PORTFOLIO John Leano Grad III / Fall 2016
F 2014 / S 2015
ARCH 551 / Control Over Qualities Kelly Bair + Thomas Kelley The simple operations scale, orient, multiply were methods for investigating formal qualities of common roof profiles within the control of axes and perspective. How can a fairly rigid process of formal alteration open up more possibilities for architecture?
XYZ Drawings illustrate the outcome of formal operations on common roof profiles with a specific focus on twin types: conjoined, identical and fraternal. Each type is altered and explored about each axis: x, y, and z.
MANSARD & ARCH
LOFTING OPERATIONS ABOUT X
X, Y. CAVE + CRUCIFORM. Another layer of control and formal articulation is found in additive and subtractive techniques. Form is given an “inside” and “outside”.
Y CAVE: IDENTICAL
Y CRUCIFORM: CONJOINED
Z. TOTEMS. Can the introduction of depth produce a “third twin”?
FORM TO TYPE: GRACELAND CEMETERY
Graceland Cemetery is as much a catalogue of relatively overlooked architectural types. From ossuaries and columbariums to mausoleums and monuments, each type contains meaning, history and a specificity of form reserved for the dead. The cemetery is a site ripe for architectural speculation.
GRACELAND CEMETERY COLLECTIVE STUDIO MODEL
The Twin Pavilion occupies an intersection near the southern border of the cemetery, becoming a new contemplative stop on the walking path.
TWIN PAVILION The synthesis of twin forms through the lens of cemetery typologies resulted in the Twin Pavilion: a new cemetery type accommodating the living and the dead underneath a coffered and tufted ceiling. Its triangular area posits a latent “third twin�.
TWIN PAVILION UNDERSIDE
BEYOND THIS PLACE OF WRATH AND TEARS
LOOMS BUT THE HORROR OF THE SHADE.
AND YET THE MENACE OF THE YEARS
FINDS, AND SHALL FIND ME, UNAFRAID.
ARCH 552 / Power Over Quantities Stewart Hicks + Julia Capomaggi The studio investigates power in architecture through the elaboration of character, narrative and context. How can the successive layers of meaning extracted from form and figuration inform an architecture? A bas relief model ultimately tests ideas about formal and spatial hierarchy, or a lack thereof, within the programs of a library and museum.
DOS IS FOR DUALITY DOS is a character and characteristic of an idea about duality. Duality implies simultaneity - two things in the same place and time or multi-purpose.
DOS is from Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. Its bi-polar halves, Deux and Deuce, are in conflict about the “true� orientation of the world. Black and white is too reductive, maybe they could meet in the middle?
COLLAGE BOTH-AND CONDITIONS
Collage is clothing and context. What DOS wears accentuates its two unique halves while foregrounding a middle. Where DOS inhabits is two worlds, up and down - unique in identity yet linked - where hierarchy is relative. In collage, the plan of Villa Rotunda becomes an urban plan and DOS’ home - a threshold between two worlds.
SITE MODEL
THE BOOK MUSEUM & LIBRARY
Character and narrative collapse in programmatic composition. Plan, section and elevation guide the exploration and potential of duality in interior space and activity. The concept of duality was furthered by deploying the book as simultaneously educative tool and art object.
FRONT ELEVATION A clear tri-partite subdivision is expressed on the exterior. The “clothing” articulation suggests an interior mediation between two halves or worlds with a conceptual and physical link.
SIDE ELEVATION The clothing straddles the form’s middle while accentuating the upper and lower halves - a complementary mediator with a character of its own.
A SHORT STORY ABOUT THE BOOK SECTION I The book’s life begins in its conventional accomodation on shelves in the ground floor library. In the interstitial floors between library and museum the book beomes a decorative profile, a sign of its former life, a contemplative notion.
SECTION II It is finally placed on a pedestal in the top-floor museum as an artifact or relic, joining a statue from Boullee’s French National Library. It ultimately ends up a statistic in a pile of discarded books. The transition of the book from tool to art to trash is expressed in the programmatic transition from bottom-half library to upper-half museum.
