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Nader Tehrani | "The Tectonic Grain" | Lecture Series | 10.24.2018 — Transcript

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0:05we're very lucky and just great to have
0:09the bear back here at Georgia Tech he's
0:13really he's really kind of its part of
0:16our extended family I mean I think there
0:19are a few days that come up as often as
0:21his name does in studio or just talking
0:24the faculty because you've had such an
0:25impact on our school over the years
0:29first probably its adventure like chair
0:38and I think when he was here he made a
0:40big impact on the school and the
0:45students and the faculty I mean I can't
0:47tell you their how many times I've
0:48talked to faculty who really speak
0:50fondly about your time here and I know a
0:53lot of them just stay very close to you
0:56and with those students who don't know
0:59this and please don't need to dismiss
1:01this if you don't know it but he
1:03designed the building you get an excuse
1:16because you're not an architecture and
1:22and the other thing about that build I
1:24mean it's it's it's one of these
1:27buildings in some ways you could say it
1:29was kind of a modest project you know
1:31he's kind of an intervention as much as
1:33anything else
1:34into quite an amazing space but but it
1:37is it was probably designed this way but
1:39it certainly has become almost like a
1:41teaching tool for students and I can't
1:43again I can think of many times when I
1:45walk in there and I just look at the
1:47details I look at the materials I look
1:48at how how just intelligent the
1:51interventions were in the impact that it
1:53had on that space and how it's made it
1:54just a great place to to be in a great
1:57place to teach it a great place to for
1:59the students to work it so you know I
2:03don't know how big how much more of an
2:06impact you can have on school that
2:07they're actually designed the space that
2:09the students work in so the dinner I'm
2:13not going to go into a lot of background
2:15information you can read about this but
2:17he founded off the stop in the mid 80s
2:21and this firm immediately became very
2:25well established very reputable actually
2:27think of exhibitions at MoMA I can take
2:29a great project in in those days that
2:32transitioned into nada in 2011 and I
2:38think for the beginning in both kind of
2:40iterations of these firms they've always
2:43worked in a really wide range of scales
2:46I think even now I think the dare still
2:48facet is fascinated with this the detail
2:51you know furniture products you know
2:55every aspect of a building was really
2:57taken into account one of the things
2:58that strikes me when I think think about
3:01their work it's like nothing's taken for
3:03granted like the handrail you know a
3:06guardrail a wall nothing's taken for
3:09granted in terms of well that's just a
3:10wall that's just this with it everything
3:12is kind of thought through in an
3:15incredible way
3:17kind of reinvented every time and I was
3:20when I was going back through all your
3:22projects and you know I know your work
3:24well it was just amazing how every time
3:26I would see something it was like you
3:28know thinking about handrails your the
3:30handrails and discard rails or stairs
3:32from just like how many times can you
3:34reinvent that and every time it's more
3:36beautiful than the last time and that
3:38attention to just to detail and just to
3:41a sensibility of that craft and material
3:44is super refreshing
3:46I mean it's odd to say that now that
3:48it's refreshing because I'm not sure
3:50that that's in front of big minds of
3:52Architects today but it definitely is in
3:54their work and it's just it's it's
3:56really quite quite amazing so their work
4:02has been recognized widely I mean they
4:05have some of the most prestigious awards
4:08the architect can get from the
4:11cooper-hewitt National Design Award to
4:14the American Academy of Arts and Letters
4:15architecture award they have 17
4:18progressive architecture awards they're
4:20for students who don't really know what
4:22that is that's it I think that's
4:24probably one of the most prestigious
4:25annual award that architects can get has
4:28been going on for a very long time and
4:30and and the deer's office has this
4:34reputation of winning every year and I
4:37look back in since 1995 they've won at
4:39least one award every year I think
4:41except five years so it's 22 years and
4:44you believe that is pretty hard to do
4:48because the best projects in the country
4:50get interviewed in this award so it's
4:53not only just that they've won these
4:54awards but the consistency and the
4:56quality of the work over time is it's
4:59just really really Adam and I I will say
5:03this kind of personally I'm a practicing
5:06architect and and I think architects
5:08oftentimes we were working on a project
5:10and you get stuck you'll say
5:12I gotta get out of this you know who's
5:13worked on look at and and the dares work
5:16is one of the few firms that I can say
5:18in our office that we look at when we
5:20get into those ruts like how did we get
5:23out of this so when we'll look at their
5:24work and it helps us to be better
5:26architect so I think the impact that he
5:28has on other architects is quite he also
5:34teaches he doesn't want to teach she
5:36runs schools he was the head of the MIT
5:39School of Architecture four or four or
5:41five years from 20 what is it 22 2014
5:46and he's currently the Dean at Cooper
5:50Union and from everything that I can
5:52tell and hear and see he's doing an
5:55incredible job at a school that had an
5:58unbelievable legacy to kind of to kind
6:01of follow and I think if there was
6:03anybody who could take that school I
6:05mean John hated led that school for many
6:07years and I don't know students
6:09dedicated kids but one of his sculptures
6:11you know full scale in our atrium four
6:14percent a year so an incredibly
6:17impactful architect and educator and he
6:21built could reunion over the course of I
6:24don't know how many years and to follow
6:26that is not easy to do and but nadare
6:29has done that and I think he's like
6:31evolving and taking the school to
6:32another level so I'll stop talking but
6:37please join me in welcoming the dear
6:38back home to your second home
6:51thank you I can't think of a more
6:55generous welcoming than that thank you
6:59all for being here friends and family
7:02and so forth
7:04and yes the venture led chair was a
7:07critical moment in our career and and
7:13has a lot to do with what I will speak
7:17about tonight because effectively there
7:22were two strands of work at play at the
7:25same time but one had to do with the
7:29detail as a generator as a precondition
7:34for architectural action and that will
7:37be featured heavily on one of the walls
7:41in the exhibition upstairs and the other
7:45one had to do with this fortuitous
7:48moment being down here and somehow with
7:53la s partnering up for the possibility
7:58of the Hinman building at a time when
8:02the economy was crashing undertaking at
8:08that same time 14 competitions four of
8:12which we won three of which were schools
8:16of architecture and so the other wall
8:19and the sort of suspended structure the
8:22the minimi of the the hammock displays
8:28the schools of architecture in
8:30relationship to an article that I'm
8:33developing now which has to do with the
8:38relationship of schools of architecture
8:40as places as forms as as as typology is
8:47on the one hand and the kinds of
8:49mentalities and schools of thought they
8:51engender and whether there's a
8:53connection between the two and certainly
8:56being at Cooper Union right now in the
8:58foundation building a historic building
9:01that has gone
9:02many renovations four of them the most
9:05famous of which is by John Hajduk in the
9:0970s remains so profound in its memory
9:13that I have to battle that ghost on a
9:16daily basis so architecture entails a
9:23great many things you know the study of
9:26cities urban connections typological
9:30transformations Building Technologies
9:33and a range of discussions we can have
9:36and the prospect of reducing all of that
9:39to one discussion seems improbable but
9:43that is what I'm going to do tonight I
9:44want to talk about a microscopic thing
9:47which has to do with the telltale detail
9:50and its relationship with the the kind
9:53of grain that it produces and that grain
9:56is a is a word that you have used often
10:00it's a grain of woods it's it's the
10:03grain of a city so it's a metaphor for
10:05those things that produce pattern and
10:07texture but they're important because
10:12though we take these grains for granted
10:15in nature it is only when we see images
10:20like this one that we're reminded of the
10:23artifice of that grain this is in fact
10:26the way that the organization of the
10:29form of the zebra in relationship to its
10:31skin is is actually organized in other
10:37words that the stripes are going around
10:40the torso but so too they're going
10:42around the legs forcing that turning of
10:45the corner at that juncture the
10:48architecture in my mind happens at that
10:50juncture you know the pattern is the
10:53rule but that turning of that corner is
10:56is important but it's also important to
10:58recognize that as architects we are in
11:02charge of the artifice of that striping
11:05we produce that grain sometimes working
11:10with the natural grain of materials and
11:12sometimes going against them but let's
11:15not fool ourselves
11:16what we do engenders a kind the agency
11:23of an artificial act as we look at the
11:28natural world also the world of would
11:31let's say we also understand that
11:34there's differences in the optimization
11:36of certain cuts like a plane song cut a
11:40riff song cut or the quarter sawn and
11:43based on the kind of grain you want to
11:45get you understand the fundamental
11:47differences between these two as you
11:49look for the veneers that you're trying
11:52to get and such was the case when we
11:54were designing this little table we were
11:58interested in the massive and structural
12:03predispositions of n grain wood in this
12:05case plywood compressed with each other
12:09bolted together to become a sturdy
12:12compressive structure what is
12:14interesting of course about plywood as
12:17it's laminated together is that striated
12:21condition that it produces which is akin
12:23to a quarter sawn grain of wood so in
12:25combination with walnuts on the opposing
12:30edge and zebra wood on the underbelly
12:34you begin to see a dialogue between you
12:38know three sets of grains that turn the
12:42corner on the vertical axis right here
12:47mirroring a kind of oblique symmetry
12:51about that tea at that table this I will
12:54speak a little bit later to the
12:56Parthenon and you may appreciate that
12:58but the problem really is of course is
13:00that as you go as the belly wraps up you
13:04can never get across this perpendicular
13:06grain as they come together it's a kind
13:08of historic challenge that nobody has
13:12been able to to legitimately overcome
13:18and that is what I'm interested in but
13:22I'm also interested in those moments of
13:25figuration the escape from configuration
