Tactics + Strategies/ SNAFU

Walker, Bartlett, Tretow

Woods

What/is there  a responsibility for architects to interpret the world as philosophers do?

How can we create something new from the damaged old? How do we as architects interpret Acute self-reflection? (P27 end pp1)

What are second order designs? Is designing the architecture of architecture similar to tactics? Pg. 28 (bottom)

Should we design as if we are in a post-apocalyptic city? Are their more appropriate times to design post apocalyptically? Or, Is the message about doing something radical, and the apocalypse is how radically the world is changing? 

Can you design for the radical future and still be timeless, or is timelessness even important?

Is it more efficient to be political as opposed to ideological? Does a series of ideologies lend to a political view? Is it appropriate to be political in a post-apocalyptic scenario? (P30 pp1)

Woods states that, “Only be neglecting purpose and meaning may [architecture] once again have them.” When a building no longer has meaning or purpose, what becomes the role of the architect in a post-apocalyptic scenario?

LTL

What does SNAFU stand for?

What significance does ironic paradox have in architecture? How is abnormal included in normal? (P4 pp3)

How do we pervert the ritual of design? Can something like the Habbakuk only come out of restraint of material, or is it a perversion of design ritual? (P6 PP1)

If eaves dropping is normal in art galleries, what tactics can we employ as architects to assimilate the abnormal in projects? (P 8 PP1)

What is the architectural equivalent of the slippers? P8 (pp3)

What role does speculative architecture play in the future of architecture?

Wandering in Knowledge

Wandering in Knowledge Installation \ Manuel Dreesmann

Change to Week 13 Readings

The Woods reading will start with page 27 at "Tactics and Strategies"

Add the Lewis Tsuramaki Lewis essay "SNAFU", pp 4-13 on d2L.

Exercise 4 - Chicago 2011

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 Class-time on November 30, you must submit a 500-word abstract of your research topic. 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.

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

Week 11 Readings - Research Methodologies - Corbett/Bartlett

Week 11 – Discussion Questions
Mike Corbett and Evan Bartlett

Research Methodologies

16 Nov 2011

Practice – Stan Allen (Intro)

1 - Allen states that “The practice of architecture tends to be messy and inconsistent precisely because it has to negotiate a reality that is itself messy and inconsistent.”  What are the risks we, as architects, face when attempting to keep the “messy” intact?  (XI – P.1)

2 - What is our responsibility, if any, as architects to challenge the protocols of normal practice?  (XII – P.2)

3 - Is it a correct response to avoid “known situations” and “safe repetitions” inherent in following these protocols of normal practice?  (XII – P.2)

4 - How does theory benefit architectural practice, and vice versa?  (XIII – P.1)

5 - Allen speaks of architecture as a material practice as opposed to a discursive one.  

What are the differences between these two practices?

What makes architecture a material practice?  (XIV – P.1)

6 - If meaning is not “something added” to architecture, where is meaning derived?  

 What gives architecture meaning?

 As such, can or should there be only one meaning?  (XIV – P.3)

7 - If meaning is a result of a “complex social exchange,” as Allen suggests, can there be static meaning in architecture, or more simply, does the meaning remain constant?  (XIV – P.3)

8 - How have the “immaterial effects of film, new media, and graphic design” aided in the enlargement of architecture’s catalog of available techniques?  (XVII – P.3)

9 - For Allen, the activity of writing is a part of his architectural practice.  Is this a necessity?

What other disciplines might complement our own practices?  (XX – P.2)

Beautiful Evidence – Edward Tufte (Chapter 5)

10 - Is there more information that could be added to further enhance the narrative, and, subsequently make Minard’s map more successful?

11 - Is this the most effective way to portray or present the information Minard wishes to present?

Earthquake Sculpture

Link to more info: http://www.lukejerram.com/projects/t%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake

Week 9 - Muybridge and Movement

Rachel Hicks & Mary Burke
November 1, 2011

Allen, Stan. Practice: Architecture Technique and Representation. Chapter 2, Notations and Diagrams
1. What are the differences between diagrams and notations?
2. What does Allen say about the use of realistic digital renderings versus the use of notations in representing architectural work? (pg44-45).
3. Allen says, “A diagram is often thought of as an after-the-fact thing, an explanatory device to communicate or clarify form, structure, or program.” Do you think this is the true value of diagrams?
4. In Allen’s book, page 59, he explains that the “advent of mass communication and information technology has undermined the idea of the city as the place of architectural permanence.” Do you think this is true? If so, do we as architects attempt to stop this change of perception, or do we embrace it as the contemporary city?


Arnheim, Rudolf. Art and Visual Perception. Chapter 8, Movement
1. On Page 375, Arnheim says, “Every newly arriving percept finds its place in the spatial structure of memory. In the brain every trace has an address, but no date. The structure of a performance derives from the interaction of the traces it leaves within us.” How can we relate this idea into architectural design?
2. Arnheim talks about forms of non-sequential narrative. In the linear succession of a design narrative, is there a benefit to portraying events in an objective sequence, or in a meaningful path of disclosure?
3. Can the three factors of the visual experience of movement—physical, optical, and perceptual—act alone, or can they affect each other? (Page 379)
4. The visual field of objects represents a complex hierarchy as to which others are seen to depend. (Page 380) What are some examples of these dependencies?
5. Arnheim discusses the way we assign emotions and human attributes to the attributes of movement, especially with organic objects. He alludes to how we may perceive a vine crawling up a wall as “indicative of anxiety, desire, and happy fulfillment. What are some other examples of this? (Page 385)
6. We normally view objects moving at a range of speeds logical to the capabilities of that object. What happens when there is an ambiguity of visual dynamics—when our perception of the speed is changed? (Page 386)