And I am very excited to
be here it's after two and

a half months my enthusiasm
is just going up.

I think this place is amazing and

I'm really looking forward to the next
the next few years moving forward.

But instead mentioned.

I'm going to be coming to
you as a practitioner and

I'm going to I'm going to get
Actually I've never given.

You know I think it's certain point your
career you know you're kind of deep in

the trenches working on
some specific project or

some specific research and
other times you're kind of

back you know you're reflecting
on what you've been doing and

that's sort of what I use this lecture
to do is to kind of step back and look.

At what I've done in our practice what
the practice has done since it began.

So I'm going to structure a Watcher's
literally a kind of journey

from the very beginning of our practice
up to what we're doing now and

what we're actually trying to kick off and
as a next phase it's a lot of stuff

you know drag you know not
just accelerate it but

I am going to start at the very beginning
in the first probably ten years I'm going

to go through some projects very quickly
just highlighting the projects I mean some

of them are kind of funny you know you
see computers with big C R T's and.

But but I'm just going to
highlight in those projects what

I carried what we cared for what was
important and what was you know part of

part of our kind of trajectory
forward when we started practicing.

I don't know three four years out
of school you know at that time in

New York he sort of made a decision you
either were just going to do competent

big competitions and try to win a big
commission and then kind of launch your

career that way or you started doing
smaller commissions in New York it was

usually interiors because there's not
much you know new construction for

small firms or you taught or any or

a combination of those two usually you
taught because it's the only way you could

make enough money to exist but we wanted
to do all three so the first part of our.

Career we were we were doing competitions
and we were also you know building

at a very small scale but still building
because we just we love to build So

this is the project that really launched
our career was for it was a competition

open competition for a convention center
in Japan that we entered the there

was a there was an invited list of four
Japanese architects actually the architect

from around the world and then there
were four that came in from an open and

open selection like six hundred
entries and we got shortlisted.

Somehow.

So it was it was a great
experience it really did

you know it made us confident that this
was going to be a viable career path that

we were going to win these competitions
all the time and get shortlisted and.

And kind of do that path but

you know became apparent that that's you
know that's that's a tricky path and so

we continue to as I said to build at
the same time we're doing competitions so.

I don't explain each one
of these projects but

you know the idea here that I think
resonates still with me now and

I haven't presented this project
probably in fifteen years but

it was a series of theaters Black Box
Theater in these two theaters in a big

open pause a kind of urban design project
so in addition to the idea of these these

kind of ramps that went out and
kind of activated the Urban Plaza.

The concept was really about
the relationship between the space of

a theater and
the space of simulated imagery so

what we did is we took the Presidium of
these theaters and we kind of extruded

extended content happen into theaters
into this two story walkway and

there were big screens here that
kind of activated the plaza so

what was going on in here in
real space was actually being

simulated kind of in virtual space in
the Plaza it's kind of an old idea now but

you know this is one thousand nine hundred
two these are the dates and here just so

you're following kind of where we're at so
that that kind of you know that.

Kind of stuck with the ceilings in a funny
about this project is last project we did.

Before we shifted to doing everything
digitally and at this point we the second

phase we actually rendered did all the
renderings with the software that was just

somebody had had had written software by
hand it was in a package software this

was before the earlier software packages
and so the only way we could get

output to actually put on our boards
was actually photograph the screen so

you could get a render up on the screen
but you couldn't actually print it so

the only so we had our photographer you
know sitting there with a four by five

format camera in front of the screen
just waiting for the image to come up so

we could take a photograph print it and
then put it on our boards.

So you know that was then.

So that at the same time you know we
were doing small interior projects

mostly residential at that time this
is a plan that we actually did two or

three projects for.

You know a series of sliding panels
that allow them to kind of reconstruct

their loft in different ways.

And then what competitions this was
a competition for a library and

again the library in Japan for
their national diet library.

We didn't do very well we didn't shortlist
it gets short listed on this actually

wasn't even really too happy with this
project but again it was just part of

the trajectory that we were doing
between competitions and built work.

Then you know about this time this
is ninety five we got a commission

to do a a very interesting project for
Cooper Union in New York for

their engineering school it was
a mechanical engineering they had just

bought computers as a teaching tool and
the chair of mechanical engineering

a great guy that we became very good
friends with was just trying to figure

out how to teach with technology how to
teach with computers and what it meant for

the classroom and so
we were very carefully with him

not only on the design of the project but
on the actually on the design of a kind

of pedagogical approach to how
to use computers to teach.

This is where it starts
to look very dated.

Some of you will notice these big S.G.I.

machines that were
powerhouses that that time.

But.

What we did with this project was there
was like a strong programatic component

and that we developed this concept in this
project that we still kind of use it is

basically just taking that in a teaching
environment with technology you can teach

and you can learn at multiple scales it's
no longer just like you with your work or

you with the teacher but

you have this capability of working alone
as an individual working in a cluster

we designed all the furniture
in this project to.

Working as a group you know this is rear
projection presentation room but also

you can see these images out in here where
the one that really was interesting to us

was I have multiple scales in this again
it's second nature now but at the time

it wasn't that you're literally with
technology you're learning and thinking at

multiple scales all the time to
seamlessly kind of zooming in and out of.

Information and content and knowledge
is so we were trying to come up with

a spatial concept that captured that and
we still uses this today in some of

our work and then I think it's a distance
learning down there that's an old term but

at that time it was pretty cool deal
with it to log in to a remote location.

Architecturally we were had just
become very interested in C.

and C. fabrication so we were kind of
using these projects to explore and

kind of push industry to
get even a small project so

we you know the design we
designed this kind of.

Ceiling we use the same geometry to
design the first interest of these

lines actually follow
the lines of the ceiling.

You see and see technology to mill
all the templates for the ceiling and

all the furniture and at this time I think
the fabricator we ended up working for

had bought a C.N.C. machine had no
idea how to use it so somebody in our

office had to go and teach them how
I mean had to learn themselves but

then teach them how to actually use
this machine so it was definitely.

It's actually been something we've
done a lot of you know we get into.

Projects and we use projects to
kind of push our profession and

push industry forward and
we're always looking to do things that

that haven't been done even if it's
at a small scale and looking for

ways to kind of improve the process
is a methodology as with how we work.

So just some images this.

A little bit later we got a commission
at Columbia this was a simple but

very formative project for
us to it was the mandate here it was for

the School of International and
Public Affairs.

And they had a theater it was basically
look like this and it was used for

big events and they want to transform it
into a teaching environment where I forget

the seat up there were like three hundred
and twenty or three hundred thirty seats

so they wanted to really can see that as
a space that could be used for classroom.

Use in a way that the teacher professor
could walk around without being miked and

that everybody could hear them so

it was more informal It gave you
a chance to kind of wander and

not be tethered to the podium so
it became a project about acoustics so

we teamed up with at that with Eric
acoustics who at that time it was a very

small group in New York now they're one of
the most respected acoustic consultants

in the world but this was really when
they were just getting going and

they did some some acoustic modeling for
us and basically you know

intuitively would know this by just kind
of this idea that if this is the stage and

somebody is a presenting the sound needs
to reflect to the back but be absorbed

in the front so you don't get a kind
of an equal distribution of sound so

essentially it was taking the distance
from the front to the back and

acoustically trying to even it out so
the acoustic level was the same

from the front of the space
to the back of the space.

So it led to something like this
The stage is on the left side and

the rear of the theaters on the right side
of the classroom is on the right side

which is basically just a surface
that is more reflective of the.

Front more absorbed in the back and
gradients from the from the front to

the back so
the sound absorbs more in the back but

reflects from the front
to get to the back.

We also know they'll say about this is
that this was not scripted this was

we were still this is one of the first
perforated projects we did and

we laid all this out by hand
probably in Illustrator but but

it was not generated we weren't doing
generative algorithmic you know sort

of design at this point and so it's very
tedious a very early version of C.N.C.

machine cutting all the cutting
all the panels again the client.