13:29as it were
13:30as you cut away at the legs you begin to
13:34discover another grain and that other
13:36grain produces the you know the
13:39discovery of an organist city that is
13:42very much part of another aspect of our
13:45work the turning of that corner of
13:48course you all know in Bramante's court
13:52in Santa Maria de la pocha
13:54I still haven't found the excerpt or the
13:59historical excerpt that describes
14:01whether this was negligence or or or a
14:06joke but it's kind of a wonderful moment
14:10when you begin to see the order
14:12swallowed up at that corner where the
14:15capital is ingested by the by the wall
14:18mass and it really requires a generation
14:22to Palladio to displace the the
14:24relationship of that pilaster in order
14:27that you are allowed to turn the corner
14:29so lest you think that these corner
14:32conditions are new they're very much
14:35part of an ongoing dialogue with history
14:38itself so in the Rock Creek house we
14:43were confronted with a situation of
14:45dealing with a neo Georgian structure of
14:48two floors with an attic as well as a
14:51basement that opens out onto a lower
14:54level garden so in effect a growing
14:58family of you know mother father and two
15:02kids has another kid and a nanny a dog
15:05or this and that and they want not to
15:07move away from the neighborhood so at
15:10all costs they want to stay there and
15:12expand up and down so the task that we
15:14had at hand was to maintain the general
15:19grain and character of this neo Georgian
15:23structure but radically change its
15:27functionality connecting the top story
15:30all the way down to the basements but
15:33also opening up the south so that you
15:37could get maximum light all the way
15:39through the building and into the north
15:43and to do that of course is is not an
15:45easy task because as you begin to open
15:47up these windows at a certain moment the
15:50figure-ground relationship between void
15:53and solid is so extreme that you
15:55effectively you're making a brick
15:56curtain wall and so what's interesting
15:58about the structure is in effect it's a
16:01monolithic brick building that changes
16:07state as it goes from one side to the
16:09other it goes from load bearing to a
16:11curtain wall on the opposing side but
16:14also what's interesting is that it
16:16conceptually it's a landscape project
16:18the brick that is used to make the attic
16:21space is excavated from the windows that
16:24used to be on the south or the wall that
16:26used to be on the south producing that
16:29thing so there's a kind of perfect net
16:31to gross relationship between the two
16:33and we could cut and fill it without
16:35using any extra brick the plan
16:39typologically is also pretty
16:41straightforward with four stories always
16:44load-bearing as you can see on the north
16:46side and an open free plan on the south
16:48and we take advantage of that to
16:51establish these vertically striated
16:55load-bearing brick walls almost
16:57producing a party wall condition all the
17:00way to the South intercepting the facade
17:03that is essentially suspended as a
17:06curtain wall to the south and because of
17:09an unfortunate commitment to a
17:12contractor the best friend of the
17:15clients and a neighbor we realized that
17:19this house will never get built
17:21correctly so if we can find a way to
17:25develop a furnishing strategy a millwork
17:28strategy that is the entire building
17:30that we will co-opt essentially the
17:33scope of work to the point where nothing
17:35can go wrong because the mill worker is
17:37our neighbor and our best friend so so
17:41the grain of the wood and the grain of
17:44the brick are ostensibly going in the
17:46same direction with a section of the
17:49building the only part of the section of
17:52the building that we're ostensibly
17:53operating on is this vertical a
17:56that connects you to the attic where the
17:59kids play to a second level where the
18:01kids do their homework and to the lower
18:04floor which becomes the summer living
18:06room connecting to the to the swimming
18:08pool area and the piano nobile a which
18:11is the winter living room and the entire
18:13building comes together at this point
18:15the graining of which produces a
18:18situation that the blades of the plywood
18:21draw all of the light to the northern
18:25edge of the building while maintaining a
18:27solidity on the east and west such that
18:31there's not even any doors these are all
18:33walls that slide back and forth to
18:36essentially hide the kitchen on the
18:38right and the family room to the left
18:40seamlessly for those moments where
18:43there's a public affair but this face
18:47grained endgrain condition then it
18:50produces the condition this kind of
18:52Perrin Asian rotation as you go up the
18:54stairs and bringing the house together
18:57the space from which everybody is
19:00screaming at each other the connection
19:05to the basement then the the the the the
19:09ground floor is another stair that winds
19:11to the side a kind of organic space a
19:14monolithic space within which that
19:16striation entails the development of a
19:21railing and using basically the the
19:24language and the technologies that are
19:27adopted to embed the light switches the
19:31the outlets and all of the fixtures with
19:35the corner condition again becoming the
19:36exceptional moments where the play of
19:39lightness and weight is is is it comes
19:46to dialog with each other you can see in
19:47the plan that there's a portion a
19:49central portion which is wider with the
19:54kind of periscoped areas on the east and
19:57west with the glazing coming and playing
20:00back and forth based on flush nurses and
20:03and cantilever as might be so the entire
20:09project is about opening up to Rock
20:12Creek and acknowledging the oblique
20:16connection to the garden which is
20:18primarily to the east and using the
20:22depth or the poche that is produced by
20:26this depth to inhabit the furnishings of
20:29these edge conditions in shares long in
20:32seats and then taking advantage of that
20:35same grain to produce the door handles
20:37of these large doors that allow for the
20:42movement of of these walls
20:45if Rock Creek represents the rarified
20:50opportunity to build for wealth then
20:53there are situations in which you get a
20:55rock-bottom budget to do something
20:58extraordinary in a language to which you
21:00have no access and so when confronted
21:04with the possibility of doing a model
21:07home gallery in Korea we sprung to the
21:12opportunity we had no idea what this
21:15building type was but we knew we wanted
21:18to build it based on precedents we
21:21realize that these are large and
21:23important public institutions that are
21:26spread throughout Seoul and other major
21:28cities only to realize that in fact all
21:31they are are sales offices every
21:35monolith that you look at on the top of
21:37the screen all this kind of figurative
21:39and spectacular work our sales offices
21:43for apartment types that are then
21:46ingrained and embedded in massive
21:48housing projects all over the country
21:50and the deal that is made essentially is
21:54that companies like Raymond or Samsung
21:59or other such bionde all of these
22:02companies make deals with certain
22:04neighborhoods by bringing public
22:06amenities to the base of that building
22:08for that very community and so
22:11conceptually what they want is they want
22:13a spectacle on top but they really want
22:16infrastructure at the bottom so the
22:18diagram of the building that you can see
22:19to the right is really them the monolith
22:22at the top
22:23and for them at all costs this has to
22:26compete with the object nasaw love those
22:29other ridiculous buildings and and the
22:34porosity and the openness that is
22:36represented by the base now please keep
22:38in mind that I'm presenting this project
22:42as an important contribution to the
22:45argument about tectonic rain never for a
22:48moment deceiving myself into thinking
22:51that this is a good project it's a bad
22:54project I acknowledge but it's an
22:56important one to learn a certain type of
23:00lesson from and the lesson that we
23:02learned was that if you don't speak the
23:04language if you don't have access to the
23:06site and if it produces incredible
23:10budgetary problems
23:11why don't you reduce it to four details
23:14and so if you can get those four details
23:17correct it may yet survive in some way
23:20or another the project site that we
23:26discovered as we went there was this
23:28barren landscape with a park to the
23:30right hand side that was embellished by
23:32a subway station making possible for
23:35massive development to the left and we
23:38thought that the phasing of this project
23:40were of course would take you know years
23:43to fulfill but by the second visit that
23:45we'd come here the entire zone to the
23:47left was absolutely filled we also got
23:51started on the working drawings very
23:53fast and submitted it by I believe
23:56sometime in October November or
23:57something like that and we never heard
24:00from them again and the next time we
24:02heard from them that was the image we
24:05got from them and they said you know we
24:07are we're having problems turning the
24:09corner and could we in gate reengage you
24:14two to come over and and help us to you
24:16know figure out a way to do it naturally
24:18we'd been working digitally and with
24:20software and so we'd imagined a level of
24:23engagement with a CNC software but all
24:26of this is done manually and with
24:28Chinese labor and on this incredible
24:31schedule that involves a 24 hour labor
24:34and it's very difficult
24:36so this project was effectively done
24:39between myself you know our Korean
24:43partner architects who had never done a
24:45building had only done interiors as well
24:47as the engineer on-site which was this
24:49extraordinary gentleman who never spoke
24:51a word of English and I don't speak
24:53Korean but with a little bit of drinking
24:55we did it all
24:58so the the for details has to do
25:01essentially with a granite sidewalk that
25:05goes through the building a storefront
25:08system that involves vertical striation
25:11a plaster detail that embeds all of that
25:15junk that is over your head into single
25:18stripes every black stripe on the
25:19ceiling represents an opportunity for
25:22HVAC sprinkler system lights etc and a
25:25horizontal louver system on top which
25:28has nothing to do with the control of
25:30light but rather the concealment of the
25:35impossibility of craft on a compound
25:38curvature that they insisted on to
25:41maintain the object hood of what this
25:44building engenders so conceptually the
25:48building operates as a monolith overhead
25:53that has suspended down everything comes
25:55down the staircase has come down to meet
25:58the ground the columns are suspended
26:01from the ceiling the skylights do not
26:03touch the ground and the tectonics that
26:06this entails is immaterial it has none
26:10of the signs of of construction it is
26:15like a rhino model and once it's
26:19complete it does not pretend to be
26:23anything else either and in fact the
