III from space to architecture 2015 booklet 3 nelke sommerdijk personal journey iversity architecture
buildings have feelings too John Hejduk
f r o m
s p a c e
part 3 Now in part 3, we will spend 2 full weeks immersed into “space”, then another 2 weeks going from space to architecture, and finally, 2 full weeks into architecture. Architecture 101 is an introduction to space and architecture. A six-month journey consisting of 3 online courses open to all on iversity (part 1, part 2, part 3), one final exhibition (or graduation party) and a week-long summer camp “offline”. Architecture 101 is also a community of people. People who like to learn and make things together. A big community of special people that started taking shape with Design 101 and that keeps on growing with Architecture 101.
Science is nothing but perception. Plato
Four interesting books to define the boundaries of contemporary architecture? Le Corbusier, Towards an Architecture, 1923 Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 1966 (it starts from page 51) Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York, 1978. Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas, 1972.
Let`s start with the exercises:
Week 1: Perception
Monday:
#TheReallyExplicit ( work from Gabriel Dawe)
Any project starts with analysis, documentation. When you look for references, this is already “design�. ******************************************************************** Monday: documentation (find sources of inspiration, relevant examples) Tuesday: conceptual models (make a conceptual model of what you want to do) Wednesday: tools and materials (find, gather, document the tools and materials you will use) Thursday: the making of (set things up and document) Friday: the real thing (document in two images your work: a picture of the real thing, and an image in which you digitally transform the first picture to enhance its meaning.
What will I do today? Today is the “conceptual model� day.
Tuesday: #PeopleLike
Yesterday, you found ideas, suggestions, references. Today, you have to make a (digital) conceptual model of your idea. You have your space. You have some ideas. Test your ideas making a digital conceptual model.
What will I learn? To make digital models and representations for shaping a project. Experiment, test, try Why do we do this? To conceptualize our own ideas is a very important part in the design process.
Wednesday: #HelpMeObi
What will I do today? Today you will focus on materials: the ingredients and tools for your operations. What will I learn? To focus on the importance of your tools and materials. Why do we do this? To put some thread, tools and materials into space. To understand the importance of the relationship between the process and the final product.
Thursday: #IdontLive
I don’t live in France; I live in myself. Alejandro Jodorowsky The final result is a linear function of your process. This means that you have to design the process. If you design the process well, the final result will be good. If you focus on the final result, without designing a proper process, you’ll end up in troubles and doom. What will I do today? Today is the making of.
What will I learn? To think about post-production while you are into the production phase. Post proWhy do we do this? If you want to come up with good stuff, you must know all the tricks. To plan the post-production before you start the production is one of these.duction has to be imagined and tested before you start to produce.
Friday: #SunMoonStones
“the real thing”
the digitally transformed image
Then, once you have this picture, work on it digitally. Adding, taking out, changing, overlapping, making some kind of intervention. At the end, you will have two images. The real thing and the digitally transformed thing.
What will I learn? To understand that the digitally transformed thing is the real thing (and not viceversa). We live in an age where the boundaries between real and digitally transformed are very thin and blurred.
Week 2: Joints Monday: #FarFromSimple
architect Michael Wallraff
What do we do this week? We build a structure. You have to build a physical structure in which you can enter b. The structure needs to be built with materials you can easily find at no cost, it should be placed on the floor Why do we do this? To reproduce something existing is a great way for learning new things. This is what we should do this week.
Quality is not an act, it is a habit. Aristotle Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality. Robin S. Sharma.
Tuesday: #QualityIsNot
What will I do today? A digital conceptual model of your spatial structure in the space you chose. The three dimensional structure placed in your space will generate an architectural concept. What will I learn? To adapt an existing concept to a new space to generate new meanings. Why do we do this? you have to build a self-standing structure. Big enough for people to get into.
Wednesday: #ValidForEverybody
Get all the materials and tools you need to build your structure. Remember that this week is called “Joints�. This is because we consider joints to be some of the most important elements in any structure. What will I learn? Even when we have to do something apparently simple, the choice of materials is tremendously important Why do we do this? The materials you choose to work with are extremely important. They look all the same, but they are not!
Thursday: #ThinkSimpleAs
Friday: #RarelyHas
the real thing (to be documented in two images: a picture of the real space, and a second picture in which you digitally transform the first one to enhance meanings) Basically, your structure is a machine to generate shadows. Play with this.
Think simple’ as my old master used to say - meaning reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles. Frank Lloyd Wright
What will I learn? To work with two kinds of ingredients. The ones you designed (the structure) and the ones you didn’t expect (the shadows). Why do we do this? To make you understand that architecture happens on several layers/levels. Things you understand right away and things that pop up unexpectedly. Your “thing” (whatever “thing” it is). How will it work with sun and shades? What about the sunset and dawn? What about a rainy day?
Week 3: Technique Monday: #MiddleOfNowhere
Clemens Behr
Hina Aoyama
Amy Flurry and Nikky Ney
We have one main material: paper. to divide the space within a room with a “hanging” divider made out of paper.
