Alyona Nagornaia B.Arch Thesis

“Site Seeing” by Carolyn Butterworth and Sam Vardy Butterworth and Vardy in their writing “Site Seeing” explore the role of the site survey for architects. They emphasize a “participatory user” and a “creative” approach. Butterworth and Vardy walk us through the artistic works where the reconsidered approach to the site was utilized and critique the standardized site analysis that architecture follows. They discuss how the non-standard surveying practices such as integrating communal knowledge and involvement, could uncover unexpected design solutions. By being more playful and responsive with the site, an architect is conducting the analysis through experimentation rather than through the basic gathering of information. “Site Seeing” can relate to my thesis by the creative and experimental method that Vardy and Butterworth are offering. Perhaps starting with the unknown will eventually lead to more provocative and non-cliché solutions. “Tent City” by Chris Herring Herring in his article “Tent City” discusses the history of dynamic, or nomadic architecture in the US. By looking at the predetermined conditions and causes of tent structured housing, Herring argues that the socially inacceptable tent housing is another typology that needs to be reconsidered. The author provides examples of tent housing of the past, such as Hoovervilles, and the existing homeless camps. Herring explores the laws the political actions that led to the emergence of tent cities, and the factors that lead to their existence until now. Despite the policies that undoubtfully led to homelessness, he argues that the choice of tent housing is not always because of necessity but is rather related to the sense freedom and flexibility that tent houses allow. I find this statement critical to my thesis as it promotes the possibilities of new flexible typologies for architecture. Thinking of a home as of something impermanent offers different levels of temporality as a concept. Impermanent location, layout, or shape makes one reconsider the aspect of freedom and movement. 101

06_READING REFLECTION “From Learned Pigs to the Burning Man: Itinerant Amusement in America” by Nicholas Tobier Tobier in his article “From Learned Pigs to the Burning Man” discusses the concept of ephemerality for the amusement/live performance architecture in the US. Through the history of traveling circuses, fairs, carnivals, etc. Tobier argues that it was the sense of temporality, or termination, that made the mobile performances so valuable and unique. Later, the author states that it was the fascination of the small- town audience at the ability of a tent performance to bring in the city. However, Tobier is also looking closely at the idea that the intrigue about the mobile amusement venues was in the fact that the rural citizens did not have to get rid of those. From both points of view, the author promotes using the approach of mobility in architecture like that of the mobile performance venues. I find this reading relevant to my thesis as it uncovers the hidden values of mobile or dynamic architecture that could potentially make a shift towards such. “The Ugly Laws” by Susan M. Schweik Susan M. Schweik in herwriting “The Ugly Laws” argues on the cruelty and irresponsibility of political decisions regarding the laws. In particular she discusses the anihilation of a freedom to be in public for certain disabled groups of people. This in turn, leads to the inability of certain people to use a public space such as street, or park. Besides the abovementioned inequalities brought by these laws, the author also relates those decisions to homelessness. In many cities the current policies towards homeless people today are no less “ugly” as they used to be in the past. Following that Schweik argues that architecture plays an important role in preventing the descrimination of such kind. This reading potentially relates to my thesis topic as it discusses the inequalities in the basic rights of people to occupy a space and move freely. 102

“The Accidental Planners” by Nate Berg Nate Berg in his article “The Accidental Planners” argues on the importance of having a bottom-up influence on design. Through the examination of redevelopment project of Haus der Statistik in Berlin, Berg states that the activism of artists and residents is crucial in constructing the community that would solve at least some of the present problems. He argues that people should feel empowered in changing the place they inhabit as these are them who are aware of what is needed and not the city planners or even well-known architecture firms. I find this reading relevant to my thesis as it shows the potential of redevelopment of an existing building in a completely new way that would follow the current agenda of the place. In order to be responsive to the community and the time, and even adaptable to those items, flexible architecture can be interesting to explore. More than that, as the majority of the built environment in Russia is similar to that of the Haus der Statistik in Berlin, this project is a great precedent to be considered for future development of my idea. 103

