Concepts, strategies, effects
[20 November]
Williams College Museum of Art's atrium, designed by Charles Moore, featuring Wall Drawing #959: Uneven Bands from the Upper Right Corner by Sol LeWitt.
Sol LeWitt, Corner Wall #6
Some notes for tomorrow's tutorial:
Toward a Formal Manifesto
The Corner as Generative Tool
“Space is born and dies in the corner.”
Nice slogan.
What does it mean though?
The ‘common’ corner is what makes a ‘regular’ room orthogonal. Planimetrically, the demarcation cuts off what we perceive to be a straight line, but which may in fact be part of a larger curved spline, turning it into a measured line of fixed length and curvature. The corner breaks the transformation of information along this (sp)line. The corner is, perhaps, a nodal point in a grid. At any rate, it is the point where we read the information, and, therefore, the space.
Change the corner and you change the trajectory of the lines protruding from or converging into it. Move the corner and you change the space it contains.
We can thus use the corner as a generative tool for the demarcation lines “shooting out of” or “gathering into” it, and thereby as a beginning seed or finalizing point of a space. The corner becomes a generator of growth and decay. First the corner, then the space.
Concepts, strategies, effects
This corner modulation begins with a conceptual notion of a gradient between contrasting extremes, producing the effect that we want the space to achieve through the subject’s reading.
This effect is created through a set of different spatial strategies – the codes, or formal moves, used to evoke the effect.
These strategies can then be further modulated through the application of a set of articulations, in order to focus our attention on particular aspects of the effects.
The concept defines what the corner does, the strategy defines what it is and the underlying logic for how it creates (positive or negative) space, while the layers attempt to highlight the conceptual effects and support the spatial strategy.
Conceptual Effects
01 STEALTH/OBVIOUS
The stealth corner: you won’t see it, but you’ll see what it does. The obvious corner: one that very clearly tells the whole story of how it produces the space. This is all about whether or not the code is legible.
Contrast: invisible/super-visible
02 COLLISION/EXPLOSION
Two planes violently crashing into each other. Collision is a centripetal movement, explosion a centrifugal movement. The corner gets bent, twisted, cut, rotated out of place. Emphasis is put on showing that the movement has a beginning and a direction - or a direction and an end.
Contrast: attraction/repulsion
03 IMPRESSION/HARD EDGE
One or two planes deforming in the corner to preserve one or two others. The impressionable edge accepts the interfering plane and adjusts to it. The hard edge doesn't allow itself to be impressed. This could for instance be achieved through a boolean operation using an 'invisible' corner structure and its resulting space.
Contrast: flexibility/resistance
04 FLOW/RESISTANCE
The corner is displaced out of the envelope. One or more control surfaces are used as outlines, bounding geometry for a 'flow' of edges emanating from the displaced corners. The resulting geometries are altered through an interrelation between corners and bounding surfaces, conveying the idea of a continuous flow between points (corners), interrupted by other corners (surfaces).
Contrast: animation/stasis
05 DIFFUSION/ARTICULATION
The diffused corner occurs when a blurring effect is achieved, for instance through the use of a differential curve. The corner seems to 'bend away from' or 'bend towards' the subject. The corner point may or may not be hidden from view. The articulated corner clearly demarcates the angle between its surfaces.
Contrast: vague/clear
More to consider:
MERGING (CAMOUFLAGE)
INTERCONNECTION/INTERSECTION (difference?) vs AVOIDANCE
SHATTERING/BREAKING
STITCHING/SLITTED (GILLS)
DISTORTION (cut, edit, drop, add, juxtapose)
Spatial Strategy:
CELLULAR
I don’t really wish to get too caught up in the marvelous world of cellular automata that Stephen Wolfram has spent the best part of his life mapping out, but it’s hard to resist.
http://www.stephenwolfram.com/publications/articles/ca/
DIFFERENTIAL
A differential equation generates the corner condition. Wave, ripple, sine/cosine, etc.
RANDOM
The corners are the control points, in between which a random pattern plays out. The corner as definition both as container of order (the 'resting place') and generator of chaos. (There could also be rules to the chaos; jitter, etc.)
RESISTING
The space is a surface/point resisting forces that flow around it. Space as middle ground between point of resistance and point of (new) convergence. See above.
POINT
Simple volumetric displacement, pushing the corner point off the grid to create a figural effect.
Formal Narrative
Global Structure
The most important programmatic part of the proposed building is its archive of human bodies, an ever-growing structure that would have been a tower had it not been for the fact that the sheer amount of 'suspended' bodies inside of it would soon turn it into a taller tower than we can actually build.
Instead, the building moves like a Slinky across the urban field, touching down with a corner in one of the city's corner as it needs to, then shooting off again on a trajectory towards the next corner. The macro structure is analogous with the micro structure: the corners of the building flow from and to the corners of the city. To show that the architecture is constantly evolving, whenever we see the foremost edge of the building, it should be covered in scaffolding and workers. Growth over time will be an important factor here.
