Nomadic_Device04

More to come, but for now:

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Update (10012010)

Nomadic_Device03

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The Good:
Finally got the nomadic_device to stand up...and then some. Half-laps on the end of the legs with corresponding voids on the top pieces lock three units into one. The cable tensioning system makes sure they dont come apart...even when you want them to. 
The model folds as advertised, and hinges well on the dowel-rod pin.
The base is securely attached to the table through the threaded-rod/wing-nut combination.
The track system works well to both keep the nomadic_device upright and well-grounded.


The Bad:
There is just not enough lateral strength to keep the nomadic_device standing when a load is applied. 
The tensioning system tensions well, but getting the nomadic_device in and out of tension is sketchy. It feels like it could break some piece at any moment.
There are several bad edges and chipped pieces of wood. 
There are some dimensions that arent quite right. For example, where the modular rests on the track. The top stringer should keep the ribs together in a way that compresses the modular so that it can contribute to the strength of the sections of frame. This didnt happen, the space is a bit too large.


Overall the project was a valuable experience in not only working in a group, but handling real materials, finishing real materials, etc. Complications certainly did arise due to the limited access to the shop, and...conflicting schedules amongst group members.

Detail and Poetry Reading Questions

1. As the technique of detailing changed from the hands of the craftsman to the tools of the architect, how has the resulting construction of details changed? Explain in terms of scale, material and cost.

The method of detailing a building shifted from the hands of the craftsman to the drawings of the architect distinctly changing the way in which details were constructed, imagined, and perceived. Craftsmen long served as the sole possessors of the knowledge of how various details functioned, were built, etc. Through time however, architects took more control, deciding instead to draw details in plan, section, etc. This drastically changed the scale at which details were conceived. Whereas the craftsman viewed the details as full-scale constructed objects, the architect separated him/herself from the true/built detail by imagining it in scaled drawings, void of materiality.

The material of details also shifted as detailing responsibility shifted. Architects tend to think in form and geometry, and not necessarily materiality. Craftsmen, however, are only craftsman insomuch as they think and imagine in suitable and feasible materials. The craftsmen were the ones who knew what to construct the details out of - so they thought of them thusly (from a material foundation). The architects were able to identify what they wanted (perhaps) but thought of details as spawning from form and geometry - whether the shape/geometry was founded or could be founded in a feasible material.

Cost comes into play in that details are moving increasingly towards standardized parts (much cheaper than the handmade constructions of the craftsmen). The standardization of details makes craftsmen unnecessary - the architect can now simply specify and draw various details from a manufacturer's catalog. Cost is the driving force behind standardization.

2. How does "geometrical relationship" of individual details provide an understanding of the whole building if "indirect vision" localizes the viewer and "habit determines to a large extent even optical reception"?

The geometrical relationship of individual details is directly related to the phenomenon of indirect vision in that indirect vision demands the viewer perceive details through a series of visual sweeps of a site. The geometric relationship of individual details helps to unify various visual sweeps into a comprehensive understanding of the whole building. This is because as a detail moves away from the natural focus of our eye it's details become fuzzy - it is a rough sketch while what we are focusing on is a precise rendering. However, we are able to compile a more complete view of a whole building by building geometric relationships between various details after spending some time viewing the building.

3. Carlo Scarpa's details are a "result of an intellectual game" where the Open City buildings are constructed from an act of poetry. Describe what role the detail plays to "tell-the-tale" in each of these environments.

Scarpa's details "tell-the-tale" of - how they are made, where they are placed, how their dimensions are chosen. The tale of the detail is told through its functionality and appropriateness.

The details in the Open City are used as built expressions of the poetic content of the site. They serve as a graphic language that tells-the-tale of a particular poem unique to the site and building.  

4. Pendleton-Jullian writes about the Open City as emerging from and being in the landscape. Does allowing landscape to initiate "the configuration of territory and space" challenge Western building notions, and how so?

Western building conventions (and on a larger scale Western concepts of private property) very much run against the idea that landscape initiate "the configuration of territory and space." In Western culture land is seen as a commodity that one possesses - not as a shared resource or something that contains intrinsic value (it is only instrumentally valuable since its value is determined by how desirable it is to humans). The human and his/her condition is seen as the initiator of "the configuration of territory and space" because humans are perceived as intrinsically valuable - while the landscape is only valuable in so much as how well it lends itself to being configured by humans for humans. The idea that the landscape initiates such a configuration would mean that a possession would be dictating the form/space a human owner would inhabit.  

5. Describe some detail conditions of the Open City that convey "lightness" as Pendleton-Jullian refers to.

Pendleton-Jullian describes lightness in terms of the physical impression the building has upon the site. Not only in the way in which it was constructed and the materials it was constructed from (i.e. post and beam construction supporting a light and airy kind of cladding often perforated), but also in a metaphorical sense which is conveyed through the use of said methods and materials (i.e. the idea that various buildings can be cannabalized to create new buildings - and the thusly appropriate material choices - convey a certain ad hoc feel to the Open City as a whole...something that could be packed up and deployed at will - which infers a certain lightness as an opposite of a monumental feel).

