors, and the relationship between the collection of materials and the physical demands the collection of materials was being asked to perform. In retrospect my naivety is embarrassing, but the difference in what I saw from one day to what I understood the next was unforgettable. My second epiphany occurred when I started teaching first-year design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Fall 1999, I entered into an architecture program that had remained true to its Bauhaus roots in the sense that all first-year architecture students were required to spend a portion of their studio instruction time inside the Crown Hall shop. All architecture students were required to learn how to use hand and power tools and build with materials needed for modeling throughout their five years of architectural studies at IIT. As first-year instructors we tapped into this “shop knowledge base” by incorporating a sequence of assignments that required students to design and build with real materials at full scale individually and in groups. Today, 15 years later IIT Architecture still incorporates first-year design projects that allow students an opportunity to design and build using real materials at full scale.

Alberti’s Architect “Before I go any further, however, I think I should explain exactly whom I mean by architect: for it is no carpenter that I would have you compare to the greatest exponents of other disciplines; the carpenter is but an instrument in the hands of the architect.” 4

Alberti is not the first architect nor the last to write about and actively pursue the separation of architect and builder. There is evidence throughout architecture’s history to support the gentleman or professional architect actively distancing himself from the not-so-gentlemanly or professional builder, craftsman, workman and/or laborer. Comparing architectural drawings for buildings prior to Alberti’s time with architectural drawings made by today’s gentleman architect, an odd inversion has taken place. Antique drawings include far fewer details, specifications and/or technical information than drawing sets today. Master builders knew how to build what had been drawn and what had not been drawn. As architecture evolved into an arrangement that includes the gentleman architect and the general contractor with his team of subcontractors, the number of drawings needed and the level of technical detail in a set of drawings has increased. In other words, as the architect has become less of a builder, the architect has been asked to know more about how buildings are put together and builders, the guys actually making the buildings, have been put in the position of building from a set of drawings put together by Alberti’s architect who has spent little or no time actually building. Architects and architectural educators have been pushing back against Alberti’s notion of carpenter versus architect since before Alberti. Walter Gropius and the legacy of the Bauhaus are perhaps the most well known proponents of “making” in the schools. Walter Gropius was clear in his support of making during his presentation at an Association of Collegiate

MAKING STUFF

Schools of Architecture (ACSA) conference in 1959. “…Knowledge will only come by individual experience. At the start, basic design and shop practice combined should introduce to the students the elements of design, surface, volume, space, color, and simultaneously the ideas of construction, of building, by developing three-dimensional exercises to be carried out with materials and tools. In succeeding years of training, the design and construction studio, supplemented by field experience during summer vacations, will coordinate further experience with the broadening of knowledge. Construction should be taught as part of design, for they are directly interdependent…” 5 “Design Build” as an educational tool for young architects followed on the tradition of Gropius’ Bauhaus educational theory with interpretations and polemics that can be read or understood as both regional and unique to the voices of the educators who have sought to describe and/or justify design-build’s importance as Christopher Alexander explained. “Quite apart from my desire to work as a builder, quite apart from my desire to see buildings with this quality built, and quite apart from my belief that architects should be builders, there is just the simple, plain, ordinary fact of the necessity for having first-hand acquaintance with building and making things. And it seems ridiculous to have to mention it except for the fact that most architects today do not understand this. In a woodworking shop, one of the distinctions between somebody who understands working with tools and somebody who does not is

to realize that the process of sharpening or sweeping up are absolutely fundamental to the activity of making something. Most people who do not really understand tools properly, you realize that sharpening the tool is an integral part of its use. For example, I used to spend day after day, out on the site in Martinez, trying our gannet experiments. It is the love of making, and the instinct for making, which has led me in the right direction.” 6 The body of knowledge necessary to put together a successful set of construction drawings and specifications is dependent on experience not only making or drawing drawings, but ideally the experience of seeing first-hand a set of drawings translated into real material, full scale, constructions. There is a kind of chicken and egg situation to this arrangement, i.e. that experience making construction drawings is necessary to make successful fabrications and successful fabrications are dependent on either the experience of the architect making the drawings or the experience of the contractor in building or fabricating similar designs encountered on previous projects. Both architect and contractor are dependent on “previous” experience. The contractor’s experience comes from constructing or fabricating their understanding of a set of architectural drawings. The experience of Alberti’s architect comes from studying previous constructions or fabrications of a similar nature and reinterpreting that information into the unique design circumstances of their current project and design.

“What we lack in the way of past visual experiences can be compensated for by the way our senses have been processed in other learning experiences.” 7 When we draw a wood structural member whether that member is drawn in 2d as an section/elevation or rendered in 3d with photorealistic color, texture, shade and shadow, we are essentially activating a single sense, i.e. our sense of sight. This activation is dependent upon a previous visual experience with a piece of wood in order for our visual system to recognize the connection between the real piece of wood and the wood depicted in drawn form. When we handle a piece of wood that we intend as a component in a project we are taking from concept to full scale prototype, we activate site, sound, smell, touch and if you are so inclined, taste. Cut a piece of cherry wood and you smell

Figure 2: Architecture & Furniture student project incorporating ash wood & aluminum. Aluminum is used to isolate wood functions & is paired with wood dowel pins as a fastener system which intentionally excludes the use of mechanical fasteners

cherries, which is distinct from the smell of freshly cut walnut, red oak, white oak, maple and pine all of which can be identified with eyes closed by an amateur craftsman or woodworker. Picking up a piece of basswood and white oak of equal dimensions we immediately sense and recognize their different densities. Sanding, chiseling, and/or planing a piece of walnut and piece of hard maple we immediately recognize a difference in workability and resistance to hand and blade. Grab a piece of aluminum and a piece of wood at room temperature and we understand that one is cool to the touch and the other is warm just as visually we would describe the aluminum as cool and the wood as warm. Grab a piece of aluminum and a piece of wood left out in the sun on a hot summer’s day or sand pieces of wood and aluminum on a disc sander and you understand within seconds how differently each material responds to temperature changes from exposure and/or friction. “The brain’s raw material is information: the length of light waves hitting the retina; the duration of sound waves pulsating the ear; the effect of a molecule in the olfactory canal. From this the sensory areas of the brain create an idea of what lies outside. But, the final construct is a perception that is invested with meaning. The meanings we attach to our perceptions are usually useful: they transform mere patterns of light into objects we can use, people we can love; places we can go.” 8 Once we are professional architects, and we are fortunate enough to complete the process of working from concept, through schematic

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design, design development, construction documents, construction, punch lists and finally walk through and witness the physicality of our design, the “mere patterns of light” are finally allowed the opportunity of being transformed from data into meaning and use. In the small firm, a young architect might experience this full process within the first year or two of their employment. In a medium or large firm it is usually years and sometimes never that the young architect gets to be involved in a project from start to finish. Can or should the “complete” education of the architect wait this long?

Figure 3: Architecture & Furniture student project translating “blobs” drawn so easily using parametric software into a not so easily detailed and fabricated functional “blob”

Hands & Tools Juhani Pallasmaa’s The Thinking Hand and Harry Francis Mallgrave’s The Architect’s Brain offer architects/readers, interested in the relationship between hand and brain, philosophical, psychological and physiological outlines of the relationship between the drawing hand and the brain of the architect, artist and/or designer. But what of the relationship between the brain and the building/making hand of the architect? In my architecture and furniture class, students

are encouraged to work along parallel paths. The traditional design path moves from concept, through schematic design and design development, to fabrication using drawings both sketched and measured. The nontraditional design path moves from concept to fabrication with little in the way of drawing and nothing in the way of measured drawing. The lack of measured drawing is either a conscious decision on the part of the student or a result of “not being able to draw what I want to make”. Architect, industrial designer, and craftsman David Pye refers to these two paths as projects without risk and projects at risk. “If I must ascribe a meaning to the word craftsmanship, I shall say as a first approximation that it means simply workmanship using any kind of technique or apparatus, in which the quality of the result is not predetermined, but depends on judgement, dexterity and care which the maker exercises as he works. The essential idea is that the quality of the result is continually at risk during the process of making; and so I shall call this kind of workmanship ‘The workmanship of risk’: an uncouth phrase, but at least descriptive.” 9 “With the workmanship of risk we may contrast the workmanship of certainty, always to be found in quantity production, and found in its pure state in full automation. In workmanship of this sort the quality of the result is exactly predetermined before a single sale-able thing is made. In less developed forms of it the result of each operation done during production is predetermined.” 10

Figure 4: Architecture & Furniture student project for “One-of-a-Kind” cooking utensils Inspired by the ethnic/culinary diversity of West Chicago residents/ restaurants. Utensils were designed and fabricated without drawings. Final function and/or form were revealed by hand gouging, band sawing and machine/ hand sanding…their outcome aesthetically & functionally was “continually at risk”

Recent developments in neuroimaging offer explanations of what might be happening between hand and brain during various controlled activities. Neuromimaging experiments suggest how this information or data might be used to develop or shape the way architects go about their education and/or educating. “Simple clenching of one versus the other hand increases the neuronal activity of the frontal lobe in the opposite (contralateral) hemisphere. Electroencephalographic (EEG) measures demonstrate that a mere 90 seconds of left hand clenching increases right hemisphere activity, and similar right hand clenching increases left hemisphere activity.” 11

“Following the notion of relative importance of the right hemisphere (RH) in creative thinking, we explored the possibility of enhancing creative problem solving by artificially activating the RH ahead of time using unilateral hand contractions. Participants attempted to complete the Remote Associates Test after squeezing a ball with either their left or right hand. As predicted, participants who contracted their left hand (thus activating the RH) achieved higher scores than those who used their right hand and those who did not contract either hand. Our findings indicate that tilting the hemispheric balance toward the processing mode of one hemisphere by motor activation can greatly influence the outcome of thought processes.” 12 My interest in neuro-imaging experiments such as these is a search for a “more scientific” explanation for what I have learned intuitively either by watching my students work or analyzing my own process of making. Drawing with a pencil, mouse, and/or keyboard is a much different experience than cutting, sanding, and planing. Cutting, sanding and planing require the use of both hands clenching and unclenching continuously for sometimes hours at a time. The sense of sight does not work in isolation from touching, hearing and smelling. Right and left hemispheres are constantly being bombarded with information that is simultaneously rational/logical and experiential/intuitive. I am particularly interested in the long term effects hinted at in the two experiments described above. Short term gain is of course interesting and important to the project at hand. What I am

MAKING STUFF

by definition a knife, however, this knife is bigger and/or ornamented in such a way as to suggest it is about more that just cutting. Tool transitions into art and it makes its transition via the hand. The hand is what crafted the tool/ art object and it is the hand that uses the tool to perform a function, a ritual or perhaps to fabricate another tool. Today we have the ability to use machines to make architecture, furniture, tools, art, other machines and probably perform many or all of the functions that our primitive ancestors performed with their hands and handmade tools. At some point we need to address the question of whether we should still learn to make things and do things with our hands not because we have to but because we want to maintain from one generation to the next the memory and methods of our past as a way of insuring their possibility in the future.

Figure 5: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Crochet Benchâ&#x20AC;? Noticing that a student was constantly crocheting and/or knitting in my classes, I proposed a challenge to create a functional object that depended structurally on crochet work. The result was a bench that used crocheted twine to bind its two halves about an existing column

interested in is the long term retention of hand brain experience and the ability of the brain to translate specific experience into a more general reference for the future. Jacob Bronowski suggests the beginning of art is an archaeological artifact which is

As tools evolved from rock, to rock used to make a tool, to tool used to make tools, to tools used to design tools made by machines capable of making tools, our evolutionary development from Lucy (AL 288-1) to the present hits a fork in the road and typically with forks in the road we make a choice, mythologies tell us the correct choice is the more difficult path, but I wonder if in this case the choice needs to be both paths.

Monkey Muscles Mice Mechanic & Music â&#x20AC;&#x153;Originality comes in two kinds: originality of ideas, and originality of labor, and although it it the first kind that we get agitated about, we

should honor the second kind still more. There is wit made in the head and spun out into life, and work, created mostly by fingers egging tools as various as tenor saxes and computer keyboards. It is an oddity of our civilization, and has been since the Renaissance, to honor wit more than work, to think that the new idea “contributed” by the work matters more than the work itself.” 13 Until we are able to slide architects in and out of MRI machines to monitor brain activity while drawing versus making, evidence to support making as part of an educational curriculum needs to be sourced and discovered outside the field of architecture. Often, it is instinct that leads to investigation. So whether it is macaque monkeys, wrestling, bicycle riding, musicians or mice, research into the hand-brain relationship in my world is unrestricted. Many of the projects conceptualized, developed, and fabricated in my class place a heavy emphasis on what Adam Gopnik describes above as the “originality of labor”. None of the best projects began and ended as a “brilliant” concept, i.e. an original idea. All of the best projects began as an idea, often a not-so-good idea, and it was through labor that originality and excellence revealed themselves. Often a prompt on my part will push the student in a direction that eventually becomes their own path. I don’t teach students how to make joints and I don’t teach students how to use the various machines and tools available in our shop until we are well into the semester and students have had a chance to figure out what they “want to make”. Once students figure out what they want

to make, we sit down for one-on-one reviews and discuss appropriate joints, connections, materials and the machines and tools that make the most sense as part of their fabrication process.

Monkeys “…Umiltà and colleagues registered the activities of premotor cortex neurons of macaque monkeys performing a task using a pair of pliers. The authors observed that the majority of recorded neurons did not fire following the mere act of opening or closing the pliers, but fired only when the tool was used to grasp bits of food.” “As an architect, teacher, and as architecture students, we are not interested in learning how to open and close a pair of pliers, nor are we interested in designing and fabricating cooler looking pliers, bigger, smaller and/or variously ornamented pliers. We are interested in conceptualizing, designing and fabricating a solution for grasping bits of food.” 14 Matteo Baccarini and Angelo Maravita reference the macaque monkey data to refine their definition of tool. “…tools are objects with particular functional properties that are used intentionally with the aim of improving, or even making possible, the execution of a given task” 15 I am interested in tools at all scales, i.e. buildings as tools for living and working, furniture as tools for sitting, resting, supporting and storing, functional objects as tools for lighting, carrying and hanging, drawing tools for making ideas visible, and crafting tools for bringing conceptual ideas to functional physical life.

MAKING STUFF

Muscles As a former wrestler and now wrestling coach, I know from personal experience that instincts are “raw”. Instincts can be developed and improved through experience. “What to do next?” can be scientific, i.e. follow a set of rules or procedures, but it can also be instinctive, i.e. follow activities, routines, movements that have proven previously successful. In wrestling, similar to many sports, we do calisthenics to make the body stronger and more flexible. We introduce new techniques and drill or practice these techniques in isolation to connect or coordinate our brain, eyes, bodies,

and senses in such a way that we don’t have to “think about” what we are doing. Finally we wrestle, allowing the strength, flexibility and technique training to be used intuitively, spontaneously, i.e without “thinking about it”. Although the body may lose strength and flexibility without training and/or use, the body and brain remember. The body and brain retain what is sometimes referred to as muscle memory. The notion of muscle memory is very real to me each time I ask my 40+ year old body and brain to “remember” during practice the techniques that my 17-year-old body and brain “memorized” long ago.

Mice

Figure 6: “Chopsticks & Holder” Student designed and fabricated project began with an interest in precious stones and the cuts used to reveal their variety of facets. Ash wood was cut at various angles to reveal ash’s many and varied facets. The various angles and facets eventually revealed the possible function, i.e. chopsticks and chopstick holders.

“One way to pull neurons into the network, however, is to learn something. In a 2007 study, new brain cells in mice became looped into the animals’ neural networks if the mice learned to navigate a water maze…But these brain cells were very limited in what they could do. When the researchers studied brain activity afterward, they found that the newly wired cells fired only when the animals navigated the maze again, not when they practiced other cognitive tasks. The learning encoded in those cells did not transfer to other types of rodent thinking. Exercise, on the other hand, seems to make neurons nimble. When researchers in a separate study had mice run, the animals’ brains readily wired many new neurons into the neural network. But those neurons didn’t fire later only during running. They also lighted up when the animals practiced cognitive skills, like exploring unfamiliar environments. In the mice, running, unlike learning, had created brain cells that could multitask.” 16

The wrestler and wrestling coach in me views the teaching and practice of drawing details or proposing how to put a building together as the same combination of training, drilling, experience, and intuition possessed by wrestlers wrestling. We as architects are as comfortable recognizing that a previously used detail will work again in a current project as we are designing and drawing a completely new detail based on circumstances unique to a project’s climate, site and/or circumstance. In fact, we are typically capable of designing and drawing multiple solutions to the same problem which we are then able to evaluate for ease of fabrication, cost and/or effectiveness. Architects come up with a design on paper, a sketch, a 3d model, a set of dimensioned and noted construction documents and in the process use their imagination to mentally construct their design. Imagination relies on a mental library of exposure and experience. Imagination is dependent on the structures that architects have encountered, used, tested, and documented on previous projects. Imagination is dependent on the materials the architect has witnessed, researched, and worked with in previous designs. Construction details and methods of assembly depend not only on past observations and experience in the process of making, but also observations and experience of functional objects in use, their success and failure. Imagination, our mental library, is populated with observational/mental and physical/practical experiences. One’s mental library, the reservoir from which we as designers consult, is limited only by what we have done in our lives to populate it’s shelves.

Mechanic “What we were interested in was finding out how memories are encoded in the brain. We found that there is a cell which structures the signal output from the cerebellum into a particular code that is engraved as memory for a newly learned motor skill.” 17 150+ credit hours studying bicycle history/ theory, bicycle physics, making drawings of bicycles and watching cyclists ride bicycles without ever riding a bicycle, taking a bicycle apart, putting a bicycle back together, and/ or designing and fabricating a custom bicycle sounds unusual at best and incomplete at worst. After 150+ hours studying bicycle history/ theory & bicycle physics, there is a pretty good

Figure 7: “Split” Student designed and fabricated project began with the donated board and the crack or split that the student wanted to incorporate and/or drive all of the decision making from concept through execution/fabrication.

MAKING STUFF

chance that we will forget some or much of what we read and/or learned. But once we learn to ride a bicycle we don’t forget. Acquiring a new physical skill, like riding a bicycle, sets into motion body-brain connections as they process information and produce and store memories. Breaks, gears, handlebars, and pedals may or may not be understandable, to some degree, through observation and drawing, but they definitely become understandable to many degrees as we ride uphill on a windy day along a path filled with large rocks, puddles, pedestrians and unleashed poodles.

studies investigating the difference between designing versus designing and making are, to my knowledge, non-existent. “From an early age, musicians learn complex motor and auditory skills (e.g., the translation of visually perceived musical symbols into motor commands with simultaneous auditory monitoring of output), which they practice extensively from childhood throughout their entire careers. Using a voxel-by-voxel

Music “Musical expertise is an important model for investigating training-related functional and structural alterations in the human brain. Musical training on most musical instruments involves the interaction between precise bimanual hand coordination and higher cognitive functions (Wan and Schlaug, 2010; Herholz and Zatorre, 2012) that typically requires fine-tuning over years of practice. Apart from functional brain changes as a consequence of musical training, several studies provide compelling evidence for structural and neurophysiological differences between musicians and non-musician controls”18 Intuitively or through experience, we know there is a difference between listening to and playing music. Intuitively, we know there is a difference between just drawing versus drawing and fabricating a functional object. Oddly, neurological studies investigating the difference between music listening and music playing are numerous while neurological

Figure 8: “Split” Student designed and fabricated project began with the donated board and the crack or split that the student wanted to incorporate and/or drive all of the decision making from concept through execution/fabrication.

morphometric technique, we found gray matter volume differences in motor, auditory, and visual-spatial brain regions when comparing professional musicians (keyboard players) with a matched group of amateur musicians and non-musicians. Although some of these multi-regional differences could be attributable to innate predisposition, we believe they may represent structural adaptations in response to

long-term skill acquisition and the repetitive rehearsal of those skills. This hypothesis is supported by the strong association we found between structural differences, musician status, and practice intensity, as well as the wealth of supporting animal data showing structural changes in response to long-term motor training.” 19 An architectural education limited solely to the study of history, theory, precedent, and observation limits our sensorial experience and mental library to connections between eyes and brain. An architectural education limited solely to sketching, drawing and physically modeling our designs limits the eyes, hand and brain connections to a mental library in abstract, i.e., “a word denoting an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object.” 20 The argument should not be either versus or when it comes to an architect’s education being solely drawing and modeling versus full scale real material fabrication and/or designbuild. Intuition and circumstantial evidence are a strong enough argument for erring on the safe side and incorporating some number of, physical making of ideas, course credits into the already jam packed schedule of the student architect. Physically making an idea from concept to functional object is a unique and arguably critical experience in the education of an architect and architecture student. “Understanding or reengineering the brain will not save us; neither will sitting our children in front of computers when they are three years old so that they can skip the ‘pointless’ experiences of childhood during which they

find out what a baseball, or a puppet, or a toy car, or a swing can do to their body, and vice versa. We have no idea what will happen to the child who watches eye-catching imitations of juggling over the Internet if that child never gets around to trying a three-ball toss himself or herself. Since kids are turning out to be better and better computer users—and hackers!— at younger and younger ages, we must be prepared to accept that their ideas of baseball, excitement, and partnership will be something new, not at all like ours. We can thank Plotkin’s secondary heuristic for that certainty. The fully computerized kid may turn out to be just like us or strikingly different, as a consequence of having replaced haptics with vision as the primary arbiter of reality and having substituted virtual baseball for the old-fashioned kind at an age when the brain’s sensorimotor system hasn’t settled on the time constants it will use for its own perceptual-motor operations. There really is something quite new about bonding very early in life with keyboard, mouse, and 3-D graphics, and it will be very interesting to see what it produces by way of new heuristics (problem-solving behaviors) in adult life. I am not surprised that we are so eager as a society to welcome the Internet into our public schools. I am a little surprised that we are so ready to say goodbye to the playground and the books in the school library.” 21

MAKING STUFF

NOTES 1 Wilson, Frank R. (2010-10-27). The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture (Vintage) (Kindle Locations 206-208). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 2 The Neural Bases of Complex Tool Use in Humans, Scott H. Johnson-Frey, Trends in Cognitive Sciences Vol. 8 No.2, February 2004 3

The Hand, an Organ of the Mind, Zdravko Radman Editor, MIT Press, 2013, Foreward p.xvii

Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, Joseph Rykwert, tr. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988), p3

Walter Gropius, Proceedings (ACSA Press, July 1959), p 59.

