The more our world looks and functions like this natural world, the more likely we are to be accepted on this home that is ours, but not ours alone. jenine beynus
c1.1 studio
C.1 re[site]al Charles Garcia, Kyle Sturgeon - 3 weeks
“Make a pavilion for a high school graduation ceremony. You don’t know who these people are and you don’t know where or how this event will happen.”
process
inquiry
Prefab is great, but can we really put everything we build on wheels? Even for just a short while? What’s deafness like- what if architecture could somehow talk to us? Can architecture weave literally to create structure?
concept
It’s not about communicability— according to special educators, the greatest challenge for their hearing impaired students is integrating them back into society. I like to explore architecture through events in my personal life. Moving out, a deaf friend, and a new rug, then topical events, influenced the approach of this project. We were charged with the task of modeling sketches of ‘connected modules ’ using paper without glue. I purchased a rug that day so I chose to explore the craft of weaving to examine warp and weft as a way of connecting things. Apparently, friction is one of the many interesting by-products of weaving. This is an architecturally useful quality because enough friction allows woven forms to hold shape without external support. Initially, this was a site-less project so I chose to focus on my obsession with mobility towards wheel driven structure. I felt that a mobile structure might provide the most flexibility for ‘plug-and-play’ situations when a site was magically introduced. The drawing illustrates folded plates laced with bands that create a flexible and friction-based membrane (actual models recycled). The plates are made suitable for mobility by being proportioned to boat and truck beds. The jack-in-the-box like the nature of this assembly also allows large flexible modules to be compressed and transported for various applications.
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At larger scales, warp and weft models developed into tensile based accordions. The instructors introduced the object—a pavilion. The accordion was translated into linked modules that could serve as both seating and as canopy. My studio projects have generally been developed via modeling, sketching, collage, and occasional 3D rendering. Each project has been a chaotic process both difficult to follow and communicate— singular ideas with several outcomes. One of the instructors sensed my interest in pictographs as a way of telling stories and encouraged me to use diagrams as a method for developing the project. One of the immediate challenges was learning new software. In many ways this project was as much an exploration of the craft of creating diagrams as it was in the craft of weaving. Since diagrams are commonly by-products of a thinking process, the big question for me was “how can diagrams be useful during the process as actual form generators?” Like several precedents I followed—Koolhaas, Eisenmen, Prince-Ramus, Single Speed—the design that developed was an abstracted form of the diagram itself. This “form follows program” approach was new and exciting because it allowed me to work without preconceived notions of form. I was learning to let go of premature sentiments of shape and space. After a module was developed to suit a pavilion we were given the program which was a graduation ceremony for any high school. Below, the symbolic gesture of graduation is examined with weaving to develop the idea of social integration for the hearing impaired. Students and teachers are integrated into the crowd by breaking from a hierarchical style procession, . The diagrams provide a reading of what is happening and illustrate how modules can be adapted to oblige a type of procession or visa versa.
friction studies
typical procession
alternate processions
synthesis
The structure swells and envelopes as a way of communicating an idea about what’s going on. It opens fully to admit shuffling crowds, it closes a bit to indicate the shift in moment as the ceremony begins, it tightens even further to mark the intimacy of personal testimonials, and it reopens to mark the end of the ceremony. The instructors pressed further and encouraged me to develop a system that could fold in either
the truck
assembly
arrival
opening ceremony
testimonials
awards
dispersal
direction thereby creating a closed shelter for receptions or an opened covered structure precarious weather conditions. The structure’s ability to make adjustment in form also allows technicians to create optimal acoustics, particularly if they’re looking for lower vibration frequencies in order to heighten the acoustic experience for otherwise deaf people.
reception
program
40’
1
Define Base
y ve rs it
di ed
Define Program Matrix
Connect Crowd Back To Stage Visually
x5 x9
3
Pixellate Program Allow For Integration
P
Typical Hierarchy
4
30
45
200
FACULTY
front
STUDENTS
FRIENDS & FAMILY back
5
Toggle Bay Heights Spatial Wayfinding
N O I T C
E J RO
x20
Organizing Principle Via Circulation Bays
loop strap system that would be woven about the module perimeter acting in tension (see model on previous page). The mechanics of this assembly at 1:1 were never fully studied but paper models suggested that each string could take on unique form creating an undulating field of seating with several height differences. This discovery made the concept even more flexible to site conditions than I had previously imagined because it implied the ability to park this assembly on any slope.
os
2
na lh
ie
ra rc hy
Define Procession
In lieu of separation, the idea of integration is to pixellate the body of friends, parents, educators, and students throughout the event. The diagrams on the left illustrate the process of how a panel transforms from “a bed” to a pixillated field (of people), to a string of bays, then finally to a frayed accordion which becomes a kind of mutable architecture that adapts to many environments. Each hinged finger is a series of folded plates similar to earlier study model. On a larger scale they would likely require more than friction to support large audiences so I proposed a closed
pr op
TRUCK BED
co nv en tio
’
16
Hierarchy Removed New Layout Proposes Diversified Integration
While the site was in fact in Boston, the idea is that this modular ‘pavilion on wheels’ can go anywhere where roads exist. The final rendering demonstrates how the pavilion takes advantage of Government Center’s stepped landscape. Above, a tongue and cheek rendering illustrates namely the users view from within the pavilion, but it also shows how this project could be used for anything from public announcements, to traveling circuses, and of course, for a camel auction—why not :)