inter o1 - the lost highway mark campbell & …...— michael sorkin, variations on a theme...

Stephen Shore, Parking Lot, Mount Blue Shopping Center, Farmington, Maine, 30 July 1974

This unit begins a three-year investigation into the architectural possibilities of land-, sea- and air-based networks. In 2009/10, we will study the Dwight D Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (STRAHNET) in the United States.

A relic of Cold War logistics, the US Interstate system extends for 46,837 miles, connecting all aspects of American life from the domestic to the transcontinental and supporting the majority of all commercial and pri-�� !��"��#$�%��&��&��'�

The architectural implications of the Interstate are as pragmatic and manifest as they are symbolically and mythically resonant. The unit will examine how the serpentine stretch of this system allows new architectural and urban typologies, from the spontaneous communities of retiree RV enthusiasts which spring up in the desert, to the Walmart distribution network which re-routes trucks as they drive across the US according to !��"��*��+��"��$��-��$��Learning from Las Vegas�%5:;<'��=��$��S,M,L,XL (1995) and Great Leap Forward (2002), we will examine how architects utilise – and distort – research during the design process.

As a unit based largely around 2D modes of representation, we will employ a range of graphic methods �� ?��@��#�� G��G��$�– a junction between the driver, the vehicle and the Interstate which offers a rich variety of exchanges and architectural possibilities. Typically located in anonymous and neglected locations – outside city limits or in the blank expanses of the desert – these facilities are not so much destinations or points of departure as a pause along a never-ending route.

INTER O1 - THE LOST HIGHWAYMark Campbell & Deane Simpson

01. DESCRIPTION

O�� G��G��G��G��networks. These investigations will attempt to explore and understand how architecture can interact and ex-ist within these systems, and how considering the role of architecture within these networks can inform the design process.

In 2009/10, we will study the Dwight D Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (STRAHNET) in the United States. Following this, we will consider sea-based freight and passenger net-works that have evolved out of advances in containerization, navigational systems, tourism, smuggling, and piracy. The phenomenon of containerization, for example, which allows a number of differently sized and weighted components to be trans¬ported by sea, rail, and air, forms the basis of intermodal freight transport – with 18 million containers making over 200 million trips per year. As such, containerization is one of the principal developments of twentieth-century logistics. (Originally a military task, logistics involves managing ��!��consumption.)

��?��<&��$��X��?��the international air-based network supporting passenger and freight movement – a system that embraces ��YG�� Z��[�� O��examine this attraction and disappointment, in parallel to exploring the socio-spatial characteristics of this contemporary network.

02. CONTEXT

Norbert Weiner, cynbernetic systems interface, 1950s. International Air Routes

Ansel Adams, Freeway Interchange, Los Angeles, 1967

“The archeologists of some future age will study the freeway to understand who we were.”David Brodsly, L. A. Freeway (1981)

The unit is concerned with a considered and critical contemporary interpretation of the US Interstate system, rather than a nostalgic or celebratory reading. Acting as archeologists of a not-so future age, we will study ��$��?��?��-sentially outdated and obsolete. Built for vehicles using internal combustion engines (itself an invention of the late nineteenth-century) and planned in the 1950s, the golden age of the Interstate System was the early-5:;\��]��[��5:;Y��$;:��Despite this state of obsolescence, we argue that the time to study the freeway is now. Used daily by mil-��@��X�� $�^��-��O��_��`�$��qq�[��{�in Two-Lane Blacktop�%5:;5'�� outwardly a relic.

Contemporary users, such as the RV community and Walmart truckers, use tenchology to radically recon- ��@��O��|+��?��infrastructure of the Interstate with satellite internet technology, allowing spontaneous virtual and actual ��}�G~��$��-��G��@��#G��#�� and tracking technologies, the trucks leave the distribution centers without a predetermined destination and ��^��^��G��@��@��|+��then the Wal-Mart distribution system occupies this space as an extension of the warehousing infrastructure ��X��G��G��$�

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03. CRITICAL AMBITION

��?��G��$�^�� ?�� restaurant, fast food outlet, kiosk, restrooms, parking areas, vehicles, protagonists, and the landscape of the Interstate system beyond.

��#��X��O��$��^��-��*��#�� and photographic documentation. Alternative means of documentation will also be strongly encouraged.

