Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Administration & Information Centre / Aedas

A friend stumbled upon this building the other day and emailed me the following link because it reminded him of my current studio project. Very interesting project, extremely beneficial concepts.

http://www.archdaily.com/39697/xi%E2%80%99an-jiaotong-liverpool-university-administration-information-centre-aedas/

Gego Exhibit?

I saw this photo that several friends of mine took while at the World's Fair in Venice. They said they could not remember who the artist was but it looks very much like Gego's work no?

Dibujos Sin Papel -- Final

Final Tectonic Drawing

Final Stereotomic Drawing

Dibujos sin Papel was an investigation into our projects dealing with different attitudes towards representational strategies. It involved thinking about a drawing, in this case a section, within "the parameters of two-dimensionality but, in this case, as three dimensional objects; in other words, as drawings without paper." The explorations seen above were the final resolutions of these drawings without paper. They dealt with the spherical volumes that occupy the core of my library proposal surrounded by the very regular stacks of the library that house the books. These "drawings" only allow the viewer to see the section from a "head-on" approach, any alteration to the sides, top, or bottom results in a drawing that no longer has significance to the project. Below are two other explorations into the stereotomic material.

Sectional Drawings Without Paper 2

Some more attempts..

Drawings without paper - Sectional Study

The project currently underway is dealing with representation of drawing in an unconventional way. Almost as a type of "model" 2D drawings are expressed in a somewhat 3d way made out of a variety of materials from wire to plaster. The model below was an exploration of the section seen in the previous post of my library concept - which relates to a series of volumes that contain the public space within the "cube" of the library. I used inflated balloons and then wrapped them with yarn coated with a watered down glue mixture. After letting them set overnight, the balloons were then popped and removed - leaving the form expressed below. Wire was used to hold these objects in a plane and to simulate the floor plates within the volume of the library.

Mid Review #2

The second mid-review last Friday was a very interesting approach to a critique. Professor Thurlow was a guest and devised a "competition" style viewing of the project we have been working on for the past weeks in regards to the library. Key concepts centered around aspects of both qualitative and quantitative aspects of each design. Despite this project being chosen in the top 4 of the section thus far, I feel that there is still SO much more to be developed and explored and that each project in the studio has great potential. The understanding of what worked and what did not work was understood based upon quick glances around the room -spending no more than 30 seconds on each project as a "competition judge" was a very interesting way of looking at things.

The next assignment - drawing without paper - was also assigned - pictures to come of these explorations.

Plaster!!!

So in an attempt to better understand my library concept I started an exploration in plaster modeling which turned out to produce a pretty interesting model. I am currently in the process of trying to figure out the best method of cutting a solid 30 lb block of plaster to reveal the voids I created with a variety of objects inside. The mold I used had text all over it, which actually transferred in a really nice way onto the exterior "shell", how fitting for a library.

Hopefully by the end of today I will have been able to cut this beast into 4 sections to further examine.

Mid-Review Critique

After a final "all-nighter" push the results from the Mid-Review;






From what the critics had to say it seems that the project becomes much more interesting when the model is flipped open - allowing different things to occur. That the project should be less about circulation and more about the relation with the campus programmatically - the circulation is only how you move - not as important as the emphasis I have been placing on it previously. The moment when the cube is "cracked open" is beautiful.

Several ways of exploring this concept of cracking it open from a potential shift of the cube, or other moves that will make the amorphous core more visible. The core needs to be more expressive and apparent on the exterior - that it oozes out on edges, places become reading spaces, etc. (OMA project reference - blobs becomes programmatic space - also referenced Toyo Ito's Mediatheque). This expression can begin to be developed on the exterior, being a commuter campus there is a dramatic shift from day to night at UNAM and this could be greatly emphasized in the building (light up during the day in the amorphous forms - total darkness in them at night).

Decisions do need to start being made though on the vertical circulation. But, they did enjoy the way the stacks have shifts in space but that they can also start to do this in depth/density. Making gesture to the original library is good but the difference I am beginning to address here is that history becomes something with a density/volume unlike the "flat" history found in the murals.

