FallBook_Walter

Study of of Architecture Architecture of of Censorship Censorship Study and Urban Urban Space Space of of Efficiency Efficiency and Studio Lange | Fall 2019 | Walter Wang

research exper 04

08

Introduction

Censorship, Participation, Consequences Thesis Topic Exploration Project

12 Hank, Jerey, Leisley EXCERSIE I

10

You guys disobay your FUNCTIONS, and now I’m excuting my power to rip that off from both of you!!

Relational Space

Hey Richard and you sit over there and just be quiet for a second? Mom is making you delicious dinner now.

Shhhhhhhhhhhh

24 Define Media Architecture

14 WAS, WERE, WHERE

Thesis Experimen/Furniture Design

26 Body Movie Case Study i

riment design 29

50

Now you can see me

Chang’an Avenue

Abstract

36

58

Occupy the public space

Privatization of public splace

44 Three idealology about public space

46 street: urban space of efficiency

Site Research

1st design iteration

40 DRESS ME!!

Experimental Project/Installation

62

Concequence of effects Program exploration

4

Introduction Introduction

As Loos and Hoffmann said, architecture is a social mechanism, where architects design strategies to negotiate the relationship between the private and the social self. [1].

Socialization, organization, group identity, and behavior and attitude shaping are examples of how architecture can be seen as a social medium.

Traditionally architecture bears symbols and decorations to educate people, and it was the primary means of mass media before the invention of printed books. As Victor Hugo wrote in Notre-Dame de

Paris a polemic that begins with “This will kill that. The book will kill the edifice.” “This” refers to “humanity’s ability to create acts of expression via the printed word.”

And “that” refers to “humanity’s ability to express itself through architecture.” [3] At the same time, architecture that supports the governing power always has the centrality in public life that defines privacy and publicity with pecific intents.

In modern time, architects have experimented with different methodologies to understand of architecture in relation to media. Le Corbusier, as a modernist famously

known for his claim “house is a machine for living,” was also arguably seeing houses as “constructing pictures, or scenes, as about movement through space as the unfolding of a movie or a narrative.” In her boook,Colomina argues that, Corbusier’s vision of the house was modelled on the mechanical eye of the camera, less as a humanist observer.

She also argues that modern architecture engages with the media not just by being displayed in books, exhibits, and magazines, but also constantly presents a space

[1] Anna P. Gawlikowska. (2013) Communication and Buildings: Space as Mass Media. Budownictwo i Architektura 12(4) (2013) p7-20 [2] Colomina, Beatriz. (1994) Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media.

[3]

of photographs in rooms and windows, when viewers eyes becoming camera eyes. [3] In that sense, in a world with advancing technologies, architercture is experencing its role more as a medium for domesticity and personal ideology of architects.

So how about the society we are living in right now?

I’m curious about examining the relationship between contemporary media technologies and architecture and how they collectively affect public space.

To talk about the issue, a few points need to be clarified. First, the definition of media changes

significantly over time, but its broad meaning consistantly include information/communication outlet.

Medium, on the ther hand, can be interpretaed as a agency of doing something or achieving certain goals. [1] I argue that architecture of public space nowadays should be shifting towards medium rather than just media. The latter emphasizes architecture’s obligation to represent the will of authority whearas the former can free up architecture to the interpretation of users and respond to changes.

The challenge is more difficult than modern age – as we are in the age of digitization, and

it seems like the permanency of architecture is incapable of replicating effects of digital media technologies the same way as to printed photography, newspapers, and magazines, as digital media technologies blurred the boundary between privacy and publicity even more. We are in an age when privacy and publicity are not mutually exclusive anymore, so studying how digital technologies changes our perceptions of public space will inform a design for new type of public space that

“..the spatial experience of modern social life emerges through a complex process of co-constitution between architectural structures and urban territories, social practices, and media feedback. The contemporary city is a media-architecture complex resulting from the proliferation of spatialized media platforms and the production of hybrid spatial ensembles.” [4]

[4] McQuire, Scott. (2008) Media City: the Media, Architecture, and Urban Space. p9

allows people to contribute to changes of a place and obscuring the defined meaning of a place by authority that is outdated.

Thesis Statement

As media, architecture has traditionally been the educator of the masses both punitively and exemplary. In the urban arena it serves to c e n s o r those in its domain.

But as a medium, it could serve to empower. Instead of responding to the will of the governing ideology, it could react to the users of the urban space creating consequences and effects as more democratic responses to the people.

This thesis, through the study of the architecture of censorship and the urban space of efficiency, proposes inefficiency as architecture’s answer to the promotion of responsiveness and change.

