SELECTED WORKS 2012 PHILLIP EWING
AUBURN UNIVERSITY 2012 Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) 2012 Bachelor of Interior Architecture (BIArch)
PHILLIP H. EWING, JR. 357 E. Thatch Ave. Apt #101 Auburn, AL 36830 E: phe0001@auburn.edu T: 256.417.7416
WORK EXPERIENCE: College of Architecture, Design and Construction, Information Technology Dept. (CADCIT) // Auburn, AL Student Instructor, August 2011 – Present » Developed teaching materials and instructed workshops on Rhino, Grasshopper, and application interoperability. » Advised on development of additional digital media workshops.
EDUCATION: Auburn University School of Architecture // Auburn, AL Majors: Architecture, August 2007 – Present Interior Architecture, August 2009 – Present Study Abroad: March 2010, Quito, Ecuador University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign // Champaign, IL Discover Architecture Program, July 2007 University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) // Huntsville, AL General Studies, August 2006 – May 2007 Huntsville Christian Academy (HCA) // Huntsville, AL Valedictorian, Honors Diploma, May 2006. Graduated from high school one year early at age 16.
The Freelon Group // Durham, NC Intern, May – August 2010 » Notable projects include: – Image Collection for National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) // Washington, DC // 313,000 sq. ft. – Research for MIT Exhibit and monograph publication – Design Development for ECSU School of Education and Psychology // Elizabeth City, NC // 48,000 sq. ft. – Design Development for Table – Research Documentation for the Gantt Center // Charlotte, NC // 48,500 sq. ft. – Competition Charette for MSU Business School – Pre-design for NCSU Gregg Museum » Model photography & touch-up, presentations, and award submittals for various projects.
PEC Structural Engineering, Inc. // Huntsville, AL Intern, May – August 2007
» Notable projects include: – Downtown Fire Station and Police Precinct // Huntsville, AL // approx. 32,000 sq. ft. – Structural Remediation for Madison County Jail Addition // Huntsville, AL // approx. 142,000 sq. ft. – Various private residential projects » Updated red-lined drawings. » Documented on-site conditions of construction projects.
Bentley Systems, Inc. // Madison, AL Intern, June – August 2006 » Tested functionality of eWarehouse application. » Reported and tracked trouble reports and change requests using FlawTrack database. » Created MS Excel macros to organize trouble report and change request data.
SKILLS:
REFERENCES:
General: MS Office Suite, Adobe Creative Suite, GIMP 2.0, Final Cut Pro CAD/CAM/BIM: Revit Architecture, Rhinoceros 3D, AutoCAD (2D and 3D), SketchUp, 3DSMax, SURFCAM Velocity 3.0 Analysis: Autodesk Ecotect Rendering: 3DSMax, Flamingo for Rhino Programming/Scripting: Grasshopper for Rhino, RhinoScript, VisualBasic, C programming language (w/ jGrasp IDE) Working knowledge of: Digital Project, IES, Autodesk Maya, VIZ, POV-Ray
Philip G. Freelon, FAIA, LEED AP Founder and President, The Freelon Group P.O. Box 12876 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 T: 919.941.9790 F: 919.767.0144 pfreelon@freelon.com
Design: Research, Schematic Design, Design Development Representation: Model Construction, Sketching & Drafting, Laser Cutting Machine, CNC Routing Machine
AWARDS // HONORS // AFFILIATIONS: » 2011 Architecture Faculty and Staff Award » 1st place, 2011 National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS) Student Design Competition (in collaboration with Auburn NOMAS competition team) » 1st place, 2011 Blackwell Prize in Drawing & Painting » 1st place, 2011 Pella Design Portfolio Competition » 1st place, 2010 Architecture Writing Award » 2009 Cooper Carry Architects Annual Scholarship » 2007 Minority Architecture Scholarship » CADC Dean’s List – Spring 2008, Summer 2008, Fall 2010 » Golden Key International Honour Society, Inducted Spring 2009 » National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Inducted Spring 2009 » Teaching Assistant for ARCH 1000 (Introduction to Careers in Design And Construction), Fall 2010 » NOMAS Auburn Chapter President, 2011-12 » Auburn Chapter 5th year representative, American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), 2011-12 » NOMAS Auburn Chapter Web/Graphic Design Co-Chair, 2010-11 » Work exhibited in AU Circle campus publication, Spring 2009
Christian T. Dagg, AIA Acting Architecture Dept. Head Chair, Interior Architecture Associate Professor, Auburn University 311 Dudley Hall Auburn, AL 36849-5316 T: 334.844.4519 F: 334.844.5419 daggchr@auburn.edu Jonathan C. Powell Principal, PEC Structural Engineering 303 Williams Ave. Park Plaza Suite #821 Huntsville, AL 35801 T: 256.533.3042 F: 256.533.3043 Mail@PECstructural.com Martin Patton Software Development Project Manager Bentley Systems, Inc. 917 Explorer Boulevard Northwest Huntsville, Alabama 35806 T: 256.970.1133
// RECENT PROJECTS DESIGN WORK vine city village walk <bronze umbrella> lux nova childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hospital
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// WORK FREELON GROUP INTERNSHIP MIT exhibition pre-design table prototype brooklyn neigbhorhood research
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// ARCHIVES EARLIER PROJECTS various drawings bird + house natural history museum auburn university lyceum
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// WRITING THOUGHTS ABOUT DESIGN elegance, attenuation, geometry towards a responsive architecture
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// RECENT PROJECTS DESIGN WORK vine city village walk <bronze umbrella> lux nova childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hospital
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PROJECTS
VINE CITY VILLAGE WALK
// VINE CITY VILLAGE WALK FIRST PLACE, 2011 NOMA STUDENT DESIGN COMPETITION IN COLLABORATION WITH WENG LON LAO, KYLE JOHNSON, AND DAMIAN BOLDIEN ATLANTA, GA // 200,000 FT2 SPRING-FALL 2011 // ADVISOR: KEVIN MOORE MOVEMENT IN SPACE, MOVEMENT IN TIME The Vine City Village Walk hopes to serve as a “community incubator” by providing the economic impact of a large-scale development plus the adaptability of smaller-scale projects. The superimposition of multiple future scenarios creates a project that can be renovated into various functions as needs of the community change. Parking for the MARTA station can be renovated into housing, retail, or even offices. In addition to the future quantitative issues such as egress and floor plate dimensions, there are immediate qualitative aspects that allow the parking to be more than just parking. The parking area adjacent to the grocery store offers the potential to become a farmer’s market on weekends. Double-height spaces on upper levels of the parking may be partitioned off for private events without disrupting access to other parking areas. In addition to meeting practical needs over time, the facility anticipates the cultural aspirations of a resilient community, educating visitors on where the neighborhood has been and where it might possibly go in the future. The result is a building that reflects the movement of its community at two levels – movement in space as the pleasure of everyday comings and goings, and movement in time as the progress of the community over time.
