110220 - (un)grounding

…one might say that the concept of “program” may dispose us to an overly operational view of the space through which our bodies acquire their trajectivity, which another less programmatic, more affective diagram might allow us to see. A new question arises: What kinds of spaces or constructions might accommodate, show, facilitate, release these ungrounded sorts of movement, encounter, connection, for example in urban spaces, and the ways in which we fill them out? What would an architecture of such trajectories and movements look like…

- John Rajchman
Grounds, 1998

In the next phase of the semester, you will be analyzing landscapes of effect and affect. Effective potentials of a landscape are grounding; they suggest a level of stability in the earth. Effect will be studied in shadows moving across the landscape. Affective potentials of a landscape are ungrounding; they suggest open-ended trajectories of bodies in space. Affect will be studied in a text mapping exercise. The aim of these analyses will be to unpack unique qualities of landscape in your project.

Day-long shadow study, top view – 

Ashish Kulkarni 

Conjugative Mass (detail) – 

Daniel Zeller, 2004

SHADOW ANALYSIS

Build a Rhino model of the new smoother, more ‘surfaced’ landscape. Reflect all modifications to profiles, units and strands in the transition from wood to foam. The digital model must correspond as closely as possible to the physical model, but do not expect it to be an exact replica.

When the digital model is complete, use Rhino’s ‘One-Day Sun Study’ tool or the sun path model provided on the blog to track shadows moving across the landscape. Locate the landscape at 40 degrees north latitude, the approximate latitude of New York City. Orient the model to north and to gravity, then render shadows in selected view(s) for every 20 minutes of the winter solstice (shortest day), summer solstice (longest day) and equinox (equal day and night). Create a vertical filmstrip of small (approx. 2” high) still images for each of the three days.

TEXT MAPPPING

Refine and expand branching sentences from the first writing workshop: consider how branching organizes space and time, consider how branches converge and diverge, generate multiple alternatives for each sentence, work quickly by hand in your sketchbook, and scan selected branching sentences when complete.

Select one of the following Octavio Paz poems: As One Listens to the Rain, Axis, Spaces, The Street (find a link to Paz’s work on the blog). Using this poem as a pool of language, map text onto the river-scape. Strands of the river-scape will structure strands of text. Devise rules for relating text with notations in the map. Graphics and scale of text will be modified to reflect transforming characteristics of the river-scape. Create a high-density field of text. Text may be overlapping, but it must be legible in particular moments.  

110220 - riverscape maps

Examples of the riverscape maps.  Go here for a slideshow of all students' work.  And here for the assignment that introduced this exercise.

girolamo carollo

abraham dreazen

jenny rong

sol ok

Great job everyone, these turned out very nicely!  Now the challenge is to see how the organizational qualities found in this mapping work can inform the next phases of the project.  And of course, those of you who haven't submitted the map yet, please do so ASAP!!

110127 - braiding landscapes

It may be helpful to realize…that the primary form of mathematical communication is not description, but injunction. In this respect it is comparable to practical art forms like cookery, in which the taste of a cake, although literally indescribable, can be conveyed to the reader in the form of a set of injunctions called a recipe.

- G. Spencer-Brown
Laws of Form, 1969

Braiding (and other techniques for interconnecting stranded material, knitting, weaving, etc.) is executed according to a pre-defined set of directives called injunctions. The finished form of a braid or knit may be ‘literally indescribable,’ but it can be communicated in a set of injunctions.

Working by injunction is fundamentally exploratory because outcomes cannot be fully anticipated. It involves iterative improvement (a recipe for baking a cake is followed, results are evaluated, recipe is adjusted to achieve a more desirable outcome, and the cake is baked again). It is a technique for avoiding pre-figuration and extending beyond the expected. Much of the work you are currently doing is by injunction; keep this in mind as you begin braiding landscapes.

knitted surface: Aurelie Mosse

weaving diagram

DIAGRAM

In groups of four, select one river map that will inform a set of injunctions for braiding – collaboratively develop a braiding diagram based on this map. The braiding diagram will:

• extract organizational principles from the river map (not attempt to duplicate it)
• introduce a logic for passing strands over and under each other
• indicate how a series of individual strands fill a field
• describe repetitive braiding operations serve as a guide or set of directives for producing the landscape

Continue developing your individual braided river map according to feedback received in class.

