Artefacts Departing: Life After La Lonja by Cameron Frame

ARTEFACTS DEPARTING: LIFE AFTER LA LONJA CAMERON FRAME

CONTENTS ESTRANGED ITEMS

LIFE AFTER LA LONJA

REFERENCES & CREDITS

ESTRANGED ITEMS: PHOTOGRAPHY

RESPONDING TO ARCHIVO DE INDIAS

ARTEFACT 01: SHROUDED HISTORIES

ARTEFACT 02: CULTURAL SEDIMENTATION

ARTEFACT 03: FROM THE GROUND DOWN

ESTRANGED ITEMS: ARTEFACTS

INTRODUCTION

LA LONJA: SIGNIFICANT FROM CONCEPTION

12-13

LEAVING LA LONJA

14-15

FIT FOR PROGRAMME, UNFIT FOR FUTURE

TRANSPARENCY THROUGH NEW PERSPECTIVES

FRAGMENTING THE ARCHIVE

18-19

RETURNING TO SEVILLA’S PORT

REANIMATING SEVILLA’S PORT

TORRE DEL ORO: CLEANSING COLONIAL HANDS

22-23

DISRUPTING URBAN FABRIC

24-25

TO THE WATERS EDGE

PROGRAMMATIC NESTING

RE-ESTABLISHING LANDMARK STATUS

28-29

SITE A: MARITIME TACTILITY: MATERIAL QUALITIES

30-31

SITE B: LA LONJA: DEGREES OF SEPARATION

SITE B: COMPLEMENTING LA LONJA: ALTERNATIVE COLLECTIONS

SITE C: CONCEAL & REVEAL: NESTED PROGRAMMES

34-35

SITE D: HISTORICALLY RICH CONTEXT: SENSITIVE INTERVENTION

36-37

EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVES

38-40 41

ESTRANGED ITEMS RESPONDING TO ARCHIVO DE INDIAS CAMERON FRAME HARSHA GORE JAMES HAMILTON RYAN HILLIER

Interacting with Panama through the medium of a digital archive of information situated in southern Spain provided initial thoughts and responses to the territory, and pulled into focus the complex geopolitical history of central America. Interfacing with this portal over several weeks brought to light a skewed representation of information surrounding Panama, shrouded in obscurity, thus seeding initial responses to the Archive. A striking lack of information recording Panama’s indigenous people, or life outside of colonial encampments demonstrated this institution presenting a ‘history of winners’, and insufficient evidence of the full societal picture in Central America. The collective response to this 500-year-old structure was it’s unsuitability for the modern day, and a necessity for radical change. By way of countering the Archive, a collection of abstract artefacts were created to encapsulate these feelings. The artefacts were subsequently curated into a photographic installation; a counter-piece to the Archivo de Indias. Establishing order and structure, this piece provides a framework for the user to interact, and interrogate; inviting them to make connections between artefacts otherwise unseen, thus providing a broader picture than that of the digital archive. Through increased transparency towards the recording and presentation of historic materials, it is hoped a greater level of questioning will arise, aiding the archive in a progressive manner

ARTEFACT 01: SHROUDED HISTORIES Responding to the Archive’s disproportionate representation of colonial presence in Panama, this piece offers potential futures for the remnants of this history. The piece sees an unidentifiable artefact wrapped and encased in fabric, removing it from the visual foreground, whilst acknowledging its past form and presence, representing an imagined future for Panama.

ARTEFACT 02: CULTURAL SEDIMENTATION A landmass rich in cultural diversity and heritage, Panama remains poorly represented in 21st Century western culture, and the Archivo de Indias demonstrates this. This piece explores the way in which damage can evolve into an defining characteristic of a surface, as with the canal that now defines and economically feeds Panama. The textile medium used for this tapestry additionally draws focus on the constituent parts that are most heavily disrupted by these interventions.

ARTEFACT 03: FROM THE GROUND DOWN Despite centuries of societal development in Panama, the archive unsuccessfully represents this complexity, and conveys a surfacelevel, colonial dominant version of history. Through the medium of aggregate rich plaster casts, this sectional piece looks at the layers of history that have contributed to present-day Panama; and sheds light on the unsung constituents outside of the ‘history of winnners’.