What will I do today? You have to find documentation, inspiration, sources, relevant examples of similar things that were done by others. Our goal is to make a paper structure to transform a room’s architectural features. Here some examples in order to show you what we have in mind. What will I learn? Given a general brief (with a lot of possible directions / options), you need to (quickly) find your own way. Why do we do this? Sometimes, the most important thing is not finding the best solution, but it is about quickly assessing what’s in front of you, taking a decision and going straight at it. The “best” does not exist.
Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Tuesday: #ArchitectureStarts
What will I do today? Today, like any other Tuesday in Part 3, you have to make a conceptual model of what you want to do. In a different way, “in paper we trust”. Why do we do this? To get you in the typical designer’s loop: You make your first research / documentation. Then, you develop your own idea. Then you find other things, you go back, back and forth, looping a lot, till you find your own way
Wednesday: #OnlyWorkWhich
Only work which is the product of inner compulsion can have spiritual meaning. Walter Gropius
Why do we do this? Life (therefore architecture) has a lot of unexpected events, things, whatever. Learn how to deal with this. Add an unexpected artificial light to your system.
Thursday: #ForYouIKnow
Why do we do this? If you don’t understand the relevance of “light” (either way natural and/or artificial), you will never be able to understand and make and think about architecture.
Friday: #PutOutTheLight
real thing
transformed digitally image
Week 4: Materials Monday: #InBuildingBridges
Omar de Pater
Rogan Brown
Junior Fritz Jacquet
Henk Schram
No one should be interested in building bridges – they should be interested in how to get to the other side. Cedric Price
This week, we get to work on a folding screen. A timeless device to generate meaningful space and architectural meaning. How to generate space / meaning / architecture designing a folding screen made out of paper and / or cardboard?
Tuesday: #YouCanPlan
What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time.
Wednesday: #NeverDesign
Thursday: #QuotingLike
Why do we do this? It’s a conceptual approach. To have you work on a very simple task: to make a folding screen (an object). Thanks to this folding screen, you will generate new spaces!
Friday: #WhoTakesNotes
What will I learn? “What I end up shooting is the situation. I shoot the composition and my subject is going to help the composition or not. “ Annie Leibovitz You start defining a situation, with the architect’s tools (in our case, the folding screen). Then you work with an added subject, in order to help your composition.
Week 5: Colors Monday: #ThoughtfulMaking
Architecture is the thoughtful making of space. Louis Kahn One of the nice things about architecture and design is that they work on genealogies and family trees This week is all about light, shadows and colors. To work with them in a proper way, we will focus on one fundamental element in the architectural language: the window. What will I learn? To use light as a main ingredient and tool to generate architectural meaning. It seems obvious but this concept is generally invisible to most people
Tuesday: #BeNotAfraidOf
Be not afraid of being called un-fashionable. Adolf Loos Today is Tuesday: you have to make a conceptual model of your light device (aka: window). The relationship between sun, shade, natural and artificial (if this is the case), etc. In short, make a conceptual model of what you would like to do! Why do we do this? To push you as much as possible. To make you go one step beyond. :-)
Wednesday: #WhenIWasAlive
If your work implies the use of colors, let us introduce you to the concept of Pantone. A very important tool for any architect and/or designer. Of course, Pantone didn’t invent anything (almost no-one ever does). What will I learn? Actually, in the architect’s life, the conceptual tools are much more important. In the architect’s trade, the conceptual tools are the most important ones. Why do we do this? To increase your thinking / designing / prototyping’s level of complexity.
Thursday: #BeThineOwn
What will I learn? As we said, we would like you to check what other people are doing / working on / inventing. Spend some time checking our Instagram hashtags.
Take a look, ponder, steal, comment… Be a little bit social.
Friday: #NoHouseShould
Why do we do this? To remind you that Architecture 1o1 is foremost a community. It works on this dual tension between what each individual is doing on his/her own and the group as a whole. Finally, at the end, Architecture 1o1 will succeed (or fail) as a whole. If the whole fails, no one can succeed In this extent, it reflects quite well the dynamics in “architecture”. Architecture cannot be done by one single person. Architecture is always the product of a joint effort by a multitude of different people. If you are the introvert type, architecture is not a field for you… :-)
Week 6: Synthesis To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects.
Le Corbusier
Monday: #ToCreateArchitecture/#Condor101
A Condor, Italy project-exercise:
Artists: J端rgen Mayer H., Steigerconstructie Pallets, Shipwreck festival Burning the Man, wooden scaffold India Kantil Al Patel, patent 1924 ship scaffold, natural scaffold Steve Taylor
Tuesday:#ArchitectureStruck/#Condor101
Wednesday:#ContradictoryForces/#Condor101
It is not possible to live in this age if you don`t have a sense of many contradictory forces. Rem Koolhaas
Thursday:#SpaceItIsnt
Friday:#BuildingsHave
Buildings have feelings too. John Hejduk
What I have learned from others? M ee
#meevlee
The
most
beautiful images
on#instagram#architecture101#design101 from my colleague peers (the summercamp and exposition on instagram, twitter and facebook) I did it! I and II and III Architecture101, through Academia Abadir in Milan Italy and Iversity, Berlin,Germany. I finished it and got my certificate. Special thanks to Stefano Mirti, Giulia Camedda and Anne Sophie Gauvin. Apps I used: picsart, photoshop, photolayer and internet. Thank you: all my peers, teachers, cells, community and especially the fantastic videos!