Scale and the Human Body _ Materiality and Modularization
ARCH 102
Tutors: Maria Hadjisoteriou, Paris Philippou
The Topic of the 2nd semester 1st year studio is “scale - human body – materiality”. The main emphasis of the studio is given to the development of students’ understanding of the human body as a generator of their design proposals, both in terms of scale as well as through its engagement with the physicality and the attributes of materials.
The aim of the specific studio was to encourage students to design and analyze spatial conditions instead of formal entities. The human body and materiality were used as constant parameters which informed the process.The studio was broken into three parts and was developed as a non linear process. Part one and two (3 + 2 weeks projects) were used as a built up knowledge platform in order to prepare students for the third part (7 weeks project) that was the main focus of the semester.
Part one - Autopsies, Recording space through use:
“Autopsies” was an exercise of mapping of a given space and an organization of an event. The first project encouraged the analysis of spatial conditions using the diagram as a tool. Body mapping in the space and understanding of the presence of a body and its scale in this specific environment were the main emphasis.
Part two - Installation- Interface/ Body + Space:
“1/1 installation- body interface” was an investigation of Materiality in relation to the body, scale and the senses. This fast construction exercise was aimed at getting the students to learn about the above criteria through making.
Part Three - Pavilion:
“Design of a pavilion” was an investigation of systems. The design process was based on the notion of a module as a generator of an overall structure that was appropriated for the scale and use of the human figure and was also informed by an existing site condition.
