aa intermediate unit 3 extended brief 2010/11 · exquisite clock, joao wilbert ˜e weather project,...

Inter 3 explores the crossbreed of industrial landscape and architecture in relation to cultural patterns and social behaviour. Infrastructures often occupy remote locations, the' edge' or the undergrounds of a city, creating an almost invisible complex interconnected network of services and facilities which our contemporary urban life style is based and dependent on. Superstructures like cultural manifestations, social rituals, power structures and institutions rely on infrastructures in order to exist and progress. Although the two are carefully thought through and strategically planned against each other, they are constructed on seemingly contrary remote places. �e extensive consumerism of modern societies allied to our social alienation stresses not only existing infrastructures, demanding constant growing and improvement, but also allows us to accept the concept of segregation between supply and demand. �e increase of vehicles, disposable goods, electronic components etc consequently call for new technologies, faster roads, invisible waste dumps and sewage systems, power plants, gigantic hydroelectric dams...

Speci�cally in 2010/11, Inter3 will examine energy by investigating natural resources and alternative energy technologies, focusing on collaborative strategies and analysing the protocols of extraction, processing and utilisation and the landscapes these occupy.

On the surface energy powers our lives, giving us light, warmth and transport. Life needs energy to maintain itself, using it from the world around it - from oil, uranium, wind or �owing water. Beneath the surface energy potential is the power to transmit, movement, exchange between the tiny worlds of microscopic nature and the rede�nition of what to use it for. �e exchange of this nouveau-energy and synthetic materials with the environment is what our contemporary rituals will shape. Can the production of this unnatural �ora blossom the sacredness of the post-everything world?

Culturally interactive landscapes and narrative-driven infrastruc¬tures will be our point of departure. We will investigate protocols of energy infrastructure through unscienti�c intuitive narrative designs. Burn, burned, burnt. Our paranoia surrounding mainstream power sources and their alternative substitutes leads us to the interest in using architecture as a vehicle to implement new challenging strategies, going beyond the nauseating catalogue of energy clichés like solar panels, hydroelectric power, wind farms, ‘planting a tree’ etc.

“�e way to get wonderfully lifelike behaviour is not to try to make a really complex creature, but to make a wonderfully rich environment for a simple creature.”

---David Ackley

Burning Wastelands

Coal Mine Garzweiler, Germany

Burning Gas Crater, Darvaza, Turkmenistan

Edward Burtynsky, Alberta Oil Sands

AA Intermediate Unit 3 Extended Brief 2010/11Unit Masters: Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos

Watching the heavy metal corners of society on the one hand, mining is still a fundamental technique and major way of energy sources extraction but the urban consumer is far detached from these hard core infrastructures – don’t tell, don’t ask policy. Looking at the 'soft core' side on the other hand, a heartbeat or pulse might be useless in regard to conservation strategies, but it is vital and su�cient enough to power our bodies.

However infrastructures can also articulate energy as empowerment of exchange, transfer, conversion, symbiosis. Infrastructures as a dynamic medium could facilitate an interchange between resources and people, machine and biology. Here, large bleak interventions will crumble under blossoming landscapes of resistance and beauty. In our provocative world of intense design, biology and machines will be orchestrated in relation to behaviour patterns, always updating, adapting, responding to our ever-active environment.

We will explore platforming technology by looking at non-standard research typologies: home made laboratories, guerrilla compounds, partly derivative, partly culturally snapshot. We will critically review our contemporary suns, question our dynamic landscapes in order to experience and understand the scene and processes involved in energy extraction, manufacturing, �nal use/consumption and renewal. From power plants to nuclear reactors, we will investigate industrial manufactured landscapes in relation to urban demands. From the heart rate of a human being to electric organs in animals, we will also research how nature is able to power itself, communicate and interact with the world around it.

Counter to the myth of technological precision - the myth of immaculate extraction facilities and hermetically sealed sterile laboratories - we welcome uncertainty, provocation and speculation. From symbiotic buildings to mechanical interactive terrains, we will constantly navigate between design and make, test and build, observe, adapt, re-make, dream and act.

