Demo as Thesis - blog post

Demo Set as Thesis - Sept 15 Presentation Boards

Demo as Thesis - re-define and redline

House as Thesis - Blog Post

House as Thesis - Sept 8 Presentation Boards.

selfDerivation* - Initial interests in self-sufficient systems and applications of resource extraction.

Constructed Ecologies - Paradigm Map Redux

The Paradigm Map is a collection of sources that have directly influenced the progression of thought associated with our independent thesis investigations. Key ideologies or other salient characteristics of each source have been extracted and summarized as key terms that describe our individual and commonly held interests. The connections that are made when individual lineages overlap and combine reveal new opportunities for each respective line. The three lineages are color-coded by author; the strength and importance of each path and source to their owner is reflected through their line quality. (Collab w/ J.Blair and C. Roussel)

Thesis within Paradigm

The thesis within the paradigm...almost (collab. w/ j.blair and c. roussel)

What I've Been Reading...

A lot of reading. A lot of trying to understand and absorb. I need to force myself make some important decisions and commit to a direction. The paradigm map assignment has really opened the floodgates in terms of sifting through the abundance of resources available and trying to figure out if they are even applicable to my interests, which seem to become more fluid with exposure to more resources. My interests lie within the composition of constructed or "artificial" landscapes (which are truly just layers of ecological systems/but what landscapes are not artificial?). I want my thesis to projectively position new-age stewardship through innovative tactics which understand a landscape as an infrastructure of ecologies: Landscape as a synthetic conduit between complex ecologies. I have always been interested in the theory and measurement of "registry" within the landscape. Registry becomes the interface which emerges as a result of impact or augmentation.

Thesis as Abstract

Definitely a work in progress...

Artificial Systems: Future/Present Landscapes
Thesis Abstract Statement

Artificial Systems: Future/Present landscapes, positions itself critically between historically modernistic beliefs that ecological systems are inherently closed-loop and self-sustainable entities, and the contemporary notion that the natural environment can no longer maintain itself from the impacts of urbanization, which is now dependent on stewardship of the human species to mitigate these impacts. Our self-reliance is not a sustainable method of operation, which relegates the human race to providers of reactionary measures and preventative tactics of further degradation, an infinite and unobtainable task. Historically, modernism brought to light that context was vestigial to the autonomous system, which could be hermetically sealed in a bubble to protect itself from entropy. Current research states that ecologies successfully exist due to their co-dependency on spatial networks, which foster interaction in order to maintain biological heterogeneity. Artificial Systems projects that present and future ecologies must be designed and maintained via responsive techno-artificial ecosystems which can filter, monitor, and adapt to successfully reclaim landscapes through interaction within a network of constituents - ecologies as sustained through designed patch dynamics.

Artificial Systems: Future/Present Landscapes will question the relationship between man and nature. It will measure the efficacy of stewardship principals such as restoration, reclamation, and conservation applications in the modern disaster-prone world, leveraging advanced artificial landscapes as modes of adaptation. It will answer such questions as: If ecological systems must become artificial, to what extent should their technologies reference their biological precedents? How can these artificial landscapes remain compatible with humanity and promote inhabitation? What are the architectural and societal implications of an adaptive landscape? How can marginalized ecologies benefit from the deployment of modifiable parameters within a designed system? This research and design development intends to investigate the potential of intelligent defensible systems and the construction of artificial environment.
Artificial Systems will ground itself in historical as well contemporary theories, science, research, principals, and projects, which will act as a supportive structure towards its agency within the discourse in terms of its projective nature. A.S. will test grounds and situate itself within multiple scales of specific arenas to which it will be deployed, becoming a form of projective scenario planning or adaptive ecological management. Through this methodology this thesis will seek to absorb theories/data and represent them through an array of tools which will test man's registry within nature. Ultimately, interests lie in hybridizing the digital and physical, utilizing interaction through Processing software - a code-based tool used to spatialize data, which can manipulate actuators in a micro-controller called an Arduino processor.
The artifacts that A.S. will produce will balance between levels of dimensionality and representation. Works will consist of complex data-logical mappings, interactive prototypes, physical assemblages, and computer and hand-based drawings.

