CORE DESIGN PROJECT, FIRST YEAR, AUTUMN TERM, 1998
TUTOR: STAN ALLEN
Brief
Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, when in fact all of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of the hyperreal and of simulation. Jean Baudrillard ‘ The Precession of Simulacra’ Simulations (1983 p.25)
The core studio will be devoted to a comparative study of urbanism in Los Angeles and the Netherlands, with the idea of an artificial ecology as the organizing basis. Ecologies are complex assemblages of resources, species, and climates, operating in multiple feedback loops. With this as our starting point, we pay homage to Reyner Banham, writing in the late sixties, utilises fairly conventional natural ecologies (Beach, Foothill, etc.). We will take the concept of ecology in a broader sense, and stress the interaction of natural and manmade landscapes in both the Netherlands and Los Angeles.
Less a conventional design studio than a collective research project, this studio will introduce students to new graphic techniques, including computer simulations, in order to record and analyse the data collected. The studio marks a shift towards a procedural architecture. Ecology and landscape are not so much models for the form of our work as for it process. We will work toward an expanded agenda of
Structure : spatial and territorial organisation
Functioning: the day-to-day events and activities taking place on a site
Changes: the evolution of the site over time
The approach proposed here will not necessarily result in the design of the site itself: urbanism without architecture. Nevertheless, by considering this problem in a precise manner, it is intended that students will produce realisable proposals for actual sites.
Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, when in fact all of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of the hyperreal and of simulation. Jean Baudrillard ‘ The Precession of Simulacra’ Simulations (1983 p.25)
The core studio will be devoted to a comparative study of urbanism in Los Angeles and the Netherlands, with the idea of an artificial ecology as the organizing basis. Ecologies are complex assemblages of resources, species, and climates, operating in multiple feedback loops. With this as our starting point, we pay homage to Reyner Banham, writing in the late sixties, utilises fairly conventional natural ecologies (Beach, Foothill, etc.). We will take the concept of ecology in a broader sense, and stress the interaction of natural and manmade landscapes in both the Netherlands and Los Angeles.
Less a conventional design studio than a collective research project, this studio will introduce students to new graphic techniques, including computer simulations, in order to record and analyse the data collected. The studio marks a shift towards a procedural architecture. Ecology and landscape are not so much models for the form of our work as for it process. We will work toward an expanded agenda of
Structure : spatial and territorial organisation
Functioning: the day-to-day events and activities taking place on a site
Changes: the evolution of the site over time
The approach proposed here will not necessarily result in the design of the site itself: urbanism without architecture. Nevertheless, by considering this problem in a precise manner, it is intended that students will produce realisable proposals for actual sites.
Concept
I am interested in how driving, parking, car washing, and all activities associated with the use of automobile have shaped architecture and urban environment in LA. Automobile has not only made urban living convenient but also facilitated suburbanisation. Rapid urban sprawl and increasing daily routines carried out outside the dwelling have accelerated growing needs of automobile. The project is based on the fact that people in LA are spending more and more time in their cars: in the journey or in a traffic jam. It is also inspired by the fact that people spend more and more time, spreading their daily ritual or socialising needs that used to be carried out in the dwelling, in the city.
Different types of architecture are categorized into destination, stops, home, and backdrop. The purpose of the diagrams is to understand how different transportation influences the relationship between inhabitant, architecture, context, people’s physical needs of architecture and people’s emotional needs of architecture, journey and destination.
The concept of the intervention is to re-organise car territory and people’s territory. In some scenario’s, floor area occupied by non-moving cars could be decreased. Gained floor could be used by other functions determined by forces shaping the city. In some other scenario’s, car territory and people territory are interchanged, shuffled, intensified, or combined.
Large areas in LA’s existing condition, dedicated to parking, car movement, or facilities maintaining the operation of cars could be decreased or intensified by keeping cars and people constantly connected. Therefore, no separation between car territory and people territory.
If car and people are constantly moving, actively or maneuvered by machinery, the pervious destinations and stops all become just short stops or drive-through’s. Destinations become journeys. Stops change meanings in the overall journey. The journey is the destination.
The concept of the intervention is to re-organise car territory and people’s territory. In some scenario’s, floor area occupied by non-moving cars could be decreased. Gained floor could be used by other functions determined by forces shaping the city. In some other scenario’s, car territory and people territory are interchanged, shuffled, intensified, or combined.
Large areas in LA’s existing condition, dedicated to parking, car movement, or facilities maintaining the operation of cars could be decreased or intensified by keeping cars and people constantly connected. Therefore, no separation between car territory and people territory.
If car and people are constantly moving, actively or maneuvered by machinery, the pervious destinations and stops all become just short stops or drive-through’s. Destinations become journeys. Stops change meanings in the overall journey. The journey is the destination.