Estranged Artefacts: Collective Responses to Archivo de Indias

ARTEFACTS DEPARTING: LIFE AFTER LA LONJA Sevilla, Spain provides a lens for investigation into Central America’s history, its complex geopolitical position, and forms the starting point for a study into the Panama territory. As a significant colonial power Spain has been Europe’s gateway to the Indies for centuries, and despite it’s landlocked status Sevilla has played a key role in recording this history, not least due to the positioning of a large Archive of information within the city walls. This study frames itself within a context of intense interrogation of ancestral exploits across Europe, questioning the suitability of the Archive in 21st Century society. At the heart of this issue lies the fortress-esque structure of La Lonja, strategically positioned between the Church and the Crown, now operating in a near-dormant state. Once a destination for goods and people this structure now facilitates transience, overshadowed by the adjacent Cathedral and Real Alcazar. Given the stagnant nature of this building and it’s context, the study seeks to question whether progress can be achieved through a process of fragmentation, distributing contents of the archive across the city, thus restoring balance to the power struggle felt within the heart of the Sevilla. As a critical location in the story of archival material in Sevilla, the Port provided a gateway to the city for all trade returning from the Indies, and marked the changing of hands for all material. The Port, now also in a dormant state, therefore remains significant to this study,and must be interrogated as a potential vehicle for change. Identifying key historical routes, and a programme for progress, the study places an intervention over multiple sites along the Port to reanimate a lifeless landmark. Using initial responses to the Archive as a method for generating architectural language across the site, alongside historical references to the port, the intervention disrupts and alters the urban fabric surrounding the site. Exhibiting new and alternative collections, while removing artefacts from La Lonja, this intervention educates future generations whilst restoring balance to the city.

LA LONJA: SIGNIFICANT FROM CONCEPTION Situated between Sevilla’s monumental Cathedral and historic Royal Palace, Archivo de Indias was given significance from the moment it landed on this site. The positioning of this building between it’s existing neighbours demonstrates the importance of Spain’s colonial exploits, as well as suggesting a level of ambition held by individuals of the time. Despite desires to site close to the Church and the Crown, Archivo de Indias disrupts ubran fabric, and fails to acknowledge existing site lines and architectural proximities. This disregard for context becomes ever more important given the building positions itself in what would otherwise be one of the largest public void spaces in the city. As seen from the towering balcony of La Giralda (left), the Archive establishes its place in the city through a bold, brutish stance, and creating a counter move to this structure will require a similarly unapologetic approach.

LEAVING LA LONJA Following the decline of colonial exploits in Spain this building now sits in an awkward position; it holds a significant location, without any significant need for that location. The building is now in a dormant state, and where initially this structure anchored movement as a destination, it now facilitates it. This project asks of the future for La Lonja, and what may come of the building in coming years, as the public eye continues to interrogate it’s ancestors enterprises. Today, movement of people and goods travels past La Lonja to several other built landmarks across the city, with little acknowledgment of it’s presence. If past movement of goods was towards the building, and current movement passes-by, perhaps a future can be imagined where goods and artefacts are taken away from the Archive, reclaiming stolen identities. LANDMARKS LA LONJA NEXUS NEIGHBOURS? MODERN ROUTES DIRECT ROUTES RIVER PERSPECTIVE POINTS

PAST: ASSEMBLING LA LONJA

PRESENT: PASSING LA LONJA

FUTURE: DISPERSING LA LONJA

Horse and Cart tours directed from the ARCHIVO GENERAL DE INDIAS , LA LONJA . Facilitating transport away from the archive

FIG. 1 : LA LONJA , ELEVATIONS & GROUND FLOOR PLAN

FIT FOR PROGRAMME, UNFIT FOR FUTURE Contrasting the superficial disregard for context with it’s orientation, La Lonja’s internal architecture is well structured and ordered, with symmetry and predictability at the heart of the building’s concept. In many ways this sensibility mirrors that of the building’s programme, to archive, and establishes the framework with which items can be classified and stored. This logic today, however, results in an oppressive and closed-off structure, largely inaccessible to the general public. Instead of acting as an educative medium to learn of the past from, the building withholds information, and drip-feeds artefacts to the public through showcasing a ‘collection of the month’. This opaque nature remains unfit for the future, and this scheme explores methods in which to provide necessary transparency. 16

TRANSPARENCY THROUGH NEW PERSPECTIVES In it’s current format the archive is unable to keep up with the changing societal values found across Europe, and therefore must adapt quickly and significantly. It was through gaining new perspectives of La Lonja that transparency was found during site inspection, understanding the building within it’s wider context. These moments of intrigue also highlighted the transient nature of the site, prompting questions over the destinations of goods and people in this city. This study questions whether, given the trajectory of use this building faces, fragmenting the archive across the city provides opportunities for increased transparency, and a framework for the future.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

AYUNTAMIENTO DE SEVILLA CATHEDRAL DE SEVILLA ARCHIVO GENERAL DE INDIAS (LA LONJA) ARCHIVO DE INDIAS REAL ALCAZAR DE SEVILLA LA HABANA TORRE DE LA PLATA TORRE DEL ORO UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA PLAZA DE ESPANA

FORM

ROUTE

FRAGMENT

OVERLAY

LANDMARK

FRAGMENTING THE ARCHIVE Following human movement around the city indicates a collection of key landmarks that anchor present day journeys, often influenced by historic routes. Assuming these landmarks are operating successfully at cultural and geographical levels, it seems appropriate for them to form the basis of a fragmentation process with the archive. Overlaying photographs of these landmarks onto those of La Lonja, draws out architectural forms otherwise under-appreciated or unnoticed. This exercise also provides opportunities to trace a route around the image, giving a sense of pace, and spatial quality of each fragment. These routes and forms will go on to influence the architecture within this intervention.