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INCUBATION DIAGRAM
(Harwell St. extension to increase activity)
A HISTORY OF “CONVULSIVE” CHANGE
VINE CITY VILLAGE WALK
flood
Georgia World Congress Center slum clearance
PROJECTS
slum clearance
RECENT LARGE-SCALE CHANGES IN TIME AND SPACE
The urban fabric in the Ashby and Vine City neighborhoods has often been punctuated by what Dana Cuff would call “convulsive” change throughout its history. War, weather, and slum clearance have been three factors that have fuelled this discontinuous pattern of development. There was always a shortage of affordable housing in Atlanta – the neighborhood itself was the product of westward expansion. But large events and large projects have disproportionally affected African-American communities. Smaller projects do not have enough “weight” to respond to such large-scale shifts in community needs; larger developments do. However, the tendency of large-scale developments to move towards functional specialization restricts them from being able to adapt to the neighborhood’s needs in the future. A typical structure for a “big box” supermarket doesn’t easily convert to housing; a typical parking garage layout doesn’t easily convert to local retail. As a result, larger projects fall harder. Often, these large projects are torn down and rebuilt en masse. This causes significant disruptions to the community, displaces substantial numbers of homeowners and tenants, and typically results in fewer housing units, retail, and institutions. Each rebuilding cycle actually exacerbates the underlying problems. Even if the individual buildings of a large project are relatively small, the total project degrades uniformly as each building expires at the same time.
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URBAN PORCHES Like many communities in the South, front porches as social spaces have been a significant part of Vine City’s built heritage.The Village Walk responds to this cultural phenomenon by creating “urban porches,” which also serve mediate the difference in scale between the Village Walk and single-family housing nearby.
BEAVER SLIDE social porches before slum clearance
SPELMAN COLLEGE IN THE 1880s civic porches and reuse of Gen. Sherman’s barracks
VINE CITY VILLAGE WALK PROJECTS
VIEW WEST FROM RAMPS CIVIC PORCH AND RAMPS In addition to the retail urban porches, an even larger urban porch becomes a destination to host markets and festivals, thus activating the nearby corner park and Kipp Academy playground. Overhead, the ramps turn the civic porch into a pleasurable and moving experience, a place to see and be seen.
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TRANSVERSE SECTION SHOWING ACCESS TO MARTA STOP
photovoltaics green roof for future housing/ office
down up
VINE CITY VILLAGE WALK PROJECTS
COLLEGE BOOM apartments with parking
BULL MARKET expanded retail & office with parking
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SCENARIO PLANNING
A POST-OIL WORLD housing density & public transportation
The Village Walk moves with the community over time by anticipating multiple future scenarios. The separate system of garage ramps avoids large sloping floors. As a result, housing, offices and parking are possible in different combinations and with separate access for incremental or convulsive change.
// <BRONZE UMBRELLA> AUBURN, AL // 200,000 FT2 SUMMER 2011 // CRITICS: JUSTIN MILLER, KEVIN MOORE
PROJECTS
<BRONZE UMBRELLA>
Paul Rudolph, Umbrella House
<Bronze Umbrella> generates an heterogeneous atmosphere of microclimates, and these microclimates themselves are constantly contested, changeable. The proposal picks up a thread of thought from Heschong’s Thermal Delight in Architecture and one of our studio’s own test installations, “Pavlov’s Canopy” -- that the perception of temperature can be modified through the triggering of “conditioned reflexes”. For example, we may associate the sound of a babbling stream or the gently swaying shadows of trees with coolness. It is possible that this association may be so strong that we may even “feel” cooler in the presence of these environmental stimuli on a hot, humid, day -- and there are plenty such days in east Alabama. <Bronze Umbrella> begins with the extension of a large canopy over a meeting room that has been created on the third floor of Paul Rudolph’s Kappa Sigma Fraternity House. The striated, barcode-like pattern of the canopy dapples light in a way that emulates trees, while the dark, bronze hues might also suggest the dark coolness of a cave. Light passes through the canopy and catches the chartreuse frame of the skylights below, taking on a cooler hue that blends well with the ambient northern light. The meeting room is flanked on the east and west by alternately translucent and transparent glass panels, all of which may slide apart to let western breezes slip through. Views from the meeting room toward the eastern addition are contested as illuminations and reflections blend into dense tapestry of light -- a pool of crenulated walls here, the reflection of the southern yellow pine tree canopies beyond, yourself and the chairs around you in the meeting room.
