UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI May 19 , 2000 I, Heather Chitwood , hereby submit this as part of the requirements for the degree of: Master’s in: Design It is entitled: The Aronoff Center for Design and Art at The University of Cincinnati: Simulating Reality Approved by: Professor Dennis Puhalla, Chair Associate Professor J. A. Chewning Assistant Professor Marty Plumbo THE ARONOFF CENTER FOR DESIGN AND ART AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI: SIMULATING REALITY A thesis submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF DESIGN In the School of Design of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning 2000 by Heather A. Chitwood B.S. Georgia Institute of Technology, 1995 Thesis Committee: Professor Dennis Puhalla, Chair Associate Professor J. A. Chewning Assistant Professor Marty Plumbo The Aronoff Center for Design and Art at the University of Cincinnati: Simulating Reality Heather A. Chitwood (ABSTRACT) The intention of this project is to create a virtual, 3-Dimensional environment representative of Peter Eisenman’s Aronoff Center for Art and Design, which houses the Colleges of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. Architectural drawings and photographs of the building cannot describe the space of the building. Rather, they can only depict the building’s form. A 3D model of the building would be useful in that it could convey more depth to the viewer. The final multimedia piece will be used to introduce prospective and new students to the building’s layout, provide a detailed overview of the building and the theories behind its creation, and allow people who do not live in Cincinnati to experience some aspects of the building’s form. According to Eisenman, architecture has left the “mechanical paradigm” of physical structure for the “electronic paradigm” of the information superhighway and the “virtual reality headset. Virtual reality is a new possibility for reality,” he says. “Actual places” will be supplanted by a “place of communication.”1 This project hopes to achieve some similarities to virtual reality, or the feeling of emotionally being somewhere while not physically being there. 1 Slatin, Peter. “Virtual Places.” ARTnews (Apr 1994): 27. The scope of the project involves the determination of the target audience, evaluating the communications objectives, gathering preliminary data on Peter Eisenman and the Aronoff Center, and assessing the delivery environment. In the case of this project, the target audience will be anyone with an interest in Peter Eisenman’s architecture. This includes, but is not limited to, current and prospective students in the study of architecture, as well as professors in architecture who may never have seen the Aronoff Center in person. The target audience will also include current and prospective students in the college of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning who would like to learn more about the building. This paper presents the background information about the architect and the building itself, and evaluates different methods of 3D-modeling and the incorporation of that model into multimedia format. Acknowledgments During my four years as a graduate student in the School of Design, I have had the opportunity to work with many wonderful people. My artistic skills have been much enlightened, and the knowledge I have gained from working with these people is immeasurable. These people include Leslie Blade, J. Chewning, Ann Firestone, Tony Kowanari, Karen Monzel, Carrie Nixon, Marty Plumbo, Dennis Puhalla, Margaret Voelker-Ferrier, and McCrystle Wood. I am also grateful for the support of my close friends Fran Cash and Nancy Hopkins, who were always willing to give me helpful suggestions and honest critiques of my work. I appreciate the support from my parents Ron and Patsy Hoenes, who always believe in me, no matter what goals I am trying to acheive. Finally, I am thankful for the unending support from my husband, Denny. He is always willing to help me with my various projects, no matter what hour of the night it is. Without his encouragement and words of motivation, I would probably still be working on this thesis. Table of Contents Figure Table 3 Part I 5 Introduction 5 Peter Eisenman 5 Eisenman Buildings in Ohio 8 Theory behind the Aronoff Center for Art and Design 10 Aronoff Center Specifications 15 Aronoff Center Wireframe Generation 17 Computer Modeling 25 Granting the University’s Wishes 26 Pastel Color Scheme 27 Poor Choice of Materials and “Value Engineering” 28 Part II 31 Thesis Design Process 31 Kinetic 3D Studio MAX 31 AutoCAD Release 14 33 Maxon Cinema 4D 34 Visualization 35 1 Modeling the Aronoff Center in 3D Studio MAX 37 Multimedia Presentation 38 Building History 43 Peter Eisenman — Other Buildings 44 Part III 46 Conclusion 46 CD-ROM Installation Guide 47 Bibliography 48 2 Figure Table Figure 1: Peter Eisenman 5 Figure 2: House of Cards I 6 Figure 3: House of Cards II 6 Figure 4: House of Cards III 6 Figure 5: IBA Social Housing 6 Figure 6: DNA Helix 7 Figure 7: The Wexner Center 8 