Bego, France

Bego, France

Alice Choupeaux Research booklet 1/4 Spring 2017

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CITAstudio - Centre for IT and Architecture The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

Bego, France

Content

Content Bego, France Climate & vegetation Buildings & infrastructures Chalenges & action plans Dune Dunes dynamic Dunes’ composition Plants of the dunes Animals of the dunes Insects of the dunes Bunkers Construction Current knowlegde Flora & Fauna of the dunes as part of the dunes Materials of the site Site layers History layer Circulation layer Flora layer

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Bego, France

Bego, France

Bego, France The coastal dunes and beaches from Gâvres to Plouharnel are part of the french Armor morbihannais landscapes. It is Brittany’s largest dunes area, a unique place contrasting with the surrounding rocky coastal cliffs. The site’s configuration is remarkable. It represents 26 km long of dunes for less than 1 km width. Slightly curved, its coast line allows beautiful views of the site on itself.

Climate & vegetation The climate is of the oceanic tempered type. The temperature rarely goes below 0° or raises more than 30°. Rain is abundant thought out the year ( 800 to 900mm of rain per year ). In the dunes themselves, the conditions are harsh due to the nature of the soil : sand. Constantly moving and extremely permeable, it doesn’t keep water and make it difficult for trees to grow. Absence of trees leads to strong sunlight and high wind speeds. Winds bringing seawater increases the salinity of the soil. Clear-cut, the vegetation that succeeded to grow as massifs in the sand developed remarkable qualities to adapt to this climate.

Buildings and infrastructures The site represents 2600 ha of preserved and not urbanised land : in contrast with other areas, there isn’t any built sea-front. Buildings are sparsed behind the dunes. The only buildings and infrastructures in the dunes are linked with touristic or military activity: parkings, small roads and bunkers.

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Bego, France

Bego, France

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9

5 4%

FEBRUARY

MARCH

4% 3% 4%

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

7%

SEPTEMBER

AUGUST

JULY

8%

JUNE

9%

MAY

APRIL

2% 3%

JANUARY

30%

22%

9%

5 130 mm

3%

4%

DECEMBER

150 mm 70h

140 mm DECEMBER

NOVEMBER

100h

NOVEMBER

120 mm OCTOBER

155h

OCTOBER

90 mm SEPTEMBER

200h

SEPTEMBER

AUGUST

JULY

JUNE

240h

AUGUST

JULY

JUNE

90 mm MAY

APRIL

MARCH

FEBRUARY

JANUARY

180h

MAY

100 mm

APRIL

MARCH

FEBRUARY

JANUARY

Bego, France Bego, France 11

260h 240h 210h 140h 100h 70h

160 mm

60 mm 70 mm 65 mm 88 mm

Bego, France

Bego, France

Recent protection actions reduced the amount of cars in the site and canalised people on walking paths to avoid trampling and destruction of the vegetation. Hence, the landscape is marked by ganivelles and geotextiles leading to the beaches. This visual vocabulary is largely accepted and now often associated with the environment of the coastal dunes.

- A ganivelle is a fence formed by the assembly of wooden latices (often in chestnut wood, 45mm per 13mm). Each lattice is vertical and assembled one another by a string of galvanised iron. The width of the space between each lattice determines the “permeability” of the fence. This device is sufficient to slow down the wind and thus retains flying material as sand. This quality is used for reconstruction or protection of coastal dunes ; their fonction as fence also help to manage walking areas.

Challenges and action plans The dunes are a very sensitive biogeomorphic formations; almost half of the flora and fauna of coastal Brittany is found in the dunes, they are important ecological reserves that need and deserve attention and protection. Since 2000, the Gâvre-Plouarnel site is preserved and controlled by a large protection plan called “Opération Grand Site” (english: large site operation).

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Trampling erosion & wind erosion

Bego, France

Bego, France

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Before

After

Bego, France

Bego, France

- The protection plan “Operation Grand Site” was created to try and maintain places of large notoriety subject to high frequentation in France. It wants to define and bring forward a collaborative project of restoration, preservation and enhancement of the landscape’s qualities. Ways of dealing with high visitors rate as well as protecting the surrounding nature are suggested.

The coastal dunes and beaches from Gâvres to Plouharnel formed a natural landscape protected from mass urbanisation as well as carefully directed in its management in order to preserve its valuable natural resource without excluding the touristic activity. During the summer the population of the area is multiplied by five which has a direct impact on the environment. All the activities are concentrated as much as possible in the towns behind the dunes and any temporary housings such as campings has to follow strict rules about aesthetic harmonisation with the landscape.

The project is fully aware of these problematics and will try to bring a solution while questioning the current rules that strictly forbid any construction on the site. These rules are stated due to the current ways of building which are highly destructive and completely erase nature to sit itself. I believe in a more respectful way of building, an architecture that will work with nature and not against it. Light weight,

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Current action against erosion

Bego, France

Bego, France

Branches to slow down the wind and nourish the soil

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Bego, France

Bego, France

flexible, porous, symbiotic and delicate, this architecture could foster growth, protect from undesired erosion while bringing forward the qualities of the site without isolating us from it. The dunes, because of its protected status, its natural movements, its typical nature and its harsh climatic conditions are an ideal site to test and bring forward the qualities of such an architecture.

This project will be a study case and experiment to develop this form of architecture that, I believe, should become a more larger construction technique in order to stop fighting against natural phenomenas but work with them.

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Bego, France

Dunes

Dunes [ The dunes are good demonstrators of our ambiguous relationship with nature. Loved for the feeling of freedom they procure, we still want to strictly regularise any activity around them. Mobile by nature, we try everything to fix them in place ; while every storm remind us that nature can’t be controlled.]

Britain dunes slowly appeared during the Bronze Age. From the XVII century, the largest dunes area stopped their progression even though some of them are still highly sensitive to erosion.

They are littoral dunes. They grow on the edge of low coast where winds and flying sediments produced by longshore drift allows sand aggregation and the growth of local plants its fixation; they are a biogeomorphic.

Dunes dynamic The different areas evolve with one another. Three major factors impacts the general dynamic of the dunes : the swell and the currents model the beaches; the wind built the foredune and transport the sand above and beyond the sea line; plants contribute to fix the sand.

The major part of the dunes are fixed but the wind and the sea currents influence and change the form of the beaches and foredune from one year to another. During winter the beaches are thinner and the front of the foredune is shaped as a small cliff by the sea due to the storms and

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high and strong tides. During summer the reverse phenomena happens, the beaches get thicker and the foredunes reconstruct themselves due to the action of the swell and calmer weather conditions. This first part of the dunes is particularly unstable and a violent storm is all needed to destroy years of slow sand aggregation. The dunes are also highly sensitive to erosion.

- Three different type of erosion happening in the dunes: - Maritim erosion: action from the sea taking away the early dunes - Wind erosion: the wind digs into the sand as soon as the vegetal layer disappears - Anthropic erosion: humains, by trampling, can be the reason for the vegetation to disappear and sand to be moved.

Dune’s composition - Foreshore and foredune The foreshore is made out of algae, shells, driftwood and have two principal roles: One is biologic: number of animal and plants find necessary food and nutriment in this area; The second one is physic: it is the first area where sand is retained. In close collaboration with the foreshore appears the foredune where the first plants grow and fix the sand that can accumulate. The pioneer plants from the top of the beach needs to adapt to the hight salinity of the soil as well as the strafe of sand and sea salt. They are often perennial or annual.

Bego, France

Dunes

- Mobile dune or white dune After the foredune, at the top of the beach a “hillock” appears, that moves forwards and backwards depending on winter storms, its the “mobile dune” or “white dune”. The plants belonging to this environment have long roots and stems that forms a natural fence retaining a large amount of sand.

This vegetal layer is diverse but sparse, which give to this part the name of “white dune”. The Oyat is a major plant in the “white dune” because of its long roots network that retains the sand and its flexible stem that bends under the strong wind without breaking.

- Fixed dune or gray dune When going further in land the wind speed as well as the sand strafe slow down and allow a more dense and diverse plant layer. The mousses and lichens are the base of this layer and gives it its gray color. These species strongly limit any sand movement and fix the dune which doesn’t move as much as the white dune. Almost 1000 ha of gray dune covers the GâvresQuiberon area. It is the larger dune landscape non interrupted by any urbanisation in Brittany.The main and most precious—because rare—plants found in this area are the association of Rosa pimpinellifolia/Coccoloba uvifera, the Omphalodes littoralis and the Helichrysum stoechas.

- Humid zones Humid zones have a rich biodiversity. Their biologic and hydrologic roles are very important. The water level varies through out the year which

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Dune’s erosion comparaison - Bunker on top of the first dune 1950

Bego, France

Dunes

Dune’s erosion comparaison - Bunker in the water 2016

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Dunes before the storm 2010

Bego, France

Dunes after the storm 2012

Dunes

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Bego, France

Dunes

influences the type of fauna. Many of them are caused by sand quarries.

It is the case of the inter-dunes humid depressions of Kerminihy. The phragmites and caladium are used by birds to nest are the free water are great reproduction area for frogs, salamanders and dragonflies.

Plants of the dunes As described before the conditions in the dunes are especially hostile; sea spray and sand can offer at its best a poor, dry, salty soil that furthermore is moving.

By adapting their physiology and morphology to a life in the dunes, certain special plants succeeded to conquer this unwelcoming environment as well as being a crucial part of its existence. For instance, to resist to sand impacts some plants developed thick leaves often enveloped to protect their vital parts. Finding water is also one of the more difficult challenge in the sand. Plants like the Oyat developed long roots that can reach deeper layers of soil. The tiny, long and fleshy characters of the some leaves to keep water and prevent drying from the wind. Mousses and lichens even goes totally dry and slow down their metabolism during the summer to survive. Many annual plants exist in the dunes, they flourish in summer, spread their seeds and wait for weather conditions to be ideal again.