I think the client was about ready
to kill us at this point because

you know they wanted to see this product
in a catalog shop give me a sample of this

you know work and you show me a sweets
catalogue where you can get this and

it will if you want this room to function
like you want to function there is

no standard product that allows you
to do this you know concepts of

customization were starting to occur at
this point and so we were able to convince

them that the new technology was allowing
you to kind of customize the use and

performance of the space way beyond
any standardized product and

these are the kind of discussions
that we constantly have with clients

really in an effort just to
continue to push things forward.

A few years later we were fortunate
enough to be commissioned by the Museum

of Modern Art the old building
to redesign their lobby and.

Take abuse and this is a fun project
very quick project but it was.

It was a project that we had it was very
demanding I mean these things had these

with a take a bit and we designed they had
to be rolled out of the way for big events

so they had to be very kind of strong and
robust almost built like a car so we kind

of designed it like a car with the with
the kind of chassis in it and the shell.

And the other thing that
was happening at this time.

Again is I'm reflecting back is
that we started to establish

really strong relationships
the fabricators with these small.

Projects we were able to literally work
directly with you know with with a lot of

subcontractors and fabricators and

establish a really direct relationship
much harder to do on bigger projects but

a model which I think is still something
we need to move toward as an industry.

You know get into that a little bit more
later I'm not sure we're doing that but

but we were able to set
up a kind of pattern

of workflow in our office that allowed us
to do that that we just assumed when we

scaled up that we were going to be able
to do it and we actually tried to do it.

Another residential project that we
did this was for a client that had had

a two story townhouse on an upper floor
they bought the floor below so we had to

open up the floor make a connection so you
know it was just about blowing out a big

hole in the floor put in a glass floor and
then creating a stairway that connected

all the different levels again a lot
of great work with in this case a steel

fabricator that we still work with we're
doing a project with them right now and

what was in one thousand
nine hundred ninety eight.

This is just the lower level.

Where this flight was actually extremely
demanding they wanted the space to be so

flexible that they could work there
they could have people stay there

there was privacy but
openness they wanted a lot of conflicting.

Had a lot of conflicting demands which
made it very interesting architecturally

So you know we developed
this is very large

horizontal shape that could close off
that last four to get privacy but

open up if you wanted to you know to
kind of connect the all the floors.

So that you know the right hand side it's
open on the left hand side it's closed.

Another project about the same time.

In this one it was a top floor
loft small space in Soho and

we cut out a slot in the ceiling to open
it up to the sky it was a top level unit

put in a mezzanine so this is just above
an empty box and we started with this one

you know what was just an exploration
of materials light and just the.

All of space.

So that open so all these this entire
back area which is all the private zone

of the House can either open up or
close down.

This is a detail a sliding glass panels I
mean this is an example you can't see this

but the hardware I mean we were
just like into finding unusual.

Products So this is the way this thing
these these are huge last panels where

they slide is on a on a rolling
system that is actually

used in warehouses two to
move huge pallets around

around warehouses so we got the most
the smallest version they had and

retrofitted it for these panels because we
didn't want any hanging hardware up here

we wanted just this really clean piece
of glass sliding into this track so

we want to kind of invert the hardware to
hide it so those kind of explorations you

know we're we're part of we're
doing it in the kind of early days.

So then.

In two thousand and other competition
we entered as an open interests.

And this one we actually won so

we thought OK well this can really this
can happen you know you can do this.

It was for a school in Chicago.

It was a variance in project because
it involved not only just a project but

the city of Chicago and

a lot of cities at that time were looking
at ways to reconsider urban education.

The model up to this point had been
a kind of industrial model of education

where you put five thousand kids in a big
building and teach the same thing so

there is of education we're transforming
to where there was much more emphasis on

one on one much more emphasis on
the learning than teaching and

so the school systems were trying to
figure out a way to economically in

a feasible way break down big schools
into small schools so the idea here was

very simple it was in this case it wasn't
that big it was eight hundred student

elementary school that had to be broken
down into two hundred student modules.

That shared some facilities but
had some independence it was about this

balance in a negotiation between
shared space and independent space so

as you can imagine you know these are the
schools this access along here is where

all the kind of common shared spaces the
library the gem things like that we also

had a very strong relationship
to the landscape here where.

The landscape kind of just
slid suddenly dipped down and

entered the buildings of the building was
two levels but it was done in such a way

that there were no ramps in those
stairs because the transitions were all

what's called landscape it was also based
on universal design universal design was

kind of new at this point so
they wanted to also use that concept in.

In the Design where there's not a distance
is not a distinction between those

that have needs and those that don't and
it led to a pretty interesting design

result I think so this just shows
you know a kind of diagram we were

doing a lot of research on education
theories at that point we also had a son

I should say my partners my wife for
those of you who don't know that.

And we also had a son that was just
entering elementary school to sign so

we were really into understanding
what education was about so

we did a lot of research on
just theories of education and

you know there's just turn that use some
of you might know this constructivism we

think that about that in
a different way in architecture but

it's basically a theory of education which
says that knowledge is constructed not

conveyed in other words you have to
learn how to teach to where you can

allow students to construct their
own understanding of concepts and

ideas you can't just convey it out so that
was very interesting to us and it kind

of influence the design diagram this was
also supposed to be a prototype so we

were thinking about how this one building
could be replicated around the city and

kind of react to different occupancy
needs and different site needs.

So it was it was kind of an early.

I would say an early concept
of parametric programming

where you where you have
certain anchors who.

We call these kind of we call
these bootstraps at the time

where they were anchor points were these
where these schools would link together so

these were fixed but the size and
the configuration of the use of the Rings

could expand could deflect to avoid a tree
of what a sight condition could get bigger

for bigger schools could get smaller for
smaller school so you maintain this kind

of I would say the kind of the basic
concept of the diagram stayed in place but

it could adapt to different site and
program conditions.

And then this is just.

The final model with some some
sections and details the.

There was a ramping system technically
called the landscape which kind of

wrapped around the you the you part of the
building that fed into all the classrooms

of the classrooms were located around the
around these things and then the ramp was

on the inside each school had
an internal courtyard which is here and

also in an exterior courtyard there so
there were a lot of overlapping shared

spaces between schools but also a lot of
privacy within in the any one school.

Paul can you said my waters down there.

Sorry excuse me for a second.

So.

The other thing we.

Did With this project and this was kind of
one of the efforts that we did to win this

thing was to explain the concept
to to lay people and

so we came up with this idea called time
use diagrams which was basically trying to

explain in a very calm a very user
it was a very complex situations was

users because you had students that belong
to the school you had teachers that shared

between that was shared between schools so
we developed this representation technique

where we basically through scenarios lay
out something that might happen you know

at a given time over the course of a day
and we would diagram it by color coding.

User groups so that so that a layperson
wasn't just looking at an abstract plan I

haven't any idea how be occupied they
would actually be able to put themselves

in there identify themselves with one of
the symbols used in the diagram and begin

to understand how they would interact with
each other and how the complexity that we

were arguing for in terms of program
could actually could be viable and

conceivable over the course of a day.

I mean it's it was simply
inspired by scenario planning.

It's a very long story
it didn't get built.

It was very frustrating we were.

This is we're going to start
going off on a tangent but

we were about to sign the contract it
didn't happen for a number of reasons and

you know it was it was
a that was a tough one.

So we continued to do small projects this
was a restaurant we did where we took

some of the techniques that we had
used in the in the auditorium.

For acoustics and develop this ceiling
panel custom metal ceiling panel but

again we had different.

To have dining areas that were louder and

dining areas that were more quiet
again this was still being laid out in

Illustrator the STOP IT WAS REALLY
maniacal.

Early versions of just you know
where the architect would actually

take responsibility for the production of
the panels I mean our liability insurance

agent had no idea what we're doing because
they would have literally dropped us but

again this is just one of the things you
have to do if you're going to push things

forward if you let insurance companies
dictate the progress of our industry we're

not going to go anywhere so
as a small firm we can take risk.

