TRANSFORMABLE GEOGRAPHIES PORTMAN PRIZE STUDIO | SPRING 2021 DAVID YOCUM SECTION
CARL DILCHER
PART 1
Art + Making: Practicing Refusal Art + Making: Of Other Spaces
[1.]
[2.]
Torkwase Dyson’s I Can Drink the Distance installation at the Cooper Union explores the navigation of the human body and the spatial liberation of black fungibility.
A contour mapping of light, shadow, marcation, and reflection pulls forward a navigable depth.
This generates an immersive geography that can be occupied and traversed.
Infinite sequences of action lie within the scaleless environment.
Peaks and troughs frame an immersive abyss and creates a glimpse of existence in the heterotopic existence within the surface.
Transfigurable and reflective surfaces with variable density denote an immersive and disorienting environment that entertains motion.
The surfaces yield neither enclosure nor scale. Arrangement, density, and adjacency can be changed at will, and immersion is dependent on motion.
PART 2
Theory + Site: The Cultural Landscape Reconstructions
TRANSFORMABLE GEOGRAPHIES Space is about movement—how it is negotiated, navigated, and mitigated. Space beckons to be occupied, to be traversed, to be vacated. Subsequently, movement necessitates a coherency of time. Movement is a transformation of conditions. Without the factor of time, there would be no delineation of motion, and the state of an object’s existence would be confined to a singular plane. Torkwase Dyson’s installation I Can Drink the Distance at The Cooper Union is composed of four zones, unified in their constituent thematic elements of black spatial justice. Triangular and trapezoidal volumes populate the space between these zones and are physically connected to a textured surface with string. The volumes’ placement in the exhibition are altered daily, with differing and unique connections that force viewers to navigate and discover new courses of mobility. The power of the installation lies in this act. Only through the action of movement through these changing conditions can one fully participate in understanding. Water plays an important role both in Dyson’s body of work and in the concepts of spatiality and movement explored through her works. It is a specific mediating space with a complex history and present of black mobility. Simultaneously planar and volumetric, water also transforms and manipulates space through reflection and refraction. Water’s spatial extents are also masked by the clarity of its surface. This context is given authority in the I Can Drink the Distance installation by directly connecting the transitory volumes to a large waterlike surface. My analyses explore scaleless, immersive depth in Dyson’s work, generating new geographies from a transfiguration of existing surface, the ambiguous qualities of which cannot be perceived without movement. An architecture that is static maintains the status quo of the white gaze. All architecture of the near future must reject the subliminal stimuli of white ethnocentrism. Liminality is a state of intermediacy – a heterotopic condition of ambiguity that marks a nonnegotiable transition. A liminoid experience shares the same qualities as a liminal experience, except that it is optional and augmented by will. These conditions manifest in the myriad of geographic spatialities. Geography is both physical and human; it unifies topography, the built environment, and all scales of relationships and interactions that connect them. Physical and human geographies react to one another, through activity and time. The spaces in which this occurs can create confrontation for action. Transformable geographies should frame liminal, rather than liminoid, experiences of manifold motion. By mandating liminal experience, an active architecture requires its users to confront the systems of white supremacy that have exploited and wreaked destruction on all of the world’s populations. This is demanded, and the transfiguration of built geographies develops multiplicitous methods for this action.
Geographies, human and natural, are transformed through their occupation. The palimpsest of occupation generates new geographies whose histories are legible.
1/16” = 1’-0”
A site is never a single surface, topic, or history - it is always a heterotopic condition that refuses a single narrative and is never completely flat.
The form becomes an extension of the layered site, building upon their information without disrupting their information. Its layers contribute to the palimpsest in a way that continues the transformation of the geography.
Opacity frames liminal experiences in the main axes of motion. Winding circulation maintains a state of transition and flux, that sets the stage for confrontation.
