Simon's World

What came out of it

Simon — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:32:49 +0000

Ron Witte’s guest studio ended yesterday – considering my graphics, it’s no surprise that Bob Somol led off his comments with Sarah Palin, with Italian restaurants as a back-up. Anyway, here’s the goods, as they say – the idea was to use form and graphics to create spaces that connected and disconnected so as to enable you to be in more than one room at a time:

BTW, I presented first because I had to get to the youngest child’s first-ever volleyball game (her team won – they managed to serve properly twice, while their opponents never made it across the net).

Ron Witte

Ron Witte

Simon — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:48:07 +0000

Having a four-day guest studio exercise with Ron Witte (http://wwarchitecture.com). We’re talking about intersecting spaces that allow you to be in two rooms at the same time. In the exercise, we’re manipulating form and graphics to do just that – here’s my second attempt:

That’s it for now. Thank you for your attention.

What came out of it

Back to the drawing board

Simon — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:34:51 +0000

Just got done with my midterm review – a lot of good feedback, but it looks like I’ll have to start pretty much from scratch.

The project is live-work housing for artists. One thing I think I’ll keep is the communal space on top:

I also kind of like the effect I got on the elevation, but since I’ll be moving circulation space off the facade, it’ll probably stay in the form of loggias or balconies:

The semester draweth to a close

Architectural project

Simon — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:27:33 +0000

I’ve been thinking what my long-term architectural project could be. I don’t care much about form, except as the icing on the functional cake, so to speak. Then again bad icing can spoil a perfectly decent cake. Though I’ve often been accused of being a functionalist, that’s not it either. Functionalism suggests that you either design only for function, which I’ve seen backfire too many times in various ways, or like Koolhaas and his bunch, the use of function/program to suggest a form. While some Koolhaasian architecture (the Seattle Public Library, for one) is admittedly really good, much of it gets stuck in gratuitously weird territory.

OMA’s Hyperbuilding project – fantastic or just weird?

Then there’s the issue of newness – is newness a good thing of itself? Should we strive to come up with “The New”? What’s the point of that? Being new doesn’t guarantee being good, though it hardly seems worthwhile to tread water repeating old patterns. Unless – wait – one understands the goal of architecture to be the design of functional, usable and esthetically pleasing buildings.

What I’m thinking is more of a typological approach – you get standard types, and depart from them only if something forces you to. For instance, an office building would be a typical open-floor stack of slabs dressed in glass, unless some requirement forces you to change something about it. In that instance aesthetics could be taken care of by elevation and interior design. Substantive departures could result from usage and environmental factors, but should be no greater than required to do the job they’re intended for.

I guess I am a functionalist at heart, though I’m thinking this is more of a “reduce-reuse-recycle” architecture than the Modernist version. But is “functionalism with a human face” good enough?

D’Arcy Thompson Strikes Back

Simon — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:39:11 +0000

Having ridiculed the literal treatment of D’Arcy Thompson’s esoteric ideas about form on several occasions (not to mention attempts to apply them directly in architecture), I was somewhat dumbstruck when I saw this:

Our world may be a giant hologram – New Scientist

Now if that ain’t the ultimate epigenetic plane story, I don’t know what could be. However, though I’m not sure if I understand it correctly, it seems that unlike Sanford Kwinter’s take on Thompson, this says nothing about individual free will (while Kwinter’s IMO is the apex of determinism).

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

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Lebbeus Woods on authenticity

Simon — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:37:42 +0000

Another star performance by Lebbeus Woods:

“Architecture has become more popular today than ever before. Its popularity does not come from the ways it improves the everyday lives of most people—as modernists like Gropius once hoped it would—but rather because of the ‘brand names’ now associated with its status as a consumer product.”

http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/authenticity/

Come to think of it, that’s enough to get ol’ Walter Benjamin doing flips in his grave.

Speaks on design

Simon — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:56:25 +0000

… or is it >>Design<

http://molotok.ca/freshmeat/?p=126

I really like his thinking about what design can accomplish when applied to real-world problems, and not just sterile games with form.

There are other tasty morsels there too, so be sure to dig around a bit. Not your usual dry architectural fare.

Merry Christmas, y’all!

Simon — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:08:58 +0000

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Videos by a young master

Simon — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:48:50 +0000

Just wanted to share a few animations Eryk put together over the past few weeks:

The last one he did all by himself, no help from me whatsoever outside uploading it to YouToob.

The semester draweth to a close

Simon — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:57:21 +0000

Welcome to the funhouse. Click on picture to get a larger version:

The city needs public space, but public space that provides a focus for activity, and not simply undifferentiated square footage. The BFT proposes to cut away space that under the unpredictable economic conditions of the foreseeable future would not be fully utilized anyway, and to turn it into entertainment and recreation space that will attract people to it. This will provide an economic stimulus for the cultural and commercial program that remains.
The public space not only draws people to the building, but also creates new conditions by interacting with its “regular” program: auditorium, office and hotel. For instance, by providing views of people enjoying recreational activities to office workers and vice versa, it alters the experience on both sides of the divide.

As usual, everything is copylefted (cc-by-nc). Enjoy.

Added Dec. 15: here’s what my final display looked like (virtual golfer for scale only):

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