LIBRARY PLAN
LITERATURE
MIDDLE PLAN
LEISURE
MUSEUM PLAN
LECTURE
DOS BAS RELIEF The bas relief tests the formal and interior composition of the challenges of resolving space and activity.
LIBRARY AND MUSEUM ARE BOTH WILDLY DIFFERENT
...YET EQUALLY ENGAGING
F 2015 / S 2016
ARCH 553 / House Penelope Dean + Grant Gibson The studio subverted conventional notions of the home and domestic life by investigating the home in reverse: via the interior. The design for a single-family home at the chosen site of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was informed by a process that first investigated furniture, objects, decor and built-ins. This research through mid-century domestic precedents and extensive modeling later served as a basis for formal (spatial, structure and envelope) derivation. What ideas about domestic life can emerge by prioritizing a close examination of the things inside?
MOBILE HOUSE Mobile House re-examines domestic life for a small family at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore through a combination of fixed and mobile furniture. Mobile furniture plays a literally active role for the family - furniture capable of “keeping up� through expediency, convenience and portability.
NORTH ELEVATION
SOUTH ELEVATION
ROOF PLAN
WEST ELEVATION
The front entry ramp curls around the northeast corner of the home. The driveway, continues beneath the home into a small below-home car port. Wood paneling across the faรงade lends material contrast to the industrial homogeneity of the floor and roof slabs.
EAST ELEVATION & FRONT ENTRY
WEST SECTION
EAST SECTION MAIN FLOOR PLAN The tension between a modernist free plan enabled by structural concrete columns and a postmodernist floor manipulation creates the setting for a mixture of events that encourages a more open and fluid lifestyle - the flowing, coincidence and intersection of activity in an uninterrupted space largely devoid of partition and corridor. Caster and rollable furniture activate pocketed spaces while the flat perimeter around accomodates built-ins and fixed utilities; i.e. the kitchen, bathroom and storage. The parents’ and child’s bedrooms occupy the rear of the home, with wide views of the forest through floor-to-ceiling shelf-windows. Floor “portholes” allow for viewing the zen garden beneath the home, while two skylights illuminate interior intersections.
LANDSCAPE PLAN A zen garden of stepped gravel beds and ferns complements the home’s interior allowing for a contemplative break from the activity taking place inside.
ARCH 554 / Urbanism Sarah Dunn + Sean Lally The studio investigated the potential for new urban typologies based on ideas about wellness. Collaborative research on implications for the urban interior (e.g. via technology, “green� space, materiality) informed programmatic diagrams that visualize wellness as a gradient - hypothesizing a multi-functional blend of space and activity. Further collective iterations on form and type contributed to the studio pool of knowledge from which to motivate and inform an architectural and urban proposal. The research culminated in the projection of an idea about wellness in the form of a community center located at Rainbow Beach and the site of a former water filtration plant on 72nd and South Shore Dr. in Chicago.
An interesting way to investigate programmatic organization and its potential impact on space and activity was to outline program as a set of choices in a logical flow chart. Generic emoticons prompt an initial response in the community center visitors, who can then determine where they may likely direct themselves in reference to their needs on a moment-by-moment basis.
ARCHITECTURE IS SO CHOICE
Y
N
FEELING SOCIABLE?
Y
N
ARE YOU HERE ALONE?
Y
Y
N
N
Y
Y
VOLUNTEER
ADMIN OFFICE
GET A JOB
N
RUNNING TRACK
GO FOR A WALK
Y
NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT?
Y
N
SATISFIED?
Y
N
Y
Y
N
Y
CALL 911
N
Y
N
REFRESHED?
N
Y
N
Y
N
SEE A PHYSICIAN DOCTOR’S OFFICE
LOUNGE AROUND LOBBY
DETOX JUICE BAR
N
FEELING BETTER? Y
UNSURE?
Y N
Y
Y
N
NEED SPORT EQUP.?
WINDOW SHOP RETAIL STORES
Y
N
NEED VITAMINS / MEDICATION?
SEEK ADVICE CONCIERGE
N
FEEL LIKE SHOPPING?
GO FOR A STROLL GARDEN
BUY IT BUY IT SPORTING GOODS PHARMACY / GNC
BORED / RESTLESS?
