Man Dog Architecture

Critic: William McDonald

Logic of my Work Process

Site: Pennsylvania Station, Madison Square Garden Program: New Vertical Connection between Penn Station and Madison Square Garden; Sports Bar

Stage one:

The idea of my project is about the bypassing system, which occurs between the Familiar, and the Unfamiliar. The two entities compliments us in our daily activities, the sensation of the difference between the two can be further exaggerated as one travels through transportation facilities. Bypassing can be understood as a way of negotiation between two different types of users of the same space.

The two situations of study are:

First, the magazine chain store Hudson News. It served as a studied site, which allows the negotiation such as, the physical interaction between two people who, wishes to get a hold of a magazine at the same location. One need to step back or bend down to allow the other to pass through, this is a way of bypassing. Another way of bypassing happens at the cash register, which is a negotiation between users in rush versus those who are browsing and waiting for their next train. The above performances has allow me to generate a man diagram.

Second, the situation that occurs when a camera is at a shooting position. The second study is triggered by the relationship between the camera, the subject and the background. When a camera is at a shooting position, there forms an un-interrupted zone between the camera and the subject. One would need to circumvent or bypass that space in order to reach ones destination. A dog diagram was generated based on the described scenario.

Stage two:

The logic of blend shape comes from the negotiation between the man diagram and the dog diagram. The duration of intensity from one diagram influences the conditionings to the other. The negotiation will only work within the limits of the extreme conditions of each diagram.

The inability of the current circulation system to deliver mass number of people from Penn Station to Madison Square Garden poses a problem of inefficiency and conflict. I am proposing to translate the studied bypass logical system on to the site in attempt to address and accommodate and address the current conditions. A Sports Bar was chosen as the program because of the formal resolution of the project.

Because the Un-interrupted zone creates a static/ focal situation, it forces one to search for alternative routes and short cuts to reach ones destination. The Dog Envelope (Un-interrupted Zone diagram) is situated as an outer spatial formation to accommodate the multiplicity of passages from Penn Station to MSG. While the Man Envelope (Bodily Movement) provides more specific ways of reaching point one to point two.

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