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AMPLIACIÓN, RESIDENCIA EN VILLA DEL PRADO
EXTENSION, VILLA DEL PRADO RESIDENCE
Proyecto para la ampliación de vivienda unifamiliar.
Madrid, 2010 - ...
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NOTES FOR AN ABSTRACT MODEL
NOTES FOR AN ABSTRACT MODEL
We are in the intermediate stages of the
project, linking realities, between the original data and the specifics our
project must finally provide, a territory in which disciplinary documents are
less useful. By abstract model we refer to any physical product of
architectonic thought, subject or not to architectural conventions, which is
produced for instrumental purposes in the design process. It is a
materialization, a momentary crystallization of a state of affairs.
THE OBJECTIVE MODEL: THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL MAP.
If
reality is continuous, the cut discretizes.
The model can be understood as a
three-dimensional map. If a map is a section of reality unmistakably defined by
one or more parameters, the three-dimensional map corresponds to the volumetric
materialization of this landscape of data. The model is, therefore, a
re-description of reality, a vision of it through one or various variables
whose objective nature will be key for the descriptive capacity of the
three-dimensional document. As a model of reality, it may be said that this
re-description is, on some selected aspects, equivalent to the reality it
replaces. However, the following questions need to be raised:
• If the X and Y axes form a geographic
projection plane in which a third abstract dimension is introduced on the Z
axis (e.g. density, compactness...), are we before an abstract model?
• If one of the three axes is a time axis and
the other two are abstract, can it be called an abstract model?
In any case, all models with a strong objective
component can be understood as objects built as sculpted data. And the
crossing of data families (heterogeneous sections of reality) may lead to
unexpected ones.
DIRECT ABSTRACTION, INDUCED ABSTRACTION.
In the perceptive scope, all figurative reality
may undergo a process of abstraction by following objective criteria like that
of a linear mathematical transformation. Thus, the abstraction resulting from a
loss of definition, of granularity, of detail, of resolution, of focus... -in
short- of information, can be understood as direct
abstraction. This sort of reduction transforms object A into object A' by means
of a defined function without any intermediate steps. The object is
replaced by its qualities and/or quantities, its rhythms, the distribution of
space over time... without abandoning the sphere of the physical. In the case
of the model, the reality that is represented losses its figurative condition
to become an abstract description of that same reality, while always remaining
physical.
There is yet another type of abstraction which
is not based on a reduction of original forms, on the synthesis of the object,
nor on the substitution of a materiality by its less textured equivalent. In
this sort of abstraction that we call induced,
the transposition of object A
perceived as a new materiality that we call A'
suffers a sort of intermediate blackout. It is no longer a transformation whose
laws are obvious but rather a mutation where the logical thread has made an
unjustified leap from an objective reality to an abstract one. In this process,
the spectator faces an incomplete and unknown step that he must solve. Thus,
the result of this perceptive discontinuity is replaced with a mental image B.
The product, that mental image B, is not perceived but felt. It becomes
latent, and that heartbeat B is
equivalent to the direct perception of A',
the model that triggers a mental image in the viewer. The experience of B is induced by its material equivalent A’. And, in the best case scenario, this
type of abstraction does not result in a loss of definition nor of information
as occurs with direct abstraction.
THE OPEN-ENDED OBJECT, SUSPENDED.
There is a space for thought linking realities
before and after transformation; between the initial complexity that any
project encounters (before intervention), and the resulting complexity (after
action has been taken). If any work of architecture can be expressed in terms
of the relationship between elements, the design process can be understood as
the conversion into another configuration of relationships. During this
transition, bonds are broken, temporarily leaving both ideas and things
adjourned. In this transition, only the essential links remain active so that a
minimum of continuity with the pre-existing is guaranteed. Contrarily, complete
independence between stages would denote a entirely new reality as opposed to a
transformed one. This passage is a phase of minimum information, maximum
simplicity and minimum structure definition. Whatever is not law is left suspended.
The materialization of this
state of affairs can entail a mute and tenacious object, even enigmatic, eager
of meaning. This open-ended object, double-funneled, contains
a few shared threads that remain tauten in an momentary equilibrium, an eclipse
between past and future states of increased dispersion and homogeneity. For J.
Beuys, the materialization of these threads is the artifice that, hook line and
sinker, allows anchoring what is volatile,
making actual what is intangible.
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