Final Week

I know I have not been posting.  I am in the final week with final reviews this Friday.  My final design presentation and book will be posted here after the 13th.  Maybe I will include some of my furniture designs too.

House Iterations 2

House Iterations 1

Here is the start of translating the system I derived from the moire definition.

Possible Plan Drawing

Review

Here is what I posted for my last review. I was working toward understanding how the moire could be used as a formal system to help drive the architecture. Some of what I presented was posted earlier as well as some of the thought process.

What is a moire?
A moiré is a system of interference that derives from a subtle difference. It is created and developed through the superimposition of repetitive layers (or inputs.) Traditionally moirés are visually based. They exploit the way humans process images. We have a natural tendency to group visually similar items. When two (or more) similar or identical inputs start to overlap very closely out of phase with each other, we struggle to isolate the two inputs and our understanding of grouping shifts.

What is the inside~outside condition? How can this threshold be blurred or broken?
Inside and outside is a specific threshold condition. Visually, physically

How can the idea of the moiré be used to create architecture of inside~outside? Where is the moire (within the project?) What happens when you breakdown and remove the original inputs and utilize the both~and interference conditions?
The moiré is created through the overlapping of similar systems. The interference condition that results from the moiré is similar to the threshold condition.

What systems in architecture overlap and sometimes interfere with each other?
Structure grid
Enclosure/wall placement
Furniture layout
Environmental systems layout
Circulation/Stairs
Program  

What other influences in architecture can be utilized as an input? How can the moire extend beyond its visual implications?
Environmental influences - Wind Carlsbad Site deals with coastal and Santa Ana winds
Sun
Rain - San Diego lack of
Tides - Low and high, seasonal shifts

Understanding the intersection and interference of these systems with each other to formulate a spatial condition.
 
How will these systems interferences shift/change the design?
Additive or subtractive
Sectional conditions
Tectonics

­­ Other Questions:
How will the moire be visible?
How many inputs do you need?
What are the different types of inputs?
Where is the boundary? Where and how does it terminate? How is this determined?
What happens when the layers of the moire are pulled apart/stretched in one or more dimensions? How can this be used as a formal system?
What needs to be maintained in order to create the understanding of the moire?

BOARDS:

Expanding the Moire

My goal this week is to analyze, diagram, & utilize the moire in order to formulate a formal system (of rules) in order to negotiate the design process.  Here are some of the questions (with a few answers) I have been asking myself through this process:

What is a moire?
A system of interference that derives from a difference.  It is created and developed through the superimposition of repetitive layers (or inputs.) 
Where is the moire (within the project)?
Structure layout?  Enclosure pattern?  Enclosure/wall placement?  Furniture layout?  Systems layout?  Sectional conditions?  Tectonics?  Stairs?  Interior layering (wall layers, etc)?  The moire should be the underlying system for design decisions. 
How will the moire be visible?
What happens when you breakdown and remove the original inputs and utilize the both~and interference conditions?
How many inputs do you need?
What are the different types of inputs?
Where is the boundary?  Where and how does it terminate?  How is this determined?
What happens when the layers of the moire are pulled apart/stretched in one or more dimensions?  How can this be used as a formal system?
How can the moire extend beyond its visual implications?
What needs to be maintained in order to create the understanding of the moire?

Here are some initial studies I have been developing to answer some of these questions.

House of Oxymorons Competition Submission

I have submitted to the House of Oxymorons Competition.  I will wait until they post the entries on their website to post my entry here.

An image

Midterm Thesis Book

Here is the draft for my thesis book.

What am I trying to do? - A thesis statement

This thesis seeks to create an architecture that blurs the boundary between interior and exterior revealing a both~and condition that provides a connection between the built and surrounding environmen in order to set up a dynamic continuum of interactions.