Site as Thesis Boards

Notes from Site as Thesis review to follow...

Operationalizing Artificiality

Site as Thesis Pinup

BLOG RE-TITLE

artificial systems: SITE AS FUTUREPRESENT LANDSCAPES

This title is a nod towards an article in AD magazine, Landscape Architecture Site/Non-Site - Operationalizing Patch Dynamics (2007) written by Victoria Marshall and Bryan Mcgrath. The project reveals an urban design approach to the city as a dynamically populated system, incorporating ecology theorems which I want to extract and study.

For my thesis, I want to re-appropriate the knowledge that I am gaining from my SNRE class- Human Dominated Landscapes, which I decided to take because the course is primarily focused on ecologies affected by the urbanization and the human element. My term paper topic I have designed is meant to bridge this class with thesis research, which is entitled:"Ecosystem matrices and mosaics- The use of Patch Dynamics design on polluted riparian borders."

This fascination with controlled energies/artificiality began after research and reading done about the vast invisible infrastructural systems which are continually breaking down within urban rural gradient. A measure of the extent of influence urbanization has on a previously native landscape.

At the beginning of Bruce Mau's 'Massive Change', he states "For most of us, design is invisible, until it fails." I placed this quote on my first 24x24 board because, I feel this it begins to break down the current state of affairs which exists between failing ecosystems and the human species. We are now in state of infinitely "declining" ecologies which we are deemed responsible for continually maintaining.

Site As Thesis Text:

past conditions:

reminiscent of the modernistic bubble-dome environments proposed in the 60’s & 70’s, a time when crisis became the framework for a reaction-based architecture. this modern model sought to capture and sustain ecoligies, severing them from their fateful surroundings. ecologies were to be hermetically sealed in amorphous bubbles, an iconic symbol of a closed and self-sufficient system.

On the second 24x24 board, I begin to set up the thesis argument with another quote from Mau's "Massive Change" -

"Most of the time, we live our lives within these invisible systems,

blissfully unaware of the artificial life, the intensely designed

infrastructures that support them." - Bruce Mau

The words intensely designed infrastructures and artificial life resonate with the development of my thesis in respect to my critique of the modernistic approach to siphon ecosystems from their environments in order to allow them to "survive". Disaster architecture and bubble domes engulfing systems and cities embraces the traditional belief that ecological systems are self-sufficient closed loop processes. My argument is that contemporary science has proven biological ecologies are co-dependent on patterns of intersection in order to maintain equilibrium and heterogeneity.

Site As Thesis Text:

future conditions:

It will no longer be sustainable for the human race to act in ecological stewardship for the remainder of our being. the design of future landscapes must embody technology-based functionality, with ecologically driven science. complex artificial ecology systems developed as spatially cohesive open resourceloops will be able to respond dynamically to an imbalance in the ecosystem equilibrium through employment of the concept of patch dynamics.

Review Thesis Presentation Critique

This post is in-part to display my reactions to the presentation critiques and also to allow me to get back into the verve of consistent posting and research.

I feel that the review was helpful in a sense that it let me get this project out of the confines of my head and out in the open (as was the purpose of the project). Although, I feel that I perhaps got too focused on the manifestation of the idea into physical and purported form. Trying to fit it into a house/barn obscured the thesis. My goal was to investigate the ways that scenario planning and adaptive management (reviewer coined terms) could become the methodology of the creation of an architectural intervention. With the emergence of the desire to revolutionize building methodologies, I wanted to implement virtues of a closed loop system. A sort of cradle to cradle "liturgy". It ultimately appeared ideological and holistic (but I don't think that that is necessarily a bad thing). Comments from the gallery were relegated to the discussion of 'Closed Loop' systems vs 'Open Loop' systems which is where I want this thesis topic to be driven, a further understanding of Systems Logic thinking. "How big can the closed loop get until it breaks? When should it become an open loop?" Ultimately, such a large topic promotes deeper delving.

Lexicons 7.0- Easterling

Organization Space - Keller Easterling

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[Topic Based]

Organization- (n.)

