Intimate Cities
manual01: studio2
Rick Dargavel Amy Hanley
Alex Raher B(Arch) yr 5 MSA studio 2
Intimate Cities
Re-programming of urban space: semester 1 strategies
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The Intimate Cities unit is concerned with the relationships between people and the architectural affordances of the city that give pleasure, delight and excitement to urban life. The rediscovery of alternative programming that had been pushed to the peripheries was undertaken in the previous semester for Studio 1. The discoveries led to new potentials for reprogramming the urban fabric, based on a new approach or perspective about how people occupy, inhabit and use space. The materials, forms and boundaries are redefined to change the experiential nature of the architecture. The progression from the previous term is now looking to ways this can be installed onto the city grid; how the residual spaces can accommodate the alternatively programmed, whilst also including the corporate city. The question to solve is whether a coexistence can occur between the two and if the corporate city, with its strict rules and behaviour, can be fused with the intimate to design new urban narratives and situations. Vacant sites right across the city can be considered spaces of potential. Opportunities for reprogramming can be found by simply traversing the urban landscape, all that is required is the space to site the program. Often an actual architectural intervention is unnecessary. Jean Baudrillard suggests “modernity is dominated by the expulsion of the natural order; a residue� - playing on the notion that modern architecture has ignored the fundamental importance of human interaction and engagement with space. The residue is the left over space, the interstitial areas of the city that are static and inactive because they are dominated by the commodified, commercial city. The strategies I have explored here are based on the reattachment of individuals with their urban habitat and an attempt to reclassify the corporate as a coexistence of revenue generating and experiential functions. The ubiquitous office has been explored as a design skeletal framework to test these ideas upon. Individual and group work has been undertaken throughout the term, with the group work used as a collaborative tool to explore greater potentials than could be done individually. The strategies for designing an office and how the new programmes could be integrated have also been explored with the outputs leading to an investigation into the concept of montage. The architectural design process has been tested and the potential to re-configure traditional thinking towards urban design and the production of a building questioned.
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ubiquitous office
office design: re-imagining the corporate
re-programming through coexistence
back piccadilly as generic typology
eisenstein and foucault
moving picture as montage
contents
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ubiquitous office
regulations & frameworks
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Office design can be easily and sometimes too quickly criticised, however the subjective merits of office design can also be celebrated. There are certain parameters that can be used as a guidelines to office design, alongside certain regulations and frameworks that can be followed. Here, the key kit of parts are explored through building standards.
Disabled refuge provision on escape stairwell
Points of reference: - Toilets should be located in similar areas on each floor. - One ambulant cubicle per sex, at least one wheelchair accessible cubicle per floor. - Take office floor are of 675sqm, using 1 person per 10sqm, results in total of 6WC’s, 6 washbasins. -Design for vertical escape: refuges needed on each floor for wheelchairs. - Area for this 900mm x 1400mm -Max escape distance: 18m to stairwell (or 45m see right) -Min number of exits from a room/storey: 60people: 1, 60-600 people:2, 600+ people: 3
Simple core layout: -fundamental components
Stair -Approved doc B vol.2 - MCR council D&A 2
Fire protected lobby space -Approved document B vol. 2 -MCR council D&A
Single escape route: max. escape distance = 18m.
Multiple escape routes but angle between routes of escape <450 = 18m max. travel
Multiple escape routes but angle between routes of escape >450 = 45m max. travel
Lift and service space -MCR council D&A
CORES: toilets stairs lifts DDA escape and travel distances
Toilets -BS 6045 -Approved document B vol. 2 -MCR council D&A 2
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ambulance 5.7 x 2.2 x 2.4m
fire engine 10 x 2.5 x 3.5m
Approved document B in the Building Regulations refers to emergency service provision:
Dry risers have to be in a fireresistant shaft (see opposite) usually in one of the escape stairwells. Wet risers are pipes that are kept full of water for manual or automatic fire-fighting systems, dry risers are kept empty and allow water to be distributed at multiple levels of the building in the event of fire.
