whj21 O0.0
Preface A note from the editors: We are in a unique situation to be the first editorial team of the Warehouse Journal to be given the position during our final year of studies in the undergraduate level without the intentions of immediately returning the following academic year. In doing so, a potential conflict arises in situating ourselves within the design, production, and editing of the twenty first volume of a student based publication while simultaneously seeking to broaden the positioning of our own design endeavors in a professional setting. It is our contention that although the Warehouse Journal is a student based publication, there is an importance and responsibility to broaden the context and exposure of its content. In order to move forward we also looked back to the mandate posited by the first Warehouse Journal editor, Greg Kiloh. In his forward he states, Without an outlet for wider presentation and influence, our schools seem lost in a self-referential vacuum - a vacuum that is unable to disseminate the discourse we hope will inform and affect the greater community... Do we publish to exist, or do we exist to publish? Has architecture’s affinity for the printed media directed the current discourse, or has it proven solely as a mechanism to validate our existence. The intent of Volume 21 is to move away from being a general survey that catalogues an abundance of student work and accomplishments at a single cursory level. Instead, its ambition is to pursue a rigorous curation of a multitude of content that will ignite critical discourse as a means of reaching broader audiences. However, by being a Faculty that is both multidisciplinary and supportive of multifarious pedagogies that facilitates a diverse range of processes and methods, it becomes impossible to showcase every pursuit. In lieu of breadth of work, this edition of the Warehouse Journal focuses on depth, and rather than providing a platform for every point of view, we have attempted to express unique voices. It looks to finding a sense of place to the work, and how it situates within larger design communities and cultures. Be it the thematic objectives of a studio, the connection to the research and practices of our instructors, or the interests of those abroad who visit our school. Distinguishing the internal and external influences together composes a design culture integral to the evolution and development of research produced within this Faculty. Design is fundamentally a form of communication, and Volume 21 is both a review and an exchange of ideas.
Nicole Hunt and Brandon Bergem Co-Editors
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warehouse journal | preface
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002
whj21
01.0
Foundation studio
004-051
Foundation Studies: Environmental Design , Year 2
02.0
Venice Biennale: Common Ground 02.1
03.0
052-065
migrating landscapes
Department of Architecture
066-261
Intermediate Studies: Environmental Design, Year 3 Graduate Studies 03.1 03.2 03.3 03.4 03.5 03.6 03.7 03.8
04.0
section / elevation / house measure and fit superficial studio 3/4 passing through | c.a.s.t. donkey studio make do working:drawings resonance + modulation
Landscape & Urbanism
262-315
Intermediate Studies: Environmental Design 3 - 4 Vertically Integrated Landscape Architecture Graduate Studies 04.1 04.2 04.3 04.4 04.5
05.0
networks and infrastructure | network (r)evolution re-imagine a campus bridges | possible urbanism(s) emergent futures shaping the future
Department of Landscape Architecture
316-365
Graduate Studies 05.1 05.2
06.0
on campus off campus ecological infrastructure
Department of City Planning
366-383
Graduate Studies
07.0
Department of Interior Design
384-421
Intermediate Studies: Environmental Design 3-4 Graduate Studies 07.1 072
08.0
interior environments studio ligature
Interdisciplinary Practices
422-451
Intermediate Studies: Environmental Design 3-4 Graduate Studies 08.1
09.0
crafting assemblages and mediating technologies
Appendix
452-467
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Foundation Studio
foundation studies: environmental design year 2
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how do we begin? how do we learn? in what language do we build?
Thom Jeffrey Garcia
Environmental Design Sessional Instructor
Kim Wiese
Environmental Design Instructor
A Beginner’s Mind allows us to get to the source of creativity, selfhood, great design, deep insight, innocence, joy, and alike. An Expert Mind allows us to bring into reality whatever has been gained from such source. The former gives and the latter develops. One generates and the other critiques. One offers and the other chooses. One creates and the other takes responsibility. Both are absolutely necessary. And yet, greatness lies in accessing the Beginner’s Mind.1 Â
naĂŻvetĂŠ, and the development of a method and process of the student.
From a period that is framed from the late 1990s to now, a unique condition has emerged that is antithetical to the circumstances that defined twentieth century creative output: an absence of dominant didactic “isms�. Unlike the previous century that was inscribed by the influences of the formalism of Beaux Arts ateliers, the Modernist veneration of the non-figurative, the Post-Modern Beginnings are about perception and meaning; learning criticism of academicism and penchant for imitation, how to develop an appreciation for visual experiences, and the syntactic architectonics of the Deconstructivists; phenomenological awareness, and deepening of our prescriptive edicts for how we process, conceptualize, and dialogue; learning the formal concepts that affect how manifest designs are absent. Without the singular arbiters we see and think about the world; and complexity as of formal expression and methodologies as emphatic as an effective concept for understanding and evaluating Walter Gropius, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, the world. Beginning design involves discovering and Peter Eisenman, Greg Lynn, Zaha Hadid, and numerous discussing beliefs and purposes in society and the creation others who reside in the pantheon of architectural history of a philosophy, defined for our purposes as “a set of who transmuted theoretical dictum into imperatives; the coherent generalizations which allow a person to organize questions becomes: How do we begin? How do we learn? In his/her overall behaviour both systematically and with a what language do we build? minimum of inconsistency and self contradiction.� 2 It is incumbent for educators to have the discussion of how to Rather than relying on a categorical “ism� to help inform and teach beginning design students in a setting navigate the methods and products of design, we are now where pluralism and divergent doctrines are instigated increasingly motivated to consider paradigms as opposed by instantaneous access facilitated by technology. As a to dogma. Design has become situational and contingent. consequence, it is critical that the discussion of beginnings The role and responsibilities of a designer has now in a foundation program considers the initial thoughts, expanded to cultural interpreter because,
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foundation studio | how do we begin? how do we learn?
it is impossible to give an adequate description of the [world] today without taking into account economics, public policy, sociology, art, civil engineering, history, literature, politics, and religion; yet each of these disciplines by itself only tells part of the story. [Design] is well positioned to offer such a synthetic overview. 3
and configuring how design can respond to our present and our future. Architecture and design hold the potential of deciphering and aiding in our comprehension of the circumstances informing this new century. Juhani Pallasmaa, states in his book The Eyes of the Skin that a component task of architecture is that it “enables us to perceive and understand the dialectics of permanence and change, to settle ourselves in the world, and to place ourselves in the continuum of culture and time.” 6 Design has the capability to expand its influence by acknowledging the persistence of change by interpreting the world as enduringly amorphous.
Design has accrued a position of prominence and accountability, compelling us to be equally resilient and pliant in order to respond to contextual vacillations with certitude and deftness. The current century is beset with fluctuations necessitating inclusiveness. To maintain relevance a shift to a new paradigm - a pedagogy of multivalency - is mandatory. When discussing our current times, architectural theorist Charles Jencks declares that, “If there really is a new paradigm in architecture then it will reflect changes in science, religion and politics.” 4 Jencks notes the potentials of an architecture of inclusiveness and observes that “... as architects have lost most conventional iconography, they now hope to find through a process of search and invention, some emergent metaphors, those that amaze and delight but are not specific to any ideology.” 5
The onus on the educator and the student in a beginning design studio is to implement as part of their development the fluency to not only adapt a multivalent approach in the attempt to formulate understanding, but the synthesis of this content and the skill to adjudicate disparate elements and influences. This necessity and acumen to formulate possibilities and transfiguring them into form is inextricably reliant on the rudimentary act of questioning.
The process and conceptualization of design commences with the requirement to give up need to control and to always be in command of the results and expectations of the requirement of a project. Sötö Zen monk and The responsibilities that educators are entrusted with teacher Shunryu Suzuki states, that as opposed to the include the necessity of questioning, postulating, mediating customary reaction for a student to be compelled to
foundation studio | how do we begin? how do we learn?
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envd ascertain control and commandeer the variables, “it is about relying on our conscious attention and feedback, an observance of what is naturally unfolding moment by moment.” 7 In his presentation at a conference on the Beginning Design Student in February 2005, Univeristy of Utah Professor Julio Bermudez expounded on this notion and observed that, “The message is simple and clear, it is possible to give full response to a situation without fully understanding it.” 8 One may compare the mind of the beginning design student with the development of a child. The first years of a child’s life are crucial to brain development. The brain absorbs and parses a multiplicity of stimuli and information at once, constructing new connections and associations, and making sense out of all the new and unfamiliar sights and sounds that bombard their senses. Suzuki contends that, "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." 9 Similarly to a child who is beginning to process their environment, the mind of the beginning design student is unencumbered, it is free, tolerant, unregulated, and open to new experiences. In beginning design it is important to align concept, method, and the active inquiry of learning to define problems and by posing questions. To foster a critical discourse that allows the design discussion to be opened up to a greater understanding of process-oriented thinking, analogous methods, and collective problemsolving initiatives. Rather than aiming for the mastering of answers, the Socratic Method supports the formulation of new questions that are critical to an extension of the architectural discourse of innovation and experimentation. The Socratic Method as described by political science professor Rob Reich, ...is better used to demonstrate complexity, difficulty, and uncertainty than to elicit facts about the world. The aim of the questioning is to probe the underlying beliefs upon which each participant’s statements, arguments and assumptions are built. The learning environment is characterized by ‘productive discomfort’ not intimidation. The instructor does not have all the answers and is not merely ‘testing’ the students. The questioning proceeds open-ended with no pre-determined goal.10 Every design project undertaken should begin with a question in which the student must learn not only how to answer the query but to also define and formulate speculations as to the content of the question. This is especially evident in beginning design studio where the student is usually searching for the “right and acceptable response”. The Socratic Method focuses on fostering critical thinking, it is about dialogue between instructor and student, initiated by the continual dialectical questioning by the instructor. It involves a concerted effort to explore the underlying beliefs that shape the students’
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foundation studio | how do we begin? how do we learn?
specific views and opinions, to ascertain potential biases, identify preconceptions, and mitigate pre-existing schemas. Pallasma observes that, [Design] needs to be emancipated from a preconceived sense of purpose, goal and path. When one is young and narrow-minded, one wants the [design] to concretize a preconceived idea, to give the idea an instant and precise shape. Through a growing capacity to tolerate uncertainty, vagueness, lack of definition and precision, momentary illogic and open-endedness, one gradually learns the skill of cooperating with one’s work, and allowing the work to make its suggestions and take its own unexpected turns and moves.11 This educational paradigm is not founded on the necessity of pursuing and attaining a static resolution incapable of addressing fertile, yet dormant contingencies; rather, it is about fostering a critical discourse of innovation. The focus is not on the participants’ statements but on the value system that underpins their beliefs, actions, and decisions. For this reason, any successful challenge to this system comes with high stakes — one might have to examine and change one’s life, but, Socrates is famous for saying, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” The goal of the education in a beginning design studio is to develop a method of questioning as a mode of process within each student. Critical to the development of a foundation level student is the capability to transpose this paradigm of questioning to facilitate their abilities to engage and synthesize increasing complexities and myriad influences. When students are provided with an environment that facilitates the formulation of rigorous responses refined by persistent questioning and a mindful process, they become more capable of producing work that moves beyond trend and pursues relevance. The beginners’ mind requires vocabulary, historical knowledge, and a diligence for exploration in order to complete a design that is formally refined and conceptually robust. The purpose of the design studio is to foster a setting for the student that allows for the deliberate and accidental, the opportunistic and the situational, the exploratory and contrived, exposition and the implied. The beginnings of the design project should implicate them in the responsibility of unrelenting questioning and the relevance of process that are endemic in the endeavor of architecture and design. It is neither the strongest nor the most intelligent of the species that survives, it is the one that is the most adaptable to change, a form of Academic Darwinism It is not necessarily the smartest or most skilled that will excel, it is the one who is the most dexterous to adaptability. This applies to both students and educators. It is not necessarily the most experienced or knowledgeable who will provide stronger scholarship to their students; it is increasingly becoming more dependent on the ability to
envd access information, to persistently question, and committing to learning concurrently with them. The contemporary design studio is more akin to a design laboratory as opposed to a Beaux Arts atelier of production or a technical workshop. Simultaneous with the pursuit of questioning is the act of testing. Ideas cannot be dormant, they must be perpetually materializing and persistently actionable. The process is an Ouroboros where materiality and actualization is constantly in a state of emergence. Designers need not plan in advance, however, in order to engage complex environments effectively. Parallel and complementary approaches can be used that allow problems and solutions to emerge without such rational analysis. This is particularly relevant in the pursuit of innovation, where the end goal is not explicitly defined at the outset of the process. For instance, many elegant designs are the result of tacit lessons that designers have learned by continually testing their intuitions and aptitudes as they experiment with alternate solutions. This approach to design is significant in that it echoes the concept of “local optimization” that scientists use to explain the development of form in the natural environment. In both cases, the design process may appear to be random and open-ended, but it is still pathdependent in that each step of the process inherently limits the range of possible subsequent steps.12
NOTES
By reconstituting the expectation of a results-centric production by instigating a process-centric praxis, projects are conceived as a snap shot of a certain moment. Within the full range and possibility trajectories of the realization of a project at the time of the deadline, what is presented is a moment frozen within that continuum. Pallasmaa asserts that, “Design is always a search for something that is unknown in advance, or an exploration into alien territory, and the design process itself, the actions of the searching hands, needs to express the essence of his [sic] mental journey.” 13 An accomplished project is embedded with latencies and prospects. It is a palimpsest that inscribes the inflections of the trajectories, archives the deviations and devinitions, and speculates the ontological confluence of intent and form.
1
Julio Bernudez, A Beginner’s Mind: Proceedings of the 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student, ed. Stephen Temple (Publisher information unavailable, 2006).
2
William O’Neill, Educational Ideologies: Contemporary Expressions of Educational Ideologies Revised Edition (USA:Kendall Hunt Pub Co., 1990), 6.
3
Stan Allen, “1990-2012: The Future That is Now” in Architecture School: Three Centuries of Educating Architects in North America, eds. Joan Ockman and Rebecca Williams (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2012), 222.
4
Ockman, Joan, and Rebecca Williamson, eds. Architecture School: Three Centuries of Educating Architects in North America, 223.
5
Charles Jencks, “The New Paradigm in Architecture,” (2004), http:// www.charlesjencks.com/articles.html.
6
Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses (Great Britain: Wiley-Academy, 2006), 71.
7
Suzuki Shunyru, Zen Mind: Beginner’s Mind (New York: Weatherhill, 1973), 67.
8
Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses (Great Britain: Wiley-Academy, 2006), 71.
9
Juhani Pallasmaa, The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture (United Kingdom: John Wiley and Sons, 2009), 111.
10
Rob Reich, “The Socratic Method: What it is and how to use it in the Classroom” (lecture given at the Stanford University for Learning and Teaching, Stanford, California, 2003).
11
Juhani Pallasmaa, The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture (United Kingdom:John Wiley and Sons), 111.
12
Erlhoff, Michael, and Tim Marshall, eds. Design Dictionary: Perspectives on Design Terminology (Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser Verlag AG, 2008), 129
13
Juhani Pallasmaa, The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture, 110-111.
foundation studio | how do we begin? how do we learn?
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Albert GĂŠrard
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Ted Mclachlan A2 Augmentation
As a way to understand the kinaesthetic presence of body parts, the ability to feel movement, rods were attached to limbs. The rods became a device in animating the movement of limbs beyond our perceived knowledge of our own body. In the end, the device enables the formation of an illustration or calligraphy depicting how the body occupies space over a period of time. Walking, running, climbing stairs and sitting down all have their own defining trajectory extending from the specific rods. Even the smallest movement of the body would allow the device to produce a disconnecting image as the rods trajectory crosses and mixes together. The resulting experience from the device gave the illusion of possessing more body limbs which subsequently hindered the agility of natural movements while attempting to navigate the rods. foundation studio | augmentation
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Jamal Assi
Vaike Ruus A2 Augmentation
A personal life experience in which my hands were bounded for several hours, taking away the freedom to move, rendered the notion of creating a device to explore the possibility of motion when limbs are restricted. The object designed took advantage of the small range of motion available in the fingers creating an extension of the inhibited bounded hands. Experience using the apparatus allowed normative activities such as eating and drinking to occur fluently and decreased the emotional tension created from the unnatural limitation.
foundation studio | now i can
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Breanna Mitchell
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Kim Wiese A2 Augmentation
How do we sense our body? How can we reveal attributes of our body? Movement of the mouth/face is not visible to oneself without the aid of a photograph/video or a mirror. Thus, how can one become aware of a part of their body used and sensed constantly but not always visually observed? To investigate this question, a device is attached directly to areas of the face in an attempt to transcribed any subtle movement that occurs using a recording medium. Anticipated movement from the cheeks and lips were observed, however, the largest movements traced resulted from the chin. Mouth maps were then created from video of various expressions and speech and translated patterns in movement and revealed paths of common expressions.
foundation studio | augmentation
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Fernando Maya Meneses
Kim Wiese A2 Augmentation
The intention of this project is to explore the process of adaptation with the help of a constraining device that forces the body to act differently in its immediate environment. The contraption developed resembles the structure of the body muscles, nerves and tendons in an abstract way; studies of these systems were made prior to construction. The device has a restraining aspect that fits to the body with a responsive support structure around it. The act of a subconscious motion is now changed by the device limiting flexible movement forcing different muscles to react differently to common actions. The responsive support structure around the arm provided a reference to the direction the armed moved and created an opportunity to feel the changes that the body makes due to the constraint. foundation studio | adaptation
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Victoria McCrea
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Thom Jeffrey Garcia A3 Unfamiliar
The room was studied through two styles of photography including an assembly of photos taken over a period of time that created a panorama of the inhabited space and a second of a plan view image of the entire room. Through the documentation of the space it became evident that all of the familiar items with the space were found around the edges of the room creating a void space in the center. The process of removing this center void space by filling it with the furniture found along the edges left a two foot wide new void space between the walls and the furniture in the center. The resulting space became hyper-familiar; contact with all the familiar objects was direct and immediate. This inverse was intensified with a physical barrier that became animated in the evening with the street lights projecting an image of the window directly over the centered bedside table in the same position as the original room. The new surrounding void space created sense of unfamiliarity when present in the room and completely removed from the barrier to that which is familiar.
foundation studio | void space
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Ghost Rooms
The street lights projected an image of the window onto the shear barrier directly over the bedside table, where it was in the original room. The shrunken room created is incredibly similar to the original room, access to all of the objects is maintained, all that is missing is the empty floor space. What is unfamiliar is the void space. Faintly visible through the sheer
fabric, the space normally occupied is relocated to the corners of the room. When standing in the void space one is completely removed from all that is familiar, and left with a ghosted image of the room.
foundation studio | void space
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Breanna Mitchell
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Kim Wiese A3 Unfamiliar
The idea of changing the contextual references of the space was particularly important in this process as aspects of the built environment such as parallel lines, rectangular shapes and a grid-like path of travel were manipulated in produce a completely altered experience. Impulsive shapes responded to the given space and created nonfunctional areas with modified movement as a result. The paper material chosen for the installation removed the usual associations of the space such as color and texture which further separated the experience of the space. The elimination of contextual references, shape, color and texture, transformed the familiar space into an experience of unknown.
foundation studio | unfamiliar
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Sarah Stasiuk
Thom Jeffrey Garcia A3 Unfamiliar
Through preliminary explorations, the notion of familiarity within a given space was examined through the objects which inhabited the space. The intent to de-familiarize the space formed through the process of removing all personal and sentimental objects and installing the outlines and shapes of the objects in they're spot taken from. The ‘presence through absence’ aspect of this installation discussed the notion that some objects have outlines which allow them to still be discernible while other items create outlines which are common or unrecognizable which eliminates the individual identity which existed in three-dimensional form. The experience from the installation was heightened when trying to distinguish the contours of objects from one another provoking memories associated with specific items. foundation studio | untitled
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Tony Duan / Kate Hanson / Kristen Kuzdub / Scott Normand
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Kim Wiese Visual Media Block
A range of pinhole cameras were used to document the Exchange District between Rupert and Banatyne and, Main and King. These included: four small rectangular tins, a longer rectangular tin for distorted panoramas, and a circular tin for more accurate panoramas and circular cropped photos.
foundation studio | pinhole camera
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Rachel Lafond / Tatum Lawlor / Breanna Mitchell / Danielle Pollock
Kim Wiese Visual Media Block
Two types of pinhole cameras were constructed, one from an old cigar tin and the other from a modern day disposable camera. Through much trail and error, very unique images of the city were captured.
foundation studio | pinhole camera
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Jenna Atkinson / Brennan Jelinski / Catherine Peters
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Thom Jeffrey Garcia A4 Stations
A series of documentation of Corydon Avenue contributed to the construction of a multi layered notational map to show the socio-spatial, ecological, and social aspects from within the larger context of the area. The map investigates human activity, density, and movement patterns, as well as the prevalent textures along Corydon Avenue between Pembina Highway at Confusion Corner and Stafford Street. The intent of the first layer is to show the ecological textures created from molds taken at 16 different building facades along Corydon Avenue. The impressions of the building facades were then applied to the narrative map to the corresponding block from which the sample was taken. The connections between the facade texture locations and frequency along the avenue are displayed through visual connections with the other layers. foundation studio | notational map
The concept behind the second layer is to show the social phenomenon/movement of the site using language to describe human activity and interactions. The purpose of the final layer was to show the socio-spatial density. This layer was comprised of photographs placed in sequence of the street blocks of the real site with the density of human activity within that block determining the number of photographs displayed. The photographs chosen highlight the unique characteristics, and details of the block in question while providing a visual representation of activity experienced. The three layers combine to show the connections between the social diversity, complexity, and physical characteristics of Corydon Avenue. This project represented initial explorations of the site, that would later inform individual projects.
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Matthew Jolly / Ryan Tkachyk / Omar De Mesa
Kim Wiese A4 Stations
The Exchange District is examined through notational maps of the current vehicular traffic flow and the number of fire escapes; Fire hydrants and moments of pause; and the 216 trees that approximate the amount of green space. The maps will influence the urban narrative created for possible insertions within the site.
foundation studio | notational map
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Andrew Nocente
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Thom Jeffrey Garcia A4 Stations
The concept of this station is to re-purpose an existing parking lot while providing access to rooftop dwellings as a method to further densify the area. The insertion of a ramp that encloses the existing parking lot and connects the ground level with the existing rooftops creates a new public domain. The ramp itself is wide enough to provide public amenities such as creating moments of pause or places of gatherings. Plants lie along the peripheries and engage the users sense of vision and scent with strong aroma and a range of colors. Plants growing on the ramp would have shallow roots while plants on the ground would be able to thrive in the shade. All plantings that are selected are species that would thrive in Winnipeg’s climate. This minimizes the need for outside maintenance, and creates a space that is unique to its site. foundation studio | station
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Evan Schelleneberg
Jae-Sung Chon A4 Stations
The idea of reconnecting communities through a series of renewed social spaces is explored through the idea of the light station. The series of stations are outdoor, well lit gathering spaces designed to be integrate along an urban walkway. These stations give the community the opportunity to generate electricity from bicycles that can then be “plugged in� to illuminate the stations. The stations are built from a single sheet of steel that is cut and bent into its form. The slightly bent roof compresses the space on the lower side providing a sitting area while a raised roof creates space for standing. Apertures are cut into the back wall to allow light to filter into the station to aid the bicyclists by illuminating the space. Its community oriented design is low cost and non obtrusive to the existing environment. foundation studio | lighted way
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Jenn Yablonowski
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Kim Wiese A5 Warmth
The site is situated east of the Forks Market where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet. Located at the river bend is an area that is secluded and isolated from the river path and is where is perception of warmth through a built environment is studied. The intention is to create a sense of warmth and comfort through the notion of a corner. The space appears to compress as the walls angle inwards to the range of human vision of 120 degrees. The hut is designed as a destination for people to enter, sit and view the rivers merging as the design encourages the occupant to look forward due to the direction of the walls. The walls and roof section contain slits to create a filtering of light, echoing the quality found when the sunlight hits the trees on the riverbank and the occurrence of the casting of shadows. The slits also allow for a feeling of release as fragments of landscape that can be seen through the slits to create a feeling of openness.
foundation studio | corner hut
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Catherine Peters
Jae-Sung Chon A5 Warmth
A design for a warming hut began with the exploration of how light interacts with a surface through the reflection of materials. Ice was chosen to explore the qualities of light and informed the curved formation of the proposal. Ice interaction with the existing light conditions on the site reveals the phenomenological characteristics during the process of freezing when the ice is formed. The direction and intensity of melting was investigated to determine the spaces for placement of the candles within the walls. The diffusion of the light through the ice is dynamic with the ambience creating a sensation of warmth. Apertures are cut at different depths within the walls and began as modular determined forms which eventually melt into unique undetermined shapes. This continuous, temporal change of state becomes dynamic through the negotiation of melting and refreezing. This phenomenal condition of light created a perception of warmth despite the juxtaposition with the frozen ice that enveloped the interior space.
foundation studio | warmth
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Chris Leydier
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Jae-Sung Chon A5 Warmth
The forks site revealed an intriguing formation of ice and dense layers of branches that of which altered the horizon line. This observation inspired the concept of designing a warming hut that alters perception through sight lines. From a distance the structure reveals itself with contrasting densities of wood slits, transparencies and sight lines. There are 28 posts, each with 35 grooves, that hold 70 different size slits through friction fit resulting in no materials besides the wood to be used. The form of the hut is created through a narrow opening into a large interior volume with lengthwise strips encompassing the structure to create large shadows at low angle sun. The outcome of the design creates an experiential, programmatic spatial hut that uses sight lines, density, and orientation to evoke a sense of warmth. foundation studio | warmth
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Scott Normand
Thom Jeffrey Garcia A5 Warmth
The warming hut is explored through the notion of creating an experience of warmth rather then literally providing a sheltered solution to create the sense of warmth. The proposal uses the study of navigation through tight spaces along with proximity of obstructions, path of movement, texture of materials, and minimalist construction. The ancient Japanese technique of Shou-Sugri-Ban, wood burning, influenced the textured wood pieces that act as the navigating force. The process included experimenting with threshold, tension and release, and incorporating the traits of the site to maintain a strong relation to the surroundings.
foundation studio | untitled
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Victoria McCrea
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Colin Herperger A5 Warmth
When outside in the winter, the best way to stay warm is to stay dry. The intention of the project is to design a space that is incredibly dry and creates a threshold between cold and wet to warm and dry. The entrance of the warming hut is constructed out of an organic, non-absorbent, colourful material that would allow for a rich and saturated social environment. The fins that protrude from the two-story copper chimney maximize the amount of heat produced by a small fire while providing places to hang wet clothing. The experience of a user of the space is illustrated from the moment they take off their skates and escape the wet environment by entering into to the driest point of the hut.
foundation studio | warmth
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Sarah Stasiuk
Colin Herperger A5 Warmth
Three initial points of inspiration were found at the site with each of these being focused around ice. The first inspiration was the tonal and transitional qualities seen at the river’s edge, where the dark unfrozen river water, a slushy-mix of ice and water, meets the frozen ice and white snow. The second inspiration was the ice layers, and the simple fact that each individual layer was visible and built up naturally at the river’s edge. The third inspiration being the way light was interacting with the ice. In further exploring these inspirations, a simple structure was created in which the roof would be a large span of layered ice. An interesting play could potentially be created with the disorienting experience of skating on the river while passing
underneath a huge piece of ice up above. The transition in light quality creates the effect that as a skater proceeds, they are moving deeper under more and more layers of ice. Not only will there be a transitional experience as one moves through the hut, but also over the winter season, the walls will build up and skaters can become a part of its growth by viewing and experiencing the hut each time they visit. A resolution was found in a form, from testing with snow, which began as a spacious open area with walls curving outward and a dome-shaped roof. Moving through the hut the walls and roof begin to shift inward until the second half of the form is reached. In this area, the walls are exceptionally curved inward and the roof has now inverted itself into an upside down dome. foundation studio | untitled
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Jonathan Ferreira
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Colin Herperger A5 Warmth
Initial research began by investigating the properties of textile, and the ability to induce a sense of warmth. The idea of a curtained wall is explored with wool, as it can act as a wind breaker while stimulating the sensation of thermal character as a user pushes through. Thermal character is described as a result of the rapid transfer of heat from the skin to the fabric surface producing heat. The design of the warming hut revolves around inducing thermal character by creating a structure consisting of many silicone rods which protrude from the ice surface for users to engage with. Moving through the clusters of silicone rods, an exchange of pressure from the silicone rods embraces the user, and bundles the warm layers of clothing closer to the skin; subsequently inducing the thermal character sensation thus inducing a sensation of warmth. foundation studio | warmth
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Evan Schellenberg
Kim Wiese A5 Warmth
The Slinky Hut is designed as a movable structure that allows skaters to interact with the changing environment. The hut is located on a cleared ice surface where skaters push and pull the hut to expand or detract its spacial condition dependent on the number of people or weather conditions. Wood is used as the primary material, giving the perception of warmth and comfort. The single rib module incorporates seating, shelter, and acts as a wall barrier creating a spacial condition when in sequence attached by hinges. The hinges allow the freedom of expansion, contraction and horizontal movement. The form of the hut evokes a sense of flow and mimics the experience of the river trail compressed into a single hut.
foundation studio | slinky hut
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Brennan Jelinski / Breanna Mitchell / Garth Woolison
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Colin Herperger A6 (Re) Living
The newspaper and other print media are slowly fading due to new forms of media that are becoming more popular to process news and information. With this switch, imagination and visualization that print media creates through descriptive text is at a loss while rather heavy imagery is replacing it. The film, Image-ination, explores this idea of imagery attached to print media, specifically the newspaper. It begins with a filmed morning routine and then morphs into a stop frame world based in the newspaper. The switch into stop frame highlights the disjointed and fantastical elements of the imagination and allows for paper to become the subject of the film.
foundation studio | image-ination
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Tatum Lawlor / Chris Leydier / Darko Sajdak / John Sherk
Jae-Sung Chon A6 (Re) Living
The intent of the film is to intertwine reality with fiction: dreams and conscience, fate and imagination, mystery and curiosity. It explores a dream state interaction within a space with a skewed sense of gravity. A set was designed with the ability to control multiple ground planes and manipulate space in order to create a false perception of what the viewer is seeing and what is actually occurring.
foundation studio | (re)turn
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Joel Friesen / Evan Schellenberg / Tanner Twerdun
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Kim Wiese A6 (Re) Living
How do we understand ‘living’ through a structure that in its current state almost seems to embody the antithesis of living and yet is so deeply entrenched in life in its past conditions? How can these two contradicting temporal conditions be explored and resolved? Can life be brought back or perceived in its current state? Can it be ‘relived’? The film is an exploration into a house that has been left to decay. The peeling layers and collapsing structure expose new layers of the house, forging new connections within.
foundation studio | dereliction
Contrasting with the decomposing physical environment are images of life interspersed throughout. These transparent figures are manifestations of the spatial and programmatic qualities of the house: the environment and its uses, shown in a generalized version of how the house may have been lived in.
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academic-practice alliance
Dr. Mohamad T. Araji
Environmental Design Instructor
The 21st century is realizing several changes in environmental technologies coupled with economic challenges that are significantly changing the practice of architecture. In order to cope with the sustainable design viable venture, architects, landscape architects, urban designers, and planners require interdisciplinary work and knowledge spanning across not only the context of aesthetics and technology, but also social justice, environmental stewardship, cultural diversity, and civic engagement. By addressing these dimensions jointly, we can advance beyond offering only technological fixes and identify innovative methods for improvement suited to the creation of a coherent built environment. Such innovations are extremely essential in expanding the range and application of leading-edge design in North America and around the World. Departing from my practice and academic experience of consequence in the United States, Canada and the Middle East, the dedication is ongoing with a view to achieving inventive design solutions and a paradigm for quality performance of buildings and their contexts. It is essential that research and education in our field advance practice and lead novelty. The value in this is in its utility to make the world better. Research and design in architecture should emphasize an inclusive urban ecosystem approach where all aspects of resource consumption and carbon dioxide emissions are considered in order to maintain
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foundation studio | academic-practice alliance
a potential closed loop system. This is an integral part of establishing a clear framework that addresses the sustainability of a given development, throughout its lifecycle from design through construction to operation. The utilization is based on visualizing the interdisciplinary examination of four criteria, be it environmental, economical, social, and cultural. Looking forward, there are major macro-goals that should capture our attention. The role in research requires a holistic approach, taking into consideration the design and environmental strategies that work optimally with the natural surroundings, contributing to the sustainability and creating a supportive user experience. The research topics should include environmental building technologies; fundamentals of green strategies; passive and renewable energy sources; the integrated design process; environmental assessment toolsets; high performance buildings; lighting and daylighting design; effects of passive and active systems on human comfort; healthy and low embodied energy materials specification; high-quality indoor environments; and emergent clean technologies in the water, waste, and communication domains. The numerous advances in the field of sustainability, energy and environment make us seek continuous joint work with research institutes globally. Such advances involve areas in building-integrated photovoltaic and wind generation systems; structural optimization through materials
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demanding performance criteria (e.g. ecoceramics); dynamic building envelopes; parametric design utilization; agricultural waste by-products (e.g. for desiccant building materials); solar building envelope systems for water recycling, purification and thermal control; advanced environmental control systems; urban decarbonization planning, to name few.
At the building scale, a systematic design approach involve three major steps: 1) identify the environmental and social impact of operations; 2) develop specific objectives, targets and key performance indicators (KPIs) to minimize negative impacts; and 3) realize goals and demonstrate to owners, occupants, purveyors, visitors, etc. In addition to management and economic factors, there are four KPIs that cover all aspects of particular importance with At the city scale, planning architecture and urban land use regards to sustainability, including: greenhouse gases, necessitates a completely new methodology for the physical waste, resources, and social. Within each indicator, design of buildings, districts, institutions and even entire designers can establish a number of objectives and set metropolises. By quantifying and monetizing the relationship targets that should be met in order to achieve each goal. between how we build things, their energy use, and thus The KPIs can be developed in order to assess performance their costs, the emphasis is on providing tools to leaders at design, construction and operation stages. Greenhouse and decision-makers to reduce environmental impacts, gases relate to operational energy (consumption, savings prioritize projects, pursue funding in a strategic manner, and generation) and embodied energy (measured and and increase the desirability of our contexts. The aim is at reported as embodied carbon dioxide KgCO 2). Resources analyzing several areas of carbon reduction and production include materials (covering locality, recyclability, relevant to the urban condition, including: built environment compliance with restricted materials, etc) and water typologies; energy, water and waste systems; transit and (consumption and savings of potable, recycled, etc). Waste connectivity plans; smart infrastructures; and community involves operational waste and materials waste (solid engagement programs. Further to this is the analysis of waste, wastewater, greywater, stormwater, site-generated existing buildings carbon dioxide emissions and energy construction waste, etc). Social aspects encompass safety, usage through inspecting their age, use, condition, types and site balance, air quality, space fitout, ecology applications, integrated systems. It is required to transform the current community and transportation plans. In order to assess building stock into a more efficient constituency. performance against each KPI, a logistic curve tool that includes a reporting dashboard must be used to identify areas where improvement is needed.
foundation studio | academic-practice alliance
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envd Sustainable design is also contingent on the capacity of a team to critically assess decisions early within the process while they are easily addressed and managed in order to realize the best possible design. As practitioners, we should utilize a variety of global management tools through specific building and system modeling techniques including energy modeling; structural analysis; computational fluid dynamics for wind and thermal modeling; and tools for code, cost and material use estimation. Other tools may involve KPIs tracker, green rating systems, net waste for whole project management, etc. Many of these tools directly interface with building information models (BIM) that are virtual representations of the whole building system for fast and accurate data exchange. BIM is also a great tool for stakeholders in the building process such as construction and facility management teams for lifecycle management.
prediction, simulation, and measurement. Students should consider both physical and human perspectives of the built environment and draw on methods appropriate to academic and practice-based investigations. The overarching goal is to provide students with an intuitive understanding of the principles of environmental technology, ecology, and design. This approach can represent the seamless balance between the methodological imperatives and the critical concerns. In studio settings, the process of learning and critical examination ensures the student a deeper understanding of the essential experiences, connecting different subjectivities therein. So much so, the architecture design process is enhanced by students' selfdiscovery, strengths and preferences to position their work within the wider context.