Our research will focus on dynamic adaptive natures based on energy exchange and cultural patterns. We will study concepts of participation and DIY attitude in relation to techo-infrastructures to inspire new design opportunities and the creation of individual ecologies. Instead of looking for puzzling new energy equations and solutions, we will develop collaborative environments. Tales of kilowatt deluxe e�ciencies alongside megawatts degradation will be used to shape spaces and generate unconventional institutions/alternative scenarios for 'Silicon Valley'. Acting as agent provocateurs we will blur the logic of corporations embedded in advanced technologies and crossbreed these with narratives and myths while investigating manufactured landscapes.

Life Support, Revital Cohen

Exquisite Clock, Joao Wilbert

�e Weather Project, Olafur Eliasson


Inspired by �ctional places of creation such as Frankenstein's or scientist's chambers like Tesla's or the space sciences laboratories by NASA, the typology of the laboratory as a high-tech temple, a place of creative madness, creation and great discoveries, will be challenged in relation to its highly-developed and numerously tested creatures.

In our maverick energy safari we will collect stories, interact with sub-cultures and invent and encounter eccentric characters. In the process, we will contrast the realities of high-developed industrial areas with energy poverty scenarios. As a result, student theses will o�er small proposals as choices to large infrastructural corporations, generating links, networks and partnerships to create our alternative suns and their new gods. Ultimately, mythologies of the urban will be woven with the rituals of the ancient to create provocative and hopeful environments.

Inter 3 is open to individual talents/skills and multiple forms of presentation/design output, however, three aspects shall unify the rather diverse research and output:

1- �e production of an interdisciplinary interactive architecture able to transit between e�ective and poetic modes (documented through process and identi�ed on the �nal product), architectural spaces and infrastructural �elds;2- A personal and inquisitive view of architecture, one engaged with broader societal issues;3- Fictional and literary inspirations informing process and/or programme (from video games, graphic novels to classic �ction).

A series of workshops, talks and individual tutorials will clarify how digital drawings and physical models de�ne the project’s ambience and ambition. Elegant drawings, processual diagrams, series of prototypes and dense crafted models will inform the design. Students are encouraged to research precedents not only in architecture but also in art, science, games and literature. Bearing in mind an intense research led attitude of Inter 3, students will be asked to constantly challenge the role of research and references within their portfolio (enough of Google pictures!).

Electromagnetic Experiment, Nikola Tesla

‘Hot Lab’ Master-Slave Manipulators, Nuclear Reactor Testing

Apple’s Antenna Test Lab


In 'Pattern Recognition' by William Gibson a ‘coolhunter’ travels around the world unveiling new trends in cosmopolitan scenarios in order to boost global corporate creativity. �e �rst step will be an investigation of trends, existing networks/present realities of extraction and bespoke adaptive environments based on new empowering cycles (and its creatures). We will discuss land scenarios based on emerging cultural patterns, from new sacred auras to rebellious and extreme eco-conservationists trenches.

Reading and extensive research is essential at this phase of the year. Amongst others we will be inspired by bio-punk �ction novel 'Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi and its world where calories become currency and seed banks are the wealthiest resources centres. �is will be the beginning of a long research based architecture of energy and narrative - two things in constant move.

Harvest, Burn, Born creatures! To harvest is also to breed and nurture, to include in a cycle, feed back, record, renew and to reuse. Students will create their own bank of harvesting experiments and tests. In this stage, they will result in failures, accidental discoveries and surprises/unexpected observations; they will proof useless or helpful and reveal unthought-of potentials, but above all they will lead you to the next step.

Confronting realities with personal visions, peculiar characters will merge with interactive bio-mechanic landscapes. From generippers, calorie men, protein vampires, DIY nuclear enthusiasts to natural phenomena in animals and plants students will generate their own custom-made ecology.

At the end of this phase selected �ndings and creations will be presented in a 1.5mins animation using digital as well as analogue tools, expressing each student's interests and initial ideas for the next phase.

