The Institution of the Frame: Relevant Translations and Connections between Physical Spaces and Cinematic Screens

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Description
Before the digital age, architectural representation in drawing resulted from two transformational processes: one happened with the author as they developed the drawing from an idea to material. The second happened with the viewer as they interpreted the drawing. In

Before the digital age, architectural representation in drawing resulted from two transformational processes: one happened with the author as they developed the drawing from an idea to material. The second happened with the viewer as they interpreted the drawing. In these processes, a particular medium, the frame, raises the status of ideas—the frame functions as an organizing principle that unifies the artist’s intentions and practice. Today digital drawing has mostly replaced annotated drawing, and in the exchange, the benefit of the frame is lost.This qualitative study utilizes a conceptual approach to observe the frame and propose a methodology to bring together the analog/physical frame and the digital/immersive frame. The study enters a dialog with the art theorist Rosalind Krauss who writes about the “Institution of the Frame,” and the art historian Svetlana Alpers who classifies two different modes of representing the world—the Albertian and the Keplerian. Following Krauss’ statement, the study argues that a frame is an act of excision. Inspired by Alpers’ classification, the study focuses on creating two modes of frames, the Alberti and the Brunelleschi. The Alberti mode considers the frame a veil—a two-dimensional surface. Brunelleschi mode observes the frame as a fold—a three-dimensional surface. The study utilizes several analytical methods: descriptive writing, graphic diagramming, and the production of drawings that unite the analog and digital as physical spaces and cinematic screens. These methods develop from the work of Luke Winslow in Frame Analysis, which provides a three-step “meaning-making process” to dissect multiple materials as an interdisciplinary framework. The study examines eight cases studies to identify systematic and generalizable principles, distinguish the relationship between analog and digital frames, and illuminate a strategy to build a delay in the process of thinking about architectural design in the digital age. The conclusion offers an approach for interfacing analog and digital frames in architecture while reflecting on the results, the significance of the interdisciplinary research study, and a position statement—the very essence of the research.
Date Created
2022
Agent

Sacrality of the Real: A Revelation of Architecture’s Sacrality through the Implementation of a Water Structure onto Arizona State University’s Tempe Campus

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Description

Sacred space creates a sacrality of the architecture it resides in. The research paper dissects and answers the thesis question, “what makes a space sacred,” through a research-driven design approach that delivers the thesis prompt, architecture must comprise of intentional

Sacred space creates a sacrality of the architecture it resides in. The research paper dissects and answers the thesis question, “what makes a space sacred,” through a research-driven design approach that delivers the thesis prompt, architecture must comprise of intentional design elements that create a physical, perceptual, and spiritual experience to validate its sacrality. The paper introduces research behind sacred architecture and its design elements, and questions how these design elements contribute to the validity of sacred architecture. The research infers that there must be an intentionality behind these design elements. The research leads to the analysis of three case studies that demonstrate the use of sacred architecture’s design elements and validates their purpose and intention. Peter Zumthor, Swiss architect, and two of his projects, the Bruder Klaus Chapel and the Kolumba Museum, demonstrate the use of intentional design elements through Peter Zumthor’s methodology and intention behind his designs. As well, the personal case study, the Holy Family Shrine, showcases sacred architecture’s design elements through the intentional use of symbolism. The analysis leads to the discussion of two design projects, Tabernacle of Humility and Campo, Sacrality Made Real, exhibit and support the analysis of Peter Zumthor’s methodology and works, along with the intentionality of design elements in sacred architecture. In conclusion, it is understood that with symbolic intentionality behind design elements, the sacrality of architecture is revealed, thus creating a physical, perceptual, and spiritual experience.

Date Created
2022-05
Agent

Mystery, Suspense, and the Space of Architecture: Two Rear Window Sequences and the Tempe Transcripts

Description

This thesis seeks to answer, how could architects design for mystery and suspense and how would the perception of those spaces change for the spectators? By looking into production designers, art directors, and screenwriters, specifically the film Rear Window (1954)

