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Acknowledgement:

I would like to thank UCL Medical Hospital and Dr. Nigel for giving me the opportunity to get my body scanned for this research. It was not without this starting point that I could have pursued what I am doing right now.

I would like to thank my tutors for their support, guidance and perseverance which enabled me to accomplish many a tasks which I can’t imagine. Marjan, Tea, Guan and Hannes have always been helpful and open.

I would specially like to thank my Parents and my family who always supported me throughout this time. They have been a source of motivation, inspiration and comfort in times when I needed the most.

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Table of Contents

Prologue : FetishChapter 1: Introduction 1-1: Introduction 1-2: Cultural Dimension of NeckChapter 2: Inattributability 2-1: Neck as A Spatial Gradient 2-2: Systems of Interaction 2-2. 1: Systems of Interaction Study 2-3: Building as an Organism 2-4. 1: Inattributability 2-4. 2: Skin 2-4. 3: Ridges and Bones 2-4. 4: Conclusion Chapter 3: Parasitic Interventions 3-1: FOP Introduction 3-2: Complex Bundling 3-3: Parasitic Interventions 3-4: Spatial Experiment 3-5: Conclusion

Chapter 4: Outlook

BibliographyPhoto CreditsAppendix

Picture 1. Buttersworth Licking Barcelona Pavillion

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Prologue: Fetish

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* Paraphrased from Brief (see appendix)

The brief of our research cluster is ‘Form Follows Fetish’. The contemporary era as seen an unprecedented surge in proliferation of digital techniques of production in ar-chitecture such as CNC machines, rapid prototyping and laser cutting. The time-honored practice of architecture which was suffocated by usage of traditional products, functionality and material availability is now open to a change where the designer itself has becomes the pro-ducer. The idea of a ‘concept’ is no more a boundary to be dictated by building industry, functionality or material-ity but it is an opportunity to be exploited by the designer.

Fetish-isation in architecture is the extremely precise articu-lation of aspired perfection or gratification. It is where an in-dividual chooses his or her own individualistic values which may be driven out of cultural context, historical references, personal aspiration or intrinsic psychological behavior. Fet-ishisation of architecture dwells in realms of strong personal introspection of these set of values which will drive the ar-chitectural thrust. In order to understand fetish one has to take a non- linear route where materiality, the conscious, the sub conscious, the real, the abstract, the function and the experience of individual are all concentrated on precise ar-ticulation of a strong set of personal values. The ambition lies in application of these articulations and values in the most intense manner possible which can be overly exagger-ated or compulsive, or even synthetic i.e. implying both at the same time. If all these values are coming from an indi-vidual’s subjective response how can they be addressed to a bigger realm of public domain? How can these objects of de-votion be associated with the social domain of architecture? How can the fetish be individualistic but at the same time be associative? All these questions can be seen as a challenge that a designer might face when confronted with fetish and resolution of these questions is the true translation of fetish.

Fetish is often associated to the human body and sexuality. My fetish is about a specific part of the human body i.e. the female human neck.

The female neck, is a formless part of the human body; unlike the face which has the quality of delivering immediate expressions by using muscles, skin and wrinkles to express smiles, laughter or a frown fostering the sensory quality of what a person may be going through, the human neck works in a rather cognitive way to express itself as an extension of the human expressions beyond the immediacy of the face.

The neck hosts the services necessary for the sustenance of the body; making complex bundles of the food pipe, the air pipe, the neural network and the blood circulation. A trans condition where the soft and the hard, the temporal and the obvious, the living and the dead, the generative and the decaying are next to each other and work in congruency to each other.

Neck forms the access of the bi polar i.e. the body and the mind. It is an essential life line between the two. A cardinal link between the Rooh1 and the Jism2. Life line is the ontological link of the being to its existence. A celebration of the khudi3 and the khud 4amalgamating together in a physical form. Life line not only ra-tionalizes the sustenance of the human body in its full degree it also emphasizes on attributive qualities of the body. The life line is a performative, attributive, and expressive is the essential per-formative and attributive link which synthesizes the body func-tionally and attributively. Being an exposed part of the body, the neck which is a life line between the bi polar body and mind, rooh and jism can be seen as a strength and weakness of the human body.

*Rooh in Arabic means the spirit of the body, soul, attributes that shape the body, qualities apart from its direct physical manifestations. *Jism in Arabic means the body, the physical form of rooh. *Khudi in Persian means the self-recognizing, self-realizing, ego, pride of rooh.*Khud in Persian means the being, physical manifestation of the khudi.

1 Basil Hatim, English-Arabic/Arabic-English translation: a practical guide, (Beirut: Saqi Books, 1997).2 Basil Hatim, English-Arabic/Arabic-English translation: a practical guide, (Beirut: Saqi Books, 1997).3 Basil Hatim, English-Arabic/Arabic-English translation: a practical guide, (Beirut: Saqi Books, 1997).4 Basil Hatim, English-Arabic/Arabic-English translation: a practical guide, (Beirut: Saqi Books, 1997).

Chapter 1

1-1 Introduction:

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Pict. 2 Neck As An Extension of Face Pict. 3 Connection Between Body And Mind

1-2 Cultural Dimension of Neck:

The neck can be seen as an essential exposed life line between the body and the mind. Having the properties of mediation (signifier of bodily and its perceptual state), it affects the individual but also affects other people around the individual. Consciously or subconsciously the neck has been looked at by many people, per-ceived by many and made a part of their expressions, language, habits and religion.

