to introduce tonight's speaker before I
do that I just want to acknowledge one
really significant detail of of the
arrangement here tonight
in since 2003 we've been able to bring
to the college a barber McMurray
professor and this is a result of
generous endowment provided by the local
firm barber McMurray architects so
blanche barber and current personnel at
barber McMurray have combined to endow a
1 million dollar gift to the College of
Architecture and Design which has
allowed us to bring a significant
internationally recognized architect to
teach here in the college essentially
every other year so in 2013 the very
first Barber McMurray professor was
Larry Scarpa of Scarpa Brooks and Brooks
Scarpa in Los Angeles and then in 2013
we had Wendell Burnett the Phoenix
architect here and so just to say to the
folks from Barber MacMurray who were
here thank you very much
formally and publicly for this amazing
support it's part of what helps
differentiate what we do here at the
University of Tennessee and brings great
value to the student experience so thank
you
so the 2018 Barber McMurray Barber
McMurray professor is Billy Faircloth
partner and director of research at
Karen Timberlake the practice based in
Philadelphia so founded in 1984 Karen
Timberlake has approximately 120
professionals diverse backgrounds and
abilities in a practice that's been
recognized worldwide Karen Timberlake
has been awarded hundreds of dot design
citations in its history including the
firm award from the AIA in 2008 and the
cooper-hewitt National Design Award for
Architecture from the Smithsonian
Institute in 2010 looking at their
website it includes this incredible
soundbite that I wanted to share with
you guys it reads like this the alchemy
of art science analysis and intuition
with regard to the built environment is
our core mission I think that's a pretty
cool mission statement so some of the
provocations that the firm has pursued
over the years include Rhian visioning
the traditional building envelope
developing new techniques for off-site
fabricated architecture and building new
tools for sustainable design in the
spirit of making change through
meaningful collaboration the firm also
participates in lectures conferences
symposia and extend exhibitions around
the world that augment their commitment
to professional practice and of course
Billy being here is an extension of that
Karen Timberlake has been successful in
maintain a culture of continuous asking
even as the firm has ascended and grown
which from my point of view is no small
feat because I think that's exactly the
pressure that's on firms as they grow
and ascend nationally and
internationally they tend to they tend
to lose the kind of core spirit that
they have starting out unless of course
everyone commits to that so
I think that's a strong aspect of their
firm that that shows in the work so
likewise the firm's commitment to
research has provided a way for deep
investigation to be conducted during the
design process and for the results of
their work to stimulate and augment the
process of designing and building Sploritory
empirical and applied research
bringing added value to commissioned
architectural project projects and
allows the practice to develop new
custom products and tools for the
architectural industry so in her
capacity at Karen Timberlake Billie leads
a transdisciplinary group of
professionals leveraging research design
and problem solving processes from
fields as diverse as Environmental
Management chemical physics material
science and architecture she fosters
collaboration between disciplines trades
academies and industries in order to
define a relevant problem solving
boundary for the built environment her
work centers around three main themes
that I think we'll see tonight
justification and research methods for
transdisciplinary and transscalar
design practice the design of novel
methods tools and workflows that reveal
new information about materials climate
and thermodynamic phenomena and how the
history of plastics and architecture
demonstrates architectures changing
posture towards transdisciplinary
practices and new knowledge interest in
these topics was formed during her time
at the University of Texas at Austin
School of Architecture where she taught
between 2002 and 2008 but in 2008 she
took an abrupt turn and as she was
offered the research directorship at
Karen Timberlake so I think I'm
advancing your slides
I could probably do the lecture I know
this so well so since joining the firm
Billie has worked to prove that
architecture should be should produce
knowledge rather than merely consume it
and I think this is a fascinating
approach that she brings to this so her
approaches resulted in peer commendation
for a number of research for Karen
Timberlake Research Group projects
including pointillist a wireless sensor
network and Tali
a Revit based a Revit based a Revit
compatible custom lifecycle assessment
tool so and of course both of these
projects received national recognition
and international recognition she's
taught in addition to her work there and
since joining the firm she's taught
courses and themed workshops on
materials climate thermodynamics at
various institutions at Penn that
Harvard GSD at the Royal Danish Academy
of Fine Arts at the simcard University
in Israel
the University of Minnesota Georgia Tech
and now the University of Tennessee
she's widely published on these topics
including in the energy form in the
Journal of architectural education in
the plea conference proceedings and
Princeton Architectural press so please
join me in welcoming Billie Faircloth
this thing on everyone can hear me in
the back and get a thumbs up all right
great
first I want to thank the University of
Tennessee for inviting me and inviting
Karen Timberlake into the school then
into the college this has been an
amazing experience it's been incredible
to work with all of the students in the
studio Scott thank you it's been
incredible to work with you it's been
amazing
I also want to thank you warned me this
what happens I do when I want to make
sure that we again thank Barber
McMurray and think thank you for this
endowment and for funding this
possibility that firms can come in that
we can create this course and that we
can create create a meaningful
relationship between what the resources
of the Academy and the resources of
practice this has been a really
incredible and rich and enriching
semester I hope for the students but
also for for me personally and for our
firm tonight I want to talk about our
practice I'm actually going to touch on
about 22 projects and that's because
what I'm going to show you is the way
that we use questioning searching and
searching again as a mode that operates
throughout design it's a mode that
actually increases the agency or power
of the architect and I want to use that
word agency specifically and literally
and I want to begin by just asking us to
consider what that means so I'm going to
turn on my teaching mode for a second
get out of my lecture hat and just say
you know what what is agency what's
design agency have you heard the phrase
have you discussed the phrase is there a
robust discussion about agency here at
the school
what's agency political agency moral
agency there's all different kinds of
agency what's design agency does anyone
want to take a pass
students from six pack six scales please
students from my studio please no
that's right Pruett yeah yeah the power
that we have to cause a change the
design agency let's think about that for
a second what is design agency we have
this amazing power to use the process
design to create change in the world
and often what I found in my own career
is that we're constantly questioning the
extent of the power or the range of that
power and what we found that our
practice is that you know that power can
extend quite a bit if you were to come
through our office and spend some time
with us you will see that every day
we're asking how far we can extend the
boundary around what we include and what
we exclude when we design you might come
to our office and see us out on the
sidewalk doing things like this just on
the day-by-day basis now we have
projects we have clients they have
schedules but on a day-by-day basis it's
what you choose to do and how you choose
to design and the things that you engage
on a day-by-day basis that actually can
matter and when you allow an entire
group or an organization or in community
to embrace questioning as part of the
core infrastructure for the design
process wonderful things happen you
begin to ask some really primary
questions so this group of people is
mired in a debate about this thing
and bang we affectionately refer to as
the apparatus is holding a bunch of
