Utorontopia for 14 Fall by siqiwang

[Revival]- [Machine] Poetic living A Revival-Machine is established on the rethinking of relationship between human, technology and nature. It functions based on a poetic sight and tries to enlighten the sequela that Modernity left.

Abstraction: Generally speaking, poetic living originated from the early romantic theories, using self-esteem and creativity to resist the danger of eliminating personalities that modern technology brings. Then the life will be fulfilled poetically. Heidegger once exemplified a poem by Holderlin to state that authenticity is the only way home in the process of modernity. In the eyes of a romanticist, nature is a lively and vivid organism; any empiricism or rational way of thinking would fail to preserve nature, whereas a poet can realize it by his intuition and imagination.

Fig.1 Poetic nature in Chinese landscape painting

Sensing or imagining is a way to first understand the nature and then prescribe it. On one hand, spontaneity and free spirit of human get amplified. Human, seen as a creative and representative body, express their personalities through various activities. On the other hand, Art was originally introduced as a grand activity to fulfill oneself. Art makes it possible to harmonize the spiritual freedom of human being and the outside world. In the poetic system of Holderlin, an aspiration for humanity as well as the unity with nature is his

highest ideal. Humanity is based on reason and sense. By means of the power of aesthetic, together with poetry and music, human gets closer to the essence of thinking and consciousness. The destination of nature is not culture or civilization, but is a free way of thinking that Heidegger deems as an existence of authenticity. Therefore, returning to authenticity is another way of seeking harmony. Human lives in nature poetically—“Though he has to earn a living, Man dwells poetically on this earth.” Heidegger comments that “dwells poetically” is the sole role that human beings could manage to find their way back. Writing poems is the purest and most innocent profession that Holderlin might think of. Because writing poems not only reveals a simple and unadorned form, but also freely and unrestrainedly constructs its image, addicting the poet himself to the wonderland. Poetry stores poetic existence by recalling, and recalling is close to authenticity. Lastly, living poetically is to abandon objectification and functionalization of the existence and to respect its intrinsic status. Then learn to think in depth according to the authentic side that will recall the slumbering memories.

Concrete: To some extent, Chinese landscape painting is a representation of poetic and pictorial splendor. It also presents a concrete form explaining how to live poetically. Painters liberate themselves to nature, releasing their emotions and sensibilities without any hesitation. In this way, their endless thinking becomes vivid on the paper. Apart from writing poems and painting landscape, some of the ancient Chinese scholars were fascinated about constructing gardens.

Fig. 2 part of “Gusu Fanhua Tu (Prosperous Suzhou)”, by Xu Yang, Qing Dynasty

Thus, Suzhou Gardens are also known as scholar gardens in China, for most of them were designed by people who were skilled in writing poems and painting. Therefore, revealing poetic living is what the gardens were built for. Shen Fu, a scholar from Qing Dynasty wrote in his Six Records of a Floating Life, “In laying out gardens, pavilions, wandering paths, small mountains of stone, and flower plantings, try to give the feeling of the small in the large and the large in the small, of the real in the illusion, and of the illusion in the reality. Some things should be hidden and some should be obvious, some prominent and some vague” (60). In the article “Civilization and Its Discontents”, Freud proposed that people seemed to desire and admire money, success and power (2), typical things that were boomed after industrial revolution. Nowadays, people are in such haste that they somehow leave their sole and pure memories behind. Therefore, a revival is intensely in need.

Fig.3 a Private Garden in Suzhou; Women’s leisure life in ancient China

Works cited: Freud, Sigmund, “Civilization and Its Discontents”, resources from references of the course. Shen, Fu, Leonard Pratt, and Suhui Jiang. Six Records of a Floating Life. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1983. Print.

[Homogenizing]- [Machine] Equality Utopia The Homogenizing Machine is a system with attempt to producing equivalent space for people such as manual workers by several homogenizing principles.

Background: In the post-industrial economy, multinational companies open their factories in undeveloped countries where there are abundant and low-priced manual labors. Manufacturing becomes outsourced to partner companies, which will eventually sell the ultimate product to the main company at extremely low prices. By pushing such a behavior to its limits, companies are able to outsource every piece of their production to independent workers and achieve a high profit margin even on the immaterial aspects of work. For a vulnerable worker, the boundary between life and work has completely faded, causing his work to coincide with his life. For their entire life, workers are now live labor. Endless work has become a moral obligation, a pre-determined path to self-improvement as well as self-defense against the social exclusion from unemployment.

Locations: The cities in less developed areas will be the location for the pilot project. For example in Shenzhen, with its growing land price per sqm, the city forces Fig.1 Densely populated regions and peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life there

Fig.2 Individual distribution sample

this group of people to live in even smaller units. Nowadays renting a flat has become harder and harder for precarious individuals or couples, since they are usually unable to provide stable economic guarantee to the landlords. Providing living space to those workers will certainly be appealing to the ever growing population.

Type 1#: By presenting each cell in square form, the entire system will be more adaptive to the whole urban fabric. Squares with sqm varying from 1m2 to 12m2 will function differently. Units consisted of 4 basic functions will be randomly reunified and lastly form the system.

Homogenizing cluster and distribution: Generally, it is a primary purpose to eliminate or sharply reduce a hierarchic sequence in the system. Besides, the system includes setting up a balanced relationship of each partition and establishing a homogenizing spatial property. The internal mechanism is based on tandem duplication, a simple collage of each cell, the separation of spaces and random restructuring. The organization of the plan would be radical; one way to achieve this effect is to divide the plan into small cells. The whole is composed of the cells, but the order of which is equivalent. Therefore, the plan possesses a geometric appearance, which also brings diversity and uncertainty to all these related cells. Furthermore, each combination of the cells is highly open. From path to shared space, the principle of organization follows a coordinative order. One of the basic principles in this system is separating the space. To present the principle, first distribute certain sqm to individual components, then restructure and reunify them. However, the distribution step is a random process. The sole standard is sometimes on closeness or an estrangement, sometimes centralization or dispersion, instead of relying on a single traditional ranking method. Similarly, this arrangement might share something in common with the composition of a De Stijl art. The only difference is that De Stijl used factors of composition rather than spaces and rooms.

Type 2#: Another possibility is that each cell exists as an uncertain curved form. The shape is rather organic and lively in order to improve the stressful working environment. However, the order is still reconstructed by reunifying cells, aiming to create a new typology.

[Positive & Negative]- [Machine] Yin Yang and Balance The Positive & Negative Machine is used to establish a balance status between nature and built environment and calls for a harmony of them.

Background: Since modern times, the development of technology not only draws human awareness towards nature, but also enhances their capability to transform nature. With the booming of the built environment, nature is gradually turned into humanized nature; the balance between nature and human activities is collapsing.

YinYang: The conflict between nature and human activities seems to be intensified. However, as in the philosophy of Taoism, all natural forces are determined by two opposing forces: Yin and Yang. However, the opposing forces do not conflict, but presuppose and complement each other. Because they strive for unity and completeness, they are interdependent. With Yin and Yang, the old Chinese philosophy describes the forces of opposition that take effect not only in natural phenomena, but also in human affairs. Laotse’s teachings apply to all opposites and fit in each and every transformation, “Being arises out of not being; the state of not being also permeates that which has no intermediate

Fig. 1 Image of “Yin Yang” Fig.2 The relationship between built environment and nature

space”, and “In the right circumstances, opposition is a motivating force” (Laotse, verse 40 and 43). Chinese doctrine maintains that nature is Heaven, Earth and Man merging into one: “Man acts according to the Earth, Earth according to Heaven, and Heaven according to Meaning (in other words Tao), and meaning acts according to Nature” (Laotse, verse 25). Examples for playing a part of this opposition are: interior and exterior; the void and the form (i.e. space); the visible and the invisible; to be and not to be. They do not conflict one another, or rather, they are in complementary harmony, regardless of any being or process. Therefore, there is no opposition between architecture and nature, either; landscape and architecture permeate each other. Architecture is not an “object” inside or adjacent to landscape and is certainly not “violence against nature”.

In the very beginning, nature served as a base for human to build their shelters and provided food and water so that human could survive. Human at that time respected and admired nature. Fig.3 Nature- Artificial

Recovering Balance:

After human successful ly setting up their civilization and society, the built environment became the base to build nature. People may circle their garden as a way to reappear nature, as well as for recreation and leisure activities.