These are some of the panels individual
panels that made up the ceiling.

Another residential project we did this
was for a client that had a really

interesting collection of folk art so
in this one it was really about.

Kind of material research and
trying to develop.

A context that would fit the art well so

we we used a lot of different materials
and here we did a cast in place concrete.

Kitchen.

Interested in New York you really can't
do cast in place concrete it for an X.

three or finish until recently.

Because of the.

Concrete.

Industry.

It's a long story but this is the kind of
politics of we're going to place like city

work in a place like New York City where
people who would try to do high and

concrete like this in the city
would be discouraged from doing so.

So we did it inside.

This was blackened steel
translucent glass with shelves in

the bag you get a kind of silhouette
through the through the glass and

then it was all of a kind
of relating to the art.

Another competition going
through these very quickly and

I'm going to spend more time on
a couple of projects at the end so

don't worry I'm not going to
be doing this the whole time.

Another competition this was in two
that we got invited to in a long list

like twenty four people we got
shortlisted down to three but

didn't win it was a project for
the Fashion Institute of Technology.

And I think the unique challenge of this
building was that the site was was only

like forty feet wide is very challenges
for for classrooms and academic space

it had to connect to a big building
which you can kind of see over here but

the building itself had to
be kind of independent and

you still had a loud enough light in there
in between that building and this was very

constraining site two hundred feet long
forty feet wide single loaded corridors so

our concept was really about how
to kind of understand the building

the entire building is a facade and
and make it a kind of weave between

the city and the campus which was on
the other side of this building so

this is just an early diagram we did for
that.

Some images or drop in here.

That's not

good.

All right here with me for a second.

OK that means that I
need to hurry up I guess.

OK I think the last one of these projects
was a project that we did in zero three

and this was this was the first time that
we started getting involved with the city

of New York and at this time Governor's
Island which was an island just off

of lower Manhattan which
had been unused for

many years there was the city was starting
to think about what to do with that

with that space and
we were asked to come up with one idea for

a type of use is very quick project
just really kind of sketch idea and

we proposed this idea of an ecological
Learning Center it was a very again it

wasn't a fully developed project but it
was just posed to be something would get

people excited get developers excited
about what to do on the island and

Governor's Island has actually
started to evolve and

some interesting things are happening
now which we're not part of but

this was I think what was important for
us about this project was just our gauge

with the city which continues to this day.

It's really bog and here.

Just another image of that.

OK so now I'm going to shift those
That's the kind of fast pace

through the early years.

At that point we had started to
develop a kind of idea about what

practice was what industry was
what was going on with industry.

What was possible with industry and
we developed

all of these are theories as much as
they're just kind of working concepts but

these kind of fit over into the book
that I did most recently and

there were three kind of conclusions that
we came to in terms of what was going on.

In in the profession of architecture and
more largely in industry.

So there were three things that we started
thinking about designing design in this

was just simply a realization
that that at this point design

processes we thought about them
were were were changing radically.

And that you could no longer take for
granted.

That the process that you were engaged in
as an architect was completely compatible

with what you really wanted to do and
so the idea was that design systems

were being designed by software
companies and others and

architects need to understand that
design itself was a design problem.

And that's how we started to think about
our work that literally design is a design

problem it's a metal problem that that
with technology has enormous potential but

also has consequences that if we don't
engage in this in this evolution of

technology and its relationship to design
you know our voice is not going to

be heard as a profession the second
one was designed in assembly and

this was related to digital fabrication
but more importantly it was thinking

about the possibility that you could now
that architects had a direct link to

fabricators through C.N.C. Technologies in
other words you no longer really had to do

drawings that then got handed to
somebody that then somebody interpreted

in-built you could literally go straight
straight to to manufacturing profound in

implications in my opinion
not realized at all.

So design assembly was the idea that
wasn't just digital fabrication was

the idea that you could literally as an
architect designed the assembly process is

that would that would be used
to put your buildings together.

And then the last one designing
industry zooms out even more and

really talks about organising.

That again through technology that that
industry was shuffling quite radically and

that again industry had to be
thought about as a design problem

that as an architect you could
intervene and start to set up

different relationships with partners
as a way to set new protocols and

standards for industry so if you think
about that from an engineering side or

a process management side you have one
attitude about that but if you approach it

from a design from an architect side you
have a completely different attitude about

what industry should be and so
the argument here was that and for

us that we had to be involved in
that reorganization of industry

we couldn't just say it's going to
happen and we'll just plug into it.

And the only way really to get architects
interested in that is to pose it is

a design problem not a technical logistics
problem it actually is a design problem.

So this this is a project that we did.

For Columbia University very sad very
small project very important for

us the first slide library for
the department our history in archaeology.

And this is what I want to focus on
here I'll talk about the design but

it was the design of the organization that
we did at this time this kind of merges

with my teaching I just become director
the fabrication lab at Columbia.

Barry Bergdahl had just become
the chair of art history.

We had this small project in.

The heart of our history from our practice
with Columbia so as a professor I was

directing a fabrication lab I was a I
was a vendor to Columbia facilities and

I had the mandate with the fabrication
lab to do full scale stuff no models

full scale so we thought our let's put all
these pieces together another words let's

design the organization of the project and
see if it works so we came up with this

idea of coming up with a design for
the for the project using Columbia

students in Columbia architecture
facilities to fabricate the thing we.

I had a contract with Columbia facilities
the school of architecture had a contract

with the Department of art history so it
was interesting kind of legal set up that

everybody bought into because we presented
it as a win win thing it was good for

everybody very simple project it was
just literally a box of course we

made it as complex complicated as
you could possibly make a box.

And it had no white when we first
got there there was no light.

But we crawled up in the ceiling we were
doing some probing in the early stages and

we discovered this thing this is the top
of an old we can mean why building

in the attic.

So we discovered this thing.

And it was a huge skylight that had been
covered up and it was right over the space

and that's it right there kind of Bastion
So that changed the whole thing for

us because we thought it was going to be a
real simple you know why very challenging

in terms of quality of space but
we discovered that skylight it changed

everything so basically it became
a very intense fabrication project

we treated it like a piece of furniture
were all the pieces were fabricated and

put together as part of a kit almost.

And there was this very didactic concept
that we had which is kind of demonstrated

in this in Star Graeme which is that this
wall was the let's say the the wall that

we put a lot of emphasis on in terms
of design these other three walls

were really just think of them as
kind of screen walls to the space but

what we did is that we took this is this
was made up of the series of layers of

India like we have over an hour or
a tram very common at this time.

So we took the tooling paths that we
had generated to construct this wall

which are up here and we repurposed them
and read constructed them really really

repurpose them as perforation lines for
these other three walls right so

the same data that's been used to
construct this has been used to generate

these perforations around the other
three sides so it's kind of a reuse of

design information that became
a design concept does it make sense.

We work really.
The heart of this diagram try to explain

this but this is what was used to actually
cut the panels out for this wall and

then these are you know these panels where
these tooling Pads have been compressed.

The show's just kind of transformation
from wire from design to a rendered model

to the to the final design.

We did a lot of prototyping.

We prototype everything a full scale
before we built it fabricated everything

in the shop when we got we didn't have
much capacity of the time so when we would

reach our capacity but had a deadline
we would outsource some of the work so

that was also part of it how
do you use facilities and

create a network of fabricators to
create something we were maniacal about.

About the mandate that every single
piece in this thing had to be see it had

to be modeled in milled and put together
so no table saw is even that would have

been a lot easier to cut these things
on a table saw we wanted to exercise or

kind of explore this idea that you could
literally model every piece send it to a.

C.N.C. machine fabricated put it together
so these are these are the pieces

that make of these kind of
columns that make up the walls.

