Pedro Camara | GSAPP Portfolio

C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L1A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y P E D R O L C A M A R A D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F M S A A D S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R C O L U M B I A G S A P P O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A S E L E C T E D C W O R K (D) S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U 2 0 1 3 - 2 0 1 4 E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T

C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D 2A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T

3

INTRO Architecture is not only about buildings, drawings and models.

Architecture is also about words.

The projects in this book are a result of the use and repetition of a number of words through conversations, drawings, readings, models, operations, collages, discussions, dreams, ideologies, empathy, desires, epiphanies and constructions.

4

5

SELECTED WORDS ADVANCED STUDIOS: NECESSARY ARCHITECTURE critics: Kersten Geers / Andrea Zanderigo Summer 2013

08

KNOWLEDGE BLENDER critic: Bernard Tschumi Fall 2013

26

THE MOUNTAIN critics: Steven Holl / Dimitra Tsachrelia Spring 2014

48

VISUAL STUDIES / TECH ELECTIVES: SCREENHEADS critics: Michael Rock / Oana Stanescu Fall 2013

72

CONCRETE INTENSIONS critic: Keith Kaseman Spring 2014

98

THEORY: THE PORTERHOUSE: DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE ARCHITECTURAL PRODUCTION OF LUXURY critics: Enrique Walker / Amy Zhang Summer 2013

128

PALLADIO, MIES AND THE UNFOLDED CELESTIAL CUBE critic: Yehuda Safran Fall 2013

136

BUILDINGS AS LOGOTYPES critic: Bernard Tschumi Spring 2014

148

C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D 6 A T RESUME A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T

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ADVANCED STUDIOS:

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SELECTED WORDS: CUT EDGE BORDER ISLAND BIG BOXES DATA CENTER NECESSARY VENTURI MACHINES

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NECESSARY ARCHITECTURE

course ADV. STUDIO ARCHITECTURE WITHOUT CONTENT critic KERSTEN GEERS ANDREA ZANDERIGO semester SUMMER 2013

The Data Center is the most definitive and yet invisible typology of our contemporary world. Locating 12 data centers together at Roosevelt Island was a form of exploring the potential of these big boxes. Their content is an alibi for architectural form whereas the position is integrally part of the overall project for the island.

The project explores the condition of being on the edge of the island. It does not fight against it. It does not try to go beyond programmatic needs. It accepts them. It does not try to be human. It does not try to add unnecessary effects, materials, inflections. It accepts the hermetic nature and the big scale of a data center. One moment of convenient unconventionality is allowed. A cut that split the building in two: big machines (racks) and super big machines (energy generators) that characterize a data center.

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Headquarters Building, North PennVisiting Nurse Association 1960, Ambler, Pennsylvania.

Venturi and Short

The studio started in Philadelphia. The first weeks were dedicated to portray the complexities and contradictions present in traces of early Venturi.

In the North Penn Visiting Nurse Association, Venturi deals with a “box” not through spatial continuities but through circumstancial distortions. The building appears

to be put together by a series of paper-thin independent facades.

The fragility of these “cardboard” walls contrasts with the pretended monumentality of the piano-nobile scaled windows. The big windows also plays a contrast with the small openings of the storage room in the groundlevel

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Each of the buildings contemplates a position on the edge; the edge of the island and the edge between known and unknown. Literally, the buildings form the perimeter of the island in relation with the city proper; they mediate their Necessary Architecture, as one that is shared by many and visited by none.

These immutable forms are veritable monuments of our 21st century, as they will be obsolete the very moment they will be built.

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The project for Roosevelt Island announces its very decay the day of its completion; an empty civic center.

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architecture without content: project for a data center

The data center starts in the border of the island and goes until finding the turn of the road.

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The “cut” houses the building’s circulation system and technical installations

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The openings happen only when they are necessary: offices (groundlevel) and ventilation for cooling towers (top).

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Starting in the groundlevel from a common base for humans (offices), the building breaks itself in two towers dedicated to machines: one for the hackers and other for the energy generators

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KNOWLEDGE BLENDER

SELECTED WORDS: FOLD IT CELESTIAL CUBE DISTRACTION ELASTIC CRITICAL PARANOIA UNFOLD IT COLLISION LEARNING WINDOWS ASTRONOMY FORMULA 1 KNOWLEDGE BLENDER NOTATION

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KNOWLEDGE BLENDER

course ADV. STUDIO: CONCEPT AND NOTATION critic BERNARD TSCHUMI semester FALL 2013

The knowledge blender is a spatial response to the assigned program “education�. It takes the unfolded version of an astronomic diagram - the celestial cube - as a device to produce a space where people is induced into a state of critical-paranoia that possibly will catalyze the invention of new facts and theories as a result of the agglomeration of experiences and information in this Blender. The building is the superposition of three elements: learning windows (educational spaces); shortcuts (functional circulations); and a circuit (an architectural promenade).

The given site was initially a virtual box.

The box was unfolded and used as an imaginary terrain where the three elements described above were combined. After that, learning windows, shortcuts and circuit were submitted to a folding operation and transformed according to their specific properties by the collisions and subversions generated in the experiment creating an immersive space-machine for unexpected encounters and events.

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SHORT INTRO EXERCISE I:

astronomy as a source for notation in architecture

The 10 constellations of the New National Gallery

New National Gallery | Mies van der Rohe

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MOMENTUM

SEMITA I

UNIVERSI

SEMITA II

STRUCTURA

SEMITA III

DIAPHANUM

IMPERUM

NIHIL

URBEM

The celestial maps notation system was used to build 10 “constellations” approaching spatial, political, architectural and metaphysical interpretations of Mies’s Museum.

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SHORT INTRO EXERCICE 2:

celestial cube notation The celestial cube was used to build an experience where circulation takes the visitor through four different frames around a same space. The internal space is perceived in four different ways.

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Booklet

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EDUCATION:

distraction

unfolded celestial cube NOTATION 1:

NOTATION 2:

formula 1

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The knowledge blender materializes the constant state of distraction we live today.

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1

A virtual box is given with maximum measures (200 x 100 x 90 feet). What happens if this “volumetric site” is unfolded?

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The unfolded box.

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The internal boundaries of the unfolded box are witnesses of the unfolding operation. Erase them!

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The result is an unfolded imaginary “cross” plan site...

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The project was developed in the unfolded site.

After, the site was folded and brought to its originial three-dimmensional starting point.

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The folded box.

Two buildings were submitted to the folding operation to test the potential of the experiment: Palladio’s Villa Rotonda and Mies van der Rohe’s Country Brick House.

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learning windows + shortcuts + circuit

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learning windows

shortcuts

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circuit

learning windows + shortcuts + circuit

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learning windows The program was translated in series of “learning windows�. These spaces were straightfoward and pure geometries that materialized initial programmatic intentions for creating a collection of diverse experiences to be connected by paranoiac-critical method when one enters and walks through the building. The unfolded organization of the spaces was submitted to the folding operation. Not only once, but several times.

The experiment generated the rotation and collision of spaces. Through the repetition of the process the first intentions were subverted. Other programmatic typologies emerged from the collisions and rotations.

auditorium (plan)

auditorium (section)

auditorium 1 (plan)

talk room (plan)

auditorium 2 (plan)

collision | rotation! hybrid gallery

exhibition space (plan)

collision! audience facing audience

rotation! two auditoriums (section)

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KNOWLEDGE BLENDER

shortcuts The unfolded shortcuts plan was built as virtual constellation lines connecting nearby stars. This plan was also submitted to the folding operation. However, it performed differently, respecting elasticity properties.

Reacting like ellastics, once shortcuts were folded, they became shorter, crossing unrelated learning windows

and creating unexpected visual and spatial situations. they gained a third dimension with the folding operation transforming themselves in staircases, escalators, ramps, elevators, toboggans. Tall parapets enclosed the shortcuts. Running through shortcuts is like taking the subway: disorientation and fast connection provoke temporary alienation of context and surprise.

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circuit The circuit is a sort of corbusian architectural promenade around the Knowledge Blender. It encourages the visitors to enter the Learning Windows through smooth turns and dynamic topography. It was first sketched in the unfolded site. During the folding operation, the circuit behaved

as a thread.This property allowed the promenade to be fluid and continous even in moments of distortions due to the accentuated turns generated by the rotation of the box facades. The circuit allows for unrestricted panoramic views of the building as you move through

the space. Essentially, the promenade instills the notion of an autonomous itinerary with the constantly changing landscape allowing for a multitude of perspectives.

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catalogue of moments

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KNOWLEDGE BLENDER

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KNOWLEDGE BLENDER

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After folding the unfolded box, the building is unfolded again.

The two dimensionality of the unfolded notation open new possibilities for future abstractions. What about fold it again?

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THE MOUNTAIN

SELECTED WORDS: DRAWING ORBITS INTROSPECTIVE LIGHT KAHN PLANAR AMBIGUITY MOVEMENT UTZON SOLID SHADOWS AS A FORCE MOUNTAIN PERCEPTION LANGUAGE SPHERE AS VOID SQUARE THICKNESSPACE PUNCH-LIGHT CIRCLE

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THE MOUNTAIN The Mountain materializes the concept of Planar Ambiguity and the idea that you never understand the totality of the things because you are part of this totallity. “You don’t know the real mountain, because you are in the mountain yourself”.

course ADV. STUDIO: LANGUAGE: STRUCTURE / LIGHT critic STEVEN HOLL DIMITRA TSACHRELIA semester SPRING 2014 in collaboration with Miao Wei

Language can be expressed through a poem or space. Our architectural language started with an abstract drawing: the simple idea of a dialogue between Kahn and Utzon or just between a square and circle. In the drawing, orbits wander tangentially and around straight lines.

The National University of Colombia in Bogota revealed also a system of orbits.

The building engaged one of these orbits to anchor in the site. A sphere was used to create void and transform the flatness of the abstract drawing into space. The Mountain is also a Sun Dial: its pool registers the shadows of Bogota as a force.

From volume to plane: two galleries come out of the main solid body of the building and happen in the space between planar curved walls, bringing the idea of orbit as movement. In between the planes, the orbit-galleries are inhabited with introspective light. The spaces inside the walls are compressed by the strong vertical sunlight of Bogota. The ground is kneaded by punch-light.

