Curating the Model Architecture on Display ARCH 3308/6308 Special Topics in the Theory of Architecture ARCH 4408 Special Topics in Architecture, Culture, and Society Spring 2016 Thursdays 10:10-12:05 Sibley 261B
Mark Morris Curatorship has become a focal point as much in the dissemination of architectural culture as in the production of architecture itself. Increasingly conspicuous, curating architecture both as a practice, but also as a field of research, seems to have reached a state of disciplinary legitimacy. Simon Pennec
Premise: This course examines the role of architecture exhibitions within discourse, their history and design. We will consider how exhibitions function in terms of establishing critical and research agendas, the rise of the architecture biennale, and the establishment of architecture departments within museums. The use of models in diverse formats will be a central focus throughout the semester; the display of drawings, maps, projections and ephemera will also be treated. Broadly, exhibitions themselves will be viewed as models of a kind, as vehicles to communicate complex ideas in accessible formats. Students will interrogate how exhibitions prompt questions of narrative, culture, pedagogy, activism and professional identity. A final paper in the form of an exhibition catalog will give students the chance to curate an imaginary exhibition, but one rooted to real objects, architects and venues that they select. Key texts: Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara, Curating Architecture and the City (Routledge, 2009) ! Cynthia Davidson and Tina DiCarlo, Log 20: Curating Architecture (Anyone Corp., 2010)! Henry Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style (MoMA, 1932) Aaron Levy and William Menking, Architecture on Display: On the History of the Venice Biennale of Architecture (Architectural Association, 2010) Mark Morris, Models: Architecture and the Miniature (Wiley, 2007)
ARCH 5301
Theories and Analyses of Architecture I
Early
High
Late
Modernism Instructor: Mark Morris Teaching Assistant: Jason Freedman Tuesdays 2:30-4:25 Sibley 157
This seminar introduces graduate students to the influential, critical and creative themes in Modern Architecture covering discourses, histories and manifestoes from 1900 to 1960. We will examine key precedents, the questions they engage and their implications for contemporary practice. Discussions and texts are organized to develop critical and graphical readings. Diagramming will be an important analytical tool used throughout the course. Assignments include keeping a sketchbook and writing an essay. It’s a read-talk-think-draw-and-repeat class. Key Texts: William J R Curtis, Modern Architecture Since 1900 (Phaidon) Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History (Thames and Hudson) Anthony Vidler, with a foreward by Peter Eisenman, Histories of the Immediate Present (MIT Press)
ARCH 2302 Dr. Mark Morris Assistants: Armando Rigau and Christine Pearson 2:30-4:30 Thursdays, Sibley 157 Office hours 10:00-12:00 Thursdays
Architectural Analysis II: Applied Theory
Douglas Graf, Salk Institute analysis, Diagrams
Prerequisite: ARCH 2102 Aims: This course offers an advanced analytical study focusing on complex architectural spaces, objects, images, and representations. Systems of notation focused on modes of diagramming will be utilized throughout the semester as we operate at ever-increasing scales of the built environment, from buildings to formal gardens and urban parks to cities. Functioning as an antidote to “Google image weariness,” several lectures and presentations will be accompanied with real time hardcopy image review and drawing using a WolfVision high-resolution projector. Architectural and urban design history will be mined for a series of case studies. These will range from the Renaissance to contemporary precedents. Case studies will be interrogated formally and compared with other examples documented across the semester. Each student will make a brief presentation of a chosen case study. Additionally, there will be sessions where fresh material is evaluated competitively. A cumulative assignment will juxtapose all case studies in a fantasy city plan akin to the “cities-in-a-round” sketch pastime favored by Colin Rowe and his colleagues. Students will exit the course knowing how to crack the compositional code of any building, designed landscape or urban space they encounter. They will have a set of analytic tools and mental exercises at their disposal capable of evaluating their own work as well as that of others. In this regard, the course intends to engage students with analysis of their own studio projects and serve the broader curriculum. Required Textbooks: Robert Harbison. Thirteen Ways: Theoretical Investigations in Architecture (MIT Press, 1998). Colin Rowe. Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays (MIT Press, 1982). Anthony Vidler. Warped Space: Art, Architecture, and Anxiety in Modern Culture (MIT Press, 2002).
