Evaluation Stages: Presentation / discussion

2

Questioning Images

Files: abstract, poster, full paper (= extended abstract)

Fragments from proceedings (‘abstract submission’)’:

Abstract.

The advancement and popularization of image processing techniques in the last twentyfive years has provided architects with a powerful tool to merge research and design. If the history of photography is the history of the duplication and recycling of reality, then the history of the digitization of photography can be read as the history of the possibility of blending the duplicated real and the virtual. By intervening seamlessly on photographs, it is now easier than ever to conflate a particular reality and its potential transformation, thus interrogating the very essence of said reality by providing an apparently plausible version of it.

Some of the prospects of this design driven research methodology are exposed here through the analysis of a speculative project that was produced for the XV Venice Biennale of 2016. The project used digital collage to initiate a collective conversation on the landscape of naked objects exposed by the building crisis in Spain, questioning the underlying processes made visible by the abandoned constructions –in short, a model of urban development that maximizes profit through the repetition of the same, ‘exclusive’ private units. In order to transform this reality into an expression of a community generated through difference, the conversation focused on the imaginary appropriation of twelve unfinished units of an interrupted development in L’Enova, a small village located 55 kilometers south of Valencia. Each interlocutor acted on a photograph of each unit with the only constraint of using the same graphic ingredients: a selection of 100 pictures to use in the digital collage. Beyond this constraint, the only limits were those of each individual approach to the project.

The most interesting aspect of this landscape of distinct voices is that, when placed in parallel, they revealed the potential of the conversation when it becomes a project. The twelve colonized photographs no longer appeared as a melancholic witness of what could have been, but as a tangible document that materialized a possible model, showing that the debris of an exhausted system of urban development can be reused as the foundations for an alternative form of urbanization. In so doing, lacadenadecristal elicited a new set of questions on the role of digital collage in contemporary design and research, for it proved to be a methodology that simultaneously serves as a design tool, a method of interrogation of a specific reality, and a prime communicative asset to engage multiple audiences.

Keywords.

photography; digital collage; design driven research

Feeling Space

Files: abstract, poster, full paper (=updated abstract)

Fragments from proceedings (‘abstract submission’)’:

Abstract.

This research is based on my current creative practice of making drawings and installations in response to the particulars of outdoor and indoor environments.

Such practice is based on the performative potential of drawing and situated between Visual Arts, Performance and Dance. Other recent practitioners have researched this field with a focus on the choreographic potential of drawing on flat surfaces (Katrina Brown) or by performing movement patterns in response to site particulars (Burgoyne).

This research asks the question, how does an embodied drawing practice using a mobile working kit on different environments determine the relationships between self and environment?

The project’s methodology assumes an analogy between line movement on paper and body movement in landscape. Indoor and outdoor spaces, and the creative practice itself constitute the material contexts of this research. In the same way as this creative practice faces the challenge of connecting to different material environments, requiring situated and relational approaches and improvisation, its methodological framework is one of interdisciplinarity, questioning the boundaries between Dance, Visual Arts and Performance, built on phenomenological concepts of experience, environment and self. Drawings, installations, experiences and events, either by the author, acting as a human instrument, or by other subjects and things in the environment, provide data within an aesthetic framework where linearity is a structural criterion. The research aims to generate new knowledge in three fields:

Firstly, in the field of Expanded Drawing practices, a new body of work will illustrate how using a mobile working kit can create engagement between landscape, place, creative practice and notions of self. I will use elastic bands, rolls of paper, wooden sticks and drawing utensils to produce temporary features in the countryside and permanent drawings, documenting the making processes with videos, photographs and texts.

Secondly, it will produce new knowledge for the field of Critical Art Studies about how my particular interdisciplinary practice approach can impact on our understanding of indoor and outdoor environments and of who we are as embodied selves.

And thirdly, with regard to interdisciplinarity in the arts, and concerning the role of embodiment therein, the research will provide new knowledge about how a network between selected dance practitioners and visual artists can be used to communicate about their creative processes. /../

Keywords.

drawing, environment, movement, embodiment, dance

Architecture of Encounter

Files: abstract, poster, full paper

Fragments from proceedings (‘abstract submission’)’:

Abstract.

You are about to enter an archive of perspectives of the long term research project HALL33, consisting of photographical and textual contributions (40 images and 400 words in total) by theorists, team members, students and audience members documented between 2013 and 2018.

Keywords.

installation art, performativity, opensource design

Verbiest: House and Workshop in a Warehouse

Files: abstract, poster, full paper

Fragments from proceedings (‘artefact submission’)’:

Abstract.

This project addresses the transformation of a large warehouse of about 1000sqm built between 1900 and 1970 in Molenbeek into a single family house and a shared artistic workshop. The project addresses various issues and themes, amongst which the environmental impact of the construction and of the future consumptions. The artefact is not limited to the design outcome but comprises the design process. /…/

Keywords.