glass samples and the debate is which
color is the glass which color is the
glass when I turn it a certain angle and
how does the color of the glass then
relate to what my intention is is as a
designer it turns out that everyone sees
the color of the glass slightly
differently right that's an interesting
thing you might also find us on out
front just out front on our sidewalk
doing experiments like this especially
you know in the summer we're doing a
very very quick mock-up because we're
trying to understand something about
water flow water flow across a very
specific surface and running a really
quick rough experiment it's a low fight
what I would call a low fidelity
prototype just to begin to ascertain the
slope of a surface and the speed at
which water flows across the surface
more recently just two weeks ago we were
working on some masonry mock-ups in our
shop we were working with members from
the International masonry Institute
masons who came in we were asking a
really basic question I would almost
call these sketches like bricks and
mortar we were asking a basic question
about the head joint on a curve and
while we had an incredibly high fidelity
Revit model and we were running scripts
that would allow us to adjust these head
joints we also wanted to in turn create
a prototype and go through the entire
process of working with those joints as
well and so we were just simply using
our shop as a space where we can build
and work through these types of details
I don't know would you call this
research does that word unsettle you a
bit does it confuse you if I say
searching and searching again does that
feel more comfortable to you
the truth is I believe I deeply believe
there's never been a more pressing
moment than now to test the boundaries
of our design agency and there's a
reason for that when we design our power
lies in the ability to inscribe a
boundary around what we are going to
include and what we're not going to
include so if I have students in here
from six facts six sales yeah do I have
any students in the air a couple from
the seminar course we're working on one
of the things we're working on it's
really trying to understand that
boundary and one of the things that we
work on at Karen Timberlake on a
day-by-day basis again is trying to
understand the boundary that we're
drawing around what we include and what
we exclude and how deeply we can
understand design as multi-variant
endeavor so when we go to work on a
building like this which is the u.s.
embassy in London the day-to-day working
out of the U.S. embassy in London over a
three and a half four year period
required yes a lot of design as you can
imagine it but also a lot of slowing
down vetting questions extending our
knowledge bowing into areas that may
feel a little uncomfortable bringing
people into the conversation that would
allow us acts targeted questions and
conduct targeted types of analysis
through prototypes computation
simulation measurement that would give
us actual level information so that we
could continue the process so that we
could engage design so that we could in
fact increase the goals for that
building we search in search again
because we believe that it searching and
searching again increases our agency our
power to cause a change and it also
increases the value of architecture we
also have a tendency to because of our
design philosophy put are searching in
searching again into these four buckets
we recognize and actually I think this
is one of the more
citing things as as research processes
the searching and searching again
processes become more rigorous and
robust in architectural practice as they
begin to be paired with design what I
see emerging is a profession in a
practice where different design
philosophies are allowing these buckets
to to be named differently I think
that's an amazing landscape for our
profession to allow different research
topics to emerge but if you're in temper
like we have a tendency to focus on
environment material systems of
processes and quite often it's the
interface between these things the
interface between environment materials
looking at phenomena in material
simultaneously the interface between
systems and materials or processes and
materials and it is true as stated
in the introduction we have worked
towards a transdisciplinary practice we
are transdisciplinary what we mean by
that is we realized many years ago that
in order to get at the kind of design
practice that we knew as possible we had
to extend the design process from the
allied disciplines so yes we work with
structural engineer civil engineers
electrical engineers etc but we wanted
to extend the design practices and
processes to those disciplines that had
knowledge seem to overlap with the way
we understood how architecture worked in
the environment but that we're
nonetheless not represented in the
design process and this includes people
with knowledge and materials engineering
our knowledge as environmental
management or knowledge in computer
science or chemical physics a 2008 we
began to expand upon an already 20-year
endeavor to integrate research and
design we begin to expand and upon that
endeavor and formalize it into a
transdisciplinary group we are
transdisciplinary we do projects
projects period we do architecture we do
software we work on concepts we
establish research as a project
well the teams it's not done at night
it's not done under the cover of
darkness that done on the weekends it is
in fact part of our process again this
mode that extends our agency and we
identify questions that are expression
of our design philosophy question market
central infrastructure in our practice
we mature techniques we capture and
share our results this is how we're
organized it's a brief sketch of our
practice but it's true and it's accurate
so many of you have already visited
Karen Timberlake which is great some of
you have seen this face in our office
but this really is the platform upon
which all of this questioning and our
projects play out on a day-by-day basis
we have an organization that allows
people to move freely across the office
we are organized in into teams but we
also have an organization that allows
those people who are part of the
research group and the others about 13
research group members
there's also communication groups that
has about 8 members and then there's a
whole other group of architectural
design staff that's right around 60 or
so people we have a total of about a 100
individuals but whether they really like
about the shot of the pulse of our
offices you can't tell who's having a
conversation with whom you can't tell
exactly what's happening that's because
we have an integrated process when we do
projects all of those folks are at the
table all at once right everyone's there
all at once and so our projects have a
tendency yes again to look like
buildings but also to look like software
to look like scripts I think the more
important thing is that our projects
have a tendency to range scales to range
concerns we focus on certain parts of
building delivery methods we can focus
on whole entire buildings as I
mentioned the question mark is essential
piece of infrastructure this slide
actually captures a whole range of
questions we've asked
I keep track of the questions that we
ask on a weekly basis they're
categorized into a database people
answer those questions through a
rigorous process but what's really
important about all of these questions
is that everybody on this floor has the
ability as a designer no matter which
group they originate from to ask those
questions again to extend their design
agency into areas and subject matter for
which they may not be an expert but they
may have curiosity about or they may be
interested in discovering more about the
other thing that you could probably note
if you just look really deeply at these
like what's going on up there
funny question not too specific I
wouldn't advise answering it just as its
stated we don't know where up there is
but I'll show you which factors best
characterize the site can we locate and
measure a multitude of spatio-temporal
urban micro climates the other thing
other observation you can make us Wow
you know all these questions do require
a whole range of different methods to
solve them which means that again in
order to extend our agency we've had to
develop those methods so we have matured
a platform of methods and techniques
ours is a multi method approach so we
regularly engage tool development we
regularly engage sensor deployment we
like to measure stuff when it makes
sense we also engage a spoke computation
and simulation because we're asking
these targeted questions and Wow you
know computation is a really nimble tool