Actually, the balance issue has already been taken into consideration by some philosophers and architects. For example, Nietzsche once stated that our intention is to impose our values on nature, controlling everything and making nature and the world more in our own image, more like ourselves. Also, Japanese architect Kengo Kuma pointed out that, our desire made us separate architecture from the environment. We have forgotten the origin of architecture as shelters, which enable us to live more comfortable. Yet nowadays, we isolate architecture as a “thing”, and continuously put various signs on it until we were drowned by them. He also referred to the Farnsworth House, built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1951, as a sign to upraise the architecture away from the ground.

Fig.4 Artificial- Nature

In the past decades, some traditional architects and landscape architects proposed landscape urbanism as a way to call back nature into programming the urban surfaces. This phenomenon also shows the tendency and urgency that we need to cope with urban development and nature in a balanced approach. Although this attempt seems a little more artificial in the eyes of some Asian architects, it is still worth developing. In an Asian city, nature and built environment are calling for a more compatible relationship as well as a state of harmony. Therefore, people currently advocate a more open life style, which aims to maintain the primitive quality of nature as much as possible. After all, an imitated nature would not last very long.

Works cited: Laozi, Yutang Lin, and Zhuangzi. The Wisdom of Laotse. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1979. Print. Fig.5 An imagination of original dwelling Fig.6 nature placed into urban fabric

In the article provided, “Some thoughts on Contemporary painting in the hope that Analogies to Architecture might be drawn”, Kipnis lists different involvements of disciplines and principles of contemporary art as well as selfconsciousness in the painters’ works. However, he did not establish a connection between painting and architecture directly. In this essay, I will conclude what I have learned about contemporary art from the passage and try to figure out something that could indicate the analogy in architecture.

superficial his work is will be the comparison with David Reed's motif painting and other painters' self-portraits. In conclusion, Akkermen walks along the edge of dissimilar principles and discipline while he does not belong to any of them. All his painting faces disguise as elaborate art with nothing implication to convey.

As for Architecture, from my perspective, the analogy could be drawn in two ways. One concerns the "conceptual principle" in Architecture. Architects usually form their concept during a project. Well, Should the concept be more individualized or socialized? After reading this passage, I think both are acceptable. Nevertheless, individualization might bring more indifference. An example of Frank Gehry's work of The Experience Music Project in Seattle could be emblematic enough to show “how buildings waste structural resources by creating functionless forms, and the [disharmony] with their surroundings”. (“Q&A” )All these results are caused by the designer's cognition and insistence. Another aspect concerns the value of architecture, which has become vague these days. Just as Akkermen's urge for effects to attract sales, so are some buildings designed merely to achieve commercial benefits. The number of functional repetition buildings is increasing, with some of them having no innovation at all. At this point, Japanese architects, such as SANNA, are much better. While designing their building units, they not only present a value of humanistic care and a new conception of life, but also realize how the two can be melted into a whole, rather than simply connect them by corridors and stairs.

From my aspect, the discipline of contemporary art is beyond the "pleasure principle". When obtaining self-consciousness, it gets closer to the conceptual principle. During this process, it is the urge to power and effect that eventually carries out this leap. According to Greenberg's "medium specificity" theory,he considers the limitation of the medium as positive factors so that more attention can be drawn to the essence of painting. However, the attempt not only failed to achieve its goal, but also made the boundary permeable when confronted with mass culture. In this case, conceptual principle acts as existence to recover culture.(Kipnis, 26)

When focusing on concepts and branches, the author uses Akkermen's selfportraits as a clue to explain features of different principles respectively. For instance, in the case of conceptual principle, the author considers Kawarra's date painting as "Admitting of nothing meaningful, dates, like numerical sequences, are those figures that produce an effect of abstraction far more powerful"(Kipnis, 29). However, Kawarra's work seems to go beyond the pleasure principle and brings about a feeling of indifference; Unless viewers share values with a specific day, their elated feelings roused might only last for a moment(Kipnis, 29). Kipnis also regards numbers in paintings as abstract methods to present art, and then he deems that date paintings make sense. At this point, I think that numbers are a form of symbolic language in painting - they are unique and abstract. Whereas when we concern the information numbers convey, they are rather concrete - simply a date with given meaning. On the contrary, in each “Akkermen”, although time concept seems meaningless, so-called "time documentation"(Kipnis, 30) is not by coincidence but consciously added for expected effects. Therefore, it is inappropriate to construe his work as an exercise in time documentation. Besides, other evidence to prove how

"Q&A:MIT Sues Architect Frank Gehry Over Flaws at Stata Center." Favermann, Mark. Berkshire Fine Arts. http://www.berkshirefinearts.com/?page=article&article_id=458&catID=26. Retrieved 2011-08-30.

110

In the article provided, “Mythology Today”, Barthes established his own system of semiology with two order systems based on the term sign. In this essay, I will conclude what I understand about Barthes’s semiological system of myth, in terms of its sign, signified, signifier and things that myth was to convey.

very presence of French imperiality” (Barthes, 127). Barthes deemed that reading a myth would either statically or analytically destroy the myth. Thus, the intention is not apparent, and the much dynamic attention is paid, the livelier the myth could be. Accordingly, the intention or concept of a myth, which Barthes identified as the essential function of myth, is somehow naturalized rather than hidden or inefficacious. As he said, “The concept reconstitutes a chain of causes and effects, motives and intentions. Unlike the form, the concept is in no way abstract: it is filled with a situation. Through the concept, it is a whole new history which is implanted in the myth” (Barthes, 117).

Bathes argued that there are two semiological systems in myth and that one permeates the other. Therefore, we can treat language as the cornerstone on which myth builds itself and its own system. At first, we need to clarify the 3 terms—signifier, signified and sign. The signifier in myth, which could be the final term as sign in a linguistic system, can also be regarded as medium. To avoid ambiguity, Barthes concluded the essence by suggesting “we therefore need two names” (Barthes, 115). On the plane of language, the signifier is called meaning; on the plane of myth, it is known as form. Then when it comes to signified, clues become clearer and name as concept keeps up. Finally, the sign is another term that may cause equivocal situations. Since at this point, the signs in the linguistic system are used to form the signifier, which is in the semiological system. Meanwhile, sign in the language system is “appropriated” and “emptied” to become the signifier in the mythology system. As a result, the term “signification” is created to solve this bifunctional situation. Although Barthes defined Signification as a new expression in his semiological system, he also pointed out, “In semiology, the third term is nothing but the association of the first two” (Barthes, 120). In this way, Barthes made it clear that signification is a correlation between the mythical concept and the mythical form.

In brief, from my perspective, the relationship between myth and language is somehow quite subtle. Because there is a clear boundary in two system structures, and myth is considered as stolen language in some way. Besides, never shall we attempt to separate the form of myth from its concept, nor focus on either an empty signifier or on a full signifier, for they exist as a whole.

What on earth does myth convey? What is its form? What is its concept? What does it mean? Does it have an intention or motivation? Those are questions that puzzle me during reading. What I do recall is that myth is a dual system and that it is of ubiquity: it starts with the arrival of a meaning, and the alternation of which is gathered up in the concept. However, when Barthes referred to how to read and decipher myth, he focused neither on an empty signifier nor a full signifier. Surprisingly, this could be an accurate way to receive myth. “If I focus on the mythical signifier as on an inextricable whole made of meaning and form, I receive an ambiguous signification: I respond to the constituting mechanism of myth, to its own dynamics; I become a reader of myths. The saluting Negro is no longer an example or a symbol, still less an alibi: he is the

1 .1 . A f fe c t , a m b i e n c e a n d a t m o s p h e r e :

