Cover:Disruptive

MArch 2012

UC Berkeley CED

Contents:

00. Preface Ron Rael

01. TerraTox’isBryan Allen

02 .Microbe Structures Marisha Farnsworth

03. Peripatetic Free-spaces Oriana Cole

04. Salt, Formation and Emergence at the Dead Sea Mark Kelly

05. Phytopia Pablo Zunzunegui

06. Hydrophilic HousingJoe Nowell

07 RE[fuse]Anthony Giannini

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54

PREFACERON RAEL

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Suspendisse in metus sed leo dignissim varius et mattis quam. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Aenean non tellus nec elit congue porttitor id malesuada lectus. Donec adipiscing, neque sed venenatis auctor, tellus magna ultricies ligula, porttitor lacinia orci libero scelerisque magna. Nullam vitae nunc convallis erat porttitor rhoncus sit amet quis nulla. Nullam diam arcu, posuere quis tincidunt non, dignissim sit amet velit. Vestibulum dictum mattis sapien, auctor dignissim eros consequat vel. iaculis ligula. Ut ut ultrices massa. Aliquam pellentesque sem vel velit malesuada at porta orci tempus. Aenean magna justo, tempus ut ullamcorper eget, porttitor sit amet diam. Maecenas vehicula arcu mi, at placerat neque. Sed mollis consectetur purus, et porttitor metus dapibus quis.

Donec sem turpis, fermentum a malesuada ut, luctus ut ligula. Nunc aliquam sodales imperdiet. Praesent viverra pellentesque orci congue dictum. Pellentesque ultrices dui vitae magna lobortis malesuada. Nunc eleifend, leo at consectetur sollicitudin, sapien dolor semper urna, eget luctus magna lacus ultrices elit. Maecenas vel urna eget elit venenatis mattis ac id orci. Nullam euismod tellus quis libero tincidunt pharetra. Vestibulum feugiat erat sed enim blandit non suscipit dolor semper. Etiam id elit tellus, eu tempor sapien. Vivamus sit amet quam est, at pulvinar lacus. Aliquam erat volutpat. Maecenas rutrum velit a risus interdum ultricies. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.

Donec quam mauris, ultricies sed aliquet sed, lobortis id enim. Proin congue massa vel lectus ultricies eleifend. Curabitur euismod mollis eros vel faucibus. Phasellus rhoncus pretium luctus. Cras vitae urna quis lorem rhoncus varius. Duis id massa ac odio congue bibendum sed in sapien. Nulla tincidunt hendrerit lobortis. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Phasellus non eros velit.

Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

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Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

76 77777766

Hydrophilic Housingjoe taylor nowell

contents

Statement + Presentation Transcript

Precedents

Preliminary Studies

Project Development

Statement + Presentation Transcript

Due to the increasing scarcity of water and its great thermal mass potential, rain water should

be collected, contained, and recycled within the skin of buildings. Engaging the domestic sphere,

such hydrophilic housing provides thermal control, conserves resources, and creates unique phenomena of intimacy and transparency between water and the body: animating and demonstrating water processes

in order to educate and pleasure its inhabitants. In the arid southwestern city of Tucson, prefabricated

modular vessels plug into an infrastructural arm that provides treatment, storage and communal space, while engaging the historic river front, and creating a symbiotic relationship between housing, adjacent

parkland and increased vegetation.

8 9

Precedents

COLLECTION + CONTAINMENT

10 11

THERMAL MASS

...So, traditionally, water has been kept out of buildings, as a problem. And incorporating thermal

mass of water into buildings has been rather limited, in the form of roof ponds and water walls in some kind of off-the-grid projects. So I am investigating

how to more fully incorporate water within the skin of buildings and within the interior to activate the spaces,

educate the users, and provide a more comfortable environment.