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Bego, France

Dunes

Animals of the dunes Birds and habits use the dunes as the site to give birth. As sand is easy to dig in habits built their home all around the grey dune. The high plants ( oyats ) are helping the bird to hide away from their predators.

Insects of the dunes Most of the inhabitants of the dunes are insects, spiders and other invertebrates. They appreciate heat and dryness. As the plants they also know how to adapt their behaviour and morphology to the harsh conditions of the dune.

Many of them live during the night to seek freshness and moisture and hide themselves in leaves, fruits or underground during the hot days of summer. Most of them have a clear color to hide in the sand or escape overheating from the sun. A lot of flying insects move by jumping to prevent being carry by the wind. Some fly species even lost their wings.

This adaptation from the flora and fauna is an inspiration for the structure of the project that will be develop in close collaboration with them, taking the climatic and morphologic conditions as a primordial ( if not only ) first design consideration at the scale of the components and cells. Further than just morphology, the plants and animal also adapt their behaviour through the different seasons, a closer study of this phenomena to consider a possible application will be realised.

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Bego, France

Dunes

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Bego, France

Dunes

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Bego, France

Dunes

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Bego, France

Bunkers

Bunkers After the Second World War, the dunes were left with new imbedded grey concrete blocks : the bunkers, parts of an extensive system of coastal defence and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 called the Atlantic Wall (german:Atlantikwall). On the coast from Northern Scandinavia to Southern France, the defence line was built against an anticipated Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. Ruins of this wall still exist in all the nations where it was built, although most of the fortifications have fallen in the Ocean or have been demolished over the years.

On 23 March 1942, Hitler issued Führer Directive No. 40, which called for the creation of the “Atlantic Wall”. Naval and submarine bases had to be heavily defended. This decision was executed by the Organisation Todt (OT), the Third Reich civil and military engineering group.

Over 600 approved types of bunker and casemate were listed in a book called the Regelbau (english:standard build). Each having specific purpose with standard features, such as an entrance door at right angles, armoured air intake, 30mm steel doors, ventilation, communication systems and emergency exit system.

The standardisation simplified the manufacture of the equipment, the supply of materials and the financial control of the construction as well as the speed of planning for construction projects. Within 2 years, most of the planed fortifications were built.

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Bego, France

Bunkers

Construction The material were sourced on site and for most of the bunkers the concrete was poured on site as a homogeneous block. The bunkers were monolithic, without fondations—they are one of the rare modern monolithic architecture—which became a major quality in the dunes: the concret block only depends on its gravity center and allows movements without major damages. This is how we can nowadays observe titled specimens without serious damage. Also, all their outside angles are rounded to be more robust to firing attacks. These qualities also allowed most of them to remains the same as after the Allied landing even though though out the years some drifted in the dunes and slowly disappear in the Ocean eaten by the salty water of the sea.

Current knowledge Apart from the pioneering book Bunker Archaeology by Paul Virilio, it is pretty recently, around 10 years ago, that we began gathering a serious amount of informations concerning these constructions in France. As the Nazi destroyed all the documents related to this period when they lost the war, informations were gathered thanks to passionate people redrawing plans and sections from site measurements, others kept by local french concrete companies that helped at the time of constructions, testimonies from locals and former soldiers were gathered in a handful of books. The researches are still pretty active, using internet as a main

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Bego, France

Bunkers

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1945

Bego, France

2016

Bunkers

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4 One of the 4 main bunkers for canons

Bego, France

Bunkers

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5 Shelter SK for 26 people

Bego, France

Bunkers

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Tobrouk 58C

Radar V229

Hospital

Bego, France

Bunkers

Hospital

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Shelter SK for 10 people

Bego, France

Bunkers

Shelter SK for 10 people

Shelter SK for 26 people

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Command post

Bego, France

Bunkers

Fl 242 AA ( anti-aircraft )

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Fire control tower

Bego, France

Bunkers

Electric shelter

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Ammunition depot

Bego, France

Bunkers

Ammunition depot

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Bego, France

Bunkers

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communication media between the communities involved. Associations all over France were created for the management of these war vestiges, gathering informations, organising visits etc.

Nowadays we believe all typology of bunkers on the french coast are identified and documented. According to Admiral Jean Lemonnier, who in 1944 established a complete list and the plans of fortifications and obstacles built by the Germans on French shores, the Atlantic Wall comprised 15 000 concrete works, of wick 4 4000 were major works and 9300 artillery batteries. Each system of coastal defence, support station, or naval battery was buttressed to a major post, itself transformed into a fortress ( copy past from bunker archeology book p62) To name them, a specific code is used. The abbreviations R, Fl and SK preceding the code corresponds to: for R, to Regelbauten (construction rules) and concerns all the standardised pieces. for FL, to Flugabwherkanone or Flak and represent all the anti aerial pieces and finally SK corresponding to Special Konstruction or Sonder Konstruction names the ones not referenced in the OT catalogue, aiming to reply to a special demand.

All the referenced piece have a number following the letter R, giving more information about their purpose and characteristics. For instance a R621 is a shelter for soldiers with one room and a R622 is the same model but with two rooms.

Within a position we find a variety of building works. The most important points or StĂźzpunkt (Stp), have a great amount of fortifications whereas

Bego, France

Bunkers

the smaller ones Widerstandnest (Wn) have at the minimum posts for machine gun (Tobrouk or Ringstand) with a shelter for soldiers.

Flora Fauna of the bunkers as part of the dunes Since 1945, most of the bunkers are abandoned, left to the nature.

They became cave-like environments, with very little sun light and high humidity rates. In Brittany, the caves are very rare—not to stay inexistent—and the fortifications of the Atlantic Wall became homes for number of species living in caverns and appreciating the littoral climat, like bats or butterflies. Before the bunkers were built these species weren’t part of the dune’s fauna, these construction brought an entire new world to this biosphere. Most of them are hibernating through out the winter.

It is the case of the butterflies and moths. With the first slight chill being felt on early September, the hibernating butterflies find refuge in shelters. Bunkers, caves and other attics provide them with stable temperature ( between 2°C and 8°C) and a sufficient hygrometry. For instance groups of lepidopterans chose this option to survive the winter.

Bats naturally belongs to the caves. In meridional zonas of France, they are often noticed in their original shelters. In Brittany, they mostly find refuge in attics but other places like concrete bedrock, feodal towers, old mines and abandoned bunkers often have ideal conditions as well.

To hibernate, bats look for places with a stable microclimate (as the

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Bretagne Vivante - SEPNB Société pour l’Etude et la Protection de la Nature en Bretagne 186, rue Anatole France BP 63121 29231 BREST Cedex 3 Tél. : (+33) (0)2.98.49.07.18. Fax : (+33) (0)2.98.49.95.80 Email : bretagne-vivante@bretagne-vivante.asso.fr Site : www.bretagne-vivante.asso.fr

Bego, France

Bunkers

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Bego, France

Bunkers

butterflies) often found in bunkers : high humidity and temperature from 8°C to 10°C. However bunkers are unequally favorable for bats, typologies that allow high humidity and absence of air-stream are the best. During their hibernation period the bats are extremely sensitive to the current humidity and temperature in the space, the only presence of one humain can change these conditions and disturb them. At the moment several bunkers have metal gate on their access to prevent humain visitors to enter them.

Though the years and after abandon, the bunkers became home to a new and sensitive fauna. However this fauna inhabits them mostly during the winter, a time period when the surrounding areas and therefor the dunes are not so frequented. We could imagine that instead of building permanent barriers—as the metal gate—we cover the access only during the winter with a structure that is modular enough to be removed for the summer for the bunker to be reopen to the public during the summer.

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Bego, France

Materials of the site

Materials

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Bego, France

Materials

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Bego, France

Materials

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Bego, France

Materials

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Bego, France

Site layers

Site layers

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Bego, France

History layer

Bunkers

Site layers

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WWII railways

Bego, France

WWII trenches

Site layers

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Bego, France

Circulation layer

Roads

Site layers

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Railway

Bego, France

Informal walking paths

Site layers

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Bego, France

Flora layer

Trees

Site layers

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Bushes

Bego, France

Grey dune

Site layers

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Bego, France

References

References - Virilio, P. - Bunker archeology - Princeton Architectural Press, 2014 published for the fisrt time in 1975 in France under the title Bunker archéologie - Tomine, J. - Le mur de l’Atlantique dans la presqu’île de Quiberon Edition Histoire et Fortification, 2010 - Rolf, R. - Regelbauten, Atlantic Wall Typology - Prak, 2015 - Atlantik Wall, Mythe ou réalité - Alain Chazette - Les bunkers de dunes d’Etel-Erdeven - Study by Jacques Jouannic - Bretagne environement - Les dunes en Bretagne - Août, 2009 - Grand Site Dunaire, Natura 2000, Life - Maintien de la biodiversité littorale sur le site “Gâvres - Quiberon” - 2014 - Operation Grand Site National Gâvres-Quiberon - Etude paysagère 1999-2001 - Araignées des bunkers - Study by Jacques Jouannic - Papillon des bunkers - Study by Jacques Jouannic - Intérêt pour les chiroptères des bunkers du grand massif dunaire de Gâvres-Quiberon - Olivier Farcy

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Evolving visions towards WWII bunkers

Alice Choupeaux Research booklet 2/4 Spring 2017

Evolving visions

CITAstudio - Centre for IT and Architecture The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

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Evolving visions

I relate in many ways to Paul Virilio’s first lines of Bunkerarcheology. Being born in Brittany but raised in the Parisian suburb, each trip back to the ocean has the taste of his words about his trip back to the shores after the Second World War. Each new glaze to the water carries a singular feeling of deliverance, the one of a place of peace. In contrast to the feeling of absence he describes, nowadays the beaches have returned to their status of a place of enjoyment. The strong pull of the shores—broadly experienced spacial phenomena described

by Virilio—brought me again and again to these large spaces where water embraces emerging land with the sound of a million sweeping grains of sand. Walks along the coast are each year different, layers of sand changed color, dunes changed form and oyats changed place but the big stones are still there, following the curves, merging in the dunes or cracking in the sea. As landmarks, abandoned shipwrecked, monuments of mystery, the bunkers of the Atlantic Wall are as appealing to me as they foster fear. The convergence of these named feelings brought me to a place where I started questioning people’s perception of these left-behind war artifacts. Hail from a dark part of our history, are they nowadays commonly accepted? Was-it always the case? Do they remain abandoned, are they being destructed or renovated? By reading war stories, researching war pictures, collecting testimonies from different generations and observing what they became I reconstituted a global history of the perception of these left over piece of war architecture, mainly for the area of Erdeven/Plouharnel.

