[PICTURES NOT INCLUDED]
this is the paper that i turned in to ali rahim. comments are welcome, but i have already turned it in so any revisions to the paper would only be for my own viewing...
Typological Elegance: The Performance of the Dynamic System
Erin Keith
__________________________________________________________________
As architects and designers, typology has been a mainstay of our craft, the “what” of what we are designing. It is the format, organization, square footage, and purpose of the architecture that we create, and it has historically provided a dominant model for architectural working methods. It is the convention of what a building is used for. The difficulty with this understanding is the rigid nature of the typology, and our problems as designers arise as we attempt to break from this rigidity. William Braham in “After Typology: The Suffering of Diagrams” states that “Even though architects have rarely been able to maintain any kind of useful distinction between typologies of function[the museum, church, or house] and typologies of form[the pyramid, atrium, or basilica]. “Types are so evidently bound to particular conventions, cultures, and forms of practice that it is remarkable that the abstract concept retains any currency whatsoever.” The techniques derived from the dynamic system make these set typologies inconsequential.
As a theoretical ideology the modernists told us that form should follow the function, and their process of understanding context and typology grew from the formalization of the diagram as a literal representation of information that is then brought directly into the form and function of the building. Through this process, there are a finite number of design moves that can be made, limiting and again holding the building back from what it is truly used for, many things all at once. Ben Van Berkel and Caroline Bos of UN Studio write in their article “Diagrams – Interactive Instruments in Operation” that “a representational technique implies that we converge on reality from a conceptual position and in that way fix the relationship between idea and form, between content and structure. When form and content are super-imposed in this way, a type emerges,. This is the problem with an architecture that is based on a representational concept; it cannot escape existing typologies.” By this point in history, UN Studios is describing how we as designers have grown beyond the form and function to deal with the complex nature of present day human patterns and usage. Typology is now about how we live, and the influences that drive us to live the way that we do. The nature of our society is now one that requires the greatest amount of efficacy in every piece of our lives. Through advanced digital techniques we are now grafting these patterns and influences into our products, our designs creating buildings that truly perform.
At this point contemporary architectural techniques are now available to test these historical mainstays of typology and to break the rules and restrictions that they have given us. The form of the object is unimportant; instead it is the performance, the efficacy of the object/project--the unidentifiable makes the usage, the typology, the programmatic aspect and organization of the object transformative. As we are now a society of efficiency, where we multi-task even as we walk down the street, so too should our architecture. Even the traditional buildings that we currently inhabit are forced to bend to the owner and applied use, but as architects, we should be looking past these issues and into the future of design as buildings can no longer fit into labeled typologies.
Dynamic systems move beyond the alteration and deformation of the recognizable form, and instead alter the way that typology is viewed. The dynamic system makes the typology of culture and tradition obsolete as it takes the formalized ideas behind these and removes a set use, replacing it rather with a continuous conglomeration of uses of space and function. The elegance is one made up not of form but format. The resultant conditions of the dynamical system are the customization and yet complete loss of identity – a hybrid situation—the elegance of the new techniques are these very situations, and their gradient conditions beyond a singular reference. It is not about the program, it is about the usefulness. The typology is affected by elegance of technique.
Elegance is to be understood as a behavioral condition brought about by the techniques of the dynamic system—the process, rigor and intricacy of information of the dynamic system. Van Berkel state that “an instrumentailizing technique such as the diagram delays typological fixation. An experimental or instrumental technique does not proceed as literally from signs. If aspects such as routing, time, and organization are incorporated into the structure using an instrumentalizing technique, concepts external to architecture are introduced into it rather than superimposed. Instances of specific interpretation, utilization, perception, construction, and so on unfold and proliferate applications on various levels of abstraction, liberating the design from a tendency toward fixed typologies.”
Technologically based architectural practices such as Greg Lynn’s FORM, OCEAN NORTH, and NOX run by Lars Spuybroek, are examples that move away from the formalities of representational architecture and come to utilize the diagram as a potential to develop and create dynamic and emergent systems. This creates an environment where the technological advances have made generative potentials from new software and technological paradigms.
The diagram at this point is understood as Deleuze’s “abstract machine”, a generative biologically based machine that deals with complex systematic workings which are based in algorithms and can spontaneously emerge into something else; a system that must be set in motion for a transformative process to begin. The abstract machine through this understanding is made up of the affects and effects of design and architecture, where a complex system or set of complex systems create a situation where the clarity of usage becomes blurred through the scale of material, building, and even the city. Affects in this way are dual-directional as the abstract machine influences the original while simultaneously influencing the applied. These influences are worked into the digital techniques used to graph and follow the dynamic system, as there are variances in the rates of change within it. The scale of the dynamic system as followed by the techniques that monitor it, also challenge the set typologies, as the elegance of the design of anything ranging from the object to the instillation is only implied through its performance .
