FUTURE FITRo b i n D r i p p s

University of Virginia | Department of Architecture

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Publisher

Editors

Research Director

Credits

Paper Matters Press | Department of Architecture, University of Virginia

Iñaki Alday, Ryan Carbone

Robin Dripps

Copyright Texts | By authorCopyright Drawings | By authorCopyright Model Photos | Scott Smith / By authorCopyright Edition | Department of Architecture, University of Virginia

Graphic Design | Ryan CarboneLayout | Ryan Carbone, Luke EscobarProduction | Ryan Carbone

Printing | Department of Architecture, University of VirginiaISBN First Edition | March 2016

Architecture, as part of a research institution is a pedagogical program based in social responsibility, critical thinking and innovation. And as a design discipline, architectural innovation is achieved through design research in different ways. We “search” for information, and we “research” creating knowledge, most often on new scenarios through design speculation seriously informed. Rigorous collection of data, spatialized through mapping and diagraming, create the basis for design research. The critical step forward, assuming the risks of proposing future scenarios, is the unavoidable outcome of the creative work of the research teams.

The Research Studio system is the pedagogical innovation that merges instruction with faculty and students research. Two studios in the undergraduate program (3010 and 4010) and another two in the graduate program (7010 and 8010) are focused on profound architectural research aligned with research interests and expertise of the faculty members. The instructors commit for three to five years to sustain a research line, offering a series of Research Studios that take on a variety of relevant contemporary topics in a consistent multi-year research agenda. Students define their personal path through the program, selecting the research studios offered by Architecture faculty (and Landscape Architecture for the graduates), in their own preferred sequence for the fall of the last two years (3010 and 4010 or 7010 and 8010).

The diversity of topics reflects the intellectual diversity of the Department of Architecture of the University of Virginia. Research projects take on urgent international crises such as the changing condition of the Arctic, neglected cultural landscapes in depressed regions, or one of the most pressing urban ecologies challenge in the world (Delhi and its sacred and poisonous Yamuna River). Others work within local conditions, disciplinary inquiries or philosophical and spatial investigations.

Started in 2012-13, these first four years have been especially instrumental for the development of the youngest faculty, raising $529,000 in grants, five awards and two international symposiums. One of the research projects has become the first all-university grand challenge project. The Research Studio system of UVa has proven itself to be invaluable in defining what “design research” means, its potential to reach broader audiences and impact critical contemporary situations, and to redefine the research culture in the design schools.

Charlottesville, Virginia | March 2016

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FUTURE FIT

P R E FAC E

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Robin Dripps teaches within the studio design sequence, lectures on architectural theory, and directs a seminar on the relationship between design intent and detail manifestation. The ACSA honored her teaching with its Distinguished Professorship Award in 1992. Educated at Princeton (BA in architecture) and the University of Pennsylvania (M. Arch), she has been writing and lecturing on the structure of myth as a fundamental basis for architectural form. This work was published as The First House: Myth, Paradigm, and the Task of Architecture, where it received a Phi Beta Kappa book award in 1999. Professor Dripps recent research, writing, and teaching deals with the pragmatic and poetic opportunities of a shift in interest from the figure to the intellectual and physical grounds, fields, and other networks that give order to human action. Current research and teaching explores how parametric and generative software can extend how we work with complex field structures and how structures and surfaces can respond to external inputs. The design work of Professor Dripps, with Lucia Phinney, deals with the unobserved edge shared between architecture and landscape architecture, or between construction and ecology. Working with large scale earth works, water works, and agriculture, as well as scaffolding systems, operable shade cloth, and other lightweight materials, they have produced a body of work revealing different ways that the interior life of architecture can engage its political and natural context.

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ST U D I O T E A M

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Future Fit describes how existing urban conditions can be augmented and radically changed by strategies of addition, incision, weaving and careful subtraction to create thick, gradient spatial networks overlaid on and engaging existing construction that harvest and distribute resources while supporting new open and responsive patterns of movement, connectivity and place.

Much focus will be directed towards rethinking the idea and actuality of infrastructure. Is it possible to conceive of infrastructure as embedded and integral to all aspects and scales of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban structure? What is the possibility for a hybrid infrastructure of constructed and natural process? Can infrastructure be emergent, responsive, self-regulating, and inherently self-sustaining? If infrastructure becomes spatial, can this be an effective and poetic foundation for a new architecture?

Based on the premise that current urban form and attendant processes are incapable of sustaining themselves ecologically and socially, the work of this studio will engage in rigorous research and design, using a wide range of tools including advanced modes of computation in order to propose and test interventions at multiple scales and time frames. The work produced is expected to be exemplary as a model for rethinking urban form and process and how these engage nature.

DENSIFICATION

SPATIAL INFRASTRUCTURE

ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS

RELATIONAL COMPUTATION

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R E S E A R C H D R I V E RS

DENSITYOne of the consequences of global population growth is a shift towards urbanization. This influx of residents will put an enormous strain on the existing building stock of many cities, resulting in the “ground plane” becoming a precious commodity that must be used to support and activate vertical cores of inhabitation.