Phillip Ewing And Morgan Anderson, “Pavlov’s Canopy”
All of these things set up a “topography” of actual and percieved microclimates that are continually in flux.
Kappa Sigma House, c. 1972
Kappa Sigma House, now
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SOUTH FAÇADE OF RENOVATION
<BRONZE UMBRELLA> PROJECTS SOUTHEAST CORNER AND PORCH
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LEVEL 01, EASTERN PATIO
<BRONZE UMBRELLA> PROJECTS TRANSVERSE SECTION SHOWING RECONFIGURATION OF EASTERN PATIO
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SECTION SKETCHES AND ENVIRONMENTAL PHENOMENA
MEETING/MULTI-FUNCTION ROOM
<BRONZE UMBRELLA> PROJECTS LEVEL 03, SHOWING ADDITION AND GATHERING/MULTI-FUNCTION SPACE
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LEVEL 03, ADDITION CORRIDOR
PROJECTS
<BRONZE UMBRELLA>
LEVEL 03, NORTHERN BRIDGE
LEVEL 03, ADDITION CORRIDOR
LEVEL 03, SOUTHERN BRIDGE
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LONGITUDINAL SECTION
// LUX NOVA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL CHICAGO, IL // 600,000 FT2 FALL 2010 // CRITIC: KEVIN MOORE
PROJECTS
LUX NOVA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Situated at the intersection of Chicago Ave. and Mies Van Der Rohe Way, Lux Nova Children’s Hospital has the triple amenities of views towards Lake Michigan, the water tower, and nearby Seneca Park. By replicating an oblique condition to the city grid, the hospital is able to maximize views towards these amenities. By puncturing the building mass at its sky lobby level, the building is able to bring natural light to a northern facade that typically never sees it. In a context where every building becomes “excessively vertical” in a race for the sky, the facade of the hospital responds with a system of suspended vertical louvers that reduces glare on the northern facade and provides shade on the southern elevations. All of this to bring a “new” level of natural lighting to facilites for pediatric healthcare.
CONTEXT DIAGRAM INDICATING VIEWS AND ALIGNMENTS TO LAKE MICHIGAN WATERFRONT
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VIEW OF SKY LOBBY AND TERRACE
PUBLIC EMERGENCY SURGERY/RADIOLOGY MECHANICAL ADMINISTRATION PATIENT CARE
PROJECTS
N-S SECTION
GROUND LEVEL PLAN AND ALIGNMENT TO PARK
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LUX NOVA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
OFFICES
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NORTH FAÇADE
PROJECTS
LUX NOVA CHILDRENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HOSPITAL
N TYPICAL PATIENT FLOOR AND CONTEXT Following the perpendicular of the park alignment, the northeast corner chamfers away in order to align with views toward Lake Michigan.
TYPICAL PATIENT CARE UNIT The oblique configuration allows for improved outside views from the patient bed.
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SOUTH FAÇADE
LUX NOVA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL PROJECTS
SECTION AND ELEVATION OF PATIENT ROOM light is scattered by louvers and ceiling upturn to reduce glare
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VIEW SOUTH FROM SKY LOBBY BRIDGE
PROJECTS
LUX NOVA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
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NORTH ENTRANCE
VIEW TOWARDS WATER TOWER
LEVEL D: CLASSROOMS
PROJECTS
LUX NOVA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
LEVEL C: CONFERENCE
LEVEL B: MAIN LEVEL, CONFERENCE
LEVEL A: CAFETERIA
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WALKING UP FROM CAFETERIA TO MAIN SKY LOBBY LEVEL
// WORK FREELON GROUP INTERNSHIP MIT exhibition pre-design table prototype brooklyn neigbhorhood research
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// MIT EXHIBIT PRE-DESIGN THE FREELON GROUP // SUMMER 2010 In preparation for the Freelon Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first academic exhibition (expected February 2012) and monograph publication, I was partly responsible for compiling information on the Wolk Gallery in the MIT Department of Architecture. Exhibition case studies, diagrammatic drawings, a digital model of the gallery, and other relevant research served as brainstorming tools for Mr. Freelon and the exhibition planning committee.
WOLK GALLERY WOLK GALLERY
ROTCH LIBRARY
ROTCH LIBRARY
WORK
MIT EXHIBIT PRE-DESIGN
ARCHITECTURE OFFICES
DEPT. STAIRSOF ARCHITECTURE OFFICES
OTHER LIGHTWELL OTHER
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// TABLE PROTOTYPE THE FREELON GROUP // SUMMER 2010
WORK
TABLE PROTOTYPE
I was responsible for developing various iterations of a stabilizing metal table base. If the table legs conjured images of tree branches, I explored how the base might begin to evoke the metaphor of “roots.” Ten versions varying in structure and numbers of segments were drafted and modelled. Consideration was also given to connection details between each leg and the metal base.
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// BROOKLYN RESEARCH THE FREELON GROUP // SUMMER 2010
WORK
BROOKLYN RESEARCH
The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts & Culture drew much of its inspiration from the Brooklyn neigborhood that once occupied the Second Ward of Charlotte, NC. Once a thriving AfricanAmerican community in the early- to mid-20th century, it was incrementally demolished by urban renewal from 1960 to 1967. After re-compiling research done in the schematic design stage, I produced a series of diagrams illustrating the extents of Brooklyn and changes over time.
