dean storm | transmutations | video is more

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VIDEO IS MORE.

TRANSMUTATIONS

DEANSTORM


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TRANSMUTATIONS

DEANSTORMMaster of Architecture

University of Detroit MercySchool of Architecture

ARCH 5100 | ARCH 5110ARCH 5200 | ARCH 5210

Will Wittig, Associate Professor29 April 2011

VIDEO IS MORE.


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contents

006 start here.007 thesis statement

008 architecture begins with an idea.009 thesis paper | video is more.

024 lets get visual. vi sual.025 seeing dierently | perceptions

028 design will change.029 transmutations

030 this is a test.031 video sketchbook: preliminaries

040 you are here.041 site | sight

052 testing in progress.053 video sketchbook: sight analyses

058 seek inspiration.059 literary drawings

072 drawing is thinking. on paper.073 intuitive line drawings

080 this is another test.081 video sketchbook: drawing lines

084 modeling is thinking, too.085 three-dimensional models

090 video extends architectural perceptions.

091 imagining architectural space

104 making is learning.105 drawing, modeling, designing

144 architecture lives.145 open architecture

176 architecture is now.177 the nal transmutation

191 this is where it begins.

192 designing is thinking is learning is growing.193 personal refection | conclusion

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The design process is essential to creatingmeaningul architectural space. Through thissequence or cycle, creative surprises emerge.

With the advent o digital media, perceptionso architectural space are being transormed,and new architectural ideas and innovativespatial concepts are being revealed. Mediais an extension o the mind and body. Anddigital technology is changing human behav-iors, interactions, and relationships. Thus, it isevident that an inherent interconnection existsbetween imagery and the experiential, physi-cal world. Engaging in design inquiries, ar-chitectural theorists are already beginning toexplore this concept.

Creation is exploration, observation is revela-tion. Digital images and motion pictures canbe used as abstract orms o sketching andhypothesizing about architectural space. Pro-duction can induce urther inspiration. Captur-ing new images and reworking existing digitalcontent initiates the process, but the designersactive, manipulative experimentation unveilsavant-garde thoughts and visions. As the de-signer creates various mediascapes, architec-tural and spatial ideas can be explored likenever beore. In this way, the architect is learn-

ing about the project by alternating betweenintuition and analysis. By transmutating digitalcontent into resh imagery, one creates newmodes o perception. These transmutationscan alter the way individuals view the worldand interact with it. As the designer createsexploratory media and manipulates digitalimagery, some impressions are revealed andgrasped, while other concepts encourage ur-ther questioning. With the acquisition o newways o viewing architectural space, the con-temporary designers ways o thinking, work-

ing, and making are constantly evolving.

By creating and presenting intriguing digital

imagery, both still and in motion, a designercan stimulate a suspension o disbelie, prompt-ing an altered state o curiosity. This state ispartially and simultaneously connected to real-ity, to memory, and to the imagination. Newperspectives generate new ways o seeing and possibly more importantly new wayso understanding. Consequently, architecturalimagery can engage viewers in ways that be-gin to explore potentials or alternate realities,as existing relationships with space, time, andorm are openly challenged. Within this con-text, the designer is not someone who simplyre-presents some aspects o the world as it is,but rather, with his manipulative explorationsin digital imagery, is one who triggers entire-ly new mental constructs, aecting thoughts,knowledge, memories, and imagination.

With this process, the architect is creatingspace that exists at the intersection o digitalimagery and architecture. Furthermore, thedesigner is initiating an architecture that ex-ists at the edge o perception. These spatialconditions establish an environment which

directly engages and responds to the individ-uals evolving relationships with time, space,and orm, with memory and imagination, andwith reality and the screen. And in the end,the designer is attempting to manipulate botharchitecture and space to elicit a responsesimilar to that which is created by manipulateddigital imagery. Thus, this architectural spacechallenges perception and requires personaltranslation and reconstruction within the mindto be ully comprehended.

thesis statement

start here.


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thesis paper | video is more.

Neither teachers nor students are today en-couraged to undertake an adventure: danger-ous, riskyperhaps hopeul?which under-

stands itsel as a search or the whence, thewhereto, and the why o Architectures condi-tion: a quest or the miracle, or at least theabyss which illuminates it. And i someone isstill bothered by a problem to which no cur-riculum answer can be given then he or sheshould rerain rom raising it, because that towhich technicized thinking can give no an-swer is irrelevanta pseudo problem.1

Daniel Libeskind

Answers are not known.

This is where it begins.

INTRODUCTION

The design process is essential to creating

meaningul architectural space. Through thissequence or cycle, creative surprises emerge.Thoughtul ideas coalesce with inventive ex-perimentation to imaginatively produce cre-ative spatial compositions. Completely im-mersed in the process, the designer cannotpredict the outcome. Designing is not know-ing. Rather, it is a orm o questioning. Andarchitectural questioning can be infuenced bythe tools which the designer chooses to en-gage. More specically, using contemporarydigital technologies, an experimental methodo creation can inspire new sequences in thedesign process. With the advent o digital me-dia, perceptions o architectural space are be-ing transormed, and new architectural ideasand innovative spatial concepts are being re-vealed. Media is an extension o the mindand body. And digital technology is chang-ing human behaviors, interactions, and rela-tionships. Thus, it is evident that an inherentinterconnection exists between digital imageryand the experiential, physical world. Engag-ing in design inquiries, architectural theoristsare already beginning to explore this concept.

Creation is exploration, observation is revela-tion. Digital images and motion pictures canbe used as abstract orms o hypothesizingand sketching architectural space. Productioncan induce urther inspiration. Capturing newimages and reworking existing digital contentinitiates the process, but the designers active,manipulative experimentation unveils uncon-ventional thoughts and visions. As the design-er creates various mediascapes, architecturaland spatial ideas can be explored like neverbeore. In this way, the architect is learning

architecture

begins withan idea.


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individual to develop a more comprehensiveinternal, subjective awareness. At several mo-ments within the timeline o visual history, new

developments in art and technology have dra-matically altered perceptions. The invention ocinematography in the second hal o the 19thcentury and the development o Cubism at thebeginning o the 20th century prooundly infu-enced ways o seeing and instigated a shit inhow individuals think about and relate to time,space, and orm.

The moving image challenged traditionalperspectives by presenting and manipulatingspatiality and temporality simultaneously. Cin-ema produces an illusion o motion with therapid, sequential projection o xed imagesonto a screen, resulting in a orm o mediathat is rooted in the representation o move-ment and time. Motion pictures are clearlyperceived because o a phenomenon o hu-man eyesight called the persistence o visionor the theory o aterimage, which means thatthe brain sustains anything that the eye sees ora raction o a second ater the eye stops see-ing it.6 Instants o time appear to be continu-ously changing, and with movement, action,and duration purely depicted, cinematic visual

stimuli establish a heightened awareness otime. While each lm presents its own narra-tive, motion pictures are actually subjectivelycomprehended, because the objective projec-tions also move through the spectators owninner emotional space, producing an ability torender aect.7 Additionally, cinema presentsits own recongurations o time and spacethrough narrative, with editing, and by usingthe eye o the camera to capture unconven-tional perspectives with compositional ram-ing. Cinematic projections are mechanical

and, thereore, subject the spectator to thetime o its own inexorable and unvarying or-ward movement.8 Cinematic experiences

are both seen and emotionally elt, and com-prehension occurs as each lm unolds withinits own guidelines o temporality.Cubism radically calls into question the verybasis o pictorial representation, moving be-

yond visual reality and external appearanc-es.9 New conceptual wholes are createdby deconstructing subjects and reconguringthem into expressive simultaneities consistingo several dierent perspectives. In pursuito a rigorous analysis o orm, cubist paintersdissected the optics o reality into constituentparts, creating resh compositions o aestheticobjects. The artists selected and synthesizedcombinations o seen and remembered ele-ments o a subject. With several juxtaposi-tions or visual positions within a single paint-ing, cubism accentuates rigorously dierentand discontinuous perspectives, schemas, orviewpoints.10 As a result, cubist painting at-tempts to reveal hidden truths about the ob-jective world by teaching individuals to seeanother dimension o reality.

