To position the experiments I have done is quite an interesting exercise.
Experiment 1- I am still locating in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and LeCorbusier in the work of the hearth. In coming together around the central node it is examining the idea of community and focus and centre of the being, then at whether this creates further connection.
Experiment 2 and 3- This is where my passion is.
This work is heavily influenceed in the body of work done by people all over the earth who take the Word of the Bible and actually act on what it says, lifting the poor out of the ash heap, seating them with princes-Ps 113, or restoring sight to the blind, hope to the hopeless.
In this body of work people would commonly acnowledge people like Mother Theresa, organisations like the Salvation Army, Churches across the world which help the homeless, the widows, the lonely.
I want to make it clear that I am not saying this work is done exclusively by Christians, in fact often it is others that push this much further. However the area that I am influenced by is this area, particularly the movement beginning called the I Heart Revolution, out of Hillsong United.
It is in this that my focus and view is shaped and the experiments have been moulded, looking at the values and opinions that lay in the heart of people.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
500 Word Position Statement
Experiment 1- Alive or dead
Hypothesis- after the process of discovering that the journey that one person is on depends on a second person, having arrived in the same point will continue the journey together.
Result- 3 tests went the same direction together at the end of the process, 1 separated and went to opposite ends of the path.
Conclusion- The people that went separate ways were the most confident (in UT3) and independent people used in the test making it less surprising that they went opposite directions. It was surprising to have such an introductory consistency of people leaving together, in one instance so strongly that the lead person turned, went the other direction and the second changed direction and followed. This process of joint imposition upon the other could become a key driver or the middle space as the key to the success is the need to create a mutual relationship between the two different groups of people. For the space to come alive it requires the interdependence and vibrancy of relationships.
Note: This experiment will continue over the rest of the period of the studio to enable a larger sample and there will be updated blogs on the results and conclusion
Experiment 2- Cavernous/Alluring (inside Cavernous, outside Alluring)
Hypothesis- That people looking from the inside out will have different views of themselves than people looking from the outside in.
Result- all creatures were quite different, open to alternate interpretations, there could be rough groupings but to do so would result in both generalizations and assumptions that could take the experiment outside the realm of credibility.
Conclusion- That it is a multiplicity of creations that in the end makes up the final portrait. A person is simply too complex to represent in a single creation. To take this further into the realm of continuing assumption, there may be an argument that it is only through this multiplicity of revelations of oneself from the inside and outside (and in my experience, from knowing Jesus) that one can build the accurate picture of a person. Hence inverting that theory, to isolate a person takes away the multiplicity of character stimuli and leaves a person with a singular, internal view of oneself. Taking this even further, could this be contributory to the strong stereotype that is associated with the homeless until one enters into discussion and discovers more detail on the particular circumstances and life story?
Experiment 3- Delicate/Stinging (In reality any one of the descriptors as it lends itself to the nature of the person who participates in the experiment)
Hypothesis- People would hold a general level of apprehension that their inner life would be presented in a form that would end up becoming public and be concerned that negative views would be portrayed.
Result- People in the sample group when surveyed stated a general level of excitement in regards to the portrait of themselves created by others. However taken on the dialogue before the creation of the characters, there was a certain degree of apprehension over the manner in which they may be portrayed and more particularly how others may portray them.
Conclusion- The people in the sample group held a general level of interest in engaging with the group in a more in-depth manner than would usually be taken. There was a certain level of dialogue that the group held with one another which could be taken as creating a conducive environment to participate in such an exercise. Speculating on the results found one may take the furthest position in looking at the possibility that the level of ability to participate in such an experiment could be linked into the knowledge that there would be a positive, building experience in the greater dialogue of vulnerability within the group. To look at this element would suggest the need for the creation of an environment wherein one would know that it is not merely the negative aspects of a personality that need ‘fixing’ that would be focused on, but also an environment where one would find the strengths of the person emphasized and built upon.
Hypothesis- after the process of discovering that the journey that one person is on depends on a second person, having arrived in the same point will continue the journey together.
