Browsing by Author "Alford, Grant"
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Domestic InFlux(2013-09-16) Tannenbaum, Samuel; Wittenberg, Gordon; Alford, Grant; Whiting, Sarah; Colman, Scott“Domestic InFlux” is a thesis that, through study of past typologies and modern technologies, creates a platform to produce new forms of privately owned houses that allows the user to accommodate their changing needs with minimal effort. “Domestic InFlux” overlaps typologies and program so that the occupant can use the house for any function by collapsing certain program and allowing others to expand. Although today’s house is larger than in the past, the average family is smaller. Houses today have also become more segmented, isolating program that has been limited to a predefined area by the architecture. Technology is partially responsible for this change. With improved technology we have become less interested in taking advantage of the site and environment in our life at home, and more interested in using that technology to help us block out the rest of the world and disregard the potentials of the site. As technology develops and the world becomes more efficient, so should the house. As a society we have conflicting desires. We want to live in the city, but we also want to live in a mansion. We want more stuff, but we don’t want to look at it. Special occasions require increased occupancy in a space that is unoccupied for most of the year. With “Domestic InFlux” a mansion can be fit into a row house, turning it in to a Swiss Army house or a house for every need. The “Domestic InFlux” house is no longer passive. It is interactive and dynamic, influencing the way we perceive space at every scale, including the scale of the neighborhood. As these houses aggregate, the residual spaces become outdoor rooms that can be occupied by the community.Item Narrative Form(2013-09-16) Angelini, Giorgio; Alford, Grant; Colman, Scott; Wittenberg, GordonArchitecture is a dilemma of transforming complex desires into compelling forms. It stands to reason, then, that to better understand the desires of a user might produce a more compelling form. This is an investigation into the process of design, wherein narratives are constructed as a productive tool for innovation. These narratives are the synthesis of both the desires of the client and the discriminations of the designer. Eschewing the conception of the architect as a mystic, this thesis begins with an investigation into how we represent complex Architectural ideas to a client. It begins a process, or framework, through which a project can be conceived. It both demands that the client shed preconceived, and potentially erroneous, associations between desires and design, to get to a more pure understanding of the needs of a client. The hope is that by rendering Architectural intention less opaque, we might come to a better understanding of the desires of a client, and thus create a new way of practicing; wherein neither client nor architect rely on a pre-defined set of formal solutions for a constantly evolving problem. The single-family home is the programmatic basis for this investigation. Few other programs illicit as robust and divergent desires than the home. It's not that architecture is in the pursuit of creating narratives. But rather, it's that the process of design is one wherein the creation of a compelling narrative has the potential to produce innovative work. And important to the construction of that narrative is the productive engagement of the client.Item Per-plexus: Engaging Slippages of Socio-Spatial Awareness(2012-09-05) Fleming, Jason; Alford, Grant; Wittenberg, Gordon; Whiting, Sarah; Oliver, Douglas; Colman, ScottThis thesis investigates the role of architecture upon the perception of its subject. It is particularly concerned with the perceptual “flickers” that result when the subject is confronted with simultaneous and opposed socio-spatial phenomena. It asserts that when the subject is confronted with such phenomena, a single state flickers to the foreground while all others recede to the background of perception, causing the subject not only to recontextualize socio-spatial awareness in light of the foregrounded state, but also to labor in order to totalize the sum of all states. Ultimately, this thesis is interested in activating the subject and creating an experience that is not defined physically but rather perceptually, not accessible through instant apprehension but rather through labored comprehension. It tests these assertions and advances these interests by speculating on a living center that foregrounds the impact of geometry and form on the subject’s perception of private and public.