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Soldiers

Population of the littoral

Population of the inland

PROTECTION DEFENSE

FRIENDSHIP & FEAR

PROPAGANDA & PROHIBITION

During the war

After the war

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1st generation (adults during the war)

2nd generation (children during the war)

FEAR & HATE

AMBIVALENCE

3rd & 4th generation (children and grand children of 2nd generation) CURIOSITY

Evolving visions

Testimonies & anecdotes from the population Reading through the anecdotes, stories and testimonies collected I tried to pull out quotes representing the perception of a particular actor at a particular time to try and built a time line of perceptions.

During the war - Soldiers: Protection “Les allemands ont détruit ce dernier le 24 août 1944 car un tir américain l’avait endommagé.”

Built to support tones of military artillery, the other function of the bunkers is protection. Behind meters of concrete, the soldiers could theoretically fight back firing and bombing and have a safe place to find shelter in case of an attack. The bunker are designed on that purpose, even including advanced ventilation systems in case of a gaz attack.

To the soldiers, the bunkers are the safest place their could find in the battlefield.

- Population of the littoral: Friendship and fear “Pour l’anecdote en juin 1940, les allemands ont installé sur la terrasse un poste d’observation où la population était autorisée à monter le dimanche pour admirer la panorama”

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Des membres des Jeunesses hitlériennes en vacances à Étel près de la coupole blindée du R634, au pied de l’ancien château d’eau (source B.A.). Les allemands ont détruit ce dernier le 24 août 1944 car un tir américain l’avait endommagé. Pour l’anecdote en juin 1940, les allemands ont installé sur laDesterrasse membres desun Jeunesses hitlériennes en vacances à poste d’observation où lacoupole Étel près de la du R634, à au pied de population était blindée autorisée l’ancien château d’eau (source pour B.A.). Les allemands monter le dimanche ont détruit ce dernier le 24 admirer la panorama août 1944(d’après car un tir américain l’avait A. Ezanno). Leur visite Pour nous endommagé. l’anecdote en juin 1940, les le allemands les montre également sur ont installé sur la terrasse un poste d’observation où la poste d’observation population était autorisée à d’artillerie R120monter aujourd’hui le dimanche pour admirer la panorama (d’après complètement ensablé.

Là A. Ezanno). Leur visite nous les montre également sur le encore la coupole a disparue, poste d’observation d’artillerie R120 aujourd’hui ferraillée après guerre. complètement ensablé. Là encore la coupole a disparue, ferraillée après guerre.

Les résistants et l’Organisation Todt « Contacté par Jean Sciou [dit « Faucon », clerc de notaire à Erdeven], en décembre 1942, il [Jean Guilloto dit « Sarcey », marin de commerce originaire d’Erdeven] travaille à l’O.T. à partir de mars 1943, d’abord à Kerouriec, en face de l’îlot de Rouellan, puis à Étel. Il relève l’épaisseur du béton qui protège les blockhaus et les abris, signale que, dans cette zone [celle d’Étel], les pièces d’artillerie ne sont pas orientées vers le large mais destinées à protéger le rivage contre un ennemi venu de l’intérieur. Il indique une réserve d’obus de 75 dans un local bétonné près du château d’eau d’Étel, ... Toutes ces informations sont remises à Michel Le Bris [dit « Cassis », instituteur à Erdeven].

Leroux Roger (1986), Le Morbihan en guerre 19391945, 671 p

Told’s organisation - Bego Les résistants et l’Organisation Todt

« Contacté par Jean Sciou [dit « Faucon », clerc de notaire à Erdeven], en décembre 1942, il [Jean Guilloto dit « Sarcey », marin de commerce originaire d’Erdeven] travaille à l’O.T. à partir de mars 1943, d’abord à Kerouriec, en face de l’îlot de Rouellan, puis à Étel. Il relève l’épaisseur du béton qui protège les blockhaus et les abris, signale que, dans cette zone [celle d’Étel], les pièces d’artillerie ne sont pas orientées vers le large mais destinées à protéger le rivage contre un ennemi venu de l’intérieur. Il indique une réserve d’obus de 75 dans un local bétonné près du château d’eau d’Étel, ... Toutes ces informations

Evolving visions

“Une rafale en provenance des bunkers frôla Joséphine de très près.”

“Un vaste secteur de la dune était piégé. Il ne restait qu’un passage destiné aux paysans pour aller chercher du goémon.”

“Au début de la guerre, quand les ouvriers de l’organisation Todt bâtissaient les premières fortifications, les enfants étaient encore autorisés à garder les vaches dans la dune.

Leur jeu favoris était de se hisser sur le train des dunes et de s’offrir un petit voyage.”

“A cette époque les enfants allaient à pied à l’école.

Le chauffeur du bus qui amenait les ouvriers de l’OT s’arrêtait toujours pour avancer les enfants en chemin.”

People in the surrounding littoral villages and cities were in direct connection with the construction and later the use of the bunkers.

Direct relationship with the soldiers, technicians and workers were often friendly. For instance german soldiers installed a terrace on top of a bunker and the population was allowed to access it to enjoy the panorama on Sundays. Also, at the time of the construction of the bunkers, the children were going to school by foot and the bus bringing the OT workers always stooped to pick up children and bring them closer to school. But as the years passed, the dunes and the beaches were transformed in real battlefield and even if the soldiers still let access to

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Des membres des Jeunesses hitlériennes en vacances à Étel près de la coupole blindée du R634, au pied de l’ancien château d’eau (source B.A.). Les allemands ont détruit ce dernier le 24 août 1944 car un tir américain l’avait endommagé. Pour l’anecdote en juin 1940, les allemands ont installé sur la terrasse un poste d’observation où la population était autorisée à monter le dimanche pour admirer la panorama (d’après A. Ezanno). Leur visite nous les montre également sur le poste d’observation d’artillerie R120 aujourd’hui complètement ensablé. Là encore la coupole a disparue, ferraillée après guerre.

Hitler youth on holiday - Etel

Evolving visions

some peasant to peak up seaweed from the beaches, they had to cross mined field and the fear became to pervade everyone’s mind. When the Allies’ landing happened and firing occurred, the bunkers were then the places where it all came from, destroying houses and farms, sometimes killing innocent citizen. They became then, physically, places associated and accused of destruction and death.

-Population of the inland: Propagande and prohibition “Des membres des Jeunesses hitlériennes en vacances à Étel près de la coupole blindée du R634, au pied de l’ancien château d’eau” “During my youth, work on the European littoral forbade access to it; they were building a wall and I would not discover the ocean, in the Loire estuary, before the summer of ’45.”

The Atlantic wall was used by Nazi propaganda to promote the power of defence of the Reich against a possible landing of the Allies. In this propaganda, it size and strength were exaggerated. The Hitler youth used to go on the coast on holidays, where they would meet the soldiers and play around the bunkers. Except from them and the surrounding population, the access to the coast was forbidden. Between 1942 and 1944, the life around the beaches had disappeared. The dunes area had lost its pleasure and beauty status and became a battlefield.

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Au sud de la position existent deux bunkers R625 qui étaient encore accessibles dans les années 1980 (photo Philippe Florent). Celui implanté dans le camping défend l’embouchure de la ria. Son mur de flanquement et l’épaisseur du toit ont été renforcé. L’autre est prévu pour riposter à une attaque terrestre.

A la libération des FFI posent dans ce dernier pour la photo de groupe. Dans les années 1980, avant d’être enfoui, ce bunker abritait un club de voile.

Ces plans d’après des photos aériennes de 1977 nous montre la disposition des deux R625 au sud de l’actuel camping. La comparaison des deux plans révèlent une disposition inversée, en miroir.

A ce dispositif, il faut ajouter un abri en ville, près de la gare et une ruine aménagée pour une mitrailleuse près de la pointe du Pradic.

vers 1980. P. Florent

Photo FFI. Libération d’Étel de R. Guillevic Soldiers after Etel’s liberation

Evolving visions

After the war - 1st generation ( adult during the war ) Fear, hate and desire to vanish any traces of the nazi occupation (the Atlantic Wall being one of physical traces of it) “La plupart des bunkers détruits de cette position ont, à priori, servi au pétardage des munitions restées sur place.”

“The waterfront villas were empty, everything within the casemates’ firing range had been blown up, the beaches were mined, and the artificers were busy here and there rendering access to the sea.”

“The clearest feeling was still one of absence: the immense beach of La Baule was deserted, there were less than a dozen of us on the loop of blond sand, not a vehicle was to be seen on the streets; this had been a frontier that an army had just abandoned, and the meaning of this oceanic immensity was intertwined with this aspect of the deserted battlefield.”

“We identified these constructions with their German occupants, as if they had in their retreat forgotten helmets, badges, here and their along our shores…Several bunkers still sported hostile graffiti, their concrete flanks covered with insult against “Krauts” and swastikas, and the interest I was showing in measuring and talking picture of them

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ac vo P al a l'a en (ou la veille) à Erdeven. A moitié rassuré, le père Guézel a accepté de le guider. L’ prisonnier allemand qui invitait ses compatriotes à se rendre, il a vérifié la ferme p supposait toute la position était déserte. Personne ne répondait. Les soldats devaien une belle pièce de boeuf, du pain encore frais, des conserves et une chose qui n'a p Tous les villageois ont félicité leur libérateur pour son impeccable prestation. Dans fameux "Oignons d'Erdeven".

