Victoria Meyers : Invisible Buildings

Max Neuhaus: Elevators, Time-PIeces, and Sound art / Victoria Meyers architect and Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology

Sound artist Max Neuhaus studied things that most of us take for granted.  Above:   Neuhaus' study, suggesting that elevators be fitted with color and sound to give people inside the elevator the ability to understand their movement through vertical space.  Different colors and sounds depict different floors of the building.  Each color creates different wavelengths of light.  Different wavelengths of light also determine sounds that mark the elevator's position, from floor to floor.



Shown above:  Neuhaus' pencil sketch for 'Time PIece Beacon', developed and installed, in 2005 at Dia Beacon in Beacon, New York.  Time Piece Beacon is based on sound from a contemporary town bell, timed to the Atomic Clock through the Internet.  The sound is a drone, and ramps up slowly over 7 minutes, and ends, abruptly, on the hour.  This was to be a timed sound piece that could shift the sense of space for the people who walked 'through' and experienced the piece. Most Visitors to Dia Beacon do not even notice the sound piece, until it stops.



Above:  Max Neuhaus's notes from his 'Time Piece Beacon'.  'Sound emerging from nowhere'; ' increasing in volume and color';  'Imperctibly reaching its peak';  'suddenly disappearing'; ' leaving in its wake';  'a rural after-image';  'getting a sense of stillness'. 



Time PIece Graz (above):  A communal Sound piece that starts at 8:50 a.m., and finishes at 9:50 p.m. daily.



Time Piece Stommeln: 2007.  A piece designed by Max for the Stommein Synagogue.  A sound piece for the City of Pulheim, with soundings of the Halachic Hours.



Above:  A young Max Neuhaus setting up to play a performance with John Cage and Edgar Varese in September, 1963.  In 1964 Neuhaus performed solo at Carnegie Hall. At the age of 28, Neuhaus stopped performing.

Max Neuhaus:  Sound Art/  Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology:  Victoria Meyers architect

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Class 5 was dedicated to Max Neuhaus, following Max's contributions to Sound Urbanism/  Sound Ecology.  The Image above depicts the reach of Neuhaus's Networks, or Broadcast Works.  In 1977 Neuhaus formed 'Radionet' -  initially an area with a radius of 20 miles in diameter around Manhattan:  an open network combinding radio waves with telephone lines, for open on-air communication.  Later Neuhaus expanded to 'Radio Net' - an On-Air forum that combined 190 Radio Stations.

The remaining fragment from Neuhaus's original Radio Net concept is Neuhaus's Aureole:  a 24 hour / day global Entity fostering continuous live INteraction with Sound over the Internet.

Toward the end of his career Max Neuhaus was working on a series of Aural Gardens.  If Max was alive today, we don't know what he would be doing.  But I would hazard to guess that he would have followed up on his Aural Gardens concept.

Above, Neuhaus's sketches and notes for 'Sound Volumes':  Invisible, Highly focused Sound Fields independent of aly Existing Physical structures.

Above:  Intersection I:  Neuhaus's sketch for his entry for the Venice Biennial 1999.  Two oblong Sound Fields placed at angles, to make an 'X' shape, six meters wide, and eight meters long.  A composite sound at the Crossing.  Placed at the Walkway leading to the Italian Pavilion.

Above:  Neuhaus's drawings for an Aural Garden.

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Sound Urbanism// Sound Ecology: Prof. Mara Helmuth selected to present sound urbanist concepts from Cage, Partch, and other modern composers

Speakers/ Lecturers who presented to the seminar included Prof. Mara Helmuth, who is a Professor at the CCM at University of Cincinnati.  Prof. Helmuth was selected as a presenter because of her broad knowledge about sound, as well as her connection to Harry Partch, John Cage, and David Dunn. 



Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis were reviewed in the seminar, as their Modulor established several relationships between architecture, planning, and music and concepts about sound and space.


The class also had its own blog:  http://soundurbanismuc.typepad.com.  Shown above, right, the site of Max Neuhaus's sound installation at Times Square.  Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology.


The class looked at sound installations and Landscape Urbanism installations by other programs and other universities.  Above:  ESA Paris:  Landscape Urbanism.


Sound Urbanism /  Sound Ecology UC also looked at Harvard GSD's New Trajectories show, above.


Above:  Harvard GSD:  New Trajectories.

