A Study of Interaction
Thesis Book 2012 - 2013: Sample Pages Jonathan Hiser
Thesis Statement This Thesis studies interaction - how two or more entities affect each other - through social, spatial, and programmatic elements. It asks how formal architecture can affect social interaction. It asks how existing transit infrastructure can interact with places for cultural consumption. It asks how the concept of interaction can guide decisions from the top down to the details.
Interaction: a kind of action occurring as two or more objects affect each other Transport Interchange: a place where people and goods are exchanged between transport modes Arts District: a demarcated urban area intended to create a critical mass of cultural consumption
Cultivating A Thesis This year long endeavor rooted itself in a desire to study people interacting in an urban environment. Initial readings focused on the nuances of people, strangers, as they went about their daily lives. Stranger interaction occurs in the public realm. This includes plaza spaces, rail cars, buses, sidewalks, or anywhere people move or congregate. However, these thoughts on stranger interaction do not necessarily materialize into architecture. The focus shifts to studying public plazas. What makes a plaza enjoyable and a place for congregation? The cultivation of a thesis begins to bring in information from various sources in order to seed a thesis project.
Developing Site and Program Development of the program and site selection centered on encouraging social interaction. Specifically, decisions were made based on maximizing this interaction. This means finding a site, that by nature, will bring people together, and developing a program with a variety of activities to attract people.
Generating Interaction With conceptual thoughts, a site, and a foundation for program established, the Thesis project becomes a built environment to test these thoughts, and to look at interaction in new ways. The main focus remains in the social, spatial, and programmatic realms, but wants to look at how interaction can filter into all project decisions. This is done through generating a built environment for interaction.
Cultivating a Thesis Strangers and the City
Invisible Cities and Stranger Studies 101 The exploration of strangers in the city launched with readings from Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, and Follow Me Down by Kio Stark, as well as a study by William H. Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. From Invisible Cities, a passage about the fictional city of Chloe, the city of strangers, became an entry point into conceptual thinking on social interaction.
“In Chloe, a great city, the people
who move through the streets are all strangers. At each encounter, they imagine a thousand things about one another; meetings which could take place between them, conversations, surprises, caresses, bites. But no one greets anyone; eyes lock for a second, then dart away, seeking other eyes, never stopping.”
Chloe - City of Strangers “The people who move through the streets are all strangers. At each encounter, they imagine a thousand things about one another; meetings which could take place between them, conversations, surprises, caresses. But no one greets anyone; eyes lock for a second, then dart away, seeking other eyes, never stopping.”
...when some people happen to find themselves together, taking shelter from the rain under an arcade, or crowding beneath an awning of the bazaar, or stopping to listen to the band in the square, meetings... are consummated among them without a word exchanged, without a finger touching anything, almost without an eye raised.
“...when some people happen to find themselves together, taking shelter from the rain under an arcade, or crowding beneath an awning of the bazaar, or stopping to listen to the band in the square, meetings...are consummated among them without a word exchanged, without a finger touching anything, almost without an eye raised.” The interest in social interaction here lies in the daily routines that bring people together, as they wait on a bus, or ride a subway, or take their lunch breaks. These routines are hinted at in studies and a book by Kio Stark, where she mentions that, “when we talk to strangers, we’re interrupting the expected narratives of daily life, shifting perspectives, forming unexpected connections.” She further describes “people as units of measure. The clock of the world” meaning that as we all fall into our daily routines, we can sometimes tell if we are earlier or later than normal based on whether or not we see the same people during our daily commute.
“Premise is that strangers and cities are inherently intertwined.” -Kio Stark, Stranger Studies 101
Cultivating a Thesis
Spatial Condition Studies Diagrammatic sketches of either existing conditions, or conditions from readings or lectures provide an entry into thinking about space. They take conditions and cut sections through them, giving a very basic spatial diagram, all while providing an opportunity to “collect” spaces. Existing conditions include larger scale city environments (Bellinzona, Switzerland), smaller interior courtyard spaces (Sapienza), individual performance spaces (Mozarteum), and planar buildings that adjust the base plane (Farnsworth House). Meanwhile, some of the other conditions come from Louis Kahn and his lecture on The Room, The Street, and The Human Agreement, as well as lectures from the Building Cities class taught at Virginia Tech. The Kahn quotes are paired with spaces imagined while reading from his lecture, and the other diagrams derive from thinking about the street as a room within a city.
