1.1a Diagrams

Object to Field 

When regarding the design and composition of the physical world, the concept of field conditions does not mention landscapes, merely buildings and “elements” within a city, which may suggest trees or other plants, but does not directly touch on them. Though this is perhaps done intentionally, it seems like an oversight to me to not touch on what is such a significant part of any city. When Allen discusses the success of the Cordoba Mosque (as well as the failures of St. Peter’s) in terms of the buildings’ renovations and expansions, he cites the beauty of local relationships and inattention to maintaining axis and hierarchies as why the mosque is as beautiful as it is today. This is quite different to how a tree, for example, would grow. Trees grow in accordance to what helps them thrive in their environment. Within a larger cityscape, collections of trees grow and gradually take shape to their individual interests, but they affect the field condition in the same way the Cordoba mosque growing does. Because of this, vegetation constantly evolves and alters the behavior of the field in a less intentional way than the built environment does. Trees additionally provide canopy space, where they may appear as somewhere uninhabitable in plan view, an elevation would show that it is habitable space, requiring that the field would be three-dimensional.

Geometric vs. Algebraic Combination

The design of Le Corbusier’s Venice Hospital contains no central axis or symmetrical design to unify the building. Instead, it relies on the user understanding local relationships, showing the application of field conditions into the scale of a building. In the case of a building, the void spaces seen as courtyards in the building connect each room to the adjacent ones. The field condition is seen in this figure/ground between solids and voids, but also in the organization of rooms by placing each room adjacent to other types of rooms, creating elements of a field condition.

Flocks, Schools, Swarms, Crowds

The reading states that the key concepts of field conditions are intervals, repetition, seriality, and the form between elements rather than the elements themselves. These characteristics suggest that the importance of a city’s design does not lay in the actual buildings, but instead by what those buildings do to shape the space. The void is where the dynamic space of the city is from the users, where there is crowds of people and heavy motion.

Thick 2-D

The author begins the conversation by stating that “All grids are fields, but not all fields are grids.” I believe this statement is partially true. While I agree that the image of a grid is a field according to the author’s definition, I do not believe it should be labelled as “a grid”. A grid implies that the spaces between each point form a pattern. However, if you looked at a traditional orthogonal street layout and called it a “grid”, I believe that is looking at its overall scheme, which is inherently against the concept of fields.

Distributed Institutions

Allen claims that institutions must be designed to be adaptable to new expectations that are placed on them due to the world beginning to evolve much quicker than previously. As mentioned in the reading, libraries and government buildings have changed within the century dramatically to fit their new needs, but I believe this has also been true with many other institutions, such as banks and grocery stores adapting to new technologies that change the layout. This is only going to become more necessary across more industries as we try to adapt to new technology as well as new priorities in terms of sustainability and social-political movements. The “loose fit” suggests, in my opinion, to design more towards the void space, as void space is always general and adaptive, whereas complex structures lend towards specific uses.