A Response to "The Street, The Linear City, and That the Center of Plazas be Kept Free"

The Street

The relationship between the street and the park or building is a key element in design.  The designer must think about how the space will be used in regards to where people will sit, how people will travel through the space, where people will gather and where vendors will set up to sell their goods.  People are more likely to sit in spaces where the seating is spread out through the whole space.  People will also use ledges for seating unless the ledge has railing on the top the sit directly in the middle of the ledge.  If the railing is located on the back of the ledge people will be more likely to sit, because the ledge and railing create seating with a backrest.

            If a park is located where people can’t see it then they won’t use it.  This is true also for spaces that are above or below a person’s line of sight.  So a space should never be sunken below the ground level unless there is an extreme reason why it should.  I’ve been to Rockefeller Center and when I arrive to the park there were many different levels, creating an amphitheater like atmosphere, but of than that I wasn’t really impressed. 

The Linear City

            The only thing that I got out of the Linear City reading was that the most direct and cost effective way of getting from one place to another is on a straight line.  Before the construction in the front of Beatty Hall students would pass by with plenty of space and it was the most direct route from the residential campus to the other side of the academic campus.  Now there is a very small path cutting around the contruction and through the quad, but the path is only wide enough for two people maximum and grass by the corners where you connect back to the original path has changed from a grassy patch to a constant mud puddle.

That the Center of Plazas be Kept Free

This reading also stated that the most direct route is in a straight line.  If there is a building, monument, or foundation in the center of the plaza, it forces people around the object and pushes them out of the space.  Once thing that I found interesting and thoughtful was that Verona sets all of the churches up against other buildings.  I also found that the rule of having buildings on one side of the plaza is very similar to our project at Copley Square, because Trinity Church of on one side of the plaza leaving a very big open space for temporary uses of people gather, walking by or farmer’s markets.

Outline for September 21 Class Discussion

Presenters: JT Breda and Sophie Boyce

Outline for Ways of Seeing

-       “Seeing comes before words.  The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.”

o   Sophie talk about blog response

§  The evaluation from child to adult

-       Perspective

o   Sight determines

o   Different people have different experiences, view and/or options

§  Unique to each person

o   Example: The Setting and Rising of the Sun

-       Connection

o   People see things in relation to themselves

§  Example: If you stand in front of a historical paint you try to put yourself in that time period.

-       All Images are man made

o   “An image is a sight which has been recreated or reproduced.  It is an appearance, or a set of appearances, which has been detached from the place and time

               §  Example:  Paint of “This is not a Pipe”

-       Painting and Art have value and worth because of the viewers or owners

-       Van Gogh Painting

o   The painting is perceived different when there are no words next to the painting describing what it is

                 §  When words are added the viewer tends to analyze the paint because of what the words say

A response to "Ways of Seeing"

This diagram shows the relationship between public, private and semi-private with the structure of the building.

I read the reading of Ways of Seeing before I looked at the questions and while reading the very first quote stuck in my head.  “Seeing comes before the words.  The child looks and recognizes before it can speak (pg 7).”   From the beginning of our lives we learn what things are and they are called, and when we look at objects today we immediately know what we are looking at without have to use words.  Of course now our minds just tell us what we looking at and we no longer have to make a description for ourselves.  Since we are so use to thinking in these terms, we find it hard to describe something to another person who has no idea what we are talking about.

We do the same thing with places that we do with objects, but I think describing a place is far easier then trying to describe an object.  Today we went to Copley Square and attempted to describe our observations.  I decided that during my investigation I would focus only on sounds that make up the area, so I took my notebook to an area of the square where no one else was and began my investigation.  I sat down on top of the water foundation and focused my eyes on the notebook that lay in my lap.  When my attention was completely focused on my notebook, I began to describe the area around he as if I had never seen it and would never see it. 

My example of listening to the sounds of the square as a way of seeing is very valid.  I’ve mentioned this in a previous post, but sometimes you have to look at the world from someone else’s point of view, such a blind man.

Project 1: Public Space Image

The historical site of Fisherman's Point in South Portland, Maine.

a response to "Urban Tomographies"

One point in the reading states that “A city is an archive of its past (pg xvi).”  I find this point to be extremely true.  I find that when I’m analyzing a building site, I tend to look toward the history of the site and then look at how the past has influenced the current or present location.

Paris, France hired Charles Marville to “preserve the memory of the past (pg 10), “ of the rubbish and garbage that made Paris the unhealthy place it once was.  The city of Paris didn’t want to destroy the history of what once was Paris. 

My hope is that people learn from history, from the good and bad, and that we improve upon the past.  History will always be a part of who we are and where we live. Each city has remains of its “earlier urban fabric (pg 10).”