Cencorship, Cencorship, Participation, tion, Participa Consequences Consequences

Censor means to examine in order to suppress or delete what is considered objectionable [1]. It is an act of obscuring meaning and understanding of expressions or intents. Traditionally, censoring serves the ruling power to prevent undesirable actions of the ruled class. The act od censoring could be countered by decensoring, which requires a conscious engagement with the object in order to reveal.

Censorship doesn’t always have to be applied to an entire whole, but only selected portions.

This selected censorship shows

9

more intents and complex, giving opportunities to convey different interpretations. This mechanism of learning follows what is called “relational knowledge.� In short, this is an anti-structuralism idea about everything in the world.

Relational knowledge argues that nothing can be given meanings without being related to others. It emphasizes that difference rather than commonality derives meanings.

Inspired by this knowledge, this project intends to explore a graphic approach to censorship, participation, and consequences.

The pixelated image is made of three different images masked by

circles using Photoshop. Circles are generated parametrically and selected through iterations (sizes, positions). It cannot be understood by just looking at individual circles, but overall as a whole, relationally. As viewers needs to adjust to seeing circles all together, the process will require curiosity and personal knowledge.

When the censored contents move from printed media to spatial experiences or something more three-dimensional, it is hypothetically possible to produce unexpected spatial experience to different users because of their different spatial coordinates.

[1] Marriam Webster, 2019

10

Relational tional Rela Space Space

In the age of proliferation of digital media platform, the spatial experience of public social life is observed to undergo a dramatic transformation that foregrounds a communication bond that replaces what used to be a social bond based on spatial proximity to centers of power. Public spaces that manifest such transformations are places heavily equipped with digital screens such as Times Square and buildings facilitating movement such as transportation stations.

The communication

bond is made possible by radical progresses in communication technologies and digital social media, in which “what were more or less closed systems, body, social body, become more or less open constellation.” [1] What this means to public space and the architecture of it is a shift from emphasizing a static and singular experience to one that rapidly constructs and deconstructs itself, creating a multitude of possible consequences that totally depends on the subjective decisions of individuals. Unlike choosing an item from a menu, going through relational space at one scale is at the

same time making impacts to another scale. The importance of maintaining a materialistic permanence therefore gives in to meeting an equilibrium between dynamic parts.

“ Relational space is the experience of subjectivity remade through the expanded demand on individuals to make life choices in the apparent absence of traditional social collectivities.” [2]

Relational Space Media Lanbyrinth

11

[1] Lash, Scott. (2002) Critue of Information, p16 [2] McQuire, Scott. (2008) Media City: the Media, Architecture, and Urban Space. p9

The new aforementioned spatial experience focuses one individual’s realization that they are somehow related to the context — an experience of being liable to contributions that used to only exist in virtual digital world. The emotional status for this connectedness is rendered by a feeling, or atmosphere, of ambivalences.

Ambivalence is a spatial quality inspired by the intense, temporal communication bond, in which our technological openness are translated into spatial effects that transmit the consequences of one’s decision to some forms of spatial interruptions on others.

Therefore the interactions permitted by ambivalence will invite more intuitions than normalization. It requires to recognize “the unique position of each social actor and the situated context of every experience.” [1]

“Ambivalence in this sense is not indecision, lack of certainty or the weakening of moral fibre, but recognition that the complexity of intricately related, cascading consequences render all choices problematic in some way or to some degree. Ambivalence is the predicament of contemporary social life in the media city.” [2]

[1] McQuire, Scott. (2008) Media City: the Media, Architecture, and Urban Space. p23 [2] McQuire, Scott. (2008) Media City: the Media, Architecture, and Urban Space. p10

12

Lazy Hank ate a lot of candies Angry Jerey was roaring on the stove

Agile Leisley was ready to execute her justice.

Hank, Jerey, Leisley Group project with Kristin Miller-Nelson, Patrick McCullough

This is an exercise to start to discover our initial interests for thesis. The project Hank, Jerey, Leisley explores three design parameters in architecture: form, function, and narrative.

The functions of the three objects were decided to have an ambiguous association with their forms. They are a candy can, a kettle, and a donut holder, to which we also give them characters and emotions that influence their final forms.

13

When they combine together, they become a stool!

The 3D printed models are only representations of the three characters at a specific moment in the narrative, yet they still maintain their individual forms and functions as they could be separated apart.

Inspired by Jimenez Lai The exercise also experiments with

comics as a representational tool that incorporates informal architectural drawings, a way to speculate “plural realities” on one page. [1]

You guys disobay your FUNCTIONS, and now I’m excuting my power to rip that off from both of you!!

Hey Richard and you sit over there and just be quiet for a second? Mom is making you delicious dinner now.

