CONTEXTUAL ISOLATION:
FRAMING RELATIONS BETWEEN BUILDING AND LANDSCAPE
Contextual Isolation:
Framing Relations between Building and Landscape Recomposing Istanbul’s urban fabric
BROOKE CAMPBELL-JOHNSTON
Tutor: Jacob Knudsen Thesis Programme Summer 2014 KADK Department II
"All other cities are doomed, but I imagine that as long as people exist, Constantinople will exist." Petrus Gyllius
Contents ABSTRACT 03 FORWARD 05 DESIGN METHODOLOGY
07
Premises/Objectives Methodology
08 10
URBAN NARRATIVES
15
A Recent Urban History A History of Radical Transformation Lack of Green Public Space A City of Vertical Monuments Waterfront Connection
16 18 20 22 24
DESIGN STRATEGY
27
Urban Strategy Urban Interventions? A Beginning...? Site for Proposition Scale of Investigation
28 32 34 38 41
APPENDIX: Contextual Isolation
43
BIBLIOGRAPHY 65 CURRICULUM VITAE
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Abstract The project proposes a recontextualisation of Istanbul速s historical centre through the design of green space within the city. This part of Istanbul is in a phase of rapid transformation, seemingly without architectural or urban guidance. The district of Fatih retains similar boundaries to former Constantinople and contains most of Istanbul速s historical monuments; it is a city full of rich history. This historical district is partially listed as a UNESCO1 world heritage site and is a prime reason for Istanbul being the fifth most popular tourist destination in the world. The city has a severe lack of green space. At 6.4m2 per person it is well below the European average of 20m2 person. The minimum amount required to provide protection from natural disasters is quoted to be at least 10m2 per person.2
1 http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/356/ 2 http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/haber. aspx?id=11926014&p=2
3
Major unplanned urbanisation sees the historical centre radically altered. A large increase in city size and inner city densities along with the injection of major infrastructure requires a new architectural and urban language able to contribute to the making of the city. If the city is expanding outwards to such great extents is there an argument for making the historical centre less dense? I propose park and landscape interventions to recontextualise the city and preserve its cultural importance and historical monuments. The project's starting point seeks to develop a series of strategies which transform the inner city in an attempt to retain some of its rich history whilst adding the much needed green space. I speculate on the resulting gradual transformation of the urban fabric over the course of 50 years as well as considering immediate interventions within the city.
building
object
landscape
context
monument
monumental condition
contextual isolation
4
Forward
Architectural problematics
The proposed project outlined within this booklet follows three weeks of fieldwork in Istanbul and a series of subsequent investigations. The project primarily aims to propose a solution to the lack of green space within Istanbul. Alongside
there
are
a series of outlined on this page which I have been working with. Additionally, throughout this programme I have raised a series of questions which have been developed throughout preliminary study. The aim of the project is not to provide any resolute answers these theories or questions but merely to use as inspiration and for critical analysis. architectural problematics
5
Design methodology
Premises/objectives
A New Urban Condition
Public Space
The project seeks to establish a new urban condition for the historical centre in order to introduce public space whilst preserving its points of cultural importance as the city densifies and expands.
A need for new ways of conceiving public space within the city asks for radical measures to be considered. What different ways of intervening can work within Istanbul速s historical centre? How can this benefit the city?
Many of the cities historical monuments are set within a dense urban fabric which is constantly being modified. Additionally, there is such an abundance of historical buildings within the city that many are reinterpreted and redesigned to fit into the current urban context. The historical centre is currently extremely densely populated with buildings, many of which are abandoned or not fully used. Can these make way for new inner city public space?
Landscape and Building
How can we develop a strategy which successfully integrates public space within the city with regard for the existing context? Is there a need to develop a hybrid intervention which accommodates building and landscape?
