Abstracts
Please post your abstracts here after you have presented them in class.
posted by Meredith at 9/30/2008 02:53:00 PM
Tuesday, September 30
This is the class blog for Arc 652.
posted by Meredith at 9/30/2008 02:53:00 PM
This is the class blog for Arc 652.
24 Comments:
ARCH 652 PAPER ABSTRACT
Matthew Moser
I am planning on investigating the phenomenon of the massive "fantasyland" growth of architecture funded by Middle Eastern Oil revenues.
In particular, I would like to understand the true economic, cultural, political and symbolic ramifications of western style architecture being created
by Arabic nations - in a post colonial world. In short, why are Dubai/Abu Dhabi (and other places) constructing resorts to impress the world in a style that is
demonstrably western , and thereby culturally vacuous? Is this self imposed colonialism? Or is this actually culturally significant, not vacuous?
The short answer is political; that they are hoping to become major tourist, business and industrial centers.
However, I would like to get a sense if any of these aspirations are true and if they simply extravagant and culturally irrelevant events in terms
of architecture, urban planning, and cultural exchange.
Avenues of Inquiry:
What kinds of architects are involved? What are the goals of these firms?
Are any local firms/architects involved?
Is this a form of "one-upsmanship", whereby oil rich middle eastern leaders can demonstrate to the west that they can "out westernize" the west.
Who will use these new cities?
Migration to the Urban Centers of China
As the population increases in China more and more of its people are migrating to the city center looking for jobs and a better future. Like many cities throughout the world, China’s cities are not equipped to handle this large influx of people. I am planning to research the effects that this mass migration has on the city and its culture. China is proposing to build several “super cities” to relieve the pressures created on the current cities. Numerous satellite cities have also been built surrounding the main cities to help aid in the large influx of rural people.
Through comparison of the new proposed cities and the current overcrowded cites I hope to develop an understanding of the problems effecting culture, economy, and environment. Many architects have worked to develop housing and urban planning solutions to the developing problems, but do they understand and design for the complexity that grows with rapidly expanding cities?
Currently I am planning to research multiple cities in China to compare the problems and success that each has. These case studies will be supported with research that looks at the cause for the migration and the rapidly expanding economy in China. As more research is conducted I plan to narrow this focus to several key topics and three or four select cities
I would like to study the ancient people of the Nabataeans. They existed from about 600 BCE to about 100 BCE. They were a technologically advanced ancient people whose ingenuity and architecture was light-years ahead of the other surrounding civilizations. This is exemplified in their ancient capital city of Petra, Jordan and their widespread spice route and trade business stretching from the Far East and India to North Africa. I would like to explore the technological and business advances of the civilization and try to prove that had the Nabataeans never existed in the Middle East and North Africa life in the desert as we know it today would not be able to exist. This can be proven through the examples of the city and architecture of Petra and understanding the technology and advancement behind the spice route. These technological advances are in the form of placement of architectural structures and urban planning and most importantly for the arid climate of the Middle-East and North Africa, the hydraulic engineering ingenuity of the Nabataeans.
What I propose to write on is the cross pollination of architecture concepts and methodologies which occurred between England and colonial India. Initially I intend to look for architects who were educated in England, supplemented their education in India and then returned back to England to build with strong Indian influences. Having spent so much time investigating perceptions and interpretations in class thus far I would like to see if the English architects work would be representative of Said’s theories on orientalism. I then would like to investigate English architects who built in India and see how western architectural influenced Indian architecture and culture during colonialism. Lastly I want to look at the long term affects that English occupation had on Indian architecture. In an attempt to keep the paper specific and detailed in its examples I will be following only a few architectural careers and let their experiences serve as representation of the influences both these countries had on each other during colonialism.
My proposed research topic will be about the use of gendered spaces in Brazilian squatter settlements or “favelas.” I am very much interested in the application of Foucault’s use of the Panopticon and how that spatial programming can affect or be affected by women in a non-western vernacular structure. I find the favelas, especially the ones in Recife very interesting due to their ad-hok structures that truly speak of human necessity with a very raw core. I hope to find some sense of the woman’s, or “others” place or hierarchical status in their society through the use of the ever present gaze. I am also looking to entwine the existential female gaze through the writings of Sartre and de Beauvoir, who had both spent two and a half months in Brazil during the 1950’s.