12 13

ACTIVATE + EDUCATE

IRRIGATE

14 15

PHENOMENA + THE BODY

16 17

Preliminary Studies

CONTAINING VESSEL

18 19

STORAGE VOLUME

20 21

LANDSCAPE INTEGRATION + CREATION

22 23

INTERWOVEN WATER FUNCTIONS

24 25

EMBEDDED PROGRAM

26 27

FLEXIBLE + POROUS ENVELOPE

28 29

ROOF SYSTEMS

FLOOR SYSTEMS

WALL SYSTEMS

SURFACE PROFILE STUDIES

30 31

FLEXIBLE MASS

SUMMER DAY SUMMER NIGHT WINTER DAY WINTER NIGHT

BREATHER::DEFLATED BLADDER FOR NATURAL VENTILATION

BREATHER::DEFLATED BLADDER FOR NATURAL VENTILATIONCOLLECTOR::EXPOSED EXPANDED BLADDER FOR COLLECTION

COOLER::SHADED EXPANDED BLADDER, FLUSH WITH COOL WATER

HEATER::RELEASE HEAT TO INT, FILL WITH HOT WATER

MOVING MASS

N

SUMMER DAY

BUFFER SUN ON ROOF, SOUTH, WEST.COOL INTERIOR FROM CEILING, 2 -SIDED WALL, LOCALIZED SEATING ZONE.

COOL LOCALIZED BEDROOOM ZONE FROM CEILING AND WALLS.COOL WARMED ROOF WATER UNDERGROUND.

ABSORB HEAT ON ROOF AND SOUTH. HEAT FROM FLOOR, INTERIOR WALLS, LOCALIZED SEATING ZONE.

HEAT FROM FLOOR, INTERIOR WALLS, LOCALIZED BEDROOM ZONE.

SUMMER NIGHT WINTER DAY WINTER NIGHT

BED BEDK+LRK+LR

N

DYNAMIC MASS

32 33

HOUSING MODULE STUDIES

34 35

...Tuscon, is obviously an arid desert environment, so it makes traditional thermal mass a very plausible strategy. Temperatures are mild in the winter daytime and summer evenings, so a shaded thermal mass in the summer and an exposed thermal mass in the winter is a very practical strategy. They receive about 12 inches of yearly

rainfall, 90 percent of which fl ows to the storm drains, like in many cities. It is experiencing a depleted and polluted local water supply, and they have very encouraging laws for greywater use. So, it makes it a ripe place

for such a project.

The project is sited along the Rillito River, so to engage the city back to the historic river that brought the city into being: engaging the riverfront and creating a new connection from the city side (with the downtown to the south of the site) to the more rural side. My actual site is located here, and there is an adjacent county park. So the project is seeking to engage the public space with the housing development, and explore how the two can

work together to create a more symbiotic relationship.

36 37

CATALINA FOOTHILLS

RILLITO RIVER

DOWNTOWN

SITE

CONNECTION BACK TO HISTORIC RIVERFRONT OPEN SPACE CONTEXT OVERAPPING HOUSING AND PARK FORM RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP

SITE

RILLITO RIVER

COUNTY PARK

Project Development

TUCSON

...The building is massed to give space back to the parkland, and create a more open entry

gateway to the park and to the river. In return, the shade canopy provides water back to the housing

development for use within the interior spaces, and as well for the exterior spaces to create a

more enriched landscape that yields new garden areas within this unused parkland.