1. 700 ft/ 50-�oor 2. major corridor 3. minor corridor 4. structure 5. connection of two sides

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wind turbine

gallery

metro cable

mixed-use

park

sport�eld

cinema

church

school

work

department store

historic barn

commercial street

7.2

2.43.8 3.4 6.3

2.6

population 2009 (billion)

population 2050 (billion)

rural population (billion)

urban population (billion)

2009 2050

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/02/03/10-projections-for-the-global-population-in-2050/http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/urbanization/urban-rural.shtml

1. 700 ft/ 50-�oor 2. major corridor 3. minor corridor 4. structure 5. connection of two sides

Lu, C | FUTURE FIT 7

DRIVER 1 | DENSIFICATION

What specific mathematical actions might be employed to test various densifying schemes?

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Johanesen, K | FUTURE FIT

D R I V E R 1 | D E N S I F I C AT I O N

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max river viewsmax daylight

structural corespathways

ferry

high line

hudson river walkchelsea piers

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Johanesen, K | FUTURE FIT

D R I V E R 1 | D E N S I F I C AT I O N

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Stacked Urban Conditions

Urban Block Conditions

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Iizuka, T | FUTURE FIT

The urban context may be absorbed into a stacked condition. Key moments of a city can be archived

through precise, yet aggressive moves.

D R I V E R 1 | D E N S I F I C AT I O N

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Introduce Cross-Circulation through site HighLine as a “Pedestrian Highway” Primary Access from East; Manhattan Viewsheds of Hudson River and Manhattan Residential Spaces on Periphery Introduce “New Peripheries”

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3

2

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?Mohamed Ismail - M.ARCH Path 3ALAR 7010- Robin Dripps

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Introduce Cross-Circulation through site HighLine as a “Pedestrian Highway” Primary Access from East; Manhattan Viewsheds of Hudson River and Manhattan Residential Spaces on Periphery Introduce “New Peripheries”

1

3

2

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?Mohamed Ismail - M.ARCH Path 3ALAR 7010- Robin Dripps

Ismail, M | FUTURE FIT

D R I V E R 1 | D E N S I F I C AT I O N

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Blocking Large Program with consideration to relations

Insertion of cores in places of significant overlap

Interconnected floor planes through continuous Ramping

Destination

Routine

Offic

es

Hospital

Cafeteria

Library

Class

Dining

/Retail

Audit

orium

Multi-Purpose Hall

parkretail dining

auditorium

multi-purpose hall

office spaces

hospital

library

classes

cafeteria

destination routine

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Ismail, M | FUTURE FIT

D R I V E R 1 | D E N S I F I C AT I O N

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SPATIAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Demands on outdated infrastructure will intensify with growing populations. If one allows densification to occur, might new systems of infrastructure have an opportunity to flourish and adapt to new spatial conditions?

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Wu, Q | FUTURE FIT

DRIVER 2 | SPATIAL INFRASTRUCTURE

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0 50 100 200 400

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Teng, Y + Livingston, J | FUTURE FIT

Implementing water as a source for defining an urban zone is a first step towards building and nourishing a

culture of conservation.

What changes might be imagined if water infrastructure was the focal point of a city rather than

vehicular infrastructure?

D R I V E R 2 | S PAT I A L I N F RA ST R U CT U R E

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Yu, G + Teng, Y | FUTURE FIT

D R I V E R 2 | S PAT I A L I N F RA ST R U CT U R E

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Lewandowski, R | FUTURE FIT

One idea is to identify key sites in D.C. for a new massive data storage center that could also function as pedestrian and biking hubs. The excess heat generated by the servers would heat buildings in the city during the winter months.

D R I V E R 2 | S PAT I A L I N F RA ST R U CT U R E

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ADAPTIVE SYSTEMSWhile accounting for densifying populations and integrated infrastructure networks, cities above all must be designed with a high degree of adaptability. Rigid structures with simple purposes and short life spans will not suffice in future urban contexts. Focus on the core necessities of existence: the harvesting and distribution of water, food and energy. Implement strategies of disassembling steel structures, for instance, and scattering elements throughout the city to satisfy existing needs.

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Green, W | FUTURE FIT

DRIVER 3 | ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS

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COLLECTION

MANUFACTURE

DISTRIBUTION

STORAGE

Golisz, P | FUTURE FIT

D R I V E R 3 | A DA PT I V E S YST E M S

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While accounting for densifying populations and integrated infrastructure networks, cities above all must be designed with a high degree of adaptability. Rigid structures with simple purposes and short life spans will not suffice in future urban contexts. Focus on the core necessities of existence: the harvesting and distribution of water, food and energy. Implement strategies of disassembling steel structures, for instance, and scattering elements throughout the city to satisfy existing needs.Cearisin venisi as ipiciatas sima aut faccum nonectis dolorro remporp oreped quae pa quam et que magnis eaqui officia earibus ut quist eum hita aboreru mendis am hit vero cuptum qui

RELATIONAL COMPUTING

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Chen, B | FUTURE FIT

DRIVER 4 | RELATIONAL COMPUTATION

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Rew, M | FUTURE FIT

D R I V E R 4 | R E L AT I O N A L CO M P U TAT I O N

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Rew, M | FUTURE FIT

D R I V E R 4 | R E L AT I O N A L CO M P U TAT I O N

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University of Virginia | Department of Architecture

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