YAR LAASKO
Website of Yar Laasko (M.Arch 2009). Abstract cues + Sensory experience = Involuntary Experience.
ANASTASIA LAURENZI, DP BLOG (four images from a series of case studies of “transition” from Feb 17, 2009):
“In contemplating threshold as a point of entering or beginning, the act of the transitory space is the interest in this degree project. The understanding is that intention leads one through a threshold-a particular reason to pass through. In many cases there is a point when the same threshold is crossed again (perhaps in the leaving) but the intention is different. Using the word intention, an understanding of coming from and going to is used, the word perspective in one of its definitions. To study through perspective the direction one is going and then to look back at where one came from is the beginning of this project.
To understand the idea of the in-between and how to inhabit that place as an architectural space. What is the difference in living between two walls or inside of the wall. To use this idea as a physical understanding as well as an investigation in the aspect of time with the present being the mediating “space” of past and future”
See the complete set of case studies, which cover the work of Sejima, Rossi and Mateus (and an appreciable set of (hand) drawings!).
RISD ARCH STUDENT AWARDED 3RD PRIZE IN WHITE HOUSE REDUX COMPETITION
Arrielle Assouline-Lichten (M.Arch 2011) & Wayne Congar (founders/collaborators in lab\RAD) were awarded the 3rd Prize in the White House Redux Competition, run by Storefront for Art and Architecture in association with Control Group.
The following are some of their entry images (from WHR.org):
“WHITE HOUSE 2. 0 Since 1792 increased levels of opacity have been grafted onto the basic palatial template of James Hoban’s design, reflecting the public’s decreasing access to an increasingly complex U. S. government. Despite its relatively unchanged formal reading from Pennsylvania Avenue, The White House has been transformed from a built expression of Presidential power to a global emblem of cloistered politics and public inaccessibility evident in extensive subterranean additions and a shift in primary function from residence to storehouse of classified information. Currently, The White House is the final and most formidable roadblock prohibiting dialogue between the public and political power players. White House 2. 0 is an open-source solution, designed to facilitate a symbiotic information exchange between a global public of everyday experts and the U. S. government with the aim of creating more effective legislation and elevating the role of the public in the political process. Transparency penetrates the existing palace-cum-bunker typology by rededicating its existing computerized brain center to the input and output of public concerns rather than confidential information. White House 2. 0 collects and sorts public input, generating graphical and textual output to broadcast onto screens affixed to the interior walls of the Executive Residence and West Wing. After placing a concern, an individual can see the graph into which their input was incorporated, where it appeared in White House 2. 0 and, via webcams, observe high-level government officials analyzing the information, all in real-time. Similarly-themed output is broadcast within the same area of the building, therefore reorganizing existing programmatic arrangements and empowering the collective public voice to dictate circulation through it. In short, White House 2. 0 insists that Presidential and governmental power is dependent on streams of unrefined information input and active involvement from a public empowered by evidence that their voice is being heard.”
For additional images and information, go here, or visit, lab\RAD.
Structures of Weight and Light
ASHER ISRAELOW’s (M.Arch 2008) work, along with that of four others, will be shown at this event.
“We are creating separate pieces that will come together in the “Book by Book” bookstore at Hope Artiste Village. The installation is based on conceptual and physical juxtapositions. Each piece is executed in a different technique but all are revolving around the ideas of architecture, structures, weight and lightness. Come by and see for yourself what all of this means!
The reception will be held on Saturday, February 21st at Hope Artiste Village, 1005 Main Street, Suite 2233, from 3:30-8 PM. It is about a 10 minute ride from downtown. Bus number 99 (going down Main Street) will take you right to the entrance of the building! Stop by and enjoy the art, the people, the food, the drinks and the music.” More information.
GRAD, so to speak.
RISD’s three-year Master of Architecture program offers an intense course of study in an art school context. Emphasizing the design studio, the curriculum demands ingenuity, clarity and focus, and challenges those with varying degrees of experience in architectural studio work.
Graduate students take the three-semester core studio program, which involves group and individual efforts, digital production and hands-on building of structures. Technical and professional courses are complemented by advanced electives in representation/fabrication, history/theory of architecture and technologies/ethical practice. Courses are integrated with the Bachelor of Architecture curriculum and graduate students are also offered cross-listed Landscape and Interior Architecture, Graduate Studies and Liberal Arts courses, in addition to electives in the other fine arts and design disciplines taught at RISD.
current enrollment
graduate students: 96
undergraduates: 128
For more information, click here.
SOUND BUILDING (RIBA Submission by Robert Highsmith, B.Arch 2008):
Silence is an invention of the modern world; it must be measured from a stream of noise. Our senses adapt to inform us of our place, as sound creates a landscape that changes over time. Equilibrium is lost and gained, forcing us to reconcile our place; the body in the mind.
Acoustic research has necessitated the development of chambers to study the extremes of the sonic spectrum. Anechoic and echoic chambers exist that test the limits of our senses. The quality produced in these chambers modifies not only our perception, but affects the inner calibration of balance and utility.
A room, building, city, and ecology have a boundary condition that is static, yet activate a sonic quality. This quality can be profound, enough to affect our degree of consciousness. Geometry provokes a response to conditions; the flow of water and air, the movement of light, and the treatment of noise.
In the modern landscape, articulate sound is lost in a sea of noise. Yet this can lead to sublime experience. Meaning is constructed through the mental projection of sound into 3 dimensions in a world that is increasingly disembodied. Listening gives spatial awareness; the sonic world must be constructed and reconstructed.
The composer holds the privileged situation of listening and making. He sits at the task, in between looking and observing, hearing and listening; the latent and the dynamic. Instruments have historically replicated the human voice. They now replicate the modern condition. The chamber that he occupies should be both document and hope.
I set out not only to map the presence of sound, but to study the effect of sound on materials, and materials on sound. What I discovered was the aspect ratio of three-dimensional geometry; the infinite divisibility of material. I am currently translating these studies into a more defined set of orthographic drawings.
(also, see RH - archinect archive)
Thesis Advisor: Kyna Leski
