Hidden ARTifacts Book Example Pages

Welcome to Hidden ARTifacts :: the Architectural Process You are holding the precursor to a very special book. Bound here are the labels for the art of 14 of our artist/architects, presenting not only their art, but also their take on the creative process that unites architects the world over.

Soon, all of the labels in the exhibit will be bound and narrated with essays from noted architects, professors, and critics. The resulting hardcover book will offer an unprecedented view of the architectural design process, and empower everyone to welcome more design into their lives.

During the show, we will also be hosting an event series consisting of classes and talks pertaining to the world of architects, but often geared to the novice. In addition to an art show and pop-up education hub, Hidden ARTifacts is also a fundraiser for the permanent establishment of a peer-peer academy and architectural marketplace after this exhibit closes.

A SPECIAL THANKS must go out to our amazing host, Building Bridges Art Exchange and all those that made this possible. Donations can be made directly to the gallery, or on www.hiddenartifactsbuildingbridges.com Created by: Jenda Michl Co-Curated by: Marisa Caichiolo & Jenda Michl Special Exhibitions Coordinator: Daniel Schuster Book Design by: Michelle Lozano CoCoordinators: Jesus Antonio Michelle Lozano Anthony Morey Sherine Teymour Viviana Vivero

CRYSTAL TAN Woodbury University Student Mixed Media

The Vortex |

This aviary structure is inspired by the organic shape and movement of swarms of birds gathering to eat insects in the sky. The Swifts circle around the spectators as they walk up the spiraling staircase, and together they create a vortex; a vortex that brings people up to another world in the sky, and allows birds to coexist with humans. The pieces explore the different medias of visual representation to communicate ideas in both two-dimension and three-dimension.

The atmospheric qualities are captured with a different technique from 2D to 3D. The mixedmedia hybrid drawing was created first and drove the design of the model. An alleyway in the Watts neighborhood was chosen for the site, which was digitally modeled and transferred onto wood by tracing carbon paper. The design intervention is printed onto gampi paper and pasted over the transfer. Final details were drawn in and the gampi paper trimmed to follow the flow of the printed graphic. The 3D translation of the piece was built three times before a successful technique of the model’s structure was figured out with an inner and outer core layered with various materials, a similar layering technique in the mixed-media drawing.

SARAH DENAULT University of Southern California Student Caution Tape and Canvas

Caution Tape Jacket |

I manipulated a single non-clothing material by hand to create a Mao Uniform Jacket, chosen because it provides a very simple and structured starting point, thus allowing us to read the effects of our chosen material more clearly. I chose CAUTION tape because I liked the variability given by its text and opacity. I discovered that, when braided, the variability of the tape made a marbling effect almost akin to snakeskin.

With that, I braided, coiled, wove, layered, and tied nothing but 2,300 feet of the CAUTION tape to make a jacket that reads as if it were made with fabric. The CAUTION TAPE JACKET is another example of the power of materiality to transform an outcome, no matter the rigidity with which it is applied.

Box of Poems |

This is a box that holds something dear to me: poems. Instead of sitting inside the box, the poems make up the box. I like to weave words together to write poetry, so I literally wove words to write this box. I wove strips of canvas according to a strict grid system, and given the soft nature of canvas, the box came out with rounded and imperfect edges, looking more like a basket than a box. The construction of this box exemplifies my most personal design technique, which is purposeful organic. I like allowing materials to transform a rigid production system or technique, such as weaving, into an organic final product. It exemplifies the contradiction and complexity in architecture.

ALEXXA SOLOMON University of Southern California Student Steel

Wave Sculpture |

Architecture is more than just designing a building or creating shelter. It is a form of art that takes effort to develop into final product. When designing a new project, I try to look for inspiration outside of architecture. In this piece, I was inspired by the reflection and pattern of the ocean when the light hits the water. I analyzed the ocean waves, reflections, patterns, plants, colors, and sea creatures. I gathered feedback and developed a system that provided the structure of the art form and attachment of the skin facade.

Notably, time dedicated to architecture goes beyond the production plans and drawings – first we must determine what the end product will be, and the design process to get to the point of a final model or design requires the consideration of materials that best represent the narrative. Considering elements, I chose riveted aluminum modules and perforated sheets to fully represent the idea of reflection and patterns of the ocean waves.

AMANDA CLAY MIKE ANDERSON BAHAR ABEDI Woodbury University Students Vacuum Form Research, Plastic

The goal of this project was to create a modular surface that was different on each side and could interlock to create depth and texture in the surface through the medium of vacuum forming. There were many stages of exploration in this project including learning how to work with and assemble our own vacuum former for the class. Different plastics and different depths of pulls were experimented with, as we worked out different designs, and the possibilities and difficulties in designing two different molds that would interlock to create a rigid surface.

