JACKSON LUKAS SCI ARC M ARCH I CANDIDATE
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Practicality and Intuition There are many extraordinary United States based schools for graduate architecture studies. But the school with the most compelling M Arch I program for my skillset is the Southern California Institute of Architecture. SCI-Arc initially separates itself from other competitive programs through cutting edge experimental design. Upon further research into SCI-Arc’s curriculum, the work of its graduate students and its architecture faculty, from it’s coverage in reputable publications like Architectural Record, its alumni and many other factors inherent to the M Arch I program, the school has become the top program with which I want to pursue the M Arch I. This statement of purpose will speak to two main issues. First, based on research and self-reflection why The Southern California Institute of Architecture is the best program for my skillset. And second, my interest in philosophy, psychology, religious experience and art, and how I want to pursue these curiosities through architecture. There are two main aspects of The Southern California Institute of Architecture’s M Arch I program that make it such a compelling program for me. First, SCI-Arc focuses on immersing its students in rich studio culture and a wealth of fabrication techniques such as the Robot House. The benefit of attending a school that immerses its students in a wealth of state of the art fabrication is that through numerous mediums of experimentation students test the limits of their curiosities and evolve their ideas through material. A school that facilitates a student’s exploration of their ideas by making available a wide
range of study and opportunity for creation is in essence giving those students a larger “kit of parts” to work with and that means a far richer means of design. Second, SCI-Arc has a strong practical approach. I am a conceptual thinker and what I need most is a practical education that teaches students how to take their ideas and masterfully transpose them into the real built environment. In other words I am seeking a program with a balance of practicality and creative intuition. Through faculty who are rooted in the real world as practicing architects, SCIArc sufficiently exposes their students to essential practical issues in architecture and further develops a student’s conceptual creativity. Therefore SCIArc is a great fit for me. There are many practicing architects with successful firms whose work I admire and with whom I am eager to study with such as Bruno Juricic, Elena Manferdini, Eric Moss, and Herwig Baumgartner. Studying under distinguished faculty like these and other visiting architects will help me develop my concepts and harness them under a variety of mediums. In short, my creative intuition plus SCI-Arc’s strong program and faculty will foster compelling design breakthroughs. Architect Thom Mayne’s firm Morphosis is one firm that through strong integration of practicality and concept operates as one of the finest firms in the world. This November I was privileged to join Pratt Institute’s Architecture Exploratory Course in visiting Mayne’s Morphosis New York office. The firm’ practical approach to architecture left an impression on me. Morphosis begins projects with program then
experiments with formal objects. Once a structure has been developed Thom and his team assigns “forces” to the structure as a means of problematizing it and improving it. Prolific model building, practical design, and intelligent implementation of concept and form are the hallmarks of Mayne’s world-class firm. In searching for the right program I have been seeking schools who’s faculty, like Mayne, are prolific practicing architects rooted in the real world and who can profoundly educate their students in both practice and theory. My undergraduate education and passion is in philosophy, psychology, religious experience and art. I have always been absorbed in and motivated by these topics, but started to study them more rigorously with Dr. Nagatomo Shigenori, professor of comparative Eastern and Western Philosophy at Temple University. Afterwards I traveled to India and Japan where I immersed myself in Japanese culture and explored eastern thought on an anthropological level. Both countries are rich with ancient and modern architecture. I was influenced tremendously by the tradition and craftsmanship of these two places especially in Japan where the fabrication methods used in temples are so exceptional that not a single nail is employed in the entire structure. Furthermore, shrines and temples are counter-intuitively built completely of wood, a decaying impermanent material that must be replaced. For instance, the Ise Jingu Grand Shrine has to be moved and rebuilt every twenty years. I propose that the philosophy of Zen Buddhism and the Zen practitioner’s religious experience is embedded in the structure of the temple
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE through material and labor. Wood captures the fundamental Buddhist teaching of impermanence. The constant maintenance of the temple is a medium for samu, or “work” that Zen practitioners perform as part of their daily regimen and also is a means of self-cultivation. To polish a floor is to polish the self. The embodiment of religious ideas through symbolic means is found in European cathedrals where the focal point of the space is drawn back by one point perspective to the crucifix or is drawn up into lofty vaulted ceilings. Imbedded in structures like temples and cathedrals is a spiritual dialogue that the designer is having through the built space. I want to pursue conversations like these through architecture. Concomitantly, I want to pursue the antithesis of this symbolic dialogue by continuing to study the rational and formal architectural theory espoused by O. M. Ungers, Rem Koolhaas, Le Corbusier and their successors which I began learning this Fall in Pratt’s Architecture Exploratory Course. My involvement with my father’s artwork and my exposure to the work of other artists, like Fred Sandback and Not Vital, have communicated to me beauty and space but have also sparked poetic, spiritual dialogues that have had a profound impact on the way I think about the built space. Vital’s projects are about the continents of the planet, the materials from a given landscape like coal, marble and dung, and how the material when reintroduced through sculpture continues to represent that landscape. Fred Sandback’s yarn installations are profound because at once they are a shape, but are also a void. The dialogue that I have when I see his work is about the
state of non-being, interdependence and non-dualism. Both artists communicate something to me that, in Fred Sandback’s case, is practical and spatial but also extremely poetic, something that I and countless others have an intrapersonal, important dialogue with. The built space is important to us because it addresses the mind. Psychologist James Hillman would say that the built space is essential to our life in the way that “the fairytale is not a substitution for reality but a necessary nourishment for the world of psychic reality.” I want to study architecture for the same reason that these two artists do what they do, why other people want to bring goodness into the world and why Bruce Nauman says “The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths.” I want to explore curiosities through designed space and for my project to both function perfectly and evoke an awakening in people’s sense of possibility of material and scale, or to address an idea, or to instigate intrapersonal dialogue, or stand in silence, or help them understand their place in the universe or to just have a positive affect on their lives. My intention after graduation from SCI-Arc’s M Arch I program is to work with a firm and obtain licensure. While studying at SCI-Arc I want to obtain internships to engage with architecture in the real world. Post-graduation, I would like to work for a firm who shares my passions for built space and after obtaining licensure begin practicing architecture with my own firm. During my studies I will do my own independent projects and collaborate with SCI-Arc’s faculty, other students and people in the community.
