site frictions | site fictions | site histories

In the second part of the summer we will take your sites and surveys and ask a series of simple questions of your site through 1:1 drawing, making, and recording. In interrogating something small—a brick, a line, a threshold, a surface, a breath—can we get at something beyond the thing itself; at something not only native to the site but intrinsic to the city as a whole? Can a small act reveal something essential about the nature of space? Of brick-ness? Of line-ness?

given :: site + materials
questions :: what can you reveal about your site (and the city) through the manipulation of a restricted set of materials and techniques? How can your material and representational device interface with and register site conditions? Can you script a history for the future through a 1:1 site intervention?

an architects materials :
yellow trace
drafting tape
graphite
white colored pencils
x-acto
straight edge
thread/needle
camera
argue for others as we progress

At the end of semester, the one-to-one scale final result, objet d’art, will be installed at your site. The process and phenomena will be documented, analysis will be diagramed, and combined / collaged as a diagrammatic statement which reflects your concept / object / site / city. The statement should be submitted at the final review, August 9th.


ASSIGNMENT 1
day|night|dawn|dusk
Using the specified materials and your camera, develop a conceptual framework to document an essential aspect of your site at 1:1 scale.
questions as you proceed ::
does the time at which you document your site matter?
can you design an apparatus which works in tandem with your camera and materials that can organize and clarify the conceptual framework you are using?

tear|fold|cut|tape|crease
Using the specified materials, explore their material capacity.
questions as you proceed ::
what is the capacity of one material on its own?
what is the capacity of two materials combined?
can they be made structural? tension + compression?
can small repeated units combine to form a larger whole?