Architecture of the Impromptu

Architecture of the impromptu TU Delft

July 2020

Re-evaluating architectural practice and its tools a study from the incidental to the encompassing

Başak Günalp

Benoît Marcou

Hannah Wehrle

Saskia Tideman

Methods & Analysis

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Preamble

Saskia Tideman

Başak Günalp

Hannah Wehrle

Benoît Marcou & the detail with which our journey began

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Re-evaluating architectural practice and its tools - a study from the incidental to the encompassing

Within the context of the architectural studio Transdisciplinary Encounters taught by Jorge Mejía Hernández and Eric Crevels from the Chair of Methods & Analysis at TU Delft, we were encouraged to reflect collaboratively on the instruments and methods used in the analysis and design of the built environment. We were motivated to test those instruments and methods by confronting them with representational and theoretical precedents, and by relating them to the current day context. Having acknowledged that architecture is a cognitive discipline enabling the creation of knowledge and comprehension, we endeavoured to maintain a sceptical attitude and challenge our biases.

This enabled us to reflect critically on our theoretical standpoint within architecture and to contribute to the creation of new knowledge.

Our process can be understood chronologically in three acts. During the first weeks of this course, we investigated this detail from various perspectives, in turn as modelling, drawing and writing the detail. As a result of the gathered knowledge of the analysis, a theory developed from our process. The position we formulated based on the theory was tested through making in a final exercise.

This supplementary, informal publication provides an honest record of the process we underwent, and invites the reader to pick up where we left off.

Welcome to the accumulation of eleven weeks of drawing, modelling, thinking and most importantly: discussing.

Başak, Benoît, Hannah and Saskia

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A publication in three acts p.06

Act I

Exploring p.44

Act II

Reflecting p.66

Act III

Performing 04

Act I Exploring We began our journey with a polytechnic exploration of an esoteric assemblage through graphics, models and texts.

Each group member searched ways of investigating the detail, these were supplemented with theoretical and graphic references. A transdisciplinary attitude enabled us to find value in exercises that were less technically accurate, as they offered us more room for speculation and reconfiguration of the detail. Constructive limitations and an animated platform for discussion showed to be fertile grounds for creativity. Within an cyclical process of observation, projection and synthesis, we started to identify key trends and themes.

4500mm3

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The haphazard detail The detail we are studying is the result of our search for a strange detail which we encountered in rural France, near Lyon. Its humility, informality and precarious balance called to us, as we wondered how it had come into being. This work, assembled by an anonymous maker, articulates a wall, roof and gate. The assemblage appeared to us as a spontaneous arrangement of materials that must have been at hand. These consist of mismatched fragments of stone, wood, metal, fibre cement and more. As we realised the detail had probably not been drawn before its construction, we also accepted that its logic of assembly could not be fully rationalised.

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THEMES What we are investigating.

FRAGMENTS The detail as a gathering of heterogeneous objects.

EXPERIENCES The detail as a generator of phenomena.

TECHNIQUES How we are investigating.

DECONSTRUCTION Understanding the whole by isolating its components.

COLLAGE + MONTAGE Cutting the detail into an accumulation of moments.

ALIENATION Uncovering the essence of the detail through unfamiliarity.

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ES C IEN R PE X E

MOVEMENTS The detail as a product of kinetic patterns.

DEC ON ST

MO NT AG E

COL LAG E+

ALI EN AT ION /

VE RF RE MD UN G

Polytechnic matrix of analysis

TR UC TI ON

MOVEMENTS

FRA G ME N TS 13

Fragments

The detail as a gathering of heterogeneous objects.

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01 Material repertoire.

Inspired by the artist Ursus Wehrli (2002), the detail is decomposed to its materials and tools, inviting a reflection on their mutual relationship.

Week 3 - Technique : deconstruction 02 De-constructive collage.

Given that three of four group members are far from the detail, our understanding of it was mediated by photography and video. This collage attempted to decipher the components of the detail.

Week 3 - Technique : deconstruction

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03 Taxonomy of affordances.

As the detail is inhabited by various forms of life, this collage sought to explore the relationship between life and material. As such, the detail reveals itself as a habitat concealing huge diversity within a small space.

Week 3 - Technique : deconstruction

04 From branch to building material. The timber elements within the detail have witnessed varying levels of rationalisation.

This ‘making’ experiment explored the stages a branch underwent before taking place in the construction.

Week 7 - Technique : Collage + Montage

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“The transmutation that occurs between drawing and building remains to a large extent an enigma.�

Robin Evans in Translations from Drawing to Building, p.160 (1986)

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05 Identification of the haphazard. This detail constituted of the first drawing made when coming across the detail. The precarious balance of the roof on a single stone appeared as both hazardous and haphazard.

Week 2 - Technique : deconstruction 06 Sectional knife. Digital tools offer us the ability to de-construct the detail less programmatically, enabling us to discover hidden geometries and material articulations.

This unconventional axonometric explored the role of the action of drawing in our understanding of the detail.

Here the vertical planes clash when sectioning the single pitch shed roof.

Week 5 - Technique : Collage + Montage

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“The main expression stems from a play between load-bearing and load borne” Kenneth Frampton referring to Gino and Nani Valle’s work in Studies in Tectonic Culture, p. 364 (1995)

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07 Gravitational forces. This investigation of the load path and connection techniques in the detail made us aware of the tectonic qualities of the detail. The variety of techniques emphasises the nature of the detail as a bricolage. The only rule the detail abides by is gravity, and these forces are highly visible.

Week 5 - Technique : Collage + Montage 08 Cadavre exquis. The “exquisite corpse” is a collaborative drawing approach first used by surrealist artists to create bizarre and intuitive drawings. The use of abstraction and alienation enabled us to see how other materials might fulfil the roles of the detail’s elements which compose the shelter and boundary.

Week 5 - Technique : Alienation

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Something that protects against the sun and rain

Something that gathers the rain

A structure that allows views through

A permanent border

A flexible border

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“By realizing his immediate needs, by combining ad hoc parts, the individual sustains and transcends himself.�

Charles Jencks in Adhocism, p.23 (1972)

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09 Transmutation. This trio of drawings sought to explore the role of each material. It refuses to assign a single purpose to each material which results in a reshuffling of the Semperian matrix (Cache, 2000). The materials and their repetition become a motif.

Week 5 - Technique : Alientation

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10 Gravity upon flexibility.

This model is an attempt at simulating the impromptu through the use of a flexible container which emphasises the role of gravity and the mass of the materials. The various movement of the materials alluded to the Semperian concept “Stoffwechsel” (Semper, Mallgrave, Robinson, & Getty Research Institute, 2004) whereby stereotomy supports lighter weight materials.

Week 7 - Technique : Deconstruction

11 Material cores. These cylinders, recalling geological ice samples, were taken out of the detail’s virtual model. It exposes the void and randomness of the assembly. This method created a contrast between the digital and analogue by capturing the fragments of the detail with excessively neat shapes.

Week 5 - Technique : Collage + Montage

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Movements

The detail as a product of kinetic patterns.

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How to build a perfectly average stone wall and shed roof

Wall foundation Dig a trench in the desired location of the wall.

Footing should be twice as deep as the thickness of the wall and twice as wide. Build formwork around the trench. Pour concrete.

Let cure 3 days. Remove formwork. Save the timber for later re-use.

Base wall Organise stones in order of size. Set out the base row of stones, these should be the biggest available. The thickness should allow for two rows of stones to run parallel. This will enables stones rows to overlap throughout the wall, ensuring structural integrity. Prepare the cement mortar (follow package instructions).

Pile up stones, and try to make use of their irregular shape efficiently. Use small stones to fill the gaps. Check regularly with a water pass that each row of stones is level. Spread mortar (2 to 3 cm) between stones with a trowel and continue building upwards till the desired height has been reached. Let cure 24hrs.

Timber lattice and roof Organise available timber in function of size.

Use bigger sections as the first layer of timber supported by the new stone wall. The plane formed by the timber should be at an angle that allows rain shed. Support the lowest timber element above the wall with a single stone, this will prevent it from rotting in

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standing water. Add a second lattice, with timber elements running perpendicular to the layer below. Lash each junction of timber elements with metal wire. Pre-drill holes in a corrugated fibre-cement board and hope the holes with match the location of the lower timber beam. If a single fibre cement board isn’t big enough, add an overlapping section. Nail the boards to the timber with a hammer if the pre-drilled holes do not line up.

Fence Dig a hole 5cm away from the wall base to accommodate the pre-drilled metal post. Align the two metal arms either side of the post to a mortar joint in the stone wall. With a stone drill, anchor the metal arms to the wall. Connect the metal arms to the post on either side of the post through the pre-drilled openings. Connect the corrugated metal panel to the third metal arm bearing a hinge.

Finishing touches Attach a steel angle to the fibre cement boards.

Connect the angle to the gutter. Paint metal fence elements, do not tape the surroundings of the surface as smudges should eventually be covered with render. Cover in render to create a uniform top surface. Run out of render and fail to cover in render the edge of wall below the gutter.

“The ‘bricoleur’ is someone who works with his [or her] hands and uses devious means compared to those of a craftsman.”

Claude Lévi Strauss in The Savage Mind, p.16 (1966) - translated from French

01 How To. This text explores how the detail was constructed.

We fought the urge to post-rationalise the choices made in the making which we didn’t understand. The result is an absurd set of instructions which highlight the influence of the availability of materials, tools and skills. The construction is by no means an example of “high-quality craft”.

Week 4 - Technique : Deconstruction

02 The detail through its many tools. By looking at the traces of the making and the dimensions and joints of the materials, we attempted to identify the set of tools that were used to build the detail as we see it today. It is an essential yet invisible vocabulary of the detail, as Sarah Sze observed in her work “You mark time through objects”. (2019) Week 3 - Technique : Deconstruction

02 LIMESTONE WALL

ROUGHCAST RENDER

GATE METAL PROFILE

GATE STEEL PANEL

WOODEN BEAM

METAL WIRE TIES

FIBRE CEMENT PANELS

NAILS

PVC GUTTER

GUTTER VEGETATION

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03 The detail through its many gestures. Rather than looking at the detail as a permanent assembly of materials, we can look at it as a temporary succession of movements, a choreography dictated by specific tools engaging the body.

Week 3 - Technique : Alienation 04 Construction performances The drawing shows the narrative potential of the detail in self-explaining its own making. A single drawing can express different moments in the process of construction the detail. It can be seen as a set of instructions, or as a recollection of past actions.

Week 5 - Technique : Collage + Montage

“What is often missing is the evidence of human intervention, the black box syndrome. So by looking at new materials, or at old materials in a new way we change the rules. People become visible again.”

Peter Rice as cited in Kenneth Frampton’s Studies in Tectonic Culture, p. 386 (1995)

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"Architecture is inhabited: sequences of events, use, activities, incidents are always superimposed on those fixed spatial sequences. These are the programmatic sequences that suggests secret maps and impossible fictions, rambling collections of events all strung along a collection of spaces, frame after frame..."

Bernard Tschumi in Architecture and Disjunction, p. 157 (1996)

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Juxtaposed time and movement These deconstructed movement and tools are related to each element of the detail. As such, it identifies the patterns and motifs between matter and maker and emphasises the man made-ness of the detail. Week 5 - Technique : Deconstruction

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The dialogue takes place in a 450 cm radius around the detail.

A house will soon get built where, for more than 10 years, a wall and a roof stood together to create a shelter at the back of a courtyard.

So, let’s start with the roof. We can detach the gutter first. Get the wrench. The screws are quite rusty, but as you can tell, they are not very tight, so it should be easy. Oh, no, you need to go anti-clockwise, there you go. I never realised the amount of stuff that grew up there. No, don’t throw it away, let’s replant that later. Ok now get the hammer, and use the claw at the back to unpin the nails off the roof. One… Two… Three…

Is that it? I thought there would be more. Oh, careful, don’t breathe the dust, I think the panels still have asbestos in them.

They are still in good shape though, I could probably use them for the chicken cage. Ok, next come the beams. At first, I thought the metal wires would be temporary but hey, they resisted quite well. You don’t have to cut them, just untwist them. The wood does not look that bad either, it surely must have sucked some rainwater, but the whole thing is open to the air so it always dried up, eventually. Let’s pile up the wood over there, we’ll see what we can do with it. Now just remove the rocks. I did not put them here at first, but the slope of the roof was not steep enough so I had to adjust with what I had.

Now we can start scrapping the render off the wall, just use the chisel and the hammer. No, not that one, take the lump hammer. It’s taking more time than with the machine, but at least you’re not damaging the stones of the wall. What shall we do with it, by the way?

- The wall?

- Yes. - Well, actually, the house is going to need walls, right? Or at least one.

- Yes. - So… Maybe this wall could go from being a wall to being a wall of the house.

- Yes. -…

- Ok, let’s keep the wall, then.

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Stone wall with roughcast render

Timber planks with wire ties

06 Rewinding the detail This text reveals the impermanence of constructions by exploring the fragility of joints and their ability to be easily de-constructed. It also hints at the role of reuse in shaping our built environment.

Week 4 - Technique : Alienation 07 Staged evolution.

The model illustrates the sequence of additions made to the initial stone wall, through varying techniques. The final frame was created much later as we realised that decay is an inherent part of the process which lead to the making of the detail we see today. Week 3 & 7 - Technique: Collage + Montage

Solitary Rock

Fibre cement corrugated roof panel

Gutter PVC and metal support

Metal profile

Corrugated gate steel panel

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08 The impromptu column.

This statue was inspired by Constantin Brâncuși’s ‘Endless Column.’ (1918) and seeks to isolate a specific moment in the detail by repeating it to find new qualities. The bottom left photo is a photo of our detail.

Through a drawing realised post-construction, an isolated moment becomes a pattern.

It also creates order within the impromptu heterogeneity.

Week 7 - Technique : Alienation

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Experiences

The detail as a generator of phenomena.