This project was all about the creative process and bringing a seldom used form of manufacturing into the realm of architecture, and pushing it to become something that could build upon itself and eventually grow to stand on its own, to act as walls, facades, dividers or lightweight canopies. While this stage of the project has not reached the full potential we are reaching toward, we feel that is has that potential to add to the discussion of vacuum forming in the architectural design world.

CHADI HAKIM Woodbury University Student Pneumatic Materials, Electronic Control Board

Pneumatic Models |

Models are used at the beginnings of projects to discover an approach to projects. In this case models enabled me to think about how the pneumatic system could work on different scales. For example the big model was built to show two scales of the project, one at the scale of a room and how the pneumatic system can completely change the dynamic of a room by distorting the corners. The second scale could be kept at 1:1 scale to show how the system could take over the spaces between the structures, creating a new type of insulation that could be responsive to temperature and different conditions. Attached to the big model is an electronic control board that controls the pneumatic materials by inflating, deflating, and generally controlling the pressure of the cavity inside the silicone membranes.

The smaller study models later became important aspects of the project, including a wall that can inflate as a response to a physical cue, a space that is hidden and are only accessible when it inflates, and a slight change that renders a space unrecognizable

ALISE ROBLES University of Southern California Student Elmer’s Glue

Elmer’s Glue Jacket |

This Mao jacket made entirely of Elmer’s glue was conceived of as a response to a project during a studio called “Craft: Truth in Making, An architectural Inquiry”. The Mao style jacket was chosen because it represents a known silhouette and its detailing and structure are plain and unembellished. My interest was in using Elmer’s glue as my unconventional material and manipulating it through a conventional fabric operation technique called smocking. The Mao Pattern only gives lines but says nothing about surface or depth, which is what architecture begins to talk about.

The jacket is an exploration of how through the use of a single material and single operation technique surface and depth can begin to be expressed. The fabrication process consisted of drying a total of 3 gallons of Elmer’s glue into 1/16” sheets. Then taking these two-dimensional 1/16” sheet casts of glue and heating the sheets to become malleable enough to fold into the smocked geometry. This project examines parallel processes of design present in both architecture and fashion, including the use of two-dimensional instructions, pattern and plan, to achieve three-dimensional form, clothing and building.

ANTHONY MOREY ynotWORKSHOP Ink on Mylar

Thinking |

“You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” Mark Twain Architectural drawing has long been seen as a static art, something that represents a predetermined object, something already known. The drawings here are meant to challenge that idea. At points there is more joy in discovery than knowing and the drawings are meant to give more questions than answers. Each drawing in itself is a finished work, one that seems to look like the architecture drawings we know, yet they don’t show a building, section, or elevation until you discover it.

To strengthen this idea each variation can be endlessly layered with another, reorganized and reconstructed to make a new variation. Endless options of white over black, black over white, or black over black are all allowed and encouraged. This allows for a constant reinterpretation of possibilities of each single drawing, using them as templates of ideas.

I urge you to stare, look, get lost and make your own jumps, leaps, and assumptions and bring them to life.

The goal was to find a way to be able to draw nothing but evoke everything.

To bring our childhood wonder and imagination back into Architecture.

KANE YANAGAWA CHARNG SHIN CHEN sKY Associative, Taiwan Materials Research

Re-Inflate |

Material research and fabrication methodology are important aspects of the design process at sKY_ Associative. Our approach to architectural design stems from a broad foundation, drawing from inspiration from the visual arts, fashion and industrial design.

Re-Inflate explores the contradiction between the physical properties of compression and inflation through computational design simulation, digital fabrication technology and responsive material properties in this age of pervasive computing. We investigated the translation and transformation of digitally captured data to design form, and the emergent characteristics of the spray forming fabrication process.

Through this experimentation and research our design work is informed by this process on multiple scales of application from interior building finish to overall formal expression. In the end, at each stage of the design process from data capture, computational simulation to digital fabrication, design intuition remained an invaluable resource in the corroboration of design concept, functionality and aesthetic.

YUAN YAO University of Southern California Student Acrylic, 3d Fabrication

Mobius Wait |

Waiting is a given in our lives. We wait to be born, to grow up, and to die. We wait to go to school, to graduate, and to work. We wait for something we want to get, something we want to see, and something we have to do. Sometimes we enjoy waiting and sometimes we are tired of waiting.

Sometimes we know the reason for waiting, and sometimes we don’t know the reason for waiting.

Waiting is a ceremony in our lifecycles, to be respected and even held sacred.

This piece is a study of the many moments that people are waiting and proceeding. Efficiency in architecture and buildings is important to the experience of them, and what better way to understand the ‘circulation’ space in a building that to truly focus on, experiment, and study it? This project presents a conjointed double spiral celestial space, and with it the waiting ritual. People go forward along the spiral ramps, wait behind other people, and meet other people at the intersections.

Spirals in each ball are endless loops that people ascend and descend. Gradually, people are confused about the space and confused about the meaning of waiting. In the meanwhile, they are more eager for the escape from the endless waiting, and ready for activation. This is an extreme study of the profound power architecture can have on experience.