Visionary Design Studio

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Department of Architecture Ain Shams University, Egypt - 2012/ 2013

Visionary Architecture Design Studio Ashraf Abdel Mohsen

VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE BEYOND MERE FORMALISM, NEW STRATEGIES FOR ARCHITECTURE

Breaking the Borders

Architecture Department, Ain Shams University, Cairo- Egypt Design StudioPROSPECTUS 2012-2013 - ARC 411

Ashraf Abdel Mohsen



"Surely there comes a moment when formalism is exhausted, when only a new

injection of content into form can destroy it and so open up the way to innovation." Henri Lefebvre

IS THIS THE STUDIO FOR YOU? • This thesis design studio is geared toward students who aspire to challenge existing

conceptions and assumptions about architecture, rather than simply emulating the status quo.

• Although it is open to a broad range of specific interests and pursuits, it emphasizes the potential of the thesis to be both critical and exemplary- to both identify problems with current architectural practices and to demonstrate alternative propositions in the form of awesome and thought-provoking architecture.

• While this studio will encourage profound, ambitious, and radical propositions for architecture, it will also stress the plausible realization of these propositions. Work produced in this studio will therefore be expected to be thoroughly considered at all scales, and to demonstrate a command of all structural, mechanical, life safety, legal, political, economic, contextual, and other real-world factors that would affect the realization of the work.

• This studio recognizes the increasing degree to which architects must be responsible for creating the political and cultural conditions for ambitious and paradigm-changing work to be realized, and so therefore emphasizes the skills required in this regard—including the ability to generate interest and support through persuasive verbal and written argument.

• Although the work you produce in this studio will make comprehensive use of all that you have learned and experienced so far, it is not a studio that is about looking backward. Rather, it is about looking forward. The thesis work produced during this year is expected to strategically define an opportunity for each of you to make a profound impact on architecture and culture, and to therefore serve as a positive model for an ambitious beginning to a long and fruitful career of culturally significant and profoundly visionary work.

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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but: architecture, this fantastic thing you’ve been studying for the past four years, is becoming increasingly less relevant and remarkable to contemporary culture- at least, as it is currently manifested. The problem is essentially two-fold. In the first case, contemporary cultural interests change far more rapidly than can be represented in the long, slow time-scale of a physical building. This means that buildings that are intended to be architecture-in other words, ones that are intended to offer uniquely critical and reflective spaces that resonate with the cultureatlarge, quickly become formally and experientially obsolete. This dilemma arises from a contemporary conflict between architecture’s dual nature as both a discipline and a cultural practice. As a discipline, architecture maintains a discrete body of knowledge that is enlarged and refined over time, and that gives it both a degree of integrity as well as an inertia that resists sudden or rapid change. However, architecture is also a cultural practice, which means that it must be both current with and relevant to the culture that sponsors it. As long as a culture is homogenous and changes slowly these two aspects of architecture remain compatible. However, contemporary culture is neither homogenous nor static. Consequently, architecture is today continually re-evaluated as rapid cultural and technological changes drive it to endlessly re-invent itself in an attempt to remain fashionable and current. This is a problem, since such rapid change is contrary to architecture’s historical investment in monumentality and permanence. As a discipline, it developed from seminal works erected to awe and outlive the society that constructed them, which still grace the first pages of our architectural history books and it has refined over time its various means and methods of construction, specifically to express these characteristics. This historical trajectory has therefore conferred upon the discipline a legacy of technique geared toward producing built works that far outlast the interest that they are now able to sustain. Within our contemporary novelty-obsessed culture, therefore, any architecture that is based upon an inert, monumental formalism is doomed to rapid obsolescence, and will quickly lose its ability to engage the society it is meant to address. Although new theories (such as emergence, etc.) have been developed to sponsor new formalisms intended to recapture society’s interest in architecture’s physical production, this approach still relies on the traditional production of monumental form, and does little to ensure more than a fleeting interest in that form, no matter how novel. And while much of the form produced has a character that might seem contemporary and relevant because its forms allude to digital, parametric, or fluid processes, it is nevertheless a static, sculptural representation of these characteristics—a fossilized relic of the iterative processes that produced it.