Architecture; Transformation; Reuse; Design Process; Sustainability

/…/
The threefold presentation explores a possible medium to create artefacts which somehow can be considered equivalent to the project itself. Through the embodiment of a network of inputs and outputs in a creative act. By enlarging the scope to the entire process and to the stimuli surrounding it. While respecting the subjective nature of such networks. In order to provoke the interpretation of the project by the audience. Resulting in statistic objectivation through the endlessness actualization of graspable combinations.
/…/

In Practice

Files: poster, full paper

Fragments from proceedings (‘paper submission’)’:

Abstract. 

(*) refer to suppressed names for the sake of anonymity. Initially, (*) are conferences at which architects were invited to unveil and tell the story of their working documents. These short conferences are followed by a conversation with a panel of critics, architects, editors and academics.

Recently, a first book was published about (the design process of) a house designed by (*). The text dissects the genesis of a project, it shares the doubts, it extracts the mechanisms that lead to choices and it discovers the intuitions that make poetry.

This paper explores the methodology inherent to the making of the book. The book makes the objective account of an architect’s erring towards a remarkable outcome. In essence, it is not a critical review of the project, as it dives in the objectivity of the produced documents. It is not a holistic interpretation, as the focus is on the local changes in perception and understandings. It is not a contextualization of a practice situating it in a field, as the appearing references relate to design decisions rather than to the designed object.

/…/

The result combines text, illustrations, photographs and layout into an irreducible, objective and observable whole explicating the ins and outs of a particular design process, to which can be referred in a more comprehensive research in the concerned practice or in other researches (on design processes for example).

Keywords. 

research by design; design process; publication; methodology

/…/

Perspectives

This book is a precedent that can be engaged in different perspectives. We are now planning to continue the series with four similar books. The future will tell to which extent the books will diverge or follow a similar track. Very different contexts and interests will probably result in a variation of approaches.

We would like to propose a similar exercise to researchers who engage their professional practice at the heart of their doctoral research. This exercise is probably slightly different because it would frame in ongoing researches which have their own agenda. 

This precedent will also be engaged as a pedagogic tool in a master dissertation studio at the KU Leuven, in which the students will be invited to compile work documents following similar (probably adapted) procedures. This growing body of work will open up to further speculation and observation, on an epistemological level, on the level of individual practices and on the level of pedagogics.

Researching in Architecture Practices

Files: abstract, poster, full paper

Fragments from proceedings (‘paper submission’)’:

Abstract.

This paper addresses the methodology of existing researches in active (professional) practices. The author obtained a PhD in his own practice, is currently supervising one doctorate nearing completion, in which the architectural practice is pivotal, and supervises two PhD proposals in young promising practices. In these researches, the subject is essentially threefold. First, there is the knowledge about the practices themselves. Other practices such as music, travelling, writing, fine rts, any practice can be part of the research, as long as they are connected to the architectural practice.

Second, there are the themes, the inspirationaal forces, the field of interests. This field of interest is not closed : other themes can appear during the research, similar to new projects that will appear in the practices during the PhD process. The paper will expand the notion of inspirational force in comparison to scientific subject. Third, the research explores the interaction between the two above. The researched themes provoke understandings about the practices. Inversely, the practice lead to new understandings on the themes. The complex nature of these interaction is inevitably a subject in itself. The methodology is structured around two fields: the practice and the inspirational forces. Inside these fields, the research is situated in specific actions and reflections.

/…/

Keywords.

Research by Design; Architecture Practice; Research in architecture Practice; methodology; inspiration

/…/

Process

Finally, I would like to refer briefly to three artefacts researching the design process. These are different from the former because they explicitly aim at understanding some aspects of the practice. However, they fit also in this paper because they are local research artefacts framing in a research, following different mechanisms which are not related to the global methodology. 

In “Metarbitrariness”, Harold Fallon decomposes the design process of the Carré des Arts /…/  by displaying a series of work documents in a way that reflects the ongoing choices and hesitations. This exhaustive display of sketches and presentation documents on a single display allowed to understand the mechanism of opening up hypothetic possibilities and closing again to workable options in iterative refinements.

The last one is still different. The book “Philippe Vande Maren & Richard Venlet – In Practice” addresses the entire design process from the point of view of the architects, making use of external points of view as sounding boards (a writer, a photographer, a graphic designer…). The account of the design process can easily frame in a research about the practice.

The list of these methodological fragments could be extended. The border between the items of the list is sometimes unclear. Maybe this is not really a difficulty. The value of identifying them is to consider them as underlying mechanisms rather than strict objects or procedures. They show that this kind of artefacts can fruitfully be realized following a diversity of paths. They show also that these experiments are carefully designed by the authors (of the practice and of the research), and thus can become part of both of them.

The Works of the Danish Architect Hans Christian Hansen (1901-1978)

Files: abstract, poster, full paper ( = extended abstract)

Fragments from proceedings (‘abstract submission’)’:

Abstract.

This project aims at documenting and analyzing the built works by Hans Christian Hansen (HCH 1901-1978) developed under the policies of the Danish Welfare State between the late 1930’s and early 1970’s as a project leader at the office of the City Architect in Copenhagen. The purpose of the project is to provide knowledge of a little known Danish architect and body of work, which is material and tectonic-wise extraordinarily rich, and quite unusual in its geographical, historical and cultural context. Although the mere documentation of HCH’s buildings should be considered a value in itself, it should be especially relevant today since these buildings are now getting to a state that require renovation or even demolition.

