1

 this image can help me explain cut-up method.

i sam till studying how to do rendering , hope it can get better and better and better...

writing!!

here a little introduction of the thesis. images is coming, and model is coming as well, and i am not call this project a park anymore.

this thesis is a practice of paranoid rejection of commercialism. Presuming that the fewer designers do the less capital forces seduce people’s mind, I pursued mythology of designing uselessness. In another word, I studied how to make without production, develop without progression, and format without expression. As a strategy, I indulged decision making during design drift with random thinking. Here, irrationality be used as trigger of creativity and  “coding machine” to cancel designer’s ideology. Through works with a contemporary metropolitan reforming topic, this thesis is more in aim at exploring design method than solving existing problem. I call the design method I came up as cut-up (a term I borrowed from literature). 

Now this thesis came to its end, I got strong faith about two things:

Firstly, cut-up as a method it make possible that design fall into the infinity reflection of itself. Whether good or not, it results a design loses the ability to convey any comprehendible idea but only speaks only about itself.

Second thing: a design could be started with irrational goals or driven by random goals during its formation. But design still a practice can’t carry out without a thoughtful plan. 

17

i suppose to do drawing this week~~, but i am still designing. i redefined design of four prototypes of beam.now, the structure is clearer, and i feel more confident when i told people that each prototype beam works in a different way( rocky, planting,  watery, grassy).

16

this huge rug on Mytle-Broadway were supposed for the train, but now, it is totally useless. 

Elliott thought the park(of uselessness) could go on to these rugs. a tempting idea!   

the scale of this rug is similar to my proposal. ( it feel not bed to walk under it actually) and the engineers of it definitely did a reasonable but beautiful job.

when i took pictures, some kids asked me what i were doing, i told them the idea of the park, they didn't look interested. 

midterm review

pages for the midterm presentation.

preparation of midterm review is like a process become a nuts. i fell i need a lot of discussions with people now.

things i found i need to think about more.  thanks for the juries and everybody!

1. how irrationality related to uselessness.

2. how uselessness attack commercialized/ normalized( standardized) society. 

3. what exactly is irrational metrology of design. how to value a irrational design. 

the good thing about irrational thinking is it is personal, sentimental, intuitive and could be   

creative. but architecture is never about one individual, how to use this kind of thinking take care of other people's need is really a tricky question. it is embarrassing to commit that my design is to serve my desire,,, i am not that egocentric. 

15

introduction ( plain edition! )

a. beside all the uselessness what does the park do:1. introduce nature wildness to the dense city ( so i am gonna grow something on the park).
2. provide an alternative walking experience ( slower pace, different view) in the city.


b. park's ambition: ( which make this park different with highline)
1. criticism consumerism, show uselessness is birth-land of Marvelous.  


c. my ambition:
by peel off functional agenda of architecture, experiment irrational design metrology. 

surreal fans

"Surrealism: none., and <masc.> Pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express, either verbally or in writing, the true function of thought. Thought dictated in the absence of all control exerted by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations."

first surrealist manifesto, 1924,  Andrew Breton

disfigure the subject is not the purpose. surrealist estrange and de-familiarize ordinaries to substantiate perception. the movement may started with association of unconsciousness and creativity ( in the belief of omnipotence of dreams and undirected play of thought...) to document human's mind; beneath all those apparently craziness, there is imposition of critical and intellectual control on the flow of the unconscious. Dali call this "the paranoid critical method ", which is “the spontaneous method of attaining knowledge based on the critical and systematic objectification of delirious associations and interpretations." the ambition of the surrealism is to criticism the world of reality. 

14

some more renderings.
see how the park looks on the old photos of manhattan streets.

13

screen text, design process kind of got stuck, so started to try rendering things.
went to disaster design lecture yesterday,  the interesting point i picked from there is architecture design could be about preservation and selection. and what we choose to preserve would make difference in the future. 
i feel that every effort we put on to preserve a culture could be a distortion, and any decision made on selection might lead to injustice.  
not ready to do things like that, so the first thing about useless architecture: transiency, be inclusive and exclusive of everything. 

casa malaparte

Casa Malaparte, Designed more by its owner( a journalist) than its architect, is " the best-know example of a building designed in the ambit of the original group of surrealists." 

"even the form is blurred- is it a perfect geometrical wedge, or a distorted rectangle? a pristine, a-historical, geometric block, a violently marred, decapitated plinth lacking a temple, or a fragment of a ruined theater? a violent eruption of the chthonic forces of the earth, or a colossal stairway to the sky?"

the tangency of the world, Jacqueline Gargus 

12

working on digital model now, after did some physical model which can not stand firmly by themselves, i found it is too crazy to think everything in the system is changeable.

so i decided work on the fix part of the system first: basic structure ( which raise the whole park up) and one footpath. the system on left is what i had on monday, i showed it to jason, he didn't say anything bad about it, and mentioned me think more about how the park connect to the city. but the dullness of that model does hurt me badly. did the right one today, feel a little bit better now.

manifesto (again)

picture flicker's ordinary architecture pool, thanks leopold






the original manifesto:

I am interested with ordinary architecture.

