ICA: A premeditated response

This is an excerpt from an email I wrote in reply to a request to give thoughts on the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston as well as respond to an article, also furbished here:

"Die Another Day"

I should make a disclaimer that I only had seen images and working drawings before I wrote this response and that it would be pleasant to be proven wrong about the material expressions I foresee when I actually go. But the building really becomes secondary in my response, regardless. Enjoy:

"...As far as the ICA, I have yet to see it in person, but now from the
article you sent and the pictures and reviews I've read, I am pretty
intrigued. I'll hold off my opinion on the experiential and material
quality until I go there, but the article did peak my interest about
something else. When the critic asked of other critics "Do they
imagine that promoting innovation—even just the look of innovation—is
such a pure good that the defense of all other values must be
suspended along with our disbelief?" I think he is exaggerating a
pretty interesting point. I know that you have often said that
computational/visual design leaves you cold, and I think that the kind
of expressions the critic is offering might be similar; but there is
something else in his rant and questions that makes me want to reply
and raise him on his ante. Innovation at this kind of civic level
(and DSR call it "civic") needs to be at a much larger scale than this
building offers. I couldn't care less about how it looks at the sea
or how spectacular the cantilever seems to be (although it does seem
an engineering feat, albeit one that has many predecessors) or how
bamboozled we all are by pretty pictures or how that fits into the
socio-capitalistic monster of visual consumption, but I do have a beef
with people who talk about innovation and architecture (perhaps like
many Starchitects do) but fail to push the bounds of the low ceiling
(thank you Kafka) of codes, social norms, and program through their
material expression. My favorite and most-influential set of
exercises in Microcosm were those that asked us to question the
program, to, perhaps, think completely in the opposite way one might
usually regard, in this case, how one experiences a museum. From what
I've seem so far about this project, it is not the boxy quality or
'innovation/worldsheet" fix or bourgeois-facing windows that leave me
cold, it is the idea that it completely doesn't DO anything in the
city. What an interesting site, what an interesting project, and it
doesn't innovate at the scale of the civic at all. Stair-cantilever
is nice... but why not make the stair disappear down into the water
and make people baptize themselves if they want to enter? Why not
make the museum span the docks in succession and create courtyards out
of ancient pools of docks? Why? I suppose the low-ceiling of codes
again cannot allow those ideas to stand up fully, but they could
certainly bend over humbly and make a go of it, pushing boundaries and
innovating at the civic scale truly. Instead they just kind of sit
back, as he said, and take their laurels from the critics, who, I
think, he's right, are blinded by stardust that is actually dust, but
also numbed by never being shaken up. They too sit under the low
ceiling and never think what would happen if we cut a hole in the
roof, if not to be able to stand straight, then to look up and see
true stars, instead of just dust. (oh, and this critic might be
blinded too, he sounds like a new-urbanist... I mean, I think entering
a building by its industrio-like back near a pastry shop sounds
delightful)..."

gms: grande palladium

nice bit forwarded to me and on to you.**

malik architecture out of india has just finished this fantastic project.
not sure about how it fits contextually, but it's still a terrific piece of energetic urbanism.
bold, expressive volumes fly out in axis, floating over the clay composition of the vernacular city.
expansive glass planes open onto the busy streets below.
too much metal for me though.... or maybe, because it's toned like a swordfish or something.

_subjective response concluded. objective report commencing;

the architects lift the building +8m (26.25 ft) above the ground plane to allow for free public spaces to address theoretical inconsistencies found in commercial buildings (locally), environmental cycles(monsoon season), public space (lacking), etc. etc.

re; monsoon season_ validating +8m lift:

"The suspended building volume negates the need for extraneous canopies, and the ubiquitous atrium has been replaced with functionally scaled lobbies, that use space efficiently and visually include the landscaped podium and allow the eye to roam unfettered to the grass berm beyond."

ok, i get it. nice gesture. liberating the ground plane... giving it back to the community... deconstructing planar volumes and refilling with light and air. floating above is a cloud of tessellated steel embraced by bent aluminum sheets. seems ominous, but actually works well.

the aluminum enclosure is playfully, punctured by pure glass geometries. the design is really driven by environmental concerns (solar) and structural expression. totally valid. but, the most poetically expressive element is the treatment of the water:

"Water has been expressed in two ways; a shallow water sheet explores the reflective and depth inducing properties of water, while adjacent to it, raked and textured stone surfaces generate rippling water surfaces; a gesture that not only explores its auditory properties, but also geometrically links it to the building structure."

mmm... water, senses, atmosphere. but, seriously corporate project, with a developer's description on dezeen.

