Perceptual Landscapes, Technologies of Vision

Final model & portfolio for ARC 502.

ARCmedia: Gorky Paper Composite

Some photos from our review.

Studio: Project 2, "The Shingle Style"

Again, we're thinking about precedent:

This time, through Vincent Scully's 1955 (and 1974) analysis of the development of the Shingle Style.

The Shingle Style arises, as Scully writes, out of a dialectic that vacillates between modes of revivalism (classical, gothic and colonial) and eclectic experiments that seek to define a distinctly American architectural tradition (however by means of its own formal derivation). Thus the period of architecture in which the Shingle Style emerges is undoubtedly one that is, itself, rooted in precedent.

I've been asked to curate an exhibition of the research our studio has been conducting on several architects who produced examples in this period (1881-1889), contextualizing the work and typology through various conceptions of precedent (the architects' and their contemporary critics, Scully's, and our own), amounting to a sort of architectural historiography.

So that's part of it.

The other part consists of thoroughly documenting one work of a specific architect, namely by making a BIM. And I should mention that this is the first time we're working with Revit. It's not been fun.

Anyway, here is Bruce Price's 1885 William Kent Cottage (Tuxedo Park, NY):

 

Studio: Project 1, Sited

Some photos of what I presented at our review on Wednesday:







I haven't written anything since the final window model, so I'll summarize my progress here.

In a kind of round-about way, we were asked to accommodate the "pool house" model we had made for the window to our assigned site (a suburban, Orchard Park site with seasonal panoramic views, including that of downtown Buffalo). This was mostly done through a series of drawings, from which we made a final model. Apparently, we were to have thought through the tectonics in our previous models, even though this provided wholly different circumstances for making a construction. Namely, we transition from a vertical surface to a horizontal one. That said, I was able to produce a pretty successful model, that retained the phenomenological experience provided by the first model. Here, I generated a new "map" that corresponds to the location and orientation of the site (in relation to the city, my original referent), that I have pulled apart into several layers which seem to hover above the pool, which has been reduced here to plane of water, set into grade.

And here are my boards (click to enlarge):











So, this is the end of this project. I feel like it could be developed a lot further (actually, Ken suggested I attempt to detail my sections). Here, we were only asked to consider in a very limited way how this space might be occupied. We weren't asked to think about program or circulation, really. Now we're moving on to something more research-based, more guided by precedent, it seems. But I'm wondering how the conceptual and formal language we've developed here might inform the next few projects.

ARCmedia: Project 2, Line (Digital)

The second component of our reading (and remaking) of the Gorky painting was to make a plan and section of the paper model using only straight lines, in a way that both represents the model, but also expresses its underlying logic or generative process.

My drawings ended up comprising a fairly legible expression of the model, but came together as a result of quite the same process: by first inscribing a grid, establishing nodes, and literally pulling the lines together at those points, thus rendering the deformed surface. I've presented that distorted field over the original datum in both plan and section. I've also tried to document where the manipulated grid seems to disappear, as a secondary expression of that distortion

It was suggested to me at our review to take sections at every gridline (in a given direction) and overlay that information to better capture the surface distortion in section or elevation.

ARCmedia: Project 1 Final Iteration

This is what I presented yesterday for our review in ARCmedia. I think I was able to draw out the effect that I had been aiming for, using the same techniques at different scales to render a more dramatic manipulation of the surface than I had gotten in the previous iteration.



With this version, I was struck by the impact of the datum lines that were established, primarily by the corner condition/edge condition (the frame) and secondarily by the grid, an extension of the defining order of the frame. By offering a datum (or data) against which the eye can compare surface manipulations, that disturbance becomes more clearly articulated. The attention, then, is drawn to where those pleats are made, and the way those moves relate to a reading of the painting. This relationship is particularly interesting, because in this case, the datum itself is disrupted by the pulling and pinching of paper.



The unmanipulated grid. You can see where I've made opposing scores and folds, which allow for the pleats to alternate in direction, the only way the material can accommodate multiple vertical pleats.

Our next task is to draw our paper models, in plan and section with only straight lines. Using line type, weight, density, orientation (etc), we are to use orthographic projection to illustrate conditions in the model (expounding again upon the relationship between making and seeing).

Studio: Project 1, Review

This is what I presented on Friday along with this statement:

With this model, I considered a perceptual interaction with the urban landscape. Using both Main Street and the horizon as datum lines parallel to the orientation of the window, I extended the actual cross streets behind Main to establish an imagined map, the angle of those extended streets creating otherwise impossible intersections.

