ARCHITECTURE AS A DISCOURSE

“Architecture as a system of communications is nei-ther a mere collection of artefacts, nor a mere form

of knowledge, nor merely a particular professional practice. Rather it encompasses all three categories : artefacts, knowledge and practices - all understood as communications that connect to each other in an

ongoing recursive network “ - Patrik S. Schumacher

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week 1 :week 1 :ARCHITECTURE AS

week 1 :ARCHITECTURE AS ARCHITECTURE AS

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PERSONAL project

| studley park boathouse |

STATE OF THE ART project

| p_wall (2009) |

STATE OF THE ART project

| FAZ pavilion frankfurt |

The text entitled Architec-ture and Visual Culture by Richard Williams explains about how most people perceived architecture and the misconception that revolves around the discourse. Architecture often being criticised as merely an-other branch of art, where in fact, architecture is much more than just that. The text also emphasise on the need for architecture to be seen as a discourse that can be freely participated by any group, meaning, the public who have no knowledge in architecture. And thus, one of the approach suggest-ed by the author was to have what being called as ‘visual culture’.

Therefore this week’s journal entry will be discussing about how architectural discourse could be expanded further by taking three projects as an ex-ample. Each of these examples give distinct way of advancing the discourse. Beside that, ex-planations on how each examples could contribute to the Gateway Project will also be provided .

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aa P E R S O N A L p r o j e c t | studley park boathouse |

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ALVAR AALTO ALVAR AALTO

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ALVAR AALTOl e a r n i n g f r o m t h e m a s t e r :l e a r n i n g f r o m t h e m a s t e r :

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aa P E R S O N A L p r o j e c t | studley park boathouse |

|PROJECT BACKGROUND| Our second year studio was about learning from a profes-sional and well-known architects. In this syllabus of the studio, each class were assigned to study an architect, which in my case was Alvar Aalto. Upon completing the studio, we were asked to design a boathouse at Studley Park using the design language used by the assigned architect.

|PURPOSE OF STUDIO PROJECT| To learn how the professional architects work in order to develop their design and also to merge our own idea with the one that was adopted by other architect. Old ideas when merged with a new experimental ideas which in this case was our own idea, would defi nitely create a very interesting and vibrant design. Thus, triggering our mind to be more innovative rather than just imitating the idea of others.

Aalto once said,

“... form is the symbol of organic content of human activity. Where the form is good, there the activity will usually also be good.”

Alvar Aalto, 8August 1968

|UNDERSTANDING| Following this idea of Aalto, I decided that a building should function in a way that the structure of a building should be more than just building up space. And a space either opened or enclosed, should be able to perform its function well through the manipulation of many aspects such as the lighting, acoustics, texture, and if needed, the ability to get rid of distractions. Hence, a building, rather than just being an assembled structural elements, should also be a place that promotes a blend of activities and create particular moods in every spaces.

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|APPLICATIONS| The application of the idea in my boathouse design can be seen in figure 2, in which, a wall, instead of just dividing the interior from the exterior, should also be able to interact with the building users in order to create an active mood in the space. Meanwhile, the manipulation of light can be seen in the cafe area (figure 3), where light enters through small holes punctured on the wall, creating a relatively darker and cosier space, as compared to the bright and active space just outside the cafe.

|ADVANCING ARCHITECTURAL DISCOURSE| This project can be seen as an innovation in architectural discourse because it introduces new way of looking at a building form. Usually, design of build-ings depend on the activity of human. For example, a board of meeting often sits in a row, with the leader of the meeting sitting in front facing the row. But, to go beyond the ordinary, the arrangement might be arranged in a different way so that people could be sitted in a way desired by the designer. Which means, the advance of the architectural discourse in this project is that the form of the building directs the movement of the people. To take an example from the Studley Park Boathouse project, people should walk up the inclined plane in order to go to the cafe rather than just walk through a flat and straight surface.

|CONCLUSION| Hence, as a conclusion, advancement in architectural discourse does not only relies on what material, what software or what technology were being used, but also the ideol-ogy behind the design intents. As for this project, Aalto’s ideology which is ‘functions follow forms’ rather than ‘forms follow function’ is the most prevalent.

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bb S T A T E O F T H E A R T p r o j e c t | p_wall (2009) |

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| exciting | | unique | | texturised |

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|PROJECT BACKGROUND| P_Wall project is a series of project in which it started with P_Wall (2006). The purpose of this project is to explore the self-organisation of material under force. It was made up of liquid plaster molded in nylon fabric and wooden formworks. P_Wall (2009) was exhibited in Sensate: Bodies and Design Exhibition. Hence, each of the plaster panels were made to be bulging, folded, creased and having pores - all somehow represents the characteristics of human skin.

|ADVANCING ARCHITECTURAL DISCOURSE| P_Wall Project should be credited as a great effort in experimenting the potential of new materials in fabricating parametric design. It should also be seen as a great leap in design area as it creates a new way of giving texture to a surface.

Branko Kolarevic stated in his book Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (2003):

“There are two main obstacles to the take-up of parametric design be-yond the industries that encouraged its development: fi rst, the relatively high cost of the packages…”

Therefore, many material experimentation are needed in the area of parametric design, and P_Wall project is one of the effort to break through the challenge. It is also an innovation in architecture because it goes beyond the normality. We were used to see fl at walls almost everywhere. However, by creating a new form of wall, a new experience can be created (fi gures below depict the situation).

