project : perform

First Year Studio : School of Architecture and Landscape : Kingston University : London project : perform 02 01 01 / 02 : Lars van Trier, ‘Dogville’, 2003 03 : Pablo Picasso, ‘Space drawings’, photographed in 1950 by Gjon Mili 04 : Jackson Pollock, photographed in 1950 by Hans Namuth 05 / 06 : Ed Ruscha, ‘Thirtyfour Parking helicopter, 1967 04 03 Lots’, photographed from a 07 : Thomas Eakins, ‘The Writing Master’, 1882 08 : Thomas Eakins, ‘Max Schmitt in a Single Scull’, 1871 09 : Vik Muniz, ‘Cloud Cloud’, 2006 10 : 1:1 Notation of a performance at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, installed in the Quad, Kingston 08 06 10 09 07 05 University, 2008 002: 003 contrasting – and complementary – aspects: an orthogonal projection showing the scene in plan view, encompassing written text on the floor plane, and a series of more traditional cinematic shots narrating the theatrical performance from positions at eye level. Dogville’s camera positions and cinematic shots exemplify prototypical ways of explaining and generating space in the mind of the audience: through abstraction and orthogonal projection from a position of overview on the one hand, and through a succession of frontal views of the action vis-à-vis the observer on the other hand. Reading and Perceiving The plan projection might be considered to be a working tool closely related to the architectural process, and essential for understanding and making space, for locating walls, enclosures, thresholds, objects in space, whereas the eye-level view seems to connect more directly with activity, with dialogue, performance or with inhabitation, experience and memory of space. But both modes of viewing, understanding and recording of space are relevant to architecture: analogous positions and frames of reference were explored and employed as modes of operation in the last year’s first year architecture course at Kingston University London. This introduction will attempt to locate projection and performance as modes of spatial exploration in a broader cultural and theoretical context. Sensation and Structure Andre Coboz, a geographer, has outlined a distinction between landscape and map with broad implications: ‘The map can thus be seen to be a demiurgic instrument; it restores the vertical viewpoint of the gods as well as their ubiquity. The landscape, on the other hand, is visible to man, who can only be in one place at a time, in a horizontal manner, just as man can only see the world successively.’ Andre Corboz 2 The literary critic and philosopher Roland Barthes has provided a corresponding analysis of the operation of the Eiffel tower as a viewing instrument: ‘… to the marvellous mitigation of altitude the panoramic vision added an incomparable power of intellection: the bird’s-eye view, which each visitor to the (Eiffel) Tower can assume in an instant for his own, gives us the world to read and not only to perceive; this is why it corresponds to a new sensibility of vision; in the past, to travel (we may recall certain – admirable, moreover – promenades of Projection and Performance : Christoph Lueder In Lars van Trier’s 2003 film ‘Dogville’ 1, the camera alternates between two starkly Rousseau) was to be thrust into the midst of sensation, to perceive only a kind of tidal wave of things; the bird’s-eye view, on the contrary, represented by our romantic writers as if they had anticipated both the construction of the Tower and the birth of aviation, permits us to transcend sensation and to see things in their structure. Hence it is the advent of a new perception, of an intellectualist mode, which these literatures and these architectures of vision mark out (born in the same century and probably from the same history): Paris and France become under (Victor) Hugo’s pen and Michelet’s (and under the glance of the tower) intelligible objects, yet without – and this is what is new – losing anything of their materiality; a new category appears, that of concrete abstraction; this, moreover, is the meaning which we can give today to the word structure: a corpus of intelligent forms.’ Roland Barthes 3 The widespread acquaintance with views afforded by air travel, but also the ubiquity and navigability of satellite imagery through Google Earth have made Barthes’ category of ‘concrete abstraction’ ever more pertinent. What is the impact of this overlapping experience of structure and sensation on architects – and architecture students – reading and making of space? An examination of traditional devices of spatial exploration and representation, such as drawing, mapmaking and painting, may provide some clues. Understanding the world through making Projection – Picture vs. Sign Extending Roland Barthes’ distinction between structure and sensation, Walter Benjamin has commented on drawing and painting as two contrasting ‘sections through the world’s substance’: ‘A picture must be held vertically before the observer. A mosaic lies horizontally at his feet. Despite this distinction, it is customary to regard the graphic arts simply as paintings. Nevertheless, the distinction is very important and far-reaching. It is possible to look at the study of a head, or a Rembrandt landscape, in the same way as a painting, or at best to leave the drawings in a neutral horizontal position. Yet consider children’s drawings: viewing them vertically usually conflicts with their inner meaning. We see here a profound problem of art and its mythic roots. We might say that there are two sections through the world’s substance: the longitudinal section of painting and the cross-section of certain pieces of graphic art. The longitudinal section seems representational; it somehow contains the objects. The cross–section seems symbolic; it contains signs. Or is it only that when we read that we place the page horizontally before us? … And is there such a thing as an original vertical position for writing – say, for engraving in stone? Of course, what matters here is not merely external fact but the spirit: Is it actually possible to base the problem on the simple principle that pictures are set vertically and signs horizontally, even though we may follow the development of this through changing metaphysical relations through the ages? […]’ Walter Benjamin 4 004: 005 Benjamin’s hypothesis is remarkable for its simplicity and elegance, and while discordant examples can easily be found, the dialectic of the vertical image and horizontal sign reappears in different guises throughout art history. In one such parallel argument, Svetlana Alpers opposes conventions of the (vertical) perspective image established by Leon Battista Alberti to a tradition of (horizontal) mapping that can be traced back to Claudius Ptolemaeus: ‘While Albertian perspective posits a viewer at a certain distance looking through a framed window to a putative substitute world, Ptolemy and distance-point perspective conceived of the picture as a flat working surface, unframed, on which the world is inscribed.’ Svetlana Alpers 5 Architecture makes use of the sections through ‘the world’s substance’ and projections onto two-dimensional surfaces that Benjamin has identified in painting and drawing, and Alpers in perspective and map. Indeed, along with scale models, sections and twodimensional projections of space – and time – are fundamental to working and thinking processes established in the architectural profession. Learning about established conventions of representation with architecture students opens up possibilities of a critical and productive understanding of these conventions as sections through space and / or time. Beyond the orthographic projection (2B Scale / 4A Kinetic Space), this section also can take the form of a script (1B Imagine / Image and 8D Boy meets Girl), a collage (5B) or a notation (3B One Minute Mov(i)e / 4B Gestures in and of Space / 8A Instant Diagram). Guest contributors to the course have broadened this discourse beyond architecture, drawing and painting to include film-making, theatrical performance and surface geometry. The relationship of drawing and painting, structure and sensation, map and perspective, to performance and projection is complex. A drawing can record an event, such as listeners’ notations (pp 46, 98, 110, 150), or it could script and direct performances (pp. 14, 108, 116). A certain affinity may exist between the description of static elements such as walls or objects in orthogonal, isometric or perspective projection, and the description of time-based activity or Performance – Operational Process and the Working Surface The dialectic between the vertical picture, or framed window on the one hand and the horizontal sign, map or working surface on the other hand, gains further relevance in attempts to consider and understand the work of Jackson Pollock, who through the films and photographs of Hans Namuth, has also come to be perceived as performer and ‘action painter’. The art critic Leo Steinberg has described Pollock’s working process as follows: ‘Pollock indeed poured and dripped his pigments upon canvases laid on the ground, but this was an expedient. After the first color skeins had gone down, he would Projection and Performance performance through script, notation or trace, or the sequential projection of film or storyboard. tack the canvas on to a wall – to get acquainted with it, he used to say; to see where it wanted to go. He lived with the painting in its uprighted state, as with a world confronting his human posture.’ Leo Steinberg 6 The importance of considering operational process in understanding Pollock’s art has been emphasized by Rosalind Krauss: ‘Certainly this break, this double movement – the rough experience on the floor; the deciphering on the wall – is reiterated in the observer’s experience in front of the hung and finished painting. In fact, we can look at Pollock’s paintings as arising from pure optical sensation. But to view them this way – following his early critics – proves that we possess none of the keys essential to understanding them.’ Rosalind Krauss 7 Gijon Mili’s photographs of Picasso drawing with a flashlight in space also incorporate process and performance: the drawing can be seen to represent a figure or alternatively be read as trace of performance over time. ‘Le Mystère Picasso’, a film by Henri-Georges Clouzot, further expands on the notion of drawing and painting as performance. In his analysis of a concurrent – and antithetically related – development within art practice, Leo Steinberg has coined the term ‘flatbed horizontal’: ‘But something happened in painting around 1950 in the work of Robert Rauschenberg and Dubuffet. We can still hang their pictures – just as we tack up maps and architectural plans, or nail a horseshoe to the wall for good luck. Yet these pictures no longer simulate vertical fields, but opaque flatbed horizontals. They no more depend on a head-to-toe correspondence with human posture than a newspaper does. The flatbed picture plane makes its symbolic allusion to hard surfaces such as table tops, studio floors, charts, bulletin boards – any receptor surface on which objects are scattered, on which data is entered, on which information may be received, printed, impressed, whether coherently or in confusion. The pictures of the last fifteen to twenty year insist on a radically new orientation, in which the painted surface is no longer the analogue of a visual experience of nature, but of operational processes.’ Leo Steinberg 6 As a record of ‘operational processes’, the flatbed horizontal extends the convention of the ‘working surface, on which the world is inscribed’ (Alpers). But how can this notion inform thinking about environmental, urban, or architectural situations and processes? The World as Studio Environmental Recording Surfaces The painter and photographer Ed Ruscha replaces the working surface controlled and manipulated by the artist in his studio with a recording surface located in an urban context.In 006 : 007 his photographs of Los Angeles 8 , the horizontal plane of the parking lot records conditions and activities: traces of sand indicate wind directions and oil spots attest to the presence of the car. Ruscha’s photographs invite the viewer to re-read the car park as an environmental recording device, making visible geometric structure and performance over time. Material and Recording Surface Surface patterns can drive the development of a drawing convention. Surfaces such as water, sand, etc, reflect, visualize, record and even measure otherwise invisible phenomena such as sound, wind, temperature or movement. Michael Fried has reflected on depictions of the act of writing and of recording surfaces in the paintings of the 19th century painter Thomas Eakins. ‘… the basic structure and motifs of the rowing […] allowed a certain relation to writing – to writing/drawing – to come to the fore. I am thinking in particular of the role of the […] ground plane in the rowing pictures and of the implicit analogy between that plane and the horizontal plane of writing/drawing, which in this context must be distinguished fundamentally from the vertical or upright plane of painting. That is, a principal effect of the underlying perspectival structure in these pictures is to make us acutely aware of the surface of the water as an image-bearing horizontal plane.’ Michael Fried 9 Turning his attention to the ‘faint but irrefutable reflection of Benjamin Eakins’ right hand and cuff from the surface of the document on which he is working’ in ‘The Writing Master’, and the traces of the oars on the surface of the water in the other painting, Fried establishes a surprising analogy between two very different activities and the surfaces they are projected onto, producing traces (signs) as well as reflections (images). The scope of devices and situations of ‘writing’ is expanded beyond the atelier or studio situation to include the interaction between performance and surface (or working plane) in dynamic environmental systems and situations. Michael Fried’s thought resonates with contemporary architectural education and practice, 1 Lars van Trier, ‘Dogville’, Zentropa Productions, 2003 2 Andre Corboz, ‘The Land as Palimpsest’, Diogenes, 1983 3 Roland Barthes, ‘La Tour Eiffel’, 1964 4 Walter Benjamin, ‘Painting and the Graphic Arts’, 1917, in: ‘Selected writings’, edited by Marcus Bullock and Michael W. Jennings, London, 2003, p. 82 5 Svetlana Alpers, ‘The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century’, Chicago, 1983, p. 138 6 Leo Steinberg, ‘Other Criteria’, in ‘Other Criteria’, New York, Oxford University Press, 1972 7 Rosalind Krauss, ‘Emblèmes ou lexies: le texte photographique’, in Hans Namuth, ‘L’Atelier de Jackson Pollock’, pp. 15–24. Photographs by Hans Namuth. 8 Ed Ruscha, ‘Thirty-four Parking Lots’, photographed from a helicopter, 1967 9 Michael Fried, Realism, ‘Writing, Disfiguration: on Thomas Eakins and Stephen Crane’, University of Chicago Press, 1987, p. 65–66 10 Vik Muniz, ‘Cloud Cloud, Sky over Manhattan’, 2006 Projection and Performance the idea of the notation at scale 1:1, and with current work of the artist Vic Muniz. 10 im·ag·ine car·toon noun verb (used with object) 01 a sketch or drawing, usually humorous, 01 to form a mental image of (something as in a newspaper or periodical, symbolizing, not actually present to the senses). satirizing, or caricaturing some action, 02 to think, believe, or fancy: He imagined subject, or person of popular interest. the house was haunted. 02 comic strip. 03 to assume; suppose: I imagine they’ll 03 animated cartoon. be here soon. 04 Fine Arts. a full-scale design for a picture, 04 to conjecture; guess: I cannot imagine ornamental motif or pattern, or the like, what you mean. to be transferred to a fresco, tapestry, etc. 05 Archaic. to plan, scheme, or plot. in·ves·ti·ga·tion noun not present to the senses; use the into the scandal’ [syn: probe]. imagination. 02 the work of inquiring into something 07 to suppose; think; conjecture. thoroughly and systematically. (dictionary.com) (dictionary.com) Heath Robinson, Testing artificial teeth in a modern tooth works, 1938 01 an inquiry into unfamiliar or questionable activities; ‘there was a congressional probe Benjamin Robert Haydon, Anatomical drawing of the hand, 1805 verb (used without object) 06 to form mental images of things 008: 009 Your imagination will be the key to your first architectural project. You are asked to design and build a device which will protect an egg from breaking. The egg will be released from moderately high altitude at one of three sites: the stairwell overlooking the quadrangle, the tower at Knights Park, or Kingston bridge (over dry land). You will be working in groups of three. Testing of the device at one of these sites and recording the testing event forms part of the assignment. Protection of the egg is one of the criteria for success, but you will also get credit for your protection strategy as such, for imaginative ideas, your tantalizing performance on site and poetic aspects of your device. There’ll be a wide range of strategies – we’re looking forward to seeing what you’ll come up with! Image On Thursday, 27.09. at 11 am we will depart from the studios at Knights Park and visit four exhibitions in London, focusing on different aspects of drawing. We will visit: Heath Robinson at the Cartoon Museum, The Body Politic: Anatomical Drawings by Benjamin Robert Haydon at the Royal Academy, Drawings for William Cheselden’s Osteographia, also at the Royal Academy, Drawings from the UBS art collection at the Tate Modern There will be opportunities for discussion during the excursion. You should also bring notebook, sketchbook and camera and take graphic and written notes of drawing techniques and ways of seeing you find interesting. You are asked to produce two distinct types of drawings, working individually on the basis of your group project. Your cartoon could be a narrative, e.g. using frames to tell a story as it unfolds over time or describe the testing event from anther angle. Your investigative drawing could explore the object you have built, e.g. cutting a section through egg and protection device, or looking at certain aspects in an analytical way, e.g. textures, mechanisms or structure. Tuesday, 25.09. 10 am Introduction in the MLT lecture theatre / form teams of three, team brainstorming sessions, sketching of ideas, tutorials. Thursday, 27.09. Visit to exhibitions on ‘drawing’ in London. Tuesday, 02.10. 10 am Lecture: Recording techniques / discussion of recording strategy and preparation of device and recording equipment / testing and recording on location with judging by peer group. 1 Imagine / Image : Cartoon and Investigation Imagine 06 05 02 08 04 07 Taxonomy 03 Object 01 Device 010 : 011 12 Cartoon / Storyboard Space-Time 13 09 Investigation 01 : Heath Robinson, 1915 02 : Heath Robinson, ‘Learning the Goose Step’, 1915 03 / 04 : Panamarenko, ‘Helicopter’, 1968 05 / 06 : Panamarenko, ‘Aeromodeller’, 1969 – 71 07 / 08 : Bernd and Hilla Becher, ‘Typologien’, 1990 09 / 10 : William Cheselden, ‘Osteographia, or The anatomy of the bones’, 1733 11 : Benjamin Robert Haydon, Musculature and bones of the lumbar spine, pelvis and thighs, 1805 14 10 12 : Matt Jones, ‘Corpse Bride’, 2006 13 : David Hockney, ‘Noya and Bill Brandt with self-portrait’, 1982 14 : David Hockney, ‘Merced River Yosemite Valley’, 1982 15 : David Hockney, ‘Pear Blossom Highway’, 1986 Hollywood, 1 January 1983 1b Imagine / Image : lecture 16 11 15 16 : David Hockney, ‘Scrabble’, Todd Couves Amisha Vekaria, Hannah Shaw Casey Sole, Aboud Aboud, David Wareham, Michael Ha Matthew Hine Peter Obatomi Hadas Even-Tzur 1b Imagine / Image : studentwork 012 : 013 Narrative : Matthew Hine Narrative : Amisha Vekaria Narrative : Matthew Hawley Narrative : Markos Konaros Investigation : Matthew Hine 1b Imagine / Image : studentwork 014 : 015 pat-tern noun The pattern is a form, template, or model (or, 01 a decorative design, as for wallpaper, more abstractly, a set of rules) which can be china, or textile fabrics, etc. used to make or to generate things or parts 02 decoration or ornament having such of a thing, especially if the things that are a design. created have enough in common for the 03 a natural or chance marking, configuration, underlying pattern to be inferred, in which or design: patterns of frost on the window. case the things are said to exhibit the 04 a combination of qualities, acts, pattern. Pattern matching is the act of tendencies, etc., forming a consistent checking for the presence of the constituents or characteristic arrangement: the behavior of a pattern. The detection of underlying patterns of teenagers. patterns is called pattern recognition. 05 anything fashioned or designed to serve Patterns are also related to repeated shapes as a model or guide for something to be or objects, sometimes referred to as made: a paper pattern for a dress. elements of the series. Some patterns (for 06 the path of flight established for an aircraft example, many visual patterns) may be directly observable through the senses. (wikipedia.com) John Conway’s Game of Life approaching an airport at which it is to land. (dictionary.com) 016 : 017 Your first year architecture course will – amongst other things – challenge the ways in which you are accustomed to ‘see’, and help you develop new ways of seeing and perceiving. Abstraction is a powerful tool which can help you ‘see’ by identifying common characteristics within very diverse experiences. Many visual or aural forms, sensory experiences, or social behaviour, can be traced back to underlying patterns. Some patterns can only be perceived and recognized from a position of overview, others, such as a dent in your bicycle wheel, or music, play out over time. Becoming aware of underlying patterns and being able to read and visually describe visual, tactile and musical patterns is crucial for an enriched and more precise understanding of space. Patterns can be employed to structure space, organize program and trigger setting up your studios last week. Prelude – to prepare for Thursday studio You are asked to bring to the studio on Thursday, Oct 11th, three specimens of ‘patterns’ you have found and identified. Choose objects and images at three different scales which interest you, each relating to distinct aspects of sensory and intellectual experience: Panoramic Examples: An aerial photograph, a Google Earth satellite image or a photograph taken from a high vantage point, e.g. looking at the movement of people and/or traffic from above. Strategic and time-based Examples: Strategic board games such as Go or Checkers, or a rule-based simulation such as ‘Conway’s life’. Haptic Examples: Patterned textiles, fir cone, alligator skin. Thursday Studio It is important to look carefully and from fresh angles at the patterns you have selected. Try to identify the characteristics and qualities that interest you in your sources. Use these as a springboard for the invention of your pattern. Your pattern does not have to be a literal representation of your sources, and it does not have to be a combination of all three – discarding is an important aspect of design. Criteria Your pattern has to contain elements both of repetition and variation. You should identify the ‘core’ sequence of your pattern and be able to explain how this core is repeated and varied. Think about your field as a sample taken from a larger field and demonstrate how your pattern might be continued and extended beyond those boundaries. In the next stage of the project you will develop and assemble a ‘kinetic field’ based on your pattern. 