that allows us to get at targeted
questions we also engage prototyping
methods can be incredibly powerful
tooling up methods can be incredibly
powerful when you know the answer the
question that you're asking
so as part of our firm our questioning
is extended through the entirety of the
process and often I get asked you know
okay you can ask questions we can all be
curious but just how rigorous is this
it's one thing to ask questions and to
bring technical information to answer a
question that's another thing to realize
that questioning is both a technical
endeavor but let's face it more often
than not we're interested in the social
component of answering a question we're
interested in capturing that knowledge
and understanding that once we've
captured that knowledge we need to share
it so we've also developed ways of
sharing the knowledge that we capture
both internally and externally we have
an entire process for doing that through
something called a read report through
something that's called a research query
every individual in our office can
capture the question that they're asking
as I mentioned before write out a method
write out a value statement for why
they're asking it put to that that
question think through design a method
to answer that question we communicate
the results weekly and we have them all
situate all these results in a way like
just results are a funny funny word it
sounds like so quantitative but really
these are write-ups about designers
trying to engage something right they
take on various forms but it's an
important practice in our office just
like drawing an idea
writing up findings is absolutely a
practice that people are are embracing
in our firm we can find all of these
findings in a database but we also have
ways of communicating our work obviously
through our books is important part of
our our work is to build up discourse
especially three books like you're
fabricating architecture we also seek
review we seek to expand the work that
we do out into a community of archetype
if that's important to share your work
we see commendation for our work and
increasingly we seek to extend the
questions that we've asked into the
creation of tools our sorry the
questions that we've answered into the
creation of tools that can be
distributed into the profession so a
really simple question that we began to
answer in 2013 how do we calculate the
embodied environmental impacts of our
choices when I select this carpet when I
select this wood base when I'm working
on a design can I also bring this other
layer of a decision-making into the
design process to really understand what
it means to pick that wood and pick this
carpet from the point of view and the
embodied environmental impact that means
emissions to land air and sea can I
understand that and once we begin to
realize yes actually we can create an
environment for designers to access that
data as they're designing then create a
design an integrated process we also
begin to understand that we have a
responsibility to take that process that
we came up with this novel process and
make it such that everyone on our
profession can engage it increasingly
many of the questions we ask you realize
are ones that other designers want to
answer as well and so we can distribute
this our milestones and the reason why I
put this slide in here is because I want
to impress upon the students in the room
that the that our practice what we have
worked towards and what I also
personally have worked towards in my in
my career is designing a practice so our
milestones are intentional we pursued a
transdisciplinary practice we pursued a
practice where research would be a
process and it would be ISO certified
which means that we can go back and we
can write down what we say we're going
to do we can look ahead and we can we
can say that we can do what we say we're
going to do we can look backwards to see
if we did it right and it's just a plan
do monitor learn process
it was intentional to create a
transdisciplinary group to hypothesize
that that was necessary and needed in
the profession and to go after the
creation of that group it was very
intentional for us more recently to
formalize a collective intelligence
based staffing model so that when you
looked at a project team no longer would
it look like here's the architectural
project team but it would look like a
diverse group of individuals with
different types of knowledge that could
really begin to represent these core
strengths appearance whom really this is
intentional and we were able to achieve
these milestones because we intended to
design a practice this way so if you're
able to build up research as a mode and
you have the capacity to use research to
extend your agency then you have a way
of working across the days months years
using this mode I've had 10 years of
working through this mode of seeing how
it plays out and I now am in a position
of reflecting upon how it has worked and
what it has allowed us to do when we
research it's when do you research Billie
this is the question I get asked a lot
what does it look like how does it play
out you say it extends the agency of the
designer but really on a day-by-day
basis what does it look like so this is
this lecture is my effort to explain to
you a little bit of what it looks like
ok that's really what we're gonna do
here and that's why we're going to touch
on 22 different things so one of the
more powerful things that we've done in
our office is to ensure again as I've
given you a snapshot that we have
infrastructure in office to allow anyone
at any moment in time to say hey I've
got a question I want to answer it I
think this is a legitimate question can
we come up with a method
to answer this question that's the day
by day pass of Karen Timberlake so I'm
gonna frame that day by day past by
showing you this question what are the
possible patterns resulting from
variations in woods figuration width
thickness and length now that question
might look familiar to some does that
look familiar does have feel kind of
familiar to anyone it represents a lot
of what we do as designers we're trying
to look at imbalance all these multiple
variables we're working through
parameter driven design questions we're
actually trying to look at the
relationship between these things right
variation of woods figuration so that's
grain we were looking at the width this
question was asked in the context of
forming a wall forming a wall out of
concrete was asked in the context of
Ford form concrete for a very very
specific project you know it was
documented like this that's a research
query but it was really started because
of this project Mosley pendleton quest
it's an addition right there in the
center on this side of the screen is a
1934 building designed by Charles Cotter
its pendleton hall and over there on
your left is Paul Rudolph's Judith
Jewett heart center when we're linking
the two and if you know Wells these
campus in Massachusetts you know that
it's characterized by its amazing
vegetated landscape that connects no
laughter no laughter no for a building
quad after building quad together and
this tiny addition was asked to do a lot
it was asked to actually become a new
threshold or a new front door to get
into what is referred to as the arts
quad but we were interested in answering
this question because part of the team
and you talked about alchemy Jason you
pulled that quote out earlier part of
the intuition that we were using and one
of the reasons we were interested in the
concrete is because we were interested
in creating a bark like texture
the concrete now the literal impression
of the bark but a bark like texture on
the concrete the impression of wood on
the exterior and the true expression in
performance of wood on the interior in
this volume where we have musicians and
vocalists who are practicing on a daily
basis so we started like this we started
the design iteration like this and round
design development yet you know you can
step back and look at these and say
these are pretty clunky Billie what's
going on right what's going on here is
that what we're doing is we're
developing our tacit knowledge we were
working with concrete mix design we were
simply setting up a series of samples
that would allow us to understand those
variables so each of these samples have
boards that are a different depths
related to each other the surface finish
is slightly different
some are sanded more some we're sanded
less which allows the summer wood
configuration to press through on the
concrete a little bit more we have some
board spacing going on thick and thin
but these were our first samples which
turned into some tests that were done
initially done on-site over here on the
left by the contractor who looked at our
