A moral fiber
To Beth and Bobbie Master Balers, Master Builders
Robert and Elizabeth Ritterbush | Watchers, ND | 1928
A moral fiber, A grainy resolution
An architectural [hypo]thesis Author: Elias Logan Advisor: Kiel Moe Harvard University Graduate School of Design Master of Architecture II May 2018 Modern and Post Modern design methodologies have favored ideational and representational techniques based upon abstraction (convention1) and analogy (mimesis1), respectively. This [hypo] thesis develops a Non Modern method that, while indebted to the conventional and mimetic, situates its referent in terms of resolution. Furthermore, the hypothesis investigates an alternative to the tradition of architectural representation as the locus of behavioral directives (morality) via the modulation of the physical behavior itself in the deployment of a live model (morale-ity). This morale-ity meets materiality in the project’s protagonist, an agricultural off-cast made architectural unit: the straw bale. Stacking and shedding, loading and lilting, this supple solid makes for an irregular architecture that poses questions of how the architect might cognize contingency and tolerate tolerance. 1 Frigg, Roman, and Matthew C. Hunter. “Introduction.� Beyond Mimesis and Convention Representation in Art and Science, Springer, 2010, pp. xv-xxx.
If we entertain Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe’s iconic aphorism that God lies somewhere in the detail1 as an endorsement of a quasi-religious presence within even the most secular of twentieth century architecture, we might as well ask where its ethical cousin - morality - dwells within the architectural field. In the construct of this [hypo]thesis, I position morality as a notch below religion on an ethical spectrum that ranges from the behavioral definitives offered by religion to the behavioral directives of morality continuing on down to the inquisitive stance of Socratic eudaimonism2 and skeptical positions of various metaethicists including Nietzsche, Joyce, and Anscombe3 (Figure 1.1). If, as Mies claimed, God inhabits the detail as built – the word made flesh – my hypothesis regards morality as dwelling somewhere within its representation: the place in which the architectural idea begins to take shape and is eventually presented as behavioral directive. That is, in a stamped construction drawing the architect might be said to be making a moral claim guiding the actions of the builder; “we ought to build it this way” (Figure 2.1/2.2). Such a claim seems just about right given Mies’ well-known affinity for arguably the first moralist, Thomas Aquinas. The friar, priest, and doctor’s Basic Writings - which integrate Aristotlian virtue ethics with Christian values - was one of the 300 books (of a library of 3000) that Mies was allowed to carry across the Atlantic upon his migration
to America. Further, Aquinas’ volume was purportedly one of the 30 he later swore he would retain should he be required to reduce his collection by another 10%!4 Citing yet another Miesian method to support the moral position of representation, pedagogical proteges of the modernist master required students at the Illinois Institute of Technology to exercise extreme care in depicting each and every brick of their design proposals (Figure 3.1/3.2)5. Such an attention to tectonic precision displays an attitude of not just architectural rigor and comprehensive aesthetic consideration, but the behavioral control of those tasked with constructing a building and, thereafter, conducting life therein. Navigating this moral territory of representation – the task of this [hypo] thesis - demands resolve. Or, rather, a particular degree of resolution. Rather than mimic Mies’ architectural creation myth in which two bricks are carefully put together6, however, I propose that it might also begin when two straws are put together. Or perhaps two bales. An agricultural offcast made architectural unit, the straw bale serves as the material protagonist of five architectural projects. This fiber - moral or otherwise - makes for an irregular architecture; one that causes the architect to re-cognize resolution and tolerate tolerance. More generally, then, this [hypo]thesis poses the question (and I will pose it with the moral modal verb): How ought we represent?
1. Whitman, Alden. “Mies Van Der Rohe Dies at 83; Leader of Modern Architecture.” New York Times, 19 Apr. 1969. 2. Plato, et al. Republic. Harvard University Press, 2013. 3. Claims classifying these philosophers as metaethicists are based upon cumulative readings and recitations of James Doyle’s Ancient Ethics and Modern Morality and Selim Berker’s Metaethics courses in the Harvard University Department of Philosophy, Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 respectively. 4. “Bookshelf.” Mies Van Der Rohe Society, miessociety.org/mies/bookshelf/. 5. Grossman, Ron. “Architect of the Intellect.” Chicago Tribune, 8 Mar. 1990.
