Laura Mallon 6003907 University of Auckland Year 3 Semester 1 Design Project
‘Trial and Error’ Tutors: Kester Rattenbury University of Westminster and Kim Huynh University of Auckland
Why do people teach architecture using weird imaginary projects? Can you design an architectural project purely by chance? What is an architectural project in a school of architecture? What role do all these strange projects, imaginary buildings and experiments have in teaching you (and us) to deal with the highly unpredictable conditions of real architectural life? Kester Rattenbury
Over the past semester I have been experimenting with a real project, creating a series of unusual works under the guidance of I Ching - an ancient Chinese oracle. This sounded extremely crazy and confusing to us all at the start of the semester. However over short 5 weeks working with Kester Rattenbury of the University of Westminster, this idea of designing based on an oracle started to make a lot more sense. This project started off with an A0 sized doodle and resulted in an exhibition based on work that had been designed through consultations with the I Ching. Going into this paper there were a lot of uncertainties and unknowns, this lack of knowledge remained constant throughout the whole paper as the unpredictable experimentation resulted in many unexpected outcomes. This chance-driven method had us working with different materials that we would not normally work with and using different techniques which resulted in works not always turning out the way we planned, however this was not always the worst thing to happen. My project had me working with pieces of offcuts off the CNC machine. This gave me a wide variety of materials of all different sizes and shapes that were then positioned through consultation with the I Ching. By constructing and executing this work in the studio it became a “real project”, we had to work out how to safely install our work in the given space. We had to figure out how we could occupy spaces, if we were even allowed to and how to work around everyone else’s work. In conjunction with thinking about the studio as our site, we then had to produce technical drawings showing how our projects had been constructed and installed in the studio. As well as this being an individual project, it was also a collaborative project as we had to work together to successfully assemble an exhibition to show off the work we had created. The plan of the show was organised with the help of the I Ching as well as the structural supports required for each piece of work. I personally was in charge of laying the hexagram grid (8x8 grid numbered 1-64) over the plan of the studio. A helium 22 balloon found on the level above became the starting point for how to set out this grid on the studio. From here exhibition pieces where placed on the grid based on the numbers given by the I Ching and the hexagrams taped out on the studio floor. This meant that some works ended up both inside and outside of the studio. The last 7 weeks of the studio paper has required us to document and complete our work in an individual portfolio. This portfolio is our own personal take on this strange project and how we have been taught to design architecture through trail and error.
CONTENTS Introduction Contents page Doodles Compositions Components Development Crit/Exhibition Conclusion
Brief: To create an A0 sized doodle using only different coloured biros. Pretend you are in a really boring meeting that lasts a few days and fill an A0 sized sheet with doodles.
“well no one quite listened to the brief - great first impressions to an international tutor�
My doodle was constructed using shellac, white and black paint, indian ink, gold and black vivids, a series of black pens of different weights. I constructed a series of different smaller sized doodles and then combined them all together to create one A0 sized doodle.
Fig 1: Section from initial A0 doodle
Fig 2: Section from initial A0 doodle
Fig 3-5: Compositions created from developing the A0 doodle
these compositions are a development of my initial doodle and have been composed out of shellac, paint, a series of black pens of different weights, butter paper and photocopies of the original doodle.
This next section documents the first time we came face to face with the great oracle that is I Ching. There was much confusion during this time as this was all so new and unknown to us. At first we were asked to construct 3 2D and 3 3D works completely by chance, consulting with the I Ching.
“for now, brown scrumpled paper is temporarily banned. no paper is to be used for this next section of work�
After completing this series of work Kester decided to ban paper and we had to again create 3 2D and 3 3D works using other materials that we could find. This required us to go scavenging for materials outside of our every day lives to see how creative we could be, while still being guided by the I Ching.