The main requirements for firefighting are dependant on the size of the building by as a general rule there must be: a. vehicle access for fire appliances b.access for fire fighting personnel c. the provision of fire mains within the building d.venting for heat and smoke from basement areas e.the provision of adequate water supplies A fire engine laden weight is around 16 tonnes and the road width needed to accommodate such a vehicle is 3.7m wide. Taller buildings tend to have a fire main and there must be access to the inlet valve within 18m for the fire services.
Water Supply: If no piped water supply is available - an alternative supply must be provided by either: a. charged static water tank of at least 45,000 litre capacity b. a spring, river, canal or pond capable of providing or storing at least 45,000 litres of water all year round: need access, space and a hard standing area for the pumping appliance to access it c. or any other means considered appropriate by fire fighting authorities
Access: If access leads to a dead end the reversing distance for an emergency services vehicle should not be more than 20m before coming to a turning point or exit.
20m max
Buildings with a floor more than 18m above fire and rescue vehicle access, or with a basement more than 10m below vehicle access should have fire-fighting shafts with fire fighting lifts. Fire shafts should serve every floor that they pass.
All fire fighting shafts should be equipped with fire mains and have valves and outlets at every storey.
EMERGENCY SERVICES: access and serviceability
Shopping complexes should also have fire fighting shafts. A storey area of 900 sqm or more and 18m above ground = at least 2 fire shafts Every fire fighting stair and lift should be approached from the accommodation through a fire fighting lobby as can be seen below.
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mancunian office: european office
Selimex office, Italy - reinforced concrete
MABEG Headquarters, Germany - concrete core, steel construction
Hawenweg, Germany -reinforced concrete
PRECEDENT: ubiquitous office precedent studies
Guzzini office, Italy -steel load bearing
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Standard Unit research was
undertaken to determine the standard dimensions for installing commercial units at ground level of the office block. Units such as Tesco metro, Boots and other retail outlets were analysed to
Plan
Section
get a better understanding of the framework and function of these spaces, particularly circulatory patterns and servicing requirements. The varied function of different retail outlets can be seen here but the general
components are similar across them all. As a guideline, deliveries are almost always at the rear of the store, with an easy access route into the storage area and
particular needs. Shop floor area, tills, storage, and entrance (lobby) are always necessary.
STANDARD UNITS: dimensions and layout
subsequently out onto the shop floor. Certain shops have specific requirements, such as the bank public offices for privacy, however most retail outlets can be generalised to a set kit of parts, just rearranged dependant on the
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Office buildings are serviced
in multiple ways and require particular design considerations to meet requirements for heating, cooling, air change, wet and dry systems and water supply. There are two options for large office building services: selective or exclusive design. Exclusive buildings exclude the external environment and rely on technology to service and regulate the internal atmosphere. They can stick to the set rules of: - Heating 21 degrees - Cooling 23 degrees - Ventilation 6 ach (air changes per hour) - Lighting 400 lux - Acoustics 35 NR (noise rating) Selective buildings utilise the passive zone only and rely on the external environment to create an internal equilibrium, utilising solar gain, stack effect cooling and sustainable energy sourcing etc. They are often very intelligently designed and energy consumption is far lower than an exclusively designed office.
Foster + Partners 3 London Riverside : exclusive office design
Service risers The service risers are generally incorporated into the core(s) of the building allowing for efficient vertical flow. Pipe, duct and electrical wiring is usually located in ceiling or floor voids out of sight. Wet/dry risers obviously need to be compartmented away from electrical servicing. Plant rooms can be located either in basement level, on the roof, or internally (for server rooms). The recommended plant room size is roughly 5% of the total floor area. Ventilation: the building regulations (part F) require habitable rooms and toilets to be ventilated by natural or mechanical means. Fresh air rate = air change rate x room volume Ventilation rate = air change rate x room volume Drainage, waste and foul water (part H b. regâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s) A system must be provided to
Eduardo Souto de Moura: Burgo Tower office : exclusive
remove all foul water from the building. Waste storage: need 2600 ltr per 1000m2 gross floor space, with 1/3 of that for recycling waste. Water Supply Cold water requirements: 40-45 ltr per person per day (70-100 people per floor) Hot water requirements: 5 ltr per person. Rainwater harvesting Rainwater collected from the roof and can be used for outdoor water requirements - also WCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and washing machines.
