It’s a two part episode 1! My first ever multi part episode, with this first episode focusing on the concept of space. With next weeks episode being so dense and slightly longer, this weeks episode is going to be a nice half an hour long. This is a thought experiment episode! While I am playing catch up this week, please be excited to see more content to show up as the week progresses!
TRANSCRIPT:
2D, 3D, 4-It’s time for Architecture, Coffee, & Ink
30 second Intro song
Hello, this is Hollywood C. and you’re listening to Architecture, Coffee, & Ink. A podcast dedicated to introducing concepts, detailing out designs, and tackling the architecture you might not realize the meaning behind. I’m your hostess and I am here today to start introducing you to the designs that make you wonder why.
tag line: So I ask you to brew your coffee, grab your sketch book and pen, and let’s begin.
Thank you once again for tuning in! This week, I am going to be discussing Space, and taking you, dear listeners, on a spatial journey. But first, a quick disclaimer and warning. Each week, I have slowly been learning more and more about the podcasting, and podcasting life style, and more importantly learning my own values, how to market myself, and learn more about life than I ever thought I would from creating a podcast. Given all that, I have also learned when I need to set boundaries and correct a grievous error. A listener reached out to let me know that I had unfortunately triggered them about my own notebook habits. As designers, we take our notebook habits very seriously, and apparently, while I was discussing my own habits, someone felt quite attacked about their own. To disclaimer, I was not attempting to attack anyone else with similar habits, and while I was on this topic, I decided to combine it with another series of conversations I have had with people, where they were asking about the list of deliverables their professor gave them for studio. So, in all fairness to these distressing issues, I offer this one time trigger warning/announcements of my official stance on both issues:
M, this one is for you:
Warning, Warning, The material you are about to listen to will at some point possibly contain the following discussions: Notebooks, and/or rapid and unnecessary accumulation of them, paper issues: including and not limited to: mis-sized and mis-cut drawings, clarity of content within drawings, and notebook papers with the ruffled edges still attached. Notebook possessiveness and hoarding is a possible side effect of the designer lifestyle. Before any further attempts of following designers and designer lifestyles, please consult with your doctor. For design inspiration lasting more than 4 hours, please contact your doctor as this could be the signs of a lifestyle alternating and serious condition.
Additionally, this podcast is not responsible for your studio professor requirements and refuses to comment on the list of deliverables a professors may or may not hand you-much less comment publicly on any of the drawings unless it is to offer individual feedback and critique, but will not email your professors asking for a reduced assignment-especially not in the days before it is due. Any advice you choose to share or follow will be done at your own discretion.
Please listen responsibly. And check your sources, check your facts, and check me.
So now that the announcements are officially done, let’s discuss a treatise on space. Now this topic is something that has come up an awful lot for me. Both within my studies, and when teaching. A few of the topics that has been straying to the forefront of every conversation lately, has been about the socially responsible architect. Now I plan on discussing this concept in a lot more depth over time, and the concept of being a socially responsible architect is one that could possibly be its own thesis or at least a sub-paper. Which I am admittedly considering tackling over the winter break, we will see. But I realized, this is a topic that needs foundations first, you don’t divide into this without having a really good understanding. And when I was breaking this concept down it kept coming back to space. Now, I have no doubt a lot you probably turned off the podcast at this point, but if you haven’t-assuming you haven’t-let me break it down for you on how these concepts are related, as I see it. Non-sourced, just my free thoughts. Architects are pretty consumed and defined by space. We have papers, that will often discuss the human body and designing for it, whether in augmented spaces, or in interiors, or just in locations. We spend our studios pouring over the ideas of where the users-and for my non-designers that means literally who uses and inhabitants the space, NOT ‘users’ as in a manipulative person. But where are the users lines of sight. Where and how are we directing them through the building, and how are we crafting their experience. In my opinion, that’s the definition of being obsessed with space. However, an architect who fails to craft the experience with the users in mind, or with their cultures and values in mind, is NOT being socially responsible.
