Reflection

I don’t know if it is a consequence of it being oddly housed is a series of Georgian mansions, or it is its position on Bedford Square, or maybe the bar - I suppose that it is all of these things and more that in the aggregate generate an emergent culture - whatever the cause, the Architectural Association has managed to become more than a school of architecture and is indeed a cultural force that continually drives and shapes the profession and academia.

It was very rewarding to have had the opportunity to be a part of this culture, even if for only a semester.  I’m confident that the intangible benefits of being immersed in a group of people dedicated to imagining new architectural futures have and will continue to pay dividends.

Looking at our studios work as a whole, it is difficult to extract the influences.  Obviously each of us brought something unique to the group, and surely Homa’s influence cannot be understated.  That being said, I strongly believe that the work was shaped by the halls that we walked (or at least the stairs that we climbed).  It was an honor to be a part of this studio and to have the opportunity to study at the AA.  I hope that my colleagues agree that being invited into this amazing school and vibrant culture was an exciting and enriching experience that has made us each more engaged and interesting architects.

cultural concentrator . teaser

Once I manage to get this project fully incorporated into the "work" section of the site there will be a more thorough post, but I wanted to get something up as quickly as possible.

Here is an animation from our final presentaion for the London Urbanism studio.  You can also find a project description below. There is another animation of the effect of the dynamic canopies on the "video" seciton of the website. I need to of course thank my partner Amanda Morgan for everything, this project would not have turned out as well as it did without her. And as always, comments please!

Cultural Concentrator - Overal Site Organization from Mark Nicol on Vimeo.

Project Description

As currently envisioned, the cultural olympiad exists as a series of disparate events spread around London in time and space.  Our response functions as a system for deployment and concentration of these events.  

By designing in a capacity for dynamism we were able to create an adaptive system that can respond to a variety of influences.  In addition to the ability for individual boats to migrate around the city to support various events and concentrate in different densities and configurations on the main site, each boat is equipped with a dynamic canopy capable of shifting its form.  These canopies can negotiate climatic impact by responding to sun, wind, and light, they can act as cultural amplifiers by responding to human activity, or their behavior can be choreographed to support the specific design intent for a cultural event.

These behavioral capacities exist at the unit level, but also take on entirely new aggregated effects when the units group together in larger configurations.  The result is a constantly fluctuating landscape, able to support a dynamic and varied array of events and activities.  This fluctuating landscape gives a presence and identity to the London Cultural Olympiad.  By concentrating dispersed events in one location it allows for a vibrancy that would otherwise be lacking.  The reverse is also true.  At times this landscape breaks apart and disperses around London utilizing the existing network of waterways as a tool to stitch together the cultural events which comprise the Olympiad.

Moving forward this system will remain vibrant because of its capacity to synergize cultural events.  It will exist as a series of ebbs and flows - fluctuating daily, weekly and seasonally as concentrations of cultural events taking place in London shift.  In its scale and composition the proposal blurs the lines between urban design, landscape, and architecture, while its dynamism, which is driven by human cultural interaction, blurs the line between the static built environment and fluid cultural actor.

midreview . fall 2011

Here is the beginnings of our studio project this semester.  I say beginnings because though we've been working all semester this design really came together in the last two weeks.  We were way frustrated for a long time and finally decided to just go for it.  I'm actually really happy with the way the concept gelled and I think that this is a great place to be at this point in the semester.

The studio brief calls for a pavilion which will be part of the London Cultural Olympiad, an ongoing program which runs in parallel with the 2012 Olympics.  What we have proposed doing is to create a fleet of floating pavilions that will be deployed around the aquatic network that binds London together.  These pavilions will dock at various positions along the river and canals to act as a venue for pop up cultural events.  They will then travel back to the main distribution site and recombine in this super-structure floating above a tidal wetlands to create a whole new spatial experience.  The main site therefore becomes a system for the concentration and deployment of cultural events - rhythmically fluctuating as units flow in and out.  Units exist in two distinct contexts - deployed & engage - each of which offers unique programmatic possibilities, spatial conditions and effects.

Big thank you to my partner Amanda Morgan who battle through a cold (which I've since come down with) the week prior to our review.  I am very proud of us.

Here is an abridged version of our presentation.

Here is a very rough animation which demonstrates our early thinking about effect and fluctuation.

quAAkers . get it?

I’m very happy to be studying this semester at the Architectural Association in London.  This was always a place that had almost a mythical presence in my mind, so it is really kinda weird to be here, yet here I am.  For the remainder of the semester I’ll be making regular blog posts on a tumblr site that was set up by the PennDesign students that were out here last fall.  The site is quAAkers.tumblr.com.  Please visit often, it will be much more casual that my postings here.  It will very much be a daily log of the work and travels of the whole group of us.  Should be fun to watch the work materialize.  I’ll of course though continue to keep this site active, so come back soon.

so polymorphic

Big congrats to a number of friends of mine at Columbia who produced this really excellent kinetic bench.  I for one really appreciate the approach that they took.  Rather than using digital media and dynamic models to generate a super sexy looking form and then simply CNCing it, they decided early on that the bench itself would be dynamic and designed that intelligence into the detals of the assembly.  Word on the street is that they might be planning a follow up.  I'll be really anxious to see what they do, and will certainly post the results when they are ready.

Again, congratulations on a great product and on all the well deserved attention that it is garnering.  Check it out on Gizmodo.