ADS9 Extended Brief 2019-20 by rca.ads9

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

draw a plan

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

AURA

a call for open architecture

AURA a call for open architecture

The Open is both unbounded and precise. The Open does not mean ‘anything goes’, or a total absence of architectural elements. We have become dependent on walls to give us the ability to negotiate, share and reason with others. The idea of Openness rejects this compulsion to such familiar forms of division, destroys the power of the enclosure and wipes away historical orders. The Open challenges our reliance on architectural categories of type, context, scale, function and style in the conception of space. The Open is beautiful. ADS9 investigates architectures of openness. The studio is concerned with designing spaces that give distinct forms and spatial qualities to modes of co-existence. In previous years, the work focused on spatial organisation, this year we will focus on Aura and use spatial phenomena to construct space. How much physical presence do we need? How do we design Aura as a form of organisation? Or as fields of spatial mediation? How can we cultivate new forms of spatial and social relationships?

Aura Ungraspable, immersive and fleeting. Breathing an immaterial architecture in a single collective gulp. Aura is a form of presence. It is tied to the phenomena of distance – the distance at which we understand presence emanating from objects, environment or people. It is a charged spatial quality that exceeds its subject. It defines the relationship between the subject and its observer, the space and its inhabitants. Aura is not restricted to a singular private experience. The studio imagines aura as an interior world of collective experience and perpetually constructed space, which might bring about a dynamic relational delight.

Carsten Nicolai, ‘syn chron’, 2005. a crystal-shaped body of synchronised play of light and sound for collective assembly

ADS9 envisions an architecture in which the barriers between a vast spectrum of scales, material physicality and spatial phenomena, artificiality and ecological matters, architectural presence and the territorial completely dissipates, producing an immaterial architecture where walls and roofs are made from senses, environment, colours, information, energy and spatial perception. For us, these are unseen materials for the construction of a new architectural language. In previous years, the students were challenged to reconsider our reliance on walls as the main architectural element to define space. While pursuing openness through spatial organisation and abstraction of form, the need to define relationships between space and forms of togetherness became apparent. Such a production of space requires a specific mode of engagement. In this, aura is not exclusive to its subject, nor is it accidental. Aura is incomplete – it exists as a designed dynamic relationship with the bodies of inhabitants it permeates, diffused across a continuously expanding ground. How can spatial phenomena – such as the atmospheric environment – be radicalised to define space? Our design strategy recognises the productive ambiguity of spatial possibilities and generosity of space – to imagine Aura as a constructed milieu for emerging subjectivities.

Emerging Subjectivities

Fortnite World Cup 2019. A large living room for the merging of labour, leisure, competitive sport and consumption.

ADS9 looks at the emerging ways in which we live, work, learn, play and love in the NOW. In particular, the studio is fascinated by the collective forms of co-existence that tend towards openness by constantly redefining lifestyles, traditional kinship ties and values system. In the past, students have investigated: multi-generational neighbourhoods; domesticity and communal kitchens in Cuba; the delicate balance of everyday life in war-torn Somalia; retired sun tribes, whose living are governed by pure leisure in Lanzarote; and the production and consumption of digital idols in a contemporary Warholian Factory. This myriad of alternative means of constructing subjectivities is the context in which our architecture is grounded. What are the socio-economic undercurrents that drive the emergence of these forms of co-existence now? How do we study these worlds reconstructing collective identities, relationships and social organisations? What can we learn from these seemingly unconventional ways of living? How can this help us to reflect on our own daily life and imagine new architectural forms?

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

Yves Klein, ‘Air Architecture’, 1961. Jets of fire as spatial construct.

Architectural conventions typically generate a proliferation of individual insular spaces that each correspond to a single function. This reinforces an assumed exclusivity between categories, from the right to ownership and context, interior and the wider ecology, domesticity and world of work. The distinctions between living, labour and leisure have become increasingly impossible, however, together with deeper questions around the reproductive labour that sustains our physical, mental and affective well-being. Is it suitable – or regressive – that architecture seeks to construct space with a reliance on walls, façades, doors and locks in an era of new emerging forms of living? By contrast, can we imagine the possibility of spaces with an emancipatory character that can cultivate new kinships and intimacy?

How do we experiment and design? ADS9 experiments with large-scale line drawings and models, which are spatial constructs in their own right. It is a highly iterative process that critically questions design. How can we explore new modes of drawings to capture unseen immaterial conditions that define our spaces? In 2019/20, alongside these large–scale models and prototypes, we will also experiment with the use of films and other moving imagery. We will continue to extend our collaboration to work with artists and consultants from within and outside of RCA on material exploration, with a particular focus on experiences and phenomena. For YR1 students, the design project will focus on a multi-storey urban block that fosters emerging ways of living, working, learning, playing and loving. This design will be accompanied by technical experimentation and prototyping. In ADS9, YR2 students have always pursued deeply personal subjects and obsessions in their work. The design project is open to the ambitions of our students. In response, YR2 students will develop their own personal critical framework and design methodology to achieve a high level of architectural resolution.

ADS9 Teaching Staff

John Ng studied architecture at the University of Bath and the AA, where he has taught since 2011. He is also a visiting lecturer at the RCA. He founded ELSEWHERE and practises architecture in London. His work has been shortlisted for, and has won, a number of international competitions. Zsuzsa Péter Zsuzsa Péter graduated with Diploma Honours from the AA in 2018. She has previously work with CRAB studio and Farshid Moussavi Architecture. She is also teaching in Studio Diaz Moreno and Garcia Grinda at the Angewandte in Vienna. James Kwang-Ho Chung is a visiting lecturer at RCA, Intermediate 6 Unit Master at the AA, and an architectural designer for Hopkins. He has lectured and taught at the AA, RCA and Leeds School of Architecture.

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

How do we design an ‘Aura’ of openness? ADS9 has a deep commitment to space and creating architecture that is imbued with an urgent beauty. Space does not simply frame – it is inseparable in how we express, embody and enable knowledge, ideas and life. How can space and its representation capture an immaterial architecture that is spatially indeterminate? What kind of beauty and aura of openness can you imagine?

A Call for Open Architecture Open is not the landscape that is given, but the one, highly artificial, that we can construct for ourselves to inhabit. Open is the space of constant negotiation and active presence – between us, our surroundings and those who we share it with. Open rejects imposed use and rigidly prescribed function – while not undefined but carefully organized, spatial condition do not dictate but only support actions that could happen. Open means new models of the live/work/play – new rituals and ‘axis’ of the everyday. Open wipes away historical orders of power, enclosures – to start anew -To wipe away architectural pre-conceptions – to destroy the house/office/school – destroy the programme - destroy the component (bathroom as typical shower, toilet, sink, vanity etc.) to make way. Open explodes what we know as housing, office etc. – explode the parts – think of how we begin with basic part of living/sleeping/playing etc. (e.g. Sou Fujimoto – the basic functions of life – not the programmes) – these clusters also developed in these histories. Open rejects our own compulsion to nostalgia in all of its forms … and inquire into how our technologies can transform us into completely new, loveable and interesting creatures. … Creatures who talk in a completely new language. Open means redefining room – as no longer something divided and but as little breathing room – “separate part of a building, enclosed by walls, a floor and a ceiling.” Before that room, or Proto-Germanic rümaz, or Old English rüm, meant spacious, roomy, open (Ðis rume land - the wide world), free, unrestricted, expansive, generous.