Kristen Karwacki
Non-Western History
10/03/08
Research Project Abstract
Throughout history urban territories all over the world have been colonized by other nations, Algeria by the French, Iraq and Iran presently by the Americans, Hong Kong by the English, etc. Through colonization, these territories are forced to either associate or assimilate to certain guidelines. Whether or not colonization is a good or bad thing, the question is why does it happen in the first place? What provokes a specific nation to feel the need to infiltrate into another society? Is it for the benefit of the invaded society or is it for selfish reasons? The answers are different for each colonized society and the intentions of invasion vary for each nation. My plan is to localize my study to a specific area of colonization, Hong Kong. I want to fully understand the state of the nation pre-colonization and what events led up to colonization. I plan to research and evaluate how colonization changed the urban layout and architecture presently evident in Hong Kong? What specifically characterizes Non-western Architecture, Western Architecture, and hybrids of both within the area? How has the society changed due to this fusion of nations? Does it appear dominated by the English? Has it reestablished its Asian roots? Or, has the fusion of both become accustomed as normal within the society? Without much knowledge prior to my investigation, my research will involve various texts, pictorial analysis, as well as evaluating different cinematography created within Hong Kong. I anticipate my specific focus to evolve as I become more familiar with my research of study in time.
Andrew_Appell
Dubai: A Critical Perspective of the 21st Century Metropolis
Dubai is the world’s laboratory for urban experimentation on the grandest global stage; the exotic metropolis is an agglomeration of radical architecture, dynamic urban design, and contemporary city planning. Situated in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is additionally intriguing as Near East cities are typically thought of being historically rich spiritual centers or directly revolving around the long-existing oil industry. That is to say, the typical Arab city does not contain an array of multi-billion-dollar projects, dramatically shaking up the infrastructure of the city. Therefore, Dubai is arguably the most important city in the Near East today, based on its modernity and explosive wealth, generated through modern means of being a significant port city with a free economy (only 7% of the Dubai’s wealth comes from oil): importing/exporting, tourism, construction, attracting large banks and businesses, etc.
It is my plan to investigate and produce analysis for the following in my research paper: what happens within the city? More specifically, I would deal with the booming construction and high-end architecture that have attracted firms from all over the world (who/what/where/why); the importance of being a “global city”, discuss Dubai in terms of regionalism and critical regionalism while perhaps suggesting terms for Dubai’s own region; dissect maps and the city planning , focusing on Dubai from several points of view: that of American/European vs. Near East vs. Far East (especially Dubai’s relationship with India and Pakistan- both of which have a large population within Dubai);and finally, present a hypothesis of where Dubai will be in the next 30 years and where it potentially could be.
Annie Boccella
Arch 652 : Non Western History
Abstract for Research Paper
I am interested in researching the architecture of Iran before and after the 1979 revolution that transformed Persia/Iran from a monarchy under Shah Pahlavi to an Islamic republic. I have yet to decide the particular aspect of focus and therefore am unable to assert a thesis or argument at the moment. The interest came about as I have several close friends from the 'area'- I am vague because they are vague about where they are from; that is, I have always noticed these two particular people associate with different aspects of Iran - one identifies with a pre-Revolution Persia. The other, who grew up in present day Iran, identifies with contemporary Iran. This ambiguity has always interested me. I wonder how the tumultuous history and revolutionary changes that Iran has experienced has shaped both Iran's national and cultural identity and how that has manifested in its architecture/urban spaces/urban fabric.
The issue of how to house or shelter the victims of natural disasters is a problem that greatly interests me from an architectural point of view. The tsunami that struck Thailand in 2004, the earthquake that rocked china earlier this year, and even hurricane Katrina, which decimated new Orleans, have presented real opportunities for a readily available, easily deployable structure to house people who may suddenly be without home.
