Rasp

Given an architectural climate that embraces formal complexities, generative processes, and visual stimulation, designers have naturally gravitated toward the power of computational design methods. There is no doubt that the digital project is of tremendous value and worthy of great attention - but what role does a folkier, imperfect, analog process have in completing or augmenting these interests? Build in Sonoma County, California, in 1984 without formal construction drawings, the Sea Ranch Chapel illustrates the potential of such an approach. This non-denominational spiritual sanctuary was constructed by local artisans, contractors, and craftsmen with only a few engineering sketches and a small ceramic and teak model provided by architect and artist, James T. Hubbell. One of the most telling aspects of the construction process was Hubbell's mandate to the building team - he requested that material should not be forced into preconceived locations but instead located through a process of trial and error until the proper placement was found. This notion - that there was no rigid and precise logic for organization, that the composition was fluid and could fluctuate without specific parameters - is the antithesis of the digital project. Here the process was unscripted, privileging the holistic aesthetic as much as any notion of assembly. The design of the chapel was uniquely intelligent and allowed for an understanding of material and form rather than a linear function of inputs and outputs. The result of such a methodology is a grassroots aesthetic in dialogue with the everyday visitor. While the chapel employs elements found in contemporary design - cryptic formal moves, gradients and repetition, generation of affect - the building nevertheless demonstrates a folk sensibility. The interior's exotic wood strip walls and the backdrop for moments for artisan handworks (sculpted benches, stained glass, carved posts). The chapel's exterior shape and ceder-shingled roof and elegantly imperfect. Rather than sterile and precise, these elements are vague and artful, providing room for the imagination. The anecdotal and sympathetic quality of the architecture resonates with visitors, and engagement that is particularly appropriate given the reflective and meditative program of the building. Hubbell's Sea Ranch Chapel, through the benevolent dismissal of order in design, construction, and character, is a collection of intelligent anomalies rather than a larger conformity. The implementation of the human hand in the design trades the transparency of parameters often seen in more digitally scripted works for the sincerity of intent. In a discipline that relies on smarter, faster machines to compute and generate design solutions, the Sea Ranch Chapel deposits and equally important variable to this equation.