Mick Pearce: Eastgate Centre, Zimbabwe : selective, passive design
SERVICING: dry and wet, waste and water
Dry/Wet Risers For use of fire service to provide water to extinguish fire. Dry risers remain empty and need access at ground level for fire fighting personnel (within 18m of outlet). Wet risers are constantly full of water and ready to distribute it across all floor levels.
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office design: re-imagining the corporate
corporate fusion
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Building use classes: A1 - Shops A2 - Financial and Professional A3 - Restaurants and Cafes A4 - Drinking Establishments A5 - Hot Food Take Away B1 - Business B2 - General Industrial B3 - Special Industrial Group A B4 - Special Industrial Group B B5 - Special Industrial Group C B6 - Special Industrial Group D B7 - Special Industrial Group E B8 - Storage Or Distribution C1 - Hotels and Hostels C2 - Residential Institutions C3 - Dwellings, Houses, Flats, Apartments C4 - Houses In Multiple Occupations Sui Generis - Does Not Fall Into Any Class D1 - Non-Residential Institutions D2 - Assembly and Leisure
The building regulations research provided the framework upon which to build upon and re-configure the office floor plate. Once the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;kit of partsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; has been established, there is more freedom to re-plan the interstitial spaces. To reintroduce the intimate into such a corporate setting, it needs careful planning and manipulation of space and function. The design guide can be tested by suggesting new levels of coexistence between intimate and corporate programs, creating a new street scene that is activated by use and provides a new exploratory potential in the urban environment. I feel this is important to reactivate the city and this typology, or framework, can be tested on other cities and used as a re-configured design guide. A new set of parameters that give greater emphasis to the intimate, more space to forgotten programs and a way to install this onto the existing city grid.
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Structural Grid Standard uniform steel sizes are both economical and sustainable. This will allow for maximum flexibility and a larger open plan floor plate.
Core The core will house the services of the building; stairs, lifts, risers, toilets and storage.
Services Deliveries and access to serviced areas of the building need to be accessed through ground floor/ basement level.
Maximise Office Floor Area For maximum floor area, an open plan office is most economical.
kit of parts
Fire Escape Fire escape routes and access must be clear and comply with regulations, Part B of the building Regulations.
Intimate Gives a sense of pleasure and excitement which has been lost to commercialism and consumerism. Through architectural programming it will give space back to programmes which create intrigue, excitement, fun, fear and exploration.
Commercial There needs to be an element of commercial frontage for economic reasons and for there to be a coexistence between the two.
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The establishment of a kit of parts means that the office can now be planned, alongside the building regulation requirements. The reconfiguration of the office needs to be tested, to see how and if the intimate programmes can be added coexisting with the corporate. A structural model was made at 1:200, using a 7m grid to explore possibilities for core arrangements. Using block and grid systems, multiple layouts can be quickly tested and the optimum found. The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;plug inâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; programming of the intimate at ground level can also be looked at, looking at street frontages and affordances of space that the rigid grid system provides.
The commercial element of an office is always required to obtain revenue, this is standard for these type of developments. The possibility of using the ground (or even first) floor for reprogramming is a proposal to integrate both the commercial with the alternative. This coexistence can be reapplied across the city as a logic, defined by only minimal parameters as most offices, as we have discovered, are governed by similar rules and design guides. The next step was to look at these relationships: how the intimate could be plugged into the corporate skeleton of the office building to create a fusion of the two elements. The concept is that if the commercial can still exist alongside the intimate, then the financial and economical side still brings revenue, but the intimate can still animate the street at the same time. The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;rulesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; I looked at were core, layout, structure, grid, commercial vs intimate provision, office services, street fronting space.
