Miller Hull

Constructing Media

Bob Hull Research Grant 2019
Representation is intrinsically linked with the conceptual and pragmatic realization of architecture.

By Vlanka Catalan and Sarah Chan

The Bob Hull Research Grant (BHRG) is to be awarded to one project annually to carry out research that is of both a personal interest and of benefit to the firm.

The following study is a conceptual look at representation in which each form of media has its own specifics, its own selection criteria and its own omissions. But within its own biases and limitations it influences how we see, perceive and understand the world around us.

All media (Latin for “middle elements”) facilitate transformation: by definition, media are transformative. From the stone tablet to the printing press to the internet, media have become increasingly reconfigurable. The value of a medium is often related to its capacity for reconfiguration. To claim a medium as “new” is to posit a meaningful improvement over prior media. Thus new media are highly reconfigurable and doubly transformative: they achieve a transformation of prior modes of transformation.- Berkeley Center for New Media

This temporary exhibit at the Seattle studio is organized as a three-part procession of mini-episodes that document our media experiments, following the axis on the north-side of the office, extending past the restrooms and into the Design Panel space. Each element highlights a portion of our research: the concept of representation manifested in the Came.rama and the Fisher Pavilion case study, interviews with other professionals in and outside of architecture, and the application to the Anti- Building narrative.