M A N I F E S T A T I O N S O F A D Y N A M I C
E V E N T
By Adam Stacey Tutored By:Shaun Murray & Simon Withers
A
B
This
S
T
architectural
R
project
A
C
T
will
pivot
and
orbit around a single dynamic event, an event that resonated with and haunted the writer turned wartime firefighter, William Sansom
for the rest of his life. The dynamic event focuses his its
on
fellow final
a
wall
falling
firefighters,
act
expanded
a
upon
wall
Sansom
spatially
that
and
upon
within
a
single second, a second that created lifelong memories and endless spatial opportunities. The architecture will manifest into a series of
curated
These out
episodic
spatial
of
sequences
short,
events,
spatial will
momentary
designed
from
minute
sequences.
be
sculpted
architectural time
scales.
Spatiotemporal moments lifted from William Sansom’s moments
literary
intend
works,
on
these
spatial
immortalising
his
memories. The spatial sequences will exist
within a landscape where the wall is always present as a haunting architectural figure. The
episodic
sequence
of
spatiotemporal
experiences will create a spatial landscape where
visitors
will
journey
through
Sansom’s memories, and thus reinhabit them. Their
personal
experience
will
create
a
new perspective and their responses, be it drawn,
sculpted,
or
written
will
open
up
a continued investigation of his memories, creating a repeatedly evolving architectural
experience that symbolises the constant reenacting most
and
replaying
influential
of
dynamic
Sansom’s
event,
The
single Wall.
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S
P
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THE P ROT A G ONI S T
THE P RO L O G UE
A CT ONE : THE S CENE , THE S ET ( b e f o r e )
A CT T W O : F ROM W ITHIN THE MOMENT -
spa t i all y e x pa n d i n g f r o m a s i n gl e s e c o n d
A CT THREE : INH A B IT A TIN G THE A F TERM A TH -
manifesting the memory
(during)
( af t e r )
a n a r c h i t e c u t r e i n fl u x a defining architectural intervention a domestic device of uncertainty a r c h i t e c t u r al fa m i l i a r i t y l o s t a dynamic event spa t i al i t y b o r n f r o m a d y n a m i c e v e n t i n h ab i t i n g t h e af t e r m a t h
T P
R
O
T
H A
G
E O
N
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S
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W I L L I A M T
h e
G
u i l t y
S A N S O M S
u r v i v o r
Sansom was an author, writing short stories, novels, and travel books. He is well renowned for his acute dissections of London life, particularly during the Second World War where Sansom was a firefighter. During Sansom’s time as a firefighter, he wrote many short stories, short to ensure finality in a historical time full of uncertainty. His short stories became a medium for him to manifest his memories of traumatic events. These events were found during the dynamic events where he would be avoiding the catastrophic failure of the buildings he was fighting to save. Sansom’s work provides deeply spatial moments carved from the reoccurring trauma of his guilt as a survivor of these catastrophes and the stories provide a foundation to explore their architectural significance.
William Sansom’s short stories will form the platform from which this project will grow from. Such short stories as The Wall, The Witnesses, Saturation Point and Fireman Flower explore Sansom’s written exploration into his lived experiences during the Blitz. Sansom’s short stories create a viscerally rich spatial world that was found journeying through the burning buildings of London in 1941. The stories also depict a deep sense of mistrust in the solidity of the architectural form, a mistrust that was affirmed by the loss of friends.
T
H
E
W
D U R I N G
W I L L I A M
A
L
L
S A N S O M
A SINGLE TRAUMATIC EVENT a
pivotal
moment a
that
lifetime
resonates
for
It was our third job that night. Until this thing happened, work had been without incident. There had been shrapnel, a few enquiring bombs, and some huge fires; but these were unremarkable and have since merged without identity into the neutral maze of fire and noise and water and night, without date and without hour, with neither time nor form, that lowers mistily at the back of my mind as a picture of the air-raid season. I suppose we were worn down and shivering. Three a.m. is a mean spirited hour.
Controlling time through narrative.
I suppose we were drenched, with the cold hose water trickling in at our collars and settling down at the tails of our shirts. Without doubt the heavy brass couplings felt moulded from metal-ice. Probably the open roar of the pumps drowned the petulant buzz of the raiders above, and certainly the ubiquitous fire-glow made an orange stage-set of the streets. Black water would have puddled the City alleys and I suppose our hands and our faces were black as the water. Black with hacking about among the burnt up rafters. These were an every-night nonentity. They happened and they were not forgotten because they were never even remembered. But I do remember it was our third job. And there we were—Len, Lofty, Verno and myself, playing a fifty-foot jet up the face of a tall city warehouse and thinking nothing at all. You don’t think of anything after the first few hours. You just watch the white pole of water lose itself in the fire and you think of nothing. Sometimes the orange dims to black—but you only ease your grip on the ice-cold nozzle and continue pouring careless gallons through the window. You know the fire will fester for hours yet. However, that night the blank, indefinite hours of waiting were sharply interrupted—by an unusual sound. Very suddenly a long rattling crack of bursting brick and mortar perforated the moment. And then the upper half of that five-storey building heaved over towards us. It hung there, poised for a timeless second before rumbling down at us. I was thinking of nothing at all and then I was thinking of everything in the world. In that simple second my brain digested every detail of the scene. New eyes opened at the sides of my head so that, from within, I photographed a hemispherical panorama bounded by the huge length of the building in front of me and the narrow lane on either side. Blocking us on the left was the squat trailer pump, roaring and quivering with effort. Water throbbed from its overflow valves and from leakages in the hose and couplings. A ceaseless stream spewed down its grey sides into the gutter. But nevertheless a fat iron exhaust pipe glowed red-hot in the middle of the wet engine. Lofty was staring at the controls, hands tucked into his armpits for warmth. Lofty was thinking of nothing. He had a black diamond of soot over one eye.