The Danish post-war environment characterized by a lack of materials first and the arrival of new industrialized materials later, besides the public and social character of an architecture developed under the policies of the Welfare State in the municipality of Copenhagen is the framework in which HCH designed his works. The hypothesis is that considering these initial conditions HCH´s works display a spatial and formal richness that show an intelligent and innovative use of humble and crude materials and standardized elements -both traditional and new- and original, understood as inventive and genuine joining solutions as well as a progressive, though comprehensive interpretation of the local context.

The project is based on an inductive methodology which takes as point of departure HCH´s built works together with the existing construction drawings and specifications and mostly uses architecture particular tools, as drawing and photography, to look at, analyze and communicate the works.

The analyzes is structured through 3 main chapters -from fragment to whole- corresponding to materials -type and format of the minimum part of the works-, materialization -strategies of putting together tangible content, in relation to materials and elements, and intangible issues, in relation to program, depicted through thematic issues as ornament, composition, bricolage and abstraction- and materiality -one´s experience and sense of materials affected by considerations on weather, time, decay, symbolism, …- All 3 stages will also be approached in relation to the notion of context concerning questions of the immediate context -the built site- and the ultimate context -the cultural milieu-.

The outcome of the project will 1) give to know the works of HCH, a somewhat neglected particular trend in Danish architecture 2), open a window to investigate the Danish Welfare State architecture from a new and more close-up perspective, the built works 3), disclose a way of working and aesthetics that is very contemporary 4) and moreover, strengthen the relation between practice and academy.

Keywords.

Materials, materialization, materiality, tectonics, context, works.

Possibility of a Village

Files: abstract, poster, full paper (= updated abstract)

Fragments from proceedings (‘abstract submission’)’:

Abstract.
How can we provide quality space, in a world evolving towards a man-centered planet (the Anthropocene), for 9 – 12 billion people by 2050? Can architecture play an important role in this necessary evolution? In Architecture man continually seeks to attain the exact relationship between the rational and the irrational. The goal is “completeness”, always based on man himself as a poetic rational being. The most important motive in the search is the perception of the environment. The site, the shape, the technicity, the program are all interwoven in a unison oneness within the most ultimate possibilities, out of which emerges a fascinating beauty, growing stronger while gaining accuracy. There exists an inextricable bond between “what” and “why” of Architecture and the development of a society. Through fascination for historical architectural phenomena as Abu Simbel, Chichén Itzá, Pienza, Tugendhat, Danteum and Passage, through extensive research of Ksar Tissergate, a historic village in southern Morocco and through experience with realised contemporary projects by Delmulle Delmulle Architects, we redesign a village in Flanders as an urban statement. Many villages in Flanders have their own identity and are definitely an alternative to mitigate congestion and pollution in cities. However, villages suffer with depopulation and ultimately become desolated ghost towns. Human and social capital are an important factor in the exodus. The “active” population is looking for career in our capitalist “hurry” society and are therefore forced to live in cities. The inactive population remains behind in the villages or is dumped in nursing homes. We redesign Elsegem as a village that can play again an important role in this new world. The implantation is situated in the centre of the village and is related to the church and ensures that there are compelling, useful, spatial qualitative, public spaces that binds the rest of the villages. This project is prospectivism and must be an effort to optimize the available space in a physical and human context. Axonometric drawings of 5 squares around the Sint-Mauruschurch, a sentō, a multifunctional building, an automatic parking, a vertical farm, a liquid space, a mega solar disk and a proportion triangle are used as “interfaces”: through a kind of simplification, the drawing clarifies the relationship between humans and spaces. It is a search for new forms of communication that are specific to the discipline as an opportunity to explicate research accurately. It is a way how architecture can generate own insights, can use appropriate forms of knowledge and can experiment with own forms of discourse.

Keywords.

prospectivism / social capital / human context / materiality / experience

Behavioural-, Communicative- and Collaborative Aspects of Tools for Architects and Structural Engineers

Files: abstract, full paper

Fragments from proceedings (‘paper submission’)’:

Abstract. 

This paper presents the analyses of twelve interviews with structural engineers and architects integrated with a comprehensive literature review about the behaviour of architects and structural engineers when communicating and collaborating in the early phase of the design process. The focus is on creating a tool

to deal with behavioural, communicative and collaborative problems of the actors involved when collaborating to design folding spatial structures.

/…/

By analysing and interpreting various aspects of communication and collaboration n the interviews and literature, the relationship between behaviour of the actors involved and the design process is developed. Within that framework the use of prototypes, models and other tools in relation to communication and collaboration between the actors is analysed. This enables to create tools to design folding spatial structures taking into account behavioural-, communicative- and collaborative aspects during the early phase of the design process.

Keywords. 

Behaviour, communication, collaboration, tools, architects, engineers, design.

