STUDIO AGENDA

motives | program | themes | acknowledgements

index | proofsheet | agenda | individuals | gallery

 

Three Architectural Elements

 “Portal”: Architecture represents organizations to their constituencies in public space. Form: portico onto plaza

 “Mediamesh”: The skins of buildings incorporate information and environmental technologies. Form: wrapping a box.

 “Headhouse”: Station design collects flows that can be difficult to map mentally under a space that can be quite memorable. Form: Canopy

Three Metaphorical Villages

Greenfield Village: Henry Ford gathered many historic structures into one of the first and most telling instances of what became a new cultural genre called theme park. Tous this village may symbolize not only nostalgia, but also the very real social histories of technology. (The HenryFord is of course a museum and research center, as well as the memory palace of a billionaire. Here are some first reactions.)

 West Dearborn Village: Many of the opportunities and constraints of exburban densification have been demonstrated here. An urban design studio could learn a great deal from this town. To us this village may symbolize all perimeter projects of emergent urbanism.

Global Village: McLuhan’s central image of media sociology has morphed beyond the mass media televisionof his age or the cyberspace metaphors of the early internet to represent the accelerating (and often handheld) connectivity of humanity. To us it may symbolize urban computing, which is the notion that even in information arts, context increasingly matters.