I'll be on Mark Gage's review at Yale this Thursday, March 4th at 12pm, along with Tom Wiscombe, Cody Davis, Lise Anne Couture, Greg Lynn, Brennan Buck, and my partner Stella Lee.
The studio brief follows:
OLD SCHOOL
Revisiting the École Nationale Supérieure Des Beaux-Arts {Mark Foster Gage, Spring 2010}
Offering courses continuously over a 150 year span, from 1819-1968, the architectural design sequence at the École Nationale Supérieure Des Beaux-arts, largely based on the eighteenth century doctrines of architecture established by the French Academies, developed into the most precise and disciplined approach of any system of architectural education ever conceived.
Despite its seeming reputation for rigidity, the Ecole was actually among the most liberal, forward thinking, and innovative architectural institutions of its kind, ever, giving students architectural design problems that engaged the most pressing technological developments of the day. At the height of its influence, the late 19th century, the Ecole had no academic pre-requisites for admission, allowing students of any age, from 15-50, race, background, gender or nationality to compete in a bi-annual design competition (concours d’admission), limited to the best 40 candidates, for the prestigious admission to the school as an Eleve de L’Ecole.
All design projects were submitted in total anonymity, devoid of all references to process, research, context or any forms of diagramming- and typically limited to a focused representational palette consisting of a of a single plan, a single section, 1-2 rendered elevations, and at times, perspectival renderings or and models of decorative details. Despite common misconceptions, there was never a dominant “style” of architecture taught at the Ecole, and various “historic” styles were learned precisely so that they could be shed or manipulated through informed choice (enconnaissance de cause), as opposed to through sheer ignorance. The process of design, from the concours d’admission, through subsequent parti- esquisse, esquisse-esquisse, analytique, rendu, and diplome phases, was specifically designed to resist external influence, from professors and peers alike, and through omitting any record of process, the end product was intended to overtly evidence individual expertise and, more importantly, design talent and sheer virtuosity.
This studio will be taught according to a format adopted entirely from the Ecole Des Beaux Arts. As such, students will participate in a carefully orchestrated set of early exercises, organized to provide or improve the technical, representational, or design skills needed for completion of the final project. These exercises will be completed in the short form of the esquisse, (often as short as 8 hours), in which the students arrive at a design solution independently, and at times in isolation from advice from peers or instructors. While the Ecole emphasized technical architectural drawing with pencil, we will emphasize the use of expert computation and digital representational techniques--- and, as the Ecole forgrounded futuristic, utopian and visionary ideas by readily embracing the then-contemporary developments of architectural metals, subway infrastructures, electric power and elevators, so too will we embrace the most contemporary developments of our own time, including the use of computation, robotic fabrication, composite materials, technical processes, and highly controlled scripting. Lastly, as with the Ecole, where it was considered in extremely poor taste to be seen copying existing or proposed architectural projects, there will be a significant emphasis on formal innovation and visual originality in this studio.
As with students of the Ecole, students in this studio will be unable to conduct or rely on diagramming, programmatic analysis, mapping information, economics, political speculation, or information from the immediate context to justify their projects. Students will, as previously mentioned, and according to Ecole methodology, be limited to, with possible exceptions determined on an individual basis, a single (beautiful) plan, a single (beautiful) longitudinal section, 1-2 (stunning) digitally rendered elevations, and 3-4 (museum quality) rendered interior and exterior perspective views. No other forms of 2d representation will be allowed. Architectural models were used at the Ecole primarily as a means to address complex figural and decorative forms in three dimensions, and we will likewise use large-scale architectural models as both design and representational tools, capitalizing on, as would the students in the Ecole, the most contemporary computational tools and fabrication processes available.
Such an emphasis on the end result over process may seem hermetic by the standards of today’s design studios, and yet, the graduates of this rigid process of education produced, globally, architectural projects of the greatest historic significance, impacting almost every country on earth over the course of nearly 150 years. A cursory glance of the graduates of the Ecole Des Beaux Arts reveals figures and projects including Charles Garnier (Paris Opera), Henri Labrouste (Bibliotheque Nationale), Raymond Hood (Rockefeller Center), John Russell Pope (The National Gallery in Washington D.C.), Charles McKim (JP Morgan Library, Boston Public Library), John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings (New York Public Library, Grand Central Terminal.) Accordingly, students will be expected to perform at a level commensurate with those listed above, as projects by these exemplars, as projects by these exemplars, along with other student projects from the Ecole will be made available for study and competitive comparison.
