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Studio Outline

The Ecology of Mass

The application of volumetric bodies, responsive to environmental pressures, for the design of a housing block in combination with fitness facilities.

Macht zu Lande fountain – detail – Hofburg Vienna – mass & volume

The project brief opens the opportunity to speculate about massing in architecture. A manifold of strategies such as accumulation, aggregation and agglomeration form the launching pad for various, computationally driven, strategies of design. Further explorations include tactics of façade articulation, spatial subdivision and fenestrations.

Vienna site

The site is located in one of Vienna’s central districts, Mariahilf. The urban tissue in the area consists of a mix of historic buildings, mainly from the Grunderzeit era (late 19^th century Historism), postwar rationalism and some dots of contemporary architecture and is considered as one of the hubs of creative industries. The site is located right at the famous Mariahilferstraße, the main shopping mile in Vienna, which connects the center of Vienna, with the Schönbrunn area. In the next proximity of the site is the location of Vienna´s famous museums such as the Museumsquartier, the Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches Museum. The project, which is embedded tightly into the historic tissue, combines apartments on the upper floors with the program of fitness facilities in the lower floors.

Additional information on the site can be found here:

http://www.wien.gv.at/flaechenwidmung/public/

Search for: Mariahilferstraße 13

The plans show various information from legal information to potential for green roofs.

Intensive vs. extensive forces

The studio focuses on the use of a contemporary language that includes concepts of architectural discourse. Two differentiating planes of thought form the basis for this semester: Intensive and extensive systems. The first complex describes conditions in constant flux, gradually changing phenomena such as weather systems, maritime currents, solar radiation etc. all of this phenomena can be described as intensive forces. Extensive forces on the other hand are constant in their actual representation, they are measurable, eidetic, reduceable and divisible, such as a buildings, parts of any machine, or instances of mass. In this extent the studio brokers between both concepts in this project. On the one side the project is heavily influenced by ecological pressures, on the other hand volumes adapt in a parametric fashion to this pressures.

Ecopressures

The main lineage of exploration in this studio investigates how these intensive forces, including solar radiation, weather systems, acoustic forces and wind pressures can be used as means of formation for massive architectural bodies. Using parametric tools in combination with simulation software result in opportunities to observe the behavior of architectural bodies under ecological pressure.

The task of this semester course is to apply mass and volume as design strategies for a housing project. Using models of housing, emerging from a set of Viennese projects, the studio will explore trajectories of contemporary housing design.
The architectural body, the launching pad for the investigations in the studio, is comprised of a Housing project of the size of 50.000sqft and Fitness facilities.

Design techniques

Shadow analysis - Austrian Pavilion Shanghai Expo 2010

The studio is driven by the desire to find a differentiated, alternative approach to volumetric population techniques mainly applying a twofold method oscillating between tactics of accumulation and massing. Tactics of designing with mass include, aggregation, agglomeration and slumping techniques. The volumetric driven investigation is in particular informed by environmental pressures. These pressures serve as a testing bed for the behavior of architectural bodies and their economy of form. In this extent the design of the individual volumes proves to be crucial, as the elements form the trajectories of the universal, complex, reaction triggering the surface condition and the affect of the design. In terms of housing design the environmental information create a lattice of criteria for the design process of the dwelling units. Aspects such as orientation, volume size and fenestration are dependent on specific sets of rules. On the one side those rules are defined by the design technique itself, but of course also the rules of the respective building code of the chosen site.

Roxy Paine – Skumag- strategy of mass accumulation Bodybuilding – controlled aggregation of mass

Reading List:

Manuel de Landa: Philosophy & Simulation: The Emergence of Synthetic Reason, Continuum 2011

Greg Lynn, Folds Bodies and Blobs: Collected Essays, La Lettre volée 1998

Reiser + Umemoto, Atlas of Novel Tectonics, Princeton Architectural Press 2006

Gottfried Semper, Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts; Or, Practical Aestheticsm 1862, Oxford Univ. Pr.

Studio Hours

Monday 12pm -6pm

Wednesday 12pm-6pm

Schedule

Visual Studies Four Two Day Workshops: Th/Fri. 12-6 p.m. Sept 15^th/16^th. Sept 29^th/ 30^th. Oct 13^th/14^th. Nov 10^th/11^th

MID REVIEWS OCTOBER 26^th and 27th

FINAL REVIEWS DECEMBER 13th

Bibliography

Grading

In general, grading for the semester will proceed as follows:

30% Material presented at the mid-review

40% Material presented at final reviews

30% Development of the work through the semester

Because work done for separate exercises will depend on previous exercises, grading will be cumulative over the course of the semester. The final grade reflects progress over the course of the semester as well as the quality and quantity of the work presented at the final review. In each case, the evaluation of the work will consider the levels of inventiveness, preparation, resolution, effort and engagement, and graphic and verbal presentation.

In addition to formal grades, students will receive verbal assessments and advice through weekly desk crits, regular pinups, and formal reviews with outside critics. It is recommended that students arrange to transcribe or record these different assessments, since they form such an important aspect of studio education. Attendance during entirety of all reviews is mandatory. Notify your instructor in advance if you know that you cannot attend class for any reason. Absences due to illness will be excused in accordance with university policy. More than one unexcused absence will result in the lowering of your final grade one full letter. Three absences constitute grounds for failure.

Late assignments/ incompletes: If reasonable excuse is provided, final work for separate exercises will be accepted one class period late, but work in progress must be pinned up at every review. In accordance with department policy, no incompletes will be granted at the end of the semester without a doctor’s verification.

Evaluation

Evaluation of the course will adhere to University guidelines as outlined in the student handbook. Final Grades will be given by the course instructor. Letter grades mean the following with + and – understood as qualifiers:

A Excellent

B Good

C Marginal

F Fail