Framework

FRAMEWORK

Framing the column, joint, and event as a means toward spatial and tectonic hierarchy

Robert Russell Deane Advisor::Patrick Doan

Robert Russell Deane Bachelor of Architecture 2010 Undergraduate Thesis Advisor: Patrick Doan Virginia Polytechnic Institue and State University June 2010 Burchard Hall, Blacksburg, VA on 32 lb hp premium laserjet paper

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Many thanks to the following people who have challenged me and kept me close to their own work, love and commitment :

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Patrick Doan Hilary Bryon Paola Zellner-Bassett Jim Bassett Carol Burch-Brown Alessandro Ayuso Frank Weiner Kelly Lonergan

[be the ball] [cowboy boots] [sword dancer] [perfect human] [work of art] [make it/nites] [the diagram] [mosquito man]

Matthew Stark Chloe Csadenyi-Benson Jared Clifton Jay Osborne P’s Second Years Adam Bricker Doug Becker Rachel Cowen Colin Stewart T. Rees Shapiro Otto Peter Broeder IV XYZ Gallery and Crew

[adv] [my third space] [collaborator] [electric nomad] [hard workers] [go to] [swedish chef] [just dance] [BEAR] [BIKEpiper] [tchussi!] [more ART]

Me Family

[makamecrazy]

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract- A Framing Device Frame Column Joint/Reveal Event Gallery Model 1:50 System, Tool, Framework Make a Temporary Wall Drawing VSAIA competition 2010 WORKS

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Abstract Architecture is a framing device.

Architecture is a frame towards a mediation of physical joints, reveals, and entities in space. The thesis explores the programmatic manifestation of a gallery which, investigates how through the design process, construction, and curation architecture becomes a framing device that establishes a hierarchical order within a building and town. As a means of study; a column, a joint, and a reveal all become dynamic elements that act in the framing of an event.

The events of framed space become critical to architect’s and designer’s understanding of space and tectonics. The engagement at multiple scales, from detail, to room, to urban intervention follow the same system or economy, not only in the literal construction but also in the revealing of those parts.

FRAME COLUMN WALL JOINT/REVEAL SCALE SYSTEM SPACE TECTONICS 1

FRAME

“Frames re-present what they frame. Such re-presentation invites us to take on a second look, bids us take leave from our usual interests and concerns and to attend to what is thus re-presented.� 1

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as COLUMN

spatial, tectonic, order, presence

in JOINT/REVEAL

detail, inhabit, scale, opportunity

GALLERY- Blacksburg, VA

room, building, urban joint

in EVENT

construing, construction, curation

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COLUMN

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“Column. An upright structural member, square, round or rectangular and usually slightly tapering. It can be isolated, engaged or attached to a wall. Normally intended as a support, but sometimes erected independently as a monument. In classical architecture it consists of a shaft, capital, and, except in greek Doric, a base.�2

The column is a mediator The column served as the architectonic vehicle for this exploration, from a literal perceptive tool of space in the process of recording and iteration, to a proposed generator for a wall, room, and building. The reveal, and joining of parts provided a continual sense of performance, scale and surprise.

The column was investigated at two scales and methods.

As a series of seven foot tall 3 1/2�x 3 1/2� wide markers.

As a series of structural, building supports that make up a room for art.

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JOINT/REVEAL

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“A function of the detail often appears incomplete and vague in its structuring principle. But, by unifying in itself function and representation, the re-use of a detail becomes a creative catalyst. It becomes a fertile detail.” It is ”the detail as joint. Architecture is an art because it is interested not only in the original need of shelter but also in putting together spaces and materials in a meaningful manner. This occurs through formal and actual joints. The joint, that is the fertile detail, is the place where both the construction and the construing of architecture take place.”3

Joint engages scales from the human to the town. The connection, and thoughtful separation or reveal of tectonic parts allows for an opportunity of inhabitance and ‘fertile’ potential. Marco Frascari argues that knowledge of a certain scale can influence multiple through an ‘adoration’ of a detail.

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EVENT

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“The formost skill of the architect is, likewise, to turn the multi-dimensional essence of the design task into embodied and lived sensations and images; eventually the entire personality and body of the designer becomes the site of the design task, and the task is lived rather than understood.�4

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GALLERY

A room for art, curation, and movement.