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cc S T A T E O F T H E A R T p r o j e c t | The Canadian Pavilion |

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b y : SAIA BARBARESE SAIA BARBARESE TOPOUZANOV ARCHITECTS TOPOUZANOV ARCHITECTSb y :b y :

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cc S T A T E O F T H E A R T p r o j e c t | The Canadian Pavilion |

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|PROJECT BACKGROUND| The Canadian Pavilion was built in conjunction of Shanghai Expo 2010 which lasted for 6 months. The pavilion design was actually a metaphore mimicking the territorial disposition of cities described above, the long, bar (ribbon) of the building supplely coils between the slender ends of the allotted terrain’s perimeter. In this way, it supports the idea of a loop that unifi es in spite of distances. It projects the image of a country that embraces that which it holds most dear: its

population.

|ADVANCING ARCHITECTURAL DISCOURSE| This project somehow gives a set of elements that can be discussed and thus, contribute to further the architectural discourse. However, the most important aspect that need to be discussed was the concept idea. The concept of the project was based on collection of datum about the city. What is interesting is how the architect of the pavilion was able to translate the datum into a structure. This can somehow be seen as a big leap in design process because usually, inspirations were drawn from things like nature (eg: native plant, geographi-cal condition, etc.), story behind the site or many more. But, translating data into a concept idea was an intriguing way of designing. Therefore, this pavilion depict the idea of architecture as a symbol mentioned by Ricahrd Williams in his text titled Architecture and Visual Culture.

The unique structural composition of the pavilion to some extend invites many interpretations by the public. Some might see it as a mere ‘blob’ structure. And some might appreciate it as a nationalistic building because they know that it represents a story about the city. All of this interpretations are useful in welcoming people with no architectural knowledge to join the architectural discourse. This relates back to the idea proposed by Richard Williams in his text titled Architecture and Visual Culture;

“ Above all, architecture ought to be seen as discourse.”

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REFERENCES

-Kolarevic, B. (2003), Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing, Spon Press : London

- Schumacher, P. (2011), The Autopoiesis of Architecture: A New Framework for Architecture, Volume 1, John Wiley & Sons : United Kingdom

-Williams, R. (2005). Architecture and Visual Culture, in Exploring Visual Culture: Definitions, Concepts, Contexts, ed. by Matthew Rampley, Edinburgh University Press : Edinburgh

DESIGN INNOVATIONS

“Architecture as a system of communications is neither a mere collection of artefacts,

nor a mere form of knowledge, nor merely a particular professional practice. Rather it en-

compasses all three categories : artefacts, knowledge and practices - all understood

as communications that connect to each other in an ongoing recursive network “

- Patrik S. Schumacher

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week 2 :DESIGN INNOVATIONS

week 2 :DESIGN INNOVATIONSDESIGN INNOVATIONS

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aa C A S E S T U D Y 1 | FAZ pavilion frankfurt |

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FLER

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by:

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humidity low -skin opened

humidity high - skin closed

| PROJECT BACKGROUND | FAZ Pavilion in Frankfurt was designed to explore how a building might react with the microclimate of the site. As can be seen in figure 2, the pavilion’s envelope closes when the sur-rounding humidity increases and opens whenever the humidity decreases. This pavilion is not the only project which was derived from biomimetic research. In fact, there are many more being produced by Sheffler & Partner.

| ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATIONS | Buildings were often being associated as being fixed and inflexible. However, this project challenged the stereotype given to building. Instead of being fixed, rigid and inflexible, this pavilion was designed to be ever changing and responsive. At times, it could be a rigid and im-permeable structure that blocks the view, but it could also be see-through and permeable – all depends on the level of humidity. The main idea of the project is to relate the structure with the surrounding, and this somehow complements the idea proposed by Kalay;

“... unlike art, which must often conform only to the artists selfimposed goals and constraints, architectural design is an activity that deals, in equal measures, with externally imposed constraints (e.g., site conditions, climate, functionality, cost, building codes, and so forth) and internally drawn inspirations.” Therefore, this pavilion was able to be taken as an example capable of expending the architectural discourse be-cause of its flexibility and its ability to draw public’s attention on how it works. The dual function of the pavilion; 1) as a sculpture when the skin of the pavilion is opened, and 2) as a shading canopy when the skin is closed - can be considered as an architectural innovation which was scarced today.

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humidity low -skin opened

|PROJECT BACKGROUND| FAZ Pavilion in Frankfurt was designed to explore how a building might react with the microclimate of the site. As can be seen in figure 2, the pavilion’s envelope closes when the surrounding humidity increases and opens whenever the humidity decreases. This pavilion is not the only project which was derived from biomimetic research. In fact, there are many more being produced by Sheffler & Partner.

|ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATIONS| Buildings were often being associated as being fixed and inflexible. However, this project challenged the stereotype given to building. Instead of being fixed, rigid and inflexible, this pavilion was designed to be ever changing and responsive. At times, it could be a rigid and impermeable structure that blocks the view, but it could also be see-through and permeable – all depends on the level of humidity. The main idea of the project is to relate the structure with the surrounding, and this somehow complements the idea proposed by Kalay;

“... unlike art, which must often conform only to the artists selfimposed goals and constraints, architectural design is an activity that deals, in equal measures, with externally imposed constraints (e.g., site condi-tions, climate, functionality, cost, building codes, and so forth) and inter-nally drawn inspirations.”

Therefore, this pavilion was able to be taken as an example capable of expending the architectural discourse because of its flexibility and its ability to draw public’s attention on how it works. The dual function of the pavilion; 1) as a sculpture when the skin of the pavilion is opened, and 2) as a shading canopy when the skin is closed - can be considered as an architectural innovation which was scarced today.