/…/

Conclusion

As well in the work of Runberger, as in the work of Oostra, Smit and Eekhout the behavioural, communicative and collaborative aspects between architects and engineers, including their controversies, ‘disappear’ into process models and need further research. A multi layered tool should motivate, activate and inspire architects as well as structural engineers to ‘map their controversies’. 

/…/

Discussion and future outlook

A limitation to the interviews is they where only conducted with Dutch architects and structural engineers. On one hand this limitation seems to neglect cultural, juridical and other aspects. However, as the tool is still under development and the stance for developing the tool is not this is how you must do it, but based on research, this is how you can do it, this can not be a huge problem.

Future research will involve International Master students, starting practitioners and experienced practitioners to further develop the three layers through different actions. This in order to develop a design tool for architects and structural engineers they can use when designing folding spatial structures.

Studio_ L28: Urban Sonic Design Conversation

Files:  abstract, poster, full paper

Fragments from proceedings (‘artefact submission’)’:

Abstract.

Our proposition consists of a public installation that seeks to infrastructure a multiplicity of conversations around the topic of a sonic urbanism as critical spatial practice hereby opening up to the affective or attractive and repulsive power of sonic force. To explore the affordances of a sonic urbanism as critical spatial practice and thus to break free from prevailing modes of urbanism which focus on sonic risk and vibrational nuisance – we constituted a working practice exploiting and nurturing the productive encounters between disciplines such as sound art, urbanism and urban architecture. By setting up an experimental design studio at the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture, embedded in local auditory culture and in connection to ongoing planning processes, we aim to facilitate an open learning ground for sonic design experimentation in the development of innovative sonic spatial tools and approaches. Our design studio is oriented to students of the International Master in Architecture summoned to research the multiple (sonic) vibrations of the Brussels L28 railway area, to exploit and contrast these vibrational forces, transforming them to into actions and opportunities. From a critical sonic understanding of urban space, we exploit a contradictory role compared to the widespread noise control practices, reformulate environments, perimeters and relations of urban phenomena and search for interactivity with vibrational dynamics that already exist in the territory. In a public installation we will show possible design approaches and perspectives that we have explored together with students and other guests. The documentation of the research project will be the central focus for a series of transdisciplinary conversations that we will organize in the exhibition space of the conference. Does the questioning of the politics of silence and noise lead us to alternative sonic strategies and tactics for the design of transitory urban space? What critical positions can we take from here for the creation of vibrational environments that enable new forms of urban negotiation?

Keywords.
Sonic Urbanism, Critical Spatial Practice, Conversation, Exhibition, Vibrational Force

/…/
INSTALLATION / SET UP

The complete installation consists of 1) a listening desk for max two persons 2) Panels with poster presentation 3) an audio recording/playback system. On the posters, design proposals for the open space of the railway space L28 will be positioned according to the research axes. The table we will present a sonic cartography of the research project using graphic and (sonic) vibrational material. Through an audio set up that integrates 3 headphones, an acoustic monitoring device into one system, conversations are recorded and later mixed with the field recordings and previous conversations. The results are made audible via play back.

S.O.S. User-Fit Designs

Files: abstract (Bylemans), poster (Bylemans), full paper ( = updated abstract) (Bylemans and Vallet)

Fragments from proceedings (‘artefact submission’)’:

Abstract.

Since the beginning of the 21sth century, the societal role of public libraries has changed considerably. Becoming an open and welcoming house for all citizens, the once so recognizable place packed with books had to make room for new functions and activities, such as learning, working, meeting, playing and relaxing. Given the divers nature of these functions as well as the various profiles of library users (i.e. differences in background, beliefs, needs and preferences), the designer’s task became very complex. Thus, the starting point of my PhD was to know if and how designers of public libraries succeed in their rather challenging (re)design assignment, and in what way they involve library users to guarantee a (more) user-fit design.

To fine-tune this initial problem statement, I started with a literature study, and a first, explorative field study involving Flemish public library experts and directors. Both research methods emphasized not only the importance and need of a (more) user-fit design, but also the encountered difficulties and challenges throughout the associated design process. As such, obtaining knowledge on the user’s spatial needs and preferences is for instance not self-evident. Many designers are (still) convinced that they can make the best design-decisions instead of the users themselves. Consequently, an due to additional imposed agendas, power structures, practical constraints, established ways of working and quality assurance, they restrict their efforts to a minimum and do not always use the obtained knowledge in a proper or genuine way. A related but more fundamental challenge is therefore to change the mindset of designers. This implies for instance that designers should no longer consider themselves as the only spatial experts.

Based on these preliminary findings, I want to look and experiment with alternative methods and techniques to improve a more user-fit design method for public libraries. At this conference, I would like (i) to share and discuss my findings and (ii) receive feedback and additional inspiration for involving in particular citizens who are spatially illiterate.

Keywords.

user-fit designs; design methods; design process; spatial literacy; public libraries

Field Notes from the Technospace

Files: abstract (Cannaerts and Helbig), poster (Cannaerts and Helbig), full paper (Cannaerts)

Fragments from proceedings (‘paper submission’)’:

Abstract. 