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below: “Public Mass” by Michael Charters. This thesis critiques existing architectural and urban strategies for public space that do little to counteract the tendency in this country for individuals to exist in states of social isolation and distraction in spite of physical proximity. His project for a cultural center in downtown San Francisco proposes an alternative approach based on non-hierarchical circulation and programming strategies designed to promote social and spatial engagement.

In addition, architecture’s typical mode of production, the monumental building, also struggles in its attempt to be relevant because contemporary culture is so diverse and individualistic. Monumental works speak to groups, and act to cohere those groups together through a common ideology or point of view. But contemporary culture is comprised of multiple independent individuals with varying ideas and viewpoints, individuals that furthermore, expect to exert control over experience rather than remain as a passive audience to experiences created by others (such as architects). This crisis of relevance, although rarely acknowledged, has led as well to a kind of disciplinary identity crisis as architects struggle to connect with the diverse and constantly shifting culture-at-large on some basis. The recent emphasis placed on such issues as quantitative performance, humanitarian and ecological crisis, and, of course, the issue of novelty previously mentioned, are all examples of this struggle, since these remain some of the few issues around which some degree of cultural consensus might plausibly be achieved that would then allow architecture to continue to produce the static, monumental works that it has always done. However, this casting about for the few remaining arenas within which to perpetuate the status quo, places architecture in a desperate and reactive position, one in which it attempts to frame its practices so as to conform to perceptions of architecture that come from outside of the discipline. I don’t know about you, but that seems like a really bad idea to me.

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below: “Transformative Learning” by John Vierra. This thesis critiques traditional, static form’s ability to engage individuals over long durations, in the face of familiarization. Instead, this thesis project demonstrates the ability of continually changing form to constantly engage and stimulate its occupants. An elementary school in Seattle makes use of a library of mobile “learning pods” along its facade that plug into the classrooms in order to augment them programmatically. As these plug-in modules shift positions over the course of the day this also has the effect of rendering the school a continually evolving learning environment.

Rather than allowing outside forces to stipulate the terms by which architecture is evaluated, it would be far preferable in my opinion to envision alternative strategies and practices for architecture, and to make a strong case for those alternatives by demonstrating them in really compelling work. This would go a long way toward teaching the culture-at-large new ways to think about architecture, cultivating an appreciation for architecture, and thereby fostering opportunities within that culture for architects to do what we’re best at namely, creating innovative and visionary work rather than struggling to couch our work in terms such as performance and economy that come from external, market-driven forces, and which are in any case completely contrary to architecture’s mission of producing radical, critical, provocative, and alternative spaces that allow us to see and experience the world in a new way. The way I see it, that is the challenge for architects today, and it is a challenge that all schools of architecture should prepare their students to meet. Consequently, it is the challenge of this particular thesis studio to use the senior design thesis not simply as a tool to demonstrate what you currently know about architecture, but rather as an opportunity to change what the larger culture thinks they already know about architecture, an opportunity to create new and visionary work that has the potential to change the architectural discipline, the culture, and the world.

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PEDAGOGICAL BACKGROUND For the first three years of study in the architecture program at AinShamsUniversity, students operate under two (sometimes necessary) fallacies that are common to the education of young architects: 1) that one’s personal vision has inherent value, and 2) that the discipline of architecture is fine the way that it is. These perceptions arise from the emphasis placed, in the first case, on cultivating individual vision and creativity and, in the second case, on the study of existing precedents and typologies—and both are reinforced by the assumption that it is the primary job of the academy to prepare students to find their place within the status quo. However, neither of these two perceptions is true. The discipline of architecture is, in fact, a dysfunctional one-one lacking a consensus vision or direction, one that operates at cross-purposes to itself, one that has seen its cultural status and prestige slowly frittered away, and one whose value has thereby shifted away from its ability to speak to the culture at large and instead toward its more mundane capacities to either serve culture through its performance, or amuse it through its novelty. It’s a bummer, yes but true nonetheless. In this context, therefore, the architecture student leaving the academy and about to enter into the profession needs to understand that each architect has the responsibility to become a steward of the discipline, and to help elevate its cultural status. This cannot be done through an imitation of architecture-as-we-know it, nor even by meager innovations within existing typologies and paradigmsand certainly it cannot be achieved through the blunt assertion of



one’s own personal vision. Rather, while architects must produce work that is visionary, they must also make a cultural(rather than personal) case for this vision. The Senior Design Thesis is intended to be the first attempt at this, one that will help to prepare each student for the difficulties involved in realizing work that challenges existing norms, conventions, and assumptions. In this way, the thesis can also provide a positive trajectory and critical design agenda for the beginning of one’s career, one that will mature and grow along with one’s practice, and transcend the idiosyncrasies and opportunities of any particular project.

