Final Project by Amanda Jayne Stollery and Ami Meng Wang

The concept of our design rose from discovering parallel qualities between the client and the site. We were most engaged by the concept of Memory, in the way that it is a part of storytelling, transcendence, reflection and escapism. By classifying these into three categories - Past, Present and Future, we were then able to formulate the program of the house. The nomadic lifestyle of the Aboriginal also influenced the program, whereby spaces are not defined for one particular purpose, but rather, allowing the client to manipulate the function according to their needs for Sleeping, Living and Working. In a sense, they are able to instill different memories in each space. 

A precedent study of Moebius House by UN Studio provided an insight into the theoretical discourse and design direction. Their diagrams influenced our study in the movement pattern of the clients, where they are interacting the most during the day, and therefore ascertain light intensity. Exposing the site into the house is not only a way of integrating the past, present and future, but also emphasizes the concept of memory imprinted into the house. The furniture is formed from the external walls, which also determines the location of fenestrations and is balanced by ‘negative space’ (i.e. glazing). 

Amy and Amanda

Amanda and Ami are very talented and their work is full of volumetric discoveries and experimentation. They made a series of wild sketch models to explore very simple ideas as corridor, memories and their traces in architecture. I found a project recently which share the same kind of volumetric richness to their style:
A single Family House in St Joseph, Austria by Vienna studio Wolfgang Tschapeller Architekt.

Final Project : Paul Michael Kencalo

The metamorphic folding house allows the inhabitants to change elements of
the structure so as to adapt to the environment. Acting like a barometer to
climatic conditions, topography, to seasonal changes, and to the day/ night
cycle, the structure is capable of opening up towards the view of the infinite
horizon and infinite sky thereby acting as memory and metaphor of the life
cycle.

 From the initial folding and weaving exercises and the examination of
traditional methods of aboriginal housing typology where folding and weaving
are used extensively, the metamorphic folding house extrapolates the use of
these methods. Through the opening and closing, folding in and out as well
as weaving vertically and horizontally, the structure responds to the prevailing
environmental conditions such as light, wind and humidity thereby creating
multiple skins and layering which can be used to different effects.

Internally of the structure, the exercise of folding and weaving is continued
through use of metamorphic folding furniture elements which can also act as
a secondary type of environmental skin. A bulkhead can be transformed into
a bed, wall of shelves, a benchtop, room divider, lounge chair, molded by the
inhabitants imagination, mood and needs.

Final Project : Matthew Senkowycz

This Digital Research Studio provided a platform from which I could explore a personal area of interest, the parallels between architecture and fashion and textiles.  Initially beginning with a perfect case study, a house in Nimes, France called Spidernethewood by a Parisian firm called R&Sie(n). Essentially a maze of nets and fabric passages through a concrete box and over densified planting. 

 I then proceeded to pen an essay inspired by a quote from Dame Vivienne Westwood, looking in parallel at the work of architecturally inspired clothiers, and movements such as the Situationist International, thinking about how a wearable architecture can lend itself to the fulfillment of primitive human desires.

 

After realizing, that this is primarily achieved, in a society obsessed with consumption, through the acquisition of possessions, I began to explore how such a culture of excess could be manifested in architectural terms.  Arriving at a place where tumors like bubbles began to demarcate all signs of human occupation between the oblique planes and folded slabs of that make up my Beach House.  The final design stands as a series of question for future exploration.

Comments:
This project has a very ambitious conceptual approach. The use of bladders to contain material excess is quite poetic and violent at the same time. The only precedent that I could find is this very recent project by Murmur, heather ROBERGE, called the "Succulent House", with bladders retaining rain water.
Matthew has an enormous curiosity, a very good quality for a designer.

Final Project : Yuji Fukutomi

People, even in the same family, have different interest or have different belief as everyone is different, but at the same time everyone is the same as a human being no matter what colour or where they are from. Sharing their space and their interests/belief with other people will create a strong relationship between them. So the relationship between each individuality is significant in the society. 

 

I stepped back a little bit to remember how we developed living space. We found a space undercover to prevent exposure to rain, and we create a secured and enclosed  space for weathering out. (all the heat and cold, and we finally created community to help each other to survive.

 

The first main concept for my design was to create a community within a private house and respect individualities within a family at the same time. The second main concept was to maximise the flexibility of spaces.

 

By looking at the definitions of external space and internal space, the significance of flexibility in space can be found. Space, e.g. balcony, courtyard or even a green house, should not be simply defined as external or internal. There should be an "in-between" space. For instance, balcony is 40% external and 60% internal, and We always build a wall to separate space into two and call one is external and the other is internal.

 

Iannis Xenakis_ Metastasis + Ligeti_ Articulation + Autechre_Gantz Graf

Here are 3 videos concerning Iannis Xenakis and Ligeti as contemporary composers and Autechre, coming from the Techno scene. The partitions are displayed as diagrams, in a very analog way similar to a scripting of architectural composition with Grasshopper.
This is to illustrate the text from Stan Allen, "From Object to Field:Field Conditions in Architecture and Urbanism"

Environmental Management by Reyner Banham

The text for this week is a key text in the history of Architectural Theory, as the key text that started British High-Tech, and is a response to Matthew's interest on textile, clothing as architecture, on Paul's idea about the link between aborigines and contemporary dwelling, Susan and Aristotle idea's of site constraints, Grant and Mija for their research on a more phenomenological space...and the rest of the studio.
Environmental Management by Reyner Banham, the link to the text in pdf is here (link), the previous link will lead you to the book online.

Susan Jin-Young Yu and Aristotle Marc Go

Susan and Aristotle have the most advanced project dealing with scripting, they started a sketch design with Grasshopper and then switch to scripting with Revit. Their parameters are defined by the site and a structural system similar to portal/claws changing locally according to light, landscape, and topographical conditions.