REHABILITATING?
SEE A NURSE DOCTOR’S OFFICE
N
N
SHORT-TERM CARE?
CONSULT A THERAPIST PHYSICAL THERAPY CLINIC
MOTEL
N
Y
IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE?
HOSTEL
Y
QUICK NAP?
Y
SLEEP?
Y
ANGRY?
INJURED / IN PAIN?
BOOK A ROOM
N
TIRED?
N
BOOK A BED
RELAX?
Y
SAD?
JOIN A RECREATIONAL ACTIVITY?
RESTAURANT
N
CAFE / JUICE BAR
Y
QUICK BITE?
HUNGRY?
N
ENJOY A MEAL
N
Y
STRESSED?
HAVE A SNACK
CONSULT A CAREER COUNSELOR COUSELING OFFICE
N
UNEMPLOYED?
Y
N
ABOUT WORK?
Y
ANXIOUS?
CAREER / EMPLOYMENT SERVICES
CONSULT A PSYCHOTHERAPIST DOCTOR’S OFFICE
Y
LONELY?
N
RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS?
Y
N
ABOUT LIFE?
HAPPY?
?
MAKE FRIENDS
Y
HAVING FUN?
N
MAKE MORE FRIENDS LOBBY
N
N
N Y
RESTAURANT
REPLENISH ENERGY
Y
Y
N
HAD ENOUGH PHYSICAL ACTIVITY TODAY?
TENNIS COURT
CONSIDER BOOKING A WEEKEND PACKAGE MOTEL ADMIN
N
RELAX A FEW HOURS?
VOLLEYBALL COURT
DOUBLES
LAP POOL
DOUBLES
DO SOME LAPS
N
MASSAGE PARLOR
GET A MASSAGE
Y
BY YOURSELF?
Y
JOIN AN EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY?
CONSIDER BOOKING A REJUVENATION PACKAGE
RUNNING TRACK
DO SOME LAPS
LEARN TO MEDITATE YOGA STUDIO
LEISURE POOL
ZUMBA STUDIO
N
WATER AEROBICS
HUNGRY?
JUICE BAR
N
SHOWER ROOM
Y
THIRSTY?
QUENCH YOUR THIRST
N
BASKETBALL HALF-COURT
1 ON 1 PICK-UP
SYNCHRONIZED DIVING LEISURE POOL
Y
REJUVENATED?
LET OFF SOME STEAM STEAM ROOM
LEARN TO DANCE
HOT BATH
N
DESTRESS
SAUNA
ROCK WALL
TIRED?
Y
COLD BATHS
SWEAT IT OUT
GO CLIMBING
TAKE ONE
Y
NEED A SHOWER?
VOLLEYBALL COURT
BASKETBALL COURT
WATER POLO
6 ON 6 PICK-UP
N
5 ON 5 PICK-UP
Y
IN A POOL?
Y
AS A DUO?
N
TEE OFF DRIVING RANGE
SYNCHONIZED SWIMMING LEISURE POOL
N
N
Y
NEED QUIET TIME?
TAKE A CLASS YOGA, PILATES SPIN CLASSES
LEISURE POOL
Y
IN A POOL?
Y
WITH A TEAM?
Y
INDULGE IN FRIENDLY COMPETITION?
CAFE / JUICE BAR
COOL OFF
RUNNING TRACK
N
CONSIDER REGISTERING FOR A COMMUNITY HEALTH CLASS
HOT BATH
N
SOCIALIZE WITH FRIENDS CAFE
CONSIDER BOOKING A ROOM FOR AN EVENT
SIT AND SOAK
SOCIALIZE WITH STRANGERS LOBBY
Y
HAD ENOUGH EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY TODAY?
