2015 08 31 thin 00

PUSH PLANAR

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RACHEL MEI-LAN TAN

PUSH PLANAR WEEK 00 20/08/2015

05 INTRO 06 HOW HUMAN EXPANSION HAS CHANGED THE FACE OF THE EARTH 10 HAVING A GREAT UNDERSTANDING OF ADEQUACY 28 EVOLUTION TOWARDS LIGHTWEIGHT CONSTRUCTION 32 VOLUMES APPROACHING SURFACE 38 ADJACENCY 42 THINNING & THICKENING 46 POPULATING IN BETWEEN THE IN BETWEEN 51 SAO PAULO - BRASIL 56 VERTICAL NET OF INFRASTRUCTURE 58 LIGHTER URBANISM, PERMANENCE OF A CITY

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I can remember a very pleasant and probably unique spectacle I saw when I was young. In the region of Neuchatel, a whole mountain was covered with dwellings, each of them being the centre of the grounds and fields that belonged to it. The distance between the houses, being equal to the owners’ fortune, offered the many inhabitants of this mountain the necessary space for meditation and contemplation, and at the same time for the kindness of human society.

These farmers carefully cultivated products they would use themselves and employed their leisure time to craft objects of their own invention.

Especially in wintertime, when the snow prevented easy communication, they enjoyed the warmth with their large families in the beautiful and clean wooden houses they built themselves.

Such utopias consider the needs of individuals before those of the community, and in them moral consideration take precedence over political ones. The society is intended to be peaceful and quiet, stable, simple and humble, relying on principles of total independence and equality.

Therefore, each household is totally self-sufficient and no architects or craftsmen are needed.

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LETTRES A MONSIEUR D’ALEMBERT : JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU, 1872

Technology & material are evolving. Luckily enough we are having a crisis, which is the best thing that can happen to everyone, once in a while. There are clear boundaries to the available materials that form our built environment, which poses a question..

THIN ICE : CANADA

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How long can we go on hoisting raw materials from its depths -- in fact we passed the peak of oil production already. The ‘new frontiers’ of a future lie within what exists: although we know what is available, we most likely don’t know what the multitude of things we can do with it are.

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COPPER MINE : SOUTH AFRICA

DEFORESTATION : SAMUEL DAM, BRAZIL 1984

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DEFORESTATION : SAMUEL DAM, BRAZIL 2013

“HAVING A GREAT UNDERSTANDING OF ADEQUACY” MIES VAN DER ROHE

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COLLAGE : COPPER MINE : DILLON MARSH, SOUTH AFRICA 2014

ON THE OTHER HAND IT MEANS THAT SMARTNESS ECONOMY & ADEQUACY _

WILL BECOME THE KEY WORDS IN FINDING A RESOLUTION

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THIS CALLS FOR A REDUCTION IN ELEMENTS & LIGHTWEIGHT CONSTRUCTION WHICH IS EVERYTHING THAT MINIMIZES BUILDING MATERIAL

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IN-ADEQUACY

DROUGHT : SHADE BALLS, LOS ANGELES RESERVOIR 2015

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OVER ADEQUACY

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FLOODING : HURRICANE KATRINA 2013

IN-ADEQUACY

DEFORESTATION : CLEAR CUT, BRITISH COLUMBIA 2011

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OVER ADEQUACY

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TIMBER ORNAMENT : SIZE + MATTER, DAVID ADJAYE 2008

IN-ADEQUACY

EARTHQUAKE : LANDSLIDE : EL SALVADOR 2001

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OVER ADEQUACY

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MORTUARY OF QUEEN HATSHEPSUT TEMPLE : EGYPT, 1473 B.C.

IN-ADEQUACY

EARTHQUAKE : KASHMIR, 2005

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OVER ADEQUACY

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COLLAGE : KAABA, MECCA - CENOTAPH FOR SIR ISAAC NEWTON, UNREALIZED - PYRAMIDS, GIZA

OVER ADEQUACY

IRON : EIFFEL TOWER : ALEXANDRE GUSTAVE EIFFEL, 1889

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ADEQUACY: EQUILIBRIUM : NETWORK

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“FEATHER” STEEL : CASABELLA : FREI OTTO 1966

ADEQUACY : EQUILIBRIUM : TWO ELEMENTS

PROP : RICHARD SERRA, 1968

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ADEQUACY: EQUILIBRIUM : MULTIPLE ELEMENTS

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UNKNOWN

ADEQUACY: EQUILIBRIUM : SINGLE ELEMENT + GRAVITY

ICE CHIMNEY : AUSTRIA

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ADEQUACY : EQUILIBRIUM : SINGULAR ELEMENT

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TILTED ARC : RICHARD SERRA, NEW YORK, 1981-1989

There is an evolution from the intuitive sense of building solid structures and massive walls: which is to develop an architecture that pushes the thinness to its limit (becoming a limit) and, therefore, producing a tectonic of efficiency.

TRAVERTINE : THE PYRAMID OF CESTIUS : PYRANESI 1750-1758

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Elements become ambiguous: surface becomes structure, structure becomes void, space exists and is inhabited wherever it can be.

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CLEAR NYLON : ON SPACE TIME FOAM : TOMAS SARACENO, MILAN 2013

STONE MASONRY : SINCE 8,000 B.C.

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POST TENSIONED STEEL : JUNYA ISHIGAMI, 2008

THE IDEA WOULD BE A TRULY PLANAR ARCHITECTURE -

THAT IS AT ONCE VOLUME & APPROACHING SURFACE -

IT EXISTS IN ONE DIMENSION BUT IS INVISIBLE IN ANOTHER -

AND HOW CAN IT STRUCTURALLY SUPPORT ITSELF?

