Sandy Litchfield is an artist, curator and Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She teaches courses that lie at the intersection of art, architecture, design and writing. Her studio practice– which focuses on contemporary representations of landscape and urban ecology– includes painting, collage, installation, and public art.
In his book, Playing and Reality, child psychologist D.H. Winnicott proposes that an abstract pla... more In his book, Playing and Reality, child psychologist D.H. Winnicott proposes that an abstract playground exists between two people in a relationship. This potential space, as he calls it, hovers between the inner worlds of an individual’s mind, which are private and subjective, and the external reality that we occupy together, in which observation and experience can be shared. Part of the game is to test our inner world– our ideas, thoughts, hopes and dreams– in and against reality. For architects, designers and artists, the studio is also a playground, one that facilitates and exercises the imagination through make-believe theoretical frameworks. On the one hand, it is a relatively safe place to take risks, experiment and play. On the other hand, it requires a significant commitment of time, energy, and money. The value of the studio-as-playground lies in its pretense and potential. It\u27s a place for our imaginations to take off into make-believe worlds as a way to rethink the wo...
As a teaching tool, the Kit of Parts (hereafter KoP) was developed in the mid-20th century by Joh... more As a teaching tool, the Kit of Parts (hereafter KoP) was developed in the mid-20th century by John Hejduk and Bob Slutzky, first at the University of Texas and later Cooper Union. Since then it has been widely used by educators to teach design composition as a formal issue. Originally this nine-square grid problem was comprised of an exact and restricted set of wood parts with precisely defined measurements. The limited parameters focused on possibilities for arrangement that established order, space relationships and spatial complexity. Over the years, design educators have debated and modified the use of kits, providing rich ground for pedagogic discussion. This paper outlines an experimental project in which Arch 100 students were asked to create and then work through problems using a uniquely non-traditional KoP. With a nod towards Rowe and Koetter's Collage City, the KoP used for this class was not uniform, but eclectic and various. Collage City advocates for a design approach accommodating a range of disparate parts that don't fit neatly together. It argues against pure modernist ideals, proposing instead that 'bricolage' be used as a methodology for aesthetic construction and creative planning. Like a collage that embraces our pluralistic past, "the objects can be aristocratic or they can be 'folkish', academic or popular." The three projects in this course- Composing, Diagramming and Imagining- were developed to teach students about principal architectural drawing techniques and creation in space. The initial exercise, which employs the kit as a tool to explore a 1:1 relationship with objects in the context of still-life drawing exercise, raises pertinent questions about material intersection and visual organization. In this sequence of lessons, students demonstrate a range of learning differences. They look to each other for problem solving strategies and are inspired through their collaborative exchange. And as they begin to grasp the elements of composition, construction and drawing systems, they also learn inventive techniques for architectonic design and creative practice. This paper assesses both successful and unsuccessful projects as it investigates the ongoing dialectic between structure and agency. It shares insights about how a less standardized KoP extends itself beyond 20th century themes of form, abstraction and concept to 21st century notions of heterogeneity, adaptation and resilience.
Drawing the City, an advanced special topics seminar and studio at UMass Amherst, was designed to... more Drawing the City, an advanced special topics seminar and studio at UMass Amherst, was designed to investigate the value and efficacy of eidetic operations for representing the urban landscape. Coursework emphasizes hybrid drawing methods– including hand drawing, collage, digital media and graphic illustration– as a way to merge, morph and invent new and original imaging techniques for both analysis and communication.
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Fall Conference, 2018
In his book, Playing and Reality, child psychologist D.H. Winnicott proposes that an abstract pla... more In his book, Playing and Reality, child psychologist D.H. Winnicott proposes that an abstract playground exists between two people in a relationship. This potential space, as he calls it, hovers between the inner worlds of an individual’s mind, which are private and subjective, and the external reality that we occupy together, in which observation and experience can be shared. Part of the game is to test our inner world– our ideas, thoughts, hopes and dreams– in and against reality.
For architects, designers and artists, the studio is also a playground, one that facilitates and exercises the imagination through make-believe theoretical frameworks. On the one hand, it is a relatively safe place to take risks, experiment and play. On the other hand, it requires a significant commitment of time, energy, and money. The value of the studio-as-playground lies in its pretense and potential. It's a place for our imaginations to take off into make-believe worlds as a way to rethink the world we now live in.
Architecture itself can act as a playground too. In the 1960’s Cedric Price and Joan Little conceived of Fun Palace, a performative platform meant for all members of society. In this interactive cultural space, the game was to have fun. It was a place for amusement, experimentation, and discovery; a place to create, explore and learn. Although Fun Palace was never realized, it had an enduring influence on future buildings including the Centre Pompidou, and most recently, The Shed, by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (currently in construction). But what distinguishes Fun Palace as a play-space is its precarious nature, its indefinite and unpredictable form which allows for the spontaneous activity of reality testing.
