december 13-18_
this time will be spent in NYC around the site collecting physical data as well as beginning photographing and mapping the site in the way described in the previous post. Gonna try to get on some roof tops.
december 18- january 22_
expanding narrative about NYSea
sketches, altered images, site merges
collecting maps
Update Thesis Document
quarter 1_
develop conceptual systems relation and spatial language
create presentation site diagrams (based on site sketches) and synthesis drawing
conceptual model including context and highline (scale 1"=64' (tentative)) for gestural, spatial and programmatic development
experiential / spatial perspectives with superimposed plan and sectional information
Update Thesis Document
mid point_
develop tectonic language
shell model at 1"=16' scale
mappings of integration phase 2 immediate scale of highline based on determined strategies
begin to sketch and find potential places for integration phase 3: manhattan e.i. times square, chinatown
Update Thesis Document
quarter 3_
refine
shell model 1"=8' scale
apply as strategy or DNA
mappings of integration phase 3: manhattan
merges and perspectives of chosen sites
Update + Design Final Thesis Document
final jury_
1/4" scale details + experience model
mappings of integrated NYSea
refine + develop previous drawings
12.11.2007
12.10.2007
Integration Process
This thesis seeks to explore a systematic design process as a means of integrating architecture into a dynamic context as an integral system rather than an isolated feature.
Diagramming the new order of pauses, flows, interaction and disinterest, will establish an organization for the site. This will include layers of interaction to decide the placement and appropriate relation of program in terms of public and private. This diagramming exercise is not only to take place on one level but must consider the three dimensional matrix, underwater, dynamic water surface, highline and skyline. Sectional diagrams also consider the interrelation of the layers.
The system must acknowledge the program that was, the current uses and the program which can be implemented to affect the experience and function of the place in the future. This three dimensional mapping creates the spatial and structural framework for the intervention which is interpreted and synthesized into the site. The integration is both additive and subtractive to the existing matrix and also must consider its future position.
Erosion is an example of a three dimensional space making process which relates form to hydrodynamics or more generally, forces, as well as material obsolescence. Allowing erosion to become an active participant in organization and post occupancy re-organization of form and space allows architecture to become integrated with the underlying order of information, energy and matter. The system then must be tested by the Post-Industrial concepts to keep from falling into symptomatic default reactions.
The highline shell project establishes a process and a strategy from which the architectural network can grow as a biological system. The highline rail system is utilized as a vein for expansion while other affected and activated veins of the city will be identified or created. The physical language of the architecture is determined by the immediate context of the site and the inherent voice of the program. Consequently, the resultant tectonic systems may differ drastically from one another even though they stem from the same process and architectural strategies.
Diagramming the new order of pauses, flows, interaction and disinterest, will establish an organization for the site. This will include layers of interaction to decide the placement and appropriate relation of program in terms of public and private. This diagramming exercise is not only to take place on one level but must consider the three dimensional matrix, underwater, dynamic water surface, highline and skyline. Sectional diagrams also consider the interrelation of the layers.
The system must acknowledge the program that was, the current uses and the program which can be implemented to affect the experience and function of the place in the future. This three dimensional mapping creates the spatial and structural framework for the intervention which is interpreted and synthesized into the site. The integration is both additive and subtractive to the existing matrix and also must consider its future position.
Erosion is an example of a three dimensional space making process which relates form to hydrodynamics or more generally, forces, as well as material obsolescence. Allowing erosion to become an active participant in organization and post occupancy re-organization of form and space allows architecture to become integrated with the underlying order of information, energy and matter. The system then must be tested by the Post-Industrial concepts to keep from falling into symptomatic default reactions.
The highline shell project establishes a process and a strategy from which the architectural network can grow as a biological system. The highline rail system is utilized as a vein for expansion while other affected and activated veins of the city will be identified or created. The physical language of the architecture is determined by the immediate context of the site and the inherent voice of the program. Consequently, the resultant tectonic systems may differ drastically from one another even though they stem from the same process and architectural strategies.
The Highline Shell
Water + Architecture_
Sea level rise is an event which cannot be met symptomatically. In the past, engineers have built dikes and levees to hold back water from civilizations only to prolong the inevitable interaction between water and architecture. Hurricane Katrina is one of many instances that illustrate the dangerous consequences of controlling rather than cooperating with nature.
Architecture has not addressed water and so now it is being forced upon us. New Orleans, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom are only a few examples of the regions being inundated by the forces of water.
The systematic paradigm suggests that water in this context is not a misfortune, rather a means to enhance experience, redefine space and consider the inhabitation of the edge of our land bound world. More than seventy percent of the globe is covered with water yet it remains fundamentally ignored for its resources and remains almost completely barren of human inhabitation.
NYSea Site + Systems_
This is an architectural thesis and in order to avoid complicating issues, such as the political aftermath of a disaster, this project will propose its own hypothetical scenario in which sea levels have risen twenty three feet. The map illustrates, in dark blue, the areas which would be submerged by the waters. This level of coverage does not completely debilitate the city but does cut off its most important transportation systems, automobiles and the subway.
Sea level rise is an event which cannot be met symptomatically. In the past, engineers have built dikes and levees to hold back water from civilizations only to prolong the inevitable interaction between water and architecture. Hurricane Katrina is one of many instances that illustrate the dangerous consequences of controlling rather than cooperating with nature.
Architecture has not addressed water and so now it is being forced upon us. New Orleans, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom are only a few examples of the regions being inundated by the forces of water.
The systematic paradigm suggests that water in this context is not a misfortune, rather a means to enhance experience, redefine space and consider the inhabitation of the edge of our land bound world. More than seventy percent of the globe is covered with water yet it remains fundamentally ignored for its resources and remains almost completely barren of human inhabitation.
