简介
在这个学期里，要求学生用减和加的手法来改造位于罗德艾兰州的Bristol镇的Hereshoff博物馆的面貌。Hereshoff的制造业被认为是 最早的“美国杯”赛艇的建造者，那是在19世纪90年代到20世纪30年代之间的事。此次练习，不仅仅是一个学术课程。它涉及到土地、水和风，并且要找到特殊的材质和构造手法来表现这些设计元素之间的关系。也就是说，土地喻示着静止（船坞、锚也都提供了暗示），水的流动性喻示着运动和自由。在考虑水和土地关系的时候，运动感来自风。
船艇和码头建筑
作为传达这些关系的媒介，我们将着眼于学习码头建筑，这将给我们的设计提供灵感。第一步要做的是学习码头建筑的建造工艺、历史和先进的码头建筑建造技术，比如说碳纤维合成的做成蜂窝状、涂树脂的表皮。研究其他的建造方式，其价值在于可以使我们摆脱传统材料和传统构造手法的束缚。从而有助于我们积累新的设计理念和建造技术，激发我们在创新环境中设计出有创意的作品。
寻找建造语汇
寻找合适的建筑语汇过程，将会是建立在对调整过的小艇的设计标准和最终质量的理解基础上。它们包括：
代替
从定义上说，船是一种体积的代替，塑造出船在吃水线下的体积，而且设计了流线型的轮廓降低前进的阻力。
轻盈
赛艇是按照尽可能轻盈的需求来设计的，这样可以用很少的能量就能够驱动。
集合
赛艇也是一个很好地调整过的集合体，它在比赛中可以自动调节自身平衡。
强度
尽管赛艇建造得很轻质，但是它的构件是超乎寻常地坚固，这样才可以抵挡住在比赛时所受的强大的冲击力，像桅杆和船体部分。
能量
赛艇的强度必须足够利用风力，虽然它是由很多轻质的构件组装成的一个整体。
速度
最后，那些由Herreshoffs设计的赛艇是速度、流线、优雅的代名词，它们突破了材质的限制。
选址和计划
选址位于布里斯托尔港口，那是Hereshoff兄弟1870年创立他们公司的地方。我们的选址俯 瞰Narragansett海湾，两个船身被提高了放在现有建筑的前面。选址所在地被布里斯托尔主干道分成两块，布满了各种建筑（厂房，仓库，生活用房和 博物馆）。以前，最初的码头建筑主要是造船处和船只入水的斜坡。现在斜坡和过去的建筑物的痕迹仍然很明显，它的现存的建筑物，甚至它的水际线，都呈现了这个地方有趣的转变。
现存建筑的内部空间都相对比较黑暗，潮湿和破旧。尽管房间里收藏的都是珍宝，如一个Herreshoff的模型室的复制品，里面有超过500个船体模型。因此有足够的空间来修缮它，用于展示那些模型以及完整尺度的船只。
过程
我们将把设计作为一个反复探索的过程，包括了阅读，研究，表现和测试。
阅读
阅读是为了理解选址，像它的规划，传承，历史，文化和技术。最终的成果由图纸，模型和文字来展示。
研究
不管是单独地还是分组完成工作，我们将研究船只的建造及其过程、工艺技术，我们将记录，写文档，做模型和实验作为我们调研的一部分，并寻找合适的建筑语汇。研究是设计的第一步，因为研究的结果将会对过程和以后的设计研究有非常大的影响。
表现
通过用图纸和模型来表达我们的设计理念，我们可以使自己消化吸收从研究中学到的东西。表现的内容不一定是用1：1比例的（原型）来表现，也可以抽象成不同的比例来表现不同的细节。我们不必要用像造船工程师那样表达自己的想法要用精湛的手艺。
测试
测试就是将自己的想法提出来，将它与自己的设计理念对照考虑。失败也是有意义的，能启迪思维。它能使我们仔细考虑，我们是否恰当地理解了选址和它存在的问题，或者是否做了正确的研究，是否真正的可行。当我们在寻求从我们的设计到选址情况之间的最契合 点的时候，不可避免地我们在这个过程中必须反复。
So while we will not end up designing boats this semester as Alvar Aalto did in his career, we will seek to allow the study of boat building to inform and generate new approaches to thinking about material and tectonic expression.