The environments in which we operate as architects are increasingly saturated with digital technologies: internet-of-things, global communication and transportation technologies, mobile devices, increased satellite coverage, location-based services, ubiquitous computing… The post-doctoral research project under the title architecture, agency and the technosphere, investigates architecture’s relation with this technologically saturated environment. The three year project coincides with setting up the Field Station academic design office (ADO) at the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture. The aim of the paper is to reflect on the ongoing and completed projects and to establish a number of frameworks for the research agenda of the post-doctoral research project and the ADO, and attempt at developing a model for understanding the technosphere. The discussion will address open questions regarding research, teaching and practice of the Fieldstation ADO.

Keywords. 

Architecture, agency, technology, technosphere

/…/

DISCUSSION: UNPACKING TECHNOLOGICAL AGENCY

Fieldstation Studio’s ventures into the technosphere demonstrate that technology is increasingly influencing our environment. Digital technology is obviously human made and for the most part intentionally designed, its agency first and foremost lies with the people, corporations and governments developing and employing these technologies. However, the consequences of the large scale adoption of digital technologies, their impact on the environment, the cultural phenomena they give rise to are largely unforeseen. As such we can ascribe spatial agency to the technology itself, to the accidental emerging megastructure of the technosphere.

The work of this paper is based on is diverse in scope, this paper draws some cross sections through the work looking for come themes and strategies as part of the work in progress of unpacking the spatial agency of digital technologies. Each of the frameworks proposed here – the fertile middle ground to be found when thinking beyond dichotomies; the tentative model of interaction between vertical spheres and stacks, horizontal territories and shifting borders; the novel ways of seeing and mapping technology provides and resulting visual cultures – would benefit from being developed more, both in theoretical framing and in produced work. This paper reports on a research project in progress and hopefully the feedback and discussion will provide fruitful insight for the further development of the research, teaching and practice of the Fieldstation ADO.

Between Drawing and Sculpture

Files: abstract, poster, full paper

Fragments from proceedings (‘artefact submission’)’:

Abstract.

A series of plaster casts in the form of small tiles is the starting point for a reflection on a position between drawing and sculpture, between the two dimensional and the three dimensional. But also, a reflection on the imagination of poetic sculptural concepts through a casting method where negative becomes positive and visa versa. The production mode and the necessity of making a series of these plaster casts will be highlighted.

When a photographer shot detailed photos of a large drawing I made for the creation of an edition, I noticed how the medium of photography added a new reading of the depth in the drawing and of the material quality of the lines and cut-outs in that drawing. Without being able to say exactly what it was, I sensed a potential in these observations for the development of new works. In retrospect I can now clearly see how a text by Jean-Marc Besse on cartography, building and inventing that I studied some years ago helped me in setting up a project to give meaning to these observations.

I started making tracing drawings by engraving lines with an electric mill in wooden casting panels. I made small plaster casts of it. The plaster cast came out with a smooth white surface, and the engraved lines created the notion of an embedded relief. A three dimensional and material aspect was introduced. I could make different casts of the same fragment or look for other compositions. I imagine spaces and sculptures made with tabletops, window frames, ground planes of the studio space, badminton nets, billboards, road signs. The flat white surface of the plaster tile inspired as a mental space where the sculptural entities resignate.

I decided to create a method to investigate further the potentials of the observations I made in the photos. I developed a casting technique to allow the production of series of images where I could investigate the position where drawing and sculpture go hand in hand. According to Jean-Marc Besse these images, and the sequence of the different forms of the images, is establishing the path of the object or the project from which we can reconstitute its rationality. These sequences of images and thoughts don’t stop because something is proven, but because the last act was the right one. The logic of the project is about the work that had to be done and not about the rule that had to be used. It is within this dynamic of the research, within this investigation of open horizons based on a “position” (or a hypothesis or an idea of a form) that knowledge objects are being made which shouldn’t be seen as basic facts. Besse, 2001.

Keywords.

mental space; positive negative; poetics; sculpture; position

Scrutinizing Spatial Potential behind the Representation through Perspective Drawing

File: abstract

Fragments from proceedings (‘artefact submission’)’:

Abstract.

Since its invention in the Renaissance, linear perspective has dominated (architectural) representation and spatial understanding in the West, providing a geometrical tool for a two-dimensional rendering of space. This doctoral design driven research however argues that there is a hidden potential to perspective as we know it and that it could be employed as an actor in the process of (three-dimensional) space-making as well. Furthermore will this generation of new spatialities provoke further reflection on how we look at space.

In a search for revealing the assumed formative features of perspective, this research operates within the Paduan Scrovegni chapel, more particular within the frescoes that are painted on the interior walls by Giotto (c. 1267 – 1337), a Proto- Renaissance painter/architect who is considered as one of the predecessors in the evolution of perspective, hence the pictorial style as we know today1. St. Anne’s house, depicted in The Birth of the Virgin is a first selected piece of architecture to undergo an initial reversal of projection: through performing analogue perspective drawing interventions, we are able to penetrate the picture plane and (re)construct possible versions of the depicted architecture – a transformation from 2D rendition into 3D reconstruction. This new spatiality can subsequently serve as accessible looking machine. The flexibility and instability of this fictive field allow for a context where confusion and ambiguity (characteristic for Proto- Renaissance depictions) are tolerated and, moreover stimulate the emergence of creative insights.