Specific to materials, the use of particular products is The following are particular learning outcomes that fundamental to realize the best possible lifecycle of a students will have to attain when studying in a design building. The current practice indicates that the evaluation program relating to sustainability, energy & environment: criteria of materials have not necessarily led to an optimal organization and balance of qualitative and quantitative Create designs that are sensitive to the climatic guide to selection prior to specification. There should conditions in a given environment. be an environmentally focused effort to ensure that the whole-product lifecycle extending through the supply Design in a holistic and consequently pluralistic chain has appropriate qualifications that are at a suitable process through realizing the interaction between level of the buildings performance and sustainable users, systems, policies and economies and design. Specifically, products should be evaluated with optimize their mutual strengths. regard to characteristics that have a direct benefit to the owner’s economic measures and occupants’ health and Generate strategies for high performance buildings productivity. The assessment process is based on factors and urban developments through exploring the such as greater design flexibility and adaptability; reduced principles, techniques, and methods correspond to maintenance; carbon footprint; minimal emissions; low sustainability, energy, and environment. toxicity or nontoxic material; reduced manufacturing energy; reduced packaging and transportation waste; Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the resource efficient materials; recyclability; recycled content; integrated design process. local/regional sourcing; affordability and economically sustainable options. Integrate knowledge of relevant precedents (from green building and urban projects) and important With the growing globalization of the energy and reference documents into their designs. environment, the focus should be on the integration of sustainable design and technology principles into State the appropriateness of a given technique or conceptual and practical architectural design. The radical method to a given problem area. change should start by bridging the various industries and disciplines to accelerate the transformation of scientific Plan their projects in its most reduced form: a outcomes into the design of the built environment. In contained setting that requires less energy, utilizes academia, students should pursue research and design the latent environment to its greatest advantage, projects that emphasize applied topics in environmental and recognizes legal obligation and the part played design. They are required to demonstrate understanding of by environmental laws. the concepts of human comfort and sensorial thresholds regarding environmental factors and the performance of Specify sustainable materials and classify how ecological strategies. Evaluation, feedback and critique are various products are typically used through all vital components to the progress of design. Advancement understanding the language, complexity, and wide can only be achieved when this assessment loop is range of design applications. completed using credible and appropriate methods. The aim is to reinforce this message and introduce the student to a Analyze strategies through environmental assessment number of investigative and analytical techniques, including methods and rating systems in global contexts.
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foundation studio | academic-practice alliance
envd Apply lessons that are responsive to the social, cultural & economic factors that influence performance. Accomplish project goals through synergistic design integration and successful team collaboration. Research key issues in sustainable construction such as productivity, cost benefit, improving environmental performance, waste management, effective resource management, customer-led design, building materials technology; and lifecycle analysis and reuse of buildings. Explain how to minimize the consumption of resources through effective resource management, renewable resources and recyclable resources. Assess design through the use of BIM and advanced computer energy simulation programs, including: Revit, Ecotect, eQUEST, etc.
sustainability and continuing to be a center for architectural and environmental energy technologies innovation. It is required to integrate the schools' building science and building technology lessons into current studio projects. A summary of principles, tools, skills and methods needed for architects are recently considered in the form of compiling impressive educational edifice, be it CIDO (ConceivingDesigning-Implementing-Operating) and the EU's EDUCATE (Environmental Design in University Curricula and Architectural Training in Europe). The former is an initiative with an innovative educational framework for producing the next generation of design engineers. The mission of the latter is to deconstruct the pedagogical barriers to the integration of sustainability and energy efficiency in university curricula and in the practice of architecture, disseminate know-how and exempla of best practice on sustainable environmental design, and propose the harmonization of qualification prescriptions across its context, Europe. Overall, collaboration between academic faculty and practice leaders is required to achieve proper architecture solutions and education as acquired over time at institutions.
The concepts that are ultimately to be integrated in studios comprise introducing innovative projects that promote reflective and creative thinking; emphasizing the importance of conceptual basis development; promoting sensibility to forms and characters through materiality, structure, and context; and cultivating the strengthening of ecological ideas. In short, research and system development can aim to implement changes to building practices with global impact in three priority areas: 1) Energy consumption, 2) Sustainable resource management, and 3) Quality of access to essential resources: fresh air, clean water, natural daylight, etc. The ultimate responsive design achieves pioneering solutions, which enhance developments’ success and contribute to sustainability locally, nationally and globally. In order to successfully serve the international community and contribute to design excellence and technological innovation, academia is opting to move towards an interdisciplinary approach that makes students look at design holistically, as it relates to architecture and other distinct fields in the sciences and the humanities. This approach creates the potential to tap a wide array of funding resources, be it federal, provincial, private sector, and other public funding mechanisms. This is in addition to international funding options. Other core opportunities can be realized through initiating centers of excellence with special focus on sustainable design and ecology integration. Core services and affiliation for such centers include corporate partnership, consultancy work, training programs, and platforms that embrace conferences, workshops and seminars. In summary, the academic-practice alliance must process the initiatives to demonstrate that quality of life can continue to improve, despite, and in response to, the global issues at hand, while emerging as a leader, epitomizing the
foundation studio | academic-practice alliance
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Ashkan Ataee / Melina Quark
Thom Jeffrey Garcia A7 Dwelling Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The empty lot chosen in Windsor Park is bound amidst a row of houses and a utility shed for a wading pool. A narrative created describes a scenario of a family of four consisting of a couple, Bekki and Bruce, and their two sons. Bekki, works at the local hair salon just a few blocks away, while Bruce works at home as an inventor. Distinguishing between functions that are typically combined is challenged in this design as bedrooms were reduced to simply rooms with beds and the washroom is subdivided into a toilet nook, a sink, and a shower nook. As well as the closet become reformed into a a shelving unit. The entire house was divided into private and public spaces by a gap between providing a thoroughfare into the park. As Bruce works at home, the
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foundation studio | dwelling
division between public and private creates a psychological barrier between him and his work. When a dwelling is imagined, familiar thoughts are immediately evoked. A bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, all of which are defined programs neatly segregated into their own spaces. However, this mundane approach to spatial layout is a result of what is commonplace. Rarely is it questioned whether this is the ideal form in which to live. Pushing the boundaries of what is known allots opportunity for both designer and user to reinvent living. The aim is to redefine what is normal. Through manipulation of space and questioning of function, the house aspires to attain a new paradigm of domestic operation.
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Stefan Klassen
Kim Wiese A7 Dwelling Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The project attempts to approach sustainability through its social aspects as well as its performative aspects. Strategically placed openings create visual connections within the public sections of the house, with an open floor plan that allows inhabitants to be in visual connection throughout the house; excluding the private spaces such as the bedrooms and bathrooms, The main central room, which takes the place of a standard living room, connects to a backyard, the private areas, the upper floors, the kitchen and dining room. The ceiling in this room is raised and features large windows from above that allow for a bright atmosphere. Accessibility is created through ramps, wide hallways, and wide door frames to allow for easy movement throughout.
Performative sustainability applications included strategically placed operable windows to allow a west to east cross ventilation of air, large windows through the house to provide natural light, and walls designed to accommodate Optimum Value Engineering (OVE) which uses larger studs which are spaced further apart at 24 inches off center. OVE allows more insulation and uses less wood. Titled The Sustainable Family because of the concept to help a family sustain and remain connected even as they physically separate.
foundation studio | the sustainable family
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Garth Woolison
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Colin Herperger A7 Dwelling Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Through studying the contexts and available energies of a rooftop living situation, this home focused on utilizing the maximum amount of precipitation caught on the roof to sustain a small brewery. Water is initially captured to irrigate barley crops on every available flat surface, while hops are trained to grow over the edges of the building. A mild graded drainage system is in place beneath the crop, allowing off-season and additional water to be gravity-collected into a large cistern, which hangs from the side of the existing building. The cistern, modeled after a large beer stein, contains a filtration unit that allows the water to be used in the brewing of a very local beer. Assessing the realization for access to collect the hops, as well as the need for a maintenance passage to the cistern, the playful idea of shaping a large arm, containing a staircase, reaching over the side of the building emerged. The home’s design evolved around these numerous drainage systems, incorporating organic forms, and a flowing plan that create both a home and a small brewery into a sustainable living environment.
foundation studio | hooligan's brewhouse
Water collected from the home’s roof has the ability to flow and meander through the interior, bringing a continual consciousness to the systems at work for the inhabitants. The built structure is equipped with dozens of mechanical systems that work without the use of electricity, and that strongly enhance the connection between the home it’s occupants. The brewery and kitchen areas have been elevated above and slightly separated from the private living space to allow possibility for a public bar/ eatery to market products grown from the home's own practices, creating a stronger sense of locality and community. Often the ideas of sustainability in design are limited to material use and compacting spaces, where the living conditions and their relation to sustainability are overlooked. Rooftops offer unique and creative possibilities to maximizing space in dense urban living situations, and can operate as functional alternatives.
Graphite on Vellum
Graphite on Vellum
Second Floor Kitchen / Brewery Plan Separated, but overlooking the living space, the large kitchen and deck space are open, to invite public into the space without infringing on privacy of other household members.
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Main Floor Living Space Plan
The design process continually shifted from typical space planning to an organization that was relevant to the program. The ideas of flowing water systems and an organic lifestyle strongly inspire the design.
Existing Arch II Stairwell/ House Access Lever to operate Retractable Balcony Storage/ Access beneath indoor decking Divisible Bathroom with Sliding Partition Swinging Wall Entry Retractable Swinging Staircase Entry to Bedroom through Butterfly Closet Expansive Bedroom Entry Floating Sky Lit Closet Seasonal Rain-waterfall Sunken Living Room Window-side Sleeping/ Reading Pod Rising Bookshelf/ Beer Storage Unit Retractable Catwalk Sculptural Fireplace open to Lower Floor Stairs to Kitchen/ Brewery Outdoor Access Hanging Arm Garden Access Elevating Cistern/ Filtration Chamber Retractable Drainage Spouts
foundation studio | hooligan's brewhouse
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Tanner Twerdun
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Kim Wiese A7 Dwelling Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The concept for the Tumbling House house is to explore and play with the tension created between contemporary architectural forms and traditional forms. A cookie cutter home was cut in half then fastened to a contemporary square form to create the basic form. The entire form was then flipped upside down creating a dynamic and precariously balanced structure. The form of the house is dictated from its orientation on site. The modular design allows for sections to be pushed and pulled maximizing the sites latent potentials. Angled walls are positioned to catch intense rays of sun and act as a solar heating system. A passive heating system has been applied to the house in the form of a cantilever acting as a shading device. The house can be broken into quadrants when looking at the front elevation.
foundation studio | tumbling house
The bottom right fulfills the need for a kitchen and living area while the bottom left acts as an extension of this space taking shelter beneath the cantilever. The upper right section provides a living area with a bathroom while the top left holds the bedrooms. The Tumbling House has a 550 square foot floor plan with iwnterior spaces allotted the maximum square footage of what is needed, rather than wanted, helping to reduce room sizes.
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Sarah Stasiuk
Colin Herperger A7 Dwelling Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
A narrative created and represented through drawing and collage, along with a specific site, the rooftop of the Architecture II building, generated a process that questioned the interaction with an environment through sight lines. The rooftop offers a unique way of observing the site surroundings which cannot be experienced at ground level as unique sightlines influence the experience from above. How the sight lines could potentially inform interior spaces or views further developed the concept for the proposal. Shapes and forms by objects discovered in sight lines related to uniquely shaped apertures for the viewer to look out of, directly create a connection between the house and the surrounding environment. The introduction of moving walls responded to the inhabitants preference or relation to an evolving sight line over a period of time. The program developed is centered around two bathrooms and a section of a kitchen which would remain static, allowing the rest of the house to move around this point. The other rooms are organized according
to certain relationships with each other, specifically relating to the function and amount of usage through different times of the day. Resulting from this scheme is a unique floor plan in which a static configuration accompanies three primary alternatives when the walls are altered. The first allows for more open/public space to be created when bedrooms are not in use, and vice-versa for the second. The third configuration allows the home to be placed into its smallest form, expanding the amount of exterior space of the site. The home responds to use by the inhabitants resulting in these three main configurations, however countless alteration can also be created. In order to not conflict with wall movement, each piece of furniture is able to transform itself such as tables, chairs, and beds are able to fold into themselves and onto their adjacent wall to be moved around with each configuration and folded out again to be used. Items with more depth than these, such as dressers or bookshelves are able to push through their adjacent wall and into the exterior spaces.
foundation studio | untitled
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Configuration Movement The final form decided upon is centered around two bathrooms and a section of the kitchen which remains static, as the rest of the house moves is in flux. A track system which runs along the ceiling plane, to allow movement to occur by the walls, provides a pivoting guide found in corner points of the walls to move along the track. Each corner point or end-point of a wall
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foundation studio | untitled
has a 360° swivelling wheel allowing the walls to move in either direction along the track. The walls fold in and out at the corner points via two-way hinges. The roof is composed of four plates which are raised just above the interior track system. They are fixed at certain corner points and each plate is connected to one other, moving as the walls move.
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Operable Window Detail While the interior sight lines are primarily altered by wall movements, the exterior view of the surroundings will also be able to be changed by the inhabitant. Similar to a vintage camera, the windows will expand outward and contract inward depending on what the viewer chooses to frame. A contracted window will be focused on something immediately
outside, while an expanding window can frame a small section along the horizon. Depending on where the viewer is standing, fragmented views may be seen through each frame of the window. The expansion and contraction of the windows could also be dictated by the direction or orientation of the wall movement.
foundation studio | untitled
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Victoria McCrea
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Colin Herperger A7 Dwelling Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The Life and Dwelling of Arthur Peary tells the life story of a boy from Wales with a love of books and his dear Eliza who possessed a strong spirit of adventure. Together they sailed the world, sight seeing, map reading, all the while in search of the fabled Oarfish. A tragic event took Eliza from Arthur, who, after a few more years of wayward adventuring, crash landed a dirigible on the roof of the Architecture II Building, the designated site of the project, and created a home for himself. Arthur’s life was illustrated through 3 dimensional collages composed of both found and personal photographs, drawing, painting and stylized printing techniques. All of the images were mounted onto thick, rigid paper, cut to letter size and bound into an old, disassembled book cover. Designing the dwelling began with establishing desired "moments" within the foundation studio | the life and dwelling of arthur peary
home. Inspired by the character’s passion for empirical study, the dwelling is designed to track the sun and the stars. The windows in the kitchen provide enough light to read the entire Sunday paper twice in one sitting, while the large window above the character’s bed frames certain stars at different points throughout the year. Arthur Peary desired a home that could be read like a book, with more information unveiling itself around every corner. In keeping with this theme, came an exploration of hardcover books as a material for model making. A section model depicting the “uncomfortably small bedroom�, “the bookcase staircase�, the crawlspace and the front entrance is created entirely out of book covers. The books were chosen strategically for their size, colour, texture, thickness and content.
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Section
Inspired by the amount of detail possible in a section drawing, I returned to the technique of modelling with books to create a section model of the house. The section would depict the “uncomfortably small bedroom, the crawl space, the front entrance, part of the master bedroom and the stairs. The books were chosen strategically for their size, colour, texture, thickness
and content. I had a bit of fun choosing which books would create which rooms, with a book about airplanes for the boy’s bedroom, a “Life” encyclopedia for the outer walls and an atlas for the floor.
foundation studio | the life and dwelling of arthur peary
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Evan Schellenberg
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Kim Wiese A7 Dwelling Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The Bow Tie House is a communal oriented dwelling that attempts to provoke a sustainable life style with a renewed way of thinking. Sustainable living covers a large spectrum of economic, political, and environmental issues and cannot be solved solely by new technologies and materials. North American culture has become exceedingly individualized which has lead to a consumer based economy leading to issues regarding waste, material depletion, and pollution. The Bow Tie House is a proposal to facilitate people to live, play, and work together towards a sustainable future. With this in mind, questions regarding conventional houses lead to the notion of two dwellings coexisting together as one. Living in this community immediately begins to decrease the amount of energy, materials, and products consumed per person. The Bow Tie House provides a center staircase and community zone with the dwellings crossing over connecting to the front and backyard of the site. The living areas of the house are raised to the second level of the home.
foundation studio | bow tie house
The house consists of two different living facilities that can integrate together to become one depending on the life of the occupants. In the bedrooms, the closet systems act as room dividers that expand and detract their special conditions. This allows the occupants to evolve, adjust and adapt to their context.
Living in small compressed spaces can be done and is done in many countries around the world. Architecture can be manipulated to make dwelling conditions feel larger then they actually are. The Bow Tie house achieves this by the center staircase and community zone, and the crossing over of dwellings. These spaces make the house feel large and spacious.
With the crossing over of occupant zones the dwellers are able to connect with the front and backyard of site. The living areas of the house are raised to the second level of the home. This is to done to give more interesting views and lighting conditions into the primary living spaces of the house. The home is a very open concept with views spanning across the entire length of the house.
Flexible Spaces
Communal Spaces
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Perspectival Section
foundation studio | bow tie house
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O2.0 [chapter]
Venice Architecture Biennale: Common Ground
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Migrating Landscapes 5468796 architecture + jae-sung chon
As an increasing number of people move around the globe, the issue of im/migration is more important than ever. In spite of humanity’s increased mobility, many countries are becoming less open to new im/migrants, with Canada remaining a notable exception. Canada’s entry to the 13th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia is Migrating Landscapes, curated by Winnipegbased 5468796 Architecture + Jae-Sung Chon, who have joined together to become the Migrating Landscapes Organizer (MLO). The Biennale’s theme of Common Ground resonates with Migrating Landscapes, which questions socio-political borders, the significance of the migration of people and ideas, and, at its core, exposes attitudes we all hold of others, consciously or unconsciously. At the same time, Migrating Landscapes poses questions about contemporary architecture as it is practiced cross-culturally and negotiated across political and social borders. In 2011, MLO launched a national competition, inviting young Canadian architects and designers to create video narratives and architectural scale models of dwellings in response to their personal experiences of im/migration. The work was selected by regional juries and displayed at seven regional exhibitions across the country, organized and constructed by MLO over the course of the past year. Regional winners were then shown at the national exhibition in Winnipeg in the spring of 2012, where 18 winning teams were selected by a prestigious national jury to represent Canada in Venice. MLO has designed a wooden exhibition infrastructure that acts as a conceptual landscape onto which each architectural dwelling is settled, with each model representing an act of first im/migration. The landscape is envisioned as a grid mosaic – an abstraction of the physical [configuration], social [relationship], economic [size] and political [hierarchy] conditions that form Canada’s pluralistic cultural identity. The malleable nature of the landscape echoes the idea that, in Canada, a newcomer is not asked to assimilate to a culture, but rather is encouraged to express his or her personal identity. As such, modified by individual designers and collectives, the landscape, like the dwellings and video narratives placed into it, resonates with the theme of Common Ground, while revealing ideas about cultural multiplicity and interpretations of [un]settling.
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venice biennale | migrating landscapes
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[project]
pickle house [entrants]
Chad Connery / Anca Matiyku
[information] [region] [exhibit] [program]
Quebec Regional, National, Venice Biennale Architecture, Graduate Studies / Architecture Graduate
[description]
The act of “dwelling” within a landscape is a relationship based on an accumulation of repeated necessities. It is a kind of mundane ritual that accrues meaning over time and so it is both a repeated same-ness and a constantly evolving relationship to place. Beginning with the basic necessity of obtaining and preserving nourishment, we playfully wonder how a “dwelling” might manifest as a “pickling” of the landscape; how the architecture engages the living landscape through a metabolical process of preserve-making. An organism that is simultaneously the pickle and the process of pickling, the dwelling is composed of a series of metabolical vessels and armatures
that facilitate the flows within. Its “bricks” are repeated containers that grow, hold, and preserve food. They construct and re-construct the architecture according to the cycles and seasons of its landscape. Over time, the dwelling accumulates within it the subtle temperaments of its landscape and the shifting needs of its inhabitants.
venice biennale | migrating landscapes | pickle house
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[project]
they will arrive one day [entrants]
Chris Gilmour / Kory Kaspersion / Andre Silva
Concept Drawing by Andre Silva
[information] [region] [exhibit] [program]
Manitoba Regional, National, Venice Biennale Architecture Graduates
[description]
This entry is based on the social relationships created and left behind during the migration of a family to Canada over an extended period of time. The project is reflective of the complexity of leaving a dense reliable network (of relationships) and arriving in an uncertain, unfamiliar place. Anchors act as the adjustable and dynamic relationships that help us unsettle from where we come and settle in the places we go. Similarly, the landscape in which it sits offers the dwelling opportunities to unsettle and settle in its journey from one condition to another. The physical model consists of several anchors attached to the landscape in multiple unique conditions and a dwelling held in the tensile and compressive relation created by the anchors holding it in place.
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venice biennale | migrating landscapes | they will arrive one day
Second Inhabitation, National
Third Inhabitation, Venice Biennale
Post-Regional Inhabitation
I like to think of a landscape as a dense network: colored by social connections, some solid in nature, tightly packed and accessible to latch on to, others loosely packed and void of uncertainty. And within this landscape people act as anchors: offering us points of connection that allow us to stabilize and settle. My wife and I live in a single family dwelling. My wife is from Kiev, Ukraine and had come to Canada by herself: leaving her father, her mother, her two brothers, her brothers family and her friends in Ukraine. She has always felt a very strong connection to her homeland. Over the last year, our home has acted as a base for transitioning my wife's friends and family from Ukraine to Canada. We anticipate, over the next few years, that we will continue to bring over my wife's friends and family to live near us and around us in Canada. Eventually this process will end and our home will have gone through a number of adaptations, changes. The anchors that anchored my wife to her homeland have also stretched, pulled and influenced change and adaptation in our home. - Submission Video, excerpt. venice biennale | migrating landscapes | they will arrive one day
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emergent architectures of frozen landscapes [entrants]
Lancelot Coar / Dominique Rey
[information] [region] [exhibit] [department]
Manitoba Regional, National Architecture / School of Art
[description]
Built from the practices of everyday life this architecture arises from an interdependent existence with the land, climate, and the people who inhabit it. The isolation of central Canada provides the challenges as well as the possibility for communities to take root and flourish. In this region the intense cold becomes a tool capable of solidifying a liquid form, and the ground, a surface that can be shaped by the social and cultural forces of those who live on it.
conditions and events around them. This results in an insitu play of material, climate, and communal desire.  This architecture draws on our personal narratives of location and dislocation, of settlement and unsettlement. It emerges from a land cultivated to provide the sustenance as well as the structure for its habitat. The form is dynamic, constantly in search of equilibrium with the forces of the materials as well as events within its spaces.
These structures are mutable; shifting and responding to the environments they are built in and to those who build them. Their flexibility allows them to adapt to the changing
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venice biennale | migrating landscapes | emergent architectures of frozen landscapes
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[project]
migrating (bounded) landscapes [entrant]
Jason Hare
[ar] [information] [region] [exhibit] [program]
Manitoba Regional, National, Venice Biennale Landscape Architecture, Graduate Studies
[description]
This project focuses on the interconnected relationship between the urban and the rural dwelling. The perceived contrast of these two environments continues to breed a sense of disconnect between where it is we call home and where we go to escape the home. How one begins to ‘settle’ between these two places leads to the physical manifestation of form. As the dwelling settles within the physical landscape of which it belongs to, the model shares this same settling act within the abstract migrating landscape of which it belongs. In doing so the dwelling and the landscape are ultimately bound to each other, sharing a distinct relationship, defined by the processes that enacted
them. This project is ultimately exploring how a dwelling can have its own identity while simultaneously existing within the greater environment of which its form was generated from.
venice biennale | migrating landscapes | migrating (bounded) landscapes
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[competition]
fold-a-house competition [participants]
University of Manitoba's Environmental Design Foundation Studio
[information] [jury members] [exhibit] [description]
Ken Borton, Jae-Sung Chon, Thom Jeffrey Garcia, and Kim Wiese National To coincide with the National Exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and to provide content for the designated children's area, students in the Environmental Design Foundation Year Studio were issued a Fold-A-House competition requiring them to design a conceptual dwelling based on paper folding that was to be lasercut and constructed from Mayfair paper. From the submissions, entries were chosen to be mass-produced and provided as a giveaway for visitors to the gallery.
community
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[students]
Rachel Lafond / Chris Leydier / Nina Quark / Tanner Twerdun
[description]
The concept of Community reflected on the importance of what surrounded a home. The idea of community is discussed in terms of the arrangement of exterior conditions.
venice biennale | migrating landscapes | fold-a-house competition
inside the box [students]
Evan Schellenberg / John Sherk
[description]
The exterior is a simple cube shape, which children can use as building blocks to interact with the landscape environment. The inside of the cube challenges the partaker to envision their “own room”. The paper house is a representation of a simple child’s bedroom that can colored and shaped to represent the child’s image of their own room. Children have a very unique perspective in regards to their migrating story. A child’s migration story is shaped and influenced by two worlds, that of their parents and that of their current context. These influences are then combined together to create their own unique story. This story can be told and envisioned in the landscape of a child’s room. A child’s room is one of the only environments they have control over, therefore it is a melting pot of the two worlds creating the child’s migrating landscape.
untitiled [students]
Brooke Conrad / Rayna Esposito / Kristina Komoly / Ivanka Waplak
[description]
The proposed Fold-a-House is imagined to be simple in design and construction for children playing in the kids corner in the exhibit at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Thought of as a fool proof design, the intention not to provide printed building instructions was met with surprise by the countless models that were created in various unforeseen ways.
our life [students]
Joel Friesen / Scott Normand / Stephen Oberlin
[description]
The concept of Our Life is built around the familiar expression of ‘a roof over ones head’. Migration sets the stage for a new life centered in and around a new dwelling that becomes far more than just basic shelter. Rather, the homes are a symbol of a new life. The tall, rectangular form of the folded house is intended to evoke the same towering landscape of the exhibit in which the house are displayed, while still retaining a simplified schematic notion of a home. Small openings fold inward to reveal figures that display a multitude of aspects of living ongoing within: a family walks together, a child hugs his friend hard enough to lift him off the ground, a mother pushes her child in a stroller, a man carries a briefcase as he progresses towards the top of the house where finally, a man stands ready to let go of a kite, ready to soar into the atmosphere beyond. Behind them, the ‘A’ of the Migrating Landscapes logo becomes an aperture to allow light in, forming a roof above the heads of the figures and reinforcing the concept of settling into a new landscape.
venice biennale | migrating landscapes | fold-a-house competition
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[article]
a postscript: migrating landscapes [instructor]
Jae-Sung Chon
[information] [program] [position]
Environmental Design Instructor, Studio Chair
[description]
Migrating Landscapes’ extremely exhaustive process and unmanageable magnitude in all aspects was a humbling experience from start to finish. The fact that the privilege to represent Canada at the most prestigious international architecture event was given to us was simply shocking. It still is. I remember Johanna’s first phone call in February 2011: “Jae, we got it.” “Got what?” I couldn’t connect the dots for about a minute, and when I did, I still couldn’t believe it.
party; and the party was a success! Promises became realities beyond its initial assumptions – what a surprise!
People
The project was full of people, their stories, their enthusiasms, and their hearts and hands! As jurors and supporters, we met all the usual suspects within artarchitecture circles (architects, critics, educators and media). The project’s financial and logistical scale also Promises forced us to go beyond the circle to meet up with bankers, Besides the fact that we, not a star architect or critic in developers and builders, and other individuals who had any measure, were given the opportunity, it was also a links to various funding potentials. When cash support surprise to us because we know that our proposal was only was not available, we asked for ‘in-kinds’; when ‘infull of promises, not projects! As we were preparing the kind’ was not available, we asked for referrals; when no submission in November 2010, we noticed a clear pattern referrals were available, we asked “At least come and join in the past 12 Canadian entries to Venice. There were the ‘party’!” The nature of the project, involving ‘loads’ two types: single architect or firm representing Canada, of material (wood) and traveling to 8 different venues many with their built works, or a selection of built projects across Canada, led us meet many officers at various based on curatorial agendas. Our proposal was neither, institutions, different kind of workers and volunteers, in its format nor its content. The core was empty. It was and many specialists. Migration stories were the key to full of promises and strategies dependant on personal every meeting. From the top floors of Toronto’s business experiences (migration) across Canada. Another unusual district to the taxi to and fro Calgary airport, we shared our aspect of our proposal was that its focus was to identify, project stories and they in turn offered their own stories of new (young!) generation of architects, not tested fully migration. This also worked in Venice when we befriended against the scrutiny of recognition culture in architecture. our local hardware store owner. It was a humbling experience to witness many forms of support that ‘builds’ We have gotten a little more, once our promise was architecture culture. accepted. We added few more details that were also atypical: we opened up the entry qualifications to include Many were able to connect with (and contribute to) the ‘related disciplines’, and we added a ‘separate’ student project with their own (migration) stories. Telling and category. By having establishing a separate category, sharing stories was an essential part of the project. It we knew we will have some students resulting in Venice was the access points for people, since everyone had an - unless none gets selected all across Canada. With all inhabitation story involving migration. When accepted as these added details, our proposal was resting on many spatial resonance of authors’ stories, seemingly abstract ‘unknowns’. The ‘what-if-no-one-comes!’ feeling at an models and the ‘abstract’ landscape at the exhibition, both opening of an exhibition or a party filled us in the early in Canada and in Venice, were not too foreign to general stage of the project. I think people around us were more public. They were much more engaged with the artifacts worried than us. But in the end a lot of people join the dubbing them with their own stories. When we were in 064
venice biennale | migrating landscapes | a postscript: migrating landscapes
[ar]
Venice we were able to relate to this while watching Francesco’s Venice, Complete BBC DVD, one night, which was full of amazing stories about the place. We do access the place through stories (experiences) don’t we!
Post-architecture
The discussions around Migrating Landscapes will always slip away from the orthodoxy of architecture-talk, especially it’s figures, forms and Firmitas. Perhaps this can partly be attributed to the staging of architecture Amazing number of UMers made a significant part of together with notions like migration and landscape(s). the project. Students, faculty members, and graduates If we consider architecture as a territorializing or from all parts of the world, joined in and cheered along. colonizing act, and both migration and landscape(s) as The ex-UMers’ get together in Vancouver, June 2011, was de-territorializing acts, the project ‘Migrating Landscapes’ absolutely more ‘spirited’ than the BIG party in Venice. can be dubbed as a post-colonial project in flavour. In UMers from the city swarmed into a roof top condo to many ways, the project is an affirmation of power of share-n-cheer for the journey: a premonition of UM-fest! architecture that exists beyond its walls and its Firmitas. About a quarter of 1500 persons involved in the project In fact, it demonstrated how de-walling (or de-Firmitas) of were UM-related. They joined the bandwagon as volunteers, architecture can empower architecture beyond the hands sponsors, participants, and of course as finalists! From of its author and its immediate users; how architecture ED2 studio’s Fold-A-House contribution to silent working lives in the collective consciousness; and how it gets ‘behind the scenes’, the support was everywhere! It didn’t built by the collective memory. Stories of inhabitation, stop here in Canada, in Venice, a number of ex-UMers in fragments, floating in the waves of collective working in other countries visited/joined our camp, and a memories, are the strongest and clearest traces of the retired UM professor jumped out of his care bed and acted architecture’s existence, beyond its physical form. In as our local advocate. He and his lovely wife connected the this sense, the project in many ways resembles Marco project with towns of Veneto and the University of Venice. Polo’s dialogue with Kublai Khan in Invisible Cities, where He is still working on this in Venice. With his generous forms of imaginations intersect with experiential stories, support, the project now may become a part of Italian rendering wonderful cities and landscapes. As all would landscape (a permanent collection) when the exhibition agree, ‘Venice is a magical place,’ with all of its magical closes in November. moments floating on the water. Migrating Landscapes was also magical, with all of its floatsams on waves of collective consciousness! venice biennale | migrating landscapes | a postscript: migrating landscapes
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O3.0
Department of Architecture intermediate environmental design, year 3 vertically integrated environmental design, year 4 graduate studies
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Section, Elevation, House instructors: frank fantauzzi + terri fuglem + liane veness
The ambition of the Environmental Design studio is to set up an open dialogue and shared culture between three studios through a series of shared projects, with each studio developing a unique approach and interpretation of the brief. Here there is an importance on process and making in the development of architecture. Two preliminary projects focus on the study of distinct topological conventions - the section and elevation - for generatiting and discovering architectural relationships, with a final dwelling being the cumulation of new ideas and approach to design. The first project, Section, explores the world of objects. The act of sectioning involved obseravtions and interpreations during a process of transformation in de-objectifying the selected piece. This shifts an understanding from the inherent utilitarian usage to the phenomenal, material, and tectonic properties, and meanings. The deobjectified material is then situated into a tree stump that is topographically remodeled as an act of architectural intervention. Elevation undertakes the role of surface and enclosure by speculating the the inside-out inversion of an 8,000 ft 3 found architectural space. The means and process of transformation is modelled at a 1:50 scale to allow for a direct engagement with the materiality and space. The final term's project House focuses on the development and interpretation of the single-family home to be situated somewhere in Winnipeg. Observed dualities discovered in existing site conditions allow for the animation of subsequent investigations and inquires, allowing developments between concepts, material, and program. This becomes the impetus for a house that allows for creative experimentation and architectural inventions. The familiarity and meaning of the singlefamily home typology comes under question in a processbased approach to architecture achieving high levels of specificity in modes of inhabitation.
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Landon Lucyk
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Liane Veness Environmental Design, Year 3 Section
The act of sectioning will involve observation/analysis and transformation, with the goal of de-objectifying the object, shifting the understanding to the phenomenal, material, tectonic, and larger web of relations rather than its functional or utilitarian meanings. The object selected, a 2000 Silverado Chevrolet 4x4 1500 Automatic Transmission, is physically sectioned layer by layer. Every time a layer is removed the object “bleeds� fluids resulting in a series of thoughts surrounding the life and death of the transmission. Can an inanimate object become ‘alive’? What makes an object ‘alive’? The transmission evolves into a new animated object through the stretching of fabric over plaster casted layers of the original transmission.
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Stretching
A skin is created with fabric and wood glue. Inside the skin, a reconstruction of sectioned parts of the object is casted. The casted parts are hung in the orientation of the transmission. Through stretching of the skin the original transmission transforms it into a new object.
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Michael Butterworth
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Liane Veness Environmental Design, Year 3 Section
Through an interest in film and cinema, the object selected for study was an old Kodak Brownie film camera. In correlation with the object selection, a tree stump became the site of a re-situated/re-invented object. The chosen decaying stump is located in a forest adjacent to an abandoned concrete plant with a disturbing archaic atmosphere. Taking interest in the haunting immaterial nature of the site, the immaterial qualities of the camera were explored through a series of experiments that observed pieces of the camera as shadows though interactions with light.
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When the project moved to re-situating the de-objectified camera, a discrepancy between the cameras immaterial nature and the sites physical and metaphorical density was noticed. The intention turned to removing the perceived density experienced within the site and redevelop a new experience from the perspective of the tree stump. A pinhole camera, using the aperture wheel of the original camera, is placed inside of the tree stump and observes the site through the cracks and openings creating a series of images used to imagine an augmented forest environment.
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After deconstructing the camera, to further investigate both the spatial qualities of the camera and the idea of it as both subject and object, lighting test one sought to examine the relationship between solid and void through the creation of shadows.
Sections of the camera are attached to small box that projects light. The initial hypothesis was that the projected light would measure the solid to void relationship of the camera. Using slow shutter speed photography, the study morphed into an investigation of light and how it can be used to discover and imagine immaterial spatiality.
The extra amount of light created an exciting relationship between the interior of the tree stump and its exterior surroundings. The resulting photographs are ambiguous and raise curiosities about where and what is the original site. It was interesting to imagine the new and ethereal site recorded in the photographs.
Light Test One
Light Test Two
Images from Pinhole Camera
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Robyn Larsen
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Frank Fantauzzi Environmental Design, Year 3 Elevation
To explore the properties and potentials of the space, each static joint's bracing was removed and reconnect edit using a pin connection. This allowed for a free moving joint. The potential of the in-between volumes that were created between the arches when they were displaced from their original orientation could be observed. A 3/8� = 1’-0� scale model of the arches, placed raised deck was constructed. The arches were built using basswood and pin connections. Tension was added by strings two strings which were joined at each pin connection. These went through the frame and deck system to meet under the deck at a dowel. Each pin connection can be raised or lowered by the turing a dowel crank. This system allowed for the configuration of an architectural space based on the movement/displacement of the joints in the arches.
Through this, the inversion of the space is created by the weaving of the arches. What was once the roof could now be lowered into the space to become a second floor inside the volume. Once a desired configuration is drawn or woven with the loom, it can then be constructed separate from the loom. I configured the loom as shown in the far left photograph, and I proceeded to model the configuration using basswood for the structure and latex as a mediator between the woven arches. Added structural elements are needed in order for the static model to be structurally sound. The resulting space is that of a new volumetric condition. What was once an open arch is now a series of interwoven arches that create many new spaces.
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Alexander Krylov
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Liane Veness Environmental Design, Year 3 Elevation
The task of turning a space inside out in order to articulate a new space is explored through a Wallypower 118 yacht. The intention is to explore the progressive nature of the transformation, thus the method of suspension is implemented as a force acting on the subject. The frame, suspending the modeled yacht, acts as the site while the strings determine the physical qualities and limitations inflicted on the subject. However, the perception of what the site is can be questioned as the model of the yacht can be contained within any frame of any shape or dimension.
