arch 1010: lessons of the lawn | architecture as a covenant with the world, agai

Introduction: Lessons of the Lawn | Architecture as a Covenant with the World, Again 1

ARCH 1010: Lessons of the Lawn | Architecture as a Covenant with the World, Again


Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday Campbell Hall 153, 9:30 – 10:45am Discussion Groups: Monday: 10:00 – 10:50 am, 12:00 noon – 12:50, or 7:00 – 7:50 pm

Instructor: Peter Waldman (I.D. 2662) 110 Campbell [email protected]

Office Hours: Tu/Th 11:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Credits: 4

“To break the ground is the first architectural act.” Semper

Course DescriptionThe Lawn, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is at the immediate crossroads of daily life at this University. Jefferson intended for his architectural project to be at the core of a fine arts curriculum. The Lawn still serves as a Model Text, or Primer, guiding students toward architectural literacy. For Jefferson, architectural literacy was essential to life as a citizen.

In this course the Lawn serves as a starting point in analyzing civic values in a series of case studies. It is the purpose of this course to develop architectural literacy, and examining the Lawn is the basis for developing a universal analytical method.


Course StructurePart 1: A Primer for Reading & Experiencing Architecture (weeks 1-4)A Method of Analysis applied to, and developed from the experience of The Academical Village

Part 2: A Method of Analysis as applied to Civic Theaters (weeks 5-9)Trans-chronological Paradigms from Athens to Bilbao onto Chandigarh

Part 3: A Method of Analysis as applied to Dwellings (week 10-12)Trans-cultural Paradigms from La Rotonda/Indiana parterres on/to Villa Savoye/Mairea & Fallingwater

Part 4: A Method of Analysis as applied to the Design Process (weeks 13-15)

Pedagogic IntentionsThis course is intended to develop your understanding of architecture as a commitment to both fine art and culture. Using the specific qualities of the Lawn, we will begin to comprehend the power of architecture as public art with political and social consequences. This course fulfills a fine arts/ humanities distribution requirement for the College of Arts and Sciences and is the foundation course for undergraduates in the School of Architecture.

The first intention of this course is for students to understand that architecture reflects culture and society. Jefferson’s Academical Village, a theater for human activity, is a philosophical expression of a New World ethical culture. The conception of a constructed landscape places “Common Ground” at the center of the routines and rituals of academic life. This fundamental territorial engagement, at a scale rare in America at the time, provokes one to read the Lawn as a spatial as well as political invention. In this way the Arcadian dream is a setting for a youthful democratic republic. So too, the other case studies reflect the cultural values of their specific locales.

The second intention of this course is to understand that architecture is a catalyst that encourages an ethical culture. This is brilliantly demonstrated by the Lessons of the Lawn, and evident in our case studies. The preservation of individual identity in synthesis with the


articulation of a terrain for civic activity is at the core of Jefferson’s conception of citizenship. This constitutes the ethical content of the Lessons of the Lawn. The Jefferson project terminates not in the emphatic masses of Pavilions IX & X, but rather in the solitary student rooms; leaving them open-ended, unfinished, and the responsibility of the imaginations of individuals exploring the Edge of the Wilderness. The case studies analyze a similar ethical conscience. Students will finish the class with a new understanding of the responsibility and opportunity involved in shaping society through architecture. Methodology: The first few weeks of this course will proceed from the point of view of an architect as a strategist rather than that of an architectural historian. This course will show how both parts and permutations in architectural design produce a composition of the greater whole. Jefferson did not design in a linear manner nor was he a solitary creator. Rather, his design process was enriched by research into scientific methods, inspired by personal experience, and generated by collaboration with others. Jefferson’s design is a synthetic contract with a greater community. It will be our task to read the architecture of the Lawn as the articulation of parts forming a dynamic yet synthetic whole that suggests the poetic posture of both a future reading and a future transformation.