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THE MOUNTAIN

Hurva Synagogue (Louis I. Kahn) and Sidney Opera House (Jorn Utzon)

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introspective | expansion

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From square to circle

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The drawing is an abstract choreography from the circle to the square.

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THE MOUNTAIN

planar ambiguity

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sphere as void

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Midterm Model

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orbits

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Solstice June

Solstice December

Shadow as a force

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The drawing engages the site through one of its orbits

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THE MOUNTAIN

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Auditorium Amphitheater Workshop Forum Collaborative Circle Administration Library / Introspective Cells Cafe Kitchen Underground Level

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Reception / Info Exhibition / film Garden Punch-Light Orbit-Gallery Gallery Amphitheater Restaurant

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Groundlevel

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1 2

1 Orbit-Gallery 2 Exhibition Upper Section Level

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1 2 3 4 5 Interior

Auditorium Reception / info Exhibition / film Classroom Exhibition

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Spherical cuts become skylight

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THE MOUNTAIN

Thickness becomes space

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Introspective light | Punch light

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C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D70 A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T

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SELECTED WORDS: FRAMES SCREENS SURVEILLANCE MIRROR VOYEUR MEDIA IMMERSIVE SCREENHEADS DISTRACTION KALEIDOSCOPE

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SCREENHEADS

course OTHER DESIGN critic MICHAEL ROCK OANA STANESCU semester FALL 2013

“We are surrounded today, everywhere, all the time, by arrays of multiple, simultaneous images. In the streets, airports, shopping centers, and gyms, but also on our computers and television sets. The idea of a single image commanding our attention has faded away. It seems as if we need to be distracted in order to concentrate.”

Beatriz Colomina The aim of the course was to produce a concept design for a temporary, freestanding strucuture to house an immersive film/video/audio experience for approximately 200 people.

The content for the Pavilion became the driving force for the concept of the building and for creating a multiscreening experience grounded on the smooth boundary between media and architecture.

The pavilion was designed to display the story of the “Screenheads”, an extraterrestrial race living in a constant state of surveillance and voyerism.

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Society's obsession with recording and sharing every moment of daily life is becoming almost instinctive. From exhibitions to domestic scenes, from concerts to family gatherings, any banal situation is becoming content and easily shared globally through social media.

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The way we look at someone is ranging from this:

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to this.

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content:

screenheads Screenheads are creatures with a human body and a screen in the place of the head. Their planet is very similar to the Earth and their civilization evolved practically in the same way humankind has been formed. However, a constant state of surveillance and voyeurism is necessary for the maintenance of screenheads biosphere.

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Screenheads don’t eat food. They are fed by mp4, avi, mov and other video files generated by the everyday recording of each citizen lives. They record everything. All is content. Life is constantly being registered and translated into audio image files. All kind of communication and relation happens in this social bridge between two or multiple screens.

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With passing of the last decades a strange phenomenon appeared. The millions of content produced by this people started to overlay and reduce in quantity due to repetition. The videos have become very similar to each other. The lack of originality condensed the amount of files and generated a starvation crisis in the planet. The government decided to invest in a journey through galaxies in order to search for other forms of life that could be recorded and sent to the screenheads cloud system. The hope of finding originality and creative life in other planets became the only alternative for their future.

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It is being some days the screenheads arrived and landed in the Earth orbit. Since then, their screen-shaped spaceship blocked the vision of the moon. They are now observing and recording human activity from far away and plan to get closer soon.

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pavilion:

tipical cinema room

tipical cinema room + hexagon

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pavilion audience field of view

audience movement + variation field of view

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6 6 6 6 6

sides interior screens exterior screens actors cameras Location: Governors Island

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The pavilion is located in a lower platform in the park and surrounded by slopes that transform the park in an open cinema: the six facades of the pavilion are also screens to the outside.

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The groundlevel is an open Foyer. The core of the hexagon hosts services as restrooms, ticket booth, generators, audio & video booth. Two retractile staircases work as entry and exit.

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The immersive experience happens in the floor above the Foyer. The space in between the internal screens and external screenfacades is where actors’ dress rooms, staircases, audience entry, circulation and exit are located.

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Buy your ticket

Go upstairs and enter the room.

200 people. 6 screens.

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6 cameras

6 actors!

The end. Leave the room.

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unfolded pavilion diagram: 30 minutes of multiscreening experience

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exterior: interactive Through use of applications, people will be fostered to start the experience by filming themselves and others and sharing the videos through the facade-screens of the pavilion.

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transference Transference of content from top screens to the 6 internal screens: when the top-opening of the pavilion is closed the six satellites appear and then slide to each one of the screens.

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attention / distraction Videos appear sequentially on the 6 screens. When all the screens are activated, the content jump discomposedly among the frames.

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kaleidoscope The 6 cameras are activated. The screens start to display the inside of the pavilion, creating an illusional effect of infinite space.

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mirror The 6 actors open the doors and invade the audience area. They are “screenheads� and interact with the public. The micocameras installed on their customes capture the face of the audience and send the images to the screens.

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overflow The night skyline with the screen-moon overflows through the 6 screens, closing the multiscreening experience.

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SELECTED WORDS: GRAVITY PINCH ARMATURE CONCRETE ENCLOSURE TENSION BALOONS INSIDE OUTSIDE AIR SHELL

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course CONCRETE PROCEDURES critic KEITH KASEMAN semester SPRING 2014 in collaboration with Dora Felekou

CONCRETE IN-TENSIONS Tension, enclosure and gravity were the moving forces behind the armature.

Through experimenting with balloons and elastic enclosures, the idea of the creation of a shell came up. What happens when cement is cast inside a balloon and then modified from the inside by blowing air into a second balloon? How would a shell look like if forces were applied to both confining balloons? Concrete In-tensions is an experiment with point tension on the outside and tension on the inside.

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GRAVITY

ENCLOSURE

TENSION

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INSIDE

OUTSIDE

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GRAVITY

ENCLOSURE

TENSION

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REGISTERING

GRAVITY

REGISTERING

ENCLOSURE

REGISTERING

TENSION

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SCALE UP!

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RESEARCH:

10 ARCHITECTURAL CASES OF CONCRETE INTENSIONS

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AUGUSTE PERRET ATELIER ESDERS Cited by Banham as a harbinger of modernism, Auguste Perret’s rationale for his pioneering use of reinforced concrete was quite the obverse. He was, he said, building as ‘our ancestors would have done in our place with the means at our disposal.’ Indeed he claimed that reinforced concrete frame construction, as with the audacious arches of the Esders Atelier above – was nobler than stone because of its direct relationship with wood in the form of the shuttering used to cast it. At the Salle Cortot he left the cast of the wood grain on the concrete.

Auguste Perret, argued that the skeleton of a building is functional just as animal’s skeleton, housing very different organs. According to Perret, a proper building consists of a structural frame (ossature) and infillments. Ornament as decoration is not permitted; the function of ornament is taken over by the structural elements. The removal of any kind of roofstructure beneath the vaults is as much a matter of architectural intent as of technical thinking and the structural system remains legible.

The Perret firm patents the sheds system in 1921, as an addition to the patent they requested in February 1920 for the “improvements made to the execution of reinforced concrete floors and roofs.” This concerns the method of construction of a floor-type whose soffit is vaulted – used for the Esders Workshops – and of a “vaulted and undulated” roof-type (as coined by the Perret brothers themselves). The repetition of sheds allows for serialization, which is however less apparent in the built elements than in the construction mode that induces a replication of tasks. In fact, only the mullions that support the canopies are actually mass-produced on site. The effectiveness of serialization is mostly confirmed by the formworks mode that uses identical mass-produced centered boards, as previously experimented for the floors of the Esders workshops and the vaults of the Wallut and Grange foundries. The process, which allows reducing the amount of necessary props and gaining time during the concrete’s forming and stripping, thus allows for an increased truss turnover. The “great gain in time and material”16 laimed in the patent’s text was doubtless demonstrated on the building site. In fact, as in the case of the vaulted floors of the Esders workshops, the patent’s request occurs only after experimentation on the Job site has ensured feasibility.

FRANK LLOYD HEADQUARTERS

WRIGHT

JOHNSON

WAX

Located in Racine, Wisconsin, the SC Johnson and Son Administration Building is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most important statements about the nature of office buildings.

H.F. Johnson Jr. commissioned Wright to design a worldwide headquarters administration building for the family company and in 1936 Wright’s drawings were approved and the building officially opened in April of 1939.

Often referred to as the Johnson Wax Building, its most identifiable element are the dendriform columns, the name used

by Wright because of their tree like shape. Wright’s imagination led to creating these hollow cored columns that serve as storm water drains and which feature hinged bases with pin jointed bronze shoes. The circular lily pads of concrete are woven together by a membrane of Pyrex glass tubing that illuminate spaces with natural light. The use of Pyrex glass tubing allowed for a lot of diffused light to enter the interior of the Johnson Wax

Building. The large workspace is well lit with indirect light and very little glare, resulting in a work environment conducive for creativity.

The construction of the Johnson Wax building created controversies for the architect. In the Great Workroom, the dendriform columns are 9 inches (23 cm) in diameter at the bottom and 18 feet (550 cm) in diameter at the top, on a wide, round platform that Wright termed, the “lily pad.” This difference in diameter between the bottom and top of the column did not accord with building codes at the time. Building inspectors required that a test column be built and loaded with twelve tons of material. The test column, once it was built, was tough enough that it was able to be loaded fivefold with sixty tons of materials before the “calyx,” the part of the column that meets the lily pad, cracked (crashing the 60 tons of materials to the ground, and bursting a water main 30 feet underground).

After this demonstration, Wright was given his building permit.