An inherent relationship exists between cinemaand cubism, since cubist painters like Picassoand Braque attempted to translate the moviesrevolutionary portrayal o time, space, andmotion into ne art. Inspired by motion pic-tures, cubism revolutionizes radical changes inorm and vision, because lms enable visualartists to capture blocks o time and analyzethe resultant images at varying speeds.11Consciously examining cinematic motion, thecubists strive to capture that same movement intheir paintings by creating ractured suraces

Play Time. Jacques Tati |image 02|Portrait o Wilhelm Uhde. Pablo Picasso |image 01|

about architectural space by alternating be-tween intuition and analysis, because oscilla-tion is inherent to the process. By transmutat-

ing digital content into resh imagery, he orshe creates new modes o perception. Thesetransmutations can alter the ways individualsview the world and interact with it. At theintersection between architecture and motionpictures, experimental, perceptual designs areattempting to reveal new ways o seeing, in-terpreting, and understanding digital imageryand architectural space.

VISUAL PERCEPTIONOptical physiologists and psychologists haveexamined how perceptual capabilities o theeyes, brain, nerves, and muscles are involvedin bringing orth an understanding o an ob-ject. Visual perception is not merely a passiveactivity in which impressions o light are re-ceived on the retina. Rather, vision is equatedwith nerve and muscle movements associatedwith the aesthetics o resultant mental sensa-tions. Thereore, since certain aesthetics maycause an individual to move ones head oreyes in specic directions, orm greatly infu-

ences how one eels about a work o art or ar-chitecture. Consequently, perceptual meaningis produced within the viewer in a way that ismuch more complex and interactive than thesimple reception o purely visual inormation.2

Sight allows individuals to quickly and directlyengage the external environment. MauriceMerleau-Ponty explains, Everything that Isee is in principle within my reach, at leastwithin my reach o sight, marked on the mapo the I can.3 Vision gives an individual

the condence and understanding that he orshe can actively interact with the physical en-vironment. In addition, it establishes a rela-

tionship in which the subjective sel can beginto refect upon his or her place within the ob-jective world. But ironically, much o what isperceived today is not actually within reachnor is it able to be physically engaged, be-cause so oten, content exists only on a screen.Merleau-Ponty also writes that [v]ision is not acertain mode o thought or presence to sel; itis the means given me or being absent rommysel, or being present at the ssion o Beingrom the insidethe ssion at whose termina-tion, and not beore, I come back to mysel.4Furthermore, the acquisition o visual knowl-edge originates rom outside o the sel, andonce this stimulation is internally processed,vision teaches us . . . that we are everywhereall at once, and that even our power to imag-ine ourselves elsewhere . . . borrows rom vi-sion and employs means we owe to it.5 Inthis way, seeing initiates imagination, under-standing, and refection.

Perception is the lens in which the action o theworld is processed. And in order to begin toully grasp the possibilities o what it can mean

to exist in space, it is imperative to break romthe amiliar acceptance o what is alreadyknown. Thus, new orms o perception requirea mind that is open and untainted by rigidpredispositions.

LEARNING TO SEE DIFFERENTLY: CINEMA,CUBISM, AND ARCHITECTURE

Learning to see dierently reveals external,objective unamiliarities while enabling an


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points o vision into a cinematic sequence, rep-resenting several projections in a single pictureplane.15 Previously, with the movie camera,

cinema recognized and mimicked the act thata subject navigates through space, but withcubism, the subject itsel is presented with amulti-aceted viewable object, simulating ac-tual movements in space and replacing thepassage o time.

In a cubist painting, orm is suggested and notclearly dened, but at the same time, a stronglinear quality still remains within the body owork, providing an opportunity or the viewerto synthesize the inormation o a depicted ob-ject. Similarly, some architects have attemptedto collapse several points o view into a singlework. This technique can establish multiplici-ties in architectural communication: . . . plan,section, and elevation o an object could belaid or drawn over each other, and then ad-justed and used to orm a single, legible andhighly inormative image.16 Conceptually,architecture can strive to capture the dynamismo a sliced model by establishing spatial rela-tionships that exist with exploded, unolded,and projected components which inhabit thesame space at the same time without actually

interering with one another.17

Emulating some o the artistic intentions oundin cubism, architecture can be ragmented andractured, eaturing an array o ormal, spa-tial, and material acets. Similarly, architectslike Coop Himmelb(l)au have ound ways toproject the chaotic dislocations rom the vir-tual space o cubist painting back out intoreal space.18 Architectural space is beingrecongured, revealing new essences aboutits internal structure and reconguring any pre-

conceived notions o what architecture oughtto be. Just as cubism taught individuals to seedierently, new orms o architecture must also

inspire a similar type o perceptual learningand comprehension, since speculative spacesdo not coincide with pre-established architec-tural schemas. Cubism continues to inspirepersistence in reinventing the possibilities owhat architecture can become. Thus, thecycle o artistic and experiential infuence per-sists, because cinema is architectural, cubismis cinematic, and architecture can be cubisti-cally cinematic.

SPATIAL AND PERCEPTUAL EVOLUTION

Anthony Vidler has observed that, because odigital technology, previously unimaginableand unrealizable designs are now projectedinto the built world. Ideas, words, and ormsare conceived within visionary virtual space,as spatial thought is integrated with psycho-analytical thought. Existing at this intersectionare representations and productions which re-sult in what Vidler calls warped space.19Spatial warping disrupts established architec-tural schemas, and these subject and object

disturbances distort conventional descriptionso space. Forced usions o dierent media,like photography, lm, art, and architecture,also create spatial warping which breaks theboundaries and separations while depictingspace in unprecedented ways. Specic ob-jects materialize as intermediary works that,in order to be explicated, require an interpre-tative vocabulary based in other art orms.Traditionally, space is considered as a stablecontainer or objects and bodies, but warpedspace, on the other hand, is produced by sub-

Muse des Confuences. Coop Himmelb(l)au |image 05|

and multiple perspectives within the subjects otheir work. Picasso and Braque were not onlycaptivated by lms, they were also artistically

competing with them.12

Together, the two arts established revolutionarychanges in the ways in which time and spaceare conceived, documented, and analyzed.Both cinema and cubism generate opportuni-ties in which visual knowledge engages view-ers in ways that challenge traditional modeso perception. As both art orms present una-miliar content, the process o analysis and rev-elation allows an individual to imaginativelyperceive alternative possibilities outside o thenorm. As a result, one can comprehend andrefect upon each external visual stimuli whileintuitively internalizing meanings and interpre-tations.Both cinema and cubism have infuenced andinspired architectural design. But it must bementioned that this is actually a rather pecu-liar situation, as Sergei Eisenstein has notedthat lms undoubted ancestor [is] architec-ture.13 And clearly, cubisms predecessor iscinema. Thus, architecture infuenced cinema,which inspired cubism, and in time, ideas rom

both cubism and cinema were translated backinto new conceptions o architectural spaceand time.

The process o designing architecture is quitesimilar to the art o making a lm, because,as Jean Nouvel states, Architecture exists, likecinema, in the dimension o time and move-ment. One conceives and reads a buildingin terms o sequences. To erect a buildingis to predict and seek eects o contrast andlinkage through which one passes . . . In the

continuous shot / sequence that a building is,the architect works with cuts and edits, ram-ings and opening . . . .14 Here, the archi-

tect plays multiple roles similar to those o thedirector, set designer, and editor, respectivelyimagining, constructing, and manipulating aramed setting in which time and space canunold through motion and perception. Theindividual can and will experience action, butunlike a cinematic spectator passively watch-ing a lm on a screen, the architectural specta-tor actively engages with and moves througha constructed environment, creating an experi-ence that is dictated by curiosity and purpose.