The rest of this course will employ a method of analysis based on the Lessons of the Lawn. This methodology allows us to read the cultural values and synthetic strategies evidenced in case studies. Typically we will examine these as pairs of ancient and contemporary architectural landmarks. We will examine case studies at a public scale and a domestic scale.

Assumptions: We begin Here and Now. This course presumes that architecture is a two-party discussion. Every student/architect arrives at this university with nearly two decades of a profoundly active architectural practice. From our earliest memories of sandboxes and sand castles to the substantial construction of The Three Little Pigs, we take to heart our sympathetic journeys with Robinson Crusoe, Odysseus, Aeneas, Don Quixote and Prospero. We come informed with useful knowledge: both momentary and enduring engagements with making architecture.

This course attempts to introduce you to the concepts of Architecture as specific fictions of which we are all narrators and actors, not as a set of facts. This course is a pre-condition to design as a synthetic/conjunctive act.

This course introduces diagramming as an analytical tool for reading architecture. In effect, this is a reading course of artifacts as well as texts. You will be asked to connect your already well-developed reading/writing skills with a parallel syntax of spatial structure, which gives both order and renewal to our cultural condition – Here and Now.

The specific disciplines of the School of Architecture structure this course. For us, this poses a dilemma: should Architectural History, as memory, come first - as Monticello haunts the Lawn - or should the pre-conditions of the Land, as both source and resource, commence a reading of this Place? Somewhere between Site and Memory mirages appear in the process of Building as a verb, which some call Architecture, and terminate in the political and ethical agendas of Environmental Negotiation, called Planning by others. This course presents the diverse resources of the School’s vital faculty. It cannot be all-inclusive, but it will establish the deep passion for essence, research and economy, which form the character of this school. Hopefully this is also the character of the discipline of architecture.


Grading: Ten Assignments: 70% (at 7% each)Midterm: 10%Final: 10%Discussion: 5%Sketchbook: 5%

Grades are determined by the instructor and teaching assistants on the basis of an individual student’s engagement in the course as a discussion. A student’s performance on a given assignment/exam will be evaluated in terms of the clarity, creativity, and accountability with which they contribute to this discussion. Overall grades are based on the combination of individual assignments, exams, and engagement in discussion, as listed above. This strategy emphasizes a balance between careful attentiveness to the ‘other’ voices of the course (e.g. the instructor, the readings, the artifact of the Lawn) and the development of the student’s own voice.

Sketchbooks will be collected at mid term and the end of the semester. They are expected to be a collection of diagrams of the case studies presented in lecture and will be evaluated as a component of class participation.

Late assignments will be docked a +/- per day late; i.e., a B assignment drops to a B- if it is one day late, C+ if two days late, etc.

Students may revise one of the first 5 assignments (1-5). Late papers are not eligible for revisions or regrading.

Acknowledge your sources. This is an important part of academic writing, from an ethical and creative point of view. Note every reading you reference in the body of the paper: in parenthesis with a page number; i.e. (Venturi, p. 4). All referenced readings should also be noted in a Works Cited section at the end of the assignment. Assigned readings should have the author’s name and article or book name, and outside sources should also include publication information and the date of publication.

Required Texts (purchase in University bookstore):

Le Corbusier, Towards a New ArchitectureRobert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in ArchitectureWilliam Morrish, Civilizing Terrains (Reprints in UVA Bookstore)Francis D.K. Ching, Architecture: Form, Space, and OrderSolnit, Rebecca, A Field Guide for Getting Lost Berger, John: The Shape of a Pocket

Materials: 4 x 6 index cards 3-ring binder 8 x 5 (opens approx. 81/2x11”) sketchbook, (MOLESKINE

brand strongly suggested) available through the A+A Supply Store, located in Campbell Hall, and through the UVA bookstore.