Catalogue of potential materials that could be used for the compositions
The initial floor plan of the level 4 studio the site for our design project
Composition 1 consulting I Ching (page before) spoiled - recycled materials standstill - one position retreat at the right moment - stop when I feel I should line is strong, has strength to retreat -bold line fading out conflict - eyes and left handed vs eyes closed and use of right hand spoiled - shellac, once dead chemicals are added
long awaited change is at hand - change to using a different media
one who possess great should not make it too full - time to stop and open eyes
upward - present it the way I worked on it resting on something - leaning up against something
Composition 2
pushing upward - heaviness at the bottom conflict - pushing outwards instead of upwards not to love - pull apart from each other not become permanent - something pulling it all back into the centre lasts long - extending the life of something that has been discarded follows others and finds guidance - seek advice from others to find out if its finished or not when one possesses something great, there is enthusiam - happy with what I have when I feel I’ve completed it
Composition 3 white paint and biro reaffirm your reliance on the creative - don’t try to force a style that isn’t me
20 minute intervals of work then ask if it’s finished
after completion - the size of the work will be determined once you are finished
shock and release - laughter, make fun of, somewhere no one will expect
contented limitation equals success - if I’m happy with where it is at then it is completed anything attempted now by force will be annoying and cannot be continued - don’t continue working on something if you are bored or it won’t end well
“these black and white alucobond pieces are offcuts from a job done by the CNC machine just hiding away in the corner of the factory waiting for someone to use them�
Alucobond
Glue
Shellac
Alucobond
Glue
Alucobond
much confusion, many tears, so much confusion!
“what the hell am I doing? I don’t understand any of this! It makes no sense to me at all!”
This next section documents another round of consultation with the I Ching. The pieces created over this time have been considered for our final exhibition. Again because all of this work is created by chance there is still a lot of confusion as to what will be produced, but I guess that is all in the fun of it...or the reason for all our hatred.
“with my found discarded materials how can I use the I Ching hexagram grid to help me set out my work?”
The materials that I used to create these works were collected from my Dad’s factory. They are a series of offcuts from the CNC machine and are all a range of shapes, sizes and materials, all of which I had no control over. To help me layout the peices to create each individual work, I put a masking tape line along the wall and numbered it from 1-64 and then relied on the I Ching to position these pieces on that scale for me. To help me set out my work in the studio for the collaborative exhibition, I took the hexagram grid of I Ching and laid it out over the whole studio, this then gave me specific points around the studio where each hexagram was to be positioned and potential points for my work. As a result of this, it meant that some pieces ended up both inside and outside the studio and it was this grid that other students used to help them position their work for the exhibition if it wasn’t positioned due to structural requirements.
“Happy 22nd Birthday!!!” When laying out the I Ching hexagram grid over the studio, there were many different ways in which we could number this grid. Would it work as an advantage to us to create our own grid of hexagrams? Should we mimic the I Ching grid over the studio? It wasn’t until I went upstairs to level 5 that I saw a helium balloon in the shape of a 22 stuck to the ceiling. There was a girl that was celebrating her 22nd birthday and as a result we were given the stepping stone to laying out our grid. When looking at the I Ching grid, I worked out that if you mirrored the grid then the hexagram 22 fell into the exact same position on the grid of the studio. Therefore it was around this 22 balloon that we set out the grid.
“X marks the spot” The balloon also marked the specific point on the grid where the hexagram was marked. This point was then taken and physically marked out in the studio using masking tape.
Starting to combine a Nolli plan and the I Ching hexagram grid over the original plan of the studio
Fig 6-9: Collecting and transporting all the CNC offcuts
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“how in the world does this represent a cityscape?�
This composition was the first work using the CNC offcuts. I had about 30 pieces from the CNC machine to choose from.
“where in the world do I start? there are so many pieces!!� To help me with a starting point, I numbered all my pieces twice from 1-64 and then allowed the I Ching to guide me with how to start my compositions.
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black/white alucobond square CNC small irregular cut plywood
position these pieces at 6 and 59 on the scale
CNC long plywood palm tree offcut white acrylic lantern cutout piece
position these pieces at 34 and 43 on the scale
piece 47 - black/white alucobond square is already in use, therefore this is where this piece finishes
this piece represents an elevation
This next section is the work that I have developed after Kester went back home. This section of work is scattered in amongst the components section of work.
“a final layer of I Ching or randomised loosening up of the work could really help complete this work to the level it deserves.” As a result of this I have created a series of extra compositions. These have been developed using a scale in two dimensions rather than the 1 dimension scale used in earlier works. These pieces have been constructed using the same CNC offcut pieces but when I asked the I Ching what they represented the answers were instead more finer detail representations, such as a table and chair or a door handle detail.
“should you do another series of compositions - at least a few - with a grid working in two (or three) dimensions?”
Grid composition 1
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Grid composition 2
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Grid composition 1
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Grid composition 2
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This is how the initial work was presented vs the piece (on the next page) that was exhibited after a talk with Kester
“it looked better when you let I Ching control it and didn’t change it to what you thought looked best”
Grid composition 3
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Grid composition 4
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Grid composition 4
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This was the last piece I constructed for the exhibition. While I was organising all the pieces for this work, Callum came over to me and said he was chucking a whole lot of pieces out but really liked this piece so was wondering if I could add it into my work.