The boats parts are either independent or connected to each other by flexible hinges which compromises the connective forces of a built yacht. It is through the implemented joints that the model becomes mobile and flexible, establishing a unconventional relationship between the subject and strings. The movement is designed in such a way that the upper deck descends first and allows the middle deck to fall between the halves of the body. The pieces that comprise the body of the yacht move apart to open enough space for the rear deck to lift.
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Aaron Pollock
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Terri Fuglem Environmental Design, Year 3 Elevation Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
A running shoe inspired the process of inverting the west stairwell of the Architecture II building. The shoe was anatomically dissected layer by layer completely de-objectifying it. Using the process of dissection, the inversion of the staircase is understood as rather an inverted dissection, in that layers are cut, and pinned back into different configurations. In the process of inverting, the stairwell will begin to formulate a new space, where constituent components such as the existing stairs, railings, lighting fixtures, and radiators, begin to reconstitute while the walls will be dissected and pinned inwards to form the narrow stairway one can use to circulate through the space.
The new staircase is meant to challenge the notion of floors and space, as each stair is only two feet wide. People must negotiate with others to maneuver through the stairwell. The interior ‘core’ of the project is meant for one person, as the stairs confine the user, who must climb the five stories with no relief space between the beginning and end. Only once the user has reached the top can they reflect on their experience through the labyrinth created through the implosion and pinning of the original staircase. The darkness and light that is found within the space is balanced between the torturous ascension from the base to the top; where one dwells and contemplates beneath an inverted skylight.
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Ascension
Light and shadow are explored within the space, as the inverted skylight provides the ambient light where a person dwells or contemplates, while the rest of the light filters through the labyrinth of stairs and infrastructure.
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Landon Lucyk
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Liane Veness Environmental Design, Year 3 House Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The construction site of the new Winnipeg's Blue Bomber stadium offered an interesting paradox of investigating site conditions that involved trespassing onto the site in the evening. With a surveillance camera and 24 hour security guard on site it was crucial to map out and survey entrances and areas that were best to travel in and out and how much of the stadium could be explored without being caught. The process involved in this site exploration initiated the concept for a dwelling for a squatter who inhabits the scaffolding on the building site. The dwelling would need to remain hidden from the surveillance camera and security guard. This facilitated and necessitated the creation of a process of "back and forth" drawing and modeling to hide the proposition from sight. The dwelling is wrapped with a skin that is manipulated and stretched by the user to create different programs within the dwelling including eating, sleeping, cooking and showering. A method of designing questioned the relationship between drawing and building, as the model evolved drawing and vise versa. The use of a scanner to document the model process acted as the surveillance camera on site, forcing the dwelling to respond in a way to hide from the views of the camera.
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Scanning Model
A flat bed scanner represents the surveillance camera. The scanner was flipped upright and scanned the model to further study the surveillance of the site and dwelling. Parts are built into the model in a way that disguised itself with the surrounding structures.
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Aaron Pollock
Lounge His Study Her Study Gallery Dining Area
Kitchen Open to Below Bedroom Master Bath Terrance
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Terri Fuglem Environmental Design, Year 3 House Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The chosen site is located near the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Buhler Centre, and Hudson Bay Building, and is dedicated as a small green space on an otherwise triangular shaped boulevard. The conception of circumvention, to surround, is in effect as the boulevard is seen as an island surrounded by pedestrians and vehicles.
the space separates genders within the house. The concept of circumvention is applied, to see how the inhabitants can both circulate through the home while the wife avoids the artwork, where as the husband can enjoy it. The design of the interior space was reconsidered as factors of the inhabitant's lives would affect the manipulation of the space. Bookshelves on tracks begin to divide the spaces and can be altered to suit A narrative was created to drive the story: the owners are a both private and public lives within the home. The book tracks married couple; he is a curator at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, are used to separate and organize the interior spaces and are and she a librarian at the Millennium Library. They both study meant to be easily moved by operating on an inset track in the the Impressionist period; he the artwork, and she the literature floor for the rollers to run under. The bookshelves are integral and music. She has a recognized psychosomatic disorder to the healing process through the conditioning of removing called Stendhal Syndrome, a condition that causes people books overtime revealing the painting hung behind. to have emotional responses to art. By viewing ‘beautiful’ artwork, she has a reaction which includes heart palpitations, A cast in place concrete model focused on the northern dizziness, fainting and hallucinations. He wishes to help her corner and helped describe the look of the home, as well with a home that begins to heal her disorder, by conditioning as the details in the basement studio. The site was also her to artwork, and to help expose her to artwork they both taken into consideration as to bring the public back. The study. The intent of the project is to create a home where circumvention was reintroduced and implemented to the he can see artwork but she can not based on each of their site. Playing with elevation, the pedestrians can surround respective points of view and perspectives in a given space. the home on a series of low steps and ramps to elevate The concept of points of view is explored through drawing themselves above the surrounding sidewalk plane, and still and plans, with inspiration from Adolf Loos' Villa MĂźller, as use the site as a throughfare.
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The development of circumvention throughout the home and division of spaces drove the concept for the design.
An exploded axonometric drawing is used to describe the layers of the two study’s. Her study in the foreground includes artwork hidden behind books, while his study’s bookshelves can close thus revealing the paintings behind.
Cast in place concrete walls were poured to express angles and dimensionality of the northern corner of dwelling. The model is representational of the materials chosen for the project, as well as interior conditions and wall finishes.
Floor Plans
Program Diagram
Narrow Basement Terrace
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Courtnei Roedel
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Frank Fantauzzi Environmental Design, Year 3 House Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The concept for the design is to create a place where the housing for the automobile is no longer separate from the place of dwelling. A space that integrates the body, the vehicle and the house into a compacted area. The existing site is an underground parkade rendering trapped, compressed, and vulnerable feelings; where the automobile restricts the body and the concrete further compacts the automobile. Referencing the automobile as a second skin began a study of the restrictions that are inflicted onto our bodies, as well as, the limitations that control particular movements. This type of compaction interested the dwelling design in same dimensions as the automobile itself - forcing restriction of how the body moves through the space.
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Understanding the Automobile
Combing the Body
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Model Detail
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A series describing the sequence to entering the site and accessing the dwelling.
A drawing that represents the experience of the dwelling in situ.
Mechanical Arm
Vertical Section
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Michael Butterworth
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Liane Veness Environmental Design, Year 3 House Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
A fascination with archaic industrial architecture lead to the chosen site of the Lafarge Concrete Facility on McGillivray Boulevard. The theme generated through the site discuses a relationship between schizophrenia and architecture. An architecture definition for schizophrenia is achieved through drawing and video through interior spatial moments. However, the theme to conceive a physical form of a dwelling remained difficult to create. Through a process ! ! of "drawing a way out" in order to "search" for new spaces Site Analysis and organize them into a holistic environment achieved Given the size of the monolithic a method to create in physical form. After completing a infrastructure relative to its surroundings the site appears quite new interior drawing, the realization of the space would cumbersome and dormant during be created through the primary material of steel until the the day. As a result of it being private property the only way to visit the individual spaces would begin to relate to one another. The site was during the night. Initial iterative process of building what is drawn brought up an photographs were taken to try and capture the ethereal feeling of the issue of discrepancy and misalignment in the process, as site at night. the slippage between what is imagined in the drawings and
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Film Study
While in Italy many dilapidated and mundane spaces were explored. The nature of these spaces helped develop a definition for schizophrenic architecture. The film was assembled in a way that had many of these spaces transition into one another making it feel as though it is one continuous space. Boundaries are blurred of the fractured spaces and created visuals that were ambiguous and unsettling.
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A drawing mistake, in which the wrong view was used, was cut out and replaced. This initiated the questioning of editing an architectural representation and how a space with two conflicting views could exist. The drawings in pursuit of questioning a space with a split view.
Construction, through model building, links the drawings together and informs the design of the building. The potential for new discrepancies between drawing (imagination) and building (reality) raised awareness of the critical discussion made between the two. New unintentional spaces were being made as result of the editing, now referred to as slippages - which are drawn in red.
Plan of paired rooms with dual views with an attached darkroom/bathroom with slippage space.
Drawing Out The Space
Overall Plan, Slippages
Dark Room Plan
what is built relate to the fracture of reality and psychosis of a schizophrenic mind. Instead of fixing these issues, the process accepted the discrepancy of the conversation between imagination and reality. The resulting dwelling is an ambiguous environment with many misalignments including significantly narrow hallways, false doors and inaccessible yet visible rooms. The process is highly speculative and brings up questions about whether or not it is truly possible to precisely conceive imagination in the reality of a built environment given all its external factors and the individuality of the designer’s imagination. In a sense our entire physical environment is merely a faint projection of a distant imagination.
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The view from the apartments towards the moving train.
A third observer is located in the intermediate space, the proposed dwelling, existing between the apartments and the railway. Views out to both the moving train and the static apartments occurs within the space.
First Type Observers
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Second Type Observers Views of people from within a moving train looking towards the static apartment buildings.
Third Type Observers
Piao Liu
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Terri Fuglem Environmental Design, Year 3 House Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada "The eye cannot for a moment remain in a particular state determined by the object it look upon. On the contrary, it is forced to a sort of opposition, which, in contrasting extreme with extreme, intermediate degree with intermediate degree, at the same time combines these opposite impressions, and thus ever tends to be whole, whether the impressions are successive or simultaneous and confined to one image." - Goethe’s discussion of afterimages The site is located on Bison Drive where a railway and highway intersect, providing a sense of contradiction between the apartments and the railway running parallel beside it. Instead of avoiding contrasts and isolating the railway and apartment buildings, the project tries to find a way to emphasize and embrace the conflicts based on the theory of Persistence of Vision, the concept of afterimages,
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and the distorted layering of space. This is influenced by the intervals and frequency of trains passing on the railway. The design of an intermediate space that facilitates these visual peculiarities created by the passing trains begins to embrace the contradiction between the apartments and railway. The final proposal aims to embrace the duality found within the site and strengthen the relationship between all the thresholds through visual illusions and afterimages creating a layering of spaces that are temporal and present.
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The layering of space is very critical to this project. Firstly, it exaggerates optical illusions, secondly, it also blurs and blocks direct views from outside, the most importanly, the theory of persistence of eyes and afterimages requires the multiple layer and spacial depth for the intervening space.
Experiments of the theory, persistence of vision, produced flipbook and thaumatrope animations used to explore visual illusions and afterimages of the site. The theory of Persistence of Vision and afterimages describes the impression created from the brief intervals of images, which produces one image blended together.
Layering of Space
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Persistence of Vision
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Robyn Larsen
Current view from Road
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Frank Fantauzzi Environmental Design, Year 3 House Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Does the demolition of a place of memory end the memory? Does preservation of the place then, conversely preserve the memory? Shifting through photography from eleven years ago, a glimpse of childhood evoked memories to resurface. Physical places, that these memories stimulated, induce the notion of the vital relationship and inseparability of architecture (place) and memory. The site chosen is a family farm located in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Bought in the 1950’s, this land was an underdeveloped plot of trees and bush but soon was inhabited and settled upon. Sections of trees were cleared away, gradually building everything that stands there today. This site has known silence, activity, life, bustling kids, cows, horses, machinery, winters, summers, rain, snow. Also, it has known the evolution and degradation of the architecture that sits upon it leaving six buildings still existing. Having recently been left vacant, this site now sits in silence.
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Having recently been left vacant, this site now sits in silence. There are 6 buildings located on it, all having been built by my grandparents. This site embodies the duality of inhabitation and vacancy. It evokes
Childhood Photographs The photographs found from eleven years ago brought about feelings of another time and another place. These photographs evoked memories.
thoughts similar to those explored in the film: Thresholds, Life and Death, Death and Life, Cyclical Happenings, Transcendental Spaces and Occurrences, Resurrection, Resuscitation, Liminality and Time.
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Internal Hearth
Instead of placing a stove inside the building, the use of the building itself creates the hearth. The textures and qualities of the boards of the buildings seemed to be extremely evocative of the memories within this building. A cast of a hearth that would hold onto the memory of the building as it’s formwork is used. Casting is memory, concrete or plaster has no form of it’s own, only the
form upon which is rests. A series of foldings of the grainery in order to begin pulling the building inward to create the hearth as well as a chimney for the smoke.
How can memory alter a place and disturb the reality of it? How can memory affect spacial recollections and experiences of places once known but no longer have physical access to?
Thresholds Exploring thresholds, moments and memory through film.
Plans were made for the following summer to burn down the grainary and the old red garage because they had reached a point of decay from which they could not recover. In order for the buildings to be destroyed with grace, a hearth is added to the centre of the grainary so when it burns it will slowly implode upon itself. This acknowledges the belief that buildings have a life, and that the process of ending begins as soon as it is finished being built. Along with this comes the idea of familial gathering, tradition, ritual, release, closure, endings: from dust to dust. The hearth placed within the building affirms the architecture, gathers family within, and implodes the building within itself on it’s own footprint.
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"It" Versus the Experience of "It" The experience is imagined as a place of gathering and togetherness. Smoke and soot marks can be seen on the inside of the southern wall from the fire that burnt within. On the floor there lies a slight indentation indicating the area upon which the fire is to be built.
Memory Solidified
The final cast is a paused moment in the memory of this building. The front façade which remains unfolded retains the original feeling of the grainary. From the front, it seems as though the grainary has just been painted white and the door and windows boarded over. The peaked wall on the southernmost face continues to project the symbolism that is carried with it’s typical peaked roof structure. Here is where the folding begins and where the structure is transformed. The walls spiral inwards, creating a delineation of internal and external space, while the remainder of the northern peaked wall folds over to create a sheltering roof. Smoke and soot marks can be seen on the inside of the southern wall from the fire that burnt within. On the floor there lies a slight indentation indicating the area upon which the fire is to be built.
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catocala relicta - the forsaken
Elyssa Stelman
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Natalija Subotincic Physical and Psychical Thresholds Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The term began with an immersive study of an object. The moth, provoked by a dream, was the object of study. We began with a photographic montage to explore the ideas of ‘inner’, ‘outer’ and ‘external’ worlds (as defined by Freud) to engage with the objects. As the moth was itself a living subjective being, my trajectory aimed to illuminate an inter-subjective realm - my subjectivity in relation to that of the moth. My research directed me toward the Estonian biologist, Jacob von Uexkull (1864-1944). His writings illuminated some of the intricacies of animal behaviour and perception. Uexkull suggests, through careful observation, deduction and intuition, that all animals inhabit a unique world or, “island of senses.� This ‘world’ he calls their Umwelt. It is a sensory world of perceptual triggers - space, time, objects, qualities - that enable them to effect actions, to exercise organs, to act.
Uexkull suggests that we can understand the animal’s world, its lived experience, its phenomenology, not directly or in terms that exactly represent the animal’s experience, but through our own senses and perceptions, through the lens of our own Umwelt. It requires an engaged absorption, which may in turn inform our own understanding of our inhabited worlds. It requires an immersion or what I am referring to as a studied intersubjectivity. The initial tryptic drawing uses photo collages to describe the inner, outer and external worlds of my engagement with the moth. To further structure a way of making that exemplified this reciprocal relationship, I began to use stencils and spray paint. The collage, the method of drawing (the stencil) and the means (my hand) work together, each influencing the other. The resulting drawing emerged as a sort of reverberation, caught between various pressures and exertions.
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Every animal inhabits a unique perceptual field of signifiers that define the world for them. These Photographic studies register the movement of a hand in motion, in an attempt to explore movement and object through touch. It shifts boundaries out of the realm of habitual visual perception. The moth navigates its 'umwelt', by means of signifiers such as pheromones and light.
The concurrent series of blackout drawings use the finished tryptic as their point of departure. They are extensions that rotate the horizontality of the tryptic drawing into the vertical plane. Each drawing stands as an individual variation. They share similar colours and working techniques. This series reads as a tryptic, but are more individuations than a coherent unit. These drawings resemble bodies
Light and Motion Study
The stencil is additive, but simultaneously erases bits of the photo collage. They are also not fixed to the page. This method then registers an implicated distance, the proximity of the stencil to the page or the spray of the paint to the stencil. Variations in opacities are not only linked to the pressure of the hand on the nozzle, but to the repetition of stencilled material. The stencils also register forms or signifiers internal to the work. Analogous to the moth, whose world is constituted by carriers of significance, these marks register moments of recognition, even when some of the forms morph and vary. Just as the moth provoked an inter-subjective experience, the Columbarium is a space for contemplation of one’s own non-subjectivity. We return to the earth as material, as dust. 096
Iteration
caught in specific moments. They are figures that alternate between a sense of internal and external conditions. Together the content of the material and the working methods create a condition of ambiguity and indeterminacy
The program will investigate the ritual of death, from the preparation of the body, to the process of cremation, to the vessel that houses the body, to the final resting place. The architecture, as a public space is transposed into a private intimate sphere. The building is not a closed entity, but an open and receptive body. ‘The Vessel’ is a thematic object that describes many different ‘containers’ at a number of scales: from vessels for washing, to vessels that house the deceased, to vessels as ceremonial and gathering spaces. There is a scalelessness that is embedded in the overarching structure and work. The program is intended to touch death in the most subtle ways possible, to give a dignified graceful end to the deceased as well as the space for mourners to let go.
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Water Building The sound of falling water fills the room. The body is placed on a smooth stone plinth [slightly concave] and its walls contain the water which falls from a vessel like spout. exposed pipes descend from the ceiling. Water travels slowly down a stone ledge, filling the basin slowly and continuously. It drains to a sloping cutout drain in the floor.
What constitutes death? When does the moment of death occur? Is it when your heart beats its last beat? or when the lungs exhale their last breath? Is it when the material body turns cold, or when a spirit, a soul shudders and extinguishes? Is death such a singular event? Or, do we, in actuality, die more than one death? There is the death of the material body, and we return to the earth as material, as dust, but death comes anew when we lay the deceased to rest. Is there also a death that occurs when the deceased's name is uttered for the last time on earth. To combat this, we hold on to the fragments of memories of those that are dear and departed; and we inadvertently create them anew. Memory is that ever shifting fabric of recognition, ambiguity and reconstruction. This project deals with the subject of death at a variety of scales. Time, ritual and the natural world all figure prominently as mediums of an ‘architecture’ that attempts to reduce the material and psychic distancing between spaces. The program investigates the ritual of death, from the preparation of the body, to the process of internment/ cremation, to the vessel that houses the body, to the final resting place. The complex in its entirety is not a closed entity, but an open and receptive body within a larger context of the natural world offered up by the site. While some buildings such as the Viewing Hall and the Washing Area are permanent, the areas designed as final resting locations, the locations of revisitation, change and evolve in 098
The Body Prepared
On rainy days, water falls at the west window and east entrance continuous sheets, so that one is cradled and surrounded by water.. And one has the impression that the element has completely penetrated the series of concrete shells.
Shroud: Stretcher Casket
relation to natural forces on site. They anticipate their own eventual mortality and accommodate this evolution. In this way, the site and subsequent program is shifting, changing, dying-off, and regenerating. The ritual of death is as important to those that have been left behind, the mourners, as for those that are departing. As such, it is not only the function, but the responsibility of the ‘architecture’ to gently guide in a process of letting go, and to stand as a living marker for those that do not wish to forget.
Day One - The Road
On the first day, the body must be delivered to the site. This is a private family entrance designed specifically alongside the river in order to create a private entrance and to create the sense of penetrating a natural threshold created by the river and existing earth berm on either side. The vehicle stops at an outdoor pediment or staging area, that frames the location and allows for the family to sit with the deceased in an outdoor setting that is veiled by both architectural and natural elements; a location that is nestled at the center of the site. The pediment creates also a sense of the ceremonial, rather than simply driving to the morgue, the sense of pause and delay is a pervasive concern throughout the site
Here represents the place of the final goodbye to the body as physical form. The program in its entirety attempts to draw out the process of letting go, by actively engaging the notion of duration. This is articulated here through various means, namely through program design, building orientation, plan and circulation, roof articulation to emphasize the waning sun and the
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Viewing Reception Hall
Viewing Reception Area
enacted ritual of both warming and wrapping the deceased body. The viewing reception evolves over a progression of an entire day, letting the family spend private time with the deceased. As the day progresses, friends and family arrive.
The building is constructed out of a series of ramps, not only to promote accessibility for the gurneys should the family chose to use one, but also to create a subtle shifting of elevational planes. The Grand Staircase in the public reception area is one such example. Treads are not only lengthened by the rise is shortened to create a mindful awareness to its subtlety. The intention is to create a
slowing down effect, that people may perambulate throughout the building at an unhurried pace. As the area surrounding the deceased is kept small with the use of translucent screens, visitors are encouraged to explore as they await their opportunity to visit with the family.
Day Two - Water as Purification
Water, and the act of washing is a symbolic purifying act. It is a cleansing, marking the transitional territory where the body is no longer the body as deceased, but body as material. It is the second stage in a series of acts that allows for the family to spend time with the deceased and to slowly say their goodbyes. The Water building is located on the riverside, close to the water. The approach to the building is marked by two majestic trees, and one must pass through the natural marker to reach the Washing building. The building itself is constructed in such a way that it sits on timber beams above a concrete foundation. The result of which, is that the building hovers just above the landscape and is nestled in a spot where the river bank drops away gradually. The building should be constructed as a series of shells, a concrete protective outer, and a glass inner. Where the roof slopes westward in order to divert water and rain to the west inner wall. Rain water falls as a continuous sheet, obliterating the view of the natural world and the small west courtyard. There is a small, brightly lit preparation area, where the body can be prepared (orifices plugged with cotton) and then dressed in a light cotton garb before it is delivered to the morgue to be kept cool in wait for the viewing reception.
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Earth Mound, Tumulus
The earth mound, the Tumulus, embraces impermanence, duration, and evolution in its conception and construction. Unlike some of the other areas on site, this building is not meant to be a permanent, a fixed and solid entity that denies the inevitability of its eventual death. The internal structure of the tumulus is dependent on the earth around it.
Day Three - The Body Frozen
In keeping with the conceptual notion of duration, it is important that the method of processing the bodily remains is a slow and gentle process. While the problems [environmental] associated with traditional burial methods are clear, the alternative, cremation is also problematic. The body releases many dioxins as well as mercury emissions when burned. Additionally, the method of pulvarising the burnt remains into ash is a violent and unsettling prospect.
A woven fabric like material covers the exterior side of the steep east facing incline. This is the side that faces outward, towards Tache and the neighbouring area beyond.
composition of the structure below. Mesh and wall are tied together in an integrated system, and as the earth shifts and moves, its presence can be felt with the shifting of the walls below.
The mesh is attached and stabilized via a series of cone shaped pins. Cables connect the pins to the internal concrete walls within. The hill forms part of the structural
option, the remains are placed in a kiln fired vessel, an urn, but unlike the traditional urn, it is designed to the shape of a hand. It is soft and portable, as if like an organ itself, that one might transport.. The vessels are kept in stand alone compartments that litter the site. But a pensive mourner might take it out of its resting house in order to meander around the site with ones lost loved one and engage in the natural surroundings.
Day Four - Return to Dust
Like the ceremonial viewing hall, this building stands as a public reception area. This building stands in direct counterpoint to the viewing hall. Located at the northern end of the site, it stands in the same overall scale and presence as that of the VR hall. But unlike the hall, which is of a solid construction, the Crematorial Hall is semi-bermed and semiopen as it is a integration of the natural and built forms. Here, trees, garden, retaining ponds fully enter into the building. It The family has two options. To bury the remains means that sits half sunken, as if a relic of a half buried vessel had been a plant or tree might be seeded, creating a living growing memorial that evolves over time. So the site evolves over time. discovered on site. The method of slow freezing allows the body to be broken down to particles through vibration. This method also allows the body to return to soil, naturally, as compost, [the remains will not rot if kept away from the air]. The remains might then be buried or cremated.
Or, the family can cremate the broken down remains, rendering it forever impervious to rot and decay. With this 100
The ‘vessel’ which emerges in different shapes and sizes all over the site, from the hand-held receptacles, to the water
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Vessel & Sepulchre As trees are either planted on the east slope their root structure causes the entire system to gain stability. As the roots spread they exert more stress on the walls and structure below. The entire composition is held, suspended in a balance of push and pull. The building is composed of more than just concrete and bricks. It is a complete integration of architectural and natural components.
containers and spout of the WR, here stands at an overgrown scale. But contained within the building itself, like a hidden vessel, is the kiln for cremation.
Day Five - Final Resting Place
The last day of the series of days, the fifth and final day is the laying to rest of the deceased. The interment can either be buried in a location of one’s choosing, or placed in the personalized sepulchres. Each ‘vault’ should accommodate several vessels, that families might all rest together. The vaults themselves are made of smooth cut stone. The standing sepulchres can either be placed within the earth mound [the Tumulus] or they can be placed as a stand alone vault somewhere on site. Similarly the planted vessels can be planted in a location of the families choosing. Since the Tumulus has open ceilings in parts, the vessels (which will grow into trees) can also be planted within the mound itself. The tumulus is an important over arching structure to the entire program for it creates a physical and temporal threshold that cradles the entire site and subsequent program.
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Measure and Fit instructor: nat chard
Architecture is a practice that combines the realm of invention with attempts to understand the world for which the invention is meant, in a search for relevance. To find such an understanding, one way in is to measure. A common problem with the calibration of the complex weave of issues that architecture touches is that to make a sense of the idea, the terms of the measurement become abstract to the point of meaninglessness, a problem that has confounded the understanding and modeling of other complex systems. Another difficulty is that many of the ineffable qualities that are so important to architecture are apparently beyond measure. If the measure is the instrument through which ideas are valued, however, searching for the measure of the quality we believe to be beyond measure appears as a way in which to discuss what tends to be beyond discussion, or avoided as we do not have the terms by which an idea can be discussed. Maybe the difficulty is not one of measuring, but one of the terms by which things are measured? One corollary of the measure is the fit. The question as to the relationship of the fit and the measure, as well as the question of how tight or loose a fit might be in architecture. Every idea is corrupted by the medium through which it is proposed to others, indeed, for reflection by the author. If a medium can contaminate in such a way, it can also contribute to the emergence of the content of that idea. By the same argument, the material and processes we employ while building infect the idea further. We ask the question about the relationship between the medium and material of design, the medium a material of construction, and how these relate to each other. Each student will take great care in the choice, adaption and invention of the medium through which they design, the medium though which they build, and the consideration of the resonance between these conditions. There is a concern for how ideas might become embodied in things.
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Meaghan Juliana Kusyk
Plan Drawing
Nat Chard Environmental Design, Year 4 Roosevelt Island, New York City, USA
What is it like to exist at the borderline of propriety, how much are you willing to expose your obsession to surface in the city? What are the possibilities of appearing as a normal functioning citizen yet simultaneously satisfying fantasies of sensual pleasures that architecture can provide? Intrigued by those whose obsessions drives them to the limits of propriety, interest in exploring how an architecture could tease the sharp edge of social conventions. Paired with an infatuation of unrestrained excess of elaboration of Rococo and Baroque architecture, questions of material sensuality and forms of elaboration came into question. How can this be embed into this opulent world where satisfaction derives itself from arousing materials? An haute couture house seemed a fitting program as it revolves around aspects of extremely exclusive custom made tailored garments, enormous attention to detail combined with only highest quality and fabrication of materials. It is
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the quintessential program of exuberance, obsession and material desires thus providing a specific lens in which to explore my interests of the borderline between this and the public and private realm. The couture house serves a set of ideas and realities in which parts could carefully examined, redesigned and then replaced to test the edge of social propriety. A strangely lavish yet uncanny world emerges from the couture house for it exclusively designs and fabricates invented 'hybrid animal' fur garments and then deceitfully seduces the handful of vastly affluent society of New York to desire the one-of-a-kind garments. The couture house employees are devoted doraphiliacs whose fetishistic fantasies of fur provide a convincing reality for the clients, yet permits an intriguing look through an obsessive lens of how an invention of space could fulfil desires simultaneously. By tampering with social conventions
though a crescendo of layered spaces, the architecture could perhaps become a testing ground of a haptic uncanny threshold of sorts. The question of excess and material desire of the hybrid fur could be where the irony lies in the program. Rather than having the elitist hybrid animals killed for their collections, perhaps the invention and the ability to tease out and suggest their existence is a more interesting exploration of revealing and concealing various perceptions. Invented hybrid 'bone-like' armatures started to take shape in response to draped and folded fur photocopies that has been imagined to be the spaces within. Studies of the interior of bones and its intricate woven spongy anatomy have helped guide the nature of the structure.
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Brandon Bergem
Nat Chard Environmental Design, Year 4 Queensborough, New York City, USA
The selected site along the Ed Koch Queensboro bridge is a boarded off lot, one of many in the area and overgrown due to neglect, between 21st and 22nd street. The lot of situated at a point in which many disparate elements in the area find intersection, resulting in a strange mix of residential housing projects, commercial buildings, light industrial warehouses, and above and below ground transportation infrastructure. Pursuing interests that involve layered program, ideas of overlap and separation of realms and systems, and the extents different elements will hold within each other the program is a facility would involve the research and development of various types of prosthesis specific to individuals admitted into the facility, and follows their training and rehabilitation with their new parts. Research expands into topics of cybernetics, cyborgs, body augmentation, and transhumanism. Given the nature of
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this research it starts involving itself into a number of issues, and begins to ask questions such as prosthesis as replacement or prosthesis as augmentation? Could people readily choose to replace a biological component for a artificial one? Prosthesis involves a number of medical procedures, thus the building borrows various hospital programs such as surgical theatres, patient rooms, testing and monitoring of patients health, sterilization rooms, and laboratories, all tailored for this specific application. It is important that considerations be given to how rehabilitation is to take place given that the prosthesis implemented is going to be different from one person to the next. Intersecting the facility is a medical educational setting, likely a professional graduate school for students to study the operations of the institute and learn about the specific procedures done.
Folder Ground Plane Iteration One
Folder Ground Plane Iteration Two
Folder Ground Plane Iteration Three
Folded ground plane intended to be a habitable running/circulation landscape. Exploring a general disposition in relation to the site datums of the site (underground subway, bridge, and scale of the surrounding buildings)
Multiple landscapes, with introduction of connective pieces to the site attaching directly to the subway, and the street level. With a general sense of program components that will relate to the surrounding city
Exploring more direct connections to the adjacent building, while refining folds.
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Adjacent to the tone of the program, due to the range of individuals involved in this world it also garners the opportunity to study how several realms overlap - from that of the patient, the doctor, the craftsman, the student, etc. How these realms are navigated as being isolated entities and studying at what points they begin to collide, and how they are mediated become incredibly important, and exists at a range of scales. A folded ground plane is intended to be a habitable running/circulation landscape. Exploring a general disposition in relation to the site datums of the site (underground subway, bridge, and scale of the surrounding buildings) multiple landscapes, with the introduction of connective pieces attach directly to the subway, and the street level.
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Site Experience Riding the subway through the site as it enters the ground inspired explorations of measure and the discussion of the nature of spatial relationships. There exists a possibility for an enduring subversion and illusion . How we construct our realities and reveal how we locate ourselves - and then, in turn, how we can dislocate ourselves and create uncertainty.
Tina Gigliotti
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Nat Chard Environmental Design, Year 4 Queens, New York City, USA
How do we construct our own realities and locate ourselves in space? How can we dislocate ourselves and create uncertainty? These questions stem from an interest in the nature of spatial relationships and the opportunities to create an enduring subversion and illusion. To create these illusions requires the association of elements such that they appear to be immediately related, and yet in reality may be distinctly separate. This requires a manipulation of foreground, middleground and background and their role in how realities are perceptually understood. As the question of program arises - the theatre, as a result of its fictive nature - becomes an opportunity to further manipulate the construction of realities. The project thus becomes about placing myself within the spatial peripheral boundaries of the theatre and reality - blurring the lines between these thresholds. Another way to explore this subversion of reality lies in the role of light and theatrical lighting systems specifically as a measure of perceived
spatial depth. The site model allows the collection or inclusion of elements of the site through the use of light. Its interweaving creating a relativity between elements as a sort of director or playwright, defining stories for each audience. The model and layering of light provides an opportunity to create a series of relationships through a juxtaposed or associated sightline, which constructs a new reality. The city becomes collaged with theatrical events through the fragments, the variable facade structures, and potentials for attaching scenery, and changing transparencies. The filtering, amplification, and embracing of sounds of the city adding an auditory collage to the visual. The theatre cannot be experienced as an entire entity by any one audience, and instead must be understood through multiplicity. The theatre establishes its place in the skyline from a far for each type of audience, but no experience is the same. The captive
Much like an optical bench, set pieces, elements of the city, and architectural elements can be adjusted and re-adjusted in relationship to one another. The use of light to strengthen these relationships is again embraced to create a collage of the urban theatre experience.
Views and placement of architectural elements are further specified, thus giving the city a greater role to play in influencing the theatre. Views are further mapped out, including both levels of the vehicular traffic on the bridge, and pedestrian foot traffic on and around the site.
Removing the bivalent audience actor/stage relationship and embracing the ambiguity of it. Fragmenting the various elements of the theatre may aid in blurring the boundaries between the city and the stage. In this way there is the opportunity to introduce other programmatic elements, as decoys, to add new levels of uncertainty to the theatrical context.
Theatre of Collage
Site Analysis - Views
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Theatre of Views A plan is created which emphasizes the specified viewpoints from the various audiences, both captive and casual. Theatre fragments begin to hide or reveal themselves to the city and themselves through these arrangements, as the theatre itself floats above the main handball courts below.
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Urban Theatre The surfaces of the roof and stage pull away from the lines of the theatre’s elements, transitioning to a transparent glazing to allow the transmission of light-- an emanation delineating the lines of the theatre’s character. Large towers act as the main structural support, and circulation corridors for fire escapes and services. These linear elements contrast with the character
of the theatre fragments, emphasizing their natures while tieing in with the more spontaneously elements that conform and brace directly below the fragments. Each of these elements again provides the opportunity for the attachment of set pieces, projector screens, or opportunities for illusion/ interaction incorporating infrastructure into scenography.
Transparency in the materiality of the theatrical elements is key when considering elements such as the scrim, curtain; projection and lighting. The space frame structures features two types of facade systems. One completely transparent with two layers of double paned glass with a large airspace for sound insulation, while another offers varying degrees of transparency through a steel
mesh. Both systems have clamps whereby set pieces can be attached external or internally, changing the character of the theatric fragment, and the collage created.
vehicular audience on the main level of the bridge sees into the main stage area from behind, witnessing the set design fragment embracing the smokestacks of the distant horizon. Meanwhile, the upper stage can view the lower main stage, influencing and interacting with the play, or watching traffic on the bridge’s uppermost level as they are, in turn, observed. Pedestrians come across the theatre as a series of looming spaceframe elements, with varying and interchangeable facades that interact with their immediate surroundings. Infrastructure and the theatre fragments themselves interrupt elements of the handball court and adjoining pathways, while providing opportunity for a spontaneous play to occur below. Thus the theatre is not about coming to see a show. Instead, the construction of the theatre experience becomes theatric in itself, while the New York skyline can be a backdrop or a character in the experience.
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Volodymyr Amiot
Nat Chard Architecture, Graduate Studies Queens Borough, New York City, USA
This project was driven by the idea of proprioception (from the Latin proprius, meaning own), a fundamentally personal and internal understanding of the self through movement and position that bridges interior and exterior body conditions. The research questions how this internal and non-Cartesian spatial construct might be applied in order to allow people a fundamentally internal understanding of architecture. The project seeks certain sympathies with an intuitive understanding - one that does not come from an immediate knowledge but instead must be felt and developed through discovery and interaction over a period of time.
a positional or spatial construct of the body that does not resonate with a Cartesian triaxial construct. A discussion of this realm at the scale of architecture demanded a tight fit with the body. Tight fit does not often occur at the scale of a building but does happen, usually quite normatively, at the scale of furniture. The proposed exploration sought the potentials of a tight fit through a furniture-like apparatus that, with gravity, provoked the pressurized vessel of the body in specific ways, relating to the body’s movement and musculature.
A series of fibreglass pieces, carefully fit to the body, were crafted to inhabit the interstices of muscular connections In relation to proprioception, gravity is an important force in areas of the body that are not normally touched by that allows the individual to navigate the internal construct the built environment. Although the pieces are foreign, of the body. Careful study of the body during movement they are fit in such a sensitive way that they could be revealed the body as a pressurized vessel; the action of understood as natural extensions of the body. These were gravity on these internal fluids is processed intuitively into held by tunable rubber joints in a steel skeleton tuned
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specifically to accept, heighten awareness of, and perhaps propose certain body movements. Finally, the entire armature sat on leaf springs made of laminated wood such that once the armature was weighted by the presence of a body, the orientation of the entire assembly moved from vertical to horizontal, altering the body’s relationship to gravity and distributing its load across all fibreglass pieces. The armature was thus a layered mediation between human and architectural bodies, attempting to touch each in a sensitive manner. The relationship sought is one where the apparatus might seamlessly integrate into the body’s proprioceptive awareness, bringing the built environment into discussion with the realm of personal internal ownership and experience. The aforementioned research resulted in the architectural proposal of a bath house and laundry located in a defunct warehouse building in the borough of Queens in New York City. The architecture itself consisted of a series of soft inhabitable vessels, pressurized by both air and water. The insertion of these vessels into the uniform triaxial structural grid of the warehouse required intervening pieces that distributed point loads across the existing structure and sensitively mediated the relationship between the two construction types in a manner similar to the body armature.
