Forbidden City Studio
Below is summary of the work I pursued while in the Forbidden City Studio with Christoph a. Kumpusch. While the semester is over, the ideas and images generated during our study in the studio and abroad will potentially live on in publications, exhibitions, and of course, portfolios.
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4 May 2009
THE ‘FINAL’ REVIEW
Final Studio Review with Christoph Kumpusch (instructor), Kimberli Meyer, Anthony Titus, David Grahame Shane, Oded Calderon Ashkenazi, and Nicholas Karytinos.
Kimberli Meyer, Anthony Titus, D. Grahame Shane
Boards and Models
Site Model at 1:5000, Section Model at 1:200
Detail of Section Model: Fragment of Great Wall Suspended above Forbidden City
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22 April 2009
MODEL
For this site context model I’m using 1/2″ birch plywood base, (3) 1/8″ laser cut plywood layers, and walls and buildings at various thicknesses from 1/8″ down to 1/32″.
The cross reference of the archives of the Forbidden City and the Great Wall allows insight, as represented in the depth of the excavation below the suspended Great Wall.
I’ll add the Great Wall in metal tomorrow. I’m still not sure what color to paint the wood.
CDL
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8 April 2009
CROSS-REFERENCE
In order to maximize the potential of an archive, it may be cross-referenced with another, possibly several. The resultant combinations and comparisons contribute to new knowledge, revealing previously unseen potentialities. In this architectural operation, the Great Wall is grafted onto the city of Beijing, weaving through the Forbidden City. The cross-reference allows new ways to see both archives. The length of the Great Wall, scaled down 200 times, provides a new route through which to experience the Forbidden City. Conversely, the Forbidden City presents a new topography on which the Great Wall must now negotiate. Must a third archive be invoked to stitch these two architectural behemoths together?
The Great Wall scaled 1:200 over the City of Beijing (Click for Larger View)
CDL
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6 March 2009
USER AS VECTOR
The possibilities of human movement at the Forbidden City are mapped as a field of vector lines, each representing an individual’s speed and direction. The conglomeration of vectors can be read as a concentration of energy highlighting moments of interest in the palace complex. The first sketch represents current conditions and reveals a limited experience of the Forbidden City. The other schemes suggest possible alternatives to the axial routes taken by typical tourists. Similar exercises in section explore the vertical dimension, including above and below the visual extents of the current palace museum.
Vector Studies (Click for Larger View)
CDL
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27 February 2009
TRANSITIONAL SPACE
To overcome the dialectic of public versus private, object versus space, the current phase of inquiry examines apparent transitions between these conditions. The Forbidden City is read as topography of overlapping states, each overlap highlighting a geometry that is not seen but nonetheless influences the experience of the place. The resultant hybrid conditions can be considered points of interaction between the existing site and a new intervention. The monuments of the Imperial City become portals into their own curation. At a point of maximum transition and overlap, the user is transported from a static archive of history into a kinetic exhibition of space and time. These points of departure are the genesis of the new architecture that is neither public nor private, neither object in space nor spatial object.
Site Analysis Diagrams (Click for Larger View)
CDL
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20 February 2009
URBAN RESEARCH
Mediating Distraction: FOCUS
If architecture is perceived in a state of distraction, as Walter Benjamin surmised, then that condition is exacerbated by architecture itself. Is it possible that we have too much architecture? If so, can an architectural invention mediate complexity to produce focused expressions and interpretations of the city?
Mediating Urban Joints: CONNECTION
Colin Rowe identifies two distinct types of urban conception. A medieval urban fabric celebrates public space as its object. Modern expressions place the building as a seemingly private, discreet object on a pedestal. Can a third type mediate these two or provide an alternative? Can transitional or semi-public space connect the disparate contents of the city?
Mediating the Archive: EXHIBITION
If the existing city and its contents can be considered an archive of sorts, how can a discerning exhibit be accomplished? Can an intervention of semi-public space and form, a scaffold in Rowe’s terms, start to curate or critique of a select grouping of architectures? With the understanding that a curation can never be neutral, what statement or inquiry should be put forward?
Urban Condition Models (Click for Larger View)
CDL
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4 February 2009
REVOLUTION RESEARCH
As a prelude to direct urban research on the Forbidden City, I read My Revolutions by Hari Kunzru and an essay on “Material Expressivity” written by Manuel Delanda. In My Revolutions, a fictional narrative, Chris Carver, a former 1960s revolutionary recalls his participation in London’s counter-culture as his carefully created life in the suburbs begins to unravel, exposing his secret past. The book examines the intersection of social and individual revolutions. Together, Kunzru and Delanda’s writing suggests a certain movement and tension between public and private space, both physically and psychologically.
Density and Fluctuation
From Delanda’s writing on territoriality, we can see public space as neutral venue that can be appropriated for individual or corporate use. He says, “Sound, color, and behavioral displays involving posture, movement, rhythm and silhouette, are examples of expressive territorial markers, sometimes used in competitions between males, other times in courtship rituals aimed at females.” The rituals carried out in public space create pockets of semi-public space occupied by particular users but still the property of the citizenry as a whole.
Abandon and Appropriate
Delanda writes about the index of an organism marking its territory. Kunru’s revolutionaries take over a block of abandoned row homes for their headquarters. Other buildings they fix for use by poor families, without the knowledge of the legal owner.
Illumination and Understanding
A change in perception of urban space can occur based on the absence or presence of light. Delanda references spectroscopy, a process by which light is used to interrogate a material and determine its qualities. A given material can be identified based its interaction with light. Similarly in My Revolutions, Chris Carver fears being exposed, having his past brought to light.
Timeline of 20th Century Revolutions
CDL
