ABSTRACT - History
ABSTRACT - history
Typical scene on the canal trail – the actual canal is a culvert that runs parallel along the left side of the trail in the above photo.…how should architecture be expressed as an interpretive construct in the landscape? Is it an objective construct, universal, searching for meaning in the stimulus and conditions inherent at its origin? Is it expressed subjectively beyond the constraints of place - seeking multiple meaning in arbitrary associations and self-serving permutations? Perhaps, to one extent or another, both conditions exist simultaneously and are necessary to fully create places that support wholeness, mutual regard and understanding, but at the same time, allow for differing viewpoints, variable experiences and multiple meaning.
Most of my work in 3rd and 4th year studios has been in the realm of urban theory and design. These projects include large-scale urban planning of mixed-use, transit-oriented developments, as well as, urban high-rise and mid-rise, mixed-use commercial and residential buildings. The set of “rules” and the theoretical basis for those projects was developed in earlier urban theory coursework, and these projects offered me a proving ground to put those theories into practice.
In considering a topic for my Comprehensive Architectural Project, and recalling my experience with the residence in Vermont, I decided I would propose a project in the landscape. The primary reason for this type of project was to discover a new set of rules for making architecture. I wanted to explore the notion of phenomenology (viewer experience), meaning, and interpretation as a means to evoke an architectural response, one that would promote self-discovery within my own process for design and making architecture.
Part of this search would be an exploration to discover meaning in place and re-establish that meaning into an architectural form that is perceivable by others. Part of making architecture would be to uncover a process for self-discovery of the site, based on phenomenological experience and individual interpretation. I asked the questions: “How do I interpret the landscape and reproduce my perceptions of place into forms and spaces capable of evoking meaning? How does an architecture that responds to the artifacts of place, capture the presence of those artifacts without becoming an object in and of itself? Another reason for selecting a project utilizing phenomenology and interpretive discovery (perceptions and experience) to produce architecture was to challenge and invigorate my existing design process. In the past, I have approached design as a linear process. The process began with the physical study of site, typological paradigms and the establishment of a realistic program. Conceptual schemes were then developed that solved programmatic functions and relationships. Parti and form were crafted to suite a particular architectural theme or style consistent with a typological precedent. In this project, hermeneutical phenomenology drives a process of exploration and discovery. The process is circular, whereby initial perceptions and conceptual ideas are investigated, interpreted, questioned and reinvented multiple times.
Part of this process involves contemplation. It is rooted in the exploration and discovery of site. Multiple site visits were performed over several months and change of seasons. The physical landscape and natural site phenomena were extensively recorded. The artifacts of the canal system; lock walls, canal channels, remnants of bridge abutments, old river crossings, and historic structures where all surveyed and recorded with attention given to their “presence.” The term presence is used to describe of how the object or artifact is related to the landscape and perceived or observed by the viewer. The interpretation of these artifacts is not necessarily to provide a tectonic or material inspired design, but rather, to understand how these artifacts evoke meaning, stimulate the imagination, and establish powerful and vivid imagery in our memory.
Part of this process involves making. The graphical (2-dimensional and 3-dimensional) composite images are summations of those interpretations made from exploring the site. The making process utilizes a series of vignettes, made from compositing images, that gives clues about an architectural response. The images set forth, through overlapping and collage, the qualitative rather than quantitative parameters of the architecture. The vignettes describe how a space might feel, where one might focus their eyes, what we might hear when we occupy the space, how sunlight filters through the space and what form is appropriate, etc.
In both cases, the process continually renews itself as new encounters in one area inform another. The multiple readings of the site and a process of conceptualization, focused on qualitative metrics, are part of a design process essential to an interpretive architecture. In its final form, the architecture will evoke from its users a multiplicity of meanings and interpretations that will resonate with the original conception of the work.
Typical scene on the canal trail – the actual canal is a culvert that runs parallel along the left side of the trail in the above photo.…how should architecture be expressed as an interpretive construct in the landscape? Is it an objective construct, universal, searching for meaning in the stimulus and conditions inherent at its origin? Is it expressed subjectively beyond the constraints of place - seeking multiple meaning in arbitrary associations and self-serving permutations? Perhaps, to one extent or another, both conditions exist simultaneously and are necessary to fully create places that support wholeness, mutual regard and understanding, but at the same time, allow for differing viewpoints, variable experiences and multiple meaning.
Most of my work in 3rd and 4th year studios has been in the realm of urban theory and design. These projects include large-scale urban planning of mixed-use, transit-oriented developments, as well as, urban high-rise and mid-rise, mixed-use commercial and residential buildings. The set of “rules” and the theoretical basis for those projects was developed in earlier urban theory coursework, and these projects offered me a proving ground to put those theories into practice.
In considering a topic for my Comprehensive Architectural Project, and recalling my experience with the residence in Vermont, I decided I would propose a project in the landscape. The primary reason for this type of project was to discover a new set of rules for making architecture. I wanted to explore the notion of phenomenology (viewer experience), meaning, and interpretation as a means to evoke an architectural response, one that would promote self-discovery within my own process for design and making architecture.
Part of this search would be an exploration to discover meaning in place and re-establish that meaning into an architectural form that is perceivable by others. Part of making architecture would be to uncover a process for self-discovery of the site, based on phenomenological experience and individual interpretation. I asked the questions: “How do I interpret the landscape and reproduce my perceptions of place into forms and spaces capable of evoking meaning? How does an architecture that responds to the artifacts of place, capture the presence of those artifacts without becoming an object in and of itself? Another reason for selecting a project utilizing phenomenology and interpretive discovery (perceptions and experience) to produce architecture was to challenge and invigorate my existing design process. In the past, I have approached design as a linear process. The process began with the physical study of site, typological paradigms and the establishment of a realistic program. Conceptual schemes were then developed that solved programmatic functions and relationships. Parti and form were crafted to suite a particular architectural theme or style consistent with a typological precedent. In this project, hermeneutical phenomenology drives a process of exploration and discovery. The process is circular, whereby initial perceptions and conceptual ideas are investigated, interpreted, questioned and reinvented multiple times.
Part of this process involves contemplation. It is rooted in the exploration and discovery of site. Multiple site visits were performed over several months and change of seasons. The physical landscape and natural site phenomena were extensively recorded. The artifacts of the canal system; lock walls, canal channels, remnants of bridge abutments, old river crossings, and historic structures where all surveyed and recorded with attention given to their “presence.” The term presence is used to describe of how the object or artifact is related to the landscape and perceived or observed by the viewer. The interpretation of these artifacts is not necessarily to provide a tectonic or material inspired design, but rather, to understand how these artifacts evoke meaning, stimulate the imagination, and establish powerful and vivid imagery in our memory.
Part of this process involves making. The graphical (2-dimensional and 3-dimensional) composite images are summations of those interpretations made from exploring the site. The making process utilizes a series of vignettes, made from compositing images, that gives clues about an architectural response. The images set forth, through overlapping and collage, the qualitative rather than quantitative parameters of the architecture. The vignettes describe how a space might feel, where one might focus their eyes, what we might hear when we occupy the space, how sunlight filters through the space and what form is appropriate, etc.
In both cases, the process continually renews itself as new encounters in one area inform another. The multiple readings of the site and a process of conceptualization, focused on qualitative metrics, are part of a design process essential to an interpretive architecture. In its final form, the architecture will evoke from its users a multiplicity of meanings and interpretations that will resonate with the original conception of the work.
posted by Joe Monico, AIA, LEED AP @ 6:10 PM
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