Buoyant Forces ALICE semester program 2009/2010 Bachelor Second Year EPFL / ENAC / IA / ALICE

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1 Buoyant Forces ALICE semester program 2009/2010 Bachelor Second Year EPFL / ENAC / IA / ALICE 1

2 REALITEES PARALLELES; probing (to break through the surface) the material (real/physical) and the digital (virtual). - existing in essence or effect though not in actual fact; "a virtual dependence on charity"; "a virtual revolution"; "virtual reality" - not physical - Something which is a representation rather than the real thing, thus virtual reality - Existing only in software. - Not real. Something which is virtual has no physical basis itself but mimics a physical object in conceptual terms. For instance, on the Web you ll find graphical representations of buildings which you can walk through using your mouse. Such a building is a virtual building and it may be part of a larger virtual world. ALICE-Semester-Program 2009/2010: Buoyant Forces 1) Studio introduction: But the horizon, the skyline, is not only a launch pad. It is also the very first littoral, a vertical littoral, the one which absolutely separates the void from the full. (P. VIRILIO, OPEN SKY) Space has seen many changes in its conception and in its embedment into culture. Though being a seemingly common property of architecture, its notion and concept are rarely addressed directly. Other aspects, such as tectonics, structure, materiality, as well as function and economics tend to dominate the architectural discourse and often leave space as a residue of the many tasks that architecture is asked to perform. If the notion of space is being shifted from a conception of a spatial totality towards a conceptual exploration of the environment like stated in contemporary art, the idea of space has to be reconsidered: Can a processual knowledge of space be implemented in architecture and embody again as a primary criterion for architectural production? the entire history of quattrocento perspectives is only ever a story of struggle, of the battle of geometers vying to make us forget the high and the low by pushing the near and the far, a vanishing-point that literally fascinated them, even tough our vision is actually determined by our weight and oriented by the pull of earth s gravity, by the classical distinction between zenith and nadir. (P. VIRILIO, OPEN SKY) 2) Studio concept: In recent times, the size of our geophysical earth is constantly being challenged by the technological near (tele-technology/ modes of transports) against the physical far. Our old planet has shrunk and continues to shrink into a reduced and comprehensive object. Our experience of journey (or travel) both physical and mental is being unintentionally eradicated by the loss of intervals and temporalities. As Theodore Monod wrote: Nothing is more depressing than already seeing from the place you are leaving the one you will reach later that day or the next. On the other hand this presents us with a fresh viewpoint that we cannot directly occupy: This agravitational horizontal windows scanning over and over the earth surface; humankind s third eye. How could architecture not only engage but possibly create resistance to this new frictionless world with those new technologies in hands? Could architecture still perform not only as a conductor of flows, but also as a working against the grain of the ever smoother, the ever faster, while remembering the earth pulls us? 2

3 3) Approach to the project In the first semester, the studio will start by probing buoyancy and its direct implications in the conception of architecture; buoyancy initially in a physical and spatial sense and being observed later in the semester in its social, cultural and political consequences. Definition: In physics, buoyancy is the upward force on an object produced by the surrounding liquid or gas in which it is fully or partially immersed, due to the pressure difference of the fluid between the top and bottom of the object. fig. 1a buoyancy diagram for fluids fig. 1b buoyancy diagram for gas 3

4 Semester 3: Borderlands The project In semester 3 we will develop inhabitable structures addressing bordering conditions between land and water. We will start with initial experiments on buoyancy in order to understand physical forces at work, how they impact in the physical world and how these findings can inform a responsive architectural project. The investigations will be conducted by the means of the traditional tools of the architect: model, plan, section, as well as through the parallel implementation of computational technologies (2d and 3d modeling software). Through the course of this semester, we will develop design proposals with specific programs: first the development of an architectural screen, built up of varying modular elements; and secondly a transition from land to water and vice versa. In addition you will elaborate further programmatic components and experiences that this transition may put forward. (submarine surfacing) 4

5 Phase 1: Fluid States (Week 1 to 3) Week 01 /sep 16/17 The semester will kick start by exploring the properties and forces implied in buoyancy in the form of a built experiment. The idea of this physical construct is to declare buoyant forces at work (performing in a dynamic state). This should be thought of as an architectural experiment projecting spatial characteristics of emerging phenomena and not as a mere scientific tool. Observe the mutual relation between the physical substances involved and their behaviour. Engage in transient states: diving / surfacing / launching / landing Keywords: Pressure difference/ gravity/ density/ mass displacement/ fluid/ solid/ liquid/ gas/... On buoyant force: Project duration: 1 week Project requirement: 1 physical model presenting the group s conceptual proposition on buoyancy Deadline: see attached calendar 5

