Advanced Design Studio, Patkau

A Culture of Making

Background
This studio will focus on the essential and formative contribution that material issues bring to an understanding of architecture. Architectural design studios frequently focus on the “who, why, what, where, and when” of a project. We will consider these things; they are the base data from which the design of every building is formed. However, they will not be our principal focus. We will concentrate on the “how”, how a building is actually made; for while a work of architecture can be broad, multivalent, and even self-contradictory in its cultural engagement, it is nevertheless highly specific in its material resolution. This studio suggests that it is possible to understand material inquiry as truly generative, that issues of construction contribute both enduring value and meaningful invention to architecture.

We will address the design of a specific building on a specific site via focused inquiries regarding scale, geometry, topography, structure, material property, assembly, craft, construction, and fabrication process.

Project
Horse Island is one of a number of rugged granite islands which make up the Thimble Islands in Long Island Sound not far from New Haven. It is owned by Yale University and maintained by the Peabody Museum as an ecological reserve. As part of the museum outreach program Horse Island is the site of a number of university and public uses.

A small field station is planned which will combine a university meeting retreat with an environmental education center which focuses on the geology and biology of Long Island Sound. The meeting retreat continues past use of the site as a secluded location for important gatherings for both university and organizations such as the United Nations. The environmental education center continues use of the ecological reserve for university field work as well as public education.

Format
The work of the studio will be divided into 3 parts:

Introductory Studies
The studio will begin with interpretive studies of the building site through the medium of physical models. Topography, spatial scaling and strategies for material/site engagement will be reflected in these studies. The objective will be to develop spatial strategies which respond to topography and site characteristics, suggest materiality and construction technique.

A second exercise will interpret program as a set of spatial types through the medium of digital models. The objective will be to take a seemingly unstructured set of spatial requirements and organize it into a structured set of spatial types.
In a third exercise each student will produce a hand drawn analysis of the topographic strategy, spatial modules, material and fabrication techniques of a precedent building which exemplifies the generative role that material inquiry has had in its conception.

Travel
To give students an opportunity to experience an innovative building culture we will spend six days in Japan. With the assistance of Souhei Imamura, a Tokyo architect, we will travel to Tokyo, Yokohama, Sendai and Kyoto visiting buildings relevant to the focus of the studio. Many of the precedent buildings analyzed by individual students will be included in this visit.

Horse Island Field Station
Upon return from Japan students will work individually to initiate and develop a design for the field station focusing upon the material nature and construction of the building as a fundamental generator of building form.