Class websites: http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~arch200/ Arch 101 Course website (Can also be accessed through the Architecture School course website): a resource for images, comparative case studies, and assignmentshttps://collab.itc.virginia.edu/portal University “Collab” site: resource for all class readings, guest lectures, and assignments

Please note: Laptops will not be permitted in lecture. You must bring a sketchbook, no larger than 8 ½ x 11 when open, to diagram the case studies and take notes during lecture. This sketchbook will count as part of your final grade.

http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~arch200/

https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/portal

Part 1: A Primer for Reading & Experiencing Architecture 9


Required Field Trip to Monticello & Parcel X: Saturday, September 18th: 8am – Noon

Part 1: A Primer for Reading & Experiencing Architecture

Week 1 GenesisTu 8/24 Spatial Tales of Origin: From Western and Non- Western SourcesWarm-Up Exercise and Syllabus issued

Reading: Bible, Genesis 1: 1-31, Days 1-6.

Th 8/26 Pistachios and Chili Peppers – Warm-up Exercise Demonstrated

Reading:Naipaul, V.S. Enigma of Arrival: A Novel, 5-8.Sontag, Susan. The Volcano Lover: A Romance, 3-4.Dripps, Robin. “A Primer on Composition”, 1-11.Ching, Francis, “Freehand Drawing,” in Architectural Graphics, 200-209.Pallasmaa, Juhani, “Critique: Our Image Culture,” in Architectural Record (January 2001), 51-52.Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, 18-19, 23-32.


Week 2 Here and Now: The Academical VillageM 8/30 First Section Meeting, Warm-Up Exercise due

Tu 8/31 Easy Pieces (class held on the Lawn)Assignment One issued

Reading:Thoreau, Henry D, “Building the House,” in Walden, or Life in the Woods, 22-39.Venturi, Robert, “Nonstraightforward Architecture: A Gentle Manifesto,” in Complexity and Contradiction, 16-19.Virgil, “A Fateful Haven,” in The Aeneid, lines 1-45.Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe, 66-79.Dripps, Robin, “The Origin of Dwelling,” in The First House, 2-18.Burns, Carol, “On Site: Architectural Preoccupations,” in Drawing, Building Text: Essays on Architectural Theory, 146-167.

Th 9/02 Land as Source - Materials for Surveyors, Nomads, and Lunatics

Reading:Venturi, Robert. Complexity and Contradiction, 20-44.Waldman, Peter, “A Primer of Easy Pieces: Teaching Through Typological Narrative,” 10-13.Semper, Gottfried. The Four Elements of Architecture, 101-104 (105-113 optional).Solnit, Rebecca, “The Open Door,” in A Field Guide for Getting Lost. Berger, John, “Opening a Gate,” in The Shape of a Pocket.


Week 3 Poetic and Strategic CompositionsM 9/6 Assignment One due

Tu 9/7 InterpretationsAssignment Two issued

Reading:Calquhon, Alan, “Typology and Design Method,” in Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal 12 (1969).Le Corbusier, “Argument,” in Towards a New Architecture, 1-8.Sherwood, Patricia C. and Joseph Michael Lasala, “Education & Architecture: The Evolution of UVA’s Academical Village,” in Thomas Jefferson”s Academical Village: The Creation of an Architectural Masterpiece, 9-14.Wilson, Richard Guy. Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village: The Creation of an Architectural Masterpiece, 47-73.Jackson, J.B, “The Word Itself,” in Discovering the Vernacular Landscape, 3-8.

Th 9/9 The Difficult Whole: Center & Edge, Figure & FieldReading:Leatherbarrow, David. On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time, 97-106.Le Corbusier, “The Illusion of Plans,” in Towards a New Architecture, 175-194.Jackson, JB, “Landscape As Theater,” in The Necessity for Ruins, 67-75.


Week 4 Covenants and ContinuitiesM 9/13 Assignment Two due

Tu 9/14 Transformation and ChangeAssignment Three issued

Reading:The Eric Goodwin Passage

Th 9/16 Call & Response: Monticello & Parcel X Reading:Berger, John, “A Cloth over the Mirror,” in The Shape of a Pocket.Waldman, Peter. GA#51/AREA/Architecture/Numbers in the Night.

