Third Year Portfolio by Natou Fall

PORTFOLIO DESIGN STUDIO

Broke Studio

HISTORY + THEORY

ComplexÃ©e: on Individuation

APPLIED STUDIES

Design Development

2018 NATOU FALL

CONTENTS

2018

Statement

DESIGN STUDIO 8 3GA Vertical Studio 26 2GB Core Studio 64 2GA Core Studio 86 1GB Core Studio 108 1GA Core Studio VISUAL STUDIES 40 VS IV Applied Study 78 VS III Multiples 98 VS II Three D Type 120 VS I Curves in Space HISTORY + THEORY 22 Complexée: on Individuation 58 Shaping Face: Cosmetics and Faciality in Architecture 84 Architecture’s Present, Past, and Future 104 Renaissance Woman: An Ekphrastic Reading of LeDoux’s Chanon de Chaux APPLIED STUDIES 46 Design Development

Natou Fall To be trained as an architect, is to be taught a new way of thinking and being in the world. Architecture as a discipline is one of the most demanding of its practitioners, we must be sensitive to culture, context, and the value and condition of human life. To create a work of architecture or architectural theory one must have creative vision and a pragmatic sensibility. SCI-Arc is an incubator for architectural innovation, a school in which students are challenged by, and encouraged to engage with the curriculum. The start to my final year has given me a greater understanding of what it means to receive an architectural education, how much I have yet to learn, and what kind of designer I aspire to be. With bold graphics and spreads inspired by fashion magazines, the portfolio I present to you is a curation of work thus far; drawings, images, and texts, all produced during my time at SCI-Arc. Going into thesis my goal is to further develop an architectural theory and an aesthetic in terms of representation that will best suit my work to come. Thank you for your consideration.

e: natou.fall@gmail.com

fall 2018 7

“FLAWED IS THE NEW FLAWLESS”

p e r f MODEL PHOTO above the Influencer Machine, to right birthmark hide

f u k d III GA

DESIGN STUDIO

B R O K E STUDIO Advances in science and biotechnology have led to the design of a new human body. 41 years ago in July ‘Louise’ was birthed from a petri dish via in vitro fertilization IVF a procedure that unites sperm and egg outside of the body. The announcement was met with excitement, fear and hostility, heralding worldwide that the first test tube baby had been born. Fast forward 38 years to 2015, China edits genes in embryos via CRISPR technology, attempting to produce human pregnancy via the modification of the human germ-line. If weakness and accident is what makes us human and science is attempting to remove all error, then what is human in a potentially non human era 41 years from now? Broke reflects on the transformative potential science and technology has when designing human biology, looking at the year 2059 as the setting for all plausible speculations. In the pharmacopornographic era, nature has lost its active deterministic power and the body is completely subjected to the intervention of society, imagination and science’s idea of what is human. Products become a manifestation of our desires, part of our rituals and procedures and are by definition loaded messages in disguise. As a result of these speculations, the students will produce a fictionally commercial product to be presented with a corporate appearance. The final presentation will consist of a series of installations representing a retail experience of the fictional product and brand. Broke studio’s framework takes on a hybrid working model merging the operation of a production house, industrial design studio, tech start up and science lab.

Lucy McRae fall 2059 10

MODEL PHOTO the set, closest in view the Influencer machine, the lab, and the store front in back

MODEL PHOTO lab grown face with vitiligo effect, model made of silicone and makeup

DESIGN STUDIO

Done in Collaboration with Tamara Harutyunyan and Dasha Ragimova 2059 is the year which marks beauty’s evolution passed the threshold of perfection. Our mission is to rebrand imperfection as the new standard of beauty. PERFUKD is a brand of products that proposes a new form of aesthetics in the age of radical change within the beauty industry. The desire to be “flawless” is now considered not only “boring” but represents a lack of self-esteem. In a world where perfection has become the new ordinary and the majority of the population suffers from a condition known as “Blank” characterized by alopecia universalis and increased synthesis of collagen and gialuronic acid resulting in faultless skin, PERFUKD is the only line of FDA approed products that produce various temporary changes in skin pigmentation, elasticity, and texture. In the post-human era where people are addicted to virtual reality, renting neutral bodies, merging with symbiotes, emotionally detached, and consuming synthetic food, our mission is to bring humanism back, and return to the origin of what makes us all human: our imperfections.

The Set Designed for the year 2059, the ‘industrial chic’ set is split into three parts. The store front which features a display of product boxes. In the center, the lab which features our lab grown human hides, faces, and parts used for product testing and development. Lastly the experience which features our PERFUKD Influencer Machine designed to give users the ability to visually try on our products modeled by our six digital influencers. A commentary on beauty standards, the intent with the material selection and overall sleek presentation is to display objects that would be considered ugly or grotestque by today’s standards as prized and desireable. 13

MODEL PHOTOS above product prototypes and starter kit packaging

MODEL PHOTOS left from top to bottom hand with hair effect, hides with varied effects, product boxes, above store front display

HISTORY + THEORY

Complexée: on Individuation Who’s Afraid of Relationism? - Sanford Kwinter + Marrikka Trotter

It is no secret that the way one speaks about oneself has either positive or negative effects on the psyche. Confidence and insecurity, are characteristics which are either ingrained or generated over time based on one’s life experiences. Both are applicable to most people, they are arguably inherent in human nature. That being said, the phraseology differs across cultures, particularly in French and English as it relates to the notion of insecurity. In English we say, “I am insecure about x,” while in French when one is insecure it is said they are “complexée,” “je suis complexée par x.” If the individual is a complex and orderly system, using

Simondon’s notion of the Individuation, it can be said that to be in a state of insecurity or excess complexity, is to be in a phase of individuation in which your être métaphysique and être réalisée are at odds or in misalignment with each other.1 Rather than being described as a lacking of confidence or security in one’s self, it is far more productive to think and describe insecurity as a moment or glitch in the process of individuation, whereby ones actual physical presence and one’s perception of this presence have fallen out of step or phase with each other due to an overload or overcodification of thought and/ or form. Although the literal translation into English invokes a different definition of the word, we should be careful not to confuse having a complex, verses being complexed. For the purpose of this paper, complexed or complexée, describes a state of being which consists of many different and connected parts or thoughts: the way a thing is perceived verses the way said thing is. Moments of complexed-ness occur often, sporadically, or rarely depending on the individual; they are what Simondon refers to as “un negation”, instantiated

in the process of individuation; “affirmation et negation simultanées s’organisent en chaque réalité particulière,” within every reality or individual, lies a constant irresolution.2 Inspired by the desert rose, a cluster of gypsum or baryte crystal formations, characterized by their abundance in sand grains, the National Museum of Qatar in Doha, by Jean Nouvel is an example of une architecture complexée.3 The crystalline formations after which the museum is designed, are found in arid and sandy regions such as the Middle East, Northern Africa, and parts of North and South America.4 The composition, texture, and color of the formations are dependent

on the sand and minerals present, “puisqu’il résulte d’une composition, l’être individuel est determine par la proportion et le mode de relation des elements qui le constituent […] une certain combinaison produit la santé, le degré d’intelligence, et les divers temperaments ou caractères.”5 For example desert rose formations found in Oklahoma are less defined, and have a rusty orange color due to the iron oxides present in the sand, while those found in Tunisia consists of sharply defined, large white gypsum formations. Much like l’être individuel, each formation is an individuated manifestation of the relation between the elements which make it up and the environment within which it came into being. The transductive nature of crystal formation for Simondon is an ideal representation of the tension within and around the process of individuation, the preindividual verses the individual; “la transduction correspond a cette existence de rapports

prenant naissance lorsque l’être préindividuel s’individue; elle exprime l’individuation, et elle permet de la penser.”6 In aerial and perspective views the building reads as an aggregate of these disc or roselike forms, some of which are fully expressed, others are half, or less so implying a sense of ‘becoming,’ in that one could image the aggregate to continue bubbling up and densifying. The building itself becomes a frozen moment in the crystalline process of its individuation, both representing the process, and alluding to its potentially infinite expansion. With the shift of each view the museum takes on a different shape, oscillating between massive sculpture and architecture. Consistently at odds with itself and its context, the scale of elements and excessive detailing make the building more legible from a distance. At human scale the discs stop being cognized as parts of a crystalline formation and read as a series of dense, slanting and intersecting 23

circular planes, excessively articulated with large concrete panels. The delicate and seemingly organic composition gets lost. The complexed nature of the museum, is a matter of perception, it is what Whitehead describes as a “prehensive occasion,” only at an architectural scale can the full aesthetic and formal characteristics of the museum be grasped, only then is it perceivable as an individual entity, “conceived as what it is in itself and for itself.” 7 An elevation view from the bay, allows the new museum to be read as a frame for the existing museum. The intention was to create a link between old and new Qatar, however the only connection between the two structures is the ground on which they are built. Simultaneous occupying different moments in spacetime, both are manifestations of certain characters of events and of their mutual ordering, differing in programmatic occupying different moments in space-time, both are

HISTORY + THEORY

manifestations of certain characters of events and of their mutual ordering, differing in programmatic usage, square footage, and aesthetic.8 The asymmetrical composition sprawls and is low-lying with exception of the southern edge of the site, where the discs are stacked 4 or 5 story’s making it the tallest building in its immediate surrounding. Shying away from the grandness of the towers in the distance yet, still remaining the most grandiose in terms of form and aesthetic. The shift in composition is the expression of movement of the immanent forces bringing it and

“new Qatar” into being.9 The patterning of the panelization of each disc is complexée in that it is left unresolved at the intersections, with lines bluntly misaligning at the seams. While this move emphasizes each disc as its own individual element within the system, there are moments where the grand formal gesture meets practical architecture and the pattern wraps over the form to mask floor plates and to provide seamless surfaces for waterproofing; discs become less legible as individual elements and become a singular mass. This chunking of forms for practicality is continued in the interior the where patterning is done away with, and the discs become smooth and unified to mask and house load-bearing structural columns and mechanical equipment. While the interior face of the large discs are devoid of striations and legible shape, a different kind of circular pattern is articulated in the flooring. The interior spaces follow a logic of their own; “système

dans un système,” that are contrastingly plain and uniform in scale.10 The museum, is not a museum in the traditional sense being that it is meant to house only a few art pieces and the majority of the space is left open for cultural events. Thus the museum becomes a space to house what Spinoza referred to as substance, or a continuum constituting modes of existence of disparate individuals, in this case individuals which make-up the new emergent Qatari society.11 Equivalent to Simondon’s l’être préindividuel, the attendees of these cultural events, together constitute “l’unite et l’identité [qui] ne s’appliquent qu’a une des phases de l’être.”12 These events become modes or phases of the museum’s own process of individuation, expressing the same immanent forces in a different manner or way. With this extension, Nouvel has complexed the essence of life of the museum, through introducing forces to those already present and expanding the index of external influences

individual being is individualized; it expresses individuation, and it makes it possible to think it.” Ibid. page 33 7 Whitehead, A. N. (2011). Science and the modern world: Lowell lectures, 1925. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. page 71 8 Whitehead, A. N. (2011). Science and the modern world: Lowell lectures, 1925. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. page 65

by which it can be modified.13 As the human population continues to grow, and the internet and social media become more and more integrated within cultures, the milieu in which individuals will come into being will be far too complexed for any mode or material principle to be intelligible. The need for a different and broader vocabulary of the self is vital for our evolution. To begin to change the way we speak about ourselves and each other, we must first change the way we conceive and perceive ourselves. As François Jullien proposes, “instead of always imposing our own longing for meaning on reality, let us open ourselves to this immanent force and learn to seize it.”14 The continued abstraction of the self, and the individual, creates space for a multitude of interpretations, and ultimately cultivates a broader capacity for acceptance. In the end, it is not about concretely knowing who or what you are, it is about being aware and accepting of one’s current mood

or manner of being. 1 Translation: metaphysical self, and realized self Simondon, G. (2017). L’Individuation a la Lumière des Notions de Forme et d’Information. Grenoble, FR: Millon. book “L’Individu.” 2 Translation: “simultaneous affirmation and negation are organized in every particular reality,” within every reality or individual, lies a constant irresolution” Ibid. page 361 3 Desert Rose. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mindat.org/min-1268.html 4 Ibid. 5 Translation: “since it results from a composition, the individual being is determined by the proportion and mode of relation of the elements that make it up … a certain combination produces health, the degree of intelligence, and the various temperaments or traits.” Simondon, G. (2017). L’Individuation a la Lumière des Notions de Forme et d’Information. Grenoble, FR: Millon. book “L’Histoire de la Notion D’individu” page 362 6 Translation: “transduction corresponds to this existence of relationships arising when the pre25

9 Jullien, F. (1999). The propensity of things: Toward a history of efficacy in China. New York: Zone Books. page 132 10 Translation: “system within a system” Simondon, G. (2017). L’Individuation a la Lumière des Notions de Forme et d’Information. Grenoble, FR: Millon. book “L’Individu” page 28 11 Kodalak, G. (2018). Spinoza, Heterarchical Ontology, and Affective Architecture. Spinoza’s Philosophy of Ratio, 89-107. 12 Translation: “Unity and identity [which] apply only to one of the phases of being.” Simondon, G. (2017). L’Individuation a la Lumière des Notions de Forme et d’Information. Grenoble, FR: Millon. book “L’Individu” page 25 13 Bowie, A. (1993). Schelling and Modern European Philosophy: An Introduction. New York, NY: Routledge. page 37 14 Jullien, F. (1999). The propensity of things: Toward a history of efficacy in China. New York: Zone Books. page 13

NOAMD

MODEL PHOTOS

Massing model in site context

“A PLACE WHERE INSIDE IS OUTSIDE, AND OUTSIDE IS INSIDE”

DNOCK II GB

DESIGN STUDIO

BIG_BUILDING Urban studies never attribute significant importance to research dealing with singular urban artifacts. Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City With the 2GB Studio the curriculum shifts its attention to the study of the relationship of architecture to urbanism and, more specifically, of the architectural artifact as urbanism. The studio project is for a very large mixed use building in the Chicago loop to replace Helmut Jahn’s James R. Thompson Center (formerly the State of Illinois Building), and is to be conceived in relation to the current controversy surrounding the proposed sale of the building. The studio’s main focus is on disciplinary questions of the relationships amongst typology, function, and form in urbanism. These questions will be considered as they relate to current issues of urban politics and policy, infrastructure, and large scale buildings. Urbanism as architecture Contemporary cities are complex organisms that defy any easy analysis or singular characterization. In the past hundred years cities have grown to dwarf the scale of historic human settlements, stretching to the limits of comprehension. Nonetheless there remains the physical fact of cities. They are composed not only of flows of capital, information, peoples, and resources, but also of the inert mass of streets, buildings, and infrastructure. These shaped things are unavoidable presences and, after they are shaped, to quote Churchill, “they shape us.” Given the dizzying breadth of pressing urban concerns, architecture is sometimes seen to be of minor importance. This studio will argue that architecture is, instead, an urgently needed element in cities; that it represents a virulent and dynamic strain of the built environment that can uniquely provide our cities with defining new diagrams. A central proposition of this studio is that strong architectural projects, at the scale of the city, are not only of interest to other architects, but are a (and maybe the) necessary and currently missing catalyst for a new urban vitality. Though Chicago’s period of daring architectural innovation has waned, it remains rare among great cities in that its urban character has been formed as much by individual, ambitious works of architecture, as by its overall urban plan. More typically one sees the spatially vague tools of urban planning, land use, and policy shape urban form as a default outcome of non-formal processes. Counteracting this tendency requires the willful shaping of architectural form, imagined large and without trepidation. For us in Chicago, urbanism will be posited as a question of architecture, not planning. Architecture as urbanism The studio explores urbanism through the examination and development of single buildings that, owing to their size, form, or urban impact become in themselves urbanism. The potential of a Big _____ Building to function as an urban agent will be explored throughout the semester. The topic is first introduced through the study and analysis of relevant examples and continues through the design of a large building.