Situated at the height of the horizon line, everything below is occluded, so that what exists is only the imagined landscape, its termination (both at the window and the horizon), and the reflection of that represented map back into the newly-perceived space.

See it in action:

ARCmedia: Project 1 Iteration

For this iteration, I applied a grid with a dual resolution which relates to concentrations of value in the painting, with the resolution higher (pixels smaller) where value is greater/darker.



This seems to work pretty well for how I've chosen to manipulate the sheet. Based on the Gorky's gestural strokes (the secondary action in his process, after stretching the canvas), I've marked out where those lines cross intersections on the regulating grid, where I will place a pleat. This technique produces a textural abstraction of the gesture, but it also manipulates the surrounding field so that the "wash" arises out of the "line."



I'm really pleased with where this is going, but I still need to sort out some details, like the direction of the scoring and folding and how those correspond to the pleats. To a certain extent, which side the scoring is applied determines the direction of the fold. So then there needs to be a decision made about the direction of the pleats, or maybe a decision about a logic that produces a pleat direction.

Also, I'd really like to push this further, making the pleats more dramatic. This seems to be a matter of wrestling with the paper, but I think I need to experiment more with fasteners. I don't seem to be getting much tension out of the sewn pleats, but they do hold better than staples. However, I think these issues might be alleviated once the scoring and folding is adjusted to accommodate more extreme gathers.

The final model is due Tuesday, so I should be able to make these changes in the next iteration.

The Box Fold

More complex than you'd think.

Studio: Project 1, Iteration 2

Same issues, better materials.

Based on what we discussed at my desk crit today, I need to scale this up so it takes over more of the window space like the first model had. I also want to make the "map" more prominent. Aside from the graphic of the reflection, it seems to dissolve into the window and into the other elements of the totally-transparent construction. I also need to take on the basin of the pool. It seems awkward as it is, directly attached to the horizontal plane. Ken suggested that I might structure it independently, but I really want the map to structure the whole construction. I might have the basin slightly detached, hanging from points on the map, so that it appears to hover just below.

I'll update after our review this Friday.

ARCmedia: Project 1 Studies

Trying to find a balance between variability and control.

Where originally I was thinking about some series of actions to produce a model of Gorky's painting (or at least my chosen section), I'm finding that establishing some overall order to the composition is helpful in making that plane more plastic, more prone to more "gestural" manipulation.





What I've done here is fold a conventional grid (in both directions) so that I had a more plastic surface to manipulate. In translating those initial "gestures," I located the control points on those curves, and pleating the paper (in short, vertical pleats) at those points. So, an abstraction of Gorky's original gesture comes out through that texture. Further, the secondary effect of the pleats manipulates the folded surface in a way that his   washes of color fill the spaces between the initial linework. Thus, the next step in the process actually arises out of the first.





Next step: produce a full-scale material iteration based on this model

Studio: Project 1 (Light + Weight + Water)

For our first project in studio, we were issued this statement:

The second project requires that you contain at least one quart of water.  The site for this project is to be the 
metal window muntins in the studio.


You are to use the window sill and muntins as the primary means of vertical support.  However, water must 
be supported in such a way that the lowest level is at least six inches (6”) above the window sill.  You are 
alowed to make points of connection to the window muntins by removing the existing screws. However, at 
the end of the semester you are to return the window to its original condition.


Your approach to light, structure, and materials should be informed by and should further explore the 
approach used by one of the architects studied in the precedent analysis.  You are not limited to the Pool + 
House that you studied in the precedent analysis but are free to use ideas from other precedents.  The intent 
of this project is to explore the potential of the transparent, reflective, and dynamic qualities of water in 
relation to light.


We were instructed to conceive of this model as a physical medium which controls or manipulates a particular phenomenon offered by the window (light/landscape/perspective, etc).

I considered the landscape. More specifically, I chose to look at the cross streets behind Main St, which my window faces.





I extended those streets where they, in reality, terminate at or beyond Main, across the street and into the window, using their varied angles to create impossible or imagined intersections behind the threshold of the glass. The basin of the pool is held by those extended cross-streets. Here I chose to use a found form, drawing from the precedent, giving myself that limitation around which to construct that physical "map."









(Pardon the poorly-lit photos.)

This model also attempts to provide a view at the horizon line (not apparent in these night time photos), occluding what is below it, so that what exists is only the imagined landscape, its termination (both at the window and at the horizon line), and the reflection of that represented map back into space.

Structurally, the construction is held in tension, connecting the to the various muntin screws from those synthetic intersections on my map.

I'm going to produce the next iteration in a more rigid material (lasercut acrylic), which will hold the required quart of water.