Archinect - University of Michigan Taubman College

thesis semester, midpoint+one

2011-03-18T16:33:01-04:00

this week i've been zooming out and attempting to draw the concept of the enormous without relying on program or site to contrast it.
first attempt: dashes

bigger version here (the printed version is 40x32)

thesis semester, midpoint

2011-03-10T22:15:33-05:00

drawing+model (on the wall)

detail of the drawing

detail of the drawing

detail of the drawing

and a screenshot of the film that was playing

thesis semester, week four.

2011-02-08T14:50:21-05:00

drawing
plan view and composite drawing of the relationship of program elements to the highway (in blue)

thesis semester, week three.

2011-01-28T15:41:42-05:00

drawing
juxtapositions of five generic conditions of program that have been informed by the logic of the enormous. using vectors (shown in blue) to track movement through each spatial condition, patterns of density begin to arise.

theorizing
how program can be connected to a network.

reading
foa phylogenesis on multi-layered infrastructure
mike webb temple island on ridiculous drawings
neil denari gyroscopic horizons on placelessness v. place without limit

thesis semester, week two.

2011-01-21T16:51:25-05:00

site drawing of the I-15 between las vegas and los angeles.

(lighter orange is landscape, blue is the paths of vehicles, and red-orange is the hand motion to turn on and off a turn signal)

thesis semester, week one.

2011-01-11T14:03:52-05:00

poster for the public presentations

all one hundred thesis students all made identically-sized books printed through lulu

thesis (book)

2010-12-02T22:54:02-05:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More thesis

(thesis seminar final result)

mapping + speed

2010-10-24T17:28:40-04:00

This is another little bit of my thesis project. The first part is here.

One mapping of the view out the car windshield along a vector.

known knowns
Projects designed for transient users require a method of representation that transcends static depictions of space, occupation, and circulation.

Representation is inherently subjective.

Activity and movement are inherently noisy and in representing it this noise is either lessened or amplified to achieve a certain effect.

thesis, blog. blog, thesis.

2010-10-10T18:58:55-04:00

In an attempt to document my thesis project over the course of the next seven months, I'll be posting my progress. First up is my thoughts on site in relation to infrastructural networks. The images are snippets from a series of maps that are used as locative visual media for the work.

known knowns
The site is elastic—has variable speed, users, and/or paths.
The site is conventionally defined by its endpoints.
The site is intertwined with multiple infrastructural networks.

territory las vegas, nevada to los angeles, california.
by car: 265 miles. 4 hours 23 minutes. (up to 6 hours 10 minutes in traffic)
This particular car trip is devoid of a continuous urban fabric to pass by; rather the view is of the relentlessly monotonous ground of the Mojave Desert—devoid of distinguishable geological, natural, and even cultural landmarks. A continuous nowhere, the road becomes the only object in the landscape. As such, the trip becomes the event. The anticipation of reaching the dest...

end of year one

2010-04-28T20:23:49-04:00

design computing/paramod/wednesday nights with frank gehry

The final review for my Digital Project seminar was a few weeks back (nicely offset from other classes). After spending the first portion of the class working through tutorials, the second half was devoted to individual projects that, for some students, correlated with their studio work. The work was documented weekly through blogs (see them all aggregated here and my blog here). The final products (from undergraduate students through PhD candidates) really took on the parametric nature of the software. The critics at the review raised questions about the role of scripting in design and how constraints/knowledge of a program, like Digital Project, informed our projects.

[final review]

[final review]

architectural theory+criticism/silent partners+short circuits/"let's unpack this..."
Part of our preparation for thesis next year, this class was focused on constructing polemics--first written and then visual. The culm...

I LOVE YOU BACK

2010-03-22T21:43:47-04:00

This week is the student show at TCAUP, so the crit spaces have been taken over by projects from last semester. The top few students from each studio get the chance to exhibit their studio work.

CMYK hallway before:

CMYK hallway during installation (my studio is on the right):

CMYK hallway after (from the other end):

A very brief selection of the work exhibited (from both undergrads and grad students)

Also, if any prospective students are visiting this weekend, let me know if you have any questions about the program, studios, robots, etc.

the prettiest dictionary

2010-03-11T23:24:30-05:00

Our task for theory this week was to create a visual polemic based on an assigned critical text. Earlier in the semester we worked in groups to analyze and present the text, but now we're on our own to develop a list of terms and a visual means of defining them.

My text, Nic Clear's AD issue Architectures of the Near Future, relies heavily on examples from science fiction to comment on conceptions of potential futures for the discipline. I chose rather common terms purposefully to able to draw from a wide variety of other texts.

It's a collage that unfolds to reveal more terms, definitions, and external references.

And a few others...

Katie Cressall's work on Flesh

Sarah Petri's work on Greg Lynn's Form

Spring Break Reading

2010-02-28T22:18:27-05:00

Atlas of Novel Tectonics for Design Computing (Digital Project)

Society of the Spectacle and Points+Lines for Studio

Cadillac Desert for American Space

Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies and Architectures of the Near Future for Theory

Cloudy with a Chance of Clouds: Mark Dorrian

2010-02-13T17:24:45-05:00

Lecture: Mark Dorrian "Clouds of Architecture"

An interesting take on the use of clouds in architecture, Mark Dorrian worked through several conceptions of them including buildings that take on cloud-like properties through transparency, projects like Diller Scofidio's "Blur" which create a cloud, and the use of air-conditioning in desert climates. The discussion turned to questions with larger implications, like what is the distinction between clouds and atmospheres? Dorrian answered that these projects are really clouds within clouds.
This invites the question of how relevant these types of projects are in the future. Is architecture increasingly about creating clouds? Or is the built environment already just a conglomeration of clouds creating specific internal atmospheres? Is a cloud defined by its "transcendental weightlessness" (Dorrian's term) as an object or how it is inhabited?

[Diller Scofidio's Blur from 2002]