One form of gathering information that I thought was very interesting was based on sound clips.  Krieger states “Sound is everywhere, sneaking up from behind, diffracting around corners (pg 16).”  This statement reminds me of a statement my grandfather told me this summer at our family reunion.  He said that I was like the paparazzi, because I was documenting every little thing about the reunion weekend.

Another point that Krieger made was that certain sites are not meant to be photographed.  He also said that the viewer would know which sites were to be photographed and which sites where not.  Sites that are not meant to be photographed are instead meant to be “lived in, worked in, worshipped in (pg 18)” and seen but not imaged or photographed.

A response to "Theory of Derive"

I think that derive means to walk with a purpose.  You walk with a goal or place in mind and with awareness of your surroundings.  It is better to do this in a group of two or three during an average duration between the time you wake up and the time you go to bed. 

I feel that as an architecture student I sometimes do this, but in most cases I tend to get lost and end up finding more about the area that I’m walking in.  This past weekend I traveled to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by way of the T.  When I got off I walked west on Main Street until I reached the intersection of Main Street and Vassar Street.  After about a block I reached Massachusetts Ave, where I had intended on taking a left, but instead I continued on Vassar Street past Simmons Hall and then looped back around the athletic fields and continued walking on Amherst Alley past the back side of Baker House until I reached the spot on Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s campus where I wanted to be, at Kresge Auditorium.

I thought that it was very interesting that I had intended on walking directly to Kresge Auditorium from Kendall Square, but continued on a different route once I got close, because I wanted to see more of the campus.  One thing I know for sure is that I don’t like to walk in a direct line to and from my detestation, but instead walk in a very large circle so that I can experience more.

My favorite quote from the reading is, “an urban neighborhood is determined not only by geographical and economic factor, but also by the image that it’s habitants and those of other neighborhoods have of it (pg 1).”

A response to "Collage City"

The one main concept I gathered from the reading was the idea of architecture having an exterior and interior that represents and complements each other.  Architecture should also represent the function of the room or build in some sense.  One great quote from the reading, “Collage City” by Colin Rowe and Fred Koeter, is “A building is a like a soap bubble.  This bubble is perfect and harmonious if the breath has been evenly distributed from the inside.  The exterior if the result of an interior.”  The experience of making the bubbles and then watching them float away into the sky are my two favorite parts of blowing bubbles.

            In order to make a really well constructed bubble, the maker must ensure that the wand or tool that he or she is using if fully covered in the liquid bubble soap.  Then the bubble maker has to blow through the hole of the bubble wand to create the bubble, but he or she wants to make sure the that they blow at a slow even pace, if the bubble maker wants to make the best biggest bubble ever.  Eventually the bubble will detach itself from the bubble wand and begin its journey into the sky or atmosphere as it spins and turns, showing off its beautiful colors.

            I think that bubble making is similar to architecture in the sense that the bubble maker is the architect and the bubble is the piece of architecture.  It takes a very patient architect/ person to create a building, landscape or city plan with care.  If the architect takes his or her time to carefully think about the end goal or product than the piece of architecture will fit right in with the surrounding area.  The architect must think of not only the exterior, but the interior as well, because if the interior is organized and designed with the function in mind than the exterior or façade will flow nicely from the outside to the inside.  One example I like to use is if you take an old airplane hanger, build a façade on one end and leave the other three sides just as they where, then the function of the building or interior doesn’t correspond with the exterior façade.  

A Response to "The Image of the Environment"

            The main purpose of compiling impressions from many different people from each city is for the very reason of making sure the researcher(s) have a diverse range of answers.  If the researcher(s) gathers information from one group of people and never attempts to find other people who are different from the one group then the researcher(s) has a biased based option of the information about the subject they were trying to gather.  It is important to gather a wide vary of information from many different people, because each person has a different experience and come from different backgrounds.  For example, if the researcher(s) asks a blind man about the city the he lives or works, he will have a completely different response than if the researcher(s) asks the same question to a fully able bodied person.  The blind man is more likely to describe the city with all its sounds and textures.

            I was unsure of what a tomography was so I looked it up and came across a description of Martin H. Krieger’s Urban Tomographies.  Krieger’s book is based on the idea of tomography as “a method of exploring a phenomenon through a large number of examples or perspectives.”  He uses urban tomography which “applies the same approach to the study of city life. To appreciate different aspects of a community, from infrastructure to work to worship…”

            I believe that Krieger’s use of tomograhies and Lynch’s attempts of gather “public images” are very similar.  Each person has a series of pictures that create a memory about a special place or experience, and each memory is different because each person experiences it in a different way.  Each person has a different way of remembering his or her experience based on which five sense is strongest to him or her.  Touch. Smell. Sight. Sound. Taste.

Works Cited

http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14863.html