01 Haiku. The haiku revealed how the detail is characterised by the elements it is in contact with.

Week 4 - Technique : Alienation 02 Interstitial void. Following Aldo van Eyck’s notion of the realm of the in-between (Van Eyck, Ligtelijn, & Strauven, 2008), this drawing investigates the character of the void space, which is defined by its adjacencies.

Week 5 - Technique : Collage + Montage

Spontaneity Hits on with the rays of sun Shines with timeless being.

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Layered Perceptions. This model explores the subjective experience of the detail by its different users. Lebenswelt, which can be translated as “lifeworld”, describes the dynamics of a site which are experiences subjectively.

(Husserl, 2008) Here a child, spider and dog relate to the shelter and boundary differently due to their scale in relation to detail’s as well as their diverging interests and senses.

Week 7 - Technique : Collage + Montage

04 One object - many Umwelten. Following Jakob von Uexkülls notion of Umwelt, (2010) we looked at the detail from the perspectives of different subjects to investigate the perceptive qualities of the space. By comparing the different Umwelten of the owner, a kid and a spider, it transpired that the experiences of the detail can vary immensely.

Week 4 - Technique : Collage + Montage

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The kid It‘s a beautiful day and she has been playing on the streets with her new football. At some point she kicked it so high that it fell over the metal fence of the neighbour’s shed. She doesn‘t know him well, barely recalling his face. No reaction to the bell, so he must be out of house again. There is no possibility for a glance over the fence, and she has no idea where exactly the ball went. But she just received it as a present a few days ago for Easter, and doesn‘t want to let go of it. The gate is closed and the street-side of the wall is too smooth to climb. In the corner of the wall, right next to the metal fence, she manages to put her feet in the gaps between the stones and pull herself up. The noise of the bees on the roof make her anxious. Finally glancing over the fence she sees that the ball lying in the outside garage. It seems to have knocked over a bucket of red paint. She cannot climb over this fence. She will have to try again from the garden side to finally get her ball back.

The spider She is satisfied about her habitat. It is a safe and dry place under the roof. It present the ideal level of enclosure : no rain drops can reach her web and no one disturbs her, however it is open enough to allow insects to fly in. Today is really warm and dry. Many insects fly by, aiming for the moss patches which are growing on the roof. This is very rare in these locations and flies and bees are heedlessly following the scent of its flowers. For her, this is ideal. She can wait in the centre of her protected web, as her food gets trapped. These early summer days she is quite busy killing and storing all of her prey. Whenever she finished wrapping and storing another insect at the corner of her web, she is coming back to the centre to wait, totally motionless, for the next one to come. But what is this? A human is approaching the protected height of her sanctuary. She can feel the vibration of its breath on the strings of her web. Just one quick, then the human is gone and the threat is gone.

The owner He has not been home for a long time, as his work kept him busy travelling. But the few times when he returns, he comes back to his outside sanctuary. It was built quite some years ago, back when he first moved in and was still a young man.

He still fondly thinks of how his knowledgeable father helped him put everything together. They found most of the materials in the basement. He is very happy about this improvised shelter and the effects it has on his quality of life. Within the craft, he can truly let go off his stress and tension. Here he can lose track of time, connected to the fresh air while being protected by the rain. He notices with concern that the shed desperately needs some maintenance work: the rainwater has dripped down the wall and left a stain and the gutter seems to have tipped under the load of the unruly moss. Last year he added the gate to shield his sanctuary from the view of the neighbours. What is that? Somehow the red paint that he used for the metal tie of the gate got spilt all over the floor. It doesn‘t matter too much to him, the floor is covered in paint anyway.

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05 The detail and its affordances. This drawing demonstrates the detail’s affordances for non-human inhabitation which render it unique. It arises that without its transient phenomena and inhabitants, this detail would be entirely different, as an alien space ship on planet earth. This output also fed a reflection on the digital medium which is not fit for randomness, unlike hand drawing.

Week 7 - Technique : Collage + Montage

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Synthesis

There was once a detail, assembled from stones, timber, fibre-cement and metal. Successive sticking, tying, and stacking had enabled the joint’s mismatched materials to become both a boundary and shelter.

Sporting the marks of construction, the haphazard decisions and tools which lead to its assembly remained discernible.

Though disregarded as the backdrop to surrounding life, the assemblage harboured a character of its own. As the result of the arbitrary gathering of items at hand, it had become a unique montage, whose only rule was gravity. In time, it had mellowed into a cabinet of curiosité, hosting a rich exhibit of life within its hollows. Every day, it deformed further, contrasting with the alternative construction it might have been in the hands of a more deliberate maker. The bricolage was a product of its circumstances: time, place, and author.

The bricolage had become more than the sum of its parts: a testimony to mankind’s appropriation and transformation of the world. Over time, however, the author’s mark seemed to vanish, enabling the earth and elements to re-appropriate the detail. The heavy stones which once supported the timbered lattice which rose to the sky now told the tale of an earthbound return.

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Act II Reflecting In this act, we sought to formulate our theory. A brief historiography provides an alternative reading of the evolution of the construction process and products.

Intent on contributing meaningfully to discourse on the architectural methods, we substantiated this theory with 4 short explorations, formulated as streams of consciousness.

Here, multidisciplinary theoretical input is balanced with a reflection on the evolving context in which we will soon practice ourselves. In these essays, we identify our theoretical grounds by referring to our peers and predecessors: architectural practices, architectural historians, and ethnographers, User Experience designers and press.

We have allowed ourselves to borrow these thoughts and ‘bricolage’ a framework of ideas which helped our position take shape.

Im.promp.tu ADJECTIVE · ADVERB

1 : made, done, or formed as if on the spur of the moment.

2 : composed or uttered without previous preparation.

From the latin ‘in promptu’ meaning ‘at hand’.

In literature, it is used to describe a short improvised poem, inspired by the circumstances its author is directly facing.

The detail has been made in the spur of the moment, as a product of its circumstances. As such it represents a condensation of heterogeneous elements.

Its un-rehearsed making is evidenced by the traces of a spontaneous hands-on assemblage free of a drawing’s influence.

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Theory of the

Architecture of the Impromptu

Mankind at first appropriated materials temporarily to satisfy its fundamental needs of shelter and protection.

The construction process was need-driven, responsive, instinctive, unrehearsed, driven by tacit knowledge and informed by its context. However, in time, the scale of settlements increased, and what was initially a DIY pursuit became a veritable industry. Architecture developed to be more planned, mediated, normative, precise and driven by explicit knowledge. This led to the distancing of the maker from the user, and the mind from the hands. As roles became specialised and the industry was institutionalised, architecture reached a rationalised form of construction which lost its impromptu nature. Today most of the manmade environment consists of buildings that follow an institutionalized construction process. The “designer” figure, neither maker nor user, is the agent of change in our environments. With the introduction of numerous intermediate stages preceding construction, architecture started preoccupying itself with an increasing number of peripheral concerns. These concerns range from agreements on accountability, to material standardisation and regulation. Frascari for instance observed how the drawing’s role evolved from being initially a medium of design and representation to becoming construction instructions.

(1996) (See Exploration #3) Those weren’t direct requisites for construction, rather they were needed by the growing industry and institutionalisation of the processes.