Shhhhhhhhhhhh

[1] Lai, Jimanez. (2012) “Three Little Worlds”. Archdaily

14

15

E

ER

H

W E,

ER

,W

A W

S

The physical engagement with the environment through human senses and body does not only have impacts on immediate experiences. Architecture has long been given the role of archiving civic,religious knowledge and educating the public. Therefore the long-lasting consequence of the physical engagement with architecture is unfolded through remembering places, actions, and interactions. At the scale of individual being, people won’t always be able to experience a place, an architecture with a “godeye view.” On the contrary, our

understanding of a building is formed by stitching fragments of memories that are temporary, specific to certain location and time. Therefore the final form of architecture becomes a cognitive narrative scripted by our minds in a sequence of clues. These clues are external stimulus for us to create unique stories in our mind and remember, which encompasses all our senses.

Arguably the most powerful clues are those visual ones.

16

“...The mind palace—also known as the memory palace or method of loci—is a mnemonic device thought to have originated in ancient Rome, wherein items that need to be memorized are pinned to some kind of visual cue and strung together into a situated narrative, a journey through a space...”[1]

Was, Were, Where is a small-scale furniture is designed to predict the past of users. Its primary function is a collective phone stance, but more importantly it responds to the weight of phones with a prediction about your past when a phone is placed on certain parts of the furniture, whose parts consist of an acrylic topographical base, 3D prints, pressure sensors and springs that are underneath 3D prints, and LED lights. Texts are carved out and 3D printed onto surfaces of different parts that contain LED string lights inside.

However, viewers are not able to read the texts under normal

17

[1] Sarh, C. Rich. (2012) “The Architecture of Memory”, Smithsonian

light, because the texts will be covered with one-way film, which allows texts to emerge when LED is lit up.

The contents was structured to be affirmative and specific, in order to lead viewers to a specific moment of time at a specific place. For example, use “your coffee was bitter this morning” instead of “did you drink coffee today.”

Nevertheless, the predictions are not meant to be true and reflect reality. They are invitations to explore the mental capability of humans to construct narratives when the

clues are not necessarily true. Users’ varying reactions to the predictions verify their conscious engagement with the objects in a mental process of wondering and questioning.

The formal language is loose and intuitive, not meant to follow any grid or functional rigidity at the initial stage of design. The design started with sketching out compositions and then popped into Rhino to dissimulate from a mere extrusion of a 2D composition.

The upper half pushed and pulled with the “ground,” in order to take full advantage of the 3D printed curvilinear surfaces and harmonises with the up and

down of different parts. The clean edges of 3D prints were blurred by texturizing with acrylic paint stars. Inspired by pipe head paint artists, I use a similar technique to create a texture that is both volumetric and colorful. The resultant overwhelming spikes become intriguing visual clues to draw people to touch and interact.

Composition Sketches

18

How is your day?

How was dinner?

How was the beach?

How was the coffee this morning?

How was the walk this morning?

How many steps were from the door to here?

You woke up.

You smiled a lot today.

Your alarm went off.

You look great in blue.

You took a nap.

You fell asleep on a book.

You had a bad dream.

Your coffee was bitter this morning You went to the beach and had a fish taco.

Yesterday It was sunny.

A leaf dropped upon you The shower water was too hot.

Lunch was too salty.

Who did you see in your dreams?

Cloud was high. Sky was blue.

She was singing.

He was sleeping on the lawn.

19

October 24 October 28

Laser cut acrylic for making a waffle structure base.

October 28-30

Adding textures to the 3D printed shells by hand with star piping heads and mixture of acrylic paints and modeling paste.

Test out the hardness of dried acrylic paint.

Texturing and wiring are going at the same time because LED lights need to be put inside shells before texturing.

More pieces to go...

20

October 27

3D modelling connections for holding sensors and furniture in the base. Each connection is slightly different in their heights and sizes.

Soldering wires to LED string lights of different lengths, which are glued to the inside of shells.

October 28-30

3D printed connections in their assigned space on the base.

Test out!!

21

Connecting lights to Arduino boards and bread board.

2019 Vellum 16

22

23

“YOU WALKED ALONG CREEK TODAY”

Define Define Media Media Architecture Architecture

In the context of this book, Media Architecture does not merely mean surfaces of built environment illuminated by lightings that are programmed and controllable[1], nor smart houses, buildings controlled by artificial intelligence. Rather, Media Architecture should be conceived as infrastructures in three different ways. First of all, it is an adaptation to technologies in the second machine age, an age when digital devices dramatically reshaped how people work, communicate, and live(2). It has to be inspired by changes in digital devices and

Plug-in City, Archigram

25

technology in society and therefore has to give up an “ontology of being” to an “ontology of becoming,” whose definitive features are constant changes and development [2] . Second, Media Architecture challenges singularity of space and time. In other words, it considers the possibility of doubling and displacement of spatial experiences that are used to be predictable and unchallenged by, now nonetheless prevailing in digital media, a sense of elsewhere. Last but not the least, Media Architecture combines what Tomitsch called “spectacle placemaking” and “infrastructure place making.” Spectacle placemaking

creates temporal nodes or destinations in cities that transform urban space into a stage, allowing passer-by to be parts of performances in public spaces. Infrastructure placemaking is the integration of digital media into physical infrastructure to improve critical qualities such as energy efficiency or user experience[3].