samples we had a discussion with the
subcontractor and there was a an attempt
to recreate those samples but once we
saw them on the site we realized no this
this really isn't it this isn't it so
this is the finished one on the on this
side this is what we were really what we
were after and so what this turned into
was realizing that we needed to do a
study in randomness we needed to look at
center boards thicker boards we really
need to begin to understand how to
leverage this pattern this is when we
introduced a script after we had
understood the variables that we were
working with and what mattered to the
expression of the concrete we were then
able to better target a script that
allowed us
to begin to search for a series of
random patterns and then we're able to
export those surface patterns and also
test them visualize them in order to
look at and study this shade shadow
conditions what was really great about
this process is that once we begin to
produce these we're almost like paint by
number of drawings they became the means
by which we could communicate with the
contractor so then the contractor
started really getting involved in
helping us create new notations and to
refine the script that we were working
on and it resulted in a series of shop
like drawings is that where the means of
communication but all of this resulting
from through these early explorations
with these prototypes often on a
day-by-day basis we are asking questions
that require modeling simulation
prototyping but a rigorous way of
answering those questions how do changes
in opening size and soften angle affect
daylight quality and experience of glare
asked on the same project you can see
the practice space right there at the
center we're simply working in a
completely different way non digital
recognizing that sometimes they're a
phenomena that are better experiences
studied with the eye here in this case
we simply had a model that was mounted
on a tripod it was a flexible model we
could cut openings we could block
openings we could put in a camera and
strategically photograph the interior
and began to search through size and
scale and form of opening that would
allow us to eliminate direct light but
also create a type of glow on the
interior of that space so you're
probably getting I hope you're getting
the picture right that as we go through
design on a day-by-day basis in our
office along the way we can mark the
design process through a series of
enquiries that are often extending
the realm of our knowledge these types
of assessments that were done for one
project in office for a project called
one eight one Mercer at NYU or New York
University
this is a trail of these types of
research prairies on a day-by-day basis
and all of these point to asking
questions that asking types of questions
where the answer is not so direct
I can't look it up in a book I can't I
can't see it for instance we were
interested in really understanding the
variation of temperature humidity across
the site it required the distribution of
sensors we were interested in the
variability of wind speed and direction
because we had five surrounding regional
airports all with different wind speed
conditions often the data for designing
the building is coming from those
airports and from Central Park but in
this instance we knew that the site was
very very different so these this type
of nimbleness to ask a cross subject
matters and to ask periodically is part
of our design process on a daily basis
which means we can inquire about as i
just revealed actual site conditions
versus the site conditions at a airport
so this project in the pacific northwest
we simply distributed very regularly
distributed a series of sensors that
allowed us to understand the
microclimate on the site versus the data
that we were getting from the airport in
this instance we're able to inquire
about the performance of a building
envelope and understand the
thermodynamic phenomena in this existing
building propane tanks were put in by
the client the building was heated up to
cool it down and as it was as it was
cooling down we were able by embedding
some of our sensors about sixty sensors
in the building envelope we were able to
really begin to understand the
performance of that exterior wall much
of our inquiry deals with
direct building elements and the
interface between design process and
designers who are in distance in trying
to work on the screen element and
fabrication processes okay sometimes our
inquiry our daily and inquiry matches
matches up like a couple of different
things that we're interested in so in
this instance we have a client who is
working on a gallery and in that gallery
there are some very specific
requirements for how people Traverse and
how people interact with certain
elements and we were interested in
analyzing how pedestrians would flow
through that gallery but simultaneously
interested in having a very broad
conversation with the decision-makers on
that project that represented the client
about over a gallery size model right so
that models of course go models very big
and we wanted to represent these
different options and the way people
might interact with these different
options by using something called
projection mapping on that model quiet
quite often our inquiry extends into
just straightforward comparative
analysis here we're looking at invited
environmental impacts of these
components at Brown University sometimes
we're looking at phenomena like white
and frit in the experience in this
instance of this entire building element
or building component Centrum's were
working on just the frit alone and the
the surface the surface texture of that
frit asked a question about the
potential random patterns of
alphanumeric characters on the facade so
the day by day questioning then is one
that allows designers to interact
interact with the does interact with
this design process in a or this
research process in a really meaningful
way it does extend extend our agency
especially when we have folks in our
office who have various backgrounds and
various methods I think what one thing
to note is that again it's hard to
figure out how this happened so we just
put together this little video you can
get a little bit of a sense of the last
one from the point of view of some of
the folks that worked on it so we have
this east facing facade and we like to
give it some character but we also would
like to preserve the view so fritting is
a great option because of the
translucency that you get but we also
wanted this pattern to breed at two
different scales we'd like for it to
read at a civic scale from all the way
down to the street but we'd also like
for it to read at a small scale for the
users inside the building for reasons
relating to the history of the building
we looked at a pattern comprised of
letters and to give the letters the
civic scale reading we looked at
different ways to create gradients in
patches that are 33 wide and 16 feet
tall and at the densest this gradients
would shield from heat gain at the
lightest it would mitigate for the
strike potential in the area this
project really explores what it means to
be random we can quickly generate the
script in terms of randomness but we
worked with a variety of graphic
designers architects building foreign
specialists to make this powder and read
in a way that is big girl that is
gestural that has kind of character we
really had to develop a language to talk
about this design together I think
that's where compensation was really
interesting because we we started off
designing this by hand on swatches to
kind of get that proper gesture and so
as a graphic designer started to create
this pattern in order to make this BFI
to look such a large surface we had to
unpack each kind of step and really
understand the design decisions that
were being done manually so that we
could apply them on a larger scale
computationally
so for a project like the US Embassy in
London if we if we just look at images
of it I hope what you've begun to
understand that you know the backstory
of a building like this for us is
structured inquiry that actually gives
us again the ability to create the
effects that we want to create and the
ability to increase the goals of the
buildings that we create for our clients
the US Embassy in London and one of the
elements on this building that that
received a lot of prototyping attention
and analysis attention is the ETF fee
scrim or exterior envelope right over
the glass on the building here it is
from the interior and from one of the
interior gardens but the analysis for
this particular element I took all sorts
of forms we wanted to understand it
phenomenally but we also needed to
understand it structurally as a single
