ASSIGNMENT 1: APERTURE
My non-human agent was an Window AC Unit, which I understood as experiencing the world through dynamic airflows across a liminal threshold space, constantly moving and changing. Air, an ephemeral condition, is visualized as twisting in the space through the development of a coiling Möbius knot that comes undone as the air moves through the space. Changing temperature (hot + cold) is visualized through hues of red, blue, and purple as they mix together.
In mapping the site, Corporal Burns Playground in Cambridge, MA, the site is understood through wind flows and intensity of the wind. A hierarchy of hatching is developed with directionality, which is intensified in locations of the site which are unprotected to the volatility of the wind using an overlay of hatching.
The design intervention reflects these wind flows, working to organize, control, and curate the experience of the wind. The design brief called for the development of an aperture, so this intervention uses organized spacing and rotation of filleted cubes to manipulate the wind experienced on the site.
A concept rendering to show how wind would theoretically behave in the structure, and how the apertures work to direct wind flows through controlled openings in the structure.
A second iteration of the model is developed in Rhino to develop a further way to organize and control the wind conditions on the site. This project is an essay in "doubles" as the volume, rotation and shift of each cube around the central axis doubles from one layer to the next. Thus, there are moments where the aperture is larger or smaller, changing how wind is understood and experienced in relation to the body.
ASSIGNMENT 2: TOTEM
The design brief for this project looks to develop a site intervention at Corporal Burns Playground + Park in Cambridge, MA, incorporating design strategies explored in Assignment 1 to create a TOTEM with three distinct apertures: an aperture of threshold, an aperture of rest, and an aperture to the sky. This TOTEM looks to see how wind can mold and shape the spatial experience of the totem in three different ways: physical, visual, and auditory.
Applying an understanding of site conditions from Assignment 1 allows for a comprehensive analysis for where the TOTEM should best be situated on the site. The chosen site, marked in red, indicates a location which experiences wind volatility and dynamic changes in intensity (as indexed by the line weight and direction of the hatching). The site therefore allows for differences in experience on the three different levels, being located within a cluster of small/medium sized trees.
