The Birth of the Ark Royal -Chambré Hardman

Hans Hollien - Aircraft Carrier City in Landscape 1964

Modern tools - Human interface

Coming out of a long conversation I had with my brothers and sisters yesterday I have begun to think more and more about the human interface of today tools. One of the things my younger brother brought up was that aging, or the main cause that generates many of the negative effects of aging ie- loss of mobility, strength, bone mass, cardiovascular health, is actually due to a lack or absence of gravitational stimuli. This effect is accelerated in space where astronauts age at an increased rate, but is easily found in respect to all aspects of our modern life. For example sitting, a position where the natural gravitational loading on the human body is changed or accommodated (for comfort) to a point that it is enjoyable in the short term (daily operation of a computer from an ergonomic Herman Miller chair) but in the long run generates loss in bone mass, cartilage regeneration and circulatory and cardio vascular strength. I've been thinking about these affects on the human body in relation to the tools we use, computers are one of the main tools in our industry (many of us in architecture are spending between 8-12 hours per day sitting in front of one) but also with respect to industrial tools, loaders and excavators, The kind of heavy lifting of todays work force has been engineered and designed to allow for maximum comfort and minimum fatigue, in effect the cabins of these industrial vehicles has actually contributed to extending the sedentary lifestyle of workers today. I find it ironic because these are the jobs of strong men, robust men, however they are caged into and air conditions comfort ride ergonomic easy chair for their working day, most heavy equipment operators smoke like crazy and generally take poor care of they body. It probably doesn’t help that they no longer get any physical stimulation while ate work save for the short climb into the machines cabin (which I’m sure we are currently working on a design to accommodate.

A Virtual Environment

An Arcade Game Controller

A Strong Hand

So my question, and my brother’s point, is what is our modern definition of human? Are we just brains and hands hooked to a machine? Is there a way that the machines can still allow us to be human? is there a way that the machines can be suited to the natural, healthy loading that is representative of the operators strength? can these modern machines act as our gym time as well? Can they promote a level of fatigue that is necessary for good health and a good sleep? I guess for me it comes back to the question since when is work a bad thing? When is fatigue a bad thing?

Some shots of excavator operators and their cabs.

A Tough Dude.

Ian McQue - Concept art

Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty - Opening Cinematic - Environment suit / Battle armour

Only because it is awesome,

and because I am a nerd

General direction: check. Now start walking.

I have been informed that my four abstracts could potentially blend into into one, sounds good to me, saves me from choosing one right away.

Roughly, I think I stand in the general pool of architecture as tool or building as tool. Then within that I move to the tools of building, or even more fun buildings that are tools, Buildings that are tools quickly blends into buildings that are machines, and bam! I can put, prosthetics, mills and industrial buildings into one fantastic bundle, one that I can explore through architectural scholarship, documentation, and of course design. This will also allow me to investigate multiple aspects of the same theme to gain a picture of what is really there. It's not that I have a short attention span or something, but I do. 

I also want to structure my own production in such a way that allows for a relatively quick turnover of projects, in evolutionary terms I would like to allow for as many generations of designs and or research to take place within a given time span. To be wholly focused on short term deadlines that involve: a case study, some research, and a design every month, with the goal of achieving 6-8 individual projects that all expand on a theme -architecture as tool / machine -  in order to generate a body of work and a cohesive idea from separate projects, a kind of aggregated thesis.  I hope it will show a process as opposed a finished product. This will also allow me to determine the thesis as I work, as I produce, a bottom up approach to a thesis.

First step in this process, a step that will be ongoing is the collection and cataloging of the images projects and inspiration that I find, The blog will serve this primary purpose of cataloging -cause I can link to what i find really easily-  while also providing a platform for me to write down my thoughts as few and passing as they may be. 

Abstracts - Rough..

Somehow writing four was way easier than only writing one,

-1             Our forerunners settled the Great lakes region by harnessing the power of the watershed, the thesis will investigate forgotten / abandoned mill sites in order to explore themes within Canada’s architectural, cultural and environmental history, as well as speculate on its future potentials. The focus of the thesis will be on the possibility for these mills to be rediscovered as hydroelectric power plants creating a decentralized power plant in the form of a network of Micro, mini, and small Hydro stations throughout the region.

-2             Building as tool, Industrial architecture in a post-industrial society, industrial heritage and the potential for industrial buildings the thesis will examine industrial architecture and its key role in the making of vacated industrial centers into new urban city districts, specifically within the context of The West Harbour in the Hamilton, Ontario.

