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Faculty Scholarship Symposia - Ajlouni, Gomez and ParkFrom TTU College of ArchitectureThe 2009-2010 College of Architecture Faculty Scholarship SymposiaBring your lunch to room 1001 (faculty lounge) on Wednesdays at Noon and join us for an hour as one to three of our faculty from the College of Architecture make informal presentations and we have an open discussion over lunch and their ongoing scholarship.
September 30th, 2009 @ Noon : Ajlouni, Gomez, & ParkRima Ajlouni, PhD: "Representations of architecture in children’s drawings: a study of children’s art in Jordan" ABSTRACT: Beginning with the birth environment, adults create and control the physical conditions, in which children live and experience the world. This fact lays a great deal of responsibility upon planners and designers, to whom the authority of making decisions, on behalf of children, is considered to be a difficult task. In this research, children’s drawings are seen as a primary source of knowledge, upon which the investigation of the child’s power of thinking is based. The objective is to investigating some aspects of the relationship between children and their architectural environments, through analyzing their graphic representations. The aim is to reach some understanding of the typology of thinking that might help the designers understand how children experience, appreciate, and assess their environments. Data was collected by means of survey questionnaires supplemented by interviews. The subjects of study were chosen from the same neighbourhood, totalling (47). The children were all 7-12 years old. Each child provided seven drawings of seven different architectural settings. The investigation was conducted using two methods. The first method used statistical analysis, of a set of defined variables, to identify broad patterns in the data. These include two main categories: typology analysis; and gender analysis. The second method, supported by available literature, qualitatively examines the statistical results to understand why the broad patterns emerged. Analyses of the different settings, displayed a wide range of representations; from the most centralized and orderly (the room and the house) to the most disperses and non-hierarchical assembly of elements (the city). It became evident that this range verifies the child’s knowledge of the drawn setting. The child’s understanding of these settings becomes more limited with the increase of physical scale. The study also concluded that the typology of objects, within a space, represents the most recognizable features to the child. Different objects present themselves in different ways according to the kind of experience the child has with them. Keywords: Children, Design, Perception, Cognition, Graphic Representation Javier Gomez : "Speed, Space and Architecture" "The connection of technology and the eye has lead to the simultaneity of the world and the collapse of both time and space as experimental dimension. The experiences of space and time have imploded and become fused by speed, as a consequence of this implosion we are witnessing a distinct reversal of the two dimensions, a temporalisation of space and spatialisation of time" 1. First was the modern approach: form follows function, then the reactionary post-modern definition: function follows form, and soon after the challenging “situationist” theory: event rather than function. Architecture has been evolving on the understanding that motion is implicit on how we perceive, read, define and use the space. With technology, the definition of motion also evolves every day, in consequence, now we can talk not only about space of motion, but also about space of speed. The perception of space is related on how fast we move or interact in or around it. My intentions will be to show some of these methodologies-strategies, briefly; how “motion” could be included into the architectural program, and how we could design applying concepts of “motion” and “speed” in our projects. For that I will show personal statements, and images from my student’s work, that follow mentioned strategies. Space, speed and Architecture, follows Paul Virilio’s treatise of continuous motion, and information. In his book “Aesthetics of Disappearance”, Virilio “considers the motivations and repercussions of a contemporary society fascinated by speed. Speed, or velocity, is understood literally as space (distance) mapped against time (duration), reaching its absolute limit in light, which collapses both space and time At this limit, light (absolute speed) dissolves the implicit dualism suspended between these phenomena, that of embodied motion and that of disembodied stimulus, anticipating a neuro-psychological event”.2 Architecture cannot be perceived without motion, “we move in or around it”, thus it could be created through the reading of movement, speed and time… architecture of motion, architecture of speed. All these concepts are directly linked to other means of perception, Phenomenology, and the understanding of space through psycho-geographic, derivés, or “Situationist’s” mappings. In my design studios, I allow students to engage with these topics, and through abstract assignments, including video, performance, collage, computer media and installation, students learn how to observe. By doing movies, they understand the theory of relativity in relation to space. The objectives are same as the ones described above, and usually are achieved through the abstraction of the environment, objects, and events. Learning how to carry the essence of that “fast” world we inhabit, brings a strong connection between the environment, our beloved objects, and ourselves. “Devoid of casual logic, the only event of absolute speed is accident; thus, obliquely, fear is complicit in speed seduction”3. Architecture, of accident, is itself that powerful moment of speed full of seduction. Therefore, accident is not failure it is an opportunity. “The formalization of speed serves as powerful contemporary allegory”. 1 Juhani Pallasmaa. “The Eyes of the Skin”, Polemics. Academy Editions, London 1996, p.12 2 Weg Adam, http://csmt.uchicago.edu/annotations/virilioaesthetics.htm 3 ibid. Kuhn Park : "Design Computing . Simplexty" The talk – simplexty – is an investigation into digital design. The quantity of experience and the fluency of digital tools do not determine that she/he is a digital designer. The concepts that are closest to digital design’s potential are inquiries into how to process than what to process. The talk elaborates the possibilities afforded by creating in the computing medium and its further implication through designing. Keywords: Digital, Design Process, Language, Interpretation, Translation
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