I would like to research how this problem has been dealt with historically and presently., both from a political perspective and an architectural one. Architecturally, I think this problem is interesting as it tackles the question of what is a home? What we may consider a “typical” western view may not be so in “non western” cultures. If so, how does one design a house that meats the needs of many as a place that provides shelter, but also as a real dwelling, even if it is only temporary. If possible and time permitting, I’d like to work on this as a design idea. With a potential for reality. Again, its something that I’m really interested in. I like the idea of small, fabrication driven structures that can be quickly constructed when needed. And there will always be a need as mother nature does not discriminate between nationalities or cultures.
Japanese Tea Houses
I would like to explore the concept of Japanese tea houses in relation to its origin and the time period it was brought into Japan. I have found that tea ceremony represents a cultural withdrawal during Japan’s troubled age of civil strife. Thus, another aspect to look at is its relationship to the war period and how it helped people through that it has been a strong culture in Japan.
As my research goes, I learned that the ceremony seeks the most simple and humble aspects of life and a quest for spiritual fulfillment. The language of tea ceremony in its search for purity of life is expressed in a linear form of a hut, using unpainted wooden posts and beams, plainly plastered walls for materials. It is embedded in a natural setting which provides a garden path to the tea house itself. Thus, what I will be looking at is the relationship between the physical setting/materials of Japanese tea houses and the values embedded in the ceremony/tea rooms.
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My Theme:
The Orientalization of a Colonial Occidental Island: Moshe Safdie and the rejection of the Habitat way of life.
By the year 1970 Moshe Safdie created a project for the capital of Puerto Rico intended on resolving the big housing issue that the island confronted. Governmentally speaking the project was a success, but socially speaking was a complete disaster.
In this project I will attempt to investigate the concepts of association and assimilation of colonized cultures, and research, in turn, how these cultural shifts affected the colonized country’s urban landscape. I hope to document and analyze the evidence of the changing architecture in the region, through text, diagrams and photographs. I would like to use Brazil as my case study and see how these concepts were played out there.
I intend to focus on two different regions in the country (north and south) that are vastly different from one another, but show symptoms of association and assimilation of colonialist culture, and consequently observe what type of urban development occurred in these areas.
After four hundred years of foreign occupation and a violent twenty-seven year civil war what remains of Angolan (Bantu and Khoisan) cultural and political urban structure; including its manifestation in architecture. In focusing on the musseques (shanty towns) which surround the city for miles, and its relationship to the developing capital the discussion of post-colonial and post-war oppression can be explored. There are various responses both national and international to this condition. Can a hopeful and objective direction for the country be considered as a result of the research for the vernacular?
In May I attended a public forum hosted by two undergraduate interior design students in Pratt at the AIA Center for Architecture in the city. The topic of the panel debate was socially responsible design, especially in the context of natural disasters. While the moderators posed the question of what our roles as designers were in these situations, the participants argued their points across a wide spectrum of socially responsible philosophies. The most popular, and perhaps most publicly agreed upon was that as designers, and especially young designers, we should take it upon ourselves to be involved in every process of rebuilding the lives of others in need, starting at the drawings boards, and then working from the ground up. The other more controversial and less well received view was that rebuilding in disaster stricken areas that were unfamiliar to any member of the team involved in the process of rebuilding was socially irresponsible for a number of reasons. The main reasons cited were the exploitation of a tragedy for the sake of education, and the outsourcing of materials, labor, and ideas would ultimately negatively effect the local economy of that area. I think that both are compelling arguments that I would like to explore and support or negate further. I would also like to place these arguments within the framework of different, yet equally pertinent humanitarian design organizations, like Cameron Sinclair’s Architecture for Humanity and Open Architecture Network, or Scott Gerald Shall’s International Design Clinic.
A Cinematic Evaluation of Urbanism in Shanghai
The balance of art and science in Architecture is the reason I chose this profession. Along the same lines the layering and interpretation of urbanism thru film intrigues me.
Throughout the research I will briefly describe the history of Shanghai and further investigate urbanism from the 1940’s to the present. Once I better understand the culture and densities that make up Shaghai, I mean to further investigate the interpretation of space thru film. I plan to compare directorial styles and representation of place, culture, and time. I am also interested in the actual documentation of analyzing architectural idea(l)s thru film; meaning to explore the strategies of capturing the aspect of fixed buildings, the fluidity of urban fabric, and the movement of film and presented it in a stationary way.