As artefact we would like to present the intermediary output of our dwelling behind the surface: the confrontation with Anne’s house after being subjected to a perspectival disclosure. Central is the drawing showing the house, a peculiar oneroom- building, approached as an autonomous architectural object but at the same time brought into relation with the physical reality of the chapel. Accompanying the drawing, modelling and video work will be included as well, addressing both the 2D gaze and the 3D experience. This mixed media approach has a propelling effect in the empirical research and enhances not only the comprehension of the physical outcome, but also the accessibility of the mental space. The objective is not the reconstruction of Anne’s house as such, but the chances that this fiction enables. For this explorative research is an enquiry into the potentiality of (un)expected spaces beyond the representation and the ensuing knowledge production.

Keywords.

Perspective, analogue drawing, proto-renaissance, design driven research

/…/

PROPOSAL ARTEFACT As artefact we would like to present the intermediary output of our dwelling behind the surface: the confrontation with Anne’s house after being subjected to a perspectival disclosure. Central is (1) the drawing (pencil on tracing paper) that shows the represented house, approached as an autonomous architectural object but at the same time brought into relation with the physical reality of the chapel that incorporates the fresco. The original drawing will be physically presented at the conference. The paper measures 90 by 200 cm and should preferably be laid down. The extra (2) drawings and (3) models that accompany this centerpiece will be displayed in relation to it: placed on the paper, integrated within the surface area, so to form one whole and not to exceed the 90x200cm borders. (If there is possibly an empty wall available next to the table with the drawing, I would maybe opt to project the video of the model as well.) [The work here presented is still in progress, for the exploration within this fresco has not yet been concluded.]

Dwelling, the Conversation Pieces

Fragments from proceedings (‘artefact submission’)’:

Abstract.

As a stage and framework, architecture is a well-developed medium for surrounding art. As a reference, art – by shape or meaning – serves architecture as an inspiration. What is of interest for the PhD project is if the architecture practice can learn from artistic practice, within its own act of space making. Probably there are design strategies to mutate or translate, in addition to the thinking in alignment, symmetry, solid/void, constructive details, harmony (in material, color or proportion) and other properties most architects are familiar with. The PhD project Dwelling, the Conversation Pieces aims at staging a productive dialogue between two disciplines. The goal is to set up several exhibitions that materialize conversations by using artefacts produced by the architects together with a carefully made selection of invited artists. By exhibiting the artefacts, the conversation becomes public and can be circumstantially debated by specialists from several disciplines. In his book, Iñaki Ábalos takes you on a guided visit to exemplary houses erected in the 20th century categorized according to seven different contemporary philosophies1. Seven worldviews relate to seven ways of structuring the home, both in the sense of constructing, orienting and the taking positions in the power relations of public life. By naming the parallels between philosophies and architecture, Ábalos underlines related ways of seeing the world through the spatial setting, the construction method and the chosen materials. Ábalos helps me to look at the shaped world as a field of opinions and designed intentions. By positioning different artefacts in relation to each other, at least one emerging meaning should speak of dwelling, the verb and dwelling, the object. Another one will report on the different ways of experiencing and imagining dwelling and by doing so, will bring forward a deepened exchange between art and architecture. For the CA2RE conference I will exhibit artefacts that illustrate a first collaboration. In this selection the design strategy of animism is on display. Human characteristics here work in relation with ‘telling’ architecture. As described above, these pieces aim to provoke a conversation.

Keywords.
Dwelling; artefacts; substantiating worldviews; design the conversation; interdisciplinary

/…/
I believe that by this selection of objects the design strategy of animism is on display, where recognisable human features work in service of art and architecture when transmitting messages.

Activating Empathy through the Act of Drawing

Files: abstract (De Brabander, Lagrange and Van Den Berghe), poster (De Brabander), full paper (De Brabander, Lagrange and Van Den Berghe)

Fragments from proceedings (‘artefact submission’)’:

Abstract.

We propose to present a set of drawings as an artefact. Through these drawings, we propose the act of drawing as a moment of embodiment and a tool to further enhance empathy in observations of phenomena related to architectural design which are difficult to understand otherwise. This research aims to develop ways of understanding fragility in architecture through initiating an (empathic) drawing process. We aim to critically assess and reflect on three series of drawings, their interrelation and how making those drawings contributes to understanding fragility through empathy. We will discuss these three series of drawings: Firstly, we will discuss a selection of drawings out of the first author’s drawing archive, consisting of drawings made as a child, a youngster, an architectural student and an architectural researcher. To obtain insight in the author’s way of drawing and hence observing, the author’s drawing archive has been observed. The observation has indicated that drawings made two decades ago are interlinked with drawings made over the past five years. Secondly, we will bring to the fore a series of sketches of a Belgian dune landscape made on site. We will elaborate on how these sketches are an initiator for current drawing cycles by serving as memo drawings. To conclude, we will elaborate on a drawing series that comprises layered drawings that gradually decode and unravel spatial observations. /…/

