/// Arch 201 \\\

/ Intermediate Design \

Pratt Institute — Undergraduate Architecture — Fall 2015

Critic: Anthony Buccellato

So it begins.

This course is an intense, semester long investigation of the critical roles and relationships of site, program, material and technology as determinants of architectural projects. We’ll address the larger scaled issues of public buildings, and more specifically the library as a civic institution. This Medium publication will house the output of Section 02 for the Fall 2015 semester, critic — Anthony Buccellato.

This initial post synthesizes the thorough syllabus developed by colleague and course coordinator, Greg Merryweather. The format of this post in general, borrows/pays homage to David Carr’s brilliant syllabus for his Press Play course. To my students, I encourage you to read what you can find from Carr’s published work. While our disciplines differ, you will no doubt have trouble finding a more confident and seemingly honest voice that confronts their relationship to their own critical practice — something you are working to develop as architects in training.

While the artifacts we create — sketches, drawings, models — will mostly live inside the physical space of Higgins Hall at Pratt Institute, you should get used to the idea of the increasingly seemless boundary between the physical and virtual world. Architecture needs an audience, and while you’re currently working not to design a physical building but to build a design proposal, I expect that one day you will pursue actual built work. This work will require the patronage of others, and this act patronage will be nothing short of a collaboration. Your success at winning projects will be linked to your ability to present your work and articulate ideas. And, there’s a good chance these skills will be bedfellows with shameless self promotion. You will need other people to make things. So, it’s with this in mind that our section will share what we do here on Medium.

Prior to developing individual library proposals, our class will work together to develop shared research addressing our specific site @ the NW corner of Grand and Christie Street in the LES, Manhattan. Initial resources — site maps, cad files, and texts — can be downloaded from my Google Drive. Regarding Medium itself, you’ll be required to make periodic posts of major project deliverables. However I encourage you to share the dirty, haptic and in-progress magic that happens while you’re developing your work. Use it the way you would Instagram — post cool stuff. I just ask that you take an extra minute to write something that will help orient your audience — namely me and your colleagues > tell us what you’re thinking!

For a brief primer on the ins and outs of posting to Medium see FAQ posts here, here, here, & here. These short articles by the Medium staff will help give your posts some visual pop, which after all, wouldn’t hurt.

Start your engines.

What we‘ll design:

By the end of the semester each of you will develop a design proposal for a library. Our relationship will be collaborative — your role is to be lead designer and mine critic, or if you like editor. Your design concept will be born out of rigorous research and thought on the nature of the contemporary library — defined by me (see “Lottery” post) as the cultural landscape left in the wake of OMA’s design of the Seattle Central Library (2004.) And, your formal, material and programmatic proposal will come from extensive exercises in sketch, drawing and model making that articulate your thinking visually.

We will seed these ideas with four, two-week design exercises that shape the context for your proposals — (1A) Site Analysis (1B) Precedent Analysis(2) Research Assemblage (3) Organizational Strategies (detailed briefs to follow.) This seed stage will bring us to our mid-review, following which you will focus on the specificity of your individual design thesis for the remainder of the semester — Project (4) is a new 19,000 SF Library.

At this point in your careers at Pratt you should realize this probably isn’t going to be a linear process. Be prepared to live in studio and pursue multiple avenues of thought on a particular design problem. Document and diagram your conceptual ideas. Sketch with abandon. Take time to write down your thoughts. Switch mediums often. Test. Model. Ideas cannot live inside your head alone. Commit to this method and ideas will flow, you will feel the power of spontaneous combustion. I will encourage a lively spoken discourse in our section, but please remember that as architects we need to actually make the things we imagine. Work will be evaluated in the form of physical artifact— formatted work — diagrammed, drawn or modeled by you.

More info:

Course Requirements and Grading Criteria

• Regular attendance at twice weekly studio sessions (3 unexcused absences will result in an F)
• Timely completion of all projects and assignments
• Work completed with the highest standards of criticality, quality and craft.

20% Project 1A + 1B: Site Analysis, Precedent Analysis
20% Project 2: Research Assemblage
15% Project 3: Library Organizational Strategies
45% Project 4: A New 19,000 SF Specialty Library

Grading a design project is inherently subjective — I’m interested in the quality of your final proposal and the craft of its construction (read — elegant drawings, well made models and a solid conceptual premise.) However, your grade is not based solely on the final — it’s earned as you progress along the way. As Carr says in Press Play, “I grade based on where you start and where you end. Don’t work on me for a better grade — work on your work and making the work of those around you better. Show industriousness and seriousness and produce surpassing work if you want an exceptional grade.” Fair warning — I subscribe to a similar ethos.

