[interrogating] hades chamber

the icon: the pear

 

 

plan strategies

formal taxonomies

model photos coming!

...into the underground

the images are edited from my midterm presentation.  my first, of the advanced studio sequences.  it started out the same as most.  pushing abnormal schedules, and working through the night to plot, model, and do the presentation mash-up.  oh what fun we have in 500S (gotta say, sick view of campus - overlooking the central square. nosy pigeons and water color sun sets [/rises]).

carving out terra firma for a pear shaped performance space, light and air.  the sequences leading up to 'hades chamber' (complete with three-headed guard dog) are meant to architecturally spatialize the story of orpheus entering the underworld in search of eurydice.  the procession is broken (for now) into four acts; the threshold into the underground; the grotto; the river of styx; hades chamber.  haunting reverberations of civic infrastructure and orchestral maneuvers in the dark echo as one approaches hades pear-shaped performance pit.

check it out... so this is all happening at the old trolley station at delancey and essex!  after receiving (surprisingly enthusiastic) feed-back the push begins to re-organize and re-visualize this project in sexy (but, informative) images and models, models, models. 

more clues coming later!

underground inspirations

here's some images i've been coming back to over the past few weeks... 
more being added to my pinterest board all the time - these are a simple snapshot

little bits of imagery.  what is space like underground?  it's weird not to think about facade and a dialogue between external and internal experiences: now the external experience is totally conceptual (and rooted in architectural drawings) - it's all about that internal procession.  section is super important - and i'm digging that.

cut, carve & dig on!

...with a little help from my friends

summer? what summer? it seems i'm not getting one this year. at least in the traditional academic sense of a summer ["break"]. long work days gave way to late work nights. lots of research, illustrator, photoshop, and tweaking rhino models [thanks to peter's processing power!]

following up on competition 1 of 4, here it comes...
straight from the pdf print shop.

#2.

another ideas competition meant our imaginations took the reins and ideas of celebration, unity, festival and broadcasting took over... holy rollers with joo-joo eyeballs. an information pavilion, yes, but also a advertisement to the city at large. kite power. water collection. bringing people together under one roof.

through muddy waters we mojo filtered... this is,
come together, right now [c]over me.

The Olympic Games unify the world in the spirit of healthy competition; inspired by this founding principle, "Come Together..." abstracts the symbolism of the interlocking rings, forming five bands which twist and merge into a unified composition. As a formal gesture the pavilion serves as a funnel, inviting spectators from the city into the charged interior; the reception desk, souvenir shop, and administrative facilities are housed under a twisting canopy, while the cafe spills out to engage the steps of the National Gallery- a place familiar to sitting and collecting.

The exterior of each band is populated with the flags of participating countries, forming a skin which reinforces the idea of cooperation and international competition. The interior is clad with printed and electronic display panels which aggregate on the underside of the cantilevered canopy, creating a large screen for live event display, replay, news, and interviews. The pavilion effectively communicates Olympic activities at the local scale and acts as a kinetic signifier at the urban scale, broadcasting the winner of each event to the city at large through the deployment of embroidered kites whose elevation is indicative of that countries respective ranking.

"Come Together..." employs sustainable design techniques in all aspects of the proposal; the structure is made of reclaimed aluminum, while the flags and kites are woven with a nylon/polyester blend made from recycled PET plastic bottles. Rainwater is channeled from the canopy down the walls and deposited into a water tank underneath the walking platform. Our renewable resource strategy capitalizes on the opportunities presented by this unique locale- the UK, situated in the high speed jet stream, is the eighth largest producer of wind power worldwide; in response, the pavilion is conceived as an energy-generating kite farm which holistically integrates concept and function while broadcasting to the city, celebrating the accomplishments of an international athletic competition.

linear house: patkau architects

i've been waiting to hear something more about this patkau project. i first was exposed to the linear house during good ol' boy - kenneth frampton's 80th birthday party at GSAPP. the north american anthology. that was a great day! terrific firms presenting a broad range of work from all over the upper american continent.

