DE-HABITUATION
BArch YEAR 3, STUDIO MANIFESTO & PROJECT
UNIVERSITY OF NOTTIGHAM
The manifesto evolved from a notion of space exchange to one of DE-Habituation.
It developed from Yona Friedman’s Mobile Architecture, whilst challenging it to understand the notion of mobility in contemporary society. It aimed to re-look at the ease of remaining physically static, yet virtually mobile in the cyber space that is inherent in our society today. An important issue to combat was phenomenon such as the Second Life program. Inspired by an account by Xavier de Maistre; ‘A Journey around my Bedroom,’ the aim was to inject a similar travelling mindset and telescope our desire to create and experience a hyper reality to individual localities.
The aim was to mobilise this desire through a process of de-habituation and to create a hyper space. It was to make virtual space an extension of reality. A starting point in developing tools to aid this came from the use of the Japanese ‘Borrowed Scenery’ and framing, creating a virtual space that catalyses the deconstruction of the everyday. This, as well as other influences like Botton, Baudrillard and Gestalt (the Gestalt Theory) were adapted to create tools to De-Habituate.
Yona Friedman points out in his ‘Mobile Architecture’ that a ‘dwelling decided on by the occupant, mobilises it,’ and that ‘infrastructure should be neither determined nor determining.’ However in our world, building is increasingly a determining force through which we simply navigate; not adapt or experience. We now process tasks instead of taking action. My manifesto aimed to re-look at the idea of mobility in contemporary space and society.
Monuments have become single vertical objects, akin to an exclamation mark in their function to ‘punctuate spaces.’ These static punctuations must give out a kinetic edge. Perhaps if they were less ‘complete,’ the spectator would be forced to engage with the time and space and hence, be required to complete it through active imagination. A possible solution would be to blur the distinction between container and object; artwork and environment; skin and life. “…To demarcate the limits of space my mobilising the element of it that is inherently static and earthbound- the floor plane.”
The aim was to create an architecture that broke people away from the virtual space and encouraged them to experience globally expansive networks and it's effects on the immediate context in a participatory, physical and evocative manner.
The proposed tools to enable the process of De-Habituation became FRAMING, MORPHING, DISTORTION AND INCOMPLETION. Models were made to document the effects of these tools and compiled into a film, running after the manifesto animation [see video]. It is through the use of these tools that the manifesto was to be implemented architecturally in a transitional space (the site chosen for the intervention was the area around the Blackfriars bridges,London)
The tools were to dis-orientate + de-habituate the user by creating a time lag in the transition whilst visually connecting them to the context through active participation. Hence, a visual event space was proposed.
It developed from Yona Friedman’s Mobile Architecture, whilst challenging it to understand the notion of mobility in contemporary society. It aimed to re-look at the ease of remaining physically static, yet virtually mobile in the cyber space that is inherent in our society today. An important issue to combat was phenomenon such as the Second Life program. Inspired by an account by Xavier de Maistre; ‘A Journey around my Bedroom,’ the aim was to inject a similar travelling mindset and telescope our desire to create and experience a hyper reality to individual localities.
The aim was to mobilise this desire through a process of de-habituation and to create a hyper space. It was to make virtual space an extension of reality. A starting point in developing tools to aid this came from the use of the Japanese ‘Borrowed Scenery’ and framing, creating a virtual space that catalyses the deconstruction of the everyday. This, as well as other influences like Botton, Baudrillard and Gestalt (the Gestalt Theory) were adapted to create tools to De-Habituate.
Yona Friedman points out in his ‘Mobile Architecture’ that a ‘dwelling decided on by the occupant, mobilises it,’ and that ‘infrastructure should be neither determined nor determining.’ However in our world, building is increasingly a determining force through which we simply navigate; not adapt or experience. We now process tasks instead of taking action. My manifesto aimed to re-look at the idea of mobility in contemporary space and society.
Monuments have become single vertical objects, akin to an exclamation mark in their function to ‘punctuate spaces.’ These static punctuations must give out a kinetic edge. Perhaps if they were less ‘complete,’ the spectator would be forced to engage with the time and space and hence, be required to complete it through active imagination. A possible solution would be to blur the distinction between container and object; artwork and environment; skin and life. “…To demarcate the limits of space my mobilising the element of it that is inherently static and earthbound- the floor plane.”
The aim was to create an architecture that broke people away from the virtual space and encouraged them to experience globally expansive networks and it's effects on the immediate context in a participatory, physical and evocative manner.
The conclusion from the exploration of the initial manifesto was to find and investigate a series of prototypes and tools that would enable the breakdown of the placidity of virtual space, and bring this notion forward into the real. This would be done by the found tools, creating a sense of de-habituation from the everyday, and forcing the mind to interact with the visual space seen before you; elevating it into a hyper-real and experiential plane.
The proposed tools to enable the process of De-Habituation became FRAMING, MORPHING, DISTORTION AND INCOMPLETION. Models were made to document the effects of these tools and compiled into a film, running after the manifesto animation [see video]. It is through the use of these tools that the manifesto was to be implemented architecturally in a transitional space (the site chosen for the intervention was the area around the Blackfriars bridges,London)
The tools were to dis-orientate + de-habituate the user by creating a time lag in the transition whilst visually connecting them to the context through active participation. Hence, a visual event space was proposed.
