Gathering Brief

Based off of our previous office brief what I understood was demanded off of us was to throw aside all notions of digital practices and climate change within our previous designs and create(or rather redesign) a building which solely concentrated on the idea of gifting. This idea of gifting embodying a notion of gifting back to society both in the emotions felt in the space but also as Judy mentions in that the gift should "inspire(d) others to want to be architects".

With Judy's small paragraph being set in the distant future as a reflection of the progress that our architectural careers have made, my initial idea was, what in fact will the architecture of the future be and look like. Will it be so called "bubble architecture", radial cities constructed on the essence of ultimate utopian planning (as envisaged by early 20th Century architects like Corbusier) surrounded by Jetson like flying cars, or rather...will our society and the world be different? Will in fact 90% of the world live on hand to mouth, with the majority of buildings being in fact made from grungy industrial materials instead of the pristine skyscrapers and modernist boxes of the rich, capitalist societies today. In essence much has to be explored.

And it is with this first idea of thinking up of a tradition or inventing a word that I have started in responding to this idea of future architecture and gifting back to the community. My tradition and associated world after some thought about my preferential architecture is. 'Junkstyle modernism'. What this idea embodies is a few things but mainly the aim is in creating a contemporary industrial reflection of late 19th and early 20th Century arts and crafts style, in creating objects of quality and constructed substance that reflect the craft of the modern age, utlizing its many materials through architecture. In many respects it also aims to embody the ideas of modern factories, warehouses and machines in general that have shaped our times, for do we not as a society measure progress in comparison to GDP and associated technological gains as has been shown by the superpowers of Apple. Microsoft and other companies?

It is with this idea of Junkstyle Modernism that as per the brief I aim to renovate my office with particular emphasis on these ideas of using modern materials in a way that pays respect to an industrial arts and crafts feel wherein materials are used in a traditional way for modern standards while utilizing their very materiality in creating interesting textures and feels (taking inspiration from such modern architects as Peter Zumthor), in expressing materials to their ultimate potential in terms of form.

Notes from our first group meeting with Padma and Dermott addressed these following bullet pointed issues that I jotted down:

• Look at Peter Cook - Kunsthaus in Austria, all around it are old buildings, glass blob floating above, almost alien like. Peter Cook is making material choices to reflect the alien building structure, always to reflects an idea.
• Designboom - architectural presentation.
• Presentation reflects architecture, produce one drawing a day, working towards a detail
• Importance on quality of finish.
• Junction of all my materials.
• How the materials go together, which materials I am using.
• High quality augmented drawings.
• Present - like bland contexts, take picture of sight in greyscale, make your site look the best, immediate response to presentation, don't make it underwhelming, take Peter Cook approach.
• Generosity is a big part of gifting.
• Sharing ideas is the best gift.
• Use of materials.
• How to use digital world within architecture.
• Manipulation of light important, digital spaces, use of darkness.
• Gifts external surface with darkness inside.