so the linear house. ran across it again on archdaily (big surprise there right?). it's this very clean form - a line - nestled in the threshold between old growth douglas firs and a canadian prairie. the house almost disappears into the landscape. i wish the diagram they showed during their lecture would've made it to the web. it captures the essence of the project in such a clear and straightforward manner.

the shadowy palette of the exterior of the fibre-cement panels are contrasted with the luminous acrylic panels on the interior and sky lights. nice touch... and it's pretty bad ass that the whole house can open up via folding panels create a dialog with the surrounding environment; an open air pavilion of sorts.

one thing i admire about these architects is their ability to capture and highlight the essence of site. and, amplify the contextual highlights (orchard, prairie, views between the trees) through clean, simple, well-detailed designs. their sensitivity regarding materiality is always refreshing. in this case, the design reminds me of todd williams and billie tsien's work. the lexicon wood glass, wood and stone is a combination i will always love.

© James Dow

A4001: CORE I studio: assignment ii_ backpack purification

A4001: CORE 1

our second studio assignment deals with the scale of the body, water, air, edges and boundaries.

WHO estimates the number of people without access to clean drinking water at 1.3 billion. everywhere from the deserts of africa, to the himalayan mountains.

CHARGE: the backpack is a water purification system able to supply purified water from most non-saline water sources. water can be drawn from ponds, rivers, lakes or standing water that may contain chemical and biological contamination.

THESIS: a central task of architecture is to create enclosure, separating a within form an outside. the relationship between outside and within is evident through the use of section: a 2D tool, invented about 500 years ago to give determinacy to the relationship between inside, outside and also the tectonic transition of the two. one of the central tasks of this tectonic articulation is to keep the weather out: water and air. Water is especially tricky to keep out since it is in constant search for it gravity bound horizontality.

LOCATION: bhulbhule, lamjung province, nepal.

REFLECTION: the incredible potential in the sun's rays is amplified through a dramatic shift in elevation [mountains]. bhulbhule provided a unique case study: isolated [broken transportation networks], lacking of basic needs, natural hazards [water table pollution], difficult topography [extreme cyclical weather patterns], a culture of carrying [sherpas]. these conditions mean that many are left with running water 1 in 4 days, susceptible to 16 hour power cuts. regular and recurring transportation strikes leave people stranded on the road, lacking food, without clean drinking water.

so, if you're stranded in the mountains, on the muddy roads, or caught in a himalayan monsoon, fill up your pack and let the sun help you purify while you sojourn... or your nomadic migration.

EDITORIAL NOTE: after all that... i realize my section is missing [stated in my thesis]. well, missing from this post [it's not worth sharing yet - YIKES]. should give me something to work on for a bit. keep you posted.

UPDATE: holocaust memorial design competition

the results are in. we didn't place - unfortunately, but you can't expect too much for pulling together a submission in a few days... unless you're h.van_oudenallen. congrats and good luck!

luckily we had some interest from our fellow students that lightened the load a bit.

we held off posting our actual submission, until now. our process work can be found here. now, with the passing of time, we post our submission:

In such a small space, line, forms, and gestures are limited… What do we have then, but light, time, movement, and material? With this premise in mind, we ask ourselves not only, “what does a memorial mean, but also what does it do.”

We are not survivors of the Shoah. We don’t pretend to know the intensely personal feelings associated with the experience; we can only speculate. In a short time, little direct experiences will be left. Therefore we sought to distill the fundamental essence of a collective conscious.

We propose a place of peace, perhaps a place of discomfort, a place of reflection, a place where senses stir memories. These qualities will always be remembered, be shared, be alive, broadcasting the memory and the universal message “never again” long after the last survivor has left.

It is our hope that through simple actions we can influence profound reactions.

thanks again to all those that helped!