Stephen Grabow, Christopher Alexander-The Search for a New Paradigm in Architecture (Oriel Press, 1983), p 108 6

John P. Eberhard, Architecture and the Brain: A New Knowledge Base From Neuroscience, Ostberg/Greenway Communications, Atalanta, 2007, p86

Rita Carter, Mapping the Mind, Chapter 5: A World of One’s Own

David Pye,The Nature and Art of Workmanship, (Cambridge University Press, 1968), The Craft Reader, Berg, Oxford, 2010, p. 341-342 9

David Pye,The Nature and Art of Workmanship, (Cambridge University Press, 1968), The Craft Reader, Berg, Oxford, 2010, p. 341-342 David Pye, The Nature and Art of Workmanship, (Cambridge University Press, 1968), The Craft Reader, Berg, Oxford, 2010, p. 342

Getting a Grip on Memory: Unilateral Hand Clenching Alters Episodic Recall, Ruth E. Propper, Sean E. McGraw, Tad T. Brunyé, Michael Weiss, Published: April 24, 2013, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.006247 11

12 Unilateral muscle contractions enhance creative thinking, AbrAhAm Goldstein, Ketty revivo, michAl Kreitler, And nili metuKi Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 2010, 17 (6), 895-899 doi:10.3758/PBR.17.6.895 13

Adam Gopnik, Two Bands, The New Yorker, December 23 & 30, 2013, p121-126

Matteo Baccani and Angelo Maravita, Beyond the Boundaries of the Hand, The Hand, an Organ of the Mind, Zdravko Radman Editor, MIT Press, 2013, p.80

Matteo Baccani and Angelo Maravita, Beyond the Boundaries of the Hand, The Hand, an Organ of the Mind, Zdravko Radman Editor, MIT Press, 2013, p.81

Gretchen Reynolds, How Exercise Could Lead to a Better Brain, New York Times Magazine, April 18, 2012

The University of Aberdeen News, 17 July 2009, Dr. Peer Wulff quote describing his research team’s work , Parvalbumin-positive CA1 interneurons are required for spatial working but not for reference memory, Andrew J Murray, Jonas-Frederic Sauer, Gernot Riedel, Christina McClure, Laura Ansel, Lesley Cheyne, Marlene Bartos, William Wisden & Peer Wulff, Nature Neuroscience 14, 297–299 (2011)

Jäncke, 2009)” Frontiers In Behavioral Neuroscience, 2014; 8: 245.

Brain Structures Differ between Musicians and Non-MusiciansChristian Gaser and Gottfried Schlaug, The Journal of Neuroscience, 8 October 2003, 23(27): 9240-9245;

Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, December 2011

Wilson, Frank R. (2010-10-27). The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture (Vintage) (Kindle Locations 5626-5638). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 21

044 048 052 056 058 Erika Lindsay

SPOMENIK IN FLUX

Intrigued by remnants of the past and inspired by possibilities for the future, Erika Lindsay is an architectural researcher, educator, interdisciplinary designer, photographer, and maker. She is founder of Umbrella, a media-infused research and design practice which embraces collaboration and curiosity through creating at many scales. Her recent work documents the reappropriation of monuments in former Yugoslavia as part of her ongoing research into memorial elasticity. Lindsay has masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degrees from the University of Michigan in architecture and architectural conservation, and a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in fine arts with a concentration in digital cinema from the College for Creative Studies.

Image Credit: Erika Lindsay

This research into former Yugoslavia’s spomenik (monuments) explores the critical relationship between a series of material memorials, their mediatized representations and their most recent appropriation in order to underscore the transformative nature of historic signification as both a built and symbolic continuum. Erected over the span of twenty years before Josip Tito’s death and just prior to Yugoslavia’s disintegration, the spomenik currently epitomize a gradient of decay, some fixed while others are in rapid flux at a critical point for conservation efforts. In each instance, however, their contemporary condition in stark juxtaposition to an original intended meaning points to the persistent power and allegorical potential of counter-monumentality. Tracing the modes in which these contradictory and semantically charged sites operate in response to or in spite of contemporary preservation efforts, allows for reflection upon both authoritative and informal cooption of singular cultural connotation and speculation about the power of memorial elasticity.

CONTEXT 1.1 Anti-fascism, Partisans and the Yugoslav Republic Spomenik were built by a regime set on moving forward and forgetting wartime atrocities committed on all sides by commemorating partisan victories over the axis powers. During World War II, many battles were fought on Yugoslavian soil. At the same time, the region was enmeshed in a civil war, which resulted in the formation of the Republic of Yugoslavia, comprised of six republics. In the post-war years this gave the Yugoslav people something to unite around. Anti-religious propaganda of the postwar era unified Yugoslavia and attempts at ritualizing the act of remembrance around World War II anti-fascist struggles were done in an effort to seek this unity and focus on what the peoples of the newly formed republic had in common. Josip Tito, leader of the partisan resistance during the war years, had constructed a collective memory upon which to build the new Yugoslavia from the end of the war in 1945, when he came to power until his death in 1980, at which time, Yugoslavia remained at peace. Spomenik comprised a large part of this new Yugoslavian nationalism under Tito’s leadership. When communist states began to fall in the late 1980s in neighboring eastern Europe, the republic began to separate, focusing instead on its differences rather than what it had in common—the battles of the Second World War, mere stories of their grandparent’s generation. The new generation was interested in an attempt at re-discovering the cultural heritage that generations before had been expected to leave behind. Ethnic and religious tensions

SPOMENIK IN FLUX

were heightened as each group sought to find an identity that was relinquished or forgotten in order to live as one united Yugoslavia under Tito. Within a decade after his death, the Yugoslav Wars ensued, and with it the disintegration of the republic, as those who inhabited geographies of opposing ideologies, ethnicities and doctrine attempted to make territorial claims and proclaim independence. 1.2 Abstraction and Universality The abstract form of the spomenik provoked collective forgetting in an effort to create a far-reaching, productive amnesia capable of galvanizing groups once pitted against one another. Productive gaps produced by abstract monuments allow the viewer to situate their own narrative within the form which can hold the possibility of universal signification, capable of becoming all things to all people. This stands in opposition to the man on the horse as a traditional and figural form of monument which has been used to commemorate significant human achievements for hundreds of years. In the abstract forms of partisan spomenik, signification is varied and fluid, rather than specific and rigid. Operating through pure signification, many partisan monuments did not use existing symbology such as that of the red star, or hammer and sickle indicative of many communist memorials, nor did they use religious symbology, opting instead to create their own symbology for each site, as part of the branding of the new Yugoslavian republic. This variability allows for multivalent reads, which is what has ultimately lead to their continued relevance today. [10] Partisan spomenik standing today can do little more than represent a failed regime. Through acts of vandalism, natural forces and neglect, monumental decay writes a counter-narrative for the spomenik, which have come to stand in opposition to what they originally signified. [9] It is in this moment that the spomenik are rendered in their present state to be dialogic, that is, in dialogue with the ghosts of their former glory.

SPOMENIK CASE STUDIES 2.1 Ilinden Memorial (Makedonium) Ilinden Monument, space age in form, commemorates the anti-fascist liberation of Macedonia after World War II as well as the Illinden uprising against the Turkish occupation of 1903. Both events have been pivotal to the creation of present day Macedonia.

Along the conservation gradient, the Illinden Monument has been well-conserved, due to its alignment with the nationalist narrative of Macedonia. This monument has endured through the parasitic linking of partisan endeavor to the long-standing local commemorative practice of Ilinden. Its added significance comes from the entombment of a local hero. The site recently saw the equivalent of 350,000 US dollars of investment for renovations in 2003, just in time to mark the 100th anniversary of the uprising. Each year on the day of the republic, also known as Illinden Day, memorial reenactment celebrations take place. It is due to this commemorative use that the monument continues to have cultural significance. Known to some as the Makedonium and others as Ilindenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the monument, which is not formally tied to one or the other can exist to commemorate both. [4] There have been multiple attempts by the Macedonian government to keep the site relevant to the nationalist narrative. In 1990, 85 years after his death, Nikola Karaev, the schoolteacher who led the uprising in 1903, was entombed in the memorial. This worked as a means to further strengthen the local narrative while at the same time,

SPOMENIK IN FLUX

solidifying its role in the greater national narrative. In 1993, renovations were made for celebration of the 90th anniversary of the uprising and ten years later, further investment was made in the site, marking the 100th anniversary of the uprising, which also marked a televised memorial event. [2] 2.2 Conservation Through Parasitic Cooption This imposed significance on the part of the state began at the inception of the memorial in 1974, with the negation of the rich local heritage associated with the site. Instead, favoring the nationalist Macedonian narrative of Illinden as the beginning of a Macedonian state as well as the formation of the current Macedonian state by way of the influence of those within the Anti-Fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM). ASNOM was the group which determined the parameters of the Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Republic of Macedonia, as part of the Yugoslavian republic. In keeping

SPOMENIK IN FLUX

with their Yugoslavian nationalist agenda, the anti-fascists, now in power, with partisan war hero, Josip Broz Tito at the helm, were interested in making monuments to partisan war achievements, as a way of reifying their power. They did so by building numerous spomenik across the landscape, as both a means of celebrating the partisan victories of World War II and honoring those who were causalities of war. With each successive move, history was being rewritten by the victors, and with it an erasure of the idiosyncrasies of the many cultures represented in the region. A ritualization through indoctrination, as an attempt at making the memorials meaningful to new generations, came to surround the spomenik, as schoolchildren were bussed to the sites for state-mandated visits. In this case, the authoritative power of the state has been used to co-opt the memorial, imbuing it with a multitude of significance and turning it into a site of heritage consumption. It made the transition from Yugoslav to Post-Yugoslav memory with relative ease, due to its alignment with the Macedonian nationalist narrative, only further amplified by the Macedonian state after the disintegration of the Yugoslav republic through the entombment of Karaev, acting in ways that a standard conservation practice could not. 2.3 Petrova Gora In a bold gesture, the monument sits perched atop the highest point of the Petrova Gora mountain range, built as an anti-fascist monument to commemorate the underground partisan field hospital operating on site during World War II. Monumental in size, Petrova Gora stands at 37M, an eight-story tall inhabitable structure with a form reminiscent of curvilinear late modernism. The monument was designed in 1970, and due to financial difficulties, it was finally built over the course of eight years, beginning in 1981. Following its completion in 1989, it stood as an empty signifier, representative of a lost ideology, marking the demise of the Yugoslav Republic. In an ironic turn of a events, the structure itself is said to have been used as a field hospital during the Croatian War for Independence in the 1990s, shortly after it opened. Today, its visitors include those interested in its formal qualities as well as its place in the current context of Croatian identity politics. Forgotten by its people and neglected by the state, Petrova Gora succumbs to a slow disintegration, as a site of active material extraction, opportunistic use (note the telecom antennas which have sprouted) and natural decay. [3]

2.4 Conservation as Product of Impossible Circumstance Petrova Gora is enmeshed in the kind of circumstances that produce a ruin. At its core, a hulking mass of cast concrete makes the structure impervious to demolition. A lack of existing documents for the building and its site, has rendered any opportunity for security and protection of the monument impossible. There is little interest in the ideologies of the past or partisan spomenik and fewer people feel that they signify anything about the Second World War worth remembering. Sections of stainless steel cladding remain, though the vast majority has gone missing, appropriated by locals with whom the ideologies that made such an icon possible no longer resonate. [6] 2.5 Makljen Monument Built on the highest point on top of Mt. Makljen in Bosnia and Herzegovinia, this Spomenik was a gesture toward political unity. Mak ljen Monument is one of many

SPOMENIK IN FLUX

anti-fascist memorials commissioned by the state to commemorate the triumph of the partisans over the Axis powers. Opened to the public in 1978, on the anniversary of the Battle for the Wounded, which had happened in 1943 on this site, Makljen Monument was one of many anti-fascist War of Liberation memorials commissioned by the state and designed by renowned sculptor, Boko Kućanski. It bears an uncanny resemblance to a fist, and Makljen has not been able to shake the associated narrative of being “Tito’s Fist.” 2.6 Conservation Through Destruction On November 13, 2000, the same date as the battle which the monument commemorates and only five years after the end of the Yugoslav wars, there was an attempted erasure of the monument via explosives. It was not entirely successful in its aim, having made the monument more visible. The blast had exposed the skeletal remains of the flower’s heavy concrete beams, while its concrete skin lay crumbling at its feet. Though the form may have been lost, the monument gained new significance from this iconoclastic act. One could argue that it holds greater

commemorative value, and therefore functions as a stronger monument, in its ruined state than it did when pristine. In the attempt to render invisible, the act of iconoclastic ruination made what had already been rendered invisible with apathy and time quite visible. It was not until after the monument was re-rendered visible through destruction that it became protected through a petition to the Commission to Preserve National Monuments in 2010. It now stands, protected as a National Monument in its skeletal form, the ruin of a monument, perhaps having gained new significance. [2]

COUNTER SPOMENIK 3.1 Signification and the Remnant It is perhaps through their corroded patina, showing signs of wear, that the aura of time is rendered visible. Some spomenik are still in use, visited annually to commemorate a national holiday, such as Illinden, in the case of the Makedonium, which has received facelifts for the past two decades, just prior to both its 90th and 100th anniversary celebrations. Petrova Gora and Makljen are being reappropriated as sites of intrigue in their ruined state, a product of resource extraction, and iconoclastic actions made against each of them, respectively. It is with their newly minted patina that these spomenik find cultural relevance today. Built of materials meant to stand the test of time, these material remnants often outlast the regimes that commission them, leaving their fate to the next generation, heir to a forgotten past. Once sites of commemoration, cultural memory, and significance, at worst they become sites of neglect, disuse, and abandonment; at best, they lose significance and become invisible, blending into the landscape or being removed all together. Often, we are met with these immense pieces of the past, signifying a specific ideology no longer in favor. Designated at a specific time and place, they have trouble standing the test of time as relevant cultural signifiers. As meanings change and interest fades, the spomenik are relegated to the backdrop, little more than a place to picnic. Many have problematized the notion that once a memorial is made prosthetic, memory fades. No longer necessary to remember, the material form does the memory-work for us. [7] Can a monument transform its signification if the cultural signification, commemorative use and perceptions encircling it change? In post-war Yugoslavia,

SPOMENIK IN FLUX

spomenik were built in an attempt to unify a region divided. What do spomenik signify as they stand within the landscape of a fractured past and present? 3.2 Spomenik at Risk From the fully restored, to the unlocked, overgrown and reappropriated, these spomenik operate through a gradient of conservation efforts, both sanctioned and illicit. While the majority of preservation groups remain histories of civilization found in this region, it is the recent Spomenik sit in varied states of disrepair, neglected by governments who do not wish to align themselves with the about by those who have inherited them. [5]

focused on much older past that is most at risk. newly formed democratic past and all but forgotten

Sites in southeast Europe which tend to garner conservation attention do not belong to a shared national heritage or recent past. Instead, ICCROM and other preservation-minded entities, are focused on preservation of much older, heritage sites deemed “at risk” within the region, rendered as the fallout of wartime atrocities. These sites are often sacred spaces, aligned with the post-Yugoslav narrative which places importance on independent nationhood based on ethnic and religious difference. With a focus on the differences of the peoples of the former republic, priority has been given to preserve the contrasts, rather than the unifying principles of the former socialist regime. Today, this practice finds resonance within people of the smaller ethnic populations of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Montenegro. To this end, World War II partisan monuments are not considered “at risk” as part of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Commission to Preserve National Monuments and are therefore not protected from illicit building, inexpert construction or lack of maintenance. The Commission acts as a watchdog group that monitors activities relating to national monuments. Few spomenik are protected as national monuments. [1] These monuments, transformed by time, sit in relation to their original context, becoming monuments counter to, yet in dialogue with the memory of their past life as partisan monuments. It is this dialogue which allows them to remain relevant long beyond the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

SPOMENIK IN FLUX

NOTES [1]

Bosnia

Designation

and

Herzegovina of

Commission

Properties

Preserve

National

Monuments.

Monuments. October

Decisions

2010.

Web:

www.kons.gov.ba/main.php?id_struct=50&lang=4&action=view&id=3313 [2]

BROWN,

Eastern

K.S.

Archaeology

Mediterranean

Routledge,

1998

and

under

Middle

fire:

East

Contests

nationalism, MESKELL

Heritage

and

politics

ed.,

2nd

the

and ed.

Politics

heritage

London

the

;New

Preservation

York: in

the

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, pp. 68-86. ISBN 0415196558. [3]

BRUMUND,

sećanja.

Daniel,

(Translated

and

PFEIFER,

Christian.

MORINA,

Luan,

Ed. et

MONUMENTI: al).

promenljivo

Belgrade:

Forum

lice Ziviler

Friedensdienst, 2012. 96 p. ISBN 9788691556709. [4]

Culture.

Celebration

Republic of

100th

Macedonia.

Anniversary

100

Years

Ilinden

Illinden.

Uprising

Intensive

Preparations

Interventions

for

Monument

“Ilinden” in Krusevo begin. Web: http://www.culture.in.mk/story.asp?id=6792&rub=69 [5]

KEMPENAERS,

and

NEUTELINGS,

W.J.

Spomenik

#1-26.

Amsterdam:

Roma

Publications, 2010 ISBN 9077459502. [6]

LINKE,

Vanishing

A., Act.

JOVANOVIĆ Zürich:

WEISS,

Codax

:Distributed

and

BEZZOLA,

JRP/Ringier,

Socialist

2012

Architecture:

Tagged

Format.

The ISBN

3037642459. [7]

MUSIL,

WORTSMAN,

Robert.

Monuments.

Peter)

ed.

Posthumous

Brooklyn:

Papers

Archipelago

Books,

Living 2006,

Author. p.

(Translated

64-68.

ISBN

0976395045. [8] Oris. 77. Zagreb, Croatia: Oris d.o.o., 1999-2013. Denegri, Jesa. The Sculptural and Architectural

Organic

ln=en&d=nb&cas_ID=34&ID=439

Unity

http://www.oris.hr/casopis_opsirnije.php?

SPOMENIK IN FLUX

[9]

YOUNG,

J.E.

The

texture

memory:

Europe, Israel, and America. New Haven: The Texture of Memory, pp. 1-15. ISBN 0300053835. [10]

The

FRANCK,

Journal

Karen

A.,

and the dialogic.

Architecture.

17.

FAZAKERLEY,

Holocaust Yale

London: Ruth.

memorials

University

Routledge.

Press,

2012.

Counter-monuments:

and

meaning

1993

STEVENS, the

Introduction:

Quentin,

anti-monumental

060 064 068 Chelsea Alexander Krysia Bussière

PLAIN ANOMALIES SASKATCHEWAN’S ABANDONED LANDSCAPES

Krysia and Chelsea are designers and artists who started on the same path to architecture. Both a part of the collaborative Visual Arts and Built Environment program between the University of Windsor and University of Detroit Mercy, they were a year apart, with graduation from the UDM Master of Architecture program in 2014 and 2015 respectively. They have found common ground in design thinking, graphic language, desire to explore, and crucially; humour. UDM has allowed them great growth as thinkers, designers, and active participants in a beautiful part of North America. This article comes as an investigation into a distant interest, in a forum that fosters thinking beyond our daily borders and seeks to start collaborative conversations.

Image Credit: Chelsea Alexander, Krysia Bussière

Saskatchewan // CANADA Prairie province 651,900 square kilometres [251,700 square miles]

Amid Saskatchewan’s vast, flaxen plains lay abandoned grain elevators, churches, family stores, and decommissioned rail lines. These outcroppings of forgotten civilizations project from otherwise decumbent development. Their placement appears fortuitous, void now of any original context. Depopulation of the towns began nearly eighty years ago, but recent rail line closures have since secured their fate—cut off now from major provincial infrastructure, abandoned historic structures melt into their terrain. Saskatchewan is now experiencing an economic boom to echo its own history: at the turn of the twentieth century Canadians flocked to the plains to take advantage of opportunity made available by technological advancement (grain elevators) and resources (fertile land and ideal rain patterns). Today the province has been described as the next best place to invest. There is great value, then, in discussing what to make of the last boom’s remnants. Should these remnants be memorialized, and then left as they are, or perhaps restored? Is there value to preserving the history of these towns (some no longer survived by a living generation)? What is their importance within a

collective Canadian history? With consideration of immediate and future development, are disassembly or—conversely—re-inhabitation appropriate? More importantly, who decides? The purpose of this article is to contemplate these and other questions of obligation and history through research, design, and critical review. Contemplating the future of these figurative islands is timely, as plans to decommission more private rail are certain. The last twenty years have seen rapid withdrawal of this infrastructure, yet Canadians continue to develop in plentiful but remote landscapes; suggesting that a repeat of this condition is inevitable. As re-population stands as a distant possibility for Saskatchewan’s quiet plains the question for this discussion is transformed to one worthy of design; what could it become presently? Whether that be the now of today, the decade, or the century. The following images present a contrived exploration of design intervention in a place untouched by the realities of current Canadian urbanism. The palette of the prairies changed almost instantaneously in the 1800s; green grasslands began glinting gold in the sunlight as far as the

PLAIN ANOMALIES

eye could see. There was a new town springing up every 10 kilometres along the rail line but that energy was short-lived. Some towns survived, albeit with their struggles, for sixty years; others, even shorter still. In the timeline

of the plains, these decades are but a dynamic moment upon an infinite line of static. Solutions are impermanent, as is the boundless abyss of Saskatchewan, leaving mindsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; confinements as the only restriction on opportunity.

Exploration 01 Grain Elevators Remnants of past prosperity mark places along now-quieted rail lines. An inner moulding of iconic grain elevators leaves behind a stark white shell when paint, board and shingle peel away. The icon rests, freckling the pastoral distance with historic imagery upon every horizon.

Exploration 02 Diminutive Reclamation Transformation of the domed form begins internally, building out systematically. The gradual masking of the original form is singular in structure, unimpeded by the growing age of its mother form. As this growth occurs, so too do the occupants of space. Artists come to reside, utilizing the unobtrusive interior canvas, and exterior plains as fuel for active imaginations and creative realizations. This exploration envisions an occupation of place that is applicable to the ubiquitous conditions found in Saskatchewan; deployed as circumstances and desire necessitate.

PLAIN ANOMALIES

Exploration 03 Inverted Density Created carvings into flat landscape refutes the historical value of a place which until now, has been desired for what lies in plain sight: land. In Inverted Density the townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary occupation happens below grade. The tall structures of Saskatchewanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s past are mirrored in the opposite direction, pulled away to create void shells of inhabitation that are unseen to those viewing the nondescript expanses. In this exploration, wheat fields are memorialized on a momentous scale, allowing for sustenance without surface scars. Humans become respectful advocates of an unobtrusive landscape of which they frequent as pedestrians, moving from one built cave to another, like ants; the aging form is merely a suggestion of an intricate network below.