In Greg Lynn’s Teapot the form is unrelatable, an alien to the kitchen, let alone the museum, and yet it functions and is preformative in both locations. The elegant curves suggest its form in the hand, yet the respective top and bottom, handle and stem are ambiguous. The transformations that the object has undergone through Lynn’s rigorous design process allow for affordances in it’s use. These affordances activate the affects and affordances that change in use from teapot to coffee mug to sugar castor to milk jug to tray.
For OCEAN NORTH’s Extraterrain it is no longer the object that is in focus, but rather the context that is placed within, the spatial surroundings. It is an extension of a programmatically decoded urban surface into the scale of furniture. Yet within the museum it is an art piece, in a night club: a piece of furniture, in the back yard: a jungle gym. In this situation, only the context can dictate a use, program or typology. At any moment in time it is the totality of the configured space that engenders the status of the object. In this way the affects of any design connect the architect with the user, making the specifics of a usage, program or typology of the object or even building only worth the range of usage and level of effective affordance.
In Lars Spuybroek’s “wet grid” design for the “Vision Machine” exhibition in the Beaux-Arts Museum, the space is indefinable as form bleeds out from the main space of the atrium into the hallways. The instillation, though programmed for the specifics of this exhibition, was later utilized as a backdrop for various dance performances and fashion shows. Here also the context of the object/project comes into play, as the functionality of the scale allows for an ambiguity of usage and typology. Although the techniques used to develop the form are based initially in the dynamic system, the preformative nature of the instillation yielded many other programmatic uses after the fact. Its preformative elegance is inherent to the design, allowing for this to occur. The later utilization therefore gives credence to the complexity of processes that yielded the organization. Through this efficient use of built structure, the efficacy of the project is realized and the initial programmatic function is debunked. Typology is pushed aside once again.
Through these examinations of design at various scales, the initial clarity of a set typology is continually distorted and blurred as seen through the dynamic system and the techniques that bring these systems into the design at any scale. Through the diagrammatic understanding that Deleuze gives of the abstract machine, the initial form of the building becomes unimportant in comparison with the performance of the form and the spatial variations and flows within it. As we come to further master the techniques that bring about the better understanding of these complex concepts, the need to relinquish ourselves of typologies becomes apparent, and to instead test the abilities of our designs through the measurement of the elegance of the preformative nature of the project. The design’s efficiency, efficacy and affordances.
2005 in REVIEWjan-feb: my first mardi gras, and it was pretty cah-raze-eee!!!
march-april:attended many parties, jazz fest, went to LA for about a week, turned 25 at the end of april...get ready thirty cause here i come baby...yeah!
may-june: finished my branding studio and MTV rocked out at my presentation...this picture was taken afterward
june-july: worked over the summer in a design/build studio and everyone was out of town so i had some time to myself and took some photos of french quarter, did some research for thesis at my site.. trip to rural studio for camp out
august: getting ready to start the construction on the house we were designing...getting things finalized and working on that first paper due for thesis...the initial proposal.... i actually stayed in town for a "small" tropical storm that took out quite a bit of the power lines out--which kind of freaked me out but was also kind of interesting since i was looking out my 8 story high window out onto the city...it was pretty surreal....flew home for a 4 day break before school started again
katrina
hits, and i'm figuring that we would be back in a week or so, just a short delay when we find out how bad it really is--four friends evacuated to my house and we find out that we have to apply to schools for the semester because Tulane is closed down...
september: at a moments notice we fly out to philadelphia and have to find a house for up to six students because we are all scared out of our element and want to stick together
october: settling in @ penn and meeting people, met adam who is at penn--friend of jenn, took a class trip(over the halloween weekend) to new mexico for a week and really got to know some of the people we were in classes with, road trip to west point--jenn's house and lancaster pennsylvania
november: preparing thesis papers and other assignments for up-coming due dates--school is really reving up and we are really just starting to get to know the professors and other classmates, neighbors, and the city of philly---finding out that i'm going to be living on a cruise ship in spring
december: finalizing our papers and submitting them, thesis presentation to penn, saying goodbye to everyone at penn and making preperations for closing the house, getting final information from profs and flying back to dfw for a last minute christmas...