DOWNTOWN (UPTOWN) CHARL0TTE, NC, c.1950
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// ARCHIVES EARLIER PROJECTS various drawings bird + house natural history museum auburn university lyceum
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VARIOUS DRAWINGS ARCHIVES
STUDIES OF S. CARLO ALLE QUATTRO FONTANE David Braly sketch workshop // February 2010 Recipient of 2011 Blackwell Prize in Drawing and Painting, 1st place
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VARIOUS DRAWINGS ARCHIVES
RENDERING OF CALTRANS DISTRICT SEVEN HEADQUARTERS // MORPHOSIS Materials + Methods I, Spring 2009 Prof. Robert Faust
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RENDERING OF TEL AVIV MUSEUM LIGHTFALL // PRESTON SCOTT COHEN Materials + Methods I Prof. Robert Faust
VARIOUS DRAWINGS ARCHIVES
PANECILLO COMMUNITY CENTER PROCESS SKETCHES Quito Studio // Spring 2009 Prof. Sheri Schumacher
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// BIRD+HOUSE FALL 2007 // CRITICS: RUSTY SMITH, REBECCA O’NEAL DAGG, ANNA SOUZA
BIRD + HOUSE
The Bird + House seeks not to serve as a literal refuge for a bird, but instead to be an object that embodies the “attitudes” of a particular bird species with respect to its environment. The seagull, after some preliminary research, was found to be an example of adaptability par excellence. As a scavenger, the seagull adapts its diet to whatever is available in order to survive. Some species of seagull are able to drink both salt and fresh water with relative ease. Always on the move, there are also those that sleep in midair, constantly rising and falling on the warm air updrafts of the open sea. With this in mind, the Bird+House becomes an object able to transform itself from a benign image approximating the typical birdhouse into other, more “turbulent” forms.
ARCHIVES
PROCESS SKETCHES EXPORING ADAPTABILITY
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FRONT ELEVATION
SIDE ELEVATION
BIRD+HOUSE, CLOSED
ARCHIVES
BIRD + HOUSE
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BIRD+HOUSE, OPEN
// NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM MONTGOMERY, AL // 14,000 FT2 SPRING 2009 // CRITIC: NICOLE TRUITT
ARCHIVES
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
As part of a master plan for the revitalization of Montgomery’s riverfront, the Riverwalk Natural History Museum introduces visitors to the natural environment in a way akin to the Hawthorne effect: one cannot observe without changing that which is being observed. Likewise, one cannot propose to create a space for acknowledging the natural environment without creating a spatial disturbance in its context. The form of the museum is envisioned as a biomorphic “wrinkle” in the spatial fabric of the riverwalk. This experience of “contorted” space seeks to be a didactic metaphor for the notion that we are changing our environment even as we are observing it -- and should take special care in regards to the natural environment.
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ISOCURVE GENERATION ALGORITHM 1. Define start point. 2. Define start vector.
7. Determine centroid of resultant curve on surface. 8. Define refraction vector with base at resultant curve and head at surface centroid; convert to unit-length vector.
3. Create circle at start point with unit radius and start vector as 9. Adjust refraction vector amplitude. z-axis. 10. Add refraction vector to surface normal vector; redefine as start vector. 4. Project to first surface along start vector. 5. Determine surface normal vector.
11. Repeat procedures 5-10 until no surface is detected.
6. Determine centroid of surface.
12. Create interpolated curve through start point and projected curve centroids.
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM ARCHIVES SEMI-AUTOMATIC GRASSHOPPER IMPLEMENTATION OF ALGORITHM
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PROCEDURAL AND PHYSICAL MODELLING PROCESSES
// AUBURN UNIVERSITY LYCEUM AUBURN UNIVERSITY, AL // 14,000 FT2 FALL 2009 // CRITIC: SHERI SCHUMACHER A lyceum as a building type dates back to the days of Plato and Aristotle, where it served as a place for philosophers and thinkers from various disciplines to meet and discuss ideas. A modern-day lyceum for Auburn University re-interprets this building type as a place for faculty and students from various disciplines to meet and exchange ideas. Recieving further inspiration from writings of Deleuze, there were two additional threads of thought which generated the project: SMOOTH AND STRIATED SPACE: The aggregate of local intensities of spatial polarities or striations generate emergent smooth space. Emphasis of one local spatial feature is folded seamlessly into the next, creating new connections between previously disparate elements and forming a spatial fabric that is heterogeneous yet continuous.
ARCHIVES
AUBURN UNIVERSITY LYCEUM
THE BAROQUE FOLD: Transitions between smooth and striated space, public and private conditions, structure, skin, and ornament are articulated through a process of dual (but not opposite) processes of “folding” and “unfolding”. The exterior thrusts itself outward, creating exogenous folds; the interior generates endogenous folds, making space and matter become “infinitely cavernous” plica ex plica.
NORTH FAÇADE
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EXPLODED AXON
SITE CONTEXT PLAN SHOWING LYCEUM AS A “BOOKEND” TO THE STUDENT CENTER
AUBURN UNIVERSITY LYCEUM
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ARCHIVES
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import points
repeat algorithm in 3d
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DRAWING ALGORITHM 1. Any line falls into one of three categories: a “datum,” “generatrix, “or “inverse generatrix.”
create initial shell
2. A datum is any line taken extended directly from or parallel to the programmatic massing. 3. A generatrix is any line that connects between two points, whether those points are generated from the intersection of other lines or from the centroids or corners of programmatic massing.
refine acute/complex vertices
4. An inverse generatrix or “the fold” is a line perpendicular to a generatrix or datum and passes through a point. 5. Lines may be constructed on the analysis plane incrementally, with each line generating new points of intersection for the development of new generatrices and inverse generatricies. 6. The drawing procedure continues until a closed loop of points can be constructed within a certain proximity and span around the programmatic massing.