JOIN A MEETUP GROUP LOBBY
CAFE
PAINT AND DRINK
DO SOME READING COMMUNITY BOOK EXCHANGE
LOBBY
EXPLORE MEDICINE MUSEUM
LEARN TO COOK AND EAT WELL CLASSROOM KITCHEN
DEMO MEDICAL EQUIPMENT HANDS-ON LAB
MEDICAL LAB
LEARN ABOUT CUTTING-EDGE MEDICAL TREATMENTS
JUICE BAR
LEAVE
HEALTH AMENITIES
SPA AMENITIES
ADMINISTRATIVE + GENERAL SERVICES
ACCOMODATION + FOOD
SPORTS + FITNESS CENTER
EDUCATIONAL / FLOATING PROGRAM
The flowchart outlines a hierarchy of needs inspired by logic circuits. The chart illustrates relationships between states of well-being and possible programmatic solutions. Visitors are confronted with essential questions which are resolved by the community center’s amenities and services.
WELLNESS GRADIENT
HEALTH GRADIENT
THE FLOWCHART OUTLINES A HEIRARCHY OF NEEDS INSPIRED BY LOGIC CIRCUITS. THE CHART ILLUSTRATES RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STATES OF WELL-BEING AND PROGRAMMATIC SOLUTIONS. USERS ARE CONFRONTED WITH ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS WHICH ARE RESOLVED BY THE COMMUNITY CENTER’S AMENITIES AND SERVICES.
SPA ADMIN
LOBBY ADMIN
RE-ROUTE / BACKTRACK TO ALTERNATE OR PREVIOUS OPTIONS
COMMUNITY ADMIN
FORMAL INVENTION
BITE. DENT. SCOOP. IMPALE. MELD. LOFT.
Formal alterations helped develop a catalogue of cubic forms as a way of thinking spatially about program, interior and exterior.
HOW CAN AN IDEA ABOUT WELLNESS TAKE SHAPE?
What new urban types can emerge from ideas about
CARPETS?
CARPET: INSULATION
CARPET I
CARPET: ZIGZAGGURAT
CARPET II
CARPET: LICKERISH
CARPET III
CARPET: BOOSH
CARPET IV
A CARPET IS: REPETITION. SCALE. DENSITY. ENTANGLEMENT.
ARCHITECTURE AS INTERFACE Access to a range of internet media, services and devices means: 1. A collapse in distance between people and services 2. Instantaneous access to social and economic resources in the physical isolation of one’s device. These effects eliminate the inconvenience of a commute or formal/designated space and allow for greater productivity and more articulate organization through the expediency of information. If virtual communities are the new venues of communication, interaction and exchange, then: 1. Work and play become location-independent. People should be encouraged to congregate. 2. Community can be delivered to you. Groups should be encouraged to mix. In the community center, the architectural interface promotes wellness as a social activity as much as private routine by aggregating social condensers shared space and mixed program generate a dynamic coexistence of activities intended to physically gather and collide the disparate masses.
ARCHITECTURE AS INTERFACE
Access to a range of internet media, services, and devices means: 1. A collapse in distance between people and services.
2. Instantaneous accessibility to social and economic resources in relative isolation (through an individual’s device).
These effects eliminate the inconvenience of a commute or formal/designated space and allow for greater productivity or efficiency and more articulate organization through the expediency of information.
If virtual communities are the new venues of communication, interaction and exchange, then: 1. Work and play become location-independent: Events can occur anywhere and simultaneously. People should be encouraged to congregate through a carpet-model of spatial distribution.
2. Community can be delivered to you: Activities take place without physical interaction. Groups should be encouraged to mix through a buckshot-model of programmatic distribution.
In the community center, the architectural interface promotes wellness as a social activity as much as private routine by aggregating social condensers - shared space and mixed program generate a dynamic coexistence of activities intended to physically gather and collide the disparate masses. FOOD + ACCOMODATION SPA AMENITY HEALTH CENTER SPORT, RECREATION, FITNESS PLAYER 1 PLAYER 2 ABOVEGROUND UNDERGROUND CONCEPTUAL PLAN, 170,000 FT.2 OF FUN
PLAYER 1
PLAYER 2
HYBRID CLINIC + REC CENTER
MAT-BUILDING
PARKSCAPE PARKOUR
SUNKEN PLAZAS ENCOURAGING COMMUNAL ACTIVITY
SHARED THERAPY + REC ELEMENTS
SEASONAL AMENITIES
SPACE: CARPETING A grid-based field of repeated similar forms
PROGRAM: BUCKSHOT Close proximity and density via a non-hierarchical dispersal throughout the spatial carpet
COLLAPSE: CAMOUFLAGE Program merged within spatial and formal homogeneity
BUILT
PROGRAM
BUILT
PARKSCAPE
PROGRAM
PARKSCAPE
GROUND INTERFACE Underground or below-grade space for passage or plaza to further generate congregation and mixture
INTERFACE
An aggregation of immersive architectural situtions condensing shared space and mixed program. Interface in the community center is expressed as forms of access.