38 39

SITE

HOUSING

PARK

HOUSING

PARK

PHSYCIAL AND VISUAL ACCESS ANGLE FROM ENTRANCE

CANOPY

CANOPY EXTENDS OVER PARK, GARDEN, BRIDGE

HOUSING

PARK

HOUSING

GARDEN

PUBLIC PROGRAMMED

WALL

COMMUNITY GARDEN SPACE INSERTED INTO HOUSING MASS

PARK

HOUSING

EXTEND PUBLIC ACCESS AND PARK SPACE TO CITY SIDE

MASSING

40 41

ROOFTOPS +COLLECTION CANOPY

FIRST FLUSHROOF WASHING

STORAGEaccessible for cleaning

PURIFICATION FOR POTABLE USE

NON-POTABLE USE CAR WASHING

DUST SUPPRESSION

SEDIMENT FILTER: 5.0 MICRON

CARBON FILTER:0.5 MICRON

UV DISINFECTION:disinfects by reducing the amount of heterotrophic bacteria

DISCHARGE TO REMOTE LANDSCAPE

OVERFLOW LANDSCAPE, POND AND WATER FEATURES WITH NO HUMAN CONTACT

POTABLE WATER DISTRIBUTION

KITCHEN SINK + DISHWASHER

BATHROOM SINK

BATHS + SHOWERS

GREYWATER COLLECTION SETTLING TANK eliminate floating and sinking objects

IN-LINE + UV DISINFECTIONnear-potable treatment for long-term storage

TOILETSleads to 30-50% reduction of interior water use

MUNICIPAL TREATMENT

UNDERGROUND IRRIGATION NON-EDIBLE PLANTS

THERMAL MASS WALL + FLOOR

THERMAL MASS FURNITURE

EDIBLE PLANTS except raw root crops

FRUIT TREES

EDIBLE LANDSCAPEraw root crops

POOLS

EVAPORATIVE COOLING TOWERS

LAUNDRY

CANOPY WATER FEATURES

OVERHEAD IRRIGATION

WATER FEATURES:FOR HUMAN CONTACT

CHLORINATION TREATMENT

SITE WATER CYCLE

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC 0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

GALLONS RAINFALL PER 1/4 ACRE

AVG USAGE FOR SINGLE FAMILY

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

90.0

100.0

110.0

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

NORM HIGH

NORM LOW

RAINFALL IN INCHES1981-2010 AT TUCSON AIRPORT, NOAA

MONTHLY RAINFALL VS. USAGE

summer nights + winter days comfortable

TEMP IN DEGREES F1981-2010 AT TUCSON AIRPORT, NOAA

CLIMATE DATA

42 4342 434NORTH

50 FT

SITE PLAN

PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY + BRIDGE

SHADE + COLLECTIONCANOPY

PUBLIC PROGRAM-EMBEDDED WATER WALL

COMMUNALGARDEN

PUBLIC GARDENCENTRAL COLLECTION POOL

IRRIGATING WATER TRAILS

INFRASTRUCTURAL ARMCOMMUNAL ROOFTOP POOLS + GREENSPACE

8 HOUSING UNITSPRIVATE GREENSPACE SINGLE FAMILY UNIT

44 45

Joseph Becker: Do you want to just explain where that section is cut?

Joe: Ya, it’s cut right here. So it is looking out to the main collection pool. This is all public space with the irrigating water trails that extend through the site to bring people more in contact with the water and irrigate

the landscape as well.

David Gissen: So, housing… so that’s like a typical unit… oh, that’s the unit plan right there.

Joe: Yes, so, it’s broken into an infrastructural arm that separates the public walkway, forms a communal garden space, and extends out to the road: connecting the road to the river. The housing modules plug

into that. And this is an individual unit within the housing mass. All of the housing units are oriented south and shaded on the west by the infrastructural component, so to take advantage of the thermal mass opportunities. The canopy itself is obviously quite large. It is approximately 300,000 square feet; so it

collects enough water for about 19 families. What I have proposed here is for 8 units. That could obviously be expanded or the excess water could be used for exterior features, increased irrigation and community

garden local production.

BUILDING COMPONENTS

46 47

...Each of the units then is organized based on water use and thermal control. The north side of each of the units is contained with potable water [and the

south side is contained with greywater]. So each of these units are essentially vessels containing both

water and people. The walls are all water-fi lled and spaces extend off that based on water use and their

need for the thermal control provided by the mass of that water. For instance bathrooms that make use of both greywater and potable water, would extend

across the space, and combine the two sources. And spaces such as bedrooms, that would make use

of the winter evening heat provided by the daytime sun on the greywater wall, would be surrounded by that mass, and engage the body. The greywater fi lls

furniture and other smaller-scale elements that provide a comfortable thermal environment while engaging

the user with water, making them more aware of the processes and the resources.