repeat procedure for site plan
AUBURN UNIVERSITY LYCEUM ARCHIVES LEVEL 01 AND TRANSVERSE SECTIONS
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LEVEL 02 AND LONGITUDINAL SECTION
// WRITING THOUGHTS ABOUT DESIGN elegance, attenuation, geometry towards a responsive architecture
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// ELEGANCE, ATTENUATION, GEOMETRY: HOW LINEAR PERSPECTIVE INFLUENCED ARCHITECTURE DURING THE RENAISSANCE
WRITING
ELEGANCE, ATTENUATION GEOMETRY
RECIPIENT OF 2010 ARCHITECTURE WRITING AWARD, 1ST PLACE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY II // FALL 2009 PROFESSOR: DR. CARLA KEYVANIAN It had become popular belief that the artists and architects of the Renaissance, rejecting the work of their contemporaries, had brought about a return to the architectural language of Ancient Greece and Rome; in reality, though, it turns out that there are multiple problems with this story, and at least one discrepancy has to do with one of their most celebrated accomplishments. While the Florentine school was promoting their revival of classical architecture, they depicted their work in a way that, apparently, the ancients had not fully achieved – the realistic depiction of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Throughout the various surviving examples of classical art and architecture, twodimensional images never seemed to reach the same level of dimensional realism achieved during the Renaissance. Figures on attic red-figure vases only seemed to occupy one infinitesimally thin plane of space; Emperor Justinian and his “entourage” in a mosaic at S. Vitale in Ravenna appear ready to slide off the floor at any moment. In an attempt to remedy this problem, elements that imply spatial depth, such as a pulled-back curtain at a doorway, are added – as in the mosaic of the wife of Justinian, Empress Theodora; else, the two-dimensional plane is abandoned entirely in favor of sculpture. Leading up to the Renaissance in Florence, works by the painter Giotto begin to show a more refined understanding of space, which is brought to a peak when Filippo Brunelleschi, according to legend, studied the Florence baptistery and discovered one-point linear perspective. In a region where public architecture heavily relied on frescoes for spatial effect, and paintings often leveraged architectural elements for increased spatial realism, it seems almost inevitable that any work towards discovering a empirical method of accurately depicting three-dimensional space would influence architecture leading up to and throughout the Renaissance. Thus, Renaissance architects begin to literally “trace” out lines of sight and create “privileged” cones of vision in the composition of various moments in their buildings; proportions of various façades are selectively distorted to either bring them down to human scale or exaggerate their size; and the line between real and virtual space becomes increasingly blurred. Perhaps because one-point linear perspective was his discovery, there seems to be no architect such as Filippo Brunelleschi who seems so eager to trace out the features of his buildings as if they were three-dimensional drawings. This desire to emphasize particular views, as well as the progression of these views, is evident even in projects begun before his discovery of perspective drawing in 1425. The façade of Brunelleschi’s design for the Ospedale degli Innocenti (“Hospital of the Innocents” or “Foundling Hospital”) in Florence, begun in 1419, consists of a nine bay loggia capped by semicircular arches. Frescoes appear in the semicircular
spaces above the entry portals on the interior side of the logia. Thus, the exterior arcade of the loggia becomes a taut, perforated screen that constantly conceals and reveals the frescoes beyond, encouraging entry into the building when the viewer is directly aligned with one of the portals. The creation of these privileged views is further developed in the interior of the Church of S. Lorenzo, the parish church of the Medici family. The plan of the church consists of a three-aisle nave intersected by a transept, with a dome marking the crossing. Also, smaller chapels line the nave and transept. Brunelleschi makes use of a base square module that makes the apse, crossing, and wings of the transept equivalent to one unit each, and the nave four units long. This base square is subdivided into four smaller squares, each one corresponding to the width of one of the side aisle bays as well as chapels, which are bilaterally matched along the length of the nave. Brunelleschi begins to mark out these alignments by using darker bands of tiles on the floor to draw a line down the middle of the nave, as well as lines crossing the nave to connect the chapels. The overall effect is that the viewer is encouraged to proceed down the middle of the nave, pausing at each bay to observe perfectly-framed views of the smaller chapels on either side. Florentine architects leading up to the Renaissance had also recognized the potential effects of attenuating proportions of elements that are assumed to be equal in size to make a structure appear larger or smaller. One example of the former is the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo and begun in 1445. This private residence for the Medici family consists of a threelevel rectangular mass punctured by an interior courtyard and garden. Continuous masonry stringcourses wrap around the building mass at each floor level, and a massive, rather imposing cornice caps the elevation. Bartolomeo compounds the foreshortening of perspective in order to give the building an even greater sense of dominance over the surrounding urban fabric by reducing the height of each floor as the eye moves from ground to sky. The exact opposite effect occurs in the campanile for the Duomo in Florence, begun by Giotto in 1334, continued by Andrea Pisano, and finished by Francesco Talenti in 1359. It is unclear whether it was the intent of Giotto to incrementally enlarge each level of the polychrome structure, but the overall effect seems appropriate to the Renaissance. Interestingly enough, the 84.7-meter height of the structure suddenly seems more approachable, which could relate to the increasingly ubiquitous confidence in human ability to comprehend the extents of the universe at the beginning of the Renaissance, and in turn reproduce it accurately and completely. The development of linear perspective also makes it possible for artists to move beyond physical constraints and create a convincing representation of space where it is not actually possible to physically construct it. Once again, an interest in creating an accurate depiction of three-dimensional space begins well before 1425, and an example of this interest can be found in the Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel in Padua. Built as a small, barrel-vaulted family chapel in 1305, Giotto was commissioned to paint the interior of the church. Most of the frescoes in the chapel are largely orthographic in nature, but Giotto takes the opportunity to experiment with the depiction of three-dimensional space on the wall at the end of