definitive
religion Jesus of Nazareth | Christianity
directive
morality
Aquinas | Christian Value Ethics
Mill | Utilitarianism
ethics Plato | Platonism Aristotle | Value Ethics
inquisitive
eudaimonia Socrates | Eudaimonism
metaethics Nietzsche | Nihilism
skeptical
Figure 1.1 Ethical Spectrum
Mies | Miesian Modernism
Figure 2.1 Corner Detail Photo | IIT Wishnick Hall | Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe | 1945 Figure 2.2 Detail Plan Drawing | IIT Wishnick Hall | Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe | 1945
Figure 3.1 Student Drawings from IIT | 1950s Figure 3.2 Mies’ Teaching at IIT | 1950s
Figure 4.1 Brick | IIT Chapel |
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe | 1952
Figure 4.2 Straw Bale | Provenance Unknown (Stack/Stock Photo)
I. drawing straws (a methodology)
To answer the question of how we ought to represent prompted in the initial [hypo]thesis, we might as well continue our interrogation of the Miesian method. If the Miesian pedagogical answer to the question of representation was framed in terms of brick-by-brick resolution, the Moderns’ practical approach to representation was, in fact, one of abstraction. For instance, the bricks of Mies’ country house proposal are rendered as planes (Figure 6). Mies’ application of abstraction fell very much in line with the artistic thinking of the time. As evidenced by Ad Reinhardt’s painted work and cartoon on the subject, abstraction in the early-middle 20th century was seen as a savior from the ethical encumbrances of art’s representational bias (Figure 7.1/7.2)1. It is important to note here that this disciplinary dip into art should not confuse the reader into seeing abstraction in the context of this [hypo]thesis as a style. Instead abstraction, as Pier Vittorio Aureli expertly clarifies in his own lectures on the topic, is a methodology; a means employed by the Moderns to directly address the problem of administrating life amidst the challenges of the day2. So how might we define this method today? In keeping with the normative nature of the architectural project, several normative definitions of the term are employed in constructing a (mildly ideological) framework for the [hypo]thesis.
First, abstraction is understood as the process of considering a referent independently of associations, attributes, or concrete-ness3. Le Corbusier’s Maison Domino, while by chance composed of concrete, would in fact serve as a kind of gateway drug to this state of representational liberation-cum-preoccupation (or perhaps even delusion). If the Moderns adopted a method of abstraction out of necessity and continued its practice out of convenience, their offspring - the Post Moderns – expanded the toolkit via an architecture of analogy. Herein, the referent is represented via a correspondence or partial similarity4. As in linguistics – the favorite analogy of most everyone amongst the Post Modern crowd – new forms might be created out of the imitative combination of existing ones. For evidence of such a practice, one need only look to Rossi’s now-canonical citation and juxtaposition of geometric primitives and kitchen accessories within his illustrations of the city5. Rather than utilize either of these approaches however in designing with the bale, the aim of this [hypo]thesis is to develop a Non Modern6 methodology in which the representational referent is situated in terms of resolution. Commonly framed within the context of raster imagery, here resolution can begin to be understood as the interval, or density, of information presented7...
1. Aureli, Pier Vittorio. “Design Without Qualities: Architecture and the Rise of Abstraction - Part 1.” YouTube, The Architectural Association London, 9 Oct. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHfPYTXu9ws. 2. ibid. 3. “Abstraction | Definition of Abstraction in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/abstraction. 4. “Analogy | Definition of Analogy in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/analogy. 5. Adjmi, Morris, and Giovanni Bertolotto. Aldo Rossi: Drawings and Paintings. Princeton Architectural Press, 1991. Also refer to Eisenman’s introduction to The Architecture of the City. MIT Press, 1992. 6. Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Longman, 1993. 7. “Resolution | Definition of Resolution in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/resolution.
