CellYouAre
Sheng Yi Lee 342621 Parallel Fields
to my family and closest friends; my amazing classmates at parallel fields andy & wilson who are always pushing me forward thank you for all your support this semester. march-june 2013
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1. the story
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what if
What if we need a new home to accommodate our new lifestyle in the age of the Internet where information is so readily accessible? We are gradually feeding this invisible database with information about our personal lives. We expose and make ourselves accessible to others from the comfort of our own abode over a medium that doesn’t require real-time physical exposure. This is what we know as the social media phenomenon.
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With the rise of the smartphone, it has become our immediate key to the world of social media. And now that social media is becoming a virtual account of our lifestyle; could we physically live within a social media platformwhere our phone is the key to our home?
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the new way we share
Social media pushes the boundaries of the concept of sharing. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, believes that “the world will be better if you share more.” Once upon a time we were told not to talk to strangers - social media suggests otherwise. YouTube ‘celebrities’ - vloggers who have millions of viewers across the globe - willingly provide us with personal insights and accounts of their daily lives to an audience they have never met. FourSquare allows you to broadcast your exact location; some even take the liberty of checking in to their own homes. Tweets are treated as short bursts of thoughts - meaningful or not. Through various platforms we are able to share with our family, friends - or strangers - important news or events, which is a remarkable way of keeping in touch with people. However, we also find that the most trivial things in life are suddenly worth mentioning once we have a crowd of listeners: “I broke my toenail”; “I had leftovers for dinner”; “The man next to me stinks”. We broadcast our own reality shows. 6
So why is it that in the real world we are less likely to expose this much about ourselves, when the potential opportunities and dangers of doing so are no more nor less than flashing our lives on the Internet? The Internet grants us a certain level of anonymity and manipulation. We can project an identity online without letting our ‘true’ selves be shown. We can construct the way we are seen over a virtual platform, and this authority is enticing. The question then is: how would we feel if our homes no longer provided us the shelter we find comfort in whilst we indulge in these seemingly consequenceless virtual identities? What if ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ no longer held their traditional spatial distinctions?
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the new way we connect
By redefining the notion of sharing, technology has also intervened in the way we connect and build relationships. We have become absorbed in the benefits of long-distance interactions that wireless mobile devices allows us that sometimes we forget about the person sitting next to us. Virtual presence is gradually taking precedence over our immediate reality - every day more of us are letting that statement ring true. Now that we are seemingly more ‘connected’, we have also been pulled apart. The internet has complete authority over the interstitial spaces that form around us - and maybe we own it too, but who is to say what happens to all this information: our conversations, our tweets - and who knows what else we’ve unknowingly exposed over this floating medium?
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Each of those moments you’ve spent checking your phone in the company of another - even those five seconds of immersion - you put yourself in a bubble. Instinctively the other person does the same, and an environment of proximal isolation briefly exists between two people. How then can this be translated into architecture? Social media has many virtual walls - a reflection of our personal boundaries - that we build, destroy and rebuild over constant reevaluation. On Monday she accepts a new friend request; Thursday she unfriends the same person she decided she didn’t know that well anyway. Our tendencies fluctuate, and it is possible that a built environment can accommodate this virtual behaviour in a physical setting.
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interstitial spaces: no man’s land
With Facebook’s 1.11 billion monthly active users, you tend to wonder where all this information is stored, who has private access to this gargantuan inventory of data - and what happens to it. Facebook After may just be a rumour but the core of its operation is enough to give you goosebumps. When a user dies, Facebook can access profile information and retrieve every comment the user has ever made to recreate this person’s virtual identity, simulating responses informed by a track record of his or her online behaviour.
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Be Right Back, the opening episode TV series Black Mirror’s second instalment, dwells on a similar note. It tells the story of a lady who loses her boyfriend to a car accident, then brings him back to ‘life’ via an experimental program that recreated people based on every piece of personal data stored online. The truth is we don’t know much about these interstitial territories between us and our information. We keep feeding this hungry beast, but where does all the food go?
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In this thesis I aim to reevaluate the way we connect with people in a physical environment, informed by our trends and behaviour in social media. This new spirit of living draws from the disparity in our sense of personal boundaries between the real and virtual worlds.