PLAIN ANOMALIES

070 074 078 Nathaniel Hammitt

GRAND ADJUSTMENTS FORMAL AND INFORMAL MANIFESTATIONS OF ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE IN BANGALORE

Nathaniel Hammitt is a PennDesign graduate student pursuing dual masters degrees in Architecture and Historic Preservation. Although his childhood was spent in Durban, South Africa Nathaniel’s architectural roots draw from the Rust Belt where he received his undergraduate degree at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP).

Image Credit: Nathaniel Hammitt

odds ädz/ noun plural: odds 1 the ratio between the amounts staked by the parties to a bet, based on the expected probability either way. “the bookies are offering odds of 8-1” 2 the chances or likelihood of something happening or being the case. plural noun: the odds “the odds are that he is no longer alive” 3 superiority in strength, power, or resources; advantage. plural noun: the odds “she clung to the lead against all the odds”

This paper seeks to explore the ways by which formal and informal economic practices establish spatial presence. “Space does not reflect society, it expresses it. Space itself is a fundamental dimension of society.” Manuel Castells, 20091

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Figure 1

Primers on Spatial Economics often begin with Johann von ThĂźnenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Isolated State model for a concentric city3. His proposal for regional land use, with urban and rural rings settled by industries and economies that are able to afford economic bid rents priced corresponding to their proximity with the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s center (figure 1), operates admirably in isolated conditions. However, for historic cities experiencing recent growth, spatial economic models fall short in predicting ways that a city might position itself to prepare for rapid changes to the built environment. Architectural designers most often provide vision and framework for physical, and not temporal manifestations of the economy, but the inherent volatility of urban economic forces necessitates that architects and urban designers begin to suggest opportunities not for grand vision, but rather for grand adjustment.

open space informal residential K PE E = = 84 49 7

K PE E = = 416 6

K PE E = = 12 0

KE = 1/2 mv^2 PE = 1/2 kx^2

m = mass v = velocity k = spring constant [flexibility] x = spring displacement [leapfrog] KE = how much development force does this district send? PE = how flexible is this district? how much force is it creating to move?

K PE E = = 147 12 2. 5

formal residential

K PE E = = 123 25 7. 5

informal economic

K PE E = = 76 16 8 2

formal economic

K PE E = = 28 12 8 2. 5

clean industry

...

dirty industry

Figure 2 CONFLICT .................................. COOPERATION

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What are the odds that a five hundred year old city in the south of India could become a technology capital of southern Asia? What are the odds that an underfunded municipal government could capitalize on local labor trends to bring about one of the fastest periods of modernization in Indian history? Enter Bengaluru, formerly known as Bangalore under British imperial rule. Since the late 1970’s this emerging megacity has branded itself as the silicon valley of the Indian subcontinent3, and deservedly so. With a metropolitan population of eight and a half million growing by almost 1000 citizens per day and projected to breach ten million before 2020, Bengaluru is uniquely sited to redefine the way that historic cities engage with global economic and social trends in the 21st century. But Bengaluru is not just a powerhouse of technology; its true strength lies in its urban agility. The city’s Bruhat Bengaluru Manhanagara Palike (BBMP, translated “Greater Bengaluru Municipal Corporation”) tasked with managing the civic and infrastructural assets of the Greater Bengaluru metropolitan area has allowed the establishment of dozens of Special Economic Zones (SEZs)4 to cater to an international stream of investment, in effect doubling down that foreign development will spur the city toward future growth. While the Indian pettah (historic center of Bengaluru) existed many hundreds of years before British colonial rule, the city’s growth over the last three decades has placed incredible strain upon historic and already densely-settled urban districts. BBMP planning mechanisms have been pressed to find infrastructural mechanisms to provide space and services for the city’s burgeoning-- yet polarized-population. While the BBMP works to attract

foreign investment, it is striving to increase two competing types of land use: selected districts in which urban space is dedicated to the residential needs of the (often foreign) super-rich, and urban space for inexpensive manufacturing and management of new IT products and services. Caught in between these two extremes is the city’s entire stock of developed land and existing buildings. Adjacent land use can be either cooperative or conflicting, depending on the severity of social and infrastructural impact. Although in India and elsewhere the informal economy is traditionally seen as parasitic to formal urban infrastructure, it does provide an excellent alternative-- and perhaps parallel-model for establishing spatial presence of urban economic development. The establishment and growth of informal economies (and their physical manifestations) have a striking similarity to the establishment of SEZs. Consider this fact: informal settlements emerge in a fairly simple five-step process (figure 3). In the first step, an enterprising individual picks a place in the city and begins selling his goods and/or services. As demand increases and he begins to make sales (step 2) he is able to improve his stock of goods and bring in a small stand to increase his supply (step 3). Eventually the individual will need to erect a buffer to protect himself from the elements (step 4) and over the course of several seasons his structure will grow until it has matured into a fully fledged informal shop (step 5). This is not so very different from the five-step growth of SEZs (figure 4). In the case of any SEZ created within Bengaluru’s Karnakata province, first the metropolitan government chooses a site on which to establish a special

The Five Stages of Economic Growth 1

Find Site

Find Customer

Expand Production

4 Structural buffer

5 Establishment

informal vendor

Special Economic Zones

Figure 3

Figure 4

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trade zone (step 1). Next, the SEZ is occupied by an international firm (step 2) which is able to capitalize on low costs of production and/or services to make rapid profit (step 3). As the SEZ attracts jobs and manufacturing opportunities, a palimpsest of informal shanties and small shops and services form at the zone’s periphery (step 4), eventually crystallizing into a fully fledged urban district within greater Bengaluru (step 5). “An economic forecaster is like a cross-eyed javelin thrower: He doesn’t win many accuracy contests, but he keeps the crowd’s attention.” Anonymous These similarities in the space-making of formal and informal economic practices begins to suggest a model for architects to consider when proposing solutions to urban economic functions. Namely, that in cities experiencing rapid growth or decline it is the informal sector that capitalizes on unexpected conditions and that architectural solutions to economic growth and/or decline must account for the spatialization of both formal and informal practices. But before delving into this conclusion it is necessary to consider two economic conditions: urban infrastructural fluctuations and the durability of the built environment.

Figure 5

Bengaluru is experiencing a massive population boom, but the city will eventually reach a point at which its growth peaks and begins to level or decline. In short, the growth and decline of cities is cyclical (figure 3). While Bengaluru may fall at Point 1, on the upswing of infrastructural demands, its population will eventually plateau and reach Point 2, after which the population will likely increase again reaching Point 3, etc. The challenge in this cyclical growth is that cities cannot alway expect (or account for) exactly how fast a city will grow-- the available supply of built infrastructure of a city almost always lags the actual demand. It is the informal sector that provides ways for cities to expand beyond what is available or shrink in such a way to find extended uses for buildings that have been abandoned or made obsolescent by technology or the rate of growth within a city.

In economic practice, housing is regarded as a durable good5, and cities therefore as repositories of durable goods maintain a good degree of momentum over their use and consumption. In the cyclical growth and decline of cities however, housing and other artifacts of the built environment are prone to the ‘kinked supply curve’ of durable goods (figure 4)6. When housing supply and demand are in equilibrium (Point A), any increase in demand prompts a proportional increase in supply and price (Point B). But when housing supply and demand are in equilibrium and demand for housing decreases (Point C), there is a very large decrease in price relative to a small decrease in supply. As Bengaluru is closest to Point B, the supply of housing and other durable goods cannot keep up with demand, and the city is forced to rely upon the informal sector to meet this difference. “Our condition as a result of this phenomena is not about grand vision, but grand adjustment, because the moment the temporal landscape becomes an effective tool it opens up many possibilities” Figure 6

Rahul Mehrotra, 2011

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In conclusion, as Bengaluru continues to grow it is the informal sector-- informal settlements and practices-- that will provide the urban space for resolving unexpected economic and technological disparities. Architectects and urban designers therefore should not bias themselves against untested solutions to growth (or decline) or the urban built environment. The studio projects rendered via collage are a collection of solutions to the spatialization of informal urbanization and account for the cooperative structuring of both formal and informal practices.

Notes 1 Casells, Manuel. The Rise of the Network Society: The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture Volume I. Wiley-Blackwell. New York. 2009. 2

Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/9

3 The origin of this term lies with R. K. Baliga, first Chairman and Managing Director of Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation. In 1976 this government agency was created to expand the electronics industry in the state of Karnataka; Baliga proposed the concept of developing the electronic city, and the KSEDC purchased 335 acres (1.36 km2) of land 18 km south of Bangalore for its Electronics City project, which was meant to establish an industrial park in Bangalore.

Special Economic Zones are specifically delineated duty free enclaves, deemed to be foreign territory for the purposes of trade operations and duties and tariffs. Bengaluru’s province approved 6,244 hectares (15,430 acres) for 45 SEZs in 2008 alone, 33 of which are designated specifically as ‘IT’ services.

5 Durable good is a good that does not quickly wear out, or more specifically, one that yields utility over time rather than being completely consumed in one use. 6

O’Sullivan, Arthur. Urban Economics pg 106. McGraw-Hill Irwin. New York. 2012.

080 084 086 ABF-lab

SHARED ARCHITECTURE Energy-Climate Design

ABF-lab is a French designer collective founded in 2011 and based in Paris. It’s a think-and-do tank, investigating new practices, bridging the gap between architecture and engineering from the early stages of a project. The lab operates as an incubator of new ideas at the edges of engineering, numerical calculation and architectural design, combining art, science and technology and powered by its constructive alchemy. Their wish to put the discipline of architecture and engineering together is reflected in the diversity of profiles that make up the agency, founded by Paul Azzopardi, Noé Basch and Etienne Feher.

Image Credit: ABF-lab

Introduction As we witness global warming and the frenetic decline of our natural resources (added to the burst of fossil energies consumption), there is an urgent need to start re-thinking our conception of spaces and interior designs in order to reduce our footprint. If we would consider passive design concepts or bioclimatic architecture systematically, before even considering a mechanical aspect of a project, we would see that the space and energy sharing concept is a virtuous way to design spaces and can considerably reduce the energy input of a project. Beyond the economic and social advantages of the space sharing concept, it is important to focus on the environmental aspect given by such an approach. Thanks to the polydisciplinary bundle of profiles composing our agency, we are able to take on the sharing space concept through the following three-dimensional approach: Urban, Building, and System. We would like to present three concrete examples of the application of this approach through the following: a participative urban intervention project at the heart of Seattle, an hybrid office in Paris linking time and space, and a system which technically combines a supporting structure function and a thermal regulation function allowing both warm and cool air to passively flow into classrooms in Crete.

Seattle: Sharing at an Urban Scale The project “IN-CLOSURE” which we are developing in the heart of Seattle is an example of shared Architecture taking place in an urban environment. If we take into consideration the full potential of the event-boxes fencing the forest, we realize that they follow an energy-sharing logic — working with a simple water cycle which continuously circulates in a loop at a constant regulated temperature. This water loop, directly plugged into Seattle’s network of hot and cold water, allows each user of the event-boxes to take and inject heat back into the network depending on their need. During the mid-season, and especially for oceanic mild climates such as Seattle’s, it is not unusual to find opposite energy needs within the same building. Office spaces of this type have a need for cooling at the southern side of the construction and a heating need at the northern side. In such a case, it is important to question why the southern side of the building would not provide the extra heat load to the northern side and vice versa. If we take this approach into an urban environment, why wouldn’t warmer areas share their extra heat with the cooler area as well? This is precisely the energy pooling concept which we wanted to develop with the project in Seattle. Taking the concrete example of the micro-coffee bar, which through its electrical equipment and high frequentation would generates an energy overload, we could consider that such an environment would become a source of too much heat if not air-conditioned as soon as the midseason approached. In a similar manner, the micro-library, with less energy consumption and its lesser frequentation would be more likely to need heating.

SHARED ARCHITECTURE

This scenario makes it possible to use a heat transfer system by the intermediary water loop being linked to a system of heat pumps. In the case of a cooling need for the micro-coffee bar, such action would systematically generate a source of heat which would be recycled for the benefit of the micro-library. The system works in the same manner as a refrigerator: producing cool air for inside the compressor while, on the outside, it will generate heat. This collateral energy generation will usually be dissipated in your apartment and can easily help to warm the air in winter but will also become a source of overheating during warmer seasons.

Figure 1: Simultaneous heating and cooling needs.

Contrary to the refrigerator, the overload of heat which would be produced to cool down the micro-coffee bar, would here not be wasted but would rather help to heat the micro-library. The programs could dialog in function of their energy need and would transfer to each other their excess energy. The energy sharing concept would translate to the Seattle project through the use of hybrid materials used to make the running track which will be built on top of the event-boxes. This composite material will allow the structure to collect the energy produced by the runner’s steps (as well as the solar energy) reflected through an intermediary photovoltaic membrane which would directly provide the boxes with their electricity needs. Finally the heat, cooling, and electricity would be injected in a “smart-grid” from pier to pier or, as named by Jeremy Riffkin, “the internet of energy’’ in his book, The Third Industrial Revolution.

A.C.

Figure 2: Cold production extracts heat.

Figure 3: Unavoidable energy can be reused.

Energy sharing strategy at the project scale as it is planned to exchange the energy flows of the event-boxes based on their nature (activity), site orientation (North or South), and seasonal usage.

SHARED ARCHITECTURE

Reinvent Paris: Non-Stop Rotating Function A more radical idea of space sharing is based on a total shared living space concept. The latest was borne from the idea of an almost perfect imbrication of the architectural program such as home and office. The inoccupation of a home matches with the occupation of an office and vice versa, making it possible to accumulate a double function for one place—a ‘’spatiotemporal symbiosis’’. We name this hybrid, innovative concept the ‘’WORK’INN SPACE’’. In an economical context where emerging models linked to numerical and digital technology are always more present, notions of propriety are slowly wearing off to leave space for the more functional dimension of ‘’service economy’’. If we consider that today each material or property could be shared — cars, bicycles, tools, and even your home — we envision new business models where many start-ups could surf on the new wave of “service economy’’ and shared materials or equipment. Such new models become socially interesting as they would significantly reduce the consumption of each individual and reduce their ecological footprint. The ‘’WORK’INN SPACE’’ concept could then be classified as a sustainable development. Considering the evolution of the mind-sets of a younger generation, it seems that they now distance themselves from their elders on the concept of ‘’property’’. If older values had tendencies to favor security principals through money and other capitalization in a goal to assure one’s future. New values are now more hedonistic and are turned to the present. In other words, we can say that what now matters for younger generations is the “being’’ and no longer the “having’’.

NATURAL RUBBER 1 TRANSPARENT PHOTOVOLTAIC PANEL 2 ORGANIC SENSOR 3 PIEZOELECTRIC

Figure 4: Piezoelectric sensors.

Taking this modern evolution into account, with our proposal to reinvent Paris we are questioning the classic notions of space, time, and property as we know them today to innovate through a program responding to the following key points: Social - through its chronotopy; meaning the capability of the living place to participate and interact permanently with the local community; Economic - smart through the space sharing which represents a source of savings for the beneficiary; Environmental - through its hybrid program of shared space has it considerably reduces the consumption of embodied energy.

Figure 5

We are looking at developing a space capable to host two distinct functions at once at different times: Living at night and working during the day. This innovative program aspires to become a pilot project aiming to attract and interest a young urban population which is ought to be mobile and connected. The “WORK’INN SPACE” concept, synthetically developed and presented above, will allow one place in one day to juxtapose two functions; maximizing the surface and the system’s returns. Through a smart system of volume maximization, we conceive a multi-functional environment which is adaptable. Office during the day and home at night, this space can morph in the blink of an eye and change from an office space into a living space. A certain number of synergies can be applied to the concept such as a working space with hostel-room or student apartment. Of course, some support functions such as toilet, shower, laundry will remain outside to have them accessible even when the main room will be occupied by its inhabitant or employee. Finally, the same idea allows co-financing other functions such as a gym or projection room which would be rather hard to build or finance in a classical construction project.

SHARED ARCHITECTURE

Figure 6: Reversible Place and Common Facilities

A Ventilation Maze in Crete A last example of a shared space can be found in the design of a passive heating and cooling system combining structural and thermal control. It consists of the creation of an innovative, bioclimatic school in Crete set up as a system called the Maze of the Minotaur which, beyond remembering Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, questions passive cooling and heating in a Mediterranean climate on the Island of Minos. In the search of a bioclimatic or passive design and the minimization of the mechanical systems (and the junk-space they occupy), it was mainly a matter of finding a way to use the free heating and free cooling to replace the conventional heater and air conditioner. The system replaced the ventilation ducts by the structural column of the project while the latest plugged directly into the foundations allowing air distribution coming from the ground. By doing so, the air taken from the outside circulates through the foundation’s maze and is either naturally warmed up or cooled down before reaching the classroom. The air is then extracted by the solar roof through stack effect. This concrete example shows, at a real scale, how the combination of two functions can reduce the consumption of grey energy while offering a less technical, more passive, approach. These three examples illustrate how our agency treats, with minimal intervention, the questions of space and energy sharing and the way those two elements can play a key role in answering modern problems.

088 092 096 100 104 108 110 Corrie Baldauf

DIGITAL INTIMACY DAVID FOSTER WALLACEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S INFINITE JEST, ART, AND TWITTER

Corrie Baldauf is an Assistant Professor of Art at Eastern Michigan University. Her art practice is based out of a shared studio space in Corktown, Detroit. Baldaufâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research has appeared in German Art Magazine, Magazine for Contemporary Drawing, Lufthansa Exclusive Magazine, and Hyperallergic. Her artwork has been internationally exhibited and is included in major collections such as Daimler Financial Services, Farmington Hills, Michigan; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art and Sprint Corporation, Overland Park, Kansas.

Image Credit: Corrie Baldauf

Figure 1: Only Only: Phase 2 of the Infinite Jest Project, 2014 Image courtesy of PD Rearick.

Two people hear the clip of their laptops close at the same time. One is in Maine and one is in Detroit (I’ll share, this one is me). While these two individuals are separated by a number of miles, they experience a virtual closeness that digitally connects them. This isn’t quite a chicken or egg story. David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest came first. It was published in 1996. Twitter was founded ten years later, in 2006. This is a story as to how reading Infinite Jest meshed with social media and became Digital Intimacy.

I took my good time to consider anything social media related. In fact, I actively refrained from participating. I believed it would encroach on my time with friends and my time making art. To be honest, the risk of adding another form of compulsion to my life was also a concern. A little over a year ago, I decided to try social media and coincidentally started reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Two congruous habits began. From where I was standing, I had no idea that these habits would become related rituals.

DIGITAL INTIMACY

I chose one of the briefest of social media forms: Twitter. Turns out that mixing Twitter with Infinite Jest and art has made for an experience I am really enjoying. Pleasure is a consistently slaughtered experience for the characters in Infinite Jest. Each person is questing for happiness through compulsion or addiction. No one is excluded. Tasks become habits. Habits become rituals. Rituals become obsessions. Obsessions become compulsion. Compulsion becomes addiction. Amanda Thatch (artist) and Rosie Sharp (art critic and artist) repeatedly described the necessity for me, personally, to read Infinite Jest. It started as a task with reason and expectation. Both are avid readers so the chance to have something hand-picked by either of them was a treat. When I started reading Infinite Jest I had to admit I had been too proud of my animus, or inner ‘masculine’ as prescribed by the Midwest. There was such a stench of machismo, something in those first seventy-six pages that I couldn’t take. So I set it down. Around the same time, I came across a package of Semikolon color tabs at a Blick art store. I used to think of color tabs as this generation's version of highlighters—no longer! It was a

relatively exciting find for me, as in something that I thought often about. I could picture the tabs when I was away from them and imagine all the possible things I could do with this 12-color pack of tabs. I was so overwhelmed by their possibility that I left them untouched. Both Infinite Jest and the book of color tabs sat in my bedroom the way unexciting items like socks or flip flops sit in a bedroom. I picked up Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, which I need to point out was gifted to me in the same handful as Infinite Jest. Thank you, Amanda Thatch. I immediately compared Blind Assassin with my attempt to read Infinite Jest and was initially struck by two major comparisons: 1) Blind Assassin is a smaller commitment: a date versus a relationship. 2) The main characters in Blind Assassin are biological sisters. The main characters in Infinite Jest are brothers—brothers of all kinds. One of the characters in Blind Assassin is obsessed with describing other characters she admires based on the color and cloth they wear. The level of detail seems far too personal to be fabricated. The author’s voice shines through the narration at these moments. I remembered that small book of color tabs, all 12 colors, and continued reading Blind Assassin to completion.

Why not try to read Infinite Jest again? I remembered that the book opens with several color references. Well, three colors. I started listing the colors in my notes: Brown “I am in here” (Wallace 3). yellow White White White White yellow Yellow seemed less of an innocent color sitting in a list and more of an overt throw up in your mouth dose of racism. No matter how small, it is an exciting moment when an object of interest to me is matched with a purpose. I really thought that noting the color references would be the impetus that would keep me focused on reading Infinite Jest. It worked. It was a realization that may have saved me a great deal of pain when I was struggling through western education. I have an unfortunate number of books whose marginalia ends in the first pages. You know—the pages that you have to work carefully to hold open because they haven't amassed enough weight to hold themselves down. I fondly joke with students about this in classes I teach. I purposely show

them copies of my undergrad texts so that they see where my notes started and ended. No one has an attention span for everything, and this attention shifts and changes with experience. I think I proved this to myself with the Infinite Jest color tab project. I read the book through, enjoying more than cringing, tracking each reference to color. Then, I decided to read it again. This time I had room (mentally) to track each reference to color along with the subject each described. I kept track of the colors, their subjects, and the real time aspect of my recording in email drafts. As I read, every hundred pages, I sent an email to myself— as a digital method of stamping each section of color and subject references with a date and time. I began to refer to the color-tabbed paperbacks as the Infinite Jest Project. It became evident that I was transforming one of my deficits—a frequent inability to focus— into art. I started posting to Twitter what I could gather as a brief overview of the stories and people in Infinite Jest as short lists of specific colors and subjects (figure 2). As I was pretty brand-spanking new to all things David Foster Wallace and all things Twitter, I was surprised by the responsiveness Wallace

DIGITAL INTIMACY

conversations on Twitter is more intriguing on the conversation front than all other art projects I have completed to date. The conversations do in fact hold a level of transformation that I would normally only associate with the actual process of making the art.