8
Top: Seattle Free Park, Lawrence Halprin Bottom: Observatory, Charles Morris
methodology Temporal Transformations
The project explores the radical recontextualisation of the city but it is understood that this change would have to happen gradually. This poses the following questions: 1. What might the city look like in fifty years? 2. How might landscape begin to be integrated within the city? 3. Where would the first intervention be? Consequently I proposed two main strands of study:
Monks Mound UNESCO World Heritage Site
Primary Strategy Beyond the Architectural Intentions
Secondary Strategy First Interventions
This project seeks to speculate on the affects which the injection of green space can have within such a tightly packed urban fabric. Speculating over a period of fifty years it is understand that the spaces designed can transcend the architectural intentions. How can landscape be designed which might accommodate for this?
Projects such Tschumi速s Park de la Villette had a profound affect on the
This section will be formed of a series of speculative drawings, considering different ways of intervening in Istanbul and subsequent changes to the city over a fifty year time span.
Parc de la Villette Bernard Tschumi
cities planning with regards to green space and spawned many similar developments within the city. Where would be best placed to intervene first within historical Istanbul? Which location would have the most impact upon the city and provide a positive example for further development? This section will be formed of the design of a first intervention within the city and consider how the design of landscape might be integrated with building.
Methodology
Iterative process
The project will be developed in accordance with an iterative process of production, becoming a way to test, analyse and respond to many different interventions within the city. Each iteration will seek to test the cities response to an influx of green space at varying scales. All iterations will therefore form part of the final submission; the aim being to develop an in-depth critical analyse on the subject.
12
Contextual Isolation
This project will look to utilise the notion of contextual isolation (see appendix) as a creative driver. How does our experience of a structure change when the context it is placed in changes? How do we frame building with landscape? The project in no way attempts to provide any resolute answers or indeed provide any architectural solutions but instead it aims to use them as a critical analysis for iterative production. Can we use this notion of contextual isolation to consider new ways of developing the historical centre of Istanbul?
13
Urban narratives
A recent urban history Rapid urban expansion
The two satellite images [below] of Istanbul clearly show a direct connection between the rapid urban expansion of the city and the construction of the two bridges connecting the Asian and European sides.
1975
A third bridge is ¤...being planned on the Northern most part of the city, passing right through the green areas, agricultural land and water reservoirs, the devastating impact on the urban ecology of the 3rd bridge project can be estimated from these two photos¤.3
1990
2010
1975
2011
3 http://reclaimistanbul.com/2012/02/06/ nasa-satellite-images-of-istanbul/ Top: Increasing Population Maps Bottom: Satellite Images of Istanbul’s Decreasing Forests 16
Shift in financial centre The International Financial Centre is a US$2.6 billion project that is integral to Turkey’s plan to make its economy one of the world’s 10 largest. Located on the Asian side, it provides an example of Istanbul developing its financial capital outside of its historical centre. The neighbourhood of Levent on the European side also houses one of Istanbul's major skyscraper clusters. As the city expands, the historical centre however is seemingly being allowed to develop sporadically without any urban guidance.
New Financial District RMJM Architects 17
Being a major draw for tourism and a point of cultural significance within European civilisation, does this call for a new approach for its regeneration in order for it to survive?
a history of radical transformation Brutal Interventions
Gecekondu
The cities recent history of urban transformation contains many examples of brutal interventions. Many neighbourhoods have gone through changes in recent years which has seen many parts of the cities fabric cleared to make way for new development.4 There undoubtedly is a lack of respect for the existing urban condition in the face of major urban development as Istanbul strives towards becoming a leading player in the global economy.
Gecekondu is a Turkish word meaning a house put up quickly without proper permissions. Literally translating as ¤placed overnight¤ the term refers to the shanty towns which cover a large amount of inner Istanbul. Recently major development has seen much of these neighbourhoods destroyed in order to build new housing developments, resulting in the redistribution of many citizens.