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2. the process
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how First is a series of conceptual studies on optics, drawing inspiration from James Turrell, Anish Kapoor and Dan Graham. Visual manipulation is an immediate way of distorting our perception of space: it makes us aware of how and why we are perceiving an object as such. It is this double awareness that reflects that which is lacking in our tendency to share over social media. Then it was important to identify which physical boundaries were capable of producing the same spatial and visual effects achieved in the exercise with optics, whilst maintaining the implications of virtual boundaries. Living in an apartment with a person you do not know can be daunting at first but eventually it is something you adapt to. Living peacefully, and mutually respecting, is the difficult part. To create a dwelling informed by the transparency and relative ease in the way we share over social media, I grouped spatial programs to draw analogies from virtual equivalents - such as Facebook Timelines, Walls, private messaging, etc. - to make sense, almost mathematically, of this hybrid living environment. It is from these studies that I hope to design a dwelling whose boundaries and spatial logistics enable its inhabitants to share space and information without question of politics, privacy and ownership.
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optics: where’s your head at?
A simple transparent surface has the potential to divide space in a less obvious yet meaningful way.
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Reflections off convex and concave surfaces can produce disorientating spaces by bending incident light.
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Refraction occurs when light passes through mediums of different densities; from air to acetate, in this instance. Light is momentarily deflected off its usual path.
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Screens allow us to filter light and visibility. Polarisers allow us to selectively filter specific wavelengths of light.
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Mirrors, when arranged thoughtfully, alter your perception of space and depth. Where do you really stand? Where is your head at?
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boundaries
1. 2. 3.
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flat mirror; Dan Graham, Present Continuous Past (1974) one-way mirror; Monica Bonvinici, Don’t Miss A Sec (2004) curved reflective surface; Anish Kapoor, Vertigo (2009)
boundaries
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shoji screen selective solid barriers; Ryuji Nakamura & Associates, Beam (2011) light mapping; Arnall, Knutsen & Martinussen, Immaterials: light painting WiFi (2011) 23
finding a system
From the list of boundaries I established a few guidelines for the spatial logistics of each program, treating each like it was its own social networking hub; i. privacy settings ii. number of users per session iii. Facebook equivalent iv. input/output of data v. potential enclosing ‘virtual’ wall
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
reflect distort screen data mapping block
Often we find that relationships in social media may not be mutual - you may be following an Instagram user who is not subscribed to your profile. There are plenty of these one-way roads online where one person is more interested in the life of another. But then humans can be fickle-minded creatures, too. In this matrix of program interrelationships, the option to toggle the visibility of these boundaries was key in maintaining the authority of the user. The gaps between the programs, the interstitial spaces of the dwelling, would then be regions out of our control.
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Attempts at building a spatial language.
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Spatial planning with furniture 1, 2, 3 & 4.
It only made sense to place this dwelling within an urban landscape where social media activity is greatest, if this project was to have meaningful relationships to the streetscape. Urban living is not generous with space, and neither is its broader context. Cities are brimming with people - nobody is ever alone, literally speaking. During rush hour public transport is saturated with a crowd intruding on every individual’s personal space yet completely engrossed in their smartphones and oblivious to their surroundings, only waiting to arrive at their destination. This dwelling needed to reflect that strongly.
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a system that adapts
The role of the dwelling found itself best suited as a site infill. Configuring the dwelling to an existing alleyway in the Melbourne CBD was done with relative ease. Upon changing the site, the process was no more difficult. This had become a spatial system that suited any given site - like a glue that expands to fill any gap.
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a system that understands you
The future of technology is a future of infinitely interactive surfaces sensitive to contextual information. We have smartphones - what about a smart building attuned to our wants and needs? If wireless networks support social systems, then maybe they can support our living systems too.
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lessons from light
The light show at the Hayward Gallery, London held between January to April 2013 showcased a collection of installations that used illumination as a medium of perception. These are the few projects that I have drawn inspiration from in designing the wireless interfaces within the dwelling structure, where light is both the source of information and the information itself.
Cylinder II, Leo Villareal (2013).
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MONUMENT, Jenny Holzer (2013). 31
Magic Hour, David Batchelor (2013).
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S=U=P=E=R=S=T=R=U=C=T=U=R=E, Cerith Wyn Evans (2013).
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The dwelling will act as a social media platform in itself, where light and wireless networks are the enablers of its operation. It is the infill to the darker regions of the urban built environment: the #hashtag to the wasted spaces of the city.