-3             Architecture as machine, responsive architecture within canadian climates, the thesis will confront the augmentation of computer systems, environmental pressures and machinery into the built environment in order to generate a flexible model that embraces north America’s intimate relationship with the machine. 

-4             Architecture as tool, throughout human history humans have devised tools for which to do labour, hunt, and survive, extending the capacity, capabilities, strength and durability of the human body. The thesis will examine the role of architecture in its most elemental form, as a tool, an extension of the human body for which to survive, do work, and affect the natural world.

methinks there is a theme here..

Manual Engagement - Excerpt - Shop Class as Soulcraft Matthew B. Crawford

I read Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford only a few months ago and it really struck a nerve. Today I picked it back up and flipped to a random page, under the chapter Agency vs Autonomy I re-read this paragraph.

"Thinking about manual Engagement seems to require nothing less than that we consider what a human being is. That is, we are led to consider how the specifically human manner is being lit up, as it were, by man's interaction with his world through his hands. For this a new sort of anthropology is called for, one that is adequate to our experience of agency. Such an account might illuminate the appeal of manual work in a way that is neither romantic nor nostalgic, but rather simply gives credit to the practice of building things, fixing things, and routinely tending to things, as an element of human flourishing."
Matthew B. Crawford

I guess what I like about this, and what I like about the entire book is the elevation of manual work. Mostly Crawford is referring to maintenance as a work of the hands but in order to translate this into architecture. I  feel that the education of architecture is incomplete, the act of creation and creative work is incomplete, without some form of manual engagement. Making things requires a manual engagement, it requires the maker to experience and create the world through his or her hands.

Just thinking. Now that the term is closing I will begin to use this blog as a trail of breadcrumbs to help me trace my thoughts and re-shuffle my ongoing file...

Post Unimog : Thinking Thesis.

Sometimes, you think you know exactly what you want to do, until you set out to do it. So with the final project of the M1 term finished, I am savoring a few moments to stop and think about my summer, and my masters education. The presentation of the Unimog went as well as I could have hoped and the project itself was super fun, more fun than it should have been, so much fun I have to ask myself, do I really want to research hydro mills for the rest of my graduate education? Maybe.

The Unimog Project was fun for a few reasons, the first was the over all coolness of the truck and the blending of camping and architecture. The real thing that got me constantly fired up though was the fact that the Unimog is a machine. I like machines. I like the Pink Floyd Song "Welcome to the Machine" and I also really like robots, never mind.  On top of all this, I like tools, tools of all sizes, forms and shapes, tools began very simply and one of the first tool that scientists speculate on is the creation of a fabric clasp, a button, or broach. Pretty obscure sure, but seriously the broach in combination with a fur, or skin enabled a woman with child to carry and protect their young without using their hands. It also allowed the child to continue to grow before needing to be mobile allowing for longer duration for brain development and maturation. The sling was the first tool, not the bone or club like 2001: Space Odyssey would have you believe. Tools became extensions of the human body, a sling mimicking the womb, then a club to lengthen the reach of the fist, all the way through to axes, chainsaws, cars, excavators, bull dozers, cranes, and computers.

So yeah I like tools, I like machines, I like wheels and gears, moving parts and rust. So in my thesis thinking, in my multiple fascinations that I am to juggle, shuffle and use for inspiration, where does the machine come out? The Mill is one part of the fascination, the mill is the picturesque machine within nature, in a pastoral setting, the mill is deceiving, for all of its quant representations, the mill is a machine, or a machine housing, protecting the equipment from the elements, hiding the dangerous wheels and gears and spinning rollers and saws, the Mill is a tool, the mill is a machine. So there is some traction with mills. Nature and the machine.

There is also the idea of architecture as machine, a house as a machine for living, and architecture as tool. Recently I have been partaking in an anti-planning / protest exercise for the west harbour in hamilton, advocating for the re-use, and preservation of some pretty narly, historic industrial buildings, the Rheem building being one of them. The Rheem building is a tool, its main supporting structure is a gantry crane with a truss roof sitting on top. see image below.

 This Industrial aesthetic is something I always come back to, the machine as inspiration for architecture. Lately this has led me to look at things like excavators, back hoes, and bulldozers. A kind of industrial industrial design. So now there is a pull, a pull away from the Mill and toward the factory, and the machine. I guess right now, it all falls generally under the theme of the building as machine, architecture as tool, architecture as an extension of the human body.