Multiple points, surveying the incident during the event.
To the other side of me was a free run up the alley. Overhead swung a sign—‘Catto and Henley’. I wondered what in hell they sold. Old stamps? The alley was quite free. A couple of lengths of dead, deflated hose wound over the darkly glistening pavement. Charred flotsam dammed up one of the gutters. A needle of water fountained from a hole in the live hose-length. Beneath a blue shelter light lay a shattered coping stone. The next shop along was a tobacconists, windowless, with fake display cartons torn open for anybody to see. The alley was quite free. Behind me, Len and Verno shared the weight of the hose. They heaved up against the strong backward drag of waterpressure. All I had to do was yell ‘Drop it’—and then run. We could risk the live hose snaking up at us. We could run to the right down the free alley—Len, Verno and me. But I never moved. I never said ‘Drop it’ or anything else. That long second held me hypnotized, rubber boots cemented to the pavement. Ton upon ton of red-hot brick hovering in the air above us numbed all initiative. I could only think. I couldn’t move.
Hyper-vigilance
Six yards in front stood the blazing building. A minute before I would never have distinguished it from any other drab Victorian atrocity happily on fire. Now I was immediately certain of every minute detail. The building was five storeys high. The top four storeys were fiercely alight. The rooms inside were alive with red fire. The black outside walls remained untouched. And thus, like the lighted carriages of a night express, there appeared alternating rectangles of black and red that emphasized vividly the extreme symmetry of the window spacing: each oblong window shape posed as a vermilion panel set in perfect order upon the dark face of the wall. There were ten windows to each floor, making forty windows in all. In rigid rows of ten, one row placed precisely above the other, with strong contrasts of black and red, the blazing windows stood to attention in strict formation. The oblong building, the oblong windows, the oblong spacing. Orange-red colour seemed to bulge from the black frame-work, assumed tactile values, like boiling jelly that expanded inside a thick black squared grill. Three of the storeys, thirty blazing windows and their huge frame of black brick, a hundred solid tons of hard, deep Victorian wall, pivoted over towards us and hung flatly over the alley. Whether the descending wall actually paused in its fall I can never know. Probably it never did. Probably it only seemed to hang there. Probably my eyes only digested its action at an early period of momentum, so that I saw it ‘off true’ but before it had gathered speed.
Decelerating the moment to the point of standstill
The night grew darker as the great mass hung over us. Through smoke-fogged fireglow the moonlight had hitherto penetrated to the pit of our alley through declivities in the skyline. Now some of the moonlight was being shut out as the wall hung even further over us. The wall shaded the moonlight like an inverted awning. Now the pathway of light above had been squeezed to a thin line. That was the only silver lining I ever believed in. It shone out—a ray of hope. But it was a declining hope, for although at this time the entire hemispherical scene appeared static, an imminence of movement could be sensed throughout—presumably because the scene was actually moving. Even the speed of the shutter which closed the photograph on my mind was powerless to exclude this motion from a deeper consciousness. The picture appeared static to the limited surface sense, the eyes and the material brain, but beyond that there was hidden movement. The second was timeless. I had leisure to remark many things. For instance, that an iron derrick, slightly to the left, would not hit me. This derrick stuck out from the building and I could feel its sharpness and hardness as clearly as if I had run my body intimately over its contour. I had time to notice that it carried a foot-long hook, a chain with three-inch rings, two girder supports and a wheel more than twice as large as my head. A wall will fall in many ways. It may sway over to the one side or the other. It may crumble at the very beginning of its fall. It may remain intact and fall flat. This wall fell flat as a pancake. It clung to its shape through ninety degrees to the horizontal. Then it detached itself from the pivot and slammed down on top of us. The last resistance of bricks and mortar at the pivot point cracked off like automatic gun fire. The violent sound both deafened us and brought us to our senses. We dropped the hose and crouched. Afterwards Verno said that I knelt slowly on one knee with bowed head, like a man about to be knighted. Well, I got my knighting. There was an incredible noise—a thunderclap condensed into the space of an eardrum—and then the bricks and mortar came tearing and burning into the flesh of my face. Lofty, away by the pump, was killed. Len, Verno and myself they dug out. There was very little brick on top of us. We had been lucky. We had been framed by one of those symmetrical, oblong window spaces.