Keywords.
Perspective, analogue drawing, proto-renaissance, design driven research

/…/

Conclusion

The drawing process as described above provided the research process with the leverage that was necessary to question the status of the window. First, the window has been drawn and understood as an object placed next to the draughtsman. /…/ Is the window an object placed next to the draughtsman who is looking at one place? Or does the draughtsman personify the window for many places? If so, what are these places and are they important? These questions will be the subject of the next research phase. The drawing cycles as described above have been necessary steps to make this clear. /…/ The research is making clear that the act of drawing is an intense and empathic moment of embodiment, hence being a moment it is temporal. In that moment the draughtsman dwells where his ‘object of obsession’ that he is drawing resides. /…/ This moment of becoming, and thus the empathic window through which we observe, is extremely fragile. This is the fragility we are seeking to investigate and understand through this research. /…/ The drawings are a way to avoid the destruction in this moment by capturing it in drawing cycles of this kind so they can possibly give more permanence to ‘the fragile’.

Communal Space and Degree of Sharing

Files: abstract, poster, full paper (=updated abstract)

Fragments from proceedings (‘abstract submission’)’:

Abstract.

This paper reviews the regeneration project of Juer Hutong led by Chinese architect Liangyong Wu from 1987 to 1994, a dwelling research and practice for an old neighborhood with traditional courtyard houses in Beijing’s historical city. It is an early experiment of mediating historical conservation and the soaring housing demand in the late 1980s since the housing reform in Beijing. The whole research, design and implementation process of Juer Hutong project is documented in Wu’s 1994 book The Old City of Beijing and its Juer Hutong Neighborhood. Past studies of this epic housing project have been focusing on its theoretical value for conservation planning of historical cities as the biggest achievement. This paper wants to excavate another dimension of the project: how it employed the architectural design mechanisms and cultural idea of public-private relationship enclosed in traditional Chinese dwelling and created a new architectural typology, the new quadrangle, which can enable both community life and individual privacy. This paper argues that rather than being a traditional courtyard housing replica, as commonly misunderstood and criticised due to its un-traditional form, the new quadrangle stands as an interesting example of how to achieve communal living patterns in modern dwelling design, meeting nowadays requirements in terms of density and degree of collectivity.

Keywords.

Chinese dwelling design; communal space; new courtyard house; public-private gradient; urban regeneration design

Enframing the Scene

Files: abstract, poster, full paper

Fragments from proceedings (‘paper submission’)’:

Abstract. 

This paper is part of a Ph.D. thesis. It originates in a cross-cultural observation, which is from the perspective of the contemporary architecture academic context to interpret one typical Chinese landscape spatial phenomenon: enframing the scene.

Starting from a discussion of frame1, both in contemporary architectural discourse and in retroactive research concerning Ancient Chinese landscape, this project aims to reveal certain similarities and differences in the use of frame between these realms.

Based on a cross-cultural methodological approach, we found a similarity in the use of frame in these two domains. They are both from visual habits. It is in one certain chain: ‘the way of seeing’- ‘the way to create space matching this seeing way’1. Due to the different visual habits, the cases from ancient Chinese landscape offer another way to see, and then another way to organize, the space by using frame. This “another way”, in this thesis, is defined as perceptual interaction between the users and space, happening in the user’s perception field.

In the present paper, it will discuss the possibility to employ the perception-phenomenology and visual psychology to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of this perception interaction tool in contemporary spatial design.

The adoption of phenomenology is based on the assumption that human knowledge of space includes some a priori. This means that, excluding cultural differences, there should be some spatial prototypes that can serve people of varied cultural backgrounds.

Ultimately, the research will highlight how the perception interaction, used as a “design tool”, could lead to a higher context-sensitive spatial design practice in this contemporary extensively globalized society.

Keywords. 

Perceptual Interaction Design Tool; Contemporary spatial design; Ancient Chinese landscape architecture; Frame/windows and space/landscape

/…/

Conclusion

Although this is a study based on the spatial phenomenon of Chinese gardens when we talk about the perceptual cognition, that is the essential and fundamental working mechanism, we actually touched on the commonality of the human being. We believe a more in-depth analysis of it in this process, mainly employing perception-phenomenology and visual psychology, will help us return to the context of contemporary spatial design discourse. It would help to convert it into a tool using in contemporary design.

Design the Possible

Files: abstract, poster, full paper

Fragments from proceedings (‘paper submission’)’:

Abstract.

How can the transformation of a street tell the story of the redevelopment project of an urban district (if it can) and therefore of a wider marginal territory? How can a built pavilion tell about the redevelopment of a prison (if it can) and therefore of the Italian prison system? Starting from these two questions related to practical experiences/…/, I will try to explore empirically the nature (one of the possibilities) of the contemporary project in some realms of complexity. It is an investigation into how architectural design can equip itself to become one of the key stages of the transformations that involve marginal territories.