RETURNING TO SEVILLA’S PORT A gateway to Sevilla for many colonial figures, the port has been of urban significance for a millennium, and remained in a constant state of evolution. This place has facilitated the arrival of thousands of goods destined for La Lonja, and therefore weighs significance in the story of the archive. The port of Sevilla becomes the natural site for this intervention, which will look to provide new perspectives on Spain’s colonial past by telling the story of the archival process away from La Lonja

100m

REANIMATING SEVILLA’S PORT: RUSCHA ELEVATION For several hundred years the Port of Sevilla was a stage for dramatic activity and societal significance, however in the current day this land has lost its energy and with it, its sense of place. The above record of the port’s frontage demonstrates this lack of programme and place. Surveying the site and surrounding urban grain has generated several key sites of interest for this study, all of which will be needed to reinstate animation to the port.

TORRE DEL ORO: CLEANSING COLONIAL HANDS Within the port of Sevilla site the most significant landmark is the Torre del Oro, acting as a gatekeeper to the city since the 13th Century. Originally situated at the end of the city walls, passing this tower marked a changing of hands in the archival process, acting as a degree of separation between the city and the people from whom these collected artefacts had came. In many ways, this spatial sequence acted as a cleansing of colonial hands. The tower has grown and developed over 800 years (diagrams below), becoming more decorative as the Spanish empire grew in wealth. In the present day the tower holds itself along the port with impressive weight, despite a lack of activity to support it. This intervention aims to use this weight as an urban anchor, setting precedent for scale, proximity, and architectural approach.

1221 AD. FIG. 2 : GEZICHT MAP OF SEVILLA , 1726

1519 AD.

FIG. 4: TORRE DEL ORO , VIEW FROM PURENTE DEL SAN TELMO

1755 AD.

1931 AD. FIG. 3 : TORRE DEL ORO , ELEVATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

DISRUPTING URBAN FABRIC 1:1000 SITE MODEL GREYBOARD & HANDCUT CARD

As enterprise left Sevilla’s Port and industry evolved to meet the demands of a new world, centuries old trading routes to the cathedral and La Lonja became secondary to those of the human traffic travelling North-South. In its current form these historic routes are marked only by the existence of minor residential roads. This scheme seeks to intervene with the urban fabric surrounding the port, re-establishing footfall along the East-West axis. Using multiple sites to bridge a main transport artery, people are transported to the Port via a perspective currently unseen. Responding to the archive initially through the medium of textiles, the distressing of fabrics acted as a way to create new and lasting alterations to a topography, disrupting the urban grain. Applying these principals to Sevilla through the medium of physical modelling, forms are generated to suggest a movement to the waters edge.

SITE A

SITE B Close up photographs of Estranged Items: Artefact 2. Focus on constituent fibres

SITE C

SITE D

TO THE WATERS EDGE Working in section to traverse the existing transport links surrounding the site, this exercise generated architectural responses to the context. Taking routes from the fragmentation process and overlaying them onto sectional studies through the four key sites, provided a starting point for spatial development. Using this as an architectural framework, volumes take place under the ‘canopy’ of these forms, as well as positioning potential key vista points, facilitating reflection. SECTION AA

SECTION BB

SECTION CC

SECTION DD

CANOPY

VIEWPONT

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT

VERTICAL MOVEMENT

SUPPORT SPACE

CORE

PROGRAMMATIC NESTING

PROGRAMMATIC NESTING Responding to the archive’s disproportional representation of indigenous people in comparison with that of colonial empires led to exploring methods of acknowledging colonial past form without acting as a visual forefront. These principals are carried forward into the architecture of this intervention, screening and concealing artefacts from the archive, to remove them from the public context. These nested volumes are connected by extended vertical and horizontal circulation routes, transporting traffic from city to port.

