If you are determined to join this studio, please check back regularly. We will post "materials" to get you start.
These are two videos of one talk by Alan Berger who coined the term drosscape in his book Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America, 2006. An earlier essay by Lars Lerup has called to attention the rising reality of "Stim & Dross" in the metropolis (Assemblage, No. 25, Dec., 1994.).
Our aim is to first introduce the idea and observation presented by Alan Berger then make a conceptual shift to consider the Centre | Periphery dichotomy as inflicted by transit network in Sydney.
We will introduce a set of questions to get you start in next posting.
CUSP* Conference 2009
Part 1 0f 2
Part 2 of 2
* - CUSP is a conference about 'the design of everything,' bringing together thinkers, innovators, performers, skeptics, believers, visionaries and explorers from the arts, sciences, technology, business and design. Cusp Conference is for anyone who believes that the best way to predict the future is to design it.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Studio Synopsis
Graphic Design by Leo Wang, 2009.
“Basically, along with construction techniques, there’s always the construction of techniques, that collection of spatial and temporal mutations that is constantly reorganizing both the world of everyday experience and the esthetic representations of contemporary life. Constructed space, then, is more than simply the concrete and material substance of constructed structures, the permanence of elements and the architectonics of urbanistic details. It also exists as the sudden proliferation and the incessant multiplication of special effects which, along with the consciousness of time and of distances, affect the perception of the environment.”
Paul Virilio, Lost Dimension, p.21
“One may object that the megaform approach gives sufficient attention to the transport infrastructure or, conversely, that the physical form of the city is of little consequence in a telematic age. Alternatively, one may claim that urban culture in a classical sense can only be reconstituted typologically, or, conversely, that the traditional context of the historical city is no longer pertinent. Each of these polarized positions seem to be somewhat evasive to the extent that they fail to confront the responsibility of giving an identifiable shape or inflection to the late modern megalopolis.”
Kenneth Frampton, Megaform as Urban Landscape, p.39
The contemporary transport hub although originated from C-19’s conquest and mastery of space and time, is no longer just a node of circulatory system. From a mere “improvised shambles” in its 1830’s inauguration, railway station has been integrated into a web of motion, communication, organization, exchange and public works that is the lifeline of a modern city. This ‘infrastructure’ creates a living condition of experiencing endless spatial continuity and localized discontinuity simultaneously. The constant flux in-between the public and private realms accelerated by the network of transportation has, in the meantime, inflicted the continuous order of urban fabric and its social form. A kind of residual/empty spaces where there are no continuity, repetition or system, the so-called ‘drosscape’, become more dominating than the constructed urban fabric in the recent landscape of infrastructure.
For the third instalment of this studio, following Placing Motions (2009) and Staging the Public (2010), the Re-conception of a Train Station will focus on the architectural proposition for the spaces lying on the boundary between Centre | Periphery brought forth by a new train station and its transit networks. Students are encouraged to research on this edge condition and develop architectural + urban strategies that will either bridge, further isolate, or insert a new urban system into the vertiginous terrain accentuated by the juxtaposition of train station, railway, public domain + landmarks, existing urban fabric + circulatory system, and topography in Sydney.
2 exercises in 3 parts will be commenced after WK6. They will lead students to the final design proposal to be presented on the 3rd of June and submitted in bound booklet on the 10th of June.
Students start by working in groups for the Mapping Exercise and Typological Analysis. Sydney as a city of infrastructure and the train station as a building type will be the focus. A list of benchmark projects will be provided in WK6. Followed by Siting a Typology Exercise in WK9, three stations in metropolitan Sydney are introduced as the project sites with each presenting a different site condition + urban context: Milsons Point – Lavender Bay Station, Redfern Station and Artarmon Station. Each student is encouraged to define and identify the Centre | Periphery conditions + their architectural elements based on the research of one chosen or assigned station. The idea is to have all 3 stations designated so the studio as a whole can benefit from working on the same building type embedded in three different urban contexts along one rail line.
Other than in-scale site models, conceptual models and drawings representing the particular characteristics, mechanisms, organizations and qualities of a city infrastructure; writings, 3D animation and/or film are all encouraged. Students will be asked to employ architectural knowledge, skills and discipline to carry on the research of one particular station. Informed by the critical study of the benchmark projects and with the Sydney infrastructure in mind, each student will propose a re-conceptualized train station from the given 3 sites. At the end of the cycle, a programme for a train station design positioned by a set of architectural + site planning strategies for Centre | Periphery dichotomy will be the main focus of the final presentation.
In session II, all efforts are to be focused on the design of a re-conceptualized train station. This part of the studio will run as an atelier. Weekly attendance is crucial unless otherwise noted. Since this is a project-oriented studio, diverse approaches in design and the tools to evaluate the competing forces in larger scale + public buildings will lead the weekly discussion and informal pin-ups. Guest critic of particular focus will join the atelier as often as possible. A structured timetable and weekly task will be provided before the beginning of session II.
“One may object that the megaform approach gives sufficient attention to the transport infrastructure or, conversely, that the physical form of the city is of little consequence in a telematic age. Alternatively, one may claim that urban culture in a classical sense can only be reconstituted typologically, or, conversely, that the traditional context of the historical city is no longer pertinent. Each of these polarized positions seem to be somewhat evasive to the extent that they fail to confront the responsibility of giving an identifiable shape or inflection to the late modern megalopolis.”
