Unit Masters: Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos · 2020. 9. 16. · AA Experimental Unit 3...

AA Experimental Unit 3 Extended Brief 2020/21Unit Masters: Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos

�e Augurs of Slave Island - Nathan Su


What is Experimental Unit 3?

Experimental Unit 3 is an undergraduate unit at the Architectural Association run by Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos since 2007. We are a unit strongly based on design, we like drawing, making and visualising speculation. We utilise architectural experimentation, literary poetic and interactive technologies to recon�gure infrastructures as social experiences.

Students’ projects from Experimental Unit 3 have been widely exhibited across Europe and the world. In 2011 Unit 3 student Basmah Kaki was awarded the RIBA BRONZE MEDAL for the best Part 1 project worldwide.

Students work individually but we enjoy a healthy group dynamic and a friendly enviroment for creativity and rigour to emerge naturally.

“A scientist may deplore the notion that there is any link between science and fan-tasy, but fantasy always comes �rst. It is the creature of imagination, and without imagination, there would be no science. Every intention is the result of fantasy.”

--- �ings �at Never Were, Robert Ingpen and Michael Page

Landscape Study model - Suyi Choi

Earthquake Calendar - Shaeron Santosa

Christopher Kokarev

Edward Burtynsky, Highway

Glen Canyon Dam


(Environmental) complexity and (social) participation are EXP 3’s main research concerns when exploring infrastructures and social conditions. Technological pre/post digital possibilities are growing rapidly, getting ever more complex and multiplying our ways to interact with each other and with the urban and natural surroundings exponentially. However our understanding of the environment around us does not match the same speed. While we seem to long for organic food, recycle our waste, despise blood diamonds, buy fair-trade co�ee, tweet our hearts online, upload our intimacy on corporate I-Clouds and strive for ‘di�erent interactions and experiences’ we, 21st century global citizen, can hardly grasp the environments we create, alter and re-shape simply by being. In this scenario technological action and social reaction are not that straight forward and transparent, they are ambiguous at best.

�is techno-social charade is a contemporary condition. While individuals might ignore or do not suspect the complexity and implications of piling up land�lls on the outskirts of their towns, growing e-waste landscapes in distant worlds, exhausted abandoned mines, underground sweat factories, non-recyclable nuclear sites, … How does the public participate? Beyond the basic concept of the social and the public, that is ’giving shelter’, architecture can and should also speculate about possibilities of how spaces and cities will adapt to the techno-social condition. Tales of wondrous unnatural opportunities, unexpected man-machine symbiosis, prototyped visions and cautionary stories about unforeseen catastrophic scenarios EXP 3 will explore many ways to create architectural spaces and enrich ambiguous situations.

“�e future is there looking back at us. Trying to make sense of the �ction we will have become. And from where they are, the past behind us will look nothing at all like the past we imagine behind us now.”

--- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition

Diamond Mine - Eastern Siberia

Palm Oil Plantation - Borneo


�e Future Forest and its Digital Creatures

Are the futures of forests and cities interconnected? Traditionally forests are associated with �rst societies livelihoods, the biosphere but also with dams, logging and other resource extraction sites. On the other hand, cities are perceived as places where progress and technology acceleration lead to innovation and new opportunities. �e �rst is linked to a territory of the past while the second connects to the land of the future and sci-� time horizons. However, that is not the full truth, in fact it is an outdated anecdote. Experimental Unit 3 will explore forests as places where a future has already arrived. We will investigate and learn how forests and cities share a common history and how it may be designed to new architectures. Focusing on the forest as technological ground we will research it as a site of ethical and sustainable human experimentation and how it continues to do so via neo myths, digital networks, hybrid creatures and speculative storytelling.

As architects we have identi�ed the forest as the birth of many civilisation ideas. Being connected to archetypes of primitive huts and Eden paradises the forest is often perceived as the antagonism of cities. Cities are normally associated to human habitat, a place where machines, buildings and high density of cultures generate physical and invisible riches and wastes. However through the unit’s research over the last twelve years we have come to di�erent conclusions. �e forest is not just a natural, historical or ecological place. It is a place inhabited and thus shaped by human presence, their culture and interaction habits with nature. From ancient societies to surveillance technologies forests are highly engineered and arti�cially maintained usually linked to a high �nancial cost.

From tourism to resource extraction forests are great examples of the conservation vs sustainability dilemma we face in our XXI century world. How do we preserve and live in a sustainable balance on planet Earth? Can culture be a useful way to connect ecology and progress? How can architects help design this new spatial relationship? If not parks what can the future forest be?

1stAveMachine - Nature

Urban - Daniel Dociu

Technological Nature

Measuring the Earth’s Health

“�e future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.”

