2004.12.16 13:56
Re: Ichnographia Romaphilia
While working with Piranesi the discussion is often enlightening.
"So why exactly did you produce two versions of the Ichnographia Campi Martii and keep everyone none the wiser?"
"Overall, I just wanted to see who would find the two versions first. They were found, eventually (after more than two hundred years, but it's embarrassing for all the Piranesi "scholars" because it wasn't one of them."
"Why do you think the so-called scholars failed? Why did they not see what was always right in front of them?
"Simply put, they never reenacted the source."
"Kahn reenacted the source, and he didn't see the two versions."
"Well, I'd say Kahn was busy manifesting new versions of his own."
"Perhaps it's just plain destiny that Philadelphia itself reenacts the source."
"You know, I love you guys like brothers."
"That's fine as long as you realize that we're all independent as well."
"Ha, tell that to Romulus and Remus."
2004.12.19 18:23
Re: moved
Things are getting busy here in preparation for the commencement of Leaving Obscurity Behind, the Horace Trumbauer Architecture Fan Club Convention, 28 December 2004. All the guests are getting their accommodations set via Ichnographia Romaphilia--one of the highlights of the convention is that all the guests are in a constant state of bilocation between Philadelphia and Rome, with the register being the match of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the axis of life of the Ichnographia Campi Martii--oddly, Fairmount and the Vatican Hill are the 'same place.' Luckily, Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI are thrilled to be staying at Eastern State Penitentiary. Otto's going to explain all this in his opening speech delivered from the roof of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Newest unexpected development: Albert Barnes is going to give a talk, 2 January 2005 (Barnes' birthday) about how his collection should now be hung within the forthcoming new facility on the Parkway. To say the least, the fan club is very anxious to hear what Barnes will say.
2004.12.26 12:20
Re: cityscape collage
It started more than eight years ago when it was realized that Hadrian's Tomb and Logan Circle share the same circular footprint. Then, about two years ago, it was realized that ancient Rome's axis of life, as delineated by Piranesi, and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway share the same length and design articulation, with again Hadrian's Tomb and Logan Circle being the key register.
Now delineation of the 'bilocalopolis' begins. The Tiber and the Schuylkill flow through the cityscape. Augustine's tomb and City Hall have their similarities. Rome's Corso is now the same as Broad Street, the longest cardo in the world. X marks the spot of the first Gothic camp outside the walls of Rome and the no-man's land of the Vine Street Expressway interchanges.
I wrote something on 16 December 2004 which turns out to be a succinctly worded culmination of over 10 years of investigation, and also the touchstone for a finally foreseeable catharsis.
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2005.01.08
ideas
Begin 3d rendition of Romaphilia.
Compose/compile a virtual sculpture (cad surface) exhibit for the Calder park within Romaphilia.
2005.02.15
ideas
Test Wacko House II as the new Barnes Foundation; see how the design fits (if at all); new/more drawings/dbs for Romaphilia.
The notion of reenacting the acropolis on the various building sites along the Benj. Franklin Parkway may be the new paradigm for "Parkway Interpolation"; the notions of towers and temples raised on a high plinth may be fecund, (at least virtually).
Test the House in Laguna as the new Calder Museum; see Calder sculptures raised on the grand staircase.
Place all the Campo Marzio porticus within Romaphilia and juxtapose with immediate Philadelphia context.
A series of City Hall towers marching up the Parkway.
Superimpose the Gerusalemme model and the Cathedral wireframe.
Model Love Park; superimpose the Aedicule Intercourse.
2005.04.07 10:35
"The Pope's Funeral and Ichnographia Romaphilia"
Leaving Obscurity Behind
"The Pope's Funeral and Ichnographia Romaphilia"
John the Baptist [Piranesi], Julian Abele and James Stirling
8 April 2005
coinciding with the culmination of the first great Triumphal Way Reenactment of the 21st Century
"It's great how where the dead Pope celebrated Mass in Philadelphia marks exactly the spot where the bilocations intersect."
2006.02.18 13:51
division isolation separation boundaries oh my!!
...Piranesi's Ichnographia Campus Martius, i.e., Rome and Center City Philadelphia aligned along their respective axis of life and Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Both axes uncannily match in length, and the circumference of Hadrian's Tomb uncannily matches Logan Circle.
2006.04.27
Ichnographia Ottopia
Ichnographia Ottopia. This “place” will house/incorporate all the plans and all the 3d data. Ultimately, it will be a gigantic virtual museum of architecture.
Ichnographia Ottopia is the vehicle for creating lots of new architecture.
...put the plan of Whitemarsh Hall into the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and then use other plans as indicative of period rooms. ...ultra-modern "hyper buildings" by collaging the surface forms and standard office block shapes--"infringement complex" plus "surface shapes".
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2006.07.17
Ottopia perspectives
...aerial perspectives of Ottopia vis-ŕ-vis the Philadelphia model. ...an underlay of the Campo Marzio plan data will be added, and the generated data will be mixed and matched with the current data. Likewise, closer attention will be given to certain sites, and perspectives will be generated as the sites get developed.
2007.01.05
ideas
...going very easy recombinant with the cad collection, and in the process generating a new narrative for Quondam. Ichnographia Ottopia is more or less the context, but so is reality (filtered through the virtual).
2007.01.09
some progress
...the notion of continuing to use the databases as part of an ongoing architectural narrative at Quondam. ...keep it in the context of Ottopia/Romaphilia.
2007.01.11
Ottopia
...moved the Berlin database in register with Ottopia at the Tiber Island.