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Process:  Duchamp:   Framed Glass.   This refers to architects hMa's process (Victoria Meyers architect) in designing DWi-P :  Digital Water i-Pavilion.  The building was designed around ideas about how glass can have a presence that exceeds its physical thickness.  The thickness can be determined through its intellectual ideas, which can greatly exceed the physicality of the glass thicnkess.  In the case of Marcel Duchamp's Large Glass, that thickness was processed and presented as a physical rendering of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, cut into the glass surface.  In the case of hMa's WaTER wall, that thickness could be seen as an exposition about the thickness of current ideas about physicality, as related to digital technologies;  and the presentation of a social critique about the increasing scarcity of clean water, even as the world's water levels rise, due to melting ice caps. 



In both cases:  hMa's glass wall, as well as the Duchamp glass, the result was Physics, but also a social critique, written in (on) glass.  These critiques and their 'thicknesses', increase the intellectual thickness of the glass.



hMa's ideas about sound and space, are applied to buildings, as well as to urban spaces.  As master plan architects for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood, hMa overviewed the development of over one-million square feet of LEED certified green construction.  We also overviewed the development of a park system that was linked together by a concept hMa describes as : woven space, as well as by sound, in the installation (not yet achieved) by Ann Hamilton in Teardrop Park, in the Water Wall at Teardrop Park,  and in hMa's digitally interactive wall, at DWi-P.

Above:  Teardrop Park.  This project was conceived as a collaboration between hMa, Michael van Valkenburgh, and the artist, Ann Hamilton.

Above:  Woven Fabric:  hMa conceived the site plan of BPC's North Neighborhood as a 'woven fabric'.  This fabric consisted of a series of parks and buildings that weave together as a single physical fabric, both in terms of their Green Construction, but also by offering several occupiable Green Roofs for public use, including the Irish Hunger Memorial by artist Brian Tolle (below) as well as hMa's Green Roof over their building, DWi-P, publicly accessible from North End Avenue.

Cincinnati Sound Sections: Victoria Meyers architect: Sound Urbanism projects by UC Students Reuben Alt, Robert Castro; Rebecca Snyder, Joshua Michaels

Victoria Meyers architect's Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology graduate seminar at University of Cincinnati's Graduate School of Architecture produced some amazing sound sections, studying sounds in Cincinnati, marking the city's change from an industrial to a service economy.  Students: Reuben Alt, Robert Castro; Rebecca Snyder, Joshua Michaels.

Reuben Alt and Robert Castro, Cincinnati Sound Section above;

Sound Recordings from three sites, below.  Click the links below to hear the site:

Bottom Site_Alt_Castro

 Mid Site_Alt_Castro

Upper Site_Alt_Castro

 

Mercer Commons Final

Above:  Rebecca Snyder and Joshua Michaels' section throuhg Mercer Commons, Cincinnati;  with their sound recording, below.  Enjoy!

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Victoria Meyers architect working with hMa developed a plan for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood, using a concept of 'social networks' to organize the spaces in their master plan.  The plan above shows all of the green roofs, connected. 

Trees were a big part of the Battery Park City North Neighborhood plan.  The idea of planting trees crossed over to Mayor Bloomberg's PLANYC, with their plan to plant one million trees.  At Battery Park City's North Neighborhood, hMa overviewed the development of Green Streets, with planted areas to reduce rain water run-off, and including trees.

An isometric view of hMa's master plan for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood, next to a diagram for Bloomberg's PLANYC.

In 2009, Joseph Beuys started his plan to plant 7,000 oak trees.  This project was the beginning of Beuys' political project, of starting the Green Movement in Germany. 

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Victoria Meyers architect is working on a new book that tracks hMa's works tracking the firm's contribution to conversations around Green Urbanism, Food Urbanism, and sustainable design practices, including Green Streets. 

Victoria Meyers working with hMa developed strategies to make the new North Neighborhood designed by the firm in Battery Park City into a demonstration project, with all buildings, streets, and parks designed to teh highest levels of green certification. 

North End Avenue, the main organizing street in the North Neighborhood, was designed as a Green Street, and features a new dog park, with Rogers Marvel on board as consultants for the design.  Green Streets are a specific designation, awarded to streets that meet green standards, including porous paving and planting to absorb rain water run-off, in order to divert rain water from storm sewers. 

The project includes Green Roofs on all buildings, including hMa's Ballfield Terrace, an occupiable Green Roof for their DWi-P, Digital Water i-Pavilion. 

Above:  the Hi-Line in New York City, next to a diagram for Food Urbanism

As cities around the world wake up to the new realities and challenges of the 21st century, including the need for water and energy management, New York City has been a leader in the development of sustainable Green Design Standards.  Battery Park City led the way in New York City, with their Green Standards for urban development publication in 2000.  Since that publication, and with the increase in Globalization, cities around the world have looked to Battery Park City, and New York City, as leaders in the changes to meet urban needs driven by forces including Global Warming, pollution, and the need for a more sustainable path for urban design.

