Spectacle Parking

Nomad

1. As the technique of detailing changed from the hands of the craftsman to the tools of the architect, how has the resulting construction of details changed? Explain in terms of scale, material and cost.


As the hands of the craftsman changed to the tools of the architect, the type of details has changed. With the craftsman, the details were hand carved, typically out of wood. The labor involved in this process would be very expensive because it was very time consuming, but when the architect's tools became involved, the cost went down but also the level because most architects don't think of fine detailing within a space, more so a geometric sequence of sorts in a larger scale.


2. How does "geometrical relationship" of individual details provide an understanding of the whole building if "indirect vision" localizes the viewer and "habit determines to a large extent even optical reception"?


The localization of a viewer due to indirect vision brings a viewer into a closer range which would expose the details that would not be seen beforehand. With a clear geometrical relationship that is familiar, the viewer would spend less time, whether they realize it or not, deciphering what is in the space.


3. Carlo Scarp's details are a "result of an intellectual game" where the Open City buildings are constructed from an act of poetry. Describe what role the detail plays to "tell-the-tale" in each of these environments.


Scarp's details are a result of a visual game of chess which accurately pans out the details in a very precise and direct way where as the Open City is a poetic vision in which the details aren't told or shown directly. They are shown through a series of indirect details, leading one to find the details.


4. Pendleton-Jullian writes about the Open City as emerging from and being in the landscape. Does allowing landscape to initiate "the configuration of territory and space" challenge Western building notions, and how so?


Yes, in Western building notions, the idea is to strip the land of all its natural resources and replace them with what the designer feels is necessary rather than allowing the geometry and natural resources to designate what can or cannot be constructed.


 5. Describe some detail conditions of the Open City that convey "lightness" as Pendleton-Jullian refers to.

Pendelton-Julian refers to a type of construction and design that is as light and airy as it can be to create a footprint that isn't as harsh as a typical building. An attempt to reuse materials in some way or another once the building is deconstructed.

Updated Material List

Qty.  Item                               Price       

1      1/2" Birch Plywood         31.77

3      Barrel Bolt                       8.67

1      #8 1/2" Screws                 3.77

10    1/2" Cut Washers             1.90

1      5/16" Wood Dowels         2.97

4      1/2" Hex Nuts                  3.92

2      1/2" Wing Nuts                1.86

2      1/4" Wing Nuts                1.86

2      1/2" Threaded Rod           8.94

2      1/4" Threaded Rod 1/2     2.28

2      Casters                            9.92

1      1/2" Threaded Rod 1/2     5.96

                                         
                                             83.82

Reading - Questions - 1

1. The readings refer to tectonics in a variety of settings; tectonic/stereotomic, tectonic/atectonic, topos/typos/tectonic, representation/ontological, rhythm, corporeal metaphor, ethnography, and technology. Briefly define each term and provide an architectural example that embodies the condition.

2. Kenneth Frampton writes that this study of tectonics "seeks to mediate and enrich the priority given to space", what is a dominant trend in Western architecture of today and how does tectonics relate to this trend?

            The trend in western architecture today attempts to extend the human emotion and experience that is built around the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It seems as if the trend is designed to slow people down, and make them think about their surroundings. Although these structures seems to slow time down, they are still a steel structure with some obscure skin. It seems we are building nothing more than decorated sheds rather than creating a duck.

3. "Greek in origin, the term tectonic derives from the work tekton, signifying carpenter or builder". How has the the impact of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and other space-time models altered tectonic etymology?

            Einstein's theory brought about a new ideal of space and how one should experience it. This was extended through architecture, redefining the builder. Being that the builder was redefined through the ideal of space, the architectural concepts were redesigned. Space and proportions had already been thought about for ages before had but his theory seemed to reawaken and extend on that.

4. Vittorio Gregotti states in 1983, "(t)he worst enemy of modern architecture is the idea of space considered solely in terms of its economic and technical exigencies indifferent to the ideas of the site". If the intention of site is to situate human in the cosmos, how then does site infer from a contemporary landscape that has been graded, conditioned, tamed, treated, sculpted, mapped, engineered, essentially re-created by humans?

            Site has become just a space in which a structure is to be built rather than the traditional idea that a site should be part of a building's design. It is now that road less travelled, by which I mean that a site is now designed to take a person from the road to the door of the building rather than an adventure around an area. To have an experience that pulls you from point A to point B, is economic, is the rule that governs our society today.

5. Is architectural tectonics applicable or relevant in a world of global mobilization? State and explain your position.

Architectural tectonics is relevant to an extent in a world of global mobilization. It is designing a way to move things. Global mobilization is the movement of things around the world, whether it is people or objects. In reference to architectural tectonics, we are to build a space in which society moves through, like the tunnel under the English Channel, it is connecting different societies through an experience and structure.

Japan Pavilion