Join My Mailing List. Mark DeKay. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. ... Design and Technology f... more Join My Mailing List. Mark DeKay. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. ... Design and Technology for Energy Efficiency in a Multifamily Concrete Panel House for a Hot-Arid Climate - 2030. R. Kellett Mark DeKay, University of Tennessee, Knoxville B. Muller D. Peting. ...
Enquiry: A Journal for Architectural Research, 2007
This paper describes metaphorical engagement of ecology as a strategy for designing human inhabit... more This paper describes metaphorical engagement of ecology as a strategy for designing human inhabitation catalyzed by and supportive of healthy urban ecosystems. A case is made for the importance and timliness of collaboration and conceptual association between architects and landscape ecologists. Next, the Australian architect Richard Leplastrier’s notion of architecture as “furnishing with particular purpose this larger room we are in” – suggestive of both the architect’s role and the context of an architectural undertaking – is examined as a prototype for approaching problems of design in an environmentally sensitive manner. A pilot studio attempt to engage ecological issues through metaphor is described, and building from this experiment andLepastrier’s statement, a palette of “human act/environment” case study metaphors is offered foruse in design. Lastly I offer a methodology for testing these metaphors in advanced architecturaldesign studios and evaluating their influence on st...
This paper will discuss an unconventional methodology for using physical and digital media strate... more This paper will discuss an unconventional methodology for using physical and digital media strategies in a tightly structured framework for the integration of Environmental Control Systems (ECS) principles into a third year design studio. An interchangeable use of digital media and physical material enabled architectural explorations of rich tactile and luminous engagement. The principles that provide the foundation for integrative strategies between a design studio and building technology course spring from the Bauhaus tradition where a systematic approach to craftsmanship and visual perception is emphasized. Focusing particularly on color, light, texture and materials, Josef Albers explored the assemblage of found objects, transforming these materials into unexpected dynamic compositions. Moholy-Nagy developed a technique called the photogram or camera-less photograph to record the temporal movements of light. Wassily Kandinsky developed a method of analytical drawing that breaks ...
Gestures are inevitable and invaluable acts of expression that occur throughout the architectural... more Gestures are inevitable and invaluable acts of expression that occur throughout the architectural design process. Students struggle at times to put complex ideas in drawings and words. Without fail, gestures telegraph this struggle; they are fleeting yet momentous links between thinking and drawing and between one’s personal design sensibility and the complex social and physical realm of architecture. This paper seeks to develop insights about the role and value of gestures in architecture by investigating their frequency, form and influence in the design studio. A proposed framework draws insights from sources such as psychology and art theory to speculate about the role of gesture in architectural design thinking. It assimilates different disciplinary perspectives in order to consider ways gestures as simultaneously personal and inter-subjective acts promote designers’ heightened intentionality and awareness. The framework is then applied to a design exercise that encourages the t...
It is more than a coincidence that in his two essays, “Wilderness and the City: Not such a Long D... more It is more than a coincidence that in his two essays, “Wilderness and the City: Not such a Long Drive After All” and “Can Cities Be Both Natural and Successful? Reflections Grounding Two Apparently Oxymoronic Aspirations,” Scott Cameron looks to water as a basis for evaluating the city in relationship to the wild and in imagining new possibilities for urban nature. In an attempt to complement and enrich Cameron’s thinking, this essay focuses on emerging, decentralized and ecologically responsive approaches to water and wastewater systems in architectural projects in dense urban environments. Such an emphasis on “blue architectures” allows for a reframing of the city/nature relationship in terms of degrees of concentration—of water, organisms, and pollutants—as a precursor to considerations of distances involved (“not such a long drive”). To concentrate on localized hydrologic conditions is to support the integrity of broader scale ecological systems and to reconnect urban dwellers t...
In this article, I explore conceptual strategies encouraging an ecologically responsive, water-ce... more In this article, I explore conceptual strategies encouraging an ecologically responsive, water-centric approach to architectural design, such that design interventions become nature/culture hybrids connecting urban dwellers to larger hydrological conditions. I consider the notion of horizons as one mechanism for working out a trajectory for sustainable architecture, one that highlights experiential and environmental concerns simultaneously. In a conceptual shift, theorist David Leatherbarrow’s treatment of “three architectural horizons” (the equipmental—the objects of one’s immediate setting; the practical—the enclosure of a building; and the environmental— what lies beyond) are reshuffled: the practical expands to the watershed (the bioregion as common dwelling place) while environmental processes couple with the equipment of buildings, such that architectures deliver net positive watershed impact.
