Design 542: Complex Building

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Point of Submission

It's called submission for a reason.

It begins with one's head starting to go numb from thinking to hard about everything all at once.

It ends at an indeterminate point in the middle of the night where good intentions stop hurting and the mind and body just gives in.

It's at this point of giving up that the good ideas begin to flow - free from preconceived expectation - unconscious trains of thought begin to choo choo along like bird calls starting up in the dark.

***

Unfortunately this train's already a wreck and the only 'good thought' was to waste more time photoshopping Mies falling out of his chair...

But it's not to late for you.

(Good luck to all the thesis students out there)

Gaming: Interaction and Emergence in ‘Minecraft’.

A passage from my exegesis-in-progress, from a chapter titled "Mental Space", in which I look at the 'mental space' (as per Leon van Schaik's 'Spatial Intelligence'):


Computer games are much like books, in that they portray another world, an imagined world. Of course, there are large differences as well - the world is interactive, there is an interaction between the inhabitants and settings of the unreal world which does not happen to the same extent in a book, where the reader is essentially a passive observer. M, J and P are all keen gamers, entering these other worlds, which are experienced via image, and sound. The purchase of a 3D television in 2011, with the ability to run 3D games, has introduced new levels of immersion.

For this project though, the fascination that M and J have shown for a game called ‘Minecraft’ is particularly relevant. Minecraft is an “indie” computer game, “a game with really big pixels” which is “about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine”. The game-play is “emergent”, so the experience is generated by a series of local rules or agents interacting, rather than an imposed top-down narrative or structure. M and J typically play it in a shared world from separate computers connected on a network, allows them (via their virtual representatives) to build collaboratively, often referring to their interventions in the existing, pre-generated world as their ‘houses’. It is just this kind of creative, collaborative, emergent, flexible - and above all, spatial activity which I have tried to capture in my ‘Memory House’ proposition.

Quotes are from a Guardian article on indie games - 'The Indie Dozen' Series, and the Minecraft website. I intend to expand the discussion on emergence slightly, with reference. 
Image: http://timespentgaming.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html

Guide to Building 201 (AC302)

These were floating around building 201 last week.  I highly recommend a read if you haven't seen them already - they're a good laugh!

Lost in 201?  Your idiot proof guide

Architecture & Culture 302 presentations

there is something different about building 201 today...

coffees and hot chocolates are primed and ready

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Dissertation Week 2: Supervisor Meeting

15 word cloud. Wordle.net

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KvV: Thesis - Research Context

Hi all, please read the following if you have time. I am interested in your comments on anything that you feel has holes, etc.

ARCHITECTURE AS PEDAGOGY:

DESIGNING GOVERNMENT HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE PERTH METROPOLITAIN AREA

ABSTRACT:

Since settlement education has played an important role in the formation of Perth’s built fabric, whether it was through private tutoring, privately funded institutions or government institutions (Siew 2004 surmising Gregory and Smith’s Thematic History of Public Education in Western Australia, 1995). Enrolment statistics of full-time students from kindergarten though to senior college reveal the importance of the role of government schools in Western Australia society, 62% of the W.A.’s student population attending government schools and 83% are in Metropolitan schools in Western Australia and (DET 2011, www.det.wa.edu.au). These figures highlight why the design of Government schools is poignant.

The design of educational facilities is of great interest to me because of my background as both an architecture student and a qualified high school teacher. Consequently, I am interested in the relationship between pedagogy and educational facilities and their application to government high schools in the Perth Metropolitan Area (as defined by the DET 2011, www.det.wa.edu.au).