4 http://reclaimistanbul.com/2011/04/04/ hello-world/ Forced Evictions Map 2013 Studio Matthias GÂŞrlich 18
Radical Urban Transformation
laCK oF green publIC spaCe Forest Privatised Forest Areas Forest Picnic Areas City Groves Parks Forest Reclaimed Shore Line
Central Istanbul has a severe lack of public space. The city is transforming at an alarming rate and becoming one of the major hubs within a global economy. These transformations within the urban fabric are coming at the expense of what little public space the city has left. Currently, IstanbulŽ’s recreational spaces are heavily orientated to spaces of commerce with much of the social space being commercially owned. In the summer of 2013 the most visible public park within the city, Gezi Park, was due to be redeveloped into a shopping centre, sparking huge protests and rioting in Taksim Square. With the construction of the third Bosphorus bridge to the north and new major road infrastructure planned (with city fabric being developed around them), the cities forests to the north are set to disappear within the next few decades.5 5
http://reclaimistanbul.com/2013/10/20/ urban-ecological-crisis-of-istanbul-a-report-bysundays-zaman/
20
造According to international standards, there should be at least one park, or green area, within walking distance from anywhere in an area with a 700800m radius. Forests outside of the city and open areas at crossroads are not usable areas. Besides, in a city susceptible to earthquakes, people need open spaces they can go to in a time of danger. But such areas do not exist in many places造.6 6
http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/haber.aspx?id=11926014&p=2
Mapping Green Areas and Reclaimed Shoreline Superpool 21
a CIty oF vertICal monuments Istanbul’s monumental CondItIon
Istanbul's monuments are tightly packed into the urban fabric. The traditional excess horizontal space given to the monument or monumental building which usually surrounds the structure in plan is negated in this sense; the tight urban sprawl fills the cities every corner...
Within Istanbul this excess space for contemplation of the monument is typically gifted in the vertical plane. Legislation within the historical centre restricts buildings from being constructed over a certain height in an attempt to retain this space for the monument in the skyline.
Contemporary Istanbul: Excess Space around Monumental Buildings in the Vertical Plane
Corruption within the government has meant that this planning law has been bypassed in certain parts of the city with developers offering money for the right to build taller buildings [as explained in this recent documentary film]. http://socks-studio.com/2013/06/06/ ekumenopolis-city-without-limits-adocumentary-film-about-istanbul/
Does this alter Istanbul's monumental condition? Do we need to consider new ways to frame the monument in the progressive city?
waterFront ConneCtIon HALIC KPR.
The regeneration of Istanbul’s waterfront has seen a relatively large amount of space created as a public amenity, particularly in the central historical area of Istanbul between two major motorway brides: Galata Bridge and the Haliçc Kpr. In order to bypass the steep topography of the city however, major road networks have been built which surround the cities edge cutting off easy access to the pedestrian. The waterfront is an underused amenity within the city. Does it have the potential to provide the green amenity which the city needs?
24
GALATA BRIDGE
Mapping Major Infrastructural Networks Brooke Campbell-Johnston 25
Design strategy
strategic key:
Primary Secondary
urban strategy
Re-framing the historical centre
How does the development of green space redefine the city? How radical do we need to be / can we be? What are the implications of the contemporary city lacking any overall planning vision? What are the consequences of letting the endless repetition of the Gecekondus take over the city?
Point Supreme速s speculative project for Athens provides one answer to the question of how to bring its average green space per person up to the European average; a radical example proposing a gigantic green cut reconnecting the acropolis to the waterfront..
Unbuilt-Legitimization [top] and Athens Heaven [bottom] Point Supreme Architects 28
Towards a European Average. A New Degree of Permanence? Brooke Campbell-Johnston
Urban strategy
Re-framing the monumental The monuments of Istanbul each retain a certain autonomy as points of interest within the city. However, when read as a system they can be viewed as nodal points on a grid, each having a particular relationshi p to the other and to the city. How can we re-contextualise the city whilst retaining these pieces of architectural importance? How can we provide alternative ways to experience these monuments?
Connected system of monuments Bernard Tschumi®s Parc de la Villette, a blend of landscaping and architecture, is organised around three unrelated systems: point, line and surface. ¤... the geometries of the line [avenues], surfaces [planting and paving] and the follies are designed to generate a series of calculated tensions which reinforce the dynamism of the place. Each of the three systems displays its own logic and independence¤.7 The project attempts to apply the logic constructed within this park on an urban scale within Istanbul.
