TECTONIC (class notes)

SENSES + ENVIRONMENT

• Environment as an extension of body 
• Investigation of body (body-space)
• Implied action 
• operational/ contextual/ sequential/ experimential 
• inhabitation/ narrative condition - dwelling
• function is NOT a space 

Creation of built environment = creation of sensorial environment that body inhabits 

OTHERNESS + SOCIAL

• "work of art implies a bodily interaction"
• presence of other 
• presence through "character"/craft
• "architecture is communication from the body of the architect directly" 

Peter Zumthor - Thermal Bath  (Switzerland)

photo taken from http://valeriehassett.wordpress.com/tag/thermal-baths-at-val/

Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen - Temppeliaukio Kirkko (Rock Church) (Helsinki)

photo taken from http://rosemariejohn.com/2011/02/06/finnair/

Diller & Scofidio - Blur Building (Switzerland)
 
photo taken from http://themodone.com/2010/04/fashion-show-venues-1/

TECTONIC vs STEREOTOMIC

Tectonic      : layering construction/ materials 

Stereotomic : compressive mass to mass

• Scenographic (visual operation) vs Tectonic (act of construction) 
• Ontological vs Representational
• high art (bourgeois) / labor 
• scenographic / thingness
• structure symbolic / structure technical 

Tectonic can consider as a "craft" - "presence of the hand" -

Tectonic Precedent

Frampton discuss the disposition of current tectonic form that aims toward scenographic that accommodate with all the repercussion that signify the future environment. He adds that the doctrine governing has altered from being the autonomous realm of techno-science to extremely insubstantial. Architecture needs to be divided into structural and constructional form to find its equivalent foundation.  There exist the figurative origins of abstract art and the constructional basis of tectonic form.

TECTONIC

•       Technological Object
•       Scenographic Object
•       Tectonic Object

1.               Ontological – constructional elements: represent the static role and cultural status
2.        Representational – constructional elements: represent the present, but hidden

STEROTOMICS

•            Compressive mass
•        Common materials: wood and brick (represent the interest of permanence)

Fundamental syntactical transition may occur if one passes from the stereotomic base to tectonic base, which also evoke the essence of architecture.

The difference between:

• Kernform (nucleus)

o   Address the fabric of a structure

• Kunstform (decorative cladding)

o   Symbolize the institutional status of work

Through the concept of site and the principle of settlement (in structural terms), environment becomes the essence of architectural production. Tectonic dissolves between the culture of the heavy-stereotomics and the culture of the light-tectonics symbolizing load-bearing crafts and tends towards the earth and opacity and the dematerialized a-frame and tends towards the sky and opacity respectively.

“BREAK” vs “DIS-JOINT”

•  Things break against each other rather than connect: indicates the essential part at which the materials end to give way to another unexpectedly.
•  Rupture may have just as much significant as connection

Frampton conclude that tectonic advocate itself as a mythical classification and the critical myth of tectonic joint subject to the unaffected passage of time as well as separated from the continuity of time.

Critical Architecture (notes)

Tectonic

Tectonic explains how things are built and constructed together - process of layers build to theorize, explain and contrast ideas with value judgments including:

• Act of Construction – how things are produced, created, intentions behind the process
• Layering of frames and materials
• Poetry of active design

Theory in design        

• A discourse that describes practice and productions that identifies the challenges. 
• Essential quality: anticipates certain potentials, it allows for potential connections and discoveries within the work.
• Recurring themes and theoretical questions:

• Origin and limits of design (architecture)
•  Relationship to history and context
• Issues of (architectural) expressions and their meaning

Intention – Production – Consumption

-        Competition in the economy influences the production line

-        Pertain to be as a “public act” rather than “private” (architecture)

Cultural Context

Modernity involves mass production, suppression, function, dogma, clarity. It was a cut throat generation where the distinction between social and cultural segregations were obvious. Function seems like such a practical word in the midst of derogatory terms. 

Post Modern – The right for individual interpretation was evident – “Readers rights”.  Cultural conformity began, and where formal architecture made its mark. Experimentation with design encourages criticism and translation. There is more chance of mistranslation (fuzzy possibilities).

Beyond Romanticism/ Into Realism

• The commercial world changes you can’t account for and architecture might seems like a mere tool/vehicle for something rather noble 
• Architecture as objects or passage
• Post modernism is usually regarded as awful

Critical Architecture

Engages cultural mechanism.  It explores what is contained.  It is now not only about how the construction looks, but how it functions and the experience that is evident within it.  

-        Design away from the norm

-        What other uses do a door and window have?

-        Out of the box thinking