Studio Culture

I expect much of your work to happen in studio, born while emersed in the chaos of others working around you. Talk, collaborate, encourage, push each other to make great work.

Our class time will be divided among group discussion, lecture, desk crits, pin-ups and formal reviews. In the instances where information flows from you outward (either to me, to a panel of guest critics, or to your colleagues) take the time to outline your presentation. It doesn’t necessarily have to be scripted, but you should know what you want to talk about, what questions you’d like answered, and what work you’d like feedback on. It’s your chance to influence the direction of the conversation, and to make the most our time together.

Cell phones, texting, surfing the internet (for anything other than research) will not be tolerated. Your time in studio should be spent working on Design. While my focus will be at times be divided among your colleagues during desk crits, yours should remain single in your effort to develop your design project. I view any time spent otherwise as a distraction and will ultimately treat your indifference to your work with the same.

Excuses — don’t make them, they only serve to erode credibility. While design comes from a deep sense of imagination and a willingness to aquire knowledge on an array of topics, materials and techniques, in the end it has to manifest itself physically. Talking about design will only ever be a supporting actor — you need to create things, you need to sketch, you need to draw, you need to build models, you need to craft visual presentations and write down your beliefs. The assigned exercises and the more formal presentation / reviews requirements are due at the beginning of each class without exception. If ever you are having trouble meeting these expectations then let’s discuss — I would never willingly leave anyone behind.

Where We’re Headed

Course Outline and Weekly Deliverables

(stay tuned — this will be updated as the semester progresses.)

01 Studio Lottery — August 24

Project 1A Site Analysis Issued

Assignment for Thursday 8/27:

To be done individually:

1. Download .zip file and go through ALL contents
2. Read the Luc Sante and write down your thoughts when you something speaks to you, interesting passages, facts or lore that you find interesting or didn’t know, etc. Be prepared to discuss.
3. Sign up for an account on Medium.com — We’ll discuss how to use it on Thursday
4. Visit the site and document. Take pictures. Sketch. Write down your observations. Look for patterns, groupings, labels etc. Come up with an initial reading of the neighborhood and the site. Be prepared to discuss on Thursday. Be prepared to go back to the site numerous times (ie at different times of the day, on different types of days — weekday vs weekend, during different weather and light) this semester in order to test / reflect on your initial impression.

Just in case, our site is at the NW corner of Grand and Chrystie in Manhattan, LES. If you need directions: http://bit.ly/1MRhcSC

5. Prepare a Triptych on an 11x17. I would suggest compositing in Photoshop and creating one image with min resolution of (1400 x 1120.) This will be clear when we begin using Medium.

Be considerate of composition. Use photographs AND/OR sketches of your choosing. I would describe a triptych as a three panel composition. Here is a more heady description: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triptych
and here is a high brow example of a triptych by Francis Bacon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Studies_for_Figures_at_the_Base_of_a_Crucifixion

For our purposes, don’t be too precious about it. Just look to make a solid composition of your initial site documentation, and try to connect the three panels in some way (thematic or otherwise.) Very open to interpretation. Print in color if applicable. Pin-up.

To be done in your group:

6. Make a first pass at Project 1A in the syllabus. Each group will be preparing mappings at TWO analysis scales — City/Regional and Neighborhood/Block — according to their Analysis Topic.

For this Thursday 8/27, make at least one diagram at each analysis scale. These can be quick studies, sketches on traced overlaid on site plans, etc. Multiple iterations of the same idea are always welcome. Try things out. Don’t be afraid to pin anything that’s in-progress. Be prepared to discuss your thinking and instincts behind what you do. Print out and pin-up.

Familiarize yourself with the presentation requirements as stated in the syllabus and set up your files so you’re working at the appropriate (drawing) scale. Note that a minimum of Four (4) diagrams are required at each analysis scale for the final presentation (due next Thursday 9/3.)

02 — August 27

Pin-Up 2pm in Studio

03 — August 31

Desk Crits

04 — September 3

Project 1A Due. Pin-Up 2pm in Studio.

Project 2 Research Assemblage Issued.