ARCH 5302 Theories and Analyses II Spring 2011, 3 credits Instructor: Mark Morris TA: Cristina Marais Sibley 261B, Mondays 9:00-11:00
Theory Rolodex This required seminar examines contemporary architectural theory topics from the late 1960s onward as a general preparation for graduatelevel research. Attention will be paid to the interrelation between theory and practice and how clusters of ideas formulate the discourse as trends both mainstream and marginal. It introduces themes of inquiry in contemporary architecture, including critical motives, topical problems and tactics of investigation. Emphasis will be placed on texts and their interpretation alongside examples of related precedents. Students will create their own Theory Rolodex containing cross-referenced entries for the architects, critics, buildings, titles and concepts reviewed in class. This survey means to formulate a broad understanding of contemporary architectural culture. Textbooks: Architecture Theory since 1968, K Michael Hays, editor (Boston: MIT Press, 2000) Constructing a New Agenda: Architectural Theory 1993-2009, A Krysta Sykes, editor (PAP, 2010) Readings and Attendance: The required readings are numerous and challenging. Success will only come with rereading and careful note taking throughout. Reading assignments must be complete in advance of class and everyone must participate in discussions. 10% Reading Presentation: Each session will be led by assigned students or “hosts� responsible for reviewing the main points of argument, elaborating themes and offering their own criticism of the readings assigned. This presentation should last about 30 minutes. Hosts are encouraged to prepare a PowerPoint presentation illustrating their presentation as well as a one-page handout for everyone in class to follow. Three questions should also be supplied by the host. An alternate will be pre-assigned to take the session if the assigned student is absent. 30% Minutes: Per session another assigned student will take careful notes and be excused from any other participation. These notes will name who is making which point in the discussion. While not word-for-word transcripts, these notes will summarize arguments. Some note-takers prefer to record the session and edit a transcription. Typed minutes will be presented at the start of each subsequent class, approved and used as a basis to assign participation credit. 20% Term project: Theory Rolodex 40%
ARCH 1301 Fall, 3 credits Dr. Mark Morris Tuesday and Thursday 12:20-1:10 Balch Hall, Carol Takton Center Graduate Teaching Assistants: Anthony Morin, Tony Saba Shiber, Matthias Slavens
Intended to familiarize non-architecture majors with the art and science of architecture, this lecture course looks at the fundamentals of plan, section, and elevation, the primary elements that comprise an architectural form; basic organizational principles; the ways in which we perceive architectural space; and the various concepts of function in relation to form will be included among the topics to be covered, using examples from numerous times and cultures as well as from the Cornell campus. Additionally, lectures will treat how architecture features in popular culture; how landscape and architecture interact; and how anyone might meaningfully filter the built environment using analytical tools such as the diagram. Evaluation will include assignments, exams and attendance. This class meets twice a week 12:20 – 1:10, be sure to arrive promptly. Attendance is monitored. Students should work hard at developing good note-taking skills. For a visually focused class such as this, a good technique is to make a quick, small sketch of the image being discussed and to jot notes beside it. The sketch not only serves as a mnemonic tool, helping you remember precisely which building is under discussion, but as an analytic tool as well.