This paper argues for three design strategies (rules) that promote play as a form of creative activity and cultural practice: (1) It must have a changeable form, allowing for improvisational extensions, alterations and interventions. Without a changeable form it risks becoming a monument or spectacle inspiring awe perhaps, but not intervention and agency. (2) The infrastructure must be exposed. Without an exposed infrastructure the design risks turning into a simulacrum or hyperreal construction (turn the fake castle at Disney World inside out). (3) It must be designed to be temporary. Without impermanence it risks banality, platitude or sheer exhaustion (imagine a Burning Man that never ends).
Whether it occurs in a studio, or some other built environment, having a potential space to play– to test our imaginations in and against reality– is important not only for creative practitioners, buy for all citizens. The precarious infrastructure of Fun Palace, along with its shifting ladders and cranes, is comparable to a circus, except here, the spectators are also the players; they make their own acts, their own sideshows, their own rings. They can even invent their own rules (or break the ones in the paper). This 50-year old concept yields important strategies for creating future cultural experiences that are fun, inclusive, and adaptable to changing populations.
National Conference of the Beginning Design Student, 2017
Although art and architectural design have, in essence, grown up together in the academy, they be... more Although art and architectural design have, in essence, grown up together in the academy, they began to assume different positions in relation to their function in the late renaissance. At this time, architectural design, began to emphasize scientific and technical advancement over symbolic meaning. Since then the function of art has evolved to inspire and arouse, question and provoke, intervene and break with convention, while the function of architecture and landscape architecture has evolved to accommodate physical and social needs, create space for habitation and solve problems using technical and aesthetic principles. In the last thirty years, however, these distinctions between art, architecture and landscape architecture have become blurred. Artists have increasingly expanded their practice to become more contextual in site-specific and public art, while architects and landscape architects have ventured into making more conceptual work like urban interventions and speculative fictions. As this cross-pollination takes place, several pertinent questions emerge for educators: In what way does contemporary art theory and practice develop and expand our pedagogical approaches to design education? What do these new cross-disciplinary practices teach our students about the value of agency, agility and criticality? And finally, how does the autonomy afforded to art-making affect and influence the values of the beginning design student? This paper will present examples of public art installations as part of the design education of landscape architecture and architecture students. Work includes introductory studio exercises for graduate and undergraduate students and real-world collaborations with faculty, including fabrication, implementation, and community outreach. Making public art teaches students how to engage with the community as it makes apparent the regulatory concerns over public and private spaces and elicits a wide array of responses from the public. In these projects students have the opportunity experiment with innovative material techniques while they develop an experiential understanding of complex site conditions that necessitate adaptive and agile design approaches. In conclusion, this paper will consider the ethical values of art making, such as freedom of expression, social engagement, critical thinking, resourcefulness, and divergent thinking, in order to ascertain the importance of these values for young designers who will be confronting 21st century global concerns. It argues that architects and landscape architects must be educated to think like artists in order to imagine, invent and conceptualize new spaces and places through multidisciplinary collaboration. They must learn, not only how to interface with a broad spectrum of engineers, builders, contractors, planners and clients, but also how to be speculative thinkers, dreamers, philosophers and poets of space.
This article explores the relevance of John Keats' concept of negative capability in relation to ... more This article explores the relevance of John Keats' concept of negative capability in relation to teaching foundation design studios. Keats' notion of negative capability has a direct correlation to what design researchers Meinel and Leifer refer to as The Ambiguity Rule, which states: 'Innovation demands experimentation at the limits of our knowledge, at the limits of our ability to control event, and with the freedom to see things differently.'1 As design educators, we can provide a structure or platform for students to experiment on their own, but how can we create a studio environment that encourages risk-taking, allows for error and teaches students to acknowledge and tolerate states of ambiguity; how can we teach them to hone their skills in negative capability? KEYWORDS risk, ambiguity, failure, structure and agency We are searching for some kind of harmony between two intangibles: a form which we have not yet designed and a context which we cannot properly describe. 2
National Conference of the Beginning Design Student, 2016
As a teaching tool, the Kit of Parts (hereafter KoP) was developed in the mid-20th century by Joh... more As a teaching tool, the Kit of Parts (hereafter KoP) was developed in the mid-20th century by John Hejduk and Bob Slutzky, first at the University of Texas and later Cooper Union. Since then it has been widely used by educators to teach design composition as a formal issue. Originally this nine-square grid problem was comprised of an exact and restricted set of wood parts with precisely defined measurements. The limited parameters focused on possibilities for arrangement that established order, space relationships and spatial complexity. Over the years, design educators have debated and modified the use of kits, providing rich ground for pedagogic discussion.
