Glen Hill

IS DESIGN THE DANGER? Heidegger's Distrust of Design in Modernity

This paper looks at the place of design in Heideggers theorisadon of what he posits as the highest danger—the danger threatening both humanitys ability to dwell, and the Earth itself as the source of all potentiality. The paper builds upon a particular reading of one of Heideggers central concepts, that of ‘projecting’ (entwurf). which, it is argued, could equally be understood as ‘designing.’ The paper demonstrates bow this particular understanding of designing, and thus the implications of the danger it bears, is threaded through Heideggers work.

Architecture for Regenerating Living Ecosystems: Designing a clay module for a vaulted dome structure

Abstract Coral reefs are rapidly vanishing in the Great Barrier Reef. Design may play a part in coral reef preservation. This paper describes the design process for developing a clay artificial reef inspired by the geometries of the Oulophyllia bennettae. The design aims to: 1. provide a structure for the rapid regrowth of a coral reef ecosystem, and, 2. demonstrate how the material clay can guide the development of form. The design process follows a material-centric approach. The paper outlines two manufacturing methods that transfer the digitally generated artificial reef models to the material realm as clay module prototypes. One process uses a robotic arm with a clay-filled syringe, while another process uses a traditional clay extruder. The results describe how the clay reacted to each method and how the design for the artificial reef evolved in response to these observations to develop functional form for an underwater environment.

Poetic measures of architecture: Martin Heidegger’s ‘…Poetically Man Dwells…’

Martin Heidegger begins his lecture ‘… Poetically Man Dwells …’ by denying poetry is a marginal practice whose imaginings are ‘mere fancies and illusions’. ‘[T]he poetic’, he states, is not ‘merely an ornament and bonus added on to dwelling’. On the contrary, Heidegger boldly claims that poetry is the source of all human dwelling on earth: ‘[…] poetry first causes dwelling to be dwelling. Poetry is what really lets us dwell.’ The connective tissue of Heideggers argument in ‘… Poetically Man Dwells …’ is the concept of ‘measure’. In the English translation of the lecture, permutations of the term ‘measure’ ( Mas/messen ) appear a remarkable ninety-four times, not including dozens more uses of its synonyms: ‘dimension’, ‘span’, ‘meter’ and ‘gauge’. What seems surprising, given that the set-up of the lecture revolves around poetry and measure, is that the commonest understanding of measure related to poetry – poetic measure itself – is not discussed thematically by Heidegger. Rather, Heideggers incessant word play produces meanings that include ‘measuring against’ in the sense of comparing to a standard, ‘measuring up’ a space by ‘stepping-out’ ( durchmessen ), ‘measuring out’ in the sense of dividing-up or apportioning ( das Zu-Gemessene ), ‘being measured’ in the sense of having propriety, ‘taking measures’ ( die Mas-Nahme ) in response to a situation, and ‘measuring between’ as a distance or span. These meanings are of course related to common poetic measure, and might even be claimed to be its ground.

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY RESEARCH AFTER POSTMODERNISM

Earlier this year I was asked to give a talk about historical research to a research methods class being held for graduate research students in their probationary year. This paper is an outcome of that presentation. The paper attempts to illustrate the polarities evident in contemporary historiography and, where possible, to draw out their implications for architectural history research. Because of its pedagogical context, the contours of the debate are deliberately accentuated and the resolution (within a Heideggerian framework) overtly formulaic. Despite this lack of subtlety (or perhaps because of it?) the approach appeared to work effectively in fostering student engagement with the current debate. ...I understand the postmodern predicament to imply no-thingness. No-thing out there to substantiate. No ‘there, there’ to represent. Therefore postmodern history implies no story, no narrative, no interpretation and no explanation.1

OF OTHER UNIVERSITIES: THE CONTESTED SPACE OF THE ANCIENT VIHARAS OF BANGLADESH

Employing Foucaults notion ofheterotopias, this paper maps some of the contested interpretations of the ancient universities of Bangladesh (highlighting particularly the interpretation of the university as cosmos) and allows these interpretations to speak back and question not only the assumptions that ground the current political, cultural and material life of Bangladesh, but also the rationalist foundations of our own Western technologized way of being.