The importance of human neck is celebrated in many cultures throughout the world. Religiously being a Muslim I believe in the quote of Holy Quran “Allah is closer to man than his jugular vein.”1The question is not the physical closeness of God to the Jugular vein, but the question intrigues the idea of proximity of God to the being. The quote from the Quran establishes a link be-tween the hidden and at the same time obvious, the completeness and yet the incompleteness of the being.

The female neck also holds importance in many cultures apart from its religious importance in Islam. The Kayan tribe of Burma believe that they are ancestrally linked to long necked dragons. The Kayan people aspire the neck to be an impenetrable lifeline. Realizing the neck (life line) as a weakness of the body the fe-males wear permanent brass coils along their neck to foster the idea of the impenetrability of the life line. The Kayan’s cultural necessity to ensure their neck is protected and at the same time highlighted by elongation can be conceived as a deeply rooted cultural act highlighting the importance of the neck being the life line of the body and its weakness at the same time.

5 Usmani, M.T, The Noble Qur’an, (Karachi. Maktaba Maariful Quran, 2006).

Pict. 4 Impenetrable Lifeline, The Kayan Tribe, Burma.

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Pict. 5 Kayan Tribe Woman

Conclusion:

The neck is considered as an extremely important part of the body in many different cul-tures, religions and societies often related to the origin of the being, god and perception. The neck which acts as a life line between the body and mind works in coherence with the expressive and the functional realm of the body. On the surface neck is an extension of the face. Underneath it is a link between the body and mind. The assemble which pro-vides sustenance and links the two distinct states of the body. If the neck is a life line of the body what are its components? How does it function and how can we understand this link in a better way? My fetish is the neck and its characteristics itself. How can we create two complex states and amalgamate them together like the neck unifying the body and the mind. I propose a reverse engineered approach by which we understand the neck and its components and start to use this research to make links and to establish connections between two or more different systems.

Chapter 2

2-1 Neck as a Spatial Gradient.

“The body occupies space, where do the confines of the body run? Where does the body end? ~Heidegger”61

The human neck is composed of several different organs, layers and gradients of tissues, the hard and the soft. In order to visual-ize these conditions and to understand their relationships, non- invasive methods such as MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging were used to analyze the neck of myself, one of my tutor and a female (name kept anonymous). By utilizing these techniques as a tool and method to analyze the human neck, the condition of the outer and the inner space starts to fall in favor of density driven state where the inner and the outer boundary is replaced onto-logically by gradients and fields.

6 “Soft Immortality”, http://www.horhizon.com/works/soft-immortality/, (accessed 22 June 2012).

Study. 1 MRI Study of Human Neck and Body, Gradient Conditions Inside the Body.

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Study. 2 MRI Study of Human Neck and Body, Gradient Conditions Inside the Body.

These gradients and fields were studied, visualized and materialized to understand the key relationship with each other and with the overall condition of the neck.

Study. 3 Gradient Condition Inside Human Body.

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Study. 3 Gradient Condition Inside Human Body.

Study. 3 Sequential Density Buildup

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The human neck cannot be defined in terms of boundary and ter-ritory but rather by the density driven spatial fields, gradients and masses. The neck and the human body itself are made of gra-dients and fields of density which are connected with each other. The skin for instance is not a membrane which envelopes the body but rather it is density driven surface which envelopes the soft matter. The amalgamation of bones and the soft tissue is not rigged or point based as opposed to density driven differentiation of the bone into cartilage and the cartilage itself becoming a bone. A state when space becomes an inherited property of density. The boundary conditions that we may consider are in a constant flux where they change and dissolve into new materials, the soft and the hard, the opaque and the translucent all become a part of one overarching system.

2-2 Systems of Interaction.

The neck constitutes of layers and gradients which interact with each other, forming complex gestures and hybrid states. With the proliferation of other fields into architecture we need to release ourselves from the traditional practice. P.P Moras Antonios gives an interesting account for interactions within systems.

“Instead of examining what a system is composed of, resulting in functions of similarity, we should focus on the interaction that ele-ments/ fragments are involved in. Instead of dealing with a fixed object, we are forcing a world as an opened up, expanded body of relations or as a force field.”71

He further elaborates that “forces are not affected but diffused.” 82 In a system which is under a constant flux elements compos-ing the system lose importance and the changes within the system becomes of more importance. Negotiations made on the basis of interactions are of more importance than the “matter” itself. Wa-gensberg explains “Expanded architectural objects cannot be iso-lated from its environment. It doesn’t have exact form but some kind of visualized form; it has forms in singular number.”93 The spatially defined blurs to a dissolute spatial amalgamate. Ibid de-scribes the process as “The form is integral or innate to the work rather than being preconceived and impressed onto it”104 such sys-tems of interactions produce hybrid mutations on the boundary. These boundary or peripheral regions may not have properties exclusive to one of the influencer but rather a fusion of properties can be anticipated in these regions. Where the attributes of the systems may be exchanged and a mutated attribute of the space or system may develop.