06_READING REFLECTION “How to draw up a project” by Jose Luis Mateo Jose Luis Mateo, in his paper, “How to draw up a project”, argues that architectural project is best perceived as a process and is similar to a developing organism, or the “growing cells”. The author further discusses what parts the process is comprised of and how they relate to one another. Mateo also questions the relevance of a shape/mass and how it can entrap one’s ideas if worked with improperly. He defines the structure as “manipulation of the bringing together of the parts” and argues that by doing that a project establishes hierarchy. One thing that I particularly found interesting about Mateo’s paper is that he disagrees with the concept of separating such subjects as space and skin in a project. Looking back at the statement about a developing organism, those subjects are closely interlinked within itself and rather formed simultaneously. This thought is of specific importance for my thesis as I am directly working on addressing the blended condition of the boundaries architecture most often implies. “From Object to Field” by Stan Allen Stan Allen, in his essay “On Object to Field,” discusses the differences between figure-ground and field conditions. He argues that in the latter case, relationships between parts are the ones that create spaces, while in the first scenario it is a single object that contains spaces. Through the example of the Great Mosque in Cordoba, Allen explains the possibilities of timeless growth and addition with the field approach. He argues about the “sequence of events” as the primary form-making process that is accomplished through organizational patterns that gives logic to the form. The author compares the figure with the minimalist art movement and associates the field with postminimalism. Later on, he discusses how the matter should “calculate the possible configurations itself” similar to how the artists gave the material a form-finding role. 104

“Boredom Reading” by Rosanne “Biotechniques: Remarks on the intensity of Somerson conditioning ” by William Braham Rosanne Somerson, in herarticle “Boredom William Braham, in his work “Biotechniques”, discusses Reading” discusses the creative process of the relationship between conditioning, human health, architecture students and specifically the and their impact on the environment. He argues how influence of boredom on the development conditioning became an integral part of people’s of ideas. The author argues that it is of lives and how it was imposed on them. Braham uses great importance to overcome any kind the term “biotechniques” to equivalate biology and of distraction constantly produced by technology and argues that they both represent our gadgets to reach the “aha” moment. “living systems” as the latter evolves alike to biology, She then connects the influence of social yet depending on the factor of human health. Further, media and technology in general on the he discusses the changes that biotechniques brought amount of anxiety that it gives to people, to architecture. Talking about the building envelope, and points out that it could have been the Braham gives several examples of how conditioning time spent on “creating your own content changed the shape and typology of buildings. The and not observing the others.’” author, however, describes that the “living systems” that are created in order to improve people’s well- This reading could possibly relate to being result in human health issues because of my thesis in a context of fast-paced their disconnection from nature. Therefore, Braham interchangeability that we live in today proposes a different approach to “biotechniques” and observe daily. Perhaps, boredom that would change and evolve dependent on human is something that is unreachable and health yet autonomously taking on from nature. even luxurious in our time (detox, yoga, meditation trips) and can be addressed Braham’s work relates to my thesis as it focuses on architecturally. active, responsive and inherently flexible systems that can adapt to different conditions of human health. 105

06_READING REFLECTION “The century of biology: three views” by James Dwyer James Dwyer, in his paper, “The century of biology”, Not only do they increase the amount of accessible argues on the three views on the roles of humans public space but also, they establish access to and biology in the future. Further, he describes and “untouched” nature that provides educational and compares the opinions of Freeman Dyson and James healing opportunities. The author finalizes the article Lovelock, and proposes his own vision of the problem. with ideas on how collaborative practices need to be Despite Dwyer disagrees with Dyson’s idea to “treat involved to create the “hybrid landscapes” that would the natural world as material to be manipulated by in turn establish a balance between infrastructure, human beings”, he also refuses that Lovelock’s nature- nature, and society. centered treatment of Earth as a single organism is the turn humanity should take. The author, instead, argues This article relates to my thesis as it discusses the for the “bifurcated world” that we face. He discusses aspect of public space within the nature context. the influence of the increasing gap between poor and Talking about the importance of wetlands and rich and proposes a sustainable lifestyle as a possible water, the reading also creates possible thoughts solution. Dwyer then connects the inequity between on restructuring urban environments using the “living conditions” of people from different parts of the engineered landscape principle. world with the impact that humanity has on species extinction. With that, he identifies the main problem of the disbalance of the use of resources both between people and between humans and nature. This reading relates to my thesis topic in a way that materialistic approach that is highly influenced by capitalistic values is inflexible towards nature. Architecture as built environment has a great impact on creating the balance between human and Earth and more responsive and changing form of it could turn this impact towards and not against nature. “The Land Where Birds Are Grown” by Cynthia Hooper Cynthia Hooper, in her article “The Land Where Birds Are Grown, argues that engineered environments could help to protect the wildlife. The author discusses a few examples (The Tulare Basin, The San Joaquin Basin, The Sutter and Yolo Basins, The Colusa and Butte Basins) where infrastructure recreated such natural environments as wetlands. Further, she argues that engineered wetlands are not only beneficial for nature but are “ideologically inclusive public lands that are valued by rural and working-class communities”. 106