Modern abstraction
/ ab’strakSH(e)n/ noun NORMATIVE
1) the process of considering something independently of its associations, attributes, or concrete accompaniments.3 2) a state of preoccupation.3 ART
3) freedom from representational qualities.3
Post Modern analogy
/e’nalejē/ noun NORMATIVE
1) a correspondence or partial similarity.4 LINGUISTICS
2) a process by which new words and inflections are created on the basis of regularities in the form of existing ones.4
Non Modern resolution
/,reze’looSH(e)n/ noun NORMATIVE
1) the smallest informational interval measurable by a scientific (especially optical) instrument; the resolving power.7 2) the action of solving a problem.7 PHYSICS
3) the conversion of something abstract into another form.7
Figure 5. Representational Spectrum
Figure 6. Brick Country House | Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe | 1923/24
Figure 7.1 Abstract Painting no. 4 | Ad Reinhardt | 1961 Figure 7.2 Cartoon | Ad Reinhardt | Estimated 1940s
Such an understanding of resolution wherein informational interval accounts for the output’s precision might be best understood in a pair of examples representing objects outside of the Modern or Post Modern canon. Indeed in the first instance, outside of architecture altogether, in the attempts of Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt Rivers to depict the findings of one of his many archaeological excavations (Figure 8.1)1. Pitt Rivers’ desire to precisely express – or visually mimic – the irregular surfaces of spear points and pot sherds exhibits a technical and ontological struggle towards high resolution. In a more contemporary example from within the architectural discipline, Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood of First Office have grappled with the unruly prehistoric referent of the dolmen (Figure 8.2)2. Their representation of the Neolithic stone structure takes the form of stacked plywood boxes - an apparent abstraction - elaborated by an excessive array of nailheads - perhaps a visual analogue to the cleavage of the irregular stones. Descriptions of First Office’s dolmen, by its creators and others, have included both the terms (or techniques) of abstraction and low resolution, associating if not conflating the two. Such a grammatical alignment would appear initially inconsequential. After all, the Latin root of abstraction abtraho can mean both ‘to free’, ‘to draw away’, or ‘to take out’3; as in the process of removing information per the aforementioned definition of resolution. And yet, in playing out these representational methodologies with the unruly referent of the straw bale, abstraction and resolution can be clearly differentiated under the terms of this [hypo] thesis (Figure 9). An abstracted straw bale, like the plywood prisms of First Office’s dolmens
might take the form of a simple rectangle or, three dimensionally, a box. Akin to Matthew Hunter and Roman Frigg’s conventional representation4, the representation of the bale-as-rectangle is the result of arbitrary stipulation or symbolic mediation. A bale of many straws = a box of 4 lines. One could also classify this representation as hylomorphic5 for, like Aristotle’s recipe of form combined with – or rather transcending – matter, the referent is here entirely divorced from its representation. An analogue bale, aimed at greater precision, might best be understood in my own pencil sketch. Like Pitt Rivers’ pen or First Office’s nailheads, I emulated the textured appearance of the referent through a good-as-I-could-get representational medium. Such a method might be said to align with Hunter and Frigg’s technique of mimesis6. Via this isomorphic mediation, one can begin to read a tenuous relationship between referent and its representation, if only visually. The proposed Non Modern methodology of resolution aims to erase the divide between referent and representation by placing the two in a continuum via the application of simple photographic and algorithmic operations. The representational outcome in this case, rather than the stipulation of abstraction or emulation of analogy, surrenders to mathematical methods of informational interval modulation. In other words, the outcome of a methodology of resolution is an entirely different animal than that of abstraction (see following pages). Operating directly upon the referent through technological rather than conceptual (or transcendental) tools, the referent and representation might be said to dwell within that single plane of immanence theorized by Deleuze7.
1. Bowden, Mark. General Pitt Rivers: the Father of Scientific Archaeology. Salisbury and Wiltshire Museum, 1984. 2. Atwood, Andrew, and Anna Neimark. “Los Angeles Dolmen.” First Office, firstoff.net/projects/Los_Angeles_Dolmen/. Also refer to “Rewriting Abstraction.” PROJECT - A Journal for Architecture, by Andrew Atwood, Issue 4, 0AD, pp. 8–11. 3. “Abstraction | Definition of Abstraction in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/abstraction. 4. Frigg, Roman, and Matthew C. Hunter. “Introduction.” Beyond Mimesis and Convention Representation in Art and Science, Springer, 2010, pp. xv-xxx. 5. Aristotle, and W. D. Ross. Metaphysics. NuVision Publications, 2009. 6. ibid, Frigg and Hunter. 7. Deleuze, Gilles, et al. Pure Immanence: Essays on a Life. Zone Books, 2001.
Figure 8.1 Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers | Excavations at Acton | 1869 Figure 8.2 First Office | MOMA PS1 Dolmen | 2016
Here is a bale...
Here is a bale on abstraction.
Here is a bale...
Here is a bale on (low) resolution.
abstraction, akin to conventional representation, divorces the object of representation from its referent through stipulation.
analogy, akin to mimetic representation, links (tenuously) the object of representation to its referent through emulation.
resolution places the object of representation within a continuum with its referent through informational interval. Figure 9. Representational Spectrum Applied to Straw Bale
hylomorphic
isomorphic
immanent
Photographed, live traced, and point clouded through the photographic and algorithmic techno-filters of Nikon, Adobe, and Autodesk – eventually the bale is resolved down to a single strand of pixels mathematically modulated through a linear process of point reduction akin to the ubiquitous Bresenham algorithm used to fill the pixels of an LCD display1. Dependent upon computational constructs of which the critiques are many and well-founded, what is nonetheless significant here is that the outcome avoids the stipulative strategies of both traditional orthography as well as that false prophet of resolution, building information modelling (BIM) software. That is, this Non Modern method presents us with something that, even at low resolution, remains connected to the referent in all its unruly actuality.
assembled - that is, architected - bales was pursued.
