spatialtheorybreannadorman

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Week Nine Homework

What places are you most connected to?

In what ways might you be a product of your place? How might a 'local' and a visitor experience places differently? As designers, we're often visitors or outsiders to the place we're designing for. What might that mean for the way we design? What questions could you add to Lippard's list on p. 25? How do you think you could 'learn to look?' How can you acknowledge your own identity, culture, place, in your design practice? How can you acknowledge your own identity, culture, place, in writing about your design practice?

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Week Eight Homework

Who is Junchiro Tanizaki? Tanizaki was one of the major writers of modern Japanese literature and one of the most popular Japanese novelist.

What is commonly understood as ‘Mysterious Orient’? The Mysterious Orient refers to the uncanny silence of dark places. The dark sense that is given off from places which sunlight does not reach and how even as adults we get an uneasy feeling about it.

What does Tanizaki say happens if light is shut off? It revels a world of darkness and shadows, something which Tanizaki states in something that has been passed down from our ancestors, creating areas of shadows brings interest and in a way artwork.

How does the use of gold work in dark spaces? Gold works as a reflective materials and is able to illuminate light in a dark room. Tanizaki relates the gold to the woven thread in the priests clothing, this makes him illuminate within the surrounding environment.

Who is Lebbeus Woods? Woods was an American architect and artist known for his unconventional and experimental designs.

What other Visionaries does Woods sit next to? Wood sits within a large group of designers including Boullee, Sant ‘Elia, and Ferriss.

Why is his drawing regarded as visionary?

Identify the subject areas that Woods’ work addresses? 

What is Woods’ position in regards to light?

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Annotation 5

We Mustn’t Forget the Emotional Impact of the Buildings Around Us Daniel Libeskind (July, 2017)

Libeskind, D. We mustn’t forget the emotional impact of the buildings around us (July, 2017), CCN Style News. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com   Emotional impact, inspire, experience, personal connection, physical environment, memories, emotional responses,

“As an architect, it’s my responsibility to make a personal connection - - not just with the physical environment but how it triggers our memories and emotional responses.” Within this article Architect Daniel Libeskind (2017) explores the themes of architecture and emotion, by doing this he supplies the reader with a series of examples of architecture and expresses the relationship between these buildings and the way in which we feel. Libeskind (2017) explains that being able to create great successful architecture it needs to more than just functional and be aesthetically pleasing, it is required to have an emotional impact on those who experience it.

I choose this article as I find Daniel Libeskind an inspirational architecture whose projects captivate me in the brilliant and thoughtfulness way of designing. I find this article very useful as I now understand why I enjoy his work very much, he has thought thoroughly about the way in which we connect with all of his works. I’ve learnt that design which is greatly thought out is the creations in which most stand out to people and have a much larger impact on their emotions and memory. In Thomas Heatherwick’s (2011) talk “Building the Seed Cathedral” he mentions a lot that he believes that the most interesting designs are the ones which have been crafted with care and have a sense of meaningless, a belief Heatherwick (2011) and Libeskind (2017) both share. I consider this article by CNN to be reliable as the site is one of the world’s leading websites for news and is an article stating Libeskind’s (2017) views on architecture and the emotional impacts. Throughout the article Libeskind (2017) explains that architecture that has an element of care and has been well thought out are the ones that inspire us to feel touched and moved by these designs. Within my own practice of spatial design, I want to be capable of accomplishing projects where people are able to feel emotionally moved so that the final design will stay with them throughout their memories. From this article, I now believe some of the best designs are the ones which people can relate to or have an emotional connection to. we learn about history and architecture is the physical form of it, we learn by looking at a historical site without the use of words. I would like to incorporate these ideas into my current project where I am working with the site of the Arataki Visitor’s building. Within my design, I believe it would be emotionally impacting to pay tribute to the nature around the site, a historical place which is filled with the culture and history of New Zealand. Creating a structure which achieves this goal would not only give people a sense of the significance of the site but would impact them emotionally and give them recognition of the many issues within the site without being told and using words.