layer tension membrane that had to take
on a very specific shape we also wanted
to understand how to integrate
photovoltaics
into the surface and tried to achieve
something that had yet to be achieved a
single layer tension membranes at the
time which means that we had to look at
how the single layer tension membrane
was stressed through different form
finding exercises we had to look at how
those forms then related to the output
of light or sorry the output of energy
and look at their preform in
relationship to PD potential rather look
at the form in relationship to all the
different ways of adding the other
elements that stabilize the the actual
curve of
the single layer tension membrane this
raised this required a whole series of
prototypes both partial scope prototypes
and full-scale prototypes with our
partners but we look at the balance of
system components required for the PV
integration it also required us to step
back and say that there were some things
that we actually couldn't test but we
couldn't to it we knew that the etf fee
would reflect and diffuse and reflect
refract light in certain ways we
actually had research queries that
suggested that there have to be ways for
us to visualize this we tried and tried
but it was actually hard to do and so
once the building was actually built we
were able to begin to capture some of
the quality from this material that we
were we were after and began to
understand really begin to understand at
scale some of the phenomenal effects may
be that there's some questions you ask
that you can't really answer but what's
really important about just looking at
the images of this project is that when
you see images of this project
cellophane house cellophane house is
again made of again this in this
instance pt/ptt membrane stressed in a
frame integrated with thin foam
photovoltaics it's a five story or four
story prototypical dwelling installed as
part of MoMA's home delivery show in
2008 this is an important moment for us
so the New London embassy just completed
in 2017
I just went back in time to 2008 and
showed you something where there's some
material similarities here I can go back
in time even further to 2003 and show
you smart wrap spar trap which is a
prototypical facade this is the working
portion of it down here that integrates
power light integrates thin film
transistors basically is trying to
integrate systems of a building by using
a family of what are called organic
printable materials on a PT substrate
often when it
comes to extending your agency through
questions and then backing up those
questions with action what you're doing
is you're seeding your future work
you're recognizing that and we recognize
this in our work is that the questions
that we ask today some of them we can't
answer but we can basically begin to
build up a body of work that allows us
to continue to carry that work in the
future which means that the embassy
benefits from the investment that we
made early on in trying to pursue a
novel material like smart wrap the ABC
envelope doesn't exist without the
cellophane house which doesn't exist
without smart wrap which really doesn't
exist without our investment and trying
to pursue these types of novel
technologies one of the other aspects of
searching not only does it integrate
into the design process but allows you
to step back it allows you to look at
the things you've created I'm sorry I'm
sure you've all had this thought that
when you look at the built environment
you probably are asking you know this is
one big testbed why can't we really
understand buildings why haven't we
measured why haven't we really
understood what we've created right when
you take up the agency to research
you're also taking up another type of
agency which is one of my favorite types
of agency you're taking up the agency to
characterize describe the nature of
something so much so that can you can
use the nature that you've described as
inputs for design so what are the
spatial and temporal dynamics of urban
open space urban open space we all enjoy
urban open space when we go to design
urban open space we wonder how does this
work how does it perform what are the
factors that contribute to a thriving
and robust urban open space well if we
could study those types of spaces in our
cities what if we could understand the
that actually contribute to good design
of urban open space this is taking up
the agency of describing the nature or
character of something and seeding
future design work so that we can use
our findings to inform our design we did
this at love park in Philadelphia we
made a proposition to the city or
actually to the Fairmount Park
Conservancy at the time into the city to
simply go into both Park and how many of
you've been to love park old the park
newless park some of you might know that
love park like this it has been
completely redesigned right but the love
park was it is a thriving open space and
until Adelphia a really important space
in the center of the city had very
mature trees a very mature series of
vegetative areas around the exterior and
it's always a thriving place to be in
the city this simple create a survey
methodology that allows us to understand
the relationship of people in space mark
those people in space censor the space
understand the relationship of trees to
material to materials to people to their
activities and just simply look back out
look at the data and see if we can come
up with some conclusions about the
relationship between all of those
multiple variables in open space that
project translated directly a year later
into similar set of questions about the
factors that contribute to interactions
on any urban emergency room in
Philadelphia we worked with Jeff design
one of the I think the only design
thinking program for future medical
doctors in the u.s. founded by dr. banku
and he saw our love park study and said
I want you to do this in my space I want
to understand how health care providers
and patients interact because I'm all
trying to modify my rooms and always
moving things around things aren't in
this space they should be I have
patients in the hall has no problems can
we just describe what's going on here
the power to describe it's one that we
should take up again and again and again
in order to know what we've done and
what we've created this also applies
simply to vegetation we have a
long-running series of increase that are
just simply trying to characterize trees
trees on sites especially in this site
and again in Philadelphia mature tree
canopy how do we understand the
contribution of leaf on leaf off to a
future building that's going to sit
right there in that parking lot and can
we begin to understand those trees and
adequately model those trees again we
can extend this power to characterize to
some really in-depth studies like this
study on our green roofs our green roof
vegetation study allowed us to go back
to a whole range of roofs about eight
total roofs that we had designed this is
the study that originates from the
question what's going on over there
and really what we're simply trying to
understand is the relationship between
all of the engineering layers under this
thin layer that we like to describe it's
just a green line right all the
vegetation we're trying to understand
what's going on under there versus
what's going on on top because we what
we've realized is that in spite a roof
that we had designed seven years prior
to across the way and it was out of
control in terms of growth and we begin
to realize wait a minute we planted six
species but that looks more like 65
right what happened what's going on
recognizing that when you have such an
amazing amount of biomass all of a
sudden the way you think about the
thermodynamics of that roof changes all
the Sun the way you think about water
begins to change and so going back to
roofs like this and being able to create
data like this two thousand six six
species
well 13 right it just begins to give us
a snapshot a way of thinking and
characterizing what we've done the
relationship to solar regimes and a
relationship to drainage regimes
realizing that there's a relationship
between the form and slope of that roof
to the vegetative cover and species
richness and biodiversity of the roofs
often we're trying to describe the
nature of something that that is true
for this project as well this project
that we did at the Royal Danish Academy
or with the Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts Centre for information technology
we were working with a group within a
very broad transdisciplinary group and
we were working specifically with phase
change materials it was a it was a
simple and complex and complicated
project because we were trying to couple