Result- 3 tests went the same direction together at the end of the process, 1 separated and went to opposite ends of the path.
Conclusion- The people that went separate ways were the most confident (in UT3) and independent people used in the test making it less surprising that they went opposite directions. It was surprising to have such an introductory consistency of people leaving together, in one instance so strongly that the lead person turned, went the other direction and the second changed direction and followed. This process of joint imposition upon the other could become a key driver or the middle space as the key to the success is the need to create a mutual relationship between the two different groups of people. For the space to come alive it requires the interdependence and vibrancy of relationships.
Note: This experiment will continue over the rest of the period of the studio to enable a larger sample and there will be updated blogs on the results and conclusion
Experiment 2- Cavernous/Alluring (inside Cavernous, outside Alluring)
Hypothesis- That people looking from the inside out will have different views of themselves than people looking from the outside in.
Result- all creatures were quite different, open to alternate interpretations, there could be rough groupings but to do so would result in both generalizations and assumptions that could take the experiment outside the realm of credibility.
Conclusion- That it is a multiplicity of creations that in the end makes up the final portrait. A person is simply too complex to represent in a single creation. To take this further into the realm of continuing assumption, there may be an argument that it is only through this multiplicity of revelations of oneself from the inside and outside (and in my experience, from knowing Jesus) that one can build the accurate picture of a person. Hence inverting that theory, to isolate a person takes away the multiplicity of character stimuli and leaves a person with a singular, internal view of oneself. Taking this even further, could this be contributory to the strong stereotype that is associated with the homeless until one enters into discussion and discovers more detail on the particular circumstances and life story?
Experiment 3- Delicate/Stinging (In reality any one of the descriptors as it lends itself to the nature of the person who participates in the experiment)
Hypothesis- People would hold a general level of apprehension that their inner life would be presented in a form that would end up becoming public and be concerned that negative views would be portrayed.
Result- People in the sample group when surveyed stated a general level of excitement in regards to the portrait of themselves created by others. However taken on the dialogue before the creation of the characters, there was a certain degree of apprehension over the manner in which they may be portrayed and more particularly how others may portray them.
Conclusion- The people in the sample group held a general level of interest in engaging with the group in a more in-depth manner than would usually be taken. There was a certain level of dialogue that the group held with one another which could be taken as creating a conducive environment to participate in such an exercise. Speculating on the results found one may take the furthest position in looking at the possibility that the level of ability to participate in such an experiment could be linked into the knowledge that there would be a positive, building experience in the greater dialogue of vulnerability within the group. To look at this element would suggest the need for the creation of an environment wherein one would know that it is not merely the negative aspects of a personality that need ‘fixing’ that would be focused on, but also an environment where one would find the strengths of the person emphasized and built upon.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Beginnings of experiment 1 explination
Experiment 1
Alive or dead (Cavernous, alluring, throbbing)
Exp 1 derives around the experience created in the hub itself. It is a test of the atmosphere and appealing nature of the seating in combination with the fire. There will be a series of configurations of the room tested with each measuring the approach that is taken toward the hearth, whether the hearth, the heart in that moment is alive or dead. Is it enough to draw people or will it find itself a dead space. The hypothesis is that in certain configurations people will gather toward the middle, around the communal moment, the space will then become alive, alive with conversation, alive with interaction, alive with the conjoining of people’s lives. Conversely in other configurations people will end up scattered, disconnected, and maybe confined to isolated groups. The benefit of this control becomes social monitoring and behavioural conditioning. When people need to be drawn in there is a configuration to draw people off the street, to connect people in the living organism of a society. On the other hand, there is a need to isolate each case, so to provide individual contact in individual need one can highlight the disconnectedness through spatial arrangements.
This hypothesis belongs within the body of architectural work discussed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and others who have focussed theory around the power of the hearth as the heart of the building. This experiment seeks to validate or otherwise add to this body of knowledge by providing an avenue to turn the hearth off and on through differing arrangements and measure the effectiveness of this method.
