high-tech, lot-ek, no tech

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Department of Architecture Ball State University ARCH 401 5-week project Wes Janz High-Tech, LOT-EK, no tech: seeing, studying, designing and building with, and sharing recovered materials But what made [the work of LOT-EK] instantly recognizable was their use of tanks and containers. They hit upon a building element that was in itself already part of the industrial world, and yet was meant to contain things. By importing it into the domestic sphere and cutting and pasting its various parts, they were able to turn it into a hybrid of architecture and technology. It was a building block, an expression of systems, a moveable bit of a changing world, and something that could be found, rather than having to be constructed by using up resources. Aaron Betsky, “From High-Tech to LOT- EK: A Brief Journey,” LOT-EK” Mobile Dwelling Unit, 2003. Ada and I have developed a way of looking at these objects [cement mixer, petroleum tanker, shipping container, municipal

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A five-week project brief by Wes Janz for a 4th year architecture studio conducted at Ball State University in Fall 2010.

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Page 1: High-Tech, LOT-EK, no tech

Department of ArchitectureBall State UniversityARCH 401 5-week project Wes Janz

High-Tech, LOT-EK, no tech: seeing, studying, designing and building with, and sharing recovered materials

But what made [the work of LOT-EK] instantly recognizable was their use of tanks and containers. They hit upon a building element that was in itself already part of the industrial world, and yet was meant to contain things. By importing it into the domestic sphere and cutting and pasting its various parts, they were able to turn it into a hybrid of architecture and technology. It was a building block, an expression of systems, a moveable bit of a changing world, and something that could be found, rather than having to be constructed by using up resources.

Aaron Betsky, “From High-Tech to LOT-EK: A Brief Journey,” LOT-EK” Mobile Dwelling Unit, 2003.

Ada and I have developed a way of looking at these objects [cement mixer, petroleum tanker, shipping container, municipal water tank, airplane fuselage] so that when we encounter them, we immediately begin to sense what these objects could become. We find daily inspiration in the objects, materials, and systems that we see around us.

Giuseppe Lignano, partner, LOT-EK, “Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano Speak With Christopher Scoates,” LOT-EK: Mobile Dwelling Unit, 2003.

Page 2: High-Tech, LOT-EK, no tech

backgroundI am interested in the potential of material systems I find on loading docks, in dumpsters at construction sites, on the small “dumps” that farmers have, at curbside on garbage collection days. More and more I find students paying attention to similar opportunities. In design studios I find early efforts to make some sense of this as young architects. This is both wonderful, and problematic. We (that includes me) have to get smarter, in many ways, if we are to find the potential of these leftover materials.

clockwise, from upper left: house deconstruction Jackson, Mississippi 2010; mattresses Leeville, Louisiana 2010; pallets, Heath Farm, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana 2003; dumpster graveyard, Tulsa, Oklahoma 2007 (all photos by author)

learning objectives

Page 3: High-Tech, LOT-EK, no tech

to see the architectural potential of some of the major components found in our everyday material waste stream; that is, to engage these issues as architects

develop a design for a salvaged material collection center on the Ball State campus

construct a full-scale detail model

generate a “recovered materials manual” (a summary document of all our investigations) to assist others interested in such perspectives (to be posted online)

statisticsHere is the briefest of glimpses into what we’re a part of in the U.S.:

40,000,000 mattresses are landfilled every year1,900,000,000 timber pallets are in use at a given time; 10% (or

1,900,000 pallets) end up in landfills, often after one use270,000,000 scrap tires generated annually; estimates of

500,000,000 used tires on stockpiles5,000 decommissioned military aircraft in desert near Tucson

precedentsAs you can see in the quotes that open this project brief, among the architects sharing the sensibilities of the project brief is LOT-EK. Other architects thinking along similar lines include:

Teddy Cruz: see “A City Made of Waste” @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVlOWZfaat0

MMA Architects (South Africa): see sandbag houses @ http://currystonedesignprize.com/recipients/2008/urban_indigenous_architecture

Hive Modular: see container cabin @ http://onesmallproject.org/container-cabin-holyoke-minnesota-2/

Academy Records, SIMPARCH, and Chris Vorhees: see lawn furniture sculpture @ http://onesmallproject.org/prindle-institute-for-ethics-greencastle-indiana/