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the small nave. Instead of stopping the viewer’s eye, Giotto paints the underside of groin vaults that begin to recede in perspective alongside the apse, making the chapel almost appear to extend beyond its physical boundaries. Perhaps the clearest example of experiments with virtual space is with the “apse” of the S. Maria presso S. Satiro in Milan, designed by Donato Bramante and Giovanni Antonio Amadeo and completed in 1482. The unusual part of this small church is that there actually is no apse, due to the fact that the constraints of the site would not allow for any construction beyond the transept. To overcome this problem, Bramante decides to paint a rather convincing image of an apse, in complete accordance with the other architectural features of the church, behind the altar. It is inevitable that the image can be recognized as only a painting when looking towards the altar from one of the wings of the transept, but this is a fact that would perhaps go largely unnoticed by the congregation. Thus, we can see that the myth that the school of Florence had suddenly returned to classical architecture was not really a “return” per se, but something more complex. It indicated that the professions of art and architecture had reached such a degree of development that they could now look back in order to give previous expressive intents another level of detail. With the full range of various architectural “tastes” – from ornate to austere – having been explored, perhaps the emergence of the Renaissance marked the beginning of a more academic, comparative approach to the development of architectural languages, in which various precedents are broken down into their constituent parts and re-assembled according to contemporary themes. If this is the case, then there becomes the possibility that the Renaissance itself becomes a phenomenon that later generations would re-examine. It could be argued that the Enlightenment of the 18th century, Positivism of the 19th century, and mid-20th century modernism are “revivals” of themes expressed during the Renaissance. Even today, the work of practicioners such as Preston Scott Cohen and his investigations into the space-generating potentials of various perspective apparatuses from the 15th-18th centuries could relate to the interests of the Renaissance. Or, the continuous folding of complex surfaces in the work of some architects in the digital paradigm might even begin to approximate the tastes of the Baroque era that followed the Renaissance. In any case, it was this one epoch above all others that enabled the profession of architecture to use previous accomplishments in combination with new discoveries as part of a way forward.
SOURCES: Kostof, Spiro, A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals. Second Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
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// TOWARDS A RESPONSIVE ARCHITECTURE: CYBERNETICS FOR DOWNTOWN MONTGOMERY INTRODUCTION TO ARCHITECTURE THESIS PROJECT (DRAFT) FALL 2011 // CRITIC: BEHZAD NAKHJAVAN “The role of the architect here, I think, is not so much to design a building or city as to catalyse them; to act that they may evolve. That is the secret of the great architect.” – Gordon Pask “Architecture is considered as a form of artificial life, subject, like the natural world, to principles of morphogenesis, genetic coding, replication and selection. The aim of an evolutionary architecture is to achieve in the built environment the symbiotic behaviour and metabolic balance that are characteristic of the natural environment.” – John Frazer AN INTRO TO SYSTEMS
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Just about everything – including our built environment – can be described as systems. I won’t dwell for very long on defining what a system is; instead, my interests lie in elaborating on what it enables us to do. A system basically consists of a set of components that are finite over the time span being evaluated. These components are related to each other in a specific way such that the components “communicate” or otherwise interact with each other. The sum of these interactions enables the system to work towards a certain goal or produce a certain outcome. The real value of systems to us is not that they actually exist. System theory is a mental construct, not unlike mathematics, that renders the objects and environments around us as intelligible. By breaking down a subject into discrete parts with specific functions and linkages with one another, it becomes something that we can understand. Suddenly, even the most complex assemblies of parts can be understood, modified, or even predicted through this way of looking at our world. There is actually a name for this study of systems in the most general sense: we call it cybernetics – more on that later.
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FROM HIERARCHIES TO NETWORKS Over the past century, scientific discoveries and technological advances have had at least one major consequence with regard to system theory – a shift in the way all of disciplines construct systems. Quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of relativity had revealed the fundamental indeterminacy of our world at sub-atomic scales and extreme speeds. Parallel to (if not because of) these discoveries, all of the various professions moved away from top-down, hierarchical models of the world to more ecological, network-like models. It would easily take an entire book to give this statement the full justification it deserves (Sanford
Kwinter’s Architectures of Time would be a good place for designers to start), but a few examples would perhaps illustrate my point. Take literature, for example. T.S. Eliot’s most famous poem, “The Waste Land”, is not a single, cohesive narrative but a network narrative. The voice of the narrator passes seamlessly between a host of subjects and observers in a way that reveals to us that our interface with the world has been shattered into fragments by modern times. Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” and the various writings of George Orwell criticize hierarchical models of society, particularly bureaucracy, as being de-humanizing. In music, composers moved away from the formulaic models of Late Romanticism for structure and tonality to alternate systems, as evidenced in part by Arnold Schoenberg’s “dodecaphonic method” and the atonality and “graphic scores” of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Thanks to Darwin, the field of biology had already begun to undergo changes in moving towards a theory of species and ecosystems that are in symbiotic interdependence with one another and can undergo systemic processes such as mutation, selection, and hybridization. This was further enhanced by the study of genetics and the notion that all of the information needed to describe any living organism ultimately boils down to a sequence of various combinations of four amino acids. And in structural engineering (a little closer to home), Buckminster Fuller’s “tensegrity domes” demonstrated the material efficiency of allowing forces to be shared by all of the parts of a system as equally as possible. In heuristics and psychology, Marvin Minsky’s Society of Mind and other writings revealed that our thoughts and actions were not just one-off operations, but the sum of all the interactions between various mental “agents”. All of these examples move away from rigid, Newtonian descriptions of systems and more towards fluid, “system ecology” descriptions, and all of these disciplines concerned themselves in some way or manner with the issues of encompassed by the study of cybernetics. So, what does cybernetics have to do with architecture? Well, our built environment is a system as well, and so it is subject to analysis using cybernetics as a descriptor. A (VERY) BRIEF BACKGROUND ON CYBERNETICS IN ARCHITECTURE Well, let’s start right after the end of WWII, when the profession of cybernetics was still relatively young but already being asked to solve a huge problem. The vast majority of architectural practitioners and theoreticians were faced with the issue of how to rebuild for millions of people after the war -- and very quickly. Well before and during the war, architecture had already begun to look to surrounding disciplines for addressing the issue of mass production. The main praxis that seemed to work for other disciplines was to create systems of standardized parts that could be easily assembled into wholes. Architecture, then, followed suit. The next question was, “Well, what sort of users are we making these standardized components for?” Are they tall or short? How much do they weigh?
