Thursday, October 15, 2009
I went about it all wrong!!!!!
As some of you might know, I began working on a 'matrix' in which I could input information from the client, and site to ballance the 'given' needs of a single family house. So how would this have been useful? well I indeed wanted to reduce the scope of subjective design which has been so prevelent in my previous work (excluding any environmental, and construction standards which i allowed to inform my work) and find a starting point for me to begin my project. To leave the client end open as it would have be if i were to use the for mentioned 'matrix' I would need to begin with what are the basic needs in a single family house. This is were my thesis advisor and I found a real problem... If you were to look at the needs of all single families in the world or even in the USA or even in Pittsburgh, the overlap of their needs would be close to none, and would be hardly sufficeint as a starting point to build a thesis project on. Here are some sketches of how mathematically, and diagramatically this is made clear.
After considerable time I was reluctant to simply abandon this method and was curios how it could work given perhaps a certain set of people. Who would be the potential cannidates who would be able to afford such a highly detailed house. If it were possible to census single families, with a household income of X or above what would they consider neccessity and what would the overlaps be. below is a diagram of how the gathered data would perhaps look and how I would sample to have the greatest overlaps.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Response to Harvard Design article by Silvetti
“A profession whose creativity and standing depends ultimately on its absolute command of this unique and difficult task.” (p22 Jorge Silvetti Harvard design magazine fall 2003)
Programism as defined by Silvetti is “A tendency to accumulate and manipulate information that, by the sheer power of its quantity, uncritical method of being gathered, apparent authority as “ neutral data,” and compelling graphic representation becomes, with little transformation, the very form of the architecture proposed or its figurative inspiration.” (p23 jorge silvetti) The site I am currently investigating for studio, in Barcelona Spain the Barceloneta Fish Market by Mias architects, used imagery of fish from the local culture to inspire the new roof structure which would engage the surroundings in a much more deliberate nature. Though successful in transforming the area, it is not clear if the use of the local imagery was the basis upon which people wanted to visit the site, as there are new amenities, more “engaging architecture”, new greenspace…etc. Could the architects not have based their intervention to this preexisting historic structure in such a way that would not have required such complicated geometries, and ultimately a non renewable material intensive project?. To compare I took a look at another market in Barcelona the Mercat Santa Caterina, and though I have no previous knowledge of the Mercat Santa Caterina, it would seem that the form is more system driven, having a keen understanding of how to enclose this large span space, where the Barceloneta market by Josep Mias architects market used;
“ a survey of the place with the object of identifying what would enable us to reveal its qualities and to describe it accurately for the purposes of a project… As early as the competition stage we did a collage with some of César Manrique's fantastic fish, drawings for children we hoped might embody and express the joy of these people: their liveliness, their energy, their enthusiasm in the face of frequent hardship… It is surprising to see now the photos we made of the market during construction, when the pieces, the bones, of this huge animal were being carried through the streets to their final place. This animal is now a prisoner in a military-imposed town plan, this neighborhood, with no chance of escape.”(Josep Mias website)
The building form and realization process is in some cases a direct translation of the process of the fish which come to this market. But I would argue that the outcome of this project shows that Mias architects has intelligently articulated “the passage from data to form” and has produced an outcome which is not dictated by the ‘automatisms’ of the initial program design understanding.