with a year like this who knows what could happen next year. my predictions: living on a cruise ship, finishing up a design thesis, graduating, looking for a job.... 
song of 2005 : "everyday is a winding road"
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
May you always have a friend by your side, a song in your heart, and a drink in your hand!!
if you are thinking this deck plan is difficult to read, it's not the pixelation...it's mostly written in hebrew. that's right, hebrew: the website providing the information for the ship is in HEBREW because it is originally stationed in isreal... interesting right!! it makes the ship seem that much more exotic!!
these are some other photos that their website provides of the rooms and room sizes:
the largest room picture that i included is what i'm expecting...not the largest single, but a single none the less...
i really can't complain too much:
cleaning service is provided for sheets and bathroom, on-board gym is open, pool will be open, meal plan included....the only thing they are NoT mentioning....laundry capabilities??
either way i should be moving in jan. 6th!
song of the day: "come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me..."
i wish when you got an ipod you also recieved the dancing capabilities that are on the commercials...i would be such a rockstar if that happened....
Song of the day: Material Girl--Madonna
merry chrismahannakkwanza!!!
i was notified via email that:
My cabin is on the Main Deck but i don't know if i am getting the single room or double room--even though the article says there are NO singles they ARE going to be charging me a single room rate so i BETTER NOT have a roommate!!! oh corrupt new orleans how i have missed you!! 
TULANE FLOATS UNIQUE HOUSING CONCEPTDecember 22, 2005Shown here wet-docked in Cyprus, the MV Dream is a 23,000-ton cruise liner that operated out of Haifa, Israel, for Mediterranean cruises. The ship has been called “the largest and most luxurious cruise ship to operate out of Israel.” It will be housing Tulane students, faculty and staff for the spring semester while docked on the Mississippi River.
With more than 250,000 homes substantially damaged or destroyed by the storm, where will members of the Tulane University community find homes? “You can’t expect faculty, staff and students to come back without a place to live,” says Tony Lorino, senior vice president for operations and chief financial officer. In the days following Hurricane Katrina, the housing task force floated a unique idea—a cruise ship.
After extensive research and negotiation, Lorino says a Norwegian cruise ship called the MV Dream will dock on Dec. 26 at the Orange Street wharf on the Mississippi River, on Riversphere property owned by Tulane University. It will be available for occupancy beginning Dec. 28.
The ship will continue the residential college model initiated this past year. Students, faculty and staff will live, dine, study and socialize together aboard a floating residential college. A limited amount of cabin space will be made available on the ship for faculty and staff after the students have been accommodated.
“It’s been an amazing process,” Lorino says. “We looked at many factors, including availability, pricing, size and berth considerations, quality of the vessel and size of the rooms.”
Cynthia Cherrey, vice president for student affairs, made site visits to personally inspect possible cruise ships for Tulane. Six airplane flights and two helicopter rides to inspect two ships in 36 hours resulted in Tulane having a five-star ship available for Tulane students, faculty and staff. The MV Dream will accommodate 1,100 people, with two per cabin. Housing costs for students on the cruise ships will reflect the prevailing rates for comparable on-campus housing per semester. There is also a monthly rate for faculty, staff and students. Lorino says the cruise ship is scheduled to dock at Orange Street, upriver from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, through mid-May 2006. It will be staffed with a crew of 50 or more, with security on the wharf 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There will be food service plans, but no bar service or casino. All of the other ship facilities will be available to Tulane, allowing presentations and student activities on board. Tulane will provide free shuttle service between student housing locations and the uptown and downtown campuses, and the university is devising plans for parking.
“This is an extremely unique, unusual solution,” Lorino says. “I’ve never had the opportunity to deal with such circumstances. It’s been an interesting learning experience for me and others.”
Leaving On a Jet Plane...back to dallas....@ 1:30pm...
i've tried to say goodbye to everyone here in philly and am kind of sad to leave, but will be glad to have my sanity back for a while over the break!!
So much to do so little time!!
Saying goodbye to everyone, exchanging contact information, taking back all of those books i've checked out, burning cracked copies of computer programs that i'll need, (hopefully) getting letters of recommendation from profs at UPenn, oh..
and isn't there some holiday that is coming up sometime next week-weekend??
OOOHHH YEEEAHHHH....CHRISTMAS!
Santa is going to have to give me 24 extra hours this year, cause i am running out of time in philadelphia and i kind of don't want to leave yet!!!
it's like going to summer camp for the first time:
it kind of sucks for about the first couple of days, then you feel comfortable, then you make all these cool friends and work on cool arts and crafts projects, then before you know it you have to head back home to your LAME parents....
