presentation draft - initial script

may be too light on the program+site analysis... perhaps the images make up for that? really, time is a big factor, so the presentation needs to just enough to engage the jury with the intent of the thesis, the nature of the process, and the substance to its resolution/conclusion.

here it is for now:



PATTERN PROCESS thesis presentation narrative 1.0 10.07.2008 jonathan healey

intro
This thesis explores different notions of "pattern" through the testing of representational techniques for the purpose of revealing non-architectonic relationships of structure in the process of architectural design.



prologue
STRUCTURE
Question emerged from previous studio work: What other structural systems are relevant to architecture beyond the architectonic? How can the relationships among these structures determine design?

MORPHOLOGY
Presented as a quasi-methodology precedent, I briefly surveyed "morphological design" as a study of the relationship among structures. My observations of the figures and configurations of skeletal systems, taxonomies, and topologies suggested characteristics of "pattern" in a conventional (2D) understanding.


research
PATTERN
office da quote - pattern qualities through thickness, space deep, surface conditions; also pattern analysis through media methodology

To begin an inquiry into pattern as a multi-dimensional entity, I studied the methodology of "patterning" in fashion design, where form and volume have a critical relationship to the flat-pattern template in the process of fabricating and tailoring. See initial concept study. Important observations from the exercise were the development of an emergent graphic for analysis, a simple latent hierarchical system internal to the complex form, and the effecting of dominant relationships (e.g. cuts) to affected relationships (e.g. secondary creases, lines of rigidity). Also observed was the variety of seam potentials, as categorized by their performative condition of abutting, overlapping, etc. (see clothing seams).
conceptual analysis - models+diagrams


In order to further explore "pattern" within the discipline of architecture, the study required the context of subject (or human activity), object (or space-form), and location (see: Heidegger, Building Dwelling Thinking). Thus, I proposed an engagement of a case site with a programmatic vehicle as follows:

SITE
The site selected is the former Collins Company factory and its sponsor town of Collinsville, Connecticut. The site is approached as a found condition, loaded with extant stories and latent histories of man's engagement with the power of moving water for nearly three-hundred years. Here, edged-tools such as axes, machetes, and plows were produced from 1826 to 1966. The products of the factory plowed Nebraska into the Union, colonized the banana groves of Latin America, and armed John Brown's revolution at Harper's Ferry. The factory's techniques in manufacturing and power-harnessing innovated industrial processes throughout the world. Today, the town and factory complex exist as a scenographic and iconic place memorializing the decaying industrial culture of New England and the Industrial era.

LIVING NEED
(howard mansfield quote) - remaking as a method of preservation, continuity, and living
As the site currently struggles in a static state of economy and image, an agenda of preservation necessitates the reintroduction of a dynamic state to create a model of "living history". As such the programmatic vehicle proposes engaging the factory complex with a progressive model of industry that repurposes the grounds of the factory, the existing facilities, and the factory's relationship with its town.

PROGRAM
The Connecticut Fuel Cell Center is a research and development laboratory operated jointly by the University of Connecticut and private industries. The fuel cell itself is potentially a revolutionary product in its use of renewable resources to produce clean energy. A fuel cell produces electricity by chemically isolating electrons from hydrogen or biowaste fuel inputs, emitting only water (H2O) and organic waste. True to their name, fuel cells indeed function cellularly as their application can range from powering a cell phone, to a refrigerator or scooter, to a neighborhood or campus, to South Korea. They are portable, stackable, and networkable.

The Connecticut Fuel Cell Center program is built on the network-based model of Social Production. This method relies upon the accessibility and connectivity of many individuals diversely vested in the focused event. Similar to the structure of the internet, the Social Production model establishes a a consistent protocol and language among its participants, and exploits the scalability and granularity of the product to facilitate testing and invention. It relies on the casual participation of the general public in the acts of testing and inventing.

Critical to the production is the establishment of network hubs or pools where individuals can gather, collect, and exchange. The Connecticut Fuel Cell Center itself is composed of four Pools. These facilities reflect the research and design process at hand. They are:

-the Info Pool (for academic and presentation facilities)
-the Prototype Pool (for manufacturing hardware and deploying models for test)
-the Feedback Pool (for participants to download test data and receive service support)
-the Assessment Pool (for data analysis and synthesis for future models)

The priorities of the Center are:

-innovations in product, manufacturing technique, and application
-public engagement with industrial innovation


INITIAL STUDIES:
formal site analysis - sketches+models
program analysis - diagrams+models
content site analysis - narrative/photography+mapping/drawing

The program analysis produced graphic diagrams of the "social production" process, as well as prototypical models for hypothetical spatial requirements. These prototypes are byproducts of a method of delaminating dichotomous spatial performance types: servant/served, static/dynamic, individual/collective, and hidden/revealed. The relationships were studied first as separate two-dimensional diagrams, then recombined as a three-dimensional model, which then produced a series of configurations of spatial types which coincided with the specific needs of the unique program Pools. Later, these concept prototypes found form and scale, according to the unit requirements of the program, and tested on site.