Considering the existing monuments as nodal points how do we reaffirm some relation between them through the design of landscaping? Are there new points which need to be created?
7
Bernard Tschumi in ®Le Parc De La Villette®. Butterworth, 1989. Diagram for the Parc De La Villette Bernard Tschumi 30
Istanbul’s Monuments and Major Infrastructure Brooke Campbell-Johnston 31
Urban interventions? The seven hills of Istanbul
Readdressing Topography
Elevated Amenity
The seven hills lie within the districts of Fatih and retain a cultural significance;√ each hill is and has historically been surmounted by monumental religious buildings.
What could the notion of elevated amenity offer to central Istanbul? In a city so tightly packed with buildings could rooftop public space offer a solution? How does this elevated space offer the user a new understanding of the city and a recontextualisation of the monumental buildings?
Could the clearing of excess urban fabric around these points of cultural importance offer enough green space for the city whilst enriching its perception and representation? How could this elevated amenity provide a new reading of the city?
Le Corbusier®s roof terrace for De Beistegui, [above right] provides the user with a new reading of the city by removing all context from view apart from the monumental Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. This speculative project by Point Supreme Architects [above left] is a radical proposal to add public space on the roof tops of the city in the form of a ferry boat. Above right: Athens Ferry, §Point Supreme Architects Bottom right: De Beistegui Terrace, Le Corbusier 32
Monuments on Istanbul®s Seven Hills: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Hagia Sophia/Sultan Ahmed Mosque/Topkapiı Palace. Nuruosmaniye Mosque. Grand Bazaar. Column of Constantine. Istanbul University. Bayezid II Mosque. Sleymaniye Mosque. Fatih Mosque. Mosque of Sultan Selim. Theodosian Walls. Theodosian Walls.
6 5 4
7
3 2 Istanbul’s Seven Hills Brooke Campbell-Johnston 33
1
A beginning...?
Re-staging Building with landscape
Speculations on the beginning of the transforming city scape... Cutting away the city fabric.
The southern side of the Galata Bridge houses the Yeni Cami, an Ottoman imperial mosque. It is one of the oldest of its type in the city and has a strong architectural and cultural significance. As the city has developed, the building has ended up in a context which is dominated with large infrastructure and is difficult to navigate as a pedestrian. This proposition explores the re-framing of the existing building; how the injection of excess space adjacent to the mosque can re-frame it within it’s convoluted context, reconnecting it to the cities waterfront and providing green space for the city.
Re-Staging the Monumental Brooke Campbell-Johnston 34
A beginning...? Elevated amenity
Re-developing empty space within the city.
This proposal tests the potentials for re-inhabiting leftover space which has been created as a result of the development of large scale road infrastructure within central Istanbul. The follies have no given function but are proposed as a reconsideration of the landscape and designed in such a way as to encourage parasitic structures. The follies provide elevated amenity in a tightly packed urban fabric. Like Corbusier速s roof terrace for De Beistegui, these structures attempt to re-frame the monuments of the city, providing a view of them over the urban sprawl.
Re-Staging Infrastructure Brooke Campbell-Johnston 36
sIte For proposItIon prImary strategy: FATiH, iSTANBUL
A series of strategic speculations on possible ways to intervene within the city, ranging from sketches to more details proposals.
38
seCondary strategy: SOUTH OF GALATA BRidGE Developing certain strategic moves at a more detailed scale. How can landscape be considered in relation to the existing context? What new structures may need to be designed and how can these form new relations with the landscape?
Perceptual Cell, James Turrell Mapping Monuments, Brooke Campbell-Johnston 40
sCales oF InvestIgatIon
PHySiCAL temporal speCulatIons
[Drawings & Models]
1:50/1:200
Present day
First proposition: designing of the first landscape.
What is the most appropriate way to begin to intervene?
[Drawings & Models]
0-5 years
1:500/1:2000
Exploration into the impact of the first landscape proposal on the localised site. [Drawings & Models]
1:5000/1:20000
Speculation on the impact that various schemes could have upon the historical centre. What does the city look like after 50 years?