SHARED ACCESS One continuous activity space through which people can move to go somewhere else
SEMI-PUBLIC ACCESS Space and program within audible/visual range but physically out of reach
DIRECT ACCESS Moving from one space and program to another by immediate adjacency
INDIRECT ACCESS Moving to one program and space requires moving through another program and space
AT THE SITE OF THE INTERACTION... THE INTERFACE - WE EXPERIENCE NOT PAIN BUT COMFORT. JOHN HARWOOD
LATITUDINAL “PIER” SECTIONS
LATITUDINAL LAND SECTIONS
LONGITUDINAL SECTION THROUGH SITE CENTER & MAGNIFIED
RECREATIONAL THERAPY ISLAND
MULTI-PROGRAM PLAZA
A MULTIPLICITY OF ACTIVITY
VIEW EAST, BOWL & SWIM
PICTURESQUE EVEN ON A GLOOMY DAY VIEW NORTH, LAKEFRONT PATH
F 2016
ARCH 565 / Architecture Through the Looking Glass Sam Jacob How can we unpack the layers of meaning in images and contexts to arrive at a specific idea about architecture and how it can be represented? An exploration of grids (systems) and gridscapes (systematic projections) forms the groundwork for a speculative concept about architecture. Combined with research on 19th and 20th century utopian communities and via a common mode of architectural representation: the drawing, we come to a particular understanding and projection about architecture’s relationship with culture and context.
THIS
IS THIS
REDUCTION
WITHOUT TOTAL LOSS OF MEANING
GRIDSCAPES
The drawing describes the act and what it is - drawing as act and project. Ideas from grid drawings are extended and explored further through the lens of a given set of architectural and non-architectural references.
CONFLATIONS.
EXTRUSIONS.
PROJECTIONS.
CONFIGURATIONS.
DELINEATIONS.
SHIBUI
A MODEL OF THE THING IS AS GOOD AS THE THING ITSELF The thing is both complementary and projective on its own in an attempt to give form to a field of hatches by “extracting” the linework that governed the drawing; i.e. the thing is the physical manifestation of the drawing’s linework. Unlike the soft density and ambiguity of the drawing the thing is tangible - legible, hard and certain. Although, just like the drawing, it maintains an exterior homogeneity, generality, anonymity or lack of identity while containing an inner richness only apparent by engaging with it.
THE DRAWING IS THE PROJECT
Fractal qualities and layered tensions: cohesion-dissolution, legibility-illegibility. Where does abstraction end and architecture begin? How can the ambiguous become specfic?
POST-1871 SITE PLAN
The new 1871 thrives on the former site of the burned-down North American Phalanx. The existing site informs the grid of the new 1871 and vice versa.
SITE MODEL
WORK-PLAY 1871 (Merchandise Mart, Chicago, present) and the North American Phalanx (Colts Neck, NJ, 1843): Two communities, similar agendas emphasizing collaboration, divergent ideas about labor and leisure. What if 1871 were reenvisioned as a dispersed campus that is as much for work as it is for education and recreation? These scenarios synthesize the graphic tensions and oscillations explored in the previous drawings (issues of legibility and hierarchy) and the conflicting ideas about work in the 19th and 21st centuries. They suggest that work can take place anywhere and in different forms while leisure is prioritized to be as much a part of work as labor - both understood today as opposite sides of the same coin. This work-play conflict is expressed in the contrast between 19th century manual laborers and 21st century hipster tech and creative entrepreneurs. Scenarios also emphasize that while work today has changed in form (more intellectual and creative) and capability (technology), labor specialization and a sense of alienation persists.
LEISURE SPECIALIZED
A DAY AT THE OFFICE
ALIENATED.
