2000.01.09 13:05
a virtual museum of [disinformation] architecture
John Young wrote:
One could hardly envisage a better architecture of disinformation than historic preservation. Not only virtual but actual.
Steve replies:
John, I agree wholeheartedly with the above and the rest of your post, and since I'm from Philadelphia, I can easily see historic 'preservation' at its best and at its worst, and, unfortunately, taken as a whole (here in Philly), the summation comes close to being a joke (and I use joke here in its most serious sense). Hence, I will again bring up the notion of palimpsest, not only in reference to the new forthcoming Quondam, but to historic preservation as well. Regardless of whether its widely understood as such or not, all architectures manifest many layers of masks, and, like cosmetic surgery, historic preservation is a most extreme form of mask. With palimpsest on the other hand, although there is erasure and then over-writing, traces of the original (text) remain. The notion of layers (of texts), be they new or old, discernible or discrete, genuine or faux, is (for me at least) the 'true' reality. Semper theoretically took architecture back to the weaving of fabric. Perhaps Semper should have said architecture goes back to the weaving of fabrication.
2000.01.17 13:18
architecting
I thus want to raise an issue that elaborates on the above. I feel some distinction should be made between a virtual architect and an architect of the virtual. I accept your [Van's] definition of virtual architect, but I don't believe it to be the same definition for 'architect of the virtual'. I'll use myself as a case in point: I am a licenced architect in the State of Pennsylvania. I have the 'real' credentials, but I do not design real buildings. I've so far devoted three years to 'designing' and 'building' Quondam - A Virtual Museum of Architecture. There was and still is little precedence for me to follow in this 'practice', however, the major step which allowed me to create this museum was my collection of cad models of buildings designed but never executed by significant architects. Before opening Quondam, I spent over five years building those cad models as a hobby--I wanted to get inside these buildings, albeit only virtually.
Once I got Quondam online, a whole other range of issues began to arise: designing with HTML, the continual need for content, coming to terms with what others were writing and thinking about 'virtual architecture' or 'architecture in cyberspace', does anyone even care about [my] architecture in cyberspace[?]. Right now I'd say that doing gallery 1999 - schizophrenia + architectures taught me through experience just how vast (dare I say limitless) architecture in the virtual realm can be. To be honest, I would thoroughly enjoy creating 'places' like Philadelphia (xxx.htms) all the time, but even I have problems with letting myself become totally immersed within the all out freedom of designing and building in the virtual realm.
So, am I a virtual architect? Or am I an architect designing and building within the virtual realm? Or is there no difference between the two? I would certainly respect a judgement by my peers, but who exactly are my peers? What other architects are designing AND building in the virtual realm?
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2000.01.18 11:48
recalling virt. mus.
I'm now going to say something that may offend (or turn off) some people: the real truth about directing ones own virtual museum of architecture is that one can do whatever one wants to do. In reality there is absolutely nothing that makes Quondam have to have a teleology, and it is just that reality of absolutely no imperatives, no rules, no obligations, and no need of approval that I hope Quondam begins to reflect.
2000.01.20
Wright and historical method
Anyway, I think there is a lot more to learn about how 'design' happens by looking at the potential relationship between the Vatican entry ramp and the New York Guggenheim, especially in noting how Wright's design deviates from the Vatican model, then there is to dismiss the relationship because of its contrariness to received (but not necessarily fully disclosing) opinion.
2000.02.06
Re: CAD by Gad [looking glass]
CAD has given me many, many more advantages with regard to design and the profession of architecture than my education at Temple ever did. The most valuable thing I got from going to Temple was the diploma, where as learning CAD changed eveything about my life as an artist and architect. [e.g., what other architect has created a museum of architecture from virtually nothing?]
2000.02.08 10:55
Re: apology
When it comes to CAD, my experience and opinions indeed have an extremeness, but that doesn't make me 'wrong headed'--maybe 'new headedness' would be a better description.
Why is it that when it comes to CAD, so many teachers choose to stop learning themselves?
2000.02.09 10:16
the CAD experience
...judging CAD designing is not the point I was getting at by asking if you've ever designed with CAD yourself. I am here interested in your generally negative assessment of student design where CAD is used early and without much prior design by hand drawing experience. I am proposing that perhaps students learning design via early (if not only) use of CAD should be taught by those that have CAD design experience themselves.
