General to Specific- The Cube Model (continued)

A Set of Principles

1. Restrictions

• Through imagination, they transcend the mundane by exploiting, not avoiding, restrictions. The cubes are the creative leaps that happen are possible only because of the existence of establishing boundaries (ex: games)

2. Imagination

3. Nature

• They mark boundary of our control
• The grid defines a territory where we believe we can assert our influence over nature; a mechanism that helpls us divvy up nature, and then becomes a tool to reorganize it down to the scale of the pixel.

4. Materials

5. Form

• All forms have shape, but not all shapes have form
• Form implies some kind of order and signifies an underlying structure. A shape without recognizable organization is "formless"
• Any group of cubes create its own context of legibility

Garden Model drawings

Cubes

The garden model: specific to general

The Cube Models: general to specific; spatial relationships in the cube, sense of boundary in the cube, crossing, and geometric formula

Materials at 1:1 scale tend to be fragments of some larger, never to be realized whole. These disembodied construction details, typically corners and connections, are yet another form of abstractions, impossible to apprehend without their full context.

Purpose: to learn how to develop a system of logic, or language, with each construction that sustains relationship between form and material. The cubes are not intended to imply any direct, linear connection to building design or technology. Instead the exercises are analogs that isolate a very specific set of issues in order to examine the decision making process regarding fundamental material relationships. Construction techniques are just a tool whose mastery opens possibilities. The idea working with plywood is the familiarize students with typical construction materials and methods and the building process. This knowledge will give confidence and appreciation for the craftsmanship required to work with these materials at a job.

How?

This can be accomplished by coming to terms with the materials physical reality. Some are brilliant in their logic while others remain unsolved. These logical systems cannot be preconceived and imposed, but discovered through an iterative, give a and take dialog that links the hands, materials, and the imagination in a feedback loop. This ads us to a clearer understanding of the materials which ultimately shapes a system, a set of rules that integrates the part and the whole.

"confronting material reality is typically not a priority"

The Cube

Simple, Stable, Absolute, Fixed frame of Reference, and Experimentation with ideas related to materials

Garden Model