Within the architectural discipline are a variety of dichotomies or juxtapositions that are treated and discussed as binary entities.  Rather than accepting an architecture that conforms to the traditional sets of "either/or" conditions, this thesis seeks to create an architecture that blurs the boundary between interior and exterior revealing a both~and conditions that provides a connection between the built and surrounding environment in order to set up a dynamic continuum of interactions.  Our world has increasingly begun to operate where communities and interpersonal connections are formed outside of our physical infrastructure and architecture.  Current culture allows us to "occupy" multiple places simultaneously and we no longer need to be physically present to be involved.  As these boundaries are softened, blurred, or even erased, architecture had the opportunity to exploit its traditional boundaries creating ambiguity and interstitial relationships.

The House of Split: A Study of Inside & Outside

Here is a draft of my current abstract:

Current culture allows us to “occupy” multiple places simultaneously. We no longer need to be physically present to be involved. Our world has increasingly begun to operate within a virtual realm where communities and connections are formed outside of our physical infrastructure and architecture. Because of this, the separation and borders that once existed between real~virtual and public~private have started to overlap, blur, and even disappear. Kazuyo Sejima states that perhaps contemporary architecture is a rethinking and softening of those borders that lie between the multiplicity of adjacencies. This projects seeks to erase the boundary between inside and outside to create architecture that has the ability to bridge the space and operate within the gap between interior and exteriority.

Kengo Kuma: My summary

Since my last review I have started looking at the work & writings of Kengo Kuma, a Japanese architecture whose practice emerged at the end of the "Bubble" period in Japan.  To help organize my thoughts I am using this entry as a summary of what I have learned and been exposed to thanks to Kuma.

These thoughts and ideas stem from the following readings:

"The Warp & Weft of Architecture: Wearing, Joining, Overlapping, Folding" by Luigi Alini, in Kengo Kuma: Works & Projects (2006)
"A Return to Materials" by Kengo Kuma, in Kengo Kuma: Works & Projects (2006)
"Introduction" by Kengo Kuma, in Kengo Kuma: Selected Works (2005)
"An Architecture of Dissolution?"

"I want to erase architecture. I have always wanted to do so, and I am not likely to ever change my mind." 

-Kengo Kuma

Kuma's work deals very directly with the inside~outside binary condition that exists within architecture.  His approach is to create an architecture that "dissolves" as an object allowing to to become an integral part of its environment.  Erasing architecture means to remove architecture from its normal role as "object."  Kuma has a strong desire to integrate nature and architecture and he uses his philosophy of erasing architecture do try to accomplish this goal.  Most of his work shows great control of "framing visions" where is able to control how the architecture is approached and viewed in order to reduce its objectivity as well as framing visions of the environment beyond the enclosure.  Kuma works to remove the typical "outsider condition" that makes architecture an object from his architecture.  He strives to design "by reversing the direction of viewing where the perceiver would always be in the position of an insider.   

"To erase architecture, we must reverse our form of perception.  Instead of looking at architecture from the outside we must look at the environment from the inside.  Architecture must be planned as a frame for viewing the environment from within."

-Kengo Kuma

According to Alini, Kuma places high importance on materiality and the meaning of material.  "He cuts, splices, superimposes, weaves, folds, replicating ad infinitum a principle of construction that in his works turns into a narrative that unfolds by polarities, by 'archetypal pairs': light/shade, simple/complex, opaque/transparent, temporary/permanent, massive/light, surface/depth, single/multiple, weft/warp, continuous/discontinuous, repetition/variation, high/low.  These are associated with on anther with the aim of showing that a relationships of necessity holds between the part and the whole."  The materials that Kuma uses are typically natural materials with the exception of glass.  He prefers the "human scale" of wood. 

Through my process of understanding the dynamics between the interiority and exteriority my initial focus was on the vertical elements of architecture: the enclosure or wall that becomes the boundary between the inside and outside.  However, Kuma through both his design and writing has helped me realize the great influence the horizontal plane has on this condition.  The horizontal plane allows for a "continuity of space" furthering the erasure of the architectural element of enclosure.  Kuma focuses his attention on the floor and roof planes as a way to connect those inside with their exterior surroundings.  "Planning is not a matter of simply partitioning off spaces in accordance with a prescribed schedule of floor area.  That is only planning spaces.  Time will never flow through such spaces.  One intervenes in action of the subject by moving over the floor.  Changing levels, slopes, and creating frictional resistance, planning simultaneously time and space."  One strong example of this is his Water/Glass (1995) house project located Kyoto, Japan.