Open means redefining freedom – from individual exploits to be conquered and defended to that which is to be found in as a relationship with others who are different, and finding that conflict and difference is perpetual, beautiful and what makes us communal in the first place (the attraction of opposites) Open is unbounded, and yet, precise, specific and concrete. It does not mean an absence of walls and controls, but recognises what is the known and familiar form of division, and reimagines a new architectural form for the emerging now. Open does not mean “anything goes” or vast emptiness. It is spatially exuberant, finely tuned, calibrated and sophisticated. Open reclaims space as a point of reference. It holds a mirror to the world now and reestablish our relationship with it. Open is neither utopian nor dystopian, but speculative and visionary. It is at the tipping point of becoming reality, almost. Open is beautiful

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

Open means reconsidering the idea of privacy and boundaries – privacy comes from the “Latin word privare [which] means “to deprive” or “to rob.” Being in privato thus means being in a space wrested from a collective whole, which must be defended; an act of aggression against the community: one robs something and makes it inaccessible to others. Only then does it become possible to be apud se, chez soi, at home.”

About ADS9 The Project YR1 Studio Project 40 Credits | YR2 Thesis Project/Independent Research Project 60 Credits The main project is to design a new building in a city, for an emerging community now, real or speculative. The design project is for a large community for living/working/learning/ playing/loving, an architecture with no walls, no enclosures, and no locks. The choice of the city will be defined by the subject/community chosen. YR1 students - Focus on the design of 10 000m2 multi-storey building YR2 students - Free to propose the design project ADS9 works in a parallel framework. We do not develop projects in a linear fashion, instead we will experiment with three core questions simultaneously. We will gradually establish links, that is, a critical intelligence between all three strands through an architectural project. Subject/Community – How to design a space for emerging modes of living, working, playing, learning and loving? How do people construct their subjectivity? Space – How to design a space that challenges the conventions of boundaries and enclosure? Technology – How to design a space with no boundaries generated with emerging technologies?

ADS9 Portfolio How do we experiment and design? Experiment with big format drawings. Coloured line-based drawings Experiment with big format models. 1:1 artefacts, scaled models and experimental TS models Experiment with big format book. Search & Research, TS Book (1st year, 120 pages max) Experiment with big writings. Seminars, Thesis, economic models, project statements

ADS9 main tool of experimentation will be coloured line based drawings and models. The studio has built up a collective language of representation. For this year, we will push the extremities and radicality of our representation constraints, can you imagine drawings woven as tapestry, performative line drawings as films, or a hybrid between drawing projective drawings and models? On one hand they are highly technical drawings of the architectural projects; on the other hand, each student will develop highly individual representation techniques with coloured lines to design. We are deeply committed to beauty and spatial exuberance. Drawings that can quantify and qualify an urgent beauty. ADS9 believes the architectural project is where Space embodies and expresses knowledge and ideas; the portfolio then becomes the representation of that space. The architectural project and the portfolio are a form of cultural production that has to be intelligent, provocative and radical. We do not see a separation between research, provocation and design outputs, but the architectural project embodies all strands of experimentation to become the dominant focus of the portfolio.

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

ADS9 will be designing strange and fantastical spaces with a high level of design resolution, reaching the tipping point when a project almost becomes reality.

MA YR 2 Students YR2 students will be asked to write two parallel texts for the project brief / thesis. The texts state the critical agenda and architectural proposal of the project. It has to be thoroughly researched and supported by reference readings and precedent projects. The project brief / thesis statements will form the core “backbone” of the project which will be revisited throughout the whole year to scrutinize its criticality. Design Strategy (Urban Strategy & Project Brief) YR2 20 Credits As architects we produce many forms of writing. They are open, operative writings that we use to establish a reciprocal working relationships with others. We write emails, standards, contracts, specification, scripts, AutoCad commands, rules, poems, song lyrics, excel spreadsheet, comments, text messages, manuals, articles, post-it notes. For ADS9, the design strategy is not a summary blurb for the studio project. It is an evolving piece of critical writing that should be designed as paper space, accompanied by a comprehensive individual dossier of research materials and bibliography. Alongside the HTS course, the urban strategy forms part of the design strategy. For ADS9, the emerging subjectivity is the context. Students have to study and understand the socioeconomic and technological forces that shape the physical form of the cities. How does your chosen emerging subjectivity relate to the city at large? How does your chosen topic form a dialogical existence with other social groups?

