Media Block Located next to the Millennium Dome, the Greenwich Peninsula is a highly constrained development site bearing the scars of a diverse industrial history. Covering 74 hectares with 2.5 km of river frontage the site stretches across the peninsular touching the Thames on both sides of the riverbank knee. Media City: This is the site of London’s New Media Campus: a conglomeration of media industry headquarters and media education. This prototypical urban community will integrated a diverse programme into an coherent urban field. What is the shape of this new urban quarter? Low or High? Field or Block? Open or Closed? Unit 9 will test and scrutinise principals of conglomerate ordering and juxtapose it with dense, tall, multi-programmed, ‘closed’ blocks. The Unit continues the exploration of urban formations and buildings of projective nature that promote the production of new urban communities; projects that challenge conventions of private versus public urban space and contest ground versus building dichotomy.

Structure lesson

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:04:54 +0100

Here is the image of a construction site of a housing tower close to Blackwall DLR station. You might have seen it on the way into uni. The simple structural lesson to learn is that loads want to be transferred down into the ground in a straight line. The construction crane mounted on the top right creates a temporary load for the duration of the construction. The permanent structure of the building is not designed to to deal with the load so props on each floor transferring the load down in a straight line into the ground.

Unit 9 installation at the Building Centre

Mon, 1 Mar 2010 14:06:04 +0000

As part of an exhibition at the Café Gallery of The Building Centre unit 9 designed and constructed a translucent wall based on a 1:500 model of the North Greenwich peninsular.
The design was facilitated by the collaborative software StickyWorld - a web based project review and exhibition platform for creative business and education.

Delirious New York trip

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:02:40 +0000

Inside Radio City Music Hall

fields and grids

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:03:31 +0000

Today the unit started with ‘Delirious NewYork’ - the Introduction and the Prehistory
recommended: watch: Gangs of New York; visit www.themannahattaproject.org

Back to the project - some advice:
The patterns: Lack of rigour in the original 2d pattern exploration and documentation: most of the work has remained as a collection of loose A4 or sketches; production rules and a thorough analysis of the resulting patterns -such as alternate figures, continues orders, underlying structural lines, segregations and islands, alternate regularities. was either missing or not progressively documented.
The same can be said of the initial translation from 2D to 3D. In particular the documentation of explorative models and their spatial and organisational analysis: photographic images and collages of emergent spaces, spatial continuities, boundaries, separation and segregation....
Transfer to site (scandalous: the site model is still in an unfinished state):
Group decisions necessary: In most cases essential global decisions are either incomplete or missing: In a quick but nonetheless attentive and rigorous group session an overall strategy for the site should be determine: (1)what is the existing condition- buildings, streets, roads, pathways, public transports links, open spaces, green spaces... (2) how to subdivide the entire site into smaller plots -one for each group member or perhaps 2 or 3 per group member. (3) establishing a global structure beyond the limits of the individual plot such as shared open spaces, connection lines.... (4) a strategy of dealing with the boundaries between the plots. The simplest options are the use of open spaces between plots or ‘firewalls’.
Base plate: in order to test the group’s projects it is essential to produce a more permanent base plate which allows the precise location of each model in relation to each other as well as in relation to the site. Here a high degree of precision in the sectional relation is absolutely crucial - in 1:500 every centimetre counts. At the moment the models are draped over the site - including massive existing buildings - like wet towels.
Accumulative model: Most models so far - with few exceptions- are literally ‘throw-away’ models (they are actually dump by you after the tutorials). Aim to work into models for longer. Of cause there will be a point where a model has to undergo a complete change but before you can make this decisions you should (1) work into important areas with more intensity; (2) change and adjust others; (3) replace sections.... This model can go from sketchy and accidental to highly precise and controlled by a process of photographing-->tracing in CAD-->refining drawing--> working drawings for model making-->print drawing--> make new iteration of model.
Analysis - documentation: in parallel to this process of designing primarily with the model you should analyse the outcome with photographs, traces over the photographs, collages of the photographs (addition, repetition, deletion), diagrams, sections, plans,..... On the one hand you can come to understand what kind of urban organism you are dealing with (identifying strengths of the scheme) on the other hand it allows you to deal with the weaknesses. It also enables you to strategize about other issues such as programme, infrastructure, densities,....

no more wet towels - please

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:56:00 +0000

In today’ tutorials only a few models appear that allow for an architectural scrutiny. Most other lack the required high degree of precision in section. Scandalously some models are still draped over the site - including massive existing buildings - like wet towels. Learn from example.

Urban Field Strategies

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:47:46 +0000

The first urban strategies start to emerge after a slow start.

To our frustration -in most cases- the projects remains on a very superficial surface level. Architectural, urban or spatial questions are not addressed with the necessary rigour or tenacity.