How good is a piano teacher that knows all about music, but doesn't know how to play a piano?
It is generally accepted that CAD is a drawing /drafting TOOL. I think it's time to generally accept (and treat) CAD as a design INSTRUMENT as well.
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2000.02.10 17:39
and the unimportant winner is . . .
The last sentence of the text athttp://www.guggenheim.org /exhibitions /virtual/virtual_museum.html reads:
"As envisioned by Asymptote and the Guggenheim, the Guggenheim Virtual Museum will emerge from the fusion of information space, art, commerce, and architecture to become the first important virtual building of the 21st century."
Forget the Guggenheim, I want to know what the first UNIMPORTANT virtual building of the 21st century is. Any nominations?
lauf-s
ps
So far, the Guggenheim Virtual Museum is so virtual it's completely "notthere," except for its importance, of course.
2000.02.11 10:01
and the unimportant winner is . . .
You bring up some good historical examples of 'architectural shock' with boullee and ledoux--many of boullee's designs are definitely of a shocking scale and magnitude, and ledoux often architecturally manifests the shock of revolution within architecture (the French Revolution played a key role in his mature work).
2000.02.12 14:25
beyond the envelop (sketch)?
I particularly liked the momentary, almost imperceptible awkwardness that arose when the Natural Sciences' likewise new virtual museum (i.e., all the continually updated scientific data that will be available on the museum's website) was being described by Futter as something much beyond the new Polshek building.
I'm now wondering if all the built environment of our planet is 'progressing' towards becoming a global (virtual) theme park, while cyberspace becomes the place where 'actual' 'real' data takes up residence.
2000.02.15 12:39
metabolic (modern revolution)
The notion of "thesis + antithesis = synthesis" reenacts almost exactly the physiological operation of metabolism [ie, the sum of the processes oncerned in the building up of protoplasm and its destruction coincidental to life : the chemical changes in living cells by which energy is provided for the vital processes and activities and new material is assimilated to repair the waste -- see ANABOLISM and CATABOLISM]. Metabolism is a creative /destructive duality, perhaps even the foremost and profoundest duality OF humanity. Anabolism is constructive metabolism, whereas catabolism is destructive metabolism [involving release of energy and resulting in true excretion products although new substances may be formed in metabolic processes that are mainly catabolic].
Because metabolism is of a higher reality than revolution, perhaps the 'Hegalian' notion of revolution and the subsequent interpretation that ultimately synthesis equals an ongoing parade of antithesis destroying aprior antithesis are not precise enough. The real equation seems to be that thesis + antithesis = antithesis + thesis = thesis + antithesis = (continuation of the pattern) -- wave[length]s. In metabolism, anabolism and catabolism work in conjunction as opposed to destroying each other or one destroying the other, and the real key (to understanding) here is that albeit destructive, catabolism 'creates' the energy that further enables the creative/destructive process.
Is revolution nothing more than humanity's reenactment in imagination and deed of one of the human body's basic physiologies?
Is Modernism a revolution, or is Modernism a realization of how humanity's (modern) creations operate?
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2000.02.16 12:32
Re: reasons why not to worry
Rarely is any architect able to readily execute his or her designs and intentions immediately and/or of their own volition, and if such a favorable condition is at hand, then it is most likely because of independent wealth or being in a politically powerful position. The cyberspace of the Internet has made self-made, readily executed architecture possible. The closest comparison I can think of in our time and in the real world is Philip Johnson's estate in New Canaan, where each of the buildings there is of Johnson's own designs and for his own use, and where each building is a design experiment -- essentially Johnson created an open air museum of Philip Johnson architecture, while at the same time 'practicing' and' researching' architecture.
Because of the WWW, any architect can now 'virtually' do the same thing; architects anywhere can now practice and research architecture in cyberspace. Unfortunately, it seems most architects are not even aware of this potential, and really not every architect has the physical means to engage and design within cyberspace. The point is, however, that some architects are indeed designing and 'building' in cyberspace, and your work Brian is a prime example. As in the real architecture world, it is not enough to theorize and write about architecture in cyberspace, one should also build in cyberspace to realize the full potential.
