Tandem Cloudgazing

The studio begins with a game called architectural alchemy. Students are asked to draw one card from three different decks populated with material systems, components and actions. At times, these cards imply compatible goals such as using a stacked light timber wall system to afford seclusion. More often, they introduce challenging goals like de - developing a bent laminated wood ceiling system for holding fire. Students play the game individually first, developing a full proposal in drawing and model.

Groups and then teams form around common interests in material and action, and play the next round of the game, which requires an integration of two materials, one component and one action. Each team develops a goal statement to articulate the project program and intentions.

The goal statement of this team was to design and build a bent laminated wood and folded steel plate floor system for supporting studying through tandem cloud gazing. In this project, students were interested in studying how the natural curvature of the human body could inform the curvature of pieces of bent-laminated wood. With wood as the primary material, folded steel was then used as an anchoring point for the wood and a means of connection to the ground. Having never worked in a group to produce something at this scale, students were required to determine and leverage each members’ strengths. Breaking down the project into research, material experimentation, drawings, and eventually the build process, kept this team on track to produce a proto-typical segment of a system intended to allow the user to lay down and gaze up at the clouds with a partner.

Students
Nirmiti Pandit, Hannah Ruth, Carol Thomas, Jolanta Volkova

Faculty
Stephanie Cramer (coordinator), Randy Fernando, Korydon Smith

TA's
Joshua Barzideh, Liya Chandy, Eryn Conlon, Denice Guillermo, Reid Hetzel, Marietta Koeberle, Madeleine Niepceron, Christopher Sweeney, Austin Wyle

Term
ARC 102, Spring 2021

Program
BS Arch