Assignment 1

This was a project to find examples of other thesis projects.  One I found was looking at tension, bio mimicry, and form.  While the other looked at redeveloping the anchor store typology.

University of Bologna

(Iso)communication

                Tensional integrities and intensive connections between spaces were the two driving forces of this students thesis.  The site was a park in the city of Bologna.  Iso is a combining form meaning equal.  The student was addressing the problem of deactivated spaces and how they might be solved through this idea of hyper connectivity.  More specifically equal hyper connectivity where it one space or form becomes deactivated the others are engaged.  Several techniques were employed by this student in the process of this thesis.  There was an extensive research of the context of the site mapping many of the buildings and their uses as well as bus stops and tram lines.  These were combined with the potential users of the site to create a form.  The information was compiled in many different ways which led to fluctuations in the form.  Additionally the student looked at connecting the various context of the area to the site itself which led to the idea of hyper connectivity and tensional integrities.  The next step was to integrate tensional integrity with the users.  In order to do this the student looked at the structure of the skeletal frame.  With that in mind they started on a series of sketch model that incorporated both the tensile structure of a skeletal frame and the forms of hyper connectivity generated in the first part of the project.  The student also with the idea of creating structural surfaces took the models and gave them a structural skin that could smoothly incorporate the main ideas of their thesis.  Then the goal was to create them to respond to paths and creating new ones through the park.  This causes the user to interact with the sculpture in a way that enhances the parks connection with the rest of the surrounding city.

 

 

University of Massachusetts

From Vacant to Vibrant: Proposing a New Approach to the Anchor Store Typology

                Reusing abandoned anchor stores to enhance the surrounding community.  The idea of reprogramming rather than replacing and to celebrate the mundane.  This students thesis consisted of a large paper that accompanied her project.  Her particular approach was to use the abandoned anchor store to enhance the community by way of connecting it with its context.  The site in this project is in many ways irrelevant as the student intended the principals of community and connection to be applicable across the US.  The first step in this student's process was to examine the typology of the anchor store.  This led to several ideas of form that were prevalent throughout the thesis.  Of course there was a specific site for this project so along with mapping of site context they also looked at the importance and effect the local community had and was having on the site.  They also examined both the positive and negative qualities of the anchor store typology.  Several case studies were also performed for the project.  Specifically spaces that were designed to include many different cultures.  Also mapping how the buildings map the spaces in a way to be emulated later.  In the proposal of the solution the student looked at an abandoned Borders bookstore.  The terminology used was to make the existing space into a "business incubator".  This meant there would be both physical laws that needed to be obeyed as well as ideological ones that would create a dynamic space where once there was stagnation.  The student examined the positive affects an incubator could have on the community and how this particular location could be improved through her solution to create a flexible space that celebrates the reuse of the mundane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assignment 2

This assignment was to read a section of Architecture in the 21st century and develop a thesis question that could be developed.  Also required was to supplement the reading with other texts.  I looked at three possible thesis and looked into each one.

 

 

Can built space be developed through detail?

This question is derived from a question posed by Laurie Hawkinson that is, " Is it possible that an architectural detail can reveal more than just the resolution of materials?"  In her essay Hawkinson defines identity in architecture as an individualism and detail as a subordinate part of a building.  She seems to be asking if it is possible for the detail to inform the whole of a project.  In her book she also examines this question primarily through images.  Also important to the detail or the subordinate architecture is the human scale and how the detail responds to the user.  Thomas Mayne has been studying the importance of detail to the whole through the use of growling lamps or the his and hers shower.  The detail is a crucial aspect of architecture that can help or hinder the communication of an architectural goal or philosophy.

                This project would start by studying a reasonably complicated detail for a building or structure.  Deriving from the selected detail ideas about perhaps how it is spatially significant, or how the materials are joined together and with what joiners or perhaps the vertical or horizontal nature of the detail.  How could these principles be applied to the human scale?  These observations would then be used to create a building or structure that would be built in essence from the detail out.

 

Can architecture transform the bodies and objects that inhabit it into useful appendages?

