ARCH 1011a Fall 2014 Yale School of Architecture

First Year M.Arch I Design Studio

Joyce Hsiang (coordinator), Brennan Buck, Peggy Deamer, Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, and Michael Szivos

A Space for Learning: Study

For the first project of the semester, you are asked to consider the relationship between interiority and exteriority, space and
form, and issues of scale and habitation through the design and configuration of a 1500 cubic feet volume of space a study
for one person. This project moves from interior to exterior to site. Interiority and exteriority refers literally to the difference
between occupying the space inside and outside the building. It also refers to the activities of the study itself an intellectual
exchange of acquiring / creating or internalizing / externalizing ideas.
Interior
The private study is both a physical container of objects as well as an intellectual container of ideas. As a constructed
interior environment, it allows an individual to become intimately immersed and lost in the spaces of her / his mind. It is also
a space where an individual constructs or creates new work. Design a 1500 cubic foot enclosed study for one person that
houses a private collection of objects of knowledge. This could be a library of books, a display of art or miniatures, a
wunderkammer or cabinet of curiosities for the mind. The study must store, structure and organize the collection of objects it
houses. It must also organize and structure the way a person accesses and interacts with the collection. Finally it must
accommodate and support the activities the study inspires: the active incubation, formulation or production of new work or
knowledge, for example through the design of a writing or fabrication table, or tools and surfaces for a small workshop or
studio.
Exterior
The mediation between inside and outside must be considered through issues of surface, volume, thickness, material
conditions and the varying formal and spatial effects and qualities of the studys interior and exterior conditions. Your study
should consider approach, entry and threshold, and be accessible from the outside by at least one entrance. In addition to
the entrance opening, consider the necessity and effects of lighting and views, internal or external, artificial or natural in the
form of windows, skylights, clerestories or other light and view transmitting devices, surfaces or apertures. Finally consider
the formal, organizational, behavioral or qualitative relationship between the objects your study contains and the building as
an object itself.
Site
The site is defined as a 24 x 24 x 24 volume of intervention with basic provisions regarding orientation (N/S/E/W) and an
abstract topography. Consider the relationship between your study and the site. You are encouraged to manipulate the
topography of the 24 x 24 site footprint. ADD SITE DIAGRAM
Introductory Exercise: Drawing Translations
This project begins with an exercise that explores architectural drawing and translation as a generative method for design:
1. Select one of the following drawing types:
- Axonometric
- Unfolded Elevations, Interior or Exterior
- Split Drawings: Section / Elevation; Reflected Ceiling Plan / Plan
- Section Perspective
- Panorama
2. Select the objects of knowledge your study will contain.
3. Create a constructed inside-out drawing on a 24 x 24 sheet. Use the drawing type to organize your selected collection
of objects. Consider how the construction of each drawing type implies a specific spatial organization. Use the drawing to

ARCH 1011a Fall 2014 Yale School of Architecture

First Year M.Arch I Design Studio
Joyce Hsiang (coordinator), Brennan Buck, Peggy Deamer, Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, and Michael Szivos

analyze the relationship and translation between the objects your study houses and your study / container as an object itself.
Does your study frame, structure, store or display its objects or does it begin to emulate the qualities and characteristics of
the objects it contains? Treat the space of the page as the site upon which you are acting. Your inside-out drawing is
due Friday August 29th for review.
Issues to Consider
Interiority / exteriority, object / ground, form / space, surface / thickness / volume, material conditions / assembly, effects /
qualities, scale, inhabitation / occupation, the creation of an environment.
Final Deliverables
One constructed, projected Super Drawing on 4 tiled 24 x 24 sheets of quality drawing paper using line only that contains a
constructed inside-out drawing of your final project at 1 = 1-0 and projects from it at least one plan, section and elevation
at no smaller than 1/2 = 1-0. Your final inside-out drawing should simultaneously describe the inside and outside of your
study and their relationship to one another.
One 1 = 1-0 complete physical model including the 24 x 24 site area.
Precedents
Antonella da Messina, St Jerome in his Study. (1475)
Sir John Soane, Soane House & Museum. London, England (1792-1824)
El Lissitzky, Raum fr konstruktive Kunst & Kabinett der Abstrakten. International Art Exhibition, Hannover (1926) &
Provinzialmuseum, Dresden, Germany (1928)
Philip Johnson, Library. New Canaan, Connecticut (1949)
Le Corbusier, Le Cabanon. Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France (1949)
Ted Kaczynski, Unabombers Cabin. Lincoln, Montana (1971)
Allan Wexler, Crate House. Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany (1990)
Frederick Warlock Kaludis, Warlock Command Center. Baltimore, Maryland, Live Free or Die Hard, (2007)
Rachel Whiteread, Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial. Vienna, Austria (2000)
Turner Brooks, Cushing Center. New Haven, Connecticut (2010)
Suggested Readings
Gaston Bachelard, The Dialectics of Outside and Inside, The Poetics of Space (1958) pp. 211-231.
Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal, Perspecta, Vol. 8. (1963) pp. 45-54.
Timothy Rohan, Rendering the Surface, Grey Room, No.1 (Autumn, 2000), pp. 84-107.
Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel, (2000).
Sylvia Lavin, Architecture in Extremis, Log, Vol. 22 (Spring / Summer 2011).
Graham Harman, The Quadruple Object, (2011).
Schedule
Aug 28 Thurs
Aug 29 Fri
Sep 1 Mon
Sep 4 Thurs
Sep 8 Mon
Sep 11 Thurs
Sep 15 Mon
Sep 16 Tues

Studio Introduction & Project 1 Introduction: Peggy & Michael

Project 1 Introductory Exercise: Drawing Translations Due
No Studio Labor Day
Section Crits / Pinups
Section Crits / Pinups
Section Crits / Pinups
Project 1 Final Review, Day 1
Project 1 Final Review, Day 2