As environmental predictions evolve into reality, our increasingly critical relationship with the uncontrollability of the environment is marked by a strange fascination with fear and disaster. We are continuously deceived- warned of a supposed future of calamity, but reassured by the reality of our existence on dry, hard landscape on which we continue to ignore such predictions. We are allowed an existence where it is acceptable to disregard the impending impacts of sea level rise- they are merely warnings of a ficticious future that may not become our own. We have entered a stage of widespread apathy.
As a culture, we don't engage unless there is absolute and immediate cause for concern. But ironically, when there is reason for concern, there is an obsession with the paranoia, marked by a hestitation to return to the boredom of tranquility. Rather than partake in careful preparation for a radically new environment, we manage to survive the monotony of the everyday by deliberately suspending ourselves outside the normal existence of time and space when disasters strike, allowing ourselves a momentary disconnect from reality and engaging in the fantasy it presents- a strange acceptanc and assimilation by this transforming world.
Within the typical condition of a library, the standard organization and spacing of the stacks inhibits the variability of the environment. This project recognized the restriction and saw potential to expand the normal condition- to provide occupancy within the stacks themselves. The compression and expansion of the components allowed for the varying scales of inhabitable space and ultimately various levels of privacy within the stacks. Those inhabiting the library were allowed to occupy the books themselves.
Envisioned for a rural community in Senegal that lacks accessibility to electricty and running water, the project harvests water from its site with simplistic design and sophisticated techniqes. Assembled with local materials, the performing arts center is envisioned to become a place where different tribes come to perform. In addition, the project is a place of exchange of ideas and potential for education that promotes the empowerment of youth through studies of music.
The proposed dormitory is a reaction to the appalling charade that ensues when Harvard College asks its students to select an exclusive group of eight individuals, known as a 'blocking group', who will remain roommates for the reminander of their undergraduate academic years. The utopia-seeking, social-climbing search for the perfect 'blocking group' leads one to overlook friendship in favor of cultivating useful connections. Negotiating one's way into blocking with the token first-year celebrities justifies any amount of treachery and manipulation. In response to this flawed system, the shared courtyard of the project is intended to encourage interaction and counteract the exclusive separation among the existing houses of Harvard College.
Intending to be an exploration of the potential and limitations of a specific material, the exercise asked to develop a shell structure out of an aggregation of surface modules. Considering the unit, the project challenged the capacity to aggregate with other units as a result of its geometry, profile, and configuration. Proliferation of the unit in response to the given site resulted in an aggregation that exploited the inherent characteristics of the material. The full-scale installation acted as a mediating screen at the scale of the body and considered the interaction between the two.
NOTE: This project was completed by Theodore Diehl, Matthew Fiely, Chelsea Garunay, Jessica Knobloch, Annie Kountz, Jeff LaBoskey, Misato Odanaka, Terry Park, and Alicia Taylor
This project was an exploration in the perceived surface of ground and it's ability to be manipulated to carve out space. This project sought to inhabit the created space by simple manipulation of what one assumes to be flat ground.
This project involved designing a group of five rooms, one of which seems to be hidden from the other four. The program required providing a means of access to the hidden room while controlling the degree to which the room becomes vulnerable to disclosure. Though information about its interior was to remain unavailable, the project suggests that the outside of the building be inxtricably bound to its internal spaces. On the one hand, the hypothesis of concealment requires consideration of the relationship between the visual, experimental, and conceptual bases of architecture. On the other hand, it elicits the interpretation of a specific idea and the processes by which it is represented in architecural drawings and three-dimensional form. The facade suggest that anything known about the interior of the building is based on speculation, precedents, and knowledge of architecture alone.
Challenging the typical function of the 'dormer', the insertion considered the dormer acting in an inverse direction, allowing light to enter vertically. These vertical shafts were conceived as one imagined openings being produced by a shifting of the existing gables, resulting in 'twists' that allowed for circulation as well as light to protrude the multiple levels of the insertion. The project introduced the problem of historical incompleteness as it asked for the insertion of gallery and studio space within the gable of an existing turbine factory in Boston. The interplay between the new and old construction presented a challenge as the role of 'dormer' was questioned and the interation between new construction and existing framework was challenged.
Referencing the works of Gramazio and Kohler, the project was completed among first year M.ARCH1 students utilizing a six-axis robotic arm to build an undulation double-wall structure. The robot arm was programmed to place 4,100 wooden bricks to create complex curvature walls. The scripted structure was seperated into numerous sections, built with the robotic arm, transported to the site, and assembled by hand. The emerging space and pattern is the result of a set of priniples appled to a simple rectangular brick module, taking into account its material and technical parameters. Ultimately the design manifests the performative potential of bricks, expressed through the wall's curvature and porosity as it affects the acoustic and visual qualities of the wall-space created.
NOTE: This project was completed by the GSD MARCH1 Class of 2012.
Through iterative process, this six-week intensive drawing and travel course through Rome and its surrounding region sought to establish an emphasis on observation and discovery. One began to develop an understanding and investigation of architecture through the act of drawing. The intent was to not only see the architecture through your own personal lens and capture the essence, but to continually develop drawing skills through repetition.
Photographs of physical models and Photoshop were the mediums of exploration for these tram stop pavilions. I am fond of these images as they are my first Photoshop exploration from my internship at Atelier 10:8 in Zurich during the summer of 2007.
http://www.10zu8.ch/