1.17. Photo-realism: C&TA through photography,

constructing and thinking architecture (C&TA) through the synesthetic creation of an extreme subjectivity. 1.2. Collage: C&TA through acts of incongruent juxtaposition. 1.3. Context: C&TA through its relationship to the surrounding built environment. 1.4. Diagram: C&TA through a generative instruction set or pictogram. 1.5. Digital Rococco: the meretricious use of computational methods towards Affect (see 4.1.) 1.6. Dirty realism: C&TA through instrumentalizing the world-atlarge, using forces outside of the city and or program (see 4.19) to organize architecture. 1.7. Environment: C&TA through a set of vectors and flows of energy and invisible forces, often represented by red and blue arrows. 1.8. Expressionism: C&TA through individual will and desire, typically manifested through painterly gesture. 1.9. Function: C&TA through how things work, the goal is to optimize all relationships towards the quantifiably best solution. 1.10.Geometry:C&TA through the instrumentalization of mathematics principals towards composition, typically played out through Orthographic projection (see 4.15.) 1.11. Hybridization: C&TA through the bleeding together of things to create new, consensual pluralities, usually utilizing typology (see 4.23.) 1.12. Iconography: C&TA through shape, figuration and metaphor. 1 .1 3 . I nfo r mal: C&TA through the entropic destruction of the architectural object, typically related to physics, materiality (4.14) and the "real"... 1.14. Material: C&TA through particular acts of collage, governed by sense and sensibility. 1.15. Orthographic projection: C&TA through the composition of plan, section and elevation. 1.16. Parametric: C&TA through synthetic positivist logic, utilizing as few formal rules as possible to produce the simultaneity of hyperbolic difference and sameness.

photo-realistic renderings or other similar pictorial means, sometimes related to the Picturesque (see 4.18) 1.18. Picturesque: C&TA through the construction of embodied views, typically utilizing monumentality in a state of decay or ruin. 1.19. Program: C&TA through use-functions and ways to engineer useful and interesting relationships between use-functions.

1.20. Scripting a. Good machines: C&TA through the utopian use of computational methods. b. Bad machines: C&TA through the dystopian subterfuge of computational methods. 1.21. Sensuous: C&TA through the design and management of nonvisio- spatial factors including temperature, moisture, smell, texture, sound. 1.22. Site: C&TA through the specificity of the surrounding landscape. 1.23. Social and environmental engineering a. Behavior modification: C&TA through the effects of the built environment on behavior. b. Sustainability 1. Revanchist (hippie) Sustainability: C&TA through nontechnological solutions to non-technological environmental problems. 2. Technophiliac (bioengineering) Sustainability: C&TA through technological solutions to technological environmental problems. 1.24. Structure: C&TA as a set of vectors and loads, often represented by color mapped finite elements analysis diagrams. 1.25. Surfacing: C&TA through specific methods of subdivision, tiling and cutting of non-specific surfaces. 1.26. Tectonic: C&TA as the physical assembly of parts. 1.27. Typology: C&TA as the development of specific and known building organizational/compositional types. 1.28. Vernacular: C&TA through surround buildings of a specific site.

Prospectus Medium: Atmosphere

2. Typical works: Eastern architects: SANNA, Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA, 2006. Tadao Ando, Church of the light, Ibaraki, Japan, 1989.

1. Definition This paper aims to define “atmosphere” as a medium in the process of architectural design, and provide a brief introduction of its origin in both western and eastern culture, with a mention of how contemporary architects work with this medium.

Western architects: Peter Zumthor, Therme Vals, Graubunden Canton, Switzerland, 1996; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria, 1997. Steven Holl, D.E. Shaw & Co. Office, New York City, 1991. 3. References: Brownell, Blaine E. Matter in the Floating World. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011. Print. (Core of Japanese design and information of Japanese architects and their works) Holl, Steven. Parallax. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000. Print. (How Holl understands the poetics of space and how phenomenology analogizes to architecture) Holl, Steven, Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture. San Francisco, CA: William Stout, 2006. Print. (Supplementary reading of S. Holl ) Kenya, Hara. Shiro [White], trans. Jooyeon Rhee. Tokyo: Chuokoron-Shinsha, 2008. Print. (As referred in the text) Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. London: Routledge, 2002. Print. (As referred in the text) Ursprung, Philip. Herzog & De Meuron: Natural History. Montréal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2005. Print. (Gernot Böhme, "Atmosphere as the Subject Matter of Architecture") Zumthor, Peter. Atmospheres: Architectural Environments, Surrounding Objects. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2006. Print. (Ways to achieve atmospheric qualities in space by Zumthor)

In the realm of architecture, atmosphere is a medium that helps establish a communication between people and space. Sensations and emotions were provoked by architecture via physical presence. Therefore, the moment people respond to architecture by acquiring both emotional and physical perception, architecture has produced various effects on people. The features of atmospheres in architectural practice could be roughly divided into two aspects: objective and non-objective. The objective aspect might include: movement, materials, scale etc. while the non-objective aspect consists of light, sound, temperature and so on. In western culture, atmospheric spaces are incipiently constructed based on a signified metaphor of phenomenology. The French phenomenological philosopher Merleau-Ponty asserts that, “the body and mind cannot be separated as subject and object” (2). Therefore, the physical presence influences emotional senses. Besides, drawing from that the human body is the measure of architecture by Vitruvius, architects from twentieth-century such as Peter Zumthor and Steven Holl, stress sensory qualities and bodily interaction in their works. With regard to eastern architecture, for instance, in Japanese architecture, the sensibility of atmosphere may be traced back to the origins of Shinto. The concept of atmosphere is intricately tied to the Japanese notion of emptiness. As Kenya Hara describes in his book Shiro, “Emptiness does not merely imply simplicity of form, logical and sophistication, and the like. Rather, emptiness provides a space within which our imaginations can run free, vastly enriching our powers of perception and our mutual comprehension” (45). This concept is embodied in the work of SANNA, who seek to create lightness and a floating sensation via atmosphere in architecture.

formal Analysis Sejima and Nishizawa (SANAA) have often expressed their interest in the way people experience their buildings. In this respect, they state that their current and future activity is the creation of an atmosphere or a landscape for people; a scenario for the inhabitants of today’s society (Cortes, 57). The Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art is just one of their attempts to achieve atmospheric as well as experiential space, especially with an extensional use of the material of glass.

The Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art is the most exquisite work in a transparent- nontransparent contrast. As an annex to the Toledo Museum of Art, the Glass Pavilion functions both as an exhibition space for the museum’s glass collection, and a glass making facility (El Croquis.139, 83). Individually, each space is enclosed in curved glass, resulting in a hazy and reflective atmosphere. The plan of this project started with a grid of various rectilinear shapes. As the programing goes, curving glass surfaces are applied to form spatial connections. Therefore, no intersection with right-angled corners would appear in this space, and the circulation becomes more fluid without any sense of physical boundary. This time, SANAA emphasizes more of the overlapping of the partition and the curve of the corners, and these factors compose a duplicated effect (Sejima, in ‘Materials and forms’, 4). Although a single piece of glass is transparent, glass of a compound combination of various properties is not that simple. When the layers are added together, they lead to a reflective ambience. By arranging parallel and multiply enclosed panels, curving the corners and undulating the façade, an overlapping vision is presented.

Typically, SANAA prefers to use glass in their works, whereas other architects hold explicit attitudes toward material, such as Tadao Ando’s studies in concrete and Kengo Kuma’s experiments on stone and bamboo. The word “immateriality” (Cortes, 33) is often used to describe SANAA’s works. However, the word can be a little misleading. In fact, the pursuit of dematerialization via abstraction— despite the fact that materials are required to make architecture— SANAA achieve this quality. Glass is such a material with a transparent feature, yet what SANAA pays close attention to is the connection that transparency could create. Not simply because glass could be looked through, but because it is clear in the conceptual aspect rather than visual aspect (Sejima, in ‘Uno mas en casa de los SANAA’, 17).

Originally Sejima started using glass because of her interest in the structure. She wanted to show the structural system, so glass was exactly used on the non-load-bearing parts to show how the building was constructed. In addition, she had a great interest in the relationship between the inside and outside (Brownell, 103). Nevertheless, the heat gain became a major concern. In order to mitigate heat gain, she has used frit and other shading applications. In the case of Toledo museum, after setting interior glass that partitions about 21/2 feet behind the exterior skin of the building, Sejima and Nishizawa created a thermal buffer that reduces energy consumption and eliminates condensation. Also, in order to protect artworks from solar radiation, translucent silvery curtains could be drawn where needed (El Croquis.139, 90).

In Sejimaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind, sometimes glass appears to be a very hard and cold substance, thus she tried a different perspective in the Toledo project--the glass turns softer (Brownell, 103). Although the Toledo glass is very transparent, when people view the curved panels obliquely, the glass gradually changes. The glass would start to become physical, like a bottle, instead of completely flat. Then the glass becomes more of a material instead of something transparent.

