Studio02_Barbican_Mason_Design Journal by Mason Mo

Mason Mo

BARBICAN

(i)

BARBICANIA - how to section a film scene

(ii)

CPB TERRACE – imagining a place + sensory urbanism

(iii)

MODEST MUSEUM – a manifesto for modest museums

(iv)

BARBICAN – forget what you know – the opportunity of ‘unique typologies’

(v)

ABSTRACT DRAWINGS – plan and section as diagrams of composition

(vi)

ITERATIONS ON A PROCESS – the ‘archaeology of the mind’

(vii)

ONE TO TEN – the detail and consequence of spatial occupation

Barbicania- how to section a film scene ‘Yes, we call it a VORTEX ha hahah ah It’s very unusual. If you cross the street and go about 100 yards away and stand there in a windy day, you can see things being blown up like this and down like this. This corner is particularly windy in the Barbican, people literally being blown over by the wind. Sometimes you just see leaves circulating, for weeks and months. No one can catch them or take them away, cuz they just circle, they get up to 20 floors and they come down again. It’s probably to do with the Balconies, the way they were designed.’ The guy from the record shop, Barbicania(2014)

Vortex, or the plastic bag in American Beauty? When picking a scene from the film, I was originally going to choose the one of the Barbican theatre, all the backstage fascinates me. However, a delicate detail drawing points me to something more intimate and smaller, yet relevant to the idea of a stage. It reminds me a famous scene in [American Beauty], 2 minutes of a recording of a plastic bag flying with the wind. Something is floating across from us… it’s an empty, wrinkled, white PLASTIC BAG. We follow it as the wind carries it in a circle around us, sometimes whipping it about violently, or, without warning, sending it soaring skyward, then letting it float gracefully down to the ground… It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it, right? And this bag was like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and … this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid. Ever. American Beauty (1999), Alan Ball

The Vortex The film [Barbicanian] documents the idiosyncrasies of the estate. Certainly the architecture of it presents a strong Brutalist character, but it appears more intriguing when it is a background for phenomena. As a backdrop of the scene ‘Vortex’ where leaves circulates in front of a music shop, the role of a piece of architecture is worth rethinking.

leaves embedded in the transparency in that soft threshold. ‘It is what it is.’ The challenge is to visually document the intangibles, the ephemeral. Added to that is without the use of symbols. It brought me to the decision of making an exaggeration on the wind blowing leaves.

Right in front of a music shop, there is this perfect stage for a stunt performance of the wind.

As part of the narrative devices, text appears in the drawing as an ‘indoor vortex’. It captures a human perception of the natural phenomena and the acceptance of it as part of the Barbicanian life.

Although they appear to be choreographed, dancing through the threshold.

The occupation of wind leaves a trace of leaves, unrehearsed, out of reach. Take account in the phenomenological events. Accept and embrace the fact To section a film scene. The act that architecture is supposed to be of drawing help understand and a stage, staging the present, staging processing the physical existing and everyday life. the story. Coming from a realistic rendering I believe a section is the most background, the obsession on intimate and emotional one out of all imperfection continues in this line orthographic drawings. It is the closest drawing exercise. There are no straight to human experience of space and an lines, sharp corners, smooth surfaces imagination of the space behind the in reality. It is worth portraying the wall. Section is a way of observing trace of time and the mark of crafting/ life. Making a slice into a normal life building in the drawing. may reveal unexpected connections between spaces. For instance a section As this is an intimate scale and an through the longitudinal axis of the intimate drawing type, a more intuitive music shop and the foyer reveals the way of producing the drawing was way of natural phenomena sneaking used. Instead of CAD drawings from into a built area. It triggers the thinking 3d modeling software, I preferred of that thin layer of wall/curtain glass hand drawing. Drawing each wiggly between the inside and outside. The line of the ‘Barbican’ surface feel like acceptance of human to the blown touching the wall with my hand.

CPB Terrace – imagining a place + sensory urbanism If you like a poem, you recite it. If you like a song, you sing it. If you like an architecture, you draw it. The ground and water garden of the Barbican may appear sinply as lines, rectangles and half circles in traditional drawings. But if you dive deeper, put your heart into the imagination of every senses, that tiny area of ground is so rich, there are just too much to be drawn in one image. Look for traces. Imaginary site, based on the real Barbican Estate by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon.