6 Week 02 /sep 23/24 Design development of the physical construct Articulation of the concept(s) of the physical construct for the recording phase Drawing in time (issue of representation) (photo: Etienne-Jules Marey) We will initially revisit the physical construct by recording its changing behaviour in time (motion) by means of drawing sequences disclosing a spatial representation of buoyancy at work (forces) through time. This study will focus on the invented space of negotiation between immersed object and receiving substance. Time is intended here as a section of time rather than linear time with a beginning and an end. Issue of representation: Drawing extraction from experiment in contrary to caricatures of the experiment. Scale at this stage is relational. The choices of drawing representations will be key and specific to each group s ideas (top view, side view, sectional drawings, ) What is motion? In science we define motion as the change in position with time. How fast an object changes position or the rate that an object s position changes with time is called the speed. If we know both the direction in which an object moves and its speed, then the combined direction and speed are called the velocity of an object. When either the speed or the velocity of an object is zero, then there is no motion. 6

7 Presentation: Fluid States Week 03 /sep 30/oct DPS (drawings per second) of the physical construct Project requirements: - physical construct - working models - conceptual drawings from the construct - flip book/animated drawings disclosing in time the spatial transformations of the construct. - manifesto on buoyancy - source-book (to be up-loaded at least weekly) > 1 blog per tutor Guest critics: tba (photo: Etienne-Jules Marey) 7

8 Phase 2: Screening the Intangible (Week 4 to 7) The second phase of the studio will focus on the cast of a tectonic element and its relationships to as well as its differences from its various neighbours in order to allow a field of varied components to make up for a vertical screen. Screening the intangible is the general program and the students will be asked to elaborate further on this notion (What? and how?). What is being captured and processed through the architectonic screen (porosity versus opacity, mass/void, positive/negative)? Verticality here has an active correlation to gravity; our complement to buoyancy (fig. 1a) and therefore could become an activator to the project in its own right. The environment the screen faces may also have a relative influence on how it behaves. (i.e. Erwin Hauer s architectural screens) (parts: a modular system by Erwin Hauer) Definition: Intangible: screening: to screen: - not having physical substance - incapable of being perceived by the senses - sorting, filtering, transmitting - to protect, to divide, to conceal, to reveal, to select, to project, to retain 8

9 Week 04 /oct 07/08 Thinking in negative: learning techniques for the cast of an element (mould making). - How can a mould adapt or adjust itself to allow for changing neighbours (repetition of differences as opposed to repetition of the same element throughout the field)? - Variants: Geometrical investigations as well as their physical translations will be studied so that it can be implemented in the making of an adaptable mould for varying outputs. (mould for a chair) (mould in boat-making) 9

10 Week 05 /oct 14/15 Fielding the elements The strategy of how an element is conceived and how it differs throughout the field will have an effect on its overall spatial articulation. This will become a critical moment for the notion of gravity and the concept on screening to be fully tested. Week 06 /oct 21/22 Design Development and construction of an articulated field (vector field) screening the intangible (invisible forces). (form finding model for the new Stuttgart Train Station, Frei Otto) 10

11 Presentation: Screening the Intangible Week 07 /oct 28/29 (Screen at Pfarrkirche Liesing, Erwin Hauer) Project requirements: - physical model - working models - drawings - manifesto on buoyancy - source-book (to be up-loaded at least weekly) > 1 blog per tutor Guest critics: tba 11

12 Phase 3: Borderlands (Week 8 to 13) In the last phase of the semester, we will shift our plane of reference from vertical to horizontal and utilize our previous investigations to further develop a human scale structure marking a transition between land and water. The interplay between gravity and buoyancy on both solid and liquid ground will become the focus of the design project. The site will be on a water edge. The initial program is the transition between land to water and vice versa. In addition, the students will be asked to develop further what type of programmatic components and experiences this transition may put forward. (Diller + Scofidio, Blur Building, Expo 2002, Yverdon) Week 12 /dec 02/03 Presentation DESIGN PROPOSAL Project requirements: - physical model - working models - drawings - manifesto on buoyancy / program - source-book (to be up-loaded at least weekly) > 1 blog per tutor Guest critics: tba 12

13 Final Presentation: Borderlands Week 14 /dec 15/16 (Diller + Scofidio, Blur Building, Expo 2002, Yverdon) Project requirements: - physical model borderland - working models - drawings - manifesto on buoyancy / program - source-book (to be up-loaded at least weekly) > 1 blog per tutor Guest critics: tba 13