...on pattern design

 In adapting the matrix analysis of the teapot handle, I wanted to focus on the motion of change in the handle along with the idea of how the surface breaks down.




Looking closer at trying to connect the changes within the handle.




Different patterns compiled.
Courtesy of dezignus.com

...on the topic of incohate

Incohate: an experiment in architectural education calls into question the finality of the work architects do. In a very broad essence our built work is finite (especially to the public); when the building stands done and occupied the architect's work has come to an end. However for the architect the work constantly remains in an incohate state, never truly satisfied, always looking for a means  to improve the work. Yet as architects we are forced eventually to call an end to our projects. This is done for clients however and not ourselves. This also applies to education no matter the field. There is always something more to discover, experience, learn. We learn by doing, by experimenting, and by observing. Change is something we face on many levels and by embracing that life itself can be considered incohate, we become more free to explore all there is of the world to offer. We as people are never done till our bodies themselves give out.

Versioning: evolutionary techniques in architecture questions the relationship of surface, form, and their links to space. Surface as a form in architecture is a goal that a number strive to reach. The question that arises from this is whether the space beneath the surface should be linked or not. In some cases a structure may have an organic surface, but the space within rectilinear. But should the space created not be just as organically linked to its corresponding surface? In some cases this has been a successfull endeavor, in which the space reads as organic as its corresponding structure/surface. However many times as well the fall back to classical orthogonal spaces is designed and a disconnect between the two occurs.

Project 1b Matrix

Looking at the transition of deformation, the nature of the object lends to the ability of returning to its original state over time.

As deformation continues in a particular direction, however the form becomes more of a surface.

 

The definition of the object can be reduced in the form, leading to a more amorphous shape.

...on Ideas and Process

In "Prelude: Mapping the Question - The Perspective Hinge"  the relationship between architectural conception and realization is analyzed; beginning with the idea that conception and realization share a "one-to-one" communication between the ideas represented and the appearance/construction of the final building. Taken in comparison to "Roller-Coaster Construction" this article challenges the ideas constructing the structure of a building simply as something to ensure the building shape stands. We are challenged to "step away from a formal image of an idea but instead let the image emerge from the project as it develops".

Project 1a

To understand an object, one must first begin to understand the geometries that make up the form. What connections occur? What went into the making of the objec? The intent of this model was to begin to explore these questions. Here specifically is a focus on a connection between what has been added to the body of the object (a tea pot) as well as an attempt to understand the process of creating the added peices.

Kirk Steiff Pewter & Wood Tea Pot

...on Folds

"Skin and Bones - Folded Forms from Leibniz to Lynn" by Anthony Vidler, seeks to explore the meaning of the "fold". Gilles Deleuze introduced the "theme" of the fold after having studied the works of Leibniz. This theme came to register as "a material phenomenon -- as in the folds of Bernini's sculpture of Santa Teresa... and as a metaphysical idea -- as in the 'fold' that joins the soul to the mind without division."  The fold can be broken down even further to the concept of pleat and crease as well. This theme of the fold as something both tangible and abstract interested many architects, for as Vidler states "architects [are] always searching for the tangible attribute of an abstract thought". At the time Baroque architecture became the focus and study for furthering the "fold". To a point however Deleuze and Leibniz disagree over the interpreation of the "fold". Deleuze and the "Deleuzian model" allowed for a more literal and connected interpretation, such as a "literal folding of the envelope...that tends to ignore rather than privilege the interior". However, for Leibniz and the "Leibnizian fold", it is a "continuous movement, enveloping former folds and creating new ones on the surface of the diaphragm". The Leibnizian fold also acts as an interior mechanism that "reflects the outside and represents the forces of the inside".


Moving to Greg Lynn, one sees a transformation of the idea/ theme of "fold". For Lynn the "reductive typologies" of the past, such as the Wittkower/ Rowe nine-square grid, are replaced by "topological experiments" or the blob as seen in Lynn's writings. There is now a move to form no longer being "concieved of as geometric...but rather as seamlessly countercontradictory".

...on Blobs and Blob Tectonics

Greg Lynn, in his writing "Blob Tectonics, or Why Tectonics is Square and Topology is Groovy" , begins with an interesting statement on tectonics. He writes "...discussions of tectonics have involved the difficult task of combining the particular with the general...the particular is understood...as the highly localized techniques of construction...[meanwhile] the general stands for universalized ideals which are embodied in local typologies." But in all the knowledge and discourse of tectonics the idea and the topic of the blob has not been brought to attention. It becomes important to consider blobs for their ability to "seep into those gaps in representation where the particular and the general have been forced to reconcile". "Blobs suggest alternative strategies of structural organization and construction [to relate] the homogenous or general to the heterogenous or particular."


Lynn places the blob in three categories or as he states "regards": (1) horror films, (2) viscous composite entities, and (3) contemporary construction techniques. By horror film standards "the blob is all surface" it is a "gelatinous surface with no depths per se; its interior and exterior are continuous." The film industry has in essence provided us(architecture) with "a working knowledge of blob behavior and morphology". As a composite entitiy, the blob challenges architects to move past the rigid approach of buildings as "crude, upright, vertical [etc]", which leads to the blob in use and construction.


The blob in architecture and construction allows for a divergence from the time tried tradition of vertical buildings. It allows for a spatial theme to develop beneath the structure as seen in Shoei Yoh's work: "enclosure of a diverse group of programs under a single roof". As of "Blob Tectonics" the structure and construction techniques of the blob requires further development but shows potential.

...on Lynn, Hollier,and Bataille

Greg Lynn, in his writings "Probable Geometries: The Architecture of Writing in Bodies", focuses on and joins the debate of the concept of: writing as being architectural, yet architecture resisting the principles and concpets behind writing. This argument forms around the idea of geometry and its use in architecture. We are first introduced to the ideas of Bataille and Hollier, who argue that by their best definition, writing is "defined Against Architecture". This first builds upon Vitruvius' writings, specifically, on the use of symmetry and proportion to create ideal bodies, and the inability to create architecture with out the ideal proportion. By Bataille and Hollier's beliefs writing is "

indeterminate, nonideal, heterogeneous, undecidable, it is implicitly resisted by exact gemometry”. This continues with the statement that ideal forms "must be reducable to eidetic mathematical statements. Eidetic forms are (1) exact in measure and contour, (2) visually fixed, and (3) identically repeatable." From all this Lynn takes the stance that Battaile and Hollier believe that unlike architecture writing embraces "incompleteness, undecidability, amorphousness [etc]". Lynn rebuts with the statement that for writing to occur withing architecture, architecture must deal with a geometry of non-ideal forms.

As the debate continues within "Probable Geometries", the concept of geometry as an exact measurement, is continuously brought to the forefront. A deeper examination must then be taken by both Lynn and his audience as a result. The notion of exact, inexact, and anexact are specifically brought into question. While exact forms can be reduced eidetically and inexact forms cannot be reduced or fixed, anexact forms can be described (like an exact form) but cannot be reduced completely (like an inexact form). This creates a middle ground, as is my opinion. This then poses the silent question of: is it possible then for in some instances writing and architecture to coincide/ become compatible? This question finds its answer in part through both biomedical studies as well as architectural studies. Looking at the works and sketches of Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, and Rem Koolhaas, support for possibility of architecture writing with anexact form comes to light.

*Note: all quotes are taken from "Probable Geometries: The Architecture of Writing in Bodies"