Autumn Term [12 weeks: 27|09 - 17|12|2010]

During the �rst term we will elaborate personal protocols of energy engagement through adaptive time based experiments and devices. Fiction and science �ction will be used to create narratives in relation to emerging (sub-counter) cultural patterns. We will develop ideas through analogue and digital experimentation expanding the unit's general concept into personal individual tales of small bio-augmented-landscapes. British and Indian shores will serve as our research grounds.

"Jaidee passes a woman selling bananas. He can't resist hopping o� his bike to buy one. It's a new varietal from the Ministry's rapid prototyping unit."

---Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi

Phase 01 - Harvesting Myths, Burn, Born Beings

�e White Drought,Chain Reaction Prototype,Conner Callahan


Taking our imagination into the world of sub-counter based cultural environments students will intensify and strengthen their ideas collected in the �rst phase. Manifestation!

�is phase of the year will focus on design through making. In the remaining weeks of the �rst term we will develop energy harvesting techniques and produce site speci�c devices and prototyped creatures.Marilena Skavara, a London based architect, interactive designer and tutor of the 'Adaptive Architecture & Computation' post-graduation course at the Bartlett, will introduce us to the world of interactive architecture and arduinos. Digital as well as analogue methods will be explored as operative tools to create new symbiotic energy environments.

How can individual crafted environments operate as alchemy grounds and alternatives for lab corporate compounds? Can collective participation, collaborative e�ciency and interactive engagement utilise rituals and habits to shape the way how innovation occurs and impacts our lifestyles and habitats?

A richly illustrated partly hand-crafted dossier/booklet will document and compile your �rst term's doings organised in such a way (not necessarily chronological) that it brings forward an argument based on your interest, research and conclusions. It also should identify potentials for future investigations and give a glimpse into your �nal project. �is book will form the base for term02 and 03.

At this time of the year third year students will also start developing their Technical Studies (TS) based on their studies and discussions within the unit. A case study/investigation of project speci�cs will assist to amplify student’s interests and transform their ideas into larger outline proposals. �e project’s agenda should dictate and evolve hand in hand with your TS.

"�e ability to make many small mistakes in a hurry is a vital accomplishment for any society that intends to be sustainable."

---Shaping �ings, Bruce Sterling

Phase 02 - DIY Natures, Anti-Lab Hacking and Tinkered Environments

Conner Callahan

Tom Bernard, Jonas Braoude and Hugo Reichmann

Hannes Karlsson and Fajer Wennerberg

Elina Safarova


Unit Trip and other Visits

Visiting high- and low-tech facilities, deep uranium and solar mines, vast oil and coal �elds, concrete dammed rivers and toxic algae lagoons, we will extract information from science to slum surviving techniques.

UK . We will start the year with a visit to London’s Science Museum. From the story of steam and nuclear power to natural fuels and biotechnology students will be asked to �lter all information gathering �rst interests.

During the �rst term we aim to visit varies mines and extraction sites in UK searching for clues in the present realities of wastelands. In order to gain insight into the high-tech scene we intend to visit some lab facilities in UK, one of them being one of the most important technology centres in Europe today, 'Silicon Fen' in Cambridge. Silicon Fen is home to a large cluster of high-tech businesses, especially those related to software, electronics, and biotechnology.

India . Later this term we will travel to India's answer to Silicon Valley, the emerging world of Bangalore. Being ranked fourth best “global hub of technological innovation” Bangalore is internationally renowned as software development hotspot and hub for information technology, electronics, bioinformatics and biotechnology. We will experience Bangalore's hi-tech climate by visiting 'new temples of modern India' characterised by an enormous base of skilled manpower - engineering colleges, IT companies, corporations and software institutions.

Our second destination will be Mumbai, India's most populous city, one example for India’s rapid economic growth with a relentlessly increasing demand for energy. From vast burning �elds of red �uorescent coal and oil �elds in Mumbai’s outskirts to DIY urbanism in Asia's second largest slum, Dharavi, we will experience India’s domestic strategies for dealing with the energy dilemma and observe collaborative e�ciency and spontaneous exchange.

We will scan the earth by day and transit at night. Between ghosts and shells we will be the vultures. �is voyage will cover the wonderful, the wondrous and the awkward, the soft clichés and the brutal truth about facts and �ction in regard to the environment in which architecture sprawls and facilitates the public and the private.