Positioning the glass elaborately would be another difficult task to deal with. Glass is truly fascinating, as the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s impression of it not simply depends on the relative location, but is in conjunction with many other factors. Glass positioning is extensively influenced in the planning process. For example, glass changes dramatically whether it is positioned in front of a bright surface or a dark surface, a shallow space or a deep space. Exterior glass is also influenced by the sunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s position (El Croquis.139, 89). One can never completely control the impression; thus positioning glass must be carefully considered.

Sejima took advantage of these unique qualities, but at the same time she wanted to avoid conveying certain aspects of material meaning (El Croquis 121/122, 19). That is to say, material decisions are largely based on context and program. In the case of the Toledo Glass Pavilion, for example, the environment surrounding was so beautiful that the extensive usage of glass on the exterior seemed not a problem.

Nevertheless, had the context been different, SANAA might have used a different material for the façade. An example could be the Christian Dior Omotesando Building, “The façade is wrapped in flat extra clear glass, creating a transparent building. Behind the glass are half transparent, curved acrylic screens which tenderly exude the elegance of Dior couture” (El Croquis 121/122, 122). Sejima and Nishizawa were not involved in the interior design of this project, but their attempt to produce an effect that seems to be an interior design component from the outside is successful.

Moreover, one thing that is curious about the Glass Pavilion is SANAA’s representation for this work. From the perspective of photographs, this pavilion is much more literally transparent than some of SANAA’s previous projects. Also, its reflection effect is on an almost unprecedented level. However, the renderings were still consistent with other SANAA projects, as always as the architects choose to represent their world. It is a pure white wonderland of floating ambience, where gentle light pours in through transparent matter to melt the contents of the model into a single whole. Perhaps this simply presents the work in a symbolic way of SANAA, while working models reveal rather essential aspects.

Generally, at first sight, Sejima and Nishizawa’s work is so close to pithiness and austerity with a pure geometric feature. However, to define such characteristics in their works, minimalism is not precise enough. An essentialist minimalist is always thinking of getting rid of unnecessary component to reveal an idealistic form (Cortes, 33). Thus, the lightness and transparency is not the final purpose. They share every effort to organize every single component in an unambiguous way. In fact, as aforementioned, Sejima and Nishizawa do not intend to construct such form, instead, they would like a way to coordinate a concept or an inscape distinctively.

Works cited Brownell, Blaine E. Matter in the Floating World. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011. Print. Cortes, Juan Antono. “Architectural Topology: an Inquiry into the Nature of Contemporary Space”. El Croquis. 139(2008): 32-57. Print. Sejima, Kazuyo,[1956- ], Ryue Nishizawa [1966- ]. "SANAA Kazuyo Sejima Ryue Nishzawa, 1998-2004." El Croquis.121/122 (2004). Print. Sejima, Kazuyo,[1956- ], Ryue Nishizawa [1966- ], and Juan Antonio Cortes. "SANAA Kazuyo Sejima Ryue Nishzawa, 20042008." El Croquis.139 (2008).Print. Sejima, Kazuyo. In ‘Material and forms. Fragments of a conversation between Jacques Herzog, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa’. JA 35, Autumn (1999): 4. Print. Sejima, Kazuyo. In ‘Uno mas en casa de los SANAA’. Casas. Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa SANAA. ACTAR, Barcelona, and MUSAC, Leon. (2007): 17. Print.

Although most Asian architects are deeply influenced by eastern philosophy, which sometimes makes their works implicate a sense of mysterious and musing, I still consider a SANAA work constituted with highly rational programing method and precise calculations. However, this is not contradictory to building atmospheric and experiential space, just as they did on the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art.

Bubble: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Museum Expansion: Washington D.C. 2013

The “Bubble” is an inflatable event space planned for the cylindrical courtyard of the Hirshhorn Museum. In contrast to the hulking and neoclassical institutional buildings, the Bubble produces a seemingly weightless atmosphere which provokes a dialogue with the solid, permanent form of the museum originally designed by Gordon Bunshaft in 1974. A soft building is embedded inside of a hard one in which both existing and new spaces, interior and exterior are enjoyably intertwined. The Bubble is an air-filled structure, enclosed only by a thin translucent membrane that squeezes into the void of the museum courtyard, oozes out the top and beneath its mass, and transforms the central space into an auditorium, café, and meeting place (Diller Scofidio+Renfro Website). The translucent pavilion will immerse visitors in a sheltered, 14,000-square-foot space shaped by a series of cable rings that constrict the membrane, pulling it away from the inner walls of the building’s central courtyard, while other cables help tether the membrane to each floor. The resulting contours act acoustically and produce changing shafts and pockets of outdoor space that visitors will experience from the ground and the galleries where for people to look across this empty space. Because of the transparency, this form is going to interact with the entire building. Moreover, Diller states that they want it to be formless and ephemeral, as well as performative and antimonumental (Diller, TED Talk). The ideals of participatory democracy are represented through suppleness rather than rigidity. Outside the museum walls, art and politics occupy an ambiguous site, but inside the museum's core, the air of democracy flows.

Atmosphere as mediator or catalyst for social contact, interaction and relations. Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s use of atmosphere and ambiance is apparent in the way they configure and define space; these different projects promote the ideology of architecture as a mediator or catalyst for social contact, interaction and relations.

The most essential human senses such as sight are literally blurred. People can feel and hear each other (and see each other to a very limited degree), which makes them to feel the unique sensation of obscureness; however, each individual might perceive this atmospheric sensation in different ways. One might feel like she is like having a mysterious dream of curiously searching for a way in the mist; one might get confusion and gradually terrified. Individuals are uncertain or unclear about what they see and hear: interaction takes place in this new environment.

Formally, this instillation stands in stark contrast to it's rigid, platonic and monumental environment and seduces visitors to explore and inhabit its ethereal sphere, which is continuous with the outside, and make use of a public space that others goes unused. Composed of 4,600 square metres of floating helium pillows which act as a impromptu ceiling and are weighed down with large rubber sacks filled with water, which double as chairs for lounging and observing the constant loop of projections on the ceiling. These consist of commissioned and local works in video as well as time lapses of the sky from the actual site, which are played at sunrise and set, in order to blur the transition between night and day. This ephemeral and reflexive environment sets the stage for a number of interactions. Not only does the space provide a place where visitors can interact with their own curiosity as well as congregate with other observers, the space itself is also interactive because of its tensile structure. On calm days, the kinetic energy from the movements of the visitors in the pavilion is transferred upward to the ceiling, illustrating the direct relationship between the space and the observer.

This project in particular expresses a tone of irony towards the concerns of smoking in public areas. Smokers can enter a translucent shaft placed near “no smoking” locations around Amsterdam;the shaft was designed to funnel smoke upwards away from street level. behind frosted glass, users are able to socialize with individuals in other shafts scattered throughout the city through touch-screen computers activated by the detection of smoke. The computerized communication reinforces a sort of “smoker” collective.

The prison isolates the criminal at a safe distance from the public by restricting him or her into an irreducible space deemed habitable. Punishment is calculated along a spatio-temporal matrix; the more severe the crime, the more punitive the space and the longer the prisoner is condemned to it. This formula comes into question when considering acts of ethical ambiguity. Visitors to the installation are asked to rethink the fit between crime and punishment. The viewer is confronted with an LCD screen displaying a matrix of crimes selected for their severity and moral ambiguity: drug use, sexual deviance, insider trading, conspiracy, disturbing the peace, unlawful conduct, illegal immigration, etc.

