Trans-Disciplinary Interview

Corey Ray

Associate Director of University Housing
University of Idaho

1.       How many students are currently living in residence halls at University of Idaho? How many of those are living in Wallace?

There are a total of 1,859 students living in the residence halls, 50 of those being student staff. Wallace is a “1,000-bed facility”, but only houses 785 students at the moment.

2.       If Wallace Residence Center were to be redesigned or replaced, what all would need to be included in that design, programmatically?

Flexibility is key. It should be “stick design” and able to last 35 years. It should be low cost in order to be paid off quickly, so that the university can reserve any future money to build the next building, in 35 years.

The problem we are running into with the older buildings we have at University of Idaho is that they have fixed furniture, kids like to move the furniture around, and they are not remain relevant as technology is changing. Study spaces are needed, they should be multi-functional with smart furniture that can function well in both academic and social situations. There should be USB access, which Wallace is completely lacking. Individual and group study spaces are important, as well as a kitchenette on at least every other floor. Basically, the design of the first floors of the LLCs, without the upper floor design – no doors behind doors.

3.       What is the element that is the most limiting when it comes to future design and construction for residence halls at University of Idaho? Budget?

Money. In Idaho, the job goes to the lowest bidder and the people who are in control of the money are not experts in the process, so they do not know what the needs are. When budget concerns and restrictions come up toward the end of the process, often times the students’ voice is not necessarily considered. Code is also a big factor, since it is always changing. It is important that considerations like code are looked at early on in the process, and that there is an understanding of what those code changes mean for the project. Good partnerships and communication are important and hard to find.

  

4.       What is the demand for on-campus housing? Is there a need for expansion?

Yes and no. The university is trying to grow the on-campus population, but there is not a lot of appeal or options for the juniors and seniors. There is a demand from those 21-22 year old students who want something that our campus does not really provide. The LLCs are close, but do not quite provide for single adults who do not want roommates.

5.       What tend to be the goals when it comes to a residence hall? Is there predominate focus on high occupancy, materiality (U of I identity), or something else?

Inventory. The university owns the land, so it is more making a high-functioning, 6-story tops building. We are more worried about if students are coming back – retention and supporting students through graduation. They didn’t have that concept in the 1960’s.

6.       What kinds of spaces have proven most valuable or useful?

I could put you in a coat closet, and you would be happy, if all of the other spaces function well – study space, eating space, social spaces, or what I like to call “Waking Spaces.” Although there is still, and will be, a group of people who prefer to stay in their “getting-away space” and plug in. The waking spaces need to be an experience. We need to stay relevant by combining academics with living spaces, and building connections through holding advising, study sessions, etc. near the living spaces, like how the Honor’s office is near the Honor’s Hall.

7.       What are the biggest challenges, from the administrative perspective, of the architecture of University of Idaho’s residence halls? More specifically Wallace?

Who’s responsible for what? We know you live here 24/7, no one else does. The urgency and communicating that to everyone is the biggest hurdle. The need to get on top of maintenance issues as soon as possible, instead of waiting until the next day, because students live here. There is also the idea of how long it takes until things need to be replaced. We need things that are practical, but long-lasting.

Wallace: There is a lack of study space and a need for updated lounge space. In such an old building, there is the need for a fresh look, to make it look new, because that is appealing to students.

8.      What are the current needs that are not being fulfilled by the existing University of Idaho residence halls?

Technology and connections – staying relevant with old buildings. The LLCs are 10 years old and are already out of date.

9.       Are there any trends that you have noticed becoming more favorable in residence hall design? Are any of these being implemented here at University of Idaho?

Those connections we talked about before, providing academic resources close to where students live on campus. Having facilities near housing is something we are working on, but are not quite sure how to accomplish yet. Multi-functional, multi-purpose spaces, which is happening, pretty successfully, in the LLCs. Multiple, smaller buildings promotes more pride within a community. Providing all of the amenities for each community is happening – the ideas that are proving successful in urban environments are applicable in this situation as well, just with academics added in.

10.   What would be an ideal residence hall, in your opinion?

Academic and social space connections, while allowing you to sleep. These places should allow for wireless connections to the campus. Providing a live/work/play environment and community – with mini-workout areas and dining for each building. Urban ideals on a rural footprint.

Abstract Draft

Dealing with the program of a residence hall comes along with a lot of program. Improvement increases the burden of design that much further. At the root of the problems of the Wallace Residence Center, is the strict delineation between public and private spaces, and the reduced access to community because of it. There are spaces that are defined as community spaces, but they are often empty and unused because they are out of the way and closed off. I believe there is a need to activate these spaces and use architectural language to encourage interaction of the users.