--- William Gibson


Can humans and biodiversity coexist? Can cities, as the bastion of modern civilisation, and forests, as the mega biodiversity holders, coexist? If the answer is no, the future we might �nd is a megadeath future of extinction, more climatic catastrophes and social disasters. If the answer is yes, how can humans inhabit the land sustainably amid the modern world demands for energy and resources derived from forests and natural places? Traditionally architecture uses systems of sustainability to adapt and make projects less onerous to the living environment. Even though this approach is paramount in the design process the way of how we perceive, think and act in the world is largely based on the stories we believe in. In this sense storytelling is not only a way to narrate a past or �ctional event. Instead storytelling is primal in how humans have been hardwired by evolution to understand the world and tell each other about it. �e way we tell stories based on science and culture are powerful tools in how we see the world and can change it. Even though the stories we hear and read about forests are mostly about biodiversity, forests have been a human experiment for centuries. If we want to envision the city of the future, we should think of the future of the forest �rst. Both are human domains.

Myths, �ctions and magical realities are reality multipliers. �ey o�er us new horizons to see and construct the world we inhabit. �is year Experimental Unit 3 will investigate what the future forest could be. We will utilise storytelling to study, experiment and propose alternative ways for the future forest. We will utilise technology as a powerful tool to create but also shape our mutual understanding of the world. �e unit will focus on the understanding of forest complexity through metaphors and myths. Subsequently we will investigate how forests are now occupied and portrait by vast technological frameworks. From HD nature documentaries of pristine worlds to viral forest activist Instagram campaigns the natural world has never been so mediated, so popular and shared. �e role of media technology has a huge impact on how forests are conserved or developed. From military drones to robotic manufacturing in logging sites the forest is a place where technological development is part of everyday life. In this sense the politics of land development and forest conservation is tied to techno-narratives barely discussed.

Forest Fires as Forest Regeneration - Xiaoya Yolanda He

Forest of Reconnection - Adelina Garifyanova

Take Away Forest, A Christmas Tradition - Rik Koster

“�e most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.”

--- Alexander von Humboldt


EXP 3 is open to individual talents/skills and multiple forms of design/presentation methods, however, three aspects shall unify the rather diverse research and output:

1- �e production of an interdisciplinary interactive architecture being able to transit between e�ective and poetic modes (documented through process and identi�ed in the �nal product), architectural spaces and infrastructural �elds;2- A personal and inquisitive view of architecture, engaged with broader societal issues;3- Fictional and literary inspirations informing process and/or programme (including video games, graphic novels, sci-� �lms and classic �ction).

Most importantly, we are a design unit. If design was a language how would you express yourselves? �e unit will continue having a strong focus on atmospheric expressive drawings, models and series of working prototypes. How can drawings ‘talk’ and express passion, disagreement, tolerance, refusal and criticism? Ambient drawing involves material choices, light conditions, space qualities and human emotions, sensual experiences. We highly encourage students to develop a very personal working method, design obsession and virtuosity.

A series of workshops, talks and individual tutorials will clarify how digital drawings and physical models can de�ne a project’s ambience and ambition. We will empower students with a carefully selected tool kit in order to assist you with the right skills for the right task at the right time.

Students are encouraged to research precedents not only in architecture but also in art, science, games and literature. Bearing in mind the intense research led attitude of EXP 3, students will be asked to constantly challenge the role of research and references within their portfolio (enough of Google pictures only!).

Alexey Mar�n

Drones assisting in rice �eld farming - Indonesia

�eo Jansen sculpture - interactive beings

Alexandria Peralta


Term 1 [12 weeks: 28|09 - 18|12|2020]

01. Woodland Digital Creatures

We will start the year learning and experimenting with what constitutes a forest by drawing and designing a future forest creature. Inspired by the idea of the forest as a place with both mythical and biological history we will speculate about its future image. We will work through iterations of drawings and designs articulating the forest as a place where invisible gods, omnipresent technologies and the politics of usage coexist amidst �ora and fauna. From historical tales of forests, mythological gods and monsters to manufactured bio labs, wonder sci-� stories and terraforming landscapes we will explore new ways to discover what is possible and not only plausible. In this phase we will have group seminars on the connection between city, architecture and the natural world, mythology and architectural technology.

Above or below, technologies are modern ways to capture, measure and communicate the health of the forest and consequently the planet to an urban and scienti�c audience. Drones, virtual reality, satellites, 3d-scanning and smart sensors are part of the toolkit to investigate the technological forest. We will �nd exquisite ways of mapping, rendering, collecting, building and telling spatial stories about the future relationship between natural environment, the human and technology. Supernatural stories in fantasy �lms explore the forest and mystical beings in a horror-romantic way. In mythology the creatures of the forests are avatars of natural processes connected to seasons and metamorphoses. �e ‘Woodland Digital Creature’ brief will be an introductory project were students will study the relationship between forests, mythical creatures and their parallels to digital technologies today.