Herein the methodology hinted at the potential to achieve (or actualize at) a high resolution; to go beyond visual mimesis. Rather than surrendering the jittery vector outcome of the initial bale resolution exercise unto orthographic drawings (Figure 10) or simply repeatthe process of resolution using a single three dimensional bale (Figure 11), a more physically faithful resolution of
Initial studies utilizing this live model method probed these irregular properties and propensities. Like their straw referents, then, these sponge bales imbued even the most elementary of formal compositions – stacks and step pyramids, corbels and vaults – with unruly profiles defined by leans and seams, lilts and tilts (Figure 13).
Unable to resolve in the realm of the referent due to the spatial and seasonal constraints of the Graduate School of Design facilities and curriculum, I resorted to an alternate definition of resolution as a kind of loophole. Resolution, when understood as a conversion of something already abstracted into yet another form2, afforded me the analogous method of material mimesis (Figure 12). The commercial grade sponge block was thus selected as a stand-in for the straw bale not for its visual isomorphism but because it shares many of the physical properties - from the mutability of its moisture content to the suppleness of its reaction to static loading – of the referent bale.
1. Flanagan, Colin. The Bresenham Line-Drawing Algorithm, www.cs.helsinki.fi/group/goa/mallinnus/lines/bresenh.html. 2. “Resolution | Definition of Resolution in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/resolution.
Figure 10. Bresenham Bale Plan
Figure 11. Straw Bale 3D Scan 32
65
125
250
500
975
1,950
3,905
7,813
15,625
31,250
62,500
125,000
250,000
500,000
1,000,000
2,000,000
faces
Material Specification Sheet
Material Specification Sheet
Hydra Large Tile Grout Sponge
JUMBO Rectangular Straw Bale
Brand: Hydra Sponge
Dimensions: 165mm x 108mm x 54mm
Brand: N/A
Dimensions: 2500mm x 1220mm x 900mm
Model: HYDRA CM MB
Cost: $125/ mini-bale
Model: N/A
Cost: To be negotiated per availability with farmer
SKU #: 10-7HS-B
Description: Fine pore, rectangle w/ rounded corners
SKU #: N/A
Description: Baled winter wheat chaff straw, cubic
Applications
Grout cleanup work
Applications
Animal bedding, decorating, gardening, erosion control, home building
Properties
Properties
Compressive Strength (N/mm2): XX
l (m): 1.00
Compressive Strength (N/mm2): 3.1
l (m): 1.00
Static Load Test Max Settlement (mm): XX
w (m): 1.00
Static Load Test Max Settlement (mm): 220
w (m): 1.00
Moisture Content at Test: 25.0-55.0%
d (m): 0.46
Moisture Content at Test: 1.0-4.4%
d (m): 0.46
Density (kg/m3): 117.95
Volume: 0.46
Density (kg/m3): 117.95
Volume: 0.46
------------------------------------------------------------------
R value: estimated 3
EC (kgCO2/kg): 0.010
R value: 10
------------------------------------------------------------------
U value: 0.33
Weight per m2 wall (kg): 54.26
U value: 0.1
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------
EC/m2 wall (kgCO2/m2): 0.54
------------------------------------------------------------------
XX-XXX-X
10-7HS-B
Made in the U.S.A.
Figure 12. Live Model Material Mimesis
Made in the U.S.A.
Figure 14. Live Model Studies
The irregularities defining these live model studies can be traced back to the initial act of what is recorded here step-by-step as comprising the methodology of resolution (Figure 15). If the aim of such a method is high resolution, with each operation upon the sponge both higher contingency and tolerance were created and necessitated as well.
07. These assemblies are then aggregated with others in order to form still larger units of architectural material.
01. Whether rock hard or minimally moistened, it was impossible to attain a cleanly orthogonal cut of the sponge unit.
09. The resultant geometry, while delivering a relatively high degree of resolution also reveals the inherent imprecision, or considered contingency, of such a methodology wherein the referent and represented remain in continuum.