Andrew Zago spring 2018 28

LONGITUDINAL SECTION cut through atrium

MODEL PHOTO Atrium section model made of foam core and museum board

DESIGN STUDIO

A Big Brick Building This semester began with the study of several precedents, with regard to their organization of vertical and horizontal circulation. We then performed a series of moves to topologically transform an organizational type of our choice. With these transformations we produced new ways to organize circulation within a building of this scale. For my project I’ve chosen the northern half of the Monadnock Building in Chicago. Built in 1891, the Monadnock is known as the worlds tallest load-bearing brick building with walls as deep as 6’. By shearing, and inverting both ends the walls become poche to house program. The building is characterized by a large central circulation path, which through a scalar shift becomes a mega core that bifurcates the project. Program is distributed in a similar fashion as the James. R Thompsen Center. With the first 5 floors holding retail, the 20 floors above house the government state offices, and the remaining 20 house hotel and commercial offices each on either side of the mega core. To relate to the original Monadnock, the exterior of the building is clad in a brick rain-screen system which makes use of a large masonry unit known as the Double Monarch (15 5/8” x 7 5/8”). The inverted massing is clad in large composite panel rain screen, with panels of a similar proportion to that of the double monarch but at 12x the scale. Where inside meets outside and outside meets inside, on either ends the atria present themselves to the city as spaces enclosed in a brick lattice, a sort of expressive introversion. The lattice is at a larger scale for the mullions, and a smaller scale on the interior to emphasize the difference between the urban environment of Chicago and an interior public space.

MODEL PHOTOS toy and product box topological studies

DESIGN STUDIO

DIAGRAMS above illustrate topological transformation

DESIGN STUDIO

PLANS AND MODEL PHOTOS above office plan, right hotel and ground floor, section model and close ups. 1:200 scale model stands at 4’11”

DESIGN STUDIO

AXONOMETRIC left northeast view, above southeast view

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yes, Not Tetrisâ&#x20AC;? - a misregistered interpretation of the brick as a unit

Done in collaboration with Yousef Ali and Daniel Taveras

VS IV

VISUAL STUDIES

A P P L I E D ST U DY Seemingly autonomous trajectories of contemporary architecture occur, nonetheless, within the events of the world at large. These trajectories are inevitably colored by those events shaping, consciously or not, their tenor and sensibility and altering our reception of them. While this is inescapable, attempts to create an explicit link between an aesthetic agenda and the vicissitudes of political life results, more often then not, in naive platitudes and ham-fisted form. Occasions for architects to engage directly and constructively in the world’s various dilemmas exist, of course, and any responsible professional acts on those occasions, but to frame an aesthetic project in those terms is, at best, a fraught operation. That framing is most effective when it is carried out as an implicit, intuitive activity. Most of the time, it is best to avoid looking for a direct connection between the art of architecture and quotidian life. We find ourselves, however, in extraordinary times. There exist today both existential threats - not seen since the height of cold war - and unprecedented threats to the progressive principles of civil society. Given this, it seems necessary to hazard placing architecture in the service of political expression. This seminar will, cautiously but deliberatively, seek expressions of tectonics and color resonant with contemporary life. This seminar explores the possibility of employing tectonic arrangements for creative speculation. The work will be an outgrowth of and advancement on work initiated last year’s “Stacking Bricks and Pulling Prints” seminar and previous “Color outside the Line” seminars. First the class will seek out contemporary color palettes. The assumption is that these palettes are neither colorful, nor black. Rather, that they are dense - collapsed into narrow chromatic ranges. Then, through the determination and representation of varying arrangements of modular components (bricks), unreasonable geometric logic will be applied to a fundamental tectonic unit. The determination of the modular arrangements will be produced digitally; the representational output, however, will be a hybrid experiment combining digital preparation with manual execution. Through digital fabrication, each student will produce intricate woodcut blocks. These blocks will have two purposes. First, they will be treated as bas-relief models, sufficient unto themselves and arranged into three dimensional configurations. Second, they will be treated as relief-blocks, used to produce drawings. These “models” will be manually inked and printed as archival print editions. In this, the seminar sits at the intersection of tectonic exploration and art practice.

Andrew Zago spring 2018 42

WOOD BLOCK PRINTS previous spread ( left to right) 4/6 Edition 4, 4/6 Edition 2 , above 5/6 Edition 3

VISUAL STUDIES

WOODBLOCK PRINTS each edition, with its own composition, is a set of 6 prints. Above 4/6 Edition 1, right 2/6 Edition 2

Design develo

opment

Done in collaboration with Elaine Chan, Qi Jia, Chenming Jiang, and Brandon Kintzer

APPLIED STUDIES

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Our approach to design development is not only a technical advancement of the project but will also be a disciplinary one, where we challenge representation and search for relevancy in an era where documentation of design and manufacturing are in flux and are increasingly based on three-dimensional live data. While BIM is an important development in this regard, our aim is to re-think how we can envision and communicate design in innovative ways which exceed the design object itself. We will re-consider drawing and the representation of the building components as one, where things can be hacked apart, peeled away, cut away, sliced, and exploded. Cuts will no longer be flat as in conventional plans and sections, but will be warped and active. We will attempt to combine multiple ontologies into the discussion, where things may be represented in terms of their profile, silhouette, internal organization, energy, action on other things, depletion, integration, and dis-integration all at the same time. The primary part of our work will be multiple chunk drawings that vary in scale and offer different views, components, sizes, descriptions, energies, systems, vantage points, transparencies, materials, colors, scales, and so on. A point of departure will be the genre of meticulous aerospace and military drawings. The presentation will be on sixteen 24x36â&#x20AC;? boards that together make one large drawing in the final exhibition of the project.

Herwig Baumgartner + Scott Uriu spring 2018 48

3D DETAIL AND LONGITUDINAL SECTION previous page is a detail of one of five roof systems, above is a section cut through the auditorium space on the right

APPLIED STUDIES

RENDERING above illustrates structural systems

APPLIED STUDIES

CHUNKS AND DETAILS above 3D wall section details, right 2D wall section details

APPLIED STUDIES

3D AND 2D DETAILS above chunk detail of roof, right detail of skylight to roof connection

