Metaform Sketch .

In my metaform, I am not interested in re-creating the exact scenario of the fire, but in using cues from the original circumstances to create a space that will evoke a similar emotional response from my viewer as the original space did.
Installing my metaform at the site of the original fire would comment on the function of a specific space's role as a stimulus for feeling.

properties of the space:
poor visibility and way-finding
expectations not met regarding possibilities for exit
time restriction
outside symbolizes freedom and death

sounds:
fire
people inside yelling
firemen and people watching from outside yelling
pounding
people hitting the ground outside

emotional response:
anxiety
claustrophobia
fear
alarm

Analysis of Shirtwaist Factory Fire for Software "Sketch" .

29.6% of factory's workers were killed

circulation:
unstable fire escape
locked door
door blocked by equipment
doorway and stairway filled with flames
non-working elevator

options:
jump out window
be engulfed in flames

problem:
not enough "bandwidth" for proper evacuation

software simulation:
program where a certain amount of information has to be transmitted within a given amount of time. pieces of information begin to "die" due to low bandwidth as time runs out. the information could be a photograph that would slowly appear on a screen, the missing pixels would represent dead workers.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Images .

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire .

For my metaform, I would like to create an architectural environment. The environment will be a space that a viewer can enter and experience physically, mentally, and emotionally. The metaform will be constructed in a space with a rich history, and the specific physical aspects of the constructed space will be inspired by facts uncovered while researching the space's history. The space that I have chosen for my metaform is the 7th, 8th, and 9th floors of NYU's Brown building. This space was the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, one of the worst industrial disasters in the USA's history. My research, documented below, has inspired me to design an intervention with the space that will serve as an installation to evoke certain aspects of the site's history. Specific details of my design will follow.

From Wikipedia:
- March 25, 1911
- Largest industrial disaster in NYC history
- Caused the death of 148 garment workers who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths.
- Worst workplace disaster in New York City until September 11, 2001.
- Led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards
- Helped spur growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for safer and better working conditions for sweatshop workers
- Fire began on the eighth floor, possibly sparked by a match, cigarette, faulty electrical wiring, or by sewing machine engines. No one knows whether it was accidental or intentional.
- The ninth floor had only two doors leading out. One stairwell was filled with smoke and flames. The other door had been locked.
- The iron fire escape twisted and collapsed under the weight of people trying to escape. The elevator also stopped working, partly because the panicked workers tried to save themselves by jumping down the shaft to land on the roof of the elevator.
- 62 of the women died because they broke windows and jumped to the pavement nine floors below. The falling bodies made it difficult for the fire department to reach the building.
- The fire department arrived quickly but could not stop the flames because there were no ladders that could reach above the 6th floor.
- The building survived and was refurbished. Frederick Brown bought the building donated it to New York University in 1929, where it is known as the Brown Building of Science. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was named a National Historical Landmark in 1991, and was listed as a New York City Landmark in 2003.
The factory has been reconstructed into an NYU chemistry building. Two plaques in the front of the building commemorate the women who lost their lives in the fire.

Information from YouTube videos:
- Largest blouse making factory in NYC at the time, it employed 500 women, mostly Jewish, between 12 and 23 years old.
- The fire broke out after closing time, so the victims were those who stayed late to earn extra pay. Sometimes workers stayed from 8am to 11pm, and came to work 7 days a week.
- Exits doors were locked to prevent stealing
- Thousands of people outside watched helplessly.
- Some exits were blocks by sewing machines, others were locked.
- People were getting boxed into a small space and pounding on the walls.
- People who were standing outside can remember the sound of bodies hitting stone from 7 - 9 stories above.
- There was a smoking red river of blood running down the streets.
- All workers were wearing the same white uniforms, so they looked like angels falling.
- Some women who jumped were impaled on a fence.

Contacts:
- NYU Facilities & Construction Management
Email to ask for permission to use on 9th floor which is under construction (see photo at left)
- NYU Center for Genomics and Systems Biology
Currently Occupying 7th and 8th floors of Brown Building

Other Resources:
- Landmarks Preservation Commission Report
- Cornell University Web Exhibit about the fire

Interview Someone in the System .

Briefly state your job:
Interior Designer for a small architectural firm

What is the last project you finished working on?
recently completed a 5-story townhouse in the village.

Is architecture more about designing or building?
Architecture is about designing spaces that reflect the people who occupy them.
It has to function, have an esthetic, yet be built on sound principles.

What role, if any, does youth play in your field?
Youth is a critical innovator driven presence in the field of design. Work and living styles of the younger generation are changing how designers see utilization of space. An example is how young people prefer to work/study in groups instead of at separate office cubicles. Their work environment is more relaxed and socially interactive.

Name a favorite (artist, movie, dish, country):
Favorite artist - Mary Cassat
Favorite Design - Danish Modern - Alvar Alto

D.U.M.B.O

This weekend was the 12th annual Art Under the Bridge Festival in Dumbo, Brooklyn. The weekend-long event hosted various art projects, events, and performances.
I went on Sunday afternoon, and spent a few hours walking around the neighborhood.
My favorite part about the festival is the open artist's studios. Dumbo has a lot of great industrial studio spaces, and it is unusual to be able to just walk into someone's studio and see their work and talk to them.