Thomas Heatherwick. (2011, March) Building the Seed Cathedral [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com https://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_heatherwick?referrer=playlist-architectural_inspiration&language=en#t-184127

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Annotation 4

Why Design Should Include Everyone Sinéad Burke (2017)

Sinéad Burke. (2017, March) Why design should include everyone [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com https://www.ted.com/talks/sinead_burke_why_design_should_include_everyone#t-572802

Independence, disability, autonomy, physical environment, society, excruciating experience, accessibility, accommodate, dignity, function, human rights, vulnerability, responsibility. Writer and editor Sinéad Burke (2017) has a common disability of dwarfism and explains in the Ted Talk video “Why design should include everyone” how difficult for a person with a disability it is to live and have a normal life in today’s society. She mentions in the video the difficulties of moving around a large airport to the most simple of tasks such as sitting on a chair. Design or the lack of it for people with disabilities in public has caused this worldwide problem which results in people losing their independence and being quite unsafe as public environments are not always fit for them.

This source has been very useful, as I cannot experience what it would be like to have to deal with these problems every day. Burke (2017) states many times throughout the video that designs which are not suited for people with disabilities are unsafe and takes away freedom, independence as they always have to rely on a second person to perform the most simple of tasks. I believe that it is true that people would feel a lot more vulnerable in public space and that it would be very demotivating to go out into public because of the world not being designed or suited to fit them. I consider this source reliable as it is only Burke (2017)sharing her life experiences and difficulties so that people can become aware of the issues people with disabilities face. The objective this source is to challenge designers to not only accommodate one type of disability but to all, as design impacts everyone's lives even though they may have disabilities.

I found the video very eye-opening in the sense that these people have to go through life and put up with these issues whereas a designer I could potentially help solve. Burke (2017)has helped me identify that design is not only a tool to create spaces which are aesthetically pleasing but to make sure that it is functional for all. Spaces and environments should not be a place where one feels vulnerable or unsafe, it should be a place where that person is able to have a positive experience. Within my own practice, I would like to take this knowledge to create spaces which accommodate for all, so that every human can feel at ease and that they belong within the space. Overall I believe this source has changed the way I see design within space and my own practice as its main goal was to give a new perspective on design, I now feel that there is a much greater responsibility as a designer and to ensure that everyone feels as if they have their own independence and dignity within spaces I create.

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Annotation 3

Building the Seed Cathedral Thomas Heatherwick (2011)

Thomas Heatherwick. (2011, March) Building the Seed Cathedral [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com https://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_heatherwick?referrer=playlist- architectural_inspiration&language=en#t-184127

Craft, inventions, soulless, cold, materiality, fine detail, less energy, fabric, format, structure, aesthetics, efficient structure, cost efficiency, experience, nature, optics, illuminates, texture. The Ted Talk video of Architect Thomas Heatherwick titled “Building the Seed Cathedral” explores the many unique designs he has created with his studio. As a child, he had always been intrigued with the delicate craft of materials and the invention process with small-scale items such as jewellery. Designing buildings Heatherwick (2011) aims to incorporate these aspects and create architecture with a sense of materiality and soulfulness, where the building has been carefully thought out and has meanness within the design.

I found this source very useful as it gives me an insight into the world of architecture. Heatherwick (2011) within the video explores his many designs and how each one is carefully created to fit the environment it is in and how it will be most beneficial. He also tries to make most of his work eco-friendly, working with the environment and how to utilise it and cost efficient so even the poorest of places can still have beautiful pieces of architecture. I believe this video source is reliable as it comes from Ted Talks a well known online website which goal is to spread ideas through powerful talks which have been running since 1984. I also believe the talk Heatherwick (2011) gave is reliable as he talks about his own projects he has established and has been named one of Britain’s most significant designers. The objective of this talk is to inform people of his studio’s designs so that people can be aware of creating a future where buildings are more beneficial to the environment and public around it and to explore more unique materials which are uncommon in today’s architecture. This is so designs can become more thoughtful and so that people will have a more significant experience within these spaces. I find this source very helpful within my own practice, I consider the process of the invention, craft and the exploration of materials extremely important. These are processes every designer needs to go through in order to create and develop a design which is well thought out. I think being able to produce designs which people are to have a positive experience within is something very important in my own practice. To do this Heatherwick (2011) states that spending time within an environment and seeing how it operates enabled the designer to create the best beneficial design for that environment. I can relate to this through my studio work as I have had to come up with designs for Arataki Visitors site. Visiting the site and seeing how people interact with it as well as where nature is located on the site and the cultural significance of the place has helped shaped the way my designs have been developed. This is so my final design can be most beneficial to the site and help solve some of the problems the Arataki Visitor’s site faces. Heatherwick (2011) talks a lot about materiality and how he uses unusual materials which have a function and purpose for being incorporated into the design, I believe I could utilise this new design method into my own practice to ensure my final design has been thought about in all different aspects.