I draw, and I start having questions. How does it smell, that pool of water? At night I can’t see what’s going on in those high reeds But I guess the insects inside just never sleep? IMAGE OF YOUR PROJECT GOES IN THIS BOX

Imaginary CPB Terrace The more I draw it, the more touched I me up to careful consideration of each get from the site. placement of the elements. Letting myself to become part of the drawing Despite all the high tech/advance felt great, sometimes like a meditative parametric softwares I mastered, experience. I choose to approach this task in a manual way. I want to feel it, and the There is limited elements to draw computer cannot get in my way. if focusing only on the visuals. The ‘forensic’ investigation into the site Every floating lotus, every fallen should include other senses. As in leaves, every brick laid, every pigeon Pallasmaas writing, the tectonic logic or duck or the feces they leave, I draw and a sense of materiality and empathy it by hand. The minimum use of assets can be triggered through the act of like hatches and CAD blocks opens drawing. 12

London does snow, right? What is it like walking on it? I didn’t grow up in a city of snow. snow in Barbican, kinda perfect match. Dappled light, dappled snow laying softly on the ground of bricks Is there a people cleaning up the spider webs at the corner? or maybe that’s part of the architecture. maybe the leaves they are suspending is some sort of a performance Duck A: ‘you smell that?’ Duck B: ‘what, you mean that stinky air?’ Duck C: ‘I can’t care less as long as those walking creatures feeding us bread crumbs. 13

Sensory Urbanism - Air of the City ‘As a concentration of activities and people, the contemporary city also comprises a concentration of odours. ‘ Sense of the City-An Alternate Approach to Urbanism(Ed:Mirko Zardini)

Using a worm’s eye view to reveal imagination of the source of the smell from the water garden. Air is not empty, it contains scents, water moistures. It usually gives the first impression of a space. 1 hour quick sketch

Modest Museum– a manifesto for modest museums Museum repatriation, decolonizing museum, modest museum. While modern museums are usually white boxes, all sorts of cover-ups and careful curations, there might be a chance to invert the typology. Departing from Sophie Calle’s work and her attitude to art, a lot of inversions thinking were brewing in my mind. ref: ‘Did You See me’ by Sophie Calle

Some thoughts about the relationship between the museum and the exhibited: (A Quote from)Tom Postma: ‘Each design results from the starting point that the architecture should never compete with the art --it’s always about giving the floor to art.’ What if architecture does supposed to compete with the art? What if the art needs to prove itself to be part of the residence in a piece of architecture.’ The architecture of the Barbican has a strong characteristic. Even putting an artwork right in the middle of the estate might create a strong effect of the two auras collapsing together, that can be truly something. For instance the petting zoo by Minimaforms, all about bodies, intelligence and machines, being hung right in the middle of this concrete fortress.

the architecture of a Museum today is humble, maybe so humble that I doubt if there is still any trace of a building, but just enclosed boxes covered up, serving the exhibited items. A museum can be all about the context, a museum without an exhibition inside, no displayed objects whatsoever. the rest of the quote also talks about taking out the architects’ ego out of things. Tom’s career transitions form art to architect in terms of scale gradually. there is always a tension between the space and the work. In a sense there is also a subjective perception of it as well.’

Petting Zoo(2014) by MinimaForm.

What if? What if the exhibited are not confined by the space. Can phenomena be exhibited? What about showing museum as a backstage? If it is not the individual items, but the collection of them that matters, could a museum be a taxonomy of things? What if the exhibited item can overlap with each other to create new result at this very place, locally?

Museum of My Mind _ A Manifesto I appreciate a studio environment, not much about collaboration to work towards a same goal, or reaching a singular outcome, but instead the diverse thinkings. The other students are showing the things I push myself not to do. That desire for uniqueness has led me to the fundamentals of a museum, and that’s where the inversions coming. Once there’s a tutor said to me ‘ if you read enough books, you can see your ideas always being raised by someone else before, somewhere else, something

of the same sorts.’ If I subvert the typology of a museum, then how is it still a museum? Is the new proposal just unprecedented, or it barely functions as a museum?

Can a museum exhibit the process instead of the result? Empty architecture? Architecture not submissive to the artwork? Don’t just look in, look out? Or even, don’t look.