HISTORY + THEORY

Shaping Face: Cosmetics and Faciality in Architecture Shape - Marrikka Trotter

Derivative from the Greek kosmetike tekhne meaning “technique of dress and ornament” and that from kosmos meaning amongst others “order” and “ornament”1, cosmetics in the 21st century have become a tool of expression for the complex system that is one’s self. For the purposes of this paper, cosmetics are being defined as all and any products used for the enhancement of ones skin, face, hair, and nails. The goal of this paper is to reframe the dialectic of cosmetics or makeup in architecture to one that is centered on the self, whether that be male, female, or non-binary, and not on the beholder. The use of pigments

to accentuate one’s facial features, eyes, mouth, etc, can be traced as far back as 5000 years ago where the first lipstick was believed to be invented by ancient Sumerian men and women.2 The ancient Egyptians, again men and women alike, were known to be fond of kohl and loose pigments made from fungi and fish scales for eyeliners and shadows.3 In more recent times, specifically between the 1910s and 30s, cosmetics became widely popular in America and the western world during the rise of consumerism, advertising, and first wave feminism.4 With the guidance of social media, the cosmetics industry is shifting towards more inclusive and diverse modes of operation, in terms of product development and marketing. Since the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015, the LGBTQA community’s visibility in the media has grown exponentially, and there continues to be a push for greater acceptance. In 2016, CoverGirl in their 58th year of operation, elected their first ever CoverBoy, self-taught makeup artist and “social media-lite” James Charles.5 This year in particular, the industry came under extreme scrutiny for

the lack of products, namely foundation, made for users of darker skin tones. This controversy was sparked by the release of Fenty Beauty’s 40 shades of foundation, ranging from light to deep, in September of 2017. With such an emphasis placed on the significance of diversity in beauty, more established cosmetics companies like Revlon, Maybelline, and CoverGirl have since followed suit, advertising foundations and concealers for darker skin tones. Cosmetics as they relate to architecture have previously been considered by Jeffery Kipnis in his essay “The Cunning of Cosmetics,” in which he discusses his aesthetic appreciation for the work of Herzog and De Meuron. His understanding or definition

of cosmetics is only skin deep, he postulates that “they relate always and only to skin, to particular regions of skin”.6 Through a conservative, heteronormative cis-male lens, Kipnis relentlessly aligns the facades of Herzog and De Meuron with sex and the sexual. With his almost immediate reference to “soft-core porn”7 and his description of projects as being desirous, necrophilic, or erotic8 he effectively reduces the act of shaping one’s face to a process whose sole purpose is to attract the opposite sex. What Kipnis fails to grasp is the obvious selfcentered nature of the use of cosmetics. One does not spend money and time developing the skills necessary to create a “look” for anyone other than themselves. The common obsession over the symmetry of one’s winged eyeliner, or eyebrows, details which are rarely apparent to beholders, are exemplary of the self work that is makeup. Also, the notion that cosmetics relate solely to women and the feminine is dated. The modern use of cosmetics is no longer in line with the 1930s and 40s capitalist agenda to boost women’s morale, helping them “remain glamorous” while doing “men’s work.”9 Today, cosmetics are a type of “technologies of the self” which, as defined by Foucault, “permit individuals to effect, by their own means or with the help of others, a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being,

so as to transform themselves […] to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality.”10 In her essay “Between Embodied Subjects and Objects: Narrative Somaesthetics,” Marjorie Jolles discusses Foucauldian embodied ethics to posit that, “somatic individuals,”11 who make use of self-help books to shape their bodies and lives are in fact participating in a somaesthetic praxis through which they are able to reject normalization and achieve a higher level of consciousness. It can thus be argued that the use of cosmetics is a similar type of somaesthetic praxis, whereby somatic individuals are shaping their face instead of their body; rejecting normalized beauty standards and attaining higher levels of consciousness in terms of their own individuality. Jolles defines somaesthetics as “the critical, améliorerative study of one’s experience and use of one’s body as a locus of sensoryaesthetic appreciation […] and creative 59

self-fashioning.”12 A distinction must be made however between the two subcategories of somaesthetics. Cosmetics are concerned with experiential somaesthetics, with enhancing one’s own somatic experience, and not with representational somaesthetics which focus on one’s physical appearance13, the common assumption. In the chapter, “Year Zero: Faciality” of their book Thousand Plateaus, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari discuss the face and the process of facialization as abstract systems. For Deleuze and Guattari a face is an organizational system, one made of holes and surfaces whereby the unconscious operation of facialization draws the body across the surface.14 A face therefore is a composition not as an image but as an overcodified set of parts. They go on to suggest that architecture itself “positions its ensembles to function like faces in the landscape they transform,” faces produced through an overcodifying of program, materials, and building codes. Relating back to the Greek kosmos, the complex and orderly system that is the universe, or for our purposes oneself, Deleuze and Guattari postulate that “the abstract machine [of faciaility] facializes following an order of reasons (rather than an organization of resemblances).”15 It can be said then that one shapes their face through the use of cosmetics, not to resemble any particular thing or object, but rather to elucidate the ever

HISTORY + THEORY

evolving order of reasons which define their actuality at any given moment. Ontologically speaking, if we are to define the face, body, and/or building as an object or thing, we can begin to follow Graham Harman’s thesis in his essay “the Physical Nature and the Paradox of Qualities,” on the relations between objects. Assuming that objects withdraw from one another, we cannot fully grasp the meaning of one object in relation to ourselves or any other object. We can then understand a cosmetic structure as an intentional object; an object which “never appears except by way of some contour or face.”16 By Harman’s definition an intentional object is one which “unifies a shifting set of profiles and surfaces whose various flickering never affect it’s underlying ideal unity.”17 Accordingly, the application of cosmetics is not a process which changes the essence of an object; rather, it brings to the surface particles of the sandstorm of various

qualities that rage around its shape18, a kind of ordering and reordering of things not as they appear but as one desires. Harman goes on to state that “everything in the world only happens on the interior of objects.”19 It can be argued that a cosmetic look is a physical manifestation of, or a reference to an interior condition or state of being, an expressive introversion. In other words, a cosmetic architecture would be one which does not concern itself with the affects it has in and on the world, but rather seeks to invert this self-work or affective potential, thereby producing a sort of selfintensification. Bernard Tshumi’s Le Fresnoy Art Center is perhaps the first example of a cosmetic application in architecture. Built between 1991-97, in Tourcoing France the project makes use of an exaggerated roof structure to connect and redefine the existing structures.20 A unification of parts each with their own programmatic

function, the project is an example of the process of facialization. Not only does the structure unify a set of parts, but it redefines the interior order of circulation, allowing users to move between and through the parts which make up its whole. Similar to the way a drag queen audaciously commands attention, the presentation of a larger, more extravagant self is the first criteria for a cosmetic architecture. The Danish Radio Concert House (DR City), in Copenhagen by Jean Nouvel presents itself as a large singular blue volume that engages in a subtle contouring, or plays of light and shadows, during the day, hinting at the smaller volumes which define its interior. From day to night, this cosmetic look shifts, whereby the blue exterior becomes the face on which images, lights, and colors are projected, “expressing the life going on inside.”21 Lacaton and Vassal’s Nantes School of Architecture, in Nantes, France, makes minimal programmatic use of the structure’s large footprint.

From floor to floor, the ratio of permanent program to “espace libre appropriable” or flexible programmatic space to exterior space varies22. The majority of the footprint is designated to flexible space, allowing the users to shape the interior order based on their needs or reasoning. Unlike DR City’s mysterious exterior, the Nantes School presents an open exterior through which the interior cosmetic application can be seen. The excessive self-ness attained through the application of cosmetics, can also be understood architecturally as an excessive envelope or environmental excess. La Villa Barak by Francois Roche and Stephanie Lavaux (R&Sie), presents itself like a house in drag but does so with environmental intent. Located in Sommieres, France, in the countryside, the exaggerated exterior has a shape influenced by the landscape so as to redefine the site in its own manner. The green plastic netting which defines the shape

juts up and over the villa to act as a canopy which mediates the hot climate of Southern France. The clumsiness of the shape and the tent-like construction were intentional on the part of the architects so as to challenge the normalized definition of “architecture”, versus the that of “installation.”23 Blur, a project by Diller Scofidio and Renfro for the 2002 Swiss Expo, casts a blanket of coolth around itself through the use of filtered water from Lake Neuchatel on which it sits. This atmospheric fog constantly changes its shape, rejecting cognition, based on shifts in temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction. The cloud gives the 300’ by 200’ lightweight tensegrity structure24 a larger presence, projecting the water that makes up its surroundings, and programmatic function beyond itself. Similarly the MoMA PS1 project Wendy by Hollwich Kushner extended its environmental functions to the areas surrounding it. Through the use of its spiked armatures, 61

