Hi all,

The links to your blogs are coming in, but not many of you have started to populate them with material yet. You should think of your blog as a place that you can store all manner of research-based material that is relevant to your studio this study period.

In any case, I wanted to provide a few links to other places that you should be familair with, if you've not been there already.

Lebbeus Woods

The first blog you should be familair with is that of Lebbeus Woods. Woods has been a visionary thinker on architecture for many decades, and has produced some of the finest suites of drawings on the possibilities of architectural imagination. He sits within a tradition of architectural imagination that stems from Piranesi and Boullée, to contemporary work such as Brodsky and Utkin and Mas Yendo. 

Brodsky and Utkin, Crystal Palace

Piranesi, Appia Ideale

Mas Yendo, Reef Machine

Boullee's Cenotaph to Isaac Newton

Woods' blog entries are always incredibly thoughful and eloquent discussions on the value of architecture as a poetic art and, taken with his superb drawings, tell us a great deal about the value of architecture as a human experience.

ArchDaily

ArchDaily is a daily feed of contemporary architectural design from around the world. Most importantly, it provides exemplary photographs and drawings of projects that allows you to go beyond a few token media images. Well worth subscribing to.

Introduction

This blog is dedicated to the work being produced in Architectural Design Studio 4 at the School of Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia. It is an exploration of the relationship between the idea of a dwelling and the functionality of a house - and the opportunity to conceive of poetic and imaginative relations between these states.

The work commences with an engagement with a number of characters imagined by the American architect and theorist John Hejduk. The list of characters below has come from an analysis of a number of Hejduk's texts and will serve as catalysts for the design work to come.

Hejduk's 9 Square design problem is also being employed, in the coming weeks, to add complexity to the process of identifying characteristics between architecture and identity. The coincidence between the idiosyncrasies of the characters and the formalism of the grid problem is intended to highlight the values of each, that in architectural terms there is always the need for the poetic to have a shape, however hylomorphic.

This studio will attempt, amongst many things, to resuscitate the coincidence between form and meaning in Hejduk's oeuvre.

The Characters are:

3 Sisters of Hamburg

Anne - 3 Sisters of Hamburg

Lavina – 3 Sisters of Hamburg

Electra – 3 Sisters of Hamburg

Riga

The Town Detective

Director of Medical Services

Keeper of the Records of Rilke

Crochet Woman

Fire Chief

Mayor/Cardinal

Botanist

Geneticist

Sea Captain

Fire Chief

Anesthesiologist

Bargeman and woman - barge

Berlin Night Characters

Customs inspector – receiving station

Bridgeman – canal bridges/drawbridges

Judges male/female – judgement hall

Pit digger – pit of structures

Clock operator – central clock

Silent jurors – viewing boxes

Trolley man – trolley car

Park attendant/male – park of the angels

Park attendant/female – park of the names of the angels

Caretaker of objects – object field

Caretaker of subjects – subject field

Woodcutter – the woods

Elephant trainer – elephant house

Custodian of the hall of records – animal hall

Consul – the consulates

Lion trainer – lion trainer’s house & work space

Dog trainer – dog trainer’s house & work space

Horse trainer – horse trainer’s house and workspace

Carpenter – house of the maker of wooden crosses

Mason – mason’s house and brick yard

Architect – street of the professions

Nailwoman – nail store

Windowman – outlet for windows

Rivetman – house of rivets

Warehouse man – warehouse of rejected details

Factory man – factory of appropriated architectural elements

Braque Gris Beckmann structures for…

Dürer – Dürer’s structure

Hopper – hopper’s structure

Lightening man – place for the securing of lightening rods

Architect engineer contractor – architect’s studio engineer’s office contractor’s room

Uccello – Uccello & Breughal’s structures

Still life painter – the still life

Tower guard – a tower for Valencia

Timeman – the building of time

Curator of Japanese armor – museum of Japanese armor

Curator of Teutonic armor – museum of Teutonic armor

Supplier – storage space for prefabricated footings and foundations

Listener – hall for grievances of people

Examiner – waiting area of the examiner

Grievance acceptor – a dark plum room

Prosecutor – the place of trial

Informer – structure to contain the guilty whispers of Prague

Ingres/woman – the house of women

Woman/landscape painter the landscape painter’s house

Night watchman – end of night structure

Child mother father – the family house

Land/marksman – remaining tower

Confessor – tower of revealed secrets

Curator of the history of the moon and sun – museum for the history of the moon and sun

Consular official – Chinese consulate

Curator of general museum – general museum

Bureau officer – bureau of listings

Classroom monitor – classroom

Teacher east/teacher west – the eastern wall

Male/female – lecture hall for eastern studies

Bellman –lecture hall/Prussian blue

Keeper of the snakes – tower of the brazen snakes

Superintendent – tower houses

Historian – center for historical investigations

Musician – bureau of sound notations

Chapter priest – rural priest

Officer – office of death certificates

Communications ministry – communications minister

Magistrate – office of the magistrate

Angel watcher – angel catcher

Record keeper – house of records

Keeper of the angels – house of fans

Botanist – house of the botanist

Building department head – building department

Curator of Japanese armor – museum of Japanese armor

Cemetery caretaker - cemetery