ERIK KNAUSS
PRACTICE PORTFOLIO
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ERIK KNAUSS PRACTICE PORTFOLIO 2016 / 2017
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Statement of Work
Advanced Design Studio II
Advanced Design Studio I
Graduate Research
Ecological Issues
Critical Practice
STATEMENT OF WORK• ERIK KNAUSS
The work documented here embraces an architecture that is intentionally crafted at a high level for human dwelling, both through the use of digital toolsets and the haptic connection between imagination and hand. The hand is thought of as the initial design tool. Its execution relies not on the inspiration of a single individual but considers the collective forces of context, stakeholders, and the users of the space that all contribute to architecture’s unique ability to frame true habitus of people. This accumulates in what Michael Benedikt calls the “direct esthetic experience of the real”1. An output of such requires attentiveness to scale, materiality, context, quality, and the interpretation of what it means to dwell poetically and experientially2. This work seeks to understand the nature of questions like: what forms are optimal for human comfort? Which details suit the needs of the user’s hand, foot, or those without? How are materials assembled into new experiences and new knowledge?
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For the purposes of this portfolio, this is the meaning of architectural craft. Work shown here has embraced experimentation, the workmanship of risk3, and the prodding of the unknown in order to better understand physical consequences for ideas and increase the chances for serious discovery. Craft in this context begins with the hand and often develops through the precision of digital design tools or visualization software. Innovation for innovation’s sake (say through the use of arbitrary parametric form-finding or advanced simulations that attempt to diagram an accurate and complete physical response), or for the sake of being radical holds no weight in these projects: all are rooted in some manner to a cultural legacy or fundamental principle that drives good design. In the pursuit of haptic architecture, we must not lose sight of the thinking hand4 that connects the brain to the tool that crafts work. The haptic is how we manipulate ideas. As we move through and beyond this current digital age, connecting with the body, self, and imagination will become more and more jeopardized by the constant bombardment of digital simulation, autonomous tools, and virtual environments which attempt to mask the human condition. It is therefore increasingly important to prioritize what being human means for design. While digital tools are indeed both important for contemporary architectural practice, and prevalent in these selected works, the examples take a stand against handing over complete design authority to clicks and bits as a means to produce sensory-specific architecture.
Finally, may any such authority be brought about through the effort and accumulation of careful contextual analysis, public participation, and creative collaboration as much as possible, so that one voice that hates error does not drown out the many seeking truth2. Architecture always ends in a collective effort, whether “end” is defined by the construction of a building or the inhabiting of a space by its occupants. Thus it frames the collective efforts of many only to be reinterpreted by a variety of cultures, societies, and individuals. This is what Neil Leach calls the habitus of its users5; the fabric of our societies; where we all should belong as humans, and what architecture has the profound effect to shape.
8. Municipal Waste Management in Finland Christian Fischer, 2013 9. Recycling Regulations in Taiwan and the 4-in-1
Recycling
EPA.gov, 2012 10. How Taiwan Became a World Leader in Recycling wastedive.com, 2017 11. Report on Solid Waste Landfilled in Michigan for
2016
Michigan.gov, 2016.
References: 1. For an Architecture of Reality Michael Benedikt, 1984 2. The Grace of Great Things: “Inspiration” Robert Gruden, 1990 3. The Nature and Art of Workmanship David Pye, 1968 4. The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied
Wisdom in Architecture
Juhani Pallasmaa, 2009
5. Belonging Neil Leach, 2003 6. Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization Lester Brown, 2009 7. A Greener, Greater New York NYC Mayor’s Office, 2011 Page
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SPRING 2017
ADVANCED DESIGN 2• DEAN KARL DAUBMANN
COLLABORATORS: inFORM STUDIO
As the contemporary paradigm shifts from massproduction to that of mass-customization we will find it harder to understand and appreciate the benefits of collective assemblies. Structure, organization, sequence, and repetition are all conventions understood through the experience of architecture. If architecture is predicated on the novel assembly of repetitive elements, can we learn from the basics of computational logic (the structured repetition of ones and zeros)? Can we imagine an architectural language that might be programmed with solid and void? Scripted with standard and custom? Site-built and prefab subroutines?