Whilst investigating the relationship between pedagogy and the design educational facilities I have found that there are three types of relationships which exist these include; independent, unidirectional and reciprocal relationships. I am interested in the application of the reciprocal relationship, when pedagogy influences an architecture educational facility and when the educational facilities become an active component of pedagogy. Torin Monahan defines it in Learning Spaces­ as ‘built pedagogy’ (van Note Chism 2006, 2.2) that is the embodiment of educational philosophies in architectural form. The importance of this relationship is the shift in the view of the role of the educational facility moving away from traditional view as container of learning to playing an active role in educating. The research conducted here explores, analyses, interprets and describes the reciprocal relationship between pedagogy and educational space based on a literature reviews of relevant documents and a within case study of educational facilities which deal with this reciprocal relationship. From this analysis some key features have been identified for a performative brief for government high schools in Western Australia.

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AJH: Thesis in its current form

As I prepare my Dissertation Preparation, Research Context Assignment (3), it seemed like a good idea to actually post up how the Thesis process is going this semester and reflect on where am I...

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Plans, Sections, Elevations - Praxis Week 4

sketchbook pages

17/3/2011

32 CHURCH ST.

4th MODEL

commercial

garden

residential

17/3/2011

32 CHURCH ST.

5th MODEL

SECTION

.

SECTION

opera house design grades are out

design: complex - week 8 review transcript

Wednesday 22 Sept 2010, Building 201 (Blue Carpet Level), Curtin University.

FJE (student), S (lecturer), A (guest critic)

F: um ok well my initial moves I suppose were... I wanted to... I kind of like how the site was with its railway lines, bus station and horseshoe bridge and so I decided to keep those things and leave the City and Northbridge divided from each other, so I've... turned the horseshoe bridge into this inhabited bridge with this element which comes around the bridge. Then the foyer comes up here to the main auditorium, which is also serviced by these back of house areas which split along the railway line. Trucks can come up here. All the workshops go up towards the auditoriums, the performers areas are housed along here. In terms of edges I've responded to this edge of Northbridge here with these elements here, there will probably be non-opera house program here in the ground level to try to integrate the building into the city more.

A: Is that that the railway?

F: That's right. So they've already sunk one line which links up to the underground station, so I've left that sunk as it is now, but the other one is still on the surface.

A: So does this [indicates model] become part of the building program?

F: No it's staying as a bus station. I've looked at integrating it into the program but I haven't really found something more useful for it than it being a bus station. the building connects with it here, but it sort of sits slightly apart from the building I suppose, but as close as it can still allowing for the buses. With the elimination of the this platform here, you can come up off the platform and come up onto this bridge. This becomes a large public square suitable for performances and things, there's a smaller and much more intimate square on the Northbridge side - that corner always gets so packed with people because they are coming across, I think there is an opportunity there to make it something larger and more interesting

S: So what's the core idea?

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design update: complex studio

Opera house design proceeds, slowly. I have a concept, which is, loosely:

'Leave the City and Northbridge divided. Arrange the building around a high point toward the horseshoe bridge, which now circles around a lantern, visible down William street and containing the foyer and other public areas. Linking the city is a rebuilt and inhabited pedestrian bridge'.

I am working on the tasks Simon has set for Wednesday; plan, section, elevation, 'idea model', all to be the same scale (I have nominated 1:500, for compatibility with the site model)

Imagine a world without architecture

Imagine a world without architecture...
Where would we be without it?
Advertisements for Architecture 2010

Some of us did this as an assignment for Architectural Management. I would be interested in having a discussion about them. If you are alright with showing them on here, please email me an A4 x 72 dpi of your poster.

© Hannah Gosling, 2010.

Design Statement: The text and illustrations of Robin Boyd's 'The Australian Ugliness' were a source of inspiration for this poster. Although this book was published in 1960, the commentary on the conditions of the built environment still resonate today, particularly in project home suburbia.

The primary target audience for this poster is the ordinary citizen; one who might not usually consider employing an architect to design for them. The poster aims to question the mediocrity that many people settle for, and proposes that without architecture, special would be (or is) a bit dull. It proposes a state of living where the rubber stamp house (you get to pick the colour!), spreads its inky stain across the Australian landscape.

