Reading 1 – Fraser

Q1_  In general the other is always pushing design research in a social, economical or environmental way.  Why is this being celebrated over other research areas.

Q2_ Foucault is response to Corbusier’s work, “I think that it can never be inherent in the structure of things to guarantee the exercise of freedom.  The guarantee of freedom is freedom.”  Here, what I understand is that is it very difficult for a static object to fully affect people’s social problems or issues.  Does this mean that Patrick Schumacher’s philosophy that architecture is not the profession to solve huge social problems has validity?

Q3_ “Design research in architecture has to form its operations around a dialectical engagement between ideas and practice.  Nothing can be prefigure.  All has to be questioned.”  Is this why we haven’t seen architecture manifestos published in our lifetimes?

Reading 2: Rendell

Q1_ In reference to multidisciplinary research, “…increasingly such knowledge may not be valued if it is not seen to be of direct relevance to the needs of commerce and industry.” Unfortunately, this seems to be a growing trend across education in general.  Should this not be addressed by the oppressed research groups and responded to in a way that shows the importance of research outside of economical value?

Q2_”…instead showing how design is a research led process, while research can also be thought of as a form of design”  I am having a little trouble wrapping my head around this idea.  Does this mean they are “designing” knowledge.

Q3_”Although muf have never referred to themselves as feminists, their work has had a huge influence on the development of feminist architectural design.”  If you are not labeling yourself as a feminist, and your work is not driven with that in mind, how are you contributing to the idea other than practicing architecture like normal.

This thesis aims to explore the relationships between a responsive system and its inhabitants.  Using wood for its embedded responsive potential and combining that with active-bending structural logic, a system will be designed that is able to respond and adapt to changing conditions, and to engage in active conversations and mutual exchanges with its occupants.  The system will have the following characteristics:

• The system will be composed of sensitive aggregates that exist in a constant state of precariousness, lending an almost “lively” nature to subtle movements.

• This system will create a tactile, immersive environment in which localized changes effect the system’s homeostatic performance.

• This complex weaving of delicate aggregates will be a distributed system that can facilitate the circulation and gathering of people, an environment that is responsive to forces acting within and around it, but also eliciting response from its inhabitants.

The characteristics will be explored through extensive model making and material experimentation.  These experiments will then be used to inform digital simulations and these simulations will be used to inform the aggregation of structures and explore material capabilities.  Wood is being chosen for several reasons: It is a fibrous material that inherently holds tensile performance, it has the embedded ability to react to humidity, it holds a rich variety of tactile characteristics, it is a sustainable building material, and it has a strong olfactory presence.

Architecture is not simply a static object, but a system that embodies internal and external energies and mediates these energies with their environment.  These energies include, but are not limited to: wind, heat, humidity, light, circulation, densities of inhabitants etc.  The architectural theorist, Ed van Hinte stated, “Architects should see themselves as programmers of a process of spatial change…thus our principal task is creating a field of change and modification that would generate possibilities instead of fixed conditions”.   If we view ourselves as programmers of a system that is constantly changing, and view each component inside and outside of a space as an energy force; we can begin to construct systems that holistically engage with all of these energies simultaneously. We can view each element of a space as having a dynamic function and not as an individual piece.

Recent developments of “smart” materials offers an opportunity to design material behaviors as opposed to choosing materials based on their static properties.  These smart materials behave in response to the active energy fields existing within and around the “systems” we program.  However, the introduction of these smart materials calls for careful consideration of all of the building elements we use.  These materials exist in a variable environment and therefore we should explore the embodied potential each of these materials has to respond to its environment if we are to design with material behaviors in mind.  This idea of performative materials change our notion of materials as a static element to one in which the material acts as a mediator.  This allows us to view the interface between materials, people, and their environment all as actors within a system.

V2 Thesis Abstract
“Keep up with modern facilities if you want to remain in Buffalo”. – Roger Goodell NFL Commissioner. With the lease of the current Buffalo Bills stadium coming to an end after the 2023 season, there is little doubt that a new stadium is envisioned for the Bills in the near future. The current stadium, New Era Field, opened in 1972 and is one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL still in use. While only used 8 games a season, there is a large financial gain for the local business at each game. Outside of those 8 games, it is an empty structure. This stadium represents the history of the Bills and the NFL. There has been triumph and tragic loss experienced in those seats and there would be more than one Bills fan wanting to hold onto that history as this team means so much to the community and its identity. There is a special bond that the fans of Buffalo have with their team and it would be a benefit to the community to both maintain that history as well as expand on it.

