Week 10

The Skin we Wear

1st Skin.
Skin is a master at integration and multi-tasking.  It is the enclosure that holds our insides in, connects to our structural system to give us form, and renews and heals itself all while continually performing several functions.

3rd Skin.
Following are some examples of ways our 3rd skin (building) can perform some of the functions of the 1st?

sources: 
 Oswald, Rachel.  "How Your Skin Works".  How Stuff Works.  Dec. 2009. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
"Skin." National Geographic. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.


 
Body focused design theory and application
Richard Neutra is an example of an architect whose design theory and process was centered on the human body in space. The article:
        The Modern Interior and the Excitation Response:
        Richard Neutra's Ocular-centric Phenomenology
describes his use of sensory stimulation to move the body through space.

Richard Neutra ‘described his architecture as serving to choreograph the sensory and emotional responses of the human body’ and claimed ‘the most important purpose of design was to control the senses to clarify the body’s position in space.’  Neutra based his theory on the theories of psychologist Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt.  In Neutra’s theory, the eye is central and can activate involuntary, predictable responses in the body (excitation response – reflex).  Wundt proposed that the eye’s reflex muscles are connected with the contraction of the muscles for head movement.  Neutra interpreted this as sight being a precursor of movement – ‘if the eye is involuntarily drawn to see something, this will trigger the head to turn towards that visual stimuli, which will in turn change the direction the entire body is moving.’  Neutra used the interiors of his domestic work as laboratories to apply his theory of the eye as surrogate body. Two examples of this application of his vision and movement theory are illustrated in diagrams of the Kaufman Desert House.

The first image is a perspective view from a point inside the house

The second image is an isovist diagram showing the original directional path (red), a minor visual path (white) and the visual directional reflex path (blue) directed towards a major view.  

Again, from another point in the house towards the pool and landscape beyond.

source:

Ostwald, Michael J., and Raeana Henderson. “The Modern Interior and the Excitation Response: Richard Neutra’s Ocular-centric Phenomenology.” (2012). Scientific and Academic Publishing. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.

It seems to me that the reflex/excitation response would dull after a short time and the initial newness wears off, especially in a place like a home where a lot of time is spent and the same views are seen frequently.  Temporary installations, flexible framing of different views, or less frequented/repeat visit spaces would be more effective uses of this strategy.


Program and site
I would like to develop the idea of 'how to wear a building' with a place for people. I am considering the possibility of a combined school and community center project located in an urban location in Boise to introduce a new school typology and form to an area with a very traditional pattern of school building - an opportunity to design outside the 'school box' and have an influence on the educational and community experience of children and their families and neighbors.

The Curtis site is embedded within a residential neighborhood and the Franklin site is at the edge between residential and commercial (an area identified in Blueprint Boise to be developed as a community activity center).
I also need to look at where the Boise school district's school needs are as well as where a community center could be located and desired by a community for more site options.

I will continue looking at building skin precedents, including low tech and vernacular responsive skin strategies, and begin studying the history of school building.

Week 9

What Does it Mean to 'Wear' a Building 

The construction and wearing of clothing involves materiality; fit - to the body and to the use; comfort, personalization, adaptability, tactile and emotional experience, and behavior.  All of these can also be applied to architecture and to wearing a building. 

A building need not look like clothing or a textile - it can perform/function like clothing or even like a skin. The skin of the body is the 1st skin - its basic functions are protection, regulation, and sensation.  Clothing is the 2nd skin, providing protection to the 1st skin and the body. A building can be considered a 3rd skin, providing protection/shelter for the 1st and 2nd skins of the body.  Other things we wear, not as skin, but more like accessories are vehicles, furniture, prosthetics, and technology.  In actuality, cars/vehicles could also be considered a 3rd skin because we may spend considerable time within them and they function similar to a building but with a closer identity to personal space and use like 2nd skin clothing. 

 We 'wear' our 1st and 2nd skins very personally - completely engaged with our skin, and closely engaged with our clothing. The 3rd skin takes more effort by the designer to create a space that can engage the human body/occupant.

some examples of not engaging spaces: 

and examples of engaging spaces:

Next:  How can the 3rd skin (building) function like the 1st skin?  

Week 8

Fitting Fashion to Form

A Study of Pleating or 'Clothing' Architecture

The shell/enclosure of the Taichung Convention Center by MAD was designed as a a pleated skin consisting of concrete and glass.

Pleats are made by folding a material and fastening or pressing to hold the shape of the pleat.
A woven material (a pleated skirt) or a stiff material (a paper fan) contracts and expands longitudinally (with the pleats) easily, retaining the integrity of the pleats.

But attempting to bend across the pleats causes kinking and the integrity of the pleats is lost.

Pleats made with these materials (woven, stiff) are linear, create their own form, and are suited to octogonal surfaces.





 Pleated Wedding Chapel By Hironaka Ogawa

A pleated knit material has more flexibility, contracting and expanding longitudinally as well as bending and draping to conform to curvilinear (body) forms.










                                                                 Shell-knit coat by Issey Miyake




Pleats can be created and morphed in a variety of patterns for interesting textures and forms. The Taichung pleated form looks like the pleated skirt of the woven material and would be made of a stiff material (concrete, glass) but acts like the shell-knit pleated coat - conforming to the curvilinear structural form.  The designers used pleat variations to create a skin that appears to stretch while conforming to the constraints of pleats.

Interesting forms can be explored with paper folding.  Advanced origami techniques and the geometry of straight lines can be used to achieve curvilinear forms with stiff material and linear pleats.

 

At this point it is time to put fashion aside and move on to other ways to look at 'wearing' a building.