Advanced Studio: Collabstudio

student work CollabstudioIn the collab studio we used a mixed use, multi-unit, creative business incubator program as a framework for investigating approaches to a flexible, extensible or collaborative architecture. From the underlying premise that a rich common space (from positive interaction between local and visiting community members) is the essential life line for this type of structure, we will focus our attention on the thresholds which delineate public and private space. Ideologically, the studio begins with the Metabolist movement in 1960′s japan (Tange, Kurakawa, Maki, etc..). Utilizing a bottom-up process of development and a systems approach to building, students developed unique architectural strategies which fit collectively within a group framework. The objective of exploring these methodologies was to find the possibilities of a “living” architecture, where a collective identity can emerge from the rich expression of the individual while also taking a critically introspective look at the collaborative nature of the design process. Conceptual and technical lectures and workshops in digital environments, interactive technologies and CNC fabrication will supported the efforts of the studio.

Following an initial individual project where students researched precedents/technolgies and developed unique ideas to serve to inform the direction of the second project, the studio collaboratively developed a single proposal for the public cores and infrastructural backbone of the incubator utilizing 3d digital world building tools from the on-line world second life.

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe “- linden labs www.secondlife.com. In second life, beyond the major entertainment and corporate forces which have made a presence, architects have begun to use its physics enabled, scriptable world building tools to collaboratively create environments both for simulation of real world conditions and for inhabitation by uses “in-world” For this studio it will enable simultaneous multi-user digital design/build. Lessons in world building and interactive scripting will be done in studio to enable the project, students interested in exploring the theory and application of digital environments in greater depth should enroll in my class arch 497 – simultaneous occupation.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer