ADSAIR

ART IN PROGRESS

DHANIKA KUMAHERI

We live in a very exciting time of change.

As a young architecture student developing design thinking and design skills , this period in time offers

us fantastic “adventures”, opportunities, dreams, visions and ideals. Essentially, the revolution of

computational and digital tools has lured us down the rabbit hole, to the magnificent Wonderland, full

of untapped resources and unexplored possibilities. It is also the cocaine of the self-proclained avant-

garde architecture, so far pleasing only a significantly small portion of the international stage, but causing an ongoing addiction for research and progress for its cause. It is the purpose of this semester’s design

studio to focus on, and contribute to, this ongoing architectural discourse, and to do so not only through

meaningless form-finding, but more importantly in developing mastery in designing with these new

tools where creaitivity is not “instant” but traceable and runs through the whole project.

What this studio will not be, essentially, is

“...an onanistic self indulgence in a cozy graphic envi-ronment. Endless repetition and variation on elabo-rate geometrical schemata with no apparent social environmental and technical purpose whatsoever.”

-John Frazer, in M.Burry’s ‘Scripting Cultures’-

DOwNThE RAbbIT hOlE

DOwNThE RAbbIT hOlE

DOwNThE RAbbIT hOlE

ADvANcING ThE ARchITEcTuRAl DIScOuRSE

wk/

wk/

wk/

wk/

wk/

wk/

wk/

wk/

wk/

wk/

wk/

wk/01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

1 0

1 1

1 2

CONTENTSARchITEcTuRE DESIGN STuDIO

WK/

01

design for a viewing screen, 2010. Dhanika Kumaheri

ARCHITECTURE AS EMOTION

Here, Architecture is about emotions. It is about a set of overflowing dialogue of feel-ings from the object to the subject.

Architecture becomes a visual cue for an emo-tional reaction. More importantly, architecture became a medium for emotional communica-tion. There is a silent, frozen quality in this image that speaks out loud. It is that indeci-pherable element, much like that of a piece of music, that cannot be accurately described with words, but can be instantly sensed, with emotion.

And that is one of the many wonderful enchantments of architecture. One can be tranced with awe, lost in fear, trembling with happiness as one walks into a significant build-ing of one’s choice. Architecture has that po-tential to overwhelm, drown, evoke, inspire.

Through the careful orchestration of elements, light, space, form and composition, architects control, select and dictate certain emotions

ADvANcING

ARchITEcTuRAl

DIScOuRSE

wk01

ADvANcING

ARchITEcTuRAl

DIScOuRSE

wk01

1

2 3

4 5

6 7

1. Victor Enrich, “Medusa”, Original Print Size:

124 x 120 cm ( 49” x 47” ) Edition of 1+1

2. Victor Enrich, “VEF Remonts”, Original Print

Size: 120 x 120 cm ( 47” x 47” ) Edition

of 1+1

3. Victor Enrich, “Deportation”, Original Print

Size: 120 x 129 cm ( 45” x 51” ) Edition

of 1+1

4. Victor Enrich, “Tango 1”, Original Print Size:

134 x 120 cm ( 53” x 47” ) Edition of 1+1

5. Victor Enrich, “Tango 2”, Original Print Size:

134 x 120 cm ( 53” x 47” ) Edition of 1+1

6. Victor Enrich, “Tango 3”, Original Print Size:

134 x 120 cm ( 53” x 47” ) Edition of 1+1

7. Victor Enrich, “Tango 4”, Original Print Size:

134 x 120 cm ( 53” x 47” ) Edition of 1+1

ARCHITECTURE AS IMAGINATION

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere” - Albert Einstein

A significant proportion of archietctural dis-course throughout its history relies on teh power of architecturew as an imagery. A piece of powerful driver, a primer, to evoke, produce and ignite new possibilities- new discourses. This type of archietctural discourse has been avail-able long before digital tools became popular. Using digital toools to create these images, however, provide images that are increasingly scary in terms of their resemblance to real life conditions. This very quality allows ecperimen-tation in digital architecture to have a very solid impact on the way we think and react to new architectural ideas as well as the old architec-tural entities that we are already familiar with.It forces us to question things like : “Is it real?”, “Is it buildable?”. But more importantly, as a discourse, the question we should be asking is “ Does it matter if it’s real or not?”

These images are so important because of their raw power to instigate something that could potentially advance archietctural discourse to a whole new level, without being cincerned about it’s applicability, or its pragamtism. It is pure expression. In it seltf, it coudl also be a pure question. One contribution from one individual, to later be taken, analyzed, and pushed forward by others. This particular field of discourse could only be assessed as a chain of progression, as a chain of influence, not against how unrealistic or unpragmatic it may seem.

What’s interesting about Victor Enrich’s work is that it attempts to make something that surreal-real. In fact, he did so in a rather whimsical way. It is that quality that I think all desgners should have. Project your soul into your work. Your take about life. Your view. Victor Enrich has succeeded in provoking the masses, and getting them thinking about directions of potential gold