Building Books

Asked to consider the process of bookmaking (and the many processes that category includes: the conception and composition of a narrative, the organization of text and graphics on a page or form or screen, the physical or digital processes of printing that media, and the binding and covering of pages) in relation to making of space and buildings, we speculated about a potential extension to the existing Western New York Book Arts Center facility in downtown Buffalo. Having spent the summer down in the basement of WNYBAC, organizing type, setting forms, running editions, smelling solvent and lead and old wood, I felt I had an acute idea of what these processes were and how they might inform the making of a new space for the organization. Programmatically, we were concerned with spaces for both exhibition and retreat (for both an artist- and writer-in-residence), expanding and distributing the functions contained primarily in the ground floor of the existing building.

Before coming up with individual design proposals, our studio collaborated on a book describing the site, the  design objectives, program requirements and relevant precedents. Using the design of the book itself as an opportunity to think about the structure of a book (as an artifact), I came up with an accordion-style format, which could be read as a conventional book, in two-page spreads, but also expanded to read as a full vertical board, to suit our interest in modes of architectural presentation. A loose, threaded binding accommodates this kind of operation, and also articulates a detail of book-binding that is usually concealed by the spine of a traditional book.

The book, the object:










The book, the narrative:






(Click to expand.)

Perceptual Landscapes, Technologies of Vision

Final model & portfolio for ARC 502.

The Shingle Style Today, Today

The synthesis of our studio's precedent research, presented at final review.

Studio: Project 2, Bruce Price's William Kent Cottage

Final boards for my research on shingle style darling/white male architect, Bruce Price, and his William Kent Cottage in Tuxedo Park, NY (click to expand).









We paid particular attention to the roof forms in modeling and drawing our Shingle Style houses. The works of this style have distinctly more complex roofs than those of the Stick Style or other American vernacular architecture, wherein the roof simply caps an extruded floor plan. This small cottage, while it doesn't quite compare to the hyper-elaborate roofscape of something like Kragsyde, does exhibit a peculiar condition in which the hips on the central roof come together at a double-curve on all four sides (not shown in the Revit-made axo). The curved roof is sandwiched between two other roof volumes: a 90 degree gable that covers the front salon and porch, and an asymmetrical gable, which conceals a backdoor entrance.

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.

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:

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.

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.

Studio: Precedent Study (The Pool House)

In studio we were asked to discuss how a particular precedent dealt with water. This was my presentation on RoTo's Carlson-Reges House:

RoTo’s Carlson-Reges Residence was built in downtown Los Angeles in 1992 (completed in 1996) for clients Richard Carlson, an industrial contractor, and Kathy Reges, owner of a show-dog kennel, both of whom were involved in LA’s contemporary art scene. The couple wanted an industrial living space suited to its surroundings (highways, train tracks, junkyards and a complex of industrial buildings converted into art studios and lofts). The project itself was actually a remodel, in which the architect, Michael Rotondi, took the shell of an old power generator factory and constructed a secondary, structurally independent volume that penetrated and extended the space and form of the original building.

The project was constructed by the clients themselves and Carlson’s onsite construction staff with materials found in his nearby scrapyard. With no real detailed construction documents, the design evolved fluidly to accommodate found materials and even mistakes made during construction.

The pool itself was made from a halved cylindrical fuel storage tank found on the property, which starts inside the main gallery and projects out into space. Reges had asked for a pool to swim and view the sunset, but the only way to take advantage of the surrounding vista was to elevate the water plane 16 feet above grade. 

So Rotondi constructed a continuous, elevated ground plane that penetrated the living space to accommodate it. And because the pool was made using a found vessel, the length of its extension was somewhat predetermined. Thus, the inclusion of the pool became a decisive move in the design of the whole scheme. The contiguous line of the raised plane and the lap pool establish a datum that unifies both interior and exterior spaces, as well as the existing shell with the added volume. 

scans: ROTO BOOK

You can also see in plan how the pool is cantilevered at an angle to rest on an existing exterior brick wall, and how on the other end, it juts into the living space.

Aside from its very slight enclosure the pool is fully surrounded by outside air (which is not problematic in this climate). Here you can see the green space underneath and a walkway that connects from the first floor entrance out to a set of stairs which lead up to the deck or out to the public street.

This view also indicates the structure of the pool and the elevated ground plane. Because the pool is made of a structural vessel designed to carry the load of this amount of water, most of the structure is found under the adjoining deck. You can also see here evidence of the sort of improvisational construction process, with the added supports.

In all, I think this in an incredibly fascinating project, particularly in regard to how the pool was handled. For the purposes of this study, a criticism might be that many of the moves were either formal gestures or simply structural opportunism. Environmentally, the pool doesn’t seem occupy the “air” of the living space, but can simply be accessed from the interior. Perhaps that transition doesn’t read as clearly in what I was able to gather in my research.