Charlottesville, Va

Architecture, Urbanism, and the Design of Dying

As humans we have a strange relationship with death. The only species known to bury their dead, we approach the matter the only way we know how, and that is the same way we approach life. We each mourn our own way, perform the appropriate ceremonies, and then we adorn the newly departed with their own structures and architectures of stone, granite, plaster and metal. We shelter them from the elements by placing them in a tomb, then marking their location and memory with headstones, crypts, monuments or placards. Architecture may be the only thing we can take with us. In Paris, these burial plots combine to form districts of the cemetery, which are divided by boulevards, streets, or pathways. These in turn are given identification, and street signs are erected. At certain intersections, a large obelisk or sepulcher may be placed in the center, declaring itself a landmark from which visitors can get their bearings and migrate in the right direction. By applying theories of architecture and urbanism as understood by the living to places inhabited by the dead, cemeteries become places where two worlds meet and occupy the same space, both in the physical sense and symbolically. Although used for many activities in a densely packed city of bustling vibrancy these cemeteries, with their urban organization and architectural exonerations are still places of memory, of respect and somber reflection on our own mortality.

Charlottesville, Va

It's been a while since I've updated this thing, though not much has changed. As is inevitable, studio projects and everything else have kept me from doing much to advance my research, but in the last few days I've been able to pick it up again and have been running ever since. In a meeting on Thursday, I spoke with Bill Morrish about where I could head with a paper focusing on mobility infrastructure and the formation of place. I suggested my idea of doing an addition to Union Station in Washington, D.C, and he suggested taking the project outside the Federal Triangle to Tyson's Corner, VA. Tyson's is halfway between D.C. and Dulles International Airport, and is currently in the works to get a subway line connecting the two. That, and the proximity of Interstate 66 and other local train services make this location an ideal place to let each of these transit types make their impact. Best part yet, Bill suggested using my original nine essays and interview to frame the parameters to which the project will be shaped. This just might be the first intermodal transit hub designed around the homeless or technology.

So the project will be broken into a few parts:
The first will be a preliminary review which I will give in 2 weeks. This review is our final presentation for Design Research, but really just an opportunity to have some feedback from others to see how we are approaching the ideas and where we can head from there.
The second part will come early next semester, when I present one or a few of my essays from the summer, for the Nix Fellowship presentations.
The third and final part will be my thesis presentation, right now shaping up to be an intermodal transit station located outside Washington, D.C, with urban parallels between D.C. and Paris (to justify not doing a project there, really).

Stay tuned for more. As I continue to get more information / visuals in the next two weeks I will try to post them. The net 4 weeks will be rather busy, so it may not be until then that I update again. Hopefully a few short posts will suffice.

Amsterdam Realtime

Charlottesville, Va.

Heading to New York City for the weekend. I am currently working on the Nix Fellowship within the Design Research seminar. This means that the paper is shifting continuously and rapidly. Right now I'm paring down on an exploration of the concept that a place's unique urban characteristics can be interpreted into design drivers for new construction through an understanding of the "personality of place". I'm beginning to look at the if and why aspects of the existence of this idea. Theoretically I'll develop a loose methodology of reading "context", which I will then put to the test next semester in a thesis project.

I'm coming to the realization that in order to make a strong case for Personality of Place and its design implications I won't be able to use my original essays as planned. In a way it's okay, since they have been very helpful in forming this idea, but also sad because I won't be able to use them as I had intended. Still, I have plenty of contributions for the Lunch publication in the spring.

A Tale of Two-Cities

There are these beautiful places: beautiful because they are exotic and exotic because they are mysterious. They are famous places and rustic secrets; Paris, Vienna, Rome, Siena, and each brings its own charms to the table, creating a persona either real or imagined, that is portrayed to the world via film, literature, art, music, and spoken tales.

It's possible to visit these places we hear and read about, although our experiences will differ from those of Shakespeare, Moliere, Thoreau, or Charlie Chaplin. But where their stories end our own can begin. When we travel to visit these places we develop our own narratives, create our own characters and plots and are anxious for the day we return to normalcy and relive our own narrations, while adding to the fantasies of others who have not been, and rekindling the fond fires of those who have.