41
How does the cities urban fabric respond to the first proposition? ยง 0-50 years
How do the proposals evolve in relation to the city? How does the city respond?
造The thing can never be separated from someone who perceives it; nor can it ever actually be in itself because its articulations are the very ones of our existence, and because it is posited at the end of a gaze or at the conclusion of a sensory exploration that invests it with humanity.造 Merlau Ponty
造How many colours are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of green?造 Stan Brakhage
Appendix
Contextual isolation
Relative context
target 1
target 2
Relative Context: how an objects appearance, or our spatial
perception of it, can change as the context in which it is placed changes. There is a unique relationship between context and object; building and landscape. Our brains form an understanding of an object through the surroundings we observe it in. The surrounding can therefore alter our experience of the given object.8
8 http://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_ see.html Context Defining our Perception of an Object Beau Lotto 44
Contextual isolation can have an affect on monetary value as well as perceptual experience. 造If the architecture of the 20th century was independent from its surroundings, then the architecture of the 21st century depends entirely on them: Its value is defined by the surroundings and services it will capitalize on. Since the surroundings are subject to constant change in relation to various factors, the value of architecture is more than ever unstable and dependent造.9
9 http://www.pointsupreme.com/content/urban/house-resale-value.html House Resale Value Point Supreme Architects 45
re-framing structures
perceptual implications of adapting framing space
This thought experiment considers how the Yeni Cami Mosque to the south of Galata Bridge may be perceived differently within the city when framed by different landscapes. The proposals consider the erasure and redevelopment of certain parts of the urban fabric around the mosque and raises the question as to the impact it has on the city scape?
Re-framing the City through Staged Space Brooke Campbell-Johnston 46
47
sCale
the obJeCt and the CIty
‘Cell in a Petri Dish’
48
The alteration of relative context to redefine our spatial perception of a given object or structure immediately draws parallels between drastically differing scales; the discussion tends towards the relationship between context and object. Consequently a dialogue can be formed between production at 1:1 scale and speculations on larger structures within the city.
Plan of Milan in 1801 From Aldo Rossi, Architecture in the City, 1966 49
scale
buildings or objects
This fluctuation framing of the above that the has a dramatic
in scales further develops an interesting dialogue on the monumental within a city. We can see from the images relative context in which an object is placed within the city affect on our perceptual understanding of it.
Washington Monument: Differing Perceptual Experiences Relative to Context Brooke Campbell-Johnston 50
If this is a given then subsequently we can explore the potentials of framing far smaller structures within the city, whilst pertaining similar characteristics to the classical monument due to the way in which they are staged within their relative context, thus drawing parallels between these differing scales.
Top: Anchored Monument - Jo達o Vasco Paiva Bottom: Isolated Glass Jar - John Seefeldt 51
framing route
Route Given
Entrance Controlled
The route to the object or monument is a given. The entrance however is something which can be controlled and can re-frame the structure and our perceptual experience of it.10
10
Francis Ching. Form, Space and Order. p 242-249. Means of Approach Brooke Campbell-Johnston 52
Dan Flavin速s Pillars of Light constructs a florescent green space; on traversing this primary space and moving onto the secondary space our perceptual experience is profoundly altered. 造...Move directly into the central hall [from the room shown above] and the walls here also look pink, until your eyes have adjusted and the wails resume their customary whiteness.造11
11
Andrew Lambirth. Pillars of Light in The Spectator, (September 2001), pp. 43-44.
Pillars of Light, Serpentine Gallery, 2001 Dan Flavin 53
framing entrance
The sketches below show a classical Ottoman example of reconfiguring the perceived scale of a space within a city. Similarly, James Turrell’Žs Roden Crater provides an example of how a controlled route into a space can change the perceptual understanding of it. Partici pants walk through a long corridor in the shape of a keyhole with a circle in the distance which frames the night sky [opposite left]. As the walker comes closer and descends the ramp into a room the apparent circle is shown to be an oval shaped hole within the ceiling, framed as a circle through the designed route [opposite right].