This paper outlines an experimental project in which Arch 100 students were asked to create and then work through problems using a uniquely non-traditional KoP. With a nod towards Rowe and Koetter's Collage City, the KoP used for this class was not uniform, but eclectic and various. Collage City advocates for a design approach accommodating a range of disparate parts that don't fit neatly together. It argues against pure modernist ideals, proposing instead that 'bricolage' be used as a methodology for aesthetic construction and creative planning. Like a collage that embraces our pluralistic past, "the objects can be aristocratic or they can be 'folkish', academic or popular."
The three projects in this course- Composing, Diagramming and Imagining- were developed to teach students about principal architectural drawing techniques and creation in space. The initial exercise, which employs the kit as a tool to explore a 1:1 relationship with objects in the context of still-life drawing exercise, raises pertinent questions about material intersection and visual organization.
In this sequence of lessons, students demonstrate a range of learning differences. They look to each other for problem solving strategies and are inspired through their collaborative exchange. And as they begin to grasp the elements of composition, construction and drawing systems, they also learn inventive techniques for architectonic design and creative practice. This paper assesses both successful and unsuccessful projects as it investigates the ongoing dialectic between structure and agency. It shares insights about how a less standardized KoP extends itself beyond 20th century themes of form, abstraction and concept to 21st century notions of heterogeneity, adaptation and resilience.
National Conference on the Beginning Design Student, 2015
Foundation drawing classes place an emphasis on perception and the various ways of representing w... more Foundation drawing classes place an emphasis on perception and the various ways of representing what is visible. Most importantly, drawing teaches students how to see, not just in the visual sense, but how to look beyond ones assumptions of the world in order to clearly perceive what surrounds us- a skill indispensable to all creative and intellectual investigation. But what does being clear-sighted mean when technology has become an extension of our physical senses?
Today's college students come to classrooms equipped with smartphones, laptops and tablets- technologies that have made a significant impact in the way we teach. Art and design educators may view these technological extensions as either a distraction to learning or an enhancement, depending on how they are incorporated into the curriculum. With the onset of smartphone technology, the nature of perception is radically changing for the next generation of artists and students. Cell-phone cameras are carried everywhere, recording the world around us in videos and photographs. Many smartphones even have panoramic software, which use "stitching" technologies to capture landscapes from multiple perspectives.
The word panorama comes from pan, meaning all, and horama, which means view; it represents the "unbroken view of a whole region surrounding an observer" Panoramic images are usually associated with the depiction of scenic landscape, but they have also been historically used to depict narrative events such as military battles or religious stories. This paper explores the notion of panoramic practice- an expanded application of traditional siting methods, which are used in representational drawing techniques to render proportion, location and perspective. With a brief historical and technological context, this essay considers ways that digital photography and other media can act as an accessory to the classic viewfinder device, which defines composition within the picture plane.
Class assignments and student work will be used to demonstrate how these pocket technologies complicate, distort and enhance our sense of perspective and proportion. Drawing exercises that employ panoramic photography will show complicated and surprising relationships between digital media and the hand-made drawing. These examples reveal the panorama as an immersive medium; it joins the instantaneous image to the endless narrative; it flows across horizons and slips into fragments. As a pictorial device, the panorama incorporates multiple viewpoints into a broad spectrum, providing a suitable template to survey the time we live in.
In his book, Playing and Reality, child psychologist D.H. Winnicott proposes that an abstract pla... more In his book, Playing and Reality, child psychologist D.H. Winnicott proposes that an abstract playground exists between two people in a relationship. This potential space, as he calls it, hovers between the inner worlds of an individual’s mind, which are private and subjective, and the external reality that we occupy together, in which observation and experience can be shared. Part of the game is to test our inner world– our ideas, thoughts, hopes and dreams– in and against reality. For architects, designers and artists, the studio is also a playground, one that facilitates and exercises the imagination through make-believe theoretical frameworks. On the one hand, it is a relatively safe place to take risks, experiment and play. On the other hand, it requires a significant commitment of time, energy, and money. The value of the studio-as-playground lies in its pretense and potential. It\u27s a place for our imaginations to take off into make-believe worlds as a way to rethink the wo...