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Bree Bergen
Nat Chard Architecture, Graduate Studies Queens Borough, New York City, USA
The New York City Architectural Terra-cotta Company’s factory yard and office building (c.1892) becomes a modest lending library and print space, with storage annex. Thematically, this transformation from factory to storage facility represents a shift from dispensation to reception. Originally defined by what it produces, the identity of the new structure is informed by that which it simultaneously holds in place and is imprinted by. The idea of the indexical imprint, or the received mark, also carries through as an overarching leitmotif that connects the different identities of the old and new buildings. Clay, the production material of the original factory, is also the medium of early writing, the support of incised communication, thereby uniting factory and library. The idea of the imprint also extends more directly to architecture as an expression of the relationship between the original footprint of the pre-existing factory yard onto which a new structure is impressed.
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The graphic illustration of the building’s interior layer is the hybrid result of marks imprinted by hand and those imprinted indirectly, through template registration. The project is embedded within a series of fifteen embossed drawings, registering the project’s process. In them, the building is opened and documented, read through drawing, and then the drawing is rewritten and rediscovered, through printmaking.
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queensboro proceptive marine cooperative
Chad Connery
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Nat Chard Measure and Fit Queens Borough, New York City, USA
The thesis research is preceded by the construction of a wooden vessel. In paddling Winnipeg’s waterways, a range of sensitivities to spatial conditions bordering the edges of perception were discovered. Subsequent research focuses on navigating and reconciling one’s environment and investigating how such a range of near subliminal information can be registered and applied. The manipulation and compromise of one’s navigatory senses reveals moments of connection to the complex systems beyond the self. This understanding is fundamentally changed in experiencing the simultaneous navigation of both the explicit and implicit landscape. For example, how one senses and registers a depth or penetrates a threshold before physically engaging that threshold. By making the life of an architecture available but not necessarily reliable, these notions of what is within or beyond are cultivated and shaped - it is the development of an architecture that precedes itself. Sited beneath the Queens Borough Bridge in Queens, New York, the architectural intervention seeks to navigate a shifting site while developing a river ecology laboratory and oyster market within a small harbour and boatyard. The local oyster population works to clean the river and in doing so registers the presence of pollutants. As water quality improves the oysters under study become edible and so the nature of the program and content of the project mutates.
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Sensory Brace In cutting blanks for the leather brace construction, the give and play of the form around myself is used to inform cuts and folds. This reveals new bends and limitations with which to work and respond until a final cut drawing yields an unfolded pattern. It is both a blueprint for a garment and a dialogue history between material and self.
Suspended Underlay
Leather and Wood Embedded in Card
Suspended Drawing Overlay Graphite on Vellum
As a vessel moves on the surface of the water, it does so engaging both the willful intention of its navigator and the complex ecology of water currents that exist across and below the surface of the water. A dialogue is thus engaged between self and place. With each movement connected to one’s surroundings, and with repercussions necessitating further moves, a continuous interplay of information is achieved. Each move further informs both conscious and subliminal understanding of surrounding. An outfit was constructed in order To study such a relationships beyond the vessel. Through this outfit, one’s typical navigatory senses might be manipulated or compromised in order to reveal moments of connection to the complex systems beyond the self. It is in the simultaneous navigation of both the explicit and implicit landscape, new languages and sensitivities must be learned and potentially revealed. Embedded drawings hold information beneath an etching sheet where my fingers and breath move graphite about the page in response not only to its textural or visual nature but the pleasures afforded by its material condition. the resulting drawing is a transcript of an internalized feed back cycle of stimuli and response. the etched drawing is used to create the next generation of embedded drawing, maintaining their role as symbiotic elements refining a language or philosophy rather than static products.
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Composite
First generation embedded plan drawing overlaid with sevond generation etched drawing.
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Second Floor Plan
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Protruding units form extra sensory boils on the surface of the building. More refined and expressive these units both signal to the outer the compartmental nature of the lab and mystify the function or role of such units.
The laboratory’s interior holds docks and nooks both bespoke in nature, shaped for a determined purpose, and open to interpretation or improvisation as daily tasks demand. The resulting interior is one that both speaks about the activities of the day and an environment of bewildering tools and assumed ornament.
The enclosed vestibules between interior zones transition between pedestrian sized entrances and the potential for larger subjects to move between while in daily practice preserving individual atmospheres. In transiting between areas the interstitial nature of such a space is highlighted by its extrusion from its parent.
Folds of the exterior slip against one another in a range of densities, letting boundaries slough into structural filigree. For the residents of such spaces the outside is bled in from soft edges, notating and recognizing the transition from within to without and letting what is beyond precede itself.
Building Envelope Detail
Interior Detail
Building Envelope Detail
Building Envelope Detail
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Laboratory Office Section One
Railing Detail
Buoy Detail
Windscreen Detail
The railing detail hosts a wooden panel to receive a leaning passerby, but additionally is fitted with bent steel fishing rod mounts. Though a mysterious ornament to the uninitiated, to the would-be fisherman it is a hint not only of the cultural nature of the space, but also the contents of the unseen zones beneath the wharf.
The floating buoy rings surrounding each support leg not only ward off potential boat collisions but also utilize the crumple zone of their floatation padding and crushable aluminum frame. Over time, the submerged tangs become mired in the silt of the mud flats and cloistered with shellfish, giving new life and expression to the formerly bobbing element.
A windscreen of wooden slats on steel frame dips from the belly of the laboratory to shelter the neighboring wharf. Its interference of winds from across the river provides momentary reprieve and jogs the awareness of the passerby to its otherwise pervasive presence.
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Laboratory Office Section Two
Building Envelope Section Detail
Building Envelope Section Detail
Building Envelope Section Detail
Between the building envelope and rain screen, wooden slat work mediates fenestration in with a gradation of reveal. From within, inhabitants look through a function of architectural anatomy, while to the onlooker detection of interior activities must bypass a varied sensitivity.
Points of rain screen retreat within the facade and create edges to draw in the passerby’s eye. Afforded glimpses of activity only from the right angle or moment, the outsider is invited and teased by the undulations of a semi-permeable boundary.
Interior dividing structures reveal themselves against fenestration, hinting at what kind of space might exist within while to the inhabitant it seems to reach beyond the boundaries of the inhabitable structure into the world beyond.
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Superficial Studio ž
instructors: karen shanski + eduardo aquino
Superficial Studio is about the city, starting with an urban question. We understand the city as the primary ground for architects to practice. Superficial Studio is a laboratory to understand the contemporary city, proposing architectures that are critical of the accelerated and often unmeasured urban development. The studio proposes alternative hyper-architectures that seek a more balanced, more humanist response for our cities. Superficial Studio explores the conditions of urban environments mistreated by these global motions, causing aggressive shifts in the local culture through fast development and high congestion. The line of enquiry covers matters connected to complex urban networks, infrastructure, large scale, high density, and, while identifying a critical role for architecture, the studio presented the students with opportunities to explore unfamiliar, hybrid architectural models. Working within broad and complex frameworks the studio naturally oscillates between imaginative exploration and dirty realism. Within a given set of conditions the students identified their own motivations and their own investigative directions, producing a diversity of projects, from small-scale architectural propositions to large-scale infrastructural projects. Form in this process is derived from the students’ fascinations within their subjects and the physical/cultural complexities within their sites. The studio balances analogue and digital techniques, depending on the student’s interests or the project’s demands. Superficial Studio always selects a site with a high degree of urban complexity and this year it is the Port of Santos in Brazil, the biggest harbour in Latin America. The Port of Santos presents rich contradictions: it is a large (and failing) infrastructure that hugs the quaint town of Santos, and at the same time it is a crucial physical link between the growing economy of Brazil and the rest of the world. The geographic positioning of the port, located at a convenient point for crossing the Serra do Mar mountain range, which is the main obstacle to access the interior, was the destination of this year’s field trip, which also included stops in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The Port of Santos gave the possibility to investigate architectures that span from local to regional and global urban situations giving the students opportunities to develop projects from small to large scale, with diverse hybrid programs, always relating to their individual architectural interests.
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April David / Paul Dolick / Matthew Trendota / Souk Xoumphonphackdy
Mari Aguirre / Mallory Briggs / Jeff Del Buono / Erin Crawley / Lori Fossum / Jon Granke / Calee Gushuiak / Taylor Hammond / Beth Hicks / Nicole Hunt / MacKenzie Loewen / Luis Miguel Ortiz Barragan / Tracey Umali / Mark Van Dorp / Gordon Yiu
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Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski
"Superficial City / Urban Playground" is a speculative analog city that serves as a laboratory to understand the contemporary city and serves as a vehicle for investigating relationships that exist in urban conditions. Multiple authors were elicited with the task of understanding the contemporary city by proposing architectures that are critical of the accelerated and often unmeasured urban development. As the city is generated, the goal is to speculate upon alternative hyper-real architectures that seek a more balanced, more humanist response to our cities. The line of inquiry covers matters connected to complex urban networks, infrastructure, large scale, high density architectures that questions the critical role of architecture in relation to the contemporary city. "Superficial City" oscillates between imaginative exploration and dirty realities filled with visual imperfections. Working within a broad and complex framework, "Superficial City" offers the author(s) a playground to investigate a particular fascination that a complex, hybrid architecture is derived from.
Within "Superficial City", there are multiple neighborhoods as this is a collaborative initiative that serves as an infrastructural laboratory. This simulated construct is activated by the interventions of others and thereby becoming an interactive, dynamic interface. The architectural exploration seeks to engage and respond to the city’s infrastructure in such a way that the two can establish a seamless connection. The architecture becomes fused with the infrastructure and vice versa. In doing so it also acquires infrastructural qualities and function. Although artificial, "Superficial City presents many issues that are analogous to how an urban city works and evolves.
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Nicole Hunt
Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski Environmental Design, Year 4 Vertical City / Urban Playground
Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown describe a studio exploration in their book “Learning from Las Vegas� where the subject of the main strip is characterized as a communication system dominated by symbol. The book posed the idea of communication dominating space as an element in the architecture and the landscape which began a series of questions revolving around the framework of the visual order of street elements and the spatial relationships created between symbols and architecture. The marketing and business drive of image within public spheres is clearly disconnected from implications of spatial design; therefore, the research examines to find a correlation between media and architecture within the context of Vertical Playground. Jean Baudrilled describes in his book “Simulacra & Simulation�, that “society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs resulting in human experiences [becoming] a simulation of reality.�
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The notion that an experience in a high density area can create a sense of immersion between the viewer, the reality of the street, and media is formulated. The composition of a site map revealed chosen sites of development within the constructed tiers of the vertical city. The formation of the site map facilitated the process of developing the city as an individual and as a whole. Each of the districts sought to propose a method of design within the city and would evolve as necessary. The relationships between the sites of development is analogues to the context of a real urban city. An investigation into 3D projection mapping, a technique described as a method of mapping three dimensional points to a two-dimensional plane, facilitated the development of a technique called masking which enables tracing of parts to project onto. The analogy can be found in how this technique can be used to create architecture from a given image. The act of projecting onto the façade would not be a passive operation
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reliant solely on display, but can begin to speculate on the role of image as a means to manipulate the construction and articulation of architecture.. Using the site map, the masking technique the form of the architecture responses and becomes successful in changing the dialogue of media experienced within an urban context, as the media itself becomes an active participant in the architecture. The proposed architecture is a field of projection with each media tower describing a design that integrates the inhabitants, the viewer and the surface. The architecture is, as recited by Jean Baudrilled in “Simulacra and Simulation�, “seeking to interrogate the relationship among reality, symbols and society.�
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building the hothut 2012
Superficial Studio
Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski
Mari Aguirre / Mallory Briggs / Jeff Del Buono / Erin Crawley / April David / Paul Dolick / Lori Fossum / Jon Granke / Calee Gushuiak / Taylor Hammond / Beth Hicks / Nicole Hunt / MacKenzie Loewen / Luis Miguel Ortiz Barragan / Matthew Trendota / Tracey Umali / Mark Van Dorp / Souk Xoumphonphackdy / Gordon Yiu
Since the winter of 2010, a yearly competition has emerged to engage the users of the skating trails of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers at the Forks located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Each winning design embodies qualities of a shelter or hut while pushing the creative boundaries of architecture and art. The huts are a public source of engagement from conception to realization, with the construction developing at the adjacent Forks and using prefabricated skids to transport down to the site along the skating trail. The 2012 warming hut competition included international competitors with winning teams from Norway, New York, Czech Republic, invited architect Frank Gehry, and a entry from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba.
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Charged with the task of designing a space that is warm, low-cost and of a limited size; we propose a warming hut made entirely of foam. Providing more than just a break from the wind, HOTHUT is an exploration into foam’s inherent structural, visual and acoustic qualities by intensifying the hut’s social and cultural experience. Carved from a solid block of high-density foam, HOTHUT is a collection of body spaces that engage visitors. Experiences such as sitting, leaning, standing, kissing, looking through, meeting, stretching, resting, waiting are examples of what give HOTHUT form. HOTHUT playfully questions the relationship between empty and full, positive and negative, contained and exposed, generating spaces to rest and escape in ways that feel both inside and out.
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Luis Miguel Ortiz Barragan
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Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski Environmental Design, Year 4 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Winnipeg’s Calle del Embudo is intended to critique and recognize Winnipeg’s architectural and urban qualities governed through fixed by-laws which determine how space is used in local suburbs in comparison to urbanism in Latin America. The suburban site examined, Lindenwoods, lacks an architectural sensibility or connection to surrounding areas, both residential and commercial. The process involved changing various architectural aspects of the current conditions in Lindenwoods, influenced by Latin American urban framework, that granted a greater sensitivity to the needs of the inhabitants. In addition, this new typography expressed a contrasting urban expression of public spaces and
how they can be used. The proposition includes a narrative of a Welcome Center for newcomers and immigrants, with the purpose of introducing a new demographic and density while establishing a direct connection with Lindenwoods.
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Initial Sketches
These iterations attempt to bring an infrastructure as a tool to create spaces within the site.
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MacKenzie Loewen
Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski Environmental Design, Year 4 Port of Santos, Brazil
The site located in the Port of Santos, Brazil, contains the biggest harbour and port of commodity trade in Latin America, and is an important link between the Brazilian economy to the rest of the world. The complex and interesting relationship between the port and the city of Santos increased the potentials of the site. The projected consists of a proposal to re-purpose a deteriorating building shell, which sits directly on the borderline of the city and the port. The intent is for the introduction of a hybrid program to strengthen not only the building, but the surrounding community and allow for future expansion within the building’s footprint. The building chosen is called the Hospedaria dos Imigrantes and was built in 1912 to temporarily house and quarantine immigrants intending to journey to Säo Paulo. The building was never used for this purpose, however, and instead became a makeshift warehouse for various goods and port activities. The building’s overall neglect during the past 100 years, combined
with the tropical climate of Santos, has resulted in overgrown and derelict ruin. Vegetation, as well as people, continue to invade the abandoned shell. The surrounding area is uninviting and industrial in nature. Particular interest centered around the constant intersections that take place when the flow of people collides with the pauses in movement in an urban environment. An introduction of a temporary housing program, informed by the history of the site, that would also allow people to continue to “invade� is explored. A market program as well as a transportation hub allow for constant, temporal occupation. The method of design was informed by both the hybrid programs interested in, as well as structural possibilities for reinforcing and re-purposing the crumbling shell. As the building has a strong presence in its community, it was necessary to employ the use of the surrounding streets, into converted temporary market and work spaces. The building’s courtyard serves as a boat landing, allowing people to pass
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beneath the port by catraia out to sea (similar to the path the immigrants would have taken, and somewhat connecting the port to the city). A place for people to stay or live temporarily, such as transitional housing, would revive the building’s intended design for people. An expansion is planned for the port over the next several years, and it is estimated that 1,600 migrant workers will come to Santos. Transitional housing would give the workers a place to stay temporarily, until their work term is finished or until they find a permanent dwelling. The result is considered a work in progress – as the port continues to expand, more living space could be constructed to accommodate the growing number of migrant workers. The second wing is available space for autobody shops and restaurants in the community.
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The amount of green space within the courtyard could serve as a small neighborhood park. The building would be continually maintained, while still allowing for nature and people to take over. The design is informed by the historical intended flow and pause of the site, and exists as an intersection in itself; a transportation hub colliding with temporary living space, within the current occupation of nature and people.
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Mark Van Dorp
Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski Environmental Design, Year 4 Port of Santos, Brazil
Can a union of production and social interaction develop through public space and architectural intervention? While in Brazil, the Deck Pescadores e Navio in Ponta da Praia found in Santos Brazil was chosen as an artifact to act as a catalyst for a design propositions. The existing fishing pier is situated just before the ports entrance; cargo and cruise ships must pass by for arrival and departure. The pier is in a transitional zone between the beach and the industrial downtown and presently a popular attraction for local fisherman and tourist alike. A focus on the Shrimp industry in Santos, as it is prominent in Southern Brazil, lead to the proposal of a shrimp restaurant and market that would manipulate the existing fishing pier in the hopes to achieve an architecture that connects the different people using the space; tourist and locals enjoying the restaurant, employees of the restaurant, shrimpers and the fisherman. The act of the shrimp arriving to the pier is an integral part of the design as a fishing trawler enters the pier through a draw bridge and docks as a central figure on site outside the market.
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The fishing trawler is as much a part of the architecture as the structure itself. Two circuits are created (both beginning at street level): the first is a declining ramp and stair/ramp extending down to the water's surface (fishing area) and eventually loops back to its starting point where visitors and fisherman may continue at water level to the market space (located below the restaurant) or up a set of stairs to the existing kiosks. The second circuit is a pier remaining flush with street level; reaching out into the water and returning at another departure point. Located along this circuit is the shrimp restaurant with a canopied seating area and attached kitchen. A large platform elevator provides access between the two levels and acts as the means for transporting the shrimp from the trawler to the kitchen. When the market is in use on days of arrival, a void is left on the restaurant level. When the restaurant is in use, a void is left in the market, revealing the water. When not in use as market space, the water level becomes a public place for visitors of the pier.
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Jeff Del Buono
Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski Architecture, Graduate Studies Port of Santos, Brazil
Transitions is a project that focuses on how to negotiate change in program, surface, and scale. Located in Santos Brazil, the site for this project looks to integrate skateboarding, a canal based public transit stop, and pedestrian activity, in a way which blurs the boundaries between how the programs interact with each other. Due to the climate, public spaces in Brazil do not require any form of enclosure. All that is needed is shelter from the sun and rain. This was one of the main factors that contributed to the overall design of the site. The project is designed as an outdoor plaza, using changes in surface elevation to delineate architecture and space. The focus and goal of the project is always to integrate the three programs so that they are in constant interaction with each other, creating a vibrate and exciting space with constant exchange between its users.
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Mallory Briggs
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Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski Architecture, Graduate Studies Port of Santos, Brazil
After exploring the concept of the dissolution of boundaries, an interest sparked in the design of a film studio as a means to further investigate the topic. Understanding boundaries in this setting included the use of film sets that when used during filming appear spatially infinite through the lens of the camera, while the delineation of edges is completely erased. Filming can be categorized as a private act, but is broadcast publicly and watched both privately and publicly. The site is an abandoned nine-storey building that functions as the base for a mobile phone tower in Port de Santos, Brazil. The digital crossing of boundaries is evident in the design of the space specifically intended for watching, and is hinted at by the antennas found on the roof tops. The program for the project includes a school for broadcasting that included acting, writing, set design, costume design, editing, and broadcasting. The goal is to overlap the different types of learning spaces in an attempt to physically embody the blurring of boundaries that are inherent in film studios and in the digital realm.
This concept of multiple programmes led me to question why unprogrammed space is never designed? These unprogrammed spaces are where people interface and socialize; these are the precincts where we spend our time not doing the things that we are supposed to do. The final design attempts to deprogrammed space. The areas that are allocated for learning have explicit boundaries when in use that are private. When they are not in use, they become public, unprogrammed flex areas that are capable of bleeding into the public spaces that surround them.
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the seduction of escapism the aftermath of legacies
April David
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Eduardo Aquino & Karen Shanski Superficial Studio ž Rio de Janiero, Brazil
The discourse of this thesis questions how architecture can serve as a mechanism to facilitate escapism.
Part One: Legacies
The context from which escapism is explored is through event-driven urban transformations. Mega-events are the epitome of contemporary escapism. Such cultural phenomenon serves as a channel from which audiences can retreat from mundane, conventional lifestyles by immersing themselves into a shared, collective experience. Escapism is often generated from what is often seen as a fiction, but is a derivative of reality. Explorations of this project began with the genesis and construction of an imaginary city known as "Superficial City / Urban Playground". "Urban Playground" is a collaborative initiative that serves as an infrastructural laboratory utilized to investigate urban questions. This simulated construct is
activated by the interventions of several players (a vertical studio that consists of 17 other students) and thereby becoming an interactive, dynamic interface. Paradox is an invented mega-event for "Urban Playground". Despite its imaginary nature draws upon exaggerated realities and parallels to megaevents in host cities. "Urban Playground", in essence, served as a precursor to establishing a strategy and addresses the themes of layering, (re)appropriating and instigating transformation. The manipulation of programs and events, through time, was utilized as a facilitator. The underlying intention of Paradox is not necessarily the event itself, it instead seeks to instigate transformation of the city, as well as individual projects after it. The realization and generation of these instigated areas forged new relationships, interaction and life. Activation and re-activation of these spaces through cross-programming was intended to create the potential for indeterminate events with unpredictable social interactions, “the in between�.
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Versatility is a significant quality to produce surfaces and spaces of potentiality. Spaces of potentialities or “in between spaces� is generated through adjacent hybrid programs that are in constant transformation. These spaces intend to be animated and activated through systems that facilitate social interaction.
The manipulation of programs and events, through time, is utilized as a facilitator. The underlying intention of the catwalk is not necessarily just for the events itself, it instead seeks to instigate transformation. The realization and generation of these instigated areas forged new relationships, interaction and life.
Activation and re-activation of these spaces through cross-programming was intended to create the potential for indeterminate events with unpredictable social interactions, “the in between�.
Versatility
Catwalk - Swimming Pool
Catwalk - Fashion Show
Part Two: Escapism
Events are inherently associated with a temporal aspect. Today’s society has evolved in favor of building for the now, and for the moment. The sense of urgency, produced by events, fabricates an illusion that rationalizes event-driven construction. This illusion is characterized with the word “legacy� which is often exploited to justify the extravagance of events. Legacies are often seen as monuments for things that happened in the past. However, legacies in this context are redefined to be a facilitator of that which surpasses the boundaries of a single moment and transcends into continual use for the future. The interest of this thesis then lies in re-imaging post-event occupancy and viability. The project is situated within Rio de Janeiro as Brazil continues to be a leader in hosting some of the world’s most prestigious mega-events such as the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic in 2016. The site is in the northern region
of Rio of what is now an abandoned pier. The pier, in this project, will perform as a catalyst to attract, accommodate and re-activate the area. The program is an event complex that is designed for Fashion Rio, an event that occurs twice a year. The core of the architecture originates from the concept of the catwalk as a form of infrastructure. This surface for walking operates as the stage upon which formal and informal events occurs and unfolds into a multitude of escapist experiences. The project resulted in a responsive architecture that articulates the notions of escapism and event driven legacies through a hybrid model. The proposition developed a flexible and indeterminate program demonstrating the capacity of the spaces, inhabitation and the architecture to change over time.
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Study Model These images articulate the facade in which many of its components can be customized and adjusted to the programmatic needs of the interior and exterior spaces. Hinged, operable and lifting doors create a dynamic envelope that manipulates the experience from inside and outside the building.
This project examined the ways in which events, for the collective, can reveal spaces of escape from the accelerated temporalities enforced by societal norms. Today’s society has evolved in favor of building for the now, and for the moment. The sense of urgency produced by events fabricates an illusion that rationalizes event-driven construction. This illusion is characterized with the word “legacy� which is often exploited to justify the extravagance of events. Legacies are often seen as monuments for things that happened in the past. Legacies, in this context, are redefined to be a facilitator of that which surpasses the boundaries of a single moment and transcends into continual use for the future.
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architecture as infrastructure
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Souk Xoumphonphackdy
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Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski Superficial Studio ž Port of Santos, Brazil
Architecture is analogous to a scaffold that supports and generates the possibility of human interaction. It has capabilities of navigating social, political, and physical properties in a unique manner that purely technical disciplines cannot. Subsequently, architecture also embodies an implicit social dynamic while providing a physical construct.
and affects occurring beyond the control of an author that continuously evolve over time.
This thesis proposition seeks to investigate and design alternative architectures that will respond to the infrastructural and socioeconomic conditions of the Port of Santos, Brazil. Although the Port of Santos will be the primary What is it about architecture that articulates and provokes physical site for the architectural proposition, it will also serve the potential for a greater complexity? How can we invest as a paradigm that offers critique of other contemporary in architecture as part of an economic, political, social, cities and their infrastructures. The thesis will develop and infrastructural system, rather than a separate entity architectures within the Port of Santos that will offer fixed supplanted onto a site? programming, while also offering the antonymous, instances of indeterminacy. It will focus on how architecture can serve This project pursues a critical analysis and explores a creative as a structure that supports complex systems within its alternative for designing architecture in relation to existing locale as well as the surrounding region. It will question how physical and social infrastructures within Santos, Brazil. The architecture can generate an urban complexity that responds site is an existing passenger ferry terminal situated adjacent to the contemporary city socially, politically, and economically. to Santos’ historic downtown and the Port of Santos. The thesis questions and focuses on how architecture can be used The Port of Santos will be a major infrastructural component as a social infrastructural system that becomes an indicative of the project. However, it will not be just infrastructure in the catalyst for inhabitation and programming, more so than pure physical sense, but also a social infrastructure that will a definitive constraint. In doing so, it will also explore the intensify the relationships between the port and the historic role of architecture in facilitating indeterminacy, meanings downtown, thus creating a greater cultural sense of place
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within the city’s urban fabric. As designers, we have the opportunity to provoke these social relationships. Architecture has the ability to serve as the catalyst to social programming rather than become the definitive constraint or the default to infrastructure. However, there is a fine line between the designed, artificial social moments and the instigated, natural social moments. For instance, there are no guidelines saying that you must interact with your neighbor, however, designing two spaces in close proximity to one another does increase the chances of interaction. These moments of overlap and friction are also the elements that can begin to deconstruct the thresholds between public spaces and private individual spaces. Social infrastructures that also respond to the city’s demand for physical infrastructures will be the impetus that will generate architectures in this thesis. The proposed architectures on site are all connected in some capacity to spaces of a transient nature. The architecture
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choreographs the movement and circulation of pedestrians, vehicles, vessels, bikes, railcars, and trains. The whole site acts as one continuous urban surface condition that facilitates exchange and intensifies the possibility of a greater social interaction among the people on site. The organized complexity allows for several intersections of program, networks, and surfaces. The open market spaces and public plazas allow for informal vendors to set up shop next to areas of high pedestrian traffic flow as well as vehicular traffic flow. Meanwhile a permanent cafe and retail shops offer more formal services and goods. The economy of the site will also be supported by local recreation and leisure activities, some of which will now be located on site (fishing, soccer, slack rope walking, sunbathing, boating, swimming, jogging, biking, etc.). The infrastructural and architectural systems on site respond to the scale of the individual all the way up to the regional scale. As the urban surfaces lead an individual towards the
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Versatility Individual elements such as the terraced seating, ramps, and stairs are to support the needs of different individuals at a one to one scale. The observation deck/diving platform, boating docks, ferry terminal are also a few programs and infrastructures that are tailored to specific individuals. The networks, pathways, boardwalks, and open surfaces are the means of structuring the general population.
These components lead the public into spaces that feed into one another as the city transitions into the port and vice versa. The architectural approach to the thesis is to establish a greater connection from the historic downtown of santos to the Port of Santos. The traditionally very infrastructural port can now be injected with additional programming that creates a more dynamic social
atmosphere on site. Essentially, the architectural propositions themselves serve as the basis for this greater social infrastructure.
edge of the port, the architecture descends down to the water. A series of steps and terraces act as circulation routes but also as seating and as an impromptu “beachscape� in some instances. The surface treatment is in response to interaction at a one to one scale. The boardwalk and terraces that leads an individual towards the waters edge are clad with wood. This type of surface treatment is to influence leisure activities such as sunbathing, walking barefoot, and sitting. At a more local scale, there are the site’s proposed pathways and surfaces that seek to intensify the linkages and circulation networks that originate either from the city’s historic downtown or the port. At a more regional scale, the program responds to the needs of the people of guaruja (across the port) and Santos by offering a passenger ferry terminal on site as well as additional water taxis that have access to the boat docks.
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softscape
spmb
Eduardo Aquino / Karen Shanski
Chad Connery / Paul Dolick
RAW:Gallery of Architecture and Design November 7 - December 10, 2011
As an artificial landscape, Softscape transformed the gallery by inserting a new ground condition throughout the space. Using off-the-shelf construction scaffolding, coloured event carpet and lighting, this new surface contrasted the public spaces of the tropics (the beach) with an underground situation in Winnipeg’s Exchange District. Softscape engaged the body in participatory and contemplative ways by accentuating the focus on the visitor’s experience rather than simply understanding the architecture as an isolated object. In doing so, Softscape provided the infrastructure for creating an “urban field� to organize a new collection of social activities and interactions inside the gallery. With funding granted by the University of Manitoba Creative Works Program, Master of Architecture students Chad Connery and Paul Dolick assisted instructors Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski in the design and construction of Softscape. Thank you to Marco Gallo.
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O3.4.2
Passing Through
C.A.S.T.
The general theme of this studio will focus on imagining architecture not as a composition of forms or formal “elements”, but rather as the result of physical events with architecture seen as a verb first and a noun second. The research basis of the studio will play with the idea that the things we make in the world are the result of exchanges and flows – flows of energy; flows of matter; what appears static in architecture is, in fact, dynamic; Time matters.
The Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology is an architectural research laboratory that embraces both the poetic and technical dimensions of architectural design. The work of C.A.S.T. seeks new boundaries for creative thought, design, and building technology. Work is conducted through physical explorations of materials, tools and building methods, the study of natural law, and the free play of imagination.
Seen in this way, the things we build, and indeed materials themselves, are a consequence of energy flows. Further, the things we build also inevitably actively engage in energy flows. In this view of things architecture is not at all static. Instead, we may be able to see an endless exchange of both matter and energy from outside to inside and from inside to outside. After all, the stuff of the outside world is not strictly separate from the stuff of a body (your body or the body of a building). Inside and outside are understood to be constantly (if slowly) passing through each other.
The C.A.S.T. Building has been specifically designed to support full-scale speculative experiments on new design possibilities using a wide range of materials and building technologies. In particular, C.A.S.T. encourages collaborative, project-based experiments and projects involving architects, engineers, and industry.New forms generated exclusively through computer modeling programs will tend to arrive without any hint of how they might actually be constructed. The problem of how to construct these virtual forms becomes a difficult puzzle that must be solved separately by engineers or builders. The sense of freedom and power offered by computer-generated form is often only a beautiful illusion that, in reality, merely serves to alienate the designer from the world of construction. By generating new forms directly through play with physical matter, the solutions to full-scale construction are contained in the forms and methods themselves. In this way the designer is placed in the very centre of construction knowledge. This method of empowers a designer to bring new architectural ideas into constructed reality.
instructor: mark west
From such a premise this Studio asks the question: What would making architecture be like if buildings were understood to be in a constant state of flux and exchange, understood as active participants in the physical flow of energy and matter? Clues will be sought through readings and the close examination (or re-examination) of both matter and form. A Fall studio field trip will be proposed for travel to Ürgüp Turkey (in the Central Anatolian region of Cappadocia), followed by a few days in Istanbul on return. Cappadocia is an architectural wonderland where landscape and architecture become nearly indistinguishable from each other. Here we will be able to study and experience the enfolding of past and present, discovering ancient architectures hidden within the landscape, and unexpected landscapes revealed within architecture – one continuously flowing within the other. The architectural program is to provide a storage/archive space for the CAST (Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology) Laboratory with modest accommodations for a visiting researcher. A site is designated to the North of the CAST Building.
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department of architecture | passing through / c.a.s.t.
center for architectural structures and technology
A wide range of tools and equipment allows small-scale physical models to be constructed as full-scale proofof-concept prototypes in our laboratory space. Our association with industry allows us to develop and test new construction and design ideas in industrial settings.
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[project]
a hungry little building [student]
Mojatba Hoseini
[information] [instructor] [program] [site]
Mark West Architecture, Graduate Studies Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
[description]
In extreme climates, pedestrian tunnels are often used to connect buildings underground. These utilitarian spaces typically remain dark, artificially lit, and without any specific quality or sense of place as they pass under the landscape above. The site for this project is in Canada’s coldest city, where such tunnels connect the buildings of the university campus. The architectural ideas presented here, however, may be directly applied, with suitable variations and alterations, to other climates, both hot and cold, where such underground constructions are called for.
The developed method of using fabric concrete to produce naturally occurring forms with complex curvatures, and a specific texture, that create unique forms of light and shadow to play over the surfaces at each moment of the day - an undulating “dance floor” for light to play and show itself. Spatially this construction method provides a situation where every corner of the architecture has its own particular quality and form.
The “domes” that connect the landscape above and the spaces below are constructed using spray concrete, or GFRC Here light is used as the main character of the design, not (Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete), applied to fabric draped only to change the spatial quality of being underground, but at over a curved frame made of bent steel pipes or FRP (Fiber the same time to affect the landscape above, connecting the Reinforced Polymer ex. fiberglass rods or rebar) rods. The two through light and form. The architecture is treated like an flexibility of the textile sheet offers a potent combination of animal that moves under the ground and sometimes pops up geometric freedom and simplicity of construction as it easily to catch light or to breath, illuminating the spaces below while allows window openings to be aimed and held in any desired changing the form and shadows of the landscape above. direction to gather light and frame views.
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department of architecture | passing through | a hungry little building
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[center, series ]
Sunrise to Sunset in a Shell
Playful light on a double curvature.
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The complex angles that this would produce in rigid construction materials are entirely eliminated by this flexible construction method. As the openings are pulled into position the shell itself can be strengthened and stiffened by the local double curvatures this creates in the thin-shell surface. The construction methods invented for this project is developed in conjunction with closely related research into fabric formwork technologies currently being developed at the Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (C.A.S.T) using combinations of GFRC and spray urethane foams. Openings in building envelopes are always an issue, and this is especially true here in Canada. The envelope design uses a system of double shell layers. The first shell layer defines the interior space, while a second shell protects the insulation and membrane layers while creating the exterior facade. The interior layer provides a screen for the projected
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light entering from above. The exterior layer is spatially and geometrically free to form its own character in the landscape and urban space. When we speak of natural light, we should not neglect the exterior of the building. This architecture is shaped to give it both an interior and exterior caress of light and the play shadows on its interior and exterior skins.
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[project]
north of habitual
immersed in the more-than-human world [student]
Steve Gairns
[information] [instructor] [program] [site]
Mark West Architecture, Graduate Studies Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
[description]
Over the course of architectural history there has been an undeniable instinctual relationship between humans, our built environments, and the more-than-human world. As creatures born of the natural world we remain reliant, for survival, upon the very resources of our primitive ancestors and yet our survival instincts have influenced the drive to control, overcome, manipulate, outwit and “improve� upon the natural conditions which affect and/or threaten the immediate settings in which we live, work and play. Unfortunately, this has largely left us with comfortable, preferentially-adjustable, climatically constant, texturally inert and monotonously predictable built environments. This human drive to progressively engineer the built environment has not only put our own interests ahead of the well-being of the more-than-human world, but has largely severed our intimate understanding of, and appreciation for, this world and its subtle phenomena within the context of our daily experiences, lifestyles, habits and
the architecture we inhabit. David Abram suggests that these artificially constructed barriers have fundamentally severed our ability to intimately understand the intricacies, subtleties, fluctuations, ecologies and phenomena of the natural world, inhibiting the objective evaluation of the methods, and traditions, in which we design and construct our architecture in relation to the environment. 1 Situated on the north side of the Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (C.A.S.T.) at the University of Manitoba, this project focuses on the development of a private residence for visiting researchers, an aviary archive to house the C.A.S.T. model collection and attract an assortment of local bird species, a rainwater cistern and compostable plumbing system, and spaces that allow the public to engage with both the work of C.A.S.T. and the fluctuating seasonal landscape.
