Click here to contribute some news and happenings (and/or questions), or e-mail risdarchitecture@gmail.com.
Prof. Enrique Martinez opens his blog to submissions / collaborators:
“Form is now accepting submissions. This blog wants to be a participatory forum about the topic of form in art, architecture, design and everyday life and I look forward to including in it your images and thoughts.
Interested? Send me just one image (jpeg, 1MB max.) and a small text (250 words max.) of anything human-made that you consider formally extraordinary, explaining your reasons or making a statement about it. It could be your work or the work of others; contemporary, futuristic or part of the past; high or low, simple or complex; buildings, spaces, objects, experiments, everyday things, artworks, designs…just one image and a small text, so that we keep it brief for many people to participate.
Send your material to form@muchieast.com with your name, contact information and a few words about who you are, what you do and why are you interested in form.”
Also see his blog about OBJECTS.
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN PRINCIPLES students have been mapping Davis Park — the site of ADP09’s set of built interventions. All images can be viewed, by professor name, through DIGICATION.
Flip through the pages above for the COSTA RICA project objectives, design intent, models and renderings of the projects. For a larger version, click here.
MARIA ESCUERDO, DP BLOG
“This complex seems to have stemmed from the Japanese Metabolist Architecture Movement of the 60’s. Started in Tokyo, this group seemed to produce designs that were fueled by a belief in “demand and circumstance” in which the aesthetics of the orderly town square were rejected and replaced by a type of ad-hoc, organic architecture. It was an architecture built and left to grow organically throughout time with its residents, its bones never changing, but its overall fabric becoming subject to the wills of the public. The Metabolist Architecture Movement seems to have been a natural step for a culture that found themselves introducing modernism and industrialization to a massive sized population. It was not a question of designing for the individual, but instead of designing an object that could not exist without the masses… I am consistently drawn to projects that resemble the size and social interests that these buildings represent and how they manifested themselves into that style in those times. I hope to find a level of expression that is both characteristic of the time we are at and the conditions we find ourselves in and aspire to get to as a small Caribbean population.”
Read more about metabolism and “monsters”
Click above for studies/mappings of Davis Park, organized by studio critic.
NEW FROM THE JUNGLE / STATESIDE:
Hello all,
I’m cozy in Providence, remarking on the wonders of dry clothes and
the crackling smell of winter, lamenting the necessity of
moisturizers, baffled by the astonishing variety of milks in the
supermarket, and throwing toilet paper in the wrong basket.
You’re all probably wondering how the project ended. Well. The rains
never ceased. After I last wrote the gods continued to dump buckets
and buckets of water on our hamlet. I’m not talking about the
occasional drizzle; I’m talking about relentless twelve-hour
downpours. We couldn’t use power tools in the rain, and thus were
rendered powerless to the rains. Each morning we grew more glum, our
hopes of finishing washing away with the rains. We edited out half our
bleachers, knowing they’d be left with foundations only. The water
rose and rose over the week, so much so that one morning our abode
flooded. Two inches of water slowly crept past our patio and into our
kitchen until our floor glistened with a disconcerting sheen. All was
calm, but ill at ease until finally the slow watery ache began to
dissipate.
Monday broke the spell, gracing us with sunlight. (Never have I been
more thrilled with a forecast of ‘partly cloudy.’) We began to work,
as tirelessly as the previous rains. Within a day the main structure
of the community center was up, renewing a modicum of faith. The
threat of rain loomed, yet we allowed ourselves to dream a little, to
wonder what could be done if the rains could be staved off. So we cast
our dice and decided to go ahead with the full set of bleachers. Luck,
finally, was on our side and after two clear days, working sun-up to
sun-down, we finally hit the full potency of our thirtysome.
Throughout, the learning process has centered on ways to maximize
efficiency among 30 students, knowing when to stay mum and how to
dance between authority and obeisance. Both the community center and
the structure for the second set of bleachers went up faster than
anyone had imagined, so we began to put pressure on the bleacher crew
to install the wood bleachers. It was our final working day, Thursday,
and the bleachers were the only element that remained unfinished.
