CINEMA CLUB

I would like to introduce you to an initiative supported by Aj Laura, Aj Connelly and myself:
the creation and administration of a cinema club in the architecture faculty, by the students, for the students.


As we think of it now, one film would be shown every week, with the possibility of inviting a lecturer (film-maker, architect, writer, photographer or other) to introduce the film and further discuss its meaning and influence.


We would like to have this set up and rolling pretty soon, and are asking for students who would be interested in running it.


Administrative work, such as timetable and room booking will be done with our help.
As well as the decisions on which films to show, which themes to create and who to invite.


You will be in charge of advertising the event, every week, by creating posters and flyers and by sending a newsletter to all students through the INDA mail list.






Proposed monthly themes
 HOUSE/HOME
_ Eraserhead, by David Lynch, 1976, USA
_ Mon Oncle, by Jaques Tati, 1958, France
_ Last Life in the Universe, by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, 2003, Thailande
_ Shorts films by Buster Keaton, 1917-1937, USA


 PANOPTICAL SPACE - THE TECHNOLOGY OF VOYEURISM
_ Videodrome, by David Cronenberg, 1983, Canada
_ Rear Window, by Alfred Hitchcock, 1997, USA
_ The Tenant, by Roman Polansky, 1976, France
_ Peeping Tom, by Michael Powell, 1960, UK


 SUBURBAN DYSTOPIA
_ Blue Velvet, by David Lynch, 1986, USA
_ Edward Scissorhands, by Tim Burton, 1990, USA
_ Elephant, by Gus Van Sant, 2003, USA
_ Two or Three Things I Know About Her, by Jean-Luc Godart, 1967, France


 HUIS CLOS
etc.




Proposed film-makers
Michelangelo Antonioni
Jacques Audiard
Ingmar Bergman
Luis Bunuel
Tim Burton
John Cassavetes
Charlie Chaplin
Joel and Ethan Coen
Francis Ford Coppola
David Cronenberg
Chris Cunningham
Virginie Despentes
Charles and Ray Eames
Sergei Eisenstein
Rainer Fassbinder
Frederico Fellini
David Fincher
Milos Forman
Georges Franju
Terry Gilliam
Jean-Luc Godart
Michel Gondry
Peter Greenaway
Michael Haneke
Werner Herzog
Alfred Hitchcock
Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu
Spike Jonze
Buster Keaton
Abbas Kiarostami
Kim Ki-Duk
Stanley Kubrick
Akira Kurosawa
Emir Kusturica
Fritz Lang
Richard Linklater
Sidney Lumet
Auguste and Louis Lumiere
David Lynch
Georges Melies
Hayao Miyazaki
Nanni Moretti
Mamoru Oshii
Katsuhiro Otomo
Francois Ozon
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Roman Polanski
Michael Powell
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Satyajit Ray
Alain Resnais
Roberto Rossellini
Gus Van Sant
Ridley Scott
Martin Scorcese
Vittorio De Sica
Jan Svankmajer
Quentin Tarantino
Andrei Tarkovsky
Bela Tarr
Jacques Tati
Hiroshi Teshighara
Francois Truffaut
Lars Von Trier
Peter Watkins
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Orson Welles




Feel free to make suggestions, to ask around you who else would be interested. All years are welcomed, from INDA and Thai program.

Review comments and directions

Ok, so..
All of you have to work drastically on your presentations!

Work on the coherence between your presentation and your project, your idea, your design.
Do not use group researches for your personal presentation unless you have distilled and re-interpreted the information in order for it to suit your personal views on the project.
Choose the paper on which you are printing, and use the same all along (unless not doing so is meaningful to you and/or your project).
Choosing one format will help you laying out on the wall. Think and plan your wall layout ahead.
Choose a font and stick with it (unless not doing so is meaningful to you and/or your project) - colours have to be employed only if the differences are actually telling something - font-size relates to the importance of what you are writing.
Do not write if we cannot read.  (from a distance)

Generally prefer a good diagram or summary to a long paragraph.

As a side note, after having seen the projects of today, i recommend to most of you to work now in section, from the building to the strip.

Grace

Study the art of story-telling. Learn the techniques and transform them, apply them to architecture.

What are the story(ies) you could tell in this specific place - where specifically - in relation to what - how - and for what reasons?

What are the stories already being told there? Any narrative being displayed? Is the façade not presenting still mysterious signs?

Remember that architecture is not experienced only in a physical way.

Fa

Finish your analytical work - complete and detailed. Each sheet should address a question, a subject, an issue that you analyse and understand the best you can. 

Define your position, according to what you actually want to say, to change, at least to address here and now. But do it in response to the brief.

One simple question that comes in mind to achieve that would be: Is the evolution of Thai society (and its materialisation in the city of Bangkok) reflected in the way the faculty is constructed / experienced / used?

Ong

I guess you know that showing only pictures and texts is not enough for an analysis, even less for the first step of a design proposal.

