HATCH

Hatch is a collection of conversations that took place at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design during the spring of 2015. The conversations were led by a group of students and hosted one or two faculty members. The purpose of the conversations was to interrogate the current status of architectural discourse and the implications of the quick image within that status. Contributing faculty include Kutan Ayata, Josh Freese, Ferda Kolatan, Michael Loverich, Eduardo Rega, Andrew Saunders, and Tom Wiscombe with a foreword by Nate Hume.

This collection of conversations represents the culmination of many chats, debates, and musings that were fueled by frustrations over how flat the current discourse seems. Early discussions were rooted in the challenge of attempting to locate ourselves within the discipline at a moment when the discipline seemed to be represented by a clutter of projects that championed the state of density, quickness, and lack of canon. The discipline, as we see it, is currently defined by a vast plurality of projects and a new age of viewing (and judging) work via online blogs and social media sites. These sites highlight visual content and quick images, typically with little concern for curation or cohesion. For us, the quick image blurs categories and disciplinary positions to mere images of form, shape, color, style, and trends. Even the boundaries between professional work and student projects are being blurred. We applaud and take part in the current culture of dense, visual media but we’ve also attempted to approach these conversations with concern over the disconnection between the image and its disciplinary content. These conversations are an interrogation of the current status of architectural discourse and the implications of the quick image within that status.