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[top left]
Section through Residence
[top right]
Section through Aviary Archive
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[bottom]
West Elevation
Removed from technologically-advanced materials and hermetically-sealed environments, this project seeks to understand and develop an architecture that re-engages the senses of the inhabitants, through the deconstruction of physical and psychological barriers, or thresholds, between the artificial environments we create and the natural settings, flows and energy and matter, and materials which encapsulate these spaces. The aim is to generate an architectural proposal that becomes a wholly immersive experience from conception, to construction, to daily inhabitation. Therefore, the building becomes engaged with, and sensitive to, the natural conditions of site, is a construction of rammed earth and wood structure requiring an intimate knowledge of natural material behaviour and craft, and sensuously immerses the inhabitants in the subtleties of natural light, changes in temperature and climatic conditions, the sensations of natural textures, and fluctuations in seasonal landscape, among others.
SOURCES
1
David Abrams, The Spell of the Sensuous (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), x.
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current research and construction at c.a.s.t. the centre for architectural structures and technology [project]
winnipeg regional health authority's new women's hospital [instructor]
Mark West
[information] [department] [position] [c.a.s.t.]
Architecture Professor Founding Director
[description]
The Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (C.A.S.T) is a unique Laboratory and Studio within the Faculty of Architecture. The primary research at C.A.S.T. since its founding 10 years ago, has been the invention and development of flexible fabric formworks for reinforced concrete architecture and construction. In recent years this research has developed to the point where these new technologies and techniques can be brought to commercial construction projects. The most recent such project is a sculptural fabric-formed canopy structure, and additional landscape elements, for a new women’s hospital in Winnipeg. The design for these portions of the project were developed at C.A.S.T. in collaboration with Smith + Carter Architects, Crosier Kilgour & Partners engineers, and will be constructed with Lafarge Building Materials (precast factory), Barkman Concrete (all in Winnipeg) and PGI Fabrene, fabrics in North Bay Ontario. This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The C.A.S.T. Crew for this project includes Mark West (Principle Invesigator), Ronnie Araya (C.A.S.T. Research Associate), and student Research Assistants Aleksandra Chomik, and Shawn Sinclair. The design for the canopy, featured here, incorporates new formwork methods specifically invented and developed for this project. This will be the first full-scale construction in the world using these methods and technologies. There are only two molds required for the design, both of which
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are made from flat sheets of fabric. One mold is for the 4.7 metre pre-cast V-shaped branching columns, and the other is for the 9 metre by 3.5 metre precast slabs that make up the roof of the canopy. The asymmetrical columns are rotated as they repeat down the length of the canopy, giving them a distinct non-uniform rhythm and appearance. The slabs are cast from a draped and flowing fabric mold that provides structural capital “drops” at each support location. Although this is only a canopy, rather than a full floor or roof structure, the design loads are quite high due to code requirements for snow drifts next to a vertical building wall [6.8kPa (142 pounds per square foot) adjacent to the building, tapering to 4.7kPa (98 pounds per square foot) at the street edge of the canopy]. Under these circumstances, this project represents a full-scale prototype construction of a full-capacity floor or roof structure. While this is our latest full-scale collaboration, C.A.S.T. research has, in recent years, been involved in other built projects, including the fabric-cast columns incorporated in Prairie Architects Children’s Theatre building at the Forks in Winnipeg, and a unique fabric-formed concrete façade for the Hanil Visitors Centre in Chungbuk, Korea with Byoung Soo Cho Architects. C.A.S.T. has also been consulted by a growing international list of architects interested in our work, and C.A.S.T.’s fabric formwork findings now form the basis of a growing number of
department of architecture | c.a.s.t. | current research and construction at c.a.s.t.
[top left]
[bottom]
For the branching V-Columns uses a single flat sheet of fabric with a single straight cut made partway down the middle of the sheet . This sheet is placed in a rigid rig and then filled with plaster, modeling the concrete to be used in full-scale construction. The 1:10 model, will be scaled up for actual construction using a woven polyethylene geotextile in place of the light fabric used in this model.
A flat sheet pressed into a cup shape, or draped over some object, will naturally form a series of radiating buckles or folds. The deformations in the flat sheet represent a naturally occurring geometry. An Inverted Mold can, be made by draping a flat fabric sheet over protruding capital-shaped mold elements, then rigidifying the fabric and inverting it for use as a rigid (fabric-formed) mold. One side
The Mold
A Canopy, an Inverted Mold
Water Tests is placed upwards when it is draped over the capital-forming elements. The fabric sheet is then rigidified (in the models by spray plaster), and the alternate side is captured by the plaster. It is then turned over, presenting a rigid, fabric-laminated mold with a smooth release surface.
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Water Tests allow us to check the final geometry of the pressurized mould and make adjustments before making the first concrete casts and beginning final production. While the weight of water is less than that of wet concrete, the deflections and geometries produced by such tests provide a very good prediction of the final shapes and dimensions of the concrete products produced from the mould.
funded research projects and PhD dissertations at various universities around the world. The establishment of flexible fabric molds for reinforced concrete structures and architecture as a new field of study in architecture, civil engineering, and construction, is due in large part to the work done at C.A.S.T., which is well known internationally as the primary research centre for pioneering work in this field. Our methods and findings have become incorporated into technical and architectural curricula at Universities around the world, including Harvard, MIT, Bath University, the University of Edinburgh, the Barttlett school of Architecture, the Architectural Association (AA school), Middle Eastern Technical University, and many others. The invitation to collaborate with Smith + Carter Architects on the Women’s Hospital in Winnipeg has given our research a technically and architecturally challenging project that will, we hope, offer a striking and sculpturally beautiful addition to this building and the surrounding streetscape. Construction of the fabric-formed precast elements is scheduled to begin in the first part of 2013.
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swarm [project]
south alberta art gallery lethbridge, alberta [instructor]
Lancelot Coar
[information] [department] [position] [c.a.s.t.]
Architecture Assistant Professor Researcher
[description]
In January 2012 I was invited to construct an installation on the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (SAAG) in Lethbridge, Alberta, based on my ongoing research of self-forming structures at the Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (CAST). The gallery is located on the edge of Galt Gardens, a public park that, although frequently visited, is primarily occupied by visitors who do not often engage or explore the programming at the SAAG. The site of this project was a large window of the gallery that faces the park. Because of the split, between the life inside the gallery and the life outside of it, the window presented an opportunity to design a structure that would engage and provoke these two communities through a shared experience - between the formal and informal, the spectacle and the spectator, the programmed and the spontaneous. The surfaces of the site (the ground, the wall, the window, the trees became the sources for anchoring a tensile fabric and rope structure to enclose the window and extend into the landscape. Because fabric and rope are both formed by the forces acting on them the site became a topographic device for form finding. Using the building edges at the roof and ground plane, several ropes were anchored and pulled taught between them. A series of horizontally oriented ropes were woven across creating a mesh pattern that held the vertical ropes evenly apart. Behind the rope structure a fabric panel measuring 12’ x 22’ was raised and attached to the ropes around the perimeter. Within each of the openings in the net a pingpong ball was placed behind the fabric and then pulled with rope from the opposite side towards anchors that were installed in the grounds of the park. The form of the fabric panel became transmuted by the tension in the ropes and formed a bulging surface radiating from the window and reaching towards the center of the park. From the interior of the gallery lights with colored gels were projected onto the fabric at night during gallery events. The lights were positioned in order for the
shadows of the occupants to be cast on the undulating form of the fabric bending and merging the silhouettes of the gallery visitors. From the park side, visitors could walk up to the ropes extending from the fabric and pull on them to change the form of the shadows being projected from the interior. In this way, the structure presented the spectacle of the activities inside the SAAG while allowing park visitors to influence and play with what had become a malleable gallery facade. Because this structure was created through an in-situ reading of the site as well as an open exploration of its form through a play with the rope and anchors, I was interested to discover how this largely improvised structure might describe itself as a tool for design creation, as a projected image or drawing. To do this a floodlight was used along with a camera in a fixed location and a measured sequence of positions (perspectives) for the light to be cast from. The shadow patterns revealed a number of surprising qualities that had not been discovered when it was cast with an even light. Instead of a continuous luminous form, the fabric and rope became multifaceted, fragmented, re-oriented, and simultaneously translucent and opaque. It became clear that through these projected drawings one could continue to transform and evolve the structure in a controlled yet improvisational way in response to the shadows cast. In this way, the drawings, and thus the structure, can act as both the instrument as well as the consequence of a form finding exploration. Based on these discoveries, my research continues to explore how the topographic geographies and the programmatic conditions of a site can become tools for generating self-forming structures and how they themselves might actively guide/inform an in-situ method of construction through the drawings they create. department of architecture | c.a.s.t. | swarm
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hanging hosterly from the construction workshop ciudad abierta, ritoque, chile [article]
[instructor]
Ronnie Araya Cรกceres
[department] [position]
Architecture Sessional Instructor
[co-author]
Open City Group
[school]
Faculty of Architecture, Universidad Catรณlica de Valparaiso
[description]
This Project belongs to a group of projects inserted in Ciudad Abierta (the Open City), with the cooperation of the architecture faculty of Universidad Catolica of Valparaiso, Chile.Ciudad Abierta is a wide territory of natural landscapes, located next to the Pacific Ocean; here, in this landscape, you can find experimental works, like the hostelries and public spaces, which give shape to a constellation of different architectural, sculptural and graphic explorations. Ciudad Abierta was founded in 1971. The nature of the place and the poetry, are the foundations where different works find their place in this space; in this sense poetry says and architecture performs. Each Project in Ciudad Abierta is designed and built in close collaboration between architects, engineers, teachers, students and constructors, offering a wide formal vocabulary, where each Works has different work scales, due to the encounter of different trades.
work begins as a space that will give housing to a family, which will be the one in charge of taking care of it and will receive all the visitors as well. This hostelry is based among the active dunes of Ciudad Abierta, this landscape was chosen as a poetic sign, its constant movement and changes made by the wind turns this into a place without memories, where the steps disappear; like the constant coming back to not knowing what poetry insinuates. To the mobile condition of the dune to a local scale, you must add the Chilean continental geographical condition. Chile has the record of having the biggest earthquake recorded in 1960, with a scale of 9.5 Richter. The movement produced by an earthquake must be dissipated by a structure, if not, it will collapse. This is why flexibility is the key factor, because everything that does not bend will break.
These inhabitable works are defined as hostelries, because they do not have an owner, like the housing, that does have an owner. Each hostelry belongs to everyone that takes part of Ciudad Abierta.
The conditions of the place are perfect for the work to be suspended over the sand, creating this hanging structure, which will contain a small inhabitable space of approximately 660 Hostelry of the construction workshop square feet. The structure was conceived as two independent constructive systems, a rigid frame from where the other This specific Project was started in the year 2001, and I took part hanging and flexible structure becomes detached. as an architect/designer and constructor, through a year and a half. This project is still under development. This hostelry was This rigid structural system is composed by reinforced concrete designed as a studio/workshop, which will allow the discussion foundations, pillars and beams are made from Wood. The rigidity and design of different projects draw up in Ciudad Abierta. This of this frame is achieved through powerful metallic connectors 172
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that link pillars and beams. A secondary structure is formed by the grounds of the work, which are hanged from the beams by metallic struts, these struts allow the movement of the ground in two directions, so they can disipate the energy during an earthquake. In order to allow these two systems to coexist, the surrounding walls are independent from the ground. These light walls of laminated metal when being bended allow the gain of space and the definition for the space quality when shaping the light that is received inside the hostelry. This is how this experimental work looks to face the specific conditions of the place, which does not finish within the constructed work, but pointing out to a life style and particular job that can only be possible by registering in the poetic field of Ciudad Abierta. For further information: http://www.amereida.cl/blog/2004/03/hospederia-del-taller-de-obras/
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[research]
the still life project [visitors]
Karen Gamborg & Kasper Magnussen
[information] [practice] [lecture] [c.a.s.t.]
Gamborg & Magnussen Food for Thought Visting Researchers
[description]
During summer 2012 Gamborg & Magnussen has worked as Visiting Researchers at University of Manitoba - Faculty of Architecture and C.A.S.T to develop their current project The Tablecloth.
The Still Life Project
Gamborg & Magnussen wish to form a new architectural language based on object's importance, attributes, relations and interactions. The overall project consists of many subprojects which collectively examines the potential of an architecture build up on and drawn on the meaning of the object and its inherent desires. The individual projects are often linked to or arise from each other. The projects relate specifically to a place and a social interaction and allow things to change meaning depending how they are presented and in which relation they appear.
The Tablecloth
The project explores a way to develop a surface that searches the ideas of fabric and textile represented in the still life painting. The fabric understood as a tactile surface describing perspective, gravity and folds/drapes, which in its cast turn into statics and ornamentation. The Tablecloth (250 cm x 400 cm) is an architectural model and a garment (a mantle). It is materialized as a reinforced plaster/ concrete shell with tree-dimensional ornaments and folds made from a flexible fabric/silicon mould. The first edition of the cloth was manufactured for an exhibition at gallery L´ Espace Dool in Lausanne,Switzerland in March 2012. The initial idea for The Tablecloth stems from a previous project The Table of Queen Louise and is part of Gamborg & Magnussen´s overall project The Still Life Project.
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The Tablecloth [opposite]
The Table of Queen Louise
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Donkey Studio instructor: neil minuk
Architecture in a Radically Imperfect World A Donkey named Balthazar is the main character in the brilliant 1966 film by Robert Bresson entitled Au HASARD BALTHAZAR. The film is of Dosteyeskian proportions in relation to discussing the human condition. The film traces the life of a shy farm girl Marie, with the donkey being the witness to the human condition that is portrayed. The donkey has several owners, all of whom exploit it, some with more kindness than cruelty. Donkeys are among the most maligned animals. They possess a stubborn-ness but also are persistent hardworking bearers of their contexts. Donkey studio is interested in how one might develop architecture engaging in a radically imperfect world. It is the weakness and imperfection and the necessity of dealing with the human condition that is exciting. This studio focussed on the relationship between theory and practice. It strives for critical conceptual content to be located within a practical architecture. Many practicing architects in our world [at least in the Canadian context] make excuses for poor and non-critical, idea driven work based on banality of context, lack of exotic budgets and materials and unsophisticated clients. We don’t believe this. Conversely, much conceptually driven work remains in an autonomous world very detached from the messiness of living. Donkey Studio attempts to debunk the belief that a radically imperfect world restricts one from making critical work. Examining the mundane and everyday often is the most fertile site for invention and distillation of intentions. This studio embraces the everyday with critical affirmation and an intention for making meaningful architecture. Students have developed projects that have come from identifying actual local sites that they for some reason are attracted to. By identifying imperfect catalysts on those sites they have been able, through a self-reflective process, to develop architectural propositions.
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Navigating the Architecture Pal’s Supermarket was filmed and navigated with a shopping cart to better understand the architecture of the supermarket itself to see the level of its influence on peoples actions and decisions.
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Kailey Kroeker
Neil Minuk Environmental Design, Year 4 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The project seeks to provoke the actions and psychologies of an existing supermarket condition-- to use the typically invisible tensions and emotions of the grocery shopping experience as the primary catalyst for the reinvention of Pal’s Supermarket. The exploration began with site selection and subjective mapping. Pal’s Supermarket is located in the West Broadway area of Winnipeg. The honest dinginess of the supermarket peaked interest as the customers seemed unhindered by the honest front, resulting in a study of the site through the customers. A series of narratives focused on each person’s particular actions with food items, interactions with others, and the process of navigating through the space drove the project. The actions observed seemed to give hints of peoples’ personalities, insecurities and interests beyond Pal’s Supermarket. In addition, further studies were developed through approaching the
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site as a film set. Through short stop-motion films, the dynamic spatial fluctuations of the supermarket were studied. The beginning of the design process came with the schematic design; an outright abandonment of the aisle with a desire to coordinate increased socializing and transparency of the entire process of food delivery, stocking, purchasing, etc. Breaking the East façade and centralizing/exposing the delivery process was the first step. Based on the imagined constraint, financial means of the store in the economic context of West Broadway, centralizing the delivery allowing the refrigerated units to circle around the opening to constrain energy. This bold gesture affected the resulting HVAC system and wall construction. The initial act of centralizing the delivery of the goods led to the question of how the architecture could enable this.
Surveillance On November 29, 2011 Pal’s Supermarket was held up. The woman working behind the cashregister was stabbed then demanded to give money from the till. The attacker was disarmed by customers in the store and held until Police arrived. The idea of safety and the necessity of a form of surveillance became important in the project.
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Schematic Design Section & Plan To oppose the oppressive nature of the typical security system, I began to replace the cameras with people. By locating where the presence of people should be in the supermarket to achieve full surveillance by the people themselves, the location of food items and the way in which they are displayed become an opportunity for nurturing social interaction and altering the traditional concept of the aisle.
How can the architecture of the food supermarket achieve these dense areas of social interaction. How can the supermarket become a community place where social engagement is cradled?
Food is restocked from the back-side of shelves, so as food items deplete on the shelves, customers can see through to these back depths and also experience the re-stocking in a somewhat hidden way.
Check-out counter is elevated above the store. Customers entering the store can see what the people in the check-out are purchasing while the people in line can look over the entire store.
As food items deplete on the shelves, gaps create view-points into the tunnels behind the shelves. Shoppers can observe workers in the “thickness� of the shelves and see the hands of the re-stockers.
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Development of Proposed Changes The delivery of products relocated to the centre of the supermarket, utilizing large-scale garage doors. The cold room is located around the delivery hub to utilize the winter cooling and for quick transferrence from delivery to storage. Fully insulated rooms keep the cold air from escaping. The heat generated by the compression of the refrigeration machine is recovered and distributed in the supermarket
Envelope & Passive Strategies
as the primary heat source for the supermarket. When cold enough outdoors, the cool air let in on delivery days can be let into the room through back doors.
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Windows in horizontal position act as rain shields and through glazing prevent direct sunlight from heating the produce below. Additionally the windows act as awnings increasing the supermarket’s presence on the sidewalk and creating a sense of place beyond the supermarket walls.
Technically, the building construction is treated as realistically as possible - keeping at least the same volume of shelves, refrigeration, and freezer space as the initial store, and carefully deciding where customization should be employed. By being strict about the economy of the project in its particular situation, passive strategies were applied where possible and an appropriate HVAC system is explored in response. Embracing the temperature changes of the seasons and using them as an opportunity for heat gain and cooling also enabled a richness of varying conditions within the supermarket during different times of the year. Aspects of building envelope such as air space and dew point were explored in varying ways in the wall construction of the supermarket depending on how they might be advantageous programmatically and/or experientially.
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The experience of buying milk is charged for both the self-conscious and the voyeur. Panes of glass mediate the experience. The line of milk is a datum measuring the daily fluctuation and reflects the greater community. This datum is constantly changing, therefore the depth of the wall of milk is also changing in transparency.
The produce experience centres around actions of sorting through items, analyzing each fruit or vegetable, and making careful selections. The addition of a washing and cutting station adds actions to the supermarket that are otherwise done in the back area by employees or in the private of one’s home.
Typical supermarket shelves are rearranged to form pantries. They are separated by either one shelf or two, allowing for different experiences on either side. Two shelves create a thick separation while on the other side, one shelf offers a thin separation with the same items displayed on both sides. To the insecure, the pantries allow for selection of sensitive items, the rearrangement and the organization
Milk
Produce
Pantries
of items based on packaging colour rather than product type offer a new discussion of anonymity. Sensitive items such as tampons or condoms are mixed with less sensitive items such as dish soap or chips to make passers-by less able to instantly decipher what one might be shopping for.
The design of each area was influenced by components of the initial narratives. The non-perishables section is based on the narrative of the man who was visibly self-conscious when finding the cheapest toilet paper to purchase. The rearrangement of the shelving fixtures and the organization of items based on packaging colour rather than product type offer a new discussion of anonymity. Sensitive items such as tampons or condoms are mixed with less sensitive items such as dish soap or chips to make passers-by less able to instantly decipher what one might be shopping for. The areas of produce and milk were also explored in depth, attempting to discuss both the technical and experiential qualities of the proposed conditions. Through collages using photos by John Paskievich of North End Winnipegers from 1970-1990, the cinematics of the constructed experiences were discussed. Additionally, the model was constructed at 1:25 on a rolling table with removable walls to allow for explorations into possible actions and reactions to the proposed condition, and testing of the proposal through enactment. 182
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Rosemary Ellis
Neil Minuk Environmental Design, Year 4 Mobile
How might the close ties between the construction of this home and the inhabitant's life create an understanding and therefore a culture of care and maintenance? Could architecture inspire families to tend to their homes like they would a ship or a garden, participating in the construction's meaningful and long life? Along a strip of land behind apartment buildings on Pembina Highway, pieces of furniture are frequently abandoned, left to the weather because this hidden, leftover space hardly belongs to anyone. A narrative of a family of furniture makers that recover these pieces, refurbish them and replace them in the site to be adopted and re-used by apartment dwellers inspired the direction for this proposal. The consideration of how the furniture could become active in directing the form, construction and movement of the home began the process of development.
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This project is a mobile dwelling, such that it may allow a sense of place to develop within the home, while avoiding disruption of the ambiguity of the site. Creating a comfortable home and not simply a shelter is paramount, especially in this generic leftover space. In being mobile, the project is not trying to hide and disassociate itself from the site. Instead, it is private when closed and moving and in contrast, when the workspace unfolds and extends the family's home becomes more public. Then, their occupied space is lower to the ground, engaging the site more directly. The project aims to relate the assembly methods of the home directly to the making of furniture: wood joinery, quilted and upholstered fabric and rope lashings together make a lightweight structure that the family could understand and care for intimately. For example, modules for lashing are inspired by chair arms, whose curves strengthen the knot and whose dimensions are manageable to tie and replace. Also, the rib spacing was calculated so that a standard bolt of fabric could easily cover the frame. The physical nature of the project necessitated many material studies and tests.
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Ryan Marques
Neil Minuk Environmental Design, Year 4 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Winnipegs first Ikea store, under construction during the length of the project, is subject to site analysis through pinhole exposure cameras documenting important points within the area. The documentation revealed the notion of deconstruction occurring during the building process as the original entities of the site, such as the railroad, are ripped up leaving scars in the location. Eventually, the shopping development will be built upon and conceal these scars, however, the deepest ones, which lie beneath the earth in the compaction of the ground, will remain due to years of heavy freight moving above. In parallel with the documentation of the site’s deconstruction, the medium of documentation itself discusses similar issues of permanence, or perceived permanence on the site. The photographs taken on the site disintegrate over a short period of time. The method of photography involves inserting a piece of photographic paper into the mailbox at night, when it is darkest, and leaving it there for a period of anywhere from one day to one year. The paper is then removed, in the dark, and immediately
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taken to a dark room with a scanner. As the scanner light passes by the paper, which contains a burnt negative image, it simultaneously documents and begins to destroy the photograph, exposing the paper to high levels of direct light and leaving only a digital copy of the negative. After it is scanned, a faded image remains, and in the time period of two to four days, the image completely disappears, leaving only an overexposed piece of photo paper. To discuss issues of permanence on the site, ways of drawing are used to directly discussed concepts of immutability. Through the method of tattooing on a piece of pigskin, a subjective site map was drawn, permanently marking only the aspects of the site which once existed but have now been removed, such as the rail line, shipping warehouse, and forest.
Images from 24 hour exposure from the location of a mailbox used for freight shipping orders that directly faces the area of building materials for Ikea. An example of the deteriorated photographic image discussing the notion of permanence on the site and through the documentation.
Due to the method of mapping, the entire site is imagined as a mutable skin, being temporarily and permanently altered by the machinery deconstructing it.
Drawing exploring parallax space and connection between recorded images
Using long exposure photographs of the Ikea site as piles are being driven into the ground, influenced a speculative time-lapse drawing of the construction.
Subjective Site Analysis
Understanding Site as Skin
Exploratory Drawing
Speculative Time Lapse Drawing
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Photograph Series 5-day long exposures of Harlem
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Caroline Inglis
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Neil Minuk Environmental Design, Year 4 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The corridor is an insertion of a new infrastructure into four historic buildings in the exchange district. The new architecture acts as a circulation network that combines the four buildings into a single structure. The new path embeds itself into the existing buildings by cutting away and removing structural members and then absorbing the load in a symbiotic relationship. In this way the new structure becomes permanent and necessary rather than parasitic and easily removed. The new path curates the different types of programs that occur around it through its various wall structures. Different portions of the complex are given particular qualities that dictate the location of a variety of types of programs. the corridor is a surrealist environment where an unlikely mix of possible programs interact with each other. Different worlds coexist and interact with the corridor and are influenced by its structure. The corridor is a screen which projects the shadows of the program on the other side.
Floor plans of the four buildings at each level diagraming the qualities of spaces created by the corridor and the types of possible programs that could occur. The red diagrams the weaving of the new structure throughout the existing.
Diagraming the new path distinguishes itself from the existing structure through colour and material. The original buildings are made of brick and timber and so the new structure is made of steel, glass, and concrete. An element of red signals the path from
Program Diagrams
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Axonometric Drawing the rest of the structure to the new circulation route through a series of new wall sections that create specific qualities of spaces around it. Each portion of the path is therefore different and so the red identifies it as part of the network.
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Shadow Box Model Recreating the site based on two site specific view points. using anamorphic photos and drawings to reorder the site and allow the view ports with controlled lighting to create a site experience.
KC McCormick
Neil Minuk Architecture, Graduate Studies Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
PRIMUS was a collaborative theatre ensemble, based out of Winnipeg from 1989 to 1998. They were directed by Richard Fowler and accompanied by 5 to 6 full time artists. The group as a collective worked and shared all responsibilities of a theatre group including cooking, cleaning, writing scripts, administration, planning tours, building sets, etc. They traveled North America providing theatre workshops and performances for other theatre groups, students and theatre enthusiasts. The design of a building to exist within the abandoned church shell acts as a living studio for PRIMUS. The interior architectural design will house both the performance studios for the theatre workshops and residences for the artists and visiting guests. The closed off nature of the church will be maintained by moving the theatre entrance to the side of the building surrounded by trees and have people enter below grade.
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The interior architecture will continue to explore the ideas concealing and revealing. Providing moments in the theatre and living space to examine the boundaries between public vs. private and acting vs. living. The theatre provides moments that allow the church to become part of the theatre production. Exterior theatre lights will engage the facades of the building as interior performance scenes change and backstage conditions will be pressed outside of the building allowing pedestrians to capture a glimpse of the performance.
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reinhabiting a lost landscape
John Duerksen
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Neil Minuk Enacting an Architecture (2010-2011) Winnipeg, Manitoba Canadian Architect Student Award of Excellence
The Red River has become a dormant backdrop to Winnipeg known only to wake in spring and then settle once again. As such, it has been abandoned and the interaction with the river has been removed almost entirely. Experiencing the river in a kayak, one suddenly recognizes the energy below; the safety of a static landscape seems to be lost, its dynamics suddenly become tangible and a once two-dimensional lethargic image of the river evolves into a world that prods at the very emotions that remind us of life’s dynamism: fear, exhilaration, indeterminacy. The kayak can be seen as a mediating body between occupant and landscape. Such a vessel embodies the characteristics architecture has the ability to prove. However, here-in-lies the enigma that architecture has created. While we develop space to support life, architecture’s embodied traits so often subdue the very emotions and experiences that sustain life. The performative nature of architecture has become one that strives to resist its environment. Standard building techniques and a pre-determined image of architecture have pushed us further from architecture’s
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Site Proximity Study
Acryllic Painting with Vellum overlay + Adobe Photoshop edit
This is a study of the potential trajectories of the kayak within the river at various times of the year. One can see the relationship with the shoreline constantly shifting as well as the shoreline itself expanding. I’m extremely interested in the “knuckles� of the trajectories: the points where the path is forced to shift. Here, the
authentic engagement with site. Look at trees and how they adapt to the forces of their environment. There is an embodied elasticity, an ability to flex and move with the forces that provides them the ability to embrace such environments. This adaptation is a simple yet profound image of architecture’s latent character.
kayak experiences the indeterminate nature of the river where suddenly it is heaved forward, backward, or twisted as to almost dump the occupant. These points begin to describe the landscape of the river to be much more dynamic than the flat landscape perceived by the eye.
Within points along my journey, the kayak was suddenly heaved or twisted by forces below me that seemingly contradicted the general path of the river. These “knuckles� are points of extreme interest to me. They stand to represent the indeterminate condition of the site; such points where the liveliness of the landscape forces a physical reaction. This reaction is apparent in the once In an attempt to study architecture’s ability to merge active bridge that lies within the site. Its central pier rather than resist the living landscape, I set my sites on signifies a datum, a knuckle where architecture, at one the Bergman Cutoff, an abandoned rotating bridge isolated point, reacted. on the Red River in the heart of Winnipeg. This bridge is replete with memories of an optimism to engage with The “knuckles� within this site represent a common the river. At one point, a single man within the central dilemma between architecture and the Red River. rotating point of the bridge determined the flow of both Architecture asks to be positioned and static and with the train traffic across the river and boat traffic along it. To datum of the river constantly shifting, architecture, as access the site and experience the river, I rented a kayak most commonly seen, is not able to react. However, I have with intentions to paddle to the central isolated point had the opportunity to study and develop an architecture of the bridge. Through this experience I recognized the that opposes such a dilemma; one that not only reacts volatility of the river. My position of entry predetermined but thrives, revolving its program and function around the my destination and only with great difficulty in battling turbidity and unpredictability of the site. the latent forces below me could I achieve otherwise. 194
Analagous Site Study A series of arms were developed to react to the water in a fashion that would be analagous to the kayak. Upon investigating the kayak I had used, I calculated a 20 degree rotation of the kayak before taking on water. Each joint of the arms allows for a 20 degree rotation and reveals different characteristics such as the push and pull forces as well as the twisting forces.
Proposed Device Section in Motion
Device with re-adapted Arms
Grahite on Vellum
In understanding the reaction of the initial device to the landscape, it became apparent that the armatures had to act much more like the paddle of the kayak: when one paddle propels the kayak, the opposite paddle must quickly react to stabilize the kayak and balance its trajectory. Here I have developed an iteration of the device where each
arm is attached to one another. When one arm is pulled into a “trough� it is presumed that the other four arms will pull it out through the forces they experience and thus balance the device.
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A sequence of the device reading the landscape. The largest arm had the most buoyancy and weight dispersal and as such succeeded the most. Its movement through the landscape revealed varying conditions that both propelled it and then pulled it back.
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Fish Farm Model Details
The model was an intrinsic component to developing the project. Started at an early stage, the black components of the model represent existing site conditions, whereby a scaffolding was created to test various hypotheses. The acrylic topographical component of the model stands in as a force diagram created by the flow of the river and its reaction to the bridge pier. This topography enabled me to ‘freeze’
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the landscape to understand its ebb and flow in order to find the suitable pockets in which the architecture could be placed.
space to build my model. Overall size of acrylic topography is approximately. 6’-0� x 3’-6�. Model stands approximately. 4’-6� high.
The model is constructed predominantly of 3mm and 1.5mm laser cut plywood along with Âźâ€? acrylic and other building lumber. Model scale: 3∕16â€? = 1’-0â€?. Scale determined by the maximum allowable
Submerged views became an important aspect of the project as to reveal the spatial quality of the in between space; entering the datum of the river.
CAD print + Adobe Photoshop edit
CAD print + Adobe Photoshop edit
East Sectional Elevation
This elevation/section is populated with the on-goings of the farm within the summer months.
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West Sectional Elevation
This elevation/section is populated with the on-goings of the farm within the winter months.
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REINHABITING A LOST LANDSCAPE
Plan / Section overlay
Arm study
This drawing starts to look more closely at the programmatic issues of the fish farm. The arms devoted to the public take shape and specific conditions are developed. Each public arm houses a fishing platform where fishermen can use bellyboats.
Arms 1, 2, and 3 study within the Force Topography. Rotational paths studied. Arm 3 with the Gill can be seen in plan with its exhaust valve.
Graphite on Mayfair, Vellym overlay
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CAD print with pencil and spraypaint
Programmatically, the architecture finds itself supporting a catfish farm. The Channel Catfish of the Red River is one of the largest species of Catfish in the world and the nutrient-rich waters of the Red River are ideal grounds for its existence. The fish’s primary domain can be found in sheltered, turbid conditions within the river, which interestingly enough, have been created by past architectures on the river such as dam’s and bridge piers. These catfish have been desired by many sport fishermen but have yet to be exploited as a food resource for the city. A catfish farm not only allows the architecture to have a direct dialogue with the site, but also births a new potential for Winnipeg.
This thesis provides a testing ground to study architecture’s ability to merge rather than resist the living landscape. And in doing so, become the mediating body that reunites its occupants with the land. The architectural proposition of this thesis revolves around the study of the river and its forces. Developing a physical analog topography of the forces of river, I was able to develop an architecture that reacts to the various dimensions of the site. Seasonal shifts and fluctuations determine the form and nature of the architecture as a constantly shifting environment and provide unique opportunities for the public to access and experience the river.
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Make Do
instructor: ralph glor
As we are continually left in the wake of the most recent economic turmoil where periods of rapid growth are followed by major collapse, individuals, communities, and cities have to learn to adapt and make do between periods of abundance and prolonged scarcity. As a studio, we have turned our focus on investigating the profound effects this has had on urban conditions both conceptually and empirically; between growth and collapse, between city and landscape, between building and infrastructure, which has carved out an alternate setting. These radical shifts have left behind outmoded forms of urban development, stilled construction sites, and vacancies that have shifted the form and our perception of the built environment. The studio has set out to explore the challenges posed by this rapid change, in an overlooked wilderness filled with contradictions, where new growth and remnant technologies blend seamlessly, to find a place that has its own ecosystems and economies. The focus will be on finding alternative approaches to developing architecture propositions that investigate, critically evaluate, and explore the ways in which we experience and inhabit these post-urban environments and loaded landscapes. In order to facilitate the research for this year’s work, students traveled to Reykjavik, Iceland in mid-October. Iceland, which had experienced significant growth, an economic boom in the early 2000’s fell into deep financial crisis by late 2008, with the collapse of its three major banks. With its recent economic crisis, highly geologically active landscape, and strong cultural ties to Manitoba; Reykjavik and parts of Iceland formed the sites of investigation for the studio. Situated 64° north of the equator the island is part of two continental plates, and formed originally as a trading town, the city is the world’s northernmost capital. As a place that is slowly rebounding from its crash, it has acted as a testing ground for the studio where students have been invited to research the ways in which we experience these landscapes and urban settings. The studio has drawn its design agenda and research this year from an ongoing investigation of these vacancies, infrastructural territories, boundaries, northern settlements, and technological innovations emerging from an unsympathetic environment. The studio has been charged with investigating architectural strategies for making do; reevaluating, adaptive reuse, reprogramming, and reappropriating within these conditions. How can we critically and sustainably re-think the potential of these territories which have become prolific in contemporary cities, towns and landscapes?
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Andrew Budyk
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Ralph Glor Environmental Design, Year 4 ReykjavĂk, Iceland
Sited in the city of Reykjavik, Iceland, Hollavallagardur, which means “garden on a hill� in Icelandic, is a cemetery in downtown Reykjavik. The cemetery embodies it’s name completely, a dense forest rising up from it’s hundreds of graves, cloaking the city block that it occupies in a canopy of shadow and light. Hollavallagardur grew in six stages of development, the first resident interred in 1838. It expanded in 1869, again between 1903-05, 1918-1920, 1923-26, and finally, between 1927 and 1930. With each of these stages, the cemetery plan morphed from a seemingly chaotic labyrinth of tombs, into an ordered and geometric grid. The result is a space that feels as though it has a mind of it’s own, seamlessly leading one through what are at first wide, clearly demarcated pathways, into dense clusters of graves where all sense of direction is confounded. A strange feeling of interiority arises from this maze like infrastructure, when combined with the canopy that erupts from it.
Researcn & Explorations The previous work of book making began to relate to the site of Hollavallagardur in the similarities between the cover of the book, a container of narrative and fiction, and the cemetery wall, a container of similar narrative capacity. Latex was chosen as a material to explore this relationship, for its malleability. This flexibility was both a desired objective for both the cemetery wall, and the
Guidebook
conventional cover of the book. As the book cover became inhabited, it began to undergo permanent changes to accommodate the program it housed. Apertures in the cover were created and sewn back, in consideration of the birdwatchers and the site-specific condition of a dense tree canopy.
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Site research/exploration was compiled into a guidebook to Hollavallgardur Cemetery.
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Explorative drawing investigating the desired spatial relationships of the library such as an exterior courtyard space, stairways performing both as circulation and inhabitable space, and the bookshelves integrated into the structure itself.
Carrying forth the ideas of stairway circulation making up the interior space of the library, as well as mapping out where concrete bearing walls could be positioned, as to not disturb the graves or treea. The general scheme for the structure is robust concrete bearing walls that are braced by the steel structure of the stairways that circulate up through the building.