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The office floor plate design was explored and different core arrangements tested. The basic plan layout was based on a 7m grid, on a 25m x 28m office block. The grid can be shifted dependant on the floor plate, but as a generic typology the 7m spans work well to design the office plan. The designs with two cores use one core as a smaller escape stairwell, with the other as the larger core for services, lifts, stairs and toilets. The single core designs house all the services in one larger core. The positioning of the core is important for escape distances and to look at usable office floor space. Maximising the usable floor area is vital for commercial revenue for rent gained to be as high as possible.
01 - 2 cores
02 - atrium, single core
The core layout needs to be efficiently designed and practical. The more compact it is, the greater net floor area available for usage outside of the core. It also needs to function well with toilet and stair layouts arranged for ease of access from the office areas and for vertical escape.
03 - arcade & atrium
Natural light penetrates to 7m inside the floor plate, therefore the usable office area is often restricted to the perimeter of the floor plate. A solution around this would be the installation of an atrium, but this option loses floor area: a balance is therefore necessary.
04 - central core
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re-programming through coexistence
strategic building diagram
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natural light entry into floor space: 7m max
arcade layout
Basement plan
Ground floor plan
Typical floor plan 1 - 4
The selected sites above have been looked at in relation to their potential for reprogramming the intimate into. Each has office space at higher levels and the space at ground floor for the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;plug inâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; units that I am proposing. The generic typology and building regulations research is applicable and can be manipulated to mould one of the sites into a coexisting habitat for the commercial and the intimate.
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This option looks at the idea of an arcade system running through the ground floor plan, linking the back of the building with the street frontage with an arcade as a thoroughfare. The arcade runs centrally through the plan and an atrium sits above it allowing natural light to flood the internal spaces, creating more usable office space. The navigational route through the arcade should draw people away from the banal route along the commercial shop frontages and through past the intimate programs that will be plugged into the ground floor spaces. The narrative that will be created is diverse and multifunctional and completely user orientated. It can even function for the office workers on lunch break, with deliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and food stalls mixed up amongst the intimate alleyway. The link through to the back alleys beyond the building also draws new pathways across the urban fabric, generating greater activity in the forgotten spaces on the alley behind.
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Initial plan and core layout sketch possibilities
basement
unit sqm
servicing
02: single core located on party wall
ground
01: 2 cores
floors 1-4
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05: central core, three elevation fronting street
04: central core: 2 offices
03: arcade with atrium
Ubiquitous plan development Option A: atrium/arcade - 2 elevations to street
Typical floor plan (1st-4th)
Typical 1st - 4th floor plan has maximised office usable floor space. The atrium provides natural daylight down through floor plates to give natural light to central areas of the floor plate. Void runs right through building and illuminates arcade passage below at ground level. Two offices can share the floor plate, with services shared in the main core. Split centrally, with escape stair provision on opposite side. Both cores back onto party walls. Ground floor plan is penetrated centrally by arcade running along the length of the plan. Intimate units are accessed from the arcade and it provides a thoroughfare to the alley at the rear and the commercial frontage.
Arcade
Ground Floor plan
One large commercial unit is designed, with 9 intimate units. Units 1-5 accessed through arcade, 6-9 from the back street. The flow and movement across the floor plate brings new animation to the static floor plate design, encouraging transaction and interaction at ground level. Servicing and storage at basement level.
Basement: storage and servicing. Goods lifts provide vertical circulation. Plant room located in core. There is potential for intimate programming in basement area: access from ground level stairs, perhaps a secret cinema type venue.
Basement
core and floor plate arrangement
intimate programming potential
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Ubiquitous plan development Option B: - 3 elevations to street Typical 1st - 4th floor plan has three facades that are street facing, so the office needs to be located on the end of the street block. This allows for maximum floor plate use through natural daylight penetration. Two cores service the floor plate, the main core is pushed to the party wall leaving space centrally on the plan for office service equipment.
Ground floor plan is arranged around a central servicing area. One large commercial unit is proposed, with 5 smaller intimate units located around the perimeter of the plan. Each unit has individual access to street, creating an engaging street frontage all around the building and activating it in its immediate context. The units are plugged in like boxes, they can be temporal or permanent but they are easily adaptable over time. Servicing and storage at basement level.