That long wall was held together by
compression they're just threaded rods

that feed all the way through it and
just hold it together this is no glue or

no and this is the students.

The students assembling it over the summer
the whole thing was done in about two or

three weeks and
this is the final result still there

when was this done before Still there
are still looks like this it's a great

thing to even take students
over to see right now.

I don't know if you can see this but
you see the kind of imperfections here.

The client really love that I mean
this is our history the client love

the imperfections you know it's like how
you have this hyper precise process and

hyper precise equipment but
you still have this kind of.

This texture of the of the process that
it doesn't does doesn't get eliminated so

we also like that I mean we love the idea
that there were the kind of not really

flaws but they're just a trace of the
process and still shows that you can't you

can't optimize that out nor
do you want to.

So here you can see kind of detail of
those tooling Pads that have been become

a kind of what I call a perforation line
and then on the inside of the space this

is the effect you get.

And yes there are still
slides in the old wood.

Cabinets which are quite nice.

And then just some details.

So when we did this.

We set it up in a way that we were really
thinking of it as a as a prototypical

process it could be replicated in schools
of architecture around the country

so we're going to try here
at some point hopefully but

the idea is that universities
have enormous capital resources

they build projects on campus schools
of architecture have very eager and

talented students that want to do stuff.

You can probably get a lot better value

from the school of architecture than you
can from a market so why not put all

these ingredients together to great
learning experience it's a great story for

the universities it's a it's a great
experience for the students and so

we were really kind of we were designing
the project but we were also again

designing the process in a way that
we could potentially replicate it.

The next project this is a bit of
an anomaly for us we don't do a lot of

installations but we were commissioned
by the Museum of Modern Art to

participate in an exhibition they had home
delivery fabricating a modern dwelling and

this was the first exhibition that
Barry Bergdahl did when he became curator

moment and he was our client for
the slide library that I just showed so

that was pretty convenient.

So he had this very ambitious idea for
the.

Show which was that he wanted to.

Show a kind of history of
prefabrication architecture.

Show what's happening today and then also
show what the future where we were headed

in terms of the integration of fabrication
architecture so I don't know of any of you

know this show but very commission five
teams to build houses essentially out

in a parking lot next to Momi it was it
was incredibly ambitious full scale houses

he commissioned three architects to do
just small installations inside which And

we were one of those groups so

the houses outside response to be this is
the cutting edge of what's happening now

the kind of installations inside response
to be about speculating about the future.

So we took we took this idea of designed
assembly designing assembly that

I just talked about and

we said this is a good example a good kind
of test case to push that to a limit.

So we were very constrained in terms of
size you know how to be kind of a wall.

So we we had this idea of simply taking
two pieces of steel still plate and

figure out how to create a structurally
robust wall without any fasteners.

With no fasteners.

And also be you know kind of beautiful
statically interesting so we started by

doing paper models that you see here kind
of studying studying pattern patterns more

than anything but it became clear that we
had to start working with the material to

really get to the structural idea so
this is a little.

Kind of concept statement that we
developed we were comparing and

trying to differentiate where we are today
in terms of thinking about details in

architecture with with with the with
the modernist concept of detail so

we were we were kind of proposing that
modernist details were about managing

preventing a fractured parts so
if you have part of A and Part B.

you put it together with the C.
with the third part right so

what we were proposing is that with
this ability to link directly to.

In factoring.

That the assembly process itself could be
actually embedded in the logic of A and B.

you did not need the third piece to
actually put two pieces together right so

the assembly was imbedded in the design.

And that becomes you know
a step toward full integration.

So these are some of the earlier we did
a lot of test to try to get pieces to

this is in steel that this was actually
the material we were working on

material that we're going
to do the final version in

studying this different
pattern types different.

Different tab types and it was a lot
more complicated than we thought to get

something to be structurally stable so we
really started focusing on the tab itself

literally the tab was what
folded from one piece and

another piece to lock together to
make this structurally sound so

we did a lot of studies to get work and
finally it was kind of obvious we realized

you couldn't do tabs like this they had
to do that they had to come at each other

at ninety degrees to be structurally
stable you know it's kind of obvious but

it took us fifteen of these
samples to figure that out.

So so it was all about developing this
tab to apology that would then get

instantiated to make this entire panel so
this kind of goes on for too long but

this is just the the diagram where it's
more than a diagram it literally is

the kind of tooling pads for the true
impact for a for one tab one set of tabs.

We had to name all the different parts I
mean this is a micro scale this scale this

is only about this big but
we had to be extremely precise here.

So I'm going to go on here
I want to go on to one so

that just continues to kind of those are
the two tabs of tabs there was a major tab

which was this one and a minor tab so
that tab snap together

with the tab on the other side in this one
did the same thing but it's now together

with the minor tab on the opposite
side this might explain it more.

So this was the essence of the entire
project with this little detail.

And this shows you more three D.
in a more three D. view how it worked.

So that's the miners had coming
along to lock into the major tab.

And this was incredibly strong.

So then we just developed.

We developed you know this was
we actually had to do this and

could see it was a very complicated
model to do because the tolerance for

these tabs coming together had note
there was no room for mess up so

there was literally a point in space
that we had to meet with these tabs for

each one of these so the variation in
the pattern that you see on the surface is

a result of the distance between
the two panels so this is also

you know we were very interested in that
at this point in trying to merge form and

fabrication lets say in other words
there was a lot of work going on with

algorithmic design at this point
where it was very driven by form as

a kind of dominant driver we were trying
to figure out a way that you could merge

kind of formal in an aesthetic aspirations
with with the simply aspirate aspirations

where one was a result of the other so the
pattern that actual design that you see

here is literally a result of the logic
of the mechanics of the mechanics of it

coming together there's no
preconceived form here.

It is it's the one of the other
participants this is riser Moto

who are amazing architects this was their.

Version and what was interesting about
this one I mean you know we're all very

good friends but they were literally
creating this in their garage by with

rubber mallet strung to been this thing
together into a shape to get it to look

like this so they're very driven
by is that it's unapologetically.

And then the other entry I have better and
the other entry was.

From the Rahim and this was more
about three D. printing blocks and

just kind of sticking them together so
I think it was a very interesting.

Three approaches to the idea of
the sort of future of technology and

an architecture and
here's an shots of the final installation.

OK.

I'll try to go through this quickly in a
minute is going to focus on one aspect of

this project this was a project also
we did at Columbia has been very

good to me actually.

This is for the school of journalism
the growth of school journalism for

us as a student center
a kind of social hub.

We have done a master plan for the entire
building and did a couple of projects but

this project was very small
actually was a small addition and

interior innovation kind of the addition
was lodged in between two buildings in

the addition was adjacent to that so
the addition was literally just.

A roof and

a front facade because the two sides
of the sides of the existing building.

OK so.

So this is what we did with this
project we said OK In a typical project

you have your standard consultant you're
vertically integrated consultants right

you structural engineer mechanical
engineer this is these are contractors

fabricator this was another contractor
because that contractor got fired.

So you had this you know this
vertical alignment of make up a team.

What we were interested in was you know
eventually teach a lot about there is

a concept of a network practice OK how
can a small practice like ours expand and

kind of grow horizontally to bring in
expertise into our office that we didn't

have and we couldn't afford but then we
could kind of coalesce in a symbol for

a project for a particular project so
we did is that we teamed up with

all the you know front front was become
more of a standard consultants but

in this role they served as
a more unconventional consultant.

These guys were two years out of Columbia
recent grads who were very good at

scripting this is a graphic designer that
was quite good Steve is a technology

fascinating program where their
students actually work with firms and

work on real projects so
we had those students in our office

they have an incredible skills we had
them in our office and they designed in.

And we're responsible for part of this
project so this entire This was the design

team right we're just one
member within the design team.

So with that what we did is we kind of set
up the design in a way that there were

four parts that we would kind of work that
we would give each one of these design

teams and they all had to do with the kind
of performance acoustic performance

cultural was kind of the graphic design or
environmental which is really more solar

and dynamic you'll see in
a minute what that was.