Figure 2: Only Only: Phase 1 of the Infinite Jest Project, 2014 Image courtesy of PD Rearick

readers had to the Infinite Jest Project. There is a visceral moment in Wallace’s Infinite Jest that comes to mind. It was not unlike being in a highchair and having a loved one slap you on the back so hard that you spit a green gummy bear into the fireplace. It is volatile terrain and I worked to not get swept up in it in an obsessed way. While maintaining a high level of objectivity about Wallace and Wallace fans, I managed to meet several fascinating people—all because Rosie Sharp posted the first image of the Infinite Jest Project on Twitter. Without knowing Wallace, I can comfortably refer to him as a friend maker. Let me emphasize that I am saying the two words: friend maker, not friend singularly. Not to be underestimated however, as pairing reading his writing with

In my second read of Infinite Jest I re-found a quote that helped clarify why Wallace's writing reminds me of my short stint with social media. He describes peoples’ habits, compulsions, and addictions in relation to a media driven enterprise called The Entertainment. In this quote he succinctly embodies the sentiment of The Entertainment, describing it as an “HD screen set atop the cartridge viewer chassis on its fold-out support like a loved one's photo” (Wallace 1055). Wow. In the nineties, through Infinite Jest, Wallace imagined something not unlike my laptop or yours, or someone’s iPad. A term came to mind, in an attempt to qualify what was happening with my reading project that became art and fodder for conversations on Twitter. Digital Intimacy. I define this term as the experience finding a connection to people we have not met in person, mainly through language, and viewed on a lit screen that has the same tilt as a printed photograph of someone we know well. Digital Intimacy is an online language, communicated as worded stories that introduce

Figure 3: Infinite Jest Diagram, 2010 Image courtesy of Sam Potts (http://sampottsinc.com/ij/)

the writer and transform into moving living images in the reader’s mind. The reader’s mind experiences the same reactions to the arrangement of words as it does to the arrangement of being touched, both physically and metaphorically. The 140-character structure of a tweet omits some of peoples’ tics and mannerisms and, at the same time, I think a few qualities are revealed more readily than would happen in person. Sam Potts (designer, teacher, cyclist) Sam made a diagram charting all the characters and their relationships in Infinite Jest (figure 3). This past summer we did a barter after I posted a quote from the book. He had pins with the quote and sent them to me (figure 4). I added color flags to one and sent it back. He hung it in a palm tree (figure 5), which freaked out the archivist in me (in a good way). Sam also introduced me to Nick Maniatis, describing him as a pillar and a major supporter in the making of the Infinite Jest Diagram poster. My interest was peaked. Nick, owner of the David Foster Wallace news and resource site , and I started a cross continent conversation on all things Wallace and the projects these things (writing, art, connections between Wallace readers) have inspired. I noticed that he was careful when alluding to Wallace's waking existence. This made a lot

of sense to me; Wallace is dead. I have found that when I talk about people in my life that are no longer alive, it is far more grounding to be careful about over-embellishing a dead person's existence. One day I came across a highlighted two-page rainbow-colored spread labeled as Wallace's highlighting. It took me a little over a year to get a little obsessed about seeing a trace of Wallace that wasn't mass-produced. Excitedly, I asked Nick if he knew about it. He explained the highlighting was misappropriated and was not Wallace’s at all. I had to roll my eyes at myself when I lost objectivity. I've learned my lesson. I have also been in conversation with Christine Zoe Palau, reader and accordion (player@ femecovert) has in fact filled her own copy of Infinite Jest with “sign here” stickers. Our conversations are motivating and filled with comic relief. This meant a lot while I worked through color tabbing my second copy of Infinite Jest. Christine has sincere energy and a great sense of humor. When looking at a side view of my stacked copies of Infinite Jest she found Lincoln’s face in the color tabs. She then retracted and described that it was actually Obama or Papa Smurf she saw. On the sentiment of Digital Intimacy she described that images of the books make her “feel all warm and fuzzy.” The conversations that stem from images of the book and peoples’ nostalgia in relation to it are what this project is all about.

DIGITAL INTIMACY

Figure 4: Infinite Jest buttons, 2010 Image courtesy of Sam Potts

Figure 5: Infinite Jest button with color tabs, 2014. Sam Potts and Corrie Baldauf (collaboration). Image courtesy of Sam Potts

Josh Roiland, writer and professor (@JoshRoiland) has two copies of Infinite Jest donning the center of his bookshelf, or should we call it his Twitter banner? It’s both. When looking closely, one will also find his Dachshund, Marshall, seated amongst the books on the same shelf. Josh has been an emphatic supporter of the project. I have started to think of him as a friend that I look forward to talking with. His research focuses on Wallace’s nonfiction, which seems to mesh well with learning to understand how this art project has become just as much about the real life conversations as the making of the art itself. Josh describes Twitter as “such an interesting, strange thing.” Count on Josh to back his support with specific references. He once mentioned Tom Junod—who said, “It really is a meritocracy, that if you do good, interesting work it will find an audience.” —to emphasize his interest in the Infinite Jest Project. Closeness finds its way into unexpected places, like say, in a handout, an email, or a tweet. I am finding strains of digital intimacy everywhere I type. Digital intimacy is a closeness that is experienced without the presence of body language. Without physical presence, comfort and familiarity is still reached. And still, these descriptions do not fold or fit neatly into a sock drawer. There are many difficult aspects of digital intimacy that I am learning about and realizing. Digital intimacy holds a shield to actual intimacy in the way that most long distance relationships do. In spite of the bright glow that projects from digital intimacy’s screens of communication, it comes with inherent perceptual blackouts. This feels like running into a sequence of walls, unless these darkened moments come with a warning. In reflection though, I prefer to be thankful that it is also these inhibitors in digital intimacy that help me access more openness to the unknown aspects of the people around me. It is the distance, and actual openness, between people I’ve conversed with that made risks more possible.

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DIGITAL INTIMACY

NOTES Wallace, David Foster. Infinite Jest. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1996. Print.[2] “Infinite

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108 112 118 122 124 Christopher Romano Nicholas Bruscia

RE-FORMING MODELS OF COLLABORATION BETWEEN ACADEMIA AND INDUSTRY Christopher Romano is a Research Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York and a researcher within the Material Culture Research Group. His research practice and teaching explores the relationship between design, construction, and the contemporary culture of building by leveraging regional manufacturing, digital fabrication technology, and material processes to test the latent potential of materials at full-scale (1:1). Recent research and prototyping has focused on the use of folded metal to produce large-scale, self-structuring surfaces. Nicholas Bruscia is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University at Buffalo, where he is also a researcher in the Center for Architecture and Situated Technologies (CAST). His work and research focuses on the computational design-to-fabrication process and the application of performative material parameters at various scales. Recent projects have explored augmenting manual making techniques with physical computing.

Image Credit: Christopher Romano, Nicholas Bruscia

Preface Before the 19th century, a building’s tectonics was largely unified. Categorical distinctions among socalled “systems”—structure, enclosure, interior and exterior walls, and circulation were unknown. All of that changed with the advent of the steel frame—vertical circulation, environmental systems, clad surfaces, and curtain walls, newly liberated from any structural role, could be internalized, enclosed, encased, and hidden within other concealing floor plates, walls, and ceiling voids. Throughout 20th century modernism, little effort was made to revive any sense of tectonic unity, despite new technologies and materials. However, recent architecture and buildings of the last decade have begun to explore more ambiguous, hybridized, even blurred convergences of structure and surface. While norms of construction, fabrication and assembly still favor isolating building components, architects are now producing buildings whose elements, if not reunified, are far from prevailing dogmas of tectonic isolation or structural separation. If we characterize this prevailing separation of structure and skin of the last century as the thinning out among discreet spatial components with separate identities, perhaps the current focus upon mixed or recoupled elements suggests a thickened reunification of structure and skin. What if structure was no longer internalized, but externalized and brought to the outside? What if bearing itself became less localized or isolated and was dispersed across surfaces that were no longer just columns, floor plates, circulation, or façade alone? It is from these initial questions that the author’s research emerged - what would a space of merged tectonics look like using steel, the very material responsible for promoting tectonic separation? How would it be done and how would we as architects need to organize ourselves to effectively engage with 21st century technology and manufacturing?

RE-FORMING MODELS OF COLLABORATION

Model 1: Faculty as Organizer The first collaborative model begins on campus under a loose pedagogical theme to explore architectural applications for a local textured metals manufacturer based in Buffalo, NY, the Rigidized Metals Corporation (RMC). The company is unique for their cold-rolling process of embedding geometric textures into thin gauge metals (Figure 1). The approach was strategically split between two graduate seminars, one being led by Nicholas Bruscia which focused primarily on specular effect through subtle geometric variation (patterns and folds) and the other led by

Figure 1: comparison of 22GA (.029â&#x20AC;?) plain stainless steel vs. rigidized metal 3ND texture

Christopher Romano which focused on self-structuring thin-gauge metal surfaces using similar methods. It was an extremely exploratory phase with students testing a number of preliminary issues that were based on individual interests: unrolling geometric surfaces, folding metal, and mapping a range of specular qualities inherent in the metal. This semester-long process included a tour of the manufacturing facility, an introduction to the material and manufacturing process by Rick Smith, president of the company and week-to-week feedback provided by the course instructors. This structure resulted in a series of student-groups working collaboratively on small physical prototypes using the tools and technology available to them within the university to simulate the effects of rigidized metal and the fabrication workflow of the manufacturer (Figure 2). There were no monetary or logistical risks assumed by the manufacturer as the large majority of the research was being conducted within the university. At the conclusion of the semester, students presented their work to the president of the company and a small group of administrative staff at RMC. To begin to unpack the benefits of this type of interaction, the manufacturer had a large group of students, who were near graduation and about to enter the workforce, touring their facilities and learning about their product which alone is an enormous benefit to any manufacturer. In addition, students free from any economic or logistic constraints were able to ask questions, design freely, and introduce contemporary parametric software to the manufacturer, which we felt could be

of potential use to the manufacturer in the future. As a model that is implemented in the initial phases of a manufacturing relationship, it is useful for the structure to be more traditional so as to allow the academy to engage with imaginative thought experiments based on real-world material contingencies. The advantages for both parties emerge naturally as the relationship moves away from students and faculty simply using new information toward the completion of a single selfguided project, to the production of new knowledge whose ultimate goal is real-world applicability.

Figure 2: Graduate Technical Methods Seminars Full-scale prototyping of self-structuring metal surfaces using 22GA carbon steel

Model 2: Faculty as Material Manager The second collaborative model proposes a faculty-directed research structure that allows the Department of Architecture and local and regional manufacturing to collaborate on the development and full-scale testing of architectural applications for their product line. This includes finding new potential in existing products and the development of new techniques and optimization of existing processes through the use of digital tools for both design and fabrication. The research collaboration detailed below is used to explain how this model builds on prior collaborative work completed within two graduate technical methods seminars described in Model 1 while synthesizing these pedagogical approaches into a singular research proposal.

RE-FORMING MODELS OF COLLABORATION

In this model, much of the effort is twofold; material testing a manufacturers existing product line and attempting to extract the unwritten knowledge that collectively exists amongst the fabrication team. A challenging and crucial next step is attempting to document this data in some kind of quantifiable and measurable format that can be used to inform future design decisions. To that end, we conducted extensive testing: photographic documentation of the exterior light reflecting and diffusing qualities of textured metal under a range of weather conditions, strength comparisons of plain stainless vs. textured stainless, 3-point deflection testing of some of the more common patterns to pinpoint which patterns yielded the highest structural performance, and extensive metal folding studies to reveal to the academic team the fabrication limits of both the hydraulic turret punch and hydraulic press brake. This process yielded a decision-making process that was based on empirical data instead of relying on rule of thumb or repeated cycles of trial and error. To understand how we framed the research, it is important to have a more detailed understand of rigidizing as a manufacturing process rolling geometric textures into ordinary sheetmetals to increase the cross-sectional depth of thin-gauges by distributing metal above and below the neutral axis, resulting in a much stiffer material providing thinner and lighter gauges with increased structural capacity. At the same time, the process gives the material dynamic light diffusing qualities. To summarize, both specular quality and surface rigidity result

from the same geometric conditioning of the metal and we felt these material characteristics had not previously been studied or exploited. While a more typical use of the this material is for non-structural façade elements or interior panels backed by substrates, the intention of this research is to develop a self-supporting architectural system that reveals the existing but underutilized structural potential of the material while simultaneously exhibiting the specular quality of the texture. Our research culminated in an experimental prototype, project 2XmT, which uses a framework of arrayed octahedrons and thin-gauge textured metal to generate a selfstructuring skin that exhibits extreme physical and visual lightness (Figure 3). Based on the textural qualities of the metal and the principle of triangulation, specifically through the use of an expanded diagrid, we invented an ultra-thin, woven “face-frame” - a space frame turned into surfaces where instead of nodes, overlaps in the surfaces make the connection (Figure 4). What is made clear through this work is that the rigidizing process simultaneously creates a visual and structural potency, making large scale thin-gauge assemblages possible (Picon, 2003). At a height of 19’-6” (5.8m), it may be the world’s-largest self-structuring surface, and we have speculated that we can use this framework to scale up infinitely (Figure 5). As an approach it can be compared to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s (LACMA) original Art and Technology program, which ran from 1967 to 1971. Curator Maurice Tuchman invited artists to be matched with companies working in industry; pairing Tony Smith with the Container Corporation, a manufacturer of paperboard products

including folding cartons, paper bags, and fiber cans. Up until that time, most of Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sculptures were generated from modular-based paperboard components, typically tetrahedrons or octahedrons but the component nature of his work became invisible once the work was fabricated in steel at a much larger scale. Working with the Container Corporation, he could replicate his method of working at a monumental scale - resulting in a 2,500 unit cave-like exhibition for the US Pavilion at Expo â&#x20AC;&#x2122;70 in Osaka, Japan (King, 2014). As in our case, the installation achieved a more precise level of clarity when artist and industry jointly collaborate on research. This model of collaboration is closely aligned with a privately sponsored research project, and in the planning stages it requires a great deal of time to frame the research in a manner that is mutually beneficial to both parties. Working agreements are signed that outline the scope of the research, project expectations are agreed upon, and monies exchanged hands to execute the research. From the start, it was clear that it would entail far more oversight from the manufacturer, would require regular meetings with the fabrication team, and that we would be integrated into their monthly production cycle as if we were a paying customer. As a model, it requires financial support, larger quantities of raw material, and higher demands on machine time and human labor but if successful, the research would dramatically increase the visibility and marketability of their product line. In addition to the potential marketing benefits, we felt it was equally as beneficial E

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Figure 3: project 2XmT Rendering showing framework of arrayed octahedrons with thin-gauge metal panelization

RE-FORMING MODELS OF COLLABORATION

Figure 4: project 2XmT Detail view showing X-braced diagrid with panel-to-panel connection using 10-24 fasteners

Figure 5: project 2XmT Elevation view of 19’-6” tall, 152 panel self-structuring prototype using 4LB and 1RL rigidized metal

from a technical perspective. The digital tools we were introducing were not part of the day-to-day workflow of the manufacturer, which has since changed as the result of our work and our attempt to demonstrate their relevance in advanced manufacturing. Furthermore, by discussing the project in a parametrically-controlled digital model, architects and fabricators are able to speak the same language and to clearly visualize information. This three-dimensional conversation allows the fabricators to work off a more accurate base file, reduce mistakes and thus minimize risk. It also results in better coordination amongst team members and in a faster fabrication schedule than projects of a similar scale/scope. For our team, this digitally-based workflow reinforces our appreciation for mathematics, allowing us to be more creative and explore more complex geometries that were not familiar to the fabricator, thus spending additional time on design that would have otherwise been dedicated to project coordination. More importantly, this collaboration allows us access to cutting-edge machinery and the ability to test ideas at a much larger scale than previously possible, re-centering the material mockup as a crucial and necessary part of the architectural design process.

Model 3: Faculty as Conduit The third collaborative model was a two-day specialized workshop which was part of the 2013 International ACADIA Adaptive Architecture Conference. The workshop covered topics ranging from scripting, simulation of complex systems, and digital fabrication with advanced manufacturers. As workshop directors, we were interested in getting students and professionals to directly interact with the fabrication team with the primary goal of getting participants on the factory floor with the people who make things, observing the process of how their drawings are translated to generate CNC code that can be read by the machinery available within the facility (Figure 6). For many participants, this is their first time on a factory floor exploring a type of making that is unfamiliar to many of them: making with machines. At a minimum, we wanted participants to understand how to effectively communicate with fabricators.

Throughout the two-day workshop “Rigidized Metal Forming”, we were tasked with consolidating what we had learned in one year into a 48-hour period, taking students through the entire design-to-fabrication process. Participants were consistently moving between analog and parametric ways of thinking/ making, trying to live in both of these worlds simultaneously and realizing a very small but critical lesson as stated by the French engineer Robert Le Ricolais, “The art of structure is about where to place the holes.” Even in a very brief period of time, the opportunity to speak directly with fabricators, tacitly handle the metal, and assemble a prototype of their own design changed the way participants thought about material and fabrication (Figure 7). In addition, the manufacturer’s affiliation with the ACADIA community gave their product wide exposure both domestically and internationally by supporting students, academics, and

RE-FORMING MODELS OF COLLABORATION

Figure 6: Rigidized Metal Forming workshop - participants observing drawing-fabrication process at Rigidized Metals Corp. as part of the 2013 ACADIA Adaptive Architecture Conference

Figure 7: Rigidized Metal Forming workshop - participants assembling their 5-7 panel prototypes using 3ND rigidized metal as part of the 2013 ACADIA Adaptive Architecture Conference

professionals from around the world. The workshop model is an effective method for closing the gap between the academy and the profession and perhaps more importantly a break from the traditional university model, that is comprised of fifteen week academic semesters with classes meeting once or twice weekly. From our experience, the workshop model is based on brief but uninterrupted periods of intense learning and is able to produce similar results in terms of output and quality when compared to typical university coursework, such as described in Model 1.

Model 4: Faculty as Tactician The fourth model of collaboration was a repeat of the latter half of Model 2 (Faculty as Material Scientist), except that it was now a long-distance collaboration amongst many parties involving a commissioning agent serving as the role of client, a number of universities that make up the TEX-FAB Digital Fabrication Alliance, A. Zahner Co. as fabrication sponsor, and an additional engineer. The project needed to be completed in a matter of weeks, not months, thus we saw ourselves in a new role - that of tactician, with a large majority of our time and energy dedicating to managing the relationships between a greatly expanded team of stakeholders. An added challenge was that this research would have to be conducted remotely with very little faceto-face communication which was vital to the success of previous models. As part of our TEX-FAB SKIN competition winning entry, project 3xLP, we were granted the

opportunity to build a second iteration of our SKIN prototype, refining and experimenting with our self-structuring system to introduce visual porosity while maintaining structural stability (Figure 8). Our first assignment was to negotiate bringing Rigidized Metals onboard as both a co-material and co-fabrication sponsor. This strategy allowed us to continue to work with a material that we felt was central to the research and not knowingly more than double the funding available to execute the second prototype, thereby increasing the scale/ scope of the second prototype. With little time to build physical prototypes, we opted to digitally simulate the effect of physical forces with the assistance of Maria Mingallon, a structural engineer at ARUP, performing an initial round of FEA analysis on the second prototype, creating a feedback loop between digital model, our first physical prototype, and stress-based FEA analysis (Figure 9). Stated Mingallon, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The results of the digital analysis demonstrated that the origami-like strategy would make the wall strong enough to deal with the typical design loads applied to mediumheight buildings.â&#x20AC;? (Mingallon, 2014) This feedback provided a level of confidence that we could apply our system at a much larger scale and as a contemporary faĂ§ade solution. As mentioned above, this collaborative model was about speed, expanding outreach, and relying on external expertise to complete the project. There was little time to meet in person, to design, to prototype, and most importantly to make a mistake. In doing so, our three-dimensional modeling got tighter, containing more precise data regarding part numbers, geometric families, patterns, gauges,

RE-FORMING MODELS OF COLLABORATION

Figure 8: project 3xLP Interior rendering prepared for TEX-FAB SKIN Competition showing application of our geometric system as a building skin with increased visual porosity

Figure 9: project 3xLP FEA analysis (wind load and permanent load) of SKIN prototype using ARUPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s structural analysis software Oasys GSA

grain, finishes, and assembly sequence (Figure 10). Our need for traditional drawings was dramatically reduced (not eliminated), resulting in labor being spent on iteratively testing design solutions and resolving details to achieve tighter fabrication tolerances. We also began to optimize design parameters to find a suitable balance between geometric variation, machine time, and human labor (Figure 11). The competition platform provided a showcase to demonstrate the fabrication capacity of two expert manufacturing companies. Repeating the process strengthened and solidified our working relationship with RMC, a world leader in deep textured metals and also allowed us the rare opportunity to collaborate with A. Zahner Co., a world leader in metal faĂ§ade manufacturing. From a marketing perspective, the benefits were noticeable as the results were included in various print/online publications and numerous contacts were made within Texas.

Model 5: Faculty as Process Engineer The fifth model of collaboration is a jointventure partnership forged between a public research institution and a privately held company, one focused primarily on the development of large-scale, modular building structures and the other, primarily on the development of innovative building skins whose collaboration attempts to further develop a more marketable product that could be more widely distributed in global architectural contexts. In early conversations, both parties were interested in forming an

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Figure 10: project 3xLP exploded axonometric of 10â&#x20AC;&#x2122;-6â&#x20AC;? tall, 137 panel self-structuring prototype showing course-by-course system coordination/optimization

interdisciplinary partnership that would merge the two threads of research together to form a more holistic system that could deliver architectural solutions for both structure and skin. The authors teamed up with Bartolomeo Mongiardino and Alessandro Traverso, mechanical engineers based in London, England, and inventors of the Absolute Joint System (AJ), one of two non-welded, round pipe, stainless steel structural systems in the

RE-FORMING MODELS OF COLLABORATION

Figure 11: project 3xLP detail view of SKIN prototype showing geometric variation, visual porosity, and specular qualities

world. More specifically, AJ is a dismountable and reusable space frame system with members connected by means of custom spherical joints (Figure 12). Targeting reusability in lieu of recyclability, the AJ system is a highly durable kit-of-parts for small to large scale space frames that can adapt to a wide-range of spatial configurations to reduce waste and minimize the embodied energy required to create building structures (Brescia et al., 2013). Our collaborators examined that there is an increase in the production of temporal programs that require large expanses of column-free space, such as temporary shelters, storage/transportation facilities, and large stadiums whose intended lifespan may be shorter than traditional buildings. In contrast to the costly maintenance and (often times) inaccessibility of these permanent structures, the dismountable AJ system proposes an alternative.