ARCH 566 / The Logistical City Clare Lyster This research studio examined the increasingly rapid and complex networks (e.g. the fulfillment supply chain) impacting not only urban movement and development but also architecture across all scales as a result of relentless socioeconomic demands. Research on contemporary share economy businesses (logistical players like Amazon, FedEx, Uber, etc.) helped to reinforce the meaning and potential of logistics in the city and push forth a projection about the possibilities for architecture and urbanism. How might the Logistical City take shape within the context of increasingly dynamic and integrated ssytems?
The logistical city is a hyper-mediated environemnt produced by the intervention of interfaces on architectural and urban spaces.
LOGISTICAL INTERFACE HYPER-MEDIATED CITY
As far back as 1964, Marshall McLuhan described the global village as a place “not so much altered by the content of a medium, but rather, a space transformed by the very nature of medias themselves. For some, this is little more than the inevitable evolution of urban space in the digital age. For others, it represents the city’s liberation from the condition of stasis…”1 While McLuhan was referring to the spatial impact of emerging media, the television in particular, this could
Figure 1 conceptually include a literal understanding of media intervention in architectural and urban spaces. If the logistical city is a mediated environment, architecture and urban space must be re-conceived as hyper-mediated spaces or interfaces. Architecture itself has always been a phenomenological and perceptual medium in which materiality and formal composition allow us enter a dialogue with the built environment. Before ever the introduction of digital technology, we understand that the wall divides space, program and experience and can even be thought of as an interstitial medium in and of itself2. The advent of the share economy and its digital technologies has produced a further layer of engagement through which we relate to the environment around us. For example, media interfaces or screens of digital information expedite communication and consumption independent of our location. Peapod, an online grocery delivery service, once enabled passersby to shop for groceries by pointing smartphone cameras at a “virtual grocery store” which is a billboard of product images and corresponding QR codes. The strategy is an example of how online order fulfillment undermines the brick and mortar grocery by closing the gap between a shopper and the products through a smartphone interface – grocery shopping can happen anywhere. There are, in addition, common yet overlooked forms of media that more directly alter architecture and experience. Fast-food drive-thru’s or loading docks, for instance, are architectural apertures which are designed to accommodate vehicles interfacing with the spaces of backof-house operations. These hyper-mediated spaces are an alteration of existing architectural or urban space through a logistical interface, embedding elements of
logistical systems to extend architectural faculties to modes of delivery. The idea of hyper-mediated space is not new. There are common forms of interface that have served to smooth the frictions between architecture, people, and product flows. Dispensary machines, such as ATM’s and vending machines (from food kiosks to product kiosk’s) have been extant for decades. These interfaces that
Figure 2 depend on virtual networks collapse the time and distance that separate consumers from cash or products via information and automation. Teller windows at Currency Exchange stores safely facilitate monetary transactions that could otherwise become hostile. Dumbwaiters or elevators are other spatial interfaces that link vertical spaces and serve as logistical corridors for the movement of products and people. Further, the elevator is one historical example of how mechanical media has informed the architecture that houses it, being partly responsible for the emergence of skyscrapers in the 19th century. The drive-thru window in its various forms is one example of an invasive architectural interface that lessens the time and distance between a consumer on-the-go and fast food. So too is the weather-sealed gasket of the warehouse which Deborah Richmond describes in Consumers Gone Wild as an architectural back3 - the final threshold between the delivery fulfillment chain and the retail environment. The necessity for this back-stage interface is responsible for the “mullet” effect of big box retail stores such as Wal-Mart and also suburban shopping malls and strip malls which emphasize an eye-catching front while conducting business on the back. One could arguably trace the docking bays of fulfillment and distribution centers themselves to the shipping port. The port is the cultural and economic interface bridging ocean and continent, and has been critical in the development of human civilization. It’s evident these forms and scales of interface have served the fluidity of markets by optimizing processes of commercial exchange, but they are often overlooked as architectural informers. They are typically interpreted as