Enquiry: A Journal for Architectural Research, 2007
Value-laden articulations of the task of the architect guide manners of working - the concerns, i... more Value-laden articulations of the task of the architect guide manners of working - the concerns, inspirations and procedures given priority. Architectural practices in turn determine the nature of the physical constructs that result. If architects are contributing to environmental degradation by designing buildings that are inefficient and unhealthy, and a pressing need exists to advance more life enhancing, sustaining practices, then perhaps environmentally concerned architects ought not only work towards the creation of better performing, more resourceful building assemblies, but also to engage in basic reflection as to how design problems are expressed and the environmental receptivity such expressions reveal. By tracing the lineage binding utterance to practice to making, we might come to recognize that even subtle shifts in articulation can alter outcomes dramatically. Through such newfound awareness, we are open and encouraged to reexamine the architect’s role, to new descripti...
This paper will discuss an unconventional methodology for using physical and digital media strate... more This paper will discuss an unconventional methodology for using physical and digital media strategies interchangeably in a tightly structured framework for the integration of environmental control systems (ECS) principles into a third year design studio. An eight-step methodology enabled architectural explorations of rich tactile and luminous engagement. The principles that provide the foundation for these integrative strategies between a design
Cal Poly State University's College of Architecture has a history of effectively integrating ... more Cal Poly State University's College of Architecture has a history of effectively integrating the building sciences into the curriculum for the education of future design professionals. Cal Poly's Canyon, a 16-acre parcel of land at the University started in 1963 was established for the purpose of developing a laboratory of experimental structures. The design and construction of building structures continues
Enquiry: A Journal for Architectural Research, 2014
This essay describes strategic approaches to graphic representation associated with critical envi... more This essay describes strategic approaches to graphic representation associated with critical environmental engagement and that build from the idea of works of architecture as stitches in the ecological fabric of the city. It focuses on the building up of partial or fragmented graphics in order to describe inclusive, open-ended possibilities for making architecture that marry rich experience and responsive performance. An aphoristic approach to crafting drawings involves complex layering, conscious absence and the embracing of tension. A self-critical attitude toward the generation of imagery characterized by the notion of ‘loose precision’ may lead to more transformative and environmentally responsive architectures.
Join My Mailing List. Mark DeKay. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. ... Design and Technology f... more Join My Mailing List. Mark DeKay. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. ... Design and Technology for Energy Efficiency in a Multifamily Concrete Panel House for a Hot-Arid Climate - 2030. R. Kellett Mark DeKay, University of Tennessee, Knoxville B. Muller D. Peting. ...
Enquiry: A Journal for Architectural Research, 2007
This paper describes metaphorical engagement of ecology as a strategy for designing human inhabit... more This paper describes metaphorical engagement of ecology as a strategy for designing human inhabitation catalyzed by and supportive of healthy urban ecosystems. A case is made for the importance and timliness of collaboration and conceptual association between architects and landscape ecologists. Next, the Australian architect Richard Leplastrier’s notion of architecture as “furnishing with particular purpose this larger room we are in” – suggestive of both the architect’s role and the context of an architectural undertaking – is examined as a prototype for approaching problems of design in an environmentally sensitive manner. A pilot studio attempt to engage ecological issues through metaphor is described, and building from this experiment andLepastrier’s statement, a palette of “human act/environment” case study metaphors is offered foruse in design. Lastly I offer a methodology for testing these metaphors in advanced architecturaldesign studios and evaluating their influence on st...
This paper will discuss an unconventional methodology for using physical and digital media strate... more This paper will discuss an unconventional methodology for using physical and digital media strategies in a tightly structured framework for the integration of Environmental Control Systems (ECS) principles into a third year design studio. An interchangeable use of digital media and physical material enabled architectural explorations of rich tactile and luminous engagement. The principles that provide the foundation for integrative strategies between a design studio and building technology course spring from the Bauhaus tradition where a systematic approach to craftsmanship and visual perception is emphasized. Focusing particularly on color, light, texture and materials, Josef Albers explored the assemblage of found objects, transforming these materials into unexpected dynamic compositions. Moholy-Nagy developed a technique called the photogram or camera-less photograph to record the temporal movements of light. Wassily Kandinsky developed a method of analytical drawing that breaks ...
