ROSAMOND KEMBER :: DESIGN MODELLING

14.11.11

A COMMENT ON THE CURRENT STATE OF ARCHITECTURE: A WARNING FOR THE FUTURE

The problems of the world have consumed it; over-population, depleted energy resources, a sick environment, a world of thoughtless individuals.

The city is a reflection of the people who created it. Selfishness, greed, indecision, hopelessness, apathy and fiddling has resulted in 'parametric' brutal machines in which the world's people now live.

Regardless of all the technology, science, information, no-one has prevented repetitious 1960s housing commission style architecture from taking over the world.

At first, the machines' stirring was subtle - the lethargy that plagues the human race had prevented anyone from noticing. While humans slept, these machines oiled their joints and whirred their robotic arms. If anyone had bothered to take an interest in the world around them then, they might have seen the parasitic mechanical arms beginning to pervade the built environment.

And then, these brutal machines were ready to move, the goal of total domination in sight. Sometimes they marched in packs. Other times they roamed the streets individually, like a predator stalking its prey.

What a grim outlook.

There is still hope - if people wake up now and stop fiddling before the world around them evolves into one large housing estate.

31.10.11

STORYBOARD: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FIDDLE WHILE THE WORLD BURNS

30.10.11

ASSIGNMENT 03 :: TEST RENDERS

20.9.11

WK 08 :: ROUGH STORYBOARD

WK 08 :: THEME / VISUAL DIRECTION FOR FINAL VIDEO

The world has ignored its issues – overpopulation, overuse of energy resources, the natural environment…The city fabric reflects this. Territorial Architecture is parasitic architecture, but that of brutal hard forms. Post Post modernist architecture is dire.

The video will start with a study of the two prominent ‘60s housing commission buildings in Waterloo / Redfern. They are a prominent fixture in my skyline. They will take over the city fabric.

Filtered, colour-stripped aesthetic. “Parametric” unbenevolent facades everywhere.

Acknowledge the rich, colourful, vibrant city fabric to be suffocated by these territorial parasites.

A comment on the current state of architecture, a warning for the future.

WK 08 :: 200 WORDS

FIDDLING WHILE THE WORLD BURNS

Neil Spiller argues that capitalism and consumerism awards selfishness and shortsightedness, it also has created an overcrowded world. (He blames religion too). Spiller believes architects and architecture students run the risk of transferring the mistakes of formal architecture onto "parametric" architecture, by ignoring the opportunity to use architecture as a force for meaningful cultural and political change. That actually, the real parameters that influence the form of the city are politics, sociology, demographics, ecologies, procurement and dynamics of capital... "All of which benevolent patterned facades don't do." In a lecture given today, Richard Goodwin stated that the world is in a constant state of fear and uncertainty. Architects, and students of architecture must acknowledge and embrace this, and not "fiddle while the world burns", as Spiller puts it.

Goodwin also talked about the need to create parasites that grow and respond to the changing city, that it is too expensive to pull down every poor bit of urban design and architecture. Spiller too believes that there needs to be considerable thought put into retrofitting old buildings, "and start seeing the existing built environment not as blight but an opportunity to use cities as massive factories for environmental good."

Extending from these concepts of politically, environmentally and socially aware architecture, David Gissen writes about Territorial Architecture that "both investigates it world and infuses its immediate surroundings with particular concepts, patterns and sensations... Territorial Architecture suggest a role for architecture as a strategy of tinkering versus one of accommodation with, or refusal of, an external natural environment".

Spiller, N. (2010), Fiddling While the World Burns. Architectural Design, 80: 116–117. doi: 10.1002/ad.1087

Gissen, D. (2010), Territory: Architecture Beyond Environment. Architectural Design, 80: 8–13. doi: 10.1002/ad.1068

19.9.11

ASSIGNMENT 02 :: MENTAL BUG

Narrative:

The song I have chosen is Mental Universe by Free the Robots. I wanted a sound that would help accentuate robotic and mechanical movement. My animation draws on the role of the army played in terms of mechanisation:

"It was the military who attached the notion of efficiency to the machine through necessity, as a result of limited resources".

The building (Red Centre) is oblivious of its impending doom. It shifts and moves in its unnecessarily over-engineered way. Meanwhile, the mechanical bottle bug leads the march. As it reaches the shifting building, the bug extends out a limb and touches the building's facade, causing it to turn black and explode. Good riddance failed architectural machine, you have been terminated.

18.8.11

WK 05 :: 150 WORDS

"MACHINES EXISTED BEFORE MECHANISATION. HERO OF ALEXANDRIA'S MACHINES WERE INEFFICIENT; THEIR PRIME PURPOSE WAS TO IMPRESS THE OBSERVER."

"THE ARCHITECTURAL OBJECT STRAINS UNDER THE BURDEN OF ITS RESPONSIBILITY TO EXPRESS MEANING THROUGH FORMAL REPRESENTATION."

MECHANISED AND MORPHING FORMS THAT AREN'T NECESSARILY EFFICIENT. CONSISTENTLY TRANSFORMING AND EVOLVING "BREAKING DETERMINISTIC EXPECTATIONS"... DELAY THE URGE TO GENERATE FORM IN ORDER TO EXPLORE THE DYNAMIC AND FLUID POTENTIAL THAT EMERGES.

EXTEND THE IDEA OF GLORIFYING THE ORDINARY AND UGLY, WHILE IMPRESSING THE OBSERVER.

JUXTAPOSING REAL TIME, OR THE PACE OF TIME AS SUGGESTED BY THE SOUND TRACK, WITH THE SLOWER PACED "PICTURESQUE JOURNEY THAT FREELY EXPLORES THE MOVING AND CHANGING DETAILS AND FORMS... " " WISTFUL GAZES ON UNTOUCHABLE OBJECTS."

MANIPULATION OF THE 3 DIMENSIONAL SO THAT IT CONFORMS TO A FLICKERING 2 DIMENSIONAL IMAGE.

WK05 :: 100 WORDS

THE HYPERTEXTUAL PICTURESQUE:

DIRECTS OUR ATTENTION FROM GRAND IDEA OF VASTNESS TO THE EQUALLY SIGNIFICANT NOTION OF LITTLENESS. AS WITH THE PICTURESQUE, EMPHASIS IS PLACED ON DETAIL, NOT FORM, ON THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE JOURNEY, FREE AND DETACHED FROM ANY SPECIFIC PLACE; "EVERY HORIZON PROMISES SOMETHING NEW". THE HYPERTEXTUAL PICTURESQUE IS A "NEW GAME ON OLD GROUND", A FLICKERING 2D ARCHITECTURE.

SYSTEMIC DELAY:

IS THE TIME ASSOCIATED TO THE PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT BETWEEN AN INITIAL IDEA AND WHAT EVENTUALLY MATERIALIZES. THE AIM OF THE GAME IS TO DELAY THE URGE TO GENERATE A FORM, IN ORDER TO EXPLORE THE DYNAMIC AND FLUID POTENTIAL THAT EMERGES FROM THIS PROCESS. MORE LIKE AN ANIMATION AS OPPOSED TO A COMIC BOOK, WHERE YOU CAN MORPH FORMS BETWEEN FRAMES AND DISCOVER SOMETHING NEW.