MA YR 1 Students Technical Studies YR1 20 Credits “Architects must generate technologies which are creative in operation, and not merely employ existing technologies as useful tools. The generation of such technologies may itself become the main creative task of the designer.” Cedric Price, Creativity and Technology Techniques et Architecture, March 1975

Experiments with soap film, Frei Otto.

ADS9 believes that technology is a form of cultural construction that can be subjected to beauty and spatial modification. Too often architects use technology to apply to an already fully formed design, hence the promise of technology is severed from the creative operation of design. Technology essentially is a set of practical knowledge, which is culturally constructed through hi-jacking and infiltration into our daily lives. When air conditioning and fluorescent lighting become prevalent, we realise we can construct large continuous interiors; what are the equivalent technology now that can allow us to challenge our assumption of boundary? We would like to search for emerging technology now (micro and virtual systems, structural and environmental systems) to generate new forms of spatial organisations. For 2019-20, the 1:1 experiment is a fundamental part of the studio project in term 2. The 1:1 is a work-in-progress physical detail or a simulation of structural / environmental / material phenomenon which can test the architectural limits of your project. How do you extract, translate and implement observations, failures and principles into a series of design iterations? Students should test the project to the brink of destruction. ADS9 Technical Studies focus: - Fantastical and imaginative use of emerging technology to generate novel spatial phenomena - Testing and developing physical and/or digital models - Technical studies journal (no longer than 120 pages) documenting development, case studies and how technology generate space

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

Pneumatic Dome, Frei Otto.

Term 1 In term 1, we will be working in small groups of 3-4 students. Term 1 is structured as a series of short briefs to assemble a collective body of knowledge and spatial experiments for the core studio project. Individually, 2nd year students will develop a design strategy and the 1st year students will identify the main topic of experimentation for technical studies.

Brief 1

Search & Research Week 2 - 6 | Duration - 5 weeks Output - Large format book | Group & Individual Work Iterations of design models, Studio Olafur Eliasson.

We will focus on searching for Subject/Community, Space and reading seminars as a group. Towards the second half, we will focus on identifying individual project themes and researching your selected emerging conditions. The search and research will be accompanied by a seminar series to reflect and identify emerging topics on the Open for your projects. Throughout the brief, 2nd year student will draft the project brief/thesis and 1st year students will draft a technical studies statement identifying the main topic of experimentation for the core design project. The work will be assembled into a big format book for each group that provides a base of collective knowledge for the studio. 1. Emerging Subjectivity The subjectivity is collective forms of co-existence that tends towards opennes; a fringe social phenomenon and community that exemplifies what will be emerging as mainstream in 10 years, as a consequence of current technological shift and social/economic realities. Are there community who increasingly occupy the continuous interior or the space of absolute exposure? We will identify and search for these emerging subject and community. The Subject / Community should be defined by each student individually with critical readings and research. We will use texts and drawings to test the scalar limitations and hardness of boundaries of ‘family of strangers’ but also for new and variable forms and scales of ritual, everyday life together. A “modus operandi” should be identified that enables the emergence of the subjectivity and highlight the forms of behaviour and property held in common. For example, the co-housing projects of Zürich with all residents co-owning what is a virtually a city-in-city with housing ( in some cases from one room family unit to 17 room apartment as one ‘household’), schools, leisure spaces, cultural spaces, shops, restaurants etc. How are they organised? How do they relate to each other? What defines their collectivity? For some students, the subject / community can even be speculative in character, but it must be base on an extrapolation of reality.

