suzechang

Patrick Norguet is designing the new architectural/spatial identity for the McDonald's fastfood chain in France. Yes, really the photos come from McDonald's restaurants. The scheme uses lots of clean whites, and similar styling to existing restaurants but with a more grown up and family feel.

Today’s IS lecture was by Anthony Gill, of Anthony Gill Architects, a Sydney-based firm, who ran us through a few projects in his portfolio, focussing on the detail of joinery within his interior spaces. In his lecture, Gill introduced us to three particular projects, the restaurant Vini, in Surry Hills; Berta bar and restaurant in the city and an apartment in Potts Point.

Gill started the lecture by introducing the Vini project, talking about how the limitations of usable space started to define the relationship between storage space and usable space in order to maximise the space available. Gill outlined then, how they came to the idea of using joinery to create storage walls, or open shelves, from which staff would be able to access wines which were also on display through this openness of the usable walls. The material, as Gill revealed was just a cheap coated plywood, called form ply, a helpful material in keeping the costs down for such a small venture. Gill went on to discuss the expansion of Vini, in an untraditional way, that is, they were given the back hallway and an old loading dock to expand the space of Vini. Gill talked about how they used wooden detailing to visually connect these two rooms together. In the original space that housed Vini, Gill discussed what the owner had outlined as successful features he wished to see in his own restaurant, such as it’s primary focus as a wine bar and a changing menu, shown on a blackboard wall.

“Vini is a trattoria in Surry Hills. The concept was to create a working wall of wine and food that would be active throughout service. The small kitchen slides out from under this wall on one side while the bar floats in front. WIth economy essential, the main space is built entirely from form-ply. Vini expanded into the loading dock where we created a room within a room, inserting a shipping container into the space, allowing all the existing services to remain.”

- Anthony Gill, on Vini

Gill went on to discuss Berta bar, an offshoot of Vini and also an interest of the City of Sydney in its Laneways campaign. Again, because of the narrow front façade and it’s small interior space, Gill employed the use of the useable shelves in separating the kitchen from the walkway and the seating area. This storage space however was far longer then the original useable shelves as found in Vini, and therefore was also used by kitchen staff to stack crockery. This openness allowed patrons to observe the kitchen staff as they worked, through the gaps within the shelving and it’s objects within. Gill also talked about the problems of grease traps within the space which helped to lift the floor surface of the dining area, which then worked well with the space in creating a comfortable height to include window sill seating, and incorporate the joinery used to separate the dining and bar areas.

“Berta is a restaurant and bar on the fringe of the city and is located on the ground floor of a re-developed warehouse. The space revolves around the central open kitchen, clearly defined by a working wall of suspended shelves which begin just inside the entrance and help draw people through. The openness of these shelves is carefully controlled limiting the kitchen's exposure while the bar floats in front. The restaurant is divided into a bar and a dining area with subtle changes in level and materials. The externally framed windows capture an urban outlook.”

- Anthony Gill, on Berta

Lastly, Gill introduced his former home, an apartment in the Harry Siedler building in Potts Point, where he and his wife redesigned a small one bedroom apartment, using this similar idea of useable shelve joinery to create a space for themselves and their daughter. This joinery was used to separate the apartment into different spaces, such as his daughter’s bedroom and the kitchen. This idea of useable shelves turned into a separating bookshelf wall, and then in the kitchen into a system, similar to Vini and Berta, in its use as a pantry.  The apartment, although very small was in the end able to accommodate a kitchen, living/dining room and two sleeping areas. Through this interaction between joinery and space, Gill was able to use the small space to create these distinct spaces, such as the inclusion of a pull-out bed to save space in the small environment.

“The project involved the redesign of an existing 38sqm one bedroom apartment in a Harry Seidler Building in Potts Point. The aim was to create a space that would suit a couple with a young child. The existing joinery (not original) was demolished leaving only the masonry walls to the bathroom which remains untouched. A new joinery element was inserted to re-configure the space, addressing the issues of privacy, storage and a lack of living space inherent in an apartment of this size.”