Students will be asked to explore and expand on the programmatic and architectural possibilities of the ��G��$�O��!�� X��interstate network. This work will be developed in a range of drawing-, imaging-, modeling-, and composite ��*��#��-tion on one aspect within the system. The process of developing programmatic and architectonic proposals is envisioned as one of constant feedback between a range of research materials and propositions, and ��*��G��

04. IN BRIEF

Monte Hellman dir., Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)

Quartzsite, Arizona, 2007

Outcome: Manual for road system design based on analysis of Autobahn and freeway cultures (6 x A3 sheets). Including x-ray axonometric, sections, plans, and speed diagrams.Outcome Additional: Research Workbook (multiple A3 sheets)Format: A3 Landscape

Thematic Issues: Communication of design protocols as 2D manual.

Inputs:Field Trip A: Driving on the AutobahnField Trip B: Visit to Tank and Rast Headquarters (autobahn service plaza monopoly operator), Bonn, Ger-many

References:– Tank & Rast: http://www.rast.de/services/leistungen/index_en.php�� G��– Autobahn enthusiast site: http://www.autobahnatlas-online.de/index_e.html

TERM ONE

Exercise 01 - three weeks duration - 07-30 October

Research Topic: German Autobahn ��Y�%[��GZ��#��'��qqq�%[��G"��'��

05. PROGRAMAll classes and exercises will be cotaught by the Unit Masters

Exercise 02 - two weeks duration - 30 October - 13 November

Research Topic: British Motorway Network Site: M25 (London Orbital)

Outcome: Isometric Network Info-graphic developed based on selected culture layer (1 x A3 sheet)Outcome Additional: Research Workbook (multiple A3 sheets)Format: A3 Landscape

Thematic Issues: Multi-scalar spatial and temporal visualization, system organization

Inputs:Field Trip A: Driving the London OrbitalZ��O��"��+��~��O�� #�[��[��

References:– Motorway Info: http://www.cbrd.co.uk/roadsfaq/– The Motorway Archive: http://www.iht.org/motorway/page1.htm

Exercise 03 - four weeks duration - 13 November - 14 December

Research Topic: US Interstate Highway System Site: Interstate 10 (LA-Phoenix) and Interstate 15 (LA-Las Vegas)

]��G��_��5�q\\��5�<\��!��(6 x A3 sheets), including isometric network diagram, site plan, composite drawings, axonometrics, and adapted manual.Outcome B: developed research booklet on phenomenon based on culture layer (8 x A3 sheets)Outcome Additional: research workbook focusing on culture layer (multiple A3 sheets) Format: A3 Landscape

Thematic Issues: thesis development, research communication, conceptual and architectonic developmentInputs:�� G��

References:Interstate system: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/interstate.cfmDesign standards: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/standards.cfmSpeed limit abolition lobby: http://www.americanautobahn.com/Eisenhower Archive: http://eisenhower.archives.gov/Research/Digital_Documents/InterstateHighways/Inter-stateHighwaysdocuments.html

TERM TWO

Exercise 04 - two weeks duration - 13-22 January

Research Topic: US Interstate Highway System Site: Interstate 10 (LA-Phoenix) and Interstate 15 (LA-Las Vegas)

Outcome A: Documentary video focusing on selected freeway cultures (3 minutes max. and stills laid out on 4 x A3 sheets)Outcome B: Spurious archive and catalogue related to freeway culutres. Presented as both exhibited objects and 6 x A3 sheets Outcome Additional: research workbook focusing on freeway cultures (multiple A3 sheets)Format: A3 Landscape

Thematic Issues: documentation of complex phenomena in moving image. Development of conceptually organized archive.

