Foundation Design Studio Works K
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M c
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H i s t o r y m y t h o l o
& g
y
(two week project)
History and Mythology teaches students the importance of understanding the history of a place. They observe cultural values that differentiate places, that remain latent in these places today. We teach them techniques of graphic design, layout, and image compostition, in addition to writing and presentation skills.
V i s u a l I m a g e s (four week project)
Visual images requires students to find examples of abstract terms we use to describe great urban places, and ground them through perceptual images. It teaches them techniques of drawing and digital representation. By having them trace their own photographs, we find them better at perspective drawing in later years, much more prone to not tip the ground plane down, and they see light and space much more powerfully.
D i
a g r
a
m m i n g
(three week project)
This project teaches students cognitive models of spatial representation, to complement the perceptual images. They learn that places are just as important for what we think they are, as what they are.
F i g u
r
e
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G r o u
n
d
(one week project)
This project introduces environmental design as the design of spaces, not objects. It forces them to understand the rules of grammar of form. They must create a balanced, open composition that relates in context to a bar below, that contains some sense of a unique identity. Students may select a color to add movement, impact and hierarchy to their composition. The project stresses process and product. Trace, sharpie and white out continually are reapplied to study numerous iterations. It removes the study as a sacred object and opens students to changes in their designs from the onset of the program. The final interation is demanding in terms of craft. The design must be completed upon strathmore board in acrylic paint and india ink. Mistakes cannot be corrected, so this project teaches the students to manage time appropriately. This project cannot be rushed at the last minute.
F i g u
r
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G r o u
n
d
S p a c
e
C h
u
n
k
(two week project)
This project blurs the idea of the world as black and white. Students learn the explicit definition and implication of spatial design in three dimensions. The students are given five spaces, each of which has different needs in terms of spatial definition. They must adhere to strict rules of grids and pay close attention to resolving an asymmetrical program into a unified composition. Again, the project stresses both process and craft. Cardboard and duct tape make the projects easily malleable, but final models stress craft and precision.
‘ K
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t
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P a
r t s ’
G
a
r
d e
n
(four week project)
In this project, students produce twelve gardens in four weeks-one per class. They have three series of three to produce. Each week requires three model studies, and one drawing documenting and refining the study models to check the human scale of the design. One garden they may only use earth, in the next, they may only use the vertical plane up or down, and in the final study iteration, they may only use the overhead plane to make spaces. Each garden must contain one space for a gathering of fifty people, two spaces for seven to fifteen people, and two intimate spaces for one to three people. This garden applies a sensibility of scale to the abstract concepts of space issued in the figureground and space chunch. The project teaches them simple moves become the most effective. When overlaying systems of ground, wall and overhead, these simple, organized systems can create rich spaces of complexity.
M
e
m o r y ,
H o u s e
,
(three week project)
In this project, students examine memories of a childhood home to facilitate an exploration of concept and perception in landscape. This begins to layer meaning into the newly discovered kit of parts. Also introduced is the idea of sequence, movement and unfolding. Students diagram their childhood homes, using a concept developed such as tension, surprise, or discovery. The students then develop a language with their kit of parts that communicates this phenomenological experience. They test their ideas in model and perspective. The garden is 80’ x 80,’ and the procession path is 120.’
G
a
r
d e
n
(tension and threshold become design determinants)
Marshall Mason remembers trying to sneak by his parents late at night for a snack, and having the fear of getting caught at thresholds that would expose him. His design becomes a series of thresholds experienced in the ground, vertical, and overhead planes.
(gestalt interpretation of a childhood experience)
Maria Van Der Le Rose remembers her house burning down. Her interpretation was more of a gestalt of the experience. The house only had pipes, trees, and some structure remaining. The site was flooded from the water, with remant flames and steam. Her feeling about the experience was strangely tranquil. The procession moves along a parallel wall lit by a grid of propane flames, to an area of pipes that intermittently emit steam.
L
a
n
d s c
a
p e
O b s e
(four week project)
In this project, students apply concepts of movement to a real landscape. The project requires students to pick a national park site, and discover the one of the elven primary geomorpholical processes that determined the landscape form. From this point, they analyze climate, soil and ecosystem flora and fauna. They learn landscape to be dynamic and changing, not static. Their ensuing design must reveal some dynamic change in the landscape to users. This project challenges them to find appropriate places to occupy a landscape, and strategies to move through it on a macro scale. On a micro scale, students must learn to create shelter that responds to landform, climate and sun angles for human comfort. Addtionally, it requires accurate representation techniques-the ability to gesture. Their landscape research creates a vocabulary for their site. They create two site models, based upon the lexicon of form of their national park site.
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