phenomena ate Peng, Tianxiao Major advisor: Janice Shimizu Minor advisor: Joshua Vermillion
Abstract “The taste of the apple...lies in the contact of the fruit with the palate, not in the fruit itself; in a similar way...poetry lies in the meeting of the poem and reader, not in the lines of symbols printed on the pages of a book. What is essential is the aesthetic act, the thrill, the almost physical emotion that comes with each reading.” -Jorge Luis Borges, Forward to Obra Poetica In the twentieth Century, the world experienced an enormous change, including information explosion brought by the technological development, confusion of impermanence caused by economic fluctuation, etc., which brought about the separation from human being to natural phenomena. Architecture was inevitably influenced by this wave of rapid development. “Under the appearance of an unprecedented prosperity of pluralistic genres and styles, this colorful and dazzling architectural world is full of specious and contradictory argument about the essence of architecture.” Within this background, the essence of architecture became more elusive. In order to unveil “the existence and meaning”, phenomenology emerged at the beginning of the last century. Its guiding principle is to eliminate bias, prejudice, hypothesis, and to seek a new insight into (experiential) phenomenon without any distortion, and to represent the true essence of nature. Phenomenology has deeply influenced the work of architects such as Steven Holl, who have translated these ideas into an architectural investigation. In this thesis, I am trying to take these ideas as the theoretical basis, and focus on the research of phenomenon of light. By using
parametric design tools, quantitive analysis of the different effects on the surface and its responses to sunlight for all times of day and year can be studied quickly and accurately. This is balanced with a qualitative or perceptural evaluation of phenomena. The thesis looks for a connection between the architectural phenomena of light and its essence by organizing these surfaces in dialogue with light, the functions of spaces, and the users’ movement. Here the thesis looks for the opportunities of these strategies for the design process.
FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Steven Holl is the main representative figure of the phenomenological architects. He applies personal feeling, specific experience and perception as the sources and, at the same time, the results of design. Here contains two layers of meanings: one is architects’real perception of architecture; another is, based on this real perception, to create an opportunity for people that are guided to experience the feeling itself and then to feel the world. One of the purposes of my thesis is to find out the phenomenological characteristics of his works based on the study and analysis of his theoretical writings “Anchoring”, “Questions of Perception” and his practical works. With the phenomenological attitude, Steven Holl tends to understand the world as “World of the Natural Standpoint” and back “To the things themselves”, and he emphasized the directly experience that is to experience the phenomena itself without the theoretic mode, which obstruct the phenomena. We are supposed to put the standpoint on “lived world”, abandon all “prejudices” of science and philosophy, and focused on the pure phenomenons and people’s directly feelings and experiences in life, and then hold the essence of matter. The building should be like music that guide a person’s mood, and bring people to another world. Two principles embodied in Steven Holl’s considering of design: 1. “Anchor” the building to the site, architects have the responsibility to coordinate building and the site where the building is. 2. Make every effort to fuse every levels of their works with their own feelings of tactile experience. Buildings
should not be the boundaries of the city, but the deliverer of culture and form. Steven holl’s “Anchoring” as his core theory, which formed by years of research basing on the phenomenological attitude, sumed up his view of what is architecture, site, phenomena, ideas, history, and form his own concept of “place”. “Anchoring” summarized the relationship between Holl’s building and site: buildings should naturally grow at the site where it is, and anchor itself to the site as a undividable organic part constitute the place for people to experience. For Steven Holl, every site should have the particular form of building. Architecture is an organic link between concept and form. The idea drives the design, but the experience is in the phenomenon. The idea drives the design, but the real test of design is experience. The moving through space, the overlapping perspective, and the incomplete perceptions, the quality of material, the smell, the sound, the quality of the light, and these thing are all interactive what he called matrix experience, this kind of experience really need to be felt with the body moving through space. At this point, a very important process is how to transform“space” to “place”. As described above, with the phenomenologic attiude, Steven Holl studies the essence of matter basing on his directly personal expirences from feelings and indirectly expirences from musics, nobles, poems etc., other cultural factors. He summerized these direct and indirect expirences into his core theroy. This form of ideology is his guideline of recognising the world and methodology of design.