KITCHENCOOL STORAGE

LIVING

BEDROOM

LIVING WALL + UNDERGROUND IRRIGATION

EDIBLE LIVING WALLSINGLE UNIT MODULES :: WATER-BASED PROGRAMMING GREYWATER + BLACKWATER OUT

WINTER SUN WARMS THERMAL MASS

BATHROOM

DINING

UNIT MODULES

48 49

POTABLE WATER STORAGE

ENTRANCE

SWIMMING POOL

RAIN WATER OUT

UNIT PLAN

50 51

...So in section, the walls obviously contain water and program extends off that. The roof is used for

collection obviously. There is a gutter that fl ows through, recreation pools located above, and a water trail extending off the pools which serves as a source

of evaporative cooling for within the units.

SHADER OVER COLLECTION GUTTER FILTERS SUNLIGHT

COLLECTION GUTTER WATERS EDIBLE LANDSCAPE

BATHROOM ENCLOSED BY GREYWATER SUPPLY

EVAPORATIVECOOLING TOWER

GREYWATER-FILLEDFURNITURE

EXPOSED POTABLE KITCHEN TANK

ROOF SHADINGFILTERS LIGHT OVER POOL

RAINWATER DRAINS THRU INTERIOR

POOL

GREY

POTABLE

UNIT SECTION A SECTION B

52 53

LITTLE DIRECT +INDIRECT LIGHT THRU WATER TRAIL

GREYWATER WALL EXPOSED TO DIRECT WINTER SUNLIGHT

GREYWATER BED ENCLOSURE

INTERIORLIVING WALL

EVAPORATIVECOOLING TOWER

UNDERGROUND GREYWATER IRRIGATION

POTABLE WATER ENCLOSED SHOWERSECTION C SECTION D

54 55

CENTRAL COLLECTION POOLUNDERGROUND GREYWATER IRRIGATION

SEATING SUPPORTSSHOWERSIRRIGATING WATER TRAILS

COLLECTION + SHADE CANOPY

COLD WATER STORAGE

COMMUNAL PATHSEATING REGISTERSSTORAGE LEVEL

POTABLE WATER FEATURES +EDIBLE GARDEN WATERING

PROGRAMMED-EMBEDDEDPUBLIC GREYWATER WALL

PUBLIC PATH

POTABLE WATER FEATURES +EDIBLE GARDEN WATERING

PROGRAMMED-EMBEDDEDPUBLIC GREYWATER WALL

PUBLIC PATH

PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE

SITE SECTION

56 57

UNIT INTERIOR

58 59

Melanie Kaba: Is one of these models the unit?

Joe: No, most of these are study models. I guess this is the last study model that…

Nicholas de Monchaux: What about that model on the left there?

J: That is also a study model of water functions of how they can intertwine. So I guess this is the

closest representation of the water within the spaces.

David: It seems like most of the images of water are either about water as a resource or as a source

of domestic comfort. Is there anywhere where you are using… the images suggest you also

using water to rethink what a home is or what an apartment might be. So where is that? In the

images I see water everywhere, right?

Nicholas: But not a drop to drink… I also wanted to ask you about plastic, because you print on

plastic, and everything is rendered as if it is translucent plastic as well. And water and plastic

couldn’t be more different in their shapes and optical properties, as it was. They are incredibly different. And so I wonder, where is the plastic

coming from?

Joe: It does provide some translucency to expose water levels within the containing volumes. And we

began the semester obviously with an exploration of 3d printing and its possibilities. And one of the

things I latched onto early was rubber printing and plastic printing and creating these multi-material

water-tight vessels.

Melanie: Are those rubber?

60 61

62 63

Joe: No. There’s plastic there, but I haven’t printed any in rubber, but I looked into it.

Peter Testa: Are you using printing in the project at this point?

