Architecture 101 Part 2

Architecture 101 Part 2: An Architectural Journey from Place to Space

Alexander Naumann 2015

I. What I have learned # Week 1: History of Place / History of Space # Week 2: Proportions # Week 3: Taking Measurements # Week 4: Conceptual Models # Week 5: Papercut Models # Week 6: Building (digital) Space All photos on Instagram: @NAlexBlog

#TheSimplestWay „The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.“ John Maeda

Many of pictures are not visible when you are standing directly in front of them. Or like the Nazca lines in Peru when you are standing directly on the lines. The greater the distance from the artwork, the better you can see it. So it is sometimes better that you go back and not forward. You can see more from a distance!

#ThereIsNoNeed „There is no need to build a lybyrinth when the entire universe is one.“ Jorge Luis Borges

When things have no name, they don’t exist, said Ludwig Wittgenstein. Is it so? Or is it rather, when something can't told a story? Stories appeal to our emotions. Stories remain in memory and influence our actions. Charles Taylor describes as one of the founders of communitarianism that one's identity depends on being able to tell a story about himself. To have an identity, therefore means to have a narrative competence. Is it not the same for buildings. The more a building can tell us a story, the more the building has an identity for us?

#AdversityIs „Adversity is the first path to truth.“ Lord Byron

A maze is usually a bit confusing for us. But if we overlapped two mazes, it could result in something with structure, that shows us a clear picture.

#NotAllThose „Not all those who wander are lost“ J. R. R. Tolkien

Everyday I go through this staircase. Everyday I look only on the stairs. Sometimes it pays to look to familiar things from a new perspective. So you can discover new things also in a familiar environment. Look up and not down!

II. What I have learned from others All images on Instagram #Architectute1o1

Apps for part 2: Ilands iVisit 3D BlockArt Bazaart Color Touch

#WeAllShineOn (by @mslibrador) „We all shine on, like the Moon and the stars and the Sun.“ John Lennon

A beautiful view! An image that rests in itself. But a picture that makes you curious. It arouses the interest of the beholder!

#NoCowOnTheIce (by @keep_on_asking) „There is no cow on the ice“ Swedish idiom

The picture is just as mysterious as Stonehenge. It is easy constructed. It consists of only two components. But it suggests to think about it!

#YouGetUp (by @sun_addict) „You get up early in the morning and you work all day. That's the only secret.“ Philip Glass

Architecture and nature, can it work? Yes, it can work!

#IllPaintYou (by @guess_ana) „I‘ll paint you moments of gold, I'll spin you Valentine evenings….“ David Bowie

The maze became one with the place. It seems that the one without the other does not exist!

I. + II. The process or how I design my works

What I did 1. It is very important that I have understood the problem or the task. It sounds simple but it‘s complicated. In a short message: no problem – no design. Without a problem, you have nothing to solve, you have nothing to design.

2. I have to define the problem or the task. What will I do? Why will I do something?

3. I have to make research. What are the alternatives? What are making my fellow students. What inspires me? At what colors I think? What mood come to my mind?

What solutions have others developed?

4. I have to build different prototypes. The way is the goal. It's about to test different solutions and not to develop a single solution.

5. I have to select the best approach and to refine my selection. How can my approach solve best the defined problem? It is the hardest task in a iterative process. An advice for writer said: “Murder your darlings!” (Arthur Quiller-Couch) Yes, here it is the same with designing!

6. I have to post my final work.

What I‘ve learned I achieved my best results by interaction with others and - most important - by reducing my work. It is not unlike cooking. In order to produce an essence, a cook must reduce, reduce and reduce. For the #blaueblumen exhibition we had not to paint the flowers, but to symbolize their essentials. Or to say it with Novalis: “To romanticize the world is to make us aware of the magic, mystery and wonder of the world; it is to educate the senses to see the ordinary as extraordinary, the familiar as strange, the mundane as sacred, the finite as infinite.” Especially in today's information society, it is important not to explain everything, but to build and preserve secrets that recognizes only the viewer individually for themselves. This is in the sence of Marcel Duchamp – the importance of the viewer: “All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone.. the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.” Why it is so important?

