1996.06.18
record of Le Corbusier architecture
In a few days I will be done the Corbu plan and elevation work, and I look forward to the record of the work. I still have the Tower of Shadows and the Museum of Knowledge elevations to do.
After that I will either do a set of Corbu axonometrics or I could start to rework the scale pages/drawings of Scale and Architecture. I will do the axons first because I want to see the results because it will be something I haven't seen yet.
In general, I have been giving some more thought to the notion of a virtual museum of architecture, and I think the idea is extremely fertile and somehow this idea could, and indeed does, permeate throughout everything that I am doing with the computer, including my own design work. I really have to think this thing through because it could be the motif that ties all my proposed work together and really all I have to do is always think of my data as a museum of which I am both creator and curator. I will be designing and organizing and manageing my very own Museum of Architecture. It is perfect. For example, I can already speak of the collection and I can speak of the archives. The motif continues: I can also speak of specific exhibits and catalogues (exhibits being sets of specific drawings and ideas I produce and then cataloging the results through laser printing and text). This is how I am going to organize my work from now on. My Virtual Museum of Architecture.
In this sense, Scale and Architecture, and The Body, the Imagination, and Architecture are thus considered as major exhibits of the Museum. Once the Museum is established as an entity, all subsequent books, all subsequent exhibits (catalogues, books) have this background to build on and it will be the notion of having this specific museum and its specific collection as the heart of all the projects that I would like to do. I am beginning to see the power that my databases possess and how to make the most of it all.
1996.06.18
group elevations / Le Corbusier record
I should do some Corbu recording so I see some results and also see what scale I can use to show the large Strasbourg elevations, and then I will do a series with different buildings in front of each other or beside each other. This really shouldn't be so complicated. I also have some other elevations to do. There is also the series of elevations in chronological order.
Concerning the Corbu plans, I still have to collect them and fix up some that I have already collected. I also wonder if I should look at the plans within some kind of context? I would love to design a context, but a hesitate to do so because I don't know what relevance such a design would have, especially if I were not to devote much thought to the idea.
I want the results to be lucrative, so to speak, but I'm just not there yet. This Corbu idea seemed so good when I first started and now I'm not sure what the real point is. I guess the thing now is that I'm just collecting data and I still have to wait for the record prints. I think I should also come to some kind of concluding document and figure out what the point of the document is. (I'm trying to get too much done.)
I'm just now beginning to see the extent of possibilities that my databases afford, and there is so much to document, while at the same time there is so much that is yet to be complete, still requiring work. I guess I'm just in a production mode now, and that means I have to do some boring work. It really shouldn't be that bad though. I just have to make sure there is a reason for it all, and to be honest, I don't know that there is a specific reason just yet except that generally it will somehow, perhaps, have something to do with Scale and Architecture.
Let's just say that I continue with the Corbu stuff for the next couple of weeks and remember that I am creating definitive plan, elevation, and axonometric data which I will henceforth use as a standard reference.
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1996.06.21
another museum of architecture reference
Another reference to the "virtual museum of architecture" came from reading some in Rossi's The Architecture of the City. I am reading the chapters (headings) in reverse order and in the introduction to the 2nd Italian edition, Rossi makes reference to the Canaletto painting Capriccio.
From Rossi, p. 116:
"After I wrote this book and from the concepts I postulated in it, I outlined the hypothesis of the analogous city, in which I attempted to deal with theoretical questions concerning design in architecture. In particular I elaborated a compositional procedure that is based on certain fundamental artifacts in the urban reality around which other artifacts are constituted within the framework of an alanogous system. To illustrate this concept I gave the example of Canaletto's fantasy view of Venice, a capriccio in which Palladio's project for the Ponti di Rialto, the Basilica of Vicenza, and the Palazzo Chiericate are set next to each other and described as if the painter were rendering an urban scene he had actually observed. These three Palladian monuments, none of which are actually in Venice (one is a project; the other two are in Vicenza), nevertheless constitute an analogous Venice formed of specific elements associated with the history of both architecture and the city. The geographic transposition of the monuments within the painting constitutes a city that we recognize, even though it is a place of purely architectural reference. This example enables me to demonstrate how a logical-formal operation could be translated into a design method and then into a hypothesis for a theory of architectural design in which the elements were preestablished and formally defined, but where the significance that sprung forth at the end of the operation was the authentic, unforeseen, and original meaning of the work."
Immediately I think of the Strasbourg, Dusseldorf, Hurva composite building that I have created in 3D model form, and I would like to sometime in the future elaborate on how the composite is perhaps an analogous building. Furthermore, Rossi's point provides great fuel for future manipulation of my models and Canaletto's painting in particular provides inspiration and a grounding in terms of a "plan" for the "virtual museum" itself.