fully couple a prototype that's embedded
with about sixty sensors to a simulation
of this material turning solid and
turning liquid which means we had to
know the physics associated with the
flow of that liquid once it was liquid
we had to know all of the material
properties we had to know something
about heat flow we're working closely
with someone who understands the first
principles of thermodynamics and we were
simply trying to couple a physical
prototype with a digital model for a
very very specific reason but this is
simply simply what's there you know it's
it's really straightforward it's a
series of vacuum formed shells the
shells are then filled with phase change
materials in liquid form they change
materials are programmed to go from
solid to liquid at a very very specific
temperature and they hold that
temperature for a very specific reason
which is pretty interesting we were
working with prototypes in two locations
because part of our of our partners in
Copenhagen some of them are in
Philadelphia you can see all the sensors
in that surface and then those sensors
are geo-located or the the prototype
co-located the sensors are geo-located
they're represented fully represented in
a digital model we're getting readings
off the sensors the five minute
we're adjusting the test bed and what
we're simply trying to do is to figure
out what's going on over there at really
specific times time steps because what
we've done is we've also created a
virtual version of what's going on over
there and if we have two both of them
side by side we can actually get this
digital version to be really accurate
and all of a sudden represent a really
complex phenomena a phase change and if
we can do that if we can create a
digital version of this what that means
is that we can give a simulation
platform to anyone in this room and you
can work with complex phase changing
phenomena and ultimately you begin
create surfaces and surface effects that
are quite intentional ones where you're
able to basically say that I want to
create a surface that goes from a
complete hatch that's the white to a
series of dashes to a series of dots can
we control the geometry now that we
understand have a calibrated simulation
platform can I control the geometry so
much so and begin to run through a
series of simulations and search for
forms of those shells that would result
in a hatch dot dash pattern and can we
begin to look and understand how that
hatch - pattern happens over time
coupling robot phenomena with simulation
again extend your agency it's a way of
understanding how precise you can be how
much play there isn't a system right
same is true we're doing something very
similar with the loblolly house this is
a la vallee house last year now this is
what it looks like when it was built you
noticed a difference I'll go back you
notice a difference yes okay it's what
the wood is weathered what do you think
you should we even go here what if we
control could control or understand how
a wood weathers what if we could
simulate how wood weathers we actually
ask that
could we simulate and then begin to
control it well all we're looking at is
color change we're just looking at
simply looking at color change or wear
coloration occurs and why and it turns
out it's driven by wind it's driven by
UV exposure and it's driven by water
these are phenomena that we're familiar
with so when we begin to look at the LA
Valley house there's a whole range of
experiments embedded in this house an
experiment of reorganizing the supply
chain of building it out of one tool of
working with chunks and panels of
actually saying well at the end of its
useful life we want to be able to return
it back to the forest but this
experiment begins to suggest that we can
go back to the loblolly house survey
really survey and create useful maps of
coloration and begin to take a very
rough sketch of a simulation platform
that predicts wood weathering for
another building and turn it into a more
precise simulation platform that would
look at this phenomena board by board
and that would allow and ultimately
allow designers to interact with
weathering as part of the design process
and that's really where we've extended
taking questions like that it extended
those questions into platforms for
designers in our office to use and for
designers in the profession to you so as
I mentioned earlier when it comes to a
software like tally simple question
whether the embodied environmental
impacts can we measure them as we're
designing then we said yes we were able
to answer yes they were that able to
answer yes to that question and then
develop a robust method based on
lifecycle assessment to do that often
these types of platforms start out at
these types of projects we actually just
completed this this really quick sketch
just last weekend and called it holy
frit which
suppose I guess a lift for the left but
you know you probably noticed like wow
you guys do a lot of research on frit
like what's going on what's that
discussion like well it's you know again
people like to keep having this
discussion what if we can use augmented
reality do a really quick proof of
concept of a tool that would leverage AR
through a web-based platform allow
designers to look really quickly at a
series of patterns either image base or
geometry base and just simply begin to
iterate through using a AR more of a AR
platform on glass to understand I
understand those potential patterns this
is a proof of concept tool purchase
concepts often look like this this image
right here you can see iteration after
iteration after iteration of iteration a
long project 2013 to present of trying
to provide a platform for us to collect
information collect measurements in
space high density low cost sensor
network that provides real-time
information on phenomena that's
occurring in spaces we've tested this
with about 25 different architects more
recently we're we're just launching this
tool that's going to allow our
profession to organize post occupancy
evaluations and more specifically
thermal comfort surveys where people are
asking a pastor range of questions and
their questions are actually mapped to
the exact location their answers are
mapped to the exact location that
they're in in their space so not only do
we get data about how they feel how hot
they are how cold they are if they like
the brightness of something if they
don't right but we also begin to get a
map of a space that you need to begin to
define microclimate in this space and
you can begin to look like wow people
over here a little more cold than the
people over here they're kind of hot
what are the factors that are
contributing to that these are platforms
you're another and
this is the final platform I'll show you
final project versus another another
platform is you know a construction
logic platform that we're developing for
India is equally a platform the one that
it's a construction system that's priced
about five different components it's
trying to take a Norm that what is a
more normative cast-in-place frame logic
or a frame and fill logic where you have
Catherine place frame with masonry
trying to address a whole range of goals
related to climate resource conservation
cost targets within logistics and
material handling and compress all those
goals into five really smart components
the smartest of which is a column
component whose depth and width allow it
to be a column wall and allow it to it
permits a certain amount of self-shading
all of this is required a whole range in
a range of research in terms of
construction logistics in India material
availability but the system is
nonetheless vertically expandable and
horizontally expandable the range of
queries that we've done here include mix
design for concrete around all the
different aggregates that are available
in India especially since we were trying
to eliminate initially material handling
for this where we're working with a
whole bunch of lightweight materials and
dipping a series of mixed designs on
lightweight aggregate it also required
us to invest in pattern-seeking that
would eliminate or let's just say
increase the amount of self sheeting on
very specific surfaces surfaces that
were going to likely receive a lot of
Sun required a lot of prototyping back
and forth between our partners in India
and our apartment and our shop in
Philadelphia component by component we
built up a prototyping protocol until we
were able to realize our first
prototype in Ahmedabad I in 2013 and
then this part of type every column you
see there is a different mixed design
we're testing five or ten different
things at one time when we're but when
we were building this initial prototype
and then more recently and the image
