1997.12.23
other Quondam branches
There now seems to be three Q construction sites: the Parkway museum annex, the House in Laguna etc., and my ICA thesis design. I guess if I don't come up with any other alternative, I can just use the construction sites to exhibit actual buildings, i.e., all I have to do is merge other building models into the site models of the various museums, and from there create-design a virtual exhibit.
In many ways, this is the furthest I have ventured into the virtual museum metaphor. I suddenly see a whole new range of display possibilities if I just use my Philadelphia model as also the site for virtual architectural exhibits. I'm just thinking of all the crazy experimental stuff I could do--e.g., the great pryamid superimposition was really just the beginning. I can just about morph any building or section of the city all in the name of a virtual architectural exhibit. I think this is all very unprecedented and has tremendous implications for virtual exhibits and museology as well.
I guess it only makes sense for the first exhibit of the museum annex site-branch to be the Parkway Interrotta project. As to the ICA site, I'm not really sure what program that will fulfill, but it really doesn't matter at this point bucause its inclusion may actually never happen. The Laguna site, on the other hand, does already exist so I should come up with some idea as to how to use that site. It seems that the Parkway site now has much ore going for it because of the mixture of a real and virtual context (which includes all of Center City). Simply saying that the buildings themselves at Laguna are the architectural display doesn't seem to be enough right now. I was just thinking, however, if I continue to rather quickly add more and more experimental designs to the site, then it will indeed be a worthwhile display and museum all in one. The virtue of this site is that it is totally virtual with no connection to a real site at all.
The experimentation mentioned above doesn't have to be anything more than an easy collage of building models merely by using 2D and 3D data that I already have, and either using the data as is or manipulateing the data using CAD. Both museum sites offer me more than enough opportunity to experiment as freely as I like. In fact, both these sites can easily become my own Ichnographia in terms of ultimately manifesting my own fantasical architectural plan.
1997.12.23
expansion of Quondam's collection
It is time for me to display the building models that I have downloaded over the Internat, and make the buildings officially part of Quondam's collection. I am no longer concerned over credit, I will acknowledge the origin of the models, but I will also state that Quondam will further develop the models as time goes on. For the first display of the models, I will simply opaque the models as all white (I guess with shadows). In some cases, I might take it a bit further in terms of beginning to compare the models with other buildings already in the collecction.
My only dismay is that almost all of the new models are of actual buildings, instead of unexecuted designs.
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1997.12.24
the museum of architecture for Venice - school project
Perhaps not since before Quondam became a web site have I thought of my fifth year school project for a museum of architecture in Venice. I can now easily resurrect this project as another branch of Quondam. I assume that somewhere along the line I intended to include this school project from 1980 as part of my genealogy of Quondam as I planned to document the linage in NOT THERE. In any case, I can now very easily construct a computer model of the Venice project, and it is all the more important because it too, like the Parkway museum annex, is a continuation of the Schinkel-Corbu-Stirling legacy, and especially to Schinkel's Gardener's House.
I'm not sure when I will begin work on this project, but I am already certain that its first appearance will be in NOT THERE. The initial article could be very simply an exposition of the project in its present state. Too bad I don't have the original program of the school assignment, but that really doesn't matter. I have enough information for the complete story to come across. The first exhibit could be the building filled with a collage of rooms (plans) taken and extruded from the Ichnographia.
1997.12.24
Michael Graves @ Quondam
I have decided on two Graves unexecuted projects for inclusion within Quondam's collection--the 1980 Red River Valley Heritage Interpretive Center and the 1980 D.O.M. Competition. They are both rather obscure projects, but both are also simple yet complex in the modeling to make them interesting projects.
There is still also the modeling of some of the referential sketches that would like to do as well. There may in fact be a wealth of untapped inspiration in those sketches once they are brought to 3D rendition.
1998.01.07
giving away the philadelphia model
I have now resolved to offer dxf files of the Philadelphia model through Quondam. Every two weeks or so a different section of the model will be availbale, however, only one section of the model will be available at any one time. At this rate, it will take a full year for the complete model to be distributed. I will only be offering the opaque triangles.
In giving the dxf files, I will also present a history of the model, or at least my personal history in creating models of C.C. Philadelphia. I will also display the section map to show how the pieces fit together, and to illustrate the extent of the model-database. Since so much of the model is already complete, I can distribute it in any manner I wish, therefore I will take requests from museum visitors via e-mail (that way I may be able to get a sense of exactly what demand there may be for the model, and where the demand comes from).
I will also have to carefully write out my copyright statement. Generally, I do not want the model used for commercial purposes, with the exception of design firms making presentations--these ideas are not fully developed. Whaty I really have to do is state how I would like to see the model used, and in what instances I would like to see Quondam given credit for the model.
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1998.01.07
individual building comparisons
In putting together the plan comparisons, I have come upon some ideas that I never had before--comparing Hurva and Firminy as religious architecture, and comparing Media and the Altes Museum because of their almost exact same size and the similar enclosure of repetitive units.
The Hurva-Firminy comparison is mostly about similar scales in plan, but very different scales in elevation. As religious buildings, their comparison also may shed insight upon their respective fulfillments of religious programs. I will have to experiment with the models together before I see the real value of comparing them.
The Media-Altes Museum comparison will allow the creation of a new composite building which I think will be very original. I for sure have to work on the Altes model to make for a better composite building, but I'm sure the results will make the work well worth it. I may also find that my inside-out Altes Museum idea will work in this investigation as well.
I forgot to mention that within the Hurva-Firminy analysis that I may also include my idea of comparing Hurva to the Pantheon (and perhaps I begin a model of the Pantheon).