The content and formal site analysis concluded in an intervention strategy that focused on the derelict portion of the factory complex east of the rail overpass. The only two existing means of vehicular access occur in this area. The lower canal remains active, flowing through two operational sluiceways, one involving a functional wheelhouse. Upon the recommendations of historical assessments, the Granite Building and Lower Forge were targeted for material remaking and programmatic repurposing. Vintage maps of the factory described the various factory processes and their locations over the decades. Scars of these events are often extant as ruins or projected as voids in the landscape.

As evidenced by the analysis, this research yielded a broad palette of "patterns" identified by a variety of representational methods:
activity, material, tectonics, land, processes, making, movement, flowage, volume, form, surface, template, time, seasons, historic, fictional, future, prototypical, ideal, existing, new...



design
PROPOSAL
Introduce new patterns to existing patterns;
develop critical "seams" where patterns join: how are these seams expressed?
develop the architectural resolution of these moments across the site; (master plan... propose broad expression of the integrated patterns / the re-made site through "master plan")


SEAMS
what & where are the dominant relationships?
what are the spatial/formal implications at these moments?
how do the forms/configuration/scenes operate didactically to reinforce the living history and ideals of the site? when do stories & ideals merge / conflict / coexist? when & how is the experience of the place between these patterns?


ARCHITECTURAL CONCLUSION
resolved by a collection of montage scenographic compositions, each studying a critical seam;
broad expression of integrated patterns supported by: program master plan, sectional diagrams, map of water processes (aka "how is the water different?"), double drawer diagram of "Pool" mediating town/access/factory/water connections, potential animation linking new seams with images of historic, temporal, etc..................
*scenographic = of or belonging to scenography, scene-painting, or drawing in perspective


CONCEPTUAL CONCLUSIONS
{Each of these "patterns" I recognize as structural systems, in that they are self-contained topologies of values or elements. Both the topological dynamic of each set as well as the qualitative implications of each set may be evaluated relative to other, different structural systems so as to inform and influence the figuration and configuration of a greater whole... More on "how", etc as I continue to resolve architectural design]

(glancing backwards)

...just dug this up. it's essentially current, minus the lexicon.
-jth


ABSTRACT
original_03.24.2008

This thesis examines the performative aspects of connection by the contamination of boundaries. Through analytical translations of energy use patterns into imageable models, innovations of activity, space, and form can emerge to sponsor an architectural proposal. The exploration of connection and boundaries extends to the analysis of layers of the existing site. Combined, these studies reveal opportunities for a new place that supports the agenda of the new industrial discoveries.

As applied to a selected test case, a new public industrial research facility is proposed within the site of the former Collins Axe Company along the Farmington River in Collinsville, Connecticut. The Connecticut Global Fuel Cell Center Research and Prototype Laboratory combines industrial production, scientific research, and experiential education, and serve as an identifiable, didactic locus of the emergent collective action. As a public-private venture of the University of Connecticut, its obligation is to scientific advancement and to the education of the public of critical developments in energy resources that affect their sovereignty, economy, and future.

meeting03

thesis core_
PATTERN as it provides image to activity & image to form

pattern image/activity = inhabitation, program, experiential
pattern image/form = built culture, present choices of site

tested pattern [ideal]: "social production" [vs previous "fordist production model]
tested pattern [real]: existing collins axe factory campus [vs spatial/formal requirements of new facility]

architectural proposal: develop a seam that binds ideal patterns and real patterns




PATTERN DIAGRAM - EXPLORING THE IN-BETWEEN OF BINARY RELATIONS

or "exploring the seam of binary relations"
finding tertiary/ambiguous conditions in binary relations through layered & three-dimensional graphic analysis --> but what is the value of between binaries? predicated by the impossibility of living binaries (in conjunction with a western philosophical tendency to categorize them) (see Heidegger), binary conditions may represent "ideals", as in non-realities, while the real is a struggle within the dichotomy... an architectural intervention (an instrument for living) will be forced to mediate between ideal (in this case, social production model of renewable energy) and real (gravity & horizon, site parameters, program requirements, material properties, etc)
*see SEAMS exploration at the end of this document




IDEAL
program framework:
POOLS [info, hardware, feedback, assessment] + [recycle function + tangents of baths, brewery]

microcosm to thesis process of investigating pattern through play (emergent rules; discovery by hypothesis without "a priori" goal)

pools are embodiments of new energy flows [see: energy flows, water flows, activity flows]
map new flows - PROGRAMMATIC SEAMS... or seam among many edges/ends/lines?

POOL MODELS - place "on site" before further translation (digitally build the study models; scale and fit on site... what of the site/program taxonomy of conditions/needs?)



REAL
SITE DOCUMENTATION - MAJOR OMISSION

this site is used because it has stuff on it; what role does "stuff" have?
how is "stuff" an element of the new pattern? (see: old/new site activity pattern, but does not account for existing structures, artifacts, elements, material culture)
does "stuff" have a prevailing pattern of its own (see: repetition not essential, but rather structural precepts, i.e. rules for action)

relationship between existing building, proposed architecture, "kept" architecture
re: digital model - ghosty/milky mass/frames of existing structures that are inhabited, repurposed (same axe twiced)

charge: engage extant stuff
note- "extant" = protruding, visible, present

challenge of documentation; suggestions-
catalog "stuff" on site. current: "material traces", "buildings growth", "campus growth", "earth patterns"
re: "earth patterns" - see section studies describing embedded actions (example, carve, scrape, fill, retain, build)



SEAM
HOW DOES THE ARCHITECTURE GROW/FLOW?
consideration of time: through phasing?