Additionally, it was very difficult to properly seal the glass tubing of the clerestories and roof, thus causing leaks. This problem was not solved until the company replaced the top layers of tubes with skylights of angled sheets of fiberglass and specially molded sheets of Plexiglas with painted dark lines to resemble the original joints. And finally, Wright’s chair design for Johnson Wax originally had only three legs, supposedly to encourage better posture (because one would have to keep both feet on the ground at all times to sit in it). However, the chair design proved too unstable, tipping very easily. Herbert Johnson, needing a new chair design, purportedly asked Wright to sit in one of the three-legged chairs and, after Wright fell from the chair, the architect designed new chairs for Johnson Wax with four legs; these chairs, and the other office furniture designed by Wright, are still in use.

Despite these problems, Johnson was pleased with the building design, and later commissioned the Research Tower, and a house from Wright known as Wingspread.

The exterior walls are non-load bearing and were constructed using red brick. Other materials used in the construction of the Johnson Wax Building included red Kasota sandstone and reinforced concrete with cold drawn mesh used for the reinforcement. He also designed over 200 different shapes of bricks that can be found in the building. The earthy colors he used including his signature Cherokee Red color were typical of Wright’s work at the time.

The mushroom columns and glass tubing ceiling formed a large workspace, nearly one half acre in size. The Great Room, as it is referred to, is furnished with specific Wright designed pieces, two circular elevators and a mezzanine. He truly provided a complete design for this building thoughtfully creating over 40 pieces of furniture. The elevators took on a birdcage like appearance providing a panoramic view of the Great Room traveling from the basement to the Penthouse level.

MARCEL BREUER ST JOHNS ABBEY In 1950, Abbot Baldwin Dworschak made an audacious decision resulting in what art historians have called a milestone in the evolution of the architecture of the Catholic Church in this country. He contacted twelve exalted architects, among them was Marcel Breuer. Abbot Baldwin asked the architects to submit a building design for the second century of Saint John’s.

As part of his stipulations, Abbot Baldwin required a design for “building a church which will be truly an architectural monument to the service of God…The Benedictine tradition at its best challenges us to think boldly and to cast our ideals in forms which will be valid for centuries to come.”

The plan aims at a clear division between the monastic living quarters and the educational facilities. The two are connected by the important structures they both share; the church, auditorium, library, and administration building. The church and its bell banner are the dominant structures of St. John’s.

The main floor plan reflects the basic liturgical concepts of the Order. One enters the symbolic center doorway, down the center aisle to the altar and abbot’s throne, around which is placed the very large choir. The relation of the abbot’s throne and monks’ choir to the congregation defines the shape of the plan with the altar near the center of the church in plain view of congregation, choir, and large balcony.

Over the next 20 years, Breuer designed 10 buildings constructed largely of cast-in-place concrete. His use of austere, simple, textural materials responded to Benedictine values that emphasize simplicity, moderation, and finding spirituality in the ordinary events of everyday life. The church’s bell banner (or tower) stands 112 feet above the pavement and is 100 feet wide at its apex. It’s made of 2,500 tons of concrete and heavy steel reinforcing rods. The footings extend twenty feet into the ground.

SERGIO MUSMECI BASENTO BRIDGE All Sergio Musmeci’s research efforts are prompted by the need to produce forms created by forces and stress. In a reversal of traditional procedure, the latter is considered a known, and geometric variables are the unknowns that have to be found, i.e. the best form for a structure, the one that expresses its maximum efficiency and that drives the forces through the chosen material – constantly changing direction if need be. The construction of a bridge over the Basento is Musmeci’s bestknown accomplishment.

Design started in 1967 and construction lasted from 197274. The viaduct crosses the River Basento, two roads in the industrial zone and the Potenza railway station in four 70-metre spans. On top, the deck is a straight, slender line, a plate tilting slightly towards the city; below, the unusual 3D forms are reminiscent of the comb of a farmyard rooster or the headgear of hospital nuns in some of Federico Fellini’s fantasies. This thin shell dances incessantly and with the same movements, on fingertips, supports the deck and rests on the ground. It is a reinforced-concrete membrane 30 centimetres thick, slightly more at the edges, designed to express uniform stress only of compression. Construction photographs highlight the contrast between the concrete forms cast in-situ and the orthogonal design of the metal Innocenti-tube scaffolding temporarily imprisoning them.

Apart from its aesthetic, such a bridge triggers a rethinking of the customary dichotomy between the world above, that of the carriageway and its expanded horizons, and the one below, nearly always sacrificed in the passing over and the object of recent frontier literature. In this case, however, it is the “underneath” that is improved by the infrastructure, which reiterates the fluid and organic essence of the watercourse and nature. The up-anddown pedestrian promenade invented by Musmeci on the back

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of the membrane – and where he is seen walking happily in archive photographs – opens up new, alternating views between the curved contours cut in the shell and constructs a landscape within the infrastructure. The method of illustrating this path with lines like those that trace the contours of the terrain is not merely a technical design expedient. Top, the scenario of the area transformed in the two photographs on page 78; designer, instead, envisaged a multi-purpose centre organically inserted at the base of the deck, the use of the covered promenade and the conversion of the area into a small park.

“What an artist! He has built a bridge,” is the paradoxical announcement Bruno Zevi made in his column in L’Espresso when faced with the observed loss of inventiveness – and indifference to specific landscape situations – in the design of these infrastructures. Another bridge designed in Bolzano with his wife Zenaide Zanini, between 1978 and 1980, and the one on the Appia Antica (1979), which she completed after Musmeci died of an illness in 1981, are further and more advanced steps in the research of a closet structural engineer who invoked risktaking to counter mental inertia: “Those who do not take risks are either imitating or repeating. If they want to invade a new field they must tackle the unknown.” A learned curiosity led him to explore the terrains of geometry, music and astronomy in depth, in a “Rousseau-style” as he called it, navigating through books and treatises like he did with his boat on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The house that the Musmeci couple designed and lived in at Formello has an astronomic observatory at its highest point.

VILANOVA ARTIGAS JAU BUS STATION The earthworks of the Jau bus station began in August 1973.

A large amount of earth was removed to create the plateaus provided by the bill, eliminating the steep slope between the rail line and Uptown.

Thereafter, the development of the work becomes part of the local news, acquiring sufficient importance that a work like this would have on the urban space in a small town like Jau - located within the State of São Paulo and a population of approximately 55,000 inhabitants.

The beginning of the construction season, only eight months after taking office , definitely marked the entrepreneurial character intended by management Waldemar Bauab , which was widely supported by Artigas on issues relating to urban problems.

The main focus was on the road. Jau had no road at that time.

Each company had a different point, a simple shed where people could wait to catch the staff bus. When it rained it was a disaster.

Besides solving the precarious situation in which he found the road transport system of the city Artigas tied together the other urban actions intended to transform the space of the city.

The complex geometry of the pillar demanded the creation of a prototype, while the realization of the other structural elements that make up the building - deep caissons, retaining walls taller than the exposed concrete flooring by 5.0m - highly complex technical solutions that also required great attention.

The activity exerted by Nardo as a teacher in a technical school enabled the training of city employees, thus creating competent staff to perform this work. The moment of highest implementation complexity was the pillar.

“This column is formed like this: it starts down there, section around 56 by 56 cm, then we have the section A. After this, the column goes up, section B, and it starts to get the shape. Then, there is the section C, and it starts to open and so on. And here we get the ratious, here is the big puzzle, look to those radiuses!

It is a lot of work to get to that shape, three different elevations to get in that thing… Did you see that photo? I got this drawing and I started to model, on the floor, building the skeleton. Then, I got in this dilemma: If I do the formwork, I can’t put the steel cables, how am I going to close the formwork and put the steel cables? You tie the steel, and how the concrete will get into the formworks? SO, I started to think about it, I did some studies and while I was building the skeleton I realized: If we manage to make one, we can make one thousand! Let’s make one! Then, I made the skeleton, I assembled it pretty well, we started to do it step by step… I was making one part in wood and then I pulled the steel cables, then the concrete in that part. But we had to make it everything in one single day so we would not have a gap between the concrete parts. So I was there, building and filling it up. I used to start in the morning and only stopped when it was finished… I started with the carpenters team and assembled, giving sequence, and you cannot notice that it was made in parts because after we sand it! we used the sanding machine, so it is not possible to notice it. The concrete part was made until a certain point, which it is here. When it started to open up, in one arm we had a team working, and in another one, we had another team… So the blacksmiths came and put the steel cables, put the concrete, and then we followed until it was finished. Like this, we did one column per day. There are 18 columns. One column per day. We used to dry one, then the formwork, then another, and another… We used the accelerator for the concrete, so it would dry faster. But even like this, it took two or three days to cure…”

This testimonial is a clear description of the making of the prototype and the construction process of the 18 columns of Jau Bus Station. Each column was made in one concrete operation with 5 phases that required the simultaneous work of a big team.

FREI OTTO STUTTGART 21 STATION In collaboration with Frei Otto and a team of structural engineers led by Ted Happold‘s partner Michael Dickson and Leonhard, Andrä und Partner, a structure was developed which can span 36 metres with a shell thickness of around 35 centimetres. What emerged was a new kind of three-dimensional continuum of space with a reinforced concrete compression structure. The new central station for the Stuttgart 21 infrastructure project

by Ingehoven Architects with Frei Otto features complex double curved concrete geometries. The roof transforms into 28 structural columns thus providing daylight openings for the underground station. ROK’s scope of work ranges from shape optimization processes for the reinforcement geometry to automatic reinforcement layout and planning of over 10000 reinforcement elements per column. ROK’s customized software solutions allow the generation, clustering and handling of complex data sets used to produce detailed reinforcement drawings. ROK was commissioned by the engineers Werner Sobek Stuttgart.

The structure of the roof of the station hall was developed in an integrative process, involving many planning experts and procedures. The goal was to minimise the structural height of the roof construction whilst maximising the internal headroom of the station hall. Development of the roof form incorporated the results of work in progress since 1963 at Stuttgart University‘s Institut für leichte Flächentragwerke (Institute for

Lightweight Shell Structures). Soap film membranes were used to develop forms with a completely even distribution of tensile stress, which are often referred to as minimum area surfaces. If the form created in this way is inverted by 180 °, the resulting vaulted reinforced shell structure purely bears compression stresses. The result is a pure compression shell structure of minimal structural height. A funnel-like chalice with a “light eye” is derived from the loop-like eye of the soap fi lm model in the shell structure. The experimental approach to developing the individual element (light eye) and the continuum of connected chalice supports and trough walls further took place on real suspended chain models. The form finding process progressed in parallel using digital CAD-based minimum area surface programs. The results of the real and digital models were compared. The results are the basis of the full three-dimensional volume model of the complete station hall.