Explorative Drawing
This upper strata is teeming with it’s own action, hundreds of birds creating a constant timber of surprising volume. The dynamic range of life that Hollvallagardur hosts, challenges the typology of the cemetery as a place of death, and this life, both present, past, and future, can be read and discovered in a multitude of layers and strata’s. The proposal intends to first draw people into cemetery, to increase its inhabitation, and to second increase it’s legibility and subsequent use. As it stands right now, the unique layers present at Hollavallagardur are generally unnoticed and unacknowledged, and the proposal stems from the belief that the conditions of the cemetery can become generators of wonder, enjoyment, and cultural enrichment in the city of Reykjavik. The proposal views the architecture as an accompaniment to the cemetery, which will through its own set of conditions allow the cemetery to be read and experienced as a unique type of museum, a museum that embodies the truly unparalleled nature of Iceland as a landscape, environment, and a culture. The proposed program is a small public library that is sited along the central path of the cemetery. A decorative bell tower currently occupies the roughly 10 x 10 meter portion
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Schematic Design
of the path that widens up, which previous to the bell tower hosted a parish, and after that a morgue and medical school facility. The library will act as both a place of historical reference, where one can immerse themselves in the history of Hollavallagardur’s buried residents, as well as a destination for those curious with the cemetery’s other less apparent dimensions. These aspects will be articulated in the form of book sections, which will define the architecture of the library. The sections within the library are as follows: Geneology/ The Book of Icelanders, Hollavallagardur Cemetery Residents, Mythology + Folklore, Botany, Children, Ornothology The library has a footprint of 8.5 x 8.5 meters, and at it’s highest point reaches 60 feet, poking one story above the tree canopy. It is structurally articulated by a core of concrete bearing walls, which are punctured by numerous large apertures through which vertical circulation weaves in and out of. These large openings are braced laterally by a system of steel stairs, which also structurally connect the concrete core, which is separated into two free-standing corners. The apertures in the concrete walls are designed
around the cluster of trees that the library sits within, the branches passing beyond the threshold of the building, entering its confines. All faces of the concrete core are both interior and exterior walls, with the interior of the library articulated by the staircase as it winds up the building, floors of the library hung off of the concrete walls, braced by the stairs that lead up to them and rise away from them. In this manner there is a fluid integration of inside and outside, with enclosed rooms cantilevered off the outside face of the concrete wall, while others face the interior side of the core, which at many points is exposed to the elements. Due to the spatially constricted and delicate nature of the site, the unobtrusive construction method of site-cast board form concrete was decided upon. The subterranean components of the site, being tree roots and graves, require sensitive treatment of the ground condition, and the floor by floor method of pouring board form concrete is conducive to this.
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Lauren Morgan
Ralph Glor Environmental Design, Year 4 ReykjavĂk, Iceland
Contemporary understanding of public space in the city typically involves perceiving the urban network existing as a void remaining after the buildings of a city are established. Constantly shifting as a result of the events and moments occurring within this space, inhabitants physically and perceptively consume public urban space and compose meaning and definition of the place overtime. It is within this urban fabric that opportunity arises for an intervention to reactivate the public space to become a more active body within the city. The site, Ingolfstorg square, the heart of old ReykjavĂk, Iceland, currently exists as a public square presenting interactions and current normative uses of collective space. While the square has developed as a public event space it continues to be passive, requiring an intervention with the potential to facilitate a new density of civic engagement with the urban context.
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Through redefining the urban landscape with thermal pools, the result is an altered atmosphere and ultimately a new form of spatial consumption. The pools, which represent local culture and tourist attraction, provide a new form of circulation and interaction within the site. Creating a series of experiential moments which fragment the space, the project attempts to rebuild a understanding of public space through meaningful engagement and experience.
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Brent Bell
Ralph Glor Architecture, Graduate Studies ReykjavĂk, Iceland
Iceland's Old Harbour will encounter many changes that will dramatically impact the life of the area within the coming years. Many of the services which are present in the Old Harbour, such as fishing and fish processing, tourism and the cruising industry are scheduled to relocate to the surrounding harbours which are in stages of development to become better fitted to handle these growing industries. Due to the changes at the Old Harbour, and the assumed limited use of the existing dock and slipway, there is an opportunity to use the available infrastructure of the slip and dock as a foundation for a new architecture. The harbour should not become a museum of the past, but rather a thriving and interactive hub where culture is still present and the fishing industry becomes a vibrant story that remains within the site. This should become a place where the infrastructure of the harbour develops a new life through adaptive re-use.
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Print on Fabrian Watercolour Paper
Milboard and plexiglass
Collage, graphite, pencil and print
The Dock and Slipway
The harbour is going through many changes that will dramatically impact the life of this area. Many of the services which are present in the Old Harbour, such as fishing and fish processing, tourism and the cruising industry are scheduled to relocate to the surrounding harbours which are in stages of development to become better fitted to handle these growing industries.
Sectioned Site Model
Based on bathymetric chart, a submerged equivalent of an abovewater topographic map.
Fisherman Legion Elevation
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Movement along the slipway will relate to the harbour and the annual Festival of the Seas.
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Model Details Access to the moving slip is located at the east end of the fisherman clubhouse. The passengers ride along the top of the extruded frames and arrive at the market located on the dock. The extruded frames create a solar shade that offers protection and privacy for the washrooms located along the southern concrete pier.
The architecture is intended to remedy the changes that are happening at the harbour. The intent is for the architecture to become something, which mediates between the available infrastructure and the fishermen in an attempt to retain the culture of the Old harbour.
between the private (fishermen clubhouse and processing area) and the public (fish market).
The existing slip carries extruded frames that clad the building when docked on land, providing solar shade and privacy for the fishermen clubhouse. As the slip enters the water and moves The architecture itself will become a make-work project for toward the existing dock, the lower frames penetrate the water the fishermen. It will become a place for them to gather, a while the upper portion provide a surface for passengers to fishermen clubhouse. It is to become a place where the elderly ride upon to meet the public market which is located on the of the industry can come be a part of an endless work cycle. dock. The lower portion of the extruded frames (which remain The proposed architecture will use the slip in the same above sea level) provide a platform for the delivery of fresh fish manner that ships of the past once did. It will be situated both from small fishing vessels which is cleaned and returned to the on land and within the sea using the slip to penetrate the permanent structure where they are processed. The four towers threshold of the water and create a place beneath the surface. of the slip move simultaneously and position the passenger Two reinforced concrete piers support the cantilevering platform at the dock providing access to the market. This building which house three programs: fishermen clubhouse, project is intended to preserve the processes and lifestyle of the fish processing area and public fish market. The assembly fishing industry within the Old Harbour and provide purposeful of the programs attempts to dissolve the boundaries and familiar work for the elders of this industry.
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arch with buildings, do have transformative implications for citizens and their shared settings.
We shall search out a real architect‌ even if he be a figure of speech. —Louis Sullivan, Kindergarten Chats
the beginnings of architectural theory in drama and philosophy
Dr. Lisa Landrum
Architecture Assistant Professor
In the Beginning‌
Architecture has been around for as long as humans have collectively settled and creatively wondered about their finite place in a vast and perplexing cosmos. For we recognize architecture not only in the physical remains of the earliest cities (like ÇatalhĂśyĂźk and Jericho), but also in the symbolic reach of more metaphysically orienting constructs (like the pyramids of Giza, the ziggurats of Ur, the stone circles of Great Britain, and the megaliths of GĂśbekli Tepe). Architects—in various mortal and divine guises—have surely been around for an equally long time. For we discern sophisticated architectural intentions and activities in the ordered configurations of built works, such as those just mentioned, as well as in the diverse verbal and figurative arts that have for so long accompanied the art of building: including early inscriptions, sculptural reliefs, fragmentary drawings, epic poems and creation stories. However, in spite of the long-standing existence of architecture and architects (there is evidence spanning at least 12,000 years), “architectureâ€? and “architectsâ€?—as specific names for a discipline and its primary agents—did not emerge until much later (just 2,500-2,000 years ago). These Greek and Latin terms, which we still use today, arose in particular cultural contexts. And some of those contexts are surprising! Why? Because they are not primarily architectural, at least not in the sense that architecture has come to be understood as pertaining solely to the design of distinct buildings. Moreover, the usage of these early “architectâ€? terms is surprising because they are often used figuratively and poetically to qualify intentions and actions that, while not directly concerned
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Over the past few years, I have been gathering these surprising and seemingly eccentric references to “architects� and “architecture� from some of the earliest surviving Greek and Latin texts, and interpreting their relevance to the beginnings of architectural discourse. What follows is a partial survey of my findings (mainly from dramatic and philosophical sources), together with a few observations on how these findings illuminate not only the origins of architectural theory but also some of the most essential architectural questions that remain urgent for us today: such as, What do architects primarily do? What does architecture fundamentally entail? And, how can architecture remain coherent and relevant as a discipline while remaining enmeshed in diverse concerns and circumstances that seem to extend so far beyond it?
The First in Inscriptions and Historical Prose The Greek word for “architect� appears as early as 447 BCE on inscriptions concerning new and ongoing building projects in and around Athens. In these early inscriptions, which are more contractual than commemorative, an “architect� (usually called out also by name) is charged with various practical responsibilities: preparing specifications, drawings and models (and presenting these to Council); directing all aspects of construction (within set times and budgets); and contributing to the general management of important sites (along with other officials). In addition to these inscriptions, “architects� also appear in similarly straightforward ways in Herodotus’ Histories, which circulated around 425 BCE. Here, in the course of describing the feats of foreign Kings and the wonders of distant lands, Herodotus names the “architect� of a few remarkable works, including a temple, bridge, tunnel, and harbor wall. This much evidence, from Greek inscriptions and historical prose, is frequently cited as attesting to the emergence of “architects� as officially recognized public figures. But these sources indicate only part of an architect’s role, while revealing very little about the motives and meanings of that role, and virtually nothing about how the role was performed and perceived.
Architects and Architecting in the scripts of Dramatists Euripides + Aristophanes: Be silent now—for you know my scheme completely— And when I command be persuaded to follow the architects. —Odysseus to a chorus of satyrs, from Euripides’ Cyclops (lines 476-78)
So, if it is necessary for us to do anything (in view of Peace) direct us and architect. —the chorus leader to Trygaeus, from Aristophanes’ Peace (line 305)
arch Around the same time Herodotus was mentioning “architects� in his Histories, and officials were inscribing their contractual obligations in stone, “architects�—as lively agents of transformation—were figuring into Greek culture in a more dramatic and speculative way. I say dramatic and speculative because it is precisely in ancient Greek drama—and before thousands of contemplative spectators in the Theatre of Dionysus—that these “architects� were performing. Euripides, in his satyr play Cyclops (circa 424 BCE), and Aristophanes, in his comedy Peace (421 BCE), each brought “architect� terms into their scripts to qualify their leading protagonist at a critical moment in the plot. For Euripides, “architects� (in the plural) named the multifaceted Odysseus, just as he reveals his daring scheme to punish and flee the Cyclops and thus restore justice and social order on behalf of those oppressed by the lawless beast. For Aristophanes, “architecting� qualified the action of a comic hero named Trygaeus, just as he begins to lead the chorus members in a comparably daring scheme to restore a just and comprehensive peace on behalf of those beleaguered by a long and ruthless war. Although remarkable for being among the earliest extant “architects� to appear in Greek literature, these architect-protagonists are also surprising (as noted above) because architecture, as it tends to be objectified, is not their target of attention. Rather, transformative and restorative schemes are their foremost concern. These protagonists are associated with “architects� and “architecting� not primarily for the physical things they make but rather for the actions they perform; or, to be more precise, for the transformative and restorative plans of action they devise, initiate and lead. True, their plans involve influential props, which they make or knowingly manipulate: including a fiery stake to blind the Cyclops; and a voluptuous statue of Peace, which Trygaeus retrieves from a pit and installs in the orchestra to arouse the people’s desire for her and her benefits. But the invention and revelation of these cunning devices are only part of their overall plans, the success of which depend as much on their decisive actions, ethical judgments, persuasive leadership, and practical forethought in the midst of highly problematic situations. These dramatic protagonists are also seen as “architects� and as having “architected� because of the palpable changes they ultimately initiate. By the end of each play, the protagonist (with the help of the chorus) has begun to recover and make available to everyone (including the spectators) those endangered and seemingly lost conditions conducive to the common and greatest good: the extraordinary yet basic conditions of social order, justice and peace. What I have just drawn out here are the most important dimensions of the overall plots of Cyclops and Peace, together with the primarily ethical role that the architect-protagonist plays in each of them. But, I must admit, these plays are also full of extremely strange and humorous details. On the onehand, one finds a giant cannibal and licentious satyrs (mythic horse-like men with oversized ears, hoofs, and phalluses), as well as Odysseus’ flask of potent wine, with its intoxicating, maddening, and erotic (but ultimately philial) effects. And,
on the other hand, one finds the silly antics of Old Comedy (including outrageous sex scenes and poop jokes), as well as a comically monstrous personification of War (who threatens to devour Greece like a hungry cannibal), and a huge dungeating beetle, which the comic hero flies to the heavens so as to demand from Zeus directly an end to the war on earth. That this comic hero discovers Zeus has abandoned the heavens (leaving War in his place) only adds to the humor— and to the implications of the chorus’ subsequent demand that Trygaeus himself get busy and start “architecting�. Given the utter strangeness of these two plays it would be easier to dismiss them as irrelevant to the serious work of “architects� rather than to interpret their unusual details. (Believe me, during the early phases of my research, I struggled with the question of relevance and it sometimes took me months to finally “get� the meaningful implications of Aristophanes’ most obscure jokes). However, anyone who has studied the politically and metaphysically allusive plots of Athenian drama and discovered the civic and ritual functions of the Great Dionysia festival knows well that these plays and their performative context provide critical insight into the collective desires and dilemmas of Athens—a city that, during the years these plays were performed, was struggling to sustain the practices and institutions that were fundamental to democracy. Indeed, one may interpret the Cyclops’ way of life (as presented by Euripides) as a parody of the decline of social responsibility in Greece in the last quarter of the fifth century BCE. The giant’s total rejection of societal obligations in favor of a lawless selfcentered life (dedicated to the pursuit of unlimited personal gratification), and his deliberate perversion of long-standing social customs (specifically the obligation to graciously host, not murderously roast, strangers), have direct correlations to historical circumstances in Euripides’ day, when the customs of participatory democracy and basic hospitality were threatened by comparably tyrannical and solipsistic agencies. (Athenian democracy in fact collapsed in 411 BCE). In this context, the plural “architects� Odysseus invokes may be harnessing a multiplicity of social and mythic agencies to help ward-off Cyclopean threats. Not least among these agencies is the wine he offers. By its loosening, transformative and binding power, this Dionysian agency cultivates (among other things) friendship, revelry and the potentiality for genuine social cohesion. Similarly, in the case of Aristophanes’ comedy, the peaceseeking “architecting� performed by Trygaeus may be seen to hyperbolically reflect the contemporaneous politicking of the Athenian general Nicias, whose own attempts to win a lasting peace were only fleetingly successful. (The truce he won in the same year Peace was staged ultimately failed, and the Peloponnesian War continued until 404 BCE). Trygaeus’ “architecting� may also be understood as acting alongside and against the actual architectural ambitions of Pericles and Pheidias. This famous statesman and architect-sculptor, who together had monumentalized Athenian glory through major building projects on and around the Acropolis, are accused in
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arch the play of doing nothing other than magnifying distrust and discontent among people of the region. Trygaeus’ architecting in the Theatre of Dionysus—at the foot of the Acropolis—may thus be taken to critically and creatively complement (and to some extent correct) the architectural activity still underway atop the Acropolis. For Trygaeus procures dramatically what monumental architecture alone had not: social and participatory benefits, including peaceable agreement and good humor among the people gathered from across the divided region. Unlike the historical anecdotes and inscriptions (referred to above), these plays of Aristophanes and Euripides project an image of “architects� not as they were, but as they might or ought to be. By dramatizing “architects� and “architecting� in such exaggeratedly vivid and critically ambitious ways these dramatic poets brought speculative attention to the ethical and representative obligations implicit in their role.
cunning slaves. These trickster characters, who perform from a marginalized and officially subordinate position, comically succeed in outwitting more powerful adversaries (such as a braggart soldier) by devising and directing elaborate ruses for the benefit of others who have become caught up in some unfortunate (and usually ridiculous) predicament (Miles Gloriosus 903-21; Mostellaria 760; Poenulus 1110). Of the many points of relevance these plays offer, I’ll emphasize just two: first, the affinities between architects and dramatists (initiated by Aristophanes and Euripides) become all the more pronounced in Plautus; and these affinities, while remaining based on the enactment of transformative and restorative schemes, also focus on the special skill of the architectus in acts of deception.
Architecture, Architecting and Architectonics in the words of Philosophers
Euripides and Aristophanes (as well as Plautus) had no word for “architecture� as a discipline; this word arises Plautus: four centuries after the Greek plays (and two centuries In the years around 200 BCE the Roman playwright after Plautus) in the writings of a Latin philosopher. Such Plautus featured architects (the first “architects� in Latin a delay should not come as a surprise. The history of literature) in at least five of his popular comedies. These ideas shows how the identification of human agents (like plays were performed not in a permanent theatrical setting architects or judges) and their activities (like architecting or (as Euripides’ and Aristophanes’ had been in Athens) but judging) precede the linguistic invention of more abstract in the busy streets and plazas of Rome. In one instance, categories that we take for granted today (like architecture “architects� figure into a prologue delivered directly to the or justice). For instance, as Eric Havelock has shown, long assembled audience just as the play begins: before the philosopher Plato conceptualized “justice� in his Republic by asking what is justice (in itself), the Greeks It’s Plautus’ plea that you provide a plot, had understood this through a variety of exemplary agents within your pretty city please, a spot, and agencies: as the personified daughter of Zeus (who where he can rear his Athens proud and high administers her father’s decisive punishments); as diverse - all by himself, no architects need apply metaphors (like “balanced�, “straight� or “well-adjusted� —Plautus, Truculentus, 1-4 (James Tatum, Trans.) decisions—measured as if with a merchant’s “scale�, a carpenter’s “level�, or a mason’s “flexible rule�); and as Although “architects� are involved here only to be dismissed, a set of memorable narratives describing paradigmatic the manner of their dismissal suggests that dramatic poets transgressions, consequences and pay-backs (such as and architects share (in some contentious sense) in the the Homeric story of Odysseus blinding the Cyclops). The activity of imaginative place-making and plot-making. Being development of the general concept of architecture may staged in Rome but set in Greece, this inaugural speech of the be considered similarly, whereby the exemplary deeds of play transforms the city—or rather the spectator’s perception mythic and poetic figures (including Odysseus and Trygaeus) of it—through the dramatist’s architect-like powers of may be seen to prefigure—and persist within—later persuasive conjuration. understandings of an architect’s role and discipline. I will return to Plato (and Aristotle), at the close of this essay. But, In another comedy by Plautus, the messenger god Mercury since Greek philosophers did not speak of “architecture� by delivers an introductory speech in which he qualifies that name, I must turn now to the Latin author who did. Jupiter as the “architect of all�—especially of all the “good deeds� he’s performed for the people (Amphitryon, 45). This Cicero: seemingly straightforward qualification of Jupiter’s benevolent “Architectura� was first penned not, as one might think, by omnipotence takes on subtler layers of meaning, however, when the Roman architect Vitruvius in his seminal treatise On considered in dramatic context. For Jupiter performs in this Architecture (composed around 25 BCE) but rather by the comedy as a deceptive schemer in pursuit of mortal love—and Roman statesman Cicero, just two decades earlier, in a Plautus himself may well have played the role. This “architect of discussion of moral obligations entitled On Duties (de Officiis, all�, then, alludes less to the god and more to the dramatist, who written in 44 BCE). Specifically, in the course of considering offers his “good deeds� to the people of Rome. which occupations contribute most (and least) to social harmony and personal virtue, Cicero introduces “architecture� In three other comedies, Plautus uses architectus, in a similarly as a relatively honorable pursuit comparable to medicine euphemistic way, to qualify leading protagonists of another sort: and teaching, since each of these arts is broadly beneficial
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arch to society and requires great prudence of its practitioners (de Officiis, 1.151). I say relatively honorable because Cicero reserves first honors for the philosophical and political pursuits of wisdom, justice and human fellowship. Elsewhere, in his two primary studies on the art of public speaking, Cicero favorably compares an eloquent “architect� to a persuasive orator (de Oratore, 1.62); while, more ambiguously, he casts the Stoics as dialectically-savvy “architects of words� (Brutus, 118). In another work, Cicero crafts a lengthy dialogue in which architects, architecting and architecture play key roles in helping the speakers discover and debate “moral ends�; that is, the ultimate aims toward which individuals ought to strive. This dialogue warrants further elaboration. Early in Cicero’s dialogue On Moral Ends (de Finibus), one of the speakers promotes the teachings of the pleasure-seeking philosopher Epicurus, calling him a “great explorer of truth and architect of the happy life� (1.32). A little while later, however, another speaker (representing Cicero himself) refutes Epicurus’ pleasure-seeking ways by arguing that his kind of pleasure satisfies only one’s bodily senses whereas Wisdom appeals also to higher pleasures sought by thinking minds. To demonstrate this argument more vividly, Cicero presents—in the form of a question—an image of personified Wisdom actively “architecting pleasures�: The sense of sight, says Plato, is the keenest sense we possess, yet our eyes cannot behold Wisdom; could we see her, what passionate love would she awaken! And why is this so? Is it because of her supreme ability and cunning in architecting pleasures? —Cicero, de Finibus, 2.52 The discursive context of this image, however, implies that Cicero introduces it as an ironic figure of thought, one that invites interpretation of its contrary implications. In other words, Wisdom’s primary goal should be understood not as architecting sensual pleasures that merely aim to arouse and satisfy the eye, but rather as architecting more subtly discernible and comprehensive benefits that contribute more enduringly to the common good: benefits such as justice and friendship. Such noble benefits are not primarily visual, but they are understandable. Just as an honest friend is trustworthy even in the dark (as the old saying goes), works of Wisdom, Cicero suggests, may be discernible even to the blind. Cicero goes on to argue that those pursuing only sensual and personal pleasures (like the Epicureans) are building their lives on “watery foundations� (2.72); and such fallible foundations, he later suggests, are poor conditions for “constructing the highest good�, since they give Wisdom “no ground to stand on� (4.68-9). Here “architecting� is associated metaphorically with establishing both the foundations and the pinnacle of the good. Finally, toward the end of this dialogue, architecture figures more tangibly into the discourse as a series of references to actual settings, including a senate house in Rome, a city gate of Athens, the nearby tomb of Pericles, the School of Ptolemy,
and Plato’s Academy and gardens—where the culmination of this dialogue on moral ends takes place. As one speaker observes, such settings not only meaningfully situate present exchanges but also strongly recall past activities through their power of suggestion: “Such is the evocative power that locations possess. No wonder the training of memory is based on them� (5.2). This last remark alludes to the crucial role settings play in the art of memory, or mnemonics. This art, which orators like Cicero practiced, was a way to devise, adapt, rehearse and recall long speeches by hypothetically placing each image, idea and argument of their speech in a topically appropriate place (a particular doorway, porch or niche, for instance). They would then retrieve, one by one, each part of their speech as they imaginatively walked through the setting. Such settings could be drawn from those a speaker was familiar with (such as the gardens of Plato’s Academy). Or, if an appropriate setting could not be found in memory or experience, he could succeed by “architecting as many as he wishes (in his imagination)�—as a later Roman thinker encouraged his students to do (Rhetoric to Herennius, 3.19.32). With such mnemonic arts being demonstrated throughout this culminating dialogue, we may be right to regard the identified settings (senate house, city gate, tomb, schools and gardens) as providing the firm and persuasive grounds for recollecting, exchanging and “architecting� the less tangible but highest benefits of justice, wisdom and friendship. Thus, in these few passages drawn (mainly) from Cicero’s works On Duties, On Oratory and On Moral Ends, we find not only the earliest coinage of the Latin noun architectura, but also a series of particular links between architectural activity, the activity of Wisdom, the art of memory and the pursuit of the highest good. We also find specific architectural features and settings actively contributing to the meaningful development of philosophical and moral imagination. Cicero may have been the first to name the discipline of “architecture� in a written work, but he was not the first philosopher to make epistemological and ethical use of architectural terms, for three centuries earlier Plato and Aristotle (writing in Greek) had involved “architects� and “architectonics� in their own philosophical pursuits. Let us turn, then, to Plato (who was but a child when Aristophanes’ Peace was performed).
Plato:
For anyone familiar with the works of Plato, Timaeus may immediately come to mind as having the most relevance for architects. Yet, the divine maker of the cosmos featured in this famous dialogue is not called an architect, but rather a “demiurgeâ€?; literally, one who performs “workâ€? (ergos) for the “peopleâ€? (dĂŞmos). Although distinctions between an architektĂ´n and dĂŞmiurgos should not be overdrawn (since a dĂŞmiurgos was a more general designation inclusive of architects), it is a curious fact that, however influential the Timaeus would become for architectural theory, it does not literally have an “architectâ€? in it. In what contexts, then, do “architectsâ€? figure into the work of Plato?
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arch Like Cicero does after him, Plato involves “architects� in works concerning the moral pursuits of rhetoric and politics. Near the beginning of his dialogue called Gorgias, Socrates introduces “architects� (as well as physicians and generals) as influential agents comparable, in some ways, to orators (455b). The basis of comparison would seem to lay not only on their shared skill at persuasive speech, but also (as the full dialogue discloses) on their ultimate obligation: to persuade the public to pursue what is best for their city—an obligation usually neglected in favor of pursuing personal success, as Socrates exposes. In another dialogue, Plato, like Cicero, establishes links between “architects� and “wisdom�. Here, near the beginning of his inquiry on the Statesman, the interlocutors quickly agree that unlike craftsmen (who provide physical labor and expertise focused on particular techniques) an “architect� provides comprehensive knowledge and thoughtful direction, guiding and modulating such technical work toward a desired end (259e-260a).
endeavors through their capacity to fully deliberate on ultimate goals and make sound judgments about how best to pursue them (Politics 1260a18-19; Magna Moralia 1198b6).
Aristotle also involves architectural terminology in his Nicomachean Ethics (which provides a kind of prologue to his subsequent study of the city, the Politics). In this influential study of ethics, Aristotle repeatedly uses “architectonicâ€? as an adjective to qualify the art of politics. Why is the art of politics “architectonicâ€?? According to Aristotle, politics is “architectonicâ€? because it sets the most comprehensive goals to which so many other arts contribute; because it requires the widest knowledge of “the goodâ€?; because it affects so many citizens and whole cities; and because it demands the greatest prudence of its practitioners (1094a15-28; 1141b25-26). Toward the close of this discourse, Aristotle takes this “architectonicâ€? idea a step further by calling a political philosopher (such as himself) an “architect of the endâ€? (1152b2): that is, one most capable of judging each and every thing as being bad or good “in itselfâ€?, and thus (with full Thus, in each of these two works of Plato, “architectsâ€? are awareness) best suited to advise others aiming for the good in introduced preliminarily as examples that, by their ethical motives and modes of leadership, help lay the groundwork for particular situations. defining the comparable acts of orators and statesmen. This is not the place to elaborate on how Aristotle’s Aristotle: architectonic qualifications fit into his overall philosophy of ethics. Rather it is enough here to emphasize that unlike in all the arts, the ends of the architectonic ones are more modern and post-modern philosophers (from Kant to Derrida), desirable than all those that fall under them, for these who tend to reduce “architectonicsâ€? to autonomous systems latter are pursued for the sake of the former‌ If there is and to abstract ontological structures (with little to no relation some end of our actions that we wish for‌ clearly this to either lived experience or practical aims), Aristotle’s would be the good, that is, the best‌ Is not the knowledge “architectonicâ€? art remains ethically grounded in human affairs of this good of great weight, and [if we discern it] would and in considering what is “goodâ€? for particular situations. we not, like archers in possession of a target, better hit on Although Aristotle may be reaching for an absolute good when what is needed? If this is so, then one must try to grasp, he claims that an “architect of the endâ€? seeks an understanding in outline at least, whatever it is and to which of the arts of the good “in itselfâ€?, the practical thinker (and perhaps the it belongs. But it might be held to belong to the most practical architect) in him knows that there are a great variety architectonic art, and such appears to be the political. of “goodsâ€? appropriate to different situations and cities. Indeed, —Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, 1094a15-28 (R. this acknowledgement of variability in civic situations leads Bartlett and S. Collins, Trans.) Aristotle to admit—at the conclusion of his ethical study—that he has not yet reached his “endâ€? (1179a34), since he must now In several of his works, Aristotle reiterates Plato’s regard various cities, and their respective goods, with a view to distinction between the handy skills of craftsmen and the considering what is best. The closing line of the Nichomachean intelligent leadership of “architectsâ€?. He does so most Ethics looks forward to this subsequent task—a task that, at the explicitly at the beginning of his Metaphysics in the course close of this essay, we may each take up also as our own: “With of establishing the general difference between technical and this as our beginning, then, let us speakâ€? (1181b24). theoretical kinds of knowledge: the former leading to wellmade artifacts, and the latter leading to an understanding of Conclusion: Dramatic and Metaphoric Understandings motivating causes and purposeful ends (981a30). Aristotle makes this distinction again near the beginning and end of The difference between trivial metaphor and poetic his Politics—a study of the city and its legal constitution. metaphor is not that one can be paraphrased and the Here, Aristotle introduces “architectsâ€? in order to help define other not, but that the paraphrase of the latter is without the directive agency of household and civic authorities who, end. It is endless precisely because it can always spring like architects, act not by performing physical labor but back to life. If a metaphor engenders thought throughout by exercising their thinking minds (1325b20; 1253b35). In a long discourse, is this not because it is itself a brief two related passages Aristotle qualifies (and in a sense discourse? personifies) “reasonâ€? and “prudenceâ€? (logos and phronĂŞsis) —Paul Ricoeur, The Rule of Metaphor (1977), p. 188. as “architectsâ€? capable of leading socially constructive
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arch I do not know what meaning classical studies could have for our time if they were not untimely — that is to say, acting counter to our time and thereby acting on our time and, let us hope, for the benefit of a time to come. —Friedrich Nietzsche, “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life" Look up the etymology of “architectâ€? in any dictionary and you will find an entry denoting it as a compound word joining “archĂŞâ€? (chief or master) with “tektĂ´nâ€? (carpenter or builder). While there is truth to this standard account, this abbreviated etymology fails to capture the full meanings of both “archĂŞâ€? and “tektĂ´nâ€?. For, in the earliest Greek sources, tektĂ´n—in both noun and verb forms—implies a variety of makers (including thought-builders, song-makers, and artisans of what is just), and generative modes of making, such as fabricating arguments (that seek agreement), schemes (to ward-off misfortune), and stories (that bring about a renewed sense of order). Similarly, archê—in its earliest noun and verb forms—implies not only a hierarchical sense of authority, authorship and leadership but also a poetic and dramatic sense of “beginningâ€?, “initiatingâ€? and “inauguratingâ€?—usually with a view to what is ultimately good. Thus, an archi-tekton might be better understood as a “makerâ€? of auspicious yet open-ended “beginningsâ€?. Furthermore, the standard account of this word’s roots (as “master-builderâ€?) fails to consider the profoundly ethical and intellectual meanings borne by architectural terms as they were actually used by influential poets and philosophers from the fifth to first centuries BCE—that is during the long period that “architectsâ€? (and their discipline) were emerging as figures of public significance. As my review of primary sources has shown, the dramatists (Euripides, Aristophanes and Plautus) and the philosophers (Plato, Aristotle and Cicero), each involved architectural terms to help them dramatize, characterize, debate and define problems and opportunities associated with civic leadership. And these “architectonicâ€? problems and opportunities (like reaching for social harmony, peace and justice) are as relevant to our time as they were to theirs. Thus, it is my wager that these dramatic and philosophical treatments of “architectsâ€? and “architectingâ€? still vividly present to us some of the most essential aspects of what architects and architecture might yet strive to do. I am quite aware that turning to the classics as a way to invigorate present-day thought is unfashionable, or as Nietzsche said, “untimelyâ€?. But given the ongoing necessity and desire for ethical responsibility in the face of monstrous obstacles to viable peace and justice, I am convinced that it remains good for us to do so.
SOURCES Translations of primary sources provided here are adapted from the latest Loeb Classical Library Editions, except for the following: Bartlett, Robert C. and Susan D. Collins (Trans.), Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2011). Tatum, James, Plautus: The Darker Comedies (Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1983). Of the hundreds of secondary sources underlying the thinking in this essay, the most pertinent and representative include: Forty, Adrian, Words and Buildings (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2000). Gadamer, Hans-Georg, The Idea of the Good in Platonic-Aristotelian Philosophy, P. Christopher Smith, Trans. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986). Hall, Edith, The Theatrical Cast of Athens: Interactions between Ancient Greek Drama and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). Havelock, Eric A., The Greek Concept of Justice (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978). Leatherbarrow, David, “Architecture is its own Disciplineâ€? in Andrzej Pieotrowski and Julia Williams (Eds.), The Discipline of Architecture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001). McEwen, Indra Kagis, Socrates Ancestor. An Essay on Architectural Beginnings (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1993). Parcell, Stephen, Four Historical Definitions of Architecture (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2012). PĂŠrez-GomĂŠz, Alberto, "Hermeneutics as Architectural Discourse", Folio 05, Li Shiqiao, Ed. (Dept. of Architecture, National University of Singapore, 2003), pp. 20-25. Steiner, George, Grammars of Creation (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001).
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arch O3.7
Working:Drawings
instructor: sasa radulovic + 5468796 studio
Working a set of drawings from idea to execution enables us to transform an indeterminate or vaguely conceived design notion into something legible and constructible. The leap from ephemeral to real, or intangible to tangible, becomes a critical tipping point: it is where built projects succeed or fail. This studio argues that the juncture between theory and reality is the single most important moment in a project’s realization. How does an architect recognize when it is time to make the transition? How can an architect prevent the concept from being lost in translation? Working:Drawings is about maintaining integrity in the design process. It is about building a repository of ideas and breaking out of the comfort zone wherein these ideas have germinated so that they can be tested, scrutinized and accepted or rejected by others. Premise: real, local scenarios Process: meticulous design + translation Product: working drawings
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Graeme Smith
Sasa Radulovic and 5468796 Studio Environmental Design, Year 4 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The act of moving to a new city is life changing. Many families of migrants with their own unique histories land into different realms of possibility when they step onto new land. The latent optimism in the event of migration stems from the positive potential to happily settle in a new place. At what point does a new place become home? Home is not exclusively a location, homes change. People become at home in new places. Home is about comfort, ownership, and relationships. What is the nature of shared space? When do people take ownership of it? How can a housing block encourage relationships with their neighbors? This project is intended to explore the potentials in these questions through an apartment building and day care at 177 Donald Street. The initial massing proposal consists of strips of space locked together like a handshake. The entrances to the units and windows are concentrated around the four light wells. All of the bedrooms and bathrooms within the units are
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located on the first floor. The second floor has a very open and social spatial quality with all of the living spaces and kitchens of the units sharing garden terraces. The garden terraces are composed of a movable cedar decking system suspended over cultivatable soil. These terraces are a place of dialogue between an inhabitable surface and nature. The community can change these ambiguous garden spaces. The potential for space to take on different roles occurs throughout the building. This potential is made possible by ‘flex’ spaces in between the otherwise continuous strips of units on the second floor. The neighboring tenants can rent these spaces to accommodate a growing family or a guest. This project argues that community is not manifested by concentric plans, but is the accumulation of people meeting each other and taking ownership of spaces on an intimate scale.
Units
The potential for space to take on different roles will occur throughout the building. This potential is made possible by ‘flex’ spaces in between the otherwise continuous strips of units. These ambiguous spaces can either be rented by a neighbouring tenant to accommodate a need or they can be re-programmed.
Garden Terraces
This is not transitional housing, but indefinite housing. Since the long term units can be bridged by the temporal flex spaces the dwellings can expand to fit a growing family.
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Each unit faces another across a garden terrace. These narrow terraces are the intercessors between the residents. This facilitates people comfortably meeting their neighbours. This project argues that community is not manifested by concentric plans, but is the accumulation of people meeting each other and taking ownership of spaces on an immediate level.