Page 4: High-Tech, LOT-EK, no tech

Martin Kaltwasser & Folke Kobberling (Germany & England): see “Junkitecture and the Jellyfish Theater” @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/aug/16/junkitecture-jellyfish-theatre-kaltwasser-kobberling

These years, I’ve been involved in a number of related projects:

clockwise, from upper left: Timber Pallet Workshop @ Ball State University with I-Beam Design, 2004; Bloomington Bus Shelter proposal by 26262625, 2002; Green Springs by I-Beam Design,

Page 5: High-Tech, LOT-EK, no tech

2010; Lutheran Church of the Cross Pavilion by Ben Luebke, Jason Barisano, Kyle Hardie, and Ryan Hinz, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, 2005; Arbor by 26262625, Indianapolis; and Mud Pavilion by CapAsia III + University of Moratuwa, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2003.

There’s more at http://delicious.com/onesmallproject including:

recovered.materials: http://delicious.com/onesmallproject/recovered.materials

waste.stream: http://delicious.com/onesmallproject/waste.stream

timber.pallets: http://delicious.com/onesmallproject/timber.pallets

shipping containers: http://www.delicious.com/onesmallproject/shipping.containers

local precedentsWhat we’re engaging is not some sort of new 21st century phenomena in which only architects are involved. Local people, around the world, HAVE NO CHOICE but to be creative, often in ways that escape, or are beyond, architects. We’re observers, almost pretenders, to the crush of planetary construction work that is framed by the creative reuse of existing material systems not seen by trained and educated persons as having architectural potential.

There are 1 billion squatters today, or 1/6 people worldwide. In 25 years, there will be 2 billion squatters, or 1 in 4. In 2050, the proportion will shift to 1/3, that is, there will be 3 billion squatters on the planet when you are my age. And they’re building … always.

About one hundred years ago, Buenos Aires undertook an upgrading of the city’s entire storm sewer system. For years, sections of large diameter concrete pipes sat throughout the city, waiting to be lowered into the ground. Poor people took up occupancy in the pipes, as they sat above ground, making them into homes and places of businesses. The concrete pipe sections, cast by a company owned by “A Torrant” gave a new name to the temporary occupants: atorrantes. This category is in use today in Buenos Aires, only, as an indicator of a homeless person, an informal settler, a streetperson.

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In Sri Lanka, there is no word in Sinhalese (the native language spoken by most Sri Lankans) for “garbage.” Everything, including the largest material systems, are reused. Nothing is thrown away, everything is reconceived, reworked, rebirthed.

In Flint, Michigan I’ve spoken with a man living on the porch of an abandoned house, the walls of his shelter made of blankets. In Los Angeles a man lived under a dumpster’s lid outside the mOrphosis office, fifty feet from Thom Mayne’s desk. South of Evansville is a river camp where old school buses raised on scaffolding is the preferred form of temporary house. The mothers and sisters of the young woman who is being mentored by my wife for over a dozen years have lived in a car.

This sort of creativity about objects, material, and systems (as pointed out by LOT-EK’s founders), some of it grown out of desperation, is all around us, if we want to see it, if we want to know about it, if we want to be inspired by it.

projectThe particular building type to which we’ll apply a found material system is a recycling collection facility on the Ball State campus. We’ll develop together the program for the small building and we’ll find, together, the site or sites for the small building.

scheduleWeek 1: familiarization + site alternatives + material considerationsWeek 2: site selection + material system selectionWeek 3: site & building design + full-scale detail considerationWeek 4: building design + full-scale detail construction + manualWeek 5: manual + final presentation

parallel universeIn February & March, 2009, the Swope Art Museum in Terre Haute hosted the “small architecture BIG LANDSCAPES” show, as curated by Wes Janz. Fifty architects, designers, artists, and writers from around the world, the U.S., and Indiana contributed works.

A version of that show will be exhibited in the CAP Gallery following Field Trip Week. Your full scale details will be exhibited in the building

Page 7: High-Tech, LOT-EK, no tech

as part of that show. Do good work!!! For more on the Swope Show, see all the “smallBIG” entries at my blog: http://onesmallproject.blogspot.com/ Also, go to the Swope’s website: http://www.swope.org/2010/ex/landscapes.html