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The work begins in a very analog style and approaches design in a basic manner. The opening exercise takes ten plastic cups, aggregates them five different ways, and documents the results. To some a plastic cup is never more than a vessel in which to transport beverage, but a plastic cup in the hands of an innovator is inspiration. In order to get the most out of the exercise, any preconception surrounding the cup’s customary purpose needs to be cast aside, as “preconceptions can militate against valid insight”2. Only then can the object be treated as a discrete occurrence whose interior principles and peripheral associations can be reinterpreted and applied across domains, in this case, a student dormitory. Goals for this project are to emphasize research and the use of experimentation through these extracted associations in order to develop a suitable response to a new context at a different scale. Design enhances living units for the body scale, and opens new possibilities for achieving efficiencies at the hand scale. Even though the project utilizes sophisticated digital tools, aspects of materiality or design through the hand do not become lost in process. The studio itself is run like an innovation lab where work is shared and collaborations emerge. The primary collaboration is between the studio and a local architecture firm, inFORM Studio, who are the lead architects for the new housing project at Lawrence Technological University. This work runs parallel to theirs in a collective effort to producing a well informed design and systems strategy, and ultimately good architecture.
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ANALOG RESEARCH Plastic cup as research tool: how do aggregated cups become a building?
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?
1.00
AGGREGATION Surface and void part to whole.
0.75
PARAMETRIC PRINCIPLES Describing the behavior of constrained rotating cups in computational language. A range of possibilities exist between 0 and 1.
0.50
PROGRAM Relationship of part to whole.
0.25
OVERALL FORM Hinged rotation angle. 0.00
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method 1
method 2
method 3
method 4
method 5
HAND + COMPUTER Exploring massing at the site scale through hand and digital methods. Page
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bar
bend
break
view
circulation
daylight
CAREFUL ANALYSIS Refining form based on site forces and conditions idea for human wellbeing. Page
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typical unit
daylight
fresh air
HUMAN DWELLING Crafting the optimized living unit.
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view
[optimized living unit]
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maximum shading
maximum shading
minimum shading
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FUNCTION + POETICS Each facade is parametrically tuned to allow for shading, minimizing heat gain as well as creating access to view. Page
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NORTH FACADE
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south facade: plastic cup study reinterpretted to parametric solar shade
HAND SCALE Opening up new efficiencies in material fabrication: mass customization becomes possible through scripting digitally fabricated perforated solar shades. Page
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Calvino’s 9th chapter, “Phyllis” describes a city of bridges, cobbles, canals, and Moorish details that “fades before your eyes”. When one is approaching the city via sea vessel, its form is clear, but upon entering the fortress, view outward is obscured. FALL 2016
ADVANCED DESIGN 1• PROFESSOR JOHN ABELA
A real building in an unreal world. The island nation of Saturnia has had a long and storied past. Its seven Eastern cities have evolved as very diverse principalities. Each studio member is assigned a chapter of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities and recreates an urban environment based on the narrative and an additional student-created storyline. An existing structure within that environment is selected as an adaptive reuse opportunity. Local building practices and traditions are considered, and local, indigenous, or recycled materials are utilized.
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The studio is unique in that it affords an opportunity to craft both the design intervention - a new city center - as well as its urban context. This requires one to nimbly iterate multiple scenarios through sketching and modeling, and project upon those fabrics a set of real-life spatial relationships. Phyllis’ new city center is thought of as a collaborative effort between the designers and the city inhabitants. They are given an opportunity to voice their concerns about the city’s segregated nature, its obscured relationship to the sea, and put design into action. The outer wall becomes a focal opportunity to introduce moments where the city can break through these long-standing relationships while still honoring its history. Instead of a closed city that disorientates the inhabitant, the wall is utilized to allow for human interface between city and sea, body and structure, and privacy and spectacle. The intent is to transform a piece of infrastructure which was designed to repel the human body into something that would accept it and promote dwelling.
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Venice
Amsterdam
Copenhagen
Dubrovnic
Jerusalem
La Cite Medievale
Phyllis, 10 B.C.
Phyllis, 1275 A.D.
Phyllis, 2016 A.D.
ANALYSIS The City of Phyllis is imagined as a combination of the coastal and fortress city typologies. Its spatial fabric is developed through hand and digital means. Page
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OLD PHYLLIS
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NEW PHYLLIS
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EXISTING WALL
protected
old new
no view view
unprotected
CONCEPT
EXECUTION
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West Wall
old Phyllis market
public
public seating
1
2
3
4
EXECUTING THE CONCEPT Breaching the wall requires multiple design iterations using sketches (1), schematic drawings (2), and physical models (3). The proposal is imagined as a result of the collective voices of the city: petitioning for greater transparency and functionability with ample public access, a dialogue between old Phyllis and new Phyllis (4).
stage
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INTRODUCING HUMAN DWELLING As an active engagement between the wall and the senses, wherever possible. In plan the body can move around, along, and through the wall. Sectionally the body traverses the levels of the wall through its ancient towers as well as below sea level at the performance center. The juxtoposition of reclaimed and modern materials emphasize the contrast between the spirit of the place and the new cultural trajectory.