2a Pattern : Panoramic / Strategic / Haptic emotions. You have already inadvertently generated patterns in arranging and 04 03 02 Haptic Strategic 10 09 07 12 11 06 Studio 01 Panoramic 05 Pattern and Scale 08 018 : 019 21 20 Pattern and Performance 13 Pattern and Structure 14 01 : Kingston University, 2008, Studio 1 – people 02 : Studio 1 – furniture 03 : Studio 4 – furniture 04 : Tabletop 05 : Satellite view Sundarban Delta 06 : Emerging pattern in the game of Go 07 : Machine-made brickwork pattern, Gramazio & Kohler, 2006 08 : Yann Arthus-Bertrand, ‘The Earth from Above’, 2003 09 : Cemetary and City 10 : Urban Blocks, from ‘Ladders’, Albert Pope, 1997 11 : Chris Cobb, ‘There Is Nothing 22 15 Wrong in This Whole Wide World’, Installation at Adobe Bookshop, San Francisco, 2004 12 : Bookshelves, University Library Magdeburg 13 : Abandoned Library in Russia, 2008 14 : Caltin, 2007 15 : Beach furniture 23 16 16 : Yann Arthus-Bertrand, ‘The Earth from Above’, Dogon village near Bandiagara, Mali, 2003 17 : Plastic bottles 18 : Doris Salcedo, Istanbul Biennal 2003 19 : The Architecture of Density, Michael Wolf, 2006 20 : Sound Absorption 17 21 : Artist’s Atelier, Anton Garcia-Abril & Ensamble Studio, Madrid, 2005 22 : Parking Lot, USA 2a Pattern : lecture 19 18 23 : Airplane Boneyard, Arizona, USA Leyla Osman Omar Abduljawad Zachary Bird Emma Croyle Duna Irshaid 2a Pattern : studentwork Jennifer Bull Felisha Ohene-Djan Hadas Even-Tzur 020 : 021 Lee Sawyer Jack Mousley Sam Bailey 2a Pattern : studentwork Matthew Mure Matthew Mure 022 : 023 David Adler, ‘New Metric Handbook’ Suggested reading Charles and Ray Eames, ‘Powers of Ten’, Architectural Press, 1992. W.H. Freeman & Co Ltd, 1999. The Architect’s Pocketbook. Lewis Carroll, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Leonardo da Vinci. Wonderland’, Penguin Classics, 1994. Andrew Crompton, ‘Scale / fractals & http://www.cromp.com/tess/home.html Mervyn Peake drawings for ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, Lewis Carroll (orginally published 1865) grotesque geometry’ l’Architecture, 1950 Experiencing a Prison Van Cell, Royal Courts of Justice Open Day, 2007 Le Corbusier, ‘Le Modulor’, Editions de 024 : 025 A few years ago Alvaro Siza gave a lecture in London and he was asked whether he used computers in his office. His answer was that there were 22 people in his office and 22 computers. He acknowledged that the computer opened up a huge range of possibilities but stressed that architects had also lost a sense of scale by working on CAD because of the zoom command. When asking an architect what a particular dimension was, such as floor to ceiling height, invariably the response would be to use the measure tool on the computer rather than know it. Siza’s point was that, notwithstanding the fact that there are thousands of dimensions in a building, it is essential that we know the key dimensions of spatial experience. The Brief To go on an architectural adventure in the 7 miles of gallery space in the Victoria and Albert Museum in search of 3 key dimensions: small, medium and large (these can be as big or as small as you like). The aim is to physically and socially experience three situations at different scales and to accurately measure the key dimension of each. We want you to be ambitious, curious and imaginative in your approach to finding these situations and in how your record them. We want you to tell a story about what you decided to measure, how you measured it and what the relationship between the three dimensions is. You establish the scale and modulor. We have chosen the V&A Museum because it is like a small city, full of treasures and surprises that would not be out of place in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or the Powers of Ten film by Charles and Ray Eames. It offers a great opportunity for you to experience objects, furniture and spaces as well as full-scale casts taken directly from historical buildings around Europe. You are encouraged to begin to question what effect the scale of an object’s representation has on your perception, from a ‘ship in a bottle’ to a representation of the solar system at 1:1 billion. How does scale affect the perception of the relationship between objects? How do objects and spaces perform at different scales? Diagrams and representations of the findings should explore these questions. By multiplying the number of dimensions across the whole year we will collectively form a catalogue of measures, a ‘new new metric handbook’. The intention is to collect all dimensions from the smallest to the largest. Start by measuring yourself. What is your eye height? What is your overall height, your stride, shoulder width, hand, etc? Tools Yourself, your colleagues, tape measure, A4 sheet, string, ruler, micrometer, callipers, mobile phone, shoulders, linked arms, outstretched arms, mug, hug, hand, stride, laser measurer, sextant, library research, brick counting, rope, hand made tools, a part of your egg dropping device (such as plastic cups or an egg), etc. 2b workshop Scale : Experience and Measure : Harry Paticas Introduction 03 07 04 08 05 09 11 10 12 01 06 02 026: 027 15 13 01 : Le Corbusier, Monk’s Cell in La Tourette, 1960 02 : Le Corbusier, Le Modulor, 1948 03 : Leonardo da Vinci, ‘The Vitruvian Man’, 1487 04 : Marcel Wanders, Giant Man in Mandarina Duck Store, London 16 05 / 06 / 07 / 08 : Charles and Ray Eames, ‘Powers of Ten’, 1977 09 : Sniper judging distance by American Football Pitch Dimensions 10 : American Football Pitch 11 : Measuring and connecting scales: Mount Etna, Ortigia and the Madonna delle Lacrime 17 13 : Spiral Staircase in Istanbul Modern, Turkey 14 : Cleaning the clock face of Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, London 15 : Relative Distance between Earth and Sun at scale 1:1 billion, 18 Zürichberg, Zürich, Switzerland 16 : Street Boat, Mayfair, London 17 : Cigarette Tanker, US 18 : Harry Paticas, Window scale in relation to the foot, Palazzo Diamandi, Ferrara 19 : Harry Paticas, Window scale in relation to the urban block, Palazzo Diamandi, Ferrara 2b Scale : lecture 19 14 12 : Multiple scales at the V&A 2b Scale : studentwork 028: 029 Michael Ha, Mohamed Elzibair Hadas Even-Tzur, Jennifer Bull, Ren Tanaka Aboud Aboud, Omar Abduljawad Chris Culligan, Sangita Southgate, Harshak Patel, Dean Morley Peter Bayley,Charlotte Calver Corvin Medhat 2b Scale : student work 030: 031 ki·net·ic adjective 06 Physics. the influence of some agent, 01 pertaining to motion. as electricity or gravitation, considered 02 caused by motion. as existing at all points in space and defined 03 characterized by movement: Running by the force it would exert on an object and dancing are kinetic activities. placed at any point in space. Electric field, (dictionary.com) gravitational field, magnetic field. field noun 01 an expanse of open or cleared ground, esp. a piece of land suitable or used for pasture or tillage. 02 Sports. a piece of ground devoted to sports or contests; playing field. 03 a sphere of activity, interest, etc., esp. within a particular business or profession: the field of teaching 04 Military. the scene or area of active military operations. 05 the surface of a canvas, shield, etc., on which something is portrayed: a gold Klaus Marek, Binary Field, student project at the University of Stuttgart, 2000 star on a field of blue. 07 Also called field of view. Optics. the entire angular expanse visible through an optical instrument at a given time. 08 Electricity. the structure in a generator or motor that produces a magnetic field around a rotating armature. 09 Psychology. the total complex of interdependent factors within which a psychological event occurs and is perceived as occurring. 10 Computers: one or more related characters treated as a unit for purposes of input, processing, output, or storage by a computer. (dictionary.com) 032 : 033 pattern will now become the basis from which you will develop and design your kinetic field. Logic of form and motion Explore the logic of form and the relationship between shape and movement. Amongst other interpretations, shapes can be read and understood as traces of motion. The linear movement of a point on a plane will generate a line. A line or point spinning around a center will form a closed or open circle. Cogs are illustrations of rotating circles; rolling circles have been used by some of you in Imagine. Similarly, shapes with parallel edges could be related to a sled, but also to grooves created by sliding motion. There are many more relationships between form and motion to be explored, some of which are very overt – others might be more subtle. Movement can be repetitive, cyclical, planetary, or linear; it can be simultaneous, synchronized, or asynchronous. Parts of your field could move in isolation, or they might trigger the movement of other elements. Kinetic potential As a first step, observe and study your pattern carefully and think about the kinetic potential of its individual elements and the devices needed to actualize that potential, to make elements move. A linear element could be provided with a groove or a track and made to slide; a planar element could be provided with a pivot and rotate, either concentrically or eccentrically; or it could be scored and made to flap; other elements might become ‘pistons’; or they might fold and unfold. The pattern and elements you have designed last week have their own characteristic attributes which suggest particular ways in which those elements could be made to move. Motion engineering The possibilities are limitless. The success of your kinetic field will depend on your imagination, but also on your ability to precisely conceive, ‘engineer’ and build kinetic devices in you model. You will have to find solutions that perform the kinetic operations you need to make your idea work. Your model has to remain intact and be operational in both horizontal and vertical orientation, on the table and on the wall. 3a Kinetic Field : 2 1/2 Dimensions over Time Last week you built a model and made a drawing, based on patterns you have observed, analyzed, selected and developed into a field. Your model, drawing, and 05 15 14 Pattern over Time – Musical 04 03 09 08 13 12 Pattern over Time – Strategic 02 01 Pattern over Time – Musical 07 11 06 Inhabited Pattern 10 034: 035 16 17 Pattern over Time – Interactive 01 : Position in the game of Go 02 : Position in simulation ‘John Conway’s Game of Life’ 03 : Musical Notation of ‘Fantasie Impromtu’ by Frédéric Chopin 04: Yundi Li playing ‘Fantasie Impromtu’ 05: The principle of the Player Piano Roll 06 : Blueprint of untitled piano roll composition by Bruce Goff, n.d. 07 / 08 : Visualization of ‘Fantasie Impromtu’ 09 : Earle Brown, score for ‘December 1952’ 10 : Allotments in New Jersey 11 : Bookshelves 18 12 : Demolition in airplane boneyard, Arizona, USA 13 : Players on basketball courts 14 : Junkyard in Massachusetts, USA 15 : Philadelphia Highway 16 : Lively Arts, David Hockney’s swimming pools, and 19 photographic works, BBC, 1981 17 : Perforated screen, Gramazio & Kohler, 2006 18 / 19 / 20 : Projection on the windscreen of London bus, film The Game of Life is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is the best-known example of a cellular automaton. The ‘game’ is actually a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, needing no input from human players. One creates an initial configuration and observes how it evolves. A piano roll is the music storage medium used to operate the player piano, pianola or a reproducing piano. A piano roll is a roll of paper with perforations (holes) punched in it. The position and length of the perforation determines the note played on the piano. The piano roll moves over a device known as the ‘tracker bar’, which has 88 holes (generally, one for each piano key). When a perforation passes over the hole, the note sounds. (Wikipedia) 3a Kinetic Field : lecture 20 by the author Sangita Southgate Thomas Haworth David Wareham David Wareham 3a Kinetic Field : studentwork Jennifer Bull 036: 037 Carmen Po Yang Yang Hui Daniel Konteh Yang Yang Hui Chris Makariou Zachary Bird 3a Kinetic Field : studentwork Juliana Hunt 038: 039 move verb (used without object) 06 to take action; proceed. 