LANDSCAPE

Extending from individually created units and intersecting strands, begin collaboratively building the landscape. The braiding diagram will serve a guide, though be aware that the internal logics of the wood molding profile material system will push back against this externally derived set of directives. Allow internal logics and external directives to evolve in negotiation with one another. In a series of tests, iteratively modify procedures for building stranded units and the braiding diagram until they work in concert to realize the landscape.

The group landscape must measure 48” x 48” x 12”. It must be at least 80% opaque when viewed directly from above. It must incorporate at least two different molding profiles. It may incorporate a secondary structural system of wood dowels for strength and rigidity. Sections of the landscape may be detachable for transport and storage.

110120 - > = < (convergent - parallel - divergent)

Unlike Newton and Schopenhauer, your ancestor did not believe in a uniform and absolute time; he believed in an infinite series of times, a growing, dizzying web of divergent, convergent, and parallel times. That fabric of times that approach one another, fork, are snipped off, or are simply unknown for centuries, contains all possibilities. In most of those times, we do not exist; in some, you exist but I do not; in others, I do and you do not; in other still, we both do.

- Jorge Luis Borges
The Garden of Forking Paths; 1941

Jorge Luis Borges’ short story, The Garden of Forking Paths proposes a model for the world that is composed of multiple splitting strands. In the story, strands are temporal rather than spatial – “a growing, dizzying web of divergent, convergent, and parallel times.” The notion of convergent, parallel, and divergent strands will serve as an abstract (and sometimes real) model informing all spatial and temporal investigations in this studio. Work will begin in an abstract material practice geared toward the production of a braided field – a type of landscape. The latter phases of the studio will segue abstract work into increasingly concrete architectural proposals situated within the braided field.

string bog –

patterning in the landscape 

 

The Fifth One, Tianqi Zhang –
an abstract material practice

Operating in material and abstract realms simultaneously, an abstract material practice develops the formal and conceptual languages required to address real architectural problems while generating novel solutions. Note the following definitions as they apply to this studio:

Abstract – expressing a quality or characteristic apart from a specific object, not assigned to a particular size or orientation

Material – formation of tangible matter, pertaining to the physical

Practice – repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency, the action or process of doing something

A material practice may employ any number of materials and techniques. In this studio, the material will primarily be found wood molding profiles and the technique will be based on braiding. The material practice will be driven internally by part-to-part attachment logics in a component-based assembly system, and it will be conditioned externally by organizational qualities found in mappings of braided river systems.

BRAIDED RIVER MAPPING

Using Google Earth or NASA’s Visible Earth website, locate a high-resolution (at least 3000px in the long direction) image of a braided river. See the ‘braided river’ post on the studio blog for examples and further instructions. This image will become an underlay for a mapping of organization, variation, and potential transformation in the river system. You must develop a unique notational system (see the ‘notations’ post on the studio blog) to convey this information. Consider the following issues:

• the morphology of strands, their sinuousness and intersections
• the width of strands
• the fluvial style of strands (straight, meandering, anastomosing)
• direction and speed of water flow
• the morphology of interior islands
• the morphology of river banks
• potential organizational transformations of the river

Research the principles of how braided rivers form and transform to better understand why these issues are significant. Produce the map in Illustrator leveraging tools native to the software.

Print the braided river image on a 9” x 18” horizontally oriented sheet. Print the braided river mapping on an 18” x 36” horizontally oriented sheet. These may be tiled from 11”x 17” printouts.

MOLDING PROFILES

Obtain enough wood molding material to fill an 8”x24”x24” volume. Profiles must be from straight baseboards, crown moldings, door moldings, window moldings, picture frames, chair rails, furniture, etc. See examples below:  

examples of wood molding profiles

All the material you collect must have similar, but not necessarily identical, profiles. First look for salvaged material, then if necessary, add to your collection by purchasing new profiles from a lumberyard.

