4.0 Comfort Zones
09/02/16 - 12/05/16 4.1 Brief
Begin by adapting one small element of your previous design work for use and deployment during our site excursion day. From the initial exploratory insights that these offer you should seek to iteratively develop and refine a inhabitable intervention that is capable of satisfying a notion of comfort, for its user or users, as a response to a mapped context.
4.2 Requirements
Your designs might become technologically refined, with ‘goals’ that they seek to achieve, rather as a thermostat both monitors and heats or cools a room in an attempt to maintain a constant temperature state. Alternatively they might have material or detail sophistication or combine en-masse to demonstrate emergent cellular ‘intelligence’. They may be sensory, combining techniques of sound, light, movement, touch or taste. They must be sophisticated in their delivery of ‘comfort’ to a user or users.
4.3 Outcomes
Each piece must react to or deploy within a specific context that you have encountered. By fabricating deployable objects or installations that appear to sense or act intelligently, we will examine the extent to which we, as cognitive observers, project our own agency onto our environment. Doing so will extend your understanding of how we engage with and conceptualise our environments Continue to explore your MA interests through 1:1 iterative making and experimentation. Where necessary you will add skills in programming, electronics and control systems to suit specific project needs. Each step of your experimentation should be meticulously recorded as a designed, interventive act for portfolio purposes. [continued...] UCA Canterbury School of Architecture // MA Architecture // MA Interior Design // 2015-16
4.4 Assessment
Completion of the Comfort Zones project will contribute 70% of the grade for the MA Interior ‘Reflective Practice’ unit (CIND 7009) and the MA Architecture ‘Project Development’ unit (CARC 7003). Both units are valued at 60 credits. Assessment will be carried out at the point of submission via a final A2 paper portfolio and any completed prototypes or models. Feedback will be verbal and written at formative stages and written at the summative stage for this project. External examiners will be invited to the Interim Development Review
4.5 Duration
The project will run from the 09/02/2016 until the portfolio submission on 12/05/2016.
4.6 Key Events
11/02/2016:
Initial Ideas Pin-up review
(verbal formative feedback)
23/02/2016:
Site Expedition
(be prepared!)
14/03/2016:
Development Review
(written formative feedback)
29/04/2016:
Thesis and Presentation Review
(written formative feedback)
12/05/2016:
Portfolio submission & marking
(written summative feedback)
4.7 Deliverables
The following are minimum deliverable requirements for completion of the project: A 1:1 human scale intervention developed to provide a degree of human comfort and dialogue with a carefully chosen site context A mapping produced by or situating your object within said context A2 portfolio design development drawings A2 portfolio records of all physical fabrication tests & prototype pieces A2 portfolio records of any simulation, or digital work A2 portfolio documentation of deployment or use of intervention Online digital blog of work done (minimum one entry per week)
4.8 Staff/Guests
The project will be run by Sam McElhinney (MA Course Leader) and assisted by David Di Duca, visiting design tutor. Technical support will be provided by Chris Settle and Ben Westacott when required. During the course of the unit we will be joined by key guests for crit reviews. In order to stimulate debate and discussion reviews will be held in tandem with the BA Interior Architecture and Design Stage 3 reviews.
4.9 Field Trip
Stour Hinterlands Excursion [site selection] On the 23th February we will spend exploring the Hinterlands of the Stour. During the day you will be expected to record and choose a site for your comfort zone installation to inhabit, improve or map in some way. We will leave at 9.00 from Canterbury. Assemble by the entrance to UCA. Do not be late; we won’t have time to wait for you! You must come prepared for a full day (6+hrs) of walking; with boots suitable for muddy conditions. Dress warm, with raincoats and don’t forget food supplies. Cameras and other forms of record are also essential but must not weigh you down. [continued...] UCA Canterbury School of Architecture // MA Architecture // MA Interior Design // 2015-16
ESSENTIALS: Money for food/nibbles/coffee/other Suitable clothing (hats, coats, umbrellas if wet) Practical robust footwear for muddy conditions (no stilettos!) Do not bring suitcases or large bags!!! Mobile phones - Sam is on 07709 488689 Sketchbooks, notebooks, cameras Be prepared to carry your equipment for a full day
prepare and bring one small adaptation of your previous term’s project work for deployment upon possible sites
[try again, fail again, fail better]
UCA Canterbury School of Architecture // MA Architecture // MA Interior Design // 2015-16
4.10 Lear ning Aims
The aims of this unit are: A1. To develop a critical and contextual understanding of the agreed project proposal. A2. To achieve conceptual clarity through experimental practice and research methods. A4. To utilise and gain further competency in the skills and processes required for the development of the project. A4. To research and develop the project proposal towards an interim outcome. A5. To develop as an independent researcher and practitioner. A6. To develop an understanding of theoretical concepts in relation to the project.
4.11 Lear ning Outcomes
On satisfactory completion of the unit you will have: LO1. Engaged in experimental and exploratory processes in the development of your MA project, both practically and theoretically and critically reflecting on that process. LO2. Developed an advanced knowledge and use of materials, processes and techniques appropriate to the project proposal. LO4. Gained a clear understanding of the critical context of relevant contemporary practices and the particular significance within this of the individual research proposal. LO4. Developed writing and reading skills in the formulation and understanding of ideas. LO5. Presented your research in writing in a structured form, showing a clear and coherent series of arguments and themes. LO6. Demonstrated the ability to work independently, set goals, manage workloads and meet deadlines.
4.12 Further Reading
In addition to the below you are expected to identify and develop specific reading and research sources of your own: Haque, Usman. (2007) ‘Distinguishing Concepts: Lexicons of Interactive Art and Architecture’ In: Architectural Design 77 (4) pp.24–31. Pask, Gordon. (1971) ‘A Comment, a case history, a plan’ In: Reichardt, Jasia. (ed.) Cybernetics, art and ideas. Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society. pp.76–99. Hofstadter, Douglas. R. (1999) Gödel, Escher, Bach : an eternal golden braid. (20th anniversary ed.) New York: Basic Books. Bachelard, Gaston. (1994) The Poetics of Space: The Classic Look at How We Experience Intimate Spaces. Boston: Beacon Press. Mauss, Marcel. (2011) The gift: forms and functions of exchange in archaic societies. Mansfield Centre, Conn.: Martino. Foucault, Michel. (1991) Discipline & punish: the birth of the prison. London: Penguin. Guattari, Felix. & Deluze, Giles. (2004) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Continuum. Brooks, Rodney. A. (1999) Cambrian Intelligence: the early history of the new AI. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
4.13 Useful web-links
The following are a first primer for useful materials and know-how resources: Kobakant - http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/ Arduino - http://www.arduino.cc/
- Tutorials and more relating to textiles and interaction.
- Popular cheap open source microcontroller.
Freeduino - http://www.freeduino.org/ - Knowledge base for the Arduino. Cool Components - http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/ - UK Store for component supplies. Rapid - http://www.rapidonline.com/ - Key online supplier of basic kits including gear and electronics. [ends] UCA Canterbury School of Architecture // MA Architecture // MA Interior Design // 2015-16