Assignment: A Map/Model - "Interpretation of a Potentiality"

For Monday (01/25/2010) create a site map/model as follows:

1 scan your vellum map (crop it and post it here).

2 design your itinerary. This is a path through the map. It is not the same as the space you may have named as your promenade. It is a path through that space in which you identify/create opportunity (potentiality) for you to construct conditions (the two interventions from your assignment...not to be confused with the two "sites" that begin and end your promenade) that support/structure your promenade. You will probably have more than two, but you will only develop two. We discussed this is class. In order to make this path you will need to imagine inhabiting and moving through your map (experiencing it). I asked the question, "What does a path do when it takes a 'pause' as Eric described." You each have identifiable moments like this. These moments become jogs, knots, or voids along the path. This path is to become the path of your blade...to split your map in half.

3 once you have made this decision/incision you will plan and construct a shallow (bas) relief model of the city as you mapped it. This model will make use of relief together with collage. The collage material comes from your raw maps (pre-vic, sanborn, GIS), from your vellum map, from your sketches, from you photo-documentation (especially texture). The use of collage will impart tonal-material information of the model and will be a type of "micro relief". In other words, it will probably not be entirely smooth.

4 this model will be cut in half along the line described in 2. You will pull the sides apart to open up a void. This void is necessary for you to think of your grafting/intervening.

5 I gave you a new article, "Anchoring". Read it. In your written assignment, under the "issues" heading, this reading is mentioned as guidance for considering a "critical attitude toward the site as an interpretation of potentiality..." You must develop a way to conceptualize your interventions according to your experience, and the documentation of your experience, of St. Augustine. Remember your descriptive exercises (adjectives, adjectives, adjectives). This time you must "verb" your interventions...make them actions in the city by naming them as such. A verb requires a subject to be an intelligible expression. Name a subject. I demonstrated this with Stefan's project. He named the verb "learn" and I made him point to a spot along his itinerary. This spot I remember to have been a street of Victorian era porches. I said "gravity". So an intervention at this site could be called "learn gravity". Stefan would use the configurations in his map/model to make an intervention. (This may or may not be Stefan's actual project....it is an illustration for all to use). The article will inspire you to get a deep grasp of the opportunities in your project. This is the "program" of your intervention mentioned in the written assignment. Adverbs could help you add detail. Know that all of this description and program is a point of beginning. The models must go beyond the program and words... "Although they fall short of architectural evidence, words present a premise. The work is forced to carry over when words themselves cannot." - from Anchoring.

6 we discussed the surgical repair of bones - pinning. Your interventions will pin the halves of the model back together. They act structurally in the map ACROSS the itinerary. They also act as markers/moments along the promenade. They are "ALONG the way". Consider these two directional actions as you build the interventions. The scale of this model is undetermined. However, since it is not very large the intervention models will be conceptual. They should create, contain, divert, control, etc, space at a conceptual level.

Main Gate

A closer look at a perspective of the only original entrance into St. Augustine. Discerning light from shadow through detail in corner. Rough, sharp, weathered surfaces.

Cathedral Interior

A portal of space regulated by a systematic sequence of proportion and geometrical order. A composition of alignment segmented by horizontal and vertical edges create a series within the frame.

Promenade along River

Perspective pedestrian passage;Time and rhythm measured through vertical elements on opposing sides; Extruded path drawn from singular point; Threshold, boundary juxtaposed between built environment and nature

Flagler Courtyard

Metered measure mapping momentary movement of many; regulative courtyard enclosed by built environment; radial geometric pattern mapping time through enmeshing shadows and contrasting light; resting repose relieving residents from restricting rooms

St. George Perspective

A progression of rhythm defined by edges and thresholds. Interstitial spaces become a component delineating a straight, continuous path. Varying scale of material creates a hierarchy of divisions.

St. George Street looking South

Tracing delicately along an edge, diminishing into the distance. A blanket of shade dominates the space, shadows lurk in the distance, emphasizing the jagged horizon.

Flagler College looking Southwest at King Street

Enmeshing & Time is Duration

Structural apertures unveil an ornamental light field defining a perpetual space and capturing a limited span of time. The time-colored dimension is found by a finite fragment in time intertwining with a gleaming expanse.

Promenade: looking south

A perspective to infinity delineates the aquatic urban boundary while silent pillars' shadows describe the solar orbit and explore varying surfaces as vigorous juveniles.

Flagler Courtyard: view from the arcade

Precise geometric figures compose the courtyard's configuration, ordering space and spawning stability as a shaft's fletching.

Flagler Courtyard: arcade detail

Solid columnar elements graft a horizontal volume with its overhead condition, bounding a courtyard while highlighting the material's durable surface.

Flagler Courtyard: plan

Repeating elements present a constant metronome measuring position and striating time as they describe vertical volumes and linear limits.

Inside the Basilica at Cathedral Place

Perspectival Space/Fluid Space

Parallax appears when a narrowing perspective leads through a directive space, guided by encompassing overhead and ground conditions, to a halting moment.

Order, Geometry, Proportion

Modular spaces bound a pulsating rhythm to force time and space to merge in a slanting pilgrimage.

Cathedral Courtyard

Field and object shadow blend to become one. Entrances to the courtyard space change, from a larger entryway to a narrow outlet. Tall buildings surround the space, creating enclosure on all sides. A tall building and a short fence act as edges of the space, showing how a diverse range of objects can become edges.