Each student will document the trip in a diary format. It should include photographs, personal observation sketches, notes, collected objects.

Jharia Coal Field

Dharavi, Mumbai

Dhobi Ghat, Dharavi, Mumbai


Winter Term [12 weeks: 10|01 - 01|04|2011]

Spring Term [8 weeks: 26|04 - 17|06|2011]

�e �nal project will be a mature and complex application of the knowledge and strategies gained during the �rst term. Students will revisit their �ndings, observations and strange ideas to create some wonderfully rich architectural interventions. Incandescent membranes, steam gardens, tornado institutions, botanic banks, never dying uranium dwellings will be alongside natural hot spring pools and ceremonial baths.

Students should not only develop a new and exciting spatial urban narrative but also relate it to personal interests, experiences and opinions.

As in the �rst term we will call in specialist consultants and invite various critiques in order to assist especially third year students in the technical development of the project.

"We are still �guring out what it is, but I’ll call it the marriage of the born the made"

---Kevin Kelly

Taebeom Kim

Charlotte Moe

Soonil Kim

Alma Wang

Basmah Kaki


Unit Key Points

�rough the interaction of talks, individual tutorials, workshops, etc. we aim to stimulate architectural debates based on constant production – with ideas being shaped into elegant drawings and models.

Tutorials . Tutorials are held twice weekly on an individual basis throughout the year.

Talks . �e unit will promote a series of talks held by us as well as specialist guests in order to explore a variety of spatial narratives and literary inspirations.

Specialist Consultants . A part of the unit’s budget is retained to invite specialist consultants to give talks/lectures, form part of juries and/or hold individual tutorials.

Juries . Unit internal pin ups and critics are constantly held throughout the year in order to practice and further your presentation skills – graphically, physically and verbally. Juries with high pro�le guests will take place at least at the end of each term.

Portfolios . �e process of a project is of high importance to us. Portfolios are expected to contain every stage of development of your project of each term rather than the �nal product only. �ey should include all sorts of representation material - drawings, sketches, photographs, collages, renderings, etc. From the �rst term on you will be encouraged to develop your own unique portfolio language speci�cally tailored to your project. Our aim is to increase individual diversity and reduce homogeneous architectural output; therefore we will also emphasize a research into drawing and other techniques based on the studied object.

Models . 3d computer models are essential to present your project, but we also emphasize physical models and installations of all kinds, scales and stages as they will help you to explore your project from a di�erent angle.


Bibliography

--- Windup Girl -Paolo Bacigalupi--- Pattern Recognition -William Gibson--- Visionary Architecture –Neil Spiller--- �e BLDG BLOG Book -Geo� Manaugh--- Ambiguous Spaces –NaJa & deOstos--- Concept Design 2 -Neville Page, Scott Robertson--- Proto Architecture: Analogue and Digital Hybrids –Bob Sheil--- Design through Making –Bob Sheil --- Shaping �ings -Bruce Sterling--- Interactive Architecture -Michael Fox and Miles Kemp--- Bioreboot, �e Architecture of R&Sie(n) -Giovanni Corbellini--- Out of Control -Chapter: Industrial Ecology -Kevin Kelly--- Hylozoic Ground -Philip Beesley--- Pamphlet Architecture 12: Building; Machines -Robert McCarter--- Bold Visions, �e digital painting Bible -Gary Tonge--- Soleri: Architecture as Human Ecology -Antonietta Iolanda Lima--- Architecture and Beauty -Yael Reisner--- Drawing – the motive force of architecture -Peter Cook--- Augmented Landscapes -Smout Allen--- War and Architecture –Lebbeus Woods--- How green is your garden? –CJ Lim--- Sins and other spatial relatives –CJ Lim

Webography

--- www.nextnature.net--- www.newscientist.com--- www.treehugger.com--- www.pruned.blogspot.com

--- more to come


aa intermediate unit 3 extended brief 2010/11 · exquisite clock, joao wilbert ˜e weather project,...

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