Each of these 'cycles' between city corners has its own procession. Whereas these may later be varied depending on which part of the structure we are in, the idea would still be that the archive is carried through in each part of the building. The constantly growing Suspension Storage is what's driving the horizontal tower forward.
There is no grid here other than the city grid (which in the case of London is rather chaotic) and a strategy involving programmatic and pragmatic concerns. There needs to be enough space for the building to actually touch down and shoot off again. There needs to be a local interaction with the city fabric in these nodal points. There needs to be structural support systems along the way. The building needs to make use of existing communications, create new interactions between people where there were previuosly none, and connect poetically and iconically with its site. The improvised nature of the positioning of these nodes ties in with the notion of the iconic, illegible figure, dissolving or ignoring the grid.
If this turns into a monster of a building, completely out of scale and overshadowing everything in its way, then maybe a reconsideration would take into account the implicit corner, turning the structure into a series of towers that point toward and 'meet' implicitly in invisible 'points' in between them. Though somehow this strikes me as a slightly less iconic approach...
An Architecture of Corners
From the formal manifesto, we already know that we're working with corners. But a new kind of corner rather than traditional corners: Corners that control space, that begin and end space, corners that generate surfaces in between themselves, and that modulate the very volumes they demarcate. Corners that reflect conditions, corners that hold the code for the production of space, corners that create effects and affects.
So let's look at one of these building cycles, the stretch in between two city corners, and see what kinds of corners we need, and how they are to interact. This will be done through a brief series of five formal dichotomies, or extremes, that are treated in different ways as we make the procession through the building.
01_Open/Closed
The building, on touching down onto the ground (the beginning/end of the cycle), either opens itself up in a welcoming gesture, or closes back in on itself, depending on whether people should be attracted to it or not. The closing gesture is concave whereas the opening gesture is convex. The closing gesture minimises the footprint, the opening gesture maximises it. The closing gesture produces a corner that is flush with the ground, while the opening gesture lifts parts of the structure off the ground to invite people into the building.
02
Contraction/Expansion
The space contracts towards a set of corners, only to expand - open up - on the other side. This is how we bring scalar effects through, how we turn the horisontal initial movement into a vertical thrust.
03
Facets
The structure becomes crystalline (though this is to be interpreted in a loose manner; it need not be in a form that resembles an actual crystal but could be smooth, skeletal/skinned, articulated, etc. This is what happens along the seams: the corners in between the corners.
04
Directional change
This is the 'exterior' corners of the overall envelope, the corners that define the overall shape of the building. The corners of the Slinky.
05
Void corners
Could be toroidal, or cut into the structure. Corners that open up the building internally and externally.
Williams College Museum of Art's atrium, designed by Charles Moore, featuring Wall Drawing #959: Uneven Bands from the Upper Right Corner by Sol LeWitt.
Sol LeWitt, Corner Wall #6
Some notes for tomorrow's tutorial:
Toward a Formal Manifesto
The Corner as Generative Tool
“Space is born and dies in the corner.”
Nice slogan.
What does it mean though?
The ‘common’ corner is what makes a ‘regular’ room orthogonal. Planimetrically, the demarcation cuts off what we perceive to be a straight line, but which may in fact be part of a larger curved spline, turning it into a measured line of fixed length and curvature. The corner breaks the transformation of information along this (sp)line. The corner is, perhaps, a nodal point in a grid. At any rate, it is the point where we read the information, and, therefore, the space.
Change the corner and you change the trajectory of the lines protruding from or converging into it. Move the corner and you change the space it contains.
We can thus use the corner as a generative tool for the demarcation lines “shooting out of” or “gathering into” it, and thereby as a beginning seed or finalizing point of a space. The corner becomes a generator of growth and decay. First the corner, then the space.
Concepts, strategies, effects
This corner modulation begins with a conceptual notion of a gradient between contrasting extremes, producing the effect that we want the space to achieve through the subject’s reading.
This effect is created through a set of different spatial strategies – the codes, or formal moves, used to evoke the effect.
These strategies can then be further modulated through the application of a set of articulations, in order to focus our attention on particular aspects of the effects.
The concept defines what the corner does, the strategy defines what it is and the underlying logic for how it creates (positive or negative) space, while the layers attempt to highlight the conceptual effects and support the spatial strategy.
Conceptual Effects
01 STEALTH/OBVIOUS
The stealth corner: you won’t see it, but you’ll see what it does. The obvious corner: one that very clearly tells the whole story of how it produces the space. This is all about whether or not the code is legible.
Contrast: invisible/super-visible
02 COLLISION/EXPLOSION
Two planes violently crashing into each other. Collision is a centripetal movement, explosion a centrifugal movement. The corner gets bent, twisted, cut, rotated out of place. Emphasis is put on showing that the movement has a beginning and a direction - or a direction and an end.
Contrast: attraction/repulsion
03 IMPRESSION/HARD EDGE
One or two planes deforming in the corner to preserve one or two others. The impressionable edge accepts the interfering plane and adjusts to it. The hard edge doesn't allow itself to be impressed. This could for instance be achieved through a boolean operation using an 'invisible' corner structure and its resulting space.
