Intimate and Transparent Production of Space

This paper illustrates the design work from an integrated third-year Architecture Design Studio and a Professional Practice (a.k.a., project constructability) Studio. There are two parts to this paper. The first part shows how students were involved in a collaborative interdisciplinary project with New Media Arts students in the Liberal Arts Depart­ ment on campus. Students in collaborative teams de­ signed and constructed a temporary pneumatic structure to house a virtually interactive technology called “Intimate Transactions”. Lessons learned from this design build col­ laboration in working with the inventor of this technology system, along with the reading of a range of essays on new media design, and additional vocabulary generation exercises provided a launching off point for each of the architecture students’ individual design projects. The sec­ ond part of this paper shows the follow on building design process and design reflections for one of the student’s studio projects (Jeff Hammerquist, who received the 2007 form•Z Honorable Mention Design Award for his Satellite Automobile Assembly Plant project).