High order + High complexity

p.180: “the greatest works of landscape literature, like great compositions of music or art, combine high order with high complexity.”

 

Not confusing and not boring: 

-Legible and interesting                         or

- Decipherable and exciting            or

- Clear and gripping                        or

-Simple and engaging…

 

High order makes a work attainable and inviting to audiences that may not be aware of the complexity, which still can be felt but does not need to be understood. I always believed that great art should not be out of reach. Certainly, understanding more of a work’s complexity will always heighten the enjoyment one gets from it – and with great works, this can be infinite- but something at the “surface” needs to serve as a door. If it cannot accommodate a door or a ladder, it is not as strong as is could be… If it is all complexity, it is also hermetic.

 

Four kinds of order: Homogeneous; hierarchical; coordinated; chaotic

 

I think my site has both order and complexity and possesses qualities of each type of order…

There is homogeneousness. It comes from the scale of the buildings that create this little patch. They are all large, institutional structures. There concrete elements and lighting fixtures coordinate the space. There is a hierarchy: It’s primary function is that of a passage way, the straight line and it’s width manifest its primacy. The meandering path through the vegetation is subordinate to it and is probably also subordinate to it’s function as a public outdoor sitting area. When one exits from the backdoor of the student center, the bench faces the door and is framed by two lampposts with a potted plant in the middle. It looks like a living room. The place’s function as a service entrance introduces an ordered chaos. Crates, elevator, compactor and the utilitarian bright light contrast with the soft yellow glow along the vegetated path.  All of this is integrated / hidden/ revealed in just the right doses. I wonder how much of this was the result of one-time planning and how much has been added as retrofits.

 

p.182 : “In the eighteenth century, the title “geometer” referred to all mathematicians, computation ability was a sign of intelligence , and many of the well educated were proud of their arithmetical computation. The gardens also display an understanding of military engineering. These gardens were ordered by a grammar invented not only as an expression of the deep structure of the landscape of the Ile-de-France –floodplains and canals- but the intellectual and political context as well”

            Intelligence and discipline. I appreciate thinking of these landscapes in this way. Many of my memories from childhood all the way up into my twenties take place within these French garden landscapes. I am sure that they have shaped me in some ways. The rigor; the exactitude necessary to create and maintain them; but the beauty and extravagance that they allow… I walked across the Jardins du Luxembourg every morning for years and I remember seeing the maintenance involved on my way to school, but also the joy and variety of experiences that they provided. An afternoon spent around the Grand Bassin had an entirely different flavor to it than one spent around the darker, more secluded Fontaine de Medici or on one of the three big lawns, yet these were all minutes away from each other and make sense as a whole.

 

 

a few feet away from the grand bassin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

embedding/scale/detail

I have fallen a step behind in the readings due to some more studio-induced myopia; These notes relate to last weeks reading assignment.

 

The connections between Shape Grammars and the Landscape Grammar continue to echo as I read through the language of landscape. I feel it would take some serious analysis to do the comparison and each concept justice so it will have to wait for another writing opportunity, but it is on the top of the pile of thing I would like to really study someday.

(About p. +/- 170) For now I will mention that both speak of embedding – how something emerges from layered shapes or contexts, uses. Both grammars put emphasis on being able to see these embedded elements and “play” with them, use them as another element along with those that generated them. This ability to focus on the emergent form and manipulate it independently from its context is key in SG.

Also when mentioning Pattern Language, as with landscape language- these are not prescriptive systems, like shape grammar, the impact of free will, personal expression or artistry does not get lost because of the use of a system. On the contrary. These grammars are tools for analysis that enable a different, new or more thoughtful and thorough use of the elements to which they are applied.

 

p.173-

 Issues of scale. In studio, we have been working at several scales at once. The smallest is that of the individual student’s dorm space which we explore at a 1:50 scale.  We are also having to think of the buildings that will be composed of these rooms and the classrooms that have also been studied at the large scale, and that we are doing at 1:200. Finally we are having to consider the relationship of these buildings with each other and the landscape that will be stetching between and around them, and for that we have been thinking in 1:400 or 1:500… It has been very useful to be thinking of details during the past few weeks as a way to keep all these scales connected. It facilitates the development of a language that can articulate and define the design across the various scales, giving it a unity beyond that which can be provided by only a grid or a height, material or shape.

While taking the photos of the site, I noticed that different details on the site were connected to the various functions of the place: the crates and recycling bins are there because it is the service entrance to the student center’s businesses. The cigarettes on the floor speak of the fact that it is also a place for a time-out, a public outdoor space. The leaves on the floor are a consequence of it being an organic, changing place; the hose, the fire hydrant and the occasional power outlet that peaks out of the ground connect this little sliver to the larger urban grid. The hose and the planted flowerpots are a sign that this is a tended garden and connects it to the rest of the carefully manicured MIT campus.