phenomenate Phenomenon and essence are unified. Essence is more profound and simplicity than phenomenon, but phenomenon is richer and more vivid than essence. Different phenomeIndirect expirences
World Core Theroy
Direct expirences
na can share the same essence, the same essence can be represented by different phenomena in thousands of ways. The essence of thing is relatively stable, the phenomena of the thing are easy to change. The essence of objective thing is relatively constant in the process before the end, but the phenomena it appears are constantly changing their forms along with the unfolding of process. In the perceptual aspect, phenomena can be directly perceived by human senses. The hidden essence can be grasped only with the help of rational thinking, due to its indirect and abstract. Essence makes decision, is the reason of phenomenon, and always appears as certain phenomenon; phenomenon is oc-
curred by essence, and always represents its essence from different sides, its existence and changes subordinate to the essence. Any phenomenon is the phenomenon of essence, and any essence is the essence of phenomenon. Knowledge is a process of constantly deepening from phenomenon to essence. On one hand, the essence of things exists in the phenomenon, essence can not be perceived without the phenomenon. The unification of essence and phenomenon provide an opportunity of understanding; on the other hand, the phenomenon is not equal to the essence. Having grasped the phenomenon is not equal to the understanding of the essence. The contradiction of phenomenon and essence decides the anfractuosity and complexity in the process of cognition. The essence has its levels, people ‘s cognition is always from phenomenon to essence, from shallower essence to profounder essence and which is in the infinite process of deepening. Architecture is not only natural science, but also is intuitive and artificial, so as a natural science, the phenomena of architecture bridge the communication between architecture and people, at the same time, the phenomena of intuition from architect also makes dialogue happened between visitors and architects. The combination of these two kinds of phenomena is what I called “Phenomenate”. It can be used as a verb, which means making phenomena, and it can also be used as a noun, which means the process of making phenomena. “Phenomenate” in architecture brings the opportunities of dialogue among architecture, architect and visitor,
the cognition happens in this dialogue and which make the three of them in the process of the self awareness. In the movie industry, we believe films provide a media for phenomenology, because phenomenology, for some extent, cannot be interpreted by words. Film as a visual and auditory image, shows the aesthetic of phenomenon characteristic. Architectural scenes, for the same reason, show the aesthetic of phenomenon, and at the same time, consist the “story” and the philosophy behind the story. Each film fragment itself does not have the ability to explain the whole story, because of the uncertain essence reflected by the phenomenon, but the exist of phenomenon it brings is clear, and as the story being constructing, the phenomena of fragment are getting closer to the essence, and getting more vivid. This kind of process from uncertain to clear is not only the insight of perception, but also the leap in the process of cognition, and the process from shallower cognition to profounder cognition. Every layer of cognition has its own rationality. How to make visitors thinking in the phenomenated architecture is an important part of design. The behavior of people in the construction and phenomena are complementary, phenomena and human perception is in co-existence relation, phenomenon can not be independent of human perception, and vise versa. So understanding human behavior is conducive to the architectural Phenomenate, it is mentioned that the architecture itself is in process of self awareness when it is being phenomenating.
All the time we were surrounded by various phenomena, but this is not the real performance of “phenomenate”, the real “phenomenate” is how to make phenomena deliver messages. The self-awareness is significative, sometimes, even under the situation without real understanding. As materialists thinking, religions originated from primitive men’s holding in awe and veneration to natural phenomena. Although it is gloss, phenomena are phenomena of essence (true truth). The purpose of “phenomenate” is always base on delivering the messages of essence. Phenomenate is the reversed process of cognition, and how to phenomenate architecture is an important research in process of design. Door handle’s from Kolumba Museum/Peter Zumthor & Chapel of St Ignatius/Steven Holl
Grid Grid is introduced as an analytical tool, and it could be a three-dimensional grid, in which can be used to show the informations of different feedbacks of element of space. Lever of space From “space”to “place“ is a process from an even and unordered situation to an uneven and ordered situation, as if iron powder would become ordered to certain partern, under the force of magnet. Any process of adding any element
in the space of building would break the original balance and then became a new balance through certain way. Everything in the universe follows this rule. When any spacial element(light, material, detail, overlap of space, volumn) broke the origianal balance, it would cause certain new expirence of space and it need to find a way back to balance. We can, now, make a question mark on how to organize the unbalance space to achieve the new balance. These balance breakers are necessary elements of making space away from boring, at the same time, too many of them without ability to achieve new balence will make the space evolve in awkward situation. So an ideal condition of a space is to break the
original balance as much as possible until it would lost the ability to achieve an certain new balance. So the question, again, is how to reorganize the unbalance space to achieve the new balance. Lever When you hold a pen with three fingers, a basic lever is established. Under this situation, the pen is static, but since the three fingers as three external forces had effected on the pen, the tensions in the pen as inner forces appeared. These tensions resisted to each external forces, to make an feedback informations, then the external forces will be adjusted at the same time as it effects the pen to make a balance. The tensions is the inner relationship between each fingers. So, what is the tension in the space to establish relationships that can make the space in balance? Phenomenology is the answer. It connects all elements of space together to achieve, what Steven Holl said, a poetic balance status.
METHODOLOGIES Before using phenomenology as methodology to solve the balance problem, the establishment of a tool for information transition is necessary. The purpose of this tool is to visually analysis the “tension� in the space. I believe a certain three dimentional grid system is an ideal solution. It should provide a way to observe the feedback information on the change of spacial element which are light, material, complexity of detail, volume in unit area. This five elements will be the objects of the analysis.
In this three dimentional grid system, a uniform matrix of the cylinders with equal diameter and height is the original state, in which space is even and disordered, and all these cylindrical elements of the initial state are at the same level of virtural plane. The rising height of these cylinders would
rised by the change of volume in unit area. The height of the cylinders are stretched by the light intensity. The upper and lower openness is controlled by the strength and direction of the spatial overlaps. The color temperature of cylinders are controlled by materials. The bending direction of the cylGrasshopper defination
3d grid example
inders would point to the more complex detail.
Taking advantage of parametric design method, we can establish the definition of the three dimensional grid according to the rules above. Through controlling the reference point, line, surface and numerical value to visualize the phenomenal status of space. This process of analysis also can be used as the important part of the design process. when the basic volume is embedded in the site, the internal functions and the external environment, at the same time, affect the boundaries of the building. We can use this basic boundaries as boundaries of reference plane, and put parameter defination of spacial lever into the plane, then base on phenomenology, establish a basic form under the effections of inner function and external environment. This basic morphology and external environment, at this moment, will exist as “external force of lever�, and then the feedback informations will be showed on the three-dimensional grid, and also the feedback informations should be updated in real time with the continuous improvement of concept in the early design process, at the same time the most critical step is to make this spacial lever to achieve a balanced state, thus need phenomenology’s help as mentioned above. The relation between the nature of matters, the importance of this relationship is the porduction of the poetic space that advocated by steven holl.
ALICANTE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART SOL MADRIDEJOS • JUAN CARLOS SANCHO OSINAGA Spain, 2001
The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art Expansion Steven Holl
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, USA 1999 2007