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Trent Thompson
Sasa Radulovic and 5468796 Studio Environmental Design, Year 4 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The multiple use sector of Winnipeg, and perhaps the majority of contemporary cities are steadily shifting towards a disintegration of community – seeking encapsulation as we channel life into the comfort of individualized space. Conversations are habitually internalized maintaining a detached attitude to evade social interaction. Automobile and home have become quintessential commodities. Our relationship to these modern necessities consists of instances of retreat and reveal. Retreat speaks to safety, control, and privacy, while reveal describes a sense of keeping up appearances so as to convey our public ‘face’. We compete for societal recognition while sustaining a distance through means such as automobile, home, or mobile devices, which deflect experience. The six-storey proposal unites one level of corporate office space and ten residential condominiums above, which contain individual car parks for resident automobiles. A car elevator,
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situated at the core, provides primary access to the building. Interactions surrounding the Main St. site are incessantly transient as the relationship of car to building fluctuates with distance and speed. These variables pose a question of what can attract the eye, as commuters will generally catch but a glimpse. To coincide with automobile culture, mass consumption, the speed of transport and increasing flows of information, the corporate office space will house a mediaadvertising conglomerate, which shall control and operate media throughout the building. The 24’ wide site is split in three - 8’ bands running along the longitudinal axis. The middle band contains life’s primary elements. This core offers privacy and opportunity to retreat behind sliding walls. The flanking bands on either side of the core offer secondary activity, which speaks to a reveal. The shift in unit types provides the sense of personalized space for the individual – free from the bounds of generic building typologies. Such a shift bestows a play of surface, advertisement and light. The setback requirements of
the site supplement the formal gesture of the architecture as a means to channel light into the space. Simultaneously, they grant varying patio spaces due to underlying neighboring units. As advertising becomes increasingly intrusive life becomes more and more transparent. Ads will effect inhabitation just as inhabitation will affect the advertisements. Occupant’s habitual actions will reveal itself to the street below, providing opportunities to see, and be seen. The tenant becomes the physical reality to the projected image, exploiting the desires of passing consumers. Anamorphic ads will dress the volumes of the building, wrapping interior and exterior conditions going beyond its typical surface application. Through movement and interaction around the site, the message is revealed from specific vantage points designed by the advertising syndicate. At other points the structure becomes a gradient of fractal images. Consequently, the sliding shift of an interior door, the opening of a cupboard, and the movement of fixtures will mutate the ad(s).
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Hailey Darling
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Sasa Radulovic and 5468796 Studio Environmental Design, Year 4 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The process developed is based on the importance of space generated through linear separation, as a consequence of contiguous blank walls of the narrow site situated between two existing brick buildings. The two blank walls of the existing three-story buildings act as the margins for the architecture; the edges from which a form must begin to take shape within. As these two perimeters begin to infringe upon the site, as a series of vertical places, they act as a framework of separation for which the architecture inhabits. The vertical planes determine a linear separation between public, private and semi-private spaces. Individual parts of the architecture, such as the stairways, the hallways and the units, begin to find themselves embedded within these linear planes, while maintaining original thoughts on the grandness, obscurity and vastness of the blank wall in Winnipeg.
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Daria Diakovska
Sasa Radulovic and 5468796 Studio Architecture, Graduate Studies Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
An exploration of social interactions between newcomers and Canadians in the background of Winnipeg's downtown urban texture influenced the proposal to develop a solution to the isolation that exists between members of the same society by means of architecture. The site of the project, 351 Smith Street, was for more than 70 years occupied by the Grace Methodist Church until its destruction in 1957 and has since functioned as a surface parking lot. To realize the intentions of stimulating a meaningful interaction between Canadians and newcomers the engagement of the urban infrastructure is utilized as the extension of a pedestrian walkway through the site, offering a chance for the public to access the proposal or pass through. The intentions of the fuchsia glass box becomes a spectacle to viewers externally, while inside, the city becomes the stages backdrop creating a seemingly unique experience. Similarly, the practice rooms connecting
the two buildings appear as another showcase, enlivening the street as activities within can be viewed and sounds can be heard. Atop the roof – which spans the buildings entirety – is access into the bands green room suite, hotel block at opposite end and exit – or entrance – down the steel exit stairs along the Burt. Camouflaged from the punches of colour of the music programs, the remainder of the building is clad in matte black metal panel or perforation to hide windows of the hotel portions. While this scheme strongly contrasts its existing surroundings, its act of disguise is most prominent at night, as music becomes the focus and the remainder of the building disappears.
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arch O3.8
Resonance & Modulation instructor: patrick harrop
On a seemingly normal spring morning in 1888 there were reports of an earthquake somewhere in the lower east side of Manhattan. A subtle, but certain, vibration of increasing intensity sent a local high-rise building site into pandemonium. By all accounts, machinery and equipment were tossed, while iron-workers were sent scurrying into the street. Police were eventually able to locate the epicenter of this earthquake to an innocuous laboratory at 48E Houston st. in the lower East Side. This was, of course, the laboratory of the famed scientist Nicolas Tesla. The cause of this disruption was a due to a small mechanical oscillating or vibration device (later to be known as Tesla’s earthquake machine) of his invention. Although later debunked by the “Mythbusters�, it is a convenient demonstration of the possibilities of resonance. This studio will be using the question of resonance as a template for experimentation, exploration, elaboration and execution in the context of a year-long comprehensive architectural project. While the term resonance seems to privilege the sonic (or in Tesla’s case, the sub audible) it has relevance to any phenomenon that includes the dimension of temporality and oscillation. Resonant phenomenon can be found in clock mechanisms, tidal rhythms, astronomical geometry, molecular chemistry, radio frequencies and coherent light. Yet, in a broader, even more poetic dimension,finding resonance in literary thought, emotional affect (memory and history), and transindividual cultural movements. While Tesla’s experiment sought to find the resonant frequency of a large structure by modulating a mechanical device, the studio will be looking at exploring a diversity of resonances by modulating architecture through drawing, making, exploring materials, creating space, envelopes, structure, program, site and building systems. The focus of this studio is on making, drawing and comprehensive architecture. While it has a strong capacity and cultural reputation for electronic, interactive and sonic experimentation, it privileges the analogue over the digital, the passive over the electronic and the exploration of phenomenon using the mediums that the student feels comfortable with. This year’s studio conducted a field / working trip to Berlin, Germany. The trip was for students to develop their initial investigations within a tangible site in an urban context. These sites were investigated to become the project sites for the subsequent work of their design proposals during the remainder of the studio year.
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Drawing One and Compass
Drawing Two
Chris Burke
Patrick Harrop Environmental Design, Year 4 Berlin, Germany
This drawing project the product of a series of field recordings done in Berlin at the Kottbusser Tor U-Bahn station, a site rich in electric activity; traffic lights, control boxes, and the U-Bahn trains themselves.
Drawing One
The drawing is completed as a form of mapping the plan beneath the train platform. A series of home made compasses were used to detect the physical presence of the electromagnetic field. When the compass entered the field, the needle would be influenced and point towards or away from the field. The results were recorded and transcribed onto a plan in order to understand the physical ranges of the electromagnetic fields present on the site.
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Drawing Two
Using an induction microphone, typically used for recording telephone conversations, the electromagnetic fields produced on site became audible. These sounds were recorded, then manually simplified and filtered through a series of small, individual drawings. The final drawing, an axonometric projection, was used to assemble and draw linkages between the individual recordings and to search for commonalities between such things as the pulsing found in a control box and the U-Bahn train passing over.
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Kyle Janzen
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Nat Chard Architecture, Graduate Studies Research & Technology Topics Between Digital and Analog Craft
A device, an optical bench, explores the research concept of moirĂŠ patterns in conjunction with studio explorations. Each armature provides an axis of rotation and support for two layers of equally spaced elastic string. The bench is the base for the two armatures allowing for horizontal and additional rotational adjustment. The device facilitates exploration and documentation of the moirĂŠ effect, desired for a proposed building membrane, by providing measurable, hands on, and lockable adjustments.
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Laser Cut MDF and Acrylic Armature Isometric Assembly Drawing
Tightener, 3mm MDF t-bolt nut, galv. steel Armature, 6mm MDF Armature, 3mm MDF String guide, 3mm MDF Armature w/guide, 3mm MDF Armature, 6mm DF 1" t-bolt, galv. steel Support, 6mm acryllic Support, 6mm acryllic Armature, 6mm acryllic Armature w/guide, 3mm MDF Armature, 3mm MDF Base, 3mm MDF Base, 3mm MDF Support, 3mm MDF Register, 3mm MDF 1 1/2" t-bolt, galv. steel
Fijan Mahogany Optical Bench with track Isometric Assembly Drawing
T-slot track, aluminum Base, fijan mahogany Register, 3mm acrylic Support, fijan mahogany Adjustable foot, galv. steel
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Kyle Janzen
Site West View
Patrick Harrop Architecture, Graduate Studies Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany
Synthesizing site context and movement into spatial experience using the modulation of light through building membrane. Natural and artificial light appears fragmented as it passes through each layer of the screen; producing repetitive patterns that seem to be amplifying the original source. The site is located below a 175m stretch of the UBahn U1 line near the USchlesischesTor with parks to the north and south. The linear nature of the site allows for a transitional space to be introduced; where various lighting conditions can be experienced through multiple adjustable screens. Using the adjustable screens, the space is able to open or close depending on specific programming requirements. Events can range from intimate lectures and performances to large festivals.
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Layered Lines - MoirĂŠ Pattern
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Site Plan
An overall plan of the courtyard, overlaid onto the original large plan of activities on the site. Drawing overtop the original plan of activities made it possible to accurately engage and respond with the site’s movements at an architectural/tectonic scale.
rhizomic thresholds
James Rubio
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Patrick Harrop Resonance & Modulation Berlin, Germany
Rhizome- Gilles Deleuze and FĂŠlix Guattari understand a rhizome to work with planar and trans-species connections, as oppose to vertical and linear connections. “The rhizome pertains to a map that must be produced, constructed; a map that is always detachable, connectable, reversible, modifiable, and has multiple entrance ways and exits and its own lines of flight.â€? (Deleuze, 21). Socially, a rhizome is characterized by “ceaselessly established connections between semiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences, and social struggles.â€? (Deleuze, 7). “A rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, inter-being, intermezzo.â€? (Deleuze, 25). A rhizome grows and makes connections without organized structure, along paths of least resistance. The project is rooted in various explorations of urban thresholds at a variety of scales. An assemblage of reconstructed thresholds is proposed, which responds
to a “terrain vagueâ€? (abandoned areas, on obsolete and unproductive spaces and buildings, often undefined and without specific limits). OrtakĂśy (a small community in Istanbul) is distinguished by its rich, diverse cultural practices along the city sidewalks. The community focused on is an undefined, seemingly abandoned courtyard with varying topologies. There are towering residential buildings, whose rear windows peer into the rectangular site, delineating the defined boundary edges of the courtyard. How can these uninviting spaces be reappropriated to address this issue of public and private segregation? What potential catalysts in the community are able to transform this apparently unresponsive landscape? The thresholds of the community will extend into a space that has lost its life, mending damaged connections to the city. In a rhizomic manner, cultural practices grow from main nodal thresholds, plugging a piece of the community back into the main system.
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These re-appropriated fragments are reassembled to fill the spaces with practical areas where makers (residents as well as visitors) can gather and work together to keep the regeneration and growth of the space proactive. These new spaces cater to makers, nurturing a common language between visitors and residents (the language of making).
Separated plan of western threshold, showing the different fragments being lifted and rearranged from their original spot (residential facades) into the adjacent courtyard space and roofs of the apartments. They would be lifted onto the roofs using pulleys.
Construction Process
Plan Developments Some of the dislocated facades are not necessarily enclosed, but will be used to suggest certain exterior spaces that could be used as gathering areas for discussions on the courtyard’s construction.
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Perspectival Elevation New spaces are translated into the facades to maintain and generate a “Maker’s Culture�. For instance, a wood shop, electronics components store, and a metal machining area are needed to continue the incessant regeneration of the courtyard.
Overall Plan
The research process deals with a strategy of layering, isolating, analyzing, rearranging, and reconstructing material (influenced by Bruno Latour’s method of social reassembly and Actor Network Theory). As each piece falls onto the next, there is a different reading of the environment between space and objects. These actions were dislocated, articulated, delegated, and translated. Following, the “terrain vague� was transformed with tectonic gestures that were grafted onto the existing courtyard edifices. As a result, the cultural practices of the outside community were regenerated, regrown, and nurtured throughout this incubating, rhizomic landscape. There was a dialogue of actions and responses back and forth between the making of architecture and social responsibilities. Furthermore, the project is based on a process that will
challenge the traditional design model (an antiquated model where the architect is the grand orchestrator of the project). The alternative design model places onus on the affected residents of the site, where the ceaseless regeneration of the site depends on their self-sufficiency. Under these conditions, the architect creates a framework to follow, providing additional resources for the residents. Once the architect leaves the site completely, the people will be able to continue the growth and nurturing of the site through a “Maker’s Culture�. This Maker’s Culture will always be in reconciliation with itself, creating spaces and practices that lend themselves to the regeneration of the site (i.e., an open-sourced carpentry workshop, a machining/metal shop, a tools rentals shop, etc.). The courtyard is a place where culture genuinely has consequence.
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“There is no better image of the logic of socialization, which treats the body as a ‘memory-jogger’, than those complexes of gestures, postures and words… which only have to be slipped into, like a theatrical costume, to awaken, by the evocative power of bodily mimesis, a universe of ready-made feelings and experiences. The elementary actions of bodily gymnastics… charged with social meanings and values, function as the most basic of metaphors, capable of evoking a whole relationship to the world… and through it, a whole world.” -Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction
enigmas in the city a retrospective exhibition [exhibit]
of group costumes [exhibitors]
Dr. Lisa Landrum & Ted Landrum
[information] [gallery] [dates]
Architecture II Gallery March 12 - May 7 2012
[costumes] [1997] [1998] [1999] [2006] [2008] [2011] [2011]
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Giant Tongues, NYC Halloween Parade Large Intestine, NYC Halloween Parade Giant Brain, NYC Halloween Parade Pit of Liberty, Warren Vermont, Independence Day Parade Ear-Wings, NYC Halloween Parade Eyes of the Beholder, NYC Storefont Gallery Critical Halloween Winged-Eye-Mouth, NYC Halloween Parade
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We have always complemented our architectural work — and indulged our social curiosities — with performative practices, including the collaborative design, fabrication and enactment of “GROUP COSTUMES” in civic parades, especially the New York City Halloween Parade, which annually gathers tens of thousands of costumed participants (and millions of spectators) from around the world. Each of our “Group Costumes” prepared for this and other events — including giant inhabitable and operable Tongues, Intestines, a Brain-Theatre, an Armpit (of Liberty), Ear-Wings, a Winged-Eye-Mouth, and Eyes of the Beholder — grew to elicit a larger-than-life understanding of civic situations and festivities, while offering an animate, enigmatic and satirical image of the city’s social body.
Why group costumes? Why Parades?
As architects we make collaborative, interpretive and inhabitable assemblages — cultural assemblies which enable creative participation with others (strange and familiar) and with the greater life and meaning of social situations (real and imagined). As agents of transformation, we perform dramatically in the various milieux and media in which we live, learn and play: cities, schools, language and other constructive arts. And, as curious human beings, we take serious pleasure in engaging one another (now and then) in collective existential and representational events: parades, festivals, markets, concerts, fairs, carnivals, colloquia, dramas, contestations, circuses and exhibitions. One could call our costumed participation in such events wituals (rituals with wit). Call them what you will, they are inclusive public-making customs, as ancient (and regenerative) as funerals, weddings and revels. In being openly and radically diverse, monstrously transformational, and simultaneously comical and frightening, the NYC Halloween Parade offers an especially appropriate occasion to engage others in exploring the enigmatic challenge of collective human being, that is of being simultaneously civic, worldly and other-worldly. All this, we’re convinced, helps to grasp what is essential to architecting.
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[opposite top] Winged Eye Mouth, 2011
[top] Inside the Giant Brain, 1997
[opposite below] Giant Tongues, 1997
[bottom] Mini Parade
Supported by a University of Manitoba Creative Works Grant, we prepared a retrospective exhibition of our costumes in the Faculty of Architecture’s Arch 2 Gallery. This exhibition featured newly fabricated models of five costumes (from 1997-2008), along with numerous drawings and photographs depicting the context of their making and performance, thus showing the artifacts themselves as well as how and where they happened. This retrospective also gathered illuminating precedents (from Cyclops’ eye and Hell-mouth to Gogol’s Nose) which help to reveal the long tradition of public performance and the role of significant body parts in allegorizing the tragicomic drama of the body politic. This range of imagery and artifacts, together with two full-scale installations of our most recent (2011) wide-eyed costumes — hovering in space as attentive witnesses — provided a perceptual and conceptual horizon, which visitors could inhabit. By orienting themselves amid the Eyes and alongside the “walking street” of models, visitors played their part in the exhibition, completing the schema of a miniature parade. A projected film documenting the “Large Intestine” — from its making and conveyance (out our studio window, through the streets of Brooklyn, over the Williamsburg Bridge, into Lower Manhattan, and up Sixth Avenue) to its culminating release and dissemination (as hundreds of helium balloons filled the night sky) — made the exhibition experience all the more immersive.
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seeking dung beetle, involving a pair of magical “in-one-earand-out-the-other” hats to avert petty talk and con the buzz of truth); the “Armpit of Liberty”, or “Liberty Dis-Armed” (a protest piece exposing, by radical foreshortening of Lady Liberty’s torch-bearing arm, the ominous dark-side of Liberty and an unexpected cornucopia); the “Giant Brain - Miniature Theatre” (made of visqueen, hula-hoops, social gyrations and moving imaginations); the “Large Intestine” (incorporating buoyant friends and translucent balloon-filled tubes in a continuous passage toward levity); and multiple “Giant Tongues” (set loose in the parade to lick and lampoon the city while extending our perception of its heteroglossia).
Fetish as Facticius and Facere
Insofar as our “group costumes” are symbolically charged devices of collective mediation, they surely do perform fetishistically, yet they aim to expose and provoke more than a strict Freudian or Marxian would project. Beyond any narrowly modern usage, the basic, full meaning of “fetish” is to make and charm via cultural artifice. It is to facture and feat in influential ways (as potent dreams are made and perform by imagination, memory, language and desire), yet to do so corporeally, collectively and probingly as socio-cultural and publicly poetic acts. Our work strives for more (and less) than to parade absurdly extended bodies, as panned by Tertullian (De Spectaculis 18). Rather, more in a manner praised The exhibition staged seven “Group Costumes”, each by Apuleius (Metamorphoses 11.9), our “Group Costumes” are representing enlarged corporeal fragments, or shared socially illuminating and transformative; comical, critical and metonymies, figuring the social limits and potential of common ironic; narratively and situationally heuristic; and, ultimately, bodily senses — of speech and taste, of labyrinthine in/ celebratory – both of our complexly shared human cosmos and of digestion, of projective imagination, of polemical and pacifist the surprising ways we find to transcend its stubborn boundaries gesture, and of creatively-judicious listening and vision: a and limitations through artful acts of collective transformation. “Winged-Eye-Mouth” (of nested beach balls, flexible tubing, a parasol and a parachute, made in honor of the Renaissance architect and far-seeing humanist Leon Battista Alberti); the “Eyes of the Beholder” (winners of the Storefront for NOTES Art and Architecture Gallery Critical Halloween event); the A version of this text was published in KATALOG #6 (Spring/Summer “Ear-Wing-Beetle” (an interpretation of Aristophanes’ peace-
2012), a quarterly journal of the Central Canadian Center for Performance. department of architecture | enigmas in the city
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[design thesis]
ports of entry meaning of invention in the information age [student]
Andrew Gray
[information] [advisor] [research studio] [site] [description]
Ted Landrum Studio Change, (2010-2011) Chicago, Illinois USA “Noise is the Poetry of Science” — Michel Serres “Serres firmly believes that the very viability and vitality of science (in this case science and invention) depends on the degree to which it is open to its poetical other (the noise or unknown). Science only moves on if it receives an infusion of something out of the blue, something unpredictable and miraculous. The poetic impulse is the life-blood of natural science, not its nemesis. Poetry is the way of the voyager open to the unexpected and always prepared to make unexpected links between places and things. The form that these links take is of course influenced by technological developments.” -Serres, Michel. The Origin of Language: Biology, Information Theory, & Thermodynamics
This thesis is an investigation into the meaning of invention in the information age, where the computer and internet is allowing an increasingly accelerated means of transmitting and processing larger and more complex amounts material as noise or unknown from afar into information, such that the world/space is more susceptible to change, or to humans, adaptive invention (posited here as an alchemical process). In the project this meaning is looked at in an architectural invention, a theatrical learning machine, an observatory and laboratory for a scientist-in-residence added to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry on Lake Michigan, and in the process of its design. In both cases, technology facilitating real-time transmission and integration of a complexity of material was found to force invention to be an animated, performative, time based, interactive, alchemical process of poetic transmutation and hybridization; aimed towards the novel or never-seenbefore by chance/unexpected discovery of material, sought
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[opposite, top + center]
Longitudinal Section and Detail
[opposite, bottom]
Range of Motion
Kinematic flow of base energies through the system. Range of motion of the device between high and low tide
[top, series]
Stop Frame Motion Capture
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[center]
Laboratory Floor Plan
Shows animated interaction between scientist inventor and fluvial noise portal over one hour at 5 min intervals - like the invention’s design development process drawing is used by the resident scientist or inventor to draw out movements of the mind (information) triggered by latent patterns hidden within the noise portal.
either intentionally through global internet technology, or through flaws and failures unintentionally arising during its implementation in making design or conducting experiment. In the architectural invention tidal data transmitted in realtime via satellite and internet from GPS sensors placed on the four coasts of the North American continent is brought together on the shore of Lake Michigan, creating fluvial architectural form as a gateway for continuous entry of base material - a diverse range of shapes as chaos, noise, the anomalous, the poetical other - for the unloading/ triggering/drawing out of ideas for inventions and research processed in the attached observatory and laboratory. Like Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass, the work from which design research began, the drama played out is a modern representation of the myth of creation. The interactive relationship between ordering hero and dragon of chaos in the creation myth, Bachelor and Bride in large glass, between the observatory-laboratory and fluvial noise-cloud
is essential to the human alchemic process of invention. In the design process the relationship was between me as designer/inventor/alchemist/processor and the computer and internet as source of noise for chance discovery of a prima materia of parts and spatial-programmatic organizations. As pattern seeker different discovered parts that exhibited the creation myth relationship was the thread that allowed different and repetitive meanings to be reconciled and transmuted through an iterative drawing process that took place in a sketch book acting as my alchemist alembic or glass vessel. That pattern of meanings is highlighted throughout drawings with color.
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[essay]
chance engines idea generators in architectural design research [student]
Andrew Gray
[information]
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[symposium] [location]
Unstable Natures (Modified Text) University of Alberta School of Art and Design
[text]
In this essay I would like to call attention to an exploratory research practice involving the use of extra-sensory spatial phenomena detecting devices, being used as black-boxes, as chance-engines, which open channels of noise for the unexpected discovery of material to translate into design. I would like to show different examples of this through a selection of student projects, including one of my own, as evidence. But before doing so I would like to go into some detail about what is provoking this practice, which I will postulate is rooted in the desire to get beyond ingrained habits and routinized perceptual limits in order to connect to deeper realms of reality. Which I will argue happens by way of instrumental mediation with theory put forth by Technology Philosopher Don Ihde. Except, I contend that it is through a new category of instrumental mediation, that I shall define in terms of second-order cybernetics, by using Cyberneticist Heinz Von Forester's discussion of trivial vs. non-trivial machines. I intend to outline this as originally an outgrowth of the rise of bachelor machines, a new psychological phase in the evolution of technology that happened because of the appropriation of the machine by artists and writers at the turn of the last century, who were probing for never seen before images as noise for chance discovery of new ideas. The concept of "the noise" in communication systems is the primary conceptual tool I'll be borrowing to help explain the output of these devices. It is taken from Science Philosopher Michel Serres, who in his cosmology links the sciences and the humanities through noise, that is chance connections of all kinds being made between different domains such that science turns into poetry.1 As indicated, the concept of the noise, otherwise referred to as chance, is not new to 20th century artists, such as the Dada, Surrealist or Situationist movements, who attacked rationality through their noise introducing chance-engines/ bachelor machines via automatic writing, drawing, chance phonic combining devices or ready-mades. But it was a topic avoided by modern architects who saw their job as removers of accident and bringers of stabilizing order. A top down approach to design, most vividly advocated by first wave, or what I call heroic modern architecture, which was the architecture from figures like Le Corbusier and Mies Van Der Rohe. Instead, what I will be showing are design development tools and exploratory drawings that suggest a bottom up approach, design that learns, design that discovers ideas, in the process of directly interacting with a world, seen as de-stabilized by its complexity and contradiction. department of architecture | chance engines
To begin with I would like to suggest that what limits our perception is the fact that we are creatures of habit. And in order to overcome the habits of the everyday, in the case in which I speak about, everyday architectural design, what is noticed is a strategy that sees designers, myself included, using devices that extend perception beyond the threshold or horizon of habit in order to voluntarily introduce chance, Michel Serre's "noise," into the design process. This bit of noise by interrupting habit, interrupts what might otherwise be smoothly familiar communication with the world, thus forcing students to open their imagination to other possibilities of what constitutes knowledge for design, and as a result showing a gap in their knowledge, thus forcing learning, either the development of a skill or the acquisition of new skill or knowledge which reshapes the direction of the project.2 Therefore advertently avoiding what could otherwise be the top down, blanket application of a predeterminate theoretical rule or pre-conceived design solution, as was historically the case in classical and modern architectures. But generally speaking, according to Philosopher Henri Bergson it is through daily routinized patterns of behavioural communication with our environment that we become 'conscious automata' and respond with 'reflex acts’ in the first place.3 Routine behaviors get ingrained in memory, thus upon interaction with the world response can become pre-determinedly automatic-reflexive, and cause inattention to differences.4 Simultaneously one can also locate the origin of habit outside of the first person bodily experience and in the hegemony of a cultural body, which is mass culture, cultural ideology or the cultural leviathan. In both cases it is the piecemeal development and engraining of behaviors as protective armour, as languageinformation, in order to bring stability and order against the unknown, the chance occurrence, or prevent the disruption of smooth communication with the world through what Michel Serres says is the unwanted, excluded, accidental, interruptive, third element in communication of messages - Noise. As he says 'communication is separated from noise. Noise is not communicated. To communicate is to move within a class of objects that have the same form; form that was originally extracted from the cacophony of noise.'5 So noise is there, it is a part of the system and cannot be eliminated, but it is there in the background as chaos. It interrupts by what Carl Jung said is the entry of mistakes, accident and ruptures to one's habits.6 But we do our best to not listen, we remove irritants or later dismiss it by reason, leaving it in the background, that is unless we put forth an open and accepting disposition, such as the case in the following projects. For according to Serres: "We should hear the noise, the noise of a complex to which a receptor is linked. We should hear the deafening clamour just as we hear the roar of the sea at the edge of a beach, it should deafen us, drown us. The cloud of minor perceptions, external and internal, should induce a state of discomfort and dizziness, it should prove intolerable. But we perceive almost nothing of the intense chaos which nonetheless exists, we are submerged to our eyes, to our neck in a hurricane, this terminal howl, and do not even know it. It exists but goes unperceived. The observers observe nothing."7 Serres says our bodies are extraordinarily complex listening devices to which noise and phenomena are linked in an information background-noise couple. `The body's heightened nervous system of linked receptors gather tiny sensations as signals under the broad categories of pleasure and pain.'8 The brain is the processor, the translator, filtering in stages of translational listening of noise into language. 'The final observer
is the receiver at the chains end, precisely he who utters language.' But that is if, as Serres says, ``the soul should wish to penetrate this other region, to be engulfed in a sea of becoming, be drown in restless currents, and deafened by the howl. Although noise opens a region for reflection, it is not reason that probes, reason is the obstacle. Reason is a tiny island, in an ocean of noise,� says Serres. It is the way of the voyager that rides on the ocean that penetrates. But to start with there needs to be the desire to open a channel for listening or observing. We are observers who observe nothing, unless we are willing to open a new channel for noise to enter.
into reality, discovering noise and chance effects, but then silencing it by being able to uncover and isolate the causes as simple, abstract, scientific laws explaining phenomena. Thus leading to the smoothening of communication to utter transparency. The cascade of events which silences our hearing of noise as Serres would proclaim. So now, with the technological mediation of Galileo totally pervasive we can all look at the moon and see the same surface features he did, except we don't interpret those features to mean the mountains he saw, we see lunar craters. We observe the moon and now there isn't any noise there, our factual sociality silenced our communication.
What I am suggesting with the following devices is that their designers are voyagers opening and experimenting with channels or portals of noise in order to link into deeper realms of reality, to get beyond their limits or horizon of perception. Because as one of the issues to listening or observing is, as Technology Philosopher Don Ihde points out in his book Embodied Technics, is getting beyond the horizon or limits of perception. For he says, 'that we hear, see, feel, we consciously perceive multidimensionally, we can choose to focus on listening or sight, this is the old world of phenomenology, but he asks how can I get beyond my limits?'9 By which he means sights beyond sights, sounds beyond sounds. To which he answers, 'we get beyond limits by means of technological, instrument mediation,' through the experimental invention of devices. Galileo's creation through experimentation and refinement of the telescopic lens to higher levels of magnification extends vision in a previously unavailable way, allowing him to observe what had not been previously observed or perceived, 'genuinely new perceptions', perceptions that change the observational-perceptual limits of both the interior first-person phenomenological body experience, so as to technologically extend sight, and to de-stabilize our exterior cultural body experience, through observation that leads to the disenchantment of phenomena in the search for their actual causes through the experimental invention of more and more accurate observation instruments that can penetrate deeper and deeper
Against this rigid orderliness of factual reasoning, Michel Serres and his concept of the noise is advocating the relative disorder of poetry, what he says is the miracle, the chance exception. The devices to be shown in adopting this epistemology is evidence of an alternate category of instrumental mediation that challenges this popular lament that while expanding observation, it ultimately turns it off. A category explained in a book called The Bachelor Machines, titled after Artist Marcel Duchamp`s said machines. Better known as ready-mades in reference to Duchamp, the rise of bachelor machines is explained as a coming to terms by artists with the invasion of mechanized order into all aspects of life. Bachelor Machinists include Alfred Jarry`s Pataphysics, Jonathan Swift and Raymond Roussel`s chance phonic combining devices, the metaphoric displacements of the exquisite corpse, Duchamp's already said ready-mades, later named combines by Robert Rauschenberg, and Man Ray, Francis Picabia, Richard Linder and Max Ernst`s poetic machine paintings. All representing the point at which the machine enters a new psychological phase in its evolution. This new evolution of the machine is not capable of actually operating, although like a useful machine it does produce movement, its purpose is to produce movement in the mind. These engines of chance are not aimed towards producing predictable outcomes, they are not aimed towards showing us known images that confirm classical notions of beauty, this was Duchamp`s criticism, as he said ready-mades have nothing to do with appeals to taste and aesthetic judgment, instead they are mechanisms perpetually showing us the unknown, the never seen before, which speaks to a reality as the distribution of accident and chance combinations of all kinds, which he goes on to say is 'for the purpose of unloading ideas'.11
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[03]
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Meta-Matic no .17, Jean Tinquely Indestruvtable Object, Man Ray Ready-Made, Marcel Duchamp This is Stieglitz, Francis Picabia Self-Constructed Little Machine, Max Ernst
[10] [06] [07] [08] [09] [10]
Boy with Machine, Richard Linder Ready Made, Macel Duchamp Exquisite Corpse Drawing Bach Machines, Marcel Duchamp Canyon, Rauschenberg
Yes, this is no longer architecture`s mimesis of an ideal order rooted in nature, formerly based on the human body, architecture`s classic metaphorical point of reference. Nor it`s similarly repetitious replacement order proposed by modern architecture, rooted in culture, based on a trivial machine metaphor. This academic research practice does however I think give in to our examining of the world for discovery of patterns of phenomenon behavior, but aimed towards transgressing perceptual horizons by exploring for discovery of more combinatorial possibilities in a noisy ocean of realism, as opposed to being content to rest on silent routine preconceptions provided by a simple abstract idealism of tropes. Lastly, I`d like to evince a more specific explanation about how this alternate category of instrumental mediation works, or should I say not work, rather than leave the impression that the following devices are bachelor machines, by referring to explanation in the field of Cybernetics. Drawing, in particular, on Second-Order Cyberneticist Heinz Von Foerster`s idea of trivial machines vs. non trivial machines. Machines that belong to our early phase understanding of instrument mediation Von Forester would say are trivial machines, and they comprise pretty much all of the machines we are surrounded by: toasters, radios, telescopes etc.12 They have predictable outcomes, or at least that`s how a rational thinking person perceives them, but placed in the context of a wider changing environment and department of architecture | chance engines
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looking at the output in terms of one's own subjective experience, psychologically, it is noticed that the outcome can actually exhibit unpredictably.13 Either the mechanism by virtue of its being connected into a wider complex world is subject to extraneous hidden variables which introduce some noise into the mechanism that affects the observed output, or, the mechanism by virtue of an interactive observer's unique position in the world adds noise through their subjective judgement or interpretation of the output.
Heinz Von Forester - Trivial vs. Non Trivial Machine (1984)
Hence the earlier statement that machines enter a second phase of evolution which is psychological in nature. With second-order cybernetics the psychology of an interactive human observer gets factored into the measured effect of the output of the mechanism. And to such an extent that the output of the innermechanics becomes somewhat unknowable, and hence is said to behave like a black box, a box where the inner-workings of its mechanism are opaque. Where we can observe the input to the mechanism but misunderstand or misinterpret how it produced the output. Von Forester calls these `non trivial machines`. The output yielded by the machine can be revealing, be surprising and new, becoming non-trivial, leading to chance discovery of content meaningful to oneself, the discovery of patterns and triggering of ideas or observation upon introspection.14
Samantha Lynch - Hand Prosthetic
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Serres, Michel. “The Origin of Language: Biology, Information Theory, & Thermodynamics.” from ed. Harari, Josue V. And David F. Bell, Hermes; Literature, Science, Philosophy. the Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1982, Pg. 30.
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Harrop, Patrick. "Autokinetic Strategies: Time and Complexity in Parametric Modeling." From: Responsive Architectures: Subtle Technologies 2006. Editors Philp Beesley, Sachiko Hirosue, Jim Ruxton, Camille Turner and Marion Trankle, Riverside Architectural Press, Waterloo, CA, 2006, Pg. 149.
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Manolopoulou, Yeoryia. "The Active Voice of Architecture: An Introduction to the Idea of Chance." From: field: Journal Vol. 1, Issue 1, edited by Renata Tyszczuk, Doina Petrescu, Sheffield School of Architecture, Sheffield, UK, October, 2007, Pg. 64.
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Manolopoulou. The Active Voice of Architecture, Pg. 64.
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Serres. The Origin of Language, Pg. 26.
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Manolopoulou. The Active Voice of Architecture, Pg. 65.
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Serres, The Origin of Language, Pg. 7.
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Serres, The Origin of Language, Pg. 8.
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Ihde, Don. Embodied Technics. Automatic Press, USA, 2010, Pg. 57.
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Carrouges, Michel. 'What is a bachelor Machine?' From: Le Macchine Celibi/The Bachelor Machines. Agentur fur geistige Gastarbeit, Harald Szeemann, Civitanova Marche. Rizzoli International Publications, INC, NY, USA, 1975, Pg. 44.
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Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. Duchamp in Context - Science and Technology in the Large Glass. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 1998, Pg. 65.
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Gage, Stephen. “The Wonder of Trivial Machines.” From: Architecture Design issue Proto- Architectures: Digital and Analogue Hybrids, Vol. 78. No 4, (July/ August 2008), Pg. 15.
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Gage, The Wonder of Trivial Machines, Pg. 17.
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Gage, The Wonder of Trivial Machines, Pg. 19.
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McCullough, Malcolm. Digital Ground Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing. MIT Press Cambridge Mass. 2005, P47.
Matthew McFetrick - Imprinting Device
M. Arch Graduate, 2009
In this project both the notation drawing and the hand prosthetic are used as instruments to confuse what she says is the 'anticipated arrival of the actual,' in terms of the body's anticipated sense perception in order to open noise, as she says, 'open up
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M. Arch Graduate, 2008
imagination, interpretation, see new possibilities.' She feels surfaces and the idea is to have the instrument give alternate sensations of the materiality in order to open a channel for other material ideas.
department of architecture | chance engines
This device creates graphic imprints that allowed him to see into worlds that lay beyond his direct perception, helping him draw the boundaries of a territory based on his sense of belonging or not belonging, which he then used to help design his architecture proposal seen on the left
Jarrid Crichton - Drawing Machine
Andrew Grey - Sound and Vibrating Prosthetic
Env. D. Graduate, 2011
This drawing machine proposes an alternate means of interrogating the architectural site for design fodder by using found site material to produce a chance drawing. It works by putting found material through the machines sieve and letting paper at the bottom
M. Arch. Graduate, 2011
get stained in unexpected ways with leftover traces. It thus opens an alternate avenue of material available for interpretation and translation into design.