26:27project is not badly crafted it is not
26:32well crafted it is exactly what you
26:34would imagine it to be and and so in
26:37some sense it delivers on the kind of
26:41abstraction that requires the maximum
26:44tolerances that this grain can offer you
26:48the one moment of transformation of
26:51course that we had was also to embed a
26:54sectional relationship with the ramp
26:56that goes down into the parking in the
26:58basement the auditorium and the
27:01excavation of the proscenium of that
27:03auditorium to not only connect with the
27:06gallery outside but also the landscape
27:08beyond and somehow that was one of the
27:11programmatic activations that would turn
27:14this open hypostyle hall that is the
27:18base of the building to include columns
27:22but also include programs embedded in
27:25these massive monolithic columns that
27:27were not only the auditorium but also
27:29rooms that could be rented out for
27:32conferences cafes galleries and a basic
27:36open space that connects the park to the
27:39city the greening of the of the of the
27:44base also has to do with a spacing that
27:47is more generous on the south but with
27:51fritting on the east and west with
27:53deeper blades to protect from the sun
27:55and the north a more generic open space
27:57but a typological predisposition that
28:01involves a domino frame that is bullion
28:03dat the corners and then masked with a
28:06skin a kind of three-dimensional organic
28:12figure against the rectangular towers of
28:14the of the skyline of the city and a
28:18base that is an essentially a
28:21topographic base that produces its own
28:24skyline and dialogue with a mountainous
28:27terrain of Seoul the sum total of which
28:32becomes a figure that we not so much
28:38designed but reacted to according to
28:42daily battles that we had online in
28:45WebEx you have to imagine that this
28:48project from beginning to end is one
28:51year and six months and so at any given
28:54moment that shape may change and you
28:56still have to be happy with it so what
28:58we were developing was not only the
29:02of the detail but ground rules that at
29:05any moments may go against your
29:07aesthetic predispositions and so the
29:10rules of the game are somehow embedded
29:13in this drawing in this animation with
29:15the skin of T's and mullions cascading
29:19to the ground programs from below
29:22surging up programs from the top pushing
29:27down and organizing that vertical grain
29:29against the base of the skyline the
29:32louvers landing on top and opening
29:36windows winking out to the skyline
29:38beyond in only those areas where there's
29:40public spaces because the rest of it is
29:42essentially a black box stage set we're
29:45about 20 apartments are placed this this
29:55preoccupation and with striping and
29:58graining comes in very different
30:01configurations based on whether you're
30:03dealing with the pixels of brick or with
30:06the striations of a storefront system
30:10and when we were asked to consider to
30:14build the bridge between the Yarra River
30:17and the Tennis Open in Melbourne we were
30:24interested in figuring out how to
30:27develop a structural system rooted in
30:31the principle of redundancy such that we
30:34could take exposed rebar and through
30:38triangulation and a modulation of the
30:41width of that rebar to do everything
30:44with one medium and by doing that in a
30:46sense the graining of that bridge in
30:52relationship to the triangulation of the
30:54trust that is producer from it is also
30:56becomes a vehicle to wrap around the
30:58railing and extend above to become the
30:59lighting this kind of maniacal
31:03insistence on the kind of model mono
31:07medium is a trope that you will see in
31:09in many projects but it has to do with
31:12the
31:13the impulse to make materials do what
31:19they really don't want to do and but
31:21also excavating out of that medium how
31:24to radicalize its tectonic grain and in
31:27this case understanding how rebars are
31:30bent and how they're figured is an
31:33important one to to understand how it
31:36wraps the belly and how we might come to
31:39terms with the hierarchies of members as
31:42we navigate the maximum moment of the
31:46bridge in its longest span and how that
31:48may become the fifth elevation of this
31:52important condition because essentially
31:53the bridge above is empty you know
31:56ninety percent of the years only during
31:58the tennis open when you know tens of
32:00thousands of people are on top of that
32:02plane the majority of the year
32:04everybody's below the bridge because the
32:06Yarra River Park is an immense and
32:10important landscape that navigates the
32:13entire waterfront and connects back to
32:15downtown Melbourne and so these
32:18striations become a mechanism by which
32:21the landscape of the base is mirrored in
32:24a reflective ceiling plan that
32:28characterizes this fifth facade this
32:33idea of graining then is somehow
32:36something that you've witnessed and
32:39discovered in many technologies and many
32:42cultural denominations in this case for
32:45the New England house we wanted to
32:48produce a structure that is born out of
32:51a vernacular the board-and-batten system
32:54which must have some presence in this
32:58part of the country as well as well as a
33:00tongue-and-groove system to the left
33:02where the louvers are but this is one of
33:06those structures where the striping of
33:09the batten produces a shadow and a grain
33:12to it from which through which we can
33:17conceal the garage doors of the base but
33:20delaminated such that the handles that
33:22get into the garage are somehow unwound
33:26for
33:26that same tectonic system now if you
33:32consider the idea of that vertical
33:35graining as something of significance
33:38then you also appreciate that wood
33:42construction isn't just wood
33:44construction a wood picket fence is not
33:48the same as louvers a tongue-and-groove
33:53system is not the same as
33:55board-and-batten
33:56a framed window is not the same as a
34:00paneled wall but in this rendition of
34:04this wall for the new hampshire house
34:08everything is in woods yes and
34:11everything is vertically striated yes
34:13but it represents a hybrid technology
34:16because we're bringing tectonics that
34:18would not normally go together into one
34:21utterance I'm not sure why this is here
34:28but eventually I'll it must be out of
34:30order but I'll we'll get to that but it
34:33has something to do with the idea of
34:39figuration not only being important to
34:41us but also the dangers that that
34:45somehow underlie it
34:47everybody here is well aware well aware
34:50of the traditions that produced actually
34:52take two of Perak lawns and the ability
34:54for architecture to speak or its
34:57legibility as a figure but also the
35:00dangers of kitsch that underlie it to
35:02the right and somehow this narrative is
35:07is related to all of these projects
35:11because they're not innocent and and
35:14certainly they're not natural but that
35:16all of this discussion about draining in
35:19some way or other is about the
35:22configurative breakdown of projects the
35:24grammar the syntax that it involves but
35:27the figures have something to do with
35:29something that's larger than the sum of
35:31their parts in the way that they operate
35:34as icons and as legible entities in this
35:37case this is
35:40student project actually I did at the
35:41GSD many many years ago but I still love
35:46it today because of that part-to-whole
35:48relationship for whatever reason I was
35:51absolutely obsessed with the marketplace
35:55in the center of Florence and this big
35:58hypostyle hall of arched openings with
36:01all of the little furniture underneath
36:03it and I wanted to produce this large
36:06table that covered all of these
36:11miniature tables underneath it and it
36:14has that kind of resonance of Romulus
36:18and Remus and Remus underneath the the
36:21the she-wolf which is a very tender
36:24image and so but you have to get into
36:27another kind of discourse to understand
36:28why I like dogs so much and all of that
36:30but there there is a there's an element
36:33of zoo a morphism that is involved in in
36:37this that was very important to me and
36:40somehow I had constructed in my mind a
36:43connection between Rome and Boston
36:45because Rome is the city of seven hills
36:47and so was Boston before they flattened
36:50every Hill to make the landfill and so
36:52this monument here was taking the
36:55elevation of one of those hills in the
36:57South End but back to the discussion
37:00about figurations and configurations the
37:03figure of the table is constructed
37:05literally out of the precast elements of
37:08those tables underneath it and the
37:10strange skin condition that you see
37:13syncopating up the legs of this are
37:15really the objectification of the
37:17landings of the stair as they go up and
37:19disrupt the normality of what would have
37:22otherwise been a grid so this
37:28preoccupation with figuration is of
37:32course connected to an idea about
37:37anthropomorphisms or morphism and what I
37:39like about that era of architecture
37:42pile-ons is not the iconographic or the
37:45semantics alone
37:46but that somewhere lurking in there is
37:48this ghost of performativity so as you
37:53look at the shoulder blades of the
37:54elephant here maybe it's not by accident
37:58that you know the figure produces an
38:00arch there's a collusion between the
38:03natural predisposition of an arch and
38:05the way that the body of the elephant
38:07works it's also not a bad accident that
38:13the fountain is produced by the snout of
38:15the elephant and so forth so in our work
38:18then there is constantly this
38:20oscillation between an understanding of
38:25both the inductive and deductive lines
38:29of reasoning when you know the answer in
38:31some instances and you're looking for
38:34all of the evidence to make up that
38:35answer and sometimes when you're just
38:37playing and don't know what you're going
38:40to discover along the way in the context
38:43of the New Hampshire house if you allow
38:45me to go back we were confronted with
38:47this tremendous view over the
38:52presidential mountain range where you're
38:54looking at Mount Washington - Mount
38:57Lincoln and we wanted to build a prefab
39:00house that would with each room looking
39:02at each of these heads of each of each
39:06of these mountains and essentially
39:07typologically it's a pretty regular
39:10building type pen optic or a circular
39:13courtyard on the one hand with rooms
39:16systemically looking out but also
39:19because of the interstitial spaces
39:22between them a dog truck to house so
39:24that it's connecting an inner court with
39:26the outer court and so it's a it's a
39:28combination of a stoah and a dogtrot as
39:31it organizes itself so as a series of
39:37prefab rooms they're arranged around the
39:40periphery of the site each looking at
39:43one mountain god forbid Trumpy the next
39:46one of them and a series of anomalous
39:52and strange interstitial spaces between
39:55them that create the privacy of the
39:58porch next to the bedroom or
40:00service area next to next to the kitchen
