The Full Monticello

So I’m taking another crack at writing my abstract… this time from scratch from a completely different angle. Here’s the mega rough draft:

—————————————

On Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura, Thomas Jefferson was said to have remarked, “[It is] the Bible—you should get it and stick close to it…” Jefferson’s plantation home in Virginia, Monticello, based closely on Palladio’s Villa Capra has been called both a masterful example of Palladian Architecture as well as the archetype of a truly American architectural style. The problem of Monticello is Jefferson’s realization of his dream of a villa designed in the mid 16th Century in Northern Italy for a priest alongside the reality of a plantation built in the mid-Atlantic in the mid 19th Century for a slave owner. This contrast, coupled with Jefferson’s fastidious desire to minimize slave presence in the public parts of the house while maximizing their access, revealed itself architecturally in Jefferson’s radical use of poche. In order to respect Palladian proportions, while at the same time accommodating his relatively modern requirements, using wall thickness as a variable, Jefferson reprogrammed the poche space of the Palladian plan. Poche spaces contained passages and stairways for the movement of slaves throughout the house. Storage and closets were tucked neatly into poche spaces. Technological advances like heating and chimney flues were hidden in poche spaces, as were bathing and toilet facilities. Specially designed dumbwaiters, again fit into the wall spaces, kept the slaves necessary for dinner to a minimum and allowed the kitchen to function autonomously in the basement, distancing the activity of food preparation from food serving from the actual activity of dining.

Using the technique of borrowing and reprogramming by adapting the poche space, this thesis attempts to insert movie palace from the early 20th century into a building that contains apartments, a bakery, a hair salon, and a 5000 square foot 99 cent store in an area in Brooklyn that, although it doesn’t contain slaves, is residence to groups of people who would prefer to remain separate.

—————————————

hrm. well, that’s it. I’ve been trying to write it again… as if I were a developer.

I’ve been working off a set of visual images in my head based on the original idea: Film Noir Dinner Theater. I think this is leading me a little astray as far as framing my project and what I’m doing… Last week I built a model at 1/8th which was totally dumb. I got carried away, starting a study model that was too large and kinda a waste of time.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Graphic Novels

Chris, in his apt description of the unusual shots in the Old Boy fight scene, reminded me that Old Boy was originally a manga.

In my copious spare time,(read: in the half hour before I pass out in bed), I’ve been “reading” graphic novels and manga. It’s really satisfying to finish a thick-ass (is thick-ass hyphenated?) book in a matter of hours.

Recently, I read Road to Perdition. I remember Sam Mendes’ movie being a disappointment plot-wise but a real stunner visually. The graphic novel was much the same. The ambiance of a Depression Era Chicago was so wonderfully done. The book looked like a series of newspaper clippings saved into a scrap book.

It seems like making movies from graphic novels is a fad right now- witness the recent 300. In school, people kept saying I should see that particular movie “for the visuals.” Which I can get behind, I guess, since being a designer is about harvesting the visuals. The 300, however, was two hours of my life that will never be returned to me. (Ditto times two for Sin City.) But not all of these graphic novel adaptations are poor films with excellent cinematography. There are a few gems.

Hell Boy is a great example. With Mike Mignola, the original author of the graphic novel, writing the script and Guillermo del Toro (props on Pan’s Labyrinth) directing and perhaps, mad props to Ron Perleman, the movie is really fun and original. And when my friend Mason loaned me the comic series, I liked the whole production even more. I can’t wait for more Mignola. His vision is unique. Tim and I were fans of the Amazing Screw on Head, but sadly, that hasn’t panned out into a regular series. Which is a real pity because:

In the meantime, I’ve just read some manga called .hack, which is pretty bad. It’s like an US Weekly graphic novel. Although you WoW players might get a kick out of it…

I also read this one called American Born Chinese. It’s sort of aimed at young adults. I found it touching because it described some aspects of my childhood with emotional accuracy, although it could be argued that all kids feel this way at one time or another. I’m trying to imagine if the book would be as powerful if it were a novel or a shorter illustrated story, and although I don’t know why, I don’t think it would translate well. I don’t think it would make a good movie at all. But somehow it sits very nicely right where it is.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Notes to Self

I had my second review this morning. This time my adviser (Meejin) and my readers (Andrew Scott and John Fernandez) were all present. I presented my project without using the word “pastiche” which was helpful for me, but I’m not sure the reader were clear. Also, John could only stay for about 20 minutes, so it was rushed.

Before I forget I’m going to try and record some of their notes.

John Fernandez

The thesis needs to have a reason for programmatic overlap. What are its advantages? Look at three conditions in the urban environment:

1.) Surveillance (or views, alternatively)

2.) Circulation and threshold (how to move from one place to another)

3.) Super-imposed activities (are there activities which might coexist neatly that don’t arrive by natural means?)

Precedent: Chelsea Piers

Andrew Scott

Use the idea of commercial viability as a reason for this projects’ existence. Look at the site more carefully. How does this project interact with the “urban fabric”? Does it comment on the nature of community? Work at the scale of the site model.