MOM!!! Can't I stay just one more WEEEK!!! Jill and Bobby are SOOO much fun to hang out with ....FINE!! We can go home but only if you pack up my ceramic bird in newspaper so that it doesn't break on the drive home....i worked SOOO hard on it, and Kimmy my cabin counselor says it's the best one she's seen made at camp yet....
the first thing i want to say is that i am done obsessing, bitching, complaining, freaking out, being whiny and being depressed about the thesis review...especially in regards to a certain david ruy(this is the correct spelling)....
i want to sincerely apologize to those i have whined, bitched, and freaked out to....but thanks for having the patience to deal with my emotional connection to this project...
i've had some time to really think about what the reveiwers said and i have had an epiphany and understand what they meant:
any phenomenon in almost any field can be related to a dynamic system...biology, geology, astronomy, and even ECONOMICS.... i needed to relate my project to a SPECIFIC dynamic system instead of being so generalized....
i realize that during my presentation, and even in the pursuit of my paper i was basically saying "hey, i'm using a dynamic system..." and david ruy was saying, "okay, that's great...what kind??" and i didn't have an answer...
SOOOOO bringing it back to my PROGRAM and my initial reason of using the market as a revitilization tool for the area....my dynamical system going to be based in market economics....
sounds dry doesn't it....WELL...the thing is this: most dynamical systems that people find interesting(at least architecturally) are based in biological type conditions(ex: rhizomes, ephimites, recombinant structures in DNA, hurricane and weather patterns etc.) but the OTHER types are not ususally utilized(ex: economic supply/demand type market dynamics....and yes there are these type of dynamical systems available--just as a common one that you might know about indirectly--remember the movie "A Beautiful Mind"--basically the guy was dealing with mathematical strategies that ended up altering the way that we now look at economics....possibly a dynamic system equation that attempts to graph these situations???)
and many OTHER examples of dynamic patterns can be found in the book "A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History" where Manuel DeLanda(yes i am resurrecting him) discusses these patterns in anything and everything from genomic patterns to economics to lava flows to urban settlement patterns to bacteria to war to whatever....fascinating isn't it... i KNEW there was a reason that i loved that class...plus if i really find that the economics models don't yeild alot of workable information i can look at the other conditions of the site/context and see what comes from that...
SOOOO now i am going back to look through my book list and notes from the urban dynamics class [and also meeting with Bill Braham and Ali Rahim] to move back a step or two in the process, gain some clarity of purpose, and then surge on to greatness.....okay the last part is somewhat questionable but whatever...
Song of the Day: "Money can't buy me Love"--beatles--oh but it might in this case baby, yeaaaa!!
This morning i presented thesis to upenn advisors--9am....THIS IS A LONG ENTRY...BEWARE!!!
WEEELLLLLLL.....i didn't stutter during most of the presentation, i didn't get sick(until after the presentation...i really didn't know i was that stressed about it), but i did say--near the end--that my project was located in mississippi instead of new orleans...then corrected myself after i took the time to look down at my notecards of information....[wow did i fuck THAT one up]...i got some weird looks from the other tulane students at this point and turned BEET RED, corrected myself and from this point began stuttering a bit,["ah, ah, ah, New Orleans, i mean, ah, ah, ah...."]...yes THIS is where a college education has taken me....THANK GOD it was near the end of the presentation...