Ideas for thought:
-Film editing techniques in comparison to urbanism
-layering of sound(track) in relation to space, time, culture
Static Documentation options:
-Story board analysis
-Screen shots with diagrams
-Film poster design
-Marketing strategies (movie memorabilia, toys, collectibles)
Abstract: Squatter Cities
Urbanization is rapidly occurring around the world as more and more people are migrating from rural areas to an urbanized environment. 1.3 million a week leave their rural lives to start anew in a denser form of life, many have to settle for what has become known as “squatter” cities.(figures from Stewart Brand) Residents are forced out of their rural habitats because they can’t find proper employment to sustain their lives. They migrate to the city where jobs are more prevalent but are forced to live outside the city in makeshift communities for their cheap housing and lack of taxes. These unregulated pits of third world cities are exponentially growing at an alarming rate. An estimated figure suggests that by 2030 one in four people on earth will live in a version of these squatter towns.(“Shadow cities” by Robert Neuwrith) The traditional metropolises of the world are losing their title to the growing economies of this third world sprawl. The evolution of traditional urban planning cannot keep up with this rapid urbanization. There is simply no money, no political representation, and no municipal infrastructure, these cities do not have a master plan and are not organized on a grid. Boundaries are spontaneous and under constant negotiation. The urban planners of these cities are the residents themselves, they construct their own homes and police their own streets. It truly is a reversion into medieval life. Change must occur in order for these squatters to develop further but in this day and age when everything is possible what should we do? What is needed to jumpstart this growing majority of the world without condemning it to the foreseeable failures of the modern city and our current functional yet unsustainable way of living. For my research I would like to examine several key squatter cities to identify characteristics of this urban typology and then examine successful/unsuccessful attempts to inject organization. Perhaps further research will narrow my ambitions to a few case studies which are yet to be determined but for instance the works of Architecture for Humanity, Robert Neuwrith, Rem’s Lago’s experiment and Hernando De Soto property rights proposal offer suggestions of how this condition might begin to be remedied.
I would like to write a set of sustainable guidelines for a small scale city in the surrounding suburban area of Beijing, China. I will research traditional and modern local building practices and local materials as well as industrial, economic and social characteristics of the area that will be incorporated into the sustainability of the project. I would like to look at models to use as precedents for a sustainable city. I am interested in Norman Foster’s Masdar City in Abu Dhabi and William McDonough’s Park 20/20 Master Plan in The Netherlands. Both of these projects will not relate climatically or culturally to China, but I will study them to see when general sustainable rules can be used and when the guidelines should depend on my specific site, climate and culture. I also want to find models of Chinese cities, ideally of an attempt at a modern sustainable city or modern Chinese city plan in general, as well as an ancient Chinese city in order to understand the methods and traditions of Chinese urban planning and architecture.
In reference to urban scale vs. architectural scale I will keep in mind the advice of Janet Abu-Lughod who wrote, “…since cities are living processes rather than formalistic shells for living, they cannot be built by us. We can only encourage them to grow in the desired direction” (173). Therefore my project will be on an urban scale but will focus on a few initial architectural components and sustainable processes and standards to guide healthy growth of the city in the future.
For the research paper of Arch 652, I’d like to investigate the topic about Bruno Taut’s discovery of Japanese Architecture. Even though, I mentioned about this topic in the blog already, I do not know enough about the topic and this topic always interests me. Especially, the aspect of Katsura Palace had been architecturally not concerned before Taut’s appraisal but became significantly important architecture figure later. In this investigation I’d like to investigate several issue’s
1. Taut’s definition of Katsura Palace and Ise Shrine as authentic architecture.
2. Western perspective influence on Japanese Architecture, discource of Modernism.
3. Reading the same topic in text in different languga to compare the difference in perspectives.
ABSTRACT - ANDRI KLAUSEN
Utopian Beijing.