below: “A Delicate Balance” by Chris Wagner. This thesis critiques architecture’s current resource-based response to the environmental crisis and proposes instead a more critical and experiential role for architecture in challenging humanity’s sense of control and exploitation of the environment. His thesis project includes a facade that changes the direction of view when it rains, and

bridges that move in the wind in order to alter circulation patterns.

major goal of the studio and associated seminar will be to assist each student in formulating a true thesis,

thesis is a positive

he thesis project, on the other hand, is an architectural production that is employed to embody and

s of this particular studio will be toward theses (and thesis projects) that are radical, visionary,

is for those students who have developed a design agenda, or who are interested in formulating one, and

WHAT IS AN ARCHITECTURAL THESIS? Aand in selecting the appropriate project within which to demonstrate that thesis. The difference between these two terms is crucial to understand. An architectural assertion about each student’s position relative to the discipline of architecture—it is an intellectual contribution to the discipline that synthesizes one’s cumulative experience, knowledge, and insight into an idea that has value, both to the discipline and society. And, moreover, it is a position that will hopefully inform and energize the work that each student does after leaving school, providing the initial vector of their subsequent architectural careers. Tdemonstrate the intellectual offerings of the thesis. In this case, there is the opportunity to strategically define the parameters of the project in such a way that it maximizes the clarity and understanding of the thesis. The biaprovocative, and critical of the status quo. It should appeal to those who are not simply interested in demonstrating what they have learned so far, or of imitating architecture-as-we-know-it, but who are instead interested in demonstrating a new vision of how architecture and the world can be. Itwho envision themselves on a trajectory to one day effect a profound and positive change to both architecture and to the larger culture within which it operates.

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While united under this common approach, each thesis and project will vary according to the unique will

RC 411 / THESIS DESIGN STUDIO

he overarching goal of this thesis class is to formulate, investigate, and ultimately prove new strategies

is expected that students will produce work that is ambitious, radical, provocative, and visionary. Each

he work load will be intense, but the results will be rewarding. In terms of scope, this studio will

terms of schedule, the Term will begin with the identification of an actual architectural thesis (not simply a

y the end of the Term each student will have not only developed and clarified a thesis, but will have

ithin this overall schedule, we will attempt to take at least one major studio field trip if possible. The

as a studio

interests of the student. This balance of unity and distinctiveness will be crucial to the studio, in that itprovide a common framework within which each student can understand the work of others in the group, while also ensuring enough critical distance, to allow students to offer insightful criticism to one another ASTUDIO DESCRIPTION Tthat will enable the discipline of architecture to reinvigorate its physical production, making this production more relevant and captivating to contemporary society at the time scale of a building, and therefore less prone to rapid obsolescence. Itthesis proposition will be conceptually profound, rhetorically convincing, well-researched, and of disciplinary consequence, and each will be demonstrated in thesis projects that are thoroughly designed at multiple scales, architecturally compelling, and represented in a full range of media including high-quality renderings, animations (when appropriate), and physical models. Tapproximate (within reason) the level of consideration and production typical of a graduate level design studio, and consequently it will be an excellent preparation for students who intend to one day supplement their undergraduate education with a graduate degree in architecture or a related field. Inproject or area of interest). One-on-one discussions, group discussions, and suggested readings, both in studio as well as in the associated Arch 411 Thesis Design Seminar, will assist each student in clarifying their thesis position, and subsequent reading, research, and writing will help to enlarge and refine each thesis, help make it more relevant and compelling, and help to identify an architectural design project in which to demonstrate the thesis. Concurrently, the studio as a whole will begin the Fall Quarter by participating in two preliminary design problems related to the theme of the studio, and which are designed to help each student to engage certain key issues and ideas in a tangible way and to serve as a useful complement to the reading, research, and writing that is occurring both in studio as well as in the associated seminar class (see below). These projects will result in the design and construction of a transformable and playful piece of furniture to be submitted as part of the Vellum Competition. Bidentified a project within which to demonstrate that thesis and will also have begun significant work on that project. During the Term, these projects will be developed thoroughly, with an emphasis on both radicality as well as the plausible and compelling manifestation of the thesis within the design project. By the end of this quarter each student will have a substantially complete thesis project, supplemented by a substantially complete thesis book. Both of these will be subsequently developed and refined during the Spring Quarter in order to constitute a complete, compelling, radical, critical, and relevant architectural thesis. Wspecific destination and time of such a trip will be decided by the studio as a whole. During such a trip, if possible, we will also attempt to present our work at another school of architecture, both in order to make our work public as well as to gain constructive feedback from noted critics at other institutions. In addition, we will do other things as a studio, day trips, dinners, drinks, movies, both to bondbut also just to have fun.