Basement: storage and servicing. Goods lifts provide vertical circulation. Plant room located in core. Large storage space designed for commercial unit. Again, intimate programming can be installed at units 06 and 07, the space can be provided for potentially the more illicit activities the city can offer. Potentially a secret cinema type venue for unit 06 and a peep show at unit 07. Access can be from unit 04 at ground level and down through stair well.
core and floor plate arrangement
â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;plug - inâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; box units that can expand and adapt dependant on the user and function the evolving units create a more harmonious street atmosphere as they can be reprogrammed and reinstalled to remain active and reactive to the terrain
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Basement
Ground floor plan film framework
Ubiquitous plan 3 street elevations, 2 cores This plan arrangement, with three facades street fronting, was explored in further detail. There are possibilities for intimate units being installed at ground floor level and even in the basement floor with access to these between units 03 & 04 at ground level. The servicing to all the commercial and alternative units is provided through either a. private storage space in each unit or b. basement level storage and goods lifts to the ground floor. The large commercial store is intended for use by a chain such as Co-op, or other food and grocery small retail outlets. The plug in intimate units can be used temporarily or more permanently and can vary in function dependant on the leaseholder. Space has been provided for the street to be reanimated with alternative activities.
Unit reprogramming potential: commercial
[tesco metro etc.]
int 01
deli
int 02
marketplace
int 03
pop-up studio
int 04
studio 2 (art)
int 05
film suite
int 06
secret cinema
int 07
peep show
1st -4th floor plan
the [re]animated street
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urban sport needle exchange astrology/horoscopes fancy dress puppet show tattoo remover toilets
fortune teller destruction room strip show (un) safe deposit introduction agency chocolatier cinema
meals on wheels market place pop-up studio temporary kitchen screaming booth music space film suite
guerilla gardens shrines body piercing flower show markets message board recycling point
Coexistence: redesigning the intimate habitat The interest and intrigue of the building is at ground level, where the intimate is programmed. The strategic diagram of the building has been re-configured, with the skeleton of the office block acting as the host for the [parasitic] alternative programming. The design of the units is based on the idea of adaptable box sections, that can be altered, reshaped, pushed, pulled and carved to create space that is tailored to particular functions. The temporal box programs can be plugged in for a day, then be taken away again. The notion is similar to the traveller without permanent residence, continually in flux and motion as they traverse the city. The reprogramming of the street scene creates atmosphere and density and is not a static entity, the design is meant to encourage flow, interaction and difference. The city is constantly evolving, expanding and changing so the urban habitat of the hyper-real, the alternative and
Box design precedent: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Fredâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; housing unit, Austria. Flexible spaces - fixed structure on units creates a shell for activities to be programmed into.
Corner unit 03 works similar to a pull out drawer system: runners allow canopy to be pulled out along to increase unit area, this also creates space above for multi-level programming. Can be linked to first floor office spaces, leading into and out of offices developing new routes and connections in and out of the building to the intimate street.
circus speed dating bike shed pet shop parkour scribe storytelling
someone to talk to photo booth notice board magic shop punch and judy wandering/drifting sex booth
hugging station deli playing cards preaching urban aviary sculptor smoking
talking/chatting disco confessions observing\loitering tatooist changing room video booth
cores
adjacent building
flexible â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;podâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; units for adaptable programming Basement programming: secret cinema and peep show - access from ground level through one of the units and down the core stairs
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back piccadilly as generic typology
city logics
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The scale I have been looking at focuses on individual programming and the replanning of the ubiquitous office block. Transferring this onto the city scale can be applied as a methodology for refiguring the urban planning and design focus - with people as a priority. If we look at multiple sites across the city, the generic framework designed for the office and the potential for plugging in programs can be realised on multiple sites. It is unrealistic to say that the whole city needs to be un-gentrified and that none of the city should be commodified, however it is possible to install these ideas into the smaller places of intrigue. These sites are the areas of secrets - the exciting and illicit areas of potential. We can give space to an infinite range of possibilities that are opposite to the socially exclusive; through this the whole city scale becomes more diverse and random bringing a new richness to the urban experience.