Uses- Organization Space / Organization Infrastructure / Organization(al) Expression / Active Organizations / Organizational Architecture ... etc

Organization as Team - aka Organization

1. A group or association of people which are unified under a single voice

Organization as Configuration - aka Organizational Space

2. A structured assembly of previously non-linear parts

Organization as "type" - aka Organizational Architecture (a composed array)

3. A structured order in operations

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[Descriptive/Active]

subtraction- (n.)

1. Removal of redundancies to open alternate avenues

2. A reduction of quantity

3. Withdrawal

Lexicons 6.0- Smithson

A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey - Robert Smithson

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[Topic Based]

Territory- (n.)

1. A region of land, bounded by either physical or social elements

2. A designation of space, time, memory, or being.

3. An area (land or water) that is in possession by an entity

Quote:

"'Was I in a new territory?...it could be asked if the country does in fact change - it does not in the sense a traffic light does." - Smithson, 72

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[Descriptive/Active]

anthropomorphic- (n.)

1. Engendering human qualities in order to describe or assimilate an inanimate object

heliotypy- (n.)

1. A term used in photography to describe the transferring of images from photographic negatives to gelatin plates, which are then pressed onto paper.

In Smithson's Terms -

2. The state of the suburban landscape which has been created through the impressions of the images of the romantic 'suburban' ideologies.

Quote:

" a kind of self-destroying postcard world of failed immortality and oppressive grandeur. I had been wandering in a moving picture that I couldn't quite picture..." - Smithson, 72

Lexicons 5.0- Wigley

Recycling Recycling - Mark Wigley

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[Topic Based]

Prosthetic- (n.)

1. An extension of the physical/ metaphysical self which allows one further experience

2. The transitional avenue from single being to complex system. A projection of self.

3. An artificial appendage, integrated into the body; often used to supplement physical shortcomings

4. The phenomenon that contemporary human life requires a multitude of technological devices to exist

Quote(s):

"The prosthetic body grows into a landscape, a terrain that can be occupied. Each successive extension of the body transforms the space it occupies...the human flesh is but a transitional event in the continuous redistribution of energy." - Wigley, 40

"..the accelerated growth of the prosthetically extended body necessarily leads to networks of overlapping technological systems that envelop the planet as a single system." - Wigley, 40

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[Descriptive/Active]

Mobilize- (v.)

1. To activate, disrupt stasis, and gather kinetic flows of energy

2. The assemblage of a troop for war

3. The institutionalization of movement in space

4. The advancements in technology which allow us to be fluid in location

Quote:

"Everything is mobilized. At one moment, the house is described as a "mobile extension of the house." All the accessories of modern life become housing elements. 'Car, boat, plane, motel, vacation cabin, trailer, restaurant, theatre, etc., are extended home roofs." - Wigley, 43

Lexicons 4.0- Sloterdijk

Air / Condition - Peter Sloterdijk

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[Topic Based]

latency- (n.)

1. An inactive state of existence and potential

2. The condition of being repressed or un-manifested

3. Dormant, Hidden, Acquiescent, Suspended

Quote:

" Before long many moderns appeared to have forgotten Hegel's fundamental principle of modern philosophy, whose analogue in aesthetic production would be: that the depth of a thought can be measured only by its power of elaboration - otherwise depth is no more than an empty symbol of unresolved latency." - Sloterdijk, 75

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[Descriptive/Active]

Greenhouse Effect- (n.)

1. The natural phenomenon that the earth allows the sun's radiant heat through its atmosphere, which is then absorbed in the ozone layer to maintain temperatures suitable for life.

2. The effect that radiant heat from the sun will pass through the glass to be absorbed by the surfaces inside and then retained inside by the glass casing.

3. Thermal gases such as water, vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone, which are trapped by the earth's thermal blanket atmosphere

Quote:

"Life as we know it is contingent on the fact that, thanks to its atmospheric filter, the earth's surface lives thirty-degrees beyond its means. If people are...pupils of the air, then the clouds are their tutors." - Sloterdijk, 91

Lexicons 3.0-De Landa

A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History - Manuel De Landa

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[Topic Based]

Meshwork- (n.)