LIF

RE-ESTABLISHING LANDMARK STATUS

100m

This intervention seeks to provide transparency towards La Lonja’s history and archival story, while restoring a power balance between the archive and the public domain by creating exhibition, education, and archive space. [A] At the North end of the site sits a volume dedicated to educating future generations on Spain’s colonial exploits, as well as housing a reflective vantage point, aimed at positioning the user with a view back upon their recently completed journey from La Lonja. [B] Combating the limited and fixed collections of the Archive, a linear gallery containing nested exhibition spaces provides a platform for alternative displays, showing that history no longer needs to be written by colonial winners. [C] Conceived as an alternative archive, adjacent to Torre del Oro sits a large volume dedicated to rehousing existing collections from La Lonja, placing them in nested spaces under a large, translucent canopy. Within this structure lies a temporary exhibition gallery with framed views of Torre del Oro, and at the end of this journey lies a viewing tower, providing insight into arriving at Seville’s port. [D] At the Southern end of the port sits an outdoor space, accessed by a footbridge from the city, with direct views of the linear site and adjacent Torre del Oro. Cumulatively these interventions reestablish the port a significant landmark within the city, providing it with a sense of place once again.

Concept diagram for returning to Sevilla’s port. Mulltiple sites providing animation and urban significance

ART

20m

MARITIME TACTILITY: MATERIAL QUALITIES Remaining contextually sensitive, this intervention takes material queues from the site’s history as a working port, looking to timber and fabric to construct these structures. Emulating a ship and it’s sails, the materials intentionally sit aside from those found on the current site, as a way of signalling its presence, moored to the bankside. Minimal quantities of metal and concrete are used where necessary, contributing towards a material palette readily found in the area.

LEFJSF

R T TRTIO LIFE A

FIN LIFLE ATIARFAO

N AJ S GFPN

R NPED JD

LIF

JSP

NJS

RO T LE AE

TR O

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PS N

LA LONJA: DEGREES OF SEPARATION Travelling from the Archive to the Port, a viewer is subjected to a sequence of turns that collectively create degrees of separation between the two loci. Future considerations for this scheme include methods to alleviate this rift, through architectural markers, signalling the intervention’s presence to La Lonja building. 32

COMPLEMENTING LA LONJA: ALTERNATIVE COLLECTIONS When interacting with the archive, the lack of diversity and stagnant nature of its collections was striking. Limited material has been received in recent years, hindering it from progress, therefore calling for adaptive, flexible exhibition space within the intervention. These nested volumes are situated within a linear gallery space, including a wall of archival material, visible to the public. A range of spatial qualities within these nested volumes allow for multiple independent exhibits to take place, whilst creating unique installation potential under the larger canopy.

50m

SITE C AXONOMETRIC: NESTED ARCHIVE + EXHIBITION SPACE

CONCEAL & REVEAL: NESTED PROGRAMMES This intervention aims to deconstruct the historic power balance across the city created by the Archive, and redistribute collections across sites more accessible to the public. This acts as a process of acknowledging history without celebration. The majority of archival rehousing occurs under the large canopy of Site C, which homes multiple nested volumes of artefact storage. These capsules use a series of screens, fabrics, and panelling to carefully conceal and reveal key moments within each. Thus creating an engaging and sensitive method of storing artefacts. Collections include maps/charts, naval & trade records, and stolen artefacts. Adjacent to these volumes sits an open-plan exhibition hall under the main canopy, interacting with Torre del Oro adjacent, as a poignant moment of reclamation. This space allows for the continual cycling of artefacts in a publicly accessible setting.

HISTORICALLY RICH CONTEXT: SENSITIVE INTERVENTION The close proximity of this site to the historically significant Torre del Oro, provides unique spatial opportunities, which becomes incredibly poignant given the programme of this intervention. Site D interacts most directly with the tower, whilst remaining contextually conscious. Altering its trajectory towards the port from other structures across the site, this intervention operates on its own axis as a way of acheiving a better spatial arrangement with the tower, aligning with existing site lines from the city. Additionally, the programme for this site has shifted towards a light-touch, topography-led intervention, hosting outdoor seating and framed views of the site.

FIG. 5: TORRE DEL ORO , DAVID ROBERTS , 1833

PHOTO

REFERENCES & CREDITS

All images, drawings, photographs are those of Cameron Frame and may be referenced to this document, unless stated otherwise in the following cited works: FIG 1: Camposs Alcaide, Antonio. n.d. “La Lonja de Sevilla: Arquigrafia de un Edificio.” Doctoral Thesis, Arquigrafia de un Edificio, Sevilla. FIG 2: Novelanus, S. 1726. Gezicht Map of Sevilla. Municipality de Sevilla, Sevilla. FIG 3: Musee Naval Torre del Oro. n.d. Information Panels showing Architectural Modifications to Torre del Oro betweeen 1221 and 1944. Musee Naval Torre del Oro, Sevilla. FIG 4: Wallpaper Flare. 2021. Torre del Oro in Seville. Sevilla. FIG 5: Roberts, David. 1833. The Torre del Oro. Sevilla. Work relating to Estranged Items may be credited to Cameron Frame, Harsha Gore, James Hamilton, Ryan Hillier 6th December 2021

Artefacts Departing: Life After La Lonja

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REFERENCES & CREDITS

ESTRANGED ITEMS