As a teaching tool, the Kit of Parts (hereafter KoP) was developed in the mid-20th century by Joh... more As a teaching tool, the Kit of Parts (hereafter KoP) was developed in the mid-20th century by John Hejduk and Bob Slutzky, first at the University of Texas and later Cooper Union. Since then it has been widely used by educators to teach design composition as a formal issue. Originally this nine-square grid problem was comprised of an exact and restricted set of wood parts with precisely defined measurements. The limited parameters focused on possibilities for arrangement that established order, space relationships and spatial complexity. Over the years, design educators have debated and modified the use of kits, providing rich ground for pedagogic discussion. This paper outlines an experimental project in which Arch 100 students were asked to create and then work through problems using a uniquely non-traditional KoP. With a nod towards Rowe and Koetter's Collage City, the KoP used for this class was not uniform, but eclectic and various. Collage City advocates for a design approach accommodating a range of disparate parts that don't fit neatly together. It argues against pure modernist ideals, proposing instead that 'bricolage' be used as a methodology for aesthetic construction and creative planning. Like a collage that embraces our pluralistic past, "the objects can be aristocratic or they can be 'folkish', academic or popular." The three projects in this course- Composing, Diagramming and Imagining- were developed to teach students about principal architectural drawing techniques and creation in space. The initial exercise, which employs the kit as a tool to explore a 1:1 relationship with objects in the context of still-life drawing exercise, raises pertinent questions about material intersection and visual organization. In this sequence of lessons, students demonstrate a range of learning differences. They look to each other for problem solving strategies and are inspired through their collaborative exchange. And as they begin to grasp the elements of composition, construction and drawing systems, they also learn inventive techniques for architectonic design and creative practice. This paper assesses both successful and unsuccessful projects as it investigates the ongoing dialectic between structure and agency. It shares insights about how a less standardized KoP extends itself beyond 20th century themes of form, abstraction and concept to 21st century notions of heterogeneity, adaptation and resilience.
Drawing the City, an advanced special topics seminar and studio at UMass Amherst, was designed to... more Drawing the City, an advanced special topics seminar and studio at UMass Amherst, was designed to investigate the value and efficacy of eidetic operations for representing the urban landscape. Coursework emphasizes hybrid drawing methods– including hand drawing, collage, digital media and graphic illustration– as a way to merge, morph and invent new and original imaging techniques for both analysis and communication.
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Fall Conference, 2018
In his book, Playing and Reality, child psychologist D.H. Winnicott proposes that an abstract pla... more In his book, Playing and Reality, child psychologist D.H. Winnicott proposes that an abstract playground exists between two people in a relationship. This potential space, as he calls it, hovers between the inner worlds of an individual’s mind, which are private and subjective, and the external reality that we occupy together, in which observation and experience can be shared. Part of the game is to test our inner world– our ideas, thoughts, hopes and dreams– in and against reality.
For architects, designers and artists, the studio is also a playground, one that facilitates and exercises the imagination through make-believe theoretical frameworks. On the one hand, it is a relatively safe place to take risks, experiment and play. On the other hand, it requires a significant commitment of time, energy, and money. The value of the studio-as-playground lies in its pretense and potential. It's a place for our imaginations to take off into make-believe worlds as a way to rethink the world we now live in.
Architecture itself can act as a playground too. In the 1960’s Cedric Price and Joan Little conceived of Fun Palace, a performative platform meant for all members of society. In this interactive cultural space, the game was to have fun. It was a place for amusement, experimentation, and discovery; a place to create, explore and learn. Although Fun Palace was never realized, it had an enduring influence on future buildings including the Centre Pompidou, and most recently, The Shed, by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (currently in construction). But what distinguishes Fun Palace as a play-space is its precarious nature, its indefinite and unpredictable form which allows for the spontaneous activity of reality testing.
This paper argues for three design strategies (rules) that promote play as a form of creative activity and cultural practice: (1) It must have a changeable form, allowing for improvisational extensions, alterations and interventions. Without a changeable form it risks becoming a monument or spectacle inspiring awe perhaps, but not intervention and agency. (2) The infrastructure must be exposed. Without an exposed infrastructure the design risks turning into a simulacrum or hyperreal construction (turn the fake castle at Disney World inside out). (3) It must be designed to be temporary. Without impermanence it risks banality, platitude or sheer exhaustion (imagine a Burning Man that never ends).
Whether it occurs in a studio, or some other built environment, having a potential space to play– to test our imaginations in and against reality– is important not only for creative practitioners, buy for all citizens. The precarious infrastructure of Fun Palace, along with its shifting ladders and cranes, is comparable to a circus, except here, the spectators are also the players; they make their own acts, their own sideshows, their own rings. They can even invent their own rules (or break the ones in the paper). This 50-year old concept yields important strategies for creating future cultural experiences that are fun, inclusive, and adaptable to changing populations.