So the first one this is we're
working with the group from Columbia

proxy acoustic so we had to deal we had to
address an acoustic problem in the space

and that this was going to be a very
loud space a lot of people and

we had to create an acoustic ceiling you
know we could go spec in Armstrong ceiling

to be very ugly or
we could do something and

kind of explore a design process to where
there was a father fabrication process so

they developed this is all their work
they developed they did an acoustic model

they developed a script based on a tractor
points that was a design objective

not necessarily an acoustic
performance objective but

we were combining a set of
concerns with technical concerns.

They generated hundreds of options
that all met the acoustic criteria so

it became an aesthetic the decision
not an optimization decision.

And then this was the result.

So that was that surface.

This was more interesting because there
wasn't a technical performers it was just

there was an idea that we
wanted to have some kind of.

Some kind of graphic that talked
about culture and it's very vague and

I apologize for that and
I want to get carried away here so

what we did is that we took the building
across the street from this site.

Took a photograph of it pixilated it and
mapped it onto the surface so

that when you look out the window the kind
of pixilated version of the facade

merges with the space across the street
and we had a number of decision

discussions with the with the facts
about what this meant and I don't know.

We ever determined exactly what it meant
but it did it did it did mark a player

a kind of place in time and it had
a beautiful effect actually because it was

the resolution of the image was in such
a way that that when you approached it and

you were like forty feet away you
could see it and as you got closer and

closer it kind of abstracted because
the resolution was not that high so

it had this really kind of engaging
effect in terms of things coming in and

out of focus was hilarious
when it was being built

you know the contractors are just
like what is going on here and

after they got the whole thing up on their
feet I was there with it with it with

the saw that had installed this which was
not easy to install this very heavy gauge

steel he kind of stood back about
thirty feet away just like.

I get it you know it was like a moment
it was just it was all worth it for

this guy once he kind of just
went just clicked into his head.

OK the third surface environmental
performance is really more about a son

study this was in the the little edition
which was a cafe we did it we did a glass

a glass roof and then put a sun
shade on the underside of that So

this is where the Stephen students these
are students doing this they did you know

kind of a solar analysis model.

They generated a script
based on it because

we want to do a corrugated surface that
was a design decision they then generated

a script based on these rules that allowed
them to build a tool very simple run

a script tool for us then to play around
with and study different design options so

we defined the design space with them but
the design space was open enough

that we could actually explore different
iterations of different options and

so this is this is the one
we ended up going with but

we looked at many of these before
we finally decided on this one.

And again you can look at
this is a very limited but

we had already made a decision to to limit
the design space to these parameters.

As the final version.

Now that generated the corrugation of the
surface that we had to do the perforations

and so the perforations we had this idea
that we wanted to have the effect of

kind of being under a canopy of trees
a kind of flickering light effect so

we took a photograph of just in
the space looking straight up at clouds

then they developed a script that would
just read the pattern of the density of

the clouds and come up with
a perforation pattern for each panel and

then those things were you know what you
just saw was just one of these panels and

so this was just the kind of
modularization of the panels you can

fabricate it this is the unfolded surface.

And so this is what the result is.

You never get any direct sunlight it's all
indirect reflected light it's actually

quite quite beautiful.

And that's a space.

And then the last surface we call
dynamic or mechanical service this was

we wanted the front part of this
facade open up to the campus so

this was actually Mark Simmons doing he
knew this amazing mechanical engineer

in Argentina who is known for building
like dynamic parts of buildings so

he only gets involved in a project if it's
if it's moving this is a small project for

him but it was it was really into it so he
basically built a huge double hung window

we claim it's a large double hung window
in New York City but it's basically

this is the frame being tested in his shop
before it came to the side it's about

twenty I think twenty two feet wide about
each frame is about ten feet tall so

he had this thing he built all
the mechanics he built all the parts

the standard parts put it all together
did the screw jack to the motor.

And he had it going up and
down it in the shop for you know.

If my phone if you.

Weird.

That is weird.

I had that happen all the time.

It's going to make sure
the phone isn't on OK.

As it literally OK.

All right.

I'm going on I'm not where I should be
it's seven o'clock I have one more project

to show so they will be
OK I'll quickly go through it.

But I think what you'll.

See what I'm trying to show here is that
is that you know at the same time that

we're designing projects and satisfying
briefs for clients you know with each

project we look for an opportunity to also
kind of do what we would call research

whether it's research into changing
working processes or research into

manufacturing processes we always try
to roll that into a project because.

You may or may not know you know the fees
that architects get can't sustain

true research we don't get enough fees to
do that so the only way that we find to do

that it's literally find some place in
each project actually their research so

that we can actually pay for
it through the fees.

I can tell Aggie

jokes.

OK.

The last project I just started
scribe it so I can go through it more

quickly it's the library the Linux
library which was our our.

Most one of our more recent projects.

And there were.

It was it was we.

I got the commission as part of the New
York City Design Excellence Program they

just started this in this was the first
commission from that program as it was it

was a great project for us to do and
it had a mandated design.

It happened it started and then two
thousand and eight happened and so

everything went on hold when it went
on hold we kind of went into R. and D.

mode because there was literally nothing
going on so all we could do to keep our

staff going was just to kind of you know
to continue to work on things so what we

did with the project is that it was the
last project that we had done in Autocad

and so we decided OK and that we'd already
switched over to the Rev in three D.

At that point so we said OK let's take our
drawings that we produced in Autocad and

let's build the revenue model of it which
is actually what contractors do with all

of our drawings right now.

And so
we did this is a kind of exercise and

built a super detailed model of in
more detail than you would ever do

you know if you weren't you
didn't have anything else to do.

But we discovered a lot of mistakes in
the two drawings which we solved but

more importantly we were
trying to use that that

model as a way to allow the project
to be built to a higher quality and

there's a little context here which
is important in New York City for

public work they have this crazy idea
this crazy law called bricks law

now Wickes law developed many years
ago and it was too it was it was

developed to prevent corruption in
the in the construction industry but

what it means is that on public projects
when they go out to bid they don't go out

to bid to a general contractor they go out
to bid to four separate prime contractors

so they'll send the drawing to a general
contractor to the architecture and

structure they'll send it to
a mechanical and contractor and

electrical contractor and a plumbing
contractor and they sign independent

contracts with those with those people and
they don't even know each other.

So you can imagine.

What a disaster this is that the people
that are building the project

don't even know each other and
they're supposed to be working and

we quickly go through this is
going to see the door opening so

there's a door opening takes four
minutes and thirty eight seconds for it.

It's kind of cool they do it
every day it's still going up and

down every day it's been
a good six years now.

That's the effect inside where you
have this relationship to the campus.

This is a kind of scary moment
when I came to school one day and

walked around the corner and looked over
and I thought they took the building down.

So this is the this is the library and
I'll go through this quickly.

I've given you some context it
was in Queens on the outskirts.

Of Queens this is Manhattan so

it's about as far out of
New York City as you can get.

This is challenging the program called for

twice the amount of square
footage that the site allowed so

the only way that we could solve that
was to put half the square footage below

ground which doesn't count toward
the allowable that they are.

Which is a big design challenge
like how do you make a nice

reading room below ground.

But it actually end up being again one
of these real constraints that becomes

a very interesting design driver So this
is you know quick section of what we end

up doing the Main Reading Room
is below ground and so

half the square footage is above ground
have the script for just below ground.

Three different reading rooms the users
were children young adults and adults so

the children go up stairs the young adults
go back in this area and then the adult

reading room which is the main reading
room goes downstairs to the lower level.

And then that's the the rendering
October happens

here's you know here's the situation
you've got four different

contractors that are going to build
your building that I've never even met.

Which is not.

The way we had worked so
we thought was going to save the day.