2007.06.15
Quondam ideas
...begin to generate a whole new virtual environment. ...abandon Romaphilia/Ottopia as the general Quondam site.
Make it all up now and maybe the Northeast becomes the base of it all.
...putting the model collection within the Philadelphia model... ...begin to use the model collection in a completely virtual way.
...designing all the buildings along the Philadelphia Tiber. ...putting all data within one large base map, and that’s going to be the Center City to Ury base map. ...collect all the plans and start displaying them in groups, in strange, heretofore unseen combinations.
2007.06.29
filling in the "gaps"
...inspiration regarding how to go about filling in the "gaps" of the Ottopia plan--create the boundary of the gap and fill the resultant (strange) shape with some existing plan data. I tried the process for behind the Altes Museum, filling the shape of the site with the Chandigarh/Governor's Palace site plan, and the outcome is nice--I'm going to treat it as a mat building with "sculptural" buildings on top.
I also did some strange 'scale and rotate' experiment with the Islamabad complex plan, using complex windows, and a kind of deconstructivist/Libeskind type of plan resulted. I'm not sure if more experimentation will result in better, more provocative or satisfying results. I wonder what would happen if the exercise were applied to a model instead of a plan?
On Quondam's front page I published images from the Ichnographia contiguous elements database. I just removed all line work apart from the (white) walls. The resultant drawings are a bit reminiscent of Hejduk's masques. I don't know if I'll ever use such data for any kind of design idea or implication.
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2007.09.13
Quondam ideas
Fill in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (blank) plan with excerpts from other museum plans. Do this for three levels above ground, and also do a series of below ground plans (a la the new Gehry project/expansion). This will be the Museum within Ichnographia Quondam (along with Parkway Interpolation and the Bilocating Barnes and Calder Musuem).
Get the Mies Courthouse with Garage model executed... ...the model will be a fecund "play thing". ...a couple other Mies court houses...
...pages that organize the cad database collection into specific sets.
2007.10.25
I want to write...
Distort the courthouse with garage model. Mix up the Ichnographia plans.
2008.10.19
chapters of Architecture in Critical Condition
"Bilocation Syndrome" could be about Ichnographia Quondam and how it operates. Perhaps including thoughts on virtual and real and how there can be two places where things occur simultaneously.
2008.11.13
appositional architecture
On 2002.02.03 I wrote a note regarding "appositional art" and also the notion of wqc/appositions, but concluded with not being sure what appositional architecture is. It now seems that I do know what appositional architecture is, and I've been doing it via the "recombinant architectures" and IQ and even the first two Houses for Otto, House of Ill-Repute 001, Le Composites, Cut & Paste Museum. I can at least begin to collect/list all the examples at Quondam of "appositional Architecture" and outline a display of the work. Begin also by making a CAD database collection of the various plans.
There seems to be a thin line between appositional (architecture) and superimpositional (architecture), yet the 3-dimensional nature of architecture actually can simultaneously accommodate apposition and superimposition. For example, the HQ of DATA is appositional in elevation and superimpositional in plan. (...which now reminds me that there are no hline elevations of HQ of DATA.) I like this interesting double aspect that architecture can facilitate (and I wonder if this could be part of "Surgical Double Theater"--yes).
Actually "Going into Eclectic Shock" was/is going to be about my recombinant architectures, so either it all somehow comes together or it begins to interfere, or contradict. [2009.04.07: eclectic shock could deal with mixing/recombining architectures from different eras into new wholes.] Is appositional architecture and superimpositional architecture somehow going to be the overriding aspect/motif of AinCC?
Anyway, look at/collect the appositional letters/arguments and further develop them.
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2008.12.19
Durand plans and Ichnographia Quondam
Start placing the Durand plans into "position" within Ichnographia Quondam... ...extensive scale comparisons.
2008.12.19
Quondam and IQ
...the development at Quondam will be more drawing/design oriented (as opposed to text oriented). I suppose Ichnographia Quondam and its development could be the basis for the ongoing narrative at Quondam, but I'd also like to see real architectural innovation happen (in theory and design and presentation).
2009.01.29
Lost's ending
Is Ichnographia Quondam a study / experiment of architecture (and urbanism) within the space-time continuum?
For Ichnographia Quondam the space-time continuum connection is the Axis of Life / Benjamin Franklin Parkway connection, which comes after Piranesi's Porticus Neronianus / St. Peter's connection.
Ichnographia Quondam as bilocation theater?
2009.01.31
Re: Miscellaneous stuff
...experiment with architecture within a/the space-time continuum. For example, where some building models have already been collaged together, it's not just being playful, but also seeing what it's like when architectures from different places and/or different times cross paths. Another example is how the Axis of Life of the Ichnographia matches the Benjamin Franklin Parkway is like where two different space/time architectures actually lock together (hence Ichnographia Quondam,). ...redrawing a plan of the Palace of Versailles, and looking forward to seeing how and where that will fit in within Quondam's space-time continuum.
2009.02.17 07:58
Bilocation Syndrome
The delegation from India brought along a paradigm of Sanchi.
Augustus saw it and said "I'm to be buried like that."
And he was.
Then full house, hence Hadrian's bust out.
The huntress Diana came from MADxMAD garden to preside over the virtual pool of Nympheum Neronis. "New York is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there."
Here a Versailles, there a Versailles, everywhere a Versailles, sigh.
You mean like the distance and angle from Hall of Mirrors to Trianon equals the distance and angle from Capitol to White House?
Not exactly. The latter is somewhat magnified.
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