Project
by Andrew Swartz
6701: Advanced Architectural Design Studio VII
Principal Investigator: Bennett R. Neiman
University of Colorado at Denver
College of Architecture and Planning
Denver, Colorado

Project Description: Architectural Epistrophy: A Building Which Exhibits Itself

epistrophy n. Botany. the reversion of an abnormal form or type to the normal.
epistrophe n. Rhetoric. a figure of speech in which each sentence or clause ends with the same word, as, "we are born to sorrow, pass our time in sorrow, end our days in sorrow." Repeating the same end sound is called Epistrophe.

The building and its site are exhibits themselves, and the deployment of all architectural elements which define the BUILDING WHICH EXHIBITS ITSELF will in themselves be exhibits, an exhibition of that which made it exist. The building(s) will have exhibits about the process of the making of itself, which will consist of drawings and models depicting the process that exhibits the architecture. Every drawing/document which is generated by each designer becomes a potential artifact which might be displayed in the building. THE BUILDING WHICH EXHIBITS ITSELF is an Architectonic Sequence Facility, a series of exhibitions as generative thematic variation: 1. as architectural elements, 2. as architectural entry (celebration of formal arrival to a place), 3. as 3D spatial composition, 4. as architectural vista, 5. as architectural promenade, 6. as architectural models, and 7. as architectural drawings.

EVERYTHING ABOUT THE PROJECT IS AN EXHIBIT. Goals of the Project are to develop: 1. a formal manipulation design process, 2. formal design concepts and themes, 3. a formal architectural language of space, elements, and sequence, 4. a formal rule system, 5. the rules and structure (grammar), and 6. syntactical relationships.

All design and graphics work was performed using form•Z, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop.

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