Loss of time sense, an elongating the perception of time.
EX P L ORIN G e x pa n d i n g
S A N S OM ’ S a
l i t e r a r y
DYN A MIC m o m e n t
EVENT
spa t i all y
Introducing multiple points of view from witnesses of the same dynamic event.
“A minute before I would never have distinguished it from any other drab Victorian atrocity happily on fire. ” (Sansom, 1941, p.1)
“This wall fell flat as a pancake. It clung to its shape through ninety degrees...” (Sansom, 1941, p.2)
The buildings form becomes warped akin to time and space within the explosive event. Within a state of timeless hypervigilance Sansom unravelled the spatiality before him.
“We had been lucky. We had been framed by one of those symmetrical, oblong window spaces.” (Sansom, 1941, p.2)
The velocity of objects in movement initiates a loss of time sense & unfolds the events spatiality.
“Six yards in front stood the blazing building” (Sansom,1941,p.1) William Sansom’s approximate location “New eyes opened at the sides of my head so that, from within, I photographed a hemispherical panorama (Sansom,1941,p.1)
EX P L ORIN G e x pa n d i n g
S A N S OM ’ S a
l i t e r a r y
DYN A MIC m o m e n t
EVENT
spa t i all y
Introducing multiple points of view from witnesses of the same dynamic event.
“a hundred solid tons of hard, deep Victorian wall, pivoted over towards us.” (Sansom, 1941, p.1) “The night grew darker as the great mass hung over us.” (Sansom, 1941, p.1)
William Sansom’s digestion of the moment traversed multiple scales. Focusing on the entire wall, to singular bricks, signs and free, safe spaces. The windows spacious sanctuary becomes apparent when taking Sansom’s perspective as the first-peson viewpoint The spatial event dictated the spatiotemporal qualities of the scene, whilst also editing the space itself. “The last resistance of bricks and mortar at the pivot point cracked off like automatic gun fire.” (Sansom, 1941, p.2)
A sensory overload of displaced forms dissecting the moment and the spatial parameters of William Sansom’s gaze.
with William Sansom’s proximity to the spatial event, his personal scales of time and space become condensed into minute time-spaces.
“Ton upon ton of red-hot brick hovering in the air above us numbed all initiative” (Sansom, 1941, p.2) “To the other side of me was a free run up the alley. “(Sansom, 1941, p.2)
A E E
P
N S
V
I
O E
D N
I
C T
This design project will explore William Sansom’s experience of a calamitous dynamic event in three key spatial stages, before, during and after. Before will set the scene, introduce the architectural and spatial protagonists. During will explore spatially the dynamic event itself, and after will expand spatially the aftermath and how it can potentially be inhabiting with architectural interventions.
B E F ORE
THE SCENE, THE SET ( b e f o r e the d y n a m i c e v ent )
DURIN G
FROM W I T H I N T H E MOM E N T s p a t i a l l y e x p a n d i n g f r o m a s i n g l e sec o n d
A F TER
I N H ABI T A T I N G T H E AF T E RMA T H m a n i f est i n g the m e m o r y
L A Y E R I N G
M E M O R I E S
&
L I V E D
E X P E R I E N C E S
An initial exploration into the reconstruction of present-day architectures born from the fragmented memories of a past destruction, specifically that of William Sansom’s experiences during The Blitz in 1941.
A R C H I T E C T U R E
B O R N
F R O M
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R E O C C U R R I N G
M E M O R Y
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The site, the scene whereby William Sansom’s traumatic event is replayed, re-enacted, and inhabited is located within London, the place where Sansom’s memories were forged and manifested within his subconscious. Norton Folgate and its retained facades will become the testing ground. A landscape where architecture will expand from William Sansom’s memory, growing out of, around, within, and on the site’s infrastructure, building upon the constraints and boundaries that were formed from Norton Folgates dismantlement.
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Key: (Scale 1:3000) Damage Beyond Repair Total Destruction
Proposed Site (51.520860, -0.076910)
Seriously Damaged; Doubtful if Repairable Seriously Damaged; But Repairable at Cost General Blast Damage, Minor in Nature Blast Damage, Minor in Nature N.B. Each number denotes a bomb recorded.
COLLATING SITE BASED MEMORIES. PREPARING FOR THEIR MANIFESTATION Vol.001
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Key: (Scale 1:1250) Damage Beyond Repair
Proposed Site (51.520860, -0.076910)
Total Destruction Seriously Damaged; Doubtful if Repairable Seriously Damaged; But Repairable at Cost General Blast Damage, Minor in Nature Blast Damage, Minor in Nature N.B. Each number denotes a bomb recorded.
COLLATING SITE BASED MEMORIES. PREPARING FOR THEIR MANIFESTATION
AFTER
DURING
BEFORE
A
S I T E
I N
T H R E E
A C T S
Occupying the aftermath, capitalising and utilising the site that is left behind after the precise dismantling of its architectural inhabitant.
