Quiet Move: Full Resolution Studies & Design Charrette
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Turning Simple Lines into Dynamic Structures with Calculated Geometry
The “Quiet Move” derives its namesake from the infamous chess move. This move explores the idea of impeccable, patient, and calculated plays in the midst of a chaotic game. While exploring the main themes of our FRS, we began to compare our theme of “unrolled boxes” to a grid, resembling a chess board. By delving into the ideas of lines/vectors transitioning into surface and mass, the importance of subtle and implied instability in the context of structural soundness became apparent. Just like the “Quiet Move” in a Chess Match, our FRS examines the opposing themes of irregularity and fluidity with very calculated, structural, and intentional geometries.
Location:
Los Angeles, California, USA
Role:
Architecture
Phasing:
Pre-Design
Schematic Design
Construction / Build
Class:
University of Southern California (USC)
ARCH 505A
Design Year:
2024
Main Collaborators:
William Bailey
Isabella Drag
Dunia Faraj
Photo Credit:
Ryan Tyler Martinez
Instructors:
Ryan Tyler Martinez
Erin Kasimow
Jimenez Lai
Background
Students worked in teams to build a 1:1 full resolution study (FRS). The studies are used as a proof of concept when resolving details, material thickness, and tectonics at a larger scale by combining standard building components that one could purchase at a local hardware store. The quick three-week design charrette will introduce students to design collaboration and materiality assemblage with a focus on form, construction, and documentation.
This assignment used the quad above the Helen Topping Architecture Library at Watt Hall as a site-specific location for six full resolution studies. Students worked in teams of four or five to design and build their FRS. A design charrette is a collaborative group exercise where people work together to quickly design and to explore a broad range of ideas. The goal of the assignment is to allow students to experience building construction methodologies while also creating a conceptual relationship between multiple forms of representation and scale. The class will be designing and building full resolution studies (FRS); these studies will be bigger than a model but smaller than a room. The studies are used as a proof of concept when resolving details, thickness, and tectonics at a larger scale by combining standard building components that one could purchase at a local hardware store.
Materials
Image Credit: Ryan Tyler Martinez
Specifically, we looked at a wide range of materials and possible mediums including plywood, 1x3’s, and pocket hole connections, amongst other building tools. We engaged with the team next to you both formally and in your selection of materials. We’ve responded to the site through multiple foundational and disciplinary topics. These site-specific subjectivities should encourage students to translate their observations and narratives into material assemblages.
Sample Model Topics
The assignment was broken into five main topics: context and narrative, frame, surface, detail, and finish. Each of these topics was used in a chronological way, building onto one another. A primary focus was part-to-whole relationships as a tectonic and aesthetic strategy for making design decisions. The word tectonic is derived from the Greek tekton, which signifies carpenter or builder. Loosely speaking, it referred to how the different parts of a building were assembled or joined into larger structures. This presented a problem towards a conceptualism around tectonics, between how an object appeared (phenomenologically) to be put together in relation to how it was actually (materially) assembled from various manufactured parts. The focus was on possible mediums of exploration, including narratives, grids/frames, slackness, posture, exosuits, tectonics, texture/graphics, and exquisite corpse.
Design Drawings
Plan Drawing of FRS Models (Neighborhood 1)
"IKEA" Styled Drawing - Assembly Guide Drawing
Human Interactive Space
FRS Model that the team built is a human interactive space, that is made with human ergonomics in mind. Although sculpture like look, the FRS model encourages general public to engage with one another.
All Collaborators:
Alexandra Dagnino - Angelena Moon - Anna Camodeca - Asha Ravi - Asher Adel - Benjamin Tesler - Brenay Grimball - Catherine Huang - Christopher Bugay - Daniel Opstelten - Diego Becerra - Dunia Faraj - Erin Kasimow - Faris Alharthy - Garrit Wilson - Gloria Breck - Gretchen Ariate - Heyan Cheng - Isabella Drag - Jimenez Lai - Kristal Sarman - Mack Tibayan - Madeleine Emeric - Nireeksha Gandhi - Noah Smith - Tristan Deetz - William Bailey - Xintian Yang - Yuxiao Wang
Unauthorized use of any image or text is prohibited in any use. Images cannot be altered or modified in any way, in whole or in part, that disparages Jae Bin Lee or any of the collaborators.
