05 Ordering — Week 4 review

15 MB of fame , post starchitect diagram?

05 Ordering — Week 4 review

More Playful = More Credible

For the past 4 weeks, I have been collecting my thoughts on what I have done in the past and what I have done over the summer. I put my different nodes of my research together to try to understand the landscape of what I have gathered so far. I had in mind what I wanted to do, what aspects of my research would be shown to prove what points I’m making, but it wasn’t easy to get that to be shown without starting a project. So, I decided to start dumb and continue the project I had been working on at Intel. However, instead of focusing on the idea of tracking usage and activity from wearable’s perspective, the focus was put on how schedule of individuals in the house can inform the way actual built environment can be composed.

Imagining 9 people with distinct but typical freelance-work style schedule and how overlapping schedules can be used to inform how the housing can be systematized.

Location of the house informs activity through objects users are engaged with. What if we can track utility usage through the objects itself?

If we can identify what activity took at what time in which space, and culminate the data with 9 people to find average, could we use that logic to figure out “average utility usage per cubic foot” and create volume of dwelling units with it?

Attempt at looking somewhat cohesive, scientific assumptions of how utility usage can lay out floor plans

Using the idea of cubic foot encompassing average usage for 9 users, how can we layout space and modify the way we build? or can we even do that?

As the site gets introduced, factors of lighting, climate, plumbing, wifi all comes to play to shape the stacking of the average utility cubic foot. Also, with sharing economy in mind, what if the wasted space between suburban houses become a space for people to build affordable housing as well?

Layout of the utility usage block in response to the context of the site?

So in a way, what if occupants, the 9 people scheduled above can play “reserve jenga” to create their own space? The act of stacking and manipulating utility usage even before the construction of the house is a new way to meet your future neighbors.

And in addition, do the occupants then negotiate with other neighbors to take over parts of their buildings to join and manipulate the facades and other interior elements as well?

I felt sense of boredom while continuing the investigation done at Intel. I believe that the project loses its charm and playfulness when it is used in a technical, construction sense. As soon as I introduce how things can be built, questions of reality sets in and everything sounds and seems too aloof. So, it’s clear that if the project becomes too “architectural” (in the sense of being tectonic), it’s boring. So, then where do I go from here?

I believe that the best way to respond to how the review went is to keep in mind that being “more playful = more credible”. That’s the thing about Archigram, Archizoom, Superstudio, and other paper architecture that makes it so fascinating. There’s always a degree of playfulness that is very serious and rigorous. I think it’s easy for me to get trapped in addressing the bigger questions of architecture and the built environment, because that’s what I naturally gravitate towards to, but I want to focus more on the interaction between people and addressing new domesticity through sharing economy.

“Constellation of Locations” — mapping of shared economy space? Does it get more interesting in a city scale?

The image above represents nothing, but it speaks to me as some sort of city figure ground map. If I consider this map as constellation of locations and services provided by the mesh economy, what can be teased out from it? Being more playful in this respect, I want to figure out what the designed form will function as. However, maybe it’s not beneficial to necessarily think about what the final “object” or “format” the completed, designed product will result in.

Going back to some initial research, I’m planning on focusing on the idea of Airbnb creating interiors to be pure facade — like what Walter Benjamin talked about. Also, think about from Airbnb’s perspective, how and what can Home Automation system can provide. If everything is a facade, living space becomes a set, a stage. Domesticity and the aspects that make up home lifestyle is the question to be asked, Home automation and sharing economy is the system to be played with. I’ll end with what Martí Guixé said:

“We will see a growth in the number of consumer-curators, personal consumer assistants or, speaking of information, interactive consumption interfaces. What is actually happening at the moment is that some of the people doing this are becoming the brand. It is the interface that is supposed to give you confidence in what you consume and not so much the product.”

I’m not sure what the term “interface” could refer to or could lead to, but with that in mind, the focus should be being more playful through clarity and rigor.