As development of the three-dimensional volume model progressed, the first finite element models of the chalice supports emerged to demonstrate the structural feasibility of the design and optimize the geometry. The results were then applied for further development of the form to a partial section of several chalice supports and finally to a full finite element model of the station roof. The supporting structure of the station hall is a vaulted, seamless concrete shell structure. The vault system is divided into 28 equal modular elements, the chalice supports, between the four platforms and the long outside walls. Each chalice support is hexagonal in plan. The corner points lie in a 40-metre circle. The upper surface of the shell roof is even, while underneath the surface is curved throughout following the flow of forces. The surface flows are such that the central surface of the shell is inclined overall. This ensures that the vertical loads in the shell structure as a whole are transferred via membrane forces and bending. The geometry of the chalice supports has been developed and continuously optimized using three-dimensional methods so that all standard chalices are produced with one form. Given the double curvature of the geometry, which makes counter formwork necessary, and to make it possible to reuse the formwork panels, the surfaces of the formwork are made of stainless steel. As a result of various feasibility studies relating to the technical requirements, the quality of the surface and the color, the shell structure will be made of self-compacting concrete.

TOYO ITO TAMA ART LIBRARY The library, which is the Northern gateway to Tama Art University’s Hachioji Campus in the suburbs of Tokyo, is Japanese architect Toyo Ito’s modern interpretation of a cave.

To emphasize the motif of the cave, Ito wanted the library to be excavated In his original proposal, but due to budget constraints, he had to invert his idea and raise it to the first floor.

Despite the changes he was forced to make, Ito remained true to the project’s main focus. Namely, for the ground floor of the building to be an open space, where students and teachers would cross paths, even if they were not going to use the library. The floor of the ground level follows the slope of the surrounding terrain allowing the building to blend in with its natural surroundings, blurring of the lines between inside and outside. It almost seems like the ground has eroded away under the building.

Ito shares Mies van der Rohe’s fascination with the grid as a parametric and therefore boundless geometry. But unlike Mies,

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who explored the static potential of the grid, Toyo Ito seeks to distort and modulate it, to get what he calls an “emergent grid”.

In Tama Art University Library, Toyo Ito worked very closely with structural engineer Mutsuro Sasaki to come up with an emergent grid of curved lines where the load is evenly distributed in its 56 intersecting points. This allowed for the carving of the arches in a way, so the thinnest part is where they touch the floor - much like the stalactites that inspired the project. Thus, the heavy concrete construction seems almost impossibly light.

Though the building’s 166 arches, varying in width from 1.8 to 16 m, follows the same grid on both levels, not two of them are exactly alike, as the floor slopes at the ground floor while the roof slants at the first floor.The arches are made of 12 mm steel plate reinforced with 75 mm wide flange. The steel is then covered with concrete which prevents buckling and and serves as fireproofing. All together, the wall is about 200 mm reinforced concrete wall. At the intersection points, they form a crossshape which is 400 mm thick. For a strong, ductile and durable construction the reinforcement needs to have the following properties at least: high relative strength, high toleration of tensile strain, good bond to the concrete, irrespective of pH, moisture, and similar factors, thermal compatibility, not causing unacceptable stresses in response to changing temperatures, durability in the concrete environment, irrespective of corrosion or sustained stress for example.

ATELIER SAD GAS STATION The project deals with the overall concept of the original network of filling stations in the Slovak Republic, which differs significantly from the current boxy and generic appearance of these buildings. The pilot gas station in Matúškovo is a two floor building with a small kiosk. Enclosures intended for the refueling are formed by a curved surface, supported by three pillars. The roof area serves as the needed space over the fuel dispensers and partly over the kiosk. It is a monolithic reinforced concrete structure with supporting vertical columns that turn into horizontal slabs. Roof drainage is solved by using storm drains, incorporated in the center of each column and leading to the storm sewer. Electricity and ventilation pipes are also stored within the columns. Lighting is built in the roof shell. The pillar and “mushroom” roof system is intended to be modular. Gas stations like this will be constructed throughout Slovakia, with the number of pillars differentiating according to the gas station’s needs. Even in the prototype, more pillars might be added when the needs of the station change in the future.

TOYO ITO COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES For the National Taiwan University Social Science College, Mr. Ito created a rectilinear building pierced with multi-story openings that allow for air and daylight to pass through as well as gatherings to take place. The building extends to a plaza via a one-story library supported by a forest of tree columns and topped off with an organic pattern of tree canopies. The treelike structure is made of reinforced concrete, cast in non-equal shapes. The dividers are also cast concrete, united seamlessly with the columns. During the cast process, the openings were framed and revealed afterwards to allow natural light to enter the building.

TOYO ITO TAICHUNG METROPOLITAN OPERA In Ito’s words, the “emerging grid” as a system that would be able to fulfill all the functions keeping the space as a whole is used for the Metropolitan Opera. It is a system that uses curved topological lattice in three dimensions for connecting horizontal planes corresponding to each function surfaces. With this system, the interior space becomes like a cavernous system for sound that includes three halls, so that the interaction between artists and the public is encouraged.

The otaku culture has a very strong appreciation for distinct public and private places, as well as for space that allows the interaction of the realms. The resulting hierarchy of spaces is very interesting, with alternating large spaces partially connected with more intimate spaces in the interstices of the catenoides. construction process The structural system is developed together with the construction method to realize the freeform geometry in rational and efficient manner. The freeform concrete surfaces are shotcrete (spray concrete). it is commonly utilized for tunnel construction and suitable for curved surface. it can be shot horizontally or vertically. Rather than constructing doubly curved formwork that is expensive and time consuming on site, the temporary structure in the void creates faceted surfaces that best-fit the finished surface. Between the temporary steel work, expanded metal mesh is expanded metal mesh spans between the temporary steel work to act as faceted formwork. 150 mm thick concrete can be shot at one time. The surface layer of 25 mm is shot separately without large aggregate to achieve smooth surface finish. Concrete thickness varies between 200 mm at the top floor and 350 mm at the bottom.

Jau Bus Station | Vilanova Artigas.

shotcrete method Sprayed concrete construction method typically, an expanded metal mesh is used as a permanent back shutter to which the reinforcing mesh is affixed. The concrete is sprayed onto the expanded metal and the reinforcement is fully enclosed. The concrete is typically sprayed using one of two methods. with the dry process, the dry constituents of the concrete are mixed in a portable batching plant and the water is added to the mix at the nozzle. With the wet process, the water is added to the batching plant and premixed with the dry constituents and the wet concrete is sprayed from the nozzle. the benefits of the wet process are that there is greater control over the concrete mix as the concrete is often mixed off site by ready-mix contractors and delivered in lorries. It is common practice to apply the concrete in two layers. The first thick layer is usually applied using the wet process. Once sufficiently cured, a second, thin finishing layer is then applied using the dry process. It is essential that the finished product is cured appropriately to mitigate shrinkage and to ensure that design strength is achieved. Spraying concrete is a messy process. Some concrete will rebound and some will pass through the expanded metal back shutter. It may be necessary to install temporary protection to avoid polluting the surrounding area.

College of Social Sciences of Taiwan University |Toyo Ito.

Basento Bridge | Sergio Musmeci

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CONCRETE INTENSIONS PROCEDURES:

1. CUT THE WOOD

2. DRILL DRILL DRILL!

3. PREPARE THE METAL WORK!

4. PUT ON THE METAL WORK!

5. ATTACH THE BALLOON

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6. POURING TIME

7. SMALL BALOON TIME!

8. TIE UP AND PINCH!

9. DRYING TIME!

10. DISASSEMBLE THE ARMATURE.

11. RIP THE LATEX!

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12. DRILL A HOLE AND...

BOOM!

13. REMOVE THE BALOON!

REVEAL INSIDE

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C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S 126 D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T

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THE PORTERHOUSE: DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE ARCHITECTURAL PRODUCTION OF LUXURY PEDRO CAMARA

course METROPOLIS critic ENRIQUE WALKER AMY ZHANG semester SUMMER 2013

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The Porter House by SHoP architects represents a clear argument about how to intervene in existing architecture through the addition of a new entity1. The building - or rather the buildings (since the value of the Porter House is generated by the interaction of two different bodies2) - makes two statements. The first one is made by the old yellow bricks warehouse and it is about the preservation of historical buildings (even if it is only a matter of keeping their envelopes, which seems to be the case of this project) as recognition of their importance as cultural heritage forms. The second statement, made by the new box, implies the innovative use of digital and material technologies to produce contemporary architecture as a luxury product. The aim of this article is to focus on this second argument.

Peter Reyner Banham compares the scale of constructional work produced by the automobile culture with that entrusted to architects who had been practicing the “possibility of tailoring aesthetics to fit the aspirations or social status of the clients”3, like in the automobile design industry. In the Porter House, digital intelligence sim-

1

Paul Spencer Byard asks interesting questions about additions in renovation projects: “The impacts of architecture on architecture, to be understood and managed in the course of protection, are apparent in the process that creates what might collective be called combined works. In works of this type, new architecture is added to old architecture to meet some need for change, creating a new combined identity expressing new meanings”. Paul Spencer Byard, The architecture of additions: design and regulation (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998), 14.

2

“In each case their success (Combined works success) is a function of value received, value added, and valued generated by the interaction of the two”. Ibid.

3

Reyner Banham, “1960: Stocktacking”, in A Critic Writes: Essays by Reyner Banham (CA: University of California Press, 1999), 55.

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ilar to the one used in automobile production4, was conveyed not to mass-produce units like cars, but to produce housing as a very unique luxury object to fits the ambition of an elite. Based on some declarations of the architects, it is possible to say that the efforts to have an economy of means in the design and construction process were parallel to a strong desire to produce an architectural icon5. SHoP architect Greg Pasquarelli said in an interview: “We thought why not make a cloud of a modern building that hangs over the existing structure”6. Ironically, the “cloud” above the historical building, produced with an intelligent and economic digital system, became one of the most expensive square meters in the city.