Wendy provided cool air, water canons, and mists within the courtyard to mediate the hot summer climate in New York. Of these examples, none are adequate representations of a cosmetic architecture in themselves rather, they begin to hint at the potential models or concepts which can be further extrapolated to produce a true cosmetic architecture. An architecture of excess: excessive presentation, excessive environmental intervention, possibly excessive programmatic function. Like a woman, man, or transgendered individual shaping their face in the morning, defining their own beauty, cosmetic architecture is one which seeks to amplify its own agency in the world. 1 Liddell, Henry George and Scott, Robert.κόσμος in A Greek-English Lexicon 2 Schaffer, Sarah (2006), Reading Our Lips: The History of Lipstick Regulation in Western Seats of Power, 3 “History of Cosmetics.” Detailed View of History of Cosmetics. Accessed March 10, 2018. http://

HISTORY + THEORY

www.historyofcosmetics.net/cosmetichistory/history-of-cosmetics/. 4 McGlinchey, Stevie. “History of Makeup.” Glamourdaze. May 29, 2013. Accessed March 10, 2018. http://glamourdaze.com/history-ofmakeup. 6 Kipnis, Jeffrey. “The Cunning of Cosmetics: A Personal Reflection On the Architecture of Herzog and De Meuron.” El Croquis 84 (1997): 429-39. 7 Ibid 429 8 Ibid 432 9 McGlinchey, Stevie. “History of Makeup.” Glamourdaze. May 29, 2013. Accessed March 10, 2018. http://glamourdaze.com/history-ofmakeup. 10 Jolles, Marjorie. “Between Embodied Subjects and Objects: Narrative Somaesthetics.” Hypatia 27, no. 2 (2012): 301-18. doi:10.1111/j.15272001.2011.01262.x. 11 Ibid 303 12 Ibid 305 13 Ibid 306 14 Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987. Chapter 7, Year Zero:Faciality

20 “Le Fresnoy Art Center.” Bernard Tschumi Architects. Accessed April 11, 2018. http:// www.tschumi.com/projects/14/. 21 “Danish Radio Concert House (DR Koncerthuset).” Ateliers Jean Nouvel. Accessed April 11, 2018. http://www.jeannouvel.com/en/ projects/salle-symphonique-de-laradio-danoise/. 22 “Ecole D’architecture, Nantes School of Architecture, Nantes.” Lacaton & Vassal. Accessed April 11, 2018. https://www.lacatonvassal.com/ index.php?idp=55. 23 Roche, Francois. “Villa Barak.” New Territories. Accessed April 11, 2018. http://www.newterritories. com/roche barak.htm. 24 “Blur Building.” DS R. Accessed April 11, 2018. https://dsrny.com/ project/blur-building? index=false&section=projects&search= blur. Photos in order 1 Makeup Artist James Charles 2 Makeup Artist Mie Pang 3 Model Jazzelle Zanaughtti 4 DR City - Jean Nouvel 5 Nantes School of Architecture Lacaton and Vassal 6 Bernard Tshumi - Le Fresnoy 7 Villa Barak - R&Sie 8 Blur - Diller and Scofidio and Renfro 9 Wendy - Hollwich Kushner

15 Ibid 175 16 Harman, Graham. Towards Speculative Realism: Essays and Lectures. Ropley: O Books, 2010. Chapter 8, Physical Nature and the Paradox of Qualities 17 Ibid 127 18 Ibid 130 19 Ibid 131

ALMOST ALON

MODEL PHOTOS

chunk detail model

“A SET OF OBJECTS, SIMILAR, BUT EACH WITH THEIR OWN DIFFERENCES”

NE TOGETHER

II GA

DESIGN STUDIO

REPETITION + DIFFERENCE

The 1GA, 1GB, 2GA, and 2GB addresses the single, the double, the triple, and the multiple as a sequence of compositional exercises at various architectural scales, from the single-family house to the scale of the city. The brief for 2GA will be the Walt Disney Animation Center located in Burbank, CA. Combining masterful artistry and storytelling with ground breaking technology, Walt Disney Animation Center is a filmmaker-driven animation studio responsible for creating some of the most innovative films ever made. The third semester M. Arch I core studio speculates on the syntax of multiple, non-correlated, digital and physical architectural objects. Through a non-compositional approach, architectural projects will develop new coherences among parts that are neither dialectical nor differential. While retaining a level of disciplinary specificity and legibility this contingent model playfully harnesses the discrepancy between digital and physical design processes. Moving from composition to compositing, the studio engages workflows beyond conventional three-dimensional modeling in the computer. The technique of ‘volumetric compositing’ brings together fragmentation/explosion and unification/implosion, to produce geometrically and volumetrically coherent objects. An aspect of this aesthetic stance is to identify specific architectural types, tropes, and devices; reconstructing and redeploying them in ways that question the original intentions of the design. The studio will critically consider the idea of “type” and “model” in the context of a renewed interest in objecthood — a discourse that posits typological thinking as a problem of collections and catalogues rather than periodization or classification. While no longer concerned with the origin of architecture (Laugier), imitation of nature (Quatremére), or taxonomy of types (Durand), this trans-temporal and nontheistic attitude articulates new ways of engaging the rapidly expanding archive of objects available to the designer. The vitality of this way of thinking and working is evident in contemporary art (Koons, McCarthy) and fashion (Michele/Gucci, Gvasalia/Balenciaga). Similarly, in architecture a focus on the multiple object building complex leads to a reassessment of works by Gehry, Rossi, Siza, and Stirling at the cusp of the digital turn. Gaining familiarity with these set pieces shifts the initial focus of design activity in the studio to critically engaging disciplinary knowledge. While it may be assumed that a quasiautonomous collection of parts exists, the workflow for setting those parts into a legible architectural assemblages and ensembles requires intentionality of the architect. Over the course of the semester each team will be expected to develop an aesthetic stance and argument for the selection and disposition of parts, and the detailed development of planimetric organizations, structural and building envelope systems.

Russell Thompson fall 2017 66

RENDERING above is an axonometric rending of the overall massing

MODEL PHOTO above massing model in its context

DESIGN STUDIO

Done in Collaboration with Brandon Kintzer The studio brief challenged us to make architecture from architecture, exploring new modes of syntactical organization by employing forms sampled from well-known architectural precedents. Removed from their original contexts and compositions, these forms were already abstracted away from use and circumstance. The initial impulse was to compose a variety of these parts into a larger, dynamic composition. Instead, we became interested in challenging legibility with the idea of an ‘almost anonymous’ series of simple, large building volumes. By ‘almost anonymous’ we mean that perhaps their most obvious feature is their varied sizes and the fact that there are three. The existing sound stage buildings on the site are closer to what we mean by anonymous; they are extremely large volumes with little or no articulation, a kind of volume where many different things might happen within. As the new animation center, our volumes take on slightly more character both in the interior and the exterior. The three large volumes are distributed orthogonally over the length of the site. A series of small misalignments, coupled with discrete courtyards and excavations of varying depth around and between the volumes create moments of singularity within the regularity. The geometry of the courtyard spaces suggests a process of erasure; a larger aggregate composition edited down to its essential form. There is a distinct and clear difference between the exterior and the interiors of our project. The interior of each volume is thought of as a large, discrete open volume punctuated by a series of smaller, private volumes within. The large open space is almost like that of a warehouse, with open floors that encourage a variety of working arrangements. The more private volumes within provide spaces for meeting, conferences, and presentations. In order to solve the obvious difficulty of providing access and egress from the individual privacies, we deployed an excessive series of cores that provide both structure and circulation. The program is distributed equally between the three large volumes on the site, essentially creating a non-hierarchical organization for this dynamic program within the larger Disney corporation. In contrast, the exterior is strongest when viewed from afar, at a distance. The large building volumes march through the landscape; slightly awkward, tilting, they are a bit unstable in their assertiveness. The envelope system is designed to be optically distant. It responds with a dynamic, changing grain of color and light as one views it by moving around it, either walking or driving in an automobile. These almost anonymous structures appear slightly out of place, but perhaps they are not really anonymous after all.

