Travel Journal from India and the Middle East

To celebrate the end of architecture school, I went on a 6 week trip around Northern India and the United Arab Emirates.  Here are a few sketches that I did while on this trip.

GRAPPLING: Reschooling the town of Greenville

It's rather late getting here, but I'm finally putting my finished thesis up on the blog.  Get in touch if you have any questions or want to learn more about this massive, year long undertaking of a project.  To see a video of me presenting this project, please follow this link,

Maya: MK2

Some more experiments with Maya for my Radical Representation class, on the subject of phase change.  The topic has focussed down to the abstract pattern logic and phenomenological presence of the process. Not necessarily quantifiable, but more qualitative and abstract.

Radical Representations moves into Maya and Metal Ray

Maya is FUN!!!  That is the take away from the last few weeks of messing around with this great programme.  This is a continuation of the phase change drawings that I did earlier in the term, only now moving into three dimensions.  Those earlier drawings were moving into the phenomenological through colour and layering and into the unrealised pattern logic that occurs in phase change.  These drawings now look at the same thing, although in different ways.  Unrecognisable form dominates; instead, the reading becomes about the recurring rhythms and patterns of the forms.  Rich and luscious renderings aim to pull you into the image as an immersive and experiential mechanism.

ACMA Conference ACE Aware Entry

The natural fiber composite stool that Miwa Ikemiya and I designed back in the Summer of 2011 was accepted as a finalist into the American Composites Manufacturers Association's 'Awards in Composites Excellence' competition.  The ACE award is an industry spotlight for innovation in composites design, so our inclusion was both flattering and exciting.

UNDERSTANDING PHASE CHANGE

As part of the class 'Radical Representations' I am investigating the idea of phase change, specifically looking at it through the lense of 'the event'.  Through multi-layered overlays, these drawings begin to look at the phenomenology of the process of phase change, studying the pattern logic, effect and molecular result of this ubiquitous mechanism.

GOLDEN GATE YACHT CLUB FINAL PROJECT

It's late getting up here, but last term's studio project has been wrapped up and is now in the past.  This project, done witha classmate Jeremy Bamberger, was reviewed really well with some lively conversation and even got the Jury Prize nomination for the class.  Although we didn't end up winning in the end, we got an honourable mention.  Pats on the back all around.

STUDIO MID-TERM REVIEW

Its hard to believe, but studio is still going, and after several iterations, we have what is fast becoming as respectable building.  The reviewers enthused the general parti, and suggested novel ways to improve or tinker with the design, to pull out the central framework a little more effectively.

View looking East along Yacht Club Road

EXPERIMENTS IN FOUCAULDIAN SPATIAL CONTROL

In attempting to manifest my ideas on control within learning environments, I have moved into the physical realm.  Foucault states that "discipline sometimes requires enclosure" which eventually becomes "the protected place of disciplined monotony".  Within this enclosed space, the body fills out to the limits of its confinement.  Activity is confined to the degree of separation and segregation that is found within the institutional space.  Two forces, therefore act in balance; the will of the body, and the confines of enclosure.

DESCHOOLING GREENVILLE

Thesis_Article_V2

In Northern California, where the Sierra Nevadas meet the Cascade Range, lies a small community called Greenville.  The town is small and, along with its neighbours throughout Indian Valley, paints an idyllic picture of rural simplicity.  They say there that you can never pop out to run an errand, because you will meet someone you know, and be drawn into a conversation that may last 5 minutes or all afternoon. 

DESCHOOLING GREENVILLE

Thesis Abstract_V8_10/21/11

The primary architectural interest of this thesis is to test the power dynamics of space using the vehicle of education.  The structures of power that surround learning environments in the US have created what Michel Foucault calls docile bodies - people that become subjected, used, transformed and improved by the disciplining machine that is the institution.  For the purpose of this reseach, the definition of education has been expanded to encompass a more broad term ‘cultural exchange’ and the school has become simply the places where this exchange happens.

An early effort to visualise the Yacht Club for Studio

Back in Studio World

It's easy to forget, but alongside thesis there is still studio.  Our programme this term is for a yacht club, sailing school and race sailing research lab down by Crissy Fields in the Marina District.

Here are some photo's of a generative cast plaster model I did.  My partner, Jeremy Bamberger, and I are working with the Venturi Effect to maximise exposure to the wind through funneling apertures.  The idea is to bring the phenomological elements associated with sailing into the building.

An Ideogram charting my projected progress for thesis

I have put together an ideogram for my own sanity and clarity on how to deal with the work load for thesis.  It was actually quite helpful for clearing up my own ideas and what is important to the idea.

Term starts with a BANG with the CCA all-school warm-up charrette

We all arrived at the Architecture Department Convocation on Wednesday to be presented with an all school charrette competition.  We were split into teams of 5 or 6 with grads, undergrads and interiors students all mixed up.  The brief was to propose a new direction for the newly purchased property behind the current CCA campus.  My team was made up of Colby Rosenwald, John Fulton and Mark Campos.  Kind of a dream team compared to the others.

Manifesting the Project Based Learning Environment

Thesis Design Experiment #4


For my final design experiment I created a matrix of formal possibilities that might engender potential for PBL.  Open enclosure and implicit and explicit spaces of various sizes combine with a simple formal tectonic to create project spaces for different sized groups.

Project Based Learning

Thesis Experiment # 3


Myself and the KIDmob team went back up to Indian Valley Academy in early September for a second round of hands-on Project Based design teaching. Seeing as my thesis research is very much leaning towards this kind of power redistribution it seems only fitting to include this visit as one of my four experiments.