Architectural experiences can be equated tocinematic experiences, as the moving spec-tator may replicate the perceptual cinematicraming qualities o a moving camera. Like-wise, cinematic projections are collectivelyreceived by large groups o people, much inthe same way that architecture is experienced.Additionally, space can be perceived in termso thickness, similar to the ways in which thelens o the camera is sensitive to depth o eld.Dierent screens, planes, and openings canbe superimposed as intermediary joints o pas-sage layered upon one another that implement

moments o ocus and blur. This architecturalexperience is quite similar to the cinematicmontage: a process in which specic sectionso lm are selected, edited, and pieced to-gether to orm a continuous whole. A cine-matographic montage links various ragments,lmed rom several positions, at dierent times,and in diverse dimensions, into one sequence.Likewise, a cubist painting can be understoodas being cinematic in that it employs montagein its own way. With multiple, simultaneousperspectives, cubist painters shited several

Le Carceri. Plate 7. Piranesi |image 04|Barcelones. Borja Bonaque |image 03|


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[a]n architectural drawing is as much a pro-spective unolding o uture possibilities as itis a recovery o a particular history to whose

intentions it testies and whose limits it alwayschallenges.24 Libeskinds drawings look atthe relationship between intuitive geometricstructures which have the potential to be mani-ested in experience as well as in the possibili-ties o ormalization. He expresses movementwithin the imagination, giving an impressiono discontinuity, while at the same time, ren-dering reciprocal moments or alternative view-points out o ontological necessity. Refectingupon his process, Libeskind adds that [t]heact o creation in the order o procedures oimagination . . . coincides with creation in theobjective realm. Drawing is not mere inven-tion . . . It is a state o experience in whichthe other is revealed through mechanisms thatprovoke and support objective accomplish-ments and the one who draws upon them.25His work attempts to express the richness andmutability o perception, because the work it-sel is indenite, expressing architectural think-ing that exists in both continuity and change.The drawings convey a dynamic transmutationo movement and abstraction that aspires toattain a vectoral going beyond. Libeskind

proclaims, I am a ascinated observer and aperplexed participant o that mysterious desirethat seeks radical elucidation o original pre-comprehension o ormsan ambition that Ithink is implicit in all architecture.26 Further,the drawings disclose an experience whichuncovers modes o awareness that are ab-sent rom rationality. They look to reveal aninner, deeper level o consciousness which isestablished by a relationship with the imagesand is capable o both giving and receivinga dynamic visual experience. Libeskind ap-

proaches architecture in an analytic, interpre-tive, symbolic, non-representational manner,because or him, design is initiated by the

search or valid objectives, and his drawingsinitiate an inquisitive methodology.

Rigorous imagination instigates the processo discovery in which design is a projectivepoetics o architecture yielding invention andunderstanding.27 The work breaks into theexcitement and mystery o architecture, as hedrops ideas o orm, unction, and program,allowing the dynamics o building and de-sign to explore new dimensions. At the starto each project, the goals are unknown, andthe ends are indeterminable, because or Libe-skind, the wandering process o designinga spirited, dream-like architecture is ascinat-ing and enigmatic. In attempting to createa phenomenological experience that is com-pletely out o the ordinary, Libeskinds archi-tecture expresses ragmentation, lled withirruptive orces and imaginative geometrieswhich challenge the common repetition othe built environment. His dynamic diagonallines both cut through and embody time andspace. Exteriors are unrecognizable, becauseshape and orm cannot be understood rom

any specic or privileged vantage point. In-terior spaces are unmappable, much like aninterpretive montage that might be ound ina lm. Visual points o view are collapsedand multiplied, disrupting perspectival space,and logic is thrown into disarray, as warpedspaces induce experiential vertigo. Libeskindsbuilt space recognizes its own temporalitywhile nurturing interludes o experiential refec-tion and challenging the modern psyche withractured post-spatial void[s].28 Because othis, Daniel Libeskind continues to cinematical-

Chamber Works. Daniel Libeskind |image 07|Micromegas. Daniel Libeskind |image 06|

jective projections and interjections. It orcesthe ormal and spatial to permeate with thepsychological. The emergence o alternative

architectural space begins with optical per-ceptions o spatial dimensions which are gen-erated by the perceived dynamism o bodiesand minds moving in space. Visual impres-sions or infuential images reveal the primaryperceptions o space, because sight is com-pletely subjective.20 Thus, spatial warpingbegins with an image.

The image is an integral element o archi-tectural education, presentation, and criticaldiscourse. Moreover, it is an essential, visualpoint o reerence which attempts to illustratean architects spatial or ormal intentions, whileat the same time, captures the essence o acritical idea. But it is also important to notethat images are not simply a preliminary stepin proposing an architectural project, nor dothey merely capture a moment in the timelineo architectural history. Rather, certain archi-tectural images can be visual maniestationso ideas. And it could be argued that, o-ten, it is quite dicult or built architecture toeven come close to reaching the complexityo some orms o experimental, hybrid repre-

sentation, composed o strategic combinationso various orms o media. Nevertheless, thisbreed o images expressively continues to alterthe architectural canon while inscribing strong,intellectual eects within the conversation oarchitecture.21 The warping o architecturalrealities may begin with a two-dimensional im-age, but it doesnt have to end there.

Warping perspectival space is an abstractprocess o thinking in architecture, and now,these distorted representations, which are simi-

lar to those o cubism, as well as uturism andabstract expressionism, have penetrated bothphysical and representational architectural

space. Additionall y, lm continues to pres-ent imaginary space, and at last, contempo-rary architecture can actually embody theseseemingly impossible visionary constructions.Inspired by cinematic imagery, designers con-tinue to try to represent both movement andtemporal succession in architecture. And withthese warped designs, cinematic architecturecan produce entirely new ideas: explodingtime and space, embracing depth and move-ment, reormulating the real and the imagi-nary, and using the physical with the mental.One can expect the unexpected.22

ALTERNATIVE VIEWS IN ARCHITECTURALTHINKING AND PRODUCTION

DANIEL LIBESKIND

Experimental, investigative architectural think-ing requires alternative methods o production,because ideas are not indubitable. DanielLibeskind writes: Disorder, the arbitrary, bornrom the delirium o order pushed beyond its

limits, by a strange paradox, discovers its ownlogic; a structure which like an inaccessibleand secret truth has been pregured in the al-luring depths o chaos. When we deploy thearbitrary, we conront necessityour own andthe worlds . . . [and] In the words o [Soren]Kierkegaard: The whole truth lies in arbitrari-ness.23 Design is an uncertain exploration,and with his drawings, Libeskind expressesadvanced, inquisitive architectural thinking ina set o academic representations. They arewarped expressions, because or Libeskind,


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is a solution.33 Their work proposes a radi-cal departure rom all previous theories, tradi-tions, and academic ormulas. It accommo-

dates nothing. Furthermore, in 1968, CoopHimmelb(l)au proclaimed: Our architecturehas no physical ground plan, but a psychicone.34 Speculative architectural designsdetach the body as well as ones subjectiveexistential being rom any existing groundplan. Percepti ons are warped, as this mentalarchitecture seeks to exist where thoughts reactaster than the body can move. By design-ing mentally stimulating architecture with rag-mentary orm, Prix and Swiczinsky are ableto establish a simultaneity o comprehensibleand incomprehensible spaces that require re-construction within the walls o the brain.

Prix asserts, Architecture is dangerous . . .It is the dening responsibility o an architectto keep the power o architecture out o thehands o those who would use it to lull us intocomplacency.35 Keeping this power, CoopHimmelb(l)au seeks to transport the individualinto revolutionary spaces by ocusing on im-mediate experience. Hence, the architecturepresents a previously unknown sophistication.It is designed in such a way that one must

look, eel, and experience these new spacesin a completely dierent way, so as to per-ceive an architecture o antasy. Prix andSwiczinskys architecture is a world to be en-tered with eyes closed. Himmelb(l)aus trem-bling hand, guided only by the unconsciousresonance o the void, inscribes the paths o

yet unexplored energies in automatic writingthat bears the traces o panic and anxiety.Himmelblau has consistently worked to returnto the innerscape o the mindtreating draw-ing as a kind o seismographic exercise.36

Contriving this mental architecture, both menuse drawing and writing to generate directpathways into the imagination, to unlock what

it means to visualize psychological space. Ar-chitecture is put into words, and the drawingis something to be experienced. Sketching isthe rst opportunity to envision, with specics,what it means to see, eel, and experienceuntapped architectural possibilities. In act,their sketches or scribbles are interpreted asa orm o psychic hieroglyphics o space.And in designing, Coop Himmelb(l)au looksat the sketch as the rst opportunity to conrontand build the psychic and emotional aspectso a project. Because or them, architecturelives or seconds at the moment o design. Itcan never be past, because at this momentbecomes uture . . . Architecture is now.37Driven by an unconscious, intuitive, explosiveprocess, Coop Himmelb(l)aus architecturalwarped orms escape explicit denitions. Onthe contrary, they appear as objects to be ex-perientially desired. Their work is ragmentedand ractured much like a cubist painting, asspatial relationships are exploded and project-ed upon one another. Spaces appear to bechaotic and disjointed, but in doing so, theyreveal inventive dimensions o architectural

space. Coop Himmelb(l)au has taken the cin-ematic tenets o cubist painting and explodedthem into three dimensional space, time, andorm. As a result, Prix and Swiczinskys ar-chitecture challenges established denitions oarchitecture, inasmuch as the team wants ar-chitecture to be something more: Architecturemust blaze.38 Coop Himmelb(l)au deantlywarps spatial conditions, capturing emotionaland psychological energy. And at the sametime, they continue to shatter all prior expecta-tions while establishing avant-garde architec-

BMW Welt. Coop Himmelb(l)au |image 10| Energy Roo Perugia. Coop Himmelb(l)au |image 11|

ly challenge perceptions within architecturalspace.