Therefore, Media Architecture in this thesis includes spatial experiments that exists both temporarily and permanently.

Body Movie, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

[1] [2][3] Tomitsdh, Martin. (2017) “New Opportunities For Media Architecture: From Spectacle Placemaking to Infrastructure Placemaking” Media architecture compendium. p16-p18 [4] Photos credit online

II nn cc oo nn cc ll uu ss ii oo nn ,, Media Architecture is a digitally rich infrastructure that is, in a state of becoming, constantly generating new social and cultural meanings.

26

Architecture of of censorship censorship in in Architecture public space space public Case Study I Body Movie

Body Movie is one of the six Relational Architecture projects designed by Rafael Lozano Hammer, a digital media artist whose works specialized in redesigning urban public space.

Body Movie was first staged in 2001 at the Schouwburg Square in the central Rotterdam. It projected over 1000 portraits taken from streets of Rotterdam, Madrid, Mexico, and Montreal on to the facade of the Pathe Cinema building. The projection displayed one portrait at a time, but it went barely visible when strong xenon light was projected

27

[1] Photos credit to Rafael Lozano Hammer Studip

over the projected portrait from a different light source. However, when people walked in front of the facade, blocking the xenon light, the contents within the outline of people was revealed. As a result, the facade of the building becomes a virtual canvas where silhouettes of different participants interact with each other.

The playfulness of this urban stage is that the scale of projected silhouettes became dramatic and manipulatable, which freed the imagination of participants to be creative about their roles on the canvas. Furthermore, once people

realized there was underlying portraits, some of them would choose to align themselves with the outline of those figures in the portrait.

Once all the projected figures matched silhouettes, the sensor responsible for detecting the alignment of silhouettes and portraits would send out the signal to change to next different image. Therefore the play of human interactions was able to continue in a more unpredictable way because participants would need to

change their expectations and come up with new poses.

Compared to traditional interactive installations, Body Movie didn’t limit the consequences to a list of actions and instructions for participants to choose from, but rather it focuses on how to design a spatial mechanism for creating contingency and unpredictability in an encounter with strangers[1].

The contingency is not physical but ephemeral, relying on participants’ cognitive decisions and reactions. Shadow is reflecting the physical reality

for people to confirm themselves, but participants could not isolate themselves from relating to other participants’ shadows and projected images. Furthermore, the engagement with the architectural facade also convey a form of censorship of imagery in which public is the participants. There was no guidance for people in Body Movie to follow, only the spontaneous effort to make a meaning in the spatial system that value personal participation and collective interaction. It’s important to note that the participants didn’t get out of their way to participate

in the project. They were only conducting the most mundane activities such as walking, waving, jumping, etc. It’s worth noting that Benjamin once argued that the radical impacts of media and architecture in modern city were consumed in a “distracted” state [2]. In that sense, Body Movie provides inspirations to designing architectural interventions in three ways. First of all, as social beings, we are more sensitive to the digital embodiment of themselves.

Left Body Moview Rotterdam, 2001 Right Body Movie Hong Kong, 2006 [1] Ekman, U. (2012). Of the Untouchability of Embodiment: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Relational Architectures. CTheory: An International Journal of Theory, Technology and Culture.

[2] Benjamin, W. (2003) ‘Some Motifs in Baudelaire’ in Selected Writings (Volume 4 1938-1940) (Howard Eiland and Michael. W. Jennings, eds., trans. E. Jephcott and others), Cambridge. MA and London, Belknap Press

28

Social media plays an important role in this development because images that we made available online have become the way we identify the authenticity of ourselves. In Body Movie, the removal of details of our images leave the silhouette the only source for our selfidentification. Second, once we identify ourselves from the digital embodiment, we become very aware of our immediate physical and virtual context, and situate ourselves into a contextaware and event-oriented embodiment. Therefore there

are three levels of embodiments: individual, social, and technological.

Body Movie questions how humans move across these three territories simultaneously, and provokes us to become “interactants and performers that have capabilities to exist otherwise with technics [1].”