7 PP. Moras and Antonios, BOUNDARY CONDITIONS IN ARCHITECTURE.THE CONCEPT OF THE VIRTUAL ARCHITECTURAL OBJECT. Slide. 68 PP. Moras and Antonios, BOUNDARY CONDITIONS IN ARCHITECTURE.THE CONCEPT OF THE VIRTUAL ARCHITECTURAL OBJECT. Slide. 79 PP. Moras and Antonios, BOUNDARY CONDITIONS IN ARCHITECTURE.THE CONCEPT OF THE VIRTUAL ARCHITECTURAL OBJECT. Slide. 910 Ibid., pp.26- 59

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Pict. 6 Interference Art piece, Poesis and Crisis

2-2.1 Systems of Interaction Study

The group project aRc(2)himera111 (February 2012) was an oppor-tunity to study such exchange of properties and amalgamation. In Greek mythology Chimera is a fire breathing monster who is an offspring of two different creatures, the deadly Typhon and Echid-na. Similarly, in genetics, biology and botany a Chimera is an amalgam of two distinct species, having dissolute chromosomes of two separate species.

For this group project each individual was given a task to produce his or her unique textures which will become a part of the skin of chimera. After the formulation of skin the next step was to speci-ate the textures where they make a boundary with each other, a phenomenon that we see on the skin of different animals in nature. The following task was taken as an opportunity to test the dis-solution of two field conditions. A condition where two different textures form a field and the interaction of these fields of texture create new amalgams of texture. I was a neighbor of Minsi and I effectively devised a strategy by which our digital chromosomes of textures interacted with each other and gave rise to a third tex-ture on the boundary condition. The idea was to make a texture which is not a hybrid or a mutant but a chimerical offspring of our individual textures. The process in itself is so unique that I alone cannot make the third texture and neither can Minsi. The third texture which evolved due to this carnal of two textures had qualities of both the texture but yet it was a completely distinct texture in itself.

11 *Please see appendix for a description of project aRc(2)himera

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Study. 4 Systems of Interaction

Study. 5 ArChimera Study Hissaan and Minsi Textural Speciation

Hissaan Texture A

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Study. 5 ArChimera Study Hissaan and Minsi Textural Speciation

Dissoluted Texture C

Minsi Texture B

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Pict. 7 aRC(2)himera Study Hissaan and Minsi Textural Speciation

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Pict. 7 aRC(2)himera Study Hissaan and Minsi Textural Speciation

2-3 Building as an Organism.

“A building can be treated as an organism and it can therefore comply with similar living systems.”121

Le Corbusier and many of his followers looked at the building as an organism. Such a holistic approach may raise questions as organisms are not just created but they evolve spatially and functionally with time. Buildings on the other hand are designed conventionally to perform prescribed functions and to have a definite spatial boundary. What if the buildings can grow? Mutate spatially and functionally interchange? If a building is an organism what will be the organs of this organism? Will these organs be precise and prescribed or will they mutate and convo-lute into each other to form amalgamated hybrids? The following test is an engagement with some of these concepts to understand this amalgamation.

12 Orlando de Jesus “Living Machines”, http://www.virose.pt/arch/writings/orlando01.html, (accessed 23rd April, 2012)

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The neck which acts as a life line for the human body is a complex system composed of many systems. To understand these systems and their convoluted interference with each other one has to take a non- linear approach to understand the biological systems and processes of negotiations happening in the neck.

The neck being a dissolute of many different anatomical parts is a complex amalgam of distinct functions and features. The neck cannot be distinctive in terms of boundary but unique spatially and functionally. This dissolution suggests for an understanding of a system in a constant flux as opposed to a system of defined anatomical parts and functions.

This condition of the neck where the living and the semi- living, the hard and soft, the delicate and the tough, the obvious and the embedded become “in-attributable.”131 Moras Antonio describes this as

“Interaction provides the condition for in- attributability of the object, the necessary condition for the object to result as synergy

of its environment.”142

In-attributality is not the loss of quality of an object but it is rather a concoction of qualities into one object where the bound-ary between object and its surroundings blur due to negotiation of properties. A condition, where the boundary of an object is not defined by the object, but it is rather replaced by spatial gradi-ents, densities and fields.

13 PP. Moras and Antonios, BOUNDARY CONDITIONS IN ARCHITECTURE.THE CONCEPT OF THE VIRTUAL ARCHITECTURAL OBJECT. Slide. 814 PP. Moras and Antonios, BOUNDARY CONDITIONS IN ARCHITECTURE.THE CONCEPT OF THE VIRTUAL ARCHITECTURAL OBJECT. Slide. 9

2-4 Inattributability.

2-4. 1 Study

I conducted a study during our group project “aRc(2)himera” in February to define this in-attributability as a response to the living and the dead condition, a state where regeneration, mutation and decay were a part of one collaborative system. A series of anatomi-cal diagrams were studied to form the irrefutable basis for the in-vestigation, MRI studies of my body were used as a technique and a method of production for this test. The epidermal layer of the neck, its ridges and muscles were layered and developed together with semi hard hybrids of cartilage and bone. Conventional CAD techniques of locking, extension, scaling and squeezing the model were used to develop this model. Change of one part affected the other. Concepts of growth, sustenance, decay and life line were explored to form this concoction of organs which was contesting to be developed as proposal for aRc(2)himera.

The aesthetics of this creature are not based on the notion of pu-rity, rather convoluted gestures, hybridization, specialization and growth formed the basis of this “bio- logical”151 semi- living crea-ture. An overarching system, having the aesthetics of beauty and grotesque at the same time.