Flagler College Entrance

A perspective drawing that focuses on the shadows created by the rhythmic sequence of columns, allowing for a penetrable fence. The wall is permeable, allowing for light to filter through and for the interaction of light and shadow to engage the space. It is a long, narrowing corrider, enclosed on all sides, with areas of porosity. The shadows and objects begin to enmesh as one. It becomes a strong indication or reminder of the gate/wall that once surrounded St. Augustine.

Flagler College Courtyard

This is a section perspective, exploring the spatial boundaries created by the outer edges of Flagler College. The space is limited, yet open to the skies. There are different yet similar pockets of space that extend towards the center. A symmetrical pattern is established by the two buildings opposite each other. Overhangs provide another type of enclosure on a smaller scale.

Miscellaneous Wall Near St. Francis

Shade realizes an exterior of a barrier. Light distills through foliage. Interstitial spaces redefine the enclosure by dense geometries.

Flagler College

Rhythm defines space. Boundary marches  axially around a void. Divisional qualities meld with fluidity to find freedom for movement.

North Gate//Castillo

Dark shadows illustrate roughness on the defining threshold. Connections are made through the composition of cold coquina, uniting a larger mass with a smaller portal.

Lightner Museum

Stretching columns lead vertically to a distinguished boundary to form a repeating threshold. An illuminated void is peaking through behind the repetition and order. Slightly tapered columns give a rhythmic overlay parallel to a spacious promenade.

Cathedral Basilica

A mixture of polished and refined materials surround a central pathway with perpendicular rows of seating. Slanted ceilings led to rhythmic thresholds set in pattern to illuminate the polished space created by proportional boundaries. Strategic carvings bring common geometric properties into focus atop rhythmic sequences of texture and material.

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Augustine

A smooth and structured building supported by a sequence of joints, creates a rhythm throughout the immense space. Modular spaces form an axis that allows scale and duration to be measured by the repetition of the church pews.

Flagler College

A boundary is shaped through a series of arched columns in order to act as a threshold between two worlds. Void and space generated by the promenade and the exposed area are interchangeable as light and shadow change positions during the day.

St. Augustine Gate

A threshold created by sharp shadows along the surfaces of an aging mass. The shadows create a new edge which blends rigid rough materials with that of a softer more forgiving terrain, giving birth to a new mass, carving sharp edges around the initial threshold.

St. Augustine City Gate

Twin guardians stood tall and sturdy at the threshold of the city. Their geometrical and symmetrical forms had suffered much aging and weathering. Sharp edge shadows defined their rough and broken skin.

Tripp Harrison Gallery

Isolate and aloof. Age and weather engraved their marks on the heavy stones. Constructed with geometry and order, rhythm flowed through their slender gaps. As time progressed through the sky, crisp shadow enmeshed the wrinkles of the aged surface.

St.George Street

Looking south. The enmeshing of materiality and shadow create a new edge on the ground plane. A datum is created defined by linked rectangular facades and shadows. Line of sight extends to the horizon accelerating the experience to the edge of the field.

Lightner Museum

Across a thin street. Repeating arches create rhythm and serve as portals to a promenade enclosed by another row of arches facing the interior, hinting at a centralized space. A large cubic mass punctured by small linear apertures, rises from behind the promenade creating a hierarchy of geometries on the façade of the structure

Plaza de la contitucion, Obelisk

Looking up. A thin concrete pyramid contrasts sharply against the clear sky. The stereotomic mass creates a tension between its termination and the heavens. Shadows cut sharply into the carved surface delineating new boundaries between light and the merging of materiality and shadow

Assignment 01-15-2010

Assignment Part 1 -
POST! Sketches, Photos and descriptive text to the blog.
TITLES of posting should be location based (i.e. "St. George Street at Palm Street looking West")
TEXT of postings should be as we discussed...descriptive words strung together to form a fragment of narrative based in the moment...focus the description using the "Intertwining" heading.
LABEL your posting according to the "Intertwining" heading.
I will be pleased to see these postings start to appear. I can view them on my phone, please surprise and entertain me.

Assignment Part 2 -
MAPS! Obtain:
Pre-Victorian Map (Map Library?)
Sanborn Map circa 1910? or so...
Current Map
OVERLAY these maps on layers in Photoshop (or GIMP) force them to correspond with each other and set them up to fill a 24x36 sheet when printed.
PRINT each of these maps on a 24x36 sheet.
CREATE, in Photoshop (GIMP), a single map which contains all three. This is a collage project. You can dissolve layers together you can cut and paste into new layers so that you get hard edges between maps, etc. You should concentrate these efforts at edges in the city, and spaces in the city.
Finally, DRAW a map on vellum using the analysis techniques you applied to your sketches.

ENJOY the books I left you.

"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
---Martin Luther King Jr., December 11, 1964

Along the River at St. Francis Looking North

Looking north. Not quite straight, hard, thick edge, moves toward the horizon but shifts left and disappears around the edge of palms and homes. Wide metal planes extend over dark horizontal gaps segmented by vertical posts doubled in height by rippled glassy reflection. Beyond, the thin line of bridge is colonized by chunks of construction that block and slash the horizon. It extends across the water with effort.

Over this edge...

The water has receded leaving the hard edge made by the wall with less to do. Rigid skeleton homes of shellfish periodically puncture the surface of shimmering satutated silt, at times in clusters. A pocket of miso water with edge smooth rounded and teeming with flicking and fluttering critters is trapped away from the body of water, amputated.

Divide

At the edge, a heavy cleaved solid surface of light gray segmented slabs of granite receives a soft straggle edged criss-crossed tarsal shape left by sunlight blocked.

Fill

Weather has not yet worked on plasticity poured patch patterned to placate.