Dieter Rams Exhibition opening

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:34:49 +0000

Tuesday evening, exhibition opening at the Design Museum. Rams was influential as the head of design at Braun, a German manufacturer of anything form film cameras to blowdryers. For your inspiration, here are Dieter Rams' Ten Principles of good design: Good design is innovative. Good design makes a product useful. Good design is aesthetic. Good design makes a product understandable. Good design is unobtrusive. Good design is honest. Good design is long-lasting. Good design is thorough down to the last detail. Good design is environmentally friendly. Good design is as little design as possible.

Prefab Student Presentations

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:26:49 +0000

A big variety of prefab project were presented from historic to contemporary examples (most of them can be found on the student individual blog pages. Here is a list of some of the projects:
American House 08, William Massie, Cellophane House, Bucky Fuller, Dymaxion House
My Space Pod, SMC Alsop, Oriental Masonic Gardens, Paul Rudolf, Jean Louis Ray, Jones Partnership, Plas-2-Point House, Marcel Breuer, Ramot Housing, Zvi Hecker, Anderson + Anderson, OULA, Eames House, The Retreat House, Retreat Homes, BURST*008, Gauthier & Edmiston, Kim House, Waro Kishi, s.i.p.s - structural insulation panel system
Meudon House, Jean Prouve, Packaged House /General Panel System, Wachsmann & Gropius, Habitat 67, Sou Fugimoto, Utah House, Marmol Rodziner , Zip-Up-House, Richard Rogers, Eckhard Schulze-Fielitz, Metastadt-Bausystem, Richard J. Dietrich, HUF house
, Kisho Kurokawa, Plug in Capsule House, Tropical House, Jean Prouve

Dieter Rams exhibition at the design museum

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:18:32 +0000

For anybody who is interested in product design there is an Dieter Rams exhibition at the Design Museum in London starting from the 18th November 2009.

http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2009/dieter-rams

urban patterns

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 09:44:39 +0000

the groups are now making the first courageous attempt in exploring their organisational formations as heterogeneous urban fields on the North Greenwich site. Apart from the development of each individual formation the stitching together will be a focus for the next weeks.

group tutorials

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 11:21:18 +0000

Progress is slow with the exploration of the patterns. This is in part due to the casual presentation format. For the next session a number of development are required: completion or the model; model placed on site with an agreed group strategy; presentation of patterns studies in clearly formatted and annotated manner.

David Lynch Fest at the Tate Modern

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:09:20 +0000

Mapping the Lost Highway New Perspectives on David Lynch was the title of this all day event in the Starr Auditorium at the Tate Modern.

Artist such as Photographer Gregory Crewdson, Louise Wilson, as well as the author and film-maker Chris Rodley, author of the insightful book ‘Lynch on Lynch’. Other presentation included Lacanian Parveen Adams, Simon Critchley, Roger Luckhurst, Tom McCarthy, and Jamieson Webster.

Iteration, stop-frame, sketching

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:52:48 +0000

On the examples of jan svankmajer short ‘dialogue’ the unit discusses in the morning session the idea of exhaustive permutations as a creative strategy. the film also demonstrates the possibilities of the stop frame animation technique at the unit will embark on in the next few weeks.

In a longer session the unit discussed the idea of diagramming. The ideas set out in Diagrams by Douglas Graf (Perspecta, Vol. 22, Paradigms of Architecture (1986), pp. 42-71, MIT Press) were discussed in the context of the ‘FOUR WEEKLY SITE VISITS’ exercise.

In the last part the unit discussed the prefab case study submission. a format was agreed and will be issued to all by the end of week 7.

pattern analysis

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:51:39 +0000

The unit has started to work in groups (see below for group membership). Still on the first task the unit has explored existing patterns and to retroactively defined their generative rules in form of simple graphic diagrams. In the next step each pattern is recreated as an infinite system. Through the manipulation of parameters such as scalar relations or angles or by omission and additions of rules a minimum of five distinctive iterations are produced.
The final step is the translation of one of the pattern is a 3-d physical model.

Group 1: Joseph Pawlina; Eoin Carroll; Jenny Imelda Gnadl; Marcus Andren; Jessica Hiller; Marios Lampouras

Group 2: Grant Nahorniak; Matthew Ward; Maggie Lo; Chang Liu; Jurgita Korsakaite; Kalliopi-Emmanouela Ntassi

Group 3: Thomas Phillips; Danai Sage; Mira Khleif; Miguel Fonseca; Violetta Pantazi

Group 4: Charlene Campbell; David Morehen; Matteo Mantovani; Nicole Sacha Ahmed; Andi Fatkoja

Group 5: Vimal Fatania; Chiara Zaccagnini; Naohiro Mizushima; Chi Kin Ho; Leanne Ackrell

site model nearly complete

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:12:47 +0100

In my absence the work on the model continues. It is now up in the unit space and ready to be used. Finishing touches such as the marking of roads, painting and some minor chisel work will continue.....

formtexx facades launch

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:29:22 +0100

FORMTEXX launched its unique double-curvature facades last night at The Building Centre. Unit 9 will visit the exhibition next week and discuss with one of the protagonist the future of prefabrication in architecture. formtexx promised to manufacture facades using the technology and precision of automotive mass production. However they did not reveal or even hinted at how it is done.