overall, it went okay i guess, and these were the comments:
David Rue(spelling?) /
Annette Fierro/
William Braham/
David Leaderborough(spelling?)David Rue(spelling?):: how do you know the site is sufficiently dynamic? --establish explicit criteria for design solutions....dynamic systems have a great release of energy--make sure that the site is made up of enough energy to qualify a dynamic system...even in science and math the criteria of energy and following a morphology is truly unknown...is it the ideas looking for a site or a site looking for technique...Bill Braham:: bring the site to life through description--verbally and graphically[i went back and explained how vibrant the site is both on a day to day basis and on-going throughout the year...they said i should have mentioned all of this DURING the presentation instead of during the q & a session...] well now that you've explained the site more clearly, i understand why you chose this site and it seems to work with what you want to deal with....David Rue :: dynamic is improper term for what you're looking at...you are using the term with more freedom than the term allows...look more at the computational theories behind the dynamic system...you are using the term too loosely and freely...maybe rename project "urban vitality"--maybe the route of "pragmatism" is a better way for you...[PRAGMATISM!!!!!????!!! DID YOU JUST SAY PRAGMATISM???!!!--I DID NOT JUST SPEND THE SEMESTER READING DDDDEEEEEEPPPPP ARCHITECTURAL THEORY TO BE TOLD TO BE MORE PRAGMATIC--fucker...DO NOT insult my intelligence...just because i didn't lay out the complete formula for catastrophe theory/chaos theory and dedicate one whole slide to the intense mathematical and scientific background behind it within the constraints of a 12 minute presentation DOES NOT MEAN that i DID NOT read it and DID NOT get it, and didn't want to include more information into this presentation....asshole...HEY JERK!! DID YOU NOT JUST LISTEN TO THE NAME OF MY PROPOSAL?? Marketscape: A DYNAMIC SYSTEM in the urban context--if nothing else i guess i should have put more info into my presentation... David Rue...you are a tool...and now i don't care if i spelled your name correctly....you know what...your mom is pragmatic...put that in your pipe and smoke it...]Annette Fierro :: where does the diagram fit--document conflicts with this idea of the dynamic system focus [this is because almost all of my annotated bibliography was made up of readings based around the idea of diagramming instead of dynamic systems and the computational theory that makes up the dynamic system---nadir lahiji suggested all of these readings to me and told me to focus on that...diagramming that is...]what about katrina? how is your program, proposal going to react to that? you can't ignore this situation on the site--make sure that you are addressing this new aspect of the site, it's conditions, it's influences[at this point i mentioned that i had not had a chance to go down and document what actually occured at my site during/after katrina]David Leatherboro(spelling?) :: what does the MARKET want?[ok, someone tell me what the fuck THAT is supposed to mean....i didn't know my proposal was so existential in nature....this guy must have smoked a joint before showing up...] Set horizons for the program. what are the conditions of architecture that make boundries...what will help you set up these boundaries??be sure to not only look at the positives of the site, but also the problems: crime statistics, police stations, subversive elements, etc.the word embankment stems from the word bank, or table--make an accurate section of the site, document what is really there, the quality of the site, the nature of it, the sounds, the flows of people and information actually coming and going out of the site---the "spatial materiality" of the site--make sure that this information is throughough and gives an accurate representation of the sitessssooooooo....NOW what do i do with all of this new information and perspective on my project:
1. i want to get another reading list for the winter break--all based on dynamic systems and all the jazz behind it...david rue be damned....PRAGMATIC....[insert maniacal laughter here]...
2. i want to get back to NOLA to get ACTUAL and ACCURATE site information....i never DID get a chance to collect all of the information and historical background of my site over the summer...funny thing was that i ended up having more background information about my site than most people for the initial submission...not so much anymore---and now i need to make sure that i don't ignore the katrina impact---and i was trying SOOO hard to completely ignore that thing that happened a couple of months ago....what was that called??....OH YEAH....hurricane katrina...i keep forgetting that's the reason why i'm in philadelphia....(this sarcasm is said with a genuine smile and a laugh...just funny that they really thought that i would do that...it IS kind of funny IF i was attempting to ignore it...ironical is the word...)
3. A GOOD STIFF DRINK....Cosmopolitan and an extra shot of vodka please...
4. A massage
5. A nice long relaxing soak in the tub
6. Four days of un-interrupted sleep...
7. My project to just build itself...
These are also included on my wish list to santa...or if anyone is feeling especially generous...
from this point i have to make revisions to my document based off of these comments and then resubmit my paper again to Tulane thesis advisors...i'm thinking that i will do this tommorrow... for now i just want the reading list and to get on top of all of that xeroxing that i'm going to have to do since god only knows what's left of the arch library at tulane....
SONG OF THE DAY: ...."EYE OF THE TIGER"....it is a victory song, and yet the victory is not quite achieved....it has a rich concept behind it...trust me, i've read up on it and can write out a 20 pg proposal on the significance of the never completed architecture project...john know what i'm talking about...
so now it's on tuesday....
with this little blip in the presentation date i have taken the liberty of catching up with sleep, watching chick flicks to have some "me" time, playing online yahoo games to keep my mind somewhat sharpened, prepared and cooked myself a couple of meals, and attempted to gain some perspective on not only my project but also on the last couple of months in philadelphia and life in general...
just to give you a heads up: expect some personally meaningful entries as my final assignment due dates come to a halt...it's just been that kind of a semester and i feel like i need to take stock of things....
Song of the day: "me and mrs. jones"...what can i say....bridget jone's diary...that's all that needs to be said...
SNOW DAY!!!
