Savannah Evelyn Mason
Selec ted Works 2011-2012
Undergraduate Design_ University of South Florida 4007 Palmetto Palm Court Carrollwood, Fl, 33624 savannah11@mail.usf.edu 813 260 9281
Familiar perceptions of architectural practice might suggest solutions of balance between volume and order , harmony in material and gravity with resolution alleviating and satisfying the spatial demands. These connotations are reliant upon beliefs of the architecture as technical syntax provided through logic, eliciting pleasure through its fulfillment on necessity and simple aesthetics. In many ways my architectural appreciation birthed from the very same ideals; technical and physical understandings of design accrued from adolescent experiences exploring foreign landscapes, or perhaps more basic statements of construction developed with prior fixation on Lego’s and art. A methodical approach to architecture seemingly systematic and practical; inadvertently suppresses the conceptual ideas that deliver architecture into art, from the physical to the metaphysical. The perception of abstraction as a series of architectural components with unrelated intentions serving a uniform intention reveals architecture as a proponent of conscious and subconscious definition. Notions of from, space, and order not only satisfy the physical demands of space, but transcend the limits of thought to define art in architecture. The works defining my academic career thus far, exemplify a shift between the potential and kinetic; ideas evolving to consume the intentions of studios, while at the same time obtaining realness through strong development of technical skills and structure.
CONTENTS
02
Ink + Oil
INTRO I 14
Cube of Constraints + Infinite Matrix
20
Combative Formations
30
The Three Perfections
INTRO II 36
Hybrid Analysis + Introspection
42
Methodologies of Light
59
Foreign Landscapes
This portfolio is intended to provide insight on the developmentthroughanacademiccareer, markinglevelsof achievementwhichcharacterizethefundamentalsofartand concept, and never straying far from reality and resolution.
Ink + Oil
02
'Megascops asio'
24" X 18" _ Ink + Watercolor
[Independent work]
'Winged Being I'
11" x 17" _ Watercolor, Tea, Ink
[Independent work]
'Reciprocity I'
15" x 15" _ Ink + Graphite
[Independent work]
Ink + Oil
08
'Buteo Jamaicensis'
17" x 17" _ Watercolor + Ink on Wood
[Independent work]
'Tenebrism'
36" x 24" _ Oil on wood
[Independent work]
Cube of Constraints + Infinite Matrix
Professor Jason Welty _ Spring 2012
A launching and classification of construction and drawings that travels probabilities of space-making. This study involves the transformation of past, and prior endeavors from which must be cultured and emulated. The fundamental nature of design is to clench a series of finite permutations that are, strengthened and built upon, rather than proceed in a destructive process. A kit of ingredients are assembled and imprisoned within the cube which plants the seed of mutation.
5 weeks
Intro I
14
The kit meets another set of comparetive mutations with their own spacial structure, and the cubic construct undergos a process of transformaton.
InfiniteMatrix
Combative Formations + Massing
Professor Jason Welty _ Spring 2012 “There is little direct attack in Jeet Kune Do. Practically all offensive action is indirect, coming after a feint or taking the form of countering after an opponent’s attack is foiled or spent ; it requires agile manuvering, feinting and drawing an opponenet, a scientific plan...” -Bruce Lee The ambition of this process is not to reach specific outcomes, but a series of linking ideas inspired by Bruce Lee’s art and philosophy of fighting, called Jeet Kune Do. Every step and mark towards this project is a direct result of its predecessors. A collage of the primary sketches represent influential design decisions that developed a language of presence and absence, an efficient flood of weight and gravity, and an unmistakable entrance were all decisions are a web of unions.
5 weeks
Intro I
20
Fabrication of a kit of elements that are destined to become a joint mass and system that represent individual themes in Jeet Kune Do.
Ideas of interstitial occupation and the condition of in-between yields a different character of internal space than that of the nested spaces created among the massing of parts that define a boundray. This abstraction of the ground plane gives way to human activity and simple ideas of circulation that are defined by a network of programs.