15 Kevin Kelly, Out of Control: Biology of Machines, Fourth Estate, 1994, p 606.

Study.Ren. Biological Study

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2-4. 2 Skin

The skin is not seen as a surface anymore but rather an opportu-nity to “inter-mingle”161 on the surface. The skin of this semi living creature was not seen as a “boundary of the soul.”172 Rather it be-came an expanding, contracting, changing spatial field providing an opportunity the elements on the surface and inside the surface to intermingle. The densification of skin at places made complex ridges, making memory a part of its being. Such interactions lead to a “construction of knowledge”183 . This knowledge becomes a part of the creature reminiscent of its past and reflecting the con-ditions of its present at the same time soliciting its future.

2-4. 3 Ridges and Bones

Skin solidifies itself to form ridges in response to the environmen-tal conditions the creature goes through similar to the formation of wrinkles on the human neck. Making its parts directionally responsive to the change in the environment and from within it. Memory becomes an essential part of its being. Memory is a syn-thetic evolutionary quality which develops with time, nurtured by the events and changes this semi creature goes through. As sug-gested by conversation theory “interactions lead to construction of knowledge.”194 The knowledge becomes a part of the process and a part of the creature reminiscent of its past and reflecting on to the conditions of the present. The future is unpredictable at that moment but however there is a degree of dependence on the situation (influences) of the present which may influence the future.

16 Cruz, Marcos; Pike, Steve(guest-eds.) (2008).”Neoplasmatic Design”, Architectural Digest Vol. 78, issue 6: 36- 43 (p.40)17 Stelarc,18 Gordon Pask “Conversation Theory”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Pask (accessed 22nd April, 2012)19 Gordon Pask “Conversation Theory”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Pask (accessed 22nd April, 2012)

Pict. 8 Inattributability Study Model

Pict. 7 aRC(2)himera Inattributability Study Model Chimerical Conditions

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Pict. 7 aRC(2)himera Inattributability Study Model Chimerical Conditions

The following research explored the human neck as an ecology of densities where the human neck dissolute into its anatomical parts giving us an opportunity to think of it as a density driven field under a constant state of flux. The speciation and hybridiza-tion of different qualities give rise to a state of inattributability. The differentiation between the hard and the soft, the living and the dead, the transparent and the opaque do not form a bound-ary condition but ontologically replace it with gradient, density and fields. The exercises mentioned above to an extent cover and prove these speculations, thus the architectural body which has always been driven by surface and linear boundary is suggested to be looked at as a density driven space. Instead of working with new methods to perforate skin and to drive complex or highly ar-ticulated surfaces, I propose to work with integral ways where the skin amalgamates with the bones, where masses are differen-tiated into capillaries and these fuse with trans- integral struc-tures and ultimately the wrapped space itself.

2-4.4 Conclusion.

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Study. 6 Bundling Core Amalgamation

Chapter 3

3-1 Introduction.

Complex organisms are com-posed of different systems. These systems work in con-gruency with each other. The change of one affects the oth-er. The following chapter ex-plores the possibility of such systems going under a rapid viral change. FOP (Fibrodys-plasia ossificans progressive) is a disease which affects the human body starting particu-larly from the neck. FOP rap-idly solidifies the soft tissues of the body into bones. The rapid shift or a kink in the gradient condition of the dis-solute anatomical parts of the neck can be seen as an oppor-tunity to explore new spatial constructs.

The following chapter will look at the possibilities of manipulating the disease and using its characteristics to form potentially promising spatial conditions. Condi-tions where the space itself is amalgamate of its constitu-ents and by using the uncer-tain change caused by the disease we can explore new possibilities of a spatial con-dition where certainty and uncertainty are both part of an overarching spatial envi-ronment. Creating new con-structs and speculations for what we consider as a spatial.

Pict. 8 FOP (Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressive) Affecting Human Soft Tissue

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Pict. 8 FOP (Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressive) Affecting Human Soft Tissue

3-2 Complex Bundling.

FOP can be seen as a vector which influences the soft spaces of an environment to solidify into hard spaces. Causing the gradient condition to develop certain kinks and a sudden transformation into hard dense material within the soft tissues. These sudden spikes in density with the added temporal, proximity and time driven aspect of the disease can create possibilities to explore new spatial constructs. The disease starts to form complex bun-dles of hard elements within the soft tissue. The hard substances transpiring into the soft tissues gives it an ephemeral gesture and at the same time causes the soft tissues to become more structural and rigid. Due to the synthesis of soft tissue to a hard complex bundle this transformation gives rise to a structural and topologi-cal trans-integrity within the soft tissue. Creating, new structural orifices due to bundling of soft tissues.

Study 7. Parasitic Interventions

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Study 8. Parasitic Bundling

3-3 Parasitic Interventions

These parasites (disease causing viruses) work in congruency with each other and start to spatially deform the soft tissues. The proximity information of each parasite is mapped and transferred to the other. This spatial navigation and interpolation speciates a given field condition giving rise to a new field of hard tissues emerging out of the initial field condition itself. Thus the notion of an organism within an organism is explored giving rise to an auxiliary condition with in an established field. The host organ-ism loses importance to these foreign entities or parasites. The process of life and death continues until one organism consumes the other and eventually both the systems die upon reaching an “equilibrium”211 state leaving behind an auxiliary spatial condi-tion. Burgees described this process as “Equilibrium is not only dead, it is death…. To Enrich a system you need variance in time and space. But too much change will kill you too. You go from ecocline to ecotone.”222

These spatial interventions can trigger new possibilities to con-struct inhabitable spaces. A possibility to form a quasi- spaces within a space. This dynamic system results in creation of dy-namic, inattributable spaces giving rise to new interiorities.

