Architecture Program
Date of this Version
May 2008
Abstract
The origin of my design thesis project interests had its first identifi able origin on November 2nd, 2006, shortly after attending a lecture on the life and works of Antoine Predock. Predock talked in great detail about not only his designs, but also his design process. The descriptions he provided of his methods and creative intuition began an internal assessment of my own design process, which, in fact, is where this thesis investigation begins. Methodology is central to this framed investigation, and the design thesis project will allow me to develop a latent and more implicit design thinking regarding architecture.
For Predock, the design process includes an image intensive, collage process at the beginning of the design phase of a project. He sees this as an attempt to understand the site, the place, or perhaps the essence of the project. Predock references these external images, and creates a new one – a collage that exists in two dimensions but acts as a kind of a road map for him to discover design ideas. It is this process of referencing ideas and materials which exist beyond the realm of architecture that first excited my thinking about the development of a thesis exploration.
Music arrived at the forefront of my mind when considering topics I might reference when creating architecture. This undoubtedly happened due to a personal interest I have in music as it lies at the very core of my upbringing. I grew up surrounded by music, am a lover and performer of all types of choral music, and have learned to play both the piano and the guitar.
Upon selecting music as a source for aiding in the making of architectural design decisions, I first imagined that my project would simply answer the question, “What is the Critical Relationship Between Music and Architecture?” This postulation would eventually be debunked, as I knew I did not want the conclusion of this thesis to project a singular, critical relationship that might exist between the two realms.
It became clear to me that a ‘critical’ relationship between music and architecture is a highly subjective notion, where different people might view different issues as being critical. For myself, I quickly understood that the lack of a singular critical relationship between music and architecture is likely what drew me to initially connect the two for the purposes of exploring my own creativity. I see endless relationships between the two – many of which seem interesting enough to merit exploration. This project was initially intended to narrow the spectrum of thinking about music and architecture by exploring three compelling relationships and selecting one as the most critical. Now the project is intended to broaden the spectrum of thinking about music and architecture by exploring three compelling relationships, and exciting creative thinking about many more.
I have reformed my initial question to now read, “What is the Generative Role for Music in Architecture?” and have attempted to answer this question through the explorations of my design thesis project. My explorations, and my findings are found on the forthcoming pages.