Deconstructed Landscape

LANDSCAPE:

The ecological functions of landscape play a critical role in the health of our environment, in particular the health of our water resources among others.  Buffalo is uniquely positioned on the edge of the foremost supply of freshwater in the world, the Great Lakes (EPA).  In addition, it is next to one of the largest freshwater falls in the world in Niagara Falls.  Every second 750,000 gallons of water go over its edge (NYS Parks).  The average house in Erie County uses about 230 gallons per day, and about 84,000 gallons annually (ECWA 2015) or about 12% of the per second capacity of the falls.  Things like sewage treatment, agricultural runoff, and storm water runoff can have large impacts on the health of the Great Lakes.  For instance, high levels of phosphorus in Lake Erie have caused algal blooms so large that they reduce the amount of oxygen in the water, potentially posing risks to fish and plant life (EPA).  The role of landscape in controlling surface water runoff is key to protecting our water resources.  Contemporary architecture uses landscape design to decorate or to hide imperfections, relegating landscape to a purely aesthetic role.  This form of thinking stymies the ecological potential of integrated landscape and architecture.  The disciplinary and formal seam between architecture and the landscape needs to be explored to produce new languages of interaction as well as re-introduce old languages in the hopes we can create a new paradigm from which we can design from.

ARCHITECTURE:

The creation of works of architecture also creates works of waste.  The building sector created 530 million metric tons of construction and demolition waste in the United States in 2013, 90% of which was purely demolition related (EPA. Advancing Sustainable Materials Management. 2013).  For scale, the United States produced 254 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW consists of residential and commercial garbage and recyclables) in 2013.   Between 1996 and 2003 New York City saw a $400 million increase in its sanitation budget due to the closure of its last remaining landfill in Freshkills, Staten Island causing the city to start exporting its solid wastes to other states(NYC Sanitation 2004).  Connecticut is running out of landfill space rapidly, in particular for C+D wastes and Massachusetts is considering a ban on the disposal of C+D waste products entirely(NYC Sanitation 2004).   A shift from demolition based practices toward a reuse and recycle based approach will begin to lessen the amount of waste that enters the landfills annually from the building sector.

ARCHITECTURE+LANDSCAPE:

Through the deconstruction, or “unbuilding” of a vacant Buffalo property, we can begin to take a landscape up approach to building that could provide ways to blur the boundaries between deconstruction, landscape, and architecture. Utilizing the materials from the home, a series of reformed architectures in the form of ecological installations could be built.  The installations would be both performative and informative.  These “living structures” would integrate with the landscape to allow the former house site to become a positive environmental influence by augmenting any existing positive ecological functions and perhaps providing additional ecological functions such as water runoff control, filtration, and C02 sequestration .  The architecture of the constructs would address the importance of aesthetics in ecological design and the impact that it has on public perception of “green” design. The economics of ecological design through the reuse of existing materials would also be furthered by showing what is possible with the introduction of closed-loop material practices.  Temporary rebuilding on site utilizing recovered materials could also serve as a way to avoid having to transport some materials off site to recycling facilities or waste facilities by serving as creative ways to store construction materials on site for future projects.  The end goal of this process being the transformation of a vacant property into an environmentally regenerative, socially stimulating, and commercially viable site.  Repetition of this process at multiple sites across the city could begin to develop a network of temporary socio-ecological interaction sites that also store reusable materials for future construction, therefore exhibiting the evolutionary characteristics of a living system.

Abstract

Places and cities are saturated with signification, and are reduced to this signification. Places and cities are, in the person’s mind, compilations of stories and memories. Personal identity in places and cities must be recognized and honored. The world is made of cultures at different stages of growth, and history and this pluralism is not marginal, but an essential fact of life. These differences should be protected and nurtured. Differance, for Derrida, means not only to differ but also to defer the meaning of anything, endlessly, because it is never total or finished. This open process of meaning is an obvious fact of cultures since they are historical and changing. It is important thus to nurture plurality and to design the most local contextual counterpoint.

With this in mind, diagrams can be modes of becoming an emergence of difference. For Derrida, a diagram subverts the dominant oppositions and hierarchies currently constitutive of the discourse.

Architecture is a discursive-material field of cultural-political plasticity. Diagrams can account for the effects of culture on both how we use our senses to understand spatial constructs, and the contents of the memory base used for comparison. There is considerable interaction between perception and culture, and diagrams can be an urban mosaic of perception.