Si les soldats du Reich ont fuit si facilement c'est qu'ils formaient une unité peu mo n'étaient pas tous allemands. Comme leurs armements (des fusils français Lebel po certains), au moins l'un d'entre eux était un vétéran de 14-18, il se faisait appeler e français : « Filliar » (vieillard).

Depuis ce jour, on peut encore voir 3 constructions allemandes en béton.

Il y avait aussi un abri que je n'ai pas retrouvé,un peu hors du village, au lieu dit de « Garovagne » , sur l’ancienne route de Lisveur. Mais il était probablement constru rondin, avec peut-être seulement les fondations en béton. D'ailleurs, Louis Germai du village, dit qu'il a vu les allemands apporter des rondins, sur une charrette tirée chevaux, qui passait difficilement dans les étroits chemins creux. Cet abri n'a, à pr été utilisé par les allemands. Seuls quelques familles sont venues s'y réfugier une o fois, jamais par plaisir (à l'intérieur la paille pour dormir était infestée de puces !).

Pour la petite histoire, la photo repré Stephan et son neveu Marcel sur la t pierre. Elle a été prise vers 1945. La plaisait beaucoup à un gradé alleman vexé de voir ses avances refusées, la jour alors qu'elle s'occupait des vach arraché son seau des mains et l’a jet Malheureusement pour lui, elle avait savait se défendre. Il a bien failli se r tour au fond du puits. Ensuite elle es son père. Et ensemble ils ont été se commandant du village. Immédiatem le soldat a été sérieusement réprima commandant lui aurait fait comprend s’ennuyait ici il pouvait être muté sur L’affaire était close.

Albertine et Marcel Stéphan sur la tourelle maçonnée A mother and her son - 1945 Coll. H. Guézel

Evolving visions

sometimes had me bearing the hostile brunt‌ Many of them had been destroyed by this iconoclastic vengeance when the territory had been liberated; their basements had been filled with munitions gathered up along the way and the explosion of the solid concrete mass had overjoyed the countryside’s inhabitants, as in a summary execution. Many riverains told me that these concrete landmarks frightened them and called back too many bad memories, many fantasies too, because the reality of the German occupation was elsewhere, most often in banal administrative lodgings for the Gestapo; but the blockhouses were symbols of soldiery.�

Right after the war, the french population had an urge to try and vanish any trace left of the Nazi occupation. While most of the artillery and material that could be sourced (mostly metal) were plundered or destroyed by the german themselves before leaving, the concrete of the bunker remained. For the local population they were symbol of the german occupation, they frightened them and reminded them of many bad memories. Some bunkers were blown away with munitions that the artificiers had found in the surroundings; the others were covered by graffiti reflecting hate toward the former invader as a sort of revenge.

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Au niveau de la casemate R105b, cell auraient construit un petit poste de sur disparu. Actuellement, recouverte par la casemate. Deux tobrouks défendaie s’est ensablé dans la dune tandis que l 1968. Il a été détruit dans les années 2 pétardage se pratique encore. Un obus mondiale a été découvert sur la plage pas amorcé, les démineurs l’ont transp limiterait les projections d’éclats. Tou dégagée par les marées et les tempêtes mm sont placés dans un trou avec une épaisseur d’ 1,50 mètre de sable. En 2 sauter en mer un obus français de 120 plutôt que de le placer dans un bunker En 2016, les trois tobrouks visibles su mer achève de les ronger.

La casemate R105b et son tobrouk devant la Roche sèche à marée haute. (2010)

Le tobrouk du R105b orienté vers la plage de Children playing - 1968 Kerouriec en juillet 1968. coll Ch. Jouannic

Au premier plan, le tobrouk 58c d plage de Kerouriec. Au sommet d dans la dune le second tobrouk 58

Evolving visions

- 2nd generation ( children during the war, adult right after the war ) ( my grand parents ) Ambivalence “Malheureusement en fin d’après-midi, vers 16 heure « à l’heure de la traite du soir » une formidable déflagration a retenti. Les jeunes avaient joué avec le canon alors que des piles d’obus étaient entassées dans le bunker.”

“Les bunkers des dunes ont beaucoup fasciné les enfants de l’après-guerre. Tout en gardant les troupeaux ils s’amusaient avec ces vestiges de la guerre.”

“It all stated—it was a discovery in the archeological sens of the term—along the beach south of Saint Guénolé during the summer of 1958. I was leaning against a solid mass of concrete, which I had previously used as a cabana; all the usual seaside games had become a total bore.”

“Some clothes and bicycles had been hidden here” “We identified these constructions with their German occupants, as if they had in their retreat forgotten helmets, badges, here and their along our shores…

Several bunkers still sported hostile graffiti, their concrete flanks covered with insult against “Krauts” and

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swastikas, and the interest I was showing in measuring and talking picture of them sometimes had me bearing the hostile brunt…

Many of them had been destroyed by this iconoclastic vengeance when the territory had been liberated; their basements had been filled with munitions gathered up along the way and the explosion of the solid concrete mass had overjoyed the countryside’s inhabitants, as in a summary execution. Many riverains told me that these concrete landmarks frightened them and called back too many bad memories, many fantasies too, because the reality of the German occupation was elsewhere, most often in banal administrative lodgings for the Gestapo; but the blockhouses were symbols of soldiery.”

“I remember a comeback I had devised to answer the curiosity of those wishing to know the reasons for my studying of the Atlantic Wall. I would ask if people still had the opportunity to study other cultures, including the culture of adversaries—if there were any jewish Egyptologists. The answer was invariably, “Yes, but it is a question of time…time must pass before we are able to consider a new these military monuments.”

In the meantime, the bunkers were filled with litter or

Evolving visions

were shelter for less ideologically inclined vagabonds; the concrete walls were covered with adds and posters, you could see Zavatta the clown on the iron doors and Yvette Horner smiling in the embrasure.”

“Everyday life at the seaside had disappeared.” “the conflit I perceived between the summer of seaside bathing and the summer of combat would never again cease. For me the organisation of space would now go hand in hand with manifestation of time.”

“The problems of structural economy had become secondary, and now I would investigate the Fortress Europe, which was vacant from now on, with an eye to the essence of architectural reality.

Observing the various casemates on the Atlantic beaches, the English Channel, and the North Sea, I detected a hub joining several directions. The concrete mass was a summary of its surroundings, The blockhouse was also the premonition of my own movements: on arriving from behind a dune I fell upon a cannon—it was a rendezvous— and when I started to circle the fortifications to get inside and the embrasure of rear defences became visible in the arbor-plated door opening, it was as if I were a long waited guest…This game created an implicit empathy

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Church Sainte-Bernadette-du-Banlay in Nevers

by Claude Parent and Paul Virilio

Evolving visions

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between the inanimate object and visitor, but it was the empathy of moral danger to the point that for many it was unbelievably fearsome. The meaning was less now that of a rendezvous, and more of combat: “If the war were still here, this would kill me, so this architectural object is repulsive.”

A whole set of silent hypotheses sprang up during the visit. Either the bunker has no use other than as protection from the wind, or it recalls its warlike project and you identify with the enemy who must lead the assault—this simulacrum so close to children’s playful warring…after the real warring.”

“Pour ma grand-mère, ces bunkers des dunes auraient pu être de grosses roches. Mais comme ils pouvaient être rempli de munitions elle s’en méfiait (surtout quand il y avait des enfants).

Ceux qui se trouvaient dans les champs la gênaient plus puisqu’ils étaient des obstacles aux travaux agricoles.

Lors de l’agrandissement des villes les aménageurs ont le même ressenti.”

While the previous generation had lived the war with full consciousness of it, the children during this period grown mostly with their parents

Evolving visions

stories and the blurry memories they had of it. When some of them were deeply affected by their parents hate and reproduced the same behaviour, others developed a sort of early curiosity towards it. Paul Virilio is part of them, he was 8 when the war started and he began studying them in 1958. Telling himself that his investigations often had him bearing the hostile brunt*. And when he was calling the necessity of also studying adversary culture, people telling him that “Yes, but it is a question of time…time must pass before we are able to consider anew these military monuments.”

-3rd generation & 4th generation ( children and grand children of 2nd generation ) ( my parents & me ) Curiosity “Pour ma part, n’ayant jamais vu de présence guerrière autour des bunkers, je les considère comme les vestiges d’une “civilisation” perdue. Une sorte d’Angkor ou une succession de petit temples Maya. Je ne pensais pas qu’on pourrait comprendre un jour comment la vie se passait dans les bunkers ni pourquoi ils avaient ces formes si particulières. Personne ne semblait savoir.

Outre le côté historique “ruines oubliées”, j’aime aussi le côté grotte semi-naturelle qui abrite des chauvesouris, des papillons ou des araignées cavernicoles une

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Children playing - 2017

Evolving visions

partie de l’année (principalement l’hiver). D’ailleurs, la prospection des bunkers m’a permis de retrouver en Bretagne Hypena obsitalis (l’Hypène des pont) un papillon lucifuge (qui n’est donc pas attiré par les pièges lumineux) et de rajouter une espèce d’araignée (Meta bourneti) à la liste bretonne. Cette grande araignée méridionale était jusque là confondue avec une parente pourtant assez différente.”

“En général, les passionnés de bunker préfèrent que personne d’autre ne s’y intéresse. Ils ne supportent pas les chiroptèrologues qui installent des grilles pour préserver les sites de repos des chauve-souris. Ils ne supportent pas les tagueurs (c’est vrai qu’ils sont vraiment énervants) qui gâchent les photos avec leur peintures criardes. Ils ne supportent pas les maires ou les propriétaires qui condamnent les entrées des bunkers. Certains sont quand même ouvert d’esprit et ont une bonne compréhension historique de leur sujet.”