Unfortunately for my kind, these fantasies are but one side of the story. It's in the fiber of my body, like lungs or eyelids, that when I find one of these magical places I want to know why it works, how it's made, why it feels so special, and how I can bring this experience to everyone. This brings a course of analysis and critique. I do what I can to find the source of this enchantment and unfortunately for myself in the very process of understanding its beauty I destroy that which I sought to understand. Paris for me is no longer the city of love and lights; it is a city of sewers and bloody revolution, of immigrant populations in dire social housing. It's graffiti. Venice is no longer the romantic city by the sea where canals run like streets and fresh vegetables are sold by boat side. For me now it is a city fallen from grace, forced to pander to foreign tourists or die. Each city is a tale of two cities, one which is the reality of a living, working city and one that is the facade of what the city would like to be, projected onto other cities so that they might be able to compare their favorable assets. If we wanted to we could stop the charade and present our cities as they actually are. But that wouldn't really change anything, and would leave us all a little depressed.

Charlottesville, Va.

41 Days in Paradise: Considerations of the culture of context in Paris, France.

Thesis abstract:

Contextual attributes exemplified by syntactic, social, political, infrastructural and technological considerations are examined in their physical manifestations in relation to contemporary Parisian architecture. Explored examples reflect the reality of the constructed pre-conditions of any site in the dense urbanism of Paris.

Research Description:

Paris is well known for its grandiose urban schemes and historic architecture, but still fosters intelligent and relevant contemporary architecture rarely seen against its more distinguished forbearers. At the same time, this new architecture is relying heavily on its context to inform and deform its design process. In such dense and architecturally homogenous surroundings, “context” can quickly become limited to urban issues and historic narratives of the neighborhood. Though these aspects are important to the development of the built environment, other issues contribute to the unique definition of place. These issues range from socio-economic conditions to public and urban infrastructure, to the technologies available to solve complex syntactic problems. This definition of context has yet to be defined or categorized, or even analyzed for its relevance and potential, yet it has already been manifested in the physical environment, in some cases, for over a century.

Goals and Aims

The goal of this research is to identify attributes and qualities which, along with historic and built context, contribute to the context of a specific place. Of these attributes, several will be chosen as case studies and explored in greater depth.

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This is where we are right now. I'm falling dangerously behind on my writing because of a design competition I'm working on which finishes later this week. I'm hoping that next week I'll be able to get a solid start on these essays. On that note, I'm having to rewrite or refocus just about all of them because of the subtly shifting sands of my theses. Considering they're each running between 3,000 and 4,000 words this is quite the undertaking, but as I go I may be paring a few of them down to the 1,000 word range, to make them shorter and more concise, and so that it's not page after page of my rambling. Also, it allows me to give priority to the ones that uphold what is now the main thrust of my paper, and letting some of the peripheral essays (those that don't really have anything to do with context or architecture, but are still interesting) fall back a bit. I should have one or two near completion by next week, so be on the lookout.

Charlottesville, Va.

Original Thesis:

Develop a series of patterns that define the architectural interpretation of contemporary built works of the historic urban fabric in Paris, France.

41 Days in Paradise:

6 Memos for any Millenium: The language of architecture can be distilled into a series of elements (structure, light, circulation, proportion, and surface) which, regardless of their aesthetic form, play an important role in the formation of coherent architecture in all styles and time periods.

Souterrain: The role of transportation infrastructures, specifically as they apply underground, continually inform and deform our understanding of the city as a continuous logical landscape, as well as a series of event spaces and flows.

Cities and the Dead: Past creative uses of the intricate latticework of voids underneath Paris can be reinterpreted to find creative solutions to current issues facing Paris, and in doing so can explore the prospect of an inverted city below.

In-Tent-City: Subcultural movements exist within the Parisian homeless community, defined by community cooperation, creative solutions to survival techniques, and nomadic tendencies. These groups challenge contemporary practices of urban living while simultaneously raising awareness for their own plight.