Model Agency Object Lessons + Theories ARCH 3308/6308 THEORY ARCH 4509/6509 VIS REP
Professor: Mark Morris Schedule: Fridays 10:10 – 12:05 Location: Rm 144 East Sibley
Course Overview: This seminar examines the relationship between architecture and scale tracing the history of the model and its function within the discipline. As digital fabrication replaces handcrafted architectural models, questions emerge about the specificity and status of such objects. A series of famous twentieth-century models will be introduced opening up links with precedents ranging from religious artefacts to cinematic special effects props. Fundamentally, the seminar aims to question the mystique of studio and the creative process. While the course does provide new information, it also seeks to revisit what students already know from their own academic experiences. Modernism’s particular favoritism of the model paralleled its ascendancy in architecture education and its recurrent feature in popular culture, yet the critical study of this has been largely ignored. Why did the École des Beaux-Arts ban the model? How did the dissolution of the Bauhaus help bring it back? How much did Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright owe to Kindergarten lessons? Toys will be considered as catalysts for design projects. Narrative constructs based on the miniature, including films, should broaden conventional notions of size and signification. Questions regarding digital fabrication will organize future debate. Course modules: Sizing up the Problem Sketchy Claims Problems of Representation Popular Culture: Toys, Food + Film Questions of Fabrication Readings: Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection Harbison, Robert. Thirteen Ways: Theoretical Investigations in Architecture Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space
H. H. Richardson: The Works ARCH 3308 Special Topics in the Theory of Architecture Thursdays 2:30-4:25pm 261B Sibley 3 credits Mark Morris
Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886) was one of the foremost 19th century architects and had a profound impact on the cityscapes of Buffalo, Albany Boston, Pittsburgh and Chicago as well as several university campuses. James O’Gordon ranks Richardson, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright as the trinity of American architecture; Richardson influencing the other two. Born and raised in Louisiana, Richardson went first to Tulane, then Harvard and was only the second American to study at the École des Beaux Arts. Despite his classical training, he favored the Medieval and the work of Ruskin, Morris and Pugin. Over the course of a bright but brief career he developed his own distinctive approach to the massing, façade composition and detailing of buildings, celebrated as “Richardsonian Romanesque.” He was just 30 when he designed his largest commission, the sprawling New York State Asylum in Buffalo; currently an adaptive reuse project. At 34 he completed his most famous work, Trinity Church in Boston’s Copley Square. Richardson’s Thomas Crane Library, in Quincy, Massachusetts, has been widely imitated; its distinctive eyelid windows referenced in our own Milstein dome. His office took on numerous house commissions and designed a series of commuter train stations; many still in use. One of Richardson’s last projects, the spare and assured Marshall Field Wholesale Store in Chicago, was a crowning architectural and urban achievement. He died at 47. Prem ise: The course will examine the life and work of H. H. Richardson, reviewing several biographies and monographs. We will put his distinctive output in context, looking at the broader concurrent developments in the field and Richardson’s relationship to other architects, landscape architects and engineers. Students will be encouraged to extend seminar themes of stylistic hybridization, decorative versus structural representation, and formal experimentation in their own design work.
Cultural Studies in Architecture:! Globalization and the Design of Embassies
ARCH 4408 Special Topics in Architecture, Culture & Society 3 credits Spring 2013 • Thursdays 12:20-2:15 • Sibley 261B Mark Morris
Cultural Studies in Architecture is a field of empirical and theoretical scientific interest and application—explicitly not one more subdiscipline, but an open thematic realm. Cultural Studies in Architecture invite us to theorize the built environment in ways that are not obscured by authorized ideologies or canonized practices. Architecture defines the association’s place in the world, whereas Cultural Studies, a set of methods and ways of theorizing as much established as contested and varied, contribute to mirroring the perspectives of life and living. International Association for Cultural Studies in Architecture
Premise: This course examines key issues in the practice of architecture across the globe. By studying the socio-political role and design of embassies, we find diverse representations of national identity, the framing of ethnographic traditions and the nesting of one culture within another. What does the design of ambassadorial complexes say about a nation-state’s architectural and urban customs? How do embassies – both historic and contemporary – showcase social ordering systems, notions of indigenous craft and artistry? Why does the embassy constitute a unique typology and how does that type signify sovereignty and maintain security while projecting a sense of connectivity with each host country? Methodology: We will look at a broad range of embassies (including unrealized proposals) with attention given to the interplay of Western and non-Western examples and sites. Case studies found in and sponsored by nations in South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia will have our particular focus. Students will each elect to study and present reciprocal pairs of embassies; for example, the Indian embassy in Brazil and the Brazilian embassy in India. These pairs will constitute a comparative analysis and lead to a final essay assignment. Texts: G.R. Berridge, Embassies in Armed Conflict (NY: Continuum Group, 2012). Elizabeth Gill Lui, Building Diplomacy: The Architecture of American Embassies (Los Angeles: For Stops Press, 2004). Liane Lefaivre and Alexander Tzonis, Critical Regionalism: Architecture and the Identity in a Globalized World (London/Munich: Prestel, 2003). Jane Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies (NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011).