Synecdoche, New York(2008) by Charlie Kaufman.

Barbican – forget what you know - the opportunity of ‘unique typologies’ A museum of the Barbican, not just a museum in the Barbican. If the estate and the life in it is the stage, a museum is a backstage. Pulling up and up the drapes, positioning the reflectors and diffusers, to put up a show. Museum is no longer about authenticity, or legibility, it returns to a state of chaos, to everything, not subdued. Free the typology from being a servant, turn it into a valuable asset, an instrument with its own idiosyncrasy. A kaleidoscope.

The idea of a backstage starts building up, from a literal translation of the theatrical devices, curtains defining the fuzzy buffer zone in the periphery. Inside the building, some remnants of the classical museum typology, an atrium, and a shoebox storage.

Moments through a series of sections are how people perceive and understand a architecture. However, this moment is more about getting lost, surrounded by a myriad of objects, being neutralized. This is to be articulated in the overall organization.

Initial response to the brief

Detail Section 1:10

The ‘Vortex’ continues to swirl... From a diagram to a building, the idea of layering spaces is applied to both plan and section. People are just like the leaves in the first chapter, being pulled in, being blown up, traveling restlessly amongst a field of blinds.

They allow surprise to occur, allow modifications, allow a soft transition from outside to inside. To exhibit the movements, the momentum of circulating ceaselessly .

Moments of the Barbicanian life To let go, to go with the wind, to be outside flicker and collapse. part of the flow. Chaos emerges from order, the No more artwork on the wall, artwork exhibited is no long imprisoned, the is the wall. building is no longer a servant.

‘Perhaps because that was where he kissed his first girlfriend or whatever....’ ‘Craft and graft, process and interests, you’ve got no idea what she’s up to But instruments and tools.’ then --yes, you do see something!’ ‘[Between Composure and Seduction]. It has to do with the way architecture involves movement, a spatial art, a temporal art, like music.’

‘Or the reverse, Edward Hopper’s [Early Sunday Morning], with the woman sititng in a room, looking out of a window at the town.’

‘Interiors are like large instruments, collecting sound, amplifying it, transmitting it elsewhere... surface and materials.

‘imagine a certain building being remembered by some one in 25 years time. Perhaps because that was where he kissed his first girlfriend or whatever.’

‘Think of [Rear Window] by Alfred Hitchcock. Life in a window observed from without. You can see this woman in a lit window wearing a red dree, and

Excerpts from ‘Atmosphere’ (Peter Zumthor)

Abstract Drawings – plan and section as diagrams of composition Design through drawing. It is interesting that the act of drafting a design drawing is not one way, but the drawing can talk us back. A succinct design should be able to be abstracted into a diagram, reverse engineering that process would be a translation from a simple idea to the plan and section.

DRAWN TO DESIGN Pallasmaa suggests that drawing should communicate intentions, whether prosaic or poetic. It is not neutral. Personality of the drawer is imprinted in the drawing. In a diagrammatic level, demarcating profane and sacred was explored through centrality in plan. Spaces radiants out from a singular center, circulating around the differentiated space. The gradation in plan appears in variations on the same motif, varying sizes, extent of order, and later in elevation profile as well as relating materials. The hierarchical relationship can also be articulated through movement. ORCHESTRATING SEQUENCE Movement is sequence to be orchestrated. To provoke mood, to highlight expectation and support a ritual. Through orchestrating movements, architecture can be more than functional. In this diagram space follows circulation instead of the other way around. With niches along the journey to create surprises and destinations.

Diagram-Drawing Translation The challenge of that translation is not being too literal yet powerful enough to be perceived right through drawings. In the case of this design development, it is a balance between pattern making and actual architecture design(i.e composition) .

with parametric power in repetition efficiency and surprises.