Joe: So, each of the units is broken down into modules. And I haven’t fully detailed, obviously, the construction methods, but I have been looking into

3d printing plastic composite, or similar rotational molding as [creating] an enclosing vessel that would

get away from a lot of the leakage and other practical concerns with water.

Leigh Cristy: The blue and the green are the potable and the greywater, correct?

Joe: Yes.

Leigh: Reliant on storm water, or not?

Joe: Not. I mean relying on water from the canopy: collected rainwater. So the rainwater is collected and treated for potable water and recycled as greywater.

Leigh: So if I move to like July in Tucson, does the section look the same?

Joe: Yes, because, well in July they actually get a lot of rainfall.

Leigh: So at a time when there is less rainfall?

Joe: Well, because of the size of it, there would be an excess of water storage, so that would not normally

be a problem.

Leigh: It’s gonna look like that year round?

J: It will look… watery.

(Critic): So you’ve calculated the annual rainfall and the usage of the units, so they maintain the right

levels, correct? The usage is replenished with the storm water?

Joe: Yes.

64 65

(Critic): So the section is always consistent?

Joe: Yes. There are opportunities explored in the section, when even if it’s not at its maximum, for

collection levels to register within water-fi lled furniture or within the vessels that enclose the

bathroom and such.

Nicholas: Does the furniture deform?

Joe: It would be, yes, like any waterbed.

Melanie: So, it’s malleable?

Joe: Yes.

Nicholas: That’s really important!

Melanie: And I could not perceive that from these images. It seems very static.

Joe: Yes, I could defi nitely give that more attention.

Nicholas: I think that because so much of your geometry is developed from the forms of deformed

solids, and I think that that deformation is really… I’m still stuck on the plastic. I’m fascinated of

the design of like spring water bottles, you know, that takes something that is so unnatural: like

it’s unnatural to buy water, and to declare some water to be different from other water. I think that’s

absurd. And then it tries to naturalize it through this most unnatural of materials, mostly by giving

it these curves and sinuous things which is in… which, that is the part I am the least convinced

of in in the project: is the like spring water bottle aesthetics of these, you know, beautiful curves.

And yet the notion that it might be a super-normative thing, but that just deforms, you know, is really, really interesting. And so, I am interested

in, I think… I might choose to believe in the kind of baffl ing and the striations of the geometry if you in

fact are starting to design the way in which it might deform. And that is also, I think, really interesting. That you actually shape, literally, domestic space

through excess and absence of this un-built substrate material, on which the life of the house

depends, is to me a really great project. It’s not

66 67

totally clear in the graphics, but I subscribe to it wherever it may lie.

David: I wonder too, you know, if you are re-thinking the house with water, I wondering if you

could A: ratchet it up a bit, but also B: think about things such as humidity, or we’ve heard about mold today, right? I wonder if you could think

about ways to program the house around some of the qualities of water. It still feels like an apartment

that has water sort of stuffed into it, versus something that… ya, gets out of the closet!

(Critic): Out of the water closet!

David: But it’s like, you know here, when I imagine like there’s a mom and her son or daughter and

they are standing next to this pool in their house. It’s one of the things I think you might ratchet up

a bit. Water is also very interesting because when people have disabilities, water is one… when

you’re in water it’s one of the few places where they are able-bodied. So water can also be an idea about circulation, right? There’s like all these pools and things. It’s like: resource or comfort. And I kind of challenge you to think about water in something

besides those two categories.

Nicholas : It’s making me think a little bit, you know, there’s this apartment that Kolatan did in

New York in the nineties that was like on the cover of the New York Times…

Ron Rael: The O/K apartment

Nicholas: … for the Kuttners. To me, it was funny, because I ended up getting to know those people, because they lived in Charlottesville. And that was just their pied-à-terre in New York. And they were never there. And they said it was really awful. But they were very happy because they got it on the

cover of the New York Times Magazine. It was like the ultimate architecture as consumption.