WHAT IS THE FINAL IMAGERY OF THIS PROJECT?
animations? maps? pattern diagrams? section dwgs + models?



DESIGN DEVELOPMENT - SEAMS
seams = an in-between state of patterns, resolving patterns, bonding patterns;

[note: process has been caught as an "in-between" or "seam" of drawing & building (both the existing and proposed)

the example of flat-patterning in fashion provides a tangible example through which to explore this idea. while the role of the seam is to bind patterns, the seam itself can impact the discrete pattern itself. that is, the nature of the edge relationships (abutting, overlapping, face-to-face, etc) can cause new structural conditions within a pattern. a seam condition influences the choice of fabric (from straight and rigid to loose and flexible) or beget pattern edits (insertion of darts, hems, gathering, etc).

the design development of this thesis will focus on a selection of site "seams" by which to engage the existing and proposed patterns of site (material culture), activity, and form

so...

focus on the site conditions -
1 data collection of material site elements
2 model existing granite building [what of the metal sheds?... begin research via Assessment document]
3 study section drawings for latent "operations"; study for historical operations (overlay historical sections)


FEDERICA GOFFI - time material

from ACSA NEWS

Sustenance in Architecture: Making as
Re-making
Sheryl Boyle, Carleton U.
Federica Goffi, Carleton U.
In the contemporary western world there is a
disjunction between ‘architecture’ and ‘conservation’.
By redefining the meaning of sustainability
as being derived from sustenance, we
can reconsider our approach to this disjunction.
The continuty of ideas embodied in exisitng
building stock provides nourishment for architecture.
Rather than setting a dialectic oposition
of ‘new’ and ‘old’, architecture should be
read as a palimpsest. This session aims to provoke
speakers to reflect on the ‘sustenance’ of
sustainability as a way of breaking the barrier
between new and old, arguing that all past is
present and that all making is a remaking.

obama

"[Fulfilling America's promise] will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength". Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient... Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility - that's the essence of America's promise."


Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
"The American Promise"
Democratic National Convention
August 28, 2008
Denver, Colorado

[pattern] britain from above

The following are part of a collection from the BBC where GPS information of human activity is mapped. Visit the site for video.

internet activity


landline telephone activity (note: mobile communications not included...)


aircraft traffic



While this study is presented within the framework of a globally connected Britain, the graphic analysis reveals still the linear language of connecting point A to point B. The real innovation of our age is not so much the network (see Domenico Fontana & Pope Sixtus V), but the speed of which we now process between connections at our nodes (see Kevin Lynch).

Perhaps the most critical aspect seen here is the sheer number of "traffic" hubs. This observation raises several discussions relative to scale of human activity (decide for yourself what that could mean). But it also suggests that the innovation of the 20th century production model towards a 21st century prototype requires a networked flow of production and information exchange. Rather than a single direct input/output logic (e.g. combustion engines, labor + raw materials = product), a more efficient (in terms of energy, innovation, market relevance, etc) system depends on many overlapping simultaneous input/output logics, ultimately collected & edited in a series (or layers) of hubs and nodes.

In this case, the current priorities depend on qualities access, circulation, and functional overlap.

[program] production pattern

From "The Wealth of Networks" by Yochai Benkler:

The most advanced economies in the world today have made two parallel shifts that, paradoxically, make possible a significant attenuation of the limitations that market-based production places on the pursuit of the political values central to liberal societies. The first move, in the making for more than a century, is to an economy centered on information (financial services, accounting, software, science) and cultural (films, music) production, and the manipulation of symbols (from making sneakers to branding them and manufacturing the cultural significance of the Swoosh). The second is the move to a communications environment built on cheap processors with high computation capabilities, interconnected in a pervasive network--the phenomenon we associate with the Internet. It is this second shift that allows for an increasing role for nonmarket production in the information and cultural production sector, organized in a radically more decentralized pattern than was true of this sector in the twentieth century. The first shift means that these new patterns of production--nonmarket and radically decentralized--will emerge, if permitted, at the core, rather than the periphery of the most advanced economies. It promises to enable social production and exchange to play a much larger role, alongside property- and marketbased production, than they ever have in modern democracies.

ideating

state of the thesis of the thesis:

The future [now] requires a revolutionary way to repurpose what Was by its very own reason for being. In this study, "pattern" becomes a hinge to explore the historic and the possible, and to contextualize the value of the contemporary.



At the moment, the challenge has been to accept implied value-judgements inherent to arranging the research on the site, the program, and the methodological agenda. I think I'm avoiding it, which is really just avoiding making decisions, which is really refusing to make a design draft, which is not productive. Ok. That was cathartic. Back to work.