ARC3015Y F
Instructor: Kelly Bair
Meeting Section: L0103
Tuesday, 9:00am - 1:00pm; Friday, 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: TBD

Medium Rare is a design studio focused on the topic of medium(s) in architecture. Our study of mediums is part of a continually expanding investigation into the methods by which architecture is produced, represented, discussed and ultimately engaged. Medium refers both to the method/mode by which something is produced as well as the means by which that something is communicated. In recent years the term ‘medium’ in architecture has been used merely to make distinctions between practitioners (she is a digital architect, he is an analog architect, etc.). Our interest in medium, at least related to this course, is to expand the notion of medium, its definition, use and communicatory value in an effort to shift from distinctive associations to hybrid ones.

Our objectives will be threefold:
1. Reinvent the methods by which a particular medium is worked on thereby reinventing/expanding the definition of that medium.
2. Develop new ways of analyzing building precedents as a litmus test for a medium’s architectural fitness.
3. Contaminate mediums as you move from one to the next in an effort to hybridize the outcomes and produce completely new or rare mediums. (ie. What happens when Lines meets Primitives?)

In 2012, four educators from around the American Midwest formed a group called Possible Mediums. Spawned from an observation that strange things were happening at their respective universities, they thought it was important to try to define what those things were and how they were affecting the discipline of architecture. Possible Mediums began as working conference with students from all participating universities, continued on in the form of lectures, symposiums, exhibitions, and dinner parties. This fall the final installment of Possible Mediums will occur when Actar publishes the eponymous book “Possible Mediums”. This book will be our guide as we traverse the world of medium(s) in architectural design. Each student will be provided digital copies of the book’s introductory essays as well as 5 of the 16 medium chapters that will be used as reference material. The five selected mediums are: Plans, Stacks, Primitives, Lines, and Volume.

Medium offers us an alibi for discussing design process. A google search of the term “medium rare” redirects one to a Wikipedia page titled “doneness”. In the age of the work in progress (#WIP) the notion of doneness seems timely and increasingly relevant to architectural production. Prior to Instagram and other social media outlets the communication of one’s architectural work was quite contrary to the physical or digital modes of its production. Finished buildings or polished renderings made to look real were published alongside presentation worthy drawings of plans and sections. Now, in the age of instantaneity that permeates our everyday lives we are more attune to seeing fragments, crops, and previews, all cryptic snippets of a projective architecture to come. Interestingly it is in these fragments that we can most clearly identify and begin to visualize the emergence of one’s architecture (capital “P”) Project.

To that end the studio will be formatted as follows. We will meet ten times (plus the final review). There will be 5 projects in total. Every two weeks we will begin by reading/discussing 2 texts (1 chapter from Possible Mediums paired with 1 related essay), study 1 Chicago building precedent to be used as the source materials for those two weeks, and then perform an architectural act in the selected medium. Mainly design studio, partly an analytical seminar, somewhat of a bi-weekly workshop, this class will pair historical building precedents with transformation/translation/misinterpretation techniques that unfold in the form of drawings and models. These artifacts will be formalized in a printed publication and exhibited at the final review.

While the Possible Mediums book will serve as our primary guide, fellow travelers such as (Rosalind Krauss, Robin Evans, and Sylvia Lavin to name a few), who have written extensively on the subject or related subject matter will be included in our reading list and weekly discussions. A full reading list will be included in the syllabus.

The course will be held on Fridays from 9am-6pm (contingent on flight arrival/departure times) with additional support available via Skype on Friday mornings on an as needed basis. A field trip to Chicago is scheduled for Monday September 24-Tuesday September 25. Students are also invited to attend the October 5th Possible Mediums Book launch taking place in New York City’s Fisher Center. Additional details will be discussed at the first studio meeting on September 11. All travel is optional and arrangements/funding to be coordinated by each student.