Left Body Movie Hong Kong, 2006 29

[1] Ekman, U. (2012). Of the Untouchability of Embodiment: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Relational Architectures. CTheory: An International Journal of Theory, Technology and Culture.

30

NOW YOU YOU CAN CAN SEE SEE NOW ME ME

The project has two major components: a physically constructed model as “screen” and digital projections of texts from Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84. The physical model is further divided into two parts: motherboard and plug-ins.

The motherboard has a series of modular teeth onto which audience can fit the plug-ins.

The motherboard and plug-ins are different in colors so that the projected texts will disappear on the motherboard but re-emerge when plug-ins are in position.

Now You Can See

Abstract Show Material: PLA Plywood Rockite

Me investigates in two primary questions: 1) how can a parallel physicality and virtuality change the experience of user; 2) how does the consequence of actions become a formal participation in public space.

The projection includes texts from 1Q84 that describes sexual scenes from a first-pective perspective.

The project argues that: first, a parallel physicality and virtuality can affect the impression of an object and its relation to adjacent object in space. Areas where texts are projected receive more attention than others that are not. Second, through the action of revealing and reading,

users experience a conscious realization of the consequences of their actions in the public space.

The consequences are texts revealed to different degrees.

The device is a physical form of cencorship. Users are invited to interact with it in a spontaneous way. Unaware of what is hidden, users contribute to the meaning of the objects by revealing different texts.

October 16th Show time!

October 13th Fabrication

October 8th Test perspective warpping

01 motherboard

MAKE 2D !!

02 Blocks

03 instruction

Red surfaces of blocks filter out red fonts and reveal hiddend texts which are seen in black

35

36

Priva atisa tisation tion of of Priv Public Space Space Public

The perceived boundary between public space and private space in the United States has been significantly shifted since 1920s when telecommunicative devices such as TVs and radios enter the domestic space of families. They turned each house into a media center and as part of the regional, national, and even global media flows. As McQuire notes in his book Media City:

Ads for TV at home in 1928

37

“This aspect has become more manifest as media technologies have extended beyond fixed sites and specialized places of consumption such as home, office or cinema.

Moving through the world now at large involves the ongoing negotiation of, and participation in, diverse media flows. Neither home nor street nor city can now be thought apart from the media apparatus which redistributes the scale and speed of social interaction in their domains.”

Houses in suburb area in 1920

Considered as the most intimate environment, home started to become a site where private space for families intersects with social interactions and activities to learn about the world outside the domestic territory. If “public space” is defined by its ability to produce social cohesion and cultural identity [1] , the process of domesticating digital devices for social and cultural purposes is essentially the privatisation of public space.

Furthermore, in suburb context, public space is further subsided into fenced lawns or yards as part of the domestic territory as social interfaces.

In urban areas, the lack of social interactions and activities were observed by Jane Jacob, who criticized the modernist zoning and

[1] Ericson, Staffan. & Kristina, Riegert. (2010) Media House: Architecture, Media, and the Production of Center, p1

planning was “oversimplifying” the complexity of human lives across diverse communities to pursuing efficiency[3]. Along modernist ideas, inhabitants or users are treated as pure consumers of services and activities within an area. This scenario has been strengthened since with the development of digital media. On one hand, public space is commercialised with screens for advertisement of commercial products, which makes participants in a public space associate themselves with their financial images and certain demographic groups. On the other hand, the proliferation of general informational technologies and Internet played

a role in contributing to the decline of bodily social interactions in public space in general, where the site for social space for individuals is not just the physical territory, but one simultaneously present in virtual networks - the doubling of urban experiences that is both challenging and exciting[4].

The doubling of urban experience have two different meanings. The first refers to our profiles created from collecting digital traces that we left behind when we use mobile phones and social media [4] . We don’t directly experience this doubling of ourselves, but computers are capable of creating digital analysis of our habits when using digital tools and affect our lives through adjusted search results and recommendations.

The second means that our urban experience is no longer just limited to transitions from private space to public space, but rather “all sorts of gradations” created by overlapping of physical and digital presence of others. For example, when we message or talk to families or close friends in a local cafe, we will behave casually as if we are at home. This juxtaposition introduces the “parochial sphere,” an intermediate layer between private and public coined by Lyn Lofland, in which we primarily meet like-minded people and have a sense of commonality among people whom we are interpersonally connected to[5]. The experience

People are mere consumers of public space, with their own virtual territory on smart phones

[3] Jacob, Jane. (1961) The Great Death and Life of American CIties, p1 [4] McQuire, Scott. (2008) Media City: the Media, Architecture, and Urban Space. p25

38

of “parochial sphere” becomes extremely important as our interpersonal network is no longer limited by geographical space and mobility. We can learn about a place without physically going and making friends without physical interaction.