Contrast: flexibility/resistance
04 FLOW/RESISTANCE
The corner is displaced out of the envelope. One or more control surfaces are used as outlines, bounding geometry for a 'flow' of edges emanating from the displaced corners. The resulting geometries are altered through an interrelation between corners and bounding surfaces, conveying the idea of a continuous flow between points (corners), interrupted by other corners (surfaces).
Contrast: animation/stasis
05 DIFFUSION/ARTICULATION
The diffused corner occurs when a blurring effect is achieved, for instance through the use of a differential curve. The corner seems to 'bend away from' or 'bend towards' the subject. The corner point may or may not be hidden from view. The articulated corner clearly demarcates the angle between its surfaces.
Contrast: vague/clear
More to consider:
MERGING (CAMOUFLAGE)
INTERCONNECTION/INTERSECTION (difference?) vs AVOIDANCE
SHATTERING/BREAKING
STITCHING/SLITTED (GILLS)
DISTORTION (cut, edit, drop, add, juxtapose)
Spatial Strategy:
CELLULAR
I don’t really wish to get too caught up in the marvelous world of cellular automata that Stephen Wolfram has spent the best part of his life mapping out, but it’s hard to resist.
http://www.stephenwolfram.com/publications/articles/ca/
DIFFERENTIAL
A differential equation generates the corner condition. Wave, ripple, sine/cosine, etc.
RANDOM
The corners are the control points, in between which a random pattern plays out. The corner as definition both as container of order (the 'resting place') and generator of chaos. (There could also be rules to the chaos; jitter, etc.)
RESISTING
The space is a surface/point resisting forces that flow around it. Space as middle ground between point of resistance and point of (new) convergence. See above.
POINT
Simple volumetric displacement, pushing the corner point off the grid to create a figural effect.
Formal Narrative
Global Structure
The most important programmatic part of the proposed building is its archive of human bodies, an ever-growing structure that would have been a tower had it not been for the fact that the sheer amount of 'suspended' bodies inside of it would soon turn it into a taller tower than we can actually build.
Instead, the building moves like a Slinky across the urban field, touching down with a corner in one of the city's corner as it needs to, then shooting off again on a trajectory towards the next corner. The macro structure is analogous with the micro structure: the corners of the building flow from and to the corners of the city. To show that the architecture is constantly evolving, whenever we see the foremost edge of the building, it should be covered in scaffolding and workers. Growth over time will be an important factor here.
Each of these 'cycles' between city corners has its own procession. Whereas these may later be varied depending on which part of the structure we are in, the idea would still be that the archive is carried through in each part of the building. The constantly growing Suspension Storage is what's driving the horizontal tower forward.
There is no grid here other than the city grid (which in the case of London is rather chaotic) and a strategy involving programmatic and pragmatic concerns. There needs to be enough space for the building to actually touch down and shoot off again. There needs to be a local interaction with the city fabric in these nodal points. There needs to be structural support systems along the way. The building needs to make use of existing communications, create new interactions between people where there were previuosly none, and connect poetically and iconically with its site. The improvised nature of the positioning of these nodes ties in with the notion of the iconic, illegible figure, dissolving or ignoring the grid.
If this turns into a monster of a building, completely out of scale and overshadowing everything in its way, then maybe a reconsideration would take into account the implicit corner, turning the structure into a series of towers that point toward and 'meet' implicitly in invisible 'points' in between them. Though somehow this strikes me as a slightly less iconic approach...
An Architecture of Corners
From the formal manifesto, we already know that we're working with corners. But a new kind of corner rather than traditional corners: Corners that control space, that begin and end space, corners that generate surfaces in between themselves, and that modulate the very volumes they demarcate. Corners that reflect conditions, corners that hold the code for the production of space, corners that create effects and affects.
So let's look at one of these building cycles, the stretch in between two city corners, and see what kinds of corners we need, and how they are to interact. This will be done through a brief series of five formal dichotomies, or extremes, that are treated in different ways as we make the procession through the building.
01_Open/Closed
The building, on touching down onto the ground (the beginning/end of the cycle), either opens itself up in a welcoming gesture, or closes back in on itself, depending on whether people should be attracted to it or not. The closing gesture is concave whereas the opening gesture is convex. The closing gesture minimises the footprint, the opening gesture maximises it. The closing gesture produces a corner that is flush with the ground, while the opening gesture lifts parts of the structure off the ground to invite people into the building.
02
Contraction/Expansion
The space contracts towards a set of corners, only to expand - open up - on the other side. This is how we bring scalar effects through, how we turn the horisontal initial movement into a vertical thrust.
03
Facets
The structure becomes crystalline (though this is to be interpreted in a loose manner; it need not be in a form that resembles an actual crystal but could be smooth, skeletal/skinned, articulated, etc. This is what happens along the seams: the corners in between the corners.
04
Directional change
This is the 'exterior' corners of the overall envelope, the corners that define the overall shape of the building. The corners of the Slinky.
05
Void corners
Could be toroidal, or cut into the structure. Corners that open up the building internally and externally.
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