Overall, I see the analogous city concept working in tandem with the "virtual museum of architecture" idea, and I am at this point also interested in adding the collage city idea/methodology to the "museum" idea. I could eventually say that there are three historical ideas at the foundation upon which I build my "virtual museum." (This means that I have to re-read The Architecture of the City, Collage City, and perhaps even Rossi's Scientific Biography or whatever I can find on Rossi's ideas of the analogous city. I have to look up the definition of "analogous" and "collage."
1996.06.21
Seroux scanning
I started to scan plans from Seroux and it will be a worthwhile venture. The scale conversions are not too difficult and each plan will be converted through the printing process or through the frame size process. The Seroux plans will greatly enhance the plans the I have with CAD, especially the contract of older and modern plans is illumunating. I am just beginning to get glimpses of what final documents will look like; I can particularly see the contrast in texture between scanned drawings and the CAD drawings.
Right now I am still compiling the scanned data and producing two records - one of the files printed at actual size and another record of the plans at 1" = 40'-0" scale. 40th scale is good thus far because it relates to many of the CAD plans that I already have printed (plus I am doing a series of Corbu drawings at 40th scale). In my mind, however, I'm still questioning whether I should continue to generate drawings at this scale or whether I should work at 1:500. I think I just decided to work at 1:500 as one of the standard scales of my record and throughout Scale and Architecture. I am doing this because 1:500 is very close to 40th scale, which is actually 1:480.
[I just had a good idea of an appendix for the back of Scale and Architecture. I will supply scales that can be photocopied if the reader would like to scale drawings. I will only be supplying scales that do not exist, however, e.g. a 1:500 scale in feet (as opposed to meters) and a 1:480 scale in meters (as opposed to feet). In general, I will be providing those those scale ratios that exist in feet but not in meters, and vise versa.]
I should create a new set of record plots that show my plan, elevation and axonometric data at 1:500. I have to figure out the conversion: 1:500 is 1" = 41.6667' or 100' = 2.4".
All it really means is that I increase the 7.65 x 10.15 border by a factor of 41.6667. And when I want to have the Seroux plans at 1:500 I use 100"=2.4" instead of 100'=2.5".
I will start the new record drawings with the domestic plans and then right away I will see the differential from 1:480 to 1:500. So I can now see that part of Scale and Architecture will explain the actual differences and nature of the English vs. metric scaling system, and this is what the chapter of scales will really be about. Other than that, however, the only real issue of Scale and Architecture--is one of true comparison, and perhaps it is just as plain as that and therefore I just proceed and generate as many drawings as I can.
If anything, I have just established that 1:500 is going to be the datum scale throught Scale and Architecture, and perhaps that means the 1:7500 and 1:1000 are the other datum scales. I shall see.
1996.06.27
Scale and Architecture
It is time to start organizing Scale and Architecture. I will do this by first assessing the data generated thus far and the notes generated thus far. From there I will make a list of issues and ideas the book is to address, and from there I will start to work on the book proposal.
While I am doing all this, I will continue to generate axonometrics of the various building models that I currently have.
Besides working on Scale and Architecture, I will probably find I have much to organize and I am starting to think of designing some kind of work diagram/semi-schedule where I can glance at all the work/projects I want to do, and also see their relationship to each other (if there is a relationship). Perhaps the diagram will let me get a handle on the work I wish to accomplish and guide me as to how to best achive my goals. Right now I see the diagram as a number of plots that are posted on the pin-up boards and can be added to as may be.
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1996.06.27
documentation project - virtual museum of architecture
As I was typing the notes, I found a project that I had forgotten about and now see it as the goal that I will from now on be working on. It has to do with documentation of my data. I see this work going hand-in-hand with the record project, but I will approach each architectural documentation as a straight forward collection of drawings pertaining to a specific building (model) project. In notes 14-18, I spoke directly about the type of documentation I could do for db.zurich and I now see those notes as outlineing the procedure I will follow for all my buildings.
In general, I will approach each document (architectural) as an archival document of the Virtual Museum of Architecture. I see this work as greatly beneficial in that all my various ideas will be put down in concrete form, and, furthermore, all he work will in time become the basis of the various books on architecture I want to produce. The amount of work is plentiful, but at least I will be able to be creative while I am also doing drone work. The key to making this approach successful is to allow myself great freedom in terms of composition and scale of drawings. The writing will also be less stringent and I will incorporate all or any notes pertaining to specific projects. This will also help to organize my notes.
The best part of this approach is that in the end I will at least have a document that, if all else fails, will nonetheless give an indication of what all I ultimately wish to accomplish. I might also add that this work will preclude the work on book outlines because I now feel that the more important thing for me to do now is the actual work as I would like to see it done. I am not going to spend time doing work that is not necessarily the most creative for me to be doing.
