Window Study 1

As I have ventured to different parts of Malawi and interacted with different villages I have come to notice subtle differences in each village.

One of these is in the windows.  I wrote about this before but now I am beginning to do visual analysis of each of these windows.

As explained in the previous post about how the windows are made and constructed there is no need for me to re-iterate.

Here is the first of the window analyses of a Church in the central region.  Luckily I caught it on a day with quite soft light but powerful enough to create spectacular effects on the interior.

Window

Window Analysis : Step 1 - Overall Impression

Window Analysis : Step 2 - Breakdown of Whole into Part

Window Analysis : Step 3 - Breakdown of Parts into Sub-Parts

Window Analysis : Step 4 - Breakdown of Sub-part into Solid/Void

Window Analysis : Step 5 - Repetition of Solid/Void to create Sub-part

Repetition of Sub-part to create Part

Interior Lighting Effects from Repeated Sub-Parts

The relationship of Solid/Void creates a pattern in the window.  Although this pattern at first seems obvious there are sub-patterns and also different ways to arrange the Sub-Parts to create different patterns, rather than the obvious.

Windows

There are many different aspect of Malwaian architecture which are unique.  Today I will focus on the windows.

Most windows, because of cost, are made from cast concrete.  A form is made and then repeated over and over.  The size of the form is about 1'x1'x1' which will make nice blocks.  And because they are concrete they can easily be stacked and support load.

I am not sure why villagers opt for concrete blocks over pre-fabricated windows (which are much different than the standard pre-fabs in the USA or anywhere else I can think of).  It is most likely cost.

In whichever case what I have observed is that villagers have taken it upon themselves to create custom forms on which to pour the concrete.  What has come from this is different patterns expressed in different villages.  One of the unique aspects of the people expressed through the architecture.


Here are a few images of these windows:

The Elements

I have discovered that I needed to rethink the way in which I thought.

In this new environment of Africa which I am in there is large agrarian economy here.  Because of this strong agrarian influence I have realized I need to focus on the basic elements:

Earth
Water
Wind
Fire

This has taken me a while to realize this.

I see this as what makes the most sense.  The people lives here, not privy to modern living, heavily rely on these elements.

The daily life is guided by the sun.  Although up before dawn and working at the farm, once dusk hits everyone is home because when the sun sets there is complete and utter darkness.  If you have a flashlight (which nobody can afford) then you are okay but that is unheard of.

This is Fire(Light)

As for Earth, the society is agrarian and so the earth provides the means to live.  The connection the people have with the earth creates a unique perception of it for them.  It provides life for them.

This is Earth.

Water, the essence of life.  Here it is not only the bring of life but the taker also.  The rains are coming soon and will help nourish the seeds which are planted in the ground.  The water will help them grow and soon they will prosper and the people will have nourishment.

But on the other side the water also takes life.  It erodes roads to the point where only a 4x4 can make it (and those are hard to come by also).  This isolates the people who are far in the bush.  Isolating them from food, water and medicine.

This is Water.

The last is Wind.  Wind is unique.  There are three times which I have experienced wind.  One, on the top of a mountain.  Two, the strong winds before a storm hits.  Three, the breeze in a building with cross-ventilation.

This is Wind.

So what do these four Elements have to do with architecture?

I believe that these four Elements dictate the way in which the architecture is manifested.  I will supplement this further with images, observations and experiences.

The Network

Being in Africa now for 2 months I have observed many different things.  Completely changing context has proved difficult for me to adjust.

But here is what I have observed about the architecture:

The main type of construction is brick load bearing with corrugated metal roofs.

If there is enough money that is.

The ground is filled with clay and so villages can be located almost anywhere and there will be a supply of clay for bricks.

What I cannot understand is why villages are created in areas where there is no water.  Some generous people have come and drilled wells here.  Quite a few so there is a water supply that way.  But without water, we do not survive.
Not only is it necessary to have water for the body but also for the construction of the bricks.  So I am still working on that one.

Village morphology has been quite different.  I have not been here long enough to determine relationships of buildings to buildings.  What I have observed is the relation of village to road.  Some I have seen, bifurcate the village but the focus of all the buildings is along the road.

For the most part there is a concentration of buildings along the road (one single dirt road).  The problem with the part of Africa I am in is that there is no documented history of anything.  So it becomes difficult to understand village development.  What is required is to immerse in the village life and learn from the people themselves.

Synthesis takes more time here.  Nothing is easy to get to and fuel is expensive.  So everything must be planned accordingly.