Monu-Mentality: The Grands Projets serve as monuments spread across Paris and present a paradox in contemporary Parisian architecture of scale; the monumental size of the Projets seems to defy the largely human scale of historic Paris, but at the same time draws from a long line of larger-than-life monuments found in French architecture for the last 400 years.

Old Ideas, New Constructions: Haussmann was able to apply earlier urban concepts in new ways to transform Paris to what we know today. Likewise, many contemporary architects are using old concepts and applying them in ways that appear innovative, but are in fact deeply rooted in practices developed in earlier periods.

The Francophone Candidates: Many of the contemporary projects around Paris are not within the historic confines of the city. Instead of seeking interpretation of the surrounding historic context, these contemporary works focus on technological and social considerations when designing new projects.

Interview with Christophe Lab: Designing contemporary works in forgotten places, and the role of context in Paris’ outer arrondissements.

The thesis for "41 days in Paradise" will be the overarching thesis which ties each of these disparate essays into a coherent string of thought. Given that enormous task, I am not sure just what that thesis is. I do think that it is not so far from my original plan, in that it draws significantly from the contextual, cultural, and infrastructural zeitgeists surrounding contemporary Paris, instead referencing these as the starting points for architectural conception. The other problem is, and this one I never really defined, is whether "architectural conception" is aesthetic, functional, social, etc., in nature. This is something I will need to address in "41 days".

Charlottesville, Va.

After a nice month long hiatus from studies, things are expected to begin picking up here. Last week I met with Bill Morrish and Phoebe Crisman to add them to my Nix team. Phoebe has a background in architecture and the urban environment, which is of great interest to me, and Bill's expertise is in infrastructural issues and the bigger picture. Both had extensive knowledge outside their field. Coupled with Ed Ford and Judy Kinnard, I should have enough input to keep this thing from ever crystalising. This week, that will be my main focus. Now that I am back and have more or less 8 essays and one long ass interview to compile, I will need to rework my thesis to be sure that readers have a clue what I'm trying to get across. Seeing as I don't even know just how I'm going to pull it off, it could be pretty demanding. I am, however, rather confident that despite turning my original proposal on its head, I'm still more or less ending up with a similar thesis, albeit a very different approach to the subject. I will come up with two theses: One sentence, which sums up the gist of my research in a handful of words, which is preferable during conversation about my research. The second will be a paragraph, in the neighborhood of 200 words, that captures with some level of detail just what I hope to ellicit from this research.

The second thing I would like to do is to make up a revisable schedule. I say revisable because my on the ground schedule was obsolete within 9 days, and I don't think this will be much different. Still, with studio, exams, papers, research, and the occasional free moment, and with a tentative final presentation circa mid-october, I will need something to keep me on track. Piggy-backing this research with my design research class ought to help, but to what extent, I'm not sure.

So stay tuned. I'll begin posting writings as they near completion and/or reflection points. Comments/critiques are most vividly welcomed in all cases.

Paris, France

In what may very well be the last entry from Paris, I'll try and reflect on the experience as much as possible. My original idea was to have this webslite as a document of my journey, so as to avoid having to do some end-of-trip retrospective. With the internet as it was, that was sadly unfortunate. But I'll do my best anyway.

The trip has evolved just as much as my project. I came here and was surprised by what I was finding. I chose to embrace that, and I think some of my early thoughs about what I would accomplish were in a sense jaded. As I got back into the groove of the city things started making more sense. I was able to think clearer, and understand the city better. I never did come up with a step by step plan on how to read Paris, but that may not even be possible. There is no one certain way to interact with the city. Once can come to see the sites. One can come and work alongside the sites and never visit them, or at least not often. Others may live in the suburbs and commute to the outer arrondissements, never casting a glance at beaux-arts architecture. Others may only choose to live in Paris as a fantasy, through books or movies or television, in lieu of visiting themselves. So I, as a student, as a traveller, cannot say that I have found the way to view Paris. What I have found is A way. One. And it has shaped my understanding.