National Conference of the Beginning Design Student, 2017
Although art and architectural design have, in essence, grown up together in the academy, they be... more Although art and architectural design have, in essence, grown up together in the academy, they began to assume different positions in relation to their function in the late renaissance. At this time, architectural design, began to emphasize scientific and technical advancement over symbolic meaning. Since then the function of art has evolved to inspire and arouse, question and provoke, intervene and break with convention, while the function of architecture and landscape architecture has evolved to accommodate physical and social needs, create space for habitation and solve problems using technical and aesthetic principles. In the last thirty years, however, these distinctions between art, architecture and landscape architecture have become blurred. Artists have increasingly expanded their practice to become more contextual in site-specific and public art, while architects and landscape architects have ventured into making more conceptual work like urban interventions and speculative fictions. As this cross-pollination takes place, several pertinent questions emerge for educators: In what way does contemporary art theory and practice develop and expand our pedagogical approaches to design education? What do these new cross-disciplinary practices teach our students about the value of agency, agility and criticality? And finally, how does the autonomy afforded to art-making affect and influence the values of the beginning design student? This paper will present examples of public art installations as part of the design education of landscape architecture and architecture students. Work includes introductory studio exercises for graduate and undergraduate students and real-world collaborations with faculty, including fabrication, implementation, and community outreach. Making public art teaches students how to engage with the community as it makes apparent the regulatory concerns over public and private spaces and elicits a wide array of responses from the public. In these projects students have the opportunity experiment with innovative material techniques while they develop an experiential understanding of complex site conditions that necessitate adaptive and agile design approaches. In conclusion, this paper will consider the ethical values of art making, such as freedom of expression, social engagement, critical thinking, resourcefulness, and divergent thinking, in order to ascertain the importance of these values for young designers who will be confronting 21st century global concerns. It argues that architects and landscape architects must be educated to think like artists in order to imagine, invent and conceptualize new spaces and places through multidisciplinary collaboration. They must learn, not only how to interface with a broad spectrum of engineers, builders, contractors, planners and clients, but also how to be speculative thinkers, dreamers, philosophers and poets of space.
This article explores the relevance of John Keats' concept of negative capability in relation to ... more This article explores the relevance of John Keats' concept of negative capability in relation to teaching foundation design studios. Keats' notion of negative capability has a direct correlation to what design researchers Meinel and Leifer refer to as The Ambiguity Rule, which states: 'Innovation demands experimentation at the limits of our knowledge, at the limits of our ability to control event, and with the freedom to see things differently.'1 As design educators, we can provide a structure or platform for students to experiment on their own, but how can we create a studio environment that encourages risk-taking, allows for error and teaches students to acknowledge and tolerate states of ambiguity; how can we teach them to hone their skills in negative capability? KEYWORDS risk, ambiguity, failure, structure and agency We are searching for some kind of harmony between two intangibles: a form which we have not yet designed and a context which we cannot properly describe. 2
National Conference of the Beginning Design Student, 2016
As a teaching tool, the Kit of Parts (hereafter KoP) was developed in the mid-20th century by Joh... more As a teaching tool, the Kit of Parts (hereafter KoP) was developed in the mid-20th century by John Hejduk and Bob Slutzky, first at the University of Texas and later Cooper Union. Since then it has been widely used by educators to teach design composition as a formal issue. Originally this nine-square grid problem was comprised of an exact and restricted set of wood parts with precisely defined measurements. The limited parameters focused on possibilities for arrangement that established order, space relationships and spatial complexity. Over the years, design educators have debated and modified the use of kits, providing rich ground for pedagogic discussion.
This paper outlines an experimental project in which Arch 100 students were asked to create and then work through problems using a uniquely non-traditional KoP. With a nod towards Rowe and Koetter's Collage City, the KoP used for this class was not uniform, but eclectic and various. Collage City advocates for a design approach accommodating a range of disparate parts that don't fit neatly together. It argues against pure modernist ideals, proposing instead that 'bricolage' be used as a methodology for aesthetic construction and creative planning. Like a collage that embraces our pluralistic past, "the objects can be aristocratic or they can be 'folkish', academic or popular."
The three projects in this course- Composing, Diagramming and Imagining- were developed to teach students about principal architectural drawing techniques and creation in space. The initial exercise, which employs the kit as a tool to explore a 1:1 relationship with objects in the context of still-life drawing exercise, raises pertinent questions about material intersection and visual organization.
In this sequence of lessons, students demonstrate a range of learning differences. They look to each other for problem solving strategies and are inspired through their collaborative exchange. And as they begin to grasp the elements of composition, construction and drawing systems, they also learn inventive techniques for architectonic design and creative practice. This paper assesses both successful and unsuccessful projects as it investigates the ongoing dialectic between structure and agency. It shares insights about how a less standardized KoP extends itself beyond 20th century themes of form, abstraction and concept to 21st century notions of heterogeneity, adaptation and resilience.
National Conference on the Beginning Design Student, 2015
Foundation drawing classes place an emphasis on perception and the various ways of representing w... more Foundation drawing classes place an emphasis on perception and the various ways of representing what is visible. Most importantly, drawing teaches students how to see, not just in the visual sense, but how to look beyond ones assumptions of the world in order to clearly perceive what surrounds us- a skill indispensable to all creative and intellectual investigation. But what does being clear-sighted mean when technology has become an extension of our physical senses?