And it actually did help a lot so we ended
up modeling all everything we modeled

the mechanical the structure the plan we
modeled everything and more than anything.

It became very useful on site just for
simple communication.

In other words we were able to and
we actually worked with the general

contractor none of the contractors
that even heard of Bynum.

But we worked with the general contractor
showed him what it was asked them what

would be useful for them what would make
their job easier in dealing with these

people that they didn't know and they
told this is actually led to this that

they told us that we need to be able to
go into the model and identify specific

parts through tags so that we can then.

Communicate that to our subcontractors
besides just the three dimensional

complexity then they wanted us to make
every object in their tag of all that so

you could identify what it is in the spec
section I think we had the specs section

so we added these attributes into
the modern The chux Chuck E.

Smith is in the audience and

probably look at this thinking that
I did fake it a little bit here.

If For those of you who don't know
shock some of the undergrads shot

his work is basically is what makes this
happen so if you don't know when you

should introduce yourself you should shake
his hand well you should probably give him

a hug because what he's done is develop
technologies that are going to make

your engagement in practice fundamentally
different so it's very important

what he's been doing his entire
career this one was about maintenance

I don't know if you saw it but we tagged
the objects and linked it to a P.D.F.

of the of the of the of the products of
need to change a light bulb instead of

going through an owner's manual that you'd
never find you click on the light it gives

you the P.D.F. until you were going
to light bulb use change the light so

this is what we are starting to make
the pitch about post occupancy.

So.
So

one of the strong the kind
of main concepts we had was.

Utilizing this word search so we did as a
very simple quick sun analysis of the site

the main part of this is the building
right here the main facade faced north.

So through this analysis.

And then we came up with this
idea of a double parapet this is

the North facade here that faces north
became of the idea of a double parapet so

this is an enclosure that's an enclosure
this is interior space we put the letters

for surge on the back of this
is like on the parapet side.

And then the son just projected on
the front facade no moving parts

no maintenance.

Plant loved it had a lot of
discussion about what word to use.

Some people thought you can't believe
when I came to get into it some people

just were not sure about the connotation
of search we thought it was about

the new library you know you're going from
kind of you know going from Reading to

searching to searching is becoming
instrumental in attaining of knowledge so

this is what happens then
over the course of the day.

In the summer time the sun
is at a higher angle so

the letters stretch there longer on the
façade in the winter they're shorter when

clouds come over them were they disappear
it's actually quite incredible dynamic

thing that really engages the public
when they walk by the building.

I'm not going to play the whole video but

it just disappears Of course there's just
some of the different effects we had you

know these are some of the facts
inside that we didn't anticipate.

Another thing we did was.

On the lower part of the building
we wanted to use this fact

which we discovered we were doing the
project that there is very small community

of twenty thousand people or fifty
countries speaking twenty nine languages

pretty diverse so we had this idea of
translating search into all of those.

Different languages and then using that.

To help generate a fruit pattern for the
lower for the lower curtain wall so this

diagram kind of explains that it's lower
part of the building this is just one.

Grouping of panels this is where the glass
occurs and this is the facade unfolded.

So.

So this you can see it there besides
the words are printed along here but

there's also this other kind
of more abstract pattern.

Then we generated a grasshopper
script to create which I'll show you

these are all the different languages
Here's just a sampling of them.

And then these little guys this patterns
next to it this is something again where

you just go way out there but we captured
the demographic knowledge of the community

we built to get grasshopper script
that that they created these bars what

we refer to as books the kind of reference
books sort of from a distance they look

like books on a bookshelf but each one
of these bars represents a language and

the bar that's associated with
each languages is is appears

in proportion to the amount of that
language is spoken in the community so

again it was just data that we
used to drive a design approach

that allowed us to create the pattern
this is just a family looking for

their native language with their young
kid is very gauging to the community.

So this was the script that we
developed to generate the pattern so

this this is the pattern and these were
the parameters the design parameters where

we could play around with different
really just different compositions but

no matter what pattern shows up here it
all follows the rules of the demographics

it never violates the rules
of the demographics.

We had a lot of different ways in which
you could vary and shuffle it again.

This.

What I mean by design and design I
mean it is kind of obvious but but

the decisions that one makes when
you're working with a parametric

system like this determines
obviously we're going to get here so

you're defining a design space who you're
designing design when you do this.

And it gets enormously liberating.

So more shots.

And these are some shots of
the the underground space so

that it's it's a pretty nice basement.

There's a big bright light down a number
ways is a big room with the stair that

goes up the brings light in and
there's a a long skylight

along the sidewalk at all in the entry
that kind of breaks line along that wall

this is actually that skylight on
the sidewalk is the main entrance so

when you're walking when people are
walking in you get this effect underneath.

And there's just a quick you
know i Phone video we did of

what happens when you're there

OK I'm going to I'm not going to present
this project because it's it's I think

we've got it we need to leave some time
for the discussion but I do want to just

say a couple words about this because this
is where we're going this is a project

that our most recent project and I'm just
going to go through this very quickly but

in a nutshell this is what
we were trying to do.

We were hired what we this is a grant that
we got to study the New York City public

library system and forget how many there's
like sixty three branches libraries in

New York City an enormous physical and
cultural infrastructure that's all

of the city the city has no idea what to
do with it the minute they don't take

advantage of it so we were kind of
commission to think about to come up with

the ways that they could start to think
about this asset this urban infrastructure

asset is something that much more
useful to the city right now they

think about branch libraries as individual
pieces they'll they'll work on one but

they want to understand its relationship
to the one right next to it so we

did this project with the kind of data
scientist in a somebody in real estate

to look at the look at the library system
at the scale of the city through data

at the scale the neighborhood rezoning at
the scale the building through users OK.

These were some of the data sets that we
had to work with in analyzing the city and

the libraries within the city.

Going to go through this quickly but

maybe I'll give another talk on the some
time because I think it's interesting and

these are just some of the data these are
some of the categories that we were able

to understand how this is this is
the entire city again all the libraries

are identified and then there's
their analyze your visitor counts.

Against population density right so
it's comparative and relational.

Community diversity user groups this
is for seniors like senior use.

Available if they are by lot part of what
we were mandated with in this was to

figure out how to.

Use the library most of which have
a lot of unused if they are a lot

of unused buildable space the city can
afford to take care of the libraries

the mayor had a mandate of affordable
housing so we were thinking about we were

trying to come up with strategies that
would make it appealing to developers

to to build on these sites they
would have to provide the space for

the libraries they would be able to do
housing it would have to be affordable

which would accomplish the mayor's
mandate but they would also help pay for

the library which would solve
the problem of capital upkeep.

So that was the larger kind of plan that
we were working with because as quickly.

This is we move to the zoning
they were tools developed for

each one of these kind of scales.

We looked at many different sites
looked at the zoning on below but

then came up with ways
to rethink zoning and

make a pitch the city that you should
increase the zoning on these sites if you

want to be able to take care of your
libraries because you can get more value

out of the sites means only variances
are done all the time in New York but

we were arguing they need to be done
in that in the public interest.

Then we honed in on one side.

At Brighton Beach and

then just developed a scenario building
with a library on the lower level and

the affordable housing above and this is
kind of driven through user profiles and

the words these are these are in some
ways these are hypothetical users but

they're demographically determined the
words are and they're not totally abstract

this relates back to the time use
diagrams that we did back in C.P.S..

So what's interesting about this is that
we did this is a is a grant study earlier

this year we just signed
a contract this afternoon to do.

A kind of version of this for for Brooklyn
library system and we've also are just

about to be commissioned by Brooklyn
library the Brooklyn library system to

actually do this for real so that they
can better understand better and.

Stan how to utilize and
take care of their of their assets so

it's just you know again it's just I think
as architects we need to be leading these

efforts we need to be
the ones out front and

if we can make compelling cases even
to city agencies they'll listen.

I mean you know so
you know I know that but just so

this is my book please buy it my publisher
would be very happy if you buy it so

I have to do the plug there's a lot
of great case studies in here.