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loitering talking/chatting hugging station
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pawnbroker fish and chips photo wall scribe smoking
02 video booth changing room lost property destruction room
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confessions pawnbroker secret cinema body piercing
critically selected sites
Richard Sennett looks at the city in relation to its porosity and permeability. Cell membranes and cell walls are used as metaphorical comparisons to a porous, interactive functioning city versus a closed urban landscape of fragmented enclaves. This idea of porosity and free flow of movement across the city can be seen with the situationists and the notion of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;flaneurâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; walking the city without any predetermined direction or purpose. The replanned city I am designing is intended to provide space for the flaneur, space for unplanned activity to happen. The notion of drifting away from the commodified parts of the city leads to thinking about alternative programmes and my intention is to multiply these over many potential sites in the city. The plan is transferrable across multiple cities also: there is no reason why the corporate cannot be hybridised with the intimate in other urban settings. The alleyway, the place of secrets, the small residual public areas of the city all have potential for this replanning. The focus is not on size or shape, therefore the process can be repeated almost infinitely, in any setting, as an urban framework for promoting individuality in the city.
06 pause point peep show
message board recycling point circus
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the narrative: runs through urban fabric like a loom multiplicity of identities, encounters and places of secrets
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Manchester city centre: re-planning the residual space
Back piccadilly office reprogramming - the typology and design process can be applied across the city
montage
Exploration of programmatic potential To understand how these ideas and concepts can be applied across the city, we need to refigure how the architectural design process is undertaken. The relationships between people and place are key, as is the programme and activity that takes place in the spaces. To explore how these programmes relate to each other and how space can be manipulated with people in mind we need to take an alternative approach and compile them in a form of image, or montage of ideas as a collective. Montaging comes from the french word â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;monterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; meaning to build/organise. I aim to use this method to explore the organisational rules of space. It will allow an investigation of the hierarchy of architectural affordances and what the key relationships in a scene are between people, object, place and programme.
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eisenstein, foucault & intellectual montage
montage
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Fran Tonkiss explains how spaces are not defined by simply physical alterations or architectural intervention - it is the programming and use of the space that identifies it. The actor gives life to the play through the actions he or she performs; the set is simply a stage for this to happen. The composition of the scene is what gives it life and creates the narrative. Reanimating the street through alternative programming requires an affordance of space for this narrative to be explored. The technique of montaging is used to investigate depth of field, potential use and animation of the street and to appropriate activity to the terrain that could not be envisaged through traditional architectural drawings methods. The montage is a construction of atmosphere to create feelings through imagery. The power of the montage comes from its density, colour, threshold, light, surface treatment and program choice into the terrain of the street. The notion extends to the idea of giving space to the repressed, space to the exiled activities of the city that have been pushed to the peripheries. Space for the independent retailers, salesmen, performers, the public using the street as a whole: these exiled programs have far more possibility for animating the street than the corporate. The beauty of the montage is the manipulation of the edge condition and the coexistence with the corporate that the montage affords. The way these programs can survive and function in the city is if they are integrated together with the existing corporate elements, thus the reasoning for the office on the higher floors and the intimate plug-inâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s at ground level.
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“[Michel] Foucault cites the quarantined quarter, the brothel, the cinema, the library, the public bath, the sauna, the motel room used for illicit sex. Each of these places has a touch of the uncanny...they contain the potential to subvert, to caricature, to distill or to perfect ‘real’ arrangements of space... There are spaces, for instance, that toy with space itself, which juxtapose ‘in a single real place several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible”. “You don’t have to buy a house or open a bar after all, in order to queer space, you just have to kiss your partner in the street”
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Fillip Dujardin architectural montage photography
Fran Tonkiss: Space the City and Social Theory
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Montage methodology Richard Sennett suggests that “public space as a function of motion, loses any independent experiential meaning of its own”, implying that a space that is transient and has no sense of place or meaning, has little function as a space of experience. Walter Benjamin talks about the flaneur and free flow of movement through space away from the commodified and corporate areas of the city. I want to reapply these concepts to the alley space, but as a coexisting habitat for the corporate and the experiential: the montage is a methodology to explore how this will work. The montage path I chose to take was looking at this notion of movement and experientially through imaging. Film techniques portray the image in another perspective and it was this change in perspective that interested me, overlaying scenes to create depth and a new programming.