MODEL PHOTOS, DIAGRAM, PLAN above typical floor plan, left from top to bottom street view massing model, program diagram, freeway view massing model

DESIGN STUDIO

RENDERINGS above are renderings of elevation views, top Disney side, street side

RENDERING, DIAGRAMS, AND MODEL PHOTO above is a chunk rendering illustrating construction details, right from top to bottom, heat diagram, chunk detail model photo, egress diagram

DESIGN STUDIO

LONGITUDINAL SECTION above is a section illustrating the ventilation system within each structure

“Reinterpreting Mickey Mouse”

Done in collaboration with Brandon Kintzer

VS III

VISUAL STUDIES

M U LT I P L E S The ‘artist’s multiple’ was one of the first forms of ‘affordable art.’ At its broadest a ‘Multiple’ is an art object, usually in 3D, conceived and created by an artist in an edition. In 1914 Marcel Duchamp produced the first Multiples by including miniature copies of some of his artworks in his ‘Boite en Valise.’ The term ‘Multiple’ was first coined by Paris gallerist Denise Rene in 1966 to describe the works made by her stable of artists. Multiples were seen as a break with traditional artistic categories because they were editions which looked like originals. Repetition was the result of a conscious choice by the artist; prints, photographs and books are generally excluded from the category because they are primarily associated with the process of reproduction. In the 1960’s and 1970’s many artists created multiples as a way of using new industrial production techniques and making their art more widely available. Multiples became carriers of new ideas, and were often subversive or humorous in intent. themultiplestore.org For the first half of the semester, the course is coordinated with 2GA Studio to provide students with software techniques in support of the architectural design project. Taking as the starting point one of Claes Oldenburg’s multiples, the Geometric Mouse from 1971, teams will animate 2D and 3D figures using seminar specific scripts in Rhino Grasshopper Kangaroo. This playful procedure makes possible new arrangements of parts (ears, head, nose, body, etc.) through rigging and dropping in a user-defined bounding box. Three innovative features are built into the script that question the increasingly automated procedures of computer graphics. The first is real-time mapping whereby up to three custom vector patterns may be projected to any frame. The second is multiple projections built into a single viewport. The third is rendering an animation sequence from Grasshopper. In the second half of the semester teams will select by lottery one of three workshop offerings that engage advanced technology (Augmented Reality, Photogrammetry, and Robot House). There will be five intensive sessions each exploring ‘phygital’ workflows. These workshops give students the opportunity to explore techniques in advance of Verticals and Graduate Thesis. In addition to the projects, lectures and readings on the conceptual framework of the seminar, students will be offered tutorials in Grasshopper scripting, Keyshot rendering, and other emerging technology.

Devyn Weiser fall 2017 80

2D RENDERING above is one of the 2d renderings for the series “Raining Mice”

3D RENDERING AND MODEL PHOTOS “mickey killing the dragon” above is one of the renderings, to the right model made of foam and 3d prints

HISTORY + THEORY

Architecture’s Present, Past, and it’s Future History of Architecture and Urbanism III - Alex Maymind

The decade of the 1960s is characterized by social, cultural, and economic turmoil. It is in times of turmoil that the mind begins to question the current state of being: how did we get here? What have we done wrong? Looking to the past to produce a framework for a better future is how the cycle of history progresses. What varies is the lens through which one examines the past. In the case of SUPERSTUDIO and Archigram the past was to be dismissed and even ridiculed, contrastively for Rudofsky the past was a source of inspiration. SUPERSTUDIO’s prerogative during the 60s was to “annihilate the discipline of architecture by using “popular” means if illustration and consumer literature.”1 Their approach to architecture was largely due to the context in which they were pursuing their architectural careers. Florence, at the time was characterized by its reluctance to engage in the modernization occurring in other parts of Italy, and the world, as well as it’s clinging to its traditional past. This atmosphere did nothing but breed disdain for the past and tradition in the students of the Florence school. Unlike Archigram and Rudofsky, the members of SUPERSTUDIO sought to rid the discourse of admiration for architecture with a nihilistic sensibility, proving architecture to be useless and nonsensical through projects like No-Stop City and the Continuous Monument. Much like SUPERSTUDIO, the

Archigram group were also proponents of an architecture that transcended the past. The difference between the two groups was their definition of the past. Arguably the past that Archigram was attempting to eclipse was their present: post-war England. Influenced by the growing advancements in technology, their projects sought to take machines to an architectural scale. Projects like The Walking City and Plug in City were utopian visions of a future for architecture, one in which architecture ceased to be confined by its static materiality. As Vidler states, “The effect of Archigram’s work between 1961 and 1970 was to project into society a program and an aesthetic for the total environment… an environmentalism that worked with every aspect of the contemporary environment”.2 With his exhibition and book, Architecture without Architects Bernard Rudofsky challenges the status quo of the architectural discourse through an examination and cataloguing of what he, somewhat problematically, labeled “non-pedigreed” architecture. With this collection of images, Rudofsky sought to open the definition of Architecture to include vernacular structures from cultures outside of the West. His goal with the exhibition was to show the discourse that Architecture was everywhere, “to break down our narrow concepts of the art of building.”3 While I appreciate his desire to make space in the discourse for nonWestern architecture, the name “non-

pedigreed” is arguably problematic because it gives the impression that these vernacular structures are not of a tradition or art of building within these societies. Sure the traditions and techniques may not be in practice or well written about, however that does not mean their histories of origin should be insouciantly grouped together and labeled as lacking such lineage. This “non-pedigreed” architecture, Rudofsky argued, is “eternal,” created purely for its function through techniques which were passed down, and serve their purpose for each of the various cultures. It is precisely their lack of modernization that makes them worth studying. Rudofsky shares the desire to change the architectural discourse much like SUPERSTUDIO and Archigram, however his approach differs in that his exploration looks to the past as something to be idolized. Architecture in the 60s wasn’t just about building, it became a vehicle to incite change. A hegemonic movement away from the perceived failures of the Modernists and the Old gods of architecture; architects, architecture critics, and students in the 60s sought to get their hands dirty and break all the rules. While many of these projects remain unbuilt, the discussions they sparked have greatly impacted the discourse and the way we learn about architecture today.

1 Natalini, Adolfo. “How great Architecture Still was in 1966...” Exit Utopia: Architectural Provocations 1956-76: 185-90 2 Vidler, Anthony. “Toward a Theory of the Architectural Program.” 59-74 3 Rudofsky, Bernard. Architecture without architects: a short introduction. to non-pedigreed architecture. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1964.

“COMPOSE WITH YOUR CATALOGUE OF FORMAL TRAITS”

twoone MODEL PHOTOS above are detail photos of the model in its context

e house I GB

DESIGN STUDIO

D I P T YC H This course is a continuation and expansion of the fundamental issues of architecture introduced in the first studio of the core sequence. The interrelationship between geometry, form, tectonics, and materiality is explored as it relates to over arching organizational systems and emergent systemic behaviors driven by programmatic content-structural logics and physical setting. Program and structure are considered to be creative components of design rather than fixed entities. Students are given the Emerging Professionals Companion along with updated IDP information. The working methodologies introduced in 1 GA are expanded and refined to allow each student to continue developing conceptual frameworks and productive techniques for the creation of architecture. As the first part of the Graduate Programâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Comprehensive Design Sequence, this course challenges students to design both site and buildings accommodation.