Dear Thesis Faculty and Students,
Due to the Philadelphia public school closings, THESIS PRESENTATIONS ARE CANCELLED FOR TODAY, December 9th. Dear students, please be sure all of your colleagues get this news.Thesis presentations will be rescheduled at a later date.
Thank you,
Vikki
--i found this out @ 9am just as i was about to walk out the door and hawl ass to school to do some final practice of my little shpeel....they still haven't sent us an email about what date they are rescheduling the presentations...
basically i just went back to bed and slept for the rest of the day, am back to work today though on other little assignments due next week and am refining the presentation....
Song of the day(for today): "baby it's cold outside"...
tommorrow is THE DAY....
WE PRESENT OUR THESIS TO UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PROFESSORS AND CRITICS @ 10AM AND THERE IS NO LOOKING BACK NOW!!!!
HOLY SH*T AM I NERVOUS RIGHT NOW!!!!
at this moment i have the urge to cry, faint, hyperventalate, and vomit all at the same time....
these are my worst fears...if i can write them out then maybe they won't happen...
what are they going to say?(fear: they start laughing and then tell me that i sound like a 5 year old presenting this thesis, and i should just sit back down...oh, well it's good you are going back to tulane, because you could never make it here at penn.... i really feel that you don't fully understand a dynamic system and i would be cautious as to proceeding with the design studio next semester... now explain to us why that diagram looks so elementary....you really should be more rigorous with your research... )
what questions should i anticipate?(fear: did you seriously research this? because it seems like you didn't... so do you really expect to graduate by proceeding with this project?? why didn't you look more into so and so's writings?? it doesn't seem like you are really tapping into all of the resources here...)
i am soo nervous about tommorrow and i don't even know what i'm going to say yet....i've worked on this project all semester and i can absolutely see myself tommorrow getting stage fright, and just standing up in front of 5 jurors with a dumbfounded look on my face, my mind completely blank, stuttering(which i sometimes do when speaking in front of people), and shakily holding my notes...staring at them but being so nervous, stressed out, and without sleep that i can't even read english anymore....
should i dress up since this is a final reveiw...even though it's power point?? what if i dress up and the other kids don't....will i feel really out of place??
....so writing this out and really thinking about this freaked me out enough to where i had to go talk to my studio neighbors and ask them about the profs on the jury tommorrow....and i feel better....just hope the feeling lasts until after my review tommorrow..
wish me luck kids...i really need it right now...
song of the day: "livin on a prayer"--bon jovi
SUBMITTED FOR YOUR APPROVAL:FIRST PAGE OF MY THESIS....
Marketscape :: A Dynamical System in the Urban Context
::Thesis Topic::To explore the dynamical system and its process of adaptation and permanence within the urban setting of New Orleans, utilizing the undervalued area underneath the freeway. This process will force the dynamical system to not only deal with the challenges of form but also organization as it intermingles with the infrastructural flows within site.
::Thesis Outline::Definitions of key terms in order by appearance::
dynamic system – n. (physics) a phase space together with all of the transformations of that space.
William Braham: As dynamical systems are non-linear, influences of a design situation cannot simply be predicted or characterized but only experienced or shown as a result, either because the situation is sufficiently dynamic or the influences are too numerous and complex in their interaction. Gilles Deleuze’s abstract machine: a system that must be set in motion for a transformative process to begin; Manuel DeLanda: a non-linear equation that is non-solvable, self-organizing, and performs bifurcations, mutations that occur at critical points in the ‘balance of power’ between physical forces when new configurations become energetically possible, and matter spontaneously adopts them; Sanford Kwinter: an open end, evolving [system], where energy and information flow into and out of a system simultaneously. Information flowing into the system transforms the whole system from the inside out and he initial information flow moves easily from one level to another and the internal levels both absorb and react to the exchange altering the whole system.
diagram – n. 1.a plan, sketch, drawing, or outline designed to demonstrate or explain how something works or to clarify the relationship between parts of a whole. 2. (mathematics) a graphic representation of an algebraic or geometric relationship.
Lawrence Barth: a tool for a more progressive urban schema allowing for the abstraction of the natural complex fabric of the city to read and understood, a strategic consideration of the urban landscape, transformational in nature and has multiple effects.. Ben Van Berkel & Catherine Bos: a reductive machine for compressed information, a proliferating machine; Anthony Vidler: the basis of a more complex, and more rich analysis allowing for a loaded theoretical underpinning of information and the connections of that information;
emergence – v. 1. a gradual coming forth; the act of coming(or going) out; becoming apparent.