01 to pass from one place or position (dictionary.com) to another. 02 to go from one place of residence to another: They moved from Tennessee to Texas. 03 to advance or progress: The red racing car moved into the lead. 04 to start off or leave: It’s time to be moving. 05 to transfer a piece in a game, as chess or checkers. 09 to be active in a particular sphere: to move in musical society. min·ute noun 01 A unit of time equal to 60 seconds. 02 A unit of angular measurement equal to one sixtieth of a degree, or 60 seconds. Also called minute of arc. 03 A measure of the distance one can cover in a minute: lives ten minutes from school. 04 A short interval of time; moment. 05 A specific point in time: Stop that this minute! (American Heritage Dictionary) 040: 041 in space during the span of one minute. The route you choose should contain changes in: •฀level:฀via฀steps,฀stairs,฀escalator,฀elevator,฀Ferris฀wheel,฀etc. •฀speed: accelerating, stepping of an escalator, moving from a ramp to a stair etc. •฀space:฀entering฀a฀stairwell,฀stepping฀out฀of฀a฀tunnel,฀into฀the฀light,฀etc. Changes could occur either separately or simultaneously. You should think about how you set up, move (or keep still) the camera during your One Minute Mov(i)e. On Tuesday, Nov 30, we will screen and review your films / image series. You will then be asked to produce a notation (this drawing type will be explained in Tuesday’s lecture) 3b workshop One Minute Mov(i)e : Speed and Space Working in groups of four, you are asked to record a group member’s movement 02 01 : Great Wall of China, 2007 02 : Beijing Intersection, 2007 3b One Minute Mov(i)e : lecture 01 042: 043 Carmen Po, Yang Yang Hui Carmen Po, Yang Yang Hui 3b One Minute Mov(i)e : studentwork 044: 045 Hadas Even-Tzur, Ren Tanaka, Susan Amiri Hadas Even-Tzur, Ren Tanaka, Susan Amiri 3b One Minute Mov(i)e : studentwork 046: 047 phe·nom·e·non noun 02 Astronomy: the apparent displacement 01 a fact, occurrence, or circumstance of a celestial body due to its being observed observed or observable: to study the from the earth instead of from the sun. phenomena of nature. 02 something that is impressive or extraordinary. 03 an appearance or immediate object of awareness in experience per·spec·tive noun 01 a technique of depicting volumes and spatial relationships on a flat surface. 02 a picture employing this technique, esp. one in which it is prominent: an par·al·lax noun architect’s perspective of a house. 01 the apparent displacement of an o 03 the state of one’s ideas, the facts bserved object due to a change in the known to one, etc., in having a meaningful position of the observer. interrelationship. (dictionary.com) 048 : 049 contain underground cavities, interior voids as well as intermediate zones. Sketch and draw a simple, diagrammatic section through the model of the kinetic field you built in the previous week. Your model is at scale 1:100. Identify a memorable space within your kinetic field. Set up a viewpoint in that space and draw a perspective view from that vantage point. Think about the changes that will occur when its elements move over time. How will those changes affect your view and space? Kinetic elements could obscure or reveal scenes, e.g. operating as sliding or pivoting screens; or the position of the observer might shift along with a kinetic element he is standing or sitting on – and a sight is gained, lost, or altered. Show the changes in a second perspective relating to the first one. 4a Kinetic Space : Phenomenon / Parallax / Perspective Consider and reflect on your kinetic field as space: it might be a landscape, 05 07 12 04 03 02 10 09 Narrative 01 Space 06 11 Kinetic Space 08 050: 051 13 14 15 01 : Stephen Croucher, Pilgrim’s Gateway to Canterbury, 2006 02 / 03 / 04 / 05 : Forbidden City, 16 Beijing, 2007 06 / 07 : Space and Light 08 : Jesus Soto, Penetrable Azul, Buenos Aires, 1999 09 / 10 : Jesus Soto, Penetrable Amarillo, Museo de Arte Moderno Jesús Soto, Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, 1999 patches of sunlight, 2003 13 / 14 : Gerrit Rietvelt, Schröder House, Utrecht, 1924 15 : Wolfram Popp, Estradenhaus at Choriner Strasse, Berlin, 1998 16 / 17 : Steven Holl and Vito Acconci, Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, 1993 4a Kinetic Space : lecture 17 11 / 12 : University Library Magdeburg, Matthew Hine Matthew Hine Jennifer Bull 4a Kinetic Space : studentwork Marina Polycarpou 052 : 053 Kathy Hui Tom Larsson Sam Bailey Chris Brooker Sangita Southgate 4a Kinetic Space : studentwork Robyn Jones, Carmen Po, Yang Yang Hui Aboud Aboud 054: 055 theatre noun gesture noun 01 a building in which plays and other 01 a movement of part of the body to dramatic performances are given. express an idea or meaning. 02 the writing and production of plays. 02 an action performed to convey one’s 03 a play or other activity considered feelings or intentions. in terms of its dramatic quality. 03 an action performed for show in the 04 (also lecture theatre) a room for knowledge that it will have no effect. lectures with seats in tiers. (dictionary.com) 05 Brit. an operating theatre. 06 the area in which something happens: a theatre of war. 07 before another noun (of weapons) Oskar Schlemmer, ‘Ring dance’ Oskar Schlemmer, ‘Man’, mixed media, 1928 intermediate between tactical and strategic. open discussions, performances, etc.) to explore several notions of theatre such as: object and body, ephemeral moments, duration of experience, actorspectator-relationship, significance of text, and scenetic space. We will work with texts (4 different plays) and objects (whatever is to hand) at different location within the building, transforming words into actions, materials into scenes, and thoughts into gestures. You will need: •฀A4฀pad฀of฀white฀paper฀to฀draw฀and฀write฀while฀standing,฀sitting฀or฀rehearsing •฀Pens,฀pencils฀or฀lead฀holders •฀Photo฀camera The workshop will take place on Tuesday, 6th November. We will start at 10 am in the staff room on ground floor. Workshop transcripts Due to its ephemeral nature, theatre is very difficult to document and theoretically unruly. However, by using means of representation such as photographs, drawings, text, and notation you are challenged to give it a try. We ask you to produce a diary of the workshop, notably focusing on transcripts of theatre relevant aspects such as space, movement and event / sensation. Your diary should have the following structure: 1. Title Give your diary a title (you may choose to do this as the last step after recording what has happened during the day) 2. Setting Give a verbal description of the staff room where the workshop starts 3. Transcript A: Actor’s perspective Choose a scene of the performance and document it from the actor’s point of view 4. Transcript B: Spectator’s perspective Choose a scene of the performance and document it from the spectator’s point of view 5. Transcript C: Event notation Document the sequence of events during the course of the workshop. Focus on aspects such as type of action, location, sensation, tension and set these into relation with time and duration 6. Transcript D: Singular Moment Choose a particular moment during a performance and document it 4b workshop Theatre /Gestures of and in Space : Kwong Loke & Uwe Schmidt-Hess The workshop is conceived as a journey with changing vehicles (talks, games, 06 01 Energetic spaces. Scenes of theatre performances directed by Kwong Loke: 01 : Lee Man-Hee, ‘Darkness in a Wooden Bell’ 02 : Yu Miri, ‘Festival for the Fish’ 03 / 04 / 05 / 06 / 07: Nelson Rodrigues, 07 02 ‘Our Lady of the Drowned’ 08 : Elangovan, ‘DOGS’ 09 / 10 : Nelson Rodrigues, ‘All nudity 09 10 08 04 05 03 shall be punished’ 058 : 059 05 01 Elastic spaces. The human body and the fluctuating boundaries of this territory: 01 : Antony Gormley, ‘Capacitor’, 2001 02 : Antony Gormley, ‘Freefall’, 2007 03 : Antony Gormley, ‘Flare’, 2007 06 02 04 : Antony Gormley, ‘Static’, 2007 05 / 06 : Gordon Matta-Clark, Arrows, 1973–1974 07 : Oskar Schlemmer, ‘man and artificial figure’, 1925 08 : Gianni Colombo, ‘Elastic Space’, 1967 07 08 4b Theatre / Gestures of and in Space : lecture 09 04 03 09 : Trisha Brown, ‘Leaning Duets’, 1970 staging the plays in the evening more morning exercise pictures the human machine Zachery Bird 4b Theatre / Gestures of and in Space : studentwork 060 : 061 Matthew Hawley 4b Theatre / Gestures of and in Space : studentwork 062 : 063 ne·go·ti·ate nav·i·gate verb (used with object) verb (used without object) 01 to move on, over, or through (water, air, or 01 to deal or bargain with another or others, land) in a ship or aircraft: to navigate a river. as in the preparation of a treaty or contract 02 to direct or manage (a ship, aircraft, or in preliminaries to a business deal. verb (used with object) 02 to manage; transact; conduct: He negotiated an important business deal. 03 to move through, around, or over in a satisfactory manner: to negotiate a difficult dance step without tripping: to negotiate sharp curves. Environmental Notation of a market in Beijing by students from CAFA, 2007 (dictionary.com) or guided missile) on its course. 03 to ascertain or plot and control the course or position of (a ship, aircraft, etc.). 04 to walk or find one’s way on, in, or across: It was difficult to navigate the stairs in the dark. (dictionary.com) 064 : 065 spatial zones as an urban project and develop a trajectory of experience and system of circulation. Negotiate You will work in groups of four and arrange your individual models to form a larger field and then enter collaborative negotiations with the aim of establishing a masterplan and a common system of circulation connecting your parcels. The connections can take a wide range of forms, intensities, and urban typologies, from underground passage, bridge, path, avenue, axis, to public plaza and beyond. Navigate Your trajectories and circulation network should then be developed to provide access to and enhance the characteristic qualities of your field. Think about the experience of the traveler along the route / the overall configuration of the system. Urban Structure You could develop a linear promenade, or a grid-like network, or a tree-like, hierarchical system of paths – or a hybrid configuration. Consider the development of nodes and how you will overcome differences in levels. The degree of connectivity can range from hyper-connected to minimal; you can provide a vast number of connections with a high degree of redundancy and alternative routes or highly controlled linear sequences. Urban Experience Think about the One Minute Mov(i)e you have made and the films you have seen last Tuesday. Elements of urban experience recorded there could help you to invent and develop urban experience(s) in your field. •฀transitions฀between฀spaces •฀changes฀in฀level฀ •฀the฀rhythm฀of฀movement฀ •฀changes฀in฀speed •฀directional฀trajectories,฀shortcuts฀and฀rambling฀detours •฀the฀posture฀of฀the฀human฀body฀in฀movement •฀running,฀walking,฀racing,฀standing฀still •฀the฀interaction฀between฀people฀at฀nodes฀and฀intersections •฀different฀vehicles฀and฀their฀characteristic฀movement฀patterns฀ 5a Negotiate / Navigate : Dynamic Urbanism This stage of the project challenges you to think about your kinetic field and 06 15 05 14 04 13 03 02 09 08 12 11 Negotiation 01 07 Navigation 10 066 : 067 20 Case Studies 16 01 : Sarah Wigglesworth, ‘Table top’, 1998 02 : Georg Gerster, ‘Swissair poster for Hong Kong’, 1975 03 : Yann Arthus-Bertrand, ‘The Earth from Above’, Cotton fabrics drying in the sun, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, 21 17 2003 04 : ibid, Carpets in Marrakech, Morocco 05 : ibid, Facade in Sao Paulo, Brasil 06 : Army Corps of Engineers, ‘The Mississippi river in its geological context’, USA, 1974 07 : Yann Arthus-Bertrand, ‘The Earth 22 18 from Above’, Village in the Rheris valley, Ar-Rachidia region, Haut Atlas, Marocco 