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At what height do they like their desks and tables? Do they want lots of natural daylight in their bedrooms, and if so at what time? As an answer to this question, the two dominant models of post-WWII construction -- Levittown in the US and the Unite in Europe -- not only involved systems of standardized parts but also a model of a perfectly average user, a “normative body.” This was not an entirely new issue. Artists and architects from the time of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” have attempted to discover a mathematically harmonious system of proportions for the human body. The current task for the profession only added more gasoline to the proverbial fire. There were those such as Le Corbusier with his “Modulor” system who sought to decipher the human figure in terms of a cascading series of Golden Ratios. Others, such as Ernst Neufert of Bauhaus provenance, looked to alternative geometric systems. Still, others sought to arrive at “correct” dimensions through countless, tedious anthropometric measurements. Still, all of this was undertaken in an attempt to anticipate the needs of an unknown client whose individual dimensions and preferences could easily deviate from this normative model. However, the architect-cyberneticians regarded the notion of a “normative body” as nothing more than a myth. To them, it was impossible to arrive at a set of perfectly average anthropometric proportions, let alone to use those measurements alone to somehow predict the needs of a future user. Still the problem remained: everyone knew that an architect simply could not meet with all the future users of a large development before design and construction began, as in times past. But without some given information, how could an architect anticipate an occupant’s future needs with any specificity at all? Of the early cyberneticists, Yona Friedman seems to have espoused the most comprehensive theory on the subject of cybernetics relative to architecture. In his book Towards a Scientific Architecture, Friedman sets up a precise language for describing spaces, their connections, and their equipment as part of his concept of a “Ville Spatiale” (Spatial City). Friedman’s solution was that the new role of the architect would not be to design buildings so much as to design frameworks and repertoires of components. Using a hypothetical computer interface Friedman referred to as a “Flatwriter”, future occupants would then be able to design their own spaces based on the repertoire of components and within the regulatory framework that the architect has established. Thus the traditional role of the designer has changed from designing forms to designing artificial “ecologies.” Other architects that followed, from his contemporaries such as Buckminister Fuller, Cedric Price, Archigram, the Metabolist School, Nicholas Negroponte, through today’s practitioners such as Tristan d’Estee Sterk, Kostas Terzidis, and others have adopted some piece or version of this theory. CYBERNETICS FOR DOWNTOWN MONTGOMERY The issues that a cybernetic approach to architecture has to face today have become even more complex. Repairing our urban fabric in the wake of modernism’s unintended consequences, the ever-loudening call for all forms of produc-
tion and inhabitation to become sustainable, and the explosion of information technology over the last two decades are some of the issues that have changed our outlook on the natural and built environments. So having said all of this, can a cybernetic way of thinking be used to solve the problems with civic space (or lack thereof) in the downtown area of Montgomery, AL? A visit to the capital city, particularly near the riverfront where civic vibrancy should be at its peak, makes it all too clear that something is not quite right. Vast expanses of space on prime riverfront property are left unused or underused, storefronts sit empty, crime rates are three times that of the average city of its size. One site in particular summarizes these problems; an area on axis with historic Commerce St. up to the bank of the Alabama River, would be poised to become the gateway to the city’s riverfront and a new public forum. But there is an obstacle: the city’s freight railway, while still operational and useful, bottlenecks public access to the riverfront to only a tunnel and a bridge. Still, the one of these bottlenecks -- the tunnel -- is on this particular site. In addition, a recent masterplan has brought about an amphitheatre with a panoramic view of the river nearby on the other side. It would seem that all of the right ingredients for the making of a vibrant public space are present. Still, few visitors wandering about the downtown area may even recognize that Montgomery even has a riverfront, let alone that the tunnel to the river is even there, and no wonder. The view of what would be the riverfront is nothing more than trees and cars – a terminus to a grand procession from the State Capital and Court Square that would evoke raucous bathos if its effects weren’t so painful. And the amphitheatre, on most occasions, remains rather empty. Montgomery once had a vibrant civic center at the other end of Commerce St. in the form of Court Square. Literally at the “knuckle” between commerce rolling up from the riverfront and public policy rolling down from the state capitol, Court Square once served as a hub for trade and conversations around the water fountain. In fact, there is literally a water fountain in the middle of the square. And in a city with the antithetical histories as both former seat of the Confederacy and witness/participant for some of the most important events in the civil rights movement, Court Square in Montgomery was once a hub of activity of national significance as well. So, how did things get to this point? If the problem of re-establishing civic space were easy, it would have long since been done. Perhaps a reading of the site and surrounding area through the lens of cybernetics will illuminate a solution to the problem. OVER-OPTIMIZED SPACE Our cities can be described as systems, with each building and neighborhood working together to create space that humans would want to inhabit. Resi-
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dential, commercial, recreation, public services, transportation, and various other usage types are components that all have a role to play in the functioning of a successful city. But like any other system, as cities become more diverse, hierarchical models become more cumbersome. All of the information that governs the activities of all the other components has to be fed through a few conduits that become increasingly strained. This can eventually lead to a breakdown of the system if left unresolved. On the other hand, we see that network models are much more stable and robust when dealing with numerous and diverse components: we see such models emerge all the time in both natural and man-made systems, whether they be the great Roman and Ottoman Empires of the past, world economies, the ecosystem as a whole, or even the tiny neurons within our brains.