- Anthony Gill, on the Potts Point Apartment

Overall, the use of form ply as a material in such a way as in these outlined projects was interesting to see. The idea of expanding space through ‘useable’ walls is one I would love to use in my own projects or see more of, instead of hiding away frequently used objects in our homes and restaurants, these objects should be embraced and displayed whilst also being in use.

Quotes and Images taken from;

Teresa Stoppani, an Architect with degrees from the University of Florence and the University of Venice, gave today’s Interior and Spatial Lecture; Stoppani currently lectures on Architecture at the University of Greenwich in London, and has also published works on dust and it’s role within Architecture and Interiors, the topic of her lecture today, along with the machines which have direct influence on dust within interiors.

  “In the passages, the in-between spaces of public interiors, dust is charged with meanings of obsolescence. It covers the redundant, that which is old or no longer viable or useful but remains purposeless available. It materializes oblivion, blanketing over that which lies forgotten. It produces an opacity that in concealing protects, but obliterates as well, eliminating the differences of things. Dust becomes one and all with the forgotten objects that in the passages gather: discarded by the interests of the commodity market, former novelties become dust, in a slow whirlwind that inexorably swallows not only the objects, but also the architectural space that displays them. In interiors, dust records and gathers traces, measures time and indisputable linear history, it is a garment that 'one cannot turn' linked to boredom and to the monotony of the gray, dust seems to condemn space to stillness and inexorable decay.”

  - Teresa Stoppani, A Dusty Project Abstract

  To begin with, Stoppani introduced the question; what exactly is dust? To which she then proceeded to answer as being precise particles of former matter, usually indicating the prescence or absence of an object. Stoppani also discussed Greek mythology and it’s portrayal of dust; especially in the mythology of Danae and Zeus, where Zeus appears to an imprisoned Danae and impregnates her as a shower of gold dust.  Stoppani used this portrayal of dust to discuss the gender of dust and also the gender of the vehicles used to contain and extract dust, that is; the vacuum cleaner. Through the introduction of the vacuum cleaner, she began to also talk about attitudes towards dust in interior spaces; such things as the importance of the controlled interior through the removal or display of dust within any given space.

  The idea of vacuum clears as ones which are used to remove such dust from interior spaces was also explored by Stoppani in this lecture, with examples of vacuum cleaners in modern art to show the roles of those who clean and the relationship between the vacuum cleaner and gender roles. The idea of the vacuum cleaner being almost genderless, or even a hermaphrodite was an import one in looking at these gender roles; while traditionally cleaning is a feminine activity, the introduction of a vacuum cleaner with such a phallic symbol of the nozzle to clean is one which also noses it into male territory; whilst the ‘sucking’ action of the vacuum cleaner is more of a female sexual trait, rendering the humble vacuum cleaner a sexually ambiguous object.

  Other Links;

A project about dust and noise;

Michael Trudgeon, an architect and lecturer at RMIT, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, gave today’s Interior and Spatial lecture. Trudgeon co-founded the successful, inter-disciplinary Crowd Productions company in 1983, which went on to design and create the Hyperlounge digital cinema capsules for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square (2004); the Hoyts Blacktown Flagship Cinema (2006); and the National Australian Bank retail bank concept (2006). In his lecture, Trudgeon addressed three key points within the Ecology of Occupation; the history of occupation, the idea of the envelope of occupation and case studies related to the Ecology of Occupation. He also drove the point of “form as a verb”, rather than a noun, stressing how form is an action, rather than an object.

