U. Buffalo Designs 'Ritual Space' Installation
(via University of Buffalo News)
The project, called Ritual Space, is the culmination of the yearlong freshman design-build studio in the School of Architecture and Planning. Members of the university community and the public can check out the installation during an opening reception from 4-6 p.m. May 7 at Artpark. Visitors should enter Artpark via the upper entrance, off of Portage Road. The project will be on display in the park indefinitely.
The installation is composed of 10 “ritual spaces” — each measuring 64 square feet with a maximum 10-foot height — that are grouped to form two ritual houses. Each structure captures one of five common daily activities, or rituals: gathering, food prep, eating, bathing and sleeping.
Ten small-scale models created during the fall semester were selected to be further developed for the final project. Students then worked in teams to refine each model, ultimately building larger-scale structures that were installed on site at Artpark last week.
“It’s really exciting. We’ve come so far from where we were earlier in the semester,” says Andrew Griffin, one of 88 students in the class. “We learned to keep pushing, to keep experimenting and building models, even if we weren’t sure if they were going to amount to anything. The whole process of going from concept to sketch to construction documents and the models was really beneficial.”
The freshman studio is led by Karen Tashjian, adjunct assistant professor of architecture, and Matthew Hume, clinical assistant professor of architecture. The course teaches students about principles in design and building in a way that rattles their preconceived notions about the discipline of architecture.