Precedent: Edgemont Development

Meejin Yoon

How can poche (an abandoned architectural technique) be of use? How does this relate to pastiche? Look more carefully at fractals in 3d. Make an academic argument. Clarify the relationship between fake and authentic.

Precedent: Church of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome

———————————————————————————–

So now, I’m going to build a sectional site model and make some 3d fractals. No more diagrams!

Filed under: Uncategorized

It is the abstract that never ends

Let’s try the abstract again….

In 1914… blah blah…. you’ve read this paragraph here already.

In this example, we find a variety of programmatic function contained in a single building. This result is driven by the extraordinary demographic change in the surrounding urban site. And this result could continue as a successful, vernacular response the site conditions for years to come. There are, however, a couple things that this lacks that might benefit from a designed intervention. One: overlapping program. Elsewhere, we see this as a useful strategy for co-existence and compaction. It’s rare as a natural phenomenon, but the Brooklyn is home to many planned examples. Secondly, we rarely see program that can be shared by multiple groups; we see increased specialization instead of crossover. Although programmatic specialization functions well in mono-cultural neighborhoods, the shared boundary of these neighborhoods, such as the area of this site, calls for a different approach.

This thesis forces both those issues by reintroducing a performance space/movie palace, into the building. The original program, however, is not displaced. Since there isn’t the physical space to accommodate separated programs, overlap and layering must occur.

———————

Maybe there’s a hotel/motel in here? I’m still thinking about the third program. Housing seems generic, but I’m not sure what to replace it with. The 99 Cent Movie Palace has a nice ring to it. The 99 Cent Movie Palace Hotel (and spa!)? Hmmm… I’ll have to think it over.

———————

The drivers of the project are programmatic overlap and the typology of the movie palace.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Verify In Field

Yesterday, I had lunch with my friend Tim. He’s trying to get his weekend programmer thing going. Every weekend he comes up with a little project to code up and when he’s finished he releases the source code onto his blog.

This time I helped him a bit with a mapping project. (I really did little other than talk it through with him and process some of the images…but next week hopefully I’ll get to program too. The projects are usually small enough that there’s only one driver.)

The mapping project takes heat maps (or any image for which data can be mapped to specific colors) and generates the corresponding numerical data. In this case, it’s been applied to some dubious maps of Baghdad. There are larger implications for this tool, but hopefully I won’t have to tell you about them. I can show them to you.

Check out his source code and run it. It’s very straightforward, and perhaps you can think of some application to your own work….

Filed under: Uncategorized

The Return of the Curse of the Creature’s Ghost

Secretly, I meant for the last post to be a longer discussion about the difference between a tale of revenge (which I like) and a vigilante story (which supposedly, I don’t like). I’ve seen several trailers for what I call vigilante movies. I have been yelling at the screen that this is evidence of political trickle down from cowboy justice straight to DVD.

There’s a couple problems.

One: I’m not really convinced the Bush Admin is responsible for this stuff.

Two: I’m having trouble telling the difference between a revenge story and a vigilante story.

And last, of the movies I call vigilante stories I can certainly find a couple I like. For example, while I find Seagal to be painfully bad, and Bronson only tolerable when taken as camp, I really like a lot of Clint Eastwood’s early stuff. Dirty Harry is pretty fun; and Unforgiven (Eastwood’s first stint as a director), the story of a gunslinger helping a prostitute get revenge, is one of my favorite movies.

So really, I’m having a tough time with this. I like revenge movies, not for the part where the characters actually get revenge, but for the montage like sequence in which they have to build themselves up to get what they want. Movies which acknowledge that the successful completion of vengeance is the least interesting act of the story are more suspenseful that those which don’t.

A lot of Kung Fu movies have such absolutely silly training montages that they invert the climactic sequence of the movie and instead put the final fight scenes to shame. Tarantino realized this in his revenge epic, Kill Bill, and so no awesome fight scene at the end, just a lovely soliloquy.

But really the all time greats of the revenge tale have to the Japanese. My favorite is Masaki Kobayashi’s film “Harikiri“. The reason it is a great revenge movie… and this is a spoiler… is because you don’t realize it’s a revenge movie until the very end. Which means the entire “montage” sequence in which the main character goes from being weak to powerful, happens so subtly you almost don’t realize it until it’s over. The fact that the audience gets it just before the other characters in the movie do adds to the tension. Finally, the revenge itself isn’t really fully fulfilled. Anyway, I don’t want to ruin it, but it’s a great movie.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Dumas, mon père

It’s only Thursday and I feel like I’ve lived two weeks. I guess the nighttime counts as part deux.

It’s another late one for me and to get pumped, I went to YouTube and watched a couple clips from Old Boy, which is one of my all time favorite movies… much to the chagrin of some of my friends. It’s not for everyone, I’ll readily admit, especially people who aren’t into violence or gore. Here’s a nicer vid:

I really love how Chan Woo Park can riddle a ridiculous, bloodsoaked story with fairy tale shots. It’s like he’s torn between being a fashion photographer and wanting to make a slasher flick.

Here’s a fight scene that’s not for the faint of heart: (Seriously, don’t click play unless you want to see people get hit with a claw hammer. stabbed, beaten, etc.)