 

Water/Glass by Kengo Kuma, image: http://www.kkaa.co.jp

 

Water/Glass by Kengo Kuma, image: http://www.kkaa.co.jp 

 The extension of the horizontal plane of the roof, with its slatted construction offering diffused lighting conditions similar to a cloudy sky, blends into the sky and horizon while the extended floor plane of water reaches out to connect the building perceptually with the ocean below.  The vertical elements of  transparent enclosure only reinforce and support these relationships rather than being the primary element that blurs the interior and exterior.  This focus on the horizontal plane brings traditional Japanese concept of space back into Kuma's architecture.  Kuma separates himself from Modern architecture and its use of transparency due to their use of transparency in architecture while juxtaposing the architecture against the environment while Kuma strives to be fully integrated with the environment.  

"Transparency is not merely a visual continuity.  It is a condition in which the building and the environment dissolved into one."

 -Kengo Kuma

Glass does play a role in Kengo Kuma's architecture and its ability to disappear.  "Glass has always been caught up between the various phenomena that takes place on its two sides."  In a sense, glass reveals as much as its conceives and this depends on the shifting interior and exterior conditions and how they are reflected or transmitted through the medium blurring the boundaries of "both the inside and outside as well as the real and virtual." 

Kuma has developed his own design process called "particlization."  Materials are broken down into smaller and smaller pieces or particles allowing light, wind, sound, to penetrate freely.  The amount of particlization is determined based on the distance and speed of activity of the user/occupant of the space.  The particlizing helps the "architecture melt away" and blend with its environment.  Particlization is reflected in Kuma's architecture through his extensive use of louvers, slats, and high use of repeated of elements.  Particlization offers a "discontinuous continuity."  Boundaries become screens that start to "filter the surrounding environment into the interior of the structure."  Particlization also removes architecture's monolithic quality.  This has been compared to pointillism, pixelation, digitization and low-res images.  "Rather than fragmenting form, Kuma fragments materials." 

"I want to create a condition that is as vague and ambiguous as drifting particles."

-Kengo Kuma

The blurring of boundaries in architecture may come from the fact that with Modernity came the increase in rapid progress and evolving technologies.  Through this progress the boundaries of today's society have become blurred.  Thanks to cell phones, laptops, wireless, etc we no longer need to be physically present to be active within society.  Hierarchies are beginning to be questioned and removed.  The distinction between private and public is starting to disappear.  Current communication technologies give us the possibility of "occupying a multiplicity of spaces simultaneously."  This starts to further breakdown our perception and understanding of reality and the conventional notion of space.  

Effect vs Process Review

The work I posted under "Wave Interference" was presented for the first review of the semester.  I looked at this work as a break through of sorts because I was struggling to get the moire to work beyond its illustrative natural.  For this review I changed the way I framed my work and focused less on the results and more on the process.  Through this development I saw the projects ability to be something beyond a facade treatment.  It started allowing me to question the relationships between programs, interior versus exterior, enclosure versus structure, and solid versus void.  I could start to see relationships as forms of interference.  The Both~And condition may be about interference.  For this study I used wave interference but what other entities could be used for interference? 

This leads into "inhabiting the inbetween."  It becomes about experience not just form especially when used at multiple scales within the architecture.

During the review I committed myself to the exploration of one specific duality: INTERIOR VS EXTERIOR or INSIDE VS OUTSIDE.  This duality seems to be one of the more contemporary architectural condition.  For the rest of my thesis process I will seek to achieve inside~outside ambiguity.  Before this point I was attempting to do one of two things, one look for a process that somehow reveals an ambiguous condition of certain dualities, without predetermining those dualities.  Or I was attempting to use certain dualities to create ambiguous conditions for things outside of the duality.  Both these approaches showed my inability to commit to the specific.  I have now committed myself to the exploration of one single duality which will allow the work to be developed further and deeper than maintaining my previous vagueness. 

