Sang Lee, M.Arch. RA, Assistant Professor, TU Delft
ir. Marc Koehler, Lecturer, TU Delft
Sampling and Improvisation
Part 1: Sampling and Reconstitution (Week 1)
In the context of our "remediated” culture, how do we consider the making and the influence of the existing environment? How do we approach the reading of what is occurring in a place? In the first part of the exercise, we will employ the technique of sampling. Here the sampling first refers the undifferentiated collection of “stuff” relative to the time and the place.
The group will engage in the “alternative” (aka unofficial) reading of El Carmel relative to the thematic pairs introduced in the opening presentation. The group will conduct an investigative exercise in which it will collect and piece together what is perceived to be the evidence of certain activities and conditions inherent in El Carmel. This exercise is not about the so-called real but about what appears to be, or simply what is there.
The sampling may contain several types of found objects (similar to collecting souvenirs): material/physical things, images, imprints, sounds/noises, stories, encounters, etc. Here the idea of sampling is closely connected to the time, the paths and the places we will encounter as outsiders. All samples should be registered in a form of mapping in such a way that it provides a personal reading of the place in an impressionistic manner. The five thematic pairs should provide the direction of the sampling process in five layers. Prior to the sampling, a simple navigation plan should be made, for instance by defining a clear path, the landmarks and/or references.
Next, the group will engage in a differentiation process akin to a kind of forensic/archaeological speculation. This process involves piecing together what has been found and the determination of certain taxonomy. This collection of found objects in five layers from the area should be arranged and integrated into three-dimensional re-construction of events and relations. In this process, the group will be engaged in the construction of the perceived conditions that will suggest particular modes of navigation and reading of the place. Both the mapping and the re-constituted object should provide a specific structure of organizing the information. It is crucial to differentiate and reflect the modes of codification, namely: iconic, verbal, tectonic, presentational and temporal. The objective in the first week of the exercises is to produce an analogical space in which improvised relations and objects (design proposals) can be inserted in the part two of the exercise.
As a conclusion of the first part of the exercise, the 3-D construction should be discussed and interpreted in terms of geno- and pheno-conditions. Here the geno-conditions refer to those that occur in a natural course of development or something that is already built into the system (i.e. the genetic, the body, the Dionysian). On the other hand the pheno-conditions refer to something that is intentionally idealized and made (i.e. the cultivated, the signification, the Apollonian). [Also seehere.]
The part one will conclude with three products on Wed. 15 Jul.:
a) The map showing the navigation and discovery process in five thematic layers (i.e. one member=one layer)
b) The differentiation and registration of the found objects in relation to the five thematic layers
c) The analogical model in an integrated 3-D re-constitution (a collaborative group work)
Part 2: Improvisation and Composition (Week 2)
Using the construction and the map from the part one, in this part the group will engage in the production-by-improvisation.
Here the improvisation can be summarized as follows:
1. Finding and identifying contingent conditions (between the lines) and “filling in” such contingencies
2. Adding redundant elements responding to (and potentially subverting) the existing condition and its flows
3. Speculating on the assumptions of a certain ideal and acting on it
4. Privileging performed conditions rather than (and in contrast to) the composed ones
5. Producing temporal elements rather than the assumptions of the eternal
6. Eventually creating the objects of performance that may be able resist and to escape the caprices of the dominant order
Despite the flash headlines, the central question here is how we would read and respond to our built environment that has increasingly become contingent and radicalized. It has been said that our contemporary society, in all of its cultural, political and ideological dimensions, functions based on the notion of contingency. Here the term contingency can be understood as a condition in which the criteria of a decision making process involve neither true nor false and therefore logically indeterminate. At the same time the notion of contingency may also be composed of a set of assumptions (what-if’s) that may be neither right nor wrong in a given place and time. It has been also said that in this process we also experience the radicalization of existing historical ideology and its worldview. In the radicalization process, we see the creation of excessive disparity (i.e. the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the large and the small, etc.) and the intensified fortification of the given ideology (i.e. capitalism vs. socialism, conservatives vs. liberals, Christians vs. Muslims, legal vs. illegal, natives vs. the immigrants, etc.)
If we were to adopt such a contingent position for the sake of an architectural experiment during the workshop, what are such conditions in El Carmel and how to we perform the act of architecture? Can we clearly ascertain that what we plan and construct as architects will make a difference? To that end, what are our choices: opening up to the contingencies of the daily mundane or radicalizing the desire for certainties?
Part 3: Conclusion
At the end of the workshop period, the group is expected to produce “improvised” insertions and constructs that will respond to and potentially express the contingent conditions found in El Carmel. Central to this process is the improvisation of analogical objects that are born from the reading of the current composition of the area.