In response to the agenda set forth above, we summarized our work very broadly, working simultaneously in three areas to increase the feasibility of the AJ System, troubleshoot their existing web-based product offering, and testing their structural system against a range of geometries, enclosure systems, and panelization options. Currently, we are focusing on the development of surface optimization and efficient panelization using rigidized metal that can adapt to multiple configurations (Figure 13). Similar to the concept of the AJ system, we are attempting to develop a series of identical panel families that can be applied to formally distinct freeform surfaces. By designing a kit-of-panels, we are attempting to construct a full-scale mock-up that explores reusability in largescale architecture: a reconfigurable kit-of-parts, structure and skin, that can be mounted and dismounted, packed in a shipping container,

Figure 12: AJ Pavilion - concept rendering of AJ structural system showing non-welded custom node

Figure 13: AJ Pavilion - screenshot of preliminary free-form surface showing optimized panel clusters

RE-FORMING MODELS OF COLLABORATION

shipped across the globe and reconstructed in a range of configurations. For our team, this work has many benefits. It is research that directly engages in the construction industry and develops solutions that find efficiencies in problems that have existed within the discipline for decades. In addition, it allows our work to move toward a marketable product that could very quickly reach a global audience and do so at a largescale. For RMC, it is an ideal application for their deep-textured products: lightweight, durable, and highly resistant to visible scratching, making it ideal for structures that are repeatedly assembled and disassembled. For the AJ Team, our collaboration gives them a base of operations in the United States, a manufacturing partner in RMC, and the ability to test their system on a range of complex geometries prior to entering into the highly competitive material manufacturing market.

scale, scope, and scheduling of an incoming project. When not acting in a traditional architectural role, we operate as an alternative mode of practice, hovering between academia and industry and able to provide a number of alternative benefits: mediating between architects and manufacturing throughout all phases of the design process, teaching sales and marketing teams about emerging trends in architecture, and focusing on commissioned work that exists somewhere between the scale of furniture and architecture. This newfound capacity allows RMC to take on work it would have otherwise turned away thereby increasing internal capacity and allowing a greater audience access to their product offerings. In this scenario, both university and industry supported work generates an incubator where young design practices can balance their intellectual curiosity with 75 years of industry expertise.

Conclusion Model 6: University as Incubator In this last model of collaboration, our role shifts from faculty-directed research to that of architectural consultant with workflow moving through the manufacturer. In the contemporary AEC industry, there is a recurring pattern where clients are looking for the manufacturer to provide in-house expertise to solve technical and logistical issues that arise throughout the design and implementation process. As the research moves from sponsored to for-profit commissions and consultations, we have found a usefulness for a young design practice that can move fluidly between a design-assist and a design-led format depending on the

In conclusion, these are models that we are exploring as alternative modes to traditional architectural practice. The models suggest that these are not idiosyncratic moments/ relationships, but rather, educational, research, and practice models that can be replicable in other locations, with other companies, and sustained for the long-term. Although each of these models are capable of being standalone, they can be performed in succession as a relationship building strategy, or they can simultaneously overlap, where one model can serve as a test-bed for the other. Nonetheless, it is through initiating a conversation about computation-tied-to-making that we are able to

directly engage in the supply chain, allowing architects and manufacturers to develop a collectiveintelligence and a highly collaborative workflow. Through the use of these organizational models, parametrically controlled three-dimensional modeling, and an extreme attention to detail in the manufacturing process, we argue that we are increasing the scope of architectureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;taking control back into the realm of the architect and reconstituting the legacy of the master-builder. It is through this confluence of interests in both digital technology and contemporary industry that has offered us a way to push forward an alternative trajectory of architectural research and practice.

Acknowledgements The research has been made possible through the generous sponsorship and enthusiasm of Rick Smith, Chip Skop, Kevin Porteus, Kevin Fuller, Tom Schunk and the expert knowledge of the fabrication team at the Rigidized Metals Corporation. The research agenda has also been supported by the Omar Khan and the University at Buffalo Department of Architecture, Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), the TEX-FAB Digital Fabrication Alliance: Andrew Vrana, Kevin McClellan, Kory Bieg, and Brad Bell, A. Zahner Company: Bill Zahner, Jim Porter, and Randy Stratman, and Maria Mingallon at ARUP. The efforts of student assistants have played a critical role in the research at all phases: Daniel Fiore, Philip Gusmano, David Heaton, and Daniel Vrana.

RE-FORMING MODELS OF COLLABORATION

NOTES King, Jennifer. “From the Art and Technology Archives: Tony Smith.” Un Framed. January 6, 2014. Accessed October 17, 2014. http://unframed.lacma.org/2014/01/06/fromthe-art-and-technology-archives-tony-smith. Picon, Antoine. “Architecture, Science, Technology, and the Virtual Realm.” In Architecture and the Sciences, edited by Antoine Picon and Alessandra Ponte, 292-313. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003. Mingallon, Maria. “Facade as Origami.” ARUP Connect. August 8, 2014. Accessed August 8, 2014. http://www.arupconnect.com/2014/08/08/facade-as-origami/. P. Brescia, C. Calderini, B. Mongiardino, M. Pongiglione, T. Principi and A. Traverso, “An Innovative Reusable Modular System for Steel Structures.” Paper presented at Cutting Edge: 47th International Conference of the Architectural Science Association, Hong Kong, P.R. China, November 13-16, 2013.

126 130 134 138 Oliver Uberti

LONDON THE INFORMATION CAPITAL

Oliver Uberti is a visual journalist. In 2014, he designed and co-wrote London: The Information Capital, a book of 100 original maps and graphics, to show that London collects and shares more data than any other city. From 2003 to 2012, he worked in the design department of National Geographic, most recently as Senior Design Editor. His information graphics and art direction have won many international awards and he has given TEDx talks on the creative process. In 2010, Oliver designed 826DC’s Museum of Unnatural History—a non-profit tutoring and writing center built around the belief that “the world is as strange as you imagine it to be.” He left National Geographic in 2012 to form a design studio, Oliver Uberti Creative, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Image Credit: Oliver Uberti

A Brief Foreword: In our new book, London: The Information Capital (Penguin Books, 2014), geographer James Cheshire and I used maps and graphics to explore 100 aspects of life in contemporary London, including ethnicity, commuting patterns, and relationship status (see images). Referring to London as the information capital is a bold claim. We think it is justified for two reasons: London not only generates a huge volume of data, it shares an unprecedented amount with its citizens to use as they wish. These data are known as ‘open data’ and in recent years, the UK government has made their dissemination a national priority. Open data initiatives exist in other cities, not least in Europe and North America, but what gives London an information edge is the belief that data can not only record social change but also instigate it. The book is not an atlas; instead, we see it as a number of starting points for conversations about the city’s future. We also hope it will inspire readers to make their own graphics with open data. In that respect, The Information Capital is not just for Londoners. We hope it will be exciting to anyone interested in cities, data, and graphic design. We very deliberately say London is the information capital as a challenge to other cities to see if they can prove us wrong.

DNA of the City: Census variables reveal London’s genetic code The 2011 Census questionnaire for England contained fifty-six questions that solicited a broad spectrum of answers. Multiply these by 3.27 million households in London and that’s a lot of data for one city. It took the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the best part of two years to release headline figures, covering the likes of gender, religion, ethnicity and employment. To convey the magnitude of their task, we have taken 207 variables from 16 of these categories and shown their values in all 649 London wards, grouped here by borough. Instead of numbers, we used colours. More intense colours correspond to higher values and reveal areas with, for example, more Buddhists than another. 134,343 blocks may seem like a lot, but it’s only a fraction of the data collected. To include everything would require a plot 305 times this size, large enough to fill the floor of a Tube carriage!

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Seeking Shade: Natural remedies exist for the Urban Heat Island Effect. They’re called trees. Strip away the roads, rails, and buildings from the Bourough of Southwark and what’ve you got? A forest. With nearly 600 ‘street trees’ per square kilometer, it’s one of London’s leafiest boroughs. Only Islington has a higher density. As a whole, the city maintains more than half a million of these all-natural air filters. After planting 10,000 during his first term, the Mayor of London hopes to increase tree cover by five percent by 2025. Emphasizing ‘Right Place Right Tree’, the London Trees and Woodland Framework recommends he plant broadleaf trees like maples, planes and limes, which shade people and property in summer whilst admitting sunlight in winter. Come spring, apple, pear, and cherry trees offer another benefit: flowers.

EthniCity: Few cities can match London’s ethnic diversity This isn’t a colour blindness test. But in a way it could be. Fewer than 45% of Londoners consider themselves ‘White British’. Some see this statistic as a symptom of unregulated immigration; others see it as proof that London is and has always been a global city. Whatever your views, there is no doubt that generations of migrats - Irish, Jewish Indian, Jamaican and Polish, to name just a few - have helped shape the city we know today.

Using Data from the 2011 Census, we have counted the number of people per self-reported ethnic group across 25,750 small areas (each of which is home to around 250 people). We then scattered coloured dots within each of these areas for every twenty people or so of the same ethnicity. Places with lots of different coloured dots are therefore more diverse. Patterns emerge where communities have developed along with the amenities that serve them, such

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as places of worship, specialist food shops, and schools. These in turn attract more people who value them. In the smaller maps, we highlight some of these communities. Those who identified themselves as Asian tend to span from east to west, and as Black, north to south. Unlike colour blindness, none of these patterns are permanent. Londoners are often on the move, so this map will never look the same again.

Similarities Attract: We are where we live. To better understand the demographic diversity of London, the Greater London Authroity (GLA) asked geographers Paul Longley and Alex Singletop to map it. This is no easy task. As the previous pages show, Londoners span the full spectrum of ethnicities, ages and occupations. Their infinite combinations donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t readily fit into typical classifications. So first, Longley and Singleton ran variables from the 2011 Census through a clustering algorithm to identify eight broad groups of people with similar population and built environtment characteristics (e.g. White, homeowners, students). Then they ran it again within each of those groups to get more specific. The resulting kaleidoscope (left) helps the city target local initiatives and tells businesses where to set up shop.

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You Can’t Hide:

Day or night, police helicopters find suspects on the run Altitude isn’t their only advantage. The airborne officers can see in the dark. What may seem like great camouflage to a suspect in a garden at 2 a.m. is clearer than day to the helicopter’s thermal-imaging senso. where a warm body contrasts like black ink on a white page. The crew then uses radios and a 30 million candlepower spotlight to guide ground units to the suspect. The Air Support Unit averages 275 flight hours a month between its three choppers: India 99, 98 and 97. Crews change shifts twice a day: once in the evening and again before criminals wake up. Here, we plotted every mission flown in July 2013, coloured by purpose. The silhouettes indicate when they successfully detained a suspect or located a missing person. When not conducting searches, you may see the helicopter hovering above concerts, demonstations and sporting events. Its 360-degree video camera provides a vital aerial feed to crown control officers on the scene. The unit’s 100,000 twitter followers know @MPSinthesky best for another purpose: spectacular photos of the city.

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140 144 148 152 156 Jadzia Gajczyk

THE TEMPORARY PHENOMENON A natural architectural talent from Warsaw, Jadzia Gajczyk gained her professional experience during her studies in Warsaw and Detroit. For the past 2 years, was connected to Bulanda & Mucha, an architectural office in Warsaw, where as a team won several prizes and mentions in competitions. Currently living in Paris sketching and designing projects all over Europe. In addition to designing, thirst for new experiences and challenges has allowed me to travel to 22 countries, attend music school, hold a leadership position in the biggest scout organization in Poland and learn 3 languages. With an international network of colleagues and a desire to explore and travel I will conquer the world during the upcoming 30 years designing large scale projects on all continents.

Image Credit: www.theticketcollector.blogspot.com

The Temporary Phenomenon The dynamic socio-economic changes and technological developments of modern civilization mean that many elements of life cease to be something that is fixed and permanent. In the face of large and rapid changes in lifestyle, thinking about architecture and urban planning is extended to areas that previously were marginal. The traditional way of thinking about architecture and urbanism is as solid elements permanently connected with land, regardless of the problems of space. Discussions of architecture and urbanism often treat interventions designed for a constant, long service life as valuable and correct. However, temporary buildings and structures may in fact be a supplement and complement to the space, giving it a new quality while addressing the specific needs of a given period socially and spatially. The aim of this thesis is to present the interim city in two respects. The first part includes the analysis of the creation of temporary objects as independent, large spatial systems. Temporary cities, though often in the plan related to urban assets, are a completely different matter and are formed with other elements. The work compares the principles and elements of urban composition, commonly known and used in the design of urban solid elements that make up the city temporarily. Despite many differences, this can also be seen as a lot of similarities and universal principles of spatial composition. Currently, there are many examples of temporary architecture. They are different in nature and function, but are usually small-scale facilities such as: residential units, art galleries, exhibition halls and others, which are characterized by a well-thought ideology associated with their function and location. The phenomenon also applies to temporary space and urban structures, which can provide research and scientific work for architects and planners in their projects. These actions relate to both the urban spaces of different scales and to the great independent PROJECTS. Their goal is to create a more dynamic area that is flexible and adaptive. The art of building cities has been so focused on sustainability; it increasingly becomes supplemented by temporary structures, which transforms its function, giving it a different character. Another important aspect is the impact of the environment from which the temporary city originates. There are many factors that affect the appearance of the interim guidelines and more spatial changes caused by them. Temporary cities can be a great catalyst for urbanization. Although created for a short while, its affects can be long-term and permanently stored in the memory of not only the recipient but also in space. Jobs resets temporary examples of cities that are gone, but also cities that convert to form a different, often better place. Problem analysis allows the creation of provisional temporary assumptions, as well as clear, understandable and aesthetic perception.

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Further exploration may help to reign over the temporary space, which is increasingly appearing in our lives. “The city is a state of mind, a team of customs and traditions, attitudes and sentiments, inherently associated with these customs and transmitted by tradition. In other words, the city is a product of nature, especially human nature. “ For the purposes of this paper, the term “city” was deliberately used to emphasize the complexity of the project, which are temporary assumption of a large scale. Temporary city, as well as normal, is a “state of mind”, social space, which - although designed only for a moment - is the message of expression of an idea realized by the urban and social decisions.

Needs of society, temporary activity In recent years a new idea speaks not only about the correct functional solutions, but also emphasizes the equivalent value of dialogue. “Dialogical city” is a term created by Professor Jacek Dominiczak, currently connected to the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. This idea implements the concept of dialogue as a factor affecting the quality of the public spaces, the dialogue between the residents and their specific, current needs, the local community and the authorities; the decision-makers in the disposal space. Maintaining local identity code, even through the use of various temporary forms, may be a response to the needs of residents. As Jan Gehl wrote, a positive process refers to the act “something happens because something happens”. The reinforcement of this process are temporary activities, activating the whole community. What is important is the question of the amount and duration of the event. If the event is short-lived, it increases their willingness to participate in it, before the event passes away. Temporary activities take various forms and functions: shops, restaurants, gardens, plants, cultural events, markets, sports, events, memorials, protests, projects, concerts, and festivals. The need to live in the moment creates the need for a new understanding of space, an extensive dialogue with time.

Impact projects to receive temporary space Activities that are temporary help to fill in the city gaps, creating a new quality to the environment. They are intended to serve the people for a given time, and when they are no longer necessary, they are destroyed or converted into a new, more interesting space. The “urban acupuncture” or instantaneous, spontaneous action activating the population, are topics of Krzysztof Herman article and Haydn and Temel book “Temporary Urban Spaces”. In their work, they emphasize the importance of temporary spaces that create and use occupancy as an important place in the urban tissue, and short-lived, often imperceptible interventions give incomparably greater effects than some carefully planned and long-term projects. “They are a tool bottom-up, which, in contrast to the top-down planning, it is more flexible, does not preclude committing and correcting errors, the possibility of taking a step back and embark on a different path”.1 The importance of relationships and the creation of “specificity”, which is an important factor in the creation of space, can be examined through multiple analyses of rhythms of human life. Spontaneous, temporary activities are often the quality of the landscape. They are often a catalyst for good space. The effects of such activities can be very positive and improve aesthetic and functional quality of the data. As pointed out by Christopher Herman, “And temporality - a feature that allows you to design for a specific, arose in the moment the situation, allowing flexibility and spontaneity - it seems to be crucial in contemporary landscape architecture.” Temporary events also act positively on the psyche of the people. Experiencing an event is stronger when you know that it is not repeated ever again, such as when people are willing to participate in events such as concerts, exhibitions, cultural events, happenings.

Long-term planning and the potential use of temporary projects in the city planning strategies Currently, the entire process of urban planning is regulated by law. Numerous laws and documents define the direction of development and delimit standards in design in order to create a “constant”, well-designed space. Authorities are changing as well as the economy, visions change and plans are

THE TEMPORARY PHENOMENON

barred, waiting for the realization of a long-term process. In London there are new trends for the implementation of projects as well as legal temporary facilities, promoting the development of pop-up projects. These change the way people think about undeveloped urban areas. In their book, “Everyday Urbanism”, John Chase, Margaret Crawford and John Kaliski wrote about creation and development plans, banal suburbs, glowing empty city centers, the official “office parks”, and abandoned streets which do not include everyday activities as a result of the policy.1 According to the authors, urban planning is too sophisticated; giving the space a rigid framework and controlling it, which disregards some rigid needs. By emphasizing the role of unplanned, spontaneous activities, we can bring life to the city and make it more attractive.“Just as the individual dreams of fanatical events triggering internal forces that are not able to reveal in daily activities, so the city needs your dreams.”

Temporary City Definition - a cluster of people or social group, characterized by subordination need time, usually covers a large area by organizing space for a specified period of time.

The specific functional program Mega events and temporary large urban planning projects create sociologically interesting events for a short duration of time. The need for celebration is very common nowadays and is the result of the popularity of mass culture. There are many types of events with functions such as exhibitions, sports or cultural phenomena. Their momentary existence enables them to satisfy a specific need and provide unique emotions.

The location, spatial context, the impact on the environment An important aspect is the location of the temporary city. It may be dependent on the existing infrastructure and use elements of the existing natural or urban landscapes, but it can also be spatial-structure independent and self-sufficient, which means it could be anywhere. An example of this is the Olympic towns which provide accommodation for the participants of Olympic Sports, which is dependent and inseparable from the existing City. Also, its functionality is dependent on other parts and functions of the City. The counterexample is the town of Black Rock City, which is formed in the landscape of the desert and has no connection with the surrounding landscape. A feature of this event is that it has no context to location, which gives the impression of detachment in time. With regard to the construction of provisional Cities and their location, we describe several variations affecting sites. The Black Rock City is not connected with the area; there is no creative

process in space. The city appears and disappears entirely. However, an ephemeral City often has a temporary impact on the environment. Sometimes itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just a characteristic element of the landscape, for example the Eiffel Tower; a remnant of the Expo in Paris, and sometimes the whole premise like the Olympic Village in London. There are also places that are provided for events and temporary events which has become only the infrastructure, providing technical facilities like the town Jamboree in Thailand.

City Playing - urban construction principles in temporary premises Creating a temporary city plan has numerous problems. In analyzing the plans of temporary structures, we can discern elements of urban composition described by Professor Kazimierz Wejchert. Streets: other than in urban fixed created without matter like the walls of buildings, separated in space through texture and surface materials and forms of small architecture - stakes, signs, fences. Example: Jamboree near London used fold system, steel platforms to create streets. Regions, districts: created from a variety of materials, colors, objects of different sizes, grouped functions. Boundary lines and bands: in the space designated corridors, water bands, such as railway lines Expo in Shanghai. Dominant spatial arrangement: high-rise buildings - towers, installations, scenes, example: Burning Man structure in the Black Rock City. Outstanding elements of the landscape: in dependence on the location, mountains, valleys, watercourses, for example. Mina Town of Tabernacles in a mountain valley. Nodes - Heavy Traffic: communication strings circular or hiking, multi-level, example: Mina Town of Tabernacles - 5-level bridge. Marks, distinctive elements: installations, signs, symbols, example: Input - the gateway to the town Jamboree in London All these elements create a plan that builds and organizes space, regardless of whether it is a scout city or festival. These elements allow people to function well in a city that is understandable, logical, and at the same time interesting. Spatial composition elements, like floors, walls, and ceilings, are design problems that can also be applied to the beauty of the city. These elements and their pro portions are different. Building walls by many small parts, elements like tents, becomes impossible. Space pours between them; a major problem is the creation of borders. Spatio-temporal sequences and related experience curve in temporary spaces formed by observing special characters and characteristic elements, which are landmarks, elements such as three-dimensional form of gates, fences, poles, allow users to orient themselves in space.

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BURNING MAN Aim -festival, adventure, having fun together, the experience of art, “purification” Localization -Black Rock desert, Nevada, USA Participants - everyone - artists, journalists and citizens - 50-60 thousand people Master Plan - Circle plan 4th dimension - time - 7-8 days Figure 1, Black Rock City, Nevada www.theticketcollector.blogspot.com

Burning Man is a unique event located on the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada. It is a remarkable city that physically exists for only 7 days. The town is built by the participants and volunteers, who make up an unusual community. Anyone who participates in the event becomes part of a great organism. In 1999, in the Black Rock Desert, a city was created by more than 23 thousand residents - the fifth largest “city” in Nevada! In recent editions the number of participants ranged from 50 to 60 thousand people. The occupied area was so large that the ephemeral city is visible from the space. The town is laid out in a circle form. The focal point is the main installation, which is a man known as a Burning Man. Participants locate their facilities along the avenues radiating from the center of the wheel. The plan has been modified because of the increasing number of participants and the requirements of the regulation of formal and law. The Black Rock City wrestled with the problems of typical growth for real cities. The main idea of the planning was to ensure the optimal distribution of housing units in a spirit of unity, the designation of areas of basic services and to ensure proper flow of people between all areas of the city.

Figure 2, Black Rock City, Nevada www.theticketcollector.blogspot.com

Figure 3, Black Rock City, Nevada www.theticketcollector.blogspot.com

Figure 4, Black Rock City, Nevada www.theticketcollector.blogspot.com

OLYMPIC VILLAGE Aim -providing accommodation and meeting the immediate needs of athletes and participants in the Olympic Games Localization -most often located on the outskirts of the city where the Games are held. Participants - everyone Master Plan - adapted to designated areas (pavilions, buildings) 4th dimension-time - several months(about 6)

A positive vision of the Olympic Villages and the consequences of spatial concerns can be seen in Rio de Janeiro. Several years of preparation for the Olympics have changed areas of the city in the sports oasis. Halls, stadiums and accompanying features stand on a triangular plot of land in the north-eastern part of the city. The resulting vision was a consecutive 3 phases of the project. Several years of work will finally finish with the construction of housing estates and the creation of dense development.