Recommended sources for salvaged material, call ahead to check availability:

Build it Green, salvaged and recycled building materials.
3-17 26th Ave. Astoria, Queens 718-777-0132
http://www.bignyc.org/

Eddie's Salvage, salvage store that attracts brownstone renovators.
224 Greene Ave, Brooklyn
http://national.citysearch.com/profile/44684828/brooklyn_ny/eddie_s_salvage.html#profile

Demolition Depot, salvaged building materials
216 East 125th Street, NYC 212-860-1138
http://www.demolitiondepot.com/vo/demo/default.aspx

In Rhino, draft the profile of each unique molding you have obtained. These drawings must be constructed from circles and straight lines only, no splines allowed! Construction lines, circles used to construct radii, and any other lines or marks not describing the profile of the molding, must remain in the drawings.

Each molding profile is a sequence of curvatures. These curvatures can be concave or convex, flat or steep. Transitions between curvatures can be smooth or abrupt. How do drawings with construction lines help describe these conditions? Construction lines must be distinguished from lines of geometry with line-weight and line-type.

Print these drawings at 1 : 1 scale on 9” x 9” sheets. Arrange multiple drawings on each sheet.

UNIT DEVELOPMENT

Develop a ‘unit’ from the wood molding profiles by cutting the straight wood molding into parts, and then re-attaching the parts. Start by writing a procedure or set of instructions for cutting and re-attaching. The procedure must identify specific curvature conditions in the profile and respond with a sequence of incrementally changing oblique cuts and rotated re-attachments.

Units must contain one part that is the width of the original molding and one part that is at least 3x the width of the original molding. Once the procedure is written, build five units each one using incrementally changing angles for oblique cuts and rotated re-attachments.

WARNING: Carefully inspect all salvaged wood for nails and screws before cutting!

READING

Readings will be assigned at three points in the semester. They will be discussed in class and your participation in these discussions will be part of your grade. Readings will present challenging material, but they will be relatively short and foundational to the studio. The first set of readings will be discussed in class Mon. Jan. 31; they are available for download from the blog.

Colin C. Adams. “Introduction” and “Braids”. The Knot Book.
Gilles Deleuze. “The Fold – Leibniz and the Baroque”. AD Architecture and Science.
Manuel Delanda. “Sandstone and Granite”. A Thousand Year of Nonlinear History.
Optional - Jorge Luis Borges. “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Collected Fictions.

GROUP WORK / CRITIQUE PARTNER

The first phase of the semester will contain group work. As an individual you are expected to participate in, and facilitate all aspects of group work.

Following the group work phase you will be paired with a critique partner – a classmate who will sit in your desk critiques and present with you in pin-ups and reviews. There may be some instances where you work together, but you will always have individual projects. It is your responsibility to be well versed in your critique partner’s project and to be available for in-studio discussions.

110117 - notations

Jorinde Voigt's drawings deal with speed, volume, and movement.  They relate performance to geometry and they are explicitly about variation in time.  These drawings are not about fixing a form or image, but mapping transformations through time.

 images via jorindevoigt.com

Clearly this is not the type of purely spatial data that normally comprises architectural drawings.  To convey physically intangible information like speed and movement, Voigt has developed notational systems (look for close up views of these systems on her website).  Notations can convey information about magnitude, relative position, duration, angle, etc.  Sheet music is an example of a notational system.

Musical notations are a shared language that passes information among those who have learned to decode it.  On the other hand, Voigt's notations are a unique invention.  Looking at her drawings for the first time, one doesn't know all the details of how to read them.  One needs to understand the conventions of the system before the drawing can be decoded.  You will need to develop your own notational system in your braided river mapping.  This notational system will be more along the lines of a Jorinde Voigt drawing (unique, yet systemically implemented) than sheet music.

Unique notational systems can be devised to map all kinds of systems:

 map of privately owed public space in midtown manhattan –

dunja simunovic

map of a judo maneuver –

kristin koslowski