Many reviews were published in specialized architectural magazines about the Porter house and the advanced design process applied to its Zinc Façade System. Knowing 4 Curiously the comparison with automobile industry design is present in the SHoP architects discourse: “Our first project, the camera obscura at Mitchell Park, was our first example of performance envelope. In fact, the entire object was exactly that. It was entirely designed based on such parameters as what the function was inside, and what would be the minimum dimensions outside; it was designed like a car or a plane.” Gregg Pasquarelli (SHoP architects partner) in an interview by Vladimir Belogolovsky, One-on-One: Revolution in Architecture: Interview with Gregg Pasquarelli, SHoP Architects, February 12, 2013, http://www. archnewsnow.com/features/Feature412.htm 5 “In sharing this risk, they also garnered trust with the developer to ‘do something with some iconic value, and do it for a price that was standard’ according to Chris Sharples, one of the four founding partners of SHoP”. Mark Newell Cabrinha, “Managing Complexity / Managing Risk: SHoP Architects Inc.”, in (In)Forming: the Affordances of Digital Fabrication in Architectural Education. (Troy: Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute, 2010), 157.

6 Gregg Pasquarelli (SHoP architects partner) for Jason Sheftell, “SHOP ARCHITECTS. Passion & pushing the envelope have taken this New York-based firm to the top of its field” New York Daily News, 17 Oct 2008.

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that outsourcing fabrication of the panels would be extremely expensive, SHoP architects manufactured the panels themselves starting from a standard one meter by three meter sheet of zinc material and using three different panel widths. There were no traditional drawings in the process. The architects used a sequence of software that allowed them to divide and optimize the standard panels saving material and financial means. After this, the design was transferred directly to a cutting machine7.

Inattentive observers could think that the zinc panels and the light boxes are randomly dimensioned and distributed in the new volume. However, their sizes and distribution are result of a complex system managed by digital tools and virtual prototyping that generates the final layout of the façade with precision and maximum economy of means. The several hundred panels used in the project could be reduced to only 15 panel types.

The production of a modular system and prefabrication in the Porter House project coincide with some ideas of the metabolism architects about prefabrication in the architectural process, like the ones of Kisho Kurokawa. Kurokawa wrote: “The dimensions of the standardized materials of prefabricated architecture become more closely related to the production process and modulation used in human engineering”8. The new digital tools9 create a potential for a direct connection between design and man7 “Complexity and Customization: The Porter House condominium – Sharples Holden Pasquarelli (SHoP)”, Praxis, 2004, n.6, 47-50.

8 Kisho Kurokawa, “Meta-Architecture”, in Metabolism in Architecture (London: Studio Vista, 1977), 89.

9 At least three different softwares were used in the Porter House design process: “SHoP first modeled the project in Rhino, then brought their design into Solidworks, a program that can remodel a three dimensional object when new dimensions are added into an excel worksheet. Finally, different software was used to ‘nest’ the dimensions onto panels”. Complexity and Customization: The Porter House condominium – Sharples Holden Pasquarelli

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Sheets of zinc panels. “Complexity and Customization: The Porter House condominium – Sharples Holden Pasquarelli (SHoP)”, Praxis, 2004, n.6, 47-50.

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ufacturing in the building industry. The digital behaves as a catalyst for the approximation between prefabricated elements and architecture, bringing the construction universe closer to an industrial production system.

The Porter House argument also awakens a broad discussion about architectural practice: the approximation between conception and execution, architects and builders, conventional design process and digital fabrication. Mark Newell Cabrinha interprets the work of SHoP architects as a management of risk and complexity at the same time: “Through bringing together fabricator, contractor and designer early in the project process managing complexity and managing risk become reciprocal process”10.

As Cabrinha explains, the complexity is related to the various digital processes SHoP architects executed during the design of the building. The risk factor is related with the fact the architects were also co-developers in the Porterhouse Condominium and shared some of the financial risks in the project.

The Banham paradox tradition versus technology is still ruling and survives the addition of the digitalization factor in a completely different context than the one of his “1960: Stocktaking” essay, when he mentions about the distance between architects practice and other disciplines: “Enterprising and intensive scrutiny of tradition and science appears to suggest a way out of a dilemma, if not a solution to a problem. But it is a balancing feat that may prove to need acrobatic skill and expertise in brinkmanship as architect’s edge temeriously along the margin of the scientific disciplines and never quite put a foot over into the other camp” 11. The Porter House project is an example (SHoP)”, Praxis, 2004, n.6, 47-50.

10 Mark Newell Cabrinha, “Managing Complexity / Managing Risk: SHoP Architects Inc.”, in (In)Forming: the Affordances of Digital Fabrication in Architectural Education. (Troy: Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute, 2010), 157.

11 Reyner Banham, “1960: Stocktacking”, in A Critic Writes: Essays by Reyner Banham

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of a more multidisciplinary practice where tradition is brought closer to technology by approximating the notions of designing and building.12 SHoP architects have also been involved on the development side of their projects since building the Porter House. Therefore, the firm incorporates not only the role of the builder but also the role of the developer. James Phillip O’brien relates the accumulation of these roles in the figure of the architect with the current economic and political system by saying: “the innovative architect’s role is to inject creative activity into the objective capitalist relations that structure the building activity”13. In the Porter House project, the innovation through the use of digital tools created the cheapest fabrication process that generated one of the most expensive architectural products in the city of New York. The building is the portrait of an emerging context where architects by using computation technology to produce design and construction derive both cultural and economic capital from practice.

(CA: University of California Press, 1999), 61.

12 “There was a strong separation between paper architects who did beautiful designs and service architects who know how to build actual buildings. We felt that these two approaches were growing further and further apart. We all wanted to rethink that idea. Why couldn’t we be both? We wanted to do great designs and know about all the latest technology, fabrication, construction techniques...” Gregg Pasquarelli (SHoP architects partner) in an interview by Vladimir Belogolovsky, One-on-One: Revolution in Architecture: Interview with Gregg Pasquarelli, SHoP Architects, February 12, 2013, http://www.archnewsnow.com/ features/Feature412.htm 13 James P. O’brien, Possibilities for Architectural production under capitalism (Massachusetts Institute of Techinology, 2007), 99.

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Bibliography Banham, Reyner. “1960: Stocktacking” in A Critic Writes: Essays by Reyner Banham.

CA: University of California Press, 1999.

Belogolovsky, Vladimir. Interview with Gregg Pasquarelli (SHoP architects partner) One-on-One: Revolution in Architecture: Interview with Gregg Pasquarelli, SHoP Architects, February 12, 2013, http://www.archnewsnow.com/features/Feature412.htm Byard, Paul Spencer. The architecture of additions: design and regulation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.

Cabrinha, Mark Newell. “Managing Complexity / Managing Risk: SHoP Architects Inc.”, in (In)Forming: the Affordances of Digital Fabrication in Architectural Education.

Troy: Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute, 2010.

“Complexity and Customization: The Porter House condominium – Sharples Holden Pasquarelli (SHoP)”. Praxis, 2004, n.6.

Kurokawa, Kisho. “Meta-Architecture”, in Metabolism in Architecture. London: Studio Vista, 1977.

O’brien, James P. Possibilities for Architectural Production under Capitalism. Massachusetts Institute of Techinology, 2007.

SHOP ARCHITECTS. “Passion & pushing the envelope have taken this New Yorkbased firm to the top of its field” New York Daily News, 10/17/2008.

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PALLADIO, MIES AND THE UNFOLDED CELESTIAL CUBE PEDRO CAMARA

course 12 DIALOGICAL AND POETICAL STRATEGIES critic YEHUDA SAFRAN semester FALL 2013

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In astronomy, sky is an imaginary sphere of large radius, concentric with Earth, where all objects can be thought of as projected upon its inside surface, as if it was the underside of a dome. By placing the celestial sphere inside a cube and putting a light in the center of it, it is possible to project the entire sphere onto the six faces of the cube. This is called by astronomers a celestial cube.

When this astronomic tool is unfolded, it is possible to see the entire Equator line (projected from Earth in the celestial cube) and the Ecliptic line (the path the sun takes through the sky during the year, also projected in celestial notations). All the constellations are visible in the unfolded diagram, but considering they are in the same fixed celestial address as in the folded version, they do not respect boundaries or folding lines. The unfolded diagram of the celestial cube reveals the detachment of neighboring stars and the fragmentation of some constellations that are placed in the space between two faces divorced by the unfolding operation.

The unfolded celestial cube was a heuristic device to generate other views on architecture as a way to test the validity of the manipulation of this astronomic notation for architectural purposes. It was explored in the 2013 Fall Studio taught by the Professor Bernard Tschumi at Columbia University GSAPP on the potential of working with notations out of the architectural field to generate a building without a specific context in a New York urban block with the dimensions 200’x100’x90’.

Two buildings were submitted to this unfolded recipient: Villa Rotonda, by Andrea Palladio and the Brick Country House, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Despite the fact of Rotonda was built and the Brick Country House went never out of the paper, the two buildings have in common the fact that they configure a nonhierarchical space. There is no such a thing as a corridor in neither one building nor the other. The non-hierarchy of Rotonda is in the symmetry, in the centripetal force

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Celestial Cube

Unfolded Celestial Cube

Villa Rotonda, Andra Palladio.

1592.

Brick Country House, Mies Van der Rohe.

1924

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of the movement around the tightly interlocked rooms. The Country Brick House, by its turn, presents a non-hierarchical space through asymmetry. The House’s walls not only define the space, but are also things in themselves.

Both buildings present a strong statement about relation between inside and outside space. The four facades of Villa Rotonda, their rigorous symmetry and the centripetal force of the plan alienate the building from the landscape1. The Mies’s project breaks the house as enclosure and blurs the distinction between inside and outside.