The presentation format will be discussed and decided in course of the workshop.
ir. Marc Koehler, Lecturer, TU Delft
Sampling and Improvisation
Part 1: Sampling and Reconstitution (Week 1)
In the context of our "remediated” culture, how do we consider the making and the influence of the existing environment? How do we approach the reading of what is occurring in a place? In the first part of the exercise, we will employ the technique of sampling. Here the sampling first refers the undifferentiated collection of “stuff” relative to the time and the place.
The group will engage in the “alternative” (aka unofficial) reading of El Carmel relative to the thematic pairs introduced in the opening presentation. The group will conduct an investigative exercise in which it will collect and piece together what is perceived to be the evidence of certain activities and conditions inherent in El Carmel. This exercise is not about the so-called real but about what appears to be, or simply what is there.
The sampling may contain several types of found objects (similar to collecting souvenirs): material/physical things, images, imprints, sounds/noises, stories, encounters, etc. Here the idea of sampling is closely connected to the time, the paths and the places we will encounter as outsiders. All samples should be registered in a form of mapping in such a way that it provides a personal reading of the place in an impressionistic manner. The five thematic pairs should provide the direction of the sampling process in five layers. Prior to the sampling, a simple navigation plan should be made, for instance by defining a clear path, the landmarks and/or references.
Next, the group will engage in a differentiation process akin to a kind of forensic/archaeological speculation. This process involves piecing together what has been found and the determination of certain taxonomy. This collection of found objects in five layers from the area should be arranged and integrated into three-dimensional re-construction of events and relations. In this process, the group will be engaged in the construction of the perceived conditions that will suggest particular modes of navigation and reading of the place. Both the mapping and the re-constituted object should provide a specific structure of organizing the information. It is crucial to differentiate and reflect the modes of codification, namely: iconic, verbal, tectonic, presentational and temporal. The objective in the first week of the exercises is to produce an analogical space in which improvised relations and objects (design proposals) can be inserted in the part two of the exercise.
As a conclusion of the first part of the exercise, the 3-D construction should be discussed and interpreted in terms of geno- and pheno-conditions. Here the geno-conditions refer to those that occur in a natural course of development or something that is already built into the system (i.e. the genetic, the body, the Dionysian). On the other hand the pheno-conditions refer to something that is intentionally idealized and made (i.e. the cultivated, the signification, the Apollonian). [Also see
The part one will conclude with three products on Wed. 15 Jul.:
a) The map showing the navigation and discovery process in five thematic layers (i.e. one member=one layer)
b) The differentiation and registration of the found objects in relation to the five thematic layers
c) The analogical model in an integrated 3-D re-constitution (a collaborative group work)
Part 2: Improvisation and Composition (Week 2)
Using the construction and the map from the part one, in this part the group will engage in the production-by-improvisation.
Here the improvisation can be summarized as follows:
1. Finding and identifying contingent conditions (between the lines) and “filling in” such contingencies
2. Adding redundant elements responding to (and potentially subverting) the existing condition and its flows
3. Speculating on the assumptions of a certain ideal and acting on it
4. Privileging performed conditions rather than (and in contrast to) the composed ones
5. Producing temporal elements rather than the assumptions of the eternal
6. Eventually creating the objects of performance that may be able resist and to escape the caprices of the dominant order
Despite the flash headlines, the central question here is how we would read and respond to our built environment that has increasingly become contingent and radicalized. It has been said that our contemporary society, in all of its cultural, political and ideological dimensions, functions based on the notion of contingency. Here the term contingency can be understood as a condition in which the criteria of a decision making process involve neither true nor false and therefore logically indeterminate. At the same time the notion of contingency may also be composed of a set of assumptions (what-if’s) that may be neither right nor wrong in a given place and time. It has been also said that in this process we also experience the radicalization of existing historical ideology and its worldview. In the radicalization process, we see the creation of excessive disparity (i.e. the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the large and the small, etc.) and the intensified fortification of the given ideology (i.e. capitalism vs. socialism, conservatives vs. liberals, Christians vs. Muslims, legal vs. illegal, natives vs. the immigrants, etc.)
If we were to adopt such a contingent position for the sake of an architectural experiment during the workshop, what are such conditions in El Carmel and how to we perform the act of architecture? Can we clearly ascertain that what we plan and construct as architects will make a difference? To that end, what are our choices: opening up to the contingencies of the daily mundane or radicalizing the desire for certainties?
Part 3: Conclusion
At the end of the workshop period, the group is expected to produce “improvised” insertions and constructs that will respond to and potentially express the contingent conditions found in El Carmel. Central to this process is the improvisation of analogical objects that are born from the reading of the current composition of the area.
The presentation format will be discussed and decided in course of the workshop.
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