ARCH 4408 Special Topics in ARCHITECTURE, CULTURE AND SOCIETY ARCH 3308/6308 Special Topics in THEORY Tuesdays 10:10-12:05, Sibley 261B Dr. Mark S. Morris
EX LIBRIS ARCHITECTURE + WORLD LITERATURE There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature. P.G. Wodehouse Premise: An architect’s book club with an ambitious agenda, this course will examine the concept of the architectural narrative across diverse literary traditions – including the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East – and seek out how the treatment of architecture in fiction represents cultural, national and social identities. As a central theme of architectural design, history, theory and criticism, we will explore how narratives are deployed in studio, in our project presentations, as part of client relations, as a frame for our travels and study of precedent. Gothic novels, crime genre, period drama, new and science fiction will all feature. We will pinpoint where architecture features in the plot, as a setting, as a foreshadowing element and as surrogate character in a number of novels, building an illustrated architectural literary anthology. Content: The course features lectures followed by presentations and group discussions. Basic research skills will be reviewed. Students will gain an appreciation for a broad range of literature that highlights our deepest connections to the built environment. The material is intended to enhance other coursework, particularly studio. This course also aims at rounding off architecture students’ liberal arts and humanities education; making us more creative and connected human beings. Objectives: • introduce students to methods of critique clustered around the concept of narrative • provide a survey of architectural world literature and basic methods of analysis and critique • frame architectural history as a cultural discourse and highlight architecture’s popular reception (in fiction) from the late-1700s to today Textbook: Frank, Ellen Eve. Literary Architecture: Essays Toward a Tradition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983).
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Historical Analysis: Humorous Architecture ARCH 3308/6308 Special Topics in Theory 3 credits Spring 2013 Tuesdays 10:10-12:05 Sibley 142 Mark Morris Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind. E.B. White Premise: This seminar examines different notions of architectural humor from Mannerism to PostModernism, from the architecture parlante of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux to the “gentle manifesto” of Robert Venturi, from the urban caricatures of Osbert Lancaster to the cartoon diagrams of Leon Krier. The class will begin by exploring categories of humor as established by Freud, Hutcheson, Kant, Hegel, Bergson and Schopenhauer, looking for their architectural equivalents. Early case studies will feature the work of Giulio Romano and Jean-Jacques Lequeu. Later examples will include projects and essays by Philip Johnson, Archigram, Peter Eisenman, Morris Lapidus and Rem Koolhaas. We will review the role of the folly, temporary entertainment structures erected by the Menus-Plaisirs alongside the architecture of fairs, circuses and the carnival. Analysis of architectural sight gags in opera buffa, Vaudeville, cinema and television will lead to a final essay assignment. Screenings will include Rowan Atkinson’s documentary “Funny Business: Visual Comedy” and Jacques Tati’s “Playtime.” Two aspirations prompt the seminar: one is to revisit architectural history with a specific cultural agenda; another is to highlight the capacities of play, humor and satire as productive channels of creativity. The course will feature a special guest lecture by Experimental Psychologist, Professor Barney Beins (Ithaca College). Students with a deep interest in history and writing are encouraged to enroll. Texts: Henri Bergson, Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic (1900) English translation, 1914. John Allen Paulos, I Think, Therefore I Laugh (New York: Columbia University Press) 2000. Bruno Taut, “Down with Seriousism,” essay, 1920. Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Architecture as Signs and Systems: For a Mannerist Time (Harvard University Press) 2004. This is a twelve-storey block combining classical neo-Georgian features with the efficiency of modern techniques. The tenants arrive in the entrance hall here, and are carried along the corridor on a conveyor belt in extreme comfort past murals depicting Mediterranean scenes, towards the rotating knives. The last twenty feet of the corridor are heavily soundproofed. The blood pours down these chutes and the mangled flesh slurps into these... Monty Python
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ARCH%4509%(visual%rep)%/%ARCH%6308%(theory)%3%credits Course%Schedule:%Fridays%9:10C12:00 Location:%West%Sibley%144 Prerequisites:%ARCH%1502%and%2503 Professor:%Mark%Morris
>>"Scale to Fit Imperial,"Metric"and"the"Modulor"Undone Overview:%This%course%examines%the%compromised%role%of%conventional%scales%in%architectural representation%as%a%byproduct%of%computation%and%shift%in%output%media.%It%reviews%a%history of%systems%of%measurement,%including%the%introduction%of%Roman%imperial%units%in%Britain after%1066%and%the%adoption%of%the%French%metric%system%in%1795;%the%weights%and%measures conference%linked%to%the%Great%Exhibition%of%1851%crystallizes%the%tension%between%these%two. Le%Corbusier’s%Modulor%system%is%then%explored%as%an%architectural%attempt%to%resolve%both anthropometric%and%scientific%approaches.%The%course%then%treats%how%conventional%scales –1/16,%1/8,%1/4%and%so%on%–%applied%to%architectural%drawings%and%models%have%traditionally been%used%as%specific%calibrations%of%conceptualization%from%massing%to%building%to%detail. The%question%as%to%how%computation%foregoes%these%calibrations%in%favor%of%notionally working%at%1:1%will%be%addressed%alongside%evaluating%how%fabrication%devices%like%the%3CD printer%disregard%conventional%scales%in%favor%of%maximizing%the%machine’s%size%limitations. The%course%intends%to%postulate%a%way%forward%for%scale%in%the%digital%age%and%grabble%with the%size%versus%scale%dynamic%imposed%by%fabrication%and%a%culture%of%scaling%to%fit%given media.%Students%will%generate%a%specific%case%study,%conduct%an%interview%with%a%practitioner and%share%their%own%experiences%with%scale. Format:-The%course%combines%lectures,%roundtable%discussions%based on%assigned%readings%and%presentations.%Each%student%will%share%a%case study%of%an%imperial%or%metric%scale.%This%will%include%brief%text,%a graphic%and%an%interview%element.%Case%studies%will%abide%by%a%given template%and%will%combine%to%form%a%class%book. Texts:-Ian%Whitelaw,%A"Measure"of"All"Things:"The"Story"of"Man"and Measurement;%Frank%Orr,%Scale"in"Architecture;%Heath%Licklidler, Architectural"Scale;%Cláudia%Piantá%Costa%Cabral,%“ZOOMCIN,%ZOOMC OUT:%Architectural%scale%and%digital%technology;”"Albena%Yaneva, “Scaling%Up%and%Down:%Extraction%Trials%in%Architectural%Design.” Films:-“Powers%of%Ten”%(Charles%and%Ray%Eames,%1968),%“Alice”%(Jan Svankmajer,%1988),%“Being%John%Malkovich”%(Spike%Jonze,%1999).