Theory
The teaching of theory in the Ecole was a significant factor in the studios. The Cours De Theorie was taught by Julien Guadet largely from his text Elements et Theorie de L’Architecture, from 1894-1908. This course not only included philosophical material but was a forum for students to develop an expertise with the nuances of language so important to an expert understanding of form-- an example of which would include the differentiation between terms such as step, stoop, stair, staircase, stairway, stairwell (marche, perron, gradin, escalier, emmanchement etc…). This expertise in language will be a part of this studio, and terms will be developed, or adopted from Ecole parlance as needed. Special attention will be given to the critical Ecole premises of poche (the space in between figures in plan or section), marche (the careful design of circulation to be an aesthetic experience), and enfilade (sequences of rooms visually organized and devoid of corridor circulation).
Students will be engaged in theoretical discussion regarding the most contemporary of topics including reading and discussions on aesthetics, affect, and, in particular, contemporary theories of the beautiful and sublime. It is intended that these theoretical constructs not be divorced from the design process, and discussed separately, but that the ideas which the students develop regarding these concepts will be formally integrated into the design projects.
Site
The principality of Monaco, in its current political form, was established in the mid 19th century-- paralleling the rise of the influence of the Ecole des Beaux- Arts. As such, the city is largely defined by projects from multiple generations of Ecole Des Beaux Arts graduates. In 1879, one of the worlds then pre-eminent architects, and a graduate of the Ecole, Charles Garnier, after completing the Paris Opera, designed the famous Monaco Casino, and the attached Opera de Monaco--a 527 seat opera house prominently sited in the center of the city. Its’ success was such that the Casino’s gaming rooms were enlarged multiple times by Garnier, and in 1881 he added the Salle des Amériques. In following decades came the Theatre des Beaux Arts currently renamed the Princess Grace theater, the Hotel Hermitage, by Gustav Eiffel, and in 1930, architect Paul Delefortrie completed the dramatically sited Museum Océanographique de Monaco, sited on the edge of the Monaco-Ville cliff, and rising to a height of 250 feet above the Mediterranean.
Monaco’s building campaign, which lasted nearly 50 years, from 1880-1930, saw the city transformed from a rural Mediterranean town to an international resort featuring significant examples of Beaux Arts and Belle Époque architecture realized at more modest scale than can be found in capital cities such as Paris or New York. Recently, Monaco has begun a campaign to, similarly, develop a series of cultural and architectural projects, ranging from Lord Norman Foster’s Monaco Yacht Club which is due to be completed in 2013, to a proposal for a new island to house additional institutions. The site for the studio will be on the coast of Monaco, located on the edge of cliff adjacent to Delefortrie’s Museum Océanographique of 1910.
Program
The Museum Océanographique de Monaco, directed by Jacques Cousteau from 1957 until 1976, is currently an oddity within the research and education world, currently containing the vast collections of marine fauna gathered by Prince Albert, numerous specimens of sea creatures (stuffed or in skeleton form, including the skeleton of a 66 foot whale), models of Prince Albert’s laboratory ships, and crafts made from the sea’s natural products. In the lower levels-- actually placed immediately above sea level, is the world authorititative aquarium on the Mediterranean marine ecosystem, housing 4,000 species of fish and over 200 families of invertebrates.
This original museum and its’ collections will remain in tact. Adjacent to the museum, however, students will be given the task of expanding the space for exhibition, as well as designing a series of buildings to house the educational, meeting and research functions of the associated Institute Océanographique de Monaco. This project is not an addition, but rather is a free standing complex, associated with the original Museum, but not intended to connect with the original structure. The program can be housed, as determined by the student, in a single, or multiple interconnected buildings. The program will include a large lecture hall, a series of both “dry” and “wet” galleries, laboratory spaces, and administration space for the Cousteau Society for the Protection of Ocean Life.
Travel
Students spend two days in Paris to visit projects completed by graduates of the Ecole Des Beaux Arts, including the Paris Opera, by Charles Garnier, the escalier LeFuel in the Louvre, and the Grand and Petit Palais by overseen by Charles Girault. Students will then travel south to Monaco to visit the Salle Garnier, Monaco Casino, Gustave Eiffel’s Hotel Hermitage, the Museum Oceanographique, and the adjacent site.