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‘Architecture One to One’, Design Studio I
Advanced Architectural Design Columbia University, NYC Summer 1996

Professors: Jesse Reiser & Nanako Umemoto
This studio addressed an array of constructions too large to be mere objects yet too small to constitute even a small work of architecture. In a domain formerly closed within the category of “interior”. This label was inadequate because it upheld a dualism that was derailed in the studio.
The process involved the constituents of the interior: furniture, fittings, coverings, etc., in a transformational matrix that fundamentally altered formal and social space.
Surface (neither inside nor outside) was considered as the primary datum through which a heterogeneous constellation of issues (social, organizational, material, virtual, etc.) was brought into play.
Given the relatively small scale of the endeavor, the body figured as a locus -though neither the only locus nor the defining locus- for the work.
Speaking of the literal body in terms of: -its weight - its impress - its mobility - its multiple affects - that made it less a definition than an extended and infinitely extensible set of potentialities.
In keeping with the heterogeneous constitution of this work a mutually informing set of techniques and procedures was employed. For example: complex topological geometries generated from the Alias platform informed and were informed by material constructions.
The project was produced in part at full scale. This did not imply a return to a craft ethos (though craft as a cognitive and technical procedure was necessary) rather it suggested a form of “management” that married techniques and materials derived in the computational environment with material practices. A virtuality was thus manifest in the partially manageable: the gap between actions and their effects.
“In a similar way the success of a soufflé is not dependent upon the chefs knowledge of food-chemistry, success rather depends on managing attending a complex process that has its own internal dynamic and possibilities.”

Other GemArch Projects

01. Temporary International Criminal Court, The Hague, NL 2002-2005
02. Villa at Schoorl, North of Holland, NL 2003
03. Entrance pavilion, ICC and Eurojust, The Hague, NL 2003
04. Masterplan for the High Court of The Netherlands, The Hague, NL 2002
05. Apartment, Rotterdam, NL 2000-2005
06. Design of a roof terrace, Amsterdam, NL 2001
07. Prix de Rome, 5year Architecture competition, NL 2000
08. Renovation and Extension of a Cityhouse, Utrecht, NL 2000
09. Competition Emile Braunplein, Gent, Belgie 2000
10. Skopelos foundation for the arts, Greece 1999
11. Training institute for Management, Hubermont, Belgium 1997
12. Custom made furniture ICC, The Hague, NL 2005
13. Fascinations
14. Shifting Horizons; Design studio MSc1, Technical University Delft, NL 2003
15. Living patterns; Design Studio V, Technical University Delft, NL 2002
16. Rest Stop; AAD Design Studio, Columbia University, NYC, USA, 1997
17. Architecture One to One, Columbia University, NYC, USA 1996

 

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Gemma Koppen Ir., Msc
Mathenesserdijk 396a2
3026 GV Rotterdam
+ 31(0)10 477 3803
www.gemarch.com
info@gemarch.com