I'm not going to place a project in Paris. It will be too hard, too difficult to even begin the process. I never found a suitable site, I cannot find measurable maps or documents, and if I forget a photo, I'm screwed. What looks to be a better possibility is a project based in a reachable US city, Washington DC perhaps, and giving the project some French link, so that I can focus on my interpretations of Paris and tie them into the project. This will accompany the document I will make this fall.

The weather just sucked. Today was a fitting memorial for my time here, as it would rain for a few minutes, then be sunny, then another storm would roll in, and so on, throughout the day. It seemed the entire time I was here I was ducking raindrops or getting rained out of a drawing. Last time I was here it was sunny and hot, the entire trip, save for maybe 2 rainy days. This time, it downpoured three weeks ago and hasn't let up since. The dry days are cloudy, and the wet ones are cold and windy. I blame global warming.

In the end, if I had to call it a good or bad trip (because we must always summarize the events of our lives, especially those drawn out over several weeks, with a host of complex emotions interspersed) I would say it was a good trip. It was a good trip because I've packed a lot of experience, a lot of thoughts, of visions, of memories, of concepts, and abstractions into the last 40-odd days. It's helped me understand the built environment and has at least helped me contemplate architectures role within that environment. That, and it is Paris.

For being the supposed heavy time of keeping this journal of my travels, the next step is to keep it up on some sort of semi-regular basis. Of course I'll have a few weeks off, maybe won't work on it much during the first few weeks of school. It will pick up again sporadically, between the lecture and pieceing together some sort of book, to talking to Peter's students, to what will hopefully be a thesis project in the fall. But that's a long way away. For now I'm going to go enjoy the last of 41 days in PARadISe.

Paris, France

With poor weather this morning, I was able to begin another essay, this one focused on the multitude of contemporary projects across Paris and the issue of self-censorship, which ocurred alot while I was still working on the initial research subject. The essay then transits to comtemporary architecture and its obsession with technology, both as a design strategy and technical design driver. I think the essays are getting better with each one, but are getting harder to write, as I get more and more burnt out on a subject. One can only look at the Bibliotheque Nationale Francois Mitterand so many times before shuddering. Be it as it may, the complex plays a critical role in no less than three of my essays, thus far.

I guess the building plays a critical role in my research, at the crux of Parisien culture and technology, contemporary architecture, literature, historic architecture, Corbusian urbanism, and a national history condensed into a series of Grands Projets. Unfortunately I was not able to draw it, as the weather was bad and I struck out without my drawing supplies. But I have a few photos of it though. This photo, taken from the avant>>apres exhibit, casts two of the towers in a snowy fog that captures the isolation of the site. Despite this, the deck remains a farily populated place, and despite the best of my intentions to show it as an isolated uninhabited landscape, I couldn't manage to keep the people out of my photographs. I suppose my personal biases toward the project show through after all. Take that,
self-censorship.

Paris, France

Just over a week left in the trip. Most of my information has been collected, now I'm running around getting some decent night photos as well as redoing day photos of anything I shot in overcast skies. Contemporary architecture is monochromatic enough, it needs all the help it can get.

After searching for a decent competition to base my project off of and failing, I've decided that I should not base my thesis in Paris. It would be hard enough to get site information and decent photos, and I wouldn't have acess to the site if I needed to go back for anything. Right now I'm rethinking the thesis end of this, and am now thinking that if it does follow up this bit of research I should do a "french" project along the east coast in the US. For example, a Franco-American art museum in Washington DC or New York. This gives me the added opportunity to raod test a few of the ideas I have developed here to see if they're valid outside of Paris or Europe, and revisioning Washington DC as a hybrid-Parisian-exquisite corpse may ellicit some interesting parallels to the physical urban environments of each, yielding what would essentially be a museum designed specifically for its context. And, since this whole crazy experiment began by searching for a relationship between contemporary architecture and its context, everyhting seems to meld together at the last moment. This is all rhetoric at this point and I still need to pitch it to possible critics, but for now I think that this route will yield an overall stronger project.

So for the next week I'll continue getting the last of my photos in line, and follow up on some final information concerning the METRO system, a few of the Grands Projets, and an interview, rescheduled for the day before I leave.