Both these analyses will be listed under architectural investigations, and they will accompany a display of the 1996 Savoye-Weber drawings, as well as my planned Bye-Absecon comparison-collage.
1998.01.08
Stirling Muses
It is here that I will make the connection to the Altes Museum stairs (I might even graft the Altes stairs as transparent into the Düsseldorf model), and, in so doing, I will have to then describe the sequential path of the Altes Museum, and, subsequently, relate the sequential paths of both museums--porch, inside/outside, symmetrical vertical circulation, moving deeper inside toward the rotunda.
1998.02.08
Aldo Rossi and the Axis of Death
I have now decided to construct a model of Rossi's Modena Cemetery and present an essay--"Aldo Rossi and the Axis of Death."
1998.02.20
Altes Museum - Hurva connection
In conjunction with my previous idea of comparing Hurva Synagogue with the Pantheon, I lately thought that it might be interesting to combine the model of Hurva with that of the ALtes Museum. Essentially, Hurva would take the place of the museum's rotunda.
1998.07.18
Ichnographia as a base for Quondam models
From the very beginning of Quondam, I have had the idea of placing my model collection into some kind of context--an imaginary context--and I now have the idea of using the Ichnographia as the base plan for the context. Moreover, the "program" of the Ichnographia could well inform the museum context. For example, the Porticus Septa Julia is analogous to Plecnik's Houses Under a Common Roof (although perhaps not really close in scale?) and I will simply place the houses there. This then opens up the opportunity to place other models in other analogous situations. Another example is the sundail that I already have and placing it where the horoleum is, and then also including some building like the arch of Marcus Aurelius.
This idea takes on even greater implications when I think of including the Parkway Interpolation model as well as the whole Center City model. This is also the prefect environment for my library elements, and indeed all of 2D and 3D data.
I may here have the perfect vehicle to use all my data in an extremely creative way--the makings of an extremely virtual place. Like the Ichnographia, the whole design could manifest a message, and that message will be a critique / enlightenment of architecture today itself, starting with putting Laguna, Mayor and Wacko in place of the Garden of Satire. This will be a great project because I'll be able to use everything that I have, and everything that I have will have a place. This may well be a major major breakthrough for me because it allows me to bring all my data and ideas to an incredibly cohesive whole (I just now thought of including Francisville as well).
I am well aware of the similarity here to the Isozaki - Mirage City project (which is more of less not a sucess), and it doesn't concern me because my project will domonstrate how to use the Ichnographia much more correctly.
1998.07.20
new Quondam - inching my way
I'm just now thinking of all kinds of experimentation:
1. display Savoye totally multicolored and even some images (line work) on the walls.
2. two Savoyes collaged together - each could be a different color scheme and even a slightly different scale.
3. replace the Ionic columns of the Altes Museum with the Parthenon columns (rescaled?).
4. exaggeratingly stretch the Bye House in either direction.
5. play with distorting Media.
6. exaggeratingly distory Cologne in the z direction.
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1998.07.28
high ideas
1. subtext reenactment - this is an almost bizarre idea of having an almost secret place "beneath" the Encyclopedia Ichnographica. There would be a link under "subtext" and under "reenactment" to a place where the Campo Marzio is being reenacted in 3D using my existing model collection. Essentially, I will be constructing an "analogous city" a la Canaletto's Capriccio and Aldo Rossi. This could be an entirely creative and inventive effort, and one that will be also complete fun. I particularly remember thinking:
a. Houses Under a Common Roof in place of the Porticus Septa Julia.
b. morphing the Altes Museum into one of the long (linear) porticus
c. replacing the Sepul. Hadriani with a tripod from the Altes Museum roof (or even the layered structure from Stirling's Cologne Museum).
Overall, there is an enormous amount of playing I can do, and it will be the end products (plans, elevations, axons and perspectives) that will really be the treasure. The other highlight of this idea is that I now have an automatic context within which to "display" and "set" Quondam's model collection.
2. abstract model of the Villa Savoye - I thought of redoing the Savoye model to:
a. remove the glass wall from the ground floor.
b. make the entire first floor solid except the ramp hall.
c. remove the floor of the kitchen terrace.
I also thought of making the entire Savoye model multicolored. This would be a really funky display (and certainly easy enough to do).
4. virtual Altes Museum - I have come up with a whole scheme for a new program for the Altes Museum, and it involves keeping the building forever as is, and additions to the building should only be virtual. The only addition should be a redux of the murals within the porch and stair landing, which should become hypersurfaces.
I forsee this idea becoming my conclusion to the "benefits of Cyberspace" paper, and therefore announced in Helsinki. This is perhaps my best idea for the summer, and I should give it all the attention.
1998.08.04
distortion of plans
I spent some time today playing with the Bye House plans (and also the Wagner House). While I began with uneven scale/rotation distortion, I really began to see dramatic results when I simply moved various parts of the plan. Essentially, whole new buildings emerged. My next step is to perform these manipulations on the 3D models.
These manipulative operations, which are made extremely easy with CAD, raises some serious issues, e.g., copyrights, integrity of the secondary designer, as well as pushing the envelope of acceptable design practice. In the realm of theory, however, this exercise initiates a totally new type of design methodology--one that stems almost purely from the benefits of cyberspace. I want to continue experimenting before I display the results at Quondam. I already see, however, the opportunity to create a vast amount of completely new buildings, which in turn may become whole new virtual environments. This exercise, moreover, will fall under Towards a New Dexterity, and may well become a staple at Quondam. I want to take my time though, because I could begin to see some very original stuff begin to appear before my eyes. Furthermore, I may have the makings of some revolutionary architecture, a revolution that involves theory and practice.
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