What’s with the Toronto Music Garden, anyway? i. The Toronto Music Garden The concept of a music garden was first proposed when cellist Yo-Yo Ma reached landscape architect Julie Messervy. Inspired by the first suite of Bach’s Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, the Toronto Music Garden was finally built up by the year of 1999. The garden extends over a two-acre rectangular lot at Harbourfront, tucked between Lake Ontario and Queen’s Quay Boulevard. It appeared to be an aesthetically pleasing, well-crafted space consisting of six various sized and well-articulated rooms that allow for a variety of experiences. The popular Prelude is a riverbank in a roundabout; the Allemande, a small wood covering swirling paths: the Courante, a rocky spiral down to a fountain at its core (the poet’s garden, according to Messervy); the Sarabande, an inward circle that is enclosed by tall evergreen trees; the Menuett, a more formal flowerbed and ironwork music pavilion atop a grassy hill; and the Gigue, a terraced green amphitheater bearing down on a small, dark granite stage. As a whole, the Garden provides a multisensory experience—visual, olfactory, musical—and multidimensional experience. “I wanted it [the garden] to read vertically and horizontally like a flow, everchanging and ever continuous like music” (17), sums up Messervy. Apart from the music, Messervy was also enlightened by the dances of Bach’s time, for instance, the Allemande is a 17th century court dance developed in France from a German folk tune, and the Courante is a dance of Italian origin marked by quick, running steps(Messervy 15). The Music Garden forms a promenade through a continuous suite of distinct landscape sharing soft curves as a common theme.

When I walked around the music garden last week, two questions kept puzzling me. First, the six movements are laid out on the linear site. For people who are not familiar with this garden and the Bach’s six suites, they have to rely on the signs in order to trace the pathways, visit movements and follow the music in sequence. Since apart from the signs, there is no other hint or clue to catch. Besides, the designed order of movements is supposed to be 2,1,3,4,6 and 5; but most people enter the park from the east, with a sequence of 5,6,4,3,1, and 2, which also causes confusion. Second, is it critical in the design of a music garden to acknowledge a connection between the visual and auditory senses? Some people indicate that as visitors move around the garden from room to room along the connecting paths, they could not escape the visual noise of the surrounding landscape. The Canada Malting Company and other industrial structures provide the backdrop of views partially to the west and partially to the south, and the water views are consisted of a marina with numerous sail masts, motorboats, large tour boats and the like.

ii. Architecture vs. Music A concept like drawing garden or architecture that analogic to music is not new. “Landscape architecture students are occasionally given assignments to translate a musical composition into a planting design; theoretical landscapes based on music have been conceived, and art installations based on musical themes, such as Le Cylindre Sonore at Parc de la Villette in Paris, have been built” (Thompson 55). Besides, in Western architecture, there is a long tradition of musical analogy. A wide variety of approaches to express the subtle relationship are documented, ranging from the use of underlying principles to literal translations. For example, Renaissance architects created proportional systems based on the principles of musical harmony established in Ancient Greece, grounded in the belief that the same universal principles of beauty were manifest in art, architecture and music. In the 20th century, Le Corbusier and the composer Iannis Xenakis collaborated on the Phillips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Fair. The design of the pavilion referred to the principles and techniques of serial music, and the interior incorporated a multimedia show of lights, projected images and specially composed music (Bandur 66).

Figure 1.1 Dance steps after Kellom Tomlinson’s 1735 book The Art of Dancing

Literal translations of music into architecture are founded on the formal parallels between each discipline. In Architecture and Music, the book includes a discussion of counterpoint and harmony – the ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ aspects of music. Alexander Walton also asserts that architecture and music share an underlying structural logic; just as architecture divides space according to proportion, music divides time according to rhythm. Apart from architecture, how exactly does one turn a piece of music into a garden? In Connoisseurs magazine, 1992, Messervy wrote that her first aesthetic training was in music, and thus she kept considering what and how analogs from musical composition could be applied to garden design. The broader ones can be obvious; for example, both music and gardens must have a concept or theme that will determine the mood and atmosphere the composer or designer wishes to create. Another equally obvious one is that a form must be chosen for both—in music, a theme with variations, a medley of unrelated compositions or perhaps a simply recurring round. Messervy is not the only one who takes space as a medium to convey music. In “Architecture as a translation of music”, Elizabeth Martin indicates that, architecture represents the art of design in space; music, the art of design in time. Nature continually manifests motion in space or motion and space bound together as one; it is life. The properties of space and time are inseparable. Without time and space, matter is conceivable; it is a dead thing. Space gives form and proportion; time supplies it with life and measure (8-9).

Figure 1.2 Dance steps after Kellom Tomlinson’s 1735 book The Art of Dancing

iii. Comparison/Contrast with similar contemplative gardens

The Toronto Music Garden is definitely a successful cooperation of an artist and a design. As a cellist, Yo-yo Ma regards music as an ephemeral art, which resides not only in noted form, but also in the imagination of the listener. He suggests that both music and garden are living things and that using gardens as a medium to highlight the music is what he has been dreaming of (Messervy 6). As for Messervy, she is committed to creating contemplative gardens— a result of her time spent studying garden design in Japan, where such places are more common. “I made it my life’s work to create places like that,” says Messervy (Thompson 57).

Figure 2 Sketch for the Phillip’s Pavilion

In Toronto Music Garden, Messervy and Yo-yo Ma expressed music as a core value. However, music is not the only form that can be applied in space like this. In Japanese gardens, philosophy, such as “Zen”, is used to create a balanced relationship between the interior and exterior; as for Suzhou (also known as Soochow) gardens in China, art and literature, specifically Chinese monochromes and traditional metrical verses, are used to create scenery that contains artistic conceptions, as well as to represent a scene pictured in a painting work or a poem. To achieve this aesthetic goal, Messervy used methods different from the traditional Chinese designers. In Toronto Music Garden, Messervy built three hills with high points centered in the Allemande, the Courante and the Menuett in order to take full advantage of water views. Therefore, when visitors come into the garden, they will always be moving—inward, outward, upward, or downward, just like a musical composition does. Then, she thought about the shape of the paths flowing through the garden. Like the music, the paths flow continuously, linking one movement to another but never in a straight line. She found herself drawing clefs unconsciously, including the treble, bass, and C-clef; and shapes of instruments such as cellos and lyres (Messervy 17). They altogether composed the harmony and elegant paths in the garden. By contrast, the paths in a Chinese garden are also made circuitous and winding, combining the ornamental perforated corridors along the way. Every window in corridors permeates the outside views into the garden and enframes them at the same time, just like paintings hanging on a pure white wall. When visitors walk through such corridors, scenery varies as they go along.

Figure 3 Painting of “Garden of the Politics of Innocence” (Cho-cheng-yuan) in Suzhou (16th century)(anonymous)

Works Cited

iv. Conclusion

Bandur, M. Estetica del serialismo integrale. English Aesthetics of Total Serialism: Contemporary Rresearch from Music to Architecture. Basel; Boston, Birkhauser. (2001). Print. Goodfellow Margaret, Goodfellow Phil. A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto .Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, (2010).Print. Martin Elizabeth. Architecture as a Translation of Music. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, (c1994). Print. Messervey Julie. The Toronto Music Garden, inspired by Bach / with an introduction by Yo-Yo Ma. Saxtons Rivers, VT : Julie Moir Messervey Design Studio, Inc. (2009). First edition. Print. Thompson, J William. “To walk through Bach: an attempt to translate a Bach suite becomes a tale of two cities [Toronto Music Garden].” Landscape architecture 90. 12 (Dec 2000): [52]-59,[85]-87.Print. Walton, A. Architecture and Music: a study in reciprocal values. Ann Arbor, Mich. University Microfilms International. (1934). Print. Anonymous. (http://pic9.nipic.com/20100817/5486682_233801066051_2.jpg)

Messervy says that three factors have to come together to make a great garden (Messervy 17). A big idea, a great site, and a joyful process, she states. The idea of creating a garden based on music is apparently thought provoking. Besides, the garden allows for a variety of experiences, with its aesthetically pleasing and articulated special connections. Altogether, the Toronto Music Garden is made that stands out as a rare precedent.

Landscape as Medium

Landscape is traditionally defined as the medium of natural process, which supports the existence and proceeding of lives. Currently, landscape is more accepted as the medium of synthetic cultural categories, which contain the complex social relationships and economic activities. Landscape not only provides the interface to coordinate ecological environment and artificial environment, but also attempts to merge the two at the same time. Compared with the system of traditional cities, where landscape, architecture and infrastructures are irrelevant components, the current system of landscape urbanism is different in that the intension and potential of landscape are extended and developed. Rather than merely green plants or natural space, landscape could present dynamic life process in a concrete form. This paper aims to focus on landscape working as a medium. Since architects began to apply landscape to the process of urban planning as a medium, the traditional role that architecture plays has gradually been replaced. Simultaneously, landscape has brought more diversity to a city.