40:02uh you know the central deck for the
40:05living room and so forth and the
40:08conditions of a room being relatively
40:10normative and uninventive but as you
40:14begin to encounter the relationship
40:17between the inside and the outside you
40:20come to appreciate that there's
40:21something bigger at stake in
40:23relationship to the overall figure of
40:26the building and there's something that
40:29in my mind has been completely lost in
40:33education today for all of the right and
40:38wrong reasons if you like and that is
40:40the with the kind of discovery of the
40:43agency of 3d modeling the the ways in
40:47which the plan can still operate in in
40:50critical ways and in this sense if you
40:52think about these as prefabricated units
40:57it would make impossible the idea of
41:00grafting them or fusing them together so
41:02the architecture of this structure I
41:04like to think is the in that
41:06interstitial space where it all fuses
41:09together and that requires a completely
41:12different way of thinking to bring it
41:13together in the context of this plan
41:15also you enter on that side under this
41:21archway that brings you all the way in
41:24here but that promenade takes you
41:26through the whole house and two on the
41:28inside brings you up a deck going over
41:32the original entry and so that promenade
41:34forces you to encounter each of these
41:37rooms and the ways that the life of the
41:41house is both extroverted and
41:43introverted it looks out onto the
41:45mountains but also has this protected
41:48space where essentially the the mountain
41:51lines and the bears of of northern New
41:53Hampshire are no longer there so the
41:56figure if you like the belly of this
41:59beast is really the result of the figure
42:02of the stair going up the building and
42:06creating that very threshold through
42:10which you have to enter in order to
42:15gain access to the building and
42:18demonstrating essentially the
42:21versatility of the vertical grain in its
42:24in its ability to navigate the x y and z
42:28dimension because essentially it is a
42:29ruled surface broken down into a series
42:32of lines so the volumetric relationship
42:36with the surficial is bound in a kind of
42:39social contract where they have to come
42:41together the part-to-whole relationship
42:44ensures that continuity and essentially
42:48creates the the ability to connect the
42:53building as an entire idea with the
42:57building as a discrete set of tectonic
43:00grains coming into coordination with
43:04each other for those of you who
43:07appreciate plans like I do then you also
43:09probably appreciate the genealogies to
43:12which it refers on the one hand the
43:15difficulties that a sterling had in
43:20stuffing his buildings as it were in
43:22Berlin what I call taxidermy Cohn was
43:29much more resourceful and and clever in
43:34the way that the collisions of the
43:36confetti produce oblique almost medieval
43:39conditions of connection forcing one
43:43point and two point perspectives to play
43:45off of each other and I'm interested in
43:48that very much more than than the former
43:50but also in the confluence of forms in
43:54the way that Sharon or Hugo herring
43:56would play off in making sure that
43:59there's a sense of ambiguity between
44:01when the beginning of one thing is and
44:04when the end of the other is and so even
44:08though it's Restless representable there
44:10is something about the architecture of
44:13this liminal space in which we were
44:15invested as we were taking on this
44:18project the the foundation and the roof
44:22of this are neutral then they do not
44:25participate in
44:27in the game and are only there as
44:29platforms on which to stand or to
44:31amplify the seasons as the as the snow
44:35sits on them now sometimes the graining
44:42does not allow the kind of synthesis
44:45that a project like New Hampshire
44:48entails and you know one of the
44:53unfortunate things that happens to
44:54practices is that you lose a lot of
44:58competitions and we're on such a losing
45:01streak right now that I'm I'm getting
45:04used to it and so part of that the
45:07mourning process of these this loss is
45:10to just present it to you and then you
45:11can weigh in on it to say whether I
45:13should ever present it again or not but
45:16this competition of a few months ago is
45:20for the sole Cinematheque on a site next
45:25to a back alley like this of no civic
45:28importance a very tight site that
45:33involved the imperative of stacking
45:36three or four cinema spaces on top of
45:38each other with administration spaces
45:40and maybe an outdoor theater at the top
45:42with very limited views to the
45:45surrounding areas until you get up
45:47beyond a certain level where you have
45:49this amazing panoramas over the city and
45:51so this was one of those opportunities
45:54with a relatively low budget I should
45:56say that we had to imagine different
46:02organizations of theaters and experiment
46:07experimental spaces with a tight core
46:09with an understanding that we're going
46:12to invest well essentially in the wrong
46:14decision to navigate around the
46:17periphery of this thing in order to take
46:22stock of the majesty which is the
46:25skyline of Seoul and in in in in the
46:29process
46:30you're also discovering new programs on
46:32this promenade of this spiral and so
46:35there's no innocence here either
46:37much like the other
46:40figurative images I've shown you the
46:42kinds of references that came into mind
46:46were not only the uncoiled stacks of
46:50film before the digital era but the kind
46:53of double-helical circulatory systems
46:57and the way that that could be made
47:00legible on a on a script that is on the
47:06external surface of the building as it
47:09goes up the problem of course is that as
47:12you stack up all these theaters they
47:14can't align with each other because
47:16nothing is at the same slope and
47:17sometimes there's flat levels and
47:19sometimes there's this and that and so
47:21in working with what for us was the most
47:24economical means essentially corrugated
47:27extruded metal this became an
47:29opportunity to inflect that wrapping but
47:34always aligning it with one of those
47:38ramps one of those stairs one of those
47:40auditoria and then making it normal
47:44again in relationship to another level
47:46and so this reciprocity between the
47:51inside and the outside is another ethic
47:54that you will see in a lot of our work
47:57in other words there is no option but to
48:01confront this ethic of dealing with the
48:05architecture as an organic and holistic
48:07problem now luckily for us the building
48:11type is essentially a black box with
48:14moments of porosity or moments of
48:16perforation as you're going up and so
48:18many of the public spaces can be put
48:23sporadically here and there and so while
48:25much of the public elements are at the
48:27base the top entails some spaces like
48:30the library which has limited access for
48:35the public and produces the possibility
48:40for a prospect a smoking balcony an area
48:43for research that also engages in the
48:47very skyline that I've described in the
48:49previous projects
48:55but the idea that a building like this
48:59has two lives one in the day and one at
49:02night and that it has this possibility
49:05of becoming rekindled with another life
49:11as the dark sets in and it has the
49:16possibility of becoming a knight theatre
49:18with other movies that may happen was
49:21very much part of the kind of coiling
49:23and uncoiling of this skin that acquires
49:28a kind of depth as you begin to
49:30understand the organization of the
49:32building that projects itself out onto
49:35the organization of the city very much
49:38entrapped in a fabric at the same time
49:41trying to escape it and untether itself
49:44from the very context in which it's
49:46situated so it's no secret now that
49:54there are these two predicaments that
49:56architects have there is the architect
49:59on the Left who is very certain about
50:03the forms that he or she wants to
50:07produce and the bowl while being
50:10pristine and platonic and idealized in
50:13the way it is obviously has a molecular
50:16structure an aggregate structure that
50:19has been erased in in its description
50:22because of the smoothing out of the
50:24surface but the nest is really no
50:26different than what you see from the
50:28left but its aesthetic predisposition is
50:30to articulate the very means by which
50:32it's constructed in that sense the
50:35part-to-whole relationship is always in
50:36evidence and most of our work confronts
50:42what's on the right hand side and so
50:46when we were asked to do a pavilion for
50:50the Gwangju Biennale a permanent
50:53pavilion as a gateway to the old city we
50:57imagine this tensegrities structure that
51:01would span and cantilever in two
51:03directions which is a kind of magical
51:05thing and
51:06anybody who knows Snelson structures
51:08appreciates the way that the compressive
51:11members seem to float in space because
51:14you you the eye is trained not to see
51:17the tensile members and so this tectonic
51:20trope is one of those magical things
51:23that that we wanted to tap into and we
51:26did a nice thick set of working drawings
51:28we got it in a week early and they said
51:31they loved it they said we love it but
51:34do you mind if we replace all of your
51:36tensile members with compressive
51:38elements and we thought about it for a
51:42while and because it's a Korean way a
51:44polite Korean way of saying your project
51:47is dead we responded is it a problem for
51:52us to change the form of the project to
51:57make them all compressive if we get it
51:59into you within five days yes it is
52:01absolutely fine so what we did then is
52:04we did exactly the opposite of
52:05everything I've shown you to this point
52:08we said okay we'll design a figure and a
52:12formwork for that figure and we'll
52:14design the densities of this tectonic
52:16reign but they won't actually have to
52:18follow any working drawings or no stick
52:21or no no no steel rod has to go in any
52:24particular way and I'll explain that to
52:26you in a second the overall figure is
52:28this oval it has to navigate around to
52:31existing trees and infrastructure
52:33underneath we add in an oculus in the
52:35middle there just to lighten the load
52:37and make less material the rods that you
52:40see in space were donated to the project
52:43by the owner of the lock-and-key Museum
52:46there who who owns a steel factory and
52:49he's an amazing person a friend a common
52:53friend of Jude's and myself
52:54Halim sue who made this project happen
52:59and effectively donated all of these
53:03door handles to the project the only
53:06rule that we gave them was to follow the
53:08formwork that you see on the right and
53:11produced through a program the densities
53:15that would work right to create ample
53:17compressive strength on the columns
53:19triangulation of course for lateral
53:22stability a spreading of the units in
53:25the capital and of course a lightening
53:27of the trust above so that essentially
53:31it spans but it spans in the most
53:34optimal way so this the this kind of
53:40messy nest this maze that you see in
