AA Houston Visiting School

INTERscaleSS

AA Visiting School Houston

Director: Victoria Goldstein

Architectural Association, August 2012

University of Houston.

“We have a challenge that I think is unprecedented,  and the task is to develop an art, develop an art of living permanently on uncertainty” Zygmunt Bauman

InterScaless is a Visiting School program by The Architectural Association School of Architecture, which will run from the 6th to the 20th of August 2012 at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas.

The Visiting School is an opportunity to experience methodologies and ideas developed at the Architectural Association in a two-week intensive full time studio. Throughout the workshop, students will be able to develop design strategies across scales which will enable them to rethink the relation between contemporary design tools, macro architecture, urban ecologies vs. environmental economies and the re-occupation strategies of decaying iconic structures.

With no major geographical constrains and often deemed as the “Energy Capital of the World“ and "Space City", Houston is shaped by its restless mobility and its endless suburban/exurban growth, rendering the categories of the traditional city obsolete and non-applicable. A city with an area of more than 1,690 km2 in which exterior space acts mostly as a trace of motorized movement, public and pedestrian space is limited to climate controlled interior spaces (the mall, the stadium, the arena, the church, the dome), having as an excuse its supposedly inclement weather.

Our case study will be intervening the Astrodome and its immediate surroundings. Designed in 1964 as the first covered stadium and as the biggest air-conditioned space in the world it is arguably the most iconic structure in the city. Since its construction, the Astrodome challenged the established notion of interiority, natural environment and human scale. However, this massive structure has been closed to the public since 2008 and there are no immediate reoccupation plans. Changes of use are hard to adapt because of its sheer size while its demolition presents itself as a delicate endeavor, due to its high cost, its environmental impact and the fact that it is beloved by Houstonians. This present itself as an unique opportunity for design exploration where students will use parametric design tools to explore programmatic organizations, environmental strategies and mobility networks across scales while developing critical urban approaches around the emblematic mega-structure, its relation to the city, its inhabitants and the environment.

Situated in the crossroads of urban design, architecture, environmental design, infrastructure and building preservation, this exercise will give participants the opportunity to develop their skills through different methodologies based on the exploration of local conditions, material processes, and the experimentation with digital fabrication and representational tools.

Design Tutors: Suryansh Chandra, Alfonso E. Hernandez & Arturo Revilla