In exploring one duality I will develop specific techniques and operating conditions that allow me to formulate the genetics I need to operate and exploit this duality.  I will have a system to use for testing to understand what the inside~outside condition is all about.  One way to do this is to break assumptions such as the" need for seal" that is dominate in most architecture (especially of the Northeast region.)  The brings the questions of performance and the envelope. 

I have started looking at Japanese architecture, specifically Kengo Kuma whose philosophy is to "erase" architecture.  Through looking at his works I am learning the importance of material investigations and control, transparency, and the horizontal plane. 

This thesis will start to incorporate the concept of transparency, which is a loaded word in architecture.  I may find myself needing to "invent" my own transparency in order to fully realizing the goal of my thesis: ambiguous space between the interior and exterior.  I now need to develop the "game board" and in the process find the appropriate vehicle, context and program needed to explore this type of ambiguity & transparency. 

Wave Interference

Last semester I approached the Both~And condition through the Moire.  The Moire offered multiple examples of how Both~And can produce an effect.  For my first study this semester I wanted to transition the circle moire into a linear condition and through this explore the Both~And condition as a process.

Using Grasshopper I developed a model that can translate wave interference patterns/graphs into a spatial condition.  The following diagrams show how wave interference can be used as part of the process of producing a moire-like condition.  The parametric model recognizes the maximum and minimum of the graphed waves.  At those max. & min. points the each spatial strip is reduced in half and connected back to the top and bottom base.  This produced varied openings dependent on the wave interference graph.

 

Basic Model Process Diagram

 

Max. of two waves

Max & Min of two waves

 

Max & Min of two waves & resulting interference wave

 
 

Interference wave

  

Interference patterns scaled horizontally

 
 

Interference patterns scaled vertically

I then explored how this pattern could be incorporated into an architectural condition.  I also added a "Z" component that starts to pull the spatial strips out of the X & Y plane of the original graph.  Currently this is not parametric but has the possibility to translating 3D wave interference patterns.  I attempts two different scales.  One, at a more intimate human scale of a facade condition and smaller building and another are a large scale of a tower building.  The images below show these studies.

  

Smaller Scale

 
 

Larger Scale

 

New Dualities

Before vs After

Past vs Future

Work vs Leisure

High vs Low

Pristine vs Messy

Social Effects vs Material Culture

Subject vs Object

Inhabitant vs Environment

Complexity vs Complicated

The House of Oxymorons Competition

While further investigating my thesis I stumbled upon an architectural competition which very closely aligns with my original thesis statement.  It is pretty exciting to have found this and it helps feel more connected to the architectural community when others are seeking answers to the same question.

Here are two links to the competition.

The House of Oxymorons - Death by Architecture

The House of Oxymorons - ICARCH site.  This site you will have to navigate to the competitions link because it is a Flash site.

Further thesis discussion

As I have mentioned before, the approach taken to this thesis resulted in more of a graphic/visual study of the both~and condition. It proved difficult to manifest in the spatial realm. When I originally proposed this thesis topic I had envisioned an architecture of experience. I wanted to explore the dualities through programmatic and spatial vehicles.

I am at a crossroads. The moire has offered a study in interference pattern. I could choose to exploit the relationships of interference. This could be translated through light in architecture. Can I design a house that is generation its space and perception of space through light and interference patterns? This would start to breakdown traditional means of architectural space forming a new dialogue on the boundary. The study could build from the Moire pattern studies and start to form and break down these patterns in order to create architectural space.