Figure 5, Olimpic Village, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2412117/Rio2016-Olympic-Park-New-images-British-designedpark-look-like.html

Figure 6, Olimpic Village, www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-2412117/Rio-2016-Olympic-Park-Newimages-British-designed-park-look-like.html

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The Project Jamboree Scout Jamboree is the most important event of the World Scout Organization, attended by thousands of scouts from all over the world at the age from 14 to 17 years. The first Jamboree was more akin to “an exhibition of Scouting”, visitors back then could see how Scouting works in other parts of the world. The second and each subsequent Jamboree were carried out in a camp in which the program was more action-oriented and now it is now the official educational event. The aim of the World Jamboree is to promote the good practices and work improvement of scouting in all countries. This unique opportunity was to promote universal education movement that was open for all youngsters. Locally, participants would develop as individuals and become better citizens in their local communities. Globally, the important aspect would also be to promote peace between nations. Participants would live in designated areas (hubs) that are divided into smaller units (sub-camps), each group consists of 40 people. The organizer provides each group a separate plot and field, kitchen, tables, benches and roof-tent to protect their equipment. All the central sections, public areas of the Jamboree city, are designed and built by the host organization. The right to host Jamboree is based on the organizations associated in the WOSM (World Organization of the Scout Movement), and the selection for host country is based on the proposals and concept project of the whole rally, then The World Scout Conference selects the nominees that receives the most positive votes from the committee. Jamboree has been located in Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America. Usually the camp is located near medium to large cities, or on open, undeveloped sites.

1933 Hungary - a city within city The 4th World Jamboree took place in Hungary in the town of Gödöllo by Budapest. An interesting solution was developed to locate the parks at the immediate vicinity of residential and town center. Scout provided an urban fabric to form a compact structure with an area two times bigger than Gödöllo. The cities were connected by a park with a historical castle representing the heart of its structure.

Jamboree 2023 Project in Poland Project Location: Sobieszewska Island in Gdansk, Poland Sobieszewska Island is a part of the City of Gdansk since 1973. Located west from the city center, the area is surrounded by the Vistula River on the east, south and west - Dead Vistula River, north of the Gdansk Bay. These areas are valuable on regional and national levels and hold a great natural vegetation value.

THE TEMPORARY PHENOMENON

Figure 7, Jamboree Hungary www. wikipowell.org/4%C2%BA_Jamboree_Scout_Mundial

Project Assumptions • Taking conditions of the terrain and its irregular plot, the design was adapted to the sculpture and shape of the terrain. Significant element of the landscape is the groves water running along the plot in different directions, the town project has been designed in order to not change the natural environment. City Districts were entered between water ditches and roads and paths were designed along them. • Sobieszewska Island has great natural scenery in the region, so for the whole country increased interference and urbanization of the area seems to be unfavorable. The City of Gdansk decided to leave this area intact as farmland Islands in their plans and strategies. • To meet the expectations of the landowner and the City of Gdansk on the plot, the plan is set to enhance the recreational functions. The project of the town Jamboree will include the construction of the permanent architectural structure. This small structure will be a complex for leisure and training functions. It will be located in the north-west corner of the site. Acting as a minor investment for the future after the Jamboree ends, this will provide service to residents, tourists and

scouts as a center for training and recreation. • The concept of the Scout town is to respect the natural environment. The main elements that will create the city will be tents, temporary structures and buildings, roads will be made from organic bulk materials, slaughtered, that they can be easily removed. • One of the main parts of the project is to determine the main pedestrian communications: the whole concept is based on the main axis and smaller tracks that divide the plot into smaller zones and sectors. This proposed system is based on a rectangular grid, which has been adapted to the terrain and ducts running through all areas of the island Sobieszewska. • The project is based on two organizational structures: north-south and east-west axes, and the way – the loop that surrounds the central part of the city. A simple pedestrian communication scheme determines the appropriate functional rotations between all zones while three additional characteristic towers define the city boundaries. • The project includes elements of urban composition in versions of temporary cities, the project includes: streets, areas, bandwidth limits, dominant, outstanding landscape elements, nodes, and finally marks.

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• Spatial identification system was designed as an urban planning and architecture details of each zone, each plot has different characters, spatial layout, and architectural details. Passing from zone to zone visitors can easy see different characteristics of each zone. Various materials have been used that varies in form and color. The design of communication used various floors, paved surfaces in different colors. Bars - lanterns and gates are designed to guide. • The project provides night lighting and numerous shelters, which are to protect the inhabitants from rays of sunlight. Sheds, tents, membrane structures were designed within walking distance along the main north-south trail. • Night illumination was created by lantern systems and highlights of the gates, towers and a central node of the city. Since the program does not provide classes from hours 22 pm - 6 am, illuminating the entire city would be unnecessary. Pressures excessive illumination is also part of the housing, because the light enters into the tent through the thin coating. • Roads are designed with three classes: roads designed for heavy vehicles, foot-driving, and walking. Projection is a large parking lot on the south side of the Dead Vistula and the bus station, which is to provide transportation to participants during Jamobree 2023.

The spatial concept The spatial concept of the Jamboree city in 2023 on Sobieszewska Islands is based on three main pillars of the program: the entrance area, the main arena, and activities zones. These areas define the limits of the city, creating 3 corners of the site. In the corners are designed distinctive architectural elements - three towers - the dominant spatial. Other functions are laid out along the roads connecting the entrance area with the arena - north-south, and the area of housing with the arena schedule - east-west.

The layout of all functions along two axes allowed separating the city into two zones. The first area is public, available for participants-residents, but also for one-day visitors, guests and service. Along an axis extending from the south (gate-bridge) to the north (arena) are located the most important areas of a presentation and program. The second axis, east-west, connects the center of the public zone with second large activities zone. Between all plots are located â&#x20AC;&#x153;bedroomsâ&#x20AC;? for the participants. This part of the city is primarily for residents who move every day between his bedroom and the center and the public zones. The city needs also technical and economic zones, medical points,

which are located close to residential areas and the center of the zone. The project of the Jamboree town is a pretext to create an architecture that at the end of the rally will serve tourists and residents of Gdansk. However, the unique natural character of the island should not be changed from its natural form. The new infrastructure project was limited to the assembly of several buildings. Constant Architecture Design includes 5 pavilions which are located along the northern border of the Jamboree city. An important element of the foundation is the tower, which is a viewpoint of the island and the Gdansk bay. Green areas adjacent to the ditch on the south side has been designed as a wild garden, with small plazas. These areas can be used as a camping site or may be a technically and economically background and service for large public events - temporary cities such as various festivals, concerts, Scout or religious events.

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Conclusion Supported by these examples, the views and ideas provide a solid basis for understanding and acceptance of temporary architecture and urban planning as a valuable element in the design process. A different way of thinking and the accumulated knowledge can be used to make a more informed design work on an spatial elements, which are often considered marginal, and the results of such work are random, chaotic, and unsightly. Indeed, the work of architect - urbanist should refer to any space in which people operates, even if it is temporary.

THE TEMPORARY PHENOMENON

NOTES Alexander C., Jezyk Wzorców, GWP Gdanskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne, Gdansk 2008 Bishop, P, & Williams, L. (2012). The Temporary City. London: Routledge Chase J.L, Crawford M. and Kaliski J., Everyday Urbanism, New York: The Monacelli Press, 2nd edition, 2008 Gehl J., Zycie miedzy budynkami, wydawnictwo RAM, Kraków 2013 Herman K, Miejska Akupunktura, Katedra Sztuki Krajobrazu SGGW, www.namiejscu.org, Houdart, S. A city without citizens: The 2010 Shanghai World Expo as a temporary city. City, Culture and Society (20122) Imam A., The Temporary Use of Urban Spaces: The Case of Mina, Saudi Arabia, PhD presentation,http://wwwcpsv.upc.es/tesis/PT13_imam.pdf Killing Architects, Urban tactics, temporary interventions + long term planning, Anaylsis report, The Netherlands Architecture Fund, 2008 Paszkowski Z., Miasto Idealne w perspektywie europejskiej i jego zwiazki z urbanistyka współczesna,Towarzystwo Autorów i Wydawców Prac Naukowych Universitas, Kraków 2011 Roche, M. (2000). Mega-events modernity. Olympics and expos in the growth of global culture, London. New York: Routledge. Wejchert K. Elementy kompozycji urbanistycznej, wydawnictwo Arkady, Warszawa 1984 Zielonko-Jung K., Architektura nietrwała i mobilna jako próba odzyskania niedostopnych przestrzeni miejskich, Czasopismo techniczne, Wydawnictwo Politechniki Krakowskiej Be the spark. Album kandydatury Poland 2023 WSJ2007 Jamboree Report WOSM Guidelines for the hosting of the World Scout Jamboree (Adopted by the World Scout Committee, Jeddah – 25 September 2011) Źródła internetowe: http://amerykanisci.blogspot.com/2013/10/tymczasowe-miasto.html http://www.burningman.com/ http://weekend.gazeta.pl/weekend/1,138262,16698102,Szef_obozu_dla_syryjskich_ uchodzcow_w_Jordanii__Wymyslamy.html#TRwknd www. spendit.pl/miasto-namiotow/, http://www-cpsv.upc.es/tesis/PT13_imam.pdf www.shgtj.gov.cn/ http://scouts.org

158 162 166 168 Mandy Roos

INVASION OF THE FOOT CARRIER Mandy Roos is an ex-student from the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. She specialized herself in materials (especially textile, plastics and leather), trend-forecasting and wishes to continue infootwear. She is obsessed with the extremities of the human body, like hands and feet and enjoy designing things that make them look alien and unhuman. And as you can see, she loves to make image . She calls herself an â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;image-makerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; rather than a photographer. She creates images with a certain feeling and atmosphere through which she tries to share her ideas and vision.

Image Credit: Mandy Roos

INVASION OF THE FOOT CARRIER

INVASION OF THE FOOT CARRIER Inspired by old school sci-fi films and their imaginary visions of future, spaceships, and unknown universes. Dated visions of technology and old-fashioned, retro styles create a lighthearted, humorous reflection of the past versus the future. In the footwear idea book Invasion Of The Foot Carrier the sole is the essential basis. Sometimes the foot is sunk in the sole or absorbed by slime. Other soles have caterpillar tracks. Ideas for the materiality of the soles range from plastic-inspired acrylate, silicone or rubber, concreteand plaster-like materials, fluid, foam or slime. Transparency plays a big role and has various degradations. The idea-book Invasion Of The Foot Carrier is an inspirational vision meant for the footwear industry.

BOBA FETT ALIENATION AND DEFORMING Toe-extentions and blobby heels alienate the shape of the foot creating an extraterrestrial look.

KANG ALIENATION AND DEFORMING

KYTRON 99 MOON CRAWLER

Crawling over the moon with caterpillar tracks, rolling over the rocky surface. Walking on the moon with extreme grip soles.

LUNAR CRAWLER MOON CRAWLER

MOON SCOPE MOON CRAWLER

STARBURST GALAXYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S EDGE

At the edge of the galaxy the most beautiful colors appear. In contrast with the randomness of sparkling stars they form a color-changing effect.

ARMUS SWALLOWED BY LIQUIDS A world full of slimy, liquid-like substances swallowing toes and feet whole, for all to see.

BLOCK 5 CAPTIVITY AND GRAVITY Captivated in heavy blocks, trying to escape. Concrete-like materials combined with transparency gives it an airy feeling.

170 174 178 180 Michael den Hartog

WELCOME TO HONEYWELL! Michael den Hartog is a recent graduate of the University of Southern California and is currently working as an architect in Los Angeles. His position towards architecture as both a profession and a discipline is inseparable from its relationship to the urban, recognizing that it is an integral part of the generative process that constantly pushes city life and form forward. He views architecture as at least equally a manifestation of politics, economics and social conditions as it is creative design, like its macro counterpart. Having come to these conclusions he has found his professional and educational experiences within architecture to be far too disengaged from its socio political and economic context. As a result he seeks to use architecture as a tool to reveal the forces that shape our physical environment.

Image Credit: Michael den Hartog

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Architecture suffers from its image, from the definitions projected onto it from outside. Architecture of course, is not the only field prone to ideological misconceptions or projections, yet being a traditionally service-based profession it is acutely influenced by others’ notion of what it is or should be. In order to attract or appease clients and patrons it molds itself to their notion of it, creating a profession that becomes increasingly subservient to whatever the dominant economic power structure may be . As a result architecture has become largely synonymous with physical visibility; its existence is recognized when it becomes visible and the architect is called when some entity desires something to be made visible. The fetishization of visibility has resulted in an obsession of the tangible; architecture has to be seen not necessarily to be believed, but to be validated. It must be validated not only in its achievements, but also in its ability to approach and operate on issues of contention. The forces (social, economic, political, racial etc.) that are behind these issues must physically manifest themselves for an architect to be given the green light to approach them. Architecture, though, is concerned with information that is both tangible and intangible, or as Vitruvius stated two millennia ago, with “the thing signified, and that which gives it significance.” An image, an object,

an architec-ture, like words, can be used to tell a truth or a lie; they can manipulate or make clear, they can be understood or misunderstood. Its reception is determined by one’s familiarity with the forces which give it significance. The border of the United States and Mexico has been given a physical image. It has dimensions, walls, thresholds, thickness, occupants; it has gained tangibility. Yet the forces that give the thing significance are convoluted and contradictory. The existing architecture of the border can easily mislead. The following project seeks to unearth the inherent contradictions present at the U.S./ Mexico border by examining the forces that give the wall significance. Specifically the border’s physical manifestation is examined through the relation of economic and defensive forces exemplified by the evolution of the maquiladora system between Tijuana and Mexicali. An industry that began as the simple production of textiles and cheap electronics has now evolved to produce portions of the security apperatus that the northern country utilizes to keep the same population at bay. The project tracks and extrapolates on the developmental trends of the maquiladoras and predicts a future outcome given discovered patterns.

The necessity of the fence is sold in terms of defense. It is militarization in the name of national security. But as architecture it fails at this function. It is permeable; its holes are numerous and dynamic. Its impenetrability is preached as intrinsic to the safety of the United Statesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; population, but its construction is determined by the economic whims of politicians and corporations. In reality its true purpose is as an economic mechanism; its subsequent emphasis on security is a direct result. It marks a delineation between two sovereigns in which the same commodity, person or contraband, has a differing value depending upon which side of the wall it is placed. It is an

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A Short Timeline From the Bracero Program to a Predicted 2015

architecture of value manipulation. It is a manifestation of international economics in which the flow of goods and money is accommodated but the flow of people is restricted. As a result, a low wage labor market, Mexico, becomes available to American corporations, initially for low-skill manufacturing as seen in the border industrialization program of the 1960s, but evolving into something more complex over time with the passing of NAFTA and the subsequent War on Terror. The United States and Mexico have used the wallsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; economic manipulation to import and export certain sectors of one anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy. Particularly the United States has exported a substantial

The Honeywell Situation

A New Economic Zone

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amount of its manufacturing processes south of the border supporting the maquiladora industry, which assembles materials temporarily imported from the United States, which are assembled in the Mexican border region and subsequently exported back to the states for distribution. Initial industries exported included lowtech and low-skill sectors from textiles to household electronics. Yet over time the complexity of these exported manufacturing processes evolved. From textiles to small electronics to cars to aerospace to the present increase in the exportation of American defense industrial manufacturing. This most recent export comes tethered to another: the U. S. Homeland Security apparatus, for the defense technology of the world’s most prolific military power must be protected. In this move the guise of the wall as first and foremost a matter of national security is paradoxically obliterated as well as finally affirmed. It is obliterated by the exportation of confidential technology into a zone that the wall, by its own existence, deems unsafe. At the same time it supports the claim of national security by allowing the production of more military and defense equipment developing a landscape where it can be manufactured more economically. Capturing the cheaper workforce to the south, which is no longer populated solely by lowskilled labor but supports a burgeoning class of professional engineers, its yearly university output nearly rivals its northern neighbor.

in a future almost here in which not only the manufacturing and assembly of the United State’s defense technology is exported but also its research and development. The maquiladora has moved from the assembly of raw materials to the production of technology and information, not for Mexico but for the United States much of which, represented by the fence, is deployed upon the designer’s national population. The new exportation, the production of the U.S. defense apparatus itself, requires sites that must meet a new standard mediating the intersection of cheap labor and high security in order to appease America’s constant security anxiety. Yet the private American defense contractors, who are quickly establishing assembly plants that are evolving into research and development facilities and are quickly on their way to becoming test sites, are fed by the black hole of U.S. defense contracts, and are driven by economics and the United States government becomes worried.

They realize this exodus cannot be stopped; it is simply business and anyways they can achieve more for less. Yet a system should be established, precedents set. They begin discussions with the Mexican government, who, aware of the lucrative opportunity of tapping into the U.S. military industrial complex, seek to appease their all too often erratic neighbor. But they become stuck, they cannot determine what to do. In a twist of fate, how it came The Honeywell Situation represents the next to be no one is sure, or no one is willing to phase of the maquila industry, one located admit, the advice of an architect is sought.

The architect proposes the creation of new border economic zones just south of the border in which regulated defense research, development, and design may be carried out in a relative amount of security appeasing the U.S. government but, more importantly, the general American population, who is still convinced the fence is a necessity of national security. The influx of lower wage Mexican engineers will gain admission to the zone, performing regulated defense contracts for U.S. corporations willingly, choosing to be a part of Mexicoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newest market and professional class. The special economic zone should be self-sustaining, an infrastructure that both promotes security while allowing for the utilization of cheap labor in a comfortable environment which satisfies the employees as well as the U.S. contracted defense corporations desired image.

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Tijuana Development Site

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The result is a somewhat satirical, yet a somewhat realistic projection of the border’s developing conditions as it continues to function as an economic mechanism, the United States searching for cheaper labor and more affordable defense technology while preaching an ideology of fear to support continued militarization. It intends to be a critique of both so called “free” trade agreements and architecture's naiveté when approaching such charged issues. The project proposal of a new Special Economic Zone in which the burgeoning class of Mexican engineers may be utilized by U.S. defense corporations for a fraction of the price north of the border, results in the continued expansion of the so called U.S. "homeland" to the south. The conditions of the new SEZ and the occurrences within exploit the contradictions ingrained in current border politics, and reveal, through a narrative-based design process, the forces that are ingrained in the border's physical representation.

182 186 190 194 David Parker

WHERE IS HERE?

David Parker is an artist living and working in Royal Oak, Michigan. His work is a conversation of objects and drawings that explore what it means to be an outsider living and thriving within the system. He uses a diverse array of materials to create minimalist abstract forms that romanticize the seductive comforts of the home. He also makes finely rendered drawings of discarded cigarette packs, lottery tickets, candy wrappers, beer and soda cans, items that remind us that sometimes we need a sweet escape from the grind. His work (which can be seen in full at DavidEdwardParker.com) has been shown throughout Michigan, Ohio, California, and Venice, Italy.

Image Credit: David Parker

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Sometimes when the world spins a little slower I like to take a look around me and ask myself what the 16-year-old angry skater kid that still lives inside of me would think about thirty-something domestic I’ve become. I could only imagine the conversations we would have. “Why are you spending so much damn time cutting the grass? It looks good enough. Let’s fucking go!” I patiently tell him “I have to spend so much time on the lawn because I have to make it better than every lawn on the street. I’m not letting these squares be better than me.” I would tell him about how life is so much more than his half-developed brain could comprehend. I would reassure him that the same rage and defiance is still very much alive inside of me, I have just channeled it into something useful. He, no doubt, would have a bone crushing sarcastic response, and dismiss any and all wisdom that I tried pass down to him as the words of an out of touch old man. My recent work is a dialogue between these two forces. I am presenting a conversation of objects, and drawings that try to bring harmony and understanding to the skater and the homemaker. The work speaks to the idea of a punk domestic, an idealized aesthetic language of what it is to be an outsider living and thriving within the system. I use traditional art-making materials such as cotton, graphite, ceramic, wood, color pencil, and pigment along with nontraditional materials like friction tape, snow, and skateboard grip tape - cross-pollinating them and mixing them with nonspecific references to the home.

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Where is HERE?

go to school take a job get a wife ainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it nice

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196 200 204 206 Irina Ioana Voda

FLUID ARCHITECTURE THE PARADOXES OF CONTINUITY IN NEW ARCHITECTURAL GEOMETRIES Irina Ioana Voda is an architect and graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning (Bachelorand Master) at Cluj-Napoca, Romania in 2011. Currently she is a PhD student in architecture at Laboratoire Cultures ConstrucLves (LABEX AE&CC), Ecole NaLonale Supérieured’Architecture Grenoble, Université GrenobleAlpes, France and at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She is interested in the theory of architecture and her research is focused on the interdisciplinary relationship between architecture, science, and art and on its role in contemporary architecture.

Image Credit: www.big.dk

Regarding the several characteristics of fluid, “Fluid architecture” epitomizes the metaphor of fluid mechanics. Besides immateriality and formal indeterminacy, the intrinsic characteristic of fluids is described by flow, which is defined by a continuous movement. This analysis is the essential element of this article, because formal and spatial continuity plays a decisive role for most of the new architectural geometries. Considering that fluid architecture defines an oxymoron, this analysis indicates the paradoxes of the mathematic continuity transposition in architecture. New creative opportunities, in order to visualize architectural spaces and forms, are currently being actualized in the light of digital tools development, although always in accordance with mathematical principles.

In a topological transformation distances and volumes are not important, but it is the genus of topological surfaces that defines their identity. Thus, the cubes, the spheres and all other shapes that can be transformed by various processes into a ball, have their genus 0, while if we drill a hole in the ball, the genus 0 deviates into 1. So “two surfaces (assumed to be in rubber) have the same topological type, if one of them can be transformed into another by stretching it, leaving even some parts to cross each other, but without tearing, cutting or joining” and “the genus of a topological surface is equivalent to the total number of holes or handles” (Fig. 1).

Topology and Non-Orientability in Mathematics Contemporary architecture borrows different concepts from various fields, such as biology, physics or mathematics, which are metaphorically transformed in “free forms” expressions. In this instance, we consider topology as the reference field because it represents the category of mathematics that studies the continuous spaces and their limits, and therefore, the new geometries from which contemporary architectural forms emerge. The topological identity of an object is preserved while it is merged into another one, without cutting or splicing itself: for example, “the cube, the sphere and any other form–no matter how complex and complicated they are–can, theoretically, be merged into a ball shape by stretching, bending, leveling, or other plastic deformation (without tearing or clipping it)” .

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Figure 1: Topological identity conservation, Irina Voda.