As is indicated by Waldheim in “Landscape as Urbanism”, “the discourse surrounding landscape urbanism can be read as a disciplinary realignment in which landscape supplants architecture’s historical role as the basic building block of urban design”(42). In the past decades, projects such as Parc de la Villette in Paris and Downsview Park in Toronto have revealed the shifting role from architecture to landscape; more importantly, they present a stage where landscape replaces freestanding buildings as the medium in urban planning. Rem Koolhaas argued in 1998, “Architecture is no longer the primary element of urban order, increasingly urban order is given by a thin horizontal vegetal plane, increasingly landscape is the primary element of urban order”(921). Before long, a convergent conclusion was drawn by some other architects. They believed that landscape had substituted architecture’s role as the medium most capable of ordering contemporary urbanism. While in the 80s, they just insisted that architecture functions as an instrument of local resistance to global culture. This sharp shift is apparent enough to show that landscape as a medium of architecture has become widely acknowledged. Besides, Frampton summarized this position into two aspects. First, landscape takes priority over

architecture form. Second, certain megalopolitan types such as shopping malls, parking lots and office parks need to transform into landscaped built forms pressingly (43).

Apart from the shift with architecture, in another article, “Programming the Urban Surface”, Alex Wall argued “the term landscape invokes the functioning matrix of connective tissue that organizes not only objects and space but also the dynamic processes and events that move through them”(233). Therefore, landscape was originally conceived as a multi-layered medium capable of articulating relations between urban infrastructure, public environment, and indeterminate perspectives for large scale post-industrial sites. As is shown in Parc de la Villette, non-hierarchical and layered system as well as flexibility, signified the role that landscape would articulate a postmodern urbanism as the medium. For Wall, he also deems landscape as active surface, structuring the conditions for new relationships and interactions among the things it supports (233). Landscape is referred to the extensive and inclusive ground-plan of the city. It also ensoul the city with a ground structure that organizes and supports both fixed and changing activities in the city. In addition, landscape provides a conceptual analytical mode and a structural manipulation method for current urban practice. Consisting of built environment, synthetic nature and assembled ecology, the process creates new material, space and form presence. Therefore, it is dynamic and responsive.

Though more often landscape works in terms of medium, there is still an uncertainty in this realm. In particular, projects of this scale and status have exposed an urgent demand to reality; professional expertise at the synthetic thesis of ecology and engineering, cultural categories and political process is desperately needed. The combination of various realms of knowledge and its concrete in the processes of design guide landscape urbanism to become a systematic discourse for reconceiving the contemporary urban field. As a medium, landscape aims not only to make cities attractive, but also to make them more adaptive and fluent. Thus, landscape is a medium in response to temporal change, transformation, adaptation and succession. These qualities help construct landscape as an analog to contemporary processes of urbanization. Furthermore, landscape as a medium uniquely suited to the open-endedness, indeterminacy and changes demanded by contemporary urban conditions.

Fig.1 OMA. Parc de la Villette Competition, 1982, cartoon of programs

Works Cited Koolhaas, Rem, Bruce Mau, Jennifer Sigler, and Hans Werlemann. Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large: Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rem Koolhaas, and Bruce Mau. New York, N.Y: Monacelli Press, 1998. Print. Waldheim, Charles. “Landscape as Urbanism”. The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. Print. Wall, Alex. ”Programming the Urban Surface”. Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture. Ed. James Cornor. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. Print.

Fig.2 Diagram of Parc de la Villette - by Bernard Tschumi

also connections to the city’s extensive system of ravine parks.

Historically, Downsview has gone through several stages of settlement (agricultural, industrial, and military) and its natural systems need to be revitalized (Mertins, 25). The designation of the Downsview Lands from military base to Park presents an unusual opportunity to adjust and transform natural processes. Many of the lands are degraded and reduced in their complexity by agricultural settlement and military occupation, and so are the surface ground water, soils, and the diversity of wildlife. However, opportunities for creative intervention may be identified in all aspects of a new ecosystem: in its water flows and water quality, its soils and soil quality, vegetation, habitat, wildlife and in its connections to the systems of the larger bioregion.

\ renthinking downsview park Introduction

In 1999, the winning scheme, Tree City, was submitted by a team led by Rem Koolhaas of the OMA, together with Bruce Mau Design. By using circles as the key graphic in the proposal, they reinforced the idea of manufactured nature for civic purposes (Czerniak, 14). As a competition strategy it was strong enough to sustain the jury’s attention while also being vague enough to excite their imagination. The diagram-based scheme as framework, however, gave limited guidance on where to start, what exactly to put on the site, or how to connect the circles reasonably.

In this paper, Downsview Park is chosen to be analyzed and discussed. In the design competition, OMA's graphic proposal presents a reductive effect, moving from abstraction of a single tree to the planting succession diagrams of ecology. Yet, lack of the clarity and specificity of rigid elements of the park, this proposal failed to fulfill its initial blueprint of future park lands as intriguing as a work of art. With an attempt to set up a discussion of whether “theories”, in respect of representation, will work in practice, the emphasis will also be placed on the ecological potentials and impact to its environment.

2. Representation 1. Site History Summary and Site analysis

2.1 Appearance vs. Performance

Downsview Park is being created on a former military air base of 320 acres in Toronto. When the base was established in the 1940s, the site was located on the edge of the city (Mertins, 28). Today it is in the geographic heart of the greater urban area just outside the loop highway that encircles the core of the city and its first suburban expansions. The Downsview community derived its name “downs view” in reference to the vistas afforded to its high elevation— and is the impetus for the new topographic features being constructed in the Park (Parc Downsview Park Website). Moreover, the site is located at the high point of two watersheds—Black Creek and West Don—bestowing the Park a distinct quality and natural functionality to manage water runoff on site with the utmost environmental scrutiny. Therefore, the site provides not only great opportunities for long vires but

The competition held to choose a design for Downsview Park in Toronto gives rise to a debate regarding “the appearance and performance of urban public parks” (Czerniak, 18) and the interconnection between those two terms. The former includes both the visual image of the design proposal and the graphic designer’s role as communicator. The latter suggests function, play, and fulfillment. In Downsview Park, landscape is transformed into a mechanism through which the city can be projected and envisioned.

What is the relationship between how these park proposals “work” and “look”? And, does every park conceived solely through performativity simply and

cases, the project is no more than a collection of beautiful and attractive images but meaningless. As designers, they should be aware of the real significance of the images that they are producing and understand that visual images are tools to communicate in design.

inevitably resemble each other in these relations? For example, in this park, habitat formation will eventually affect the park’s visual identity and activities, whether planned or unplanned, and will leave traces on the park’s surfaces. For instance, the process of soil remediation will temporarily yield fields of clover and alfalfa (Czerniak, 18). But must landscapes that are conceptualized and formed through complex processes rely solely on the theme of their image, or can other agendas challenge this seamlessness? Most striking schemes that engage Downsview Park’s imaging potential, suggesting that landscape’s performance and appearance can be at odds. These schemes promise opportunities to merge seemingly incompatible agendas: ecological, intellectual, critical, economical, representational, and political. But how does a landscape work one way (or multiple ways) and look another? Can performative agendas be reconciled with representational ones? Or, more specifically, can an ecologically sensitive landscape be sold through the marketing logic of the winning team’s big green dot?

2.3 Flexibility vs. Viability Specifically, such design approach established minimum control in order to allow new decisions and flexibility but, at the same time, maintain their own identity and logic. Thus, “Tree City” is a formula more than a design: “grow the park + manufacture nature + curate culture + 1,000 pathways + destination and dispersal + sacrifice and safe = low-density metropolitan life” (Czerniak, 75). To assure the longevity of a park, it is necessary to guarantee a certain degree of flexibility and openness. “Tree City” was supposed to be a diagram that creates a framework allowing changes over time. The designers, even other professionals, deemed that functions would be assigned to insure the park’s existence over the course life. They also claimed that a strategy lacking this characteristic would minimize a design’s adaptability to new circumstances. However, the differentiation between flexibility and rigid elements in terms of succession was not so clear in this project.