N A T U R A L L Y
F O R M E D
S I T E
B O U N D A R I E S
A site providing spatial, architectural opportunities through its inherent nature and its self prescribed constraints. Refining architectural intentions and prescribing restraints by focusing in on a viscerally rich fragment of Norton Folgate.
Retained Facade_03
Retained Facade_02
Retained Facade_01
S I G N I F I C A N T
S I T E
B A S E D
F E A T U R E S
Highlighting key facades for retention, integral for the growth of the architectural investigation. The facades become significant bounding features and historical totems to grow from spatially and architecturally.
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R E F I N I N G
F O C U S ,
I N S T I L L I N G
C O N S T R A I N T S
A
C
T
T
D U R I N G
From Within
the
W
O
Moment
spa t i all y e x pa n d i n g f r o m a s i n gl e second
A
C
T d
u
T r
i
n
W
O
g
Act Two will explore the dynamic event, the single traumatic moment, the event that was the slow, methodical fall of the wall. A moment that William Sansom relived, rewrote, and remained haunted by throughout his life. This act will investigate this dynamic event from within the moment, inhabiting Sansom’s memory, traversing it through architectural drawings and investigations. From within the moment of this dynamic event, this act will explore the spatiotemporal opportunities that expand from explosive moments that happen within minute time scales. The second act will investigate the spatial opportunities of destructive events whilst also exploring the often-overlooked architectural opportunity found within minute time scales.
T H E
F A L L I N G
l e o n a r d
W A L L
r o s o m a n
Leonard Rosoman depicts a moment where William Sansom and an unnamed firefighter are caught within a moment of great tension, Rosoman depicts a previously vertical wall that has broken from its axis and is falling towards the firefighters. Rosoman, relived this explosive second through his painting, capturing his memory of this traumatic event. Rosoman continually repainted this event with the desire to encapsulate the trauma, the tension and to express the truest form of his experience, thus providing a deeply spatial moment that expanded from not only his memory but a minute time scale, a single second.
U N T I T L E D
( F I G U R E
f r a n c e s c a
A N D
D O O R )
w o o d m a n
A precariously balanced door dissects the scene as it intersects the subject, Francesca Woodman, creating tension and an uncertain poise suggesting a flux-like state as the door appears to suggest an imminent catastrophe. Francesca Woodman’s photographic sets above evoke a tension a similar mistrust explored in Rosoman and Keaton’s works, whilst also taking a door, a familiar object, and assigning it a new use, a new meaning, one fraught with danger and disastrous possibilities, an architectural device once used to signify a change in space is now an object poised as though it is a lethal guillotine.
O N E b u s t e r
W E E K k e a t o n
Buster Keaton continually explored his deep-rooted mistrust in the architectural form, a mistrust that was born out of lived experiences throughout his childhood. Keaton’s experiences and memories are played out through his cinematography, continually explored and developed through a vast number of architectural stunts. Stunts where: walls become floor plates, doors become portals into an abyss, floor plates become voids and walls become thresholds to pass through. These explorations become deeply spatial, drawing direct connotations to William Sansom’s experiences of confusion and mistrust as he voyaged through burnt and smoking wreckages in London during the Second World War.
C O L D
D A R K
c o r n e l i a
M A T T E R pa r k e r
Cornelia Parker saw the explosion of a garden shed as an opportunity to work on a durational piece of art, a piece that took place within a split second but an event that had a great sense of an expanded and stretched duration. By exploding the garden shed Parker removed what is familiar, what is trusted, a place where one may feel safe, and in doing this she enabled a foundation to create a new space with new spatial opportunities, one that is built from what is left and from what is found amongst the rubble in the aftermath.
IMAGINED DESTRUCTION WITHIN AN ARCHITECTURAL MODEL Personifying the principles of this architectural investigation within an architectural model, orchestrating destruction upon the model to record the event as it unfolds, enabling opportunities to be found within the event and from the aftermath of destruction at a miniature scale.
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Camera Rig.
Bomb/Trap door.
Birds eye view camera rig.
A RIG FOR CALIBRATED DESTRUCTION & CONTROLLED OBSERVATION. The rig will act as a metaphoric site whereby a controlled destruction will take place, it will be controlled and recorded to generate drawings. The destruction will provide a catalyst to develop architectural investigations and practices. It will later become a physical metaphor for the observational qualities of the architectural speculation.
Point of Concentration
A RECORING OF THE DESTRUCTIVE WAVE.001 Please
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A RECORING OF THE DESTRUCTIVE WAVE.002 Please
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A RECORING OF THE DESTRUCTIVE WAVE.003 Please
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RECORDING, REPEATING & WITNESSING A DYNAMIC EVENT Recording the repetition of identical destructions, tracking the catastrophic developments as the moment is repeated upon the same landscape. As the event is repeated the landscape changes, it becomes more fractured, it develops into a foreign field of shattered architectural elements that have been warped as the event is replayed. As the experiment continued it become deeply reminiscent of Leonard Rosoman’s painting, it was as though the landscape was altering and changing like Rosoman’s canvas did in the pursuit for a true reflection of his memory.