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STUDIO PRINCIPALS(EQT) Ethics, Quality & Time In the studio we, as a talented group of designers, will apply a code for principals - I call it EQT. Ethics is a standard of behavior, of thinking, acting and speaking that reflects the highest ideals and spiritual morals of a human being. It is a code of living that reflects an individual's attitude to those around him, to his social and economic environment, to those with whom he interacts and it reflects the quality of his own inner spiritual ideals and beliefs. that will be in our relations to each other and to others in the whole studio but the community itself. Quality in what we do, the way we live, work and function, relates to the standard, class or level of achievement in what is produced, ie the outcome and result. Quality arises from the nature of the input in terms of an individual’s ability to reach and produce the best he is able to achieve. Time is the framework within which we need to achieve a quality product/ output. Time should be seen as an important resource that has value that diminishes through a period of time, ie as time passes in hours, days and weeks, it becomes less and less and as it becomes less, it grows more valuable. This can be compared to a person’s life, where he ages day by day and so draws nearer to death and the end of his allotted time. Time must, therefore, be used and managed with serious responsibility as any finite resource, such as water, the earth, etc. Time is finite in undertaking any project – it has a deadline with associated cost implications. It must, therefore, be managed as if it was a budget and it becomes the responsibility and duty of the worker to achieve this within the context of ethics and quality

STUDIO APPLICATIONS The students will be trained through the studio on: 1. how to have a thesis and the tolls to present and simulate the idea using free hand sketches and

computer software 2. site analysis in 7 different dimensions ( Humanity, Spirituality, Cultural, Social, Economics, Political and

Environmental) 3. Physical modeling process starting from the concept until the end of the project 4. Computer modeling using updating software and how to choose the right software for presenting and

simulating the process. 5. Multimedia representations and seminars

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below: “Forever Temporary” by Andrew Dryden. This thesis critiques contemporary architecture’s inability to produce temporality without resorting to superficial overlays (“special effects”), and proposes instead a novel strategy of redundant and constantly shifting circulation in combination with internal spatial transformations to produce a permanent structure that continually produces temporal effects. This retail venue for guerilla fashion stores in San Francisco employs hyperlink circulation tubes—only some of which are open on a given day. Consequently, each visit to this building offers new spatial

above: the 2008-2009 studio presents its work at the Parsons School of Design in New York, in front of a jury including Michael Webb from Archigram, the artist Allan Wexler, and Mitchell Joachim of Terreform 1.

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above: images from a show of the completed furniture, titled “Play!” This show was held in the Berg Gallery, during which visitors were invited to play and interact with the furniture. In order to facilitate audience participation, we hired mimes to interact with the furniture and the visitors, and to basically keep things interesting.

above: this past year the show was titled “Trans/Form,” and it invited visitors to the show to transform the space of the gallery through the manipulation of hanging immersive viewing cylinders. The illustration at the right describes how these cylinders work: as visitors walk beneath the cylinder they are able to lift a conterweight that contains a light in the bottom. Raising the counterweight lowers the cylinder around the visitor, and allows the light in the bottom of the counterweight to illuminate the work inside the cylinder. This creates an intimate viewing environment that permits up to 3 visitors at a time to focus on the work displayed on the inside surface of teh cylinder, without distraction from passersby. In addition, the constant raising and lowering of the cylinders continually creates new circulation patterns within the gallery, making the show an active, temporal event.