Sa 9/18 FIELD TRIP: 8am – Noon: Monticello & Parcel X

On-site diagramming exercise (bring sketchbooks)

Part 2: A Method of Analysis as applied to Civic Theaters 17

Part 2: A Method of Analysis as applied to Civic Theaters

Week 5 Pre-Conditions of the Site | The World, Again: On Ritual and Routine (On Origins of Culture)M 9/20 Assignment Three due

Tu 9/21 AcropolisAssignment Four issuedAutumnal Equinox

Reading:Martienssen, Rex. The Idea of Space in Greek Architecture, 124-130.Le Corbusier, “The Parthenon,” in Journey to the East, 209-239.

Th 9/23 Salk Center for Biological StudiesReading:Holl, Steven. Anchoring, 9-12.Lobell, John. “Salk Inst. For Bio. Studies,” and “Salk Institute,” in Between Silence and Light, 76, 84.


Week 6 Compositional StrategiesIn the CenterM 9/27 Assignment Four due

Tu 9/28 PantheonAssignment Five issued

Reading:Le Corbusier, “The Lesson of Rome,” in Towards a New Architecture, 149-173.Arnheim, Rudolf, “The Symbolism of Centric and Linear Composition,” in Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal 20 (1985), 139-146.Kostof, Spiro, “Roman Concurrences,” in A History of Architecture, 217-220.

Th 9/30 Guggenheim Museum, BilbaoReading:Campbell, Joseph, “Moon Bull and Sun Steed,” in The Masks of God: Creative Mythology, 207-220.Giovannini, Joseph, “Gehry’s Reign in Spain,” in Architecture (Dec. 1997), 64-77.Solnit, Rebecca, ” The Blue of Distance” First, in A Field Guide for Getting Lost. Berger, John, “Steps Toward a Small Theory of the Visible,” in The Shape of a Pocket.


Week 7 Lessons from PracticeM 10/4 Assignment 5 due

Tu 10/5 Additions to Campbell Hall: On Pavilions/Cells/ Fields/Passages Guest Lecture: William ShermanMidterm Issued

Th 10/7 Additions to Campbell Hall: On Pavilions/Cells/ Fields/Passages Guest Lecture: W.G. Clark

Reading:Clark, W.G. “Replacement” in Clarke and Menefee, 11-13.Solnit, Rebecca, “The One-Story House,” in A Field Guide for Getting Lost. Berger, John, “The Chauvet Cave,” in The Shape of a Pocket.Eliade, Mircea, “Sacred Space and Making the World Sacred,” in The Sacred and the Profane, 20-65.


Week 8 Compositional Strategies: On the EdgeM 10/11 Reading Holiday

Tu 10/12 Reading Holiday

Th 10/14 La Tourette + the CampidoglioReading:Venturi, Robert, “The Inside and the Outside,” in Complexity and Contradiction, 70-87.Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin, 28, 36-51.Curtis, William. Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms, 181-187. Westfall, William. In This Most Perfect Paradise, 74-101,152-155, 182-184.Rykwert, Joseph, “Preface,” in The Idea of A Town, 23-26.Venturi, Robert, “The Campidoglio: A Case Study,” in Architecture and Urbanism Venturi Rauch and Scott Brown, 195.Berger, John, “Rembrandt and the Body,” in The Shape of a Pocket.


Week 9 Beginning Again: City in Suspended DisbeliefM 10/18 Midterm dueAssignment Six issued/discussed (TA-generated assignment)

Tu 10/19 Lessons from Paris Guest Lecture: Charles Sparkman

Reading: Morrish, William, “Introduction,” in Civilizing Terrains. Further reading may be issued via email.