53:46this project is really the result of a
53:49the design of a set of constraints that
53:55have absolutely nothing to do with the
53:58kinds of specifications that you and I
54:00are used to making in the in the
54:05designation of materials and matter on
54:08the XY and z axis it is no secret that
54:17we have been doing these kinds of
54:20material explorations over the years but
54:24the venture led chair became a turning
54:27point for my former partner monica ponce
54:30de leon they're still the cascading
54:32plywood out there in my case the they I
54:38forget the name the change of state
54:40installation that is depicted here was a
54:45critical moment and a shift of my
54:48emphasis from architecture to
54:51engineering
54:51I say that with humor because it's the
54:54one exam I still haven't passed but that
54:58these installations became a kind of
55:01architectural amuse-bouche that would
55:03connect what we do as research in
55:06schools with what we do out there in the
55:08world as I look at these structures I've
55:11always been fascinated by others works
55:14seiza
55:15in his exposed structure what is
55:19seemingly suspended like a sheet of
55:22fabric is in fact concrete in suspension
55:25a kind of magical structure clearly we
55:28are indebted to not only
55:33this as an artifact but it's it's it's
55:36tectonic suspense we're also interested
55:40in those moments of opportunism where
55:43the idea of a maximum moment is then
55:46inhabited with a typology for which it
55:48was not conceived in Kahn's case the
55:51spanning of of the Grand Canal in Venice
55:55becomes the opportunity of an
55:57amphitheater space that inhabits that
55:59belly of the maximum moment it is no
56:03secret that the optimization of arches
56:07in Barcelona come from their inversion
56:11the suspended catenary chains that
56:14produce you know the possibility of form
56:18finding and that by people like axel
56:22Killian have become the means by which
56:25we may yet again invert that tectonics
56:28by opposing a completely different
56:31question instead of suspending structure
56:33as they naturally would in this case for
56:36an installation made out of paper clips
56:39we asked ourselves what would it mean to
56:42make a compressive catenary those of you
56:47who recognize this structure will be
56:50fascinated by what seems to be a
56:52normative vault is actually this the
56:55archway in the crypt of the escorial
56:58outside of Madrid here the key stone
57:02that would be in the center of the
57:03oculus is not the only keystone moment
57:07in fact because that's a flat floor slab
57:10it does not vault in the way that you
57:13would optimize the shape of a vault and
57:15so that every stone is being key stoned
57:19at an angle all the way down as it goes
57:22down so there's a keystone here in every
57:25stone after that is angle to such a
57:27degree that it is able to withstand the
57:32forces of its inevitable failure so we
57:38wanted to develop a suspended structure
57:41on which you can stand we have of course
57:44played around with the idea
57:47the reality of structure and the
57:49fictions it produces here as an
57:53extension of our fascination with
57:55endgrain plywood we produced this chest
57:59of drawers that essentially house
58:03anywhere from pants to sweaters to
58:06jewelry at the top but wanted to create
58:09a structure an architectural structure
58:11if you like that has the kind of
58:14composure of the weight of a Palazzo
58:17embedding the structure within the seams
58:19of the drawer so that it's invisible but
58:22most scandalously
58:25produces the possibility of these kind
58:28of edge conditions of cantilever where
58:30you don't even know how this entire
58:32thing is is is brought bare to structure
58:35and so these kinds of moments of magic
58:38that are embedded in tectonics also has
58:42to do with a recognition that techno mix
58:45is not about the revelation of truth but
58:49that you know there's always a fiction
58:51in tectonics because it has to do with
58:53your your ability to deceive and to
58:57construct perception as much as it is to
58:59convey the way that it operates and so
59:02for this structure the the development
59:07of puzzle pieces
59:08essentially that produced the keystoning
59:11moments becomes a systemic way by which
59:14we embed all of these self similar units
59:17that then get locked into chorion pieces
59:22these are high-density foam pieces that
59:24you can stand on with corian pieces that
59:27connect to the i-beams on the roof and
59:29essentially instead of the keystone you
59:32get the void of the oculus where there
59:34is no structure and the compound
59:36curvature of the vault on the outside
59:40because that's a CNC router Bowl whereas
59:42the inside is all faceted because it has
59:44to be cut on a flatbed all of these
59:50experiments are linked somehow together
59:53they are linked to each other and by the
59:55way they're linked to the exhibition
59:56upstairs first with the
59:59on the left then with the Melbourne
1:00:02School of Design in the middle and then
1:00:03finally in a different way connected to
1:00:06the Daniel's building on the right and
1:00:08I'll try to go relatively fast on these
1:00:10because they really have to do with the
1:00:13key structural systems here the hammock
1:00:16I believe is what you call it is the key
1:00:18moment a kind of repurposing of the
1:00:21gantry crane was a critical way in which
1:00:26that came together in the Melbourne
1:00:29School of Design the idea was really to
1:00:33create a design a dedicated design
1:00:36studio space for a building that never
1:00:39had none or a program that never had on
1:00:41in the early phases it became clear that
1:00:44they couldn't afford a studio space so
1:00:47we carved in the studio space out of out
1:00:52of the circulatory zone of corridors
1:00:55around the atrium by simply diminishing
1:00:59the size of the atrium and expanding the
1:01:01balconies by an extra five feet making
1:01:04nine 10-foot spaces of circulation that
1:01:07Rob's spaces to their left and right by
1:01:10making a vertical studio within that the
1:01:14roof system that you just saw has a
1:01:17suspended studio for the visiting
1:01:21critics only they get a dedicated studio
1:01:23space and much like the Georgia project
1:01:28becomes the means by which this element
1:01:32is produced now this is of course in
1:01:35dialogue with a large history of other
1:01:38artifacts in which I am so invested in
1:01:41the Tempietto this idea of this
1:01:45monumental temple miniaturized as a
1:01:49model of st. Peter's locked into this
1:01:52courtyard incarcerated almost and
1:01:56miniaturized is is almost a folly and
1:01:59yet you can see the figure-ground
1:02:01relationship between that as an artifact
1:02:03and the fabric around it in commes case
1:02:06in New Haven you can see the way in
1:02:08which a relatively normative fire stair
1:02:13is glad over by concrete concealing its
1:02:20scale and monumental izing it as this
1:02:23anonymous monumental and silent totem
1:02:32and of course in what I think of as
1:02:35Frank Gehry's maybe best building is the
1:02:39the zoomorphic figure of the of the the
1:02:43monster inside what is gary's maybe most
1:02:48minimal and silent building on the
1:02:50outside the fabric of which is
1:02:52extraordinary what we wanted to do was
1:02:56extend this tradition but break it with
1:02:58one key element how do you conjoin the
1:03:03fabric and the icon in one single move
1:03:05and we wanted somehow to develop a
1:03:09structural system of laminated timber
1:03:15members that span 22 metres with coffers
1:03:20that are rotated to allow for natural
1:03:22light but not no direct sunlight to go
1:03:25in there and then invert the kind of
1:03:28traditional tectonics by putting the
1:03:30weight of structure above and as this
1:03:33thing suspends down the wood becomes
1:03:37thinner and thinner until it becomes
1:03:39blade like and plywood like at the very
1:03:42bottom to produce coffers for an
1:03:44acoustic acoustic space underneath it so
1:03:47it's a kind of inverted rust acacia
1:03:50using the depth of inhabitable structure
1:03:53at the top with the kind of levity of
1:03:56what lies underneath it to maintain the
1:04:00flexibility of the floor space much like
1:04:02you have here for exhibitions for
1:04:05lectures for bows arts balls and and the
1:04:08rest of it and the kind of torque that
1:04:13is given to the figure of this is also
1:04:15has to do with the idea that not only
1:04:17you need access to it it needs to lean
1:04:19to one side too to be tangent with the
1:04:22balconies but also gain its lateral
1:04:24stability from that very
1:04:25connection but the tectonics at work are
1:04:31also something extraordinary that means
1:04:33you're going from massive timber pieces
1:04:35above to plywood on the other side and
1:04:39so you can even feel the entices of
1:04:43weight at the top as you occupy some of
1:04:45the studio basis and you'll peer into
1:04:47the studio spaces and the skylight and
1:04:50see the veneers of wood as they come
1:04:53down and they extend to the bottom and
1:04:56then as you get to the bottom you
1:04:57realize that that entire surface becomes
1:04:59perforated not only for acoustic reasons
1:05:02but to gain some porosity to inside
1:05:05spaces and then become as thin as a
1:05:09flake at the bottom where the acoustic
1:05:12baffles are then organized in
1:05:15relationship to sprinkler systems
1:05:17lighting systems and and the like so as
1:05:22we migrated them from Melbourne to
1:05:27Spadina circle in Toronto we were
1:05:30confronted with this incredible building
1:05:34a neo-gothic structure on the south side
1:05:39of Spadina circle Knox College to try to
1:05:47urbanize it but with all of its sell
1:05:50yourself spaces inside of it extended by
1:05:52a large and monumental and dedicated
1:05:55studio space in the north and make a
1:05:57program that's dedicated to architecture
1:05:59urbanism and landscape literally speak
1:06:02to those three disciplines by extending
1:06:05the architecture of it all the way
1:06:07outside and opening up the pores and the
1:06:10slits of the building to the very edges
1:06:12of the building so that the promenade
1:06:14around it makes for a safe space for
1:06:16crossing to the other sides this
1:06:19building is just being completed right
1:06:22now with the last touches though a very
1:06:27standard and compact box it looks like
1:06:33just a monolith that's been attached to
1:06:35it conceptually the building is very
1:06:37much a landscape
1:06:38as you see on the north side the ground
1:06:42of Spadina north coming into the
1:06:44basement of the Fablab how the southern
1:06:47side goes to a southern deck and you
1:06:49know gains access to a cafe space on
1:06:53that side and then most importantly the
1:06:55delamination of the studio on the top of
1:06:57the building to bring natural light into
1:06:59the auditorium and the delamination of
1:07:01of the skylights of the roof the topic
1:07:04for this lecture becomes the means by
1:07:07which structure day lighting and
1:07:10hydrology come into a kind of critical
1:07:12synthesis and that is for this space
1:07:16which is the only space that is a long
