110411 - conditioning

A dynamic conception of architecture, which overcomes the traditional notion of buildings as a still, tectonic construct, allows us to think of space as practice. This involves incorporating the inhabitant of the space (or its intruder) into architecture, not simply marking and reproducing but reinventing, as film does, his or her various trajectories through space—that is, charting the narrative these navigations create.

- Giuliana Bruno
Atlas of Emotion, Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film 

In an athletic pursuit, repetitive conditioning tunes the body to work exceptionally well within a specific set of performance parameters. In this process, the body gains certain abilities at the expense of others (i.e. a sumo wrestler does not make a good basketball player). A similar type of repetitive conditioning must now occur in systems for building the intervention into the landscape. So far, these systems have been driven by internal relational and transformative logics, now they must be conditioned in response to external demands of program. 

As described above, program will be a ‘dynamic conception’ rather than a ‘still, tectonic construct.’ It will be based on a series of converging and diverging trajectories through space, not discreet, static compartments.

Biological form conditioned through environmental forces –

D’Arcy Thompson, variations on the form of a hydriod

PROGRAM 

Text sequences from the exquisite corpse writing exercise will conceptualize a program consisting of an itinerary of converging and diverging movement trajectories. Scan all exquisite corpse work, and then with Photoshop, isolate three intertwining strands of text (7-10 words minimum) from the final iteration. Use these sequences of text to imagine and describe three potential movement trajectories of an inhabitant through the landscape / intervention. The inhabitant must move through a series of qualitatively different spatial conditions. Different spatial conditions should be produced by: filtering sunlight in different ways, producing surfaces and enclosures in different ways, and dealing with notions of ground in different ways. Program will not be composed of a single narrative but multiple potential micro-narratives.

MODEL 

Build a new version of the intervention in the landscape. It may be in bristol board, basswood or a combination of the two. Condition this model in response to program. Modify and augment rules of its construction and relationship to the landscape so that it begins to support the movement sequences described in the program. Following the example above from Thompson, modify modular systems by stretching and re-orienting components rather than breaking or tearing them. Refine the craft of the model. Increase precision of attachments to the landscape.

SECTIONS

Two 1/4” scale sections are required, one horizontal, one vertical. Sections must document as many different spatial experiences as possible. The vertical section must include shadows and scale figures. The vertical section may be drawn at different times of day or year to document changing lighting conditions. All sections must show deep space by calibrating line-weight and line-type.

110331 - synthesis

On a continuum without values, everything can dissolve into inconsistency; however if we negotiate its inflections, we can ensure continuities between the most disparate registers, between the most distant eras.

- Bernard Cache
Earth Moves, The Furnishing of Territories, 1995

A synthesis combines diverse parts into a coherent whole. In the next phase of the project, synthesize concepts generated by text mapping and writing with structural and dynamic systems operating in the ground / intervention. This synthesis will function as a continuum that applies value across registers. It will provide a conceptual framework in which the product of material experiments may be evaluated, modified and augmented. You will generate a new series of written documents, and then use these documents to inform a next-generation intervention that considers issues of envelope.

Bernard Tschumi, plates from The Manhattan Transcripts – 

a synthesis of Action (photograph) and Space (plan drawing) 

into Movement (notational diagram)

EXQUISITE CORPSE

Revisit text mapping and writing in a group exercise based on the exquisite corpse game. Begin by writing a series of converging and diverging sentences with combinations and sequences of words extracted from your text map. Explore how graphic qualities of the map inform the writing. Create combinations and sequences of words that add information (i.e. gentle + tiger adds more information because it is an unexpected combination, fierce + tiger adds less information because it is an expected combination). Write these sentences in pencil on a 9” x 9” sheet of bristol board.

Then, in a specific sequence, one after the other, each member of your landscape group will rewrite the converging and diverging sentences on a new 9” x 9” board, adding to it and modifying it with combinations and sequences of words extracted from her/his own textmap. At the end of this process you will receive three new versions (one modified once, one modified twice, and one modified three times) of the original document you wrote. The third version will be the most dense and contain the most vocabulary, use it to frame ideas about converging and diverging sequences of movement through qualitatively different spaces in your landscape / intervention.

ENVELOPE

Develop a next-generation version of your intervention responding to exquisite corpse writings while also considering these two definitions of envelope:

1. An envelope is a membrane continuously enfolding interiority and exteriority. This is more like the skin of a body with all its textures, curvatures, and folds than a normative architectural system of walls, floors, and ceilings.
2. An envelope is a set of performance limits, i.e. the performance envelope of an aircraft. The performance of envelopes in your project will be measured in terms of sunlight control and the framing of movement sequences. 

The intervention must address both definitions of envelope given above. Build a new model and draw two 1/4” scale vertical sections of the intervention in the landscape. Sections must document as many different spatial experiences as possible, include shadows and scale figures, show deep space by calibrating line-weight and line-type.