2016 - 2017
GRADUATE RESEARCH• PROFESSOR JIM STEVENS COLLABORATORS: JANELLE SCHMIDT
To discuss stereotomy, the process of cutting stone, it needs to be noted that the subject is inherently just that: a process. It is not a singular course – one linear move – it is a revolving feedback loop of information. In order to manipulate the stereotomic process, it must be very precisely understood – not necessarily the steps, but more the motion between them. The definition is something that can be easily found, but understanding this system includes realizing the instincts that informed every decision when it was being developed four centuries ago. This ongoing research is a study of process within its 16th and 17th century context as well as an exploration of what the process could mean for the digital age.
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Though the outputs of this research takes many forms, the main goal is to revive a historically practiced craft in attempt to frame its value in today’s context. Value is determined by the cultural and social attitudes of a time period, which is influenced by technology, politics, economics, etc. The first portion of this research, a comprehensive literature survey, indicates that today we are in a period of transition away from a mass-produced economy to a one-off prototypical economy that allows for mass-customization. A craftbased architecture implies a level of control and detail between material and bodily experience, which can now be achieved efficiently and appropriately for diverse vernaculars, but only if the material-to-body principles are well understood prior to implementing digital tools. The Stereotomic Vault is the essence of blending traditional hand craft with digital efficiency. It is a collaboration with the past, present, and future.
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ss
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ght break fro m Classic al› stard ardiza�on of
Renaissanc 5 orders
e T h
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Serlio rela�vism mannerism Guarini
ua
Socrates
Vitruvius truth imita�on of nature
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meta phy sic s
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COLLABORATING WITH THE PAST The comprehensive literature search is required to lay the groundwork for theory and the principles behind testing craft in a digital context.
d
Georg W.F. Hegel intellect is high meaning master v. slave
Neoplatonists
Plato dualis�c metaphysics
Leon Ba�sta Alber� Alber�an Split
Aristotle social animal
philosophical break from metaphysics
Palladio Classical revival
Fransesco Di Giorgio art+architecture
Immanuel Kant mind creates experience
Rene Descartes ra�onalism intellectual
Leonardo Da Vinci
Raphael Charles Babbage art as intellect humanism
in
Daniele Barbaro humanism
te lle ct
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n
of
art
and
design
1800 A.D.
za
Industrial Revolu�on
1700 A.D.
1600 A.D.
Enlightenment
High Renaissance 1500 A.D.
Early Renaissance 1400 A.D.
15 A.D.
400 B.C.
ua
li
tec
cs
Juhani Pallasmaa hand natural
Marguerite Wildenhain
Norbert Weiner satanic machine
Carlo Scarpa
Henri Ma�sse experimental fauvism
Peter Zumthor
Eduard Sekler tectonics
William Morris natural v. machine
Glenn Adamson cra� is tac�lity
Alvar Aalto Gesamtkunstwerk
Stefan Methesius handwerk
Sam Maloof
Harold Rosenberg Louis Sullivan cra� rooted in nature
Go�ried Semper shared authorship ak bre
m fro
Kenneth Frampton tectonics cri�cal regionalism Mar�n Heidegger phenomenology & senses
ence l ess ctua elle int
Nicole Burisch Anthea Black cra�ivsm
Thomas Princen producerist v expansionist
Rudolf Wi�kower
Adolf Loos nature ornament & crime
Karl Marx alienated labor
Ma�hew Crawford tacit knowledge
Thomas Thwaites Christopher Alexander cra� is inperceived flaws
Sco� Marble
Hannah Arendt human condi�on existen�al
James Carpenter material comprehension
David Pye skill as control workmanship/risk
Frank Lloyd Wright machine tailored to the organic
Peggy Deamer
Peter Buchanan Sibyl Moholy-Nagy cohesion
Michael Baxandall skill is cultural
Robin Evans
Richard Meier Michael Graves
Kentar Tsubaki
Paolo Tombesi design-labor gap Shelby Doyle
Henri Petroski design evolu�on
Peter Eisenman deconstruc�vism intellectualism Charles Jencks
Branko Kolarvic cra� is innova�on
John Brinckerhoff-Jackson vernacular
pluralists
Rafael Cardoso cra� is knowledge sharing
Jeff Link
Malcom McCullough cra� need not be physical
Denise Sco� Brown
Neil Gershenfeld
Robert Venturi pluralism
Lawrence Blough Mark Goulthorpe
Nicholas Negroponte computer as social helper
Levi Strauss ad-hoc
Daniel Cardoso-Llach
Henry Ford fragmented labor
Brandon Clifford 2016 A.D.