Input:Field Trip: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Quartzsite

References:— Marc Auge, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (1995)— Reyner Banham, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies (1971); Scenes in American Deserta (1989)^��"��System of Objects (1968)— Victor Burgin, In/Different Spaces: Place and Memory in Visual Culture (1996)— Manuel Castells, ‘Space of Flows, Space of Places: Materials for a Theory of Urbanism in the Information Age,’ The Cybercities Reader (2004)— Don DeLillo, Americana (1971); White Noise (1985); Libra (1988); Underworld (1997)^��&��The White Album (1979)— Paul N. Edwards, ‘Infrastructure and Modernity: Force, Time, and Social Organizations in the History of Sociotechnical Systems,’ Modernity and Technology (2003)^�Z��O��[��[��$�%5::<'^�"��O��[��@��$�The Development of Large Techni-cal Systems (1988)^��#�=��On the Road (1956)— T. Lewis, Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life (1999)— Ramon Prat, Desert America: Territory of Paradox (2006)— Felicity Scott, Architecture or Techno-Utopia: Politics after Modernism (2007)— Deane Simpson, ‘Nomadic Urbanism: The Senior Full-Time Recreational Vehicle Community,’ Interstices 09: Expats: Places/Spaces/Baggage (2008)— Michael Sorkin, Variations on a Theme Park: Scenes from the New American City (1992)— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1972)— Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown, Steven Izenor, Learning from Las Vegas (1972)— Anthony Vidler, Warped Space: Art, Architecture, and Anxiety in Modern Culture (2002)— R. White, Home on the Road (2000)

Exercise 05 - four weeks duration - 22 January - 19 February

Research Topic: continuation from previous exerciseSite: continuation from previous exercise

Outcome A: Map (4 x A3 sheets)Outcome B: Developed theoretical statement, conceptual diagrams, and analogical postcard images of pro-posed architectural/urban project. (6 x A3 sheets)Outcome C: Conceptual models of proposed architectural/urban project.Outcome Additional: research workbook focusing on culture layer (multiple A3 sheets)Format: A3 Landscape

Thematic Issues: Re-engagement with the architectural project. Development of conceptual approach, the-sis, spatial approach, and communication of these through a variety of formats including a thesis statement, diagrams, postcards and models.

Exercise 06 - two weeks duration - 19 February - 05 March


Outcome A: Developed detail at 1:5 (2 x A3 sheets)Outcome B: Mock-up Model at 1:5Outcome C: Schematic Model at 1:500/1:200Outcome D: research workbook focusing on culture layer (multiple A3 sheets)Format: A3 Landscape

Thematic Issues: Development of architectonic proposal at detail & overview levels.

Exercise 07 - two weeks duration - 05-19 March


Outcome A: Plans, Sections, Elevations - 1:500, 1:200, 1:5 (8 x A3 sheets)Outcome B: Collages and Renderings (4 x A3 sheets)]��[�� *��Outcome Additional: research workbook focusing on culture layer (multiple A3 sheets)Format: A3 Landscape

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TERM 03

Exercise 08 - vacation plus one week duration - 19 March - 30 April


]��#��#�� (mul¬tiple A3)Outcome B: Revised Plans, Sections, Elevations 1:500, 1:200, 1:5 (8xA3)Outcome C: Revised thesis statement, conceptual diagrams, and analogical postcard images. (6xA3)]��&��q\�� Outcome E: Revised conceptual models and detail model

Thematic Issues: Compiling research document, updating full architectonic proposal. Production.

Exercise 09 - three weeks duration - 30 April 30 - 21 May


Outcome A: Summary of research on cultural layer. (Multiple A3)Outcome B: Revised Isometric Network Info-graphic developed based on selected culture layer (1xA3)]��[��|��~��X��!��%�?�Y'�@��?G��?��-metric]��&��|�� %��#�'��Outcome E: Revised Plans, Sections, Elevations, Detail 1:500, 1:200, 1:5 (8xA3) as composite drawingsOutcome F: Final presentation model(s)Outcome G: Presentation of all other previous relevant material.

Thematic Issues: Production of presentation

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Outcome A: Revision of all material as per recommendations. Regular desk crits to discuss progress.

As a research-orientated unit, we will explore the intellectual precedents of the contemporary architectural ��O��#��$�� ~�� -dents will be expected to work in groups and present on the research precedents in remaining two sessions.

Session 1 – Origins ^�|��+��&��G"��@_��Learning from Las Vegas (1972); Learning from Levittown (1970); and Signs of Life Show (1976)^��?��O��O��$�%5:q�'

Session 2 – The Desert Highway^�|��"��Scenes in American Deserta (1989)^��~��G[��#��Works & Collected Writings (2006)^�|��The Monuments of Passaic (1967)^�Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), dir. Monte Hellman ^�Vanishing Point�%5:;5'��|��

Session 3 – Non-Place^�|��=��Delirious New York (1978); Great Leap Forward/Harvard Design School Project on the City (2002); Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2002)

06. RESEARCH WORKSHOPS — 0.1 STUDIO PRECEDENTS

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Robert Venturi & Denise Scott-Brown cruising the Las Vegas Strip, late-1960s

@��@��$��inhabit it. These cultures operate at different scales – both spatially and temporally – and utilize the highway in radically different ways that range from the prosaic to the perverse, the informative to the sexual. We will �� -untarily and through necessity – and the programmatic possibilities these participatory acts evoke.