1:07:19span structure the rest of the building
1:07:20is a standard concrete structure
1:07:23off-the-shelf relatively rough but with
1:07:26this idea of this vast surface active
1:07:30structural system that spans a hundred
1:07:33and ten feet to maintain the kind of
1:07:35flexibility of a studio space on top
1:07:38producing a prospect for Spadina circle
1:07:41the problem was as is usual and
1:07:44normative that the contractor said you
1:07:48don't know how to build a building this
1:07:50is 1 million dollars over and it's
1:07:52unbuildable so we were confronted with
1:07:56building a model and sending it to them
1:07:59to make make sure they understand it so
1:08:01that they know that it's buildable and
1:08:04they said thank you very much we know
1:08:07that you know how to build a model but
1:08:09this is not a building so then on one of
1:08:12my trips to Melbourne I called the
1:08:16office and we have a kind of Fab Lab
1:08:20component within our office and much
1:08:22like the staff that came and made this
1:08:24exhibition possible we built this
1:08:28structure in one week and really for you
1:08:30it's not any magic the only difference
1:08:33is this is that instead of doing it in
1:08:35concrete we said what happens if we
1:08:37change the structure from concrete to
1:08:40steel and make it more economical by
1:08:43demonstrating to them that under the
1:08:45steel we can create a series of light
1:08:47gauge steel structures that are
1:08:48basically ribs
1:08:50and have chipboard on them and showed
1:08:53that it's a developable surface it's a
1:08:55ruled surface later we also realized
1:08:57that there is a product out there that
1:08:59can make a radiant panel for that for a
1:09:01plaster and so in fact you can get your
1:09:04heating from the concrete at the base
1:09:06but you're cooling above your sandwich
1:09:09between different seasons there and that
1:09:11saved us eight hundred thousand dollars
1:09:14to get us to this point which admittedly
1:09:17is a transition from the concrete system
1:09:20of construction to the steel as you go
1:09:23up to this space the plastering which is
1:09:27a pretty typical process of plastering
1:09:30to bring you to this space that is now
1:09:36occupied in a much more spectacular way
1:09:40than than this image would would betray
1:09:43because in fact as pure as the roof is
1:09:46as cluttered and and messy the ground is
1:09:49the the better it looks this idea of the
1:09:59ruled surface of course has taken on
1:10:02different grains within other projects
1:10:04and this project also on the cusp of
1:10:08being complete is one of those small
1:10:11projects that invariably ends up being
1:10:13one's favorite project so I wanted to
1:10:16end with these two house projects just
1:10:18to show the connections also between
1:10:20some of the larger ideas and their
1:10:23smaller instantiations but I am very
1:10:27much invested in the dumbness of certain
1:10:31type ologies like the courtyard and as
1:10:34they come to confront a topographic
1:10:37condition like a hill how they are able
1:10:39to navigate it by doing things that
1:10:43sexually connect them together in this
1:10:44case the swimming pool is in that space
1:10:46with all of the public programs on top
1:10:49and the bedrooms below it and the pool
1:10:52becoming the the mechanism to conjoin
1:10:54them but it's a demonstration of the
1:10:56mutability of type and its flexibility
1:10:59and the way in which the the view
1:11:02towards the
1:11:03may yield other views towards the West
1:11:06where the trees are and there are the
1:11:08shaders and how all of a sudden by this
1:11:11slippage in section the corners become
1:11:14implicated because that's where the
1:11:15stairs would go and these stairs are no
1:11:17longer just for circulation but they
1:11:20become the main structure of the
1:11:23building because the landscape is not
1:11:26around the building the landscape is
1:11:28embedded in the building inserted into
1:11:31the building and part of its promenade
1:11:34as it goes up through the inner
1:11:36courtyard and outside into the living
1:11:40room and back up into the hills so what
1:11:43seems to be a front facade is actually a
1:11:45beam and as you go inside the house and
1:11:48appreciate the kind of panorama of this
1:11:52almost case study house you come to
1:11:55terms of the idea that the span of this
1:11:59vaults is not actually the short span
1:12:02much like the Kimball it's the long span
1:12:05so as we excavate the view on the
1:12:09western side you come to realize that
1:12:12the concrete roof much like the Canadian
1:12:17project is the means by which we develop
1:12:22a kind of incremental larger or
1:12:24colonnade in relationship to the pool
1:12:26but a monumental relationship to the
1:12:29penis Pinay which are to the right hand
1:12:32side opening up more discrete views and
1:12:35appreciating the kind of majesty of the
1:12:38of the canopies that lie just west of
1:12:42those rooms but also understand the ways
1:12:44in which the building is implicated in
1:12:49its structural grain the it's not just
1:12:51the stair it's also the swimming-pool
1:12:53wall that you see here that penetrates
1:12:56the master wing to support the
1:13:00cantilever that is extended beyond there
1:13:03that wall of the swimming pool is the
1:13:06wall of the bedroom that divides the
1:13:08office space from from from the sleeping
1:13:11area and becomes the the basis for
1:13:16it's architecture it's also there's a
1:13:19grand difference of course in working
1:13:20with aggregate material like shingles
1:13:23and slats of wood and so forth and
1:13:25concrete and the concrete is a liquid
1:13:27medium and its expression being either
1:13:29the result of formwork or or post
1:13:32construction manipulation and we've
1:13:35always appreciated the kind of surplus
1:13:40of expression that is the result of
1:13:41fabric formwork and we asked ourselves
1:13:43what are the modalities of tectonics we
1:13:46can work with to to expose the tectonic
1:13:52grain if it were in the formwork
1:13:55well then we could CNC router a whole
1:13:58range of effects that would bring in the
1:14:00rustic ation of the stone of the French
1:14:03landscape right into the interior of the
1:14:05building and and it's not that I don't
1:14:07like this but it's there's something not
1:14:10yet satisfying about it because it's
1:14:12purely representational so we said okay
1:14:15well if we think about a different
1:14:16modality and how do we bring in the
1:14:20aggregate nature of that material and
1:14:22make it smooth like a silky wall for
1:14:26paintings but also the stone of the
1:14:28landscape at the same time what if we
1:14:30penalize the pores and embed the
1:14:34aggregate in it as part of it such that
1:14:36the walls on the interior are actually
1:14:38smooth but then in different pores begin
1:14:42to embed in flat casts on the ground
1:14:46different aggregates such that the
1:14:49figure-ground relationship between
1:14:50stones and concrete become inverted by
1:14:54the time you actually have the stone
1:14:56walls that extend up and become to
1:14:58define the property at its edges this is
1:15:05a few months ago and you're beginning to
1:15:08see on the smooth side that the natural
1:15:11grain of the wood that is participant in
1:15:13giving voice to the smooth tectonics I
1:15:17want to end quickly with this project
1:15:20that we're strategizing right now we've
1:15:23just built the artist studio and now the
1:15:24main structure of this house
1:15:29this predicament of grain actually but
1:15:31it's it's a kind of environmental grain
1:15:34the view is on the west and so they want
1:15:38the length of the house pointing West
1:15:40but the Sun is on the south and where
1:15:43you get your best energy and so that
1:15:46they wanted essentially a deep plan
1:15:51almost like a shotgun and and we've
1:15:55developed a an approach to the shotgun
1:15:58that in involves a kind of maybe I have
1:16:03to click again yes it involves a a kind
1:16:07of transformation of that plan into a
1:16:10seamless diagonal such that the public
1:16:15spaces on the voided side are then
1:16:20compensated for for the bedroom in the
1:16:22family room and the bathrooms on the
1:16:24opposing side while the roof is actually
1:16:27going in the opposing direction so now
1:16:30you have a cross screen a kind of X that
1:16:33crosses out the house as it goes in two
1:16:37directions the plan is going in one
1:16:39direction the roof is going in the other
1:16:41direction and as a building it produces
1:16:51a kind of structured proscenium by which
1:16:56the continuity of an open glass house if
1:17:00you like is has the service spaces that
1:17:05Philip Johnson's never had so the living
1:17:09room is on the south with the chimney
1:17:11the kitchen next the dining of course is
1:17:17right next to it the entry is next at
1:17:21the center of the house it's it's carved
1:17:23into the main entry and you go down and
1:17:28then you pass into the library the
1:17:30second bedroom and finally at the end of
1:17:33the space is the bedroom and it says
1:17:35essentially it's an open loft meanwhile
1:17:37notice that on the left-hand side on the
1:17:41west and on the south the
1:17:43amazing goes to the top at around 14
1:17:45feet and the roof is raking down in the
1:17:49opposing direction producing a kind of
1:17:52perspectival condition that produces
1:17:57this conical house a kind of forced
1:18:00perspective but cross-eyed somehow going
1:18:03in two directions
1:18:12so as you come back out from this
1:18:18interior you come to realize that also
1:18:21as part of this they want hybrid spaces
1:18:24outdoor spaces so the mirroring of that
1:18:28living room to the outdoors not only
1:18:31produces some shelter for the cars in
1:18:33the snow but also a porch that then is
1:18:37shaded on the right-hand side but a deck
1:18:40that's exposed to the west on the
1:18:42left-hand side and all of the supports a
1:18:47more basic idea about the roof being a
1:18:51huge collector of of all of the rains
1:18:56and the snows the water of which is then
1:19:00brought into the cistern on the north
1:19:03edge at the opposing end and collected
1:19:08for for the consumption of the house
1:19:10this is in northwestern Connecticut and
1:19:14is a very basic commitment to an idea
1:19:18about a an elemental structure which is
1:19:21no more than 1,200 square feet on the
1:19:27interior and so the idea is that we will
1:19:31also build the structure the framing
1:19:33after the concrete is done our office
1:19:35will build a structure and and completed
1:19:38at a very low budget I end with these
1:19:44ruminations about the tectonic grain and
1:19:49my unfortunately late discovery about
1:19:52why the Roman streets are fabricated
1:19:55there the way that they were you're
1:19:59certainly not vaulting anything on the
1:20:00ground so why make arches on the ground
1:20:02but I realize that somehow as you set
1:20:04your two knees down on the ground and
1:20:06begin to lay down the stone there's a
1:20:09kind of reach of a single person that
1:20:12then gets displaced in the multiple
1:20:14rainbows that it produces and our
1:20:17commitment and entrapment by the human
1:20:20body and its relationship to
