Phase 3: Assignment

Creating Shared Spaces

DEADLINES:

• 1/31/20 Friday, bring found objects for in-studio model-making
• 2/3/20 Monday, 2:00pm. Informal Pin-up: min. 2 models and corresponding drawings
• 2/5/20 Wednesday, 2:00pm. Desk Crits: 3 new models and drawings
• 2/7/20 Friday, 2:00pm. Review

Closely review the assignment posting and accompanying lecture on the studio site (always do this). Make sure you understand not just the basic requirements, but also the point of the assignment: what we’re interested in exploring through this project.

This assignment is meant to be iterative: Make, assess, make differently, assess… But also to allow you to move back and forth between model and drawing. Each should inform the other. Below are suggestions for starting points in the different mediums:

• Start with a diagram. Pick a “sharing” verbs from the assignment (mix, blend, merge…). Make a diagram of it, then try to build a model (or draw a section) that embodies that diagram.
• Start with your object. Take one type of found objects and look for an internal “logic” of how they might go together (do they nest, stack, overlap, weave…?). Start with that and see what that leads you to make. Do they naturally start creating spaces or do you need to nudge them to do so? Do you need to add some of your own rules about how they go together or what spaces they create? Then think about how they fit on your 6″ x 6″ base: do they create a field, filling the base or a central figure sitting within it?
• Start by drawing a section. Don’t draw one of your models or even worry about sharing verbs. Just try to create an interesting spatial condition as a section drawing. You can literally steal from the examples in the lecture, case study projects, or just experiment by drawing. Think about spatial qualities and how they would affect the occupant(s): enclosure, privacy, view, gathering…

Once you’ve got a start, look at it critically. Think about what it’s creating, what you think is interesting or successful about it, and what you might want to change or explore further. You can make an updated version in the same medium or jump to another medium. Got a section you like? Make a model that builds on it. Don’t worry excessively about simply representing what you’ve done in a different medium (ie drawing a section that is exactly what you modeled). We’ll get there for the final review but as a process the goal is to constantly be developing and evolving what you’re doing as you jump between mediums.