Project II - Exercises 02-04

Project II learning goals

- Design for human inhabitation and scale

- Develop an understanding of threshold and spatial relationships

- Discover and develop intentional tectonic systems

- Cultivate spatial awareness

In-class exercise:

a. In pairs or groups of three, take turns photographing and recording measurements of the human body. These measurements will be your document of the scale of the human body. Sketch your surveys and note measurements in your sketchbook or on trace.

b. Map the flow of an action. In a sequence of stills, photograph the human body in the following movements:

• moving from a compact position to an open position, e.g. getting up from a chair, crouching to standing, sitting to laying etc.
• walking a distance of at least a few paces. Measure time/duration as well as distance traveled.

Attend to the scales of movement of different parts of the body, e.g. the range of movement of the head vs the arm, the impact of these movements (being able to touch something vs. being able to see something). Capture the actions from multiple angles and in series of tightly spaced photos.

Exercise 02 due Monday September 16:

•  Using the photos and measurements you gathered in class, produce a series of drawings that describes the two separate activities in space over time. Treat this exercise both as an analysis of the motion, and as an analysis of the amount (and shape) of space the body occupied in each case. Experiment with a variety of ways of representing the information. For instance, you might track one part of the body as it moves across space. Or perhaps you create a boundary line capturing the outermost points of the body throughout the movement. Start to identify the similarities and differences between the two activities. What are the important aspects of each action? View? Linear movement?  

Bring in a series of drawings for each activity. They should be constructed and drawn at the scale of 1” = 1’-0”

Exercise 03 due Monday September 16:

We will be casting in plaster for this project and will need to test out the material and the casting technique before we can design for it. Please produce a test mold and bring to class on Monday. It should be made with foam core, all joints should be fully taped with heavy-duty cellophane packing tape, and the top should be open to accept the pour. Also, please bring a small bucket, latex gloves, stirring stick, rockite or plaster of paris, and latex gloves. We'll do the casting in class as a group.

Exercise 04 due Sunday September 15:

• On our blog, post brief responses to the following questions (supplemental or example images encouraged):

-How does human scale and proportion influence the built environment?

-How does the built environment influence human occupation?

Remember to periodically check the blog for reference images, links etc.