2000 A.D.
Digital Revolu�on
1900 A.D.
Wes McGee
Christopher Noble property, BIM
Steve Coons computer as slave
digital: machine
John Ruskin nature cra� guilds
toni
digital: hand
John Dewey/BMC experiment Charles Eames
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1Col
INTRODU
Telemedic Telemedicine programs within heal significant
CH2
R2
CH1
C2 R1
P2
C1
P1
1 block
Philibert Delorme, perspective of the trompe at Anet, with face found in trait (left), outlined. ca. 1549-1551, from “Le Premier tome de l’architecture”.
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ANALOG + DIGITAL RESEARCH The trait drawing is studied through our modern system of analog methods: 2D drawings set up in a 3-dimensional modeling program.
2Henry Ford Home Health Care, Henry Ford Health System College ofLawrence Management, Lawrence University Technological University 2Henry llege of Management, Technological Ford Home Health Care, Henry Ford Health Syst
METHODS METHODS METHODS METHODS
INTRODUCTION UCTION
RESULTS RESULTS
cine programs within healthcare are experiencing We utilized the UTAUT model as the basis for predicting and experiencing We utilized the UTAUT model as the basis for predicting and and clinician tlthcare growthare as healthcare organizations seek to reduce explaining the determinants of patient
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13.5”
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REINTERPRETING CRAFT Applying the properties discovered in the trompe trait drawing to a newly designed vault form. Page
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PHYSICAL PROTOTYPING It is known that anything evolved through technological means is rooted in analog concepts, and those developments could not evolve without rudimentary understanding and maintenance.
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COLLABORATION Albanian and American students work to extend design possibilites at Polis University, Tirana. Page
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ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS Jamie Rudisill Courtney Sturgis Luke Pesci Corbin Patten Tyler Walker Spencer Rasmusson Dazzmin Dabish Carmen Gibes Nicholas Geers Adriana Mantke Vlad Cheric
2017
ECOLOGICAL ISSUES• PROFESSOR CONSTANCE BODUROW
It can be argued that the single greatest influencer to architecture is ecology, and that influence is reciprocal, and increasingly so. Yes, many architects and buildings have been able to ignore ecological issues and the climate for centuries, but every built thing must interface with the natural sphere at some point. The purpose of the Ecological Issues course is to reveal methods in which design can be used as a positive influence on the ecosystems humans dwell in, as well as take clues from the everchanging world in which we live, work, and develop.
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This subtopical investigation revolves around the challenge of stabilizing the climate through what environmentalist Lester R. Brown6 calls “an energy efficiency revolution (p. vii). Specifically, the work looks into issues of recycling and how it impacts our ability to dwell harmoniously with the earth. In order for recycling to work, it must be a collaborative effort between producers, consumers, and governing bodies. Some countries already perform recycling rather well, others have areas that need improvement, or where it is nothing more than a bandage over an infected wound. What if design was capable of integrating the human condition of wellbeing, a core infrastructural element of society which is what recycling will become, and a common voice to address Brown’s call for an energy efficient revolution? It can, and is what this work seeks to illustrate.
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6
% 9 2 DWELLING AT RISK Solid waste plays an important role in the wellbeing of the natural environment, built environment, and those dwelling within them. The impacts illustrated here show that the process of recycling does not always promote healthy relationships. The project asks what we can do now to enact positive change to our consumptive culture and detrimental actions upon the ecosystems in which we and our children will live in? We have a role.
C
RE
SOLID WASTE EXPORTS
INCINERATED
LA
ND
FIL
64%
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ED
L YC
LE
6
D
MORE POSITIVE IMPACT
REVENUE distribution collection redistribution
ECO-FRIENDLY MATERIALS paper metals organic material
RECYCLED [12%] ecological impact energy
HAPPINESS
LANDFILLS habitat loss pollution disrupted migrations
MORE NEGATIVE IMPACT
HUMAN HEALTH IMPACT asthma lead exposure unregulated working conditions contaminated drinking water
REDISTRIBUTION pollution petroleum
ECO-INTENSIVE MATERIALS plastic glass methane emissions e-waste and hazardous chemicals
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local volunteers
Julie Cribley, Executive Director
community drop-off
material re-use
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STARTING SMALL Recycle Livingston is a nonprofit, volunteer-based service that has been in operation since 1989. They run it systemically opposite to a curb-side pickup program. Instead of a collection unit coming to pick up recyclables in mass, county residents bring goods to the center where it is then sorted and distributed to reputable contractors. These contractors are either larger organizations that breakdown or reuse the recycled items, or are smaller partnerships that look for a specific material to use in their field. Small collaborations are identified here as a place to start.