The 7th graders all clubbed together and after a few practical exercises collaboratively diagramed the circulation routes, and connectivity of the arrangement of the furniture.

Control through porosity and permitted transparency

Thesis Design Experiment #2


Concentric layers of plastic punctuated in a grid by perforations and translucencies allow the viewer only intermittent access to the privileged interior.  A clear top-down hierarchy excludes and prevents physical and visual access to the inner most layers. 

 

Project Based Learning

Thesis Positioning Statement #6

Note - This paper is linked to the ‘Control through Interaction’ positioning statement, because it describes a scenario that re-evaluates an accepted power hierarchy and places the user of the space in a directly collaborative relationship with the space itself.

Back to basics teaching methods can be described as a top down subordination of the student where the broader social and cultural norms are impressed upon the pupil.  This traditional method is seen as a generational impartment of the moral and behavioural expectations that adults see as a requirement for participation in broader society.  It requires the student to obediently and meekly yield to the information given by the teacher – questioning the information, or even the authority of the teacher is not an option.[1] 

The Monumental Condition

Thesis Positioning Statement #5

The architecture of memorial is a fascinating field when considering the broader issues of control within the built environment.  The monument has the innate ability to fashion and shape the communal consciousness and dictate the priorities of memory.  They can be an aggressive political tool, as is evidenced in the former USSR, or they can be a sombre reminder of the devastation of war, as is seen in the countless unmarked graves in Flanders, Dieppe and the Somme.  Almost always, though, they represent the potential held in future endeavour.  They reflect on the past, but the goal is to represent the future as it relates to certain ideals.

Khatyn Memorial Complex, Belarussian SSR, 1970.

Architecture Democratises Information

Thesis Positioning Statement #4 

Because cultural identity is tied up in the mechanism of cultural production, control of those mechanisms is a hotly contested battleground.  Those who are able to garner power over the way our representations of space are generated, are in turn able to manage our broader cultural identities.  Because how we identify ourselves in turn affects basically any daily decision process we make (our behavioural patterns, consumer patterns, voting strategies, commitment to education, family roles etc.) the importance for a benign presence driving these processes cannot be stressed more highly.

Small Scale Strategies for Control in the Built Environment.

Thesis Positioning Statement #3 

There exists in the world, countless instances of behavioural manipulations subtly conveyed through form, patterning, architecture and media.  The motivations for these interventions are multiple, but are usually associated with some kind of power structure whose goals are to inflect behaviour patterns to their advantage.  In each case, the proponents of the control, are seeking some kind of strategic advantage.  This could mean anything from political alignment, consumer spending and military advantage to patriotic pride and defending the interests of the populous.  What follows is a brief outline of some of these strategies.

Control Through Inte­­raction.

Thesis Positioning Statement #2

Projection One from Andy Payne on Vimeo.

The Violent Response

Thesis Positioning Statement #1

Although the causes of the London Riots between 6 - 10 August of 2011 are numerous, there several consistent themes that continue to be cited both by observers and the rioters themselves.  Alongside the anti-Keynesian austerity measures that slashed funding for youth and community infrastructure, overt police control has been blamed for the violence. The most damage occurred in the most impoverished areas that are also, not uncoincedentally, dominated by minority ethnicities.  According to local Labour politician David Lammy, the pre-existing tensions between ethnicities and the police were exposed in the Broadwater Farm Riots of 1985.  In this case “cracks that already existed between the police and the community became deep fissures” and the riots of 2011 are “eerily, worryingly, dreadfully similar”[1] 

My Final Boards

The Term Is Finally Over

So after what seems like a MASSIVE slog, the final presentation is done, and school is finished for another year.

My research continued into algae farming, but I began to look more at the architectural consequences for creating this closed loop system. The thermal and phenomenological characteristics of the algae system created flux in the ambiance and colouration of the spaces as well as a seasonal migration of programme from inside to outside as the outdoor spaces become more habitable.

The making of the model

The rings around the outside of the model could not be addes, but here are the process photos for the rest of the model.

Some Interesting Moves Made Over The Weekend

The structural grid has now become a Delaunay triangulated mesh, open on the outside, housing flat glass algae tanks on the inside. Surface area is optimised, allowing for more productivity, while architectural opportunities occurs in the spaces created in between.

The Project Progresses

The programme projects out in most directions allowing specific views of Saatyat Island. The views each protrusion frames is appropriate to the activity that will occur in that part of the building. The museum of Satyaat Island looks out over the freeway so one can survey the new Zaha, Nouvel and Gehry bulidings to the northwest and the Tadao Ando Maritime Museum to the South East. The Real Estate offices give select views over what will be the residential part of the island, while the restaurant at the top presents a panorama of the whole island.

The lattice frame work holds the algae farm in flat tanks and contributes structurally to the sinuous forms that contain the more standard programmes. Everybody here agrees that the rigid square frame is holding back the more dynamic and gestural interior.

Plot #3

The algae farm exists in thin tanks embedded within the 20' X 20' structural frame.  These panels are habitable, and are located according to programmatic needs for outside access using a variety of different cut out sizes in the matrix.  Once mature, the algae is fed into the core of the building where processing begins.  Using a process called transeterification, the algae is electrified with a low voltage current that breaks down the membrane and allows faster extraction of the lipids and therefore bio-diesel.  

All the other programme sits outside the central infrastructural core looking in through large windows making the algae processing the focal point of the whole building.  An inverted Lloyds of London or Centre Pompidou, if you will.