“Oui beau challenge. On est sur un syndrome de type colonne de Buren, pour certains c’est de l’art et pour d’autres de la daube en barre. On pourrait au moins reconnaitre la valeur historique aux bunkers mais vu la période, qui quand on la remue, fait remonter tout ce

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Ammunition depot renovated in temporary museum

Evolving visions

qu’il y a de plus pourri chez les français, on comprend mieux qu’ils finissent 6 pieds sous terre.”

“J’ai toujours était passionné d’histoire, et particulièrement la Seconde Guerre mondiale. J’ai donc souvent entendu parler du “Mur de l’atlantique” ou “nouveau mur à l’ouest”” “Je me suis particulièrement rapproché des bunkers du “mur” lors des journées du patrimoine 2016” “Si j’ai décider de les étudier ses d’Une part pour moi personnellement (culture générale) et d’une deuxième part pour mieux connaitre ce qui s’est réellement passe à l’époque” “Moi personnellement j’espère qu’ils vont être sauvegarder voir valoriser car c’est notre patrimoine et un marqueur de ce qu’il s’est passé pour les générations futures.”

Seventy years after the end of the war, bunkers have been destroyed, renovated but mostly left abandoned.

Destroyed, not to blow up bombs or mines anymore—the last ones found have been blown under the sand or in the ocean—but on the name of security. For instance, two bunkers on Ondres beach have been demolished because they were becoming dangerous, producing strong curent and unwanted erosion around them or the ones in Saint-

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Atlantic wall museum, Ouistrenam

Evolving visions

Chouannerie war museum, in the bunker-hospital on the Bego site

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2

Evolving visions

Clément-les-baleines sliding onto the beach that will be destroyed to protect the dunes.

Some bunkers, but still a minority, have been renovated. They became museums or private homes. In Ouistreham, one of the largest bunker of the Atlantic wall, the command post and fire-control base, became the “Museum of the Atlantic Wall”, main museum about the Second World War and the Nazi occupation in France. Sometimes the theme of the museum doesn’t have any connection with the second world war. The bunker-infirmary of the Bego battery in Plouharnel, is a good exemple of this case. It is now hosting a museum about the “Chouannerie”, a royalist uprising in 12 of the western departments of France between 1794 and 1800.

An example of the reuse of a bunker into a private home is the holiday home in Gatteville-Le-Phare, casemate renovated by the family Desfautaux. Waterproofing as well as the cut of larger windows are some of the first necessity for these war shelter to become liveable.

The bunkers remaining abandoned became shelter for many new species normally living in caves, becoming biotope on themselves.

They also became refuge for vagabonds and “underground” parties and are still canvas for graffiti. However, compared to the years after the war, the hate around them has disappeared.

Along with associations protecting the bunkers by location, since 2010 a community of individuals enthusiasts appeared and their

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Bunker 599 - RAAAF

Evolving visions

Art instalation on Leffrincoucke beach - Anonyme

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Bunker renovation - Summer house - SkälsÜ Arkitekter

Evolving visions

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collaboration, mostly through the internet ( forums and websites ) has brought a lot to the knowledge of these war artefacts. While some areas are very well documented, some are still left behind and rare are the maps representing the locations and plans of the bunkers. Only a quite recent handful of publications documenting the Atlantic wall is available. Most of the informations I collected concerning the area of Kerminihy came from a passionate individual that spent years collecting testimonies and crossing global knowledge with precise observations on site. I completed them myself via the same means. When I first started to try and find more precise informations about the bunkers, I spent a month before finding anything relevant. People I was asking in local libraries, tourist offices weren’t hostile to my questions—even rather interested by my investigations—but they simply didn’t know and kept reorienting me towards people in the same situation as them.

Long hours on the internet and a couple of email adresses and phone numbers really helped the start of my research.

Global curiosity started to emerge from this last generation but the outcomes are still to complete. Probably the “time” that Virilio was reporting from the people hostile to his early research has passed but it is definitely a research on going and a lot more should be found in the coming years.

The project wants to accompany this curiosity, while understanding the security concerns that in the worse cases led to the destruction

Evolving visions

of the bunkers. One of the first ideas that one could have in mind to achieve this goal is to create a museum bringing together the current knowledge about the atlantic wall while protecting and stabilising the bunkers. However, the bunkers are on the protected land of the dunes where it is first of all very complicated to build because of the nature of the soil (moving sand) and also forbidden to destroy the extraordinary nature of such a landscape. It raises the question: how to reconcile the both and helping the information and safety of the visitors while preserving and bringing forward the qualities of the landscape ? How to develop a light and delicate—almost invisible—holistic architecture closely intertwine with its environment and adapting to it ?

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Textile logic, Contextual data-based computation & Circular Economy

Alice Choupeaux Research booklet 3/4 Spring 2017

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CITAstudio - Centre for IT and Architecture The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

Textile logic

Content

Content Introduction to textile logic Different typology of textile logic structures Use of textile logic structure in architecture history Pliability of a textile logic structure at the architectural scale Potential for an architecture tightly connected to its environement Introducing the notion of circular architecture with focus on the component based textile structure Potential for a Holistic and Dynamic design method Representation of textiles for physical and digital models Parallel between material performances and design Dynamic and cyclic design method informed by evolving data from the context

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Textile logic

Introduction to textile logic A textile is a material consisting of a network of fibres. It is formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or felting. Depending on the type of fibre and the network-forming method used, textiles have a large range of performances, their main qualities being their flexibility, permeability and the synergy of their structural performances based on tension. Textiles are inherently highly interconnected using friction based joints to hold the fibre network together forming an interdependent circular system. These qualities are the main focus of this writing, they define a type of structure using a “textile logic” and that we call “textile structure”. A textile structure could be at any given scale, from the micro to the humain to the architectural scale, as long as its nature can be define as an interconnected interdependent circular system.

Different typologies of textile logic structures The structural typology of systems using “textile logic” qualities can then be expanded and developed beyond the original friction based network of fibres.

Techniques like weaving, knitting, crocheting and knotting use long and uninterrupted thread. Felting is a bit different as the process involves matting, condensing and pressing rather short fibres together.

Moving from the world of yarns to other kind of material like wood or concret that cannot achieved long uninterrupted thread, construction

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Statue of Liberty’s dress structure

Textile logic

techniques evolve. Textile structure qualities can then be achieved via meshwork technique of assembling components. The flexibility could be achieved through the material performance of the main construction material or through the performances of the joins, forming structure of flexible components with stiff joints or stiff components with flexible joins. Different applications of these making/constructing techniques are given as exemples throughout the text, beginning by architectural applications, the scale of interest in this writing.

Use of textile logic structure in architecture history In architecture the study of textiles provided a conceptual framework for a new generation of structures. Obviously, confronting textiles and buildings in terms of structure raises a question of scale. While textile structures are well understood at the scale of a traditional fabric, what does it mean to use their logic for the built environment?

Tension is the core concept of a textile structure. Beesley and Hanna in their text “Lighter: a transformed architecture” define such a quality: “Instead of fixed, rigid connections based on compression, textile structures use tension. The binding of one fibre to the next is achieved through the tension exerted by the immediately adjacent fibres. Rather than relying on support from the previous, stronger member, the system is circular, holding itself in exquisite balance.” By scaling up these principles of textiles we challenge the convention of compression based

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Shukhov tower, Moscow

Textile logic

building structures—a new tectonic, informed by material tension, emerges. From a rectilinear geometry of gravity bound supportive structures, the study of textile systems inspires a more dynamic and circular repartition of load forces across the building. Replacing the traditional order of primary, secondary and tertiary structures, textiles thinking introduces the notion of interdependent structures that work together. Learning from these qualities architects and engineers have created resilient skeletons, meshwork skins and, more recently, structures that are dynamically moving.

The making of textiles is a very ancien craftsmanship. Dyed flax fibres were discovered in a cave in the Republic of Georgia dated to 34,000 BCE, before prehistoric times. Primitive building were being weaved with natural materials.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, intermeshed and lightweight structures have been the focus of leading structural engineers that were looking for open and more efficient systems.

Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel’s Statue of Liberty in New York is an early example from 1886. Hidden underneath what seems a massive statue, exists a light iron framework. Using a woven technique this substructure supports the bronze cladding drapery of the dress. At the same period - late 19th, early 20th - a Russian engineer, Vladimir Shukhov, worked with weaved structures at the architectural scale.

One of his iconic construction is known under the name of Shukhov

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Richard Rogers’s Channel Four headquarter

Textile logic

Tower and located in Moscow. The structure is composed of light metal lattices diagonally spun into hyperboloid drums pushed out by horizontal circular members. The weaved structure is held in tension by evenly spaced rigid rings. Shukhov developed a light weight stressed skin construction that performs as a load distributing network.

For this radio tower that specific structure helps to efficiently prevent torsion in the fuselage and therefore buckling of the skin. Another kind of load distributing network is the gridshell. Shukhov used that type of structure for the roof of the pumping station in Vyksa, Russia. He created a double curvature in the shell by using curved beams to rest the steel slats on. The members of the structure are fixed against each other in a lattice work creating stiffness.

Inspired by the same logic using tension and load distribution networks, curtain walls started wrapping buildings with their metal fabrics, from the beginning 20th century. In a curtain wall building, a glass cladding system creates a continuous network requiring only intermittent fastening to carry its weight. More recent projects have used this technique, for instance, Foster’s British Museum covers its courtyard with a majestic self supporting wave. Giving structural properties to the skin, OMA’s Seattle Public Library draws a tight and angled net structure around itself, when Foster’s Swiss Re Headquarter uses a helical shell structure that lumps in the middle and converges at the top.

Challenging the classical paradigms of permanence Richard Rogers’s

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Foster’s British Museum

Textile logic

Channel Four headquarter in London proposes a light and agile cablenet. Assembled entirely without mullions the plates of glass of its skin are instead supported by a network of cables. The building membranes become unified meshes. Light weight and self supporting, they create complex enclosure while simultaneously performing structurally.