In order to inform my design, I plan on interviewing Dee Dee Kanikkeberg, the head of University of Idaho Student Housing. I would like to hear from her what she believes is lacking within Wallace since it houses the most students as well as housing her office. I would also like to know the difficulties she has seen, from her side, which could be “blamed” on the architecture. The limits that she sees, from outside of the profession of architecture, could very well be some of the most valuable information I acquire. There are also financial restraints on such a project which she would have access to. The amount of current residents and/or the amount of students they would like to hold in a dormitory in that spot would be valuable for technical application, and would be required for design.

The installment is a conceptual experimentation of blending public and private space. These windows into people’s private lives serve as a boundary examination; when does this blending become uncomfortable. There is the question of why we experience discomfort with the public/shared realm and how that can be incorporated into an inherently shared structure.

Looking at Advertising

For this post, I chose to look at a video/ad about the importance of gun safety.

There is an interesting manipulation of space in this advertisement. There are three clearly defined spaces throughout; inside the house, on the door step, and out in the lawn. Each space serves as a separate layer for the viewer, as none of them blend until the very end of the video. The two women/mothers are chatting on the step while the boys play inside, and only when the woman on the right calls for them, are the all of the spaces connected. This connection of the spaces happens suddenly and is quite effective as this is the moment that the woman on the left becomes fully aware of the situation. The yard is now our third space, which brings the point in full view (though there are glimpses of it in the beginning). When we come back, at the end, and layer all three spaces together, once again, this is when we get the reaction of the woman on the right and see both the discomfort of both women and the naive joy of the two children at the same time.

There is a strong sense of time or timing throughout the ad, as well. There is a casual, conversational pace to the beginning of the advertisement; the two moms are just chatting. Then, we get the sense that things are wrapping up as there is a call to leave. At this point, the ad speeds up, mainly because the children are running through the spaces to our view. There is a pause in time following this when we really focus on just the children for the first time in the video. Then we go back to the slow pacing as before, but in a more awkward moment.

Seemingly, we are placed in the shoes of that mom on the left. All of the pacing of the ad seems to follow her reaction and emotions. She is casual in the beginning, pretty care free. When the children come out, it is quick, as if we've been waiting for this moment to come, the end of a playdate. Once the realization of the children playing with her hidden sex toys is realized, time seems to stop, as if we are doing what she would do in this moment… thinking, Is this really happening, right now? Then the pace comes back, but is slow because we are stuck in the stare and judgment of the other woman.

The idea of taking such a controversial issue, like guns in the house alongside children, and putting it in a playful/relateable situation is quite effective. There is a visualization that those hidden sex toys can be found, and by children. However, the sex toy is basically harmless, while a gun can have much more serious consequences. The element of embarrassment within your peer group is the language clearly expressed, and the thought of irresponsibility with children. This embarrassment shines through without the pitch. The ad is funny and uncomfortable without even knowing that it is about guns. When you add the pitch to the imagery and language it hits home in an unexpected way.

Temporal and Spatial Prejudices

There is a sense of urgency and erraticism, a strong disconnect with the human condition, and over-compartmentalization when it comes to the American sense of space.

American space is defined as a temporary realm, through which to flit quickly back and forth. There is not a sense of lingering, as this temporary sense reflects that of the American sense of time. Since time is so clearly defined in such a mechanical, regular fashion, one must move on in a “timely” manner. Time should be spent along the sense of human experience, much more organically. Not all things can be shoved into a box of a number of minutes, but rather just until completion. One must allow for things to happen in a natural way, in the time it is meant to happen. Nature occurs in such a way. The American has ripped himself away from this idea of time, away from nature, and has constructed a mechanical space in order to compensate for this unnatural construct of orderly time.

The natural, organic environment will no longer do. Long, straight, wide avenues create a speedy way in which to traverse a city or building in order to get from one task to the other quickly and orderly. There is no sense of the world outside of the schedule the American has designed for herself. Spaces should transition in a way that one can linger within or in-between. Time cannot be defined in small boxes drawn together with lines, but rather with each experience. Therefore, the space that we define should be made in such a way as to reflect nature, variable. The use of a space should reflect the environment around it as well as the experience approaching that space. The American space is drawn out in long distances in order to reach a desired destination, this space is uneventful and dull because it is a straight line despite the landscape before it. Once the desired destination is reached, it is chaotic with information and overlapping spaces. Once one is in a destined space, there are other spaces constantly calling out for attention. It is easy to get distracted, which seems counter to the determined and scheduled time of the American.

Information Technologies appear to be at the center of any space in the American ideal. There is, at the very least, a television in the living area that has the most use. On top of this, the American seems covered in information technologies. Although it is not the most common of attires, many Americans have the time attached to their wrists so that they are always aware of how much time they have left. Even more popular, and even more intrusive, are cellular devices. The American cannot leave anywhere without this device. Space is defined around the American as where they get service, or where these devices work. Americans do not seem to fully experience the space around them, rather the space that they perceive within the world inside their information technology devices.

