First Lecture: Response

The following ideas are my immediate responses to the material presented in the first lecture on Friday 27th July, and are hence now influenced by the constraints of Projects 1 and 2.

One: The video by Tom Scott shown in the lecture aroused the possibility of a User being 'Friends' with their house or place of dwelling. This dwelling would interact with its User (kind of like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but not evil). The User would say:

HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey

EAT-dwelling changes into a kitchen and dining area

SLEEP-bed and storage spaces

WORK-study and library

CLEAN-shower, toilet and washing machine and dryer

RELAX-pool, lawn etc (User's choice to program)

ENTERTAIN-accommodates mutliple people for a short space of time

This Entity would alternate between any arrangement, allowing for mutliple configurations and in turn the personalisation of each dwelling. Would be ideal for Urban or future Suburban scenarios.

Two: Aged Care. If the city is highly developed and densely populated and in turn polluted, then the elderly would not benefit from being located in this setting. Therefore a Suburban context would be more suitable. Good connections to the city are vital as mobility would be an issue, which also means that all amenities need to be close/in the one facility. An example of an all encompassing facility can be found in the world's largest shopping mall located in Dubai

References for the above images are as follows:



HAL- http://htmlgiant.com/film/live-tweeting-2001-a-space-odyssey/attachment/hal-2001/

Dubai- http://megaconsult.bg/enblog/202/

Fantasy Architecture: Ideology and Response

"Inventing backdrops for spectacle, as well as designing spectacular buildings, has long been a preoccupation of architects." (Bingham et. al. 2004) The idea then that all the world's a stage, therefore encourages and allows Architecture as a means of not only facilitating but also simply being in itself, Theatre.

The following Ideas have been influenced my this underlying theme, as well as the works portrayed in Fantasy Architecture 1500-2036.

One: combining social functions in a single complex in an attempt to revive, promote and enhance social life and interaction. The creation of sanctuaries. Examples include: Zaha Hadid's Peak Club (Left) and Cedric Price's Fun Palace (Right)



   

Two: Mobile architecture- "the liberation of built form through technology." Examples include: Archigram's Plug-In City (Left) and Freedom Ship International Inc's Freedom Ship (Right)

Three: Vertical visions. Are they merely to make a statement? Or if executed well, have the potential to be a solution to increasing population density. Examples include: Constant's View of Babylon (Left) and William Cameron Menzies' Things to Come (Right)

Four: Construction - Destruction - Reconstruction. "Global population explosion, mass migration and environmental degradation mean that space to build in the REAL world is shrinking." I think Lego offers the best example of this idea.

Five: The possible to need to inhabit places of remoteness, desolation and hostility due to population growth. Examples include: Ora-Ito's 10,000 Hz Legend (for Air's album art)

Six: Large scale human settlements in space. This idea is a dear favourite of mine, as I am an avid reader of science fiction novels and rate Rendevous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke and subsequent sequels as my favourite book/s so far. Examples include: NASA's Toroidal Colonies (Left) and Arthur C. Clarke's Rama (Right)

The above six ideas came about before the lecture on Friday 27th July. My next post shall therefore outline two new ones that came to me as a result of the lecture and my ponderings on the train on my way home from uni. Below are the references of the above images (in order of appearance) and all quotes are from Fantasy Architecture 1500-2036 (Bingham et. al. 2004).

Zaha Hadid- http://outsidetheivorytower.blogspot.com.au/2006_09_01_archive.html

Cedric Price-http://archmoustafa.blogspot.com.au/

Archigram-http://waiarchitecture.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/what-about-last-urbanisms.html

Freedom Ship-http://www.gizmag.com/go/2089/

Babylon-http://bldgblog.blogspot.com.au/2007/07/wed-all-be-living-in-dams.html

Wells-http://www.photoree.com/photos/permalink/2500785-40143737@N02

Air-http://dkchan.dk/main.php?cat=mu&thr=74&pid=152

Nasa-http://londonist.com/2011/06/preview-sense-and-the-city-london-transport-museum.php/toroidal-colonies-1975-credit-nasa-ames-research-center

Rama-http://theinfiniterevolution.blogspot.com.au/2010/12/happy-new-year-but.html

Architecture Fiction

Before the lecture on Friday 27th July, I had borrowed out some books from the library earlier in the week that I was going to use as inspiration to get me back into the groove of Design thinking. These books included: Young Architects_4: Material Process, Will Alsop: The Noise, Absolutely Public: Art and Architecture and Fantasy Architecture 1500-2036. Art, science-fiction, future design, current student work and one of my favourite architects, all of these books were chosen to feed my different passions relating to Design. It was only after I had read the 810 Blackboard site on Thursday when the unit theme was outlined, that I saw just how appropriate some of my choices had been.

Fantasy Architecture 1500-2036 will be an invaluable resource for my early brainstorming for Project One and the following posts aim to convey all that I have gleaned from this book, coupled with my own extrapolations and wild fantasies. The other three books will be touched on in later posts, where I will show the ideas that were of greatest interest to me.