This thesis seeks to answer, how could architects design for mystery and suspense and how would the perception of those spaces change for the spectators? By looking into production designers, art directors, and screenwriters, specifically the film Rear Window (1954) by Alfred Hitchcock one can analyze their use of architecture as part of the way that they build mystery and suspense by making movies that can help test if architecture spaces that are originally designed for a different purpose can build mystery and suspense. This research re-creates one scene from the film in four different locations: three on Arizona State University Tempe campus and one in an apartment complex. These short movies tested in different architectural spaces as such as, entering and exiting of buildings, access under a building that restricts individuals from seeing who is coming in or out, enclosed architecture, and by having hallways that lead up to each other and not permitting the occupant/participant to see everything around them. After filming the movies were compared to each other and a set of drawings was made to understand important choices made in each movie. What this thesis comes to investigate are the movies which are tools architects can use in their design process. Instead of starting a project from a sketch, why not start it from a movie. As this thesis reveals the act of choosing a film, dissecting it, and re-creating the experience of the film in their own movies in different locations can create a unique project.

Date Created
2021-05
Agent

Neuroarchitecture and Synaesthesia- An Architecture of Atmpospheres at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport

Description
Architecture has an ability to shape us and focus on forms and efficiency yet frequently ignores relationships between the form and cognition. This negligence creates lost opportunities for creating a link between action and perception, embodiment and aesthetics, imagination and

Architecture has an ability to shape us and focus on forms and efficiency yet frequently ignores relationships between the form and cognition. This negligence creates lost opportunities for creating a link between action and perception, embodiment and aesthetics, imagination and empathy. Architecture is frequently not empathetic, lacking meaning to far too many people. Considering the application of neuroscience in architecture to nurture psychological and physiological response to architecture may be key to fostering healthy and positive relationships with space. Another connection that comes up in neuro-scientific research is how creativity plays into design and the understanding of design. Often, creativity is accompanied by metaphor, and neuroscientist Ramachandran is particularly interested in this. A curious phenomenon he has focused on is synaesthesia, Synaesthesia is a Greek-based word, syn meaning joined and aisthesis meaning sensation. It occurs when "Stimulation of one sensory modality automatically triggers perception in a second modality in the absence of any direct stimulation to this modality." Further, the study and application of synaesthetic properties can help achieve this goal. Through the application of neuro-scientific research directed towards architecture, "Neuroarchitecture" is a possible tool that can create architecture that invokes positive responses in occupants. Through the consideration of building elements, natural forces, equal understanding, and synaesthesia, "neuroarchitecture" can be successful. Thus, with the consideration of neuroscience and synaesthesia there is a possibility of understanding what creates the certain emotions that one experiences in a space, and why people like certain places more than others. In a lecture covering this topic at Arizona State University's Design School, designer Ellen Lupton showed graphic visualizations of musical synaesthesia. Bird calls were translated into exceptionally fluid ribbons of moving color that ebbed and crashed with the rise and fall of the bird call. If these experiences can be expressed through digital art, then there may be a way to express them through architecture. The project takes focus on the architecture of flux, limbo, and threshold, within the specific context of the airport. The airport is a one of a kind architecture. There is little to no other architecture that serves as a threshold from one city, state, and country to another, that is full of people from all parts of the world, and is a space of limbo. In the flux of the airport, the individual feels a multitude of emotions, joys, sadness, frustration, and stresses. Studying circulation, movement of both the inhabitant and the architecture of the airport, the project will rigorously question if architecture can be scientifically formulated to create mental effects or if they are a result of atmospheric qualities.
Date Created
2018-05
Agent

What's for Dinner?

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Description
Food’s implication on culture and agriculture challenges agriculture’s identity in the age of the city. As architect and author Carolyn Steel explained, “we live in a world shaped by food, and if we realize that, we can use food as

Food’s implication on culture and agriculture challenges agriculture’s identity in the age of the city. As architect and author Carolyn Steel explained, “we live in a world shaped by food, and if we realize that, we can use food as a powerful tool — a conceptual tool, design tool, to shape the world differently. It triggers a new way of thinking about the problem, recognizing that food is not a commodity; it is life, it is culture, it’s us. It’s how we evolved.” If the passage of food culture is dependent upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations, the learning environments should reflect this tenability in its systematic and architectural approach.

Through an investigation of agriculture and cuisine and its consequential influence on culture, education, and design, the following project intends to reconceptualize the learning environment in order facilitate place-based practices. Challenging our cognitive dissonant relationship with food, the design proposal establishes a food identity through an imposition of urban agriculture and culinary design onto the school environment. Working in conjunction with the New American University’s mission, the design serves as a didactic medium between food, education, and architecture in designing the way we eat.
Date Created
2017-05
Agent