The concept of looking at space from an outside perspective, and away from information technologies, I believe is applicable to my project and the design of residence halls. Americans have become such individuals, and the required space around us has become smaller and smaller as we have begun to dive further and further into virtual space. I am exploring the idea of public blending into private space to the point that it may be uncomfortable for many users who would be used to this individualistic sense of space. Our virtual community is growing, while the ability to connect with people, even those in the general proximity, is becoming increasingly difficult – or deemed unnecessary. 

Temporal Dimensions

When analyzing the six temporal dimensions – sequential structure, duration, planning, rate of occurrence, synchronization, and temporal perspective – my thoughts have circled back again and again to repetition and synchronization as having the greatest change throughout the twentieth and twenty first centuries. Our invention and adaptation to the technology around us have greatly affected the way we value and experience time, and more specifically through these two aspects.

The way that we experience repetition throughout the last couple of centuries has shown significant change as we have made technological leaps. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the repetition that defined significant events in time revolved around nature. The seasons were important for harvest, farmers awoke with the sun and turned in once night came, and so on. The Industrial Revolution marks a significant change in what repetition meant and how that repetition defined time. Machines can work at any time of the day, and all day. We then defined shifts, which occur at regular time intervals solely based on the clock, not on the position of the sun or the season. Days were now split into chunks of time in different ways, rather than the simple night and day, and they were the same no matter if the sun rose sooner or night came earlier. As we became more and more aware of how difficult factory jobs have an effect on the human body, the work week became more defined. In nature, there is not a difference between Saturday and Monday, but we now have a definition of the weekend, greatly anticipated each week.

Synchronization is when a group of people agrees upon at least an aspect of time. With synchronization, I see more of a trend coming toward our present time and into the future. However, this is still related to the above concept, in that our dependence and fetish for machines has affected our notion of time. Through the Industrial Revolution, being on time became increasingly important, as is seen through things like train schedules and coordinated shifts. There is also this synchronization of body and machine when one pictures men working along an assembly line. As the United States has made a shift into the service industry, synchronization has made a shift, as well. We are often synchronized with other countries, such as China which is 10-13 hours ahead of the United States. There is also this thought of individualistic synchronization versus organismic. As economy of time becomes of greater concern, the thought of functioning – in all aspects of life – as unified group becomes more and more desirable.

Both rate of occurrence and synchronization are key elements of residential housing. College students must adjust to a new schedule of repetition with their course load while getting used to studying on a regular basis and the regular meeting of clubs or meetings. Anticipating the way groups synchronize is important when community is such an important aspect of a project. With cell phones being so tied in to the human body, and increasing so with each generation, the question is whether that is also tied into the architecture or if the architecture, somehow, attempts to break that tie in exchange for a connection with fellow humans. 

The Moral Imperative of Technique

As an artist or designer, this idea of Modernism – a level of absurdity to an approach which makes something new and different, seen as the next step toward the future – is key to being relevant as an exciting maker. In order to create something that is modern, one must carry that technique through the creative process, not just in the final product. Within art, the process can take on many forms, but I believe the crucial component in all modern work is experimentation. There must be a search for something undiscovered, either by the individual or the art world as a whole. The examination of what can be done with the elements in one’s environment in order to get a message across in an exciting way speaks directly to Modernism. Basic ways in which to play with our sense of convention is media - paint and clay are so classic now, how can an artist use the ingredient of a chocolate cake to speak about gender roles in society, for example; scale - there is also an absurdity in creating a extensively detailed cityscape the size of a postage stamp to make a statement about craftsmanship; or taking a harsh and/or extreme stance and fearlessly putting it out there – hot-button subjects such as censorship, abortion, racism are all topics that many people tend to tread lightly around, when a blunt statement on either side is made, many people may be shocked into paying attention. The idea behind continual and repeated experimentation, not matter the realm, is that one should never get comfortable, or else miss what is coming next.

            

In Architectural design, the idea of experimentation remains important to a modern approach. However, instead of playing with media, or something so specific, there is more a sense of experimenting in the abstract. An architect must ignore the physical restraints of building - the structure and construction, the particulars of a building design – and begin with the ideas of the building. If real world constraints are tossed to the side, at least in the beginning, then the absurd can take place. Concepts that would or could not exist in the same physical space can be investigated within conceptual space. Scale can be taken to extremes in order to explore how the concepts can work or fight with each other before the actual construction is taken into consideration. This play with conceptual elements, problems, and ideas brings up opportunities for change through an alternative angle of approach.

           

When considering the project that I have been mentally toying with (designing a more community-centric residence hall to replace the Wallace Residence Center on the University of Idaho campus), I am realizing that in order to get anywhere innovative or modern, I must zoom out. I need to consider the conceptual problems which drew me to the project and deal with them outside of the context. I need to de-familiarize myself with it, take myself outside of what I know in order to gain a fresh approach. In order to really come out of my own understanding of the project, I need to take things to an absurd level – maybe public and private space becomes more and more indistinguishable, maybe there is an extreme compartmentalization of program, maybe the design approach looks toward a dystopian or utopian future that has extremes to consider.