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

Iterations of design models, ADS9 2017-18

2. Space - Redraw & Remash For this brief, you will be exposed to exemplary buildings that exhibit qualities of open-ness. Study these buildings by re-drawing them. A series of digital skills workshop will take place alongside this brief to teach the use of Rhino, AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator. Each student will have a set of precise architectural drawings and one interpretive drawing that embody the main spatial intention of the exemplary projects. The study of exemplary projects will form part of the seminar series. Towards the second half of this brief, students will have to re-mash a building with an artist project to create an entirely different species of space. The output will be a scale-less model with a footprint of 50cm x 50cm. (No height restriction) The big model should creatively and critically combine spatial organistion and spatial phenomena to construct a new definition of openness. What matters is… - An understanding of how open-ness is spatial-ised in the building scale - An understanding of how architects challenge and experiment with boundary and openness - An understanding of how spatial phenomena can be radicalised to define relationships and experience. 3. Technology We will search for emerging technology (structural, environmental, construction, micro and virtual systems) from the last 10 years that may be hi-jacked to generate new spatial qualities and organisation. In the past, sophisticated environmental systems, vapour barriers, warm air curtains, air-conditioning enable vast continuous interiors to be constructed, what could be the equivalent technology now? Can you speculate what are the architectural consequences of the technology? What does it reject? Does it reject our need for a door, a window, furniture? Pepsi Pavilion. EAT.

Brief 2

Seminar

Output – Seminar Presentation | Group Work A series of 6 seminars will expose you to a collection of texts in relationship to the core themes of the ADS: subjectivity, open architecture and aura. Students will have to study the texts and present them within an architectural context. The study of exemplary project from brief 2 will form part of the seminar.

Studio Trip Date TBC | Week 7 ADS9 will go on a road trip across Copenhagen and Southern Iceland to experience landscapes and spatial phenomena, visit architects and artists studios, and examples of coliving and co-working schemes.

Brief 3

Experimental Models & Representation Emerging Subjectivities Research WEEK 8-11 | Duration - 4 weeks Output - Big Models & Short Film architectural & Research drawings | Individual work 1) Each student will have to synthesise the knowledge and spatial experiments assembled through out the term by composing another pure spatial construct. The construct will again be scale-less with a footprint of 50x50cm. You can experiment with environment, energy, senses/perception, colours, information, materiality to create a spatial phenomena that can be directly experienced first hand. We will use films and experiemental drawing to capture and question how the space can be experienced. A first draft of the film and drawing will be presented at the end of term crit, with a second final draft developed for the WIP show in term 2. How to… Imagine a beautiful spatial phenomena Organise sequence of spaces, without determining a narrative Organise flows, without determining origins and destinations

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

Can Lis. Jorn Utzorn.

Organise nodes, without determining programmes Organise forms, without determining context What matters is… - A clear spatial principle constructed as a scaled model - Spatial phenomena that can be experienced first hand - Your ability to speculate highly imaginative and beautiful spaces - Your definition of “open” 2) Each student will develop a set of drawings to study their chosen emergin subjectivities. We will focus specifically on - the space they occupy and construct - inhabitation and personal relationships - the economic model to sustain their lives

Term 2 & Term 3 The individual core design project is the main focus across Term 2 and 3. Big format drawings and models will be our main tools of experimentation. The architectural project gradually establish intelligent links between the three core question of the brief: Subject/ Community, Space and Technology.

Brief 4

Live project WEEK 1 | Duration - 1 week YR1 40 Credits (Part of Studio Project) & YR2 participates also in Live Project We begin the new year working with glass artist Flavie Audi. We will experiment with a new type of aesthetic, techniques and physical materiality of glass based on the big models completed at the end of term 1. We will spend 2 days at Devereux and Huskie Workshop outside of Bath.

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

Cell-estial, Flavie Audi.

Bibliography Bohme, G. (2013). Oase 91 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Building Atmosphere. Rotterdam: NAI Bohme, G. (2018). Atmospheric Architectures: The Aesthetics of Felt Spaces Birnbaum, D. (2008). Hospitality of Presence: Sternberg Press Jacquet, B. (2012) From the things themselves : architecture and phenomenology Scuderi, M. P (2014). Philippe Rahm Architectes: Constructed Atmospheres. Milano: Postmedia. Moreno, C (2009). Breathable: Rueda Hayden, D. (1981). The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs For American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities: History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighbourhoods and Cities: The MIT Press Federici, S. (2018). Re-enchanting the World Feminism and the Politics of the Commons: Kairos Stavrides, S. (2016). Common Space: The City as Commons (In Common): Zed Books Ltd Stavrides, S. (2018). Towards the City of Thresholds: Common Notions Short Text: Berardi, F. (2018). Communism is back but we should call it the therapy of singularisation. [online] Generation-online.org. Available at: http://www.generation-online.org/p/fp_bifo6.htm Virno, P. (2004). Creating a new public sphere without the State. [online] Generation-online. org. Available at: http://www.generation-online.org/p/fpvirno8.htm