LEBBEUS WOODS

Lebbeus Woods critiques existing architecture,and in doing so, he completely shatters it intovolumetric congurations o shards. Woodsimagines radical reconstructions o space,and his uturistic visions exist at the edge oarchitectural thinking. His images are murder-ously orceul and rightening, yet at the sametime, realistic and liberating. Nevertheless,they border dream and reality.29 Woods isconcerned with inventing new conditions orliving, and at the same time, he realizes thatAs electronic technology extends percep-tions o the invisible, the visible necessarilybecomes more precious, more intense. Thearchitecture o tactility cannot be separatedrom the architecture o ephemerality, either inconcept or in implementation. Steel and im-ages on a computer screen are o the samematerial, perceived dierently, each requiringthe extremities inherent in their separate mate-rial presences.30 Thereore, both physicalmateriality and virtual technology are equallyrelevant in designing and understanding new

conceptions o architectural space. Woodsproposes an architecture that is a represen-tation o knowledge which is thought anddrawn, but not built. In act, he shows littleinterest in actually building his abstract archi-tectural antasies. Further, his renderings areree rom all restraints o the real world. He isshowing models o reality, because his ideasare his reality.

Woodss drawings are visual guides which in-tend to stimulate transormations, as architects

. . . invent geometries and methods o con-struction, in this way provoking new ways omoving or resting in space, new and always

transorming relationships between both peo-ple and things.31 He sees opportunities orradical transormation in the spaces o extremeatermath rom natural disasters or warzones.In these conditions, architecture becomes aprocess o creating knowledge as a reaction-ary response. As a result, the structures areradically dynamic. Destruction creates voidswhere new structures can be injected, andreconstructed cities require ingenuity, energy,inventiveness. This type o spatial warpingcreates an architecture o turbulent fuidity, oshiting orces, and o changing minds. It isincomplete, in a constant state o fux. Spaceis conceptually invented. Likewise, it is con-structed and inhabited dierently, requiringnew modes o existence. This architecture cre-ates spaces within spaces, disrupting spatialorder and thought while providing systematicvoids which can only be lled in over time.32Architecture is imagination. It is thinking. Andor Woods, it is drawing. Ideas are enlivenedon paper and perceptions o space are con-ronted and engaged.

WOLF D. PRIX + COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Coop Himmelb(l)au seeks to practice archi-tecture against architecture, and in doing so,the team is experimenting with entirely newlanguages o orm. Wol D. Prix and HelmutSwiczinsky are dedicated to an uncompromis-ing counteraction against the architectural sta-tus quo: We assume that architecture doesnot have and is not meaning. It is a three-dimensional representation o a building prob-lem, and thus the solution. Inasmuch as there

Labyrinthine Wall. Lebbeus Woods |image 09|Same Dierence. Lebbeus Woods |image 08|


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or the internet. As a result, it is possible tosee without going there to see, and one canperceive without actually having experienced

what has happened there. Time passes,but it also collapses upon itsel. High speedexperiences and moments o technological in-stantaneity have annihilated traditional notionso time and space, resulting in sensory andperceptual evolution.

Virilios phenomenological logistics discov-ers perception to be made o breaks, ab-sences, dislocations as well as the capacityto produce patchworks o various contingentworlds.43 Perception is never ully complete,and cinema, acting both as a supplement anda substitution, permeates these absences in hu-man perception by using external productionso speed, displacement , and luminosity. Themovie spectator has been equated to one whooscillates between reality and the dream, but[l]ike Deleuze, Virilio understood cinema aspart o a crisis o belie, in which we no longerbelieve in the world.44 The cinematic de-ceives vision, causing uncertainties in the ve-racity o speed and time. The senses unction,but external impressions are repressed. At anygiven moment, action may be interrupted and

the passage o time goes unnoticed. Humansconsciously think in blocks o duration that aremade up o various combinations o speedand time. Likewise, poet Charles Baudelaireobserves: Countless layers o ideas, images,eelings, have allen successively on your brainas sotly as light. It seems that each buries thepreceding, but none has really perished.45Cinematic thoughts, ideas, and experiencesconverge with those perceived in reality, es-tablishing sensory reactions that are illusivelydistorted. Consequently, viewing moving im-

ages on screen requires acute visual attention,and with obligatory movements o the eye, in-evitably results in the inhibition o bodily move-

ment.

The interace o the screen, devoid o anyactual depth, disrupts the idea o distanceby presenting a new depth o eld throughrepresentations o visibility, causing cinematicexperiences to be conused with reality. Fur-thermore, according to Virilio, . . . architec-tonic elements begin to drit and foat in anelectronic ether, devoid o spatial dimensions,but inscribed in the singular temporality o asingular diusion.46 Perceptions o speed,on screen, dey both temporality and physical-ity. What it means to be here or there no lon-ger exists. The screen, with its luminous emis-sions, presents alse perspectives, and theseconditions subject architecture to technologi-cal space-time. The day has changed withthe establishment o an electronic alse-day.And this new 24/7 time maintains no rela-tionship to real time.47 As a result, [a]rchi-tectural plans are displaced by the sequenceplans o an invisible montage . . . [and] timeis now organized according to imperceptibleragmentations o the technical time span.48

Momentary interruptions and cuts replace con-tinuities in time and space. Moving imagesand projections produced by the camera actas missing links in this perceptual disjunction.Physical materiality is progressing towardsdigital abstraction: Ater the aesthetics odisappearance o cinema, the time is nowupon us o the aesthetics o disappearanceo real-estate architectonics.49 But in re-sponse to this potential technological erosiono architectural space, Virilio reasserts that[a]rchitecture is more than an array o tech-

Paul Virilio |image 13|

tural thoughts and ideas as the new standard.

THE DIGITAL CONTEXT

As noted, contemporary architectural space isalready being warped. But spatial percep-tions continue to be disrupted by the externalorces and temporal consequences o digitalmedia technologies. The speed o transporta-tion and technology as well as various modeso camera reproduction have altered percep-tions o architecture, and the current environ-ment has evolved into what Mitchell Schwar-zer calls a zoomscape. Furthermore, thezoomscape triggers an optical mode o per-ception marked by speed and surace. Theappearance o architecture becomes graphicand pictorial when it is viewed through anynumber o rames like a window, a viewnderon a camera, or a screen. As a result, ar-chitecture has become mediatized. And astechnological mediation continues to c hangeperceptual contexts, cityscapes, in order to benoticed, must be viewed in states o medi-ated perceptionenergized in velocity ordazzling light and sound eects. Architecturemust merge into the fow o inormation, into

the spectacle o media.39 Consequently,architectural space and orm must evolve withthese evolutionary orces.

Architecture is experienced within a techno-logically expanded visual and perceptualeld, not just as objects in continuous space,but also as variable assemblages in intermit-tent space. To live in a world in which oneseveryday perception is composed o imagisticragments drawn rom all over the globe is toparticipate in a proound perceptual transor-

mation.40 Architecture within a zoomscapehas the potential to rearrange space with timewhile relocating and redening place. It is im-

agistically transormed rom site to fow, romobject to event. Likewise, Bernard Tschumidesires to oer a dierent reading o archi-tecture in which space, movement, and eventsare independent, yet stand in a new relationto one another, so that the conventional com-ponents o architecture are broken down andrebuilt along dierent axes.41 Furthermore,the zoomscape enables individuals to viewand experience architecture in ways that werenever previously imagined.