1:20:23construction goes
1:20:24you know some hundreds sometimes
1:20:27thousands of years even to the the kind
1:20:30of ways in which we have produced the
1:20:34creative efforts of tagging subway cars
1:20:36and things like that
1:20:37but we're going through an interesting
1:20:39moment right now because of 3d printing
1:20:42and a range of other digital protocols
1:20:45that not only overcome the traditional
1:20:50seams of tolerances and construction
1:20:54joints but possibly the agencies of what
1:20:57happens in laminar construction that we
1:20:59take so much for granted what happens if
1:21:02we're able to print out different
1:21:05constituent elements within the walls
1:21:07such that the insulation the vapor
1:21:09barrier that the cladding becomes more
1:21:12synthetic and that would suggest a
1:21:15completely different kind of lecture and
1:21:19maybe it would reestablish a completely
1:21:23different discussion about this
1:21:27predicament that I've had with the grain
1:21:29for for 20 years that goes back to this
1:21:33Greek structure it's always a kind of
1:21:37amazing when you realize sometimes late
1:21:40in one's education that the triglyphs of
1:21:44the temple are a petrification of the
1:21:49wood members that logically embed
1:21:52themselves encrypted in the face of the
1:21:56building and this has something to do
1:21:58with our own ethical commitment of
1:22:01giving that reciprocity between the
1:22:04interstices of the building and its
1:22:07expression but that turning of the
1:22:11corner produces a kind of astonishing
1:22:14moment where you don't know where you're
1:22:17being duped or whether you've
1:22:18misunderstood that ethic all to begin
1:22:21with because as it turns a corner not
1:22:24only do you realize that you've been
1:22:25deceived because those triglyphs are no
1:22:27longer the embodiment of that structure
1:22:29but in fact it's a moment where you
1:22:32realize that the structure of the
1:22:34building is in the server in the service
1:22:36of its surface
1:22:38and the tectonics and the tectonic grain
1:22:40has to do with this delicate balancing
1:22:43act between realities and fictions all
1:22:46of which is is mutable and comes to
1:22:50terms with this difficult moment where
1:22:52you turn the corner thank you very much
1:22:55[Applause]
1:23:04yeah thanks a lot for uh for coming
1:23:07I've seen you lecture a few times and I
1:23:09really appreciate it
1:23:11glad that the microphone took a little
1:23:13while to get down because I had to roll
1:23:15my tongue back into my mouth my mouth
1:23:16but I it's the first time that I've seen
1:23:21you be so referential to plans into
1:23:25architecture as a discipline of images
1:23:31and like history and and I'm just I'm
1:23:35thinking about your place right now and
1:23:39at Cooper and what's happening right now
1:23:43in architecture with sort of objects for
1:23:45their own object nests and how they
1:23:49reference other objects I wonder it
1:23:54seems like that stuff's always been
1:23:55there I've seen projects now today that
1:23:58are old older projects that you're able
1:24:00to weave in plans of old con and things
1:24:04like that but you haven't talked about
1:24:05it you haven't exploited that to us and
1:24:08I'm just wondering if it is it is it
1:24:11that it's okay now that it's okay for us
1:24:16to be referential or is it oh is it just
1:24:19this place where you know you're in in
1:24:23the in hadix old in the building where
1:24:27you're confronted with a nine square
1:24:29every time you walk into it there's a
1:24:31loaded question and I'm prone to be
1:24:36brutal in my response but essentially I
1:24:40was educated at a moment in time where
1:24:45our generation rejected the overt nosov
1:24:48post-modernism precisely because of its
1:24:51referentiality not because the
1:24:54references were bad but because that the
1:24:56the references became an alibi as if to
1:25:01suggest that they were the crutch and
1:25:03without which you couldn't get the kind
1:25:06of authority of history to endorse your
1:25:09building and yet your building was
1:25:11absolute and so
1:25:14where I came out of that generation was
1:25:20a generation of students that were
1:25:25trying to extend the project of
1:25:28modernity and that's that moment that
1:25:31you saw REM koolhaas surge as the kind
1:25:35of hero of that generation the what I
1:25:40find incredibly astounding by REM was
1:25:44the way in which he appropriated
1:25:47absorbed and inflected those very same
1:25:52histories but then brushed them under
1:25:54the carpet hiding his own footsteps so
1:25:58but I actually don't I had no problem
1:26:00with that I just found him incredibly
1:26:02erudite
1:26:03and opportunistic because I felt that
1:26:07he's an incredibly intelligent and and
1:26:13scholarly architect he understands the
1:26:16depth of what not only modernism but
1:26:18classes and classicism offered him but
1:26:21he also understood better than I did
1:26:23that in order to be a great architect
1:26:28you have to demonstrate that you're also
1:26:29a magician you can't reveal your secrets
1:26:33in in my case I feel and I've always
1:26:38felt this and I'm surprised that you've
1:26:40never heard me speak about these things
1:26:41because my main paranoia today in
1:26:44lecturing at all is that I know that
1:26:47everything's recorded and if you go to
1:26:50YouTube you've heard the same jokes and
1:26:52the same things that it makes one look
1:26:54bad as when you when you present these
1:26:56things again but I felt that it is
1:26:58important to expose the anachronism of
1:27:04the active architecture insofar as you
1:27:07think that it's important to have a
1:27:09dialogue not only with history but with
1:27:12the future so it just so happens that
1:27:15these buildings are happening in a
1:27:18certain span in time but if you notice I
1:27:20did not present chronologically there
1:27:22are things that are we're done yesterday
1:27:25and then there's things that were done
1:27:2620 years ago and then there were
1:27:28that were done 10 years ago but there is
1:27:30a cloud of preoccupations some of them
1:27:35hold together as a theme in which we are
1:27:38invested but some of them are clearly
1:27:41obsessions that others have collected
1:27:45together so what I like about the
1:27:47turning of the corner is that we can go
1:27:50from the Parthenon hop scotch from there
1:27:53to the Renaissance from Bramante to
1:27:55Palladio we can jump again and go to
1:28:00Mies and also in very different ways and
1:28:03then jump again to hair talk in the
1:28:07Marron and REM I know the fundamental
1:28:10differences between them and I think
1:28:11it's important to to recognize not
1:28:17references as people but references as
1:28:20debates and problematics so in that
1:28:23sense I want to be clear that there is
1:28:27no apology about the references if
1:28:30anything I find my repertoire too narrow
1:28:33and and you know you're looking
1:28:35constantly to ask a question in a way
1:28:38that you have an asset before because
1:28:40it'll lead you either to other
1:28:41references or that you have to look in
1:28:43another way look at other things in
1:28:45order to be able to ask a different
1:28:47question but your question is also more
1:28:52poignant now because while I was not
1:28:58paying attention all of a sudden
1:28:59somewhere between Michigan and UCLA and
1:29:02Harvard everybody has this renewed
1:29:05preoccupation with post-modernism the
1:29:08the role of the icon and referentiality
1:29:11and I'm not embedded in that I'm kind of
1:29:15the dinosaur of that discussion but I
1:29:17have tried to have a couple of
1:29:19conversations them and I haven't
1:29:20understood what they're saying yet so I
1:29:23feel I don't know I I feel I'm going to
1:29:28let you down by not being able to
1:29:30demonstrate that conversation that I'm
1:29:34literally having with them because I
1:29:36haven't started that yet they are having
1:29:38their own conversation but I have
1:29:40entered into their conversation yeah but
1:29:42I found I have read a few things which I
1:29:45found incredibly innocent about that so
1:29:49and I don't feel I have a position on
1:29:52what they're doing yet but I I would be
1:29:53eager to do that but I guess my message
1:29:57to do to you is more that I do not I
1:30:01seek the references for conversation and
1:30:05dialogue which is an imperative to
1:30:09identify your audience and my audience
1:30:12in many cases is not you but it's that
1:30:16architect that desta that did that
1:30:19building or you know that building that
1:30:22produced that corner condition because
1:30:24those are the moments that are exciting
1:30:26and through that we enter into that
1:30:28conversation together but certainly not
1:30:32as a mechanism for legitimation because
1:30:35as you know the legitimation has gained
1:30:38in many different ways legitimation is
1:30:40gained through popular aggrandizement
1:30:45legitimation is also gained through
1:30:49posthumous discoveries and legitimation
1:30:53is also made through charisma sometimes
1:30:57and and so I I'm very much focused in in
1:31:02graining this discussion in a
1:31:04disciplinary thing that's slower more
1:31:07obscure to to most people out there and
1:31:10then find ways in which the agency of
1:31:12architecture becomes relevant to culture
1:31:14at large yes
1:31:56well for one there's a huge shift in our
1:32:02work that happens as a result of just
1:32:06the education of practice that brings to
1:32:11the foreground the the relative
1:32:14impossibility of doing any good
1:32:16buildings because when you're in school
1:32:20and when you're at your desk and when
1:32:22you're making a model you come out with
1:32:25a kind of certainty of what you think
1:32:28good design is but you don't realize all
1:32:31of the things that will ruin that design
1:32:33so one of the discoveries that I made
1:32:36relatively early on was that the most
1:32:40important thing about architecture of
1:32:42the late 20th and early 21st century is
1:32:45the reflected ceiling plan that's all it
1:32:48is
1:32:49that's your facade because everything
1:32:51that will screw you is up there this is
1:32:54easy you know like that route that fire
1:32:57thing is relatively easy in comparison
1:32:59to all of the stuff that goes on up
1:33:01there so it's at that point that I
1:33:04realized that if you solve that problem
1:33:06the rest will kind of fall in place then
1:33:09the next lesson I learned in practice
1:33:13was that you can be a great designer and
1:33:17you can do great things but you can't
1:33:20get around the problem of pricing
1:33:24because the quantification of the
1:33:27building is done by a builder and only
1:33:30the Builder can legally determine the
1:33:33means and methods of what you draw and
1:33:34so we did two things
1:33:37one we got involved in the the kind of
1:33:44trench warfare of construction some of
1:33:47it through actual construction in the
1:33:49the the hooker denver mantra was our
1:33:51first one a project that was priced at I
1:33:56don't remember one hundred and eighty
1:33:57thousand dollars we built it for thirty
1:33:59why because the the the contractor knew
1:34:04he could flex his muscles and through