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3. the outcome
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the site: mcilwraith place
The site is McIlwraith Place, off Bourke Street at the Paris end of the CBD. It is 11m wide and serves as an entrance to a 7-storey car park, accommodating pedestrian and vehicular traffic. On its immediate right is a 3-storey building with a rooftop bar, Madame Brussels, which features an additional single-storey terrace for seating. Restaurants and bars are common along both sides of Bourke Street and this area is typically busy during the weekend.
[Right page] Site plan showing broader context. 36
CROSSLEY STREET
IVERPOOL STREET LIVERPOOL STREET
ROSSLEY STREET BOURKE STREET
BOURKE STREET
MCILWRAITH PLACE
MCILWRAITH PLACE
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the hashtag The dwelling, CellYouAre, will be plugged into this gap in the urban streetscape to create a continuous stream of social activity. Each CellYouAre will be adapted to the opportunities and constraints of its unique site. With McIlwraith Place the number of floors has been chosen to match the height of neighbouring Madame Brussels’ upper terrace, so that the dwelling maintains a close relationship to its social context. Its form deviates ever so slightly from the existing city grid because it doesn’t quite belong in an architectural sense : it is a social gadget, not a permanent concrete fixture. Just as hashtags on social media succinctly summarise and bring attention to even the most overlooked and underwhelmed aspects of a person’s life, this dwelling will serve the same purpose. Drivers will no longer miss the obscure entry to the carpark. This lane will no longer be just a passing blur.
[Left page] Conceptual render; the light to the darker spaces.
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Ground floor plan with neighbouring buildings. Entry and exit from the car park has not been affected by the introduction of this dwelling. 40
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Roof plan with neighbouring buildings. Overlapping floor plans create the impression of a wavering building envelope, as each floor has a different spatial configuration. 41
the timeline
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First floor plan 0
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This is a dwelling that is informed by our1 dependency3 on wireless networks and the way connections over social media are beginning to precede those in the physical world. Each floor is a timeline of three occupants. Each boundary is an interface that downloads, uploads and displays data retrieved from within the space it encloses. Each of the occupant’s smartphones becomes the key to their dwelling; remote controls to the way they want to watch their daily lives unfold. 42
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Second floor plan 0
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Three main columns run through the height of the building: they provide structural support but most 1 3 importantly they represent the omnipotent presence of the wireless network the occupants must connect to in order to sustain their lifestyle.
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Third floor plan 0
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1 Wireless technology is the infill to the darker, tighter3corners of our living spaces.
In the nooks of the dwelling are thin columns, packed densely, providing this light. They are bluetooth receivers that detect information from a smartphone when an occupant is nearby, so that spaces can be appropriated to the occupant’s whim.
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Fourth floor plan 0
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Fourth floor plan in isometric view; interactive columns and bluetooth receivers.
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Fourth floor plan in isometric view; complete layout of one timeline.
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the cell
1. 2. 3. 4.
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living toilet bedroom shower
1. 2. 3.
kitchen laundry dining
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the wall We connect over social media through a screen that is often too small. CellYouAre offers an entire landscape of such screens. It is the physical medium between two people. When you are not subscribed to a visual display of information nor the view of another, you see yourself. Whilst you float around this internet space the spotlight is on you; what do you have to offer today? How does your world compare to that of your neighbour? What would you like to tell the world? These interstitial spaces of reflection belong to everybody and nobody. They can contain everything yet nothing of immediate importance to you. This is social media.
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Fourth floor plan, closeup. 1. one-way mirror 2. clear glass interface 3. mechanical blinds
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Example of wall configuration [bedroom]
1. clear internal glass 2. one-way mirror 3. clear glass to building envelope 4. perforated blinds
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Basic boundary setup 1. one-way mirror directed inwards
2. one-way mirror directed outwards
Shared-use spaces require no level of privacy, only transparency. These are the places to be seen - like a public profile. - kitchen - living & dining - laundry
Personal and private spaces are hidden from view yet maintain surveillance over all other spaces. - bedroom - bathroom - shower
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The external envelope - spaces offset from the central floor area - converse with the urban context by broadcasting, like large TV screens, the internal social activity. Occupants, of course, are the writers of their own stories. The stream of data and media can act as a barrier: after all, information is distracting to an urban community obsessed with it. An alternative option to close themselves off and say goodnight - mechanical, perforated blinds. [Left] Inside and outside internet space.
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4. the life
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[top] Isometric illustration showing the dwelling in its context [right] External perspective at night 58
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Internal perspective; single occupant & interactive screens.
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Internal perspective from bedroom; multiple occupants.
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...this is living in social media. This is the CellYouAre.
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