October 2009
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PROJECT: SITUATIONS
I thought after my program model, I’d be off figuring out what to do for my site model; but Bruce and Martin decided that that would be due in two weeks. Instead, Situations would be due next week!
This part of Thesis Development requires that I “explore the more intimate moments” of my thesis project and what they might look like, and how they would reveal my thesis ideas. I...
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UPDATE: New Program
I’m introducing a new program to my project, in addition to the columbarium and the crematorium (tentatively, promatorium). I’m calling it a Death Registry (or a Memory Bank).
It’s basically like an archive, but for families living in Toronto (or possibly the GTA). Particular families can leave/donate family photos and videos so, say, people 5 generations down the line can go to...
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National Library in Astana, Kazakhstan / BIG →
The new building has an area of 33.000 sqm, arranged as a continuous circulation on a Möbius Strip, as the result of 2 interlocking structures: the perfect circle and the public spiral. The sections (see below) clearly show how the horizontal program shifts to a vertical configuration, combining vertical hierarchy, horizontal connectivity and diagonal view lines. The skin, which changes from...
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WatchZAMET CENTRE / 3LHD
Interesting forms and volumes working together.
MORE: http://www.archdaily.com/38538/zamet-centre-3lhd/
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Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre / REX | OMA →
LESSON: Rethink the typical program!
(Click on link for larger photos)
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Emperor's Castle →
From “The Emperor’s Castle” by Thomas Hillier, produced at the Bartlett School of Architecture, 2009. Hillier’s Project Text: The Emperor’s Castle The Emperor’s castle originates from a mythical and ancient tale hidden within a woodblock landscape scene created by Japanese Ukiyo-e printmaker, Ando Hiroshige. This tale charts the story of two star-crossed lovers, the...
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NECROPOLI PT 1: URBANISM OF THE DEAD →
EXCERPTS:
This is the first part of a three part series that will focus on cultural/spatial responses toward death, the tenuous position that cemetery ritual has in modern culture, and a radical rethinking of burial practice as sustainable infrastructure.
these places often represent the values of a culture most clearly. Originally intended as places of mystic ritual, burial grounds are the...
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Watch“Absence”, Environs Video
Something is missing…
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PROJECT: CONCEPTUAL MODELS
In the next phase of Thesis Development, I have to make conceptual models (oh yay. note the sarcasm).
1) PROGRAM MODEL
Make a program model to scale which will give a conceptual /sculptural form to your major program components. Bruce and Martin explained that it should be a marriage of my icon (which I still have to upload) and my site. It could show my big spatial moves, and is an opportunity...
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MY CHOSEN SITE (at last!!!)
This was my Environs Essay.
REVIEW
A big part of my re-imagining of the ritual and spaces of death is its location in the landscape. I have established in my research that, currently, the spaces allocated to this event are found in the peripheries or fringes of cities, as per tradition since the 18th century when concerns about diseases and health issues pervaded among people’s thoughts. ...
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THE CEMETERIES
[This is the full text of an article in The Globe (Toronto), Nov. 21, 1868, p. 1, c. 8-9;as transcribed by Pleasance Crawford.]
In these modern times, when, in spite of all historical etiquette, such cities as New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, having sprung, in a comparatively few as their own; and the site which the city now occupies was an immense swamp, the years, into their colossal...
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megahouse.pdf (application/pdf Object) →
Megahouse, Atelier Hitoshi Abe
A response to Tokyo’s population decline, Megahouse turns the entire city into a “home.” Via the internet or mobile phone, users can rent vacant commercial or residential spaces for varying blocks of time, from a few hours to several months. Each space is outfitted with a biometric access system that identifies registered users and locks and...
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Mortonhall Crematorium by Basil Spence
The main elements of the building are a large 250-seat chapel, a smaller 50-seat chapel, a crematorium and service block linking the two, and a freestanding chapel of remembrance beyond. Externally all the buildings are clad in white calcined-flint aggregate concrete blocks laid to courses of varying heights, with doors and windows of red cedar which has been stained black. The roofs are...
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10 Characteristics/Issues of the Future City
The following are notes from my friend Josh’s thesis. He’s in Industrial Design and is rethinking energy for homes, a way for homes to conserve, generate energy and return it back to the grid for his thesis.
I should say that the “future city” described here is at least in 2020 or later.
1. INCREASE IN URBAN DENSITY
-everyone is moving into cities
-how will we pack more...
“But even as it seems clear that the future will be defined by a whole new array...”
– The City Reader. Edited by Richard T. LeGates & Frederic Stout. Page 313.
…new relationships between city and citizen, self and society, identity and community.
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The New Death Etiquette →
Great article!
Some excerpts:
“like many people, they have parted company with organized religion”
“They wanted to commemorate Carmen’s life and death, for her sake as well as theirs, with personal, custom-made rites.”
“now people are working hard to reflect the individuality of the deceased—borrowing and adapting rituals from a variety of religions or simply...
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Art, Death, and the Museum →
Rings of trees on the SFMoMA and Mausoleum of Augustus, elevations.
Trees as seen on the SFMoMA and a reconstruction of the Mausoleum of Augustus.
excerpts
The raised earthen mound of Augustus’ mausoleum lifts up the image of burial as if foisting upon us how removed from us it is. The museum similarly enshrouds its contents on a pedestal.
On hearing of a collegue’s passing, our thoughts...
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