What I am eventually breaking down to is to the network of the family.  So I have taken the top-down approach for this and hope it is the correct way to go.  If not.......there is always the other way.

Africa

Well it has turned out that over the past few months I have geared myself up and am now living in Africa.  There has been a delay in this blog because of this but I am ready to get started again.  Focus will still be on synthesis but with an African slant.  It should not matter at all though.

Current Progress on Synthesis

I have been pondering this for a while and trying to figure out where these investigations were leading.

My current language I am using to involve myself with this topic I do not believe is sufficient to achieve anything or discover anything.

What needs to happen is to use a language which I can analyze these multiple systems and their relationships to each other.


A discovery of the new language is under progress through relentless diagramming, thought and discussion.

The Brain and Synthesis

These are my own conclusions:

I happen to have the opportunity to choose to walk to school everyday. It is about a 17 minute walk of which there is no human interaction.

I have noticed interesting parallels between these walks and other repetitive motions.

After about 5 minutes of walking my brain enters some kind of trance or different frequency level.

I have also noticed this with swimming and running also. After a certain period of time the body seems to get into a rhythm and then the mind transcends to somewhere else.



If we are to create environments for people to experience where these ideas I am writing about here of synthesis, manifest themselves. Then can we use this fact that after a certain amount of time and the body getting in a certain rhythm, the brain changes to a different frequency.


I believe that this can be utilized, but again studied more to understand what is actually happening. I need a portable MRI or some kind of brain scanner.

The Human Scale - Part 2

Well just returned from a 2 week trip to India so have not posted in a while.

A certain level of consciousness had to be taken on this trip though. With all the amazing palaces, temples and complexes that we saw it was very easy to get caught up in the history and forget one important thing:

How are people using these spaces now?

All of these places which we visited are vital to the history of the culture, country and world but then what? Well how do we begin now to inhabit these spaces? Use the space? Ideas of public and social space come into play.


Well with the size of some of these palaces, forts and such, it is hard to get a grasp of the human scale because the scale of these places are so large.

So I adventured on this trip keeping in mind the human scale and how humans use these spaces now.

The Human Scale

Why do we like some places over the other? What makes a place more intriguing and interesting than another?

I have the luxury of having West Texas at my disposal for this argument. If we compare the above image which was taken on the square where the Duomo is in Milan. Stripping all symbolic and semantic connotations and relationships from the situation....what are we left with?

The Romantic play of solid and void. In a holistic view, what we experience subconsciously at this place is the play between these two. The entrance into this shopping center appears to be a giant void pushed into this solid.

Upon entering the scale immediately changes:
The Proxemics of Edward T. Hall come into play in this discussion now. If we juxtapose either of these spaces with that of West Texas, what conclusion can we come to?

Well many conclusions, but only one is pertinent at this moment to this discussion. The ability for people to comprehend space.

The West Texas Plains are famous for stretching for forever and one being able to see someone coming from a great distance. This great expanse has reverberated itself in the built environment. Opposite of the image above, the bounding of space in the built environment does not happen. Because of this the conception of space is thrown out the window.

The Proxemics play into this discussion with the following: in order for us to measure something we have to have something to measure it off of. So in West Texas Intimate, Personal, Social and Public Space become extremely exaggerated. One of the methods to measure these spaces is the built environment. This dilation of space in West Texas leads to peoples conception of space becoming dilated.

Where there is no play between solid and void. Rather everyone caught in the void. And so these places which we visit where space becomes more constricted and compacted vibe differently with us. We begin then to get a conception of space.

Current Progress on Synthesis

"...think of a plane. It is evident that a plane is more clearly perceived when something is placed upon it, for instance, a tree-an upright. With something standing upon it, the horizontal portion of the surface expresses itself at once : one might almsot say it becomes spatially active" - A. Hildebrand


An object becomes only as important as those things around it with relation to it. The parts becomes just as important as the whole. The rising to the vertical from the horizontal does not merely define the vertical but also the horizontal. It provides a frame off which the horizontal plane can be defined.


If we focus on this Romantic dichotomy this idea begins to play out that one could not exist without the other. Cold only exists because heat is no longer there, rather the with the absence of heat do you experience the cold.

So what happens if this frame of reference is removed (our physical world) and we place these ideas into a world not of ours? What then do these relationships become? What then do these relationships tell us about their relationship?

What then happens to this if we remove the semantics of this relationship?

Beginning Writings on the Synthesis of Space

As written before space is experienced through an amalgamate of sensory information.