M O V E M E N T
A N D
D I S R U P T I O N
understanding
The
i n v e s t i ga t i o n s
i n h ab i t
the
into
dynamic
a
composed
event,
it
a
and
all o ws and
dynamic,
its
destructive
orchestrated
them
to
attempt
destructive
I N V E S T I G A T I O N S event
destruction to
better
q u al i t i e s .
all o w
the
understand
o bs e r v e r the
to
moment
M A P P I N G Compositions of stills taken from recordings of the orchestrated destruction, evoking a great sense of tension and movement within a moment held in an image.
M O V E M E N T S
W I T H I N
D E S T R U C T I O N
Tracking the movement of architectural fragments upon and after an impact with an external force. An exercise that harnessed the creative philosophy of both William Sansom and Leonard Rosoman, drawing over recordings as a means of remembering and recreating a dynamic moment. Thus, enabling a composition of architectural trajectories unfolding an opportunity to design from a remembered incident through the interaction of parts moving at a high velocity.
DRAW N EXPLORATIONS I NV ESTIGAT IN G THE M OM E N TS OF TE N S ION DURING THE DECONSTRUCTION OF A R C HITE C TUR E S . VOL.001 Calibrating fragments of great poignancy during the altering of architectural states, whereby these fragments could be reimagined as future architectures.
DRAW N EXPLOR A TION S IN V E S TIGA TIN G THE M OM E N TS OF TE N S ION DURI NG THE DE C ON S TR UC TION OF A R C HITE C TUR E S . VOL.002 Calibrating fragments of great poignancy during the altering of architectural states, whereby these fragments could be reimagined as future architectures.
COLLATING FRAGMENTS FROM A PAST DESTRUCTION. Forming a physical manifestation of a memory, rebuilding and remembering a moment of hyper-vigilance allowing the digestion of minute details.
PREDICTI NG & CALIBRATIN G M OV E M E N TS OF A N UN K N OW N DE S TR UC TION Digesting the fragmented details of a past destruction, analysing the spatial consequences before and during the introduction of an external force. Dashed lines speculate upon future movements. Solid lines predict the directional movements of architectural fragments.
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A F T E R
INHABITING THE MEMORIES
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A F T E R
The third act in this series of investigations will develop an architectural response to the aftermath of William Sansom’s single traumatic event. Act Three will architecturally develop out of the landscape of what is left behind, evolving spatially from within the manifestation of Sansom’s traumatic memory, reinhabiting his memories in a spatiotemporal manner. The third act will use Sansom’s literary works as a memory manifestation, developing from his memories, exploring the episodic opportunities found within the work.
S C A R Y J
e n n i f e r
T H I N G S &
K
e v i n
1
& M
c
2 c o y
The curated set up of rigs and armatures around a series of moments that provide strategic observational perspectives that, in this project, they explored the elements of nature that can be frightening to children. The recordings enabled the viewer to explore the landscape from angles and views that they would not be able to access, providing a spatial experience of a minature landscape.
T H E A T R E
O F
m a r k
A M N E S I A
w e s t
Mark West created a scene where one would be evoked into sensing a feeling involuntary deja vu by occupying a landscape with peculiar objects that remove what is familiar to the viewer. Mark West’s Theatre of Amnesia drew similarities to this architectural project with his occupation of a landscape with architectural devices that evoke the viewer into an emotion, just as I wish to develop upon the terrain of the site with architectural interventions that create spatiotemporal experiences for the visitor that evoke an understanding of William Sansom’s perpetual manifestation of his single traumatic event.
C H U R C H
O F
LYONEL
T H E
M I N O R I T I E S
FEININ G ER
Feininger was an expressionist painter during the 20th century, upon his return to Berlin in 1907 he began to depict architectural subjects and street scenes. Feininger’s depiction of architectural settings drew grew personal inspiration, with their form, perspective and primarly the sense of atmosphere created by the constrast between diffused light and soft shadows.
D E V A S T A T I O N ,
1 9 4 1 G RAHAM
:
A N
E A S T
L O N D O N
S T R E E T
S U T HERLAND
Graham Sutherland; a surrealist painter, experienced the Blitz first-hand. Sutherland worked and painted bomb sites and ruins. Sutherland painted in the gaps between air raids, venturing into still smoking ruins to find his industrial muse. Sutherlands works paint a haunted landscape that create a duality between the familiar and unfamiliar, his work suggests an architectural uncertainty and a fragility. Sutherland’s depictions of devastation provide an inspiration for a spatiotemporal experience where constant dualities between light, darnkness, familiar and unfamiliar become focal points.