Experiment 2
Alluring/ brutal
The central theme to the middle section is the analogy to the muscle, the tension that arises from the connexion and relationship between two separate individual bones connected together. For the relationship between the two disparate sides of the building to work there must be a strong connexion that lives and moves. In this respect there must be movement from the ‘Hearth’ toward ‘The Organisation’, there must be an allurement from one toward the other. It must throb with the activity that it is used for as it is used, built upon, exercised. In this experiment the muscle will respond to the combinations of activity from the group from the hearth. The premise is that the floor of the ‘muscle’ is made of blocks that are all separate and yet stackable. It is through the arrangement and creation of rooms, stairs, and furniture from these basic forms that interface and force interaction between the two groups. The people involved in the experiment will be divided into two groups, with those from the office reliant on those from the hearth to activate the blocks in a way that will enable the two groups to mingle. The activity from then will be to form rooms from the blocks. The experiment will then be to see the divisions between the two groups. Whether they were maintained or whether the two groups then were inclined to mingle.
This experimental methodology can be positioned within the work done by Clive Wilkinson Architects with blocks, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Experiment 3
Throbbing
How will the office space work? Through high density planning, bureaucracy style with people living on top of people. Does this work for information transfer, communication, finding people, meetings and other relevant office activity? Through medium density, setting up the obvious hierarchy, combinations of open plan and individual office? Through complete open plan, the idea that everyone shares the one workspace, that all ideas and cases are transferable? How does this work for individual tasks, surveillance, office culture, identity, unity and other issues?
This work fits into the category of office space design as promoted by architects such as Foster, Piano, Koolhaas, Leibskind.
Alive or dead (Cavernous, alluring, throbbing)
Exp 1 derives around the experience created in the hub itself. It is a test of the atmosphere and appealing nature of the seating in combination with the fire. There will be a series of configurations of the room tested with each measuring the approach that is taken toward the hearth, whether the hearth, the heart in that moment is alive or dead. Is it enough to draw people or will it find itself a dead space. The hypothesis is that in certain configurations people will gather toward the middle, around the communal moment, the space will then become alive, alive with conversation, alive with interaction, alive with the conjoining of people’s lives. Conversely in other configurations people will end up scattered, disconnected, and maybe confined to isolated groups. The benefit of this control becomes social monitoring and behavioural conditioning. When people need to be drawn in there is a configuration to draw people off the street, to connect people in the living organism of a society. On the other hand, there is a need to isolate each case, so to provide individual contact in individual need one can highlight the disconnectedness through spatial arrangements.
This hypothesis belongs within the body of architectural work discussed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and others who have focussed theory around the power of the hearth as the heart of the building. This experiment seeks to validate or otherwise add to this body of knowledge by providing an avenue to turn the hearth off and on through differing arrangements and measure the effectiveness of this method.
Experiment 2
Alluring/ brutal
The central theme to the middle section is the analogy to the muscle, the tension that arises from the connexion and relationship between two separate individual bones connected together. For the relationship between the two disparate sides of the building to work there must be a strong connexion that lives and moves. In this respect there must be movement from the ‘Hearth’ toward ‘The Organisation’, there must be an allurement from one toward the other. It must throb with the activity that it is used for as it is used, built upon, exercised. In this experiment the muscle will respond to the combinations of activity from the group from the hearth. The premise is that the floor of the ‘muscle’ is made of blocks that are all separate and yet stackable. It is through the arrangement and creation of rooms, stairs, and furniture from these basic forms that interface and force interaction between the two groups. The people involved in the experiment will be divided into two groups, with those from the office reliant on those from the hearth to activate the blocks in a way that will enable the two groups to mingle. The activity from then will be to form rooms from the blocks. The experiment will then be to see the divisions between the two groups. Whether they were maintained or whether the two groups then were inclined to mingle.
This experimental methodology can be positioned within the work done by Clive Wilkinson Architects with blocks, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Experiment 3
Throbbing
How will the office space work? Through high density planning, bureaucracy style with people living on top of people. Does this work for information transfer, communication, finding people, meetings and other relevant office activity? Through medium density, setting up the obvious hierarchy, combinations of open plan and individual office? Through complete open plan, the idea that everyone shares the one workspace, that all ideas and cases are transferable? How does this work for individual tasks, surveillance, office culture, identity, unity and other issues?