Nomadic_Device02

Material	Type	Quanity	Manufacturer	Price
Wood	½” thick plywood	4’x8’ sheet	Home Depot
Green Transluscent Acrylc	Acrylic 1/8” thick	12”x35”                        sheet	Bower’s Plastics	$21.09
Casters	2” diameter	6	Home Depot	$2.69 each
Wood Screws	#8 1-1/4”	24	Home Depot
Metal Threaded Rods	5/16” 18-18	4	Lowes	$1.76
Washers	5/16”	8	Lowes	$0.85
Wing Nuts	5/16”	8	Lowes	$0.94
Dowel Rods		2
Wire Cables				$1.96

Maison_a_Bordeaux Boards and Presentation

Download Board 1

Download Board 2

Link to powerpoint presentation:

Maison_a_Bordeaux-ppt

Nomadic_Device01

A mock-up of my Nomadic device - full-scale - cardboard.

Lessons learned:

I need a better way of connecting the canopy element to the desk/connection element. Some of this (like other problems) is certainly magnified when working with cardboard, but a problem exists.

There needs to be a way to adjust how much pressure holds the canopy element together on its hinge. The legs swing loosely which causes all sorts of problems, if they were under enough pressure that it took a strong hand to set them it would be much easier to set the canopy in place. However, this needs to be adjustable (maybe another clamping mechanism?) because the pressure is perfect when folding the unit up.

It doesnt stand up...Real materials would help, but there needs to be some element that adds lateral stability to the unit on the sides of the canopy.

Things that worked:

The folding mechanism works great.

The hinge is a good idea, it just needs to be tweaked.

Other problems encountered:

Limited cardboard. Not only that, but finding long continuous pieces was really hard.

Kenneth Frampton - Studies in Tectonic Culture - Discussion Questions

1. The readings refer to tectonics in a variety of settings; tectonic/stereotomic, tectonic/atectonic, topos/typos/tectonic, representation/ontological, rhythm, corporeal metaphor, ethnography, and technology. Briefly define each term and provide an architectural example that embodies the condition.

Tectonic/sterrotomic - light frame construction/earth-nature based construction - hogan/adobe

Tectonic/atectonic - structure that visually accounts for the presence of the building/structure that does not visually correspond to the presence of the structure - Seagrams building/the Stoclet House 

Topos/typos/tectonic - (three vectors of the built envrionment) i.e. site/type/tectonic (structure) 

Representation/ontological - skin that represents the composite character of the construction/fundamental core of the building - Seagrams Building (solid core construction with curtain walls) 

Corporeal metaphor - the bodily experience of a building - Saynatsalo Town Hall

Ethnography - the branch of anthropology that deals with the scientificdescription of individual human societies - Berber House

Technology - a transformational force that alters the lens through which the natural world is perceived 

2. Kenneth Frampton writes that this study of tectonics "seeks to mediate and enrich the priority given to space", what is a dominant trend in Western architecture of today and how does tectonics relate to this trend?

A dominant trend in Western architecture today is the use of various types of veneers to cover up the structural elements and the process by which they are installed. Virtually every "brick" building one sees today is simply a steel or concrete frame with brick creating an all encompassing cloak around the building - in order to cover up materials/processes that people find undesirable with a material/process that people do find desirable. This directly relates to tectonics in that the veneer is covering the true tectonic elements of the building. The tectonic elements of the building have become undesirable features in many cases. 

3. "Greek in origin, the term tectonic derives from the work tekton, signifying carpenter or builder". How has the the impact of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and other space-time models altered tectonic etymology?

The theory of relativity changes the etymology of 'tekton' (carpenter/builder) in the way in the end of the carpenter/builder. The theory of relativity brought forth a new awareness of space, which subsequently became the object of tectonic creation. This is a shift from viewing tectonics in resulting in a frame, or a structure - rather, tectonics is a process resulting in a space.

4. Vittorio Gregotti states in 1983, "(t)he worst enemy of modern architecture is the idea of space considered solely in terms of its economic and technical exigencies indifferent to the ideas of the site". If the intention of site is to situate human in the cosmos, how then does site infer from a contemporary landscape that has been graded, conditioned, tamed, treated, sculpted, mapped, engineered, essentially re-created by humans?

A site cannot infer from the contemporary landscape. I think it speaks alot to our current cosmological view that we surround ourselves with an obsessively groomed environment - it suggests that we can some how construct our own reality to suit our own preferences and the mood of our time. We have taken the site which was once viewed as intrinsically valuable because of its cosmological relevance and now have reduced it to a series of instrumentally valuable resources. I think this directly coincides with an up-springing of humanism that seems to be sweeping across the Western world. Sites, among other things, are now defined in terms of their instrumental value to intrinsically valuable humans - rather than the sites holding intrinsic value because of their relation to a cosmology that takes precedence over any single human.

5. Is architectural tectonics applicable or relevant in a world of global mobilization? State and explain your position.

I think tectonics serves a very important purpose in a world of global mobilization. Namely, it serves to ground an individual in surroundings that make visual sense. The construction process/evidence of the workers hand and the materials of a structure can help to ensure that it makes visual sense to a person as a intentional, built environment that suits a human. Without a building making such visual sense to a person the individual begins to inhabit nameless, shapeless structures that do not ground them for the time they inhabit them - but serve as reminders of the mobilized lifestyle. Such structures are void of the mark of a careful and intentional craftsman - they cover up any trace that grounds the structure somewhere in time (for all we know, the structure has always existed - there is no evidence of it every being built other than it simply is). 

F10_3501_mcreynolds-iabrooks-a1.3

For a higher quality download (pdf) please visit:


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7067092/F10_Mcreynolds_a1-2-board-revisions.pdf