ARCH%5110%Thesis%Proseminar% Fall$2012$ 3$credits$ Venue$TBA$ Day/Time$TBA$ George$Hascup$and$Mark$Morris$ Prerequisite:$ARCH$4102$ $ Overview:$Thesis$Proseminar$ provides$constructive$guidance$and$ benchmark$assignments$regarding$ design$thesis$preparation.$This$ includes$defining$thesis$questions,$ developing$a$program$and$site$study$ as$well$as$outlining$key$objectives$and$ individual$schedules$for$ARCH$5902$ Design$X$Thesis.$The$course$aims$at$ offering$a$clear$roadmap$for$taking$on$ a$challenging$thesis$of$realistic$scale$ and$critical$scope.$$ $ The$course$will$feature$lectures$and$ workshops$useful$to$formulating$a$ premise,$project$proposal,$design$ methodology$statement$and$ bibliography.$We$will$look$at:$ $ WHO$$ $ intended$audience$ WHAT$$$ program/type$ WHEN$$$ time$management$ WHERE$$ site/context$ WHY$$ $ intent$and$relevance$ HOW$$ $ tactics/techniques$ $$$ We$will$examine$“species$of$theses�$ from$the$library$archive,$review$ helpful$essays$on$thesis$strategy,$visit$ the$Olin$Library$Map$Room$as$part$of$ a$site$selection$tutorial$and$hear$from$ alumni$about$their$own$experiences$ with$thesis$and$what$hard$won$advice$ they$would$offer$now!$Students$will$ make$a$presentation,$craft$a$personal$ thesis$syllabus$and$produce$a$poster.$$
Option Studio | 6 credits Studio Daniel Libeskind | Mark Morris Morris office hours Tuesdays 9:00-12:00 Cornell Architecture Fall 2009
Architecture in a Box: Book-Object-Architecture “This is modeln times.� James Joyce Architecture in a Box is an open-ended investigation whose goal is a concrete object. The aim of this studio is to create bookobjects that contain in themselves their own creativity. Book-objects can be made of any material and be of any reasonable size. A person given access to the book-objects should be able to see, construct and operate a wondrous and original architecture. In many respects the book-object will function as an Architecture Machine: an instrument that will generate all kinds of architecture. It will build on the notion of a traditional architectural treatise, but may be completely different for the twenty-first century. Students will begin by demonstrating what they think is the essence or sum of architecture. This response will be expanded conceptually and materially and subsequently crafted as a superlative book-object. Students will then design an armature to exhibit the collective library of book-objects. The studio will be fun, intellectually challenging and artistically fulfilling. It will include an interim review in New York City at Studio Daniel Libeskind. At the end there will be a gallery exhibition of the book-objects with a dinner celebration and surprise guests.
1:Whatever Constructions for the Cultural Olympiad !
ARCH 5116 MWF Rand 6 credits Theory Option Research Studio Instructor: Mark Morris Guest Critic: José Oubrerie Travel: London, pre-Spring break London guests: Mark Cousins, Neil Spiller
! Premise: Building on the scale research of autumn semester’s seminar – Scale to Fit: Imperial, Metric and the Modulor Undone – this studio looks at the unique role of the United Kingdom as a hybrid scalar society where the foot and inch persist as conventional units within an officially metric nation. As featured in the seminar, Le Corbusier’s Modulor system was intended to creatively wed these systems of measurement with respect to the body and architecture. The studio will seek to reappraise the Modulor as related to the celebration of the athlete (the perfected body) and the 2012 London Cultural Olympiad as an instrument of international relations.
Project: The largest of London’s Royal Parks, Hyde Park has been open to the public since 1637. The park will also be home to the music, dance, theatre, film and visual arts associated with the games of the XXX Olympiad throughout the summer. Our work will focus on the temporary “cultural constructions” required across the park, each venue being linked by architectural elements based on the deployment of multiple scales as an index of history, nationality, communication and the body. It is fitting that the project will be conceived on the same ground as the Great Exhibition of 1851 where the Imperial versus metric dilemma was first officially tackled. Method: The studio will model select sites in Hyde Park. The approach to the program will involve “flat pack” architecture capable of being easily transported, built and removed. Heuristic devices will include “3-D drawing” and “2-D modeling: exercises. The focus will be on the design of the stage and stands and their shifting visual qualities on approach and on camera (performances will be telecast to a 3.2 billion people). Scale prototypes will be fabricated in metal using abrasive water jet machining.