Th 10/21 Chandigarh: Le Corbusier’s Capitol Complex Guest Lecture: Lauren Hackney

Reading:Gast, Klaus-Peter, “Chandigarh General Plan,” in Le Corbusier, Paris—Chandigarh, 98-113.Venturi, Robert, “Contradiction Juxtaposed,” in Complexity and Contradiction, 56-70.Blee, Michael, “Criticism: Chandigarh and the Sense of Place,” in Architectural Review (March 1958), 201-203.Rowe, Peter G. Civic Realism, 46-58.Prakash, Vikramaditya, “Introduction: The ‘East-West’ Opposition in Chandigarh’s Le Corbusier,” in Chandigarh’s Le Corbusier: the Struggle for Modernity in Postcolonial India.

Part 3: A Method of Analysis applied to Dwellings 27

Part 3: A Method of Analysis Applied to Dwellings

Week 10 Between the City and DwellingM 10/25 Assignment Six due

Tu 10/26 Constructing Nature: Wilderness, Landscape and Garden Guest Lecture: Elizabeth MeyerAssignment Seven issued

Reading:Miller, Mara. The Garden as an Art, 3-16, 36-46, 117-120.

Th 10/28 Miller House and Garden Guest Lecture: TBA

Reading:Dillon, David, “The Miller House and Garden,” in A Place No One Knows.Berger, John, “Brancusi,” in The Shape of a Pocket.


Week 11 Complex Topographies: Between Ground & SkyM 11/01 Assignment Seven due

Tu 11/02 Villa SavoyeAssignment Eight Issued

Reading:Curtis, William, “The Image and Idea of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye at Poissy,” in Modern Architecture Since 1900, 275-285.Venturi,“ Both and,” in Architecture, Preface: A Gentle Manifesto.Le Corbusier, “Architecture or Revolution” A Postscript, in Towards a New Architecture.Berger, John, “Pull the other Leg; It’s got Bells on It,” in The Shape of a Pocket.

Th 11/04 FallingwaterReading: Purves, Alexander. This Goodly Frame, the Earth, 179-201.Assefa, Enkku Mulegeta, “Inside and Outside in Wright’s Fallingwater and Aalto’s Villa Mairea,” in Environmental and Architectural Phenomenology 14, 11-15.


Week 12 Transcultural ParadigmsM 11/08 Assignment Eight due

Tu 11/09 Villa Mairea as a Transformation of the Italian Villa typeAssignment Nine issued

Reading:Curtis, William, “Alvar Aalto and Scandinavian Developments,” in Modern Architecture Since 1900, 453-469.Riley, Terrence. The Un-Private House, 9-37.Evans, Robin, “Figures, Doors and Passages,” in Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays (1978), 55-91.Coffin, David, “The Affluent Italian and His Country Residence,” in The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome.

Th 11/11 Vanna Venturi HouseReading:Ford, Edward, “Conclusion,” in Details of Modern Architecture, 351-356.Louis I. Kahn, “Esherick House,” in Global ArchitectureVenturi Scott Brown & Asscts, “On Houses and Housing,” in Architectural Monographs #21, 24-26.Von Moos, Stanislaus, “A Postscript on History, ‘Architecture Parlance’, and Populism,” in Architecture and Urbanism Venturi Rauch and

Scott Brown.

Part 4: Scaled Extrapolations: Lessons for a Design Process 33

Part 4: Scaled Extrapolations: Lessons for a Design Process Recurrent Dualities Posited as Useful Analytic & Synthetic Methods On Both the On-going Crises of History and Spatial Tales of OriginKwinter’s Challenge: “What Is More Modern Than The Archaic?”

Week 13 Case-Studies for Citizens & Strangers Lessons TestedM 11/15 Assignment Nine Due

T 11/16 On the Dwelling with Surveyors, Nomads, and LunaticsAssignment Ten Issued

Reading:Waldman, Peter, “A Stable for the Trojan Horse & A Garden for a Stegosaurus,” “A Garden for a Sphinx/ A Rod for a Surveyor/ A Compass for a Lunatic,” Parasol & Hurricane Climatic House Projects, Houston, Texas 1981-85, in GA 10 & 26.Walker, Alice, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: womanist prose.