This work fits into the category of office space design as promoted by architects such as Foster, Piano, Koolhaas, Leibskind.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Position Statement
The hearth is revealed.
The dynamic, active environment that can be sculpted to the needs of the user is opened up. The rest of the superfluous operational aspects can be momentarily discarded to focus on the design of the arena that is specifically formulated for a client that cannot be pinpointed to one idea. The client is transient, more transient than perhaps understandable, yet this is not strictly the case. One who is so fleeting, one whose entire life possessions can be contained within a shopping trolley is does not necessarily desire that lifestyle. One does not choose the street in every instance. Maybe the one who is so flexible would rather the fixed sculpted life but cannot yet adapt to it. These questions are revealed in the section. These questions are revealed in the warmth of the flame, casting the ephemeral shadows on the wall to form the dim outline of the life less solid while they have the moment to be answered.
Operations and flow are opened up.
The living breathing nature of the built form can be found once again through the sinuous relationship between the hearth, the homeless and the office, the organisation. Ones rigidity meets the others ephemerality in the muscular space that lies between. Through this space the communication of the waste of each other is gleaned into a valuable commodity. The smoke and pollution that is gathered into the ceiling space of the hearth then becomes the screen, the privacy which is so valued in the corporate environment. The paper which is the pollution of the office is gathered together into a mass and compacted to form the literal fuel of the hearth. Each through its excess then can serve the other. In this exchange the continuance of this flow can be continued as the people from one side come to facilitate the other. Gradually the borders of each sphere become permeable forming the symbiotic relationship, two bones, integral structures, connected by living muscle.
As one removes from the built form and lets the skin once again hide the internal fluidity, it once again sits within its site and expresses itself, allowing those from the street to approach and discover what it contains. Addressing itself naturally to the street and to the alley it defines itself by both limbs in the one form. To the two clients in the one form. It becomes the meeting place, the heart, the hearth.
The hUB
The dynamic, active environment that can be sculpted to the needs of the user is opened up. The rest of the superfluous operational aspects can be momentarily discarded to focus on the design of the arena that is specifically formulated for a client that cannot be pinpointed to one idea. The client is transient, more transient than perhaps understandable, yet this is not strictly the case. One who is so fleeting, one whose entire life possessions can be contained within a shopping trolley is does not necessarily desire that lifestyle. One does not choose the street in every instance. Maybe the one who is so flexible would rather the fixed sculpted life but cannot yet adapt to it. These questions are revealed in the section. These questions are revealed in the warmth of the flame, casting the ephemeral shadows on the wall to form the dim outline of the life less solid while they have the moment to be answered.
Operations and flow are opened up.
The living breathing nature of the built form can be found once again through the sinuous relationship between the hearth, the homeless and the office, the organisation. Ones rigidity meets the others ephemerality in the muscular space that lies between. Through this space the communication of the waste of each other is gleaned into a valuable commodity. The smoke and pollution that is gathered into the ceiling space of the hearth then becomes the screen, the privacy which is so valued in the corporate environment. The paper which is the pollution of the office is gathered together into a mass and compacted to form the literal fuel of the hearth. Each through its excess then can serve the other. In this exchange the continuance of this flow can be continued as the people from one side come to facilitate the other. Gradually the borders of each sphere become permeable forming the symbiotic relationship, two bones, integral structures, connected by living muscle.
As one removes from the built form and lets the skin once again hide the internal fluidity, it once again sits within its site and expresses itself, allowing those from the street to approach and discover what it contains. Addressing itself naturally to the street and to the alley it defines itself by both limbs in the one form. To the two clients in the one form. It becomes the meeting place, the heart, the hearth.
The hUB
Monday, August 18, 2008
Compressed Paper Log Maker
So, one way of recycling to get the most for the fire in the hUB is to use the waste from the office component to burn. It is also a great way of employing the time of some of the homeless in a productive but not too intensive manner!
Check this out!
Check this out!
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