** i realize my inconsistent opinion of this project. i wrote as i read, having read first the images. i guess we can chalk this up to a bit of gonzo journalism.

...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.

kite power

implementing would put us on track to power our world!
Saul Griffin's outlines his plan that could easily curb our coal addiction.
...and provide a little inspiration in the process.

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

"dualities in repose"

We're off an running for a crazy summer of competitions/collaborations. Here's the first in a 'quadfecta' of work that will [hopefully] get pushed out this summer - with some stellar results. First on the docket, I have joined Corey Gaffer of Gaffer Photography [and amateur landscape design] in a collaborative effort to create an imaginative design for SLANT.eu, an international competition on Landscape Architecture. This is our submission to the competition:

"Sitting on the bend of a river, a plot of land

lies vacant. Overgrown and derelict, the possibility for

regeneration is palpable as an engine for change and

growth. As the river cuts, a park will connect. Industry

and culture coalesce, through creativity, innovation and

active participation sprouting a green economy and

joining communities with healthy local food and access

to art while improving the ecological health of the river.

The park softens hard edges created by urban residences to the west, large cultural complexes to the east and the river embracing the site perimeter. The resultant softening creates a multitude of new relationships and accessibility with the waterfront. Physical access to the river, access to education and information regarding river ecology and access to jobs through community gardening reengage residents with water as a resource in a full range of social and recreational activities.

Strategic planting restores and refreshes the soil on site and filters runoff before entering the river maintaining and improving the health of the river as an amenity. Embedded within the comprehensive bioremediation strategy, implied program hugs the water’s edge. Soft delineations are marked through unique relationships to the riverfront; community garden, beachhead, and art island. The passive characteristic of the river reemerges in an active dialogue with the park user.

Conceptually, the park draws from the diverse strengths and unique potentials in the surrounding context to activate new public space: a confluence of culture, economic innovation and individual repose. Strategic design emphasizes the relationships between greater natural, social, civic, and economic ecologies: where dualities exist they are reinterpreted as strengths and harnessed to emphasize the unique characteristics of the site’s surrounding context.

The north end of the park extends the museum’s impact through the introduction of an outdoor sculpture park. Set among waving grass a prairie is peppered with sculptures to be discovered, viewed, engaged, and reflected upon. To further heightening views, an island creates a new platform for viewing one’s surroundings from a vantage point encircled by a wetland marsh. The sculptures occupy an ecotone from prairie to marshland: an extended threshold. Here birds, frogs, lizards and snakes call home.

The south end contrasts the individual intellectual experience with a community based garden and market. The transition is dappled with trees opening to terraced modules creating a tapestry of gardens and ponds aiding the cultivation of local food sources. Physically engaging with earth reconnects residents to natural processes and cycles of growth strengthening community and improving health for residents across the river. Through this haptic engagement, the community gardens create a new micro-economy for residents by growing and selling healthy, local foods.

Linking both ends,a primary path wends through the site amplifying the gesture of the linear park. A thick forest hugs the path offering a visual and acoustic buffer from the urban fabric. The path creates new connections and opportunities to experience the neighborhood along and down to the waterfront as one navigates the dualities of culture and industry. The result is a park where dualities converge in an area of tranquility to experience, appreciate, reconsider, enjoy and grow.

Frac Centre.

So i'm back in France for those who do not know already....working on another project with THEVERYMANY. This will be my last structure before I leave for LA. Its probably another reason for the active posting recently, traveling gives me some time to think and blog I guess...

here is a time lapse I threw together; make sure to check out the website as well for updates on the build/whats going on. THEVERMANY.COM

thank you all for the support and encouragement. Hopefully after I finish my masters Nick, Jessie, and I will make something amazing out of our experiences.

#thoughts:
I quickly realize that being "responsible" was more complicated then simply telling people what to do. I have to adapt to different situations/fields, work out difficult problems, teach, manage, maintain public relations, relaying messages and keep a straight face in moments of panic. I can't say i've done a great job, but I can say i'm happy with how its going, and Frac/Students have been so helpful to me. I'm glad I get to share this experience with them.

Tvmny, Wins competition:

#of course this comes with realizations....

