davId ruY , critic the farm and the cloud

the acculturation of nature is an ambition that marks the boundaries of the human being. Who knows where exactly it started. the discovery of fire? Agri- culture? the sharpening of a stone? the techniques of cultivating a wild universe of materials and forces, that may have started with the planting of a seed, spans millennia and finds us recoding organic structures and reformatting entire ecologies. the sunlight that was once nothing but divine inspiration is now vibrations in space-time. teasing little electrons out of a sandwich of silicon, patterning the flows of those very same electrons through circuits and switches, we calculate and index our thoughts and activities on a planetary scale. We farm energy and construct virtual clouds that serve as everyday adjuncts to our lives. It is nothing short of sublime.

the long view of humanity’s accultura- tion of nature is necessary to witness the absolute magnificence of where we are and what we are now capable of doing. It is in this historical perspective that sustainable and green agendas start looking like necessary, but overly modest, ambitions. We are not at the moment where we pull back and reach a gentle homeostasis with nature; we are at a place where we witness radical transformations of the natural order. So radical, that the distinction between the natural and the artificial becomes difficult, or perhaps even unnecessary.

the goal of this studio is to design a SYntHEtIC LAnDSCAPE in the Mojave Desert of California. this synthetic landscape is to be understood as a large scale public works project sponsored by the United States government. three

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techniques, and move past methods completely dependent on the rigorous application of scientific standards. Each project exhibits a systemic logic that eschews mapping a specific process, or revealing the process of an algorithm as strategies to generate a project’s form. Instead, mastery of technique allows each student to assume a more sophisticated relation to the creation of form—using malleable forms differentiated at varied rates that are systemically correlated a position made possible only through the use of an aesthetic sensibility concom- itant with a highly developed design ability. Interiorities1_{: the notion of interiority}

suggests the elaboration of tectonic systems which unfold and differentiate within the terms of their own internal logic. this can be most clearly pursued if we start with interiors, that is, without immediately placing the architecture into an environment and exposing it to exter- nal influences. We are interested in developing complex, layered and highly differentiated tectonic systems that begin to compete with the best historical examples, in terms of their richness, coherency and precision of formal organization. We aim to reach the level of designed luxury we find, for instance, in the most filigreed Gothic spaces, or the most excessive Baroque or rococo interiors. And we aim to go beyond all known historical precedents in terms of qualitative differentiation and the intensity

of part to part and part to whole relation- ships. Another way to express this, is to say that we are aiming to build up a multi- layered complexity, with a high degree of lawful differentiation within each system, and with a high level of correlation between the various subsystems that constitute the overall tectonic system. Each subsystem’s internal differentiation is associated with corresponding or complementary differentiations within the other subsystems. For example, structural differentiation is correlated with material/textural differentiation, etc.

1. Co-authored with Patrik Schumacher [Studio Hadid]

—nan Yang, Xueyi Zhang

this project, an interior design of a night club in new York, focuses on the differen- tiation of qualities in each space. We extracted variations of geometry, color and texture from the sea dragon in order to form components. these, in combination with the lighting design, reveal qualitative atmospheric differences in each individ- ual space. the overall building is designed from the inside to the outside. Compo- nents in multiple scales are accumulated in various ways, but by manipulating the speed of transformation, the whole building acquires morphological con- tinuity, both exterior and interior.

199–201.nAn YAnG, xUEYI zHAnG

—marIon WeISS

Climate change has brought into sharp focus the potential impact of rising water levels for all urban centers at the water’s edge. Surrounded by water on three sides, the future high density development planned for new York City at Hunters Point South presents a laboratory to challenge the conventional opposition between built structure and open space. Initiated with an in-depth investigation of organic and constructed models of resilience, the studio proposed new strategies for a reciprocal relation- ship between the surface and perimeter. Individual design proposals suggested new paradigms for a more porous inter- face between city and water, density and retreat, resilience and urban life.

—megan Born, ta

—noah levy

rESILIEnt HYBrID: UrBAn tECtonICS HUntErS PoInt SoUtH, QUEEnS, nY Hunters Point South sits at the confluence of ecologies, urbanities and histories. the newtown Creek and the East river converge at this point, creating a platform for potential interactions and overlapping experiences. A resilient Hybrid realizes the inherent conditions of the urban

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important components comprise this project: 1. A public data center (server farm). 2. A solar field (energy farm). 3. A program of architecture to facilitate public access and engagement. the data center and the solar field are to be tightly integrated. this massive data-energy infrastructure is to be cultivated as a rad- ical conjuncture between natural and artificial systems. Projects are expected to explore novel architectural expres- sions appropriate to this problem and speculate on new experiential modalities afforded by this synthesis.