The constructionism says that the reality isn’t fixed and objective. The reality is unique for every human being. Every reality lives, evolves and dies with the individual and in a way everybody is at the centre of it.

First draft: #ThereIsNoExcellent

It is nice. But, tells us a story? Or it is more a play of words? Is there something mysterious in the photo?

Looking for other works: #ThereIsNoExcellent (by maisoun_architecture)

You will find many things to discover, many questions to answer and many dreams to realize.

Final: #ThereIsNoExcellent „There is no excellent beauty that hath not same strangeness in the proportion.“ Francis Bacon

My final result: more powerful than the beginning, or?!

III. My mental space men·tal (mĕn′tl) adj.

1. Of or relating to the mind; intellectual: mental powers.

2. Executed or performed by the mind; existing in the mind: mental images of happy times.

3. a. Slang Emotionally upset; crazed: got mental when he saw the dent in his new car. b. Offensive Slang Mentally ill or intellectually impaired. c. Often Offensive Intended for people with mental illness or intellectual impairment.

Space (spās) n.

1. a. Mathematics A set of elements or points satisfying specified geometric postulates: non- Euclidean space. b. The infinite extension of the three-dimensional region in which all matter exists.

2. a. The expanse in which the solar system, stars, and galaxies exist; the universe. b. The region of this expanse beyond Earth's atmosphere.

3. a. An extent or expanse of a surface or three-dimensional area: Water covered a large space at the end of the valley. b. A blank or empty area: the spaces between words. c. An area provided for a particular purpose: a parking space.

4. Reserved or available accommodation on a public transportation vehicle.

5. a. A period or interval of time: within the space of a week. b. A little while: Let's rest for a space.

6. Sufficient freedom from external pressure to develop or explore one's needs, interests, and individuality: "The need for personal space inevitably asserts itself" (Maggie Scarf).

7. Music One of the intervals between the lines of a staff.

8. Printing One of the blank pieces of type or other means used for separating words or characters.

9. One of the intervals during the telegraphic transmission of a message when the key is open or not in contact.

10. Blank sections in printed material or broadcast time available for use by advertisers.

#TheEgoIs „The ego is no master in ist own house.“ Sigmund Freud

In the end of the 19 century, people wondered what is the own will and what is coercion. Is it the same today? Do algoritmns determine our lifes? Freud said clearly, that all inner desires and passions control the people. The ego lives in a house but the house also lives in a ego. A house is a cover that offers protection. A house is also a covering that hides something. The house of Freud is open. The by Freud founded psychoanalysis pushs the covering/veiling aside and shows the true ego.

#RetainYour „Retain your memories but detourn them so that they correspond wirh your era.“ Boy George

On the one side my space has a basis. It is like a basecamp for a climber. You can go away but you know where is your safe haven. On the other side you can reach new horizons.

#AllTheRivers „All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.“ King Solomon

The quote goes on with: “To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again." Everything is a cycle. A constant coming and going. Nothing is permanent in this life. This relativise the question of indoors and outdoors. The people are inside and their shadows are outside. Can you see it? People and their shadows cannot be separated. Therefore, between inside (people) and outside (shadow) must be a connection and not a frontier. It is only a thought but it shows: A room is more than only four walls!

#IWouldRather „I would rather have a cup of tea than sex.“ Boy George

A space must not constrict. A space can also create a wideness through air, light and shadows.

#To GatherHoney „If you want to gather honey, don‘t kick over the beehive.“ Dale Carnegie

In the building the boundaries of inside and outside become blurred. Some typical elements of outside are in the building. Some typical elements of inside looks like the outside.

I hope to see you again in part 3 of our journey!