2.2 The Controversial Graphic Language At first glance, it might appear unusual to see the graphic designer Bruce Mau together with the architect Rem Koolhaas leading one of the teams, in a competition for the design of an urban park, where the architects usually would do the representation part themselves. Controversy has arisen regarding the importance of images in the final proposals: are the ideas behind a project or just a beautiful image of value? Without any doubt, graphic design plays a very important role in communicating the project to the future users. In that sense, graphic design works as a political tool, allowing the public to understand the project prior to its construction and leaving space for criticism and feedback. But the imagery is only a part of the communication; it has to be complemented with other tools such as plans, words, or data. Moreover, the strength of the graphic design lies not in its beauty, but in the ideas and intentions that it is communicating.

Thus, during the past ten years of construction, those sophisticated graphic images without saying specifically where these ideal features would be located, did cause confusions for those who are assigned to build the park. Therefore, these people have to spend extra time to place every single clear articulating element and every rigid component though a new master plan. Also, they attempted to redefine the rigidness entails, such as the ecological potentials and the effectiveness of the new proposal. By redeveloping the project, with a new name of “Six Hundred Acres of Ecologic, Economic, and Social Sustainability”, a regrouped team transforms the original plan into a relatively comprehensive new master plan. Compared with the original diagram, the initial designs of the concept and vision for the park failed to be retained. With the disappearance of the various circles and complicated pathways, one of the designers Li Wang responds as “No one can stamp those circles on the ground. Conceptually, it works well, it’s a powerful design. But once you bring it into reality, you have to get the essence of it and then you deliver from more practical language (North, 30). ” We could understand the hardship that the original diagram confronted when brought about to achieve its purpose in terms of reality. What we could

On the other hand, the excessive use of images and renderings can distract from the real purpose and idea behind the project. Currently, architects and landscape architects tend to use very seductive and visually attractive renderings that act more as art objects than as communicators of the project’s intentions. The main danger of the use of graphic design in projects, in some

Fig.1 an image works in vision (OMA’s scheme) and an image works in practice (current park master plan, 2010) (Source: left- Czerniak, Julia. Case--downsview Park Toronto. 77 right-http://www.tandfonline.com/na101/home/literatum/publisher/tandf/journals/content/rjla20/2012/rjla20.v007.i01/18626033.2012.693777/ production/images/large/rjla_a_693777_o_f0008g.jpeg)

Fig.2 Comparison between a satellite image of circle irrigation in Kansas, U.S. and diagram of OMA’s scheme. (Source: left- Google Earth image (37°22’09.22” N 100°23’23.95” W); right- Czerniak, Julia. Case--downsview Park Toronto. 80)

not agree is that, is it true that stamping circles on the ground is impossible? The figure below shows a satellite image of circle irrigation (a method of crop irrigation in which equipment rotates around a pivot and crops are watered with sprinklers) regions in Kansas, U.S. from Google Earth. It presents an amazing visual similarity to one of the original diagram from OMA. Though the functions of those circles differ from the ones for the Park, it at least provides a hint that the “impossible” response is quite dubious.

As aforementioned, there could be numerous possibilities to fail this attempt of transforming the original proposal into practice, and even Rem Koolhaas’s leaving might be one of the reasons. Nevertheless, it remains the remaining designers’ job to push the design moving from a two-dimensional plan graphic into a three-dimensional landscape, with many details to resolve along the way.

3. Ecological Impact 3.1 Why Ecology in Downsview Recently, a variety of projects for post-industrial sites bear witness to the primacy of landscape as a new medium of urban order, and a number of these involve a progressively more sophisticated reading and use of ecology in design. This is true of the Downsview site, which has been contaminated after its usage as military land and can accept no new construction until it is cleared and remediated. However, these are apertures for the creation of new hybrid ecologies, open to multiple interpretations in the evolving context of the future city.

In the competition brief of the Downsview Park, emphasis is placed on the natural processes to transform the degraded site conditions. It also advocates that nature and humanity within the park be treated as dynamic and interacting phenomena (Hill, 96). Scientifically, the designers started with understanding the relationship of plants and animals to the physical and biological environment of the park, as well as the energy flows and nutrient cycles that support them. By intervening in ecosystems, it enables their processes to reorganize the physical conditions of the site, especially water, soil, vegetation and habitat. Moreover, rethinking ecology in Downsview provides a useful analogy for the complexity and diversity of a new urban order. Therefore, several proposals for Downsview Park employ ecological approaches as metaphor to raise the possibility that design itself might invent new forms of relationship between people and environment.

3.2 Ecological Potential and Adaptive Design From a topographical perspective, the site of Downsview Park represents one of the highest points of land in the city of Toronto. The point of origin of many small tributaries that feed the Humber and Don River system (shown in Fig.3) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the two largest of such systems in the Toronto area â&#x20AC;&#x201C; originate on the Downsview Lands (Parc Downsview Park Website). Therefore, one reasonable and possible ecological design goal at Downsview could start with a naturally resulting hydrological feature in the park, which will also interact with other factors, such as vegetation and animals along the way. At the same time, this could extend the linear connections provided by the ravine system and increase the number of protected habitats in parks and throughout the larger region,

Fig.3 Two major water systems around the Downsview site (Source: raw image from Google Earth, self- Photoshop work)

creating an ecological infrastructure to thrive the region’s characteristic biodiversity. More specifically, most of Toronto’s ravine parks run northsouth and lack the east- west connections that could allow animals to move from watershed to watershed (Hill, 97). Downsview offers an opportunity to establish protected interior habitat and to simultaneously connect two northsouth ravine systems (the Don and the Humber River systems). With careful spatial strategies in design and management, this infrastructure could be built to support biodiversity while encouraging humans to enjoy social recreation.

Moving to the on-going construction of the park, the new design team set up a stormwater management system in the park to handle “a drainage area of 427 acres, including 119 acres of Bombardier lands. The new system guides stormwater to runoff through the Park via a combination of bioswales, filtration ponds and a 9-acre lake” (Parc Downsview Park Website). It follows a high standard and uses biotechnology as well as bioengineering techniques to effectively convey and clean stormwater runoff. In addition, grading changes have been made to direct water runoff and slow it down, giving nature time to filter the water as it makes its way back to the water table and the Black Creek water system, off site. In so doing, the degraded compact soil will be moderated from poor infiltration capability. Also, with an enhancement of water quality, part of suspended soil can be removed from runoff and more rainfall will be retained on site and disposed of by infiltration compared to previous site conditions. Moreover, they attempt to build an interaction network by placing a seasonal pond, forest and meadows around the lake (Parc Downsview Park Website), so that these elements will complement each other and function as a whole to maintain the hydrological and ecological system of the park.

However, such hydrological consideration seemed to be neglected in the winning OMA’s scheme. Except for the blue circles representing “water feature” in their conceptual plan, the term “water feature” is merely mentioned once in the Phase I of their process diagrams (Czerniak, 79). Though in the scheme, they expressed adequate enthusiasm for flexible programs and adaptive uses of space, the effect by graphic device to indicate groves of trees, meadows and the water features is more picturesque and pastoral, rather than a solid solution in terms of supporting biodiversity, improving water quality as well as applying a spatial strategy. From a perspective of a practical construction work, could we deem it to be relatively under-designed of an ecological specificity?

Though the stormwater system only managed to connect one of the rivers, and its real effect still needs to be tested by time. It at least provides a learning approach to exploring one of the potential ecological impacts in Downsview. Thus, such design process is defined by Nina- Marie Lister as “Adaptive Design”, which refers to “an integrated, whole-system, learning-based approach to the management of human-ecological interactions, with explicit implications for planning interventions and resulting design forms (Lister, 527).” The Downsview Park offers a context which proves that learning is a collaborative and conscious activity, derived from empirically monitored or experientially acquired information. Just as what Lister implies, designing methods rely on continuous learning through scale-appropriate experiments, which are responsive, responsible, and ultimately “safe-to-fail” (Lister, 528). Therefore, this process goes along with the appearance of new problems. In this case, when we strive for a biodiversity by building up such ecosystem, we have to consider that what if the presence of wild life conflicts with a myriad of other demands—such as safety?... By repeating this “problem- solution” process, hopefully, the design could rethink itself and finally become more adaptive. Fig.4 Water features of the current mater plan of the park (Source:http://www.downsviewpark.ca/sites/default/files/wysiwyg_content/maps/LeisureFall2012_EN.jpg)

Conclusion Now that ten years pass by, from the abstract circles in OMA’s scheme along with the disputes and uncertainty they raised, to the comprehensive new master plan for construction designed by the regrouped team. In terms of the significance of its existence and surrounding environment, Downsview has been trying to learn, adapt and rethink. Perhaps another ten years are needed to evaluate the effect of the new design, when the park will show its genuine significance rather than a discussion or an assumption.