With the rapidity and instantaneity o todaysaudiovisual transmissions, the cognition omental images is becoming much quicker andmore elaborate than ever beore. But withthis overstimulation, individual mnemonics aredeclining, and it is becoming an expectationor the inormative screen to simply ll in theblanks. According to Paul Virilio, . . . thethree tenses o decisive action, past, present,and uture, have been surreptitiously replacedby two tenses, real time and delayed time, theuture having disappeared . . . in the corrup-tion o this so-called real time which simulta-

neously contains both a bit o the present anda bit o the immediate uture.42 Digital videorecords the uture and presents it as the presentbeore it happens. Likewise, a recorded eventmay appear to be live while it is projected ona screen, even though it is really only a digi-tal preservation o an event that has alreadyoccurred. With digital technology, the per-ception o time and action is distorted. Realtime no longer exists. Rather, time is governedby what is being projected upon a screen bymeans o the optics o a digital video camera

Wol D. Prix |image 12|


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inspire irregular combinations o mental spaceand physical space where ideas and thoughtsmerge with experience. Under these circum-

stances, the limits o ordinary space and timeare vanquished. New ways o seeing arise,resh interpretations are considered, and per-ception evolves.

IMPLIED METHODOLOGY

With contemporary digital technology, ar-chitectural representation is evolving rapidly,and as a result, imaginative ideas can be ex-pressed with advanced methods o communi-cation. The evolution o architectural thoughtis craving to be set into motion, to catch upto the speed and immediacy o contemporarysociety. Digital video is the ubiquitous medi-um in which moments are captured, ideas areshared, and entertainment is distributed. In thesame manner, architecture can be exploredwith and expressed through motion pictures. Itis time or this type o evolutionary action. Thisis the uture o thought, communication, andarchitecture.

Intriguing possibilities exist at the intersection

between architecture and digital video, andcuriosity can initiate inquisitive and experimen-tal methods o creation. Using video in the de-sign process gives the designer an opportunityto see new potentials or architecture. Motionpictures can reveal elements o space, time,and orm that are unable to be experiencedor even conceived within the limits o reality.Thus, it is evident that there is an inherent inter-connection that exists between digital imageryand the lived world. Video documents spaceand orm, but it also reveals motion and the

passage o time. Architects can take ull ad-vantage o this engaging connection by trans-lating these same ideas into the designing o

architecture. By responding to the momentumo the existing conditions that have begun tocatalyze evolutionary adaptations in percep-tion, architects can redene what it means toexperience architectural space.

Architecture can be designed with motionpictures. Perceived spatial revelations thatappear on screen in digital videos can bementally processed and conceptually translat-ed into innovative proposals or architecture.Video can help an individual see things thatmay have never even been imagined. Fur-ther, digital video has the potential to be apowerul, revelatory design tool. Motion pic-tures can teach the designer to see and thinkdierently, because in the design process,ideas are transmutated into something else,something new, something unexpected. Andin this sequence or cycle, inspiring, creative,perceptual surprises emerge.

Sketching with video relies upon the ideao transmutations. And transmutation occursby taking bits o reality and various orms o

captured content, like drawings, still images,and video clips, and transorming these rawmaterials into resh, cinematic, digital ideas.With this type o content, video can be an ex-tremely useul design tool, because it can helpthe designer to see these images, thoughts,and ideas in an entirely new way. Simply put,video communicates a dierent perspective. Itallows designers to explore and manipulatethe potentials or alternate architectural andspatial realities.

cinematic sketch 02cinematic sketch 01

niques designed to shelter us rom the storm.It is an instrument o measure, a sum total oknowledge that, contending with the natural

environment, becomes capable o organizingsocietys time and space. This geodesic ca-pacity to dene a unity o time and place orall actions now enters into direct confict withthe structural capacities o the means o masscommunication.50 Thereore, architecturaldesign must condently establish a presencethat both adapts to and competes with the evo-lutionary orces o technology. Architecturecannot revert to introversion and timidity, butrather, innovative designs must be compelledto react to these changes. I architecture oncemeasured itsel with the natural landscape andexisting built environment, it now measuresitsel against the latest technologies that con-tinue to redene time, space, distance, andspeed. Nevertheless, a visible, reactionarytransormation is essential to solidiy continuedarchitectural relevance.

Within the digital age, a totally new environ-ment has been created. On screen, electroniclight radiates a prousion o inormation. Me-dia is an extension o the mind and the body,and according to Marshall McLuhan, the e-

ects o technology alter sense ratios or pat-terns o perception steadily and without anyresistance.51 And to truly understand thesechanges, astute awareness and sensory ad-aptation is essential. Media is compelling,because it can translate experience into newcongurations. And the uture o architectureis rooted in adapting to the perceptual con-gurations o digital technologies. McLuhanadds: The hybrid or the meeting o two mediais a moment o truth and revelation rom whichnew orm is born . . . The moment o the meet-

ing o media is a moment o reedom and re-lease rom the ordinary trance and numbnessimposed by them on our senses.52 There-

ore, when explored through the lens o digitaltechnologies, new potentials or alternative ar-chitectural realities can begin to emerge.

As cinematic projections and architecturalspaces are visually perceived as external stim-uli, internal interpretation transpires. The mindreacts and adapts to what is seen and experi-enced. Juhani Pallasmaa writes: . . . cinemaconstructs space in the mind, creates mind-spaces, thus refecting the inherent ephemeralarchitecture o the human mind, thought andemotion. The mental task o buildings andcities is to structure our being-in-the-world andto articulate the surace between the experi-encing sel and the world.53 Thus, in bothinstances, mental reconstruction occurs as themind seeks to comprehend and interpret whatis being shown on screen or experienced inreality. Elongated concentration results inpersonal immersion. Pallasmaa adds: Livedspace resembles the the structures o dreamsand the unconscious, organized independent-ly o the boundaries o physical space andtime. Lived space is always a combination o

external space and inner mental space, actu-ality and mental projection. In experiencinglived space, memory and dream, ear anddesire, value and meaning, use with actualperception. Lived space . . . inseparably in-tegrates with the subjects concurrent lie situa-tion.54 Since each individual brings his orher own unique perspective, a prousion oalternate realities can be construed. Architec-ture has the potential to alter perceptions o ex-istence within traditional lived space. Avant-garde designs that challenge perception can


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INCEPTION. Christopher Nolan |image 14|

As the designer creates exploratory media andmanipulates digital imagery, some impressionsare revealed and grasped, while other con-

cepts encourage urther questioning. Withthe acquisition o new ways o viewing archi-tectural space, the contemporary designersways o thinking, working, and making areconstantly evolving. By creating and present-ing intriguing digital imagery, both still and inmotion, the architect can stimulate a suspen-sion o disbelie, prompting an altered state ocuriosity. This state is partially and simultane-ously connected to reality, to memory, and tothe imagination. New perspectives generatenew ways o seeing and possibly more im-portantlynew ways o understanding. Con-sequently, architectural imagery can engageviewers in ways that begin to explore poten-tials or alternate realities, as existing relation-ships with space, time, and orm are openlychallenged. Within this context, the designeris not someone who simply re-presents someaspects o the world as it is, but rather, withmanipulative explorations in digital imagery,he or she can trigger entirely new mental con-structs, aecting thoughts, knowledge, memo-ries, and imagination. With this process, thearchitect is creating space that exists at the in-

tersection o digital imagery and architecture.Furthermore, the designer is initiating an archi-tecture that exists in an unamiliar, perceptualcontext.

This perceptual architecture could be inter-preted as being a labyrinth, because there isno spatial schema to base an expectation onhow this sequence ought to be perceived. It isa setting or unknown narratives and scenes tobe scripted. Each experience will be uniqueand highly personal, and the only way to be-

gin to grasp what this space means will be tosimply pass through it and interpret it, possiblymore than once. This type o experimental

space is designed to expand the scope anddepth o our experiences by encouraging in-dividuals to encounter new dimensions o ar-chitectural space. That is its sole purpose, itsonly unction.