08 : ibid, Dogon village near Bandiagara, Mali 09 : Oasis in the Sahara 10 : Ice skaters in the Netherlands 12 : Susken Rosenthal, Football drawings, 1982 13 : Stamen, Cabspotting, San Francisco, 2006 14 : Emmet Gowin, ‘Harvest Traffic over agricultural pivot near Hermiston’, Orgeon, 1991 15 : Emmet Gowin, ‘Mining Exploration near Carson City’, Nevada, 1988 16 : Emmet Gowin, ‘Off Road Traffic Pattern along Northwest Shore of the Great Salt Lake’, Utah, 1988 17 : Saul Steinberg, ‘Country Noises’, 1979 18 : Formula 1 racetrack in Bahrain, 2004 19 : Highway Intersection, USA 20 : George Steinmetz, ‘Hakka village in Guandong’, China, 2008 21 : ibid, ‘Suburban development in Shenyang’, China, 2008 22 : Newcourt’s Map of Medieval London, 1658 5a Negotiate / Navigate : lecture 19 11 : Football field Laura Berge, Tom Haworth, Sarah Henry, Hannah Shaw Zachary Bird, Cara Beveridge, Emily Hilliar, Jamie Mitchell Michael Hoang, Matthew Kwok, Hadas Even-Tzur, Ren Tanaka 5a Negotiate / Navigate : studentwork 068: 069 Cagla Guvec, Shoreen Lobban, Corvin Medhat, Felisha Ohene-Djan Robert Whitten, Emma Rowland, Matthew Hine, Dean Morley David Wareham, Michael Ha, Caroline Lozynskyj, Casey Sole 5a Negotiate / Navigate : studentwork Seetal Patel, Natalia Rzepka, Amra Naim 070 : 071 col-lage noun References An art form in which, variously, small objects, Pablo Picasso, Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, bits of newspaper, cloth, pressed flowers, Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Hoech, John etc. are pasted together on a surface in Heartfield, Eduardo Paolozzi, Richard incongruous relationship for their symbolic Hamilton, Ron Herron (Archigramm), or suggestive effect a composition so made Adolfo Natalini (Superstudio), Hans any collection of seemingly unrelated bits Hollein, Yves Brunier, Richard Meier and parts, as in a photomontage. Superstudio, ‘Continuous Monument’, 1999 (dictionary.com) 072 : 073 From the seminal moment in 1908 when the young Picasso took a piece of brown card pasted with ‘Magasins du Louvre’ label and converted it into a new kind of picture, collage has been at the very heart of modern art and architecture. Collages are an intuitive method of designing and expressing architectural processes. They can become a very personal way of expressing oneself. Artists and architects have used collages, whether hand-made or digitally composed, to express their ideas and designs. In this one-day-workshop we will explore some methods of hand-made collages, for example where to find raw-material and images, cut-and-paste techniques, (re)arrangement of found objects, etc. You will learn to compose an image out of unrelated parts and how to invent a new meaning for everyday objects. You will need to bring the following materials and tools •฀One฀old฀newspaper฀ •฀A฀photo฀of฀you฀and฀one฀photo฀of฀one฀of฀your฀irst฀year-projects฀ •฀Drawing board, a set of pencils or lead holders with leads , pencil colours, small scissors, cutter, scalpel and nail scissors, a cutting mat, Blu Tack, glue stick Test I: Collage – Colour In the product catalogues and the newspapers you will find all kind of coloured areas and objects. Start your first collage with an exciting arrangement of different colours and patterns. Test II: Collage – Scale With this collage you will compose a scenario of absurd scale shifts. Use 3–5 different scales to build up a relationship between the chosen objects, e.g. a person with a hand as big as a house next to it. Remember what you have discovered in the V&A museum, whilst measuring different scales. Test III: Collage – Function Set up a collage to show a device which can move or which can be moved. The result could be a small part of an invented machine or an unusual way to use an everyday object like an iron, a washing machine, a screw driver. A storage device for nightmares Every one of us dreams at night: if long or short, colorful or black-and- white, sunny or dark, happy or scary. With a storage device for nightmares you could file your personal dreams every day and store them safe and protected. You will start with your photo and use all 3 methods from the morning session in order to collage your device. 5b workshop Collage : Markus Seifermann •฀One฀product฀catalogue฀for฀free฀(Argos,฀Boots,฀Franchi-ironmongery฀etc.) the tobacco smoke also smells of the mouth that exhales it the two odors 04 are married by the INFRA-slim 06 07 08 01 02 03 When Marcel Duchamp, View 5, 05 no. 1 (March 1945) 074 : 075 14 09 01: Ron Herron, ‘Archigramm Instant City’, 1969 02: Yves Brunier, ‘Waterloo site development’, 1989 03: Lebbeus Woods, ‘Quake City / Shared Houses’, 1995 04: Richard Meier, ‘Collage-Diary’, 1987 15 10 05: Kurt Schwitters, ‘Merz Picture’, 32A (Cherry Picture), 1921 06: Ben Nicholson, ‘Appliance House’, An Initial Collage, 1986 – 90 07: Hans Hollein, ‘Highrise Building: Sparkplug’, Project, 1964 08: Ron Herron, Archigramm, ‘Walking City’, 1964 16 11 09: Superstudio, ‘Continuous Monument’, 1969 10: Ben Nicholson, ‘Appliance House’, exterior elevation of Cell wall, 1986 – 90 11: Superstudio, ‘Continuous Monument’, 1971 17 12 12: Markus Seifermann, ‘Spinning the Story Tissue’, 2005 13: Markus Seifermann, ‘Story Grinder’, 2005 14: Kurt Schwitters, ‘Merzbau’, 1923 – 43 15: Teddy Newton, ‘Pixar’, Miscellaneous Superhero, 2004 16: Richard Hamilton, ‘Just What Is It 18 Different, So Appealing?’, 1956 17: Pablo Picasso, ‘Guitar, Sheet Music and Glass’, 1912 18: Gee Vaucher, ‘International Anthem 2 – Domestic Violence’, 1979 19: Vladimir Tatlin, ‘Painterly Relief’, 1913 – 14 5b Collage : lecture 19 13 That Makes Today’s Homes So Matthew Hine 5b Collage : studentwork Alex Larelli 076 : 077 Jennifer Bull Peter Bayley Cara Beveridge Robyn Jones 5b Collage : studentwork Mickaela Pellett 078 : 079 Urban Animal Third Nature Penumbra Advanced Footwear 080: 081 forwarded message 01 Second Nature Advanced Footwear Ltd, The Chairman of the Board Dear architect, ‘kinetic field’, which shows much promise of synergy regarding a project we have been pursuing at our firm. Our company background is in quality footwear for a range of different sports. About two years ago, we established ‘Second Nature Advanced Footwear’ as a new research and development division within our firm. ‘Second Nature Advanced Footwear’ addresses the needs of a growing number of customers using our equipment in the urban outdoors. More specifically, we are concerned by the rising incidence of arthropathy and believe that in order for us to be able to conduct our business responsibly, rigorous research into urban surfaces and their interaction with the urban athlete’s footwear will be essential. We would like to ask you to design a small enclosed space within your ‘kinetic field’ to accommodate a member of our staff, who will be on site to receive visiting athletes and testers and supply them with our experimental sports shoes. Sincerely, Second Nature Advanced Footwear Ltd forwarded message 02 Penumbra Ltd, The Chairman of the Board Dear architect, Your recent work on your evolving ‘kinetic field’ has caught our interest. We are an interdisciplinary team of perception psychologists and lighting designers. Sunlight, daylight and artificial light are the media we work in. We would like to approach your with the idea of establishing a showcase and research location for our team in your ‘kinetic field’. For this, we will require a small, enclosed space to accommodate some equipment and a control desk for the operation of our experiments. We would like to work with sunlight, daylight and artificial light within you kinetic field. You may consider providing us with underground cavities, but this is not an essential requirement. Rather, we would be expecting an idea from you to which we then could react. You should also provide us with some indication and illustration of possible sunlighting, daylighting, and artificial lighting scenarios that :could take place within your territory. Should you be interested in helping us, you might want to take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow. Sincerely, Penumbra Ltd 6a ... a letter from the client : Program and Activity With great interest we have been following your recent work and your evolving ‘There are people who think what makes a good wine comes from nature – factors like rain and soil and temperature. Then there are those who think it’s a matter of second nature – of picking and fermenting and ageing. But these days, there’s a whole new world of wine making technology – and a whole new argument as to what is ‘natural’ and what is not. These days, its chemists rather than vignerons who are increasingly in charge of technique. It is illegal in the United States and in many other countries to add flavors or colorings. But it isn’t illegal to add oak chips to wine fermenting in stainless steel barrels to get that “oak finish” promised on the label. These increasingly popular technologies shift wine making away from the idea of a process subject to regional variations in climate and seasonal variations in weather. Nature no longer rules; second nature eliminates the necessary vagaries of wind and water and sunshine. While the images and copy on the labels still refer to the wine makers’ ancient status as an alchemical transformer of nature into art, the reality is otherwise. As Guy Debord once put it: ‘An era which finds it profitable to fake by chemical means various famous wines, can only sell them if it has created wine experts able to con their marks into admiring their new, more distinctive flavors.’ ‘Whenever people lose the capacity to see things for themselves, the expert is there it offer an absolute reassurance’, Debord says. In the case of wine, the media shifts from representing the gold standard in taste to creating a floating currency of value. Wine, once a liminal product, hovering on the border between nature and second nature, between the world of wind and rain and the world of collective human labor and skill, becomes an index of a further development in the human relation to nature – the development of ‘third nature’. It is only when second nature develops that nature appears as a concept. Once the techniques are in place for making nature into a resource, for trapping or taming it, an appreciation arises for nature in its raw state, a state that only appears at the point where it is no longer a general condition. What cultures represent to themselves as nature is always a world we have lost. Nature, which appears as an origin, appears only retroactively, as it disappears. The lost world of nature exercises a magic fascination over culture, which expresses itself in its finest form as romanticism. But it also expresses itself as a consumer preference, for that which is close to nature, for that which, while produced, exposes itself in its production to the serendipity of wind and rain. In spite of the fashion for organic foods and herbal remedies, the most enduring product of this hankering for a lost nature is wine. [...] Wine becomes an artifact of third nature, of the management of appearances, the valuation of signs, a third nature capable of transforming any product of second nature’s industrial ingenuity into the sign of its opposite.’ (http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0108/msg00115.html) 082 : 083 forwarded message 03 Third Nature Winery Ltd, The Chairman of the Board Dear architect, We are sending you this excerpt from our company manifesto because we would like to propose a collaboration, We would like to ask you to design a small enclosed space within your ‘kinetic field’ to incorporate a small bar and storage facility. The overall floor area of enclosed space may not under any circumstances exceed 30 m2, but could well be smaller than that. We envision visitors to enjoy the dégustation of a small range of avant-garde wines in the context and outdoor spaces of your kinetic field and will expect an innovative proposition for this from you. Sincerely, Third Nature Winery Ltd forwarded message 04 Urban Animal Ltd, The Chairman of the Board Dear architect, We are at the forefront of research into the adaptation of species to man-made environments. Your kinetic field might yet prove to be an ideal tool for our research as well as our efforts to communicate with the broader public. Within your kinetic field, we would require a small, enclosed space for members of our staff overseeing our operations there. We would also expect you to demonstrate how your territory could provide hidden spaces (which need not be enclosed), from which members of our staff could We plan to focus on a particular species of urban animals and will leave the choice of this species up to you. Previous projects have been conducted on neurotic cats, migrant birds, and commensals. This is a type of symbiosis where two (or more) organisms from different species live in close proximity to one another, in which one member is unaffected by the relationship and the other benefits from it. Will you help us? Sincerely, Urban Animal Ltd 6a ... a letter from the client : Program and Activity conduct their research, observe and record. 15 14 04 03 02 08 07 06 11 10 Narrative and Enclosure 13 12 Space and Program 01 Function 05 Choreography 09 084: 085 16 Making Space at Knights Park 01 : Space and Program 02 : Hayward Gallery, ‘Psycho Buildings Exhibition’, 2008 03 : Codified Program, Pictograms 04 : Codified Areas, Zoning Plan 05 : Diagram of the Human Heart 06 : Ollafur Eliason, Pavillion for the 17 Serpentine Gallery, 2007 07 : Ernst Neufert, Frequency of use in different areas of a kitchen 08 : OMA, Urban Design Forum Yokohama, 1992 09 : Notation of Pageants in medieval Florence 10 : Hayward Gallery, ‘Psycho Buildings 18 Exhibition’, 2008 11 : ‘Choreography and Enclosure’, Lars van Trier, Dogville 2003 12 : ‘Narrative and Enclosure’, Umberto Eco, Floor plan with inscriptions of the library for The Name of the Rose, 1980 13 : Unprogrammed Field in London, 2007 14 : Olafur Eliason, ‘The Weather Project’, Tate Modern, 2003 15 : Antony Gormley, ‘Blinding Light’, Tate Modern, 2007 16 : Common Room, Kingston University: Discussion at AHRA Conference, 2007 17 : Studios: Presentation at AHRA Conference, 2007 Can one attempt to make a contribution to architectural discourse by relentlessly stating that there is no space without event, no architecture without program? Our work argues that architecture – its social relevance and formal invention – cannot be dissociated from the events that ‘happen’ in it. To what extent could the literary narrative shed light on the organization of events in buildings, whether called ‘use,’ ‘functions,’ ‘activities,’ or ‘programs’? If writers could manipulate the structure of stories in the same way as they twist vocabulary and grammar, couldn’t architects do the same, organizing the program in a similarly objective, detached, or imaginative way? For if architects could selfconsciously use such devices as repetition, distortion, or juxtaposition in the formal elaboration of walls, couldn’t they do the same thing in terms of the activities that occurred within those very walls? Bernard Tschumi: Architecture and Disjunction 6a ... a letter from the client : Program and Activity : lecture 18 : First Year Studio Discussion Charlotte Calver Matthew Hine 6a ... a letter from the client : Program and Activity : studentwork 086: 087 Hadas Even-Tzur Sangita Southgate 6a ... a letter from the client : Program and Activity : studentwork Shoreen Lobban 088: 089 Ejection Loop, Structural Stability and Morphogenesis, René Thom Surface differention of detour lines, Jinbok Wee 090: 091 or relative, in various directions; and Growth involves the same concepts of magnitude and direction, related to the further concept, or ‘dimension’, of Time. ‘On Growth and Form’ by D’Arcy Thompson; edited by John Tyler Bonner; Cambridge University Press 1961 Rhino as ‘Generative tool’ Two sessions of Rhino workshop are set up on the continuous track of project development. 3D development using Rhino encourages you to think your projects onto different levels as well as to obtain some uses of it. Nowadays, using 3D in computer is far more than ‘a tool’. It would be rather your another infrastructural brain to help you to construct the system of form-making and to understand the complexity of its dynamics. Advantages of Rhino 3D Modelling adopts your concept and you also need to adopt the computational algorithm and even its way of thinking. There are many types of softwares to construct 3D and animation/simulation. Among these, Rhino has its own conspicuous strengths: geometrical accuracy, calculative stability and surface manipulations. Nowadays, many engineers also use it due to these aspects. In addition to Rhino, Maya and 3D-Max are used for some specific uses. Output from workshops You will use Rhino not just for making a form but for generating the system of form. Having said that, all you need to do is indulging yourself into ‘Rhino-World’. Start with your chosen field or a part of field and then deform/analyse/transform it. Do not take it serously. Total-fun would be rather productive. At the end of every session, we will hold a pin-up in studio to see your first 3D outputs. Bear in mind one thing: 3D information would be sometimes more understandable than 3D image when it is extracted into 2D vectors. 6b workshop Rhino : Jinbok Wee and Florence Kong For the form of an object is defined when we know its magnitude, actual Jamie Mitchell 6b Rhino : studentwork Jamie Mitchell 092: 093 Sangita Southgate Lloyd Preston-Allen 6b Rhino : studentwork Sangita Southgate 094: 095 7a Instant Diagrams : Jacques Tati Notations 7b Field Trip Sketchbook : Persona No.5, The Urban Delaminator 7c Space Syntax : Maia Lemlij 7d Diagrams of Intensive and Extensive Space 7e Scale and Representation : Mark Hatter 7 096: 097 Matthew Hine Ren Tanaka Jaques Tati, ‘Mon Oncle’ Jennifer Bull 098: 099 Dean Morley Jaques Tati, ‘Playtime’ follow their protagonist, Monsieur Hulot, as he navigates vertical and horizontal space. Please draw an instant diagram noting and explaining his experience and the incidents which occur along the trajectory of his movement. 7a Instant Diagrams : Jacques Tati Notations Harshak Patel These two short sequences from films by Jaques Tati, ‘Mon Oncle’ and ‘Playtime’, Sangita Southgate 100: 101 information, smear and swab from urban surfaces – this will be systematically collected in a sketchbook. Thin paper and charcoal / pencil will be used to record haptic and textural qualities with a frottage technique, or a photo camera. The Urban Delaminator is especially interested in the story behind and of surfaces, and in the construction of surfaces, in the elements supporting and making surfaces. 7b Field Trip Sketchbook : Persona No.5, The Urban Delaminator Istanbul Suleymanie Mosque Canyon Shopping Centre Exemplary tools are a broad roll of adhesive film that can pick up particles, traces, London, St Giles Court London, Victoria Embankment London, Covent Garden Ealing Strategic Centre AAP London, Tate Britain London, Aquatics Centre London, Trafalgar Square London, Trafalgar Square pedestrian distribution Liverpool, St Johns Centre London, Elephant & Castle London, Millenium Bridge 102: 103 Jeddah, Spatial Planning Jeddah, Tyyarah Square built environment. This influence can be understood in its nature, measured in its degree and shaped through planning and design interventions. Space Syntax provides a unique, evidence-based approach to the planning and design of buildings and urban areas. Our aim is to help create environments that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. Our evidence and ideas empower people to make informed decisions about the key issues concerning them. 7c Space Syntax : Maia Lemlij Jeddah, Masterplan Jeddah, Masterplan Jeddah, Unplanned Areas Glasgow Social Services Buildings Nottingham Old Market Square Munich Axial Map Human activity is profoundly influenced by the planning and design of the Legend for Group A 104: 105 Alvin Shuang Zhu The workshop explored different ways of experiencing the contemporary city, taking the distinction between extensive and intensive space established by the French philospher Gilles Deleuze as its point of reference. Extensive space is ‘bounded by natural and artificial extensive boundaries’, whereas intensive space is characterized by ‘zones of intensity’. While extensive quantities such pressure, temperature and connectivity are recognized by Deleuze as ‘indivisible’. Reyner Banham has made a related distinction between the campfire as the archetype of ‘power-operated solutions’ (defining zones of intensity) and the tent as a ‘structural solution’ (defining enclosure and extensive boundaries). Starting from an image of a hotpot in a Beijing restaurant, students explored process, mechanics, performance and spatial context. In a second phase, a temporary market and adjoining traffic intersection became the site for an urban investigation and environmental notation. The site was divided into 7 strips, with individual groups selecting specific environmental parameters, aspects and patterns of human behavior to observe, investigate and notate. Individual systems and codes of notations were developed and explained in a legend. An Rong, Darren Deane, Christoph Lueder, and Yufang Zhou, Kingston University London and Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing 7d Diagrams of Intensive and Extensive Space as volume, area and length are additive, intensive quantities such as density, 106: 107 The ability to interrogate objects at different scales can be an important design tool. A child playing with a dolls house or toy fort has no trouble projecting themselves within their miniaturised environment. Adults, however often have difficulty with such scalar projection, their continued exposure to the ‘real world’ inhibiting their ability to misread space and distance. As architects we spend most of our time producing miniatures, both as models and as scale drawings. they represent. This workshop focused on the exploration and documentation of architectural models and found ‘1:1’ objects at differing scales. Students were asked to produce photographs, images, sequences and films that projected their subjects to a larger scale. Careful consideration was given to viewpoint, context, lighting, narrative, depth cues and scale cues. Resulting images were rich and unexpected, with happy accidents highlighting qualities within projects, and suggesting new avenues of exploration. Mark Hatter is an architect, artist and tutor who has explored his interests in the architectural miniature through modelmaking and film. He has assumed the guise of a scientist who investigates fairy tales, built miniature film sets in the Nevada Desert, and taught ants to watch television. 7e Scale and Representation : Mark Hatter We should strive to see beyond the miniatures we produce to the spaces per-for-mance noun 06 the act of performing. 01 a musical, dramatic, or other 07 the manner in which or the entertainment presented before efficiency with which something an audience. reacts or fulfills its intended purpose. 02 the act of performing a ceremony, 08 Linguistics. the actual use of play, piece of music, etc. language in real situations, which may 03 the execution or accomplishment or may not fully reflect a speaker’s of work, acts, feats, etc. competence, being subject to such 04 a particular action, deed, or nonlinguistic factors as inattention, proceeding. distraction, memory lapses, fatigue, 05 an action or proceeding of an or emotional state. unusual or spectacular kind: (dictionary.com) His temper tantrum was quite Giuseppe Englert, Aria, 1965 a performance. 