Model Thinking

Antoni Gaudi

As we consider adding model-making to our conversation and repertoire, here a just a few examples of modeling techniques to get ideas moving. Keep in mind that we will be constructing a group model as well as a series of individual models throughout the semester. Things to think about when discussing the group site model include: scale, ability to add/subtract elements so individual schemes can be inserted, materiality, basic method (stacked contour? casting? foam with bondo? sections?). These sundry techniques all speak to different attitudes about the site, about the audience, and about relation to representation. I will be showing additional examples throughout the semester, but now is a good time to begin to fill in your mental library of model making ideas.

Bartlett Students

Morphosis

Biennale Model

Rhino Model

Morphosis

A few examples

Below are a few links/titles that I think might be useful in thinking about both the idea of landscape rules as well as in formulating thoughts and ideas about how a users-guide to the AmBot might come together.

Interboro: The Grid, a Users-Guide
[Georgeen Theodore, a partner in Interboro and Professor at NJIT, will be giving a lecture at WashU on February 11th and you may have the opportunity to talk with her about our studio research]

Alex Lehnerer: Grand Urban Rules

Atelier Bow-Wow: Made in Tokyo and Pet Architecture

Keller Easterling: American Town Plans

I will put my personal copies of these books on reserve when they arrive in a few days--in the meantime, I suggest you browse online to get a sense of their content.

Rules and Steering Regimes

As you move ahead in your thematic research for Friday and Monday, I ask that you consider the various unspoken rules and steering regimes that give the landscape form. These rules may or may not conform the actual regulations that are written down somewhere, but every landscape has its deep set of unspoken rules that guide its development. In thinking about this, be loose. Don't try to come up with absolute rules that apply absolutely everywhere. After all, as the fatigued saying goes, rules were meant to be broken. So what are the unwritten rules that underlay some aspects of your research? Be playful and be persuasive. This is about building an argument, not about finding universal truths. For a quick conversation on Friday after our site visit, please come with a minimum of one rule, typed out in 24pt font, with a single, line diagram that explains the underlying idea. Use notation, lineweight, etc. to build your argument. Remember, as a start this is about rhetoric, about story telling, not accuracy to some notion of truth.
For Monday, in addition to continuing your thematic research on 11x17 pages, I would like you all to work together to produce a single, 6+ foot long drawing of the American Bottom incorporating pieces from each group's research. My only request is that all information be in vector form--no raster files or aerial imagery.

Information Density

From Edward Tufte

As we discussed in class, the density of information, its legibility at a variety of distances, and its incorporation of expanded spatial and temporal scales, is an essential consideration in research of this type. Below are a few resources for thinking about how you might approach displaying complex information:
Edward Tufte. Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Edward Tufte. Envisioning Information
You may also want to look at the following books on reserve for some inspiration:
Smout/Allen. Pamphlet Architecture 30: Augmented Landscapes
Mathur & da Cuhna. Mississippi Floods.

Perry Kulper

USACE

We will be meeting at the US Army Corps of Engineers main office tomorrow at 1:30. 1222 Spruce St, at the corner of Turner and Spruce. There is parking around the area but you will either need quarters for meters or money for a lot. As mentioned in class, we will be meeting with Michael Sonny Trimble of the Curation/Archeological Center for Expertise. Please bring two forms of photo ID.

The Becoming Landscape || The Becoming Building

Becoming Shed. Near Prairie du Rocher

The interface between floodplane and bluff in the American Bottom is a menagerie of landscape and architectural types that borrow from the intelligence of both--creating a hybrid typology that is not wholly of the landscape nor wholly of the structure. This shed, and the National Archives Record Administration building below, are just a few of the ways this edge condition is inhabited.

NARA. Valmeyer, IL

Dredging, Blasting, and Scraping

Offices of JB Marine, now on dry land: from NYT

News of drought-related navigation and the efforts of the CoE to keep the river open remain in the news. An article here from the New York Times. It has taken a massive engineering effort of dredging the navigation channel, blasting known rock outcropping, and scraping along both, to keep the river at the 9' navigation depth we discussed on our tour yesterday. This rule--that the CoE must maintain a 9' channel--is the single most important legal directive that has given the agency a green-light to conduct almost any sort of ravaging to the rivers bottom. This article reads well with the previous NYT article we read for our first class. It is, to put it glibly, a "game of inches", that, despite this immediate spate of optimism, will continue to be part of the river discourse for years to come.

Riverlands

Eight Cubic Meters of Designer

Thank you all for the engaged, curious, and thoughtful questions today. I look forward to discussing further on Wednesday.

The American Bottom Operating System

Roman Operating System: from Mutations, OMA

After our initial introduction to the rivers and its systems today, and as we move into the long weekend, here are the landscape categories for each team (of 2) to dive into:

•levees, river training structures, wharves, access points
•wetlands, conservation areas, open space, physical geography
•industrial land use, agricultural practices
•urban patterns, residential types, ex-urban developments
•the river itself, broader regional influences, watersheds, etc

We will be working toward a Users-Guide to The American Bottom; so historical, contemporary, and proposed data will all be helpful in forming the background information for the handbook.

For Wednesday, each group should come with the following deliverables at minimum (all 11x17):

•site plan diagram explaining current conditions
•site plan diagram charting changes/phases over history
•sectional diagrams explaining how elements/types/systems work within theme
•single, cropped aerial image of a moment that best illustrates tensions/intentions of your theme
•expository axonometric diagram of the same spot chosen for aerial

The diagrams should be drawn with an eye toward legibility--so things like line-weight, color, fill, text, etc, as well as what is included and what is excluded from the drawing, should all be selected accordingly and intentionally. We will talk about both the information as well as about how it is displayed. In addition, print out all pertinent documents that contribute to your analysis and bind together for reference throughout the semester.

Systems and Types

Bernd and Hilla Becher: Anonymous Sculpture

Much of our research and design work this semester will be systemic and typological. Consider the following as you conduct preliminary research for tomorrow and beyond:

Systems

By focusing on systems, we highlight the connectivity of a given site with the broader ecological conditions, economic forces, and urban patterns that contribute to the textures of a place. So, for example, when we stand at the Lock and Dam tomorrow, you might ask yourself (and hopefully have already somewhat looked into this):

•Where is this water coming from? Sounds obvious, but really, where is it coming from? North Dakota? Chicago? What is the watershed we are dealing with here at this one spot?

•We are at lock #26. Is there a lock 25? 24? 1? 0?

•If there is a barge passing through, what is in the barge? Where is it coming from? What does it connect up with? Extractive industries in Minnesota? Agriculture in Nebraska?

Type

By focusing on type, we highlight the tensions between specificity and generality--between what makes a landscape/infrastructural element both responsive to its immediate context as well as part of a family of design decisions.

•What are the categories of elements? Weir? Dam? Bank? Levee? Parking lot? Wetlands?

•What are the recognizable forms? Shape? Elements?

•How does it work? Why does it work in the way it does? And when does it cease to work--i.e. when does it fail? Limit conditions.

•What are their orientation? To the immediate site and to fundamentals like north-slopes, south-slopes, river-side, land-side?

These are just some suggestions of the questions and categories that could guide your research, thinking, and inquiry as we visit these sites tomorrow and beyond. I ask that you consider how you might best represent these things--both systems and types--through diagrams and photography on the site.

The American Bottom

Prairie Du Pont Levee

Throughout this semester, this blog will serve as a clearinghouse for thoughts, musings, images, links, and arguments as they relate to our studio work. Please use liberally, and often.