University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture Vertical ARC 694 Fall 2019 - Legge Underland Underland Project for The Friesenhahn Cave Foundation Studio Hours MWF 1-5pm Murray Legge [email protected] Studio Overview The studio will introduce beginning students to the underlying foundations of architecture while allowing more advanced students to strengthen and refine their abilities. Through a series of focused design exercises we will develop skills important to the practice of architecture, including flexibility, curiosity, and perseverance. We will explore answers to the following question: How do you develop an architectural idea? In studio we will examine techniques for developing an idea by considering both intention and reaction in the design process. When starting a new project architects must engage many diverse constraints and the design process can unfold as a reac- tion to them: site, program, technical limitations, deadlines etc. It is essential that they be resolved, but not at the expense of a broader architectural intention. A balance of intention and reaction synthesizes a set of mundane solutions into something beyond itself, something that can bring wonder and meaning to architecture. Site and Program The studio project is sited on the Friesenhahn Cave site outside of San Antonio. The cave is one of the most impor- tant paleontological sites in the United States. Homotherium or Scimitar Tooth Cats lived in the cave more than 15,000 years ago and used it as their den. The cave’s original formation, with its descending entry ramp leading deep into the earth, made an ideal home for the Ice Age cats. This 20,000 year old single- room den is located on an approximately four acre site, situated in the midst of the suburban sprawl of San Antonio. The impressive feline remains originally found in the cave are in the Texas Memorial Museum on the UT Campus. Above: Homotherium skull found in the cave 1 University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture Vertical ARC 694 Fall 2019 - Legge Underland Friensenhahn Cave “Friesenhahn Cave is a fossil-rich one-room cave, once named Bulverde Cave and Bone Cave, located west of U. S. High- way 281 in north central Bexar County. The cave is a sinkhole formed in the region’s karst topography. The only entrance, as documented since the earliest twentieth-century explorations, is a vertical twenty-eight-foot shaft. The floor of the cave is relatively flat, measuring thirty by sixty feet, with a seven-foot ceiling. Due to the wealth of bones and fossils discovered at the site, George Veni in The Caves of Bexar County described Fri- esenhahn Cave as “one of the most important paleontological sites in the United States.” Concordia University, the institu- tion that is the cave’s steward, has reported that, besides the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, “no site in the United States has yielded a greater variety of significant Pleistocene (Ice Age) vertebrate fossils.” Paleontological excavations have started and stopped for over a century at the Friesenhahn Cave; at times, decades have passed between excavations. The first known description of the cave was a survey conducted in December 1915 by D. V. Schucha- rdt, a student of the Agricultural and Mechanical College at College Station (now Texas A&M University). He estimated that the floor of the cave was covered in three feet of fossil- bearing material. Schuchardt collected samples from eighteen species that were forwarded to the United States National Museum (now the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building) in Washington, D.C.” David Barklow, Texas State Historical Commission Above: Homotherium is thought to have preyed on baby mammoths which they would drag into the cave entry to feed to their kittens 2 University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture Vertical ARC 694 Fall 2019 - Legge Underland Studio Work The studio will begin with a series of short intense design exercises of increasing complexity, ending with a final building project for a public Ice Age (Pleistocene) display and education building for Concordia University’s School of Natural and Ap- plied Science. The new building will educate the public about the subterranean realm beneath their feet and display some of the 4,000 isolated teeth and bones of more than 30 genera of Ice Age mammals, reptiles, and birds that were found in the cave. Above: Homotherium in the Texas Memorial Museum 3 University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture Vertical ARC 694 Fall 2019 - Legge Underland Projects 1. Light Study: (one week) A one week exercise using photography of an interior physical model to experiment with shaping natural light over the course of a day. You will explore how to create tone and feeling using natural light. 2. Site Study/Boundary Exercise: (Two weeks) Starting with a visit to the Cave, both above and below ground, the studio will work on draw- ings of the site and a design exercise focused on the idea of bound- ary. We will also survey the cave entrance. 