Something that is generated and becomes altered over time, evolving; has the characteristic of progression and adaptation. See dynamical system.
topological – adj. 1.study of a particular place; specifically: the history of a region as indicated by its
topography. 2. being or involving properties unaltered under a homeomorphism Ex: continuity and connectedness are topological properties.
Sanford Kwinter: the behavior of forces in space over time; Anthony Vidler: “Now however, they[diagrammatic elements of examination] can be mapped synthetically as direct topographical information, weighted according to theory their hierarchical importance, literally transforming the nature of the ground. The resulting ‘map’, however hybrid in conception, is now less an icon to be read as standing in for a real territory than a plan for the reconstitution of its topographical form.”
morphogenesis – n. formation of the structure of an organism or part; differentiation and growth of tissues and organs during development. .
Manuel DeLanda: form producing events; Sanford Kwinter: “The dynamical theory of morphogenesis characterizes all form as the interruption of a discontinuity, for a form to emerge the entire space must transform with it as a local but generalized transformation.”
mapping – v. 1.the act or process of making a map. 2. (mathematics) a rule of correspondence established between sets that associate each element of a set with an element in the same or another set.
Ben Van Berkel and Caroline Bos: “This notion of meanings are not transferred from one agent to another but constituted in the interaction between two agents”. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taking the above definitions into consideration, as the dynamical system almost solely exist within the process of diagramming a varied range and amount of influences that are vital to the site, the form and more importantly the organizational zoning come into play. The dynamical influences or flows, as one might come to call these factors, speak to the economic, social, political, and infrastructural nature of the site in question.
Emergent systems as seen in architecture become expressed within the typology of cellular programming, the forced expansion of this process onto an urban landscape will occur in this case, as the site is read at multiple scales simultaneously. These same systems in landscape design are developed through the process of zoning and large scale moves, expressing the evolutionary and adaptable nature of the emergent/dynamical system. In this investigation, the architectural, urban, and landscaped readings and understandings of the dynamical system will be tested and merged within each discipline, and understood to physically graph the three-dimensional space to be read as a system that is growing, adapting, shifting, and hardening over a period of time into a multi-functional hybrid condition of programming, form, and flow.
The topological approach that this methodology exists within incorporates multiple readings of scale, flow, and distribution while still retaining its significance at each of these various scalar shifts, making the resultant project only overwhelming in its ambition, not in its application. The emergence of various smaller systems at each layer of the topography not only allows for the system to be influenced by outside forces, but also creates an inner realm of influence within each layer, allowing the true nature of the dynamical system to exist within the project. This nature being one of continual evolution and adaptable change over time, in relation to the aforementioned dynamical forces or influences. As these forces grow or lessen both outside and within the system, it becomes altered, and therefore adaptable as time progresses. As time in this type of system exists, each topological layer and each system which inhabit that layer, exist cohesively and simultaneously at inconsistent speeds, so the morphogenesis of each of these systems is different, and therefore the alterations within the larger project are also relative, sometimes experienced as subtle variance and nuance, and in other points extreme and grotesque. Iterations of this topography are created at these concurrent scales, and yet the newest iteration is only fully understood as the mapping of the previous layer hardens into a version of permanence.
The purpose within the New Orleans site is reclamation of space under the I-10 freeway at the intersection of N. Claiborne and Orleans/Basin Street through the dynamical system. The eventual solidifying of the temporary happenings within this intersection and the surrounding neighborhood in an adaptive way by proposing a market will not only come to serve the needs of the current denizens but as New Orleans and the people become altered over time, so too will the project and it’s mappings of these changes. The vehicle of reclamation is a multi-functioning marketscape, as its typology exists simultaneously in both a cellular nature and an urban-esque organization and format.
i feel like i can speak another language now.... thank you archispeak!!!
just kidding...
thesis due @ ASU(tempe, az) on monday BEFORE noon:
so i worked straight through from friday night to saturday on thesis...1 1/2 hours of sleep...so we(gerren, mo, and i) decided that we needed to call fedex and find out what their last pick up time was for our papers to be recieved at asu by noon...they said 3pm.
my plan: work on paper until 2pm, be printing the paper and burning cd by 2:30 so i could take it down to fedex/kinkos by 2:45--which is only 5 blocks away, not far at all--and then have it sent out by 3pm...
it's a good plan, and would have been better had i stuck to it a little closer...instead i was living in that show "24":
Saturday:
12:15--sitting in front of computer totally zoned out trying to come up with more diagrams that would help my now 10,000 word paper
2:24--sending my paper to print, all 51 pages, 10pt font, 1.5 spacing...