Diagrams can describe the power relationships in the city and begin to map their urban spatial and architectural implications. The diagram could be used as a device that blurs the distinction between subject and object, bringing forth tensions of looking at and looking through, of being in and being out. According to Deleuze, “a diagram is no longer an auditory or visual archive, but a map, a cartography that is coextensive with the whole social field, and is an abstract machine.”

The focus of this thesis will be to investigate the ways in which diagrams can operate as an abstract machine, describe the power relationships, and map the political, social, cultural, topological contexts of a city. It will look at case studies to find the types and functions of diagrams implemented by architects, and look at the theoretical and historical basis of diagrams in architecture.

The thesis functions as a research report outlining and visualizing the attributes of diagrams utilized by a selected number of prominent architects, and as a public website, containing the diagrams that exhibit the narrative of the city of Buffalo. The public access to the website containing the visual narratives and diagrams of the city of Buffalo will encourage designers to nurture plurality and to design the most local contextual counterpoint.

This thesis offers speculative thinking through a conscious engagement with the normative practices of everyday life in the contemporary city. This design research brings to light the broad spectrum of economic, political, and cultural issues in Buffalo, and contributes information to the ongoing dilemma for architectural practice(s) – of how it views itself in relation to the context it operates in.

1. Why is ethnographic research important for the design process in architecture?
2. How can researching the most “digestible” communication design for architecture benefit the user experience?
3. Why are diagrams the prevailing mode of communicating research within the design process for architects, and when it acts as an abstract machine, what can it achieve for it’s users?

Last updated: 09/29

Spaces are evolving as a result of designers’ works and the behavior of people interacting in them. This behavior is not only an outcome of the designed environment, but also a result of natural and sociopolitical complexities. Today’s technologies relate “designed environments” and “social rules” as two separate objectives in such a way that new digital platforms are becoming both environments to live in and platforms to change. “Ingress” and “Pokémon GO” are popular examples of mobile games that are changing the way people use urban spaces.

My research is based on the intersection of Online Social Networks, including their limits and potential, Civic Media strategies for maximum engagement, and Smart Distributed Networks. My primary imagination of the outcome, whether practical or speculative, is a self-governing system based on user participation input and data gathered by sensory networks.

This system, which should be situated in a limited context, is an attempt to represent a sample of living in the future of self-regulating social systems. This system contains evolving agents; at one side is the minimized state of a centralized management and on the other side is in the maximized civic engagement mode. The form of presentation could be an urban mobile game, a physical installation, a screen based simulation, or a combination of the aforementioned.
Though my research should be narrowed during the semester, I am trying to find answers to questions such as:
– What we can learn from the effects of social media algorithms on politics in society?
– How might decision makers be replaced by systems trained by artificial intelligence and machine learning?
– How do new modes of communication and cooperation between citizens change our cities?
– How can digital spaces maximize civic engagement?

Designerly ways of Knowing:

1. Using the term Artificial World as the phenomenon of study in design does not sound convenient to me. Design in my point of view is trying to construct the next realities.

2. While design should not be confused with art, with science or mathematics, it seems comprehensible to talk about using science in design. But what artistic design could be? What happens when art and design tend to combine?

3. What are different modes of cognition and how are they distinguishable? How do concrete/iconic modes relate to design and formal/symbolic are relevant in science?

This is Research by design:

1. What is reflective thinking?

2. In the article, it is suggested to avoid imposing checklist of qualitative aspects. What is an example of imposing such a list?

3. Artistic research and research by design are currently developing widely. It has been also mentioned that “there is no such thing as research that is not designed” and “it is ridiculous to try to make design subject to the rules of research.” Does considering these three statements together, suggest that Research by Design will constantly stay in a state of exponential growth?

“Shifts in Perception through Tactile Sensations”

“Touch is the sensory mode which integrates our experiences of the world and ourselves.” – Juhani Pallasmaa

The bias that vision holds over the profession of architecture suppresses all of the other senses. In Greece, optical refinements were implemented to create the illusion that a structure was visually “perfect”. The hegemonic eye, with its ability to absorb information faster than any other sense, has allowed designers to create buildings that “look” good, but might not necessarily “feel” good. Pallasmaa once stated that “touch is a parent of our eyes, ears, nose and mouth.” Tactile sensations can affect a person’s social behavior, self-perception, enjoyment and comfort within a building. Three dimensional space can be deceiving through our lens of vision. However, the tactile and haptic sensations that we experience do not misguide us. It is important to explore how tactility can be leveraged to enhance our perception of space, while diminishing the ocular-centric bias that we hold today.