These spatial conditions establish an environ-ment which directly engages and respondsto the individuals evolving relationships withspace, time, and orm, with memory and theimagination, and with reality and the screen.In the end, the designer is attempting to ma-nipulate both architecture and space in waysthat elicit responses similar to those elt with themanipulations o digital imagery. In this con-text, architectural space challenges perceptionand requires personal translation and mentalreconstruction to be ully comprehended.

This is where it begins.


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seeing dierently | perceptions

At several moments in visual history, new de-velopments in art and technology have dra-matically altered perceptions. With each

event, individuals have learned to see dier-ently, and as a result, perceptions o spacehave evolved.

Looking back, our critical pivot points haveemerged as being the most infuential in his-torically shaping perceptions, and the ollow-ing examples appear to be most relevant tothe scope o this project: the development operspective drawing and painting at the be-ginning o the 15th century, the invention ophotography in the rst hal o the 19th cen-tury, the origination o cinematography in thesecond hal o the 19th century, and the cre-ation o Cubist painting at the beginning o the20th century.

Each critical moment prooundly infuencedways o seeing and resulted in a shit in howindividuals think about and relate to space.This analysis will attempt to lay the groundworkor the uture o what can potentially come nextin this perceptual timeline.

LINEAR PERSPECTIVE

Linear perspective is one o the most impor-tant pictorial devices or organizing orms inspace, creating an illusion o three-dimension-al geometric and perceived experiential depthon a two dimensional, fat surace.1 Perectedby Filippo Brunelleschi at the beginning o theItalian Renaissance in 1420, linear perspec-tive allowed artists to determine mathemati-cally the relative size o rendered objects tocorrelate them with the visual recession intospace.2 As parallel lines converge, theviewers eye is led to a vanishing point located

along the horizon. Decreasing the size o ob-jects makes them appear to be arther awayrom the viewer. But with these methods, it is

important to note that perspectival projectionsare pictorial conventions.3 These culturallyaccepted optical illusions only show the ap-parent and not true orms o objects, viewedrom one, single vantage point.4 Linear per-spective transorms reality into an appear-ance, and humans have learned to accept thisctitious construct o vision as being relative toour actual, lived experience.5

Upon its invention, perspective drawing wasassociated with architecture primarily be-cause the regular geometry o architectural sub-jects enabled perspective depth to appear.6Oten noted as being the most infuential visualconstruct ever created, linear perspective hascompletely reorganized the architects sense ospace. Moreover, since its inception in theRenaissance, it has undamentally changedthe way we represent, see, and constructour built environment, establishing a uni-ed homogenous space rom a single xedpoint in space.7 With linear perspective,the aim was to produce illusionistic drawingsthat, previously, had never been produced or

architectural communication.8 As a startingpoint, architects built the space o their draw-ings using perspectival design tools to begin tothoughtully imagine and eciently organizetheir ideas about the potential o actual archi-tectural space. Linear perspective enabled anadvanced organization o three-dimensionalspace and architecture on a two-dimensionalsurace. In thinking about spatial concepts,architects began to ocus their designs on sym-metry and the notion o a central axis, thus ac-centuating the perspectival potential o a given

lets get

visual.visual.


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o vision. Stated simply, it means that thebrain holds whatever the eye sees or a rac-tion o a second ater the eye stops seeing

it.17 Moreover, viewers see a rapid succes-sion o dierent images merging one into thenext, thus producing an illusion o continuouschange.18 Working with blocks o move-ment / duration, cinema reveals its own ormso time and space.19 And while each lmpresents its own narrative, motion pictures areactually subjectively comprehended, becausethe objective projections also move throughthe spectators own inner emotional space.20Thus, lm moves us and in us, producing anability to render aect.21

Cinematic experiences have encouraged areexamination o the ways in which time andspace unolds beore us. Film also carries withit ideas o movement, duration, and narrative.In response to these developments, percep-tions o space have evolved once again.While it is true that both the Renaissance per-spectival spectator and the cinematic specta-tor hold xed positions, this observational x-ity is experientially quite dierent.22 Ratherthan highlighting one point o view, cinemareveals a prousion o altering vantage points.

Each new camera angle provides new visualinsight and an ideological positioning or theviewer.23

CUBISMCubism, ounded by Pablo Picasso andGeorges Braque in 1907, radically callsthe very basis o pictorial representation intoquestion, moving beyond visual reality andexternal appearances.24 New conceptualwholes are created by deconstructing subjectsand reconguring them into an expressive si-

multaneity consisting o several dierent per-spectives: these artists pursued the analysis oorm, and they dissected lies continuous opti-

cal spread into its many constituent eatures,which they then recomposed, by a new logico design, into a coherent aesthetic object.25The concept o simultaneity stressed the role othe artist in selecting and synthesizing a mixo remembered and seen elements o a sub-ject, representing the experience o modernity.With several juxtapositions or combinationswithin a single painting, cubism accentuatesrigorously dierent and discontinuous perspec-tive schemas or viewpoints.26 Thus, cubistpainting reveals hidden truths about the objec-tive world by teaching individuals to see an-other dimension o reality.

Cubism has had a heavy infuence on archi-tectural thought, because, in a similar way,architects have attempted to collapse severalpoints o view into a single building. Previ-ously, the camera recognized that the subjectwas moving, but now, with cubism, the subjectwas presented with multiple acets o a view-able object, as i it were moving. Architectureattempted to capture the dynamism o a slicingmode with exploded, unolded, and projected

components inhabiting the same space at thesame time without actually interering with oneanother.27 In this way, architectural space isbeing recongured, revealing new essencesabout its internal structure and reconguringany preconceived notions o what architectureought to be.28 Thereore, it requires newmental understanding to ully comprehendthese new spaces that, in act, do not coincidewith established architectural schemas. In thiscontext, cubism inspired a re-invention in thepossibilities o what architecture can become.

Leaprog. Edweard Muybridge |image 16| Seated Nude. Pablo Picasso |image 17|

space. Consequently, by privileging a singleexperiential point, built architectural space ac-tually began to refect the methodologies o

architectural perspective drawing.

PHOTOGRAPHYPhotography captures time and space withlight.9 With each still image, the eye o thecamera allows individuals to refect upon areproduction or interpretation o reality by pre-serving isolated moments o lived experience.The photographic process was developed byLouis-Jacques-Mand Daguerre and JosephNicphore Nipce in 1839, and it allowedartists to nally capture, with breathtaking ac-curacy, the elusive qualities o reality, truth,and act. Thus, with this newound artistic ve-racity, the photographs documentary powerwas immediately realized.10 The snappingo the camera also catalyzed the drive to con-dense time and an aspiration or encapsulat-ing instantaneity. With the touch o a nger,an event could now be xed or an unlimitedperiod o time.11 By arresting the fow o bothspace and time, and capturing a trace o thereal, a photograph presents an appearanceo what is now absent.12 This appearanceis recognized as a representation o lived

truth.13 Because the photograph preserves amoment o time, any given, singular, capturedmoment can no longer be superseded by anysubsequent moment. Thereore, photographymight be compared to images stored in thememory, and these memories greatly expand-ed the notions o space.14

Fixing images allows one to begin to refectupon the photographic reproduction o real-ity. Further, photography intensies both theunderstanding and recognition o detail within

the built world. But even more so, with thedevelopment o the camera, architecture be-gan to refect the act that, unlike the xed

vantage point o linear perspective, humansactually move through space. Architecture isnot experienced rom one single point. Justas an individual physically experiences aspace through mobility, the roving, mechani-cal eye o the camera is also able to capturean innite number o varying perspectives oany given space. While it is true that, withineach respective nal xed image, both thecentered space o perspective and the mon-ocular aperture o the camera both have a sin-gular point o view, the camera is actuallyable to move and capture multiple spectatorialviews.15 Thus, photography both realizedand ostered a moving, interactive relation-ship. This medium has had a proound eecton the ways in which architectural space isthought about and composed, because, byocusing on dierent ways o seeing, photog-raphy has inspired architectural evolution. Asa result, modern architecture began to avorasymmetrical compositions which encouragemovement and various perspectival revelationsor the user. Furthermore, the cameras eyehas revealed alternative spatial combinations

in architectural thinking.