Th 11/18 On Urban Strategies: Times Square Competition/U of Miami Master Plan

Reading:Waldman, Peter, “The Word Made Flesh”Berger, John, “On the Destruction of this World,” in The Shape of a Pocket.Solnit, Rebecca, “The Blue of Distance” Second, in A Field Guide for Getting Lost.


Week 14 The Difficult Whole: The City & The CellOn Microscopes and TelescopesM 11/22 Assignment Ten due

T 11/23 The City as Journey: from Troy onto Rome onto Paris, Transposed by Jefferson as an Arcadian Vision of America: The Political Lessons of the Academical VillageReading:

Rykwert, Joseph, Preface, The Idea of A Town, 23-26, 27-40.Homer’s Iliad, selectionsSolnit, Rebecca, “The Blue of Distance”, Third, in A Field Guide for Getting Lost. Berger, John, “Michelangelo,” in The Shape of a Pocket.Sennett, Richard, On Architecture & Craft, selections.

Th 11/25 Thanksgiving Recess


Week 15 Reflections: Architecture as Mirrors for the Moon

M 11/29 Final Discussion/ Class Evaluations/ Exam Preparation

Tu 11/30 One Good Room as Journey from The City to Arcadia Transmuted by Serlio Guest Lecture: Erin Root and Randall WinstonFinal Examination Part 1: “One Good Room” issuedAs Prep for the Final Examination:

Reading: Naipaul, “Jack’s Garden,” in Enigma of Arrival.Kwinter, Stanford, “African Genesis,” in Assemblage 36.

Th 12/02 Lessons of Making: On Marking & Making: A Collage of Lewitt/Slutsky/IliescuA Final Visit with Surveyors, Nomads, and Lunatics

Reading:Iliescu, Sanda. “Openness, Incompleteness, and the Beauty of Margins,” in lunch 4: margin (2009).Lippmann, Walter, “Barren Ground,” in A Preface to Morals.Saroyan, William. The Human Comedy.Brodsky, Joseph, “On Nerves,” in Watermark. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992.

Week 16 Postscript

Tu 12/07 Final Exam part 2 (in class); turn in “One Good Room” and sketchbooks

Glossary of Terms 39

Glossary of Terms

CIRCUMSTANTIAL: Incomplete, peripheral certainly not at a core, edgy not central to the understanding of one space to another; not consequential.STRUCTURE: Something made up of a number of parts that are held or put together in a particular way.SYNTAX: Linguistic role of grammar; a study of the rules of language applied to building structure.THRESHOLD: A place or point of beginning; a piece of wood or stone placed beneath a door; the articulated field between outside and inside, e.g. threshing groundTRANSPOSE: To transfer from one place to another.COMPOSITION: The combining of distinct parts to form a whole. E.g. Center & EdgeLITERACY: Condition of being knowledgeable in a particular field; the ability to reference models and types and make them synthetically useful in the design process.

SPATIAL: Pertaining to the extent or expanse of a three-dimensional area. STRUCTURAL: Pertaining to the parts that support a load; pertaining to the way in which parts are arranged or put together to form a whole. TEMPORAL: Of or relating to the material world, worldly; of, relating to, or limited by time; Lasting only for a time, not eternal; Secular or lay, civil ACROPOLIS: A raised area holding a building or cluster of buildings; the fortified height or citadel of an ancient Greek city; In Greek, akron=top, polis=city.