1996.07.01
specific building documents
I have decided on an approach to the architectural work I am doing. Besides continually generating perspectives and other drawings from models, I will more specificaly be putting together documents pertaining to specific models/buildings or specific architectural issues. The document work will go hand in hand with the record work, but will remain separate from it and much more focused. Each document will in essence be a full record of graphic and text data related to a project and may eventually be considered a type of chapter or illustration essay. This approach will be the most productive for me because I will always have a finished product in the end and a true representation of the extent of my work.
The documents will be billed as documents (archives?) of the (first) Virtual Museum of Architecture. Each document will also be copyrighted. My overall goal is to compile an ongoing series of documents. This is all an effort to concretize my many ideas and my many drawings.
The preliminary list of documents is as follows:
1. Strasbourg (inclusive)
2. Taken Literally (maybe)
3. Düsseldorf (inclusive)
4. Zurich (inclusive of Plecnik and Krier)
5. Seroux same scale
6. Piranesi contiguous
7. Piranesi typology
8. Piranesi Campo Marzio - Nolli Map same scale comparison
9. Same scale building plan, elevation, and axonometric comparison 1:500
10. Same scale building plan, elevation, and axonometric comparison 1:1000
This is the same work that I have been thinking about all along but it is now organized into a final product. I see this approach as a form of graduation for me into a finalized form of my many ideas. As time goes on these documents may or may not be appended or expanded upon; the point now is to just get the information down in a concrete form.
Of course I do have further ambitions for these documents in the future, like publication as they are and/or compilations of documents into books of some specific topics. The goal now, however, is to document.
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1996.07.06
Strasbourg documentation
The Strasbourg documentation is in full swing and the layout and the text/font size is established and will be the standard for all subsequent architectural documants. The document itself is developing as I work on it. The contents will be broken up into a few parts, e.g., one part will be about the site and the building itself. The second part will be about the promenade architecturale formula. the third part will be about the Hejduk comparisons. And the fourth part will be straight forward scale comparative analysis.
It is in the fourth part that I will be most adventurous. I see plan comparisons with other Corbu buildings, all my other building plans, and even with Philadelphia and the Campo Marzio. The Philadelphia Center City comparison will particularly make light of the similarity between the Strasbourg ramps and the Vine Street Expressway ramps connecting to I-95. This comparison will be demonstrated in plan and 3D. Besides the plan comparisons, there will also be elevation comparisons, and what it may turn out to be is a series of split elevations (could be nice). I'm not sure at this point if I will incorporate any Seroux or Durand scanned images within the scale comparisons. Most of the fourth part is yet to be generated, so it is still in a fluid state and the final output is still to evolve.
An additional part of the document will be a collection of the notes I already have. These notes may relate better to specific graphic parts of the document, like the section on the promenade architecturale formula, or they may become a section of notes at the end of the document. (As I am typing this note (7.9.96), I now envision a note section at the end and the notes will have accompaning drawings, illustrating where I see the content of the note has particular bearing upon the design of the Palais.) In either case, it looks like the document will take on encyclopedic characteristics and I can do it now for Strasbourg, but I'm not sure if I can do the same for the other buildings.
Now that I see the Strasbourg document coming together, I am more and more thinking about pushing the document towards publication as the first part of an ongoing series from the Virtual Museum of Architecture. It may just turn out that this will be the road I travel and if anything gets me published first, it might just be the ‘virtual museum' idea and its output. When I really think about it, it is the path that makes the most sense because it is the most complete book proposal that I can write right now.
It is somewhat strange how I am repeating the plans I had exactly five years ago, however, this time I am much more prepared and experienced, and I am able to achieve the graphic sophistication from the laser printer.
1996.10-07.11
Strasbourg documentation
This is a further outline of the Strasbourg document. The three parts that I see thus far are: 1. Documentation: the building and its site, 2. Design analysis, 3. Comparative analysis.
Part one is well under way, and is more or less the same information as the first (1991) Strasbourg document. Part two is now further developed. The first issue addressed is the similarity between Strasbourg and the Villa Savoye which will lead to the architectural promenade formula. Next, the interior of the two Palais forums will be compared to the interiors of the Palace fo the Soviets (and I just realized that both buildings are called palaces). Thirdly, I will address the structure on the Palais stage to the Maison Dom-ino and call it out as a paradigm of Le Corbusier's overall design message and methodolgy. In all of Part two I will only refer to other Le Corbusier buildings. I will not, for example, make reference to Stirling's Cologne nor to Hejduk's Bye House.
Part three will essentially be a scale comparison between Strasbourg and practically any other building that I wish to compare it to. The main issue being the large size of Strasbourg as a building compared to other buildings. I will also collage Strasbourg with other buildings, particularly with Firminy. The comparison/collage is still very open ended at this point. I am thinking along the lines that I will gain insight as I experiment with the comparisons, and, in turn, I will see the point of the comparisons develop as I go along.
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