Architecture is SIMPLE

Sorry for the delay of new posts. Here's the updated development as of 5th July 2007.

>>> Designing Begins!

I have began to generate about 6-8 different scenarios and their proposed designs. Below is one of them. After a review with my adviser Rob Ley, he brought to my attention the need to narrow the variables to just one and show the change in the alternate versions subtly so that the parametric scenario matrix I have developed(shown in previous post) can be appreciated and proven its value in a clearer way. So.... I'll have to get back to work and watch out for more illustrations!

Here's a refined version of the thesis statement >>>

Premise

I am interested in the Intersection of the City and Architecture.

I am also interested in the romance and promise of Utopias. I totally embrace them and they are one of my important sources of inspiration. However, I realize that they have a certain disengagement with how the actual city works. (with reference to the sensation of utopias and how they WANT people to behave). From one volume of the series LA Now, Morphosis principal, Thom Mayne states the difficulty architects and urban designers have in the “leap of faith” they have to take when translating from facts, analysis findings to beautiful forms and feasible design solutions. The thesis aims at understanding that “Mystery Leap”.

While the city is a highly complex system, Architecture comparatively involves an almost simplistic perspective.

>> Architecture is Simple <<

The thesis deals with this overlap of City (Complex) and Architecture (Simple), via the concept of Enclaves. In particular, I am dealing with the idea of Enclaves in the scale of a series of buildings within a critical mass of site context. The impact due to the scale of the enclaves involved should be substantial enough to address and provoke a critical response.

Enclaves challenge the many architectural discourses on globalization. Instead, enclaves focus not on the morphing, worldwide connectivity, but rather on the emerging ‘self-rule’ establishments; hybrid spaces that exist outside the normal jurisdictions, aspiring to be 'worlds' unto themselves. These ‘worlds’ thus provides new tools for practitioners to be sensitive to the political and social composition and implication of urban landscapes

Rather than just deal in chunks of spaces like in urban master-plans, the focus of the thesis is on the issue of how the contemporary architect deals with City Planning and not lose the intricate spaces in Architecture.

In terms of the method of design> Scenario Simulation

We often misunderstand that Fiction=False where in fact, Fiction=Truth --- Where the simulation becomes more real than the real and where our perceptions are very much shaped by what we see in the Fiction avenues of the world today. Hence, the Scenario Simulation (design tool) generates the Enclaves (the architecture). When we look at cities, the view of it is either too simple, or too complex.

The Enclave attempts to resolve this crossroad between the complexity of Cities and simplicity of Architecture. The scenario simulation design of the Enclaves takes into account several seemingly simplistic and ‘dumb’ elements that collectively create a smart holistic solution.