I was immediately thrown off by the juror's question about my position on systems thinking. I think my case studies from last semester would have been helpful in stating my position and creating architectural strategies which relate to the systemic architectural process. I think this unclear stance on systems and the difference between systemic v. systematic negated the architectural ideas about experience, program, displacement and construction which i thought the jury was going to be about. Instead of taking in the juror's comments I was trying to defend ideas that I wasn't expecting to defend. If you have any comments and ideas that were mentioned I'd appreciate if you could re-state those for me.
I think the jurors understood the idea that it was a growing and biological concept and the DNA reference as it applied to other oil platforms and programs. One juror even questioned the twin duplication of architecture on separate but identical platforms.
Some Points:
Clarify and Define Systems thinking; Systemic v. Systematic:
Systematic: Done or acting according to a fixed plan or system.
Systemic: Of or relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part
Use Case Studies to illustrate Systemic Devices + Explore and Diagram design process to serve as framework for Systemic Architectural Design Process
Clarify Quotes for possible interpretation.
Extend the architectural DNA to other rigs and programs to exemplify the systemic nature and process of the architecture.
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Thesis Statement: Systems Integration
Architecture in its current state is isolated because it does not recognize itself as an adaptive system within a larger constantly evolving network. Subtractive, analytical processes serve to isolate the subject from the very factors which define them, while systemic processes derive order from cooperative interaction with dynamic systems.
Systemic integration is a way of understanding and evolving the connections between systems which have previously been understood as singular elements. This thesis specifically explores the ocean as an environmental network and a mechanism to be experienced.
The existing structures of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico provide a framework to which an architectural system can be applied to initiate this investigation. The oil platform as it exists currently is exclusively industrial and does not relate to the oceanic context but draws only from the oil reserves beneath the sea floor. To the oil company; when the reserves are dry, so ends the life of the platform. Thinking about this structural system as a part of a network allows performative and experiential systems to be designed for and integrated into the existing network.
This thesis explores how architecture can be designed through a process of compositing informational systems, which then informs the design network, which becomes the architecture. The architecture as a realized project and a process becomes an integrative tool.
Systemic integration is a way of understanding and evolving the connections between systems which have previously been understood as singular elements. This thesis specifically explores the ocean as an environmental network and a mechanism to be experienced.
The existing structures of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico provide a framework to which an architectural system can be applied to initiate this investigation. The oil platform as it exists currently is exclusively industrial and does not relate to the oceanic context but draws only from the oil reserves beneath the sea floor. To the oil company; when the reserves are dry, so ends the life of the platform. Thinking about this structural system as a part of a network allows performative and experiential systems to be designed for and integrated into the existing network.
This thesis explores how architecture can be designed through a process of compositing informational systems, which then informs the design network, which becomes the architecture. The architecture as a realized project and a process becomes an integrative tool.
Quotes
I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
_Sir Isaac Newton, from Brewster, Memoirs of Newton (1855)
A band pointing towards the ocean epitomizing what human endeavor can accomplish at one scale with geometric clarity but modest deliberation, to give the scaleless sweep of the ocean.
_Louis I. Kahn
All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea -- whether it is to sail or to watch it -- we are going back from whence we came.
_John F. Kennedy, Speech given at Newport at the dinner before the America's Cup Races, September 1962
Knowledge is not a series of self consistent theories that converges toward an ideal view; it is rather an ever increasing ocean of mutually incompatible (and perhaps even incommensurable) alternatives, each single theory, each fairy tale, each myth that is a part of the collection forcing the others into greater articulation and all of them contributing, via this process of competition, to the development of our consciousness.
_Paul Feyerabend
_Sir Isaac Newton, from Brewster, Memoirs of Newton (1855)
A band pointing towards the ocean epitomizing what human endeavor can accomplish at one scale with geometric clarity but modest deliberation, to give the scaleless sweep of the ocean.
_Louis I. Kahn
All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea -- whether it is to sail or to watch it -- we are going back from whence we came.
_John F. Kennedy, Speech given at Newport at the dinner before the America's Cup Races, September 1962
Knowledge is not a series of self consistent theories that converges toward an ideal view; it is rather an ever increasing ocean of mutually incompatible (and perhaps even incommensurable) alternatives, each single theory, each fairy tale, each myth that is a part of the collection forcing the others into greater articulation and all of them contributing, via this process of competition, to the development of our consciousness.
_Paul Feyerabend
1 comment:
Nate-
I'm sorry I only timed you, I think you presentation was stronger because of it, it made you think about what you needed to present instead of losing us in rambling, and (as past experience has show me) when pushed and challenged, you tend to rise to the occasion. When you started you were nervous and tense, but then you slowed down, and it was clear you were thinking about what was absolutely necessary for you to communicate to the jury, you slowed down and hit your stride, and I think you got the idea across. So I think I'm going to institute time limits for everyone. When forced to be clear you are, when forced to stand up for an idea you do the work and do. The #1 issue, last semester and this, is that you need to keep your focus on the goal, not every single goal at the same time.
You had a bunch of work, and the stuff that we talked about, the diagrams were definitely the most helpful to the jury at this stage (Daniel and Ian noted them on the way back in the car). The jury also had the distinct impression that you were not listening to them. I bring this up because Daniel's comments in specific were asking about your staying true to the essence of the ideas you were presenting. Beyond his "know the difference between systemic and systematic and decide which it is" he was asking you much much deeper questions.
Also, I think the ideas you are getting across can only be helped by your showing 1) the scuba, 2) the coral 3) the motorcycle and 4) your quick example study on Corbu, and KTA. Those images immediately place your project in a context that the jury can understand and react to.
Now the big thing that I wanted outsider opinion on and you got was the "form" al response of your architecture. The shapes you are taking are again "nate-shapes" there is not alot of meaning to them and they just don't stand up against inquiry, and I'm sorry but "oh I wanted to be poetic" doesn't work when you've chosen a very analytical way of identifying and responding to forces of the site. That's why I will say that the things the jury spent time commenting on and thinking about were the 7 diagrams, the scaled up architectural moments, and the structural/architectural interaction studies. The moments the jury had difficulties is when they perceived your response straying from your ideas.
In the way that your process is developing, I think that determined layering of each successive improvement will bring you to a meaningful form, rather than making shapes which are pleasing.
The process of stenciling is therefore very appropriate, but it is more about the areas of inhabitability, the points of interaction and thresholds with ocean forces that will push and pull the architecture into the shapes that it must be to create this coral-like architectural construct. The forces of the ocean will bring about the shapes; trust your process to get you there.
The other strength in your idea is its development and adaptation over time. Starting with one coral and growing slowly into a whole ecosystem. I think it is utterly necessary that you start with the base drawing of the rig, and build up versions slowly and in increasing complexity as we go. But since this is thesis you are afforded the ability to develop and study year 0, year 1, year 5, year 10, and year 25 all simultaneously and work back and forth across them.
I think there could be no better way to showcase your idea than to have 3-4 mini presentations within the overall final presentation, expressing the change over time of your proposed system, which is at the heart of the idea, rather than just a well documented snapshot of one version, one iteration at one time.
I also liked the study of specific components blown up and studied at a larger scale; the chapel of the sea, a place to experience the solitude was a good idea and response, although you do realize what that design looks like? It may have other meanings than your intended one.
-Andrew
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