Thematization while as a business plan might be viable, it is certainly not what I would consider an ‘elevated’ architecture. There are some very clear differences in the two branches of Thematization which Silvetti outlines, The first ‘Thematization for entertainment’ only goes so far as to appropriately balance its supposed ‘setting’ or ‘theme’ with its economical viability, and is merely an escape from the everyday (unless you live in Las Vegas!) , while ‘Thematization for living’ could quite well be the reason for Americas recent demise (starting with the atomic household). WOW that’s strong, but bare with me while I try to justify my claim. Described by Silvetti as architecture that “ implies a double fakery: the formal operation of mimicking a well known architecture and the promise that such architecture will deliver a predetermined, good way of life. Or to put it in another way the attempt to mimesis is total-not just of forms but also of actions and contents.” (p 25 Silvetti) ’Thematization for living’ goes beyond an attempt to suspend a level of disbelief to make the architecture palatable in today’s standard and instead assumes underlying American values and can dictate how one lives in the broad sense, and one uses their living space. With the correlation of mass media ’Thematization for living’ can ultimately dictate how one makes judgments, and arrives at conclusions. Silvetti points out that living in such a setting as a new urbanist town (like seaside) can suppress disbelief, I would argue that most suburban settlements are all a strand of Thematization and not only are operative in suppressing doubt in our government and society (because everything is just so peachy at home isn’t it honey) but also give its inhabitants a false understanding of what quality architecture is and can provide. It will be important to pay close attention to this predicament, because while my thesis will not prescribe to a theme in the sense of setting or form or appearance, it will most defiantly address the philosophical, ideological, and physiological values and presumptions that define the typology of the ‘Home’
Creatures! Silvetti’s disdain for blobs and literalism, keeps him from even calling their architectural outcome, architecture. The creatures, as he refers to them are void of semantics, history and culture! I would say that is even a stronger statement than my understanding of ‘Thematization of living’ because we can and have seen a significant shift in American culture, where as we have not yet seen the adverse affects of Blob architecture on semantics, history, or culture, not only due to the fact that much of blob architecture is un-built, but also because of its recent ‘discovery’. The idea of futurism has been around for quite some time, but technology till now has not allowed us to implement these seemingly UFO like architecture to be fully represented or realized. It is interesting too that we have seem a shift on the scale as to what futuristic and blob architecture is. There is a lot to be learned from architecture that is ‘foreign’ especially when considering the semantics of architecture as a whole. Literalism however is something which currently should be dismissed when creating architecture. Architecture is not organic as Silvetti points out, even though we can use organic metaphors to describe them. The understanding of a site or program should not and cannot truly be addressed by the appearance of the architecture, but must rather be addressed by the hierarchy of decisions we call process, which in turn derives the buildings appearance.
Programism as defined by Silvetti is “A tendency to accumulate and manipulate information that, by the sheer power of its quantity, uncritical method of being gathered, apparent authority as “ neutral data,” and compelling graphic representation becomes, with little transformation, the very form of the architecture proposed or its figurative inspiration.” (p23 jorge silvetti) The site I am currently investigating for studio, in Barcelona Spain the Barceloneta Fish Market by Mias architects, used imagery of fish from the local culture to inspire the new roof structure which would engage the surroundings in a much more deliberate nature. Though successful in transforming the area, it is not clear if the use of the local imagery was the basis upon which people wanted to visit the site, as there are new amenities, more “engaging architecture”, new greenspace…etc. Could the architects not have based their intervention to this preexisting historic structure in such a way that would not have required such complicated geometries, and ultimately a non renewable material intensive project?. To compare I took a look at another market in Barcelona the Mercat Santa Caterina, and though I have no previous knowledge of the Mercat Santa Caterina, it would seem that the form is more system driven, having a keen understanding of how to enclose this large span space, where the Barceloneta market by Josep Mias architects market used;
“ a survey of the place with the object of identifying what would enable us to reveal its qualities and to describe it accurately for the purposes of a project… As early as the competition stage we did a collage with some of César Manrique's fantastic fish, drawings for children we hoped might embody and express the joy of these people: their liveliness, their energy, their enthusiasm in the face of frequent hardship… It is surprising to see now the photos we made of the market during construction, when the pieces, the bones, of this huge animal were being carried through the streets to their final place. This animal is now a prisoner in a military-imposed town plan, this neighborhood, with no chance of escape.”(Josep Mias website)
The building form and realization process is in some cases a direct translation of the process of the fish which come to this market. But I would argue that the outcome of this project shows that Mias architects has intelligently articulated “the passage from data to form” and has produced an outcome which is not dictated by the ‘automatisms’ of the initial program design understanding.