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“urban life is actually based on this perpetual struggle between rigid, routinised order and pleasurable anarchy, the male-female dichotomy” Fran Tonkiss: Space the City and Social Theory
“[When talking about cinema], the word path is not used by chance. Nowadays it is the imaginary path followed by the eye and the varying perceptions of an object that depend on how it appears to the eye...it may also be the path followed by the mind across a multiplicity of phenomena...gathered in a certain sequence into a meaningful concept; and these diverse impressions pass in front of an immobile spectator.” Sergei Eisenstein: Montage and Architecture 1938
I began to look at film and architecture and one of the pioneers of using montage in film - Sergei Eisenstein. Eisenstein was a soviet Russian filmmaker who started to look at new ways to animate moving images, to create more tension in a scene using different angles of shot, perspectives and switching of camera views. For example, the ‘Dutch Angle’ was used where the horizon level was tilted at an angle; this created apprehension. He also pioneered different montage techniques such as ‘rhythmic’ and ‘intellectual’ explained opposite.
Example of rhythmic montage usage from; Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo
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a 4
2 5 film framework
b
Diagram for the method of Intellectual Montage. The scenes (1-5) are linked through the narrative and shot in sequence, but external scenes (a & b), initally appearing to be unrelated, are flashed up to create atmosphere and metaphor to what is happening is the standard scenes.
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Rhythmic montage is based on cutting images in relation to time. The visual composition of the shots and the speed of the cuts is used to create a more complex narrative than the images themselves could show. Music is also used to create tension.
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moving picture: framings cuts openings
montage
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Potential reprogramming of the street The aim is to create multi-layered function in the street for both the corporate and the intimate. The replanning of the street, the activation of under used spaces must be programmed in new ways. The street is now seen as a canvas and any existing space, components and voids can be used to authenticate the scene. Back Piccadilly is where the exploration of programming will be applied. The street, or alley that runs just metres away from the corporate flow of Piccadilly Gardens and bisects the lower end of the Northern Quarter, is rich with potential new uses. It is an exciting site that is almost a forgotten zone of the city, with its only function seemingly as a transient pathway or urban hideout. It is this exact function that makes it so exciting; the city is full of places of secret, of intrigue and illicit activities that simply need availability or provision of space to augment their function.
urban sport needle exchange astrology/horoscopes fancy dress puppet show tattoo remover toilets fortune teller destruction room strip show (un) safe deposit introduction agency chocolatier cinema meals on wheels pregnancy testing clinic temporary kitchen locksmiths screaming booth music space books guerilla gardens shrines
body piercing flower show markets message board recycling point circus speed dating bike shed pet shop parkour scribe storytelling someone to talk to photo booth notice board magic shop punch and judy wandering/drifting sex booth hugging station music repairs playing cards preaching
urban aviary sculptor smoking talking/chatting disco confessions observing\loitering tatooist changing room video booth golf range news cinema soup kitchen fruit maching performance stage lost property pawnbroker fish and chips mischief parlour peep show secret cinema bicycle doctor photo wall
graffiti zone film studio performance space exchange / vending market space shelter: retreat urban partitions artist booths loosing oneself
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Picasso - horta de ebbo factory: Cubist painting
Montage process: fabrication of the scene Foreground Middleground Background The montage is an exploration of the experience of spaces. What happens in the foreground, middleground and background is what gives the image depth, density and activity. We can read the image similar to how sections and plans are read, but without worrying about the visual appearance or aesthetic. The focus is the experiential nature of space, the threshold, colour, material, translucency and porosity of the space can be expressed through the montage. The cubist painters, such as Picasso, played on the idea of perspective and layering, creating new viewpoints and perceptions of space. The newly perceived space can be reappropriated in multiple ways and it is the method of montage that offers these possibilities. The layering of the image, the process and structure of constructing the montage is as important as the final output as it has layers of meaning and intention to it.