CINEMATOGRAPHYCinematography is based on the rapid se-quential projection o xed images onto ascreen. Isolated and static rames, or instantso time, produce convincing illusions o move-ment and continuous time.16 The rst cine-matic projection was presented by EdweardMuybridge in 1878, and the apparent motionthat is perceived is the result o a a physi-cal act o human eyesight called persistence

Adoration o the Magi. Leonardo da Vinci |image 15| Daguerreotype. Fontayne + Porter |image 16|


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transmutations

Designing is not knowing. It is questioning.

And in this process, its impossible to predict a

specic outcome.

Intense design questioning has driven this proj-ect into an experimental method o creationwhere the process is examining the ways inwhich digital video can infuence both the de-sign and perceptions o architectural space.

This thesis is attempting to design architecturewith digital video. And the project seeks totranslate perceptions o moving images intoexperimental, unamiliar architectural space.This usion o ideas can inspire alternativeorms o perception which require a mind thatis open and untainted by rigid predispositions.

The project is ocused on the idea o transmuta-tions. And transmutation occurs by taking bitso reality and various orms o captured con-tent, like drawings, still images, video clips,and 3-D models and transorming these rawmaterials into resh, cinematic, digital ideas.

The design process begins with a videosketchbook. Video documents reality, but it

can also present alternate realities. Physicalmateriality and virtual technology are equallyrelevant in designing and understanding newconceptions o architectural space.

But sometimes, pure video is simply notenough. Thereoore, drawing generates newcontent. Drawing is thinking. Lines on paperrepresent imagined spatial relationships, multi-plicities o perspective, and intuitive structures.

The sketch is the rst opportunity to conront

and build the psychic and emotional aspectso a project. Drawing discloses experienceswhich uncover modes o awareness that may

be absent rom rationality.

Drawings can be morphed into video sketch-es, images, and 3-D models. Modeling isthe rst opportunity to envision, with specics,what it means to see, eel, and experience un-tapped architectural possibilities. Both virtualmodeling and drawing can be representationso knowledge which is thought and visuallymaterialized, but not built. Drawing and mod-eling generate pathways into the imagination,to unlock what it means to visualize psycho-logical space.

Thoughtul architectural design can generatea simultaneity o comprehensible and incom-prehensible spaces that require reconstructionwithin the walls o the brain.

Emulating artistic intentions ound in cubismand cinema, architecture can be ragmentedand ractured, eaturing an array o cinematic,spatial, and material acets. Further, the cin-ematic tenets o cubist painting can be explod-ed into an architecture o the mind.

In this context, architecture can be analytic,interpretive, symbolic, and even non-represen-tational.

Architecture is imagination. It is thinking. Andit is drawing.

Ideas become reality.

This is the process.

design

will change.


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video sketchbook: preliminaries

Cinematic ideas require alternative docu-mentation. They need a suitable place to betested and stored. Thereore, a video sketch-

book has been created to translate ideas intodigital images and motion pictures, resulting inabstract orms o hypothesizing and sketchingarchitectural space.

This sketchbook is an integral part o the de-sign process, because video is not merely anovelty or simply a presentation tool. Rather,video is the project. And each video sketch isa passing moment in time.

The process o making a lm is oten a cre-ative surprise. One starts with an idea andgathers supporting digital content. But thenthe manipulation begins, and, at this point, it isnearly impossible to predict what the outcomemight be.

Footage is edited, and ideas begin to trans-orm and take on new shapes. Here, the nar-rative or each video sketch slowly builds uponitsel. Inspiration comes rom the manipulatedcontent, and creativity occurs in a stream oconsciousness.

Musical sounds are added to supplement theoriginal, captured audio. And as the sketchnears completion, a soundtrack is careullyselected to capture the specic emotion andtone o each individual idea. Finally, the cine-matic sequence o various digital componentsis exported and merged into one single digitalvideo le.

In this process o sketching, there is a back-and-orth between intuition and analysis. Ini-tially, one instinctively works according to the

ideas that have been generated. But it is alsoimportant to step back and critically observethe work that is being done. Thereore, each

clip is actively analyzed or content until aninitial idea matures into a completed videosketch.

This process is not linear, nor is it ever reallycomplete. It is actually quite cyclical, as onecan be continuously infuenced by the workthat has been done at any stage o the explo-ration. Ideas can always be reworked, andthey can always infuence other ideas whileinspiring new questions.

Every video is a transmutation, representingexploratory media and manipulative digitalimagery. Each sketch is an experimental testthat contributes to a growing body o research,because making is learning. And, in the end,each video sketch is revelatory in its own way,because the intention is to stimulate a suspen-sion o disbelie, prompting an altered state ocuriosity, a state that is partially and simultane-ously connected to reality, to memory, and tothe imagination.

this is a test.


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One man is still. Everyone else moves.

video sketch 02still rame 02.01 | 02

This is an open public space with temporaryarchitecture. Individuals are attracted to spac-es and sites that are out o the ordinary.



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Split seconds measure the topography obeauty. No quiver goes unnoticed.


This is a quiet, personal space viewed romdierent camera angles. Books are ideas.



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Found ootage reveals something new. Wi llsscattered moments create new connections.


Architecture, time, and space are undone.Memory desires to make itsel known oncemore.



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Light carves out space. Coordinate spacefashes into cinematic space.


What is seen? What is remembered?Architectural space and outer space are lay-ered.



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site | sight

The proposed architectural site is 44 W.Adams, which is in downtown Detroit, just oo Woodward, across the street rom Grand

Circus Park in the citys theater district.

This is where the old Fine Arts Building andthe once thriving Adams Theater used to be.But now, all that remains is the acade o theFine Arts Building held up by a temporary, yetseemingly permanent, steel structure. Its likearchitecture without architectural space.

This ephemeral architectural artiact is captivat-ing, because it simultaneously represents mul-tiple, specic lived moments.

The site or testing these ideas exists in timeand space. But right now, the sight is com-pletely visual. Its fat, just like a projectionscreen. And to ully comprehend its completeexistence, imagination is imperative.

Right now, the greater Grand Circus Park siteserves as a passthrough to any o the nearbyevent spaces like theaters, athletic elds, andrestaurants. The proposed architecture is at-tempting to assert itsel within the context o theexisting conditions, to inspire extended interac-

tions within the site and with the architecture.

The project seeks to establish a heightenedawareness o architectural design.

you are here.


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44 45

site 04 | 05

site 01 | 02 | 03


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46 47

site 09

site 06 | 07 | 08


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48 49

site 12 | 13 | 14

site 10 | 11


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50 51

site 16 | 17 | 18

site 15


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Establishing multiplicities o existence, timeand space are exploded and stitched togetheragain like a cubist painting.


testing

in progress.

video sketchbook: site analyses


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Cinema, history, and sketchingimagery con-trols the conversation.


Architecture moves. On sight.



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Video has replaced memory. Blurred, here,like memory.


The site is the sight is the site.



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literary drawings

An alternative method o generating orm caninspire new ways o imagining and seeing ar-chitectural space. Literature can serve as a

loose starting point or beginning to draw un-conventional architectural ideas. In this case,the short story sparks the imagination.

The work o Ray Bradbury, Franz Kaka, andJorge Luis Borges established a means to de-ne an event, a setting or action. Two shortstories rom each author were selected andlooked upon as scripts.

Each selection was read with the intent odesigning architectural space that was gener-ated by the printed words. Specic momentsin each plot, descriptive settings, and key linesor phrases were highlighted as starting pointsor creating an interpretive drawing.

A series o abstract drawings was generated.Each line represents a moment in each shortstory. The spatial constructs intend to inspirearchitecture.

The drawings were transmutated into a seconda set o digital representations which changedthe scale, rame, and composition o the origi-

nal sketches by completely reassembling thecontent. The literary drawings became some-thing new and unexpected. New composi-tions were created through a process o reas-sembly, and the drawings were superimposedupon a pixellated, historical photograph othe Fine Arts Building and Adams Theatre inDetroit.

seek

inspiration.


