Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Special Volume: Design Education: Explorations and Prospects for a Better Built Environment
Ashraf M. Salama and Michael J. Crosbie (editors)
BUBBLE UP:
ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO RESEARCH IN THE ACADEMIC
ARCHITECTURE STUDIO
Gregory Marinic
Abstract
Increased connectivity among the design disciplines
has radically transformed the nature of building
today. Architectural education must accordingly
adapt to the emerging needs of our changing built
environment by providing vital, flexible, and open
learning environments. Pedagogies in the academy
have typically been rooted in practices that are both
reluctant to change and slow to address transformative
forces in an honest and open manner. Regrettably,
the resilience of such top-down methods continues
to bias the lens of learning toward natural performers
and the notion of singular genius. Authentic attempts
to react to new demands and to introduce change
are all too often met with both strong resistance and
profound contempt by conservative critics. Mainline
architectural academia continues to project a deep
ambivalence to new methodologies, alternative
Paradigms and Positions
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Alternative Approaches to Research in the Academic Architecture Studio
production efficiencies. So, perhaps, the recent its user, flows, behaviors, and the inherent seen
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interest in complexity in architecture is not and unseen systems of the projects context.
new after all, but rather a re-acknowledgement This way of working--an emergent approach-
of the multi-faceted experience of architecture. -allows built form to reflect the care and
Shifting social, psychological, political, and complexity of a thoughtful design process.
economic forces operating against the built Design is then a product of inquiry and may be
environment have become increasingly supported by charted and mapped linkages in
apparent in the age of globalization. More the investigation.
than any other human artifact, architecture
embodies the most fundamental values and
From Top-Down to Bottom-Up
cultural preoccupations of a society. Ours has
been significantly redefined by the internet, Our built environment is seldom the product
and thus its impact on the built environment of a singular artistic approach. Accordingly,
must be considered in theoretical dialogue. it should be given the opportunity to emerge
This architectural age has been shaped by its from a thoughtful process where programmatic
desire to more critically connect with forces well goals address relevant physical, cultural, and
beyond the act of building in a vacuum. As an technological conditions particular to the time.
alternative, architecture based on bottom-up, And while the design process is inherently guided
research-intensive inquiry offers the power to by logic, it is profoundly dependent on conceptual
broadcast a powerful and lasting message that creativity. Embracing research-intensive and
speaks to our age. emergent pedagogical approaches in design
studio provides an atmosphere where logic and
open-ended investigations lead to broader cross-
Emergence: The Rationale
disciplinary expertise, and thus increased project
In academic environments, frameworks that complexity. This bottom-up approach, if employed
promote efficient, integrated, and open design effectively, allows for a greater synthesis between
environments promote the spirit of limitless formal proposals and conceptual underpinnings.
exploration. Offering continual opportunities The process tends to enable a higher level of design
to develop a personal voice, defined by a performance from students with less articulated
rigorous conceptual process, is of particular skill sets. In consequence, the total output of a
significance in this realm. The studio critic studio led by the bottom-up philosophy tends to
should foster a methodology where alternatives result in a greater percentage of successful works
are tested and critiqued, composed of a matrix than those forums guided by traditional top-down
of variables that address contextual, structural, methodologies.
programmatic, functional, technological, and
metaphorical potentialities. Accordingly, the The rise of the Internet, and the resulting
emergence of building form should not reflect increase in access to massive amounts of
the personal proclivities of the critic, or their data, has transformed the ability to undertake
prescribed goals and needs, but rather offer research-intensive studio work requiring
avenues for students to interpret the landscape, technical and geographic data that is at once
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accurate and time-sensitive. Additionally, been tied to culturally biased exemplars such as
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the development of new digital visualization the Golden Section or Le Corbusiers Modular.
and fabrication techniques rationalizes the Typically referred to as bionics or biomimicry,
consideration of bottom-up emergence as an a morpho-ecological design approach,
alternative paradigm to previous ideologies. when combined with conventional theories
Unlike conventional architectural processes, in architectural studio, offers a high level of
self-organizing opportunities rely less on the design competence and success for students
singular genius of an individual designer and due to its focus on identfying performance--
more on the ability to collaboratively research, performance that may be tested with various
disseminate, transform, and deploy contextually methods and means. By considering higher-
coherent proposals. Methods that engage order performance capacities based on multi-
context in a broader sense can address functional environmental systems, students are
sustainably grounded approaches that study introduced to an endless cache of data for
change-over-time and nature-based drivers design inspiration and process intervention.
