BA_DS2.6

Semester Two A College of Natural Philosophy There is a famous painting called Solitary Tree, by the German Romantic painter Casper David Friedrich, he painted it in 1821. One thing to notice about the painting, is how carefully Friedrich staged the solitariness of the Tree, not by painting it on its own, but by immersing it in a natural setting of sky, mountains, meadows, shrubs and other trees. To get started on our semester two projects we were asked to stage a solitary tree as an architectural proposal for the site at Ludgate Square. We were to assume the Mathematical House had now been built and the natural philosopher had moved in and planted the Tree. The philosopher now had plans to develop the rest of the site as a College of Natural Philosophy. Our task was to work with the natural philosopher, as their architect, advising them, through design, about matters of site, program and technology. SITE - TheCollegewas to be part of a single architectural complex, which, together with the House and Tree, would form a coherent set of spaces and collectively form a School. As we developed our designs, we were allowed to move the House and the Tree around, and to consider the possibility of introducing outdoor spaces inside and between House, College and Tree. PROGRAM - Although we were working directly with the natural philosopher, the actual client for the project was the International Institute of Cosmism, so the College needed to reflect their aims and aspirations. TECHNOLOGY - We were aware that there are several kinds of technology that influence architectural design. Most important are the technologies of representation that we worked with in the design process. We used these kinds of technology to represent ideas and thoughts about space, matter and form, to ourself and to others. But architecture is not a 1-to-1 art, there is a second region of technology, namely building and that has to be researched and interpreted, relying on formal inventiveness and imagination to bring it into the design process. A third region of technology, especially important for Cosmists and natural philosophers, are those that measure, record, manipulate and reproduce matter, at all scales and in a wide variety of forms. Key References: Extract from the essay Immortal Bodies, by Boris Groys Extract from A Universal Productive Mathematics, by Valerian Muravyev Matthew Walker, ‘Architecture, Anatomy and the New Science in Early Modern London, Robert Hooke’s College of Physicians,’ JSAH , Vol. 72, No. 74, Dec 2014 Online Book launch: Russian Cosmism , Boris Groys (ed), with Claire Bishop and Anton Vidokle 4