Instructor: Prof. Tsubaki

Project Introduction:

Architecture as a discipline, aims to evoke emotional and intellectual response through phenomenal qualities (materiality/texture, light/shades, time/sequence, scale/proportion and spatial/structural order) beyond the basic human needs for shelter. The pedagogical intention of the studio is to acknowledge the divide between phenomenal qualities of physical objects and representational methods employed in the design process. The studio intend to exploit the difference as a possible source for architectural exploration.

We will begin the investigation with a notion of “Eccentric Extension” as a vehicle to speculate tectonic possibilities of “Repetitive Structural Units” and proceed to engage in material/textural exploration through production of full scale units. Program and design of a small scale structure will be derived from observation, recordings and analysis of the phenomenal qualities possessed by in-situ assemblage of the units and will be developed through careful comparison between the physical and the representational.

Students will be introduced to the “making” of architectural construct, learn to cultivate an acute sensibility to the phenomenal quality of physical objects and incorporate those responses into the design process. Students will also acquire skills to interpret and communicate these “ephemeral” qualities through various mode of representation, drawings in particular.

Studio Outline:

Phase I  (3 weeks)

Theory and experimentation of Repetitive Structural Units (R.S.U.) with Eccentric Extension (E.E.)

Phase II  (2 weeks)

Production and Assemblage of R.S.U. w/ E.E.

Phase III  (2 weeks)

Observation and Recording of R.S.U. w/ E.E.

Phase IV (8 weeks)

Program and Design of Architectural Structure based on R.S.U. w/ E.E.