“chuck it in the pile and I’ll add some I Ching numbers to it and if the I Ching picks it out then it will make the cut”
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“is that Callum’s work in there as well?”
Floor plan of the level 4 studio with the I Ching hexagram grid over the top - this was then used to determine where some works were positioned in the exhibition
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This piece was the only piece that was altered drastically from what the I Ching told me to do. This piece went back a few steps to previous layouts as the final work that I got to wasn’t working as well as it could have been. There was a lot of trial and error with this piece and a lot of personal opinion as I discarded pieces that just weren’t working for me. Then once the I Ching and I had finally reached an end point I looked at it with Kester and we realised it had been taken a few steps too far so resorted back a few steps to get a stronger piece that the I Ching told us represented an elevation.
Grid composition 5
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Grid composition 5
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Floor plan of the level 4 studio with the I Ching hexagram grid over the top - the yellow circles highlight where the I Ching positioned the grid development series of works
Tuesday 5th April: CRIT DAY! On Tuesday 5th April we had a crit of our exhibition. This worked differently to any other crit we had in the past as it wasn’t presented as a series of individual people’s work but instead a collaborative project. This meant that for our crit we went around as a group and if your work was positioned in the specific parts of the studio then you would present how you made the work.
“I guess to anyone, they could interpret this however they wanted to, but for today, the I Ching has told me that this represents a cityscape, therefore this is how I am treating it!” Wednesday 6th April: EXHIBTION DAY The next day we had the grand opening of our exhibition. There was a lot of good feedback about the work we had produced, especially in such a short amount of time, however there was a lot of confusion amoungst those that just came for a quick look.
“none of this makes any sense to me!!” When working out where each of my pieces was to go in the exhibition, I asked the I Ching where my doodle should go. It gave me a reading from hexagram 50 which actually positioned my doodle outside in the staff carpark. Therefore my doodle was taped to the pillar and external window down on level 1. I went back a week later to collect all the pieces from my doodle and only the one on the pillar remained, the other two pieces had been taken down and are no where to be found.
Why do people teach architecture using weird imaginary projects? Can you design an architectural project purely by chance? What is an architectural project in a school of architecture? What role do all these strange projects, imaginary buildings and experiments have in teaching you (and us) to deal with the highly unpredictable conditions of real architectural life? Kester Rattenbury
This semester has been a very unique and interesting opportunity. An experience that has been thoroughly enjoyable, although it did test my limits at certain stages. Having to leave major design decisions up to a chinese oracle is not something that I imagine would come easy to many people and it was definitely difficult for me to get my head around. I have defintely found this a very useful exercise and do believe that you can in fact design architecture purely by chance. I believe that having a chance driven project actually allows for a lot more ideas to come to fruition as you don’t get this idea in your head too early of how something is going to turn out. There is an open minded attitude kept throughout the whole journey and any outcome you get can be interpreted in any way you want good or bad. This experimentation allows you to really push the boundaries and test materials and techniques you wouldn’t normally consider in a normal design paper. In terms of this paper being a real project, I think it was very helpful in regards to designing to the limitations of the given site. In a design paper when we are normally designing an imaginary building, whether we can visit our site or not, we never will fully understand how our building interacts with the site and its limitations and constraints. Whereas with this project when we were installing our pieces in the studio we really had to consider everything around us, such as, what spaces were useable and which spaces weren’t, what we could hang things from and which we couldn’t. From here we could then see how our pieces interacted with the studio and also the people operating the studio, something of which you would never see in any other design project unless it was built. In a studio so busy with other people doing their own projects there was a lot to consider. Lots of days you would come in and your work had been affected due to other people occupying the space as well. This gave us another thing to think about in terms of safety and placement. For some people damage and human interaction was a good thing for their project but for others like myself it wasn’t necessarily a good thing, so when I arrived one morning to find one of my pieces had fallen over, I realised it wasn’t as safe as I had initially thought so had to redesign it to make it safer. Unpredictable situations like this, whilst maybe not quite as bad as what could happen to a 1:1 scale building on a site, made me think about my design from a different angle, which I may not have considered if I was designing an imaginary building on a real site. A lot more things had to be considered and really broadened my way of thinking when it comes to designing. Overall I have found this paper very enjoyable and I have learnt a lot from it. It was a great experience and opportunity to learn from an international tutor as well. Although it is still quite difficult to explain to people what I have been doing and people still don’t understand what we have done, it has been very valuable to me and my learning.