“In a small room with just another person, what you say may never have been said before.” -Louis Kahn
Sketch Bellinzona, Switzerland
“A lightless corridor, never a room, aspires to the hall overlooking the garden.” -Louis Kahn
Sapienza Francisco Borromini Rome, Italy
Typical Street: Medieval Building Cities
Mozarteum Universtiy Salzburg, Austria
Typical Street Modern American Building Cities
Farnsworth House Mies van der Rohe Plano, Illinois
Developing Site and Program N. Broad St and Lehigh St. Philadelphia, PA
The site is a roughly 400’ by 250’ block at the intersection of N. Broad St. and Lehigh St. This location on the intersection’s southwest corner makes the corner and site a prime hub for connecting the regional rail, metro, Amtrak station, and bus stops.
AMTRAK PHN
METRO N. PHILA
Botany 500 Building
Conditionally, the site offers opportunity for studying social, spatial, and programmatic interaction. The combination of a transit hub and arts district provides programmatic variety. In turn, the variety of transit options, the nature of Broad street being a primary route into center city, and openness of the site provides opportunity for social interaction development. Spatially, the site has a rail line that cuts diagonally across the rectilinear city grid. The cut is powerful enough that it starts to shape the buildings directly around it.
METRO N. PHILA
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View up the rail line at an existing Regional Rail Station. This cut is what runs under the site. A
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Site model photograph of the same view, the top plate becomes a plane sitting over this rail cut through the city, powerful enough to affect buildings like the Botany 500 Building. B
Lehigh St. N. Broad St.
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Developing a Program Cast of Characters The Arts and Transit
Through all of the research into site and program, a few key characters start to emerge. These quick models highlight some of those characters as they relate to certain programmatic elements for the thesis.
Outdoor Musician and Audience
Artist in Studio
Depicted: Solo musician and audience Represents: need for outdoor performance space Example: Formal stage, amphitheater, space for impromptu performances
Depicted: Painter working Represents: space to practice the arts Examples: Studio space for visual arts, rehearsal space for music, theatre, and dance.
Indoor Musicians and Audience
Visitors Viewing Art
Depicted: Jazz band on stage Represents: formal indoor performance space Examples: Auditorium, theatre, jazz club, bar
Depicted: patrons of an art gallery Represents: space for cultural consumption Examples: gallery space, audience seating
Transit Riders Depicted: waiting on a bus Represents: spaces for transport interchange Example: lobbies, bus stops, train platforms
Public Space Users Depicted: Booths in a restaurant Represents: The general public using the building Example: Restaurants, cafes,
Generating Interaction Building Overview Plans
In this scheme, the buildings contain a mixture of programs to encourage use on a daily basis. The buildings frame public plaza spaces connected through a wide pedestrian path. Beyond the list of spaces here, the plazas provide informal performance spaces in the Northeast Plaza, and a more formal outdoor stage in the Southwest Plaza. In addition, this scheme introduces mass transit options through several “Park and Ride� commuter spaces, while connecting to a regional rail line.
1. Entry and Atrium 2. Office 3. Theatre 4. Stage 5. Stage Shop and Storage 6. Dressing/Prep Room 7. Retail/Commercial 8. Professional Studio Gallery 9. Cafe 10. Mechanical 11. Event/Exhibition Space 12. Catering/Exhibition Support 13. Rehearsal/Studio Space 14. Retail/Commercial 15. Outdoor Stage
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Generating Interaction Building Overview Section
This section takes the same approach as the previous one, but adds a couple spaces and reworks others. For instance, the previous auditorium becomes a full theatre, the mass transit is consolidated, and the atrium and informal performance space are further developed. A loading dock is added to support the theatre space, and is helped by the slope of the site and establishment of a base plane extending across, placing the building on a podium, or stage.
Atrium
Loading Dock
Theatre
Informal Performance Space
Mass Transit
Generating Interaction Model Photographs Plaza, Theatre, Atrium
This page is a sampling of the spaces developed for the thesis project.
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(1) Theatre - Formal performance space (2) Plaza - Informal performance space (3) Atrium - Fusion of transit and arts patrons (4) NE Plaza - Public space, main entrance (5) Philly Skyline - Connection to city (6) Rail Platform - Transit Riders
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