So, while working for THEVERYMANY I jumped on a small competition held in LA as TVMNY in collaboration with Volkan Alkanoglu after much debate with the jury (about skateboards, scale, and construction) in march, we won! They loved it fyi, yay! possibly my first built project and i'm moving to LA for school. Its perfect, a little to perfect I say....

http://theverymany.com/work-in-progress/11-la-redondo-beach/

After looking at that link, I guess you can say at this very moment I leveled up my digital skills. I learned how to model differently in Rhino, Python, and alittle bit of zaha theory (which I can't say i'm proud of...)

:after all is done and over with I realize how afraid the public truly is of architecture...but not just the dynamics or ideas presented but also how others will affect it or be affected by it! so, friends....how do we Intend fix this? how do we win back the trust of the world? to prove not only to the public but ourselves that we are not only necessary but an important function to the expansion of the human mentality.

Mobile thought.

Literary...

What separates the men from the boys. Managing my first project in Orleans I gotta say "holy crap this is alot of work." I start to wonder if I'm really cut out for this type of work....(I'm not, but who is?) I can't honestly say "Hey! I always wanted this!"

I've always been more of the laid back "lets design" for fun kind of guy......

But in the end this is reality, this project was been a large part of my life in NYC. If I don't see it through who will?

heres a link for the project in Orleans.

THEVERYMANY

Thoughts: its a idea about structure to surface, in the end YES it does look like the other projects and YES he has done something similar before (TVMNY semi official age maybe 2?). BUT, look a little deeper....think about the construction of the pieces, and how it comes together. The fact that a small 4x5x1.5 box can make a 30' long 20' wide and 14' tall structure is amazing..... right? no? are you not impressed? then these designs are not for you! :P and that only scratches the surface....theres so much more depth to the process....

I'll post my own pics in a month.

please remind me......

The Art of Unemployment 3: Georges Bataille and a Night of Excess

The Art of Unemployment 3: Georges Bataille and a Night of Excess

This piece in the series is a party invitation. In keeping with the series material process themes, this work made me learn a new crocheting stitch and required the leisure time to create several hand-made objects in a smaller time frame. The party was themed on the thought-work of George Bataille: that of excess, of destruction and the joys of debt and not being sober or entirely 'civil'. The piece itself was a meditation on his philosophy. Why have an invitation that was readable at will? To get the party information, one had to destroy the structure of the invitation and pull it apart in order to get at the most important part: the tumor, or excess, of the sphere.

The information itself called for black-tie and insinuated bringing costly and overly extravagant food and drink. Get down with Bataille. And drink, dress, smoke, feed and sex yourself into oblivion.

Art of Unemployment 2: interactive portrait

This multi-media piece is the second in my art of unemployment series. Just like the first, it showcases over-worked detail/structure and material process that comes from environments one may only frequent when at leisure. The flowers were pressed weeks before the idea came about.

This piece is a birthday "card" for a dear friend. Our faces on the caterpillars' bodies are laminated and Velcro-ed to be changed with the users mood and at the users leisure. The faces come in angry, stoic, happy, kissy and pensive. mix and match is encouraged.

my world

a glimpse of where i spend more time than sleeping




and some of my roommates

shade in chicago

"Shade is the launch of a new, self-developed material that applies as a film to glass surfaces, which through blocking and passing daylight forms a spacial projection of shadows and sunlight. The film holds a grid of triangles that each individually fade between transparent and opaque, and hence block or pass light. The graphic shadows projected on the floor, walls and ceiling of the space reveal the geometrical wind patterns that pass the building on the other side of the glass, as choreographed by the measurements of an outdoor sensor.

As the angle of light and patterns of wind are continuously changing throughout the day and year, the perpetual character of the artificial space is reconnected with an evolving, unplanned natural timeline."

- Simon Heijdens

check out dezeen or vimeo for an epic clip

'high tech pavilion'_ animation

 the final results of an architectural digital visualization introduction.  here are some images of Lebbeus Woods' 'High Tech Pavilion' in Chengdu China.  

tubes of light span a mirrored void projecting them into infinity.  a short, 50 second animation was created through rhino, 3ds max, and adobe after effects.

