WETon: The landscape of virtual singularities (ETSAM P7_ 2021)
Part I: In group (Marta Jiménez, Claudia Sanz, Andrés Checa, Sofía Miláns)
Part 2: Individual
WETon is a specific area in the Embalse de Santillana that corresponds to the singular zone of virtual humidity.
The project is divided into two parts. The first one: Pataphysical Landscape focuses on analyzing the milieu virtually, extracting the other landscapes, the ones that could be but aren't. The second part, WETon, corresponds to the extraction of singular points of those other landscapes and their translation to the material world.
GENERAL OBJECTIVE: TO GENERATE THE LANDSCAPE OF SINGULARITIES.
Specific objectives:
Analyze the territory and obtain complementary territories.
Extraction of singularities
Development of the physical milieu
PHASES OF THE PROJECT:
1_Analysis: 11 subcategories of the landscape with their singular points are obtained.
2_Morphogenesis: each subcategory generates a virtual terrain and a specific material.
3_Metamorphosis: a virtual territory is chosen and analyzed to extract the singular points. These points will be operated on in a specific way according to the type of singularity.
part 1: phases 1 & 2
part 2: phase 3
I_ANALYSIS
The area to be studied (Embalse de Santillana) is divided into a grid of 500m x 500m. From each "pixel" a singular element of 100m x 100m is selected, that is which characterizes it. These new pixels are rescaled and replace the 500m x 500m pixels. The result is a low resolution mapping of the Embalse de Santillana environment generated from the singular elements, without ranking any area. This mapping of singular elements helps to understand the territory better than the original one.
These geolocalized pixels are decontextualized and grouped by categories (roads, buildings, water and flora) and subcategories (paved or unpaved; domestic, agricultural, industrial or state; recreational or non-recreational use; and wild, domestic or agricultural), and are decoded, extracting the maximum possible information from each pixel.
2_MORPHOGENESIS
Each subcategory will provide the necessary information to generate a new virtual territory, which will include the identity of its original subcategory. The pixels of each subcategory are multiplied together through a generative system obtaining two results: on the one hand a new pixel of territorial character, and on the other hand, one of digital nature. The sum of the territorial and the digital is the identity of each territory, of each subcategory.
The territorial pixel provides topographic, geometric information. The contour lines and the slope map are extracted through a territorial analysis software that interprets the image (hacking arc-gis). For the digital analysis, the basic visual identity (color range) and the slope are analyzed. The slope represents the difference or similarity between a pixel and its contiguous pixels. It is the digital equivalent of territorial slope analysis. With this, the territorial singularity and the digital singularity are mapped.
With the territorial part, that is, with the territorial information provided by the superposition and multiplication of the sub-categorical pixels, eleven new topographies are generated. The materiality, the textures and the sensorial part are provided by the digital part.
Eleven singular digital materials are generated. The materials are formed from parameters that define their characteristics, such as color, transparency or reflectance. These parameters are defined by the information obtained from the digital part, for example by applying each slope as a reflectance bitmap or the pantone as a layer mask for transparency.
The question is how to build real landscapes through these parameters.
3_METAMORPHOSIS
Having the eleven virtual landscapes, they are studied to determine singular points. For example, in the analysis of visual basins, we obtain as singular points the point from which one can see the most, the point from which one can see the least, invisible points or the most seen point. Transparent points, wet areas, maximum slopes, etc. are obtained.
The virtual humidity zone is chosen as the working area, in which different types of singularities are superimposed. Humidity + transparency, humidity + slope, humidity + reflectance, humidity + distortion, etc.
The virtual zone is transferred to the working environment (el Embalse de Santillana). It is important to understand that the working perimeter is defined through virtual parameters.
It is projected for humidity. The water catchers collect vapor droplets from the air and condense the water towards the chimneys that evaporate it generating a humid cycle. In addition, new vegetation is planted that is irrigated with the collected water and also has special qualities. For example, they produce natural dyes for colored pools, distorting the conception of water.
Another agent is the puddle. It is put in value and projected for it. It is the zone of humidity + reflectance.
The elements of the project that deal with humidity cannot exist without the rest. It is a solidary system in which the elements are hyperconnected. It should be understood as a single intervention.
Theoretical framework of the project
For whom? For the others. Who are the others? The shadow, the dust, the fog, the humidity, the mud, the insects, the weeds, the herds, the pigeons, the puddles? For David Gissen's Subnatures. Why for the others? I do not participate in the anthropocentric vision of architecture? Where? It is virtual. As Guille says; this is a machine. You can put as input any territory and you will get its complementary territories and its singular points. The interesting thing is that the chosen territory is born from the singularities of the Embalse de Santillana (phase 2 of the project), and therefore it is understood as a possible territory, the territory that could be, the Embalse de Santillana in a complementary universe, a pataphysical territory. Is it going to be built? It will work as if it was a real territory, with its physical, geological, etc. qualities. But it will not be geolocalized. What will be generated? Translations of the types of singularities (phase 3 of the project). Interventions in the singular points. Organic, living, technological interventions that participate in the environment, in the milieu, and depend on each other. A landscape of interconnected singularities will be generated.
The role of the architect: to design for "the others".
"The task of the designer has traditionally been to give meaning and function to forms situated in space. But with this statement, two essential points are taken for granted; the first, that the form to which meaning and function were given was always a physical component form; the second, that the space in which the project was situated was the "real" space, that is, read according to our traditional models of knowledge." For Peter Weibal, architecture must invent new technological ways to connect human beings to their milieu in a different way. AMID.cero9 defines the role of the architect as "that of techno-social inquirer; who combines the agents of the project in a new form of assemblage that ranges from programming codes to crafts and artisanal techniques, generating new entities as a result. These entities are networked together: they are not isolated objects but interconnected. The techno-social agent develops techniques adapted to each specific medium." This non-anthropocentric vision of the architect allows new ways of operating, or even of not operating. In a world where the environment and sustainable development have become crucial terms, the striving and ego of anthropocentric architecture in many cases damages our environment. And theories such as those of Keller Easterling or Antoine Picon about demolishing or not building are more legitimate every day and designing for non-humans, that is, for "the others", becomes coherent.
Redefining the territory
In addition to rethinking the role of the architect, the definition of territory has been redefined. There are David Gissen's sub-natures, in which forms of nature that are conceived as threatening, dirty or unpredictable are put in value. Gilles Clément's third landscape, Second and Third Natures, Ezio Manzini's artificial environment, Stan Allen's information landscape.... Stan Allen says that we thrive in the city because they are places of the unexpected, products of time. I think the attraction that the natural and wild world has had is due to its contrast with the homogeneity of planned cities. That is why the landscape of singularities is proposed.
Deleuze and Guattari: Singularities and the Machinic Phylum
A singularity in the mathematical and physical world is a point where a variable becomes infinite. In biology, a singularity is a point of vulnerability where the circadian rhythm is unsettled. For Deleuze and Guattari, they are points of unpredictability. This is because for them space is made up of attractors and bifurcators. An attractor is the entity towards which the different entities flow within a system. This system they define as a system of self-organizing processes. Heterogeneous ones work together and cooperate and articulate into a new homogeneous entity of connections. This is what DG calls Machinic Phylum, which is natural and artificial matter cooperating and in motion. It is a set of singularities dependent and consequences of each other. Similar to the butterfly effect and chaos theory.