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Annotation 2

Beyond Wilderness and Lawn (1998) Michael Pollan

Pollan, M. (1998). Beyond Wilderness and Lawn. In Jen Jack Gieseking, The People, Place, and Space Reader. (pp. 273-277). Oxfordshire, England: Routledge. Dominate nature, civilization, designated wilderness, preserving wilderness, invention, urbanization, ideology, collective landscape, civic obligation, environmental consciousness, awareness

Beyond Wilderness and Lawn wrote by the American author, Michael Pollan in 1998 explores the ideology of the mundane chore of maintaining lawns as well as making comparisons between this and the preservation of the wilderness. This text also challenges the human perspectives concerning nature and the changing attitudes we have towards it, stating that at one point in history the wilderness was seen as a place in which humans did not belong, ending up in the disappearance of a large portion of nature.

Most of the world’s land today has been used or destroyed to benefit humans and to fit our needs of cities and suburbs, yet we still like to harness small areas of nature such parks or lawns so we are still able to be in touch with nature. Pollan(1998) has helped me understand the ideology of the everyday art of mowing the lawn, something which we humans do not think about, yet simply accepts. It is a task most people perform which requires energy, only for the grass to grow back later. The idea of lawns is universal. Pollan (1998) argues that people perform this labour in order to gain a sense of domination over nature. I find it interesting that mowing your lawn has now become a shore which is expected from society, Pollan (1998) states “One’s lawn should contribute to the collective landscape” (Page 276). Overall I find this text very useful into understanding a task in which society has accepted and has become a custom which everyone is involved within. Michael Pollan is aware in the text of the decreasing size of wilderness left throughout the world, he mentions it briefly saying that society does not know whether it should dominate nature and clear space for human use or to leave it for a place away, disconnected from society where people can, if needed escape to. Within my own practice, I find this ideology quite intriguing, there was a shift between societies attitudes towards the wilderness where it could start to imagine wilderness as something beautiful and therefore began to preserve it. I know from designing for a site which works with preserve the wilderness it can be challenging as you want people to become aware of nature and more environmentally conscious yet at the same time not harm nature and still try to protect it, keep it disconnected from society. I believe this is a design challenge I will have to incorporate into my own current projects so that society can somehow be integrated within nature yet still separated at some extent.

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Annotation 1

Orbits of Earthly Bodies   Rebecca Solnit (2005)

Solnit, R. (2005) “Orbits of Earthly Bodies.” Writing Places, edited by Paula Mathieu, et al. New York: Pearson/Longman. Transportation, suburbanised places, life unnatural, restrictive places, cosmic time, global inequality, frontier individualism, public luxury, pedestrian space, new urbanism, coexisting, human-scale, vehicular prosthetics, primordial wilderness, multiethnic, eclectic.

Throughout the text, Solnit (2005) discusses many issues with modern day transport while also mentioning the positive aspects that it has provided us humans with. Many factors influence where we situate ourselves, Solnit (2005) writes that “We decide to live and the lifestyle we can experience and sustain in those places are intimately tied to transportation issues” (Page 192) This meaning that we live and visit places we most times find easy to get to, places that are most accessible to us. In today’s world, it is so easy to use transport in the means of getting to places fast in comparison to the past where simple trips today would have taken a lot longer and would have been much more difficult, as well as uncomfortable. Solnit (2005) then goes on to talk about the countryside, describing it in most detail and revealing it to be a place a lot more relaxed, and a place where she can have time to herself which is a lot more slowed down than the city life.

