The uploaded images are slides of the case studies of phase01_research. There are 3 contexts in all.
1- House and loft apartments
2- The Carrefour supermarket
3- Apartment block at Via Lombardina
What are transitions in these contexts of housing and a market? These are just observation exercises which
helps us get a first hand experience of a context and to study activities in the next phase. In ways its like second home coming to me, am studying architectural space again. I feel i do think differently now doing research,after being an ethnographer with CKS and being a student of Convivio, my outlook to architectural research, has strong flavours of user-centricism. But it feels great to be back on solid ground, studying circulation flows, seeing enormous lines of movement, at the same breadth the lines have more character now, more meanings which i now see being an ethnographer. This phase I call it 'Understanding...' because as somewhere along the study, as it usually happens,
things start falling into place, and so I decided to divide the study into these categories
_character of transitions (understanding and assigning meanings as words to the observation)
_ transition as a function (understanding what function takes place in what context)
_information and transition (what are the symbols and tools for the activity taking place in a context)
_the aesthetic of transition (oh, big one, its just photographs of what I think are beautiful, it could be the composition, the image or even the content, its just an opinion)
The images are as slides in a sequence. Looking forward to notes and comments.
Exploration_phase 01
Elisa who shares this thesis topic with me, is an artist from Bologna. She understands Miles Davis, Alan Parsons, and even Lou Reed. She seems to particularly like dragons as she has a large one tattoed on her hand, and on her skype profile calls herself the PD (puredata) dragon. Reserved and pleasant natured Elisa is a good research companion, she's an artist who has and can drive. So me and Elisa, after the first meeting with Domenico decided to explore 'transitions'. We began our study in the schools neighbourhood, visiting an apartment block and looking around basements, parking lots, climbing stairs and pushing lift buttons.With the intent of understanding the circulation of transitions of that building cleared, we found the place not very activity-intensive. We decided to move on and check other sites for more people centric activities.
The brief has been set by Domenico Pisaturo as the thesis project leader and Claudio Moderini our director will be the project advisor. The concise
Interpretation of the brief is:
Objective:
To design an interactive installation in transitional spaces with a strong aesthetical and service component.
Framework
-To investigate transition spaces in mixed use environments which affords users moments of social engagement and relation, as a place for memories sedimentation and as previews of urban space.
-It is a research to unveil the potentials and relations unexpressed in transition spaces.
-To asses the possibilities of providing a unique character to experience transitions. Spatial Context:
The transitional/shared space in an upmarket housing (280 units), commercial activity and office complex in Milan.
Its my master's thesis, and I plan to use this as a platform to discuss my research with friends, guides, mentors and family. I am looking for tips, nudges, guidance, feedback, arguments and debates. So am looking forward to a lot of action here, feel free to put across your point of view.