Examples of these cultures include, but are not limited to: workers, such as commuters, who are caught in the habitual and cyclical driving culture, and truckers, who inhabit the road as both work- and living-place; wired drivers��}��$��G��#��?��system; road-trippers��|+��*��tourists, who embrace an often-romantic recreational and sightseeing culture; hitchers, who embrace a transitory and coincidental riding culture; cruisers, who celebrate and embrace the sexualized highway; tail-gaters, who embrace a more confrontational road rage culture; and the misguided, who have simply taken the wrong route and refused to ask directions.

Each of these participants can be engaged in an almost unlimited number of situations as they use the freeway. As much as these interactions will be understood as functioning according to logic of the system, ��Z��$�%��Z��military expression, ‘Situation Normal: All Fucked UP.) As the name suggests, these fuck-ups are capable ��#��$��Z�� jams, congestion, freewheeling, roadwork, unwarranted diversions, car crashes, breakdowns, cruising the strip, and simply getting lost.

Students will work together in groups to collate data on these user cultures and SNAFU situations, formulate that research, and contribute to the unit-wide research project. Our joint research will form a foundation to be �?�� @��

06. RESEARCH WORKSHOPS — 0.2 ‘FREEWAY CULTURES’

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��*��O�� (1971)

��*��@��?��*��and represent architecture. As a unit based largely around 2D modes of representation, we will employ a �� -��@��*��

Information techniques – infographics, such as criminal infographics; isometrics, such as Sim-city, E-boy, and the work of Studio BowWow; and network drawings, illustrating assorted communication networks.

Manual techniques – manuals, such car manuals and architectural graphic standards; instruction books; and protocol diagrams, such as those generated by the Harvard Project on the City.

Architectural techniques – plans, sections, elevations; axonometrics; exploded component drawings; x-ray ��#��&��

Filmic techniques�G�� #��+��G"��+��infomercials; and animations.

07. TECHNIQUE WORKSHOPS — 01. REPRESENTATION

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Isometric Infographics

07. TECHNIQUE WORKSHOPS — 0.2 MISREPRESENTATION

Tom Sachs, Space Program Experience Report, 2007

Marcel Duchamp, Portable Museum, 1936

O��^��term misrepresentative.

Spurious techniques – fake archives and catalogues, such at the work generated by the artists Marcel &��|��O��X��~��O��$

1. bibliography

^�~��Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (1995)^�|��"��Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies (1971); Scenes in American Deserta (1989)^�|��"��Mythologies (1957)^��"��System of Objects (1968)^��"��#��Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And Rock ‘n Roll Generation Saved Hol-lywood (1998)^�+��"��In/Different Spaces: Place and Memory in Visual Culture (1996)^�~��[��Z��~��O��@��$�The Cybercities Reader (2004)^�&��[��&��[��Over the Next Hill: An Ethnography of RVing Seniors in North America (1996)^��&��]��#�~��O��$�Architecture Australia (2000)^��&��Society of the Spectacle (1967)^�&��&��Americana (1971); White Noise (1985); Libra (1988); Underworld (1997)^��&��The White Album (1979)^�=��Organization Space: Landscapes, Highways, and Houses in America (2001)^��@��~��Z��O��]��_��$�Modernity and Technology (2003)^��}��[��$�Grey Room 04 (2001)^�|��O��$�%5:��'^�Z��O��[��[��$�%5::<'^�"��O��[��@��$�The Development of Large Techni-cal Systems (1988)^��=��I Lost it at the Movies (1965), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (1968), Going Steady (1969), Deeper Into Movies (1973), Reeling (1976), When the Lights Go Down (1980)^��#�=��On the Road (1956)^�|��=��Delirious New York (1978); Great Leap Forward/Harvard Design School Project on the City (2002); Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2002)^�O��Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life (1999)^��~��G[��#��Works & Collected Writings (2006)^��~��Networking the World 1794-2000 (2000)^�|��Desert America: Territory of Paradox (2006)^�Z��Architecture or Techno-Utopia: Politics after Modernism (2007)^�&��O��Z�GO��|��+��[��$ Interstices 09: Expats: Places/Spaces/Baggage (2008)^�|��The Monuments of Passaic (1967)

