Archinect - From Retrospective to Retroactive

The Line

2016-02-23T22:46:45-05:00

From the previous draft of writings and collages about retail space and experience, I am toeing a line.

One side of the line there are retailers. To them I say this: People need you and you need them. No need to fear the digital, here is a possible way forward. I see some strategies that work and some things worth trying. I suggest finding ways of removing all metaphor between life and style. Just as you have created a seamless brand experience, you can also create a seamless connection between the clothing and the suggested ways of living. Low density, low rent places outside of international cities have the space and the need for this kind of pairing. You can start to build brand experience through events which would lead into future sales. Also, in an uncertain future regarding commodities and sales, creating memories and experiences puts you in a market which has no resource limit. Because a lived moment cannot be shared, passed down or resold, there is a strong incen...

Staying in the Moment

2016-02-13T02:12:10-05:00

Recently I went to Cooper Hewitt Museum with my partner and had a really cool and new experience that was largely separate from the art and design the museum actually contained. As part of our ticket purchase, we were given what I describe as a wand. We were told that with the wand, we would be able to interact with art in a new way. Each time we found something to be particularly interesting, we could simply press the wand against the placard adjacent to the work and it would be stored in our own personal digital database. Access to the database came from a code on the ticket.

How cool! With this design, I can feel a sense of discovery, stay in the moment, record, and review.

But what about cameras and cellphone cameras? I hear you. But think through the total action required by cameras and cellphones. I would need to pull it out, aim the phone at the art and also the name/title of the artist and the piece, compose and take the photo, and try not to get distracted by all the ...

21st Century Experience of Space (with collage)

2016-02-07T18:26:07-05:00

If someone were to ask me where we should look to see an example of 21C space, I would point them to the MoMA. But the focus would not be on the art.

I would call their attention to the retail at the entry level, on the first floor, on the top floor, across the street, and the street vendors just outside the door. I would ask them to take note of the restaurant, the garden, the branding, the website, the guided tours, the audio tours, and the virtual tours...oh...and the films, socials, and events. And affiliated venues like PS1.

We see in MoMA an understanding of space which exceeds any single program description, In fact, MoMA is a bit of a misnomer. A better description would be the Contemporary Culture Society. It goes beyond typical understandings of "mixed use" or "adaptive space" because all programs occur simultaneously on the same floor and without any strong visual barriers. If we needed a term, maybe we could call it "both-and."

Critical to the ethos of the MoMA is ...

I-M-M-E-D-I-A-C-Y (with collage)

2016-01-31T14:13:00-05:00

Immediacy is a concept that some stores execute very well and other stores can learn from. It is a more specific understanding of "mixed use." Taking the implied/suggested lifestyle activities of a brand, it concentrates relevant experiences into one spatial location.

STARBUCKS

Starbucks has the most ubiquitous development of the term. In the same store you can buy coffee, buy the mug to hold the coffee. and buy the appliances needed to make your own coffee. On top of that, please feel free to buy a CD of the music you are listening to while in the store, eat a pastry or a sandwich to go with your coffee, or -if you are in a rush - buy mint gum to freshen your breath after you are done drinking coffee. *breath*

In essence, what Starbucks does is collapse all of your separate decisions across time into one time and one place.

EATALY

Who has learned this lesson? Eataly. I recently went into Eataly while my sister was in town and my mind was blown. Combined under the same roof, ...

I Was There (with collage)

2015-12-13T23:34:14-05:00

With online commerce, the need for store locations has become weakened. Now more than ever, it is critical that stores create a tactile, visceral experience of the brand.

The near future will help personalize the in-store experience with sales and advertisements based on personal shopping and search history. With the excess of amount of personal data generated, we may one day see targeted, personal, sales which appear when in close proximity or prolonged time with a particular retail item. This kind of data-to-enticement exchange demonstrates a 21st Century bargaining.

Even then, would all the sales in the world be able to beat online shopping? In order to further encourage customers into retail stores, the products being sold can take on another layer of meaning with a specific time and place.

To give depth, stores learn from iconic cities, tourist attractions and events. All three offer opportunities to say "I was there."