02. Once separated into bale-proportioned units, dehydrated sponges were moistened; delightfully not-so-much scientifically. 03. These sponge bales were then assembled into architectural constructs defined by the funky and forgiving interaction of individual pieces and limited in size by sponge supply and… 04. The capabilities of the 3D scanning apparatus that would serve to capture the form and texture of the assemblies via a dazzling display of structured light. These information-imbued photons served to connect referent and representation within a single plane of immanence across an apparent digital divide. 05. Individual sponge scans, seen here as a kind of wallpaper of partial and compromised architectural description, make evident the initial representational sacrifice: the loss of a comprehensive and precise formal knowledge. 06. The isolated and insufficient attempts of the 3D scanner to make sense of the befuddling surface of the sponge via individual scans are nonetheless effective in being recombined into a meshed facsimile of the referent.
08. Akin to a three dimensional version of the Bresenham bale, the resolution of these units can then be modulated through the computational calibration of their surface geometry.
Now capable of analysis via traditional modes of orthographic projection, moments of contingency - where the form has been ever-so-slightly thrown off its orthogonal intent - and tolerance where straw units are rotated to accommodate off-the-shelf window types within the bale coursing - are made evident (Figure 16/17). With regard to tolerance, an additional definition of resolution - that of solving a problem – is at play within the assembly of architectural units. Similiar to, and yet different from, Mies’ solution to the problems of material transition and façade rhythm wherein the drawing represents a moral oughtto-be (Figure 2.1/2.2), the rotation of a single bale supplants this moralizing with a eudaimonistic might-serve-to-be: a range of rotational solutions to the conflict in coursing created by door and window frames. Rather than the shadow reveal, the mortar joint, or the dreaded contractor’s caulk, here the unit of the bale is deployed to tackle the problem of tolerance within the architectural assembly. Key moments of tolerance necessitated by coursing, vaulting, furnishing, roofing, and finishing were then studied in the live model (Figures 18/19/20).
01. Cut
02. Moisten
03. Stack
04. 3D Scan
05. Merge Scans
06. Merge Scans
07. Combine Assemblies
08. Calibrate Resolution
09. Analyze
Figure 15. Methodology Sequence
Figure 16. Orthographic Analysis of Motel Units
Figure 17. Rendered Architectural Outcome of Motel Units
Figure 18. Live Model Assemblies w/ Key Moments of Tolerance
Figure 19. Video Stills | Tolerance Test | 36 Sponge Bales
Figure 20. Video Stills | Tolerance + Plaster Test | 36 Packing Foam Bales
II. alibis for the sake of architecture (a brief)
North Platte, NE population : 24,733
Colby, KS
population : 5,387
Enid, OK
population : 49,379
Plainview, TX population : 20,859
Winter Wheat (Acres) Not estimated 0-5,000 5,000-9,999 10,000-24,999 25,000-49,999 50,000-99,999 100,000+
A [compo]site With a Non Modern methodology of resolution and the problematiques of contingency and tolerance in place, a set of alibis for the creation of architecture could be playfully produced. Ever conscious of the energetics of straw, the American Great Planes of Immanence emerged as the regional focus of the project. Rather than simply select a site, however, the generic nature and insufficient urbanism of the region prompted the cobbling together of a [compo]site. Four communities from the Wheat Belt form a Midwestern mashup wherein county seats from adjacent
states are collaged by aligning primary arterials of rail and road to form a fictional intersection (see next spread). Counter-clockwise from top left: North Platte, Nebraska - home base of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and site of North America’s largest rail classification yard - meets Colby, Kansas - interstate 70 sideshow and “The Oasis of the Plains” meets Enid, Oklahoma - whose record-setting grain storage capacity qualifies it as “Queen Wheat City” - meets Plainview, Texas - whose given name more or less says it all.
NE
TX
OK
KS A [compo]site Not quite completely generic, these Wheat Belt communities all contain unique infrastructural landmarks - the country’s largest rail classification yard (North Platte, NE), Hollywood-starring water towers (Plainview, TX), the world’s third largest assembly of grain elevators (Enid, OK), and iconic agro-religious themed billboards (Colby, KS).
TX
P
NE
NP
OK
KS
C
A [compo]site The alignment of arterial rails and roads within the four quadrants create a central intersection for design intervention: a [compo]site.
E
NE
TX
OK
KS A [compo]site Contained in the collage are four ecologies of flyover country urbanism (clockwise from top right): the dense-but-dead downtown, the highway-side sprawl, the spotty residential, and the trailer park.
