Phase 03 Into Berlin
The City of Berlin has undergone a broad range of changes in the past century. Fermenting over the last two centuries as a cultural capital the City has seen huge swings in the ideologies that have formed and reformed the city. As spatial designers we are attempting to find our space in Berlin via remoteness as we are scouring data sources, developing mappings, and proposing new relationships. This remoteness is the studio normal and by carefully navigating this condition the intent is to produce forms of architecture and landscape that capitalize on our removal from the physical site(s).
The final phase of the studio will ask for the development of a project that illustrates the experience of an imagined, historical or near future Berlin. The collective research and conceptual frameworks have produced a broad range of ideas centered on counter culture, memorialization, environmental mischief, hacking, physicality/virtuality, and exclusivity. Continually referring back to the disciplines of architecture and landscape architecture the projects will produce media (films, imagery, and audio) that will be utilized to convey a narrative about the experience of Berlin and the underlying/overarching physio-social layer of surveillance.
Method Phase 03 will produce a series of proposals that formulate a story about Berlin, the built environment, and surveillance. This will be addressed through a variety of means outlined below. This outline is intended to provide a scaffolding for each person or team’s work and can be approached or appropriated in multiple ways.
1. Develop a narrative that allows one to experience a historic, contemporary, or future Berlin. 2. Unpack media precedents to understand how techniques, methods, and aesthetics may be applied to current work. 3. Understand how film (as well as other media) contribute to the proposition of architecture and landscape architecture. 4. Produce an evocative media experience that captures the design proposition put forth by each student/team. 5. Form a platform for each student/team to explore their own research agenda as it applies to this studio.
Working in small teams (2-3) or individually you will design a narrative that allows people to imagine Berlin through the lens of surveillance. Implied in this story is that spatial design can influence and respond to this contemporary condition, bridging the gaps between the physical and the digital and the tangible and perceived. Each of the following methods can be utilized to produce the broad range of work necessary to illustrate the conditions, architectures, and landscapes you are proposing. Narrative The narrative will create a story that is grounded in reality, proposing a condition that allows each team to explore their proposals through this focused lens. This narrative will form iteratively over the next two months and is a critical part of the design and visualization process.
Aesthetic and Technical Precedents Carefully unpack media precedents to understand their ability to convey specific concepts that focus on aesthetics, method, and technical procedures. These can be specific films that you are choosing for their application of clear visual languages, storytelling methods, or applications of motion graphics software. It is important that this goes beyond a collection of things you “like,” instead it should be a way for yourself and others to understand your process (technical/aesthetic).
Storyboards As the project will be utilizing film and motion graphics it is necessary to storyboard key moments to understand how they relate to one another. These will also provide a basis to more fully explore the temporal dimensions of the work.
Film(s) Each team will create a film, this may be produced via a collection of films that are sequenced together. The films created by the teams/individuals will be specific to each project but will be screened and understood as a collection, producing a body of work that is distinct but also discussed as a whole. The process of producing these films will be centered around finding a space between the abstract and the measured, an exploration of the role of architecture and landscape architecture in this form of media.
Supplementary material It goes without saying that this phase of the studio is proposing spatial ideas. It is therefore necessary to produce site plans, sections, mappings, diagrams, etc. to fully explore and ground these ideas. Every project should have an appropriate range of base materials that explain the fundamental spatial/tectonic frameworks of each project.
Meta Topics Every project should consider the overarching meta topics in the studio. These topics are deeply embedded in the work of Phase 01 and 02 and should be brought forward in carefully considered ways in Phase 03.
Consent, Uneven application across class/race/gender, (control/lack of), Cultural Perception, Aesthetics
Deliverables The deliverables for this phase of the research will be the following:
1. Narrative . 1500-2500 words 2. Aesthetic and Technical Precedents 3. Storyboards 4. Film(s) 5. Supplemental Materials
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Week 7 6.10 Introduction of Phase 3 Lecture Narrative (Kamal + Gaengler)
8.10 Workshop #3 (Kamal + Gaengler)
Week 8 13.10 Review of Block Outs Discussion of Initial Narratives and Inspirations
15.10 Workshop #4 (Kamal + Gaengler)
Week 9 20.10 Lecture Temporal Systems (Cantrell) Group Discussion (Miro)
22.10 Individual Team Meetings
Week 10 27.10 Lecture Composite Methods (Cantrell) Group Discussion (Miro + ScreenShare)
29.10 Lecture Weight of the Cloud (Gordon) Individual Team Meetings
Week 11 3.11 Working Session
Week 12 10.11 Review (Miro) Film Roughcuts
12.11 Individual Team Meetings
Week 13 17.11 Group Discussion (Miro + ScreenShare)
19.11 Individual Team Meetings
Week 14 24.11 Group Discussion (Miro + ScreenShare)
26.11 Thanksgiving
Week 15 1.12 Individual Team Meetings Technical Q&A
3.12 Individual Team Meetings Technical Q&A
Week 16 11.12 Review...Exhibition...Dissemination 5.11 Group Discussion (Miro + ScreenShare)