“Engineering Ecologies” by Peter “Do Landscapes Learn? Ecology’s “New Trummer Paradigm” and Design in Landscape Architecture” by Robert E. Cook Peter Trummer, in his writing, “Engineering Ecologies”, discusses the shift from Robert E. Cook, in his essay “Do Landscapes engineering to biology as the primary Learn,” argues on the “new paradigm” where nature driver for architecture. Through a few as a constantly changing organism and not the examples of work from artists, architects, technocratic vision of the past should influence and urban planners, he looks at the landscape design today. Further, he discusses how possibilities to use biological language unstable and unpredictable but at the same time within the “Emerging Landscape”, “Material adaptable an object of nature is by looking at the Organizations”, and “Forms of behavior”. pattern of development of plant species at Glacier He argues that “engineering ecologies” Bay, unexpected to scientists’ predictions. Looking would produce cultural values by placing at the work of ecologists, Cook contrasts them to the project within a specific context and designers as the latter always struggle to work with designing accordingly. Therefore, inspired unpredictable nature when planning ahead of the by the way nature works, new architectural aesthetic result. The author is concerned about ideas could create more opportunities the boring approach of ecologists and also about for society and influence their activities, the harmfulness of the aesthetically pleasing goal organization, and environment. of landscape designers. Therefore, Robert E. Cook suggests a symbiosis between those two constraints This article relates to my thesis as it and states that “a deeper scientific understanding of unfolds the possibilities that biologically- the natural world can also be a source of inspiration driven logic could provide within the urban <…>, both as motivation and as artistic idea.” context. The projected neighborhood models accomplished by students Cook’s essay relates to my thesis as it touches on a of Berlage Institute directed by Peter “new paradigm” of a biologically-inspired systematic Trummer, give thoughts on how urban approach to landscape design. I believe that “a fabric can be treated as a fluidly growing working landscape” that adapts similarly to how field that uses the cell growth logic. objects of nature transform in the real world could be 107

06_READING REFLECTION “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning” by Horst W. J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber Rittel and Webber, in their work “Dilemmas in a General observers of public opinion” - to a lack of expertise Theory of Planning”, discuss the debatable nature in one subject specifically, calling urban planning a of “wicked problems”. The authors define “wicked “Trivial Profession” and comparing a person of such problems” as societal problems with many inputs occupation to a “Master of none.” Campanella says and unlimited number of outputs, or in other words, that both too much and not enough focus is made problems without a single solution, or no solution on social and economic disciplines explaining that in at all. Rittel and Webber argue that compared to the end planners still act as mediators between the physical sciences where the hypothesis to a problem public and sociologists, economists, etc. Finally, the proposes a definite solution, social sciences have to author argues that planners today need to have a look for a problem initially and that the problem itself “more robust set of skills”, and be able to analyze the is the opposite of a solution. However, they discuss impacts of different design decisions in order to bring how a “wicked problem” has symptoms to it and one American cities back to life. has to apply various kinds of methodology to respond to the symptoms. Furthermore, the authors describe This reading relates to my thesis through the lens of the that because of the direct or indirect impact on the long-term implications of ill-thought urban planning society, planners need to think thoroughly about all decisions on the society and the city. Working with the possible consequences that a solution can have. the site that was devastated by planning and certain Therefore, they usually need to choose a lesser of two segregation policies, the effect could be mitigated if evils, and then redefine the problems and reinvent a more community-oriented creative design thinking solutions in with the changing patterns of the society. would be used. This reading might relate to my thesis topic as it implies a new way of thinking on a problem for the planners/ designers. Perhaps, a solution can be flexible and adaptable resulting in the rejection of the irreversible nature of a built object. “Jane Jacobs and The Death and Life of American Planning” by Thomas Campanella Thomas Campanella, in his article on the “Death and Life of American Planning”, discusses the problem of the disappearance of urban planning as a profession in the US. Campanella gives a brief history of planning in America and explains that the switch to a more bureaucratic view of it is an outcome of a cultural shift and rapid growth of automobiles in the 1960s. By this, the author relates a diminished role of the profession to the murder of an American city. He further elaborates that the lack of creativity is rooted in the absence of design classes and the role of “mere 108