Today's college students come to classrooms equipped with smartphones, laptops and tablets- technologies that have made a significant impact in the way we teach. Art and design educators may view these technological extensions as either a distraction to learning or an enhancement, depending on how they are incorporated into the curriculum. With the onset of smartphone technology, the nature of perception is radically changing for the next generation of artists and students. Cell-phone cameras are carried everywhere, recording the world around us in videos and photographs. Many smartphones even have panoramic software, which use "stitching" technologies to capture landscapes from multiple perspectives.
The word panorama comes from pan, meaning all, and horama, which means view; it represents the "unbroken view of a whole region surrounding an observer" Panoramic images are usually associated with the depiction of scenic landscape, but they have also been historically used to depict narrative events such as military battles or religious stories. This paper explores the notion of panoramic practice- an expanded application of traditional siting methods, which are used in representational drawing techniques to render proportion, location and perspective. With a brief historical and technological context, this essay considers ways that digital photography and other media can act as an accessory to the classic viewfinder device, which defines composition within the picture plane.
Class assignments and student work will be used to demonstrate how these pocket technologies complicate, distort and enhance our sense of perspective and proportion. Drawing exercises that employ panoramic photography will show complicated and surprising relationships between digital media and the hand-made drawing. These examples reveal the panorama as an immersive medium; it joins the instantaneous image to the endless narrative; it flows across horizons and slips into fragments. As a pictorial device, the panorama incorporates multiple viewpoints into a broad spectrum, providing a suitable template to survey the time we live in.
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For architects, designers and artists, the studio is also a playground, one that facilitates and exercises the imagination through make-believe theoretical frameworks. On the one hand, it is a relatively safe place to take risks, experiment and play. On the other hand, it requires a significant commitment of time, energy, and money. The value of the studio-as-playground lies in its pretense and potential. It's a place for our imaginations to take off into make-believe worlds as a way to rethink the world we now live in.
Architecture itself can act as a playground too. In the 1960’s Cedric Price and Joan Little conceived of Fun Palace, a performative platform meant for all members of society. In this interactive cultural space, the game was to have fun. It was a place for amusement, experimentation, and discovery; a place to create, explore and learn. Although Fun Palace was never realized, it had an enduring influence on future buildings including the Centre Pompidou, and most recently, The Shed, by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (currently in construction). But what distinguishes Fun Palace as a play-space is its precarious nature, its indefinite and unpredictable form which allows for the spontaneous activity of reality testing.
This paper argues for three design strategies (rules) that promote play as a form of creative activity and cultural practice: (1) It must have a changeable form, allowing for improvisational extensions, alterations and interventions. Without a changeable form it risks becoming a monument or spectacle inspiring awe perhaps, but not intervention and agency. (2) The infrastructure must be exposed. Without an exposed infrastructure the design risks turning into a simulacrum or hyperreal construction (turn the fake castle at Disney World inside out). (3) It must be designed to be temporary. Without impermanence it risks banality, platitude or sheer exhaustion (imagine a Burning Man that never ends).
Whether it occurs in a studio, or some other built environment, having a potential space to play– to test our imaginations in and against reality– is important not only for creative practitioners, buy for all citizens. The precarious infrastructure of Fun Palace, along with its shifting ladders and cranes, is comparable to a circus, except here, the spectators are also the players; they make their own acts, their own sideshows, their own rings. They can even invent their own rules (or break the ones in the paper). This 50-year old concept yields important strategies for creating future cultural experiences that are fun, inclusive, and adaptable to changing populations.
In the last thirty years, however, these distinctions between art, architecture and landscape architecture have become blurred. Artists have increasingly expanded their practice to become more contextual in site-specific and public art, while architects and landscape architects have ventured into making more conceptual work like urban interventions and speculative fictions. As this cross-pollination takes place, several pertinent questions emerge for educators: In what way does contemporary art theory and practice develop and expand our pedagogical approaches to design education? What do these new cross-disciplinary practices teach our students about the value of agency, agility and criticality? And finally, how does the autonomy afforded to art-making affect and influence the values of the beginning design student?
This paper will present examples of public art installations as part of the design education of landscape architecture and architecture students. Work includes introductory studio exercises for graduate and undergraduate students and real-world collaborations with faculty, including fabrication, implementation, and community outreach. Making public art teaches students how to engage with the community as it makes apparent the regulatory concerns over public and private spaces and elicits a wide array of responses from the public. In these projects students have the opportunity experiment with innovative material techniques while they develop an experiential understanding of complex site conditions that necessitate adaptive and agile design approaches.