Solid Waste: 8.38 Million Tons per Year10
ASTE OLID W TOTAL S
Waste Flow Diversion7
recycled in green
Waste Flow Diversion10
PER
recycled in green
IN G S TO N
LIV
H E L SI N K I
TA IP EI
W Y O R K CIT Y
NE Solid Waste: 14 Million Tons per Year7
Solid Waste: 1.1 Million Tons per Year8
Solid Waste: 330 Thousand Tons per Year11
Waste Flow Diversion8 recycled in green recovered in orange7
Waste Flow Diversion11 recycled in green landfilled in gray
YEAR
100%
100%
100%
100%
50%
50%
50%
50%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Fill
Residential Waste
Commercial Waste
Contsruction and Demo Waste
EXAMINING LARGE The most successful cities to accomplish waste management and recycling critically do so through a strong government + citizen cooperation. There is a greater percentage of buy-in from both producers and consumers to government policy. Suburban American counties need more of this collaborative nature in order to find success in reducing the solid waste flow.
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CRAFTSMANSHIP + WASTE TREATMENT What if we could make solid waste recycling safe enough to allow both for its necessary processes and human dwelling to occur in a beautiful manner through the crafting of its innate materiality? What if recycling centers became an asset to human and animal experience rather than a detriment?
STAKEHOLDERS | households
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participate in the strategy
| manufacturers
organize and implement the strategy
DESIGNING REALITY These ideas are not feasible unless there is a strong campaign for participation amongst the producers, the consumers, and government agencies.
| government
innovate the strategy
SHARED GOALS Each stakeholder group must work with each other for the common goal of a cleaner and safer enivronment in which to dwell.
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SUMMER 2016
CRITICAL PRACTICE•
TEAM LEADS: HANNAH DEWHIRST + INGRID SCHMIDT
COLLABORATORS: BITTERTANG FARM, AARON MORTIER, SAMANTHA MABBITT, DARPAN ARORA, TRAVIS PENNOCK, MARIAH ROTH, JIAQI ZHANG, ANTHONY GARBARINO
Proportions and shapes of the designed creatures are informed by the way they engage the body in action. In certain places, the form of the mother behaves in similar ways to the creatures, extending toward the sky or dipping down to embrace the user. Natural light filters down through the suspension points and is held in the body of the mother. Layers of patterns and color seek to create a complex visual landscape that at times escapes perception. The membrane is constantly shifting between a visually permeable object and one that demands its own presence. The work questions our assumptions of architecture by proposing that a space can be defined precisely by light, color, shadow, touching, dripping, the moment when light passes through moving water, or melts between slippery beads. This foregrounding of ephemeral materials is absolutely essential to the definition of space and is at the core of the Critical Practice Studio. Page
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This final chapter likely places the most emphasis on the relationship between human body and built design. The output of abstract forms approaches and was intended to be located along the extreme. This premise directly. As a whole, the Critical Practice Studio serves as a comprehensive summary of the key concepts in this book: the act of dwelling, critical craftsmanship, combining the hand-made with the digitally designed, and a collaborative effort in order to make concepts into reality. The project operates at multiple scales: its intent was to entice different parts of the body to interact with it. Though some actions were prescribed through design, most interactions came about as an organic surprise, which proves the notion of individual habitus. Every user: young, old, able, and disabled gets to create their own experience and dwell within the piece to their own poetics.
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hand scale
foot scale
body scale
ATTENTIVENESS TO SCALE To execute architecture that embraces the human form, it is essential to design at multiple scales. Page
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DWELLING EXPERIENTIALLY AND POETICALLY Every user will have his own experience and memories of space. Design can plan for a range of experiences but never all. Page
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drawn
fabricated
MATERIALITY
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simulated
HAND CRAFTSMANSHIP
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ideas
materials
THE EXPERIMENTING HAND
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applications
organic 2 dimensional line drawings
formal exploraTion
prototyping
drawing
testing
THE THINKING HAND
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site
drawing
team
team
COMPLETED
materials
PROJECT
team
fabrication team
COLLABORATION
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axonometric 1 structural lens 2 hugger 3 spiderbutt
2
4 visual lens 5 stomper 6 squeezer
3
4 1
6
5
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