“The Death and Life of Great “A Desert Land Ethic: Aesthetic Research” American Cities: The kind of by Alvaro Malo problem a city is” by Jane Jacobs Alvaro Malo, in his article “Desert Land Ethic: Aesthetic Jane Jacobs, in her work “The Kind of Research” explores such peculiarities of the Sonoran problem a city is” discusses three types of Desert environment in Arizona as air and light, water, problems Dr. Weaver identified: problems and landscape. The author specifies that naturally of simplicity, problems of disorganized the environment is not short of water but rather has complexity, and problems of organized the exact right amount for sustaining itself. Thus, he complexity. She gives an overview of critiques the emergence of a big city on this land as each category and compared to the it disrupted the well-balanced ecosystem as well first two, where statistics and probability as he argues that the people brought their “limitless can be used for solving the problems, consumption” attitude to the area that is so delicate Jacobs calls a city a problem of organized about its resources. Furthermore, Malo also discusses complexity where the abovementioned the specific lighting effect that is created by the desert sciences cannot be used to get a solution. sun. He believes that more appreciation should be Furthermore, the author believes that given to the “deep blue” color peculiar to the place. because of solving the city issues merely Finally, the author talks about looking at geography, by applying a “two-variable system to not from the point of “mapping and subdivision” but thinking and analyzing to big cities” or rather as a “resource to be developed” and a “source of plugging in data numbers as appropriate sensibility”. By this, Malo wants to use the relationship to disorganized complexity problems, to geographic forces as a design-driver. American cities became soulless, sprawled, and segregated. In contrast to This work relates to my thesis through the realm of that, Jacobs believes that an approach to relationships between a city as a product of human, a city issue as to an organized complexity and ecosystem as a product of nature. By treating problem would be the only feasible way. the first as an outcome of the natural forces, it might One reason for that is that it deals with be possible to mitigate drastic consequences in the an object individually depending on the future. context, and second – it treats a problem as a part of “differing and specific processes”. Thus, the author argues that an inductive bottom-up approach would work better than the conventional deductive method of planners. Finally, she criticizes the “unnaturalness” of nature in suburbs stating that it required more destruction and resources of actual ecosystems to create this landscape city typology. This article relates to my thesis topic as it sheds light on the way the city problems have been treated with. Thinking about a city as a self-organizing mechanism thar creates nature within itself is something that I am exploring as a part of my thesis. 109

06_READING REFLECTION “Swarm Tectonics” by Neil Leach Neil Leach, in his writing “Swarm Tectonics,” discusses based drawing, and the latter one fails a divergent the “self-organizing” systems where “complex thinking experiment because of the lack of ambiguity. patterns of behavior” are generated in nature. Further, In terms of computational modeling, Talbot provides he explores the concept of “swarm behavior” giving an example with the beams where in contrast to an example of a bird flock, where it is not an individual conventional hand/digital modeling one cannot that creates a certain behavioral pattern but rather a accidentally try various lengths of the beams if the collective comprised of identical behaviors of every script is initially created for the change of all elements. individual. The author compares this idea with the societal behavior in the city that despite having a This article relates to mythesis in terms ofmethodology high complexity, operates because of all the system I am using to come up with ideas. Through both digital of self-operating parts. Later on, Leach refers to and hand-modeling, as well as speculative design, the comparison between Romanesque “static- divergent thinking is of assistance to build up thesis model” architecture and a dynamic model of Gothic ideas. architecture. In the latter case, the biggest emphasis is made on the process, and also collectivism, similar to the nature-generated complex patterns of behavior. This article relates to my thesis as it talks about the self-organizing systems taking on from the nature- based behaviors. I believe that this can be one of the ways to create a sustainable and dynamic built environment that would be adapted by and for the constantly progressing society. “Divergent thinking in the construction of architectural models” by Kyle W.Talbott Talbot, in his article “Divergent Thinking in the construction of architectural models” describes the way divergent thinking is achieved or not in sketching, hand, or digital modeling, and computational design. He explores different theories and examples of the abovementioned means of creative thinking and how each influences design development. The author concludes that the most divergent thinking is achieved in hand and digital modeling, whereas sketching and computational design miss the “lucky accident” step. He explains that while sketching, many times designers try to create a draft for a vector- 110

“Towards the Performative in Architecture” by Branco Kolarevic Kolarevic, in his article “Towards the Performative in Architecture” explores the interactive side of architecture and how it can impact the social aspect of the city. He talks about performance both from aesthetic and environmental perspectives. Through the example of D-Tower by Lars Spuybroek Kolarevic focuses on the first value driven by the emotional aspect of the public. In terms of the environmental performance, Kolarevic divides it into architecture that focuses only on the sustainability aspect as with Foster’s City Hall in London and architecture that simulates environmental performance, e.g. Milwaukee Art Museum by Calatrava. Furthermore, the author gives reasons why performative architecture can be beneficial not only from environmental and societal standpoints but also economically, referring to the Bilbao Effect that stimulates the economy of the city through a meaningful architecture piece. This work relates to my thesis topic as talks about kinetic architecture and its impact on city overall. The economic standpoint can be a strong argument against a conventional thinking that dynamic architecture is not worth the cost. 111



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