NYSea Site + Systems_
This is an architectural thesis and in order to avoid complicating issues, such as the political aftermath of a disaster, this project will propose its own hypothetical scenario in which sea levels have risen twenty three feet. The map illustrates, in dark blue, the areas which would be submerged by the waters. This level of coverage does not completely debilitate the city but does cut off its most important transportation systems, automobiles and the subway.
At the edge of the partially drowned megalopolis there exists a shell of a building in the northwest corner of the West Village. The remains of industry long since gone but not yet reclaimed by developers. Through the shell the highline erodes a massive void which now pumps life back into the structure. The highline was informally reinstated by the risen water level. The train no longer runs, but activity is forced onto its raised level, the familiar, somewhat solid ground connecting to higher, dryer parts of the Manhattan in the north. What once was the only empty building in the neighborhood now is now reanimated.
High fashion boutiques and night clubs are now flooded; only the higher residential levels remain inhabited. Fire exits turned into main entrances bring a mischievous experience to even mundane places. Roof tops are now a landscape, as separate as they might be, connecting people. The roof which used to be the most private space in the city now has become the most public, event formed transformation.
The bay, once far from mind, now seems such a viable option for conversation and relaxation. Soon those who stayed realized that a sail boat is a far more versatile tool than a car, it is a mobile place not simply a vehicle. Water familiarized interaction with the forgotten layers of the city and extended the borders of interaction well into the bay. Most of all the speed of the city was altered, and the journey became as significant as the destination.
High fashion boutiques and night clubs are now flooded; only the higher residential levels remain inhabited. Fire exits turned into main entrances bring a mischievous experience to even mundane places. Roof tops are now a landscape, as separate as they might be, connecting people. The roof which used to be the most private space in the city now has become the most public, event formed transformation.
The bay, once far from mind, now seems such a viable option for conversation and relaxation. Soon those who stayed realized that a sail boat is a far more versatile tool than a car, it is a mobile place not simply a vehicle. Water familiarized interaction with the forgotten layers of the city and extended the borders of interaction well into the bay. Most of all the speed of the city was altered, and the journey became as significant as the destination.
[The shell in these images is the black square structure superimposed over the highline railway. It lies on 14th street a main east-west corridor. The historic Chelsea district lies to the north and the bay was once to the west. The shell is on the right in the bottom images]
Paradigms of Thought
Industrial Establishment vs. Post-Industrial Establishment
Planning:
Anthropocentric cosmology / Biocentric cosmology
Linear Production / Cyclical Flows
Short Term Plan / Long Term Plan
Incremental Shifts / Continuous Change
Practice:
Product and Tradition Oriented / Process and discipline oriented
Local effects of action / Global effects of interaction
Mechanistic relationships / Systemic relationships
Heuristic procedures / Cybernetic integration
Design:
Hierarchical and linear / Holistic and non-linear
Embrace deterministic simplicity / Embrace teleological complexity
Anticipate the inevitable future / Design for future scenarios
Manual and automatic control / Intelligent Automation
Transient static solutions / Robust dynamic solutions
Leonard Bachman outlines these concepts as a part of his essay entitled, "Post Industrial Architecture, Dynamic Complexity, and the Emerging Principles of Strategic Design"
These concepts give a framework by which a systematic intervention can be created and evaluated.
Planning:
Anthropocentric cosmology / Biocentric cosmology
Linear Production / Cyclical Flows
Short Term Plan / Long Term Plan
Incremental Shifts / Continuous Change
Practice:
Product and Tradition Oriented / Process and discipline oriented
Local effects of action / Global effects of interaction
Mechanistic relationships / Systemic relationships
Heuristic procedures / Cybernetic integration
Design:
Hierarchical and linear / Holistic and non-linear
Embrace deterministic simplicity / Embrace teleological complexity
Anticipate the inevitable future / Design for future scenarios
Manual and automatic control / Intelligent Automation
Transient static solutions / Robust dynamic solutions
Leonard Bachman outlines these concepts as a part of his essay entitled, "Post Industrial Architecture, Dynamic Complexity, and the Emerging Principles of Strategic Design"
These concepts give a framework by which a systematic intervention can be created and evaluated.
12.05.2007
Integrated: Fallingwater
Fallingwater has a structural system based on the logic found in the surrounding rock walls, their erosion and inhabitation, to create space. The masonry core supports the cantilevered reinforced concrete trays which extend the user into the outdoors. The connection between the stone core and outdoor extensions is where the interior spaces form and the stone is sculpted and supplemented by a system of built-in wooden amenities to integrate function and movement. The trays relationships to each other creates interaction within the architecture itself while also removing the user from the architecture allowing them to engage with nature from the perspective of a squirrel amongst the trees.
Fallingwater's reaction to the landscape creates dynamic relationships between form and space, which can be engaged by the user. The creek which runs beneath the home is accessed by a suspended stairway which respectfully skims the water allowing one to sit and dip their feet in the cool water. The space beneath the home which used to be the only active layer on the site now acts as an integrated layer of the function and space of the architecture. In the main room the rock which forms the foundation of the building (and the rock which the Kaufman's used to picnic on) protrudes through the floor becoming the hearth for the fireplace, which in Wright's philosophy was the heart of the home. Unlike Corbusier's Domino House, even KTA's Loblolly house which can be represented and understood in blank white space, Fallingwater could never be imagined without its context, it would not be complete. Fallingwater is an integrated feature of its environment and the environment is an integrated part of the architecture and its experience.
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