Project Stage One:

We will begin by studying a fundamental issue in design: The experience of a human being moving through space within a specific environment of light, wind, and water. Issues of Light, wind and water are essential to understanding all works of architecture. We will begin by building our own bodies into a simulated test environment designed to produce understandings of space, time and context that are applicable to our work as architects involved in any design project in any environment. Your project work will require some group work and some individual work.

In this case we are interested in the human experience of the Tamsui River. We will divide the full length of the Tamsui River into sections. Each group of students will be responsible for registering the information related to that section of the river. We are interested in information related to flows of tide, current, wind and sunlight. These issues are affected by the specific location on the river, and affected by depth, width, riverbank composition, orientation and access to sunlight, and many other factors.

Instead of drawing these factors on paper or in digital space, we will first draw the effects of the river using our bodies. We will position our bodies in relation to our educated intuition about the way that our bodies would react to the river environment in a specific time and place.

We are interested in four points in time:

1. The River at flood tide (tide coming in)

2. The river at ebb tide (the tide going out)

3. The river at its calmest state

4. The river at emergency flood condition (very high water).

FIND YOUR SECTION OF THE RIVER USING  www.maps.google.com

These events occur according to a natural rhythm of time. You can use tide books for the current day to understand the flow of the river in relation to the sunlight at that time. You can use historical data or educated intuition to set the time and date of the flood. You should use maps, charts, aerial photographs and your educated intuition to divide the river into sectors for each group. To chart the full river with our bodies, each group and each student may have to choose several sites to work on. We must work very quickly.

End Product Goals:

1. A Photoshop montage of the river at four states, drawn with photos of our bodies.

2. A digital 3d model of the space of our photo montage.

3. Individual studies

4. A design proposal for a new concept of the river edge.

Please proceed with the following design experiment and produce the prescribed project work:

Begin Wednesday, September 19, Due Thursday September 20

Assignment products (one of these from each section as a group):

Full section group: Build an experimental geometry test apparatus according to the following directions and sketch diagrams:

1. Build a sturdy, rectangular, free-standing, 3-dimensional frame of standard, white 20cm diameter PVC plumbing pipe: 1 meter Wide x 1meter High x 1.5 meters Long. Use standard 20cm PVC pipe couplers. You will need 90 degree elbows and T’s (not all pipe elements will need to meet at the corners of the rectangle). Fasten with a small amount of glue—do not use primer (it will make a purple mess, and these frames need to look good in your photographs).

2. Remove all existing pipe markings from the pipe using rubbing alcohol or an effective solvent such as acetone (use gloves and safety goggles, and avoid contact with skin).

3. Using black electrical tape, neatly mark 4” increments along each of the pipe sections. The marks should be made with a full circle of tape around the pipe. Make sure that you align your marks on the pipes so that you could place a stick from one side of the frame to the other giving you a straight line perpendicular to the pipes.

4. Cut another 2 meter length of pipe, wipe it clean of existing marks, and mark it in 4” increments in the same way. This will be an important measuring device to be moved across the frame.

5. Build 2 flat, sturdy rectangles of 20mm PVC pipe. Neatly cover this frame with inexpensive white butcher paper or inexpensive taut white fabric. Securely tape all the seams and edges to create a sturdy photo backdrop that will not be torn apart in a little bit of wind.

Assignment products due from each individual:

1. Use the following design criteria for all of the following parts of the project: Work quickly, be creative and have fun—don’t agonize over your decisions, there are no right or wrong ways to approach this. If you cannot find the prescribed materials, be creative and use something similar and equally effective—never get stopped or bogged down because you don’t have exactly the right stuff or because you don’t know what to do. Work safely, be neat, and work to a high level of craft—these projects must be beautiful and will be photographed and drawn as the basis for the next project steps. Remove no material from the paper sheets—you may cut and fold, but do not cut away. All folds and all cuts must be straight lines—no curves. Holes and perforations should be made as straight cuts with paper folded away—this would mean that it is not possible to make round holes, for example. In general, design your cuts and folds to favor long, directional actions intended to follow or reinforce the environmental flows (light, wind, water) you will expect to act upon your work in each specific case. Do not use glue or tape—you should only use mechanical fasteners such as the paper itself, or sewing with needle and thread. The safety pins and tape have later functions—do not use these at all in this project.

2. Fold one sheet of paper into a paper mask for yourself, with the following characteristics: While facing directly south in the morning, fold and perforate your mask such that approximately 50% of the available sunlight will directly strike the east side of your face, while approximately 50% of the east side of your face will be cast in shade. The western half of your mask should be constructed such that, while your head is level, your western eye can only look at the sky or toward the west, where your view will be partially blocked by a horizontal. While speaking, your mask should be constructed so as to amplify your voice toward the west, and such that, if eating, for example, the preferred access to your mouth shall be from above. Your mask should be constructed to help capture and amplify sound that arrives at your western ear from the northern sky. You should be able to securely wear your mask without using your hands.

3. Bring this folded paper River Mask, along with your white painter’s coveralls, safety pins and other listed materials to class on Thursday.

Tools and Materials to be obtained as a group for each section:

∑ One roll of white butcher paper

∑ PVC pipe and couplers

∑ PVC glue

∑ Black electrical tape

∑ Hand saw (you can use an inexpensive hand saw designed to cut PVC pipe, or any other saw. Safety First!)

∑ Digital Camera and tripod

∑ Clear package tape, one roll

∑ White painter’s tape, one roll, 20cm wide or similar

Tools and Materials to be obtained by each individual:

∑ One completely white disposable paper painter’s coverall, or similar

∑ One white painter’s hood, or similar

∑ One box of safety pins

∑ Sharpie permanent markers: 1 black, 1 red

∑ White tape, one roll

∑ Heavy black thread: one spool with a lot of thread

∑ Lightweight, black ribbon that will flutter in wind: one long roll

∑ Knife or scissors

∑ Drawing pencil

∑ Clear safety glasses

∑ Measuring tape

∑ Black electrical tape, one roll

Thursday September 20, In class:

1. Each person will design for themselves a specific body position that will be used as the basis for the next stages in the process.

2. We will step into our test armature box and project the geometry of the test armature onto our designed body positions, and will mark this geometry onto the topography of our white coveralls and hoods.

3. We will attach lightweight black ribbons onto each of the marked points on our coveralls and hoods.

4. We will step into our wind tunnel set-up and photograph our designed body positions against the white backdrops. Wind flow and turbulence will be indicated by the position of the black ribbons. Sunlight will be registered by the position of shadows. Photographs will be taken at several varied conditions.

5. Each student will acquire their photo files and use these as the basis of the next stage in the work. In addition, each student will gather their photo image files onto one cd per section, and then make copies of this cd to give to all other sections, so that each section has all of the photo files of every student.