As everyone in the society becomes more of a netwroked whole, the freedom we have through social media allow us to consider ourselves to be part of a lot of different groups. In that sense, the public space in contemporary society should be considered as “a layered whole,” whose components are results of temporarily overlapping parochial domains belonging to different citizens.

Therefore the experience at a public space is privatised to different degrees by the sense of commonality with others, and this sense of commonality could be conveniently found, strengthened, or threatened -thanks to digital media.

Coffee shops are usually great examples where we can see parochial space. People who come to the same coffee shop are assumed to have simialr financial capability and tastes for arts, deco, etc.

The sense of commenality to other people predicts their casual gestures as if they are at home.

Study for finals in library is probably not much different than going to a rave.

39

[5] Waal, de. Martijn. (2014) The City as Interface: How New Media Are Changing The City., p67-88

40

Activate Public Space with Mannequins Site: BLDG 5 courtyard Material: Cardboard Mannequins ($6) Clothes from Goodwill ($29) Metal Stance (free)

dress me!

41

The experiment started with an observation of the existing public space at the courtyard in building 5. The public space is primarily made up by grand stairs descending down to the first level of the building. There is a landing area between two sections of the stairs where there are two

seating areas. From my observation, I noticed that people tend to either sit on the first few stairs or sit on the chairs around the site. In either case, students display a lack of engagement with the public atmosphere present on the site. In other words, students constrain themselves from conversing, interacting, or any other forms of communication with strangers, a

dress me!

42

symptom of public space that is privatised to different degrees.

The goal of this experiment, nor does this thesis, is not to eliminate the privatisation of public space, but to explore means of interventions to activate public pace.

Taking inspiration from the similarity between the stairs on site and seatings in a theater/ opera house, I hypothesized that setting up two mannequins to simulate an imaginative scenario would provide the public space a kind of stage where audience and performers can be switched.

Students are expected to ask why there are mannequins, and they will generate an answer that they are supposed to dress the two mannequins with the

clothes in ways they want.

There are two levels of spontaneity in this sequence of actions that I want to test out. First level is whether students will initiate the actions at all because they will become “watched� targets in a public space once they initiate the actions.

Second level is whether they will dress in a way indicated by the color of clothes and adjacency of context. (orange clothes are supposed to be put on mannequins close to orange pipe versus monochrome color clothes are for mannequins close to the grey concrete.)

Nov.6 10:57AM

Nov.6 10:57AM

Nov.6 1:56PM

Nov.6 1:56PM

People are being really creative!!

43

Observations: Nobody changed the clothes on mannequins for the first hour during experiments.

Mannequins didn’t wear the clothes with the same colors as the pipe or the column. Results were more mixed.

Conclusion: Engagement with inanimate objects can is a possible way to activate spontaneous actions that are socially interesting in a public space. Both action and result will contribute to the atmosphere and impression of the public space. Even though the experiment appeals to some audiences more than others, it provides evidence that personal expressions could take shape and be meaningful to the dynamics in a public space.

There were people who just removed the clothes from their seats and put them aside instead of on mannequins clothes. ‘ Experiments appealled to certain groups of students such as architecture students in the building.

Clothes are sometimes put on in wrong ways.

Nov.8 4:57PM

Nov.10 1:06PM

These guys didn’t touch the mannequins at all

Nov.8 4:57pM

Nov.10 1:06PM

44

Three Ideals Ideals of of Three Public Space Space Public

How does this personal experience of gradations, different degrees of commonalities with others, and privatised public space influence Media Architecture? In order to conceive a design at architectural scale, it is necessary to recognise the underlying philosophical ideals of cities, which include the libertarian city, the republican city, and the communitarian city[1]. The libertarian city treats the city as a market, where city dwellers are not expected to have responsibilities to what they are given. City dwellers’

45

roles are primary consumers of different business and services, and therefore the city becomes a marketplace to allow exchanges to meet the demands of dwellers. The political and cultural incentives totally give away to the invisible hands of the market. The modernist versions of cities in pursuit of efficiency and most of the smart city are envisioned based on this ideal.

The republican city gives dwellers freedom to choose between a variety ways of lives, but they are also conceived responsible for the city as a whole.

[1] [2] Waal, de. Martijn. (2014) The City as Interface: How New Media Are Changing The City., p10-12

“Whereas the libertarian thinks it is perfectly acceptable for city dwellers to completely isolate themselves in their private worlds or behind the fences or gated community, the republican disapproves of such behavior. The city dwellers are first and foremost citizens and may not completely withdraw from urban society.� [2]

The third ideal, the communitarian city is heavily based on the communism ideas to construct a harmonious community where city dwellers live in lifestyles very similar, if not identical, to each other. The commonality among individuals to strive for a collective whole surpasses individualities.