This systemic shift in construction is outlined in Sibyl Moholynagy’s work. Her ethnographic research resulted in the publication of the Native Genius in Vernacular Architecture (1957), in which she wrote: “The architect of today has a hard time holding on to his mission [of the sheltering of man]. He is challenged and confused at every turn by technology, economy, and a waning commitment of the public [related] to cultural and aesthetic values. There was a time when

houses were built by unchallenged and unconfused architects whose ambition was total service to man.” p.22) She touches on a few contemporary problems of the construction industry, namely the designer’s distancing of the elementary purpose of architecture : providing shelter.

While she polarises between those two cultures, we prefer to nuance this distinction, viewing them as cultures whose essence contrasts yet are not hermetically sealed from each other. (See Exploration #1) Indeed, some architectural practices, often motivated by the desire for a more humane and sustainable form of practice, are making a deliberate effort to restructure their processes. (See Exploration #5) Importantly, both cultures yield great opportunities.

Indeed, while rationalised building enables technological innovation, and is often more thought through, precise and efficient, impromptu architecture is responsive and resilient. (See Exploration #4) However, this invited us to question the potential of consciously hybridising processes.

In Architecture without Architects, Bernard Rudowsky mentions the potential of impromptu architecture for the industrialised practice: “the philosophy and know-how of the anonymous builders presents the largest untapped sources of architectural inspiration for industrial man.” (1965) Indeed informal settlements, where the products and processes of both cultures are intermeshed, make a compelling argument in favour of the resilience of the built environment. (See Exploration #2) The methods employed by the prevalent culture of architecture sometimes lead to unwanted side effects. These issues, namely uniformity, contextual apathy, insensitive environments, image-driven designs and waste of resources and energy, can be partially curbed by a more pragmatic, impromptu approach to architecture. We wish to query what qualities of impromptu architecture offer to the culture we belong to while identifying the unconscious limitations of our current analysis and design methods.

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4

Stages 1 to 4 of an alternative historiography of architecture according to its methods, and qualities.

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Exploration #1

The bricoleur and the engineer Diverging cultures of construction.

Our work on the notion of impromptu acknowledges the existence of multiple cultures of construction. While the theory provides a historiography which partially explains their appearance and divergences, one can also compare these cultures in terms of intentions and analyse their relations with their context and tools.

In The Savage Mind (1966), anthropologist Claude LeviStrauss explores the modes of construction of tribal cultures. He defines the latter as “bricolage”, which he opposes to the culture of “engineering”.

“The universe of instruments [of the bricoleur] is closed and the rules of his game are always to make do with whatever is at hand… The engineer is always trying to make his way out of and go beyond the constraints imposed by a particular state of civilization while the bricoleur by inclination our necessity always remains within them” (Levi Strauss,1966, p.16).

The richness of bricolage would then greatly stem from its capacity to embrace restriction, by working with what is “in promptu“, or “at hand”. “At hand” designates what is available in general, but also what is at a close distance from the hand, implying that bricolage has the potential to reduce the distance between the maker and his/her work. In Adhocism, Charles Jencks uses Levi Strauss’ work to define the process of the bricoleur as “dealing with existing situations in a new way to solve a problem quickly and efficiently [with] resources which are already at hand”. (Jencks & Silver, 1972, p.9) Besides immediate material relations, Silver stresses in the same book on the bricoleur’s sense of urgency. The latter calls for a spontaneous attitude towards problems, which bears the risk and the quality of providing “approximate solutions rather than perfect ones”.

(Jencks & Silver, 1972, p.169) While this book also opposes the culture of the adhocist/bricoleur to that of the engineer, the notion of approximation is a reminder that scientific value and

honesty can be found in bricolage, as its trajectory towards a purpose is not fixed but is easily subject to change and successive reformulations. For Jencks, “the adhoc approach allows the scientist to introduce extraneous hypotheses whenever he faces a problem or contradiction” (1972, p.36), this is also suggesting productive cultural contaminations and advocating for transdisciplinary practices that are aware of their limitations and which accept that a research process has to be somehow opportunist.

This reflection on the multiplicity of cultures of construction also raises the question of their preservation and transmission.

Bricolage suggests that value can also be conserved outside of the material realm, and that there is a possibility to “situate formulations of intangible cultural heritage in closer relation to practice” (Merhotra, 2017, p.22). Similarly, Robin Evans suggests we could write a history of architecture that is less focused on its products but would “focus on the manner of working: on the instruments and techniques that have been used for drawing, and how their limitations and affordances define the production of architecture through their mediating role.” (Evans as cited in Decroos, Patteeuw, Çiçek, Engels, 2020, p.15) Rural studio is a design-build studio at Auburn university (United States) which questions architectural culture and its instruments and challenges the limits of a distanced theory-based pedagogy (Oppenheimer Dean, A., Hursley, T., 2002, p.3). Contrary to what is being taught in many academic environments, this practice allows architecture students to directly engage with their context by collaborating with communities, with actual clients, craftsmen and workers on the construction of individual and collective housing as well as public structures. The economic and material restrictions they have to deal with often result in adhoc solutions that support a vision of architecture as a socially engaged discipline able to combine knowledge from multiple cultures.

Marcou, B. (2019) Ephemeral foundations of a Cantonese opera bamboo theatre in Hong Kong [Photo]

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Exploration #2

Reaching new heights in the “Collage City” Architecture’s opportunity to learn from informality.

Our enquiry, which departed from a prescribed small size detail, limited itself to the scale which we interact with our bodies. In an attempt to find the potential limits of our theory, we began to question this limitation in scale: we know bricolage exists at a domestic scale, but what about within the urban fabric?

To this effect, we read Collage City. In it, Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter examine the intersection of the role of the architect, the notion of bricolage and the urban scale. The book presents a critical analysis of the ideologies, traditions and limitations of Modernist urban planning through examples of both the modernist movement and reactionary Post-Modern proposals.

Rowe and Koetter explain that the tolerance to bricolage is a prerequisite to a desirable city model. This observation leads to a reflection on the professional responsibility of the architect and the degree of control which he/she should maintain. Rowe and Koetter’s opinion is clear: “total architecture” - which entails the architect’s absolute control on the construction process and product - appears as a rather “dubious and fruitless enterprise”. (p.96) As such, Collage City raises key questions on the agency of the architect. Should architects embrace spontaneous construction and aspire to only make use of readily available tools as bricoleurs do or should they continue to commandeer the city with their executive decisions? The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle, however a change in approach is required. Popper’s “blueprint”, a metaphor for a possible approach to improving the present through systematic erasure and redrawing, gives further weight

to Rowe’s postulate. Popper writes “there is no reason to believe that the blue-printed world will be better than the world that we live in” (Popper, 1963, p.176), making the case for amending the present, rather than a tabula rasa approach.