Entrance Centrally / Entrance Diagonally Brooke Campbell-Johnston 54
Altered Spatial Understanding James Turrell速s Roden Crater 55
Contextual isolation
geometry
position
Methods for Highlighting Objects within a Given Context Brooke Campbell-Johnston 56
scale
Methods for Highlighting Objects within a Given Context Brooke Campbell-Johnston 57
colour
Differing perceptual experience material / time / orientation
Differentiating Perceptual Experience Brooke Campbell-Johnston 58
Is it possible to design an object which for example retains monumental characteristics from one approach but not from the another? Can the impact a structure has on its relative context vary throughout different times of the day? Or relative to different orientation? Can the material which is used to construct the object or building have effect the dominance it has on its surroundings, and is this then subject to change throughout differing temporal scales? The models show two identical sized objects, one made of copper the other of glass. They explore the impact objects have on their context when viewed from different orientations. The glass model also considers how a change in the angle of light can alter the apparent monumentality of the object. “The most complete change an individual can have affect in his environment, short of destroying it, is to change his attitude to it”.12
12
59
Mark Boyle, Journey to the Surface of the Earth: Mark Boyle’s Atlas and Manual Exhibition Catalogue, Gemeentemuseum (The Hague), 1970, p.13
Differing perceptual experience the temporal and the climate
The impact an object has on its relative context can be designed to change over time relative to specific conditions. The Condensation Cube provides an example of an object which changes from transparent to opaque and does so relative to the climatic conditions of the space it is situated in. This change in qualities will have an affect on the users perceptual experience of the space and the object. ¤...experimentation with abstract form modified by phenomena such as light, shadow, reflection and motion¤.13
13
Benjamin Buchloh, “Hans Haacke: The Entwinement of Myth and Enlightenment”, a Obra Social: Hans Haacke (Barcelona: Fundació Antoni Tàpies, 1995), 48. The Condensation Cube, 1962 Hans Haacke 60
Proposition for a Structure whose Perceptual Experience Alters Relative to the Climate it is Located In Brooke Campbell-Johnston
Differing perceptual experience Gradual differentiation
We can assume that the perceptual differentiation between object and surrounding will not simply exist in two extremes [we do not perceive it to be either simply the same as its surroundings or different from it’s surroundings], however this relative difference will exist on a gradating scale. Furthermore it would be logical to assume that we can devise methods to test this relative difference between object and context to investigate the supple changes to our perception of the object and space.
Gradual Differentiation between Object and Context Brooke Campbell-Johnston 62
bibliography Ching, Frank. Architecture: Form, Space and Order. New York: Wiley, 1996. Corner, James and Maclean, Alex S. Taking Measures Across the American Landscape, London: Yale University Press, 1996. Graziani, Ron. Robert Smithson and the American Landscape, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Gregory, R. L. Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1997. Lyall, Sutherland. Reinhold, 1991
Designing the New Landscape.
New
York:
Van
Nostrand
Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1960. Macel, Otakar and Schaik, Martin van (eds). Exit Utopia: Architectural Provocations 1956-76, Berlin: Prestel, 2005. Rossi, Aldo. The Architecture of the City, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984. Scott, Fred. On Altering Architecture, London: Routledge, 2008. Superpool. Mapping Istanbul, Garanti Gallery: Istanbul, 2009 Venturi, Robert, et al. Learning From Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986.
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2012-14
2007-10
2011-14
Feb 2012Jul 2012 Aug 2010Feb 2012 2006-07
Oct 2011Jun 2012 2007
CURRICULUM VITAE EDUCATION The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Denmark
Architecture MA University of Brighton, England Architecture BA _ First Class Honors
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Made Designs, England
Private Architectural Design Business Norwich Arts Collage, England
Teaching Assistant Conran & Partners, England Architectural Assistant Campbell-Johnston ltd., England Draftsman and Construction Assistant
VOLUNTARY EXPERIENCE The Office for Spatial Research
Freelance designer Teaching & Projects Abroad
Conservation and Construction Worker
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