2000.02.16 22:27
Re: reasons why not to worry
I am not proposing "a different sort of dynamic as governing architectural theories, based on metabolism." Rather I am working out a theory (chronosomatics) whereby human imagination reenacts corporal physiology and/or morphology. The metabolic imagination is just one of the human imaginations; the others include the extreme imagination, the fertile imagination, the pregnant imagination, the assimilating imagination, the osmotic imagination, the high-frequencies imagination. I then further theorize that these various operative modes of imagination in turn are reenacted in architecture.
For example, I see the Pantheon and Kahn's Kimball Art Museum as both prime example of an architecture that reenacts the osmotic imagination, which is an imagination that reenacts the physiological process of osmosis, which is the equalizing diffusion of concentrations either side of a semipermeable membrane. Both the Pantheon and Kimball are semipermeable (each in its own way) and both buildings work towards 'equalizing' the outside and the inside (again each in its own way). Furthermore, osmotic architecture seems to often capture a 'sacred' quality.
2000.02.19 16:26
a hyper architectures museum
I now want to change Quondam into a hyper architectures museum...
hyper - I’m thinking this is where I can be the most experimental, the most radical, in a word, hyper. This is where building collages occur, where revisionist hyper-texts occur, and where reenactionary texts occur, and outlandish exhibits occur as well.
museum - this will be the Quondam archive, the infinite collection.
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2000.03.01
Quondam redux (con't)
I can finally use Quondam as a completely free medium, one without requirements or restraints, and I likewise continue all the experimentation begun through schizophrenia + architectures.
2000.03.01
topological office buildings - highrise blocks
...highrise buildings where topological surfaces become the "front" and "backs" of building blocks, and the sides are simply the resulting profiles. ...apply the resultant designs within the Center City Philadelphia model.
2000.03.11
ideas
The DTM development of the area between Laguna and Wacko--overlap of generated "planes".
Experiment with the tube extrusion, particularly with sections (to extrude) that excede a normal follow through. There is also the idea of collaging various tube extrusions together.
...idea of elevating the Bye House over the Mayor's Hause with the ground plane of the Bye House (undulating) becoming the roof of the palazzo section of the Mayor's House.
Changing the wall of the Bye House into a DTM, and also turning the access bridge of the house into a meander.
2000.03.17
work with mesh surfaces
A good portion of the last week's work focused on "sketching" and manipulating two of (the thirty odd) DTM surfaces I've generated. I primarily generated many hline perspectives of paired surfaces (which represent a single multistory building) which increased in number of pairs and ultimately included scale/rotation modifications. The resultant drawings (and design play) turned out to be very stimulating, and indeed inspirational. There is now much further design investigation to perform, investigations and opportunities to greatly enhance my design repertoire.
From the start, I was consciously working to introduce the whole new Gehry/hybrid form language into my own design methodology and capabilities, and there is also the intention of finding out how far I could use and push the CAD capabilities at my disposal. What has happened is that I now have a very easy way to generate a vast collection of 3D mesh surface forms, that play perfectly within the infinite possibilities of CAD(esign) manipulation. Moreover, I believe I am documenting a methodology other than the presently popular Gehry/Hybrid Spaces way of using CAD/sophisticated form generating software. I am also developing an alternative to the "diagramatix" approach espoused by Eisenman (and UNStudio). All of this work fits perfectly within OTHERWISE EYES.
After generating the latest set of hlines, which were of two pairs of vertical surfaces combined, one orthogonal, one scale/rotated, the similarity of the resultant drawings to Gehry (design) drawings was near to identical, and also very provocative and eye opening. At night, after generating the last batch of drawings, I looked through the Gehry Complete Works, and was then further convinced that I was beginning to work with CAD on par with Gehry, and I will go so far as to say my approach is actually different than Gehry's because I've developed a catalogue of forms that can undergo infinite CAD manipulations. I would like to document all these new design methodology/theory/philosophy issues in OTHERWISE EYES.
Ultimately, I thought of a great project where I will reenact Bilbao Guggenheim in Philadelphia along the Schuykill River adjacent Eakins Oval (my first year final jury site). This project provides a myriad of opportunities:
1. a chance to design a building using the DTM collection
2. a documentation / demonstration of the design process
3. effective use of the Philadelphia Model
4. further development of the Parkway Interpolation project and perfect promotion thereof
5. another example of reenactment and/in architectural design.
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