While theses structures use the load distributing qualities of the textile logic, in 1974, Frei Otto in his project Mannheim Multihalle took advantage of flexible potential of such a network to create a freeform gridshell. The structure was initially built on the ground; wood slats were connected by loose intersecting nodes. The structure was then raised and formed using the flexibility of the joints. Once the freeform was defined each node was fixed giving a permanent shape to the structure.

At the end of the 20th century, the american architect Buckminster Fuller pointed out another core aspect of textile structures : synergy.

He developed this concept while working with artists at Black Montain College in North Carolina and defined it as the “behaviour of whole systems unpredicted by the behaviour of their parts taken separately�.

For him, textiles are exemplary systems for architecture. By distributing the forces to an interconnected network of many threads, the risk of major damages is lowered: if one element snaps, another one is able to take over the forces. This way buildings could be able to dynamically adapt to new conditions.

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Frei Otto’s Mannheim Multihalle

Textile logic

When the first projects have a shared goal of performing stability holding textile structures in a fixed position, Frei Otto and Buckminster Fuller start to introduce the notion of dynamism. Frei Otto uses friction and the extreme interconnectivity of the weaved logic to move and form the roof from its original flat shape. Buckminster talks about the ability of a textile structure to adapt to new conditions by the synergy of its members. From a stable word, we slowly evolve in a new dynamic dimension exploring an almost forgotten but significant property of textiles : their inherent pliability.

Potential for pliability of a textile logic structure at the architectural scale “Textile thinking in architecture enables the invention of new tectonic principles informed by the inherent material tension that are the core concept of textile structures. Here, the frictive and the self bracing become means by which the pliable and the structural as well as the static and the actuated can meet.�

Textiles have an exquisite ambivalence marrying the pliable and the stiffened. While being flexible, they have the ability of remaining resilient to extreme forces. These qualities are used for garments, nets, sails and ropes for instance ; objects that demand a hight resistance to external constraints while asking for suppleness.

Applying these qualities to a structure at the building scale challenges

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Thaw by Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen

Textile logic

our current idea of inhabitation. Buildings tend to clearly define an outside and inside, creating an interface between uncontrolled and controlled atmospheric conditions. This interface is often expected to be strong, thick and stable. Introducing the idea of motion for buildings skins is asking how our design traditions can evolve and incorporate the soft and the flexible. Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen and Karin Bech in their book Textile Logic for a soft space are querying this theme. They ask: “ How could architecture make use of the motile and the soft? What would an architecture of movement and state change suggest? ” Using a practice based research method, their argumentation is illustrated by a number of physical demonstrators. As one of the aim of this part is to challenge the previous one, before developing further these questions, it appears appropriate to present and develop further one precise experiment challenging the examples mentioned previously.

Textile structural logic has inspired a number of architects and engineers, but how could we accommodate an architecture that wants to become dynamic and responsive stepping out of rigid structures using textile logic instead of only achieving homogeneous load distribution? Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen and Karin Bech, in their research project ‘Thaw’, investigated the textile concepts of tension, friction and motion at the architectural scale. ‘Thaw’ explores the making of a pleated structure.

Made out of ash slats braced together by steel joints the structure uses friction. Each slat is blent into shape pressing each other, making each

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Thaw by Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen

Textile logic

single member inherently weak. The structure gains its overall stiffness by playing with an interconnected net of friction based joints. This system produces weakness points that allow the structure to be pliable and to adjust to changes in its environment or in load. In addition, in this particular project, the pliable and the soft is accentuated through actuation. Servo motors are installed on top of the structure and pull the tension cables. Thanks to a diagonal relationship between the cables and the structure, tensioning the cable by 5cm has an effect of flexing the slats by 25 cm. More than moving accordingly to a change in the outside environment, ‘Thaw’ constantly re-calibrates its structural load bearing. With this investigation Thomsen and Bech show the potential of a weaved structure to become mobile through tension and friction, and also question buildings adaptability.

Potential for an architecture tightly connected to its environment Thinking architectural structures using a textile logic to become motile could give to the built environment the opportunity to interact. As introduced earlier in this section, traditional buildings have a static envelope, they are built around the core concept of a structure being stable. We conceptualise them as inert masses and picture ourselves evolving in an environment remaining constant. However, buildings are places that need to accommodate continual change. They evolve

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Geotextile

Textile logic

and move with time. Their structures slightly adapt to exterior forces.

Light, air and heat are fluctuating within their spaces.

As an example, Beesley and Hanna in their text “Lighter: a transformed architecture” enlighten the challenges caused by natural catastrophes.

Cities have been destroyed by earthquakes and floods. Current buildings are not made to deal with complex forces such as the pressure of the water, the wind or the movements of an earthquake. These forces are more complex than compression in the way they behave. Buildings might use resilient structures using tension based systems to resist and accommodate them.

The built environment seems eligible to work with flows and natural forces but could it actively respond to them? How would that idea define an adaptive architecture? Thomsen in the paper Metabolistic architectures suggests to “imagine if a city could become a place where its fabric - walls, floors, and facades - became dynamic, where life would be reflected into the built world, and spaces could shift and change with the rhythms of the day and the seasons of the year”. Also, Michelle Addington presents us an architecture that is evolving to a new focus on performances and response : “from a formalist understanding of architectural production to one that is linked intrinsically to the material, the active and the present”. In a larger time scale, the architecture could also adapt to its occupant activities and to the natural forces surrounding it, like a rock would erode to construct a path to a rivulet. Accepting the

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Geotextile

Textile logic

continual change of our environment and society, in this scenario the architecture would begin to actively play with time.

Textile structures have the ability to allow a better connection to its environment via its flexibility—implying its formal adaptability—, via its potential for high specificity, via its porosity and potential for synergy with its surroundings. Geosynthetic products such as geomembrane, geotextiles, geonets, are textiles-like materials that directly adresse these aspects. These membranes, textiles or nets, when used in association with soil, have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain.

They work closely for and against natural forces. They are currently use to prevent soil or water pollution during construction work, to maintain soil in a steep slop or to protect land against water and wind erosion for instance. Their design requires precise calculations using fluid dynamics to assure their good performance and synergy with their surroundings. As an example, for a geotextile reinforcing a steep slope, two elements need to be calculated: the tension required for equilibrium and the appropriate layout of the geotextile reinforcement.

Most of them are made of polymer derived material, made to last for a very long time without being affected by any chemical exchange that will deteriorate them. Some geonet intended to prevent erosion contain agricultural straws or coconut fibres that last for 2 to 5 years and leave the soil richer by their biodegradation. This way, as well as

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Philip Beesley’s geotextile

Textile logic

working physically with its environment, some geotextiles also engage in chemical exchange. Geosynthetic products underline the potentials of a textile to connect closely with its environment.

In the context of a design-led research I developed a structure—scaled up compared to traditional geotextiles— that try to synthesise this ambition of a flexible structure that would work in symbiosis with its environnement. The project is inspired by Philip Beesley early work on geo-textiles that suggests an architecture that would embrasse and protect nature. Erratics Net, for instance, is a wire fabric mounted on a glacier-scoured terrain in Nova Scotia. This textile-inspired network creates a “shallow film of still, sheltered air allowing delicate growth to emerge.” It adapts to its surrounding as well as modifying it. In this project man-made structures and nature inform each other, underlining the potential for building world to become closer to its environment.

The project rose the questions: could the architecture begin addressing the present instead of being part of the permanent? By which means this transformation would take place? By using the structural logic of textiles, borrowing from them the concepts of tension and friction, the structure’s members become flexible, while working together in synergy. Placed in a tree, the structure is weaving with its branches, creating a symbiosis between two dynamic systems. If wind forces move the structure, due to the fact that the structure and the tree and

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Textile-inspired geometry structure - Own-work

Textile logic

Kangaroo simulation of the flexibility of ash - Own-work

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Final 1 to 1 structure - Own-work

Textile logic

tightly intertwined, the effect of the wind on the structure members ripples on the branches, the structure members then pushing the branches. The same simple phenomena can be reversed and applied to the banches to the structure. This way, after a few days, the structure changed its original place, adapting and finding a balance with the tree branches. Also the structure was partially covered with bugs, choosing this new environment upon the tree as their resting place. While creating a synergy responding to mechanical forces with the tree, the structure also became a home for insects. Compared to “Thaw”, Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen and Karin Bech’s project previously presented, this project is emerged in a dynamic natural environment and responds to it, whereas “Thaw” was placed in a gallery space and actuated with motors responding to artificial forces.

Also, compared to a traditional geotextile, this structure uses stiffer materials and scaled up the textile principles and to achieve this, it uses the making/construction method of assembly of components, instead of using a long uninterrupted thread. Philip Beesley’s work, dealing with the same scale and principles, uses the same construction method.

Different components are masse-produced and then assembled in a way that allows disassembly. This way pieces of former sculptures can be reused for new ones, also in the assembly process or later for maintenance, if one component breaks, it can be replaced really easily. This is a significant quality for a structure exposed to natural

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Textile logic

forces, allowing an extra resilience—added to its topology and material resilience—as well a possible metamorphosis by replacing one type of component with given qualities with another component with a different set of qualities, possibly following changes in the structure environment.

Introducing the notion of circular architecture with focus on the component based textile structure The notion of circular architecture comes from the book Building a Circular Future which is a theorisation of a circular model for architecture including its design, construction and economic aspects. Building a Circular Future is a collaboration between multiple design and construction firms, including 3XN Architects, GXN Innovation, MT Højgaard, Kingo Karlsen, VIA, Cradle to Cradle Denmark and Henrik Innovation.

“Natural resources are scarce and the construction industry accounts for approximately 40% of material and energy consumption in Europe.

The new book Building a Circular Future examines what it will take to transform the building industry from its current ‘throw-away’ to a circular model.

A building is usually reduced to a ‘material cemetery’ at the end of its life. We currently do not recycle all of the valuable materials contained within it, which end up lost.” From this statement, the book is given

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2

Textile logic

the role to develop a new circular model for the construction industry based on the reuse of materials from one building to another. The model unfolds suggesting a method of “design for disassembly”, the development of “material passeports” and a “circular economy”. In this writing will we focus on the “design for disassembly” to enrich the vision described previously of a component based structure.

