1mm architecture

what if, asks don, you paint the entire back side - the "square" side of your building - white. all white. it would take a year...your thesis would be the planning, organization and execution of painting...you could be out there everyday painting. and at the end, you would present a light show in the "square". an event that would transform this space by drawing people to it over an extended period of time and ultimately making it legendary.

architecture: 1mm thick

my reaction was immediate and clear - i'm much too precious about my building to ever want that to happen, let alone initiate it. no way.

my reaction made me wonder at its cause. what would be lost if the wall was painted white? the cracks in the plaster, the colour of the stones of 1867, the rust, the multi-coloured mullions. the contrast of brick to stone to brick. the yellow door.

what is the value of these parts of the building - the colours, materials, contrasts? what about wear? what is lost if the entire facade is wiped clean? equalized? whitewashed? what role do they play in the everyday actions and interactions of the building's users?

now i hear that someone has bought up main street, the entire block between water and ainslie...both sides. if that's true, what will he or she do to these buildings? to my building? will she remove all of the additions? unify the colour scheme? scrub the building from top to bottom? pull out the weeds that grow under the unused stoops? put the benches back in? kick out the drug dealers? all the have-not tenants? the small business owners? replace cafe13 with a kelsey's? what is lost if these changes are made? what can be learned from the bits and pieces changed and moved over time by people who live and work in the building? could that knowledge inform the design? is it possible to do more than clean up the building? what parts of the emergent complexity of this building can be retained or re-introduced in a new design? what if what if what if?

letting go

i once designed a pavilion for the end of the world --one day the pig spit was gone and it was an art gallery

i am leaving behind the plan and finding a thesis... slowly... soo slowly

a picnic table?

today i had a daydream -- i was carrying a grungy white plastic patio table and a walking train of grungy white plastic patio chairs followed me, down ainslie, across the parking lot and onto the lane... two ladies had tea under an umbrella in the sun at our plastic patio table - now it's sparkling white everything is greener and gold-tinged - the ladies look into the distance, eyes squinting against the sun - the building is a backdrop in a field. a set for tea. also... there are 26 sets of windows, counting from water street east towards ainslie, which are nearly identical and match the "old galt" photo from cambridgeweb .

after the original style there are seven sets of windows of a more decorative style then five more of the old style, then...

how can i have not noticed this building before?

the first 26 window sets are held in walls of stone...a combination of a number of separate buildings, several of which have been rebuilt. a variety of commercial additions adorn the back lane - their roofs are patios for the apartment-dwellers above.

who else is working on emergence and architecture?

the bartlett (at university college london): MSc adaptive architecture and computation

The MSc Adaptive Architecture and Computation aims to give students a comprehensive understanding of the practical skills required to create generative, emergent and responsive forms, through exposure to real programming environments. In order to achieve this goal, the course team comprises both architects and experts in artificial intelligence. Programming is taught through the Processing language, which was created to teach computation to designers with no prior experience of computing. Time is dedicated to studio sessions with experienced tutors who have a track record of research into architecture and computation.

Alongside the practical classes, the MSc AAC offers a unique theoretical framework. We believe that the true power of the computational methodology is only realised through an understanding of its interaction with the social, environmental and spatial context in which it operates. To this end, the course team are embedded within UCL Bartlett's 5*-rated SPACE research group, which specialises in, and originated, the field of space syntax. Two lecture series present both the process side of the generation of environments, as well as the social implications of the product. Lectures from the course team are balanced by guest lecturers from the forefront of practice and research. The central theme of the lectures is one of how to create embedded, embodied and adaptive design. That is, design that couples the relationship of spatial configuration and society to the computational ability to analyse and respond to the environment.

design that couples the relationship of spatial configuration and society to the computational ability to analyse and respond to the environment (this is great!) embodied embedded cognition - intelligent behavior emerges out of the interpay between brain, body and world processing 1.0

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.

MIT Media Lab

Object-Based Media How to create communication systems that gain an understanding of the content they carry and use it to make richer connections among users. Computing Culture How artists and engineers can refigure technology for the full range of human experience. Changing Places How new technology and strategies for design can make possible dynamic, evolving places that respond to the complexities of life. Viral Communications How to construct agile, scalable, collaborative systems. Society of Mind How various phenomena of mind emerge from the interactions among many kinds of highly evolved brain mechanisms. Smart Cities How buildings and cities can become more intelligently responsive to the needs and desires of their inhabitants. Human Dynamics How social networks can influence our lives in business, health, and governance, as well as technology adoption and diffusion.

architectural association school of architecture: emergent technologies and design http://www.emtechlog.net/

core studio The core studio begins with an intensive period of knowledge and skill-building sessions. Studio discussions focus on concepts such as morphogenesis, emergence and self-organisation, while a first module focuses on skills in Rhino NURBS modelling and scripting. This is followed by the introduction to material self-organisation and form-finding as design methods that lead to performance-oriented design. This year the studio will focus on vector-active and form-active structural systems, culminating in the design, detailing and construction of two structures. Before the design charrette begins, an intense module introduces concepts and methods of analysis and simulation. The designs are then further elaborated in the manufacturing and assembly module, which emphasises the relevance to low-tech (construction) contexts of the designs evolving from the research of the Emtech programme. The characteristics and behaviour of materials, together with manufacturing and assembly logics and the behaviour and performance of the designed system, are key elements of the integral design approach introduced in the core studio. This strategy deploys the inherent properties and behaviour of materials in material assemblies that respond to the specific stimuli of their context. Modelling and analysis of natural and manufactured systems are introduced to provide the techniques necessary for the development of morphological complexity and performance in designs for the built environment.

emergence and design ‘Emergent’ is defined as that which is produced by multiple causes, but which cannot be said to be the sum of their individual effects. It has been an important concept in biology and mathematics, in artificial intelligence, information theory and computer science, and in the newer domains of weather and climatic studies, the material sciences, and in particular biomimetic engineering. Commonplace terms such as ‘self-organising structures’ and ‘bottom-up systems’ have their origin in the science of emergence, and are encountered in fields as disparate as economics and urbanism. The seminar course will commence with a survey of the origins of the science and technologies associated with emergence, commencing with D’Arcy Thompson and Alfred North Whitehead, through Turing’s work on cryptographic analysis and on the mathematics of biological development, to the development of evolutionary algorithms. The conceptual structures and philosophies of Emergence in Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Life will be reviewed, and the course will conclude with a series of digital experiments in algorithmic design.

collecting/analyzing

copy paste collage collect the analysis is missing...in this thesis just a note, to myself

watching - my favorite so far

thank goodness for spring! here is a new video sped up 1000%: 09.04.22 (from south side of parking lot) a close up of a kid playing on the fire escape:

galtsite 1867

i found a map hanging in a pub in the building i am studying - in cafe13's "the galt club" (a rental room upstairs from the regular pub). here is a picture of that map, to scale (approximately), with the current area plan overlaid in red. this was pretty close to the beginning of galt. a little history:

"In 1784 the British Crown granted to the Six Nations Indians, in perpetuity, all the land along the Grand River six miles deep on each side of the river from its source to Lake Erie. The Indians, led by Joseph Brant, had the land surveyed in 1791 and divided into Indian Reserve lands as well as large tracts which they intended to sell to developers. One such developer was the Honourable William Dickson who, in 1816, came into sole possession of 90,000 acres of land along the Grand River which was later to make up North and South Dumfries Townships.

Mr. Dickson intended to divide the land into smaller lots to be sold, primarily, to Scottish settlers whom he hoped to attract to Canada. In the company of Absalom Shade, Mr. Dickson immediately toured his new lands intending to develope a town site which would serve as the focal point for his attempts to populate the countryside. They chose the site where Mill Creek flows into the Grand River and in 1816 the settlement of Shade's Mills was born. The new settlement grew slowly but by 1825, though still very small, it was the largest settlement in the area and was important enough to obtain a post office. Mr. Dickson decided that a new name was needed for the Post Office and consequently the settlement and he chose Galt in honour of the Scottish novelist and Commissioner of the Canada Company, John Galt. Settlers resisted the introduction of the new name preferring the more familiar Shade's Mills. After Mr. Galt visited Mr. Dickson in the settlement two years later, the name "Galt" received more wide spread acceptance.

In its early days Galt was an agricultural community serving the needs of the farmers in the surrounding countryside. By the late 1830's, however, the settlement began to develop an industrial base and a reputation for quality products that, in later years, earned the town the nickname "The Manchester of Canada". Galt was the largest and most important town in the area until the beginning of the 20th century when it was finally overtaken by Kitchener. The town continued its steady if unspectacular growth and reveled in its reputation as an industrial town whose products reached around the world." (http://cambridgeweb.net/historical/galt.html, april 23, 2009, 10:40 pm)

also...could this be my building?

this one definitely is (the building on the right):

(historical images from http://cambridgeweb.net/historical/oldpostcards.html)