Alexis Rochas spring 2017 88

RENDERING above east axonometric view

RENDERING above image is a street side elevation

DESIGN STUDIO

A Duplex in Frogtown, LA Initial formal explorations were done through iterative compositional exercises. The forms used in initial studies were extrusions take from prints by Eduardo Chillida. From these studies a myriad of formal traits were selected with which the final massing was composed. The Chillida prints were a means to develop individual sensibilities towards the figure-ground problem. The resulting proposal engages the site and the ground through a sunken courtyard typology. The intent was also to challenge the definition of a diptych, to produce an illegibility between one house and the other. The diptych is best defined through the two courtyards, one for each house respectively. With a site adjacent to the L.A River, and the Frogtown Bike Path, the response was to extend the bike path over the site, blurring the boundary between public and private space. While the courtyards read as two from the level of the bike path, below grade at the entrances the courtyard reads as one space which wraps around a mass.

DESIGN STUDIO

PLAN second floor plan

PLAN, SECTION, ELEVATION, AND AXONOMETRIC right, from top to bottom: riverside elevation, northwest view, transverse section. above ground floor plan

DESIGN STUDIO

LONGITUDINAL SECTION above section is cut through shared circulation space

“There’s more than one way to read a letter”

Done in collaboration with Brandon Kintzer

VS II

VISUAL STUDIES

THREE-D TYPE The course forms the continuation of Strategies of Representation 1 by expanding on the conceptions of representational tools, emphasizing diagramming and spatial representations, and incorporating site analysis, topography and three-dimensional realizations. The program focuses on developing the precision of intentions in the production of architectural drawings and instilling a critical sensitivity for the inherent bias and interface of each deployed medium of representation.

Matthew Au + Anna Niemark spring 2017 100

DRAWING drawing illustrating projection of the letter geometry resulting in the new 3D form

VISUAL STUDIES

MODEL PHOTOS large scale index cards inspired by projection fold study model, model stands at 5â&#x20AC;&#x2122;5

102

103

HISTORY + THEORY

Renaissance Woman: an Ekphrastic Reading of LeDoux’s Forge a Canons de Chaux History of Architecture and Urbanism II - Marrikka Trotter

It’s nearly sunrise, the sky is clear apart from the smoke coming from the pyramids, and the smoke clouds masking the sun to the East. The city is silent, empty, less for a few guards and the remaining horses. The last remaining carriage is said to be escorting the new commander and his guards. I am privy to these things because Father is a member of the High Council, the city planner, and Mother is, well, Mother is just what you would expect of a modern woman of the court, Father calls her “his muse.” A single rider has just rushed into town from the South, surely to share news from the battlefields, victories or defeats I hope. I never enjoyed living in this city, a prison of symmetry and

abject egocentricity, the City of Thinkers, or as I’d like to call it the City of Secrets. I’ve been sitting here all night scratching away at my etching plate, in an attempt to capture the moment. I figured it was the best opportunity to practice my perspective and drawing skills, since we are shut in here for heavens knows how much longer. I need to improve my stoke blending, I am already certain the sky will print with “stitches” where my strokes don’t meet completely. Since word was received that our enemies the Baroquians planned to attack the city we’ve been evacuated for our safety. Our cities have been at war for what feels like an eternity. They dislike us, our closed-mindedness, and our

affinity for order and straightlines. Every structure in this city is a rectilinear form, all the curvilinear forms being overshadowed, treated like accents in the center of a few structures. I don’t blame the Baroquians, just look at how we’ve built our city, a series of monuments, a shrine to antiquity, rather the way the High Council has reinterpreted antiquity. The High Council is a group of Renaissance scholars, men that have studied the arts and sciences, who are constantly making new discoveries. Each member of the High Council designed their own homes. Far off in the distance, isolated from everyone is Palladio’s villa, modeled after all of his villas, or so I’ve been

104

told. Set on a high plinth, with its large pediment and colonnades, and centralized cylindrical form. Its one of my favorite villas in the city, it would be perfect if the cylinder was a dome in my opinion. Mother calls him a recluse, she says he decided to build away from everyone for his own “intellectual privacy.” I think she took it as a personal offense when he refused the plot next to ours. My family’s villa looks so peaceful from here, framed by the bellows of smoke, Father was inspired by one of Alberti’s first projects in how he designed the facade, the columns and pediment are merely stuck onto the larger structure that is the main part of the villa. Our closest neighbors are Brunelleschi, Bramante. Each with their own interpretation of antiquity. Brunelleschi has the tallest villa, with many closely placed small windows on the second story. Father explained to me they were for him to have an improved view of the city, he is the inventor of perspective you see and height plays an important role in constructing a perspective. Bramante lives closest to Brunelleschi, in his

temple styled villa, a nod to the temple of temples, the Parthenon, with its exaggerated pediment and colonnade that appears to wrap all the way around. Every private property in the city is designed to sit on a large plinth, Father says its because of our status as intellectuals we are above the ground, therefore above nature and the common people. The shared or public spaces in the city are structures called stoas, they’re rectilinear and narrow with colonnades on either side. Both The stoa to the south-east and the stoa just west of Alberti’s villa are markets, only the south-east stoa is also the entrance to the bath houses which are out of view. The building closest to me, with the second story colonnades is the Hall of Achievements. Every architectural feature has a “top” and a “bottom”: the windows, rectangular and narrow on the bottom, small and square on the top. The structure, two mirrored porticos on the top with horizontal bands, and a seemingly solid rectilinear form on the bottom. I can see it even clearer from this view, hidden behind thick horizontal band pediments, the pitched roofs

105

of a few buildings revealing themselves to me for the first time. Why mask some pitched roofs and not others? To give some structures a semblance significance over others, it makes me wonder what else the men who designed this city could be hiding. Perfectly symmetrical, The Hall houses all of the High Council’s research and discoveries. It’s only fitting that it sit directly opposite to Alberti’s residence, since he designed it himself and it holds a large collection of his drawings. Its quite self-seeking if you ask me. Moving east, across the city center, is the large villa of Alberti, he’s the oldest member of the High Council. His property is hard to miss with its two triumphal arch like buildings at the entrance. When I was younger I always thought the niche in the center went straight through, but Father explained that Alberti was a master of facades and illusions; the facades of all of his buildings are flattened. Father says he inspired many of the other High Council members with his “two system” composition, horizontal bands either splitting buildings in half.