3. Field Building: (Two weeks) In this exercise you will be develop a small utility field building to support the current activities that are occurring on site. 4. Education Building: (Eight weeks) The program for the final project will be an exhibit and educational building, including support ele- ments. We will follow a design methodology of iterative testing: developing overall project concepts and ideas through site diagrams and sketch models. These concepts will then be developed through plan, section, elevation, and three-dimensional representation. Vertical Studio Streams Model Architecture involves a myriad range of technical and cultural issues, required skills and knowledge. Beginning students will be introduced to the fundamental principles and skills and ecouraged to focus on those while more advanced students will be encouraged to develop projects further in terms of technical resolution. The studio will be somewhat equally balanced among the four streams; Ordering Systems, Humans Factors, Context and Construction with the as- sumption that beginning students, while being introduced to technical concerns, will be more focused on Ordering Systems and Context. A balanced average: Ordering Systems 35%, Human Factors 30% Context 30% and Construction 15% Section through the cave showing the geologic composition of the site 4 University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture Vertical ARC 694 Fall 2019 - Legge Underland Expectations • Students are expected to be on time and present for all studio. You are responsible for coursework assigned in your absence. Your peers will be able to fill you in on what you missed. You can also contact me if more information is needed. • Extensions and incompletes will not be given in this course, except where there is documented evidence of a serious problem. • Besides desk crits, pin-ups, and presentations, various talks may be given in the course that serve as background to the studio projects. There may be from time to time guest speakers as well as guest critics. • You are encouraged to work in the studio. Architecture is an interactive discipline, not merely an individual pursuit. The criticism of and contact with your colleagues can be as significant as that with your studio critic. Studio Culture The School of Architecture believes in the value of the design studio model. Studio learning encourages dialogue, collaboration, risk-taking, innovation, and learning-by-doing. The studio offers an environment where students can come together to ask questions and make proposals, which are developed and discussed among classmates, faculty, visiting professionals, and the public-at-large. Stu- dio learning offers intensive one-on-one instruction from faculty members, and provides the oppor- tunity for each student to develop his/her critical thinking skills and spatial and material sensibilities. The design studio offers a synthetic form of education, where project-based learning becomes the foundation for developing an understanding of and commitment to the school’s core values — broad- mindedness, interconnectivity, professionalism, exploration and activism — all in service of architec- ture’s fundamental mission: to improve the quality of the built and natural environments. https://soa.utexas.edu/programs/architecture/architecture-studio-culture Design Conversations: Lecture Series The School of Architecture offers a wide range of opportunities for students to extend the design conversations taken place in studios (Lecture Series, Goldsmith Talks, Exhibitions, etc). Students are encouraged to participate and be engaged. All students in this studio are expected to attend all the Jessen Lectures (three per semester by leading practitioners from around the world). The lectures and the ensuing discussions are an important component of intellectual engagement at the school. Studio Course Grading Policy While each project contains certain quantifiable elements for evaluation, a significant portion of each grade is derived from broader and more subjective criteria. Student work will be evaluated according to its rigor and evolution over the semester. Grades are subject to deductions for late arrivals, absenc- es, disruptiveness to the class, and late or incomplete work, at the discretion of the Instructor. Grading for each assignment is broken into three components, scored as less-than-acceptable/compe- tent (–), acceptable/competent ( • ), and superior (+) , and then averaged over the semester weighted according to the time devoted, proportionally, to the exercise. A fourth component (participation) is judged over the entire semester and is used to lean one way or another when final grades occur at break-points in the A, B, C, D spectrum. 5 University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture Vertical ARC 694 Fall 2019 - Legge Underland Product: How complete and handsome the final drawings and models are, and how informative the process models and drawings are; how clearly ideas are presented at reviews, and how well illustrated by examples, diagrams, and further analysis.