However, the libertarian ideal and communitarian ideal can be seen related -- the libertarian ones who isolate themselves from the society might end up living lives unanimously similar to others.

Furthermore, it seems like the

modernist cities we are living in are also communitarian:

To discuss the three ideals is to decide which type of them this thesis serves to and also acknowledge that both libertarian “The architect was to use scientific and communitarian cities are methods to determine ideal social conceived from a top-down relationships and convert them relationship between urban into a physical form that would designer and users. Here I agree provide city dwellers with a new with the republican ideal of collective world of experience: cities in a way that it considers an experimental world that did the possibility for architecture not arouse nostalgic feelings of to empower people with togetherness but instead, a feeling responsibilities for their cities by of solidarity that fitted with engagement of digital media and the mobility, speed, and new technologies. technologies of modern life.� [2]

[1] [2] Waal, de. Martijn. (2014) The City as Interface: How New Media Are Changing The City., p10-12

46

Street; Urban Urban Street: space of of Space efficiency Efficiency

As Mumford described, the formation of a city can be seen as the result of a spatial implosion to maximise content and efficiency.

Streets, on the one hand, were the site for public space in ancient times where people of the local community meet and socialise, exchanging goods and information. Streets were also conduits for ensuring the security of the local community.

On the other hand, streets became the urban space of efficiency as buildings became driven by markets in modern ages.

Le Corbusier argued in total favor with his metaphor of a machine

“[T]he city may be described as a structure specially equipped to store and transmit the goods of civilisation, sufficiently condensed to afford maximum amount of facilities in the minimum space, but also capable of structural enlargement.”(Mumford.

47

production and his vision of a city influenced heavily by the dominance of the automobile: “The street is a traffic machine; it is in reality a factory for producing speed.” and “a city made for speed is made for success.” (1971:179) Therefore, the role as public space for experience at individual human scale gives way to the effective tool for control and distribution of resources. There are also cases such as Paris and Beijing where the construction of boulevard is given a symbolic meaning of moving from past into modernity.

Furthermore, the urban space of efficiency where “streets as machines” evolved from moving people and objects around to moving spectacles around, becoming “vision machine.” Paul Virilio stated:

From the evolution of public space under influence of technologies we observe a diminishing ability of public space to encourage spontaneouty and active participation. In other words, The pursuit for rationale in modern urban planning transformed streets into symbols for organisation and sites for enforcing influence and control.

Undoubtedly, the urban planning produced benefits in terms of inefficient commute, miserable living spaces, and endemic health crisis of the

industrial city, the future of the public realm of streets seem to bleak as we can question whether rationalising complex urban spaces and circulatory systems into prescriptive attempts serve nothing but to control public behavior? {2}

“This public image has today replaced the former public spaces in which social communication took place. Avenues and public venues are from now on eclipse by the screen, by electronic displays, in preview of the ‘vision machines’ just around the cornoer...Really once public space yields to public image, surveillance and street lighting can be expected to shift too...” {1}

[1] McQuire, Scott. (2008) Media City: the Media, Architecture, and Urban Space. p131 [2] McQuire, Scott. (2008) Media City: the Media, Architecture, and Urban Space. p137

48

[1]

[2]

Research on existing types of urban space of inefficiency 49

[1] Jan Gehl, Project for Public Spaces org. 2008 [2] Franeur, Wikipedia [3] Snell, Steven. (2016) An Argument for an Inefficient City, Starting with Spatial Justice. Planetizen

Infinite Stairs by Olafur Eliasson

Courtyard by ARCHSTUDIO

Seeing Spheres by Olafur Eliasson

Traditional life in Hutong

Hutong Bubble by MAD

Highline by DS+R

Traditional life in Hutong

ARCHITECTURE is is the the life LIFE in IN between BETWEEN Architecture BUILDINGS buildings

Life in between buildings are also crucial to the experience in a city.

Instead of treating such space without the purposeful design to engage peolple, architecture inspired by some art installations could focus on transforming the space between buildings , especially in cultures where “life between walls� has such long history and such architectural significance as Siheyuan and Hutong.