The Irish Hunger Memorial, in hMa's BPC North Neighborhood, next to a map of Dublin:  Globolization

The Irish Hunger Memorial is a piece of the Irish countryside in New York City;  the new Dublin City Plan drew on concepts from the Battery Park City Green Guidelines.  Both projects are examples of the effects of Globalization on the dissemination of Green concepts.

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R.E.W.: Robots, Energy, Weather : Lecture by Victoria Meyers architect at the University of Cincinnati: Victoria Meyers architect for hMa

On September 26, 2012, Victoria Meyers architect, founding principal of hMa, gave a lecture at the University of Cincinnati School of Architecture titled:  R.E.W.:  How Robots, Energy and Weather are changing the architectural discussion.

 

As an example of the changes shown above, Ms. Meyers showed images of works from her architectural practice, hMa.  Built projects that illustrata the above ideas include DWi-P (hMa's new building, set to open at Battery Park City in October 2012), as well as hMa's Master Plan design for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood.

Victoria's presentation featured Digital Water i-Pavilion, and included a discussion of digital and biological systems that are conditioning how architects design building facades to reflect new techniques and interactive surfaces. She also discussed George Dyson's latest book, 'Turing's Cathedral'. 

New Digital and Biological systems are not only creating interative interfaces, but also beginning to control buildings, in a manner that is similar to new technologies in automobiles. 

Victoria's latest research on this and other topics will be featured in her upcoming book, 'shape of sound'.  Shape of sound looks at systems that allow sound to integrate into built environments, and create accessible information either directly or through cellphone technologies.

 To read more about Victoria Meyers architect, and to see her works with hMa, hanrahan Meyers architects, go to her website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com. 

Links to this post: 

http://archinect.com/blog/article/58472275/r-e-w-robots-energy-weather

http://www.my-architecture.com/news/rew-robots-energy-weather

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Won Buddhist Retreat featured on designalmic.com, Victoria Meyers architect

Won Buddhist Retreat is featured at the address below:

http://designalmic.com/won-dharma-center-by-hanrahan-meyers-architects-llp/ 

Please visit the link, to see a great spread on the project!

Won Buddhist Retreat is a 550-acre campus dedicated to teaching the principles of Won Buddhist meditation, in Clavarack, NY, with a Zero Carbon Footprint.  The project, designed by Victoria Meyers architect with hMa, features five sustainably designed wood buildings.  All buildings are built using sustainably harvested wood (FSC wood), and the site is a mitigated Brownfield site with zero carbon footprint. 

 

Victoria Meyers architect supports efforts to build sustainable architecture, and her firm, hMa, believes in using Brownfield sites or repurposing exisiting buildings, where possible.  To see more about hMa, visit the firm's website:  www.hanrahanMeyers.com. 

 

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Turing's Cathedral, Architecture, Green Urbanism, Social Networks, and DWi-P

Thinking about where we find ourselves today, I see a myriad of forces and challenges.  

Turing's Cathedral:  the origins of the digital universe, the most recent book by science historian George Dyson, traces the effects of computers on humanity, starting with the development of the first computer, 'Maniac', at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies.  The computational power of machines, embodied today in the internet, and in the influence of Google, is creating massive changes, faster than humanity can track.  

left: science historian George Dyson; right: Google.  Post:  Victoria Meyers architect

In response to changes in population, species extinctions, Globalism, global warming, and other concerns, the rising interests in architecture include several different 'ism's':  variations on themes that encompass sustainable values applied to urban design. The newly emergent movements include Ecological Urbanism,Green Urbanism and Urban Agriculture.  

 food urbanism and ecological urbanism.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

In the wake of these fields of interest, architecture as the study of singular buildings has been eclipsed by the fields of urban design and landscape design.  

My terminology for the changes in the study of architecture is a move toward 'Porosity'.  Porosity meaning a move toward the design of buildings that mesh with landscape, and where the edge between building and landscape becomes obscured.  

 Ballfield Terrace view : DWiP:  hanrahan Meyers architects;  post, Victoria Meyers architect

hanrahan Meyers architect's DWiP building at Battery Park City is porous, and embodies ideas represented in Green Urbanism, Ecological Urbanism, and Agriculture Urbanism. The building features a half-acre occupiable Green Roof linked to Teardrop Park and other Battery Park City parks through a series of ramps, stairs, and walkways.  The building is sustainable, and on track to receive a Platinum LEED rating.  DWi-P's porosity extends to the glass wall facing the Ballfields.  This is an 'intelligent wall' with an interactive interface between visitor's cell phones and the frit pattern on the facade, and will be launched in September 2012 with its own cell phone App. 

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