The Platonic Elements provide a starting point for this discussion. Besides the 4 elements (earth, air, fire, water) there is a fifth which Plato writes about, and this is Cosmos.

Delving further into Cosmos a ethereal aspect can be derived from this. An ethereal aspect which I relate to space. Not claiming myself to be a Platonic thinker (maybe sometimes) I believed at one point the Cosmos/Ether/Space was a combinatorial experience of the 4 other elements (earth, air, fire, water). I still believe this to be true but in not such a Platonic matter.

As Machiavelli writes in The Prince (paraphrased) the importance of a good strong foundation. I believe a foundation of these 4 elements is a good starting point.



Semantics changes this Platonic thinking.

Perception of World

"Each of us tend to think we see things as they are, that we are objective. But this is not the case. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are - or, as we are conditioned to see it. When we open our mouths to describe what we see, we in effect describe ourselves, our perceptions, our paradigms."

Purpose

How does one approach synthesis? Is there a certain number of things that a person chooses to synthesize?

Let us consider for a second that everything is connected. That something is one place has the potential to affect something in another place no matter the circumstance.

Understanding this makes things more difficult, since everything affects everything. How can we not consider something even if we think it is irrelevant? For everything has relevance in this world, whether we can recognize it or not.

So when using the word 'synthesis' how is one even supposed to start synthesizing information? And to what point will this lead?

Well it is a lifelong question and pursuit. But through this constant synthesis, a better understanding of how the world, and life works is hope to be achieved.

The Rhythm of Nature

"He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building" - The Prince

I reflect on what Machiavelli has written. Although I read (on others interpretation of this) people applying this saying to business. But I believe there is a more fundamental application to it, which is ourselves. If we look at our foundations, what have we laid for ourselves.

If we think of all the components of a building, everything depends on the foundation. It holds everything up and dictates a lot about the building. After the foundation is set the building is erected (takes longer that it implies in this sentence). Now going back, after the building has been opened and is operating, cracks are found in the foundation.

Do we patch the cracks, or do we go back and redo part of the foundation? Well it depends on the severity of the cracks. Some do not need much work to fix but when big cracks start appearing then more attention needs to be placed on them.



Looking at our world, I see we have created cracks in nature. Again, some bigger than others. Some barely noticeable. We have gotten into a habit of just patching the cracks, but does that really get rid of them?

We must drill into our foundations and break them apart and get rid of these cracks. If we do not, they will continue to grow and get bigger and will become a greater problem to deal with later on.

Reflection

Reflection is quite an amazing phenomena. Taken for granted sometimes. Reflection (in these cases) takes into account only two types of materials, glass and stainless steel. With glass, reflection creates a new world. An alternate universe you can see, and alas you are part of it. So what is the importance?

Reflection reveals that immaterial to us. That which we see, being shown to us again through a medium. In the first image (Educatorium - Rem Koolhaas) The building becomes dematerialized by the glass. The reflection lightens up the building and the building itself becomes part of nature.

In the second image which is one of Donald Judd's cubes. Now as with the previous example, in this one the object almost disappears. The reflection dematerialized the object and it becomes nature.

Reflection allows reflection.

Walks

I have the tendency to not use a car, but rather walk. West Texas sun is usually not your friend when you are exposed to it (save sun tanners). So being immersed in it while walking can be aggravating at times.

This aside I still walk everywhere. West Texas is stretched out. It seems that city planers took space, multiplied it by some number (greater than 10) and then started planning out the city. Because of this, a walk is not a quick thing. The average time it takes me to get from my house to school is around 16 minutes.

Wow, 16 minutes of straight walking. Well when fist starting to do this I did not like it at all because of the monotonous path that I had to walk.

But one night while walking home I was preparing for a speech I had to give the next day. Well it took the entire walk home to finish going through this speech.

What I realized about a month later was that these walks were times to use to pure thinking. There are no other distractions, no breathtaking scenery or architecture or even people. Just the flat plains to let my mind unravel upon.

I now see a strange benefit of the walks, and that although long, hot and windy they provide an isolated time for pure thinkign and concentration of ideas, void of distractions.

Sensory Experiment 5/18/11

When dealing with the senses and trying to isolate them. How do you go about starting to do that?

Well I found an everyday activity in which I could start subtracting senses and see what happens.

Experiment:

Take a shower in the dark

Results:

Heightened sense of smell

Greater use of memory to remember placement of objects in shower

More calming effect of being without light