CANVAS EXPLORATIONS Graduate Monograph Abridged [2]
Rachel Martinez | Master of Architecture Candidate 1
This document focuses on the canvas explorations from my graduate project, an abridged part of the graduate monograph (Paschal Sherman Indian School Storytelling Course & Pavilion | An Academic Link Between Architecture, Cultural Identity, & Mental Wellbeing.) These explorations focus on how canvas can interact and highlight natural phenomena such as rain, wind, and sunlight. The findings inform what kind of experience can be created inside of the Storytelling Pavilion underneath the student designed kinetic canvas installations.
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CANVAS EXPLORATIONS Graduate Monograph Abridged [2]
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Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Wind Characteristics
Wind Installation
Large-Scale Canvas
Shadow Characteristics
Sunlight Installation
Experiential Video
Water Characteristics
Canvas Water Tests #1 Canvas Water Tests #2
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SERIES 1
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Flutter
Wind Characteristics The proceeding sets of video explorations took place in-between the model investigations discussed in the graduate monograph. These videos were important in understanding how to evoke the characteristics of natural phenomena. This first series of video explorations investigates various ways natural phenomena interact with the natural landscape. In this case, the wind is explored. This investigation focuses on how the wind moves various plants and trees. The recorded footage is composed into a video highlighting various verbs describing the different movements prompted by the wind. These explorations serves as a demonstration of how the characteristics abstracted from a natural phenomenon could later inspire the design of a kinetic canvas installation.
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Sway
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Flicker
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Shake
Bounce
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SERIES 1
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Swipe
Shadow Characteristics In this video exploration, sunlight and shadows are explored. This investigation focuses on how sunlight casts shadows in various ways. The recorded footage is composed into a video highlighting various verbs describing the different visual characteristics of moving shadows. u
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Cast
Draw
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SERIES 1
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Drip
Water Characteristics This investigation focuses on how water reacts in various scenarios. These scenarios consist of different obstacles for water to react to such as ledges, level planes, and channels. This exploration serves as a way to become familiar with the way water behaves. These findings are highlighted in video documentation.
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Splash
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Pour
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Flow
Puddle
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SERIES 2
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Strips - Flap
Wind Installation Exploration The second series of video explorations uses the observations from the “Series 1� video studies to inform the way canvas installations can engage with natural phenomena such as the wind, sunlight, and rain. This particular study focuses on how a canvas installation can evoke different characteristics of wind. Different canvas configurations are designed to find out how to make an installation that will be the most sensitive to wind stimulation.
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Vertical Panels - Flicker
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Hanging Sheet - Wave
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SERIES 2
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Strips - Solar Field
Sunlight Installation Exploration This exploration focuses on how a canvas installation can manipulate light and shadows based on the “Series 1” light and shadow study. The movement and angles of light and shadows are manipulated by a controlled light source. This allows for the testing of different sun exposures that reflect different times of the day and year. Tests are recorded and used in a video to show how different canvas configurations affect shadow and light behavior inside of the pavilion. This video helps demonstrate how the pavilion’s atmosphere can change with different installation designs.
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Slits – Moving Line
Aperture - Swing
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SERIES 2
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Single Pinhole COTTON CANVAS:
Canvas Water Tests #1
Steady Stream Droplets Above Base
This particular study focuses on how different types of canvas let water pass through their surface, inspired by characteristics observed in the “Series 1” water study. Three types of canvas are put through various water permeability trials. These tests include leaving the canvas in its natural condition, puncturing the canvas to various degrees, and stringing a thread through the fabric. Observations are documented in a video to demonstrate the different ways a canvas installation can be designed to manipulate water.
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Single Pinhole BURLAP: Slow Drips No Droplets Above Base
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Multiple Pinholes COTTON DUCK FABRIC: Steady Stream No Droplets Above Base Streams Join
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Single String
BURLAP WITH STRING: Slow Drips No Droplets Above Base
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Multiple Strings BURLAP WITH STRING: Slow Drips Droplets Above Base
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Multiple Pinholes BURLAP: Slow Drips Multiple Drips
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Single Pinhole BURLAP: Slow Drips
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Single Pinhole
COTTON DUCK FABRIC: Steady Stream Whirlpool
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Multiple Pinholes COTTON CANVAS: Steady Stream
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SERIES 2 u
Canvas Water Tests #2
Puddle
This video investigation focuses on how different types of canvas and canvas configurations channel water flow. In this case, canvas is tested for its ability to control the path of water across the canvas rather than through it. Different types of fabric are tested in various configurations demonstrating different degrees of controlling water flow. u
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Flow
Channel
Cascade
COTTON CANVAS
COTTON DUCK FABRIC
BURLAP
Cotton Canvas has hydrophobic qualities and beads consistently. This allows for medium control of channeling water. Cotton Duck Fabric absorbs the most water, leaving little control in channeling water flow. Burlap is the most hydrophobic, will no beading. This allows water to be channel efficiently.