  To begin with, Trudgeon adressed the history of design and the French influence in the design ethos.  In particular he discussed the role of the French within social design, such as fashion, restaurants and tableware. This social design ethos was the precursor to the beginning of the discipline known as Interior Design, which looked at designing for a clientele rather than these beautiful facades from past decades. Trudgeon also briefly introduced the Figure-Ground perception, and how the Figure is the point of focus in the visual hierarchy and the Ground is everything in the background or not in focus. This point was utilised in order to focus on the Figure-Ground capacity, to illustrate how the French viewed spaces as the Figure and the building itself as the Ground. Trudgeon introduced the idea of past homes being a one-room home, where people went about their daily lives in the one contained space, rather than the multitudes of space we see in today’s homes. Within this time, around the 13th Century, even the rich, whom lived in chateaus had but one room known as a grade sale, a chapel and a tower. Trudgeon talked about the different histories of occupation in residential spaces, starting from this previous one roomed house of occupation, to the 14th Century development of program, and the inclusion of comfort and amenities within space, leading to bedrooms and the idea of a four-poster bed as a status symbol, in such a way as a Bentley is today, all the way to 17th and 18th Century apartments, which became complex programs focussed on individuals. The idea of a Salon, that is an intellectual or social gathering, was also discussed in this lecture; Trudgeon introduced the idea of the tradition Salon as both a social event as well as a space in which this event was held, which led into the idea of the Hôtel particulier, an urban “private house” or place within the city where members of the upper class would come to hold social gatherings, often formed around courtyards. Salons in the 18th Century were a very important avenue for radical theories and political rumours to be discussed. In fact, many French etiquette books encouraged men to become friends with the hostesses of those salons, as they could be more powerful than the officials in the court. The French’s society was a way of creating a city that could contain and help to control this society.

  The idea of poche space, or the concept of everything within the walls between spaces, was also introduced by Trudgeon. The relativity of wall thickness and what it could contain, also entailing the hierarchy of space, through organisation and scale. The manipulation of poche space, especially in the baroque period, helped to create different spaces in interiors: a space of experimentations. The use of poche space now, is different to its former definition, with designers using poche space to create alcoves and hidden spaces within walls and larger spaces. Trudgeon extrapolated uponthis usage of space in terms of the organisation of space relating to people’s movements and use of space. On the topic of wall space and designing walls, Trudgeon was concerned with the use of windows within French façades, noting that they brought light and atmosphere into room, which made these interior spaces lovely to inhabit, now a common feature in the walls of houses. Trudgeon then shed light upon Le Corbusier’s work in the Villa Shodhan, drawing attention to the notion of his uniting the French way of thinking about space with the modernism of his time. The concrete domino plan of this space where every floor became a different façade, based on the interior occupation of space which then became the exterior wrapping of the space.  Trudgeon also talked about the idea of the free plan and free façade of this space, discussing the metastasis of this site, that it could be changed to accommodate and respond to the actions happening inside, that this site could be modified to its owners’ will.

Le Corbusier's Villa Shodhan  1951

Trudgeon then led into the idea of the envelope of occupation, or the idea of the container of occupation. He introduced the notion that we, as interior designers are immersed in the wrapping of these occupiable spaces, shaping the roles of those who live in our ‘theatres’. The environment as more than passive wrappings, but membranes, that is, living forms which enrich and function to serve the purposes of the occupants inside. Trudgeon talked about this as a metabolic transistor, an object of change and flow, circuits and social order especially in the flexibility of occupation within these envelopes of space. He proceeded to define architecture as a language of creating controlled systems for artificial realities, that we design spaces for events or actions that may or may not occur to the exact way we designed them for.

  To end his session, Trudgeon talked through a few cases of environmental occupation, including;

-       James Turrell’s Works; and the way in which Turrell uses the occupation of cosmic and sky space. Our way of understanding and relating to eternity and the universe through reflecting on and inhabiting the spaces of sky.

  James Turrell and Ogrydziak/Prillinger Architects' California Skyspace

-       The Blur Pavilion (2002) by Diller and Scofidio, constructed for the Swiss Expo in 2002, and the water bar, with different types of imported waters. Trudgeon used the blur building as a way of talking through our use and experience of space could be radically different based on the interior of the space. In the blur building, visual perception was dimmed, so that one had to rely of other senses and how this dynamic process helped to shape the way in which people though about water and it’s other forms.

 Diller and Scofidio's Blur Building, 2002 

Resources;

LeAmon, Simon, 2011, How We Create, accessed 14 May 2011

<http://howwecreate.com/CustomContentRetrieve.aspx?ID=773366>

Hanover College Psychology Department, 2005, Hanover College Psychology Department, Figure-Ground Perception, accessed 13 May 2011

<http://psych.hanover.edu/krantz/art/figure.html>

Benet Davetian, 2010, BDavetian, The History and Meaning of Salons, accessed 14 May 2011

<http://www.bdavetian.com/salonhistory.html>

Diller Scofidio + Renfro, 2002, Blur Building, Diller Scofidio, accessed 15 May 2011

<http://www.dillerscofidio.com/blur.html>

Blache, Matt, 2005, Blache87 Architecture120, accessed 14 May 2011

Today's Lecture was by Adam Jasper once again, however this time it was concerning a different topic - the Japanese artist Akasegawa Genpei, famous for his Hyper-art, and role in the Thomasson phenomenon.