HISTORY + THEORY

The main roads of the city all lead to the center, to the Citadel. Set on a plinth with a surrounding moat. The moat, made of a light material, is the ordering system for the city, becoming part of the streets that border it, and continuing on into the distance creating a boundary between the Citadel and the inhabitants of the city. Father described the Citadel as “the symbol of modern perfection.” A square, each corner connected and fortified with a pyramid. This perfect square is circumscribed with a cross. Father let me glance over the plans once, truly a sight, a composition of perfect squares and a single circle. The High Council value their privacy, to the point of secrecy. The entrance to the Citadel is a great mystery to everyone, there are doorways seen at the base of the pyramids and on each facade, but I think they’re a trompe l’oeil, meaning they don’t actually function. It’s unclear, with the moat cutting through the city and around it, the assumption is that there’s an entrance with in the moat itself. Surely there must be a set of steps that don’t lead down into the water, like those on the western facade. Perhaps there’s an underground corridor of sorts. We’re only allowed within

a certain range of it so it’s hard to say, and I’ve yet to see it for myself. Surely there must be a set of steps that don’t lead down into the water, like those on the western facade. Perhaps there’s an underground corridor of sorts. We’re only allowed within a certain range of it so it’s hard to say, and I’ve yet to see it for myself. Man and the urge to always be the one in control never ceases to amaze me. They started with horses and cattle, which of course wasn’t enough, so they’ve turned to the vegetation and water. The care and manicuring required to upkeep the trees in order, and the roads perfectly clean, seems so wasteful. Everything in the design of the city speaks to the significance of the Citadel itself. The trees from the main roads are all in rows, and where they meet they form open corners to frame the Citadel’s corners, like the tree tops closest to me. Not to mention the lengths they went to insure the protection of their “intellectual property,” with the moat controlling the flow of water through the city and doubling as a barrier carved around the Citadel. It’s unclear how far the moat stretches in both directions either, I’ve never left the city myself to discovery 106

its extents, its source. The Citadel houses the High Council and the military. The cross structure with the only windows, serves as their barracks and offices for the military official and the High Council. I watched the soldiers get in their formations, some going directly to the battlefields in the South, and some staying behind to prepare the carriages. They moved in orderly lines, carried out ammunition and guns, from their storage into the courtyards in each quadrant of the Citadel. Next they moved to the markets and carried out rations, I’ve never seen so much fare at once, they made piles outside, some was brought to us and the rest was loaded onto carriages. The carriages came back in smaller and smaller numbers each time, now there’s but one left. The piles of a provisions and weapons just lie outside, sorted with no where to go, striking me as unidentifiable beasts. In the center of the Citadel, in the structure void of all windows, is where they have their confidential High Council meetings, speaking Latin and sharing ideas. I borrowed one of Father’s books once to try and learn Latin myself, I was caught of course. I’ll never forget what Mother said to me

when she found it, “Latin is not a tongue that belongs in the mouth of one as beautiful as yourself,” I learned it anyway to spite her. A cylindrical form placed in the center of a square, “Where man belongs, in the center of the universe,” I read that in Father’s notes on a man named Vitruvius. He had marked it in his journal, that was the day Da’Vinci, another member of the High Council, solved Vitruvius’ theory that man can be inscribed in a circle and a square. Father returned home with such excitement that was all he spoke of at dinner. The pyramids at every corner serve a myriad of purposes, only a few of which I’m aware of. In these times of war the smoke clouds serve as a signaling system for the rest of the city: all four pyramids smoking calls for an evacuation, which was a rare occurrence. You can tell be because the south-eastern and the northeastern pyramids are minimally covered in soot. Their primary functions are to announce official guests from other cities coming to the Citadel for presentations, which doesn’t happen often since the war began. The north-eastern and south-western pyramids, both covered more that half-way with soot are the most frequently

used. Both pyramids smoking signals enemies on or nearing the city limits, that civilians should proceed with caution. Those days are the worst, the anxiety just hanging thick in the air. Another great High Council secret is what they are burning to create the smoke so often. Rumor has it, the north-eastern pyramid houses a crematorium where fallen soldiers are taken to be cremated and given back to their families in “a presentable fashion,” that’s why the smoke is always thickest and black in comparison to the other three. Another theory is that the High Council uses them to burn ideas that are too controversial or simply bore them as a collective, perhaps they burn ideas that challenge their strict ordering principles. Those are just silly theories however, only the soldiers responsible for manning and feeding the fires know what goes on in those rooms. The smoke has died down in the south-eastern pyramid and appears to be going down in the north-western pyramid. The evacuation will be called off soon, and the town will be addressed, the fate of the City of Thinkers made known. The force with which the other pyramids are smoking makes me wonder if the Baroquians have 107

actually succeeded, if they’ve actually taken over the city. However, surrendering is not in High Council’s vocabulary. What I would give to be a fly on the wall at the meeting of the Councils, to see the signing of the accords. All my life I’ve wanted to be a scholar, to be allowed to study the arts, mathematics, the sciences, and to read all the books in Latin and learn languages, to become a the member of the Council. My older sister, the perfect daughter, always said, “Women don’t create, we give life and inspiration to men,” a thought I find utterly ridiculous. What of the feminine, of our thoughts? How glad I am that no one has spotted me up here in the secret room within the churches dome, my etching would be lost forever. I’ve indeed captured the end of the Renaissance, the time for the female experience is now. You never hear the phrase “Renaissance Woman” because society has been made to believe that they never existed. I am a Renaissance Woman and will be seen and heard in this new Baroque era.

Hyde park

MODEL PHOTOS

form study model

“MODEL MATERIALS TO ARCHITECTURAL MATERIALS”

k library I GA

DESIGN STUDIO

G E O M E T RY , F O R M , A N D S PA C E

The 1 GA studio introduces students to the central problems of architecture—geometry, form, and space— through the technologies of their description—diagramming, drawing, and model making. Introductory exercises emphasize the role of drawing and analysis as both descriptive and generative. Students pay close attention to the development of ideas that inform an iterative and creative process for working with many different media: from physical models, to two-dimensional drawings, to digital interfaces. The course culminates in the design of a small public building in Los Angeles.

Constance Vale fall 2016 110

RENDERING unrolled project geometry of cladding and poche

RENDERING 2D rendering of elevation

DESIGN STUDIO

Art As Architectural Precedent Beginning with a study of the polyhedron geometry found in Tony Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sculpture, Smoke. The massing of the project was created through a hybridization of the geometries extracted from the sculpture. The materiality of the mass was further studied through a series of foam-core and paper models. The contrast in material thickness between paper and foam were translated into poche, to house program, and building envelope.

Readings and Misreadings The graphic of the exterior skin was produced through a study of Frank Stellaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s black paintings The stripes, extended beyond the bounds of the envelope produce a slippage in the pattern that allow for a misreading between a geometric edge and the edge of the pattern. This slippage also begins to define the relationship the building has to its site, becoming a graphic to represent changes in flooring material, and thickening to become benches for the adjacent bus stop on the exterior. On the interior this slippage becomes a communal working table, as well as changes in the floor.

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DESIGN STUDIO

PLANS above second floor, right ground floor

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MODEL PHOTOS left, from top to bottom: poche geometry front view, cladding graphic model, rotated poche model. above cladding graphic model front view

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DESIGN STUDIO

SECTIONS above longitudinal section, right transverse section

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Use the object to produce an object to build that object

VS I

VISUAL STUDIES

C U RV E S I N S PA C E The 1GA Visual Studies course is structured as an introduction to forms, methods, conventions and approaches to architectural drawing and representation. Beginning from the fundamentals of orthographic projection, the course will sequentially examine the notion of sections and cut drawings, oblique and axonometric projections, and various types of curvature, from simple to complex, in both to and three dimensions. Students will be required to constantly work between the construction of drawings and the construction of physical models, gaining familiarity with the constraints and advantages of each. The course will concentrate heavily on geometry. Distinct from strictly mathematical geometry, architecture necessarily presumes three-dimensional form and, in particular, material dimensions. Methods of two- and three-dimensional projection will therefore be absolutely essential. One of the courseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goals is for students to attain familiarity with descriptive geometry, which allows the visualization and representation of complex threedimensional forms. The purpose of the Visual Studies sequence in general is to provide students with techniques that they can apply to their work in other classes, and to studio in particular; this course is directly coordinated with the 1GA and 1GB Studios in order to provide students with tools and techniques that they will use in those courses.

Matthew Au + Emmett Zeifman fall 2016 122

DRAWING illustrates curves produced during the unrolling of a tetrahedron

VISUAL STUDIES

DRAWING AND MODEL PHOTOS above is a annotated drawing of main jig component. right image of manila paper model.

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FALL 2018 SCI-ARC LOS ANGELES, CA