Re: brian's
<Overview… Electricity… E-World… E-Epoch… E-Infrastructure…
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"In reflecting the intellectual preoccupations of the age architecture
may even be felt to have clarified the main issues of the day by
providing simple visual equivalents, assimilable by the populace at
large, to ideas that would otherwise have been freshly available only
to an articulate minority." (4.5) and
E L E C T R I C I T Y = F O R M
while i agree the ideas expressed in architecture, from the past to the present, do absolutely reflect the main issues of each historical period, it is a stretch to think the general populace is assimilating those issues and recognizing them in the built world. this would extend to electricity as architecture, in that the masses don't visualize it (indeed, their ability to visualize is almost null). the amount of explaining i have to do to get such points across to the general populace in my classes serves to emphasize the critical void between the articulate minority and the general population. my students range between 18 - 25 or so, once in awhile an older returning adult, but essentially even they are visually illiterate. after taking just one required semester of "art appreciation" its naive to believe their understanding will make a giant leap forward, but i do try to get them to at least think in visual terms and recognize its importance. in a years time, i'll teach about 240 students , and have been teaching here for 5 years, so thats 1200 people. in one section of the curriculum i've designed, each student must describe and analyze their visual regional environment. this occurs about mid-way through the course. its clear their visual world is centered on transportation, eyesores standing out from the normal landscape, and the amount of "ma" in between built architecture. those students living in the more rural areas north and west of the dallas/ftworth metroplex are much more content with their visual environment. those closer in complain of clutter and confusion and frustration. while the AE grid would elminate this difference in physical analysis, the awareness of it as architecture doesn't seem likely to make sense to them. how would their ability to see this form be a positive architectural awareness for them? will it eventually preclude any notion of classical architecture on the land as significant to existence and expressive of culture?
Re: WTC memorial designs
all the renderings are visually appealing, especially the coloring techniques and differing visual points of view!
images relating to Stonehenge are very compelling, maybe because i consider most of nyc already a ruin. the cathedral wall, if buried, may be appropriate. worshipping the old way of life instead of recognizing its demise? that just doesn't seem a good solution to me. how to design private reflection and analogy to sacrifice?
Brian Carroll's WTC Memorial(2) drawing
design-l 7.02.05
The above concept sketch from your sequence of drawings is the one that appeals to me the most, as does the explanation
<'footprint 1' (WTC 1 memorial) which is a cube that rises
into the park, and has a complex access on a sloping axis.
the rendering seeks to show its embeddedness in the park,
as a footprint, primarily (though it is actually its own
separate building in the site, a pure form in relation to
the larger construction, an independent structure, etc.
it is entirely made for circulation and navigation and
egress, vertical, horizontal, across, over, and through.>
Cosmic Mound version is interesting to me, but i keep wanting to go back to green nature for solace and memorial significance, rather than trying to manipulate and construct as in bolders and crystals and viewing the remnants of the cathedral wall. does this make me a modernist? the george segal populated sculptural installation invites viewers to participate in the spectacle and literally relive it, which is very overtly graphic, although relating each victim to an actual occupation within the larger scope of sacrifice is an interesting concept. lots of individual survivor "hands on" possibility as you suggest, but overall it seems to me to be a bit baroque? all the figurative sculpture would be easy for the masses to relate to, however. kind of like the counter reformation.......masses would come and participate in the sacrifical "passion" of 9/11.
Sphere by Franz Koenig as a main focal point of this "passion" experience provides even more dramatic realism.
most difficult part of the design process to me is to decipher the actual goal of the memorial. why should it exist? what cultural communication wants to be expressed? and, who wants to express it? like mexican culture -crosses on the side of the road to memorialize the actual place of death. what has died? is it only the individuals in the building?