  Jasper started things off by introducing Genpei’s 1000yen note project and the jail time served by Genpei, regarding this project. In the 1960s whilst working in the style of Neo-Dada art, Genpei had sent, via mail, one-thousand yen, single sided notes with the address of his art show on the back, to friends as an invitation, and had inadvertently broken the 1894 law against currency being copied, so in 1966 Genpei was trialled and sent to prison, which, in Japan,  is a place of solitary confinement and empty rooms; the sentence lengths are often undisclosed.. Jasper went on to discuss how this was different and often regarded as far worse than the prisons of other countries where at least, prisoners are able to be in contact with other. Jasper commented on this aspect of Genpei’s life as a precursor, and influence on many of his works, especially the discovery of what is known as a “Thomasson”.

  In 1972, after being released from prison, Genpei was working with some other illustrators in a hotel when they decided to take a break and step outside. These illustrators took stepping out as a liberty, with their walking patterns extended to engage with the space and following their freedom of movement. It was through venturing outside that Genpei and his associates noticed a stairway that led to nothing, a ‘drifting’ staircase if you will, but then, Genpei started to question what was a staircase without purpose? Genpei decided that these types of abandoned objects, without purpose could not even be called a staircase, but a work of art, shaped like a staircase, he called these objects Hyper art. In theory every abandoned architectural object could be regarded as a Hyper-art, however it is with the inclusion of the object being cared for where we truly see Thomassons, that is to say, the first Thomasson that Genpei found was not just any abandoned drifting staircase but had, after visual inspection, been repaired over the last years, the wooden hand railing had been repaired and replaced on several occasions, and Genpei wondered who would repair a useless object.

  “… a specific sub-set of Hyperart, in the strictest terms it was, a useless and defunct object attached to someone’s property and aesthetically maintained”

- Akasegawa Genpei, Hyperart:Thomasson

  Thomassons were named after the baseball player Gary Thomasson who was recruited from the US-based LA Dogers to the Yomuiri Giants in Japan to help improve their team. However Thomasson was only an expensive mistake as he struck out every single game in Japan, and was just a shadow of the star he once was. Genpei used the name of Thomasson to describe futile and senseless monuments that still yield a certain artistic appeal, in the same way in which Thomasson had the past promise of success but the present failures and uselessness within games.

  These Thomassons however, are not just found in the country of Japan, but all over the built world with Thomassons worldwide being recorded by the public in the Thomasson Archive, found at <http://thomasson.kaya.com/index.php>. Jasper also showed a few examples from this website, including the Thomasson found at UC Berkley, entitled “Mostly Disconnected”, an abandoned phone booth, with the partitions still remaining, but the phone within, gone. This phone booth however, was still regularly cleaned and appeared to be in fantastic condition, despite the absence of the actual phone.

  Other examples of Tohmassons include the Koshland Rectangle, discovered at the Koshland Hall at UC Berkley in 2009. Members of the public have been publishing Thomassons from all over the world on this site, many within the United States. In San Fransisco, there are also interactive tours around the city that serves to showcase the Thomassons of this city.

  Most of the rest of the lecture was a discussion of the remaining Thomassons and the lengths that people would go to access them, such as one of Genpei’s students’ explorations of an abandoned 19th century Japanese bathhouse chimney. He climbed to the top of the tiny chimney and took a photo, oblivious to the risks of being on top of such a high, unsupported point.