In conclusion, this paper will consider the ethical values of art making, such as freedom of expression, social engagement, critical thinking, resourcefulness, and divergent thinking, in order to ascertain the importance of these values for young designers who will be confronting 21st century global concerns. It argues that architects and landscape architects must be educated to think like artists in order to imagine, invent and conceptualize new spaces and places through multidisciplinary collaboration. They must learn, not only how to interface with a broad spectrum of engineers, builders, contractors, planners and clients, but also how to be speculative thinkers, dreamers, philosophers and poets of space.
This paper outlines an experimental project in which Arch 100 students were asked to create and then work through problems using a uniquely non-traditional KoP. With a nod towards Rowe and Koetter's Collage City, the KoP used for this class was not uniform, but eclectic and various. Collage City advocates for a design approach accommodating a range of disparate parts that don't fit neatly together. It argues against pure modernist ideals, proposing instead that 'bricolage' be used as a methodology for aesthetic construction and creative planning. Like a collage that embraces our pluralistic past, "the objects can be aristocratic or they can be 'folkish', academic or popular."
The three projects in this course- Composing, Diagramming and Imagining- were developed to teach students about principal architectural drawing techniques and creation in space. The initial exercise, which employs the kit as a tool to explore a 1:1 relationship with objects in the context of still-life drawing exercise, raises pertinent questions about material intersection and visual organization.
In this sequence of lessons, students demonstrate a range of learning differences. They look to each other for problem solving strategies and are inspired through their collaborative exchange. And as they begin to grasp the elements of composition, construction and drawing systems, they also learn inventive techniques for architectonic design and creative practice. This paper assesses both successful and unsuccessful projects as it investigates the ongoing dialectic between structure and agency. It shares insights about how a less standardized KoP extends itself beyond 20th century themes of form, abstraction and concept to 21st century notions of heterogeneity, adaptation and resilience.
Today's college students come to classrooms equipped with smartphones, laptops and tablets- technologies that have made a significant impact in the way we teach. Art and design educators may view these technological extensions as either a distraction to learning or an enhancement, depending on how they are incorporated into the curriculum. With the onset of smartphone technology, the nature of perception is radically changing for the next generation of artists and students. Cell-phone cameras are carried everywhere, recording the world around us in videos and photographs. Many smartphones even have panoramic software, which use "stitching" technologies to capture landscapes from multiple perspectives.
The word panorama comes from pan, meaning all, and horama, which means view; it represents the "unbroken view of a whole region surrounding an observer" Panoramic images are usually associated with the depiction of scenic landscape, but they have also been historically used to depict narrative events such as military battles or religious stories. This paper explores the notion of panoramic practice- an expanded application of traditional siting methods, which are used in representational drawing techniques to render proportion, location and perspective. With a brief historical and technological context, this essay considers ways that digital photography and other media can act as an accessory to the classic viewfinder device, which defines composition within the picture plane.
Class assignments and student work will be used to demonstrate how these pocket technologies complicate, distort and enhance our sense of perspective and proportion. Drawing exercises that employ panoramic photography will show complicated and surprising relationships between digital media and the hand-made drawing. These examples reveal the panorama as an immersive medium; it joins the instantaneous image to the endless narrative; it flows across horizons and slips into fragments. As a pictorial device, the panorama incorporates multiple viewpoints into a broad spectrum, providing a suitable template to survey the time we live in.
For architects, designers and artists, the studio is also a playground, one that facilitates and exercises the imagination through make-believe theoretical frameworks. On the one hand, it is a relatively safe place to take risks, experiment and play. On the other hand, it requires a significant commitment of time, energy, and money. The value of the studio-as-playground lies in its pretense and potential. It's a place for our imaginations to take off into make-believe worlds as a way to rethink the world we now live in.
Architecture itself can act as a playground too. In the 1960’s Cedric Price and Joan Little conceived of Fun Palace, a performative platform meant for all members of society. In this interactive cultural space, the game was to have fun. It was a place for amusement, experimentation, and discovery; a place to create, explore and learn. Although Fun Palace was never realized, it had an enduring influence on future buildings including the Centre Pompidou, and most recently, The Shed, by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (currently in construction). But what distinguishes Fun Palace as a play-space is its precarious nature, its indefinite and unpredictable form which allows for the spontaneous activity of reality testing.
This paper argues for three design strategies (rules) that promote play as a form of creative activity and cultural practice: (1) It must have a changeable form, allowing for improvisational extensions, alterations and interventions. Without a changeable form it risks becoming a monument or spectacle inspiring awe perhaps, but not intervention and agency. (2) The infrastructure must be exposed. Without an exposed infrastructure the design risks turning into a simulacrum or hyperreal construction (turn the fake castle at Disney World inside out). (3) It must be designed to be temporary. Without impermanence it risks banality, platitude or sheer exhaustion (imagine a Burning Man that never ends).