Nowadays, the development of a project often has to face complex and uncertain contexts. On the one hand, the contexts can be complex because of different and contrasting needs, fragmented responsibilities, multiple knowledge and unspecified problem issues. On the other hand, the contexts can be uncertain because of changing political intentions, lack of economic resources and the hesitant time of possible transformation. Inactivity seems to be an inevitable condition. To overcome this condition, design needs to be updated in order to become an ecology of practices /…/, inside the society. In other words, it should have an innovative attitude capable of overcoming the traditional public-private economic system, applying to calls for grants, for example, working in partnership with several stakeholders, designing not only on problem-solving tasks but also on the definition of critical issues.

Following the process and the outcomes of two researches I have actively took part in, the attention will be focused on the elaborated documents, investigating possible innovative aspects. Both experiences try to define devices to guide the possible transformation, experiencing punctual realizations. In this way, the strategic stage and the tactical action influence each other in a cyclic movement. An adaptive master plan for a marginal territory and a set of guidelines for the redevelopment of Italian prisons will allow us to reflect if it is possible and useful to design a well-done document, re-elaborating “la tet bien faite” by Morin (1999). This would not be a document that designs a model but a device that both places and answers questions and which has the criteria to put in relation the available elements. An open document that has the codes to change itself in accordance with the contingency, becoming something different, maintaining the same strategic orientation. However, the debate remains open.

Keywords. open documents, complexity, uncertainty, contingency, research in action

/…/

The aim is to design devices capable of distinguishing and merging, recovering the original meaning of the term complexus /…/. A rhizomatic tool that connects the scales, the temporalities, the different degrees of generalization and specification, that become a shared place of work. Here coexist the interactions, the exchanges, the choices, the specific formalisations, conflictual too. Here the multiple thrusts and the tools of an adaptive training process are expressed. The process advances by approximation and by parts whose positioning is agreed from time to time.

Aware that many questions are still open /…/, this intervention is to be considered only a first attempt to use what can be learned from the opportunities encountered.

Structural Model of Multigenerational Living Environment

Files:  abstract, poster, full paper (= extended abstract)

Fragments from proceedings (‘abstract submission’)’:

Abstract.

Multigenerational living environment as an alternative to existing institutionalized living environment of older population presents the main field of research. The high level of elderly segregation remains ever present despite constant developments in the area of institutionalized care. Necessity of elderly integration into general social environment reminds us of importance of active presence for all age groups in order to provide quality living environment. Furthermore, it opens numerous questions concerning the unexplored or underdeveloped potentials of living environment, when the needs of users of all age groups are taken into consideration.

The aim of research is to explore and understand how diverse needs of users of all ages can influence the development of wider living environment, building typology from urbanistic point of view, and on architectural design of living units. The goal is to develop a structural model of multigenerational living environment and test its applicability in diverse situations.

The basic research frame of structural model development is defined by the key properties of multigenerational living environment from the social and spatial point of view. How do these properties affect the content of an environment, how are they regulated and how do they relate to each other in order to establish multigenerational living environment of higher quality? These are the focus questions of the doctoral thesis. Research includes all of the users of a living environment of all the age groups as well as multigenerational living environment in itself.

Research terms will be inducted through analysis and categorization of the users needs. Study of relations among users is to be performed, exploring relations among the members of the same age group, as well as with the members of other age groups.

Based on established research terms, the further study should be conducted, how users interrelations are expressed upon living environment and what kind of relations does the living environment generate towards its users, thus forming a foundation of structural model development.

Structural model of multigenerational living environment as a system of social and spatial relations has three primary roles. Firstly as a system of initial design, secondly as a system of review in the planning stage and finally as a system for evaluation of living environment in use. Diverse modes of application include transformation-of or addition-to an existing living environment and establishing of a new living environment. Scale adaptability of the model enables application on the level of wider living environment, building typology development and architectural design of living units.

Keywords.

structural model, multigenerational living environment, age group

Penumbra as a Starting Point

Files: abstract, full paper ( = updated abstract)

Fragments from proceedings (‘abstract submission’)’:

Abstract.
/…/
This paper concerns strategic design principles arising from the study of solid light in space through the interstitial presence of penumbra. Penumbra (from Latin paene, “almost” y umbra, “shadow”) is understood and presented as the space of soft shadow between light and total darkness, an area where it is difficult to define the ending of one presence and the beginning of the other. The paper questions various processual modes that approach light as matter and posits the thesis that penumbra is a fundamental medium for understanding and approaching the phenomenal inseparability of light and shadow.

Through the work and reflections of Tadao Ando, Louis Kahn and Campo Baeza, the paper reviews the connotations of spaces conceived from the shadow, its characteristics as void, the role of penumbra as core element for holding content, the role of inner form for reinforcing syntax and the use of chiaroscuro for encouraging contemplation and movement. All principles are observations emerging from architecture in service of the phenomenon of light.

The paper concludes by stressing the role of penumbra when approaching design processes as well as presenting the idea of palimpsestic projections as a platform for creating correspondences between architectural processes and the manifestation of space.

Keywords.

projections, penumbra, shadows, light, design process.

+ More