matthew knox studio

Spring 2007

For studio films go to digital production

The Figure of Atmosphere

The manifold of architecture is vast. The sundry influences on architecture from the impulses of art and life are vivid. This studio will embrace one such art, film. Film has been called one of the most complete arts as it encompasses image, sound, music, light, space, time, movement, drama, narrative, etc. What if we use the language of film (the way it gathers all these entities into order) to critique our architecture? Can the experience we partake when watching a film become an aspect of our architectural investigation? Can we pre-visualize the world our architecture obtains more fully in the context of a film? Can the film making process add to our own design method? Can the well-understood language of film offer others better understanding of our architecture? Can we create the atmosphere of lived life within the unbuilt?

The Projects

To get started we will spend the first part of the fall semester immersed in learning Film + Digital Architecture so prior knowledge of either is not required. Students will work on a series of independent and group projects such as short films shot on video and animations that develop the skills necessary to use film language in the architectural design process.

The fall semester architectural focus will be Rear Window Redux. Alfred Hitchcock’s famous 1954 film, Rear Window has engaged architects for years with its explicit architectural themes and provocative treatment of voyeurism. The studio will consider the courtyard in the film and redesign the set for a remake of the film. Each student will design a new setting for the film based on an architectural reading of the themes of the film in light of cultural considerations of 2006. Students will make architectural proposals in drawing, physical models and digital sets. Each student will make a short film restaging a scene from the original movie that embodies a sensate atmosphere using space, light, sound, material and time.

The spring semester will work on The Atmospheres Inn and spa, an inn designed for weeklong courses in wine appreciation and gourmet cooking and dining. Students will do their own project. The project will be sited in the Flint Hills region. The project will begin this semester in Project Programming by writing a script (a program) for a short film to be done in ADS 8 that involves an event or action at your building based on a deep insight into the nature of the project. This will become the primary critique of your design in the spring. The objective of the short film is to present a complete architectural atmospheric experience of your design. Conventional models and drawings will be included in the process. Project programming will use Peter Zumthor’s new book Atmospheres as a starting point.

1/31/07


	Spring 2007 For studio films go to digital production The Figure of Atmosphere The manifold of architecture is vast. The sundry influences on architecture from the impulses of art and life are vivid. This studio will embrace one such art, film. Film has been called one of the most complete arts as it encompasses image, sound, music, light, space, time, movement, drama, narrative, etc. What if we use the language of film (the way it gathers all these entities into order) to critique our architecture? Can the experience we partake when watching a film become an aspect of our architectural investigation? Can we pre-visualize the world our architecture obtains more fully in the context of a film? Can the film making process add to our own design method? Can the well-understood language of film offer others better understanding of our architecture? Can we create the atmosphere of lived life within the unbuilt? The Projects To get started we will spend the first part of the fall semester immersed in learning Film + Digital Architecture so prior knowledge of either is not required. Students will work on a series of independent and group projects such as short films shot on video and animations that develop the skills necessary to use film language in the architectural design process. The fall semester architectural focus will be Rear Window Redux. Alfred Hitchcock’s famous 1954 film, Rear Window has engaged architects for years with its explicit architectural themes and provocative treatment of voyeurism. The studio will consider the courtyard in the film and redesign the set for a remake of the film. Each student will design a new setting for the film based on an architectural reading of the themes of the film in light of cultural considerations of 2006. Students will make architectural proposals in drawing, physical models and digital sets. Each student will make a short film restaging a scene from the original movie that embodies a sensate atmosphere using space, light, sound, material and time. The spring semester will work on The Atmospheres Inn and spa, an inn designed for weeklong courses in wine appreciation and gourmet cooking and dining. Students will do their own project. The project will be sited in the Flint Hills region. The project will begin this semester in Project Programming by writing a script (a program) for a short film to be done in ADS 8 that involves an event or action at your building based on a deep insight into the nature of the project. This will become the primary critique of your design in the spring. The objective of the short film is to present a complete architectural atmospheric experience of your design. Conventional models and drawings will be included in the process. Project programming will use Peter Zumthor’s new book Atmospheres as a starting point. 1/31/07