the [process] of making::

I enjoyed getting my hands dirty for this exercise.



I first created this version of the city grid. It's zoomed into the Diagonal Mar neighborhood. Although I had other plans for this model, the figure|ground made me realize the open space between buildings. While generally speaking, open space is a good thing, the vast amount makes this area of the city seem unfriendly and bare.

 

This model of the city helped me reinforce the strong diagonal cuts through the city grid. Furthermore, you can start to zoomin on the relationships of the surrounding neighborhoods of Barcelona--their integration into the grid and their outright rejection of it.



Laser cutting things can be tedious and super loooooong.

 

The left over negative space turned into a flexible Cerda gird.



The next step is to break this grid apart and start to show how different parts of the city break apart and form their own identity. Unfortunately, the little pieces I was working with are too small. Therefore, more laser cutting awaits...



When in doubt, just google it.

I'm going to try to take this approach as suggested on one website about thesis writing.

Subject: Landscape architecture

Topic: Investigation on [landscape] architecture's ability to be the connective tissue of two different urban fabrics

Abstract: This topic will investigate how a landscape can start to form a different perceived environment and change one's path and image of the neighborhood. It will challenge [landscape] architecture to integrate distinct urban fabrics of a city in a way that engages the public. Constructing more architecture for public use will not revitalize an area of the city if that architecture does not engage the public.... 

(to be con't)

Methodology: (I'm not sure if this methodology assignment is asking for what steps I will take to complete this project next semseter, or what am I doing now (this semester) to come to my conclusions. However, I will talk about my methodology for this week's assignment fur Thursday.)

I plan on analyzing a figure ground map of Barcelona, taking consideration where the city grid breaks away and forms new interstitial spaces, where it connects with open spaces, where new city fabrics intersect. I'd like to display this information in a 3D representation. Then I'd like to focus in on a particular location and begin to understand the type of people who live there and their neighborhood. 

Some outcomes that I hope to achieve:

-what do these neighborhoods lack when it comes to the "imagineablity" of their environment

-are their particular nodes or paths that are successful? which ones are not?

-what edges/boundaries exist there? can they be broken down?

Maybe the best way to represent this is is through a wire frame model of the city blocks...

Another possibility is through a cast of open|closed space similar to Rachel Whiteread's work...

what, who, why, when, how

1+3+9

An investigation into how [landscape] architecture can start to connect different urban fabrics of a city.

Urban fabrics are defined by the users through such concepts as nodes* (focal points), paths* (channels of travel), and edges* (perceived boundaries). By altering these elements [landscape] architecture can start to blur the lines between two distinct urban communities. These changes in the perceived environment can affect the "imageability*of a city, a term coined by Kevin Lynch that describes the qualities of a space that give the observer a strong and vivid image.

Barcelona is one of the most densely populated cities in Europe where there is little green or public space outside of the large parks surrounding the city (such as Park Guell, Montjuic, and the Parc de Ciutadella). Although the urban planning of Cerda aimed to include green space throughout the city, realestate potential for that space had diminished those opportunities. The shortcomings of the city where overcome in the 1980s thanks for the regeneration of city neighborhoods, a strategy for urban reform now known as the Barcelona Model. 

Nevertheless, the creation of the Olympic village for the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as the controversial Diagonal Mar urbanistic project in 1997 has polarized and gentrified the city. The compacted city of Barcelona has changed to a dispersed city in its southeastern region. This new district lacks public interaction, consists of large-scaled high-rises, and requires vehicles as a mode of transportation.

By understanding the specific connections that have been made with the architecture, landscape, social, and cultural structures of the city, the two different urban fabrics can be intertwined to diminish the existing polarity. Through architecture one can  change the perception of the two regions by addressing the addressing their edges and reconfiguring their nodes and paths. 

*sources:

-The Image of the City by Kevin A. Lynch

thesis v1.1.1

I could write something here to fulfill the assignment, but it would be BS. I kinda forgot about this blog post until recently, and since I'm not going until Thursday, I'm gonna take the extra day to gather my thoughts.

I want to read more landscape theory because frankly, I know every little and from what I know, this thesis should be based in theory and use architecture to test that theory, right?

I've looked at Maya Lin this weekend. Her work always fascinated me because she won a renowned competition as a senior architecture student at Yale. I love the simplicity in her work. She describes it as an art work often. I wouldn't categorize most of her projects as architecture, either. I know it is bad to think about thesis this way, but in the end, I want my final project to be simple and as powerful as Maya Lin's work. But how do you begin to design something like that?

I know what she's influenced by, but how do you take influences and turn them into research? (After Omer's lecture, I guess I know where to start--more books from the library until the topics are exhausted....)

I know the city my project will be located in-- Barcelona. As a country, Spain has seen its share of dictatorship, fighting, and cultural disputes. (Franco is such a touchy subject!) Public space is also very important to the city. (The city is so densely populated!)
So I want my thesis to focus on those things:
-public space
-memory of the past
-yet being able to move on towards the future... Progress!

Where to go from here....
thoughts welcomed. reading material suggestions encouraged.

architecture vs. andy

VS.

architecture is...

an expression of pop culture. Every few years or so, a new fad in architecture manifests. Currently, sustainable or green architecture is the new in-thing. Before that, it was blog-itecture, and previous to that, modernism. The list can go on. While architecture is evolving, normal, everyday architecture such as houses, apartment buildings, offices, etc. is stagnant and boring. Cookie-cutter houses are continuing to be built. Block buildings that house tenants or businessmen rarely challenge their architectural potential. It seems more economical to continue building what we are familiar with. Unless a building is high-profile, a museum, or other public institute, it rarely attracts the amount of investigation and research needed for its design and construction. Therefore, while architecture is meant to be for the masses, it ends up serving the elite, those who partake in augmenting their culture and education. Instead of being a fad or a billboard for the city, architecture should engage the everyday lives of each citizen on a conscious level and not in a passage way of merely providing shelter.