Figure 3
Figure 4
FULFILLMENT ALLEY Bringing the supply chain right to your back door
consequences of the need for commercial efficiency and functionality. As Branden Hookway identifies in Pandemonium, they are abstractions that are actually the “boundary between idea and matter, spatial and temporal relationships.�4 An interface can be conventionally understood as an aperture or screen, but like Hookway, if instead we think about interface itself as the symbolic and functional relationship between at least two parties pending an interaction or exchange then this can open up more formal possibilities. Also, while we may not think of these intermediary devices as media per se, they are nonetheless means to specific ends in the consumer-producer relationship that have a significant stake in the logistics of product movement. The hyper-mediated spaces of the logistical city would take this understanding to an extreme, for example, in the realm of delivery fulfillment. Unlike the proliferation of massive distribution centers away from urban density, hyper-mediated space would concentrate in denser areas close to the consumer. Concentration in a neighborhood or at a residence, for example, would close the gap between warehouse logistics and the private domain. Fulfillment Alley The street itself is a type of urban conduit that already mediates between the home and the neighborhood. In Chicago, the alley is an existing logistical conveyor for garbage handling, telecom and power line maintenance, and an outlet for backyard garages – a public corridor for the delivery of privately utilized services. The alley can be re-imagined as a possible interface to become a further localized segment of the delivery fulfillment chain - accommodating an additional logistical layer for package distribution. In this model, the home directly interfaces with the fulfillment chain by deploying the conveyor belt in the alley as a fulfillment conduit on which packages are picked up and delivered at the alley ends. Given the demand by the consumer for expedient delivery and the ease of online ordering, the conveyor becomes critical in both receiving and shipping. The frictions between ordering and delivering are further smoothed, adding to the comforts of home life in a similar way that the conveyor has added to the convenience of sorting processes in distribution centers. Domestic Backstage / Conveyor Invasion Porting the docking bay to the home allows the influence of market transaction directly into the domestic realm which, as history has shown with the fulfillment center and shipping port, can lead to the dramatic development of those mediated environments. Conveyor invasion could similarly alter existing domestic types beginning with the transformation of the domestic interior, which is already a revolving door of commodities. Taken to a logical though quite dystopian extreme, the home would no longer be a static commodity container but rather a dynamic, hyper-mediated, space for the consumption of things as they are needed.
End Note A hyper-mediated city involves logistical developments at neighborhood and domestic scales that reflect the current paradigm of rapid and optimal product delivery and service. The result is an expansion of operation of the fulfillment center to that of the neighborhood block and its constituent houses – the final and elusive frontier of big box operation. In a sense, neighborhood blocks themselves become distribution satellites for the final leg of delivery. Meanwhile, the house, as Deborah Richmond suggests in Consumers Gone Wild, has itself become a speculative capital flow, a literal commodity inside the flows of commodities5 in the neighborhood of the hyper-mediated city. The residential domain is finally “consumed” by the fulfillment chain itself taking its place as a “small box” or just another node in a vast logistical network.
Figure 5
Figure 6
References 1. “Enter the Space Inside a Wall: Two Installations by The Chapuisat Brothers,” last modified March 1, 2014, http://socksstudio.com/2014/03/01/enter-the-space-inside-a-wall-twoinstallations-by-the-chapuisat-brothers/. 2. “The Mediated City,” November 16, 2016, http:// architecturemps.com/the-mediated-city/. 3. Deborah Richmond, “Consumers Gone Wild: Distribution,” in The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles, ed. Kazys Varnelis (Barcelona: Actar, March 2008), 214. 4. Branden Hookway, Pandemonium (Princeton Architectural Press, November 1, 1999), 76. 5. Deborah Richmond, “Consumers Gone Wild: Distribution,” in The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles, ed. Kazys Varnelis (Barcelona: Actar, March 2008), 216. Image Captions 1. Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage, 1967 2. Peapod, Virtual Grocery Store, 2012 3. Khalifa Port Container Terminal, 2014 4. Dave & Les Jacobs, Distribution Center Bay Doors, 2012 5. Remi Gastin, New York Times Square, 2008 6. The Wachowski Brothers, The Matrix: Reloaded, still, 2003
FULFILLMENT ALLEY
CONVEYOR INVASION
DOMESTIC BACKSTAGE
FIN.
johnpleano.co