21 Kevin Kelly, Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the World Econom-ics, The Natural Flux, p.93 (Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1994)22 Kevin Kelly, Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the World Econom-ics, The Natural Flux, p.93 (Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1994)

Study 9. Parasitic Interventions

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Study 10. Parasitic Interventions Coevolution

Study 11. Parasitic Interventions Coevolution In A Field Condition

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Study 11. Parasitic Interventions Coevolution In A Field Condition

The disease is a parasitic intervention to a system where ever these two sys-tems interact. These inter-actions result in creation of signifiers which causes an auxiliary condition to develop. These new spa-tial conditions and func-tions can develop, contra-dicting features than the original system itself. In the following test the par-asitic intervention of the disease makes filament protrusions through a vol-ume to create shredded and decaying structures. The disrupted field be-havior of the disease gives rise to an intense flare of solid extensions forming within the volume. Turn-ing and twisting the fila-ments by proximity forces from within the organism, the host system under goes auto poetic changes which may form new spatial hybrids changing the empty volume into a capillary network of hard elements which may seem to unify, densify and “intermingle”231 and cre-ate an amalgam with each other. These uncertain, events cause the creation of uncertain spaces which can nurture the indeter-minate conditions. The beautiful and grotesque, the certain and the uncer-tain, the attributable and the inattributable become part of a single overarch-ing system. Like the in-teractions in the human neck. Where things min-gle, convolute and fuse 23 Cruz, Marcos; Pike, Steve(guest-eds.) (2008).”Neoplasmatic Design”, Architectural Digest Vol. 78, issue 6: 36- 43 (p.40)

“A Dynamic network is one of the few structures that incorporates the dimen-sion of time. It honours internal change”231

23 Kevin Kelly, Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the World Economics, The Natural Flux, p.93 (Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1994)

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Study 12. Evolution Towards a Lifeline

3-4 Spatial Experiment.

The following test was conducted to understand how a disease will affect a current architectural organ such as a staircase. A condition in which staircase transforms into a mutant, consuming the structure and itself. The speciation of each individual ele-ment gives rise to a condition where the steps of the staircase transform into visceral continuous elements. The handrails and the balustrade transform into specialized encapsulated pods which can host the offspring of the disease itself. The structure shifts from being a fix and autonomous structure to a proliferated, interlinked and devel-oping filament like extensions which amalgamates with the structural wall.

The dissolution of the core and its uni-fication with the building. Creates a flux compelling the attributable genus (staircase), to become an in-attributa-ble amalgam of quasi qualities (having qualities of the staircase and the build-ing.) Thus the function itself blurs as spatial gradients are formed opposed to a static condition and spatial volumes start to convolute into each other. The staircase in this case develops into an organism itself, latched to the build-ing thereby changing the function of the building and the staircase. Which was once seen as highly functional be-comes a nebulous speculation between the highly per formative and dysfunc-tional. The instrument responsible for circulation of people and services de-velops into gregarious and convoluted functions or hyper functions within itself giving rise to chaos, uncertainty and inattributability like the life line.

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This in-attributable state argues the conventional understanding of func-tional and suggests a new paradigm for our understanding of the emergence of new functional qualities and attributes which may rise due to this in-at-tributable condition. A state giving rise to an extremely high level convolu-tion and uncertainty that the inhabitation itself becomes a part of the stair-case (the life line). The viral uncertainty evokes functional and aesthetical properties as a part of an uncanny process.

Study 13. Convolution of Steps

Study 14. Hybridizing with the Structure Creating Highly Coporeal Spatial Conditions.

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Study 14. Hybridizing with the Structure Creating Highly Coporeal Spatial Conditions.

Study 15. Filament Like Protrusions Create Structural Transintegrity.

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Study 15. Filament Like Protrusions Create Structural Transintegrity.

“It was the substitution of the line for the mass, as the element of ornamentation.”241

24 John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, (New York: Farrar, Straus And Grioux, 1984).

Study 16. Volumetric Ornamentation From Spatial Attributes

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Study 16. Volumetric Ornamentation From Spatial Attributes

The FOP disease of the human body particularly the neck changes the soft tissues into hard calcified bony tissues. The tissues which are in a gradient condition undergo a mutation to make fila mental growth thereby forming scaffolds of bony substance. The gradient field gets disrupted by another field of system and thus a hybrid-ized system within the system develops. Architecturally this can be seen as an intrusion of one system into the other due to an in-tervention. A condition where the host loses importance and the intervention becomes more powerful.

If a building is considered as a “super organism”251 a multi faceted organism with multiple systems in it. What will become the life line for this super organism? Chapter 2 dissolute the human neck from its anatomical parts to a spatial field, gradients and densities. The neck which acts as a life line, a performative, multi-functional volume made of fluxing gradients of mass and fields a connection between the “Rooh” and the “Jism” a bi polar link of the two dis-tinct constructs which fuse, intermingle form signifiers and result in the entities becoming in attributable give rise to hybrids and mutated conditions. Differentiating from liminal strands and be-coming into volumes and encapsulated organs. If we are to think of such a space in a building infallibly it is going to be the life line of the building. A space where all building networks negotiate with each other becoming a “super network”262 a space where the services, building circulation, inhabitation all become one. Con-ventionally in architecture we see a building as series of floor slabs, enveloped by a surface which maybe articulated or perforated in any way, and a series of shafts running through these floor slabs connecting them together. What is the potential of core? Is it only function? Can we shift such a convention? The following study is an attempt to explore the potential of a life line albeit the core.