Our detail’s study revealed that architects should endeavour to borrow from bricolage and become aware of the characteristics of impromptu, namely bespoke, need-driven, legible, fostering empathy, unrehearsed and impermanent. However the jump in scale which occurs between the domestic and urban remains hard to envisage. One wonders how large scale design - which is of significant logistic complexity - might cope with unplannedness as the need for rationality and carefulness seems incompatible with any aspiration for organic spontaneity. However, Rowe and Koetter explain that these can cohabitate and both processes should be held in equal regard. To test this hypothesis, we turned to real-life examples of informal construction. Informal settlements, often discarded by architects, have however much to teach about the construction agency of civilians, regardless of them supposedly being unversed in practising architecture.

The Torre David in Caracas, Venezuela, presents a unique example of organic reappropriation of the built environment through bricolage. Driven by the need for a home in a city that would not accommodate them, people took up residence in an unoccupied office building. The space intended as a finance centre somewhat ironically became the living quarters for those neglected by the architects catering the status quo. The humble, Continued

Photo of the Torre de David, is a inhabited, unfinished skyscraper in Caracas, Venezuela, which is the third tallest building in the country.

(EneasMx, 2017)

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“Torre de David stands as a symbol of neoliberal failure and of the poor’s self-empowerment. With its magnificent deficiencies, it represents an opportunity to reconsider how we create and foster urban communities.”

Nico Saieh in ‘Venice Biennale 2012: Torre David, Gran Horizonte / Urban Think Tank + Justin McGuirk + Iwan Baan’ (2012)

unique and unintended affordance of the building reveals the dichotomy between bricolage and blue-print. Indeed, the tower had begun as a “blueprint project” which failed in 1994 due to bankruptcy. (Ahmad, n.d.) This failure of the “total-design” provided an opportunity for a spontaneous social reaction.

This need-driven act “enabled over 700 families to occupy 28 of the 45 stories in the modern ruin, creating an enduring community.” (Ahmad, n.d.) Torre David sets a strong precedent for bricolage’s ability to respond to the urgent needs in an urban context by literally building on the existing.

This example illustrates what can be achieved through the combination of bricolage and text-book architecture, and makes one wonder what could be achieved within a framework which truly balances both processes, allowing for slightly less anarchy and slightly more control than in informal housing.

Furthermore, these examples make a compelling argument in favour of viewing urban fabric as a didactic instrument. It is interesting to note that Torre David was the subject of an exhibition in the Venice Biennale in 2012, at which it won the Golden Lion Award for the best installation. (Saieh, 2012) The presentation of this precedent demonstrates the budding

interest of the architecture community in learning from the unexpected and appreciation of the impromptu process which allows for temporary and fragile architecture to coexist with institutionalized architecture.

“While the scale and place of contemporary urbanization challenges the notion of permanence as a basic condition of cities, discourses on urbanism tend to still be anchored by architecture. Pop up settlements and ephemeral urbanism challenge the notion of a city as a stable and permanent entity.” (Mehrotra, 2017, p.13) To conclude, it would seem that impromptu architecture can exist with the urban scale, and partaking in bricolage can enable the satisfaction of immediate needs at an urban scale in order to enable growth and change. The question is therefore not whether bricolage and institutionalised architecture can coexist -as informal settlements confirm that this is the case-, or whether there is a (niche) interest in doing so, but rather how can they be integrated within an industry which antagonises spontaneity and unplanned-ness. This question, dear reader, we leave with you.

Top left : Cover of Collage City (“Cover of Collage City”, 1978) Top right : Model of the original bank headquarters proposal of the Confinanzas Group. (“Model of the original bank headquarters proposal of the Confinanzas Group, n.d.)

Bottom : Model of the occupied Torre de David at an exhibition in Berlin organised by Urban think tank + ETH Zurich. The model itself resemble a form of humble bricolage. (Designboom, 2013)

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Exploration #3

Do drawings hold the pen?

A reflection on the mediating role of drawing within the design process.

The assembly of our detail, seemingly hurried or negligent, tells the tale of a construction which was never drawn before realisation. As such, the detail was never mediated or translated into telling a carefully crafted narrative. Edward Ford wrote about two forms of architectural expression: abstraction and animation. While the former is the “expression of geometry, rhythm, and proportion; the apparent absence of weight, material, and external force” (Ford, 2011, p.288), the latter is the opposite, revolving around embodied experience. The detail we have observed is a clear case of animation over abstraction, and that may be partly due to the lack of premonitory drawing and the re-rationalisation it brings about. Instead, the detail is only legible in its rawest form: as a materialisation of its purpose, assembly, maker and context. Without the drawing’s intervention, the detail cannot lie.

Evans went so far as to say that the drawing “bends and breaks the design.” (Evans as cited in Decroos, Patteeuw, Çiçek, Engels, 2020, p.15) Indeed, Scarpa’s cartoni evidences that drawing and imagined objects entertain a reciprocal influence. In Scarpa’s drawings “functionality is mediated by the search for representation and expression through the making against the bare structure of logic; it stands for the union of res and verba, that is, for the union of representation and function.”

(Frascari, 1996, p.506) Through cyclical transformation from drawing to building, the architectural object is conceived, altered, adapted and mediated.

According to Frascari, this process is what enables the detail to take on historical, social, and individual functions. (Frascari, 1996) It

transpires that the drawing, as an intervening medium, changes the scope of what is eventually built. The process of translation, from an intangible 3D concept, to 2D representation and back to 3D object creates friction and alters the ontological nature of the object as it oscillates between dimensions. Scarpa’s interest in craftsmanship and his awareness in the “game [of] matching of the construction of a representation with a construction of an edifice.” (Frascari, 1996, p.507) enables his work to be enriched by the drawing process. In essence, the drawing presents itself not as a representation of architecture but as a medium for conceiving it.

The drawing reveals itself problematic when the cyclical process gives way to linearity, becoming a set of instructions.

The draughtsman transformation goes undetected and the drawing of the thing becomes confused with the thing itself.

Frascari talked about this with the advent of the construction industry which separated roles : “the detail was no longer seen as a joint; instead, it was seen as a production drawing.” (1996, p.503) Evans studied this disconnection between the practice of drawing and built outcome, observing that “architects do not make buildings; they make drawings of buildings.” (Evans as cited in Decroos, Patteeuw, Çiçek, Engels, 2020, p.15) He calls us to reconsider the agency of the drawing as a productive actor within the design process, exploiting the gap between drawing and building rather than ignoring it, or perhaps worse, detaching both terms from each other altogether.

Evans observed the disadvantage of architects who “never [work] directly with the object of their thought, always working at it through some, intervening medium, almost always the drawing, Continued

Drawings Brion Tomb (Scarpa, n.d.)

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Insert your instructions here

The drawing has intrinsic limitations of reference. Not all things architectural […] can be arrived at through drawing” Robin Evans in Translations from Drawing to Building, p.159 (1996)

while painters and sculptors […] all ended up working on the thing itself which, naturally, absorbed most of their attention and effort.” (Evans, 1996, p.156) Much energy is diverted from the realisation of the thing to the representation of it prior to its making. Evans also noted that architects were depicted with their drawings rather than buildings, unlike sculptor and painters which could be seen with their final product, begging the question: Is this architectural culture truly a culture of construction or one of design and representation? If one subtracted drawing from architecture, what would we build?

