Exercise 1.1A Esme Alexander-Jaffe
“Walking out of cubism” is an interesting concept especially as a first year architecture student. It really resonated with me because the theme and overall ideas are constantly preached to us. We are taught as architects to begin with a specific smaller aspect of a design such as a wall, grotto or Altana and then through time we add more of a structure and an environment. This teaches us to get away from the simple cubist shape and create more sculptural designs. Our very first studio assignment was focused on using one line in which we then added to and made three dimensional which is similar to Barnett Newman’s idea of plane/line/plane when designing. Overall I agree with the ideas of walking away from cubism which tends to lead to a minimalist theme and create more interesting sculptural ideas.
In the section “Thick 2D: Moires, Mats” of the article he discusses relation in designs to each other on top of the environment. This relates to our final project from the last studio in which we had to work in groups as we shared a given land and our structures had to work together in harmony. In the text it is stated that there should be difference locally but indifferent overall. Our models each acted as peaks or valleys and they all were unique in their own way but altogether they worked together in harmony. The Moire is the figural effect produced by superstition of two regular fields. Overall this section is how the structures in the fields work together with each other and the environment to create an overall theme.
In the “Flocks, Schools, Swarms, Crowds” section Craig Reynolds discusses his detailed study on birds or “boids” showing that flocks always form if they follow the simple rules of the environment, which is a parallel to architecture and structures following simple rules in result always creating a harmony in the environment. It is stated that a small flock and a large flock have the same function which shows how different fields in architecture may vary but in the end the environments can be seen as parallels in their uses and functions.
“From object to field” brought up the interesting aspect that a field can unify structures and create an environment that works together. Within this environment are a multitude of individual aspects that work individually and in collaboration with neighboring aspects. This section of the article also relates back to the section on “Thick 2D” in that there are all these different unique individual “peaks and valleys” yet together they work within the same field.
The section on “Geometric vs. algebraic combination” within the article brought up an interesting topic on geometry and proportions within the field. Alberti’s quote in which he states, “Beauty is the consonance of the parts such that nothing can be added or taken away” Shows that within fields the proportions and structures may change but it still holds the same overall beauty and function. This can relate to studio in that everyone is given the same field or assignment yet everyone’s comes out differently and each holds their own beauty even though the dimensions have to remain the same.