Assignment due Thursday 9/10.

It would be a good idea to print this out and keep it taped to your desk for the following week. Highlight line items as you complete them.

00. Medium Account

If you haven’t already, sign up for an account on Medium.com and send me your username. Follow me, I’m @abuccellato. And Follow “Arch201.02” — this is the publication where we’ll be housing the posts for our studio this semester. Here’s a direct link: https://medium.com/arch-201

Once you send me your username I will add you as a contributor to Arch201.02. Once you initiate a post to Medium, you’ll be able to click “…” for more options, and “Add to Publications” you’re a contributor on.

01. Post Project 1A — Site Analysis to MEDIUM.com/arch-201

In short, you’ll need to create a separate image file for each of your maps. Upload them, and add captions. Write a description of each. And most importantly, ruminate a bit on what the information means to you, what assumptions were challenged after you made the post, what new conditions you find interesting.

Make one post per group. However, if you’re not the one who makes the initial post, sign on to your partner’s post and add your thoughts in the comments.

02. Site Model @ 1/8" = 1'

Using the Rhino model “0903_SiteModelReference.3dm” design a model.

_To review — the Rhino file is already modeled at 1/8" scale. Double check building heights.

_Start to break the different layers down into parts. Specifiy their materials. My guidance for this part is to consider materials that will allow you to render the site model as a uniform color. The model itself doesn’t have to me made out of all the same material, but you should choose materials that you can finish at all one color. As a rule of thumb, classic site model colors are natural (wood), white, grey, etc.

_The different parts comprising your Site model are: (A) Base (B) Plug (C) Street (D) Curb, (E) Context Buildings.

_For next Thursday you should build only A+B.

_Make an exploded Axonometric of A+B+C+D+E and label each layers material.

_Considering material, make Plans and elevations of each part that you’ll construct.

_We’ll discuss your material choices during desk crits on Thursday.

_We’ll discuss the delivery schedule for finishing the Site Model on Thursday.

03. Project 2: Research Assemblage

_Suggestion: If you haven’t been to the Pratt Library this semester — pay a visit to the stacks and the work areas. Make a visit to the NYPL on 42nd Street if you have a chance. Go to the Main Reading Room. Walk through the stacks. Sketch. Write down your thoughts.

_Write your assumptions for each of the Components — Study Carrel, Work Table, Book Stacks, Display Cases. Keep it very general (i.e. Study Carrel should have enough room for laptop and two open book, should have a shelf, should have vertical partitions to shield user from distractions, etc…)

_If you have some initial ideas of a type of specialty library, write them down.

_Sketch some initial ideas for each component type. At least three quick sketches per component. (This is a minimum requirement.) Label and organize sketches. Add dimensional notation. Simple ideas and shapes. Consult your notes and formalize individual ideas inconsideration of their scale, orientation, etc.

_Make quick study models out of paper (Bristol would be good) for each component. Look for ways to combine different components into assemblies.

_Sketch models should be @ 1/2"=1'. Before cutting out shapes, create a grid on your paper to indicate scale.

_FYI — at this scale a Table with surface 30" off the ground will measure 1.5" height in model scale. These sketch models will be delicate and fit in the palm of your hands.

05 —September 7

Labor Day No Class

06 — September 10

Pinup 2pm in Studio.

07 — September 14

Desk Crits

08 — September 17

Desk Crits — components due

09 — September 21

Project 2 Review

Project 1B Precedent Analysis Issued

10— September 24

Desk Crits

11 — September 28

Desk Crits

12 — October 1

Project 1B Review

Project 3 Organizational Studies Issued

13 — October 5

Desk Crits

14 — October 8

Desk Crits

15 — October 12

Columbus Day No Class

16 — October 15

Desk Crits

17— October 19

Midterm Review for Project 1A, 1B, 2, 3

Project 4 Issued

18 — October 22

Desk Crits

19 — October 26

Desk Crits

20 — October 29

Desk Crits

21 — November 2

Desk Crits

22 — November 5

Desk Crits

23 — November 9

Desk Crits

24— November 12

Desk Crits

25 — November 16

Desk Crits

26 — November 19

Desk Crits

27 — November 23

Desk Crits

28 — November 26

Thanksgiving Break No Class

29 — November 30

Desk Crits

30 — December 3

Desk Crits

31 — December 7

Final Review Project 1,2,3,4