These aren’t so much questions that need to be answered but rather reflected upon and experimented with. Evans wrote : “The drawing has intrinsic limitations of reference. Not all things architectural […] can be arrived at through drawing. There must also be a penumbra of qualities that might only be seen darkly and with great difficulty through [the drawing]. If judgement is that these qualities in and around the shadow line are more interesting than those laid forth clearly in drawing, then such drawing should

be abandoned, and another way of working instituted.”

(Evans, 1996, p.159) For instance, Cadwell observed in Strange Detail the inability of his drawings to convey the complexity of Scarpa’s work : they “refused to cooperate. [...] The drawings were stubborn; they cast [him] off.” (Cadwell, 2007, p.xvi) He found a remedy in resorting to narrative texts which represents and substitutes for first-hand experience. This revelation, which should not have been one, illustrates how certain unconventional tools, usually shunned from architectural education, can account for far more diverse and layered architecture. Experimental practice would then consist of dethroning the draughtsman, discarding the drawing board and building without drawing. This would result in an impromptu product as one’s ability to pre-empt realisation is limited without using various forms of representation.

Indeed, once aware of the affordance and limitation of the tools which are taken for granted, we become able to consciously exploit these processes rather than following their standardised, conventional uses. (Schwartz and Schön, 1987)

Blank CAD template available online. (“Drawing Title Blocks for CAD software”, n.d.)

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Exploration #4

Humble practice

Becoming Bricoleurs in times of crisis

In the context of a global pandemic, the reality of how we live has changed. We have become hyper-aware about the people we stand near, and surfaces we touch.

As such, “COVID-19 is forcing all of us to be aware of how the design of the built environment dictates how we experience the world and each other.” (Sanders as cited in Tingely, 2020) The last months have seen an upsurge in designer proposals attempting to mitigate the crisis.

Architects have found themselves uniquely placed to respond to new needs, transforming conference centres into emergency hospitals, and brainstorming alternative layouts and circulation patterns to enable restaurants to operate within the new social distancing norms. Their input has ranged immensely – in their scale, ingenuity and effectiveness.

It is the “small and nimble” ideas -hand sown masks, 3D printed valves and distillery brewed hand sanitizer- that seem to be most effective. (Anderson, 2020) These DIY COVID-19 measures are impromptu in all of their facets: temporary, they sport the marks of their hurried making and tell the story of a wider context. Their installation was not the work of an architect or designer, but rather of an anonymous maker, according to the budget and materials at hand. These humble marks within the built environment have little to do with the dubious gimmicks and gadgets proposed by distanced designers, yet arguably, these are the changes that had the most effect. Revised and unfinished, bricolage also presents itself uniquely placed to respond to a moving target, as our understanding of the virus changes daily.

In the meantime, individuals have been adapting the city to the new requirements instinctively, with tape, spray paint, hazard cordons and traffic cones as their weapons of choice. ‘Needs must’ changes occurred almost overnight, with plexiglass shields erected in grocery stores, and hand sanitiser stations and taped lines appearing on the pavement to enable safe queuing.

A future in which we commingle again is hard to envision right now, however, the impromptu is being made permanent, with Sharpies-and-duct-tape giving way to formal signs, and pavements and cycling paths gaining on the road for good. The legacy-to-be of the pandemic is becoming a full-time feature within the landscape. While this is perhaps in tacit recognition that COVID-19 is here to stay, it seems to also be an acknowledgement that the value of the ad-hoc changes are not limited to the timespan of the crisis which gave them life. What seems to be at work here is reminiscent of Tactical Urbanism, whereby low-cost, informal and often makeshift installations can give a voice to those who desire change and who aren’t heard. According to Hurley, these hacks represent the “democratization of design, a spirit perfectly attuned to a summer that’s seen the biggest protests in the U.S. since the 1960s.” (2020) He goes on to write that “for now, at least, anyone can be an architect” highlighting how thin and blurry the boundary between architecture and bricolage is.

“These design hacks — attempts to rescript how people use buildings and outdoor areas during a viral pandemic — represent the messy in-between of dealing with a crisis in real-time. […] They reveal real ingenuity under time and budget constraints, in the spirit of a roll-up-your-sleeves variety of urban planning known as tactical urbanism. And they will likely make more difference to virus-spreading behaviours than interventions by professional designers, which are far more expensive, less flexible, and unlikely to become ubiquitous, especially as a recession bites.“ (Hurley, 2020) An aerial view shows people gathered inside painted circles on the grass encouraging social distancing at Dolores Park in San Francisco, California on May 22, 2020 amid the novel corona virus pandemic.

(Edelson, 2020)

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Exploration #5

Impromptu as a salvaging operation Bricolage’s teaching on sustainable architecture

While the current global threat revolves around COVID-19 however other challenges are to come, namely the impending recession, and an environmental crisis whose subsequent effects aren’t fully understood. We are facing an intensifying sequence of overlapping crises, and within this context, the designer community will have to change attitude; juggling, on the one hand, a responsive design process driven by urgency and on the other, preventative design measures and protocols. COVID-19 has highlighted the value of bricolage in crisis response, however, does impromptu architecture provide any help in curbing future issues such as climatic uncertainty? The likes of Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion have fueled new interest in the green agenda in the past years. To further this, the positive environmental impact of the pandemic have raised questions as to how the “new normal” might preserve some of the pandemic changes. Wainwright writes that “we might have no choice, given the way our voracious urban consumption habits are going. [..]

On our current course, we are set to triple material extraction in 30 years, and triple waste production by 2100. If we stand any chance of averting climate catastrophe, we must start with buildings – and stop conceiving them in the same way we have for centuries.” (2020) The impromptu bears many characteristics that may contribute to improving the sustainability of construction, namely through the creative re-use

of discarded components, adaptable environments, localised processes, bio-receptive environments, increased community involvement in the process and the implementation of low tech, low cost and out-of-the-box solutions. Architecture practices at the vanguard of a new circular economy of architecture such as BC architects and Rotor Deconstruction & Consulting, in Brussels and Super Use Studio, in Rotterdam, have been working on developing a process which makes use of redundant materials such as construction waste and manufacturing off products. This shift in process, essentially a salvage operation, has required increased flexibility on behalf of all the actors of the construction industry. “We have to think of buildings as material depots […] where every part of a building would be treated as a temporary service, rather than owned.” (Rau as cited in Wainwright, 2020) Rotor explained that the practice tests methods for the “professionalisation of reuse” explaining that architects exert huge power in influencing material and capital flows, and this power should reflect on the social, environmental and economic consequences of those processes. (Devlieger as cited in Heathcote, 2020) Slowly these companies are tackling the stigma associated with a less controlled aesthetic, and testing how the desired aspect of construction might change to a less perfection appearance, reminiscent of the Japanese Wabi-Sabi aesthetic. Indeed, beyond the environmental imperative, Devlieger notes that “architects always talk about their interest in ‘materiality’ [and] there is so much Continued

A team of workers demounts ceramic tiles in the Institut de Génie Civil in Liège (OPHOTO, 2020)