This source is quite useful for understanding what life is like in America, in an urban city compared to the countryside. It also explores the idea of transport and how it disconnects us to our surroundings including nature. Living in the countryside is where you are supposed to be most relaxed and connected with nature, yet with modern day transport, it separates us from being able to fully achieve this. It also mentions that transports shape us, our experiences in life and where we are located. We as humans want to live in places which are easy to get to and where your family, friends and other communal locations are. I find this text reliable as most of the points discussed within the text are based around her own experiences which she mentions a lot, stating that she dreams to live in the country, as well as her experiences from living in an urban environment. I found this text slightly biased as she only lives in the city, she would most probably have a different point of view if she already lived in the countryside, maybe wanting to live more in the city as places are a lot closer there than they are in the countryside. I found this text helpful into understanding different locations people live in and the desire to live in a contrasting environment that humans already live within. This is useful for me and my studies as I might want to design spaces for people in the future to incorporate both of these places, so it meets in the middle of an urban environment and the countryside. I also found it interesting about how transport shapes us and our environment and how the idea of the “New Urbanism” ties in with this issue, so humans do not have to travel far, that they only need to stay in one location to reach all of their needs.

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Week Five Homework

1)What is the great irony about living or holidaying in the countryside that Solnit points out in the first few paragraphs of her article? Living in the countryside is where you are suppose to be most relaxed and connected with nature, yet with modern day transport it separates us from being able to fully achieve this.
 2) Solnit is trying to burst some of our illusions about the countryside. What are some of the common illusions that we have about living or holidaying in the countryside? 
Solnit talks a lot about animals and nature while discussing the countryside in the text, she mentions that it is a lot more relaxed in the countryside and a place where she can have time to herself, a place which is a lot more slowed down than the city life.
 3) What are ranchettes? What does Solnit mean when she says that “ranchettes seem to preserve the frontier individualism of every-nuclear-unit-for-itself; they’re generally antithetical to the ways in which community and density consolidate resources”? 
A small ranch or large home lot, often on the outskirts of a major metropolitan area and just past the planned neighbourhoods, consisting of 40 acres and a house and possibly a barn or other outbuildings.

 4) What is the “new urbanism”? (193 bottom) Look this up. Why is Solnit ambivalent about the new urbanism? 
The New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. Solnit brings this up in the text as this New Urbanism design movement eliminates or reduces the need for transport and all the locations humans need will now be in a close enough area for walking. In the countryside before transport these locations were relatively close as people usually lived together in “small towns” ( basically an old version of new urbanism) 
 5) According to Solnit, how have we tended to define nature? What’s wrong with this way of defining nature? (p. 194 bottom) 
We see nature as a forest or the outdoors, somewhere where we are disconnected or away from, yet nature isn't where we live, it isn't natural for us to live within nature anymore. We are more relaxed living in houses and and in urban areas nowadays 

 6) What’s the problem with the term “pedestrian-scale”?  
In the city and areas created by humans, everything has been created and made to fit the function of humans where as in nature or the countryside it is not like this, nature does not grow to fit humans
.

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Week Four Homework

What are the aims of Andrew Denton’s paper? The aim of Andrew Denton’s paper it to create awareness of the relying on fossil fuels in todays world and the impact it has on the environment.

