Erik Knauss Practice Portfolio 2017

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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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.

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break

view

circulation

daylight

CAREFUL ANALYSIS Refining form based on site forces and conditions idea for human wellbeing.

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typical unit

daylight

fresh air

HUMAN DWELLING Crafting the optimized living unit.

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view

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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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.

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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

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Daniele Barbaro humanism

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art

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1800 A.D.

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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.

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tec

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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

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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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REINTERPRETING CRAFT Applying the properties discovered in the trompe trait drawing to a newly designed vault form.

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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.

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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

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64%

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6

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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