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embedded meaning in these materials, the history and use.” (Devlieger as cited in Heathcote, 2020) Once we view materials as valuable in their own right, buildings can be viewed as palimpsest made up of reused components which have “accrued value by ageing in place, becoming part of the city’s memory.” (Heathcote, 2020) This bottom-up approach whereby the architect adopts a humble approach in the face of the brief, client and construction workers may tell the tale of a vital shift of the role of the profession, whereby architects adopt an increasingly important coordination role and occasionally accept to pass the drawing board on, to craftspeople, materials, skill sets and circumstances. This “loss of control” Frampton talks of in the Epilogue of Studies in Tectonic Culture, is regarded as negative, however, one might view this as a rather natural and perhaps even desirable evolution, with Frampton’s views on this topic perhaps belonging to an older generation of architects whose imperatives differ. Similarly, his critique on digital tools may be misplaced, as it is not so much tools that pose problems but their misuse. BIM workflows, for instance, are often blamed for stripping projects of qualities we believe tantamount to valuable architecture, however, the same technology has started playing a big role in the circular economy in the Netherlands where the “material passports” of new projects will enable their seamless re-use (Wainwright, 2020). As such, digital tools

are not an enemy to bricolage, once bricolage is viewed as a set of intentions rather than a set process. Indeed bricolage itself is all about adaptability and making use of available tools. The designer role is, therefore, both one of coordination, as well as one of critical reflection on the use made of his or her tools.

“There is the paradox: how to become modern and to return to sources; how to revive an old, dormant civilization and take part in universal civilization.”

(Ricoeur, 1965) To operate with this bricolage ethos, a whole company structure is required to review how responsibility can be shared in the construction industry. To this effect, many companies are non-profits (Rotor), or divided themselves into multiple sister companies, becoming their own supplier, client, architect and contractor (BC architects).

However, Wainwright wrote the shift in construction paradigm “can’t just rely on a few progressive architects willing to take on the entire process themselves. Nor can it depend on the moral conscience of a few enlightened clients. For a more circular conception of construction to take off, there must be an economic incentive.”

(Wainwright, 2020) Heathcote further points out that “it will take shifts in public policy and regulation to bring about a circular economy in cities.” (2020) The changes required of the industry are vast however, we choose to believe that this can, and will happen.

Reinstallation of 1940’s tiles in Tivoli RTT building (Rotor Deconstruction and Consulting, n.d.)

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Act III Performing Having formulated a theory and tested it intellectually, we wished to put it to use by performing following its new-found principles.

This experiment would make us aware of the intuitive qualities of impromptu architecture, by identifying how it differs from and/or complements our usual process. This would additionally highlight the invisible limitations of our current analysis and design methods.

To this effect, we set up a construction experiment that responds to a genuine physical need we experienced since the beginning of our study on the impromptu.

In the context of a global pandemic which has forced us to study from home, we observed that our workspace was entirely virtual, consisting of an endless WhatsApp conversation, a heavy Google drive and countless Zoom meetings. Due to this, we experienced a need for a common physical working space which would break up the monotony of studying in the same place every day. This new study space would provide the opportunity to separate spaces for life from those for study, as well as create a virtual “common table� which spans national borders.

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“Furniture supplies the immediate physical environment in which our bodies act and react; for us, urban animals, furniture is thus our primary territory.�

Bernard Cache in Earth Moves, p.49 (1995)

The platforms that we used to collaborate made us acknowledge the territorial potential embedded in furniture, once it had been augmented with digital technology. It yielded a capacity to bring us all together in a common, albeit virtual, space.

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Limitations

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In our attempt to carrying out this making experiment in a rigorous way, we defined a framework. This began with setting out limitations that would ensure that the process would rid itself of the nonimpromptu design stages we would usually employ. Furthermore, we identified our interest in building at a 1:1 scale: we wanted to create the thing itself, rather than a filtered representation of the thing.

The making part of our experiment was crucial. To reduce the mediation between our minds, hands and materials, we deprived ourselves of the tool of drawing. Each of us built their own study space while using readily available materials, and making use of the existing built condition, whether floor or abutting wall. These following pages show our simultaneous building, an unrehearsed performance of four bodies fulfilling the same need.

Link to the video of our simultaneous making youtu.be/Lds2AEB3qT4

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Making

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The “Afterhand” Drawing

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Donald Schön’s work on examining how professionals solve problems in their discipline and which tools they use to do so (1987) invited us to question the hegemony of the drawing in our field. The next step of the experimental procedure consisted of testing the influence of the drawing by throwing the protocol on its head: instead of drawing beforehand, we would draw after our making. Effectively, we would draw ‘afterhand’. Through its initial subtraction, and later reintroduction of the drawing, its influence would be visible.

By using this typical architectural tool we merged our 4 individual wholes into components of a single, collective whole. We replicated the highly staged and meditated process we would usually do before construction: we modelled what we had built in 3D (Rhinoceros), extracted 2D .dwg file (AutoCAD), which were then rearranged and enhance through Adobe programs. Our delayed drawing process resulted in an absurd and almost parodic architectural drawing which reflects a totally “unreal” reality, as it merges four real objects into a fictional whole.

It highlighted the translatory role of drawing which made it difficult to convey the characteristics of the impromptu. Effectively, the intermediate step of drawing inhibits many of the qualities that make these constructions so remarkable. This led to the realisation that if we had drawn our study spaces ‘beforehand’, and followed the drawn instructions to the letter, the result would have been entirely different.

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Epilogue A work-in-progress Understanding the whole is aided by understanding the parts, Understanding the parts is aided by understanding the whole.

As the circle is repeated, understanding expands.

This collaborative process enabled us to reflect on our own culture and architectural education. We found that architecture evolved from an impromptu practice to an institutionalised one, whose results are limited by unconscious traditions. The potential buildings we might design in the future will most likely be planned, rehearsed, reasoned and mediated and we wonder how our discovery of the impromptu can inform our future practice. We wish to be more aware of the intuitive qualities of impromptu architecture and query what they offer to the culture we belong to ourselves while wondering what the invisible limitations of our current analysis and design methods are.

In the Reflective Practitioner (1987), Donald Schön wrote that once aware of the affordance and limitation of one’s tools, one becomes able to consciously exploit these processes rather than following their standardised, conventional uses. Relating this to our field, we have observed that a more mindful use of architecture’s traditions may remedy certain issues in the current built environment and provide new opportunities.

However, rather than simply reflecting, reading and discussing, one should aim to recreating this process manually oneself: knowing about these biases does not guarantee their understanding. We, therefore,

would like to suggest a method that enables this understanding to occur: after identifying traditions that one has critically reflected on, we suggest a conscious subtraction of those. Undergoing the familiar process with this subtraction may highlight the influence of those tools and traditions. Their reintroducing can then be done consciously.

Within the hermeneutic spiral of exploration, reflection and performance one can effectively challenge unconscious biases. As this circle is repeated, understanding expands. It is important to note that this one-time exercise’s result is not so much revealing a new ‘truth’, as it is an invitation to practising with a reflective and curious attitude.