25 Kevin Kelly, Out of Control: The New Biology Of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World, Hive Mind. (p.11), (Cambridge,Perseus Books Group)26 Kevin Kelly, Out of Control: The New Biology Of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World, Hive Mind. (p.11), (Cambridge,Perseus Books Group)

3-5 Conclusion.

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The transformation of the core into a diseased life line of a building solicits a functional and an aesthetical shift within the programme of the staircase. The virus affects the body adversely by unifying the soft tissues with the newly formed hard tissues shrink wrap-ping the organs with the bone itself and disabling the body to func-tion. The body dies after a period of time. Whereas in case of a staircase the disease introduces the element of super corporeality and creates a new potential of exploring a hyper function, creating new spaces and quasi spaces within the established spatial volume. The volume which was once a constitution of distinct parts of the staircase such as handrails, balustrades and the steps goes through iterative changes creating liminal growth and convolution of sys-tems. This process creates expressions of beauty and grotesque at the same time. A counterfeit state of the living and the dead, the nurtured and the pauced, the ceremonious and the relaxed, ob-vious and the uncertain all become a part of an overarching sys-tem. New spaces develop as an auxiliary condition, new textures emerge due to change in volumetric conditions, and the boundary of inside and the outside is replaced by a relationship of gradient. All these uncertainties and inattributabilities create new interiori-ties which are conventionally never addressed.

Study 17. Limineal Growth

4 Outlook

Traditionally architects design inhabitable environments; archi-tectural space is defined by territory and boundaries. Inhabita-tion is addressed by creating environments which can sustain life; thus a building ritualistically is composed of the building structure and the services such as plumbing and HVAC enabling inhabitation of the structure. This surface driven boundary condi-tion leads to an obsession with façade which wraps the structure creating a fragmented bundling of multiple systems. By analyz-ing the neck by using MRI images as a technique and design tool. The condition of the skin and the structure of neck falls in fa-vour of a density driven state of space which allows the boundary condition to be replaced in favour of gradient, density and field conditions. Rayner Benham states “A building is not divisible into two intellectually separate parts; structure on one hand and on the other mechanical services.”271 Therefore the relevance of working with boundary condition falls in favors of working with fields, density and spatial gradients. Instead of searching for new ways to perforate or to articulate the skin or to find possibilities to modulate the prerogative services of the built environment. I propose to work with integral ways in which the skin amalgam-ates with the bones, its structure and with the wrapped space. The dissolution of building into spatial gradients and volumes speculates the idea of a core and ontologically replaces it with the ideas of a life line. The core loses its relevance in such an over arching system, but it is replaced by a more integrated, ephemeral and contemplative idea of a life line. This conceptual shift from core to the life line speculates and builds the notion of the built environment becoming an organism and its organs convoluting into each other. Creating new orifices, volumes, volumetric ar-ticulation, time based shift and a state of function and dysfunc-tion within the organism. The mutation from one form to another and through parasitic interventions gives the designer an added opportunity to explore a synthetic over arching system for new interiorities which fall in category beauty and grotesque. This dis-solution of the building into its component parts and the emer-gence of new spatial and quasi spatial characteristics gives rise to in-attributable quality within the system, on both micro and macro levels. The core which has always been considered as hard or soft (inflatable structures) is replaced by a much more play-ful, subtle, volatile, corporeal, ephemeral, fluxing, contemplative, functional and at the same time dysfunctional idea of a life line.

27 Reyner Benham, The Architecture of Well-Tempered Environment, (London: The Architectural Press, 1969).

Chapter 4

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My final project is an exploration of these ideas and their ground-ing to create inventive inhabitable spaces. These spaces will be a result of the digital and material exploration. A state in which uncertainty and certainty is a part of the design process and pro-gramme itself. Instead of making rigid boundary based surfaces and articulations I propose to work with integral and dissolute ways to develop inhabitable spaces, articulations and orifices. Material consideration will be a part of the design process and programme both. The use of hard and soft, living and dead and composite materials will be a part of the design process. I propose to make overarching inhabitable spaces which can open new pos-sibilities towards the appreciation of the inattributable and the uncertain as a part of the design process. Structural core or shell is not of significance, the intermingling of elements and compo-nents to create convoluted hybrid spatial conditions which are not a part of the traditional norm of architecture is the goal of the project. A system which is not measured by its function but rather by the richness of its gestures, attributes and qualities like the life line which as a concept was developed in response to the research of neck.

5- Bibliography

Usmani, M.T, The Noble Qur’an, (Karachi. Maktaba Maariful Quran, 2006).

Basil Hatim, English-Arabic/Arabic-English translation: a practical guide, (Beirut: Saqi Books, 1997).

W.R. Lethaby, Architecture Mysticism and Myth, (London: The Ar-chitectural Press Ltd., 1974).

James L. Hiatt, Leslie P. Gartner, Textbook of Head & Neck Anato-my, Fourth Edition, (Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkin, 2010).

Douglas R. Gnepp, Diagnostic Surgical Pathology Of The Head And Neck, Second Edition, (Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier, 2009).P.G Bullough, O Boachie- Adjei, The Atlas of Spinal Diseases, (Phila-delphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1988).

Greg Lynn, Animate Form, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999).

John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, (New York: Farrar, Straus And Grioux, 1984).

Reyner Benham, The Architecture of Well-Tempered Environment, (London: The Architectural Press, 1969).

George H. Douglas, A Social History in America Skyscrapers, (North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, 1999).

