Tuesday, October 21, 2008

EleganTech.

Brennan Buck, Gabriel Esquivel, Pedro Alvarado, Alex Pincus, Benjamin Ball at Barragan's house. (Photo courtesy of Benjamin Ball) Tacos at Kaliman (Photo Courtesy of Benjamin Ball)
Alex buying a condom (Photo Courtesy of Benjamin Ball)
Super Cool Brennan Buck
An Architectural Moment (Photo Courtesy of Benjamin Ball)
(Photo Courtesy of Benjamin Ball)

Thursday, October 16, 2008

EleganTech. Review

Student presentation Alex Pincus adressing the jury members. Benjamin Ball
Brennan Buck
The conference was a ground breaking event of three days of several presentations and discussions. We will have a publication about the event early 2009.
The photos are part of a jury for a student competition about a surface exploration. The review took place at the School of Architecture at the TEC of Monterrey Mexico City Campus.
The jury was composed of the conference participants; Benjamin Ball, Brennan Buck, Alex Pincus , Pedro Alvarado and Gabriel Esquivel.

Monday, October 13, 2008

12@20

It has now been some years since the Eisenman Chillicothe Visitor Center Design Studio at Ohio State. It is time to reconvene to discuss and critique the current trends in architecture, and our professional development since graduation. It is with great pleasure, we announce: October 25th, 2008 20:12 Conference

· 20 years :12 Architects · Time: 9:00 a.m. · Place: 330 West Spring St .Columbus, Ohio 43215. · Format: Morning Presentation Discussion Lunch Afternoon Presentation Discussion Drinks and Dinner Attendees David Schultis, Tom Lanzelotti, David Mancino, Chek Fong Tang, Gabriel Esquivel, Jerome Scott, Joe Tanney, Davis Goth, Jim Samuelson, Mark Schendel, Eric Lagerberg, David Fratianne, Lou Batsch, Diane Faridad, Dave Lenox, Topics: Post Deconstruction, Theory Dead or Alive? Post Criticality, Body Centrism, Performative, Emergent, Emotion.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

EleganTech

Conference in Mexico City, October 8, 9 and 10 2008.
REVEN and The Tecnologico of Monterrey Campus Xochimilco in Mexico City invite you to attend.
With:
Benjamin Ball
Marc Fornes
Alex Pincus
Brennan Buck
Pedro Alvarado
and
Gabriel Esquivel
Elegance represents a maturity and pursuit of excellence in digital design.
Elegance is generally used as a standard of tastefulness, particularly in the areas of design and fashion. Elegant things exhibit refined grace and dignified propriety. Others understand the word in an opulent light as in tasteful richness of design or ornamentation. The term was chosen as an umbrella to discuss different issues concerning digital practices. It is a combination of Elegance and Technology. A mathematical theorem is considered to have mathematical elegance if it is unexpectedly simple yet effective and constructive; similarly, a computer program or algorithm is elegant if it uses a precise and intuitive code to great effect.In engineering, a solution may be considered elegant if it uses a non-obvious method to produce a solution which is highly effective and simple. An elegant solution may solve multiple problems at once, especially problems not thought to be inter-related. Elegance concerns refinement, precision and formal opulence. It integrates an aesthetic desire. The concept of elegance has the ability to push forward the discourse of contemporary architecture by accepting that complex architectural compositions require a visual aesthetics as sophisticated as the current techniques used to generate form. This idea of elegance that has arisen from the use of relational equations and scripting mediated by digital techniques including subdivision surfaces and NURBS modeling; tools that incorporate the most advanced results of experimentation in digital design. Progressive digital design techniques are pivotal to moving forward in the field of architecture. Elegance confronts this shortcoming in critical discourse by arguing that the mastery of technique, whether in design, production or both, does not necessarily yield great architecture. As architectural multiple complexities are difficult to condense into a single formal criterion, it becomes apparent that a more interrelational set of criteria is needed to develop architecture through emergent methods. When multiple criteria are employed, the formal design development is subsumed within the techniques used, the final design does necessarily reveal the process of its creation, hyperindexicality. Elegance is achieved when, rather than allowing external constraints to alter and compromise the internal organization is manipulated and transformed to adapt external constraints. Elegant structures possess formal features and material articulation that are rich enough to emphasize the realm of bodily sensation.
La elegancia en arquitectura representa una madurez en diseño digital. La elegancia se utiliza generalmente como estándar del buen gusto, particularmente en las áreas del diseño, la moda y artes visuales. Los objetos elegantes exhiben gracia refinamiento y propiedad. Otros entienden la palabra bajo una luz opulencia como en la riqueza del buen gusto "del diseño o de la ornamentación; la elegancia suntuosa del ambiente." La prueba de un teorema matemático se considera tener elegancia matemática si es asombrosamente simple en lo eficaz y constructivo; de manera semejante, un programa de computación o un algoritmo es elegante si utiliza un código exacto e intuitivo de gran efecto. En la ingeniería, una solución puede ser considerada elegante si utiliza un método no-obvio para producir una solución que sea altamente eficaz y simple. Una solución elegante puede lidiar problemas múltiples al mismo tiempo, especialmente los problemas que no son evidentemente correlacionados. Los químicos, buscan siempre la elegancia así como utilidad en síntesis. La elegancia se refiere al refinamiento, a la precisión y a la opulencia formal que integran un deseo estético. El concepto de elegancia tiene la capacidad de impulsar el discurso de la arquitectura contemporánea aceptando que las composiciones arquitectónicas complejas requieren una estética visual tan sofisticada como las técnicas actuales usadas para generar la forma. Elegancia que se ha presentado del uso de ecuaciones relacionales y de la práctica de “scripting” mediados por técnicas digitales incluyendo superficies de subdivisión y el modelado de NURBS; herramientas que incorporan los resultados más avanzados de la experimentación en diseño digital. Las técnicas de diseño digitales progresivas son fundamentales al del campo de la arquitectura. La elegancia enfrenta este problema enguanto al discurso crítico sosteniendo que la maestría de la técnica, en diseño, en producción o ambas, no rinde necesariamente gran arquitectura. Pues las complejidades múltiples arquitectónicas son difíciles de condensar en un solo criterio formal. Llega a ser más evidente la necesidad de un más sistema interrelacional de criterios para desarrollar arquitectura con métodos emergentes. Cuando se emplean criterios múltiples, el desarrollo del diseño formal se incluye dentro de las técnicas usadas, el diseño final no revela necesariamente el proceso de su creación. Se alcanza la elegancia cuando, se permite que los apremios externos alteren y comprometan la organización interna, esta se manipula y transforma para adaptar los apremios externos. Las estructuras elegantes poseen elementos formales y articulaciones materiales que son bastante ricas para acentuar sensaciones corporales.
QUESTIONS:

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

GOOD BYE COLUMBUS!

Good Bye Columbus! After all these years at The Ohio State University, I am going to Texas A&M starting this fall, it was a great opportunity I couldn't refuse. I will be joining the Architecture Faculty to collaborate with their digital design endeavors and hopefully produce an interesting new center of exploration with new research, lecture series and by inviting interesting people as well. I would like to thank all the magnificent faculty within the OSU Department of Design; Reinhart Butter, Brian Stone, Peter Chan, Paul Nini, Noel Mayo, Alan Price and Maria Palazzi for all their help and support. Special thanks to Heike Goeller and Jeff Haase for believing in me and trusting my instincts, together we created a new direction for the Interior Design Curriculum, experience I will never forget. I also would like to thank my friends and great supporters at the Knowlton School of Architecture; Ashley Schafer, Jeff Kipnis, Jose Oubrerie, KB Jones and very special thanks to Rob Livesey, without his help, support and advice I would have never been able to get reach this moment of great opportunities. Gabriel Esquivel

Monday, June 30, 2008

ATMOSPHERES

ATMOS-FEEL

I MUST FEEL

GOTHIC BULLFIGHT. The Space of Death and Seduction

GOTHIC BULLFIGHT
"The Space of Death and Seduction"
The Ohio State University. Knowlton School of Architecture. Sophomore Studio. Spring 2008
Critic: Gabriel Esquivel
Lighting Effects Critic: Dave Covey. OSU Dance Department
Students:
Dan Starcher
Tim Cousino
Terry Lerner
Jessica Day
The premise of the studio was to develop a performative surface using light as the main inspiration. My studio took a different approach and we began to investigate the idea of producing an emotional surface. This lead to the idea of investigating different effects and finally creating a series of atmospheric installations.
This new studio discourse wanted to shift the classic critical architecture paradigm of thinking(indexical process) to feeling (affect).
The research started by looking at Gothic rose windows, their geometry and their lighting effects. Another source of inspiration was the interior atmosphere produced by the candlelight in front of the altars inside the churches. The idea of a color effect led to the investigation of bullfighting for several reasons, the idea of motion and emotion. The ritual from the anticipation when the bullfighter kneels in front of the a specific atmosphere like the altar, the moment of the seduction when he stands in front of the bull, all the way to the moment of death.
This particular event is already charged with specific emotions and we wanted to use that as inspirations to explore the possibility of producing new affects.

GOTHIC BULLFIGHT. Daylight.

GOTHIC BULLFIGHT
"The Space of Death and Seduction"
The Ohio State University. Knowlton School of Architecture. Spring 2008

GOTHIC BULLFIGHT. Digital

Digital Studies before Fabrication Documents
GOTHIC BULLFIGHT
"The Space of Death and Seduction"
The Ohio State University. Knowlton School of Architecture. Spring 2008

GOTHIC BULLFIGHT. Technique and Surface Effects

Technique
Final Surface GOTHIC BULLFIGHT
'The Space of Death and Seduction"
The Ohio State University. Knowlton School of Architecture. Spring 2008

GOTHIC BULLFIGHT. Fabrication

Paint Process
GOTHIC BULLFIGHT
"The Space of Death and Seduction"
The Ohio State University. Knowlton School of Architecture. Spring 2008

GOTHIC BULLFIGHT. Inspiration

Corrida de Toros
Religious Altars
GOTHIC BULLFIGHT
'The Space of Death and Seduction"
The Ohio State University. Knowlton School of Architecture. Spring 2008