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SERIES 3
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Horizontal Panels
Large-Scale Canvas An inhabitable large-scale mockup of the pavilion’s storytelling area is made to demonstrate a proof of concept. This mockup allows for the testing of canvas at a larger scale, providing a better sense of how the canvas will behave in the proposed pavilion. The structure also serves as an exercise in sculpting space and getting an idea of what the atmosphere will be like inside of the pavilion. Video and photographic documentation is used to chronicle the behavior of canvas at a larger scale. These scenes are used in a final presentation video that demonstrates the atmospheric qualities of the space.
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Vertical Panels
Taught Horizontal Panels
Triangular Horizontal Panels
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Large-Scale Mockup Installed in Pullman Washington.
Large-Scale Mockup While the small exploration models provide provoking images, a larger version is created to get a better understanding of how the canvas will behave inside of the proposed pavilion. A scaled down abstraction of the pavilion is built to test various canvas installations. Due to cost and time, some materials from the proposed pavilion are abstracted as well as the form. This includes 24
the abstraction of the pavilion’s rammed earth walls into large plywood planes. The rammed earth seating area of the proposed pavilion is also abstracted into a wooden bench that serves as structural support. The focus of the mockup is to create a space that evokes the essence of the storytelling area of the pavilion rather than the whole structure.
p Digital Model for Planning Large-Scale Mockup.
p Structural System for Large-Scale Mockup Wall.
p Structural Pieces for Large-Scale Mockup.
p Interior of Large-Scale Mockup Designed to Frame a View & Funnel Wind.
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p Bolt Connections.
p Pier-block Connection.
p Construction of Large-Scale mockup at Initial Staging Site.
Construction WSU Alumni Robin Olson and Craig Hoffman assisted in the building of the large-scale mockup. They provided insight on structural connections, access to power tools, as well as a place to construct the mockup. The structure is built with lumber connected by bolts for easy disassembly and moving, as well as the use of tension cables for stability. The structure sat on pier blocks to provide an even footing while being constructed. The footings were then buried to various depths once on the site. The sidewalls of the shelter were not attached until the structure was put into place on the site. 26
p Moving of Large-Scale mockup onto the Top of the Dirt Mound via CAT Skid Steer Loader.
p Mockup Set in Place on Top of Dirt Mound, Oriented NE.
p Gerardo Villalobos Installing Side Panels.
Placement Pullman Washington mobile home park property owner Kevin Zakarison offered a space to install the shelter as well as transportation for the structure. WSU student Gerardo Villalobos also assisted with the moving and placement of the structure as well as the assembly of the sidewalls. The shelter was transported in whole on a flatbed trailer across Pullman to NW Parkwest Drive, where it was placed on the peak of a large dirt mound behind some residential mobile homes. The shelter was oriented to frame a vista while capturing the prevailing SW-NE winds. The spot was also chosen to avoid shadows cast by nearby trees. Once placed on the site, the shelter’s walls were added. 27
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View of Elevated Wood Bench Inside of the Large-Scale Mockup.
Users Experience The large-scale mockup is not intended to be a direct replication of the final pavilion proposal. The intent of the shelter’s design decisions is to create as space that provides an atmospheric experience that is similar to what is expected inside of the pavilion’s storytelling area underneath the students’ kinetic canvas installations. This choice was made due to cost, time, space, structural stability, and transportation. This mockup focuses on framing a scenic view, integrating the contour of the site, exposure to natural elements, providing connections for hanging a canvas, and creating a cozy space of prospect and refuge. 28
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View of Canvas Installed Inside of Large-Scale Mockup.
Explorations The mockup is conceived to test how large-scale canvas reacts to natural phenomena. Many tests are done, mimicking the explorations that were previously conducted at a smaller scale. These investigations include exploring how the canvas responds to sunlight, rain, and wind.
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Test Scene for Experiential Video. [Framing the Pavilion in the Landscape] - Not Used in Final Video.
Filming The shelter serves as the main prop for the experiential video presented during the final defense presentation. The larger scale canvas and exposure to real natural phenomena provides the audience with a unique visual experience that cannot be created with 2D renderings. Experiments in framing and timing of scenes are explored in telling the narrative about how the pavilion exists in the natural landscape.
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View of Installed Large-Scale Mockup in the Evening - Not Used in Final Video.
Further Use While the shelter is constructed to test various design ideas related to this project, the space created in the structure is provoking in its own right. The mockup provides a unique space to watch sunrises, rain showers, thunderstorms, snowfall, or to just look at the stars, reaffirming the pavilion’s ability to connect its users with natural phenomena. The shelter prompts curiosity from neighborhood adults and children alike.
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Experiential Video
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Environment 1. Sky 2. Landscape
One of the main focal points of the final defense presentation is the experiential video. This film is intended to give the viewers a sense of the atmosphere of the Storytelling Pavilion. The narrative of the video explores the life of the pavilion and canvas installation when people are not around. Various filming techniques are used to engage the viewers and immerse them in the essence of this space. These strategies include tight shots that focus on the phenomena at play, filming through foliage to create an immersive feeling, compositions that blur the actual context around the large-scale mockup that may be distracting, and long pauses between scenes to evoke the idea that the pavilion is always in a constant state of being with or without people around.
3. Structure
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Event 1. View 2. Sunlight 3.Wind
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Being 1. Rain 2. Drip 3. Silence
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Leaving 1. Expose
2. Decompose 3. Gone
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