Kenneth Frampton, Megaform as Urban Landscape, p.39
The contemporary transport hub although originated from C-19’s conquest and mastery of space and time, is no longer just a node of circulatory system. From a mere “improvised shambles” in its 1830’s inauguration, railway station has been integrated into a web of motion, communication, organization, exchange and public works that is the lifeline of a modern city. This ‘infrastructure’ creates a living condition of experiencing endless spatial continuity and localized discontinuity simultaneously. The constant flux in-between the public and private realms accelerated by the network of transportation has, in the meantime, inflicted the continuous order of urban fabric and its social form. A kind of residual/empty spaces where there are no continuity, repetition or system, the so-called ‘drosscape’, become more dominating than the constructed urban fabric in the recent landscape of infrastructure.
For the third instalment of this studio, following Placing Motions (2009) and Staging the Public (2010), the Re-conception of a Train Station will focus on the architectural proposition for the spaces lying on the boundary between Centre | Periphery brought forth by a new train station and its transit networks. Students are encouraged to research on this edge condition and develop architectural + urban strategies that will either bridge, further isolate, or insert a new urban system into the vertiginous terrain accentuated by the juxtaposition of train station, railway, public domain + landmarks, existing urban fabric + circulatory system, and topography in Sydney.
2 exercises in 3 parts will be commenced after WK6. They will lead students to the final design proposal to be presented on the 3rd of June and submitted in bound booklet on the 10th of June.
Students start by working in groups for the Mapping Exercise and Typological Analysis. Sydney as a city of infrastructure and the train station as a building type will be the focus. A list of benchmark projects will be provided in WK6. Followed by Siting a Typology Exercise in WK9, three stations in metropolitan Sydney are introduced as the project sites with each presenting a different site condition + urban context: Milsons Point – Lavender Bay Station, Redfern Station and Artarmon Station. Each student is encouraged to define and identify the Centre | Periphery conditions + their architectural elements based on the research of one chosen or assigned station. The idea is to have all 3 stations designated so the studio as a whole can benefit from working on the same building type embedded in three different urban contexts along one rail line.
Other than in-scale site models, conceptual models and drawings representing the particular characteristics, mechanisms, organizations and qualities of a city infrastructure; writings, 3D animation and/or film are all encouraged. Students will be asked to employ architectural knowledge, skills and discipline to carry on the research of one particular station. Informed by the critical study of the benchmark projects and with the Sydney infrastructure in mind, each student will propose a re-conceptualized train station from the given 3 sites. At the end of the cycle, a programme for a train station design positioned by a set of architectural + site planning strategies for Centre | Periphery dichotomy will be the main focus of the final presentation.
In session II, all efforts are to be focused on the design of a re-conceptualized train station. This part of the studio will run as an atelier. Weekly attendance is crucial unless otherwise noted. Since this is a project-oriented studio, diverse approaches in design and the tools to evaluate the competing forces in larger scale + public buildings will lead the weekly discussion and informal pin-ups. Guest critic of particular focus will join the atelier as often as possible. A structured timetable and weekly task will be provided before the beginning of session II.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Week 1
Ramin + Shaowen welcome you all. Please bring in your materials for the assigned presentation as stipulated by Professor Ruan.
We will start at 2 PM sharp. Since this is our first studio, please do come in earlier to set up the screen + laptop. It is not compulsive, however, it is highly plausible if you can bring in one set of conceptual diagrams + models for each of the projects you are analyzing on top of the powerpoint slides.
See you all in the studio.
We will start at 2 PM sharp. Since this is our first studio, please do come in earlier to set up the screen + laptop. It is not compulsive, however, it is highly plausible if you can bring in one set of conceptual diagrams + models for each of the projects you are analyzing on top of the powerpoint slides.
See you all in the studio.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Studio Masters: Ramin Jahromi + Shaowen Wang
Short Biography
Ramin Jahromi is a practicing architect of 19+ years and an Associate at COX. His work at COX includes major Olympic projects, public and commercial buildings and stadia in Australia and overseas. For the past 7 years he has worked closely from concept design to delivery on major rail and infrastructure projects in Australia, these include the Chatswood Transport Interchange, Wynyard Station Plan, Redfern Station Plan, Regional Rail Link in Melbourne and GASP Stations in Victoria. For the past year and half he was the Architectural Section Leader for Sydney Metro Network Stages 1 and 2, where he was working in a project office with a wide multidisciplinary team. His work and passion in infrastructure architecture is directly linked to the studio.
Shaowen Wang is an active tutor at UNSW in Design Studio, History & Theory courses since 2007. Before arriving in Australia, she was undertaking research courses at Columbia University, and the City University of New York. She had worked on medium and small scales projects: synagogues, private schools, mixed use tall buildings, and houses in New York. Her main interest is in architectural history, theory and criticism with the focus on cosmopolitanism since the mid of nineteenth century. Currently, she is guest editing a special issue of World Architecture on train stations. The attempts to reject, assimilate, continue and sometime transform architecture as a discipline by the practitioners in our highly organized urbanized and seemingly destabilized world remain the central locus of her concerns.
Ramin and Shaowen have been teaching together for 4 years now, and this is their third installment of the Re-conception of a Train Station after 2009's Placing Motions and 2010’s Staging the Public. Between the 2 instructors, students are encouraged to expand their research and critical inquiries into the field of both the theory and practice of architecture + urbanism where both tutors contest, negotiate and incorporate their own philosophy, design theory and architectural strategy.
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