2:25--realization that moe sent a SINGLE GIANT pdf to print before my paper in the printing que
2:35--pacing in front of the color printer hoping that the computer guy will delete moe's corrupted file from the que so that mine can advance...
2:39--the computer guy finishes explaining the problem that the printer had with his file to mohammad
2:43--computer guy gets off of phone with tech guy saying that it would be another 15-30 minutes before he got there to restart the printer
2:49--gerren(roommate,fellow thesis pursuer) walks by and tells me that he has the address to send our papers to(ASU) and then disappears down a hall
2:51--i am now standing at the black and white printer getting the last pages of my paper from the tray
2:52--bounding down 4 flights of stairs in a shear adrenaline panic (remember still no sleep)
then SPRINTING FULL SPEED down the street with a paper-clipped thesis and 2 cds...
so at this point i look like a complete idiot, or criminal, with the intensity and speed of my running, that and people were staring at me as i ran past them...so i felt ridiculos and just started walking fast....then realized that my thesis advisors don't care how stupid i looked as long as i put my paper in their hands...so i started running again...full-speed...
as i am approaching the on-campus copy center(about half a block away) i see gerren literally burst through the doors and onto the street then begin to run full speed up the block...
i have 1 of 2 options at this point...start chasing after my friend and hope he knows what he's doing or go in and make sure he's right to be running to a different location....so i go in, ask the guy about the pick up time(by now it's probably 3:02-3:10) and he says the fedex guy already picked up the packages for the day and there's another fedex drop off up the street(another block and a half)---mind you this discussion and my pause took a total of
so I TOO burst through the doors back to the street and am at this point LITERALLY CHASING gerren up the street only around a block behind him...but i don't know where the other drop off point is b/c i haven't really slept and i didn't really pay attention to the directions the guy gave me....so i have to keep an eye on gerren to see where he goes...he slows down to start walking and so i start running even faster to try to catch up with him...when he turns into a building....
so i walk in about a minute to a minute and a half behind him, and gerren is asking the guy behind the desk if the fedex guy--who is there picking up the other packages--if he could wait 2 more minutes to add ours to the group!! GOT IT !!!
funniest part was when i was filling out the forms for the package delivery and i was so tired, so flustered, so pumped full of a mix of adrenaline and shear panic, that i not only forgot my phone number, i incorporated ALL THREE of my current addresses into one(1. dallas/ft. worth, 2. new orleans, 3. philadelphia) so it read as this:
4528(PA) Riverwalk Court(TX)
Philadelphia, PA 70118(New orleans)
so i got it in on time...with a great crazy story to boot...and i only have 1 more deadline for upenn before i'm done with thesis(only for the school's requirements) for the semester!! THEREFORE the song of the day yesterday was
"WEEE ARE THE CHAMPIONS MY FRIEND!!! DON DON DON DON, AND WE'LL KEEP ON FIGHTING TILL THE END, DON DON DON, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, NOOO TIME FOR LOOOOOSSSERRRS CAUSE WEEE ARE THE CHAMPIONS.......OF THE WOOORRRRLLLLD!!!"
Dec. 9th is the presentation for 5 jurors...i'll have a better victory song by then...promise!!
i've got QUITE a STORY for you guys about turning in my thesis....i've had 6hrs of sleep in the last 3 days so you'll have to wait until tommorrow...but it is WELL worth the wait!!
good night and have a great saturday night!!
erin
DRAWN TOGETHER// NEW ORLEANS VIA PHILADELPHIA: dane made these on yahoo and the funny part is that these really do incorporate more of the personality characteristics rather than physical characteristics
...me
....dane
.....gerren
.....jenn
....david(the only one NOT in architecture)
.....and mohammad
i would say that david's is the most accurate to both personality and actual appearance, and that jenn's is the most innacurate compared to actual appearance... mo's, dane's and gerren's are pretty close...
it's quite a house hold isn't it!! and yes, they put a country fair in my background!!
METAIRIE, Louisiana (AP) -- It's no ordinary holiday season in the Gulf Coast this year, so Frank Evans built an unconventional holiday display at a suburban New Orleans shopping mall to match.
He thought the tiny blue-tarped roofs, little toppled fences and miniature piles of hurricane debris in the display he builds annually for the mall struck just the right humorous tone.
The mall disagreed and told Evans, a landscape architect from nearby Gretna, to dismantle it.
"Although most people did enjoy the decorations, a few customers found the display to be in poor taste," said a statement issued Tuesday night by Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie.
------i thought it was funny, my favorite part: the "you loot, we shoot" painted on the refrigerator!!!--nice little touch!