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

Moreno, C (2014). Third Natures: AA Publications

ADS9 Schedule

Term 1 Week 11 2.12.19 - 6.12.19 5.12.19 | End of Term Crit

Studio tutorials take place on Thursdays and Term 1 Week 12 Saturdays unless otherwise stated. 9.12.19 - 13.12.19 10.12.19 | Live Project Review 11.12.19 | Media Studies Interim Term 1 Submission and Informal Review 12.12.19 | Live Project Review Term 1 Week 1 13.12.19 | YR2 Urban Strategy Final 23.9.19 - 27.9.19 Submission 26.9.19 | ADS Presentation Term 1 Week 2 30.9.19 - 4.10.19 1.10.19 | ADS Interview Interviews Search & Research Term 1 Week 3 7.10.19 - 11.10.19 Search & Research | Seminar Term 1 Week 4 14.10.19 - 18.10.19 Search & Research | Seminar Term 1 Week 5 21.10.19 - 25.10.19 Search & Research | Seminar Term 1 Week 6 28.10.19 - 1.11.19 Search & Research Pin up Review on Saturday Term 1 Week 7 4.11.19 - 8.11.19 Across RCA week Studio Trip Term 1 Week 8 11.11.19 - 15.11.19 15.11.19 | YR2 Draft Design Strategy Experimental Model & Representation Emerging subjectivities research Term 1 Week 9 18.11.19 - 22.11.19 Experimental Model & Representation Emerging subjectivities research Term 1 Week 10 25.11.19 - 29.11.19 Experimental Model & Representation Emerging subjectivities research

Term 2 Term 2 Week 1 13.1.20 - 17.1.20 13.1.20 | HTS Draft Submission Live Project Term 2 Week 2 20.1.20 - 24.1.20 Design Project Term 2 Week 3 27.1.20 - 31.1.20 WIP Show Design Project TS Tutorial Start Term 2 Week 4 3.2.20 -7.2.20 Design Project Term 2 Week 5 10.2.20 - 14.2.20 Design Project Term 2 Week 6 17.2.20 - 21.2.20 20.2.20 | Mid-term crit Term 2 Week 7 24.2.20 - 28.2.20 YR2 Pre-exam Table Reviews 26.2.20 | YR1 Media Studies Submission Term 2 Week 8 2.3.20 - 6.2.20 Design Project | TS 1:1 Term 2 Week 9 9.3.20 - 13.3.20 YR1 Pre-exam Table Reviews 13.3.20 | YR2 Radical Practice Submission Design Project | TS 1:1

Term 3 Term 3 Week 1 21.4.20 - 24.5.20 22.4.20 | TS Pin-up Review Portfolio Term 3 Week 2 27.4.20 - 1.5.20 YR2 Pre-exam Pin up Term 3 Week 3 4.5.20 - 8.5.20 Portfolio Term 3 Week 4 11.5.20 - 15.5.20 Portfolio Term 3 Week 5 18.5.20 -22.5.20 Portfolio Term 3 Week 6 25.5.20 - 29.5.20 YR1 Interim Exam Term 3 Week 7 1.6.20 - 5.6.20 Portfolio Term 3 Week 8 8.6.20 -12.6.20 YR2 Final Exam 12.6.20 | TS Journal Submission Term 3 Week 9 15.6.20 - 19.6.20 19.6.20 | YR1 CHS Final Submission Term 3 Week 10 22.6.20 -26.6.20 End-of-the-Year Show

Royal College of Art | School of Architecture | ADS9 Extended Brief 2019 - 20

Please refer to the MA Architecture Guide for full schedule of complementary studies courses.