Gestures are inevitable and invaluable acts of expression that occur throughout the architectural... more Gestures are inevitable and invaluable acts of expression that occur throughout the architectural design process. Students struggle at times to put complex ideas in drawings and words. Without fail, gestures telegraph this struggle; they are fleeting yet momentous links between thinking and drawing and between one’s personal design sensibility and the complex social and physical realm of architecture. This paper seeks to develop insights about the role and value of gestures in architecture by investigating their frequency, form and influence in the design studio. A proposed framework draws insights from sources such as psychology and art theory to speculate about the role of gesture in architectural design thinking. It assimilates different disciplinary perspectives in order to consider ways gestures as simultaneously personal and inter-subjective acts promote designers’ heightened intentionality and awareness. The framework is then applied to a design exercise that encourages the t...
It is more than a coincidence that in his two essays, “Wilderness and the City: Not such a Long D... more It is more than a coincidence that in his two essays, “Wilderness and the City: Not such a Long Drive After All” and “Can Cities Be Both Natural and Successful? Reflections Grounding Two Apparently Oxymoronic Aspirations,” Scott Cameron looks to water as a basis for evaluating the city in relationship to the wild and in imagining new possibilities for urban nature. In an attempt to complement and enrich Cameron’s thinking, this essay focuses on emerging, decentralized and ecologically responsive approaches to water and wastewater systems in architectural projects in dense urban environments. Such an emphasis on “blue architectures” allows for a reframing of the city/nature relationship in terms of degrees of concentration—of water, organisms, and pollutants—as a precursor to considerations of distances involved (“not such a long drive”). To concentrate on localized hydrologic conditions is to support the integrity of broader scale ecological systems and to reconnect urban dwellers t...
In this article, I explore conceptual strategies encouraging an ecologically responsive, water-ce... more In this article, I explore conceptual strategies encouraging an ecologically responsive, water-centric approach to architectural design, such that design interventions become nature/culture hybrids connecting urban dwellers to larger hydrological conditions. I consider the notion of horizons as one mechanism for working out a trajectory for sustainable architecture, one that highlights experiential and environmental concerns simultaneously. In a conceptual shift, theorist David Leatherbarrow’s treatment of “three architectural horizons” (the equipmental—the objects of one’s immediate setting; the practical—the enclosure of a building; and the environmental— what lies beyond) are reshuffled: the practical expands to the watershed (the bioregion as common dwelling place) while environmental processes couple with the equipment of buildings, such that architectures deliver net positive watershed impact.
Enquiry: A Journal for Architectural Research, 2007
Value-laden articulations of the task of the architect guide manners of working - the concerns, i... more Value-laden articulations of the task of the architect guide manners of working - the concerns, inspirations and procedures given priority. Architectural practices in turn determine the nature of the physical constructs that result. If architects are contributing to environmental degradation by designing buildings that are inefficient and unhealthy, and a pressing need exists to advance more life enhancing, sustaining practices, then perhaps environmentally concerned architects ought not only work towards the creation of better performing, more resourceful building assemblies, but also to engage in basic reflection as to how design problems are expressed and the environmental receptivity such expressions reveal. By tracing the lineage binding utterance to practice to making, we might come to recognize that even subtle shifts in articulation can alter outcomes dramatically. Through such newfound awareness, we are open and encouraged to reexamine the architect’s role, to new descripti...
This paper will discuss an unconventional methodology for using physical and digital media strate... more This paper will discuss an unconventional methodology for using physical and digital media strategies interchangeably in a tightly structured framework for the integration of environmental control systems (ECS) principles into a third year design studio. An eight-step methodology enabled architectural explorations of rich tactile and luminous engagement. The principles that provide the foundation for these integrative strategies between a design
Cal Poly State University's College of Architecture has a history of effectively integrating ... more Cal Poly State University's College of Architecture has a history of effectively integrating the building sciences into the curriculum for the education of future design professionals. Cal Poly's Canyon, a 16-acre parcel of land at the University started in 1963 was established for the purpose of developing a laboratory of experimental structures. The design and construction of building structures continues
Enquiry: A Journal for Architectural Research, 2014
This essay describes strategic approaches to graphic representation associated with critical envi... more This essay describes strategic approaches to graphic representation associated with critical environmental engagement and that build from the idea of works of architecture as stitches in the ecological fabric of the city. It focuses on the building up of partial or fragmented graphics in order to describe inclusive, open-ended possibilities for making architecture that marry rich experience and responsive performance. An aphoristic approach to crafting drawings involves complex layering, conscious absence and the embracing of tension. A self-critical attitude toward the generation of imagery characterized by the notion of ‘loose precision’ may lead to more transformative and environmentally responsive architectures.
Uploads