And I'm going to end with this image and

this is an image I've shown many times
you'll see that it goes back to one

thousand nine hundred two where
where we began this is Jim Blount.

Chuck probably knows who it is but
I don't know anybody so

gentle and was inferring here is office
and he was the one responsible for

building this crazy thing and
lot of other things.

And he was one of the founders of Gary
technologies for those of you who don't

know Gary Technologies was a was
a spinoff of Gary architects there

was a kind of technical consultant that
would allow other architects to utilize

the expertise in the work flows that
they had developed on their building so

this was a kind of pivotal point in
the whole evolution this was a for

the Barcelona world's fair I think they
designed something they couldn't build

it so this is the first sign that the Gary
had to go outside the architecture

industry to the aerospace industry
bring in their software and

workflows into the architecture industry
and they figured out how to build this

is kind of miraculous the story behind
this thing because they were like

up against a deadline and
nobody had any idea how to do this and

they push it along and
again the fish really but.

But this is what this is what happens you
have to do these kind of crazy things to

push push progress now those of you
know Gary technologies then became.

Critical for building hundreds
of buildings around the world

they've they made a huge
impact on industry.

And at this talk in one thousand
nine hundred two Jim and.

Ended his lecture by saying that after
his experience of this by saying that

you know things are changing rapidly
in our industry really rapidly and

radically this is not just an incremental
change this is really a major change.

And as a profession architects need to.

Can engage or not but if you don't
engage there are massive builders there

are massive construction companies they're
going to appropriate this technology

without the insight and without the point
of view of design of architects and

he made this really convincing plea
that even at this point this is

one thousand nine hundred two that we had
to engage in this discussion actively and

aggressively if we were
going to have an impact.

And it just kind of stuck with me and
you know and I constantly tell students

like my generation forget it
it's not going to happen but for

all the students out there is going to
be your generation that I think really

benefits from all the work that that is
going on here all the work that Chuck does

but you've got to take it on you know you
can't just sit in the back and wait for

the processes that are literally
structuring the methods by which you work

to be designed by somebody else.

OK that's it thank you.

Yeah so those of you before you leave
we have we started a new tradition

last week that we're going to do this
week where we have volunteers from

student volunteers from each of
the four programs undergrad grad M.S.

and P.H.D. that are going to come up and
have a discussion with me so

they've they've already they've kind
of volunteered we did it last week and

worked really well so
the students should come on up and

then we'll have a kind of roundtable and
then we'll open it up to the opening up to

questions from the audience.

Now and
then there's a gallery opening after that.

Upstairs.

Yes I'm.

Also way back

so.

OK.

OK.

So I have only met maybe one or two of
the students I'm going to have you guys

introduce yourself and
just say which program you're from.

Hello my name is Marie Isabel Murat I'm
a third year Ph D. student.

Hi.

I'm doing an M. S.
program in high performance buildings and

it's my second year in the amas.

Where you have a boy.

There.

Yeah.

I have on my name is Godzilla Coulter I'm
here at Georgia Tech for

the I'm Mark program enjoying it.

My name is called and I'm a third
year undergraduate architecture

program.

OK so I always as a Ph D.
student to kind of moderate thank you

is on OK Scott first of all thank you
very much for your presentation and

also for showing us to the extent
to which architecture does

not happen in isolation and
I really appreciated the comment

you make about architecture as a network
of activities you know different.

Different technologies at different levels
of technology manifestations of craft

as well as manifestations
of digital media.

When you said.

Design is a design problem I.E. mediately
wanted to create a new project so

if you permit my analogical jump here.

Georgia Tech is a design project and
my question to you then is how could

you bring some of that interdisciplinary
approach that you clearly have been

developing over your entire career into
the working of not only the studios but

the way that design and
scholarship also expand.

In the in the department.

We don't want to drive too far into the to
the academic side because this is one bit

but I will say that you know one of
the reasons that I that I came here was

that I saw the possibility to actually
do meaningful interdisciplinary

work across the institute that was very
difficult to do it Columbia and I find

even talking to colleagues around the
country is very difficult in other places.

But here it seemed like that there was a
kind of tradition of that in a pattern of

doing that probably more in other
schools in other colleges than ours.

And so it's definitely probably one of
the top things on my list is to start to

cultivate that into it and to bring
that into into our school and honestly.

And this comes from practice it will not
happen until we establish relationships

with these people and so what I've
spent a lot of my time the first two

months I've been here is just meeting the
chairs of all the other departments and

just starting to form a relationship and

find ways in which there's common
themes that we can start working on or

are just common interests and it's been
incredibly positive so far I have to say I

mean every single chair that I've talked
to is just dying to work with architects.

So I think it's you know
you know I had a hunch

that's what was going to be
like when I go and I think.

So there is definitely the desire.

And I get I know from practice that it's
easy to have desire but to make it work

is a whole different thing but I think
that I've been and in our discussions

we've been very clear that what we have
to be we have to set a structure up for

this to happen it can't just be like let's
let's want this to have a we have to

literally figure out a way to make it
structurally part of our curriculum so

anyway I'm hoping to bring that I think
my experience both as an academic and

a practitioner helps to least set
that up but also it's going to be you

guys are going to be the faculty
the students that really make it happen.

So.

I mean there were many things that were
very interesting that you mentioned in.

Later questions but first I want
to start a little bit more general

what do you think I mean what's
your view on the relationship

between research and architecture.

So.

If it's possible to discuss it outside
of academic Of course it will always be

connected to how that architecture
compare to other fields

doesn't appreciate research
as I don't feels and when we.

Look for research we reach out for
other fields how come it's on happen.

Within.

I mean I think there are a lot of
obstacles to doing that I mean in

the profession the professional side
as I mentioned it's just difficult

to have a business plan around
research you know it's.

Just very difficult you know there
are some firms that are doing some very

interesting type of research
bigger firms are just

allocate part of their profit to
the actual research even outside of

projects like true kind
of focused research.

And I think want to end this.

Something everything about a lot since
I've been here like because you know you

go to a mechanical engineer and
you go to a computer engine

they're doing research and they're
producing things based on that research so

why is it so hard for us to do it and.

I think part of it is that we're a service
based industry not a product base industry

and I think it makes or makes it very
difficult so we either develop do research

around processes which are which people
are doing that trucks doing that others or

we can do research around products and
that's another way to go but

what makes me a little nervous about that
I'm just thinking about this was not

a formulated thesis but what makes me
a little concerned about that that we have

to be careful of is the tendency toward
the commoditization of architecture and

I think that this is where I really
plea for architects to get involved in

the designing industry part because
if we don't get involved I mean

it's a lot easier for a contractor just
the commodities the process I mean and

this is happening in some areas and
that can be that can happen at industrial

scales right so I think we have to come to
terms with that issue though you know like

you know what do we think about
producing producing and creating

reusable repeatable processes and designs.

I think I don't have a position on that
I have to have both sides honestly but

I think it I think part of what makes
research so difficult is it is it

fundamentally were a service based
industry a service based profession.

But it can happen and we'll figure it out.

I'm glad we merged into that research and
product thing because I've noticed

that firms such as yours or other ones
that have done research on it seems like

as an architect eventually you're
developing these products are designing

these products that for example they
could stick ceiling that you designed at

what point do you have a product in
hand that you can possibly patent.

And make that a submerge of
some sort of the window of your

business as an architect because it seems
like when you can't find something and

to satisfy your whole designed the glass

sliding doors that you had you went out
and found the factory that made it for

in this trail so you go through it you
find it but sometimes you can't find it so

then you develop something yourself
such as the ceilings you guys that So

what point it is just research and
development and service based business yet

you're designing these awesome products
that could actually be packaged and

sold so how is it that we as a firm you
you identify what your responsibility is.

I don't know if it's
a responsibility it's just.