Renovated roof of traditional Siheyuan

Traditional Siheyuan

50

Aerial view of Siheyuan Typology

Site Chang’An Avenue ~22,000 ft Beijing, China 1500 ~ present

51

52

HISTOR

1959 1948

1984

MODERN AXIS

1959

1989

1985 1959 2007

Zhongnanhai

53

Tiananmen Square

RICAL AXIS

Beijing Historical Distric is bounded by the SecondRing

1984 1959

1959

The Forbidden City

54

About Chang’An Chang’An About A ve A ve

Chang’an Avenue was the road running in front of the ancient imperial palace (the Forbidden City). It connected the west and east gate of the ancient capital from 13th century to 1950s, but historically the section of Chang’an Avenue that runs in front of the palace was walled, therefore the other north-south axis gained more significance in the past, as the inner palace extended its complex along it all the way till where today Qianmen is. However, the communist party tore down the walls of part of the palace that

Chang’an Ave from Ming Dynasty was cut off by part of the imperial palace [1]

55

[1] Greco, Glaudio. (2008) Beijing: The New City

stopped Chang’an Ave and let it run all the way from east to west.

It was given a significant status as the axis for modernity because later on major buildings for the government and bank HQs were constructed in the style of modern architecture along Chang’an Ave. Annually, it also act as the primary site for the military parade to show off the power to thousands of people gathering around Tiananmen Square and leaders on Tiananmen -- more importantly, to the world. Therefore Chang’An Ave itself symbolically relates to the modernity of China after 1949, in

comparison to the historic southnorth axis.

However, due to the iconicity of two axises, most of the urban layouts and infrastructure within the historical district stayed relatively identical toorthogonal grid based off the two axises. Most of later developments were intentionally oved to areas outside the second ring, without affecting the primacy of this historical layout at all.

The intersection of Chang’an Ave with the southnorth axis yields great potential

for architectural interventions to question the value of modern and historic icons in the contemporary public sphere. The deterioration of subway and traffic congestions are the programmatic reasons for an intervention, but most importantly, the heavily surveilled Tiananmen Square possesses the least capability to match up what a public space could be potentially incubated from architecture in conjunction with media.

From 1987, height limitation on Chang’an Ave gets lower towards the south-north axis. [1]

Tiananman Square

The origin of Beijing’s current urban fabric could be traced hundreds of years ago to early Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). The old city was built based on principles from the ancient mannual of rites, Kaogong Ji. The layout of the city used divine numerology and ritual to express the power of the ruling class back then.

The boundary of ancient capital overlaps roughly with current Second Ring Erhuang in the city. Using the size of the palace as reference, the city was divided into a 9x5 grid,

[1] Greco, Glaudio. (2008) Beijing: The New City

where the palace sits in the center.

Even after 1949, chairman Mao used this grid system to help divide the city into semi-autonomous units for measuring production, assigning jobs, and distributing resources. Therefore throughout history, the urban fabric of Beijing has helped enforce social orders through its physical forms.

Up to 1910, the Tiananmen square was closed off from the rest of the city as an entrance to the holy palace. It used to be in a shape of “T” and walled the three gates to the Forbidden City and included an colloride that measured a thousand steps from the entrance on the south

to Tiananmen Square. On two sides of the plaza there are different bureaucratic branches, which became a historical reference to the functions of buildings at present.

From 1910 to 1949, Tiananmen Square was left with piles of trash, grass, and the artificial river was stinky during the governance of warlords and Kuomingtang. It was not until 1954 that the government of the People’s Republic of China started redesigning the square to better serve the image of a new Chine. From 1950 to 1954,

56

the design committee discussed 15 iterations that can be summarized with the following characteristics: 1)Maintain the “T� shape but resize the plaza to reach 25 - 40 acres. (as a reference to old plaza.)

2)Add a Stalinist high-rise as a new landmark.

In 1956, experts from Soviet Union reiterated 10 designs based on those from 1954. All of the new designs cancelled the addition of a highrise, because the massing and scale of the building didn’t fit in the urban fabric back then.

Furthermore, the heights of all the buildings surrounding Tiananmen Square were not

Major Roads 57

supposed to surpass Tiananmen (32m/105ft). In the end, Tiananmen Square was decided to be a total public and civic space with offices, institutions, and museums along the sides.

Pedestrain Path

Regional Mapping around Tiananmen Square

Lake within Zhongnan Hai not accessible to public

Existing Buildings

Lake and Public Park 58

OCCUPY THE THE oCCUPY PUBLIC SPACE SPACE PUBLIC

This first proposal focuses on creating density and occupancy of public space to erace the perception of open space. The blocks intend to be read as layers of a bigger system that could also be divided down into smaller components that would break the boxiness. These layers also intend to affect the circulation and views when people enter the space based on certain rules (not defined yet) as a form of censorship without asking public to invent how to engage with each other.

The density increases

Model on site 1=1000 59

the surface area of architecture, giving an immersing experience of being inbetween rather than being inside.

The platforms will undulate in response to context to allow people to look out at the city at a different scale. There won’t be only one as it is now in the model.

60

Model on site 1=1000

61

63

64

65

Architecture of censorship in space and time

66

to be continued

67