I guess you know you had to manipulate the data from group researches in order to support your personal approach.

I guess you know we are not here to dictate to you what to do at every step.

So i guess i won't give you much until you start giving yourself.

Amy ?

Best

Finish your plan and photographs presentation for Tuesday - add as much details as you can, even if you do not know now what use to give to it (you can ask Cherry how to do that, she's very good at it): people, directions, activities, changes in time, in space, etc.

You will have to answer the question WHY - why the reflection? and of what?

spatial experiences (to be defined) + programmatic experiences (to be defined)

Shane?

Ton

Congratulations for your presentation improvements! Still some clarity could be gained.

How can you transform the strip into the rabbit? How to invite people? To intrigue them into coming in?

Then what is actually happening inside? how do you end the hole? what is it leading to?

The existing hidden spaces have to be well-studied and their possibilities explored through design.

Eiab

Work on your presentation! (unity - titles, subtitles, font, size, colours, labels ...)

Draw diagrams of the relations between shade and walking patterns - understand the relations - then consider what you can do: 

How can you modify the walking patterns with a shading device? For what reasons?

How can you invite other activities (and host/improve the existing ones) with the shading device?

Inversely, would it be of interest to create a shading device which would respond to the walking pattern (receptive in real time)?
Besides, if you are interested in the reasons why people walk in straight lines, and would like to work along with or challenge this fact, document yourself on the subject.

Cherry

Any drawing you will produce from now on has to have a clear intention behind it (a reason behind each line) and should enable you to study/discover something. All drawings produced so far have to be re-worked with this exigency (in the case of those seen yesterday, establishing the difference between the actual physical field of vision and the human perception/sensation/consciousness of space).

You can change subject but whatever you will introduce on Tuesday will be the subject you will work on and you have to make the decision yourself.

Since you like drawing so much, i suggest that you create a framework of parameters (from your analysis and your main intention) in which you would be able to develop your design through drawing, quite freely.

By the way, you should really get the book: Drawing the motive force of architecture by Peter Cook.

Enn

Make at least one sheet to explain your programmatic creation. Why those two activities? How do they function? etc.

Before moving back to Metabolism, do consider on what criteria can you choose what the most suitable system is.

And you can only establish this if you work on the programmatic conditions, as well as the site conditions.

Is transformability really necessary? If not, what can it produce that is beyond those two programs?

Illustrate your researches in detail, explain what made you take on one system over the other(s).

Golfe

Re-work your presentation (think about it for next time!).

Do not focus too much on the idea of identity now, for the expression of an identity is much more complex than the display of symbolic letters evoking a name. The identity of the school should be revealed in the process of making your intervention, in its very existence and in the way students can get involved in it.

An architect working a lot with paper (tubes generally) is Shigeru Ban. Do look at his splendid work.

You have to work step by step now - define the usages, the purposes, the forces in place.

In parallel to that work, start investigating and experimenting with what one can do with the materials collected. This work is about transforming an object. That is, firstly, understanding what it can do that is not related to its original function. It is a detournement. Combination of materials might be interesting.

The final products have to be well-manufactured! We expect a good quality of craft here. Look at the superuse website for a lot of examples.
The Domus Winery by Herzog & De Meuron (the project Aj Taylor was talking about) has been studied by Grace for the Encyclopaedia. 

Geng

Do you want to change the journeys people make on this strip or does your shading device go with the existing ones? Why? How could you suggest more activities?

Think about the shading device as a tool. What are the parameters of this tool (form, density of shade, relation to the ground etc.) How can the manipulation of those parameters allow for new behaviours? 

N

Define for yourself what you call a sculpture. What are the qualities you expect (mean) when you talk about a sculpture-like structure? What is its relation to the ground? Is it a continuous piece (surface)?
Then the main question to actually begin the design process will be: what are the parameters which are going to sculpt? What are the forces in place from which the form can be derived? Then we will ask ourselves how, this will also depend on the material(s) you choose.
Go to TCDC and find the book Catalytic Formations by Ali Rahim, as suggested Aj Taylor.

Pun
Be careful with your presentation! (titles location, subtitles, image position etc.)
Do you intend the information to be understood? Is it about an abstraction (an intellectual understanding) or an experience (a bodily absorption)? Can you involve other senses? Smell / touch / sound are rather related to a direct (sensual, even animal) experience, whereas vision is far more educated and therefore interpreted, perceived in a less direct process.
Work on the depths, depth of the strip, and depth of the technology you are dealing with.
Define what are the inputs and possible feedback.
You could study both the Institut du Monde Arabe by Jean Nouvel in Paris and GreenPix by Simone Giostra and Partners with Arup (on this particular project though be careful with the "green" and sustainable labels, often attempting to justify the operation of a technology totally unecessary in the first place...)


That's it for now!
Questions?
See you on Tuesday for the 2nd part of the pin-up.
Oh.. and just for the pleasure of seeing a beautiful project being realised, look at the latest post on boiteaoutils, the Truffle House.