08. REFERENCE MATERIAL

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^�~��#��Variations on a Theme Park: Scenes from the New American City (1992)^��O��Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1972)^�|��+��&��G"��@_��Learning from Las Vegas (1972); Learning from Levit-town (1970); and Signs of Life Show (1976)^��+��Warped Space: Art, Architecture, and Anxiety in Modern Culture (2002)^�|��}��Home on the Road (2000)^�~��#�}��`O��"��{�Network Practices: New Strategies in Architecture and Design (2007)^�O��Driving Germany: The Landscape of the German Autobahn 1930-1970 (2007)

�� !"� ^�Badlands (1973), dir. Terrence Malick ^�Bonnie and Clyde (1967), dir. Arthur Penn ^�The Cannonball Run (1980), dir. Hal Needham^�Convoy (1978), dir. Sam Peckinpah^�Drugstore Cowbo��%5:�5'��+��^�Duel (1971), dir. Steven Speilberg ^�Easy Rider (1969), dir. Dennis Hopper^ Falling Down (1993), dir. Joel Schumacher ^�Five Easy Pieces (1970), dir. Bob Rafelson ^�Gun Crazy (1949), dir. Lewis H. Lewis ^�Kalifornia (1991), dir. Dominic Sena ^�The Last Detail (1973), dir. Hal Ashby ^�Midnight Run (1998), dir. Martin Brest ^�Natural Born Killers (1994), dir. Oliver Stone^��(1999), dir. Mike Judge^�Paper Moon (1973), dir. Peter Bogdanovich ^�Stranger Than Paradise (1984), dir. Jim Jarmusch ^�Thelma & Lousie (1991), dir. Ridley Scott^�This is Nowhere (2006), dir. Doug Hawes-Davis, John Lilburn^�Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), dir. Monte Hellman^��%5:;5'��*��O��^�Vanishing Point�%5:;5'��|�� ^�Zabriskie Point (1970), dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

Joel Schumacher dir., Falling Down (1993)

3. visual material

^��}��William Eggleston’s Guide (1976); Democratic Forest (1989)^��=��_��[��God Inc. (1992)^�Z��#��|��The Americans (1958)^��Autobahn (2001)^�]��"��Surburbia (1973)^�|��Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963); Some Los Angeles Apartments (1965); Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966); Thirtyfour Parking Lots (1967); Real Estate Opportunities (1970)^��Landschaften (199)^��Uncommon Places: The Complete Works (2005)^��?��Sleeping by the Mississippi (2004)^��American Prospects (2003)^��Pictures From Home (1992); The Valley (2004)^�}��Figments from the Real World (2003)

consultants: Sue Barr, photographer; Mark Wasuita, curator

4. audio material - the endless soundtrack

consultant: Laura Tunbridge, musicologist

��}��5:��

Robert Frank, Bar - Las Vegas, Nevada, 1956

09. BIOGRAPHIES

|�� Vanishing Point (1971)

Mark Campbell - Unit Master

Mark Campbell is a PhD candidate in the School of Architecture at Princeton University. His research in-terests include contemporary American culture between 1960 and 1975, paranoia, cultural exhaustion and dreams. A practicing architect, he has taught history & theory and design at Auckland University, Princeton University, the Cooper Union and the Architectural Association (since 2005).

Deane Simpson - Unit Master

Deane Simpson received his graduate degree in architecture from Columbia University and worked with &�� 5::;��<\\Y��X��O��%<\\�G\:'��+��O��|��~]��and is co-author of The Ciliary Function (2007).

Workshops and Technical Consultant:

Tony Greatorex, Senior Consultant Mechanical & Services Engineer, Buro Happold & ArupDamian Rogan, Senior Structural Engineer, Buro Happold

Review Jurors to include:

Roz Barr, Director, Eric Parry Architects��Z��+��[��O��Kieran Long, Editor-in-Chief, Architectural ReviewKirsten Scott, Partner, Foster & PartnersJörg Stollmann, Visiting Professor, TU BerlinMark Wasuita, Visiting Professor, Columbia University, New YorkTom Weaver, Editor-in-Chief, AA Files