Projective Envelopes: Deep Masses

ARCH 6127 RESEARCH SEMINAR
FINAL PRESENTATION
STUDENT NAME: HO CHEUK YIU HARDY (UID:2010128769)

Hardy Ho, Visual Syntax of 7 Deep Envelopes

This thesis explores the juxtaposition of interlacing spaces between the envelope and the interior. using optical geometries & graphical media representations as instrumental tools, the thesis aims to reveal and redefine the performative envelope that merges the structure and architecture into a cohesive whole, which transforms passive event-spaces into vibrant projective manfolds with depth.

WHY?

The envelope has been argued to emerge from a mere wrapper in the Renaissance/postmodernist times to a more volumetric and projective discourse of a deep mass.

During Renaissance, Borromini experimented with the visual illusion by distortion and undulation of the wall on Convento del Filippini. Herbert Beyer had looked at the Field of Perspective Vision which could change the perspective of a human to the spatial affect of the environment. Building identity is independent of its function as argued by Rossi, through a typological change of the envelope in Luigi Moretti’s Corso Italia and Il Girasole, the deep volumetric push-pull effect which could directly confront the fragmented urban context with autonomy.

The discourse of the deep envelope is augmented by Diller Scofidio in their Slow House project where perspective vision is distorted with the element of the wall as a continuation of the exterior. In Greg Lynn’s Korean Presbyterian Church the undulation of the envelope could enhance not only visual affect, but also the identity of the structure between interiority and exteriority with the performance of light. The envelope as a projective instrument through movement, has been diagnostic in identifying the idea of the city and projecting new grounds for architectural experimentation, according to Vidler. In FOA’s Yokohama Port Terminal, and in sHoP Architect’s FIT New Academic Building, Alejandro Zaera-Polo in his Politics of the Envelope has argued the urban archipelago could preform with its operative surfaces by augmenting the circulation as a result of political agencies.

The envelope as a deep mass, as a projective type, could be redefined upon its coupling of part/whole, tiered levels, place of arriving/gathering, interiority/exteriority, wall/entry, etc.

WHAT?

The site shall be at the edge of mediating between traffic & urban circulation flows in Uganda.The site is within a 600x600m square at the Kampala – Lake Victoria Estuary, with the urban and ecological context (lake, river) so the forces that drive typological changes can be studied through projective differentiation of the type.
The architecture is a hybrid complex of university, fishing factory, and sports arena, though the typological configuration could allow change in size, form, material. This could allow a more flexible programmatic hybrid juxtaposition to merge with the deep volumetric mass of the envelope.
Programs shall be aimed to resolve new political, social and urban demands, e.g. gathering spaces, learning institutions, recreational facilities, etc. Construction phasing shall be considered to explore new typologies of form and use.

Test cases can be implemented on the tripartite site condition, (a) urban-rural edges between low-rise urban houses and farmland at the left of the site; (b) urban-nature edges between the city and the agricultural villages along White Nile to the right of the site; and (c) rural-nature edges between fishing villages and Lake Victoria to the south of the site.
Many African stadiums were built totally by Chinese capital and expertise through the ‘stadium diplomacy’. In Lake Victoria, the largest lake for fishing in Africa, has been facing environmental pollution, social & health problems, political identity crisis. Spanning across 3 nations, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, the Lake could incorporate an infrastructure of projective ‘stadium’ types that can architecturally intervene the situation.

The Lake Victoria Cooperative shall explore the issues of oblique disposition and optical affects in the final design, while answering socio-cultural urgencies.

HOW?

Sectional axonometrics are firstly used as an optical & graphic media to identify the geometric disposition of the oblique planes, then, adaptive model prototypes are made to assess the influence of stadium to mediate urban and ecological edge conditions, finally light apertures & performative effects are applied/ projected on the planes as a form of mediation.

Step 01 – Building Scale 1:500/ Sectional Axonometric Drawings (due 16/12/2015)
1:500 sectional axonometrics are used to define the spatial qualities in surface and visual syntax that mediates the building-context edge conditions.

Step 02 – Building Scale 1:200 & Urban Scale 1:1000/Drawing & Model/Mediating & Making (due Review 01: 1/2/2016)
Secondly, 1:1000 sectional perspectives are used to define the urban-rural edge conditions with geometric mapping of flows, circulation and movement.
Form/programs are analyzed through 1:200 sectional study of incorporating ecological processes like water storage, water hyacinth harvest, agriculture, perch fishing & filleting industry, into the structural and recreational nature of African stadiums.

Step 03 – Building 1:100 & Detail Section 1:50/Drawing & Model/Mediating & Making (due Review 02: 14/3/2016)
Thirdly, synthesis through construction phasing adaptive to the context parameters, expressed in 1:100 sections, plans and renderings. A sports arena-uiversity-fishing plant complex shall incorporate experiential affects like light apertures on the walls, or performative effects projected onto surfaces, tested with 1:50 spatial sectional models.

Step 04 – Revisions, refinements. Final areas of testing/Building 1:100 & Detail Section 1:50/Drawing & Model (due Review 03: 3/5/2016)
Fourthly, further revisions on the details of the envelope and spatial affects.

Step 05 – Revisions, refinements. Final areas of testing (due Thesis Lockup: 28/5/2016)
Final refinements on socio-cultural contextual argument with media production of animation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Theory: Historical/Contemporary
1. Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City (Oppositions Books), MIT Press, 1984
2. Anthony Vidler, ‘Terres Inconnues: Cartographies of a Landscape to Be Invented’ in October, Vol. 115 (MIT Press, 2006), 13-30
3. Florian Herweck and Sebastien Marot, The City in the City – Berlin: A Green Archipelago, Lars Muller, 2013
4. Pier Vittorio Aureli, ‘Toward the Archipelago’ in Log, No. 11 (Winter 2008), Anyone Corporation, 91-120
5. Herbert Bayer, Diagram of the Field of Vision, 1930
Techniques: Technical manuals, collections of recent projects that are similar in method
1. Farshid Moussavi, ‘Watching Sports 1927-2012’ in The Function of Style (ActarD Inc, 2015), 470-519
2. Christopher C.M. Lee & Sam Jacoby, AD Typological Urbanism: Projective Cities, Wiley, 2011
3. Neeraj Bhatia and Mary Casper, The Petropolis of Tomorrow, Actar, 2013
Seminal/Current related projects
1. Herzog & de Meuron, Chelsea FC Stamford Bridge Stadium, UK, July 2015
2. Herzog & de Meuron, Bordeaux Stadium, France, May 2015
3. Grafton Architects and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Architecture as New Geography, Venice Architecture Biennale 2012
4. Tyler Hopf, superNODE, 2012
5. Peter Cook (CRAB Studio), Abedian School of Architecture, Australia, 2013
6. Zaha Hadid, Flinders Street Station, Melbourne, 2013
7. Zaha Hadid, Pierre Vives, France, 2012
8. Grafton Architects, University Campus UTEC Lima, Peru, 2015
9. Grafton Architects, RDS Arena, Ireland, 2014
10. Eduardo Souto de Moura, Braga Municipal Stadium, Portugal, 2003
11. Diller + Scofidio, Slow House
12. Francesco Borromini, Convento Del Filippini
13. Luigi Moretti, Corso Italia
14. Luigi Moretti, Il Girasole
15. FOA, Yokohama Port Terminal
16. Greg Lynn, Korean Presbyterian Church
17. sHoP Architects, FIT New Academic Building