Introduction
This semester students are asked to transform the Hereshoff Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island, through processes of erasure and addition. Hereshoff Manufacturing was recognized as one of the premier builders of America's Cup racing boats between 1890's and 1930's. The studio, however, is about more then the program. It is about land, water, and wind and the search for expressing materially and tectonically the relationships between these principle conditions. That is, where the land is primarily about stasis (docking, anchoring and referencing our locus), water's fluidity holds the latent promise of movement and freedom. Movement is activated by wind, allowing for negotiating the relationship between water and land.
Boats and Boat Building
As a vehicle for exploring these relationships, we will focus on learning about boat building, so that it might inform our design process. We are going to spend the first part of the project learning about the craft of boat building, its history, as well as learning about advanced boat building technologies such as Kevlar-carbon composite skins with honeycomb and resin cores. The value in exploring another method of assembly is that it removes us from more conventional material and tectonic conventions. This can help stimulate new thinking about transferring concepts and technologies where appropriate or simply to inspire alternative design and production processes in creating new environments.
Search for a Tectonic Language
The search for an appropriate tectonic language will be driven in part by an understanding of the performance standards governing boat design, and their resultant qualities. These include:
Displacement
By definition boats are about displacement of volume, carving volume below the waterline, but minimizing drag by designing sleek profiles.
Lightness
The design of racing boats is driven by needing to make them as light as possible, requiring less energy to propel them forward.
Mass
It is also about the fine-tuned distribution of mass, delicately countering-balancing the tendency for flight while staying within racing regulations.
Strength
Despite their lightweight construction, racing boats must be built out of efficient and strong assemblies capable of withstanding the tremendous forces on the sails, mast and hull.
Harnessing Energy
Their strength must be sufficient to harness the wind's energy, with lightweight membranes, stitched together out of smaller elements, yet acting as a whole.
Speed
In the end, racing boats like those designed by the Herreshoffs are about, speed, fluidity, and grace, in seeming defiance of material limitations.
The Site and Program
The site is located in Bristol R. I. where the Hereshoff brothers started their company in 1870. Our site overlooks the Narragansett Bay, where two boat hulls are elevated on stilts in the front of the existing buildings. The site is bisected by Bristol's main road and consists of a compound of buildings (manufacturing, storage, and maintenance buildings as well the museum proper). At one time, the original wharf housed structures for manufacturing boats and ramps for launching boats. Today, traces of past structures are still evident, presenting interesting opportunities for transforming this site, its existing structures, as well as its water's edge.
The existing building's interior spaces by contrast are rather dark, cluttered and dowdy. Yet they house treasures, such as a replica of Herreshoff's model room, where over 500 models of the hulls are housed. There is much room for improvement in the presentation of the models as well as full-scale boats and exhibits.
Process
We will explore design as an iterative process, which incorporates reading, research, representing and testing.
Reading
Reading is about understanding the site, the program, the context, the history, the culture and technology. Drawings, models and words are used to describe the results.
Research
As individuals and in groups, we will research about boat building, the program, and technologies. We will record, document, model and experiment as part of our investigations and search for an appropriate language. Research is the first act of design, since its results will strongly influence both the course and content of future design investigations.
Representing
Representing our design ideas through drawings, and models, we can internalize of the lessons learned from research. Representing is not always carried out at full scale (prototyping) but can be abstracted at different scales and levels of detail. We do not necessarily need the skill of a master boat builder to experiment with the ideas embedded in their craft.
Testing
Testing entails putting forth propositions forward; to be reviewed in relationship to the performance standards you have set forth in your design. Failure is desirable and revealing. It can force us to question whether we read the site and the problem correctly, or whether the research was appropriately directed, or applied through its representation. Inevitably, we must go back and forth in this process iteratively as we seek the best fit between our design and its performance standards.
So while we will not end up designing boats this semester as Alvar Aalto did in his career, we will seek to allow the study of boat building to inform and generate new approaches to thinking about material and tectonic expression.