An Architectural Type
A Stack Type
A motel
The tie-down
+
A convenience store
The straight stack
+
A dive bar
The ziggurat
+
A quonset
The lean/ arch
+
Figure 21. Architectural Project Methodology for Four Building Types
Applied Methodology
Part-to-Whole Relationship (Architectural Multiplication Operation) Unitization
Single Axis Symmetry
Bi-Axial Symmetry
Extrusion
Figure 22. Inventory of Scanned Assemblies for Four Building Types
A motel A roadside classic is reimagined through the Non Modern methodology of resolution. A unit wall of stacked bales was formulated and multiplied, ad infinitum, to create the familiar facade of the motor hotel type. The most noteworthy moment of tolerance also provides a rhythmic reading of the expansive exterior: an angled bale resolves the coursing between entry doors and Rossian-via-Pella square windows. On the interior, this repeating rotation accommodates a bedwards-biased television mount within the guest rooms and shields bathroom/storage/kitchen blocks of traditional type 5 construction.
Its linear form, when understood in concert with the imagined context, suggests a sublte streetfront. And yet, the dominant perception, undeniable reality, and appropriate (?) realization of the type is a rustic and rendered reach in the midst of a sea of asphalt. The mirroring of a wythe of rooms is then significant in the creation of a lengthy courtyard; a oasis of interiority providing respite from the surrounding auto plaza. This court is further subdivided into programmatic zones (a putting green, a hot tub, a playground, a hitchin’ rail for rodeo horses performing at an adjacent expo center) via straw-supported stairs.
Detail Plan An error in sponge placement created a 10” discrepancy from the design’s orthogonal intent (above). Barely noticeable within the unit plan, when multiplied across the building’s extent, a subtle entasis is nearly perceptible (right). Contingency, uncorrected, begins to inform the reading of mass.
Detail Elevation Tolerance - visible in the planometric bale rotation - is also manifest in elevation. Derived from the waterproof topping of straw bale stacks, tensile cables are threaded through the CLT roof layers to accommodate inevitable shrinkage of the straw wall.
A convenience store Another mainstay of the Midwestern suburban landscape is made fibrous via the method of resolution. While outfitted with a round-bale supported fueling canopy, the type’s admitted chief function - a pit stop for peeing - and the methodology’s propensity for clear part-to-whole relationships motivates the convenience store’s symmetrical arrangement. Paired water closets are entered from semi-enclosed patios on east and west while the cashier counter is surrounded by snack food shelving in the central volume. A walk-in beverage cooler is insulated by jumbo bales for thermal consistency. The overall symmetry is
only violated at the building’s northwest extent, where a motor vehicle route and signage circle triggers a carving away of the corner with a straw-supported stair. This vertical circulation ascends to a rooftop level that accommodates the storage of spare straw bales from adjacent agricultural land. In this instance, the convenience store, then, takes on a double entendre: it is indeed convenient to store. Situated next to the motel within the Oklahoma quadrant of the [compo]site, this weighty, elevated stack serves as a strategy to prevent uplift amidst the ever-present threat of tornadoes.
Detail Plan The technique of bale rotation reappears here to mediate between windows and entry. Furthermore, the front facade - in order to align with the module of bales stacked atop the building - is permitted to fly past the interior to create a semi-enclosed patio wherein the corner coursing retains openings.
Detail Elevation Rather than a tensile tie-down, the convenience store relies upon the weight of stored bales atop the building to compress and connect the walls below to the paved firmament. Note the permissible gappy coursing of the patio at left.
A dive bar If the forces of Modernity have caused the bar to assume a vital societal function, there is no reason why such inherited types (and habits) should go uninvestigated within the Non Modern method comprising this [hypo]thesis. An insulated liquor cooler anchors the sacred center of the bi-laterally symmetrical building. The bar proper and a pool hall spill out to the east and west, enclosed by a perimeter wall in which more domestic-scaled ‘three string’ bales are arranged to create the bench seating, narrow windows, and low ceiling familiar to the dive bar type. If the partto-whole relationship of symmetry cre-
ates a primarily staid composition, the stakes are raised when the bar is in fact revealed to be a ‘side’-bar, appended to an existing Texas steakhouse. Herein, the agitation of the perimeter walls become paramount in executing a tight gasket between new and old. Excess bales are turned out - but capable of being rotated - to accommodate a connection between volumes. These excess bales become ornamental elsewhere, acting as a cornice, quoins, and surface embellishment elsewhere on the facade. Tasked with insulating and weighting the roof are additional bales arranged in a stepped-gable form.
Detail Plan Excess, laterally shifted, and rotated bales resurface here to ensure a tight connection between the new dive bar and existing steakhouse. On the remaining corners of the building, these bales act as ornamental quoins. Turned bales also accommodate demising partitions between booth seating.