Three-act Studio !
A Zissovici
& Morris Production
Starring First Year M.Arch And introducing Dillon Pranger as the trustworthy TA ARCH 5111 6 credits, letter grade MWF 12:20-4:25, Milstein Plate Mark Morris (mm768@cornell.edu) and John Zissovici (jez2@cornell.edu) Teaching Assistant: Dillon Pranger (drp94@cornell.edu) Rationale: As the foundational graduate studio, this course sets up architectural design skills and concepts useful to all subsequent studios in the MArch sequence. It works at several scales and introduces several drawing and modeling techniques. Dealing with program, user groups, a narrative and handling of site constraints will be important elements in the studio throughout the semester. Aims and Objectives: This semester we will build a strong analog and digital skill-set while exploring a wide range of ideas, design techniques and modes of criticism. Our programmatic cues will draw on experimental theatre and a unique play authored by artist, designer, filmmaker, poet and playwright Jean Cocteau (1889-1963). Our sites will be within and without the celebrated La MaMA Experimental Theatre Club. Act 1: Memory Our first assignment will interrogate recollections and representation of spaces from childhood. It will draw upon your own experiences and favored methods of communication. Skills focus: Sketch models, schematic design, analysis Act 2: Monologue You will create a theatre set for “The Human Voice” (La voix humaine,1930) performance at La MaMA ETC. Located at 74 E 4th St., this unique “off-off-Broadway” theatre was founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart. The play features a middle-aged woman who is on a phone call with her lover of the last five years. He is to marry another woman the next day, which causes her to despair. The play traces her mental breakdown, which may have architectural expressions. Skills focus: Plan, section and elevation drawings; sketch modeling Act 3: Penthouse Following our field trip to La MaMA, you will design a penthouse for the new La MaMA director on top of the theatre building. A key aspect in the design process will involve taking themes established in your set design into your proposal for the penthouse. Site, views and spatial sequence will be important aspects to this main assignment of the semester. Skills focus: Axonometric drawings; scale modeling!
Cornell Department of Architecture ARCH 513 Graduate Core Design Studio 3 Mark Morris
The Alfred J. Hitchcock Foundation | Sea Cliff Avenue | San Francisco The Hitchcock Foundation has purchased a suitably vertigo-inducing site off Sea Cliff Avenue. Charged with the archiving and dissemination of the life’s work of the film and television director, the foundation hopes its new headquarters will foster popular and scholarly appreciation for suspense and thriller genre cinema. The Foundation has been located in San Francisco from its start and enjoys a long association with the University of Southern California School of Cinema. Measuring some 90-feet wide along Sea Cliff Avenue and extending twice that length down a rocky slope to crashing the waves of the Pacific, the site (which enjoys a remarkable view of Golden Gate Bridge) was once intended for the V.C. Morris House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Also referred to as Seacliff, the innovative house was commissioned by the Morrises after Wright had completed a store for them in 1948. The house project was never completed and no one since has found a feasible way to use the parcel despite its choice location and exceptional view. This studio focuses on developing a design response to an extreme site requiring structural innovation as a condition of its development. Topographic modeling of the landscape will set the stage for subsequent model investigations of the design problem. Students will be introduced to film studies and the analysis of a selection of particular scenes from Hitchcock’s body of work, in particular “North by Northwest,” “Vertigo,” “Suspicion” filmed on the coastline of Santa Cruz and “Rear Window,” Hitchcock’s love letter to San Francisco. Guest workshop critics will include Sabine Haenni from the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance who will introduce methods of film analysis and Mark Cruevellier who will consult on structural approaches proposed by students. The program for the Hitchcock Foundation will include indoor and outdoor cinemas, an archive, media lab, seminar room, office spaces and a terrace café.