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For this article, the most important feature of the topological continuity is the nonorientability. This is characteristic of different surfaces, such as Möbius strip or Klein bottle. The question of non-orientability concerns the continuity between the inner and the outer surface; in other words, these two cannot be differentiated. A non-orientable surface distinguishes from an orientable one, according to different methods: we therefore assume that “a surface is orientable in R3 Euclidean space if a two dimensional figure cannot be moved around the surface and returned to the initial place without preserving the same image at the end. Otherwise, the surface is non-orientable” or the surfaces are “non-orientables, since we cannot define if a rotation on these surfaces is in the clockwise or counterclockwise direction” . For example, the cylinder and the torus represent examples of orientable surfaces, while the Möbius strip and the Klein bottle are non-orientable surfaces. However, “the nonorientable shapes, even if they are an extremely simple transformation of the orientable shapes, resulted through a peculiar torsion, are difficult to compose in nature by themselves” . Since the aim of this article is to expose the paradoxes of continuity, we focus on paradoxical mathematical surfaces that correspond to non orientable surfaces, such as Möbius strip, Kleinbottleand projective plane (Boy surface). The Möbius strip is the most remarkable non orientable surface, a prototype that can generate similar, but never identical shapes . This figure was discovered in 1858, and describes a rectangle transformed, twisted and turned, into a continuous surface bounded and finite, which allows an infinite path between the two initial

surfaces (the interior and the exterior one). The prototype of Möbius strip was adopted for the description of Klein surface (bottle) in 1882, when Felix Klein “stuck conceptually two sets of opposite edges of a strip, a simple one and a twisted one” . The result is a single continuous surface, unbounded, which intersects itself. The self-intersection is due to the three-dimensional representation, being an example of a higher dimension surface immersion in 3D. Other similar examples, such as Boy surface or “figure-8” immersion of Klein bottle, are intersect themselves in 3D, while in 4D they are continuous.

Continuity and NonOrientability in Architecture If topology studies the continuity from the surface perspective, surface that can generate paradoxical forms by self transformations, the expressions of architectural continuity affected by two parts. In other words, this dichotomy supposes the surface continuity (the facade) and the spatial continuity (inside-outside). Regarding the concept of non-orientability, this is different from the concept of orientation, a fundamental element of architectural design. These two terms must not be confused because, while orientation is a fundamental aspect in architectural design, non-orientability is not defined in architecture; its place in architecture will be determined in this article. The approach of formal continuity and nonorientability had a greater echo in sculpture than architecture (e.g. Max Bill, Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo), for obvious reasons.

In architecture, this approach was subtler and more implicit; it makes its realization more difficult. One of the first attempts to integrate the idea of infinite continuity in an architectural project was the “Endless House” of Frederick Kiesler, which embodies “the coordination of elements/ forces/ heterogeneous tensions in an “endless” spatial continuum” . Even if this continuity directed towards the infinite form, it does not involves the non-orientability: the continuity of interior and exterior space does not involve the transformation of the two separate surfaces into a single one (one sided surface or monosurface). Inspired by the work of Kiesler, Vittorio Giorgini research has concentrated on two different axis: “The conceptual plane of physical-mathematical space and the structural plane of architectural space” , materialized in “alabaster architectures” . They embody an interpretation of topological continuity, both spatial and formal (the surface). Unlike Kiesler, Giorgini is interested in non orientable surfaces, trying to “correct” the Klein bottle via the conservation of continuity between the outer and the inner surface, without self-intersection . His studies on Möbius strip and Klein bottle have allowed him to conceive two new spatial figures with various curvatures, like “Giorgini Sphere” and “Giorgini Toroid”, thus generating new non orientable surfaces, “topological continuity even in architecture, with interesting consequences in terms of static efficiency” . In contemporary architecture, the interpretations of Möbius strip and Klein bottle are materialized in several forms, evoking, in a more or less explicit way, the character of non orientable surfaces. The Möbius House (UNStudio, 1998) or the “Klein Bottle”

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house (McBride Charles Ryan, 2008) are two examples based and built on the idea of formal continuity, but at a schematic level. In architecture, the difficulty of implementation and realization of non orientable surfaces is understandable, even if the Möbius house metaphorises the unique limit of the strip, while the “Klein Bottle” house expresses the “explicit infinite in the loop continuity between different parts, like the endless cycle of the Klein bottle” . Digital architecture brings today the opportunity of reconsidering these forms, justifying the architecture of paradoxes (the Möbius strip, the Klein bottle, the Boy surface, etc.) as the emergence, the impulsion for formal and spatial continuity and the progression as the process for their development. The architecture of foot bridges or bridges evokes in a more relevant way the approach to non orientability, because it acts as a surface and not as a volume, thus the challenge is to find the way in which these principles can be implemented at the volume scale. According to Antoine Picon, contemporary architects are fascinated by topological varieties (such as the Möbius strip and the Klein bottle): “This interpretation of topology is at odds with what mathematicians consider as its principal objective, namely the study of invariance. Whereas architects are usually interested in extreme cases that allow surprising effects to emerge, the mathematicians’ perspective is almost opposite. It has to do with conservation rather than sheer emergence” . His opinion regards the two conflicting positions which must articulate themselves in order to fully restore their status. It is true that topology involves the conservation of certain formal

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processes, but conservation is also capable of generating new forms. Conservation and emergence are linked by the idea that a form could convert into a new one, very different from the original geometrically speaking, by preserving its topological qualities and dissipating its other mathematical qualities. In addition, varieties are not exceptional forms, but they refer to the “determination mode” and depend on the dimension of the space to which they are related (2D, 3D, 4D) . We could consider that “the variety of lines in plane is actually an abstract Möbius strip” . It is obvious that contemporary architecture searches for the result of topological transformations, passing by different varieties and conserving some defined parameters. The idea of introducing Moebius strip or Klein bottle in architectural form is comprehensible and represents both the emergence of new geometries generated by digital development, and the resulting conservation of certain parameters over others.

The Paradoxes of NonOrientable Surfaces in Architecture and Mathematics We have defined the non orientable surfaces in mathematics and we have examined the bestknown examples: the Möbius strip and the Klein bottle, which have made the experimental subject for several architects. The aim of this article is to focus on the difference of continuity concepts in mathematical and architectural field. The paradox is highlighted while the Möbius strip and the Klein bottle are topologically similar in architecture, and there is a discrepancy relative to the indoor-outdoor continuity: if the

Klein bottle accepts a potentiality of physical discontinuity between the interior space and the exterior one, the Möbius strip maintains the openness and the continuity (Fig. 2). To exemplify the architectural continuity between the interior and the exterior space, we reflect the architectural interpretation of a torus (an orientable surface) as a building with a patio. In this case, the outer space and the inner space are different. But, there is the possibility to covert its patio, thus the external space can be appropriate by the interior one. If the Möbius strip (a non orientable surface) is expressed as a building with a patio, this one cannot be covered and the exterior space cannot be attributed to the internal one, preserving thereby its independence. The Möbius House (UnStudio, 1998) “translates” the continuity of the ribbon as an infinite movement, “through an open plan, non-partitioned spaces, spatial ambiguity, transparent glass walls, accentuating the fluidity. They are overlapping and they are continuously joining, alternating the exterior and the interior space, without being able to indicate where the changing poles are” . This project evokes a sketch of the Möbius strip at a conceptual level, but it does not respect its character. Thus, this project is mistakenly called the “Möbius House”. A more relevant example, which highlights the Möbius strip character, is the concept for National Library in Astana (Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), 2008, Fig. 3). On the one hand, the project respects the intrinsic characteristics of the ribbon. It is evident that in this case, the geometry doesn’t allow adapting of exterior space to the interior space. On the other hand, this form does not permit a suitable functional integration and unfortunately, the

Figure 2: The different geometric formes behavior in topology and architecture, Irina Voda.

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Figure 3: Astana National Library (Kazakhstan), BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) Architects, concept 2008.

architectural concept seeks only the formalistic approach, independent from the functional one. If the Klein bottle (a non orientable surface) is subjected to a similar situation (a patio inside a construction), although it is more difficult to imagine, it defines a similar “behavior” to the torus: the inner space can be separated from the outside. The “Klein bottle” house (McBride Charles Ryan, 2008) tries to catch the essence of a non orientable surface with a volume that intersects itself, but interrupts

the continuity of the surface by separating the exterior space from the interior one. The concept respects the character of the original surface, even though both spaces are divided: unlike the Möbius surface, the Klein bottle allows for this distinction, hence the paradox of the implementation of non orientable surfaces in architecture and the dichotomy of their “behavior”. An example of a new geometry, which sets in a different way the expression of the Klein bottle is materialized by the MyZeil shopping mall project, Palais Quartier in

Figure 4: MyZeil shopping Mall, Palais Quartier, Massimiliano & Doriana Fuksas Architects, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, realized in 2009.

crossing the building bring the exterior space inside, without appropriate it. Although they can be geometrically separated, the architects aimed rather the preservation of formal and spatial continuity. Unlike the previous projects, this one was not inspired by the Klein bottle, but the fluid transformation of the apparently flat faรงade into a complex geometry that intersects itself, which leads to vortices inside the building, suggesting an analogous example of the Klein surface. The dichotomy of the non orientable Klein surface is indicated by these two examples, each one evoking in a different way, the continuity or the spatial separation.

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Conclusion We have seen that similar topological surfaces could be different in architecture. But in topology, there is a major difference between these two surfaces: the Mรถbius surface is correctly perceived in 3D, while the Klein surface is correctly perceived only in 4D (as a surface that does not intersect itself). If we think that this difference is at the origin of their architectural dichotomy, the Mรถbius ribbon must not only be distinguish from the Klein bottle, but also other non orientable

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surfaces that are understandable only in 4D (the Boy surface or the”figure-8” immersion of Klein bottle). However, they exhibit a similar “behavior” to that of the Möbius strip, regarding the possibility of the interior-exterior separation, so this assumption is not justified. To conclude, the adaptation of non orientable surfaces in architecture remains difficult compared to their achievement and their functionality, but not impossible. These geometries have been seducing architects since the nineteenth century, when they were discovered in mathematics. Contemporary architecture have rediscovered them from a new perspective: as a result of digital processes, which sometimes have a different “behavior”, even paradoxical to the mathematics perspective. For this reason, architects are more interested in this emergence than in topological conservation (mathematics) and in the opportunities created by their surprising behavior.

NOTES 1

Jane Burry and Mark Burry, Mathématiques et Architecture, trans. Bruno

Marmiroli (Arles: Actes Sud, 2010), 159.

Stefan Hildebrandt and Anthony Tromba, Mathématiques et Formes

Optimales : L’explication Des Structures Naturelles, trans. J. Guigonis,

tirage 1991 (1ere éd. 1986) (Paris: Pour la science : Belin, 1991), 83.

Burry and Burry, Mathématiques et Architecture, 159.

Ibid., 263.

Hildebrandt and Tromba, Mathématiques et Formes Optimales :

L’explication Des Structures Naturelles, 89.

Roman Popa, Rheoarchitecture : Non-Orientable Formative Configuration,

2ème éd. (1ére éd. 1991) (Bucarest: INVEL-Multimedia, 2003), 4.

Ibid., 5.

Burry and Burry, Mathématiques et Architecture, 158.

Dieter Bogner, “À L’intérieur de La Endless House,” Quaderns

D’arquitectura I Urbanisme 222 (1999): 102.

Maurizio Vitta, “Agora : Vittorio Giorgini,” L’Arca International, no. 70

(2006): 34.

“Alabaster architectures” represent models in alabaster for studying the new geometries.

In topology, the 3D Klein bottle representation is not possible without self-intersection:

its topological identity is preserved only in 4D. The research of Vittorio Giorgini is referring to

the transformation of the 3D representation into a not self-intersected surface.

Vitta, “Agora : Vittorio Giorgini,” 40.

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Burry and Burry, Mathématiques et Architecture, 186.

Antoine Picon, “Architecture and Mathematics: Between Hubris and

Restraint,” Architectural Design : Mathematics of Space 81, no. 4 (2011): 33.

Patrick Popescu-Pampu, “Variétés,” Images Des Maths, November 6,

2009, http://images.math.cnrs.fr/Varietes.html.

17 Ibid. 18

Nadine Labedade, “Möbius House, Het Gooi, 1993-1998,”

Frac-Centre.fr, accessed January 25, 2015, http://www.frac-centre.fr/

collection/collection-art-architecture/index-des-auteurs/auteurs/

projets-64.html?authID=194&ensembleID=604.

208 212 216 220 222 Elizabeth Grabowski

EVOLUTIONARY FUNCTIONALISM Elizabeth thrives in the moments between, whether that be a thought or the stroke of a brush. Oddly obsessed with objects, her interests lie in the stories behind things, not really knowing when things become architecture, or thoughts become solid...which is best, as her process oriented path unfolds. A graduate of the UDM School of Architecture Class of 2014, she is currently a year 3 Challenge Detroit fellow learning the craft behind building with Mosher Dolan, a construction management firm that works exclusively on high end residential projects. Her range of experiences vary greatly from community design projects with the Detroit Collaborative Design Center to developing social media strategies for nonprofits through Challenge Detroit. Elizabeth celebrates tactile processes by practicing various forms of art including building furniture, drawing, and painting. She hopes to continue to expand the depth of her thesis throughout her career, whether that be through further education, establishing a design practice, or writing. Image Credit: Elizabeth Grabowski

“Evolution: Syllabification: ev∙o∙lu∙tion Pronunciation: /,ev,,lo,oSH,n / NOUN 1. The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth. The idea of organic evolution was proposed by some ancient Greek thinkers but was long rejected in Europe as contrary to the literal interpretation of the Bible. Lamarck proposed a theory that organisms became transformed by their efforts to respond to the demands of their environment, but he was unable to explain a mechanism for this. Lyell demonstrated that geological deposits were the cumulative product of slow processes over vast ages. This helped Darwin toward a theory of gradual evolution over a long period by the natural selection of those varieties of an organism slightly better adapted to the environment and hence more likely to produce descendants. Combined with the later discoveries of the cellular and molecular basis of genetics, Darwin’s theory of evolution has, with some modification, become the dominant unifying concept of modern biology. 2. The gradual development of something, especially from a simple to a more complex form: the forms of written languages undergo constant evolution. 3. Chemistry the giving off of a gaseous product, or of heat. 4. A pattern of movements or maneuvers: silk

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ribbons waving in fanciful evolutions. 5. Mathematics , • dated the extraction of a root from a given quantity. Origin: Early 17th century: from Latin evolution(n) ‘unrolling’, from the verb evolvere (see evolve). Early senses related to physical movement, first recorded in describing a tactical “wheeling” maneuver in the realignment of troops or ships. Current senses stem from a notion of “opening out” and “unfolding,” giving rise to a general sense of ‘development’”. [1] Authors Note: Evolution: the process by which things change as they are subjected to environmental and physical pressures.

EVOLUTIONARY FUNCTIONALISM

relation to one or more other variables in terms of which it may be expressed or on which its value depends. 2.2 Chemistry: a functional group. 3. A thing dependent on another factor or factors: class shame is a function of social power 4. A large or formal social event or ceremony: he was obliged to attend party functions. VERB 1. Work or operate in a proper or particular way: her liver is functioning normally 1.1 (function as) fulfill the purpose or task of (a specified thing):the museum intends to function as an educational and study center Origin: mid 16th century: from French function, from Latin functio(n), from fungi ‘perform’.” [3]

“Function: Syllabification: func∙tion Pronunciation: /,f,NGkSH,n/ NOUN 1. An activity or purpose natural to or intended for a person or thing: bridges perform the function of providing access across water. Vitamin A is required for good eye function. 1.1 Practical use or purpose in design: building designs that prioritize style over function 1.2 A basic task of a computer, especially one that corresponds to a single instruction from the user. 2. Mathematics: a relationship or expression involving one or more variables: the function (bx + c) 2.1 A variable quantity regarded in

Authors note: Function: the designed intention or human use of an entity.

Evolutionary Functionalism The particular design process discussed in this architectural thesis has been termed evolutionary functionalism, which is the recognition and interpretation of existing habits of human behavior that influence the designer to explore the potentiality of human action. Organisms evolve in an ecosystem according to different environmental conditions that pressure or demand change. The process of evolution is chronological, but not linear. This means that the evolution of an organism occurs in time, but does not occur at a designated rate of change or with a predetermined outcome. Scientists can only predict the future evolution of organisms and

trace the results of past conditions to adaptations. Evolution is also site specific because conditions of one environment might affect an organism to change differently than if it was in another environment. An organism is subject to evolution based on whatever environmental pressure presents itself. There is no goal or ideal form in evolution; it is simply a physical response to environmental conditions. For clarification consider the following scenarios: In a stable environment, organisms may slowly evolve as different conditions present themselves. There is no immediate crisis that requires the organisms to adapt quickly. However, in the event of a significant change to the ecosystem the organisms are under greater pressure to change in order to survive. For example, an ice age or a new species introduced to an environment disrupts the ecosystemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rate of change. The organisms within the environment either live or die depending on their physical attributes, and the surviving organisms pass on their genes and create an adaptation. Therefore, not only is the rate of evolution dependent on the conditions that present themselves, but it is also simply a formal and functional response to different conditions, not an effort to be an ideal organism. Evolution as a model can be applied to the design process through the exploration of the existing functions of spaces, objects, and other man made phenomena; hence, evolutionary functionalism. The experiments documented in this thesis attempt to apply this theory through architectural process. The function of a designed entity is subject to certain external environmental pressures, primarily human expectations and use. The form and function of objects has developed throughout history based on a variety of pressures like fashionable trends, advances in technology, and ergonomics. Objects evolve by the hand of the designer as they respond to these pressures. Designers can recognize these pressures as an opportunity for innovation, to encourage a design to evolve more relative to its environment and function.

ReCAPTCHA The original inspiration for this concept was developed from a computer program called ReCAPTCHA. CAPTCHA is a computer program that distinguishes users as human or computer. The original developers of CAPTCHA used distorted images of text as data input that could be interpreted by a human user but not by automated programs typically created to generate spam. Every day approximately two hundred million human users spend roughly 10 seconds interpreting CAPTCHAS adding up to a total of 150,000 hours of human use [4]. ReCAPTCHA is an effort developed by Luis Van Ahn and the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University to channel this human effort towards a greater good. The innovative redesign of a CAPTCHA allowed human interaction to become more productive by digitizing and archiving books, newspapers, maps, and old time radio shows through the interpretation of blurred text by users, making this information accessible world wide.

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If how humans “use” things can be applied to nonphysical human action on the interweb, it could also potentially be applied to actual, tangible human action and allow designers to create objects and architecture to be more impactful based on the use of humans. Hence, evolutionary functionalism became an exploration into the existence of everyday objects and spaces, explored as a design method allowing the human condition to be illuminated further through the hands of the designer based on their observation of real world users. The key to designing for this condition is not to create a completely new design, but instead to create an evolution of the original existing context. Much like the evolution of CAPTCHA to reCAPTCHA, the identity of the “thing” is still intact, but the way in which humans interact with the online system was analyzed as a design asset. In the case of reCAPTCHA, the design could be considered crowd sourcing or taking advantage of the actions of a mass quantity of people. However, evolutionary functionalism can be examined on multiple scales, including individual use. How one individual interacts with a single object can influence the objects purpose and be used as a design asset.

Terminology In order to study the evolution of the functions of man made things, it became necessary to investigate the interrelation of things in time and space to understand what conditions affect change and to observe what factors contribute to an object’s existence. Through this investigation, a set of terminology and graphics were developed to understand

and

communicate

these

relationships.

“Object Syllabification: ob∙ject Pronunciation: /,äbj,kt NOUN 1. A material thing that can be seen and touched: he was dragging a large object small objects such as shells. 1.1. Philosophy A thing external to the thinking mind or subject. 2. A person or thing to which a specified action or feeling is directed: disease became the object of investigation. 2.1. A goal or purpose: the institute was opened with the object of promoting scientific study. 2.2. Grammar A noun or noun phrase governed by an active transitive verb or by a preposition. 2.3 Computing A data construct that provides a description of something that may be used by a computer (such as a processor, a peripheral, a document, or a data set) and defines its status, its method of operation, and how it interacts with other objects. VERB Pronunciation: /,b,jekt / 1. Say something to express one’s disapproval of or disagreement with something: [NO OBJECT]: residents object to the volume of traffic. [WITH CLAUSE]: the boy’s father objected that the police had arrested him unlawfully. Origin: Late Middle English: from objectum ‘thing presented neuter past participle (used Latin obicere, from ob ‘in

medieval Latin to the mind’, as a noun) of the way of ’ +

jacere ‘to throw’; the verb may also partly represent the Latin frequentative objectare.” [5] The term object is typically assumed to refer to a small entity that can be held with human hands containing a certain set of physical qualities which identify it and contribute to its purpose. The term object is in fact much more complicated than this simple definition suggests. At what scale does an object no longer become an object? The term object and the application of the study of evolutionary functionalism to such entities is scalable, and is not determined by the criteria of size. Instead the idea of an object presents itself as an identity related to other objects that exist in a spectrum of objectivity.Within this spectrum, there are a variety of scales and conditions that redefine objectivity. On the urban scale, an entire city can be recognized and declared distinct by its skyline. Does this mean that the skyline is an object? One interesting characteristic of architecture in regards to the urban and building scale, is its analysis through drawings and models. Designers draw and create “object sized” models in order to analyze the spatial qualities of cities and buildings. Through the objectification of space, architects are able to criticize or make physical the qualities they are investigating. In addition, there are smaller objects that can affect an entire building or form of the city. For example, if a trash can were designed so that everyone were encouraged to throw out trash more frequently, the entire city scape would be affected by improved sanitation. object, is the imaginary object. Fictional objects of the entire building and henceforth. Materiality is one of the most influential objective forces that are described exactly the same as real objects. The manipulates the form and function of cities and buildings. imagination forms objective qualities for things Eidetic Identity An interesting component to the spectrum of objectivity, proving the complexity of the definition of an that do not exist in real time and space. A horse “Instead, we approach what Husserl calls the can be described exactly the same as a unicorn. eidos of an object...For in the first place the object does not need its accidents, which can Not only is the term object scalable, but be shifted nearly at will without affecting objects themselves are comprised of multiple the character of the object. Yet the same is objects. Each object may consist of many obviously not true of its essential features, smaller objects, and that object may be part which the object desperately needs in order of a larger component, creating a hierarchy to be what it is. And in the second place, of objects. For example, if a door was the the accidental qualities lie directly before us object under investigation (hierarchy 001) in experience, but eidetic ones do not.” [6] in the graphic “Object Hierarchy”, it would The eidetic identity of an object is presented consist of smaller parts like screws, hinges, in the graphic “Object Hierarchy” as the inner door knobs, panes, etc. It would also be part core of the object. It is the pure, definable of a larger wall assembly, held within framing, identity of what an object is despite its physical perhaps with molding, a header, and the rest qualities. It is the perceived notion of what of the wall, which would be a component makes that object what it is despite its size,

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skin of the sphere of the graphic shown on the previous page. These qualities are referred to as surface qualities, as they are what users directly experience in the world. They are the shape, color, size, etc. of the object being observed. These are the object’s displayed traits.

Complex Manipulatables

color, texture, etc. The eidetic identity of an object may remain through history, although the physical qualities of the object may change.