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60BradburyFruit at the Bottom o the Bowl 01 | 02


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62Bradburye Will Come Sot Rains 01 | 02


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64z Kakare the Law 01 | 02


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66z Kakae Penal Colony 01 | 02


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68e Luis BorgesGarden o Forking Paths 01 | 02


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70e Luis BorgesCircular Ruins 01 | 02


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intuitive line drawings

Following the rst set o literary drawings, anew set o drawings was generated that wasinspired by the methods and style o the previ-

ous set. The lines on paper represent imag-ined spatial relationships, multiplicities o per-spective, and intuitive structures that have beeninfuenced by the process. They attempt toconvey the possibilities o architecture as eventand architectural action.

Drawing is thinking. Thinking with lines.

The lines on paper are interpretations o spa-tial thoughts. The lines are cinematic. Intui-tive lines lead the way. Inspirational thoughtsguide the process. Trust the process. At thispoint, nothing is arbitrary. Nothing is random.Everything has underlying meaning.

Every. Single. Line.

drawing is

thinking.on paper.


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74 75drawing is thinking

03wing is thinking

02


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06 | 07wing is thinking

05


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09 | 10wing is thinking


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Cinematic, spatial, architectural constructionalters perceptions o depth. The camera dic-tates the ways in which time and space unold.


this is

another test.

video sketchbook: drawing lines


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three-dimensional models

The intuitive, cinematic sketches were trans-mutated into a 3-D model, which was thenbroken up into eight individual models. An-

other transmutation. Then, these spatial com-plexities were cinematically analyzed rom allsides. The intent here is or every movement toreveal a dierent spatial perspective.

These three-dimensional models intend tobe translated into potentials or architecturalspace, which can be manipulated into alter-nate spatial realities.

Once sited, these architectural sketches act asa counteraction to the existing spatial condi-tions in Detroit.

Using video to generate renderings, complexspatial relationships are established, and im-ages challenge perceptions.

modeling is

thinking, too.


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sited model 03 | 04

model 02

model 01


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sited model 07 | 08

model 06

model 05


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cinematic sketch 05

cinematic sketch 03 | 04


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cinematic sketch 06


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cinematic sketch 12

cinematic sketch 10 | 11


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drawing, modeling, designing

The nal stages o design development weredriven by a process o experimental making.The objective was to crat an architecture

which captured the essence o the cinematicvideo sketches.

The design process utilized both drawingand three-dimensional modeling. Cinematicsketches were assembled into scaled modelson site. The models were transmutated intoarchitectural section drawings. And nally, thedrawings were transmutated into a series othree-dimensional models.

This process was not easy, since it involvedboth trial and error and a vast amount o un-certainty. It was all about production, andeach drawing or model was thoroughly an-alyzed and compared to the previous set ovideo sketches. But or a while, they couldntcompare.

It was a process o learning by doing, anddevelopment was a direct result o making.This was a major breakthrough in the designprocess. Because eventually, the architecturebegan to take shape, and its spirit started toalign with the perceptual excitement o the

moving images.

A theatrical trailer was created to preview thearchitecture and interior spaces which contin-ued to develop during the nal phases o thedesign process.

At that moment, the architecture began tobreathe, because it was alive.

making is

learning.


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cinematic model 03cinematic model 01 | 02


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cinematic model 07cinematic model 05 | 06


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working spatial model

al section 05 | 06


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mind space 01 | 02 | 03


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mind space 06 | 07 | 08


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mind space 09 | 10 | 11


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mind space 12 | 13 | 14


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psychic plansite plan


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west elevationsouth elevation


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east elevationnorth elevation


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psychological interior with mies 01 | 02 | 03 | 04


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This thesis is attempting to dene an archi-tecture which enables action, movement, ornarrative rather than ocusing on a specic

program.

Architectural design does not have to succumbto programmatic restraints. And orm certainlydoes not have to ollow unction. In this con-text, architectural design can be reed romconstraints.

This project is proposing an open architectureor ree space where design takes precedence,where program is inserted and adapts, wherespace, time, orm, and individuals come to-gether cohesively, establishing a setting orunknown scenes to be scripted.

The architecture is a counteraction, becasuedesign can be an attractor, creating a settingwhere individuals want to be.

When open architecture and design condent-ly assert themselves within the city, individualscan learn to see dierently and adapt to newspatial constructions. This approach sees ar-chitecture as an art that refects contemporaryculture, is an image o the time, and looks to

the excitement o the uture.

Design can be infuential. Design can changea city.

With motion pictures, drawings, digital imag-ery, and 3-D modeling, the architecture o thisthesis is crating a pathway into the imagina-tion to try to unlock what it means to visual-ize and experience the psychological spaceo the mind, to visualize an architecture thatdisrupts existing spatial continuities. One can

become lost in thought, while contemplatingwhat it means to experience a type o spacethat has not been experienced beore.

This architecture could be interpreted as be-ing a labyrinth, because there is no spatialschema to base an expectation on how thissequence ought to be perceived. It is a set-ting or unknown narratives and scenes to bescripted. Each experience will be unique andhighly personal, and the only way to begin tograsp what this space means will be to simplypass through it and interpret it, possibly morethan once.

This experimental space has been designedto expand the scope and depth o our experi-ences by encouraging individuals to encounternew dimensions o architectural space.

Open architecture produces design-drivenspaces and orms: to be seen, to be used, tobe experienced. Its lled with irruptive orcesand imaginative geometries which challengethe common repetition o the built environment.

This architecture has as much o a psychicground plan as a physical one. And the in-

terior spaces are unmappable, much like anarchitecture o the mind.

This architecture presents an alternate real-ity which is a synthesis o real space, mindspace, and video space. Hence, the archi-tecture presents a previously unknown sophisti-cation. It is designed in such a way that onemust look, eel, and experience new spaces ina completely dierent way.

open architecture

architecture

lives.


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west elevationsouth elevation


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section 01.02section 01.01


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section 02.02section 02.01


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interior 05interior 03| 04


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interior 06 | 07 | 08


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interior 13


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interior 14 | 15


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interior 16


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transmutations still rame 01

architecture

is now.


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transmutations still rame 08transmutations still rame 06 | 07


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transmutations still rame 16transmutations still rame 15


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transmutations still rame 17 | 18


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transmutations still rame 22 | 23 | 24


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this is where

it begins.



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personal refection | conclusion

Architecture lives or seconds at the momento design. It can never be past, because atthis moment it becomes uture. Architecture is

now.

Wol D. Prix

Architecture is not just about creating structuresand space. Its about something more. Andthat something more is exactly what an aca-demic architectural thesis is all about. Its aprocess o thinking, a process o learning, aprocess o growing.

Designing is not knowing. It is questioning.

The completion o a thesis is an auspiciousoccasion, because this academic experienceshapes ones character.

It is by design.

And whether one realizes it or not, an indi-viduals education plays an integral role in ahighly personal design process.

One in which he or she is the project.

And the designing has already begun.

One may not be able envision the end, butpotential is always attractive, and beauty canbe ound in the mystery o not knowing wherea design process might lead.

Because designing is not knowing. Its ques-tioning.

At this moment in an educational endeavor, it

is important to question within the context odesign: questioning how one thinks, question-ing ones proessional path, and questioning

the person one may seek to become.

First, question how one thinks.

It is important to take a moment to refect uponones education, to ask i one has truly had theopportunity to think creatively.

Students are expected to be correct, to knowthe right answer.

And when a person does, he or she is reward-ed with a number.

But this acquired knowledge will get an indi-vidual only so ar.

Its the methods he or she uses to question thatwill make one successul.

Free thinking architect Daniel Libeskind warnedthat it was impossible to know outcomes be-ore someone has even dened a proper seto questions.

Ones uture lies in pursuing the right questions.

Only then will it be possible or meaningulanswers to emerge.

He or she might be wrong a ew times oreven much o the time.

But in this personal design process, its under-standable, because thats what generates cre-ative thinking.

designing is

thinking islearning isgrowing.


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Architecture is now.

Architecture is dangerous. It is the deningresponsibility o an architect to keep the powero architecture out o the hands o those whowould use it to lull us into complacency. . .

Architecture must blaze.

Wol D. Prix

How rare is that?

But how wonderul.

To mak

Documents

dean storm | transmutations | video is more