Good business sense I mean you're right
we could've we could have a package those

processes were developing for perforations
back in the mid ninety's before

now you can all those custom ceilings
all the stuff you can now go and

companies have to monetize that
process you know so companies have

taken these kind of explorations
that architects do not just us and

because they're in the business of
product you know making products out of

these things they've done it but
architects don't really think that way.

So I don't know it's a there's even for

me there's something that's still
little bit uncomfortable about that.

In part of it might be that.

You know that you run the risk through
this through the automation of everything

you know which is sort of everything's
been automated you run this risk of

reducing difference of reducing the kind
of complexity and richness of culture.

It's getting a little bit
more theoretical now but and

I think that one role architects have is
to continually reinvent cities rethink

cities I don't think we want architecture
in cities to become a commodity and

it's very very easy to do but
I think in some ways.

That might be one of our critical roles
in this whole discussion of the kind of

evolution of technology is to is
to maintain a certain distance and

know when to say stop and know when to
kind of but just saying stop is not going

to do anything we have to somehow convince
people that there's value in stopping

because otherwise it will just the machine
will just keep cranking stuff out and

what can be automated will be automated.

So.

But there are a lot of say I think
there are a lot of younger firms

you know that are doing what you're saying
you know that are that are exploring their

various seemed kind of side story
there's a a young startup called

that came out of Columbia actually one of
them was a student of mine who started

this company called case it was a start as
a consultancy to architects they had exist

only strong technical skills
around optimization simulation.

You know all the things that was talking
about in a pet matter of like three or

four years they grew from
four people to like fifty and

I think the in it up being like seventy or
eighty people and then they got bought.

They got purchased by we work we work for
those you don't know is

is kind of nuber of office space
in other words they they lease out

acres of acres of office space and then
set up temporary hotspot workspace and

they're growing like crazy right so
this start up

body essentially an architecture start
up in you know I haven't spoken to and

find out how it's going but but it was an
interesting moment for me because in one

way they were doing amazing things for the
for the industry case was they were really

doing some great work and now they've
been taken away into another industry.

And I think we need to think like why is
that you know I mean there was a there was

an example of a viable successful
lucrative start up and

they got grabbed by another industry.

You know.

You.

Know.

It's.

Not just the snow OK OK I think
it's interesting that this kind

of segue to what I wanted to talk about I
want to jump back to your discussion on

like fabrication and like C.N.C. machine
because I found it really interesting your

work like fabrication and
like the tabs and stuff like that because

obviously when I came to mind
was our digital fabrication and

how that ties into our curriculum but
I've also I've had very limited

knowledge of certain certain ideas but
I've seen like a TED talk on.

This group called Wiki house and
their whole notion was too that

anyone empowered the people to become
architects themselves and so the idea

was that anyone with a C.N.C. router and a
stack of plywood could construct their own

house based off these designs that
were published on the Internet and

so while the C.N.C. router and
these tools have the power to

completely revolutionize architecture
it also has has this kind of.

Architects.

Attached to it what are.

Your thoughts how we strike that.

Future would look like people decide.

We think.

That's a that's a that's a great quote I
don't even like actually that's a great

question.

And I think it's a it's a it's
a very serious question that we

need to think about.

I mean the maker movement is also
very much about this I mean like

the maker movement is.

You know it's always it's
the democratization of design.

Nine where anybody can.

Actually use the democratization of
production you know where you are you know

several years ago you had mainframe
computers in big rooms and

then became desktops and so
you know computing became democratized

production used to be in big factories and
now they're on a desktop so

it's a similar kind of cycle of this
transformation of an industry and

it's very it's very powerful and it's
very you know it has enormous potential

the question about like architecture
necessary anymore when you can download

great designs printed and
have it is also a great question but

this is these are the kind of these are
the kind of kind of social and economic.

Transformations that are happening they're
happening this is not hypothetical that we

need to like tap into you know what we
need to own that space right when and

again it's we can't just sit around and
say well maybe I'm a valuable and

where we need to create a kind of value
through these new technologies we

need to be innovating through these
new technologies in leveraging

all of the pall of the potential that
other people are seeing and taking

advantage of we need to figure out how
to leverage that and it's going to mean.

It's going to be different if
it's difficult because there's is

deep culture in architecture.

Of the of the kind of you know
the the singular designer

that's really deeply entrenched in our
culture and it's not what's happening

today.

I think that's.

What it's.

For me.

You know why me.

And.

Not just about write about think about.

My and.

Not just.

Really.

I mean.

Last night was.

Thinking about.

School of Architecture.

And.

I can only agree I mean.

You know I got an e-mail from.

One of the faculty member here as you
know they were Harvard just announced to

a joint degree between architecture and
I think mechanical engineering so

you know schools are already starting to
think about this you know architecture any

discipline simply can't
stay in a silo anymore and.

But I still maybe it's just my
naivety because I've only been

here to enough much but I still say
that but this is a place to be for

that to happen I think you know I think I
absolutely think this is the place to be

and.

Not just introduce.

Your science and
technology literature media and

communications is already entered.

Right.

Reinventing the wheel
right that's right there.

Yeah I mean to going to university doesn't
have that culture already would be

would be decades before it can happen but

that foundation seems to
be already in place here.

So maybe we should open it up if anybody
from the audience has questions.

OK there's anybody dying to ask
a question and then if not we can.

We can just go OK.

Yeah I mean it's I didn't present
anything explicitly about that I mean

you know honestly that in that area
we would probably be relying on

a consultant to work closely with I mean
I didn't present the work at the branch

library when I was a library
we worked with a very

innovative landscape architect is going
to your next semester or scape and

they develop you probably saw the garden
outside the small community garden and

the whole concept behind that was that
the pavers could be moved around and

so the the idea behind it
was that it wasn't a fixed

kind of garden it was it was a place it
was supposed to engage the community to

want to participate in
the maintaining of the library and so

that was all about kind of community
engagement because it's a problem

these libraries and they don't have
the staff to maintain the outside space so

you have to again strategically
build in through design a kind of Q.

and A motivation an incentive and
just a just of a vision to

get the community to be part of it there's
another library that we're working on that

I didn't show that we're very
much about that the holes

as a whole block a city street
where we're transforming

the street in the public plaza
into an extension of the library.

Yeah.

I'll take that I'll go with that.

I mean you know it's funny you talk
about this technology but that you know.

There's still the kind of poetics of light
that is deep in our psyche and when we're

thinking about the quality of space the
qualitative aspects of space so I mean I

think we do use light as a material in we
think about light as a material you know.

It's an interesting question in
this in the context of my bias or

or how I kind of position
my lecture is all about

you know using technology to
create quality space but.

But again this is something where I think
it's a debate a constant debate you know

when you're using high levels of
technology to generate architecture

does it not have any qualitative
aspects of the words do you

kind of engineer out qualitative
attributes of space or

technology I don't think you do but
you know.

But I think that you could have a sense
ability when you're using technology say

toward light where on the one hand
you're reducing the amount of artificial

light and power consumption in a building
but on the other hand you're making it

a beautiful space that the lower level
of the library they never have to use

the lights in there during the day and the
light really is I mean it's pretty nice I

have to say so
it's a really nice basement.

I don't answer your question but
I'll go with the alto comparison I was

sick with that.

You want us.

I know that the US wants to make a quick
announcement so why don't you guys do that

and we can go to the gallery it way
I want to think the students for

doing this is good thank you.

Hi everyone my name's Elisa I'm
the current president of the A.A.A.S.

year just a quick announcement
next Monday we're having

a panel discussion about the mentorship
program we're doing with.

I know my Atlanta so
if you become a member of

one of the student organizations and
you get the chance to have a mentor

which could be a local design professional
or architect here in Atlanta.

So the event is next Monday in
this auditorium at six pm So

just everyone is invited to come and learn
more about what we'll be doing with that

and then Jose who's the vice president and

I will be at the reception if you
have any more questions thank you.

Thank you thanks.