Finally, the two buildings share in common the fact that they somehow point in many directions (four vectors, to be more precise) what helps with their applicability in the experiment that uses a cross shaped plan resulted from the unfolding of the box. Despite the symmetry of the facades, there is no sense of wholeness or unity from the several parts that constitute La Villa Rotonda. Each part functions independently. Each facade could be the principal one. In the Country House, the play of sameness and difference in the plan carries the abstraction and the same understanding of horizontal and vertical of the De Stjil movement and specially by the Theo Van Doesbourg’ painting Rhythm of a Russian Dance. The “infinite” walls point in different directions and the edge of the house where interior spaces are more recognizable behaves as a fourth pointing element.

The two buildings passed for a first operation, where they were adapted to “fit” in 1 “The four facades contribute to isolating the building from its environment by emphasizing its geometrical shape and thus enhancing its abstract quality. Not only does it in fact sharply isolate itself from its environment, but it looks so stiff and unapproachable that it is hard to understand how anyone could live and feel comfortable in it”. HAUSER, Arnold. Mannerism. The Crisis of the Renaissance and the Origin of the Modern Art. Harvard University Press, 1986. Page 285.

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1. Adopted box 100’ x 200’ x 90’. 2. Unfolding the box. 3. Unfolded box. 4. Elimination of folding boundaries and charging the box with Villa Rotonda or the Country House. 5. Folding the box.

Unfolded Country House

Unfolded Villa Rotonda

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the adopted dimensions of the unfolded box, spreading themselves in this empty recipient according with their own properties of rhythm and modulation. A level of abstraction was allowed among these rules of transformation for the mutation of the buildings in this first moment.

After the buildings colonize the unfolded recipient, the box is folded. Four segments of the plan are rotated and then start to behave vertically. One face is brought to the top, transforming into the “lid” of the box. How a space reacts by the introduction of gravity as a force on it? In the plan, the black lines are read as walls. If this plan becomes a section, some of those walls would become slabs. A space between two lines can be read as a door. When this same opening is brought to a section, it becomes a hole in the slab or a skylight. The experiment becomes a game provoked by a desire similar to the one architects usually have when they turn models and objects upside-down in the search for new meanings, perspectives, emotions.

The buildings used in the experiment were already exhaustively studied and sources for production of architectural knowledge. The seemingly simplistic unfolding/ folding operation becomes a phenomenologic reduction exercise to go beyond the already known facts, in a search for new ways of astonishment with works of the importance of Palladio and Mies. The ambiguity of a plan that can be a section or a façade open possibilities for new interpretations charged with irony.

“The series of words is a fact just as much as what makes it true or false is a fact. The relation between these two facts is not unanalysable, since the meaning of a proposition results from the meaning of its constituent words. The meaning of the series of words which is a proposition is a function of the meanings of the separate words.”2 By changing the order of words, different facts are produced by the same words.

2

WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Page 17.

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(UN)FOLDING PALLADIO The lack of hierarchy in the symmetry of Palladio’s Rotonda plan is first broken by distorting the Villa to make it fit in the cross shaped perimeter. In the longer axis, the rooms are multiplied until the moment they arrive in the end of the cross. The estrangement in relation to the Palladio dome that belongs more to a church than to a noble residence is exaggerated by its placement in a cross plan, typical of churches.

Funnily, the distorted Rotonda looks more than before like a church. Then, the villa is folded. The project is again symmetrical in the ground level plan but not in three dimensions. The four identical facades are not identical anymore (faces 1, 2, 3 and 43).

The remaining dome still infringes a dominant force in the whole, but not anymore centrifugal, now it suggests a vertical force (face 5).

The staircases in the entry that lead the visitor to the piano nobile are now in the rooftop of the building (faces 1, 2, 3). As Wittgeinstein states: “We cannot think anything unlogical, for otherwise we should have to think unlogically�.4 The staircases not as an unlogical result but as a fact charged with new meaning are now 90feet away from the ground floor, suggesting places for audiences in the rooftop for the city or sky watching.

The unfolded distorted villa appears to have now an axis, contradicting the noncorridor house of Palladio. When folded, the axis makes a loop in the building (faces 4 and 5), generating a circulation that asks both for the horizontal and the vertical movement. The colonnades are also rotated suggesting structural needles that fly over the last level, huge arbours bringing romanticism to an elevated garden. The doors that connect the rooms become interruptions of the slabs and ideas for the placement of vertical circulations or for the use of transparency in the floors.

3 4

see image of the six faces of the folded box.

WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Page 31.

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(UN)FOLDING MIES The imposition of the Brick Country House inside the cross-shaped recipient encapsulates the outside space, that becomes a group of patios in a property surrounded by walls. The house is also submitted to an operation of scalability, transforming spaces as the chimney in enclosed spaces with no accessibility.

The Brick Country House is folded. The individual wall planes freely arranged flip and generate moments of enclosure and openness, with high ceilings. Suddenly, the house gains the scale and atmosphere of a gallery or a museum. Moments of abyss, valley, well, top are created with the addition of the third dimension in the two dimensionality of the plan.

The windows are transformed in skylights (faces 1 and 3). The walls with no previous reference of their vertical dimensions gain a variety of heights. The free space was encapsulated and now some were flipped and were transformed in vertical gardens or green facades. The “new� Country House communicates with other Mies works such the Tugendhat House in moments of section (face 3) and with the Barcelona Pavilion (face 5).

The unfolding/folding of the brick house changes its spatiality, but the house even after passing through this operation of distortion is still recognized as the Country House. The thing is deformed but it is still the thing.

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Paper Model of Unfolded Country House

Paper Model of Unfolded Villa Rotonda

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A DEVICE FOR REINVENTING...

The paper box made by plans and sections is not an usual physical model and it is not a drawing. It is an assemblage of both. It is the transformation of a single plan in the strange combination of two plans (one in the top and another in the bottom) and four sections-facades. It plays with the ambiguity of architectural drawings. It erases the ground line that makes you recognize a section as a section. Plans and sections are treated equally considering that both are sections, with the difference that one is a horizontal plane and the other is a vertical plane.

By pretending that gravity for a moment is gone, the unfolding/folding device turns the floor 90 degrees, and fragments space. The plan becomes only a puzzle piece that remains in the floor. The other plan rotates twice and goes to the rooftop. The experiment tests the limits of Mies and Palladio’s work as wholes, as facts. Do they disappear or they keep there? The interior of the box is empty when it is folded. At the same time, this internal space is full. It is nothing and everything. It is charged with a virtual spatiality made of many possibilities of extrusions, and collisions that generate unpredictable encounters and recreate the architectural victims of the device.

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BUILDINGS AS LOGOTYPES PEDRO CAMARA

course ARCHITECTURE AS CONCEPT (FROM 1968 TO THE PRESENT) critic BERNARD TSCHUMI semester SPRING 2014

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FACTS ABOUT LOGOTYPES Logos are related with communicating a message or idea through the use of image.

The Ancient Egyptians first used their hieroglyphics to brand and identify their belongings. In medieval times, graphic imagery like coats of arms was used to identify the status of different houses and nobility. The introduction of color printing in the 20th century and the advertising industry pushed logos to become essential for companies in their strategies to become memorable to potential customers.

A logotype or logo is a graphic mark or emblems commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition1. Furthermore, logos have in their nature the desire of bringing quickly an idea to peoples mind. Applying Saussure’s classification in semiotics2, a logo is a signifier that aims to produce one or more signifieds connected to a brand or its values. Those signifieds are mutable and vary according with cultural conditions. The logo of Nike was designed in 1971 by Carolyn Davidson. It was an abstraction of the wing of the Greek goddess of victory. Its current top-of-mind association (signified) is “Just do it”. The symbol stands for something that is deep and profound to its customers. Frequent and consistent exposure were integrated the symbol and its meaning into popular culture.

According to a (apparently cheap) guide on how to develop a good logo, “the five golden keywords for a successful logo are Simple, Memorable, Timeless, Versatile

1 2

Definition by Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo

According to Saussure, ‘Signifier’ (signifiant) is the form which the sign takes; and ‘signified’ (signifié) is the concept it represents. Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics (London: Duckworth, 1983), 67.

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and Appropriate. A powerful logo makes a quick statement”3. In other words, a logo works when you get it in the moment you look at it. Michael Beirut, from Pentagram, one of the biggest design and branding firms in New York, suggested that logos possibly do not take a long time to be conceptualized: “The truth about logos is that they are not that hard to do. If you ask people in the US what logos they like and recognize, they’ll name Target or Nike. Target for example, is just a dot with a circle around it, that’s all it is, so if you want a logo like Target, you don’t need to hire a designer, you barely need to know how to operate a computer program, the logo may as well be anything”4

3 Chung Kong, “Building a good and effective logo” (http://www.slideshare.net/ chungkong/building-a-good-and-effective-logo)

4 Interview with Michael Bierut (Partner and designer of Pentagram) April 8, 2010. (http://facingsideways.com/2010/04/08/interview-with-michael-bierut/)

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BUILDINGS AS QUICK STATEMENTS We work in front of our computers with multiple windows, ranging from one content to another and another. Distraction is the new attention5. We buy with clicks.

Messages are sent in seconds. Important matters are solved within a few numbers of emails. Millions of dollars circulate through the World Wide Web. Facebook created a culture of identity and opinion synthesized by a click: I like, therefore, I am. We collect hundreds of friends. All connected, so close, so far, so fast. Images. Advertisement. Videos. Advertisement. You can skip to video in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Advertisement and Architecture start with an A. Facades are now confused with billboards. Architectural envelopes are used as screens. Information is projected on the city in every pixel and corner available. Urban surfaces and volumes become huge recipients for messages trying to get your attention off your i-phone screen while you cross the street drinking your Starbucks tall cappuccino.

Architecture operates and is consumed like fast food. Buildings are being produced in months, weeks, sometimes, days. They become obsolete the moment they are inaugurated. Buildings as big distorted boxes, big loops, big toy arts, big Chinese characters, big volumes that transmit in 5 seconds the message. People get them.

People like them. They are mountains. Oh! It makes sense! Easy to recognize. Easy to describe. Made as logotypes. Big logotypes casted in concrete and wrapped with metal plates. They provoke instant public recognition. They come from the desire of producing a building as a quick statement: simple, memorable, timeless, versatile and appropriate.