  Jasper also discussed the Chongquin Nail house, a 2007 story, where a Chinese couple, Wu Ping and Yang Wu, refused to give up their two storey home to developers who wanted to turn the site around their home into a massive shopping centre redevelopment. The Chinese couple defended their property to such an extent that the developer even started excavating the land around their house, leaving just their property at the top of a steep hillside. Jasper introduced the idea of the Chongquin Nail house as a type of Thomasson, whilst not directly being abandoned or having no purpose, being saved amongst the wreckage of its neighbours, the Chongquin Nail house, so fiercely protected by it’s owners even whilst being rendered almost valueless to everyone except the immediate tenants was in itself a protection of a purposeless object. This famous Chongquin Nail house has been since demolished, but serves as a reminder of people’s abilities to protect the objects that they love, in an ever changing world, something that Thomassons also do.

  Jasper also discussed the appearance and presence of ‘fake’ Thomassons: that is, remnants that are not cared for but have been left to degrade or have had barriers to shield them, before them became barren. Such things as trees on nature strips which have been marked for removal, but still exist with their previous cage protecting them are not Thomassons, because they lack the precise care which marks out a Thomasson. In the Thomasson archive, there is one such example, where the poster believes that this cage had been put around the stump of a decapitated tree, showing it’s significance to the local area, however Jasper points out that this is merely a fake Thomasson, for one can easily see that this tree was marked for removal and it’s protective cage only stands for as long as the council decides to be rid of the treestump and it’s cage.

  Overall Thomassons are interesting reminders of times gone by, and the progression of change within our built worlds. Thomassons often show remains of past uses of space and also the connections that people have with these particular objects within the space. One wonders what will happen when the anonymous caretakers of these spaces and objects pass away, will they be succeeded by other caretakers of these spaces? Or will these spaces just fall into decay and ruin, buried by the future?

  Resources;

China Daily, 2007, China Daily,'Nail house' in Chongqing demolished, accessed 7 May 2011

<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-04/03/content_842221.htm>

Kaya Books, 2010, Hyperart:Thomassson, Hyperart Thomasson Index Form, accessed 6 May 2011

<http://thomasson.kaya.com/instance.php?id=122>

<http://thomasson.kaya.com/instance.php?id=129>

<http://thomasson.kaya.com/instance.php?id=139>

CatSynth, 2010, CatSynth, SF Thomassons Performance Tour, accessed 6 May 2011

<http://www.ptank.com/blog/tag/akasegawa-genpei/>

Toranosuke, 2010, Nihon Distractions, Hyperart:Thomasson, accessed 7 May 2011 

<http://nihondistractions.blogspot.com/2010/03/hyperartthomasson.html>

Scai the Bath House, 2010, Scai the Bath House, Genpei Akasegawa, accessed 6 May 2011

<http://www.scaithebathhouse.com/en/artists/genpei_akasegawa/biography/>

  Video Links:

Book Trailer for Hyperart:Thomasson;

shipping container apartments, the new future.

like a capsule hotel, but nicer.

potential use for the architecture warehouse on kensington street.

temporary occupation in a recyclable way.

"The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory proposed by Abraham Harold Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation."

Today's installment of the IS Lecture series was actual a panel of our tutors and others, discussing a number of different related issues to Interior and Spatial design.

One of the first things that was done in this time was a viewing of a TED talk by a Texan builder and designer, Dan Phillips, who incorporates recycled materials in his salvaged, affordable homes. This video is interesting in helping to understand how we use waste, mass, perception and continuity in order to understand information and space. In his talk, Phillips addressed the issue of the industrial revolution which shaped how we view organic forms and even waste, with the introduction of standard materials made from organic forms, much waste is manufactured during the production of these standard forms. Phillips also discusses Plato's ideal of perfection and how we struggle to create perfect forms from imperfect, blemished materials.

The second standout from this discussion time was the viewing of a video which looked at the Plaza phenomenon in New York, the video, by William H Whyte, an American sociologist, examined the popularity of the Seagram plaza against the disuse of other plazas in the area. By the permission of the New York City, companies could build higher towers, with more floors on the provision that they also included plazas as public spaces within the limits of their buildings. This video was a study on the use of the Seagram building's plaza; which looked at the construction and design of the area, by Mies van de Rohe. Whyte examined the use of the space through the patterns of sun and social movement.

Overall today's 'lecture' was an interesting insight into the ability of the internet to be a design tool in helping to understand design methodologies and inspiration for future and current projects.

Video Links:

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces;

<http://vimeo.com/5298850>

Creative Houses from Reclaimed Stuff