Whether it occurs in a studio, or some other built environment, having a potential space to play– to test our imaginations in and against reality– is important not only for creative practitioners, buy for all citizens. The precarious infrastructure of Fun Palace, along with its shifting ladders and cranes, is comparable to a circus, except here, the spectators are also the players; they make their own acts, their own sideshows, their own rings. They can even invent their own rules (or break the ones in the paper). This 50-year old concept yields important strategies for creating future cultural experiences that are fun, inclusive, and adaptable to changing populations.
In the last thirty years, however, these distinctions between art, architecture and landscape architecture have become blurred. Artists have increasingly expanded their practice to become more contextual in site-specific and public art, while architects and landscape architects have ventured into making more conceptual work like urban interventions and speculative fictions. As this cross-pollination takes place, several pertinent questions emerge for educators: In what way does contemporary art theory and practice develop and expand our pedagogical approaches to design education? What do these new cross-disciplinary practices teach our students about the value of agency, agility and criticality? And finally, how does the autonomy afforded to art-making affect and influence the values of the beginning design student?
This paper will present examples of public art installations as part of the design education of landscape architecture and architecture students. Work includes introductory studio exercises for graduate and undergraduate students and real-world collaborations with faculty, including fabrication, implementation, and community outreach. Making public art teaches students how to engage with the community as it makes apparent the regulatory concerns over public and private spaces and elicits a wide array of responses from the public. In these projects students have the opportunity experiment with innovative material techniques while they develop an experiential understanding of complex site conditions that necessitate adaptive and agile design approaches.
In conclusion, this paper will consider the ethical values of art making, such as freedom of expression, social engagement, critical thinking, resourcefulness, and divergent thinking, in order to ascertain the importance of these values for young designers who will be confronting 21st century global concerns. It argues that architects and landscape architects must be educated to think like artists in order to imagine, invent and conceptualize new spaces and places through multidisciplinary collaboration. They must learn, not only how to interface with a broad spectrum of engineers, builders, contractors, planners and clients, but also how to be speculative thinkers, dreamers, philosophers and poets of space.
This paper outlines an experimental project in which Arch 100 students were asked to create and then work through problems using a uniquely non-traditional KoP. With a nod towards Rowe and Koetter's Collage City, the KoP used for this class was not uniform, but eclectic and various. Collage City advocates for a design approach accommodating a range of disparate parts that don't fit neatly together. It argues against pure modernist ideals, proposing instead that 'bricolage' be used as a methodology for aesthetic construction and creative planning. Like a collage that embraces our pluralistic past, "the objects can be aristocratic or they can be 'folkish', academic or popular."
The three projects in this course- Composing, Diagramming and Imagining- were developed to teach students about principal architectural drawing techniques and creation in space. The initial exercise, which employs the kit as a tool to explore a 1:1 relationship with objects in the context of still-life drawing exercise, raises pertinent questions about material intersection and visual organization.
In this sequence of lessons, students demonstrate a range of learning differences. They look to each other for problem solving strategies and are inspired through their collaborative exchange. And as they begin to grasp the elements of composition, construction and drawing systems, they also learn inventive techniques for architectonic design and creative practice. This paper assesses both successful and unsuccessful projects as it investigates the ongoing dialectic between structure and agency. It shares insights about how a less standardized KoP extends itself beyond 20th century themes of form, abstraction and concept to 21st century notions of heterogeneity, adaptation and resilience.
Today's college students come to classrooms equipped with smartphones, laptops and tablets- technologies that have made a significant impact in the way we teach. Art and design educators may view these technological extensions as either a distraction to learning or an enhancement, depending on how they are incorporated into the curriculum. With the onset of smartphone technology, the nature of perception is radically changing for the next generation of artists and students. Cell-phone cameras are carried everywhere, recording the world around us in videos and photographs. Many smartphones even have panoramic software, which use "stitching" technologies to capture landscapes from multiple perspectives.
The word panorama comes from pan, meaning all, and horama, which means view; it represents the "unbroken view of a whole region surrounding an observer" Panoramic images are usually associated with the depiction of scenic landscape, but they have also been historically used to depict narrative events such as military battles or religious stories. This paper explores the notion of panoramic practice- an expanded application of traditional siting methods, which are used in representational drawing techniques to render proportion, location and perspective. With a brief historical and technological context, this essay considers ways that digital photography and other media can act as an accessory to the classic viewfinder device, which defines composition within the picture plane.
Class assignments and student work will be used to demonstrate how these pocket technologies complicate, distort and enhance our sense of perspective and proportion. Drawing exercises that employ panoramic photography will show complicated and surprising relationships between digital media and the hand-made drawing. These examples reveal the panorama as an immersive medium; it joins the instantaneous image to the endless narrative; it flows across horizons and slips into fragments. As a pictorial device, the panorama incorporates multiple viewpoints into a broad spectrum, providing a suitable template to survey the time we live in.