In pursue of compositional consistency and self-referential qualities, early test on using the same design language on both plan and section results in awkward result, yet interesting. From a parametric background and It brings along a process of post perspective, it is the logic behind justification for pattern makings. the process that matters. Balancing repetition and variation. Most of the Semi-circle applied in plan generates time a computational design neglects intriguing spatial conditions. But the emotional input of human. Because it becomes colliding space after it is hard to measure in numeric ways. combining with semi-circles in section. One thing to explore in this process is a manual input of variation in assistance

ENTERING THE BUILDING The very first interface and experience to a building at the moment of enter can be explored through diagram. In a context of museology, the point of entry can be a neutralizing zone. Zone means the threshold is spatial instead of flat. MOVING THROUGH LAYERS Previously ‘moving through sections’ was mentioned. A section can show a collage of spaces, in this case, layers. The beauty of layers manifests through transparency, when space overlaps/ intersects where the junction creates surprises.

Iterations on a Process – the ‘archaeology of the mind’ An architectural journey starts with giving up on perfection at the beginning, but working towards it. Instead of thorough thinking before every step, every decision making, before making drawings The short time frame of such studio encourages an iterative process to the best. No matter how immature the idea is, the process of drawing should be started, to acquire a momentum, a flow of iterating. This is also a challenge of self-referential and self-reflective exercise. Every iteration progresses from its predecessor.

ESTABLISHING AND BREAKING ORDER

THEN

A grid is used earlier for plan composition, which certainly aids the layout process and adds rationality in structural and constructional terms. However, it establishes order, in a negative way countering the design intention of playfulness in music. It needs to be liberated. Moreover, neither should the design be confined by the motif. The strict order is watered down through elevation treatments. The semi-circle motif can still be operated in a finer resolution. Functionally small concaves on surface can diffuse sound. ‘YOU CANNOT HAVE POETRY WITHOUT BANALITY’ Early attempt on design was suffused with one motif, the curvy language. It is both exciting and giddy. Ubiquitous curve lines makes the space unsettling and the curve will gradually become imperceivable since its normality in a very condensed space. The ‘flamboyant’ element will only be a surprise with a backdrop of normality. In this term, straight lines, common walls. Only approaching plan in an additive method may result in banality as well, when architecture only appear as a loose collection of objects. Negative and inefficient spaces results from that. To counteract, subtractive methods can be considered, where excitement can be carved out from banality, curve scooped from straight lines.

One to Ten – the detail and consequence of spatial occupation This is a piece of architecture without rooms, space are no longer defined and isolated by walls, but objects. A field of objects coexist in one big open space. Therefore, it is the detail of the objects themselves that determines the experience of spaces. Rail fitting, hung fabric, metal plates, balustrades, strings and cables, they are not supplementary part to the building, they are the building. Imperfections, traces of time, idiosyncrasies, eccentricities, these are back from the very beginning of this journey. The experience and joy of drawing this is far more exciting than making realistic renders. The playfulness and space of imaginations remains.

CAN WE EMPOWER PEOPLE DRAWING HUMAN FIGURES TO PARTICIPATE IN SPACE MAKING The best way to show human habitation and occupation is to draw An acoustic space is different from a actual people. Drawing figures and visual space. It exists as a long range entourages specific to the design can perception. Light sculpts space, while be a meditative process, to express the sound adds to space. quality of a space without using words or symbols. Through a simple revolving panel, or sliding curtain, the changes in visual might be unobtrusive, the effect MORE THAN HUMAN on sound condition might change dramatically. In this way people can However, this is not a show that is not simply change a space condition. complete without the participation of human, the building itself situating at The maxim of ‘the only constant is the corner of the CPB Terrace is a piece change’ is a kind of paradox with of instrument itself. It register the which architects continue to struggle. surrounding sounds, it amplifies the drop of rains through membranes and How can architecture, being inherently roof glasses of different thicknesses. permanent, also change? How can a building or a room adapt quickly(or slowly) and dramatically (or subtly) , avoiding to become a ‘multiuse’ space that serves no one function well?

Hearing and Touching

What changes and what stays the same?

Under the discussion of phenomenology in architecture, sensual experience of a building is achieved through details. Even in the detailing the motif of semi-circle can still stand its place. Pattern operating in a very small scale resonates the concept of fractal.

forces one to envision a more lucid interaction with all the interfaces. Evaluate through senses, through time.

From suppositions to propositions, detail drawing should appear more than just graphics, but an assemblage system registering time, a constructed assemblage. The process of drawing

‘a soft space’ ‘a crisp space’ ‘a space where you can hear drums rumbling’ et cetera

Do the changes occur in one way or many?

A space to be read and understood through touch and hearing where the description of one might be: