Seasons Through the Looking Glass by CJ Lim by The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL

Bartlett Design Research Folios

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

by CJ Lim

Bartlett Design Research Folios

Project Details

Designer: CJ Lim Lim realised this project through his practice, Studio 8 Architects. Title:

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Output type:

Exhibition

Location:

Tunnel Entrance Hall, The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)

Client:

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Exhibition type: Solo Dates:

28 March 2008 – 29 March 2009

Funding:

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Budget:

£14,000

Design research and construction team:

CJ Lim; assistants: Barry Cho, Pascal Bronner, Daniel Wang, Martin Tang, Geraldine Ng, Daryl Fitzgerald, Yu-Wei Chang

Consultants:

Structural engineers: Techniker Ltd London, Matthew Wells with Francesco Ferrari; Quantity surveyor: KMCS London, Colin Hayward; Dufaylite recycled paper development: Nigel West

Victoria and Albert Museum team:

Commissioner: Lauren Parker; Curators: Laurie Britton Newell and Abraham Thomas; Project manager: Kaia Charles; Conservation specialist: Clair Battisson; Safety advisor: Peter Timms and Transport for London (TFL)

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Statement about the Research Content and Process

Description Seasons Through the Looking Glass is an architectural installation that was exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) Tunnel Entrance Hall. It is a multi-sensory and tactile subterranean garden exploring the regeneration of public underground space through narrative and symbolism. A large mirror reflects the honeycomb paper topiary frame dressed with florets of recycled fabrics. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons entices the passer-by in the foot tunnel. The intersection of visual and audio redefines the notion of entrance. Questions 1. How is narrative relevant in modern architecture and how can meaning and symbolism be incorporated into the built environment? 2. How can collage techniques, using unconventional sources, and the application of fictional and factual ideas, enable sensory understandings of nature through architecture?

1 (previous page) The public subterranean garden of narrative and symbolism redefines the spatial relationship between the museum and the underground tunnel space.

Statements

Methods The research is design-based and literature-inspired, using the medium of narrative as message. Primary material informed by symbolic systems found in literature is employed in the design and articulation of the architectural installation, resulting in an unusual combination of theory and practice. It uses collage to acquire ideas, tropes and characters from existing critical thinking in architecture and literature. Its fabrication methods explore the possibilities of recycled laminated paper, and flat-pack and modular modes of assemblage. Dissemination Located at the V&A’s Tunnel Entrance Hall for the duration of a year, the architectural installation was experienced by approximately half of the Museum’s 2,128,400 visitors. The installation was showcased at the London Architecture Festival 2008, as well as being listed in Dezeen’s top 10 international cardboard projects of 2009. International dissemination includes five book chapters, eight journals and 12 lectures.

Statement about Significance

Commissioned directly by the V&A, funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and visited by more than one million people. Its model and drawings are now in the V&A’s permanent collection.

Introduction

Seasons Through the Looking Glass is a multi-sensory and tactile constructed collage exploring narratives and symbolism. The spatial speculation of cultivating a subterranean garden consists of a large mirror reflecting the topiary paper frame dressed with florets of recycled fabrics. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons entices the passer-by in the foot tunnel. The installation regenerates the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum’s Tunnel Entrance Hall and the public underground spaces. [fig. 1–5] In Lewis Caroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Alice fell into a tunnel where she unexpectedly encountered three gardeners painting a garden of white roses red. The narrative and the location of the V&A Tunnel Entrance Hall, like many subterranean spaces, conjure up the imagination of alternative worlds and architectural possibilities. Although underground plants are not uncommon in London, they usually have ducts and boiler rooms rather than flowers and trees. This three-dimensional subterranean garden installation, collaged entirely from two-dimensional materials, presents a mythical underground space of ‘plants’. [fig. 7]

The subterranean garden is a cartouche-shaped topiary bejewelled with rose blossoms, tapering to a crown before sprouting an array of forked branches whose shadows fence across the grand vaulted ceiling. It is a curious ‘beast’ – its trunk and twigs are constructed from honeycomb paper sandwich panels, and its flowers from rolled recycled garments that change to reflect the seasons. Rose oil is applied to each flower to enhance the sensory perception of the garden. A large looking-glass in the foot tunnel immediately beyond the entrance portal mirrors the topiary structure, infinitely extending the V&A in virtual space into territory belonging to Transport for London (TFL). The Baroque strains of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons flow along the station – museum link, adding to the visual and audio phenomenology of the museum entrance. [fig. 8 & 9] Come autumn, the subterranean garden of white recycled cotton T-shirt ‘roses’ is painted with hues of crimson, auburn and mainly red. Winter sees a final metamorphosis in tint and texture of the topiary to usher in the year’s end. [fig. 6, 10–12]

2 The public subterranean garden of narrative and symbolism redefines

the spatial relationship between the museum and the underground tunnel space.

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Introduction

3&4 The public subterranean garden of narrative and symbolism redefines the spatial relationship between the museum and the underground tunnel space.

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

5 Plan and sections showing architectural installation in context

Introduction

6 Plan showing location of red paint in form of removable vinyl, ‘splashed over’ the floor to redefine the spatial territory of the garden

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

7 ‘A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden; the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red. Suddenly their

eyes chanced to fall upon Alice, as she stood watching them. “Would you tell me, please,” said Alice, a little timidly, “why you are painting those roses?”’ (Carroll, 1865)

Aims and Objectives

In ‘An Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives’ (Barthes 1977) Roland Barthes comments that ‘narrative is present in every age, in every place, in every society; it begins with the very history of mankind and there nowhere is nor has been a people without narrative’. We might say that architecture, as physical repositories of and monuments to human culture, now rarely signifies anything beyond its quotidian function. Carroll’s narrative provides the spatial driver for the research into regenerating an existing underground public space in London. The literary

narrative is taken as the ‘seed’ through which a new architecture is grown within the themes of symbolism and spatial speculation. Concurrently, taking a cue from Edwin Abbott’s creation of the twodimensional world of Flatland (Abbott 1992), whose inhabitants consist of lines, points and polygons, this project begins from 2D sheets of paper and employs the construction techniques of collage to create a multi-dimensional subterranean garden. It aims to transform the public’s spatial and phenomenological experience of the underground museum space as a result of its built form.

8 (overleaf) A cartouche-shaped paper topiary bejewelled with white rose cotton T-shirt ‘blossoms’

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Aims and Objectives

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Questions

How is narrative relevant in modern architecture and how can meaning and symbolism be incorporated into the built environment? The prima facie reason given for why architecture and narrative are considered irreconcilable is that buildings do not unfold over time in the way that films or novels do. Nevertheless, space contains temporal associations, most obviously in the architectural promenade in which spaces gradually reveal themselves to a mobile observer. Architecture also has the capacity to transcend the physical, encoding poetic sequences into its fabric: for example, the ‘Danteum’, Terragni’s rewriting of the Divine Comedy in architectural form, does more than illustrate Dante’s work; it translates the poem’s structure and metre into spatial proposition. We might view conventional narrative in less sequential terms, focusing more on the descriptive than the prescriptive.

How can collage techniques, using unconventional sources, and the application of fictional and factual ideas, enable sensory understandings of nature through architecture? The project intentionally locates itself in the liminal territory between fictional impossibility and architectural reality. Collage has been chosen to take advantage of the medium’s inherent plurality – pieces of a collage or assemblage are only ever half-assumed into their new context, bringing with them external connotations of time and place (e.g. appropriating ideas, tropes and characters from pre-existing critical thinking in the fields of architecture and literature). We usually expect architecture to refer to a singular location, but the elements of this architectural collage make a flexible vessel into which the reader is encouraged to deposit his or her own cultural montage of perceptions.

9 (previous page) A cartouche-shaped paper topiary bejewelled with white rose cotton T-shirt ‘blossoms’

10, 11 & 12 The metamorphosis of the garden from white to red alters the ambience of the hall.

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Context

In the last 20 years literary theory and literature have had a significant influence on architecture and architectural research. From Barthes’ The Death of the Author (1977) to Calvino’s Invisible Cities (1974), writers and their work have inspired a generation of architects and design researchers to engage with real and fictional sites as springboards for the imagination. This project takes such an approach to its logical conclusion by attempting to create architecture through the building blocks of fiction. Culturally, we as a generation have reduced time for critically appreciating architecture where ambiguity or invested subtext is intentional: to ‘implant’ buildings with meaning is increasingly uncommon. [fig. 13 & 14] Pre-secular architecture was constructed of and around narrative and symbolism: for example, the proportions, alignment, size and decoration of Egyptian temples and tombs were determined by metaphor, not utility; Venice’s Doge’s Palace, together with the Bridge of Sighs, Porta della Carta (Document Gate), Scala dei Giganti (Giant’s Stairwell) and winged lions, is an assemblage of anecdotal vignettes as a building.

This subterranean garden design also shares intellectual and conceptual principles with the traditional Japanese Zen gardens where the garden is a symbolic reading of nature rather than a literal copy. Interpretations of, for example, Kyoto’s Ryoan-ji rock garden vary: to some, the rocks and gravel symbolise ocean islands; to others, they are a mother tiger swimming with her cubs to meet a dragon. The garden’s symbolic nature engages the visitor with its suggestion of possibilities that extend beyond its physical appearance. In an urban milieu where context and the genius loci of a place have become subsidiary to economic and political considerations, reducing architecture to pre-determined programmes and their formal manifestation, the act of binding architecture into the story of its inhabitants and symbolism brings a new relevancy to the built environment, projecting, but not predicating, the rules of its occupation.

13 & 14 The mirror presents the visual transformation of a public space initiated by the built form and the reading of the architecture.

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Methods

Literature and architecture Literary narrative as message, suggesting a theoretical and practice-led design, fed spatial and programmatic investigations of context and the site – the V&A Museum Tunnel Entrance, a cavernous hall with no natural light. Alice’s fall into Wonderland conjured up alternative worlds and architectural possibilities to inform the cultivation of a subterranean paper garden.

Multi-disciplinary research The research made conceptual use of sources from across literature and architecture. The multi-disciplinary design team worked in close consultation with the V&A’s curators and conservation specialists, together with the quantity surveyor, structural engineer, and honeycomb paper manufacturers and specialists.

From paper to reality Through a series of collage techniques, the architectural installation begins as a 2D sheet of paper. The paper-fused honeycomb sandwich panels are then inscribed and cut to occupy the third dimension (a real and surreal territory); sandwiched paper cut-outs are then spliced and woven into yarns. The project was spatially developed through design sketches and physical collaged models, and eventually in a 3D CAD environment. Prototypes and smallscale mock-ups were made and laser-

cutting technologies were employed. In-depth investigations into the economy and flexibility of flat-pack construction methods, quick on-site assembly, recycled cardboard materials, and health and safety were carried out: 1. Paper as the primary structure: The structural capabilities and durability for 12 months in the airborne moisturefilled underground environment of the Museum, as well as potential fire hazards, were researched in depth. The Museum conservation specialist specified recycled paper that had not been in contact with food or plants. Finally, Dufaylite, a honeycomb moisture-resistant recycled paper, was made into sandwich panels, to meet all conservation, structural and poetic requirements. 2. Mirror (safety): TFL’s concerns about health and safety and the potential for vandalism meant that a water-based fire-resistant spray underneath a waterresistant coating, and a vandal-tolerant acrylic mirror were selected. [fig. 15–26]

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

15 & 16 (previous page) Dufaylite honeycomb paper

17 The paper is cut, inscribed, folded, and fused into a narrative, occupying a territory that is both real and surreal; cardboard cut-outs are spliced and woven into yarns with shadowy nuance.

Methods

18 Schematic physical card model

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Methods

19 & 20 Structural studies using CAD model

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Methods

21 & 22 CAD model in context

23–26 The research process was fabrication-led, working through prototypes and mock-ups.

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Methods

27 The cut honeycomb paper cut-outs were partially pre-assembled in the studio.

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

28 The cut honeycomb paper cut-outs were partially pre-assembled in the studio.

Methods

Fabrication

Four seasons

CAD files were extrapolated from the 3D study models and sent to Dufaylite to cut to the required shaped components. These flat components were the basis of the giant three-dimensional jigsaw construction. The dimensions of the components were influenced by the available sheet size of the honeycomb paper, and transport and delivery logistics to the underground site. The paper cut-outs were partially pre-assembled in the studio and grouped according to the sequence of construction to aid construction. Five assistant researchers prefabricated the ‘white roses’. [fig. 27 & 28]

The 12-month installation was intended to be dynamic and to change with the turning of each season. In addition to the visual extension of the hall via the mirror, the installation used Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to attract visitors (and corresponded with TFL’s policy of using classical music as a deterrent against anti-social behaviour).

Assemblage The architectural installation was carried out over two days by a team of 12 assistants. The V&A’s South Kensington Tunnel Entrance was closed off to the public during this period. These tight time and space constraints required logistical precision and management. The superstructure framework was erected first, followed by the joining of all the honeycomb paper sandwich panels with water-based wood glue. However, because of the damp subterranean environment of the Tunnel Entrance, the drying time took longer than first anticipated. Over 1,000 white T-shirt ‘roses’ were collaged using the same adhesive to populate the topiary. Pre-arranged working access to the TFL South Kensington tunnel allowed installation of the large mirror. [fig. 29–36]

Maintenance and security For the duration, the architectural installation was almost maintenancefree. Once a month, the roses were lightly dusted to remove dirt from within the underground tunnel (and removed/ cleaned if necessary). The installation was terrorist-proof, and designed to withstand vandalism and anti-social behaviour and to present minimal public security risk.

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Methods

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

Dissemination

The architectural installation was a direct commission from the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was visited by approximately half of the 2,128,400 million visitors to the Museum over the 12-month duration. The V&A’s Annual Report and Accounts 08–09 notes that the temporary exhibitions were collectively ‘successful in terms of visitors feedback and critical acclaim and fulfilled the V&A’s ambition that the public programme should represent all aspects of the V&A’s collections … offer[ing] something to the widest range of audiences possible’. The project model and drawings are now part of the V&A’s permanent collection.

Workshop The author also ran a public-engagement workshop at the Museum, ‘Friday Late Open Workshop: Collaging Spaces’ (28 March 2008), attended by over 200 people, which introduced the public to constructing spaces and objects using recycled laminated paper. [fig. 37]

Showcases The architectural installation was also one of the showcases of the 2008 London Architecture Festival (20 June–20 July 2008) and was listed in Dezeen’s top ten international cardboard projects of 2009.

Publications Five book chapter publications in Installation Art (2010), Outside the Box (2010), Cardboard Book (2010), Un-Folded (2009), and 10x10_3 (2009). It has been internationally published in eight journals including BhmaDeco (Greece), Frame (Netherlands), Art-4D (Thailand), EastWest (Hong Kong), V&A Magazine (UK) and Architectural Design (UK).

Lectures Lectures have been delivered at 12 international academic institutions, including London Festival of Architecture (2008), Architectural Association London (2008), Lund University (2008), Vienna University of Technology (2008), University of Michigan (2008), University of Cambridge (2009) and Southern California Institute of Architecture Los Angeles (2010).

Dissemination / Bibliography

Bibliography

R. Barthes (1977) Image Music Text (trans. S. Heath). London: Fontana Press. E. A. Abbott (1992) Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. New York: Dover Publications Inc. I. Calvino (1974) Invisible Cities (trans. W. Weaver). New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. L. Carroll (1865) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. London: Macmillan.

29–36 (previous page) The collage of the subterranean garden

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

37 View of the ‘Friday Late Open Workshop: Collaging Spaces’ at the V&A, a three-hour workshop attended by over 200 people

Appendix

Related writings by others Book chapters pp. 39–41 Kuma, Kengo, ‘CJ Lim / Studio 8 Architects’. 10x10 / 3, ed. K. Kuma and H. LaDue. USA: Phaidon Press, 2009. 84–85. pp. 42–46 ‘Seasons Through the Looking Glass’. Installation Art, ed. Shaoqiang Wang. USA: Gingko Press, 2010. 56–59. pp. 47–49 ‘CJ Lim / Studio 8 Architects’. Outside the Box: Cardboard Design Now, ed. Michael Czerwinski and Santiago Perez. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2010. 182–183. pp. 50–56 ‘Seasons Through the Looking Glass’. Cardboard Book, ed. Narelle Yabuka. Singapore: AN/B Editions, 2010. 210–215. pp. 57–58 ‘Seasons Through the Looking Glass’. Un-Folded, ed. Petra Schmidt and Nicola Stattman. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag, 2009. 106.

Journals pp. 59–63 Zimariti, Ioanna. ‘Xaptina Oneipa [Paper Dreams]’. BhmaDeco 32 (Greece, June 2010): 58–62. pp. 64–65 Kokhuis, M., ‘Imagine a subterranean garden of branches and blossoms’. Frame 64 (Netherlands: Sept/Oct 2008): 56. pp. 66–73 Othavorn, Narong, ‘We could plant a house, we could build a tree’. Art-4D 147 (Thailand: April 2008): 60–65. pp. 74–80 Chan, Anabela, ‘Through the Looking Glass’. WestEast 25 (Hong Kong: summer 2008): 52–57. pp. 81–82 Strongman, Cathy, ‘Tunnel vision’. V&A Magazine 16 (UK: summer 2008): 20. pp. 83–91 Watson, Howard, ‘CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects: Through the Looking Glass’. New Urban China (ed. Laurence Liauw) [special issue of] Architectural Design 78.5 (UK: Sept 2008): 110–117.

Web pp. 92–99 Named in Dezeen’s top ten international cardboard projects of 2009. www.dezeen.com/2009/09/29/dezeens-top-ten-cardboard-projects www.dezeen.com/2008/04/10/seasons-through-the-looking-glass-by-cj-limstudio-8-architects

Bartlett Design Research Folios ISSN 2753-9822 Founding editor: Yeoryia Manolopoulou Editors: Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Peg Rawes, Luis Rego Content: © the authors Graphic design: objectif Typesetting: Axel Feldmann, Siaron Hughes, Alan Hayward Proofreading: Wendy Toole

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

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