108 : 109 Performances occur in a variety of places: in urban, public, semi-public or private spaces, in formal or informal situations, in intimate or anonymous settings. Urban spaces and building typologies frame activities and performances; on the other hand their form and structure have evolved in response to performances. London sustains a dynamic culture of emerging theatrical performances in a variety of venues. Working in groups of three, you are asked to find a performance in a small theatre and record your experience there. Your presentation should describe performance and setting, the play and the space in which it is performed and observed. The theatre is a place to see and be seen – the boxes, bar areas, balconies and stairs in some theatres can be regarded as performance spaces in themselves. Output Drawing on skills gained in the first semester, you are asked to find a way of describing the theatrical action and theatrical devices employed by the director, e.g. manipulations of perception, etc. You should also undertake a sketch survey of the space. The survey should include a plan and section drawn to scale and hard-line (using your drawing board) on A1 sheets of paper. For this, you will have to take some measurements and make use of a plan obtained from the theatre. You should present the following: •฀Section฀and฀plan฀at฀scale฀1:50฀or฀1:100฀ •฀Recording฀of฀the฀performance,฀e.g.฀a฀notation฀or฀map •฀You฀are฀also฀asked฀to฀recreate฀a฀physical฀dimension฀of฀your฀theatre฀in฀the฀ quadrangle at Knights Park at scale 1:1. This can be an aspect, or a part of the theatre space - you could use string or masking tape, found objects, etc. You may choose a vertical, horizontal, planar, or cubic dimension; work with the lawn, facades, or space of the quad. The only requirement is that the dimension be recreated at scale 1:1. The following theatres are recommended, but there are many more places of interest: Royal Court Theatre, Soho Theatre, Southwark, Playhouse Theatre Company, The Cottesloe at the National Theatre, The Roundhouse, Hampstead Theatre, Jerwood Space, The Pit at the Barbican Centre, Sadler’s Wells & Lilian Baylis Theatres, Young Vic, Old Vic, Half, Moon Young People’s Theatre, Little Angel Theatre, Almeida Theatre In the following week, the quad will host an artist-in-residence, Aaron Williamson, who will be staging a series of live performances. 8a Performance : Theatrical Space Installations Input Natalia Rzepka, Notation of a performance at the Half Moon Theatre, London Sarah Henry, Audience and Performer Notation of the Rose Theatre Kingston 8a Performance : studentwork 110 : 111 Jennifer Bull Mickaela Pellett Elisabeth Bell, Sarah Henry, Hannah Shaw 8a Performance : studentwork Felisha Ohane-Djan, Aboud Aboud, Lesleyanne Bennet, Cagla Guvec, Omar Abduljawad, Shoreen Lobban, Natasha Rajmohan, Emma Croyle 112 : 113 Jamie Mitchell ,Bradlee Smart, Casey Sole Felisha Ohene-Djan, Aboud Aboud, Lesleyanne Bennett, Cagla Guvec, Omar Abduljawad, Shoreen Lobban, Natasha Rajmohan, Emma Croyle 8a Performance : studentwork Overview 114 : 115 8b Surface Geometry : Ben Lewis 116 : 117 Mickaela Pellett, Charlotte Calver Studio 3 LesleyAnne Bennett, Caroline Lozynsky 8b Surface Geometry : studentwork Prabjyot Mankoo 118 : 119 Matthew Hawley James Foote Jamie Mitchell, Casey Sole 8b Surface Geometry : studentwork 120 : 121 Suggested reading Georges Perec, ‘Species of Spaces’, Italo Calvino. ‘Invisible Cities’. London : Vintage, 1997 (edited and translated by John Sturrock), Mark Z. Danielewski, ‘Mark Z. London, Penguin Books, 1999 Archilab: exhibition catalogues since 1999 Coose van Bruggen, ‘Frank O.Gehry, Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao’, New York, H.N. Abrams, 1998 Jorge Luis Borges. Ficciones (Fictions). New York, London, Toronto : Alfred A. Diller and Scofidio, ‘Blur’, original sketch, 2002 Knopf / Everyman’s Library, 1993 Danielewski’s House of Leaves (by Zampanò ; with introduction and notes by Johnny Truant)’, London, Doubleday, 2001 Kevin Lynch, ‘The Image of the City’, Cambridge, [Mass.], London, MIT Press, 1960 122 : 123 it ceases to be appropriated. Space is a doubt: I constantly have to create a mark on it, to designate it, it is never my space, it is never a given, and I have to conquer it. Georges Perec, Species of Spaces (Espèces d’Espaces). I am a filmmaker and an author. I usually work with scripts, synopsis, and texts. All these are related to concepts, intentions. Then I have to deal with shootings with actors and technical problems. I have learned through the years that the peculiar move from the initial concept to its materialization is highly problematic: whether you execute (kill) what is written, or you adapt yourself to the form thus created. Something has to move, something has to hybridize itself, something has to be deformed. Original intentions are often proven too vague, possibly boring or even wrong. I would like to explore with you in a playful way this problematic process from intention to materialization in architectural design. The aim of this one-day workshop is for you to understand the instrumentality of language as a tool for production; to explore and challenge your understanding and interpretation of space through words; to question what an architectural concept is (made for/made of). It is an opportunity for you to consider your relationship with your everyday environment and use the over-familiar as a basis for inspiration in a design project. Two Questions 01. what is space? How do you grasp space, how do you understand it, how do you work with? How can you describe it? how do you know it? Is space self-evident? Do we really know what surround us – the ordinary, the banal, the mundane, the obvious? 02. what is design? The English word ‘design’ comes from the Latin word ‘designare’, which means ‘to mark something with a distinctive sign’. French words ‘Dessein’ (intent, purpose) and ‘Dessin’ (drawing) share the same etymological origin. This means that design is an enquiry approach, and not only a method of expression. 8c Wor(l)ds : Stéphane Querrec and Ersi Ioannidou Space becomes a question, it ceases to be obvious, it ceases to be integrated, 03 06 02 01 Wor(l)ds : sketches, drawings, models are instruments of thinking 05 04 08 07 124 : 125 11 and Other Pieces’ 02 : Jorge Luis Borges, ‘Ficciones’, New York: Everyman’s Library, 1993 03 : Italo Calvino, ‘Invisible Cities’ 04 : G.B. Lenardi, ‘Allegory of the Arts of Architectural Representation’ (detail), 1690 12 09 Translating words into worlds 01 : Georges Perec, ‘Species of Spaces 05: Vignola. Villa Farnese, ‘Caprarola’, 1617 06 : Daniel Libeskind, ‘The Burrow Laws (detail)’, Micromegas, 1979 07 : Pilgrimage Church, ‘Banz’, 1710 08: F. Kiesler, ‘La Cite dans L’Espace’, Austrian Pavillion, Paris Exhibition 13 ‘The Monument of the Third International’, c.1919 11 / 12 : Zaha Hadid, ‘Vitra Fire Station. Weil am Reim’, Germany, 1990-1993 13 / 14 : Diller + Scofidio, ‘The Blur Building’, Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland, 2002 8c Wor(l)ds : lecture 14 10 of Decorative Arts, 1925 09 / 10 : Vladimir Evgrafovich Tatlin, Emma Croyle, Caroline Lozynskyj, Corvin Medhat Studio 3 Caroline Ly, Cagla Guvec, Felisha OhaneDjan, Leyla Osman, Omar Abduljawad 8c Wor(l)ds : studentwork 126 : 127 Hadas Even-Tzur, Jennifer Bull, Sangita Southgate, Harshak Patel Thomas Larsson, Lloyd Preston-Allen, Thomas Haworth, Lee Sawyer Matthew Mure Sarah Henry, Hannah Shaw 8c Wor(l)ds : studentwork 128 : 129 130 : 131 A boy meets a girl. They talk to each other and arrange to meet the next day. Exercise 1 Characterise the girl and the boy by making some typical pictures of her and him. Try to account for the background, the ambience she / he is arranged in. What kind of girl / guy is he? background, education, hobbies, etc. Exercise 2 The boy and the girl are on their way to meet each other. Decide on whom you would like to accompany on her / his way to the date. Film him/ her on this way. What kind of expectations has your protagonist, how is she / he acting on her / his way: Is he/ she looking forward to the meeting and full of energy or is she / he doubtful and half-hearted? Try to put her / his thoughts (without words) into pictures and use her / his environment as a mirror of emotions. The video clip should have a maximum duration of 3 minutes and ends with the meeting of the two protagonists. Tips for the pre-production Create a personality profile of your protagonist in this special situation: Where does he come from, what is his intention for the meeting, what is his emotional condition? Think about how you would like to express his emotional condition: by his behaviour, an event, the surroundings, a daydream, a cutback etc. How do you want to visualize the emotional condition? What kind of possibilities do you have to show this: e.g. camera work, point of view, focal distance / depth of focus, light, film editing, sounddesign / music, setdesign, colordesign /contrasts Have a close look at the surroundings, in which you arrange the set. How can you realise your conception? Create a moodboard in the form of a photo collage of own pictures or found footage material, to visualize the aesthetic concept of the movie. Make a storyboard with all shots you intend to make, having in mind that you might not realise it 1:1. If necessary, adjust it. Do you have an audio-concept? Limit the sound to the original sound track, sounddesign and, if you want, homemade music arrangements. 8d Boy meets Girl : Jürgen Klozenbücher As a first step, make a short resume of her / his previous life: age, family ‘Tower Block’, a film by Nikia Chryssos and the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg 132 : 133 The medium film works with suggestive means. This is, of course, very strong in commercials, scenic films or animation films; but also in alleged objective reportages or documentaries the viewer is swayed and channeled by these means: Camera operation and camera perspective, lighting, editing, sound design and music, production design, color correction, effects and the directing of the actors and protagonists add essentially to convey a certain image, emotion or mood to the audience. These moods or ambiance contribute decisively to the emotional impression of the film. is the sole determinant. More important is a film’s ability to create emotions that move us. Lighting and staging of space (both interior and exterior) definitely are important instruments – film space locates the story, visualizes it and becomes its mirror image in the image of an interior action. So the staging of film space can afford us an inside look at the psyche of the protagonist. 8d Boy meets Girl : lecture The rational understanding of a film is one thing, but never Ahmad Jagot, Thomas Haworth, Lee Sawyer, Lloyd Preston-Allen, Thomas Larsson Matthew Mure, Duna Irschaid 134 8d Boy meets Girl : studentwork 134 : 135 quad 02 quadraphonic sound, or an electronic adjective system for reproducing it: The recording 01 designating or comprising four persons sounded best in quad. or things: rates for quad occupancy; a 03 quadriplegic: a special ward for quads. quad-level house. 04 A quadriceps muscle. Often used in the noun plural. 01 Also called quadrat. a piece of type verb (used with object) metal of less height than the lettered types, 01 to space out (matter) by means of quads. serving to cause a blank in printed matter, (dictionary.com) A performance in the Quad at Kingston University used for spacing. 