Matthew Zbawiony - Title, Hypothesis, Precis (work in progress, as per usual)

Title:

Disrupting Urban Social Structures:

­Interface and Face to Face Physically Manifest through Play

Hypothesis:

Social Networking Sites facilitate social interaction by diminishing or altogether eliminating barriers within the social structures of the physical world. The manifestation of these elements from the virtual world into a spatial experience work toward the realization of cities as places of inclusiveness and breaks the dichotomy of cities in which people are close in physical space but feel alienated in nature. The insertion of participatory interventions in which users control the location, duration, and activities in a manner resembling the spirit of Situationist activity aims to remedy this by promoting social interaction between people that do not usually interact.

Precis:

Our growing integration with and dependence on the virtual world in the 21st century is juxtaposed with our increasing sense of alienation present within the cities of the physical world. While our archaic social structures and misused public spaces discourage social interaction, Social Networking Sites (SNS) promote social cohesion that consequently calls into question the potential obsolescent redundancy of architecture’s social function. The ability of SNS to diminish or eliminate many of the barriers to social interaction may fundamentally alter the social structures of life within cities and change prevalent feelings of alienation toward one of inclusiveness. Already, it has been used as a social tool that augments existing social practices and informally aids the creation of underground environments conductive to social interaction.

Filling the Void: Architecture, Landscape and Infrastructure Intertwined

Hypothesis-

This thesis aims to reclaim voids that were formed in the city due to the failure of twentieth century revitalization and infrastructure, and create an architecture that not only has function and meaning, but that reduces urban sprawl and creates connections between divided districts.

Precis-

Twentieth Century infrastructure and rehabilitation has failed in its intention to create a more efficient city. These railways and highways have created voids in the urban fabric, disconnecting neighborhoods, tearing down historic buildings and creating underused and neglected spaces. By reclaiming these voids and designing architecture for these spaces, urban sprawl is reduced and connections are re-established.

Ian Robinson's hypothesis and precis as of 12/19/2011

Précis

            The thesis proposes buildings that are designed to evolve by using special systems of prefabricated parts, which will allow quick flexibility of the building to occur while having minimal impact on the surrounding area.  Buildings like these can adapt to changing programmatic needs allowing for the building to remain useful and achieve a greater level of sustainability.  Some good examples of this kind of architecture are the IGUS factory in Cologne, Germany, The C&B Engineering department in Loughborough University, England, and the Sainsbury Center for the Visual Arts in Norwich, England.  The thesis is aiming to inspire architects to design buildings that can accommodate changes more efficiently by using more prefabricated elements in their construction.

Hypothesis

            The thesis proposes that buildings can be evolutionary in their ability to quickly accommodate needed programmatic and form changes if they are constructed with a more comprehensive system of prefabricated parts.

Title, Problem, Hypothesis, Precis_Elizabeth Harvey

Title:

Locate, Evaluate, Establish, Respond - Through- Spontaneous, Disruption, Perception, and Contradiction

Problem:

            Cities create anonymity, lack of identity and social and cultural barriers within presumed public spaces.

Hypothesis:

Architecture as a social art has the potential, through a series of spontaneous, guerilla installations, to challenge the presumptions concerning the use of public spaces by reconceptualizing identity and personal expression, while giving a voice to those dispossessed by the cultural forces of the modern city, through spatial visions of the divested individuals.

Precis:

Social and economic disconnect is inherent in the modern cities, namely public spaces, established by the political and economic power structures that exist within them. These powers have a way of establishing order, control and social or cultural stratifications and therefore, one becomes associated with class, neighborhood, occupation and race, rather than purpose, association and identity within a city. Architecture as a social art has the potential, through a series of spontaneous, guerrilla installations, to challenge the presumptions concerning the use of public spaces by reconceptualizing identity and personal expression, while giving a voice to those dispossessed by the cultural forces of the modern city, through spatial visions of the divested individuals. Similarly to other spontaneous art forms such as, graffiti bombing, tagging, flash mobs, and performance arts, guerilla architecture will challenge the cultural barriers presented in the current social conflicts of modern cities. These barriers are based on presumption of rules as well as boundaries imposed by community identity and class and ethnic-based moral codes. Architecture, as a practice, can respond to this dilemma by creating a more democratic engagement, with the user. It can also respond over time to the influences of people through social adaptations, cultural flexibility and the multiplicity of interactions among a diverse group of occupants. Through this definition of architecture one can understand spaces as truly public, city spaces, and embrace the identity of those occupying them. A reestablishment of space and order of public spaces will allow for spontaneity, expression and repositioning of program in a way that questions the established spatial understanding. By translating the methodologies of art forms that have challenged repressive urban environments, new identities and new spaces can be established. With the implementation of unexpected, spontaneous architecture in a conventional environment, one will be able to see what was once invisible.  