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below: some photos showing the viewing cylinders in action.

At the end of the Term our studio displays its work in a final show, held in one of department halls. This is seen not only as an opportunity to show each student’s thesis project, but also to transform the space of the gallery itself in a way that reflects the interests and themes shared by the studio as a whole.

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BIO

AshrafAbdel Mohsen Associate Professor of Architecture Phone: +202 2620 80 45 Fax: +202 2620 80 46 Website: www.cubeconsultants.org E-mail: [email protected] Education: B.SC., Ain Shams University, 1986 M.SC., Ain Shams University, 1992 P.HD., Ain Shams University, 2000Associate Professor, Ain Shams University, 2006 Courses: Design studios Virtual Design studio & seminar LA Technology I & III Directed studies Interests: Digital/design, history/theory, International educate Visionary Architecture & Urban Planning Community: Founder of REMAL for urban Development –NGO (Non Profit organization) https://www.facebook.com/RemalFoundation

Business: Founder of CUBE Consultants engineering consultancy firm URL: www.cubeconsultants.org FB: https://www.facebook.com/cube.consultants

I am an architect whose work focuses on the architectural potential of large scale motion and user-transformation of space, with the intent of making the physical environment more engaging and relevant to contemporary society. I believe that the buildings we shape, shape us. Therefore, we can use our urban and architectural local heritage to shape our values and future development. Since 1986, when I attended at Ain Shams University, Faculty of Engineering Department of Architecture (FEDA), I have been sharing my philosophy with my students on how to have distinctive thoughts via the language of the future. I am proud that most of my colleagues at Cube were at one time my students. I actually love and believe in them all. After 25 years of strenuous efforts to convert dreams into reality, I have been fortunate, as an Egyptian architect ,in collaboration with a creative team, to navigate through seventhous and years of a great civilization and been able use this heritage to raise the nation’s society level. This has allowed our society to maintain its superior position worldwide and to restore Egyptian leadership. I believe that the more we indulge in localization and nationalism the more likely we are to achieve international recognition. The formation of our houses and our urban architectural environment reflects our community and the future generation. Therefore, architecture is basically a reflection of the society and its development mechanism. Also, I believe that the quality of architecture could impact on our quality of life. As we shape our shelters, so we shape our future. All aspects that have an impact on our quality of life, such as the surrounding environment, health, safety, freedom, all the related positive and negative issues, etc… should lead us to accomplish sustainability, progress and public development. The future is different and we should recognize how to deal with it, how to communicate and how to write in the future language of architecture

Personal Information Full name: Ashraf Mohamed Abdel Mohsen Elsayed Date of Birth: June the 18th, 1964 Marital Status: Married, with three kids Nationality: Egyptian Work Address: Academic: FEDA Faculty of Engineering, Department of Architecture, AinShamsUniversity Website: www.asufeda.org Business: CUBE Consultants, Cairo - Egypt 11 Hussine Shafik Elmasry, El-Hijaz- Heliopolis. Cairo, egypt , Tel: +202 2620 80 45/ 46 URL: www.cubeconsultants.org E-mail: [email protected] FB: https://www.facebook.com/Ashmohsen.Egypt Linked in: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?trk=tab_pro I work as an Associate Professor of Architecture at AinShamsUniversity. Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering. I have taught Architectural Design, Theories of Architecture, and Computer Applications in Architecture. My research interests include Architectural Education, and the influence of media and computers on Architectural and Environmental Design.My professional experience includes work through a wide range of national mega projects. Also my consultancy firm has worked in joint ventures with many international firms. Scientific Degrees Associate Professor of Architecture, 2006 Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, AinShamsUniversity PhD, 2000 Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, AinShamsUniversity Title: The Search for new Architectural Language MSc, 1992 Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, AinShamsUniversity Title: Analytical Comparative Study of some Workers Settlements in Sinai BSc, 1986 Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, AinShamsUniversity Grade: Distinction with honors (Ranked First) Project Grade: Distinction

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http://www.asufeda.org/

http://www.cubeconsultants.org/

mailto:[email protected]

https://www.facebook.com/Ashmohsen.Egypt

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Visionary Design Studio

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