For Tuesday, I will begin looking at the model as a cast in place entity. I have purchased some plaster of paris and will begin experimenting with creating an amorphous form with balloons/straws/etc inside a poured form and then cutting sections through it.

Memory and the Mind

The library, much like the mind is a complex system of elements integrated together to perform a unlimited possibility of tasks. These elements work fluidly despite the constant juxtaposition of thoughts and memories that "fire" in our brains each day. For the library, as of now, I think that I am moving away from an original concept of a left brain vs. right brain strategy for the library and shifting my focus on the idea of memory, specifically the aspects of encoding, storage, and retrieval. The emphasis will also be placed on the synapse, or components that connect neurons within the brain and send impulses or signals. The human component, inhabitant, of the library will be considered to be the synapse(s) of the building. Just as the previous studies of sound and their overlapping units created common space, so will the intergrated functions between the three volumes held within the library block. These amorphous volumes, as represented in the sketch below, will contain much of the programmatic elements of the library and the interstitial space will coincide with public space/circulation/etc.

Library as Mind

Final project is underway! The final project has emphasis on focusing on the library addition through a "prescribed lens" to help/further the design. Personally, my lens has to do with the Library as Mind. So, initially, I began to research and think about what that would mean to me. Upon my research I stumbled across definitions of mind, such as the following;
According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary "the element or complex of elements in an individual that feels, perceives, thinks, wills and especially reasons, or 2 - organized concsious and unconscious" I found this second definition particularly appealing. A library is a vault of knowledge containing ideas, thoughts, wills, beliefs, etc of men and woman of every race, creed, color, background, life, etc and the mind takes these complex elements and utilizes them for thoughts (allowing us to model the world around us) or memory (storing the information to be racalled later on).

The idea of the conscious and unconscious has been a concept I have been working with for the last project. In a sense, sound itself in modeled form is a struggle between the conscious and unconscious. The models from the previous post were inspiration for my first concept of this library. The radiating sound on the front of the model is juxtaposed with the straight vectors of sound. These are perceived aspects considering we are unable to see sound - although we do understand how it travels, etc.

The process sketches below are my first thoughts on applying the library and its program to the site adjacent (west) of the existing library. The idea is focusing on the interaction of the conscious and subconcious. In these terms (mostly seen in section) my thought process is that ortogonal shapes are the conscious and curves, bent planes, folding floor plates, etc - begin to suggest and generate forms of the subconcious (more affecting emotion than logic).

Site as Text - Critique

The assignment for Wednesday's review was to "map" the site with particular emphasis on the transitional spaces that occur between zones (city and campus limits, streets vs. campus, buildings vs. landscape etc). 2 of the maps were to focus on a topic that we ourselves wanted to map in relation to the transitions and 1 map was to revert back to our Boite-en-Valise project.

For the first two maps I decided to focus on sound intensities and their interactions with buildings on the campus. Choosing the area shown below in the previous post, I began to chart (through a series of circles) intensities that would occur along the length of this "corridor" from the highway(far left of map) to the library (far right of map). Intensities could be driven by a bus stop, a parking lot, car accelerations on the highway, a large group of students congregating on the quad, a car without a muffler, etc. These intensities begin very strongly towards the left of the map and begin to dissipate through areas of trees, deflect off building facades, and even dissolve altogether over distance. Within the drawing/model ("drodel") when sounds overlapped it produced an intensity of overlap (emphasized through the model being cut through to signify such zones). Along the back of the model (since it was to be 2-dimensional) were the simplified vector lines of the path(s) that these sounds were taking within the campus.


The second map, an axonometric, represented sound as 3-dimensional triangulated volumes that intersected one another and wrapped building facades (although never entering). Although difficult to tell from the photograph line weights and dotted lines were used to demonstrate the source (darkest) and the "target" (farthest reach).