Building as logotypes is also a natural condition of Architecture. As soon as there is 5 Beatriz Colomina, Enclosed by Images: The Eameses’ Multimedia Architecture (Grey Room and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001), 7.

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a society, every usage is converted into a sign of itself6. In architecture, it is suggested that any architectural form can be a symbol, a reference and a referent7. Giovanni K. Koening implies that Architecture is a system of “sign-vehicles” that promote certain kind of behavior par excellence.8 Buildings create an immediate mental reaction that connects the form to an idea or a brand. “Logos like Target, Starbucks and Nike no longer need a logotype. Why? Because the brain sees shapes first, and then reads text”9. Equally, architecture creates bridges of meaning directly related to brands (e.g. Apple Store in 5th Avenue in New York) or even cities (Jorn Utzon Opera House in Sidney).

The projects of the Danish office Bjarke Ingels Group are examples of how contemporary architecture is largely relating with logotypes not only in relation to the building entity, but also to the design process and to the discourse related to it. The main idea of the VM house is branded as the simple fact that the two houses are shaped like the letters V and M when viewed from the air10. The standard simplistic diagrammatic explanation of the process shows thick red arrows performing pushes and magically 6 Roland Barthes, Elements of Semiology & Writing degree Zero. (Trans du Seull Editions, Beacon Press, Boston, 1967) 41.

7

For Charles Jencks: Language is symbol, Reference is thought, Referent is reality.

8 G. Dorfles, Structuralism and Semiology in Architecture. In “Meaning in Architecture”, the Cresset Press, England, 1969, pp. 39-40.

9 Alina Wheeler. Why Brands Need Logos in Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team (John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, 2013)

10 “The VM Houses are two residential blocks formed as the letters V and M. The blocks are formed as such to allow for daylight, privacy and views” At Archdaily (http://www. archdaily.com/970/vm-houses-plot-big-jds/)

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changing the form of the two initial boring static “I” plant houses. The arrows movements in BIG process diagrams are usually followed by arguments related to what Bjarke Ingels calls “Hedonistic sustainability”11: the idea that buildings should be green and fun. Basically, he justifies his projects geometries saying that those shapes bring access to sunlight and views.

In another project of BIG, the Mountain Dwellings, the key element in the concept of the building is argued to be an emphasis on a programmatic need (parking) and the desire of a morphologic mimesis (the mountain). In a recorded interview with the architect12, it is noticeable the repetition of the two words: parking and mountain. Like many other BIG Housing projects, the mountain dwellings are situated in Orestad, a suburban area of Copenhagen. Different than the American cities, the suburbs of Copenhagen are not synonyms of cars and the Danish policies on reducing private transportation are a strong reality13. Orestad is structured along an efficient metro line and Copenhagen is the pioneer city in the use of bicycles as an alternative way of moving14. Those facts seem to simply disappear with the natural and “funny” way the 11 TEDx East Salon: Bjark Ingels lecture May 2011 (http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ogXT_CI7KRU#t=661) 12 Bjarke Ingels interviewed by Brijuni Arquitectos, 2010 (http://vimeo. com/5912504)

13 “The future shift from car to metro is not only in function of the metro’s enlargement but also of the traffic policies to be introduced in the future. These policies include parking policy, public transport ticket pricing and potentially introduction of road pricing” Jane Ildensborg-Hansen. TRANSPORT IMPACTS OF THE COPENHAGEN METRO (Danish Transport Research Institute, Lyngby, Denmark, 2006), 10.

14 “From the start, Orestad was meant to be a sustainable city quarter. The Metro would be the backbone of transport, together with good bicycle lanes minimizing private car transport.

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architect explains the project, with an emphasis in the parking as a temple in a city where cars are not that much culturally and politically cultivated: In some places the ceiling height is up to 16 meters which gives the impression of a cathedral-like space.15 One may argue that the parking was a programmatic request that came from the developer. In regards to the form of the building, it is also possible to trace a parallel between the Mountain Dwellings and Herman Hertzberger Office Building Centraal Beheer in Apeldoom from 197216. However, the extreme effort to attach the image of a mountain to the building is so strong that it becomes redundant and more than clear in the architectural discourse related to it: The main façade is the parking. The parking is outdoor, so it needs to be ventilated. So we had to put a perforated screen to keep the rain out but bring the air inside… So we called it “The Mountain”. We were

To support public transport and the environment, the City of Copenhagen adopted a low parking norm in Orestad”. Copenhagen Growing: the Story of Orestad (http://www.orestad.dk/)

15 Text supplied by the architects to Dezeen Magazine (http://www.dezeen. com/2008/02/17/mountain-dwellings-by-big/)

16 “Some student in TUDelft (NL) hung on the Faculty’s corridors’ walls a funny poster in which two famous buildings are portrayed: at left there is the Mountain Dwellings by BIG, 2008, while in the right side we have the Office Building Centraal Beheer in Apeldoom, Herman Hertzberger, 1972. Beside the malicious thought that may be behind this association of pictures, a deeper reflection arises almost spontaneous. Where is the limit of the “inspiration” and “imitation” or between “copy” and “improvement” that may be between two architectures realized by different architects, with different purposes, period and location?” At http://cargocollective.com/ thearchhive/Who-is-BIG

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speaking about this obsession with mountains. We found this nice image of Mount Everest. So it is a 3000 square meters portrait of a mountain.17 The building is a logo: the representation of the mountain. It was not enough to organize the housing units in a way that they would give to the building the morphology of a mountain. The image of the Everest was printed on the facades of the monumental parking reasserting the message. The building becomes a logo of itself and, by consequence, a logo of the Office. The Mountain Dwellings are an iconic billboard of Bjarke Ingels’s ability to call the attention of Google Earth viewers and pedestrians who pass by his buildings.

The production of logo-buildings is also connected with the production of Architectural Icons. Jencks said: A valid objection might be raised at this point: who really cares how good they are? An iconic building is created to make a splash, to make money, and the normal criteria of valuation do not apply.18 The logo-buildings are also not interested in to be “good architecture”. They want to provoke this splash, they want to communicate. They are embedded with the ideology of the institutions of power and the holders of political and economic control, since architects just decided to “surf in the waves of economy”19. Bjarke is a surfer of the same wave: We propose to let the forces of society - the multiple interests of everybody - decide which of our ideas can live, and which must die. The forces of society here are obviously also the forces of Capital.

17 Bjarke Ingels interviewed by Brijuni Arquitectos, 2010 (http://vimeo. com/5912504) 18

Charles Jencks. The Iconic Building (Rizolli International Publications, 2005), 21.

19 In 1985, summarizing his findings on Manhattan in the context of OMA’s ambitions, Koolhaas wrote, “This architecture relates to the forces of the Groszstadt like a surfer to the waves,” and contrasted it to the fantasies of control that architects “wallowed” in during the 1970s. “Elegy for the Vacant Lot,” S,M,L,XL, 937.

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V and M House Diagram

V and M House aerial view

V and M House

Mont Everest printed on the facade of Mountain Dwellings

Mountain Dwellings Parking

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Mountain Dwellings.

Mountain Dwellings. Bjarke Ingels Group. 2008

Centraal Beer in Apeldoom. Herman Hertzberger. 1972

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Columbia GSAPP Fall 2013 lecture series posters

Columbia GSAPP Spring 2014 lecture series posters

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ARCHITECTS AS ADVERTISERS: FROM PALLADIO TO BJARKE INGELS The first thing you notice when you look at the posters for Columbia GSAPP Spring 2013 and Fall 2014 lecture series are the uppercase words: PILOT, PSYCHIATRIST, PIANIST, FARMER, ATHLETE. Those were the lecturers’ answers when they were asked to give a word that is not “architect” to describe their practice. It is strange to not see the word ADVERTISER in those posters. The culture of branding20 in the architectural office comes from long time ago in the history of architecture and it is developing in fast pace. Architects are surrendering (to engineers; to technology; to real state) more and more as much as Advertisers do.

Andrea Palladio redrew the plans of his villas after most of them were built in order to reread and renegotiate his designs and publish them in his Four Books of Architecture. Not only Palladio redrew the plans of the Villas, but also other architects, like Rudolf Wittkower21 and Peter Eisenmen22 did the same in order to pull out their discoveries through reducing Palladio Villas to the status of diagrams or abstract models.

20 Branding is a discipline process used to build awareness and extend customer loyalty.

It requires a mandate from the top and readiness to invest in the future. Branding is about seizing every opportunity to express why people should choose one brand over another. Alina Wheeler. Why Brands Need Logos in Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team (John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, 2013), 6.

21 Rudolf Wittkower diagrammatic chart of the typical plan forms of Palladian villas, reduced to rectangles and squares, modulated in a grid that operated according to an ABABA rhythm.

22 Peter Eisenman’s exhibition at Yale School of Architecture (August-October 2012) volumetric analysis of Palladio’s villas (http://www.architectural-review.com/essays/palladio-reassessed-by-eisenman/8637478.article)

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Rudolf Wittkower’s schematized plans of Palladio’s Villas

Palladio Virtuel Exhibition by Peter Eisenmen

James Stirling, Competition Design for a Museum for the Northrine-Westphalia Art Collection, 1975. Drawing

by Leon Krier.

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James Stirling proceeded similarly for his monograph “James Stirling Buildings & Projects 1950 – 1974”. The so called “Black Book” is a work of self-presentation and self-promotion that represents Stirling’s curation of his own oeuvre. Leon Krier contributed to the publication with a series of black-and-white line drawings featured prominently for those projects to which he contributed while he was working in the office between 1968 and 1970. Krier also re-drew dozens of drawings for earlier projects, which helped the publication convey the image of Stirling’s work as an aesthetically seamless production.23 We could argue that Palladio and Stirling manipulated their projects (the drawings) as a way of promoting concepts that were not possible to be materialized (or simply did not exist or were not retained by the graphics) at that time of the buildings construction. However, these cases of post-construction reactivation of the design enriched the architectural field as notations systems, in the sense that Architecture is a form of knowledge24 nourished not only by buildings but also by drawings.