1 9 1 7 S AM
MENDE S
Sam Mendes’ 1917 depicted a scene where the protagonist must navigate their way through a burn out town, traversing the rubble of the aftermath. The scene conveys a haste, a spatial uncertainty, and brilliantly portrays a duality of light and darkness, life and death. The cinematographic spatial sequence is illuminated by the fire within the aftermath, which creates a pertinent connection the design project. The event illuminated ones experience allows the visitors to inhabit the memory to a richer and deeper level.
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C O M P O S I T I O N
O F
S P A T I A L
R I B B O N S
Developing spatial trajectories into physical architectural opportunities, unfolding an opportunity to develop into multiple facets of the built composition.
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C O M P O S I T I O N
O F
I N T E R A C T I N G
P A R T S
A development of composition, and an interwoven relationship of potential platforms interacting with each other, creating an entanglement of spatial memories.
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D Y N A M I C
S E C T I O N
O F
I N T E R R E L A T I N G
P A R T S
A dynamic section, exposing a potential movement between floor plates, presenting a tension of stored energy.
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C A P I T A L I S I N G
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D Y N A M I C
M O M E N T
Drawing into the sectional exploration created an opportunity to develop and further explore the architectural opportunities found amongst the spatial ribbons, thus creating a reoccurring design process that embodied William Sansom’s re-enactment of the traumatic events he witnessed and lived amongst.
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P R E C A R I O U S
P E R S P E C T I V E
Exploring the potential relationships whereby the ribbons become floor plates, elevated off the ground plane, balanced in a seemingly precarious manner and thus creating a sense of mistrust in the solidity and permanence in the architectural form.
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i n h ab i t i n g
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memory
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e x pa n d i n g
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literature
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spa t i all y
d e v e l o p i n g a s e r i e s o f t i m e bas e d e p i s o d i c s e q u e n c e s .
Exploring the spatial opportunities and restraints through architecturally analysing William Sansom’s experiences in Fireman Flower, and thus beginning to inhabit the memory architecturally. The experiences will focus on deeply spatial moments, events where one’s touch, sight, and sense of time become elevated by the event itself. All excerpts are taken from Fireman Flower by William Sansom.
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S
w h i ls t
E N T R A N C E A
DECEP T IVE
S E Q U E N C E ENCROACHMEN T
ANTICIPATION CURIOSITY UNCERTAINTY COMPRESSION
Fireman flower rapidly assessed the building that enclosed somewhere the secret he must unravel.
...here was this immense edifice standing quite alone!
Occassionally platforms appeared, and sometimes an iron balcony with its attendant staircase jutted out suddenly from one place in the wall - only to disappear again as if on a secret errand, a few storeys above. The ground had become treacherous with traps for the fireman who scuttled to and from the fire.
An entrance sequence that alters its floor height irregularly introducing a treacherous architectural landscape as one enters through the threshold into the museum.
T R A N S I T I O N A L T HE
FIR S T
S T EP S
S E Q U E N C E T O
T HE
FIRE
INTRIGUE MISTRUST INQUISITIVE TOUCH
Flower wanted to find the stairwell. In that fog he could only begin to do this by following lines of hose that had already been laid down
Feeling his passage with his boots as a blind man feels with his stick. Then, suddenly, he tripped over the first step of the stairway. This was the first step to the source of the fire. Hose laid down by other men had led Flower so far Floor surfaces, subtle changes in floor height, and floor lighting provides a path to follow and focus upon Ones focus is prompted to the ground and into a sensory experiences focused on touch to provide a path through.
A A S
D I V E R S I O N T HE
CHAO S
O F
P A T H S
UNRAVEL S
CHAOS CONFUSION DECEPTION COMPRESSION
It was this dead light, this duet of life and the denial of life that first impressed Flower with the true quality of chaos into which he ventured. ...the lines of hose had now divided and were proceeding each in a different direction. But now one led away to the left and the other curved sharply and disappeared into the smoke a few feet to his diagonal right. Continued suggestions of direction intimated by an altering floor surface and height as one works their way through the confusion. The reference to smoke realised through a dimly light spatial sequences, aided through fleeting suggestions of light.
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C L I M A T I C
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NEW
R E V E A L
VEN T URE
EXCITEMENT EXPECTANCY SPATIAL CURIOSITY DECOMPRESSION / RELEASE
Now he stumbled along what felt like a passage. ...he found the wall and felt along it with his left hand. The luminosity that had mooned behind the denser smoke cloud now began to assume form. It focused itself into a perspective of reflections that grew brighter as they approached the far end of the passage, where apparently there was a source of fire. The passage ended abruptly with a sharp turn to the right. He stood on the floorless threshold of a huge vault. There was a drop of some feet into the vault. He stood on the edge of what seemed a new venture. A sensory experience aided by the architectures form, a wall becomes a hand rail in a passage of confusion and darkness. A play on experiential qualities where the contrast between light and dark spaces is abundant. An architecture journey that personifies a lived experience of mistrust in what lies ahead.
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V E S S E L
S PACIOU S
O F
M O M E M T A R Y
C A L M
S ERENI T Y
PEACEFUL SPACIOUSNESS RELEASE JOYFULNESS
...jumped the few odd feet down into the vault. He felt that here was a haven from his doubts. “Are you sure this is the seat of the fire?” ...it had momentarily overwhelmed him with its implications of rest, security, and freedom from doubt. Flower had no wish to retrace his previous path. Instead he followed a random line of hose that led up a narrow flight of rough wooden stairs. Flower and his companions ascended in the dark. A transition from confusion and claustrophobia to spaciousness. The seat of the fire, a space where work is exhibited, but not the final destination. The journey through the museum continues, and back into darkness guided by enquiry.
T H E w i l l e d
P R E S U P U S i n t o
a
n e w
O F
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N E W
V E N T U R E UNCERTAINTY INTUITION RELIANT HAPTIC AIDS
v e n t u r e
“Now he stumbled along what felt like a passage... he sensed the presence of walls... he found hand.
the
wall
and
felt
along
it
with
his
He never looked back. The passage ended abruptly with a sharp turn to the right. Flower turned around the corner and stopped dead.”
A spatial transition that enforces the directionality. Guided by light through architectural suggestions of uncertainty. An episodic sequence that wills one into the next sequence.
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The site at Norton Folgate will become the landscape where William Sansom’s literary works and memories become manifested architecturally. An assemblage of cohesive spatiotemporal sequences will create a curated architectural experience for visitors to experience and reinhabit his memories.
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THE DYN A MIC EVENT
B E F ORE
B E F ORE
DURIN G
A F TER
THE DR A W IN G ROOM a n a r c h i t e c u t r e i n fl u x a defining architectural intervention a domestic device of uncertainty a r c h i t e c t u r al fa m i l i a r i t y l o s t a dynamic event spa t i al i t y b o r n f r o m a d y n a m i c e v e n t i n h ab i t i n g t h e af t e r m a t h
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a n d s u pp o r t i n g spa t i al m o m e n t s
“Observing at first the true quality of chaos into which he had ventured.”(excerpt from Fireman Flower by William Sansom)
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O B S E R V I N G
T H E
M E M O R Y
reinhabiting the memory.
The visitor experiences depictions of the dynamic event before proceeding onto the site, the visitor at this moment becomes an active participant in William Sansom’s memories, reinhabiting it and creating their own perspective on the events.
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M O S T
P R E C A R I O U S
S E A T
“Above a fireman seems to float in mid-mist.” “But this is the illusion of steam and smoke, for he really sits astride a broken wall... ...the fireman sits on a most precarious seat.” (excerpt from The Witnesses by William Sansom)
A N
U N E X P E C T E D
V O I D
“Flower flung himself forward at the steel doors. He missed his footing and fell forward into the light. Flower dropped six or eight feet down towards a brightly polished floor.” (excerpt from Fireman Flower by William Sansom)
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the architecture evolves
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the memory manifests
As the memory manifests, the scale and dimension begin to expand, the spatiotemporal experience begins to develop, thus it holds subjective meanings to those who experience it.
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V I E W
A compositional experiment whereby the structures begin to interact with the landscape after the event. Taking photographic observations of the landscape, analysing what remains.
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W T I N E S S
C O M B I N G
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L A N D S C A P E
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S E A R C H
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A N S W E R S
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T H E
M O M E N T
U N F O L D E D ,
T H E
C H A O S
E N S U E D
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D U A L I T Y
O F
S H A D O W
A N D
L I G H T
M A P P I N G
S P A T I A L
O P P O R T U N I T I E S
Mapping spatial chances within the landscape of the aftermath, using trajectorial markings to provide spatial, architectural possibilities.
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COMPOSITIONAL RELATIONSHIPS & ASSIGNING ARCHITECTURAL CONSTRAINTS Plotting spatial points of interest between new and proposed architectural elements with datums, marking areas to explore spatially and architecturally. Triangulating existing architectural trajectories providing site based constraints that offer exploitative opportunities
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FOCUSING OBSERVATIONS & SITE BASED OPPORTUNITIES
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As the memories stitch themselves together the architecture begins to take form, the journey expands and the visitor embarks on a voyage. A voyage sculpted and dictated by the spatiotemporal memories of William Sansom. These memories form haptic experiences that create an architectural experience formed from minute time scales, together they create a spatiotemporal experience that embodies Sansom’s memories.
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SITE OVERVIEVW SCALE 1:100 Mapping a constantly repeating cycle of movement and experiences, whilst exploring potential focal points through view cone trajectories.
COMPOSITE AERIAL VIEW SCALE 1:100
THE PRESUPUS OF A NEW VENTURE
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Wall by William Sansom)
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by the pump, was killed.” ( E x c e r p t f r o m T h e
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boots cemented to the pavement as lofty away
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“That long second held me hypnotize, rubber
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as t h e i m m i n e n c e o f m o v e m e n t g r e w g r e a t e r .
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a declining hope.