“If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” - Bruce Lee’s Tao of Jeet Kune Do
Intro I
28
Original Artwork by Zheng Qian
The Three Perfections
Professor Jason Welty _ Spring 2012 The ancient Chinese culture believed that painting, poetry and calligraphy were the ultimate subjects in visual arts, and rarely did a single artist master all three. During the eighth century the Chinese poet, painter and calligrapher Zheng Qian presented a gift of his work to the emperor. Delighted, the emperor inscribed the words Zheng Qian's Three Perfections.� Since that time, these three art forms have been connected and appreciated as the ultimate craft.
2 weeks
Intro I
30
Does Architecture dominate landscape? Within ancient Chinese art, Architecture is juxtaposed with natural subjects to create inexhaustible tensions: between the confined spaces and the infinite natural realms. Harmony between Architecture and Landscape, however, is achieved by such an ingenious use of the creative tensions between opposite forces. Multiple forces are represented upon the plaster anchor which represents the dichotomy between opposing forces of Architecture and the natural landscape.
A System of elements that rely on one another to exist. This work is an exploration of how a volatile anchor can exist in flux, or a sense of tectonic movement, to replicate tensions caused by the pushing and pulling of forces relating to ground, and to the other systems. The three systems created from plaster, wood and chip board is an analysis of the intimate relationship among painting, poetry, and calligraphy in Chinese culture and how each discipline makes for a lively interchange and interaction that can only exist and depend on one another to survive.
Hybrid Analysis + Introspection
Professor Brandon Hicks _ Summer 2012 An analysis of Steven Holl's Stretto House and Alvaro Siza's Leca da Palmeira's Pool introducesanintensestudyofhowconceptsandideascanbeexpressedgraphically. The focuse of these hybrid drawings explore the language of a section and plan relationship, and an understanding of overhead and ground plan conditions. They express circulation and variations of program, and the contrast between public and private space.
5 weeks
Intro II
36
Steven Holl's Stretto House
Alvaro Siza’s Leca da Palmeira’s Pool Intro II
38
Leca da Palmeira’s Pool introspection broadens into a life of its own as is instigates through a manifold of systems that are delineated by materiality. The linear elements depict an overhead condition, based on Siza’s wisdom of Japanese joinery, that comprise of chambers of dark private corridors that enhance human activity, heighten a sense of awareness, and anticipation of the environment outside.
Methodologies of Light
Professor Brandon Hicks _ Summer 2012 The development of plenum space is an extension of Alavro Siza’s philosophies and a generator for design discussions. This analysis is explorations of the uses of light, and how light and shadow alter, mold, and erode a structure.
6 weeks
Intro II
42
Studies of Light that obscure, expose, and sculpt.
In a world of darkness absent of all light, where a promise beholds the only sight. A structural oasis appears, breathing deep with life. A journey begins in this land of many, where a balance of light and shadow bear souls of plenty and there are paths to be taken. Walk this way amongs the wells of life, its gills plead like water from a desert song.
Intro II
46
Light Wells
Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence, Italy
Rome, Italy
Lakenheath, Suffolk, England
Rome, Italy
All pictures taken with a Canon EOS Rebel XS 35mm SLR film camera
Foreign landscapes in Film Photography
Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.� -Marcel Proust
Photo
59
This is a journey of bridging ideas of opposite nature that seem to depend on one another, as day depends on night, the imagined and the real. This is an origin of change; without opposition there would be no progress, as winter and spring, and the intrinsic North and South. This is a chronological emphasis of how a creative journey has become a continuous manifold of didactic and methodical approach to design, while alternate conceptual design process and nodes of representation are frequently experimented. From the first project in the design portfolio to the last, identifying progression from entry to exit, demonstrates a consistent syntax amongst development of architectural skills and understanding. The language of art begins to narrate, and create analogic meaning and sustains a life and value to design. This is a vulnerable journey and a muse for the unknown and anticipation for the uncertain. Design is vulnerable to the world, and by understanding this lifestyle we reach new plateaus of risk and fulfillment.
Helensburg, Scotland,