So to me I have a hard time with these kinds of sinuous plastics because in some ways it’s like

the Fiji water bottle, that is water as commodifi ed consumption. They actually have a problem of not having enough water in Fiji, and yet the Fiji

68 69

water company has this codependence that’s like… nothing is more horrendous in late-model capitalism

than selling people water. It’s just insane. And yet, marketing water… I mean Aquafi na is just drinking

water that you buy. So, the formal language is so close to that. It’s so close to the spring water bottle and it’s

so much about a culture of post-human real estate, or like consuming water through buying the water apartment, that I think the project wants to have a

better articulated or more clearly articulated attitude towards water consumption… that the substrate of the

plastic that is distressingly close to the spring water bottle and yet in its deformation that the notion to

the house is actually malleable and not solid, not this kind of rock solid vessel, but in fact a kind of … you are underwater in every sense. That is really I think

potentially brilliant, and so I’m not sure where you…

Leigh: One of the things that troubles me about how you make this sort of thing work, in a lot of the

buildings that we do is that the need for water fall and gravity, unless you want to have mechanical systems involved in it. There’s a lot of ways to do it, and I look

at the plan and the linearity of the units that you’ve set up and then I looked at the sections to try to fi nd out

how you get water from the roof down, whether it’s just a drain pipe as is typical, which I suspect it might be because you don’t actually see it go from point A

to point B. But then it makes me look at your roof, and you’ve got some gestures of slope there but I feel like there is a real opportunity, no to say you have to have a butterfl y roof, but whatever it is though, there is an

intentionality missing about how to get that collection into the building, and into the water-fi lled furniture or

anything else.

(Critic): It’s a bit in here, but it hasn’t really been architecturally explained.

Leigh: That’s interesting, that would be a little…

Joe: I did look at it more in study models and I did explore central collection as “water places” for each

unit, but…

Melanie: I think it goes a step beyond collection to dissecting the circulation and adjacencies. It really

doesn’t tell us what water you are using.

Leigh: Is this related to this? And how does this…

Melanie: Right, how does it enter the system at [the site] scale? And on the micro-scale how gravity plays

a part, and then how that might begin to deform… why it would deform where it deforms in the interior.

I think this idea of circulation could have been more rigorously addressed to fi ne tune. What I do think is really powerful about this are these interiors that are fairly different than a normal interior home. Though

I don’t buy the contextualization component, I don’t think this necessitates Tucson. But that all stems from

really rigorously investigating how the water gets in, and gets absorbed. The idea of absorption fi ghts then I think what Nicholas is bringing up in terms

of a plasticized, really rigid form, versus an ooze or a circulation that bleeds into the space and then

contracts.

Joseph: It’s kind of what this language is implying: this movement… and a little bit about what was just

talked about. It actually isn’t going to be static. The amount of water that is going to be in this building

is not going to be static. You know, what happens if there is a major drought? How does the architecture

respond? Does this thing start to actually deform and still perform in the right way? What happens if

one unit has excessive shower use and the other one doesn’t bathe? How does the whole thing respond and how do the individual units respond? Does the

couch become a settee? Does it become an armchair? Things like that.

Ron: That’s really interesting and I just want to build on that because I just want to bring up…

Peter: There is a lot of pressure on the space from water. The more water you have, the less space you

have, the more thermal mass you have… which would be kind of a nice relationship. There could be more

reciprocity. One other point, or two of them actually… one of them is the lack, in some of the projects we

are seeing… the lack of reference to earlier models, like the impluvium, right? I mean this is not… clearly

before we had plumbing, people had to collect water. So there are organizations that come from that. And

I think that could be an interesting interplay, both the impluvium, or some of these early prototypes,

and new material technologies that would allow for this kind of fl exibility. So I’m missing a little bit those

two ends of it. On the material side you spoke of this as hydrophilic? Or hydrophobic? But there [are]

hydrophilic and hydrophobic materials, and you don’t seem to have pursued that, or at least you did not talk

about that. And [those] could be ways of creating a relationship between material and these various kinds

of spatial conditions. And it also I think goes back to the courtyards, which seems to be implicit in some

of these things, but is not really in your language

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which seems more about a... I don’t know quite how to classify it, but it looks more like air movement than water. These look like radiator ducts. This is

all about air. Water is much heavier. And impluvium also generally lead to something underground, like a well. And so I think that there are other dimensions.