A more contemporary example of architects who brand their work is Bjarke Ingels Group. It does not matter if the Bjarke’s red-arrow-auto-explanatories diagrams are posteriori to the design process of the projects. However, it is suspicious to think that this kind of branding is bringing any input in terms of concepts to the discussion of today’s architecture.

In other hand, BIG’s website brings in a very literally way a contribution to the question of Buildings as Logotypes. The oeuvre of the office is shown as a collection of 23 The Black Book of James Stirling (http://www.cca.qc.ca/en/collection/1299-theblack-book-of-james-stirling) 24 Bernard Tschumi, ‘The Culture Of Fragments’, PRECIS 6: Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture Journal 1986, pp.65-73

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Website Bjarke Ingels Group

REN Hotel. Bjarke Ingels Group. Render.

REN Hotel. Bjarke Ingels Group. Project logo.

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logotypes that represent the projects. The similarity between the logotype of the project and the project itself represented by its photograph or rendered image is almost like the connection between an object and its shadow. The building becomes a very literal translation of its logotype. One could argue that the building is already conceptualized as a diagram itself. However, It is important to differentiate diagrams and logotypes in the discussion of the logo-buildings.

Bjarke Ingels’s REN Hotel in China is an example of whether the simplified drawing or icon of the building is a diagram or logotype. Let’s assume that diagrams are conceptual figures (not images or signs)25 that compress information26. The building is the literal translation of the Chinese sign for “people”27. The very straightforward link between signified and signifier enhances the character of the building and its graphic icon as mere logotypes. The building promotes instant recognition and makes a quick statement: Simple, Memorable, Timeless, Versatile and Appropriate. The last two adjectives could be followed in this case by an interrogation mark. They can become parameters for investigating the possible positive aspects of a building as a logotype.

Stefan Sagmeister, the creator of OMA’s Casa da Musica’s graphic identity declared 25 “The function of the diagram is to delay typology and advance design by bringing in external concepts in a specific shape: as a figure, not as image or sign.” Bernard Tschumi. Red is not a Color.

26 “In general, diagrams are best known and understood as visual tools used for the compression of information.” Ben Van Berkel & Caroline Bos. Move. Amsterdam UnStudio & Goose Press. 1999.

27 “The building becomes the Chinese sign for “The People” and recognizable landmark for the World Expo in China” project description - BIG website (http://www.big.dk/#projects-ren)

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Casa da Musica. OMA.

Logotypes as Buildings

Casa da Musica Logo. Stefan Sagmeister

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about the logo: ”Initially we did not want to create another logo featuring the silhouette of a building… As we studied its structure we realized that the building itself is a logo”28.

Casa da Musica behaves as a new Landmark29 for the city of Porto and becomes a logo that re-signifies the city beyond its strong historical image, a mental shortcut to a new idea of Porto. A logotype. The new object becomes “appropriate” to the context and charges it with a new identity. OMA’s building is also aesthetically and programmatically “versatile” mixing musicians and skateboarders as the main users of the inside and outside spaces near the Rotunda da Boa Vista. Koolhaas statement is a counterpoint of Bjark Ingels view of architecture as a cartoon or a joke30: “Maybe, architecture doesn’t have to be stupid after all. Liberated from the obligation to construct, it can become a way of thinking about anything – a discipline that represents relationships, proportions, connections, effects, the diagram of everything.”31 Interestingly enough, Casa da Musica came from a model of a private house project rescued from the archives of OMA and scaled five times to get the proportions of a Concert Hall.32 This fact brings the possibility of a new aspect in this investiga28 Sagmeister Inc. Casa da Musica Identity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URmKSyKAK5w) 29 Landmarks is one of Kevin Lynch five elements that form the mental maps of a city in his book The Image of a City. They are readily identifiable objects which serve as external reference points.

30 “A good joke and a good idea are similar because they are both surprising and they made immediate sense. The thing about a really good joke is that you don’t get tired of it.” Bjarke Ingels interviewed by Jeffrey Inaba. Ambition Magazine Volume 13), 51.

31

Rem Koolhaas, Content, 2004

32 “An example here is the Casa da Musica in Porto where “the abandoned and temporarily forgotten model of the private house came up to the office and re-entered the cycles of

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Evolution of Shell’s logo from 1900 to the current logo.

Y2K House. OMA.

Casa da Musica. OMA.

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tion: the mutability of logo-buildings while concepts. The evolution of logos like Coca-Cola or Shell shows how the earlier and the latest logo don’t relate in their forms.

The relationship is recorded in the other logos in between the older and more recent icon. The mutability of Casa da Musica from a House to a concert hall, from a small project to a 22000 square meters building carries a sequence of operations that reveal new values and new concepts.

design. Lingering on the tables of the models for months, it was finally take with new assumptions, reshaped, refreshed and adjusted.� Albena Yaneva, Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture: An Ethnography of Design, 86.

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Architectural Icons of tha last 10 years. Rem Koolhaas.

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LOGOSCAPES Three different concerns resume a conclusion in the study of Buildings as logotypes and its relation with architectural concepts: First, the oversimplification nature of the processes and operations involved in the production of logo-buildings is per se a factor that can induce architects to neglect important elements in the generation of architectural concepts. “Oversimplifying reality by ignoring the fine dimensions of a program or a site does not result in a concept.”33 Second, the way a logo-building compromise with its task of representing the aspects and ideologies of a company, institution or even its author implies a rearrangement in the hierarchy of values in its design process. Architecture becomes a result of branding and attending the requirements of the client. Therefore, architects become channels for the decisions of other entities or forces of control and the consequence is a panorama of buildings with a lack of substance and concept.

The third aspect is related with the logo-buildings expectations and aspirations of being Memorable and Timeless. This problem is directly related with the usual commissioner’s insistence towards the “image” of the building over other aspects of architectural solution. Buildings like the Centre Pompidou-Metz by Shigeru Ban are echoes of the Bilbao Effect and the architectural production of hits. Jencks concludes in his study on Iconic Buildings: “If you’re going to ask for a landmark that knocks the socks off your audience, why not ask for something more?”34 Beyond those aspects, an issue of Meaning floats over the existence of the logo-buildings. The problem of lack of concept in architecture demonstrates to be also a prob33 34

Ibid.

Charles Jencks. The Iconic Building (Rizolli International Publications, 2005), 211.

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Logoscape skyline.

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lem of lack of Meaning. Frampton’s critique on the work of Post Moderns remains valid here: “It undermines the society’s capacity to achieve any kind of build culture at all”35. If the urban landscapes transforms into logoscapes, cities will suffer of lack of multiplicity of meanings and metaphors. The city is losing its erotic dimension36.

It may be interesting to have buildings as logos. But also interesting to have them as paintings, as poems, as sculptures, as hot dogs, as men/women, as systems, as computers. We want buildings as novels, not as fast sentences. We want a multiple city, not a logoscape.

35 K. Frampton. “Modern Architecture and the Critical Present” Architectural Design Profile, Pp. 76.

36

Roland Barthes, Semiology and Urbanism (1967), 417.

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The logo should be viewed as a brand asset that symbolizes what the brand stands for.* *Alina Wheeler. Why Brands Need Logos in Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team (John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, 2013)

I’d venture a guess that most of us were motivated by logos that displayed distinctively clever visual concepts, told a story, or were rendered with industry-defining style.*

*Paul Howait and Von Glitschka. Design: Logo.

(Rockport Publishers, 2013).

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The building should be viewed as a brand asset that symbolizes what the brand stands for.

I’d venture a guess that most of us were motivated by buildings that displayed distinctively clever visual concepts, told a story, or were rendered with industry-defining style.

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In the end, we know that a successful logo design is not about what pleases the client – its about solving a visual problem. Actually, it’s about solving a bunch of problems: - Does the logo resonate in the souls of your tangent audience?

- Is it memorably simple, but not boring?

- Is the style appropriate within its industry?

- Is it more timeless than trendy?

- Can you tell a story about it?

- Is it visually clever or conceptual in some way?

- Can it (or a version) of it be reproduced easily across all media?

- Do you want to lick it?* *Paul Howait and Von Glitschka. Design: Logo.

(Rockport Publishers, 2013).

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In the end, we know that a successful building design is not about what pleases the client – its about solving a visual problem. Actually, it’s about solving a bunch of problems: - Does the building resonate in the souls of your tangent audience?

- Is it memorably simple, but not boring?

- Is the style appropriate within its industry?

- Is it more timeless than trendy?

- Can you tell a story about it?

- Is it visually clever or conceptual in some way?

- Can it (or a version) of it be reproduced easily across all media?

- Do you want to lick it?

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Logos are vessels for a meaning. The best logos stand for something and have meaning that is nurtured over time. Milton Glaser said it best: “The logo is the gateway to the brand�.* *Alina Wheeler. Why Brands Need Logos in Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team (John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, 2013)

A logo should always be shown in context of a real application so that it appears real.*

*Alina Wheeler. Why Brands Need Logos in Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team (John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, 2013)

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Buildings are vessels for a meaning. The best buildings stand for something and have meaning that is nurtured over time. Milton Glaser said it best: “The building is the gateway to the brand�.

A building should always be shown in context of a real application so that it appears real.

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2 0 1 4 E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T E E N C L O S U R E T E N S I O N B A L O O N S I N S I D E C U T E D G E B O R D E R I S L A N D B I G B O X E S D A T A C E N T E R N E C E S S A R Y V E N T U R I M A C H I N E S D A T A C E N T E R F O L D I T E D U C A T I O N C E L E S T I A L C U B E U N F O L D I T D I S T R A C T I O N E L A S T I C C R I T I C A L P A R A N O I A C O L L I S I O N T H R E A D L E A R N I N G W I N D O W S A S T R O N O M Y F O R M U L A 1 B L E N D E R N O T A T I O N D R A W I N G O R B I T S L I G H T K A H N I N T R O S P E C T I V E P L A N E M O V E M E N T U T Z O N V O L U M E S H A D O W S M O U N T A I N P E R C E P T I O N L A N G U A G E S P H E R E F R A M E S S C R E E N S S U R V E I L L A N C E M I R R O R V O Y E U R M E D I A I M M E R S I VE G R A V I T Y P I N C H A R M A T U R E C O N C R E T