in an intelligent and provocative manner. A Likewise, personal notions of order, scale,
carefully considered bottom-up approach proportion, and form are influenced by intrinsic
embeds the designer into an alternative performative qualities within our world that offer
understanding and broader definition of urban exciting formal experiments and opportunities
patterns, social concerns, behavioral flows, and for transformation at various scales. In this case,
material potentialities. Instead of subtracting the bottom-up approach offers a dazzling array
the self-motivated rationale for concept, this of connectivity through its emphasis on research
methodology re-engages the designer into and experimentation. Yet this notion of evolution,
a previously uncontemplated investigative adaptation, and open-endedness does not
journey. Applying this approach to ecological naively assume that a projective practice--
cycles can provide a complex network of new one that reflects the world as it exists back unto
potentialities for sustainable building beyond itself, is simply a means to an end. Rather, the
conventional means. architectural process becomes a journey of
discovery that pushes conceptual limits and
self-given goals, while engaging pragmatic
Balance and Choice
site, program, sustainable, and cultural
Today, foundation studios that introduce influences as overlays that provide contextual
bottom-up, self-organizing processes alongside appropriateness, site specificity, and delight.
more traditional top-down methodologies allow Emergent, or bottom-up, approaches embed
a certain balance and choice to emerge early the student in complimentary knowledge bases.
in the minds of young architects. For instance, As future architects, such forms of expertise may
the study of systems in nature can allow lead to greater sensitivity of forces beyond the
understanding of modulated environments, normative emphasis on formal, structural, and
emergent morphologies, and material behaviors basic contextual concerns.
related to environmental performance to
develop. These methods have traditionally
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Bubbling Up and Breaking Out Emergent Research and the 21st Century
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fostered imagination, encouraged bottom-up of the project. Our client, a small alternative
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learning, and inspired original hybrid creativity to gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn, provided a
emerge. Team experiences tended to mediate 400-square-foot gallery space as installation
against promoting overly autonomous control space and design directives. Their intentions
over the design processa valuable lesson with heightened the need to work within client-
implications encountered later in professional imposed constraints, an inflexible opening
practice. schedule, and the expectation of a zero-cost
installation.
Stretching Sustainability
Manipulating Materials
This project attempted to further sustainable
discourse by engaging with critical social and By allowing the investigation of ideas through
ecological imperatives. Design approaches hands-on manipulation, the simple act of
were selected to reduce the waste stream, making offers a classic and timeless tool for
promote sustainable production, and enhance testing spatial concepts. Studying contextual
zero carbon/zero energy initiatives. The and figural conditions through making revealed
temporal, and in a sense, throw-away nature of unexpected opportunities not typically found
interior environments was considered resulting within hand-drawn or digitally generated
in the imposed constraint of local materials re- architectural methods. Exploiting the ambiguity
purposing. Ninety-five percent of the resulting and juxtaposition of local form, materiality,
ultra-light-weight built environment was created structure, color, and texture for the cause of
with pre-used stock provided by Materials for architecture, as well as for art, engaged these
the Arts and collected through self-initiated processes toward an interdisciplinary relevance
reclamation efforts. applicable to both worlds. Our processes
attempted to unearth influences unique to
Revealing a contextual connection particular Bushwick.
to North Brooklyn was central to this project.
Environmental inputs were identified, Engaging architecture students directly with
documented, and then taken through a notions of making in other artistic disciplines
series of hand-generated and computational was an integral aspect of this project. Young
transformations. The resulting output was designers benefit from that greater sensitivity
charted into a mapped sequence of moves that is derived from experiences beyond
rooted in this process. Ultimately, the interior the building scale. This project employed
environments site-specific identity, spatial exercises architectonically relating to the
sensibility, graphic symbolism, and materiality disciplines of fashion design, interior design, and
connected with implied origins in the context- photography as up generators of unexpected
-formalized as an experiential space. opportunities. Five sequenced charrettes were
introduced during the semester that highlighted
Exposing students to the client experience was the inter-relationship between the practice
perhaps one of the more challenging aspects of making in various realms of art and design
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and its implication on problem-solving during To launch this process, the studio revisited an
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Figure 1: A Transformed Oxford Shirt Manipulated and Modeled by Evelyna Averyanova.(Source: Author).
garment that better suited the owner due to its their process by graphically representing it and
performative and constructive particularity. showing their shirt with and without a body.
Here, the process of making the catalog was
linked to the processes of collecting, analyzing,
Sorting and Story-telling editing, and framing. The subjective nature of
A parallel goal of the studio was to improve photography and photographic processes was
the visual communication skills of the students. engaged.
The investigation of the previous exercise was
deployed into the format of an illustrative catalog. Cataloging required students to clearly organize
Each student expressed the personal nature of and disseminate their methodology into a series
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of clear and sequenced parts. Using hand- investigated, tested, and ultimately exploited
drawn and digital techniques, catalogs resulted by examining the connective relationship
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in sophisticated and provocative presentations, between two bodies in space. Offered several
specifically tailored to the identity of the material choices and operational opportunities,
author and their original construct. This story- students were asked to explore potentialities
telling process highlighted the sequence of revealed by a material, and a pair of selected
material transformation, deconstruction, and operations operating against it. The selection of
re-assembly. materials and operations established a dialogue
of active and reactive forces, as well as the
interconnectivity of three primary elements--
Connecting and Conveying axial tube, a planar surface, and connective
The third charrette familiarized students with tissue.
how connective conditions can be identified,
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The exercise abstractly introduced the future specified cubic volume of space was used to
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conditions of the site--a gallery space in an circumscribe the exercise. Within this space,
artists kunsthaus. Students were offered an students were created a series of spatial models
exhaustive suggested list of materials to exploit, that manipulated an axial wood element, a
as well as a series of primary and secondary planar wood surface, and connective tissue.
forces to explore through the mediums. A
Figure 3: Connective Operations: Planar Surface, Axial Element, Connective Tissue. Models by Bartosz Tarnawa, Piotr Szalega,
Yaya Kobayashi, Phillip Morgan, & Yaya Kobayashi. (Source: Author).
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urban context. Bushwick offered a richly All that encompasses or surrounds a point
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diverse platform for historical, industrial, and in space defines that space. Therefore a
demographic research. Site-relevant formal place is defined by its contextual materials or
and material inspiration was identified through surroundings. Using a digital camera, they
found objects, captured patterns, and observed embarked on a collaborative image-collecting
behaviors operating across the district. Students field study of the neighborhood within a
explored, examined, and employed site-based precisely one-mile radius of the gallery. The
influences through careful investigation and larger district offered an opportunity to key
time analysis of conditions specific to this unique into material conditions, patterns, and forms as
neighborhood. design generators. With the knowledge that
a design-build endeavor can be derived from
the immediate environment, students mined
Hunting & Honing the Bushwick vicinity for data. Materials, colors,
Viewing, capturing, framing, stagingthese shapes and patterns were drawn from the
were the tactics engaged by the students to surrounding urban geography.
develop an original interpretation of Bushwick.
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The task required collecting a large number of included the recording of visual and textural
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images that were then edited and selected. patterns at various scales, cataloging graffiti,
Multiple individuals or groups of individuals were and identifying material samples for testing and
involved in the image-capturing effort, based on ultimate reuse. Materials were manipulated
various narratives of their own choice. Images and connective operations tested, eventually
keyed into patterns ranging in scale from broad- revealing the potential for an environment
based to miniscule. These patterns were used constructed entirely of light elements such as
as material generators, pattern references, and repurposed masonite, metal wire, plastic, and
scaler generators for digitally-fabricated study colored paper. Testing was conducted hand-in-
models. hand with pattern exploration applied to space-
making. Student teams engaged a process of
The End Game trial and error through postulating, hands-on
building, and use of digital fabrication. The
A defined geographic area was defined for testing of constructs gave students a virtual
focused investigation and student teams were library of potential building methods and
encouraged to collect found objects. Activities material connections.
Figure 5: The Interior Space and its Digitally-Fabricated Ceiling-wall Installation. (Source: Author).
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As student teams progressed through these should more carefully consider the pre-existing
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stages, teams were combined when certain student skill sets, available time, and materials
synergies in process and/or materials usage available. A successful design process relies
emerged. The narrowing field correlated with a on both bottom-up and top-down methods of
greater ability to test environments at larger and organization, and so, the process must remain
larger scales without increasing time expended. open to the interplay of both forces throughout
Ultimately, two teams with compelling original the process.
proposals were considered. A logistical
assessment was then conducted for each By engaging emergence, or a bottom-up
project defining the materials and time needed approach, this studio attempted to reveal a
to fabricate and install each scheme. Once broader and deeper approach to context
a clear strategy of time (low) and materials in Bushwick. Here, we intended to apply a
(free) had been established, students identified rigorous research investigation that translated
the most viable project and then converged circumstances into an event fixed in space.
as a single construction team for successful Yet, the project partially reflects the spirit of a
installation of the project. place interpreted by designers with their own
personal biases and/or preoccupations. This is
the reality of emergence. For while it is indeed
Emergence Critiqued far more liberating than a conventional top-
Through this series of charrettes and resultant down approach, it would be nave to assume
full-scale light construction, students gained that the human tendency to frame the world
valuable insight into place-making and through ones own lens can be entirely erased.
space-making in a world where resource And frankly, should it ever be? Future exploration
management, delivery distance, and adaptive of such notions will provide on-going topical
reuse determine the real parameters impacting research opportunities for this team of educators
the environment. These circumstances should and architects. Such investigations will continue
not be seen as limitations, but rather, as new to ponder our own roles and original voices in
opportunities of an architecture that speaks the interpretation of both place and space as
directly about place. Certain design decisions architects of a certain age.
in this studio were made quickly due to time
constraints. Thus, the investigation may have ----------------------------
gained increased connectivity between place Gregory Marinic
and space if, for example, production time Gregory Marinic is professor in the Department of
Architecture at the Universidad de Monterrey where
was extended or materials were broadened--a
he teaches design studio, research seminars, and
greater importance could have been placed thesis. His previous teaching experience includes
on more advanced structural capabilities. undergraduate/graduate studio and directed
Likewise, the previous knowledge base and research at Pratt Institute and the City University of
inexperience of this particular group of students New York. Gregory is director and co-founder of d3,
added additional layers of limitation on the a New York-based organization that promotes trans-
project. Future projects guided by this approach disciplinary design, and principal of Arquipelago, an
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