Paris, France

The weather is breaking a bit here. Today the sun actually came out! I was at the Parc de Buttes Cahumont when it happened, sitting atop the rocky precipice with a fantastic view of Sacre Coeur in the distance when it happened. Unfortunately I was dressed for gloomy weather - jeans and a black shirt - and so I couldn't stand to vask in its glow for long. However, it's good to see the sun again, I hope he sticks around for another two weeks. It's amazing what an overcast gray cloudy background does to contemporary architecture in a photograph.

My interview with Christope Lab this morning was rescheduled due to them being in the middle of a competition, and no one speaking a lick of English. Of course I, dropping the ball, cannot even ask my questions in French. So we're rescheduled for the 10th, interpreter and all. That meeting too may be cancelled, and the interview may have to be done via internet, which I'm not to happy about, but will work if needed. Other than that it's been a few slow days here. I'm going to map out some night routes to get some night shots of a few major works before I skip town in less than 2 weeks, which may compensate for an otherwise washed out series of graytone photographs. I've been using saturation filters way too often.

Paris, France

A bit of a break in the weather allowed me to get a full day in. Mostly now I've been running around town, cramming for my interview on Saturday. The trip has taken me to parts of Paris I have yet to go to, and even more of a chance to gauge an objective view of the city.

With 2 weeks to go I'm working on getting some final pictures of a few projects around town...and about 10 drawings left, thanks to a bout of bead weather (and being locked out of the Musee du Quai Branly 3 days straight). Once the interview is completed I'll have a bit more time to devote to getting drawings finished. I had originally planned on having three more essays completed before leaving but now I think that decent starts will have to be enough...they've been difficult to crack into and as usual I'm not quite pleased with the level of thought.

Paris, France

For starters today was nice because I got a meeting with an architecture firm in Paris scheduled for Saturday, so now I have 8 essays and an interview. Then today all went downhill. I went to the Musee du quai Branly to draw it, and I got about 2 minutes into the drawing and it began raining, so I packed up, left, and took the 20 minute train back to my apartment and made lunch (that also blew up on me....another story, another time). Later in the afternoon I looked outside and it is sunny and dry, so I pack up my things and take another 20 minute train to the site. I get there, set up, and before I can erase all the lines I drew in the 2 minutes I drew that morning, it began raining again! So that set me in a bad mood.

Paris, France

Despite some wicked weather I am plugging along on drawings, having completed two yesterday and one today, and another 2 scheduled for tomorrow, weather permitting. In addition, I have at least some ideas for another three of the essays, getting us up to all but 1 or so that have some sort of concept or direction. My rain delay alternative for tomorrow is to begin writing about the fabulous souterrain, the underground of Paris. Mostly I'm focusing on the Metro system and its natural ability to be very disorienting, and how it represents itself (via maps, etc.) in a completely different way. But this could use some beefing up. As with most of the essays, they've become observational and really lack any new ideas or putting forth any arguments, which is not what I wanted from them. But I have all next semester to make sense of them. I'm basically here to collect information. I'm currently getting my hands on some CATIA models of the major subway stops, without the groud. They're surprisingly well ordered.

Paris, France

Thqankfully, a day of decent weather descended upon Paris, and great timing. I ended up walking the most today, covering a good portion of the Left Bank from the Latin quarter to the Eiffel tOwer, then across to the 16th back to the Champs-Elysees. Despite the touristy locations, my focus was on 5 buildings, 2 of which I was able to draw (Musee du Quai Branly will have to wait, a major portion of the gardens and my drawing spot were sealed from the public). Hopefully this weather stays with us, as I have quite a bit to work on. I'm down to 2 weeks now. Kezia, the other Nix fellow just got into town, and hopefully I'll be able to meet up with her soon. I'd like to run my ideas for my essays over some people, preferably before I leave town in 2 weeks, in case there are changes/photos I need to take.

2 weeks. Let's see how we do...

Paris, France

Tonight is the festival of music, so I will make this short. There is much to celebrate.