Which is where I think the two topics overlie. You need to be able to define and understand space, understand how to responsible use space, and understand how to craft space in such a way that it embraces and enhances the surroundings and cultural contexts to truly be a socially responsible architects. Now, I know someone is going to counter argue with me that they can name several buildings were the clients did not want the project to match the surroundings or take into account the communities involvement beyond their own. And I would like to go ahead and state that to me, that is a cultural reaction. It may be a counter reaction, but the clients are still being driven by something, and reacting to some sort of values. Most architecture, and most architectural movements are driven and defined by intentions. So to be socially responsible you need to be both full of intentions and open to the experience. Or more, open to the unknown. And I am just a graduate student, I am still learning, just like everyone else, so what may be my thoughts today, could be tomorrow’s ashes.
Now, when you google Space Architecture, you can also pull up Architecture in SPACE, and I hope you heard that all caps. Designing for the final frontier, around Jupiter’s moons, Pluto’s orbit, or a space motel in my favorite constellation, Orion, sounds like the stuff of fantasy. But every day we get closer and closer to this unknown, and my Facebook feed is littered with UFO sightings and articles titled roughly “the physics about space travel”. But to me, the more we broaden our understanding and parameters of design territory, the more we need to understand and study our immediate use and treatment of space, through our designs, through our layouts, how we use the immediate surroundings. Because there is so much potential we sometimes waste. And while I joked in the intro line about 2D vs 3D vs 4D space, as architects, it make a huge difference in our understanding. Not to even get started on augmented reality.
Now to cement what I mean, join me in an experiment. If you don’t want to that fine, just ahead a few minutes in the recording. But sit down somewhere, in your bedroom, studio, living room, etc. and get comfortable, if you can. Close your eyes, if you can. And picture with me, another room. If you are sitting in your living room, picture your bedroom. Think about where the door is. How do you come from the hall into the room? Is there something in the way? What color is the door? Is it open, shut? Then step forward, into the room. Where is your bed. Is there dressers, or closets? A dogs bed? Slowly, bit by bit, reconstruct that room. How do you flow through the room? Can you reach every corner? Does something anything block you? Can you feel the glancing blush of the sun across your face as you move through the room? The somber stillness of the dark? The cool comforting chill of the stillness, or the loud urgency of happiness? Now, is there an area you don’t understand? Something nagging at the back of your mind. That you vaguely remember throwing over the bed. Where are the walls? What are the colors, how do they feel. Now come back to yourself and if possible, go to that space, were you able to reconstruct it? More importantly, where you able to understand how you moved through the room? Was the movement you were imagining different than the movement and steps you can take in real life? Were their moments you wish existed?
You don’t have to be able to remember where every comic book is, or what the touch of the walls brushing across the back of your hands feels like, as you move about to be a good designer. But, you need to understand how the space feels and flows. The basics, smallest elements. You need to understand and analyze what’s wrong, what can work better, and what could flow better. You need to understand the little moments. You don’t need to do that experiment in every place you design. But can you convey and understand the smallest moments in your design to explain it to clients? TO bring it alive enough to sell it? It’s like describing a color without using the words. Describing the variations through experiences: like the smell of the grass after the rain, the deep tints, reflecting in the drops, or the vibrancy of your favorite plant, merrily sitting on the counter, day after day with a steady consistency. Or the calming softest folds of the forest, cushioning in comfort and draping you in the foliage. But also the sickening colors of the sky during the worst of the storm, and the churning of the sea. Its sitting in a meadow, with the sunlight dappling through the trees, creating prisms of lights and colors. The barest hints of heat across your face.
If you ever want to understand layout and spatial considerations of design, go to a theme park. I told my students to do this once: take a pen and the map, and follow the path of the numbers of the attractions. Then follow the actual paths, label the locations of the stores. Look for the most popular rides verses the locations of the souvenir shops. Now, do the same thing with a city. Where are the stores, where is the shopping district? Space is an incredibly difficult concept. And if I had 400 hundred years, I could barely begin to discuss everything I wanted to think about. Even now, I’m slightly dissatisfied with the bare breath of the topics I covered.
Space is defined as 3 different things on google, either the encumbered area, free of debris; the dimensions, height, width, depth; or finally positions between objects. And of course, the 4th is just as intangible, all-encompassing beyond, beyond earth. When I was child, I use to terrify and excite myself, with the idea of traveling in it, we had a pretty nerd household, really big on Stargate and Star Trek. Now, I am still obsessed with it, just in a new way. I am interested in the treatment of it, in understanding how it crafts the experience. I once designed a building for class, that was using the form of graffiti, to craft the movement of the user through the building. Basically using the shape as my pathways, and movement, I thought I was pretty original, having barely been introduced to the concepts in design, until I found out a few other buildings did a very similar thing with a different concept. So I guess great minds think alike.
