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.