Surface Qualities “...Numerous different causes can yield the same object, which suggests that the object is something over and above its more primitive elements.” [7] What Graham Harman refers to as primitive elements in this statement taken from “The Quadruple Object,” is represented by the outer

“Objects are units that both display and conceal a multitude of traits.” [8] The concealed traits of objects are defined within this thesis as complex manipulatables. These qualities are not observable through simple experience, but require a much deeper, conscious analysis of their existence. It is complex manipulatables that designers work with to affect the eidetic identity of an object. In turn, the complex manipulatables may affect the appearance of the surface qualities. The complex manipulatables are not simply defined traits, but instead are complex, changing traits which are made evident by observation of the object in use. For example, a fork is a very simple object that acts like an extension of the hand to control food. Typically, forks are used as part of a social experience: dining. How could the recognition of this use of the object in a social setting contribute to its functional design?

Superfication Superfication is when an object is designed to encompass more of its complex manipulatables. Through superfication, an object responds more directly to how a user interacts with it. In the case of the fork, a designer may recognize the opportunity for a fork to provide entertainment when dining in a social setting. Another example of a super

+ OBJECT Hierarchy 004

OBJECT Hierarchy 003

OBJECT Hierarchy 002

OBJECT Hierarchy 001

SURFACE QUALITIES Basic physical qualities that may not affect functional performance, i.e. color, form, etc.

EIDETIC IDENTITY The basic identity of what the object is, which evolutionary functionalism attempts not to affect. Pure innovation may.

EVOLUTIONARY FUNCTIONALISM Evolutionary functionalism occurs by working with the object’s complex manipulatable qualities. Object specialization occurs on this level, although it may affect the surface qualities.

COMPLEX MANIPULATABLES The complex qualities of an object’s use and existence. Ex. a fork exists in a complex social setting: dining. How can it further contribute to this experience

OBJECT Hierarchy -001

fork, would be a fork that detects the food allergens of the user before food is consumed. The original inspiration for this thesis, ReCAPTCHA is the superfication of the CAPTCHA’s original use.

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Feedback Loop +

The feedback loop is a form of self reflection where the designer seeks outside influence to confirm their assumptions of the observation of an object. The feedback loop originates on the most intimate level of the designer’s relationship to an object. With a process that develops naturally and organically, it is necessary to maintain control of its direction by verifying that the observed conditions of the object’s existence

EVOLUTIONARY FUNCTIONALISM

are truly what occurs according to the user. The feedback loop is a check to ensure that the actions of the designer’s process are applicable to the object being observed. It also acts as an ethical check. When influencing the evolution of things in time and space, it is important to gain an in depth knowledge of an object’s existence so that the designer can speculate the future consequences of changes. If everything became a super object, how would society be affected? Would people rely more on the function of things? Would objects lose their cultural value? If the knowledge of superfication became applicable to weaponry, would the everyday object become a threat? The feedback loop acts as a method of creating questions outside of the individual’s process that help to illuminate the societal implications of affecting an object.

may seem unrelated, they are in fact developing under the same environmental conditions. In order to more deeply understand an object’s existence, the object can not be observed in isolation. There is value to understanding an object’s place and its importance to other objects. Seemingly unrelated objects may provide information on an object under observation.

The Grand Scale In an attempt to diagram the invisible network, the grand scale was created in the graphic “Framework of Human Expectations”. The grand scale is a zoomed out view of the object scale, showing how objects interrelate to one another through the work of designers in a particular time and place.

Finally, the feedback loop acts as an additional source of information for objects under investigation. No single designer, no matter their talent and natural intuition, can think of every possible application of evolutionary functionalism to an object. The feedback loop encourages further exploration outside of the individual architectural process. In reference to evolution, it acts as a form of natural selection, confirming characteristics of observable traits which may be passed on to the next form.

While working on the grand scale, new terminology developed that was applicable to the larger scale. The colored spheres represent objects, containing all of the information and terminology of the object scale described in the previous pages. The larger the sphere, the greater the impact the object has on the future development of other objects and on society. The diagram is in constant flux. As time progresses the impact of objects may diminish. The objects are in groups outlined by colored shapes, representing the designer.

The Invisible Network

The designer could be a singular person or a group of people. Objects can not evolve without the hand of the designer. The designer also learns as they interact with and create objects, suggesting that the next object they create might be more sophisticated. Therefore, although the functions of the objects created may not be similar, they are

The invisible network is a term used in the article, “Can objects talk?” [9] by Kristen Gallerneaux, the curator of communications and information technology at the Henry Ford Museum. The invisible network refers to the interconnected relationships of objects in time and space. Although formally and functionally some objects

interrelated because of the knowledge the designer has gained. For example, a designer may create a pair of scissors and discover hidden qualities related to its use. If the next object the designer creates is a bike, by association, the bike will be improved based on the designer’s discovered knowledge of scissors. The Xaxis is time and the Yaxis is place. The diagram was created in section to show the depth of objects that exist in past and present.

Time Time is an inherent component of change and evolution, presenting itself as a variable of progression. Using evolution as a precedent, the rate of evolutionary change in an organism is based on the potency and critical impact of the pressures that present themselves in an environment. In addition, the amount of time that requires certain change to occur is not always an exact quantity nor is it an exact ratio. Designer’s exist within a complex spectrum of social influence from both the dogma of the past and the vision of the future. They are woven into an existing system, and their creations are a reaction to the time and place in which they design. When they enter this system and what is happening within it is much greater than the designer, however greatly he/she may affect it. “The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things” by George Kubler, an art historian, is concerned with the evolution of form in art and its relation to time and place. His approach towards time is more of an observation of emergent patterns than a definition time itself. “Historical time, however, is intermittent and variable. Every action is more intermittent than it is continuous, and the intervals between actions are infinitely variable in duration and content. The end of an action and its beginning are indeterminate.” [10]

Pattern Objects and spaces do not have a traceable DNA, however we can interpret them based on their historical lineage and the time and place in which they were created. Kubler suggests that a more complex understanding of time is necessary in order to understand the development of “things”: time is not the designation of a period, a categorization, or a biography, instead it is a complex whole of different clusters of events, people, and objects that are all interrelated. Each object or work of art has a sequence of prior works that can be traced or have some link of influence to its development. Kubler critiques the typical archival, systematic nature of understanding history, and instead suggests a more comprehensive and realistic method of understanding “things” in time. The historian depicts patterns in time from manmade “things” that emit signals or meaning that can be related to one another to develop sequences or common traits of their emergence in time.

Cultural Unit Kubler describes a cultural unit as a length of time determined by investigating the circumstances

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in which the object was created by the designer. For example, the typical designer’s influence is relative to their professional life, which is usually about 60 years comprised of schooling or an internship, the development of a concept, the critique of the concept, and the refinement of the concept. Therefore, the emergence of ideas and change are relative to a cultural unit of 60 years due to the pattern presented by professional influence. However, Kubler’s perception of a cultural unit is dated. Due to the collective nature of modern society, objects are no longer created through the hands of one designer, extending the cultural unit far beyond 60 years. Instead of slowly passing on knowledge from the mind of a master to the apprentice, the knowledge of making has become accessible through the collective making process of corporations, entrepreneurs,

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and information that is more accessible to the masses through various modern data sources.

Pressures The term pressures refers to the forces within an environment that encourage change. These pressures can present themselves with greater and lesser potency. In the case of evolution, a catastrophic event in an ecosystem results in a more direct change or impact on the organisms. In regards to design, there are a variety of pressures on human creation. Designers do not create in a vacuum void of external influence; they are subject to the expectations of the people for which they design. Designers are not separate from the people for whom they design, which allows them to understand and respond directly to the pressures that the people of a time and place

EVOLUTIONARY FUNCTIONALISM

as a design method, understanding pressures and using them as a source of information is imperative to designing objects that are more responsive to the human condition. At certain times and places in history, pressures present themselves with more impact, often perceived as cultural revolutions. In these times and places, the evolution of human creation exists at a greater rate. Noted by Kubler, “Whenever symbolic clusters appear, however, we see interferences that may disrupt the regular evolution of the formal system.” [11]

Crisis

exhibit. Pressures are a collective influence over a designer when they create. This collective influence is not necessarily a voiced opinion, but more of a network of cultural implications associated with the thing which the designer is creating. How a user interacts with the designed object, the historical context of the object, a collective desire for change, and the future expectations for that object can all present themselves as pressures towards a design.

Framework of Human Expectations These pressures play an important role for evolutionary functionalism. They create the framework of human expectations for change and create direction for the designer. To truly optimize evolutionary functionalism

These “symbolic clusters” or moments of flourishing innovation are an increase in human curiosity, referred to by this thesis as crisis, represented in the grand scale image by the cluster of spheres in the upper left hand corner. This curiosity is typically related to a particular way of thinking for a certain time, like the desire of painter’s to explore perspective during the Renaissance. As painters in Italy experimented with perspective, the concepts spread throughout Europe, resulting in a variety of techniques suggesting it is also related to a place. Crisis are more evident in urban conditions where the pressures for innovation are greater. The density of human interactions create more opportunity for pressures to present themselves because of the likelihood for creativity to emerge from collective thinking. Therefore, the urban condition is of particular interest in regards to evolutionary functionalism. Although the term crisis is typically associated with a negative connotation, when applied to evolutionary functionalism, it promotes neutral change. The term crisis refers to a pivotal

event of great intensity or impact in which the paradigm of existence is shaken. Objects, designers, people, places experiencing a crisis are more likely to evolve because they are under direct criticism. A crisis can exist in a variety of scales. A community could be in economic crisis, challenging its members to creatively seek a solution. A crisis may exist within the work of a design process when creating an object. An object typology itself may experience crisis when it is at the end of its usefulness as society progresses. Experiencing crisis creates opportunity for change, and for this reason, the designer wants to put themselves in locations of crisis.

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In “The Strategy of Conflict” [13] by Thomas Schelling, economist and professor of international affairs, there are advantages to interacting with cultures in crisis because of the opportunity for potential gain. “The Strategy of Conflict” primarily refers to international conflict, but the principles are applicable to design as well. Societies in crisis are less complacent and more open to propelling fast paced change. The desires of people are made more evident. A good example of a society in crisis is the green movement, or the desire of people to lead more environmentally friendly lives. This desire is motivated by the

EVOLUTIONARY FUNCTIONALISM

NOTES

serious threat of an unhealthy ecosystem, and has manifested itself through green products, green ways of living, marketing, etc.

In Conclusion As stated previously, this article is simply the presentation of an idea. The architectural thesis related to this concept was an in depth dissection of various objects within the spectrum of objectivity to test and redefine these theories, which have not been included for the sake of allowing readers to examine their own method of investigating objectivity.

|1| “Definition of evolution in English: evolution.” Oxford Dictionaries. N.p.. Web. 27 Mar 2014. http://www.oxforddictionaries. com/us/definition/american_english/ evolution?q=evolution |2| Kubler, George. The Shape of Time. United Stated of America: Yale University, 1962. 7. Print. >. |3| ”Definition of function in English: function.” Oxford Dictionaries. N.p.. Web. 27 Mar 2014. http://www. oxforddictionaries.com/us/ definition/american_english/ function?q=functioN |4| Google. (2014). Recaptcha. Retrieved from h ttp://www.google.com/recaptcha/learnmore |5| ”Definition of object in English: object.” Oxford Dictionaries. N.p.. Web. 18 Apr 2014. http://www. oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_ english/ object?q=object |6| Harman, G. (2011). Introduction. The Quadruple Object (7). United Kingdom: John Hunt Publishing Ltd. |7| Harman, G. (2011). Introduction. The Quadruple Object (27). United Kingdom: John Hunt Publishing Ltd. |8| Harman, G. (2011). Introduction. The Quadruple Object (16). United Kingdom: John Hunt Publishing Ltd. |9| Gallerneaux, K. (2014, January 1). Can objects talk?. The Henry Ford Magazine, January May, 7. |10| Harman, G. (2011). Introduction. The Quadruple Object (7). United Kingdom: John Hunt Publishing Ltd. |11|Kubler, George. The Shape of Time. United States of America: Yale University, 1962. Print. >. |12| |13| Schelling, T. (1960). The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge, MA; London, England: Harvard College. |14| Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1982). A Thousand Plateaus. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

UDM SOA NEWS Virginia H Stanard

Master of Community Development (MCD) Program Launches MCD/W.K. Kellogg Fellowships as part of its $750,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation! In 2013, the University of Detroit Mercy was awarded a $750,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to support the Master of Community Development (MCD) Program. The largest in the history of the School for program development, the grant is intended to increase and support the student diversity of the MCD program, create a pipeline of leaders committed to strengthening local neighborhoods, and increase capacity of local non-profit organizations. The W.K. Kellogg grant funds Capstone scholarships, internship placements for students, and fellowships for recent graduates as they learn to become leaders in community development. Scholarships will support MCD students as they complete their Capstone projects, which are developed by teams of students in direct collaboration with area non-profit agencies to explore new ideas and initiatives in local neighborhoods. Financial support also enables second-year students to select the option of pursuing an internship with a local agency in place of one of their elective courses. This program allows several students to work full-time for a year with a local non-profit organization upon graduation, further enhancing the advancement of our community by providing real world experience for the students as they transition into a career in community development, as well as adding valuable capacity for the partnering organizations that are making a difference in our community.

The grant has provided fourteen Capstone scholarships to date, along with eight paid internships for MCD students. MCD interns have thus far worked on projects at Wayne County EDGE, Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation, Neighborhood School Stabilization Anchor, and EcoWorks. This funding is having an impact. For example, MCD student, Jeffry Henze, was asked to stay on for a part-time position with Wayne County EDGE’s Community Development team after his internship. Ann Leen, Director of Community Development at Wayne County EDGE and MCD alumna, noted that Jeff ’s ability to take on large projects was a great asset to the organization and that his keen eye for detail has made for a great Project Manager. Additionally, an MCD/W.K. Kellogg

Fellowship Launch Luncheon was held for faculty, students, and community partners of the MCD Program on November 7, 2014 at the School of Architecture’s Genevieve Fisk Loranger Exhibition Center to celebrate the January 2015 launch of the MCD/W.K. Kellogg Fellowship Program. In addition to the direct support of our students and recent graduates, it is expected that the internship and fellowship programs will significantly elevate the visibility of the program in the non-profit community. The MCD Program has established over forty new relationships with local community-based organizations since launching the internship and fellowship programs, allowing the program to greatly enhance its impact in Detroit. The inaugural MCD/W.K. Kellogg Fellows and their host organizations include Shaema

Figure 1: Fellowship Launch Luncheon

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Al Saade (The Guidance Center), Larissa Carr (Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation), Joseph Gruber (Michigan Department of Transportation), Carrie Kulikowski (Southwest Housing Solutions), and Alexandra Mueller (U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development and the Detroit Green Skills Alliance). The following are insights and reflections from the five fellows thus far in their fellowships: Shaema Al Saade, The Guidance Center: I am so excited to be taking on this new role as an MCD/ W.K. Kellogg Fellow at The Guidance Center in River Rouge. As a fellow, I am involved in the COFI (Community Organizing & Family Issues) program. In this role, I help residents and COFI graduates develop their leadership and advocacy skills. I also build relationships with community leaders by conducting one-on-one meetings with them to help build capacity for the block clubs around the Walter White Community Resource Center in River Rouge. This work serves to create long-term sustainability for the block clubs. In helping to create organizational structures and provide models for the River Rouge block clubs, I am utilizing the relationships I formed with other block clubs as an MCD student, specifically the Jefferson Chalmers Block Club and the Philip Street South End Block Club. My team and I are also conducting meetings with the Mayor of River Rouge to plan for next year’s State of the City address to be held at the Walter White Community Resource Center. This event will host City officials, The Guidance Center staff members, local officials, non-profits, COFI/FAST (Families and Schools Together) graduates, business owners, and Head Start families. Finally, I recently attended a professional development conference in Chicago on “Community Outreach & Actions.” The conference was designed to “train-the-trainer” on how to develop a community outreach and planning process, as well as conduct research, identify resources, and implement an action campaign or project plan. The outcomes of the conference will be applicable to the River Rouge community as we work to help residents work collectively to better their communities.

Figure 2: Three Fellows (from left to right: Larissa Carr, Shaema Al Saade, Carrie Kulikowski) - These are three of the five fellows.

Larissa Carr, Grandmont Development Corporation:

Rosedale

As an MCD/W.K. Kellogg Fellow, I am serving with Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation (GRDC) in Detroit. This organization works to preserve and improve the Grandmont Rosedale Neighborhoods of northwest Detroit. Focusing on housing, economic development, and the community’s sustainability, GRDC has successfully championed many projects including a home renovation program, commercial revitalization initiatives, and the Northwest Detroit Farmers’ Market. Additionally, as a part of GRDC’s strategy for providing “complete neighborhoods,” it has created the first neighborhood co-working community called the “Grand River WorkPlace.” This new co-working community provides affordable and accessible space for businesses to work. GRDC provides designated office space and co-working space within two different price plans, each offering a variety of amenities. As a GRDC Economic Development Program Initiatives and Grand River WorkPlace fellow, I manage the Grand River WorkPlace and lead economic development initiatives and programs to help the Grand River corridor thrive. GRDC also provides pop-up retail space for entrepreneurs, and one of my biggest undertakings this year will be to help select an entrepreneur for a new pop-up space working with Revolve Detroit. This will provide an opportunity for a local entrepreneur to test his or her business, tap into unmet market needs within the community, and capture revenue from residents to be redistributed within the community.

I look forward to what the rest of the year will bring as a fellow with Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation.

sponsoring construction engineering and consulting firm. Future use and maintenance of the improved physical space are then guided by local groups, residents, and surrounding institutions.

Joseph Gruber, Michigan Department of Transportation:

Additionally, I work closely with Michigan Department of Transportation engineers and consultants in order to increase the efficiency and capacity of Michigan’s diverse workforce and to close the construction industry’s widening skills gap. I am collaborating with the region’s prominent workforce development organizations to direct local talent into the FREE Project, focusing on women-owned, minority-owned, socially and economically disadvantaged construction contractors. I am also engaging City of Detroit government officials and departments to coalesce the FREE Project with two of the city’s most stark challenges: blight and unemployment. Problem solving and strategic planning are daily tasks of this fellowship. Presenting, reporting, and managing the overall project are ways in which I focus on goal-oriented actions and the delivery of tasks in a timely manner. This Fellowship provides the time and resources needed to organize, develop, implement, and replicate the FREE Project throughout the City of Detroit.

As an MCD/W.K. Kellogg Fellow, I serve as Professional Consultant and Project Manager with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) in Detroit. My efforts are focused on implementing and sustaining the “Framework and Resources for Empowering Environments (FREE) Project.” The FREE Project started as a Master of Community Development Capstone Project that focuses on increasing the capacity and efficiency of small local businesses to participate in infrastructure projects. The FREE Project also engages local non-profit organizations dedicated to maintaining vacant land and improving quality of life throughout Detroit neighborhoods. With the FREE Project, large stretches of vacant land are improved by local construction companies under a mentoring and job training program administered by a

Figure 3: MCD Neighborhood Tour

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Carrie Kulikowski, Southwest Housing Solutions: As an MCD/W. K. Kellogg Fellow, I work with Southwest Housing Solutions (SWHS) in Detroit on a collaborative project with the Virginia Park/Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) NonProfit Housing Corporation in the Virginia Park community surrounding the Henry Ford Hospital. In my work I engage residents and block club members towards the completion of a Resident Experience Survey, a 30-minute questionnaire developed by NeighborWorks that is conducted in-person, doorto-door to learn more about the neighborhood and its residents. To inform the survey, I meet with block club presidents to get their feedback on additional questions for the survey. In addition, part of working with NeighborWorks includes having an Evaluation Plan for the given project. Thus, my team and I are working to establish short and long-term goals for projects and programs in the neighborhood. My ultimate task on this project is to help foster relationships between SWHS, HFH, and the Virginia Park community. I will be in contact with block clubs, the Local School Community Organization (LSCO) at Thirkell Elementary/Middle School, and individual residents to introduce them to SWHS and the programs and projects that we hope to implement in the future.

Alex Mueller, U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development and the Detroit Green Skills Alliance: Through my MCD/W.K. Kellogg Fellowship, I work in the field of sustainability with Dr. Debra Rowe, a senior fellow with the Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future, President of the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development, and a professor of renewable energy for more than 30 years. Thus far I have collaborated on projects with both the U.S. Partnership, a national organization committed to education for sustainable development and formed in response to the United Nations General Assembly call in 2002 for a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, and the Detroit Green Map, a collaborative effort of the Detroit Green Skills Alliance (DGSA) and the U.S. Green Building Council Emerging Professionals group, to build the green economy in Detroit.

Figure 4: Capstone books

My work with the U.S. Partnership is based in Royal Oak and focuses on a collaborative approach for developing resources to promote public awareness of the need for sustainable development. For instance, for the website, livingroomconversations.org, I am developing an adaptation of the Living Room Conversations model that focuses on the topic of energy within a community context. My work on the Detroit Green Map focuses on developing the Green Map website and promoting the Green Map to businesses and nonprofits in the Detroit area that are either currently on the map or good candidates for being on the map, as well as compiling and implementing information to promote these organizations. Working with Dr. Rowe is enabling me to develop skills and learn more about issues around sustainable development and the potential for building a green economy, from a local perspective to a much broader national and even international perspective. The fellowship is not only an amazing opportunity for me personally, but also allows me the opportunity to make a small but positive impact by addressing an issue that I feel is critical to the well-being of our communities, and ultimately our world.

The Master of Community Development Program (MCD), a graduate degree in UDMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s School of Architecture, was initiated in January of 2006. The MCD Program is interdisciplinary and provides a holistic approach to the theory and practice of community development. The Program has a foundation rooted in service, social justice and sustainability and integrates the HOPE model: Human, Organizational, Physical, and Economic aspects of community development to help renew communities. It also emphasizes a team approach to creating and regenerating urban communities. The program prepares students for careers in real estate development, business management, municipal planning and development, and non-profit management, for example. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.

Figure 5: Collaborative working

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The Kellogg Foundation is based United States and internationally, as to priority places where there are face significant barriers to success. Mississippi, New Mexico and New

in Battle Creek, Mich., and works throughout the well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid high concentrations of poverty and where children WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti.

Human

Organizational

Service

Social Justice

Physical

Economic

MCD W.K. KELLOGG Fellowship Launch Luncheon November 11, 2014 Sustainability

Figure 6: HOPE Model

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Dichotomy

C R E E P. Creep denotes stealth, slow contortment, an underlying feeling of unease. Creep is solid materials deforming, boundaries slinking toward each other, something inching slowly closer without notice. Creep causes us discomfort while simultaneously suggesting something darkly different, something not altogether bad, but frightening in its furtiveness. Dichotomy 22 aims to explore this dark underside of the urban, the lurking possibility of architecture, the slow inevitable crawl of progress.

Call For Entries Submit your 300 word abstract with 3 images by December 1, 2015 at dichotomy.arch.udmercy.edu University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture 4001 W. McNichols Rd. Detroit, MI 48221