One artist whose studio I walked into by chance is Ushio Shinohara. Shinohara is a really interesting artist, and I don't know if I would have found out about him if not for the Art Festival.
The festival also had numerous outdoor installations, like this one in Brooklyn Bridge Park:

A Manifesto for Architecture .

Architecture is the built environment that surrounds us.
Houses and skyscrapers beg for attention in the traditional notion of architecture.
These buildings, however, only constitute a part of what we can call "architecture."
Architecture is the process by which anything can be designed and physically constructed.
It is the mega-structures of bridges and tunnels, and it is the micro-structures of computer chips and nanotechnology.
On the grander of these scales, architecture can engulf us.
It has the ability, as a tangible and emotive force, to convey feeling, meaning, and awareness.
Architecture, like painting and music, is a tool for communication.
Yet, where painting stimulates our vision and music stimulates our hearing, architecture has the power to stimulate our sense of space and our overall 3-dimensional awareness.
We experience architecture with the senses that allow us to navigate the 3-dimensional world.
The stimuli we collect from these senses is converted to cognition and emotion.
An architectural space can evoke from us the same response as any good work of art.
It can make us feel happy, sad, relaxed, stressed, excited, nervous, powerful, or powerless.
As architecture grows increasingly reliant on efficiency, practicality, and finance,
I call for a return to focus on architecture's fundamental role as a stimulus for human response.

Currently at the Center for Architecture :

a geodesic dome

that I built with my Environmental Design Class

in conjunction with Joseph Clinton from the Dymaxion Study Center

Assignment 2 : Tag Something .

The " <-- DEFECT " sticker attempts to bring the passerby's attention to the anomalies of the built world.

Modern architecture promised us utopian lives in a sleek world of sterility and right angles, but we soon realized that human nature is not totally compatible with that vision. The urban environment today is a juxtaposition of ideals and reality. Walls are painted, streets are paved, and fences are installed with precision and perfection in mind. Through unplanned variables such as mistakes and interactions, these calculated fixtures develop the patina of reality - paint is scratched, metal gets dented, cement cracks. The flawless ideal is unattainable more often than not.

At a time when factory production is the norm and with an increasing desire for prefabricated housing, consumers and citizens have grown accustomed to the quality and aesthetic of manufactured goods. The environment that breeds these familiar products is under constant supervision and quality control. Defects at any point along the production line are hunted, labeled, and discarded.

Utilizing Helvetica, the typeface of modernism, these stickers extend the phobia of imperfection from the factory to the city. The label " <-- DEFECT " brings up questions but does not answer any. What if we scrutinized all built forms as closely as we do manufactured ones? What if we erased all traces of use from the city and it existed in a permanent state of brand-new?

Photo essay .

ASSIGNMENT: Merge with the city and create a photo essay with these 12 words :

TIME :


WASTE :


LOUD :


POWER :


FUTURISTIC :


GENTRIFICATION :


DENSITY :


DRAMA :


CLASS :


CRAFTSMANSHIP :


BOUNDARY :


CHAOS :

Starting with the Universe .

I have come across the work of Buckminster Fuller in the past, in various readings & exhibitions. So, before I visited Starting With The Universe at the Whitney, I was superficially familiar with his overall body of work. But my Fuller knowledge prior to this exhibit was still lacking some general understanding of his life & eccentricity; I craved something, a movie, a course, to fill this gap.

Visiting the Whitney gave me a much clearer picture of Fuller as a man - his motivations, his vision, his personality. The exhibit portrays his multi-disciplinary approach towards architecture, science, & environmentalism. It illustrates Fuller's oeuvre as a total vision: the idea of a greener, happier, more efficient world. This vision was the motivating force behind his comprehensive efforts in design & technology - he believed he had a debt to God.

This exhibit left me torn about Fuller's career. Was he a success or a failure? Was he born in the wrong decade? After realizing how much of a visionary he was, it is disconcerting to learn that many of his projects were commercial failures & that some people consider his projects to be too utopian & unrealistic. Nonetheless, Fuller did eventually achieve a cult-like following towards the end of his career & the geodesic dome, his most popular idea, has had a notable impact in architecture.

Despite being dead for 25 years, Fuller & his ideas have not lost their relevance. Current environmental issues beg for a more economical use of resources, the "more with less" of Fuller-like thinking. I am grateful that the Whitney has decided to hold this retrospective to remind its visitors of Fuller's work. It is also great that there are educational events to promote Fuller's ideas in conjunction with the exhibit, such as the Dymaxion Study Center at the Center for Architecture.

Some of my work .

CURRENT PROJECTS:
- working with eyebeam to create a reflective suit
- putting together a fashion / culture / nightlife magazine focusing on people in their early 20s
- creating merchandise & branding for new york rock band the postelles

ONGOING:
- creating men's accessories with a partner under the label nikolai rose
- photography blog / travelogue

ARCHITECTURE PROJECTS:
- soho loft ( 10.7mb pdf )
- contral park information center ( 6mb pdf )
- red hook ferry terminal ( 3.3mb pdf )