Kate Ascher, The Heights Anatomy Of A Skyscraper, (New York: The Penguin Press, 2011).

Kevin Kelly, Out of Control: Biology of Machines, Fourth Estate, 1994, p 606.

Philip Steadman, 2008, The Evolution of Design Biological Analogy in Architecture And the Applied Arts, (e-Library: Taylor & Francis, 2008).

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Kevin Kelly, Out of Control: The New Biology Of Machines, Social Sys-tems and the Economic World, Hive Mind. (p.11),(Cambridge,Perseus Books Group)

Marcos Cruz, Marcosandmarjan Architects, Unpredictable Flesh, (Portu-gal: Mimesis, 2004).

Colletti, Marjan (ed.). Exuberance: New Digital Virtuosity in Contemporary Digital Architecture, AD Architectural Design, AD re-design launch issue, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester UK

Francesco Proto (ed.), Mass. Identity. Architecture. Architectural Writings by Jean Baudrillard, (West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2003).

Anthony Vidler, “The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely”, Trick/Track, pp. 101- 116, (Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1992).

Nat Chard, “Drawing Indeterminate Architecture, Indeterminate Drawings of Architecture”, (The UCL, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, 1992).

Michael Speaks (ed.), Arie Graafland, Architectural Bodies, (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 1996).

Ali Rahim and Hina Jammele. “Elegance: Surface Continuity An Elegant Integration“, AD Architectural Design, AD Jan/Feb 2007 issue, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester UK, pp. 38-40.

Cruz, Marcos; Pike, Steve(guest-eds.), ”Neoplasmatic Design”, Archi-tectural Digest Vol. 78, issue 6, (2008).

Anna Klingmann, Philipp Oswalt, “FORMLESSNESS”, published in Arch+, 1999).

Internet:

“Greg Lyn Animate Form”, http://www.annapujadas.cat/CSIM/estetica/textos/animate_form.pdf, (accessed 5th January 5, 2012).

Douglis, Evan. ‘Dazzle Topologies’. In Future Feeder. Journal of Architecture and Computation Culture, 2006, http://future-feeder.com/index.php/archives/2006/08/10/dazzle-topologies/. (accessed 28th December 2012).

Orlando de Jesus “Living Machines”, http://www.virose.pt/arch/writings/orlando01.html, (accessed 23rd April, 2012) .

Gordon Pask “Conversation Theory”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Pask, (accessed 22nd April, 2012).

PP. Moras and Antonios, “BOUNDARY CONDITIONS IN AR-CHITECTURE.THE CONCEPT OF THE VIRTUAL ARCHI-TECTURAL OBJECT”, www.imagesofvirtuality.org/docs/ppts/Moras_Antonios.pps, (accessed 22nd April, 2012).

“Philosopy Fetish”, http://drlogic.tumblr.com/, (accessed 23rd March, 2012).

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6- Image Credits

Picture 1: Caroline Buttersworth Licking Barcelona Pavilion, http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lz06tveC1H1qztueno1_500.jpg&imgrefurl=http://v-dart.tumblr.com/&usg=__7Ej2hLMe_Xj5K7iqTg8qe4iR4N4=&h=530&w=500&sz=132&hl=en&start=1&zoom=1&tbnid=BawzgeF9WYOP0M:&tbnh=132&tbnw=125&ei=jf3nT8uoIcHd8gOJqfWWCg&itbs=1 ,(Last accessed 22 June 2012).

Picture 2: Neck, www.desktopgirls.com, (Last accessed 27 Octobe 2011).

Picture 3: Anatomy, http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-royalty-free-stock-image-x-ray-anatomy-neck-inflammation-image3946836 (Lase accessed 27 October 2011),

Picture 4: Kayan Tribe Woman, http://eastdayspa.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/kayan_woman_with_neck_rings.jpg (Last accessed 27 October 2011).

Picture 5 Kayan Tribe Woman, http://eastdayspa.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/kayan_woman_with_neck_rings.jpg (Last accessed 27 October 2011).

Picture 8: FOP, http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1511&bih=666&tbm=isch&tbnid=TNnWmuPQlOPscM:&imgrefurl=http://chaosdominium.blogspot.com/2010/06/fibrodysplasia-ossificans-progressiva.html&docid=gQ6EbbW4wapwcM&imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nUejkXd8uW4/TAWjrh7iyTI/AAAAAAAACZo/kj1KNNrW5Pg/s1600/fibrodysplasia%252Bossificans%252Bprogressiva%252Bfop.jpg&w=333&h=500&ei=Nv7nT4PFMNKn8QPoneHACg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=445&sig=111546432347301617551&page=1&tbnh=145&tbnw=110&start=0&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0,i:87&tx=82&ty=29, (accessed 28th December 2012).

Appendix

Brief:

FORM FOLLOWS FETISH

It must be said that most often form outlives function. The body of architecture is a given fact, and so its presence and experience. Is it fair to say then, that it is form that should ideally be more controlled/planned by the architect then function to have more chances to survive societal change? Is form here to stay because it is the primary, and also ultimate, asset of architecture?

The proliferation of digital techniques has brought a close to the seemingly enduring separation of function and ornamentation in architecture. Whether sculpted or scripted, small variations in software protocols and fabrication mechanics can result in the more or less exuberant articulation of ornate surfaces and volumes. Thus could one state that function has long lost its primacy as design purpose, scope and object(ivity) over, for example, complex, texturized geometric formations?

