Work samples
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Publications
Sovich's publications include his work as Co-editor of T3XTURE, an international journal exploring ornament, texture, and pattern in an architecture of our time.
T3XTURE #4, was selected, in an open call, to be included in the "Reading Room" exhibit--part of the New Urban Challenges Festival created by Itinerant Office. The festival featured emerging architecture practices, innovative publications, and editorial projects through events at the Royal Spanish Academy in Rome.
"...emerging publishing projects, developed in new and experimental forms, open unprecedented windows on the issues of the present and outline the potential "new urban challenges" of the future."
Cecilia Rosa, Il Giornale dell'Architettura.com
He also published
DRAW•MODEL•PROMPT : Tectonic Speculations
In the world of architectural design, the relationship between drawing, computer modeling, and AI is complex-- is it progression or evolution? The earliest architectural drawings were drawn on the ground at the site. Pencil and watercolor drawings required a talent that favored one designer over another. Computer-aided drafting permitted an ease of creating repetition, simplifying the process. Recent innovations introducing artificial intelligence accelerate the process, effectively making hundreds of iterations possible in a short time span and allowing the designer to act as a curator. Yet the AI tool is still so new, how will it affect the practice? The drawings, computer models, and models generated with text and image prompts in this book explore the interconnected nature of these processes.
About Randy
“I stepped out of my own existence and found myself.” ---Fernando Pessoa in The Book of Disquiet
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I find myself stepping out of my professional existence and sketching and thinking about dwellings, some inspired by words or ideas, others stream-of-consciousness expressions. These are my oneiric houses—my houses of daydreams. Regardless of their proportion or scale, they are where my daydreams dwell.
I draw with… more
Follies
—imagining follies. These are follies in the sense of a " structure, such as a pavilion in a garden, that is chiefly decorative rather than practical in purpose." They include houses with feet and personality—animal-like houses.
More Follies
—imagining follies. These are follies in the sense of a " structure, such as a pavilion in a garden, that is chiefly decorative rather than practical in purpose." They include houses with feet and personality—animal-like houses.
Towers
—imagining towers. To paraphrase Gaston Bachelard, A [sketch] is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while [drawing]? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream.
These sketches are six inches by six inches in size, drawn in a Fabriano Quadrato Artist's Journal with Birmingham Bourbon ink and Prismacolor highlights.
Gesture Art
When asked by a friend, "What is the art that is defined by the zeitgeist or spirit of our age?" I thought of how Jackson Pollock and Brice Marden's art expressed the action and abstractions of Modernism. Our time is a digital age; an obsession with the small screen of the iPhone. It is ubiquitous and yet an interface that will be with us for maybe a short time until replaced with a new interface. I thought of David Hockney's embrace of the color copier and the ipod/ipad and thought of how one might embrace these commonly available technologies. “In his Retrospective, Hockney wrote that “New technologies have started revolutions that need not frighten us.” For Hockney, technology was never a threat to creativity because it could be “humanized by artists”. In fact, Hockney has continuously experimented with new kinds of everyday technologies, like the iPhone and iPad, and transformed them into devices of art creation for the modern age.” [https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-david-hockney/articles/david-hockney-xerox-prints]
The smartphone has trained us in a language of motions and gestures. Every day people use their fingers to swipe and shift across a small screen. This is what we see people do to check the news, look for companionship, or distract themselves for hours during the day. I posit these gestures at some level define our age.
I used these same gestures, quick simple swipes, and taps, to create a series of patterns on the iPhone screen using a sequence of drawing applications. I then processed the images through several filters. An application called "Trace" was used to draw the strokes. Then the images were opened and filtered multiple times using an application called "Prisma." (By filtering an image multiple times, it becomes more difficult to duplicate just as Hockney separated his first color copier images so they would require the color layers and precise order to be reproduced). The filters must be applied in a specific order for the same outcome. Finally, I transformed some into tiled patterns using Adobe, "Capture."
The patterns and forms from these gestural iPhone sketches also inspire my pursuit of a system of architectural ornamentation for our time.
Magritte's Holiday Canceled!
—obsessed with an iconic painting by Rene Magritte. The painting depicts a water glass on an umbrella. Magritte thought of the combination as a new object that simultaneously "wants and doesn't want water." An amused Hegel might take a holiday just considering it. Thus the name, "Hegel's Holiday."
Magritte's painting is an object with a simple non-contextural background. I explored placing the composition in a natural context with a horizon and setting sun. By exploring the context, I discovered ambiguities consistent with the spirit of Magritte. Is the umbrella sitting on the horizon? Is the glass sitting on the horizon? These representations, place Magritte's object in an ambiguous relationship with its context and with one another. Is the umbrella balancing on the moon or sitting on the horizon? Then I moved on to explore inverting the two elements—effectively canceling the intended use of each—placing the glass upside down to prevent it from collecting water and flipping the umbrella to collect water rather than shed it. The new object is thus canceled and Hegel's Holiday would certainly be canceled, too!
These meditations on the Magritte painting, "Hegel's Holiday," led me to design the Hegel's Holiday House. A house that wants and does not want water.
Might this amuse Magritte? Who knows, he may even Praise the Dialectic.
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Hegel's Holiday House
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Magritte's Holiday Cancelled!
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Magritte's Holiday Cancelled!
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Magritte's Holiday Cancelled!
