DIPLOMA2BUILDINGANICEBERG Didier Faustino & Kostas Grigoriadis

‘The thing that matters is not what they show me but what they hide from me and,

above all, what they do not suspect is in them.’

Robert Bresson

Like an iceberg, what you see is not what you get. Everything has a hidden aspect, an internal

logic or system or mechanism that is richer than the image outwardly projected. The aim of this

unit is to work on the notion of the iceberg and to use it to develop an architectural project.

The structure of the unit will be divided into three phases: research, production and exhibition.

In the first phase, students will work individually to build up their body of references and their

personal definition of an iceberg. Each week a collection of material – such as texts, films and

other media – will be provided and discussed to help nourish individual research, which will

then be elaborated through intuitive and experimental processes. Among this corpus, specific

terms should be thoroughly explored: appropriation, diversion, flesh/bones, fragile/ solid,

legal/illegal, lure/manipulation, soft/hard, visible/invisible. At the end of this phase students will

have to produce a theoretical design project – taking the form of a text, a film, an object, a

performance or some other abstract architectural project – that will express their full

understanding of the iceberg as metaphor.

In the second phase, students will design an architectural project using the preceding theory as

a paradigm. Although a site will be provided, the students will have to define their own

programme. Teamwork will allow students to combine skills and knowledge and produce

common tools – models, analyses, etc. At the end of this phase all students will have an empirical

architectural project.

In the third phase, these empirical and theoretical projects will be synthesised into one. Students

will define the representation and the transmission of their project, and will clarify what are the

best tools to communicate the complexity of their work in as clear a manner as possible. At the

end of this phase all student projects will be presented in a unit exhibition.

A jury will be held in each phase, accompanied by a special guest: a theoretician (first phase), an

artist (second phase) and a curator (third phase). A unit trip to Paris during the research phase

will be organised, along with seminars and a series of visits to expose students to different types

of display, research and production across various disciplines.

Iceberg Hunting/Deconstructing (Research Stage) - Term 1/Weeks 1-12

1. Identification/definition of what an iceberg is/can be:

• Subjective

• Objective

• Personal

• Metaphorical

• Virtual

• (Hyper?)-Real

2. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of our interpretation of the iceberg (diagrams,

drawings, prototype models):

• Unseen fields and forces that enable formation

• Environmental, spatial balance/equilibrium

• Space and shape shifting geometry

• Time-based scenarios

• Issues of visibility/obscuration

• Manifestation of social problematic

• Climate change gauge

TS5 Proposal Presentation

3. Written statement of the above, scope of your projects, intent and subsequent

development of pieces.

4. Production of final artefact-model pieces:

• They can range in scale from a body piece to furniture scale pieces to iterative

aggregations of smaller components that form larger agglomerations.

• They can be responsive to external stimuli, usable, wearable, sellable, personable,

digitally manufactured, handmade, a hybrid of the two, experimental, intuitive.

• They should deal with the idea of the hidden, the non-expressed and the latent in

their various forms.

• They should avoid representation and offer critique, and more significantly have

very clear, concise concepts that can be developed further in the subsequent

projects.

Guest critic: Alexandra Midal (lecturer at HEAD Geneva, researcher) et al.

Iceberg Shaping/Constructing (Production Stage- Prototypical/Context-less architectural space) - Term 2/Weeks 1-12

1. Written critique of research projects:

• Students will analyze their research models and illustrate methods of how they can

become spatial, what qualities, ideas, concepts and techniques can be brought

forward to the next stages.

2. Series of drawings/ 3d models that:

• Illustrate ideas brought forward from the previous project/act as testing ground for

new concepts.

• Clarify each student’s perception/take on what architectural space should/can be.

• Are products of rigorous, rational thinking about form generation.

• Are used to develop and finalize TS studies.

• Are ready to be developed further, contextualized, criticised, assessed, built,

constructed, 3D modelled, scripted, rendered in the final project.

3. Field trip to Paris. We will be visiting:

• Fibreglass manufacturing facilities

• Silk screen printing

• Parametric tool tuition and their applications

• École Spéciale d’Architecture / mid-term crits

• Post-production labs

• Site for Project 03

• Hidden Paris

4. Site Analysis:

• In an intensive hands-on week the unit as a group will be generating 3D and

physical models of the site in Paris. This will be followed by the compilation of a

dossier of a thorough site analysis conducted by the group.

• Following that each student will analyze the site through their chosen design and

TS subject in a more specialized manner.

• The findings of the analysis will be used for the third and final project, in order to

contextualize, inform and make the building proposals highly specific.

5. Website/blog:

• Student projects will be uploaded on a blog set out with the unit work.

Guest critic: Richard Siegal (performer, choreographer) et al.

Burning Iceberg/Reconstructing (Exhibition Stage- Building project) - Term 3/Weeks 1-9

1. Deconstructing + Constructing = Reconstructing > Hunting + Shaping = Burning

• Take Phase 1 for the concept > the art piece as a mental image

• Take Phase 2 for the program > the manifesto as a political context

• Use Phase 1 & 2 to design a specific building project

2. Defining the potentialities of the project:

• Materiality

• Shape

• Environment

• Other…

3. Preparing the final exhibition:

• Compilation

• Archive

• Process

• Association (model, drawings, videos…

Guest critic: Pedro Gadanho (architect, curator) et al.

Technical Studies

For TS we are going to have support by Ductal - Lafarge (TBC) based in Paris, which is a company

specializing in precast (fibreglass) concrete panels. There are going to be engineers visiting the unit

during the year providing technical advice and direction about individual student briefs. The

intention in regards to the technical studies is for students to extensively research, develop and

materialize aspects of their first and second projects, which in a reciprocal manner would then inform

back their design projects. These can be related to the interpretations of the iceberg at the early part

of the year and be complex geometry related, looking into repetition and differentiation of tectonic

elements, their connections and materiality. Students will be asked to define their own agendas at

an early part of the year and aim to submit their studies during term 2.

Indicative Bibliography

MANTRA / Rodrigo Fresan

SNOW CRASH / Neal Stephenson

GOD JR / Dennis Cooper

GANTZ / Oku Hiroya

LIPSTICK TRACE / Greil Markus

ESCAPE VELOCITY / Mark Dery

THE REBEL SELL / Joseph Heath & Andrew Potter

AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH / Neil Postman

THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT SMITHSON / edited by Nancy Holt

Didier Faustino www.didierfaustino.com

www.mesarchitecture.com

Kostas Grigoriadis www.shampooo.net

www.gmgcollective.com