ENAC Seminar Series by Angela Pang
Event details
| Date | 28.06.2023 |
| Hour | 09:00 › 10:00 |
| Speaker | Angela Pang |
| Location |
GC B1 10
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
09:00-10:00 - Angela Pang
Design Critic, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Rational Form Making
In pursuit of freedom in aesthetics, one must first accept and address the physical conditions of the project - of the object, of materiality, of the environment. While surrounding buildings provide the context, enriching with cultural and social significance, the required program of a project gives us a framework to conceptualize the sculpting and ordering spaces from the inside; inertia based on the tectonics of things gels the conditions together in every project. Good architecture requires the architect to find the inertia that permits discovery of the form with logic and clarity. To find this inertia is to confront the conditions generated by forces of nature – this can be loads from gravity, wind, earthquake, partstitotiwhole, and material quality. Then, through the combination of tectonics, materiality, and structure, we form the basic framework to express the nature of architecture in logical geometry in tangible form. The disciplines of architecture and structural design have always worked hand in hand in expanding new possibilities for form finding and space making. Rationality has been the foremost mantra of modernism, constructing an ideological lineage all the way to the Greeks. More recently, there have been two major trajectories in structural design in the period since World War II. The first is the gradual reduction of mass, as exemplified in the Maison Domino and the Miesian box. The other is the transition from clear Euclidian geometries in spatial structures (such as the Pantheon) to a return of naturalism and free forms. The process of discovery of the natural geometries allows architects to reconcile site and program through logical inductions. It liberates architecture from the burden of style and the limitations of the individual's repertoire. Building on the formtifinding works of Frei OSo, Felix Candela, Heinz Isler and extending to contemporary formtifinding tools based in construction technology, my research in the nature of forms comes from the architect's perspective, seeking natural geometries as a generative device that is not only based on technical, mathematical research but also combines the qualitative, wilful aspects of architecture. This talk shall exemplify the process that I apply in my professional work based on my interest to bring the research together in the realm of classical fundamentals of architecture such as light and shadows, thinness and mass, transparency and porosity, sequence and flow, volume and scale among others, and combine them to make real works.
Short bio:
Angela Pang is a Design Critic in Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the founder of PangArchitect. Guided by site and program, PangArchitect questions, investigates, and challenges convention through design and research to balance intellectual scrutiny and pragmatic solutions. The firm’s recent design work includes the completion of several university libraries in Hong Kong, including the Polytechnic University Library New Extension, he Lingnan University Library extension, and the Chinese University Library Learning Garden extension. Other recent works include the Hong Kong Literature Research Hub and a student dormitory at the New Asia College, both at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The firm’s major research projects include a research consultancy on building program for M+, a contemporary art museum in Hong Kong, and an ongoing exhibition on Shinohara Kazuo, funded by the Graham Foundation and the Japan Foundation and in collaboration with Washington University in St. Louis, the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. PangArchitect has received the Special Award from the Hong Kong Institute of Architects, Architect’s Newspaper Award for Best Library design, the Green Building Award from the Hong Kong Green Building Council, APIDA Top 10 Public Space in Asia Pacific, the FuturArc Green Leadership Award, the HKIA Cross-Strait Architectural Design Award, Dezeen Design Awards finalist, and the second prize at the World Architecture Festival Future Projects Awards, among others. Prior to establishing PangArchitect in 2010, Angela worked for Rafael Moneo in Madrid and SANAA in Tokyo. Angela received a M.Arch II from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a B.Arch from Cornell University.
Design Critic, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Rational Form Making
In pursuit of freedom in aesthetics, one must first accept and address the physical conditions of the project - of the object, of materiality, of the environment. While surrounding buildings provide the context, enriching with cultural and social significance, the required program of a project gives us a framework to conceptualize the sculpting and ordering spaces from the inside; inertia based on the tectonics of things gels the conditions together in every project. Good architecture requires the architect to find the inertia that permits discovery of the form with logic and clarity. To find this inertia is to confront the conditions generated by forces of nature – this can be loads from gravity, wind, earthquake, partstitotiwhole, and material quality. Then, through the combination of tectonics, materiality, and structure, we form the basic framework to express the nature of architecture in logical geometry in tangible form. The disciplines of architecture and structural design have always worked hand in hand in expanding new possibilities for form finding and space making. Rationality has been the foremost mantra of modernism, constructing an ideological lineage all the way to the Greeks. More recently, there have been two major trajectories in structural design in the period since World War II. The first is the gradual reduction of mass, as exemplified in the Maison Domino and the Miesian box. The other is the transition from clear Euclidian geometries in spatial structures (such as the Pantheon) to a return of naturalism and free forms. The process of discovery of the natural geometries allows architects to reconcile site and program through logical inductions. It liberates architecture from the burden of style and the limitations of the individual's repertoire. Building on the formtifinding works of Frei OSo, Felix Candela, Heinz Isler and extending to contemporary formtifinding tools based in construction technology, my research in the nature of forms comes from the architect's perspective, seeking natural geometries as a generative device that is not only based on technical, mathematical research but also combines the qualitative, wilful aspects of architecture. This talk shall exemplify the process that I apply in my professional work based on my interest to bring the research together in the realm of classical fundamentals of architecture such as light and shadows, thinness and mass, transparency and porosity, sequence and flow, volume and scale among others, and combine them to make real works.
Short bio:
Angela Pang is a Design Critic in Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the founder of PangArchitect. Guided by site and program, PangArchitect questions, investigates, and challenges convention through design and research to balance intellectual scrutiny and pragmatic solutions. The firm’s recent design work includes the completion of several university libraries in Hong Kong, including the Polytechnic University Library New Extension, he Lingnan University Library extension, and the Chinese University Library Learning Garden extension. Other recent works include the Hong Kong Literature Research Hub and a student dormitory at the New Asia College, both at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The firm’s major research projects include a research consultancy on building program for M+, a contemporary art museum in Hong Kong, and an ongoing exhibition on Shinohara Kazuo, funded by the Graham Foundation and the Japan Foundation and in collaboration with Washington University in St. Louis, the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. PangArchitect has received the Special Award from the Hong Kong Institute of Architects, Architect’s Newspaper Award for Best Library design, the Green Building Award from the Hong Kong Green Building Council, APIDA Top 10 Public Space in Asia Pacific, the FuturArc Green Leadership Award, the HKIA Cross-Strait Architectural Design Award, Dezeen Design Awards finalist, and the second prize at the World Architecture Festival Future Projects Awards, among others. Prior to establishing PangArchitect in 2010, Angela worked for Rafael Moneo in Madrid and SANAA in Tokyo. Angela received a M.Arch II from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a B.Arch from Cornell University.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Invitation required
- This event is internal
Organizer
- ENAC
Contact
- Clivia Waldvogel & Sarah Feller