1:34:07through a kind of bullying tactic
1:34:10realized he would win until he realized
1:34:13that that part of the scope of work was
1:34:15taken from him and and given to us we
1:34:19had to assume the responsibilities etc
1:34:21etc etc but understanding the ownership
1:34:24of means and methods was a critical one
1:34:26and the way in which that prepared us to
1:34:30behave differently as designers by
1:34:33treating schematic design as a quantity
1:34:37surveying process and as a kind of
1:34:39tactical warfare as the kind of rear and
1:34:43entry into Siddhi phase was a critical
1:34:46second thing the third thing was and
1:34:51related to both of these was what is the
1:34:55percentage of buildings that goes into
1:34:57engineering you know by the time you've
1:35:00done the structure and the mechanical
1:35:02systems you know you've lost you know
1:35:04over 50% of your budget and so if you
1:35:07design the wrong structure or the wrong
1:35:11environmental systems you've lost your
1:35:15mojo already and so and those were
1:35:20actually all of the classes that I cut
1:35:23and those are all of the classes that I
1:35:26have not passed to this day but became
1:35:29the the means by which my scholarship at
1:35:33least expanded in the last 15 years and
1:35:36so from those projects from Bank
1:35:39restaurant to some of the other kind of
1:35:41interiors that you see they seem like
1:35:43projects of surface and decoration but
1:35:46they're actually the
1:35:48the kind of recalibration of where is
1:35:50the the money in relationship to these
1:35:52indispensable pieces but it's also quite
1:35:54it's an issue of perception
1:35:56if you tell a client that look this is
1:35:59all structure and mechanical that's all
1:36:01it is and and so you've lodged the
1:36:05architectural idea in the structure and
1:36:07the mechanical system and then all of a
1:36:09sudden you've so and the fourth part is
1:36:12coming full circle is that imagine that
1:36:17everything I've said in my answer to you
1:36:18is a lie but it's a good story right so
1:36:22it's also about the control of the
1:36:23narrative that what we learned in school
1:36:28and the way that we learn to tell a
1:36:30story as we're giving a presentation
1:36:32remains as powerful when you want to
1:36:36tell a lie to a city an academic group
1:36:41or or a contractor because part of the
1:36:45poker game that is being played in the
1:36:48Daniels building with the impossibility
1:36:50of building an arch building the vault
1:36:53is about bully tactics somebody says I
1:36:57you can't build this and you say no I
1:36:58can build this it's it's really the the
1:37:03kind of playground bullying that happens
1:37:06constantly but at a professional level
1:37:08and so your ability to not only tell a
1:37:12story but to tell it with the kind of
1:37:15rhetorical persuasion that is necessary
1:37:17that is backed up by fact is is an
1:37:22important one because when you get
1:37:26undressed there better be some substance
1:37:28behind that because you will get
1:37:31undressed when it's too expensive or
1:37:33when it doesn't work so I think there's
1:37:36something very interesting about exiting
1:37:39from architecture not because you're
1:37:41leaving architecture but you're entering
1:37:44into the fields of engineering and
1:37:48environmental sustainability at large
1:37:50because they also will they will make
1:37:53you interested in different icons and
1:37:56different surfaces as a result of that
1:37:57and
1:37:59you know if you read the news and and
1:38:02recognize that what was predicted to be
1:38:06a kind of environmental disaster by 2100
1:38:11is now all of a sudden 2030 you begin to
1:38:15come to reckon with well what is it that
1:38:17we're doing when construction is one of
1:38:19the main causes of you know the carbon
1:38:23the global carbon footprint you say ok
1:38:25it's it's not my building that's going
1:38:27to save the world but it's all of the
1:38:29policies that that surround urbanization
1:38:34sub urbanization and the construction
1:38:37footprint at large and so that will
1:38:40tangent to make you behave differently
1:38:43altogether and you don't confuse that
1:38:45with you know the rhetoric of turning of
1:38:48a corner you you understand that there's
1:38:50a relative relationship between them but
1:38:51I think that these things change the way
1:38:57that you speak and I guess the last
1:39:00point I would say only is that if all of
1:39:04our discourses and narratives seem
1:39:07fictional there is that moment where if
1:39:11we as architects want to want a seat at
1:39:15the table of policy then it is important
1:39:19to demonstrate the agency of formal
1:39:22operations spatial operations and
1:39:24material operations in their in their
1:39:27forming of the world around us and
1:39:29therefore indispensable for the policies
1:39:32that we make and I think that well few
1:39:36architects are able to do that and I'm
1:39:40not certainly one of those but I would
1:39:42want to be that person in 10 to 20 years
1:39:46if I live that long to be able to
1:39:48educate myself around what connects and
1:39:52tethers those little things that we do
1:39:54in relationship to a kind of larger
1:39:56theme so I want to ask you to tell us a
1:40:01story I guess to go back to this you
1:40:04mentioned kind of how these digital
1:40:08technologies are changing how we
1:40:10construct things and there's a big
1:40:13here about the kind of atomizing apart
1:40:16creating kits of parts that are
1:40:17assembled by various things where at
1:40:20that point do we look for the grain
1:40:22where do we look for that that the trace
1:40:24of the the kind of architect and the
1:40:26plan inside of those methods as they
1:40:30kind of really rewrite the rules of how
1:40:32things go together well you know they in
1:40:38the world of mass production I guess you
1:40:42and I inherited the four by eight sheets
1:40:45to to make it simple but we inherited
1:40:48other things to the common brick the
1:40:51roman break you name it there are other
1:40:54panelized sizes and so I guess one of
1:41:00the things that produce the grain of the
1:41:0220th century was the idea that some of
1:41:06us as architects produce building single
1:41:09buildings and they're extraordinary
1:41:12icons and and and institutions because
1:41:17they're able to demonstrate the
1:41:19intelligence and the mutability
1:41:21of building types but others of us also
1:41:26invented kits of parts and behaviors of
1:41:29those kids of parts so that the
1:41:32intelligence of those systems is able to
1:41:36be appropriated by him and her and him
1:41:39and her and and I think that there has
1:41:44been a shift I mean there have been
1:41:46let's say there's been swells in the
1:41:4920th century of that discussion between
1:41:51architecture and prefabrication as part
1:41:54of that but there's you know a renewed
1:41:59discussion that emerged 20 years ago
1:42:01about mass customization and about how
1:42:06that becomes a different set of
1:42:12opportunities but I guess it was the
1:42:15work of you know the people like Skylar
1:42:19Tibbits and you know David Benjamin and
1:42:22Neri Oxman those folks in which I'm not
1:42:25that involved
1:42:26it was interesting to come to terms with
1:42:29the idea that if you can actually begin
1:42:34to operate more of the molecular scale
1:42:36the scale at which we are never asked to
1:42:38to operate and and begin to rethink
1:42:42tectonics in biological terms or through
1:42:46the lenses of different disciplines
1:42:48altogether what would it mean to rethink
1:42:52the depth of a wall and where would that
1:42:54seam be between the inside and the
1:42:56outside what is absolute and clear when
1:42:58you specify the different laminar
1:43:00connections to that end I would also ask
1:43:03when when and if you're printing the
1:43:06length of the wall how do you allocate
1:43:09the space of expansion and contraction
1:43:14so today you and I allocate that space
1:43:19for one reason we know that the steel
1:43:21and the wood are expanding at different
1:43:23rates but what happens when we think of
1:43:27these terms in more monolithic terms I
1:43:29don't know
1:43:30I'm I'm in answering your question I can
1:43:34only pose more questions and that's sort
1:43:36of where I was going at the end is that
1:43:39what are the limits in in that
1:43:44discussion because there's such
1:43:45fundamental differences about being
1:43:48inside and outside and for now we think
1:43:53of insides and outsides as an enclosure
1:43:56with the necessity to heat all of it but
1:44:00in fact as you know when you're heating
1:44:03just the floor knowing that it's the
1:44:06only thing in contact with your body you
1:44:09know also that the air can be cold but
1:44:11you can feel a warm if your molecular
1:44:14molecular eyes that discussion and you
1:44:17say everything can be called even the
1:44:19floor but your body needs to be warm and
1:44:21you isolate an environmental system
1:44:24where it can travel with bodies it would
1:44:27be a very different kind of discussion
1:44:28because we could live in open air as it
1:44:31were so I I'm interested in the kinds of
1:44:35explorations
1:44:37and technologies that may radicalize the
1:44:40nature of these questions and it may
1:44:43well be that we're not within five years
1:44:45of those discussions but the kind of
1:44:50discourses that are operating around
1:44:52smart technologies and and the material
1:44:57sciences will tend to change the nature
1:45:01of all of these questions and and
1:45:05reshift them and I'm not saying that
1:45:07that will change completely the ways in
1:45:11which we bring voice to it
1:45:13apply rhetoric to it or give it a visual
1:45:19reciprocity but I do think it changes
1:45:23the way that we speak a language and I
1:45:27think it's one of the things I think
1:45:28it's it's really important in all of
1:45:30this is to recognize let's say in our
1:45:34generation
1:45:35you're young you're younger than me but
1:45:37I'm saying that imagine that I was
1:45:41educated primarily an only in pencil in
1:45:45a way that people have drawn for five
1:45:47hundred years and that in a span of
1:45:50twenty years that we almost every
1:45:53practice as a literal thing has become
1:45:55obsolete every time every five years a
1:45:57new program a new protocol has forced me
1:46:01to become the student of my students our
1:46:05own Brandon Clifford of of Georgia Tech
1:46:10was a you know a key vehicle for my
1:46:13education as he came under my tutelage
1:46:16but produced certain things and taught
1:46:19me how to draw a different way so he I
1:46:23can't even begin to tell you the the
1:46:27kinds of uncertainties that that lay
1:46:29ahead as we confront some of the new
1:46:33protocols and as the other disciplines
1:46:36bring them into architecture so
1:46:39unfortunately I can only give you an
1:46:41answer that is embracive of the things
1:46:47that are forthcoming but can only
1:46:51faced with the state of ignorance but a
1:46:54positive ignorance with the possibility
1:46:57that we may change the way that we
1:46:58operate and that we may ask larger
1:47:01ethical questions as a result of them
1:47:06[Music]

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