A “subtractive barrier”

Location
From where shall the project begin and to where shall it end?  The original project brief focused on the unresolved quality of space division between studio and kitchen.  The ambiguity of this barrier, while real, as a physical desk marks the line, calls attention to the undesigned nature of this last bay and seems to be a forgotten space.  This is even more noticeable as the other studio bays are clearly demarcated by 4′ white half walls.  The placement of a messy 30″ desktop in the crisp white datum line in an unintended misfortune.   The goal of this project is not to resolve this issue of a dropped datum, but to create a resolution of this line where it terminates on the south wall.

Pattern/Surface

As there is a link which needs to be addressed between what is displayed and how it is displayed (Newhouse, 9), the location of the piece is important as to focus the qualities desired for pattern and surface.  Drawing from the existing geometry, I have the intersection of several rectilinear planes: the half-height partition wall, the 2′ concrete column present in the exterior wall, and the 4×3 grid of  the two black metal window frames.  As Kengo Kuma discusses the reality of architectural decoration, “pattern…explains and strengthens the structure of the space” (Abruzzo, 42).  From these geometries, I can derive a resolving pattern.

In parti, the piece will continue the datum of the half wall, but reversed, flowing towards the ceiling instead of the floor.  I imagine it flowing upwards to keep the visual connection at standing height above the 4′ wall, while making it obvious that it is beginning and tied to the datum line.  From there, the design of the pattern must create a flow betwene this datum and the surface of the window. In searching for the correct pattern of the installation’s pieces, I am consulting not only Kengo Kuma’s prescription that decoration enhance structure, but also ideas from many camps, including inspiration from the work of Theo van Doesburg.  In his patterns, he composes colors and forms which create a sense of movement while viewed and existing statically (Coles, 88).

Light Qualities/Phenomena

This installation looks to synthesize the properties of designing an installation for a static existing interior condition with the modulating exterior condition of light and weather changes.  As Jacci Den Hartog is able to accomplish evoking “the power and beauty of nature rather than re-creating it with exactitute” (Lombino, 34), I hope that my light sculpture will create references to the natural world without literally representing it, and instead creating new form.

As in Dan Flavin’s untitled (to the “innovator” of Wheeling Peachblow) (Bell, 164), the object of the installation will be to utilize existing architectural conditions to create new spatial conditions through the medium of light.  Flavin’s work accomplished the erasure of the wall’s corner through direct focus of florescent light at two angles.  As it currently exists, the column straddling the dividing line of kitchen and studio creates a heavy composition within the space, obstructing light passage and dividing window space.  The installation will focus on lightening the column and refracting light to decrease this heaviness and instead focus on the other architectural elements which lighten the space such as the 4′ walls and the windows.  The aim of this installation will be creating a new ‘subtractive barrier’ which lightens and combines the two spaces over an additive approach which might might increase the heaviness of the space.

Abruzzo, Emily, and Jonathan D. Solomon. Decoration. New York: 306090, 2006. Print.This collection of articles explores the nature of decoration within architectural design.  The authors have chosen interviews and academic papers which discuss divergent opinions on the nature of decoration in contemporary context.