Growing up, The Count of Monte Cristo was one of my favorite books and although I’ve never been put down or grievously wronged, the scenes of this classic revenge movie always affect me. There’s a fearlessness in the face of death exaggerated to the point of idiocy (something that an artist like, Damien Hirst, would take on. You know, back when Hirst didn’t suck) that makes you feel powerful just for staying alive, because being alive is hard. Which is fun to remember, even if it isn’t true.

Well, now I’m going to grab my metaphorical hammer and get back to business.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Turn a grindhouse into a grindhome

So I’m back at home in San Diego. I use the word home loosely since I’ve never actually “lived” here. My parents moved here when I moved to Dartmouth.

In the room I’m sleeping in, which is my sisters, is this picture:

I made it when I was 12, a freshman in high school. My art teacher said: “It wasn’t quite was she was looking for and that I should do the assignment again.”

The assignment: “Draw a representation of yourself.”

So there you go. I have no clue what I did to replace this. I think I drew a picture of winnie the pooh and piglet eating out of a pot of honey, again with Cray Pas. I wish I had that one too.

It is very strange because I don’t remember drawing it or myself back then, so the artifact seems like something quite distant from me even though I made the damn thing. It’s a great (sort of bittersweet) feeling that I wish I could capture while in the process of making things now. I could be more critically detached.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Grindhouse

I’m in the airport now in DC. I’m flying to San Diego for my cousin’s wedding in LA. It should be fun. I haven’t seen my immediate family in almost a year (or is it two?) and I haven’t seen my extended family in about 7 years. My mom is hoping this wedding will be a real reunion, since most of the clan will be there. (These are the Lee’s and not the Snavely’s.)

In other news, last night I watched Grindhouse with my friend T. For those who don’t know, grindhouse, the name, describes a film format in which two movies are shown back to back with a small intermission. Frequently, these movies are pulpy b-flicks that offer quantity over quality.

But Grindhouse was really really great. Although I went into the theater, waiting to be disappointed. I don’t like Rodriguez and when he’s worked with Tarantino (in movies like Four Rooms– which I know some people enjoy) the results are a little flat. Not this time though. The Rodriguez part, Planet Terror, was tolerable and fun and as T says: Rodriguez interprets the idea of contemporary pulp as extreme camp. It’s all really a set up for Tarantino’s feature, Death Proof, which blows the car roof off. Tarantino loves old movies and old songs and old actors like Kurt Russell, but he matches it with a real skill at taking incredible shots and a mastery of a variety of styles. From scene to scene, the movie keeps you engaged with the often lauded “Asian” disregard for emotional continuity and with Tarantino’s obvious direction: that is, you realize that there is a director… and he basically can do whatever he wants.

At the end of the movie, which, imho is one of the best endings I’ve ever seen in a movie, you realize you’ve been watching something as emotionally sophisticated as say “Faster Pussycat Kill Kill” that Tarantino has transformed into a frothy, delicious mix of… well, I don’t what… but it tastes good.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Ride the pomegranate wave

I’m rewriting the abstract. I think it might have to get worse before it gets better… here goes. (I would love any criticism from anyone who reads this!):

In 1914, a small theater was constructed in Williamsburg Brooklyn. In 1922, it was converted to a cinema. From 1950’s to 1970’s the theater gradually declined, at first screening popular marquee films but later grind-house Mexican wrestling movies. In the 1960’s the second-story balcony seats of the theater were converted into apartments. The theater itself closed in 1985. In the early nineties, the first floor of the building reopened as a general store, then split into a store and restaurant, while the main space of the theater was used as a ballroom. Today the theater space holds a five thousand square foot 99 cent store, a number of apartments, and assorted businesses. These changes evolved over a period of almost a hundred years from vernacular conditions without intervention; and clearly, this trend could continue successfully into the future. Rather than the gradual shift of program, however, this thesis seeks to design similar diversity within a single construction. How would we design an architecture accessible to different populations that encourages distinct interpretations?

Unlike film, music, art or graphic design, postmodern architecture, after a brief appearance in the 60’s and 70’s, neither flourished nor moved beyond the façade. However, the postmodern ideals of diversity and difference, variability and eclecticism, in contrast to the modernist vision of integration, standardization and a universally accessible style, are not only still culturally relevant, as seen in the site, but also have more to offer the discipline of architecture. Indeed, a more postmodern approach might match the needs of this multicultural site, allowing for a more subjective experience of architecture. Utilizing stereotypes, non-satirical homage and curation, pastiche can assimilate and combine disparate entities of architectural language like program, structure and ornament, while preserving a trace of their origin. The technique of pastiche offers a method for combination and appropriation, avoiding a neutral melange.

As a homage to the movie palaces of the 20’s and 30’s, this thesis will reinstate the theater at 279 Broadway, overlapping and intersecting the new construction with the existing building and its program. This exploration will focus on the design possibilities of programmatic, structural, and spatial overlaps and adjacencies that result from “pastiching” program, ornament, and spaces of the theater.

A version of this has been laid out graphically. On flickr!

Filed under: Uncategorized