Destiny, Traveller

Radical Reconstruction - Lebbeus Woods

�e Augury - Nathan Su

Augmented Mountain - Liam Denhamer“�e quickest way to �nd out who your enemies are is to try doing something new.”

--- Calestous Juma, Innovation and Its Enemies.


EXP 3 is well known for producing large atmospheric drawings based on digital as well as traditional methods. More than only illustrations, those drawings are strong compositions that investigate and discuss speculative contexts as the design of the architecture (building or landscape). We will continue to pursue the way we build up and visualise the image and atmosphere of the world to come. Furthermore we will work with the concept of animation and �lming in order to explore how the notion of time and change is intrinsically related to the idea of space and future.

Term 1 is learning by experimentating and testing. In workshops we will learn techniques and skills such as: digital painting, digital and analogue model making and digital animation. But most importantly we will explore the technique of story telling and learn about how and why �ction is relevant in architecture and for people’s spaces. Why is time in architecture (seasons, life cycles, heart beats, contract times, duration) as important as space making? How can narrative be a practical tool for acting in the world? Tutorials will aid students to focus on how to write, conceive and develop their ideas.

Towards the end of Term 1 storytelling will transform into practical ways of materialising, setting, photographing and �lming / animating initial concepts. Experiments, skills and project artifacts (or creatures?) will be further developed in Term 2 interpreting aspects of it into a �nal project.

Final Fantasy XV

�e Living Roof - Erik Ho�mann

Breathing Kathmandu - Mamoru Hoshi

Scavenged Train Scrap Model - Shlok Soni

“People aren’t the apex species they think are. Other creatures - bigger, smaller, slower, faster, older, younger, more powerful - call the shots, make the air, and eat the sunlight. Without them, nothing.”

--- Richard Powers, �e Overstory


Term 2 [11 weeks: 11|01 - 26|03|2021]+Term 3 [9 weeks: 26|04 - 25|06|2021]

02: �e Future Forest and its Digital Creatures

From the start of Term 2 we will step by step specify a project proposal for which we will focus deeper on an English context. Second year students will be guided to de�ne the project’s use, materials, scale and precise location by constant drawing and making small sketch models. Everyone will be encouraged to test ideas quickly by thinking via making and speculating via trial and error.

�ird years will start the �nal project by taking the technical side of it further and right into the heart of Technical Studies (Option 1). In other words we hope to continue the Term 1 momentum of learning digital and making skills developing a unique, complex and intricate TS proposal.

Projects will be situated in England. Second year students will be suggested areas of working while third year students will select their site in accordance with their initial studies and agreement with the tutors.

Term 3 is production! We will be working on �nal models and presentation in order to articulate the whole project around a strong and evocative design argument. Towards the end of the year students are expected to think and design with a good level of con�dence and independence. Skills, both technical and mental, are deployed in the so-called �nal set of pieces as a culmination of ideas, craft and critical argument.

Being mainly a design unit, all projects will be very well resolved in terms of space, form and context while at the same time drawn and modelled using evocative and atmospheric techniques.

“�ings need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truthsthat will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.“

--- �e Sandman, Neil Gaiman.

Ash Archive and Shadow �eatre - Raz Keltsh

Sylvan Coda - Ran Ben Shaya

�e Living River - Erik Ho�mann

An Acoustic Lyrical Mechanism - Basmah Kaki


3rd Years Technical Studies

EXP 3 o�ers a unique platform for bespoke and innovative Technical Studies. Based on each student’s individual project the TS3 will be a creative research focusing on the development of working prototypes mixing both low and high tech methods.

�ird year students will develop one technical aspect of the project as prototypes in order to connect unit work and Technical Studies. EXP 3 has a rich history of fantastic TS documents in which students utilise ingenuity and creativity to experiment with interactive technology, environmental studies and material tests. Successful past EXP 3 TS projects involved wind/acoustic energy generation, tidal forces, robotic buildings and aquacultures among many others. Re-occurring TS themes are interactive technology, arti�cial environments and sensorial ambience (light, atmospheric e�ects, performative spaces).

Specialists from di�erent �elds will be involved in order to debate concepts and give speci�c input on the technicality of the project. �e goal of the TS at EXP 3 is to enable students to produce a fresh and creative document based on the need and interest of each student and project.

It is hard work but fun and rewarding!