And that well could also be made out of stone or something and could have an interplay of different

kinds of materials that would give this a lot more interest.

Joseph: That’s really interesting when you talk about the well, because taking advantage of the existing

thermal mass of the ground is something you aren’t really exploring. What if this whole project sunk, and

what you’re talking about is a surface treatment of water that’s capturing the thermal mass on top. And

then you have a more contained system.

Nicholas: There’s all the DeRoche examples, and the Brazilian modernism water themes… One of the things that that architecture does, like in deRoche’s own house… the water is really bloody heavy. And

that’s the thing, water is one of the… what deRoche did to support this thing (it’s like a nine inch pool of

water over the whole roof): he’s got concrete beams which are about a meter deep, just to hold it up.

And he uses them and articulates them beautifully. I think the physical properties of water and the way in which… would probably actually just deform the

architecture you have here out of all recognition. I would encourage you either to really embrace the kind

of entropic qualities of water... Projects have dealt with entropy in a variety of different ways. And water is this kind of destructive force that’s life giving at the same time. And I think that’s real interesting, that the notion of the house itself might be compressed over time into the soil. In parts of Australia, where people settled around gold mines, in the 19th century long

before air conditioning, everything was just dug into the ground: whole towns and villages. Not in this kind

of beautiful… it just seems very mater-of-fact: like, we are going to use the resource that’s here. The

resource that’s here is the thermal mass that already exists in the ground. And so, the kind of resourceful…

I don’t think you can talk about water without being resourceful. Especially in the way you have framed the

project as water’s increasing urgency as a resource.

Leigh: I think also as you wrap this up, I would question your water cycle diagram where everything is linear over to the side. At what point does it come

back at some point if it’s a resource? At some point it should come back.

Joe: Ya, there is greywater. So, if it was organized differently, it could circle back.

Leigh: Ya, so maybe it’s there. I’m questioning the organization.

Ron: I think the questions of the dynamic issues of water are really important and they have been brought

up in ways that we haven’t discussed before and I think that’s been very fruitful. Especially this idea of displacement… and the displacement issue is only

interesting, I think, when you accept something that I think is maybe the missed potential of the project:

that I think David said this is like an apartment where there is water everywhere. The drawings in section

could be done in a way where the fi gures never occupying the white, but they are always occupying the blue or the space that the blue needs to be. And

I’ll say this again, because you know I’ve said it before, that the moment there is a party and everyone is in the pool and the water rises and fl oods, there’s this whole dynamic condition about it that needs to be, not addressed, but accepted and then redesigned

and reconfi gured to accept the notion that water is a dynamic object. Unless then you move into vapors and

ice; and you’re looking at it in its multiple states. And that is another way to explore the project as well. And I know you do explore it in terms if vapors by thinking

about evaporative cooling. But I think on a much more… the phenomenon is not as pronounced I think

as it should be. But I think what does work very well and is very exciting is that there is this notion of the

interior, the domestic interior, that can be challenging and challenged by water spaces. And I do think that

one goal that Joe had was to explore the realms of aesthetics, more than my own interest in water (and

that is about dynamics and everything else). But I think the realm of aesthetics, and especially seeing

Joe come along in the semester and knowing his past work, that he really wanted to push those on a number

of levels… and also the realm of competence, I think. And he wanted to explore that. And it’s beautiful

to see, I think, in the fi nal result that he’s been able to layer in his interests. Because that’s what I think

thesis should be about, in a very confi dent, beautiful, challenging way. And so, thank you very much Joe.

Critics: Javier Arbona, Joseph Becker, Leigh Christy, David Fletcher, David Gissen, Melanie Kaba, Nicholas

de Monchaux, Peter Testa