The Making of a Portfolio

So, as I begin my final days in posting portfolios by mail towards their fateful destinations, I am relieved at the long (although fun) process of Making being over. I decided to save a bit of money (probably only a bit) and add some class to my portfolios by doing a perfect binding in watercolor paper. The reasons for this were mostly having an A4+ document perfect bound in the city of MKE is quite the task. No one can bind that size easily, and wanted me to have large-scale prints done to create the cover in addition to printing my book-masterpiece. No thank you hundreds and hundreds of dollars that I would (and will) otherwise be using to apply to the schools in the first place. The final product? 49 full color, 70# matte cover stock A4 images, bound with a hand worked Japanese stab process and an ink-solvent transfer that is reminiscent of etching. Cost? >$40 per set of original prints plus cutting, about $6 for 3 sheets of large format heavy Watercolor Paper, $6 for a Fiskers 1/16th hole punch, about $4 for a few Chartpak markers and about $5 for cover images prints. HAHA Kinkos.

So, I've been asked to share the process of binding and covering. here is goes:

Intro: I should begin by saying that my prints were A4 front and back, but I had the printer guy cut the inner edge (what will be in the binding) about 1/4" wider than the crop mark, this is so my images do not get lost in the binding as you will see.


The Binding:



1. organize and double triple check that your copies are in order. I had them printed frontside and backside in reading order. I.e. when you flip the first page over you are looking at a full spread.



2. Prepare your template for punching holes. I cut a piece of cardboard the same width as my portfolio pages and drew a line 1/4" from the edge (you will remember the 1/4" allowance I requested when I had the pages cut). Then, I made a second line at 1/8". I marked an ODD number of dots along this center line with regularity. ( I made 11 at about 3/4" between, getting closer to the corners on either end). The ODD number is important as I followed the instructions on Japanese Stab Binding from the following video: japanese stab binding But I did more holes, closer together so that it would be very strong. Then, proceed to punch your holes, using each mark as the approximate center. Just be careful, it need not be entirely perfect (just as close as you can get).



3. Use your template on the top of your first set of pages where the binding would go. Use binder clips to secure if necessary, or just hold it steady. Use a sharp pencil to mark where each hole will go. Next, stack a few pages together in order (the thicker the paper, the less you can do at once). This is where binder clips are important. you want the pages to move as little as possible. While punching, the blade could be a bit dull an push the pages slightly askew. Clipping your pages before you punch will minimize this. Punch punch punch away!

4. When stitching/binding the pages, I used a decent weighted thread, but one that is a simple sewing thread. Make sure it is a type which could be used for sewing fabrics. Drugstore sewing-kit thread works, but it is not as strong as those bought from a fabric store. Again, I used the tutorial on Japanese Stab Binding.

The Cover:



5. Make the cover by cutting it the height of your portfolio and twice the length plus the width of the binding. I also found that adding an extra scant 1/16" will aide in making everything line up at the end (after folding). Mark the binding limits with lines along the paper. On the other side, mark another set of lines that are 1/4" farther out from the middle than each binding limit.


6. Make folds towards each other on the lines that mark the binding. On the opposite side, fold outwards the lines which mark the 1/4" limit. The result should look like that above. You can start envisioning it as a perfect binding.

The Transfer:



7. I will not go over the transfer in detail as one could use another method (like large format printing) to make the cover itself. But, to make a transfer, you have to print out a mirror-image of what you want on a non-home office printer (or, you could print it on your home computer and use a Xerox machine to make the necessary print). You turn this face down on your receiving paper (the cover, in this case) and rub an ink solvent on the back. These can be toxic, but not hard to find: Chartpak brand illustration markers carry a "Blender Marker" which has the necessary elements. Rub, Rub, Rub and you get a nice effect on the cover.

Adhering:



8: Before adhering the cover to the binding, be sure to really crease each fold so that everything will stick properly. As far s glue goes, I used plain old xtra-sticky Rubber Cement. it really is magic. Really lay in on the inside of the cover binding, and ALSO on the edge and sides over your bound/sewn pages. Wait until they have dried fairly completely (this is how it is permanent). then, CAREFULLY place the booklet into its cover. A good way to really fine tune the lining up is to pack it (yes like a cigarette) on a table top. First on the bottom, then on the binding itself, the top, or how you feel it needs adjusting. Rub the binding as well to encourage the bond. After a moment, open the cover and crease the fold again. It should cover the thread and the binding. This method is really pretty permanent and if it isn't, you can usually find a way to adjust it. If you are nervous, make a couple extra covers to insure you can always fix an emergency!

9: Send out your portfolios and drink some well-deserved whiskey cocktails. Horray! You have made it into a grad program because of your excellent and thrifty portfolio making. GoodBye MKE!