"I didn't get this from online. I got it directly from ...

"Mixed Use" (with collage)

2015-12-13T21:51:06-05:00

Shopping can literally happen anywhere. While SkyMall may have been a bit too much too soon, it is not uncommon now for people to spend time shopping between the opening and headlining acts at a concert. Retail stores cannot continue with business as usual, only focusing on a maximum capacity of items per square foot.

Much has been said of the decline of retail stores because of online shopping. Yet instead of seeing digital commerce as the death knell, we should view it as the retail store's liberator. Freed from the need of all sales to go through their physical stores, another layering of program can take place. So called "brick and mortar" stores are now places for events.

An athletic store not only has small simulated playing fields and courts, but the program is expanded to host games and tournaments. It is not only a place for athletic gear; it is a gym; it is a stadium. Most importantly, it is a community built around a common interest. And this community can share in...

21st Century Experience of Space

2015-12-02T01:36:57-05:00

If someone were to ask me where we should look to see an example of 21C space, I would point them to the MoMA. But the focus would not be on the art.

Critical to the ethos of the MoMA is th...

I-M-M-E-D-I-A-C-Y

2015-12-02T01:16:36-05:00

In essence, what Starbucks does is collapse all of your separate decisions across time into one time and one place.

Who has learned this lesson? Eataly. I recently went into Eataly while my sister was in town and my mind was blown. Combined under the same roof, there were two to t...

I Was There

2015-11-27T17:27:59-05:00

With online commerce, the need for store locations has become weakened. Now more than ever, it is critical that stores create a tactile, visceral experience of the brand.

To give depth, stores learn from iconic cities, tourist attractions and events. All three offer opportunities to say "I was there."

"I didn't get this from online. I got it directly from ...

"Mixed Use"

2015-11-20T19:15:23-05:00

Co-Opted

2015-11-16T22:52:29-05:00

Sorry, another diversion. This week and next week I will be using this blog to write down and record a set of ideas about retail, reflecting on where it is and imagining (what will most likely be very) near future projections about where it might go.

As I've been thinking about retail space, I have been circling around the idea that for the specifically American experience, retail/shopping/commercial areas are very important to our understanding of being public. Retail may also show a glimpse of the future for architecture more broadly as a 21st century experience.

My intention is to first write down what I currently have on paper, then work on collaging and finding reference images for ideas.

So. First retail, then retail collages, then more speculative ideas about what I take from it. Hopefully a discussion from readers will follow!

Stay tuned!

Direct

2015-10-05T23:07:00-04:00

It has been almost two years since my last blog post. The hard-drives still hold the data from my degree project, but I still have not connected them to a new computer. Thankfully my final images are still intact and easy to access. I will make a post with my final images in a later post.

For now I'd like to talk about the shooting and death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, St. Louis, MO. While at times the protests were violent and media grabbing, most of the time they were focused on communities coming together to grieve, mourn and call for action. The family I have in St. Louis participated in the protest and in Seattle my community leaders were heavily involved in having our neighborhood come together to mourn and support each other. A whole growth of lectures, discussions, meetings, flyers and articles appeared in Seattle and new connections and ideas were shared.

Many images and videos emerging from the tragedy were emotional and eye opening.

As I was searching and trying...

Fail Hard

2013-10-30T02:22:42-04:00

So this begins the second part of my last year of school. Degree Project was definitely a journey.

I was very fortunate to be working with my professor Paul J Donnelly. We were really a great match and the balance we kept each other in, though at times frustrating, worked out well.

After discussing my Design Thinking book and visiting the site, we discussed strategies to approach the site. What vector forces could the site give us? Would half levels help with the interaction between programs? How will all these things interact?

Like the Design Thinking course of the previous semester, I made it a point to start making as soon as possible. Over the years, I have accepted the inevitability of crappy first efforts. I also find that even if what I first make becomes absolutely irrelevant as soon as it's made, I know that by the act of making, I'm putting my mind to work on coming up with the next model/drawing/rendering/idea.

So I first made a model:

Something abou...