Getting involved with architecture outside school and doing my own projects will keep me engaged in the real world, something that I like and that I think is crucial. This is what I foresee myself doing with SCIArc’s M Arch I program. In searching for the right program I have been seeking schools with strong, interdisciplinary faculty who are rooted in the real world and a program that delivers a balance of practicality and intuition. I am very excited to have found the best match for my skillset and curiosities in SCI-Arc. The Southern California Institute of Architecture has established my trust and I am very excited in applying to the M. Arch I program. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.
- Jackson Lukas -
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CONTENT
PRATT INSTITUTE MANHATTAN CITY BLOCK STUDY Fall Semester 2014
INDEPENDENT 8
MEDITATION SPACE 18 Summer 2014
FRD HOUSE 22 December 2014
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PRATT INSTITUTE
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MANHATTAN CITY BLOCK STUDY - FALL 2014 Prof. Simon McGown, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP+ BD&C Ten Week City Block Survey Project Pratt Institute Fall 2014
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The City Block Study was interested in surveying a four-block site of Manhattan. Each student was assigned to find a deviation in the 1811 grid where an idiosyncratic and rich site of complexity occurs and reproduce it at a scale of 1 ft = 1/16 in. In this case, the site is the 32nd street and Broadway to 30th street and Broadway wholesale district . The survey recorded qualitative and quantitative data which was then reproduced through drawing and modeling techniques. Last, The problems of the site were addressed and a solution was proposed to improve the urban landscape.
Base Drawing
Ethnicity
Smell
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QUALITATIVE DRAWINGS Clerks working the streets and stores are from over 15 different countries speaking many different languages. Street atmosphere is diverse, and sometimes exciting. Dozens of wholesale shops on the upper levels of each building sell unique items from the shop-owners’ country of origin.
Store Clerks Greeting Eachother
Shop Clerk Country of Origin - Qualitative Velum
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PROBLEM | IDEA | CONCEPT
Inclosed Content
Disclosed Content
PROBLEM
IDEA
CONCEPT
Much of the cultural diversity is locked away behind the facade of the building.
Bring the content of the building outside.
If behind the faรงade is an imaginable, logical grid and the content in the building is organize by this grid, then invert the faรงade and the grid to disclose the content. Conceptual Grid Drawing
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Conceptual Grid over Axonometric Drawing
DEPLOYMENT OF CONCEPT Use the latent cultural diversity inside the buildings to enrich the space. Transform the street into a public space. Create a grid based off of the existing storefronts and buildings. Erect permanent pillars with vaulted ceilings and allow for one large open space in the middle of the grid. Wholesalers and shop owners can occupy the spaces in between the pillars. By bringing the latent cultural diversity inside the building out, the site will become more culturally vibrant and diverse. Conceptual Grid over Base Drawing
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3D Base Model
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31ST & BROADWAY MODEL
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Wood, Glue, Paint
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INDEPENDENT WORK
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MEDITATION SPACE - SUMMER 2014 Restoration of the small 20’ by 11’ turn of the century wood frame structure began in June 2014 and was complete this September. The work included floor installation, electrical wiring, insulation, window trim, drywall, lighting, and finally raw plaster. Now the building serves as a meditation space. Like most temples in Japan and abroad the space is conventionally minimal and simple, facilitating only the activity of meditation.
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Blank Canvas
Floor Work
Insulation
During this stage of construction careful consideration was made for interior wall and ceiling ventilation. Materials for the hanging lights such as the wood used for the frame, the opacity of the unryu, (Japanese paper) the intensity and type of light bulb and the sensitivity of the dimer switch were carefully evaluated.
Plaster
The space comfortably seats 8 people. justsit.org
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FRD HOUSE This study on paper explored measurments and possible strategies for construction. The small model addressed issues of weight and ballance.
Study
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FRD House employs tree branches and twine as primary building materials. The structure is a central spine supported by three crossing members bound together and anchored in the ground. The branches that make up the faรงade are leaned against the central spine in several layers to create body and density. Wood, Twine
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Thank you for your consideration
DECEMBER 2014