According to Grosz "bodies are prosthetic"; they use objects by incorporating them and using them as if they were bodily organs or extensions of ourselves.  Can this affect be achieved through the built form?  What is required of a building in order for it to perform as a "body"?  This project examines what is necessary in a structure for it to function and what can be acquired by the "body" through its inhabitants or through object introduced into the system.  What could be the extent of this prosthetic reach?  This project also looking at the importance of architecture through the lens of the body.  What becomes of architecture when this approach is taken?

                This project would be to examine the organization and body of an existing building and understand its relationship with its users.  Then to strip the building to its essential core whatever that may be and to reimaging it treating the building like a body and its inhabitants and objects like appendages for that body.  How could the building change and where could its influence expand to as its appendages are in constant flux?

 

 

 

Can adaptive reuse of typology be used to create an original understanding of that typology?

                In Alejandro Zaera-Polo's paper "Breeding Architecture" he discusses how his firm began their approach to typology by dismissing it.  Until sometime later they came to understand that their work was very much so a study in the process of developing typologies.  The objection raised by Zaera-Polo and his colleagues against typology was that often it is used in order to repeat the same forms and relationships between forms that have been used before and become derivative.  In his paper "The Politics of the Envelope"  he discusses the emersion of the idea of "the space of flows" where architecture is now looking beyond the envelope and using flow to inform the envelope and the building.  He also looks to the Eden project in what he calls "Bubble Architecture". 

                This project would be to understand the typology of bubble architecture to create a building in an urban environment such as the center of a city or large town and at the scale of a small building.  It is important when studying a typology o not only look at the physical but also to understand what ideas are implied by the physical.  through this lens it may be possible to adapt a typology or form in order to create a unique experience.  Because in many cases bubble architecture is used when dealing with large spaces such as the London City Hall, or the Beijing Olympic stadium.  This project would look at the possibility of adaptively reusing the typology of bubble architecture at a much smaller scale or to possibly use it as a mechanism for channeling flow.

 

 

Assignment 3

 

This assignment was to create an esquise or a sketch model of our concept thesis.  I decided to look into a hybrid of two of my thesis questions the detail and adapting a form to make it work in a new situation.  My model was a series of "bubbles" that were reacting to a rigid system that was tensional in nature.  The two areas I was looking into were tension and adapting Bubble Architecture. 

 

 

 

 

Assignment 4

 

This was to look a bit closer at our models and develop something that would take a closer look at what we were exploring last week.  I built two more models, one a spiral out of sheet metal and wire that is completely in tension and is somewhat adjustable so it can change its form as required,  The other is a bubble held in place by a beam held in tension by two wires.  The bubble is in compression while the beam is in tension somewhat inverted from the normal.

10/1/15

Over the last week I have been looking into tension and compression.  I have looked into the works of Norman Foster and his prefabricated shells using the computer to develop forms that we have never been able to before.  His idea on shells and form seem to be derived from a different agenda than that of Buckminster fuller for example.  They both are looking to reduce the need for construction and materials, they both are interested in economic forms(spheres) and they both claim to be working towards the future.  Where they differ somewhat is in materials and on the issue of tensegrity.  Where it obviously comes into play with Norman Foster it is not the driving force.  Foster the architect is also concerned with the aesthetic.  Buckminster Fuller on the other hand is purely interested in the practicality of the structure.  To his mind if the object functions and is cheap and light it is beautiful.  I am still interested in radiating all tension members from a single point in an imperfect object and how that might affect the spaces produced.  The idea of taking a relatively simple system and applying an external force to create a new space that has adapted to this new condition also intrigues me.  Can the principals of tensegrity and membrane architecture be applied to a structure with an external force that changes the condition of the space?  I have made a couple of models that I hope further my ideas.  One is derived from the form of my last model.  I cast the tensioned bubble and created a form out of strait members that is held together by glue at the basswood members and string in tension that radiates from a central point.  I hope to show how an imperfect system can still be held in tension.  Also I have a model of a simple tensegrity structure.  I want to be able to illustrate o myself how the idea of tensegrity works.  The simplest form of tensegrity seems to indicate an adaptive quality that is still somewhat ridged.