1. The tendency for discrete nodes to combine through their evolution to create a robust, linked system of networks

2. A network that allows each individual member to be its own entity, yet still is able to communicate with the overall infrastructure of the system

Quote:

" The railroad and the telegraph, for example, meshed well not only with one another (amplifying each other's strengths and compensating for certain weaknesses), they meshed well in the larger context of the circuit." - De Landa, 81

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[Descriptive/Active]

Internalize- (v.) economics

1. To independently absorb financial anti-market affairs through a company's own structure

2. To not require a contractor for business. (ie. a company funding their own research laboratory)

3. To develop a simple asset and transform it to become a universal commodity

Quote:

"...a process of internalization by investors was behind harnessing of the gravitational energy of Niagara Falls, and it was the latter that transformed electricity from its limited role as a source of illumination to that of a universal form of energy." - De Landa, 89

Ontario Food Terminal

Recently, I have been trying to understand commercial food operations, and found this excerpt from a book called 'food', a compilation of articles about the global food industry and economy. This specific article, written by Pierre Belanger and Angela Iarocci, focuses primarily on the Ontario Food Terminal and the role it plays as a hub for an expansive global network of food distribution.

Living Precedents 2.0...Plasma

Plasma Studio (their site), is a not so recent, but still regarded as an up-and-coming design firm based in London, UK. Recently posted (July 29) on the online design blog, ArchDaily(their site), is a single construction photo of PS's International Horticulture Fair Complex. The project, naturally described as Flowing Gardens, is described as a "..large master plan that blends architecture, landscape, and circulation into one system using a network of organic paths."

Here is the project, previously posted about a year ago on ArchDaily, although I have selected to excerpt some images below.

http://www.archdaily.com/24306/flowing-gardens-plasma-studio/

The design is to be located in China's Xi'an City, and will be comprised of a "500 sq meter exhibition hall, 4,000 sq meter greenhouse, and a 3,500 sq meter 'gate building'". All situated on 37 hectares of landscape.

All Images are courtesy of Plasma Studio

The folding/faceted planar shapes of the architecture is reminiscent of extreme Libeskind-esque angular forms. But I would rather discuss the master plan and design intentions charged with task of blending architecture, landscape, and circulation. The concept behind the branching building locations is Plasma Studio's desire to program and place their buildings in a fashion emblematic of an estuary biome.

An estuary biome (Its ok, I had to look it up too), is a

"transition zone between river environments and ocean environments and are subject to both marine influences, such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water; and river influences, such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The inflow of both seawater and freshwater provide high levels of nutrients in both the water column and sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world." - Wikipedia / Mclusky, D.S.

Not knowing the final design beyond the beautiful renderings, I would truly hope that the buildings do not superficially represent the dynamism of a estuary biome by merely replicating its tendency to bifurcate like a root-system. It is interesting that PS would use the principles of an estuary as a metaphor for the horticulture museum, as an estuary is a platform and a breeding ground for the enmeshing of disparate ecosystems. The ocean meets fresh-water, mixing sediment and nutrients to foster incredible amounts of growth. I hope this will not be lost within the museum walls as it is an incredible opportunity to not just mimic a system such as an estuary's shape, but extract its catalyzing principles of confluence, dispersion, enmeshing, and growth.

Lexicons 2.0-Kwinter

Wildness - Sanford Kwinter

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[Topic Based]

Self Organization- (n.)

1. The phenomenon that the structure of a complex system is not driven by a single authority or design, but comprised of several interacting components that work together seek out the evolutionary process of the system. An increasingly difficult process to predict and define.

2. A pattern with the ability to become "robust, adaptive, and flexible" through a randomized organization of intricate parts. See [Tree Branching Algorithm]

3. The process of a spontaneous evolution solely within the forces of a complex system and not of an external force. Can also be compared to the phenomenon of 'Emergence', which 'Self Organization' is a subset.

[Self Organization through bird "flocking"]

Quote:

"...intricate systems can most effectively be built up messily, in steps and layers, from approximate rather than in one fell swoop of assembly. Indirectness, is appears, is actually the secret to to achieving a robust, adaptive, flexible, and evolving design." - Kwinter, 187

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[Descriptive/Active]

Jungle-ize (v.) pg 187

1. To remove any form of consistency or formality from a system, allowing the raw and unbounded forces to interdependently become dominant.