We would like to conclude that we have both learned about the value of impromptu applied to architecture as well as found new energy to question our biases and aprioris brought about by our architectural education. We are not calling for a dismissal of our current tools, but suggesting a change of attitude towards the impromptu, inclined to borrow what is at hand. Even more so in unpredictable situations of crisis like today, impromptu architecture can increase resilience. Where planned solutions fail us, it is more important than ever to make use of what others have produced before us and be able to react quickly and meaningfully to it.

Exploration

Performance

Reflection

References Though not requested, we believe that for the purpose of academic honesty citing our sources comprehensively was necessary. We took the liberty to structure this in a slightly unconventional way in order to show the evolution of our thought process. The sources are therefore shown per act in alphabetic order.

Act 1 - Exploring Brâncuși, C. (1918). Endless Column [Sculpture]. Târgu Jiu, Romania.

Cache, B. (2000). “Digital Semper”. In C. Davidson (Ed.), Anymore (pp. 190197). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Evans, R. (1996). Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays.

London: Architectural Association.

Frampton, K. (1995). Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture (pp. 1 – 27, 299 – 387).

Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press.

Husserl, E. (2008). Die Lebenswelt - Auslegungen der vorgegebenen Welt und ihrer Konstitution. Aachen: Sowa, Rochus.

Levi-Strauss, C. (1966). The Savage Mind. London.

Semper, G., Mallgrave, H. F., Robinson, M., & Getty Research Institute.

(2004). Style in the technical and tectonic arts, or, Practical aesthetics. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute.

Sze, S. (2019). You mark time through objects [Sculpture]. Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom.

Tschumi, B. (1996). Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press.

Van Eyck, A., Ligtelijn, V. & Strauven, F. (2008). The child, the city and the artist.

Amsterdam: SUN. Von Uexküll, J. (2010). A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans, trans.

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Wehrli, U. (2002). Kunst aufräumen. Zürich: Kein & Aber.

Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press.

Mehrotra, R., Vera, F., (2017). Ephemeral urbanism: Does Permanence matter ?

Babel International.

Decroos, B., Patteeuw, V., Çiçek, A., Engels, J., (2020). OASE 105: Practices of Drawing. Rotterdam : nai010 publishers.

Oppenheimer Dean, A., & Hursley, T., (2002). Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency, Princeton Architectural Press.

Exploration #2 “Cover of Collage City”. (1978). [Photo]. mitpress.mit.edu. Retrieved 23 June 2020, from mitpress.mit.edu/books/collage-city.

Designboom. (2013) Model of the occupied Torre de David [Model]. designboom.com. Retrieved 23 June 2020, from www.designboom.com/ architecture/urban-think-tank-and-torre-david-visit-berlin/.

EneasMx. (2017). Torre de David - Centro Financiero Confinanzas [Photo]. archdaily.com. Retrieved 23 June 2020, from www.archdaily.com/900858/lastfloors-of-the-infamous-torre-de-david-have-tilted-following-an-earthquake.

Mehrotra, R., Mayoral, J. & Vera, F. (2017). Ephemeral Urbanism: Does Permanence Matter?. Babel International.

“Model of the original bank headquarters proposal of the Confinanzas Group.” (n.d.) [Model]. elguisantedigital.wordpress.com. Retrieved 23 June 2020, from elguisantedigital.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/sorprendente-mira-la-maquetaoriginal-de-la-torre-david/.

Popper, K. (1963). Towards a Rational Theory of Tradition. In K. Popper (Ed.), Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (pp. 161182). Routledge.

Rowe, C., & Koetter, F. (1978). Collage City. MIT Press.

Act 2 - Reflecting Theory

Ahmad, T. F. (n.d.). Architecture as a Subversive Act: Slums, Walled Cities, and the Torre David. architizer.com. Retrieved 23 June 2020, architizer.com/blog/ practice/details/architecture-as-a-subversive-act/ Saieh, N. (2012). Venice Biennale 2012: Torre David, Gran Horizonte / Urban

Frascari, M. (1996). “The Tell-the-Tale Detail”, in Kate Nesbitt: Theorizing a

Think Tank + Justin McGuirk + Iwan Baan. archdaily.com. Retrieved 28 June

New Agenda For Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory (pp. 498 –

2020, from www.archdaily.com/269481/venice-biennale-2012-torre-david-gran-

513). New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

horizonte-urban-think-tank-justin-mcguirk-iwan-baan.

Moholynagy, S. (1957). Native Genius in Anonymous Architecture. New York: Horizon Press.

Exploration #3

Rudofsky, B. (1965). Architecture without Architects. New York: Museum of

Cadwell, M. (2007). Strange Details (pp. xv – xxi, 2 – 46). Cambridge, MA, and

Modern Art.

London: MIT Press.

Exploration #1

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Decroos, B., Patteeuw, V., Çiçek, A., Engels, J., (2020). OASE 105: Practices of Drawing. Rotterdam : nai010 publishers.

Levi-Strauss, C. (1966). The Savage Mind, quotes from pp. 16-19. London.

“Drawing Title Blocks for CAD software.” (n.d.). [Template]. yourspreadsheets.

Jencks, C., & Silver, N. (1972). Adhocism: The Case for Improvisation.

co.uk. Retrieved 23 June 2020, from www.yourspreadsheets.co.uk/title-blocks-

for-cad.html.

SlYaCGNe7wSayKesBqzNiBjO0u9wzuGvERA_MPNZROduVjbs.

Evans, R. (1996). Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays.

Ricoeur, P. (1965). History and Truth. Evanston: Northwestern University Press

London: Architectural Association.

Rotor Deconstruction and Consulting. (n.d.). Reinstallation of 1940’s tiles in

Schwartz, H., & Schön, D. (1987). The Reflective Practitioner: How

Tivoli RTT Building. Retrieved 29 July, 2020 from rotordc.com/reinstallation-of-

Professionals Think in Action. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32(4), 614. doi:

1940s-tiles-in-tivoli-rtt-building/

10.2307/2392894

Wainwright, O. (2020). The case for ... never demolishing another building.

Ford, E. (2011). The Architectural Detail. New York: Princeton Architectural

theguardian.com. Retrieved 23 June 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/

Press.

cities/2020/jan/13/the-case-for-never-demolishing-another-building

Frascari, M. (1996). “The Tell-the-Tale Detail”. In K. Nesbitt (Ed.), Theorizing a New Agenda For Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory (pp. 498 – 513). New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Act 3 - Performing

Scarpa, C. (n.d.) Drawings of Brion Tomb. [Drawing]. catawiki.com. Retrieved

Cache, B. (1995). Earth Moves: The Furnishing of Territories. MIT Press.

23 June 2020, from www.catawiki.com/l/34234913-carlo-scarpa-disegni-tomba-

Rowe, C., & Koetter, F. (1978). Collage City. MIT Press.

brion.

Schwartz, H., & Schön, D. (1987). The Reflective Practitioner: How

Exploration #4

Professionals Think in Action. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32(4), 614. doi: 10.2307/2392894

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87

TUDelft

2020

Chair of Methods and Analysis

Başak Günalp

88

Benoît Marcou

Hannah Wehrle

Saskia Tideman