The questions that I would like to explore involve;

• How do tactile sensations affect the way we behave in space?
• What type of materials evoke tactile responses that affect our perception and behavior in space?
• Is it possible to move away from the ocular-centric culture of design and move towards one of tactility and hapticity?
• Is it more important to create architecture that “looks” good? What if we design for what “feels” good?

The unpredictable crisis can happen suddenly and rapidly. Millions of people are affected who forced to move out and who hosts the waves of refugees. The people of concerns seek to resettle in order to have their basic needs as food, house and clothes. The research will be one how the host countries can respond to the rapid influx of refugees through resilient design strategies, inclusive urban design and social changes management.

The study will be located in city of Irbid, Jordan where social changes are in the urban fabric and currently it hosts 135.001 Syrian refugees who live within the urban context. The Research formed as investigation of what and how it was, the current and how it will go through on what will be designed and managed. In Jordan there are cases of previous physical features which it will be the start of historical research, mapping, and photography beside some informal interviews the areas in order to find the gaps of the previous settlements and reorient the cities towards a vision of responses to the rapid changes within its context by the refugees.

The aim of this study is to explore the relationships between a responsive system and its inhabitants.  Using wood for its embedded responsive potential and combining that with active-bending structural logic, I am seeking to design a system able to respond and adapt to changing conditions, and to engage in active conversations and mutual exchanges with its occupants.  The system will have the following characteristics:

• The system will be composed of sensitive aggregates that exist in a constant state of precariousness, lending an almost “lively” nature to subtle movements.

• This system will create a tactile, immersive environment in which localized changes effect the system’s homeostatic performance.

• This complex weaving of delicate aggregates will be a distributed system that can facilitate the circulation and gathering of people, an environment that is responsive to forces acting within and around it, but also eliciting response from its inhabitants.

The characteristics will be explored through extensive model making and material experimentation.  These experiments will then be used to inform digital simulations and these simulations will be used to inform aggregate structures and explore material capabilities.  Wood is being chosen for several reasons: It is a fibrous material that inherently holds tensile performance, it has the embedded ability to react to humidity, it holds a rich variety of tactile characteristics, wood is a sustainable building material, and it has a strong olfactory presence.

Reading 1

Nigel Cross, “Designerly Ways of Knowing”

• As mentioned in the article, the three criteria of education “Value, self-awareness, cognitive perception” to gain knowledge, and well trained person doesn`t mean he/she is educated. Isn`t the knowledge is reached by the students` experience which is part of the reality?  Knowledge is facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject
• In term of design products and the design process. Is there direct or indirect effect to the reality, and its existing?
• In Piaget`s and Burner`s models of the cognitive and intellectual development, Piaget`s stages are concrete which is mature understanding of the reason and effect, Formal is the abstracted logical thinking. Burner`s has the Iconic which is the mental images as the sectional drawing of Johan Van Den Berghe, Symbolic is the formation of knowledge. As shown is the intersection of all stages is it possible to have the 4 stages combined together to be relevant to design or science?

http://www.architectmagazine.com/design/the-sydney-opera-house-by-jrn-utzon-celebrates-its-40th-anniversary_o

Reading 2

Johan Verbeke, “This Is Research By Design”

• Does the concept of Zeewu and Glanville “knowledge for change” can be reached by “knowledge of what is”, since architecture is multi- discipline where it’s constructive process?
• What does determine the quality and the level of the design/ the research in the three possible situations?
• In the third situation, how does indicate the Research by design?

Student Housing

Going to college for the first time is one of the scariest things a person could do, especially if it is the first time that a student would be away from home. Ergo, it is important for an environment to be welcoming and comfortable for incoming students. Thus brings forth the issue of what makes a quality residence hall in means of both the interior and the exterior. When it comes to interior, it is referring to how the rooms are structured and what are offered as amenities to students.

When it comes to their rooms, it is important for students to feel comfortable as they living with strangers, but at the same time, create a sense of community. This can be seen in regular dorm rooms where students sleep in the same room or if they share an apartment where while they have their own bedrooms, they have shared common areas for interaction. Amenities for students are important to have within their grasp. Students need to have access to food, laundry, spaces for social interaction, technology, fitness, and whatever else the school sees fit.

What surrounds the residence hall is just as important. Students should have easy access to stores, food vendors, and other businesses without the need to take a bus or find other means of transportation if they are unable to drive or find parking. The goal of this project, through methods of literary review, precedent study, and survey/interviews/focus groups, is to design a university dormitory that satisfies the needs and comforts of students throughout their education.