Detail Elevation Like the convenience store, a plastered occupiable volume is topped by spare bales - here arranged as a stepped gable extrusion. Rotated bales form ornamental quoins, protrusions, and cornices.
A quonset A versatile industrial and agricultural service structure typical of the Great Plains, the quonset is typically an extruded barrel vault of metal or wood. In fact, examples of both of these construction techniques are neighbors to this corner lot in the Kansas quadrant of the [compo]site. In keeping with the straw pallette, ‘two-string’ bales are strung together – a warp is added to the weft – to create an arched building section. Such a re-materialization challenged the physical properties and methodology of sponge substitution. Whereas the bales would allow for a more rigid
section after the use of centering, the sponges proved incapable of supporting themselves due to moisture and desired vault width. Sponges were thus strung together and suspended to form a catenary for 3D scanning. The oppositional exit points of string holding the units together resulted in a slightly racked vault. Like the motel before it, then, the quonset remains slightly off its intended East-West axis. Outfitted with integrated straw bale benches that add rigidity to the vault, the space was imagined to serve as both a bingo hall and wedding chapel.
Detail Plan The result of the contingency embedded within the method of a suspended sponge scan, the plan of the quonset demonstrates a discrepancy from the intended orthogonal axis. The tolerance-minded trick of rotating bales next to openings reappears here to cozily accommodate bench-side window boxes.
Detail Elevation Unlike previous examples, the stack type of a leaning arch is synonymous with the quonset type - resulting in a pure, un-plastered straw construction. Tolerance is understood here in the fitting of rotated bales, which act as key-bales and ornament, within the jagged end coursing of the vault.
A fifth for the [compo]site Four buildings have been designed... but on only three sites. What of the trailer park plot?
A fifth for the (compo)site Mobile homes are, after all, meant to be moved. Five single wides and a single double wide were re-accommodated within two blocks of the trailer park to create a fifth site.
A pile The John Deere 4430 Kick Baler (previous spread) came as a revelation. While all prior precedents had relied upon the decorum of orthogonal and efficient formal bale arrangements, here was a machine that seemingly rejoiced in irregularity, inefficiency, and the sheer entertainment of flying fiber. It’s resultant pile inspired my own (above).
A pile An escape from the minutiae of contingency and tolerance that had so indentured my earlier orderly straw stacks and typological toils, the pile’s extreme imprecision serves as a still greater challenge to the method of resolution tied up in the technique of scanning.
A mall Originally envisioned as a strip mall - another Midwestern type befitting of the linear site - the discovery of the kick baler stalled such developer-centric plans. Just as the baler’s resultant pile is free of considerations of contigency, tolerance, and typology - so too is the site imagined here as free of profit-driven program. The mall in a commercial sense is reimagined as mall in the landscape sense: a pedestrian promenade punctuated and partitioned by stacks, piles, and bale forms inherited from previous studies. This fifth project appears unfinished, depicted here in
the throes of that resolving process of 3D scanning. And yet, when we understand the orthographic drawings (like that above and in preceeding projects) as defined by the cut-plane rather than an immanent plane, it appears that these representational methods are thoroughly Modern, reliant as they are upon the tools of abstraction. While visually paradoxical, these images of the messy live model are perhaps as fully resolved (in the Non Modern sense) as any of the projects yet presented - which strands the [hypo]thesis in a state of disciplinary limbo...
III. grasping at straws (an interpretation)
The work of interpretation requires yet another definition wherein resolution is understood as resolve1 or the process of design decision making. Whereas Miesian morality placed the locus of such resolve within the construction drawing, here this moral space of representation is circumvented by the physically mimetic space of the live model. Rather than the behavioral directives of the drawing (like those presented ex-post facto in the preceding orthographic drawings), this methodology aligns itself with the behavior itself; an inquisitive stance akin to Socrates’ experimental eudaimonism (see Figure 1.2). In this working method the moral is perhaps replaced by a kind of morale; a spirited search for the virtuous and joyous2 in the architectural assembly – a kind of greater tolerance. And yet there lingers a great disciplinary danger within this methodology, which is perhaps where the [hypo] thesis could be said to come crashing down (see Figure 23.2). For a representational method of pure resolution, disallowed the analogous material of the live model, is perhaps confined to after architecture. That is, a fully resolved representation would of course presuppose the presence of a complete referent. In this way, it would appear that architecture and representation of the abstract and analogous varieties are
inextricably intertwined, in fact unavoidable to fulfill architecture’s projective agenda. This project is then potentially left within a purgatorial - if still productive - position somewhere between Pitt Rivers’ archaeological obsession with the precise description of the irregular artifact and the architectural desire to shape that artifact in a more physically faithful manner (see Figure 24.1); to allow irregularity to inform the process of design. The conflicted attempts to do both within this [hypo] thesis - to work through stacks of sponge holding the promise of a Non Modern method as well as traditional plans, elevations, renderings, and abstract models - indicates that the project remains projective if only in the sense that it is unfinished. Viewed through this conflicted lens, perhaps the project has consisted not so much of assembling straw stacks, but strawmen for architecture’s assumed argumentative position. Admittedly paradoxical, what this [hypo]thesis has crafted is an archaeological record of an architecture that does not yet fully exist. Inevitably it seems, resolution is here destined to remain grainy.
