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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND PRESERVATION

ADVANCED STUDIO VI Spring 2024

Steven Holl and Dimitra Tsachrelia

 

ARCHITECTONICS OF MUSIC:

 “It's probable that in the artistic hierarchy birds are the greatest musicians existing on our planet...In nature I find the ultimate inspiration for my compositions. The perfect harmony and balance can be found in the simplest of things.”

” Music is the bridge between the physical and the spiritual, a vessel through which we can glimpse the transcendent… My goal in composing is to capture the essence of the divine and make it tangible through sound... I believe that music has the power to heal, to uplift, and to transform.”      - Olivier Messiaen

  1. COMPOSITION AND LANGUAGE EXPERIMENT

LIGHT, STRUCTURE, SCALE AND ECOLOGY

The initial studies in the studio will focus on experiments in the language of architecture inspired by music.  The spatial energy of daylight, a fusion of structure and light and human scale, will be the focus of study models in the 5-week exercise.

Each 2 person team will choose a fragment of music by the composers Olivier Messiaen, John Luther Adams, Tomás Marco, Kaija Saariaho and create works of a cubical volume, 13x26x13meter. Initial studies to be at 1:200 or 1:100. Midterm presentation models to be 1:50.

 

  1. CHAPEL FOR CHAMBER MUSIC

Messiaen’s inspiration from Utah Bryce Canyon & Birdsong (Des Canyons Aux Etoiles) is very connected to the idea of ecology. This Studio will begin with research into the works of the four composers as well as environmental scientist E.O. Wilson – especially his book Half Erath, 2016, which proposes that “only by committing half of the planets’ surface to nature can we hope to save the immensity of life-forms that compose it.”

The program is a non-denominational chapel for chamber music, seating 250 with fine acoustics Sited in Granada. The cross-fertilization of music, painting, sculpture, and architecture is a core aim of our studio.

For the Kinne Trip, students will visit the city of Granada in Spain. The trip will be organized with the local knowledge and help of Alejandro Muñoz Miranda. 

      

      

       PROGRAM

       350 Seat Music Chapel                   +/- 8,000 SF

       Green Room                                            1,000 SF

       Lobby and Information                           1,000 SF

       Multipurpose Room                                2,000 SF

       Ecology and Music Library                     3,000 SF

       TOTAL                                                       15,000 SF

 

Reading list

  1. Klee, Paul. Painting Music, Prestel Publishing, 2004.
  2. Cage, John. Notations. Something Else Press, Inc., 1969
  3. MacDonald, Malcom. Varèse Astronomer in Sound, Kahn & Averill, 2002
  4. Stravinsky, Igor. Poetics of Music, in the Form of Six Lessons. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press, fourteenth printing, 2000.
  5. Treib, Marc. Space Calculated in Seconds. Princeton University Press, 1996.
  6. Griffiths, Paul. Modern Music: The Avant Garde Since 1945. George Braziller, 1981.
  7. Griffiths, Paul. Modern Music: A Concise History. Thames & Hudson, 1994.
  8. Toshiko, Mori. Immaterial/Ultramaterial. George Braziller, 2002.
  9. Books in any edition by Merleau Ponty a) Phenomenology of Perception b) The Visible and the Invisible c) The Eye and the Mind. (These should all be available via Northwestern University Press).
  10. Holl, Steven. Parallax, Princeton Architectural Press, 2000.
  11. Holl, Steven. Scale, Lars Miller, 2011.
  12. Safont‐tria, Jordi; Kwinter, Sanford; Holl, Steven. Steven Holl ‐ Color, Light, Time. Lars Miller, 2012.
  13. Xenakis, Iannis. Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition (Harmonologia Series, No 6). Pendragon Press, 1992.
  14. Xenakis, Iannis. Music and Architecture, trans. by Kanach, Sharon. New York: Pendragon Press, 2008.
  15. Bardt, Christopher. Material and Mind. MIT, 2019.
  16. Adams, John Luther. The Place Where you go to listen (in search of an Ecology of Music), Wesleyan University Press, 2009.

 

All architecture is teamwork. Students will work in teams of 2.

Desk crits on Mondays; Studio pin ups on Thursdays 1:00 – 6:00pm

Midterm review: Wednesday, February 21, 2024 - Final review: Thursday, April 25, 2024

This studio will be taught with the assistance of Associate Faculty Maria Ryder.

 

                                                                www.architectonicsofmusic.com

Course Summary:

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