K.O.

2013-10-25T01:13:01-04:00

So this is the knock out punch for Design Thinking.

I will start and finish posting about Design Research next week.

Then I will begin working on how the two can be in a more direct conversation.

In this post we have iterations to finished style on related spreads.

Links below for the full sets.

The nicer finished was GREATLY aided by my close friend and partner in crime Wendy Chan.

http://wendychandesign.com/

Scope her work. It's really cool. For real.

She will also be helping me on the book, even though she lives in NYC and I live in Seattle. What a cool kid, right?

The biggest thing she helped me with was the use of red. Though not my intention, it became "All red everything." I had over done it. Partly because I was still trying to make the "in your face" feeling more apparent. And partly because it was hard to tell how overwhelming something was in InDesign until I made a few sketch books.

http://issuu.com/christopherperrodin/docs/christopher_perrodin_dt_f12_122

http://issuu.com/c...

Turnt Up

2013-10-20T17:10:00-04:00

With about a two and a half weeks left in the course before we arch-students stopped doing classes and fall head long into studio fancyfootwork-flashmob-midnighthustle time, the main points to hit in the development of the Design Research were site and program.

For Design Thinking, there really is only a limited amount of time to define and refine ideas. After that, it becomes more about having enough quality ideas to work with and make sense of during the Degree Project semester. So with a blog like this, I can go back and look at what I had done after the scholastic dust has settled and try to make sense of it all.

All that said, there are not going to be any Design Research posts where I show a progress in developing the logical connection between sections shown in the previous posts. Mostly there will be a further accumulation of ideas and, like I’ve said before, some presentation cleaning.

For site, the first critique was for me to dig deeper and show more info...

Escape velocity

2013-10-16T11:13:00-04:00

From the previous post to this one, only one week had passed. I can’t remember what all happened that semester, but I am pretty sure no studio work was done that week. I mean, I’m basing that statement on the “last modified” date of my archived files… probably accurate…

Anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post and most Design Research posts after this will be referencing the pdf compilation moves toward the final final book.

The full pdf for this process stage may be found at the link below.

http://issuu.com/christopherperrodin/docs/christopher_perrodin_dt_f12_11612

I will only be showing portions of the pdf's on here, cus otherwise it's a lot. And then the next few posts will be showing refining of presentation and layout via comparison.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A lot of stuff happened. The week of the previous post I had started reading The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping / Harvard Design School Project on the City 2. (Has anyone found Proje...

Commercial Space and Public Life

2013-10-06T17:12:00-04:00

I started to build upon the diagrams and images shown in the previous post. I wanted to look more closely at what the difference was between the Occupy protests in NYC and STL. I only knew that one had much press coverage and many people and the other had little to no press coverage.

Looking into it more, I found the documentation of the STL protests showed few people and even fewer news articles about the protesters. Comparing that to the population density charts I pulled from NYT, I saw that the difference in density was night and day. While All of Manhattan and many of the surrounding boroughs had very high densities, downtown STL actually had one of the least dense areas in the city. Why people still chose to protest in Kiener Plaza in the downtown area was lost to me, but it became a critical part of my Design Research development and Degree Project later on.

At the time though, I was looking at places where people actually were present and living. From my expe...

A new frontier

2013-10-05T02:51:00-04:00

After the tepid presentation, I accepted what my professor had been telling me for three weeks --embrace the political. Embrace the direction of my inquiry. Allow myself to critique.

It became clear that I had repressed thoughts in my head because over the next few days, my writing output greatly increased. As a student, I had not developed anything resembling sleeping "habits," so when I felt charged up about all the thoughts coming to my head, I just stayed up to write them down.

From the writings above, we see the first sketches of the new direction--a combination of my original desire to bring people together and the beginning of my path towards social critique.

My scope was then moved to the Delmar Loop. There was a kind of public canopy thing that WashU-Sam Fox architecture students had made at some point in the past. To my dismay, the burger/sports bar place bought rights to it, put plastic chains around the perimeter and placed awkward wood lounge benche...

Looking for an invasion

2013-09-25T12:28:00-04:00

The last post had two different points in time at once.