Another approach is understanding the effect versus the process for a solution. Is it the both~and effect or the both~and way of designing? A quick study to understand the difference between these two ways of utilizing the both~and concept will be done to show examples of how it can be process and how it can be effect. My abstract discusses contemporary architecture dualities but without defining what these maybe. Additionally, my current list of dualities remain very general and vague. Another exercise to complete is to start to define and list specific architectural dualities that could start to fit into my own definition of the both~and condition I am seeking. In discussing my thesis the word aleatory came up. I hadn’t though of my thesis as a study of that type of condition but the gap made by the both~and condition could definitely be defined as such.  I am seeking an architecture that gives an awareness of a both~and condition spatially, programmatically, and visually.  Could this be giving people a sense of being in two places at once through the use of transparency, slippage, cracking, layering, etc?  The architecture should be about the "act of being" and different ways of being.  The architecture will be about experience not just form.  It is about the phenomenon and the layering of programmatic conditions that produce a third unexpected condition.  It is possible that the moire patterns can be utilized and combined with other entities to reinforce the both~and experience of the architecture.

Goals:

-Brainstorm SPECIFIC contemporary architectural dualities

-Brainstorm effect versus process of the both~and

-Start to re-read Crime & Punishment

-Start to formulate spatial conditions to reflect brainstormed ideas from above.

Warming up

So the spring semester (my final semester!!!) starts on Monday (Jan 25.)  I am using this entry to get myself back in the mind set of school.  I have been working in studio this week, doing some "light" reading and starting to pick up where I left off last semester.

I have gotten some read back separate from my blog which has been helpful and encouraging.  At the end of last semester I realized that my thesis is less about producing the both/and condition and more about what the both/and condition within architecture can do to create new spatial experiences and situations.  "What can the both/and condition do for you?"  I have been able to produce a simple form of the both/and condition with the moire studies but it needs to step forward and be applied to a different condition in order to result in something other than itself.  What is the effect of having a both/and condition within a spatial condition or design?

It has been pointed out that I seem to be separating wave and particle into distinct entities rather than emphasizing that they an "ultimate" both/and condition in that waves experience particle phenomenon and vice versa.  This idea is the essence of my thesis.  This is where my thesis started.  The idea of something being two things at once or rather, being both until observed and being in a basic flux between two entities.

  

Website Updated

My website has been updated.  It reflects a lot of what has been already included here as well as some newer work.

Here is my final book for this semester.

Out with the Old & In with the New

I am in the process of further developing and refining my thesis through documentation in a form of a book and updating my thesis website. In order to maintain documentation of where I have been in relation to where I am going I am posting my older work (abstract, thesis statement, criteria, etc) to this blog.

Abstract (until 12-13-09)

Within the architectural discipline are a variety of dichotomies or juxtapositions which are typically treated and discussed as binary entities. This thesis seeks to utilize and expand the ambiguity that exists in specific architecture dualities, as they start to co-exist within the same space, to exploit a both~and condition through an understanding of the relationships between the two adjacent entities. The dualities that will be explored, both independently and in relationship to each other, are solid versus void, figure versus ground, and presence versus absence. Dualities as binary conditions ignore the underlying dynamics and therefore result in traditional spatial, cultural and philosophical relationships. A both~and condition will blur these relationships to reveal new entities and interstitial conditions.


Thesis Statement (until 12-13-09)

This thesis derives from the understanding that there are inherent natural dualities that exist within our natural world. One such duality is wave~particle. The understanding of light exhibiting two very different sets of properties was an important development in physics that resulted from quantum mechanics. The introduction of quantum physics and relativity marked a change in the our understanding of our world. Newtonian principles and Cartesian grids were no longer the only way to describe the world. Quantum physics revealed very strange ideas of how the world works. For example, Heisenburg’s uncertainty principle states that certain physical properties, such as position and momentum, cannot be known together to equal levels of precision. As the certainty of one property rises the certainty of the other property falls. This creates ambiguity throughout the whole spectrum of possibilities, where the middle contains both the same amount of ambiguity and information. Architecture throughout history has been a reflection of the philosophical, ideological, theological, and scientific understanding of its contemporary world therefore, it concludes that when there is a shift in world-view, architecture should become a tool in understanding and communicating the new ideas. Charles Jencks states, “When there is a change in the basic framework of thought then there has to be a shift in the architecture because this, like other forms of cultural expression, is embedded in the reigning mental paradigms.” The duality conditions in architecture have the opportunity to mimic this ambiguity that exist in dualities outside of the architectural discipline. The architectural dualities can create a interstitial condition that blurs the line between the two entities.