As to the overall masterplan and eventual built phases, my main suggestion is that everything be kept low and as organic as possible. materials such as concrete that allows plantlife to grow over it seem appropriate as a possibility and this is in keeping with the whole issue today of recognizing our way of life as a ruin - seeing into the future. relates not only politically but also eco-environmentally. these views are not the rah rah we will prevail mentality everyone wants to hear and see. money trail probably won't allow this view to see the light of day....its too bleak to accept? maybe its all part of the "ma" of our .us dominance, the interval inbetween something else? the emptiness as form.
but emptiness isn't a marketable way to make money?
cheryl
<Overview… Electricity… E-World… E-Epoch… E-Infrastructure…
E-Order…A & E Towards Æ…
⇒ A & E # Definitions # Precedents # Issues>
"In reflecting the intellectual preoccupations of the age architecture
may even be felt to have clarified the main issues of the day by
providing simple visual equivalents, assimilable by the populace at
large, to ideas that would otherwise have been freshly available only
to an articulate minority." (4.5) and
E L E C T R I C I T Y = F O R M
while i agree the ideas expressed in architecture, from the past to the present, do absolutely reflect the main issues of each historical period, it is a stretch to think the general populace is assimilating those issues and recognizing them in the built world. this would extend to electricity as architecture, in that the masses don't visualize it (indeed, their ability to visualize is almost null). the amount of explaining i have to do to get such points across to the general populace in my classes serves to emphasize the critical void between the articulate minority and the general population. my students range between 18 - 25 or so, once in awhile an older returning adult, but essentially even they are visually illiterate. after taking just one required semester of "art appreciation" its naive to believe their understanding will make a giant leap forward, but i do try to get them to at least think in visual terms and recognize its importance. in a years time, i'll teach about 240 students , and have been teaching here for 5 years, so thats 1200 people. in one section of the curriculum i've designed, each student must describe and analyze their visual regional environment. this occurs about mid-way through the course. its clear their visual world is centered on transportation, eyesores standing out from the normal landscape, and the amount of "ma" in between built architecture. those students living in the more rural areas north and west of the dallas/ftworth metroplex are much more content with their visual environment. those closer in complain of clutter and confusion and frustration. while the AE grid would elminate this difference in physical analysis, the awareness of it as architecture doesn't seem likely to make sense to them. how would their ability to see this form be a positive architectural awareness for them? will it eventually preclude any notion of classical architecture on the land as significant to existence and expressive of culture?
Re: WTC memorial designs
all the renderings are visually appealing, especially the coloring techniques and differing visual points of view!
images relating to Stonehenge are very compelling, maybe because i consider most of nyc already a ruin. the cathedral wall, if buried, may be appropriate. worshipping the old way of life instead of recognizing its demise? that just doesn't seem a good solution to me. how to design private reflection and analogy to sacrifice?
Brian Carroll's WTC Memorial(2) drawing
design-l 7.02.05
The above concept sketch from your sequence of drawings is the one that appeals to me the most, as does the explanation
<'footprint 1' (WTC 1 memorial) which is a cube that rises
into the park, and has a complex access on a sloping axis.
the rendering seeks to show its embeddedness in the park,
as a footprint, primarily (though it is actually its own
separate building in the site, a pure form in relation to
the larger construction, an independent structure, etc.
it is entirely made for circulation and navigation and
egress, vertical, horizontal, across, over, and through.>
Cosmic Mound version is interesting to me, but i keep wanting to go back to green nature for solace and memorial significance, rather than trying to manipulate and construct as in bolders and crystals and viewing the remnants of the cathedral wall. does this make me a modernist? the george segal populated sculptural installation invites viewers to participate in the spectacle and literally relive it, which is very overtly graphic, although relating each victim to an actual occupation within the larger scope of sacrifice is an interesting concept. lots of individual survivor "hands on" possibility as you suggest, but overall it seems to me to be a bit baroque? all the figurative sculpture would be easy for the masses to relate to, however. kind of like the counter reformation.......masses would come and participate in the sacrifical "passion" of 9/11.
Sphere by Franz Koenig as a main focal point of this "passion" experience provides even more dramatic realism.
most difficult part of the design process to me is to decipher the actual goal of the memorial. why should it exist? what cultural communication wants to be expressed? and, who wants to express it? like mexican culture -crosses on the side of the road to memorialize the actual place of death. what has died? is it only the individuals in the building?
As to the overall masterplan and eventual built phases, my main suggestion is that everything be kept low and as organic as possible. materials such as concrete that allows plantlife to grow over it seem appropriate as a possibility and this is in keeping with the whole issue today of recognizing our way of life as a ruin - seeing into the future. relates not only politically but also eco-environmentally. these views are not the rah rah we will prevail mentality everyone wants to hear and see. money trail probably won't allow this view to see the light of day....its too bleak to accept? maybe its all part of the "ma" of our .us dominance, the interval inbetween something else? the emptiness as form.
but emptiness isn't a marketable way to make money?
cheryl