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RUNNING FENCE : CHRISTO & JEANNE-CLAUDE, SONOMA, 1972-1976

INSIDE - OUTSIDE

TORQUED ELLIPSES : RICHARD SERRA, 1996

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SAN CARLO ALLE QUATTRO FONTANE : BORROMINI, ROME 1641

GRAVITY : HOW TO KEEP IT UP

SOLAR BELL : TOMAS SARACENO, ROTTERDAM, IN PLANNING

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EAST-WEST/WEST-EAST : RICHARD SERRA, DOHA, QATAR 2014

A reciprocal strategy at a more urban scale: as the architecture approaches “planarity,” the lines and limits, border and boundaries of a city are thickened, sometimes conceptually, sometimes physically, at times both. This thickening of the line produces a possible site for a thinning architecture: A discovery of in-between, between in-betweens, etc.

REALITY PROPERTIES: FAKE ESTATES, LITTLE ALLEY BLOCK : GORDON MATTA-CLARK, NEW YORK 1974

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This suggests an urban morphology that is not based on centers and networks, but on pure adjacency and the blur of inside and outside-which are the ultimate constructs of architecture.

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NEW BABYLON : CONSTANT NIEUWENHUYS 1959-1974 DIAGRAM : NOLLI VS. PIRANESI

ADJACENCY

COLLAGED OVER DIAGRAM : UNTITLED : DONALD JUDD 1982

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ASSORTED FACADES : NEW YORK

THESE TWO POSSIBILITIES OF THINNING & THICKENING BETWEEN IN_BETWEENS

PUSHING TOWARDS A VOLUMETRIC PLANARITY -

BECOME A TANDEM OPERATION STRATEGY _

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CLOUD ALLEY : SGHS, CHANGSIN DONG, SOUTH KOREA 2015

BETWEEN IN-BETWEENS

TIBETAN BRIDGE : PIEDMONT, ITALY

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TEAM ZOO COMMUNITY BUILDING : KOICHI OTAKE, CHINSHUKAN 1981

THE LIMIT THINS THE ARCHITECTURE -

AND THE ARCHITECTURE -

POPULATES, RENDERS & THICKENS THE LIMIT

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IT OPERATES AT BOTH THE SCALE OF CITY BUILDING & THE INDIVIDUAL SIMULTANEOUSLY -

BUT TO AN EXTREME MINIMUM _

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IN-PROGRESS COCOON BUILDING : SILK WORM

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COCOON : SILK WORM

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PLAYTHINGS : BRIDGES

Sao Paulo, Brazil is a city that makes bold developments a reality. These neighborhoods are very dense, entirely organic, have meandering road networks, and interspersed node activity.

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL 2010

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SAO PAULO, BRAZIL 2010

The city makes a case against massive development, which forces universal order and prohibits organic growth. Should all existing fabric be permanent or exchanged or replaced independently of each other?

EDIFICIO BUILDING : PRINT BY ALEXANDER GURSKY, ARCHITECT - OSCAR NIEMEYER, SAO PAULO 1966

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NERVOUS SYSTEM

POWER SYSTEM

ELECTRO SYSTEM

“The corridor of nature” according to Ungers “is supposed to be large enough to house an extensive road network, which connects the archipelagos, next to supermarkets, drive in cinemas, drive in banks”

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CITY METAPHORS : OM UNGERS 1982

VERTICAL HABITATION - HORIZONTAL EXPANSION

VERTICAL SLUMS : CARACAS, VENEZUELA 2012

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HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL HABITATION - HORIZONTAL EXPANSION

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HILL SITED FAVELAS : SAO PAULO 2009

INCUBATE - NOURISH

Can we imagine a lighter urbanism that questions the permanence of a town or city? To figure out the formula of a city / community ? The program is community, not community center, with a density of small spaces, large spaces, nourishment, retail, waste processing, and education etc. Now that we can do everything, can we make a case for almost doing nothing ?

CHRISTO AND JEANNE CLAUDE : WRAPPED COAST, ONE MILLION SQUARE FEET, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1968

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TEMPORALITY

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CHRISTO AND JEANNE CLAUDE : WRAPPED COAST, ONE MILLION SQUARE FEET, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA + 10 MONTHS

IN - ADEQUACY + OVER ADEQUACY : EXPIRED LIFESPAN 3 YEARS

.4 M WIDE 20 M2 BUILDING : HAINAN ISLAND 2010

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.4 M WIDE 20 M2 BUILDING : HAINAN ISLAND 2010 + 3 HOURS

This thesis will focus on structure as a driver to explore existing materials that can be used for building. Thin structures will be produced to nurture a community and provide it the ‘essentials’ through vertical infrastructure. This might include but not be limited to water, waste systems, markets, and power. Temporality and change of the lifespan of the structure will be respected in regards to what is adequate to rehabilitate the given community, and to provide a base for future development.

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I am interested in the development of an architecture according to the parallel strategies of being grounded in the “PRIMITIVE� values of wholeness, distillation of language and form, and being shaped by a constructional and structural exactitude.

To innovate in modern architecture therefore depends upon the technologies available, collaborations, new knowledge, and trial & error.

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ALTERNATE SITES CONSIDERED BEACH TOURISM URBAN EXODUS USER POPULATION DEFINED DENSITY/FLOW VS. ACTUAL STRUCTURE GARDEN CITIES HAWAII NATURE BASED TOURISM GEOGRAPHICAL BORDERS HAITI - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC SHARING AN ISLAND AND INEQUALITY EARTHQUAKE MANAGEMENT JUNGLE + VOODOO CHINA - TIBET SEPARATION OF A REGION UNWANTED ‘RULE’ A CLOSED TERRITORY CALIFORNIA/USA - MEXICO DETAINMENT DESERT CONDITIONS INTERACTION THROUGH ‘SIDE’ BASED ACTIVITY