While Beijing is looking for a new identity in its architecture, aspiring to become a new modern centre of the world, outshining the Western cities with a collage of flashy utopian designs, it is sacrificing and tearing down its traditional and historic quarters. It looks to the Western architects and entices them to experiment as they wish, promising freedom to build structures unimaginable in the Western World: "China is like a fresh source of vitality," says 66-year-old Meinhard von Gerkan, a German whose concepts for planned communities are under consideration by the officials of several Chinese cities. "Europe is all finished," he says. "Here you have the freedom to build."
The city is being treated as a blank canvas for the designers of the future. It’s history is rapidly being erased. I. M. Pei, China’s most celebrated architect, mourns the fading of the historic Beijing, where many blocks of the ancient alleys filled with low courtyard houses, the hutongs, are being demolished every day. These historic architectural gems are giving way to flashy new skyscrapers. The skyline is changing dramatically, affecting the historic qualities of the Forbidden City, as I.M. Pei says: "I said long ago, you should be able to look out over the walls of the Forbidden City and see nothing but blue sky. Of course, now it's gray sky, but you see sky."
I. M. has expressed his concern of his nations new architecture, while local architects and planners are looking to the Western approach for skyscraping shiny high-rises, he argues the emphasis should be on what is special to China, the gardens, the screens etc.
However, the future of Beijing lies not in the hands of the local architect, but the superstar architects of the West. So how will the new Beijing reflect its rich historical past, if its local architects are excluded from the most important developments?
The focus of my research will be Herzog and De Meuron’s approach to China and their experiments there, the National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and especially the entire district in the town of Jinhua. One is tailored to China’s international appearance; the other caters for the daily needs of the population.
The Chinese artist Ai WeiWei, who collaborated with Herzog and De Meuron on the “Bird’s Nest”, recommended the Swiss architects as the best architects in the world for the Jinhua project, which he felt was impossible for his fellow Chinese designers to challenge.
So how do Herzog and De Meuron’s architectural experiments deal with the historic vs the contemporary Beijing, which once was closed to foreigners but is now rapidly opening up to the world? How will or do their designs relate to the Chinese traditions?
As I go deeper into the subject, my theoretical questions will grow more focused. But this will be my starting point for me to find out more about the new/old Beijing.
Shanghai is rapidly becoming a global city with the potential to rival those of the Western World. Born out of foreign concession at the end of the first Opium War in 1842, Shanghai has risen from an infamous center for vice and scandal to one of the most important economic centers in Asia. The objective of this paper is to trace the roots of Shanghai’s development and how China’s contact with Western powers has thrust the city on the fast track to modernization and global power.
I would like to chart the shift and change to housing and neighborhoods within cities after liberation in N.Africa, specifically the ghettos that were demarcated along racial lines/simplistic binary terms such as the "European city" and the "Casbah/Muslim City," in both Africa and France. Naturally, the shape of the cities must have changed once Algerian men began leaving Africa for France in search of work. I'll explore certain architect's efforts to finally settle the population of North Africa, such as the idea of 'habitat', a new concept in modernist housing as applied in Africa, as well as their very different schemes in France.
The greater Tokyo area, which includes the de fact capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents, its massive development and fast growing makes it attractive in the eyes of the world. The need to rebuild Japan after World War II proved a great stimulus to Japanese architecture, and within a short time, the cities were functioning again. However, the new cities that came to replace the old ones came to look very different. The current look of Japanese cities is the result of and a contributor to 20th and 21st century architectural attitudes. With the introduction of Western building techniques, materials, and styles into Japan, new steel and concrete structures were built in strong contrast to traditional styles. Like most places, there is a great gap between the appearance of the majority of buildings (generally residences and small businesses) and of landmarks buildings.
I’ll like to focus my research in Tokyo’s development and density changes after World War II until now and how its actual density has affected the traditional Japanese house and its architectural grid.
I’ll start for doing some research of maps and statistics that will let me understand the urban density and population after war II and then how the city became drastically developed exchanging its traditional housing for contemporary buildings and how this phenomenon coexist in today’s society.
I am studying the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh pre-British colonization to understand what contributed to it formally being one of the richest cities in the region and possibly how it fell into such disrepair. I plan on looking into the city's history and locating maps and images depicting how the city used to function when it was more successful.
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