“Today buildings are statically welded, glued and cast together. By designing for disassembly future buildings will be flexible and function as material banks” explains Kasper Guldager Jensen senior partner at 3XN and director of GXN. The “design for disassembly” method gives direction on how to design a building so that the elements and materials can be removed from the building in the future.

Materials -Choose materials with properties that ensure they can be reused.

Quality -Use materials of a high quality that can handle several life cycles.

Healthy -Use nontoxic materials to provide a healthy environment — now and in the future.

Pure -Use as pure materials as possible, which can recycled with ease.

Service Life -Design the building with the whole lifetime of the building in mind.

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4

Reuse

Deconstruction

Standards

Connections

Materials

Service Life

Textile logic

Layers -Make the long lasting building elements flexible, so the short lasting elements can be easily changed.

Flexibility -Make a flexible building design that allows the functions to adapt and change in the future.

Interim -Think of the building as a temporary composition of materials and design with the preservation of material value in mind.

Standards -Design a simple building that fits into a ‘larger context’ system.

Modularity -Use modular systems where elements easily can be replaced.

Prefabrication -Use prefabricated elements for a quicker and more secute assembly and disassembly.

Components -Create a component when the composition of elements becomes too complex to handle.

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Textile logic

Connections -Choose reversible connections that can tolerate repeated assembly and disassembly.

Accessible -Make the connection accessible in order to minimize assembly and disassembly time.

Mechanical -Use mechanical joints for easy assembly and disassembly without damaging the materials.

Dissolvable -Avoid binders, but if necessary, use binders that are dissolvable.

Deconstruction -As well as creating a plan for construction, design the building for deconstruction.

Strategy -Create a simple plan for deconstruction, to ensure a quick and easy disassembly process.

Stability -Make sure that stability in the building is maintained during deconstruction.

Environment -Ensure that the deconstruction plan is respectful to the nearby buildings, people and nature.

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6

Textile logic

Also, the immediate gains described in the book, resonate with the previously described avantages of using components : “Because the product is easier to assemble, it is simpler and cheaper to produce.

Because the product can be easily disassembled, it is easier to remove things that are broken and repair them, change or upgrade outdated technology, making it easier and cheaper to maintain and operate.

When a broken part is removed, it can be disassembled into all its smaller components, enabling all of the parts to be up-cycled to new products in the best possible way�

This guidelines align with the idea of a component based textile structure, enriching the vison with a lager scope concerning any kind of structure and with essential environmental concerns that dialogues directly with the worry of the structure to be directly connected to its environment, respecting it and working with it. Production, maintenance, recycling and adaptability are made easier and as good for the environment than it is for the design itself.

The aspect that the book isn’t describing about this method is the possibility for dynamic adaptation of the building structure to its environment. If the structure is made out of components using a material and a design that confer every each of them a particular quality in direct relation with its immediate surrounding, then if this latest change and evolve, it can be very easy to replace the actual component with a different one with different qualities. This process allow a dynamic

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Textile logic

adaptation of the structure to its surroundings including weather conditions, change of soil condition, mouvement of soil, change of flora or fauna; introducing a new type of architecture, less permanent and allowing change.

A nomadic tribes in the coastal regions of Southeast Asia, the Badjao, already uses such a principle. Stateless people with no nationality and no consistent infrastructure, they live on the ocean—with the ocean— and sometimes kilometres away from the shore. Living in such a naturally tumultuous place, they learned to adapt to its every whim, leading them to design and build homes that can de disassembled, redesign and reassembled without loose of resources. When a storm hits a community, a common effort is developed and a global gathering of material coming from their own home in achieved in order to reinforced damaged homes. With such a behaviour they teach us that fragility can be strength for adaptation and harmony with our environment, in contradiction with the global tendance of privileging strong and permanent building fighting with the elements.

Potential for a Holistic and Dynamic design method Holistic design method The notion of adaptation, creating direct connections between the building and its environment, implies the use of a holistic design method. Working with this approach means to emphasise the importance

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of the whole and the interdependence of its parts. Designing this way would consider the structure’s geometry, the materials, the users, and the surroundings at the same time, going from one to another in an uninterrupted ballet. They would all influence each other, they should work together. Textiles use that logic. In The architecture of threads, Matilda Dominique talks about it : “It begins with one thread. As the yarns intersect, a woven universe takes form; one that gives the material its visual, tactile and functional uniqueness.” From a thread we obtain a surface. Choosing the quality of this thread and by structuring it in a particular way, we give to the textile its visual, tactile and resistance qualities. Qualities decided according to its future use.

At the architectural scale, this loop has to be considered. To a specific use and environment, the right structure achieving specific performances should be developed. Structure that has to be directly linked to the quality of the material. Therefore, the complexity and flexibility of textile inspired structures ask to be articulated with the right material performances.

More specifically, textile systems enable the threads to reinforce each other using a friction based structure ; also, they rely on the pliable nature of threads. It is their inherent flexibility that permit threads to intertwine or loop around themselves. This flexibility property is directly linked with the textile structure chosen : different techniques demand different grades of flexibility. Rectilinear based, weave accepts

Textile logic

threads of great rigidity whereas techniques like knitting, crocheting or lacing demand threads with higher degree of suppleness. Textile manufacturing needs knowledge and control over the thread properties.

A particular material’s performance is directly linked to its crafting. In addition to the proprieties of the thread used, the structure gives further qualities to the surface produced. When a weaved textile can be stiff and unyielding, the looped logic of a knitted fabric gives it elasticity.

The structure system and the material qualities are tightly linked in textiles. They have to work synergistically. When thinking a textile logic for the built environment, this interdependence takes a great importance related to the scale. The structural system dictates the direction of load forces but the materials absorb them.

Moreover, in a mobile structure, these properties should be thought in a dynamic setup. A material doesn’t have the same properties from one type of blend to another. As material properties are highly linked to the structure in textiles, thinking evolving material performances is essential for moving structures. In Thaw for instance, the motion of the structure continually change the state of the material flex. Therefore, creating a virtual model to enable a control of these parameters was needed before the realisation. The material properties of ash had to be implemented in the design process to perform in the right way once existing in the physical world. Computational tools plays a significant role in the making of flexible structures.

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Textile logic

Representation of textiles for physical and digital models Currently the conventions of architectural representation fit the orthogonal logic of compression based structures. Thought plans and sections architects and engineers share design intents and construction systems. To communicate the complex circularity of textile based structures-that lay beyond the planar-a new type of description is needed.

To suggest how to represent in order to design, simulate and fabricate a dynamic textile structure we will describe and analyse different representation methods in the field of physical textile production, digital textile modelling/simulation and design practice representation methods, using the design practice Philip Beesley architect INC and ‘Shadow play’ & ‘Thaw’ by Mette Ramsgard Thomsen, Karin Bech and Kristjana Sigurðardóttir as study cases.

Weaved and knitted fabrics use pattern-like representation for their fabrication. These patterns are diagrammatic and aimed to clarify the logic of assembly and therefore the structural-material integrity of the resulting fabric. In weave, the traditional “draft” diagram consists of the “threading”, the “tie-up”, and the “treadling” presenting the interlacement of the (vertical) warp threads with the (horizontal) weft threads. This diagram do not gives any indication concerning the scale or how the final piece would look but instead brings instructions for the fabrication.

It uses a simplified model to avoid precise geometrical description that would be too complex and heavy to read for such a structural system.

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Textile logic

In the digital world, and more precisely in 3D modelling program and game engine, textiles are represented as surfaces or meshes. If 3D modelling uses either surfaces or meshes, simulation programs and game engines use mainly meshes as they need a finite amount of coordinates to apply any of their calculation. A mesh is a polygonal or polyhedral digital net that approximates a geometric domain by breaking it down into a grid of reference points and edges. For textiles in the digital world, meshes are mainly used to help simulating textile behaviour using a range of parameters about the textile itself and about the environmental conditions.

Philip Beesley architect INC is a design practice that works with textile like structure, designing interactive sculptures consisting of a based scaffold enriched with interactive systems using sensors, motors and LED. The study of the representation they use during they design process will give us a base of how to find the balance between a new type of structure and traditional representation. * During the development of the design : - Sketches - Scale & Scaffold system - giving the size of the base grid = referred to backing in embroidery - More or less detailed depending on the scale of the scale of the drawing

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Textile logic

- Detail drawings of connections of elements in the scaffold - Diagrammatic simplified drawing ( outlines of the components with location of connections ) RCP = base scaffold - Several layers that interface with the scaffold : - Structural elements ( interface the scaffold with the surrounding space ) - Micro processors / cabeling - Active mechanisms - Inactive dressing = 2 ways of representing them : - icons on general scaffold ( composition ) - detail drawings contextualised Goals : - Determining the structure - Composition of the aesthetic experience ( feeling for it ) ( coupled with detail drawing of the overall ) - Composition of the location of connections between the different components - Assembly plan ( use of the grid with alphabetic and number reference ( A6, G7 ‌ ) ) - Overall scaled drawings (level of detail higher than the simplified drawing )

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Textile logic

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Textile logic

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Textile logic

Goals : - Clearer interconnections and space taking of components more than just location - Overall form of the sculpture in section - Idea of the aesthetic of the sculpture - Component detail drawings / braking it down in scale Goals : -Lasercut shape -Cut sheets -Detailed connections with other components ( plan and section) -Fabrication / assembly techniques * Exhibition : -2D detailed drawings of component systems -2D detailed drawings of composition * 3D : -Good for complex compositions -Complex assembly in assembly -Conflict between 3D modelling and physical fabrication ( Philip practice can build the components ( not like buildings in architecture ) so you might as well do it physical -Augmented reality

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Textile logic

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Shadow Play by CITA

Textile logic

‘Shadow play’ is a project that tried in its design process to bring what could be a solution to the challenge of reprinting textile structure.