Understanding the both~and condition in architecture has been approached in several ways. Peter Eisenman uses de-authorship to create the interstitial condition. He removes himself from the direct design process by using an approach that produces architecture through the dialogue that arises from the combination of two diagrams. Similarly, Jeffrey Kipnia understands the interstitial condition by designing using two opposing approaches. He looks at the design process as the duality that can exist in architecture. This thesis seeks to produce a both~and condition through several approaches.

The term “both~and” lends itself to Boolean operations in digital modeling. Boolean operations process two or more entities through a relationship function: union, intersection, or difference. When dealing with geometries, these operations are very straightforward however, when applied to spatial conditions it starts to get complicated since Boolean operations work as a “or” condition being formed from a 0 or 1 language. Both~and also can describe an overlapping condition. What happens with two ideas, systems, dualities, opposites overlap each other? The result can be a simple sum of the parts that make the whole. This would be when the two entities never interfere or blend together. However, the result can also be greater than the whole which is what this thesis is seeking.


Criteria (until 12-13-09)

Interstitial - A successful blurring of a duality will occur when the result is not a side by side condition but rather produces a third condition. The in-between entity or interstitial condition.

Meshwork - Dualities set up hierarchical conditions where one element becomes the primary condition and the other element is secondary and supportive. A successful blurring will remove this hierarchy so the duality exists within a meshwork.

Simplicity - (not simpleness) maintains simplicity of program in order to explore and highlight the depths of the duality.

Variety of Scales - understanding of the duality will be achieved through a variety of scales that will allow the blurring to occur at multiple conceptual levels.

Synergy - The whole (or third condition from above) will be greater than the sum of its parts.

Final Presentation Review

The stress of the end of the semester has started to consume me to I have been lacking in blog updates.

I had my final presentation on Friday Dec 4.  It was the final checkpoint for the semester.  My semester will conclude with the production of a book laying out my case for further investigations for my thesis as well as an update to my official website.

Here is a summary of the final presentation:

My thesis proposal is to exploit the ambiguity that can exist when architectural dualities start to exist in relationship to each other creating a both~and condition which collapses the duality into a third condition.  The both~and condition produces the collapsing of the duality.

The moire utilizes a relationships between solid and void or black and white; by juxtaposing the relationships between the dualities (one not dominating the other) the moire is able to provide a both~and condition that collapses the duality into a third, separate condition.  This condition starts to form other both~and condition for other dualities.  The original moire diagram provides a presence~absence relationships.  There is a blurring of what is actually there and what is perceptually implied.  Furthermore, this relates to the relationship between two-dimensions and three-dimensionality.

The challenge has been extending the duality of the moire, since it is mostly perception-based, into the third dimension.  The both~and condition I explored is perception based.

Feedback:

The work still remains within the graphic performance realm.  The 3D offers a perception that flattens itself.  This project could progress through understanding how a similar effect that is achieved graphically could be used as an analogy for architectural performance.  Can program act like this?  (This is what I originally was seeking for my thesis, through the process I have been using I have found it difficult to break from the graphic representation in order to explore spatial relationships.)  The experience can shift through time and become a catalyst for the change.

Currently, the project, as represented in drawings, lends itself to a screen wall condition.  The models are difference and provide a different effect.  The play with distance could be interesting.  The city or urban scape finds this conditions throughout where depending on a person's proximity to an element whether it be a building, or a metal-stripe framed trash can, the perception of the object changes.