that you saw at the outset we were able
to test the horizontal and vertical
expansion of the prototype so why do we
research as I mentioned at the opening
there's never been a more pressing
moment than now to test the boundaries
of our design agency and then I really
do believe that we research because
agency expand a research increases the
agency of the architect which gets me to
my my final final couple of slides I
just want to mention briefly why we're
doing what we're doing
or give you a sense of what we're doing
in our studio so our studio it's really
really trying to take up this question
of expanding design agency and testing
the boundaries of our design agency in
our studio we've recognized that we are
awash in a changing climate
we're overwhelmed by a material glut and
we wonder what if anything are for
making powers amount to when they are
meted out one building at a time so you
have to ask this question when you look
at the range of things that you can do
but the smallness of architecture can
something small like architecture make a
substitute impact correct our course
well something large like a global
industrial building materials complex
which includes extractors and processors
and manufacturers reset pace and purpose
but I wrote this because one day on my
desk
I got a article that it has showed up
and it was published by building green
and it was titled the urgency of
embodied carbon and what you can do
about it and I was just in the midst of
teaching this studio and working on this
subject with several students in the
audience
now this is an interesting title because
the urgency is in this instance the
materials building materials
manufacturing process or the
manufacturing problem they were
addressing emissions not only carbon to
land air and sea but the what you could
do caught my eye what they were
appealing to was our power and yes again
our agency they were trying to basically
say hey you don't focus on building
operations you got to focus on building
materials if you want to solve the
carbon problem they were actually trying
to say that you can take up new concepts
and new tools you could reshape your
design habits but I think more often
than not we have to be suspicious of
those types that type of advice this was
evidence that answers to these big
questions are forming but I guess the
bigger question we're asking in the
studio is is it possible to tackle the
some of the complex rather than resort
to incremental tooling up can we rethink
the whole shebang and I hear I mean the
relationship between architecture
ecology materials energy governance
building culture and beauty so really
the purpose of our design studio it's a
test it designs to the the purpose of
the design studio is that it is one
place where we can test the boundaries
area imagine design agency we can
establish a serious pedagogy we can exam
and brought unwieldy questions we can
experiment with possible positions this
is why studio is so awesome and so we
began our studio with an experiment that
I'm going to leave you with okay here's
the experiment I'm going to read it
twice in the woods there are three sites
the first site the land is set aside for
materials extraction the second site the
factory is a place for materials
processing and manufacture the third
third site the trailhead is home to the
center of land use history in ecological
interpretation at the trailhead the
center the Center for land use history
ecological interpretation
it's constructed with raw materials
extracted from the land and these
materials are processed at the factory
both the trail head in the land have to
resonate as culturally significant
places and experiences that premise is
deceptively simple you might say we do
that day in and day out we have the
power to - through those relationships
the designers who have the power to
extract materials process them assemble
them into construction systems can
actually challenge the very system
boundary of architectural form making
they are poised to design through a
socio ecological framework they're
poised to draw a boundary around useable
and less usable resources and conspire
to create materials construction logics
and new building forms so the immediate
reaction to a premise that simple there
are three sites one site gives us
materials one site takes away materials
and one site is where we do something to
those materials the immediate reaction
usually goes in a thousand different
directions some construe this premise as
a bid for hyperlocal ISM some for Hyper
do-it-yourself ISM both those positions
are wrong
some decry it as a flavor of survivalism
and may be given the issues that I've
outlined as I began this may be that
does stick some retort you can't be
serious we're very serious others turn
the premise over and over and ask is the
land a real place yes the land is a real
place others jump immediately to
architectural tropes with retort but
what about transparency meaning that all
the materials found on the land
none of them are transparent what do I
do about transparency what about the
cantilever there's no iron ore there
what do we do about structural tactics
so what I've noticed is that every time
I present the studio
I usually filled those questions for
about five minutes and at the end you
like Bob of ah you know this is the
grounds for a new way to be and I always
say yes yes it is all right so thank you
thank you for your patience
so I'm really happy to answer questions
about Karen Timberlake but since we have
a group full of students I wanted to do
something a little different
and I just wanted to let you know that
I'm very happy to answer questions about
my own personal trajectory because often
students want to ask questions about
that or questions about what it's like
to work at Karen Timberlake on that I'm
happy to answer a whole range of
different types of questions if you want
to if we can take the couple we're gonna
try okay
you can ask me anything like you know
research was researching don't be
intimidated
hi my name's Akshata thank you for the
lecture it was like pretty inspiring and
very like relevant to like what I want
to do yeah I really appreciate how your
studio is so collaborative with like
other fields and also appreciate how how
like unapologetically explorative you
guys are and my question is um well I've
always felt like our college was like in
a bubble kind of and I've always like
wondered what it would be like to work
with people and like engineering field
and the AG field and etc etc so my
question is like actually about our
school how do you think we can like
start breaking out of this bubble and
like start to work with other people in
different fields you know one thing I've
learned about trying that is that it
doesn't happen by you waiting for
permission you know in all of the work
that we do if I if I waited for a grant
to come in if I waited for actual
funding if I waited for permission to
assemble a team half of those projects
actually almost 90 percent of those
projects that you just saw wouldn't have
happened in other words what we found is
that in order to test these types of
relationships we just had to identify a
question that we could all get around
ask an answer and we had to find people
and you can imagine this we have folks
that have training in all of these other
fields who actually have said you know
I'm not going to take up my primary
field I'm going to come work in this
other field and actually to be honest
many of the folks that are working with
us have multiple degrees they have folks
in our office who have degrees in
anthropology environmental engineering
and architecture that's one person
physics environmental management and
architecture chemical physics and
architecture it's that's part of it too
but you have to find the project that
you want to do and bring people together
to do it don't wait for permission
permission prove concepts then use your
proof of concepts as a basis for then
aspiring to a much more robust project
I've learned that I can intestine eight
other questions for me
they've been confusing yep
hello I at the National Conference for
early enscape architecture this year in
Philly
I'm Stephanie Carlisle from Carrington
Gaelic was on a research base she was
did you see her in there I did yeah and
she's been here at this school
yes yeah among the other panelists who
were talking about the importance of
research in their various firms they
talked about the important of importance
of open source data yeah and how much
does Karen Tim really kind of turn back
into that system and how much is used as
a jumping-off point from there yeah one
of the reasons why we did the love park
project is because we were trying to
evidence to the city how important was