This building further explores a developing hierarchy and how these elements work on a specific site in downtown Blacksburg, Va. The hierarchy of parts manifests as a room, defined by a grid of steel columns, a floor, a wall, and a roof. The column mediates the double-height room. Spatially, it is an inhabitant-a guard, and implies a continual wall depending on approach. Tectonically, it inscribes lines, planes, light, into the surrounding materials and connections.

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The building inhabits a current parking lot and dumpster area, a break in the volumes and walls which stretch Draper Road and the Virginia Tech commuter lot. The presence of the building invites pedestrians down to a sunken plaza, following the sectional change from draper.

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aerial image: bing.com

16 Blocks-Downtown Blacksburg, Va

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Column-Plan

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Scale 1/2”=1’

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1/8 in= 1 ft

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96

12 ft

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1/8 in= 1 ft

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12 ft

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The room is open to multiple uses. A series of sliding walls along the trusses provide for a curator’s needs, along with other moving temporary walls, screens and columns.

The columns define the grid of the building, and mediate floor, ceiling, material and light. Order and hierarchy come forward, stating a permanence while providing temporal opportunity.

The Building order is divided by a series of two parallel running walls. This reveal follows the sectional change through the next city block to main street. It holds the building’s stairs and divides building/bodily necessities and the open gallery room.

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SYSTEM, TOOL, FRAME The design process: While the architecture acts as a framing device the process itself frames the development of the work. Through drawing, photographs, film, and a series of full-scale temporary columns “frameworks� the design was developed.

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Development of the wood 2x4.

Searching for a building element or material that found its way into the building process relatively often, I chose a standard 2”x4”x8’ piece of Spruce wood. The developed dimensions in the building industry are made, such that a worker can carry this material, addressing his or her hand and the limits of carry over a distance and spatial limit. I cut them down to 7’in order to question the frame of a standard door height, ranging from 6’8” to 7’.

The power of two, put together vertically, filling out the plan of the square, expresses a ½” reveal between them. These two, put together left a question in-between of a space to look through, measure, and even inhabit. This space, ultimately led to a housing of my process, one that has tried to answer some of my questions of how architects really measure their own work. This limit of dimension and material has ultimately lead me to a means of variation and iteration at a full, built scale, as it relates to my architectural ideas.

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scale: 1 ft= 1 ft

as instrument/marker-metal compression joints placed

scale: 1 in= 1 ft

6’ 1 3/4”

(my height)

5’

(viewing height)

1’

(base measure) 53

Framing the site Survey, draw, record The column tool stood on the site as a perceptive instrument. As a means to survey physical dimensions, mark viewpoints, and be its own installation.

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Framing the Process Build, take apart, build, take apart, build

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The system of columns developed into a flexible and mobile framework that could provide a space to develop, hold, and display work and models. These columns raised their own questions as they began to follow early design intuition. A simple choice of material, scale, and joint, challenged this notion of frame.

During work, exhibition, and installation these column provided their own event, constantly changing due to use and inhabiting space. Their spacing honored the dimensions of the work displayed, for example, arranging to the 3 foot wide drawings, creating a physical wall, and idea of connection and framework.

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Make a temporary wall As an effort to use the system in a display space, The columns were part of an exhibition held at XYZ student gallery, a block from the proposed site. Needing to separate two shows, an additional wall was needed within the main room.

The role of the column and its variable base system, allowed for some give within the space.

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Drawing 12’x6’ composed of 36in x24in vellum sheets. medium: graphite, colored pencil, spraypaint.

The dimensions of the drawings worked with the dimentionality of the column tools.

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Belle Guards 2010 Virginia Society of the AIA competition Finalist

Walls as Frames Belle Isle, a well-visited island in Downtown Richmond, Va on the James River, was the site for a weekend long competition questioning history, interaction and involvement.

Instead of a column, I questioned the presence of a wall, or multiple wall fragments which shared a typological identity. These movable walls would bring together the island as roaming fragments of a greater order.

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MAKE BUILD FRAME RE-MAKE

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WORKS1

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Harries, Karsten. The Broken Frame: Three Lectures. Washington, D.C. : Catholic University of Amreica Press, c1989.

Fleming, John. The Penguin dictionary of architecture and landscape architecture / John Fleming, Hugh Honour, Nikolaus Pevsner. London : Penguin, 1999.

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Frascari, Marco The Tell Tale Detail

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Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture. West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2009

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