What research methods does Denton use to produce his films? Denton uses a range of different methods within his films, such as: -No composed music. -Horizontal and vertical camera movement. -Slow motion cinematography  -No added visual effects How do his chosen methods seek to advance his critical position on climate change? Does climate change factor in your consideration of design (cradle-to-cradle/sustainability/ longevity) Climate change does factor into design, being able to design spaces and structure we want them to be as economically-friendly as possible and waste efficient. Choosing materials also plays a large part in design as choosing a natural material which is able decompose by itself is much more suited for todays world compared to one that isn't. Who is Timothy Morton and what is his position on ‘ecological thought?’ Timothy Morton who is a professor and Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University believes that we as humans have and ideology that we are seperate from nature, that we are above it. Morton argues that we are not seperate from it, that we are still apart of it, he prefers to use the term ecology instead to nature. What tone of voice is this article written in? The article is written in a very much emotional and dark tone. What is a “hyperobject”? Hyperobject, a term which Morton uses describes objects which humans can not touch, mainly referring to global warming

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Week Three Homework

Who is Alfred Gell? Gell was a British social anthropologist whose work involved in art, language, symbolism and ritual. 

Who is he writing for? Where/when did he work?  During 1879 Alfred Gell worked at the London school of economics

What are the three technical systems he refers to?  The three Technical systems in which Gell refers to are the Technology of Production, Technology of Reproduction and Technology of Enchantment. 

What is magical thinking? Magical Thinking is when and event that occurs, yet does not have to have any explanation to it or logical thinking. Gell explains and links magical thinking back to the three technical systems.

Consider how magical thinking might have a place in your own practice?  I believe that being a designer magical thinking is involved within the process of design a lot of the time. We have thoughts and ideas that sometimes seems as if they come out of nowhere (magical thinking) as a result we can end up with final products that can be very far from our initial idea yet could be more successful. 

Who is Jennifer G. Khan? Who is she writing for? Jennifer G. Khan an  Archeological anthropologist writes for the Rapa Nui Journal.

How does she analyse posts as “ritual attractors” in Austronesian “House Societies?” Khan explains that these posts are mainly ritual and symbolic and are a way for people to connect or get in though with gods or spirits

Do you have/know of a context/s where ancestors/deities/spirits are placed in domestic interiors (consider temples, shrines, niches etc....) where possible, provide examples. Having studied classical history for a brief time I am aware that in ancient civilisations many important or rich people where buried in shrines. In ancient greek history many temples were build to worship as pay tribute to the great Gods which at the time played a large part in their society. From my knowledge I believe that today in some societies we still use tombs, mostly for rich families so that they can all be buried together. This custom has been going on for centuries, from the beginning of humans.

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Week Two Homework

1) Who was Gaston Bachelard? Bachelard was a French Philosopher who created works within the fields of poetics and philosophy of science. 2) When and where did he work? He was a professor at Dijon (French city) in 1930 to 1940 and then became head of history and philosophy of sciences at the Sorbonne (University of Paris). 3) What were his key research areas of interest? Philosophy, History, Science, Art, Literary theory and Education.

4) What do you understand by the term ‘Dialectic’? The form of investigating of discovering the truth of a subject. If two people had different views on a certain subject the dialectic is the method to discover the truth of this subject.

5) Bring in two materials or images: one that suggests a “hypocritical hostility to softness” and a “provocative invitingness to hardness” Most woods are soft enough to cut/shape and are quite malleable yet it is still a solid, hard material as it is sable and a key material used in building and construction. Concrete starts off as a liquid and hardens with time and exposure to air until it becomes a solid material, therefore it has a sense of “invitingness towards hardness”.

6) Consider what types of materials you have used in your studio and how you have worked “with the grain” or against the grain of the material (have some been easy to shape (more malleable and willing) while others are more stubborn or intransigent?) The wood we have currently been using in studio is quite a softwood as it is oak, it is easy to shape/cut even though we were cutting against the grain and is still very stable. Although I found it hard to nail smaller parts especially towards the grain as the wood splits. 

7) What is psychoanalysis? How does psychoanalysis help us understand our relationship to the material world? Psychoanalysis is a form of mental therapy which is a treatment for many mental health disorders. It theorises that the human personality can be split into two parts, the conscious and the unconscious mind, every day these two things are constantly in conflict with each other. Psychoanalysis can be related through to the material world as the conscious and the unconscious mind are responsible for our primary wants and desires, and knowing what is right from wrong. It also helps understand that your upbringing and past experiences can help shape your personality now as well as what you like and dislike.