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Meditations on "Hegel's Holiday" painting by Rene Magritte
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Hegel's Vacation House
Diagram of Elements: Roof-Rainwater Collector-Cistern-Enclosure
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Hegel's Holiday House
My obsession with "Hegel's Holiday" led to the design of this house—a house both wanting and not-wanting water. The contradiction would amuse Hegel and lead him to take a Holiday. Hegel might enjoy taking his holiday in this house. The large roof shelters the dwelling, while a funnel above it collects water into an internal cistern where it is stored and filtered for use.
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Hegel's Holiday House
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Hegel's Holiday House
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Hegel's Holiday House
Publications:
—along with Craig Purcell and Lynda Burke, co-founding and co-editing the experimental, independent architectural journal T3XTURE. The journal creates literary connections with forty-five architects, artists, researchers, and others from the US, South America, Europe, Africa, India, and Asia. The “archizine” explores how aspects of architecture – texture, ornament, and pattern – missing from the modern architecture of the past century–connect architecture to people, place, and time. The original concept is inspired by the 1960s periodicals, Archigram, AD, Casabella, and Domus—launched in response to social, political, and artistic changes.
The first five issues were: T3XTURE #1, #2 "Ornament is Splendid", #3 "Pattern is Maddening, " #4 "The Edge of Edge." and Issue #5, "Repose and Motion." Issue #6, Ornamenting Kosmos through Mythic Eyes" is forthcoming from Hapticity Press.
Besides editing and publishing, Randy created the publication's graphic design and layout. He also contributes critiques, think pieces, and illustrations to coincide with the the
In "Draw • Model • Prompt: Tectonic Speculations, Drawing, Modeling, and AI in Architectural Design" Sovich documents use of technology in the creative process including line drawing, computer-aided modeling, and AI.
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Publications
Sovich's publications include his work as Co-editor of T3XTURE, an international journal exploring ornament, texture, and pattern in an architecture of our time.
He also published
DRAW•MODEL•PROMPT : Tectonic Speculations
In the world of architectural design, the relationship between drawing, computer modeling, and AI is complex-- is it progression or evolution? The earliest architectural drawings were drawn on the ground at the site. Pencil and watercolor drawings required a talent that favored one designer over another. Computer-aided drafting permitted an ease of creating repetition, simplifying the process. Recent innovations introducing artificial intelligence accelerate the process, effectively making hundreds of iterations possible in a short time span and allowing the designer to act as a curator. Yet the AI tool is still so new, how will it affect the practice? The drawings, computer models, and models generated with text and image prompts in this book explore the interconnected nature of these processes.
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The Reading Room Exhibit, Itinerant Architecture, Royal Spanish Academy, Rome, Italy, 2022
T3XTURE was selected, in an open call, to be included in the "Reading Room" exhibit--part of the New Urban Challenges Festival created by Itinerant Office. The festival featured emerging architecture practices, innovative publications, and editorial projects through events at the Royal Spanish Academy in Rome.
"...emerging publishing projects, developed in new and experimental forms, open unprecedented windows on the issues of the present and outline the potential "new urban challenges" of the future."
Cecilia Rosa, Il Giornale dell'Architettura.com
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Ornament is Splendid, Visit with Kent Bloomer Studio
T3XTURE #2 "Ornament is Splendid!" article by Sovich. Photos courtesy of Kent Bloomer Studio.
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From "One Liners"
From the piece "One Liners" in "T3XTURE 2, Ornament is Splendid!," this spread is a portion of a critique of trendy late-twenty-first century architectural treatments–by generations of architects ignorant of the role of ornament in architecture.
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T3XTURE 1 spread
In this think piece and illustrations by Randy, he imagines a new Baltimore housing model rising from repurposed rubble of tens of thousands of vacant brick row houses.
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HACKED! a satirical critique by Randy Sovich
“HACKED!” from T3XTURE #3 Pattern is Maddening”—In this satire, Randy Sovich imagines patterns that were rejected in the editing process of the book, “A Pattern Language” and then lifted from the office trashcan and leaked by a disgruntled employee. Mimicking the language and layout of “A Pattern Language,” Sovich casts a gimlet eye on contemporary architects’ infatuation with formal and stylistic trends which bear no relation to the needs of the client, user, or occupant in these “scrapped” patterns.
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spread from DRAW•MODEL•PROMPT
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spread from DRAW•MODEL•PROMPT
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spread from DRAW•MODEL•PROMPT
Pursuing a system of architectural ornamentation of our time
—imagining a system of architectural ornamentation for our time, influenced by conversations with the late Kent Bloomer, who was an advisor to our journal, T3XTURE.
This system of architectural ornamentation would have a "holder," i.e.,.. a building or a vessel. It has a decorative frame to support the figural ornaments. The figural ornament refers us back to the cosmos and nature and is super-added to dance on the decorative frame.
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Pursuing a system of architectural ornamentation
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Experiments in Architectural Ornamentation
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Pursuing a system of architectural ornamentation
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Pursuing a system of architectural ornamentation
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Pursuing a system of architectural ornamentation
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Pursuing a system of architectural ornamentation
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Pursuing a system of architectural ornamentation
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Pursuing a system of architectural ornamentation
Design for an urban 'rug' integrating follies, houses, and towers. The piece was printed and mounted on the sidewalk at the Southeast Community Development Center in Highlandtown.
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Pursuing a system of architectural ornamentation
Study for two-dimensional ornamental pattern added to existing Baltimore rowhouse grouping.
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Pursuing a system of architectural ornamentation for our time.