stairs

the stairs are a little construed, i am refining the staircase and modeling a module to determine where the wall voids will be in sensitivity to the light casting upon the staircase and occupants. the step thickness (concrete + steel grid) will also be determined by the shadows/light flow

staircase sample

light transfers through glass fiber concrete wall.

use of glass fiber concrete wall may not be suitable for an exterior skin- rather interior walls. another transculent material will be used for exterior facade, sand blasted glass as a curtain wall.

glass fiber + concrete

http://optics.org/cws/article/research/19184

"LITRACON", by Aron Losonczi.


To achieve the transculence of concrete, this architect embeds glass fibers into concrete. the shadows casted by the inhabitants of my project can be seen on the other side of the wall. combining this technology with opaque concrete allows me to visually reveal and conceal the person in motion- just as I can reveal and conceal sound; which detects motion audially.

"The hope is that the new material will transform the interior appearance of concrete buildings by making them feel light and airy rather than dark and heavy.

Losonczi, a 27 year old architect from Csongrád recently came up with the idea while he was studying at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm, Sweden. After demonstrating the material at design exhibitions all over Europe he has now formed a company to commercialize the concept.

His new company, also called LitraCon, is now optimizing its manufacturing methods and hopes to start selling prefabricated blocks of the material later this year."

dichotomy of materials

adolf loos- staircase, villa moller.

in my project as a person walks up stairs, there is the opportunity to momenarily have ones path revealed to them upon each step; not knowing who may be on the stairs ahead. a narrow staircase asks two people, when meeting on the stairs, to decide, who is going to let who go ahead. these opportunities allow a step to the side to form a space within the staircase. these platforms, or 'vessels' branching off from the staircase reveal something about the project otherwise unnoticed. 

the relationship between two people on the staircase is translated materially through the systems in which the staircase is made. steel has the property of sound resonance and concrete has the property of sound absorption. i decide who and when someone on the stairs will be heard. and the marriage between steel parts of the stair, and concrete parts of the stair form a constant system for the whole buildings structure.

stairs- structural precedent

zac monro

projections

rotterdam film festival, 2001.

lozano hemmer. 'body moves' bright floodlights directed from below- projected a washed out image of walking people. the passer-by interacts with the projection surface while walking infront of the flood lights, casting a vivid shadow, proportionate to their distance to the buildings facade and the flood light. 

harads tree hotel

tham & videgard hansson arkitecks

ron arad- bath/shower

http://cubeme.com/blog/2008/09/04/rotator-bathshower-by-ron-arad-for-teuco

the dual oportunities of a utility.

light

philip beesley, orgone reef, 2003. e-art. montreal

james turrell, on photographs:

"we made this eye that sees for us, like the camera, and this is very much a part of how we organized our culture. of course it became this holder of truth. i mean in a court of law you take a photograph, and you can use it as evidence.

but, if you think about it there are many factors: first of all, where you point the camera, and whether you choose a lens that's a telephoto, which flattens the space, and sees through the distance, or a wide angle that sees a much wider area than we see. then there is the setting of the aperture. all may be in focus, or just see a part with the rest out of focus. do you choose to put in a film that represents light from the sun as white, tungsten light as white, or fluorescent light as white; or do you use color, or infrared? then, of course, you get this photo that you can change in development, and crop. then you can present this photo as "proof of reality," when every step of the way you've created the reality."

in my project lighting is important because it sets the atmosphere for the artists message. natural day lighting (like life on the streets) will be used strategically. at night or when artists are practicing for a night performance,  street lighting will be used, echoing the steet lamp patterns on the streets of graham ave. flood lights will be angled to capture and emphasive the movements of artists within the building. the shadows of the artists will be caste on walls and revealed to the outside viewer- displaying an artpiece in itself- the nature and methodical movement of practicing artists. the practice becomes life- the real deal, as do the shadows on the wall, as do the interpretations of these shadows by the outside audience.

ground grid

program

my studio project is a vessel for winnipeg action artists to practice their performances. the action artist performs actions in everyday conditions; on the streets, in the shopping mall, in a public courtyard, (in a washroom stall??). the action artist's action suggests that the human conditions particular to a region, combined with the audiences consciousness is art. the ephemeral quality of the action is more important that the tangible residue resulting from the act.

technology topic

the building technology i explore is the infrastructure needed to support

- the relationship between the human conditions particular to winnipeg, and the audience's consciousness /peripheral awareness.

-the capture of the action, in order to: a) archive for future reference and b)potentially redirect the action and project the images of the actions to other locations (other walls in the vessel, or in the city.)

the infrastructure supports tracks for sliding cameras used to film actions from a variety of views. 

the infrastructure physically supports projection walls, lighting (natural and artificial) and the "guts" of the filming and projection technology (cables and electronics), in a poetic and revealing way, which does not hide what is needed to allow the phenomenon of film and projection to be actuated. 

02/20/09 return from cuba.

*i spilt yerba mate on my laptop, resulting in disabled shift and caps lock keys. i apologize for the current lack of proper punctuation on my blog.

02/21/09 building the frame.

on two platforms, 76mm x 23 mm x 23mm and 76mm x 21mm x 25mm, i've assembled a 175mm x 40mm grid, using 1" x .5" x 69" bars with notches, which cross .5" x .5" x 16" bars. this grid is street level on my site.

02/22/09 building up

from developping the program