ALLEE: A walk of gravel, sand or turf, enclosed by a fence, hedge or trees. A linear space of enclosure and shelter. Tree branches trained to meet overhead.ARCADIAN MYTHS: Dreams of a rustic, peaceful, and simple life.BOSQUE: A French term for a small, irregularly planted wood, often contrasting a geometrical garden surrounding it.TRANSCENDENTALIST: classical philosophy that God transcends the manifest world; concerned not with objects but with our mode of knowing objects; Emerson defines nature as an all-encompassing divine entity inherently known to us in our unfettered innocence, rather than as merely a component of a world ruled by a divine, separate being learned by us through passed-on teachings in our experience.FOIL: To prevent from being successful; to thwart, obscure or confuse. To contradict and cause friction.HUMANIST: Pertaining to a philosophy asserting human dignity and man’s capacity for fulfillment through reason and scientific method and often rejecting religion.INCLUSIVE: Including the specified extremes or limits as well as the area between them.PLINTH: A block or slab on which a pedestal, column, or statue is placed. In contemporary usage, it implies a fabricated level condition, earthen or otherwise, often but not always supporting a building.TERRACE: A raised embankment usually one of a series of horizontal ridges made in a hillside to increase cultivatable land, conserve moisture or minimize erosion; a colonnaded porch or promenade adjoining a building.

ARCHITECTURE PARLANTE: Architecture talking about itself especially through their windows which frame Nature.

Warm-Up Exercise: Lessons of the Lawn | Architecture as a Covenant with the World, Again 41

Warm-Up Exercise

RECEIVE AND RESEARCH Gravity, Orientation, & Spatial Tales of Origin

First Offering: Seed and Text Pistachio & Chili Seeds Enigma of Arrival, Naipaul The Volcano Lover, Sontag And other texts

Process: This process will guide your analytical work this semester. Students will complete a two-part exploration for each assignment. The first part is a series of diagrams exploring structure and space. The second part is a written analysis that expands on the diagrams.

Part 1: On 4x6 note/index/post cards students will diagram the structural and spatial qualities of objects and places. This should be done with an eye to understanding how objects and spaces provide a sense of place. Each card should contain one idea and one set of marks.

This first Warm-Up Exercise has no limit to the quantity of cards except as assigned by you. We suggest five sets of two cards. One card from the set consists only of points, the other card should consist of only lines. Use only one side of each card. These will be pinned up in the class discussion session. The first pair of cards should include only one point and one line. The second includes two points and two lines, the third: four points/four lines, the fourth: sixteen points/sixteen lines, and finally the fifth set of cards should include 256 points/256 lines. Answer each of the questions A-D below with five sets of (1/2/4/16/256) postcards. This should produce a series of five responses to each part of A-D. The sequence of card sets forces a CONNECTION between these fundamentally distinct spatial issues. You will be acting as a designer of sorts; an architect who envisions the connection where only others can understand the parts.

Part 2: In addition to these diagrammatic postcards you are to type only one page (8-1/2” x11”) of text to accompany the four part questions. Think of five sentences for each part of the questions, four paragraphs for each section, with an internal recurrent duality. This is a design exercise pretending to be a response to an analytical methodology of the familiar and the commonplace. Enjoy the myriad of intuitive possibilities initially, but be strategic and educate yourself with this challenge.

FOUR QUESTIONS:

A. Where do you come from? Where do you now find yourself?

Begin the process of articulation and connection.

B. What is the nature of a pistachio seed? What is the nature of a hot pepper seed? Continue the process of articulation and connection. How would you then strategically connect A to B?

C. Enigma of Arrival is the story of a stranger relocated to an ancient and mythic land. The Volcano Lover is the story of strange things given value or rejected by diverse cultural responses. How are these brief texts related structurally to A + B? In other words how would you design a place where A + B = C?

D. The Bible, The Aeneid, and The First House are all Spatial Tales of Origin.

How are recurrent themes, recurrent dualities of individual journeys and urban foundations connected to A + B + C?

ARCH 1020: Lessons in Making


arch 1010: lessons of the lawn | architecture as a covenant with the world, agai

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