It was also missing the presentation from 09/18/12.

I still insisted on proposing questions and ideas about a temporal public existence. In part, I am pulling from my experience in the suburbs, where I felt that no public setting available would allow me to be truly expressive. Feeling placed in a box takes a while to fade I guess.

The other part of me, again, goes back to the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring. No architectural proposals tried to grapple with the events which occurred despite many unique living experiences and public expressions unfolding where people gathered. I felt that the Archigram proposals from the 1960's had at least put some thought into how a rapid gathering of people might be addressed.

Historically, Archigram's ideas were developing at turbulent and protest filled time across the globe. While similar to the protests of th...

Scrambled eggs

2013-09-24T01:42:54-04:00

Companion post tomorrow.

All for now.

Take care,

Christopher

Step aside

2013-09-23T01:26:00-04:00

So, I feel that at this point I should take a small pause and give more context to what has happened so far.

From the last post, we see a lot of terms and architectural references. Basically, the thoughts circling around me question whether or not the public should have a more active role in shaping its environment.

I had previously read in the Fall 2011 semester about the Metabolists of the the 60's in Japan and their hypothesis that buildings and the built environment can operate as a living organism--growing, shrinking and morphing based on the needs of the people it serves.

So I started questioning the strive for permanence in architecture. Most building are built to last a long, long time but their actual life spans may only reach 10-30 years before they are demolished and recycled. Can there be a temporary or adaptive architecture? Very early on in the summer before the Fall 2012 research semester, I wondered if parasitic architecture would be something worth ...

Aggressive Impulses

2013-09-19T03:13:28-04:00

After the initial beginning, I felt ideas boiling inside but had no words or drawings to make. So I made objects and collages instead. All I had going on consciously circled around having some sort of solid element, a platform or stage and a transient element.

Aside: The same weekend I made the model, I also went camping with my Uncle Dave. Fun time.

After making the model I took pictures of it from the perspective of traditional architectural drawings--plans and sections/elevations.

Other aside: The embossed paper I made came from material treatment experiments in the studio I took that semester.

Feeling energized by my actions but still not finding an expression in words or drawings, I then made a collage around the same ideas. The backdrop/context is downtown St. Louis.

In the poster I made my first attempt at refining my ideas by moving locus and firmitas, into urban artifact, and then morphing agency into group form. Still held on to public action th...

3X3

2013-09-18T01:41:10-04:00

After our instructors informed us of the importance found in our design research--how it would either hang from our necks like an albatross (forever) or propel us out into the world of everything ever (for a day or two)--we were asked to choose three words and provide three images for each of those words.

Mine were:

Locus
Agency
Firmitas

The images for each word:

Locus:

Smithsons' House of the Future

Venice, Italy San Marco Piazza

St. Louis, MO Busch brewery

Agency:

Firmitas:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The words together spoke to my initial search for ideas. They orbit around something in which a locus within the city may be acted upon with some form of agency. The continuity of a building's life in the city with different actors of different times moving around and within it. Ideas about participation, activity and stability.

Obviously they are loaded terms and loaded images but I feel that beginnings should have ...

Dawn.

2013-09-17T01:26:06-04:00

As Hans-Ulrich Obrist would say, it's best to begin at the beginning. So before I launch into a blog seeking to make sense of my final work and thoughts from school, I should provide some background.

I grew up in Coral Springs:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=coral+springs+fl&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x88d905341976e065:0x8907b0b59129202b,Coral+Springs,+FL&gl=us&ei=y-A3UtzBLs_xiQK134DwBQ&ved=0CKEBELYD

Here is a video which correlates with my angsty teenage 2003-2007 years (minus the getting trashed part, cus I was too on point at school for that bidness...yo):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODsopagnhl4

Located in South Florida and understood as a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Coral Springs brings the Suburb to the Swamp. Draining, ditching, and building upon what was previously everglades, I knew only sunshine, rain, and sweat. Also lots of happiness and love from my friends and family.

It's a great place to raise little kids.

Fairly affluent area. No one walks on the si...