Figure 8: The Columbus Convention Center 9 Figure 9: The Aronoff Center for Design and Art 10 Figure 10: The Eisenman “L” 13 Figure 11: The Aronoff Center for Design and Art 14 Figure 12: The Engineering Research Center 15 Figure 13: Aronoff Center Auditorium 16 Figure 14: Cafeteria from Above 16 Figure 15: “Box Geometry” forming segmented line 19 Figure 16: “Box Geometry” transformed to curved line 19 Figure 17: Phase Shift Plan 20 Figure 18: Phase Shift Section 20 Figure 19: Torqued solid / Torqued Trace Series, Plan 20 Figure 20: Torqued solid / Torqued Trace Series, Section 21 Figure 21: Stepping — Functional Notation 21 Figure 22: Box Geometry 21 3 Figure 23: Atrium Overlap Plan 22 Figure 24: Atrium Overlap Section 22 Figure 25: Existing Building Outline 23 Figure 26: Existing Building with Chevron 23 Figure 27: Composite Box Geometry / Existing Building Traces 24 Figure 28: Incorporation of Columns 25 Figure 29: North side of Aronoff Center buried in the hill 27 Figure 30: Internal Signage 27 Figure 31: Pastel Color Scheme 28 Figure 32: Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center 32 Figure 33: Aronoff Center Entrance modeled in 3D Studio MAX 38 Figure 34: Initial Layout in Director 39 Figure 35: Revised Layout in Director 40 Figure 36: 3D Map Rotation Sequence 41 Figure 37: Final Layout in Director 42 Figure 38: Individual Movie Screen in Director 43 Figure 39: Building History Screen in Director 44 Figure 40: Peter Eisenman Screen in Director 45 4 Part I Introduction The intention of this project is to create a multimedia piece that will be representative of Peter Eisenman’s Aronoff Center for Art and Design. This paper is not intended to convey the building’s form to the user — it cannot. The Aronoff Center is vastly different from other forms of architecture. In some cases, one must see it to believe it. Therefore, the user must examine the final piece, distributed on the accompanying CD-ROM, in order to understand the full scope of this project. With the accompanying CD-ROM the Aronoff Center can be seen in all its three- dimensional glory, and studied by current and prospective students at the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati, or even allow people who do not live in Cincinnati to experience the overwhelming aspects of the building’s form. Peter Eisenman Peter Eisenman was born on August 11, 1932 in Newark, New Jersey. He received a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Cornell University (1955), a Master of Architecture Degree from Columbia University (1960), M.A. (1962) and Ph.D. (1963) degrees from Cambridge University, and an honorary Figure 1 Peter Eisenman 5 Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Illinois Chicago (1986). Early in his career, Eisenman’s work entailed the elaboration of an autonomous, self-referential architectural language that defied the particularities of site, not to mention the conveniences of daily life. Undeterred by conventions, history, and commonplaces about how people live, he labored to achieve a pure, uncontaminated architecture that would transcend the real. His Cardboard House Series involved mathematical and geometrical sequences, and even though most of them remain unbuilt, he still regards them as architecture. In 1978, he followed up with the Cannaregio Project for Venice. In this project, colors symbolized things (gold for the mysticism of the alchemist, red for the martyrdom of Giordano Bruno), and a grid of Le Corbusier’s unbuilt hospital design was superimposed on the irregular contours of Venice’s streets. Two years later, a different project incorporated another set of imaginary lines — the Mercator grid, 18th-Century walls, and 19th-Century urban demarcations — which were divided and overlaid upon one another in order to generate an IBA Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 House of Cards I House of Cards II House of Cards III IBA Social Housing 6 housing project for a Friedrichstrasse location adjacent to the Berlin Wall.2 Although his reputation as an “architectural impresario” was at its peak, he suffered the taunts of those who accused him of engaging in the construction of “paper architecture”. In 1980, after many years of teaching and writing, he decided to focus his efforts on building, and as he said “to get dirty and practice.” Although many critics view Eisenman’s work as an expression of the theory known as Deconstruction, Eisenman himself has said that he is not a Deconstructivist. It is important to note that the project for the Aronoff Center was produced in 1986, two years before Deconstructivist Architecture took place in MOMA.3 Destabilizing, decentering, deconstructing, or displacing traditional hierarchies or repressive conditions came to mean, in Eisenman’s designs, recovering things such as preexisting but subsequently lost land divisions, or abstract divisions such as the Mercator grid.4 As sources for his designs, Eisenman includes archaeological excavations, mathematical models such as fractals and the “Boolean cube”, chemical compounds such as DNA, and the Moebius strip.