Though the boxes for the bleachers were constructed, they resisted
installation, citing the recent pour of the footings. We went ahead
and tested the footing with an expansion bolt and sure enough, the
back end sheared off. So, much to our chagrin, we were forced to leave
the final bolts unbolted. Local contractors have committed to
finishing the job, and it should be a simple half-day’s work, weather
permitting.
Thursday evening (our last night in Costa Rica) we had the
‘ribbon-cutting ceremony,’ so to speak, with the local community. The
whole southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica is basically one small
town, pulled and stretched along the coastline. Everyone showed up,
from the soccer coach to the masseuse to the mayor. A friendly soccer
match started off the night, followed by a huge pot of stew. We danced
the night away on our new boardwalk, grins and thankyous all around.
It was our first chance to catch our breath in a week of hard work,
and we had the opportunity to see first-hand how our structure was
used — where people congregated, which bamboo poles were used as a
playset, what we’d omitted (showers and changing rooms would have been
good). I will post more photos as soon as I have the chance.
Now I must jet off to the next big adventure, I myself can hardly
believe it — I leave tomorrow for Switzerland, where I’ll be spending
a semester abroad at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
(EPFL). Updates to follow!
love,
Laura
CRITIQUESREVIEWS: DEGREE PROJECT REVIEW NO:2 PROJECT by ANDREW LIEBCHEN.
CRITICS: Peter Taguri, Olga Mesa, Enrique Martinez, Pari Raihi and Thomas Gardner.
When it rains, it pours… ADP REVIEWS at Davis park. Hopefully the reviews weren’t as dreary as the weather.
An image from Team Tensegrity, setting up the day before: (you can find more images as they are uploaded, on FLICKR)
RISD ARCH IN COSTA RICA 2009
Images from the trip, or view the complete set on flickr.
In a span of just over four weeks over Wintersession 2009, several architecture students designed and constructed several interventions for the community of Cocles in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. Under the direction of Professors Silvia Acosta and Enrique Martinez, four interventions were constructed: new covered seating alongside the community’s playing field, a public meeting space, market stalls, and a bus stop. A student on the trip, Laura Blosser, kept everyone up to date about the happenings in Costa Rica. To read her travelogue (of sorts), click HERE.
Students from RISD Architecture, Furniture and ID who were involved with this project:
Someone started a class blog for ADP this year, to foster dialogue across the floor, so join if you haven’t yet. The critics for the class are Enrique Martinez, John Hartmann, Junichi Satoh, Olga Mesa, Peter Tagiuri, and Tulay Atak. E-mail Joseph Combs for more blog information.
Mateo Yang (B.Arch 2009):
“I have been observing closely how people interact with objects that allow them to create system that can become as expandable and flexible as they wish. the nature of the pieces that i have created allow for an infinite growth in many different directions. the primary directions of growth are horizontal and vertical.
that is why the focus of my first case study is the research of the relationships created in the order in which pieces are added and removed from the systems, and not so much the chaotic growth that can develop.
conclusions drawn from the observation of different combinations of building pieces are generalizations that can be applied into the study of our time’s construction principles. construction materials have been given a hierarchy based on its use and durability. is it possible to re-think these principles of constructions and create fully flexible and mutable spaces?
the term durability indicates that all materials have a lifespan. this lifespan can be renewed by the replacement of by repair. however, within the lifespan of building materials people also change alongside the rusting metal, deterioration of piping, replacement of floor surfaces, etc. is it possible to include the human factor in this time based cycling of materials?
…
(test) #4: four way system maximizing use of flexible multi directional piece. I have composed this one to create interior space and exterior space. because of the way in which pieces were connected a very regular way of substraction was allowed. top surface, side surfaces, and then the core were removed in that order. this study helped me figure out how to make the structure for case study #2 which tries to revert that order … “