Space is going to continue to haunt me, the question is, will you lean into your discomfort and let it haunt you?
Thank you once again for tuning in, Once again a big thank you to all my listeners! A quick call to action: Please rate and review, share with your friends, neighbors, and family, your professor-whomever you think needs some architecture in their life. We again have a Facebook page and private group, both of which are under the same name: Architecture, Coffee, & Ink. The answer to the question-who is the host-is Hollywood, like the city. And second question is just your opinion, and I might just use it as a recommendation for a show with a little shout out. If you want to either be featured, or have a case study suggestion or perhaps just want to share a story of your favorite design or experience, you can either find me at Architecture, Coffee, & Ink the website is: https://architectureink.design.blog/ .
Insta is now architecturecoffeeandink! Just like the email address! I have gone ahead and set up a new account, to kinda keep it all simple and stop everything from switching around quite so much-so give a follow and you can keep up with all the news! Everything will be linked in the show notes. You can also email me at architecturecoffeeandink@gmail.com all spelt out without the ampersands or commas. I know that I am forgetting something, but oh well. A quick note about the website, I absolutely love technology, I think it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Give me Python, Grasshopper, and some coding and I am so happy it’s not even funny. However, when it doesn’t work, it does not work. Apparently, some of my posts are not showing up, so I will be manually fixing all of that this week while I prepare for my studio review next week. So if you follow the blog and suddenly see that a lot of the notes are changing and finally updating, it’s me, fixing it. If nothing else, this podcast has taught me so much about growth and learning old technology in new ways. It’s been an invigorating challenge. So while I am off to grade and tackle the world of website designs,
May your coffee mugs be full, and your ink wells never run dry.
60 secs end song re-looped.
SOURCES:
Cresswell, Peter. “Architectural Mini-Tutorial: Ceiling Decks.” The Organon Architecture Blog, October 21, 2009. http://organonarchitecture.blogspot.com/2009/10/architectural-mini-tutorial-ceiling.html.
“Dead Loads.” Dead loads – Designing Buildings. Accessed November 16, 2021. https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Dead_loads.
“Form and Space in Architecture.” Your Own Architect, June 29, 2020. https://www.yourownarchitect.com/form-and-space-in-architecture/.
“Google Scholar.” Accessed November 16, 2021. https://scholar.google.com/.
Google search. Google. Accessed November 16, 2021. https://www.google.com/search?q=4d%2Barchitecture&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS910US910&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicw8uP5pv0AhXMSDABHT3SAgQQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1920&bih=937&dpr=1.
Google search. Google. Accessed November 16, 2021. https://www.google.com/search?q=washington%2Bdc%2Bgrid&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjogKG17pv0AhUmQkIHHXTqB30Q2-cCegQIABAA&oq=washington%2Bdc%2B&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgBMggIABCABBCxAzIECAAQQzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMggIABCABBCxAzIICAAQgAQQsQMyBAgAEEMyBAgAEEMyBAgAEEMyCAgAEIAEELEDOgcIABCxAxBDOgYIABAKEBhQqQlY5ixgnz9oBXAAeACAAaABiAH3DZIBBDE3LjOYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=_hqTYeiJKKaEieoP9NSf6Ac&bih=937&biw=1920&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS910US910.
“Gravity Probe B.” GP-B – Einstein’s Spacetime. Accessed November 16, 2021. https://einstein.stanford.edu/SPACETIME/spacetime2.html.
Stein, Emma Rowden and Jesse, ***, Herman Hertzberger, Julienne Hanson and Bill Hillier, Thomas Markus, Philip Thalis and Peter John Cantrill, W. M. Mitchell, et al. “Reading List: Public Architecture.” Places Journal. Accessed November 16, 2021. https://placesjournal.org/reading-list/public-architecture/?cn-reloaded=1. _ This is the source I mentioned having a reading list of additional works that also divide into Space. I recommend checking it out!
“What Is 1D, 2D, 3D, and 4D? How Is It Easily Understood by …” Accessed November 16, 2021. https://www.quora.com/What-is-1D-2D-3D-and-4D-How-is-it-easily-understood-by-a-beginner.
“What Is 4d Construction?” VIATechnik, September 9, 2021. https://www.viatechnik.com/what-is-4d-construction/.