Lec 2 MIT 4.125 Architecture Studio Building in Landscape

PROFESSOR: They have now been working on the first project, the quarry project, for two weeks. And during that time, there was a pin up. Then we asked them to do a first design at a very small scale, which you see here, of one project, of this outside classroom shelter out of the rain and the sun. You see the scale, the person to the total project. There was a pin up to criticize that project. And then we asked them to blow it up in scale to quarter scale, that you see here, and more detail and revise, at the same time, based on the criticism that they received. And so in addition to the model that you see, we also asked them to make drawings of sections and plans and details of their project. This is a typical one. Now at this point we had a review, where I asked people from offices around Boston, as well as other faculty, to come and criticize them. So this was their very first review of exposing their work to other people. And what you're about to see is a typical review of what I call a one on one or small quiet discussions between one or two faculty and one student. It's my belief that it's more educational if you can not have the old style jury system, which was a number of faculty listening to the student presenting and then criticizing, which I don't think was too educational. This way is more quiet, but I think it's more-- its fact that it's more informal makes it more educational. I think students get more out of it. So you're about to see a typical review of what I call one on ones, although you may find two faculty, or two people with one student. STUDENT: It's basically my passion looks like [INTERPOSING VOICES] STUDENT: The entrance where you come from the trail is sort of about here, so that we-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] STUDENT: And so I didn't really feel like I was capable of duplicating anything that could compete with that. So I sort of took the approach of, well, I'm going to do something that's obviously not imitating but still drawing on some of the principles-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] STUDENT: Because I didn't really want to feel like I was competing, like you're bringing in people to this beautiful place and then [INAUDIBLE]. No matter how interesting what you're saying is, somebody is going to find something more interesting to look at somewhere else. So I kept that [INAUDIBLE]. [INTERPOSING VOICES] STUDENT: I really like the feeling of being on a dock, like walking out onto a dock. Being very conscious that I'm elevated above the water. I can feel the water if need be. I wasn't sure if I wanted to make all these concrete blocks or [INAUDIBLE] coming up in these shapes. [INAUDIBLE] and I really wanted to have as much-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] PROFESSOR: Yeah, I think you always experience that from far away looking at the project where it has a very definite right now, a very definite vertical element to it. For instance, we're saying-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] PROFESSOR: When I looked at this project, before I had any idea of scale or where I saw your roof or anything and I looked away I remember thinking, where those roofs or were those platforms? And I think something very interesting about this [INAUDIBLE]. You never quite know if something is a step or it's a seat or it's a ledge or it's going to give you shade. And I think that's something that can be very exciting about [INAUDIBLE] to me anyway looking at it, it already almost has that. It could be very exciting about this that could also help you to touch [INAUDIBLE] in some places if you didn't just have one access because otherwise, it wouldn't work. [INTERPOSING VOICES] PROFESSOR: You could almost set up a system where-- depending on how you explore this, you could use something as a roof or as a platform or as something that goes on top of you depending on where you [INAUDIBLE]. And you still could have some [INAUDIBLE] things around, but I think that-- and then also, this integration with this a little bit stops [INAUDIBLE]. [INTERPOSING VOICES] PROFESSOR: I think it does make it more of a stand along thing. So I would be very excited to see more of this sort of thing happening. [INAUDIBLE] You sort of said it already because you were talking about the architectural components in the landscape, so use them as architectural components. Use something as base. STUDENT: I had a platform that sort of sat right here that would have acted as a roof for this [INAUDIBLE] right here. [INTERPOSING VOICES] STUDENT: But I had initially wanted that duality of you can be on top and you can be underneath at the same time. [INTERPOSING VOICES] PROFESSOR: You land at almost the water level. You sit down so that you're adjacent to the water. [INTERPOSING VOICES] STUDENT: Basically, my idea of [INAUDIBLE] that had a sense of privacy. I guess the program [INAUDIBLE] wanted a place for the class to be in as well as places for individuals to alone, and I wanted to go to places that have [INAUDIBLE].. I didn't want to make something that was like enclosed, but I wanted a sense of enclosure for [INAUDIBLE] and shelter purposes. I guess my whole project is pretty much based on [INAUDIBLE]. This summer, I was in China for two and a half months, and we went to a lot of bamboo forests. And those had a sense of serenity inside of them, and so that's what [INAUDIBLE]. This is our initial collage of ideas. One of the other things I noticed about the [INAUDIBLE] was a sense of how there wasn't really a human scale to it. [INAUDIBLE] Yeah. In the sense that I had some preliminary time to judge the distances and dimensions [INAUDIBLE].. I wanted to have something that was bold and outstanding like the quarry itself, but it was natural in form without necessarily imitating [INAUDIBLE].. My initial idea is in the eight inch models. I knew I wanted to have that. Another idea was I wanted to incorporate into my design was the idea of the curve and a simple gesture can serve the dual purpose of providing that space of interaction-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] STUDENT: And then, all along here, along the outer rings, I brought a lot of different places for people to have [INAUDIBLE]. [INTERPOSING VOICES] STUDENT: I also wanted to include [INAUDIBLE] to allow light to come in. So I didn't have it solid purposely so that the inside [INAUDIBLE] to the bottom of this. [INTERPOSING VOICES] PROFESSOR 2: I think you're right in noting that this wouldn't necessarily be an all weather place [INAUDIBLE] in the interstitial spaces, you might not want to be there, so you have to [INAUDIBLE]. And I would say, well, if it's just frosted glass, well, what is it doing? It'll diffuse the light a little bit, but it's not the [INAUDIBLE] really hot days such as we had earlier this summer. [INTERPOSING VOICES] PROFESSOR 2: Would allow you to take the idea that you brought back from China, but maybe make it a little more in keeping with what the program would be here. Start from the inspiration of what you saw there, but it is [INAUDIBLE]. It's a different sort of place than the quarry and for a different experience. It's different. You tend to walk through or something. You're not going to have a class here or in the studio or some things that are requirements for shelters. STUDENT 2: It's very similar, actually, to some of these plants growing up out of the rock. You have these columns seemingly coming out of the cracks in the rock. And like Angela said, I think breaking it up a bit would be beneficial. Maybe there's different types of material that are above your head. I know when you walk into a grove of bamboo, it's actually quite dark in there because of the complexity of the leaves and the density the leaves above your head. So if you broke this up a bit on the side and created different intensities of columns, and maybe there's two or three types of roofing material. Or you might create areas that are a bit darker or some lighter, some maybe in the middle are wide open. Another way it could be that you change the experience of moving up from up high on the quarry down to the quarry so you're passing through this kind of forest and then finally you're back out in the opening. So I think adding that kind of diversity to the architecture would be beneficial.