Structuration The hierarchy of the space is key: structuration is based on relationships between people, objects, spaces and programme: the montage process and outputs explore this. The aesthetic and visual appearance of the building is inconsequential, it is the relationship of PEOPLE that are important.
Strategic building diagram The standard architectural approach uses plans elevations, sections to design and look at space. I am attempting to reconfigure this approach and suggest an alternative that looks at actual use of the spaces that are designed. The opposite approach, focusing on function not form, on affordance, density and depth will create a much richer atmosphere.
Montage methodology I have chosen to explore montage through film. The power of film is the ability to capture time and movement; the montaging of moving images will highlight all the spatial notions I have already discussed. Sergei Eisenstein uses the power of montage to capture and create atmosphere in his work through multiple methods. Scene changes and perspective alterations all adapt the users viewpoint and this will be explored through the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;plugging inâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of programmes into an urban space in Manchester.
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The strategic building diagram Architecture is often designed based on set rules, guides and parameters that are inflexible and rigid. This strictness creates border conditions and rigidity of movement: often spatial configurations are drawn up without the actual end usage in mind. The skeleton of the building can easily be designed, but its programming is what is so important, so I am trying to re-configure the design strategy and propose and alternative approach. Architects start with measurements, site surveys, shapes and grids to materialise their ideas. The people and programmes that will occupy the space are considered after the design process, often post-produced and pasted into the scene with little thought as to whether the spaces will actually accommodate or provide for these activities. I propose the opposite. The figure ground needs reversing, the inverse logic needs applying. We must look at programme, function, density, depth and perspective of space and how it can provide new potentials for people. The space must be planned as how people would inhabit it and their relationship with places. This approach ensures the functional success of the space and the form can be moulded around it.
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The reversal of the figure ground The void, the interstitial space, the interaction between people. The spaces are designed with these parameters as guidelines and manipulated around them. The design process is re-configured with people as the focus. When the buildings function is explored this way, we begin to see the importance of understanding the multiplicity of programme that comes from how people behave and interact with each other. This is not just a dimensioning of external space, the internal and the threshold between must also be considered in the same way. Once the skeleton or frame of the ubiquitous office is designed, it allows for the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;plugging inâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of the alternative to happen. The concept of structuration can be revisited with people as the focus and their relationships with object, place and programme. There is space given to the hyper-real, space for the potential of identifying oneself. People can express their true identity when the space is diverse; individuality is not so easily visible or exposed as it is in the generic city. The foreground, middleground and background become important to the discovery of activity within the spaces. The programming can be installed based on the hierarchy of the spaces and the interactivity within them. The viewpoint and perspective of each user is entirely individual and each shift in scene brings a new dimension to the space.
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References: inspiration: bibliography Intimate Metropolis- Karin Jaschke : ch. City is House and House is City Peg Elizabeth Birmingham, 125th Street, from The Edge of the Millenium Tom Nielsen, Superfluous Landscapes, The Return of the Excessive Walter Benjamin & the Parisian situationists Michel Foucault - Of Other Spaces (1967), Heterotopias Fran Tonkiss - Space, the city and social theory Georg Simmel - ‘The Metropolis and mental life’ Michael Hebbert - ‘The street as a locus of collective memory’ Sergei Eisenstein - ‘Montage and Architecture 1938’ Nathalie Aguinaldo, Stripped Bare, MONU Magazine on New Urbanism Cubist art: Picasso, Braque Dada: surrealism Richard Sennett - Quant essay, Biennale lecture 2010 Approved document B vol. 2 MCR council D&A 2 http://www.spatialagency.net/ http://www.mmx.com.mx/
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