Is it a visual effect you are trying to achieve? (no)  Program can become fuzzy.  You mentioned a split personality, this represents a break.  These can be moments of threshold that collapse on itself.  Is there a way to see the individual elements and still see the effect?  Can it work at different levels and scales in that way, where you have equal understanding of the modular elements as you do the field condition as a whole?

The 2D/planar aspect is discrete and have a distinct origin being in the same direction.  The multiple points and applying multiplicity on the field push it spatially and figures start to emerge.  It starts to provide the blurring and ambiguity as the new figures emerge that are unexpected from the system itself. There could be thresholds within the drawings.  Height could be an additional element and become profiles of the secondary.  Maybe going back to an if/then statement to help navigate and negotiate the field.  Scalar shifts for moires and organization of figures can gain energy from multiple attractors.  Push it further.  You need an agenda or program for the investigation to help you navigate through the process.  Camouflage is a possible one.  Camouflaging program, blurring figures, camouflaging program, the building, scale.  How do you use this strategy as a designer?  Spatial camouflage.  Look into stealth technology as a performance based idea.  (Fractals are used in stealth technology which plays with scales and how something can look the same at each level of magnification or observation.)  Stealth technology works with perception and the bending of light and sound (or wave-based entities.)

Possible reorientation as a parameter.  Assemble, mass.  The models lack tectonics and structural levels with critical points and connections.  Try to approach it without having to use a framework within the model.  The model should provide volume that has a integrity of its own.  One problem maybe from the model resulting from a 2D based plan system.

Where do you go?  What is the path?  Is it geometry studies and pushing these geometric based drawings to their limit?  Is it finding a modern apparatus for an agenda of organization? Is it about technological systems or math as effect?  Systems embedded and other performance?

Possible inspirations are sponge, lattice, lightness, aerogel (can you vary the density to formulate a 3D camo or cloud)

Frank Barklow's 3D laser cut tubes offer an vector extruded to project light.  The length of the extrusion varies.  Similar to a Baroque language.

You have shown that you are willing to try a variety and different techniques to try to produce and expand into the 3D aspect of this project.  The 3D needs to be based more in the built world and material practice.  Find the generative ideas and the agenda for the thesis.  Is it moire?  Camouflage?  Right now it still remains flat.  It needs to work with variety of scales and distance, depth and revealing.  Devise a strategy with material for the conditions.  The diagrams can become more of a cross-section that can be built off of.  Each diagram can be a section that is built off of where the moire melts away and then reassembles through the 3D space.  It needs to get outside of the planar approach.  Adding dimensionality through extrusion.  Look at something else that does what you want.  You need an agenda or situation to be existing within the moire.  Find the spatial structure.  Overlapping.  Get rid of the framework and having something else holding the model up.  Projecting moire patterns on a body?  Does it give a new reading of the form?  Internal construction and surface making.  Get away from projection.  Find a visual language of performance.

People/ideas/elements to look at:
Hugh Ferris
Fractals
Wallace Harrison (patterning)
Aluminum facade panel for cloaking effect
Sponge
Lattice
Frank Barklow - work with 3D laser cutting
MVDRV

Response:

I am still facing the same problem I have been all semester.  Translating the initial diagram into the 3D.  My project did get reduces to the moire patterning (visual effects rather than spatial qualities) which was not was I had originally intended.  I originally intended for my thesis to be a study of the blurring, overlapping of more performance-based elements or program within a building.  I realize now that my original thesis statement did lend itself to a more visual perception based study through my original selection of dualities (solid~void, presence~absence, 2D~3D, figure~ground, etc.)  I still feel as though I have the opportunity to develop my thesis into a more performance or program based manipulation.

Currently I am processing through my old abstracts, notes, and drafts to start to pull out what was originally important to me within my thesis idea in order to develop a clearer understanding of what personally drives me in my idea.  This will help me to have a better sense of what can be generated design-wise in the idea.

Ultimately, I did not want a thesis to be a facade condition which is what it is right now.  I did not want to to be a graphical study.  My goal is to now take it into the spatial realm, separate from the graphical moire studies, in order to understand the performance and spatial implications.