Ordinary architecture is aspirin, it gives comfort but not rescue.

The best ordinary architecture is insignificant, light, empty, and discreet.

Ordinary architecture is about compromising, blending sharing; it is not about occupying provoking and highlighting. 

Ordinary architecture is as complicated as real life. 

i had no idea what "ordinary architecture" is when i used that term. i was questioning authority of architects at that time, using ordinary is to induce people to think that architecture is not a big deal, and then to justify my negative attitude. ordinary architecture is not useless, but anything is better with some uselessness. 

new manifesto here:

I am interested with ordinary architecture the uselessness of architecture.

Ordinary architecture useless architecture is aspirin, it gives comfort but not rescue.

The best ordinary architecture useless architecture is insignificant, light, empty, and discreet.

Ordinary architecture useless architecture is about compromising, blending sharing; it is not about occupying provoking and highlighting. 

Ordinary architecture useless architecture is as complicated as real life ordinary. 

ordinary architecture

I found a hilarious booklet named "synergetic stew explorations in dymaxion dining." which is a gift for "dearest Bucky" made by crew in buckminster's office, 
let's see how professionals cook:

a). an ideological and theological approach.

b). aslo contribute by amy edmondson, an more ordinary approach.

11

collage made for last week's presentation, telling what would in the park; through i am not very sure about that yet.
as said before, the park is for people to wandering. but what to wander about? when flaneur walking on the street they emerge themselves in the city wonders; and when people go to park they enjoy nature wildness, so may be i can combine this two experiences on the "street park".  

10

Michael Wolf  a photographer who lived in Hong-Kong for 16 years, and gets a wife who lives in Paris now, started to take picture on google street of paris since 2009. He did two projects named one "Paris street view" and another one "street view: a series of unfortunate events". i gave him a lot of credits because he found a really interesting way to represent that city, and the pictures he takes are good.  

  

9

when i was preparing for the presentation on thursday, i searched architectural section pictures, and came into this beautiful church ( which supposed to be) beneath manhattan.

Church of Solitude, designed by Gaetano Pesce in 1970's.
 i post it here in case you haven't see it before as i did. 

8

pictures of study models 

i worked on a small ( around 60 x 60 feet) section of the park last week. 

talked with Jason on monday, he reminded me the risk that the project ends up as a huge art installation but not a serious architectural work. and, it is better to go deep and develop one adoptable system than try different things.

and on thursday, the same problem had be pointed out by Elliot again. and another thing she brought me to think about is how could linear walk way provide people experience of wandering, as actually in a raised passageway, there aren't much choices of where to go.

7

Michael Kenna's photography work of the world trade center.
i am reading books about flaneur and night waker today, came into this British photographer who is famous for taking picture during dark.
he said that light in night is similar to theater which has a sense of something about to happen. but the best thing he provides by his pictures is some empty stages.

6

one scaring question Elliot brought to me today is what people should do with the dark space under the park.
en, tricky. a story of a night traveller will not kill the big shadow which my design could places on the streets during daytime. how could i have never thought that before!

5

i talked with Elliot today, she recommended me to watch this  interesting video:
social life in a small urban space by william h whyte ( the link is its remixed version).

according to whyte, the first activity on streets is "people looking at other people".

4

I am working on design supporting structure of the park now. At beginning, I tried to work directly on site model, but find it was too complicated to start with. I turned to design some prototypic structures. and will text them on the site today or tomorrow.

i am also working on making my story( if in night, one wants to become a traveler), i spend my pre-sleep time on imaging what i will put in my backpack to go to a field yesterday night, and the first word came into my mind is panties,,,

a: why one backpack?

b: one doesn't want to bring to many things 

a: why one brings a bag? 

b: the idea that there is one bag of comfort and guarantee make one feels better... especially when one doesn't know where one is going.

a: what guarantee one needs?

b: food? 

a: food is everywhere.

...

a: why one wants to travel?

b: to leave where one is now.

a: what about not bring anything? 

...

so now, i started to think about if one goes into the park with nothing, what the park should/ could provide one. 

light and soft

1.
title: bench between pillars
function: rest space
completion: 26 june 2010
site: 7f seibu ikebukuro flagship store, minamiikebukuro, toshima-ku, tokyo
material: vinyl sheet for floor
size: w8270 d1273 h2330 sh450
design: ryuji nakamura

2. 

title: cornfield
function: installation
exhibition title: "where is architecture? seven installations by japaneses architects"

material: paper and glue
size: 53.90m2

more interesting thing to see is this: 


http://www.momat.go.jp/Honkan/where_is_architecture/work_in_progress/#/nakamura_ryuji/

which showed the working process of making this installation, those paper bar is cut from cardboard by laser cutter, and than glued together one by one.