Week 13: Terminal Velocities: The Computer in the Design Studio

1. Allen stats, "A rendering of a building is deemed successful if it looks sufficiently like a photograph of a building, and animations simulate the conventions of popular film." Is this really the case? Does the render have to directly represent the building or can it represent another aspect of the building?

2. Before advancements in computer technologies, architects had to work in orthographic projections to construct the building then progressed further into more details as the building evolved. With software programs like Revit, when everything is being constructed all at once. As students does that set us up for failure in the sense that we are never thinking of just plan or just section?

3. Digital fabrication methods have allowed up to produce anything we make on the computer. With the continuing development of 3D printing, how will this impact a designers way of thinking? Are more possibilities of design now available due to advancements in technology?

4. Why are developers so focused on making software that produces realism and replicating what already exists instead of creating something new or an alternative reality?

5. Is the thought process of mass production of a building material to save money necessary in today's world with our new fabrication methods?

Week 13: Architecture, Science, Technology And The Virtual Realm

1.  Today, scale is hard to grasp and is a problem in digital architecture. Because of the extreme macro and micro scales, has the informational age loss the ability to think about the space in-between the large and small? Is Picon saying that globalization is the solution to the black and white spectrums?  

2.  Picon states, “Computer-generated architecture is about the unstable reality of infinite connections.” In terms of the virtual realm, what do you think he means? 

3.  Is Picon saying the virtual realm is the new materiality because of free constraint from qualities? Or is it relating to the cyborg with one side being control and the other freedom?

4.  What “abolishes the distinction between the abstract and the concrete as well as has a desire to reconcile the immaterial and the material?” How is it used not only in visual representation but also in practice?

5.   Since evolution of Architecture science technology has become highly stimulated and expressed, does this mean we need to return to “the humanist subject of the Renaissance? Or continue to grow exponentially?

Week 11

1.     Allen mentions early on in the article that building code and abstract thought delineates from the building site. Does the building site add restrictions and setbacks to abstract thought of architecture and design? 

2.     Theories and practices are used hand in hand as Allen mentions, and theory is in itself a practice. What kind of theories have been speculated but never put into reality in terms of architecture? Does every design have a theory to it?

3.     In terms of film, and or photography, the theory behind the medium is restricted to a camera or a technology capable of capturing light. How restricted is theory and practice in architecture? Do building codes, ADA, and other such regulation restrict the boundaries of abstract thought and theory?

4.     Practice and project coincide when structure is a factor such as Frank Lloyd Wrights dilemma with his envelope/enclosure. When a design has to be altered in order to be physically constructed, is it advantageous to future projects?

Week 11 How to Do a Thesis

1.At the beginning of  the article , Seigio mentioned that the results of most thesis are not great. What cause this situtation?

2.Seigio described Le Corbusier's practice model was in fact (Theses). What is your opinion of this statement?

3.At the end of the article, Seigio said that he hopes that this paoer will be used by students in their pre-thesis course as a map of the different options? Do you agree?

4.Within all different operation modes that  Seigio mentioned in the article, which one is the best for most of the students? Or is there really a best one?

5.How influential thesis can be for a student's career? Do you see it as a personal development or personal experiment?

Ex. 04 - Personal Research Topic_2017

Your final exercise of the semester is a personal research topic. This topic may be related to your current/past studios, Master's project topic or other topic that you would like to graphically research for this course. Your topic may be directly related, tangentially related or reciprocal to architecture(al) thought. You may critique conventions, processes or projects. You may also decide to explore phenomena that are not directly related to architecture, in that, it is not a building, drawing or other.

By 10:30 AM on November 30, you must submit a 500-word abstract of your research topic via d2L Dropbox. Within your abstract you must clearly state the topic as a thesis of inquiry, your methodology for research and your expected out comes. Keep in mind, this topic must be formatted to fit the final document per the syllabus.

To view examples of previous research topics view the blog archive for April 2013.HERE

Please post any questions as comments to this post so that the entire class may benefit.

The format of exercise four and your final document shall be the same as the previous exercises, 8.5x11 Landscape format.

Exercise four will be included in your final document along with exercises 01-03. Your final document is due at noon on December 21. You will upload a SINGLE pdf file to the dropbox on d2L. Your file size may not exceed 20 MB. I will not open/review any document larger than that, and I will not review multiple files. If you do not meet these requirements your assignment will be considered late.

Collage Making & Thinking

1. (pg. 17) “When the work (collage) is complete, a map of hunches exists and, due entirely to the act of making the soul is temporarily exorcised of what appeared to be coagulating within.”  Does collaging reveal hidden truths and backgrounds of the artist?  “He knows that there is something within the soul that longs to come forward, so he engages in collage making to advance it”

2. (pg. 18) “If the collage is described as the placement of a fragment next to a similar fragment and then the two are spliced together in such a way that the net result is greater than the sum of the parts, one might wonder how this differs from any other artistic activity.”  Who is the net result for, the observer or the artist?

3. What are other forms of collaging to generate inner ideas and thoughts? “It is necessary for an artist to use raw material that is directly associated with the age in which he lives in.” (pg. 18)

4. (pg. 21) “The process of placement of two unlikely objects next to each other causes a pain equal to the sigh of relief released by their new found proximity.”  Does collaging create positive or negative scrutiny?

5. Is Post-Digital rendering an ineffective way of representation?  “Once the fragments find their rightful places the collage can appear to be so correct that it becomes bland. It has lost its spirit, since all the tensions are pushing and pulling with equal forces.”

Collage

1) Shields writes " Collage, as it has evolved, brings with it a number of qualities including representation/ abstract, gestural/ precise, field/ figure, surface/depth, and literal/ metaphorical, all of which are considered within the methodologies of art and architecture", does collage help you better understand architecture because it has these qualities? 

2) How is collage helpful or useful in understanding architecture, does it make you understand it more or less?

3) How is scrap booking and collage different?

4) In today's society is it better to use printed catalogs as a source of medium or other raw materials? (Nicholson, 18)

5) Does collage have to have a specific order? (Nicholson, 20)

1)  Allen starts off by comparing two arguments for the true sense of a work of architecture.  First argument states - the truest sense of architecture lies in the drawings and the notations and that the realized construction of it must always make compromises.  Second argument states - only the realized construction has the truest sense of architecture making the drawings irrelevant.  He appears to argue in the middle and claims that the continual shuttle between the drawings and the realized construction is the truest work of the architect.  Does this interpretation insinuate that all architectural work needs both the (at least potentially) realized construction and the drawing?  Is that too narrow of a description?

2)  Allen states, "The drawing as artifact is unimportant.  It is rather a set of instructions for realizing another artifact."  Later he states, "Architectural drawings are neither an end in themselves, nor are they simply transparent technical instruments."  Do you agree?

3)  Many famous sculptors in history were often not the sole physical creators of their work.  One could imagine that the sculptor, often working transiently between reality and drawing, produces a set of instructions with notations for an apprentice to carry out on the stone.  What are the similarities to the work of the sculptor in this case and the work of the architect?  What then, under Allen's argument, separates the two?  Can they be separated?  Do they need to be separated?  What about the engineer?  The military general?

4)  What if the architect is also the sole constructor of a building?  Does the work become completely autographic?  Must there be a division between architect and builder?  What if there is no set of instructions or drawings produced?

5)  Allen states, "technique is never neutral, and the mans of representation always leave a trace on the construction."  What are some examples of this?

6)  Why is the progression of modern technology, specifically communication, global economy, internet, modern warfare, problematic for architecture as a discipline?  Is notation truly the technique needed for architecture to engage today's city's focus on time and change?