Thematization while as a business plan might be viable, it is certainly not what I would consider an ‘elevated’ architecture. There are some very clear differences in the two branches of Thematization which Silvetti outlines, The first ‘Thematization for entertainment’ only goes so far as to appropriately balance its supposed ‘setting’ or ‘theme’ with its economical viability, and is merely an escape from the everyday (unless you live in Las Vegas!) , while ‘Thematization for living’ could quite well be the reason for Americas recent demise (starting with the atomic household). WOW that’s strong, but bare with me while I try to justify my claim. Described by Silvetti as architecture that “ implies a double fakery: the formal operation of mimicking a well known architecture and the promise that such architecture will deliver a predetermined, good way of life. Or to put it in another way the attempt to mimesis is total-not just of forms but also of actions and contents.” (p 25 Silvetti) ’Thematization for living’ goes beyond an attempt to suspend a level of disbelief to make the architecture palatable in today’s standard and instead assumes underlying American values and can dictate how one lives in the broad sense, and one uses their living space. With the correlation of mass media ’Thematization for living’ can ultimately dictate how one makes judgments, and arrives at conclusions. Silvetti points out that living in such a setting as a new urbanist town (like seaside) can suppress disbelief, I would argue that most suburban settlements are all a strand of Thematization and not only are operative in suppressing doubt in our government and society (because everything is just so peachy at home isn’t it honey) but also give its inhabitants a false understanding of what quality architecture is and can provide. It will be important to pay close attention to this predicament, because while my thesis will not prescribe to a theme in the sense of setting or form or appearance, it will most defiantly address the philosophical, ideological, and physiological values and presumptions that define the typology of the ‘Home’
Creatures! Silvetti’s disdain for blobs and literalism, keeps him from even calling their architectural outcome, architecture. The creatures, as he refers to them are void of semantics, history and culture! I would say that is even a stronger statement than my understanding of ‘Thematization of living’ because we can and have seen a significant shift in American culture, where as we have not yet seen the adverse affects of Blob architecture on semantics, history, or culture, not only due to the fact that much of blob architecture is un-built, but also because of its recent ‘discovery’. The idea of futurism has been around for quite some time, but technology till now has not allowed us to implement these seemingly UFO like architecture to be fully represented or realized. It is interesting too that we have seem a shift on the scale as to what futuristic and blob architecture is. There is a lot to be learned from architecture that is ‘foreign’ especially when considering the semantics of architecture as a whole. Literalism however is something which currently should be dismissed when creating architecture. Architecture is not organic as Silvetti points out, even though we can use organic metaphors to describe them. The understanding of a site or program should not and cannot truly be addressed by the appearance of the architecture, but must rather be addressed by the hierarchy of decisions we call process, which in turn derives the buildings appearance.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Response to Jose luis Mateo
It seems to me that Mateo has defined a process which has worked for him in the past. I find it hard to believe that he would recommend or has ever strictly followed the readings fairly closed prescription to the 'problem' of architecture. I began the reading having been warned by fellow students and decided to pick out a statement from which I might be able to inform my early design processes.
"Ideas are necessary, but the less they imply a specific form the more useful they are"
I have always been one for adopting a strategy early on, which involves a great understanding of the regional and local environment, and emphasizes the use of available technologies, to best inform my design. I find that employing passive and active systems, which often address energy efficiency and human productivity I am indeed implying a specific form, and allows me to focus on the more pertinent task at hand; designing the building not the form.
To be recognized however is the effectiveness of this statement when we (as architects) attempt to address and identify, something which has never been defined before. Allowing furniture to be defined in terms of anthorpometrics, ergonomics, and use, but not take on a specific form will be extremely important for my understanding of both the object and how it can be integrated with architecture.
"Ideas are necessary, but the less they imply a specific form the more useful they are"
I have always been one for adopting a strategy early on, which involves a great understanding of the regional and local environment, and emphasizes the use of available technologies, to best inform my design. I find that employing passive and active systems, which often address energy efficiency and human productivity I am indeed implying a specific form, and allows me to focus on the more pertinent task at hand; designing the building not the form.
To be recognized however is the effectiveness of this statement when we (as architects) attempt to address and identify, something which has never been defined before. Allowing furniture to be defined in terms of anthorpometrics, ergonomics, and use, but not take on a specific form will be extremely important for my understanding of both the object and how it can be integrated with architecture.
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