Physical and Digital Media Strategies For Exploring 'Imagined' Realities of Space, Skin and Light (2002)
article⁄Physical and Digital Media Strategies For Exploring 'Imagined' Realities of Space, Skin and Light (2002)
abstract⁄This paper will discuss an unconventional methodology for using physical and digital media strategies ina tightly structured framework for the integration of Environmental Control Systems ECS principles intoa third year design studio. An interchangeable use of digital media and physical material enabledarchitectural explorations of rich tactile and luminous engagement.The principles that provide the foundation for integrative strategies between a design studio and buildingtechnology course spring from the Bauhaus tradition where a systematic approach to craftsmanship andvisual perception is emphasized. Focusing particularly on color, light, texture and materials, Josef Albersexplored the assemblage of found objects, transforming these materials into unexpected dynamiccompositions. MoholyNagy developed a technique called the photogram or cameraless photograph torecord the temporal movements of light. Wassily Kandinsky developed a method of analytical drawingthat breaks a still life composition into diagrammatic forces to express tension and geometry. Theseschematic diagrams provide a method for students to examine and analyze the implications of elementplacements in space Bermudez, Neiman 1997. Gyorgy Kepes’s Language of Vision provides a primerfor learning basic design principles. Kepes argued that the perception of a visual image needs aprocess of organization. According to Kepes, the experience of an image is ‘a creative act ofintegration’. All of these principles provide the framework for the studio investigation.The quarter started with a series of intense short workshops that used an interchangeable use of digitaland physical media to focus on ECS topics such as day lighting, electric lighting, and skin vocabulary tolead students to consider these components as part of their formmaking inspiration.In integrating ECS components with the design studio, an ninestep methodology was established toprovide students with a compelling and tangible framework for designExamples of student work will be presented for the two times this course was offered 200102 to showhow exercises were linked to allow for a clear design progression.