This project was developed by Mette Ramsgard Thomsen, Karin Bech and Kristjana Sigurðardóttir for the exhibition “Transformative Textiles” at the Architecture House in Copenhagen. The installation is a pine wood light filter creating shadows at the entrance space of the Architecture House. Primarily investigating ways of encoding and describing material behaviour for architectural structures, it is also questioning the methods of communication of such a textile-based structure. Thomsen, Bech and Sigurðardóttir are introducing Testa and Weiser’s work to introduce their argumentation. They are stating that Testa and Weiser’s drawings result in geometric representation, but they notice that their underlying computational logic relies on the relation of the individual agents. Following this concept, they suggest the use of pattern-like representation, taking the example of the textile patterns in weaved or knitted fabrics. ‘Shadow play’ hybridises these diagrams with traditional architectural projection. “On the one hand the model exists as a three dimensional representation outlining the size and shape of the structure and allowing the evaluation of the design proposition while on the other hand the model diagrams the material connectivity of the three dimensional weave structure. The model is as such both directly architectural as well as a tool for understanding material composition in the installation.”

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Textile logic

Directly informing these models, ‘Shadow Play’ also considers implementing material behaviour in the process ; enlightening the fact that the role of computation could be extended from its primary role of modelling a form.

Parallel between material performances and design We have underlined earlier the importance to have an oversight on material behaviour in the design process of a structure using a textile logic - a parametrisation of material performances implemented in the model could help us to better understand and control the form and behaviour of the structure. This idea brings us to ask how could we integrate material performances in the way we design? Architecture is primarily a material practice, as architects we work on embodying ideas. The material choices should not follow the design process nor being considered as the starting point, it should be parallel and continually informing the scheme. How can computation tools allow us to apply this dynamic?

Part of their research inquiry : “designing for material performances”, Thomsen and Bench have implemented computation tools in the making of ‘Thaw’. The project is developed using Grasshopper, plugin of the 3D program Rhino3D. First, they measured and document the material flex of the ash wood slats to understand it behaviour [fig14].

Then after calculating the changing relationship between length and

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Google Earth

Image Trace

Image Sampler

Textile logic

bending, they implemented the results in the model in order to realise a simulation of the geometric deformation of the structure.

Including parametrisation in the word of material performances related to architectural systems aims to innovate structural thinking.

Considering structures as a network of members that pass forces between them, computational tools model forces and flow according to material properties. This method helps, inter alia, to dimension the structural members aiming to a better and more sustainable material usage in complex structural systems like textile-based structures.

Dynamic and cyclic design method informed by evolving data from the context The development of computational tools will help the design and fabrication of the component based textile structure informed by site specific data and physical experimentation. This aspect of the project is experimental. The method used and the tools created will shift and change throughout the design process to better fit its goals.

Based on primary experimentations and investigations, an agent based mesh segmentation seems to be a valid method to pursue.

Suggested methods at the time of writing for the design: a first color analysis of satellite pictures will be made to identify different types of flora; then, within the model the different membranes and layers of the

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+

PARAMETRIC MODEL

Associating types of components to types of plants

=

Textile logic

textile-like structure will be represented by meshes refined and specified via agent behaviour according to specific aspects of the context (plants, animals, climatic conditions, geometry, programmatic locations). One mesh subdivision would represent one component of the structure. For fabrication, algorithms will help unfolding the structure to draw and understand their composition and position within the overall structure.

Seeing these methods as a loop to repeat every season, the overall algorithm will be able to adjust the design of the component-based structure to changes that happen on site (migration of a plant, extra erosion for instance), pointing out components to be removed, replaced, or produced. This method highlights a new concept of a “dynamic� architecture that allows architecture to be continually updated. The role of the architect then becomes continuous, requiring them to follow their projects throughout their life.

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Erroded

Pathway

Implementing design intentions and structural principles PARAMETRIC MODEL

Textile logic

Pathway

menting design intentions and structural principles PARAMETRIC MODEL

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Density

Before geotextile

Exchanging/reusin component

After geotextile Different colonisation of the plants

Automatically exchanging and reusing component types as t PARAMETRIC MODEL

Textile logic

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Before geotextile

Exchanging/reusing components

After geotextile tion of the plants

Automatically exchanging and reusing component types as the nature is changing PARAMETRIC MODEL

Textile logic

Own research for a component based textile logic structure

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Component experiment

Textile logic

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Tilling experiment

Textile logic

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Textile logic

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Dressing experiment

Textile logic

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Tilling studies

Textile logic

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Revolution patterns TILING SYSTEM

Textile logic

Revolution patterns TILING SYSTEM

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Join study

Textile logic

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Textile logic

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References - Ramsgaard Thomsen, M., Bech, K. - Textile Logic for a soft space KADK, CITA, 2011 - Beesley, P - Kinetic architectures and geotextile instalations Riverside Architectural Press, 2010 - Stankievech, C. - Sewing/Sowing: Cultivating Responsive Geotextiles - in Kinetic architectures and geotextile instalations - McQuaid, M. - Extreme Textiles, designing for high performances TARGET 2005 - Braungart, M., McDonough, W. - Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things - North Point Press, 2002 - Guldager Jensen, K., Sommer, J. - Building a Circular Future - The Danish Architectural Press, 2016 - Jacobson, J. - Nomadic people: the Badjao - in Neo nomad, archiectural thesis from Pratt Institute, 2016 - Schwartz, P. - Structure and Mechanics of Textile Fibre Assemblies Auburn University, USA, 2008 - Nerdinger, W. - Frei Otto: Complete Works, lightweight construction - natural design - Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität München, Base, Wirkhäuser, 2005

Textile logic

- Hargittai, I. - Reviewed Works: A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller by Amy C. Edmondson; Buckminster Fuller’s Universe: An Appreciation by Lloyd Steven Sieden - MIT Press, 1991 - Burry, M. - Scripting Cultures, Architectural design and programming - AD Primers - John Wiley & Sons, 2011 - Ramsgaard Thomsen, M., Bech, K. - Suggesting the Unstable : A textile Architecture - in The journal of Cloth & Culture, nr. 3, p 276-289 - Ramsgaard Thomsen, M., Bench, K., Sigurðardóttir, K. - Textile Logics in a Digital Architecture - in New Design Concepts and Strategies Volume 2 - eCAADe 30, p 611 to 618 - Gooding, M., Furlong W. - Song of the Earth - Cameron book, 2002

6 91 6

Gardens, Cultural landscapes, Ruins, & Museums

Alice Choupeaux Research booklet 4/4 Spring 2017

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CITAstudio - Centre for IT and Architecture The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

Gardens, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

Content

Garden / Park Cultural landscape Ruins Museums Synthesis about the site, the “Bego�

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Gardens, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

Garden / Park A garden is solely dedicated to the display and care/growth of plants and trees. Gardens are often designed to preserve and grow various species of shrubs and trees along with providing ample space for people to spend leisure time around lush greenery.

A park comprises of constructed structures including office buildings, open halls, food courts/arenas, toy trains,fountains, artificial lakes/ canals, etc. Parks are designed for entertainment purpose, keeping in mind the needs of the visitors.

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Parc Chateaubriand, France

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Copenhagen Botanical Garden

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Tags on tree

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

Tags near plants

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English landscape garden

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Parc de la Villette, Tschumi

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

One of the “folie” at the “Parc de la Villette”

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Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

“Folie” drawings catalogue

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Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

Cultural landscape Cultural landscape definition According to the UNESCO There exist a great variety of Landscapes that are representative of the different regions of the world. Combined works of nature and humankind, they express a long and intimate relationship between peoples and their natural environment. Certain sites reflect specific techniques of land use that guarantee and sustain biological diversity. Others, associated in the minds of the communities with powerful beliefs and artistic and traditional customs, embody an exceptional spiritual relationship of people with nature. To reveal and sustain the great diversity of the interactions between humans and their environment, to protect living traditional cultures and preserve the traces of those which have disappeared, these sites, called cultural landscapes, have been inscribed on the World Heritage List. Cultural landscapes -- cultivated terraces on lofty mountains, gardens, sacred places ... -- testify to the creative genius, social development and the imaginative and spiritual vitality of humanity.

Spacial strategies - Guided tours - Informative signs at the boundary of the site - Site itself generally empty of any foreign sign except for the safety of the tourist ( e.g. Stair railing )

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Pyrénées - Mont Perdu, France/Spain

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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The Climats, terroirs of Burgundy, France

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Machu Picchu, Peru

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Information boards in the landscape

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Gardens, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

Ruins Ruins The remains of a building, city, etc., that has been destroyed or that is in disrepair or a state of decay Spacial strategies - Fences - Footbridge - Labels - Explanation board ————————— - Regularly maintained to prevent further decay - Sometimes protected by an architecture

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Ruins of Leรณn Viejo, Nicaragua

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Medieval ruins of the Louvre, France

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

Roman ruins, Zumthor, Chur

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Kalø Slotsruin visitor access, Map architects

Gardens, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Kolumba Museum, Peter Zumthor

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Gardens, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

Museum Museum definition According to the ICOM (International Council of Museums): A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.

Spacial strategies - Collection organised by room/space - Labels next to the art work - Explanation as a text at the beginning - Frames to value the art work - Seats ————————— - Maintenance of the art work to keep it the same through time - Temperature regulation/Humidity regulation/Flash regulation

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Louvre museum, Paris, France

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Louisiana museum, Denmark

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

Strategy Current state of the site Existing on site History - Guided tour of the site Nature - Partial protection of the dunes - Fences - Branches where the erosion is the worse Missing on site History - Physical educative marks of the history of the place Nature - Consistent system against erosion - Physical educative marks of the flora and fauna of the dunes

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Guided tours on the “Bego”

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Current action against erosion

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

Branches to slow down the wind and nourish the soil

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Warning tag about the local intervention against erosion

Garden, cultural landscape, ruins & museums

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Information tag about the fences protecting the nests of “gravelot� from trampeling