This poster also aims to highlight the way to resolve this, by choosing good design and by employing highly educated and experienced design professionals such as architects.

Spatial History Investigations

As part of Simon Pendal's Complex Design Unit, I have been investigating my 'History in Space'.

Basically the idea, which has been developed by Leon van Schaik from RMIT, is that everyone has a history in space - their life has included the experience of many different buildings, landscapes and spatial ideas that inform their ideas about space. What they like, what the don't like, associations and inclinations. An architect can harness their own spatial history, and that of their clients in order to create richer and more meaningful spaces.

Thus we come to the trawling of our spatial histories, subsequent analysis recording, and communication. Simon's brief prescribed a process of trawling my memories, recording these, editing them down, modeling them (physically or digitally), and using these models to recreate the vivid images found in our own memory - the memories of formative spatial experience.

I begun be dumping everything I could think of onto an A1 sheet of paper with a pencil, sketching and writing all over it. I then examined this gestalt, picking it apart into categories ready for examination. I proceeded to experiment with investigation of examples from these categories, drawing in charcoal, and making scaled plans and sections.

For my presentation I planned to do a detailed examination of an example from each one of the categories. What actually happened was I did one category ('Monuments in the landscape'), and built an experimental model of a space which I have been virtually obsessed with since being introduced to it by Stephen Neille in Architecture and Culture 101; Boullee's Centotaph for Newton. Since the categories all bleed in to each other, I used the material which I had prepared for 'ruins and relics' to discuss the other categories.

My presentation was not a success; Simon was (rightly) unhappy with a lack of precision in my drawings and failure to reproduce the images present in my memory. However, despite lack of sophisticated product material, I found the process a success in that I have identified themes in my design with roots in my experiences.

Spatial History

Categories:

Imagination Badger's House

Ruins and Relics railway formations

Monuments (in the landscape) Portchester Castle,

Groundedness (or Earthiness) 'trench' cubby, House Without Rooms

Enclosure (esp. centric spaces) Newton Cenotaph

Modernism Sunny Meed, Architecture Building, Unite de Habitation

Text from presentation:

Monuments in the Landscape - Portchester Castle.

This is a castle I visited as a child whilst living in England. I visited many castles, but this is the one I remember best, so must have had some significance.

The south coast of England in this area is low and marshy, with tidal mud-flats, stony beaches, and low swampy hinterlands. This castle, the walls of which are 6m high, and the Keep rising to 30m, is a significant high point in this low lying landscape. It has a strong sense of history - various parts were built by the Romans, Saxons and Normans, as well as additions being made as late as the 18th and 19th centuries. The site has been continually occupied for a long time, probably in excess of 2000 years.

Essential qualities:

Contextual scale: The Castle stands out, acting as a landmark and symbol of power (a power now faded).

Sense of history, timelessness and immortality: The castle is tangibly a lasting object. The history can be sensed directly; seen, touched. Small marks were stones have been worked were made by the Romans. English longbowmen stood at these very windows to defend England against French invasions. There is a direct connection between me, standing here, and them, standing here.

Materiality: The castle is very much of the earth. It is made of flint stones, and sits, firmly rooted into the earth, and immovable object as constant as the sun and stars. It has weathered over time, it is stronger than time, but also a product of it. It was made by hand from the very stuff of the earth itself.

Sense of Object: The castle is an object; it is honeycombed with mysterious passages, spiral stairs, dungeons, towers, battlements, windows, gates, strange chambers. This can be perceived and imagined as I climb through it.

My Own Projects

Frequent use thick, heavy masonry elements, a monumental presence in the landscape, a sense of strong attachment to the earth, ideas of defensive sanctuary against the outside world.

Canons of Good Architecture.

While it has Poetic and Tectonic aspects, the Castle is most strongly a Narrative artifact - it is the stories both half imagined and actual which are the most powerful effects of its presence.

portchester castle - plan

portchester castle - section

newton cenotaph - 1:2000 sectional model

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