1. “Resolution | Definition of Resolution in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/resolution. 2. Referring to ‘the joy of the circle’ from Nietzsche , Friedrich. “No. 1067.” The Will to Power, Nachgelassene Werke, 1901.
definitive
religion Jesus of Nazareth | Christianity
directive
morality
Aquinas | Christian Value Ethics
Mies | Miesian Modernism
Mill | Utilitarianism
ethics Plato | Platonism Aristotle | Value Ethics
inquisitive
eudaimonia Socrates | Eudaimonism
morale-ity Non Modern-ism
metaethics Nietzsche | Nihilism
skeptical
Figure 1.2 Ethical Spectrum
Figure 23.1 Modified English Bond Stack | 96 Sponge Bales Figure 23.2 Collapse | 96 Sponge Bales
Figure 24.1 Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers | Excavations at Acton | 1869
Figure 24.2 Assembled Motel Wall Unit Axonometric | 20 Bresenham Bales
Figures/ Images Figure 1.1-1.2: created by author Figure 2.1: Michael Dant, https://www.flickr.com/photos/faasdant/4565641470/in/ pool-53961121@N00/ Figure 2.2: Studies in Tectonic Culture, Kenneth Frampton, 1995 Figure 3.1: http://www.urbanarchnow.com/2012/11/hand-drafting-at-iit.html Figure 3.2: https://duranvirginia.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/how-does-architecture-affect-education/ Figure 4.1: https://hiveminer.com/Tags/chapel%2Ciit/Recent Figure 4.2: Brett and Sue Coulstock, https://www.flickr.com/photos/redmoonsanctuary/6857033277/ Figure 5 (from top): Maison Domino, Le Corbusier, 1914 | Domestic Architecture, Aldo Rossi, 1974 | created by author Figure 6: Studies in Tectonic Culture, Kenneth Frampton, 1995 Figure 7.1: Abstract Painting no. 4, Ad Reinhardt, 1961, oil on linen, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 1969.47.71 Figure 7.2: Š 2013 Estate of Ad Reinhardt / Artists Rights Society [ARS], New York; courtesy David Zwirner, New York / London Figure 8.1: http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-Pitt-Rivers-archaeology-England.html Figure 8.2: Andrew Atwood Anna Neimark, http://firstoff.net/projects/PS1_Dolmen/ Figure 9-20: created by author Figure 21 (from top): http://www.daysinnwichitanorth.com/, http://www.newson6.com/story/37503034/deputies-axe-sledgehammer-used-to-break-into-tulsa-convenience-store, https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g38668d511852-Reviews-Kate_s-Dodge_City_Kansas.html, https://highstreetbeat.net/ page/10/?app-download=blackberry Figure 22-23.2: created by author Figure 24.1: http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-Pitt-Rivers-archaeology-England.html Figure 24.2: created by author Graphic Pg. 44: United States Department of Agriculture, https://www.nass.usda. gov/Charts_and_Maps/Crops_County/ww-pr.php (modified by author) Graphic Pg. 45 (clockwise from top right): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRXw4utSyz8 https://hiveminer.com/Tags/enid%2Cgrainelevator, http://www.paulsissonphoto.com/notsofarfromgod/, https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread. php?p=126174729 Full Spread Pg. 2/3: created by author Full Spread Pg. 10/11: Hay Baling on June 19, 2013, Rolling Oaks Farm, https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDpkwmFd4Vs Full Spread Pg. 40/41: Baling Straw 2017, Aaron Zenner, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=IlwAybMFOag&t=24s Full Spread Pg. 86/87: Stacking Straw Bales, ELSchusterSon, https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=i7FAeTjTBrE All additional images without figure identification: created by author
Special Thanks Emily Kruse (model construction assistance) Tommy Schaperkotter (exhibition assistance)
A grainy resolution