Yonathan Moore

Basmah Kaki

�e Flood Mitigation ‘Super Kampung’, Jakarta - Erik Ho�mann

Assaf Kimmel

Nathan Su


COVID Impact? Creative Actions

In order to make sure that all students at Experimental Unit 3, collaborators and tutors (us!) have a great learning environment we will aim for a few variants in creative teaching. �e idea is to not only end up communicating through endless Zoom/MS Teams tutorial sessions, but come together over creative, hands-on sessions of intense and collaborative nature.

1- In Term 01 we will run experimental non-continuous day workshops on drawings and making. We all will be coming together on key dates with communal online room spaces. We will support, chat, discuss, produce and learn but not necessarily facing the screen all the time.

2- Foraging / walking as part of nature research but also as scenography opportunities. We will challenge the creativity process both digitally and physically.

3- Reaching out for a larger community: we will explore the idea of community building via social network platforms and reach out on collaborations with relevant organisations related to forests in UK and abroad.

�e coastal ends of the world?

Alexandria Peralta

Ludvig Holmen

�e Lung of Phnom Penh - Maya Laitinen


In EXP 3 we believe that personal interest is the best road for individual excellence. We will constantly promote talks about land, the future and technology but also bring guest critics based on individual student’s project direction. �e projects will be generated through drawing/rendering, animation/�lm and physical modelling. In recent years the unit developed an innovative way to understand extreme environments and design imaginative responses, whereby the method of design production and project communication is a big part of that exploration.

Unit Key Points

�rough the interaction of talks, individual tutorials, workshops, etc. we aim to stimulate architectural debates based on constant production – with ideas being shaped into elegant drawings and models.

Tutorials . Tutorials are held twice weekly on an individual basis throughout the year.

Talks . �e unit will promote a series of talks held by us as well as specialist guests in order to explore a variety of spatial narratives and literary inspirations.

Specialist Consultants . A part of the unit’s budget is retained to invite specialist consultants to give talks/lectures, form part of juries and/or hold individual tutorials.

Juries . Unit internal pin ups and critics are constantly held throughout the year in order to practice and further your presentation skills – graphically, physically and verbally. Juries with high pro�le guests will take place at least at the end of each term.

Portfolios . �e process of a project is of high importance to us. Portfolios are expected to contain every stage of development of your project of each term rather than the �nal product only. �ey should include all sorts of representation material - drawings, sketches, photographs, collages, renderings, etc. From the �rst term on you will be encouraged to develop your own unique portfolio language speci�cally tailored to your project. Our aim is to increase individual diversity and reduce homogeneous architectural output; therefore we will also emphasize a research into drawing and other techniques based on the studied object.

Models . 3d computer models are essential to present your project, but we also emphasize physical models and installations of all kinds, scales and stages as they will help you to explore your project from a di�erent angle.


Bibliography

--- Scavengers and Other Creatures in Promised Lands - R deOstos, N Jackowski--- �e Forest in Folklore and Mythology’ by Alexander Porteous--- Half-Earth, Our Planet’s Fight for Life - Edward O. Wilson--- �e Hero with a �ousand Faces - Joseph Campbell--- Metaphors We Live By - George Lako� and Mark Johnson--- �e Dictionary of Imaginary Places - Alberto Manguel, Gianni Guadalupi--- Innovation and its Enemies - Why People Resist New Technologies - Calestous Juma--- Anarchitecture - Lebbeus Woods--- Performative Materials in Architecture and Design – Rashid Ng, Sneha Patel--- Making Parks Work - John Terborgh, Carel van Schaik, Lisa Davenport, Madhu Rao--- �e Great Derangement, Climate Change and the Unthinkable -Amitav Ghosh--- Hylozoic Ground -Philip Beesley--- Proto Architecture: Analogue and Digital Hybrids –Bob Sheil--- Making, Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture –Tim Ingold --- What Technology Wants - Kevin Kelly--- Technological Nature, Adaptation and the Future of Human Life - Peter H. Kahn, Jr.--- �e Techno-Human Condition - Braden R. Allenby and Daniel Sarewitz--- Out of Control -Chapter: Industrial Ecology -Kevin Kelly--- Shaping �ings -Bruce Sterling--- Visionary Architecture –Neil Spiller--- �e BLDG BLOG Book -Geo� Manaugh--- Ambiguous Spaces –NaJa & deOstos--- Deforesting the Earth - Michael Williams--- Massive Black Vol. 1 - Remillard and Manley

Webography

--- www.makezine.com--- www.instructables.com--- www.howstu�works.com--- www.nextnature.net--- www.newscientist.com--- www.treehugger.com--- www.pruned.blogspot.com

--- more to come


�e Living Roof - Erik Ho�mann

Unit Masters: Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos · 2020. 9. 16. · AA Experimental Unit 3...

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