The third map on the other hand, was completely unlike the first too. If you remember from earlier the Boite-en-Valise project I focused on the idea that books inside the library are creating an intensity/power that would cause the floor plates of the building to fold and manipulate in relation to that tectonic source. Here, I mapped shadows of the buildings form (my interior form) across the site at 3 different moments of time. These shadows were then cut and folded to
create levels of intensity (where multiple shadows overlap one another).



The critique created a very interesting discussion about our projects and the idea that these are subconscious design intentions that each one of us develops to solve a problem. The resulting information/direction that followed after my review was that;
- like the idea of books having this energy
- found Boite-en-Valise project to be formally beautiful (although difficult to construct the relationship between that model and the third map)
- when shadows are cast a distortion takes place, that potential is yet to be explored
- can definitely see 3 different moments (shadows), one can see how elongation could start to blend these moments together
- both maps 1 and 2 work well and were successful in their representation
- all maps respond to a point of generation (how some pre-existing condition can generate through overlapping to create form)
- in relation to the topic of sound - what you name as a sound source comes from your imagination and it doesn't necessarily need the realities of the constraint - clearer rules
- realistic vs. imaginary

Things to think about.

Understanding and Interpreting Sound

So far, sound has been frustrating me. It's tough to build models and construct drawings around a concept that cannot be seen. As architects we are visual people who explore the world around us typically through our sense of sight. But, this exploration has pushed my understanding of the world around me. How sound influences a building, actually the idea of where sounds come from, how they work in resonance, how they dissipate, etc are all questions I have been trying to interprete through my current mapping exploration of UNAM's campus, as seen in the post below.

From a weeks exploration, I have evolved the ideas found below. The first image is taking the idea of sound, simplifying it to the geometry of circles that radiate and dissipate from point sources (bus stops, car accelerations, building activity, group gatherings, conversations, etc.). A diagram from Foreign Office Architects project Terminal Del Puerto Internacional De Yokohama presented an interesting diagram in 2G. It suggested the simplification of form into geometries that lead to the models below.

The model was first built on chipboard but this proved to be too heavy and "flat" for the 3-dimensional mentality I wanted to deliver this concept in. I switched focus after a suggestion to try using a transparent "middle" layer from another member of the studio. The model below utilizes circlular bands to represent sound emissions on my UNAM's area of focus. The depth of the bands tells the intensity of the sounds and the band changes to a sanded transparency when it hits objects such as trees (upper edge of model). The libray is represented as a "black box" volume within which no sound resonates ...it is a library. On the flipside of the transparent layer, vectors of the path of sound are mapped in correlation to the campus site influences.

The next aspect of the project was to focus on the last project, Boite-en-Valise, and develop a site with similar aspects to the "building" we had designed for the interior of the Library. As a refresher, the concept behind my model was based on an idea of energy/power that is created within the library from the knowledge of books contained inside. How I perceive this to influence the site (first pass) are seen below. The first attempt, lower left, furthers the concept of the original model's fragmented slabs and translates that into a tectonic language across the site in the library's surrounding context. The second attempt, lower right sketch, shifts focus and studies the effect of shadows that this buildings mass would create across the site - manipulating it, sculpting it, etc - based on various light projections onto the building mass.

Refined Focus

In a bit of refinement, I've taken the acoustical mapping idea to a smaller site. This time dealing with the library (building right) and the influence of points of sound intensity such as bus stops, accelerating cars, small gatherings of people, hardscape vs. softscape, etc. I am working out how to represent these ideas both through axonometric and model form. The concept of sound is tough to represent, for it is something we do not see, rather hear. As of now I am going to take the approach of using circles (in 2d) and spheres (in 3d) to represent the dynamic movement that happens in this "corridor" condition. I need to be careful to not overpower the drawing because I think that the simpler I can keep the drawing the more powerful it will strike the viewer.

Currently I am thinking of somehow creating a fabric in 2d of circles of sound and their progression through the site to the library (which will be void). The building masses will protrude up from that in axon, then sound in the form of half circles or parenthesis looking references to reflecting, deflecting, and diffusing sounds. Thoughts...