Museum With Excavated Courtyard, 1994, Richard Barnes, photographer (seismic underpinning of the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco)

ARC3018HF (LEC0106) 
Instructor: Laura Miller

GROUNDING | Thesis

How architecture situates itself relative to the ground is a fundamental aspect of building. There can be no architecture without the material and spatial collaboration between ground and architecture in some configuration.

ground ≠ site | As architects, we often sublimate that collaborative relationship in the service of architectural expression. In casting 'ground' as 'site,' for example, we construct an artificially bounded collection of features to be documented, acted upon, altered, or remade, all with the aim of situating a building. In this scenario, the building becomes a figure, and the ground serves as a backdrop or frame, a formal outcome; or the ground is seen as a set of problems to be solved, in order to accommodate a building, an overly pragmatic outcome. In both cases, the ground is understood to be secondary to the architectural object.

What if 'ground' was considered essential to the conceptualization of an architecture?

GROUNDING will take such an approach, examining and testing the relationships and reciprocities between architecture and the ground with which it is engaged.

shared research questions | Throughout the thesis seminar, we will ask:

question 1 | How is a 'ground' defined? What are the possible identities of ground acting as an agent in the development of an architectural identity?

For example – an incomplete list...

The ground is a place of habitation for an array of life forms;

As earth, it is the medium of growth, stability, and sustenance for diverse life forms;

As physical evidence of geological events, it speaks of prior conditions of ground and climate;

The ground is a locus and repository for past life forms, for both geological time frames and human memory;

The ground is a material record of human industry, as well as human exploitation;

Attending to the ground presents an opportunity for environmental stewardship and care;

The ground is a material construct – soil, minerals, rock, living organisms (such as fungi, micro-organisms, insects, worms, etc.), root systems, organic matter (dead plants, animals, other organisms), air, and water;

The ground is also a legal construct, superimposed with invisible but potent political instruments – laws, legal descriptions of property, and requirements (zoning, regulatory restrictions, codes), circumscribing possible construction, uses, behaviors, and rights.

question 2 | In what ways can ground and architecture act together, in collaboration?

We will explore what the possible formal, spatial, and material relationships between architecture and ground might be – for example – an incomplete list...

How do buildings and other modes of architecture sit upon, nestle within, shelter underneath, sidle alongside, pass through, or become anchored to the ground?

What motivates the building of structures to reach across, hover above, or extend beyond the limits of ground?

In what ways can an architectural work construct new ground, or perhaps, leave the ground altogether, defying gravity?

research | The seminar's research and themes will serve as a framework for the subjects, locations, and/or programs that each student will pursue for their independent thesis in the winter semester. The seminar will be structured in a way to allow students to ultimately pursue projects at a range of differing scales, geographies, and cultural contexts, based on the questions and interests each student brings to their research.

Our research will have several components:

shared readings and concepts | Key readings and scholarly arguments may include:

Bruno Latour's Down to Earth, a discussion of the 'terrestrial as both a physical and a socio-political construct,' challenges our disciplinary thinking about what ground is, or could be;

James Gibson's Theory of Affordances, characterizes the ground's configuration as a democratic surface accommodating multiple life forms' habitation and use;

Michel de Certeau's "Walking in the City," presents two distinct modes of experience of the city and its ground;

Rosalind Krauss's Notes on the Underground, examines the history of the underground as a site of technological exploitation, scientific discovery, and space of literary imaginary;

Robert Macfarlane's Underland: A Deep Time Journey (excerpts) describes a series of encounters with human-made and natural underground spaces: Neolithic caves, nuclear waste storage sites, mines, Greenland moulins and crevasses, and military fortifications.

Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Jennifer Deger, Alder Keleman Saxena, and Feifei Zhou's

Field Guide to the Patchy Anthropocene: The New Nature, argues the Anthropocene is created 'on the ground' in specific ways, in specific places – i.e., 'patches.'

Patrick Geddes' and Ian McHarg's notion of the transect, a sectional cut describing human settlement and activity correlated with the conditions of terrain and climate.

And others... We will discuss the readings and key concepts in our first class, and I will welcome suggestions from the class on both.

three-dimensional and orthographic studies of ground | architecture: model and drawing studies

Individual explorations of ways in which the ground is constructed through modes of architectural representation, drawing on historical methods from both within the discipline and from outside (geology, geography, etc.)

case studies of ground | architecture: analysis

Students will be asked to identify and research 3 case studies aligned with their interests in the relationship between architecture and ground; these studies will inform the development of their thesis and will become part of their thesis proposal document.

writing and argumentation about ground | architecture: thesis proposal

The thesis proposal will be developed through several short, focused writing/graphic, exercises, evolving to both a clear set of arguments and a working plan for the winter thesis term.