Title, Problem, Hypothesis, Precis

TITLE:

Building the Diagram: Proposing a New Diagrammatic Language for Architecture

PROBLEM:

Architects whose work relied heavily on the use of diagrams, have proposed buildings that are, in theory at least, bold, visionary, and inventive, but when these projects are built, the beautiful imagery latent within the diagram is often translated into superficial forms with little regard for the material, tactile nature of the building’s potential physicality. These architect’s have established a built architecture which is lacking in its attention to the material and visceral qualities of the building, starting from the beginning of the design process and the flatness of the diagram. The diagram has managed to reduce spatial, circulatory, programmatic, and functional qualities of buildings with little regard to the material, tactile, and tectonic aspects of the built product.

HYPOTHESIS:

By utilizing the diagram as a means of reducing architecture to its fundamental constructs, a new design methodology for architecture can be created, which adds complexity to the diagram through an attention to the quality of line, color, value, and form. This new diagram will create a new process that begins to express a material, tactile quality to the diagrams while maintaining a level of suggestiveness and interpretation. This diagrammatic process will produce buildings that when built, are spatially innovative and complex as well as expressing an innovative tectonic and tactile nature.

PRECIS:

This thesis makes the claim that while the use of the diagram in architectural practice has given clarity and freedom in the design process, it has simultaneously detached the conceptual process from the reality of a building’s potential physicality. This translates the diagram into superficial forms with little regard to the material, tactile, and tectonic aspects of the building’s manifestation. Utilizing the diagram as a means of reducing

architecture to its core, elemental constructs, a new design methodology for architecture can be established, which can yield buildings that are spatially innovative and complex as well as tectonically expressive and inventive. This thesis endures a thorough analysis of the evolving history of the diagram, as well as conducting several experiments with diagrams from architects whose work engages its use. It will also compare these

architects and study the material, tectonic, and tactile qualities of the buildings that have been built from the diagram. Eventually, this analysis will lead to a more specific study on the buildings themselves and will find the commonalities that will be evaluated to establish a set of rules. From this, a new design method can be created which classifies and merges

established diagram types into new, more dynamic diagrams that address the material, tactile, tectonic, and visceral qualities of architecture.

Jerilyn Hale Title, Precis, Hypothesis

Title: Collocated Architecture: Approach to Architectural Ruins Through Material Degradation, Site Sensitivity and Tectonic Joinery

PRECIS

           

            “Collocated Architecture” is a strategy for approaching abandoned buildings that aims to balance factors of existing material degradation, historical characteristics, site ruins and scale with contemporary materials, tectonic connections and site awareness by means of juxtaposition. The methodology uses compare and contrast methods to distinguish between precedents that use the ideas of adaptive re-use and precedents that promote the ideas of “Collocated Architecture” to support the proposal of an alternative approach to old buildings. The importance of this approach to abandoned architecture is to stall urban sprawl, and to community pride as an alternative to adaptive re-use, which masks the new interventions behind ideas of historic shells that depletes the visual dynamics of time.

Hypothesis

The methods of dealing with abandoned buildings have been to mask the new interventions behind ideas of historic shells, which then depletes the visual dynamics of time, as done in current adaptive re-use projects; however this thesis wishes to develop the approaches to abandoned buildings by proposing the alternative strategy “Collocated Architecture” that aims to balance factors of existing material degradation, historical characteristics, site ruins and scale with contemporary materials, tectonic connections and site awareness by means of juxtaposition.

A Material Response: reducing the impact of homogenous forms on sensory perception

 Problem

Ways in which architecture is produced in the urban context has caused various typologies to blend. This pattern happening in architecture often results in one or two materials being quickly slapped on the facade, with little consideration as to what effect thsi skin will have on its occupants and surroundings.

Homogenous architecture is formed when a set of a few characteristics can be recognized in not only a single building, but in neighborhoods throughout the city. Factors contributing to this style could be typology, materials, and how the materials are assembled. But what effect does this have on us?

When a person has been living in or experiencing this type of area on a daily basis, I believe that they become detached fro mthe surrounding architecture. They feel no need or desire to experience architecture in ways other than taking a quick glance at a building and turning their heads away.

Consideration paid to what materials are used in a space and how they are assembled contributes to the likelihood of a person to use their senses other than sight while occupying that space. For example, they can be tempted to touch a surface based on its texture and color, resulting in a heightened interest with a building or space.

Has the presense of homogenous architecture influenced the degree to which touch, sound, and smell are used as primary experiential tools?

 Hypothesis

With homogenous architecture negatively impacting the way our senses are used, I feel that it will be necessary to design program that allows people to express themselves in a way that the current environment denies them of doing. Careful consideration will be taken towards the effect certain materials will have on the context, user, and programmatic space. Through the activities of painting sculpting, music, and cooking, I believe that people can not only express themselves, but enhance the artistic and architectural experience by using all of their senses.