Wo r ks C i t ed Czerniak, Julia. “Appearance, Performance: Landscape at Downsview”. In Case--downsview Park Toronto. Munich: Prestel, 2001. Print. Hill, Kristina. “Urban Ecologies: Biodiversity and Urban Design”. In Case--downsview Park Toronto. Edited by Julia Czerniak. Munich: Prestel, 2001. Print. Lister, Nina- Marie. “Insurgent Ecologies: (Re) Claiming Ground in Landscape and Urbanism”. In: M. Mostafavi with G. Doherty (eds.), Ecological Urbanism. Lars Müller Publishers, pp. 524-535. Mertins, Detlef. “Downsview Park International Design Competition” In Case--downsview Park Toronto. Edited by Julia Czerniak. Munich: Prestel, 2001. Print. North, Alissa. “Icon to Ground”. Parks issue of Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly 13(2011 Spring): 28- 31. Print. Parc Downsview Park. Parc Downsview Park Website. http://downsviewpark.ca/ [accessed Dec. 1 2012]

(163)

(164)

Although bus stops function as transit points in the city, the chosen ones at the Queen Quay W are barely distinguishable. The bus shelter is entirely built with glass, which almost erases the existence of the stop from people’s sight. Furthermore, there are no way-finding tools inside the shelter: maps, street numbers, route signs, bus placards etc. Therefore, orienting function does not exist. If a visitor intends to take public transportation in a city that he is quite unfamiliar with, he would always be searching for the waypoint information, which could be a map to locate himself, the name of a stop nearby, or a surrounding landmark (Golledge, 10). However, nothing could be found in any of the three stops on the Queen Quay W, which is quite disappointing.

X- Action Way-finding in the City of Toronto Being lost in the city of Toronto causes anxiety and frustration, especially for those unfamiliar with the city; therefore, a sign system becomes crucial. In the city circulation, bus stops work as junctures, but the signage is deficient. In this action, the aim is to help people find their way efficiently, through establishing a network among the chosen bus stops and the surroundings.

Therefore, the site for the action is at the Queen Quay W, three 509 bus stops from Dan Leckie Way to Rees St. Detailed reasons are as follows:

WHY- Disorientation in the city

1) A transmeridional and linear order of the Queen Quay W. Thus, nodes become more important than other symbols to locate oneself, as well as to show the orientation and distance towards the destination. Also, this area becomes measurable based on the connections between the contiguous bus stops. Meanwhile, the bus stops build up a network, connecting buildings, paths, and public open spaces.

According to Kevin Lynch, in his The Image of The City, “purposeful movement relies on an elaborate memorization of sequences of distinctive detail, so closely spaced that the next detail is always within close range of the previous landmark. Locations normally identified by many objects in context and may be distinguishable only by some special and separate symbol (125).” This means, one man recognizes a room by a small sign, another knows a street by the bus numbers. If the symbols are tampered with, the man is lost. This disorientation is similar to one’s progression in an unfamiliar city. Therefore, signage is inevitable, and its practical and emotional significance is manifest.

2) An ambiguous boundary of this area. These areas are introvert, turned in upon themselves with little reference to the city outside them (Lynch, 71). If a visitor does not have any concept of plan or any pictorial memory of these different parks and buildings on the site, he might find it difficult to recognize any of them.

WHO- User group Those who are not familiar with this city will benefit most from this action, for example, visitors to the city.

WHERE- Junctions on the Site

3) An unclear conception of scale. After getting off at any of these three bus stops on Queen Quay W, passenger cannot estimate the distance to another bus stop nearby.

Lynch also states that the junction, or place of a break in transportation, has compelling importance for the city observer. Because people have to make decisions at junctions, they heighten their attention at such places and perceive nearby elements with more clarity than normal (72). This tendency was confirmed so repeatedly that elements located at junctions may automatically be assumed to derive special prominence from their location.

4) Little variation in the vertical direction. As Queen Quay W is part of the rebuilt project—Toronto central waterfront, it connects various parks and landscape to the city. However, those parks are in a linear order, and trees inside are almost of the same height. As a result, simply by looking from the outside of those parks, the only image is trees clustering.

However, in Toronto, some of the bus stops fail to work as functional junctions. To exemplify this point of view, three bus stops at the Queen Quay W are chosen.

5) Few signs and signage. Queen Quay W is a wide street, but few signs could be seen no matter how hard people try to find one. With aforementioned problems and no hint on the street, way-finding can be a truly difficult task.

WHAT- Inspiration Way-finding is the original function of illustrating an environmental image, and it is also the basis on which the emotional association may have been founded (GĂ¤rling, 152). Moreover, the image is valuable not only in this immediate sense where it acts as a map for the direction of movement, but also in a broader sense where it serves as a general frame of reference. Individual can act within the frame, or freely attach his knowledge to it. Concerning existing signage systems in daily life, those in the hospital may be inspiring for this action. An effective hospital way-finding program will improve the visitorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience and increase its staff productivity as well. As aforementioned, an unfamiliar environment may breed anxiety and insecurity, especially for those people under stress, as often seen in hospitals. Therefore, given the complexity of health environments, designers also need to build the atmosphere to navigate people in a more friendly and less- stressed way. At this point, Japanese designer Kenya Hara has obtained an inspirational outcome with an embedded guidance system in Katta Civic Polyclinic, beautifully integrating his information into the fabric of the Architecture (Hara Design Institute Website). First, considering peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emotions in a hospital, Hara signs on the floor rather than on the ceiling. Then, by using giant red light face font, he creates a conspicuous comparison against the white floor, but not stressful at all.

Fig. 1 Signage in Katta Civic Polyclinic, by Kenya Hara (Hara Design Institute Website)

HOW- Methodology As for the form of this action, inspired by the analog to the signage design in hospital, chalks and colored tapes will be the main medium. First, I will try to set up a network linking these three bus stops to other functional areas, for example, parks, stores and restaurants. Then, I will calculate the exact distance from the stop to any of the destination, so that people could make decisions easily. The new signage will be presented in a graphic way by hand drawing, aiming to be eye-catching, simple and identical, so that everyone will notice it and acquire the exact information they need. To be specific, the action shall be more graphic than literal. As is known, image information is more directly perceived through the senses, compared with the literal information. As for newcomers in the city, literal information is abstract and less effective when conveying the information. Thus, a literal signage works less directly than a

Fig. 2 A map of chosen site, with marked bus stops, parks, restaurants and stores (Photoshop work)

graphical one. Designers Antoine + Manual once made a Paris metro map, which was based on simplified image of the landmarks in Paris (Antoine + Manual Website). Without the barriers language might build, it becomes much easier for passengers to comprehend and arrange their own plans. In conclusion, such new way-finding method offers the follow advantages: helping guide people to their destinations, as well as creating an enjoyable experience in both central waterfront and the city of Toronto for the visitors.

Fig. 4 Paris metro map, by Antoine + Manual (Antoine + Manual Website)

List of References/Images Antoine + Manual. “Paris metro map”. Antoine + Manual Website. http://www.antoineetmanuel.com/SHOPsite/poster_ parismetro.htm[accessed Oct. 30 2012]. Gärling, Tommy. Urban Cognition. London: Academic Press, 1995. Print. Golledge, Reginald G. Wayfinding Behavior: Cognitive Mapping and Other Spatial Processes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Print. Hara, Kenya. “Katta Civic Polyclinic”. Sign system. 2002. Hara Design Institute Website. http://www.ndc.co.jp/hara/ works/en/2002/05/katta.html[accessed Oct. 30 2012]. Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1960. Print. Antoine + Manual. “Paris metro map”. Antoine + Manual Website. http://www.antoineetmanuel.com/SHOPsite/poster_ parismetro.htm[accessed Oct. 30 2012]. Google Map. http://ditu.google.cn/maps?ct=reset[accessed Oct. 30 2012]. Hara, Kenya. “Katta Civic Polyclinic”. Sign system. 2002. Hara Design Institute Website. http://www.ndc.co.jp/hara/ works/en/2002/05/katta.html[accessed Oct. 30 2012].