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However, the city of Montgomery is a system that still operates according to a hierarchical model. It is a system where surplus of commercial space and efficiency of parking are two parameters that govern the quantity and functionality of everything else in the city. Looking at a birds-eye photograph of the area around the terminus of Commerce St. makes the results of this situation pretty clear: tons of parking garages and lots that are largely empty on most days – completely wasted space. The problem is not just that there is an excess of parking. In theory, a network approach to cities is fairly robust and would be able to “absorb” or otherwise work around these anomalies. The problem is that the parking has been value-engineered to death – it has been built as cheaply as possible to serve the function of parking and only the function of parking. As a result, it would take a tremendous amount of effort to renovate the parking to accommodate other functions, such as perhaps commercial or residential space. The same applies for the empty commercial space that can be found in abundance in downtown Montgomery: the floor configurations, egress, and other parameters have been specified in such a way that it becomes difficult and expensive to meet the needs of other functions. In general, space in Montgomery has been over-optimized to serve specific functions. The solution to this problem lies in creating spaces that are less optimized, more improvised. IMPROVISED SPACE AND THE URBAN PORCH Montgomery needs spaces in which the function can be improvised by its users for the needs of the moment, almost in the same way that a musician can improvise melody variations on the spot while playing a jazz standard. The function of improvised space becomes less important, almost irrelevant. It actually turns out that the most permanent and memorable spaces of all are the ones that fit this description of improvised space, the ones that transcend the original function for which they were designed – or had no specific function in the first place. Is the Pantheon still used for its original function, or the Hagia Sophia? What about the Piazza San Marco in Venice? Spaces that have lasted as long as these
have had numerous strange lives the original architect may never have intended. Using function as a determinant for useful architectural space can’t be the issue that we’re really looking for; there must be some function that goes beyond, well, function. There is actually some precedent to this type of space that is specific to the South, and may provide a starting point for the form that such improvised space should take: the porch. It is hard to imagine any authentic Southern house without conjuring up images of people sitting on the front porch in the midst of a lively conversation on a Saturday afternoon, saying “hi” to the neighbor that occasionally passes by, each with their ice-cool glass of sweet tea. The porch does a lot of things; it serves as a transition space for entering the home, a space for sitting and enjoying the weather on more pleasant days, a space to view the activity on the street, and a space to be viewed from the street. But, in the end, the users can make the space function as whatever they please. It would seem that what Montgomery needs is a scaled-up version of one of these porches, an “urban porch” for the downtown area. DESIGN INTENTIONS In order to have an impact on downtown Montgomery, the urban porch must tackle at least three issues. First, if the Montgomery is a system, then there is definitely a poor connection between the city and its riverfront at the terminus of Commerce St. – this connection must be mediated and amplified. The urban porch must serve as an “icon” that renders the riverfront and its access point legible from various views within the city. This means that we’re not just talking about an increase in span. We might assume that this “urban porch” -- whatever it is -- must have a part that is relatively tall, which might also serve as a lookout point out onto the river. It also means that we must figure out a way to improve spatial conditions in the tunnel in order to make it seem less, well, dangerous. Next, we must figure how to make the space created by this icon customizable, to empower the user to create his/her personal “micro-environment.” This is what will enable the urban porch to bridge the gap between “big icon” and “personal space” and allow for any function that the user may desire. What if a group of people wanted to create a sunken space along the riverfront for a party? Another larger group may come along and create an improvised theatre with the river as a backdrop. Or maybe an individual may desire a nice place to read. This is where the real architecture comes in. Twentieth century German philosopher Martin Heidegger once said that above all the end goal of architecture is to create spaces that people would want to inhabit, but he also added that the act of constructing such spaces is what makes people feel that the space actually belongs to them. The ability to customize such conditions such as natural and light, privacy, seating, and any other multitude of parameters is what will give the people of Montgomery the sense that this urban porch belongs to them and is truly a part
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of their city. These two goals would be more than enough for creating vibrant civic spaces in the past, but we live in 21st century times in which the virtual world of the Internet, social media and cloud computing pushes back at the real world. We simply don’t experience our natural and built environments the same way we did in the past. Go to the park, and you are all but guaranteed to see a runner listening to her iPod, a twenty-something on his laptop sending messages to his friends on Facebook while simultaneously writing a term paper, a gaggle of junior-high girls texting their other peers from school. We are constantly engaged with our digital devices, and there are some critics that would say that we are missing out on the real world because of this engagement. But instead of just preaching an abstinence-only policy of unplugging from these devices, what if we could somehow use these devices to enhance our interactions with the built environment realtime? We could have “data drops” that are akin to the analog message-in-a-bottle; people can tag points in space with pictures, messages, sounds and other memories for the next random passer-by to discover, add to, and pass along. We could create smartphone apps that enable subscribed users to manipulate their environment within the urban porch and even create a micro-environment that follows them. These are but a couple of examples of how we could create an “augmented reality” by superimposing the digital world upon the real world. In this way we are not only creating a network between the various parts of the physical city, but we are also creating a network between the physical city and the virtual city. The result of this urban porch is civic space that is sustainable, but in a much broader sense. We are not just talking about materials and renewable energy sources, although these may very well have a role to play in the tectonics and operation of the urban porch. The porch is sustainable in that the commodity that is most fundamental to architecture – space – is never wasted. People will always be able to create their own spaces with minimal effort by leveraging the technologies brought about by the computational and smart materials paradigms. And it is this sort of urban porch that downtown Montgomery needs in order to reestablish itself as a hub of civic vitality.
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return 0; Exit main(); } }