2. A tactic that does not follow any form of rules or law.

Quote:

"...the intuitive capacity to move fluidly between tactical and strategic modes in relation to fluctuating conditions..." - Kwinter, 187

Living Precedents..

Cornbelt 2.0

http://infranetlab.org/blog/2010/05/corn-belt-2-0-syncing-the-starchscape/

Sifting through articles on food production, I have stumbled across Matthew Spremulli's thesis project - "reField". Interestingly enough, Matthew's focus for this project revolves around agricultural production, mainly corn, in the midwestern or "cornbelt", sector of the United States (A string of states comprised of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa). Matthew takes a closer look at corn production and determines that the majority of corn produced is a species called "Yellow Dent", which just so happens to contain very little to nil edible nutrients in its raw form, but most be processed via the corn processing plans (illustrated below) in order to change into an edible format. He delves into ethanol energy production as a remedy for the large amounts of by-product created through this process to form a closed loop system. Cradle to cradle.

all images were produced by Matthew

Hopes for the Future:

Hopes For The Future: Restoration Ecology and Conservation Biology

Andy P. Dobson, A.D. Bradshaw, A.J.M. Baker

ScienceMag.org (25 July 1997)

http://legacy.lclark.edu/~heathere/Dobsonetal97Science.pdf

Recently, I found this article from an online scientific magazine [sciencemag.org] regarding the topic of 'Human Dominated Ecosystems', which describes the effects that humans have on the natural habitats and ecologies of our environment. What was most remarkable were the charts and graphs provided that illicit the drastic effects of the ratio of 'population : degradation'. The article primarily focuses on the developments in restoration ecology (the practice of mitigating and remediating the ill-effects of an ecology marred by humanization) and their positive qualties when paired with conservation biology (the practice of preventing such effects through design). I view this article as a primer towards my research, as it features ecologies, restoration, biodiversity and their relationship with humanization and agriculture.

Lexicons...Unite!

Eidetic Operations and New Landscapes - James Corner

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[Topic Based]

Cultural Geography- (n.)

1. The effect or impact that social/cultural forces have towards the development and evolution of the surrounding natural environment.

2. A landscape that is not a result of prior schematization, but one comprised of multifarious and often unforeseen occurrences that alter the shape and dynamic of the physical scenery.

3. The proverbial 'land' or 'space' that exists within the vast borders of culture, not necessarily homogenous in shape, density, or size. Can stand as a metaphor for cultural timeline and dissemination throughout the world.

Quote:

"[t]he visible forms [of the land] and their harmonious integration to the eye, may indeed be a constituent part of people's relationship with the surroundings of their daily lives, but such considerations are subservient to other aspects of a working life with and community. The composition of their landscape is much more integrated and inclusive with the diurnal course of life's events ...." - Dennis Cosgrove

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[Descriptive/Active]

Synoptic Objectification - (n.)

1. A brief view that does not allow the viewer to fully recognize the complex realities of the scene.

2. The mind's ability to decontextualize and externalize authenticity from a general view, idealizing false emotions of utopia and nostalgia, displacing actuality momentarily.

Quote:

"The net effect is personal withdrawal and nostalgia for the presence of the past , both of which are rooted in aestheticized -- rather than a productive, useful, or engaging --landscape experience." - James Corner

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Beginnings...

Hello all,

I suppose I must dust this off and begin. I suspect that my title may fluctuate throughout the term, as would any 'good' developing thesis topic. Right?

I entitle it thus far, "Agro-ecologies and Architectural Relevancies", as I am interested in the value and relevancy that 'architectures' (defined here as the human species' ability to manipulate, adapt, and design the physical and/or built world) have within the ecologies of commercial agricultural production. It is widely known that today's commercial agricultural practices greatly contribute towards negative ecological effects, rendering soil seemingly unusable and mitigating opportunities for sustainable production through biodiversity. My interests lie in the commercial farming sector because I feel that the production and/or shortage of agriculture lies within the nexus of the most important crises that we will see in our lifetime. Above almost all necessities, the way we grow, harvest, and ship our food will continually remain one of the most precious commodities we have. In the end of this, I would like to see an architecture that recognizes this immediacy.