TeachingDr. Marjan CollettiTea Lim | Guan Lee

ConsultingPavlos Fereos | Nahed JawadNiccolo Casas | Richard Beckett

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aRC(2)himera:

In Greek mythology the Chimera was a monstrous fire-breathing creature; the offspring of the most deadly Typhon (an enormous winged, feather-covered beast with snake coils as legs and a hundred dragons’ heads springing from his shoulders) and Echidna (a half woman, half snake creature). She had the body of a lioness, a tail ending in a snake’s head, and a goat’s head arising on her back at the centre of her spine. There are of course many other examples in different cultures. In Chinese art, winged quadrupeds such as the Bixie, Tianlu and Qilin could also be re-ferred to as Chimeras. In genetics, biology and botany a Chimera represents an animal or plant with genetically distinct cells from two different zygotes (and it therefore is not a hybrid) or geneti-cally different types of tissue; the resulting organism is a mixture of tissues, and of different sets of chromosomes. In paleontology, it is a fossil reconstructed with parts from different animals.

aRC(2)himera is an architectural chimera. From its distinct sets of digital chromosomes and analogue chromosomes evolves a monstrous mix-up of various approaches that go from devel-oping skin morphologies, structure anatomies, ornamental textures, responsive environments, biological growth, robotic behaviour, miniature devices, machinic fabrication, interactive media design, tactile/ haptic/sensorial feedback etc. To some this may look and sound outrageous and horrific—as it is neither elegant nor pure, nor truthful or correct (process-wise).

Why this Frankensteinian, Modern Promethean approach? The grotesqueness of aRC(2)himera is only relative. aRC(2)himera must be seen in a postvirtual and postdigital context of New Materialism, which marks the ambition to escape from the old unsustainable (socially and environmentally) virtual and cyber architectural visions, and from the old off-the-shelf and unsus-tainable (environmentally and financially) architectural produc-tion methods towards innovative applicable theories, techniques and technologies.

Why being obsessed with digital and nature-mimicry processes if what is really necessary is breeding a chimerical environment that is partly biological, partly technological, partly romantic, partly scary? The ambi-tion of aRC(2)himera is to mark an era of synthesis, hybridity and new potentialities. Today’s postvirtual era is less interested in the almost quasi-religious cyber myth of total liberation from physical limitations (think of the famous goggles or data gloves for example). Digitality is not the alien, the other. Plus, in a postdigital point of view, digitality is fully intertwined with analogue, mixed and biological technologies. Pure mathematical functions just will not suffice. Thus, aRC(2)himera should facilitate the overdue (and for some, accomplished) task of overcoming feelings of alienation and estrangement towards digital technologies, to re-addresses human cognition, augment realities, and develop nature 2.0.

aRC(2)himeras are constitutive occupier of such a conceptual, and ma-terial, landscape. Whether they project fear, or power, they can help in hu-manising the unknown. The ethymological root of monster, ‘monstrum’ means that which teaches, which is again linked to ‘monstrare’, to show; and both deriving from the same base ‘monere’, to warn. So… be warned! Architecture must inevitably respond to the current acute, actually mon-strous, political, economic and ecological problems.

aRC(2)himera, developed by the MArch GAD RC2 at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL London, is part of the year-long brief entitled Form Follows Fetish. Louis Sullivan’s dictum Form follows Function is certainly one of the most known and also misunderstood statements in architec-tural history. Falsely propagated as a dictate against ornamentation and in favour of functionalism, yet seemingly still in vogue.

First of all it must be said that most often form outlives function. How many buildings perform other, different functions than originally planned for because it has become obsolete? Or because the program has evolved so much that it had to move out (because of size, politics, finances or performance)? The body of architecture is a given (and often underesti-mated) fact, and so its presence and experience. Is it fair to say then, that it is form that should ideally be more controlled/planned by the architect then function (as a description of required performance) to have more chances to survive societal change? Is form here to stay because it is the primary, and also ultimate, asset of architecture?

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Secondly, the proliferation of digital techniques has brought a close to the seemingly enduring separation of function and ornamentation in architecture. Whether sculpted or scripted—this is of no importance here—small variations in software protocols and fabrication mechanics can result in the more or less exuberant articulation of ornate surfaces and volumes. Thus could one state that function has long lost its primacy as design purpose, scope and object(ivity) over, for example, complex, texturized geometric formations?

In fact, we are in a new era of fetishisation within (digital) architecture. Aesthetically, we will explore London and Los Angeles rich underground culture. Fetish(isation) in architecture is an extremely precise articulation of aspired perfection (albeit usually exaggerated, even dysmorphic) and/or gratification (albeit often obsessive and compulsive). Fetish(isation) is truly contemporary partly due to the revived architectural discourse on nature 2.0 and beauty++, but also due to novel design and fabrica-tion aestheticisation processes, protocols and rituals. Furthermore, the concept of fetish also raises questions on ethnicity, religion, sexuality, underground culture, and provides thus an alternative argument on archi-tectural design that is not bound within stylistic globalisation, or default design methodologies. RC2 formulates powerful individual sets of values, defined by strong aesthetic (objects, materials) and intrinsic psychological (behaviours, fixations) factors. This is discussed in terms of 1:1 human interaction and also within a larger, urban public context…

RC2 is taught by:Univ.-Prof. (IBK) Marjan Colletti PhD, Guan Lee, Tea Lim.Consultants: Pavlos Fereos, Nahed Jawad, Niccolo Casas, Richard Beckett.

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