In this project I used a condenser microphone and transducer or piezo microphone in order to detect and record the noise of a found sound and vibration phenomena radiating from a broken centrifugal fan in the basement of a building in downtown
Winnipeg. The recorded sound behaviors then became the basis of a notation drawing plotted in a series of steps for unexpected discovery of an architectonic translation.
Chad Connery - Painting Instrument, Aerosol Ecologies M. Arch. Graduate, 2012
Rather than using an instrument to mediate with a designer for ideas for a building, here the building is designed as the instrument mediating noise. The building program includes a situated ecological 'proprioceptivity' that serves as the source - that is the continuous peripheral display of the fluctuating status of the building's ecology of interacting components - as caused by
variations and disturbances within the internal site ecosystem and from those brought externally from its interaction with the larger ecosystem. Its display is accomplished by means of tactile receptors sending data through a wireless electronic nervous system to aerosol canisters that spray paint on registering interior wall planes. An ever changing wall surface of mixed
Lorna Parashin - Thermal Imaging Prosthetic M. Arch. Graduate, 2011
A thermal imaging camera as instrument mediation allowed her to performatively/dynamically reveal the spatial traces of an animated body thermally, using the Rudolf Laban concept of trace forms, and William Forsythe’s choreography and notation of it, for chance discovery of
paint colors and densities results as a depiction of transitions in shifting ecological steady-states. Ecological monitoring thus becomes the driver for a noisy architecture experience. Architecture and interactivity address how context might trigger unexpected learning and action.15
Lorna Parashin - Thermal Body-Space Notation M. Arch. Graduate, 2011
architectural notation choreographed and translated into a dynamic architectural space of moving/active bodies. This would be architecture that refers to the ancient body metaphor, but now defined by a bodyspace that exists more truly as a dynamic, moving, vectorial body. department of architecture | chance engines
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[article]
started but never finished [lecturer]
Thomas Hillier
[information] [school] [lecture] [gallery] [date]
Bartlett School of Architecture Food for Thought RAW:Gallery of Architecture and Design March 1 - April 5 2012
[description]
I think its important to note that I’m not an intellectual or an architectural theorist; unfortunately I’m not that smart! Quite simply I like to tell stories, both inspired by others and written by myself. I then use these stories and the clues within them to tell ‘spatial-stories’ that form architectural propositions. What a story does which architecture often finds hard is its almost instant ability to captivate the listener or viewer; they become part of the story and thus part of the architecture. What I find most exciting is when the story and space is read differently by each viewer/participant constantly creating individual architectural realities. I believe narrative has always been intrinsically linked to architecture. As with fiction writing, architecture is the invention, representation and manifestation of our own dreams and desires. All buildings, spaces and objects that surround us tell their own story, stories that are often different from what the architect envisaged but stories nonetheless. Non-fictional works are usually considered factual and adequate sources to think, discuss and create architecture but fiction itself can also stimulate a legitimate and compelling reflection on architectonic creation.
department of architecture | guest lecturer | started but never finished
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My introduction to ‘narrative’ came after finishing my undergraduate studies where I spent two years working in a small practice trying to decide ‘what to do next’. During this period I came across the work of unit 10 at the Bartlett School of architecture, which was run by Professor CJ Lim (an old teaching partner or Dr. Nat Chard, who is amazing by the way!). At first I was utterly gob-smacked by the beauty of the work and was then taken aback by the stories each of these projects told. It was here where I first discovered how crafting a narrative could be used to craft architecture. I immediately applied to study my postgraduate in architecture at the Bartlett under the tutelage of Cj and his teaching partner Bernd Felsinger. During my first year at the Bartlett I began to use literature as an emerging tool to stimulate, reflect and represent alternative modes of thought within architectural my discourse. Using the years brief entitled ‘Migration’ I began writing a story that explored the life and travels of English couple Mel (short for Melvin) and his wife Judith. This recently retired twosome decided to give up on their life in London’s third City and travel around Europe in search of the perfect caravan spot and a touch of hot weather! As they travel the couple realise they miss the home comforts of
England, especially white bread which seems impossible to get abroad. To combat their longing they slowly adapt and customise their caravan-house to feel a little more like home. Walls of the caravan are constructed from aroma filled bricks of white bread, custom made by Mel & Judith themselves. Other adaptations include the pebbledash façade reminiscent of their Croydon abode created using discarded bread seeds picked off by Mel (they get stuck in his dentures). A green lawn-carpet that is much cooler underfoot than the hot Marbella sand and a series of solar powered fans that surround the caravan-house delineating Mel & Judith's territory wherever they set up camp. These fans create a microclimate between the hot air of Marbella and the cool air of the caravan-house. Finally when it gets too hot the couple can recreate the inclement, but much missed English weather using the roof sprinkler system and snow-machine fireplace. I used this project to visualize the memories of Mel & Judith to create a spatial metaphor for the displacement of one culture to another.
department of architecture | guest lecturer | started but never finished
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For me writing and developing a narrative is an exciting part of the design process, a skill that I continue to develop with each piece of work. When I began exploring this mode of thought I was just looking for a way to express ideas in an evolving and interesting manner that would allow the project to move forward and not stagnant. I don’t believe the narrative should change to justify the architecture; this leads to an interesting paradox in working with this approach. The problem is where do you stop? If you need a cellar you could just state that the characters like wine which seems to me a lazy form of design synthesis. Although I create the story it is only used as a starting point to develop the design leading me down different avenues of research. For example The Emperor’s Castle originates from a mythical and ancient tale hidden within a woodblock landscape scene created by Japanese Ukiyo-e printmaker, Ando Hiroshige. This tale charts the story of two star-crossed lovers, the weaving Princess and the Cowherd who have been separated by the Princess’s father, the Emperor. The project began not through writing a story (this came later) but researching the tale above which lead to my “research storybooks”. These books began to examine the narrative structure of the tale creating a series of ‘clues’ that helped inform my future architectural propositions, disclosing glimpses of how fiction can produce visions and approaches to spatial practice. 256
department of architecture | guest lecturer | started but never finished
I’ve yet to take an established story and translate it into architectural space, as there is a definite danger that one is merely illustrating another person’s vision rather than creating his or her own. Interestingly I have found that some projects come to a more definitive end than others. For example the Emperor’s Castle had a very definite beginning and end whereas the Migration of Mel & Judith is a narrative I continue to develop. I am currently writing a chapter in ‘their’ story about their eldest daughter Polly, a taxidermy artist who lives in a giant birdcage with a keen bird-watcher and a rather mad bird-hunter. Polly and her fellow housemates have formed a symbiotic relationship with one another allowing them all to gain from their interactions within this weird and wonderful menagerie. I believe both architecture and books are about telling stories just on very different scales. A book reveals itself as one reads chapter after chapter the same way a building reveals itself through different spatial conditions. For me the book took on a more significant role when creating the Emperors Castle. The fairytale narrative of this project was the stimulus to produce the initial exploratory stage in a sketchbook format. These hand-cut, stitched, sewn and drawn collages were ‘cut’ directly into the blank sheets of the sketchbook creating a universe in two and a half dimensions. The aim of this universe as with any work of fiction was to fabricate an imaginary world to seduce
the viewer into believing the proposals. These books allowed the reader to become part of the architecture as it progressed liberating them from architectural reality. The two and a half dimensionality of the sketchbooks produced a tactile quality that drew the viewer in, sparking curiosity. Throughout the design process on any project I use conventional model making techniques and Marquette’s to constantly test ideas. Without putting my teaching hat on, I believe there is no substitute for models when trying to understand the spaces and experiences you are trying to create as an architect. I see my work as 3-dimensional collage which is often a combination of both models and drawings that can represent plan, section, elevation or something entirely different! The advantage of collage as a technique of representation is its unpredictable and visceral nature. No matter how much preparation is undertaken as soon as cut paper is put to page the work evolves and takes on a life of its own. It is here where the imagination and creativity of the architect/artist is at its most potent. Unlike computational based architecture that can create a human detachment from a building designed on screen, collage, as with drawing is a more intuitive and natural process between brain and hand, allowing the ‘drawing’ to adapt as the piece develops.
department of architecture | guest lecturer | started but never finished
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When starting a project I don’t have a specific form of representation in mind, the ‘making’ and ‘experimenting’ process’s inform and often become intrinsically linked within the project outcomes as they develop. For example the lampshade from the Migration of Mel and Judith was supposed to be beautiful in its ugliness, the work is meant to feel like it was crafted by and for the specific needs of the retired twosome. My work is totally open to interpretation that’s what I love about using spatial story telling to create forms of architecture. There’s no denying that architecture and differing forms of architectural representation is often perceived as difficult to understand or interpret by people outside the field. I want my work to be open to interpretation, which I suppose can make some of the pieces not dissimilar to art. Like a story I’m happy for the viewer to create their own visions of what the piece is or represents to them, be that a full understanding of the spatial connotations or just that they find it intriguing, beautiful or ugly! Its peoples varying responses to the work which I find incredibly intriguing. The lampshade from the Migration of Mel of Judith is a good example of this intrigue. I found that using a ‘domestic’ object that is easily recognizable automatically creates an attachment drawing the viewer in for a closer look. It’s on this closer inspection that they begin to understand more about the project, characters and space that I try to create.
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department of architecture | guest lecturer | started but never finished
In ‘professional’ practice there is no doubt a disconnect between projects such as The Emperor’s Castle and the majority of the work I undertake but this is very much done on a project by project basis with some clients being more receptive than others. The key is always to find the story the client wants to read! Fortunately I work with a practice who understand that using narrative and even the assemblage process can be a vital tool in design synthesis. This has happened through a variety of projects most notably the recent design of The Story Museum, Oxford where I was project lead. Here the brief, site and client were the perfect vehicle for me to explore and exploit my knowledge and interests in literature and the telling of spatial stories through narrative architecture (and I love Alice in Wonderland). Most importantly how I think about architecture and story telling is the same no matter what the project (between me and you, it’s the only way I know how to design!).
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O4.0 [chapter]
Landscape & Urbanism
intermediate environmental design, years 3-4 vertically integrated landscape architecture graduate studies
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[project]
dwelling/precinct [student]
[information] [instructors] [program] [site] [description]
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Evan Gomes
Dr. Marcella Eaton, David Owen Lucas, and Dr. Karen Wilson Baptist Environmental Design 3 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Analyzing the world around us is something that most people do on a daily basis. We tend to visualize the world in our mind, and then transfer it to reality, making it tangible and three dimensional. The challenge of this project was to analyze the three dimensional world and bring it back into the mind and design an expression about the landscape and its context. The idea for this project was to try to understand how forces can affect the way one feels and the way one acts on the site. The drawing itself is designed to trigger the imagination and to create one’s own interpretation of what they see, feel, and imagine. This evocation will make the original landscape non-existent in the mind, while simultaneously creating another fixated reality from the forces of the original site existing not in reality, but in the human mind. landscape + urbanism | dwelling/precinct/everyday life | dwelling/precinct
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[project]
lead our footfalls [student]
[information]
[instructors] [program] [site]
[description]
Jasper Flores
Dr. Marcella Eaton, David Owen Lucas, and Dr. Karen Wilson Baptist Environmental Design 3 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Winnipeg’s East Exchange District is a site of multiple personalities. Bordered by the mighty Red River, the once main industrial hub of the city has since evolved into a conglomeration of cultural, recreational and residential facilities. Accompanying this evolution is a baggage that is quite inevitable with such North American developments: parking lots. The dense and diverse neighborhood is composed of an uncharacteristically high amount of parking spaces. The challenge is to convert a confined parking lot, with all its constraints and opportunities, into a dwelling compound ripe with suburban ideals in a seemingly urban setting.
The design facilitates the ideals of privacy and individuality while anchoring a strong communal relationship. The area is full of historical contexts: it is the site of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. Like a long suppressed memory, the sublime history emerges and leads our footfalls. This is a place where new memories are created.
landscape + urbanism | dwelling/precinct/everyday life | lead our footfalls
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O4.1.2
studio 4
studio 4
Networks & Infrastructure
Network (R)evolution
Major infrastructure projects are an opportunity to rethink the evolution of urban form. The proposed southwest line of Winnipeg’s Bus Rapid Transit can serve as a catalyst for reassessing existing networks in West Fort Garry or for generating new synergies between them. The student's task was to envision this reimagined networking and its associated infrastructure.
We imagined time passing, Winnipeg shifting, densities increasing, change arriving quickly to the city, or perhaps not. A massive intermodal hub now operates in the North West corner of the Winnipeg, causing an exodus of industry from the Fort Garry Industrial Park. Bounded by the Parker Dog Park to the North and the Manitoba Sugar Beet Factory to the South, we considered that the hydro transmission corridor spanning West Fort Garry might become the spine, the datum, the working system of the landscape infrastructure network that enhances the qualities of lived space for a community colonizing the abandoned brown-fields. Collectively we pondered change arriving incrementally or cataclysmically. We imagined infiltration from a variety of perspectives, but the hydro corridor was envisioned as where the spark strikes. For some, the transformation of this site was conceptualized as swift and profound. Others considered that the site might experience a period of abandonment, with wild nature, adventure tourists, and pioneers permeating a decayed post-industrial condition. A newly contiguous hydro corridor with its formerly invisible networks exposed, was designed as an enriched bionetwork with tributaries to manage stormwater, with flora to enhance ecology and sustain human life, and with transit, pedestrian pathways, recreational trails stitching the site together, attracting humans and animals to the site. Infrastructure was seen as something to celebrate, to preserve, to transform into elements of utility, recreation, and perhaps even opportunities for sublime beauty. Time was the essence of this studio, omnipresent. We resisted the notion of the masterplan, acknowledging that landscape is ever mutable, never constant; that landscape exists within a continual state of flux.
instructor: jean trottier
Students were first asked to establish the general framework for the redevelopment of one existing infrastructure such as the hydroelectric corridor, vacant or underused industrial sites, main vehicular corridors, or the proposed rapid-transit corridor itself. This was followed by the design of one specific component of that framework - typically one key public space within their proposal. At this scale of intervention an emphasis was given to the experiential dimension of their proposal and, more specifically, to the aesthetic and symbolic relationship with the infrastructure that served as the starting point for their exploration. Along with the models and illustrations that compose this exhibit you will find a portfolio that retraces the various stages of development of each student's project. Some models or drawings that capture a particularly insightful moment of that process are also included here.
instructors: dr. karen wilson baptist + liz wreford taylor
Within our everyday life we blindly tap into multiple networks, stumble through unseen works of infrastructure, and crisscross systems that are invisible. What happens when we stop, pause, and open our senses to that which lies beyond our purview? What can we discover when we begin to wonder: “How does all of this connect�?
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landscape + urbanism | networks + inftrastrucutre / network (r)evolution
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l+u
[project]
hydro corridor [student]
Stephanie Kirkland [01]
Exploded Axonometric [01] [02] [03] [04] [05]
Pathways Electrical Grid Foliage Water Topography
[02]
[03]
[04]
[05]
[information]
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[instructor] [program] [site]
Jean Trottier Environmental Design, Year 3 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
[description]
A study of the electrical infrastructure within the precinct of Fort Garry, where residential and industry meet, began the development of the proposal for the hydro corridor. Combing the infrastructure with the rapid transit allows for the extension of the existing active route. Moving to a smaller scale within the site, located beside the sugar beet factory, allowed for the observation of the most intriguing characteristic of the site between the imposing infrastructure and the habitat for the surrounding wildlife. The notion of passage was something that seemed to link the two. The importance of the geometric shape of a crossroad was important in establishing a break along the corridor. Access points, as well as landmarks such as hydro towers, began to establish pathways and open
landscape + urbanism | networks + infrastructure | hydro corridor
spaces. Hierarchy developed as well as incorporating existing conditions. From iterations, the design intervention evolved to juxtapose the imposed infrastructure of the site with the ecological elements. Layering these two systems in a way that would contrast each other would then translate and enhance the experiences of the space. Elevation of pathways became a form that would allow people to observe the landscape from above or to create a feeling of being a part/apart of the landscape. The form of the park was established from layers as well as keeping in mind the ideal patch shape for the movement of animals. There was an initial idea of using the landmarks of the hydro towers as spaces for observation.
[top]
[middle]
[bottom]
The view down the corridor is maintained on the right hand side while the left becomes a dense throughway for animals. The contrast of build form starting on the left with the concrete towers, the center forest, and electrical and transport infrastructure on the left.
Facing towards the transit line there is a heavier sense of intervention. Organization of trees and apparent paths highlight the hydro poles.
The form of the park was established from the layers as well as keeping in mind the ideal patch shape for the movement of animals. There was an initial idea of using the landmarks of the hydro towers as spaces for observation. This idea evolved into a notion that the hydro towers could be more a neutral elements but something that would contribute to the health of the surrounding habitat.
Section Through Site
Section Through Site
Form
landscape + urbanism | networks + infrastructure | hydro corridor
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[project]
infill
[students]
Colby Cook / Kevin Eidick
[information]
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[instructor] [program] [site]
Jean Trottier Environmental Design, Year 3 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
[description]
The goal of the project is to combat Winnipeg's rising The intent of the project is to propose a mixed use community infrastructure deficit and to strengthen the social network of the around the proposed bus rapid transit (B.R.T) station and communities within the site. connect the new transit stop to existing social nodes in the precinct. Specifically the Pan Am Pool and Grant Park Mall. The "Winnipeg's debt as a percentage of revenue is forecasted proposal will have a variety of unique programming that will to reach its maximum recommended level in 6 years. draw in people from across the city. This new social node is that means the city is living on borrowed time and the best accessible by public transit and will encourage and infrastructure deficit based on the current model, will promote B.R.T use. continue to rise faster than the city can manage. If the problem is ignored the infrastructure deficit in Winnipeg is expected to reach $7.4 billion in 10 years." - Winnipeg Free Press
landscape + urbanism | networks + infrastructure | infill
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landscape + urbanism | networks + infrastructure | infill
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[project]
doppelscape [student]
Evan Tremblay
[information] [instructor] [program] [site]
Jean Trottier Environmental Design, Year 3 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
[description]
Industrial landscapes, often serviced and programmed but underused, represent a great resource to a city. The preservation of one such area - a hydro corridor separating residential and industrial land types - served as the catalyst for this project, with the aim to enhance and formalize these characteristics. A series of corridors, forest and prairie plantings, a sunken connection to the proposed rapid transit line, warehouses for community uses, and existing hydro lines cross the site and each other. The combination of these different typologies creates a series of spaces of differing characteristics which can be experienced separately or as a larger whole. The simplicity of their initial form, and the
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initial unprogrammed spaces they frame, allow for personal interpretation and use by a variety of users, who over the course of time would modify the site. A recurring annual music festival, taking place in the sunken concrete-lined connection to the rapid transit line, would serve as catalyst for introducing the site and its possibilities to a broad range of users. Service connections located along this corridor allow for the festival, and other events, to occupy different locations at different times, introducing a changing element to an otherwise rhythmic aspect of the site.
l+u [01]
[02]
[03]
[04]
[05]
[06]
[07]
Exploded Site Axonometric [01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06] [07]
Adjacent Uses Warehouse/soundbreaks Initially unprogrammed spaces Forest Corridor Grass Corridor Extant Site Sunken Corridor
landscape + urbanism | networks + infrastructure | doppelscape
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[project]
spatial doppelgänger [students]
Peter Hill / Evan Tremblay
[information]
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[instructor] [program] [site]
Jean Trottier Environmental Design, Year 3 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
[description]
…every inhabitant visits it, chooses the city that corresponds to to this program. The conditions of the city beyond the edge of his desires, contemplates it, imagining his reflection…” the network is also frequently visible, leading to a wealth of –Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities. experiential ‘rooms’ one following after the other. The mapping of the site in the minds of those who pass through it becomes In any city, vast tracts of land are used but essentially empty, enmeshed in these experiences, contesting with the physical the most conspicuous include utility right-of-ways and form to be the ‘real’ site which will be remembered. industrial lands. Their emptiness invites occupation. Empty, they invite occupation. Depending on the individual, they are by turn The model attempts to capture and map spatial qualities and sublime or quixotic, a wasteful left-over to be hidden, or the relationships, using materials taken from the site, providing hidden gems in a city’s crown. The German word doppelgänger, fertile ground for subsequent explorations. an identical double, describes these spaces as they exist simultaneously in two forms: the official, programmed use that led to their creation and the subversive appropriation undertaken whenever they are experienced in a way counter landscape + urbanism | networks + infrastructure | spatial doppelgänger
l+u
[project]
fortress garry [students]
Carmela Bul-Lalayao / Jasper Flores / Matt Gray / Hea Lan Hur / Neil Loewen
[information] [instructor] [program] [site]
Dr. Karen Wilson-Baptist and Liz Wreford-Taylor Environmental Design, Year 3 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
[description]
The study of spatial and formal characteristics of West Fort Gary included exploration of the natural and cultural organizations, political boundaries, zoning and applicable bylaws, land ownership, primary land use patterns, and land holdings. The findings of the research are expressed and mapped three dimensionally. While exploring the spatial and formal characteristics of the site, the metaphor of a castle in the Middle Ages was used in relation to the context of West Fort Garry. In the middle ages, peasants would live inside the walls of the castles leaving safety to farm during the day. This is similar to the layout of modern cities where the desire to live is separated from work. The Middle Ages metaphor was then applied to the board game Risk and the battle for valuable pieces of lands. In Risk, the valuable pieces of land are always
those with numerous ways to enter or exit the territory. This is analogous to our contemporary milieu where pieces of property on major roads or at major intersections are the most valuable. This knowledge was then related back to the site; West Fort Garry. The classic rules of Risk were altered to allow the game to better represent West Fort Garry and the city of Winnipeg. There are four players in the game; the industrialists, the residents, the environmentalists, and the businessmen. Each player has game pieces unique to them. Important pieces of land in the site became prominent in the board game. The Parker Lands, Hydro Corridor, and Sugar Beet Lands begin the game vacant and must be conquered. During game play the dice act like politicians, they are outside the control of the players but are responsible for the outcome of the battles.
landscape + urbanism | network (r)evolution | fortress garry
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[project]
bridging the gap [student]
Krista Goodman
[information]
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[instructor] [program] [site]
Karen Wislon Baptist and Liz Wreford-Taylor Environmental Design, Year 3 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
[description]
Disturbances and the division of landscapes is a common form in urban context, making it difficult and dangerous for wildlife travel. Within the given precinct, an extensive exploration was done, finding that the majority of the wildlife in the area are located in the southern area of the precinct. What is already a rich habitat, this area is the starting point for the project. Throughout the corridor, prairie grasses will be maintained, allowing for deer to graze without interfering with the Hydro lines. As the industrial area begins to die out, a forest will be developed along the western edge of the corridor as well as small patches of trees will be implemented throughout the precinct. A forest provides shelter and greater habitat diversity for the animals that dwell within the area. The forest would provide shelter for the deer in the winter as well as it acts as a buffer between the wildlife areas and new residential expansion in the industrial area. A lake would begin to develop in the industrial area and grow in size as the area begins to shift towards residential development.
landscape + urbanism | network (r)evolution | bridging the gap
Fragmentations within the precinct were identified and encircled depending on the scale of the disturbance. Parking lots and other disturbances were then removed from the corridor, smaller roadways are replaced with pedestrian pathways. An animal bridge will be implemented across the large disturbance that is McGillivary Highway, reconnecting the landscape and creating safe passage for both animal and vehicular travel. The wildlife bridge is imagined to be a series of rolling hills both steep and gentle slopes, guiding the traffic to the other side. The elevation of area surrounding the bridge begins to be raised to create a softer transition when traveling through the corridor. Cliffs were made to deter movement and low slopes to encourage it. Both high and low points work together to guide and move traffic across the bridge.
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[top, series]
Stages of Development Extensive changes to the landscape include an expanding forest, residential development, and pedestrian pathways. These entities will work together to create a rich and cohesive landscape.
landscape + urbanism | network (r)evolution | bridging the gap
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[project]
infrastructual symphonics [student]
Jasper Flores
[information]
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[instructor] [program] [site]
Dr. Karen Wilson-Baptist and Liz Wreford-Taylor Environmental Design, Year 3 Winnipeg, Manitoba
[description]
Examining the existing acoustics of the site’s natural environment and unearthing what triggers them influenced the proposed design to accommodates the discharge of sound through the underground water pipes that shelter the water system throughout the Hydro corridor. Certain voids are particularly placed on pipe openings to channel sound resonance. "Infrastructural symphonics" is an exploration and celebration of infrastructure systems and utilities beyond their basic and mundane utilitarian functions. It is a project aimed at the exposition of site acoustics that would act as a musical score of the proposed landscape.
landscape + urbanism | network (r)evolution | infrastructual symphonics
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l+u
fast food rethinking the winnipeg blue box [proposal]
for rapid food and rapid transit [practice]
Plain Projects
[instructor]
Liz Wreford-Talyor
[program] [position] [ plain projects]
Environmental Design Sessional Instructor Principal Landscape Architect
[student]
Shawn Stakewich
[studies] [ plain projects]
Landscape Architecture, Graduate Studies Landscape Designer
[description]
Recently, the City of Winnipeg estimated that there are approximately 500,000 blue box recycling bins in use within the city. The implementation of new larger rolling bins will mean that existing curbside blue boxes will no longer be used to collect recyclable items from homeowners. Faced with so many recycling bins, unique design opportunity in repurposing the material presents itself. How could these bins be used locally in their existing form without the need to implement plastic recycling processes? Is there a need for new public infrastructure that could be addressed? How could entire communities benefit from the reuse of blue boxes as part of a larger designed solution? We envision a new life for old blue boxes. Winnipeg’s new bus rapid transit lines are extending, the service is expanding, and more and more people are riding the bus. This presents an opportunity to develop new shelter structures to enhance the experience of public transit. Introducing Fast Food, Winnipeg’s first bus rapid transit shelters that are also productive stormwater and vegetable gardens! The structures each utilize 243 standard City of Winnipeg blue box recycling bins for various uses including shade and shelter, collecting stormwater, supporting aquatic vegetation, vegetable garden planting boxes, and seating. The gardens would provide the perfect place to grow a
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department of landscape architecture | fast food
variety of vegetables. Imagine coming off the bus and picking fresh food for dinner! Integrated rainwater cisterns and a simple irrigation system, allow the gardens to be selfsufficient. Planting could be done each year by neighborhood community groups. The structures act as educational tools, demonstrating how storm water can be collected and used to maintain plants to improve the aesthetic experience of the streetscape, as well as provide food for the community. Using the bins as individual planting boxes is not ideal, as many people may not individually possess the open space to place the boxes. Integrating the system into public right of ways and bus stop areas allows many people to have access to the gardens. By combining bins into a integrated "field" of planting beds, it makes the entire structure more viable and easier to plant and maintain. The addition of stormwater management and irrigation increases the productivity of each garden. The structures are only 2.5 meters wide, allowing them to fit easily into existing bus stop areas. The design is a cost effective way to not only reuse existing bins, but also provide shelter for transit users.
235
km
How many is 500,000?
"Green Box"
"Blue Box"
500,000 bins set side-by-side would equal 235 kilometres, enough bins to span from Winnipeg to Brandon, Manitoba. If you stacked the boxes into stacks of 20, you would have enough stacks to fill a regulation CFL football field.
The "green box" bins provide an area to plant vegetables or other plants. It is designed to include a minimum of nine inches of planting medium, and features a geotextile fabric and gravel base to filter and drain additional water as the soil becomes saturated during periods of heavy precipitation.
The "blue box" bins provide filtration for stormwater that enters from the roof structure. It is designed to support moisture-loving plants like Equwisetum and ensures that no standing water remains in the box. Water passing through the system is naturally filtered.
department of landscape architecture | fast food
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l+u
[article]
1000 words about the national september 11 memorial [instructor]
Dr. Karen Wilson Baptist
[information] [department] [position]
Landscape Architecture Associate Professor
[description]
It is September 11, 2001. Center Space in the J.A. Russell Building is shrouded in darkness but for the flickering on the large screen. Twin towers stand stalwart against a flawless blue sky. A plane pierces one building. The tower begins to burn. About fifteen minutes later, another jet hits the second tower. Dark shadows emerge from the building, hover above the flames, and then fall. In the silent room, the towers collapse over and over again.
architects to flesh out the proposal. In collaboration with Peter Walker of PWP, “Reflecting Absence” won the competition. In addition to the initially proposed fountains upon the footprints of 1 World Trade Center and 2 World Trade Center, the revised proposal incorporated a public plaza, featuring a simple palette of granite pavers, rectangular benches, custom lighting set amongst 400 Quercus bicolor, and a single “survivor” tree.
I first visited New York City in 1996. I hit all the tourist sites, the Statue of Liberty, the radiant Chrysler building, the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building. I toured galleries and shopped. In subsequent trips, I felt more familiar with the city, so I ventured further afield – the Meatpacking District, Brooklyn, the Bronx. New York City entered my art practice, the twin Trade Towers forming the background to allegorical drawings. When we introduced our niece to the city in 2004 we brought her to Ground Zero. Behind the chain link fence there was a massive trench. Surrounding buildings were shrouded as if in mourning cloth. Crowds of people surrounded the site, some were smiling and laughing, reporters interviewed people, the sun shone. It felt carnivalesque, inappropriate, wrong. We walked past the interpretive signs situated along the perimeter fence in silence.
I return to New York in November of 2011. The memorial has opened two months previous. I am eager to visit landscape architecture projects that have emerged since my last visit - The High Line, Teardrop Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park and to renew my acquaintance with old favorites, Central Park, Paley Park, and Bryant Park. I feel apprehensive about visiting the 9/11 memorial; I unsure about being upon the ground where so many died. My personal experience of the event is vicarious, but for others I know remembering 9/11 recalls memories barely suppressed – the loss of colleagues and friends, the screaming sirens, the fluttering papers raining from the sky, the ash that coated the city, the endless walk home, an uncertain future.
The international competition for the National September 11 Memorial was launched in 2003 receiving 5,201 submissions. Michael Arad’s proposal, “Reflecting Absence” was short listed, but the jury strongly suggested that Arad partner with landscape 284
landscape + urbanism | 1000 words about the national september 11 memorial
We wind through the streets of the financial district, following the long line of people who await admission. With our passes we move through security quickly and emerge onto the plaza. We walk through the trees, drawn to the rising sound of water. Arriving at the first fountain, we lean into the bulwark. The incised bronze parapet is wide so I cannot view the terminus of the
waterfall below me, only a dark absence centered within the pool. The water draws me within; I sense myself falling, caught in the endless stream of water. Surrounding the void are the first of twin parapets inscribed with names of the victims from the 1993 bombing of 1 World Trade Center and those who died in during the September 11 attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Names are grouped according to affiliation: family, friend, colleague. Below the parapet, water stills briefly in a catchment trough before plunging 30 metres downward, flowing along the bottom of the fountain into a dark maw cut into the granite basin. We circle the south tower footprint, pausing to read the names in bronze: “13th precinct”, “Emergency Services Squad 4”, “Renée A. May and her unborn child”. Occasionally a squadron blazon is affixed to the parapet, but most names are unadorned. People reverently stroke letters, gaze into the void. The sound of the water silences the city. We encircle the first fountain and move north to the second tower fountain. Following the perimeter we discover a dozen pink roses placed amongst the victims’ names. I linger here and reflect. Rather than relief or reconciliation, I awaken deep sadness. I experience a strange equilibrium - a massive abyss in my body finds a spatial equivalency within the eternal void that lies at my feet. The dead of 9/11 are not erased from the earth. Their bronze vestiges are forever bound to this site; their presence captured in a perpetual aqueous purgatory. No remains to mourn, no urn to cherish, no grave to place flowers upon, what comfort might the memorial bring the bereft?
I sense her before I see her. The crowd parts to let her pass. She bears a badge that reads “Family”, and holds a scroll of white paper. Reading from a map, she locates the name she seeks. Her hands fumble as she attempts to unroll the paper. She is weeping. My partner Lloyd and another man step forward, one to each side. Together they place the scroll over the name, anchoring it with their hands. She rubs a charcoal pencil over the letters below. We turn away to leave. I look back and see that she is alone at the parapet, the construction cranes framing her solitude. The light begins to fade; the glooming comes early in November. As indigo falls upon the memorial, the names begin to glow with a soft golden light. The water is backlit, creating the illusion of an infinite pathway within the fountain. The maw at the bottom of the pool remains in deep shadow. Crossing the plaza, we exit through guarded gates, spilling out into the streets of New York City. The drums beat a rhythm in Zuccotti Park and red light sets faces aglow as we pass the Century 21 holiday display. We descend into the earth, traveling north into the darkness of the city.
landscape + urbanism | 1000 words about the national september 11 memorial
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Re-Imagine a Campus instructor: anna thurmayr
The campus of Providence University College is a rural space, in the heart of the southeastern Manitoba farming district, about 50 kilometers south of Winnipeg. Providence College was founded in 1925 and re-located to Otterburne in 1970. Today, it is one of the largest Christian colleges and seminaries in Canada. Providence University College is one of three schools at Providence in Otterburne. The Seminary offers theological education; the English Language Institute prepares speakers of other languages to study at a university level. Space in Question Providence is a small school (about 500 students). “Its size gives it certain advantages. A smaller faculty is able to collaborate on cross-disciplinary projects that large departments are often unable to facilitate. Providence’s size also eliminates much of the bureaucracy and policies that inhibit effectiveness” (www.providencecollege. ca). Within the last 5 years several sustainable projects have been installed: eco-friendly cleaning supplies, new windows, geothermal plant and finally the start of the biomass utilisation this fall. A river (the Rat River) winds through the campus, but the existing layout has neglected the physical relationship to the river. Providence has 100 acres in which to grow and the potential to benefit from the beauty of natural surroundings. It also has interesting historic elements, including an early twentieth-century Catholic school building. Historically, aesthetics or design is not emphasized, and so the buildings on the site have tended to be utilitarian. “All the educational and administrative work of the institution occurs in two connected buildings. There are about ten classrooms, an office for each of the 33 fulltime faculty members, an office for each administrator, and offices and workspaces for support staff. One strongly felt need is for spaces for groups of thirty to forty people (both classrooms and/or meeting rooms). There is a mix of old and new buildings on campus. Deferred maintenance costs are large on the older buildings. Some campus roads also are in need of repair. Campus housing consists of two large residence halls, six fourplexes, Providence House, and Seminary House” (www.providencecollege.ca). In 2003, when the enrolment peaked the housing was stretched to its limits.
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[project]
green core [students]
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Tayler Bishop / Roxane Gratton
[02]
[instructor] [program] [site]
Anna Thurmayr Environmental Design, Year 4 Otterburne, Manitoba, Canada
[description]
The goal of the Green Core is to create a functional, attractive, welcoming, technologically current and recreational green core for the Providence College in Manitoba. It was obvious from the beginning that something was missing on the campus. The space between the buildings felt vast and empty. The primary concept discusses bringing the campus together using the idea of squares in many different shapes, sizes and angles. The design of the Green Core consist of 24 squares varying in size from just over 253 squares meters to 2450 square meters. A variety of different materials and textures, including lawn, meadow, concrete and wood are utilized. Cast in place concrete is the primary hard surface of the core while wood decks and stone serve as accents and have secondary significance in contrast. Specific prairie flower species were selected in accordance of their colourful blooming scheme throughout the seasons and to attract butterflies and other wildlife. The wet meadow squares consist of blue ivy due to its moisture
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Hard Surface Soft Space Wet Meadows Edible Realm Raised Surface Wisping Foliage
based qualities to potentially collect runoff water. The orchard produces fragrant fruit and the productive garden gives access to fresh and healthy produce for the campus kitchen, students and the community. Stone edges are cautiously raised on individual squares for comfortable seating options while wood decks provide areas for meeting, studying and social events. Two carefully sloped lawns form grass pillows with the highest point of the slope reaching to 2.5-3 meters. Hardy Manitoban trees and flowering shrubs were selected to create unique spaces on the campus. The model produced for the design attempts to capture the contrasting elevations, colours and texture. The Green Core aims to bring the scattered buildings of Providence College together, creating an overall cohesive, welcoming and relaxing campus.
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landscape + urbanism | re-imagine a campus | green core
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[project]
sweat and leisure [students]
Neil Eckton / Keegan Kent
[information]
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[instructor] [program] [site]
Anna Thurmayr Environmental Design, Year 4 Otterburne, Manitoba. Canada
[description]
The proposal for Providence College consists of multiple elements that result in the proposal for an oblique circled sports park. The centralized sports facility includes a set of change rooms, two basketball courts, and two indoor soccer fields which can also be turned into indoor hockey rinks. A willow field, planted with Salix alba ‘Vitellina‘ (Golden Willow), surounds the northern tip of the sports park and is used as biomass for fuel for the already existing burners at the college. Student areas are interconnected through the field of willows offering areas of relaxation away from the college. The raised outer berm serves as a threshold from the surrounding farmer fields and willow field as well as creates a wind barrier. An inner track circles the park enclosing the sports facilities.
landscape + urbanism | re-imagine a campus | sweat and leisure