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IDENTIFYING THE KEY SPATIAL MOMENTS & PROTAGONISTS
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w i ll e d i n t o a n e w v e n t u r e
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passage...
he sensed the presence of walls, close...
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he found the wall and felt along it with
his hand.
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He never looked back. The passage ended abruptly with a sharp
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turn to the right.Flower turned around
the corner and stopped dead. ” (Excerpt from Fireman Flower by William Sansom)
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A VESSEL OF MOMEMTARY CALM
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h e r e h i s j o u r n e y s t o o d s t i ll , i n a s t i ll c h a o s .
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“The room was moonlit and deserted.” “For a while he lsot all reason, all
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“and then he realized that between the
smiles, beneath the enthusiasm there
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lay in these faces an uncertainty.”
(Excerpts from Fireman Flower by William
Sansom)
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THE WITNESS(ES)
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as t h e wall falls
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throughout the episode, although it would
saw the final truth...” (Excerpt from The Witnesses by William Sansom)
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“We had been lucky. We had been framed by
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one of those window spaces.”(Excerpt from
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The Wall by William Sansom)
af t e r t h e wall
“My brain digested every detail of the
scene. new eyes opened at the side of my
head...”
“I could only think. I couldn’t
move.”Excerpts from The Wall by William
Sansom.” (Excerpt from The Wall by
William Sansom)
A SUPRESSED CAPACITY FOR ACTION a n o pp r e ss i v e s e n s e o f e x p e c t a n c y
“Observing at first the true
quality of chaos into which he had
ventured.”(excerpt from Fireman Flower
by William Sansom)
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the guilty survivor
A CONSTANT ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND THE EVENT
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“we, the witness were of course present
be difficult ever to determine whether we
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STORYBOARDING A SERIES OF SPATIAL MEMORIES & MOMENTS
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A SUPRESSED CAPACITY FOR ACTION
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A CONSTANT ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND THE EVENT
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“Observing at first the true quality of chaos into which he had ventured.”(excerpt from Fireman Flower by William Sansom)
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(
as t h e wall falls
“we, the witness were of course present throughout the episode, although it would be difficult ever to determine whether we saw the final truth...” (excerpt from The Witnesses by William Sansom)
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S
)
THIS WALL FELL FLAT. IT DETACHED FROM ITS PIVOT AND FELL FLAT.
A CLIMACTIC MOMENT HELD IN FLUX.
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C O N S T A N T A T T E M P T T O D E R S T A N D T H E E V E N T af t e r t h e wall
“My brain digested every detail of the scene. new eyes opened at the side of my head...” “I could only think. I couldn’t move.”Excerpts from The Wall by William Sansom.”
U N -
FRAMED BY AN OBLONG WINDOW
“TO THE OTHER SIDE OF ME WAS A FREE RUN UP THE ALLEY” t h e wall b y w i ll i a m sa n s o m
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a d e c l i n i n g h o p e , as t h e i m m i n e n c e o f m o v e m e n t g r e w g r e a t e r .
“The last resistance of bricks and mortar at the pivot point cracked off like automatic gun fire... ...we
dropped the house crouched...
and
...Lofty, away by the pump was killed.” (Excerpt from The Wall by William Sansom)
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H
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N
P E
R W
“Now
E
he
S V
U E
P N
U T
stumbled along what like a passage...
S U
R
felt
he sensed the presence of walls... he found the wall and felt along it with his hand. He never looked back. The passage ended abruptly with a sharp turn to the right. Flower turned around the corner and stopped dead.” (Excerpt from Fireman Flower by William Sansom)
O E
F
A
DESCENT INTO THE UNKNOWN
AN INDEPENDANCE OF FORM
WILLED INTO A NEW LANDSCAPE
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h e r e h i s j o u r n e y s t o o d s t i ll , i n a s t i ll c h a o s .
“The room was moonlit and deserted.” “For
a
while he lsot all reason, all sense of time. “
“and then he realized that between the smiles, beneath the enthusiasm there lay in these faces an uncertainty.” “The room was burnt with white and bright yellow light.”(Excerpts from Fireman Flower by William Sansom)
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M
A MOST PRECARIOUS SEAT
A MOMENT CAUGHT IN PAUSE A N D F OR A W HILE A LL S E N S E OF TIM E IS LOS T
T
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E
revisting
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r e sp o n d i n g t o a r c h i t e c t u r all y m a n i f e s t e d m e m o r i e s .
A N A L Y S I N G , R E F L E C T I N G A N D R E S P O N D I N G O N E ’ S S P A T I O T E M P O R A L E X P E R I E N C E . An
attempt
to
make
sense
of
the
event
T O
DR AW I N G
a
OU T
r e i n h ab i t a t i o n
ON E’ S
of
a
S PA TIOTE M POR A L
memory,
forging
out
experiences.
new
E X PE R IE NCE
memories
from
pas t
TRIANGULATING ARCHITECTURAL PATHS FROM INCEPTON TO REALISATION. Understanding the path allowing for one to make an informed reflection and response to their experiences through drawn expressions.