136 : 137 The faculty of Art, Design, and Architecture at Kingston University intends to explore and test uses of the quadrangle at Knights Park as a performance space. Events, performances and guests have been proposed by various members of the faculty. Suggestions range from hosting an artist-in-residence for a week to a performance by the artist-farmer Henry Cumbernauld involving The quad is not a ‘blank canvas’; it already has been the site of various student activities, e.g. the ‘human machine’ during one of our workshops last semester and many others – in springtime the quad will host a family of ducks, lovingly fed and cared for by our caretakers. All of these proposed and current activities ‘produce space’ in various ways, employing ’tools’ associated with various disciplines, using the human body, animals, vegetation and materials, the human voice, light and shadow and so on. If such a wide range of disciplines are interested in and capable of producing space, what then is the role of architecture and what contribution can we make as a school of architecture? Events and performances in the quad could challenge us to rethink our position as collaborators in ‘producing space’. The faculty will host a collaborative competition among first year students to investigate the architectural potential of the quad. One or several prizes will be awarded for the best proposals. The prize will consist of the construction of the proposal(s) – a budget of £ 10.000 will be made available by the faculty. We will not have a comprehensive overview over the performances planned for the quad, and we (hopefully) will be taken by surprise by some events. You will therefore have to be pro-active rather than re-active. In generating ideas and broadening your frame of reference, you are encouraged to engage as much as possible with other disciplines, staff and students in the faculty and your tutors will support you in this. In thinking about and developing ideas for a ‘performance space’, you are encouraged to draw on experiences gained and skills acquired through your projects and workshops in the first semester. Specifically, you are encouraged to use the field trip and the field trip assignments to be inspired by and investigate the many ‘performance spaces’ of the contemporary city. The quad project will be followed and continued by a second phase located at an urban site in London. The competition will be supported by a series of workshops on Thursdays. 8e Quad Competition : Performance Space live pigs. Ahmad Jagot Ahmad Jagot 8e Quad competition : studentwork 138 : 139 Chris Brooker Charlotte Calver David Wareham 8e Quad competition : studentwork 140 : 141 Lloyd Preston-Allen, Tom Larson, Lee Sawyer Jennifer Bull, Hadas Even-Tzur, Sangita Southgate 8e Quad competition : studentwork 142 : 143 Elisabeth Bell, Sarah Henry, Hannah Shaw Elisabeth Bell, Sarah Henry, Hannah Shaw 8e Quad competition : studentwork 144 : 145 Matthew Hawley Matthew Hine, Rob Whitten, Dan Wilkinson, Jack Mousley 8e Quad competition : studentwork 146 : 147 Natalia Rzepka Isha Amra Naim Mickaela Pellett Peter Bayley Natasha Rajmohan, Lesleyanne Bennet, Emma Croyle 8e Quad competition : studentwork 148 : 149 Laura Berge, Robyn Jones Laura Berge, Robyn Jones 8e Quad competition : studentwork : Competition Winner 150 : 151 theater or theatre noun 04.01 The quality or effectiveness of a 01 A building, room, or outdoor structure theatrical production: good theater; awful for the presentation of plays, films, or other theater. dramatic performances. 04.02 Dramatic material or the use of such 02 A room with tiers of seats used for lectures material: ‘His summation was a great piece or demonstrations: an operating theater at of courtroom theater’ (Ron Rosenbaum). a medical school. 05 The audience assembled for a dramatic 03.01 Dramatic literature or its performance; performance. drama: the theater of Shakespeare and 06 A place that is the setting for dramatic Marlowe. events. 03.02 The milieu of actors and playwrights. 07 A large geographic area in which 03.03 The quality or effectiveness of a military operations are coordinated: the theatrical production: good theater; awful European theater during World War II. theater. (dictionary.com) 03.04 Dramatic material or the use of such material: ‘His summation was a great piece of courtroom theater’ (Ron Rosenbaum). 152 : 153 For your final project you will be asked to look at aspects of ‘performance’ in an urban context and propose a fringe theatre for a site in East London. Site Investigation On Tuesday, March 11, we will meet up at Knights Park and then travel to East London to visit an area located between Shoreditch and Brick Lane. You should look at the built fabric of this area and carefully observe the way people interact with their built environment and with each other. You should then select one of the sites suggested in the enclosed map and focus on an aspect of urban life that you find particularly intriguing. •฀Drift,฀observe,฀gather฀data,฀identify฀phenomena,฀etc •฀Develop a strategy for systematic observation and recording, e.g. working with time (of day), position (of observer), research (through media, through interviews on site) George Perec has the following recommendation, set out in his chapter ‘The Street’: ‘You must set about it more slowly, almost stupidly. Force yourself to write down what is of no interest, what is most obvious, most colourless.’ Through mapping, your intention should be to look, record and begin to understand the ways in which specific human territories are defined. We want you to take an involved attitude to the investigations. For example, you could look at and record: •฀movement:฀pedestrian฀and฀vehicular,฀public฀and฀private฀transportation •฀program:฀commercial,฀residential,฀entertainment,฀not-for-proit,฀etc. •฀private฀and฀public฀domain •฀landmarks: navigation and analogue visual relationships, digital surveillance, CCTV •฀surface:฀texture,฀temperature,฀scale,฀porosity,฀colour •฀sound,฀noise฀and฀smell •฀infrastructure:฀transport,฀utilities,฀digital฀communication฀networks •฀transactions:฀buying,฀selling,฀exchanging,฀communication,฀information •฀density฀of฀occupation,฀of฀incidents฀and฀degree฀of฀gentriication Design Brief Your research and survey of theatres has yielded a broad range of theatrical strategies and building types. Some theatres make use of sophisticated machinery and spatial devices to produce illusions, other performances may take place in a minimal space shared by actors and audience; an entry sequence may connect a series of intricate reception and hospitality spaces, other theatres may incorporate the use of public space or courtyards and backyards as part of such a promenade. You are asked to draw on your own and your colleagues’ research to identify a schedule of accommodation that you will require for your theatrical concept. 9 Fringe Theatre •฀light฀and฀shadow:฀sunlight,฀daylight,฀artiicial฀light Matthew Mure Ludan Lai 9 Fringe Theatre : studentwork : Configurations 154 : 155 Alex Larelli Alex Larelli 9 Fringe Theatre : studentwork : Geometry 156 : 157 Caroline Lozynskyi Jennifer Bull Emma Croyle 9 Fringe Theatre : studentwork : Geometry 158 : 159 Hadas Even-Tzur Emily Hilliar Jamie Mitchell 9 Fringe Theatre : studentwork : Light 160 : 161 Lee Sawyer Charlotte Calver 9 Fringe Theatre : studentwork : Mass 162 : 163 Huseyin Cicek Cara Beveridge 9 Fringe Theatre : studentwork : Mass / Program Amisha Vekaria 164 : 165 Marina Polycarpou Robyn Jones 9 Fringe Theatre : studentwork : Sound & Noise 166 : 167 Matt Herbert Marcos Konaros 9 Fringe Theatre : studentwork : Surface 168 : 169 Casey Sole Michael Ha 9 Fringe Theatre : studentwork : Trajectories 170 : 171 Thomas Haworth Hannah Shaw Laura Berge 9 Fringe Theatre : studentwork : Views 172 : 173 Duna Irshaid Sangita Southgate 9 Fringe Theatre : studentwork : Views 174: 175 First published in 2008 Many thanks to our sponsor Pullingers Art by School of Architecture and Landscape, Shop. Specialists in fine art, graphic, Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture technical drawing, model making, craft Kingston University materials, calligraphy and fine writing pens. Knights Park Shops in Kingston Upon Thames, Epsom, Kingston KT1 2QJ Farnham & on-line at www.pullingers.com. Texts/images © 2008 as noted or the authors For the book in this form © 2008 School of Architecture and Landscape, Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Kingston University All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any other information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-9554744-7-7 Co-ordination and editorial supervision by Christoph Lueder Designed by www.marit.co.uk Printed by Connect Colour Attempts have been made to locate the sources of all photographs and to obtain full reproduction rights. In the very few cases this process has failed to find the copyright holder, our apologies are offered. Any mistakes or omissions are inadvertent, and will be corrected in subsequent editions upon notification to the publisher. Joanna Bailey – Joanna is interested in Uwe Schmidt–Hess – Uwe’s field of interest is understanding architecture through learning the creation of spaces which embody intuition, and teaching and in issues of diversity. experience, and sensation, exploring Laura de Beden – Formula 1 for making your architectures beyond objects and surfaces. design richer and more meaningful: expand Markus Seifermann – Markus is interested in your cultural boundaries and be curious about narrative architecture and his work is focused life. Laura enjoys literature and poetry, on the relationship between text, story and Verlaine’s Chanson d’Automne, Giacomo space. One of his current projects ‘The lost Leopardi, Japanese haikus; the opera and jazz, space of Stiller’ explores the architecture of Puccini and Miles Davis; her favourite painter, a lost identity. Paul Klee; architects, Palladio and Aldo Rossi. Ben Sweeting – Ben is interested in the border Angela Ford – Architectural modelmaking between architecture and everyday life and is the physical creation of sequential poetic the corresponding relation between design volumes. and ethics; he is currently a PhD by design Ersi Ioannidou – Ersi’s research is an student at the Bartlett, UCL exploration into the modern meaning of Charlie Voss – Charlie is particularly interested the minimum dwelling. It particularly in the micro–processes of evolving landscapes focuses on the minimum means that help and their social and cultural impacts. the individual create a sense of at home Jinbok Wee – Jinbok’s main interest is in transit – what she calls the minimum home. in ‘matter organisation’ – organisational Zoe Jones – Zoe is interested in teaching manipulations of material / immaterial and learning new ways to represent ideas, realities. responses and experiences. Alongside Jürgen Klozenbücher – Architecture should teaching and practicing she is currently not speak to us about technique or materiality converting her own house. but capture our imagination with its story just Florence Kong – Florence graduated from as a good book or a good film does. the AA in 2005, worked with Rocco Yim on Ben Lewis – Through his research he has projects in Hong Kong and mainland China, developed a keen interest in geometrical worked with Zaha Hadid Architects on forms, and the form making process often projects in Glasgow and China, is currently referred to as ‘form–finding’, through his work working for KPF on projects in Moscow and he has collaborated with some of the worlds London. Interested in light and reflection, leading architectural practices to realise urban morphology and land intensification, these complex forms in materials as diverse personal work was shortlisted for the 11th as glass–fibre fabric and glulaminated timber. Venice Biennale International Architecture Kwong Loke – Theatre is humanism inhabiting Exhibition. the empty space. The challenge space throws Christoph Lueder – Christoph is interested at us is to find the humanity and imagination to in the diagram as a discursive and generative defy its gravity. tool in architecture and urbanism. He is Acting Stéphane Querrec – What is the role of the Course Director BA Architecture at Kingston Subject in today’s society? What’s the trouble University and First Year Leader. with the Subject? Harry Paticas – Harry has recently set up his own practice, PATICAS ARCHITECTURE, and will be exhibiting a prototype fabric and earth toilet for the London Festival of Architecture in June 2008.