—todd montgomery

the energy in sunlight striking the earth for 40 minutes is equivalent to global energy consumption for a year. the U.S. is lucky to be endowed with a vast resource; at least 250,000 square miles of land in the Southwest alone are suitable for constructing solar power plants, and that land receives more than 4,500 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) of solar radiation a year. Converting only 2.5 percent of that radiation into electricity would match the nation’s total energy consumption in 2006.

MoUntAIn MACHInE is a tightly inte- grated data center and solar field including these important project components: 1. the largest public data center (server farm) in the world, incorporating 5 mil- lion square feet of floor space, housing 3.5 million server units. 2. the largest solar field (energy farm) in the world, generating 1000 megawatts of power, covering 14 square miles of land. 3. A program of architecture to facilitate public access and engagement.

though the design seamlessly inte- grates the data storage and solar farm requirements, it does so in the presence of the awesome and the sublime. our

intent is to magnify the wildness and raw beauty of the desert and contrast it with the slick organization of near-futuristic technology employed on site. this disjunc- tion between desert and data will be at the crux of this exciting new place.

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—leslie Billhymer

DISPLACEMEnt/DISWAStEMEnt Displacement/Dis(waste)ment seeks to redefine the way we think about out pro- ductive, massively-scaled industrial sites. through the implementation of novel toxic waste storage and bioremediation techniques, what was initially a solar farm in the desert now becomes a highly differentiated landscape of material management. Material management, storage and remediation become the effect. A canyon is carved out of the land to allow for cooling for the server volumes, bioremediation tanks have dynamic lids, at different times the tank may be a field or a shaded, semi- enclosure. the nuclear storage shifts

up as more containers up, creating an artificial ridge system. It is all created to augment a spectacle of environmental machinery with particular spatial effects.

208–211. LESLIE BILLHYMEr

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706 IndePendent theSIS

During their final semester, students may elect to do an independent thesis, on a topic they develop, with an advisor of their choosing, subject to approval by the thesis Committee.

— SrdJan JovanovIc WeISS

—nadine kashlan

rEQUIEM BEIrUt:

EVEntSCAPES oF PoSSIBILItY Urbicide and amnesia are the main com- ponents that shape this study of Beirut, Lebanon. through a constant bombard- ment, Beirut has been forced to wrestle with its historically important archi- tectural past and a practical, privatized conception of its future. Between traces of the existing and the remnants of a past a new terrain is sought, one between the ordinary and the extraordinary, one of future potentials. this intervention

seeks to discover an architecture that constructs a condition in which collect- ive memory, cultural identity, and public space work simultaneously.

the memory of an event is recorded through experiences. replications of the past mimic what was, as if a vacuum existed and content replicated from the past could refill it. How then can archi- tecture participate in the creation of experiences that recall a memory of an event or of the past? the Green Line of Beirut is a desolate parking lot filled with remnants of a danger zone. How can this space be reconditioned to activate it once again into the city’s life through constructive means rather than destructive measures? through what ordering of chaos can we create spaces of experiences that interconnect to create a new landscape of possibility?

An audio visual archive: film, photo- graphy, object, and sound. these are the

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116 DESIGn StUDIo — ADVAnCED — ArCH706/InDEPEnDEnt tHESIS — ArCH800/PHD DISSErtAtIon main vessels through which generations

after the civil war have been able to document their experiences. If the prem- ise is to use these artworks to create architecture of identity and culture, how can their representation inform the creation of space? By studying nature’s unflinching survival the project transforms the

derelict site of Martyr’s Square into a space subdued in the face of beauty, acknowledging its history.

What is the role of the audience? Every witness and participant is integral to the completion of this experience. By rethink- ing the archive typology and creating an interactive environment, the spaces cou- ple the spectator with the daily functions of passing citizens. this duality in program manifests as an interface between random and normative systems, placing the participants in a condition simultane- ously of reflection and of movement.

212, 213. nADInE KASHLAn