For one, I have passed the halfway mark on a paradoxically fast and slow trip. The weekends drag by, but the weeks, well, it's already Thursday. In the meantime I have finished a second essay on the so called "tent phenomenon" of some 550 tents that have been donated to the homeless of Paris. The move has of course brought alot of attention to the subject of homelessness, but form my perspective it introduces interesting juxtapositions against Beaux-arts stone architecture.


There is also something interesting about "urban nomads", entire communities that can pick up and go at the command of a police officer. And, it goes without saying, the idea of urban nomadic communities has also piqued my interest. Entire subcultures, unabashedly setting up camp in the shadows of Notre Dame and the Centre Pompidou.



So as we've crossed the halfway point, we're getting to the point where things are beginning to fall together. I have 3 more essays and, God willing, an interview to conduct before I leave town in 2 short weeks. When I'm back I'll have another 2 or 3 essays to write form the comfort of my own home, as they need little more from me at this point than photo documantation to go along with the text.

Paris, France

I keep getting rained out of my days here. It's rained off and on for the past 4-5 days and as of now I've had to cut 2 drawings short because of rain. So things are moving pretty slowly. We're hitting the halfway mark, and I've only got one essay finished, but I have 3 others started, and today and yesterday I spent the entire day out taking photos for the highly-graphic ones. Things are beginning to gel, but I wish I had more drwaings done. That's about the only thing I'm actually behind on right now.

Paris, France

I've reached the end of the second week, and with the weather being bad lately (rained off and on the last few days, plus its been cold and windy) and with spending the last few days at La Defense, I'm feeling a bit burnt out. The last two times I've been out of the country were two week trips, and they had the fortunate circumstances to end just as everyone was beginning to get on each others nerves. So in a way the next few days are the biggest mental hurdle for me, and hopefully the weather clears up to help me out.

With one essay down and another quickly taking shape, I'm pretty happy with where I am. The last one and this one, based on the monumentality of the Grands Projets, are two of the larger, more intensive writings I have planned. But dealing with really alrge buildings day in and day out has kind of burnt me out, so for the first part of next week I will be switching gears to photo-documenting a few of the shorter, more photographic esays. This should give me a few days to clear my head and come back on the GP essay with a fresh head.

Just about the time I'm heading back onto the GP essay I'll be hitting the halfway point of the trip. Looking back it feels as if each day has been very long and substantial, but in all, the weeks feel like they're going pretty quickly. Thursdays seem to sneak up on me quickly and suddenly I think I'm falling behind, but the weekends go slow enough that I catch up.

Heading to the Bastille Opera for a tour yesterday, I ran into Gil and the group from UWM sitting on the staircase. They had just gotten into town a few hours prior, but maybe my mid-week I'll be able to meet up with a few of them and go do some socialising. I could use a stiff drink before thinking about the Grand Arche again.

Paris, France

Yesterday I spent the day working on the first of the series of essays. It's complete, so to speak, although I think that there's more depth and inisght I can give to the subject matter. Right now its essentially about how Paris solved the overcrowded cemetary issue by exhuming corpses and putting them in the abandoned caverns below Paris. It's definitely thinking outside the box, and the resulting catacombs are one of the most interesting places you can go in Paris, in my opinion. However just that much explanation isnt worthy of its own essay, and I really have to look more into the implications of such a move, and how that has more significant architectural and urban consequences. I wonder what else we could put down there?

So with one essay more or less finished I'm ready ot move on to the next one - the Grands Projets. Essentially, there were seven buildings constructed in the 80's and 90's by then president Francois Mitterand. From my view, they're all really damn big. So I would like to look at scale in contemporary parisian architecture, but also historically, since the French have been building big for a long time. Also what the use of scale means, architecturally and symbolically, and if the treatment of these monstrous buildings is consistent with their messages. It's a chance to actually do a bit of criticism and diving into a bit of theory on them. So that will take me through sometime early next week, hopefully.

We've had a few days of rain on and off here, so it's been tougher to go out, or at least tougher to get myself to go out. Today I officially pass the 1/3 marker of this trip, and although there's plenty of time left, it still makes me kind of nervous. I still haven't really developed a system for analysing the city.