PART 3 Proof of Concept
Statement
Traditional architecture has failed to combat omnipresent systems of white supremacy. An architecture that is static maintains the status quo of the white gaze. It does not challenge the perspectives that uphold injustices, nor does it take the opportunity to remedy this through the built environment. All architecture of the near future must reject the subliminal stimuli of white ethnocentrism. Liminality is a state of intermediacy – a heterotopic condition of ambiguity that marks a nonnegotiable transition. And this transition can manifest in an architectural geography that transforms various modes of difference between people into an occupiable, liminal space. The near future of architecture is informed by the social conditions of difference – it is a cohesive, cartographic architecture of heterogeneity that creates revelatory experiences that challenge the white status quo. It is an outward-facing architecture that engages its reflective community and carries a social agenda. Its programming, and most importantly, its experience map heterogeneity in a legible architectural environment that addresses exploitive and divisive injustices. This proposal minimizes its physical footprint, utilizes passive systems, and leaves a permanent legacy that fights the climate crisis and leaves a physical reminder of its impact.
1.
locate the most racially-diverse clusters in metro-Atlanta*
[3.] *no-racial majority neighborhood tracts
2.
construct spatial voronoi units based on proximity of clusters
smaller cells are closer to other diverse clusters than larger cells
3.
map differences in household income for each voronoi cell*
the higher, the greater the income disparity within the cell
[4.] *based on the Gini coefficient of each tract
4.
connect data with tensile fabric form
smaller cells are closer to other diverse clusters than larger cells
5. apply color based on probability of racial + ethnic diversity between residents
lower racial + ethnic diversity
[5.] *from Esri’s Diversity Index
higher racial + ethnic diversity
6.
elevate on heavy timber columns and temporary concrete footings
the proposal has a lifespan of nine months and sources local material
7.
add structural heavy timber members
vertical members act in compression and create legibility of the unit height from below
8.
suspend enclosure from heavy timber beams
partitions do not touch the ground, leaving a minimal footprint on the landscape with aims contributing as little to the climate crisis as possible
9.
develop wall types based on entry, transparency, and porosity
programmatic elements are outward-facing, with increasing porosity towards the center
Transforming heterogeneity into an architectural geography: 1.
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1’-0” = 1/32”
RESTROOMS ORIENTATION
SCREENING ROOM JUSTICE CENTER
GARDEN MARKETPLACE/INCUBATOR
GARDEN LECTURE HALL
INTERNAL CIRCULATION
CLIMATE HALL
BACKSTAGE/PRODUCTION STAGE PERFORMANCE THEATER
RESTROOMS CAFE
RESTAURANT
EXHIBITION
KITCHEN
FACILITIES GARDEN
SCREENING ROOMS EXHIBITION SUPPORT
JUSTICE CENTER
ADMINISTRATION OFFICES
0
8’
16’
32’
the proposal uses completely passive heating+cooling methods, will require temporary power connection, is only open during daylight hours, and is fully enclosed for security purposes
interior circulation corridor
lecture hall
general, rotational exhibition space
the climate hall has twofold purpose: a climate change education center with maintained data on the climate crisis’ growing
g impact, and...
...a legacy presence that will continue to fight the effects of climate change. once the columns and f
footings are removed, native species of trees are planted in the cavity, adding to the metro region’s renowned tree canopy.
sources
[1.] http://cooper.edu/architecture/events-and-exhibitions/exhibitions/torkwase-dyson-i can-drink-distance [2.] https://cooper.edu/architecture/events-and-exhibitions/exhibitions/torkwase-dyson i-can-drink-distance#:~:text=I%20Can%20Drink%20the%20Distance%2C%20a%2 solo%20exhibition%20by%20artist,to%20move%20through%20built%20environments [3.] https://33n.atlantaregional.com/monday-mapday/where-diversity-lives [4.] http://documents.atlantaregional.com/snapshots/income_fullpres_final.pdf [5.] https://33n.atlantaregional.com/special-features/diversity-index
an architecture for a new reconstruction is reflective of the commnuities it has failed and serves; intentionally minimizes the construction process’ impact on a climate crisis that disproportionately affects historically and modernly oppressed communities; leaves a physical legacy of its informative nature; and embraces differences.
thank you