11 May 2015

Final Document

The d2L Dropbox is open for you to turn in your final document for the semester. The due date is Friday, May 15 at 5:00. Follow the formatting guidelines in the syllabus. This final document will be the submission of your exercise 04 (15% of your grade) & the final document (20% of your grade.)

06 May 2015

Experimental Architecture Pt.2

Spiller_Arcadia Alchemy Antiquity and Machines

01:"This testing of architectural limits and the differing modalities of the architectural drawing were the other large reoccupations of twentieth century avant-garde discourse. The twentieth centuries will to abstraction had a profound effect on its architecture"[13]-- How big of a role does technology play in this? Both in drawing and building. Did people of the past abstract things like us but had no means of making them? Are there examples?

Woods_Radical Reconstructions

02: "The new structures contain freespaces, the forms of which do not invite occupation with the old paraphernalia of living, the old ways of living and thinking .They are, in fact, difficult to occupy, and require inventiveness in order to become inhabitable. They are not predesigned, predetermined, predictable, or predictive. They assert no control over thoughts and behavior of people conforming to typologies and coercive programs of use..."[16]-- As architects when we create a space that ' anything can happen' are we asking too much of the inhabitant to be inventive? Woods says they become useful when the are inhabited but is it still useless when the habitation doesn't know how to use a space?

LTL_Snafu

03:When talking about the the home bomb shelter, the idea of a single family home bomb shelter becoming a 'digestible aspect of everyday life' to me this sounds crazy. A bomb shelter being as normal as a den or TV room? If we as architects can normalize a bomb shelter in a home that helps domesticate nuclear technology, what are other conventions we can challenge in this way? We obviously have the power to change the way places and spaces are viewed, how can we used the ability to manipulate function in a similar manner? Any examples? [07]

04 May 2015

Experimental Architecture

 Experimental Architecture


_Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis   

1. "Generic programs - stores, bars, apartments, office buildings, theatres -- provide a rich ground for examination..." cross referencing with the ideology that the regulatory constraints in architecture predict the "preset functional assumptions", what is the validity in excitement for future architecture? Simply put, creating new housing schemes for the same, repetitious program seems like an attempt to reinvent the wheel. What if we were to change the wheel, to mesh program together (i.e. skyscraper X forest) does this alter the computational input due to the fact that both programs require different presets?

2. Fay Wray's golf slippers - an attempt of architectural adaptability. Brings up criticism that those who want to live in dual realms. On one hand catering to the work place environment (Hollywood) as well as the practicality of comfort in miniature golfing. Is this translated into the realm of architecture in terms of built form. If so, is it the architects job to have an adaptable building or is it the users responsibility to alter their method of thinking whilst engaging in these actions?

_Lebbeus Woods

3. "The architect must become, more than ever, a creature of the present". These architects inevitably are those reconstructing in a post-apocalyptic era, so to speak. This brings up practice and service. The idea that they are no longer viewing the city from a perspective above but at the scale of a system. How architecture and theory can collide to create a gestural form which portrays these moves. Is this a reasonable method of thinking? Will these iterations be only left at the aspect of academia or theory?

_Spiller

4. Architecture in a realm absent of inclement weather, creates these seemingly utopian performances for architecture. One that for obvious reasons, allows us to use nature as a stage and us as the story line. With no influence from the outside world, how are we reacting to creating these new habitats? My thoughts veering into the discourse of highly curated spaces. Ranging from bio-dome ecosystems to artificial lighting and even mechanical systems. To what degreee do we as designers need to take a step back and let the ruling of nature and the existing over-run our inherent need to control everything?