it was to build up datasets that
designers could use about the spaces
that we inhabit in in other words there
is open source data but then there's
also lack of data there's the building
up of open source datasets and then
there's the building up of quality open
source datasets
right but that's absolutely something
that we support that we participate in
and that we're generally interested in
not just open source data but being able
to contribute to open source a peer
review or open source publishing open
source tools etc yeah other questions
for me
other questions for me yeah Rachel so um
in six pack six scales like I don't know
how many weigh weeks ago we talked about
like defining your agency and at that
moment you didn't quite tell us like
maybe how you defined your agency so I
guess my question is like how did you
come upon I think your agency is
researching yep or asking questions but
how did you come upon that and then how
have others found other types of agency
you have what are those yeah no that's a
that's um so from my own personal
trajectory I guess I mean I think I have
a feeling that some of some folks in
this audience or probably like me I'm
just sort of really I'm kind of a
natural-born sleuth I love figuring out
why things are the way that they are so
a bit of an epistemological bent how
much can you know something so that's
you know part of me and then
simultaneously
I grew up with a father who was a
builder I grew up in the profession of
construction and all of our dinnertime
conversation was around all the things
that went wrong on his construction
sites so when you match I think you
match like a constant stream of
information I guess or did my career in
Reverse if you like constant room of
information about what's wrong with
construction with this with someone who
has a tendency to sleuth I think there's
a pairing there there was a pairing
there for me that I realized I think
there's a whole realm of things to ask
about how we built why we build the way
that we do and then how deeply I could
take that question into understanding
environmental phenomena understanding
material characteristics and phenomena
just simply constantly asking that
question I've only found out recently
that and I didn't realize I didn't have
a consciousness of this but I just found
out recently having talked to my first
design professors in architecture that I
drove them crazy and my first studio
because I kept asking them questions and
it was Ellen Weinstein at North Carolina
State University who pointed out to me
that I actually amazingly found a job
that was perfectly suited to me I was
like oh my gosh you know I'm in my 40s
and you're absolutely right I did
I did find a job that was perfectly
suited yeah yeah there are other types
of agency though other descriptions for
agency I have a feeling that you all
have things you're passionate about
that's simply what I did it's I've been
pursuing something that I'm passionate
about I love working across disciplines
I think there's something to it
hate silence simple love design all the
questions for me so first of all thank
you very much that was that was
fascinating and really beautifully
delivered I was struck during your talk
about at times how easy it looked yeah
right how easy the reason how easy it
was to think oh that's what research is
yeah and then at other times about how
difficult or maybe involved or yeah you
know kind of drawn out it seemed or or
incredibly scientific or technologically
complicated and so on so can you talk a
little bit about you know making it easy
versus making it hard yeah you know the
research what we found what we found is
that given the methods that are
represented in our firm you know the
people with very specific kinds of
silicates
what we found is that we can ask
questions that are very much on the
limits of our knowledge base and that
does make it easy and make it make it
hard it's easy to identify what we're
curious about it's easy sometimes to
create a value argument for why we need
to go after that information it's
sometimes even easy to prove that that
information is valuable but what gets
really hard is that often you want to
increase your certainty over what you're
investigating
often you want to make sure that what
you found stands up to what's happening
let's just say at a pure level in that
field of knowledge so the deeper we go
into a subject matter like
thermodynamics the more we have to
depend on that pure field and really get
into the mechanics of phase change and
very very very very very small scales
right and that gets us into fields where
we're just like wow right but I found
that it's about increasing what let me
increase resolution of information we
often find out just how much we don't
know and how much further we have to go
and we have to make this decision about
if we want to know that we're going to
go that far does that make sense yeah is
there is there tension in the office
between the perspective you gave us on
the office through focusing on research
and agency and people who just want to
crank out amazing things or yeah
bust-a-move as we say yeah you know and
not be kind of dragged down by you know
the bigger but you mean like you know
doing quantitative stuff is a drain no I
mean is that I'm interested in the
tension between yeah I mean sort of but
just the tension between designers who
want to you know come use their
intuition yeah exactly yeah you know I
mean I think that's what it is their
attention I think that that what you
would hear us all say is that when the
tension is non-productive it's not
interesting but we have some really
productive tensions that get us to
better places so yeah of course like
that you know I don't know what the
research methods research methods
training looks like at this college but
we all know like I certainly wasn't
trained in research methods right I'm
just a sleuth like I like certain things
so when you put a bunch of designers in
a room how do we define research often
it's not the same way as science fields
to find research when you put a bunch of
folks that were trained in science
fields in a room with designers you have
to work through and develop new
vocabulary new shorthand in order to
allow both to thrive simultaneously and
that's where the tension comes in
absolutely
other questions for me now Kyra come on
I see you the question you want to ask
that you're afraid to ask so I'm just
asking the question for you do you have
a big question which you haven't
answered yet and you know you haven't
just haven't gotten a chance to what's
the biggest question since I was a kid
is why did we build the way that we do
no but I mean I think that's when you've
been working on right in pieces right is
there is there some chunk of that or
some some big thing that you'd love to
have the million dollar grant come in
for that you haven't done yet it's on
the list I would love to have a tackle
more specifically in our profession
evidence that suggests that designing in
the design process is something that
should be open and accessible to all
that it's equal on and on par with math
and reading and I don't know how to do
that but I'd love I'd love to see access
to those processes be something that we
take up or that way of thinking be
something we take out very seriously we
know there's people that are working on
that I just wonder I mean I wonder how
much more we can do as a profession
together
you're probably not regular expecting to
take that answer no where other
questions okay
are there questions that you know the
answer to that you like to ask why we
throw the way that we did no I'm joking
I don't have answers are there questions
that I know the answer to that I won't
share that I like to ask my students
now I like to have conversations about
questions
I certainly had stored up a lot of
knowledge but I'm always questioning my
knowledge so the limits yeah okay one
more question yeah yeah yeah it's just a
materials question one of the projects
that you had had clear walls it looked
like something that was stretched a some
sort of polymer yeah and you describe
that as what was that peak was that
cellophane house yes yeah that was PT
uh-huh so my question is why didn't you
use like poly methyl methacrylate
without something that present yeah that
doesn't degenerate in the Sun well it
actually in that instance we have a UV
we have one of the layers of paint II
has a UV layer on it okay good yeah so
we were yeah I just wondered that yeah
and we were also interested in something
that was already fully substantiated
into a recycling stream that makes sense
yeah yeah yeah we were interested in the
coke bottle relationship to I think it's
a little accessible okay okay thank you
Thank You Billie thank you
